GOATED Podcast : 28 Faith-Driven Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Reunion, Origin Stories, And Gamma Tech

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Thank you guys for coming back again. We've had an amazing year. This is uh one of the first ones in 2026. Um I'm so blessed for the feedback we've been getting, so blessed for the visitors we had and everyone that's contributed to this uh podcast. Today I've got an amazing guest. I'm so pumped to have him. Uh my entrepreneurship journey started with this guy. Um God had it for us in our both of our past and our skill sets and gifts. But when I met Brad Conert, who's with us today, my entrepreneurship journey started and my growth as a man started. So so pumped to have him. A blast from the past. We've been we've been re uh visiting some of our favorite stories this morning, but we saved a lot for the for the show. Um but Brad Conert's in the building. Brad Conert owns uh the biggest, he's the goat of IT. He's the biggest IT company uh that does the best work. I'm calling it. He might he wouldn't say that, but I'd say in in Florida and Southwest Florida, especially. And is a great leader. He is a great person, a great dad, and a great husband, and always always has been uh a a believer in someone that wears his faith on his on his sleeve, and I learned from that because uh that was not um one of my biggest focuses, and that's what drives Goaded, and he's a piece of my journey to to launch Goaded. So I'm pumped to have him. You guys will get to meet him today. And uh welcome Brad Coner.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

So Brad's company is this is my favorite thing, I couldn't wait to jump to, obviously. Is his company's called Gamma Tech. Yeah. And it stands for something. Tell us about Gamma Tech.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And yeah, so Gamma Tech comes out of well, when we were in middle school together, right? Um, we were learning about the electromagnetic spectrum and being a total nerd. I thought it was uh really cool, right? And gamma was probably the most interesting of them all. So we came up with some acronyms for for those. And every time I would launch a business, I was just slapped gamma in front of it. But gamma stands for God anticipates my many actions. And it was really uh an accountability piece to try to uh remind myself that there is this um you know waiting that that the God is in a sense watching and that he is he is waiting and anticipating uh how we're going to respond to his calling. Um and just to in everything that I do in business to you know always try to keep that in mind and even when it feels like you might be able to get away with something or take a shortcut, uh you're reminded that you know ultimately we're accountable to him.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

So good. And God's blessed your business because of that and many other things. Good people and your wife and and family, your parents were both uh very well uh versed business people and knew the how the world worked and and made good decisions.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

How did um so Gamma Tech, how long has it been around and how long So I started when I was 16 um and we are here 20, it'll be my goodness, so I'm turning 38 this year. So yeah, that's 22 years. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

And so Gamma it did start when we were kids when I was still we were in high school together. And it was just you. You were going around helping people.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah. So high school, high school uh programming teacher, Mr. Morgan at Baron Collier High School. Uh he uh he was hosting a uh he was doing an adult education class and he said that someone needed help with their computer and said that they would pay twenty bucks an hour to help. And I he said, is anybody interested? And I raised my hand, but it was the best twenty bucks I ever made, and I printed business cards and the rest is history, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

And then you had to figure out how to do it for multiple hours. Right, yes. How can I make this make like geek squad? Amazing. I did that somewhat too, and I'm sure like in our at our age, we were the entrepreneurs, so in our neighborhood. So I moved here from Miami. Uh the church um had a house that my dad could use as a first as a pastor for six months, but we were building a house two doors down from Brad's family's house. So I'm in eighth grade, thirteen, roughly years old, and um met Brad and I went to First Baptist Academy, and in our eighth grade class, there was eight boys and eight girls. Sounds about right in our whole grade. And I came from Miami where it was thousands of kids and had never been asked to play a sport. You guys have heard that story. I get to FBA and I'm like, they want me to play every sport. This is my dream. And uh we had a great time, and we clicked because we were two doors down, and there was only six other guys in the class. So uh but we were all friends because there's only eight of us. And um I had an entrepreneurial mind, Brad had an entrepreneurial mind, and we lived next to each other, so we'd always we had our times where we played video games somewhat and and shot fireworks off in the middle of the year, not during the years or the months we should. Remote remote control cars, RC cars, yeah, that's great. E-bikes, but it it would always lead, we'd always get to the point where like, let's make some money or because we would probably want the next RC car or the next thing or a new computer or a car. You we're both saving for a car pretty quickly because your dad, his dad was manager uh um some great dealerships and knew a lot about cars, so did Brad. I didn't I didn't think I would really ever have a car when I came from Miami. I'm like, bike was the first step. And in Naples, you can't ride a bike. My parents made sacrifices again because our our school in high school uh at Baron Collier, freshmen had Acaras and Mustangs and Jeeps, and that's how Naples is now. Now I I drove to Astero High School today and there was Teslas in the parking lot. I believe it, yeah. I'm like, this is a public school, and there's more Teslas than there are Toyotas in this parking lot. So that's where we live. Don't don't feel bad, don't hate us for that, but it's what our parents got us in. Um so we were trying to raise, get money to to do those things little by little. And we started businesses like CDs and a car detailing business. Yep. What's your favorite? I probably don't remember all the ones we did, but what's your favorite story from businesses that we let us

