63 | Navigating Life as Entrepreneurial Kids: Deese Family; Addy, Zack, & Kristen

Welcome to Freedom Blueprint podcast. I know I say this a lot that I have a really special guest, but today I actually have three of my favorite people on the planet that are hanging out with me and we're to get to talk to them and it's going to be recorded so we can hold this against them if we need to. So so my my amazing wife, Kristen, she's on here quite often as a co-host. So she's on here today and then we have our two amazing

Children slash young adults slash. I don't know slash whatever else hanging out with us too, so we wanted to just have a little bit of a conversation about being a kid of entrepreneurs and how that's either helped or hurt. We don't know yet. We'll find out during the podcast because obviously they are exposed to things a little bit different than if we had. We're going to call it traditional.

Or normal, traditional like nine to five so so welcome guys welcome and thank you all for coming and hanging out. Thank you for inviting me on great to be here obviously little hesitation after the amazing and before the children that you know what's going on with that because I know we are amazing children, but either way.

Hey guys, it's Addy. I'm the wonderful favorite daughter. That is true. That's true. So before we get into asking you guys questions, let's do this. Addy, tell us age. Give us the quick. Where's Addy at now? Okay, I'm 17. I'm a senior in high school. What are activities you like to do?

I cheer all the time, always cheering, always practicing. And I don't have time for any other hobbies, so that's really it. That's pretty time consuming. Yeah, I bet. 19, live in Hubert, North Carolina with my wife Sabrina, who could not be here today, unfortunately. In the Marines, Lance Corporal working in armory. I like guns, obviously. I like cars. Anything that's really loud is like super cool. And that's pretty much my

Yeah.

What you got over there? We didn't even like where am I? No, not. I don't think everybody knows where you are. Yeah. Well, OK. So the truth is a lot of times they say that, you know, there's a certain percentage of people that listen to the podcast for the first time ever. I guess I probably should have started with this, but I didn't. So. So we do have different businesses and we've bought businesses and sold businesses.

I'll let them tell you. You can tell them what you do. Well, right now I am the virtual CFO for the trades, so I help business owners get more comfortable and confident with their numbers. That is kind of. Today's journey, but it's been many years of being in the trenches and in the businesses and in the numbers and and all the things so.

Well, awesome. So we wanted to, I don't know, kind of just pepper the kids with some questions. We were actually in North Carolina right now for the Thanksgiving break. We're at a beach house, which is amazing, but it's 30 something degrees outside. So not a lot of outdoor activities. And we thought it'd be kind of cool to just, I don't know, talk to you guys about growing up as kids of entrepreneurs and.

how that might be different than what your friends grew up. I don't know. You have some input on that? So many of you who have been following us for a long time know that when the kids were younger, we unenrolled them from traditional school and put them in Florida virtual school for a semester. And we traveled across the country in the RV.

So one of the things that I wanted to ask you guys today is do you remember when we originally said that we were going to not do school for a little bit and spend some time in the RV? And if you remember it, what was your initial thought? Well, first I would like to say if you want to know more about the RV trip, you can read When Your Business Partner Is Your Spouse by Justin and Chris Indies. Shameless plug. Shameless plug. good. No, that's not shameless. That's awesome.

You remember the question. I remember it now. It doesn't matter. She got the plug in. That's all that matters. I mean, I was I was in fourth grade, so it wasn't. I wasn't like super hurt or upset. I think I was pretty excited. Pretty sure it's pretty excited. I was excited about I heard no school. Yeah, like we're pulling out of school and I was like, OK, word. Yeah, I think I agree with that. Now we're going to have some fun. Didn't stay out of school.

I honestly, my initial thought was just like, I'm kind of upset because I was like, well, all my friends are here and now we're in a tuna can and we're in the other side of, you know, in sixth grade time, the planet. So you're like, you're super far away from everybody. Not necessarily like saying technology wasn't there, but for us it wasn't because we had like Kindle fire. So it's not like you're hitting your homeboys on Snapchat or anything. So I remember like.

