Should I not travel anymore?

There's a big difference in those two, I think. And those are that are deploying overseas are gone a lot longer than any tour could possibly be. It doesn't change the fact that I've thought about it a lot. I think about it a lot. I think about it every time I go out, which hasn't been in a while because of the craziness of the world. But as I've gotten older and my family has grown and my roots have gotten deeper in Texas, it occurs to me a lot like man, I'm leaving, I'm leaving home. What am

I leaving behind? And I have an answer to that. It's multi step, but I have answers that I feel like really justify me being gone. Then anyone that travels for a living could listen to this. And I think because I've thought so much about it and I've I've gotten to digest it so much, I think anyone could benefit from these thoughts, even if you're just a weekend or you have to leave for the weekend, or you

just have to leave on Mondays and Tuesdays. And if you're an over the road trucker, or maybe if you are a soldier and you're listening to this, I think it could to you. And that's the question I got today, and me and my buddy Bernie, we're here on this podcast. We're going to dissect that question go through. I'm going to tell you everything I think about it, and we

got a lot of questions. And if you have anything for me, anything at all, could just be a shout out, could be music related, could be tour related, could be world related, or career related, or you just need to talk. Email me Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com. I'll put it in an archive and we'll throw it on here on a Monday morning podcast. Thank you for joining us wherever you are. I appreciate you giving me this platform.

Wherever you're listening, whatever you're doing, whenever you listen, whatever your ritual is for listening to this podcast. I'm just grateful you're here and that you keep coming back. And if you're brand new, welcome. This is the Granger Smith Podcast. Ye yee did chants and decent times and long line of five, fool of huspit down going back range and cool one evage. Yeah you'reation burning your back back. Thanks for having me back from pumped man. Yeah, we've been

planning this for a little bit. We want to make this a regular thing where it's you know, I don't know if it's once a month or twice a month. But you're just so good on this podcast and answering questions. I love your advice for me. I figured other people could love your advice for them. Yeah, well, back at you, man. You're good on this podcast, which is why it's the Granger Smith Podcast. All right, all right, I'll tell you, all right, let's dig into some questions here I went there.

I kind of sprinkled in some light ones, some heavy ones, some music ones this first one, and I don't know what order that they're coming up, So here we go, let's hit it. The first one says, Hey Granger, it's Connor here. First off, I want to let you know love the new album. Here's my question as an artist, what is something you look for in your musicians? What's something that makes you go, wow, I want this guy

to play for me. I know you've previously mentioned that your band pretty much has stayed there since the beginning, but as a professional drummer, I wanted to know for myself what do you look for and what stands out PS. It's a long time dream to play for you. One time I had a feeling that PS was coming. Connor was like, what are you looking for? You know, like, that's a good question, and I always wonder, can I

see this question come up with a bunch? So I wonder if if musicians kind of map together a game plan on how to how to land a gig that they want and probably a lot of things I'll say is the things that you don't want to hear as a new musician, meaning not a front guy, not the not the lead singer. Musicians have a different path and to me, of course you got to have talent, but in a lot of ways, talent just kind of open the door and you see massive, huge touring bands, and

sometimes they don't have the greatest musicians. That other factors come into play, So networking is huge for musicians. Networking so that you can get on that short list of a lot of people where they say, do you guys know any drummers? This happens to me all the time. I'll get text from singers or other band members that say, hey, man, looking for a drummer. Let me know if you know anybody. It happens a lot, So you need to be on my short list so that I reference you to whoever

asked that question. How do you do that? Well, I would start going to If you don't know anybody in the industry in your genre, I guess your country music. You didn't say I would go to. I would start with the closest place where you live that has live music, and get there before the door's open, and stay there after the doors close, and just here's where's what I do. I would literally walk around to the back of the venue and don't be a creeper, but that's where the

band is. The band's out there putting stuff in the trailer. I would just walk up and say, what's up, man, I'm Connor. Go up to the drummer and say, I'm Connor Man. Great show tonight. H What was the symbol that you had on the left? You know, ask him a couple of questions, flatter him a little bit, and just say I live down the road. I'm actually a drummer too. I'm looking to get into this business. And if he's a nice guy, you guys exchange numbers and

that's that's step one. How did you find musicians at the time? I don't know fantastic answer for Connor that you want to hear as I don't know, but three friend of a friend I could answer for you, though. Yeah. I think what what jumps to mind is there's this small little book that nobody's probably ever heard of, called

How to Win Friends and Influence People. But I think if you take some of you know, Connor, pick that up, read some of those principles, I think that a lot of that is that's good for everyone, by the way, in any industry. Yeah, it's a great book. I think it's going to point you to one just be really damn good at what you do and also be very likable. Like, we want to recommend people that we love to work with and that are thoughtful and that are generous and

consider it. When you're really good at your craft, it makes it that much easier to say, oh, call Connor. But even if you're just on your way up and you become very likable, people just want to recommend people that they like. So yeah, so true. My first band that I put together, I was going to Texas A and M. I was a freshman, and I put it. This is back when I don't think people put classified ads out anymore, but the school paper it was called The Battalion A Texas A and M, and everyone read it.

