May 19, 2025 • 45 mins
The latest Building Black Business podcast episode features David Montague in conversation with Tra Battle, Founder of Battle Solutions
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Building Back Face podcast.
Name is David and I am here with Trey Battle.
Welcome Trey, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, thanks David, thanks for the invitation and it's an
absolute honor to be here today.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Absolutely hope your week is going off well.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I want to just jump into everything and just tell
us about you, Like why are you here with us?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well, while I'm here is because I.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Do run a business. It's something that I've been doing
for a little over a year now and it's coming
aroundabout way. And so there have been a lot of us,
a lot of downs, and I have learned a lot.
I have failed a lot, but I've also succeeded a lot.
(00:50):
And I'm still growing and I'm still learning, and I
anticipate those learning opportunities to continue to happen.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
But I'm here for it all.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
When you say learning opportunities, you know can't wait to
dive deep into what that looks like. And you know
your history and past president and future what everything looks like.
So where does your story begin? Would you say, like
the I have here that you grew up in Georgia?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
I did? I did grow up in Georgia. We have
this saying DSGB.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So I'm a down South Georgia boy, true, and I
still live here to this day.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
And what did that look like for you?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Well, growing up, I grew up in rural Georgia.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So some people call it South Georgia, but people who
are actually from there know that it isn't South Georgia.
We call it Middle Georgia, aka the heart of Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And so it's this town called forsythe this right around
the making area. And I grew up there a small
town kid, had one you know, major freeway or interstate
running through it, which was I seventy five, and that
was kind of the vein of the city. But grew
up playing sports. Football was like the brother or sister,
(02:06):
the next brother or sister in the home of everyone there.
And so football was huge growing up, and it's something
that I devoted much of my life to.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But I grew up with four.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Sisters, a single, single family home with my mom, four sisters,
and being a football player. It's almost hard to believe
that I grew up around all girls.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And how I was in that household. You know, how
did you become yourself you know, I'm sure you were
surrounded by all feminine things and shows and media stuff,
but how did you remain sure to who you were?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Actually, my home was extremely sports oriented.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Okay, cool, Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Of my sisters played basketball. Obviously, none of them played football,
you know, flag football or powder for whatever they call
it now wasn't a theme back in the day. But
all of my sisters were athletes. They all played basketball.
Basketball was actually actually my first my first love.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Of the sport that I love most growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
But man, and I don't even know if this term
is politically correct to say anymore, but all of my
sisters were tomboys. I mean they were rough man. The
first time I took an l like I lost a fight,
was took the hand of one of my sisters.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
First time I.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Broke a bone was to the hands of one of
my sisters. And so they they they beat me into shape.
Even though they were girls, they were probably the toughest
girls I've ever been around my entire life.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So were they protecting you? Were you protecting them? Which way?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I think it was all for show.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I was almost like I was. I was the home
jester most of the time. My proceeding my beatings rather
were proceeded with hey, guys, why this.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Was the brand of the jokes.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So how you know, becoming not so much becoming a
great sport, right like taking care of them and then
taking care of you. Sounded like everything was fairly family oriented.
Moved into college. Where did you go to for undergrad?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
For undergrad, I went to the University of Georgia. I actually,
interestingly enough, even I played professional football, but my my
football career started off at the University of Georgia has
a walk on, meaning no colleges wanted me. No college
just thought I was good enough to offer a scholarship.
And that's something that was really difficult for me to swallow.
(04:41):
Difficult for me to understand because you know, every kid
thinks they're they're they're great. And this is before social media,
and this is before the huddle accounts and all of that.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So you can't even see who you were in competition with,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Exactly exactly, and the kids these days it's I think
it's an inflated, uh sense of self. And so with
none of those extra things, with another of those those
extra marketing tools, like I thought I was great and
but the problem with that is how hoghy I thought
(05:14):
of myself. College Scouts was almost the antithesis of that.
If they didn't believe yeah, me very much at all.
So I started at the University of Georgia as a
walk on athlete.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And then sorry, apologies for me, but what did you after?
You know, obviously there for for school, but what did
you What was your major?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my first.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Major for my first two and a half three years
of college was chemistry, and so I was entering my
my junior year, I was supposed to be a starter,
you know, a walk on the starter, and my I
remember it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
My my course load was.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
O.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Kim two mm hmm. It was CALC two. It was
a like.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Three thousand upper level, upper class level psychology, and I
think I may have had one elective, but it was
kind of tough as well. I think it was astronomy.
It was just like this random science that I had
to take, and my coaches and my counselors looked at
it and thought, he's supposed to be starting this season.
(06:26):
There's no way he can take this course load. So
a year three, my major change to human development, which
was actually a godsend because I like to study people.
I like to be around people, and so just my
chance from chemistry to human development.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That's see.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Oh my god, I'm trying to think of comming. It
sounds crazy. I not so much struggled with chemistry and
high school, but definitely needed it taken away from me,
you know, like I didn't really care for it. It
was in the communication track. I didn't really see how
it fit along my next step, you know, my chapter,
but made it through. So then would you finish off
(07:11):
with like what did you end up graduating with?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I graduated with the human development and it was
it was probably needed because since a kid, I wanted
to be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I never really wanted to be an athlete. A true story.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
The only reason I pursue football holistically was because people
said that I couldn't and I just wanted to prove
people wrong. But my original dream was to be a doctor.
And that's why I love chemistry. I am the science geek,
I am the science nerd, and I love it. I
just gravitate towards those conversations. But in terms of what
(07:49):
I do now human development, studying that and even my
Masters of Psychology, it helps me be the best version
of me.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
And I don't think I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Would have been able to be that had I been
a doctor and studied chemistry.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Went to chemistry, and then I might be skipping a
couple of chapters. But how did the air Force come
into play? Because I know that was like your big
next step?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So air Force came into play a little over a
year ago. So I went on from college to play
professional football. I played for the Chargers. I played when
they were still in San Diego. I still don't understand
to this day why they moved to LA but not
my decision. Played for the Chargers. Then I played for
(08:38):
the Cowboys. Then I spent time in Detroit with the Lions,
in Cleveland with the Browns, and I played six years
of professional football altogether and retired. And early in retirement
it was I had no idea what to do with
my time, and so I did it like most early
(08:59):
retirees would do.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I just played video games all day. I mean, Call
of duty was my thing.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And so my wife would come home and she'd say,
what did you do today? I said, well, you're looking
at it ye over some time, she thought, yeah, I'm
not spending the rest of my life like this, or
you're going to have to do something. And so we
were living in Florida at the time, and that's where
she was. You know, she's originally from Columbia but spent
adolescent teenage years in Florida.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
That's where her family was. And I thought I had her.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I thought I had her David, and I said, you
know what, if you want me to do something different,
We're going to move back to Georgia and I'm going
to finish my degree. And shockingly enough, she said, okay.
So we uprooted, moved to Georgia. I finished my degree.
That's when I finished with human development, and I had
gone on this track to you know, pursuing my original
dream going to medical school. And so I spent about
(09:53):
eight or eight to nine years working going to school
during the day and working in the operating room at
PEED my hospital at night for eight to nine years.
