Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside Personal Growth, this is Greg Voisen the host of Inside Personal Growth. And joining me from you are in Scottsdale Arizona is Kevin Kehoe. And did I say that right, Kevin?

Kevin Kehoe
It is Kehoe. Yes, you said it right.

Greg Voisen
Kehoe, you know, you could say it K-hoe too, but it is Kehoe. We are going to be talking to Kevin about his new book that he literally put his blood sweat and tears in called the One Hit Wonder. And the subtitle of this is The Real Life Adventures of an Average Guy and The Lessons He Learned Along the Way. I don't know about that part about the average guy. But I but I will say it is about the lessons as matter of fact … there are, is it 38 chapters, 37?

Kevin Kehoe
37 chapters, each one has a story.

Greg Voisen
You could pretty much pick this book up almost anywhere, and learn a lesson from any one of those chapters if you wanted. But thank you, you did a wonderful job. I'm going to let our listeners know something about you. Kevin Kehoe has worked in the hotel, restaurant, business consulting software industries. And he co-founded a spire software based on the belief that the landscaping industry needed a completely cloud based mobile platform offering true end to end, cradle to cradle functionality that was supported by comprehensive Customer Success program. He recently sold that company. And he's now living as I said, in Scottsdale, Arizona. He also is nationally recognized consultant for more than 35 years in the same industry as well. He is a graduate of sunny, Stony Brook, Southern Methodist University and ASU Thunder Bird School. He's a father, a husband, cancer survivor, who loves motorcycles, playing golf and surfing. I think somewhere in there in the book. He said he likes tequila to at night, and then morning, he likes coffee. Well, and for all of my listeners, there's going to be a link to the website, but just for iteration right now. It's one hit wonder, o-n-e-h-i-t-w-o-n-d-e-r. site, s-i-t-e.com. There, you can learn more about the book, you can see his blog, you can learn more, this was an adventure for him to actually write his book. It's his first book. But really well done, Kevin, and what I would like to do is, you know, look, a lot of entrepreneurs write books. A lot of entrepreneurs don't want to be so vulnerable as you've been. You've been extremely vulnerable with the audiences about your lessons learned. And you are always curious minded. You know, growing up, you were the oldest of six children coming from a Catholic Irish family. And you always had to be, as you said, the captain, the leader, you know, you like to explore new ways of achieving success, you can tell that because of your wound about career and experiences that you tell in the book. Um, if you would tell us a bit about yourself, and why you took as much time as you did to write this book, because writing a book, I know because I have authors come to me and they say, I want you I want you to help me write a book, because I've been doing this for 15 years now. It isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. And it's not so easy to be so vulnerable. What would you tell the world why'd you write the book?

Kevin Kehoe
You know, a lot of reasons that I think sort of follow the way I've always done everything. I mean, number one, I liked a good bottle of wine. I like good stories. And so I would tell people stories, especially my wife, and you know, as I was married once young, and then got married later, I have a great marriage now. They all said, Kevin, you should write a book. And so somewhere in my mind that that got in there, and I'm a big believer in self-fulfilling prophecies. I look back at my bucket list I wrote in about 25 I have years old or 26, getting out of MBA school. And on that was write a book. So I mean, somewhere in there was planted in my head, plus people said to go do it. And I thought I had something to say, that would be interesting to people, and I wanted to entertain them. And so I wrote the book, you know, took me two years, probably at least three major rewrites on top of all that stuff. And the other reason is, I just wanted to see what it was like to write a book. And to see if I could sell in a market. It's a whole different world than I was ever used to,

Greg Voisen
Well, and based on that experience. So I think that's great. The reason you wrote the book is because you had on your bucket list that you wanted to write a book. So you, you committed yourself. And I think that's one of the characteristics about you, Kevin, that comes through is that you're committed guy once you start something you like to finish it. And once you commit to something, you see it through. And your book, one hit wonder is about you call an average guy? Well, there's a lot of average guys who maybe don't want to do what I just said, who keeps showing up? And striving to always get better, and make his life better? That was you? And maybe it's your birth order, but I don't think so. You know, when they talk about, I'm the youngest of four. Right? So I'm in the other birth order, I'm at the back end of it. And actually, I'm the one who had the most ambition, and whatever. So not birth order in my sex. But in these 37 chapters, you tell a lot of stories about lessons learned along the way. What's the one thing that you want the readers, my listeners to take away from the book? If there was like, okay, the grandiose thing, I wrote you this book, it's in 37 different chapters. But what is the essence? If I distilled it down? And I put it on your epitaph? What would it be?

