Ep. 07 | "Conversations with Tommy's Mom"

What's up, guys? Welcome back to the Leaf Fast podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Joe, with Tommy. Hey, guys, we're gonna be talking about some baby Tommy. I guess if we're gonna. Let's title this baby Tommy. This talk is Baby Tommy.

I'm good with that.

We're going to. We're gonna find out a little bit more about the upbringing of Tommy, what it was like growing up with Tommy, because we're gonna talk to his mom about Tommy.

This is gonna be so uncomfortable, by the way.

Well, I'm looking forward to it.

Well, I don't. I'm not one to like. Yeah, I'm gonna pull the band aid off fast guy.

Okay. Well, I mean, I think that's a good approach. But, you know, this just for the record, I want you to remember this was your idea to call your mom. So I don't know how this is gonna end up or what she's gonna say. Obviously, just like every other episode, this is unscripted, but I'm very curious about a lot of things.

But we're gonna. Yeah, this. You may never see this. We may cut all this, but let's.

I'll leak it.

Let's call my mom. Let's see what's going on with her today. Hey, mom. So you're. You're. You're live on the.

You are on air right now. Well, it's gonna be. It's gonna be more awkward for Tommy because, I mean, this may be your first podcast, but we're absolutely going to grill Tommy, right? No, we're not going to grill him, but we do want to know some things about, you know, Tommy as a child from a mother's standpoint. If you've got some good Tommy stories, we've got some good Tommy questions, and I'm just excited to hear these answers because I don't know anything about baby Tommy.

I don't know how much I can say on the air about that baby Tommy.

Well, we got a great podcast editor. He's phenomenal his job. So whatever slips and Tommy's like, nope, we'll get it. We'll take it out. So you, you just be free and say whatever you want to because I think it's fascinating. Like, obviously, you know, you. You're proud of your son, and we're proud of him too. I mean, like, he's. He talks about, you know, just kind of being self made to a degree and like, learning these things the hard way. And nobody can shake his confidence because the person that he's Became. And I think a lot of that personally starts with his parents. You know, I think that's something that you guys probably instilled into his DNA.

Yeah, it's all my mom's fault. Like, if you, if you spend 20 years telling a kid they can do no wrong, eventually they believe it.

Oh, well. So if you guys, let's do it like this. You know, if people have comments or concerns or complaints, then we'll just have him email your mom because she's the. No, no, no. Don't email Tommy's mom. I'll come after you. So what was it like growing up? Well, not growing up. What was it like with Tommy as he was growing up? Like, was he a unique kid? Was he, was he normal? Was there anything that you saw that stood out about him that was like, man, this kid is just not right, you know, anything like that that you noticed?

He was always really smart. He caught on to everything real quick.

Okay.

And I did, I did tell him he could do anything. And I truly, with all my heart believe that and still do, that he can do anything. He does. His mind, too.

So what age did you think Tommy really started, like, taking that rental with it? When did it sink in? And he started believing that.

It was probably in high school when he started believing it.

When do you think you said kindergarten, basically. So I, I negotiated my way out of naps in kindergarten. So, like, and my kid.

That's a skill.

That is, that is a, that is a full blown, like, I got tired of taking naps and decided I wasn't. So I would work ahead. And I think that that was, that was when I started really understanding. Like, I could probably get away with stuff.

Yeah.

And so there's some good, there's some good kindergarten stories, Mom. Like, you know.

Yep. He loved his kindergarten. His kindergarten teacher was his first love. And she had a red dress. And he loved her red dress, the way it flowed on the floor when she sat down at story time. And he would get mad if he talked about his kindergarten teacher.

Oh, no. Well, I'll definitely not talk about your kindergarten teacher, but I was the same way. I had.

I mean, I'm not still mad. That's weird.

No, I, I, I. So go ahead.

And she, she loves, she loved him as much as he loved her. Her name is Ms. Hartley. And he, she still calls and talks about plumbing.

Well, okay.

Well, she's 35 years, buddy. 35 years of memories.

That's crazy.

Yeah, that's right. And she would let, she would let him read the Stories in kindergarten to the rest of the class.

Wow. Did you negotiate that too? Is that something you.

I think she just wanted me to shut up.

So she had. She was trying to get you to say. Say so much stuff so you'd be talked out.

