Alright, welcome to the Technically Short Podcast, where Shawn Short and me, Thomas Carney, talk
about anything, pretty much anything.
And yeah, today it was brought, well yesterday it was brought to my attention by Andrew Vergato,
that in episode one when we were doing an introduction to Shawn and I, I never actually
talked about myself.
Not at all.
So yeah, he said, yeah, you just jump straight in, straight, you were going to talk about
yourself and you jumped straight into Shawn moving in.
And so in this episode we're actually going to do a part one and a part two, where in
this episode Shawn's going to be asking me some questions, interviewing me about whatever
he's going to ask me about, I don't really know.
It's a surprise, stay tuned.
The next episode we're going to do, I'm going to be doing the same thing for him.
And this week, this episode's going to be coming out today on Tuesday and then the next
episode's actually going to come out later on Thursday, so that you guys can get both
of them in the same week and then we'll go back to once a week after that.
Really good, you're going to love this.
Yeah, if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe on whatever platform you're on,
give us a rating on Spotify or Apple podcasts and share it on your social medias.
Five stars only.
You got nothing nice to say, nothing, anything at all.
But yeah, without further ado, Shawn, what do you got for me?
Alright, so question number one, Thomas, introduction of yourself.
That question?
Yeah, like give yourself a small introduction before I start actually drilling you in this
interview.
Okay.
I'm making sure I'm actually recording.
Yeah.
Okay, we got a small introduction about myself.
Let's see here.
Thomas Carney, I was, I think currently live around here in Plum, Pennsylvania, Plumboro
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
And a little bit of, going a little bit further back, I grew up in a small town called Ligonier
and about an hour away from where I'm at now.
And didn't really grow, I didn't really grow up, where there actually era where I, where
my family lived, wouldn't have people around us, at least not people we knew.
Everybody that we interacted with was like 15, at least 15, 20 minutes away from us.
So and that definitely contributes to, I feel like that definitely contributes to some of
my mentalities now, so my introvertedness now.
Because I would spend a lot of time by myself, specifically also because I have four sisters.
And I remember a time my dad told me, I think I was either, I think I was in college by
the time my dad told me this, but my dad got so worried, my mom got so worried that I was
by myself all the time, always in my room by myself, that she wanted my dad to take
me to see some specialist.
And my dad just laughed at her.
And he was like, Chrissy, he has four sisters.
Like yeah, he's going to be in his room all the time.
He's not going to leave.
But yeah, I think, but no, I think like, and now going into a little bit who I am now,
I am currently a web and mobile app developer for a broadcasting company.
I've been there for about five and a half years and a little over five and a half.
And I am a person of faith.
I go to, currently go to, Shawn and I, I think you already know this, go to Amplified Church.
And that's, and my faith is definitely the core of my life.
It wasn't always, but as I got to grow closer with God and he revealed more of himself to
me, I really got to know what it meant, what it means to not just be a Christian, not just
be a Christ follower, but like to really strive towards an actual calling on your life, towards
a goal.
And it's not something a lot of people, it's not something I really think a lot of people
understand and I've still got a lot of work to do on it.
But yeah, that's something maybe dive into at some point in a future episode about setting
goals and achieving and how to achieve them.
But yeah, I think, I think that's a, I think that's an amazing, amazing intro.
All right.
So let's start off with some easy questions.
Question number one, favorite food.
I'm going to dive into some very easy questions in the beginning before we go hard.
Favorite food, pineapple, straight up.
Love pineapple, as long as they don't go on pizza.
Especially on pizza.
No.
Yes, pizza, pineapple, pizza.
Don't at me.
Actually, no, you can.
So you share the podcast button.
Very, very hot take, very hot take.
It's not that hot.
Pineapples don't belong to pizza.
This is my interview.
Okay.
That might be fair.
I love my, my, my opinion on my interview.
All right.
So question number two, who is your favorite sibling?
Favorite sibling.
