Grizz In Biz Podcast

Hi, I'm Dr. Chuck Pierce, Dean of the School of Business at Oakland University. I'm thrilled to welcome you to our podcast, Grizz in Biz. Here at the School of Business, we see ourselves as more than just a place to learn. We're a community where students connect with experiences that shape their futures and inspire them to tackle the world's challenges with confidence and curiosity. What does that look like in action? Let's highlight some of our recent impactful developments.

First, congratulations to our graduating class of 2024-2025. Our top majors were Finance, Marketing, and Accounting. Impressively, nearly 20% of students graduated with a minor and over half graduated with departmental honors. It's inspiring to watch our students cross the stage, ready to launch their careers and pursue their goals.

We're also expanding academic opportunities to meet student interests and market demand. Starting in fall 2025, we are launching a sport management minor. This program is designed to prepare students for careers in sports, entertainment, and beyond. We're thrilled to add this option to our curriculum and know it will be a strong addition for our future graduates.

In addition to new programs, our existing MBA programs continue to be recognized for their excellence. In the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings, our part-time MBA was once again highlighted among the best. CEO Magazine's 2025 Global MBA Rankings placed our MBA program in the Tier 1 category, ranked our Executive MBA program number 43 globally, and our Online MBA came in at number 57. These rankings reflect the quality of our programs, our faculty, and the dedication of our students.

Now, let's get started with today's episode. As you know, this podcast highlights the experiences of Golden Grizzlies who demonstrate growth, resilience, and meaningful achievement in their careers. Today's guest is a perfect example of what it means to be a Grizzly, a driven leader making an impact in her field. Let's dive into her story. Ainsley, take it away.

Thank you, Dean Pierce. Hello everyone, my name is Ainsley O'Neill and I'm a senior marketing student here at Oakland University. You might have seen me on campus through my involvement with the Honors College, my sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma, or through being an intern here at the School of Business. After graduation, I plan to pursue a career in marketing with the long-term goal of becoming a chief marketing officer. Today, I'm excited to be your host for this episode of the Grizz and Biz podcast, representing the student perspective in the conversation with an inspiring alum and accomplished business professional.

Let's dive into this special episode and hear from one of our accomplished alum.

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Grizz in Biz podcast. Today, I have the pleasure of sitting here with Geraldine Barnuevo, the vice president of sustainability at GE Aerospace and an OU MBA graduate. Geraldine is an environmental and sustainability strategist professional with more than 20 years of experience in the automotive and aerospace industry. Prior to GE, Geraldine spent 20 years working at General Motors in many roles of increasing responsibility in several geographic areas.

Geraldine holds a bachelor's in environmental engineering from SEK in Ecuador, a master's in the same field from the University of Illinois, and an MBA from Oakland University. Geraldine, we are so excited to have you here as a guest on the Grizz in Biz podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. Of course. How are you doing? Doing great. Doing good, you know? Good. Glad to hear it. So I talked a little bit about your background, but I would love to hear more about how you came to your current role today, and just more about your personal and professional life.

Sure. Well, born and raised in Ecuador, a little country in South America. And I guess the beginning was when I was in high school and I was looking for what I'm going to study, what I'm going to do, and ran aross a few environmental issues happening in my country that pushed me to now what is my profession. So I had to witness some of the environmental oil releases, oil spills in Ecuador, some of the large ones when I was young.

Back at the at that time, there was no sustainability or anything like that. Environmental engineering was kind of new. So I decided to go in that direction and completed my undergrad there. I started my career after my undergrad with General Motors in Ecuador. I was the first environmental engineer at that assembly plant in Ecuador. First female engineer, you know, at the very small assembly plant. But then two years after that, had the fortune to go to Fulbright Scholarship and I came here to the US, to the University of Illinois to do my masters in remediation and environmental engineering. Then the story continues because after I finished my masters, I went back to General Motors, Ecuador, Brazil, ended up here in the US in 2008, right when the crisis was happening. and that, yeah, you know, had like a lot of different opportunities, different geographies, work a lot of people, always trying to make things better. And that has been the, that has been what wakes me up in the morning, the fact that I have these projects where you are either when I was doing remediation, working on a legacy issue, cleaning up soil or groundwater to when I was at a manufacturing sites, working on implementing management programs to make the environmental systems work better, less waste, less discharges, less, less, of that. And seven years ago, I had the opportunity to jump into the sustainability field which a lot of people think sustainability just in environmental terms, right? Like climate change and that kind of thing. And it's not.

Actually, when you think about sustainability, some people talk about sustainability in terms of ES and G, environmental, social, and governance. And I had to, know, learn about like these other things that previously, you know, was all about environmental, but in the social area, you...

You look at labor and human rights and that type of thing. Very interesting. And the governance you learn when you're in this field about how you organize the structure so you can have like truly a pillar all the way up to the board and down and you have working groups. So yeah, it has been a pretty exciting journey. Twenty-three years.

You know, don't do the math, please, don't do the math. I won't, I won't. But that is so fascinating to hear more about that and to also just learn what a wide field sustainability is. Because I definitely went in thinking just on the environmental side, but to learn just how wide a scope of subjects it covers is absolutely fascinating.

Yes and you have to work with a lot of people because obviously you're not like the SME in every single area. So that's, think, the unique thing about sustainability that you have to work with so many people inside a company from the folks that are at the floor, manufacturing level, all the way to the finance people. so as you can imagine, my MBA came very handy as part of my sustainability journey because I knew the terms, I knew what they were after. So making those connections helped me to move my agenda forward. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm sure it's a lot of collaborative work, working with all the different people, all the different teams. So it's good to hear that all the skills that I've been learning in the classroom so far in my undergrad are definitely going to apply after college. Awesome.

So tell me a bit about what a typical day looks like for you in your role as the VP of Sustainability.

A lot of meetings, a lot of people in a single day, you go sometimes from being a strategist, looking ahead, looking at, you know, what is coming down your way. In this area of sustainability, there is a lot of emerging regulations, especially in Europe and other parts of the world. So, you know, like always having that strategist that is important. So you think about, you know, what's coming next.

You go through like working with your team and being a leader for the 10 or 20, 40 people, know, what is, I had a team of 40 people working on environmental and sustainability. Here I have a smaller team, six plus, know, we're starting the program, but doesn't matter the number. At the end of the day, you are a people leader and you have to care, you know, for your teams and your team members and make sure that they are excited and are clear about their objectives and that you can help them. So that is a big part of my job. then the third one is really this cross-functional work and make sure that there is always a win-win when you work with other function.

So, because you are always asking them to do stuff or provide information, you know, how do you find that balance where they see value in what you are asking them to work with you on? So, yeah, and some days you work with other companies, you know, in this area, that is a nice thing. Just today I had a meeting with other peers and we were talking about the issues common to the industry when it comes to sustainability. So, very dynamic days, not, you know, like too much time to, it is very dynamic. Yeah,

That's really interesting to hear just what a wide range of things that you do in a day and just how flexible and as you said, dynamic that position is. What do you think is the most rewarding part of your job? Like what's your favorite part of your day?

Well, when you get a, I am an engineer at heart, know, so when there has been a problem and after, and it's maybe not at the end of the day, you can come to, I resolve that issue. Very rewarding. In the area of sustainability, you make publications, sustainability reports, like projects that take six months, working with 150 to 100 people. When you put one of those reports out showing everything that a company is doing when it comes to sustainability, very rewarding. But also rewarding when you have a one-on-one with one of your employees and they come back and tell you that you helped them somehow or that, know, they, you know, like that piece, I think that is really important and rewarding to me, the people leader one.

That's awesome. That's awesome. I was actually reading through one of your reports. I think it was the most recent one from GE just before we came on here. And it was so fascinating to just see everything come together and how comprehensive it was and just what a wide range of subjects that it covered.

Thank you for reading that, know. It's like 50, 60, 70 pages. They are becoming shorter in the past. You know, the more pages, the better. Now it's about, you know, keep it sweet and a little more condensed. Absolutely. But the metrics still like, know, like a lot. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure.

So being a vice president of sustainability, was that always your career goal to be in like a higher-up leadership position or has that kind of evolved over time? It has evolved, you know, I am not too, I don't believe in org charts. don't believe in the hierarchical, the hierarchy of things. I think that if you find like a position that you can wake up every morning and feel energized and feel that you're making a difference and have a team you know that you can help and influence and at the same time I have interns in my team. Right now we are hosting an intern and like the possibility of helping them to move forward in the career. That's very rewarding to me. That is what keeps me going more than I'm going to get this title or that title. That has never been my way to think about future.

Nice. Nice. And as someone who's in an intern position right now, I'm always so grateful to anyone who's willing to give me a chance to network with them, just learn more from them, and even just speaking with you, the opportunity to just learn more about a field that I don't know very much about is always incredible. So thank you again for taking the time to be here.

What keeps you passionate about the work that you do every day? I have a 12-year-old daughter. Nice. So I think that sometimes, you know, it's easy to get really frustrated and concerned about what is going around us when it comes to the environment. Know, we read the news. I'm not going to go over that.

Thinking that what I am doing somehow is gonna help her and her generation in the future, that keeps me motivated. Also the whole idea of being a role model to her, but it's perfect, not perfect, but I try to be a role model to her and show her about hard work and about dedication, discipline, leadership capabilities. So that's one of the things that keeps me up in my feet and trying to do my best always.

Yeah, that's so amazing to hear how much you care about it and how you've made such a personal connection with it, trying to reshape things and make the world a better place for your daughter. That's just so sweet to hear. How do you find yourself bringing some of these sustainability practices into your daily life? Because I'm sure it's very different on a corporate level versus like a daily level, but how much does that kind of cross over?

Well, you know, we're very strict when it comes to recycling at home. Recycling at home, managing energy. Just yesterday I was telling my husband, hey, we need to put some solar panels on our house. We don't have shame on us. We don't have those yet. But we need to think about that. The fact that I work remotely somehow also helps. I work remotely, so.

