Radical Podcast - Ryan Interviews Ted Phaeton

 Hey guys, this is Ryan Alford. Welcome to the Radical Podcast. Really excited about
 today's episode. Got a good friend, come a good friend, and really mentor and someone
 I look up to is doing a lot of cool things here in Greenville, Ted Faiton. Hey man, good
 to have you. Yes, I play in your name right? Yeah, Faiton Faiton, whichever, I usually don't
 correct people. I know, well you can correct me though. It's funny because you said mentor,
 I'm like, you talk about me. No man, I look up to you man, see you. You know, we all learn
 and engage from each other and so, you know, been really appreciative of getting to know
 you these last few months. Same, likewise. Appreciate you come on the podcast. Yeah man, it's
 a pleasure man. I was just saying before, I love the office. Yeah. I know, it's, we tried
 to make it a little radical. Yeah. We're in the wheelhouse, we're in a shared office space
 and not much we talked about that on the podcast, but shared space, but it was telling Ted
 before we got started, starting to take it over our own shared space here. We got growing
 fast at radical, but it's been good. But really appreciate you coming on man and, you know,
 it is a local anchor with Fox News. That's the day job. Yeah. We're going to get into some
 of the side hustle, which you got a lot, but I'd love to, you know, just start with kind of your
 background, you know, what got you here in Greenville, what got you into the news, the interest
 of, you know, being a meteorologist and all of those things that kind of led you today, but I'd
 love for our audience to kind of, you know, hear in your own words a little bit of, of the history
 of Ted. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sure. I mean, first things first, the, the path is never a straight line.
 If you would have told me three years ago, I was going to be an anchor. I would not have believed
 you. If you would have told me three or four years prior to that, I was going to be a meteorologist.
 Probably wouldn't believe you either. So, um, there's been a lot of shifts and lane changes
 in my story, but I mean, it pretty much started off as a kid in high school trying to figure out my
 way and a lot of people don't know. I love video games. I love playing video games and who did?
 It was like my little hobby and I actually built my own computer in high school and I thought
 I was going to be a computer engineer. That's kind of what I wanted to do and ended up switching
 to computer science because the college I went to, Sunni Albany didn't offer that and found out
 quick. It wasn't for me. Combination of the, okay, the, the breaks are off. First year in college,
 join a fraternity. You're doing something that's not for you. Just, it was the perfect recipe to,
 to fail. So I had a 1.9 GPA at the end of my freshman year and I'm on vacation in North Carolina
 with some friends. Not knowing what I'm going to do with my life and I see a bird just take a dive
 into the ocean and I start talking to my friends. Some drinks might have been included with this.
 Hopefully. Yeah, but I start talking to my friends about the tide and the bird coming and
 hunting and they're just like, how do you know all this? Well, you know, I've always,
 I've always been good at earth science and stuff and my, my friend Colin, he's like, we have a
 great meteorology program and that was it. I made my mind up then like when we do meteorology and
 you know, there's been bumps along the way. Graduated with broadcast meteorology as my major
 worked at a law firm before getting into the business. So it took me three years to get in the
 business and then after getting in the business, I had one year contract kind of like, hey,
 here's your shot. Can you do it? Nine months in. My boss walks in and says, hey, there's a job
 opening in Greenville, South Carolina. Do you want it? I was like, yeah, yeah, put my name in there.
 He walks out of the office. I go to the computer and I start googling like, where in the world is
 Greenville, South Carolina? I've never heard of it. I thought I was going to be on the beach.
 So you weren't falling to top 10 list. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, I landed here and it's kind
 of been spin that ride ever since. So you know, the news positions, you know, whether it's meteorology
 or or otherwise, but is it is competitive? Is I like, I remember like coming through my early
 stages of my career and having friends and broadcast and journalism and things like that.
