Pets, Peaks, and Point-to-Point: Exploring Life's Connections with Madison Beedy from Earthlink Business.

A Journey Through Wireless Technology, Fostering Pets, and Outdoor Adventures with Madison Beedy

In this episode of The Wireless Way, host Chris Whitaker welcomes Madison Beedy, Director of Channel Sales at Earthlink Business. They discuss her journey in technology, the role of Earthlink Business in providing diverse connectivity solutions, and the importance of SLAs in wireless internet services. Additionally, Madison shares her experiences as an active foster volunteer with the Arizona Humane Society and her love for outdoor activities. The episode also delves into the lessons learned from hiking and fostering pets, touching on personal fulfillment and professional success. Show notes include links to the Alliance of Channel Women and the Humane Society.

00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome
00:18 Guest Introduction: Madison Beedy
01:42 Personal Background and Interests
03:07 Journey into Technology and Channel Industry
04:38 EarthLink's Evolution and Services
06:03 Importance of Backup Connectivity
09:21 Ideal Customer Profile and Sales Cycle
17:27 Fostering and Volunteering with Humane Society
17:55 Starting the Foster Journey
18:20 Foster Fails and Successes
19:01 Unique and Memorable Fosters
19:16 Balancing Personal Pets and Fosters
20:21 Challenges and Rewards of Fostering
21:28 Temporary Care Program
22:07 Special Needs Pets
23:04 Personal Stories and Reflections
24:56 Hiking Adventures and Lessons
27:15 The Appalachian Trail Dream
28:28 Final Thoughts and Reflections
32:10 Closing Remarks and Resources

Learn more about Earthlink

More on Madison Beedy

Alliance of Channel Women

Humane Society

A Walk in the Woods book

Transcript

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of The Wireless Way. I'm your host, Chris Whitaker, and as always, so grateful that you're here listening to this episode. It's gonna be a good one. You know, here in the wireless way. I love anything to do with technology, channel and wireless. We're going ahead on all those and then some. today my guest is Madison Beedy. Grateful for Madison being here. She's the director of Channel Sales at Earthlink Business, where she drives growth through strategic partner engagement. creating channel friendly processes and solving complex connectivity issues. We're gonna get into that as well. Madison is also actively involved with the Alliance of Channel Women. Serving in leadership roles that support networking, sponsorship, and empowerment for women in the technology channel. be sure to check the show notes. I'll have a link, to that organization. Please check it out. It's a fantastic, group of people, Madison is an active foster volunteer with the Arizona Humane Society and an outdoor enthusiast who believes in balancing professional success. With personal fulfillment and meaningful connections. Sounds like she's doing the right job. Madison, so glad you're here today. Thanks for joining me.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 1:12

I am so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 1:15

Yes. we met in Scottsdale a few months ago. You were gracious enough to come meet me after we did a big event and, we had one of the best business strategic, planning meetings I think I've had this year by the pool. With, appetizers and beverages. We'll just leave it at that. It was good beverages. that was a good time. So I was really grateful that you, you know, it was meant to be, you know, sometimes things just aligned perfectly, so I was so glad we were able to meet then. my first question to everyone, you know, we have your professional bio. There's so much more to who you are than what we put in our bios, right? how did you get to where you are today?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 1:52

So I am a proud mom. I love my kids. I was a stay-at-home mom for seven years, so I got to hang out with them and,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 1:58

How many kids?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 1:59

I just have two,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 2:01

That's enough.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 2:01

multiply. So if you have two, you really have four, because there's always extras, especially around Mother's Day and my birthday when they're all texting me Happy Birthday and Mother's Day. it makes me feel good.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 2:11

Yes.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 2:11

so I would say that that's, you know, I got that opportunity, which was absolutely amazing. and then I love reading. I'm a huge book reader. I think I'm at 70 books for this year so far.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 2:26

What kind of books do you like to read?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 2:28

