1/23/2025
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Dillon Barr
I’m writing this newsletter on a Thursday, and I have hockey tonight. Every winter we play on Tuesdays, and every summer we play on Thursdays. We’ve won 5 championships now in the 3 years I’ve been back home in Port Huron, Michigan where I grew up. A county that’s produced a handful of NHL players, so it’s great competition too.
Our team is called The Brudders, and I’m the sponsor. It’s based around a beard balm company I started with my brother. I do that on top of my C-Suite level position at a $15M+ a year start up company, a podcast I run, and of course Unfound Adventures which is slowly but surely taking off. I say all of this because sure I’ve done a lot, but I don’t have an ego about it all. And it’s because of that locker room.
“How’s that picture book business you got, Barrzy?”
“Man, you played like shit tonight.”
“Can you believe people report to this guy?”
“Shut up and drink, Barr.”
Every time I get in the locker room, enter the group chat, or share beers in the parking lot with the guys after the game. It’s typical hockey talk and I know these guys love me, no matter how they show it. It used to frustrate the hell out of me. Now I’m truly thankful for these men.
I was talking with my wife and a few former colleagues lately about an old manager of ours that we don’t see in the same bright light we used to. He’s had a lot of success in life as well, and has gone on to be a Head of Sales at a very successful company. We talked about some of the ways he’d recruit or manage us that felt…just a bit off. Any time we vent about it we typically come back to say the same thing.
“He truly believes he’s doing what’s right for us.”
Yet no one has called him on certain practices of his. So why would he stop to think about what he’s doing. The ego has slowly been built up and fueled by those around him, even if it’s through silence in his actions. It creates a more confident person and powerful energy when it’s never checked. I’d hate to walk blind with something like that.
And I know I probably would if I wasn’t consistently brought down a peg or two. People will often come up to me and tell me they love what I’m doing and my response is typically to brush it aside. I want to grow this following confidently yet humbly, and I need everyone in my life to help me do it. Not just those that pump my tires.
I’m sure we all have those types of people in our life. That never seem to see what we are creating. That poke fun at it even a little bit. It’s easy to look at them as haters to our cause, but having this new lens has helped me put less heavy weight on them or even myself, and instead be grateful for the role they play in my greater journey.
So cheers to the hockey players! The locker rooms! And the brotherhood of those that give us shit! I love and appreciate you!
© 2023 unfound adventures
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Dillon Barr and Matt Emmorey grew up in southeast Michigan. As much as they love their home state, they were a flight risk. Dillon became pregnant with the ideas for Unfound Adventures in Kenya. They were adopted by Matt in Texas during the pandemic. The two fancy themselves good parents for Joan and the gang, but much of the childhood of this series was raised in virtual spaces, chairlifts, abandoned pools, high ropes courses, and a multitude of states.
AUSTIN, TEXAS
team@unfoundadventures.com
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