I am not using the past to drive 45 minutes back and forth. I'm thinking, was all of that fueled, to be honest, know, worth it when you see that we have been able to transition society to a place where you can do your work from anywhere. Yeah, yeah. There are some fields where you can't, but in so many others you can.

So even thinking about that and my first, one of my first cars was an electric vehicle. like a few things like that, what I wanna do more absolutely yes, but sometimes like the infrastructure in our country is not the best. I love when I go to Europe and it's a little bit more like environmentally conscientious, we would say. But always trying. And yeah, I think that my job of mentoring others and creating awareness in company, companies, know, big companies, hopefully that will have a cascading effect that it will be a multiplying, you know, positive, positive outcome of that. Yeah, for sure.

So I know you've been in the environment and sustainability field for quite some time now. What are some of the biggest changes that you've noticed since you started out to today? Well, that is a great question. Because when I started, environmental engineering was kind of a new field now. Many universities offer that in many shapes and colors. And there was no such thing as sustainability. Like maybe 15 years ago or so the term corporate social responsibility started to become popular and the UN Global Compact here in the US. And then, 10 years ago when the Paris Agreement was signed, then the focus on climate became elevated with investors and everybody pushing that agenda more regulations in the area. So it has been through like transitions, ups and downs. What is clear to me is that for companies, for countries, there is risk associated with climate that needs to be assessed, identified, measured, mitigate, because it's really dollars behind a potential know, effects of climate change. Let's look just to what happens in California or Florida, right? In Florida, some regions you cannot find flood insurance because of how recurrent the flooding from hurricanes is nowadays. Same thing in California with the wildfires. there is a lot of people, know that scientists, you know, have a lot of evidence that is climate change one is causing a lot of those a meteorological changes. A lot of people don't agree with that. But I think we need to look at the facts. Yeah, absolutely. something is happening. So and if we can do something about that, we should.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for telling me so much about that. It's so interesting to see, because I know even just for someone who doesn't have much involvement in the industry, just seeing how general sustainability trends have changed, even from when I was back in middle and high school through today, and to see how much more popular things like recycling and composting and just finding ways throughout your life to make yourself more environmentally conscious and find the things that you do every day, ways to make those better is really interesting. Yeah, a lot of things, know, like especially in our country to still work on, is opportunities. I say those are opportunities, yeah, think that especially the younger generation is becoming more conscientious because you have education and all of those things, and you are guys pushing us, which is a good thing, we need that. yeah, we to keep it going. Yeah, absolutely.

Do you think that social media and just the rise of more communication through social media, has that had an influence on your industry? Absolutely. everything, right? Everything. I think that government, investors, that has been also one of the things that is pushing them to either create more regulation or think about, know, what are the topics that they need to look at when they are investing in a company, because reputation is very important for a company, especially a large company. That's how the communication piece fits into that. Awesome. That's really good to learn, good to learn more about.

What do you think has been the biggest challenge so far in your career?

Getting, you have to work with many people, as I said, and sustainability for a lot of those functions is not like a list of their priorities, right? When I work with many of my peers in finance or legal, they don't have the sustainability title. So convincing them that it's worth it to spend some of their time working on things, you know, that will support this agenda. Like even, you know, sustainability, we... Every company has a small team or large team, but like the Fortune 500 companies, like a team and a budget. So even creating the business case for why you need that, it's still you have to create a business case. It's not still something that it's… given, Like other areas in a company that's given you need to have like health and safety, you need to have HR. Still, you need to make that, create a business case of why you need to work in this area. yes, you know, like something that you have to work on, but as I say, you know, like it's becoming more and more clear why a company needs to.

Yeah, yeah. It sounds like you almost have to put together your sales pitch on why it's important, sell it to whoever you're trying to communicate with. Absolutely. And as I said, you know, when we're working with others, where they can get a win out of what you want them to work on. Yeah. Showing them what they can gain from it why they should care. exactly. Awesome.

So I want to switch gears a little bit and talk more about Oakland and your MBA. So what led you to choose Oakland for your MBA?

Honestly, when I completed my MBA, I was working full-time. I was also in the process of becoming a mom and I didn't want to do it online. There are a lot of universities that offer you an online option. I wanted a university where I can be in-person and create the relationship and get to work with my peers and my professors and working back in the day, know, for GM, I live obviously close to this area and Oakland was like the perfect place for me geographically, like also look at a couple of other options, talk to a couple of professors and I decided that this is my place. We were talking about at the beginning to me, like six years to finish my MBA, so very patient with me. But I was like working and having a small baby and all of that. So I would take like one class a semester, you know, like and even during summers, I would try to take one. So to me, that was, you know, important. Yeah, just having that flexibility, flexibility, still have.

So many things on your plate, which with all of those things going on, having a kid and working and still being in classes, how did you try and find that work-life balance between being so involved in school and working, but also making time for your family?

It's about project management. Project management skills, know, as an engineer, I have a list for everything, like a schedule and trying to compartmentalize. When I was with my kid, work and school were out. I would put my kid to sleep at nine and then I would have like two hours to do my homework. And during the weekend, my husband would be on call, you know, like on Sunday. it's...There is no other way around it. You have to organize your time really well. Yeah, I'm sure you could pull some of those engineering project management, detail-oriented schedule skills over into that. I have, like my husband always jokes with me because I have like a whiteboard in my office at home and I have like my list of things what I'm going to accomplish this week and I have

It's a pleasure when it’s done. Great. You can finally cross something off and it's all done. yeah, engineering, those engineering skills are very, very valuable. Yeah, nice.

So I know you said that you really liked being in person and getting to connect with your professors for your classes, but now you work remote, how did you make that decision to go remote instead of working in person, have those same sort of connections with your coworkers or your team members?

I had the opportunity to move to Cincinnati, where my company's headquarters. However, as I mentioned, my daughter is 12 years old. had already, she was born here in this area. She's an only child with tties to the community were very strong. I didn't really want to have her go through that. And they gave me the opportunity to be remote.

Okay, you know, I'm gonna travel, but I am still traveling once or twice a month for two, two days, three days. I try to be in person with people. believe it or not, know, even at home, I am on teams with the camera that helps so much. When I have like whole meetings with my team and we're all there and collaborating and working real time. So you just have to find the way that you make the technology work for you. Back in the day, and I say back in the day because when I started my MBA, it was what, 2012, 13, 12 I think, there was not the technology that we have now. You will have the video recordings and you will get the work sent by email. So there was not like that interaction that we now can have. So that was one of the things that has changed since then.

Yeah, that's so interesting to hear because I know with a lot of my classes, there's just so many different options for how they're presented. So to try and think of a time when doing online classes or doing Zoom calls for your classes wasn't a thing. That's just kind of crazy for me to think about. Yes, you know? Yeah. Yeah. How do you think the MBA program prepared you for the leadership roles that you've taken on since? Like, those, I took classes on leadership, HR. And although those were not the ones that came the easiest to me, you can imagine with that background in engineering, I love finance and accounting, those were like, oh my God, this is great numbers. But the other classes were a little bit more like soft skills. When I was going through that, I was like, wow, you know? But it really helps you to, when you become a leader, to create your style, to think about how to motivate your employees. When you do career planning, how to work on those things, when you have issues, how to handle some of those issues. So I think that those classes in my MBA actually had helped me a lot in knowing this stage of my career as a leader, people leader.

Because when you're in engineering school, you don't get those things. Yeah. And you can learn and develop, know, not everybody has to go through an MBA. But when you have that, theory, right, you have to go through the theory, then, you know, it makes more sense when you are trying to apply it. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to hear a lot of the stuff that you're doing in the classroom that helped you move forward in your career and helped you kind of, you know,become more well-rounded, since you had a lot of experience with, like you said, the numbers and all that engineering sort of stuff. all of that, right? Yes. To move in an organization.

Definitely, you have to cover all these other aspects. Yeah, that's good to hear. Now's your little chance for a shout out. So were there any OU professors or classes or anything that you feel particularly helped you and made a lasting impact on you? I took a marketing class that it was really good, know, talking about that you always have to market what you do and your business case and thinking about your customer when you're doing that, you know, like it's really important. I, like my HR classes, you know, really helped me and what I learned about conflict management, very, very important. So yeah, the curriculum is really well you know, put together. I enjoyed a lot of a lot of the classes. Pretty much all the classes were great. Yeah, I can, you know, I couldn't have asked for more.

Yeah, that's awesome. And as a marketing student myself, I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the marketing program. I found it to be just absolutely, absolutely amazing in terms of, you know, the diversity of what they cover and just all the things I've learned already. Yeah, I meant to check if some of my professors were still around. I couldn't, but Janell Townsend, that, rings a bell. Maybe. I'm not 100 % sure. She was my marketing, one of my marketing professors. yes. That's awesome. I remember her fondly. Yeah. Good.

Well, that's great to hear. For students hoping to advance to leadership roles in the future, what kind of advice do you have for them?

Yes, very important to think about teams, know, like we can only accomplish so much on our own. So think about the system, you know, when you start your career, think about the system. How can you impact other areas? How can you learn about other areas? Expand, you know, like your knowledge, be curious, be always curious, ask questions. I think that I love when my team or my interns ask questions and keep dreaming. It's important. Yeah, that's good to hear. And I'm always someone who loves to ask lots of questions. I'm glad that you think that that's valuable skill as well as just looking at the organization overall and finding where you can bring value to the table. Never wait to be like, always look like what else can you help with? How can you add value? You may not be like what is in your role, like describe, but people always,

People are always looking what is going around like leaders. for me, when somebody goes above and beyond, he tries to learn and help, it means a lot. That means that somebody that you can groom and help because it's curious and wants to learn. Yeah. Are there any other kind of skills or mindsets that you think are valuable for someone in a leadership role or looking to eventually step into a leadership role?

Think project management is really a good one. I have a certificate, I took a class, actually in project management. It's basic, you know, like skills, but really important. A lot of people struggle, believe it or not, with time management, even as a professional. And it's, you know, something that is so easy to come around and come with some practical skills on how to manage your time and organize things. I think that if people have the opportunity to learn about that, that's a skill that in your professional life, personal life, always helpful.

