This week I’m chatting with Wayne — I met Wayne on another podcast I produce, which is why I was already familiar with some of his stories.  Wayne is someone I could sit and listen to tell stories all day — and he has a lot of them, which is why I was really excited to be able to monopolize his attention for a little while.

I asked Wayne to be on the podcast for two reasons.

First of all, I’ve had a notoriously rough road when it came to deciding what and who I wanted to be when I grew up (who am I kidding I’m still figuring this out), but when I was younger there were a lot of sharp right turns.  For example, My degree is in exercise science.  I’ve been licensed in real estate, esthetics, and personal training…HOWEVER…the job I’ve always gotten paid to do was marketing. I know, it all makes perfect sense.  LOL.

There were phases of my career when I was totally miserable and hardcore searching for what might be my thing, my passion.  I became really interested in what people did for a living and whether or not they enjoyed it.  I started interviewing people both formally and informally about what they did, but I wasn’t so much looking for the facts. I was looking for the story, something interesting or compelling. I was also searching their body language and the tone of their voice to see if they loved it…were passionate about it…like Gina from Episode 13.

So, when I met Wayne and he described himself as a serial entrepreneur that old curiosity was peaked, because that was interesting: what exactly does that mean, what does that entail, and how does one become a serial entrepreneur? So, we talk all about Wayne’s road to getting there, from the teacher that changed his trajectory in 4th grade to the business he’s involved with today.

In the other part of this conversation Wayne and I talk about race.  Wayne has seen a lot of change (not that I’m saying you’re old Wayne, just, that you’ve seen a lot of change).  And often I hear people fall back on the idea – or the question of, “Well, haven’t things gotten so much better?”  I wanted to hear Wayne’s take on this.  Wayne also shares some incredibly impactful analogies.

I really appreciated Wayne’s willingness to share and to have this conversation with me.  After all, that is what this is all about — bringing things to the surface; having the discussions that make us uncomfortable; creating a better foundation of understanding.

Enjoy the episode.