April 25, 2025 • 61 mins
John Knopick welcomes listeners to another episode of The Smorgasbord, exploring life's unexpected moments and inviting listener stories. He shares his "survival guide" for cross-country moves, recounting personal adventures from moving with newborns to starting anew in different states. John offers practical advice on handling career curveballs and changes, reflecting on pandemic work-from-home experiences. Family dynamics and personal history are explored as he discusses building traditions and finding support in new places. The episode features listener stories, questions, and concludes with a preview of what’s to come next week.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back to this morning's sport with JohnKanopik.
I am, of course, your host, John Kanopik.
And if you're new here, you picked a great timeto jump in.
This show is all about embracing the chaos, thecurveballs,
and the completely unexpected Because, youknow, let's face it, life rarely goes according
to plan, and I know that all too well, as I'msure you guys do as well.
(00:23):
Now much like the buffet, your favoritequestionable diner, you never know what you're
gonna get on this show.
Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's spicy, andsometimes you're just gonna bite into something
that you never saw coming, and it's gonnachange your life forever in best possible way
as well as potentially in scary ways as well.
Now today, I'm gonna be serving up a full plateof the wildest left turns my life has taken.
(00:48):
Cross country moves, career shakeups, familydrama, and all the moments that made me stop
and say, well, I sure did not see that onecoming.
Now but it's not just about me here on thisshow.
I wanna hear from you guys as well.
You guys are just a big part of
this as I am.
What's the
biggest left turn your life is taking?
Hit me up on all social media.
(01:08):
I am at smorgasbord j fay or shoot me an email,John Knopp Adventures, and let me know all
about your story.
Maybe I'll share it on a future episode.
So if you don't mind,
go over there, grab a plate, pull up a
chair, and let's dig in to the SmorgasbordSurvival Guide.
Because if there is one thing that I havelearned in this four and a half decades here on
(01:31):
this spinning rock, is that
the best stories always come from the detours.
Let's jump in, and let's get started.
So let's kick things off with one of thebiggest left turns I've experienced in
my life, and that's moving.
And not just moving down the street, although Idid do that when I was growing up.
Moved from my parents' house to a place aboutthree blocks down the road with some roommates
(01:56):
and had a nice little futon that I called mydungeon of love, so to speak.
But no, I'm talking about packing up everythingyou
own, cramming it into a U Haul or one of
them big semi trailers, and driving acrosscountry with your entire life and all of your
memories rattling around in the back.
(02:16):
I've moved more times than I'd like to admitand can count.
Iowa to California, back to Iowa, down toAlabama, up to Tennessee.
And each one of those moves, definitely has hadits own set of surprises, to say the least.
Headaches, as well.
And let's just be honest, guys.
A few what the hell are we doing moments.
(02:39):
Because you know, when you're moving that muchand that frequently and that often, you gotta
question what the hell am
I doing?
Now,
let's kick this off, and let me tell you abouta time that we moved the time that we moved
from Iowa to California, which is by far andaway, obviously, the at the time, the biggest
move of our lives.
(03:01):
You know, we thought, well, we got this.
We got this.
You know, we did we did all the preparations.
You know, we went through and we went throughon U Haul, found the bed I'm sorry.
We went through the we were gonna go on U Haul,but then we decided we are not driving our all
of that stuff that long of a distance, 2,000miles, no thank you.
So we did some research online, found a goodrental moving company, not one of those fly by
(03:26):
night, like, crewmen in a truck or, you know,the Mayflower and then da da da.
We found another one that was really, reallyreputable and we got that all squared away.
In addition to that, we did our research andour due diligence to find a good place to live
out in California that would have been closeenough to where I was working when I was in
(03:47):
Santa Monica.
And at the same time, you know, allowed us tolive comfortably at the same time.
So we drew up budgets, all the schematics,everything we needed to draw as far as the
preparation goes.
And we thought, you know, dude, we got this.
We got all of our stuff packed.
We got all of our stuff organized.
We got the truck lined up.
(04:08):
We got the the map lined up to get us out tothe new place.
We got money set aside for, you know, depositand first month's rent and all that other
stuff.
You know, we had our playlists ready.
We had snacks.
I mean, you know, we were ready to roll.
But unfortunately, nothing prepare nothingprepares you for the moment that you realize
(04:30):
you packed your toothbrush at the very bottomof a box labeled winter coats.
Yeah.
So that was fun.
We also had an issue when we were halfwaythrough the state of Nebraska and the our cats,
who we had three at the time, decided, hey.
You know what?
(04:50):
We don't like these little, scenarios herewhere we're we're stuck in these little
carriers.
So they decided to get out and explore all overthe car as we're driving down the highway.
So yeah, needless to say, my wife was playingwhack a mole, trying to keep them all from
jumping up on the dashboard or getting in mylap and eventually leading to a massive crash,
(05:14):
respectfully did not happen.
And in addition to that, you know, we did haveour our share of U Haul drama as well.
Now, obviously, if you
guys have ever rented a moving truck, and I'msure most of you have, you know, it's basically
a rite of passage.
Ours, you know, the one that's the the servicesthat we went with, we saw had really good
(05:39):
reviews.
So we were thinking, okay.
We're we're feeling pretty confident aboutthis.
And unfortunately, you know, we didn't wedidn't have the funds at the time to rent out
the entire trailer to ourselves.
So the way they did it was they basicallyrented an 18 wheeler with a big long cap in the
back and sectioned off people's livelihoods.
(06:01):
So it wasn't just ours that was on their truck,they had additional ones.
So basically it's like FedEx on steroids whenyou're moving and using those services.
And unfortunately, some of their movers, theactual loaders themselves, not the actual
transport company, decided that rather thanplaying Tetris and being meticulous and making
(06:25):
sure that everything would get in the properspot and it was all nicely neat and organized,
they decided to go full on NASCAR pit crew withthe load, essentially.
Everything was okay.
I don't believe anything was broken when wearrived, but it was absolutely a cluster you
know what when it came to the unloaders havingto remove everything out of there
(06:49):
and us trying to get everything put in
their proper spots once we got to
our place.
Now, you know, that all being said, we stillmade it.
All of our stuff's still
transported out to California without any majorissues or anything like that.
It all made it out actually within thetimeframe that they allotted.
(07:10):
We got out there about a day before stuffarrived, so we were forced to stay in a hotel
because we didn't have anything to know, we'regonna just sleep on a bare floor in our
apartment in Woodland Hills, so we ended upgetting a hotel, which incidentally, like I
mentioned on the last show, was just down theblock from where I stayed when I was out in LA
(07:31):
for
my job with Toyota.
And, you
know, even in driving that long of a distance,you know, we learned a lot about ourselves.
We learned a lot about who we were as a couplebecause at the time, you know, we've been
together thirteen years and we still had somerough patches,
(07:53):
but that long of a drive together, our longestdrive ever together at the time, it brought us
closer together, believe.
You know, it really made us
cherish each other even more.
And plus we got to see the country too.
We got to see areas of the country that we'dnever really gotten to see before, only when
(08:13):
we'd flown over them.
So we'd never, you know, we'd never outside ofgoing to Denver and Nebraska a couple times,
we'd never been to Utah before.
Nevada, we've been through part of that when wewent to Vegas, but we got to see other parts of
that we hadn't got to see before.
And then of course, California.
Outside of me, you know, flying in, and then wewe flew out as she flew me out as a surprise
(08:35):
one year for my birthday.
We got to go to San Diego, and we got to go to,TV taping of a a sitcom, which was amazing.
And I'm gonna actually roll that all intoCalifornia Dreams, not the television show, but
California Dreams and Experiences and ThingsLike That.
I'll roll that into a future episode.
(08:57):
But, yeah, we got to see the country in ways wehadn't before.
So that was another positive that we reallyenjoyed about getting to drive that long of a
distance.
Now let's let's fast forward the clock, shallwe?
Four years later, we we did everything we feltwe could do in California outside of the acting
(09:20):
stuff that I didn't take advantage of because Iwas a dumb I was a moron and was too focused on
my work and not trying to do both.
Now, moving back to Iowa in 2020, that was awhole different beast altogether, because
(09:40):
unfortunately, excuse me, in the
time that we had been living in California,unfortunately,
two of our three cats passed away.
Our orange, big, tabby, scout, and we lovedtill the end of the earth and back.
He had passed away just before he had turned16.
Shortly before he passed, his sister, we callher Chicky, or Jazz is another name we call
(10:06):
her, she was 15, she passed, due to she hadsome cancer that they found in her ears that
was inoperable, unfortunately.
So we had, you know, didn't have those two catsanymore.
We had a third cat, his
name was Lucky, and Lucky was not able to come
with us.
And I'll explain why here in just one moment.
(10:27):
Just need a quick hydration break.
I'll be right back with you guys.
Alright, guys.
I'm back.
Sorry about that.
Need a little hydration break.
Still battling a little bit
of a end of a bug.
Alright.
So as I was saying, we had a third cat.
His name was Lucky.
And unfortunately, he couldn't make the trekback with us because without the other two cats
(10:50):
there, he was a cat that definitely needed tobe around other cats as well.
And he didn't really take too well to our
new little newborn.
So, unfortunately, we had
to rehome him.
We found a really great family for him to goto, but alas, he was not able
to join us.
So as I said,
it was definitely a different beast coming fromCalifornia back to Iowa.
(11:12):
In the fact that we went from three cats, ourlittle car, our car at the time, which I
believe was a Honda Accord, and transportinganything via a semi trailer to ourselves, our
amazing little guy, little newborn who was lessthan two months old at the time.
We still have a small car.
We actually had a Toyota Prius that I gotthanks to money I won on Wheel of Fortune.
(11:36):
Again, I'll go over that in the Californiaepisode that I'll be doing later on.
So did the transport, and it was muchdifferent.
It was a very stressful one driving backbecause yet again, you had less than a two
month old in there and neither one of us wereparents before.
(11:57):
So we'd never gone through this before.
And his crying and his fussiness, which isexpected for a newborn, for a two month old.
I, unfortunately, due to my upbringing and howI was raised, basically, was sidetracked, as I
like
to do.
I was told as a kid, no one's certain terms,you know, not to cry, not to, you know, and
(12:23):
anytime I did or I was upset or I showedemotion, I got reamed by my father.
And unfortunately, for a while, that cycleremained and I passed that on to the way I
initially treated my son, which to this day isone of my biggest regrets.
He didn't deserve it.
(12:43):
He's just a little baby, you know, and there'snothing you could
do about that.
But luckily,
as time has gone on, I've definitely amended,changed my ways and and and amended fences and
things like that.
But, yeah, we we made it back, you know, toIowa.
We had our own little sense of drama in thefact that due to weather related issues,
(13:10):
because again, this was the February, so therewas winter that was happening in the middle of
the country, we were sidetracked.
So we ended up taking a route that took usactually through Albuquerque, New Mexico,
again, areas we've never been to before,through Amarillo, Texas, and up through Kansas
and Oklahoma Oklahoma, Kansas, and then, upinto Nebraska and then into Iowa.
(13:36):
Again, had we have taken a faster route, hadthe weather have been more cooperative for us,
it's possible we could have
made it sooner, and we could have made the lasttwo hour trek to Iowa City, and I could have
had the chance to have my
son meet my mom in person for the first time.
(13:58):
But such is life.
Right?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
But, you know, as we were leaving California,we had thought to ourselves, hey, you know,
we've done this before, man.
We got this all mapped out.
We got we got the transport.
We got the new place to live in Des Moines.
(14:18):
I got the new job.
We got some money.
Is it gonna be driving back?
As you could just tell by what I've said,famous last words.
And, yeah, because they said, you know, thedrive was long.
Kid was fussy, unfortunately, and weatherdecided to throw him that snowstorm.
Just chip or chips.
And we were absolutely ready for that freshstart.
