Jonathan Diianni: The Journey of Golf, Grit, and Entrepreneurship

go to Purdue and start to really struggle. And then, well, what was my anchor? Well, my anchor was golf. And that was my whole identity. And I recognized in that moment of like, man, it doesn't matter how much you pursue this game. And how good you get at it, it'll never be enough. We have to be made for something more and for something greater. - Welcome back to another layups and give me this podcast. I'm Joe B. Thomas. - And I'm Jonathan Deani and these are can't miss lessons for long term success. These are simple and foundational lessons that if not taken for granted, will help you score in life and business. - Let's get it. - Let's go, Joe B. (upbeat music) Well, today's an incredibly special day. You know, I feel like I say each and every week that we have a guest on our show. This is gonna be one of the best podcast episodes ever. But I know this is gonna be epic. And the reason is one of my favorite people in the world, we get to sit down and have a conversation with another of their one of my closest friends, business partner, clockwork, reality group, co-owner, Jonathan Deani. Jonathan. - Thank you. - Jonathan, so excited to have you. Jonathan, a little bit about my guy here, actually grew up first part of his life in Lynchburg, Virginia. Believe it or not, we'll hear about that. Move to K-town, K-Vegas. Kernersville, North Carolina. grew up an incredible golfer. I'd love to hear more about his family. We're gonna dive into that. His experiences playing collegiate golf, even professional golf. And then in the wild, he got in a real estate. So we got a lot on tap today, but let's start right from the beginning, Jonathan. Welcome, brother. - Thank you, bro. Appreciate it. Super excited to be here with you. - So we get to trade roles here. Jonathan interviewed me a couple of weeks ago and great to be able to share a little bit about my story. And now we get to hear Jonathan's story. Excited for you guys to hear more about him. Really unique individual, gifted individual. And I think you guys will be blessed by our conversation in what you hear. So growing up, great family, two-parent household, tell us about your upbringing, brother and sister as well and start from the beginning. - Yeah, man. I grew up in technically out to Vista, Virginia. I was born in Lynchburg. Super, super small town of out to Vista. We were there until I was 12th, but unbelievable parents, super supportive and unbelievably grateful just for, they had such a unique balance of, we're gonna provide structure, but we're gonna give you freedom. And I feel like that balance was, I pray that Abby and I can match that 'cause they did such a great job. But my oldest sibling is Katie, my sister, my brother will and then me, I'm the youngest. 33, 32, 30. So pretty tight, like looking back, I always viewed Katie as so much older, but as we've gotten older, I've realized, she's actually not that much older than me. It's kind of crazy. You always view siblings as this, yeah, just way older. And I think a great example of my upbringing and just kind of what the world looked like in the Dehane household, a great story would be, my brother and I are wildly competitive. We always were, we always played up and we would, my dad coached every basketball soccer, always on the same team. So it was so fun growing up, looking back at memories with Will and, but the competitiveness, it would never die on a field. I mean, it's anything and everything we would do. So we moved into this new house in Virginia, I was probably eight. My brother was probably nine, Katie's babysitting us. She might have been 11 or whatever at the time, 12 parents were out of town for the day working. This was in the summer and downstairs in the basement had this long runway of like basically concrete before my parents, I can't remember if we put carpet or whatever they put down there, but then the end of the runway was like a living room area. So had a fireplace and pretty big and so we thought, man, it's pouring rain, what are we gonna do all summer? Let's build a ramp in the basement and let's take our bikes off this ramp. And so we stack some paint cans and put a piece of plywood and of course it wasn't high enough so we were like, oh, let's do one more paint can. So we stack one more paint can and we start going off this thing, it was epic. I mean, it was so fun. Mind you brand new. I mean, we've been in this house two weeks. And think I know where this is going. (laughing) And of course we go one too many times. The whole ramp collapses, paint cans open, paint all over the brand new carpet. We start going bananas. My sister comes down like you two always have to screw up when I'm babysitting like why? So my mom had also just purchased a brand new vacuum. My sister thought, I'm gonna clean this up. I'm a vacuum the paint. Destroy the vacuum. Now carpet's ruined, vacuum's ruined, mom comes home and will I have this unique way of somehow Katie's in more trouble for screwing the vacuum? (laughing) Then we are the ramp. So it was, I just shared that as a fun story of us 'cause we were so close growing up. We're still super close. All of us siblings and just amazing. Katie always, I've viewed her as just an amazing role model for me. She's always been such a straight and narrow and super inspiring older sister. Got diagnosed with MS at 18, which is really young for MS. And this had the willpower to write a book. So she wrote a book, go play in traffic about her experience and what that was like and what she's learned and gleaned. So just super inspiring and then will, he's always been my biggest role model and best friend my whole life and competed in everything we did from such a young age. And we'll get into it, but down the road got to play on the same college golf team as my brother for two years, which was, I mean, what a dream to play D1 golf with your best friends slash sibling. So it was really cool. - That's incredible. So the last name, Deionny. - Yeah. - Talk about where does that come from? Little history lesson for us. - Yeah, D-I-I-A-N-N-I. So if you need a vowel, I can sell you one. We got a lot of vowels in the name. It's always misspelled when I was playing junior golf. I would have typically two or three names in the system and I'd have to call junior golf scoreboard and say, hey, that's the same person. Can you combine my tournament? So I can actually know where my rank is in the state and in the country. And, but it's from Italy, Italian background. A Brutzo is exactly where my great-grandparents were from. My dad's parents were in, Kimover were Maryland, Bethesda area and my dad moved around a lot, but that's kind of where they, where they settled my mom, Waha, South Carolina, right near Clemson. - So both parents we mentioned worked, both very smart. What talk about their vocation there? - Yeah, my dad went to the University of Maryland. My mom, Clemson, they met actually the Darden School of Business at UVA. So super brilliant parents. My dad is a chemical engineer. My mom was textile chemist. So my mom ran a huge plant. My dad runs all of research and development for international textile group. And so there's both super brilliant. And so it was really cool growing up with both of them working pretty hard. - So if you ever need help with science homework, you were. - I have my people. - Good to go. - Yeah, or colors. I'm color blind, not fully, but enough to where the doctors say, I cannot be a pilot. And every time growing up, my mom's, her colors are unbelievable, obviously, being textile chemist. And so she would always, I'd be like, my mom, that's purple. She'd be like, no, that's blue, son. So she always kept me straight. - So why the move to Kernersville at the age of 12, was that because of your parents job? - Yeah, it was the job. So by that time, my mom, when she had all three of us, obviously really close together, she kept working for a while. When we moved in 2005, she had stopped working by that time we moved because my dad's company, Burlington, I believe they got bought out by international textile group and their headquarters are in Greensboro. And my mom's had a few medical issues. And so we wanted to be close to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston. The high school we chose was in High Point and my dad worked in Greensboro. So Kernersville is kind of like 15 minutes to each of those. So it was super nice for that. - And when did you start playing golf? that's something that was always as a part of your childhood. Did you get that from your dad or? - My dad, he could have walked on it, Maryland. So he played a lot growing up. His dad played, they loved it. They always had a Christmas tradition where they'd go walk nine holes together on Christmas day, no matter if it was snowing or whatever they would just go play, which was really cool. So my dad introduced my brother and out of the game really young. And it was funny because my dad is a, it's actually a wild, we have, so five in our family, four lefties, one rightie. My dad, brother, sister, and