Charlie Moore

Chris:

So happy to be joined today by a dear friend, going to be a great guest, Charlie Moore. Some of you may know him as the Mad Fisherman, dear friend of mine for many years. And before we jump to Charlie, just want to read off some of his accolades because he’s got such an impressive resume, and many of you may know him for a variety of different things. But he is a recipient 15 time recipient of the New England Emmy Awards for his work on Charlie Moore Outdoors, behind the B Bruins Academy and the New England Traveler. He’s a member of the New England Sports Hall of Fame. He even has a ice cream named after Mad Fish Mud. He’s an author of a memoir that he wrote about his life, the Mad Fisherman. He’s a host and a producer to many award-winning shows. There are almost too numerous to mention, but I’m going to go through ’em because some of you may know some over others, but you have Charlie Moore, no offense, Charlie Moore Outdoors, behind the Beat, Bruins Academy, new England, traveler Traveler Moore with Anthony Moore, bird Ball beat. Charlie Moore, roughing it, Charlie Moore Mad Fish, the sitcom Charlie Moore tv, and where it all started Front row. And I’m so happy to have you here today. Charlie, thanks for joining us.

Charlie:

Yeah, Chris, love the invitation. Really enjoy our dinners together and hanging out with you. And I, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. That’s quite the intro.

Chris:

Well, Charlie, one of the things I’ve grown to love about our relationship is first everybody knows you as the TV personality, but going out to dinner, seeing you interact with some of your fans, but more importantly your family, you get to see a different side. I mean, you’re such a outgoing, funny personality on the TV show, but I know you more as just a great father, a great husband, and some of the attributes that I’ve grown to love and admire about you. And I really, you have such a humbling, amazing story, and people, I think these days just have a tendency to see the finished product and take for granted how you get there. And I really would love to bring to life for people that maybe don’t know the story of Charlie Moore and how you became Charlie Moore, the Matt Fisherman.

Charlie:

Well, yeah, I mean, I dunno what the question is yet.

Chris:

Sorry. No, no. I’m just kind of setting up for people that might be listening where I think I want to go on this journey with you today. And I had the obviously knowing you, but I’m also reading your book and such an inspiring story to see where you’ve gone today. And I really want to see if we can turn to the early chapters of your life and where it all began and why don’t you give us a little window into what early family Life was for Charlie Moore.

Charlie:

Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Linfield, Massachusetts, love sports and always loved to entertain people. I truly believe that comedians, actors, musicians, if you can equate it to a kid that has no lessons and he gets in front of the piano and just starts doing Mozart and Beethoven and Chopin, it’s like you have it or you don’t. I always had the gift to entertain people. I can’t really read or spell or add too Well, thank you for calculators, right. But entertainment was always my dang sports. Love sports, love football, love baseball, love hockey. But really entertainment was the key. So

Chris:

One of the takeaways I had from reading your book is that, so your father was kind a entrepreneur, had his own business. Did that in any way shape that one day you wanted to run your own business? Or how did those early years impact you?

Charlie:

I think that everybody has an impact on your life, especially your father and mother and family. Whether it’s a motivational tool, it’s hard to be successful in life and not look back at the people that you grew up with or you hung out with. Obviously, you take away things from everybody in all walks of life. So other comedians, other entertainers, other people that I talk to, other people that I watch you emulate in a way. But as a kid, I mean, my mom and dad got divorced when they were young, when I was young. I’m the youngest boy of four boys. I have a little sister two years younger than me. But I think all of us good, better and different develop habits from the parents, and that’s really, today’s society is much different. I think you got to look back at the parents when you look at good kids, and I pride myself on having three really good kids. Angela and I worked super hard at doing that. It’s time in. That’s all it is. Time into your job time into the kids time into driving the kids to the ice rink time.