I don't know if they still do, it's been a long time, but there was a classified section in the back of it, and I took out a you know, twenty dollars or whatever it costs. I think it was like twenty bucks to put an ad in there and said country singer looking for country band, serious gigs in line. I still remember that I didn't have any gigs. I just lied about that. I just thought that they would drop me serious gigs coming. I didn't have any gigs

on the books. I just thought that they would be coming. I was pretty sure they would be coming. You were hopeful. You got to have hope, have hope. Man. Then I only got one call from that, but it was a keyboard player, Eric Verreira. I don't remember area. So he called me and he goes, I'm a piano player and I saw your ad and I was like, okay. So we met at the library and I remember there was a piano in there and he played Garth Brooks the dance that's like. That was his audition and I was like,

this is great, You're great. But through Eric, he knew a bass player. The bass player knew a guitar player. Long, long story short, everyone had a little shortlist. Everyone knows somebody that plays something, and then that that network just expands out. So Connor, you want to get on in many of those shortlists as you possibly can. And Bernie's right, you also want to be really likable, So talent super important.

Likability is probably even more important. It probably beats talent every time because you have a really really talented drummer, it's just an a hole you're gonna No one wants to hire that guy. No one cares that much. Because once you can play a certain to a certain ability. You're you're in the game, and then you'll just keep on improving when you're in the gig. So this can apply to everyone in every career. In every job, be on the short list. If you have a trade of

some kind, be on somebody's short list. It could you could just be an everything guy. At Eye Apparel. We're always looking for an everything guy. And in your business, I'm sure you are too, but it always comes up and you're like, man, I wish I had a guy that could just do a lot of things really well. The last thing I'll say to this Connor, is start a YouTube channel. Don't worry about getting subscribers and views, but just get some of your work online. Be ready

to have a you know, a handful of videos. I would say you need about ten videos if you If you don't have a gig right now at all, just record in your bedroom playing songs that way whenever you whenever it does come up and you do meet somebody and they say, well do you have anything of you playing, you go boom. Here's here's my YouTube page. Scroll through it. You could see different genres, different styles, and me playing that's I think that pretty much covers it. Yep. Yeah,

here's here's one. It says, Hey, Grangeer, my name is Yosi. I live in Israel, and I wanted to ask you what you think about Israel and if you would ever come perform in Israel. And I probably don't see any gigs coming in the future in Israel, it would be awesome. I don't off all the places in the world. I don't see my career just exploding in Israel. But I think it's an interesting question. Yo, see that you're listening, because maybe I'm saying it wrong. Y O s s

I you'll see. And I want I really want to go to Israel. I've never been, You've never been, right, we should go together. I would love to get a following going, and we'll come and you know, we'll hang out, we'll check it out and maybe do a show, play a small acoustic show and pay for our expenses to get there. Maybe we'll do a podcast in Israel. Yeah, Man, absolutely love is country music like big there? No no, I could say. I could say it's big in a

lot of places, but I've never heard anyone say. Man, the Israel country market's really exploding right now. I've never heard anyone the opportunity for you, buddy, Here we go. It's wide open. It's a raw market. But I love man, I love I love the history there, and I will go there, god willing, in my lifetime. I would love to go, and maybe Bernie Leslie and me and Amber and do you they have some really good guides there. Yeah. But it seems like I've had a lot of people

that recommend a guy. They're like, oh, you got to talk to Mark or whatever, and he's he's from Pennsylvania, but he moved to Jerusalem and now he takes tours over there and he's really good. I've heard a lot of people say that. Yeah. So John Piper, his mother died in a bus tour in Jerusalem. Really yeah, wow, like a accident, Yeah yeah, yeah it was. This is an evangelist that Bernie and I both follow, and I've talked about him on this podcast before. John Piper, He's amazing.

But his mother it was like probably twenty years ago. Mother and father were visiting on tour and bus crashed, tourist bus and she died instantly, and his dad went into critical condition when but recovered. So that was quite a phone call that he received about that. But yeah, you'll see. Let's do it. Here's a question that says I want to start by saying thank you for opening up yourself to the world and allowing us to see

your heart and learn from your life experiences. My question is, how have you been able to rise above circumstances in your personal and professional life when you feel like you're stuck and you don't know what God's plan is for your future. Let me explain further. I'm a man who, like most, has peaks and valleys in my life. In the overall sense of life, I'm blessed beyond what I deserve. I have a wonderful, loving wife, a healthy, beautiful daughter,

