Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Radical Podcast - Ryan Interviews Ted Phaeton

Episode Date: December 21, 2018

In this episode Ryan sits down with local Greenville South Carolina news anchor/Meteorologist Ted Phaeton. Their talk provides a ton of insight into the news business, personal development, and great background on Ted and his passions. Learn more about Ted at http://www.phaeton4kast.com - Follow Radical on Instagram @radical_results If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Here's your host, Ryan. Hey guys, this is Ryan Alford. Welcome to the Radical Podcast. Really excited about today's episode. Got a good friend, become a good friend. And really, mentor, and someone I look up to is doing a lot of cool things here in Greenville. Ted Faton. Hey, man.

Good to have you. Are saying your name right? Yeah, Faton, Faiton, Faiton, whichever. I usually don't correct people. I know. Well, you can correct me, though. It's funny because you said mentor. I'm like, you're talking about me?

No, man, I look up to you, man. I see you. You know, we're all, we all learn and engage from each other. And so, you know, I've been really appreciative of getting to know you these last few months. Same, likewise. Appreciate you coming on the podcast. Yeah, man, it's a pleasure, man. I was just saying before.

I love the office. Yeah. What's going on? I know. It's, we try to make it a little radical. Yeah. We're in the wheelhouse. We're in a shared office space.

And I don't know how much we've talked about that on the podcast, but shared space. But it was telling Ted before we got started, starting to take it over our own shared space. here. We got growing fast at Radical, but it's been good. But really appreciate you coming on, man. And, you know, Ted is a local anchor with Fox News. That's the day job. Yeah. We're going to get into some of the side hustle, which you got a lot. But I'd love to, you know, just start with kind of your background, you know, what got you here in Greenville, what got you into the news, the interest of, you know, being a meteorologist and all of those things. that kind of led you today, but I'd love for our audience to kind of, you know,

hearing your own words a little bit of, uh, of, of the history of Ted, you know. Yeah, well, sure. I mean, first things first, uh, the path is never a straight line. If you would have told me three years ago I was going to be an anchor, I would not have believed you. If you would have told me three or four years prior to that, I was going to be a meteorologist. Probably wouldn't believe you either. So, um, there's been a lot of shifts and lane changes in my story, but I mean, it pretty much started off as a kid. in high school trying to figure out my way. And a lot of people don't know.

I love video games. I love playing video games. Who didn't? It was like my little hobby, and I actually built my own computer in high school. And I thought I was going to be a computer engineer. That's kind of what I wanted to do. And ended up switching to computer science because the college I went to soon in Albany didn't offer that.

And found out quick it wasn't for me. A combination of, okay, the, the, the, breaks are off, first year in college, join a fraternity, you're doing something that's not for you, just it was a perfect recipe to fail. So I had a 1.9 GPA at the end of my freshman year, and I'm on vacation in North Carolina with some friends, not knowing what I'm going to do with my life, and I see a bird just take a dive into the ocean, and I start talking to my friends. Some drinks might have been included with this.

Hopefully. Yeah. But I start talking to my friends about the tide and the bird coming and hunting. and they're just like, how do you know all this? Well, you know, I've always been good at earth science and stuff. And my friend, Colin, he's like, we have a great meteorology program. And that was it. I made my mind up then, like, let me do meteorology.

And, you know, there's been bumps along the way. Graduated with Broadcast Meteorology as my major. Worked at a law firm before getting into the business. So it took me three years to get in the business. And then after getting in the business, I had one-year contract, kind of like, hey, here's your shot. Can you do it? nine months in my boss walks in says hey there's a job opening in greenville south carolina do you want it i was like yeah yeah put my name in there he walks out of the office i go

to the computer i start googling like where in the world is greenville south carolina i never heard of it i thought i was going to be on the beach so you weren't falling the top 10 list and all that it was just like job no yeah yeah and then uh yeah landed here and it's kind of been it's been that ride ever since so um you know the news positions you know whether it's you meteorology or or otherwise but is is it competitive as I remember like coming through my early stages of my career and having friends then broadcast and journalism and things like that it was hyper competitive is it still it still that same competitiveness yeah in the business there's a lot of competitiveness and it because it's because a lot of people are hungry I mean to be in

