Transcript
Speaker: Alright boys, and this is coming to you from Chattanooga. On my back porch, you're gonna hear some birds and some insects and whatnot. It's early in the morning, barely visible outside and ah I, uh, man, I had an interesting week, but before we get into that, yep, I started a podcast for us.
Speaker: It's called Technically Alive. It's private. It's just for a group. Um, you'll see in the post all the links. Um, you can get it on Apple Podcasts. You can get it on Spotify, but Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker: um And I did it in part because this week was nuts. I had every intent of practicing to record Be Thou My Vision for my grandmother's and in in honor of my grandmother. and man, I had to install mini split because we had an AC unit go out and had to put that up through a second our our second floor and through ah through an attic and run it longer than it was supposed to be, well, than it comes to be run. not Not necessarily that it's supposed to be run, but.
Speaker: Yeah, so that that derailed me. at That took up three days of my ah my week after work. And, you know, I had like 30 minutes free at work and this week. And I was like, yeah, I really still want to do something interesting. Though, I guess, man, the AC thing, I have some reflections on that.
Speaker: um But I had told myself, excuse me, I'm sorry. Yeah, but I had told myself that I still wanted to do something interesting, something for the group.
Speaker: um And yeah so I started a podcast. I've podcasted for years for my businesses and been on other people's podcasts. so it's something I love doing. And I thought, you know what? Like, we'll use this platform I know about that's actually free and free.
Speaker: and anybody who wants to be on it can be on it i'm gonna text everybody sometimes just just to interview you honestly just like ask you about who you are what you're thinking about what you got going on in life and maybe some of your best thoughts will make it out on this podcast and the bros in the group can check it out or you can send it to friends and family for them to listen to but a cool little way to challenge yourself and What's wild is all my friends are conversationalists.
Speaker: um They always have been throughout the years. And i think that I've had such insanely good conversations with all you guys, hours and hours and hours of just wonderful conversations. i was like, man, it'd be so cool to get some of that.
Speaker: recorded and I don't know to share within the group. So yeah, that's what this is. um I also want to clarify something. some of you guys might be curious about like why I'm doing this and it, it's genuinely, um, for community and to do things that are interesting and to share that with each other. Some of you might know that the school platform is something that influencers use and,
Speaker: eventually charge for and create monetized groups. I have zero intent of doing that with you guys. I just like the platform. I've learned a lot from its founder too. And so it's kind of a hat tip to to its founder.
Speaker: and And yeah, so I just, I pay for everything for it. Like I'm not gonna ask for money. It's genuinely just so everybody can be inspired by each other and share some things that they might want to share. And, you know, I know most of us are not on social media. And so this is kind of a form of having some community in that way.
Speaker: um some like-minded individuals. So, yeah. Uh, so I just want to clarify that. That's why, like, I'll never monetize this. And I've been doing a lot of thinking about why I started this too. Cause I did it in like,
Speaker: an hour. Like I had the idea and just did it. And something important I haven't shared, something really important to note is that there's two things. One, um for about a year, I've had a voice in my head telling me that I've kind of done everything that I'm interested in doing.
Speaker: Those things are cool and wonderful. And I can go out and repeat them and keep doing them again. But they like What's the point? They've kind of lost their luster. You've kind of done most of the things in life you want to do. you know You're just going to ride this out.
Speaker: and And what's weird is, I'll be honest, guys, like I listened to that voice for the better part of a year. like Some of the stuff I love doing, I put on the back burner and i just and let it intentionally slide.
Speaker: There's nothing more to it. It's just simply that. I listened to the wrong voice. So i
Speaker: I had just like a moment of realization, ah guess it was a month ago, that that's the voice that makes you die early if I keep listening to it. And you start dying before you're ever dead. You start dying before you're ever dying. You certainly don't live like you're alive. so Yeah, so that that's part of the reason I literally like had the idea um and just launched it.
Speaker: that That was it. And what's cool is is I don't have to really think about anything when when putting these things together. like It's literally just...
Speaker: It's not like business or anything like that where I have to like kind tooth comb everything. I mean, I know all you guys, so i can just kind of let the creative energy roll out there and everything from the cover art to this podcast to whatever the heck I do. I just feel comfortable because I know all you guys and we're friends. So um and and that's what I want to foster for you is honestly like a place where you can do that, too. Like, you know, everybody in this group is I mean, if I've invited of them into the group, they're good people.
