00:01
You're listening to The Radcast, a Top 25 Worldwide Business Podcast. If it's radical, we cover it.

00:13
Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. They say if it's radical, we cover it. It's definitely radical today, folks. We're in studio with my friend, Kelly Siegel, CEO of National Technology Management and author of Harder Than Life. Kelly, brother, it's great to have you, man. It's been an honor enjoying every minute of being here. You got a heck of a staff, amazing operation here.

00:43
You're brilliant. So thank you for, I felt very welcome. Thank you. I'm glad you're here, man. It's been good. I know we connected. I've been on your show. I got, I didn't want to do on our show. We've been collaborating and I don't know. I think we only come up with 12 business ideas today. I'm sure dinner will come up with 30 more. Ha ha. I just said, I think we're, we're opening a pizza place now. We're going to take over AM way. Yeah. We're going to franchise social house in Detroit. Yes.

01:09
I'm surprised there hasn't been any bad stuff like strippers or anything like that. No, no. Hey, it's early. It's early. It's all good, no, man. I'm really thankful that you're here. Glad that our audience can be able to hear your story. I've got your book here. Looking forward to digging more than just into the Cliffs Notes. I appreciate it. I got to get your autograph. You're John Hancock on this baby before it's all said and done. Holding this up for anybody watching so you know what you're looking for when you go to Amazon. We'll talk more about that harder than life. Kelly.

01:39
Let's start where we always start at the beginning or as far back as you want to take us. But let's give everybody a little taste of Kelly Siegel. You already put me on the spot, but I tell you, I've been a salesman my whole life. So you're a marketing genius, I'm a sales genius. I started a paper route. I went door to door sales selling candy long, long time ago and I was good at it. I could sell candy to people that couldn't have sweets. That's a good thing of the world. Ice Eskimos.

02:08
Diabetic, getting candy. I can remember what I did. I'd say to them, you could put these out for your guests. Kind of like me with alcohol. I just supply everything for everybody. And everything I've touched, I've grown. And as we're trying to build the heart of life brand for charity, we're growing leaps and bounds. And you said it best on the ride from the airport is, you be your authentic and genuine self and it's gonna sell and it's gonna do well. And I don't know any other way. Honesty Integrity is National Technology Management, which is paying the bills. It's the IT company that I've owned.

02:38
for years. That's one of our core values. It's actually a personal core value of mine. I am gonna say what I mean, if it's kind, and I'm not gonna pull any punches. Just out to make a dent in the world. I've lived a very tumultuous childhood, which I was telling you about, which I got to hear about your childhood and your family being amazing, and it makes me very envious. My mother and my stepfather, you can read about it in the Harden Life book, were very physically and emotionally abusive. That's why I've built this physique.

03:08
to protect myself and that you so quickly make me look small. But I'm going to get you in the gym tomorrow. That's a great- I'm already sore. I'm figuratively sore in my head and I'll be real sore in the morning. You know what's great about life? There are no coincidences. And I said that too. I just found you on social media. We've connected. We've made it. We've got a brotherhood. We're going to do business together. I've already sent you some business. Yeah. And that's what the world is all about. So-

03:35
You make your own weather in this world. I could sit back and be a victim and say, what was me? Why didn't my parents love me? And I'm not enough and all these things and drink and do drugs and just waste my life away. But instead I use it as a chip on my shoulder and making something of it. And then now I've done so much therapy, I don't have that chip anymore. And I was telling you this morning, I'm playing right here. It's like the first time in my life, I really feel like I am where I'm supposed to be. And it's, I walk in this building and I feel like family,

04:05
wonderful and it's just the start of a very long, good business friendship and relationship. Yeah, I loved it. And I've, I do want people though, to read your book, to really understand. We've talked about it in depth today and obviously we could talk for three hours on a show about it, but I don't think people, some people take for granted things that they have. Me talking to you even today, talking about my parents, my childhood and all that, and I didn't go out with money either.

04:35
But I did grow up with loving family and that in a way is greater than money and having that support. And so it's, we can't take for granted the loved ones and the support that they give, whether it's even if you don't talk to them every day, but knowing that they're there. Cause that's, it's kind of, if you live in a warm area, but it gets cold sometimes, you got a blanket in the closet. You can get out and put it on. You went in and it gets cold. There's comfort in that. Even when you're not using it, there's comfort. I know that I can call my dad about anything.

05:04
and you didn't have that. And I think, I don't know, it's eye-opening for me while also being appreciative of what I have. But I think, but it's also molded you into who you are. You wouldn't be telling that you are today without that. You know what I'm saying? So there's a blessing behind every negative in a way. If you take it that way, yes, everything happens for you, not to you. But most people don't realize that. And yeah.