I read everything under the sun. so I do read a lot of like outdoor books, so mountain climbing books, those are a huge, huge vertical book for me. and then just lots of fun, you know, fantasy. Sci-fi. I'm a big sci-fi nerd, if you will, so I, I'm in the right space for that.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 2:51

Yeah.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 2:51

because I feel like most of the people I talk to on a daily basis also enjoy my love for science fiction. So it's,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 2:57

would that happen to include Harry Potter books?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 2:59

It would Harry

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 3:00

Yeah.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 3:00

Hunger Games, of them.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 3:03

I love it. I'm dealing with that, that, that is, that is awesome. what, at what point did you take the turn from being an outdoor, enthusiast and science fiction nerd to, you know, get into technology? You know, was that intentional or like so many people in the channel that just kind of stumbled into this world we're in.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 3:23

it was entirely unintentional, just like everyone else's. no one grows up and says they wanna be this, but when you finally find the channel and you get involved in this industry. It is truly, I say it's a lifestyle choice, is that your partners become your friends, your coworkers, or your friends. Everybody in this industry is absolutely amazing and how we're able to work together and support partners, support customers is just, it's magic. It's amazing.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 3:54

It really is not. I love how you put that. I mean, I like to tell people, you know, we make a living helping others make a living. You know, it almost seems noble doesn't, I mean, like, because literally the better my partner can win, you know? That helps me too. I mean, you know, so we share in success and just as important, we share in failures and we learn from failures, you know? So, I agree with you. I couldn't imagine doing anything else after doing this now, I guess going on 15 years, I spent the first half of my career on the direct side. You know, and I look back at that, I'm like, oh, what a grind that was mean. You got, 1 trick in your bag. That's all you can sell. And anyone that threatens that, you hate them. there, wasn't much of a camaraderie I felt like in that world. so now you're at EarthLink. If you've been around, we were kind of joking earlier about, you know, the CD you know, dial up, you know, for EarthLink. What's different now? tell me about this new Earth link.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 4:51

Yeah, so dial up is no longer something we offer. Unfortunately, I wish that some days that I could just be like, here's your dial up circuit. You can't get anything else in that area. sometimes it's carrier pigeon is all I can find, what do we do now? So we still do microwave radio point to point. So it is essentially a wireless internet service provider, and this is very different than LTE. So this is SLA supported service. It's from a local pop that's no more than 15 miles away from the customer's location. And it provides really, really great diverse. Connectivity. So that's our primary, about 85% of what we do in the channel. And what we do as a business today is this wireless internet fixed wireless. so that's what EarthLink does today. And of course, EarthLink is still an aggregator, we do a lot of aggregation across different big companies and small ones. So if you are looking for a hard to reach place, if you need connectivity that's a little bit outside the box, we are an excellent alternative access carrier.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 5:50

You know, and with so many technologies in the cloud, of course unified communications comes to mind. And, CRMs, billing systems, inventory control system, everything's in the cloud now. It's irresponsible. To not have a, I mean, I solid the primary, but maybe a second and third connection. do you see your, what percent of your business is primary versus a second or tertiary?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 6:15

I would say it's almost 50 50, and I think that that tertiary circuit is increasing.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 6:20

Yes.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 6:21

in the last year and a half I've seen a huge uptick in people making that investment in those secondary circuits because they know how much downtime really does cost their company.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 6:31

we've all dreaded that, especially when I was on the supplier side, that 5:00 PM call from somebody upset that there's a fiber cut, cable cut. You know, I'm losing thousands of dollars, a minute. But yet when you're trying to sell'em that backup circuit, you know, I can't afford it. It's not in the budget.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 6:48

Of,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 6:49

right, that's right. It reminds me of, I love that old saying, you know, pay now or pay later, but you're going to pay, I mean, there's no getting around it. You, you're paying now or pay later, but you're going to pay. So you might as well control the circumstances in which you pay versus being forced into a situation.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 7:06