From before we did it until the first couple days of us doing it, it being really weird, kind of sad. But then after that, I still remember not all of it. But there's definitely some things that I remember, like would love to go back there. That was a super cool thing. I wish I could go back, I would appreciate it more now. Even though I've already been, it would be the first time going again. So I would.

Yeah, me and Zach talk about this a lot is we we enjoy doing it at the age that we did because everything that we were doing was new to us. But if we were to do it again, it would be it would be super cool because we would just like get to learn more and get to understand more. I definitely think we did it at the right time. I think I think had we done it a couple of years later, it would have been harder because there's no privacy on your.

On the bus. that's true. Yeah. Yeah. And angst. Everybody knows everybody's bathroom schedules when you spend six months on an RV. Yeah. I think it would have been harder. And they had a bunk house. So the layout of the RV was actually really perfect for what we were doing. But there was a little bunk section where the kids had a little bunk section. The problem is that was right outside the bathroom or outside the bathroom of it.

It was a great age though because they were not too wrapped up in extracurriculars and it was only temporary. It only six months. wasn't like we were moving away forever. Okay, so when you think back to the trip itself, so we left Florida and we drove, we spent a few days in Texas and then we made our way out to California. We stayed out in California for a little while, went out to the Grand Canyon, made our way back.

of all of the places that we stayed, is there one that you remember the most that sticks out that you liked for sure that you want to go back to? I remember we stayed in Texas for like three weeks and I like vividly remember the place that we were staying. I liked that place a lot.

Was that Texas or was that Southern California? Texas. That would have been a confrontation. that's right. OK. Archery and activities. That's for Jordan Haley. Yeah. Yeah. So that was really fun. Honestly, a lot of what I can remember right now, it's not necessarily hazy, but I can remember like. Like almost like clips, like a video.

But I cannot tell you anything about the place that we were at. So if I could just do the whole entire route again and then just like take pictures of everything, I might be able to let you know. We can make that happen. I remember like from the area of like right when Texas becomes desert to like let's call West Texas. Right. So empty Texas till like Southern California was a super cool stretch because like it was like nothing. And then there'd be like one cool little weird thing. Yeah. Like nothing some more. And then another cool little.

We went through a lot of ghost towns during that that was fun. That was really kind of scary at in fourth grade, but it was fun I remember there was one place we stayed With the with the bear as like the mascot and I liked that place because there's a lot of kids there But I don't that's about it. That was like the most one of the yogi. Yeah. Yes yogi bear That wasn't that was yeah, that wasn't Tennessee no jelly jelly something

Jelly, jelly stone. Jelly, jelly stone. You say jelly roll. I was saying jellyfish. We went when we were at the Grand Canyon stop. It was the only place where it snowed and we woke up one morning and it was so cold outside that the frost was on the windshield of the RV inside the RV like on the inside of the windshield. was that was cold and then dad got all mad and.

The tube that goes from the know that was Austin. It was both places. Yeah, the tube that goes that cleans out the black and gray tanks of the RV froze. And we were trying to get out of there, which makes that kind of difficult. I was I was having to like chip away at the ice to break away the which just to be clear, that's not freshwater. Yeah. Yeah, no, that was not freshwater ice. It was not. And clearly we had a leak there somewhere that we needed to probably take care of.

More of the story, don't eat yellow snow. That's kind of what we get from that. So, Addie, I remember you saying a couple of years ago that when you grew up and went to school that you didn't feel the need to go really far away because you said, we've gotten to travel a lot and I've gotten to see a lot of places, so I'm not dying to leave and see a lot of places. Do you still think that's the case? Do you remember saying that?

I do remember saying that, something like that. I also remember saying that when I'm grown and have my own house, I don't feel like I'm going to move very often because we've moved so much. We did move a lot. I mean, the college I'm going to is only two and a half hours away. So it's definitely a little different, but I'm not dying to get away, like go to California and go to college type deal. Definitely not dying.