the business you have to be hungry and when you're surrounded by other people who are hungry that's going to breed competition. Yeah. For me, I'll be honest, I haven't felt much competition, and I think it's just because I have, I have tunnel vision. I don't really, I've been lucky to not compare myself in the business with others around me,

and that has helped me kind of keep my head down and keep working to the point where when I was offered the opportunity to anchor, that blindsided me. I wasn't, I don't want to say I wasn't prepared for it, but I didn't expect it. Right. And when it scared me, when it was offered, I said, oh, man, this scares me.

And that's why I have to do it. I mean, I read Promptor every day in the morning, and I'm in high school. I was the kid that didn't like reading out loud. I'd read the paragraphs ahead. I'd count the kids. I'm like, okay, I'm in five paragraphs, and I'd read the paragraph, memorize it. And, of course, the person in front of me said, overachiever, reach two paragraphs. And I'm like, oh, here we go.

But kind of just going from that and focusing, okay, this is a challenge for me. This is how I grow. this is how I overcome myself. It's my only competition is me, but in the business, everybody else. They're gutting for that same position you're going for. Yeah.

So talk about, so Albany, that grew up, I did my homework. You know, we've been getting to know each other, but you don't always start with it. Where did you originally start and all that?

But growing up in New York, is that, is that upstate, I mean, for the most part, or middle state? I don't know. Yeah.

So I grew up in Long Island. Okay. college in SUNY Albany. Okay. That's upstate. Yeah. And it's cold. It's cold.

It's gray. And the main selling point for SUNY Albany. I'm not trying to bad talk my college, but the main point was this big fountain. Because you tore colleges in the summer. So they had this big fountain in the water's flowing. And you're like, oh, this is beautiful. And I start going to the school in September. They turned off the fountain and they don't turn it back on until April because it's too gold.

But, yeah, Sunni Albany was kind of where I kind of started putting in, I guess, the groundwork for what grew up. Where do you feel like you got your drive from? You know, I've sensed that from you since we've gotten to know each other, kind of that purpose and that, you know, passion to really succeed and just be unique and successful. You know, where do you think that comes from? My parents. I mean, they put it instilled it in you.

Yeah, I didn't have a choice. Both of my parents, I come from a household where there's no such thing as complaining. My mom and my dad, they're both from Haiti, and they both completely left the country, went to a new country, started from scratch to give their kids a shot at a successful life. And I grew up with seeing two perspectives of life where my dad would leave 6 o'clock in the morning. I wouldn't see him until 6 p.m. because he's commuting to the city coming back. My mom, she was a psychiatric nurse for over 25 years, so she would go to work 7 a.m. She's supposed to get up at, for but she'd work overtime, come home sometimes 11 p.m. Just to put me and my sister in Catholic school.

So when I go to Catholic school, I'm seeing a lot of other kids who, in high school, these are 18-year-olds driving H-2 Humbers and BMWs, and I'm like seeing these two worlds. And seeing the work my parents put to even give me a shot in that world, I was like, it's almost doing them a disservice if I stop trying to better myself. Yeah, that's cool, man. I, you know, not everyone has that. You know, I think we take, you know, I think all, a lot of us hang out with some of the like-minded people,

but, you know, a lot of that drive, some of it's just self-driven. And mine come from my parents as well, so I relate to that. So talk about, you know, what it's like being an anchor, you know? Like, I've, I'm fascinated by it. I know, you get up early. You know, it's not all glamour.

I've been in the marketing business, enough and behind the camera and on the other side of the camera enough to see, you know, it's not all sexy all the time. But talk about just your experiences and being the anchor and meteorologist before that. And I know you're still technically. What's the balance there between those roles? And, you know, is it, are you, are we going to be Ted the anchor moving forward in the career? Are we hanging on to a little bit of both? Or what's, what's the talk of a few questions there, but love your perspective. I'll be honest with you, Ryan.