You do that and you see it’s like two or three lines that don’t even have the parents there. So it’s time in and the results hopefully come to fruition many years later. Usually if they’re older, it’s usually too late, right? It’s like you’re not training them at 28. They got their own kind of habits going on. But I definitely learned a lot from my dad and my mom and my brothers and sisters. I think the one thing I take away from my brothers and sisters is the competitive side. My brothers and I were very competitive and I was the youngest boy, so I worked twice as hard to be half as good.

Chris:

Yeah. Well, one of the things, and reading your book, one of the things that kind of touched me was a difficult part in your life where you were working at the shop with one of your brothers, and then eventually it just came to pass that, hey, there’s not room anymore for the three of us. And for reasons that I think your father outlined in the book as well that he saw a different future for you. He think you had a certain drive that you would succeed, but that had to be a tough point where it’s essentially you’re on the outside looking in of a shop that you worked at for many years. How did that impact you?

Charlie:

I don’t think that my dad did it for the reasons that were inspirational. That might be the Hollywood version that Walt Disney will do, but I’m not going to talk negative about my father either. He is my father, but I literally think that it was basically bye and it was hard, but you can either sink or you can swim. And I thankfully swam. I have no regrets or upset anger towards anything that happened, but I don’t look back at it as a, I did this for you factor either because it didn’t happen that way. I’d like to say it did happen that way. I’d like to tell you that it was all genuine, but it really wasn’t. It really wasn’t genuine at all. It was basically we came to a pass and it was basically we’re cut and bait and I went out and had to do it pretty much on my own for anybody that knows me, my in-laws, my dad, my mom who’s passed and whatever. Nobody can say that I didn’t do it on my own. I don’t have a college degree. I did it on my own. I busted my rear end and I did it on my own. And that’s the story in the book. I toned the chapter down with my dad in the book. It’s a little bit personal and I try to keep some of the personal things to myself, and I don’t want to come off as being completely negative. There’s two sides to the story, his version, my version and my version.

Chris:

And I don’t mean to dredge up, obviously a difficult part of your life, and my only reason for asking no matter what the reason, oh, no, it’s fine. But the only reason I ask is because a lot of people that are highly successful face some type of adversity, and like you said, there’s the ones that kind of face it head on and overcome it and whatever the motivation or reasoning behind, I thought that appears to be a very important pivot in your life, a very difficult time that you rose from. At least that’s my read on it, but one of,

Charlie:

There’s always going to be times throughout.

Chris:

Yeah. No, go ahead. Sorry,

Charlie:

What was that?

Chris:

No, I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Charlie:

I think there’s going to be No, you’re good. I think there’s going to be pivotal times no matter what. That was not the pivotal time. My pivotal time is getting on tv. The minute you’re on TV and you’re making $50 an episode and you’re on for two minutes every other week for six months, you’re worried about getting fired every 10 minutes. It’s like making the equivalent of making the practice squad in football. It’s like in professional football, bring your notebook and go see the coach. That’s the stressful level with wife and two kids and living with my in-laws and a two family house and a beautiful house in Beverly, but I was still living with them in 10 years, and it’s very volatile. The industry is very, not many people have long careers in TV or long careers on the football field. I can’t emphasize how difficult it is. So every day is pivotal, every game is pivotal, every show is pivotal, every series is pivotal.

Chris:

And I do want to jump ahead to the tv, but before we get there, so you leave your father’s store, you jump into you were an avid or had a passionate love for fishing, and you opened up a tackle store, my recollection. Correct?

Charlie:

Correct.

Chris:

Yeah. And the reason why I wouldn’t open up a, it’s such an endearing story because I think people, again, to see the different attempts that you’ve taken in different areas, it didn’t just happen to you. Hey, you jumped on TV and you’re a huge success. There’s many things that you had to overcome before you got to that point. And reading in the book, just the difficulties with the tackle store and that eventually not working out. But what was that, and to me from the book, maybe I read it wrong, but that’s kind of where the idea grew out for your inevitable show where you’re playing these TV shows at the tackle store and you thought you could do a better job. I mean, how did the whole idea to jump to TV come?