me are all lefties. My mom's the only rightie in the family. And how we found out I was gonna be a left handed golfer was my dad at age four. We go to the range with him and he'd give me a club and I literally would just turn around and swing it the other way. He's like, no, no, no, this way. And I would just keep walking around and like, no, this way, dad. And I would just hit it with the back of the club. And I did it so many times. He was like, I guess he just has to play left handed. And my brother didn't want to do anything different than me. So he was playing right handed and he switched to be a leftie 'cause I wanna, you know, we gotta do it the same way. So that was kind of funny. But literally from age four and man, we fell in love with the game so early. I mean, thinking of out of his to country club where we grew up, low nine hole, municipal golf course and I mean wild stories of just looking back, the work ethic my dad instilled in us was such a young age. Before we moved, we were probably, I'm moving else 12. So it was probably at, they just 9, 10, 11. My dad would drop us off in the summer at out to the just a country club before he'd drive down to Greensboro and work. And then he'd come back whenever he'd finish and he'd pick us up. So we'd be there for 12 hours. And one summer they literally had to shut down the driving range to re-sod 'cause my brother and I had torn up all the grass from hitting so many balls. It wasn't a big range, but they were like, you boys hit so many golf balls. And we would go no matter what. And there was one day that Melvin was the Greenskeeper there and he came out literally drove down one fairway in his truck to pick my brother and I 'cause we're walking down one fairway in his hailing outside and we're playing. And he's like, what are you two doing out here? He's like, get your butt into car, I'm taking you home. And he literally picked us up to take us home 'cause we just wanted to play. I mean, we loved being outside. We loved, my dad always had, in my mom, just unbelievable work ethics. I mean, when I was 12, 13, 14, my dad would go to the gym at 5, 5, 30 and when he came back from the gym, he would flick my light on at 7 a.m. in the morning and walk in with a glass of ice water and just dump it on my head and be like, Jesus rose from the grave and your dad's already done a workout and you can't even get out of bed, like, what are you doing? (laughs) So he would just turn the light on my mom and chart from the light, Billy, get out of there. (laughs) So that really instilled in us, I think, just such a work ethic from such a young age. - Well, that's one of the things I can attest to personally. Working with you, seeing how hard you work and, it shows the importance of seeing others do things that really just, you know, you pick up my osmosis and especially your parents as a parent, you soon to be a parent, we'll talk about that. Good Lord willing. Having just an example before you of, hey, this is how you do everything you do, work hard, be a good steward of the opportunities you've been given and that's really one of the things that I've grown to love and respect about you is, there's nothing you do halfway. (laughs) And so, oh, other questions I was gonna ask, I think it's clear, you know, where does that come from? And it has to be from your parents and just seeing how hard they worked and you knew no different. This is the way I've got to do everything I do. - Yeah, it really did. It started, there's no question it started, like the root of it was in my parents. I mean, even, you know, bleeding into high school and I knew from a mentor of mine, Coach Schwartz, he was the athletic director in high school golf coach at Westchester Country Day School, I went to high school and because it was such a small school, private school, in seventh grade, he asked, like, he basically called me, I'll never forget it, we're in the parking lot of the lower school, there's like a little loop around it. I'll never forget he called me and he's like, hey, I think you should play varsity golf. I want you to try out. You might not make it, but let's just see. And so that was like the first time I really thought, like, oh wow, people see a talent in you that I thought I had, but it's nice to get that affirmation, especially from such a mentor of mine and asking to, you know, push it to that next level. And so anyways, I did start playing varsity golf in seventh grade and so I got to play, you know, six years of varsity golf, which was really, really cool, but going back to the work ethic, you know, my brother and I, we used to, before school, we'd show up at about five, five, 30 in the morning and we'd put our car lights on the soccer field. And luckily, because Coach Warch was the head of the athletic department and he was so gracious to let us hit golf balls onto the soccer field. And so we would put our car lights out there, we'd put some sticks out there, so the car lights would flash on it five, 30 in the morning. And we'd just hit balls for like an hour and a half before school started and we'd go out and pick all the balls up and clean up what we left. And we'd literally have to put a mat like fold it, put it in the back of the car, unfold it, you know, put it on the ground so we could hit balls. And those, it was wild, but all that to say, literally we're leaving the house at five a.m. And my mom's already gotten up, made us with an unbelievable omelet, like breakfast, the whole nine, like she would do it every morning. And like I'm looking back like, that's crazy. She would do that. And then, you know, pack our lunch, have everything ready to go by five, five, 30, we're out the door and she's already done it. And then she's gonna go work a full work day and come back just bananas like, but seeing the work ethic in them, I think definitely made us want to work really, really hard and understood what it would take to reach certain goals and to do things that we want to do because they didn't grow up that way. They didn't have anything growing up. - One other bit we talked about the work ethic that I want to thread, I want to touch on. You mentioned multiple times, your mom getting up early, you and your brother being at school, five, five, 30 a.m. You're still to this day and early riser. And if you look historically and you can read this well documented books, podcasts, and interviews, the most successful people are people who get up early in the morning, who sees the morning and make the most of their days. Now, is that easy to do? Does that come natural? Because often people say, well, I've got so much going on. I'm not a morning person, I'm a night owl. And, you know, there could be some truth, some people are more efficient. But just talk about that for a minute, the importance of getting up early and when did that start? Was it just because, hey, that's what we did and mom got up early and that's how we start everything? - Was that, I think where it really stinned and this kind of bleeds into like, where else the work ethic stinned from was, my brother and I, well, we'll found this guy by the name of Eric Thomas, who now is extremely famous, motivational speaker, coach, life coach, works with a ton of NFL and NBA teams and gets to spend a few days with Warren Buffet every year and has been toward LeBron James and just an amazing, amazing guy. Well, he, we found a YouTube video from him in 2008 and my brother found it and he's like, bro, you gotta listen to this thing. And it was a video that ended up blowing up, I mean, millions of views now on YouTube. And Eric Thomas was the one that talked so much about waking up early and seizing the morning and understanding the value of the morning and how much more you can get done if you really protect the morning and he mentioned a study that he had read where he 80% of Fortune 500 CEOs start their day by 4 a.m. So he's like, well, this guy grew up homeless. I mean, he's eating out of trash cans. I mean, at the age of 16, 17, he's in Detroit and abandoned buildings in the winter with nothing freezing his tail off and having no food to eat. And so for him, it was this mindset of like, if that's what it takes, I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna get up and he saw the fruit of it and so he started talking about it and so we're like, whoa, I mean, you know, success leaves clues. And so like, let's, success will be when we go early. I'm gonna wake up early. It's kind of just like, you just do it. And so, but the way he talked about doing it, which is what we implemented, which I thought was brilliant was, you know how, the time changes and you gain that extra hour of sleep. He goes, 'cause ET wakes up at three every day and how he did it, he started at 7 a.m. 