Kevin Kehoe
So tough question. You know, one thing to come out of the book, and let me just say...

Greg Voisen
Oh, you said one hit wonder. So um, yeah, you get it down to one thing.

Kevin Kehoe
I'll explain One Hit Wonder, the average guy and say the average guy because Harvard and Yale would have met, right. And I always used to tell my wife and I still do now is I'm average in that regard. But I'm completely overachieving and perseverance and commitment sticking to things right. That's, if I were to say, anything's my quote, genius, that's it, I really stick to stuff and I see it through. And I'm a good strategic thinker about things right. And maybe even one step further by could brag is that I'm really good at actually executing the details. In other words, I can see the picture, then I can go in and do the details. And I say, I hate details. I really don't. In fact, I love the strategic view. But if you don't do the details, you don't experience it. Right. You're not really in the foxhole doing it? You know, if, if I go back to why I wrote it, I think people, I wanted to be somebody inspired, that anyone could do things. These are just my stories that I'm sharing with you. And you know, if there's anything to it, you know, some of it was, don't be afraid to get into the deep end of the pool and swim like hell, because that's what I've done my whole life, right? I've always sort of over challenged myself gotten in trouble doing it. But you know, I think life is, is to be led every day. And I don't know where I read it somewhere. But was a story about an old gal who at 85 years old dies, and there's a red dress in the closet. And she bought it at age 20 and said, I'm going to save it for a special day. Well, a special day never showed up. You know, and she died with a dress in a closet. And I think you wear the red dress every day. Right? That's what we're here. For me. That's if anything that cancers taught me. It's like, narrow your stuff down to today, right? Because that's what you can control.

Greg Voisen
Well look, of the amount of hours of the amount of days of the amount of minutes that we have, and we never know our day of exit. You should be looking at life without an attachment to the outcome in my personal opinion, and more about the journey. What did you learn today? What were the lessons that you took forward that you can think through? And with that being said, you mentioned in the book that Waylon Jennings and his music and philosophy had an influence on you? What is it about his music, words and lyrics that influenced you positively?

Kevin Kehoe
You know, I think I put that in the book. Because it was a little bit of an eye opening experience. I used to take motorcycle rides with my buddies, and we go out for six days, you know, and just drive up to Wyoming and come back and great roads and every night we drink tequila. And you know, turn on the, the jukebox, right and play pool and one night that song came on the song was, the lyrics at least are things like the one thing you all need to know in life is the difference between yoyos bozos and bimbos and heroes, and I thought that was just perfect, right? Because, you know, we, I think we live our life through people, with people with yourself. And I think it's really important to know with whom you're dealing, and, you know, I had a tendency to be too trustful. I expected too much. I mean, people are people, in my estimation, and if they do anything, well, it's to live their life responsibly. And so when I heard that song, I just thought it was really funny, I thought was really important that, you know, the smallest group is heroes, you know, the guys who show up every day, maybe they don't get all the all the accolades, right, all the all the attention, but they're utterly dependable. They're good, they always have your back. And so that was part of the one hit wonder, right? The one hit wonder, maybe one day, you have something great happened to yourself. You know, a lot of people don't write, we just show up every day, and we work behind the scenes. But we're utterly dependent to everyone around us. And I think that was a real point, you know, including Waylon in my book,

Greg Voisen
Well I think as long as people, and they've heard this from me before, are not living quiet lives of desperation. It's, it's to show up, the person you're referring to, is not living a quiet life of desperation. They're doing what has to be done, based upon the way they perceive the world. And that leads me to my next question. You know, you state that after almost 70 years on this planet, you're not quite there yet. But almost, that where we end up in life is rooted in the way we think about ourselves, and self-beliefs that we hold to be true. There's only one person as you and I know we can be true to and that's ourselves, all the other people that you're trying to satisfy. If you're really living a true life, you're true to yourself. So what advice would you have for our listeners about fully examining their lives? And where might they begin the process? Here's, here's the big part of the question. You know, it kind of looks amorphous, when you take a life of 65 years, 67 years. Even when you take a life for 20 years, whatever age listener is listening right now. And you're saying, hey, I want you to really think about your life and take an inventory of things. And where are you in? Who are you and what is your purpose? Where would you tell him to begin? Kevin?

