Dan The Road Trip Guy

Winning with Curiosity, Compassion, Clarity, and Consistency.

• Dan • Season 5 • Episode 98

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I invited Kansas City entrepreneur and author Justin Ricklefs to trace his road trip from his years behind the scenes with college football and The Kansas City Chiefs to building Guild Collective, a human-first branding agency that helps companies lead with Human Storytelling.

We talk about the moments that shape a leader: the family-of-seven road trip to Florida that forged patience and humor, the long days in pro sports that reveal the hidden machinery behind game day, and the quiet courage it takes to leave a marquee job. Justin shares the core of his new book, Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies, and walks us through the four C’s that turn care into a competitive advantage—curiosity, compassion, clarity, and consistency. This isn’t theory for theory’s sake; it’s the kind of practical leadership that aligns teams, earns trust, and makes brands memorable.

We also break down why the best marketing feels like a story you want to finish. From tear-tinged Super Bowl ads to everyday posts, the work that lasts chooses meaning over noise and love over fear. That lens extends beyond the office. Justin explains how a silent retreat reframed his priorities—faith, wellness, marriage, family, work, friends—into a simple spine: an ordered life is a good life. The result is less frantic pushing and more steady receiving, including a vision for a family gathering place in the mountains or by the ocean.

If you’re building a brand, leading a team, or just trying to live with more intention, this road trip offers a map. Press play, share it with a friend who could use a nudge toward clarity, and leave a quick review to tell us what part moved you most.

You can find Justin's book "Give a Damn" at Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies: Ricklefs, Justin: 9798245800219: Amazon.com: Books

More information about Guild Collective at Guild Collective | Marketing Agency Kansas City

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Day on the Road Trip Guide. I'm your host, Dan. And this week we'll embark on a new adventure, discovering memories and life letters of our incredible guests. From everyday travelers to thrill speakers and everyone in between. This podcast is your first road speak to inspiring stories of passion, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. So buckle up and enjoy the ride. One of the things I so enjoy about doing this podcast is meeting new people. And that's exactly what I'm doing today. My guest is Justin Rickless. Justin is a business owner, entrepreneur near Kansas City. He's a marketing and branding expert. He's now an author. His book, which came out on February 18th, is entitled Give a Da Dam. I am looking forward to picking up a copy myself. Justin worked in college football and professional football with the Kansas City Chiefs. He told me he left about a month before Mahomes joined the Chiefs. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a few weeks since we first chatted. So let's get started. Welcome to the show, Justin.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for inviting me on. It's a pleasure. Yes, sir. Yeah, we're technically in Liberty, Missouri, a little suburb north of Kansas City. But yeah, Kansas City's home for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm in Cincinnati. Driving in the car would be next to impossible.

SPEAKER_02:

One of these days, though.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, one of these days. Go on one of my road trips. Take a couple minutes, just tell my listeners who is Justin Ricklyffs.

SPEAKER_02:

It's most concise nutshell, father of five, husband of Brooke. She and I have been married 23 years. We've got five kids, four daughters, one boy, living kids a city, run a business called Guild Collective, which is a human-first branding agency at its heart. Love stories and business and connect connections and obviously enjoying conversations like this. I'm really grateful you'd have me on.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe you told me you and Brooke were high school sweethearts, maybe, or I mean that's my version of the story.

SPEAKER_02:

She was kind of like high school weirdo chasing me around. But yeah, we we did date in high school for a little bit of time, and then more serious once we went to college at the University of Missouri. That was a long time ago. I chased the older girl, and eventually that I think that's my like the the biggest accomplishment of my whole entire life, actually, is uh convincing her to say yes.

SPEAKER_01:

This is Day on the Road Trip Guy. I love a good first car story or just a just a good car story. And I'm pretty sure you might have one.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, it it ties back to Brooke, actually. So growing up in lovely Gladstone, Missouri, her dad was a dentist, and they lived in a different part of town than I grew up in. My first car was a 1988 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and it was maroon, four-door, had the like sagging interior, you know, dome light that we were like stuck sticking toothpicks in to keep that sucker up. Uh back in the day, had obviously the cassette deck that was in 1996. So it wasn't like terribly old there, but it was also kind of like an old band car. So you had this 16-year-old guy driving around this big maroon boat of a vehicle. And uh now that I say that, it's like, oh yeah, that's probably why Brooke never wanted to ride with you because I drove that couldn't. Yeah, I called it the 8-8 for short. That was its nickname.