and people who care about me. I'm a man of faith just as yourself, and feel that God has had his hand on my life in many different ways. But I'm currently in a season where I'm just struggling. My goal, as long as I can remember, it was to be a great provider as a husband and father for my family. Even before I was married and had a child. That was my goal. I have followed different career paths, options

and had different kinds of successes and failures. My wife has been supportive through all of my endeavors and we moved together as a team. Earlier this year, I was let go from a job that I thought was going to be my dream career and I could see myself growing from the company in the company for the rest of my working days. But I was let go for some personal health reasons and then all this COVID stuff hit and all the jobs that I was interviewing for

were frozen. I was able to find some basic hourly work to help us get by, but in no way is this a permanent solution. Every day I wake up feeling unfulfilled that I'm not properly taking care of my responsibilities as the head of my house. I'm trying to stay positive, but I continue to struggle. Thank you for any insight and continue to do what you do. You reach people in a deeper way. And this is from Jared from Nashville, Tennessee. Jared shout out to Nashville, Tennessee,

where Bernie and I met. Yeah. Time, great, there's a great question, Jared, and a very I don't want to I don't wanna simplify it, but it's a common question and that's not minimalizing your struggle. But it's common to be where you are and to think like you're thinking. The uncommon thing is probably to recognize it and to reach out for help in it. Most people start to get used to the struggle, the the being stuck feeling, and they just kind of think that life is out

to get them and they're a victim of life. And other people are luckier than they are or more privileged than they are, and they just have a bad streak. But you don't sound like that. You sound like you're you're trying to take personal responsibility for this feeling, and that's awesome. Some you say, I'm trying to stay positive, but I continue to struggle. And Bernie, what do you say to Jared here? How do you start this? Jared?

You a and alone grangeer myself, probably most of the people watching this have been where you are or are currently where you are. I tend to try to look at things, try to drift kind of out of the situation, uh, and try to look at it from a higher perspective before I kind of get into details. This is really hard to because usually with things like this, you're having a conversation and there's a lot of questions. There's a dialogue happening, and so with Jared, it's like I can't

I got a lot of questions. I'd love to ask you, but you know, to to really dig into this, but we can't do that. So I think the it sounds like you have a positive outlook, even in a positive mindset, even in the midst of these continual struggles. I think the biggest and this is with anything, I think the biggest mistake that we can all make is confusing the things that we can control and the things we cannot control.

So all we can focus on, all of our energy has to be focused on the things that we can control. The things that you're doing. You're you're continually continuing to look for a job, You're continuing to you know, put yourself out there to love on your family, whatever is in front of you that you feel like God has given you the opportunity, like you are working hard at those things and pushing towards those things. There's so much

much that's not in our control. When we start to try to manipulate those things and like strangle it to happen, and we start to force it, then our mindset are our faith, our heart, everything could just get out of sync because what we've done is we've taken the reins over from from God being in control of the things that he's in control of, and and we've we've we've tried to take those over instead of just focus focusing on, Hey,

here's what I've given you. What if this season of struggles for a reason, like there's there's you know, real growth and uh and you know, like the first part of James says, consider it joy when you experience trials and many kinds because the testing of your faith will produce perseverance. Not just go ahead and bear it when you experienced trial, like consider it joy. Like that's crazy,

Like that's hard to get your head around. But Jared, I think that you may be in one of these situations where you just stop and say, Okay, well, where is the joy in this struggle? What does that mean? And really dig into that look and see the things around you that God's given you to control and work hard at those things, work diligently at those things, and then the rest. You just have to put your faith in Him that He's He's got you on a path

and that path is for your good man, that's awesome. Yeah, that's right on. And the cool thing is you have said what's amazing about I've gotten this stuck question a lot in this podcast, and but what's different about yours is you says, my wife has been supportive of all mind evors and we have made those moves as a team. Yeah. That's awesome, man, that's so that's so awesome that you have her as a teammate in this because then what

do teammates do. They win and lose together, They struggle together in the trenches together, and then that makes victory happen together, and you celebrate together and you cry together. And if you could look at her and she continues to look at you that way, then you could go to her right now and you could say, babe, struggling right now, I feel like I'm not fulfilling my duty

as what did you say, head of the household? And watch her sounds like, watch her lift you up and just say you're doing great, You're doing everything you need to be doing. Right now. I'm assuming that this is the kind of girl that's going to say that, And then what do you what are you trying to be at that point? What are you what is this this mystical head of the household that you were talking about.

It sounds like it's just a financial thing. It's talking about I wish we had more money in our savings account. But you're providing food and shelter and security and love and guidance to your family. That's all you need. You don't need, you don't need anything above that besides just pleasurable things, you know, a new jet, ski or whatever.