Kevin Kehoe
That's a another great question. Not an easy one, either. I mean, I talk in the book about a couple of experiences. One, I played football in college, and I just never thought I'd ever played pro ball. And then years later at a reunion, I expressed that, you know, that feeling I had to some people on the team. And they all thought I was crazy. They said, you know what, you may not have made it but you certainly had the talent.

Greg Voisen
That was Lorraine, Lorraine, and there were three women right? at that reunion? Am I speaking about the same different reunion?

Kevin Kehoe
Different reunion.

Greg Voisen
Okay, Sorry. Sorry. Keep going Keep going.

Kevin Kehoe
You know, it's so there was right there is you know, what, the thing that limited me wasn't my skills as much as it was my brain, my head. And I also told another story in there about because I did a lot of running for a while, right? I did marathons, 10 k's and I ran this one race was a one-mile race, which is very different. One-mile race is not a distance race, right? It's a sprint, if you're running this other races, and so I thought I'd enter it and train. And I did and we, we race went off. You know, we started at the gun and halfway through the race, I picked my head up, and I looked left and look right. And there was no one in front of me. And I thought I'm not supposed to be here. Right. I was supposed to be in the middle of the pack, but I was leaving the race. I think right? My brain kicked in a little bit, I ended up fourth, it just goes to show you I think it's the way you think about yourself. And my mom, God bless her 93 years old, she sent me something that was I thought rather striking, wrote a book. And she says, you know, that you don't think big enough for like, who am I to be beautiful, glamorous, talented? And the answer is, who are you not to be. So I think that really demonstrates the need, that is what you think about. So if you're going to start somewhere, you got to start small, right? Small dreams, or big dreams a step at a time. And that's what I do every day, I get up and I go, who am I going to be today? What am I going to do? Alright, break it down. And then little by little, you know, you start having things happen. And ultimately, I think there's this thing of self-fulfilling prophecy. So I think you start one day at a time, right? Take the dream, what's the step to get there? Or steps right, and then do the next one. I mean, I was fortunate, you know, that I had people. I think, who also were smart enough to tell me what I was good at. I think a lot of us spend a little too much time thinking about what we're not good at, and changing it and not enough at what you're really good at. And how do I use that right to my best benefit in life? And I think that's a good place to start. What am I good at?

Greg Voisen
Well, so what you're saying is take it, break it down into small steps start and work every day at it, and people go well, that's great advice, Kevin, and I get it. And that's what I do. And I think what they're not trusting in is how long it takes. Thank you, you know, a long time. People say to me, oh, Greg, I had a young man on earlier, you've been doing this podcast show for 15 years. I said, yeah, 15 years, I've stuck at it. It takes that long in this to it can to make things successful, right? Because while you're such a success, and I go, well, thank you for that. I look at it as somebody who just stuck it out, and I enjoy doing what I'm doing. And the reality is, I think if you wake up every morning, and you enjoy what you do, add that to the pile, that you've got to really like what you're doing. And then you take those steps. That's a really important element to this. And it leads me to what you said. You said, You're a strategic guy. You said you like to take steps that you're persistent. All of those things. And I was reflecting on a podcast I recently did with a guy who taught he was a teacher. And they said, you know, you're going to have to be a good math teacher. And he says, I'm not so good at math. And he found out he was really good. And they became the professor teaching math. And he had a student who came to him and this is a great little story, and you're going to get it because it's about the subconscious mind. And that's what we're talking about how powerful that subconscious mind is that Sarah comes in. He she takes the test. And he became a very good math teacher at the university. And she got an A. And so she comes to see him, she goes, you must make a mistake. She says I'm horrible at math. And he goes, No, I didn't make mistake I graded that. And and she goes, No, no, no, no, I never get A's in math. Never. She says I'm a C student. And he said, Well, don't reaffirm that. Don't reaffirm that yours, DC student. And here's what happened. She left she got one A and she said what we hear Professor, whatever his name was, at least now that I have this A I can get D's on the other ones. And I will average them out and I'll be a C students. So next contest comes along, what'd she gets? She gets a C and a D. She got to see in the course. But she'd already programmed the mind that she was a C student. My point is, that is a very powerful thing. And you know, you grew up in this Irish Catholic family. And you served as an altar boy. You stated that you are not a prayerful person until much later in life. When you discovered that bad things can happen for no reason at all. And you have to find a way to deal with it. How has your bout with cancer shifted your perspective spiritually? And about Kevin's own finitude because everybody here is questioning Their spirituality and they're saying, I'm not going to be here forever. They don't think about it every day. But they should think about it more frequently than they do.

