Right About Now with Ryan Alford - 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. 

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 who's doing a lot of cool things here in Greenville, Ted Phaeton. Hey, man. Good to have you. Am I saying your name right? Yeah, Phaeton, Phaeton, 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, are you talking about me? No, man. I look up to you, man. I see you.

You know, 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.

I love what's going on. I know. 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 I 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've got a lot. But I'd love to just start with kind of your background,

what got you here in Greenville, what got you into the news, the interest of 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, hear in your own words a little bit of the history of Ted, you know. Yeah, well, sure. I mean, first things first, 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 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, SUNY Albany, didn't offer that.

And found out quick it wasn't for me. A combination of, okay, the breaks are off, first year in college, join a fraternity, you're doing something that's not for you, just, it was the 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 in this, hopefully, the ocean and I start talking to my friends some drinks might have been included 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 I've always

been good at earth science and stuff and my 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 um 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 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'd never heard of it. I thought I was going to be on the beach. So you weren't following the top ten list and all that. It was just like, job?

I wasn't, no. And then, yeah, it landed here. And it's kind of been that ride ever since. So, you know, the news positions, you know, whether it's meteorology or otherwise, but is it competitive? Like, I remember, like, coming through my early stages of my career and having friends in broadcast and journalism and things like that, and it was hyper-competitive, it's still that same competitiveness in the business?

There's a lot of competitiveness in 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 didn't, I haven't felt much competition. And I think it's just because I have, I'll be honest. I didn't, I haven't felt much competition. And I think it's just cause 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 you know I mean I read prompter 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 like okay I'm in five paragraphs and 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 is an 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. So my only competition is me, but in the business, everybody else. They're gunning for that same position you're going for. Yeah.

So talk about, so Albany, that grew up, I did my homework. You know, we begin to know each other, but you don't always start with, where did you originally start and all that. But growing up in New York, is that upstate for the most part or middle state? I don't know. So I grew up in Long Island. I went to college in SUNY Albany, and that's 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 and it's it's gray and in the main selling point for SUNY Albany not trying bad talk my college but the main point was

this big fountain cuz you know you tore you tore colleges in the summer so they had this big fountain in the waters flowing and you're like all this beautiful and I I start going to the school. So they had this big fountain and the water's flowing and you're like, oh, this is beautiful. And I start going to the school in September. They turn off the fountain and they don't turn it back on until April because it's too cold. But, yeah, SUNY Albany was kind of where I kind of started putting in, I guess, the groundwork for what grew. 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. They put it in, instilled it in you? Yeah, I didn't have a choice. Both my parents. I come from a household where there's no such thing as complaining.

Both 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, 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 was supposed to get up at 4, but she would 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 H2 Hummers 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. You know, not everyone has that. You know, I think we take, you know, I think 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 comes 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, you know, what it's like being an anchor, you know, like I've, I'm fascinated by it. I know, you know, that you get up early, you know, it's not all glamour. I've been in the

marketing business long enough and behind the camera and on the other side of the camera enough to see, you know, it's not all, all sexy all the time, but talk about just your experiences in 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, 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 the talk? 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

that's potentially life threatening. And I know from my meteorology days, I talk about, for me, I have two losses. And 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 Ston 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 you 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 foremost with the position a lot of responsibility same goes for um 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 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. An 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 hands of the people.

And as journalists, we keep and put out there. The power is in the hands of the people. And as journalists, we keep those in power accountable. So the responsibility aspect is huge. On the other end, I have a lot of fun. I get to, in essence, I get to be myself. And I'm lucky when my news director and my boss says, hey, be a little bit more Ted. Open up.

Cool. That's great feedback. You want me to joke be a little bit more Ted. 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 and you're like, oh, my favorite Disney movie is Aladdin. Change my mind.

You can't do it. And have that banter. 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 passions, which we'll get into in just a minute? I think my heart lies in communication.

I think my heart lies in communication. I think my heart lies in media. And I never got in it for the cameras 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 ventures, but till 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, 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're you know that are that you have to tell that you're told and that you're guided through because i watched them you know when i watch the news now i'm as a marketer you know i 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 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 who 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. Yeah. And it is a difficult balance. I will say that 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 right our news 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 leaned 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 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 that's helpful because you know we need to check each other yeah sometimes so media is interesting right now you know what kind of dialogue I I fancy questions like I just asked 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 you if you do, if you hear it 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. 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 dialogue. 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, do you guys have those kind of conversations or producers or the bigwigs 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. I think they should. I've had those conversations with a couple people because 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 of 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 the I think it was the American Airlines plane landing in the Hudson. Oh, yeah.

