A Candid Conversation on Life, Leadership, and the Stories Behind a Global CEO with Chad Mattix

S1E29 A Candid Conversation on Life, Leadership, and the Stories Behind a Global CEO with Chad Mattix
This episode of The Wired Garage with Pops features Chad Mattix, founder and CEO of Kinnetix, an IT field services company supporting customers around the world. Chad shares how an entrepreneurial childhood, a paper route, and early exposure to ham radio and custom PC building with his father set the foundation for his career in technology and business. He walks through, starting his first company as a Miami University junior, scaling through law firms and regional clients, navigating tough economic cycles, and learning to balance risk, integrity, and perseverance as a leader. The conversation also explores the human side of entrepreneurship—marriage, family, grief, faith, friendship, travel, cigars, bourbon, and shared rituals that keep him grounded while leading teams across multiple cultures and countries.

Keywords: leadership, entrepreneurship, personal growth, mentorship, family, technology, business challenges, networking, resilience, life lessons
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SEO-friendly keywords: The Wired Garage with Pops podcast, ​Chad Mattix interview, Kinnetix IT field services, Entrepreneurial leadership story, Building a values-driven company, Leading teams across cultures, Handling failure as a founder, Perseverance and resilience in business, Work–life balance for entrepreneurs, Mentors and role models in tech, Miami University entrepreneurship story, Law firm technology and WordPerfect history, Family fatherhood and legacy, Faith and returning to church, Cigars and bourbon conversations, Travel, F1, and bucket-list experiences
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Key Takeaways

• Failure as an efficient teacher
• Chad reframes failure as an “efficient” way to learn, especially when you strip out emotion, ask whether the idea was structured wrong, and iterate quickly instead of getting stuck.
• Many people let one big failure become their permanent stopping point; disrupting that narrative is essential to keep growing.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Failures are efficient, and especially if you have them early enough and you can recognize. And I think this is the other negotiation you have to go through. Did I fail because this just was maybe structured incorrectly? Should I try again? Should we try in different ways? And so I I think you you need to make those assessments as sterilized as possible so the next iteration can be far more for productive. And you can't make it emotional because you make it think like you failed or it was a maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe, maybe the what I was thinking was unreasonable. But as long as you can kind of get past that and try it again or do the alternate approach, you can move forward. But I've seen people that just will take a failure and that becomes the reason why they haven't moved forward. Yeah. And I think you have to disrupt that.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

So my guest is Chad Maddox, founder of CEO of Kinetics. And uh it's an IT field services company whose whose teams support customers around the world. He's built a values-driven organization with people across multiple countries. And he's done it while trying to stay grounded as a husband and a dad and a friend. So in this conversation, we're going to talk about the experiences that shaped him, those hard lessons, and what's like to lead people in multiple cultures. And because this is Wired Garage, we are also going to share a few stories about probably some cigars, bourbons, maybe some other things, music along the way. So, Chad, welcome to the show. Thank you. So when you here we go. When you think back to your childhood, what's a snapshot that really sums up what you were as a kid?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Well, when I was a kid, I always did things that were pretty entrepreneurial. Uh I had a paper route, and I I think I think about that as being a big contributor to I I tried to acquire more routes. I would have 350, 400 Sunday paper delivery. I had to do collections, it would be rain, snowing, and kind of just going through that whole cycle of just getting things done. And uh I always felt like that was a big contributor to never giving up or at least understanding perseverance and how to communicate with people, trying to collect money, putting those things together. And so I think that paper route was a was a big influence in my life. And you know, other things even though I went through school as I got involved in sports, or if I looked at different things, I always was drawn into building things. And and so I my dad um got early into the whole ham radio and custom PC build. And so I learned a lot about computers with my father and just building them from the ground up. I went to Comdex back in Atlanta when it first started. So way before I even was out of high school, I'd gone through a lot of those different types of tech events, and that just influenced me being in technology, even though when I graduated from college, I had a degree in finance. I I never really pursued that. I did in tech.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Did you have any early role models that had a big impact on how you lead or make decisions?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah, uh there's there's been a couple people in my life. Uh my father passed away a couple years ago now, and I think in hindsight, looking at that, he had a lot more influence in my life than probably what I had recognized for the things I just said described. He, you know, encouraged me. He was a paper boy, so I I did that. We we bought TRS 80s, brand new computers, we'd build these things, send me off to these conferences. He just always did that type of building things with me. That that that did a lot. I would even when I started my first company, and I'm graduating from Miami, and I'm explaining to my family that I'm not going to get a job. I'm gonna build this company. He helped me start it. I mean, just was part of that. So it was really an encouragement to that. And then as I was kind of getting into the industry, and and I think this will be a name, Brian, that you know, I I worked, kind of competed with a guy, his name was George Kingston, at a rippy in Kingston. And uh George spent a lot of time with me. And and and still to this day, like every year or two, we'll get together. And he's always been this wise guiding principal of you know, what course I'm going through, why are you doing things this way, and just thinking about that stuff. And so there's there's been a few people like that have been very anchoring. And and maybe just add one more to this. I I went to Miami and this is before they have an entrepreneurship minor. And I um I got involved in programs, and and Miami helped me with an independent study that kind of helped me graduate, used what I was doing with this company called Pinnacle. So there's even like marketing classes where I got independent credits for that to help uh graduate. And there's a guy named Rick Forsyth that donated a lot of money to Miami and some of the entrepreneurship initiatives are out there. And I was going through just really negative, like this is the end, uh, and wasn't sure what I was gonna do. And I go to Chicago and meet Rick. And so Forsyth has since been sold, and I forget who is part of now. I don't know if you guys even remember Forsyth, but it was a it was a big um, you know, three, four hundred million dollar IT service provider. And and I go in there and sit in his office and I tell him about all these things and how bad it is, and like, man, I just don't know what to do. And he's just saying, hey, if you're gonna pick this path in life, you gotta learn to deal with it. And he offered almost not he didn't really, I guess I'd say he didn't offer any, you know, hey, you're gonna be okay, or you know, what was you? He just told me, you gotta dig in and you gotta get around this. I mean, you gotta persevere or don't do this. Don't choose something that you're not willing to have that resiliency. It was so direct, raw that he ended up being right. Like, if you're gonna do something, you you gotta make sure you have that endurance to complete it. So I think the enablement of my father and taking risks and learning how to build things and getting sort of that financial structured guidance from George Kingston to the more just in your face, like be aware of what you're doing and don't complain about the environment that you are knowingly putting yourself into was really grounding. And I think those were big influences in my life.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