And I was a complete stranger, complete stranger in my home,
complete strangers to.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
My kids, to my wife.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
She was basically renting the family because I was not present,
completely absent, and I had gone.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Through the process.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I applied to about eighteen medical schools and I was
waiting in the matriculation process, and I told my wife,
you know, you stay at home. You've been doing this
long enough. Let me take the kids school shopping. It
was over in the summer, so I'm taking them back
to school shopping. And it hits me that I haven't
been present. I haven't seen my children play right for
(10:41):
almost eight to nine years. And I thought, if I
continue down this path to medical school, it's going to
be another decade. My kids will be grown and grown,
and I would have missed this entire time. And so
I rescinded all of my applications. And we were sitting
in Chick fil A at the time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I asked what time Like, I'm not to cut you off,
I'm sorry, but what I hear with this, like what
time zone was this?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
This was twenty sixteen? Twenty sixteen?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, yeah, this is twenty sixteen. And I'm sitting there
with my kids in Chick fil A, and I think, you.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Know what, how I feel right now?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I feel like I'm a better father, a better dad
right now, And so what I why not just provide.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
This for other families.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So I went on this journey of trying to open
you know, franchise my own Chick fil A. I did
that for about three to four years, and then I
went on to work at the church. So I was
a pastor on staff for about three three to four years,
and then I started my business, Battle Solutions, and sitting
(11:46):
in my office, I got extremely lonely and I thought,
you know, I really.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Miss being on the team.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I really miss sweating with a bunch of other people
with a common goal, one coming cause, and you know,
execut shooting in this sense of excellence.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And I thought, you know what, let me let me
join the Air Force.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Let me go into the let me go into the
armed forces. And so I reached out to some of
my brother in laws. One is Navy, one is Army,
and they both said, if you're going to do anything,
go air Force. Air Force's that's how I ended up
choosing Air Force. And in addition to that, I mean
(12:27):
almost at every phase of my life, every transition, everything
that I've done with my hands, the work that I've
involved myself, I've gotten to this level of leadership. And
I thought, man, I don't know if there's any other
leadership training in the world that's better than the US military.
So not only can I be on the team, I'll
be able to sharpen my skill set as a leader
(12:48):
in the civilian world.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And so I joined the Air Force Reserves.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I have to before you even talk about the Air Force.
The Chick fil A kind of side quest there. What
was that like man?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Chick fil A? It's the best chicken in the world,
I believe, because.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
They make you work harder than any other chicken place
in the world. In terms of servant as they call it,
servant leadership, serving the guests, there's so many there's so
many things that I learned in terms of operating the excellence.
The founder, true Cathy used to say, why.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Not your best?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And so how to pull out amongst teenagers and adults
who are are doing nothing but serving chicken right making salads?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
How do you, I.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Guess, encourage them and galvanize them to a point that
they do their absolute best to make sure the chicken
is the right shape, the chicken is the right color,
the chicken has the right flavor. Like the buns are buttered, well,
they're well. All the fries, how do you make serving
fries in art form?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And that's the level of excellence that you know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I had to instill up on people and uphold myself
in Chick fil A.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
So it was an amazing experience, honestly.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And you know, being a business leader there, I know
we talked about how we had we were were on
this call for another reason, but were really quickly What
was like one thing that you learned from from running
that business as well.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
From running the business at Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, So one thing that I became more cognitiate of,
I believe is productivity. So in sports, every almost every
second of my day was planned out, and it was
planned out by someone other than me. So my coaches were,
you know, you should wake up at this time and
(14:57):
be at the workout by this time, and you're going
to eat at this time, and you're going to practice
at this time, and you're going to study at this time.
And my entire day was scheduled for us to be
one the best version the best players that we can be,
but two to make sure that they gave us enough
preparation time to be successful on the field. And when
(15:20):
I got to Chick fil A, this word productivity came
up and it was how do I get how do
I get the best in terms of how do I
get the greatest return of investment for the time that
people are spending in my stores. So how do I
nurture them to a spot to where they give their all,
(15:42):
but also give them time to refresh and replenish, but
also be at a state to serve the guests when
the guests are there. So that's studying flow charts and
traffic charts, knowing what are our peak hours, what are
our slow hours, when to run breaks right, how many
people to to schedule over a day, and how to
(16:02):
manage the money from purchasing the food, managing labor hours
and even like paper costs and so everything was productivity
and in a nutshell, in football, we were made to
be efficient in what we did. In Chick fil A,
I had to learn to be efficient in my leadership.
(16:25):
And how do and that really meant, how do I
teach everyone in my store all that I know? Because
if I have a goal and the person who's taking
out the trash, if they don't know that goal, then
it's not a clearly communicated goal, which means I'm failing
as a leader. And so how do I make sure
that I'm communicating I call it the echo model. How
(16:48):
do I communicate early, how do I communicate clearly? How
do I communicate honestly? And how do I communicate often?
And all of those things go towards being an efficient
business leader and maximizing productivity.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I hope you don't mind.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I'm definitely gonna have to send you some money because
I'm going to be using that in my offense.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
That is insane.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
And I learned that serving chicken.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Right, So, the family atmosphere, like you said, working with
everyone from older adults to teams with their first job,
and serving communities where you know everyone doesn't look like
one another, that's so impactful.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
It is.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It is absolutely and sometimes it's said what I try
to convey. Sometimes it said like this, no one cares
how much you know until they know how much you care.
And then an office setting is lead by the darkening
the doorway, meaning don't give don't give an employee a
personality test and say, Okay, now I know you, Now
I know how to respond to you, know now I
(17:48):
know how to interact with you. It doesn't take you
spending money to give me a personality test for me
to go through a list of questions to assume what
I know at this season of my life where Jess,
easily you could just knock on my office door, darken
the doorway and say, hey, how's it going. What are
the things that you're going through? What are things that
help you thrive? What are the things that are here?
(18:11):
Here we go another fourth. What are the things that
are working well with you with your job right now?
What are the things that aren't working well in your
job description? What are some of the things that are
confusing about what I'm asking you? And what are some
of the things that you would like to change in
this workplace to make everything more more efficient and more effective.
And so I had to do that in Chick fil
(18:34):
A because you're it's running, go, it's it's literally non stop,
and so I had to be present. I didn't say, hey,
stop breading the chicken and come take this personality test.
It had to be those one on one interactions. And
we had to have those what Mark Batterson calls I
see in you conversations And so what is it that
(18:56):
I see in you that I can help grow to
pull out of you so I can promote you to
a level of leadership to help me essentially work me
out of a job. Because when I can find someone
to replace me. Then I can see you know, excel
to a higher level excetera.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
You know your next step correct?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Okay, so we left chick Fla, headed back to or
headed to the Air Force.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
So then from there, you know, what's that community? Like
you you said you miss that group environment. You're finally there.
How did that make you feel being.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
In in Air Force? Yes?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So there's this feeling, this emotion and it's hard to
put into words, but imagine you play a sport and
the game is about to begin and they're doing the
you know, the opening introductions and so football you're running
out of the tunnel. Basketball, you're you're coming off the
bench and your team makes this like soul train line
(19:56):
and you're slapping hands and you have you know, your
your your secret hand and shakes and the lights are
going off of the like power technics and all of
those things like that.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
That's that excitement, right.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And even when I was working in the operating room
when someone came in from a traumatic accident and you know,
an entire team is working and we end up saving
a life, you get that goosebump feeling and like you
want to slap somebody on the butt, but you're wearing scrubs, right,
and it's like, I'm not in I'm not in the
sports environment anymore. And so that's that emotion. And when
(20:31):
I got to the Air Force, even though it was
it was taxing work physically, it's taxing work mentally, but man,
that excitement of camaraderie, of being around people, people struggling
with you, carrying the load and have been this pinpoint
(20:52):
focus on this is what we're trying to achieve. It's
the same feeling that I got from saving a life,
and it's the same feeling I got from running out
of a tunnel on.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
The football field in any stadium.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That's the same feeling that I get when I when
I have my my serving weekends in the Air Force.
It's I don't know if I'm just wired differently, but
it just gives me life.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I love it, like being in you know that fast
Peaks environment. You know, going from all these different jobs
and college and high school, Like, how did did you
ever get overwhelmed? You know what did you did you
think about? Wait, all right, this is the environment is
great for me. You know what was what was that
(21:38):
feeling like? You know, how is the in the mental state.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Think I think that the the measure of life is
it's calculated in the transitions, and so change is inevitable.
And and Einstein says it like this, show me someone
who's never made a mistake, and I show you someone
(22:04):
who's never tried anything new. And to try new is
to try the new things, rather is to grow. As
we started this interview, I've made a lot of mistakes,
and I've done a lot of things well. But in
the mistakes, I can't see the miss failures.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I have to see it.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
As feedback, right, And even in the successes, I can't say, well,
this is the recipe. No, I have to see it
as feedback on how to get better. Even when you win.