So patience is going to be your key right now, and that's the key to so much of the world during twenty twenty COVID and now continuing into twenty twenty one. Just have patience that, like Bernie said, you can't control the marketplace right now. So what you could do is while you're practicing patience that the marketplace is going to come back and you're going to have these opportunities again, better yourself on a personal level, get better your relationship

with your wife and your daughter. Enjoy that. Maybe a little extra time, like I'm having a little extra time with no touring, maybe you're gonna have a little bit extra time before you do step into what's it's probably going to be a long term career, your dream career. And the crazy thing about this it's so hard to

see it when you are stuck. But from the outside looking in, looking at just the kind of guy you are writing this question, Guys like me and Bernie would look at you in five years and go, Jared from Nashville, how's it going, Oh, man, I actually ended up landing a really awesome job and we're you know, we're doing good. I'm moving And me and Bernie would go, yeah, we thought that, we knew that's gonna happen. It's nothing like

what I thought it was going to be. You know, it took me a different way to get here, but yeah, I mean it seems like that's yeah, So life goes. You could definitely be this whole thing is most likely a blessing in disguise to get you to the career that you probably would not have been available to get if you had been in the other job. So hang in there, man, hang in there, day by day patience and erase this idea of I can't I can't remember where you put it of I'm I'm not living up

to the expectation. Where did you say that? Oh? Here it is that I'm not properly taking care of my responsibilities as the head of the house. Take that out of your mind. I know it's hard, and it's admirable that you think that way, but just to erase that part because you are. Yeah, if you weren't doing that, you wouldn't have a loving wife next to you supporting

you in highs and lows and every endeavor. The men that don't have that and neglect that for career and status, they're actually the ones that I feel are neglecting their responsibility as head of the household. That is a great point. That's a great point. Yeah, you could be in a really awesome career, making a ton of money, just flying up the corporate ladder, doing your dream job and totally unfulfilling your your responsibilities at the head of the house.

That's easy. That's probably more more likely to happen than underplaying the career. So yeah, that's that's a great point. Ye ye man, you're living it. You're living it. Enjoy this chapter of your life, this season of your life. That might feel like struggle, but I would say enjoy. This is a transition before the page turns and something else happens. It's coming it's coming. Let's see if I can get it one more before we take a break.

Like how everybody references like twenty twenty, It's like, yeah, COVID twenty twenty. It's like we got to New Year's and everybody's like, yes, twenty one. Here we go. It's like then we're kind of still the same. It's nothing is you do have hope? Guys? Yeah, yeah, it's not quite the uh, the same cut off as we thought. I almost squeeze one more in before we take a break. And this is an easy one. It says, Hey g ander,

my name's Chad. I live in Morganton, North Carolina. Shout out to NC says I have a cheap, thirty dollars drone. I'm thinking about getting a better one. I've always wondered what type of drone do you use for filming? The one that the one I have said it was ten ADP when I ordered it, but turned out that was just clickbait. Thanks for taking your time and connecting with us. Yeah, don't spend thirty dollars on a drone. Don't spend thirty dollars on any camera and expect it to perform for you.

I have a good answer for you, and this is this is not sponsored or there's no money involved. But I fly a Dji Mavic Mini. Now there is a Magic Mini too on Amazon, and I believe it's like just under four hundred bucks. So it's a big step from thirty dollars, but it's a big step down from what you're gonna see typically a twelve, thirteen, fourteen hundred dollars drones that Mavick will make. MAVC Mini is the smallest of their line and the cheapest of their line,

but it is phenomenal. I use it for all of my videography. I've flown it over Niagara Falls and the Mountain, the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, and I've flown it in Mexico on the on the beach. It's performed in negative ten degrees and one hundred and fifteen degrees in the desert. It's awesome little drone, the Mavic Mini, and I believe there's a Mavic Mini too now. I think that's what they sell now. But I would also encourage you to get the insurance you can. I also have a Dji

Phantom four. Maybe we flew it into a building downtown in Austin. But that insurance comes in handy, so make sure you pick that up. On the latest episode of The Smiths, I did a podcast in a high rise on a seventy rain Is it seventy rainy? Yeah? You know, that's an awesome building downtown Austin. So I was on thirty second floor and I was like, I'll fly the drone. So I took off from the balcony and I was so nervous because it was so high. I've never taken

off from that height. And I went right around the building and as soon as I went around the building, all the signal just blacked out. I was like, Oh, this is bad. This is real bad. There's a drone hovering over downtown Austin right now without a command and it's still there and it's and it's just hovering, and I was like, well, you know, it's going to run a battery, it's going to fall, and it's going to hit some poor lady in the head and then they're

going to sue me. So I panicked and went to the inside of the apartment, went to another window, and it was able to get reception just enough to just get it just to clear I guess building cut off all signal. Yeah, just cleared it a little bit, but I freaked out. That's awesome testament though. Yeah, and once again not sponsored, no money involved. It's the best kind of endorsement I can give because they're not paying me. It's just a it's an awesome dround. Don't spend thirty bucks.

