All right, all right.
Episode 134 Feeney talks with friends.
I'm with a good friend.
What's up Rick. What's happenin man? Rick Wells.
Great to be with you.
Yeah, this is awesome.
This is great. This is Feeney talks with friends.
I use this podcast, and I talk with wonderful people in the community.
They're doing great things.
And you've been in the community for quite some time in multifaceted areas.
We're going to get into it.
Yeah.
Again, this is episode 134.
My name is Eric Feeney, founder and president of Friends of Feeney.
Our mission is to help children and families that need assistance
after heartbreak or tragedy.
And again, I use this podcast and I talk to great people.
So you're a good guy. Thank you. You all right?
Yeah. Now, I've been in the community for a quarter century.
Been 25 years now. Nice, nice.
And, shout out to our,
Do you ever get your house power washed?
Not yet. Okay, well, I got a guy.
Okay. Episode 133 was Ryan's Ryan McGinnis.
Ryan. Soft wash.
Great guy.
We talked about how he helps the community.
Yeah, and if you ever need a house power washed.
But he does it soft wash, so.
Okay, check it out.
We're going to talk about a lot of things.
I mean, you're like, who I want to be when I grow up.
That's it.
Thank you.
That's awesome.
You got great military career. Yeah.
Great teacher, physically fit, good golfer.
You were in a rap video.
That is true.
You're going there already.
That's great.
That's usually I keep my powder dry.
That's the one I pull out if I need to.
Okay. Yeah. Which one do you want to talk about first?
Let's talk about how we met, what we what we did to begin with.
So how is it being a male in an elementary school?
It's.
I mean, for me, it was incredible.
I'll talk about, you know, everyone asks
how you do it, how you deal with either kids or parents.
And I'm not sure what they what they're expecting when they respond.
But for me, I was the secret was
I was living a ten year old's life for the last 20 years.
Yeah.
So when I grew up in new Jersey, great town, called Bellville,
beautiful village.
And, you know, we sports at the, at the playground
and bounce pitch and and all those things and Little League.
It was just a spectacular life.
So as a fourth and fifth grade teacher
that age, I just recreated that
every day for the kids, that wonderful experience that I had.
That's what I did.
So I lived that.
So, who who was the first one out to recess?
This guy.
This guy. Right.
I was more excited than the kids.
And, that's what got me through.
And of course, as a byproduct, you deal with the wonderful people of West Hartford
and and their kids, who I love seeing around town now.
And, I mean, that's that's a great life, but that's the secret.
So what was like being a male just awesome.
I think they appreciated that,
the perspective I brought.
But honestly, I was bringing a ten year old boys perspective to the classroom.
I agree because
I try to make the classroom fun how some how
I would like to as a eight year old or nine year old because I do third grade.
You did fourth and fifth, right? Yes.
For I started at fifth grade at Duffy and then went to Webster
Hill, where I was fourth grade and then my final year was third grade.
Oh, nice. Yeah. And you did 25 years.
25 years total.
I started teaching in southeast San Diego when I was out there.
When I got off active duty, I started teaching in,
San Diego, and that's when I joined the reserves as well.
Got, you know, it was great.
You know, as a male in a,
people say it's like being a rock star just the first time.
And especially third grade, first time.
Some of these students may see a male in a classroom as the teacher,
hear the voice, the deep voice, or maybe a little more stern or,
what do you think?
You know, another part to that was,
And I don't know if it was everywhere but you, you bring rules to the game.
One of the things I found out early is that
it was at recess, particularly
where I would organize games.
Before that, it was mayhem and there was no rules.
There were playing a game, but there were no rules.
So either the big kid didn't get out, he didn't want to get out,
or this person didn't play right and no one had fun.
So when I started
bringing myself to the recess,
to the game and impose the rules,
it was challenging.
But everyone had fun, because it was in the rules.
And, you know,
there is no game without rules,
so I am incorporate that in the classroom as well.
It was it was clear this is what you do, this is what you don't do.
And I think that sense of clarity, is often missed.
At least the power in it.
Yeah, I think episode 131 Anthony's Abatement.
Yeah. Anthony Toro Tamayo.
Yeah.
Said on this podcast just right here said his favorite teacher
was Doctor Wells at Webb Hill.
Yeah. Didn't he even have. You know, that was.
That was. Duffy.
Excuse me. It was Duffy. Yeah.
Didn't even have you as a as a classroom teacher, but he was a big kid.
He loved sports. Yeah.
Him getting to look forward to recess every day
with you made it possible for him to go to school.
So with that, let's.
Look at that powerful impact.
There was at that recess and for
decades after that,
I would have I would organize recess.
And there was that was a football game,
and we'd have 22 on 22.
So I'd be engaging 40 plus kids at a time.
You know, I couldn't throw it to all of them, but they were just fired up.
22 when I went to Webb Hill,
we play captured a footballs, six footballs in each circle.
Everyone had a flag.
It was 40 on 42.
If we played tennis, baseball, it was.
It was 25 on 25.
So I had a whole class out there engaged in a game.
Everyone's participating.
Everyone's, playing.
Yep. And, you're you're right.
And like to the point earlier grown up in Bellville,
one of the things we played bounce pitch baseball
and you had to get to school early in order to play.
So we were at school early to play balanced pitch and before we go to
and then we played at recess.
And that's it. The ball bounces.
You bounce a tennis ball and you hit it with a wiffle ball bat stuff with paper
and and, taped up with duct tape. Yep.
And we'd play that and we'd be rushing to get there in school on time.
So I adapted that.
And so I can have more people play at recess.
I used to tennis racket because everyone, even if you weren't that athletic
or you didn't know how to hit a ball, which is pretty challenging.
Everyone got hit with a tennis racket.
So that's how I got to play with tennis.
Baseball, which is well known around the town, I think.