Well,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 7:06

Oh my god.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 7:06

Technology today. It's not like it was five years ago or 10 years ago where you're paying for that backup circuit, you never use it. Now you can load balance and you can use that connectivity and you can even downgrade your primary and have two, 50 or a hundred meg connections instead of that one big connection. So there's cost savings, there's ways to work it, that it's affordable for the business because, you know, let's face it, economy's hard right now. We really need to make sure that we're being cost conscious for these customers. And I love at EarthLink that we're able to kind of be creative in that and help the customers get the bandwidth that they need.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 7:41

while you were talking, it made me think about that cliche we hear in the channel. You know, fast, cheap, and reliable. You can't have two, but you can't have all three. But I think with you guys, you can have all three if you think about it. Because again, it can be fast. If you're low balancing 200 meg circuits, one from a terrestrial and one from microwave and you have SD wan, so now it's affordable, it's fast, and it's even ultra reliable now.'cause you're low balance across two diverse. Carriers, it's hard to get much more. And, and you throw in a ti a third connection, a tertiary word. That's such a fun word to say. Uh, meaning third. And it's like, we could say what, just say third, A tary just sounds fun. It's more fun to say like salsa, you know, I like to say ti tary. Um, but yeah, you can ha you can be fast, reliable, and, you know, I won't wanna say cheap, but affordable. You know, it, it's, it's budget friendly.'cause, Going back to there's a cost to downtime, again, pay now, pay later, but you're gonna pay.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 10:14

Yeah. Well, and nobody wants to think about that. You know that they're gonna go down, but it is. You are eventually at some point, and having that backup connection is so important.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 10:24

yes. And, you know, every now and then, doing a discovery call with a partner and a customer, a technology architect is, or we call'em now, And you ask the customer, so your law firm, what happens when there's a massive, outage with your landline provider? Oh, they just send us home, you know, we're done for the day because all of our files are in the clouds. We can't even get to'em. So we're told to go home and work from home, but no one does. Everyone just goes home and we lose half a day's work. it's hard to believe that's still happening in this 21st century where it is like. Hello. What are you thinking?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 10:57

It's hard.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 10:58

that note, tell me about, ideal customer profile. when a partner calls and they describe a situation or customer to you. When you hear it, you're like, oh, this is our deal to win. what does that look like?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 11:11

so things that I would catch on is they need it fast, so they need service within 30 days, sometimes two weeks. My personal record for one of my accounts is three days. and we were able to get them up. I have a coworker who's done it in 24 hours. I haven't had that yet. Donna, who, you know, has had it.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 11:31

I believe that if anyone can do it.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 11:34

Anybody can do an As. so, you know, she has done it much faster than I have, but I'm so quick. They need it now. they need diversity. So there's something going on with a fiber build, a coax build. They don't have another way of getting service in the building. so they need that diversity away from that terrestrial circuit. they need an SLA. So these are companies that are mission critical. So we have a lot of food processing plants, manufacturing, where it could be that our service is supporting temperature gauges, and if those temperatures come out of range, they're losing food. So they need an SLA supported product and LTE product is not going to cut it because they need to know that that circuit is very stable, very low latency, because they're using it for mission critical traffic. So those are the things that are like, oh, hey, we check all three of those boxes and that's, those are the customers we're looking for. So these are customers across all verticals from, your big box retailers that have, POS systems that they're running to small local steel manufacturing, companie. And coolant companies and, food storage. All of those type of customers are excellent for us. We also do really well in the hospitality space and event space. so we have a very large ideal customer profile. I know that's not super helpful, but it's really, you know, we do.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 12:53

So, I've been in the wireless, realm as long as I have. I hear events a lot, but I wonder how any recommendations or advice for partners to go, yeah, that sounds like that's kind of cool. I love going to festivals and concerts and rodeos or whatever. How would someone you think get in. On those deals and be able to sell that. where did these deals come from? is this just someone that gets, like, they know the promoter or maybe it's a marketing company?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 13:21

I've found a lot of them work with event planners, so they know like the event company that's putting on the event. and then the other thing is it's all relationship. Just like everything else in our industry