You don't to join the Marine Corps? No. OK, so Zach, speaking of Marine Corps, what made you choose the Marine Corps over the other branches? I knew because I looked at Army for a long time because I wanted to be a 68 Whiskey, which is a combat medic.

and I wanted to do a bunch of stuff, combat engineer. was like, blow stuff up, patch people up, sounds super cool. But at the end of the day, as I looked towards the Army and the Coast Guard, I kind of thought like, I would always regret not being a Marine because you can be the coolest dude in the Army, but then there's the Marines. So I was like, well, I kind of have to do that or I'm just gonna end up doing it again later when my body is probably not in the best shape for that. So.

I think personally out of doing what I've done in the Marine Corps and getting to work with other branches, that was definitely the right pick for me. Because I see the other branches and I'm like, you guys are great, you do cool stuff, I like working with you guys, but it's different. It's almost like a different echelon of the way you behave, the way you work, the way you act, the way you just are yourself around other people. But like...

It seems more polished, guess maybe might be like in terms of even formations, uniforms, expectations, even going even the boot camp structure like you didn't get your phone on Sundays. No, I didn't. During period.

But anyway, OK, so what do you think the Marine Corps, what do you think is the biggest thing that you've learned so far about life in general just by being in the Marine Corps? How important connections are, having connections with people.

Since I've been with different bases have been to different units I've been a different like met a bunch of different people just throughout my journey and When we go places, there's a bunch of other units there you meet those people You like and then you you can contact me whatever now you have that person that you can always like Kind of be like hey quick question or hey, just letting you know or whatever and then that's just like a connection that you have For whatever really I mean, I'm about to start selling much furniture

I probably know seven people who would love to buy a bunch of furniture and that's an easy connection I just made right there. Or one of my coworkers works at a gun store part time while also being an armorer.

That's a connection I have, first of all, with that gun store. If for whatever reason I stayed here after I got out and I wanted to work there, or for just having kind of like an in on the gun store, like hey, what's going on down there? Any new stuff, anything cool? Just like things like that. It's just like how important it is having that connection. And even on the small stuff, like hey, I know that guy brings extra snacks to the field. If I want something, you know, get with that guy. It's just like the little stuff can help you learn in long term how you can.

just enhance your life by being connected with people and having connections. I mean the saying your net worth is equal to your network and that kind of holds true. were all eating at a restaurant. It was terrible. Where did we go? was a steakhouse. Texas Red House? Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. And you remember there was a bunch of military guys there.

And I don't know if you guys even caught this, but two of them walked in and they're like, man, I didn't even know you were here. And they clearly had been stationed somewhere else together and they just happened to bump into each other in this roadhouse. it was if. I mean, it was Veterans Day.

I mean, I get it, but the whole nation doesn't go to that Texas, although it felt like it, but we didn't really put the two together. That was Veterans Day. wouldn't eat there. Well, I mean, you remember yesterday at Target. Yeah. One of my old custodians walked up and we started chatting. He had left the unit a couple of months ago or was like getting ready to leave the unit. And I was like, you know, cool. It was nice to work with you. Like custodian, as in like he works in the armory, but he's not an armor or an object. He's just someone that they pulled from a different shop to work in there because we need people. He worked for a couple of months with me and then we got.

a new guy and he left and I hadn't seen him since then. Just saw him at the Target. He's in a new unit which is the unit that I am now a part of and then like...

Just someone that I worked pleasantly with for a couple months is now someone that I will. He's a, he does a different job that can help me and benefit me and my job and my people having that in, in that sector. If that makes sense. makes sense. And it's awesome. I think it's really cool. So Justin, what do you think that network has done for us in business in the last 30 years?

I know that we have a, I don't even know how many hundreds of phone numbers I have in my phone, and if I ever need anything, I always have somebody that I can reach out to. Whether it's business or personal, I think that's the importance of having a good network is whatever you got going on, there's somebody who's either been there or gone through it or is going through it. So you always kind of have that different cycle of, okay, well, I know this dude's been through it, so I need to call this dude, or this person's going through it too, so.

So I think that's so helpful and so important. And we talk about it a lot and even, especially in the business with, we talk about Service Nation a lot with that, how many people and friends we have from that. Obviously their boot camp for Service Nation is a little different than the boot camp you went to. More pushups in the Service Nation one. Okay, so Addie.