From a football perspective, we have the same man. That
was an ugly win. But a win is a win.
It doesn't care how many you know. The stat books
(22:44):
never say you know, this was they won, but it
was a terrible it was a terrible win.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
No, it just says win.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
And so when I look at all of these transitions
that I've had, all of the fast paced settings that
in which I've been involved, is how well can I
learn in the season that I'm in to help me
get to the next step, to help me get to
where I'm ultimately going to be. And so I see,
life is one continual feedback loop, and what I do
(23:17):
with that feedback determines how well I'm living.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
This life.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That is so powerful, so many powerful gems on this episode.
I didn't think we'd be here on Friday afternoon, but
I'm glad we are. So what time frame was it
you know where we or what year is it now
that you're like, you know what.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
This isn't this is? This is a little bit too
much for me, Like, I think I need to step back, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So that happened after my transition from the NFL to medicine.
So during that time period it was twenty fourteen, and
if you recall, that's when a lot of research what
was happening, and there was a lot of publicity around
(24:07):
concussion studies, ymatic blows and uh in these contact sports.
And resulting of that, I lost a lot of friends,
I lost a lot of teammates. I lost I lost
people like Junior Seau, in which I was did a
lot of work with his foundation when I was in
San Diego.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I worked with this team very closely.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I lost my college roommate UH and my teammate in
the NFL, Paul Oliver.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I lost both of them to suicide.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And thinking thinking back on it, both of those individuals
were people that I wouldn't say idolized, but I looked
up to because they they were achieving things on a
level that was greater than I thought I was achieving
on my own. And so these were the athletes who UH,
(25:00):
who were given a scholarship in college, These were the
athletes who were drafted in the NFL when you know,
I went on as a walk on and as an
undrafted free agent, and so these were the people that
I aspired to be and when they took their lives,
it made me come to a reckoning of Man, I've
been striving to be like them, but this was the
(25:22):
end that they chose.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
So what makes me think that.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
As I've been pursuing them, I'm ever going to get
past the level in which, you know, the past the
decisions that they chose. And I was dealing with a
lot of grief, man, I was dealing with a lot
of grief and I didn't know how to process that
that grief. Well, because something that that you're taught one
as a man, but two as a as an athlete,
(25:49):
is stoicism.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Never let them see that you're hurting.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Don't talk about your problems, keep it in, keep your chat,
keep your chin up, puff your chest out, roll your
shoulders back in, just keep moving. It's this whole lunch
pale mentality.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
And those.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Those things that that made me a great football player
just a football player, were the things that were destroying
me as a man, that were destroying me mentally. And
it almost led to me making a permanent decision for
a temporary issue.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Absolutely, And so.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I reached out to my college coach after a long
time I'm not talking to him, and I say, he
really saved my life.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
He got me into therapy.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
He was there to be a shoulder that I can
lean on, even a shoulder that I can cry on.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
I'm not I'm not ashamed to say it. You know,
real men cry sometimes.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Right, Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And so that that really what I learned through that
through those therapy sessions is that the things that truly
made me one a great football player and two a
great man, is that I am a great teammate.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I am a great cheerleader.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I am good at holding others accountable, but I'm also
good at accepting accountability. And those were the things that
represented me and define me.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
At my core. I am a helper, I am a servant.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And once I defined my core, I began to take
these things and what the language that we use in
therapy was to build out my tool belt. And so
when you think about a builder, there are certain tools
that builders use to help them build a house effectively, efficiently,
(27:45):
and safely, and so whatever the situation is, whatever it
is that they're building, they know the tool associated with
building it properly. And so that's what I did in therapy.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I had this.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Tool built, and when situations arose, I knew that this
was the tool that I can use to combat this.
This was the tool that I could use to help
me get over this hump. And so, as they're saying life,
life is always going to throw you something. Life is
always lifing. But if you're equipped with the tools to
(28:16):
combat those things, then you can do life more effectively.
And so that that was really a time when well,
the one transition that really took a toll on me,
but because I had people surrounding me, people to speak
life into me, people around me who could encourage me.
(28:37):
It's wise to have wise friends, right, It's wise to
have a circle of good counsel. And I have this
saying when your when your circle looks like a period,
the inside of a period is dark. And so if
your life looks like that, you're in a dark place
and you need to widen that circle to let some
light in.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Bring some people in, bring some light in, new talent,
new uh, but just just just diversity, diversify it up
a little bit, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what is a good day, you know, look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Now that you're you're out of that dark you're out
of that dark space, You're you're out of that you
know kind of area, how do you continue to move forward? Obviously,
no one's mental health journey is a straight line. There's
upstairs down, It's a roller custer, you know, at one
point and at different points.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
But what does that look for you? Where? What does
that look like for you?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, it stems on focusing on three main things. Is
making sure I'm I'm taking care of myself physically, making
sure I'm taking care of myself mentally, and making sure
I'm taking care of myself spiritually. It's almost like a
tripod when if you if you take away one leg
of the tripod, the camera falls right. And so if
(29:54):
I make sure I maintain the three legs of that tripod, mental, physical,
and spiritual, then I know that I can stand strong.
I know that I can stand securely. And so what
a typical day for me looks like is I'll get
up and from a spiritual perspective, I put God first,
and so I'll get into some scripture, I'll play some
(30:15):
worship music. But in that time, I'm also taking some
pre workout. Because as soon as that time is done,
as soon as that the pre workout starts running through
my system, it's time to work out. And I started
taking care of myself physically, and so I have a tonal,
and so I work out on my tonal and I
also have a membership.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
At the Why that's the go and get my card
in and playing some basketball.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
And then the mental aspect of it is how can
I grow myself? Meaning how can I make myself better?
How can I make myself better for my clients? How
can I become a better coach? How can I become
a better leader? How can I put information out on
the internet, on socials, on my website that's encouraging but
(31:03):
also real, uh, because in this this digital space, there
are a lot of people making a lot of money
being someone who they aren't on already or not absolutely,
And so how how do I provide an authentic version
of myself that that the algorithm may or may not
pick up? You know, it's all in timing, But how
(31:24):
do I represent myself? How do I stay true to myself?
Because I'm encouraging other people to stay true to them
and that's that's typically what my day looks like.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And can you talk about your your family a little
bit too, just briefly only just I want to know
like what their mental health journeys look like for them
as well as kids, you know, white family, you know,
just it's every everybody's emotional journey looks different.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I would say that my most important important circle is
my family. And so I'm Merric to my wife Luisa,
and we have four children. My oldest Trey is spelled differently,
but he's a sophomore in college. My second son, Tate,
is a senior in high school. My daughter Natalie is
a sophomore in high school, and my youngest his name
(32:18):
is Emmanuel, and he's an eighth grader. And their ages
are literally twenty eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen. They're all two
years apart. So wow, pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Absolutely, how do you know being a dad with these
year we dealt with COVID, you know our presidency where
you know our country is divided. You know, how do
you all stay connected as a family just to move on,
just to make sure everybody sees another day?
Speaker 4 (32:45):
You know, it's what a question like that?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You want to say something like you want to drop
the most amazing one liner.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I mean, you dropped a couple of this episode, You've
dropped a couple. I've been taking notes, But what.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
A question like that? You know, I'm thinking of what
great thing that I can say. But it's really it's
something that's not complex, but difficult, and it's one word intentionality.
If you if you want to have strong relationships. I
don't think strong relationships happen by chance. I believe that
(33:20):
strong relationships happen with intentionality. So what what is the
vision that I have? What's the ideal version of my
family that I would like to see? And then really
reconciling that with where are we right now? So what's
that chasm? What's that divide from where I want it
(33:40):
to be to where we are currently? And the third
phase of that is what's the plan to close that chasm?
