Phillip Greer, CEO, Programmer, Musician

00:00
I got all the extra Jar Jar Binkses. They're gonna be worth a mint one day.

00:13
Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading the podcast. I wanna say thanks to my new friends, Jake.

00:24
and Allison bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. I certainly do appreciate that. Also to the folks that have followed the podcast on Instagram @chewingthefatbr. I really do appreciate that. And speaking of friends, I am really excited about my guest in studio today. He's a long time friend. We don't get together as much as we used to, but that's okay, cause life happens. But I want to have a good time reconnecting with my friend right now. Please welcome Phil Greer.

00:51
Well, thank you so much for having me. First off, the music to start this amazing. Where's that from? Thank you. Jacob Johnson. Okay. So little Jake. I've heard of him. He's done a few ditties. Yeah. Yeah. Just a couple of ditties, but yeah, he actually wrote that for me. Oh, nice. Well, that's super cool. Well, I'm excited to be here and catch up again. As you mentioned, long-time friends and life does happen. When we first became friends,

01:17
Lucas wasn't even born, and maybe Grace was a small baby. Now my kids are 16 and 13, so life has happened. It has happened. Phil, I met Phil in the Sunday School class at First Baptist North Augusta, because we had just moved to town and we're trying to find like a church home and all that stuff, and found this cool group of weirdos with Phil and...

01:45
Phil and Gerald Brown. And it was such a really good vibe and it felt like home. You fit in quite naturally, especially since you describe it as a group of weirdos. I think that your audience probably understands that. No, they absolutely understand that. Phil, are you from Augusta?

02:09
or North Augusta area initially? No, not initially. My dad was military. So I was born in Japan, grew up, you know, probably my most pivotal childhood memories were in Germany. Oh, wow. And then my dad retired here in Fort Gordon and I went to high school. And so I've been in the Augusta, I was in the Augusta area since high school and then moved away for a little bit and just came back a few years ago. Okay, okay.

02:37
You know what? I don't think I ever realized that you were born in Japan. You should ask more questions. I know, right? It's like, you know? Yeah, someone was actually, it was funny. I was talking to my daughter's boyfriend. Yes, my daughter's boyfriend. His mother, she was saying, oh, were you born in this part of Okinawa? And I was like, I actually have no idea. It's one of the bad, one of the reasons I don't talk about much is when you're literally a baby till the age of two, it doesn't matter.

03:06
where you are because you have no memories and we moved back. Hopefully my mom won't correct me on this, but I think we moved back to the States when I was two and a half or three. Born in Japan, I know nothing about it other than business travel as an adult. Yeah, yeah. And like you said, you were military, so I'm sure it was near some sort of military base. Yeah, well, Thomas's mother knows and I don't. She was stationed there for Air Force, I believe. That's fun. That's fun.

03:36
So, traveling around, landed here in Augusta, this is where you went to high school. Go Hephzibah, go Rebels. Okay, okay. What were you into in high school? Because see, I know you as, like, we first met, you were a computer programmer, you were a guitar player, you were an active, like, get out and do things.

04:05
motocross bike rider. And so like, you're a lot different than I see you now and the things that you and I mean, I met a different version of you. You sure you know what I mean? Again, life happens. Yeah, a different version of you. And I love that version of you. I love this version of you too. But what were you into like? Yeah, so you know,

04:26
Computers first. My dad was in communications in the military. So we were always tinkering with computers. I remember when I was three, we had a Commodore 64. I was already starting to play with that and program on it. And I wouldn't call that programming. That was more of just trying to load programs itself and then getting into basic with a 286 and a 386 and 486, et cetera. And so a lot of my childhood always had a similar theme of computers. My mom really wanted me to.

04:56
to learn them. She just saw that as the future, good for her. Shout out to Sherry, she was right. And then on top of that music, my dad played harmonica and my brother ended up picking up the guitar and I wanted to play the guitar. My mom made me play the clarinet. But you know what, first chair, sixth to eighth grade, what's up, that was me. And then eighth grade, I finally convinced my mom that.

05:24
look, I'm being serious about this music thing. And she bought me a guitar. And so I spent those formal years of ninth grade to 12th grade going to make it as a musician. Writing a lot of music, playing a lot of music. And yeah, yeah, started a studio. Had a studio here, had a home studio, recorded rap music. Actually, I can't rap to save my life. Maybe to save your life, but not my life.

05:54
No, so yeah, I recorded some rap music in Hephzibah, some local artists. I say artists, they were just high schoolers. And did... But it's the respect you put on them. I appreciate that. I can appreciate the respect you're putting on them. So you know, that was my high school. I was going to be a musician and my fallback was always going to be computers because, you know, we can't all be Michael Jordan. And I realized that by senior year. I realized, okay, this...

06:23
This whole music thing's really hard. Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna go back to my fallback. Do you remember any of the original songs that you wrote back then? 100%. Yeah, 100%. I still... Give me a hook of one of your first songs. Jenny, are you feeling okay today? You still stay up late and sleep at your own pace. I don't wanna hear them say. That was Jenny. That was one of the... Wow. Yeah, that was one of the... I mean...