Yeah. So how do you find ways to manage your time and keep all of these things going in your life?

I have a calendar on my phone. I connect with my husband. I have a calendar with my team. I try to make it there when I have to be there and be out when it's time to go home. Actually, after this meeting at four.

I'm gonna pick up my daughter, she's here at Oakland, know? Doing a sports camp, so that's gonna be my time. I pick her up and that's my time to go with her and have fun, you know, until she goes to bed and then it starts all over again. That's so cool, what sports camp is she doing here? She is doing a soccer camp. Oh, that's awesome. She is a soccer player, so last week she was here at Oakland doing a bioengineering camp.

Because you they offer those here at Oakland is fantastic. And now she's doing the soccer one. So yeah, she's also a Grizzly. Nice. Hopefully, another future Grizzly in the making. Yes. That's awesome. I have great memories of doing the engineering camps here as a kid. And just it was so much fun to learn about that, even though that's not where I ended up going, but still an amazing experience. Yes, absolutely. Nice.

So for students who are interested in sustainability, what kind of things do you recommend that they do while they're in school to kind of set them up for success to stay on top of trends in the industry? Well, I would love if Oakland will offer like a symposium or a class or something around sustainability. I have had the opportunity to collaborate with some universities, you know, as coming to a class or coming to a series of classes and teaching and going through like what to, the theory and then you know like examples. But I think that will be a great way to introduce people into this area. So and the other thing you know, it's part of just webinars, right? Webinars bring like a panel and talk to people who do that and understand, as I said, when we are recruiting people, one of the questions that young professionals ask the most is about, what are your sustainability credentials as a company? What are you doing? So I think that the awareness is there now and it's important in the university to understand how a company manage reading the sustainability reports. Definitely something great to stay on top of those topics.

Yeah, I would love to come and talk with a class or so about sustainability. Yeah, and I know that's definitely something that I would love to learn more about. And it's just been such a pleasure to learn more today and just hear your wealth of knowledge and expertise.

Well, thank you again. It has been just so incredibly inspiring to hear all about your journey and your career. As we're nearing the end of this interview, do you have any final words of encouragement for students like myself or any recent grads? Keep learning, keep curious, you know. Yeah, there is a lot out there and never settle, you know, make sure that you have a job that you wake up excited every single day. Absolutely. And that's definitely something that I hope to find after graduation, something that I wake up every day and I'm excited to go in and do.

Geraldine, thank you again so much for joining us and for sharing your story and invites. It's been an honor having you on this episode of the Grizz and Biz podcast. To everyone listening, thank you so much for tuning in. To stay connected with us, please give us a follow on our social media and we'll see you next time. Bye. Thank you.

Hello everybody and welcome back to another installment of the Grizz and Biz podcast. I am your host, Evan Shalow, and a little bit about me is I am currently a junior studying marketing here at the School of Business at Oakland University, and I have the pleasure of introducing our guest for today, Bob Broderdorf, who is now the CEO of Jeep at Stellantis. So Bob, thank you so much for being here today. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you guys very much. So it should be a fun day.

Awesome. So let's just go ahead and get right into it. I see here that you are a 2002 marketing and information systems grad from the School of Business Administration. So with that being said, tell us a little bit about your background professionally, personally, and maybe what led to your current role. Yeah. So here while I went to OU, I was actually started my sort of internship was actually picking parts on the line at Centerline Michigan at a parts distribution center.

So that was my first entry into what was the original Chrysler at the time. And then that really led to a whole host of things. At the time, the dot coms were exploding. And what became interesting, so there was a lot of MIS grads back then, people that were going after it, and then the dot, then really the bubble burst. And all of us were pretty much out of work and there was no really where to go. And at the same time, 9-11 hit.

So then most of the companies actually in the area weren't hiring. So weirdly, I went from picking parts on the line to actually started working at OnStar as a phone operator, even though I had just graduated from college. So that was weirdly my first entry into the auto industry. And from there, Chrysler actually called back to work the phones and deal with people who were outside of warranty and see if we could assist them with any problems that had with their cars. That was my start into the auto industry here in Detroit. And from there, lots of opportunities.

began to unfold. And then for me there strangely, once you're in a call center and you're like, I need to graduate, I need to get out of this thing as fast as humanly possible. They had an opportunity in the field and it was a sales division where I actually got relocated across the country and my sales career took off from there and strangely that kind of propelled me throughout the years to get sort of this opportunity. That is super interesting. But one of the questions that I have for you is what exactly made you attend Oakland University?

My father, so I was a Chrysler brat, my father had relocated a million times. And we had just moved my senior year of high school to Shelby Township. And I went to Eisenhower, and at this point, I was not interested in going away from home. I did not want to move again. And we started looking for colleges that I could drive to, and we came and visited OU, and just fell in love with the campus, and the style, and just sort of the atmosphere, and that it was kind of just very hands-on. So for me, I think it was a perfect fit for my lifestyle.

I wanted to still be in your family and an opportunity to drive in. And then really from there, I just took, there was a lot of opportunities that unfolded and got involved in the social community. So for me, OU was actually fundamental to my growth at that point. And I've just fallen in love with the school ever since. Wanna know something interesting? I'm the exact same way as you. I actually went to Eisenhower myself and I felt the exact same way I wanted somewhere that I could drive to, stay close to my family and make friends along the way as well. So I was in the exact same boat as you. So that's super interesting.

Yeah, no that was it was important at the time and yeah, no, I don't regret it I loved my time here. Absolutely were you involved in like any organizations or clubs or yeah, we actually so I was in a fraternity I actually for a short stint went to go play for Kampe for basketball And then that was right when they went to D1 and everybody got a lot taller and could jump a lot higher and that ended That pretty quickly. Oh, yeah So that was a very short stint in the bubble before it was actually the arena was actually created right at that time And then we actually started the hockey club crazy enough, which then became the team at the time. So, OU at that time was kind of like really, really growing, starting to become more robust. And yeah, I think I was a part of a lot of that. So, I had a lot of fun while I was here. Awesome. Glad to hear that. So, I know you are a marketing and information systems grad. What made you choose that major?

Well, so marketing and selling was something I was always interested in. And then at the time, which it's just so comical, one of the first things that they were teaching in the class, in the MIS class, was literally how to use Microsoft Office. So that's like how old I am. And I asked 1000. Yeah, yeah, that was the thing, right? So you would learn that, and then the idea of being able to sell online and leverage these things was appealing to me. That sort of that ecosystem, which is now obviously exploded today, but back then that wasn't necessarily the case. So that was my interest at the time.

Awesome. Actually for myself, the reason why I chose marketing is because actually I liked selling things as well and thinking about why people bought things. So I kinda had the same mindset as you. So that's one of the reasons why I chose marketing actually. And I loved how, I actually was initially a psychology major because I was interested in how people thought. But then I realized I did not wanna go to med school. So I decided to go the business route, but still thinking about like how people thought but business related. You and I have so much in common, man. I tell you what, because psychology is another fascination of mine. I love the way just people think and work through things. And then you kind of attribute that to sales. That's just a clear connection there that I think's interesting. Love to hear that.

So, besides school work at your time here at Oakland, what did you do to keep busy? Oh, God, either between playing sports, involved in the overall, just the community and the school and any of the social clubs in school. I was more than busy. And at the time, I actually then started becoming a basketball coach at the CYO level for St. Lawrence up the road. So I coached there for a good chunk of it. So that was kind of where I still got my basketball itch. I love coaching middle school kids.

That's a good time. That's one of my passions. Do you still do anything related to basketball throughout your free time? No, strangely enough, right, when you have kids, you think they're going to follow your same passion. So, weirdly enough, my son is now quite entrenched in soccer. So, strangely enough, the one sport I did not play, he loves. And weirdly, during COVID, I decided to learn the game of soccer and became basically a Ted Lasso. I started coaching soccer while I was working at my current job through COVID. And I started coaching as an assistant to travel soccer team.

Yeah, it was actually it was busy. No, I'm definitely busy. My schedule is definitely tight, but no it was look It's a lot of fun I love learning the game but working with the kids and watching them grow and now he's gone to a level that I certainly can't Can't help him at right now. So yeah. Yeah, your time has has passed a little bit, but oh, yeah I was way past me now. So really yeah, he's only 12. So it didn't take much to get past his dad awesome, so

If you were to look back at your college aid self, would you give any advice to yourself, or what would you say to him? During my college career, so there's really two things. I think not being afraid to dive into things you may be interested in, like really having an inquisitive, creative mind, just to go see. It's a perfect opportunity and time to do that. Second is the networking piece. You don't realize how many people that you come in contact with, they're all motivated. 

They're in the school of business trying to get out as well and they're going to make connections. So just having that relationship piece can set up careers and opportunities and finding maybe a friend that got into a company because that's a huge part of getting your start. Because once you're in the door, then it's up to you. But getting in the door really it really is helpful from a connection perspective. 

So I think I would have purposely gone out built better connections, built better relationships. Most of them, they just happened by accident. It wasn't something I necessarily intended to do, but looking back at that, still some of my best friends in life are from OU, and in the business world, where a lot of us went to the same classes, it's amazing the connections that you can generate. Absolutely, and that actually reminds me, is that why you're still here, like around the area at Stellantis, because you just love the community, or what made you stay at Stellantis? 

Well, so, at the time, so I've actually, back here, god was it 12 years ago now? So when I first was in that sales district I told you about, I got sent, my first sales district, and what's funny, the company will tell you I picked three areas in the country that you wanna go. So I picked New York where I had met my wife. I picked Chicago and Arizona where I had family. So I got sent to Charleston, South Carolina. So there you go. I moved to the South and I went from Charleston to Greenville, South Carolina, to Tampa, Florida, to Orlando, Florida, and then back home

10 year period. Wow. So at the time it's you're moving up in the career, you're getting a bigger sales area, you've got sort of more opportunity and you just kind of sell yourself out for like, hey, I'm going to move anywhere you ask me to do anything it takes just to get a bigger area and that was part of what propelled me. So no, so I wasn't back here and then obviously an opportunity to come home came about with the Dodge brand and that was something we kind of jumped at. So I had little kids, got a chance to come home. Yeah, it was fun. So, but no, we enjoy being here and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. That's awesome.