Teenage Hustles That Taught Business

SPEAKER_02 6:05

try?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

I mean, you mentioned car detailing, that was fun, you know. I had gamma car wash. I remember us working together, doing that, people bringing cars even before we could drive, you know, people bring the cars even in the neighborhood. Um I was buying, selling. I found, I was looking through some photos last night, just old photos and things, and I found uh a photo of some LED, like pocket LED flashlights that I was buying and selling, laser pointers, anything like you said, anything that was hot you know as an item. I remember there's the little um pole-string helicopters that would fly in the air, and yeah, anything we could buy and resell.

unknown 6:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

And then I remember you at one point, you were uh now I'm remembering, you were the leader of of mine and yours. Um, but we cooked up ideas together and you I think pitched to me getting a Costco membership, or maybe we used the parents.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. We use my parents for sure. Costco membership, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

And he was like, I'm doing the math and a case of waters. There's 24 of them. We pay a dollar at the school for them, and you can get a case for two dollars. Um and the candy bars don't even get me in the margins on candy bars. So we uh went one day, pooled our money together and got a bunch of candy bars and went out to the soccer field where sports were being played, and I think sold some candy bars or at the neighborhood or no in the yeah, at the games.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

I don't know why they allowed us. They start it started with a thing through First Baptist Academy that they allowed us at the games, but then after that we took advantage of that and kept selling at the games, yeah. So pretty great.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Um what was I thinking too? The uh we did the fireworks, I was gonna say the business. Uh oh, so we we had the Costco membership and then we started looking at um the CDs. Didn't we make CDs? Or you made some mixtapes there, Ross?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

I did, yeah. I made I made uh oldies, gamma, gamma oldies CDs, yeah. Got yelled at by the pastor of the church, wasn't allowed to sell the CDs at church anymore, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

And I'm sure those CDs probably had like Earth, Wind, and Fire and songs that we didn't even know what the words meant. That's why the pastor was like, You don't even know what these are. Probably. Night moves, Bob Seeker, and we're we're selling them at church. Exactly. Exactly. Um so good. That uh all those things. I was talking at school today to a group of kids in high school, and uh such a good God thing that I was asked to speak today to stare high school, and then we can revisit because right now I'm forgetting everything I was gonna talk about, which is great. I always wanted to be organic because I'm thinking, man, uh those times, what a blessing. First of all, it was to meet you, but just to go through failures and to go through like uh learning margins and learning uh sourcing. Now I'm a sourcing somewhat expert. God's blessed with great connections and great knowledge there. But um just learning and then and then mainly that since I could remember you were putting God first in our businesses and um things we were trying. And back then we weren't trying to edify and glorify God, I would say. I'll say that for myself, because we weren't selling old E C D's to glorify God. We were trying to make money. Right. Um but now our businesses that are succeeding um and doing well is because God's the focus and our team knows that's on that too. Um how many employees do you have at Gamete?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

So currently we have 35.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Okay, awesome. And how many vehicles? Properties?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

We have twenty, only one building, only one property. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Naples. And you own the building? Mm-hmm. Okay,