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 13:32

True.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 13:32

found their relationships, I don't know. But, you know, it's usually a, a high school friend or, oh, hey, I know this guy from somewhere and that's how, you know. had a huge streaming special for a major TV provider that we did, not the disastrous one for Netflix. That was not us. I'm just calling that out there. the, the, the fight the other year that they, it was bad. That was not us, but we've done a lot of other ones that you've watched probably, and, and, but. That was a friend of theirs. It was like, oh, you know, I know this person this way. And it ended up being a huge deal. It was a huge success for this company and it was a huge success for us. But because of our latency being so low, we are ideal for a streaming video. So I would say, you know, ask who you know, or if you have like a local festival in your community and you're like, and every time I go, I can't post pictures online, talk to the event organizers, and I'm sure they'll, you know, we can help them if they, they need it. So.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 14:27

Yeah, that's fantastic. What's a typical, Sales cycle look like from, that first phone call to, walk us through what's that, is there demos, is there site surveys that need to be done? I know it's a loaded question'cause the deployment may be a little different, but just on average, assuming everything is normal, what would you say is, a typical sales cycle to, that customer getting the first bill?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 14:50

That's a great question. So it, a lot of that does depend on the customer. Sometimes customers are super prepared and they're getting their internet three months before they move into their building and everything's great. And you know, we love those situations where we quoted and two months later we have a signature and 30 days later we're installed and we move at the customer's pace. would say that's about 1% of our deals. So I would say on average, by the time people are getting to us, it's a lot of times they are desperate. They need that service yesterday. so I joke when people ask me like, are other providers, you know, some of the support when you need this installed by my answer is always yesterday. Like, that's just what I say now. but what our sales cycle looks like is, our goal is to have at least an acknowledgement from a channel manager, from our to a partner within an hour of them reaching out. And sometimes that might just be, Hey, we're working on it. And sometimes within that hour we've already returned pricing and serviceability. EarthLink is really cool because we actually have API serviceability tools so you can get real time checks for sites within seconds. so we can typically return pricing very quickly, and then it goes to the customer for review. We're very flexible on terms. So if you need a six month term, if you need a three year term, it isn't like we're, hey, it has to be 30 days or 36 months or nothing. so we'll go with term and price and work with the customer to make sure that they're getting what they need. after signature, we typically schedule a site walk in person, and on that we engineer, we find out where they want their drop done, if it's meeting in their MPO room, if they want it at a receptionist desk, wherever they want that cable ran and that equipment is. we'll do that and map that out at that appointment. We also check line of sight on site so we know what we're working with for the install. typically we install within two weeks. it's a pretty simple process. we're here every step of the way. That's one of the things I love about EarthLink is we have great humans. I know everyone says their humans are the difference. but we have really cool humans that work here. And then we have really good processes. To make sure that you really have a live human being, every step of that process, because I know I personally love dealing with human beings as opposed to robotic systems, and so we try to

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 17:00

Yeah, yeah. everybody's so worried about AI removing the human touch, but I don't think we're capable. it sounds cool and all, but I don't think we should be as scared as we are. AI is just another tool. I remember when the internet was not as common and people thought this was, terrible. And like, no. I mean, it's like any tool, you know, it can be used for good, it can be used for bad. So, I love technology. I'm a tech enthusiast, which is why I love the role that I'm in. The job I have is fantastic. you mentioned, LTE or cellular connectivity. Versus microwave. for people that aren't familiar with selling microwaves, one of the cool benefits is mean there's really no, you don't worried about data plants, right? That you, it's, it's all consumed, all you can, all you can eat and drink. Right? Whereas with cellular, you, it's either, a unlimited data plan where the, the speeds get throttled at a certain point. You guys don't deal with that, right?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 17:48

So with fixed wireless, it is essentially a fiber, it's air fiber, it's a fiber circuit through the air. We want you to use it. Use it as much as you want, plug it in. stream game after hours, of course when your people aren't working, but all the things that you wanna do, you can do with that circuit. it really is cool technology.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 18:07

