“The Grass Isn’t Greener” – Truitt Robinson on Gen Z Job Struggles, AI & Real Life After College

And that's why I tell a lot of young people, the first thing you ever need

to do, in order … If you wanna, get respect or just change something

about your life, get in shape.

please.

hit the weights, go out and run, do sports, train a martial art.

Do something where you're giving your body, amazing health.

whether that's building muscle or playing a sport, whatever, because I noticed a

huge difference in how people treated me when I was out of shape, when I was just

a skinny little twig- Yeah … versus when now I'm starting to get in shape.

What's up everybody?

Welcome to another episode of the What's Your Story podcast.

I'm Scott Leese.

This is my co-host Mike Lindstrom, and we are here today with ASU grad,

or almost grad- Yeah … about to walk in a couple weeks, an intern at

Phoenix Suns, Truitt Robinson has the honor of being our youngest guest- I

know, man

ever.

I'm pumped about that.

W- we've been getting some feedback, man.

man, and p- this guy was telling me we gotta go downstream a little bit.

Yeah, this is gonna be a good one.

you're gonna be the guy that's gonna help us go downstream.

You guys are

old.

That's what they're telling us, that we're old.

I take it as a compliment, man.

Yeah.

we're connected to people- Oh, absolutely … of all different ages.

100%. So Truitt Robinson, welcome to the show, man.

Thank y'all for having me.

I'm super excited to be here.

Yeah, we're stoked as, as well.

I really wanna know what's your story and g- get into, the mindset

of somebody who's just graduated, about to enter the workforce.

We'll hear a little bit about your work with the Phoenix

Suns and kinda see where we go.

So- Yeah … kick it off.

What's your

story?

All right, man.

So my name is Truitt Robinson.

I'm originally from a small town in Alabama called Alexander City.

I lived there till I was about eight years old, and then parents

split up, then we moved to…

It was me, my mom, my sister, my brother.

We moved up to just north of Columbus, Ohio, which is where I continued school.

My dad, he still stayed in Alabama and all his side of the family, so pretty

much my whole life just traveling back and forth between the two states.

so I like to say I'm from Alabama just because that feels a

little bit more like home to me.

Once I graduated high school, then I came out here to Arizona State.

I lived in Phoenix because I went to the downtown campus for the Cronkite School,

and then I've lived in Phoenix for three years, and now I live in Tempe in a

townhouse with your buddy's two nephews.

And, I'm a video editor, so I've filmed tons of stuff.

I love filming sports in particular.

But obviously I've filmed a vast v- array of things.

But yeah, I currently, I'm a n- video intern now with the Phoenix Suns.

In fact, I even just filmed our play-in game against the Golden State

Warriors back on whenever it was.

17th?

They kicked your butt.

yeah.

Good game, man.

They did … got to film that, got to film Booker, Curry, all those

guys, and ready to graduate, man.

Ready to get that diploma and just finally get out into the real world, as they say.

Yeah.

Are you re- are you really ready- Yeah … for the world, huh?

Oh, yeah.

College is fun though, man.

I wanna go back and have a fifth year and do it all over.

That's why I went

to grad

school.

I know, but you, I- That's why you went to law school.

Ah, it's true, that's true.

That's… It's a good point.

I bought myself three years.

But I would think in this day and age, I know it's competitive with the

job market, but I- I have talked to people who go, "Man, I'm really m- I'm

gonna miss my college friends," and-

you gotta embrace these times.

I know you and I have had a chance to talk about just life.

I'm not your coach by any stretch, but we talk about stuff like that.

But what's, what are you looking forward to the most, though?

I think truly just getting that sense of, finally having some freedom, and

I think really just being overall respected because, like y'all were

talking about, oh yeah, like I miss, my college life and all that.

So I guess I'll get a little bit into my college life because my college years

definitely were- A little bit different than what a typical, college lifestyle is.

So I only lived, on campus in a dorm for one year, which was my freshman year.