 And it was hyper competitive. Is it still still that same? It is competitiveness. Yeah,
 there's a lot of competitiveness because it's because a lot of people are hungry. I mean,
 to be in the business, you have to be hungry. And when you're surrounded by other people who are
 hungry, that's going to breed competition. Yeah. For me, I'll be honest, I didn't, I haven't felt
 much competition. And I think it's just because I have, I have tunnel vision. I don't really,
 I've been lucky to not compare myself in the business with others around me. And that has helped me
 kind of keep my head down and keep working to the point where when I was offered the opportunity
 to anchor that blindsided me. I wasn't, I don't want to say I wasn't prepared for it, but I didn't
 expect it. Right. And when it scared me when it was offered, I said, oh man, this scares me. And
 that's why I have to do it. You know, I mean, I read prompter every day in the morning and I'm
 in high school. I was the kid that didn't like reading out loud. I'd read the paragraphs ahead.
 I'd count the kids. I'm like, okay, I'm in five paragraphs and I'd read the paragraph and
 memorize it. And of course, the person in front of me is an overachiever, reached two paragraphs,
 and I'm like, oh, here we go. But kind of just going from that and focusing, okay, this is a
 challenge for me. This is how I grow. This is how I overcome myself. My only competition is me,
 but in the business, everybody else, they're, they're gutting for that, that same position you're
 going for. Yeah. So talk about, so Albany, that grew up, I did my homework. We were getting
 to know each other, but you don't always start with, where'd you originally start all that? But
 growing up in New York, let's consider that upstate, I mean, for the most part, or middle state,
 I don't know. Yeah. So I grew up in Long Island, college in SUNY Albany. That's upstate. Yeah.
 And it's cold. It's cold. And it's it's gray. And in the main selling point for SUNY Albany,
 I'm not trying to bad-tuck my college, but the main point was this big fountain. Cause you tore,
 you tore colleges in the summer. So they had this big fountain in the waters flowing. And you
 know, this is beautiful. And I, I started going to the school in September. They turned off the fountain
 and they don't turn it back on until April, because it's too cold. But yes, SUNY Albany was kind of,
 where I kind of started putting in, I guess, the groundwork for, yeah. Where do you feel like you got
 your drive from? You know, I've, I've since that from you since we've gotten to know each other,
 kind of that purpose and that, you know, passion to really succeed and just be, uh, unique and
 successful. You know, where do you think that comes from? Oh, my parents. I mean, they put it in
 and still it in you. Yeah, I didn't have a choice. Both my parents. I come from a household where
 there's no such thing as complaining. Well, my mom and my dad, they're both from Haiti. And they both
 completely left the country, went to a new country, started from scratch to give their kids a shot at
 a successful life. And I grew up with seeing two perspectives of life where my dad would leave
 six o'clock in the morning. I wouldn't see him till 6 p.m. because he's commuting to the city coming
 back. My mom would, she was a psychiatric nurse for over 25 years. So she would go to work 7 a.m.
 She'd supposed to get up at 4, but she'd work overtime, come home sometimes 11 p.m.
 just to put me in my sister in Catholic school. So when I go to Catholic school, I'm seeing a lot
 of other kids who in high school, these are 18 year olds driving H2 hummers and BMWs and I'm like
 seeing these two worlds and seeing the work my parents put to even give me a shot in that world.
 I was like, I can't, it's almost doing them a disservice if I stop trying to better myself.
 Yeah, that's cool, man. You know, not everyone has that. I think we take, I think a lot of us
 hang out with some of the like-minded people, but a lot of that drive, some of it's just self-driven,
 and mine comes from my parents as well, so I relate to that. So talk about what it's like being an anchor.
 You know, like I'm fascinated by it. I know you get up early. You know, it's not all glamour.
 I've been in the marketing business long enough and behind the camera and on the other side of
 the camera enough to see, you know, it's not all sexy all the time, but talk about just your
 experiences in being the anchor and me or I'll just before that. And I know you're still technically,
 what's the balance there between those roles? And you know, are we going to be
 Ted the anchor moving forward in the career? Are we hanging on to a little bit of both?
 Or what's the- Talk a few questions there, but love your perspective.
 I'll be honest with you, Ryan. I got a lot of soul-searching to do for the road ahead.