So another question I have for you is, so far throughout your career, I know you have a lot going on and you're very busy, but what would you say is one of the hardest challenges that you've dealt with so far? Look, from a hard challenges perspective, I would say, look, if you look at my career in the last 12 years, most of the brands that I've been inherited in almost every situation was in a very challenging state. So I kind of became the Mr. Fix-It, if you will, where a brand was struggling, sort of a shock to the system, get things reinvigorated. The one that I would say most people sort of remember is the Dodge brand. And many people forget that, you know, not too long ago, the number one and two selling cars was a caravan and a dart. And now today when you talk about the Dodge brand, you talk about Chargers and Challengers and Hellcats and Demons and crazy muscle cars that, you know, enthusiasts really get excited about. And that was something that I had an instrumental part in that to go from a brand that had no point of view all the way to a brand that people are rabid about was a huge moment, honestly, for me personally, as well as the fan base, and a real challenge to overcome. Absolutely. Wow.

I knew, actually I do know a lot of people that are very interested in those types of cars. So it's growing very, very rapidly. I see a lot of car meets and I see a lot of Dodge Chargers. So very interesting. But just another question that I have for you. So what's something that you experienced post-graduation that you necessarily weren't expecting and how did you overcome that? You know, I think...

It's the when you get out.

You've had this discipline in your head down the whole time. And you're learning, and you're going to every classroom, and you're following the instruction in the syllabus, and you go through the whole thing. When you get out, all of a sudden, you realize you're completely on your own to make your own way. And the challenge and having the, I'll call it that positive mental attitude and that confidence that you can do it, you can make a difference, at first it's a lonely road. And especially for me, moving across the country to Charleston, where I knew absolutely no one,

like your first real big job that actually like matters that you can sink your teeth into. When you first get out there and you're like, where do I wanna live? What do I wanna do? How do I wanna approach this? I've never lived in this house before. It's an interesting test of strength. So I think if just the opportunity again to build connections, build yourself a pipeline of places where you can go and people that you can rely on, is incredibly important when you first get started. Especially to get the confidence. Absolutely. So when you were in South Carolina, how did you deviate from, let's say, knowing that you really wanted to build your brand and working towards your career, but also, I'm sure you didn't see much family. How did you deviate in between those two things to make yourself still feel happy, to just jump in. 

So for me, I became sort of fascinated, honestly, with car dealerships and how they operated. And I was very lucky that I had a group, the Rick Hendrick Group, it's kind of the famous NASCAR racing team, Rick Hendrick and his auto dealers down there in the south. And they took me under their wing. And they made me feel a part of the store. And even though I didn't actually work there, I worked there. I worked at the desk, I took up. So I was really trying to figure out how this business worked and surrounded myself with people that were into it.

When you quickly start to learn, you're like, okay, I can make an impact, I have ideas, can we actually sell more, do more? And quickly, you got an opportunity to go for it. So I think that helped fill me up in the very beginning and try to just immerse yourself in the community was a huge opportunity for me. Exactly, and just knowing and connecting with people, even in South Carolina, you know, so. No, that was more of a challenge, I'm not gonna lie to you. It was a challenge for you. Being a northerner coming to the south, they're the nicest people in the world, but it takes a little bit to get yourself especially coming from New York and Detroit, down into Charleston, South Carolina, it's just a little bit different of an ecosystem. Yeah, well I mean I can see that you've been across the country at this point, so you've seen a lot of cultures, I'm sure. Yeah, at least in the US, and then obviously more traveling outside now, so. Okay, wow. So.

Another question that I have for you, throughout your college career, was there a defining moment for you where you knew you wanted to pursue in the automotive industry?

You know, honestly, I wouldn't say college. There's two things that I remember. Weirdly, it's just down the street, Great Oak Country Club. Okay, I've heard of that. Yeah, that was one, right? So it's a nice country club. And I worked there for quite a while in college as well. It was sort of like my second job. So when you worked there, and you're surrounded by influential people and people that have had a great deal of success in life, because I mean, at that place, that's what you're going to find. And you quickly get motivated to, I want more.

I don't want to just be this. So I think for me, I remember those moments. Like I remember how it felt. And I would do anything that it takes to try to get that opportunity and that shot. It's the same thing when you wake up, you get there at five o'clock in the morning and you're picking parts on the line. It's another one of those kind of humbling moments of, okay, I need to put my head down. I need to get my college degree. I need to create opportunities because I think I can offer more. Absolutely. Those I remember. Those still drive me. I probably still have a chip on my shoulder. That just drives me of just wanting to do more

Yeah, what would you say was your point in your life actually that you realize? Okay, I think I've had this under control or I think I've made it to where I want to be or have you not got there yet Oh, I Hear I guess here for him for my new role as a CEO. I mean, I'm insanely humbled at the opportunity I mean, I understand the gravity and to get an opportunity like this at this age or at this point in my career

I would say if you look back, there was, particularly like in my early 30s on that Dodge brand, when you actually create something that the world gets excited about and people are writing about and you're like, oh my God, look at how many people are fascinated by what we just did. There's a level of like, no, I can do this. I can actually make a difference. I can create something that the world will actually pay attention to. And this is advice that I would tell, I tell anybody. So I usually get asked to come do like the intern presentations, right? Come talk to them. If I could go back, I genuinely believe this, like in your life and where you're gonna go. So between 20 and 30, you want, when you get out, when you get out of school, you wanna surround yourself with opportunities. You just wanna get in. You wanna learn everything you humanly possibly can and chase the jobs that are gonna teach you more. Make yourself uncomfortable, dive in, experience different parts of the business.

Then by the time you're 30, you need to align yourself to a company and opportunities where, okay, you've learned some things, you attach yourself to the right people, and don't just chase the money. I would tell everybody, don't just chase the money. Chase the person that will take you under their wing, that understands your talent, and they want to see you grow. They want to take you with them. Because 30 to 40 is where you're gonna make your impact. That is in your life stage, kinda in that window. That's where you need to attack. And then when you get paid 40 to 50, that's when it will all come together. But if you look at sort of, I'll call it, attitude of a person. When you're 20, you're so fired up. You're so fired up, but you don't know anything. By the time you're 40.

You're not fired up as much as you were when you were 20, but you certainly know a lot more. You've got the knowledge. So that window between 30 and 40 is when you got the nice balance of, I've learned some things, I've got real credibility, I can make an impact, and I'm still fired up. Absolutely. So, and then by the time you're 40, you should be teaching and growing and helping other people and leading if you're kind of looking at a trajectory of a career. So that's kind of my advice to everybody is purposefully pursue the people that'll make a difference in your life. Don't always just chase the money. It will all come. And I would, if I could go back and tell myself, I was nowhere near patient enough, even though I've had this crazy trajectory that everybody remembers, I was still so frustrated. So frustrated. You know, like, why haven't I got my shot yet? Did you attend career fairs and all of that jazz?

Yeah, we started there, I don't think they were as robust as it is now. I look at what Solantis does at OU and the amount of connections that we have and I think the school's like the school of business here. We've done so much more to connect our community to major companies. It didn't exist the same way. He used to show up with a folder in literally your resume and you would just hand this out to anybody that would talk to you and try to get them to look at you for two seconds so that maybe you can get an impact with all these people there. It's so different now. We can be precise.

we can actually gain interest so much earlier. So, yeah, that's how it was back then. But for me, it was a shocker when, like, there's all of a sudden no opportunities. Like, the world changed after 9-11, and literally, what do you do? How do you get a job? So...

Yeah, it's an interesting process. But for me, I just needed to get in. It was always my attitude. Just get in. Once I'm in, I'll make it happen. Just fake it till you make it. Pretty much. My boss always says act as if. Act as if. My mentor, yeah. Act as if. Yeah, if you want it, just take it. Love it. So throughout your time, did you have any mentors or anybody that helped you? Oh yeah, no, I'll tell you, I've got a couple that changed my life. One is Tim Kuniskis was my boss for the better part a little over a decade. He is, you know,

He's the godfather of the Hellcat. He was the CEO of Dodge. He took me under his wings. He promoted me like nine times. I owe that guy a lot and I learned a lot. I'm still learning from him all the time. So for me now to have really be in charge of my own brand in Jeep and he's still the CEO of Ram today. So to have somebody that you look up to that had that kind of impact on your life and really showed you a certain level of discipline and attitude towards business, it was huge. And I was very lucky, and this is what I was talking about, they'll take you under your wing. I had six people in a row that went on in the auto industry to be senior vice presidents or CEOs, all in a row. I would have never, never, ever, ever got some of the learnings I had if I wouldn't have met and seen those people in action. And for me, it's all about seeing them, how they behave, their leadership, the way they approach business every day. So that's why I think finding people that are that instrumental and care about you will make a huge difference. Where did you find those people? Dumb luck, man. I'll just tell you love luck.

I was in Florida and on behalf of Dodge, I was the local Dodge marketing manager. And I wrote a proposal on what was wrong with Dodge. And the old CEO had switched at the time and the new one happened to get it on his desk. He's one of those dumb luck things. And he strangely was like, what is this? And it's like, oh, you know. It's...

Kid in the field in the sales group wrote this thing about what was wrong with Dodge and I weirdly got on this short interview list and everyone's told me you will never get this job. You're going to fly to Detroit right now and you're going to go meet Reid Bigland and he's going to interview you.

So I went in there with absolutely nothing to lose, said everything I ever wanted to say about what I thought, figured I would just leave, hopefully I didn't make a fool of myself, and 48 hours he called me back and said, you're now head of Dodge product for North America. Wow. I was just like, wait, what? So that's how I got moved back to Michigan. And then we started having some fun with some Dodges. Started making some cool stuff. Love it. Actually, with that being said, what keeps you passionate about the work you do at Jeep every day?