And, I'd have, you know, 25 kids on each side.
Everyone get up at least once or twice during the recess.
It was great.
It's great.
And, this is a popular question I ask every podcast.
Who's your favorite teacher?
And you've you've come up a bunch of times, PJ Foley's walking in Luna pizza.
Yeah, yeah. His kid. I was just with him yesterday.
I just gave him the mic. I said, who's your favorite teacher,
miss?
Not well yeah, yeah.
Okay.
PJ, I had,
his son. Just a magnificent kid.
Yeah. Magnificent.
And who else?
There was another time, too, but now it's a great.
So you're it's it's really cool when you know,
we can walk around and someone out there, we impacted their life in a positive way.
Like we are someone's favorite teacher.
You know, it's.
Look, if you're looking to one of the secrets,
not only to teach in to whatever you do, you have to love what you do.
Right.
And one of the things I noticed about you, as you have the same thing, you're there
for the right reasons, and that why it makes everything better.
So and as a result, you know, you have these magnificent relationships
with with parents, with their children, the kids, and now they're grown up.
Students of mine are having children of their own.
So it's it's wonderful.
Have you taught a parent kid, a kids parent?
Did you have the generation? Yes. You know, it has that.
That's the that's not going to happen. That's not that many years.
Yeah I got out I.
Got out 25 and out but 20 in West Hartford, 25 in San Diego.
Amazing.
No, I was just saying I walked with my wife
just the other day, and I was like, you know, Teaching's getting harder.
They're changing stuff.
And right now I'm teaching foundations.
It's a new reading program, but it's like teaching an old dog a new trick.
But it's new and it's helpful and it's beneficial to everyone involved.
But I was talking, and all of a sudden it's like,
see these two kids playing football?
And I just clap and I go like that. My kick.
My wife's like, do you even know them? They just throw me the ball.
Of course I knew them fifth graders from the school,
so I throw the ball with them real quick.
Then we go to Doro and I'm having, you know, we're drinking coffee
with the dog, and all of a sudden the kids, like,
my wife's, like, you might want to say hi,
because I was a kid, like stalking with the dad.
And I was like, hey, hey.
And they come over and talk.
So it's it's a good feeling.
Shout out, shout out to Dorian.
Dorian's doing a wonderful job. I was just adorable today.
So one of my former students that I taught is one of his baristas.
Which one?
Who's that? I'm there all. AJ. Okay.
Yeah.
I Scott Miller podcast guest I had his son Simon,
so I know Scott Dorian sort of
same day I'm there I see Lana, my student
and her her dad and then Dorian's like, hey, you got to try this.
Yeah.
Brings it out the, the new Dubai chocolate, pastry.
Yeah. Phenomenal.
Yeah. So now he's a master dude.
So he's got the Midas touch.
He creates a wonderful product, atmosphere and.
Community to.
Open a new.
Yeah. You know Cassie door the. Have you been there?
Yeah, I've been there. Yeah.
I want to try her.
I love what he's doing in West Hartford.
It was very difficult for me to leave West Hartford
with all that he and everyone else has going on in town.
No. It's great.
They're great.
What about what?
I got an email. Old email?
We only emailed each other once in the school.
Email?
What song did your student sing on Wednesdays?
Oh, God.
I started each day with a different,
American
song.
Him, one of them was challenging.
One of them might have been American, too. Beautiful.
I changed some, and on Friday we did the the,
Yep. The preamble. Yep.
Wednesday, the pledge.
Thank you.
My country, tis of thee. Did I do I don't.
America. America.
Okay, I said that's. All you do, right?
Not my country tis of thee.
Oh, you have. It, I printed it.
I was so funny. I was like, I remember him sending me.
And then you're not in the in the school system anymore.
I was like, wondering, what?
Will your email still be there? No.
They took as a first doing it when you when you retired.
That's one of the first things you take away.
Email quick to. Yeah I heard.
Very quickly
I'm not sure why but that went away very quickly.
That kind of hurt.
I don't know why that affected me, but maybe because I had it for so long.
Years of Google Docs and albums and emails.
Amazing. Yeah, I spent a lot of time.
So no, it was great.
I instituted this too. I thought it was great.
It's very patriotic. It's something different and new.
Both having military backgrounds I thought is important.
The pledge allegiance on Monday. Yeah.
This land is your land on Tuesday.
America Wednesday. You're a grand Ole flag.
Yeah, that's a banger.
That's a classic. Yes.
And the preamble. Preamble, which is.
Halfway halfway through, halfway through the year,
students knew that by heart.
Nice. Yeah.
Oh. It's important.
It it one if you're, I'm a brilliant in the basics guy.
So you want to teach him how to speak properly?
Give them
give them something like that.
Make it consistent, make it meaningful.
And it's something
that I obviously believed in.
And then we talk about vocabulary.
You know, we talked about posterity there and, you know, liberty and what it means.
And and you just give them a sense of it over and over again,
give them a chance to internalize it.
It's it's it's great.
Now it's cool. Thanks for sharing that.
I still have it. I still use it.
You also have it, doctor?
Doctorate in education from the University of Hartford.
Yeah.
How is that? Yeah.
That help you?
So we moved.
That's the reason I'm in West Hartford.
Because I was accepted to the University of Hartford.
When I was out in San Diego, Chris and I were getting married, moving back east.
Got accepted to this place called the University of Hartford.
She comes
out a couple of weeks beforehand, looks for a house.
Dropped my resume off at West Hartford Public Schools, and starts looking around,
looking around Avon, Glastonbury, Bloomfield.
And she asked a real estate agent who we got from USAA military affiliated.
She was like, well, what's this place?
And she was like, oh, this is West Hartford
and University of Hartford's in West Hartford.
So she fell in love right away.
And then we ended up moving here from,
San Diego to go to the University of Hartford.