 Yeah, because I've done the anchoring and I've done weather, and I've seen those two worlds both
 require a lot of responsibility. And I say that because it's easy to see, you know, meteorologists
 in the anchor on TV and like, okay, that must be so much fun. And there's an aspect of fun to it,
 but kind of learning just how impactful that position is. We're translating information
 as a meteorologist. You're talking about storms. It's potentially life-threatening. And I know
 for my meteorology days, I talk about, for me, I have two losses. When I say two losses,
 there are two storms here in the Western Carolinas that claim two lives. And I take responsibility
 for that because if our job is to inform the public, let them know of the dangers out there.
 If someone doesn't know, I have to take that as a personal failure. So specifically, that was,
 I don't know if you remember, maybe four years ago, the heavy downpours,
 stowed avenue was flooded. Haywood Road was flooded and unfortunately, we always say turn around,
 don't drown. Unfortunately, someone drove to the flood waters. They got stuck and they tried to
 get out of the car. The flood water swept them away. A lot of people don't know. It doesn't take
 much. Maybe six inches to a foot of water moving can knock you off your feet. And so when we're kind
 of trying to put that information out and we see a victim of that, we take personal responsibility
 for it. So first and foremost, with the position, a lot of responsibility. St goes for
 anchoring the news, especially in the political culture that we're living in right now.
 And the conversations that are going around, it's important for me to translate information from
 a neutral perspective and keep it with the facts. Keep any biases out and just give pure facts
 and allow people to make their own mind up. The basis of journalism is informing the public so
 they can self-govern and inform the public. They can vote the officials in and then they can,
 in fact, create the country that they want to live in. I think that's the translation that,
 as journalists, we try and put out there, the power is in the hands of the people. And as
 journalists, we keep those in power accountable. So the responsibility aspect is huge. On the other
 end, I have a lot of fun. I get to, in essence, I get to be myself. And I'm lucky when my news director
 and my boss says, hey, you know, be a little bit more dead. You know, open up. Cool. That's great
 feedback. You want me to joke around a little bit more when I can and sneak in my comments.
 Sure, I can do that. So waking up at 2am is not fun. But when you get to speak about
 a Disney trailer on, and you're like, oh, my favorite Disney movies on Latin. Change my mind.
 You can't do it. And have that banter. You know, it's, it's fun. And there's a lot worse things
 to get paid for doing. So where, where does your heart lie? Does it lie with the weather? Does it lie
 with being on the news moving forward? Or is it one of these other passions which we'll get into
 in just a minute? Um, I think my heart lies in communication. I think my heart lies in media.
 And I never, I never got in it for the cameras and to be on TV. In fact, when I was studying broadcast
 meteorologic, I didn't realize until my senior year when I went into my internship. I was like,
 oh, wait, I have to be on TV. So I didn't get into it for that. But I've fallen in love with
 just the production and the transformation that media has given me. Even the lights, the cameras here.
 Yeah. I love this because there's somebody on the other end. We can't see them. They can hear us.
 They can resonate with us. We can connect with people through time and through space with what
 we're doing right now. So for the rest of my days, I don't know if it's going to be anchoring.
 If it's going to be weather, if it's going to be any of these other ventures, but till the day I die,
 I think I'm going to be either on the print audio video platform in some way, shape or form.
 That makes sense. I'm going to come back to something you said because I don't want to get into
 a political discussion at all. I'm highly not political, though. I have my beliefs and passions
 and all that, but I don't even want to get into that. But it's more what you said about the
 neutral aspect of news. That, to me, I think has to be a real challenge, not because you aren't
 able to be professional and not show it, but the stories that you have to tell, that you're told,
 and that you're guided through. Because when I watch the news now, as a marketer, I see through
 a lot of it, and I feel like all I feel now is so much bias. Like Love or Hate, what's going on
 in politics and the president? I'm, again, not here to talk about that, but all I can do is feel
 almost like the left side trying to push an agenda. And I probably fall. I probably swing more
 left than right. I fall probably more left, but I'm actually bothered by it, but it's like
 there's something fascinating about that coverage and how you balance those stories. And I'd
 love to hear like, you know, how, what goes through your mind and trying to do that. And how much
 maybe you hear feedback, or do you run into people all on the street or through your social
 channels that are like, that think you're slanted in certain ways. I mean, I'd love to dive into
 that a little more. Yeah. And to be honest, we get it all the time. And like we'll get emails,
 and there are folks who think who they'll swear we're favorite towards the right. And then other
 emails in the same day, they'll swear we're favorite towards the left. And it is a difficult
 balance. I will say that some of the major networks, because I'm sure you've heard in marketing
 and in business, if you try and make everybody happy, you don't have a good product. So use his
 kind of been transferring a little bit in that on the major networks. So now the networks,
 we all know who they are. Yeah. They're starting to take more biases clearly. They're taking a
 stance and they're taking a side because they're building more of a passionate following. And because
 of that, that actually translates into local media, which a lot of people don't realize are
 independently owned for the most part. So when I work for Fox Carolina, I'm not working for Fox
 network. The only thing we have in common is the prime time showing on our channel. All right.