I got a lot of soul searching to do for the road ahead. Yeah. Because I've done the anchoring and I've done weather, and I've seen those two worlds. Both require a lot of responsibility. And I say that because it's easy to see, you know, the meteorologist and the anchor on TV and like, okay, that must be so much fun.

And there's an aspect of fun to it, but kind of learning just how impactful that position is. we're translating information as a meteorologist. And you're talking about storms. It's potentially life-threatening. And I know from my meteorology days, I talk about, for me, I have two losses. When I say two losses, there are two storms here in the Western Carolinas

that claim two lives. And I take responsibility for that because if our job is to inform the public, let them know of the dangers out there. if someone doesn't know, I have to take that as a personal failure. So specifically that was, I don't know if you remember maybe four years ago, the heavy downpours, Stod Avenue was flooded, Haywood Road was flooded, and unfortunately, we always say turn around, don't drown. Unfortunately, someone drove into the floodwaters, they got stuck,

and they tried to get out of the car. The floodwater swept them away. A lot of people don't know. It doesn't take much. Maybe six inches to a foot of water moving can knock you off. your feet. Yeah. And so when we're kind of trying to put that information out and we see a victim of that, we take personal responsibility for it. So first and foremost with the position, a lot of responsibility. Same goes for anchoring the news, especially in the political culture that we're

living in right now and the conversations that are going around. It's important for me to translate information from a neutral perspective and keep it with the facts. Yeah. Keep you. any biases out and just give pure facts and allow people to make their own mind up. Yeah. The basis of journalism is informing the public so they can self-govern. And informed public, they can vote the officials in and then they can, in fact, create the country that they want to live in. Right. I think that's the translation that as journalists we try and put out there, the power is in the hand of the people. And as journalists, we keep those in power accountable. So the responsibility asked,

is huge. On the other end, I have a lot of fun. I get to, in essence, I get to be myself. Yeah. And I'm lucky when my news director and my boss says, hey, you know, be a little bit more Ted, you know, open up. Cool. That's great feedback. You want me to joke around a little bit more when I can and sneak in my comments. Sure, I can do that. So waking up at 2 a.m. is not fun, but when you get to speak about a Disney trailer on, on, on, on, and you're like, like, oh, my favorite Disney movie is Aladdin. Change my mind. You can't do it. And have that banter.

You know, it's fun, and there's a lot worse things to get paid for doing. So where does your heart lie? Does it lie with the weather? Does it lie with being on the news moving forward? Or is it one of these other passes, which we'll get into in this a minute? I think my heart lies in communication. I think my heart lies in media. And I never got in it for the camera.

and to be on TV. In fact, when I was studying broadcast meteorology, I didn't realize until my senior year when I went into my internship, I was like, oh, wait, I have to be on TV. So I didn't get into it for that, but I've fallen in love with just the production and the transformation that media has given me.

Even the lights, the cameras here. I love this because there's somebody on the other end. We can't see them. They can hear us. They can resonate with us. We can connect with people through time and through space with what we're doing right now. So for the rest of my days,

I don't know if it's going to be anchoring, if it's going to be weather, if it's going to be any of these other vent, but until the day I die, I think I'm going to be either on the print, audio, video, platform in some way, shape, or form. That makes sense. I'm going to come back to something you said

because I don't want to get into a political discussion at all. I'm highly not political, though I have my beliefs and passions and all that. that, but I don't even want to get into that. But it's more what you said about the neutral aspect of news. That, to me, I think, has to be a real challenge. Not because you aren't able to be professional and not show it, but the stories that you have to tell, that you're told and that you're guided through.

Because I watch the, you know, when I watch the news now, as a marketer, you know, I see through a lot of it. And I feel like all I feel now is so much bias. like like love or hate what's going on in politics and the president I'm again not here to talk about that but all I can do is feel almost like the left side trying to push an agenda and I'm not and I probably fall I just I probably swing more left than you know like I fall probably more left but I'm actually bothered by that by it but it's like there's something fascinating about that coverage and how you balance those stories.