Speaker 4 (33:47):
What's the what's the plan to bridge that gap?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And once you once you create a plan, a plan
is only as good as its implementation. So once you
create the plan, actually work the plan. So plan your
work and work your plan. And once that who who
can you want communicate that to?
Speaker 4 (34:06):
To hold you accountable to it?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
It's just this circle of what's the vision, where am
I currently, what's the plan? How do I work that plan?
Who holds me accountable to that plan? And you know
that's what I do with my family. And it was
this breakthrough moment. I found this game called We're Not
Really Strangers.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yes, I've heard great things about it.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Man.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I pulled that card game out and my family played
it around like this little nook we have in the
in the kitchen, and the emotions were so palpable, and
there were so many blind spots that I had because,
as I said this, this sense of excellence is something
that that drives me how how do I be the
(34:53):
best at what I do?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Like, why not my best?
Speaker 2 (34:57):
And that was something that was trickling over to my
children in terms of what my expectations were of them
versus the expectations they had of them selves. Well, I
would say they're assumed expectations of what I had for them, right,
And so they see me constantly working to achieve at
(35:19):
a high level daily and they thought, if I don't
act in that manner, then I might not be enough
for my dad.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
And I thought, wow, I had.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
No idea that there was this unverbalized pressure that I
was placing on you. I just want you to be
the best version of you. I don't want you to
copy me. Your life doesn't have to mirror my life.
I don't care if none of you are professional athletes.
I don't care if none of you are CEOs or
(35:55):
C level C sweet type of laborers in the workforce.
I just want you to be the best version of
you that you can be. And if you promised to
do that, I'm going to be proud of you regardless.
I'm gonna hold you to a standard, and the standard
is your best, not my best. But as long as
(36:16):
you're doing that, no matter what, no matter what happens,
no matter even if you make mistakes, I'm.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Still going to be proud of you as a father.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And that was a conversation that that happened out of
playing this game.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
We're not really strangers.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And everyone that you know doesn't know it's a card game,
and you know, it's more about connections. It's not just
the typical like break the ice, you know, like first
time meeting gets you know, like tell us about why
you know the last time you had a great day?
You know, it's when was the last time you cried?
Just very very intense, very deep.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Absolutely absolutely now now caveat. I played the Family version.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
There are other versions.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Out there are the versions out there. We won't talk
about those, but they can get risk family the family.
There's a self won there too. There's a friendship one too.
There's there's a great version more it's it's it's a
great game, especially if you're trying to get to know
the person that's in front of you a.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Little bit better.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So tell us about battle solutions like your own. Is
it like consulting that you do, but what is what
is that?
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
So battle solution is something that Honestly, I really didn't
even want to happen. I say that I was forced
to make it happen because I was.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
I was working in, I was working at the.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Church, and I mean my my my lead pastor, he
he knows this.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
It was easy for me. I was in. I was,
I was the pastor over.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
What we call guest experience, and so making people feel welcome,
making people feel seen and heard and accept its second
nature to me. I can literally do it in my
sleep sometimes I dream about it literally, and so it
was easy for me. It was secure, and it was comfortable.
(38:13):
But I am a man of faith, right and during
this time I got this nudge, this prompting to say
that a transition is coming, and I was like, I don't.
I don't want to transition. This is easy, this is
this is comfortable. I'm good at this.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
And so.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
My life, the story of my life is I consider myself,
and I jokingly say this, but there's some validity to it.
I consider myself a real life Forrest Gump. I've done
so many things in my life, and the story I
(38:56):
like to keep it to myself and full disclosure. There
was a period of my life that I hated doing interviews.
I would run from the media in the locker room.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Honestly true story and I'm just gonna put it out there.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I used to call them vultures because I thought they
only want to come here and talk to me so
they can so they can get these these one liners,
and another team can use it as as as as
motivation or billboard talk, and so I don't want to
say anything that can incite or motivate the team to
beat us.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Right, And I hated doing it. I hated interviews. And
the older I got and the more that I.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Experienced, and especially in the church, I begin to learn
that my story isn't mine to keep my story.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
My story is.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
The testimony to tell. Because the first time that I
did it, the first time that I talked about the
mental struggles that I was going through of grief and
survivor guilt from my friends, man, I I got so
many phone calls and emails from people saying things like, Trey,
(40:05):
I'm so glad you said this, because I thought that
I was the only one going through it.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Oh, that must have been really refreshing to hear.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Oh my goodness, it made me feel like an idiot.
Quite quite frankly, because I thought people have been needing
to hear this, and I've been so selfish and keeping
it to myself out of pride.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
But I could have.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Been saving people's lives, Like what if I would have
said this five years ago, and how many suicidis have
happened over the past five years that if they heard
my story, I could have helped prevent it. Right, I
could have given them that spark of hope. I could
have been that light. And so once I started hearing
those things, it was okay, I have to share my story.
(40:49):
I have to share my testimony because my story is
unique to me and every other person's story is unique
to them. But in that weakness, it's the trigger, It's
the spark that someone else needs to know that you
know my story. My story doesn't need to end. My
story can get better. There are other chapters in this
(41:11):
book of life, and I can live with hope that
the next chapter is going to be a better chapter.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
And with the Battle Solutions is a you know, you're
that people can hire you for speaking engagements, you know,
is it like one on one coaching counselaying?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, sorry, I went off on a tangent. I'm passionate
about it. So yes, to answer the original question that
I circumvent it, So Battle Solutions, I say it's coaching, speaking, training,
and so I give one on one life coaching, one
on one executive coaching, even I do keynotes, and so
(41:50):
that's what I do most of the time. I have
a smaller clientele base right now in terms of the coaching,
and I am traveling to them more speaking now.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
And the last of it is the training.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
And so when I get a team, uh, you know,
a cohort in the workplace, so a leadership team or
a specific department, and I run them through what I
call MHPD, which is mental health in professional development, and
so how do we do how do we simultaneously achieve
(42:23):
professional development but do it in a way that's mentally healthy.
And I provide some other trainings as well, like connections matter,
suicide prevention and things.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Of that nature.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
So in a nutshell, Battle Solutions is coaching, speaking, and training.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
What a triple thread combo.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Yes, I like to think I like to think it is.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
It's just I once heard marketing is what you say
about yourself, but branding is what other people say about you,
and so I marketed it as coaching speaking training, but
I want the fruit of my work to to to
really tell, to really brand what Bat of Solutions really
is perfect?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And how can people connect with you, you know, book with you?
Where or where do they go to reach you at?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Definitely I have, I say, all the socials so on
on Instagram, Uh, it's it's trade battle.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
On Instagram it's Battle Solutions. On Facebook is trade battle,
and on on LinkedIn, Uh it's it's uh trade battle
as well, So I can be reached there. On Actually
you can just do Battle Solutions or or trade Battle.
I have a personal business one or all of them.
And I also have a website Battle solution dot com. Uh,
(43:50):
and on that website it's links to all of it.
You can even reach out to me. You can schedule,
you can send out a speaker request, you can send
out a culture quest.
Speaker 4 (44:01):
You can find all content that I have.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Absolutely, And as we wrap up, I wanted to you know,
just because we were in the Heart Radio but like
podcast series, if you could have your own iHeart radio station,
what songs would you play, you know, with with with tracks,
what would you what would you put on your your station.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Definitely, so I have, man it is it's such a
wide array of music that I listened to, and so
I would probably have someone I've been I've been vibing
with recently. Is no big deal, uh andy mineo uh
And but then almost the opposite end of the spectrum,
I've been I've been jamming to some Cody Jinks.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Right. So I told you I was.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
A country boy, so yeah, yeah, yeah, So probably those
those three.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
What are fantastic you know, blendom flend of flavors you
got there. You're so inspiring and you're just talking to
you for the last hour. It has been fantastic, so
many gems, so much, so great advice I wasn't expecting
to hear today.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Taking the time to speak to me today and just
sharing your wisdom and your your your past and what
the future holds for you. I really appreciate it, Trey.