05:32
it in the book and it's going to be gross and I'm sorry, Grace, but one of my first jobs was I had to empty a jar of piss. Literally. My stepdad would go hide from my crazy mother because they were drunk and he had to hide from her because she stabbed him once and tried to kill him several times, lit the house on fire. This is all in the book. So my job was to make his bed, clean his room and make sure he had work clothes and empty this jar of piss.

06:02
he would take it and throw it on my bed. So it had created more work for me. So what did my sick and twisted mind, didn't think that I think it was gross, but I think if I didn't do my job right the first time, it made it harder because then I had to clean my bed. Disgusting, I know, but hey, to this day, I do things right the first time every time. So I wanna go back to what you said about your parents. I would trade every dollar I have.

06:31
for a loving, supporting mother. And I can feel how much you love your mother. And it's just, I've had thousands and thousands of dollars in therapy and hours in therapy that when, and I'm real close, I just coming out of EMDR therapy, I'm grinding on myself and I'm harder than life. And it's not easy. I make it look easy, but it's not. There's certain, I was in therapy this week doing it and I was crying my eyes out for 30 minutes. But afterwards it was like a good workout.

07:01
So I feel good. I'm grinding through it. It just took a little later than most people. But I'm also very fortunate that I'm not like some of my high school friends that are dead or in jail. So I leveraged it, and I've only just begun. My life may be half over, but it's just beginning. It's not halfway. I'm not halfway through with what I'm going to accomplish. That's why I'm here with you, like you said. Anything happens for a reason. But what fascinates me the more I'm

07:32
You're so damn successful though. Like most people can't make that transition. Yeah, maybe they're the victim or whatever, or they're not smart enough, or they're not, but there's a drive in you that got you to this point, even through some of the trials and tribulations and addictions, everything that you're transparent about in the book. What, where did that come from? I always joke, Ryan, and I haven't said it to you yet.

08:00
that I'm the chosen one. I'm Jewish. Jesus was a Jew. I just think that there are certain times that I should be dead. And I've been shot at, I've been stabbed. People with, I've been run over by cars. I'm still here. There's gotta be a reason for it. So now I've figured it out that I'm gonna do good and we're gonna donate to charity. We're gonna, I do a lot of work on my mind and I read a lot, just constantly trying to make a bigger shadow to help more people. So,

08:30
I can't really explain it. That's also why I'm probably not a good coach. I just, I can't explain to you that desire to succeed. I wake up in the morning and my eyes pop open and I want to win. I want to win and winning is more fun than fun is fun to me. And I just, whatever I have to do that's honest integrity within moral reason.

08:58
I'm going to do. So I'm an unstoppable force. I'm going to get to where we want to get. And there's no reason why anything is going to stop me. So talk about national technology management, or maybe even leading up to that, like as far as your career goes. So you've been driven, bad childhood, overcame your upbringing, always driven though, made the most of your opportunities, worked hard for those opportunities. But what's been that business journey?

09:27
That's a great question. And it just perfect because it came right off of saying, man, you're so successful and you're so driven. There are no coincidences. These things just keep lining up. I put a reel up that talked about how I started the national technology management. It was just dumb luck. I was on a golf course one day and my partner phone just kept ringing and ringing and ringing. And I, what do you do? And he said, he was a consultant in the technology business.

09:54
And I was like, how much do you make? And he tells me, I was like, if you make that, I could double that. And I was right. So I just, and I started the business on a credit card and a dream, literally. I was making six figures as a number one salesman at a company. And I quit cold turkey at 22 or 23 and started what now is called National Technology Management. At that time it was called Kelly Communications. And the...

10:20
Logo was a bulldog. That doesn't surprise you. And I used to go door to door beating on doors and selling phone systems, phone service. And just my big mantra was I wouldn't take no for an answer. It was just the consistency and the discipline. And people like that story. And I just, no matter what I felt like, I got up every day and I made a hundred touches of people, whether it was a phone call.

10:49
whether it was knocking on doors, whether it was an email. And you gotta remember, I sold the internet to people. I'm gonna date myself. I've sold the internet to people, their first ever internet connection. So when I started selling internet, we were doing dial-up at AOL. I would tell people that you're gonna need this more than air one day, and here we are. Can you hear me now, baby? Now I'll use myself. Yeah, hi there. That's right, that's the Sprint one? Verizon.

