1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:05,399
Speaker 1: Wind down with Janet Kramer an I'm Heeart radio podcast.

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:08,960
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to On the Job and

3
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,520
Speaker 2: host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes

4
00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:15,240
Speaker 2: in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful

5
00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,119
Speaker 2: athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a

6
00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,800
Speaker 2: fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment

7
00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,279
Speaker 2: of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a

8
00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 2: stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a

9
00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,159
Speaker 2: CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what

10
00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,440
Speaker 2: drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories

11
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,040
Speaker 2: of people finding their lives. Work on the Job is

12
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,560
Speaker 2: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery

13
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:41,080
Speaker 2: talks to a former offensive lineman about his Express franchise

14
00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:42,840
Speaker 2: in Iowa.

15
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,479
Speaker 3: Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're speaking

16
00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:50,320
Speaker 3: with Pete McMahon over in the ames Iowa Express office,

17
00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,680
Speaker 3: who for the past two years has been working alongside

18
00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 3: his wife Katie. If you were to walk into the

19
00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:02,200
Speaker 3: Express office in ames, Iowa, I'd find yourself thinking, geez,

20
00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,320
Speaker 3: that's a big guy over there, and that's the same

21
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,279
Speaker 3: thing that the football coaches at the University of Iowa

22
00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,360
Speaker 3: thought when Pete McMahon walked onto their field back in

23
00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,480
Speaker 3: two thousand as an incoming freshman.

24
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 4: Guy was six seven, two hundred and ninety pounds as

25
00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,800
Speaker 4: a senior in high school, and back then that was

26
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,840
Speaker 4: pretty big. So that was attraction from the Iowa program.

27
00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,080
Speaker 3: As a born and raised Iowan, it had always been

28
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,839
Speaker 3: Pete McMahon's dream to play for the Hawkeys. But even

29
00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:36,000
Speaker 3: as big as he was, that dream wasn't going to

30
00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:37,280
Speaker 3: come easy.

31
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,240
Speaker 4: For those that don't know what is being a walk

32
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,960
Speaker 4: on mean? You can join the team, We'll give you

33
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,240
Speaker 4: a uniform, you can hold this tackling dummy. And that

34
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,040
Speaker 4: was me. So I was not a scholarship kid. I

35
00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:51,800
Speaker 4: wasn't even a recruited walk on. I was a first

36
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:53,640
Speaker 4: what they would call first day walk on.

37
00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:56,800
Speaker 3: And while I can't get over the injustice of that,

38
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,880
Speaker 3: Pete didn't seem to mind. If anything in motivated him

39
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:03,160
Speaker 3: to work that much harder in the weight room and

40
00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:04,960
Speaker 3: hit that much harder on the field.

41
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,000
Speaker 4: I grew up in a blue collar family and if

42
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,360
Speaker 4: you didn't have something, you went out and you worked

43
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:11,160
Speaker 4: for it. You got it.

44
00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:14,519
Speaker 3: Pete McMahon came into his own as a Hawk guy

45
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,640
Speaker 3: and went on to have an impressive college career.

46
00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:20,639
Speaker 4: It was a team captain and you know, two Big

47
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:25,320
Speaker 4: Ten Championship rings. We finished in the top ten three

48
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:26,160
Speaker 4: years in a row.

49
00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 3: So when it came time for graduation, there was no

50
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:31,800
Speaker 3: question in Pete's mind what was next.

51
00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:34,080
Speaker 4: You're gonna play at the next level.

52
00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:37,280
Speaker 3: By the end of the first day of drafts, Pete

53
00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:42,200
Speaker 3: still is unsigned. And then finally, in the sixth round

54
00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:46,040
Speaker 3: of the two thousand and five NFL Draft, the Oakland

55
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 3: Raiders select Pete McMahon for their offensive line. Do they

56
00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,560
Speaker 3: still get the sixth rounds that comically giant check.

57
00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 4: I didn't get the big check. No, they didn't do

58
00:02:57,800 --> 00:02:59,560
Speaker 4: that for me, but I would have liked that.

59
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,000
Speaker 3: And very quickly Pete learns what it's really like in

60
00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:04,919
Speaker 3: the pro league.

61
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,280
Speaker 4: Two days later they cut me.

62
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,480
Speaker 3: Fortunately, soon after getting released from Oakland, Pete manages to

63
00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,520
Speaker 3: get on with the Cleveland Browns and spends the season

64
00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:15,120
Speaker 3: with them.

65
00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,200
Speaker 4: In that offseason that summer, I had gotten married.

66
00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,680
Speaker 3: So Pete and his wife arrived back in Ilewa, and

67
00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,040
Speaker 3: the very next day he gets a call from the

68
00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:27,680
Speaker 3: New York Jets saying pack your bags.

69
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,480
Speaker 4: I look like a really good husband. Just took my

70
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,200
Speaker 4: law's daughter out of their house, brought her back a

71
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,880
Speaker 4: week later. Oh ya, And in that time we bought

72
00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:37,520
Speaker 4: a new puppy.

73
00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,200
Speaker 3: So then Pete goes to New York in Buffalo, and

74
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:45,320
Speaker 3: Miami and Jacksonville and New England and Hamburg, Germany, of

75
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,840
Speaker 3: all places, and then back to Jacksonville. You played for

76
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,360
Speaker 3: a lot of teams in the NFL, Yes, I did.

77
00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:55,320
Speaker 4: People ask me what teams do you play for? I'm like,

78
00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,520
Speaker 4: I don't know you name one. I probably was with them.

79
00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,240
Speaker 3: But eventually Pete decided that as much of a dream

80
00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:04,520
Speaker 3: as it was to play in the NFL, enough is enough.

81
00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,880
Speaker 3: His wife, Katie had gotten involved with Express Employment Professionals

82
00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:11,240
Speaker 3: by buying an office in Ames, Iowa.

83
00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:17,159
Speaker 4: We dove in. Never been in the staffing industry before,

84
00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:18,599
Speaker 4: knew nothing about it.

85
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,159
Speaker 3: Did you have any reservations about working with your wife?

86
00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:26,600
Speaker 4: You know? Lots of people ask me that. Honestly, no,

87
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,040
Speaker 4: we work really well together. We always have.

88
00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,080
Speaker 3: And of course Pete McMahon knows firsthand what it's like

89
00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:38,160
Speaker 3: to have little to show for yourself besides unwavering dedication.

90
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,000
Speaker 3: You're that football recruiter. Now you're on the other side

91
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,480
Speaker 3: of it, and you're seeing potential in people I had.

92
00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:47,640
Speaker 4: You know, coaches in the past say hey, we want

93
00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,960
Speaker 4: folks that are going to work hard and want to

94
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,839
Speaker 4: be there, need teaching the rest. We're all about giving people,

95
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,480
Speaker 4: you know, another chance to be successful.

96
00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,920
Speaker 3: What Pete McMahon does it Express is look for people

97
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,920
Speaker 3: like himself, fellow walk Ons, just waiting for an opportunity

98
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,680
Speaker 3: to prove themselves for on the job. I'm Avery Thompson.

99
00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,600
Speaker 1: Looking for a job is lonely, endless searching, phone calls

100
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,719
Speaker 1: that go nowhere, applications that vanish into thin air. What

101
00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,280
Speaker 1: if you could link with dozens of local companies who

102
00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:26,320
Speaker 1: are hiring right now with just one connection. That's Express

103
00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:31,160
Speaker 1: Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,

104
00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:36,560
Speaker 1: endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express

105
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:41,320
Speaker 1: Employment Professionals expresspros dot com.