Hey guys, welcome to this amazing and rich episode that Shawn and I got to have with Patrick
Williams.
This is part one and guys, I just relistened to the whole thing and oh my gosh, you don't
want to miss it.
You don't want to step out.
You're going to want to listen to the whole thing and I say it in the episode, but take
some notes.
We discuss Pat's journey as a Christian man, father, grandfather, and entrepreneur.
The conversation touches on leadership, mentorship, and the pursuit of excellence.
Pat emphasizes the importance of integrity and financial discipline, sharing personal
experiences and lessons learned along the way.
Guys, let's get it.
Time in.
Alright, hey guys, welcome to this episode of Technically Short.
I'm Thomas.
And I'm Shawn.
And today we have another guest on.
But first I want to say if you haven't already, go ahead and follow, subscribe, and give us
five stars.
Five star review and whatever platform you're on.
But alright, without further ado, say hi, Pat.
Hello, I'm Patrick Williams.
Yeah.
And yes, excited to be on the podcast this morning.
I appreciate the invite with both of these fine gentlemen.
I've known them for some time now, probably a few years.
And through church, Amplify.
So if you have a chance, go check out Amplify.
But both of them have a huge heart, huge contribution to the church.
So I'm just happy to be here and have some talk with you guys.
So excited.
Thanks, Pat.
But now, like Shawn said, we are we were actually really excited when you texted me.
I was like, Oh my gosh, yes, let's do it.
I haven't done a podcast a long time.
So on purpose.
So you're the first.
Hey, we're holding off on purpose.
We've had a few people on where they've never done a podcast.
So we but the and they do great.
But the the way we like to start a lot of these episodes is also to set a good foundation
for the for the conversation.
And it's also to like, get to people that might not know you know about how we view
you how we see you.
We like to start with some exaltations of our guests.
And I have a few things I just thought like, what are the first things that pop into my
head when I think about Pat Williams?
And there are a guide and trailblazer.
There's a couple things.
There's a couple more.
But someone who is willing to take risks for the benefit of themselves and others, then
they're a great, great father to your children.
And we were talking about that before the recording.
And you can easily tell your children love you from your youngest to your oldest.
You put in the time with them to show them who they were created to be and then a friend
and a leader.
Like I can say that you're both of those for me, like someone who isn't afraid to say the
harsh thing that someone needs to hear.
And you've done that for both Shawn and I.
And it's all it's to benefit us.
So yeah, thank you.
I appreciate that.
That's a trailblazer.
That's okay.
It's a really good one.
Yeah.
But okay, that took me off guard a second.
But just me in general, right, for me, I got asked this question before.
And it's like, who is Pat Williams?
Yeah.
Right.
And it's one of the questions she wrote down.
But I'm like, I know this because it's instilled in me now.
Right.
I am a husband.
Yeah.
Right.
I'm a father.
I am now a grandfather.
I am a son.
I'm a brother.
But more importantly, I'm the son of God.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's the mother, that's the top of the tier that makes everything else flow the way
it needs to flow.
Right.
I have to, you know, and all those things take effort.
Right.
They don't just happen.
It's kind of like your podcast.
It's perfectly imperfect the season.
Yeah.
Something I've been using for a long time.
And actually, Kate had a be still nonprofit t shirt company.
Okay.
And that was one of her shirts.
Perfectly imperfect.
Wow.
Right.
So we strive to be perfect.
Yeah.
And that's what excellence is to what we're going to talk about today.
Yeah.
But perfectly imperfect.
God made us individuals perfectly.
Yeah.
For what we're meant to do.
However, we are imperfect.
Right.
We strive to be perfect.
Never will be.
Yeah.
But it's that that's the chase and what we desire to be.
So you know, when you talk about for me, number one is being a Christian man and, and being
who I am wherever I'm at.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Whether I'm sitting here with you guys, whether I'm at Walmart, checking out with the cashier,
you know, still being a dad joke packed, right?
Trying to make someone's day better.
Yeah.
Whether it's at a restaurant, you know, and hopefully that feeds to the next person they
talk to.
Right.
And that's how I try to vision envision that.
Right.
Because you guys have that same effect on people.