So I lived in Phoenix.

I lived in the freshman dorm, which was, I think it was only maybe around a little

over a decade old when we moved there.

It was still fairly new for, a college dorm.

So living in Phoenix, it's not like a typical college campus or a lifestyle.

It's big city, urban, hustle.

You're surrounded by grown adults, full-time careers, all of that.

and in Phoenix, it's more of, the journalism programs, like, all of,

the health majors, I think, some other kinda, science or, law majors.

So typically it's l- majors that I guess require a bit more, a bit

more time and, like, where you have to, lock in a little bit more.

So by the end of my freshman year, long story short, trying to find

a place after that was a bit of a hassle because I was dealing with,

some roommate things and all that.

So then I ended up living on Indian School, which I don't know how

familiar y'all are- I… No, I'm not … are with the Phoenix area.

Oh, no.

Indian School, it's, it's rough.

It's not the safest environment.

it's… We, the apartment I was living in itself actually wasn't that bad at

all, but the area around it was tough.

So it was me and three other roommates were living in a unit together, and

the apartment that we were living in was like we were saying about Phoenix.

it was like grown adults, families were living there.

we were the youngest tenants in that apartment.

And, I don't have any family out here, so it's really just me.

So I would have to find anything that I can to just go out and do things.

I would constantly be hitting the gym.

I train Brazilian jujitsu, which I've been training now for going on four years.

I work for Arizona State's athletic department as a videographer,

so I would just be constantly, filming, sporting events, anything

that they would need me to film.

I just try to get involved so much because it's like when I was back

home, I-- or when I was back at that apartment, I genuinely, at

least mentally, I was miserable.

I didn't have anybody.

I wasn't really that close with my roommates at the time and, just overall

the environment, it was bad, right?

Yeah.

So fast-forward to the end of my sophomore year, so heading into my junior

year now, I lived with one other guy.

We moved to a new apartment off of, Central and McDowell in Phoenix.

So still in downtown, but overall the apartment and the lifestyle

was definitely a lot better.

I really liked my roommate.

He was a super cool guy.

really liked a lot of my classes.

I was really starting to get a lot more respected at ASU.

now, a lot of people started to know me, like a lot of the athletes started

to know me, all of that, because I was just filming so much over and over again.

And so life was getting a little bit better, but, still, still a growth upward.

But by the end of… Or no, it was halfway through my junior year, I met

with your buddy Ken- Mm-hmm … 'cause we went to the Biltmore because he

needed some help to film something.

And so while I was filming it, he was asking me like, "Hey, like,

how are you liking ASU?" Because he graduated from ASU whenever he did.

but he asked me about it.

I was like, "Yeah, it's really cool, but, I live in Phoenix. I don't live

in Tempe, like, where the ASU is." And he's I have this townhouse, in

Tempe that, I rent out to people, and I have my two nephews coming in from

Michigan to live here to work for me.

And if you wanna live there with them, by all means, like-" I'll offer you to

stay with him." And I go, "How much?" And he's, whatever his price was, like

under 700 a month or something like that.

I was like, immediately I got the pen, I got to writing.

I was like, you've never seen me write so fast in my life.

I'm like, I don't even care.

So fast-forward to now I'm living in Tempe, literally right across the

street from, Sloan Park, which is the Chicago Cubs', spring training stadium.

Yep.

And so now I have my internship with the Phoenix Suns, which

is going incredibly well.

I live with his two roommates now, which it's been going fantastic.

I really have no issues at all living with them.

And I tell this to everybody, by far, senior year has

been, the best year for me.

Because, freshman, sophomore, and junior year, like living in Phoenix compared to

living in here, it's like night and day.

It's … Yeah.

I think I finally was just able to feel like I finally

just feel like a college kid.

It's it's not always like hustle and bustle, living in just such

a… Can I cuss on here or no?

Yeah.

living in, like just such a shitty environment.

'cause like your environment shapes a lot about who you are- Oh, yeah … like

physically and mentally and all that.