No.

Oh, what a smart teacher.

So. Well, you know, idle hands are the devil's work.

I do know that, actually. I know that very well. Well, so, like, let's. Let's talk about Tommy pre high school, like, elementary school. I mean, it's not like developmental things, you know, not like was not. I mean, what kind of grades Tommy make?

Let's.

Let's start right there. What kind of grades did Tommy make?

Tommy could have made straight A's if he wanted to.

So, you know, that's the pretend pioneer. Tommy could have made straight A's. It.

That's your mom. That's your mom loving you and believing the best.

But he was always on honor roll.

Oh, were you?

But he.

He could have made it elementary, middle school. Yeah, for the most part. Middle school. In middle school, grades were like, the way to get things. Like, my mom and dad, like, were would reward me with, you know, a couple of dollars, you know, $5 for every A. And so, like, for a kid in our situation, $25 was a big deal.

Yeah, no, I remember that.

Yep. And he went to space camp. And what was it? Tell me.

Yeah, I was a giant nerd that. That started. I remember. Yeah, we'll throw up some. We'll throw up some pictures of space Camp.

Oh, yes. It's gonna be awesome.

Yeah, that was awesome experience. I think for him to get to go to space camp at school for a week. Got permission from the principal for him to be absent from school for a week to go to space camp.

Oh, it was during school. That's really cool.

Yeah. So the mom and dad always. Always let me try things.

That's. That's important. Like, that's a good thing to. To bring up.

Even when they didn't under. Like, even when they didn't understand them. I think dad would probably have much rather me been out. I got some sort of pitching camp or trying to figure out how to throw a ball camp. Okay, let him go. Let him.

Like, so what all things. I mean, can you remember that you tried, you know, that your parents were behind you? That was just different, you know, like, then. Or was there anything really different? Was it just the fact that they just supported you, you know?

Well, I mean, I quit playing football to go be the mascot, so, you know, that was that was one thing. And I. I don't know. I just. I dropped out of all. I changed schools in 10th grade and came into it and, like, was like, oh, I think I want to do musical theater. And I think, oh, I want to go try being the mascot.

And what a job.

They just sort of went, okay, do.

You have any mascot moves you can do right now?

I mean, not sitting down. I've got some moves.

Okay, we'll get them. We'll get them to you guys. I still want to see Tommy mascot photos. So back. Back in elementary school, before we get too far ahead, I want to know this because I just. For my own personal knowledge, but, like, did. Was Tommy. Did he fight you a lot on having to do homework and home projects and stuff that was assigned to him? Was he one of those guys that could just pick it up and do it, or did he just hate doing it?

He's a procrastinator.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I knew that.

Yeah. Yeah, he's definitely. He gets that from his dad, though. They both procrastinate. So that's. That's a DNA thing.

Well, I mean, I don't. I feel the same way, but you'll get it done.

It's gonna be on his time, right?

No, I. I would do the same. Like, me and my mom would get into arguments because she would always tell me this is just a me story. Like, she'd always tell me, no one cares, Daniel. Yeah, I know, but I'm gonna tell you. I'll tell you. This is my. No, my mom would tell me. She'd say, hey, son, I'm going to be home from work at 5:15, and you better have taken the trash out and checked the mail. And like, that's just one trip. I can carry the trash can out to the road, check the mail, and come back. And it takes like, five minutes. And I'd always wait until like, 4:55 to do it. And she'd always get mad at me. And I'm like, mom, this is getting done. Like, I did it. Everything's done. I didn't miss anything.

And I've had that conversation a million times.

Well, that's. That's what I want to know about that. Because I feel like me and you are similar in that, like, I sent some of the stuff.

Yeah.

So for sure, moving into high school. You have something you want to say?

No.

Okay. No, no.

I'm trying. I'm just crossing my fingers that we get out of this segment without me looking terrible. Okay.

What can we do? Let's get some terrible time. No high school. That's for. Yeah, that's for a special podcast. We'll do nothing but terrible Tommy stories.

I'll miss. I'll miss another Mother's Day by accident. And she'll. She's like, she'll come back on the podcast. I did that once, actually.

Oh, no.

Yeah, he did.

Oh, no.

We won't talk about that either.

Nope. I think.