(14:41):
And, yeah, and what what fresh start it wasfilled with trauma and
loss and everything that you could feel wouldgo wrong,
would go wrong.
And that was Iowa for a year and a half that wewere there.
Now, you know, after a year and a half ofliving up there in Iowa, dealing with all the
(15:06):
trauma and stress, and unfortunately we wentfrom California where we had really good eating
options, we were working out, we were losingweight, everything was going solid.
Moved to Iowa, had trauma, unexpected loss.
They had a bunch of really bad food.
We fell into bad habits, and our weightballooned to numbers that we never wanna ever
(15:30):
see again.
So, yeah, Iowa.
At least for me,
I'm not gonna give you the real finger that Iwanna give, but you you you get the gist.
But after a year and a half of living in Iowa,we decided to pack up again because, again, I
got that awesome opportunity, which I thoughtwas an awesome opportunity at the time, working
(15:51):
for Hearst Television and being promoted to thesenior IT manager in training and decided, hey.
You know?
Well, we haven't seen the Deep South yet, sowhy not move to Birmingham, Motherflippin,
Alabama?
And, you know, warming to the South wasabsolutely 100,000,000 a culture shock.
(16:12):
Anybody who thinks it isn't is foolingthemselves.
The food was different.
You had a lot more things down there that youdon't have up in Iowa, like you had Publix
grocery store, Hungry Howie's Pizza.
You know, you had a lot more way more barbecueand rib and brisket type joints down there.
(16:34):
Nick and Jim's barbecue, for example.
A lot more stuff down there than Whataburger,to name a few.
The accents, of course, were way thicker.
We got more y'alls and whatnot than you wouldup in Iowa, and it kind of bled into us to find
that we lived there.
And, yeah, let's Excuse me.
(16:56):
Let's not forget the humidity, shall we?
And the and the severe storms.
Because, unfortunately, you know, even thoughthey say Iowa is the northern part of Cornedo
Valley, Alabama was a totally different angle
when it
came to their storms and things down there.
We had to deal with a lot more icy weather tosay the least.
(17:17):
And, yeah, with the humidity and everythinglike that, I I absolutely learned the true
meaning of the
word air that you can wear because yeah.
Even in
the cold months or cold months of Novemberthrough, like, January down there, it was still
(17:38):
cold to them was forties and fifties.
So we definitely had to make the adjustmentsthat we were there for a couple of years to new
routines, new neighbors, even though
we really didn't make fast friends with ourneighbors just because of the environment we
were in, as well as
the new pace of life.
(17:59):
We didn't have the chaos of all the multiplelane highways that California provided us.
We didn't have all of the back road stuff thatIowa
provided us.
Plus the fact, you know, that
with living in Alabama, we had the ability todrive down to Panama City Beach, Mobile,
Gaston, Florida, where my nephew is now, he'sin the Air Force.
(18:23):
So we had that nice little benefit just acouple hours south of us, then two hours north
of us, my sister lived up in Spring Hill.
We also, in that same time, we also discoveredsome amazing things down there as well.
You know, in tying in, like
I said, the barbecue places down there,incredible.
(18:44):
I had
never been a barbecue sauce person growing up,but trying the sauce down there, was instantly
hooked.
The brisket fall off the meat, fall off
the bone,
absolutely rule inducing food down there.
And also community in Kalira, we live inKalira, Alabama, which again is about half an
(19:07):
hour south of Worthingham.
And you know, community that for all itsquirks, it actually did welcome us in with open
arms.
Clearer Public Library, my son and I and mywife loved going there every week for story
time.
He had a blast.
He made some really good friends down there.
He named Ben his nickname his real name is Ben,but my son called him Ben Ben.
(19:30):
It was one of his great, great friends thatlived down there, and they they still try to
chat every now and again.
My wife still texts his grandma, and they stilltry to video
and chat every now and again.
So Alabama definitely was more of a more of
a welcoming environment than Iowa anddefinitely drama, less way less drama than we
dealt with.
(19:51):
Plus it gave us the benefit of of starting tobuild roots and have friends and things like
that.
Now, you know, even right after we got downthere, the genuinely amazing people at Hearst
Television, obviously, like I mentioned in myprevious episode, just had to throw a
(20:13):
bull's eye on my back and eliminate me from myrole.
And because of that, you know, I
had to scramble to find another opportunity,which I did with the incredible company that
I'm with now.
So just when we thought we were all settled indown in Alabama, I've been there a couple of
years, it was once again time to hit the road,Jack,
(20:36):
because we were moving up to Tennessee becauseof my job.
Even though it is
100% remote, and I'm so insanely grateful forthat, I decided, you know, it'd be easier if
you lived a little bit closer to Nashville forthe times that you needed to come in for town
halls, infrastructure meetings, things likethat.
(20:57):
So we looked in the area that my sister was inin Spring Hill and, you know, in in the areas
around there and unfortunately at
the time, financially didn't suit us.
You know, we found ourselves going over to
Jackson, which at the time, we had read goodthings about Jackson, but we'd also read bad
(21:19):
things about Jackson from crime standpoint andthings like that being called Little Memphis.
And as time went on and we lived there for ayear, we absolutely embraced and understood why
it was called Mini Memphis.
And as we lived there, crime and uneasiness andunrest got worse and worse and worse.
(21:40):
So luckily, with
my job, the way it was, structured, I was ableto get promoted, and I went from, I got
promoted up to an observability engineer role.
And with that came a nice bump in salary.
We get annual bonuses and provided everything's
going good.
(22:01):
And because of
that, that allowed us to financially be a lotmore stable, at least from an income
standpoint, and allowed us to move here towhere we are now in Columbia, Tennessee, which
we now love, love, love, love, and we'lldefinitely can see
this becoming our forever home.
And, you know, and with each move, Birminghamto Jackson, Jackson to Columbia, It all brought
(22:26):
its own sets of challenges and surprises.
Case in point, moved from we're moving fromBirmingham to Jackson.
I was going out on one of the narrow two laneroads, and I thought, hey.
I can make this curve, and then I realized wemissed our turn.
Tried to turn the U Haul around.
Got stuck in a
ditch.
Tennessee
(22:48):
Tennessee loveliness or Tennessee familywelcoming, so to speak.
These neighbor these people, just randompeople.
We didn't know where we were at the time wewere close to where we were gonna be moving
into, but we hadn't quite made it there yet.
This random people noticed that we got stuck inthe ditch.
They came out of their house, and they actuallyhad a winch in their pickup truck and were able
(23:11):
to pull us out of the ditch and got us back onour way.
So, again, you know, challenges, but at thesame time, Tennessee showed its love from the
get go.
And even through all of
that, we've been finding ways to adapt, foundways to laugh,
and and keep moving forward.
And it's it's made us very, very stronger andmore adapted to handle future, things as they
(23:40):
come up.
So sum up this segment, if you guys are everfacing a big move or a big culture shock
inducing events on the horizon, Let me give you
a piece of advice.
Expect the unexpected, overpack your snacks,don't be afraid to laugh at
the chaos, and make sure that your toothbrushis not in the bottom of your winter coat bag.
(24:06):
That's not gonna bode well for you, especiallywhen you have your e gums that you need to get
cleaned at the end of the night.
Make sure you're always labeling your boxes,but don't trust the labels.
Because just because you labeled it doesn'tmean what's in there is what's supposed to be
in there.
And always, always, always, as I said, doublecheck that you've got the essentials because
nothing says, welcome to your new home.
(24:28):
Like realizing you have no idea where youpacked your toilet paper.
Yeah.
Now, I said, I
wanna hear your moving stories too.
What's the wildest thing that's happened to youguys during a move?
Did you ever move, end up in the wrong city,like we did with Jackson?
Yeah.
Did you lose something important during the,during the move?
(24:49):
Like, you you packed all your stuff up in thecar and when you were rushing out to get gas or
go to the bathroom during a a break, somethingfell out and you didn't realize it and you
drove off.
Need a new friend on the road?
Send me your stories.
I'll share the best ones on a future episode.
Again, at smorgasbord j k, or shoot me anemail, john@knopick,kn0pick,ventures.com.
(25:12):
And, of course, guys, as I said, moving, it'snever ever easy.
It's taught me a lot about resilience,flexibility, and the importance of finding
humor in the hard moments because no matterwhat you guys go through, you've got to find
that humor in the hard moments.
You've always gotta have that light in thedarkness.
And honestly, guys, some of my favorite momentscome from those chaotic, unpredictable moves.
(25:34):
Some of the greatest times I had were I was onthe road, checking out the new places, seeing
things as they as they they came to us
and whatnot.
So if you're in the middle of a big transition,hang in there, guys.
You absolutely have got this.
So gonna take a little break.
Gonna be right back with the next segment,which is gonna deal all with them lovely,
lovely, lovely career curveballs.
(25:56):
Stick around.
I'll be right back.
You're listening to the Smorgasbord with JohnKanopik.
Like what you hear?
You can reach me on all social media platformsat smorgasbord j k
or shoot me an email, john@canopicventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get back to thegrub.
(26:19):
Alright, guys.
Welcome back to the Smarter Sport.
I'm John Kanopin.
Thank you very much for tuning in as always.
Now let's shift gears, shall we?
And let's talk about work.
You know, the thing that keeps food on thetable, keeps the lights on, puts your kids
content, and keeps your sandy,
at least for depending
(26:40):
on what what what career path you've taken andwhat, what organization or what field that
you're in.
Now if you've listened to this show before,you're gonna know that my career path has been
anything but a straight line.
That's an understatement.
You know, I've worked in tech support.
(27:02):
I've worked for TV, both TV company TV stationsas well as radio stations.
I've worked for mortgage companies.
I've done the old school Reese fry cook gigs.
I'm working at TGI Fridays, working at BurgerKing, working at McDonald's briefly, working at
(27:23):
Panera Bread.
I've done the paper route thing when I
was a young Been all over.
I even dabbled in the music industry, likewith, you know, helping out with where I'm at
now with my printable company that
I currently am associated with.
And in addition to that, with all of those jobsand fields, I've been laid
off, been promoted, had been relocated,
(27:49):
and everything in between.
So again, much like the title of my show, mycareer path has also been a storm of sport,
both good and bad.
Now, my first big career turn, left turn, Ishould say,
came, you know, when
I was, left, got
a steady job, excuse me, when I was workingfor, with Toyota Financial Services, had been
(28:11):
there just under three years, to take the shotand opportunity of a lifetime and pack up
everything we knew and loved and moved out toCalifornia to work on a television station.
That was something I had never done before.
Say I was, skided, that's a word that I like touse, throwing
(28:32):
excited and scared all at the same time.
Say I was
skided, nervous and completely unprepared foreverything that California and LA was gonna
throw
at me was is a massive understatement.
You see LA,
you see California on your TV shows, yourmovies and things
like that and you always expect it to be acertain way.
(28:55):
In certain cases, it is,
but in in other cases, it's definitely a shock.
I had driven around Chicago a lot, growing up,as I had said previously.
So I was comfortable and I was familiar withfive, six lanes of traffic going each way.
My wife on the other hand, uh-uh.
We get anywhere near Metropolis, we'reswitching places before we get to downtown
(29:17):
because I'm the one that's gonna be driving.
And the first day, you know, once we got oncewe're able to get all of our stuff packed in
and starting to get things unloaded in our newplace, my first day, getting ready for my first
day at at Gainesville Network, I decided tolook at the drive, from Woodland House
(29:41):
Apartments up in Woodland Hills down to,Gainesville Network in Santa Monica.
And typically, I've been used to the, you know,okay, this is about a fifteen, sixteen mile
drive, believe is what it was, around aboutthat.
And when I lived in Iowa,
when the, you know, it was twenty minutesdepending on, you know, the time of day.
(30:04):
California,
on the other hand, it was a four and fiveminute drive because you're driving down the
canyon.