I know, Shawn, you definitely do every time in church when you're so you're in the welcome
team.
Right.
You see Shawn smile, he gives you a hug.
Okay, I'm meant to be here.
Right.
We each have our own way of doing that.
Right.
So, you know, it's work.
I was never the per the top notch dad or the top notch husband or things like that.
I've had many mistakes in my life.
And, you know, many great rewards also.
Right.
But it's all a learning process.
And if we go by the Bible, lead button lead lead through that we're we'll be sitting okay.
Right.
But integrity is a big thing.
Yeah.
Right.
Do what you say you're going to do work hard for your family and friends.
And, you know, everything works out.
But like you said, the leadership portion, that's something, you know, I don't know this
I'll probably get off course you may want to ask questions but of my timeline.
Yeah.
I said this before we started I talk a lot so Thomas and Shawn are gonna have to interrupt
me here probably a couple times.
But you know, I've owned a few businesses.
Yeah.
Sold a couple businesses have two businesses now that we're I'm part of.
Yeah.
I always stick my foot back in that was a toe.
Now it's, you know, with the way things are going.
It's even more.
But leadership is tough.
You know, you don't have to have a title to be a leader.
Right.
I think Thomas I've talked about this before.
Yeah.
Right.
We talked about this.
You don't have to be a CEO.
Right.
You don't have to be a senior pastor.
You don't have to be a school teacher.
You don't be a police officer.
You can be Shawn, you can be Thomas, I can be Pat, and we can still lead in a capacity
to help others.
Oh, yes.
Right.
Thomas mentioned and Shawn, I know too.
Yeah, I'm able to have I think the harder conversations.
Yeah.
With the both of you because I have a relationship with you.
Absolutely.
I know who you are.
You know who I am.
There's certain expectations when we when we get together and talk.
If I had Joe Schmo off the street, I'm not gonna say hey, this is some of the things
you might want to think about.
Yeah.
And how to approach something.
Right.
And having a hard conversation isn't hard for me.
Yeah.
I have a relationship.
Yeah.
You know, and that's only a small piece of leadership.
Like my goal as a leader or CEO or owner of a company, how do I grow my employees above
and beyond their own expectation?
That's so good.
Right.
Yeah.
So it means I need to know who that person is.
Yeah.
Who is Thomas, who is Shawn?
What are the desires in life?
What are their goals?
What are their expectations of themselves?
How do I how do I play a role in enhancing that?
Yeah.
I'm not gonna say I grew up with my company with or with another company down the road.
And I express these.
I used to have employees fill out goal sheets so I can learn more about them.
Yeah.
That's wise.
Okay, here you go.
This is what direction you want to go.
In five years, it may not be with me, but at least I know I did my due diligence to make
you a better person.
Yeah.
Hopefully I gave you enough that you want to stay.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
So and in church and things like that, in our men's group, I think that's why I grew
so much.
Because there's a lot of leaders in our group that specialize in different areas, you know,
with Keith Demetrius, Daniel, Chad, Stephen, Shawn, Jim Mellie, you know, all these guys
are just leaders Lloyd, you know, at different levels in life, where they have so many different
experiences.
You're like, Okay, I can learn something from that guy.
Right?
Because that's my big thing now is finding myself mentors.
So you never stop needing a mentor.
Yeah.
No matter how old you are.
Yes.
So you know, and you can't have too many, but you have to be specific on who you pick.
I agree.
I agree 100%.
So but that's that's who Pat is, in a nutshell.
And one of my one of my my pride moments, and I look back because I'm older now, I'm
going to be 50 years less than a year.
My kids are older.
I have two older kids, 29.
B will be 27 and Emma nine.
Yeah, but just the fact that my two older sons, one, we have a relationship and they
don't want to be part of my life.
Right?
We have that relationship.
It's not the same disciplinary relationship as being a father when you're younger.
But it's more of like, hey, they trust me to have tough conversations, right?
Whether it's again, some of the tough conversations, and also the respect conversations.
Right?
So that's, you know, that's one of my top successes in life is like, hey, they want
to have a relationship.
Yeah, so good.
That's not you don't see it all the time.
Definitely.
I know.
Tangent.
I'm just going to read my constantations of exit.