'cause of, you know, he was sleeping till 9/10. He's in abandoned buildings and what's he gotta do? You know, as he's starting this journey of success and speaking and he always had a gift of speaking people told him so he's like, I'm just gonna start posting videos on YouTube. So he started doing this every morning, 3 a.m. Posting video, 3/30 video posted every day. Every single day and then he started doing them on Monday. doing "Thank God It's Monday." And so that's when we started really following him. And so just amazing journey that we got to witness. And it was unbelievable because like every Monday I was so excited for this video to come out and watch and listen and learn and be motivated for the week and then wait for the next Monday. And he would never miss, he post-ever. And I mean they started like phone. And I mean this is 2012 like I mean horrible quality. I'll never forget he's on the railroad tracks. He wants to speak to the pistons. So one day he goes to Detroit. I mean this is when the God knew nothing. And their video in the parking lot of Detroit like one day I'm a speaker. And now he works for Detroit pistons like amazing stuff. That's incredible. Yeah. Well let's shift gears a little bit and just talk about you played varsity golf six years, start in seventh grade. At what point did you think, man I can play in college. And what was the recruiting process like? You ended up going to Purdue initially transferring to Elon. Where you mentioned playing with Will. Talked us about that journey. Yeah it was a special journey golf. I don't know a lot about other sports but golf's unique. We're like, I mean now it's getting so early. But I mean people even when I was in you know 2000 I graduated high school in 2012. So you know as a sophomore in high school and junior in high school everyone's committing. Like if you're after junior year, you're late. No one really committed into senior year. And so I really realized I was able to probably have the gift to do it when my sophomore year. I qualified for the US junior AM, big junior golf tournament. Basically the biggest one you can play in and they take like two spots in every qualifier. And I remember a shot 66, 68 to get the last spot as a sophomore in high school. I like, I mean at that point I was like that was like ballin out like two day qualifier. I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I just get the last spot? Like, how did I not win? And so qualified for that and that was the first time being in that environment. It was in Ada Michigan, Egypt Valley. I think Jordan Speedh won the US junior that year. But it was really cool to be in the environment of all of those players that were so elite. And recognizing like, man, they're actually just golfers. They're not that much better than me. I can do this and then having a bunch of you know, ACC and SEC and big 10 coaches there watching and being a part of it. I think that's when it really kind of hit me of like, this is possible. And in a very elite tournament you can play in is called the AJGA American Junior Golf Association. They're kind of like the big events, but they're so expensive. And honestly, we didn't really have money at the time to like play for those. My dad really had to sacrifice, but because of my rank, I got invited to play him one. And I finished fourth in my first event. And the coach from UVA reached out and the coach from Chapel Hill reached out and trying to start conversations. And that's when I was like, okay, I can do this in college for sure. So that was a really cool experience and it was really special to it, Westchester because I won the state championship. My sophomore year of high school as well. I finished first in that, which was really fun. Shot 64 in one of the rounds. Individual. Individual. But what was really cool about that is we won the state championship as a team. And it was the first state championship in school history. It was really, really cool to get to do that. My brother was on the team and some of my best friends still to this day were on the team. And coach George was the coach and said, oh, that was really, really fun experience. But that's when I knew like, okay, I can play this game at least in college. I mean, always want to play professionally, but I know the next level is for sure possible. And I'm excited for it. Did you have a preference if you could have waved a magic wand? And hey, I was a huge fan of this particular school and would have loved to go there and why I Purdue. Yeah, probably Chapel Hill would have probably been my choice. I really, really loved, which this was a really amazing how the Lord kind of orchestrated it. But I loved the coach and men at the time. And I had a ton of visits with him and the assistant at the time, Don Hill. I loved it. I loved Chapel Hill. My sister went there. It was kind of close to home, but it was still, you know, Michael Jordan went there. Like, it's just, it's a cool school, right? And so that was probably would have been my number one pick. And honestly, thought I was going to go there, but there's some coaching changes and things that happen and end up not working out. So ended up being a little later to the game because thinking I was going to go there to play. And one of my best friends ended up being my roommate in college at Purdue and at Elon. He transferred as well. Jeff Krieger, he had already committed to go to Purdue. And so he called the coaches when he had asked me like, Hey, are you going to do Chapel Hill? And honestly, they have changes. I'm not really sure what's going to happen. He's like, bro, you should, you should go up to Purdue and check it out. Like, I think you might really like it. We could room together. We could stay together. Like, it would be really fun experience together. And I went up there and honestly fell in love with it. Like, the facilities were unbelievable. Coaching staff was great. They obviously still big 10 played all the massive events. They had two courses on campus so you literally could walk from the dorm to 36 holes. You had unlimited access. I was like, this is sweet. I'll do this. So then I literally went one visit and I'm like, I'm in and just signed. That was pretty cool. Great facilities. But when I think about Purdue, I think about West Lafayette, Indiana. Keyword Indiana, weather, golf. Generally cold there, mostly year. So you ended up being there one year. Was that experience like? That was a wake up call for me. The cold weather, you know, I thought, I thought negative degrees legit was like cartoon. I didn't know that was like a thing. I had never been really to the North. And, bro, I mean, the thing is I visited second week of November. And it was such a fluke. It was like 68. And I'm like, oh, it's not that bad. 68 degrees, second week of November, whatever. Like this will be great. Sure, it'll be cold January, February, whatever. But bro, my first year there, I'll never forget we were coming back from a tournament in Puerto Rico, from spring break. I had to shovel snow to move my car after spring break. I'm like, what in the world? And I love being outside. I love playing a lot of guys in junior offers that grow up there. They're very used to working indoors. There's so many good indoor facilities. I'm just used to playing 12 months out of the year. And for me, like, I always got better at golf by playing holes. Some people love standing on a driving range and hitting balls and beating balls. And that was never me. And honestly, that was a tough transition for me because I also have such a big work ethic that I was like, well, I'm not going to not do anything. So then I just started hitting balls all the time. Because those all I could do. I mean, there was a photoshoot on the ground. But they had indoor facilities where you could hit from indoor to outdoor. So, you know, you're still able to watch the ball fly and everything. But you're hitting off a mat going to outdoor. They had heaters in there because I'm a negative 15 outside. And like, so they'd have heaters. So it would feel great. You could hit in short sleeves. So, I mean, the facilities were top notch. But for me, I think the thing that was really challenging and ultimately while left was I just like playing golf. And honestly, my game struggled a lot. I think because I got so much in my head of swinging and just working on my swing instead of just playing the game of golf. And I noticed for me that was huge. And, you know, that transition, it was tough. Because going into my freshman year of college, that was like the best summer of golf I've ever had in my life. I won three amateur events. I qualified for the US amateur, which is the, you know, one step up from the US junior am that I'd played and played well. And so it was just really fun. And top 10, my first few events at Purdue as a freshman. And so it was really good. But then transitioning to the spring, you know, I'm mentioning just not getting to play as much. But working on my swing, it really slowly deteriorated. I think my game to really a rough point, honestly. And like couldn't break 80. And it was tough mentally. It was really hard and knew I was leaving and transitioning and ended up choosing. Elon, because Don Hill, who I'd mentioned from Chapel Hill, who was the assistant, he ended up getting the head coaching job at Elon. My brother was playing there and he called me and was like, hey, this could be