And so now finally living in a place where, like I'm surrounded by people

who are fairly similar to me, and

I guess another big thing is, now I'm finally respected.

now a lot of people don't see me as oh, it's just like some kid with a camera

trying to make, something of himself.

Because now I have my professional certification in both Premiere

Pro and After Effects, and back in, September I won a student

Emmy for one of my show reels.

So now people are finally seeing me like, "Okay, this dude's legit." So

I'm truly nothing short of blessed.

Yeah.

of course you're legit.

You're on our podcast.

we wouldn't bring you on if you were illegitimate, man.

What is- We know you're legit … what

is the mindset Of everybody that you're graduating with

around going to look for a job.

'Cause depending on who you talk to and what you read, it's,

very scary for people right now.

There's some absurd stats about how many people who graduate are not finding jobs

or not walking into a job right now.

Talk a little bit about the mindset of people your age as you are about to walk

and you're, like, looking to go find work.

It's

exciting, but I will say this, it's scary.

Because really now whenever I open TikTok or, Instagram or Twitter or

anything like that, it shows, Gen Z is, they're struggling to find

careers because there's… I think one thing that a lot of older generations

don't really understand is that the world is overpopulated as hell now.

we're, like, what?

Over eight billion people now.

There simply, I think, are just not enough, there's just not

enough jobs, as there are people.

So by mathematical law, there's going to be a lot of people where it's

like you're just, you're unemployed or you're gonna have to be working

some really shitty, minimum wage job.

And, I've even seen some studies where Gen Z is, now the first generation

where you can have a college degree, an internship, a side hustle, certifications.

Y- your resume can be flawless, it has all the glitz and glam, and

you still can get ghosted by jobs.

even nowadays, I'm still applying, I'm still trying to find places, but

it's just like ghost, ghost, ghost.

Unfortunately, we're moving on in a different direction, all that stuff.

Which, and not only that, but you have to take into consideration AI, like how

much AI is completely changing the world.

I think, truly I think the world ever since COVID happened, it's

literally changed at such a rapid rate.

I think the world isn't changing as fast as it really should be because we're

const- like, everybody's constantly trying to figure out, the job market

and, all the, all these things.

And it's like even once you have a job, a lot of those jobs, they typically

don't pay enough in order to live or in order to have, the regular American

dream or a regular life where all your bills are paid, you have a car, you have

a house, you can afford to have kids.

And, that's another study that I've been seeing too is, the birth rate in

America has been dropping-… because a lot of people now, they're too scared

to have kids because, it's getting too expensive now, So it's like you

literally have to have, a full-time career, s- multiple side gigs, stocks.

you have to have everything just to live a basic American

lifestyle, which- That's gotta feel… I think this feels pretty daunting to

most people, but- Mm-hmm … this, you gotta feel pretty heavy for- It's very

heavy … guys and gals your age who are- Oh, yeah … looking at this stuff

seriously for the first time really.

Mm-hmm.

What's

interesting is language patterns, too.

He says, c- can afford, can't afford to have kids.

I never, that never crossed my mind when I was in my 20s, 30s, getting married.

Yeah.

Can I afford to have kids?

that statement right there I think is huge- … 'cause it's not just

him speaking for himself, but for a generation of people that we

never thought about that stuff.

No.

Mm-hmm.

I read a s- statistic the other day.

Not counting college, it costs about $350,000 per kid to go from zero to 18.

to raise a kid through high school, launch them out into the world.

So you have two kids, I have two kids, so that's- Yeah

… three-quarters of a million dollars.

Yeah.

But it's stuff- This generation

that never crossed our mind.

We knew we'd just figure it out.

Yeah.

But this generation, it's the, I'm trying to figure it out is

just trying to get a damn job.

Yeah.

They're doing the math way ear- Yeah.

The- We didn't need to do the math- Oh, yeah, no doubt.

No, we have- … but they're doing the math

they're doing

the math.