11:18
That was my first campaign that we're done. I remember BlackBerrys. We had to integrate BlackBerrys to the network. Yeah. And it was just crazy. How crazy does things just overnight gone? So you asked me how it's consistency, discipline, doing the right thing day in and day out, over and over, despite how you feel, what the world is against you, and whatever's going on in life. What's interesting though is, and again,

11:45
I keep referencing the book, but you can read deeper into these stories. You did all of this and built a multi-million dollar company through a lot of addictions and demons and everything else, right? It was like, so you think it's hard to do these things anyway, folks, it's a lot harder to do them when you're lining up obstacles for yourself and you still did it. Right. That's a great metaphor. We are our own worst enemies. We

12:13
do things that are counterproductive, that sabotage our own self. And sometimes we do it because of limiting beliefs. Sometimes we do it just because we're just young. That was a badge of honor for me to go out partying with my customers until we hours in the morning get up, go hit the gym, and then get to the office. And as long as I hit the gym and showed up to work every day, I rationalized and justified my own BS to party all night.

12:41
And then what happens just kept going and kept going. And it never really got out of hand or maybe it did. I don't know. I don't know where you're standing, but it got boring and it got old real fast. And then life began when I said, I'm just, I'm going to take, didn't hit rock bottom. I just said, I'm done with the naughty water. And now life got really good. And again, I'm sitting here at the Radcast with you having a blast, living a dream, man. So yeah, for young people, I got a lot of young followers.

13:09
Don't fight against yourself. Don't work against yourself. It's silly. So if you just do certain disciplines day in and day out, and you could pick up any book, nobody has any kind of, it's work out, physically move your body, even if it's just to walk around outside in nature. Do some sort of meditation, read, do some journaling, just these things, winning habits day in and day out, and then go forward with something that makes you passionate.

13:39
can make you some money. You are brilliant at marketing and you went off into the car business. Who knows? That's working against yourself. There are no freaking tricks to success. There's no tips. There's no elevator to success. There's no escalator. Work works. The harder you work, the luckier you get. You know that. Yeah, it's true. Talking with Kelly Siegel, author of Harder Than Life. Kelly, I've always said there's

14:08
like these parallels with work and life and the gym. And obviously physical fitness is important to you. I'm sitting here in studio looking in jealousy at Kelly's biceps. I don't know if I need to hit those harder. I'm going to go to the gym later for the second time today. But it's obviously important to you. You've always obviously prioritized it. But maybe talk about how in good, bad, and

14:37
now at a great point in your life, how the gym's been so important in that evolution. I just realized, you saw me, the epiphany, the smoke just came out of my ears, that I didn't prioritize it as much as I necessitized it, if that's a word. I needed it. It was protection against the beatings from my stepfather. He was a big boy, 250, 260, 62.

15:05
I was five foot nothing as you just showed, we just took the picture together. I'm vertically challenged, but not horizontally challenged. I have a tree trunk. You dwarf me, but at the end of the day, you just asked me how I did it. It was survival, man. Everything I've done is to not die. And working out so my stepdad wouldn't kick my hind parts. Because there was a couple of times, and I put that in the book where he drowned me. I almost died.

15:35
I've had a couple of near-death experiences from my parents. Yeah, working out is just, it's a necessity like breathing for me. So I would say I prioritize it, but if I don't do it, I wouldn't be here calm and cool and collected. But you obviously transitioned from, at a certain point you crossed over from, he's scared of you and you weren't scared of him probably. So obviously that passed, so in your 20s, 30s, now 40s like me, like, it's obviously stuck with you.

16:05
the passion, the desire to look good, feel good, all those things. Don't you think that, people ask me, like I'm all, I have my, I always work out. It's like you said, it's a necessity, it's my oxygen. So I don't have to like motivate myself, but certainly some days I'm more motivated than others. But what-

16:28
Is it all the same drive like everything else for you? Like you're driven to do good in business, you're driven to work hard. The gym, once you got out of, okay, your stepdad wasn't longer behind your back, what kept the motivation there? You're just making me think today. How you do anything is how you do everything. And if you've, in the little time that we know each other, I do everything the right way. I don't get cheated. I'm coming in.

16:57
with all the evil intent you can do. So when I go to the gym, you're going to see it tomorrow, bro. So sleep tonight, my friend. We're going to lift some heavy weights and we're going to move, we're going to shake the building up. And when I, when national technology management comes to assist you with your IT needs, we'd shake the building up. When I wrote the book, we shake the building up. So if we're going to do something, we're going to do it right. And my four agreements book I just gave you was always do your best.

