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Clint Padgett [00:00:05]:
My name is Clint Padgett. And when I’m not scuba diving or traveling the world looking for decent vegan food, I’m listening to John Garrett on What’s Your And?

John Garrett [00:00:16]:
Welcome to episode 615 of What’s Your “And”?. This is John Garrett. And each Wednesday, I interview a professional who, just like me, is known for a hobby or a passion or an interest outside of work. And to put it another way, it’s encouraging people to find their “And.” Those things above and beyond your technical skills, the things that actually differentiate you when you’re at work, It’s the answer to the question of who else are you beyond the job title. And if you like what the show is about, be sure to check out the award-winning book. It’s on Amazon, Indigo, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, a few other websites. All the links are at what’s your and dot com.

John Garrett [00:00:49]:
The book goes more in-depth with the research behind why these outside of work passions are so crucial to a corporate culture. And I can’t say how much it means that everyone’s reading it and writing such great reviews on Amazon and more importantly, changing the cultures where they work because of it. If you want me to read it to you, that’s right. This voice reading the book. Look for What’s Your Hand on Audible or wherever you get your audiobooks. And please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any of the future episodes. I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week. And this week is no different with my guest, Clint Padgett.

John Garrett [00:01:20]:
He’s the CEO of Project Success Inc in Atlanta, Georgia and the host of the conversation with Clint M Padgett podcast. And he’s the author of How Teams Triumph, and he’s now he’s with me here today. Clint, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your End.

Clint Padgett [00:01:34]:
No. No. Thanks for having me, John.

John Garrett [00:01:36]:
I’m excited to have you be a part of this. And I have 17 rapid fire questions here. Get to know Clint on a new level here. So, maybe we’ll start with an easy one here. A favorite color?

Clint Padgett [00:01:45]:
Green.

John Garrett [00:01:46]:
Green. Oh, solid. I like it. How about a least favorite color?

Clint Padgett [00:01:49]:
Red.

John Garrett [00:01:50]:
Red. Yeah. Mine too. I don’t know why.

Clint Padgett [00:01:52]:
Oh, I have a reason. It’s Georgia bulldogs and I’m a Georgia tech guy. So

John Garrett [00:01:55]:
Oh, there you go. That’s easy. It makes it super easy. Alright. No argument here. Absolutely. How about a favorite day of the week? Friday. Friday.

John Garrett [00:02:04]:
Nice. Okay. How about a favorite actor or an actress?

Clint Padgett [00:02:07]:
Clint Eastwood. Namesake. You know?

John Garrett [00:02:10]:
Oh, okay. Alright. I like it. Are you more talk or text?

Clint Padgett [00:02:14]:
Oh, definitely talk.

John Garrett [00:02:15]:
Definitely talk. Yeah. You just get the answer.

Clint Padgett [00:02:17]:
Yeah. Because it’s my phone and not bother me at all, but I I would not like the ability not to talk.

John Garrett [00:02:21]:
Yeah. Oh, that’s an excellent way to look at it. There you go. Puzzles, Sudoku, crossword, jigsaw puzzle, Wordle, I guess now.

Clint Padgett [00:02:29]:
I was playing Wordle quite a bit, but then I I got distracted as, just do crosswords and and even those are hair or miss.

John Garrett [00:02:36]:
No. That works. How about, this is an important one, toilet paper roll. Are we going over or other?

Clint Padgett [00:02:43]:
Whatever direction is there when I need it, I’ll take. But I guess I will probably go over.

John Garrett [00:02:48]:
Okay. If you’re putting it on, it’s over, but whatever. Within arm’s reach.

Clint Padgett [00:02:51]:
We’re good.

John Garrett [00:02:51]:
Alright. I like it. How about Star Wars or Star Trek?

Clint Padgett [00:02:55]:
Star Wars.

John Garrett [00:02:56]:
Star Wars. Yeah. Me too.

Clint Padgett [00:02:57]:
Oh, by the way, I should say not the number that they’re ordered. They they came out in 1, 2, or 3. For me, the perfect ones, And I’m told that’s not the original. Exactly. You know? That’s, like, 5, 6, or 7 or something crazy. No. No. No.

Clint Padgett [00:03:08]:
It came out. 1, 2, 3. That’s the order.

John Garrett [00:03:11]:
Yeah. 4, 5, 6, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Like, I haven’t seen any of the new ones because I haven’t heard great things. And so I mean, when they came out, they’re not new anymore, but you know, 15, 20 years ago or whatever.

John Garrett [00:03:22]:
Now I didn’t wanna ruin it. Like, you know, just the original 3. Exactly. Like, just don’t ruin it. How about a your computer more of a PC or a Mac? PC. PC. Yeah. Same.

John Garrett [00:03:30]:
How about a favorite animal? Any animal at all?

Clint Padgett [00:03:34]:
I’m gonna go with manatee.

John Garrett [00:03:36]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. My best friend from high school, that’s his favorite animal too. How about a favorite sports team?

Clint Padgett [00:03:42]:
Oh, Georgia Tech.

John Garrett [00:03:43]:
That’s what I figured with your answer earlier. But yeah. There you go. Alright. All the sports. How about ice cream? You going in a cup or in a cone? Cup. Cup. Yeah.

