In Memoriam: Sharing the Light | Andrew Malone

Andrew Malone: A few points that I want to make here. First is about connection. Podcasts create a personal connection with listeners, and by sharing stories, experiences, perspectives with their audience, this can lead to a sense of belonging and community that fosters engagement and loyalty. Empathy, by sharing personal stories and experiences, podcasts can evoke empathy from audiences, helping them understand and relate to the challenges and struggles of others. Inspiration, podcasts can be a source of inspiration, providing audiences with new ideas, insights, perspectives that can motivate them to act or pursue new goals. And finally, empowerment. Podcasts empower audience by providing them with tools, resources, and inspiration to make positive changes in their lives and their communities.

So, what I want us to be thinking about those four things, connection, empathy, inspiration and empowerment to understand how we use these tools and our guests.

 

Anderson Williams: Welcome to Everyday Heroes, a podcast from Shore Capital Partners that highlights the people who are building our companies from the inside every day, often out of the spotlight.

With this series, we want to pull these heroes out of the shadows. We want to hear their stories. We want to share their stories. We want to understand what drives them, why they do what they do. How they might inspire others to become Everyday Heroes too.

In this episode, we recognize one of our own, Andrew Malone, an Everyday Hero who left us and the world far too young and far too soon.

In the summer of 2022, we hired Andrew to be our media manager and to help us launch the Shore Capital Partners Podcast. Andrew had spent his career in radio, so he wasn’t an obvious choice to launch our podcasting, much less join a private equity firm. But he knew audio, and he knew it masterfully. And as it turned out, when he moved back to Nashville and had decided on a career change, we were the only place he interviewed with. And he was our only interview for the job.

It was a perfectly imperfect match. Andrew asked me one day, probably a year into his role, why we had hired him, and how that process had actually happened. He was happy about it, obviously, but he still could hardly believe it unfolded so quickly and easily and successfully.

He still couldn’t figure out how it made sense. I told him simply, Andrew, you clearly knew audio and we really, really liked you and that was it. And we were right. For almost two years, Andrew Malone worked tirelessly behind the microphone, behind the camera, and behind the scenes to share other people’s stories.

And the Shore Capital story with sensitivity, with heart, and with the highest professional standard. Andrew single handedly created Shore Capital’s podcast process and operations. Recorded and edited hundreds of interviews and helped produce more than 50 top of the line podcasts to universally rave reviews.

In the process, Andrew himself became an Everyday Hero for our Nashville team and for Shore Capital Partners. Andrew’s first response was always to jump in and help in any way possible. No job was ever too big, and no job was ever too small. He pushed himself to grow professionally however needed for the team and brought his full, authentic self to work every day. He established himself as an eager collaborator, a steady, positive spirit, and a kind, funny, and humble presence on our team.

Anderson Williams: Andrew was the ultimate team player. So, I’ve asked a few colleagues to offer their reflections on what made Andrew an Everyday Hero. No one worked more closely with Andrew than Shore Capital Talent Development Associate, Ben Gilbert.

So, I asked Ben, what made Andrew such a great colleague and friend and what made him an Everyday Hero?

 

Ben Gilbert: Andrew was one of the best team members you could ever ask for. He was exceptional at recording and producing our podcasts, and he was really, really good at connecting with people and helping our interviewees tell their stories.

Whenever someone needed help on our team, he was almost always the first person to raise their hand and pitch in. And of course, he was hilarious. He was always quick with a joke, loved dropping the occasional, you know, impression, or music reference, or movie reference. Once you got him going, he had one of the biggest and most infectious laughs that you’ve ever heard.

Besides being an awesome team member, Andrew and I became really great friends. We had so much in common, including the fact that we were both Eagle Scouts, and that we shared a love of sports, music, and even true crime documentaries. I also spent a lot of time with him outside of work and got to understand him on a very personal level.

One story that perfectly captures who Andrew was, was the time that he and I actually recorded music together. Andrew was in a band; it was called Alleyview. So, I knew he had experience in playing music, but what was really cool was he actually had released and recorded like his own album. And so, I also play guitar and do a little bit of songwriting in my free time.

And I was like, hey man, would it be possible if, you know, you could help me out with doing some recording here in the office? And, it was still pretty early in our friendship, so I didn’t know, it felt like going out on a limb, trying to ask him this, but he didn’t even hesitate. He agreed, and one day after work, I brought my guitar into the office, and we actually did some recording for some of my songs that I’d written.

And I’d never done anything like that before, but I will say that it was so much fun. He made it feel so special and I still listen to those recordings every now and then. It just shows how generous he was with his time and how willing Andrew was to support others.

Anderson Williams: John Murdock is Principal of Strategic Planning at Shore Capital.

John shares an example of how, even in the smallest gesture, Andrew could not only make the podcasting process better but made being a part of the strategy and talent development team better.

 

John Murdock: For the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of working on the team with Andrew, a time during which he was more than a coworker, but a friend and a teammate in its purest sense, someone I could count on, someone I could trust.

The first time Andrew recorded me, he wasn’t supposed to. I was standing in last minute for someone more important than me to interview someone else more important than me who also didn’t know me. And as I looked at my instructions, it seemed that I was being asked to get 14 hours of usable content on 14 different topics in a one-hour interview.