Kevin Kehoe
Yeah, that's a good question. finitude, you know, I was diagnosed it years ago. And believe me, the first three months of that experience after diagnosis, all I thought about every night was dying. Right? And how awful that would be, and how afraid I was of that. I'm eight years into it, I could tell you, I'm not afraid anymore. In that same way, believe me, I do not want to die. Um, but I've realized that that we all do. And if I stopped spending time thinking about that, and just focusing on today, then that was my way of dealing with it. Right. And the other part was, I can't die. So I'm going to work my brain to do that, you know, and I do it for my wife, because I promised her I grow old with her. And I do it with my daughter, because I promised I'd be at her 50th birthday party. And so I'm not afraid I understand it happens. And, you know, get as much done as I can. While I'm here. The big part, I think, for me about cancer was, I think I learned about mercy. You know, because the suffering, you know, I come from an environment where it's stop whining, there's no crying in baseball, shut up and get back to it and suck it up, right. And that's all good. But when you suffer, when you're a cancer, you can suffer. And believe me, I did. And so now I can never look at people the same way. And when they're suffering, I have absolute pity and mercy, pity. I have empathy for them. And, and I pray for them. And I think about them. And I realized that I'm a different person, just because I'm a little more patient that way a little more realistic about things with people. And you know what it's helped me alone from, you know, holding myself this is crazy expectations every day.

Greg Voisen
Well, I know you came from a Catholic background, but many of the listeners here probably follow Eastern philosophies, probably more Buddhism, and the Buddha said, there's suffering. And then there's the end of suffering. And what he meant by that in my pea pickin little brain is suffering is something that, okay, yes, you got cancer, and yes, you had chemo. And yes, that chemo made you sick. Right? that the key is in your mind, here's what I see about you. You persevered and overcame the end of suffering through this eight-year cycle was a result of your ability to look and perceive your world differently than the first three months, three, whatever it was where all you thought about was death. And that was Kevin again, putting one foot in front of the next saying, I'm going to live another day. I want to go see another day. I want to see the sunrise this morning. I want to see the sunset tonight. I want to have a bottle of tequila. I want someone I want my coffee in the morning. Whatever it is, Kevin, it's very apparent that your daughter Julie Marie Kehoe, who is not 30 years old in life is kind of the light of your eyes. All parents want to have their children be happy. And Julia's happy. You mentioned that it's important to love what you do. And you always loved what you did. For those listening, what might that might not have a love for what they're doing? What recommendations do you have to help them make a shift, a perspective shift your career ship, whatever it might be? And how can you help them find their purpose in life?

Kevin Kehoe
Another good question, I mean, these are all just what how would I say? I mean, these are essence of life type of things questions, right.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, but that's your book. That's where you are right now.

Kevin Kehoe
There are, I think, to answer that question. I think one of the things is there's a difference between having a job and having a career. Right. And early on. I think I had a job right at the places I worked at. And it wasn't until I got fired, right from one position. And you know, for people out there who've never been fired. I've been fired six times in my life. No for various different reasons. Of course, none of them are my fault. They just didn't know my talent. I understand that. That was a joke.