We're gonna take a quick break, be right back. Podcast is brought to you by Best Fiends. You know, there's a lot of things in childhood that we played. We did during this crazy snowstorm. We brought out all the old board games that I grew up with as a kid, and it's so funny to see how some of them hold up and some of them come become completely irrelevant and not fun at all. Something that will not change, that is born to be a legacy in our future.

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commitment to your health. Visit Athleticgreens dot com Forward slash Granger, get your free year supply of Vitamin D and five free travel packs. And this has nothing bad in it, no additive, nothing that you don't need, only what you do and it actually tastes good. Check it out. What times you wake up? This morning? Burns five thirty, No snooze, No snooze. I wanted to so bad. Actually, I work

out with a buddy of mine. We do this, He'll work out on Tuesdays, and so I know when I go to bed, it's like, dude, you got to get up and get to it because you know he's gonna be waiting on you. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's a good thing. What about days when somebody's not waiting on you. I still get up out of habit, but it's a little bit harder. It's like, is there do you have

any tricks or anything? Like I know, for a long time Parker was like putting the alarm in another room or at the excuse me, at the other side of the room. So you have Actually I was so annoying, you have to actually get up. No, I mean my wife would like if I had to, she would just wake up if I had it like going off on another you know, another place. So no, I think it's more of like the fear of waking her up that early. So I just like, I hit it and get out

of bed. Yeah that's that's a good, really good motivation. I don't do this all the time, and I should do it more to motivate me. But I always wake up to my watch vibrates, so it's Amber never hears it. But I've thought about it. I used to do this when we actually lived in a house, not an RV.

I would put my phone like on a table and set the alarm for five minutes after my watch is going to go off, so I know, or like what I used to do it like two minutes sometimes, so I know, if I don't get up with that vibration on my hand, it's about the way camber up. I don't want to deal with that. Yeah, that's right. So yeah, I thought about you this morning because yeah, you'll have to show me I tried to do because you told me that last time, and I would love to do that.

But how do you have it vibrate on the alarm, but like not on everything because I don't want like it vibrate and whenever text messages or or anything anything disturb. Okay, the alarm goes through, do not disturb, but nothing else does. Okay. Yeah, so the little half moon, Yeah, set that on if you don't want it ever buzzing you. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I love it. And I've noticed that when my alarm goes off, there's like a sixty second window when I

have to get up when I actually feel awake. But then when sixty seconds goes by, it's like it feels really good just to lay here. Yep, let's let's dig in here, all right, It says. The subject line on this says, should I separate from the Hey grangeer. My name is Ryan. I'm from Port Orchard, Washington. Shout out to Washington. I currently just hit the halfway point in my military career, and I got my ten year point

with the Navy on October sixth. I'm serving on a submarine in Banger, Washington, and I go underway about every six months. The underways, which I guess Army calls deployments, have gotten much harder since I had my son two years ago, and I just don't know how to justify staying in and missing him grow up. I don't want to miss him growing up, but if I stay in, I'll have some sort of financial security for the rest of my life. How do I justify one over the other.

I figured you're a good person to ask, since you go on tour and you have to spend time away from your family on a regular basis. I love what you're doing with all the channels, and I'm glad you finally got into a ford. Have a good one in ug Ryan Ryan from Washington. Thanks for your service, Ryan, Yeah, yeah, thanks for your service and great question. Complicated question, and once again a question that could that a lot of people could relate to. You don't You don't necessarily have

to be in the Navy. You could be over the road trucker that goes on you know, that's out four days a week and n three. You could be could be a firefighter, you know, twenty four on and twenty four off and you're missing every other day, You're completely missing your family. Obviously, you could be a tour musician.

I feel that although these days, unless I'm going to the West Coast, I mean, twenty one days is as long as I've ever been gone on a tour, and those days were really when I was in the in the heat of the struggle. And I don't see those kind of days anymore because I choose to spend money on airplane flights, which is a huge, huge privilege of being able to get some higher paying gigs. Before I had those gigs, I had no choice but to stay

out on the road. And one of the things I quickly invested in when I was able to get higher paying gigs is airplane tickets. Don't think twice about it. I look at the year of income for me and I'm like, boom, that percentage is going to airplane tickets. And it sucks at some level because you look at it and you're like, dude, did you just spend four hundred and seventy five dollars on a round trip ticket

to tour and back from tour. Look at all the stuff you could buy for four hundreds You could buy it Mattic drone in the insurance. But that's the price I pay to have an extra twenty four or forty eight hours at home. So some of my band members do that. Some of my band members that you know that will buy a flight that they shouldn't you know, financially, probably shouldn't be doing. But that's just the investment that I've seen people make. You Ryan don't have that choice.