John Garrett [00:03:52]:
There you go. Planes, trains, or automobiles?

Clint Padgett [00:03:55]:
Planes. Love to fly, get there fast, and I can work while I travel.

John Garrett [00:04:00]:
Yeah. Okay. Favorite number? 8. 8. Is there a reason?

Clint Padgett [00:04:04]:
Yeah. Birthday is 88.

John Garrett [00:04:05]:
Oh, well, there you there you go. Like, nailed it. You didn’t have a choice. That’s right. I love it. How about your first concert?

Clint Padgett [00:04:13]:
Oh, that would have been ZZ Top.

John Garrett [00:04:15]:
Oh, wow. That’s incredible.

Clint Padgett [00:04:18]:
I have the girl that never went out went out with me to thank for it because she wanted to go see ZZ Top, and I got 2 tickets. And then she didn’t then she stood me up, and so I still met.

John Garrett [00:04:28]:
That’s great. That’s very good. That’s awesome. Alright. This one’s gonna be maybe a lightning rod. I don’t know. But since you’re in Georgia, tea or sweet tea?

Clint Padgett [00:04:36]:
It’s sweet tea. They’re the same. If you get tea, it’s it’s sweet. I mean, come on. Where I grew up in South Carolina, it was either tea or unsweet. There was, you know, tea was, by default, sweet. And the worst thing you could ever hear is the southerners walking in and say, you want tea, and they said there’s sugar on the table. Like, no.

Clint Padgett [00:04:51]:
You don’t have from around here, are you? Because that’s not how it’s made.

John Garrett [00:04:54]:
That’s awesome. I love it, man. That’s so good. And the last one, the favorite thing you have or the favorite thing you own?

Clint Padgett [00:05:00]:
So, actually, the favorite thing I own is my company. Been working in this job for 29 years now and 11 years as an employee. And then 18 years ago, I bought it from the previous owners. And my favorite thing doing this is this company and helping clients around the world achieve their goals and teaching classes and seeing the light bulb come on, and they see how this process works. That’s kind of my favorite thing.

John Garrett [00:05:21]:
Awesome, man. Congrats.

Clint Padgett [00:05:22]:
Thank you

John Garrett [00:05:22]:
very much.

Clint Padgett [00:05:22]:
That’s a

John Garrett [00:05:23]:
that’s a long time. That’s incredible. That’s very cool.

Clint Padgett [00:05:25]:
Yeah. It’s been a journey for somebody who didn’t ever wanna be a business owner because my dad was a serial entrepreneur, and I thought, I don’t want that. I wanna punch a pick a a chop clock, get my paycheck every 2 weeks, and so now I ended up here. So

John Garrett [00:05:38]:
There you go. Well, yeah. I mean, it’s and after it’s that long, I mean, I joke with friends of mine, like, I’m beyond employable. I don’t even know where the bus stops anymore to even get on. So it’s like I’m out in this outer space world.

Clint Padgett [00:05:49]:
It’s so intertwined at this point. It’d be hard to extract yourself. I mean, I have to at some point because because I’m not getting younger. But, man, I’d say now it’s part of kind of my identity.

John Garrett [00:05:58]:
That’s awesome. But then there’s other parts too, which is why I love having you on here. And so yeah. So let’s talk scuba. And how’d you get started with that?

Clint Padgett [00:06:05]:
So, kinda my two favorite things outside of work are scuba diving is something I love to do and still get to do as often as I like. And then the other passion that I have is vegan food. I like I’m vegan for 8 years now, and I got a quick joke for you on that. So you walk in a room with 30 people. And how do you pick out the vegan?

John Garrett [00:06:22]:
They’re asking what’s in the food.

Clint Padgett [00:06:24]:
Like No. Just just wait 5 minutes, and they’ll tell you.

John Garrett [00:06:27]:
Don’t wait. There you go. That’s awesome.

Clint Padgett [00:06:33]:
And the way I got people always ask me why did you become vegan was it for health reasons? I say, yes. For health reasons. My wife said if I didn’t become a vegan, she’d kill

John Garrett [00:06:40]:
me. Oh, man. Okay. I travel a lot from

Clint Padgett [00:06:42]:
my work, and I came off one of my trips. And there was nothing on the table for a few, you know, for a few days but vegetables, and I’ve always been a vegetable guy, so that was fine. But after, like, a week, I said, are we broke? And I don’t know it. Can we not afford meat? What is going on here? And she says, Oh, well, I’ve decided we’re vegan now. And I said, Well, but wait, what? We? We are vegan? She goes, Yes. I said, Well, don’t I have a say in this? And she says, Well, I discussed it and we’re vegan. And I said, No. I said, Okay.

Clint Padgett [00:07:07]:
How about if we’re vegan at home and when I travel, I can have what I want? And she says, Oh, so you wanna teach our children that it’s okay to do things outside of the house as long as we don’t know about it? And I said, First of all, I hate you. And secondly, no, that’s not what I want. So why are we going vegan? And she had her reasons and I she hadn’t read this book and I said, let me read the book. So I read the book and we’re actually she was going vegetarian is what she said. And so I read the book, and I came home. I was in Russia at the time when I read the book. I came home and I said, look. This book doesn’t say don’t eat meat.