06:52
It's not bad. It's not bad. It was catchy. It's not bad at all. It was catchy. It is. Yeah. So I, you know, that was the one that probably most people connected with that one. And I had another one called Toyo Wagon. So my first vehicle was this old 1988 Pinto Toyota wagon. It might've been an earlier than 88. I can't remember what a year was. It was, it was old. And

07:17
It was handed down from family member to family member. I was the youngest of five, two adopted. Wow. Yeah, and three biological. I was the youngest. So we all got to ride in this Toyota wagon. By the time I got it, no seats in the back, but it was perfect for a 16 year old kid who's gonna be a leading musician. Cause I got to shove all my band equipment in there and take that around. So I wrote a song called Toyo Wagon. So that was the other one that was pretty memorable that most people know that one. Yeah. That's pretty crazy.

07:47
You know, it's weird. My first vehicle was a Toyota station wagon as well. It was a Corolla station wagon. It was white. I think it was like, I think it was like maybe like a 81, 82 or so blue pleather interior. It was, you know, my wife at, or my girlfriend at the time thought it was the hottest thing ever and now my wife. And so, you know, there's something, a man with a van has a plan. I'm just saying.

08:15
and quote me on that. That's awesome. So, so you're you decided that that the music thing wasn't going to work out. And so that when you kind of started to honestly what happened was, I was going to get married. And my fiance, my now wife at the time told me, I can't marry you if you don't have a job. And that's smart. Yeah, you've you've got

08:43
you've got one year to figure out this music thing. And this was my senior year of high school. Yes, for those who were doing the math, I got engaged my junior year of high school. Wow. So I took my last year of high school. I just focused on music that entire year. And then towards the end, she said, how's it going? Checking in, taking the polls. And I said, I'm applying for jobs right now. Wow. So I hung that up and from there.

09:13
I think I went to Circuit City. Yeah, yeah. I went to Circuit City, that was the place back in the day. It's where you got all your electronic needs. It really was. I mean, it was the poor man's radio shack. I mean, but yeah, it was the place. Yeah, yeah, so I got that job and we both went to college together. And yeah, and we did computer science and kind of kept on trucking from there. That's awesome. Where'd you go to college at?

09:37
Augusta University. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, was it Augusta University then or was it Augusta College? I think it was it was right after was Augusta College. So it was Augusta State University. Yeah, it was Augusta State University I don't know the shout-out mantra. So go Augusta State University Jaguars, maybe yeah, that sounds familiar go Jags I feel like that's I was working full-time at that point at that point I had a full-time job at Bridgestone Firestone and I was working working full-time married full-time

10:05
in college. A lot of stuff. Wow. Yeah, so I was. I've never achieved much. Yeah, no. I like to stay busy. I like to, you described me as a musician, motocross, outdoorsy. I always have a series of things that interest me and I like to, I like to fill my schedule with activity, especially things that challenge the brain or let me live on the edge. Yeah. I'm telling you.

10:30
trying to make his musician while Bob being engaged in finishing high school. That's living on the edge, baby. Yeah. Wow. That's awesome. So you've like, so when I fast forward to around 20, I guess that would be 2007, eight, nine somewhere around there, where we were we met. It's crazy to think that was like almost 20 years ago. But you know, I can time happens.

11:00
you are married child, you still riding the motocross and doing that type of stuff back then. And then you decided to like, well, I don't say you decided to, I mean, like I said, it's work. Your journey at the job you're at now that you are the president. Yeah, CEO now. CEO. CEO.

11:29
step up from president? Yeah, it's a common, most people are not quite sure because sometimes you have the president and you have the CEO. Sometimes you are the CEO and president, but a CEO is a step up. I was promoted to that in 2018. Yeah. Best lawyers. But you were a programmer there. You were kind of, you were writing code, right? Originally, that's how you're like figuring out how to make all that crazy stuff happen on the backside. And the only reason I say this is because...

11:58
I think it's inspiring for people who are like, man, I'm just slaving away, you know, in the, I know it's not what an HTML, but in the Python or whatever, well, you were coding ads or whatever, you know, you're- I'm loving this. Keep going. You're in the binary. You're in the binary. The Matrix is calling. It's 1999. The White Rabbit shows up. Neo, follow me. All this happened. This was actually based on my story. I feel like it was. I feel like it was. I mean, Woodward White. Whoa.

12:27
But he was the White Rabbit. Yeah, he was the White Rabbit, yeah. All right, I kinda, yeah, so, I guess I need to give you a little bit more color here. So- I mean, I can make stuff up. No, I mean, we are. My name's not even Philip. What? No, it is. So, went to college, Chris and I got married, went to college. I started working at Bridgestone Firestone. And I was working there full-time, going to college full-time, married full-time.

12:55
and I was still doing music, but not nearly as much. The focus I really had was writing software. So I was doing work for Bridgestone Firestone, but also writing some stuff on the side. I was really big into video games. I like to write little fun video games. My favorite one I ever wrote, I called it Mr. T Strikes Back. I do not have any of the rights to this. Okay, okay. But the idea was you were Mr. T, you were the head of Mr. T, and you would fly around.