Charlie:

Yeah. Well, that’s exactly what happened. I mean, I was playing the shows in the store and I just played to my strength. I just figured that I’m not a running quarterback. I’m a pocket passer, so I’m going to play to my strengths and try to focus on my career and my entertainment level. And I looked at the playing field. There’s a lot of comedians, there’s a lot of actors, there’s a lot of different people within those genres. But there wasn’t really anybody from New England doing an outdoor show with any humor or lifestyle attachment involved. Everything was starting on the boat. I changed the entire industry. There’s no question about that, everybody. I’m like the Kleenex when it comes to what I do now, because when I started, the facts are, and they’re the facts. Although they changed year in year, year in, year out, because everybody wants to duplicate.

But the facts are every TV show, fishing wise, it was on the boat and it was boring as hell. That’s all. It ended on the boat. It started on the boat, and they talked about fishing the entire time. Anyone gives a crap. I mean, I give a crap, but geez, I wouldn’t stop for directions. I drive around for two hours before I ask anybody for directions. You kidding me? Thankfully, we’ve got Google, A GPS now. That’s the best thing ever. But I said, oh, I’m going to make this fun. I’m going to go on the water and be me and a guy from Boston with his personality. Like everyone from Boston’s, correct. Everybody’s right. I’m going to go out there and fish like we fish in Boston Harbor, in Revere Beach, in Winthrop, crystal, Cole Marina, everybody went out and had a couple of beers when we were 18, 19, smoking some cigars. First fish buys the subs or sandwiches at Kelly’s Rose beef. I mean, that’s what we did. We went out, we went fishing. We had some fun. We talked craft. We just, you watch these shows and it’s not that way. So I definitely decided to do that at that point in time. A hundred percent correct.

Chris:

Well, and it’s an amazing, so many people in life have ideas and they don’t act on ’em. But to say you have an idea that you want to shut down your tackle store and that you want to jump into television with no prior television experience, a, I think that takes a lot of balls. What’s that first step look like? How do you make that first phone call? How do you even make that transition an area you have no experience in or that you don’t even know anybody in?

Charlie:

Well, it wasn’t one phone call. It was probably 444 phone calls, and I started off at Nessen. I called them a hundred thousand times. Finally, they called me up and told me that they needed to talk to me, and I took it as an interview. So I didn’t have a car at the time. My truck was broken or repoed or whatever. It’s not important right now. And I took the train down to Boston Fenway Park, and they came in and told me to stop harassing them. I was like, what? I mean, literally, it was like their concern that I was harassing them. I was in this meeting and they started talking. I was like, what? And they were in the meeting, they started talking about front row, this new sports magazine program, front row. So the lady in HR that was there, she was asked to leave the room and I was not.

So I sat there, I’m not going. And the producers came in and there’s like Tom Karen was there three months before me. We’re the longest tenure on SEN mean. He has me beat by three months, and I hope he continues to have me beat for many, many years to come because I’ll take the three months second runner up. But they went around the table and they were telling the producers what everyone’s role is. Okay. Jamie Parker was there, and Jamie Parker says, I’m going to handle the Boston College sports scene. Okay. Christian Mastriani was hosting it with Tom Karen, and they’re going to be the hosts. And then they went to another guy, I can’t remember his name. Anyway, a couple other people. And then Jimmy Dunn was getting some comedy stuff, and then the guy looked at me, he goes, what are you doing? I go, like, really? I said, yeah, I’m the new guy. I’m a fishing guy. And they were like, I love it. And then that’s how it started. I just lied.

Chris:

So there you go. That’s amazing. But to your point that you started talking about earlier with front Row, you saw a little opportunity. You jumped on it, and it ended up just being very, something very small to begin with. What did front row look like for you?

Charlie:

Front row started for a minute and a half segment. I got paid $50 an episode. I did 10 segments the entire first season of 1996.

Chris:

Wow.