I think when we met, I I joined Coolidge as help desk, I believe, in the very beginning, and became IT director pretty quickly. But I felt like, oh my gosh, how would I get myself into because I didn't have much experience. And Steve Dinnicke was that that leading hand that probably didn't tell me so much technology what to do, but he taught me how to be professional, how to reach people. And, you know, like when he would go into a meeting, never he never sat in uh 12, 3, 6, 9 positions. You know, he always sat on that odd because he didn't want to assert himself in that meeting as I'm the I'm the person. You know, he he brought more people in and it was him for that rip reason of gaining that information and value from all of the people. Yeah. So he would even sit against the window sometimes on the with a furnace register, you know, sometimes and just just you would never know that he was that guy, he was a director. And then he would do interviews, your annual reviews, he would sit beside me instead of across from me at a desk. And it was just so disarming in a sense, right? And it just taught me just how to value people and empathy and things. And I think that carried me further than all the technology changes in life, you know, because I think I I could handle that. It was the people piece that I would struggle with. So I just think you're you're right. I mean, George King's son, a people person, knew business, but knew people and knew how to sell or deliver.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, it what we learn from meeting, observing good, and maybe challenging people all add to the fabric of who we are. And so even if it's you know, stressful situations, they can be just as contributory to helping you in your in your future. So, like you said earlier, I mean, I think getting that interaction with people is the most important thing you can do because it helps you navigate through all these things, and you learn. You learn it's gonna be okay. You learn some of those nuances, you learn how to assert yourself in ways that can help bring people together and not always be disruptive or trying to blow things up. Right. There's there's there's subtlety sometimes that can really go a long way of getting through maybe difficult conversations.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Or just people knocking you in the back of the head and taught you less. And I had a couple of those, you know, where they would like say you don't belong in the position you're in because you don't, you know, know law firms. You know, and I had to think think, you know, I was ticked in the very beginning of that. And as I'm driving home, they're thinking, well, they're probably right. And I just had a different engagement with the attorneys just to get to know the practice of law, what they were doing day to day. And now my technology can meet them there. Yeah instead of selling it at the at the at the counter level, right? I'm selling it now in the field. That's where the value is. And you're right, I mean, it's just all different types of ways of people can lead you in a to where we are today. So road the road to entrepreneurship. So we're out of early life in family now. So what was the moment or series of moments that pushed you to actually take the leap as a junior at Miami University to starting your own company? What was that moment or series of moments that that made you want to do that?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah, I I I started building computers for students. I was doing some of these things just out of my dorm room. I was having PC support issues. My dad would help me resolve some of these things. I started helping other people that are out there. And um, I found an office for rent on Walnut Street near uptown, and I just decided to rent an office. And I I just had a a card table and a desk, and I started making brochures and I was sending it around, and then all of a sudden I was helping some insurance companies, some law firms, some accounting firms. So it was it was just it was I want to say it's it wasn't it was intentional, but not I was just gonna do this while I was trying to get through school. Was this in Cincinnati or Oxford? In Oxford. I did this all.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yep. Not much competition there. And so I was able to do that. And then I got a contract with the city of Oxford, and I started doing some work with Miami, and that's where it all kind of started. Met my my wife there, and then she started working um at Great American Life. So she was commuting literally from Oxford to Cincinnati, and I'm trying to make a run at this, and things just kind of happened. And I'll I'll tell you, even how the law firms, so I started working with law firms, it's just funny because this is how life works, but I started working on WordPerfect. So law firms, it was all about WordPerfect, learning the macros, and then WordPerfect gets acquired by Novell. So I'm starting to do all of this networking and that tying that together. And um, group wise comes out. So we're starting to integrate all these things together for the law office using WordPerfect. Then the uh Soft Solutions became these document management systems. So then I moved out of Oxford because everything was in Cincinnati, and we moved into the Kroger building, which is right there in Court Street and Vine Street, and and we started an office there. And it's just I willed my way into it. And in my ignorance of you know, the lack of capital, the the marketing information, the budgeting information, the the road mapping, nothing. It just kind of just happened. So over time I started to to iterate in into that, into that role. And Miami helped support that. I mean, they encouraged me to with resources and building plans and challenging things. And so, you know, like you said before, we're this is our third year in a row being in the uh Red Hawk 50. Also, this is our fifth year being in the Inc. 5000. And I take the greatest pride in the my the Red Hawk 50 just because that school helped make that happen. Right. And now you look at the resources, and uh entrepreneurship is a is a degree. It's encouraged, you know, because you're learning all these different skill sets. I I find most people are very entrepreneurial and you learn a little bit of everything. You you learn the accounting, you learn the IT, you learn that's just the way work is going. And so I I think it's become this natural progression for me.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Was there a time early on where you questioned whether you made the right choice and what kept you going? Was there a moment of doubt before you got that contract?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, I I I think, boy, that's a good, it's a good question because even now I pursue opportunities and we're moving ourselves into a bigger theater of scale. And you still want to make sure that you are able to deliver what you tell people to deliver. So whether it was George Kingston or whatever, is what you what you really wanted to protect was your integrity. So you don't want to say or do things that you can't do. So as you're stretching and getting to that next level, I think that was always the conflict. Like, how do we make sure we're gonna do what we're saying we're gonna do? And I mean, there's been a couple of times where, you know, 2001, that was a tough economic time. And I I end up selling the business to get funding effectively. And I always felt like that was the, I was on this edge of man, should I do this or how do I survive? And I think that's influenced like the business we have now. I think we we're still aggressive, but we want to make sure we're more structured and planned. Uh, because you always have that concern about, you know, will you be replaced or are you going to be able to deliver the right type of services? And it's that perseverance, I think, that you have to hang on to. You have to believe in yourself. You have to be smart enough to know if you're making bad choices or if you're doing something that the market doesn't want or isn't willing to pay for or pay enough for, then you have to adapt. And sometimes I would be slow to do that because I was so determined that that sometimes I'd make decisions too late. I don't know if that was a good answer for you, but that was a I think that was great.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

