In episode 61 of Everything is Up, Tammera Hollerich interviews Danny Hagen, the Chief Revenue Officer of Wallboard, based in Carrollton, Texas. Danny shares his journey in the tech industry, his perspective on integrity, and the impact of technology on society.
Tune in as they discuss topics ranging from the importance of giving back, and the influence of technology on mental health, to the current state of society and politics.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:05:06] The birth of digital signage.
[00:10:36] Living with integrity.
[00:13:40] Integrity in challenging times.
[00:18:49] Immigration and border control.
[00:19:33] Defending the free world.
[00:26:05] Privacy and data integration.
[00:29:02] Technology and societal impact.
[00:31:19] Effects of digital overload.
[00:36:49] Overcoming life challenges with positivity.
[00:41:04] Hope, positivity, gratitude in society.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Tammera Hollerich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TammeraHollerich
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammerahollerich/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thollerich/
Danny Hagen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hagendaniel/
WEBSITES
Everything Is Up: https://everything-is-up.simplecast.com/
Tammera Hollerich: https://tammerahollerich.com/
Wallboard: https://www.wallboard.us/team-members/danny-hagen
Welcome to Everything Is Up, a podcast about the real-life stories of people who have created extraordinary levels of success. These are conversations with people who are constantly striving to take things to the next level. And now, here's your host.
Welcome to Everything Is Up with Tamara. And today, Very excitingly, I get to introduce Mr. Danny Hagen, who is CRO of Wallboard out of Carrollton, Texas. However, Danny, you are not actually in Carrollton, are you?
Tammera Hollerich
That's true. I live in Tucson, Arizona, the desert southwest.
Danny Hagen
And how warm is it there today?
Tammera Hollerich
It is a only an even hundred degrees. I believe it's 60% humidity. It's monsoon season. So tech Texas is very aware of the heat and humidity for sure. The only difference being in the desert Southwest is I always say the same thing. I know you feel the same heat. It's just different in the desert because that sun is clouded or not is such so much more intense.
Danny Hagen
Well, I am so grateful to have you today. Thank you. In my research, we have so much in common. And I always like, oh, this is just going to be so fun. The listeners know that I am a huge dog person. I have six. Wow. At any given time, I have a family member's dog most of the time. So my house is always full, or the office, whichever, is always full of dogs. And then This chicken thing, I tell everybody, I'm like, if you have chickens, like if you don't have chickens, you don't know what you're missing. But if you have chickens, we are just, they call, I have 80. How many do you have?
33 right now. But I will catch up to you. I have one more coop that I'm going to put in this fall with another 50, I believe. So I'll be right there with you.
Nice. I love it. I got into incubating this year. I had not done incubating. Have you done that yet?
I have in my past, but not here. I'm learning the ropes and seasons and temperature changes for Arizona. I'm not making this an overly complicated thing, but I'm from the Pacific Northwest primarily. It's where I've lived the majority of my life. So everything there was easy. Yeah, like just easy. Everything here is not easy. Like, I'm just totally amazed at the pioneers that moved here for the first times. And, you know, Native persons have been here for thousands of years. But how did they do this in the 1840 or 60? Like, I'm so confused.
Without AC, right? They didn't have wool clothing. and wool clothing and those big skirts and petticoats and all that stuff women used to wear. Yeah, I jokingly say to the girls around here in the summer, I'm like, just, you know, guys, come on. Dr. Quinn, medicine woman, she did this. 100%. I'm like, we can do this. We got it. Every day. That's right. Yeah. So I just, I had to just start out with, we have so much in common. I was so excited. I'm like, oh, I get to talk chickens with somebody on the podcast. My staff was like, oh Lord, we have to talk chickens on the podcast now. And I just had to laugh. So thank you for hiring me on that. My pleasure. Okay. So let's talk about Wallboard. You are a founding pioneer in this industry. So tell us, Who Wallboard is, what Wallboard does, what is your role, how did you get into this? Give us the background here.