17:25
my best. I'm going to bring it every single time. To give you the dad story, I don't think it's in the book as a matter of fact. So what finally got me thrown out of the house and I didn't realize that this was this easy as I called my stepfather out, I started lifting heavy. To get confidence and you're like, okay, I can handle it. I was like five foot nothing. He's six foot two, two sixty. And I came home five minutes late and I had a full-time job and was an A student. I was a good kid and they treated me like dirt.

17:51
Yeah, you just see me just get angry. And I was five minutes late for my curfew. He's, I'm going to keep you up. And I had to work at 7 a.m. And he's, I'm going to keep you up and teach you a lesson. And I think I've got to about two o'clock in the morning. I looked down and I said, okay, you got two choices. Option A, you let me go to sleep. Option B, I wake you. And he goes, get out of my house. I go, come on, let's go outside, you and me. And he's always challenged me like that. And I called him out and he wouldn't, cause he had to be my spotter. He was spotting me with the weight.

18:21
And part of me would like to go back and pop him one, but he's an old man now. And yeah, the violence doesn't solve anything. It sounds fun though. What's been your biggest challenging challenge building your business? I would guess. Let me guess and then you tell me what it is. You're going to nail it. So it's usually a control thing. It starts there, but then it's also the expectations that everyone's like you are driven like you are going to do it.

18:50
Maybe not exactly that you're worried about them doing it exactly like you, but they have that exact firecracker fire inside them. Growing up with an abusive family, I didn't trust anybody. I didn't trust myself. I was scared. I was nervous. So you always feel like the rug's going to be pulled out from underneath you. So it was as much of a motivator as it was a detractor.

19:17
how I started a full-blown IT company was the same way. I was sitting, I was a consultant for the telecom business and I was sitting on my boat in the middle of the lake and I said, who can beat me? And I said, it's going to be somebody that can do the integration. So I set out and did that. So a lot of what I did was out of fear. And so you take those two things that you just said, and you add in fear that you don't know that exists because you think that you're tougher. Yeah. And

19:45
You start thinking things are personal when they're not. So if an employee or a customer takes a shot at you, that isn't a shot at you, it feels like a shot. That was when I said to you today at lunch about vulnerability, realizing that, Hey, that felt like it was a shot and they, and to have that uncomfortable conversation because I wasn't taught emotional intelligence. We weren't taught anything. I was taught survival. How did not get your ass kicked?

20:14
was my survival and sneak around so you didn't get beat. So I hope that answered your question. It was long, but those two things, plus there was a lot of fear. And then when you give up that fear and you lose that chip on your feet, you think that you've lost your edge. So that, so being comfortable, it's being comfortable being comfortable, Ryan. Not being uncomfortable, because my whole life.

20:43
has been uncomfortable. Kelly, I wanted to maybe think this other really interesting. I think we're both having these epiphanies that we're talking. It's just the beauty of the podcasting. But I hear you say that. People like you, I am starting to be enlightened that you've been looking behind and over your shoulder so long and having no support that when it's actually there, you don't know how to handle it.

21:13
guilty. You know what I'm saying? And like the, and so it's kind of like the boogie man that's in the room that's no longer in the room, but you still think he's there, but he's not. Do you know how uncomfortable it is sitting in there with you helping me? Did you see how I kept pivoting back to going, what can I do for you? What can I do for you? You pick that up right away. It's just, it's gotta be even Steven. I'm a big win guy. It has to be a win for the customer, win for you, win for me, but it's very uncomfortable to this day.

21:41
I'm always looking over my shoulder. It flew here first class. I'm like, what am I supposed to, I just told you in my neighborhood in Michigan, I walk around and I'm like, who the hell is not supposed to be here? Being comfortable will be uncomfortable. We didn't have any food in the house. When I get hungry, look out. I start looking around like survival. So- Even though you went to Whole Foods the day before and spent $400 probably. You're like, who am I going to fight for these bananas? Wait, it's just me. We were pegging McGoon and that's why we're brothers, man. And it's-

22:10
You know, there's going to be times where you're going to see me get really squirmy, but I'm going to sit in my shit and I'm going to freaking go right through it. Cause I'm, I, I may be afraid, but I know on the other side of that fear is what is our dreams. But I do think that's for like people listening. I think a lot of people have had trauma. Everybody's somewhere, some, there's no comparison of trauma. It's been trauma. And it's difficult.

22:38
And I've had trauma, but not the level of trauma that we're talking about. But when actually it gets the way it's supposed to be, not, it's not being thankful, but it's not about being thankful, but it's about dropping your guard and like that vulnerability and like the things that allow you to enjoy the moment. I would imagine. And I think people listening like probably relate to that a lot.