You you built up that scar tissue and that helped build that resilience. And then you showed over time that perseverance and that persistence paid off. How did those early startup years affect your personal life, family, friendships, just being able to relax when you are building the ship and steering the ship? And were you still able to find enjoyment in those years?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I think my my wife understood. I mean, when we met, we literally at Miami in one of the marketing classes that I was using for my independent study. And I think she just understood the the kind of the ups and downs of that. So I think that is very helpful. And then you start building relationships with people that I think at one point when once people feel like okay, there's some viability here, people will will root for you and they'll help when they can to help nudge you to that to that next level. So I I I think got a lot of friendships that way. I started to travel a little bit, so connected with different people. Back then, you I mean, think about this. I mean, we would go to meetings. I mean, when I met Brian, we'd go to his office. We'd sit in the office and talk. I mean, you you were constantly interacting with people. And so I think a lot of friendships kind of built from that. I think my family was very supportive of that. I mean, there were there were ups and downs there, and they would always never, never say don't do it, but help kind of navigate through some of the guardrails, like, how are you gonna deal with this? Or I I I think it's you gotta be around the right, the right people because being an entrepreneur, sometimes there's there's a long road until you're probably at a stage where you feel like, okay, I think we're gonna we're gonna make it. But I feel, and maybe this is just me, I always have a not a fear, but I always worry about what's next. I mean, I I always want to iterate and improve because all these trends are coming at you and things change so rapidly. I think you have to you have to be comfortable doing that and you have to be around friends that can help deal with that, not bipolar, but you know, you can have ups and downs. And so you gotta be you gotta be around people that they can understand when things are good or things are challenging, they they gotta give you a little bit of leeway there because sometimes it can be unusually stressful because you're so tied into the outcome.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