Sure, my pleasure. I can do this quite succinctly. This is a digital signage industry. So historically, when persons thought about content going on TVs for anything, it was done through cable back in the 80s and 90s. Not great, not effective. I owned a business in the Seattle, Washington area at the time, Bellevue Redmond, Washington, very close to Microsoft, that I had a client. that we were distributors. So believe it or not, another Texas connection. Our company, MicroSupply, unfortunately it wasn't Microsoft, and Dell Computer were the two largest computer builders in the United States. So we were going back and forth and back and forth. And our relationships to Dell Computing, it's a longer story, but was actually quite close because we were the pioneers of building computers. I had a client that ended up owing quite a few dollars to the business, and there are a few of us that owned it. This is my story of how it got started. He came to me and basically said, Danny, I have an idea. I'm like, how much is this idea going to cost, Johnny? He's like, $50,000. I'm like, eh, I'm not so sure about that. However, what we did start was really the infancy of what became the modern era of digital signage, which you see everywhere at this point. So his idea was to put PCs behind displays through a Wi-Fi, excuse me, a dial-up modem to be able to show content different in Maine to Minneapolis down to, you know, in Miami, to Seattle, to LA, everything was different. And I'm like, how do you do this? He's like, I don't know, but we're going to figure it out. He had a PhD in mathematics and music, so definitely a genius. Both sides of his brain were firing at all times. So we ended up building a company. I joined it after I sold out of the hardware distribution company. We sold that to a Wall Street investment firm in 2000. And we built that business to be the largest business of its kind on the planet and sold that to 3M in 2004, which really launched the digital sign-in industry for real. It's still a boutique niche industry, but everywhere you go, you notice where displays are. stadiums, menu boards, banks, hospitals, kiosks, anything that you see from colleges, high schools, campuses, like there's signs everywhere. I'm the software behind it. So I'm not 90% of the time, 99% of the time selling any of the hardware or the displays or doing the installation. I'm the one that's been working with the really smart, big brain humans that are doing the programming to do integrations and all these complicated things to make this content look seamless. And the only time we don't recognize digital signage is when it's not there. They're like, something's missing in this environment. So that's what Wallboard does. We're one of the top 10 globally. We have a great team based in Carrollton, Texas. Our headquarters for our parent company is based in Oklahoma City. And we have a development team in Hungary that's all on payroll. We don't outsource anything, which is very, very unique for software development companies. We have 30 people in Hungary as well. So we're up and coming. We just completed two acquisitions, one in Phoenix and one in Kansas City. So, you know, True to Texas roots, look out, here we come. Yeah, we're gonna do really well and it's super exciting. I'm very grateful for the opportunity and it's a family-owned business that I work for. That meant more to me than anything. I've been a small business owner, if you will, up to about $110, $20 million that my businesses have been. I still consider that a small business by today's standards. And so they've been around since 1956 and it just meant the world to me. The family still runs the business and I'm like, I'm in. I'm a farm kid, so to me that means everything.
Yeah, no, that's exciting. So as CRO in this position, let's talk about this position, because you don't hear, you hear CEO, CFO, you don't hear CRO very often in that C-suite. And I mean, I understand it's the Chief Risk Officer. I mean, I understand that. But explain what that means to our audience.
I like chief risk officer better than what I am a chief revenue officer.
Oh, you're the chief revenue officer.