SPEAKER_01:

You could get a lot of people in it, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so many people. There's a lot of good stories in that old old car for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Did that have the vinyl interior or the nice crushed velvet look?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, mine was whatever the like base trim model was, like kind of the cloth seat that was had that, you know, kind of awkward. It had the front seat, but had that awkward deal that went up. And I I kept I literally I kept my cassette tapes in that uh little armrest right there. And we squeezed as many people into the 8-8 as humanly possible.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you keep that through high school, go to college in it, or I got through it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

She got us through first semester of my freshman year in college, and then it it quit uh operating as a motor vehicle at that point in time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So uh the upgrade was a 1993 Chevy Blazer S10. So one of those sweet, kind of like the red. It was like it was also maroon, but had that sweet black stripe down the side. I love that Chevy Blazer. That thing was super fun.

SPEAKER_01:

How about an epic road trip or just a road trip that stands out in your mind that was great memory?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, there's a few. My my dad took me to the West Coast one time. We went to San Francisco, my mom took me to Chicago one time. I remember that for went to the Jordan, the Nike outlet, and got a pair of Jordans there. But I think the the story most recent is when we loaded up all five of our kids and we drove from Kansas City to Naples, Florida. And and it it was epic in the sense that we made it. Also epic in the sense that you put seven humans in a Yukon XL for a 23-hour cumulative trip. And let's just say family got tighter and we bonded on that trip. But of course, uh it wasn't the most fun. But as we look back and the kids are all now older, they're like, Do you guys remember that time we drove all the way to Florida? Uh since then, we have we have flown when we've chosen to go because the the road trip was a memorable one, but one that they don't want to repeat.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you make it non-stop switching off driving, or did you stop along the lake?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, we definitely stopped. On the way there, we stopped in some random little town in Kentucky. And uh it was like one of those, like, hey, we can keep pushing, we can make it through, and then everybody melted down, and so we bought some like crappy hotel in Kentucky. And then on the way, the way from Florida to Kansas City, we actually only made it to Atlanta because Atlanta traffic was so crazy that we ended up stopping kind of the west side of Atlanta and then drove. But yeah, we did not, we did not make uh we did not make the full trip either time.

SPEAKER_01:

Career-wise, uh, you're running your own business now, and I believe it's been about nine years. We're in year nine.

SPEAKER_02:

It has been the most, I mean, talk about the road trip. I mean, it's definitely been a challenging journey. I mean, one, one I would definitely do again, but I think on the on the front end, if you tell a business owner all that they're going to encounter what what those obstacles in the road might look like, I'm not sure if I would have signed up for it on the front end. Now, this side of it, you're like, oh man, we made it through this hairpin turn. And we we didn't slide off the road during this ice storm. We didn't have all these, you know, casualties when we when when it got super crazy. But the business is about nine years old. Really feel a lot of gratitude for where we are. It's certainly been a very challenging, but also extremely rewarding path, and one I'm I'm grateful that we've driven or walked, whatever uh metaphor you want to use. It's uh it's a it's a really great business. We've got great clients, great folks that work alongside each other, and and it's been interesting and awesome and challenging, all kind of mixed up into one long road trip for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

To get there, one of the one of your earlier careers was with the Kansas City Chiefs. Let's uh let's talk a little bit about that road of you got out of college, you went down this road of marketing, branding. Talk about some of those earlier positions.

SPEAKER_02:

Dan, just like anything, if you if you go back and kind of retrace steps, they seem to all make a little bit of sense. But on the front end of that journey, all I was doing was the best next step, right? And the thing that was was emerging or illuminating in in the along the path. My first, my first full-time job actually out of college was I was a cook at a in a fraternity. And I well, because there's a relationship with the owner of that catering business, and he believed in me, and we I worked part-time during college, and then after college, he he offered me a full-time position with benefits, and we were pregnant with our oldest daughter. That's that was actually step one. And then the first job in sports was with the University of Missouri, transferred me to Memphis, and then we had our third daughter in Memphis, and we were from Kansas City. My wife was excited to get home at some point, and so there's a long version of the story, but ended up back in Kansas City with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008. And there's actually two separate stints there. I worked there for five years, um, 2008 to 2013. And there's a two-year hiatus that is its own kind of story that there are lots of lessons learned. And then I actually went back to the team in 2015 through 2017. So for for round two. And again, the the experience there, the people I met, relationships that were formed, and the lessons learned were all incredible. But it was that second stint where some of this, you know, entrepreneurial startup business piece was starting to bubble up, and we were at the stage of life where we were ready to to take the take the risk and kind of jump out of the airplane and see if the parachute opened.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, what's that like working for a professional sports team?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, we're right now on the heels. I I know this episode will come out here in a little bit, but uh, we're right on the heels of the Super Bowl. And in this town, in this town in Kansas City, people are kind of like, wait, they even play it this year? The Chiefs aren't in it? Like, who's this, who are these teams, right? But there is there, there's I don't know the specific, like, you're the athlete at the professional level, okay? So I'll never know that feeling. But so a big step down into this next tier was like, yeah, it it it was unlike anything I I could have ever imagined or experienced as a kid. I mean, the the Chiefs were my favorite team growing up. I went to playoff games with my dad. We sat in the nosebleeds when it was freezing cold and sat on a styrofoam block because it was so cold in the stands. And stuff, they they were my favorite team growing up, and they're still my favorite football team. But being in it is like it's just unbelievable. I think when when you don't have the access or exposure, you not wrongly, but you just kind of assume like, oh, it it's primarily just the team. But there's this whole crazy thing, this big organization behind the scenes that that pull off those, if it's football, the 17 Sundays, or if it's baseball the 162 games, the NBA it's 82, or whatever it is. And there's this giant effort of really talented, hardworking, dedicated people, unless you really pay attention to, you don't really see it, right? You they've got an operations group and a finance group, just like any other business. And so it was, yeah, just a remarkable. I had five years on the college side and then eight years on the professional side. And then they're just, yeah, the hardest working, biggest hearted, really talented folks. And of course, it comes with uh its own set of challenges because it there is some some difficulty balancing uh home life and all the the demands that it takes to be successful at that level. And that was for me some of the stuff that was starting to to bubble up was like, wait a second, I want to I want to have a little bit more agency and control over schedule and time and flexibility and some of those things that were part of my own specific journey of unplugging. But my goodness, I'm so grateful. And and in many ways shaped by uh those experiences I had at Learfield and the Chiefs for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe you told me you missed the Mahomes era.

SPEAKER_02:

By a month. Actually, I wrote I wrote the story but in the book. It's been really interesting. I was I was hosting clients at Super Bowl in Houston. So like it was a VIP thing on Saturday, and so we're hosting clients who were at this event. I at the time I didn't know, but it's like this younger couple were right behind me in the in the line, and he like piles on the chicken fingers and the ketchup. And I was just like, man, that dude, he kind of looks more athletic than me. I'm not really sure who he is. He's not one of our clients, but he's at this Chiefs event. Yeah, and it turns out with hindsight, it turns out I was like, oh, dude, I was right next to Mahomes and Britney as they were like figuring out where they were gonna get drafted and who they're gonna go play for and all that. And so it was after his senior year. They ended up my last day was March 17th, and then they drafted Mahomes in late April of that same year. And so I like, you know, unplug from the big machine, jump out of the airplane, and we start this, you know, bootstrapped marketing agency. And a month later, I'm like, oh, they drafted the, you know, depending on who you ask, the top one or two cornerbacks of all time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You can hang on to that. Uh you can always talk about I was standing next to it.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a it's a good story now. It's honestly, oh, some of the times we introduce our agency is like, yeah, I left, you know, I left uh the Chiefs a month before they drafted number 15 from Texas Tech.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh speaking of your company, take us a little bit through what you do for people.

SPEAKER_02:

It's been in our essence, in our DNA, you know, from the beginning. Over this, yeah, this road trip we've taken as a business. We've begun to really clarify and stand what we call how to build a human first brand. You know, a lot of times our clients will come to us and have a really clear business plan. So they've gone through some level of strategic plan, a vision priority plan, an EOS framework. So they've got some clarity around, hey, how do we, how do we want to show up and measure our KPIs as a business, right? And then they've got some level of instinct or urge or desire to phrases we'll hear a lot are like, hey, we want to help tell our story, or we want to help build connection to the community, or we want to help sell more stuff in whatever form. For us, in the the most simple terms, it's like we're we're trying to help companies unlock who the brand is at its core. And by that we mean is it clear, is it connected, and is it inherently creative? And so we call that process the human first brand framework. But it's just it's essentially like, hey, the the humans who make up the business and the humans who buy the stuff that the business sells, there needs to be simplicity, there needs to be clarity, there needs to be resonance. And ultimately, especially in this age of of heavy tech talk, yeah, we're not anti we're not anti-AI by any means, but we're pro-human connection. So it's the brands that are winning at scale and at micro levels are are really clear about how they build clarity, connection, and creativity inside their organization so that the the team itself is aligned. And so there's purpose. So there's there's uh some energy that flows from we call it the heartbeat of the business through to the connective tissue who, what whatever those are, prospects, partners, clients, et cetera, who's going to engage in this story? And so we're just, yeah, kind of distilling because because companies and leaders are uh understandably confused. There's a lot to, hey, should we have a TikTok strategy? What's our AI search plan? What do we do with influencers? And again, those aren't those aren't bad conversations, but they're outcomes of getting a a really clear human-first brand, a blueprint aligned so that we can we can grow that business from the inside out.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I think you and I talked early on. You're really storytellers telling the story of this brand.