13:22
and imagine a side scrolling game. So Mr. T is flying through space and you had stormtrooper heads on the other side, your opposition coming at you. So your protagonist, your antagonist and Mr. T shot lasers out of his eyes. It was pretty amazing. And whenever the stormtroopers would explode, they would then shoot off multiple explosion debris. So you had to avoid that while also killing all these stormtroopers. So that was...

13:49
That was really my passion throughout college was writing little silly games like that. And also chat programs. I had one chat program called POL that we used at Bridgestone because the, the, the network team there, they locked down everything. You couldn't have access to any fun websites or anything. So I decided to take a weekend and write a Phil online POL. Okay. And the ongoing joke was always.

14:18
everybody got invited to join Phil's poll. And that was the internal joke. But everyone that was on a desktop computer at Bridgestone Firestone could download my software and then we can all chat and have fun. And I had it before the world of memes. You can create memes, images, and put them in there, and you had gifts. It was ahead of its time. So much so whenever I tell people this story, entrepreneurial friends of mine, they say, you know you,

14:46
wrote Slack before Slack existed. I said, I know I was a kid who would just want it to bypass the security on Bridgestone Firestone. So you could talk to your friends in the other cubicle. So I can send them silly images back and forth. So I was doing that, making no money, having a lot of fun writing that type of code. And my wife told me you just, you need to get like a real job like Bridgestone Firestone. There's nothing wrong with Bridgestone Firestone. I was a.

15:15
I was a co-op there. There wasn't a full-time position for me. So let me clear that up. Bridgestone Firestone, my mom retired from there. Fantastic place. But I didn't have, I just had a full-time co-op position. So it wasn't a, it was $10 an hour. As many hours as I wanna work, but just, you know. But if you also wanted to see the full-time wine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no survival on that salary back then. So she found me this.

15:43
company called Best Lawyers in the newspaper back when we found jobs in newspapers and it was looking for looking for a programmer to come in and digitize their process of doing research. So I always imagined it was a stepping stone for me like I'll do this for three years.

16:04
Well, first off, I give get a Christian some credit. I told her I don't want this job. I told her I didn't want to. And she told me, you're going to go in and for interview for it. I said, OK, that's what being a good husband is. Absolutely. You say yes. So I interviewed, I got the job, I took it. And it's going to be do this for a couple of years and then move on. And it was just.

16:28
Kind of interesting. I got to write all kinds of fun software. I got to port software I was already kind of tinkering with into real applications. So I had this this POL software that would allow me to chat and send files back and forth. Well, I need to build a custom system for the end users at Best Lawyers. And so I needed a way to send files across the network but also do updates and...

16:54
This was before you had all these app stores and all this stuff you had to do. It was very manual, a lot of work. So I turned my POL software into a SUC software which is a software update center. I'm a big fan of acronyms. You really are. I'm a big fan of acronyms. I've got a lot of funny ones I'm not gonna mention here. A lot of applications I've written with some much more clever acronyms. So I took POL and I turned it to SUC and we all use that at.

17:22
And then I wrote all the software that I wrote and developed it, the best lawyers early on, actually went through the suck pipeline. So whenever people would call and say like, my program's not worth it. I'm just like, suck it. Go update your software. That's what you do when you're 21, 22 and having fun. Yeah, so that's the transition you're looking for. How did I get to the company I'm at? And that's kind of the...

17:52
And the path. And so, how then do you transition from, you know, writing suck software into being the president and then CEO, or CEO then president? It's president and then CEO. Okay, right. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. When I was offered the president job, I Googled what's higher, president or, President or CEO. I'm not gonna lie. This was, I Googled what is a higher position. Right, right, right, right.

18:21
Yeah, so I've always been an entrepreneurial. Like when I was in high school, I had a music studio, I was selling candy on the side, I was making baked goods. I had like, I'd make every night when I wasn't doing studio work for my music or recording other people, I was baking Rice Krispie treats and brownies, and then I was selling them on the side. That was to support my dating habits in high school, but also just to like work on business acumen.

18:51
So I've always seen opportunity and wanted to kind of fulfill that need. It's kind of like, what's that movie? See a Need. Robots. Yeah, robots. Yeah. Fill a Need. Yeah. See a Need, Fill a Need. I remember when that came out watching, I'm like, yes, that's me. I see a need. You missed a big well. Yeah, and I just, but I fill it with a P-H-I-L. See a need, fill a need. And that's kind of.

19:18
That's my entire existence whenever there's an opportunity and I see people have an interest in something. They just need to insert Phil into it. Yeah, they just need Phil. They need me. They need Phil. They need Phil. When I was in college, I had a huge DVD collection and all of my relatives and friends would come over and borrow my movies and never return the dang movies. So I took these old scanners we had that Bridgestone Firestone was getting rid of. So I didn't take it. They were donated to me from the company. Old, old scanners.

19:48
and I built a filbuster. And it was an application, everybody that came over, got a laminated card, I made it. And then I had my entire database of DVDs in my collection. And if you borrowed any of my DVDs, you had to use your filbuster card. I logged in, I got you taken care of. I charged you $1 per rental, and you got to keep it for all week. And after that, like you started to get an incremental dollar for day. And that was my policy, so.