Well, but it really is risk because the way I explain it, because when persons ask that question and I've been a CEO the majority of my career, I said this is actually a little bit more unique. The CEO is always responsible for the vision. You define the vision, the business plan. Everybody follows in your footsteps. And your job is to get persons, companies, clients, partners, vendors to buy into this vision. This is where we're taking the company. So I'm in that kind of a hybrid role for running this company because I'm definitely the culture for our company as well, primarily because people, when they meet me for the first time, they're like, wow, the energy is really real. I'm like, it is real. I'm like this all of the time. And it's not overwhelming. It's just I have an on bearing witness to what life means on a daily basis. I live every day to the fullest, period, full stop. I don't want anything left on the table because when my time comes up, I want nothing left. Physically, mentally, financially, everything to give away. So as a chief revenue officer, I explain it this way. When things are going wrong in the company, anything, it's my fault. When I'm doing well and making money in the company, I might get a little credit. So either way, it's just not that awesome of a role, but it's really just about, ultimately, it's about how do you sell? How do you market? How do you create the culture? How is your brand going? And how do all these things incorporate as you go on a global brand? For our industry, I'm amazingly well-known globally. So having my name just I'll just say it as I say it, so I don't have to remember what I said, because I'm not smart enough to remember it. But having my name attached to a digital signage business like Wallboard is a really good thing, because globally, I could call into any CEO's office and they'll pick up the phone. Globally, I can call to any manufacturer, they'll pick up the phone. Globally, I can send a request and I'll get some responses back. And it's only because I've been involved in the space for so many years that they know my brand. They know what I say is true. I do what I say and I say what I do. I never vary and I never, I don't never not tell the truth. You may hate me at the end of the day. I probably have already apologized for something, I'm done, I'm gone, I'm moving on. But it's always the truth. Life is just so much easier when you just tell the truth straight. For everything, personal relationships, business relationships, anything, it's so much easier just to be true and, if you will, live with your heart exposed, and this makes life really easy.
It does, because you don't have to worry about going back and trying to remember what you said or what you did. I'm not smart enough to. Dan, you cracked me up. So one of the things that I love that you have said is that integrity is what you do when no one is watching. Huge, that is a massive statement. Particularly in this day and age, and I'm thinking about some of our younger listeners who maybe are trying to make a name for themselves, you don't do it at the expense of your integrity, for sure, right?
Correct. For me, there's nothing more important. You have one thing in life that you start with and you leave with in your life, and that's your name. That's it. I always say it's this. So I do quite a lot of public speaking, as you probably would guess. I've done a lot of funerals, which is a funny thing to say. So I've either sang at them or spoke at them or been, unfortunately, I've attended persons that have passed away. And excuse my language for this thing. I know persons that have not had really, and the farm saying goes, I hope I can say this, they didn't have a pot to piss in. They just did not. They were a check to check or below check to check lifestyle. I've seen people pouring out a community center, a VFW hall or a church, pouring out They couldn't get enough seats, but persons 1 to 10. And I've seen families that were the perfect, you know, pick a religion, pick a nationality, pick a color, I don't care. I've been to them all. That had everything from the macro-looking perspective. There's 10 people there. I want to be that person when I pass away that people are spilling out, in this case, the church. That's my goal in life, because then I know I've lived my life well. There's nothing that's been fake about what they've seen, and anybody who would know me would know that to be the case. So there's nothing more important than your name, and your name is directly related to your brand, and your brand is directly related to your integrity, which is all based on everything that younger persons do on their phone. So anything that you do, remember that's a live shot that's going to be there permanently. And I know they've heard it a trillion, trillion times over. It's really the truth. I hire and fire people all the time, more hire than fire. I always like to make sure that what persons represent, and it's not like an ultimate decision, but it tells me the character of that human. Because I always like to know when stuff hits the fan, when stuff's going wrong, when there's a challenge, are their fingers being pointed? Or are we reaching across the table to shake hands with one another and be like, let's figure this out together. Let's collaborate. Let's make sure we're working together to go along. And you know what? I'll walk right beside you. So your brand's tied with my brand, and we're going to do this together. I have your back. Don't worry, because I know I can trust you going forward. And I believe those are the most important things about integrity right now, especially now more than ever, because, holy smoke, for a few years, and certainly nothing to be a surprising statement to anybody, but in our political environment, any place in our country specifically, Like holy smokes, like give me a break already. I've done politics at a very high level, at both the state and national level, and there used to be a time when 95% of us in the two-party system, just as a political statement, always had one thing in common. We're going to do what's best for our community, we're going to do what's best for our state, and we're certainly going to do what's best for our country. What happened?