And I'd love to hear like, you know, how, what goes through your mind and trying to do that and how much maybe you hear feedback or do you run into people on the street or through your social channels that are like, that think you're slanted in certain ways. I mean, I'd love for you to dive into that a little more. Yeah. And to be honest, we get it all the time. And like, we'll get emails and there are folks who think, they'll swear we're favored towards the right.

And then other emails in the same day, they'll swear we're favored towards the left. And it is a difficult balance. I will say some of the major networks, because I'm sure you've heard in marketing and in business, if you try and make everybody happy, you don't have a good product. So News has kind of been transferring a little bit in that on the major networks. So now the networks, we all know who they are. They're starting to take more biases, clearly. They're taking a stance and they're taking a side because they're building more of a passionate following.

And because of that, that actually translates into local media, which a lot of people don't realize are independently owned for the most part. So when I work for Fox Carolina, I'm not working for Fox Network. The only thing we have in common is the prime time showing on our channel. Our news is mainly a group of journalists who go out, they find the story, they find what's going on in the community and what's affecting people. and oftentimes if we get information that is lean towards one side, the rule of thumb is, okay, get comment and get the other side. There's three sides to every story. One side, the other side, and the right side, right?

And our job is to tell the two sides of that story as best as we can. And again, let the viewers and let those watching come to their own conclusion. I think that's really the mission and the goal that we do. And as you know, you can't make everybody. happy. Sometimes the story's not presented the way that they want or sometimes we don't have both sides because one side refuses to comment and we're forced to report on what we have. So when it comes to news, it's an everyday battle to tell the story a certain way. And that's why we get in there at 3 o'clock in the morning. Everybody's in there in the middle of the night

and we have four pairs of eyes looking at a script before it comes out. And, you know, that's helpful because, you know, we need to check each other sometimes. Yeah. Media is interesting right now. You know, what kind of dialogue? I fancy questions like I just ask sometimes. And then I, we're being broadcast right now live in a lot of channels. You know, you're on a news station, and TV's not going anywhere.

like tomorrow, there's still millions of television sets and it's news. But I wonder what kind of dialogue if you do, or if you hear it like with your producers and different things, that people are having around the reality of the transmission of news and content now and how that has become so mobile, so active. You know, we're all almost like broadcasters ourselves in a way. But more maybe towards the distribution of media, you know, your perspective, but then maybe just behind the scenes

if there's dial, do you guys talk about that kind of stuff? I mean, is it like not going, oh God, is TV going away? I'm not saying that, but like you guys have those kind of conversations

or producers or the big wigs that you deal with. Like, do you hear them talking about those things? I'll be honest. Not too many people in my building have those conversations. Yeah. I think they should.

I've had those conversations with a couple people because, I mean, We look at the market, we see what's going on, and I like to prepare for the future. I think there's something that's working right now, and it's easy when something works to get comfortable. I'm not comfortable.

And kind of looking at the makeup of what's going on. When I first got the job anchoring, I didn't really study much journalism. I had a journalism course through my college career. So I bought a couple books and read up, and one of the books I was reading talks about that challenge. of how social media and the instant access to information is a big challenge for journalism in today's world. You remember the, I think it was the American Airlines playing landing in the Hudson.

Oh, yeah. Sully, the movie Sully. Yep, I was working in New York when that happened. Yeah. That was credited the breaking news story for that, the coverage. That was credited to Twitter. And that was the first time a social media platform beat out. news networks. And that's when the world changed. And that's where we are now. Most journalists you

talk to, they have a Twitter account because that is information in real time. If you want to stay informed, be on Twitter. And we live in a world now where we find breaking news stories through Twitter. I came in in the morning. I have tweet decks. I have all these tweets and I follow journalists from all over the country. And that's how I first saw the news of the Las Vegas shooting. And that's coming in on Twitter. And we get into news gathering mode. We start listening to the scanners, listening to the local networks. And of course, you see it all the time in news.