a great program. You could help build for us and you could play with your brother. I've always respected Don Hill. So that was the ultimately the reason why I chose Elon. So you transfer to Elon, you get the opportunity to play with your brother, warmer weather, closer to home. You know, here at the Layups and Gimme's Podcasts, can't miss lessons for long term success. We like to ask all of our guests, you know, what's one lesson that you learn? You mentioned the struggle toward the latter part of your time at Purdue and then you transition to another college. Just your sophomore season. What's one thing looking back that you felt like that time of it? University, some uncertainty, maybe going from a bigger University, one that is in the big 10 conference, playing some of these big events to kind of a startup program, one that you're coming to help get off the ground at E-Line, maybe different venues, not the same talent level. What was that experience like? What did you learn from that? - Yeah, great question. I think one of them was valuable lessons I learned at Purdue was the value of environment and how things happen over a long period of time, all of a sudden. And what I mean by that is getting out of who, my DNA is who I was as a golfer with regards to how I improved and got better, I believe that deterioration actually started in the fall that year. When snow was there, I'm not practicing as playing as much golf, I'm practicing a lot more, but that didn't, I didn't see the fruit of that negative impact like the negative fruit, if you will, until the spring, but it started then. And so I think the lesson I realized is so often in life when we're in a spot of frustration or disappointment or being down in something we work really hard at, we wanna think through like what calls that, but I think a lot of times it's actually something that is a pattern that's happened for a long period of time and it feels like it just happened all of a sudden. And so that was a really unique thing that I felt like I learned. And that being said, showing myself a lot of grace as I got to Elon to get out of this rut. Hey, I'm in a new environment now where I wanna be, I'm 10 minutes from my swing coach, I'm playing for a golf, I wanted to play for forever, I'm playing with my brother 45 minutes to home, I love North Carolina, I can play 12 months out of the year. Hey, that same pattern is gonna be true here. It's not gonna happen overnight. It's gonna take time to get back to where you wanna go. And so having to really trust the process in that was really hard. I mean, when I finished Purdue, I wanted to quit. I never wanted to play golf again. I was in such a bad mental space. I was playing so bad. My golf game was horrible. Gossip, weird game, like when you're playing well, you never think you're gonna play bad again. And when you're playing bad, you never think you're gonna play well again. Like it's just so true in the game of golf. And so it was hard. And so I had to really focus on steps. What steps am I taking to get back to where I wanna go that got me to where I was and get back to the basics. And so it took a lot of time. My fall semester at Elon was a struggle, but I started to see a little bit of fruit. And then the spring semester that year, one University of Maryland's golf tournament, and that really kind of gave me a lot of confidence. And kind of got back to playing some really good golf and had a good summer. And then one again, the next fall, at Greenbrier in West Virginia, won the college event there. And so to get those two wins in college, that was really helpful for my confidence for me, but there was a lot of struggle to get back there mentally, especially it was golf is so mental, you have so much time in between shots. It's not reactionary at all. And you hit a shot and you have so much time before your next shot and your mind can go to some pretty bizarre places. And so that was a really, really, really hard transition. - So it take us into the mind of a golfer. So me as a basketball player, I think there's, some correlation being a shooter, you're missing jump shots, you're struggling, you're in a slump, and you feel like, man, I can't throw this. - And the goal can look like a peanut, and the goal can look like an ocean. - That's right, I can't throw it in the ocean right now, but then times you feel like in a zone, you can't miss, and you work your entire life, literally, repetition, repetition, repetition, to allow your body to do what you've trained it to do, but the mental side gets in the way, that's human nature. So from a golfer's perspective, having a lot of time between shots, rounds are really long, four or five hours, you know, what do you do to overcome that? What are things that you think about or focus on to try to get through that? - I think it's actually, you know, the word you just used that is so important is allow, right? To allow our body, we've trained to allow. And I read a book, I think it's the greatest sports book ever written. I know you've read it as well, Inner Gamma tennis. It is so good and anyone listening, like if you play sports of any level, you have to read this book, because it talks about self-1 and self-2, and how self-1 we have to be in training mode, and we're training and we're thinking. And self-2 is where we allow that training to come alive and see where we're at. And it's the thing that I've realized that helped me get out of the slump is, this isn't a good or bad, it just is where you are. And finding those patterns to then work on those patterns is what really helped. So for me mentally, I started listening to a guy by the name of Dr. Kevin Elko, who changed my entire mental game, like hands down. And he's really changed my life in a lot of ways, in the way that I think, in the way that my mind operates. And basically his entire philosophy works with a ton of NFL teams as well. And he's always listening for a specific phrase, what I said to myself. And it's in those moments of tough times, good times, he's trying to find the patterns of what are we saying to ourselves in those moments. So bring it back to golf, like what was I saying to myself? And for me, my struggle came when out of bounds was left. I would block it. If trouble was right, I never had an issue. If trouble was left, unbelievable amount of anxiety produced in my body on the T-Box. And so he helped me to understand as well, like in golf, there's gonna be two to five holes at every golf course. And this is true for every PJ tour player that you watch day in and day out, every golf course. There's two to five holes that are gonna produce some sort of anxiety that's not gonna fit your eye, that you're not gonna like. You'll never win the golf tournament on those holes, but you can lose it. And so preparing and having a game plan for that was so important and so valuable. And what type of go-to shot is what we call it in golf, where you have to have a shot off the T that whenever pressure comes and it always comes, or it's a hole that you just don't like. And what's crazy is it might be a hole that everyone else in the field loves. And they might be making birdies left and right. But for some reason it just doesn't fit your eye. And you don't have to know why. It just doesn't. It costs weird like that. But you have to have that go-to shot. So what I would say to myself in those moments is I would really work hard and practice on like, doing drills where I would set up on the range. And there might be a flag out there. And if I miss it left of the flag, then there would be some sort of punishment for me. So it was a real life situation. I would work to hit 10 down the middle. And so then when I'm in the event, I would come back to myself to say, hey, you've done it. You know there's trouble left. Okay, you've done it though, where you've hit it right down the middle with your go-to low fade. Like allow yourself to do it. And so I think for me recognizing, I used to dismiss it and try and act like it wasn't there, even though I'd feel it. But I think hitting it head on and recognizing it and understanding it's okay and understanding it's normal to have these thoughts, I think is what really helped me to get past it and then an unbelievable amount of journaling. I mean, I have probably 15 journals full, front to back page of mental notes that I would take because I believe, you know, what you give energy to has so much power. And so when I would finish around to literally, I mean, I was at a place where I wanted to quit, a game that I loved so much. And to get out of that anxiety, I knew that I had to start putting a lot more energy towards great shots and great moments that I did do in tournaments. So when I would finish around, I would go back, and I mean, there was an hour after the round where I would do homework. And I would literally write down all my good shots, what I was feeling, what I was thinking, and start to find and recognize those patterns of when trouble was left. And I hit it great. I wanna really note that and give a lot more power. I wanna relive it again. Just