So I know you're in a lot of, major markets and all, but partners are wondering are there areas that maybe it's not available.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 18:14

There's gonna be pockets, fiber's not

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 18:16

That's right.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 18:17

I just recently, we found one that was in Eastern Oregon and there isn't fiber there, there isn't broadband, there isn't fixed wire. Like there is nothing and that's when you pivot to satellite. But it, there are pockets in America still where that don't have high speed connectivity. and there's a lot of wisps that are small and local communities that are working to change that. Just like there's a lot of local fiber providers that are really trying hard to connect their communities,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 18:42

Fantastic. And you guys have, satellite options as a backup as well, right? Very cool. I love all that as, you know, wireless way. when I first, met you, it was in Scottsdale, right? Arizona in your backyard, right? you were local, which is why it was so convenient for us to meet up. I said, man, this is a great conversation to be had. I'm really excited to be able to work with you guys. back in your bio, you mentioned about being a foster volunteer with the Humane Society. Tell me a little bit about that. How did you get involved in that, and how involved are you?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 19:15

so I have been an active foster with a dog or cat or dog or animal rescue. Since I was 19. and when I was 19, I really, really wanted a dog, like desperately wanted a dog. And I just was like, this isn't in my cards right now. Like, I'm 19, I'm having fun, I'm enjoying my life. Like, you know, but there was like a foster program for the holidays or something and I was like, oh, I could totally do that. Like my landlord at the time I was running a house, they were like, yeah, you can have a dog here. And so I brought home a, a dog for. Now, that first one I did fail. She ended up staying with me, for about seven years till she passed away. So when you foster and you keep the animal, it's considered a foster fail.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 20:00

Oh man, I never heard that.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 20:02

so Foster failed. but. So she was my first, and she was, we, I, I, she was an amazing dog, but, she, she lived for another seven years after we, I officially adopted her. So, but that's how I got started. And it's just been ever since, I've had hundreds and hundreds of animals, through my house. Some weird ones, some for nine months, some for my shortest was 12 hours. I picked it up in the morning. And that night it got a home. It got adopted through a website and I drove it and just dropped it. Instead of going back to the shelter. It went straight to its family. It was a dalmatian, it was a really cool dog. right now I have two kittens that are living in an upstairs bedroom. they need to be socialized. They're not super friendly. I just had an eye enucleation, so they had to remove their eyes. we do a lot of medical cases. it's really fun. It's really, really rewarding. and for those of you who are concerns that I live with a million pets, I don't, I only actually have two of my own dogs, and then we have a pet snake as well. but the coolest foster I will tell you about. Was a blue Tongue S skin, which is a lizard, and I hope you all go Google Blue Tongue s skins because it probably was the coolest pet I've ever had. and it was more of a phospho situation. So he, he just was living his end of life with us.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 21:17

wow.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 21:18

he is a, he was a cool, we had him for about nine months and he was the coolest pet ever had.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 21:25

Wow.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 21:25

interactive and it's fostering his. I highly recommend it.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 21:32

I mean, yeah, I love animals. I cannot remember a time in my life where I didn't have a dog in my life. And of course, you know, having, three daughters and a son, but Marcus was, my son was always more of a dog guy. But the three daughters each all had at least two cats each, you know, so there were times we had 4, 5, 6 cats, and they're all moved out now. So we have no cats, but I still have three dogs at home. But. How did you not get emotionally attached to some of these? I Especi if they're really cute and they're fun and you're like, is there counseling for that? Because I think, I dunno if I can handle that.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 22:07

There probably should be. Sometimes they are such pains in the butt that you are so happy

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 22:13

You're like, please go.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 22:15