You go, you go off, and you you cannot come back. Six months, six six months, No, he goes. He says, I go under way every six months. So I don't know if that's six months gone, six months back. It's probably what that means. Right. Did he say if he is married or how old his kids were. No, he just says it's gotten harder since his son. He had his son two years ago. Okay, so sounds too. So I don't know if he's married, and I don't know if it's more than two years old. Sounds like it

sounds like your son's two. Yeah. There's a couple of ways to look at this one. You could look at it the Garth Brooks way. Garth it's funny to even mention that, But Garth made it public that he was going to hit touring as hard as he could until his daughters. Believe he his daughters became teenagers. As soon as they became teens, that's when Boom Garwth is retiring. Now you see Garth is now back in touring. That's

because his daughters have now they're done with school. So he made the decision, not saying it's right or wrong, but he made the decision to be there during the teenage years of his kids every single day, no touring. So that's something to think about. Ryan. It's like, Okay, your son's two. How much impact can you make on your two year old right now compared to how much impact can you make on an eleven year old boy or ten year old boy? And that's still eight years

from now. So you did you say how much longer? He said, you huge hit the halfway point in your career. You got to the tenure point. So add ten years to that. Your son's twelve. So one option is you finish out all your work in the Navy for another ten years I'm guessing your son's twelve, and then you retire and take a you know, work from home type job and you're with your son every single day from

twelve years old on. That's an option. Knowing that if he's got a good mother, you know, she raises him to twelve every six months, you're in and out and then you really hit it when he's becoming a man. Don't know, I don't know if that if that's good or not. But it's an it's a option. Yeah, it's a option. Yeah, there there's there's definitely you know again, it's it's tough because you know, Ryan, we don't have

you sitting here to ask you these questions. But I would be curious what the dialogue is like with you or are you married or you have a serious girlfriend, Like what is the dialogue with Like how does she feel about you being gone? There's a whole you know, like what is you know, what what does the world look like for you if you if you did leave the navy, what does life look like? There's you know,

is there other opportunities? Is there other things that are kind of pulling at you that could be you know, or is this you feel like you're really pulled towards this and being guided towards this, But there's that that sacrifice that's being asked of you to like be away from your son, which is you know, admirable. For sure,

it's a tough spot. I will say this, and I'm not going to advocate either way, but the idea of a father being there for for all the moments of a son growing up is a relatively new concept in human history. You know, like in the old days that you just the mother raised them and the father went and hunted the meat, yeah, and brought That's just how it was. So it's kind of a new concept that the modern culture has developed where it's like, no father needs to stay home all the time and be with

the kids. And it's definitely not a bad thing. But I've also looked at it as a father that works a lot and it's gone a lot. Actually, Bernie, you taught me this a long time ago, that it's not the amount of time you're home, it's the amount of time that you're present when you are home. So you could be gone for six months and be and then comey be home for six months and be more present than the average father is the entire year that they're

with their kids. They're with their kids every day, and a lot of guys will work a nine to five. So then you by the time you commute home and you're home by six, and you have dinner and the kids are already it's time for bath and bed. You got maybe forty five minutes on an average week with your kid, and are you present during that forty five minutes? Like, are you with them? Are you distracted because you're still cleaning up stuff from the day of work? Are you

still are you trying to think about tomorrow? Are you just trying to unwind and watch the little Netflix and you don't want to mess with kids right now? This is this is real. This is a real story that you could be gone for six months, home for six months and still have more interaction with your kids. So that's that's the way I've justified it. When I'm on a long tour, I'm like, when I get home, I'm going to be super present and I'll do it for you know, all day for several days. Do I really

do that? I try to. I don't. I don't always do it because I too get distracted and I have to set things and I had to set obstacles from me being around my phone or getting stuck on you know, on the computer, on email or whatever. So I have to force myself to be present, but I'm so glad when I do. So I've looked at it to justify this, is that A. I'm going to be super present when I when I am home, and B I'm also going

to set an example to my kids that dad. When I grew up, Dad was he worked really hard, and he provided for us, and he was passionate about what he did. For in your case, he served our country in a submarine, and when he was home, he was awesome. He was focused on me, loved me, played with me. That's pretty awesome. Dad. That's a pretty great resume when you're when you're sixty years old. And I'm just gonna

throw it out there. Your son's forty years old and your son goes Man, he's forty years old and he goes I remember growing up with dad. He was in a submarine. That is so awesome, he thought. And then when he came home he was so focused on me and he loved what he did. And now now he's set financially. Man, there is nothing wrong with that That makes up for the time you're on the sub missing

your son. Yeah to me, yeah, no, absolutely I think really, your son is probably not old enough quite yet, but maybe at two, like and your wife or you know, significant other. I think it's just a conversation. Like if you're communicating like your heart behind why you're going, you know, back into the Navy, why you're doing this, why you're

doing that. I feel like communication is the biggest breakdown it comes to these decisions, like we're just not talking with the people that are influenced and that we're trying to influence about why we're making the decision. Invite them into the conversation because then they feel like, you know, your son could be like you know, yeah, go get him, dad, Like he could be kind of like on your team and excited about you going so you can come back and tell them the stories and because he got to

