Relates to those environments or your past rejections or resilience to being able to deal with those situations
Yeah, I done man. I think that I've been kicked out of leagues and things like that just cuz I'm I'm
I'm a different basketball player, you know, I like to talk and so
It's like I know where you're coming from. I know what's going on, you know, but we've got a we've got to take control here
All right, welcome in to vision pros live with Jackson Calame. I'm your show host
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions out there
You know, what's up and welcome into vision pros live, I'm your show host Jackson Calame founder of first-class business
I'm super excited to bring on Sean Rutledge today Sean is a former professional basketball player
Who also has is working on his PhD from Concordia, Chicago
And has five plus years of experience working in the sports management field and he said they overcome a number of obstacles in life
And his resilience is awesome. His commitment to excellence is awesome
and so from
Overcoming different levels of rejection that he's been through to understanding how to operate systems from the Final Four's and what he did to help out
with managing a Final Four's experience to
working and running a
Sports complex of some type in Austin that hosts basketball tournaments
They get fairly competitive if any of you have children
That are in the competitive sports world, you know how difficult
Parents can be as a parent. I know how difficult I can be when it's my kid competing
So he has to deal with that and gets to deal with that on a regular basis
So we're gonna bring him on and talk about that experience and how it relates to entrepreneurship as well and following your vision and what his
Future visions are so without further ado Sean, welcome to vision pros live, man. Hey, it's really good to be here. I appreciate it
Yeah, absolutely
So another thing for you guys Sean and I got to talk for about an hour before
Not just in our pre-show. We've got a couple of conversations and I have a special interest in what he does because I love
Sports whether you love the Lakers or not, you know, I am San Antonio spurred too
So I know I'm gonna get in trouble for for what I just did there
But I love basketball and sports in general. I never made it to the professional level
Walk us through that Sean like where'd you start? Where'd you go through?
What was that experience like and how tall are you? Oh
That's the hard question right there so
So, you know, I started basketball over in Cottonwood, Arizona little little podunk place out in Arizona and
It's in between Sedona and Flagstaff. So I'm out there in the mountains and everything. There's there's really nothing for the sports world
It's just kind of hanging out. But I played high school out there and then
While coaching actually one of the one of the recruiters from Michigan
from a D3 up in Michigan asked me if I had any point guards just on an off chance and I was like
Yeah, of course
I got one and and I kind of talked myself up a little bit and got the opportunity to go play up there for a year
And then moved on to bigger and better things. I tried out for the the D league then which is the G league now
Tried out for them for the San Antonio Spurs the Austin Tauros back when they were the Tauros and not the Spurs
and I figured out that nobody wants to take the 5-8 white guy and pay a bunch of money to go watch him play basketball
So that didn't that didn't work out but I was given the opportunity to go overseas and I got to play in Spain for
Four years four different seasons, I guess technically
for an Academy over there, so we took a bunch of
American players put them over in in Spain and we played against a bunch of pro teams over there and I was
Thankfully, I didn't have to pay to do it
A lot of the other players had to pay to get there
But I was paid for it because I was also a trainer at the same time
So I would be in charge of making all the other players get
To the spot where we needed them to be you know our offenses and defenses and how to look good in front of scouts and other
People just kind of hoping that you know, my play would would excite somebody so that they might pick me up
Instead of instead of all the players. They were actually there to see
That's so awesome
And I I don't know if anybody's not in the sports world. You may not know how hard that is
And and how much of a job and work that is to compete in really one of the most sought-after jobs
That exists where there's so few people who get in bill russell, right was a player coach
He coached while he played modern society may not remember anything about that
But to not only play the game and exhaust yourself on that but they'd be there emotionally for the team and also emotionally demanding
On that team. That's that's a lot of uphill battles. And if you know anything about basketball players five eight
or you know five eight is here and
You know most basketball players, you know are much much much taller. So to be able to compete
Competitively and at a professional level against people while they've got arms that are taller than you and longer than you they've got
You know ability to jump usually higher to that alone is quite the feat
So, um, you know, where did you get your drive from and how can people that want to develop more of a drive?
And determination diligence resilience all that what can they do in general?
Yeah, you know, I think mine really started from being
Little my whole life. Um, I I think that just people constantly telling me
You're never gonna make I picked up a basketball and I was four years old and just never put it down
I I didn't care what it was. I was just trying to be a better player
I didn't care what it was. I was playing against six and seven year olds when I was
Five I was I was just boys and girls clubs playing
I was playing in leagues outdoor leagues indoor leagues playing at 12 years old against grown men
You know stuff like that and and it turned into just
Failing over and over and over and and that's kind of what created the monster that is today where I am not scared of failing
I'm I actually embrace it and say hey, this is a great opportunity to continue to get better
This is a great opportunity to figure out who you are because it's you know
It's not how many times you get knocked up but knocked down
But it's how many times you get back up and what that looks like getting back up
Some people get back up and say well the world is against me or they say that you know, it's just not my day
It's just not my time
But there's also other people out there that create their day that create their time because i'm tired of waiting and i'm tired of
You know getting knocked down
So I think sports is a great way to do that and that's what's really pushed me into
This uh this field these these jobs that I continue to do. I want to change
everybody's uh, everybody's life in in the best way that I can for growing up and creating their own space to succeed
That's awesome. So resilience rejection, uh, these virtues we're talking about
Beyond that this uh audience of entrepreneurs people are looking to
Also express find their own visions my question for you
Who should be listening to you about this? Why should they listen to you?