Let me back up into elementary minute. One time we came home from. I guess I picked him up at school or whatever from daycare, and he had just got a kitten that he had pulled, and it came to the car every time we drove up in the yard.

Why are you telling this story?

Please continue. Please continue.

And we drove up in the yard, and here comes the kitten that I did not see. You know where the story's going?

Oh, no.

I ran over the kitten, and Tommy got out and saw the cat. And he starts screaming at me, you murderer. You murderer. You steal my cat.

I might have been a little dramatic as a kid. I might have been a little dramatic.

Well, I mean, you're a kid that just saw a dead cat, so I get.

Was terrible. He was screaming bloody murder, and he would not talk to me. And it broke my heart because I.

Oh, man. And what's great. This is the best. This is where the kitten has been. The most valuable thing that's ever happened to me is that that silly dead cat has gotten miles and miles and miles. Because anytime we're in a social situation or talking to people and my friends, I can always make my mom cry because I'll bring that story. I'll be like, mom, you remember that one time you killed the cat? And I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe. And she immediately starts crying. And so I know I've got 100% chance of making my mom cry in horrible.

You're horrible, Tommy. Well, I wonder if that's why Tommy missed the Mother's Day. Maybe he still has a little of.

That little latent animosity.

We may need to sit down and have a little intervention about some emotions that are still tied to that.

His dad came home that day. He thought somebody in the family had died because Tommy's on the swing set crying, and I'm in the kitchen cooking supper, crying.

Oh, oh. I want to talk about a story. Is dad with you?

Yeah, I like to put you on the six phone.

Okay. So you don't do that. I don't want him to hear this part of the story. That's why I was asking. I got. This is the best. You've never heard this story. I just. It just. I don't know why I don't tell this story more often. I got in a fight in middle school, and they sent me home early on a bus by myself.

Whoa.

That's how bad this fight was.

VIP treatment, bruh.

I rocked this kid. I won't ever forget it. Nick Schuller. He walked around with two black eyes for about a month. I rocked this kid. They sent me home on a bus, and my dad was sitting on the front steps of our house waiting on me when I got home. And I get off the bus. And so we lived kind of out in the country. And so the bus, you know, doors open on the right. Our house was on the left side of the road, and on the other side of the. Across the street from my house was just a cornfield. The buses open.

Oh, no.

The bus doors closed, and the bus drove off, and my dad. I was just walking across the cornfield. I wasn't about to go home, and my dad stood up and yelled at me, don't come home. I stayed. I stayed hidden in that cornfield for hours. Hours. Until my mom got home and, like, calmed dad down. That was the best. Oh, what did. What did you. What did you think was gonna happen? I mean, I thought dad was gonna kill me. What's your take on that situation?

Well, you know the rule. If you got in trouble at school, you got in trouble at home, and so I expected for you to get in trouble at home.

What caused the fight?

Was it other kids? Other kids. So we rode the same bus. Nick and I have been friends for years now to this point, and we were friends, like, literally the day after. We had to go to, like, the school counselor, you know, because we had gotten a fight. And we walked in, she was like, oh, Nick, who did that to you? He's like, he did. And we were friends already. Like, we were friends. We were fine. But we got in a little, like, scrap, like, argument on the bus. And the next day, all the kids were like, oh, Tommy beat you up. Tommy beat you up. And then they were, like, talking crap to him to get him to, like, come after me. Yeah, we got a bathroom, like, bathroom break as a whole class. And all the boys went to the bathroom together, and they started. And he got rocked.

He.

He needs to learn how to take a jab, cuz he did not duck his head at all. I caught him twice, and it was over.

But y' all were friends. Like, immediately.

Immediately. I mean, like, minutes later, I was so mad. I was getting in trouble for that. But mom came home and eventually calmed dad down and was like, all right, you won't get a spanking. Come home. Because I was not coming home. I was not. It was not happening.

I mean, you had food. You had corn, like a year supply. You get a little.

That was good. That was good, Mom. Tell the story. It's fun when you tell it, but tell the story about when I decided I wasn't getting spankings anymore.

Oh, my God.

Oh. And if you're. If you're listening, I grew up in a household that hit kids. All right? So I'll tell you where to go find them if you're part of social services.