to continue to allow that shot to happen over and over and over again so that it became the normal for me. And eventually, like, I really conquered it mentally and like the anxiety subsided a lot more than it did. And there's still holes that you would hate every round or you know, that wouldn't fit your eye. And you knew you had a game plan for it. But that's really what allowed me to kind of get through that moment. And that's such good advice and you touch on something, I think that we can all do. all apply to all of our lives. Often when there's adversity, we want to suppress that thought, we want to deny it's there. We want to look the other way, instead of hitting it, hitting it on, right? Acknowledging that this is challenging. This is not fun, this is not abnormal. We all experience these moments, these times, these trials in life, but to be able to look at it and have the perspective that, okay, I'm going to acknowledge this. I'm going to have a plan of action to attack it. And ultimately, that's what's going to help me get through it. That's fantastic. Well, let's transition another thing that's, to me, one of the greatest strengths and one of the traits that sticks out, which really started our friendship is your faith and your spiritual journey. Only here about how that came about, is that been something that you learned from a young age, is that something that came later in life, was that through experiences, and what brought you to a place of faith, specifically in Jesus Christ? Yeah, I grew up in a Christian household, my parents loved Lord, and I think that is such a blessing and such a burden, at the same time, because you know, you have so much head knowledge, but you don't know Jesus is your Lord and Savior. And for me, at least, it was, I knew all the stories, I knew the right answer, I knew what to say. But, you know, the story of golf really is what, like, propelled my journey in my walk with the Lord, because, you know, in high school, that my sophomore and junior senior year, such amazing golf and such great golf, and feeling like I'm on top of the world, and feeling how good it is. And my freshman year of college to go to Purdue and start to really struggle, and then, well, what was my anchor? Well, my anchor was golf, and that was my whole identity. And I recognized in that moment of like, man, it doesn't matter how much you pursue this game, and how good you get at it, it'll never be enough. We have to be made for something more, and for something greater. And, you know, I think of, I'll pull it up. I read a book, CS Lewis wrote called "Miracrishianity," and that was a book that really, like, changed my life forever. And what really helped me to realize where I was living at the time in my walk with the Lord. And he had a quote in there that's, he said, this was really powerful when I read it in this book. He says, "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum, because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We're far too easily pleased." And it was so powerful for me, because when I look at, you know, Tiger Woods has been my idol in golf, my whole life. I mean, growing up, watching what he did, the statistics that he has, I mean, they're unbelievable. Billionaire, Swedish Supermodel wife, 14 majors. I mean, he's got everything I could ever, ever imagine. And to see what happened in his life in the destruction and the sadness that brought to him, it really hit me, you know, because it's like, well, if you think this game's gonna satisfy you, like, it didn't satisfy him and he has everything. So why do I think it would satisfy me? And I went that, my freshman year, there's an organization called College Golf Fellowship and CGF and that ministry has changed my life. And I went to Scott's house in Tennessee, William Simpson was co-hosting that event that year. One of the first times in my life, I felt like that the Lord really worked on my heart and I felt like I heard the gospel in my heart and understood it and believed it and realized, like if my anchors in golf, I'll never be satisfied and therefore my anchor needs to be in something else. And it was so awesome to be around these PGA tour players, my aspirations of, you know, web at just one the US Open, the reigning US Open Champion literally six months before that June and he's taking time out of his life to come and spend a weekend with Scott Stallings on the PGA tour with 70 college golfers just to hang out and share this good news at the gospel with these guys and being also around so many other athletes that have the same passions I have and it's not just like, you know, there's nothing wrong with church, oannos or things of that nature, but those, I was an athlete, I was competitive. And so to be around those people that had the same thoughts around sports that I have, but then also loved the Lord, the way that they did. It was really, really unique experience. And that really is what changed my life forever and transitioned to my start of truly, I believe, walking with the Lord and trying to learn and study his word more and what he left us with. And you know, that's always been something that's so amazing to me is like, so much time has gone by and his word is still here. You see it everywhere. Like the Bible still remains. And that has always been such a powerful thought for me is like someone that's very intellectual because it's like, how's that possible? If it's not truth, you know, in some degree, it's like that's a, there's a lot of weight there for that to still be the case. - That's powerful and, you know, you mentioned that we're far too easily pleased in the game of golf, success, no matter what that is, you could fill in the blank on our lives. We're made for more and your identity is not in those things. So that when we get into your desire to transition from college to go play professional golf and maybe the story doesn't end the way you thought it would or wanted it to when you set out on that journey, it doesn't change who you are because your identity is not in your success or the perception of others. You know your identity is in a greater higher power and that you were made for more. So talk about that, the transition that you've from, for me, Lawn, the plan, when did you know you may have a chance to play professional golf? - Yeah, professional golf is, you know, it's why I remember when I was a kid that I chose the game of golf because always my dad loves the Steelers, he's obsessed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, grew up in Pittsburgh, he liked, loved them. And I'll never forget watching those games with him and seeing the ref make bad calls or one player's playing great and other players playing bad and I love golf because you had to take such ownership. There's a score. It doesn't matter, no one cares how you get the ball in the hole, it could look ugly, it could look pretty at the end of the day, it's a number. And for professional golf, it's one of the most stressful things in my opinion on the planet because you have something called Q-School every year and these are guys that get to try and get on Cornfairy in the top 25 at the end of Cornfairy, get on the PJ tour and now they just, they just changed up some of the rules where finally the top 10 at the end of Q-School get on to the PJ tour but you're basically playing a golf tournament for your livelihood. And it's like, okay, here we go and you better be ready and your mind better be sharp and your game better be sharp and you need a peek for this moment and it only happens once a year. So if you don't make it through, you're waiting a whole other year to try and chase your dream again. And so it's just crazy to do. And so I knew, especially after I went in two college events, like, okay, I have talent, I could play this game. I wanna do it, I've always wanted to do it. There's no way I could live on myself without going after it. And so first year of Q-School, that fall made it through first stage, missed it at second stage, went to Texas and missed in second stage. Just basically there's 12 or 13 first stage events and your top, I don't remember, 20 in ties out of 100 and some go to the second stage and then the same at second stage and then you have final stage. And you know, there's 150 guys at final stage and you're literally 10 spots for a PGA tour card. And that's it. So it's just ruthless. So didn't make it that year and went down. So I was like, another thing you can do, kind of one step below would be play like PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latin America. So went down to PGA Tour Latin America with some friends and went to Argentina and played Q-School there. And that was a really cool moment. Ended up finishing eighth there in Q-School to get full status. And that was awesome because it kind of gave me a lot of confidence. I guess still, I mean, it's so cutthroat. There's thousands and thousands of guys that are so good at the game of golf. It's unbelievable. And so even there, like, you know, you look at it as whatever double AAA is in baseball but it's