Excellentations.
Yeah.
Thomas got it.
We're good.
Pat, he is kind, strong, wise, loving, tough father, brother, godly man, and mentor.
So that's the way I see you.
Pat, you have this like, you're always honest, even when we don't want to take advice and
I'm hard headed.
So like, I mentioned this all the time in the podcast.
We know.
I'm very hard headed.
So like, even when we don't take your advice, it's like the seed was still planted.
And you know, I mean, it's like, oh, man, and when you mess up, you're like, dang, I
should have listened to Pat because Pat was right about this scenario.
You know what I mean?
And it's, and it's, and you have this way of being so loving and kind and yet strong
and honest.
Like, you know, I mean, you're never like, oh, you're just going to give us fairy tale
type lies to make you feel better.
It's never that.
It's straight, hardcore honesty, but love.
Like you know, and so it's, it's very, I love you Pat, but so.
Yeah, I love you guys too.
I appreciate that.
Yeah.
The tough love is tough sometimes, right?
Yeah.
It's tough love, but you know, and that's where, hey, I've, these are called learned
experiences wisdom, right?
And wisdom comes with time.
I mean, you can, you can be excellent in certain areas of your life at a young age.
Yeah.
And that's when the wisdom sets in where you can reflect back and say, okay, this is how
I handled it.
How would I handle it differently?
And then you could relay that information to others so they don't make the same mistake.
So it's like, Hey Shawn, this is what you have to do.
This is my thought process.
And if you want to advance somewhere, this is, I think this is the approach you might
want to think about taking.
Yeah.
You know, I'm never going to force someone to do something they don't want to do.
That's where they have to be disciplined themselves and be like, okay, I'm going to take what
this knowledge is.
Obviously it comes from experience and inserted into my life in a certain area.
It may not be a hundred percent, but even if you take part of something, it's good,
right.
It helps you advance.
So I want to go back real quick to something you mentioned, like whenever you, uh, you
and I talked about, like not, not needing a title in order to delete and like the conversation
you and I had specific.
Yeah.
It was, and I, I, I, for people that are listening, like I wanted to like, uh, I would
have a goal of mine to, uh, mentor, mentor, um, this new, a new kid that entered our new
guy that mentored our, uh, uh, young adult group.
And I was waiting, I was waiting for an opportunity to present itself where the person that was
there, the person that was leading our group of guys, I was waiting for him to set something
up too.
So I couldn't maybe spend more time with, um, the, uh, the, uh, young guy I wanted to
mentor.
And, uh, and Pat kind of was like, Thomas, you don't gotta wait.
It's on your heart.
Yeah.
Make it happen.
Yeah.
And my boss has kind of told me the same thing, uh, at one point, cause I was like, he asked
me, he was like, uh, he asked me like what we talked about growth and leadership in the
company.
We started doing that pretty regularly now.
And he mentioned, and I was like, yeah, like I, like, I want to, like, you know, I want
to lead developer, you asked me if I want to lead the projects or I want to lead developers.
I was like, I want to lead developers.
And he was, okay, well, there's nothing stopping you from doing that now.
Pretty cool.
Yeah.
Oh, he, all he needed to do is know.
Yeah.
That's it.
He's like, man, he probably got real excited.
I have someone who wants to advance in my company.
Oh, for sure.
Or like, I would be excited.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's good because then they're like, if somebody's truly bought in, they're going
to do the work.
You know what I mean?
I think it is interesting getting that, that you say that because he said, he told me,
he's like, I didn't think anybody was interested until you said something.
It was in other people, they might have maybe they have the, maybe they'll get to the same
skill level.
Um, but he goes, I don't see a aptitude to want to lead.
And some people don't want to.
And that's perfectly fine, um, in that respect with the title.
Um, but it's like something he was looking at something, he was like, yeah, I was like,
if he was, I was starting to worry because now that everybody I started to hire, nobody
like you, you seem like you want to, you want to leave and the other guys just don't show
it.
So it's just, uh, and I apologize if they're listening right now, but, but, uh,
tough love.
Yeah.
You can't get in trouble for being honest.
Yeah.
And now you come across things, right?
So that's, but a lot of people are wait.