There was times where you and I met, you'd come up to date in a ride down in Cincinnati or whatever, but there was also times where I believe there was at least once that my wife and I, and you and your wife, we went to a concert down there in Riverbend.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

And it was during those just relationship times, you know, we meet each other's better sides in a sense. And it kind of helped just, you know, build a stronger relationship, friendship with ours, with up between us, um, bringing our families into it and things like that. I think we saw Journey and somebody else down there.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Yeah. Well, and I think it it's uh like as you make different changes, you start having these people that maybe have been customers in the past or peers or partners, and and there's longevity to that. So even though now you're in a position where maybe our paths aren't economically tied to each other, you can, and you've done this for me, and I know you came and visited us. You it's just nice to bounce ideas about what's next, what's in the marketplace, what you know, these are a couple different paths we can go down and where do you think things are going? I mean, it's just nice to have that mentoring and feedback loop where you don't feel like it's something that you you maybe couldn't say to a um a person that you maybe you're working with directly. And so that network, if you can preserve it and build it, it's it's invaluable.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yes, some of those relationships we built, like you said, they weren't they weren't so close, like you know, somebody I worked with directly or something like that. Our relationships had that protection layer. Like I remember, I think it was the NCR Senior Open. That's how how long ago this was, the NCR part. But John Brookbank and I sat on a hill during that golf tournament and just developed how we were going to install iManage, you know, and it was just, you know, by just those casual, friendly, you know, over a beer, bourbon, whatever it was, but just, you know, tossing ideas back and forth. No, no strains of I gotta sign this, I gotta pay this, I gotta do this. It was just throwing ideas. And that's just how our bonds, you know, got tighter.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

And this uh this will be a shout out to uh to John Brookbank. Let's see if we get him. You should maybe you should talk to him on your podcast someday. It that is a guy that when I first met you was a direct competitor. Yes. But we would meet all the time and he we maintained a long relationship and talked through a lot of different things as he went through Core Relate and all the different things that are out there. And uh I think he did a great job of you know trying to connect and talk to people that are that are out there, even though uh at some points we were more direct competitors, but even after that had changed over time, still still uh stayed in contact with him. He's another uh you know great, great resource, great, great uh mentor friend.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

So how do you personally carry the weight of knowing your decisions impact families?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Well, I think I think that can be a positive, I think, is as long as we I mean, I think you have to remember the decisions that you make. And sometimes when we have more economic challenges, that we have to make tougher decisions to preserve the long-term relationships of the greater good of the company. And that can be conflictive because this is a very family environment. I think we take a lot of pride in that if we can improve everyone's skill sets here. So some people might move on and they can have different roles when there are issues here. We we've had several people where family members have have passed and we are there. And when my father passed, there are a lot of people here that that came through that. And so I think that that family element is critically important. I mentioned we just we bought our building about a year ago, and now we're kind of building out huddle rooms and conference rooms. And we have one is called the Aurora Room, and there's a a gentleman, his name was Criff Aurora, and he was one of our first employees in in the Cebu in Manila, and was really critical in building our teams, and he became the leader of that group. And then uh a couple of us went out to Cebu and we we had a kind of a weekend excursion. Then tragically, he had a um propane tank had exploded and and uh unfortunately, you know, a couple weeks later he he had passed, and and then we f I flew back out there and was there for the the funeral, and we saw all these people and they they were all there for him, and and everyone took care of each other. And and so I think having an environment where the culture can support these things, so in good and bad events, and so there's a big plus to this, you know. I think there's a lot of things that can help when families need support. So I'm not saying everything has to be totally integrated unit, like like a traditional family, but it's close. And so if we're profitable and we have good benefits and we can try to grow what we're doing and and and and have viability. we're we're helping other people get get to that next phase or season of life. And now we have people that have had kids that are graduating and going off to and so you're seeing all these things happening which is another way of saying I'm getting I'm getting old.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

It's the the empathy showing uh and the humanity of business.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I I think it's yeah it it pays dividends if you if you if you are authentic and and and if you if you take care of people that reciprocate that. So one of the ways the companies can grow is when people are going beyond just a traditional job because they they want to take care of each other. So sorry I didn't mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Not at all. How do you process failure now compared to earlier in your career?