Look, for me, I've become very much aware that we're talking, this is a company of, let's call it 300,000 people that work here. There's tons of suppliers. So there are people that the food that goes on their plates every single day, a plant worker, a working person at CTC, whatever it might be. They survive on the cars that we sell. We keep plants running at the end of the day. I mean, that's what I do. Right. I get customers excited so they buy cars so I can build more cars to keep people working, keeping Americans working every day.

and seeing what they go through to make sure that they got a check is all the motivation that you need. You multiply that times the people that literally are cheap nuts. They're just psychopaths passionate about the brand, the history, the military, America. Yeah, right, it's all part of being cheap. There's a lot riding on it, right? It means a lot to a lot of people that they identify with. So I take that with a great deal of seriousness that I have to defend that point of view, that thing that means so much.

Absolutely. And with that being said actually, do you guys have any like tactics like for those rubber ducks that people use on Jeep or is that just a self-made marketing tool? No, so look the rubber ducks was started by a fan. I mean that was somebody that started it and at Jeep events and then we actually ended up taking a giant rubber duck and putting it down at one of the events the Detroit Auto Show and the thing now is is rabid. 

So if you go sit in the parking lot like you might find a duck on your car somebody that just to maybe what you've done to it at the events. But yeah, the Jeep's a deep passion point. And it's pretty fun to see people that just excited about something that you do. Yeah, usually I see that when people own a Jeep, they own a Jeep and they love their Jeep with so much passion. Yeah, and if something's wrong, they'll let you know. So yeah, we take that with a great deal of seriousness and it's fun to be around. A Jeep event is unlike any other. Oh yeah, I'm sure. So another question that I had for you.

Is there anyone you'd like to especially shout out from Oakland University?

anybody that was a mentor for you, helped you out throughout your career. I would say, look, I had some, my friends at that time frame, the people that were in that group, you had six of them from OU all stood up in my wedding. Oh wow. Yeah, so like Jay Russ and Nick McQuire, and there was Steve Franey and all these guys. Yeah. The relationships I made here was life-changing for me because I told you, I went to a high school in my senior year.

I didn't know anybody, like you don't know what happens. Then you go to college and you make these connections that literally, like they last a lifetime. So, so many friends from that era that I think that's where I would probably have the most impact because we kind of battled through that time together. But there were so many professors that made a difference. I'll tell you about the public speaking. Oh yeah. So for me, the business classes and the comms classes, public speaking for one, now that I get on stage and you got cameras on you and auto shows

I still go back to many of the principles that you learned, just the energy and talking to the entire classroom and those things. It's the same discipline, now there's just a thousand people in the crowd instead of 30. But it's the same stuff. So no, I loved my time here, absolutely loved it. I think I love my time here too, so I'm glad we're on that same page. But I actually noticed something on your arm, it said last tenth. Oh, my last tenth bracelet, yeah. Do you wanna tell the viewers what that is about? So yeah, so that's a good story. So my mentor, you mentioned earlier Tim Kuniskis,

He always talks, he has a couple of disciplines, couple of life lessons that you have. And the last 10th we always talk about is the difference between really making something truly great, truly special, truly memorable. A lot of people do enough work to get an A. They'll get 90% at work and they'll hear a job or a classroom and they'll say, oh, I did a good job. And it is. The last 10th, that last 10%, that's the difference between being truly memorable, like no one remembers an A.

Yeah, an a-plus somebody that risked it all put it all on the table and went for it and went big and watched it hit big Mm-hmm. Those are the ones you remember Those are the ones with legacy So we started so he started the last tenth and you know right now Stalantis has a lot of growing to do We got a lot of areas to improve So we've he handed out bracelets after the last speech that we just gave and really the entire mantra at

last little bit of excitement, it's the details. And then you were picking on my LFG on the other side, so that's for the sales force, so you know what it stands for. But yeah, well, we'll leave that off the podcast today. But nonetheless, the place is fired up right now. There's a lot of people passionate about improving. So between really putting in that last little bit of effort and the tenacity to make a difference, that's what you're seeing in our company right now. That's awesome. Another question that I had for you, real quick.

So I know that you talked about you were on the hockey team. I played some hockey, yes. You had some hockey. Yeah, it was the club team. It got so big so quick that you had players in there that were just absolutely extraordinary. And then it turned into what it is now, which is awesome. Yeah, I think we have a D3 team, I think it is. D2. Yeah, are we D3?

that you would know better than me if they are now. But I mean, it might be D1 at this point. Yeah, it went from completely, honestly, I don't know. Wow. I don't know what division it is. But yeah, no, it was literally the inception. Wow. A whole bunch of us at, it was literally started at roller hockey and then went to ice hockey and then it actually turned into a club. Love it. I think they play at the Onyx, I think, a lot of the time, suburban. So a lot of good places. Another question I have for you. So what is your best advice for current students looking to set themselves up success graduation.

The biggest thing you can do during, I mean obviously, okay, you got all your classes, all that stuff that's in front of you. But you wanna go make connections and learn different industries so that you can figure out where you want to go. Internships are incredibly helpful to go experience types of business, see businesses. Think about how many people that have, I don't know, a parent or a counselor or somebody in the school of the business that might have a connection to say, hey, can I just come for a day and see your business? Can I just see what you do? So that you really understand. When I was a sophomore,

I wanted to be an attorney. So I went with someone to courtrooms. I wanted to see what attorneys actually do. And then outside the courtroom. And I found out I hated it. I was like, there is no way I want to do this. And there's grind away reading books all day, every day, and going through all these documents. I find cases fascinating. I still do. But I just wanted to be in the courtroom and the guy that's like, you can't handle it. That was kind of what I wanted to do, like the prosecutor. But no, I didn't. But for me, the advice would be, businesses, see where you might want to start. So that way you're like, okay, that's for me, I'm good at that, I would like that, or I'm passionate about that, maybe I want a career in that. Because once you get your business degree, there's so many more things you want to do. So many places you can go, or things that might inspire you to be a part of. It'll make a huge difference in your daily work. Do you recommend, are you students that have graduated to look for MBA possibilities, or?

What could you do with a master's degree? What would you say about that? A master's degree is by no means bad. It's by no means bad. If depending on the job market and your opportunities, the way that I looked at it is there's so much debt associated with going to college, potentially on where you go. Some colleges, I mean, it can be very, very expensive. You're in massive debt. At the same time, all right, if you go to a company that believes in you and they've got good programs, they'll pay for your master's. So you just need to get in the door and start making money and start paying off your debt and start working through it and you may be able to find programs like that, especially if you're having success. 

So it's not necessary to do it. Now, if you go to the master's program, yes, if you can get that done and you can have an accelerated sort of learning, you can very quickly actually command a higher salary. So it's really that value equation to me based on where you're at in your life, do you want to stay in college and continue to finish it? And do you have the resources to finish it? If you do, you can go get it and it'll pay off for you long-term. You can also command more when you first get out. And OU has already shown proof of you get your master's degree, you can command more, and you're more competitive in the marketplace. But at the same time, you could get in, get your degree, start making money, and you can do many, many flexible programs today, like OUs, that you could get your master's degree and do it while you're working at the same time. So I think you just got to individually balance it out. It's not required to get a job. It's not. At the same time, yeah, it'll certainly help you. 

So I think it's just more of a financial situation of how bad you want to get out there. Awesome. And the job market, right? I mean, if the job market's hopping and you can go take one, get in. Exactly. Yeah, if it's definitely tougher, all right, maybe you want to stay and get your masters and keep doing something else and working it down. Yeah, well, if there's an opportunity, you should take it, you know? That's always a good way to put it. I agree completely. Absolutely. Well, unfortunately, this is the wrap-up time for this podcast, but I do have one quick question for you. 

If you could give a one-sentence piece of advice to all OU students, especially the School of Business students, what would you say to them? Just in one sentence. Oh, in one sentence. Let's see. Um, look.

My advice to you, so if you're in the school business, you're in your career path, follow things you are passionate about, while also good at. People say, do what you love. Chase what you love. Well, the more you do it, it doesn't necessarily always...

give you the living that you're looking for, where you want something that you enjoy. You're looking for a passion point. So I would say, follow what you're passionate about, while also good at it. Awesome. All right, well you hit it here first, everyone. That was Bob Borderdorf. Thank you so much for your time today. It was a pleasure hosting you and hearing all about your background and your experiences and you as a person. I appreciate you so much. Appreciate the opportunity to come speak with you and look to all the Golden Grizzlies out there. Go Grizzlies and have a great year. Go Grizzlies. Awesome.

Make sure to stay connected through our social media, through our YouTube channel. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and all the links for all of our social media are in the description. Thank you guys and we will see you on another episode of Grizz in Biz.