Thanks David, Thank you to you for listening to our
Building Black podcast series find us and more episodes wherever
you get your podcasts, especially our iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
And we will see you next time.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Building Back Face podcast.
Name is David and I am here with Trey Battle.
Welcome Trey, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, thanks David, thanks for the invitation and it's an
absolute honor to be here today.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Absolutely hope your week is going off well.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I want to just jump into everything and just tell
us about you, Like why are you here with us?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well, while I'm here is because I.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Do run a business. It's something that I've been doing
for a little over a year now and it's coming
aroundabout way. And so there have been a lot of us,
a lot of downs, and I have learned a lot.
I have failed a lot, but I've also succeeded a lot.
(00:50):
And I'm still growing and I'm still learning, and I
anticipate those learning opportunities to continue to happen.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
But I'm here for it all.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
When you say learning opportunities, you know can't wait to
dive deep into what that looks like. And you know
your history and past president and future what everything looks like.
So where does your story begin? Would you say, like
the I have here that you grew up in Georgia?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
I did? I did grow up in Georgia. We have
this saying DSGB.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So I'm a down South Georgia boy, true, and I
still live here to this day.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
And what did that look like for you?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Well, growing up, I grew up in rural Georgia.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So some people call it South Georgia, but people who
are actually from there know that it isn't South Georgia.
We call it Middle Georgia, aka the heart of Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And so it's this town called forsythe this right around
the making area. And I grew up there a small
town kid, had one you know, major freeway or interstate
running through it, which was I seventy five, and that
was kind of the vein of the city. But grew
up playing sports. Football was like the brother or sister,
(02:06):
the next brother or sister in the home of everyone there.
And so football was huge growing up, and it's something
that I devoted much of my life to.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But I grew up with four.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Sisters, a single, single family home with my mom, four sisters,
and being a football player. It's almost hard to believe
that I grew up around all girls.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And how I was in that household. You know, how
did you become yourself you know, I'm sure you were
surrounded by all feminine things and shows and media stuff,
but how did you remain sure to who you were?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Actually, my home was extremely sports oriented.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Okay, cool, Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Of my sisters played basketball. Obviously, none of them played football,
you know, flag football or powder for whatever they call
it now wasn't a theme back in the day. But
all of my sisters were athletes. They all played basketball.
Basketball was actually actually my first my first love.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Of the sport that I love most growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
But man, and I don't even know if this term
is politically correct to say anymore, but all of my
sisters were tomboys. I mean they were rough man. The
first time I took an l like I lost a fight,
was took the hand of one of my sisters.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
First time I.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Broke a bone was to the hands of one of
my sisters. And so they they they beat me into shape.
Even though they were girls, they were probably the toughest
girls I've ever been around my entire life.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So were they protecting you? Were you protecting them? Which way?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I think it was all for show.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I was almost like I was. I was the home
jester most of the time. My proceeding my beatings rather
were proceeded with hey, guys, why this.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Was the brand of the jokes.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So how you know, becoming not so much becoming a
great sport, right like taking care of them and then
taking care of you. Sounded like everything was fairly family oriented.
Moved into college. Where did you go to for undergrad?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
For undergrad, I went to the University of Georgia. I actually,
interestingly enough, even I played professional football, but my my
football career started off at the University of Georgia has
a walk on, meaning no colleges wanted me. No college
just thought I was good enough to offer a scholarship.
And that's something that was really difficult for me to swallow.
(04:41):
Difficult for me to understand because you know, every kid
thinks they're they're they're great. And this is before social media,
and this is before the huddle accounts and all of that.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So you can't even see who you were in competition with,
you know.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Exactly exactly, and the kids these days it's I think
it's an inflated, uh sense of self. And so with
none of those extra things, with another of those those
extra marketing tools, like I thought I was great and
but the problem with that is how hoghy I thought
(05:14):
of myself. College Scouts was almost the antithesis of that.
If they didn't believe yeah, me very much at all.
So I started at the University of Georgia as a
walk on athlete.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And then sorry, apologies for me, but what did you after?
You know, obviously there for for school, but what did
you What was your major?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my first.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Major for my first two and a half three years
of college was chemistry, and so I was entering my
my junior year, I was supposed to be a starter,
you know, a walk on the starter, and my I
remember it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
My my course load was.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
O.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Kim two mm hmm. It was CALC two. It was
a like.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Three thousand upper level, upper class level psychology, and I
think I may have had one elective, but it was
kind of tough as well. I think it was astronomy.
It was just like this random science that I had
to take, and my coaches and my counselors looked at
it and thought, he's supposed to be starting this season.
(06:26):
There's no way he can take this course load. So
a year three, my major change to human development, which
was actually a godsend because I like to study people.
I like to be around people, and so just my
chance from chemistry to human development.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That's see.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Oh my god, I'm trying to think of comming. It
sounds crazy. I not so much struggled with chemistry and
high school, but definitely needed it taken away from me,
you know, like I didn't really care for it. It
was in the communication track. I didn't really see how
it fit along my next step, you know, my chapter,
but made it through. So then would you finish off
(07:11):
with like what did you end up graduating with?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I graduated with the human development and it was
it was probably needed because since a kid, I wanted
to be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I never really wanted to be an athlete. A true story.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
The only reason I pursue football holistically was because people
said that I couldn't and I just wanted to prove
people wrong. But my original dream was to be a doctor.
And that's why I love chemistry. I am the science geek,
I am the science nerd, and I love it. I
just gravitate towards those conversations. But in terms of what
(07:49):
I do now human development, studying that and even my
Masters of Psychology, it helps me be the best version
of me.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
And I don't think I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Would have been able to be that had I been
a doctor and studied chemistry.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Went to chemistry, and then I might be skipping a
couple of chapters. But how did the air Force come
into play? Because I know that was like your big
next step?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So air Force came into play a little over a
year ago. So I went on from college to play
professional football. I played for the Chargers. I played when
they were still in San Diego. I still don't understand
to this day why they moved to LA but not
my decision. Played for the Chargers. Then I played for
(08:38):
the Cowboys. Then I spent time in Detroit with the Lions,
in Cleveland with the Browns, and I played six years
of professional football altogether and retired. And early in retirement
it was I had no idea what to do with
my time, and so I did it like most early
(08:59):
retirees would do.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I just played video games all day. I mean, Call
of duty was my thing.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And so my wife would come home and she'd say,
what did you do today? I said, well, you're looking
at it ye over some time, she thought, yeah, I'm
not spending the rest of my life like this, or
you're going to have to do something. And so we
were living in Florida at the time, and that's where
she was. You know, she's originally from Columbia but spent
adolescent teenage years in Florida.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
That's where her family was. And I thought I had her.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I thought I had her David, and I said, you
know what, if you want me to do something different,
We're going to move back to Georgia and I'm going
to finish my degree. And shockingly enough, she said, okay.
So we uprooted, moved to Georgia. I finished my degree.
That's when I finished with human development, and I had
gone on this track to you know, pursuing my original
dream going to medical school. And so I spent about
(09:53):
eight or eight to nine years working going to school
during the day and working in the operating room at
PEED my hospital at night for eight to nine years.