You're like, please get this thing out of my house. Like I am done. I want this thing gone. and sometimes there's so much work or sometimes it's just not really the right pet for you. You're like, okay, I can appreciate you, but I'm ready for you to go. there are the ones you get attached to in over 20 plus years. I've kept five. and. I would say that most of the time, like how my kids get, how we talk about it is if we keep this one, then we're done fostering for a while. And so most of the time the answer is to that is like, oh no, I want another baby.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 22:44

Ah.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 22:44

get lots of little babies that are super cute and fluffy and fuzzy. and so I think, you know, by, by us keeping one, we know that, there's gonna be an animal that's sitting in the shelter that isn't gonna have a foster home. so if part of it is that, it's like, Hey, we can keep helping if we don't keep them. sometimes we foster for, this organization called the Temporary Care Program through an organization called Lost Our Home. And sometimes these fosters are actually people's pets. they take the animal, it lives with us for up to three months, and the person that whose animal it is actually gets their dog or cat back. And these are, you know, domestic violence situation, long-term hospital stays, homelessness. So they're these really awful stories, but they're not really pets that are eligible to be kept. and then the highly adoptable ones, it's like, yes, we'd love to keep you and we love you, but you are gonna go find a great home. And you know, we're able to care for some of the animals that other people aren't. We're able to open our home like one of the dogs we have. I've never legally adopted him.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 23:49

He is just a free loader.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 23:50

a preloader, but he's not adoptable. This is not an adoptable dog. This is not a dog that you're gonna go to a shelter and adopt. He's just not social. He doesn't have, he's got some screws loose. he's a little special. but he can live here. You know, we work with him and we work, you know, we had a behavioralist. He's seen the vet. He's seen the trainer. you know, we have protocols and things to keep him safe and to keep other people safe around him, and. And that's, you know, what our lives are and, but we we're a home that's capable of that. So, you know, we usually, if I do keep one, most of the time it's not an adoptable dog that's staying here, an adoptable cat. It's, you know, we had a cat that had autoimmune disease and, it was a very complicated, one of the dogs we kept had a degenerative spinal condition and was in a wheelchair. So these are the

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 24:34

Oh man.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 24:36

Yeah,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 24:37

Yeah. Oh my goodness. that's emotional. I have a 14-year-old Doberman right now, and, she's been with us since she was six months old. It was my son's dog and he moved to, New York City from Georgia. I'm glad she stayed with us about, five, six years ago now. you know, as Dobermans go, in fact the vets like Chris, this is the healthiest senior doberman I've ever seen. she's got a touch of neuro atrophy, in her back legs, meaning every now and then, her legs just don't work. you can tell she's struggling to walk and then some days she's running out the back door chasing a squirrel, So, the writing's on the wall, you know, her days are number. In fact, the vets like, she's in bonus time and most don't make it to 14.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 25:18

We

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 25:18

fortunately you always fe she's always had really high quality, good dog food and a lot of activity and, very social. She's one of the smartest animals I've ever really been around. and she loves her routines. At 9:00 PM she comes and sits in front of me and gives me this death stare. Dad, it's time to go to bed. I want to go to bed. And she won't go to bed without me, you know? and if I'm watching a movie or something and, you know, we're just not ready to go to bed, she'll five, 10 minutes, she'll gimme the stare and eventually she's like, she'll give up. Then she'll go lay in her dog bed and she'll lay down and she'll kind of, you know, she kind of like, has this noise. She's like, not, not happy, you could tell, but, nonetheless, yeah. I know it's coming. as long as she's healthy and not paying, let her live. We have a nice backyard. So she, she, she's got two little, two little buddies that, you know, we have at the house with her. So, fun stuff.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 26:09

The best.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 26:10

looking at the world through the eyes of, our pets, can take a lot of the stress away from dealing with humans. Going back to dealing with humans can be tough, dealing with pets generally. they have challenges and, That's just awesome that, you don't take the easy cases. you probably take some of the more challenging cases, especially the medical stuff. and, your interest in, at one time wanting to be a veterinarian. I imagine you're kind of satisfying that need,