Speaker: um And hopefully you can trust that. So just knowing that hopefully gives you a little freedom and liberty to explore things, including future episodes on this. so So yeah, I just wanted to clarify that. And, you know, this is kind of the welcome, welcome podcast, ah first episode, and I'll get it uploaded and get a post out today for everybody to check it out. But yeah, so be expecting a text from me and seeing if you want to be on this thing in the next few months, like we can rotate. It's it's all good.
Speaker: Um, obviously no pressure to hop on, but, but honestly, maybe a little bit of pressure of like, Hey, this might be something cool to push yourself to do. Um, pretty low stakes, all nonjudgmental people listening to it.
Speaker: Um, and like I said, some of your best ideas you could have recorded for you. Um, as far as the music stuff goes, yeah, I'll be practicing that this week.
Speaker: I can't, i'm I'm looking forward to recording, looking forward to getting back into some music stuff. Man, that bug is loud. i don't know if you guys can hear that or not. We got a very loud bug in the background.
Speaker: um So yeah. I will be recording ah that song at some point in time. it just didn't happen this week like I hoped it would. And that's something that I think I reflected on this week too, feeling like, hey, ah just pivot, be willing to pivot.
Speaker: And know you might have best laid plans for a week of things that you want to get done, whether it's a run or so a recording or something with the kids or whatever.
Speaker: you know, some project that you've been meaning to get to, like life goes sideways and it'll throw you. And when it throws you, sometimes you just have to pivot. So this podcast is me pivoting and this week was wild. I, you know, we had an AC that we have a above garage sort of suite that our son stays in and it's, it's only 250 square feet. It's not giant.
Speaker: Um, and, it It was built in the early 2000s, so it had a conventional unit, an outdoor-indoor unit, and it's a 1.5-ton unit to heat and cool that of space, and it was so inefficient. It was costing us so much money, every summer especially. Especially summer, it's costing a bunch of money.
Speaker: Well, finally, the condenser went out, and um it was... Yeah, the condenser went out, unrepairable. so i had we had quotes come out, and we had somebody quote us $6,000, $9,000. Between $6,000 and $9,000 were the offers that we had for somebody to come replace that unit and the end-zor And I was like, man, out of principle, I just...
Speaker: for that small of a space, I know that a mini split would be fine. If you don't know what a mini split, give it a Google. But I also knew it would be tough because it's about a it was a 30 foot run up the side of our house and through a soffit, then through an attic and then through a wall of the room. um And so I had to reroute.
Speaker: I had to rewire and rephase electric going out to that unit. And then I had to rewire the actual hard wiring in the unit so that I could extend it.
Speaker: i And man, it was it was quite the it was quite the journey. But well in my reflection is I think as I've gotten older and more successful in business, I've been able to outsource so many projects.
Speaker: And maybe...
Speaker: kind of unintentionally lost my edge as far as handiness goes. Most of you know this about me. I started working when I was very young, like 14 years old on a sawmill. And from that point went into electric work, from that point went into other construction work.
Speaker: And then throughout grad school, that that's how I paid for grad school was, well, for college and grad school, that's how made money in college by working for the national park service on roads, trails, and grounds.
Speaker: And then, ah in grad school, I worked for a home remodel company and that's how I like made enough money to go to school, um, in grad school. So I've always been handy and honestly, right up until my my counseling professional career. That's what I did. And in the first years of our marriage, first decade of our marriage, I did almost everything there was to do, mainly because we couldn't afford to do anything, have someone else do anything. And also that's how I grew up. I learned...
Speaker: growing up that things were fixable, you could buy used, you could fix that sort of thing. Well, and I'd say in the last six to eight years, some of that mentality has slid for me and I started outsourcing.
Speaker: um and And, you know, there's nothing wrong with outsourcing if you can if you can do it. But man, I ran into this sort of dilemma where our home warranty company was offering $2,000 to put towards this unit.
Speaker: And they said, you know, we can cash you out on the unit too. We can just give you $2,000 and you can do the work. And I was like looked up a mini split. could do the mini split for about 2300 because i have to have the old freon um pulled from the old system evac out of the old system you you can't just do that yourself or you catch a big fine to dump six pounds of freon in your backyard right it's also really dangerous so yeah you have to pay a little bit for that and you pay for the unit and pay for some
Speaker: supplies and stuff. So that's what we wound up doing. And for like 20, I think it wound up being 2,400. You know, we have a perfectly functional mini split in that room. It's working great. app It's probably working...
Speaker: better than anything that's ever been up there before and it felt pretty good to get that done it's funny julia was my helper that's really my wife was my helper and we got done thursday evening and she's like let's go out to dinner so our kids are old enough now that we can kind of leave them all at home and go out for an hour or two so we did that we let the kids kind of hang and we went out to drake's and had a like a celebration dinner at 9 30 at night after finally getting this thing done. But it was pretty cool. It felt like a moment that is important.
