E001 || Kevin and Stewart || Welcome to the 17Twenty Podcast

In our first, long awaited episode, Stewart and Kevin talk through how they came up with the name 17Twenty, lay out the core tenets of the podcast (i.e. faith, family, work and impact and growth in those areas), tell a little of their personal stories, explain why they're doing a podcast, and describe their hopes and expectations on where this journey will take them and how that's going to impact you as a listener.
 
As we start this journey, we'd love to hear from you on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/17twenty).  Check us out and leave a note!

|| Connect with Us ||

Check out all our episodes on all major streaming platforms, and further engagement with the 17Twenty crew on social media at:

https://17twenty.buzzsprout.com/
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Grab your copy of the Mountain Mover Manual: How to Live Intentionally, Lead with Purpose, and Achieve Your Greatest Potential, by Kevin Carey

Originally in print:
https://amzn.to/441OPeH

And now available on Audible:
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Transcript

Stewart Shurtleff  0:00  
I'm hopeful that we can give them some tools, equip them with some ideas, motivate them through some challenges to pick up where they are, and not to feel like they have to regress in any of those areas, but just really embrace this notion of falling forward. Every single individual has a story to tell. And they're great stories that need to be heard.

Kevin Carey  0:22  
I want every listener to know. They have the ability to change the world.

Stewart Shurtleff  0:33  
Welcome to the 1720 podcast.

Hey, welcome to the first episode of the 1720 podcast. I'm Stewart, along with my co host, Kevin, excited to be on this journey with you. Man, me too. And I tell you what no first episode of a podcast would be complete without diving in deeply into the question of why are you guys doing a podcast. So let's talk about how we came up with the name 1720. And what that means to each of us and why that's resonated in the context of the name of our podcast. So I'll kick it to you first, to start us off with that, we took a lot of time trying to think through what the name would be, had a few good ideas. And then the more we looked into 1720, and let it Let our hearts rest on it. It just seemed like the right choice. And it's derived from Matthew 1720, that says, Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain move from here to there, and it will move nothing will be impossible for you. And it's you know, moving mountains is motivational. It's it's a call to action, have faith and move forward. And I think that's something that really is fundamental in what we tried to do in our lives and what we want to try to come across on this podcast. Well, as we were kicking names back and forth, this one ended up on the table and as my recollection was that this was the one that like spoke to your heart and, and the reason for that I think is sort of underlying, in some of the work you do on a daily basis. And so let's talk a little bit about about that. And why mountain moving just that that idea in its own right strikes a chord with you specifically.

Kevin Carey  2:12  
Moving Mountains, dirt is derived from Scripture, but it's really taken its own life form in my life. For years now, I've been using it as a term of endearment almost as a call to action, referencing somebody as a mountain mover. It's, it's ingrained in conversations that I have, we set up in our office last year or walk the talk mountain. You know, it's it's a peer group of mine, that's the name of our peer group. So it's really grown its own life form of just positive momentum positive motivation. It's the desktop background screen to my laptop. It's just it's it's integral to the things I do what I stand for, as a leader, what I stand for, as a human. And it's in, it's involved in those daily motivation, emails that I send out each workday to a list of leaders in the Metroplex, a nation. So it's everywhere around my life. And it's always funny, when I see somebody else start using the term and catching on to it, it's always fun to see that branching off a little bit

Stewart Shurtleff  3:23  
on and can I want to contrast that with some other options that we put on the table, and then explain how this really ended up be the one that resonated most with most of us. And one of the other options that we kicked around was this notion of ground effect. That was actually one of the titles we kicked around. And this is an aeronautical term that really talks about the last sort of few feet before you land a plane or the most difficult. And when you put this notion of like the ability to move mountains, together with this sort of competing notion that it's really the last part of it, that's hard, like everyone can have an idea or be spurned in their gut to do something but putting it into action, landing the plane, or in this specific instance, in the context of Matthew 720. Moving the mountains, is really, really just based on your faith to do it. That in faith sort of resonates in a few different contexts here, but faith that you can do it faith, it's something inside of you can do it. And so one of our hopes through this podcast is that we can kind of get you through the last few feet to land the plane or have enough faith in yourself to pick it up and move the mountain and make a change. And there's just so much impact that the change can have for people and really, at the end of the day, I don't think Kevin, you jump in here if you want, but I don't think our goal is that the entire world is changed. The goal is at one person has changed.