Clint Padgett [00:07:34]:
The book says don’t do dairy. So if I’m going this way, I’m gonna go all in and go vegan. But long story short, 8 years later, I’m still doing it, and it didn’t last that long for them. So my family was vegetarian, vegan, and now they’re flexitarian, which really means eat a lot. They eat less meat than probably the rest of the world does, but they still eat a lot more than I do. And they definitely don’t hold that on cheese. So

John Garrett [00:07:56]:
Yeah. I didn’t even know flexitarian. That’s just you eat what you want. Pretty much. Flexitarian. That’s like, I never even knew that was a thing.

Clint Padgett [00:08:03]:
Thinking you’re vegan, kind of vegetarian, but not really. You know? But no.

John Garrett [00:08:07]:
That’s the vegan that orders fish?

Clint Padgett [00:08:09]:
Oh, and or indoor cheese and everything else. But, you know, they like I said, they probably eat less meat than the normal American does, but they certainly are not vegetarian by any means.

John Garrett [00:08:19]:
That’s impressive, man. And traveling for vegan, I mean, that’s not easy. That’s not easy at home, like, let alone on the road.

Clint Padgett [00:08:24]:
You know, the hardest places have been Russia to find vegan food. And I remember the client I was working with asked the assistant who’s bringing all the lunches in for everybody. She goes, can’t you just order from a vegan restaurant? And the lady says, no. Nobody eats like that. But I discovered Wurst because Wurst is vegan. You know? It’s really good. Yeah. And then the other place that was hard was Korea, South Korea, because everything looks like it’s okay, but it actually has little meat pieces in it.

Clint Padgett [00:08:55]:
And Happy Cow became my friend before the Google Maps became ever so ubiquitous. I would do Happy Cow. It was kind of the app that I would use to say where to find the vegan restaurants. And so I found one around the from the hotel in Moscow, and I ate there every night for dinner. I went to their menu twice. Basically, I was there for 3 weeks, and so I ate everything on their menu twice, which was good. And then Japan, I was in Japan for 7 weeks during the Olympics, helping out work on the Olympics in the athletes’ village. And it’s really hard to be vegan in Japan only because there’s no there’s fish sauce in everything.

Clint Padgett [00:09:27]:
I mean, everything. So you gotta go basically, you gotta make your own or you gotta find vegan restaurants and which I did that as well. But kinda be off your track here. You’ve assembled what it led me into scuba diving? I’m gonna kinda tie a couple of questions here together and go back and harvest that man at TC that planted earlier. So my brother and I were both in college at the time, or he just graduated, and I was a senior. And we’d just broken up with our respective significant others at the time. So he said, let’s do a road trip. So he comes and picks me up in Atlanta, and we drive down to Christopher, Florida.

Clint Padgett [00:09:59]:
And we’re, you know, just cruising around, seeing the at the Indian mounds and happened to see a sign that says, you know, get scuba certified in 3 days for like $99 or something. This was a long time ago. But we were going to the Everglades. That was the goal, to go to the ever so we went down to the Everglades. We get to the Everglades to pitch our tent. And the first night middle of the night, I wake up. I’m getting eaten a lot by mosquitoes. And so I look over and the tent is unzipped.

Clint Padgett [00:10:23]:
So I zip the tent back, and I start killing all the mosquitoes. And I kick my brother and go, dude, if you’re gonna go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, zip the tent when you come back. And he goes, I didn’t go anywhere. So I thought he was just, you know, lying to me. So the next morning we wake up and rookie mistake, we’d had our cooler with our food and stuff in our tent with us. And a raccoon had opened the tent, taken the bread and peanut butter off the cooler in our tent outside, consumed them, and just wasn’t kind enough to set the tent back. So I went to my brother, and I said, man, when the animals are smarter than we are, we can’t be here. So Right.

John Garrett [00:10:56]:
We’re in trouble.

Clint Padgett [00:10:57]:
So we went up. We went down to 7 we crossed the Seven Mile Bridge and camped out in the in the Keys instead. And on the way back, we went to Crystal River, Florida and got certified as scuba. So part of the certification is to take you in the Crystal River, which is this is December, Christmas time. And it’s a natural spring, so it’s normally, like, in the low seventies. It’s not super, super cold. And that attracts all the manatees up, in that warm area.

John Garrett [00:11:20]:
Oh. So when

Clint Padgett [00:11:21]:
you get certified, they take you out, and you have to go underwater, take all your equipment off, put it all back on, clear your mask, make sure that you don’t freak out. You can handle all that. So I we were underwater, and I did that. And they told us, hey. You’re you’re gonna see manatees in the area. You’re not allowed to approach them, and they’re not gonna approach you because they don’t like the scuba bubbles. So but you’ll see them and just, you know, leave them on. So I did all my gym exercise, took all my stuff off, put it back on, and there’s 5 or 6 people in the group.

Clint Padgett [00:11:46]:
So I’m looking at them, waiting for one of them to do it now, and they’re all looking at me. I’m like, I just did this. Why are y’all looking at me? And all of a sudden, something hit me in the back. And I turned around, and it was a manatee.