And what are they going to get out today's show? Do you think?
You know, I I think that and and I saw this is weird because right after we had talked the first time a couple weeks back
I had saw on linkedin of all places someone was holding up a sign and their whole their whole argument was that
A lot of entrepreneurs or any business relation, um the leadership hires
resumes right and and I understand they get
Many many resumes for every job opening but instead of hiring resumes. Sometimes you really got to look at the attitude the personality
Um who those people are even though you're just looking at a piece of paper
I think the biggest thing that your audience can get out today is is just that is that there's sometimes there are people
That aren't as qualified maybe but have a better story behind them
They have those personalities and those attitudes that they just continue to to go no matter what
I love that. So, uh, what I would take away from that is
If you're if you understand that the virtues are what drive the progress, right?
If that's what you understand then
Sean somebody you can learn from um on this and he's he's basing
His career his future off of principles of wisdom
That will move him forward not just a title
Um, you know or having been in a particular position. So well said man. Um with that said
What's your vision? Sean?
I my biggest thing that I want to do is create for someone else that might be
Undersized underdeveloped under something right somebody who's looked past someone else and and that person feels like you know
What it isn't it isn't my day. It isn't my time. This isn't my life. This isn't my year
This isn't what I want to do
I want to be some kind of success story and continue to grow and and be as passionate about sports as I am and just continue to
To create my space so that someday someone else can look at me and say that guy really made it
Doing absolutely nothing but gritting his teeth and just continuing to go
Awesome and uh, so normally I would ask what's your vision for your clients?
Um, but and we're going to change the question a little bit. What's your vision for those that you serve?
I think it's it's it's
Leading by example
I think it's the biggest thing that I can do for the the players that watch me when I train them
The the players that I coach sometimes um, I kind of stepped away from the coaching role and move more into the management role
And the and then leadership role but uh, but whenever I I can get in front of kids and I can get in front of them
And say hey look, this was my story. This is what i've done. This is this is where i've gone
You can do this too. It's it's real
It's tough to to look at someone who's say six eight or seven foot or something like that
And he goes, you know, it took a lot of work to get to where i'm going
But realistically you're seven foot tall. You were probably going to play a professional sport somewhere
Right, but it but it's a lot easier and and and I can adapt and talk to these kids a lot more on a level
You know on on a better basis of hey, I am this guy
I'm your average human being who is average size
I may be a little more muscular than you are right now, but this is how you get the muscle
This is how you get that skill
this is what that hard work looks like and those sorts of things I can level with those kids and
and
A great stat is roughly 10 of athletes will make it to college
So you're talking about high school athletes roughly 10 will make it to college and then roughly out of that
The top 1% will play pro anything, right?
So the things that you're teaching these kids don't necessarily have to do with the sport that they're playing right now
I can teach you how to get there. This is what that looks like. Are you willing to put in this work?
Well, if you're not willing to put in that work
Then this is what it looks like to just be a successful human being and and I think that's my biggest vision is to show these people
what to do
after
After sports are done with after you get to be in a men's league instead or you know
Ymca leagues or stuff like that where you don't necessarily your your sport is not your career anymore
How to just be a successful human being?
I love that. Okay, so a vision came to mind. I was like man
You would probably have one of the most viewed because you're dynamic and you know how to talk about what you're talking about
If you and victor went by nyamma did a combined ted talk
It would probably be the most viewed tech talk of all time. Would you be up for it?
It would definitely be funny. Of course i'd be up for it, but that would be the funniest thing
Because you know, I don't know victor's seven six, right?
So he's two feet taller than you um, and you guys could talk about diversity and resilience or different angles
That would be so cool from from what i've heard though victor is one of those kids that didn't take anything from anybody
He's super skinny and everybody told him he wasn't going to do a whole lot because he was so little
And man, i've uh, i've read a whole lot about this kid and i'm not saying that he's going to be the greatest
Thing or not the greatest thing in the world. That's that's completely up to him
But every day I think that his his role and what he's done in everybody who's maybe not doubted him
I mean your seven six probably not getting doubted very much
But the people that have talked down to him. I definitely think uh, he's he's about to show some people and make some people very sad
Right. Yeah, I think that's I mean we live in a world where it's just so
It's so much easier to doubt than to believe. Um, right and it's so much easier to take that route of
Looking at things from a negative perspective, but um, you know, it's there's almost no victory
Um and and doing that I can't see one anyway on my side. So yeah, but I just showed that
So yeah, if you're not knowing who we're talking about, uh dive in look
I mean feel free to put victor on my yama something in the comments
Maybe a link to his profile and perhaps even a picture of him on his profile
You know of of a height difference between victor and somebody else in the nba or a normal person
Uh fun stuff to see so all right. Sean. Um, let's talk about powerful lessons. Um
What's a powerful lesson, uh, the other visionaries can learn from your experience
I think this was actually this is probably my favorite story and I will always tell this story. Um
So I went into my senior year of high school tryouts and I got a lot of questions
So I went into my senior year of high school tryouts and I got to do the michael jordan effect
Um, it didn't feel so good then but it feels great now, right?