Greg Voisen
I get that it was a joke. You know, one is fired. Because it's something else. It's always there. It's always I look, the number one thing that you know, and you've always done, thank goodness, is you take responsibility for your own actions. Absolutely. Right. And if there's a look, you've been an employer, you've worked for companies, you're a consultant. And you've seen people that have always said, No, somebody else did it to me. Nobody frickin ever does anything to you. You do it to yourself, Okay? When you really analyze it, so good point, good point

Kevin Kehoe
The common denominator with all those jobs is me, right? And what do I suggest? Well, I can just share a little bit of my experience. When I got fired, that was the last time I ever got fired. Back in 1985, I had to do a job search. And I talked about the book, it took me almost nine months to get a job, I was down to 100 bucks in my banking account. But along the way, I realized that I wasn't searching for a job, I finally got that through my head. And it was through one of my professors a mentor. So there's one thing, get someone who you know, who you trust, who knows about, you know, Bs can tell you the truth about what you're good at what you're not good at. Because that can either turn into a job or a career. And, and at that time, when I call that professor, he said, I should be a consultant. And I said, Oh, nice, once a consultant. He told me what it was, I said, wow, people do this and get paid. He's like, Yes, I'm like, up. He goes, I said, do you know anyone is looking? He says, Oh, by the way I do. And so I and I learned, I said, gets back to my strengths. You know, he said, you got really two really good strengths that make you good for that job. Just number one, you're a great problem solver. You can see to the heart of things. And number two, you're really good, persuasive person, you get on something, you get passionate about it. People listen, I said, that’s what consultants do. I look at the problem. They got to get people motivated to change and do something different. And that's how I got in my career. Do I love it? Yeah, I guess I do love it. You know, I mean, I didn't start out with do what I love. I started out with what was I good at that I didn't know about. And I was desperate. Because I needed a job, I need a paycheck. And ultimate landed me into 30 years. And I never had a job thereafter after that. I was my own employer forever. And I think that was just it, believing that for me, independence is what's important. Yeah, I want to make money. But I like making my own schedule. I like doing things my way. Right. I like creating things that are unique. And I did that throughout my career as a consultant, you know, I created things that were unique that helped my clients do better. And for me, that was wonderful.

Greg Voisen
There is one common thread. That's in there. And that is if I was sitting with you and having coffee, you know, go into Kevin's house, anybody listening today, having coffee in the morning, or taking a shot of tequila at night would be that what you said there was you took assessment of your talents of your skills, or the professor did or the guy that recommended you be as a consultant. So I would say look to my listeners, we'll do an assessment or do an assessment of that, what are you good at, then find the opportunity we're applying that skill could help other people. And in all cases that will turn out to be may not be a consultant might be something else might be who knows might be a firefighter, you might be a teacher, you might be whatever. But the point is, is that when you blend the two of those together, you look at your skills, we've all got certain things that we have natural talents for everybody does, okay? Find that natural talent, apply it, do it and you'll get paid to do it. Now in your chapter. It's good to be a king. Now you mentioned that you were the firstborn, like I said earlier of six in the family, and that you always like being in charge. I loved it. I love the story about the crumb bombs and you know, you tell this story you're going to The bakery and you order these chrome bombs in you with your dad. And this relates to always being in charge. Because you know what, when you were in charge, you got the best crumb bun. Right? It was like, Hey, Kevin, got the box of crumb buns, he gets to go do this. It's great. Tell the story. And how this relates to be just what you just said, you just said, Hey, I like to manage my own time. Right? There is a great example. I don't really want other people to be in charge, I want to be in charge of my brothers and sisters, you were kind of the guy who always wanted to be in charge, regardless of you working for six jobs and finally getting fired. The reality is you got fired, because you probably didn't really like other people telling you what to do.