Yeah.
They sit and wait.
And it's like, why, why are we waiting?
Right.
I used to be that person.
That's why I can say that.
And then I was like, well, if I want to go do something, I'm getting a little older.
I was 33 when I owned my first business myself with a partner.
And I'm like, it's now or never.
Let's go now.
Yeah.
You know, was there fear?
Absolutely.
But that fear filled the fire to overcome and grind and have the discipline to be successful.
That's so good.
I was able to buy because I had two kids and a wife and people that depended on me, friends,
right?
That we brought into the business.
It's like, all right, these people are depending on me.
We need to make this a success.
And, uh, you know, and by being successful, you're able to help even more people.
So, you know, and a lot of times you need to make sure you're doing it for the right
reasons.
Um, too many people that I've seen over the years have personal agendas, which it's okay
to have an agenda for personal goals, but to have an agenda against what the company
has, um, or business or place, wherever you're at, you know, there's that there's no place
for that.
Yeah.
It's like, you're doing this for the better good, right?
Cause one of my taglines I use all the time when I pray use it with you is when you pass
away and you know, all glory, you go to heaven.
Yeah.
There's no hurt with a U-haul attached to it.
Amen.
You're not taking anything with you, right?
Yeah.
So you may leave stuff for some people, but you're not taking anything with you.
Right?
So you need that person that's, that's giving, that's, you know, warm hearted, caring, that
do things for others.
Right?
So, yeah.
When I say I'm going to have to re-listen to this myself and take my own notes.
Thomas is trying to take notes while he's talking.
God bless him.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
I take notes just for the conversation then, but then I want to re-listen and take more
notes.
And so I'm going to speak to the listeners again and be like, this is the episode where
you should be taking notes.
If you haven't already been doing that with our past episodes, but the, but this is one
where you want to have a notebook or your phone or whatever you want to do.
I think I tell Thomas that when we sit down, you bring a notebook, write this down.
Note takers and history makers.
There you go.
Oh man.
Good stuff.
No, you've touched on, like, it's funny because like you've touched on a lot, like a lot of
the things, a lot of the things I already kind of gave you a lot of questions I was
going to ask, but like even like, so this dynamic is different and it's good, but the,
but I want to know though, cause I, to you, like you already know the question, it's meant
to be vague.
And you mentioned excellence a lot already, but to you like to focus on that, it's excellence
itself.
Like how would you define that?
Well, the one thing, the first thing that popped when I saw the questions, like, okay,
what's the difference?
What's the difference from being perfect and being excellent, right?
Because and who says what excellence is, right?
We all have our own mindset when it comes to that.
And then for me, excellence, you know, I try to stay within the Bible with the integrity
portion of things.
And that's, I try to go back to integrity to be an excellent, if I'm acting in the manner
of a Christian man, the way he's supposed to act, I will be led to excellence in whatever
I put my heart and desires into, right?
Because you know, I can get a perfect or excellent score on a test, you know, but as far as a
human being, I'm never going to be perfect or excellent.
Right?
I may think I'm excellent in the finance math world.
There's always people that are to be better than I am.
Yeah.
Right.
And the nutrition, health and wellness, I think I'm pretty solid as far as a formulator
goes and things of that nature.
That's something that excites me.
So I put more into it.
Right?
And I've been doing it for 23 years.
So you know, am I excellent at it?
Some people may say I am.
I don't say I am because there's always more to learn.
Right.
But I think excellence comes from other people seeing the value in you, not so much me and
myself.
I'm a heart.
I'm the hardest person on me that I am on anyone else.
Right.
I was a guy more in the tank to give, more in the tank to learn, more in the tank to
grind like, Hey, you know, I worked 100 hours a week.
Keith and I were talking about this the other day.
I'm probably just two years ago is the first time I've never worked more than 80 hours
in a week for 25 years.
Wow.
And it's not like just showing up.
Yeah.
No, putting in work, making things feasible for things.
And that's one of the things that, you know, the sacrifice because that's another question
down the list.
Yep.
That's one of the sacrifices, you know, and was it good or bad?
I don't know.
I can't go back and change anything.
It was good as far as where I am in my life now.
At the time, did I sacrifice some relationships?