Sully, the movie Sully. Yeah, 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 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, filter 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? Who's first is whoever smartphones their fastest, right? Yeah, you know is it more about

accuracy and 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 local news story, or is it less about that anymore? What's interesting about it is you can't win at both. You can't. Speed is the enemy of accuracy. 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 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. 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, get it out in a timely manner. Definitely there is urgency. There's no doubt about that. There is urgency in the business. 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 the subplots of uh of ted what um i know you've got your hands in a lot of different things we're talking about that before um you've got a successful podcast yourself you've got the website i know hands in a lot of different things. We were talking about that before. You've got a successful podcast yourself. You've got the website.

I know you do a lot of blogging. Talk about some of those sub-passions and some of the things that you're into and both challenges and opportunities that you see ahead for that stuff. Yeah. Well, anybody that knows me knows I love to talk. So four and a half hours every morning isn't enough i guess right yeah this is perfect yeah we're gonna have a regular segment then so after 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 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 to other people like this is possible I say no rain no rainbows because I've had my dark days and to get through those dark

days to I'm having 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 small talk I 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 had for breakfast. Yeah, you know, let's let's talk about these goals Let's talk about what we could do in life. There's 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 see what's out there 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 so it's really just a passion of self-growth and 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 um 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 into the personal development side.

I do want to get into the fitness part in a second. Uh, Ted and I grinded last week at a men's event. We'll get to that in a minute, but, uh, any, uh, 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, uh, the blog post you're talking about was the 19 books every man should read in 2019 to jumpstart 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 um so the power of habit would be the first book I recommend because motivation gets you going uh habits keep you going yeah so So number one habit, number two, as a man thinketh.

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 be like, Ted, man, you're not perfect. You got things that are messed up, but you're, you've done a great job so far. Keep going. Yeah. 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 right 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 are that doubt and then the worry of what other people think yeah 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 uh you are your only limit and really 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 challenge some of the things that drive me crazy and i try to build my content around is this you know i'm 41 uh you know people get to my age even which you know 40 is the new 20 whatever you look good but 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 i you know it's 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 what everybody thinks, but you've got to keep pushing and keep growing. And I think there's a lot to learn in that truth. But talk about modern man.

We hadn't talked about that much, but I'd love to hear where that came from. I think we've been getting at some of those tenets 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 project. But, you know, I don't know where you see that going, you know. Yeah.

So kind of a pet project now. But, and I'll speak into existence right here. I want that to be my life mission. And that scares me. Yeah. I want that to be my life mission and that scares me yeah because um 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. 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 the 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 is 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. 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, meaning.

That is something I think all men want and need. I think we need men groups. We need to roar. We need to be beasts. 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, 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 a household, you can change a community. You change a community, you change the state,

you change the country, which changes the world. 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 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 exactly you know most men feel like they have to wear this facade and you know I think they they kind of keep that cloak on and it becomes even more uh as you get older and in my age and 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 like a safe space. Yeah. And as men,

we, we, we want to be strong. Right. And we, we hold things. And I don't know if you've ever heard like the, the, 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. Right. And sooner or later, the bottle's 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?

It was just a bottle of water. It was just fine. Yeah, right. But when you hold on to 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 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 i'm not okay yeah you know or hey what's going on with you 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 yeah um having that emotional support can help men because it's a lot to put on one person and you know that can also cause stress in the marriage. If all the emotional things you're going through falls on your wife, she's got to carry her stuff and yours too.

It'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 i think just to kind of close on that point but that's what we've been trying to do with green will hustle you know in not just men men and women but on a networking making it more dialogue, more real conversation and all that. Yeah.

So I've really appreciated your support of that. 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 the 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. And it's good to get in a room where your mindset is with the majority for once. 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 needs a whetstone to stay sharp.

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 fruits come out. Yeah, 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, Core24, and Lululemon 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 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, um, I was, I was not always in the fitness. I graduated high school, 135 pounds. I was tiny. I was the smallest kid on my varsity football team, but, um, through college, uh, put on a little bit of a beer belly, 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. 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 he would increase the difficulty. And 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 um i've been on that journey been working out and just trying to level myself up and and challenge myself and 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. Hang it 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, anchor in the morning. But maybe get out some of your handles where people can find all your content. Sure. So first and foremost, you'll see me every morning, 430 to 9 a.m., Monday through Friday at Fox Carolina.

Outside of that, my Instagram handle is PhaetonForecast. 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. That's also my handle on Twitter. And for Facebook, it's just Ted Phaeton. And then that'll end up directing you to my website, which is PhaetonForecast.com. It's spelled the same as my handle.

Love it. Love it. Well, Ted, really appreciate you coming on the Radical Podcast. My pleasure. And we'd love to continue growing our friendship and having you involved with GVille Hustle and just staying connected. Yeah. Appreciate it, man.

I'm happy. All right, man. Thank you. Thank you. This is Ryan Alford, host of the Radical Company Podcast. Really appreciate Ted Faden coming on today and we'll talk to you next time