Buying A Building Through Patience

SPEAKER_02 9:35

awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, it was a really cool. That was a really cool story with the COVID uh worked in our favor, so that was good. Tell me about that. Yeah, so um the building well, I was it was time to let's see here. Start from the beginning, I guess. Um banker came to me and said, Hey, you're gonna be applying for, you know, time to apply for a line of credit is when business is good, so you should apply for a line of credit. He was just trying to make a bank sale, but yeah, uh, he said, I said, okay, let's do that. And then he said, Well, while you're doing that, do you want to apply for a mortgage as well? I said, sure. Um, so we applied for a mortgage, he gave me an amount, um, found a realtor and said, Hey, let's see what we can find. Didn't think we could find anything in that price point. And uh, long story short, I was praying about it. Um, you know, a big part of my testimony is just the the providence of the Lord in a supernatural way, and I'm always careful whenever I tell my testimony that, you know, I want to be clear, it's not normal. Like I don't think that God uh speaks, you know, prophetically to every single person and lays out their life for them, but for whatever reason he did for me. And uh and it was one of those moments where I just felt him saying very clearly, you know, to be patient and that he had something for me. And so we found this building and it was fantastic. Uh parking was always a big concern with the vehicles and with the employees and uh found this building that seemed really, really perfect. Um, it was within our price point, but um there was a bidder that was there at the same time, and I just remember hearing clearly that morning uh the Lord telling me to be patient. And so real estate agent was trying to push for an offer, and I said, you know, I know I'm supposed to be patient in this, and I just waited and uh found out the building was was under contract, it was sold, it was gone, so I said, Okay, I guess that's not where it was supposed to be. And uh two months later, I got a phone call that the contract fell through, it didn't pass the inspections it needed because they were gonna tear the building down and build something new. It didn't pass the ground inspections that they needed in order to build this building and the price point that they wanted to, and that the seller was more anxious to sell it because COVID was just getting started. This is March of 2020. Um so the price went down $250,000. Uh I got an extra $50,000 at closing. Um I put zero down on the building, it was insane. So um, yeah, huge blessing. Could never afford that building today. Um, yeah, it's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Naples real estate. I mean, having uh just a a tenth of an acre in land in Naples, Florida. It's is amazing. And I know how that is now in Bonita um with property, even southwest Florida, Florida's real estate's booming. Yeah, and that helps the business a ton. We don't talk too much about business on here, but I have heard from people they love it, so I love to hear that because um mainly the thing I take is as kids we would always hear God gives you three answers, I think. What is it? Yes, yeah, wait, no, wait, yeah. Is there is that what you still believe? I don't know. I don't have a okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah, I I I believe so. Yes. I mean I don't know what other alternatives there are.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Trying to think right now, I feel like that's too simple. So I feel like I've heard God go, No, you fool, and no. I mean, there's definitely that. There's no moron, but yeah, and you're being selfish, you shouldn't have even asked this question, I think is an answer. Um that's amazing to hear. COVID was a big step for me too, and we haven't talked a ton, so I should bring like we stay in touch, and though Facebook keeps us like like we're still 12 and 13. But um uh the COVID was huge for me because I started golfing during COVID when DeSantis said um, get out and golf. Like that was DeSantis from the podium saying, Don't be afraid, you can get out and golf, get outside, do some stuff. And I started golfing, lost some weight, and started playing golf better, and learned I met a bunch of people because I was playing 36 holes a day with teachers and people that couldn't work. And even some of your staff, I think I played golf with. And uh COVID, I credit, which not many people across the country credit to like um really the biggest thing I said the other day on a different podcast was I was traveling with the PGA Tour during COVID and watching these tour guys have to get swabbed and vaccinated and and living in fear. Everyone around us, and in other states it was way more evident. Like we went to New York for a tournament. Restaurants were all outside in Times Square. Yeah, like they had to eat outside. I'm like, and at the time I had an opinion. Um now I know and now I now most of us know the truth, but I'm like, there's just a ton of fear and a ton of negativity and a ton of what's next, and and I formed goaded on a mentality. I wanted the mentality to be something we preach to people so that when you go through a storm or when you go through a pandemic or you whatever, you have a backing more than oh, and like even sports. So there's people that rely on sports. A lot of our goaded family watches sports and that's their release at night, or that's their excitement for the week. Um and that wasn't happening anymore. Leagues were shut down or they stopped in the middle of the season. People didn't know what to live for anymore. So it's such a a god thing. That's crazy that COVID helped a ton too. And and when you own property in Salvos, Florida, if you're if you like the business side, um, it sets your business up when the value of the property keeps going up and up. And they all kind of do across the US. There's not many states besides Minnesota because Waltz is a fool, but that are going down in real estate. I think they're probably still going up. But it sets your business up big time because then when you want to go into a different division, if you wanted to launch gamma um uh electric cars, you could finance the the building you have and probably get some electric cars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so that's a blessing, and I'm happy to hear that. Yeah, you have um, I don't even know how many kids, but beautiful family. I love Alicia. Okay, four kids. Yeah, four and no more. Nothing. Um and beautiful family. Alicia's awesome, the rock, just like my wife is. Yeah, um talk about business and and growing going through the years

Finding A Spouse Through Providence

SPEAKER_02 15:25

now. It's crazy since you were 16 had this. So there wasn't much like this was God's plan. There's not many business owners that have owned for 20 this year. Talk about family in the mix.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, so I would say, you know, as a whole, I was thinking about recently just one of the recurring themes that that God has been speaking to me about is just his providence and his planning. And you know, I talked about that, but that was something that was so unique to me, is that you know, God had given me such clear vision from such a young age of what he had for me. Um and I think about that a lot, you know, when so many people will come to me and you know, even like a podcast format like this, and people will ask, you know, questions about you know, how hey Brad, how do you how do you achieve this or what's the secret to that? Or you asked about you know my wife, you know, I think about that. Um we host a Bible study for uh young pros for singles, young, young uh girl, girls and guys, and um in doing that, a lot of them come to me and it's like, hey, it seems like you have a good family, seems like you have a, you know, your wife and you are are are happy together, and you know, what's the what's the secret? How do I find my wife? And the whole story of that is it's just it's God's providence, you know. It was God. Like I remember God telling me as in middle school, you know, to wait to date. I remember having, you know, me and the girls were not, there was they were always my friends, right? I was never in the I was always in the friend zone with girls. Um, and they trusted you though. It was the worst. They did, yeah, it was it is the worst. But um, but I just remember God saying, you know, wait that he had that he had someone for me uh and to wait till I was 16. And you don't even know necessarily how you know how much of an integral role you played in that, but like I think about it was literally that summer. So I turned 16 in May, and in that summer, late in May, is when you came to me and was like, hey, you know, there's this party at this girl Alicia's house, and I think she likes you, you should come. And that was literally how I ended up, you know, meeting and pursuing Alicia and her pursuing me. And so, you know, when we talked to her about all of that, it was the club that you and I did. You had launched the fish club.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Do you remember Fish Club?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Uh and I had spoken at Fish Club, and she had come to Fish Club, and that was when she had spoken about a flower uh turning towards the sun and God being the sun. And anyways, she she just at that moment uh you know saw me talking about the Lord and and saw that I had you know a genuine relationship with him and was attracted to that. And I always tell her that like it was, you know, it's just the Holy Spirit making you fall in love with me. That's what I believe. Um and so yeah, it was after that that um we ended up you know getting to know each other, and then that fall is when we started dating. And um, so yeah, it's a it's a cool, even that's such a cool story. And so like recently I was reading through Isaiah, and I think it's uh Isaiah 14, 27, and I'm gonna butcher it, but basically it's saying, you know, the Lord of hosts has his purposes, and who can annul his purposes? You know, his hand is stretched out, who can bend it back? And it's like this idea that man, like, do we really think that we can change what God's plans are? Like, do we think that anything that we're going to do or anything that we're going to achieve or work on is going to be against his ultimate will? It's it's impossible. And so it's just so important to keep him first and foremost and to keep him and his plan always in mind. Um, and he's been gracious to me every time I try to step out of that. He disciplines me very quickly, um, which I'm thankful for. Um, but yeah, I I think about that and it's like I would love to tell people what the secret is to find the perfect wife that I've found. Um I I I don't have it, you know. It's it's God's providence. I'd love to tell people what it takes to start a business and have it be as successful as Gamma Tech is, and I I don't have it, you know, it's just God has done that. So um I don't know. I think that's that's the the thing I struggle with is that I do want to. There is some legitimate things that you know I've learned and that God's given me wisdom on, of course, as you go through things, but ultimately it all comes down to that, you know, it comes down to trusting his providence.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