The reason for going to the University of Hartford was
that was my way of
being in the top
10% of my profession.
I was like, if I were to be in the top 10% of my profession,
what would I have to do?
One of the things would be to continue to study and get a degree, and that was,
it took time.
You know, the dissertation was a bit of a process, but,
you know, learning to read research is huge.
You know, you talk about foundations and typically,
you know, people are trying to tell you what to do.
If you know how to read the research, life becomes a whole lot different. So
it was my way of,
bettering myself within the profession.
And then on the other side of that, I mean, it's great.
I mean, you, there is a level of respect,
but personally, it's,
I use my conceptual framework for leadership to this day
and, the ability to read, research and,
and see through a lot of the fog
has been a huge benefit to me.
Nice.
I was always wondering what brought you here.
So, University of Harvard. University of Harvard. Yeah.
I'm becoming more and more involved with them.
They just got a new president.
Doctor Ward, he came from Babson.
He's doing a lot of good things at the University of Hartford.
You know, Aaron Isaacs.
I do, I do.
He's the dean of students there. Yeah.
He's a great dude. He he helps.
He participated in some of the mentoring I do in Hartford.
Oh, nice.
He funds one of the nonprofits that I'm affiliated with that is,
does good work with the Police Athletic League in Hartford.
I'm going to have him.
I going to have him as a podcast guest.
He he's he's got a lot going on.
And, you know, he's. Cool because he looks like hanging with Mr.
Cooper. Yeah. Dude, he's big.
He's a big dude.
Yeah, I mean big.
I worked at Goodwin with, Goodwin College.
Yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, we played on the Goodwin.
We played a alumni versus kids basketball game.
Okay. Pretty serious. Yeah, he's a big guy.
No. He's great.
He's great person. I love that dude. Coop.
Aaron.
Isaac's on a do you work with Jimmy?
Detective Jimmy Barrett?
He works with homeless, helping people with homelessness.
He's a up Hartford police.
Hartford police officer.
No, he doesn't ring a bell.
Steve Austin, what's the nonprofit? The.
Aaron. It's.
Well, it was it's it's
actually the nonprofit is the Police Athletic League.
Gotcha. But we're housed within them.
So we are fed students, boys
from the Police Athletic League, and we mentor them within their house.
They give us space, they're nice.
So we meet weekly.
And, Because I see that you also do work with Covenant Prep.
Covenant Prep's a big deal, a great nonprofit. Yeah.
You just recently spoke to them.
Yeah.
Governor prep was, that was Jeff
Deagle, that first class of students that Anthony you mentioned.
Yep. Was bendigo's in their class.
So I met Jeff Diggle,
as the parent,
and then he he's the one that was his brainchild.
So I was affiliated with that when he first started it.
Oh, wow.
And I.
Got because that's, ten years now or 15 or like.
14 years I got.
I just went to the bow tie. Oh, yeah.
We were together. There.
Yeah. Bow ties and baseballs and yard goats.
So that that they have a great thing going on is
his idea is to get middle school kids, get him in the right direction.
So we talked about reflection, the power of reflection as eighth graders
because those kids are going to wonderful schools Taft,
Loomis, Xavier,
Avon, all farms and they're going to be exposed to some incredible stuff.
You can be overwhelmed.
So the essence of that conversation was a what went
well for you here at Covenant Prep.
And if you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
And then let's let's
conceptualize that.
Let's think about it and see.
All right. What kind of person would you be?
All right.
Now bring that person to these schools
and these wonderful opportunities because, there's a lot of them.
I know I saw you, I saw a couple pictures.
You're like, standing up, you know, doing your doing your spiel.
Yeah. And I want to.
I want to thank you in saying compliment you.
Wonderful public speaker.
Recently last year, I don't know, you know, where I'm
going with this, but my daughter got Ball State rifle, right?
So they had a all state dinner at Orange Country Club.
I think it's Grassy Hill Country Club in Orange. Yeah.
And they needed a military.
They were they were hoping for our military speaker
I say I got a guy and, Rick Wells showed up
and you exceeded expectations and you were phenomenal.
So I was inspired.
I know the kids were inspired.
You you had a little show and tell.
You gave a little book recommendation.
You did a golf swing? Yeah.
You asked.
The kids went, when's your school day start?
That was the best. When your school day start.
That was one of my favorite lessons in class two.
Yeah, I did it every year. Yeah.
And when is your school day start and got.
And it was funny with with those kids.
They're very bright kids which, which which is interesting.
Top top notch disciplined obviously.
Right.
They they spend their time, they give their attention to
what they think is worthwhile. It takes them places.
There was
one kid going to the Naval Academy for shooting or something like that.
Yeah. It's amazing.
But I said, what time is your school day begin?
7 or 808
3825 827 then the parents started jumping it. Yup.
820 oh, so they were getting mad.
We're like, what's the answer?
I was like, no, it's like that.
Your school day begins the night before it begins the night
before when you put your homework in your backpack,
you pack your snack, you lay your clothes out
so that you wake up and you know exactly what's going on,
and you're not running around the house trying to get your stuff together,
because that affects that has an influence on your attitude
when you come to school.
Yeah. Even if it happens at home.
So we talked about that every year.
That was one of my favorite lessons.
So it was a great opportunity to to do that lesson again.
There was kids I love dealing with young people.
Right. And they were top notch individuals.
And that was that was a blessing to spend that time with them.
So yeah, I appreciate that opportunity.
Yeah. You marine.
Uniform still fit to. Fit. Yeah.
What, 25 years later?
Yeah I, I, I, I went in 90 in 1992
and I retired in 2015.
So with five years active duty and 16 reserves,
a couple holes in there for some,
some interesting reasons, some not,
but at at in 2015 it was 21 years.
So the goal was 20. Yeah.
At 19 years.