And then in addition, you had PCH where thattime of morning, was very, very busy, and then
you had the one freeway as well.
So, you know, end up having to adjust what timewe woke up in the morning, all of our morning
(30:24):
all of our morning tasks out of the
way and things like that.
And, you
know, I decided, you know, hey.
I'm gonna get there an hour early.
I'm gonna show them initiative.
I'm gonna
be like, dude, I'm I'm your guy.
You know, I'm here.
I'm here early.
I'm ready to rock.
Little did I realize at the time that I parkedin
(30:44):
the wrong parking lot.
The lot I thought I was supposed to park in wasactually not the one that was earmarked for my
company.
So I ended up having to sprint across threecity blocks in my brand new work outfits.
By the time I got to the office, because it'sin Southern California and it was the July, I
(31:06):
looked like I had just ran the LA CityMarathon.
Now yeah.
So it was a great way to make a firstimpression to say the very least.
But that being said, that job actually openeddoors that I never expected to have opened for
me.
You know, I went and I had the ability to meetcelebrities.
(31:30):
Howie Mendell pitched a show, the Game ShowNetwork.
He was there, and I got to actually help themset up all of their tech equipment, help them
actually do some of their game show runthroughs.
So I got to meet Howie Mendel.
He was incredible.
I got to meet these Spaska sisters.
If you ever seen, an old Game Show Network showcalled Elevator, they're they're two twin girl
(31:53):
two twin women that are, like, big into horrorand things like that.
I got to meet them.
You know,
I got I got to do a lot of things.
And I also got to partake in some game showsthat are actually on Game Show Network now.
I actually got to help them do the run through.
So I kinda feel like I was part of theirbuilding process.
(32:14):
You know, it was it was definitely a shock, achange.
It was nerve racking, but at the same time, itwas absolutely an incredible opportunity and a
game changer for me, you know, because thatallowed me to, jump over to Fox once my
(32:36):
unfortunately, my position got eliminated withthe game show network.
Was able to jump over to Fox Sports.
And, again, as I mentioned on the previousepisode, that allowed me the opportunity to
build up a white glove concierge service forhigh end Fox VIPs to fix their tech issues,
which allowed me to help Terry Bradshaw withhis email issues, help Erin Andrews with her
(32:56):
cell phone issues, help Jimmy Johnson navigatesome new applications that we were running for
their for Fox Sports.
Excuse me.
I got to do a lot of
once in a lifetime hit list dated things withwith that career path.
(33:19):
You know?
And and just for
a little spoiler alert, Terry Bradshaw isabsolutely as hilarious in person as he is on
TV.
That is not an ad.
That is not a facade.
That is not a persona.
He is that person in real life.
And I wish I could have made even biggerfriends with him, but it was incredible the
time I did get to help him.
(33:42):
Now, of course, not every career move, again,as I said, was by choice.
You know, Game Show Network laid me off.
First one in or last one in, first one out dueto budget cuts.
And, with Fox Sports getting, unfortunately,with their marketing department not taking
things the way that they should have been toget things truly rolling, relegated me down to
(34:03):
a role that I swore I would never do again, andI ended up having to, you know, ties
with them.
You know?
And each time I bounced
from those rolls to rolls, I felt like the rugwas being
pulled off from underneath me.
But looking back,
you know, those moments forced me to reinventmyself, to try new things, to put myself out
(34:27):
there more.
You know, in retrospect, I ended up discoveringstrengths I didn't even know that I had.
And it served me well and it actually hasreally helped me throughout my career since
that point.
Now, again, after I left Fox, because I justcouldn't handle doing just rudimentary help
(34:48):
desk, first level tech support stuff anymore, Iended up working for that digital mortgage
company, Doc Magic, something I never wouldhave considered if I hadn't been pushed out of
my comfort zone to begin with.
And you know what?
I absolutely loved it.
But, yeah, it started off rocky because I wasinterviewing for the gig.
(35:11):
And at the time, I had I needed some hydrationbefore the interview.
So I had a iced coffee that I was drinking.
And little did I realize that the lid was notfirmly on.
So before my interview in person with my soonto be colleague and boss, I was taking a drink,
(35:34):
and you guessed it,
sploosh.
Coffee ball down the front of
my shirt.
Luckily, my shirt
was dark, but it was still stained.
You could still see the stain.
So what did I do?
I had do it in a pinch because I was in theirlittle conference room, waited for them to come
in.
I flipped my shirt around.
(35:54):
So when they came in, my shirt was backwards.
It looked somewhat normal, but I didn't realizethere were cameras in the conference room.
And to this day, my one of my good friends,Jerry, who is my colleague there, he's like,
yeah.
So can't believe you you were trying to pull aHoudini, David Copperfield by trying to switch
your shirt on.
He's like, we we saw it.
(36:15):
And we were, like, busting a gut laughing.
But we felt like, you know, this kid can dothat.
We feel he's gonna be a good fit here.
And it actually, in hindsight, ended up helpingme, land the gig.
So, you know,
as I said, you know, had I not been pushed outof my comfort zone, I would have met some of my
best friends there like Jerry.
(36:36):
I went to learn even more new skills and proveto myself that I could adapt no matter what the
situation was.
And then, of course, you know, after
that came the pandemic twenty twenty.
I love it.
The lab, lab leak that Fauci and the rest ofthe guys pushed out to the world
(36:58):
because they wanted to do some depopulation andtry to really lock down control of the world.
I mean, I'll get into
that in a future episode, but I definitely havea lot to say.
But about the pandemic, you know, like with somany people, I ended up finding myself
initially working from home briefly with KCCI,and then we were able to get back into working
(37:26):
out of the actual television studio, but wewere very segregated.
We we had our own little offices that werespread out, just because at the time we didn't
realize what was going on with the the virusand what, you know, what the carrying, what how
contagious it was, things
like that.
So the majority
(37:47):
of the sales staff for KCCI stayed working athome for months and months after I was there.
We were all spread out to different offices andthey slowly staggered bringing people back.
And you know, suddenly my commute was fromdriving, you know, getting in my car and
driving to the office every day to getting upfrom the bedroom, going down to the kitchen
(38:08):
table, getting my coffee, waking up and thenheading up into my makeshift office with my
laptop and my desk.
And, know, my coworkersoffice managers becamemy incredible wife, my phenomenal son and, you
know, Zoom became my best friend with meetingsand talking to my manager and things like that.
(38:30):
Now, remote work, of course, absolutely had itschallenges.
Zoom fatigue, anybody?
But it also gave me a new appreciation and tothis day a massive appreciation for flexibility
and work life balance because it allows me todo my work in addition to having a home life at
the same time and I'm not having to miss outdue to commutes back and forth from the office.
(38:54):
I also in that time working from home learnedto set boundaries, learned how to properly take
breaks and stay hydrated, and find joy in thevery little things, know, like lunchtime walks
with my wife and son, impromptu dance partiesin the living room when we just needed to put a
rug and just decompress, things like that.
(39:16):
You know, it it really helped you be able toappreciate things even more from a home
perspective.
Now if you guys are facing currently in theprocess of facing a layoff or potentially a big
career change.
I'm gonna give you a
piece of advice for this as well.
Don't panic.
(39:38):
Whatever you do, don't panic.
Because I find that for me, when I panic andI'm in
a rush and I'm distracted and I'm lost focus,things tend to go off the rails very quickly
and things end up being worse.
So yeah, absolutely do not panic.
Step back, take a breath, look for theopportunity again in the chaos, as we've said
(40:02):
before.
And remember that your path does not have tolook like anyone else's.
Your path is your path.
You are writing that story.
You don't have there's no blueprints that youhave
to follow.
Sometimes that detour and those unexpectedcurves is where you're gonna find your real
(40:22):
passion and you're gonna really find
a career move and career choice that's gonnasuit you potentially for the rest of your life.
If if you guys have again, if you have a storyabout a career curveball that you've went
through, a job you never thought you'd neverland that you did, a layoff that led to even
(40:44):
something greater than you could haveanticipated, or even a work from home disaster.
Did you spill hot coffee on yourself when youwere getting ready to go into a meeting with
your bosses in Tokyo?
Did you, you know, step on the cat's tailduring a a town hall and made everybody in the
room turn their
heads towards you?
Send it my way.
(41:04):
At smorgasbord
j k on all social medias or John@kn0pick,Canopic Ventures, v e n t u r e s, dot com.
I would love to share you guys' experiences onthe feedback, follow-up feedback episode.
But of course, guys, work is absolutely,positively a huge part of all of our lives,
(41:27):
obviously, but it doesn't define us.
The most important thing is that you keepmoving forward, stay open to your new
possibilities, and you always have
to remember that every left turn is a chancefor you to learn and grow.
And with that, we're gonna take another littlebreak here.
(41:47):
I will be back momentarily for our next segmentwhere we're gonna dive into family and
everything that's tied to it.
So stick around, guys, and we'll be right backon the Smorgasbord with John Kannoff.
You're listening to the smorgasbord with JohnKanoptic.
Like what you hear?
You can reach me on all social media platformsat smorgasbord j k,
(42:12):
or shoot me an email,john@kanopticventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get
back to the grub.
Alright, guys.
Welcome back.
Thank you for tuning in again, as I said, tothe Smoke Swarm, John Kanoptic.
Greatly, greatly appreciate it.
Now
let's, go on to our next little heaping helpingof content here on
(42:36):
the smorgasbord, and let's talk about family,shall we?
You know them, you love them, you were borninto them, and you stuck with them.
If you've listened to my story on the previouscouple episodes, and I'd really appreciate it
if you have, you know my family history islet's just
call it colorful to say the least, shall we?
(42:57):
I've absolutely, over my forty five years, hadmy ups and downs, not only with my parents, but
siblings, as well as
with my wife's family as well.
Of course, I have lost loved ones more than I'dlike
to count and built a new family and a verystrong family dynamic with my wife and son, one
(43:20):
that I cherish to this day and one that I'mvery,
very proud that I get to, come home or be withevery single day of our lives.
Now,
growing up in Iowa, again, as I said to youguys, my family was very small, but
complicated.
(43:40):
I had my two older sisters, my mom and my dad.
At the time, growing up when I was a littlekid, I had still had my grandma.
I had my uncle Johnny, who I love for the end
of the earth, love you Johnny.
My aunt Irene, her husband Cliff, and
my cousin Mary, and my wife, aunt Irene'smother Hannah.
(44:02):
So there was 10 of us.
As I said, you know, I was the youngest ofthree.
And, of course, you know, being the youngest ofthree and the only boy in the house, we did not
always see eye to eye.
My sisters did everything they could to makesure that I was protected, that I was raised
properly, that I had sound boards to talk tothem about
(44:23):
things.
But, you know, at
times, though, it was very, very, very strangejust because, you know, older sisters, they do
their own thing,
and I'm, you know, trying to tag along to stuffand things like that.
So, you know,
it was it was complicated, but at the sametime, it shaped me to be part of it shaped me
(44:48):
to
be who I am today.
And, of course,
my my relationship with my parents was anabsolute roller coaster.
The majority of the time,
my mom and I were Symphonico.
She'd always protected me as well.
Again, as I
said on my previous episode, my dad, at leastwhen I was young in an infant and toddler
stage, did his best to take me on runs with himwhen he did his truck driving stuff, bring me
(45:14):
home trinkets and things when he wasn't able totake me on the longer runs.
But as we got older and as I got into myteenage years, it
just soured and went down.
And his true inability to raise a
son, came forward and it split our relationshipand to this day has never been repaired.
(45:37):
My older sisters, again, they took care of meas best they could.
But unfortunately, as we got older and I gotinto my teenage years, the favoritism really
showed.
Kenny, my older sister, was my dad's princess,still is.
My oldest sister, Katie, who I do not have arelationship with at this moment, was more on
the line with my mom than my dad.