20:15
Yeah, always whenever there's a need you want something for me or something. You've got, you know, hundreds of DVDs because I worked at Circuit City and I was collecting them because, you know, that's going to be the commodity one day. DVDs. I was, this is it, baby. I got it. DVDs are the future.

20:32
It's like when everybody was buying all the Phantom Menace toys and I was like, this is it. I missed the last Jedi. I've got all the Phantom Menace toys that they got. I got all the extra Jar Jar Binks. They're going to be worth a mint, just a mint one day. So yeah, that was, so how do I get to become the president then CEO?

21:00
First off, you have to recognize when there's opportunity. When there's opportunity in a room and what you can do to fill it. Definitely. Yeah, I've never... You can fill it. Yeah, yeah, there you go. I'm a big fan of that part. You really are. Yeah, yeah. The ability to recognize that opportunity, it's just, it's naturally, you know, youngest of five, you know, you grow up, you're growing up moving every two or three years. In the military, you're just constantly changing locations.

21:30
having to make new friends, having to assess situations, it becomes, it's a skill that was learned for me and it can be learned from others, but you do have to break some of that habits. You gotta be able to open your eyes and go, okay, how can I start seeing needs? Well, ask yourself, what would it be like if you didn't know anyone or the area and you were just dropped in out of nowhere, how would you acclimate? What would you notice about people around you? So I had the blessing of that.

21:59
ability from traveling so much as a kid, or moving so much, I wouldn't say traveling so much, moving so much. So at Best Lawyers, there was a need for software, there was a need to improve, though I saw there was network issues, is there a way we can speed up the service that we can get to our clients? Is there a way that we can improve the process for calling our customers? So as I was building software, I thought, how can I make software better?

22:25
So I noticed I created a CMS that allowed us, allowed our employees to start, and it's called Walmart, allows our employees to start accessing and putting data into that central database. Nothing complicated there, but back then you had to create your own custom ones or use something on an access database, which thank God is pretty much gone these days. Some people still hang onto it. So I noticed that it still took a lot of time for people to pick up the phone, dial in the number, especially if they didn't know the area codes, and then call.

22:54
So I thought, okay, great. If we switch to a voiceover IP system, I can probably programmatically make this dialing more efficient. So we got a voiceover system set up and I had code set up so that when you click the button, and this sounds so generic today, but back then it was foreign. Back then you didn't have your iPhone. You just pick it up and click every button you see. So to be able to touch the the Walmart phone number button and it starts calling people. Fun fact, I took that same software I wrote for that.

23:23
I was really big in American Idol back then, like everybody was. I used to have American Idol parties with my friends. And I created American Idol Autodialer. And so what would happen at night, we'd all get together on my couch, my friends, and we'd watch and figure out who we want to vote on for the night. I'd pull up my software and I would plug in the number that you're supposed to vote for, click it, and then.

23:47
all 30 phones in the best lawyers offices would start dialing for the next three hours straight or hours straight or whatever it was. And yeah, I had, so I was, that's the type of things. Anytime that was an opportunity, we loved American Idol. I've got phone dialer software. I just finished writing. How can I automate this to start calling everybody and solving my needs here? So- Make sure your favorite wins. Yeah, I still think that game is rigged, but overall. I feel like they've put some hurdles in the way.

24:17
Probably because of you. I don't know what you're talking about. I am just a man who is trying to assist in the participation process that they call on to for the audience in mass, in automated fashion. Right, without actually having to do it more than once. Yeah, they want me to, yeah, they want you to do it. That's why they give you the number. So opportunities, seeing them, being able to recognize them.

24:47
and figure out solutions. And so we, you know, outside of, you know, little, and I can be in the weeds of all these little things, but everything adds up. It's all just, you know, the sum of all these little things is what makes a whole. And, you know, a lot of times when I talk to people and they say like, well, how do I do this or that? It just seems so overwhelming. I just wanted to accomplish this really big thing or is that just way, way too much, you know? It's just a matter of, you know, whatever expression you want to use.

25:16
You eat that well one spoonful at a time. You just had to figure out all the little steps you need to take to get to a larger thing. Even if you don't even have a major goal, I didn't have a goal of being the CEO of Best Lawyers. It wasn't my goal. I did have a goal of wanting to run something in the company, starting with the IT staff, and then maybe potentially doing something else, whether that was through a different company. So yeah, just continuing to build upon that.

25:45
Also, it helps, I'm again, moving around so much as a kid, you have to learn how to talk to a lot of people. You have to be able to relate to a lot of people. So to get into something like a presidential role, you really have to be understanding of all types of personalities. You've gotta be quick on your feet. You have to understand situations when you walk in a room and you try.

26:09
changing schools in elementary five different times. You will figure out how to assess who's the bully, who's the good kid, who's the one who's your math elite that's gonna help you out on something. You can assess that room very quickly. And if you're good and kind along the way, and ultimately people like you in that regard, they'll respect you. And so that has a lot of value in being who you are, being your authentic self, but also recognizing who

26:39
the people in the room are, what is their authentic self so that you can work with their personalities. So a mix of seeing opportunities, seeing needs, filling those, that's another PHIL pun, also recognizing the different personalities and figuring out how to work with people. I wanna say it's that easy. I recognize it's quite complicated because it takes a lot of change in self.