Literally.

and they delay other things as well.

People are getting married later.

Yep, not

buying

a home- Having kids later … till their 30s.

Yeah.

I mean- Usually getting help from their parents even now, the studies of

people, around my age or, recent high school or college grads, the amount of

people still, living with their parents because they just simply don't have

the money to live on their own- Yeah

has just skyrocketed.

Yeah.

Which, it's, it really sucks though bec- because we're taught from such

a young age, go to high school, go to college, get a, safe job, and,

once you get a job, you stay there.

But it's I hate to say it, but I think a lot of people were

fed a bunch of lies, you know?

Yeah.

I typically am an op- an optimist, or I try to see the positive side of things.

But, whenever I open, Instagram and I see people, complaining about all

this stuff, I want to say oh, just work hard or something like that, but

believe me, man, I know it's tough.

Yeah.

you're talking about the word respected, 'cause you said it a few times.

I- I know what you mean, 'cause I work with a lot of young folks

in other areas of my businesses.

I actually have a lot of respect for younger people.

In fact, if there was any- if I had any kind of bias, it's

probably towards younger people.

Because my belief is someone… And I know that we're savvy for our age.

I know that.

statistically what we know, AI, we're not the norm for the age.

I get that.

But if I'm gonna go hire someone to do a project, I'm-- That's why I called you.

I could have hired, went through Google and said, "Hey, I need someone about

40 to 55 to come shoot this video."

First thing I do is I go through my ASU network and say, " Hey, man,

what can you do, do for me on this project?" Lickety split, gets done.

So I kn- I know that's out there.

So I hope that the optimism continues for you.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause, it's guys like us that would hire you.

We have a higher propensity to hire a guy like you- out of college.

So I like that you feel respected because probably for a long time

you felt disrespected, but there's always some of those people out

there that actually did respect you.

Yeah.

They just didn't have the courage or the balls to admit it- Yeah … that

you knew more than they do.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it was definitely tough growing up.

So I was born with ADHD, but also Asperger's, which Asperger's essentially

is, like a form of autism, or it's like a cousin of autism, which it's in the same

spectrum or whatever they say nowadays.

because, like, where I'm from in Alabama, there was only a population

of maybe 13,000 people living there.

Nobody knows anything about, ADHD or Asper- and like- Yeah they see that and

they're like, "Oh, this kid's messed up," So I definitely had a lot of,

problems growing up, socially because it's like that's one of the things that,

that's like a trait of it is, sometimes you may be able to struggle, socially.

Sometimes you may be able to struggle to, read certain body

languages and stuff like that.

So I was made fun of and, seen as, the odd one out growing

up pretty much all my life.

Even when I moved to, when I moved to Ohio, it was still the same because

nobody really understood what it was.

nobody's ever really done research on it or anything like that, my

whole life, it's just man, like, why, like, why can't I just get respect?

I d- I don't get it.

I do what y'all do.

I have the same interests as y'all.

I don't- Yeah … I don't understand it.

And, in high school, or I guess in middle school, I played sports a lot

throughout my life, but I did track and field from my seventh grade all the

way to my senior year of high school.

But I was, one of the most unathletic kids on the team.

And, I don't know what it was about seventh grade b- specifically,

but, I was playing sports, like, all throughout my childhood, but,

seventh grade, I just stopped.

I don't even know why.

And you can tell on the track field.

But- I was constantly, made fun of a lot by even, my own teammates,

and what I wanted to do actually was throwing, so shot put and discus.

And so I was surrounded by a lot of, the football players, like

wrestlers, like all those guys.

And, I was made fun of, every single day on the field, by everybody else,

and, it was very demoralizing, I would even go home, literally begging my mom.

I'm like, "Mom, just, I don't wanna do this anymore." She's "But you

got-- you have to stick with it.

you can't quit now." Yeah.

So it was high school.

I remember it was my freshman year.