John Garrett [00:11:57]:
Oh my goodness. And

Clint Padgett [00:11:57]:
I know that they don’t eat meat. Right? They’re they’re like meat. They they only eat plants. They’re like sea cows.

John Garrett [00:12:04]:
Right?

Clint Padgett [00:12:04]:
But these things are massive. And when they’re when you’re underwater, they’re, you know, 3 times bigger than you are. And they sat there and just rubbed on me. So I reached out and started rubbing its back. And they grow up, they move so slowly, algae actually grows on them. And so I was rubbing, and the algae was coming off. And it was it just sat there with me for probably a good 3 or 4 minutes, and then everybody started to swim over and it swam off. And in that moment, I was like, I’m hooked.

Clint Padgett [00:12:26]:
I am a fan of scuba diving for life from that moment on, and that’s just one of the many really cool experiences I’ve had underwater.

John Garrett [00:12:33]:
That’s awesome, man. That’s so yeah. Because I mean, underwater, it magnifies it. So then it’s it it feels like and they yeah. They’re big. That’s cool. You’re the the manatee whisperer.

Clint Padgett [00:12:41]:
The whole time my dad would go, I’m gonna find the first carnivorous manatee.

John Garrett [00:12:46]:
Right? His mom was a manatee, and then the dad was a shark. No. That’s not what we need. No. That’s incredible, man. That’s really awesome. And then since then, like, have you had any more memorable dives?

Clint Padgett [00:13:01]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have 400 dives so far in my belt. I love to scuba dive when I go. Okay. When I go, I it’s hardcore for me. So I dive 5 times a day. I spend on average 4 and a half hours underwater every day that I dive.

Clint Padgett [00:13:14]:
And I go for a week, and so you can’t dive the last day. So usually for the first day, it’s kind of a travel day. So for 5 days, I’m doing 25 dives in the week that I’m there, basically. I love it. Wow. Favorite places to go are Turasau because it’s got great shore diving. I got a story about that place. And then another place I love is Cozumel for the drift dive.

Clint Padgett [00:13:32]:
So I love the drift diving because it’s just you’re like Superman. It’s just you drop in the water. It just just takes you. Right? You gotta have a plan, which I’ll come back to that later.

John Garrett [00:13:40]:
Okay.

Clint Padgett [00:13:41]:
Curacao, my buddy was a new diver. At that moment. I probably had 250 dives. I was real experienced. But you get your truck and you put the tanks in the truck and you go out on the island. You have a map of the island. You know where to go. And you and your dive buddy get in, and there’s nobody around.

Clint Padgett [00:13:55]:
It’s just the 2 of you. You gear up and you walk into a lagoon and you go underwater and you swim out to the reef, which is not that far away, and you cruise up and down the reef. It’s fantastic. So we’re cruising down this reef, and we get to the end of a turnaround to come back. And there’s a big sea turtle. And I love sea turtles. And this one was not swimming. It was just kinda hanging out, and I thought, that’s strange.

Clint Padgett [00:14:15]:
I wonder why it is. So we’re looking at it. And I look up, and swimming down the reef towards us is a hammerhead shark. And so I tapped my buddy on the shoulder, and we go over to the side 3 and sink down to the floor, and the hammerhead continues on towards the sea turtle. I guess they have a date to talk about some maybe some dinner or something. I don’t know. So we swim on down, and we’re going to get out of the water. And of course, he’s a new diver, so he doesn’t breathe that well.

Clint Padgett [00:14:39]:
He’s stuck in here a little bit. He runs out long before I do. So I go up, see where we are, and there’s the cove where we wanna get out. Great. So I go back down, and that point where we’re gonna go, we start swimming. And we swam, we swam, we swam. And finally, he gives me the signal, ladies. Basically, out of air.

Clint Padgett [00:14:53]:
So I give him my second. So now we’re both breathing off of my tank, which doesn’t last very long at that moment, so we surface. And not only have we not made it into the cove, we’ve actually drifted to the edge. And I say the edge, I mean the edge of Curacao. So we are on the edge of the island, and there’s nothing but open water between us and Venezuela. So basically Right? I say, see that wall in front of you? I said, swim like hell. We gotta hit that wall. And so we swam on on the surface.

Clint Padgett [00:15:20]:
We swam to the wall, made it, and then we hand over hand it inside to the cove. And we got in, and he says, What would happen if we missed the wall? I said, We don’t wanna know. Because there’s no dive It’s not like we’d had no dive planned. No. I knew where we were going. It just would have been, you know, drifting. So I guess what are we gonna do now? So we’re gonna change tanks. We’re gonna go diving again because I I wanna get back right back on that oars.

Clint Padgett [00:15:41]:
We’re not gonna give it up. Right? Right. That was probably the closest I’ve ever been to a a shark that was not a nurse shark. I see nurse sharks sharks all the time, but that was a hammerhead swimming towards us. Probably got within 10, 15 feet of where we were. Wow. And then but thankfully it was focused on something else. And I did a little bit more in Australia for a week out in Cairns, off the coast of Australia, which is a Great Barrier Reef.