Charlie:

Or five. And then it turned into every week, and I got paid a hundred bucks. Then it turned into half the show the third year, and then by the fourth year, I think everybody got fired except for Tom Karen and Krista Mastriani. And then the president of the network called me up and he offered me my own half hour show, because I was the most highest rated thing that they did on front Row consistently. So they started Charlie Moore Outdoors half hour show in the year 2000. So as we sit here today, it would be 23 years of Charlie Moore Outdoors, and I think 28 years of, or 27 or 28 years of TV total.

Chris:

That’s amazing. Congratulations.

Charlie:

And I’m only 38.

Chris:

Well, here’s an interesting question. I guess it’s a lot even in my industry, Charlie, from New Lawyers and being in the courtroom and doing something, motion a trial, and everybody just sees where you’re at. I mean, what were the first couple shows? Did you come out and you were just this amazing energy and star that you are now? Or is that something that took time to evolve and find your voice?

Charlie:

I think that athletes find their game after a few games. You give people a window. I think it was funny, and it’s a true story that’s unique that could answer that question. I did the first couple shows a little bit more, Mike Monotone, a little bit more news, anchor nine, Hey, I’m News Anchor nine. We’re on the water and I’m hanging out with, I did that, but when the camera would shut off, I would just literally talk smack to the cameraman and the producers and the people on the shoreline. I was just literally talking smack. So finally my producer, Bob Sylvester just said, Hey, let’s just roll on this. And then by the fourth or fifth little front row, fourth front row, you could see that I was just finding my way to where I am now. So I mean, like I said, it’s all talent. It’s all natural born. I had this gift when I was a kid. I talked to the teachers this way. I talked to the principal this way. I talked to the coach this way, and I was that guy. So I just am happy that I found a place that I really feel like I can, I trend set an industry and then gravitate from there and then do other things within the industry as well. So yeah, I found my voice early on, but I certainly didn’t find it the first few episodes. Right,

Chris:

Right. What would you say, I know you had mentioned earlier that you didn’t consider leaving the store or the tackle shop being any career turning point, but what would you point out as where you really saw it all coming together and changing direction?

Charlie:

Yeah. Well, it’s funny. We watched the home videos. It was like The Jerk with Steve Martin. The first Christmas is pretty lean by the third Christmas going up in a Trans Am with the big feather in my cap with the fur coat. You know what I mean? Nobody stole the show. It was me selling the show. There was no family money. Angela’s not married to the Oberson family or the Eastern propane oil family. There’s no, there’s no connection with the networks or families. I had virtually nothing. So we really just started to feel that we were getting into something really good by about the third season of a front row to the point where I was already in a house that we built near Lake Winni, Pasa, like right down the street on the water in the year 2002. So from 1996, living there for 10 years or eight years or so, no nine, yeah, 10 years, 96 to 2002, which is obviously five or six year period or 2001, we built the house.

So we weren’t there that long either. So yeah, we worked hard and it happened. It happened quickly, but it was three years of not really eating and not really making any money, but really just being relentless. Being relentless on the product, being relentless when it comes to sales being relentless when it comes to being true to your word, which is another big thing that I’m proud of. I always say what I say I’m going to do. I always overdeliver. I always want to be the hardest guy working on what I’m doing. I’m the first one there. I’m the last one to quit the job. I work seven days a week. There’s no substitute. There’s no shortcut to the top. If you want to get there, you’re going to have to work for it. That’s the bottom line.

Chris:

I can attest to that. I’ve seen it firsthand how hard you work and how you work seemingly around the clock. So that’s great advice for kids coming up in the business. These stage. There’s no shortcut.

Charlie:

Kids having a great opportunity now. I wish they listened to me. The opportunity is so good for kids to make a big, big name for themselves in any genre because half the kids don’t even want to work. That’s the good opportunity. When we were younger, everybody had to work. Everybody wanted to work, and it was hard to find a job. I remember not even getting a job pumping gas for crying out loud. Now kids don’t want to work. They all want to play. And you can go to McDonald’s now and be a general manager and make some darn good money because nobody wants to work. And so there’s a lot of good opportunity out there. But you know what? In a world of good, bad, or indifferent economy wise, the strong always survive and the strong always get ahead because the time and determination no different than your kids is going to separate you from the rest of the pack, if that makes sense. So write in everything that you do from your family to your wife, to your kids, to your job. Time in is going to equal results, and if you fail on any one of those, your portfolio is going to sink.