So good. So I I can maybe not help uh first of all, I'm so pumped. My pride's on level 10 that this beautiful family. I don't remember that. I remember uh I was dating her sister, Nicole, uh-huh, and uh I remember that I wanted you to be around more. Uh-huh. Yeah. And we probably talked about it. That's so funny. Yeah. And I love their their family, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, you were the invite to that party. Crazy. And that was how I found out that she liked me and everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Crazy. I saw Carolyn and we see Alexandria all the time in our class of eighth grade uh FBA. And I you sent me a picture of myself, which we're not going to put on this podcast or anywhere. I don't think. Well, no. But I'm like, how did I have a girlfriend looking like this at all? Yeah, that's so great. And I loved uh well, I won't get into that. My wife would hate that, but I loved women back then, and I was like, I wanted all my friends to have a girlfriend or whatever. Uh-huh. Um, so that's crazy

Selflessness In Marriage And Work

SPEAKER_02 20:23

to hear that. But I was then I was gonna say, I what I realized three years ago, and this might help, um, and I bet if you look back to like when we were 12 and 13, like as soon as I realized God gave me one day that selfishness kills everything. Very simple to say, but it literally like it's so profound and mind-blowing to me that you look at a business that's failed, look at a marriage that's failed, look at a friendship that's failed. I failed our friendship broke for a little bit because I was being selfish and trying to talk better than what I was actually doing. I always tried to pump up what I was doing, right? And I was thinking about that before this podcast. I'm like, there were times when I saw Brad for two seconds and I'm like, I need to pump the numbers a little bit and say that I did better. Or uh, I think that's what I was accused of or whatever it was, and it hurt our friendship because it's like I can't really trust this guy. And there were times where you were, in my mind, selfish, and I'm like, he just cares about his Mustang, you know, and look, he had and I was jealous, or he has a Mustang, and but it could have killed our friendship. Luckily, we still had God that we fell back on. But I think a big testament, and you can tell people in marriage, like when you met Alicia, you were selfless. I mean, you were you were already prepared to be a good boyfriend and a good uh husband. You were you guys were pretty much married. The time that we uh saw you guys like start to date each other was like they're perfect for each other. And that's when I before that way. Before that, now I remember some of it 'cause I'm like, they're they're on the same path. They both want the same things and they both love God, and I'm glad that whatever happened or wherever I'm sure there's a selfish reason I was inviting you, just maybe to be there. Friends maybe, yeah. Um But same thing in business now. I'm seeing that the selfishness um could just kill. If you let it creep in, it kills marriages, it kills um businesses at thirty eight and forty years old. Like we wake up and think about um ourselves, your day is not gonna be as good. The days that I wake up and I'm not thinking about myself and I'm thinking about my staff and the kingdom and who we're reaching on live streams more than anything. I sleep way better. And when we get attacked, so this is something I was gonna lead to. When you we get attacked as a virtual company, we're all over the world. Um we get attacked for our faith and we get attacked for um whatever it is, celebrating Michael Jordan, and he's known for this. And you're not really a Christian because he did this, or whatever it is, and we have a risk there. But when I get off I used to get offended, and we were um probably similar in this, I would get offended, like, how dare you talk about gamma tech? That's my I don't have that anymore. Yeah and you don't I've seen you lead that way too, is your staff is gamma tech because it's a mission, it's not us, me. There's no me, I truthfully in those. Um so when I'm selfless and when I get when I can check myself and go, why am I upset that someone online said I'm I my beard looks terrible, or when someone on stream says, Where's his neck or whatever, I'm like, I it doesn't affect me anymore because this is God's company and I love it. It used to be like, Oh now I have to prove, now I have to, this is mine, how dare you? And the same thing in marriage. Uh when we're we're called to die to ourselves and and treat our our wife and our spouse as um first and put people first. So I think that's a good answer because when people ask, um you are very selfless, and it's hard to say that because you sound prideful saying that you've always been humble. And I mean I'm not good at the I'm the humblest guy I know, so it's hard to be humble when you're as great as you are. Yeah. Um but it it is. I mean, that's why God's rewarded you and and put you in positions to have that, because um, it's a combo of that selflessness, and it's a combo of being I pray now, my prayer daily is to be trusted with more. Because I don't know if I can't. I'm trusted with a lot right now. And I would love better things and more things for my staff and better trips and whatever it is. Uh but if I can't be trusted with it, please don't give it to me. Because I have way way bigger to live for, and I want to live for for God. So tangent, but um, I think that's a big, big thing in business. Yeah. Um, so we talk about goats. So greatest of all time. Okay. Um, you guys are oh no, I totally forgot to tell now you're Bills fans. I am, yeah. Never mind, we'll skip the segment. No, I'm kidding. We made a putter for Josh Allen. I've been texting him. I texted him after his uh Ravens event, or Ravens event, Ravens game when he tore them up. Okay. And I said, Okay, you deserve a goat celebration. Yeah. And he laughed at it. But um the bunch of the the Bills are on fire for God. They've got a chapel and it's awesome. But give me your your goats of sports and business. Oh man. You've got to love Elon Elon Musk. Or I was gonna ask you, do you like Elon Musk?