23:07
Enjoying the moment. That's where I said being comfortable being comfortable because I've never enjoyed a moment. I've done some crazy things. I've done some fabulous things. I've never been present because I always feeling like the rugs gonna be pulled out from underneath you. And some of that drives you and some of that makes you who you are and it's great. But then it's- But there's this thing called, it's a Latin name, Momento Mori. We're all gonna die, Ryan. And I don't mean to be gruesome, but we gotta.

23:35
There's so many people that never live. Never live a day in their life. I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna live. And I'm living today. Today's been great and we're gonna go to dinner and we're gonna open 30 more businesses and I'm excited and I'm glad to be here. Carpe diem, isn't it? That sees the day. Is that what that is? I don't know. Something like that. I always say to you, what do they say? You only live once and I say, that's crazy. We only die once. We live every day. So why wake up and be miserable?

24:03
You make your own weather. Life is so good if you just get out of your own way and let it happen. Now, listen, I can be mad at my parents all I want. They did the best they could. They did. And they weren't capable of doing any better. I've forgiven them. Do I have them in my life? No, and they never will be. I'll see them at their funeral. Some people say that that's harsh. This is how I cope. It's all good. I'm not perfect. I'm just getting better and better every day. When did the social media light bulb go off for you?

24:33
I like asking people this that I now know have it's gone off because it will give Kelly's all his plugs on Instagram and all this stuff. So you can go follow them, but it's obviously that light bulb went off at some point, but what was the light bulb moment for you of the power of social media? I'm not probably right now. I'm sitting in the Radcast from social media. I think some parts of social media, I have a 14 year old daughter are bad.

25:00
I think a lot of people, I think it's one of the toxins of the world with alcohol and drugs. If it's, you say everything in moderation, including moderation is good. There's people that scroll all day. If you can't sit alone with your thoughts and feelings, you got a problem and address that and on the other side, that's good. So when did it, I've never been asked that question. But you embraced it at some point and it was before us sitting here because

25:26
You've got to, unless you've got 90,000 followers, a hundred thousand, whatever you've got in a day, I know you haven't, but at some point you went, I got to get in on that. Cause you knew that it could help your business. And we're going to talk about the podcast and all that. But at some point the light bulb went off. Yeah. I would say in the last couple of weeks, we just, we added 20,000 followers in the last few weeks from releasing good, solid, consistent content that people want to consume. It doesn't come without a lot of detractors.

25:55
And that's why I'm here listening and talking with you because this is what you guys do at Radicals. Where it went off in the last month or so. And you know what, when it really, I had two reels go hit a million. That's when you're like, whoa, maybe I do know what I'm talking about. Now, growing up again, and I'm not trying to make excuses, but growing up the way that I did, it's hard to have confidence. Even though you look at me, oh, he's confident. He's cocky, he's arrogant, or whatever I am.

26:22
there's still some limiting beliefs. And I would have fought you up until I did the EMDR this week. And so I think I broke loose so many things that I just went back and said, man, I am enough. So in the last month, Ryan. Because you got, somebody encouraged you to do it. You started doing it. Then you're like, oh shit, this actually has, you gave me, you're making me think. You know what happened? I started these.

26:49
videos, these morning videos, seagull sayings, that were motivational during the pandemic. And I was getting brutalized by my friends. They're like, that is stupid. You're, you don't know what you're talking about. You know, what did I do? I knew I was out of something. Yeah. If you're bothering somebody, then you're doing something right. I'm that kind of agitator. So that when

27:14
When I say that, I want you to say the word. You said a buzzword. So I got to stop you for anyone listening. Agitational content breaks through grace. My assistant's over here nodding because that's one of my buzzwords, but agitation. You're striking a nerve. You're doing it right. I haven't even started to agitate yet because I will tell you, I just put a post up that I feel this last week, I broke something loose and therapy that I'm my most when I'm agitating.

27:42
and having a smile on my face doing it, that's when you know I'm my true authentic self. So if I'm thinking, that means I'm trying to be politically correct and I'm trying to spin it nice. But when I just rip it, which is most of the reels that are coming out right now, we're just throwing at each other and something then, oh, I'm happy. And I'm really happy. And I like to stir the pot a little bit. You know what? Stir in the pot.

28:09
It's so simple to do right now because they say 1% of the people control everything. If you're a 1%er, that means you're going to upset 99% of the people and it's pretty easy by just saying what I do. I just posted I work out every day and that agitates people. Really? Oh wow, you prioritize that? Well, how dare you? Heaven forbid. Yeah. I post every day and I do these videos with my shirt off and I'm stupid and hey, that I will tell you that.