And I was a complete stranger, complete stranger in my home,
complete strangers to.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
My kids, to my wife.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
She was basically renting the family because I was not present,
completely absent, and I had gone.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Through the process.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I applied to about eighteen medical schools and I was
waiting in the matriculation process, and I told my wife,
you know, you stay at home. You've been doing this
long enough. Let me take the kids school shopping. It
was over in the summer, so I'm taking them back
to school shopping. And it hits me that I haven't
been present. I haven't seen my children play right for
(10:41):
almost eight to nine years. And I thought, if I
continue down this path to medical school, it's going to
be another decade. My kids will be grown and grown,
and I would have missed this entire time. And so
I rescinded all of my applications. And we were sitting
in Chick fil A at the time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I asked what time Like, I'm not to cut you off,
I'm sorry, but what I hear with this, like what
time zone was this?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
This was twenty sixteen? Twenty sixteen?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, yeah, this is twenty sixteen. And I'm sitting there
with my kids in Chick fil A, and I think, you.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Know what, how I feel right now?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I feel like I'm a better father, a better dad
right now, And so what I why not just provide.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
This for other families.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So I went on this journey of trying to open
you know, franchise my own Chick fil A. I did
that for about three to four years, and then I
went on to work at the church. So I was
a pastor on staff for about three three to four years,
and then I started my business, Battle Solutions, and sitting
(11:46):
in my office, I got extremely lonely and I thought,
you know, I really.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Miss being on the team.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I really miss sweating with a bunch of other people
with a common goal, one coming cause, and you know,
execut shooting in this sense of excellence.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And I thought, you know what, let me let me
join the Air Force.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Let me go into the let me go into the
armed forces. And so I reached out to some of
my brother in laws. One is Navy, one is Army,
and they both said, if you're going to do anything,
go air Force. Air Force's that's how I ended up
choosing Air Force. And in addition to that, I mean
(12:27):
almost at every phase of my life, every transition, everything
that I've done with my hands, the work that I've
involved myself, I've gotten to this level of leadership. And
I thought, man, I don't know if there's any other
leadership training in the world that's better than the US military.
So not only can I be on the team, I'll
be able to sharpen my skill set as a leader
(12:48):
in the civilian world.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And so I joined the Air Force Reserves.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I have to before you even talk about the Air Force.
The Chick fil A kind of side quest there. What
was that like man?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Chick fil A? It's the best chicken in the world,
I believe, because.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
They make you work harder than any other chicken place
in the world. In terms of servant as they call it,
servant leadership, serving the guests, there's so many there's so
many things that I learned in terms of operating the excellence.
The founder, true Cathy used to say, why.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Not your best?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And so how to pull out amongst teenagers and adults
who are are doing nothing but serving chicken right making salads?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
How do you, I.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Guess, encourage them and galvanize them to a point that
they do their absolute best to make sure the chicken
is the right shape, the chicken is the right color,
the chicken has the right flavor. Like the buns are buttered, well,
they're well. All the fries, how do you make serving
fries in art form?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And that's the level of excellence that you know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I had to instill up on people and uphold myself
in Chick fil A.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
So it was an amazing experience, honestly.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And you know, being a business leader there, I know
we talked about how we had we were were on
this call for another reason, but were really quickly What
was like one thing that you learned from from running
that business as well.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
From running the business at Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, So one thing that I became more cognitiate of,
I believe is productivity. So in sports, every almost every
second of my day was planned out, and it was
planned out by someone other than me. So my coaches were,
you know, you should wake up at this time and
(14:57):
be at the workout by this time, and you're going
to eat at this time, and you're going to practice
at this time, and you're going to study at this time.
And my entire day was scheduled for us to be
one the best version the best players that we can be,
but two to make sure that they gave us enough
preparation time to be successful on the field. And when
(15:20):
I got to Chick fil A, this word productivity came
up and it was how do I get how do
I get the best in terms of how do I
get the greatest return of investment for the time that
people are spending in my stores. So how do I
nurture them to a spot to where they give their all,
(15:42):
but also give them time to refresh and replenish, but
also be at a state to serve the guests when
the guests are there. So that's studying flow charts and
traffic charts, knowing what are our peak hours, what are
our slow hours, when to run breaks right, how many
people to to schedule over a day, and how to
(16:02):
manage the money from purchasing the food, managing labor hours
and even like paper costs and so everything was productivity
and in a nutshell, in football, we were made to
be efficient in what we did. In Chick fil A,
I had to learn to be efficient in my leadership.
(16:25):
And how do and that really meant, how do I
teach everyone in my store all that I know? Because
if I have a goal and the person who's taking
out the trash, if they don't know that goal, then
it's not a clearly communicated goal, which means I'm failing
as a leader. And so how do I make sure
that I'm communicating I call it the echo model. How
(16:48):
do I communicate early, how do I communicate clearly? How
do I communicate honestly? And how do I communicate often?
And all of those things go towards being an efficient
business leader and maximizing productivity.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I hope you don't mind.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I'm definitely gonna have to send you some money because
I'm going to be using that in my offense.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
That is insane.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
And I learned that serving chicken.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Right, So, the family atmosphere, like you said, working with
everyone from older adults to teams with their first job,
and serving communities where you know everyone doesn't look like
one another, that's so impactful.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
It is.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It is absolutely and sometimes it's said what I try
to convey. Sometimes it said like this, no one cares
how much you know until they know how much you care.
And then an office setting is lead by the darkening
the doorway, meaning don't give don't give an employee a
personality test and say, Okay, now I know you, Now
I know how to respond to you, know now I
(17:48):
know how to interact with you. It doesn't take you
spending money to give me a personality test for me
to go through a list of questions to assume what
I know at this season of my life where Jess,
easily you could just knock on my office door, darken
the doorway and say, hey, how's it going. What are
the things that you're going through? What are things that
help you thrive? What are the things that are here?
(18:11):
Here we go another fourth. What are the things that
are working well with you with your job right now?
What are the things that aren't working well in your
job description? What are some of the things that are
confusing about what I'm asking you? And what are some
of the things that you would like to change in
this workplace to make everything more more efficient and more effective.
And so I had to do that in Chick fil
(18:34):
A because you're it's running, go, it's it's literally non stop,
and so I had to be present. I didn't say, hey,
stop breading the chicken and come take this personality test.
It had to be those one on one interactions. And
we had to have those what Mark Batterson calls I
see in you conversations And so what is it that
(18:56):
I see in you that I can help grow to
pull out of you so I can promote you to
a level of leadership to help me essentially work me
out of a job. Because when I can find someone
to replace me. Then I can see you know, excel
to a higher level excetera.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
You know your next step correct?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Okay, so we left chick Fla, headed back to or
headed to the Air Force.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
So then from there, you know, what's that community? Like
you you said you miss that group environment. You're finally there.
How did that make you feel being.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
In in Air Force? Yes?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So there's this feeling, this emotion and it's hard to
put into words, but imagine you play a sport and
the game is about to begin and they're doing the
you know, the opening introductions and so football you're running
out of the tunnel. Basketball, you're you're coming off the
bench and your team makes this like soul train line
(19:56):
and you're slapping hands and you have you know, your
your your secret hand and shakes and the lights are
going off of the like power technics and all of
those things like that.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
That's that excitement, right.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And even when I was working in the operating room
when someone came in from a traumatic accident and you know,
an entire team is working and we end up saving
a life, you get that goosebump feeling and like you
want to slap somebody on the butt, but you're wearing scrubs, right,
and it's like, I'm not in I'm not in the
sports environment anymore. And so that's that emotion. And when
(20:31):
I got to the Air Force, even though it was
it was taxing work physically, it's taxing work mentally, but man,
that excitement of camaraderie, of being around people, people struggling
with you, carrying the load and have been this pinpoint
(20:52):
focus on this is what we're trying to achieve. It's
the same feeling that I got from saving a life,
and it's the same feeling I got from running out
of a tunnel on.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
The football field in any stadium.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That's the same feeling that I get when I when
I have my my serving weekends in the Air Force.
It's I don't know if I'm just wired differently, but
it just gives me life.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I love it, like being in you know that fast
Peaks environment. You know, going from all these different jobs
and college and high school, Like, how did did you
ever get overwhelmed? You know what did you did you
think about? Wait, all right, this is the environment is
great for me. You know what was what was that
(21:38):
feeling like? You know, how is the in the mental state.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Think I think that the the measure of life is
it's calculated in the transitions, and so change is inevitable.
And and Einstein says it like this, show me someone
who's never made a mistake, and I show you someone
(22:04):
who's never tried anything new. And to try new is
to try the new things, rather is to grow. As
we started this interview, I've made a lot of mistakes,
and I've done a lot of things well. But in
the mistakes, I can't see the miss failures.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I have to see it.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
As feedback, right, And even in the successes, I can't say, well,
this is the recipe. No, I have to see it
as feedback on how to get better. Even when you win.