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 26:32

Yep.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 26:32

also mentioned that you're, an outdoors person, and you mentioned reading books about mountain climbing. what's that look like? tell me a little bit more about that.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 26:39

I'm a huge hiker backpacker. So,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 26:42

I.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 26:42

find me every weekend is out on a trail by myself. It's amazing. I love to be outside and I love hiking, finding a trail, exploring anyone, you know, I'm always, if anybody ever asks me to hike, the answer is always yes. I'm a terrible navigator. you will get lost. You can ask anyone who's ever hiked for me. Like I have to keep the all trails like very close on my phone

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 27:01

Yes.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 27:02

inevitably wander into the middle of nowhere, and not to be seen again. So

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 27:07

No, I love it. I love it too. I mean, I feel like I'm a novice, you know, I mean, I'm lucky. I like day hikes. but I really like backpacking and doing some overnight adventures. My son and I have done about four or five, you know, he is my adult son now, and, he's been doing it for years too. And, and he's in canoeing and kayaking and rock climbing. You know, he, he is also a avid outdoorsman. we did, went to, Zion National. park in Utah and we did three of the trailheads there, and that was probably the most challenging one. just'cause of the elevation and, and you know, it was like 85 during the day, but he got down to 50 at night, which is enjoyable. Do, do, do you do Mo, are you mostly day hiker or do you also do overnight trips or,

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 27:50

I haven't gotten to do overnight trips in a while, just'cause I still have young ones at home

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 27:55

that's true.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 27:56

Like I have work, travel, and then when I'm home it's like I really wanna spend time with the kids.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 27:59

do they go hiking with you sometimes?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 28:01

They're good for about five miles,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 28:03

Okay.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 28:03

miles, and they are going to have dagger eyes

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 28:07

What are we doing?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 28:09

I'm not, I'm like, okay, don't be mad at me. but they're good for about five miles. But I usually will do some fun trips, like day trips during the summer and sneak away and get back before the dark sets in.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 28:22

So fun.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 28:23

Few more years and I'll be back backpacking on my own. But I think just put them home and still wanting mom that it's a little hard for me to sneak away.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 28:30

you know, living in North Georgia, I'm not too far from. The beginning of the Appalachian Trail, and I've done some day hike segment hikes, but you know, obviously, you know, I do follow, I love following people on Instagram or whatever that they're doing the whole trail and back. And it's fascinating. I mean, there's a lot of life lessons you get from that. have you ever thought about doing the Appalachian Trail? I mean, you have to fly out here. I mean, it would be a big commit right then.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 28:56

so it's actually on my, my list. Like it has been on my list since I read. I don't know if you've ever heard of this book called The Walk in the Woods. It's also a movie. It's a really good movie. You can watch the movie or read the book. You have a choice with this one. it's Nick, Nolte is in it. and it's, it's Bill Bryson is the author. He's an incredible author. I've actually read all of his books. And he's funny, very dry humor. but he decides to hike the Appalachian Trail with his friend Katz. And Katz is an obese smoker and doesn't train. hike all the entire Appalachian trail. And so it is the story of, of Bill Bryson and Katz But it is the funniest book. And I'm like, after reading this, I'm like, I, I have to hike the a t. so it is definitely on my list. I've done huge chunks of the, the pc, which is the Pacific Crest Trail, through California and Washington. I actually hiked a chunk of that last summer.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 29:51

and that movie is called The Books A Walk in the Woods.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 29:54

in the Woods by Bill

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 29:56

Okay, that up.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 29:57

it's,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 29:58

That's.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 29:58

my favorite stories. his writing is amazing. He's just a great, great writer.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 30:04