28:36
the more people tell you not to do something because the road less traveled is pretty lonely. If it were easy, everybody'd be doing it. So if somebody starts knocking you, I call it crabs in the bucket, man. They want to pull you down to them. They don't want to see you achieve. And that's sad because I do. Together we rise.

28:57
So we're sitting on a podcast. We're going to get meta here for a moment. I had the blessing of going on the harder than life podcast. So at a certain point, the social media light came on. Someone told you, Hey, Kelly, you got a great personality. You need to have your own podcast. Two checks of the boxes there. Talk about the podcast. How's that been going? What's, what's been that evolution? The podcast, I wrote the book during the pandemic. And then when we wrote, when the publisher was.

29:23
doing that, I said, what else are you going to do on here? And I said, nothing. I'm just going to hand this to my customers at National Technology Management. He said, you got to do something else. This is too powerful. It's very strong. So I highly recommend it. It starts off the first chapter, self-awareness. It's a memoir slash business book, because I talk about how we built National Technology Management into a multimillion dollar company. And then how everything that you would think that was happening bad to you was happening for me.

29:50
And I put it all that all of the habits and everything I do. And I bared it all. And I put, I put some stuff in there that when I wrote it, when I read it the first time after it was a real book, I had, it took hours for me to read. I had to stop and go work out because it activated triggered me dearly. And the podcast is where I feel at home. And it works. I've gotten customers for national technology management on it. You got a customer from being on it. This works.

30:16
And it's fun. I'd rather listen to a podcast than listen to music or watch TV all day long. Cause you can learn some, somebody's watching this right now is going to, is going to call you up and get content from you or call you up for marketing or call us up for IT or reach out to me for supplements. They want that pill you take. They make sure you text hard. Yeah. Or my workout routines. And you know what? We're going to give it to them. We're just going to keep.

30:45
pouring back into things. So the podcast is called Harder Than Life. I'm really a marketer. So everything's called Harder Than Life. Hey, branding, great keeping it going. That's better than some people. We've had some fun guests. It's better than softer than. A noodle. Something. Yeah. I know how to go there. Yeah. So I get behind that mic and it's just fun. I love rapping with people like this and just learning. I love people.

31:13
I'm curious as can be and I'm a learn it all and you can learn from everybody, especially people that aren't exactly like you. I learned more from you in this after. I feel bad because I heard you say you charged somebody for it. I'm like, Oh boy, I stole his after dude. I go, there's my limiting belief kick again and again. I feel bad because you're helping me out. I'm good. It's all good. So the podcast comes out every week on Tuesdays. We're going to double them up in July and do them on Thursdays too, because we've got a heck of a demand.

31:43
And we're going to, we're getting bigger and bigger guests that are coming on. And it's, we're four months into this thing and it's, it feels like it's been forever and I love it. I love it. It's fun. It's just like us sitting here talking when you really get into it and you have natural conversations. It's funny, like we've done here, like when I'm having a really good one, like it opened, like I'll take notes or grace now taking them for me, like I'll go back and go, I have an idea or something sparks from it, because when you're having like an authentic conversation, you're really like just having a

32:12
purposeful because think about how crazy this is. Now I'm going to get real meta. How now you and I have done this today because I think you can vouch for me here. How many times have I pulled my phone out in the entire day? Once, maybe my wife texted me. So like we've been in conversation. But think of how rare it is today to have unabated uninterrupted listening and talking to one another. It's pretty fucking rare.

32:41
Like it doesn't happen as much as it should. And my phone's going off in my pocket. I know, but I'm saying, like, it doesn't happen that often anymore. We're all distracted and all doing these things. And that's the great thing, because it brings out these kind of dialogues and these conversations. And that's what I love about it. Like it force, not forces me, but it schedules for me those interactions. I think phones.

33:04
are necessary evil, but they are evil. So I've been at dinners with friends where we've taken our phones and put them in the center and the first person to grab their phone has to pay for dinner. It's, as a matter of fact, this is how likely I just realized I, when I did, I had my phone out and I was making notes. I said, I'm making notes. Because I think that I want to be present, right? All right, you've taken the day out to spend with me. I've flown here. Why would I spend it on my phone?