Whenever there's breaking news stories and they talk about a tragic occurrence, the numbers are always wrong initially. And that's the biggest challenge that we have in journalism is we're supposed to pride ourselves on accuracy. We're supposed to pride ourselves on our reputation. but when the information is coming out in real time, we can't ignore it. So we have to report the latest number is this. The latest number is that.

And the responsibility for us as a news network is not to believe everything we hear. We have to kind of filter through the gunk, filtered through the fake news, if you would, and make sure what we put out there is credible. And that's how we keep our reputation. That's how we keep the trust of the people. by vetting all of our sources, vetting where the information comes from,

and then translating it as best we can. Do you think there's still this race to be first versus the race to be right? Is that still prevalent in media? Or has these other mediums like we were just talking about maybe augmented and lessened the pressure, perhaps, because it's almost impossible. Whose first is whoever's smartphones there fastest, right? Yeah. You know, is it more about accuracy and then speed, or is it still, like, the race, even locally.

Like, I still wonder, like, are you, is it, is Fox Channel 7 and 4, you know, NBC, CBS and Fox? Like, are y'all still battling to be first on a, you know, local news story, or is it less about that anymore? Well, what's interesting about it is you can't win at both. Yeah. You can't. Speed is the enemy of accuracy. Yeah. So if you're first, you kind of sacrifice the ability to be accurate.

And if you wait a little longer, you can be accurate. And I guess that's the hard. That's the balance there. But do y'all get pressure, though, to break first? I don't think it's so much pressure to break first. I think it's pressure to cover what's happening and pressure to cover what's relevant. Because if something's happening, we don't ever want to be in a spot that we ignore the elephant in the room. right so we don't want to sit on the trigger if you would if there's something happening we have

enough to report on it the pressure is okay you have it you know get it out in a timely manner definitely there is there is urgency there's no doubt about that there is urgency in the business but um again to just the urgency is it becomes dangerous when you're dealing with the accuracy of the story too yeah so let's venture into kind of the subplots of Ted. I know you've got your hands

in a lot of different things. We're talking about that before. You've got a successful podcast yourself. You've got the website. I know you do a lot of blogging. You know, talk about some of those sub-passions and some of the things that you're into and, you know, that you're,

the both challenges and opportunities that you see ahead for that stuff. Yeah. Well, anybody that knows me knows I love talk. So four and a half hours every morning isn't enough, I guess, right? Yeah, this is perfect. We're going to have a regular segment then. So after doing, uh, doing news in the morning, I love what I do, but those topics are really what concerns the community and those are topics that need to be discussed. Afterwards, I have a passion for self-growth. I have a passion for learning business and just learning about

myself. So I continue that with my podcast, the No Rain, No Rainbows podcast. Part of that's because, to mention before, where I am now, I would have never thought that. And to be where I am, I just have this, I almost feel like I have a responsibility to kind of portray the other people, like this is possible. I say No Rain, No Rain, No Rain, Bones, because I've had my dark days, and to get through those dark days, I have a good job, and I'm pretty happy. with where I am. And I just have this positivity about me. I want to share that.

So that's been a passion of mine through the No Rain, No Rainbows podcast. And that lives on my blog, Fate and Forecast, which, again, it's all in the same realm. I say the best way to predict your future is to create it. And you hear how it's all weather-related because meteorology is where I got my start.

So with Fate and Forecast, my goal there is to kind of share some stories, share the books that I'm reading, share how I've found a certain level of fulfillment in my life and really get the discussion going with people. I love this realm discussing with people. How can we be better? I'm not a big fan of Smalltalk.

I know I'm not a good listener because when people tell me about their day, I'm like, okay, I don't really care what you have for breakfast. Yeah. You know, let's talk about these goals. Let's talk about what we could do in life. There's so much opportunity outside of these doors. I don't know how long I'm here. and I know I'm here once, so I want to seize what's out there.

Yep. So it's really just a passion of self-growth and finding how I can share my story with people. And if it resonates with somebody builds relationships, that's really kind of the end game there. Yeah. So what's been, you know, from the podcast or the blog, I know you've read some books, but maybe give some of our listeners, you know, maybe a good book or a good tip or something that you've come across recently. that maybe made an impact in something that you did. Or, you know, I know you just reviewed a lot of books.