(45:59):
And of course, I
was absolutely my mom's Mimi.
So yeah, with my parents bringing up,upbringing parents, it was definitely a roller
coaster.
There was lots of love, but also plenty,plenty, plenty of misunderstandings in tough
times as well.
And again, as I said to you guys, losing my momwas one of the hardest things that I've ever
(46:20):
faced in in my entire life.
She was the glue that held my family together.
And her absence left the hole that it's stillthere, a massive gaping hole the size of the
Grand Canyon that's still there, and will Ihave a feeling it will always be there.
It also, unfortunately, you know, in inhindsight, it did teach me to cherish the
(46:45):
importance or I'm sorry.
He taught me the importance of cherishing everysingle moment that you have with those that you
love because you never know when thoseopportunities will go by the
boards and just be smashed from you by higher
powers that people say have our best interestsin heart.
(47:08):
But, again, not getting into religion at thispoint.
And it's I struggled.
As I said in my previous episode, I struggledas a teenager and into my early twenties until
my until I met my wife, and that's wheneverything changed.
Her family, again, I call them the Sopranos.
I lovingly call them the Sopranos becausethey're a massive family.
(47:29):
So many cousins, so many sisters, brothers,uncles, aunts.
They anytime anybody has to go into a hospitalroom or have to go somewhere, they all show up
in droves.
They welcomed me with open arms from Square 1way back in 02/2003, and they gave me a whole
lot of food and a whole lot of love andsupport, things that I had glamored for and
(47:53):
longingly needed for the longest time that Ifell out of repute with my existing family.
And in that time, suddenly, you know, I had anew support system.
I had a new set of traditions and new sense ofbelonging.
You know, I got to do things, annual traditionsthat I never got to do with my family, that my
(48:14):
family just didn't do.
And then, you know, we still felt like therewas a missing piece.
My wife and I still felt even with her familyat the time, things going good, my family being
what it was, we still felt like there was a bigchunk that was missing for our lives to truly
be complete.
And that's when 2020 happened.
(48:35):
That's when our incredible, phenomenal,handsome, hilarious, chaotic What?
Tornado of a sun came into our lives.
And every single day, I get to see that smilingface.
Every single morning, I wake up.
We he he is our wake up clock.
(48:56):
He is our cuckoo clock.
06:30 when his light goes green on his littlestar clock he's got in his bedroom.
Oh, I'm sorry, light goes red in his bedroom ona star clock.
He's in our door and the first place he comesis around our bed over my side.
I'm giving him a big hug and kiss and I'msaying, good morning, little man.
And that's absolutely the best way to start offevery single one
(49:17):
of my days.
I got my wife next to me and just, I feelcomplete.
I feel like I'm ready to take on the day fromsquare one at that moment.
And our son absolutely, as I said, was themissing piece.
He's the glue that holds us together, makesfast friends wherever he goes.
Goes to any park, goes to the library, goes tostores.
People just have these massive smiles on theirfaces anytime they encounter him.
(49:42):
Know, and he reminds me every day why I alwaysgotta keep pushing forward because he deserves
that.
He
deserves the life, the love,
the support, and the upbringing that Iunfortunately was not afforded, especially in
my teenagers.
Watching him grow, watching him adapt andthrive in our our environment now has been
(50:03):
absolutely by far and away one of the greatestjoys and experiences of my life and something
that I I am so proud I get to go through dayafter day after day.
Now moving to new places, like Birmingham,Jackson, California, Columbia, it always meant
Excuse me.
(50:24):
It always meant leaving behind the familiar,but it also meant finding new support systems.
Case in point, moving here to Columbia.
My wife, when we lived in Jackson, just hadthat one didn't really have any fast friends
out there, didn't really have a support system.
Moving here to Columbia, she's got her crew,her the moms that are friend or the moms of my
(50:44):
son's friends, and she's made a massive supportsystem with them.
They text each other back and forth.
If someone needs something in a pinch andsomeone's able to help out, they help each
other out.
They give each other advice.
They talk daily.
So they they really built that solid, solid,strong support system.
You know?
And again, as I said, my wife, she's alwaysbeen a bit of an introvert.
(51:07):
She stepped out of her comfort zone and madethose fast friends with those other parents.
You know, suddenly she has her crew, he has hiscrew, and it's almost like a new chosen family
that's helped us not only feel at home, butalso made us feel like we belonged from square
(51:27):
one, even when everything else in theenvironment was completely brand new.
So in that time of being with her family andnow these people as well, I've learned, you
know, family is not just about blood.
It's not.
It's not about who you were born into.
It's not about your genetics.
(51:47):
It's about the people who show up, the peoplewho support you, and who the people who make
you feel like you belong.
That's your family.
That is absolutely 100% your family.
Now if you guys are struggling with familystuff, trying to
build that new support system, just realizeguys, you're not alone.
(52:10):
Sometimes that family is gonna be sometimesfamily is the one that you're born with.
But sometimes it is the ones that you findalong the way, and those can end up actually
being the stronger family bonds that you neverhave with your original genetically based
biological ones.
And again, guys, when it comes to family, Iwanna hear your stories about your families,
(52:35):
whether it's a funny holiday disaster, whetheryou got in with your new in laws and it became
your new support system, whether, you know, youmoved somewhere you never thought you would
move and you made fast friends.
You know, if there was an unexpected kindnessor even a time when your chosen family came
through for you, give me your stories.
Tell me tell me what you guys went through.
(52:56):
I I wanna hear them.
At smartest sport j k on all social medias orjohn@canopicventures.com.
Send them in, and I will be happy to broadcastthem out to the world on a future, feedback
episode.
Hey, guys.
Family's messy.
Family's complicated.
Sometimes family's just turn right frustrating,but it's also the source of our greatest
(53:19):
strengths.
So whatever you guys do, by all means,absolutely hold those people close and do not,
in any short form or a fashion, do not beafraid to reach out when you need that support
because you never know who's gonna come throughfor you guys.
(53:41):
And that's the end of this segment.
We got one more segment coming up.
That's gonna be our listener smorgasbordsegment, and I'll be right back to kick that
off here on the smorgasbord with John Kanopik.
Thanks for tuning in.
Stick around.
You're listening to the Smorgasbord with JohnKanopic.
Like what
you hear?
You can reach
me on all social media platforms at smorgasbordj k or shoot me an email,
(54:06):
john@kanopicventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get
back to
the grub.
Welcome back to the Smorgasbord.
I am John Kanopic.
And for our final segment of the of theepisode, we're gonna get dive into what we call
the listener smorgasbord.
I'm going to be turning over the ladle, akamicrophone, over to you guys.
(54:31):
I reached out on social media for your storiesand your life's biggest left turns, from
previous episode, and you absolutely delivered.
So first up, we've got a message from Sarah outof Chicago, Illinois.
She wrote, John, I moved from excuse me.
(54:53):
I moved from New York City to Chicago withnothing but two suitcases like a cat.
Ended up getting lost on the Chicago subway myfirst day and ended up in just outside of
Skokie, and I was supposed to be in Schaumburg.
But luckily for me, I met a stranger who helpedme find my way, and now she's one of my best
(55:17):
friends.
I guess sometimes getting lost is the best wayto find what you need.
Could not agree with you
more there, Sarah.
And, yeah, it it it's amazing how sometimes,you know, when you feel you're you're in the
most amount of the weeds, that's when yourtrue, shining light will come through in one
(55:38):
way
or another.
So thank you for sending that one in, Sarah.
And here's one from Mike, who is out of Miami,Florida.
Mike says, after getting laid off during thepandemic, I started baking bread just to pass
the time.
Now I run a small bakery out of my garage.
I never ever ever ever ever thought that Iwould be a baker, but here I am covered in
(56:02):
flour and loving it.
Mike, thank you so much for sending that infrom Miami, Florida.
And if you want, feel free to send up somesourdough bread this way.
We would love to be able to sample some of yourwares and, get your little business out there,
to the masses to get you some more ordersthere.
We've got another one here from from Jessica.
(56:24):
She's writing in from Helena, Montana.
And Jessica writes, my husband and I moved to atiny town just outside Helena for his job, and
I was miserable at first.
Then I joined
a local book club, and now I've got a group offriends who I feel like are my second family.
Sometimes the best things absolutely come fromthe places that you least expect.
(56:48):
Thank you for writing in, Jessica.
And, yeah, it's great to know, you know,
that even something as as small and minusculeas,
a little local book club could end
up becoming such a massive light in the
darkness that allowed you to generate that newcrew and group of friends.
So good on you, and I'm I'm glad you
(57:08):
were able to to find them up there in thebooming metropolis of Mon or booming
metropolises of Montana.
Finally, Tom from over in Cali, my old stompinggrounds, California says, I thought I'd retire
in my hometown, but unfortunately, after mywife passed, I decided to travel.
(57:29):
I've been to 20 countries.
Wow.
20 countries in the last three years, and everyplace has taught me something new about myself.
Life's too short to stay in one place.
Tom, reach into
the choir, dude.
I have been
in at least I've been to at least, almost 40states, I wanna say.
(57:50):
The only places my wife and I have not been toin The United States are up along the East
Coast, like New York, New Hampshire,Massachusetts, things like that.
We're eventually planning on planning a an EastCoast trek up to the East Coast to get that
checked off as well.
Plus, we haven't been to the Pacific Northwest,Washington and Oregon and Idaho.
(58:11):
But yeah, I agree with you.
I love road trips.
I love traveling.
I I hate staying stagnant.
I hate cabin fever.
I need to be up and moving.
So yeah, like you said, life's way too short tostay in one place, and I would not agree more.
So thank you guys very, very much for all ofthose stories.
And as I said, guys, keep those stories coming.
(58:32):
If you've got a wild detour, survival tip, orjust wanna reach out and say hi and give some
feedback, reach me reach out to me on socialmedia.
I'm at smartest board j k or shoot me an email,john@canopicventures.com.
I love hearing from you guys.
Now I also did get a couple questions fromlisteners this week as well, so I'm just gonna
(58:53):
take a quick second to tackle a couple ofthose.
One question came in was how do you staypositive during your big life changes?
And that's a great question, guys.
For me, it's all about perspective.
I try to focus on only the things that I
can control.
I always, again, I said,
I find humor in the chaos and remind myselfthat every challenge is an opportunity to grow.
(59:17):
And when all else fails, I lean on my supportsystem, my amazing wife, my incredible son.
If they're able to help me at the time, herfamily.
Know, my family, as I said, my family, myfriends, and
yes, even you guys, my loyal
listeners.
(59:37):
Other question I got was, what's the bestadvice you've ever received about starting
over?
The best advice I ever got was from my mom.
Love you, mom.
Always, always, always.
She used
to say you can't control the wind, but you canadjust your skills, your sails.
Sorry.
Try to try to quote your mom,
(59:59):
and this is what happens.
You can't control the wind, but you can adjustyour sails.
Life's always gonna throw you curveball, guys.
Curveballs, guys.
But it's
up to you to decide how you respond.
Alrighty.
So with that, that is it for this week'sepisode of the Smurfsport with Jon Knoppik.
(01:00:20):
If there's one thing that I hope you guys takeaway from this episode, it's this.
Life's left turns are absolutely tough, butthey make the best stories.
Embrace the chaos, laugh at the mess, andremember you're not alone.
You're never ever ever alone on this ride.
(01:00:40):
Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, andshare share the show with a friend who could
use a little encouragement.
You could find me on all social mediaplatforms, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
TikTok.
Podcast is available on all major podcaststreaming sources, Spotify,
Apple, Amazon, iHeart, just to name a few.
(01:01:03):
Leave a review and share the show, as I said,with a friend who can use a little
encouragement.
Next week, we're gonna be looking into a littlemore on the sides of trauma and resilience.
So
if
you got a story or a question that you'd likeme to put up
on the, episode, absolutely send it my way.