still so hard. And I mean, you have 115, 120 guys. competing for 12 spots and like you got to play well and I'll never forget I had a great first three rounds Going into that last round like so nervous and I'll I mean one of my favorite golf shots. I've ever hit my life was One of the hardest holes out there was hole 16 par three Ton of water water left water right bunker long 210 yards straight into the wind um, and it's like I mean you can make a double bogey like that like in you know I'm in eighth but uh, I make a double and it's over and going back to that mental game That was a hole that I had rehearsed the night before mentally in the morning of and Man I hit this five iron into the wind. I'll never forget it to the down dead. It came off the face so flush so pure and like right in the middle of the green and like you couldn't really like I was playing so good I couldn't you couldn't screw up 17 and 18 so I kind of knew like Nice. I have full status is such a freedom to know there's a place for you to play for the next year so spend a few years down actually in Latin America all over South America and Long story short ended up doing some stuff in China whenever to China whenever to Europe to some played some in in London which was really cool and played some in Italy and Milan which was really cool and it was it was such a unique and an amazing Experience and never made it on the PJ tour, which was you know, that was hard to sit with but man It was a lot easier than I ever thought it would be the to transition out of the game agon one because Like going back to my identity being in Christ like constantly praying and asking for wisdom of you know, I'd played for five years kind of on many tours and traveling and Latin America and I'm in and out of planes. I'm all over different time zones and It's just like it's a crazy lifestyle honestly and uh, I met my now wife June of 2019 and um, I stopped playing golf June of 20 So I've known her for a year I knew I was gonna propose around that time. COVID was the happening Q school was canceled because of COVID. So now I knew like man It's gonna be a year and a half at least before I can even try again And I'm proposing to my wife and it was just it was painful and and honestly the thing that gave me so much peace was I know so many guys on the PJ tour and like Some of my best friends are out there and love them to death and I kind of recognize like And ask myself the question of do I want that lifestyle? Do I actually want what I'm chasing like I love the game for the game And I love getting better at something but when I realize that like I don't want to be in a plane every week I don't want to be all over the US every week and traveling all over and I want to be home the way my dad was Talking about him being able to coach little league soccer and basketball and be at the golf course with me I knew that like that lifestyle wouldn't allow me to do that and that was so important to me and my dad and my relationship with him was so important But I want to Lord willing give that to a future Kids one day and I kind of recognize like what I'm chasing. I actually don't want And that's really when it left me and I love hanging out with Abby and I still love hanging out with her and so all of those things kind of Let me to be like you know what I'm good like I've played I loved it It was so fun, but I think it's time for me to move on So you mentioned Abby your wife and congrats again Your angel as you say Your phone is my angel Abby amazing amazing woman you guys pregnant now and expecting your first Kitto on the way what are your thoughts about that you don't know what you don't know yet I'm excited for you, but I was about to get changed for the better, but it's changing What would you say you guys are looking for too most about being parents? I think um I'm looking forward just to seeing her as a mom. I mean She's so special. I love her so much and she's so gifted in so many ways and I'm so excited For her to be a mom and I think one of the greatest gifts of parenting is You know we're on this earth for a flicker and they're going to be patting my head as art William says They're going to be patting my head with a shovel and I'm going to be buried before I know it And I think one of the greatest gifts in my opinion we can give to our kids is Like my dad did in my mom did such an amazing job of learning lessons along the way of life and giving them to us And we get to now do that for our child And to try and help them to grow and to learn and to you know Grow to love things that matter and the things that have weight in life and to understand that things Are never as good as they seem and things are never as bad as they seem and so for me honestly one of One thing I'm looking forward to most in parenting is giving the gift of lessons that I've been given from so many amazing mentors and Experiences in life to our child whether boy or girl I think it a I think honestly that's one thing. I'm I'm really looking forward to I think that aspect of parenting and then you know I see it in You with your kids and so many mentors of mine have have kids and seeing it in them and when you teach your Son or daughter something and watch them get it and grasp it. That's got to be you know It's just such a cool moment even though there's so many more moments I know of of suck and of Awfulness and of dad you don't know anything and the same way I was with my dad of you know nothing and but knowing that if you just keep chopping If you just keep putting the principles in and you just you just stay patient understanding that hey I was that dumb kid at one point that knew my parents didn't know nothing But now looking back so grateful for all the lessons that they taught me along the way I think that's something that I've been I really looking forward to and that's such a great perspective to have because one of the things that we talk about often As parents my wife and I and that we've learned from others. We've been reminded that You know it's so easy to take ownership of your children. This is your flesh and blood And yet they're ultimately not hours. They're gods and we get them for a short time in the grand scheme of things 18 20 years roughly give or take and You've got a limited time to teach them these lessons things that we've learned hopefully they don't make the same mistakes that we've made You try to spare them some of that heartache and yet they've got to live and learn And so that's so powerful To have the perspective that I look forward to sharing these lessons with them because My goal is really to prepare them for the world tell my kids that all the time the end of the day I can't I'm not gonna be there when you make Tough decisions all the time. You know the older you get But I want you to be able to glean on the wisdom and know Right from wrong. Yeah, and why Certain decisions are important in the impact that they have these seemingly small decisions that could have a wide range of impact on your entire life That seem good at the time Just to to be able to impart those lessons in the them. This is huge So the greatest love of your life Abby your wife and Probably a close second will win them your dog would be second correct. Wait for that in from my wife. That's right Maybe just behind that so we'll say third in line is food praise You're now In the midst of a 72 hour water only fast. So I hate to bring this up at the tail end when you're hungry as you can be But talk about your love for food where they came from and not just food and any food, but particularly Healthy good clean food. Yeah Uh, I mean I definitely started young my parents are Deani Italian unbelievable cooks my mom is And dad are they're just amazing food always. I mean I talked about earlier my mom making Almost with grilled chicken at 5 a.m. Before I go to high school like are you kidding me like so just always grown up with great food and I've always loved good food. I never Um really cared about my health or studied health. I mean, I think we just got so lied to honestly and Our society with ads and randomness of I could say a lot of things about our system of food right now, but I'll choose to uh be silent and just say uh We've been lied to so much um as a society with regards to food and growing up thinking You know honeynut Cheerios are healthy like what are we thinking um and my parents didn't know right and so honestly and 2016 is when I started to take my health very seriously a Massive massive mentor of mine David couch Introduce me to Dave Asprey who started the bulletproof diet and uh, I started like studying it And so I read this book complain golf. I want my mind sharp and he knew that um and so he's like I think you'd really be interested in this bottle loss. So anyways, yeah, I started reading it and studying it and um it really started my love for like health in general and health and wellness and Learning about realizing oh my gosh. I don't know any of this like Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar and carbs make you fat, like. And that's a fact. Like