Tommy was probably about, what, 13, maybe 14, 14, 14. And he had back talked to me, and I told him, I said, wait till your dad gets home. When dad got home, I told the dad what he done. And so Tommy decided he wasn't getting spanked anymore. He had gotten too big. And Mark was always. Didn't want to spank him because he probably hadn't thanked him five times in his whole life up to the of the day. And so he. He was kind of backing off from it. And I said, well, if you can't handle him now, you'll never handle him when he's 16. Well, that was the wrong thing to say, because at that point, he bent Tommy over like a pretzel over his knee and standing up and wore him out.

It was. It was, to this day, the worst. Like, I don't know. I think I, like, blacked out at some point in time, but.

It might have been for fear.

So mom had said earlier, like, I'm gonna spank you because your mouth. And I was like, mom, listen, look, you can punish me. I know I did something wrong. Have you meet. Negotiating my way out.

So you were Tommy at 14.

Yeah, yeah, listen. But I'm too big to get spanked. I'm definitely. I'm as big as you, mama. Like, I'm not getting spanked. And so she tried to spank me. And they had. I remember this so vividly. They had this waterbed. You guys remember water beds? Yeah. So they had a waterbed. So she tried to spank me, and I would hop the waterbed, and I'd run around and hop the water bed and run around. I was running from her in her room. She had me caged in, but I wasn't gonna let her spank me. I was making a point and she said, wait till your dad gets home. And I was like. I remember thinking, I just got this visual. Oh, bro, it's everything that you imagine. I was jumping the bed and running around. And so I remember thinking, like, all right, well, dad, I can handle dad. Man to man. We're gonna negotiate this, right? And so dad came home, and he's like, boy. You know, he always called me boy when I was in trouble. He said, boy, come here. And I went in, and I remember dad saying, you know, talking to me about it, and he's like, all right, well, come here. You got to get this spanking. And I was like, no, sir. Like, listen, I'll take whatever punishment. You can ground me, whatever. I won't go see friends. But I. Dad, seriously. And he's like, boy. And then he got mad, and then I did the same thing for him. I would, like, hop the bed, run around, hop the bed. And then mom said, if you can't handle him when he's 14, what are you gonna do when he's 16? And you ever seen Stretch Armstrong? Those old toys where he could grow? My dad's arm went an extra five feet across the bed. Like, he. I don't know how.

Challenged him, and he rose to the occasion, bro.

He grabbed me by the back of my neck and the back of my knees at the same time. Like, literally, this is how I have. And he folded me in half.

Oh, my gosh.

Knees to chest. Had my butt sticking out of his arm on this end.

Oh, my gosh.

Was wearing me out.

That's like, you talking about you running and jumping over the bed is like, what I feel like pet owners, like, when they're trying to catch a gerbil for somebody to take home. Like, and he's trying to get away from. Like, that's the mental image I have on my. But I feel like Mark could just come in here right now and still do the same thing. Like, you challenged him once, and he made his mind up no matter what.

Yeah, no, that's. That's exactly how my dad is.

Like, but you're the same way, too.

He's. He's that old country song. Like, I'm not as good as I once was, but I was good once as I ever was. Yeah, that's my dad. Like, the moment you challenged him, he would rise to the occasion.

Well, that's. That's you.

He might die doing it.

That's also you, too. Yeah. So a lot of this is bringing some clarity to just me knowing you, Tommy. Like, this Is great.

What else?

What are the stories we got here? High school age?

Well, at one time we had. Was it a little Dodge coat?

Yeah. One of my first cars was a five speed four cylinder Dodge Colt. It looked like a little egg. It was like a geometro back in the day. Bring that blue, please, for the love of God.

Well, Mark and I were in town for. At a funeral and someone came in the funeral home and said, glenda, I need to tell you something about Tommy. And I said, oh my gosh, what? And they said, well, you know, we've had a lot of rain and there's a lot of rain down by the post office. And he's driving that little coat through that thing like a madman. Like a wild man. We got home and he had parked that car back at the. Exactly where it was when we left.

We marked the tires so we would know exactly.

But you weren't supposed to drive it.

No, we weren't supposed to be driving.

Oh, okay.

So I'm in a car I'm not.

Supposed to drive and him and his friend are running through this pond pretty much that had rained like several days. And it, they had got it so wet that it wouldn't start for what, three, four days?