This has been
the SmarterSpore with John Kanopik.
I am John Kanopik.
(01:01:23):
And as always, as we close out our show everysingle time,
Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice.
Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for tuning in,
and I'll see you guys next time.
Hope you're full.
Hey, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back to this morning's sport with JohnKanopik.
I am, of course, your host, John Kanopik.
And if you're new here, you picked a great timeto jump in.
This show is all about embracing the chaos, thecurveballs,
and the completely unexpected Because, youknow, let's face it, life rarely goes according
to plan, and I know that all too well, as I'msure you guys do as well.
(00:23):
Now much like the buffet, your favoritequestionable diner, you never know what you're
gonna get on this show.
Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's spicy, andsometimes you're just gonna bite into something
that you never saw coming, and it's gonnachange your life forever in best possible way
as well as potentially in scary ways as well.
Now today, I'm gonna be serving up a full plateof the wildest left turns my life has taken.
(00:48):
Cross country moves, career shakeups, familydrama, and all the moments that made me stop
and say, well, I sure did not see that onecoming.
Now but it's not just about me here on thisshow.
I wanna hear from you guys as well.
You guys are just a big part of
this as I am.
What's the
biggest left turn your life is taking?
Hit me up on all social media.
(01:08):
I am at smorgasbord j fay or shoot me an email,John Knopp Adventures, and let me know all
about your story.
Maybe I'll share it on a future episode.
So if you don't mind,
go over there, grab a plate, pull up a
chair, and let's dig in to the SmorgasbordSurvival Guide.
Because if there is one thing that I havelearned in this four and a half decades here on
(01:31):
this spinning rock, is that
the best stories always come from the detours.
Let's jump in, and let's get started.
So let's kick things off with one of thebiggest left turns I've experienced in
my life, and that's moving.
And not just moving down the street, although Idid do that when I was growing up.
Moved from my parents' house to a place aboutthree blocks down the road with some roommates
(01:56):
and had a nice little futon that I called mydungeon of love, so to speak.
But no, I'm talking about packing up everythingyou
own, cramming it into a U Haul or one of
them big semi trailers, and driving acrosscountry with your entire life and all of your
memories rattling around in the back.
(02:16):
I've moved more times than I'd like to admitand can count.
Iowa to California, back to Iowa, down toAlabama, up to Tennessee.
And each one of those moves, definitely has hadits own set of surprises, to say the least.
Headaches, as well.
And let's just be honest, guys.
A few what the hell are we doing moments.
(02:39):
Because you know, when you're moving that muchand that frequently and that often, you gotta
question what the hell am
I doing?
Now,
let's kick this off, and let me tell you abouta time that we moved the time that we moved
from Iowa to California, which is by far andaway, obviously, the at the time, the biggest
move of our lives.
(03:01):
You know, we thought, well, we got this.
We got this.
You know, we did we did all the preparations.
You know, we went through and we went throughon U Haul, found the bed I'm sorry.
We went through the we were gonna go on U Haul,but then we decided we are not driving our all
of that stuff that long of a distance, 2,000miles, no thank you.
So we did some research online, found a goodrental moving company, not one of those fly by
(03:26):
night, like, crewmen in a truck or, you know,the Mayflower and then da da da.
We found another one that was really, reallyreputable and we got that all squared away.
In addition to that, we did our research andour due diligence to find a good place to live
out in California that would have been closeenough to where I was working when I was in
(03:47):
Santa Monica.
And at the same time, you know, allowed us tolive comfortably at the same time.
So we drew up budgets, all the schematics,everything we needed to draw as far as the
preparation goes.
And we thought, you know, dude, we got this.
We got all of our stuff packed.
We got all of our stuff organized.
We got the truck lined up.
(04:08):
We got the the map lined up to get us out tothe new place.
We got money set aside for, you know, depositand first month's rent and all that other
stuff.
You know, we had our playlists ready.
We had snacks.
I mean, you know, we were ready to roll.
But unfortunately, nothing prepare nothingprepares you for the moment that you realize
(04:30):
you packed your toothbrush at the very bottomof a box labeled winter coats.
Yeah.
So that was fun.
We also had an issue when we were halfwaythrough the state of Nebraska and the our cats,
who we had three at the time, decided, hey.
You know what?
(04:50):
We don't like these little, scenarios herewhere we're we're stuck in these little
carriers.
So they decided to get out and explore all overthe car as we're driving down the highway.
So yeah, needless to say, my wife was playingwhack a mole, trying to keep them all from
jumping up on the dashboard or getting in mylap and eventually leading to a massive crash,
(05:14):
respectfully did not happen.
And in addition to that, you know, we did haveour our share of U Haul drama as well.
Now, obviously, if you
guys have ever rented a moving truck, and I'msure most of you have, you know, it's basically
a rite of passage.
Ours, you know, the one that's the the servicesthat we went with, we saw had really good
(05:39):
reviews.
So we were thinking, okay.
We're we're feeling pretty confident aboutthis.
And unfortunately, you know, we didn't wedidn't have the funds at the time to rent out
the entire trailer to ourselves.
So the way they did it was they basicallyrented an 18 wheeler with a big long cap in the
back and sectioned off people's livelihoods.
(06:01):
So it wasn't just ours that was on their truck,they had additional ones.
So basically it's like FedEx on steroids whenyou're moving and using those services.
And unfortunately, some of their movers, theactual loaders themselves, not the actual
transport company, decided that rather thanplaying Tetris and being meticulous and making
(06:25):
sure that everything would get in the properspot and it was all nicely neat and organized,
they decided to go full on NASCAR pit crew withthe load, essentially.
Everything was okay.
I don't believe anything was broken when wearrived, but it was absolutely a cluster you
know what when it came to the unloaders havingto remove everything out of there
(06:49):
and us trying to get everything put in
their proper spots once we got to
our place.
Now, you know, that all being said, we stillmade it.
All of our stuff's still
transported out to California without any majorissues or anything like that.
It all made it out actually within thetimeframe that they allotted.
(07:10):
We got out there about a day before stuffarrived, so we were forced to stay in a hotel
because we didn't have anything to know, we'regonna just sleep on a bare floor in our
apartment in Woodland Hills, so we ended upgetting a hotel, which incidentally, like I
mentioned on the last show, was just down theblock from where I stayed when I was out in LA
(07:31):
for
my job with Toyota.
And, you
know, even in driving that long of a distance,you know, we learned a lot about ourselves.
We learned a lot about who we were as a couplebecause at the time, you know, we've been
together thirteen years and we still had somerough patches,
(07:53):
but that long of a drive together, our longestdrive ever together at the time, it brought us
closer together, believe.
You know, it really made us
cherish each other even more.
And plus we got to see the country too.
We got to see areas of the country that we'dnever really gotten to see before, only when
(08:13):
we'd flown over them.
So we'd never, you know, we'd never outside ofgoing to Denver and Nebraska a couple times,
we'd never been to Utah before.
Nevada, we've been through part of that when wewent to Vegas, but we got to see other parts of
that we hadn't got to see before.
And then of course, California.
Outside of me, you know, flying in, and then wewe flew out as she flew me out as a surprise
(08:35):
one year for my birthday.
We got to go to San Diego, and we got to go to,TV taping of a a sitcom, which was amazing.
And I'm gonna actually roll that all intoCalifornia Dreams, not the television show, but
California Dreams and Experiences and ThingsLike That.
I'll roll that into a future episode.
(08:57):
But, yeah, we got to see the country in ways wehadn't before.
So that was another positive that we reallyenjoyed about getting to drive that long of a
distance.
Now let's let's fast forward the clock, shallwe?
Four years later, we we did everything we feltwe could do in California outside of the acting
(09:20):
stuff that I didn't take advantage of because Iwas a dumb I was a moron and was too focused on
my work and not trying to do both.
Now, moving back to Iowa in 2020, that was awhole different beast altogether, because
(09:40):
unfortunately, excuse me, in the
time that we had been living in California,unfortunately,
two of our three cats passed away.
Our orange, big, tabby, scout, and we lovedtill the end of the earth and back.
He had passed away just before he had turned16.
Shortly before he passed, his sister, we callher Chicky, or Jazz is another name we call
(10:06):
her, she was 15, she passed, due to she hadsome cancer that they found in her ears that
was inoperable, unfortunately.
So we had, you know, didn't have those two catsanymore.
We had a third cat, his
name was Lucky, and Lucky was not able to come
with us.
And I'll explain why here in just one moment.
(10:27):
Just need a quick hydration break.
I'll be right back with you guys.
Alright, guys.
I'm back.
Sorry about that.
Need a little hydration break.
Still battling a little bit
of a end of a bug.
Alright.
So as I was saying, we had a third cat.
His name was Lucky.
And unfortunately, he couldn't make the trekback with us because without the other two cats
(10:50):
there, he was a cat that definitely needed tobe around other cats as well.
And he didn't really take too well to our
new little newborn.
So, unfortunately, we had
to rehome him.
We found a really great family for him to goto, but alas, he was not able
to join us.
So as I said,
it was definitely a different beast coming fromCalifornia back to Iowa.
(11:12):
In the fact that we went from three cats, ourlittle car, our car at the time, which I
believe was a Honda Accord, and transportinganything via a semi trailer to ourselves, our
amazing little guy, little newborn who was lessthan two months old at the time.
We still have a small car.
We actually had a Toyota Prius that I gotthanks to money I won on Wheel of Fortune.
(11:36):
Again, I'll go over that in the Californiaepisode that I'll be doing later on.
So did the transport, and it was muchdifferent.
It was a very stressful one driving backbecause yet again, you had less than a two
month old in there and neither one of us wereparents before.
(11:57):
So we'd never gone through this before.
And his crying and his fussiness, which isexpected for a newborn, for a two month old.
I, unfortunately, due to my upbringing and howI was raised, basically, was sidetracked, as I
like
to do.
I was told as a kid, no one's certain terms,you know, not to cry, not to, you know, and
(12:23):
anytime I did or I was upset or I showedemotion, I got reamed by my father.
And unfortunately, for a while, that cycleremained and I passed that on to the way I
initially treated my son, which to this day isone of my biggest regrets.
He didn't deserve it.
(12:43):
He's just a little baby, you know, and there'snothing you could
do about that.
But luckily,
as time has gone on, I've definitely amended,changed my ways and and and amended fences and
things like that.
But, yeah, we we made it back, you know, toIowa.
We had our own little sense of drama in thefact that due to weather related issues,
(13:10):
because again, this was the February, so therewas winter that was happening in the middle of
the country, we were sidetracked.
So we ended up taking a route that took usactually through Albuquerque, New Mexico,
again, areas we've never been to before,through Amarillo, Texas, and up through Kansas
and Oklahoma Oklahoma, Kansas, and then, upinto Nebraska and then into Iowa.
(13:36):
Again, had we have taken a faster route, hadthe weather have been more cooperative for us,
it's possible we could have
made it sooner, and we could have made the lasttwo hour trek to Iowa City, and I could have
had the chance to have my
son meet my mom in person for the first time.
(13:58):
But such is life.
Right?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
But, you know, as we were leaving California,we had thought to ourselves, hey, you know,
we've done this before, man.
We got this all mapped out.
We got we got the transport.
We got the new place to live in Des Moines.
(14:18):
I got the new job.
We got some money.
Is it gonna be driving back?
As you could just tell by what I've said,famous last words.
And, yeah, because they said, you know, thedrive was long.
Kid was fussy, unfortunately, and weatherdecided to throw him that snowstorm.
Just chip or chips.
And we were absolutely ready for that freshstart.
(14:41):
And, yeah, and what what fresh start it wasfilled with trauma and
loss and everything that you could feel wouldgo wrong,
would go wrong.
And that was Iowa for a year and a half that wewere there.