I was reading your blog. So anything, any tips or tricks or recent things? I know you're big in the personal development side. I do want to get into the fitness part in a second. Ted and I grinded last week in a men's event. We'll get to that in a minute. I'm still hurting. But any tips in the personal development or a book you've read

or anything that's like really, you know, hits you right in the head? Yeah, so I just did the blog post you're talking about was the 19 books Every Man Should Read in 2019 to Jump Start His Growth. And I know it says men in the title, and it is focused towards men, but I think everybody can get value from that list. There's only maybe three or four books on the list that have man in their title, and is really geared towards men. But I think it's a good balance of habits, self-growth, mindset, and masculinity.

And really, the first book I'll recommend, to people would be the power of habit. That showed me the importance of habit in terms of getting going. And the reason I say that first, because reading, for example, if you pick up that book and you read it and you understand the importance of habit and you make reading a habit, that'll help you get through the list, and that'll help you implement everything else. So the power of habit would be the first book I recommend

because motivation gets you going. Habits keep you going. Yeah. So number one habit. Number two, as a man think if, I've been learning a lot about myself and I don't like everything. And that's the hardest thing, looking in the mirror, spending time by myself, meditating, reading these books to consciously think. And I don't like certain things about myself. I love myself.

Right. But there's certain things I can work on. I can improve on. And being real with myself, and you're like, Ted, man, you're not perfect. You got things that are messed up, but you've done a great job so far. Keep going.

You know? And that's the biggest thing I want people to get out of that list is finding out who you are, accepting who you are, loving who you are. I used to have a lot of self-doubt, self-talk. And I've transitioned to a spot in my life where I walk into a room and I don't care what anybody thinks. there's still some feedback here and there because it's a hard habit to get away from.

But if I'm just genuinely myself, I've accepted, I'm a good person, I have good intentions. If somebody takes something the wrong way, I'd love the opportunity to address it and correct it. But I don't want to apologize for living my life anymore. Yep. Well, that's a powerful. Once you can get to that point, you can really take on the world because 90% of our inhibitions are that doubt and then the worry of what other people think. And the moment you can, and you never get rid of all of it. We're all human beings.

But once you can embrace that you are your only limit and realize it all starts with you and that we're not perfect, but we're all clay. We're being molded at all times. I think some of the things that drive me crazy and I try to build my content around is this, you know, I'm 41. You know, people get to my age even. which, you know, 40's the new 20, whatever. You look good, man. But it's like, I think they think they're done.

You know, like, they think that they can't be molded or they can't grow in some way or they can't advance. Like, this is just who you are. And, you know, it's really powerful to hear you talk about, like, you know, that self-awareness and then just knowing that you don't have to care of what everybody thinks, but you've got to keep pushing and keep growing. Yeah. And, you know, I think there's a lot to love.

learn in that truth. But talk about, you know, we've modern man. You know, there's, you know, we hadn't talked about that much, but I'd love to hear you know, where that came from.

I think we've been getting at some of those tenants in the conversation here, but maybe for the listener give a little background on what modern man is and what you've been doing. I think that's just another kind of pet projects. But, you know, I don't know where you see that going, you know, but. Yeah. So, kind of a pet project now, but

And I'll speak it into existence right here. I want that to be my life mission. And that scares me. Yeah. Because really the modern man was a thought, an idea I had sat down with Tyler Harris. And he was really the first person I kind of told about it. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, man, let's do it.

We'll get the cameras. And he helped manifest that into something real. And since then, I've really kind of been honing in on building the modern man. And I get it because growing up, I saw my parents operate as a well-oiled machine. I saw the work my mom put in, my dad put in. And then as I kind of got out into the world and I'm starting to read these books, I'm realizing that I need to find a purpose. Men need purpose.