 Our news is is mainly a group of journalists who go out, they find the story, they find what's
 going on in the community and what's affecting people. And oftentimes if we get information that
 is lean towards one side, the rule of thumb is, okay, get comment and get the other side. There's
 three sides to every story. One side, the other side and the right side, right? And our job is to
 tell the two sides of that story as best as we can. And again, let the viewers and let those watching
 come to their own conclusion. I think that's really the mission and the goal that we do.
 And as you know, you can't make everybody happy. Sometimes the story's not presented the way that
 they want or sometimes we don't have both sides because one side refuses to comment. And we're
 forced to report on what we have. So when it comes to news, it's an everyday battle to tell the
 story a certain way. And that's why we get in there at three o'clock in the morning. Everybody's
 in there in the middle of the night and we have four pairs of eyes looking at a script before it
 comes out. And you know, that's helpful because we need to check each other. Yeah, sometimes. So
 media is interesting right now. You know, what kind of dialogue I fancy questions like I just
 asked sometimes. And then we're being broadcast right now live in a lot of channels. You know,
 you're on a news station and TV's not going anywhere like tomorrow. There's still millions of
 television sets and it's news. But I wonder what kind of dialogue you if you do or if you hear it
 like with your producers and different things that people are having around the reality of the
 transmission of news and content now and how that has become so mobile, so active. You know, we're
 all almost like broadcasters ourselves in a way. But more maybe towards the distribution of media,
 you know, your perspective, but then maybe just behind the scenes if there's dial. Do you guys
 talk about that kind of stuff? I mean, like not going, oh god, it's TV going away. I'm not saying
 that. But like, you guys have those kind of conversations or producers or the big wigs that you deal
 with, like, do you hear them talking about those things? I'll be honest. Not too many people in my
 building have those conversations. I think they should. I've had those conversations with a couple
 people because I mean, we look at the market. We see what's going on and I like to prepare for
 the future. I think there's something that's working right now and it's easy when something works
 to get comfortable. I'm not comfortable. And kind of looking at the makeup of what's going on.
 When I first got the job anchoring, I didn't really study much journalism. I had a journalism course
 through my college career. So I bought a couple books and read up and one of the books I was reading
 talks about that challenge of how social media and the instant access to information is a big
 challenge for journalism in today's world. You remember the, I think it was the American
 Airlines plane landing in the Hudson? Oh, yeah. Sully, the movie Sully. I was working in New York
 with that. Yeah. That was credited the breaking news story for that, the coverage. That was
 credited to Twitter. And that was the first time a social media platform beat out news networks.
 And that's when the world changed. And that's where we are now. Most journalists you talk to,
 they have a Twitter account because that is information in real time. If you want to stay
 informed, be on Twitter. And we live in a world now where we find breaking news stories through
 Twitter. I came in in the morning. I have tweet decks. I have all these tweets and I follow
 journalists from all over the country. And that's how I first saw the news of the Las Vegas shooting.
 All right. And that's coming in on Twitter. And we get into news gathering mode. We start
 listening to the scanners, listening, listening to the local networks. And of course,
 you see it all the time in news. Whenever there's breaking news stories and they talk about a
 tragic occurrence, the numbers are always wrong initially. And that's the biggest challenge that
 we have in journalism is we're supposed to pride ourselves on accuracy. We're supposed to
 pride ourselves on our reputation. But when the information is coming out in real time,
 we can't ignore it. So we have to report the latest number is this. The latest number is that.