Kevin Kehoe
Certainly some truth to that, yes. Under a lot of psychological treatment, I might be able to deal with that. But yes, I don't like people telling me what to do. It's still true. The crumb buns, and you know, a oldest of six. And you know, when you're the oldest of six, you get the beta version of your parents, right? You don't get the fully developed software parent, right? That by the time you get to the last child, they realized how to manage how to manage the kids, right. And managing six kids is a lot of work. But the first kid gets way too much attention. And I think, a little bit over control, because the parents don't want to screw up right with this first kid. And so maybe somewhere deep inside me that was burned in that stop telling me what to do. I can figure it out myself. But as you grow in a family like that, you know, and these are the days where you didn't have chefs, you didn't have nannies living at your house, your mother did it. Right. Your mom kept the peace created things at home. And so ultimately, you know, you become a middle manager as the oldest person, right? Because she's too busy trying to control everyone dad's at work. And so you become middle managers like you take care of Jeremy and theater today, because I'm busy. And so I always felt middle management was the worst bloody job in any company, right? Because you got all responsibility and no authority, right? It stinks. And so the crumbles. And so I felt I you know, because when you go home from the bakery, you get the chrome buns in a box, if you shake them, they come off, right? And it's the most delicious part of the Chromebook. So I made sure I controlled that situation. So when I got home, I got the chrome buns off the top. Because you know what? That's my pay for managing you guys. Okay. So, so I just like to be in charge, you know, and, and I don't know, I mean, it just turned into, you know, always that way, my, excuse me, always that way in my life. And, you know, the thing I miss the most in business is being in charge of being in the middle of everything. I just like making decisions, I have no problem doing it. Does that help?

Greg Voisen
Right? Of course, it helps. I mean, look, that lesson there is to take charge, we all have the opportunity, even if we work for somebody else. And Employers appreciate this. I'm doing some consulting right now with the CFO who's not taking charge. He's not doing his role the way he should. And the reality is the CEO needs to know that and my point is, if he wasn't take charge kind of guy, things would change in that department, it would change. And, and, and I love that because also for you, it's kind of a funny story. But that story kind of gave me a glimpse into, you know, living with the key hose and you know, back east where you were living with your brothers and sisters and I could actually see the car and you riding in it and the crumble the bakery. And, you know, and the whole books kind of written that way. That's why I tell my listeners. And you know, you mentioned in your chapter Friends forever, that you believe a lot of people in business have never graduated from high school. And they're still that they're, they act like teenagers. Right? So it's like, okay, you haven't grown up yet. You mentioned that in order to move forward in life, we must lose something to gain some things. Um, speak with you know us about your friends forever, which was Judy, Lorraine. Okay. Yeah. And why holding on to some of the past, in your estimation is important.

Kevin Kehoe
Yes, there there are two things there. You know, the thing about high school and I did mean it. And I couldn't wait to get out of high school, you know, I just was tired of it by the time I got to be a senior and, and the thing for me was, it's too much drama. I'm geared not for drama. I'm not, I'm not a political animal, I will tell you what I think. I try and be hypersensitive to people's needs all the time. But to me the truth, the truth. And you got to be truthful with compassion. I understand all that. But I think drama and politics gets in the way of progress. And that's what I meant by the high school quote, the only thing I think that gets in the way of progress. And I talked about Judy and Lorraine, because, you know, they're just, for me, you can think about them conjure them up, and they're there. And you remember how good it was to have friends like that, even though they're not there all the time. Right? That there was this, you just had a meeting of the minds, whatever it was. And if you didn't see him for two months, you would see them and pick up right where you left off from two months before. That's how that's how sort of tied in your work. And I think that's a wonderful thing in life to keep. The other thing I talked about in that chapter was a big believer in cleaning out the garage, right? Every year, we'll do it, we'll get in there. My wife is not as thrilled about cleaning out the garage, because she wants to keep some stuff. And we do keep something don't throw everything out. But I think to make progress, you got to you can't have too much drama, and you can't have too much baggage. So you know, to get something new, you got to leave some things behind. And when I clean out the garage, I don't take everything and throw it out. I leave some stuff, just in case, I'm tied to it for whatever reason, right? And so I think traveling light into the future is super important. Otherwise, you're always bogged down with all this baggage about prior things you did or didn't do. I think someone said happiness is a short memory. Right? And there's some truth to that. So yeah.