SPEAKER_00 22:47

I tend to probably internalize it and think about it more where maybe earlier I would run through more negative scenarios that are out there. One of our key leaders his name is Bob Zupinger this is something I like about him is that he can see negative things but always sets the context of yes this happened but we need to think about this and think about that. So I I think maybe more of a balanced approach and giving things time. When a moment occurs that has failure I I think if you can learn from that and adjust and then you can realize okay we can we can adapt through this or maybe when I was younger it would be more of this almost if you feel like you're you know just circling spiraling out of control. I think learning how to break that thought goes a long way. Things end up being okay but it sure doesn't feel that way when it is happening in that moment. You need time to distance yourself from failure sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

And that's so hard to do especially when there's an emotional response but I like how you frame that as an opportunity to update your playbook essentially if you can somehow remove the emotion and I I think distance and time are a great way or at least a great way to help do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Failures are efficient and especially if you have them early enough and you can recognize and I think this is the other negotiation you have to go through did I fail because this just was maybe structured incorrectly should I try again? Should we try in different ways? And so I I think you you need to make those assessments as sterilized as possible so the next iteration can be far more for productive and and you can't make it emotional because you make it think like you failed or it was a maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe maybe the what I was thinking was unreasonable. But as long as you can kind of get past that and then try it again or do the alternate approach, you can move forward. But I've seen people that just will take a failure and that becomes the reason why they haven't moved forward. Yeah. And I think you have to disrupt that. You have to everyone fails. It's yeah you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Yeah. I think that's where the the our wives that we've we have and our kids you know step in with our families when they they'll notice you know dad's not quite right. He's hitting some struggles and sometimes they'll just kick us in the ass and say you know you're better than that just go. Let's just do something different. And I've had some of those times with with my girls being a girl dad just you know especially when I you know watch them grow up oh my gosh you know being a Pops now the empathy is just leaking out of me you know as far as love and and just care and just seeing these little kids growing up and my daughters becoming adults you know and responsible and and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

And you went to a wedding recently right yeah my daughter just got married in December right so you're gonna pay that off in like 30 years? Yeah that's uh that that that number can yeah rack that can ratchet up pretty quickly. It can and I don't mean to keep talking with my my father but I let me tell you this Brian and I I think the biggest definition of success when you think about your daughters especially having daughters I mean I have a son and a daughter if I will I will view my life as a success if my kids look at me the way I looked look at my father. So now my father is is past he's still in my life I still have those messages I don't think there's a better gift that you can have than sharing those moments and and you know and I know how committed you have been to your kids. I remember when maybe one of the first times I met you at Coolidge you had created this is I you were meant to be in project management. You had created a spreadsheet about going to Disney, mapping these things out finding the right rates, the ticket price, how do you combine them in a different way because you were focused on what those kids were going to experience you want to put all those things together. And so you you just layer that year over year over year. That will be remembered and I just think there's just not a better gift to have than that. So sometimes you think about like what you're really good at which that it was you're good at organizing and documenting information. Like I said to you when I saw this podcast being set up like this feels like Brian like it just added all those definitions out there. But again it's that that feedback you get from your your girls that's going to pay dividends for forever.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

It's gonna move on for so long I always worried you know did did I run them or was I a good parent and you know you always think of those things but once they grow up and kind of I want to say step away because I've even you can ask them I I'll call one of them up every once in a while and say hey tell your husband that you're gonna spend tonight and tomorrow with me and you're gonna sleep in your old bedroom so I can hear you pitter patter around his house again. You know, because I you know they're all gone. All three girls are have moved on in different ways and and uh I miss it. Back then I think I I was more of you know complaining or noisy. They didn't get up when they're supposed to didn't clean this up I'd give all that away come just to come back again. Yeah I got the grandkids now I got them to you know fill my life up with that and everything. But no I I got to see 'em they they work you know they have good husbands, two of them do you know one isn't married yet. Um but she's a teacher and she teaches um English as a second language. It's like my gosh so caring and thoughtful about people who who are not in the best place in life here in the country.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

And you know we just didn't do so bad I guess. I didn't ruin them.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