I started working for two colonels that I love.
They're benefactors of mine.
They influenced me and they they rounded out
and taught me about leadership in a pretty inspirational way.
But I when he took over, it was year 19.
So commands are two years.
So I did the two.
He was gracious enough to ask me to to be his.
I was a logistics officer, be his, logistics officer
for his final year as as his command.
So that's what took me to 21 years.
And then.
Man. And I did eight years in the Army National Guard.
Yeah. Army field medic.
Wow. That was I was give it.
I've shot.
That's. Dude, that's so magical.
It's. No, it's great.
EMT certified, national certified. I could have been an EMT. Yeah.
Wishing eight years.
Eight years, said reflection. I wish I stayed in so.
And that's right. There is how I taught.
So that was what the the reflection is this
what went well and what would I do differently.
So as a grade school kid,
I went through that same process and
my idea after that was if I'd be a scholar athlete.
So, you know, my uniform still fits.
So I became more of an athlete and I became more of a scholar
where I read the books and did all the things,
and I looked
at each parent child in my classroom the same way.
I'm going to teach scholar athlete, you're going to be a scholar athlete.
This is what my expectation is of you.
So it was very clear in that way, in that reflection.
But I did the same
exercise when I was eight years in, just like you.
And we're moving from San Diego to Connecticut.
And I said, I'm going to do this thing.
I, I wanted to take advantage of it.
I knew it was a gift.
You know, I
my first four years in the Marine Corps, he knows it's great,
but I would have did some things differently.
So I reflected on that.
Even my first four years in the reserves at my LA unit.
So I said I took the opportunity to think how you're thinking right now.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to finish.
I'm going to stay, and I'm not going to say I wish, oh, I wish I stayed in.
And, I was going to the challenges.
You got to do the things that need to be done in order to stay in.
So shout out to West Hartford Schools for supporting me and
and being there for me and the parents as well,
because there were a lot of times that I was not in the classroom.
I was off doing my training and,
I'm dude, I'm so
grateful for that because, you know, you don't do it alone.
And that support was everything to me.
I did it as a student, teacher and an intern, so
I got to miss the last two weeks of school for the two week annual training.
And then it was like either become a teacher or a re-up or something.
I don't know what happened, but yeah, I chose like my career.
But again, so happy that I went.
I would not have been able to afford college.
I have first time ever flying in a plane was on my way to basic training
Fort lost in the woods, Missouri.
And then next, you know, fast forward a couple months, my training drills.
I was a flight medic on a helicopter. Yeah.
So I went from never flying to flying once a week.
Once a month.
Put my hand out of the helicopter.
You ever put your hand out of a car window?
Yeah. No. Try that in a helicopter.
I fast roped out of a helicopter, rappelled out of a few.
Yeah. It's amazing. Dude. Yeah.
How did the Marine Corps help your education?
I mean, obviously, rules, structure, routine.
Marine Corps for me, the huge lesson for me was attitude.
Attitude.
My attitude was,
that was one of the main reasons why I didn't take advantage
of all of those things that are provided for you from family in the Marine Corps.
If you have a bad attitude, your attitude is your personal strategy.
It's your approach to life.
It's your approach to work, to your approach to family.
So, the Marine Corps
basically said, we're not we're not crazy about your attitude.
So I had to fix it. Yeah. And very quickly.
Yeah.
No, I had some learning lessons there too, with the attitude or the.
They, they
not only wanted you to to to swab the deck,
several times when you're looking for liberty,
they want you to whistle while you're doing it.
Yeah.
I was like, okay.
And I eventually learn, and that helped me
a great deal.
You know, good leaders,
good dudes that I met in there and just wanting to be a part of that.
And in order for me to be a part of that and and engage
in that glorious institution, I had to change.
I had to adapt.
I had to examine myself,
because I wanted to be a part of that.
They didn't want to be a part of me.
I wanted to be a part of that.
And, that was that's the one of the big lessons.
What teacher in the Marines are.
Instructor started every class with a, Medal of honor recipient.
He was a captain. It was at TBS.
So in Marine Corps for officers, you go to Quantico
and you go to Officer Candidate School, Oak.
Officer Candidate School in Quantico.
And then you do that for
if you if you went through, like me, 13 weeks or so and then,
you go on the other side of the base to the basic school.
The basic school is six months long.
Is this 13 weeks straight or.
Yeah, that's three.
Weekends because, you know, 13 weeks straight there.
Yes. Are oak.
Oaks.
Well, oaks and the army. Oaks is what you go through.
Oak is how I went through.
You go through oak or you can go to ROTC.
Gotcha. Oak.
Is that 13 weeks? Gotcha ROTC six weeks.
Six weeks.
And then we go to TBS, the basic school on the other side of Quantico.
Six months, two weeks in a field, two weeks in a classroom.
Bang, bang, bang. Like that.
So what was the question?
I forgot the question. Settled on.
A medal of honor.
One of the one at that. So I came in in 92.
That was after the first Gulf War.
So all of those captains had been over there.
Very inspiring folks that taught the classes.
And, one of the one of the captains there
started every one of his classes would a medal of honor winning.
And, you know, we and I remember always listening to see because he would end it.
Either he lived or it was posthumously given.
Yeah.
And, there's some look, there's some incredible human beings out there.
Yeah.
I had a podcast guest that I'm bringing that up.
My, podcast guest, number 43, it's Paul Buca.
Oh, he just passed.
He just passed away. Yeah.
His, West Hartford connections.
I taught his granddaughter and his grandson.
Yeah, he was special. He was, he was a
a guest speaker at one of our convocations at school.
You might have still been there. I might have been there.
I saw him speak at Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
We did it. We did a Veterans Day.
It was either a Veterans Day ceremony or
I went to see him speak about it.
But he's a.
No. He's great.
He saved, like, 17 soldiers. He.