Hi everyone, thank you so much for joining us for our first episode of Grizz in Biz. My name is Courtney Perttula, I am a junior here at Oakland University studying accounting and today I am so excited because I have the pleasure of interviewing Joey Namou. Woo woo! First episode. Yeah, I'm pumped. So Joey is a 2015 marketing grad from the School of Business and he is now the co-founder of...What co-founder of Woodward Sports Network. There's too many titles. Seriously. My wife reminds me all the time that I'm doing too much. Seriously. So he's co-founder of Woodward Sports Network. He is chief growth officer at RHB Laboratories and founder of Print House Detroit, amongst many other things, I swear. You do everything. It's insane. That's something that being here just taught me. Yeah, 100%. You got to do a lot of things too. You know, just make sure that you're doing everything that your heart desires. A thousand percent. And you also might recognize Joey from being on the Mojo in the Morning Show on Channel 955 a few years back. It's crazy when you talk about these years too. When you mentioned 2015, I'm like, that is insane. We're coming up on 10 years almost. I remember working in radio, always telling like Mojo and all of them that were older than me, obviously like, man, you guys have been doing this for 20 years. You guys were so old and now I'm that person. getting that way and I'm like, sheesh. Seriously, it's insane, time flies. So how are you doing today? Awesome, and especially now knowing that I'm the first guest on this podcast is really, really honoring, I'm excited about that. Thank you so much for coming, we're really lucky to have you. So I kind of just wanna start off at the beginning and hear how your career journey went, how you came from Oakland to where you are now. So could you take us back to your time at OU and kind of walk us through those beginning steps in your career journey? You're making me remember all the way back then.Yeah, so I graduated from Brother Rice High School in the Bloomfield Hills area in 2011. And that's when I decided I wanted to come to Oakland University because I had an uncle that actually came here. And I was at that weird pivotal moment in my life to where I didn't really have friends coming here. A lot of my friends are going to Wayne State, University of Detroit Mercy, and a lot of them were going out of town. And that was something that my parents did not want me to do first. But second, I just realized, you know, I looked up to my uncle and I wanted to kind of have a similar career path and I wanted to just explore the option of seeing what this university and campus was all about. And I did the overnight orientation. I remember I tried that out and I made some friends and I was like, this is a place that I could see being my home and my future. And I came and I did it and it was just amazing. Just seeing the campus and how beautiful it was because no offense to any other campus, but you know, you go to a Wayne State, it's kind of stressful, you know, you're in a big city in the heart of Detroit and there's this building, the this building, but then you come to Oakland University, one, free parking, that hasn't changed yet, has it? No, it has not. Okay, wow, that's amazing. So that was a big selling point for me, but two, you know, you just see everything being at one site and that was awesome and you have the nice.OC with Oakland Center where everybody could hang out in a nice communal spot in the middle of it all in the heart of the center of campus and it just had really good vibes. So I really loved that. So that's kind of what played a part in me choosing Oakland University. I feel it. Yeah, I'm totally the same way once I came here once I did a campus tour I'm like, this is it. This is where I'm going to end up for sure. Oh, that's awesome. Did you have others in mind or this was the first and only that you did? So yeah, it's kind of a crazy experience. So I applied for a bunch of different schools because I was going through an audition process I planned on double majoring in acting and accounting, then kind of switched it over to just accounting once I started here. But out of all the, I was going to schools that were in New York, like all over the country, and Oakland stuck. I loved it, it was amazing. Especially now when I was coming through, I was like, this campus is beautiful. Like it was when I was here. Oh my gosh, yeah, I love it. It was when I was here, now I look and I'm like, this campus is just, it's becoming so much more than when I was here. And I love to see that because that's a huge opportunity. Even with you having this opportunity to be the host of this podcast, like I look back at my career, I didn't have any of these resources really. We had WXOU when I was a student still, but the opportunity to do a podcast, everybody could do it. Yeah, it's really exciting. So did you start off in marketing at OU or what was kind of your path, like what made you want to go towards that area? Yeah, so this is where it gets weird, right? So I have another uncle that, is a CPA. So my start, I mean, you said you're an accountant. That's what I was going to be. I was gonna be a CPA my freshman year. And then I had an internship not too far from here and I just really did not like the experience and I realized that, I was happy I tried it, but I just realized that I needed something more or something different in life. And that's when I was driving to my freshman semester. I was driving to, give me a second here, I'm thinking way back almost. you know, 10 plus years now, but I was driving to my first midterm and I remember listening to the radio and hearing Mojo on the air and I remember him, because I used to listen all the time, I used to call all the time to get tickets. I do the same thing. He never once got through, never. And then I ended up getting through that day because he was firing an intern live on the air. We talk about it all the time. That's so funny. Don't even really remember what it was. Oh my God. But I shared this story once on the air on the radio as well.And I remember he was firing the intern, he was pissed, he kicked him out of the studio, and it just wasn't working out for him on the show. And he opened up the phone lines to let someone call in and get that opportunity to be the replacement. The best part, I ended up getting through, I get answered within like 30 seconds, and when you call to win tickets, the phone lines are full, so you gotta call back, call back. Think I maybe called back three, four times and I got through. And all of a sudden I'm talking and the girl on the phone was freaking out because she was the intern producer. So she wasn't even the actual producer. So she wasn't the one getting fired. Was she the one getting fired or no? No, she was just the one answering the phones. She's like, not me next. So she's like, I really don't, we gotta talk to him in the commercial break and figure this out. I was like, no, no, no, just let me come by. And she was like, okay, how soon can you get here? And I'm like, ooh, I'll be there in 30 minutes. I said like 27 minutes too. I didn't even know the time. I just I didn't really know the address and all that. So, friends would give me the address, I'd get there in less than 30 minutes. As I'm, probably shouldn't talk about this, but I was emailing while driving my professor, saying, hey, I need a makeup exam, this opportunity popped up, I need to take it. And I think I use like an Eminem line, like you only get one opportunity. And I said something like that, I was thinking about Eminem in my head. And I send it and I go, interview went well, got the opportunity, they invited me to come back the next day. And then as I leave and. and they liked me in the studio. As I leave, I check my phone. I got an email from the professor saying, there will be no makeup exam. That was it. That's so tough. That was it. There will be no makeup exam. I remember that. That's all it said. Wow. Not even a signature in the email. Just there will be no makeup exam. I'm like, ooh. Wow. You gotta believe in yourself. Yeah, and look where it brought you. And that was the start. Yeah, that's amazing. And that's just so important to know. That's not always, like you had this plan, you knew you were going to do this and then you're going to get an internship. Like you had this plan, but you saw an opportunity, you just have to take that sometimes. That's what it was, it was more the opportunity. Like in terms of plan, my plan at that point was to be a CPA. And you know, I'm not obviously saying skip school, this, that, cause I still finished, right? I changed my degree to marketing because that was more in line with my new career path. But it's just more so when you have an opportunity, you gotta just take it. And that's when I became the yes man because there was so many opportunities in my career where you know, most people were Not being offered them or who knows they were busy and they say oh no Can't do that in the radio business in the media world when you get an opportunity You got to take it and then see where it leads you. Yeah for sure. So what would you say you learned most while working in radio? Like did anything from OU and your marketing degree because I know I feel like a lot of people who work in marketing go to work for corporate companies, they don't really get to be an on-air personality on the radio. Yes, for sure. So what did you take away from that experience? The biggest takeaway I would say is your network. I feel like in that radio business, in the media world, it's all about who you know. And I didn't know anyone when I entered. And that's really the way that people get opportunities is by knowing somebody. But that taught me at that moment. You know, kind of back to when I started at OU and I was coming to the campus by myself, I didn't really have anybody, that put me in an uncomfortable situation, which was great. And I realized now, looking back, being in those uncomfortable situations is great for yourself, because it forces you to go out and network and meet people. And then from that start, that was the pivotal moment to where I realized like, you just gotta go out and put yourself in these uncomfortable situations.Network, see who you meet. And I was doing 10 events a week. So I was meeting hundreds, if not thousands of people every single week. And that was a huge part to my growth on social media and networking. And that's really the biggest takeaway is you just gotta do that. Especially being on a campus with, I don't know the number, but how many thousands of students are here. That's a huge opportunity to just be able to network. Cause this was my freshman year. So at that point I was just an intern. And then the way that I grew was from my upper management and bosses seeing my social media following grow. And just from all these different events, I was the yes man, I told you. It was not an event I shut down. I was doing every and anything just to build my brand because at the end of the day, I didn't know anybody. I didn't have anybody there that was gonna help elevate me. I was doing it all on my own. And you needed that. That's amazing to hear because I feel like not everyone knows that. Not everyone knows you can just dive into those situations. Yeah, and that was like, that's why I opened up with my story about you know, at first I was like, I don't want people to know that I skipped an exam and this and that because. Right, like not the best advice but. It's really not, you know, and especially like, like being a mentor towards so many young kids, I didn't want them to, you know, just hear that part and then all of a sudden it's, oh, I'm done with school. Yeah, right. It's a fine line, like that's a one in a million opportunity. Yeah, 100%. The show's been what, 15 years since then, 14 years since then, that moment, nobody else has had that opportunity. you know, to where someone gets fired live on the air, you just gotta call up and take that chance. Yeah, I feel like you recognized how rare that was too. So you're like, it's not the best choice, but I think for right now it is the best choice. So that's amazing. So what, after working on the radio, is that when you came on to be the co-founder of Woodward Sports Network? Yeah, so my radio run was from 2012 to 2020. So that was kind of, everybody was, in a weird funk during that COVID, when COVID hit. So COVID hit Friday, March 13th, I remember, because it was Friday the 13th, I remember thinking that. And that was when it was in 2020. So we started Woodward Sports in October of 2020. And I just reached that point in my career where I was on the morning show for maybe six years at that point and forever grateful for all the opportunities and how I built a good brand and image for myself locally with that show And it made me realize that I needed more in my life and different opportunities that I wanted in the radio world weren't coming to me and kept trying and trying and I wasn't getting them to get my own show and different opportunities that I realized, you know what? My close friend, Stick, who I worked in radio with, he came up with the concept of Woodward Sports and he called me about it. And at first I was like, eh, I'm on the biggest morning show in Detroit. This was my dream when I started the business. I think I kinda wanna stay and see, you know, there's still unfinished business here for me. And after a couple of days, you know, he was like, well, I'm doing it. You in or not? And at that moment I was kind of ring the bell back to when it all began. You don't want to miss up on any of these opportunities to start your own media network in Detroit. Switching to sports was a big transition, but after a couple of days, I just made the decision. I was like, you know what, let's try this. That's amazing. And again, like you said, just say yes to these opportunities. It's hard to pass that up. You're gonna have some where you say yes and it doesn't work out, right? I've had a bunch of those throughout my career, but you know, it's one of those that even if you say yes and it doesn't work out, there's always gonna be something you learn from the opportunity. Yeah, 100%. So with being, was that the first organization that you kind of went to after talking on the Mojo in the Morning show? Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. So before that, I mean, I worked at Subway. That was my first job, sandwich artist, honestly. I still go to Subway. I'm not a sandwich maker, I'm a sandwich artist. Absolutely, it's still in my LinkedIn bio, it's still in my resume, everything, I still have that. Because that was a huge part for me too. It's like that opportunity to being able to talk to people, it's something that's forgotten now in all these fast food, fast casual, whatever you call it, service industries, can't take away the fact of still being able to talk to another person, right? That's something that's very important. Customer service is huge to me because customer service applies to everything in life, in my opinion. Oh, yeah, 100% I agree with that. You become an accountant or you go to become a CPA, you gotta apply that customer service to all your customers. Yeah, definitely. It applies to everything. That's amazing. Yeah, Subway, Subway. I don't know how I just started talking about Subway, but yeah, I went from Subway to my radio career, to Woodward Sports. Right, so with it starting, because you guys started Woodward Sports from scratch, correct? Yeah. So how do you even begin to start a project like that? Like I can't even imagine, because it's grown so much over these past, how many, four years it's been now? Yeah. Four years. Coming up on four. Yeah. How do you even start putting that idea to work? I mean, so my business partner at the time, Stick, obviously he's been in the media world for just say 15 plus years at that time. I was coming up on 10 years of experience at that time. And we just knew so much about the business throughout our experiences in life and in the business.That was the moment where we realized radio was just going in a different direction at that time. You know, like right now we're on a podcast. This is the new, this is the future. Everybody's doing a podcast. You're getting all your on-demand content in the palm of your hands on a phone. You know, you have YouTube. YouTube Live was starting to become a thing at that point. So that's where we realized radio was kind of a dying breed at that point. And we wanted to be ahead of the future. So that's when we wanted to start. Something kind of similar to Barstool Sports was an inspiration at that time, but they didn't really do the live programming. So what we took was, you could say a Barstool Sports, mixing that with the whole radio and TV programming model of having live shows throughout the day and giving content. Because Detroit sports coverage, there's really not much here locally. I mean, yes, there's the radio outlet with 97.1, but even that, in my opinion, it's a dying breed. You have the same voices and we bring a different platform to where what we offer, you're getting different young opinions and giving opportunities to, you know, just say this podcast blows up and all of a sudden getting tons of viewers on this podcast and it's gonna happen. Yeah. That's gonna be that opportunity to where someone else is looking at you and then brings you a part of their program that they're working on. So that's what we do. We just look for new young talent. There's hundreds and thousands of different Detroit sports coverage podcasts. And that's who we're looking at to give them those opportunities that we all once received at some point of our career. That's awesome. That's really cool just to involve people that you don't know, you have to take a chance on them. Absolutely. And so I think that's really cool that you're able to bring those and kind of foster their growth. Yeah. And then I was also wondering, so we were talking about how many hats you wear. I swear, seriously, you dabble in everything. When I was looking, I looked at your LinkedIn, I was like, oh my gosh, what does this guy do on a day-to-day basis? So Could you kind of talk to us about what your day-to-day looks like being involved in all of these different organizations? This is where I gotta give a shout out to Google Calendar because that keeps me in line. Yeah, a thousand percent. I had one of those today for this. There's just, there's so many different things and organization is huge. You know, that's the biggest thing is, yeah, you could look at me from a 10,000 foot view and say, man, how are you handling all this stuff? But when you're super organized and you have a lot of good people around you and you know, keeping your organizations organized, that's the biggest in my opinion, is if you could have everybody on the same speed as you, because yeah, there's a lot that I'm doing, but it's nothing that I can't handle. So, you know, in terms of my days, it's tough to say like, oh, every day I'm doing this and this and this, it just really depends on what's planned with them all. But I mean, like I said, Woodward Sports, we're almost four years into the operation. So that's at a point to where that's running kind of like a nice old machine to where it's kind of running itself. That's great. You know, my focus on that business is the overall brand of Woodward Sports. I still have so many great connections and relationships in the city. So using those relationships, driving new business development is always a huge thing and focus and just making sure everybody's happy that we work with. So that is a daily basis thing. How much percentage I give to it, I can't put a number on it, but then I mix that with my other responsibility of being the Founder of Print House Detroit, which is my clothing business, where we do screen print, embroidery, and promotional products for other businesses. And that's another one that's pretty much all business development. So when you look at just mixing everything, I mean, in terms of new business development, that's a, you give it as much as you want or as little as you want. And that's the challenge. You know, when you're doing that, it's all about, you get out of it what you put into it. So you brought up Print House Detroit. I would love to hear more about that because I feel like, I don't know, I could be wrong here, but Woodward Sports, Live Sports Broadcasting, and Clothes, those don't really scream hand in hand to me. I feel like they're pretty different. Like I can see the transition from radio to live sports broadcasting, but what made you come up with this idea for this business? Going back to Barstool Sports, right? That's huge, I don't know a percentage, but I would guess it's just, say, a quarter of their revenue. So clothing kind of does go hand in hand. I mean, we do a lot of merch on the Woodward Sports side of it as well, but this kind of ages back to, I'd say about eight years ago. One of my friends has been in the business for 20 plus years. And he's actually my older, my oldest brother's close friend. He's been in the business for a really long time. So I became a referral partner for him. And I was helping him get new business and new different clients throughout the years that about four years ago, he and I kind of when I started Woodward Sports formed a business together that was this Print House Detroit and you know just became something that it was it became a passion of mine because That's awesome. I just love seeing like the branding side of companies It was one that even when you mentioned my my other job with RHB Laboratories You know I enter that business and I get that job to say about two years ago They didn't have any clothing for their entire staff really and you know, you're going out there. You got to look professional. So that's one of my favorite things is really meeting with different business owners and helping them create that vision because they don't really know much. It's kind of like a marketing thing. When businesses start up, they don't really have a footprint for what they want their marketing to look like. So that was kind of that end for me where it's like I really enjoy it and seeing the branding side of it. I'm just, call myself a branding expert. Over the years, that's one thing that I've loved. I still wanted to keep my grasp on that marketing side of it because I'm transitioning a little bit away from overall marketing because I wasn't a digital marketing agency world for a little bit and all that. Now this is kind of my little touch on it. Yeah. And I feel like I didn't even make the connection that when you're creating clothing, like when you're creating clothing for each of these businesses, you really have to emphasize their brand. It's not just put a logo on the shirt, call it a day. You have to think of what they represent and stuff. And that's where your marketing degree comes in, I'm sure. So did any experience or any type of, like does anything stick with you from your time at OU into this transitioning to this job now of how marketing can really bring together different brands like that? I mean, that's a huge point, right? Like any embroidery or stream printing specialist company out there. can just slap a logo on anything. You get the machine, you do it, boom. But that's where I like to see and differentiate myself from these different companies is we put more emphasis on the marketing side of it and helping you bring your idea, which oftentimes companies don't know, to life. And that's where it's more than just putting a logo. Putting some creativity of just trying some different things and seeing the different trends. And that's something that I'm actually working with Oakland University too, kind of. bring some more life to the, I think it's called the Grizz Store. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, so, you know, that's all it is. I love it. Everybody could throw a logo on anything. It's about knowing the trends and knowing what people wear. Like right now we're in this weird fashion trend of oversized clothing. Yeah. A lot of people love wearing this oversized clothing. Yeah. Oakland University doesn't really have that. That's true, I never even thought about that because I'm always wearing oversized t-shirts. I'm always just throwing one on if I have to go to the gym or take a walk or anything. Yeah.I didn't even think I barely have any Oakland t-shirts because of that. Yeah, that's exciting. That's cool. It's weird. It's keeping up with all these trends. It changes every couple of years, but you got to be on top of it. Yeah, that's awesome. That's really, really cool. What tools do you use to kind of stay on top of the trends and enhance this marketing skill? The freest tool of them all, I just made up a word, is social media. Yeah, you just see the trends and you just get to see what everybody is wearing and you know, you kind of just see it from being out and about, right? When I do events, just say with different college campuses, if I'm emceeing different events, or recently doing the Rochester Hills Fireworks Show. That's an event I emcee every single year with Mayor Bryan Barnett for Rochester Hills. You go and you just see what everybody's wearing and I'm always looking. Like that's one thing, even when I meet different business owners, my eye goes straight to that logo. How does it look? Is there something I could improve? Kind of like Like my wife is an optometrist and all she looks at is glasses. When she sees people, she's judging you off your glasses, how they look, the condition of them. That's how I am with clothing. It's weird. It's a very weird addiction that I have, but I really do love that. That's really great. That's awesome. So with your other job, I feel like I keep saying with your other job, with your other job. It's the last of them, I promise. For Chief Growth Officer at RHB Laboratories. Is that the same type of work because if I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know. Okay, yeah, so I don't know really what that entails. So I would love to hear more about what you do in that area of work. And that's what I like. I like when it's all surprises. Yeah, right. So I get to talk about it. It's all conversation starters. But RHB Laboratories, this was something that I wanted to get into because a lot of my family's in the medical world. And I was talking to my brother and he was giving me good advice because you think back to COVID, right? when COVID hit, there were certain things that weren't that essential work. And medical, that's gonna be something that's always essential work out there. So when I started it, I was talking to the owner of the company because I've known him for years prior and I wanted something that was more just say pandemic proof because clothing business, if something were to happen, that's gonna be something that's tough. Word, word sports, that's marketing, that's gonna be tough. So I wanted something that was gonna you know, set myself up for long-term success because nothing can happen in the medical world, right? It's gonna be a necessity. It's gonna be something that's needed forever. And what we do is we specialize in urine drug screens and oral swabs. So literally, I love talking about this because people look at me as, you know, Joey Radio. People don't even know my last name. Joey Radio, my social media. So now, switch it all up, doing some medical work now. And I've been doing it for about two years.And it's all customer service, which I love. Taking care of different people, all the relationships that you