there's no question. And so, like, but you didn't know that as a kid. It's like, you know, all you're seeing and learning and ads is low fat, low fat, low fat, have low fat, have skin milk and like all this junk. And it's like, it's so backwards. And I mean, honestly, like if you just do the opposite of what everyone tells you, you're probably right with regards to being healthy. And so that started my love for food and then just started really studying like the different diets, if you will, I hate using that term. But like, OK, there's people that eat meat only. There's vegans. There's all this stuff. Like what is right? How do you know what's right? What do you do? And so I think one thing that's very true, in my opinion, about food is there are certain principles that every human being should, like, it works, if you will, for every single human being, no questions asked. Like, if I had to give people two principles that if you would do these two things, you will be healthier the rest of your life. No questions asked is no refined sugars and no seed oils. If you did those two things, like, you would feel better, bar none, no questions. Now it's hard to do. There's seed oils in everything. Seed oils is one of the most ridiculous things on our planet right now that is just getting pumped into everything. Turn over your label. You're going to see palm oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, all this junk. And it is just causing so much inflammation in our bodies that is producing. We have more disease now. We have more diabetes than we've ever had before. More Alzheimer's than ever. Like, I personally believe a lot of this stems from food and what happens. And so for me, those two principles are huge. But then it's like, OK, well, is like plant only better for me is meat only better for me. I think there's definitely some variation with regards to a specific human that would dictate those type of things. And for me, like grass fed meats, organic chicken-- which I don't use a ton of chicken-- but if I do organic wild caught fish, those are a staple for me. David Kouchy, I mentioned he owns a farm in Greensboro, Summerfield Farms, is where Abbey and I get all of our beef. It's unbelievable. It's the best rib I'll ever eat in your life. Shout out to Summerfield, love them. And so for me, I've realized I have to stick to whole foods with meats. I definitely eat up meat. I eat a lot of meat. I eat that's what has dictated and helped. And it's helped Abbey a ton in fueling her body and my body. And we love to be active. And she runs a lot of marathons. I've done a couple half iron man's. And I want to feel good. I want to have energy. I want to have mental clarity. We're out this morning working out. We're showing homes this morning doing a podcast, going to show homes later, trying to-- if we don't have that mental clarity and focus, we're not going to get stuff done. We're trying to build something special. And you can't build something special if you're having sugar. Like, your toast, your mind, well, it's just going to be brained at. And I just can't do it. That's powerful as one who lived 13 years in Europe and 10 of those years in Italy. We have some of the best food in the world. It's one of those things I didn't fully understand and still learning in many respects. But coming back-- Anything to speak on that, bro? Like, I'm sure you had pasta and bread in Italy and felt-- Unbelievable. Exactly. And you know why? And even our parents and grandparents, they were fine in the US. But in the '90s, we invented something called folic acid. And it's man-made. And it's just ridiculous. But it allows our bread got so contaminated and our pasta's got so contaminated by this folic acid. And now it's in everything. If you see enriched flour, that's just folic acid. That's a fancy word they got away with. Because the FDA's the FDA. And I'll stop there. But that is why you feel a certain way and why we have so many gluten allergies now that no one has in Europe because they're not putting and pumping crap into their food that we do in the US. Because I love this country. It's the best. And I've been everywhere. There's no place better than the US. But one area we've got wrong is bigger, better for food. And the way to get bigger and better in cows, which is what we did, is we pump them with soy and corn to fatten them up so you can have more pounds for it. But what are those coins? The corn is being sprayed with crap. I mean, it's just mind-boggling, honestly. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the gluten allergies, something being overseas didn't exist. Never heard of. And we came back and even my kids early on coming back to some of the things here. And we have any perfect still don't, but are trying to do better because you mentioned the way it makes us feel, right? It's just trying to be a good steward, trying to live longer, be healthier, be more efficient day to day. But they had challenges because of what's in the food here in America. So we could spend a whole podcast on that and-- Sure, we might. At some point, I think it's definitely valuable and worth mentioning. But we would be remiss not to transition to talk a few minutes. And the time that we have here together about your transition into what we're doing now, your clockwork-reality group. So golf ends for you. You get married to your special someone and kind of transition into a new chapter. So what's post-golf look like? And what were your thoughts around that? Yeah, I'll give a Sparknodes version until I hit real estate. And you know, Stop Playing June of 2020, I had a really close friend of mine that is in financial advising that I thought I was going to join their team and even took some of the exams and passed the exams and studied to take those. But June of 2020, everything shut down. So they're on a hiring freeze. And so long story short, you know, when I stopped playing golf, I had $1,100 in my bank account. And I'm like, well, hiring freeze, that's not going to work too well. And I got paid rent and I'm living in an apartment. And this just, that doesn't work. I got to get food. And so in the meantime, I got to figure out how to make money. So I started buying and selling swimming pools. And that was because this is summer. And all the pools are closed down. And so I started buying and selling a bunch of swimming pools above ground swimming pools and transition. And my old gosh, August September's coming around. And that's not good because it's going to get cold swimming pools. That's not going to work. And so I started buying and selling pianos. Flipped a bunch of, ended up flipping 78 pianos. Buying and selling pianos and free weights, probably over 20,000 pounds of free weights because people were building at-home gyms and drive to South Carolina and pick up a couple of thousand pounds of weights and brush them off with a steel brush. And sprayed panos so they looked fresh and new. And would pick them up in South Carolina for 50 cents a pound. And they'd go like hotcakes in Charlotte the next day for $2 a pound. So just trying to hustle. I mean, long story short, Bank of America kept pushing back the date. I thought it was going to be August. And then it's October. And then it's January. And rewind that a little bit to November of 2020. You know, you not met at Oakhurst Baptist Church. The church we were attending at the time. And I knew you were in real estate. And I knew that in six months, I was marrying Addy in May. And I was like, hey, I'd love to get in a home. And maybe if I need some work, do some work and live in it. And then she moves in in May. And so she had saved up some money. And I had flipped enough pianos and randomness to have a down payment for our first home. And so you sold me my first house in November of 2020. And that was the first time I knew anything and learned anything about real estate. And the power of real estate. And our mortgage at the time was 1,300 bucks. And had a couple of guys living in there paying 500 bucks a month in rent, which is nothing in Charlotte. And so I was getting 1,500 bucks and had a 1,300 dollar mortgage. And I'm making $200 to live. And I'm like, real estate's cool. I like real estate. I'm like, Abbie, are you sure you want to move in? No, I'm just kidding. But seriously, I had other guys paying my mortgage. Now I know the term is house hacking. And so that was so special for six months and did a bunch of renovations. But I'm still flipping pianos. I mean, I am like putting pianos in the living room and thousands of pounds of weight in the living room. And luckily, Abbie's not living there at the time because she'd be like, what? And the heck is happening? And my house is a storage unit. But anyways, fast forward, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, they were on a hiring pause for a long time. And fast forward to May, Abbie and I got married and your sweet wife, Kristen, was our wedding planner and you and I are just chatting in our wedding and how's Merrill Lynch going? I was Bank of America going and I'm like, still on a hiring