I sacrifice friendships?
I sacrifice, you know, I did get a divorce, right?
Not enough time in that relationship was more focused on making sure my family was secure
and financially stable.
Things of that nature, which, you know, that you sacrifice things and, you know, you try
to look back and make changes so that doesn't happen again.
And I've been able to bring more people in to business, into my life that keeps my focus
where it needs to be.
That makes sense.
Right?
I've had men's groups having people surrounding me that they're looking for my best interest
in mind.
Yeah.
Not for, Hey, Pat, what can you do for me?
Yeah.
I've been surrounded by a lot of those people and they're no longer part of my life.
Right.
But the people, the main people such as you two that, Hey, have, like you guys don't realize
what you have to offer me.
So it's not just me offering you things.
Yeah.
When we sit down and talking things that nature, you offer me something too.
So it's not a one sided relationship.
Right.
You may think it is sometimes you may not have thought about that, but no, it's a two
way street.
Right.
And that's the accidents part.
Like you may think I'm excellent at something and I'm like, man, I got a long way to go.
Right.
So I think it's the excellence is like I said, in the eyes of the people looking at you.
That's really good.
Cause we can be like, Hey, Pastor Jason's excellent preaching, which I think he's awesome.
Right.
Yeah.
But he might be thinking, man, I got to fix this.
He's C D. Yeah.
But that's the strive for perfection.
Yeah.
That we're never going to get, but that's knowing that your heart is where you're supposed
to be and that you keep grinding to get to try to be perfect.
Yeah.
See, Pat, that's why I honestly think you are excellent because you have like such a
heart for humility.
And then you have like, like, okay, I want to keep growing.
I'm not there yet.
The person who thinks they're there is like the person who never in my eyes will ever
be excellent ever.
Because if you think you already arrived, then it's like, you have nothing to learn.
You don't, you don't think you make mistakes.
You, you be, you feel like you're this, that guy.
And like, when you feel like you're just that guy, you're going to fall.
But it's so great because you're, you're very, you've done a lot of stuff.
We named Pat's accomplishments on the hair.
It'd be ridiculous.
Right.
I'm not going to do that because it's a lot.
But it's just literally so humble when he still, he gets to do that.
Like he's not, he's not like fakeness.
If you see Pat anywhere, he is a man of integrity, like always.
That's so awesome to see.
But I'm going to shoot you one of my questions.
For people who are like me, who need financial discipline, right?
What is some steps you would say that like starts financial discipline or what is financial
discipline?
Financial discipline is knowing your means and living within them.
Yeah.
You know, like I said, I was never in a, I wasn't always in a great financial spot.
However, I never put myself on a financial burden.
I learned that at a younger age.
You know, my, my father taught me that, that much.
And I knew like, Hey, and my grandmother, especially, Hey, you got a credit card, pay
it off every month, right?
Use it, pay it off every month.
Don't owe anything to anybody if you don't have to.
Yeah.
Right.
I'm not going to give you a bunch of money.
If I borrow a dollar off somebody, I'm like, there you go.
Like, no, no, we're good.
I'm like, no, we're not good.
Yeah.
This will stay on me if I don't give you this.
Right.
It just does.
And that's lived with me for a long time, uh, for my grandma and my dad and stuff like
that.
But you know, live within your means, um, plan, just, I use this all the time.
Plan your work, work your plan, right?
Um, plan your, your, your bills and work that plan that you have for it.
Um, so that you can have your 75%, you know, 50% bills, 25% spending money, 25% savings,
whatever it might be the strategy.
So it's consistent.
And again, financial discipline, be disciplined in what you're doing.
You know, there's, if you don't have the money, you don't do it.
Yeah.
If you have to, you eat ramen for an entire 30 days until your bills are lined up and
then, okay, I'm back.
I'm good again.
For the first couple of years of my life at from not, not life, but 1920, I was a young
dad, right?
Didn't have any money.
My ex wife and I lived off of hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and generic chips for a long time.
I didn't eat hot dogs for like 10 years.
I'm like, I'm not eating another hot dog in my life because you can get an eight pack
for 99 cents.
It goes a long way.
Mac and cheese, generic 25 cents at the flea market.