SPEAKER_01 25:02

I do because he's on. I mean, he is incredibly focused, right? You see that. I mean, it seems like he's got uh focus and he's got a definitely a perspective that is um I I think the thing that I see of him that I don't have there's a lot, but the biggest thing I see is that he has a he doesn't seem to care much about what people think. You know, there there's he's kind of beating to his own drum and it seems to work really well for him, obviously. And I always struggle with that, you know, I always struggle with people pleasing and trying to um do what people want me to do, and even if I don't think it's the best decision. Um, so yeah, I think I think Elon's he's he's up there. Um you know, I'm trying to, man, you put me on the spot. That's it. I interrupted with a yeah, sports sports is tough because I'm so terrible. Like you mentioned FBA sports, you know, that's about the only time I played sports, and I loved it back then because anybody could play, right? Like my favorite story on uh FBA sports is I would hit the ball with my with my hand, so I would just get to the base because I was I had better odds of hitting him my hand than I did with the bat.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Um but I would get so mad. It was so funny though. He'd be in the better spots and he'd be like, and the they would award him the and I I loved it as a teammate. Like Brad. And basketball, you played too, Coach Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Basketball, yeah. Yeah, I played them all, but I didn't know I'm terrible at sports, terrible at sports. I think for me, sports always I think the thing that was tough about sports not only being poor at them was that I saw people, you know, I I saw people would sacrifice their character so quickly for sports. And it's so easy to do in a game, you know, when you're in the heat of the moment, uh, you know, you know, I've been playing pickleball and it's like you know it's out, but you see it's out, but it's so close, and it's like it was in, you know, like you wanna you want to make that call. It's so there's always like that difficulty. Yeah, great areas. Yeah, um, so I just you know hated seeing that in sports. But um, yeah, so man, my sports, my sports knowledge is embarrassingly bad. But I am a I am a Bills fan. That is the one thing I do follow. I have an NFL ticket and I watch the Bills games, and that's about that's about all I do. Josh Allen, you like Josh Allen? I like Josh Allen.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

He's a dog. I love I like Josh Allen.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

He's very he's very, very good. I mean, I don't know what they're doing in those blue tents to keep him going in those games, but I mean something magical is happening. We don't want to know. Or he's just that strong because I see him wince in that last game and it just keeps going. Yeah. It's like, what in the world?

SPEAKER_02 27:31

It's like, yeah, we don't want to know what happens in those games. I don't think we do. He's an animal. I love, and they're saying the Bills have a chance this year, which I know your parents, I remember your parents go all out for those games.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

They say that every year. I don't know. We'll see. That graphic that they had in the last game where they had, I don't know if you saw it, it's Niagara Falls, and they had all the opportunities that the Bills have lost and they've gone over the falls. They're like, we've lost four Super Bowls in a row, and they've been to the playoffs. I can't remember how many times in a row, and they've lost every single one of them.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

So I totally on stream I say the they are the goats, the Bills, of losing Super Bowls. Of losing Super Bowls. No one better than losing Super Bowls. I'm gonna use that because I'm a Dolphins fan, that's mean. Um and then in business, like I know you read books and follow do you watch podcasts or I do, yeah. Okay, I watch leadership. Do you have an author or a person you look up to?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

So Tim Keller is probably my favorite for that's my recurring podcast that I go to. He's he's passed away now, but um, he's just so good. I'm an analogy guy. I love analogies. My brain thinks in analogies, everything I describe is in analogies, um, and he loves analogies, and he's always using them to help um you know explain the gospel or explain his his points. And so I think Tim Keller is fantastic. And I also, if you listen to his podcast, he's a pretty mediocre, is being generous orator. He's not a very good deliverer, yeah. Um, but yet his messages are incredibly powerful, and so I find that interesting because I don't think of myself as a great orator either. And so I think okay, there's a lot more I can learn from someone like him than a lot of others. You know, I love like JD Greer, um, but he's such a good orator that it's hard to learn, you know. You can try, but you're never gonna deliver it as well as he does. Yeah. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Um have you seen uh you got a my buddy Myron Golden? I'll send it to you. You gotta follow Myron. He's he loves to speak, he's a great um communicator, but he speaks in in analogies too. Um and I love Wesley Huff. I don't know if he speaks in analogies, but I think you would like like him. Um so I'll send that to you. Amazing. How about um do you have a goat of the Bible? I haven't asked many people this.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Goat of the Bible. I can't use Jesus, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Yeah, of course. Jesus, but after Jesus, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Okay, after Jesus. I was gonna say, I mean, if not, it's a pretty it's a pretty bad question. It's uh you know, it's a bad answer if you give. True. Um man, I don't know. That's uh that's a tough one.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

We're studying goats of the Bible like weekly. My dad's doing the series, and this his idea is so good. I love that. He did Samson last week, but I'm watching so I watched The Passion, or not The Passion, the uh Chosen.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Okay, the chosen, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