I was like, "Okay, I gotta, start hitting the gym. I gotta do something." So I

remember there was this small, area in my room where I had, a few dumbbells

and I would do body weight stuff.

I would work out maybe six, almost every single day of the week.

just trying to gain muscle.

I got super, super strict about my diet.

I still even am, like, to this day.

I've taken my foot off the gas of it a little bit, but for the most part,

I do my best to, eat clean, all that.

I haven't had a single sip of alcohol going on three years now.

Whoa.

That's good.

I try to stay away from that- Yeah

for other reasons, but- Sure I'll, that's probably a story for another day.

Yeah.

so that kind of just carried out with me all the way to high school,

because it's like in high school, I did track and, I was constantly lifting.

And then a little bit before I graduated high school, that's when

I got into Brazilian jujitsu, so now I'm starting to learn martial arts.

And that's why I tell a lot of young people, the first thing you ever need

to do, in order … If you wanna, get respect or just change something

about your life, get in shape.

please.

hit the weights, go out and run, do sports, train a martial art.

Do something where you're giving your body, amazing health.

whether that's building muscle or playing a sport, whatever, because I noticed a

huge difference in how people treated me when I was out of shape, when I was just

a skinny little twig- Yeah … versus when now I'm starting to get in shape.

Yeah.

I even remember my freshman year d- I was a psychopath, man.

I was lifting six days a week for, nearly three hours in the

gym, but, it was, like, bulking.

Yeah.

So it's like I would be doing super heavy weights for, maybe anywhere

from, one to six reps, but I think my heaviest, I got up to, maybe

195, 196, but, it was all muscle.

So as time went on, I was like, "Okay, I need to start focusing on, getting

money and all that stuff so I can lay off the foo- … lay off my foot off

the gas a little bit for the gym." But then, So I've been doing video ever

since I was seven, and so back then, I pretty much just did it, just for fun.

I would shoot, outside my house or, with my friends, or I would

just film, in-house videos, with my friends with, a little flip camera-

Mm-hmm … that my mom gave me.

But it wasn't until, I think, my junior, senior year of high school when I started

making videos about, the NFL and the NBA, 'cause I loved sports growing up.

Crimson Tide, Sun Devils, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Suns, and the

Diamondbacks, those are all my teams, And that's when I really started to

gain a lot of traction on social media with, TikTok and YouTube and all that.

And then COVID hit, and then I really got into video editing

because what else was there to do?

And then once I got to college, then I really started to go out

and, film stuff and, film ASU sports and, go out, with a real camera

and do, real professional work.

And so it's like all of it, I think, started to just kinda pile

up more and more, and now it's really led me to where I am today.

do you

look at it now As, oh, I need to go find a job?

Or do you look at it now as, I need to make my own job, I need to start

my own company, I need to make my own

way?

I would love to eventually start my own business, or my

own video production agency.

I'm still trying to figure it out because I don't know exactly, what

the funds are or, how much money am I gonna need to invest in this.

really I would love to get a full-time career with the Suns after my internship's

over because it's supposed to end with them in June, sometime in June.

I'm still talking to my boss to figure out, is there gonna be

something full-time after this?

If not, Is that as

glamorous as it sounds working for a pro sports organization?

Define glamorous.

I

mean, I,

I, I think to myself-

I

think it'd

be pretty cool

I would quit my job right now to work for a- yeah, you're hanging out with the Suns.

you're kinda hanging, banging with the crowd.

But I have heard

from many people, particularly, in ticket sales, the people that I know who've

done, ticket sales for sports franchises.

They're like, " No." Yeah. it's not very glamorous." It's just a J-O-B.

"You don't make, you don't make very much money." Yeah.

"It's not that, it's not that great, actually."

Yeah.

It's a grind.

I will say that.

you see on social media like, "Oh, I got to film LeBron, I got to film

Curry." Or it could also depend, obviously, on what department you're in.

for me, being on the video and, production department, it can

definitely be a lot different than, somebody working with partnerships

or GPS or, ticket sales and all that.