I think everybody needs purpose, but men, they really pride themselves on a mission. You've heard the quote, if you don't stand for anything, you'll fall for anything. And I've looked around, I'm starting to hear men suffering. They're not saying anything. They're not sharing anything, but I hear suffering. If you want to see the reality of it, just Google the suicide rate amongst men over the age of 35. And so I think it's a problem where we are having to find a new definition of what it means to be a man in this world. The reason it scares me because I'm going to have the audacity to want to build a modern man

and push for the modern man, I better walk the talk. And the first thing I will say is being a man is not easy. It's not easy. Being a woman's not easy. I'm not trying to downplay the opposite gender here. I think being a man is hard and being a woman is hard. But giving some support to men, having to find not necessarily a blueprint, but maybe some direction where we can find purpose,

We can find growth and meaning. That is something I think all men want and need. I think we need men groups. We need to raw. We need to be beasts. Yeah. But we also need to hone that in and focus it in productive ways. And I think if I can find that makeup, because I'm still trying to find it.

Yeah. If I can find that makeup and share that with others, I think it can increase the quality of life that a lot of men live. they say if you change a man you can change the household if you change the household you can change a community You change the community, you change the state, it changes the country, which changes the world. All right. Start with the men in the household, and we can ultimately change the world. Yeah, I love that.

I mean, it's really powerful, and I think you're dead right, and it's back to, I think it's all men instinctively kind of hold things. I mean, you know, you talk about extroverts and introverts and all that, but I think there's this introvertedness of purpose and things that just kind of stay internalized with most men. Yeah. And, you know, they, it's not like, well, I can't show my emotions. I'm not saying like it's all that, but some of it is that. You know, it's like just being real. You know, most men feel like they have to wear this facade. And, you know, I think they kind of keep that cloak on.

And it becomes even more as you get older. And in my age, it even past that. I think it just suppresses and suppresses and suppresses. And then I think that's why it leads to a lot of broken families because it's like, then it's the midlife crisis, but it's because, you know, they haven't been, you know, being their real self or feeling confined or feeling comfortable kind of expressing that. And it's not, you know, chicken wings and beers on Monday night football. You know, it's more, it needs to be deeper than that. Yeah.

And as men, we want to be strong, right? And we hold things. And I don't know if you've ever heard, like, the mug or the cup, right? So this is a bottle of water. And as men, like, I could hold this bottle of water. It's no problem. But if I hold it for an hour, two hours, three hours, the weight of the bottle didn't change, but my arm's going to start shaking. I can't hold it that long.

And sooner or later, the bottle's going to crash. Water's going to get everywhere. And people around you can be like, what the hell happened? Yeah, no. It was just a bottle water. It was just fine. Yeah, right. But when you hold onto it that long, it explodes.

And I think we need an outlet. And I was reading the book, Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes. And he talks about surveying men and women through marriage. Most women have friend groups for emotional support where men typically only have their wives. And that's one thing that, because as men, we bottle it up, we keep it to ourselves. So being able to be vulnerable with some of my friends, being able to be like, hey, man, listen, I'm not okay. Yeah. You know?

Or, hey, what's going on? Man, I messed up. being able to be vulnerable a little bit and show some emotion, even shed a couple tears if you need to. Having that emotional support can help men because it's a lot to put on one person. And that can also cause stress in a marriage. If all the emotional things you're going through falls on your wife,

she's got to carry her stuff and yours too. That's heavy. It's a load. Yeah. So I think it's our responsibility to share that load with some of our friends. to not overwhelm and burden our spouses and having that balance. You're going to share it with them, of course, but not weighing them down with it is also important. I love it.

So, you know, I know you've been involved with it. I think just to kind of close on that point, but that's what we've been trying to do with Greenville Hustle, you know, not just men, men and women, but on a networking, making it more real dialogue, more real conversation and all that. Yeah. So I've really appreciated your support of that. I just wanted to say that. Yeah. You know, instrumental and just showing up to the events and all that.

So I appreciate your support of that as we move forward. I mean, I believe in the mission in terms of bringing people together. Yeah. And really it starts with conversations, right? It starts with meeting other people where they think the same way. I spent a lot of my life thinking I was crazy because most of the people I was around, I had a different mindset. Yeah.