 And the responsibility for us as a news network is not to believe everything we hear. We have to
 kind of filter through the gunk, filter through the fake news if you would. And and make sure what
 we put out there is credible. And that's how we keep our reputation. That's how we keep.
 That's how we keep the trust of the people by vetting all of our sources, vetting where the
 information comes from and then translating it as best we can. Do you think there's still this race
 to be first versus the race to be right? Is that still prevalent in media or has these other
 mediums like we were just talking about maybe augmented and lessened the pressure perhaps because
 it's almost impossible. Who's first is whoever smartphones their fastest, right? But you know,
 is it more about accuracy and and then speed or is it still like the race even locally? Like I
 still wonder like, are you is it is Fox channel seven and four, you know, NBC CBS and Fox,
 like are y'all still battling to be first on a, you know, local news story or is it less about
 that anymore? Well, what's interesting about it is you can't win at both. Yeah, you can't speed
 is the enemy of accuracy. Yeah. So if you're first, you you kind of sacrifice the ability to be
 accurate. Yep. And if you wait a little longer, you can be accurate. And I guess that's the hard
 it. That's the balance there. But like, do y'all get pressure though to break first? Oh my.
 I don't think it's so much pressure to break first. I think it's it's pressure to cover what's
 happening and right to cover what's relevant. Because if something's happening, we don't ever
 want to be in a spot that we ignore the elephant in the room, right? So we don't want to sit on the
 trigger if you would. If there's something happening, we have enough to report on it. The pressure is,
 okay, you have it, you know, get it out in a timely manner. Definitely there is there is urgency
 because there's no doubt about that. There is urgency in the business. But again to just the
 urgency is it becomes dangerous when you're dealing with the accuracy of the story too. Yeah.
 So let's venture into kind of the the subplots of of Ted. What I know you got your hands and a
 lot of different things we're talking about that before. You've got a successful podcast yourself.
 You've got the website. I know you do a lot of blogging. You know, talk about some of those
 subpassions and you know, some of the things that you're into and you know that you're the
 uh, both challenges and opportunities that you see ahead for that stuff. Yeah. Well, anybody that
 knows me knows I love to talk. So four and a half hours every morning isn't enough, I guess,
 right? So this is perfect. Yeah, we're taking a regular segment then. So after after doing
 uh, doing news in the morning, I love what I do. But those topics are really what concerns
 the community and those are topics that need to be discussed. Afterwards, I have a passion for
 self growth. I have a passion for learning business and just learning about myself. So I continue
 that with uh, with my podcast, the Noreen Norembos podcast. Part of that's because to mention before
 where I am now, I would have never thought that. And to be where I am, I just have this, I almost
 feel like I have a responsibility to kind of portray the other people like this is possible.
 I say Noreen Norembos because I've had my dark days and to get through those dark days to
 I'm having I have a good job and I'm pretty happy with where I am. And I just have this positivity
 about me. I want to share that. So that's been a passion of mine through the Noreen Norembos podcast.
 And that lives on my blog, fainting forecast, which again, it's all in the same realm.
 I say the best way to predict your future is to create it. And you hear how it's all weather-related
 because meteorologies where I got my start. So with fainting forecast, my goal there is to kind of
 share some stories, share the books that I'm reading, share how I've found a certain level of
 fulfillment in my life and really get the discussion going with people. I love this realm discussing
 with people. How can we be better? I'm not a big fan of small talk. I know I'm not a good listener
 because when people tell me about their day, I'm like, okay, I don't really care what you had for
 breakfast. You know, let's let's talk about these goals. Let's talk about what we could do in life.
 There's so much opportunity outside of these doors. I don't know how long I'm here and I know
 I'm here once. So I want to see what's out there. So it's really just a passion of self-growth and
 finding how I can share my story with people. And if it resonates with somebody builds relationships,
 that's really kind of the end game there. Yeah. So what's been from the podcast or the blog?