Speaker: Um, that I, uh, it felt, it felt right up the alley of the spirit of the group and what I'm trying to do in life right now, which is take a little more ownership and, and do things that I know are meaningful and reconnect with the feelings and emotions around them. And,
Speaker: um And honestly, too, the the other part of this is i realized that I'd become, i don't know, I'm toying around with this idea. Like, is there...
Speaker: Is there, can you go too far with being family centric? And I think if you can, i was dancing right on that line where so much was about my kids, so much was about my wife, so much was about my work and supporting my family.
Speaker: And I found so much identity in that in the last year that anything outside of it lost a little bit of lackluster, but that puts a weird pressure on your family too, unbeknownst to them. i think there's some expectations baked into that.
Speaker: And so some of this stuff too, that I'm doing is just like, Hey, I need to balance that out. Like my, my personal satisfaction can't just rest on my family's shoulders and the time with my family like that, that doesn't,
Speaker: feel completely healthy there's some version of that that's healthy but i don't think i was there i think i was tipping into too far into into that territory so yeah that's also part of this um and i'm just being honest and transparent this guys like i'm at a place in life where kind of just, ah I don't, like, i I don't care, you know? Like, ah there's some things I've stopped, just in the last two months, like, I feel like I really stopped caring
Speaker: about what I, I know this going to sound weird what about what I think and kind of about what other people think, you know? Um, some of you can hear this podcast and think, well, this is weird and that's fine. I like, I don't care. I'm doing it. It's something that I,
Speaker: It's something that I really want to do internally. um i was on a walk with one of the dudes in the group, Josh Pocardi, yesterday, and I was telling him, i was like, man, I don't know why I've told myself no so many times in the last decade.
Speaker: I just told myself no so to so many things. Now, don't get me wrong. I've said yes to things too, but things like this, like getting up early on a Sunday morning, ah have very creative, active mind and recording myself for, you know, 20 to 30 minutes to send to my friends. Like that actually sounds really freaking cool to me. And, you know, ah ah three months ago I would have said, no, that's dumb. They wouldn't be interested. And also like, what's the point?
Speaker: And so I just, something tipped in me. Um, and at the end of the day, I mean, this group could fizzle out in three months, which I hope it doesn't. It could figure out fizzle out in three days, which I hope it doesn't. But I think what you'll find is a year from now, if you'd never logged on and then you got on a year from now, you would see a crap ton of posts from me because I kinda, I, I,
Speaker: It's more the principle of the matter, you know, and I hope everybody stays engaged, but that's just an example. I i i don't, I've kind of lost some inhibition around this. That's probably the best way of saying it and some blossom inhibition around life. And I'm just going to engage it the way I want to engage it.
Speaker: ah Some of you might not feel this way. i would venture to say though, that we're all in a similar age range and you're, if you haven't felt it yet, you're, ah You're within five years of feeling it.
Speaker: And i think part of it is the age of my kids. They're older. So I like there is a little less responsibility on me and I do have a little more time. And historically, I've just filled that with my family.
Speaker: So I know I recognize I'm in a little bit of a different position here, too, than a lot of folks, and that's OK. But there i I know that this is on the radar at some point for everybody in this group. And i know based on your responses when you signed up for the group, it's actually happening for a lot of you already.
Speaker: So hopefully this is an encouragement, man. Hopefully me just hopping on this thing and riffing for 20 minutes and starting this podcast for you to check out is inspiring. i hope the whole thing is inspiring. i hope it makes you think deeply about yourself.
Speaker: I hope it makes you interested in yourself and interesting you get you interested in getting to know yourself better and pushing yourself more. um and Yeah.
Speaker: So I think that about does it again. I'm going to reach out to everybody. We hop on the podcast. There is no like theme. it is get to get to know the members, see what's on your mind, see what you're into, see what kind of insights you have, see what you have going on. If you have an expertise.
Speaker: I'd love to interview you on your expertise, like the thing that you're really good at. I want to hear more about. i want the group to hear more about. I'd love to hear you talk about it. Talking is actually a form of thinking. And so it makes you push yourself in a really good and healthy way, especially because, um you know, we all need a little, we all need a little shove every now and then. So.
Speaker: All right, guys. Hope you enjoy it. Remember, you're not dead yet. And according to this podcast, you're technically alive. P.S. I would have taken Not Dead Yet, except for there is a podcast that is called Not Dead Yet. So technically alive it is, which is which is fun. so All right.
Speaker: Peace, guys.