Now, you know, after a year and a half ofliving up there in Iowa, dealing with all the
(15:06):
trauma and stress, and unfortunately we wentfrom California where we had really good eating
options, we were working out, we were losingweight, everything was going solid.
Moved to Iowa, had trauma, unexpected loss.
They had a bunch of really bad food.
We fell into bad habits, and our weightballooned to numbers that we never wanna ever
(15:30):
see again.
So, yeah, Iowa.
At least for me,
I'm not gonna give you the real finger that Iwanna give, but you you you get the gist.
But after a year and a half of living in Iowa,we decided to pack up again because, again, I
got that awesome opportunity, which I thoughtwas an awesome opportunity at the time, working
(15:51):
for Hearst Television and being promoted to thesenior IT manager in training and decided, hey.
You know?
Well, we haven't seen the Deep South yet, sowhy not move to Birmingham, Motherflippin,
Alabama?
And, you know, warming to the South wasabsolutely 100,000,000 a culture shock.
(16:12):
Anybody who thinks it isn't is foolingthemselves.
The food was different.
You had a lot more things down there that youdon't have up in Iowa, like you had Publix
grocery store, Hungry Howie's Pizza.
You know, you had a lot more way more barbecueand rib and brisket type joints down there.
(16:34):
Nick and Jim's barbecue, for example.
A lot more stuff down there than Whataburger,to name a few.
The accents, of course, were way thicker.
We got more y'alls and whatnot than you wouldup in Iowa, and it kind of bled into us to find
that we lived there.
And, yeah, let's Excuse me.
(16:56):
Let's not forget the humidity, shall we?
And the and the severe storms.
Because, unfortunately, you know, even thoughthey say Iowa is the northern part of Cornedo
Valley, Alabama was a totally different angle
when it
came to their storms and things down there.
We had to deal with a lot more icy weather tosay the least.
(17:17):
And, yeah, with the humidity and everythinglike that, I I absolutely learned the true
meaning of the
word air that you can wear because yeah.
Even in
the cold months or cold months of Novemberthrough, like, January down there, it was still
(17:38):
cold to them was forties and fifties.
So we definitely had to make the adjustmentsthat we were there for a couple of years to new
routines, new neighbors, even though
we really didn't make fast friends with ourneighbors just because of the environment we
were in, as well as
the new pace of life.
(17:59):
We didn't have the chaos of all the multiplelane highways that California provided us.
We didn't have all of the back road stuff thatIowa
provided us.
Plus the fact, you know, that
with living in Alabama, we had the ability todrive down to Panama City Beach, Mobile,
Gaston, Florida, where my nephew is now, he'sin the Air Force.
(18:23):
So we had that nice little benefit just acouple hours south of us, then two hours north
of us, my sister lived up in Spring Hill.
We also, in that same time, we also discoveredsome amazing things down there as well.
You know, in tying in, like
I said, the barbecue places down there,incredible.
(18:44):
I had
never been a barbecue sauce person growing up,but trying the sauce down there, was instantly
hooked.
The brisket fall off the meat, fall off
the bone,
absolutely rule inducing food down there.
And also community in Kalira, we live inKalira, Alabama, which again is about half an
(19:07):
hour south of Worthingham.
And you know, community that for all itsquirks, it actually did welcome us in with open
arms.
Clearer Public Library, my son and I and mywife loved going there every week for story
time.
He had a blast.
He made some really good friends down there.
He named Ben his nickname his real name is Ben,but my son called him Ben Ben.
(19:30):
It was one of his great, great friends thatlived down there, and they they still try to
chat every now and again.
My wife still texts his grandma, and they stilltry to video
and chat every now and again.
So Alabama definitely was more of a more of
a welcoming environment than Iowa anddefinitely drama, less way less drama than we
dealt with.
(19:51):
Plus it gave us the benefit of of starting tobuild roots and have friends and things like
that.
Now, you know, even right after we got downthere, the genuinely amazing people at Hearst
Television, obviously, like I mentioned in myprevious episode, just had to throw a
(20:13):
bull's eye on my back and eliminate me from myrole.
And because of that, you know, I
had to scramble to find another opportunity,which I did with the incredible company that
I'm with now.
So just when we thought we were all settled indown in Alabama, I've been there a couple of
years, it was once again time to hit the road,Jack,
(20:36):
because we were moving up to Tennessee becauseof my job.
Even though it is
100% remote, and I'm so insanely grateful forthat, I decided, you know, it'd be easier if
you lived a little bit closer to Nashville forthe times that you needed to come in for town
halls, infrastructure meetings, things likethat.
(20:57):
So we looked in the area that my sister was inin Spring Hill and, you know, in in the areas
around there and unfortunately at
the time, financially didn't suit us.
You know, we found ourselves going over to
Jackson, which at the time, we had read goodthings about Jackson, but we'd also read bad
(21:19):
things about Jackson from crime standpoint andthings like that being called Little Memphis.
And as time went on and we lived there for ayear, we absolutely embraced and understood why
it was called Mini Memphis.
And as we lived there, crime and uneasiness andunrest got worse and worse and worse.
(21:40):
So luckily, with
my job, the way it was, structured, I was ableto get promoted, and I went from, I got
promoted up to an observability engineer role.
And with that came a nice bump in salary.
We get annual bonuses and provided everything's
going good.
(22:01):
And because of
that, that allowed us to financially be a lotmore stable, at least from an income
standpoint, and allowed us to move here towhere we are now in Columbia, Tennessee, which
we now love, love, love, love, and we'lldefinitely can see
this becoming our forever home.
And, you know, and with each move, Birminghamto Jackson, Jackson to Columbia, It all brought
(22:26):
its own sets of challenges and surprises.
Case in point, moved from we're moving fromBirmingham to Jackson.
I was going out on one of the narrow two laneroads, and I thought, hey.
I can make this curve, and then I realized wemissed our turn.
Tried to turn the U Haul around.
Got stuck in a
ditch.
Tennessee
(22:48):
Tennessee loveliness or Tennessee familywelcoming, so to speak.
These neighbor these people, just randompeople.
We didn't know where we were at the time wewere close to where we were gonna be moving
into, but we hadn't quite made it there yet.
This random people noticed that we got stuck inthe ditch.
They came out of their house, and they actuallyhad a winch in their pickup truck and were able
(23:11):
to pull us out of the ditch and got us back onour way.
So, again, you know, challenges, but at thesame time, Tennessee showed its love from the
get go.
And even through all of
that, we've been finding ways to adapt, foundways to laugh,
and and keep moving forward.
And it's it's made us very, very stronger andmore adapted to handle future, things as they
(23:40):
come up.
So sum up this segment, if you guys are everfacing a big move or a big culture shock
inducing events on the horizon, Let me give you
a piece of advice.
Expect the unexpected, overpack your snacks,don't be afraid to laugh at
the chaos, and make sure that your toothbrushis not in the bottom of your winter coat bag.
(24:06):
That's not gonna bode well for you, especiallywhen you have your e gums that you need to get
cleaned at the end of the night.
Make sure you're always labeling your boxes,but don't trust the labels.
Because just because you labeled it doesn'tmean what's in there is what's supposed to be
in there.
And always, always, always, as I said, doublecheck that you've got the essentials because
nothing says, welcome to your new home.
(24:28):
Like realizing you have no idea where youpacked your toilet paper.
Yeah.
Now, I said, I
wanna hear your moving stories too.
What's the wildest thing that's happened to youguys during a move?
Did you ever move, end up in the wrong city,like we did with Jackson?
Yeah.
Did you lose something important during the,during the move?
(24:49):
Like, you you packed all your stuff up in thecar and when you were rushing out to get gas or
go to the bathroom during a a break, somethingfell out and you didn't realize it and you
drove off.
Need a new friend on the road?
Send me your stories.
I'll share the best ones on a future episode.
Again, at smorgasbord j k, or shoot me anemail, john@knopick,kn0pick,ventures.com.
(25:12):
And, of course, guys, as I said, moving, it'snever ever easy.
It's taught me a lot about resilience,flexibility, and the importance of finding
humor in the hard moments because no matterwhat you guys go through, you've got to find
that humor in the hard moments.
You've always gotta have that light in thedarkness.
And honestly, guys, some of my favorite momentscome from those chaotic, unpredictable moves.
(25:34):
Some of the greatest times I had were I was onthe road, checking out the new places, seeing
things as they as they they came to us
and whatnot.
So if you're in the middle of a big transition,hang in there, guys.
You absolutely have got this.
So gonna take a little break.
Gonna be right back with the next segment,which is gonna deal all with them lovely,
lovely, lovely career curveballs.
(25:56):
Stick around.
I'll be right back.
You're listening to the Smorgasbord with JohnKanopik.
Like what you hear?
You can reach me on all social media platformsat smorgasbord j k
or shoot me an email, john@canopicventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get back to thegrub.
(26:19):
Alright, guys.
Welcome back to the Smarter Sport.
I'm John Kanopin.
Thank you very much for tuning in as always.
Now let's shift gears, shall we?
And let's talk about work.
You know, the thing that keeps food on thetable, keeps the lights on, puts your kids
content, and keeps your sandy,
at least for depending
(26:40):
on what what what career path you've taken andwhat, what organization or what field that
you're in.
Now if you've listened to this show before,you're gonna know that my career path has been
anything but a straight line.
That's an understatement.
You know, I've worked in tech support.
(27:02):
I've worked for TV, both TV company TV stationsas well as radio stations.
I've worked for mortgage companies.
I've done the old school Reese fry cook gigs.
I'm working at TGI Fridays, working at BurgerKing, working at McDonald's briefly, working at
(27:23):
Panera Bread.
I've done the paper route thing when I
was a young Been all over.
I even dabbled in the music industry, likewith, you know, helping out with where I'm at
now with my printable company that
I currently am associated with.
And in addition to that, with all of those jobsand fields, I've been laid
off, been promoted, had been relocated,
(27:49):
and everything in between.
So again, much like the title of my show, mycareer path has also been a storm of sport,
both good and bad.
Now, my first big career turn, left turn, Ishould say,
came, you know, when
I was, left, got
a steady job, excuse me, when I was workingfor, with Toyota Financial Services, had been
(28:11):
there just under three years, to take the shotand opportunity of a lifetime and pack up
everything we knew and loved and moved out toCalifornia to work on a television station.
That was something I had never done before.
Say I was, skided, that's a word that I like touse, throwing
(28:32):
excited and scared all at the same time.
Say I was
skided, nervous and completely unprepared foreverything that California and LA was gonna
throw
at me was is a massive understatement.
You see LA,
you see California on your TV shows, yourmovies and things
like that and you always expect it to be acertain way.
(28:55):
In certain cases, it is,
but in in other cases, it's definitely a shock.
I had driven around Chicago a lot, growing up,as I had said previously.
So I was comfortable and I was familiar withfive, six lanes of traffic going each way.
My wife on the other hand, uh-uh.
We get anywhere near Metropolis, we'reswitching places before we get to downtown
(29:17):
because I'm the one that's gonna be driving.
And the first day, you know, once we got oncewe're able to get all of our stuff packed in
and starting to get things unloaded in our newplace, my first day, getting ready for my first
day at at Gainesville Network, I decided tolook at the drive, from Woodland House
(29:41):
Apartments up in Woodland Hills down to,Gainesville Network in Santa Monica.
And typically, I've been used to the, you know,okay, this is about a fifteen, sixteen mile
drive, believe is what it was, around aboutthat.
And when I lived in Iowa,
when the, you know, it was twenty minutesdepending on, you know, the time of day.
(30:04):
California,
on the other hand, it was a four and fiveminute drive because you're driving down the
canyon.
And then in addition, you had PCH where thattime of morning, was very, very busy, and then
you had the one freeway as well.
So, you know, end up having to adjust what timewe woke up in the morning, all of our morning
(30:24):
all of our morning tasks out of the
way and things like that.
And, you
know, I decided, you know, hey.