 I know you've read some books, but maybe give some of our listeners maybe a good book or a good
 tip or something that you've come across recently that may be made in impact and something that
 you did or you know, I know you just reviewed a lot of books. I was reading your blog. So anything,
 any tips or tricks or recent things. I know you're big in the personal development side. I do
 want to get into the fitness part in a second. Ted and I grind it last week in the event. We'll
 get to that in a minute. But any tips in the personal development or a book you've read or
 anything that's like really, you know, hits you right in the head. Yeah. So I just did the blog post.
 You're talking about was the 19 books every man should read in 2019 to jumpstart his growth.
 And I know it says men in the title and it is focused towards men, but I think everybody can get
 value from that list. There's only maybe three or four books on the list that have man in their
 title and is really geared towards men. But I think it's a good balance of habits, self-growth,
 mindset and masculinity. And really the first book I'll recommend to people would be the power of
 habit. That showed me the importance of habit in terms of getting going. And the reason I say that
 first because reading, for example, if you pick up that book and you read it and you understand the
 importance of habit and you make reading a habit, that'll help you get through the list and that
 will help you implement everything else. So the power of habit would be the first book I recommend
 because motivation gets you going. Have it to keep you going. Yeah. So number one habit, number two,
 as a man, think it. I've been learning a lot about myself and I don't like everything.
 And that's the hardest thing. Looking in the mirror, spending time by myself, meditating,
 reading these books to consciously think. And I don't like certain things about myself. I love
 myself. But there's certain things I can work on. I can improve on. And being real with myself,
 I'm like, Ted, man, you're not perfect. You got things that are messed up. But you've done a great
 job so far. Keep going. And that's the biggest thing I want people to get out of that list is
 finding out who you are, accepting who you are, loving who you are. I used to have a lot of self
 self doubt, self talk. And I've transitioned to a spot in my life where I walk into a room and
 I don't care when anybody thinks there's still some some feedback here and there because it's a
 hard habit to get away from. But if I'm just genuinely myself, I've accepted I'm a good person.
 I have good intentions. If somebody takes something the wrong way, I'd love the opportunity to
 address it and correct it. But I don't want to apologize for living my life anymore.
 Yep. Well, that's a powerful one. Once you can get to that point, you can really take on the
 world because 90% of our inhibitions are are that doubt. And then the worry of what other people
 think. Yeah. And the moment you can and you never get rid of all of it, we're all human beings.
 But once you can embrace that you are your only limit and really
 and realize that all starts with you and that we're not perfect, but we're all clay.
 We're being molded at all times. I think some of the challenge, some of the things that drive me
 crazy and I try to build my content around is this, you know, I'm 41. You know, people get to my age
 even, which, you know, 40s to 20, whatever. You look good. But it's like I think they think they're
 done, you know, like they think that they can't be molded or they can't grow in some way or they
 can't advance. And like this is just who you are. And I, you know, it's really powerful to hear
 you talk about like, you know, that self awareness and then just knowing that you don't have to care
 what everybody thinks, but you've got to keep pushing and keep growing. And, you know, I think there's
 a lot to learn in that truth. But talk about, you know, we modern man, you know, there's, you know,
 we hadn't talked about that much, but I love to hear, you know, where that came from. I think we've
 been getting at some of those tenants in the conversation here, but maybe if you listen or give
 a little background on what modern man is and what you've been doing, I think that's just another
 kind of pet project. But, you know, I don't know where you see that going, you know, but yeah. So
 kind of a pet project now, but in all speaking to existence right here, I want that to be my life
 mission. And that scares me because really the modern man was a thought and idea I had sat down
 with Tyler Harris. And he was really the first person I kind of just told about it. Yeah,
 and he was like, yeah, man, let's do it. We'll get the cameras and he helped manifest that into
 something real. And since then, I've really kind of been honing in on building the modern man. And I
 get it because growing up, I saw my parents operate as a well oiled machine. I saw the work my
 mom put in, my dad put in. And then as I kind of got out into the world and I'm starting to read
 these books, I'm realizing that I need to find a purpose. Men need purpose. I think everybody