I don't know, but it is a shit show right now, to say the least.
It's just disappointing because there's so much, you know, and I know the far extremes of one side or another get the most press because they're going to get the most clicks, they're going to get the most shares and reposts, all the things that an advertiser loves to see from a marketing money perspective. Follow the money, right? It's like anything, follow the money. However, 5% of us all want the same things in life. A good life, a fair opportunity to take care of our family if it's extended, whatever the case may be. Hopefully have a place to live, food on the table, pay most of our bills on time. Pretty simple. Maybe some medical treatment here and there that we aren't being charged because, you know, attorneys, God bless them, have really made a mess of our medical system.
Yeah, our health care system is a hot mess, too. You know, it's interesting that you bring up the political environment, obviously, with what just happened over the weekend and just at what level the temperature is. You know, I grew up a military kid, so my dad was in the Air Force for 20 six, 28 years, something like that. And so I grew up on military basis. You were raised to respect your president. You were raised to respect and love your country. I mean, my dad went to Vietnam and he may not have come back. I mean, so everything that we were, it was ingrained in us as kids the respect for the Oval Office, the respect for our country, like all of it. Like you go look at my house right now, it is adorned with red, white, and blue bunting because that's how I was raised. But I was raised that way. My husband is first generation immigrant, Bulgarian. And so he was raised a little bit differently, obviously. But in our house, it is for the love of this country. It is so hard to respect what is going on right now. And I am like, I can still sing the Star-Spangled Banner, right? Like, I've got, you know, love the country, right? God bless America. Like, here we go. But it's very, very difficult because we've been living in this chaos, what seems like not normal, not, there's not this even Kiel Temperature, leader of the free world, like we just, it has been so heartbreaking for me, you know, as an American, could not be any more God bless America girl, like it's so heartbreaking. And to see this, I was really kind of glad to hear everybody say, take the temperature down over the weekend, both parties, like take it down, right? This is getting out of hand, but We have a 20 year old who, whether he acted alone or not, and we're never going to know because he's not here. We have a 20-year-old who felt it was okay to get up on a rooftop and shoot at a presidential candidate. That's just not okay. So how do we fix it, right? And do any of us have an answer? But you are right. You have the far left, you have the far right. I think I saw a statistic over the weekend, actually, where they said 87.5% of all voters are right in the middle. Maybe slightly one side or the other, but we're all in the middle and all want the same things in what you said.
It's almost stunning and I agree with you. It's virtually indescribable, and for me, personally, it just kind of hurts my heart. I just don't understand. Especially somebody who's traveled a lot and been overseas, and I've had many experiences to the different things. I'll just leave it at that. But to come back to the US and see how privileged we have and the advantages that we have, there is a reason. There is a reason why in Tucson or Texas, our borders are being swarmed. There's a reason they're coming here. They're not trying to get to Canada.
No, no.
I mean, a few are, sure, of course. However, there's a reason persons, even from different countries, know that this is an open entryway to get into our country. I'm candidly all for letting people in. I'd just like to know who you are and why you're coming here. Like the basic things. Give me the basics, please, and then let's have a little bit of a process to make sure it's okay. And I don't know if you have the same, and I'm sorry to go on this political tangent. No, I'm glad that you are, because we need to talk about it. But what just happened last week? I haven't had a feeling like that, and I'm going to say this, I'm older than you are, since Reagan spoke. When I saw, and it could have been, I'm just going to say, it could have been Biden or Obama that stood up and pumped their fists with the American flag behind you with blood coming down your face. I'm like, right on, brother. Right on. That's America. That is what we are about. We are the defender of the free world. We are in active zones at all times, protecting this planet from literally falling into complete disarray. And yes, we play both sides, because we have to. We have to. It's so complicated. Yeah. And I was complaining once and I'm like, you have no idea what you're talking about in the media. No idea. Until you've had boots on the ground like your father, who was actually there and saw it happening from both sides.