From a football perspective, we have the same man. That
was an ugly win. But a win is a win.
It doesn't care how many you know. The stat books
(22:44):
never say you know, this was they won, but it
was a terrible it was a terrible win.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
No, it just says win.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
And so when I look at all of these transitions
that I've had, all of the fast paced settings that
in which I've been involved, is how well can I
learn in the season that I'm in to help me
get to the next step, to help me get to
where I'm ultimately going to be. And so I see,
life is one continual feedback loop, and what I do
(23:17):
with that feedback determines how well I'm living.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
This life.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That is so powerful, so many powerful gems on this episode.
I didn't think we'd be here on Friday afternoon, but
I'm glad we are. So what time frame was it
you know where we or what year is it now
that you're like, you know what.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
This isn't this is? This is a little bit too
much for me, Like, I think I need to step back, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So that happened after my transition from the NFL to medicine.
So during that time period it was twenty fourteen, and
if you recall, that's when a lot of research what
was happening, and there was a lot of publicity around
(24:07):
concussion studies, ymatic blows and uh in these contact sports.
And resulting of that, I lost a lot of friends,
I lost a lot of teammates. I lost I lost
people like Junior Seau, in which I was did a
lot of work with his foundation when I was in
San Diego.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I worked with this team very closely.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I lost my college roommate UH and my teammate in
the NFL, Paul Oliver.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I lost both of them to suicide.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And thinking thinking back on it, both of those individuals
were people that I wouldn't say idolized, but I looked
up to because they they were achieving things on a
level that was greater than I thought I was achieving
on my own. And so these were the athletes who UH,
(25:00):
who were given a scholarship in college, These were the
athletes who were drafted in the NFL when you know,
I went on as a walk on and as an
undrafted free agent, and so these were the people that
I aspired to be and when they took their lives,
it made me come to a reckoning of Man, I've
been striving to be like them, but this was the
(25:22):
end that they chose.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
So what makes me think that.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
As I've been pursuing them, I'm ever going to get
past the level in which, you know, the past the
decisions that they chose. And I was dealing with a
lot of grief, man, I was dealing with a lot
of grief and I didn't know how to process that
that grief. Well, because something that that you're taught one
as a man, but two as a as an athlete,
(25:49):
is stoicism.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Never let them see that you're hurting.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Don't talk about your problems, keep it in, keep your chat,
keep your chin up, puff your chest out, roll your
shoulders back in, just keep moving. It's this whole lunch
pale mentality.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
And those.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Those things that that made me a great football player
just a football player, were the things that were destroying
me as a man, that were destroying me mentally. And
it almost led to me making a permanent decision for
a temporary issue.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Absolutely, And so.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I reached out to my college coach after a long
time I'm not talking to him, and I say, he
really saved my life.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
He got me into therapy.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
He was there to be a shoulder that I can
lean on, even a shoulder that I can cry on.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
I'm not I'm not ashamed to say it. You know,
real men cry sometimes.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Right, Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And so that that really what I learned through that
through those therapy sessions is that the things that truly
made me one a great football player and two a
great man, is that I am a great teammate.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I am a great cheerleader.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I am good at holding others accountable, but I'm also
good at accepting accountability. And those were the things that
represented me and define me.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
At my core. I am a helper, I am a servant.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And once I defined my core, I began to take
these things and what the language that we use in
therapy was to build out my tool belt. And so
when you think about a builder, there are certain tools
that builders use to help them build a house effectively, efficiently,
(27:45):
and safely, and so whatever the situation is, whatever it
is that they're building, they know the tool associated with
building it properly. And so that's what I did in therapy.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I had this.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Tool built, and when situations arose, I knew that this
was the tool that I can use to combat this.
This was the tool that I could use to help
me get over this hump. And so, as they're saying life,
life is always going to throw you something. Life is
always lifing. But if you're equipped with the tools to
(28:16):
combat those things, then you can do life more effectively.
And so that that was really a time when well,
the one transition that really took a toll on me,
but because I had people surrounding me, people to speak
life into me, people around me who could encourage me.
(28:37):
It's wise to have wise friends, right, It's wise to
have a circle of good counsel. And I have this
saying when your when your circle looks like a period,
the inside of a period is dark. And so if
your life looks like that, you're in a dark place
and you need to widen that circle to let some
light in.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Bring some people in, bring some light in, new talent,
new uh, but just just just diversity, diversify it up
a little bit, you know.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what is a good day, you know, look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Now that you're you're out of that dark you're out
of that dark space, You're you're out of that you
know kind of area, how do you continue to move forward? Obviously,
no one's mental health journey is a straight line. There's
upstairs down, It's a roller custer, you know, at one
point and at different points.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
But what does that look for you? Where? What does
that look like for you?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, it stems on focusing on three main things. Is
making sure I'm I'm taking care of myself physically, making
sure I'm taking care of myself mentally, and making sure
I'm taking care of myself spiritually. It's almost like a
tripod when if you if you take away one leg
of the tripod, the camera falls right. And so if
(29:54):
I make sure I maintain the three legs of that tripod, mental, physical,
and spiritual, then I know that I can stand strong.
I know that I can stand securely. And so what
a typical day for me looks like is I'll get
up and from a spiritual perspective, I put God first,
and so I'll get into some scripture, I'll play some
(30:15):
worship music. But in that time, I'm also taking some
pre workout. Because as soon as that time is done,
as soon as that the pre workout starts running through
my system, it's time to work out. And I started
taking care of myself physically, and so I have a tonal,
and so I work out on my tonal and I
also have a membership.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
At the Why that's the go and get my card
in and playing some basketball.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
And then the mental aspect of it is how can
I grow myself? Meaning how can I make myself better?
How can I make myself better for my clients? How
can I become a better coach? How can I become
a better leader? How can I put information out on
the internet, on socials, on my website that's encouraging but
(31:03):
also real, uh, because in this this digital space, there
are a lot of people making a lot of money
being someone who they aren't on already or not absolutely,
And so how how do I provide an authentic version
of myself that that the algorithm may or may not
pick up? You know, it's all in timing, But how
(31:24):
do I represent myself? How do I stay true to myself?
Because I'm encouraging other people to stay true to them
and that's that's typically what my day looks like.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And can you talk about your your family a little
bit too, just briefly only just I want to know
like what their mental health journeys look like for them
as well as kids, you know, white family, you know,
just it's every everybody's emotional journey looks different.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I would say that my most important important circle is
my family. And so I'm Merric to my wife Luisa,
and we have four children. My oldest Trey is spelled differently,
but he's a sophomore in college. My second son, Tate,
is a senior in high school. My daughter Natalie is
a sophomore in high school, and my youngest his name
(32:18):
is Emmanuel, and he's an eighth grader. And their ages
are literally twenty eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen. They're all two
years apart. So wow, pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Absolutely, how do you know being a dad with these
year we dealt with COVID, you know our presidency where
you know our country is divided. You know, how do
you all stay connected as a family just to move on,
just to make sure everybody sees another day?
Speaker 4 (32:45):
You know, it's what a question like that?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You want to say something like you want to drop
the most amazing one liner.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I mean, you dropped a couple of this episode, You've
dropped a couple. I've been taking notes, But what.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
A question like that? You know, I'm thinking of what
great thing that I can say. But it's really it's
something that's not complex, but difficult, and it's one word intentionality.
If you if you want to have strong relationships. I
don't think strong relationships happen by chance. I believe that
(33:20):
strong relationships happen with intentionality. So what what is the
vision that I have? What's the ideal version of my
family that I would like to see? And then really
reconciling that with where are we right now? So what's
that chasm? What's that divide from where I want it
(33:40):
to be to where we are currently? And the third
phase of that is what's the plan to close that chasm?
Speaker 4 (33:47):
What's the what's the plan to bridge that gap?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And once you once you create a plan, a plan
is only as good as its implementation. So once you
create the plan, actually work the plan. So plan your
work and work your plan. And once that who who
can you want communicate that to?