 needs purpose, but men, they, they really pride themselves on a mission. You've heard the quote,
 if you don't stand for anything, you'll fall for, for anything, you know. And I, I've looked around,
 I'm starting to hear men suffering. They're not saying anything, they're not sharing anything,
 but I hear suffering. And if you want to see the reality of it, just Google the suicide rate
 amongst men over the age of 35. And so I think it's, it's a problem where we are having to find a
 new definition of what it means to be a man in this world. The reason it scares me because I'm
 going to have the audacity to want to build the modern man and push for the modern man. I better
 walk the talk. And, and the first thing I will say is being a man is not easy. You know, it's not
 easy. Being a woman is not easy. I'm not trying to downplay the opposite gender here. I think
 being a man is hard and being a woman is hard, but giving some support to men, having to find
 not necessarily a blueprint, but maybe some direction where we can find purpose, we can find
 growth, meaning that is something I think all men want and need. I think we need men groups,
 we need to, we need to run beasts, but we also need to hone that in and focus it in productive
 ways. And I think if I can find that makeup, because I'm still trying to find it, if I can find
 that makeup and share that with others, I think it can, it can increase the quality of life that
 a lot of men live. They say if you change a man, you can change the household. If you change
 your household, you can change your community, you change your community, you change the state,
 you change the country, you change the world, right? Start with the men in the household,
 and we can ultimately change the world. Yeah, I love that. I mean, it's really powerful,
 and I think you're dead, right? And it's back to, I think it's all men instinctively kind of
 whole things. I mean, you know, you talk about extra virgin, introverts and all that, but I think
 there's this introvertedness of purpose and things that just kind of stay internalized with most men.
 Yeah. And, you know, they, it's not like, well, I can't show my emotions. I'm not saying
 like it's all that, but some of it is that. You know, it's like just being real. You know, most men
 feel like they have to wear this facade. And, you know, I think they, they kind of keep that
 cloak on. And it becomes even more, as you get older and in my age and even past that, I think it
 just suppresses and suppresses and suppresses. And then I think that's why it leads to a lot of
 broken families, because it's like, then it's the mid-life crisis, but it's because, you know,
 they haven't been, you know, being their real self or feeling confined or feeling comfortable kind
 of expressing that. It's not, you know, chicken wings and beers on Monday night football. You know,
 it's more, it needs to be safer than that space. Yeah. And as men, we want to be strong, right? And
 we hold things. And I don't know if you've ever heard like the, the mug or the cup, right? So
 this is a bottle of water. And as men, like, I could hold this bottle of water. It's no problem.
 But if I hold it for an hour, two hours, three hours, the weight of the bottle didn't change,
 but my arms are going to start shaking. I can't hold it that long. And sooner or later,
 the bottle is going to crash. Water's going to get everywhere. And people around you can be like,
 what the hell happened? Yeah, it was just a bottle of water. Yeah, right. But when you hold
 onto it that long, it explodes. And I think we need an outlet. And I was reading the book, a book,
 a mask of masculinity by Lewis House. And he talks about surveying men and women through marriage,
 most women have friend groups for emotional support, where men typically only have their wives.
 And that's one thing that, as men, we bottle it up. We keep it to ourselves. So being able to,
 to be vulnerable with some of my friends, being able to be like, hey, man, listen, I'm not okay.
 Yeah. You know, all right. What's going on with you? Man, I messed up. Being able to be vulnerable
 a little bit and show some emotion, even shed a couple tears if you need to. Yeah.
 Having that emotional support can help men because it's a lot to put on one person.
 And, you know, that can also cause stress in the marriage. You know, if all the emotional things
 you're going through falls on your wife, she's got to carry her stuff and yours, too.
 Yeah. So I think it's our responsibility to share that load with some of our friends to not
 overwhelm and burden our spouses. And having that balance, you're going to share it with them,
 of course, but not weighing them down with it is also important. I love it. So, you know,
 I know you've been involved with it. I think just to kind of close on that point. But
 it's what we've been trying to do with Greenville Hustle. You know, in not just men, men and women,
 but on a networking, making it more real dialogue, more real conversation and all that.
 Yeah. So I've really appreciated your support of that. Just wanted to say that.