And it's both sides. And you know, if you are trying to negotiate, which I feel like our military is a negotiating factor, anytime it steps in to try and defend the planet from sheer communism, you know, and there was a reason that Russia, you know, was they were starting to actually like start to see some independence they were starting to see and now that's all gone backwards again hundred percent and so now it's like We are here to defend, and if we're not negotiating both sides—you know, my husband, being that his parents immigrated from Bulgaria, I've seen that because they immigrated legally through Ellis Island. She came over and arranged marriage. I mean, it's a very interesting story how they ended up here. So I'm familiar enough with how that process goes. I, like you, am the same. I am awful. We would not be who we are as a nation if we didn't have the melting pot. We've talked about it since we were kids, right? We are the melting pot. So we wouldn't be who we are without that. And so, yes, I think we need to continue. It's who we are. It's how we were established. It's how we were born as a nation. But the problem I think that we're all having is It's not being done legally and so or by the system. So come and do it, but please come, right? But come and do it with our process. Respect us. This is how I feel. And I could be way off. Respect who we are enough to follow our rules.
Pretty much, it's that simple. Until the law changes, or the rules change, or the integration, however it works, this is how we do it. Right, right. And I feel on a macro scale from a societal perspective, that's also things that have gotten blurred. Well, that doesn't apply to me. Yeah. And be it as it may, for some of the generations that are coming through the ranks, since we're a little bit older and worked in the workforce for so many years, amazed is the word I'll use at some of the requests that are being made by persons that expect these things because they've seen things happen on social media and they expect that that's the norm versus like I need to pay my way, I need to learn, I need some experience, I need to go through some life challenges to be able to ask for these types of payments or work environments or titles. It's a fascinating time in business right now. Back to the business side, it's also a very complicated time because things have changed so quickly, especially in the technical side. I'm definitely a part of that AI movement. We have artificial intelligence that works within our systems and platforms and things that we do. It's frightening for me, too. I started to say this, you'll probably appreciate this comment, in the, gosh, it must have been the early 90s, where technology and personal computing was just starting. Yeah, early 90s. Early the 286 era of computing, which would be a foreign language to anybody that's, you know, not.
I actually know what you're talking about, which is frightening.
That's amazing. Okay, so I know how about how old you are then. But the fascinating thing at the time was I noticed on our shipment labels that the deliveries that were coming into our big warehouses to be assembled, final assembly and shipping out into products was, I think I made a comment and I was doing a lot of politics at the time. I said, do you realize that all this stuff is Chinese? 100%. 100% of what we're getting made is Chinese. I said, think about it this way. And this was in the early 90s. So we're assembling, putting assembled in the USA flag at the back of our stuff, loading Microsoft product on its time, Windows, just starting Windows, just past DOS, DOS Windows program. And I'm like, someday, If we're not careful, the Chinese are literally going to be able to walk in there and say, the yuan is your currency. I think I said that out loud to my team in the early 90s. I said, if we're not careful, like everything we're putting into everybody's office, everybody's school, you know, any of the government agencies at that time that had no Chinese restrictions on stuff was 100% Chinese. And, you know, there's a few persons that are like, how hard do you think it would be for them to call home?
Oh, not even hard.