Yeah, I flooded it so bad it wouldn't start for three days. And it was, it was rough, man. We were, we were Dukes of Hazzard jumping that thing over. Over railroad tracks.

That's, that's. Did you mark the tires? The.

Oh, yeah, 100. We went out like, we had a dirt driveway and marked the exact. Where the tires were, where they were needed to be.

The level of intentionality in that is just. It's so funny to see it scale to today.

But.

Oh, that's so funny.

Yeah. So all you parents out there, all you parents out there that have little hellion kids and you're like, this guy's never going to amount to anything. You never know, they could be in Forbes one day.

Listen, I just want to say this. That is, in my opinion, the power of spanking your kids. I'm going to say that and I'm going to leave it. I'm a spanking kids believer and I will leave it at that.

Everybody. Everybody that was raised in the south shaking their head right now. And everybody that was raised in California.

Or like reporting this report right now. I just.

Spanking ain't never hurt nobody.

Somebody starting to go fund me for my kids right now.

Yeah, that's also great relationship advice.

What's that?

A good spanking never hurt nobody. You struggling at home. You need to try that one.

Oh, my gosh.

It's my favorite. By the way. Saying things like that in front of my mom is, like, my favorite thing to do.

I've heard you do that before. And I was like, oh, my God, Tommy. No, that's funny. I feel so bad for you.

You put me on edge. As much as.

Yeah, I like to push mom to the limit.

At one time, when he was out. Philip at home, and he was in high school, and he was going to. We had, like, Youth Sunday at church, and he was supposed to be the speaker, and he kept saying snot. And I thought if he says, not one more time. And I finally, when we got home, I said, please quit saying snot now. He says things for us. And I said, I wish you could say snot.

I. I just want to go on record and say, I've never heard Tommy say a bad word ever.

You're a damn liar.

I am a liar. One thing that'll probably never get released is the blooper reels that I like to make after all of our videos, which I can watch for days and just laugh until I'm blue in the face. But.

And it's basically just a bunch of me cussing.

Those are mainly consisted of, like, one or two words.

And I love it.

It's is great.

So we did karate together.

Yeah. My mom. Yeah.

What?

Yeah. Okay. So did martial arts for a long time. But, like, one of the cool things was that we did it sort of like my mom did it with me. So, like, my mom did martial arts with me and all this other stuff.

Took the class or.

Yeah. No, no. Yeah, Took the class with me. It was a big group class. I was. We were in there with adults, you know, kids were in there with adults. And it was a mixed and mixed age class. And, like, it was great. Like, my mom. My mom and I really, like, grew up sort of being best friends. So, like, she did everything. She chaperoned all the trips, Knew all my friends. My house in high school was two blocks from my high school, and it was the house. We had a pool in the backyard. You know, people. I'd come home and kids would be at my house.

Yeah, no, I'm familiar with that house. I think everybody has a friend who had that house.

Yeah. And so mom was always. Mom and dad both were always like, I'd rather Tommy be here acting up then, you know, so they always had a house that was super welcoming. And, you know, all my friends felt totally comfortable there. You Know, it was great. It was great growing up in that kind of environment. But we did. We had the house. We were the house everybody hung out at.

And I always went on that field trip because if I was there, I knew what they were doing.

Well, oh, here's.

Let's ask a mom a story.

Oh, okay.

Ask mom about Thelma and Louise. Let's just let her tell that story.

Mom, I want to hear about Thelma and Louise.

We went on a field trip to Waterloo Flower in Columbia, and I had a car load, a van load of kids. And another parent had a van load of kids.

Wait, wait. We got 95 Ford Econo Star. Yeah. Yeah. Teal. Yeah, Teal. Green Aerostar. Yeah. I hear geniuses pick green.

So we're coming back down the interstate, and so the kids don't want. We're. They're going past me and Tommy, and all of them are going, don't let them pass us. Don't let them pass us. So when they get closer to me, I would ease, you know, go down on the gas a little bit, get on up ahead of her as well. Her group must have been doing the same thing because she would, come on, try to get on up there by me, too. So we. We kept doing that back and forth, back and forth. And we got stopped by highway patrolman because we were passing each other. She would go past me and I would go past her.

They didn't get stopped because they were passing each other. They got stopped because they were doing 100 miles an hour down the interstellar. Absolutely. She's denied this for 25 years. She absolutely. She absolutely got the three digits and.