Greg Voisen
Well, and also to, you know, as we've moved into the 21st century, and we have so much more access to so much more, just more. And if the ego is telling you to fill your garage with more shit, it's going to make you happy. The reality is, it's not the ship that's making you happy, nor is it the purchase of the pardon me shit that's making you happy. It's the fact that inside of you, something's missing, because you're trying to replace it with items to make you happy. The memories are, in your case, Judy and Lorraine, which actually bring up happy thoughts, because it's those moments that you have, and the relationships you had, you know,

Kevin Kehoe
The most important thing in the end, I think,

Greg Voisen
I know, I mean, I have a I around the corner here on the other side, I have a poster from the Dalai Lama. And, and most of my listeners have heard this, but in the end, it's who you loved, who loved you, and how much you let go. Letting Go, is what you just said about the garage. So when you think about it, you're lessening the baggage you're carrying. You're loving more people. And in turn, you're being loved. And you know, really, if you've looked at the measurement and said, Hey, I'm going to put a scale on this, where am I? That's the most important thing. And that brings me to somebody that you really love. And it's your chapter on listen to your mother. I had a 93-year-old mother that six years ago died as well. And you speak about listening that advice of people in the know like your mother, right mother's? Where did your mother intuitively know about your past wife? And the pain she put you through? That you were blinded to? And what advice do you have for listeners about listening to people in the know because obviously, you had a wife that probably was a great lesson, but it sounded like it was pretty painful. But your mom knew all along. She wasn't the right gal for you. But you know, you weren't listening to mom and how many of us out there have had people like our mothers or other friends say that business partner is not good for you. You really shouldn't be in business with that person. Right? I'm going to tell you a quick story. And then I want to hear about your mom. I had an office and I was in partnership with a guy and you're going to find this so funny, Kevin, I walked down one day and he and I had been having all kinds of partnership issues and fighting over things and you know, and there's a guy with a big beard. He looked like Santa Claus in front of the office building where I was leasing space. And he says, Hey, young man, come over here. I said, Okay. And he pulls out my hand and he looks at my palm. I'm like, What the hell is this guy doing? And he looks at the lines, my palms, he goes, you're in, blew me away says you're having he says your biggest challenge in life is partnerships. I'm like, What the hell is going on? Where did this clown come from? Right? Because I didn't believe in you guys. You're having a major issue right now, he said, I was like, I almost fell over. I mean, I was like, okay, you know, did God send this Santa Claus man down to talk to me about? And I'm like, sitting there. I just thought it was just so crazy. But your mom knew that you shouldn't have been with that wife. So tell us a little bit more about that, if you would.

Kevin Kehoe
Mothers are mothers. I mean, they've got some intuitive radar going on. That that guys just don't know. It's, it's other earthly? I don't know what it is. That's boring. You know, I mean, she could walk into the house, and knew we had a fight. Nothing looked different, right? Because I would be babysitting. Think about that people put me in charge the babysit, there's a scary concept. No, and she could see immediately there was a fight and Someone got hurt or something. And it's like, how do you know? You know, I don't think it was as much as she knew about. And this was the point of the chapter, what she knew about my first life is what she knew about me, in relation to that person and just sitting with that other person for one or two times. She just knew this isn’t going to work. But you couldn't tell me anything? Right? Probably, you know, this is lust and love getting mixed up, right. And number two, no one can tell me what to do. I think there's one thing I learned in life, you can't be too self-reliant. You can be too self-reliant. And you mentioned what I learned from cancer. And I'll finish on this one is, I've learned, I think it's cliché to say, as a business person, you have to surround yourself with good people. What I learned was, not only do you have to do that, but you have to be willing to utterly rely on them because you can't do it. And that's a level of trust I had never considered before in my life. Right? This I could control everything up to that point in my life. And I think that's kind of the point of things is, in my case, I use my mother in the story, but it's listening to other people. If I had one thing I look back on that I would do differently in life. As far as businessman, I would have found a mentor or to deny me. I never did that. Because why Kevin knows best. Yeah, that was my attitude. So it took me probably two decades longer to learn things that other people should learn because of that.