at this day and age, just call home. And it might just be little bits of data that we're typing on our phone. And it's just the fascinating things. There's terabytes of data on each of us, right? So that's also the frightening thing that the government holds. And you saw a little sliver of that with this latest incident, how easy, if you will, it was for the FBI to get complete access
to the shooter's information phone all the data about this person and the history within minutes within minutes minutes yeah yeah no it's all there and you know we've said it yeah we've said it with the alexa apps and like your phone like we were talking We were talking here in the office. I have an entire full staff of women. And so of course the conversation sometimes shift. And I was not in the office. Now this is how crazy this is. They were talking. about magnetic eyelashes in the office. And within five minutes, magnetic eyelashes pop up on my phone and I'm not in the office. So somehow we are all tied that way. I ordered them just out of sheer curiosity and somebody else in the office ordered them as well. Like, and we were just like, when they saw that order come through, like the email confirmation come through, they were like, how did she know we were talking about that? It wasn't even here. So there's all these ties. I think somehow all of it's got to be integrated somehow, some way. And, you know, I've always been, even as a kid, totally amazed at airwaves, how television can go through the airwaves, right? So if television can go through the airwaves, you know everything we say and do. I mean it's all out there and there's no way to pull it back because we've already we've already started rolling the snowball and we started it back in the 50s when we put TV airwaves out there and I you know here and now it's now like you said with AI I think AI is absolutely the coolest, most interesting thing that has happened technology-wise in literally the last 10 years. And technology moves so fast, I can't keep computers fast enough in the office for the girls to do their job. So I'm like, completely enamored by this whole AI. And yet, I just hear Arnold Schwarzenegger in the back of my head with Skynet. I'm like, how far off are we? Where are we in the plane of all of that that's going on? And how likely is that to actually happen? None of us really know. No, we 100% don't know. Yeah, there's no way to know. It's gonna be interesting. I just always hear Arnold Schwarzenegger in the back of my head every time somebody says AI. I'm like, Terminator, here we come, you know, so.
I don't think you're that far off in a lot of senses. And there In a macro sense, this may be kind of amusing to you. I hope it is. So I've been in technology since literally the dawn of the technical age of personal computing. And I was in the heart of it, in the heat of it, in the West Coast, in the Seattle, Washington area. Like just the big brains making big changes and big moves. The interesting part about that era, which a lot of people don't know, was how gray and black market some of that was. It taught me tons of business skills, way better than graduate school. Let me tell you that first. I mean, I was a hustler anyway. I think you might have heard a little of my background. I've been independent since I was age 15 when I moved out. So I've been on my own a long time. And I made some horrific mistakes. And for some grace of God, I'm either not dead or in prison. And but it was very fascinating to see just from the macro sense of how these big brains are working. And I don't think you're that far off in a lot of how we are in technology. But I've always said this thing very succinctly. I'm always amazed and I'm a little enamored about the things that we've done in technology. And I'm grateful to have been a part of that infant era, infancy era of that. But I'm horrified what it's done to us as a society, like horrified. And this was in the 90s. I was saying, you could start to see that division happening even at that time. And when the first cell phones came out, the flip phones, or the big bricks, even from the big bricks that persons had at the time that were paying $1,200 a month to make cell phone calls. And that's all they could do. But it was very evident to me that the time of gathering around the table for dinner, a time of having quiet time just with discussion points was really becoming quite limited. And when it really hit home for me, probably as much as it has for you, where if you're driving in any city area, the majority of the persons that you see walking, shopping, at a store, at a bus, have their phone in their hand. And that's all they're looking at. And so I'm always very cognizant of trying not to do that. And we have no TVs in the house, like zero. So it's, it's a little, it's not that we're Luddites. I mean, I work in tech and I work in software. I feel like I'm definitely up to speed and you can stream anything you want to see anyway. So let's be candid. But just not having And I'm not saying good or bad, but I started to hear about a lot of the Silicon Valley development companies and gamers that had these big gaming, they weren't allowing their kids to be on these things. So they already knew what their kids were, you know, these young billionaires when they had kids were like, we're not going to do that. We're not going to have that in our house because it's literally reprogramming your brain.
Yeah.
Like, it's not figurative. It's literally reprogramming your brain. And you're wondering why there's psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, whatever you want to call it. Like, these persons, their cortisol levels and dopamines are just firing so often. We're not supposed to be like that. Back in the 90s, if you remember, I remember reports that are saying, you're getting 10,000 images a day in your brain. We can't handle that. We've never had that before in a society. What is it today?