I don't really, don't really have one.
I think I like all, I like, I like all my sisters, love all my sisters.
But no, I, I remember growing up, I had like Nicole was like my buddy until then she became
more, more of a woman as she grew up and like we didn't do as much stuff together.
But when we were young, when we were younger, she got, she had that kind of top boy vibe.
So it was, so that was fun.
But yeah, I don't really have one.
What a perfect answer.
Shout out to Nicole.
You are his favorite.
I'm just kidding.
He loves them all equally.
He's the only other time I was just too.
So all right.
What is your biggest fear?
Biggest fear.
You just, you think it's so easy and I just, okay.
Biggest fear I'd say like, I think the biggest fear would be looking back on, looking back
on life and not making, not making, not making decisions to take, take, take certain leaps
or talk to certain people, not to, like, if I look back at my life and realize like right
now, if I look back at my life, I'd be perfectly content.
But if there was something like, and there are things I want to do and I, I, right now
I feel like I still have time, but you never really know how much time you have left.
So I feel like if I was like maybe another 10, another even like five years down the
road and I look and I was like, okay, I'm about to die.
Hopefully I don't die in five years, but like God only knows.
So like you look back and you're like, oh man, I'm still at the same spot I was five
years ago.
That's my biggest fear.
That's not to grow.
Hmm.
That's good.
So like that's a really good, really good answer.
I can't tie in on this.
We'll go to the next question.
If you had to travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?
You should have given me these questions first because I have anywhere in the world,
anywhere in the world, Japan, actually, yeah, Japan, top tier.
They got, they got, they got the, they got the pizza vending machine.
So I'm going to try it.
Really top tier, top tier answer.
What motivates you to work hard?
Growth.
Same thing.
Uh, but it makes me to work hard is when the first it's, it's, it's growth.
That's the immediate answer, but then the more defined answer behind that is not just
growth, but what comes with growth.
It's like looking at you.
I want to make sure.
And there's, there's some thing, unhealthy sides of it that I had to kind of learn through.
But like, if I say I'm going to do something, like I have full intentions at that time to
do it.
And there are times when like you can over promise, uh, which I, I do, which I've made
the mistake of in the past, but like I, but what motivates me to work hard is the promise
of growth.
And like that's something I can even with, uh, certain things I'm doing now that, and
I'll say, I don't know who's all going to list through this podcast, but I'll, if they
fire me, fire me.
My current job, like it's, uh, the only group, there's not much.
There's very, there's very little room for growth in the areas that where that I could
grow, uh, could grow in.
I don't like feel called towards growing in that area, uh, in a certain, in a certain
position, which would come with more money and would grow the pay, grow the wallet, but
it wouldn't really like grow me in a way that I'm intentionally looking to grow.
Um, so like, I guess, I guess the more, the more defined answer would be growth.
Growth and motivation to work hard is the, the prospect of growth, the prospect of growth
in either per and like personal development, mindfulness, leadership, something that will
make me a better person.
Yeah.
I think that's a great answer.
I loved how you phrase that.
All right.
We're going to move to the next question.
What would change?
What would you change about yourself if you could?
What would I change about myself?
Yeah.
I don't like that question.
Hey, it's a, it's a good question.
I don't really think I think it's, I don't, I think right now who I am now, I don't feel
like I would.
I feel like there's like, I continuously want to grow, but like, I, I, I'm not going to
say if I wish I was, anyone can say I wish I was rich or wish I had this or that, but
I don't really feel like that matters too much.
No, I don't think it's asking about that.
For me, I think it's asking more of like, if there's a certain flaw you don't like about
yourself, what would you change?
You like, if you could get rid of that flaw.
Like for me, I think one of my flaws is procrastination, like me personally.
So I would like, if I could change that, I would take that out of the question.
Other things is doing something stupid, spontaneous, sometimes that's the one of my hugest flaws.
That's what I think it's meaning.