And King and the House of David is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

House of David's really cool. I haven't watched season two yet.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

I haven't either. We we bounce or we're going back and forth, and I keep saying it's terrible, but after football season I'll I'll crush them because I'm up every night watching. Um but I love House of David too. And I when I I've been asked that question often, you're right, because Jesus should be the answer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Um I think about you know, I would say the Lord's probably used David the most in my story because I think about what I find so interesting in his story is he was told at such a young age that he was going to be king of Israel, and yet there's this incredibly long delay that as readers we kind of miss out on. We just see you know God working, we see, you know, Goliath, and we see the whole story, and we see him having success in battle, but we forget that there's this super long period, you know, before he's king, and he goes through a lot of hell before he's actually king. And yet there's this confidence that David has that God's going to fulfill his purposes. Um and so there's just a lot um, you know, thinking of like lamentations and and God saying, you know, like the Lord is good to those who wait on him. And I think that David really lived that out well. I mean, he was incredibly broken, like you see. I mean, the guy is messed up to the nines, but yet he's a man after God's own heart because he he trusted the Lord, he waited on him, um, and God chose to use him for whatever reason. So uh I would say David is probably the most encouraging of of a story of just you know seeing God's providence and his plan. So true. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Just just the uh trust he had that God said he had a plan. Yeah like he has for all of us. Um so good.

Culture Evangelism And Workplace Standards

SPEAKER_02 31:41

The in the business, so 30 we have roughly the same employees. We have 31 or 32. Um how is it so we I think we've both done a good job. Credit to us and credit to God is like the morale, because I see a lot of gamma tech guys that are and they've worked in our building when we when we moved in the new building, that they um they're living on mission, they're living the brand where a lot of times you'll see I won't put other brands out there, but you'll see a Verizon person that's wearing a different they're not and that's a much bigger company, but they're not proud of and they don't know the mission entirely. Maybe they're a contractor, they don't even work a Verizon. Um but I I have I want to ask you just kind of what what do you have in place at as a leader um for your staff to kind of keep that focus and and protect that um vision, company vision?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah. So I think you know, for me, especially as the company continues to grow, uh the staff is the mission field, you know. Like I say, I spend more time with my staff than I do with my own wife most of the time, you know, just how that works out in a work week. Um and so several of them are believers, which is fantastic. Love having that. And we have uh really cool talking about God's providence. Uh, my first employee that I hired in 2012, um, he was completely, you know, did not know the Lord at all, very resistant to anything with God and religion, um, didn't even really want to discuss it. And I remember God telling me very clearly that, you know, he's mine, you know, trust, trust me, he's mine. Um, and it took 10 years for that to be fulfilled, but to see God win him over um has been incredible. And he is uh he's our audio video department manager and just on fire for the Lord and a great spiritual leader now. And to see if you knew him, you know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, um, it's it's just night and day. It's crazy to see what God has done. So I see that, that's the encouraging part. And then you have, you know, so I look at it that way and see, okay, you have this exposure that you get to show people what uh what it means to actually have an authentic relationship with God, not not religion, but you know, a true relationship with Him, um, and introduce them to that because the reality is most people don't get that exposure, they just get religion. They they maybe were brought to church as a kid or someone around them used religion. Um, and so my goal is to try to show them what that, you know, that hey, there's a lot of imperfection, but um there God is gracious and that salvation is is beyond us. It belongs to him. And so I look at my employees as the mission field. Um, so to do that every Monday morning, so really important and was exciting in that building that we talked about. Uh there's a we have a 40-person uh training room that we use every Monday morning and we bring everyone in, and I do basically um, you know, we'll we'll change it up, but at least at least twice a month, uh, we'll do some type of um, I would call it evangelical focused, you know, seeker focused, uh, trying to just introduce the gospel uh on a recurring basis. Just so I figure, you know, if if someone's at Gamma Tech for two years, three years, they're going to at least, if nothing else, walk out of there of having a clear idea of what the gospel is. Um, and that's that's my goal. And and God's been uh there's been some cool things that have happened out of that. You know, I mentioned Anthony, but there's been several others. Uh those that have placed their faith in Christ. We have a Bible study on Thursdays that we do, and we're trying to grow that. The goal is to uh this this spring get them to where we can split that off and they can all be leading Bible studies and kind of replicate within that. Slay point, awesome. Yeah, so uh we're very, very excited about that. But um, yeah, I think that yeah, I'm really it's really important to me, you know, not only from a legal perspective, you know. I push, I say all the time, yeah, I push the boundaries on on what I'm allowed to say in a workplace, and I don't care about that, but I don't ever want to hire based on faith or anything like that just because the company doesn't need that to happen. Um instead I look at it as a mission field, you know. I look at those that have that don't have good exposure to to Christ, you know, I want to be that for them and show that what that looks like. So um, yeah, we've been super blessed and we go through seasons. Look, there there's times I look back and it's like the staff is you know not been we've had some bad eggs and it can take down the whole thing very quickly. But right now, thankfully, we have um just a fantastic, a fantastic team and a fantastic culture. That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Yeah, I would I was gonna follow up asking kind of the same thing is if um if you hired someone, I mean, I would imagine the manager roles are or people that align with you immorally. And um and I I was gonna ask if you had seen times where that hiring process, um we don't ask that obviously in the hiring process, but we're trying to feel out. Do you have fear ever um a lot of your guys are out and about wearing your shirt, driving your cars? Um do you have not fear but a concern um in that that they're representing in a way um that w isn't aligned with you?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Yeah, of course. I mean that's always there. So we try to, you know, we tell them, hey, look, you don't have to believe what Brad believes, you know. That's that's not a requirement here, but you do need to have, you know, a standard. So like we don't I tell them when you're wearing the Gamma Tech shirt, no cursing. Um the joke in the office is you know, the Gamma Tech logo's on the shirt, so they'll do this and they'll say a curse word. Um so um, but yeah, uh we does that get followed perfectly? No, it doesn't. I know behind my back that you know that happens. Uh we try our best to just tell people not to do that. Um, but yeah, that's that's always it's gonna be there. You know, when you have a a team size like we do, you know, you're gonna have the mistakes, right? Thankfully, God's gracious to us and merciful, and he's we need to be merciful to them as well. Yes. Um, but yeah, I try to hold the standard, I will say the standard I hold my non-believing employees to is very different than the standard I hold my believing employees to. So if they're if you're going to come into Gamma Tech, yeah, it is a double standard, and I'm happy to call it that. Because if you if you are going to claim to be a follower of Christ, then you need to live that way. So that actually is probably the bigger thing that hey, you can quickly undo who we are and what I'm trying to accomplish. If you're going to put the the badge on, if you're gonna take on God's name and not live that out, then we got a different story going on. But otherwise, if you don't, I have a lot of grace, a lot of grace for you. Um a lot of mercy.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