27:09
Well, and it's, it's, you know, it's one of those things where it sounds like you somebody may say, well, also, you know, you got you just you're just lucky, you're you're lucky. And it's like, you know, I, it's like, I believe in luck to a certain extent, but also, I definitely believe in the adage that luck is preparation and opportunity intersecting, you know, you, you were preparing your whole life, you didn't even realize it. Because those experiences that you went through helped form who you are and how you react to things.

27:38
it may have been a self-defense type thing at first because you're like, yeah, I got dropped into a new school and need to, need to figure out how to not, you know, get an atomic wedgie, you know, at lunch. So, you know, you were able to then take that skill and apply it in other areas of your life that you thought, well, this will never necessarily be something that will come up or, or whatever, but it just became ingrained in you and now it's natural. Yeah. And with your entrepreneurial spirit and your, your

28:08
wanting to do something and wanting to be able to see the needs that that need a solution, you know, like a bit of a, you know, puzzle solver there. It's like, okay, how, how can this puzzle be solved? How can I apply my knowledge and the things that I have to make a better way? Yeah, you know, yes, I agree with all that. I also agree that, you know, luck does play a role. But it does take that preparation. And anyone who knows me,

28:37
knows I get obsessed about things. I get obsessed about it. And I am I want to learn everything about something if I care about it, you know, whatever the whatever the topic of the day is for me, I just want to know I'm fascinated. I want to know so much. And I think that's important, the ability to laser focus on a craft or a subject matter, or to be multidisciplinary. And maybe you're a jack of all trades, you know, I remember

29:07
I remember, you know, what's this saying? Jack of all trades, master of none. I think the jack of all trades is the real solution personally for my personality, because if you can know a little bit about a lot of things, you can grow your network of people who do master certain fields or disciplines, and you can, you know, talk to them in their language, whether you're talking about finances, something I learned a lot about.

29:36
professional business finance, I'll say that. Something I learned a lot about, I didn't go to school as an accountant, but it's important as a CEO that I know a lot about how our books work, you know, how we're evaluating gap and how we determine what the EBITDA is and make budgets and forecast out. This is extremely important. If I can't do that and think on my feet, I'm gonna fail in a boardroom meeting. So those are things that I don't need to know everything about.

30:03
Because I have a fantastic financial team that works with me. But I need to know at least enough of the language so that I fit in. And that way you're not necessarily thrown a curveball. Because I think for you, and just speaking of you, as a person, you have a great empathy. You have a great want to know people on a very genuine level as well.

30:32
And so I think that has served you well as a human being and probably it serves you very well as, you know, as CEO of a company as well because you understand where people are coming from. You understand people's strengths and you can get them aligned to the places that are going to make the most sense for them and for you and your company. Well, I appreciate that. I do. I do think it's important to be empathetic to the person.

31:00
We've all been in the situations where we are, we just feel like we're underwater. And to know what it's like to have that level of anxiety and stress and for someone to come in and to just see you and recognize, oh my gosh, okay, I'm not alone in the way I feel about this work problem, this life problem, it's important. We've all been there and I think that's important for me.

31:30
because whenever my employees go through something really hard, personally, outside of work, I always tell them, this is just a job. I know I'm the boss and know I'm the CEO. And I know we have these deadlines. But ultimately, at the end of the day, this is just a job. And what's really important is your whole. So being able to just acknowledge that makes a huge difference for people. And I.

31:59
appreciate it when people acknowledge that with me. One of the negatives when you get a little bit higher up, there's not as many people who acknowledge that for you, but that's kind of as you get into management and continue to go, that's kind of where it's at. And you have to find friends and family that assist with that. And I do, I have a lovely support team outside of my work that are constantly understanding and caring and allowing me just to talk and also.

32:27
telling me it's going to be okay. Like that's a tough one, that's tough for anybody. One, and this is just one memory I have for you that I still have. And this is just tangentive. We did a Christmas party and we had to buy each other gifts and stuff like that. And there was a challenge.

32:51
that it couldn't cost over X amount of dollars or whatever. And it had to come from like a flea market and it had to have a good story. But a hundred percent. So I have an Eiffel tower dagger letter opener that you gave me. I remember that. That was a good one. And, um, it was, it was, it's still one of my like treasured possessions and stuff. And Val often will be like, are we, are we just leaving this thing out? I'm like, yeah, it's useful. It's like, it's a letter opener, but it's also the Eiffel tower.

33:20
Yeah, and make sure you get all the blood stains off. Yes. That was the good story that went along with it. I always like silly things like that. No matter how important or big something is, if you need to have fun with it. Oh, yeah. You need to have fun with it. It's so I think we're getting back to having more fun professionally as well. I'm seeing it in more offices. But there was a time.