Clint Padgett [00:16:08]:
And they did a shark dive where we dove down. The first dive was just to get you familiar with the area. Then the second dive was you go down, and there was a dead coral wall, and everybody kinda put their back against the wall, and then they dropped the big chumsicle down, which is just frozen chum, and all the sharks came in. It was really interesting because the sharks would feed at different places. So as it dropped down each step, other sharks became the king, or

John Garrett [00:16:32]:
the feet

Clint Padgett [00:16:32]:
of that low, and they would attack it.

John Garrett [00:16:33]:
Interesting.

Clint Padgett [00:16:34]:
And what was really interesting was these big groupers, these huge grouper fish, would actually sometimes knock off a shark to get to the chunk. That was pretty cool to watch, except that when you’re not swimming around, you’re not due to any heat. And so for the first time ever, I was cold underwater, and I was like, I I wanna move. And they said, no. No. No. You can’t move till the sharks are all gone because you might become dessert. So Right? Because because you’re

John Garrett [00:16:57]:
not in a cage. I mean, you’re just out there, like, against a a coral. Wow, man. That is that’s awesome, man. I I love it. And then what is the drift diving? So it’s kinda like the current takes

Clint Padgett [00:17:07]:
you there? The current is just ripping along in between this pure the drift diving Cozumel is is in between Cozumel and Cancun. There’s a, you know

John Garrett [00:17:15]:
right. Yeah.

Clint Padgett [00:17:15]:
Sure. Channel there. And so the currents just ripped through there, and you’re I don’t know what speed it is, but it feels like you’re flying. I mean, you can it can really move you to the point where if you wanted to stop, you’ve gotta reach out and take your knife and dig it into the sand, and you’re like a flag in the wind at that point because it’s just really trying to to push you. So the cool part about it is, I mean, you do feel like Superman and you just you’re smoking long. And if you wanna stop, you can dig in the sand and stop and look at something. But the way that I kind of tie this back into work is by you can be in your own little world, right? That’s one of the things I love about scuba diving is I can’t think about work when I’m scuba diving. It’s a 100%.

Clint Padgett [00:17:51]:
I’m focused on breathing, what’s in front of me, checking my oxygen, you know, my air. How much air do I have in the tank? It but it’s I can’t I can’t possibly think about anything. I have any problems having to work. Nothing. It’s all about that moment, checking out this cool thing that I’m seeing, this seeing this cool shrimp I’ve never seen before or these nudie what’s it called nudie branks, which are underwater slugs or snails for a bit without a shell. But they’re just beautiful. They’re multicolored, and they’re just amazing to see. You’re checking all this stuff out.

Clint Padgett [00:18:20]:
But in Cozumel, because you’re cruising and you’re in a big group, and the boat will drop you off in a group, and then the boat will go down to the pickup point, you know, far, far down and wait for you to come up. And so when you’re in your own little world, which is fine, but you have to always be cognizant of where is the group going and where is the end goal, where are we getting out at, and you have to always be aware of those things. And it’s kinda like in my project world that I live in. Each individual person is working on their task, but we all have to have a knowledge of where the group is going and where is the group currently so that I can hand over my piece to the next person who didn’t have to do something with it. And we I always know where the end goal of the project is. And so to me, that’s a good corollary between the work and the scuba diving world, but I do find the scuba diving much more, fun to do.

John Garrett [00:19:05]:
Right? No. I love it, man. That’s exactly it. I mean, you know, because that’s a muscle that you’re exercising outside of work and have been since, you know, you and your brother got certified. And then all of a sudden when you step into the office and when it’s time to use that muscle, you’re like, I can do this with, you know, my eyes closed because I I do sometimes at night, you know. Like and so it’s like, you know, like just when you’re night diving or whatever, you know. And so it’s like I can do this. And it’s awesome to hear how, you know, much of a parallel there is there, you know.

John Garrett [00:19:33]:
Like, that’s incredible because you’re not doing the scuba, you know, to get better at your job. It’s just a cool byproduct of, you know, something that lights you up on a deep level. I mean, you know, if I were to ask you, you know, hey, you can’t go dive ever again, You know? It’s like, oh.

Clint Padgett [00:19:50]:
I’d be devastated. 1 of my one of my best friends had a he bursted a an eardrum and could never go diving again. It’s just like

John Garrett [00:19:56]:
Oh my goodness.

Clint Padgett [00:19:56]:
Man, that would just that would just be so tough. I mean, I you know, obviously, live with it, but that would be that would be hard because even though I don’t get to dive as much as I would like to, it’s still something I look forward to. And if I had to take that off the plate, that would not be a good place.

John Garrett [00:20:10]:
Yeah. Right? I mean, because that’s it’s it’s like cutting off a limb or an organ or, you know, it’s it’s who you are. And there’s all these other dimensions to who you are. And it’s so weird to me that work becomes the, for so many people, the only thing.

Clint Padgett [00:20:24]:
Yeah.

John Garrett [00:20:24]:
How does it go from, you know, 10 or 15% of who we are to a 100% in a such a short time? It does. It’s crazy. It’s really alarming to me. And it’s simply because it’s what pays the bills. It’s sad because we need to remember, like, I don’t know. There’s another reason why we’re here.