pause, bro. And I'm like, you know what, dude, you just come try real estate. Just give it a try. Like, I think you'll love it. And I'm like, you know what? I've given these jibronies a year. Like, I'm a loyal guy to my core and I want to be loyal and I tried to be loyal, but I'm like, I got to also do something. I knew I'm like a flip pianos the rest of my life. It was a great, you know, one year, honestly, of I learned so much, so many lessons of building of business and creating spreadsheets and understanding profit and revenue and expenses and how do you lower expenses and get higher profit and what does that look like and marketability and so many amazing things. I was able to learn during that time frame. But you know, I was like, you know what, I'm going to come back from my honeymoon, I'm going to take my real estate license and I'm just going I'm going to try it out. I'm going to type a guy and I asked you. I'm like, how long do I need to be in real estate to figure out this is something I want to do because I think one of the greatest gifts we have living in this country is you can do anything you want. And so it's so unique. So, but I also know there needs to be, you know, a time frame that you try something before you quit. So, you know, asking you and other people that are in the business, like how long and everyone's kind of like that two year mark. If you don't love it after two years, you don't have any traction, you know, it might not be for you, but you got to give it at least two years. So, got my license September of 21 and was like, you know what, these next two years, I'm going to study, I'm going to learn, I'm going to do everything in my power to own this. And if I don't love it, I'm quitting. I'm out. But if I love it, I'm not just going to, I don't love it anymore. If I don't love it, I'm going to do something else. But I'm such, I'm such a believer in doing something that you're passionate about and something you love because I mean, bro, we got one, we got one shot. We're done. We're going to be buried in the ground. Like, why do something Monday through Friday? I hate. I'll never do that. I'd rather flip pianos like seriously. So, that was so important to me. So, when I got into real estate, I'm like, there's always going to be things you hate about a job. But in general, I want to wake up and love it. I mean, my wife jokes with me all the time. She knows my favorite day of the week's Monday. I'm ready, baby. I love Monday. Like, new week, new opportunities. Let's hit it. Let's run with it. And so, that was my journey into real estate and got my license September of 21 and join Clockwork, Realty Group. Well, we're thankful you did and excited to be building Clockwork, Realty Group now is a partner and owner in what we're doing. And I think the proofs in the putting, as they say, you've had a lot of success early on. And from outside looking at it's easy for people to just think, wow, he's blessed or fortunate. And you are. And you would acknowledge that God's been good and put you in position to succeed. But it's coming a lot of hard work. And they don't see all the grind that goes behind it. And how much effort you put into it and so forth. And I can attest to that firsthand. And it's so excited that to have you. Well, as we wrap up, we can continue so many valuable lessons and topics and things to touch on. And there'll be more opportunities. But just grateful to have this conversation with you. Grateful for your friendship. One of the things we'd like to ask every guest toward the end of our conversation is if you could go back to the age of 25 and look at the lessons you've learned and experiences you've had since then, what would you change? Now, I have to kind of reframe this question because you're only 30, a fresh 30 at that. So maybe you need to go back to 18 to 22 or at any point in time. Yeah. Just know what you know now and experiences you've had. What would be one lesson that's a can't miss lesson that would lead to long-term success for those listening? Yeah, I think such a good question. You know, I think I had to go so many places. One, I think, I gotta give two. Well, allow that. It's fine. Yeah. Because I think one, it has to be you gotta have an anchor in life. You're gonna have ups, you're gonna have downs. And for me, my anchor is in the Lord and his steadfast love for me and how it never changes. And my walk with him is full of ebbs and flows, but his love for me is steadfast and that's my anchor. I think the second thing I would say, and I talk about this all the time and you know this about me is laborics. You know, when I look back at my life and even as you were just mentioning, people have said like the amount of success I've had in real estate in the first two years and this crazy, you've only been doing it for two years and there's truth. Yes, I've been doing it for two and a half years, but I've been trying to lay bricks for a long time. And a lot of people, they don't see that. And I don't care that they don't see that, honestly. For me, I come every day with the fault pattern of I want to lay this brick as perfectly as this brick can be laid. And tomorrow, I want to lay another brick as perfectly as that brick can be laid. Others can share with me what the house might look like one day. I don't care. I love laying bricks. I love laying bricks of a learning. Whether that's through books, I love laying bricks spiritually, spending time in the Word and prayer and time with the Lord and time at our local church. I love laying bricks physically and laying a brick and trying to stress my body and cold tub and sauna and workouts and all of those things. I love laying a brick and work and understanding that each and every day I want to lay that brick with clients and relationships and partners as best as that brick can be laid. And I don't know what tomorrow is going to look like. And I don't care to know. I just know that today I want to lay that brick as perfectly as it can be laid. So my one piece of advice, if I could continue, if I could go back to 15, 18 or even 25, it's keep laying those bricks each and every day as best as you can. And sometimes that brick's easy to lay. And sometimes that brick's really hard to lay. But just lay it as best you can that day. And then do it again the next day. That's incredible wisdom at such a young age and just well said the insight. You know, often as you said, we don't know what that house is going to look like in the end. And you even mentioned not caring what that looks like too often. We're focused on man, I've got this seemingly insurmountable house to build in front of me. How am I going to do it? And the reality is, it's done one brick at a time. One brick at a time. And I don't have to focus on that if I do, I'm going to be overwhelmed. And you know what's funny, man? It's like, we, you almost can't look at the house, right? Like I'll share with you the other day. Like another brick I love laying is listening to podcasts and learning and studying and like all these things. And I was listening to this guy that you and I were, you know, I was telling you about that is he studies people that are unbelievable at making decisions. And he talked about how think of massive, massive companies that have been built, like Amazon or Apple. Bezos and Steve Jobs didn't know Apple was going to be Apple. That's right. He didn't know Amazon was going to be Amazon. He just kept laying bricks. And if he would have, he had no idea what the vision was going to be. And you have no idea where it's going to take you. But if you just continue to fall in love with the journey and lay bricks, and that's what we talk about, like, I don't know what clockwork's going to be like in five or 10 or 20 years. And transparently, I don't really want to know. I just want to keep laying bricks with you. And like, what can we, what type of brick can we lay today and keep laying it again tomorrow and then do it again the next day? And like, that's fun. And it's exciting. Not to know, right? I love not knowing. Not knowing the end and being surprised and knowing that, okay, we'll see what the good Lord has in store for us. And that's the incredible lesson. And man, so good to sit down and hear more about your story. And I'm sure others are going to benefit from this. And we're grateful to be doing this together. And so we don't know what the lay ups and give me this podcast hasn't stored. But we are incredibly thankful for you listening, tuning in. And we would love if you would subscribe, follow us, Apple, Spotify. Give us a listen. We're excited for the guests we're having the content that is coming your way. And again, we couldn't do it without you guys. So truly, truly grateful, humble for the opportunity to be able to put this content out. Shout out to William Rainey, William Rainey, photo, our guy. This would not be possible without him. He is incredible behind the scenes. And he deserves all the credit really for this and his hard work. So thank you guys for tuning in again. Have an awesome day. See you soon. Go lay a breath.