SPEAKER_02:

Story is the most successful and most ancient art form. It's like we we uh like our company didn't create story, right? We're we're we're hearkening back to okay, at our best, like humans are storytellers, and we crave that. We crave to it helps us make sense of things. And that doesn't always mean the stories are right or true or good. And so as a from a brand standpoint, we're we're trying to help shape those stories so that we can impact and inform the core internal team and an external team to align around, like, oh, okay, I understand. Like Dan's CTO, he works at this place, this is kind of what he does, right? And so we we just we are we're storytellers, we crave it and we we end up making decisions around that. And so from a brand standpoint, the people who are who are connecting in a storytelling fashion versus just hey, we're gonna slap some stats and figures and tell you about how awesome our new products are. The humans on the other end of that are like, I don't really care.

SPEAKER_01:

I assume you watched the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_02:

We did, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01:

I assume you pay probably closer attention to commercials. Was there a favorite commercial?

SPEAKER_02:

It's interesting. Our team actually talked about that at our team meeting today. What what was cool to it was to hear Don, who who leads our, she's our director of strategy. What commercial was aimed most specifically at the target audiences? And and it was cool just to hear that, because it's like, yeah, you can create a funny ad, or you can create an emotionally compelling ad or you can create an ad that is like a vintage ad or whatever. But it's like the the brands who are really intentional about connecting to their own target audiences are probably the ones that created the most buzz. I'm a sucker for just to name it, like the emotionally compelling kind of tearjerker ad. So like the Lace Potato Chip ad, or it's like an older guy and a and a daughter who ended up growing up on the farm, and then he transitioned the farm to her. It's like that's pretty, pretty awesome. And I and I bet it will also sell a bunch of bags of chips, right? Like it's it connected the land to the end user in a way that's like, okay, now in a sea of options at Walmart, like I might remember that that story. So yeah, those those for me specifically, those types of ads always always connect for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

That was a story told in whatever it was, 60 seconds or whatever it was, but an expensive 60 seconds. Yeah. You're kind of like felt like it was a movie that was gonna keep going.

SPEAKER_02:

And you found yourself in it. It's like, oh my grandpa did that, or I remember going to the farm and this time.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not a I'm not a Budweiser fan by any stretch, but that commercial it was kind of the same thing. It was just such a great story.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and again, you just you're the brands that can can connect to the heart. And and I don't want to minimize it, it's it's hard work, but but it really is the the movement towards another human being that we can and and it's not the simpler black and white, but you you kind of see most advertisements or most marketing kind of polar, either they're gonna drive some fear because people respond to fear for sure, or they drive love. And again, there's a lot of variants and and different pieces, but but you when when the brands that are moving people towards those connective moments, that human affection, the the love, dare I say it, then it if it just feels a certain way versus the ones that are like very uh divisive and polarizing and drive more of the the fear spot.

SPEAKER_01:

Now you're an author. I don't know, is the book out yet?

SPEAKER_02:

February 18th. Yeah, February 18th. Okay. So the the author copy is in my hand, which still feels kind of like a wild thing to if I'm honest. It's like, wow.

SPEAKER_01:

So take a few minutes. Tell us what who's gonna want to read this book?