No, you're lying, Tommy.

No, just. Well, we are past the statute of limitations here. I don't think you can. If there are police officers.

And this was also on a Friday. So we were coming back. And then. So like every. We're at a very small school by the time Friday Night Football happened, and I was playing like she had parents were there. This other kid's parents were there. Mom is mortified because everybody has heard about it, everybody's asking about it. And this cop ringed her out on.

The side of the road.

He was like, I can't. You guys are adults. You've got kids in the car. He was reaming her out.

It was epic, both of us.

It's all because Tommy instigated this.

Yeah, that's right. It's all your fault. He said, I thought I was going to have teenagers up here. I never expected to have two grown Women. I mean, he really did break his uncle. I felt so bad because I had never had a speeding ticket. I'm not having any kind of ticket.

Never a speeding ticket in her life, and she gets her first ticket.

He didn't give us a ticket.

Oh, he let you guys off.

He just. Yeah, he just sucked at us, and I was out in tears. But he knew he was doing his job. He was getting the results he wanted. But by the time we got. And we were probably doing 80, 85. But by the time we got to school, all the kids were saying, we're doing a hundred. And so everybody was talking about it, so they started calling me and this other lady gentleman Louise.

Oh, my gosh.

Monday morning when I went to work, I worked at a bank. And when I went to work and I opened my office door, someone, one of the tellers had went in there and put a strobe light in my office and put speech tickets all over my office. So all day long, every time I opened up the phone book or opened up a folder, it was a ticket laying inside. Everyone.

Oh, my gosh. That's so funny.

And they still call us salmon weeds when they see us.

Were they mad about. When were the kids like. Like, nowadays you can't do that. Or.

The kids thought it was hilarious. They thought it was great. Parents didn't care.

Yeah, none of the parents care.

None of the parents said anything.

No. Yeah. So. So I'm not. I have a little wild hair that I get, honestly.

Oh, I know. Yeah, I know you have the wild hair. But you're saying that you inherit it from your.

I get it. Honest, 100%. There's no. There's no doubt in that. And. But, like, I get. I get all the good things, too. Like, all that. That self confidence comes from my mom. That work ethic comes from both parents. But then that competitiveness comes from my dad. Like, everything good about me comes from them. And everything bad about me comes from my aunts and uncles. And that's just a fact. I mean, 100%, my aunts and uncles are contributed to everything bad about me.

I think we have an aunts and uncles story in one of our classes.

Yeah, we probably do. We probably have too many.

It's the beach one. You talk about the beach. I won't go in. I won't spoil it. That was a good one. You guys just have to go watch it.

Yeah, for sure. So, like, that was. Yeah. I grew up. I grew up in a great house, and it's so funny. Be like, to see, you know, how you grew up and how that influences you now, looking back on it and having to, you know, try to gain some perspective and figure things out. But, you know, hopefully, hopefully the fam's proud and we've done, you know, we've done a good job, I think, making sure that, you know, we. We've taken care of people and that kind of thing. But, and, and, and it came full circle, you know, my. And we could go on days and days, but like both. My first company with Milviewer, the one that got acquired, you know, both of my parents worked full time for me, so they retired. Milviewer was like a third career for my mom. And then she came and did sales, my dad came and did install and, you know, logistics, and that's, That's a completely different dynamic, having your parents work for you, you know, and. But you can attest to this. No one here feels like they work for me. No, everyone feels like they work with me because I don't. Like Daniel said earlier that I'm the boss. Like, I'm not the boss ever. Like, I.

By time, I mean, by.

It really wasn't any different for me because you've been telling me what to do all your whole life. So it's just something started at 14.

When he decided he wasn't having any.

More spankings, except for that day. Then we had to tell him who was lost.

Yeah, I don't think I got any after that day, though. Like, honestly, I think that was the.

I think your dad's right outside that door waiting on you to say something to mess up.

Oh, so I'll tell you the last time my dad had any sort of physical confrontation with me. And then we can. We can actually end the podcast.

I feel like that's a good place.