You're out there

on the court

and stuff.

Right.

I'm out here, on the court- Yeah getting to film the players.

But I will say this right now, especially, again, I can only speak for

my department, it is definitely a grind.

I think us, the Warriors, the Lakers, and maybe one other team are, like,

the top five, most consistently posting teams in the NBA, at least in

terms of, social media and all that.

like, whenever they have even the slightest chance to go out and film

something, you're going to film it.

and it's tough because especially in this industry, not even just in

sports, but, just overall with, video and, content and, social media and

all that, it is competitive as hell.

If you think the overall job market is competitive, the

industry that I'm in, triple that.

Yeah.

Because it's now- nowadays everybody wants to be a content creator.

Everybody wants to be an influencer.

Everybody wants to do social media.

So it's like you're… The competition pool that you have

to go up against is insane.

And as harsh as it is, a lot of these people, they're replaceable.

It's like these companies or these pro teams or whoever it is that you shoot

content for, they have no issue with going out and finding some college

kid or some recent college grad who has a camera who can be able to do

the amount of videos that you do.

they can do double the work for half the price.

Yeah, I

believe it.

and it's like I we were talking about this, a little bit off-camera, but I

think the job market and the dating market nowadays are almost identical.

Because it's What I think a lot of people think nowadays- When it comes

to dating and jobs is everybody kinda lives with this mindset

of the grass is always greener.

Or it's "Oh, all I gotta do is just open up Tinder or Hinge or something like that,

and just get to swiping away whenever, I find even like the slightest of red

flags or, there's even somebody where it's like I'm slightly unattracted to."

The job market pretty much is the same, at least especially for my industry.

It's like literally what I was saying earlier, all they gotta do is just,

post on LinkedIn or whatever, "Hey, we're hiring," hundreds of applicants

within like- Yeah … 24 hours.

Yeah.

So- Have you ever

tried that with dating?

Have you ever put it on Instagram saying, "Hey, open to hire.

I need a girlfriend.

Anybody, any takers?" At this point, bruh.

You can put a circle around your… You can put a circle around like on

LinkedIn, open to a relationship.

O- open to a relationship.

Open to a relationship.

I mean, I feel like

at this point, I don't even think that's gonna, that's gonna help.

But- at least you get seen.

That's why they put it on there on LinkedIn.

you get seen.

You get seen.

But

I don't even know.

But I know I can tell your frustration with it.

But I see what you're saying though with the, with very similar to we get a lot

of guests in here in television land.

Mm-hmm.

Right here in this local market.

Yeah.

And they, any of the gals, Yetta, Kari Pena, some of these people who are very

well known locally will say, "Michael, there's another gal like me that's 22-

Mm-hmm … coming outta college right here at ASU, who's gunning for me at 35,

38, 40 or whatever." And it's a fact.

So you gotta stay patched.

You have to keep your head on a swivel.

Don't take things for granted.

But you're right, the people that are doing what you're doing, I,

I'm pretty impressed, dude, to be honest with you, with the resume,

and I've had more interactions with you than just a couple times.

Oh, yeah.

How you've interacted, how you get back to me.

You text back quickly.

You'll text me on the weekends.

Hell, you'll text me outta the blue.

Even for stuff.

Yeah, I've given the guy dating advice, bro.

I gave him a blow by blow.

He was gonna go meet this chick for coffee.

True story.

He has.

He has.

and I go, "All right, here's what you gotta do.

Here's what, here's the pre-frame." Give him a script.

Here's what you gotta do.

You gotta listen.

You, here's what you're gonna follow the script." And it turned out okay Yeah

It turned into another date at least.

We, at first we didn't even know if she was gonna show up.

Yeah.

Then it turns out she did, but they were in the wrong spot and he's giving

me the blow by blow the next day.

I'm like, "Man, this is… I still got it, man. I still got

it." 20 years married- never went away … I can still coach this guy.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's definitely though, it's definitely a grind I think just

going back to that where it's like everybody thinks oh, there's bound to

be some, something better out there.