What do you want to be as an adult? I want to be a pediatric oncology nurse. Why? is that? A pediatric oncology nurse. Well, oncology is cancer and then pediatric is children. So I want to nurse children with cancer. OK. Yeah. I feel like you know that, though.

just want to clarify. All the listeners who may not, because I would have never known without her. got you. told me whenever she wanted to be that. I've wanted to do that since eighth grade. I really don't have a reason. I don't know. I went to the hospital one day for my eye, and I left the hospital wanting to be a pediatric oncology nurse. There's really no explanation for it other than God, I guess. That was his plan. I like it.

So five years from now, you will be about to or already graduated. Just graduated from college with an RN. So where do you think you're going to be? What do you think that's going to look like? What is life going to be like for Addy five years from now? Well, I know I want to get out of golf breeze. That doesn't mean I want to go super far. But I definitely don't want to be in golf breeze anymore.

Maybe more like pace. don't. Yeah, I am not completely sure where I want to work. But. I just know that I want to work. Not really sure yet. I don't have that much planned out yet. Sorry, you don't start college till next year. Zach in five years you'll be. Probably not probably done.

Or at least in inactive. Well, he'll be you'll be a decision time. Well, now you'll be in five years. I'll be getting done with my inactive reserves. I'll be like a couple of months away from being completely done with the government if I decide to only do this one contract. Whether reenlistment is a thing or not right now is kind of so let's say let's say reenlistment was the path, right? So what is five years from now look like for that? Five years from now I would actually.

I think I'd be just wrapping up with that second enlistment because I to see. Would it be a four year second enlistment? Do they do them in four years? Yeah. And then, so if you didn't, then if you didn't reenlist, then what would five years look like? I mean, in the next year or two years, there's some change. Maybe I'll be getting out.

I will probably pursue something with guns because I have now the background, the professionalism, the qualifications, and then just the interest. So it would only make sense to do a job you love. That's a job I love. I could do something with that. And then I just like cars. I want to do something with cars. I haven't figured out what yet, but that's kind of a back burner idea. Maybe a mechanic. Maybe just flip cars or something. I don't know. like. Do you want to own your own business?

or at least my own shop. necessarily like, don't wanna manufacture it, because that's a completely different thing than selling. And I can sell. I don't know about manufacturing. That's a different story. That is really like, I understand the math, but I don't wanna do it because I understand it type deal. I'll say that mechanic, just like in other trades, know, with plumbing and AC, it's really becoming one of those trades that are... There's less and less people entering that course, gosh, and you think about...

you know, even your generation go to the, go to the, the next generation, a lot of cars aren't even gonna have things like fluid. Right. But you always need mechanics. A hundred percent. I agree. That's something you always need. Trust me. Guns aren't going anywhere. Guns are not going anywhere and cars are not going anywhere. Whatever you see anywhere, guns are not going anywhere. There'll always be guns around. Cars with the electronics, it becomes an issue of not learning necessarily the mechanics, but learning a lot about coding and electronics.

which is not really my strong suit, but there's still the mechanical aspects of electric cars. They have wheels, which means they have gears, which means they have blah, blah, blah. You know, you can still. Brakes. Yeah, brakes. mean, you can still like, I can still make money tinting windows on the Tesla because they still got windows for now. it just, there's one, it's one mechanics is an interesting thing. Like no matter how electronic you make it, unless it's a car made out of like a hologram where it's a

It's just light projection. There's always gonna be something to work on. I agree. Yeah, I agree. I think that even if they stopped making, if everything was electric car right now, it would still be 50 years until. You know, you're always have the sector of people who refuse to correct to partake in all things electric. Yeah, I choose to not participate. So I don't think the traditional motor is going anywhere. No.

My Lexus is going to outlive me and my children and my children's children. I mean, like you say your Lexus, my Lexus, my Toyota, my one UZ engine. OK, super sick. It's it's got a while before it's going anywhere. mean, same with all these other older engines like they're still producing vehicles with combustion engines. Yes. Rapid like way more than they're producing anything else. Car related. So to say within at least in the next five years that there's not going be any more is going be crazy.