Kevin Carey  4:44  
That's right, and not just finish, but start I hope it sparks action for somebody, you know, through some words that are shared guests that come on that share their wisdom and testimony. Somebody that can relate to it or just prompts them to move forward on something, maybe they've had an idea, kind of like this podcast idea that you and I've kicked for several months, we're taking action now. And it even speaks into us taking that first leap of faith into this journey. So it coincides with all the pillars that that we stand on.

Stewart Shurtleff  5:20  
Well, and that's a good, there's, there's two points of segue out of that sentence or two there and let one is guests. Right. And we could talk in a moment about about that. And I think we're both are very blessed as is the only right word there to say that our circles of influence, and friends, professionally, personally are filled with people who have rich testimonies, who are robust and their belief system, and have a lot to say, and to speak into people's lives and so hopeful that we'll come back to in a second, but we're hopeful that by and through hearing from some of our friends, frankly, people will hear things and be spurned on to, to move mountains. But let's talk first about sort of this notion that there are a few things on our podcast that we're going to be touching on, we've been calling them pillars, but just core tenets that we're going to try to focus on. So let's, let's kick through those a little bit. Just to give folks a flavor for where this is headed. Content wise, where we're headed here, let's let's just pick up on a few of those. Kevin, take a couple.

Kevin Carey  6:23  
Yeah, so the the main ones that we have our faith, family work, impact and growth. And when reflecting on those, they're there and ingrained in our lives. And so it's easy to translate them into this podcast, because they're the pillars that we stand on in our everyday lives. So communicating that through a podcast, hopefully helps others with all those categories. I know me personally, I find seasons where I'm too focused on just work. And that work life balance suffers, and they need to be more focused on family. So maybe a guest comes in and talks family first. And it sparks like Oh, man, I need to focus more on that side of things. So I'm hoping that diversity between faith family and work, you know, and the impact and growth behind them will help people be more well rounded.

Stewart Shurtleff  7:11  
Well, I mean, I my expectation is that our our demographic for listening is not children and teenagers, right like this. Our focus here I think, is just really honed in on folks in and around our life stage, people who are married people who are growing in their faith, people who are evolving in their workplace. And I'm hopeful that we can give them some tools, equip them with some ideas, motivate them through some challenges to pick up where they are. And not to feel like they have to regress in any of those areas, but just really embrace this notion of falling forward. And that's something that I've talked with, with a few of my friends in the past, which is this notion that you don't have to pick up everything where you are, throw it all on your back and just hammer it forward, you just have to go forward. And sometimes that means just falling down and picking yourself back up. And even through that very simple, frustrating process. It's movement, right. And so I'm hopeful that we can do that for folks in and around our life stages and phase in and around our work stages and phases, to change folks to change lives, to change families, and to change workplaces for the better. Where people wake up excited to see their, their wife and their kids, people wake up excited to head off to the office and feel motivated that their, their, their, their work is a calling. And people are, are using those tools to impact those around them on a daily basis. And they all complement each other. When I get stronger in my faith, I

Kevin Carey  8:46  
get stronger at work. When I get stronger in my faith, I get stronger at home, when I'm stronger at home, I'm stronger at work. They all are intertwined with each other and help me grow as a leader and a father and as a brother in Christ. So they're they complement each other really well.