Yeah. Yeah. So the one thing that I learned from my dad more than anything else was respectful respect for my elders, respect for other people. And, and he's not a. He's not a boisterous guy. Like, I get. I get my personality probably from my mom and how I interact with people from my mom. My dad's a little bit quieter, a little bit more reserved, but when it's. When it's game time, he's a gamer. Like, he's ready to go. And he'll be. He'll be loud, he'll be aggressive. Like, when it's. And he'll talk. He talks the best trash.

Like, I can't even imagine.

He doesn't talk. He doesn't. He's not, like, vote. He's like, I got you. He just gives you looks. And my wife's like that. And if you ever get him and my wife together, it's a trip, but. So I don't know how. I was probably 16 or 17, and I had a date that night, and mom knew it, and she was like, hey, if you don't get your room clean, like, you're not going out tonight, so just. Just know that. And I said, okay, cool. I'll get it procrastinated. Halfway through the day, she's like, hey, you got to get your room clean. And so mom has the tendency to, like, continuously remind you.

Yeah.

Whether. Whether or not you have time left or not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's.

She's.

She's what some people would call nagging. I would call it lovingly reminding, you know, Like, I just. No, she was nagging me, so. So she was nagging me all day long. All day long. And finally I knew I had enough time. I was planning on just throwing everything in the closet anyway, so it wasn't take me very long.

And I knew that she knew.

Yeah. Yeah. So she was like, tommy, you got to get. And finally. And I didn't. And we'd kind of been going back and forth, and my dad was sort of walking down the hall to, like, get involved, and I didn't see him have my back turned to him. And I said, I will get it. And I slammed my door. And I didn't. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't cuss at her or anything. I think I slammed my door and turned around to walk down the hallway, and my dad met me, grabbed me by the neck, by the throat, picked me off the ground and put me against the wall and said, boy, if you ever speak to your mother like that again, I'll end you. Oh, man. And, like, I mean, I don't know how quickly I cleaned up the puddle underneath me after it was all over, but I needed to. But, like, he scared the mess out of me.

But how quickly did you clean up your room?

Immediately.

See, and that's. That is my case in point right there. Nobody was abused, but the point got very well.

Fantastic story. But no, like, that was one of those things where. Like that, you know, we. We were as a family that you can. You can discipline where there's love. Right. And that's. That's a. That's a great practical application for the. For the workforce, for when you're building teams. Like when I worked at Milviewer, and things went wrong. And when we were running our first company, we disciplined all the time, but we had such a culture of love that discipline was just. It went right inside of it. Right. And so I got disciplined as a kid all the time, but I didn't. It wasn't like, you've got to balance out discipline with love and you've got to. It's not. You're not trying to balance scales. Is that our house and my parents love me so much. And I grew up in a culture of love in my house that when it was time for discipline, I never thought they didn't love me.

Sure. Because that was the foundation. Yeah.

It wasn't. They didn't love me. It was. I did something wrong. So it was always on me when I got disciplined.

And then dance in the kitchen.

Yeah. Like so. Yeah. You can't have, like, my parents hate me because they spanked me in an environment where they also danced with you in the kitchen and taught you how to love good music like Motown and the Doobie Brothers. You can't. Those two things are incongruent. Right. So it's the same way in the business world. If you're a business that has to consistently discipline and grow and grow through discipline and make people better. If you're going to be training people, you had better also have a culture that celebrates those people and loves those people. Because if you only have discipline, you'll have turnover. But if you have love, you have buy in.

Right.

You know, and that's a. That's a big thing. And that's. That.

That is a very big thing and has made.

And has made all the difference in us because we had tremendous buy in and all of our businesses. And I learned that as a kid. I learned that at home. And then just, you know me, metaphor me, I took it and made it a business application and used it. But a lot of our success was built on how much tremendous buy in we had. And all of that I learned through for my parents. So. So, mom, thank you so much for being on today and all the, all the lessons.

Well, it was my pleasure. I thank you for everything you've done. And you are an awesome young man.

He is. He really is. Thank you for joining us.

All right, love you, Tommy.

All right, love you too. Bye.

Hey, guys. We have an Instagram. It's Lead fastco. We post content daily. We have a website that's got tons of stuff. It's leadfastco.com, if you haven't already subscribe to the podcast check us out on our social media. We have Facebook as well. Lead FastCo, and we'll see you next time.

And she was doing a hundred all day. 100 all day.

Let's get that in there. Yeah.