Yep.
Right.
And then people are like, oh, you know, the one thing that bothers me that I don't, not
much bothers me.
The must be nice people.
Oh man, must be nice.
I'm like, oh, I know it must be nice to work 80 to a hundred hours a week and eat hot dogs
and mac and cheese and have a car break down in the middle of the squirrel tunnel.
And I mean, you just don't know that story of me.
Yeah.
I don't share that a lot, but everyone has a story.
Yeah.
Sometimes you just got to sit and listen and be like, oh, or ask, tell me, tell me your
story, but be willing to listen.
Yeah.
That's the other part.
People say, Thomas, how are you?
And then they don't, they just keep walking.
Yeah.
They expect you to say good.
Right.
What if you say, Hey man, I could really use someone to talk to for 10 minutes.
Right.
You're going to sit and listen and you can keep walking.
Right.
Cause not everyone knows my whole story and there's a lot to it now that I'm older, but
that's life experience and God's put me in directions and paths.
Sometimes I steered myself one way and he's like, right.
Smacks me in the rear and says, you're going this way, buddy.
I think I remember you saying at one point, um, if somebody asks you how you're doing,
they better be ready for a conversation.
Yeah, I did.
Yeah.
I mean, and that's me.
Yeah.
Like, and I asked people intentionally, Hey, how are you?
Yeah.
And Kate, Kate, my wife will be like, do you know that person?
I'm like, I have no clue who that person is.
She's like, you'll talk to anybody.
She knows I'll talk to anybody.
Yeah.
It's, I mean, you know, and I know you guys will too.
I see Shawn do it all the time.
I'm like, if I'm in the middle of Walmart and I start talking to someone, she'll be
like, you know, that person now she knows better to even answer it.
She knows the answer.
I probably don't know them.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, I had a blessed day and you know, though I ended up having a conversation, I
had a lady that one gave me cookies.
She's like, I'm making cookies.
I'm, she had seven dozen eggs on the freaking belt in Walmart.
I'm like, wow, that's a lot of eggs.
I'm making cookies.
I'm like, oh man, here's my address.
When I was in Delmont and shopped off a dozen cookies because she lived in the senior area
up there, but it's just having the conversation.
So you don't know.
I walked in one time to try this one.
Go into a store and just tell every person Merry Christmas.
Say, Hey, Merry Christmas.
People are like, Oh my gosh, no one ever says that anymore.
Yeah.
It's either happy holidays or they don't say anything at all.
I'm like, Hey, Merry Christmas.
I have a smile on your face and people were like, taking back from it.
Ironically.
It's so crazy because that work, like nobody says Merry Christmas except me.
Yeah.
My boss didn't stuff.
They're Christians.
So they're always like, let me slide.
But like the, all my coworkers are like, you're supposed to say happy holidays.
I'm like, I have not met one person.
It's not celebrating anything on the Christmas.
Not Kwanzaa.
Hey, but if they do, they can say that back to you.
Yeah, exactly.
So they say, Hey, I saw Merry Kwanzaa.
Well, then happy Kwanzaa.
Right.
That's exactly how I see it too.
That's the Hanukkah, whatever it is.
Hey, have a great day and enjoy the season.
Yeah.
Cause holidays get frustrating for a lot of people.
Yeah.
Emotional.
It's emotional.
It's definitely a tough time for people who let the problems of life actually get at them.
Yes.
Why?
And half the time it's because they don't have financial discipline.
Yep.
So it gives you the number one reason divorce happens is finances.
Right?
Yeah.
Relationships break up because of that.
But if you're stable, you'd be good.
You're good.
Right?
Yeah.
I think I am glad that like you talked about a little bit, like you can get a little tippist
about your, your backstory.
I think a lot of people do think they see success and like they think that overnight.
Yeah.
There's no such thing.
Right.
So I think that's a good thing.
All right, guys, that was part one of this amazing conversation that Shawn and I got to
have with Patrick Williams.
If you haven't already, give us a five star review, subscribe, share this episode out.
And honestly, if you have been liking this episode and I said already, I'll say it again,
give it, go ahead and follow us so you don't miss part two.
All right, guys, see you next time.
See you next time and bring a notebook.