Stewart Shurtleff  9:04  
That's a really good point. Actually. This, this notion of doing a podcast is interesting to me for a variety of reasons. One of the sort of unsung heroes of social media, podcasting, your YouTube channel, whatever sort of format or venue or form you're in is this notion of a community, a community of listeners, a community of watchers, a community of commenters, etc. And so I think one of the things that I'm excited about is expanding that because you and I both have, I sort of referred to it earlier. It's like our sphere of influence of people that we see and we get to communicate interact with on a daily basis. And I'm excited to see how those listeners translate this to new listeners who then find themselves in groups of people who are encouraging them, not not just hearing from us, but this notion that but perhaps by and through through listening to us and interacting with other listeners can pick each other up and encourage each other. And maybe this has more momentum to it than just, you know, the the people that we can touch every day and communicate with an email with and check in on and text and say hello and ping and all that we begin to have a broader reach for our folks, and then a broader reach for their folks to you know,

Kevin Carey  10:24  
absolutely, I think it's going to really make an impact for myself, growing as a leader, hearing you hearing guests come in, and their stories and testimony so much like the daily motivations. I'm a student before a teacher, so I'll be a student of these podcasts. And these will evolve into something more and more fine tuned over time. And hearing diverse perspectives, in order for myself to grow, is a definite positive of starting this journey.

Stewart Shurtleff  11:00  
Well, let's, let's take a bit of a detour, I'm not out, well, I have a tendency to kick it to you. So I'll just kick it to you to go first. But let's tell a little bit of our stories, right, because folks who are listening, or just hearing a couple of voices coming through their speakers, but who are the two guys behind the mic? Who was Kevin, let's start there.

Kevin Carey  11:20  
So I've been in Texas for about 10 years moved here from Chicago. At the time, I was single and no kids and had an opportunity for work to advance my career and just jumped on it. And since then there's been no looking back these past 10 years have been an absolute blessing. along the journey, I've made some great connections and work that that translate over into my personal life, I get to work with some of my closest friends in the industry. And that's just such a blessing. I met my wife here. So I'm married with a two and a half year old daughter named Quinn. And my wife and I met at an apartment building where we lived across from each other. And one day I took my dog out and at about 530 she was taking her dog out at the grass patch of our apartment building. And after our first conversation, I looked at my watch and like I don't care what's going on at work, I will be in this grass patch at 530.

Stewart Shurtleff  12:22  
That's funny, because I've never heard that story before. Really? Yeah, that's awesome.

Kevin Carey  12:26  
So little did I know she was doing the same thing. So she wanted to be there. And we naturally I don't know if that's naturally, we start seeing each other more often. And finally went on a date and the rest was history. That was awesome. There's been so many positives in Texas. I love being here. I miss my family in Chicago still to this day, but Texas is definitely home for me. And a big thing with the faith pillar that we stand on. I wasn't saved until 2012. So that was something that you know, the Bible Belt of Texas helped me get two of getting the church getting prompted to start growing in my faith and making that big time decision back in 2012.