But I think a lot of, a lot of people, it's the illusion that, there's better

out there- Yeah … which for a lot of people that might not really be the case.

you may think "Oh yeah, I got all these options," or, even, recruiters, they think

"Oh yeah, like we're always gonna have people applying and stuff like that."

But is it really true though?

Or is it just you constantly glued to your phone looking at what, all these

social media posts are telling you where it's nowadays, like if you rejected all

of your current options, you may not ever have any of these options again.

Yeah.

Or you may not have anything that actually is better.

Yeah.

You-… and you know what I w- if I were The question I always ask, the

name of my company, one question, which is how bad do you want it?

That's what I'd be asking, how bad do I want this job?

And I would go to my boss like tomorrow- And go, "Buddy, I've been

thinking a lot. In fact, I was on a podcast talking about it, and I wanna

tell you, I want this job." Mm-hmm.

"I know you have to go to the upper people and figure out what's what, but

I need you to tell me between now and the time I graduate and walk, what do

I need to effing do to get this job?

That's how bad I want it." Most people your age don't talk like that.

Mm-hmm.

They don't.

They don't.

They're afraid to.

And even less people will actually follow through and do

whatever that person tells you.

Mm-hmm.

So you do that, man, game changer.

And I'm not saying it's the, it's a layup, but you talk about competitiveness, just

that simple conversation puts you- Mm-hmm

up here.

' Cause there's other people that have interns, right?

Oh, yeah.

That you're competing against, quote.

Oh, for sure.

Or even people trying to keep their jobs- Yeah … that you're gunning for.

Literally.

Yep.

They don't even know you're coming after them.

Mm-hmm.

So having that mindset, I think, is important.

I think that's what makes you different.

the fact that you told me you're disciplined, I know you

clean, the alcohol, the jujitsu.

You don't find too many guys his age that are going to college parties

or- Yeah spending Saturday mornings at 7:00 on a mat with a bunch of

grown-ass dudes beating each other up.

You just… I wasn't doing that when I was in college.

Mm-hmm.

Not even close.

we

gotta

work our way out of here.

Rapid fire-

Yeah … time.

Yeah, so l- let me start with one.

You go.

We'll go back and forth for a few.

What's your favorite book either you've read or you're currently reading?

Anything there?

Give me anything.

I like The 48 Laws of Power.

Mm-hmm.

I've re- I've skimmed through it, looked at some of the rules.

But honestly, I need to read it again, though, 'cause I think a lot of it has

started to drift away from my mind.

But I'm like, "Okay, I gotta- That's a- "… I gotta get back to it"

it's a book you can

go back to.

I've worn my copy out.

Oh, yeah.

It's a good book, though.

Yeah, because I've probably read that book more than almost any

other book.

it sounds a little cliche- Yeah … 'cause, I don't wanna sound like

the typical, hustle, grind set bro- Nope … or anything like that, but, I

typically don't really read a whole lot.

Yeah.

But whenever I do read, I make sure it's okay, this is something that

actually can apply, to my life.

Yeah.

That's good.

I gotta ask you a question.

Where

did this love of the Philadelphia Eagles come from?

Yes.

He was talking about teams that he likes.

I, I had him for a while.

Now there's this weird outlier.

Did you notice he just threw that in the middle?

The Eagles, and I'm like, wait a second.

Eagles.

Okay, so what's the story there?

So growing up in Alabama, we don't have any pro sports teams.

Yep.

a lot of people there are teams of, surrounding cities.

So Atlanta's a big one, like with the Falcons, the Braves are huge.

Saints maybe.

The Saints, like New Orleans, Tennessee, Florida, like all those teams.

growing up, outside of ASU and the Sun Devils, I'm Alabama Crimson Tide.

My dad and his whole side of the family, huge Crimson Tide fans.