That's a good indicator for success if you can value that over anything else that you do that that will move on for them and when they raise their kids it's the same thing. I mean that's yeah that's that's what we want. So let's talk cigars for a minute bourbon and stuff like that to fun stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

All right so what have you what have you gotten into lately?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

What kind of pairings or what kind of uh interesting um well uh and if you guys ever visit here we have a humidor here so we we we have a pond in the back and we have like Leva we have Atabay we have these different uh cigars so we've been we have maybe a couple maybe three four hundred cigars that will kind of go through some different elements I like the big gauge cigars like the you know even like a Churchill but I I I smoke so quickly that I I need to learn to slow down or relax. But we we've done like Blanton's and Wellers and some different scotches that are out there. You mentioned like the whistlewite yes and like the Caribbean casks. So it we'll like on a Thursday night we'll sit outside especially when the weather is warmer and just sit around and try these different uh cigars and just kind of decompress a little bit and so really and that that is something I truly do enjoy. I'm sure my mother would hate to hear that but uh the a cigar with with a nice neat bourbon of some sort and just kind of sip away and take some of that time that's that's good living.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

At a bay would be a one to try that's a good I I know that I'm thinking of just another way of connecting with people trying to do maybe a solo podcast not that steal is a problem for anything but it's just doing like an ad hoc out in the backyard maybe by the fire you know cigar and a bourbon you know and just talk about this is what we recorded this week. We just met with Chad Maddox and we talk about these things. You'll see it soon when the editing's done and here's what's coming to get released next week or here's what's going on in tech you know right now and just 10 minutes not 30 minutes not nothing big long thing but just something like a casual garage you know personal things you know and so I I'm thinking I'm waiting for the war weather to get a little warmer because I think that's what I'm gonna start doing is the outside walking around and get out of this room and assess and and do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

So it'll be good. With the right people a cigar at the right pace it can be very relaxing and it can it can bring all kinds of we enjoy that time. Got any vacations coming up we go to a place called St. George Island where's that by that is in the panhandle of Florida. It's pretty rural remote it's uh by Appalachia Cola. I'm no longer active but I'm an instrument rated pilot. They have a they have a Oh I remember that always been a dream I want a Cirrus SR twenty two uh plane I would love to be able to fly back and forth there but we we we typically will rent houses there we've looked at maybe but I'm not quite at that point where we want to and it's and it's like I said pretty remote but that might be where we go. My wife and I are we we've got a few things going on in the house and some of the work things have been going on just get away for a weekend. So but sometimes those things slip but yeah that's that's probably kind of our go-to place.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

You gotta throw it on the calendar or it won't happen.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah. That's the truth. But we get we typically get a pretty large house and we want you know my daughter and my son but now my daughter's married and she's got work and and now my son-in-law he has work and uh it's just getting everything together to get everyone to go in the same week it's very very challenging.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah a couple Thanksgivings ago we went to Disney with a family and this is funny I didn't get no spreadsheets out but my I was wondering my daughter did not scan the whole thing out line by line, day by day, hour by hour. And then in two more years we're going again with my grandson's going to be three by then I think when did you go last?

SPEAKER_00 32:40

When did you go to uh do you go to Universal or you go to Disney what's your what's your partner choice?

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Right now it's pretty much been Disney and at that point it was we had to be I kind of spoiled them. We were on the rail so we we stayed at the uh crap what's that Hawaiian one called Polynesian. So that year that I did the spreadsheet I was supposed to be in something like uh the Caribbean something like that and it was a little cheaper and and they called me up and I I remember precisely I'm sitting by my my pool and they say we're we're shutting it down for um renovation so we're gonna move you and they were going to move us to Orleans to the Orleans one. And I said my girls don't know what Orleans is you know they're young and you know this is this is messing everything up. I have a spreadsheet. Yeah it's expensive come on and um they said well what are you interested in and I said well Polynesian which is a f I thought you know it's it's a bigger one star, four star kind of thing. Well for $50, I don't know what they got $50 over course of a week $50 per person will put you in a Polynesian. So we got upgraded to Polynesian. Now you're on the rail you know everything is really brought to you. Yeah now that's all they know. To say anywhere else like all store all star or saying Gsem or anything like that. They don't even think about that anymore. So I don't have to pay for them anymore. That's the good thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