Chris:

At what point did you develop this vision for where you are now? I mean, obviously starting at front row, you have a couple minutes here and there. At some point, did you say, this is my five-year plan, my 10 year plan, was there even a long-term vision or was it just survive day to day initially?

Charlie:

Well, I don’t really have a five year, 10 year plan. I don’t think that I worry about today, and I look ahead a little bit obviously, but I got a lot of gas in the tank, but I don’t really like talking out too much of what I’ve done and what I’ve accomplished personally. I’m still in the game. I don’t think that Bobby or really would talk about his illustrious hockey career eight years in, and he played 10 years. Now. He’ll talk about seasons and stuff like that, but I mean, I’m talking to you because we’re friends and I like you. We’re really good friends. But I don’t really sit back and say, oh, wow. Oh, this has been great. I don’t even focus on it at all. I’m just looking down the street, not looking in the rear view mirror. I got my throttle down and I’m just jamming on it, and maybe when I’m 85 years old and they’re about to throw dirt on me, I might say, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got a story to tell.

Chris:

One of the things I love about you, Charlie, and I see a little bit in myself, is you kind of have this insatiable appetite for it’s never enough. So no matter what you’re doing, you’re always looking for the next thing, the next project, the next challenge. And I think that’s driven your success quite a bit.

Charlie:

Yeah, that came with the whole behind the bee when Cam Neely, Peter Shire gave me a call in 2011 at the end of the Cup Run, and they asked me to create a TV series with them, and we did called Behind the Be, but that was really a turning point for me because everybody was treating me kind of like I was Batman. Oh, he’s great at what he does, but that’s all he does. I think that when you visualize creative talent and your love of the Boston sports scene and beyond, and then now you’re working hand in hand with Camile and the Boston Bruins and the Jacobs family. It was just truly a blessing. But they called me, I didn’t call them, and since then, we developed Bruins Academy in 2016, which I’m also created an EP and now hosting. It’s been a pleasure to work with Dennis Leary and all the Bruins organizations. I feel like I’m the fifth line sentiment on the team.

So the shows have been super successful, and since then, multiple teams across the country, professional basketball, professional football, professional hockey, they’ve all reached out to have my company do these shows, but I don’t have the time to do ’em, and I just hand select the ones that I want to do, and bit of a confidentiality factor as well with the Bruins, because we see basically everything in the locker room and everything that goes on. So you really can’t be doing four or five teams when you’re seeing all the, you don’t want to do that. But it’s been a blessing. Obviously. I’m excited about my son Anthony, with travel more. He’s a fine young man, and he works his tail off. Nothing’s been given to him for free. Of course I’ve given the opportunity. We all know that. But you got to catch the ball. You got to throw the ball, right? So you’re on the field. I’m not on the field. So happy about that. My syndication across the country, happy about that. Everything’s great, man. I’m just looking forward to the future.

Chris:

So you’ve been involved in a lot of shows, Charlie, do any stick out to ones that you’ve really enjoyed more than others, or any reasons why you like doing one over another?

Charlie:

Gosh, no. No. There’s areas that we go. We have fun. We have food, we catch fish. There’s been so many experiences that I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun it’s been. My life has been like a movie and it doesn’t stop. I think it’s like I’m going on tour with Van Halen and I’m not coming off. I mean, I’ve gone down shows with the band Extreme, pat Badger, Gary, Sharon, I’ve done the shows with Ted Nugent, Len Skynyrd, I mean Batman, Dukes of Hazards. I mean Bow and Luke Duke. I mean, I’ve done Bobby or Jerry Cheever, I mean Tom Brady. I mean, it’s just cool locations. I’ve been everywhere twice. So like I said, I look forward to the future, and I’m sure one day I’ll sit back and I’ll think about it. But right now, if I had to pick one show right now that really stood out to me that I was like, whoa, it would be Batman being on the boat with Adam West and Batman was, it was a little fucked up.