SPEAKER_02:

Everybody? I don't I I I wish everybody, that'd be cool. But I I think the the practical, the the framing is that we're uh I say we, but I I wrote this book for leaders. The the title of the book is Give a Damn, the Catalyst for Caring Companies. And it's a little bit of a provocative, you know, it's like a moderate PG cuss word, right? But the framing is for leaders who believe that care can be their competitive advantage. They're thinking about how do I lead this team with care as opposed to just with control or command or power or compliance. And that's it's been a really interesting journey because I trace my own story back to with the time I I didn't make up this phrase just like I didn't admit storytelling, but we've we've used give a damn as kind of this mantra or this rallying cry or this mindset to show that the way towards connection is is to give is by giving a damn about somebody. The book frames up this construct of if we can apply as leaders effort and attitude towards growing in our four C's, okay? So first one is curiosity, the second one is compassion, the third one is clarity, and the fourth one is consistency. And it's not this like picture perfect framework or this academic theory. It's it we're we're much messier than that, or at least I am. It's an organic framing of hey, if we pay attention to these things, if we try to grow in these things, if we screw up and say sorry, hey, I wasn't very curious in that meeting. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions and railroaded you in that conversation. It it isn't a it isn't a perfection plan. And and very much I wrote this book for myself so that I can grow in my own awareness of these things. And this book is for leaders who have this kind of interesting tension between, hey, I wanna I want to grow a business and and grow my impact and influence, but also not divorce myself from my soul in the process. Sure. And so it's for this this group of leaders who believe that care can be their competitive advantage.

SPEAKER_01:

I assume people will be able to find that on Amazon?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, sir. It'll be yeah, just search. There's another, there's an author who I I think the world of who has written a similarly titled book. We have different uh thesis, is more kind of educational, but yeah, you could it's a big bright cover with a with a flame on the front with a a burning match and the match is uh is an interesting story.

SPEAKER_01:

I have a shelf full of books, so I'll have to add that one. Imagine today you could take a road trip with anyone, living or deceased. Who would it be? Where would you go? What would you talk about?

SPEAKER_02:

It's probably because we just talked about this as it relates to the Super Bowl commercials, but first thing that came to my mind was I'd love to go to the mountains with my wife anytime. So that's number one. Yeah, number two is it, you know, if it was like a big reach, if if I could get in a Buick with Matthew McConaughey, and we could just drive from his, you know, I'm sure, estate or ranch in in Texas all the way up into the the Smoky Mountains or the or the or the Rocky Mountains. We can go either way, whatever way you wanted to go. But if we just drove a long way and I could just sit there and listen to him tell stories, he's a he's a really profound thinker. I've read his books and the way that he stands for something. And frankly, he uses the phrase give a damn in some of his stuff. If I could, if I could saddle up with Makatahe and we could go somewhere kind of wild, I would love that. That would be really fun.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you think? One question you had asked him.

SPEAKER_02:

I'd ask him, what's been the hardest place to maintain your integrity? Because I I I love how he's kind of framed his uh his thinking and his life around around fidelity and around order and around spirituality and around emotional connection. But definitely that guy's been through some stuff. So I'd I'd love to see I'd love to hear the unspoken stories. Like, hey, what what's what was that time where you about threw it all away? Like w when did you fall apart? 'Cause I think we all have some of the stories ourselves of when we when we fell apart.

SPEAKER_01:

I just uh heard on a podcast, I think he's trademarking his his name and some of his phrases. He probably should. He has a lot of good ones. He does. Uh my wife and I read his uh green light book and thoroughly enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02:

Jealous of his hair. He's got great hair.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, especially when you get to be my age, you get real jealous of people's hair. That's awesome. Anything on your bucket list, something you want to do in your lifetime that's just kind of out there. Most people tell me they don't have a bucket list, which I'm I'm cool with that, but there's got to be something adventurous that you want to do.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, for sure. I I think, you know, it's interesting. I think one of the most helpful things I've learned over the last several years is to get clear on what you really want. And Jim Detmer, Dethmer, Detmer, I can't remember. He's a Chicago guy, writes a lot of books. He he he has that in one of his lessons was like, hey, get clear on what you really want. Not what you want, what you really want. And so my wife and I actually have this, she's got her own version, I've got mine, but we go through these Google Docs once a year. Sure. And just say, hey, what is it that you really want? And and and I I think I can say this really specifically, Dan, is you know, our our five kids are now at the point where relationship with them, especially the older three, has become more friendship and mentor and guide than like, you know, authoritarian parent. Like, do this, don't do that. It's just remarkable to have relationship with them. And to answer you, bucket list is like, man, I I want to have a place that's not in Kansas City where everybody wants to come and be together. And whether we rent it or own it or build it or whatever, I I really don't care. But a place that either has some some mountains or or an ocean or or both would be real fun. To have a place that's central that people gather and wanna want to come hang out with us.