They have their families I just pay for my wife and I but uh this year you can start the spreadsheet now for the grandkids.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Yeah. So this year we're going on a cruise again we go to a cruise with friend some friends of ours that live a block over um every how many cruises have you been on just four so far.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Four five five four or five brother has become a cruiser yeah and my my wife has no no interest in that I will tell you bucket list for me is um in the UK they have these things called narrowboats so there's the canals that would yeah yeah and I want to go from pub to pub I want to be on a narrow boat. That'd be fun and just like spend a month there doing that. It's slow moving some people tell me it looks really great but it's pretty boring. I don't know but I'd like to try that but just relax.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Yeah just slow moving is the benefit if you're going from bar to bar.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

But what's good about my my work like I mean Cebu is a beautiful city and and and you know I get to go there and I mean I've been to many countries and and so I I always feel like it's work but I'll stay and I'll go visit these other things. I think just anytime you go anywhere and just learn about the the culture, seeing the beauty of things and and maybe things you've seen like the Great Wall I've walked on the Great Wall I've been to Timmins Square and saw that stuff and it's uh I mean travel is that that'd be the that's probably the best thing I think could be a good use of your money is seeing and experiencing the world versus maybe owning certain things. It just it'll stay with you.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

So my two new bucket lists are um going to the Lonely World Series Pennsylvania and going to the next winter Olympics in the French Alps that's my That'd be a big one.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

My son and I have gone to the F1 in in Vegas for the last two years.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

That's another one's it's coming up with me now it's F1 I'm just now getting into it. I've been to free NASCAR events but um somehow my my youngest daughter got me interested in looking at it and now I'm watching all these shows on Apple TV Netflix it's great. Yeah Netflix and Apple and all of them have things about it and the new next races I think first races this weekend coming.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

You know I think it's so amazing about it because they they they'll do the I mean it's a teen sport but these these drivers are just it they're it they're unbelievable. I mean the the the the agility dexterity everything goes into that but that race is done on one tank of gas. It just kills me that the cars are that fast that much power and and all the decision making they go through it versus like NASCAR where you'll see the the fuel stops and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Yeah the kinetic energy the braking you know builds that it's very efficient and um and they're so young. These guys are 18 to 24 years old.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yeah. Oh my God. And it must be unbelievable to because they shut down the city I think the locals hate it but it what an interesting like with the sphere and seeing all the like driving by the Bellagio and the fountains are going and and just it's yeah yeah it's it's a you should that's a that's another goal.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Construction downtown was a nightmare for traffic I have family that live that way definitely was not uh not thrilled.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

No and I think they they view it almost as a as a negative because it does it I mean they shut down these screen they block everything so when like you can't just observe it you you have to get the seats so when you're when you're driv when you're going over like walkways and and the side roads they they they basically block it all off and so it's that it's it's a unique event.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

I think the most relatable thing for me was watching the movie F1 recently with Brad Pitt. Yeah um and I I'm so slow on watching shows and latest trends I'm surprised F2 isn't out already by the time I got around to watching F1.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

But Netflix had that serious like it's six or seven seasons so far. Yeah maybe eight of F1 Wow yeah see races and stuff and it's remarkable though.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Crazy yeah Frankie Muniz is like the only F1 driver I know. That tells you how much I know about that sport.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Or sapn that'd be the one it's it's uh it's it's a neat event and the the series is interesting to watch because you can see how the teams struggle and navigate through things and it they've done a great job of branding that and it's become a big venue in the states because F1 wasn't really big here.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yeah now they're in what Miami, New York, Vegas and Arizona I think? Yeah um Austin I thought was one in Vegas. Oh yeah Austin was one. Yep. They'll stay out of the South because that's NASCAR country and they probably just don't appreciate it there.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Aaron Ross P kind of changing the subject here is there a habit ritual or practice that has had an outsized impact on your life?

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Hmm I've kind of gotten a little bit out here again maybe I don't realize how much my dad is in my when I was reading all your questions I guess brought me back to him when my father passed I started going to my mom's church and my mom lives in uh now Brookville Ohio a place called Brookhaven and it's this church called San Francisco. I live in Cincinnati's a drive so I get up I go to lifetime fitness I do a cycling class steam I get in my car and I drive up there and go to church take a couple 80 year old women out to lunch come back home and I've I've been doing that for years now. Well she's got to appreciate that though. Yeah and so that was an interesting kind of got me back into because I'm I'm pretty you know grew up in in the church but wasn't you know terribly active in it and so that kind of got me reconnected that way. So I enjoyed that and you know but there's other things that you know I try to find hobbies and things like that. I mean flying was something I really really wanted to do but it requires so much structure but that's something I I've been thinking deeply about trying to get back into that. I liked flying because it just forced you to focus I mean when when you when the wheels are up you you you gotta do what you need to do to be safe and be able to navigate and and you know land safely um but I I loved everything that that enabled I've just have struggled with the economics to even tie it into work because you know get in certain places like even Nashville now I've I've flew into Nashville a couple of times in a Cessna and I could get there in maybe an hour and a half or whatever. But uh that was nice to do those things but it it just to keep current and to be safe uh it just became problematic but uh I I'm I'm looking for those things those more rituals or routines that just kind of keep you grounded I have season tickets to FC Cincinnati and the and the Reds and I I would try to go to those games with my kids to keep them connected and and sort of finding things to try to get everyone on the on the same page. We became big FC Cincinnati fans I don't know if you've ever been to the games but soccer is growing here in the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