33:49
pre-pandemic where it felt like everything just got real serious. And if you remove the fun and the silly from life, then you start to ask yourself, what is this for? I need a purpose. I don't mind working somewhere that is routine. I don't actually. My job is

34:12
Luckily, I'm very blessed, it's very creative, and it's not routine, but I don't mind where, even when I worked at Bridgestone Firestone, it was a very routine job, or I worked at Circuit City, it's very routine. I just have to have fun to keep me engaged. And that really comes down to, I put that on not the employees or the people, but the mentors and the managers. Don't lose that element of fun. Play flea market, give swap exchange, and find a knife, a tower, a letter opener. There's always a little bit of silly funds.

34:41
or convince your friend Rob to buy micro RC cars and have a micro RC race in the center of, and close down the road in Walnut Grove and North Augusta and have a RC racing event that is so important and real, you actually have a kid whose whole job is to run and flip the cars back over. When.

35:02
And then make sure you get lots of raw footage of that. Because you never know one day when you're going to take those gigabytes and gigabytes of RC race car footage and use them. They're still on a hard drive somewhere on my drawers. Still haven't found a chance to use that yet. But, you know, it is I'm sure it's still there. Maybe maybe my elder years, I'll have it edited down.

35:22
turn into something. But back in the day, we used to play with these RC cars and we're really small. They were really small. They were tiny. We had races in the roads of Walnut Grove. Go up the driveway and turn around. Oh, man. Yeah, that's good stuff. That's good stuff. So Phil, what's bringing you joy right now? What's bringing all my kids right now? My kids, I mean, the biggest joy I get is watching my children.

35:50
have opportunities that I didn't have. And I don't wanna speak lightly to my upbringing. My upbringing, I had all kinds, I had more opportunities than most. I mean, I had computers and musical instruments and my parents just let me do all these silly, crazy little projects I wanted to get into just as kids do and create all these small businesses. So my childhood was full and rich in that regard.

36:18
But my children get a childhood, it's different. In the sense that they have more opportunities of, I have more time when I get home at night and I can spend, I have a multidisciplinary background of you wanna learn about music, you wanna learn about philosophy, you wanna talk about some AI that I think is gonna change the future. So sitting down with my children and really just seeing how they think, or most of the time just disagree with me, is, has kind of,

36:48
kind of exciting. That brings me and my wife a lot of joy. And I love hearing as someone who's personally in theater and stuff like that. I know your kids have done some theater around here. So and I love seeing the posts where they're the insane the things that they're into and seeing the the paths that they're on like said, from from one of them not existing when we first met to see them turn into the pretty amazing humans that they are. I think it's

37:17
100% yeah Lucas is he wants to he loves being a thespian he's big in the musical theater he's he just has such a heart for it and lately I've been watching him he's 13 now as I mentioned earlier I've been watching him kind of blossom into the love having a love for choreography and so right now actually before I left he's he's working on some choreography for a

37:44
a three minute song from Fame that they're gonna do in eighth grade. And he's, it's so cool to see he's like, all right, in this scene, we're gonna be a diamond and then we're gonna have this one they're gonna come in right here. And then the main actor that's gonna, the singer is gonna pop up from the center and there's gonna be a chash and a chash. And I'm doing these silly hand movements that just insert into your own mind and Rob will describe them to you later.

38:06
So that's been a lot of fun watching him find his niche when it comes to musical theater, because that's a very challenging thing to be a part of because you have so many talented people. Not everyone gets to be the star, but if everybody works together, you can make a great show. And honestly, it's not always about being the star. It's that background that makes it happen. And so watching that with my son and then my daughter, who's, she's been into a lot of different things.

38:35
Lately, her biggest thing has been cheer. She's a co-captain of the cheer team, varsity cheer team at Augusta Preparatory Day School. And actually my son is a cheerleader as well. He just, he's in eighth grade. He got promoted to varsity cheer squad as well. So watching both my son and my daughter starting this season, cheering on the same squad at the football games, it's pretty exciting. So that's a joy-bringer, 100%.

39:07
Phil, this is the second segment of the show. We dive a little bit more into your mental health journey. I'm a big believer that personally, I'm someone that suffered from depression, that one of the things it wants to tell you is that you are alone and you're the only one that's going through this. And so I think the more we can have conversations about it and about mental health and destigmatize it, the easier it is to understand that you are not alone. So for you,

39:37
How do you keep the darkness at bay? You know, I'm very blessed in the sense that I don't have any significant suffering personally. I've had a lot of friends in my life that have had troubles and I've been able to sit with them and be with them. I've had friends that have committed suicide. You know, so I definitely understand the darkness that is out there and is in it.

40:05
It's a part of everyone. I go through highs and lows just like everyone else does. And I think it's important to be able to identify the things that are really at the root cause. So my wife and I always talk about, what's the real problem? And I'm not, this is not me, this is my wife, I gotta give Kristin all the credit here. Whenever I'm going through, whenever I'm combative or grumpy or.

40:34
or just being mean, my wife will ask me, she'll tell me stop and look at me and say like, what's the real problem? Cause I know it's not the cereal box she just threw. I know it's not the kids who left the bag on the floor because that bag has been on the floor for three weeks and now today is the big issue and today's the day you kick it. Right. So, being able to identify that internally, like...

41:02
What is the real problem? What's bothering you? What's eating at you? I'm a big fan of therapy. I've had a few different therapists in my life. I have the one I'm working with now for a little over two years, going on two years. Even just to someone to talk to, even if we're just talking about TV shows, sometimes that's what my sessions are. It's, you know, I don't have any, you know, things are going pretty well. What are you watching on Netflix? You know?