He heard gunfire, ran down without his helmet, saved them all.
He had, like, a platoon of, like, riffraff.
Misfits. Yeah.
And it's a wonderful story.
So I was wondering, maybe you heard that story, but it's a great story.
And then.
And let him put on the Medal of Honor.
Oh, no way. Look at that.
I snuck in.
This is at the West Point pool.
He was also an All-American swimmer.
He worked on the Obama's,
state of, like, affairs.
Yeah. Veterans.
But I was like, hey, you know, I told the guy at the front, I'm like,
that's my grandfather, my great grandfather's best friend.
It was.
Yeah, a little fib, you know, it was my students
and my grandfather, but it was very important that I got there.
So, he's an All-American swimmer.
So honored, that I got to speak with him, you know?
And, you brought that up.
So, pop, you guys have wanted to share this for a while because he did pass
in August. August 15th. Yeah.
So I had someone printed this out for me.
But I got to sit down and hear his story.
He's a wonderful speaker.
I just, he had, you know,
acronyms for,
like, how to have you have a routine for your life.
And just so it helps and.
Helps with discipline, definitely.
Paul Buca, so I'm honored to spoke with I'm honored to share this episode 43.
If you want to go back and check it out. Yeah.
You know, folks, it's folks think it's difficult
to stay optimistic nowadays.
It's not it's not difficult for me because you you run into people like that.
You deal with the young people I deal with in in schools, and you see the
I often see people who are going into the military, for example.
And, it's the faith.
It's the same dedication and commitment that's always been in this country.
So I stay optimistic.
Yeah.
No, like you said, one of my daughter's friends went to West Point last year.
This year, one of her friends going to the Air Force Academy
until I'm like, Neela, come on, you should go to West Point.
She goes, dad, I don't like waking up early.
Yeah, I don't like running.
I don't like getting yelled at.
I go, well, then maybe that's not the place for you, right?
No, it it's it's it's it's another life.
Yeah. One of the,
guys I serve with Mark,
his son, Richie Trent George swam for the Naval Academy.
I went to his graduation last year
and it's.
It's a special place.
And, It's an elite exclusive. Club.
Yes. Special. Yeah. And you you you earn it.
And, you know, being, you know, seeing him with his team, the
the the individuals that it's.
Yeah. Those are that's America to me right there. Yeah.
That bond will last forever.
Unbelievable.
And the West Point is beautiful.
She does rivalry like once twice a year there.
Yeah.
And I like park and I jog.
I get the headphones, I try to fit in.
That's so good. No.
I want to be like. I want to feel it.
Get the little sweat on it. Yeah.
When I see the guy, the soldiers are doing it, I'm like,
What's your little reflective belt on right?
Yeah. Run against traffic.
That's great.
So cool.
It's great to it's great to have that in your background.
So you know.
You know, to to the, to your point,
I don't want to jump over it about, you know, not doing certain things.
I think that's the reason I became a teacher.
It's the reason I went into the service is reason I finish the service.
And,
you look at this. Life is a gift.
And you see what out there, you see what work is difficult.
And it's going to offer you a challenge.
And it's hard and you love it.
You go after it and you do it well.
You finish well.
What would it look like for me to finish?
Well.
And, it's it's something that I can reflect on
and reminisce and appreciate for, for a lifetime.
Yeah.
Now, you I mean, so far, you lived a great life.
You have such great experiences with the education
and the military and now present day.
What are you up to?
I'm a financial advisor in West Hartford.
Very nice.
So I'm a financial advisor with Baystate Financial right in the middle of town,
offices across the street from Brickell, a spectacular.
Can't beat that.
And it's, you know, thinking about this and talking with, this mastermind group
we have going on, it's just a continuation of the calling, right?
Continuation of the calling
from service to the country, the service to the community.
And now I am able to provide,
service to the, you know, to the young families in West Hartford and,
and beyond,
you know, getting their financial readiness together.
And, you know, putting it together,
put it put in a plan together using all of the, the, the,
the insights and skills from being
an officer in the Marine Corps and a school teacher and
thinking about legacy with people's children and stuff like that is fantastic.
It was a great it's a great transition. Yeah.
Now, did you know you were going to do that?
When did that come?
Did you leave school knowing that you were going to do that or did you leave school
look to see what you were going to do, or is that on your radar. From
one, might I and I'll call it I call it my transformation and transition.
I had three goals.
One was to be a part of a large firm.
The other was to be
flexible because you know what school teacher, school
schedules like in the military schedules like.
And I wanted to explore this thing called compensation.
I was like, all right, let's do it.
And I was heading in the direction,
of one of a large
one of the four large consulting groups,
Pricewaterhouse.
And that was and the opportunity to,
to get into the financial services industry opened up.
And I was like, I think I can do that.
That seems great.
Yes. It checked all the boxes.
Thanks.
You know, you don't you don't really direct the particulars.
You kind of have a vision of how you want to contribute.
And this came along and it checked all the boxes.
It's something where I can serve families in a meaningful way,
which is seems to be a jam.
Right.
And, it's proven to be that very cool.
So we have some sponsors to our podcast, Keating Agency float 41.
You ever do a float?
No. Oh, you float in a dark tunnel with.
Oh, I hurt my buddy. My golf. Buddy. Amazing.
Said I need to do.
That fix Ivy where you get a little shot.
I know them, I know them.
They're friends of the family. Yes.
Luna pizza, golf law group, people's bank, Parkville management.
Maximum beverage. We're here at maximum.
This place is. Awesome. Pretty nice. Right? Yeah.
And our newest, Sally and Bob's.
I love Sally, Bob. Helen. Helen.
Yeah.
They're. She's.
Hello, Helen. She's she's amazing.
And they do great work there. Specials.
The most difficult thing to do there is go in there and pick one special,
very challenging. So I typically get two.