And it's good to get in a room where your mindset is with the majority for once. Right. And it makes you feel comfortable. And I leave those events like, man, I'm not doing enough. I got to do more. But, I mean, that's how you stay sharp. A knife need to wet stone. Stay sharp.

Yeah. And that's the environment you guys have created and you're growing. And I'd love to see it from its roots all the way to the roots come out. Yeah. Well, we'll get there. But as we close out a little bit, I know physical fitness is important to you. I think maybe talk a little bit about that and how have you always been into working out? Has that been like a newer thing?

Or, you know, Ted and I were involved with an event with Metabolic Core 24 and Lulu Lemon last weekend. It was a men's event where we did a little bit of every exercise. Ted and I were sweating and falling over and next to each other. It was rough. But I had a good time. But, you know, maybe talk about how fitness and all. I mean, it starts with the body. I mean, I know as far as, you know, the mind and everything being strong.

But I'd love your, you know, where that comes in and maybe as a passion point. Yeah, I think I was not always in the fitness. I graduated high school, 135 pounds. I was tiny. I was a smallest kid on my varsity football team. But through college, put on a little bit of a beer belly, you know, kind of just, drank and then when I graduated, I started going to the gym a little bit, but I ended up getting ulcerative colitis. For those that don't know what it is, it's very similar to Crohn's.

And pretty much, without getting into the nasty details of it, your body doesn't absorb nutrients the way it should. And that kind of put me in the hospital. I lost 30 pounds in a month, and I was skin and bones. And coming out of the hospital after that, I wanted to bounce back. And that was the first realization of the things I eat have an impact on my body. So I started paying more attention to what I ate and worked my way back to a month and a half after getting out of the hospital. I was on top of a mountain snowboarding.

And that was kind of like the drive between not just my mindset of positivity, but my mindset of eating and... staying active. So I did that for a while. And then Charles Russ came into my life. And he's the kind of guy that if you need somebody to challenge you and up your game, hang out with Charles Russ for 10 minutes. So he literally was like, hey, let's go to the gym.

And, you know, he would increase the difficulty. And, you know, I'll say this much with fitness, it never gets easier. You just get stronger. Yeah. And then you just level up as you go. So I've been on that journey, been working out, and just trying to level myself up and challenge myself and really start molding my body

because the biggest thing is when I start seeing those changes, it makes it tangible. You actually know that the things you do have an impact and it's not just in fitness, but really in everything. I look in the mirror and the life I'm living, the way I look, the person, I've created that. You know, I'd advise anybody listening to create an avatar of themselves, the ideal self that they want to be.

Hanging on your bathroom wall and look at it every day and do something to create that person. I've created my physique. I've created the relationships I've had. I've created this world around me. And I do that every day by intentionally living. So if people live intentionally, they can create their own future, their own physique,

whatever their fitness goals are, whatever their career or financial goals might be. just start little by little doing it. Love it. Love it. Well, man, I really appreciate you coming on. And let's tell everybody that's listening where they can find you. Fox Channel 12 used to be 21, but Channel 12, I guess here locally. Yeah.

Anchor in the morning. Yeah. But maybe get out some of your handles and where people can find all your content. Sure. So first and foremost, you'll see me every morning, 4.30 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday at Fox, Carolina. Um, outside of that, my Instagram handle is Faiton Forecast. That's P-H-A-E-T-O-N, the number four, K-A-S-T.

I'm fancy like that with the K. Oh, yeah. Um, that's also my handle on Twitter. And, uh, for Facebook, it's just Ted Faiton. And then that'll end up directing me to my website, which is faytonforecast.com. It's about the same as my handle. Love it, love it. Well, Ted, really appreciate you coming on the radical podcast.

And my pleasure. Love to continue, uh, growing our friends. friendship and having you involved with Gville Hustle and just staying connected. Yeah, appreciate you, man. I'm happy. All right, man. Thank you. This is Ryan Alford, host of the Radical Company podcast.

Really appreciate Ted. Faiton coming on today, and we'll talk to you next time.