Chris:

That’s wild. It’s funny you went into the list and I took note. It’s amazing the breadth of a guest that you’ve had on, I mean, a lot of names you mentioned, but Hulk Hogan, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon, drew Bledso, all the way to Mitt Romney, Marty Walsh, Scott Brown, different high level politicians, the musicians, that pretty amazing stuff. So any guests or any of those experiences stick out in your mind? I mean, I don’t know what it’s even like, I mean, Hulk Hogan to me would seem to be somebody that might match your energy on a boat. What sticks out in your mind from some of these guys?

Charlie:

Well, first of all, I want to emphasize the fact that my shows are very unique because much like my personality, they change every week. So it’s definitely a mood thing. Happy, glad, mad, sad, happy, glad, mad, sad, right? So there’s that. Some shows need the celebrities, whether it’s Big Brother or whatever, these celebrity, celebrity apprentice, whatever the shows are, right? Some shows do. We have a nice mix over the 27 or eight years of celebrities and myself and the local football coach or college coach. So it’s a nice even flow mix of celebrities, but matching. If there’s one person who matched my energy without question, it was Mikey Adams, Mikey’s World, Mikey Adams is a nut, and I’d say Bill Lee, I would say Bill Lee and Mike Adams are just absolutely on my level, if not even crazier.

Chris:

Well, one thing, and I don’t even know if you have any off the water hobbies because you’re so busy spending your whole life just hustling. But is there anything that you like to do outside of the fishing, boating, filming world?

Charlie:

Well, I do a lot of different things. I mean, I ride my bike nice Ducati, I go snowmobile a lot, but really, I play football with my boys that I coach. They’re all 28 to 30 5-year-old now. Kids, we play every Sunday. I play with them every Sunday. But other than that, I mean, I’m really, really truly am. I know it sounds like a cliche, but between traveling and really doing all of my jobs seven days a week, I really don’t stop to do much of that. That’s why when you come to dinner with me, Chris, it’s like a four, five hour meal because I feel like I’m just finally relaxing. I don’t want to go anywhere.

Chris:

Well, that brings me to another question. We will be out at dinner different times and people are jostling to talk to you to get a picture with you. Any funny, memorable fan interaction stories where they’re, they’re hounding you,

Charlie:

Man, the fans are the best. Yeah, man, the fans are the best. I mean, that’s part of the game. I enjoy it. I’m a people person anyway, as you know, and I love talking to the fans. I mean, sometimes a little, it gets a little, there’s always one drunk gut girl or guy or something, and they just don’t know when to pull the plug, Fred. But that’s part of the course. I really do like interacting. People can say whatever they want on the internet and they say certain things, but really the truth is when you meet your fans face to face, wherever you go, and I do every day, and they tell you what time it is, and I’m very happy to have a great relationship with everybody that I meet. I’ve had no bad experiences except for I think one that you know about and we can’t talk about it legally, but I’m sure alcohol was on his brain for sure. But yeah, the fans are, you got to embrace that. And I certainly do. This is a very deep rooted, six states and beyond. I mean, Boston is ridiculously brutal. I mean, they’re even brutal. I mean, one guy on tv, one guy on radio and whatever, I can’t remember. They said, they’re so brutal to even beat the fishing guy up on tv. I mean, the Bruins lose. Last night I seen two articles about how they might have some problems on the horizon. I’m like, they’ve got one regulation lost. Let’s all just take a pill.

Chris:

Yeah, that’s Boston for you.

Charlie:

Yeah. So Boston’s very deep rooted in history when it comes to sports as six states and beyond. You got Bruins chance, red Sox Chance, every stadium they play at Patriots are having an off year. But when you’ve got Patriots fans across the world, Bruins fans, original six, I mean, I’m walking in an area, this is one of the hardest sports markets in the entire country. Getting airtime, getting as much promotion, providing more content for the network of nessen than any other content provider. I mean, I’m not really a believer in the Lord, but I’m truly blessed because I pinch myself. I’m very grateful. I’m very thankful, and I don’t take any opportunity that I have for granted. I take everything very seriously. I’m very appreciative as well as my family. We’re very down to earth about everything and we’re very happy, but we’re very appreciative.