33:34
And I appreciate it. And I really, if there was a way to do what we need to do for work without having a phone, I would. I can't stand this thing sometimes. I was walking through the airport and every single person's on their phone. You look over at dinner and a whole family's on their phone. I have a rule, my daughter, no phone at the dinner table. And we do, we're old school since I didn't have food. We have breakfast together, sit down. We have dinner together, sit down. That's why I like to go to the lake

34:04
My kids, I don't have to tell them to put it down. They don't want it. We're fishing, we're riding the boat, we're swimming, we're, daddy's having some beers, but we don't, I look at my device, as long as, especially if it's the weekend, and I know there's not something major going on with work, I don't even, I look at it, at least there, and the kids do too, because it's just getting away from it a little bit. I just said that, because I'm going to start doing device holidays more often, because when I find, the less I look at my phone, the happier I am. Because you're just,

34:34
Where do I gotta be for this email? What do I gotta do for that? And I try to sometimes to shut it off for a day at a time. And it's running several companies. You can't, and it enables us to do things. I don't want to, I make a great business out of people using their phones for marketing otherwise, but I do think there's like this balance and I think we've long since gone over it, so it's just. Let me be a little cheesy for just a second. And I'm going to, I'm going to throw out on you for a second. I'm going to tell you that I think it's because of our relationship already. And

35:03
There's mutual respect. There was, it was an engaging, vulnerable conversation. It was very interesting. It was pretty easy not to grab your phone. Exactly. Thank you for having me and keep being interesting or else I'm going to start opening my phone. That's all you're going to have to do, like, riot, you're boring me. Where do you want to, where do you, what's, when you set your sights on two years from now with the podcast, because I know that's a big goal for you. Company's doing great. You're still growing that.

35:32
But the podcast vision, like, where do you see it going? I could see myself with by the end of the year, only doing the podcast. I'll still own National Technology Management, but I have an amazing team and you can read about it, how we use an operating system that allows me to be away from it a lot. So by 2024, I could see me doing nothing but the podcast and it being self-sufficient, paying for itself, and then donating.

36:02
it's high six figures to charity. That's what this is for. I'm going to be geeky again for a second or a bro in. I hope to be half as successful as the Radcast in half as much time. Yeah. I do things, how I've built most companies and most things that I do it in record breakneck speed. And if you ask my team, they always say, he wants it done in half the time. And I think if you work twice as hard and you're half as smart, you got to work twice as hard. So.

36:31
I just tell people success, love, speed. Success, love, speed. I like that. And it...

36:40
If you want to be successful, even because some people get lost in the sauce of it takes iteration to be successful because it doesn't happen the first time. So thus you're better to fail quickly so that you can pick your ass up and iterate again because you're not going to get it. I'm sorry. You're not going to get right the first time anyway. So quickly.

37:02
You know, we had it released and then we pulled it back the night before. So this is our second one. All right. You know, it's funny because what does most people say slow and steady runs the race? I think there's a few things that still applies, but I think in general though, it's. And don't mistake that great things come over time. Like the impact of our relationship.

37:29
the greatness of those outputs and things that we could do together will only grow over time. That's a different statement than the 20 things we talked about today. Let's start them now and go fast. You know what I mean? There's a difference. So moving quicker with action. What do they say? Some people can be busy at life doing nothing. Yeah, I know a lot of those people. So do I. But I have to make progress.

38:00
I just have to be moving forward. And that's part of feeling like if I stand still, I'm gonna die. So I'm gonna move forward. And when you got great people like you or making great contacts, maybe that's just something to do with just being authentic and genuine and just very loyal too. You've got a friend in me and you call me middle of night, you need me to come hide the bodies.

38:26
I hope I won't have to do that one. I don't know if Grace is going to pick up for that one. We'll keep Grace out of this. Just bring the bleach and the chlorophyll. Yeah, no. I'm just kidding. What's the future hold for Kelly as a whole? Like, you got boats in Florida and Detroit. You're on the water all the time. Go ahead and tell them now, where are we going to follow Kelly Siegel on Instagram? Because that's where you're always at. What's the handle there?

38:54
It's kelly.segal. It's spelled K-E-L-Y.S-I-E-G-E-L.71. Some guy just reached out to me the other day and says, hey, I got the kelly.segal one. And I was like, good, enjoy it. Did he want to sell it to you? Yeah, he wanted to sell it to me. It was like 300 bucks. I'm like, uh-huh, sure.

39:11
I'll just give you my log in. I might give you Kelly. Oh yeah. Yeah. How are you going to pay for it? You know what it's going to be. It's a scam. But the, but the, but all seriousness, if you go follow Kelly, you'll see the boats and everything. I thought you were in Florida last night. You're in, I guess up in Michigan, but I was in the, on Lake St. Clair on a boat up there having fun. I like to have my hair blowing in the wind. That's when I'm relaxed. A lot of times when I'm at the gym now, I'm listening to a podcast and I'm growing my muscles and growing my mind.