I don't think it's like out of your personal, like, you know, you, it's more of, at least
that's what the question says.
Sure.
We'll go off that then.
I think like one area I'm working, one area I'm working in right now then, if it was possible,
it's not, but if it's possible just to flip a switch and be like, okay, I can be a little
bit more, not be an extrovert, but be more extroverted than I am currently.
Like, that's like a little bit.
I'm not looking at, I'm not looking at drastically changing that area, but like just to be able
to talk with, just to be more comfortable talking with people because like I'm grown,
but we're working on that.
So that'll happen anyway.
I think you're doing great at that, honestly.
You're expanding and you're expanding and something that you're building up to be better
and better at and that'll happen over time that you'll be successful at that.
We'll move on to the next question.
Let's see.
What really makes you angry?
Makes me angry.
Okay.
I don't know what that was.
What really makes me angry?
I'd say like the first thing that popped in my head and this is more of a, something I've
realized more recently and I don't know necessarily where it comes from and it's not like an anger
of like being angry at somebody.
It's like this internal thing I feel about how other people feel about themselves.
An internal feeling, I guess I should have said, but like when I hear people say like
they feel like a burden or they feel like, oh, this thing that's happening in my life
and everything I have to do now, I feel like a burden on everybody around me.
For some reason I don't specifically know why, but like when I hear people say that
I get mad, not at them, but at the specific, not even at the specific mentality, but like
I get so like, it's really hard to explain because I'm not mad at them because it's
an understandable mindset and it's valid.
But like you look at a person who is perfectly fine, a perfectly good person, but then they
feel like they're a burden on other people.
To me that's like a, to me that is like...
Insecurity?
No, it's like a reflection of the people, not even a reflection of the people around
them.
I can't explain like, almost like the idea of what caused that to be, of like what caused
that person to feel like a burden and be like, no, I don't see you that way.
I don't see you as a burden.
They don't see you as a burden.
And like if somebody's listening and that's something you hear, you feel sometimes you
feel like a burden on somebody else because of something that's even, especially on something
that's outside of your control.
Like I'm not gonna tell you flat out you're not.
And then that's all the enemy you're trying to dig into your mind and push you down.
I think that's what makes me mad when the enemy is like knocking people out and it's
obvious.
Right.
Like that's what makes me mad.
Like it's like somebody not living up to their potential because living up to their potential
or even like having, being able to be a healthy mind even though it's not an easy thing to
do.
Like it, and then we go on, I'm gonna taint it a little bit, but like it also kind of
leads into seeing somebody struggle in an area that, that I, that I know they can get
themselves out of and then explain that to them.
And then they, or like, and other people do it and like talk to them and like whether
it's mind, body, mind, body, spirit, whatever it is, like you tell them like this, like
you can try this or maybe therapy will work for you, you can do this.
And they, and like they shut it down like, nah, that won't work for me.
Like I, I, I'm too broken and that makes me mad too because that, that's just quitting.
Right.
I agree.
And I think, and I think there's also, there's validity, validity in that as well.
There's like other things and other things to overcome.
But like in the moment that's like, it's not talking down on people.
It's just like there's all, there's, there's, there's things like that.
There is a solution.
There's things like where if you get stuck in an area mentally, there are, like if you,
if you're, if you're struggling in an area mentally, I speak from this through experience,
like if it's struggling in an area, like mentally and you can't, and you're, and you feel like
you're spiraling every single day, you're always burnout or whatever, like you go to
a therapist because you therapist counselor, whatever you want to call it, because God's
put a calling on these people's lives to be able to understand the human psyche.
They, they do it with who want to understand it, go to school and understand it so that
they can help other people out.
Like there's a specific calling for people to be able to help other people's minds and,
and how to help them, how to help you understand yourself better.
And that's the mistake so many people make that they think they understand themselves
and they don't.
And like, yeah, I think so.
I got a little heated there.
No, no, I think it was good.
Good.