41:30
Just someone to talk to that's not your direct people who are affected by you constantly. So for me, identifying what the problem is, what's the real problem? What am I experiencing? Obviously talking to loved ones about it and having a therapist that you can speak to on the regular, even if you don't feel like you have something to talk about.

41:55
You know, it's interesting. I had a session, I do my sessions remote. I had a session recently and I told her, I said, I'm so sorry, I have nothing to talk about. But I just wanted to make sure you got paid. So I showed up for the meeting. I showed up for the meeting. How long do we need to stay on to make sure you get paid? And she was like, oh, I think as long as you connect, I get paid. And I was like, all right. Well, anyway, so.

42:19
I'll just tell you about somethings, anyway, my kids and this and that. We end up lasting longer than a normal session. With nothing. With nothing. I was gonna cancel, cause I had absolutely nothing. And so I guess the final thing I would say about that is don't cancel. Man, it's so easy. How many times have you gone, oh, me and my friend, we are gonna go catch up and go to lunch. And then the day before, the level of anxiety that grips inside them, the idea is like, I don't really wanna go.

42:49
I don't need to go to lunch. Oh, I can postpone that lunch. People cancel so much. I've had this happen in friendships. I've had this happen in professional connections. And I've been one of the guilty parties many, many times. I'll be honest. Today, this is what woke up. My schedule was full. I was on a podcast earlier. I had- You're on one right now as well. I'm on one right now as well, yeah.

43:14
I had a lunch meeting with someone I mentor and we were catching up. She was telling me about her business growth and I woke up and I was like, I'm gonna contact Rob and tell him I'm gonna cancel. And then I had to sit there and go, nope, I don't need to cancel because that's, keep my consistency in the things I say I'm gonna do. So, whenever you feel that way, whenever you feel like you're wanting to cancel things, ask yourself, what's the real problem?

43:41
So this morning I had to ask myself, what's the real problem? I was grumpy. I had a big busy day and I didn't want an extremely big busy day. And then I just had to sit there and go, well, Rob's not busy. Rob is a, no, you're busy. I mean, Rob is not a busy part of my day. Rob's a fun part of my day. That should be the treat. Like spending the evening with Rob should be the treat. So why wouldn't I get rid of the thing that is supposed to bring me joy? So yeah, that's, I guess that's a, that all, all those things combined.

44:11
Well, I appreciate that. And I appreciate you not counseling. And I appreciate you thinking this is fun. This is part of your joy. But yeah, but yeah, you're right, though. It's and I've mentioned this before, it's one of those things where, you know, as we say, I've said several times, life happens. You don't know what when that next opportunity is going to be. You don't know what's going to happen outside of that. You know, if you

44:41
I think you need to leave any situation as best as you possibly can with as much love and kindness as you possibly can, because you never know if there's going to be another opportunity. I mean, and that's not to be like everybody, everybody's going to die. I mean, yes, everybody's going to die. But like I've had friends that I wish I had another, you know, chance to have a cup of coffee with or just to talk to one more time or maybe

45:10
You said something off the last time you talked to this person, you never had a chance to really like reconcile that. And as I get older, I feel that even more, you know, the, the more I feel like, Hey, I've got more years behind me than I do ahead of me. And that's just statistically factual. You know what I mean? It's, it has, I turned 51 this year. It's just, that's a fact, you know, a doubt I'm going to reach 102.

45:39
I've got more behind me than ahead of me. So I want to make sure that, you know, in every interaction, there's a purpose for it. There's there's a reason to be in it. And to be kind and loving to whoever you're in that interaction you can't as much as you possibly can. Yeah, I completely agree. And I would say, it really goes back to don't cancel. Yeah. Just take the opportunity to say yes. I fully agree with what you're saying.

46:14
This is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. Sorry. I'm still working on a theme song for this segment of the show. I know a music producer who used to do some interesting licks. Maybe he can help you out. Maybe. I'd appreciate that. I'll fill you in later. The Fast Five.

46:39
is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. He's got physical decks that you can get at poddex.com. As a matter of fact, if you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash poddex and put in promo code chew, you can get 10% off your physical decks, but I'm going to use the app. You can find it in any of your app stores, whether you're using an iPhone or an Android or whatever. And they're really great like icebreaker questions. They're made for podcasters, obviously Poddex, but they're great icebreaker questions. So if you have to go into your next

47:09
CEO meeting. I don't know if that's a thing or not. Maybe you could start a CEO meeting. I don't know. And you need some icebreakers? Check out Poddex. But it's five questions. First thing comes to the top of your head, no wrong answers. You ready? Wait, I do have one quick question. Is it just a word? Is it like a one word response or a sentence? No, it's a response. It's answering the question or statement or whatever. I'm with you. Let's go. Let's do this. Question number one.

47:40
the songwriter, what do you think is more important in a song, the melody or the lyrics? Ooh, 100% the lyrics. If I cannot get into the depth of the words, the melody means nothing to me. I need the lyrics. But actually, you know, interesting, I write melodies before I write lyrics, but the lyrics are actually more important. I like that. Yeah, I mean, because I mean, I can listen to, I've listened to melodies before and I can be brought to tears with melodies, but I think the words...