work with all the different providers. So what we do is different medical practices, whether it's internal medicine, family medicine, pain addiction specialists, we work with a wide variety of different medical practices. And what we do is when these providers are prescribing their patients on controlled substances, they use our resources and our tests to give them further information on how to better treat the patient to make sure when you're giving them these different medications that they're taking them, right? Not selling them, making sure that there's no drug-to-drug interactions if they're taking other medications. So it's a huge challenge for me, which I like. I love challenging myself, putting myself in these awkward situations and uncomfortable situations. And when I started this two years ago, it was something that I just started on the new business development side. And then I started working closely with the CEO of the company and it just became a good relationship. And then he started seeing me providing something different kind of back to my clothing business. You know, you got to make yourself different. You know, I offer kind of that marketing, which I learned from Oakland University and being here with the School of Business. You apply these different practices towards industries that in the medical world, marketing really isn't a big thing. So me having all these experiences in life. I offer something different to RHB laboratories that now is differentiating that brand versus all the different medical toxicology labs out there. Yeah, 100%. A lot of that and just seeing the overall growth and success of the entire business. That's awesome. So what would your best advice be to find what makes you different? Because I feel like that's really hard for some people. They want to stand out from everyone else. They want to show people that.They have what it takes, but I feel like it's really hard finding different ways to differentiate yourself from other people. So do you have any advice for how to go about doing that? Yeah, there's always advice. I look at it as when I got in radio, I didn't know that's what I wanted to do. The opportunity presented itself, try it out. So I always recommend to anybody asking about a career, different advice. You know, you can't come up to me and say, oh, what should I do? I don't know. What do you like? Is there certain different things, you know, for me, I like sports. So that's where the whole word sports came about. So it's just trying it out and seeing because, you know, you might just say like makeup. And all of a sudden, I know someone that was a physician assistant. They became a PA. And then all of a sudden, they switched it all up and got into the medical spa stuff. Oh, yeah. The esthetician. Esthetician. Yeah. Now, spell it. I'm good, I'll pass. But you know, like, that's what I love, you know, you put all that schooling, all that money, a lot of student debt, and they're becoming a PA. And then all of a sudden they switched in and started this whole Med Spa business. That seemed to be a whole new trend in itself right now. I blame the Kardashians for that. But you know, you start that and then all of a sudden, she's looking back at her career and saying, I'm a lot happier doing this. So overall, it's just, you gotta try it out. A lot of it is market research and if you...want to try out MedSpas, look, see different competitors, see it locally, see it on a national level. And that's the cool part about having this free resource of social media is you could learn so much for absolutely no cost. Yeah, for sure. And I feel like too, I think you have to just dive into it. Some people are really hesitant about making these changes, making these big changes, but if it's something you're passionate about, just put 100% effort into it and...It'll all work out in the end. It's never going to just completely go downhill. Absolutely. And I look back to being a full-time student at Oakland University and still handling just about full-time work throughout the radio career doing it because that was my freshman year when it all happened. So it was freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year. And were you working full-time? Is their office in downtown Detroit? Did you have to... It's actually moving to downtown Detroit, but it was in Farmington Hills. Oh, gotcha. Which was close to my house, which is nice at the time. Yeah, that works out. So did you, were you working 40 hours a week at the radio station while taking classes? Can't even talk about the number. Oh my gosh, that's intense. Big numbers of hours, but you know, you gotta put into it what you want out. 100%. And that's, it's not a business where you look at it as a regular full-time. You know, there was no times where I could look at it and say, oh, it was a nine to five shift. Or if people would say, hey, let's hang out, six o'clock, never.I never made commitments because I knew I wanted to put all my focus towards my work and building this opportunity because you just gotta create your brand and that's it. Someone else is out there trying to get my position. At every single point, there was always somebody out there to try to take my position over and it's a lot more competitive in that versus different professions, I would think, but that was where never even looked at the amount of hours I was putting into it. It was all about the goal and doing whatever it took to make that goal happen.Yeah, what I'm kind of gathering from this is that you've been busy since your freshman year at OU. Absolutely. So what is your driving force to continue working this hard? Because I'm sure you get tired. I'm sure it gets hard. But what is your why behind all of this hard work that you're putting into your career? See, for me, when I started all that, I was single and there really was no family aspect. Yeah, I wanted to make myself proud. I wanted to make my family proud, but that was kind of just instilled in me at a young age from my parents having a good work ethic. So now, I mean, I'm a father, I got two kids and a wife. And now as a family, you have something more to work towards and what you're working for. So obviously the why now becomes my family. Yeah, for sure. That makes 100% sense. And then where would you say was a time in your life where you really had to just put your head down and work and how did you get through that? Because just hearing about everything that you have to do, you have to balance your family life, obviously, balance your three different careers that you have right now and then back during your time at OU, you had to balance working and internship and classes. How would you say, like, when did you know that all you had to do was put your head down and get the work done? Anything that you do in life, there's gonna be distractions. Yeah. when it came to those distractions and you know, as a college student, all my friends were going out and partying and doing things that I never really cared to do so when I go back and think I was never that person that wanted to go out and I always wanted to just work so stay in focus and having these big goals and dreams is really what kind of kept me in line because I wasn't gonna be the one getting distracted with. everything else that all my other friends were doing. And I lost a lot of friends throughout the way because you realize your true self. You realize that's not who I wanna be. So I never was going out and drinking and still really don't do it. And I realized that all of that kept me in line to just stay focused because, you know, at the end of the day, anyone that gets into that, they outgrow it, right? You're gonna do it, it's fun for a little bit. And then all of a sudden you realize, ah, I wish I didn't do all that. And I learned that through having three older brothers and learning from their mistakes. And that's what I'm forever grateful for, was they made the mistakes for me to be more in line and focused on my career path. So that's where I was years ahead of everybody else I felt like. For sure. And so there's just one final question that I kind of wanted to wrap up with. Already final? Yeah, I know, time flies when you're having fun. Absolutely. What is your best piece of advice to current OU students? that you wish you would have known when you were going to school here. From a school side of it or just overall? Overall, I'd say. Yeah, I would say just don't be scared, try it. Because at the end of the day, you never really know what it is that you wanna do in life. And that's where I look at me starting into this medical business venture, is I just wanted to challenge myself and do something else. Because I don't wanna look back 20 years and say, oh, I wish I tried it or.Oh, I'm not happy doing this. That's why I'm doing three things because over time, I'm gonna be able to see what it is that I'm happiest doing and I'm gonna just put more energy towards that. So if you're just doing one thing, it makes me sad sometimes when you talk to people and they've only done one thing. You think back of working at a Ford plant. All people did. I'm sure we all have uncles or grandparents even.Her great grandparents, that's all they ever did, was just worked on the line for 40 years, 50 years. They provided for their family, they retired and moved on. But were they happy? Yeah. You'll never be able to understand that. And I talk a lot too, right? Like I communicate and like I'll ask my parents, like my dad, he does mortgages and I'll ask him, I'll say, are you happy? And he says, that's all I know. And when you have these different conversations, it makes you realize that you don't want to be that.And I mean, he does real well for himself. He's a successful businessman. But I want my happiness to come first because the success will come. You just gotta make sure you're happy first. Because if you're happy waking up every day and you're doing what you love, then everything else is gonna be a breeze. You're gonna have fun doing it. Yeah, a thousand percent. Thank you. I'm sure everyone will appreciate that. And while you're here on campus, is there anyone you wanna shout out? I owe you that you're a member from back in the day. That's a, that's a big question right there. I mean, definitely, I used to call him Dean Matt because he was the Dean of Students at the time, but Glenn McIntosh is his name. He's got big fancy titles now, VPs and all that. But he was a huge part of, you know, me just loving the campus and venturing off into doing different things because he was a, at that overnight orientation, they paired me with a roommate that went to high school near me. That's kind of how they did it. And Glenn McIntosh was his uncle. And I connected with him at a very early part of me being an OU student. And he kind of pointed me in different directions as far as, man, you should try out being a part of Oakland University Student Congress. And then when I was there, then I got the radio opportunity and then they pointed me into doing WXOU. So I give a lot of credit towards my success and overall happiness on campus. Yeah. To him because like I said, I didn't come here with a bunch of different classmates that I was already prior friends with, had to make all those different relationships. So meeting a Dean of Students at the time was a really cool opportunity for me and I definitely wanted to thank him. That's awesome and it's so important to find a mentor, especially in this impressionable age. I feel like you just always need some guidance, it always helps to have someone looking out for you. And that's the cool part about this campus is there's so many different resources. You know like, I was a part of the school of business here, but I also did student congress. And I also did a little bit of work with the student program board and all the concerts that would be put on. So it's like, there's just so many opportunities. You don't even need to leave the campus. You can do them all right here. Right? In our podcast studio. Yeah, I know. You're lucky Courtney, you got this opportunity. Take advantage of it. I'm so grateful. I'm proud of you for doing it though. It's awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And you did a fantastic job. Thank you. I know you were nervous. This was the first one and you did way better. You don't want to hear my first radio tape. You do not want to hear it. Thank you. That means a lot to me. Is there anyone else that you want to shout out? Can't forget. I mean, especially me being here back at OU. Got to shout out the OU goat, Neil Ruhl. He is the voice of Golden Grizzlies, a lot of sports here. He's also our 11 to 1 p.m. host on Woodward Sports. This has been so incredible learning about your career path. Is there a best way for our listeners to connect with you after this is done, after they hear about it? Joey Radio on social media. Nice. Instagram's probably my, what's the new hot platform now? Are you TikTok? I watch it, but I don't like make them. That's garbage in my opinion, such a waste of time. But you should be on TikTok, I'm sure, doing different content nowadays. I do Instagram, still the hot one. There you go.Cool, so I'm not that outdated yet. Yeah. Yet, keyword. That's so funny. Thank you so much, Joey. We really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to come over here, share your career journey, and just share your advice in the world of business. Absolutely. Oakland University definitely has my heart and always supported me, so I'll be back to support them whenever I can. And thank you so much to our viewers for joining us on the first episode of Grizz and Biz. Be sure to connect with us on social media @OUBSchool on Instagram and then join us or connect with us on LinkedIn, X and Facebook. Thank you so much, everyone, for watching. Bye.