And also like you said, there's always gonna be people that are gonna want mechanical bushing versus electric. I don't want an electric car because there's a bunch of reasons I don't want an electric car, but they're not very loud and they're very fast. Well, they can be. You just push a button now and make them sound loud. So I have a question. So as you guys are kind of entering into adulthood,

having parents that owned businesses and obviously we had business conversations. You guys were in the room, sometimes in the boardroom. Like you guys were really exposed to a lot of that stuff. Do you guys think that there's parts of that that you'll be able to use as you get into adulthood or into whatever the future looks like? I think I learned a lot about critical thinking skills and like not

giving up when something gets difficult and pushing myself more when things get difficult. I think that's really what stuck with me the most through the whole, all the business and all that RV stuff. That's an amazing answer and we had no idea that it was gonna be your answer. So that's pretty cool. I mean, I have to... That feels good. I'd have to pretty much agree because we were...

We were super similar age, like super similar age mental state. So like a lot of the things that she would have grabbed onto would have been similar to what I would have grabbed onto. I'd say pretty similar. Definitely like how to conduct leadership and how to conduct business just by watching you guys in boardrooms and watching you guys, know, you guys still pop up on my Instagram. This podcast pops up on my Instagram. Shout out Instagram podcast. But like just the...

Like how like basically a good example of good leadership would be would be my best answer on that. Cool. I'll take it. Boom. I guess we to feed him today. Hey man, we got corn pudding and macaroni and cheese in the oven. We do. We still have so much Thanksgiving food in and today the time of recording is Saturday, which is the iron bowl.

which is a national holiday within itself and our family. it's also Troy versus Southern Miss. It is Troy. So OK, you just say that before. Yeah, you didn't say that before, but yeah, I am going to Troy University starting in the fall. So excited cry havoc. Are you going to?

Is that their call? I'm pretty sure at least I could be wrong and that will be really embarrassing. But I saw it on a bunch of merch. Merch said cry havoc. So I'm going with that. So have you seen the commercial where the guys like high tide, high tide? Yeah, no. OK. And they're like, you should check your colleges tagline before you start yelling it. We can fix it in post. no, we don't do any editing.

But I guarantee you that commercial will come on for the game today. yeah. Well, cool. You know, it's always fun. Actually, this is the first time we've had you guys on and I want to I want to keep that going because really a lot of times when we, you know, see people out and it shows or whatever they they ask about you guys like that's they always want to know what you guys are up to, what you got going on. Yeah, most of the people in our network have known you guys since.

around fourth and sixth grade really. So even though you don't know them, they've all watched y'all grow up. That's true. Yeah. So now you're almost adulting. is adulting. is adulting. And that is right behind him, which is super crazy. So I have a question for you. Yeah. OK. So how do you think that parenting affected your leadership and how do you think leadership affected your parenting? Hmm.

Really good question. We got him. I don't know. I think with leadership a lot of times with employees, you have to practice a lot of patience and you also have to do that with kids. So it's one of those things where you kind of learn one from the other. And as much as we don't like to use the terminology is your team members or children. There's a lot of that common respect and that you have to.

exercise with both of them.

Sweet. Well, now I have to ask you a question. Okay. Same question back to you. I think using, let's see. Being able to tune into how the person communicates to be able to get to a mutual result because...

Like both of our kids communicate and receive information in different ways. So you have to approach issues in different ways with both of them. Zach, you can be pretty direct. Addy, kind of have to like ease your way into the conversation and whatever. And I think the same is true for leadership. Not all people on your team that you're leading are going to react in the same way or communicate in the same way. So you have to get to know them well enough that you're communicating on there in a way that they can hear you. Your answer is way better than mine. Because yes, Zach went in the Marine

So I could communicate with him a little bit different way than Cool all right well we're gonna get to eating Leftover leftovers, and then we're gonna get to watching some football today, so Everybody appreciate you checking checking out the podcast hanging out with us a little bit And we hope to catch you next week or eagle