I'm gonna get there an hour early.
I'm gonna show them initiative.
I'm gonna
be like, dude, I'm I'm your guy.
You know, I'm here.
I'm here early.
I'm ready to rock.
Little did I realize at the time that I parkedin
(30:44):
the wrong parking lot.
The lot I thought I was supposed to park in wasactually not the one that was earmarked for my
company.
So I ended up having to sprint across threecity blocks in my brand new work outfits.
By the time I got to the office, because it'sin Southern California and it was the July, I
(31:06):
looked like I had just ran the LA CityMarathon.
Now yeah.
So it was a great way to make a firstimpression to say the very least.
But that being said, that job actually openeddoors that I never expected to have opened for
me.
You know, I went and I had the ability to meetcelebrities.
(31:30):
Howie Mendell pitched a show, the Game ShowNetwork.
He was there, and I got to actually help themset up all of their tech equipment, help them
actually do some of their game show runthroughs.
So I got to meet Howie Mendel.
He was incredible.
I got to meet these Spaska sisters.
If you ever seen, an old Game Show Network showcalled Elevator, they're they're two twin girl
(31:53):
two twin women that are, like, big into horrorand things like that.
I got to meet them.
You know,
I got I got to do a lot of things.
And I also got to partake in some game showsthat are actually on Game Show Network now.
I actually got to help them do the run through.
So I kinda feel like I was part of theirbuilding process.
(32:14):
You know, it was it was definitely a shock, achange.
It was nerve racking, but at the same time, itwas absolutely an incredible opportunity and a
game changer for me, you know, because thatallowed me to, jump over to Fox once my
(32:36):
unfortunately, my position got eliminated withthe game show network.
Was able to jump over to Fox Sports.
And, again, as I mentioned on the previousepisode, that allowed me the opportunity to
build up a white glove concierge service forhigh end Fox VIPs to fix their tech issues,
which allowed me to help Terry Bradshaw withhis email issues, help Erin Andrews with her
(32:56):
cell phone issues, help Jimmy Johnson navigatesome new applications that we were running for
their for Fox Sports.
Excuse me.
I got to do a lot of
once in a lifetime hit list dated things withwith that career path.
(33:19):
You know?
And and just for
a little spoiler alert, Terry Bradshaw isabsolutely as hilarious in person as he is on
TV.
That is not an ad.
That is not a facade.
That is not a persona.
He is that person in real life.
And I wish I could have made even biggerfriends with him, but it was incredible the
time I did get to help him.
(33:42):
Now, of course, not every career move, again,as I said, was by choice.
You know, Game Show Network laid me off.
First one in or last one in, first one out dueto budget cuts.
And, with Fox Sports getting, unfortunately,with their marketing department not taking
things the way that they should have been toget things truly rolling, relegated me down to
(34:03):
a role that I swore I would never do again, andI ended up having to, you know, ties
with them.
You know?
And each time I bounced
from those rolls to rolls, I felt like the rugwas being
pulled off from underneath me.
But looking back,
you know, those moments forced me to reinventmyself, to try new things, to put myself out
(34:27):
there more.
You know, in retrospect, I ended up discoveringstrengths I didn't even know that I had.
And it served me well and it actually hasreally helped me throughout my career since
that point.
Now, again, after I left Fox, because I justcouldn't handle doing just rudimentary help
(34:48):
desk, first level tech support stuff anymore, Iended up working for that digital mortgage
company, Doc Magic, something I never wouldhave considered if I hadn't been pushed out of
my comfort zone to begin with.
And you know what?
I absolutely loved it.
But, yeah, it started off rocky because I wasinterviewing for the gig.
(35:11):
And at the time, I had I needed some hydrationbefore the interview.
So I had a iced coffee that I was drinking.
And little did I realize that the lid was notfirmly on.
So before my interview in person with my soonto be colleague and boss, I was taking a drink,
(35:34):
and you guessed it,
sploosh.
Coffee ball down the front of
my shirt.
Luckily, my shirt
was dark, but it was still stained.
You could still see the stain.
So what did I do?
I had do it in a pinch because I was in theirlittle conference room, waited for them to come
in.
I flipped my shirt around.
(35:54):
So when they came in, my shirt was backwards.
It looked somewhat normal, but I didn't realizethere were cameras in the conference room.
And to this day, my one of my good friends,Jerry, who is my colleague there, he's like,
yeah.
So can't believe you you were trying to pull aHoudini, David Copperfield by trying to switch
your shirt on.
He's like, we we saw it.
(36:15):
And we were, like, busting a gut laughing.
But we felt like, you know, this kid can dothat.
We feel he's gonna be a good fit here.
And it actually, in hindsight, ended up helpingme, land the gig.
So, you know,
as I said, you know, had I not been pushed outof my comfort zone, I would have met some of my
best friends there like Jerry.
(36:36):
I went to learn even more new skills and proveto myself that I could adapt no matter what the
situation was.
And then, of course, you know, after
that came the pandemic twenty twenty.
I love it.
The lab, lab leak that Fauci and the rest ofthe guys pushed out to the world
(36:58):
because they wanted to do some depopulation andtry to really lock down control of the world.
I mean, I'll get into
that in a future episode, but I definitely havea lot to say.
But about the pandemic, you know, like with somany people, I ended up finding myself
initially working from home briefly with KCCI,and then we were able to get back into working
(37:26):
out of the actual television studio, but wewere very segregated.
We we had our own little offices that werespread out, just because at the time we didn't
realize what was going on with the the virusand what, you know, what the carrying, what how
contagious it was, things
like that.
So the majority
(37:47):
of the sales staff for KCCI stayed working athome for months and months after I was there.
We were all spread out to different offices andthey slowly staggered bringing people back.
And you know, suddenly my commute was fromdriving, you know, getting in my car and
driving to the office every day to getting upfrom the bedroom, going down to the kitchen
(38:08):
table, getting my coffee, waking up and thenheading up into my makeshift office with my
laptop and my desk.
And, know, my coworkersoffice managers becamemy incredible wife, my phenomenal son and, you
know, Zoom became my best friend with meetingsand talking to my manager and things like that.
(38:30):
Now, remote work, of course, absolutely had itschallenges.
Zoom fatigue, anybody?
But it also gave me a new appreciation and tothis day a massive appreciation for flexibility
and work life balance because it allows me todo my work in addition to having a home life at
the same time and I'm not having to miss outdue to commutes back and forth from the office.
(38:54):
I also in that time working from home learnedto set boundaries, learned how to properly take
breaks and stay hydrated, and find joy in thevery little things, know, like lunchtime walks
with my wife and son, impromptu dance partiesin the living room when we just needed to put a
rug and just decompress, things like that.
(39:16):
You know, it it really helped you be able toappreciate things even more from a home
perspective.
Now if you guys are facing currently in theprocess of facing a layoff or potentially a big
career change.
I'm gonna give you a
piece of advice for this as well.
Don't panic.
(39:38):
Whatever you do, don't panic.
Because I find that for me, when I panic andI'm in
a rush and I'm distracted and I'm lost focus,things tend to go off the rails very quickly
and things end up being worse.
So yeah, absolutely do not panic.
Step back, take a breath, look for theopportunity again in the chaos, as we've said
(40:02):
before.
And remember that your path does not have tolook like anyone else's.
Your path is your path.
You are writing that story.
You don't have there's no blueprints that youhave
to follow.
Sometimes that detour and those unexpectedcurves is where you're gonna find your real
(40:22):
passion and you're gonna really find
a career move and career choice that's gonnasuit you potentially for the rest of your life.
If if you guys have again, if you have a storyabout a career curveball that you've went
through, a job you never thought you'd neverland that you did, a layoff that led to even
(40:44):
something greater than you could haveanticipated, or even a work from home disaster.
Did you spill hot coffee on yourself when youwere getting ready to go into a meeting with
your bosses in Tokyo?
Did you, you know, step on the cat's tailduring a a town hall and made everybody in the
room turn their
heads towards you?
Send it my way.
(41:04):
At smorgasbord
j k on all social medias or John@kn0pick,Canopic Ventures, v e n t u r e s, dot com.
I would love to share you guys' experiences onthe feedback, follow-up feedback episode.
But of course, guys, work is absolutely,positively a huge part of all of our lives,
(41:27):
obviously, but it doesn't define us.
The most important thing is that you keepmoving forward, stay open to your new
possibilities, and you always have
to remember that every left turn is a chancefor you to learn and grow.
And with that, we're gonna take another littlebreak here.
(41:47):
I will be back momentarily for our next segmentwhere we're gonna dive into family and
everything that's tied to it.
So stick around, guys, and we'll be right backon the Smorgasbord with John Kannoff.
You're listening to the smorgasbord with JohnKanoptic.
Like what you hear?
You can reach me on all social media platformsat smorgasbord j k,
(42:12):
or shoot me an email,john@kanopticventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get
back to the grub.
Alright, guys.
Welcome back.
Thank you for tuning in again, as I said, tothe Smoke Swarm, John Kanoptic.
Greatly, greatly appreciate it.
Now
let's, go on to our next little heaping helpingof content here on
(42:36):
the smorgasbord, and let's talk about family,shall we?
You know them, you love them, you were borninto them, and you stuck with them.
If you've listened to my story on the previouscouple episodes, and I'd really appreciate it
if you have, you know my family history islet's just
call it colorful to say the least, shall we?
(42:57):
I've absolutely, over my forty five years, hadmy ups and downs, not only with my parents, but
siblings, as well as
with my wife's family as well.
Of course, I have lost loved ones more than I'dlike
to count and built a new family and a verystrong family dynamic with my wife and son, one
(43:20):
that I cherish to this day and one that I'mvery,
very proud that I get to, come home or be withevery single day of our lives.
Now,
growing up in Iowa, again, as I said to youguys, my family was very small, but
complicated.
(43:40):
I had my two older sisters, my mom and my dad.
At the time, growing up when I was a littlekid, I had still had my grandma.
I had my uncle Johnny, who I love for the end
of the earth, love you Johnny.
My aunt Irene, her husband Cliff, and
my cousin Mary, and my wife, aunt Irene'smother Hannah.
(44:02):
So there was 10 of us.
As I said, you know, I was the youngest ofthree.
And, of course, you know, being the youngest ofthree and the only boy in the house, we did not
always see eye to eye.
My sisters did everything they could to makesure that I was protected, that I was raised
properly, that I had sound boards to talk tothem about
(44:23):
things.
But, you know, at
times, though, it was very, very, very strangejust because, you know, older sisters, they do
their own thing,
and I'm, you know, trying to tag along to stuffand things like that.
So, you know,
it was it was complicated, but at the sametime, it shaped me to be part of it shaped me
(44:48):
to
be who I am today.
And, of course,
my my relationship with my parents was anabsolute roller coaster.
The majority of the time,
my mom and I were Symphonico.
She'd always protected me as well.
Again, as I
said on my previous episode, my dad, at leastwhen I was young in an infant and toddler
stage, did his best to take me on runs with himwhen he did his truck driving stuff, bring me
(45:14):
home trinkets and things when he wasn't able totake me on the longer runs.
But as we got older and as I got into myteenage years, it
just soured and went down.
And his true inability to raise a
son, came forward and it split our relationshipand to this day has never been repaired.
(45:37):
My older sisters, again, they took care of meas best they could.
But unfortunately, as we got older and I gotinto my teenage years, the favoritism really
showed.
Kenny, my older sister, was my dad's princess,still is.
My oldest sister, Katie, who I do not have arelationship with at this moment, was more on
the line with my mom than my dad.
(45:59):
And of course, I
was absolutely my mom's Mimi.
So yeah, with my parents bringing up,upbringing parents, it was definitely a roller
coaster.
There was lots of love, but also plenty,plenty, plenty of misunderstandings in tough
times as well.
