Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Nathan Talbot

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brooke, That Gratitude Guy, with another special guest on my gratitude podcast interview regarding the pandemic

And today, I was thinking, I was thinking about my guests prior to having him on. And I met this young man, gosh, five or six, probably eight or nine years ago now for all I know

But a very impressive man and a young man in the financial world and became somebody I got having a fun time talking to from time and actually missed talking to him

It's Nathan Talbot from Florida. Nathan, welcome to the podcast. Hey, David, how are you

I am well. I'm well. Thank you so much for joining in. So let me start off with just a question

This has gone on five or six weeks now, this pandemic. It's affected with all of us in the country and in the world

What has been Nathan's best coping mechanism to kind of deal with this whole thing

these last five, six, seven weeks, would you say? So, yeah, this has been interesting for me as a

as a father having two kids and having this start when they were on spring break

So, you know, spring break plans canceled. We were going to go to some national parks in New Mexico, White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns

We had to cancel the trip. And when we were on vacation from home, you know, it wasn't that bad

We got to just be around each other, played a lot of board games, puzzles. Working out was really tough

So walking the dog was something that. that became a highlight of the day, something that I used to not look forward to and my wife would do

to something where now we have a route that takes about an hour to do, and we go three miles

and our 10-year-old dog is exhausted. So those walks have been nice, but my favorite thing we're here in South Florida

is that we have a pool, and I've just been putting a snorkel on, and instead of working out like I normally do and

trying to be intense, I just swim as long as I feel. like it. Oh, wow. Wow. And that's been really great. It's something that I've never done. I, you know

love going to the gym. I like being competitive in playing basketball. And before this, when this crisis

started, I went to the gym and I canceled my membership. Oh, wow. Because I knew that I go to the

gym to play basketball and it just not going to be okay having 12 guys touch a ball And there no way to social distance in basketball So I going to rejoin the gym when this is done I went to the gym manager and I went to clear out my locker and said don bother

Keep all your stuff here. We don't have any new people coming to take that locker

So when you're ready, come back and we'll get you set up. Interesting

Wow, that's good. I like that. I like that swimming part too. And just realized I think there's so many silver linings that are going to come out of this

where people are going to save money and save time. And I've thought about even like these Zoom calls where I used to drive an hour to see a buddy of mine for an hour and drive back

And I spent three hours for a one hour talk. And I can do that in the Zoom

And I've got my cup of coffee right here and save a lot of time. So I think a lot of things will change

And you know me as Mr. Gratitude guy. And so that's a big part of my life

And what would you say since this has happened? We notice what you're grateful for

Has it changed before this happened versus now that it's happened? Are you still grateful for the same things

Or is it changed a little bit? no i'm just really grateful for my family this my wife and my kids we've been closer than we've

ever been fortunately i have a seven and five year old that are playing with each other all the time

now i'm now more grateful for their teachers because oh after spring break ended home learning

uh you know having a five year old on zoom from nine to two is almost impossible right so you're

grateful for the opportunities for the kids to get outside my seven-year-old goes to a one-week sleepway camp in North Carolina every year

And we're hoping that that happens this year because he's been cooped in a lot

And I don't think that's very good for kids. But I think our marriage has never been stronger because we actually like being around each other

And I've heard a lot of therapists and psychologists saying that there's a lot of strife in this environment

But fortunately, I married someone that I actually think. We like each other

That's the, yeah, they say that some of the divorce attorney's phone lines are lighten up

and people are having forced to spend too much time together. But you mentioned that about the teachers

Gosh, what a great comment because you just, you forget. I mean, the teachers are teaching our children, but at the same time, they're kind of quasi

babysitters as well. And boy, that level, especially a five and a seven-year-old, that level intensity really makes

you appreciate the teachers that much more. So that's really cool. So let me ask you this If you think of your you always been pretty industrious and you had a lot of a lot of times that I known that you looked at different things to do and so forth Any thoughts or ideas or tips you might give somebody what to do why they kind of housebound

and maybe stuck in their own homes that they might be able to do? Yeah

I thought of this because my professional job job is slowed down

There's less people that are confident to invest in the stock market right now

So I thought for myself, you know, what can I do to better my, my, myself

Not just professionally, but maybe personally. I thought about studying for certain tests and designations

So I thought about, you know, a CFA. And I have a lot more time than I normally have had in the past to, you know

sit down and quietly study for something. But I also heard someone say something I think was pretty profound

You know, we're in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic. And there was someone that had a quote that said

if you're not doing something every day to better than yourself, you're not taking advantage of this pandemic

I think it's just great to relax. I don't think people need to feel like they need to, you know

beat the world just because we're locked in our houses. So just kind of relaxing and maybe doing less, I think

is probably the best thing that I can do for myself. but that's just me

Yeah, yeah. Well, you mentioned the relationship with the kids and the relationship with Elizabeth and getting

stronger and stronger. There's a lot of silver linings through this thing. It's just, it's amazing

There's death and destruction, and I know that's really sad and terrible, but at the same

time, there are some real silver linings in this gray cloud. And when you think about that, this is going to end at some point

I mean, they're going to get a vaccine. It's either going to, they're going to step it back on getting the economy going

again or whatever. So even as you think about trying to relax and put your time and effort into

the family, is there anything that you're thinking about doing kind of, I don't know, I'd say

hit the ground running when this is over that you might be doing differently now knowing what

you know about having gone through this? Yeah, I think with something that I'm missing is just

being around my friends and being social. I think people are going to pour back into, you know

small socially distanced dinner parties And I think people will go back to rest restaurants Yeah And you know sporting events I don know how I have a bet the NFL is going to start in September because of how much money is behind it

And how much, frankly, people like their sports. Yeah. I'm going to watch the NFL draft tonight

And I'm really excited about that. I don't know why I'm excited about a draft. They never have been in the past

But this is as close as you get. So, you know, I'm hoping baseball opens up with no fans

They have golf events with, you know, no people in the golf course other than the golfers

And I'm excited to watch sports and be around people. But I don't know if things are going to go all the way back to normal

My kids play Little League. I'm hoping that they have Little League games

At the end of the game, the kids high five each other and say, good game. That's not going to happen again

I think for our last game before things actually got shut down

all the kids lined up in a line and tipped their cap to each other

So maybe that's the future. But yeah, just really looking forward for things to be normal again

And I don't know if they'll ever have things exactly the same, but we'll see

Yeah, it'll definitely be different. Last question, Nathan, do you have sort of a philosophy or maybe a quote or a line from the Bible

or just or anything that kind of represents your philosophy of how you approach things

and maybe not all your life, but having gone through something like this that's kind of tough to kind of help you or guide you or sustain you through a tough time like this

You know, I don't. I have this book here and every page is a picture of my family and a quote

Oh, nice. But I couldn't, I haven't memorized any of them. So sometimes I'll flip through it and look at it

That's okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. well, you and I have chat about this before

As much as I can relate to different people, you cannot relate to them as well, in my humble opinion

on something unless you both have children. You and I both have children. I have a 35 soon to be 36-year-old and a 25 soon-to-be-26-year-old

There's something about, you talk about sustaining you. Children do an excellent job of doing that

Yeah. Yeah, excellent. Well, listen, my friend, thank you so much. I got a couple of nice nuggets out of there

as I suspected. So thank you so much for being part of my podcast

Thanks. You bet