48:09
I mean, I love good turn of phrase. 100%. And it can just literally hook you so much more. If you disagree with this, go listen to some Bush albums because some of those lyrics are garbage. Listen to a garbage album. All of those lyrics are garbage. But they're good, but they're garbage. Question number two.

48:32
what famous celebrity chef would you want to cater your dinner party? Oh man, I would have to have, what's the angry one's name? Who's always- Gordon Ramsay. Yeah, Gordon Ramsay. Yeah. I just want to just watch the show. Like the food, even if the food is mediocre, as long as I get to watch the show, because then I could see how-

48:53
not to manage human beings. Oh wow. Yeah, he can manage a chef, he can manage a line, but I don't know that he can manage humans. He doesn't realize it, it's actual people making the food. Yeah, how do you keep the darkness in? Well, the darkness is Gordon Ramsay, so don't let him in. That's question number three.

49:15
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Man, that's a question my wife and I talk about all the time. The answer is where I'm living right now because, you know, there's nothing holding us down. We can move anywhere. Yeah, we have kids, but kids are movable. So not the best answer because I but North Augusta, South Carolina for right now. That doesn't mean I'm going to be here forever, but that's where I would live, because that's where I'm at.

49:44
That's actually a very deep answer, man. I appreciate that. All right, question number four.

49:52
What is your best childhood memory? My best childhood memory. So I think about this quite a lot. I have an adopted brother named Jacob, he's German. My parents adopted him when we were living overseas, him and his brother, John. And so my brother, Matt, was always like,

50:13
mean to me as well, you know, cause he was an older brother and a little schiziax, whatever. So I was coming home one day and he was being mean as usual and I just finished snowing and my brother Jacob, who's older than Matt, like chased him down.

50:28
with snowballs and like, I got you bro. I'm gonna get them bro. And I remember just for the first time in my life being like, I've got a big brother who's gonna get my other big brother. Oh wow. So I think I know that's a terrible that it's a childhood vengeance for brothers. But that's probably one of my, that's what pops in my head is Jacob chasing my brother, Matt down with a snowball. I got you bro.

50:52
That's awesome. But I mean, yeah, it's like you had a protector, you know, finally you have. 100%. That's awesome. All right, and question number five.

51:05
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? Yeah, well, it'd be a lot of stock advice. I mean, honestly, I think about that often, man, if I could have gone back and said, buy Amazon, get on Tesla early. If you're gonna do crypto, there are two areas in which you wanna actually invest, and then outside of that, like stay away because it keeps crashing. I know that's terrible, but I think about

51:35
think about, you know, security of self. And that's probably the advice I would give. Cause that guy, I'm gonna be honest, future Phil comes to young Phil, young Phil's like, who the hell are you? No thank you old man. I don't want to turn into you. I don't want, I don't want whatever you, I've got this lusterious music career happening in my house. I've got, you know I have.

52:01
rap artists come and record in my studio. I don't need you. So I don't even think I could, I don't even think my sage advice and years of history could convince that little shit to do anything different. So it doesn't matter, Rob, it doesn't matter. I would actually just.

52:23
beat the time machine with a sledgehammer. That way I can actually get some satisfaction. Oh, there you go. There you go. Well, that is our Fast Five. And that's the show, Phil. Thank you so much for being here, man. Yeah, I appreciate it. I can't believe you were gonna cancel on me. Yeah, I know, right? What was that? I don't remember that. Phil, if folks wanna keep up with you and...

52:43
what you've got going on or just to see what life is like in the Philiverse. What's the best way they could do that? Well, you know, there are certain times in life you need a lawyer and if you really need a lawyer you want the best lawyer. Is this good? Am I working this? Oh my god. All joking aside, if you want to know what I do for a living just go to bestlawyers.com. We make a peer review

53:13
We analyze millions of data points every year. And that's not a marketing.

53:19
blurb I'm just going out there. It's actually millions of data points we do. We do lawyer rankings and recognitions in over 70 countries. We recognize lawyers, law firms, and we actually just bought a new company in this last week who it's gonna help us expand even further with the digital content and marketing services. So if you're in the need for a lawyer, use bestlawyers.com. If you just want to know what I do for a living you can go there. Honestly my

53:49
a little bit of social media, but I don't really accept friends. My LinkedIn, I've got like 28,000 connections if you want to join. That's where I'm a superstar. My kids make fun of me all the time. Like, yeah, dad, you're super cool on LinkedIn. I'm like, people value my content I put out there. They like it. I just told them about the new rankings and they're very excited. Very excited. They commented a lot. Yeah, they comment a lot. So if you

54:19
connect with you. Facebook or Instagram, I probably won't. But don't be offended. I don't connect with hardly anybody on that. He doesn't connect with me, so I understand. Again, I appreciate you being here, man. I love you and I wish you nothing but the best with everything that's going on in your life, man. Well, I appreciate it, man. Much love back and thank you for letting me feel this time.

54:44
If you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, I look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.