and it's it's fun to watch that I went to one of those games and it was the craziest event craziest college event I've seen in Cincinnati. Yeah it it's wild how much celebration and camaraderie there is during one of those games.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Yeah it's a great venue there's something called the Bailey they get really riled up and our team has done pretty well Miami inner Miami they got Messi that came to town and they've dominated last year but you know when I was growing up did you guys play soccer when you were growing up or yeah I I did but yeah it's become a lot more popular now but it took a long time you know like football baseball that's that's a that's American sports right there. Soccer has taken a lot longer to get just like maybe like F1.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Yeah yeah yeah yeah I I was with you know getting back to church had a couple events not happened to me but happened around me and um I was out of church for 20 15 to 20 years probably um and just because I would blame people for the reasonings some things happened around me and I thought you know I'm not gonna let myself become that stat. You know God is coming after me somehow now he's right now he's being around me. And uh so I got back into church and I I I've really relaxed since then. You know, just that steadiness of of um of going you know being where I think I need to be on a Sunday and and treating it correctly and and um and uh and it's good tuning.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

I mean you get yourself you get there and you you listen to those things sometimes I can get you back on track and reset things.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

So it's it's a it's a nice it is and it's it's good you come up there. That's a drive for you to go up to see your mom because your dad does you I'm sure your mom appreciates seeing you every Sunday and she probably brags about you and everything else, you know, and and uh that's a way that's a good thing chat.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Yeah you don't know how many times you're gonna see your parents you know I mean that's a weird especially as you get and I just can't believe I'm 55 she got excited because I get discounts at like she's naming all these restaurants I can go to Perkins you get you know you can get 15% off and and I even qualify for the seniors group at this church that I grew up in which is just it's terrible it's alarming.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

No my time school class is all 60 to 88 year olds yeah I'll be s I'll be 60 this May.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

It's it's it's crazy. I don't feel it I do feel it I'll correct that. You don't you don't yeah I but you you there's just certain things that you you wear down differently you know like so I mean I love Bob Evans and I went there so frequently at one point

SPEAKER_01 44:00

In time that they would call me the writer because I would bring my laptop. I'd go sit, I would work for a couple hours, and I would have the farmer's choice and just type and type and type. And then sometimes they'd they'd come by and they'd talk to me and we'd talk. And I'd say, Hey, guess what? You survived this chapter.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Well, I'd go see my doctor and I'd call her my fat doctor because we're trying to get my weight down. Um I would tell her, she'd ask me, like, what do you eat for breakfast? I said, every once in a while, I'll I'll get some biscuits, some, you know, bacon. She goes, You might as well have 10 milkshakes. I'm thinking, okay, okay, deal. But I'd rather have the bacon. Uh all right. Well, hey, Chad, this was awesome, man. It's good speaking to you again. It's been a while. Glad so thank you for coming on the show and and and talking about, you know, your work and and uh the the human side of your story of and letting us uh just sit in on what feels like one of those long conversations that people have in your humidor and aero work, you know, of cigars and bourbon, you know.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

You guys are invited to be there. Uh, I thank you so much for the opportunity. I hope you both have great success in the podcast. I think uh I like the format and the venue, and just like anything, just keep at it, building that content because I think the the topics and the things you guys are trying to accomplish is is fantastic, and I'm glad to participate, especially kind of early in the process here. So I look forward to seeing what you guys do, and I do appreciate you know taking the time today or tonight, really, to connect. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for that. Thanks, Chad.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

For those listening, we'll we'll drop links in the show show notes so you can connect with Chad and follow what he's been up to. And if this episode resonates with you, please hit follow or share with a friend who's in their own season of building and figuring things out. Stick around for more episodes of the Wire Garage that pops, where we'll be exploring the stories behind technology and the people you'd love to share pour with. Thanks. Cheers. All right, Jennifer.