be a part of it. Yeah, So just the communication would be like I think a big part of it. Absolutely. Man if I sided her on this podcast and advocated for every person that's deployed in some way that they probably should quit their job to be a stay at home dad, man, that would be doing a total disservice to this country. When people say thank you for your service. Part of that is I hope you don't die. Thanks

for volunteering to maybe die for the good. But another huge part of that is thank you for your sacrifice to your own family so that other families could live a free life. So that's a great point. I think that gets overlooked, but it's a great point people don't necessarily think about, you know, our military, our first responders, like healthcare workers right now. Like the sacrifice they're not only sacrifice in their their well being, but also the

time they could be you know, with their families. Yeah, and Ryan's the perfect example. Man, you're you You're It's like, it's like the same problem as the last person that wrote in that you're stuck and you're struggling, except for you do have the job security and now you're stuck because you could have financial security but you don't. You don't have enough time. This is the opposite, exact opposite of the last question that was stuck with the family

and didn't have the financial security. So this is a good example about humans are just not going to be content. You have to really dig deep to find that kind of contentment. Yeah, but great question. Man. Once again, thanks for your service and thanks for writing in. I know you'll make the right decision for you and your family. All Right, who we go? It says. The subject line is career search. Here we go? Right, this is the Granger Smith Career Podcast. I'm out of the job because

of COVID, and so should you be. Let's see. My name is Ben. I'm from the West side of Michigan. I'm a huge fan of the podcast. It puts me in the right headspace to start the week. Thank you, Ben, I appreciate you joining us on Monday, says My question is this, how do I discern what the correct career is for me? I'm a junior in college studying business slash economics and wanting to do something in the field of marketing or market research. Both of those careers really

interest me. However, what truly excites me the most is phishing and conservation. Those jobs are hard to come by in that industry, and often they make very little money. Is it wrong of me to pursue a career in marketing to make a little more money, even if it doesn't excite me as much? It says, I'm trying to lean on God in this search, but I wish I could hear from him more clearly, Thanks Ben, don't we all sometimes? Ben, I want to hear God more clearly

what to do? God? Just write it in the cloud or something, you know, you send me a text on that great question, Ben, Yeah, I feel you, Bro. I think Bernie and I both could both relate to this in our in our lives. And Bernie is actually a great, a great person to be sitting here with this question because you eventually did choose the career over the just the passion. Yeah, it's a it's a really again. I know I keep saying this, guys, but it's such a

tough thing to dissect these questions without a dialogue. So if all you guys want to come here to the farm and like sit in the audience, then we can. We can kind of have a dialogue. But we should that one day a live podcast with the studio audience, all right, coming soon in a non COVID world, do you but without that luxury because I don't know necessarily if if I I think it's really just about like

what's you know, what's your purpose? I think you just got to you got to figure out what your purpose in life is. And that's going to be different for everybody. Based on experience, belief systems, where you are in your journey, and what things do you value. I mean, you know, do you value money? Why? You know, what's what's you know, driving and then just kind of like spend some time

dissecting a lot of these different questions. And I think once you kind of spend some time just alone writing questions down and answering them and really digging into it, I think you could probably look at all of that and it's going to probably point you towards one way or another. Yeah, I don't know, it's such a hard thing because I don't think that a career is something that we just choose one day, Oh hey, I'm gonna

go do this. I mean, you can decide that in your mind, but we all know that working out all the time doesn't necessarily happen, especially being nineteen or twenty years old that I'm assuming you are a junior in college. Yeah, I just I think that life is an adventure and it's a journey, and it's so exciting if you kind of you're on a roller coaster, put your hands up and enjoy it and don't necessarily worry about what money

you're going to make. Five years from now, or my I'm going to what my career, long career is going to be like, like, man, we've given We've been given this day. So look at what is in front of you, the opportunities in front of you, the things that you know God's stirring in your heart, like, and is there an opportunity towards that. Is there a way for you to like, you know, refine your craft of whatever it is, and then does that open some opportunity. I don't think

it's like a line in the sand. You gotta do this, you gotta do this, you know, Granger said before, like we we met in Nashville and we were both pursuing a career in music. His obviously did okay, But you know, God had a different path for me, and I had my hands up. I wasn't trying to control it. I did it for a while, but it taught me so many things. And it was finally once I kind of let go of trying to control my own career, my own destiny, and I just said God, what do you

got for me? And it wasn't like automatically I became, you know, the CEO of this company. It was tell them it was how you became the CEO of this company? Well, to finish the thought, it was a lot. It was a lot of just day in, day out, just grind and like a lot of stillness and like, God, is this is this where I need to be? Is this where I need to be? Is this where I need

to be? Over and over and over? But I feel like, I mean, if you're asking how I got to that position, it really was just that it was it was just the day on the daily, you know, just coming to the solitude and the quiet and just affirming that this path that I'm on, I'm still on this, okay. Because if I'm still on this and the door is still open, I am going at it with everything that I can.