Speaker 4 (34:06):
To hold you accountable to it?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
It's just this circle of what's the vision, where am
I currently, what's the plan? How do I work that plan?
Who holds me accountable to that plan? And you know
that's what I do with my family. And it was
this breakthrough moment. I found this game called We're Not
Really Strangers.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yes, I've heard great things about it.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Man.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I pulled that card game out and my family played
it around like this little nook we have in the
in the kitchen, and the emotions were so palpable, and
there were so many blind spots that I had because,
as I said this, this sense of excellence is something
that that drives me how how do I be the
(34:53):
best at what I do?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Like, why not my best?
Speaker 2 (34:57):
And that was something that was trickling over to my
children in terms of what my expectations were of them
versus the expectations they had of them selves. Well, I
would say they're assumed expectations of what I had for them, right,
And so they see me constantly working to achieve at
(35:19):
a high level daily and they thought, if I don't
act in that manner, then I might not be enough
for my dad.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
And I thought, wow, I had.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
No idea that there was this unverbalized pressure that I
was placing on you. I just want you to be
the best version of you. I don't want you to
copy me. Your life doesn't have to mirror my life.
I don't care if none of you are professional athletes.
I don't care if none of you are CEOs or
(35:55):
C level C sweet type of laborers in the workforce.
I just want you to be the best version of
you that you can be. And if you promised to
do that, I'm going to be proud of you regardless.
I'm gonna hold you to a standard, and the standard
is your best, not my best. But as long as
(36:16):
you're doing that, no matter what, no matter what happens,
no matter even if you make mistakes, I'm.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Still going to be proud of you as a father.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And that was a conversation that that happened out of
playing this game.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
We're not really strangers.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And everyone that you know doesn't know it's a card game,
and you know, it's more about connections. It's not just
the typical like break the ice, you know, like first
time meeting gets you know, like tell us about why
you know the last time you had a great day?
You know, it's when was the last time you cried?
Just very very intense, very deep.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Absolutely absolutely now now caveat. I played the Family version.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
There are other versions.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Out there are the versions out there. We won't talk
about those, but they can get risk family the family.
There's a self won there too. There's a friendship one too.
There's there's a great version more it's it's it's a
great game, especially if you're trying to get to know
the person that's in front of you a.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Little bit better.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So tell us about battle solutions like your own. Is
it like consulting that you do, but what is what
is that?
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
So battle solution is something that Honestly, I really didn't
even want to happen. I say that I was forced
to make it happen because I was.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
I was working in, I was working at the.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Church, and I mean my my my lead pastor, he
he knows this.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
It was easy for me. I was in. I was,
I was the pastor over.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
What we call guest experience, and so making people feel welcome,
making people feel seen and heard and accept its second
nature to me. I can literally do it in my
sleep sometimes I dream about it literally, and so it
was easy for me. It was secure, and it was comfortable.
(38:13):
But I am a man of faith, right and during
this time I got this nudge, this prompting to say
that a transition is coming, and I was like, I don't.
I don't want to transition. This is easy, this is
this is comfortable. I'm good at this.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
And so.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
My life, the story of my life is I consider myself,
and I jokingly say this, but there's some validity to it.
I consider myself a real life Forrest Gump. I've done
so many things in my life, and the story I
(38:56):
like to keep it to myself and full disclosure. There
was a period of my life that I hated doing interviews.
I would run from the media in the locker room.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Honestly true story and I'm just gonna put it out there.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I used to call them vultures because I thought they
only want to come here and talk to me so
they can so they can get these these one liners,
and another team can use it as as as as
motivation or billboard talk, and so I don't want to
say anything that can incite or motivate the team to
beat us.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Right, And I hated doing it. I hated interviews. And
the older I got and the more that I.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Experienced, and especially in the church, I begin to learn
that my story isn't mine to keep my story.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
My story is.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
The testimony to tell. Because the first time that I
did it, the first time that I talked about the
mental struggles that I was going through of grief and
survivor guilt from my friends, man, I I got so
many phone calls and emails from people saying things like, Trey,
(40:05):
I'm so glad you said this, because I thought that
I was the only one going through it.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Oh, that must have been really refreshing to hear.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Oh my goodness, it made me feel like an idiot.
Quite quite frankly, because I thought people have been needing
to hear this, and I've been so selfish and keeping
it to myself out of pride.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
But I could have.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Been saving people's lives, Like what if I would have
said this five years ago, and how many suicidis have
happened over the past five years that if they heard
my story, I could have helped prevent it. Right, I
could have given them that spark of hope. I could
have been that light. And so once I started hearing
those things, it was okay, I have to share my story.
(40:49):
I have to share my testimony because my story is
unique to me and every other person's story is unique
to them. But in that weakness, it's the trigger, It's
the spark that someone else needs to know that you
know my story. My story doesn't need to end. My
story can get better. There are other chapters in this
(41:11):
book of life, and I can live with hope that
the next chapter is going to be a better chapter.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
And with the Battle Solutions is a you know, you're
that people can hire you for speaking engagements, you know,
is it like one on one coaching counselaying?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, sorry, I went off on a tangent. I'm passionate
about it. So yes, to answer the original question that
I circumvent it, So Battle Solutions, I say it's coaching, speaking, training,
and so I give one on one life coaching, one
on one executive coaching, even I do keynotes, and so
(41:50):
that's what I do most of the time. I have
a smaller clientele base right now in terms of the coaching,
and I am traveling to them more speaking now.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
And the last of it is the training.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
And so when I get a team, uh, you know,
a cohort in the workplace, so a leadership team or
a specific department, and I run them through what I
call MHPD, which is mental health in professional development, and
so how do we do how do we simultaneously achieve
(42:23):
professional development but do it in a way that's mentally healthy.
And I provide some other trainings as well, like connections matter,
suicide prevention and things.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Of that nature.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
So in a nutshell, Battle Solutions is coaching, speaking, and training.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
What a triple thread combo.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Yes, I like to think I like to think it is.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
It's just I once heard marketing is what you say
about yourself, but branding is what other people say about you,
and so I marketed it as coaching speaking training, but
I want the fruit of my work to to to
really tell, to really brand what Bat of Solutions really
is perfect?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And how can people connect with you, you know, book with you?
Where or where do they go to reach you at?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Definitely I have, I say, all the socials so on
on Instagram, Uh, it's it's trade battle.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
On Instagram it's Battle Solutions. On Facebook is trade battle,
and on on LinkedIn, Uh it's it's uh trade battle
as well, So I can be reached there. On Actually
you can just do Battle Solutions or or trade Battle.
I have a personal business one or all of them.
And I also have a website Battle solution dot com. Uh,
(43:50):
and on that website it's links to all of it.
You can even reach out to me. You can schedule,
you can send out a speaker request, you can send
out a culture quest.
Speaker 4 (44:01):
You can find all content that I have.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Absolutely, And as we wrap up, I wanted to you know,
just because we were in the Heart Radio but like
podcast series, if you could have your own iHeart radio station,
what songs would you play, you know, with with with tracks,
what would you what would you put on your your station.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Definitely, so I have, man it is it's such a
wide array of music that I listened to, and so
I would probably have someone I've been I've been vibing
with recently. Is no big deal, uh andy mineo uh
And but then almost the opposite end of the spectrum,
I've been I've been jamming to some Cody Jinks.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Right. So I told you I was.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
A country boy, so yeah, yeah, yeah, So probably those
those three.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
What are fantastic you know, blendom flend of flavors you
got there. You're so inspiring and you're just talking to
you for the last hour. It has been fantastic, so
many gems, so much, so great advice I wasn't expecting
to hear today.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Taking the time to speak to me today and just
sharing your wisdom and your your your past and what
the future holds for you. I really appreciate it, Trey.
Thanks David, Thank you to you for listening to our
Building Black podcast series find us and more episodes wherever
you get your podcasts, especially our iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
And we will see you next time.
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