Fantastic. Well, we've covered a lot of topics, I think in 30 minutes from technology and wireless to, you know, pets and pets with challenges and, and loving on'em, to hiking and, the Appalachian trails. I mean, what, what three di, how, you know, very diverse topics. Is there anything we left out, Madison, anything, any last words you wanna leave us with?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 30:25

something actually you said that I wanted to touch on is that there's so many lessons to be learned, out in the woods and hiking and leadership and I truly believe that wholeheartedly, that most of the lessons in life that you can learn, you can learn on a trail. whether that's you can only move as fast as the slowest member on your team. how you organize, how you do these things, you're gonna get there at that speed because that's as fast as you can move and you're gonna, you know, things like that and working together and if you're in that leadership role, how you take care of your team and how you support your team. I just think there's so much to be learned, from getting out and getting dirty on the trail and even from animals. learn a lot.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 31:10

last one of the best, takeaways, and I totally agree. and I just gotta share a little story that popped in my head when you were saying that about the lessons on the trail. about a month ago. went to Linville Gorge in North Carolina. it's a nice hike as well. And it was my son's 32. and then three other guys we invited were also in their early thirties. and it was probably, I wanna say 1500 feet elevation gain. like, 45 degree angle with a 30 pound pack. they were making it look very easy. I, on the other hand, going back, they could only go as fast as I could go, but I would get so IRR the first few times we're going and I'm falling behind because man, they're just like making it look like nothing. And I'm like, man, I'm huffing and puffing. You know, I've got soft In my old days, I, I don't get out and exercise as much as I should. so They will stop and wait for me, you know, so I'd get up there. Soon as I got up there, they would start walking again. I'm like, guys, you've had a five minute break. I just, we're gonna wait five. So about the person one to two times. I said, okay, that's okay. But the third time I'm like, whoa, no, we're stopping. I need five minutes. So probably another lesson there is I sometimes you gotta, you know, compensate and, and take your rest. Oh, then yeah, man, good, good thought. trail. You hit me on there, you know, and Zion, I, you know, some of those trails are, you know, a foot or two wide, but it's a hundred foot drop, right? And so you gotta watch where you're walking. So if you're walking very carefully, you're looking down and you don't wanna step on a rock and, you know, twist an ankle or fall off the ledge. but it occurred to me sometimes you just gotta stop and look around.'cause it's like, oh my God, look at this valley. Angel's landings right there. That's, that is beautiful. But if you're so focused on the journey and not falling, you miss all of it, you know?

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 32:57

Just

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 32:57

yeah. So you're, you're so true there.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 32:59

Yes. And there's one of my favorite authors is a man named Ed Beers, who actually is a veterinarian and a mountain climber,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 33:05

I.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 33:06

but he says that getting to the top is optional. getting back home is mandatory. And so. You don't have to get to the top of the mountain. You don't have to finish that trail. You just have to get home. And whatever you do along that path and how much fun you have and how much enjoyment and that adventure and that, you know, wandering in the woods, which is what I like to do, is just wander. that's the journey. That's the fun part. That's the good stuff right there. That top,

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 33:32

Yes. Well, thank you again for your time today. Great conversation. I really appreciate it.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 33:39

I appreciate you. Thank you, and hopefully you'll get

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 33:42

Yes. That's right. I need to go to the, at the Appalachian Trail. Well, folks, here you go. That's an episode of The Wireless Way. Please check the show notes. I'll also have not only the, Alliance of Channel Women, but the Humane Society. I wanna give them a shout out and, maybe if I can find a good link to the book, walk in the Woods, I might have that there, but definitely, uh. Check the show notes to learn how to get touch from Madison and her team at EarthLink Business. Uh, fixed wireless access a microwave. But we didn't even get into the fact that a lot of people call cellular fixed wireless access, which still makes me cringe a little. Uh, but hey, what, what, yeah, semantics. So anyway, there you go. And if you heard anything you like in, this is always if you're, if, if somebody. Popped in your head when we're talking about any of this conversation. Please share this episode with them. You can always check out the wireless way.net and our website We'd love to talk to you and take any suggestions and feedback. So there you go. Have a great remainder of your day and week and we'll see you next time on the Wireless Way.

squadcaster-2ajj_1_12-11-2025_132640: 34:43

Thanks, Chris.

chris_1_12-11-2025_152640: 34:43

Bye.