Stewart Shurtleff  13:13  
Yep, that's Welcome to the Bible Belt. Yeah. Alright, so my story is completely different than that. Perfect. This is the beauty of it. Right? I've, I've always Well, I'm not always lived in Texas, but for the most part, I've always lived in Texas. I had a small hiatus living in Wyoming for a couple of years, which that story gets told at some other point. I'm sure it's not sorted or weird. It's just like I lived in Wyoming for a couple of years but grew up in Southeast Texas, went to high school there played a ton of basketball. Because this little tiny eliminate this little tiny high school I went to out there, nobody cared about football. The gym was packed on Tuesdays and Friday nights. And so I grew up loving basketball, and made my way over to Houston for undergrad and eventually to Baylor law school down in Waco to get my law degree. And I will never in my life. Forget the moment when Ashley my wife and I met at law school. It was like, first or second day of law school. And we had a at the time. I didn't know anyone in law school. So I had just kind of buddied up next to some guys and we're chatting with this guy who was had been in a fraternity at the University of Texas. And I was talking with him and actually recognized him because she's a Longhorn also. So she walked over to say hello to him. And I would say the rest is history. But it wasn't it was a clunky sort of next couple of years. And again, that story will probably get told some other time, but it was a clunky, next couple of years until eventually, we started dating in our last year of law school and moved to she had a job moving to Dallas for work and so I found a job moving to Dallas for two and we were married in 2005. Now we have three kids, a 12 year old, a 10 year old and a seven year old baby girl too. boy, boy boy, baby girl. And Ashley has since long since stopped practicing law and is crushing it at home. And, and so yeah, that's the short version of a long, interesting couple of detours in that story. But, but that's as I was, my grandfather passed away. And when I was in the fourth grade, and I can, this is what you know, there's like those moments in your life like you can see it. You know what I mean? And I can, I can see it, I was sitting about 15 pews back, little left to center at a revival in a midweek revival at a southern baptist church called call junction Baptist Church, and responded to like the altar call in the fourth grade, and I spent the better part of the next fourth grade would be what is that 14 years old? Yeah, I got a 10 year old, I spent the better part of the next 20 years just feeling like I checked the box, and I was done. And then thankfully, Ashley, and all of her infinite wisdom, like coaxed me into the doors of a church here in Dallas, that was meeting at a high school. And they saying, not out of the Southern Baptist hymnal and they drew it and they wear their shorts and flip flops to church, and I hated it every minute. And eventually, I realized that what was going on over there wasn't the Antichrist that they actually had had it going on. And we started talking about what it meant not to check a box, but to live every day, with Christ and the civil bless. That was when we moved to Dallas. So over the last 15 years, plus or minus, call it, my walk has changed. And I would dare say, I'm infinitely better husband and an infinitely better father because of it. Because my bent is to be frustrated, angry and impatient. And that's a battle I fight every day. But the fact of the matter is, it's not as much of a struggle as it used to be. And so we live in a house with three kids. And for the most part, we're growing and learning and teaching. And I look forward to waking up every morning and putting on my dad clothes and putting on my work clothes, putting on my husband clothes and doing the best job I can. So

Kevin Carey  17:08  
that's that's the evolution of becoming a dad. It's just, it's the best job I have going on right now. You know, it just puts a lot of things in perspective. So yeah, I can relate to that.

Stewart Shurtleff  17:18  
Well, and you start with, we'll come back to this for weeks and weeks and weeks as we plod through all these topics, but there are so many great things about the details of our stories and what we've learned through them. And this notion, I can remember standing in my office, talking to a guy one day, and he was going through a marital class. And he had had enough of them talking about this notion of sanctification. He said, this is just a big Bible word. And I've had enough of it. And I was like, well, it's just a big Bible word that people talk about, then here's what it means. And we began to talk about this notion that it's sharpening you every day, and it's exposing your flaws and creating these opportunities to resolve weakness. And all of a sudden, he was like, Oh, well, that's kind of awesome. And I think there are lots of stories around that, that I have no doubt that over the ensuing weeks and months and years, we will hit but Okay, so let's pivot from this pivot has been one of my favorite words over the course of the last nine to 12 months, and

Kevin Carey  18:15  
he must watch Silicon Valley.

Stewart Shurtleff  18:17  
Now, it's not from that it's actually from I think it's a Wall Street Journal podcast that was hosted by will I am and they were actually talking as a cross market opportunity on accident, they were talking about industry that pivot. And while I was talking about how he pivoted into the blackhead piece, and then out of that into headphones, and all this stuff, and just and then they started talking with other industry leaders about how they could foresee a problem down the road or a challenge or an opportunity technologically, usually, to pivot into it. And pivot is an interesting word right now, cuz I feel like we're sitting here in the middle of a global pandemic, everyone wondering what's going to happen, and there will definitely be conferences inside of conference rooms, meetings and conference rooms, where people are talking about the pivot that they're going to have to make to, to solve problems.