Greg Voisen
Well, it's, uh, you know, you and I have a similar thread running through that same situation. I wish there had been more mentors, and more mentors that I trusted, but because I felt like I knew it, even though they were giving me advice. I didn't listen, because I figured I knew it better than they did. And the reality is, most of the time, they knew it better than I did. So that was it. Now, we'll kind of wrap this interview up with this, you have 37 chapters with stories and advice for the readers. And if you were to leave the listeners with three now, I know in the beginning, I asked you for one major point. Now I'm going to ask you for three that you were to leave the listeners with as a takeaway from the book, what would they be? And how would you suggest that they put them into underline action? Because nothing gets done? No changes occur, unless there's some action.

Kevin Kehoe
Yes. I agree with all that. And, you know, there are a lot of things out of the book, but I'll pick three. I'm not sure there any particular order. But I think life is about throwing yourself in the deep end of the pool. Not all the time, but more than most people are willing to do. Okay. and how does that look action wise? Will you put yourself in a place where you're over your head? I remember when I wanted to get into the whole consulting thing. And part of the way you sell yourself as a consultant is you write and you speak and I said I'm going to speak and write and do good at that. beginning I was terrible at both of those things. Awful. But I stuck with it, right? And I realized how awful I was because people gave me the feedback on, you know what you're over your head and this thing, Kevin, you need to do these things, right. And so putting yourself out there, I think gets the universe send stuff to you when you need it my opinion. Number two, I think I'd have a set of values that makes you as a person, utterly dependable, you don't have to be perfect in everything. But you've got to be somewhat predictable to people and friends around you. Right? You can't be changing all the time. And to me, you know, that came from the nuns in Catholic school. And it was simple. Tell the truth? Does it tell the truth? And I learned that lesson very well, you know, and I remember a situation. I was in sixth grade, and I took like a dart out of my bag and throw it against the wall while a teacher wasn't looking. And she said, who did that? Quiet? And she asked again. And ultimately, I stood up and I said, I did what I was trained, to be honest, tell the truth. How do you do that? Well, you tell the truth everyday. That's the action, right? And you don't make too many promises. You promise what you can deliver? Third, I think you got to be a grinder. You said earlier, it takes a long time to become an overnight sensation. Right? I didn't sell my company until I was 66 years old. Right? All those years, all the sweat all the things that people say, look how successful you are, I said, you should have seen me 30 years ago, I was a mess. And I think those are three things, get in the deep end, become utterly dependable based on your honesty, and grind it out, right? That's why I call myself an average guy. Because I'm a Greg grinder, you know, I'll show up every day. And you're unlike a little dog on your cuff, you'll never get rid of me. I'll persist, I will persist until we're there.

Greg Voisen
Well, those are three wonderful takeaways from the book. And there's 37 additional takeaways in each chapter, lessons learned. And there's one other takeaway that I'm going to have you do something unusual. The man you're seeing on the video right now, if you move to the right, Kevin, just a little bit, we're going to see a statue of Abraham Lincoln. And there's probably not one man who had more failures, or learning lessons, then the statute you have right behind you, in that. I hope that that's a symbol for you. And even for our listeners of the kind of guy we've been talking to, who said he's the average guy, right? And no matter what, how many of the times he ran for Congress and ran for president had all these challenges. And look, in the end, he was persistent. There was probably nobody more persistent than Abraham Lincoln. So I'm going to say to my listeners, go to onehitwonder.site. Get this book, One Hit Wonder from Kevin Kehoe, and Kevin. It's been an honor having you on inside personal growth, spending a few minutes with my listeners, sharing some of your stories and insights about lessons in life. And just the fun that you can have along the way. My heart goes out to you as you continue to work with and manage your cancer. And I wish you success with the new drugs and the treatments that you're going through that it completely has spontaneous remission.

Kevin Kehoe
Thank you, Greg. I appreciate that.

Greg Voisen
So and thanks so much for being on. Blessings to you.

Kevin Kehoe
You also.

Greg Voisen
You have a wonderful rest of your afternoon.