And again, as I said to you guys, losing my momwas one of the hardest things that I've ever
(46:20):
faced in in my entire life.
She was the glue that held my family together.
And her absence left the hole that it's stillthere, a massive gaping hole the size of the
Grand Canyon that's still there, and will Ihave a feeling it will always be there.
It also, unfortunately, you know, in inhindsight, it did teach me to cherish the
(46:45):
importance or I'm sorry.
He taught me the importance of cherishing everysingle moment that you have with those that you
love because you never know when thoseopportunities will go by the
boards and just be smashed from you by higher
powers that people say have our best interestsin heart.
(47:08):
But, again, not getting into religion at thispoint.
And it's I struggled.
As I said in my previous episode, I struggledas a teenager and into my early twenties until
my until I met my wife, and that's wheneverything changed.
Her family, again, I call them the Sopranos.
I lovingly call them the Sopranos becausethey're a massive family.
(47:29):
So many cousins, so many sisters, brothers,uncles, aunts.
They anytime anybody has to go into a hospitalroom or have to go somewhere, they all show up
in droves.
They welcomed me with open arms from Square 1way back in 02/2003, and they gave me a whole
lot of food and a whole lot of love andsupport, things that I had glamored for and
(47:53):
longingly needed for the longest time that Ifell out of repute with my existing family.
And in that time, suddenly, you know, I had anew support system.
I had a new set of traditions and new sense ofbelonging.
You know, I got to do things, annual traditionsthat I never got to do with my family, that my
(48:14):
family just didn't do.
And then, you know, we still felt like therewas a missing piece.
My wife and I still felt even with her familyat the time, things going good, my family being
what it was, we still felt like there was a bigchunk that was missing for our lives to truly
be complete.
And that's when 2020 happened.
(48:35):
That's when our incredible, phenomenal,handsome, hilarious, chaotic What?
Tornado of a sun came into our lives.
And every single day, I get to see that smilingface.
Every single morning, I wake up.
We he he is our wake up clock.
(48:56):
He is our cuckoo clock.
06:30 when his light goes green on his littlestar clock he's got in his bedroom.
Oh, I'm sorry, light goes red in his bedroom ona star clock.
He's in our door and the first place he comesis around our bed over my side.
I'm giving him a big hug and kiss and I'msaying, good morning, little man.
And that's absolutely the best way to start offevery single one
(49:17):
of my days.
I got my wife next to me and just, I feelcomplete.
I feel like I'm ready to take on the day fromsquare one at that moment.
And our son absolutely, as I said, was themissing piece.
He's the glue that holds us together, makesfast friends wherever he goes.
Goes to any park, goes to the library, goes tostores.
People just have these massive smiles on theirfaces anytime they encounter him.
(49:42):
Know, and he reminds me every day why I alwaysgotta keep pushing forward because he deserves
that.
He
deserves the life, the love,
the support, and the upbringing that Iunfortunately was not afforded, especially in
my teenagers.
Watching him grow, watching him adapt andthrive in our our environment now has been
(50:03):
absolutely by far and away one of the greatestjoys and experiences of my life and something
that I I am so proud I get to go through dayafter day after day.
Now moving to new places, like Birmingham,Jackson, California, Columbia, it always meant
Excuse me.
(50:24):
It always meant leaving behind the familiar,but it also meant finding new support systems.
Case in point, moving here to Columbia.
My wife, when we lived in Jackson, just hadthat one didn't really have any fast friends
out there, didn't really have a support system.
Moving here to Columbia, she's got her crew,her the moms that are friend or the moms of my
(50:44):
son's friends, and she's made a massive supportsystem with them.
They text each other back and forth.
If someone needs something in a pinch andsomeone's able to help out, they help each
other out.
They give each other advice.
They talk daily.
So they they really built that solid, solid,strong support system.
You know?
And again, as I said, my wife, she's alwaysbeen a bit of an introvert.
(51:07):
She stepped out of her comfort zone and madethose fast friends with those other parents.
You know, suddenly she has her crew, he has hiscrew, and it's almost like a new chosen family
that's helped us not only feel at home, butalso made us feel like we belonged from square
(51:27):
one, even when everything else in theenvironment was completely brand new.
So in that time of being with her family andnow these people as well, I've learned, you
know, family is not just about blood.
It's not.
It's not about who you were born into.
It's not about your genetics.
(51:47):
It's about the people who show up, the peoplewho support you, and who the people who make
you feel like you belong.
That's your family.
That is absolutely 100% your family.
Now if you guys are struggling with familystuff, trying to
build that new support system, just realizeguys, you're not alone.
(52:10):
Sometimes that family is gonna be sometimesfamily is the one that you're born with.
But sometimes it is the ones that you findalong the way, and those can end up actually
being the stronger family bonds that you neverhave with your original genetically based
biological ones.
And again, guys, when it comes to family, Iwanna hear your stories about your families,
(52:35):
whether it's a funny holiday disaster, whetheryou got in with your new in laws and it became
your new support system, whether, you know, youmoved somewhere you never thought you would
move and you made fast friends.
You know, if there was an unexpected kindnessor even a time when your chosen family came
through for you, give me your stories.
Tell me tell me what you guys went through.
(52:56):
I I wanna hear them.
At smartest sport j k on all social medias orjohn@canopicventures.com.
Send them in, and I will be happy to broadcastthem out to the world on a future, feedback
episode.
Hey, guys.
Family's messy.
Family's complicated.
Sometimes family's just turn right frustrating,but it's also the source of our greatest
(53:19):
strengths.
So whatever you guys do, by all means,absolutely hold those people close and do not,
in any short form or a fashion, do not beafraid to reach out when you need that support
because you never know who's gonna come throughfor you guys.
(53:41):
And that's the end of this segment.
We got one more segment coming up.
That's gonna be our listener smorgasbordsegment, and I'll be right back to kick that
off here on the smorgasbord with John Kanopik.
Thanks for tuning in.
Stick around.
You're listening to the Smorgasbord with JohnKanopic.
Like what
you hear?
You can reach
me on all social media platforms at smorgasbordj k or shoot me an email,
(54:06):
john@kanopicventures.com.
Thanks for tuning in.
Time to grab a plate, and let's get
back to
the grub.
Welcome back to the Smorgasbord.
I am John Kanopic.
And for our final segment of the of theepisode, we're gonna get dive into what we call
the listener smorgasbord.
I'm going to be turning over the ladle, akamicrophone, over to you guys.
(54:31):
I reached out on social media for your storiesand your life's biggest left turns, from
previous episode, and you absolutely delivered.
So first up, we've got a message from Sarah outof Chicago, Illinois.
She wrote, John, I moved from excuse me.
(54:53):
I moved from New York City to Chicago withnothing but two suitcases like a cat.
Ended up getting lost on the Chicago subway myfirst day and ended up in just outside of
Skokie, and I was supposed to be in Schaumburg.
But luckily for me, I met a stranger who helpedme find my way, and now she's one of my best
(55:17):
friends.
I guess sometimes getting lost is the best wayto find what you need.
Could not agree with you
more there, Sarah.
And, yeah, it it it's amazing how sometimes,you know, when you feel you're you're in the
most amount of the weeds, that's when yourtrue, shining light will come through in one
(55:38):
way
or another.
So thank you for sending that one in, Sarah.
And here's one from Mike, who is out of Miami,Florida.
Mike says, after getting laid off during thepandemic, I started baking bread just to pass
the time.
Now I run a small bakery out of my garage.
I never ever ever ever ever thought that Iwould be a baker, but here I am covered in
(56:02):
flour and loving it.
Mike, thank you so much for sending that infrom Miami, Florida.
And if you want, feel free to send up somesourdough bread this way.
We would love to be able to sample some of yourwares and, get your little business out there,
to the masses to get you some more ordersthere.
We've got another one here from from Jessica.
(56:24):
She's writing in from Helena, Montana.
And Jessica writes, my husband and I moved to atiny town just outside Helena for his job, and
I was miserable at first.
Then I joined
a local book club, and now I've got a group offriends who I feel like are my second family.
Sometimes the best things absolutely come fromthe places that you least expect.
(56:48):
Thank you for writing in, Jessica.
And, yeah, it's great to know, you know,
that even something as as small and minusculeas,
a little local book club could end
up becoming such a massive light in the
darkness that allowed you to generate that newcrew and group of friends.
So good on you, and I'm I'm glad you
(57:08):
were able to to find them up there in thebooming metropolis of Mon or booming
metropolises of Montana.
Finally, Tom from over in Cali, my old stompinggrounds, California says, I thought I'd retire
in my hometown, but unfortunately, after mywife passed, I decided to travel.
(57:29):
I've been to 20 countries.
Wow.
20 countries in the last three years, and everyplace has taught me something new about myself.
Life's too short to stay in one place.
Tom, reach into
the choir, dude.
I have been
in at least I've been to at least, almost 40states, I wanna say.
(57:50):
The only places my wife and I have not been toin The United States are up along the East
Coast, like New York, New Hampshire,Massachusetts, things like that.
We're eventually planning on planning a an EastCoast trek up to the East Coast to get that
checked off as well.
Plus, we haven't been to the Pacific Northwest,Washington and Oregon and Idaho.
(58:11):
But yeah, I agree with you.
I love road trips.
I love traveling.
I I hate staying stagnant.
I hate cabin fever.
I need to be up and moving.
So yeah, like you said, life's way too short tostay in one place, and I would not agree more.
So thank you guys very, very much for all ofthose stories.
And as I said, guys, keep those stories coming.
(58:32):
If you've got a wild detour, survival tip, orjust wanna reach out and say hi and give some
feedback, reach me reach out to me on socialmedia.
I'm at smartest board j k or shoot me an email,john@canopicventures.com.
I love hearing from you guys.
Now I also did get a couple questions fromlisteners this week as well, so I'm just gonna
(58:53):
take a quick second to tackle a couple ofthose.
One question came in was how do you staypositive during your big life changes?
And that's a great question, guys.
For me, it's all about perspective.
I try to focus on only the things that I
can control.
I always, again, I said,
I find humor in the chaos and remind myselfthat every challenge is an opportunity to grow.
(59:17):
And when all else fails, I lean on my supportsystem, my amazing wife, my incredible son.
If they're able to help me at the time, herfamily.
Know, my family, as I said, my family, myfriends, and
yes, even you guys, my loyal
listeners.
(59:37):
Other question I got was, what's the bestadvice you've ever received about starting
over?
The best advice I ever got was from my mom.
Love you, mom.
Always, always, always.
She used
to say you can't control the wind, but you canadjust your skills, your sails.
Sorry.
Try to try to quote your mom,
(59:59):
and this is what happens.
You can't control the wind, but you can adjustyour sails.
Life's always gonna throw you curveball, guys.
Curveballs, guys.
But it's
up to you to decide how you respond.
Alrighty.
So with that, that is it for this week'sepisode of the Smurfsport with Jon Knoppik.
(01:00:20):
If there's one thing that I hope you guys takeaway from this episode, it's this.
Life's left turns are absolutely tough, butthey make the best stories.
Embrace the chaos, laugh at the mess, andremember you're not alone.
You're never ever ever alone on this ride.
(01:00:40):
Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, andshare share the show with a friend who could
use a little encouragement.
You could find me on all social mediaplatforms, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
TikTok.
Podcast is available on all major podcaststreaming sources, Spotify,
Apple, Amazon, iHeart, just to name a few.
(01:01:03):
Leave a review and share the show, as I said,with a friend who can use a little
encouragement.
Next week, we're gonna be looking into a littlemore on the sides of trauma and resilience.
So
if
you got a story or a question that you'd likeme to put up
on the, episode, absolutely send it my way.
This has been
the SmarterSpore with John Kanopik.
I am John Kanopik.
(01:01:23):
And as always, as we close out our show everysingle time,
Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice.
Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for tuning in,
and I'll see you guys next time.
Hope you're full.
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