I. Like is amazing. One.
Yeah. I was like.
Just come later and we'll both.
Know I eat them both there.
It's great. It's a just a challenge.
It's so, so difficult.
And it's typically a ranchos.
What's the ranchos?
Where was rancheros. Yes.
But there's this lemon ricotta pancake that she makes.
I mean, come on, with blueberries. It's ridiculous.
You can't turn it. You got to get that in something else.
And then West Hartford Lock, we also have West Hartford locks.
So that's, with that being said, three keys that you feel that are very
that are good, important to you, that make you a great financial advisor.
What a three keys.
Well,
The I'm there to serve.
So I think, one of the things that's.
Folks, miss,
is the spiritual aspect of your business.
And the Marine Corps, we had a marine hymn.
Wasn't a song, was a hymn.
So the key to leadership and the key to planning
and the key to organizing and discipline,
something that underlies it is, is the spiritual aspect of it.
And how do you make meaning out of that?
It's through service.
So, you know, being a servant,
to my families
in that regard, is is powerful, okay.
Service.
And then it's leadership.
So leadership what's the key to leadership.
And that is vision.
You have to have a vision for what it is that you want.
And asking yourself what you want
is one of the more spiritual questions you can ask yourself.
If you want
a proper response.
I came to grips with that again.
In the Marine Corps, you have to get around
people who are talking about honor, courage, and commitment.
And if you talk about honor and courage
and commitment, those are spiritual terms.
So leadership has its foundation on that.
What's the what's the what's the base
word of discipline?
So, Pinn.
Disciple, you're hilarious.
Disciple and disciple.
If you're a disciple, you're committed to something larger than yourself.
So you got service.
You got leadership, which is,
vision.
And then,
I want to
look if if there's a lot of disharmony
in people's financial situation,
you'll find that the problem is behind what you think.
And it has to do with engaging your values.
In other words, it has to do with engaging that which is important to you.
So I was at the, UConn speaking to the UConn engineers
a couple weeks ago, and I had them list five things that are important to them
on the paper, and they wrote it down.
And I said, I some on the other side of the paper said, list
five things that you spend most of your time and attention on.
And they wrote it down.
I was like, are those two things aligned?
How you spend your time and attention?
That's what you value.
If you say that you value your health,
but you're not training your body,
if you say that you value your education, but you're not spending
time in the library, you're spending time elsewhere,
which you're also probably spending money elsewhere.
If those two things aren't, align your resources,
your blood and treasure are going elsewhere.
I like it.
If you can come to that right now.
I'm already not matching up.
You're not matching up with the.
Phone these days. You know.
It's just, well, the phone has to do with one of the larger,
aspects of not just financial wellness, but personal wellness.
And that's, I call it making the climb.
And the phone is, is a distraction.
So many people,
walk around the mountain
looking up the mountain and, complaining about how high it is
talking about people that are
making the climb themselves.
Not taking that step.
And you can spend years walking around the mountain complaining.
It's easier to climb, it's easier to make the climb.
And that the struggle
is something that
confuses people.
It's like it shouldn't be a struggle if it was meant to be.
No, that's not true.
We actually want the struggle.
That's where the self-respect comes from.
That's where the feeling of accomplishment and honor come from.
So it's counter.
It's counterintuitive, but it's real.
Yeah, I like that. Climb the mountain.
Make the climb.
Someone who is a spelling smith had a director.
She was a podcast guest.
She's like, you don't try to move them a whole mountain, rock by rock.
So it's almost like step by step, climb the mountain, move.
And like in your make your.
First step, make that first climb.
Tick, tick, tick.
The step.
So we got the three keys I was good three keys.
We talked about education.
We talked about Marines.
We talked about financial advisor.
That's fun.
That's a lot of fun.
Now, When I talk about.
Scholar, athlete.
A scholar, that's that that goes on to offer, I'll tell you,
the scholar athlete that, you know, my children are doing phenomenal.
And I held my children accountable
to that as well.
That was my perspective as I parented.
I parented through my kids through sport,
and I parent and parent did them through
being good folks and coachable through that aspect.
And then the intellectual part,
just being brilliant in the basics, being brilliant in basics.
And that context helped me because it grounded me, right?
It made it just made sense to me.
So that's how I parented.
And I have a daughter who's graduating from the University of Virginia
next month, my second son, he's playing baseball in Johnson, Wales.
He's pitching on that team, part of a wonderful team of,
guys that are that embraced him.
And I couldn't be more grateful.
They're having a wonderful experience, and I got a sophomore in a junior who are
athletic.
They have great friends.
They're strong.
In high school.
They're in high school. Yet?
I'm not sure.
You know, playing sports and lacrosse and field hockey for my youngest daughter
and and baseball and basketball for my junior son.
And I'm just, you know, scholar athlete.
It worked for me.
And was it was the act of reflection
that we talked about earlier.
And how would I have gone through middle school,
high school if I if you had to do it all over again,
you don't stop there, like,
okay, what would you have done differently?
What would have been the effect
if I would have had the proper attitude, if I was coachable?
I played pretty good baseball and in college,
it would have been different.
I would have been a scholar athlete if I would have read the books.
So I made it a point, probably the same time
that I decided to stay in the Marine Corps to become that dude,
become that scholar athlete, go for the advanced
degree, train in CrossFit, lift the weight, do all of that stuff.
And now I'm leading by example.
My children wake up, they see me.
I'm the one up reading the books.
They're hanging out with their friends and they they're the one who see
me, see me go out for the run.
So when I ask them
to do certain things, I'm leading by example.
It's there's a level of authenticity comes through there.
And I it's been fairly it's been recent
where I realized that that whole
outlook and way of parenting
was incredibly fruitful because the kids were spectacular.
We went out for Easter brunch, and my other three kids were out.