So um, that's that's awesome to hear. Man, I forgot the follow-up. Um in that in that realm, um so I I I I lost where I was gonna say, but that's fine.

AI Social Media And Kids

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Um in the business world, so and in tech space, there's also some things that um Revelation, I was gonna ask you a little bit about that are the mark of the beast. One of your guys came and it was a fascinating, he has a chip inside him. He does, yeah. And it was his business card. I don't think it was a chip that tracks or I don't know what it was, but um it's a chip for it. I know nothing about we went through Revelation, I know a lot about it, but I every time I read it, I feel like I still know nothing. Yeah. Um don't we all? And what do you see in tech space like improvement, or what should be what in your opinion we should be careful of and learn more about and um watch keep our kids from maybe if there's some things that are you're seeing already. How long is this podcast?

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Yeah, I know. We got ten more minutes or so. Um no, I would say um there, I mean, yeah, use wisdom, right? Like I'm not going to I don't think there's anything that is um, you know, I with with kids, the the obvious, right? Like that being said, uh what I think is not so obvious is social media and just the time that we spend on it. Um, you know, these things are all, we all know this, but social media and everything that's built is all built to brain hack. It is it is built to take advantage of the brains that we have. And so children have a slightly different brain structure. Uh they don't have the same mechanisms why we make really dumb decisions when we're adolescents. Um so they don't have the ability to kind of turn that off. And so I what I would say is I don't think that many parents are restricting as much as they need to. And I understand it's really, really difficult. But in my home, we are uh, you know, despite owning a tech company and loving technology, it is probably one of the least techie homes when it comes to the kids. Um we don't allow, they have so little electronic time, uh, so little video game time, uh, definitely no social media. My daughter has a phone, but no one else has a phone. She has that phone. Only it is locked down to only the contacts, that only our contacts. Um it is yeah, we try to really uh keep that, keep that locked down. So I would just say, you know, that that's the I think that's I think that's obvious, but I don't see it being you know done very well.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

The the crazy thing is, uh I want to lead to that is I'm my kids seven and five. There's stuff you'll see funny videos on TikTok now of like um granddads that are like, look at this horse, it's doing backflips and and it the AI looks real. Yes. Where now I'm wondering if my kids and our kids are gonna have this perception that things are real, because we grew up like that's clearly fake, that's CGI or that's whatever. Um, but some things you can watch um celebrities or people can put my face in the hospital or other things, and it looks like dad's in the hospital. There's some things that AI is great and it's awesome. I I think we use it a ton. But uh I wanted to ask you in the tech space that um even with smart homes, it's almost real, like the old smart home movie that I remember that like eventually became its own robot and haunted the house. I can't remember what movie, but um, I bet there's some things you're seeing because you guys create sick smart homes and solutions for IT. Yeah, and I wanted to see what what you thought about the boom.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Yeah, yeah. AI is, I mean, obviously, it's there's definitely concerns there that I think that are very legitimate that most people are having. Um, but I think talking about kids and in video, what I don't think as many people are talking about is even if we're able to tell what is AI and what isn't right now, that is getting grayer and grayer and grayer, right? And so even if we can get to the point where we don't know what's real and what isn't, that is a scare that's scary enough to me, you know, to cause concern of if we can put out a video and get people to even question if that is real, and it is real. Um that that can be just as dangerous as AI generated content. So um, yeah, it's very interesting. We're we're heading into some interesting times, um, and I think just all the more so we need to have um a foundation that's based on the Lord, you know, it has to be um because everything else, yeah, AI will yeah, I I can go off on a whole tangent on that, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

What's um another question I had. What's uh for us listening and me listening right now, what's the new thing in houses and businesses that's like do you go to CES? Do you go to the Vegas show?