Now, I’m not an investment team member, but to me, that math didn’t add up. I expressed that to Andrew. Andrew gave me a look that I’ve come to view as something uniquely Andrew. He would give me, in response to something I or someone nearby had said, what I think was a grimace combined with a smile. He’d put one hand on his chin, the other on his elbow, and cock his head as what started as a look of pain turned into a smile.

Almost as though he had processed the pain, and then seen some good news the rest of us weren’t yet aware of. Well, he gave me that look, and he said, it’ll be fine. I wasn’t sure how that could be true, so I asked Andrew to tell me more. And then Andrew did three things that are so characteristically Andrew.

First, he reminded me of the strength he saw in me. He told me, you know how to do this. You talk to business leaders all the time. You know what’s interesting. You will figure it out.

Seeing that I wasn’t yet fully won over, Andrew did the second thing. He told me I’m not alone. He told me he would be there with me. He said, I’ll be with you the whole time. You need to stop, restart, delete, try again, whatever. I will be there with you, and we can make it happen.

Andrew probably realized at this point that he had my interest, and then he did the third thing, which I believe was Andrew’s unique superpower. He told me, you just go in there and do the full hour. Then I’ll pick all the best parts, and that’s all we’re going to show the world. Whether that’s three minutes or thirty, that’s what we will do. In that moment, Andrew melted my remaining anxieties away, and he did it by telling me what was uniquely him.

With Andrew, you didn’t need to be your best self. You just needed to be your full self, and Andrew would focus on your best parts. He made me feel comfortable and safe. In a word, welcome. And he did that for people all the time. Whether in a podcast room, or a team meeting, or somewhere out in the wild. He saw all of us, but he only focused on the best of us.

Anderson Williams: Perhaps Andrew could focus on the best in others, because he always seemed to bring the best of himself. Michael Burcham remembers me coming into his office after Andrew’s interview and saying, I really, really like him. And I remember Michael telling me, after his interview with Andrew a few days later, I really, really like him.

As the Chief of Strategy and Talent Development and the person who initially held the vision for a Shore Capital Podcast, Michael is in a unique position not only to speak to what Andrew meant to him, but to our team and that vision of a podcast.

 

Michael Burcham: I first met Andrew in the final phase of his interview here with us at Shore.

He had come out of radio, he had a passion in music, and it seemed to be a really good fit for us. Little did I know how much energy and enthusiasm was going to be behind this young man in creating our podcast and helping that dream of having something really meaningful come to life. I had this dream of having a podcast.

Our founder, Justin Ishbia and I talked about it a few times. I really didn’t know all that entailed other than the vision of ultimately what I wanted. Andrew came in and helped design the podcast studio. He ordered all the equipment we needed. He determined the original padding I’d ordered for the walls wasn’t even adequate for doing high quality sound. He ordered mobile equipment so we could take our recordings on the road. And basically, single handedly, he turned that idea into something really meaningful. And today, I would say it’s one of the absolute best podcasts in the private equity space.

Over time, I got to appreciate Andrew’s work style. In our team meetings, Andrew could be extremely quiet at times. I mean, like, I’m talking 30-45 minutes, just smiling and nodding, making notes, saying nothing. But then he would speak, and you’re like, oh man, that was really, really good.

Other times, particularly in the podcast studio, this alternate personality came out and he was absolutely the human in charge. Directing traffic, stopping me mid-sentence, we’re going to do that take again. Uh, you can do better than that. I think you need to use this phrase instead of that phrase. He would bring out the best in the message you were trying to deliver. And then the minute we were through recording it was back to the Andrew I knew. The quiet, thoughtful, perfectionist, making sure everything was just right.

Anderson Williams: Ben Gilbert mentioned that he and Andrew had a shared interest in music and even dabbled in playing and recording together in the podcast studio in their off time, just for the sake of friends connecting and sharing their passion.

So before concluding this episode, we all agreed we might give Andrew another moment on the stage playing a bit of one of his songs with his high school band Alleyview, which he called the genesis of his love for all things audio.

[“I Wish Heaven Had an Address” by Alleyview]

It’s harder than you might expect to find good audio of the guy who controls the audio, but as you heard in the opening, Andrew recorded himself without our knowing as he made a presentation about podcasting to our team not long after he had joined.

Remember his challenge to us connection, empathy, inspiration, and empowerment. And like a light in and of itself, I found these words woven into that same presentation as he spoke of meeting his wife after a particularly dark time for him personally.

 

Andrew Malone: What’s crazy though is that even in your darkest moments in life, there are always little bits of light.

 

Anderson Williams: Andrew Malone was an Everyday Hero whose superpower was his light. He is an Everyday Hero whose spirit and laugh and love and authenticity and work still live within each of us who’ve had the privilege of knowing and working with him. He is an Everyday Hero whose life lays bare the importance of making every day count, of bringing joy, of leaving the world a better place than you found it, no matter how long you get to be here.

Thank you, Andrew. We are all better than you found us.

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone Podcast Studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams, recording and editing by Austin Johnson, editing by Reel Audiobooks, sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Special thanks to Ben Gilbert, John Murdoch, and Michael Burcham.

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the terms of use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.