Clint Padgett [00:20:41]:
If you happen to enjoy your work, it’s even worse because then you you look forward to it and it doesn’t you know, then it’s it’s easy for you to become a 100%. Not only to pay the bills, but it’s actually it’s fun and enjoyable, and you probably enjoy. I know I do. The clients who look back and go, wow. I can’t believe where we came from 2 years ago to where we are now and how far we’ve progressed and how good we are. And ad that happened recently on a project that I’m working on where the client said, I think back to 2 years ago and all we had was post it notes on our mural board, We had no idea where we’re going, and now we actually have a schedule that’s connected and we know if this moves, what effect it’s gonna have way over there and and, you know, made me feel good because that’s what I do for a living. Right? So and you mentioned night dives. I gotta tell you a quick story of night dives.

Clint Padgett [00:21:21]:
It’s my probably my favorite thing to do, but it’s also the scariest thing to do.

John Garrett [00:21:26]:
I can imagine, man. That’s nuts.

Clint Padgett [00:21:28]:
Because usually if it’s daytime, you can probably see the shore. And while it’s it’s a lot farther away than it looks, you can probably get there. But night dive, you don’t really see anything. And part of the fun is when you go under, you turn your light off. And as you sweep your hands to the water, the plankton is bioluminescent. So as you’re sweeping your hands to the water, sparks are flying off from the plankton that you’re hitting. But I’ve also had that happen where I’m doing that, having a lot of fun, and I turn the light back on and right in my nose is a barracuda, right?

John Garrett [00:21:57]:
Oh my goodness. And I’m like, oh my goodness.

Clint Padgett [00:21:59]:
If I just shove my hand just one more time, I might have all my 5 fingers anymore. Right?

John Garrett [00:22:03]:
So Right? That’s amazing. Like, that’s I mean, I’ve gone to scuba twice, I guess. You know, they were, you know, just watch a video and then, I don’t know, we go down like 30 feet or so or whatever. But one was in Bermuda and it was a shipwreck. And, man, that was that’s crazy. I mean, it’s just so cool to be like, wow, this was a boat a 100 years ago with stuff on it. And now it hit, you know, Bermuda Triangle, whatever. And just really cool to see that.

John Garrett [00:22:32]:
And then, of course, the fish and the things. Cause it’s just a different world. But the the level of current under there, I grossly underestimated how strong currents can be under there. I mean, and and you’re just going along and all of a sudden you’re just like, wham. Like, you just get just railroaded from the side.

Clint Padgett [00:22:48]:
We are really inefficient swimmers, human beings are, so you’re not gonna win that battle. Even if you do maintain where you’re spot, you’re gonna suck your air like this is tomorrow, and you’re gonna be out of air in no time. But I think that the probably the most current that I’ve seen outside of Cozumel is going down to boats. And you’ll be on the rope heading down and, you know, you’re like a flag in the wind because it’s just pushing you. And you’re hand over hand and down that rope to get to the dive site. And maybe it’s because I spent 6 years in the Navy, but I don’t like rec dives because I feel like the boats should be on top of the water

John Garrett [00:23:17]:
and not underneath. No. Totally.

Clint Padgett [00:23:19]:
It was

John Garrett [00:23:20]:
it’s a weird thing because Hawaii was, you know, just pretty. But that, it’s like, I mean, yeah, there’s a part that’s really cool, but then there’s other part that you’re like, did everyone make it?

Clint Padgett [00:23:28]:
Everybody wants to go in. I don’t wanna go in. Like, no. No. No. I don’t wanna go in. No.

John Garrett [00:23:32]:
No. No. I don’t wanna go in because, I mean, what if it goes on the

Clint Padgett [00:23:34]:
I wanna be able to hit the button and go up if I have an emergency. So

John Garrett [00:23:38]:
Right. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. But I love the parallels in in how much, you know, it influences you and and your work and all that. And and, like, how important is it? Like, even for somebody that does love their job, which is great. I mean, that’s the ideal. But how important is it to still have, you know, an end, you know, these other parts

Clint Padgett [00:23:55]:
to you? I think it has to be. You can’t be a complete person if if you don’t have other things that enthrall you and and make you you know? So for me, work is a passion, and I know that’s not everybody. There’s some people who see that the job is just that, it’s a way to pay the bills, put food on the table, and enable them to go to other things. I just happened to be in a position where they kinda intermixed for me because my travel allows me the reason I got to go scuba diving in Australia was I was there for work. And so when I go to Curacao or when I go to Cozumel, those are trips that are specifically for scuba diving. But a lot of places that I go, I went to Thailand and I got to go diving. I went to Indonesia and got to go diving, but they were there. I was there for work in those cases.

Clint Padgett [00:24:36]:
So I think that everybody has to have their passions and the things they’re they really look forward to. That could be family. It could be an event, whatever those things are. I certainly look forward to the 6 football Saturdays every year that we get our butts kicked typically by other teams, but I still show up because I’m a Georgia Tech fan. Right? This is what I do.

John Garrett [00:24:52]:
Right? Yeah.