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Yeah, so not CES, I haven't been to CES and I want to so bad. Yeah, you have to that and I'm not even in the space. But it blows your mind what they're doing. So cool. When our guys go to the I watch it, of course.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's cool in the space? Not that possessions and and big houses and cool things are what I encourage a ton, but I love to hear like what's what's the coolest goaded houses you're you're working on and go projects.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

For us right now, the biggest thing has been that that is out and and you know is exciting is video walls, is doing larger and larger screens and having the customization to do them and doing um you know setups where you can actually make them blend into the wall and um you know do digital art and and some really neat things. You can get such high resolution and there's so you have so much flexibility with the the um reflective coding that goes on that to where you can really get some. Yeah, it it looks really, really cool. Um so we've done some things. We're actually redoing our demo room right now at Gamma Tech, and it's gonna be a marble wall, and then the screen will be on top of the marble wall, simulating the marble wall surface, and it will all look like one marble wall, but then it'll all it'll actually be a screen. So you can do some cool stuff like that. That's been really exciting because uh we love big screens, and most of the guys that we talk to, you know, in the homes, they love big screens, and then their wives don't want a big screen. So video walls that can blend in is is probably some of the most exciting stuff, at least for us right now.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

That's very cool. We need one at goed. I actually applied for one uh I didn't know you guys did that, so we'll use you instead. Let's make it happen. Outside. It was an outdoor walk or outdoor video. Let's do it. Um how about sound? You always knew sound really well. I don't know anything about it except bass and what bass is. But what sounds changing in the audio and tech space? Not much. Yeah. You could get to the maximum volume and that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Physics, I say physics is physics, you know, when it comes to sound, like you gotta have, of course, we can we can tweak that, and we're getting a lot with um, you know, even AI as far as how we what we can play out of those speakers, but it's not it's not drastic, you know, nothing crazy. They're capped. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Because I remember as kids, the reason I asked that is he could tune. I I didn't even know you could tune a car, but you could tune, I've seen guitars, but he would tune a car and know uh about audio. Yeah, and he was our guy for that.

Services Footprint And Final Charge

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Um I guess last thing, like how can people so you're mainly in Naples, how can we plug the business and and how can people pray for you in the business, but use you as a as a customer, too.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Yeah, and that would be great. So um Gamma Tech, I would say, you know, really is two two different divisions. So the IT side, uh, and that is you know how I founded the company, and cybersecurity is a big piece of what we're doing. Uh, we talked about AI, so navigating and helping most small businesses are really trying to figure out how to actually bring AI in, how to do that safely. So we're helping to navigate that. Uh, that's called in the in the industry, it's called VCIO. So we're really working in that. So if people are looking for help in how to implement AI, uh we are we're working in that arena. So mostly with small business on the IT side, all actually all small business on the IT side. So cybersecurity, networking, uh, AI help. And then on the residential side is all the audio video. So that's more of the, I guess, more of the fun stuff. Yeah, smart homes, big screens, sound, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

And what's your footprint, Marco Allen?

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Lee and Collier County. So we say Lee and Collier County. Anything in Lee and Collier or audio video, we're good. For IT, that extends much larger, especially if they have an office here and then they have multiple offices. We serve a lot of companies that have multiple offices. Um we can do that well. IT, uh, we say about 93% of our issues get solved remotely, so we only need to be on site for about seven percent. But audio video, we're doing a disservice to you know take on large projects outside of our area. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

So if they own a business, they're listening um in another state.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

You could virtually so awesome.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

And they would look go to the website. Instagram is gamma tech.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Gamma Tech Services, man, our social is so bad. I don't even know if we're on Instagram, but yeah. Gotta have it. I know, I know. We're we're on Facebook. That's cool, right? I've heard of it. You've heard of it? Um, yeah, so uh gamma tech services.com. Yeah. Okay. Or gamma.tech is the shorter version. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Awesome. And social uh pub or uh personal social channels that you push or prone? No. Okay. It's probably a good thing. Yeah, I don't know, but I don't suggest it. Or there's weight to it. Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed this. I've loved it. I'm grateful for you being on the show and grateful that we're connected again. Um, we've always been connected, but um learning from you today was huge for me, and I hope you guys enjoyed listening. Brad, uh, if you take away from that for me is just selflessness, he was blessed. Not many people have been married. We just celebrated 10 years, have been married as long as him and Alicia have. And in Naples, especially, no one has owned a business for 20 years. Like maybe farmers. Um, we all get offers to sell, we all get offers to we all get tempted to sell and live in Tennessee for a third of the price. Yep. Or whatever it is. So pray for Brad, pray for his staff. Um, and the goaded mentality is is what we kind of covered in a nutshell again today, which is a blessing. God always leads this podcast in that direction. Um, and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful you guys listening. Again, reminder if you're going through a storm, you can email God is good at goaded.gov. If you have a praise, if you have something you want to ask us, I can always get to Brad. Um send us an email there as well, or team at goaded. Um, but I love you. I can promise you the selflessness today, just reassured from me, um, will be a rewarding thing that happens in your relationships, in your homes, in your towns, in your businesses that you work. And uh God will use that. It's the humility and selflessness that God always asks for. And then the biggest thing again, God always says is do not be afraid. Uh that's the most common phrase in the Bible. So don't be afraid, be strong, be courageous. We're here for you, love ya. The goaded mentality, goaded podcast is out. God bless you all. Stay goaded. That was awesome. That was great. Thanks, man. Time always flies.