I mean, we want real emotion, you know, we're not scripting this people.
Yeah.
So this is really good.
Um, now what is your favorite book of the Bible?
I feel like we've talked about this before and I've always said, I haven't read that
many books in the bottom.
To be honest, I've only, I've read fully straight through and I'll just, I'll say the one I've
read the most recently and that straight through was Romans.
And so right now that, that is a phenomenal book.
Um, getting slowly into Exodus right now, but, um, I'd say like, I'd say Romans.
I've only, I've only read a few, a few books straight through.
Uh, yeah, I definitely say Romans as of right now because apparently it's like, which whichever
one I'm reading, whichever one I'm currently reading, it's being my favorite.
So that's fair.
That's fair.
I think that's a good answer.
Who is your favorite biblical hero?
Her biblical hero.
Like, see, this kind of goes in the same line.
Like besides like the obvious one, there's Jesus.
Uh, that's the, uh, that's the obvious one for like all of us.
So like we'll go second one.
Um, I think David, I feel like he messed up, but then he owns, he messed, like he did,
he did, he did a lot of good, David and Goliath, but then he, and then he grows, becomes a
king, messes up and then is actually told, uh, but then, and then it's like, I think
we read this today.
Like he messes up and fall, listens to what Satan tells him to do and then owns up to it.
And then, and then past that, I honestly don't know too much, but like, there's just like
a lot I hear.
The more I learn about him, the more I'm like, yeah, that's, I don't know, it's real.
I don't know.
Honestly, I think that was a really good answer.
Um, let me see.
Another good question.
Who is your hero in today's society?
It could be your dad, it could be your mom, it could be your friend, it could be a pastor,
it could be whoever is leading you in the right way.
So I'm saying it could be any, any choice of society today.
Okay.
Yeah.
I've never, I never put the word hero to this.
I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll take that as me a mentor, uh, because I've never really, I don't
really can like see anybody and be like, they're my hero.
Uh, not the like downplay with people who do have, have, have current heroes.
Uh, I just never, I just never put that word into my vocabulary for that kind of stuff.
But like, um, I think like there's a few people in my life right now that, one, I need to
know, I need to talk to more just because of who they are and the things that they've
accomplished.
But also because like they have mentored me in the past and everything that they've done
is uh, phenomenal, everything that I've done, like that I've seen is phenomenal.
Uh, I'd say, uh, Pastor Ed, Pastor Ed Newell and uh, Patrick Williams.
Like those are the two that pop in my mind straight away and they're the two that I want
to get to know, and they're the two people I try to get to know more and need to reach
out to more and talk to more.
Um, Ed, I do talk to every now and then.
Pat, um, not as often as I should, but like the stuff that like, and I guess, and that's
two different areas of my life that, but that kind of also coincide with, at the core of
faith.
Um, because uh, Pat was um, Project One Nutrition, how successful that's being and just like
listening, hearing the stories whenever him and I meet up every now and then, like and
hearing like all these things that they're doing and acquisitions that they're making
and like the biggest deals that he's ever made and like he talks about the mindset behind
it.
And I think that to me, that is really cool and like that's really, like, and that a lot
of that only comes with experience.
So like a lot of, a lot of like how he's able to accomplish these things.
And like, and then there's Ed, like who's in the area of life of like him and I are
very similar, similar uh, people in the mindset of um, of technology, both big nerds, um,
and, but him and I can all, big nerds, but and like he's further, you know, have family
and kids and I um, just really respect him as like being able to, he'll tell you straight
up how it is.
He won't, he won't sugarcoat and like if you're going through something, if I go into something,
I go to Ed.
I guess he will not sugarcoat and he won't sugarcoat and he'll give me a biblical reason,
uh, sometimes biblical, sometimes just like just some very good, not basic, but some very
good advice that will help me out when I'm in a bind.
So yeah, I think, yeah, I'd say that uh, there are two that are older and then I think that
one more, uh, I'd say just cause he's like one of my best friends and we've had a lot
of great conversations and we might have him on the podcast at some point soon.