And eventually, you know, the you know, I just started opening more doors and has even taken me to like from where I started taking me to like a different place. I never thought that I would be doing the work that I do now, but I can't imagine doing anything else. And so I think you just I know that you

said you're a junior in college. Man, you have a whole life in front of you and a whole, like huge world of opportunities and people that are going to come in your path, and my advice would just kind of be hold it all with, you know, with open hands, and just get after whatever opportunity is in front of you that you really feel that nudge towards. You say, I'm a junior college studying business economics, wanted to do something in the field of marketing or market research, and

both of these really excite me. However, what truly excites me, or so you say, truly really interests me. But however, what truly excites me is fishing in a conservation. What if I told you right now in this podcast, straight up, Ben, how about you don't choose? You take both? Great? How about you do both? Ye do both. It's not like you hate. You didn't say I just hate market research. You actually said that really interests me. What if you do that and then every weekend you fish and in

practice conservation that is this is something. What if you become like a marketing research for dude, that that's it? I would I I'm not I'm not on this podcast. I usually kind of leave it pretty open ended. But I think your question right now, Bernie's right saying that this could change tomorrow. But right Now, if you're having to pick a career path for electives or college classes or whatever, just stick with this business economics thing. It

sounds like you're a smart dude. It sounds like you're going to do great in this and that, and that's the way to get into the ground floor of that industry and start making a little money making some content tax and then you're you're still fishing. No one's gonna say quit fishing. That's never gonna happen. You're gonna be able to do that. And then as as your career goes on, you'll find how those two things could completely merge, like Bernie said, and you could actually start working in

the field of marketing for a phishing company. What if you're marketing for Field and Stream magazine or something that's like got that's pivots between conservation and fishing at the same time. That's my answer, do both, Ben, do both? Do it all. The cool thing is you're not you don't have a family yet to have that aspect, like we've talked about in earlier questions, where you have to

feel like you need to provide. This is why it's so important to really find out who you are before you start a family, in my opinion, really grasp who you are and start starting like plowing that field right now, so that then you'll you'll have a good headspace where you need to be. Awesome question. Yeah, I also will you just say how you became CEO of this company? But how did you start that? Right? It's crazy? Yeah? So I responded to an ad on Craigslist to be

a helper. Yep, a helper and what like a carpenter's helper. How much carp carpenter experience did you have a little bit could swing a hammer? Yeah, a little bit. I mean I wasn't uh yeah, I wasn't like this old house level or anything. I was just I could like nail stuff and screw stuff and cut for words. It was like they need somebody just to I don't know. It was a it was an ad on Craigslist for a carpenter's helper. So it's like my expectations were already

pretty low. I didn't even want to go to the interview. It was my wife who said, oh, you're going, You're going to the interview. I was like, okay, i'll go. I'll go. Just see. I don't know if I want to get in construction again. But I got the nudge from her and the rest is history. And then slowly, over time, you gained favor by the owner of the company. At the time, you got more and more responsibility through him, more and more leadership opportunities through him. And then when

he was I'm just I'm telling your own story. But when he got to a certain age and didn't want to do it anymore, he literally sold you the company. The guy that responded to the Craigslist hat for a carpenter helper, yep, that's so awesome. And for all these career questions out there, sometimes you just got to answer the call. You got to answer the call. I got

to go to the interview. And the other thing that I think we've lost a lot of in our culture that's very instant gratification, like oh, I gotta get this right away. And it's like I've been at this same company now thirteen years, and a lot of those years were really just day in, day out, grinding framing when it's one hundred and five, like digging trenches if it needs to be, just doing whatever needed to be done.

I think back to the other fella that was Connor maybe if I think, if you just work diligently at something the opportunity that's in front of you, and don't go chasing waterfalls, all they play. Say, Hey, this is what's in front of me. I'm gonna work really hard at this, and I'm going to try to build up everybody around me. I'm gonna try to make them better.

All of a sudden, it's like you become the best one of those people because you're focused on coming really good and then you have the support of all of these people. So before the owner came to me, and before I started that relationship to the former owner, I had to gain the respect of the guys next to me,

and you know, like uh, which wasn't easy. It just took time because I mean you come in and start at the bottom, and it's like, you know, hey, go sweep the you know, go sweep over there, go pick that up and sign it. Okay, okay, and you sweep it better than anyone ever could sweep it. That's right. That's awesome, man. I'd love that story so much. It's such a testament for all these career questions that we get. Dude, out of time, you freaking rock dude. Good stuff. So fun, man,

so fun. Thank you guys. If you don't have Bernie back, comment, bring Bernie back. That's what you did last time. So love you guys. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload

a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com.