Oh, there's no telling. So like the noise is so deafening when and I'm not even talking about the sound and the decibels. I'm talking about the the visual noise that's coming at you 24 seven almost 365 because I know people that get up in the middle of the night to check their phones.
Mm hmm.
And there are kids now that aren't going to sleep because they're sitting up on social media. And then the fact that so much of that information is misrepresented is disturbing. And yes, our mental health crisis is a serious crisis, but I don't think the mental health crisis is because of COVID. Like I've been saying this for 20 years. I think you and I, are you a Gen Xer?
I know I'm 1963. Sixty three.
So I'm not I'm just four years younger than you.
So I'm the last the baby boomer generation.
Yeah, you are. But very ish, right? Yes. We are really. So the Gen Xers like this, that generation born, you know, up to the late mid 70s are the last generation to ever know what it was like without a computer.
Correct.
That's it. Everybody now is like anybody younger, really, then I'm just kind of like, you have no idea. what it was like to not have it. And I know what it was like to not have it. You know what it was like to not have it. And when you had to go to an encyclopedia to do the research, your brain processed things much differently than the way things are done now. These kids are, they're going to AI and have an AI write the paper for them. And then they may or may not even ever even look at it. Where, what justice are we doing? And then these are the people that are going to be our leaders. These are the individuals that are going to be taking care of us. I'm like, Lord, just let me go out quick, fast and easy. Like, please just let me take me fast, quick and easy. Do not let me have to go through because I don't know that I could handle it.
I agree with you. There's that life experiences that came from our generations, for sure. By the way, this is all real.
So for my age, I love it.
Longer story about that, for sure.
But for those of you who are just listening, he's got the most fabulous. Danny has got the most fabulous hair I have ever seen. And it's long and it's lush and it's very dark. It's black. It's like stunning. I'm like so jealous.
Right on. Thank you. But you are correct. One of the things I'm saying a lot also when I'm publicly speaking is I've never worked this hard or this fast in my life and made as little money as I'm making as a percentage of what I'm doing.
Yeah. No, I agree.
Because things are so fast. And part of the problem is, too, my Garmin watch that I use for running in the mountains is also a computer.
Yeah, yeah.
So we have a global company. I start my day. And when my phone, my phone and watch wake up, it's literally like just hundreds of messages, and to be like, okay, here we go. You know, every day in and day out is a lot, but it's a fascinating time to be alive. I still have great hope. I always do. I'm an eternal optimist, and you'll never get me to change. I don't care what happens. I believe every test that's put in front of us is purposeful, and you're only given what you can handle. Like you, I've had a ton. Like, literally the challenges alone should have put me in the grave. I should have gray hair, and I should have wrinkles, and I should be wearing khakis. Like, I should be a mess. But I absolutely refused to go there. You know, the outlook on life, and every day to start the day, my feet hit the floor at literally 4-0-0, and I'm like, thank you, God, for this day. I'm going to knock it out of the park. And it could be a complete shit show, like you said. I might mess up from 4.01 until I lay my head back down at 9.01 PM. But at the same token, that few moments of reflection every day, which I've been religious about, because in my early 20s, when I made that commitment to myself, I literally had lost literally everything, including myself as a human. I didn't know what I was doing. And again, I had no parents, right? So I didn't have, I had mentors, but they're still distant enough. It wasn't so close that you don't know. It's not like, Hey dad, or Hey mom, you know, I got, I have, I'm, I'm struggling, you know, can you lend me a hand or can you help, help me get some help? You know, and you know, that moment I'm just like, okay, I have two choices right now. Tap out. or go the opposite way. And be over-exuberant in everything that you do. Live every day to the fullest. Be grateful for everything you have. And you're going to mess up all the time. Try not to be resentful. Be positive and kind to everybody. Give more than you get every day, period, full stop. You're a love of good life. It'll come back to you tenfold. And my wife has told me oftentimes, she said, Danny, you made people millionaires and billionaires, 100%. Why aren't you? Karen, we've never not had a roof over our head or food. It's not my role in life. My role is to give. And I believe that more now as I've aged than ever before. Today, I've been on three calls. I don't have time for it. I don't have time for it. Person saying, Danny, you're so well-connected in this place. Will you please help me get into an opportunity because of this reason? I'm like, 100% I will. 100% I will. I will give this to you and more. I'll actually even do it on a social media post for you. And they're like, oh. Like 100%. I will not say no. I'm careful about it, for sure. I'm careful, and I know these people. But it always comes back to those same things. And call it principles of being a good human. Call it the times when we've taken the Ten Commandments off the walls in our school. Call it, I don't care what religion you are, being a good human within that perspective that there is a right or a wrong somewhere. Somewhere in there, there's right or wrong. Be good. Just be a good person. And the more you can do that, and the more you give, the more you will get. And again, for me, my get might just be that funeral. Hopefully, it's not for a while. But if it's tomorrow, I'm okay. I have no regrets that are flowing out of the building.