I say Andrew Vergato just cause the wisdom that is in him that I've never seen in somebody
who is, what is he, 21.
Like when I met him, he's 18 and like he's grown so much since then, but he was already
so much more wiser than I ever was, uh, whenever, uh, whenever I first met him.
So like, yeah, I'd say those three.
I think that was really good.
I got time for enough for two more questions.
All right.
So question number one, worst leadership advice you've gotten.
Worst leadership, I can tell you the worst advice I've gotten, but the worst leader,
worst leadership advice.
That is a good question though.
Um, worst leadership advice beyond, man, I don't, I don't, I have to go back to be every,
all the advice I've gotten recently, like, like at least in per in person, I think all
of the advice I've gotten recently either comes from books or from people that I just
talked to, the people I just talked about.
Um, so like, and I can't think back as far as whenever the advice is bad, probably bad.
Like I used to be, uh, six summers, I was a man, three summers, I was a manager at Ottawa
Park in the food stands and technically a leader, but we didn't really understand leadership.
So like, I don't really know I answered that question.
I think my worst mindset, my personal worst mindset around leadership was that all that
meant is that you got to tell people what to do.
And that was my, just my core understanding of like, yeah, I like being in charge because
I can tell people to do stuff and they listen and they have to listen to me.
And that's not even true.
Cause they can, they can just leave.
So, so like, uh, so yeah, I don't really have an answer for that question directly.
All right.
Well, what is the best leadership advice you've gotten?
That's really hard.
Cause there's a lot of good advice.
Uh, I didn't know that's where you're going, but like, it's really hard.
Like, uh, I would have, and that one, I would have had to prepare for, to be honest.
Yeah, there's no prep time here.
Well, there can be, there probably will be one day.
That one, let me see, let me, uh, at least something good.
Uh, you know what, the first thing that pops into my mind, I think, uh, here's a few,
okay, I'm just thinking about like John Maxwell and I think I've learned from him.
Um, if you haven't heard of John Maxwell, definitely look up his, look him up.
He has a John Maxwell leadership, uh, podcast.
They have an executive podcast too.
That's really good to listen to.
Um, he has over a hundred books on leadership.
Um, but like I, the one thing, uh, two things that pop in my head though, were the concepts
of more and before and that a leader sees a leader, it's a leader's role to see more
and before the people that they're leading.
That means like, you see, you see the vision, you see, you see more, you see, you don't
just see what's happening now.
You see what's going, you see what's potentially going to happen and you see potential problems.
You see like, um, problems like interpersonal, you see problems, anything that can like stop
the vision and you see, you see more and you see it before anybody else does.
And then you don't necessarily need to be the person to execute to solve the problem,
but you need to know who those people are that can execute to solve the problem.
That's good.
And, and then there's, and then there's, um, I forget the exact term, but it was called
walk, essentially says walking through the crowd, walking Swiss, not walking Swissly,
walking slowly.
That's what there is walking slowly through the crowd.
And what that means, like in the way I remember him talking about, like as he is, like he
walked in physically when he's down, like at a conference or something, he doesn't stand
on stage the whole time and wait for people to come to him.
He goes to the people and, or like whenever he goes and like shakes people's hands, says
hi, I'm John.
What I have and like just introduces himself to people and like just slowly like shows
people that like he's not above them.
He's with them.
And also is also like walking with like, you go amongst your team and you, and you walk
amongst your team or even like amongst your church congregation and no matter what, if
you hold a position or not, you're slowly walking through the crowd and like just showing
people that you're like, you're here for them.
You're not here.
You're here for them.
You're here to like, you know, the specific leadership position, like you're here not
to lead them, but to serve them.
And the best way to exemplify that and it's probably more to the concept.
I'm not, not fully diving into it, but like the, like you're showing people like, yeah,
I'm here to serve.