We went out to eat with my mother in law and how they get along magical
and see the results of that.
And to know that what you did worked
and you know, you continue to do that.
I mean,
every day, every day I wake up
and I'm thankful.
It's awesome.
But that's not you got four kids.
Yeah. Alexis.
Gosh, 22.
Who was the kid in this picture?
So you're in the,
Alexa, Elijah, Lucas and Sierra.
And then these kids are.
So again, we could go through pictures.
Oh, wait, there's another one.
But you're at these kids where?
What was he doing?
Must have been playing soccer in Florida.
Oh, those are my two dudes. Those are my dudes.
That's my kids. Yeah, those are my.
Those the one on the.
Actually, the taller one is the younger one.
He's 17 now, Lucas.
And then Elijah is 18. He's a Johnson Wells
very it's dude I that I who's who's living better than that.
That's living a dream. It's really is.
And so what's the, what's the strategy there?
I tell people it's all time for that because there
I mean his Lucas is probably six one.
He's still grown.
His mom, I think, is five two.
I'm six foot. You feed them?
Yeah. You feed them like D1 athletes.
Feed them like D1 athletes. Yeah.
I'm going to send that to Stephania.
We'll pop that up on the screen.
I got to see my boys on the same
baseball field high school baseball field at the same time.
And I didn't tell anyone at the time but I was in heaven.
Dude that was a dream for me.
You talk about vision, you talk about what you want
for your family, what you want for your legacy.
I mean, that was a dream right there, a dream come true.
And it was something
that was very meaningful for me to see them play on the same field.
And I know that they get along well.
It, you know,
powerful, powerful image for as a parent.
That's awesome. You know, congrats.
But the best thing you can have
or the most proud thing I I'm talking for myself too.
But just having great kids have.
Yeah. That says a lot for your parent.
What your parenting style and
just the other day I went to school and I got a compliment from,
like, the principal at Connor about both of my girls.
And it's like, feels great.
And then I see their coach, another compliment.
And then I see the vice principal.
So I was, like, overwhelmed with.
Pride, you know?
So I think it's a benefit of, you know, you again,
we talked about earlier, you being for the right reasons
and just like appreciating young people and being fascinated with them,
you know, just.
And now if you treat your own children like that, you know, you
you inquire, you, your, your patient, your
it, and it
just works out because because you're authentic.
So rather than
I found out very quickly that kids see through fraud and pretense,
very quickly.
So if you're not real, I mean, you're going to it's
going to be a, a rough go.
So you.
Yeah. Don't do that.
Now. It's great.
Now you're doing good things.
I'm glad to have talk with you.
This is episode 134. Wow.
We talked. So now golfing.
So you had a golf, but I'm going to name three golfers.
You got to sit one on the bench, you got to start one
and you got to cut one.
Sit start, cut.
Yeah.
What you playing.
What I this is I want to get a name I want to get this.
And you know I don't, I don't I watch
I watch my kids sports, I don't watch sports although I watch the Masters.
Okay. I was rooting for Rory.
But you know what came?
What comes to mind is, I think why we get along so well.
There's there's three reasons.
One, I already mentioned you're in this.
You're in this business for the right reason.
And what you're doing is great.
The other, time was when you
you were at the baseball field.
I was with my, my, my kids at the baseball field.
And I was like, what are you doing here? Is like, well, I'm.
I'm getting a hotdog.
I was like, you have a kid here playing baseball.
He's like, no, I live across the street. I came here for lunch.
Someone who comes at lunch to the baseball field.
The local. Yep.
Little League baseball field, right?
Oh, my God. I was like, this is amazing. So I'll either.
No a parent. Yeah. Or a player 100%.
At 100% of a time.
And to to that you walked over and had lunch at the baseball field
with the youth. Baseball was magical.
And the other is that we have a mutual friend of Rob Oliver, and I,
if you give me a top three, he's one of the guys that I play golf
with all day long.
He's a great human being.
And and that's another reason you get along well with him.
And he's my person, and, Yeah, that's
that's who I'd play.
An answer.
The question I did answer the question right there. Yeah.
Rob Oliver was my first West Hartford friend.
Really?
Because we went to a haunted, a Halloween
movie in the woods for the school, and we're, like, meeting all the parents.
And he's like, hey, I'm Rob, I'm Eric.
Where are you from? Waterbury. I'm from Waterbury.
Yeah, we've been friends ever since.
He he he makes your life better.
He's a great dude.
Yeah. Amazing person. Yeah, yeah.
Cool.
Rob Oliver, I was going to say Sid Stark.
Cut Rob Oliver,
John Decker or Brendan Moore, but be.
More. Yeah, he's do too.
Yeah.
You got a picture with John Decker golfing?
Yeah, I played well. I had his son.
I taught two of his children, two of his three children.
I had
Jack and Meredith.
Re kidding me. Gotcha.
Amazing kids, amazing families in West Hartford.
Yeah. So special.
John Decker, episode 65 on his birthday.
Yeah.
Yeah. And be more.
This is great, man. It's a great thing you got going on.
So yeah, I'm really I want to thank Direct Line Media for the opportunity
to sit down with good people that doing great things in the community.
Dave had me on from his behind the brand.
And as I left, I said, hey, can I do the podcasting?
Can I ask the questions?
And here we are, 134 episodes later.
I'm proud of you, man. Yeah, no, we hit it off.
I saw you again. The males in elementary school.
When you go to a meeting and you're in a room for 50 teachers.
Yeah, two of them are male.
Yeah. It's so it's like, hey.
Yeah.
What's up? Let's meet.
Let's say hi to each other at least.
But yeah, we, we golfed for the we are the for the union.
The union. Golf.
I'm the treasurer. West Hartford retired educator.
You are. I'm the treasurer, dude. Oh, nice.