 Yeah. You know, instrumental and just showing up to the vents and all that. So I appreciate
 your support of that as we move forward. I mean, I believe in the mission in terms of bringing
 people together. Yeah. And really it starts with conversations, right? It starts with meeting other
 people where they think the same way. I spent a lot of my life thinking I was crazy because most
 of the people I was around, I had a different mindset. Yeah. And it's good to get in a room
 where your mindset is with the majority for once. Right. And it makes you feel comfortable. And
 I leave those events like, man, I'm not doing enough. But I mean, that's that's how you stay
 sharp. A knife needs a wetstone to stay sharp. Yeah. And that's the environment you guys have created
 and you're growing. And I'd love to see it from its roots all the way to the roots come out.
 Yeah. We'll get there. But as we close out a little bit, I know physical fitness is important to you.
 I think maybe talk a little bit about that and how have you always been into working out?
 Has that been like a newer thing? Or, you know, Ted and I were involved with an event with
 metabolic core 24 and Lou Limon last weekend. It was a men's event where we did a little bit of
 every exercise. Ted and I were sweating and falling over and next to each other. It was rough.
 But I had a good time. But, you know, maybe talk about how fitness and all. I mean, it starts with
 the body. I mean, I know as far as, you know, the mind and everything being strong. But I'd love
 your, you know, where that comes in and maybe as a passion point. Yeah. I think I was not always
 in the fitness. I graduated high school 135 pounds. I was tiny. I was a small skid in my varsity
 football team. But through college, put on a little bit of a beer belly, you know, kind of just
 drank and then when I graduated, I started going to the gym a little bit. But I ended up
 getting all sort of collitis. For those that don't know what it is, it's very similar to Crohn's.
 And pretty much without getting into the nasty details of it, your body doesn't absorb nutrients
 the way it should. And that kind of put me in the hospital. I lost 30 pounds in a month and I was
 skinned bones and coming out of the hospital after that, I wanted to bounce back. And that was
 the first realization of the things I eat have an impact on my body. So I started paying more
 attention to what I ate and worked my way back to a month and a half after getting out of the hospital.
 I was on top of a mountain snowboarding. And that was kind of like the drive between not just my
 mindset of positivity, but my mindset of eating and staying active. So I did that for a while and
 then Charles Russ came into my life and he's the kind of guy that if you need somebody to challenge
 you and up your gain, hang out with Charles Russ for 10 minutes. So he literally was like, hey,
 let's go to the gym and you know, he would increase the difficulty. And you know, I'll say this
 much with fitness. It never gets easier. You just get stronger. And then you just level up as
 you go. So I've been on that journey, been working out and just trying to level myself up and
 and challenge myself and really start molding my body because the biggest thing is when I start
 seeing those changes, it makes it tangible. You actually know that the things you do have an impact
 and it's not just in fitness, but really in everything. I look in the mirror and the life I'm living
 the way I look at the person I've created that. You know, I advise anybody listening to create
 an avatar of themselves that I deal self that they want to be hanging on your bathroom wall and
 look at it every day and do something to create that person. I've created my physique. I've created
 the relationships I've had. I've created this world around me and I do that every day by intentionally
 living. So if people live intentionally, they can create their own future, their own physique,
 whatever their fitness goals are, whatever their career or financial goals might be. Just start
 little by little doing it. Love it, love it. Well, man, I really appreciate you coming on and
 let's tell everybody that's listening where they can find you Fox channel 12. Used to be 21,
 but channel 12, I guess, here locally anchor in the morning. Yeah. But talk, give maybe
 out some of your handles and where people can find all your content. Sure. So first and foremost,
 you'll see me every morning, 4 30 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday at Fox, Carolina. Outside of that,
 my Instagram handle is fate and forecast. That's PHA ET on when the number four KAST. I'm
 fancy like that with the K. Oh, yeah. That's also my handle on Twitter. And for Facebook, it's just
 Ted Featon. And then that'll end up directing you to my website, which is fate and forecast.com.
 It's about the same as my handle. Love it, love it. Well, Ted, really appreciate you coming on
 the radical podcast and I'd love to continue growing our friendship and having you involved with
 G.ville Hustle and just staying connected. Yeah. Appreciate it, man. I'm happy. All right, man. Thank you.
 Thank you. This is Ryan offered host of the radical company podcast. Really appreciate Ted.
 Fate and coming on today. And we'll talk to you next time.