I'm not above you.
I'm with you.
That's good stuff.
Yeah.
What was the other, you said one more thing.
When I said I could give you the ask for the worst advice, leadership advice, can I give
you the worst, like this is the worst advice I've gotten like, just on a different topic?
Yeah, sure.
Cause it popped in my head and I want to bring it up.
So I had a Tony Robbins results coach and it's for six months and overall it was a really
great experience.
There is just one thing I told you about this already.
There is one thing with it that I like, I, I, I know goes against like my core values
of being a Christian that he wanted me to do for my business.
And it wasn't necessarily to lie, but it was a twist of the truth.
Yeah, so what?
It's like, I can I be what?
It's like, you're technically not lying by saying, by lying.
See this, this, it's, you're telling, you're telling like, it's like, it's saying like,
Hey, you, Hey, you press the like button, you share, you share this post.
You could win a million dollars, but there can be no million dollars lined up.
But like you say you could, there's a potential that you don't, like you'll be no potential
if you don't.
So like, so like, that's not what he was saying, but it was like telling me that I could line
up telling people that they could, I could put them on a track to make $10,000 a month
by using the skills I can teach them.
Because obviously there's people that do that, that use those skills that are at the top
to whatever skills would they be using.
That's kind of like the mindset you try to give me.
And I was, that made me very uncomfortable.
I'm like, I think it's kind of falls into like, just being honest.
Yeah.
Because like, it's, and like, it's, it was the way I see it.
It could be technically not lying, or you could be a complete, or it could have been
a complete lie, but not, well, it could be only partially a lie because some people use
the skills, but some people don't.
And like, it's not just, it's not the only way.
And like, I think that advice that would slip on it, just like, you're just being like,
whenever you're wanting to guide somebody, you're wanting to lead somebody, you don't
lead them on with clickbait.
You don't lead them on.
You like, yeah, it goes back to it.
Like you don't show, like you can show them what you can do.
You can show them by, you can't, don't really tell them what you can do for them, but you
show them.
Right.
And like, you show people, like you want to lead somebody and you want people to follow
you, like you have to show them that you're worth following.
Agreed.
And like, you can't just be like, hey, I can do this for you.
You don't know, you don't know me from Adam, but I can, like this, like, but I can, but
these are the words I'm saying.
Like, it sounds good.
So like, you should follow me.
Like I think that's like a lot of people following to that chop with the online influencers.
Like all the instant influencers out there.
Like people following to that trap a lot just because people say some fancy words or know
how to say things in a certain way to get people to be intrigued or like almost like
guilt trip people into buying their product or doing certain things.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of sneaky stuff out there you have to watch out for.
That's also part of my background.
It's like, it's like, it's like having, wanting to have my own coaching, life coaching business.
And so I've done a lot of research in the last few years about what business, about business.
But, but now that's, I don't know, that's pretty much all, that's all I got on that.
That was just something I wanted to bring up because it was, it was definitely on my
heart to bring up.
But I think it's good.
And people shouldn't know about the fine print and shouldn't do crooked stuff like that.
Being honest is definitely the best way of being a leader.
Yeah.
I think, yeah.
You got anything else for me?
Oh, all right.
Let's see.
You don't have to.
This could be the end.
We were already over time.
Well I didn't, but I do want to end on a positive note.
So let's.
I didn't say I wasn't positive.
No, no.
I meant like a, like our goofy thing at the end where we do something like that.
I didn't mean it like it wasn't positive.
We didn't prepare.
We should have had something prepared.
But no, we want to eventually.
We'll figure it out.
But like, I think.
So there's not a lot of white space.
We probably should have had to hear.
I guess we'll end it here guys.
We'll see you guys next week.
Actually, no, we'll see it later this week for part two of this series where I'm going
to be doing the same thing to Shawn and asking him some questions.
Part two.
It's going to be good.
So yeah, stay tuned and eventually we'll get Sinatra music.
Let's go.