Yeah. Yeah. You were.
You saw Marty. You saw Dave.
Did you saw Theresa.
We have our brunch coming up next month at Rockledge, and it's going to.
I'm have someone from my firm coming to talk about the Social Security
Fairness Act.
So doing good things there as well.
Oh, nice. Yeah.
Yeah.
What's that about now?
Teachers weren't allowed to get Social Security, but now we can.
Now you can. It's a he's going to explain it.
That's why I got a smart baby.
I'm the child right. I'm not. He'll explain it that
full disclosure.
Not giving any advice on that.
You got to come to the brunch or give me a call
and I'll get.
I'll get her on the phone. Yeah.
You got the, data.
That and the time and the phone number.
15th. 15th.
I'm going to put it out on my social media.
I just, it's the brunch at Rockledge.
It's it starts at 11, 11 or 2 on the 15th.
Yeah, because I'm leaving the 16th to go to Virginia for my daughter's graduation.
So. May 15th, 1102 Rockledge.
How do people reach you, Rick?
You got a phone number, email you'd like to share, a website I got.
Can you can you put it up?
I mean, do I give, but just give my phone number out 86068093568606809356.
Find me, you can find me.
I'm in West Hartford often at Trevor Travel. Yep.
What about all right. Great. So
just a couple of upcoming events.
We have a balloon gin mile.
We're collaborating with two for one friends of Feeney's hosting
bingo at Raymore and Flanagan on May 6th, 532 eight.
Check that out. Memorial day parade.
Oh, speaking of which, Memorial Day parade are you going to answer me?
We'll talk about it, I. Thought I did.
You want to talk about an hour or you off right now?
We'll talk.
We'll talk about it later.
Because like we we were going to go away.
But I think we're going to be home if we, if we can lock that in.
I'll do that. Okay. I'd be honored.
That'd be great. Yeah. No. All right.
We got exciting news.
I'll share next podcast, Hartford Athletic.
June 6th, Bristol Blues.
You ever go to a Bristol Blues game? Those are fun, too, Joe.
July 12th, 25 bucks. All you can eat.
All you can drink to watch baseball in Bristol.
Babe Ruth played there
the fourth annual
Friends of Nicholas game at the Hartford Yard Goats, August 16th,
and then the fourth annual golf tournament September 13th.
When you going to play or play?
September 13th?
It's a Saturday in September.
You got to give me a calendar.
I got work on the calendar now and then.
We could look for sponsors.
We'd love to have Bay State Financial be a sponsor.
Yeah. Bay State's great.
So independent large independent firm out of Boston.
Broker dealers, MassMutual.
Fantastic. Organization.
One of the big mutuals. So solid.
And then our seventh annual makerspace, kids build with cardboard and duct tape.
So wonderful event at Elmwood Senior Center.
I want to shout out my guys ball for a cure.
They were just recently the recipients of the
honorees for the West Hartford Saint Patrick's Day
section of the Hartford Saint Patrick's Day Parade.
My guys Cole, Luke, Aiden, Brian,
Brandon, Max, Matt, Tommy, and Will ball for a cure.
Luke's going to be a future guest. Yeah.
Good people ball for a cure.
All West Hartford guys. They were in high school.
They had a classmate have cancer.
They raised money by playing basketball next year.
You know, they're playing basketball.
They're doing a golf events. They're doing concerts. They're doing.
Yeah. Raising money. Great kids, great kids.
So West Hartford's a good player. From the hood, dude.
They're from my hood neighborhood. Oh, yeah. Tom, your.
Yeah, yeah, lives right over by you.
Yeah. And we.
So we talk. Favorite teacher. You've been mentioned a lot.
Do you have a favorite teacher in ever interior?
Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh.
It's between Mrs.
Cohn.
It's my sixth grade teacher and Miss Mealey, my kindergarten teacher.
Nice. Yeah.
Special people back in town, back in Bellville.
Any recommendations or closing remarks or questions for me?
This is this is great, dude.
You just keep doing what you're doing.
You know, if you the one of the keys to perseverance,
the most important thing is to love what you do and your love what you do. So
let's keep doing that.
Thanks, Rick.
I appreciate that, and I honestly do love what I do.
Teaching is, you know,
I, like you said, teach having my daughters in the same school.
So teaching in West Hartford and living with Hartford, great.
But teaching at the same school my daughters went to.
It was a dream come true.
So, and the West Hartford great education system.
And, My second year, I had both my neighbor's kids in my in my class.
That's great. You can't beat that.
What are you going to do with that? That's awesome.
I got a neighbor like she's in second grade.
I call her neighbor, and I'm like.
When you come in next year
and her dad owns a restaurant and I'm like, hey, I can I want some free food.
Free food. Right? Perks. What a perks.
Yeah. Spectacular, man.
Thanks again. This is awesome.
All right then, one.
But while we did mention something, are you down with O.p.p?
Did you. That's so amazing.
I can't tell you what.
What minute or minute? Minute 18 in.
But that was one of the last things I did before I ran on to the Marine Corps.
Is that video?
And, it's been pretty interesting.
You get a lot of drinks bought for you in the suburbs
when you mention that you're in that video.
So, so funny.
You down? What? O.p.p.
Yeah. You know me.
All right.
So, yeah, we talked everything we wanted to.
That's it. Man, this is great having me on, I appreciate that.
Yeah. Rick, you're a wonderful person.
I appreciate your, compliments and kind words.
You're a great person, your inspiration.
You're definitely a role model to me.
So keep up the good work.
Wonderful to sit down and talk with you.
This was episode 134.
Feeney talks with friends.
We're here at Rick Wells, a Bay state financial.
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Let's say be a good friend.
Family readiness. Let's go. Family readiness.
All right. 123
family readiness.
What I'm going to say be a good friend.
Oh okay.
123. Be a good friend.