You know, everybody that's listening, I do not know that I have heard more sound advice in in years. I mean, I, I have, you know, some really awesome people on the podcast and they come with some really fantastic advice, but the fact that you get what you give, it is a fact, right? But you, what you're saying too, is you actually get more than you give when you give for the right reasons and the reasons not self-serving.
And I expect nothing back. I'd like something back someday. Trust me, I would. I mean, there's times when you're reflecting on your day and night, and your head's on your pillow, and you're like, ah, man, I'm exhausted. I gave everything I had, did all these things. I was like, I wish something would come back to me one day. But then at the same token, I'm like, should it? Should it come back? Or did I just do the best I could and the right things, and you give until literally, you know, the saying goes, give until it hurts, and then give some more?
Yeah, exactly.
And even if it's just out of me and my heart or my knowledge or my connections or whatever the case may be, like, I'm in. Somebody asked that favor. I'm in. I'm doing it. I've just nice. Can you come and help? I will.
I am like super excited and stoked that you took the time to be on this podcast with us today because you absolutely rock Danny Hagen. I am like, what an honor. So I know you're coming to Texas. We definitely will have lunch when you are here. Right on. easily to be, you know, and our listeners today gained great perspective on what really matters. And I love that you literally just alluded to the fact that we have taken the Ten Commandments off of the walls in our schools, because I said in a staff meeting, just not an hour ago, that I expect the team to do unto others as they wish you have done unto them." And I literally, as walking back into my office, I thought, why don't we put that on the walls in our office? Like literally, we can take a vinyl machine, we can literally put it on the walls. I'm like, I think we're going to do that. And you just made that solid because I'm like, hey, we need to put that back on the wall. So I am so grateful that I'm not the only one thinking, and I'm hopeful that maybe some of you guys listening are thinking the same thing. Because I think we need so much more of this hope, positivity, gratitude, all of that. Danny, you literally just made my week. So I am so grateful to have you. How can our listeners, now guys, don't abuse him because he's pretty awesome. What is the best way, if our listeners just wanted to reach out, give you a high five, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Uh, I'm pretty well known on LinkedIn, which is the business site for search, uh, social media, for sure. So you can find me under Danny Hagen and you'll see a guy with a bow tie. That's me. Um, and you can definitely find me through wallboard and it's, uh, basically my first initial last name at wallboard.us.
Nice. Well, thank you so much for giving us this time. You are the epitome of what it takes to be up every single day. And really that what we need in our society now is more of Danny Hagen. So you're doing what you do. And I am so honored to now be able to say that we are friends. And all of that. So Danny Hagen, CRO for Wallboard out of Carrollton. Like he said, you can reach him out on LinkedIn. Everybody, this is Tamara with Everything is Up and Danny Hagen with Wallboard. Danny, thank you again. Hope you have a fabulous rest of 2024 and a really great 2025.
I 100% will. Peace and blessings to everybody. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Danny. Bye.
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