Clint Padgett [00:24:54]:
So I think you have to have those things to round you out. Otherwise, it’s, one-sided life.

John Garrett [00:24:58]:
No. I I agree totally. And I I love that. You know, you’re just not complete. You know, those voids are there. It’s just you’re not filling them. You know, almost like a trivial pursuit pie, I guess, with only one wedge in it. And it’s like there’s spots for all the other stuff.

John Garrett [00:25:12]:
Like, why aren’t we putting things in? Like, come on now. Like, you know, it’s like, no. No. I’m just gonna overfill this one wedge. It’s like that it’s full. Like, we’re good. You know? It’s like, come on now. Like, fill the other pieces.

John Garrett [00:25:24]:
This has been so great and it’s so awesome to have you be a part of it. But I feel like it’s only fair before we wrap this up that I turn the tables and let you put me in the hot seat since I rapid fire questioned you at the beginning. And, you have your own show, so you already know how to do this. So I’m all yours.

Clint Padgett [00:25:39]:
So first question I have is on your earbuds. Are they ultimate ears? Are they custom? Right?

John Garrett [00:25:44]:
These no. No. These are, I don’t know, something off of Amazon. They’re like a clear wrap around behind the back. Yeah. When I was doing a lot of during COVID, like, virtual presentations, I wanted to have in my ear because sometimes the speaker, you can’t hear quite right if there’s a question or whatever. So I wanted to have it in my ears, but they’re clear. So it’s kinda nice to you don’t really see them.

John Garrett [00:26:07]:
But yeah. And then, again, just lazy or efficient. I don’t know. I just kept them. So, like, it’s just I

Clint Padgett [00:26:13]:
have some for listening to music that are custom. They they take them all over here, which is cool.

John Garrett [00:26:17]:
Oh.

Clint Padgett [00:26:18]:
But I do find the over ear of course, we do podcasting. You know, on the Zoom calls, the Teams calls, if you don’t have a headset, then, of course, you get the echo. Somebody has an echo, and it’s really bad. And for me, it’s I like the overhear, but especially if I need a haircut, you can’t tell. I bet my hair is strange. Because yours, I can tell exactly when You have short hair. Right?

John Garrett [00:26:35]:
That’s true. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. For airplanes, though, definitely the Bose noise canceling. That’s for sure.

Clint Padgett [00:26:40]:
So is your book your first one?

John Garrett [00:26:43]:
Yeah. I never thought I’d write a book, man. Like, you know, I just from speaking so much and then people after were like, hey, my boss needs to hear this. Do you have a book? Because I’m gonna mess up trying to tell him how you know, all about it. And I was like, well, I appreciate the honesty and no. And then after enough people ask you, you know, the universe is kinda saying, hey, maybe you should write a book. So I was like, alright. I guess I’ll write one.

John Garrett [00:27:03]:
And, man, that is a that is a journey. You gotta really wanna write a book, you know. Yeah. I mean, you’ve done it twice. So, I mean, I I guess the second one’s easier. I don’t know. Or just different. For me,

Clint Padgett [00:27:13]:
it was different. The first one was really easy for me to write because it’s I was just articulating on paper what I teach in my classes already. So it wasn’t that difficult. The second one was more it was kind of an offshoot of that, but talking about the people side of project management. And that one, I had to really think about and I probably did 8 or 9 different drafts. I’m a pencil and paper kind of person, so I don’t want to type, so I actually wrote it out longhand and make changes. And if I’m just got to the place where the publisher was like, look, we need the manuscript, But it’s not it’s not perfect yet. It’s never gonna be perfect.

Clint Padgett [00:27:47]:
I mean, even today, I see things like, in second edition, we gotta correct this, make that change. But it has to be good enough to not embarrass you when they put it out. And then I don’t know how you did the audiobook by yourself because I talk fast. I would love to do it myself, but I talk fast. And that’s probably not the best person to articulate your audiobook, so we hired hires in the interview hours.

John Garrett [00:28:08]:
Yeah. It was at a recording studio in Boulder, Colorado that does a lot of music stuff. So, yeah, sat in the booth. They had a voice artist person Skype in to listen and a voice actor kind of thing. And then they had an engineer in there as well during the recording. It was 2 days, 2 8 hour days. And the book’s not that long, but it just it takes it’s a lot. You gotta take some breaks, gotta drink some water, you gotta get back on it.

John Garrett [00:28:35]:
And and then they’re listening to make sure because it’s really interesting how even though I wrote the book, and they’re my words, so it was very easy to do the audio, because it’s literally how I would talk. But your brain still switches. Your eyes see a series of words and then your brain turns them into different words that mean the exact same thing. But it’s not exactly the verbiage. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so on a handful of occasions, it’s like, alright, back up.

John Garrett [00:29:00]:
You got to go back and do that. And it was really funny because I have a fair amount of quotes from people that had been guests on the show. And the voice actor guy is trying to get me to do character voices. And I’m like, no. No. You don’t understand. These are real people. Like, this isn’t a make believe fiction book that I no.