Chris:

Well, that’s one thing I wanted to hit on. Obviously I’ve met your family and one of the more, most endearing things about you, Charlie, is your relationship with your wife and your kids and how supportive of one another each other are and how successful they’ve been in and out of the business, and how do you balance the career and just the closeness to your family is just something everybody should strive to have in their life. How do you balance those things?

Charlie:

Well, like any family, there’s ups and downs. I think that they’ve been super supportive of my career. It’s super encompassing everywhere I go, like you said, you go to dinner, you go to the grocery store, you go anywhere and somebody has something to say. Sometimes they say things are a little bit off the reservation and you got to scratch your head, but your wife has to hear that. And she’s a special person. We’ve met when we were very young and we’ve been together, but it gets hotter. It gets hotter for her and the kids because your, you’re sharing yourself everywhere you go with your fans, and it’s a pressure that people don’t see, but they’re very supportive. They go on a lot of the shoots with me. They go to a lot of the events with me and help out with everything. And now Anthony’s doing his thing and he’s actually seeing how real difficult it is and how intrusive it can be in your life. But the support in love, I know it’s a cliche, but look, we’re just like any other couple, right? We’ve got our ups and downs, we’ve got our fights here and there. We got our arguments, aggravations, family in-laws, brothers, all the stuff that goes along with any normal relationship. But in the end, I truly am so happy that Angela has been with me and supports me and my kids do too. My kids are really awesome, and you’ve met them, and that’s the most dear thing to me, that my kids are not screwed up.

Chris:

Well, bringing it full circle, and I always like to wrap up with a little reflection or advice that you might give either to your younger self or to somebody. It doesn’t have to be the TV business, but we’ve hit on it a little bit. But what advice do you give to a young kid starting out his career, and what are the most important attributes you would look for in your younger self to be successful?

Charlie:

First and foremost, have a plan and don’t let anyone alter your mind when it comes to your plan. Always make sure that you focus on what the goals are for your plan. Have a notebook, a personal notebook. Write in the notebook. Don’t let anyone see your notebook. Work on your personal, plan yourself. Motivate yourself. Be mentally strong. Stay true to the plan, and don’t deviate the plan and you will reach your goals. People are going to say no more than they’re going to say, yes, I got 900 nos before I got one. Yes, and all I needed was one. Yes. So if you quit, the only person you have to blame is yourself because you quit on you. So don’t quit on you. Have a plan. Stay motivated. Don’t deviate from the plan, and that’s the best advice I can give you. The only person that’s going to make it in life for you is you don’t look in the mirror and blame anyone else you want to win. Give me the ball.

Chris:

It’s a great motto for life and definitely things. A lot of those I’ve tried to instill in my kids because I think mental toughness is the biggest thing as you’re saying, because it’s so easy to try and give up when you’re getting one of those 900 nos, and it’s the very few like yourself that last until the 901st. But I couldn’t agree with you more.

Charlie:

I appreciate you very much. I appreciate your relationship with me, and I really truly do like you and your family. You guys are wonderful. You and your wife certainly put time in your kids as well as you’re cutting ’em around all the golf hockey rinks. Yeah, so listen, good things happen to people who work hard. Good things happen to good people. Keep a positive mind and good things will happen, and I’m looking forward to the future. Looking forward to the future with you, Chris, as well. I want to wait for you and your family. Happy Thanksgiving as well.

Chris:

Thank you so much, Charlie. Happy Thanksgiving to your family. Thank you so much for spending time with us today and nothing but the best success for you and your family in the future.

Charlie:

I’ll send you an invoice.

Chris:

Will chat soon.

Charlie:

Bye-bye. Take care. Thanks buddy.