Kevin Carey  19:01  
Doing it every single week. Yeah, if not every single day.

Stewart Shurtleff  19:03  
Yeah. And fixing things in a new way that they've never had to be fixed and viewing problems. And so this notion of pivot is, I say it too much. But I think about it a lot. Um, but any event, let's pivot to why let's talk about why we're doing this. We sort of jumped in as to how we got a name we've sort of worked through the things we're hoping to talk about and who we are and why we're here. But let's talk a little bit more about that why this notion of podcasting is interesting. And this why this formats interesting and why we why we sort of ended up here doing this,

Kevin Carey  19:32  
or you alluded to earlier, the daily motivations that I've set sent out. I've been doing those for about five years, and it started internal with our team, just a couple team members just sending a daily encouragement quote, and just ended like that, over the years that's evolved outside of our office walls to friends, colleagues, family, and it goes out every single day, and it's just the level of accounting ability as their daily motivation list grows, that I need to go find a nugget of wisdom to share, and then share my thoughts on it. And the feedback I get from what I call the DM dominators. They're like, when are you going to take a next step? When are you going to look into what's next. And that's been resonating with me and percolating for a while. And then you had some aspirations of starting a blog or kind of taking a next step to, and so I kind of held you to it. And then we started planning on this podcast deal. And so now we're getting it going. And it's just, I want to keep being a student and a teacher, I want to keep growing as a leader, I want to keep growing as a father growing as a husband. And I feel like this is a great tool to do that. By getting out of my comfort zone, sharing some wisdom, learning from you, learning from guests, and trying to move mountains.

Stewart Shurtleff  21:00  
Well, in that you're right, I forget exactly what the email was. But I had an email from one of the handful of remaining weekly newsletters I get, there was something about starting a podcast, or maybe it was about starting a newsletter actually not forwarded it with the intention honestly, of like encouraging you. And then this gets quickly. I'm rubber, you're glue what you say bounces off of me and sticks on you sort of thing. And we're sitting at a policy that's talking about a podcast all of a sudden. And the reason it like, speaks to me, the wise it speaks to me, I guess, if you will, for conversational purposes is that I think everybody has a great story. And there are two or two podcasts that I listened to that I hear stories like this from people that are have interesting stories that are just like unattainably, you know that you don't pick these folks to pick up the phone and call these folks. But when I hear them telling their stories, I think, Why no stories better than that. One of them is how I built this with guy Roz. He is a does a fairly NPR style podcast about people who started Uber and things like this right? And exactly their stories, and they're cool, but I'm like, I know, Kevin, he's got a better story than that. You know. And then I hear there's, there's another one that is that talks about? I think it might, it might be an MBR MPR cast, I think it's called story core. And they would just get common people on and talk about just what was it like during the war, just real General, basic, toss out questions. And when I listen to those, I just think I know people like that. And I love a good story. And I think everybody's story, everybody's story is interesting. And everybody's story has something in it that you can pick out. And that you can hear and either be challenged with by it, you can have hope. By hearing it, you can have your heart changed by knowing them. And at the end of the day, all of those things go into this soup of moving mountains. If I could give you if I could tell you their story, if you could hear it from them, if you could understand how they built a business or made a change or came to faith or grew out of a relationship that was stinky, that got awesome, or whatever it is, if you can hear that, then you You may think I can do it too.

Kevin Carey  23:29  
And it might be a while I'm not alone out there. You know, something might resonate with somebody that's going through a struggle, and you myself or a guest show the other side of that, like we will get through this. And just that comfort that hey, I'm not alone out there. There's other people that are transparent and going through challenges in life. And I don't feel so alone after hearing that. I know. I know. I get that from various podcasts that I've listened to, like a while that, you know, you got to just keep your head up and keep plowing forward, as you alluded to earlier. helps me with my podcast viewership. So I'm hoping we can do that for others.