SPEAKER_01:

Good good bucket list item. We're almost the end of our little road trip here, but you're obviously a successful business guy. You're now an author, raising a family. Leave my listeners with some life advice, whether it's how to run a business or how to live how to live a wonderful life. What would you tell people?

SPEAKER_02:

Oof. I'd I'd instantly tell them about Father Paul, who is a Catholic monk I met last summer. And I'm not Catholic, but went to this retreat, this silent retreat. I left that, I tell the story in the book actually, but I left that experience with this one phrase that has a has a longer story, but it uh the phrase that that changed me in that weekend was an ordered life is a good life. And and it wasn't that my priorities were wrong going in there, but it was that my priorities were disordered. It was a simple lesson, and and maybe everybody's way ahead of me on this, but but in this chaotic, like, man, you gotta hustle and produce and build and climb and chase and create and do all this stuff, there's this like inherent kind of energy that's always in in production mode. And and I just got you know, man, believe me, I've been not perfect at this by any means, but my ordered life kind of came back into clarity and alignment. And it was for me is my faith, and then my own wellness, and and that's not just physical or sleep or whatever. It's like, it, how's my emotional health? And am I going to see a counselor and am I talking about my stuff? And then it was my wife, and then my family, and then my work, and then my friends. And it was in that order, and it's like this kind of spine. And and I think, especially for someone in the entrepreneurial space who there's lots of stuff to always do and chase, and there's a new idea and a new client and a new thing and a new opportunity, and there's there's this kind of compulsion, at least for me, of hey, go go chase it, go figure it out, go do it. That reframing for me was like, hey, it will, yes, is there a responsibility to go do stuff? Yes, of course. View it through the lens of an ordered life and receive it. And and don't, you don't have to go create it, receive it and it will come. And and truly, like I think that book, the book was part of that receiving, which is like, okay, here's some inspiration. Now go create from that place as opposed to creating for identity approval, whatever else. That again, sometimes I'm mixed up and can chase that stuff still. But to to be to be direct, it was uh that that framing of hey, an ordered life is a good life. And in that order, those are the most important things for me. And yes, finance and work is is a key part of that for sure, but it it's underneath these other bigger and more important priorities. And that that's hard to remember when the kind of bullets are flying and the darts are going. But in in its function, it's like wake up, spend some time developing your faith, getting clear in who you are, loving your family, and then go. How many days were did you go away? I asked them last time. I've gone twice now. I asked them last time. I was like, when are you gonna introduce the week-long retreat? But but both of them that I've been to are two full days. So you you arrive on a Friday afternoon, leave on a Sunday afternoon. But the beauty the gift of it was it's a silent retreat. So your phone is away, your laptop's away, there's no meetings, there's nobody to check in on you, or vice versa. There's nothing distracting and even as simple as I was so fascinated by the monastic life that I wanted to Google how long are you a monk? What do these guys believe? But I was just sitting in there, I have to I I just got the experience and be present. And I think sometimes the gift of presence is is so elusive and difficult because we've got all this, you know, digital distraction and connection and all these other things that the gift of just being without my phone for 48 hours was well worth the$250 I paid to stay there a couple nights.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's a lot of noise today.

SPEAKER_02:

So much noise. So much noise.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Justin, this has been an absolute pleasure for me. We didn't know each other, but I feel like we do a little bit now. That's what road trips do. Absolutely. But before we go, how can people find you, your business, the book?

SPEAKER_02:

I appreciate that, Dan. Um the book open Amazon and type give a damn. It might be one of the two that pops up. It's a big yellow, big yellow one. Uh from a publishing standpoint, I I I write three or four, sometimes seven days a week on LinkedIn. That's my only social platform. Okay. So LinkedIn's a good spot. And then our business, yeah, guild, G-U-L-D collective, C-O-L-L-E-C-T-I-V-E. Team of seven. A lot of lot of strategy work and a really great team here in the heart, heartland of America.

SPEAKER_01:

I assume you work across the country or we have clients all over the country.

SPEAKER_02:

Our little office and team is based here, but yeah, we've got clients in Atlanta and Denver and Minnesota. And they're the good concentration in Kansas City, though, for sure. We love we love getting face to face with folks whenever we possibly can.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Justin, again, thank you so much. It's a pleasure, Dan. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Dan the Road Trip Guy. I hope you enjoyed our journey today and the stories that were shared. If you have any thoughts or questions or stories of your own, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations. Until next time, keep driving, keep exploring, and keep having those amazing conversations. And remember, you can find me on the internet at stayontheadguy.com.

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Dan Neal

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