My sister's a freshman at Alabama right now.

so I loved, college sports, but I never really was huge into, pro sports.

It wasn't until I moved to Ohio, because now, we got the Browns,

Bengals, unfortunately, the Steelers, like the Lions, like- You got options.

Yeah.

Now we have a bunch more options 'cause there's a lot

more bigger cities around me.

So- that's where I kinda started to watch a little bit more

pro football and, pro sports.

So I remember one time when I was a kid, it was, like, right when I first

moved or a little bit after I first moved, I saw the Eagles playing on

TV, and green's my favorite color.

I love their uniforms and, the midnight shade that they had.

And, living in Ohio, we're right next to Pennsylvania, so it's not

I'm choosing a team, on the other side of the country or somewhere

completely- Watch it out of the blue.

Watch it.

And I als- I also love- I loved Brian Dawkins, though.

Yeah.

So he- I know Brian

Dawkins, too

he's without question, my favorite NFL player of all time, and

it's just kinda stuck with me.

And so now I've been a fan of them for- That's funny … over a decade.

That's great.

Even back when we were shit.

Yeah.

before we beat Brady in the Super Bowl, all that.

Hey, man.

Stick with it.

Stick with it.

Stick with it.

Stick with it.

Get, go get yourself a hat and a jersey and proclaim it for life, man.

Yeah.

That's what it is.

Once you get a hat and a jersey and a couple championships under your

belt- You're in … now you're in.

You're in.

Yeah.

You're in.

You're in.

All right, so any piece of advice.

Let's talk to, let's talk to the older folks out there.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause I know you probably don't, the students don't wanna hear it,

but guys like us, give us a little piece of advice about how-- there are

people like us out there who wanna know about you, your generation.

give us some coaching in any way, shape, or form.

And you're gonna defend your generation right here in this statement.

Okay.

Go ahead.

So one piece of advice to y'all.

Even though the news and social media and society is telling you, "Oh, Gen Z doesn't

wanna work, they, they can't handle hardship, they can't do this, they can't

do that, they struggle to do anything."

You know what?

To a degree, it may be a little bit true.

I have met some people they are just glued to their phone.

They don't really have a whole lot of just drive to go out there, and, just do

something with their life or anything.

But you have to understand that it is a much different world today in

2026 than it is for a lot of older generations like millennials or Gen

X or baby boomers or stuff like that.

like you, you gotta understand that, I think COVID truly changed

so much about the world in such a short amount of time that it's like

we're-- everyone's just adjusting to this new world that we live in.

So yes, I know that Gen Z and gen alpha and all that, they do get a bad rap.

And yes, there are some bad apples here and there, but for the majority,

a lot of us are genuinely trying to make something of ourselves.

A lot of us do want to work.

A lot of us do want to go out there and make something of ourselves.

It's just whether it be the competition, AI, recruiters just constantly

ghosting you, the price of living and inflation has skyrocketed.

W- everything that I was saying about, trying to go out and get a

house, afford to have kids, a wife, a real career, or just being able to

have that American dream lifestyle, we are trying to get that- Yeah

regardless of what society or what the media's telling you.

That's a good reminder.

It's a good pitch.

Yeah.

It's a good pitch right there.

Good reminder.

I think he was representing.

I believe him.

I believe him.

All right.

All right.

How do we find you, by the way?

LinkedIn?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I got Lin- Tell everybody

I got LinkedIn, I got Instagram, YouTube.

What are the handles?

Give us the handles.

I got, my video account is TRobVids on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and

then I also have Twitter, which is also TRobVids, where I post all my video

work and where I'm the most social.

Love it.

Appreciate that.

I love it.

Good stuff, man.

Thanks for coming, man.

Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate

your time.

Absolutely.

All right, everybody.

I'm Scott Lease.

This is Mike Lindstrom.

That was Truitt Robinson.

Really happy to have him here.

Youngest guest ever on- Ever … What's Your Story?

Podcast.

Setting the

precedent.

We'll see y'all next time