John Garrett [00:29:17]:
No. It’s actually Clint or, you know, like, you know, Mark Lee from the UK or Clayton Oates from Australia or, like, these people from other countries. And if someone tried to do my voice, I would get on a plane, fly, punch you in the face, and then fly home. Like, it’s like, I’m not doing that. That’s terrible. And so we had to figure out, like, you know, there’s women. Like, I was like, I can’t do that. So we had to meet in the middle as, like, a different John Garrett voice, a little bit softer, a little bit whatever, depending, you know, if it was a guy or girl or whatever on the quote.

John Garrett [00:29:49]:
But it was it’s it’s a journey, man. You have to act like it’s new every day.

Clint Padgett [00:29:53]:
Yeah. Is there a second book coming?

John Garrett [00:29:55]:
I think there’s probably a second one in me, which I never ever thought that would be the case. But I feel like there is just trying to dial in exactly what that’ll be. But it’s, you know, just embracing the message and going deeper and, you know, just getting people to to realize that, you know, there’s more to who you are than the job. And the job plays a part of that, but it’s not the end all, be all.

Clint Padgett [00:30:19]:
So I’m sure that you’ve been asked this one a 1000000 times, but I’ll ask you because it’s the obvious one. What is your end?

John Garrett [00:30:24]:
No. Absolutely. Happy to answer those always. I mean, college football, huge. I mean, I went to Notre Dame, so that’s how that works. Love traveling as well. Ice cream is also an and. That’s for sure.

John Garrett [00:30:35]:
I’m pretty passionate about it. And concerts, I also I love going to concerts and play the piano a little bit and stuff.

Clint Padgett [00:30:41]:
So Okay. I think you’re a cone guy. Right?

John Garrett [00:30:44]:
You know, I sweet talk them. I get it in the cup, but then I get the cone on top like a hat. So I get best of both.

Clint Padgett [00:30:50]:
Okay. You

John Garrett [00:30:51]:
cheat. Yeah. But I like to cup the cup because it’s just I’m not gonna spill, you know, and and if we’re gonna end up leaving early or driving or whatever, then it could keep it in there. Yeah. The cone just gets messy and it’s like, I I eat. But I still want the the sugar cone, you know, the galleries and the crust.

Clint Padgett [00:31:08]:
The second concert I went to is the Eagles, which was pretty amazing. But after ZZ Top, and then I’ll go on a quick story, and I’ll and I’ll I’ll stop. But

John Garrett [00:31:16]:
It’s your show, man. What what I’m here for this. Like, it’s

Clint Padgett [00:31:20]:
Might have given me 2 I’m a big Neil Young fan. She had given me 2 tickets to go see Neil Young. It was actually Crosby Stiles, it’s Bill’s Nash and Young concert in

John Garrett [00:31:28]:
Atlanta. Yeah.

Clint Padgett [00:31:29]:
And she got home late, and it was I’m not kidding. I’m not making it up. Not exaggerating. The worst two seats in the arena. It was at State Farm Arena, and it was always far away from the station as you can get, top row. I mean, I looked online, saw the tickets around, like, oh, this is terrible. And she didn’t wanna go because she’s not a New England fan. I said, all right, well, I’m gonna go, and I’m gonna see if I could find a scalper to trade 2 really bad seats for one maybe not quite so bad seat, right?

John Garrett [00:31:53]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Clint Padgett [00:31:53]:
So I found a scalper, so then tell him what he was. Yep. No problem. And so I go ahead and hand him the tickets. He goes, Plus $100. And I’m like, No. And I started to walk away, and he goes, Hey. Hey.

Clint Padgett [00:32:01]:
Come back. We’re negotiating. So about 10 minutes later and I get there early, so I’m not, like, right at the beginning of the concert. So I’m sitting there. A guy comes up, sits beside me, and he goes, man, these seats suck. And I said, yeah. They do. He goes, don’t you wish you’re in the front row? I said, yeah.

Clint Padgett [00:32:24]:
He goes, well, I’m with the band. Here’s a front row ticket. So I got to move from the worst seat in the arena to the front freaking row to see Neil Young.

John Garrett [00:32:33]:
That’s incredible. And he

Clint Padgett [00:32:34]:
was going around doing that for lots of different people. So they had, like, a stand just to, like, corner of the stage. You weren’t front stage. We were at the corner of the stage and had a whole stand of people that they were doing that too, taking really bad seats and upgrading them. It was awesome.

John Garrett [00:32:47]:
That’s incredible, man.

Clint Padgett [00:32:48]:
Oh, because I wouldn’t let that guy take my money. Yeah.

John Garrett [00:32:52]:
That’s so great, man. That’s so great. Well, thank you so much for being a part of What’s Your End?

Clint Padgett [00:32:57]:
I appreciate you having me. It’s been a blast.

John Garrett [00:00:48]:
Yeah. And everybody listening, if you wanna see some pictures of Clint scuba diving or traveling or connect with him on social media or check out his podcast, be sure to go to www.WhatsYourAnd.com. All the links are there. And while you’re on the page, please click that big button to the anonymous research survey about corporate culture. And don’t forget to read the book. So thanks again for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or whatever app you use and for sharing this with your friends, so they get the message that we’re all trying to spread that who you are is so much more than what you do.