39:40
So when I'm on a boat, I've been a captain of a boat for years and I just want to make sure that everyone's safe. My crew's safe, we're safe. I don't drink so I'm always a designated driver. And I like to go fast. I go fast on my Harley, I go fast on my boat and it just, it relaxes me. Years and years ago when I was in therapy, the guy said, when do you ever relax? I said, when I'm on my boat. He said, go there. You know what it is, you crack a beer in the boat, I crack a non-alcoholic beer, it's just the same. And it's just...

40:09
heaven, all the work, hard work that you did, you put to get that boat, it's just, it's relaxing. And I'm finally able to be present and enjoy it. Where we're headed, we're going to continue to grow. And then we're going to try to, I'm going to use the Ricky Bobby quote. I want to live to 130, 140, with advanced aid, medical and self, maybe we can live, no, I want to live to 100. And, but to do that, I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to align with some brands to keep myself healthy.

40:38
good mind and body continue to work, inevitably the body is gonna start to give out. So we're gonna try to fight that as hard as we can, harder than life. And we're gonna keep putting out vulnerable, truthful content, and we're gonna make an impact. Hopefully in the next several years, we'll be able to say we're at the seven figures for donations per year. And hopefully we'll help some kids not go through what I went through.

41:08
And then we'll just see where the universe takes us. I'm watching a lot of them. My daughter's 14, your kid's 14, 12. I'm noticing a lot of the kids gravitating to me. Maybe I can catch them a little sooner and get them with real good habits of what I do. And then also, I said this to somebody that asked me about this is, I want them to know that there's people out there that care. If you're in a situation like I was where it's abusive, it's not okay, and you won't get in trouble. So I wanna make sure there's awareness of that.

41:38
lied to the social worker that showed up and said, everything's fine, even though it wasn't, because I thought I would get in trouble. You're not going to get in trouble. So if there are kids listening to this, and I'm getting involved in a lot of charities, and this podcast is allowing me access to areas where I couldn't previously do, we're going to continue to take this up and go higher and higher. And the sky's the limit.

42:03
So maybe, hey, maybe we'll go on Rogan's podcast. That's the big, that's the Don Mecca of the thing. I love it, man. Where can we keep up with everything? Where can they find the book? Where can we get them all the plugs? We have harderthanlife.com is the easiest one. IT services, which we keep IT simple. We make it simple and easy to do business with us. And you just gave us an idea to make it even more simple, which I can't believe I didn't think of, but it's trust.

42:30
NTM is a nationaltechnologymanagement.com. We are available anywhere in the country and it's predictable, repeatable, simple and easy. And it comes with cybersecurity, which we're all worried about. We don't know what even that means, but NTM will show you, I will show you. And our standard package includes all of the insurance compliance that you need for cybersecurity. So this isn't

42:56
someone that's doing it out of the trunk of their car or I got a guy. We do it right. We do it the same way every single time and it's compliant all the time. So trust ntm.com harder than life.com kelly.segal at 71 and Instagram, kelly seagull at Facebook. I don't even know what my what's the one that you're talking to? I don't know what my daughter follows all that stuff. But we're on that. I'm sure it's just Kelly Segal. Yeah. But come give us a shout. And I answer all my DMS right now. I try. It's hard.

43:25
A lot of people get really deep and I try and especially, sobriety is very important to me because it was such a big influence in my life. So if somebody reaches out to me like, I need help not drinking or not drugging or I need help with some toxic behavior, I stop what I'm doing and try to help. Now I'm not a doctor and I'm not a therapist and you're probably gonna get some tough love.

43:54
And if you're suicidal, which happens, please go to the emergency room. But you matter. And if you're in that situation, your life means something. And I have talked to a few people off the ledge via DMs. Stopped. And I did one on New Year's Eve. Someone reached out to me and I don't know. And I let, I checked on them. I was walking. I was in, sitting in Birmingham, Michigan, smoking a cigar. And a guy walked by me and stopped. And he goes, are you Kelly Siegel? I said, yes. I was a little nervous. I don't know what he's coming.

44:24
And while I was in Florida, I had helped him stop drinking. And he invited me to his house and he's so indicted and that feels good. So that's what we're gonna keep giving back to the universe and doing good things. And I know good things will keep happening for you. Appreciate you coming on, brother. Man, I love you, I thank you. It's been fun.

44:48
Hey guys, you can find us at theradcast.com. Search for Harder Than Life. You'll find all the highlight clips from today. Search for Kelly Siegel. You'll find him on Instagram. You'll see his physique on the boat, looking good, and giving lots of practical advice. You can find me at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time. All the Radcast.

45:07
To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, v.rad.cast or at Ryan Alford. Stay radical.