I went in my senior year and I was super cocky and thought I was all that and all these sorts of things
It's my senior year. This is gonna be my year and whatnot
And I ended up getting in a fistfight with a guy at half court and got kicked out the team coach told me
We just would rather have a two-year team. I don't think you're gonna mesh with the the juniors that are here. You're not playing
That hurt me more than probably anything on the planet being a guy. Like I said, who played his whole life, you know
Yeah, I didn't know what to do at that point. You know, I was a I was a senior
I hadn't got a ton of play varsity ball anyway
Um me and my head coach just kind of butted heads for a few years
We didn't necessarily see eye to eye. I was playing more in
In men's leagues than I was in school ball. I I I took that road way less traveled, right?
and uh, and so
From that from that I got just I learned so much from everybody. I was in contact with
So I might have been a 17 year old kid or an 18 year old kid
But I think the lesson was just like the community that you're around
Creates so much for you in the way that I was around at 17 years old. I was around doctors
I was around lawyers. I was around, you know, all those guys that continue to play sports after
After high school, right? So I was around super successful people and all those people would look
Almost like I was a little brother to them. So creating a community and and putting in
You know, I put in so much for them as far as basketball goes
I was up and down the floor a lot scoring a lot of points for them, you know being their little spark plug and in return
They taught me almost every life lesson I carry today
It was it was them teaching me how to be humble how to be loyal to my teammates how to stick up for people how to pick
Somebody up off the floor how to make the right pass opposed to shooting every single shot
This guy might get mad if you don't get them enough shots or or you know stuff like that and it's all it's all sports related
but once you take it out of the sport and and put it into your real life and and then you could kind of
In a leadership role that we're in now and and most of your the people watching are are entrepreneurs
So they're in the higher-ups anyway, right?
Of a business just looking at things from someone else's point of view and being able to put yourself in their shoes instead of stepping
On their shoes and saying your shoes aren't good enough for me because I'm this high up
Being able to put yourself in those shoes just by having that community and gaining each other
respect and and that it's such a powerful thing
I love that coach read maltby was on a couple weeks ago
Um, and he talked about uh, I don't remember the term he used but getting out of your silo
Um, you know and getting out of you know going and talking to people who don't think the same way as you
You know and are on different levels and how important that is
And so here you were in high school
And gary vinterchuk. I love that. He talks about this talks about how the you know, this is an old concept
But the five people are what you surround yourself with
Um, you know like they're going to have a tremendous impact on you and your life and where you're going
So you could have been stuck in that high school environment
Where you're being influenced by?
I don't know kids that weren't necessarily doing as as well in life
It didn't have that trajectory a coach who didn't sound like he really had your best interest in mind either
Um, didn't know how to nurture you didn't know how to mentor you now you end up in a in a league of men
Where they've got some wisdom behind them and they probably wanted to see you go on and and become your best self
It'd be really helpful to get uh to get wisdom
And and make friends with those who are older even though it might look weird like oh well
Why is the 25 year old a bunch of 35 year old friends?
You know like because the 25 year old wants wants to get ahead of life
And make sure he has better outcomes. So well said there's uh, there's a so there's a method that I picked up from I did a
Certificate with sports management worldwide and I did their basketball gym and scouting certificate
One of the biggest things I picked up from them was the five five five method
So then we're talking about businesses at this point
So for them, it's just a sports team right but the five five five method
Was that you always wanted to have a third of your people your team roster is 15 in basketball. Sorry
But so your your five your first five will be your guys that were like me in this scenario
The guys that were up and coming the rookies their sophomores their guys that are trying to make it in the league
They're trying to make themselves feel like they need to be needed, right?
They need to be wanted they need to realize that they belong there
And you have your five players that are playing for their contracts and those are those guys that are mid-level
They're they're good enough to be maybe a six man or a starter now or you know, just a little bit of a
Starter now or you know, just trying to get into the all-star game something like that something where they're they're chasing their money, right?
I have a motivation
Right, and then you have your five people that are chasing championships and those five people are your vets
Those guys that are teaching you what it looks like to win what it looks like. What do we have to do to get over the hump?
What do we have to do to win an NBA championship?
What do we have to do to win seven games or to win four games in a seven game series those sorts of things, right?
and so I think if you take
If you take that out of basketball and you put it into a real community and you think about who you're surrounding yourself with and
And who you're taking advice from you always got to have that real fiery guy
You got to have that guy who's just ready to go all the time, right?
And then you've always got to have that that guy who's been there for a little while that guy who knows the ins and outs and
And he's kind of weaving his way in and out of his career
And then you have your vets and I think that was one of the biggest things I picked up and I use that to this day
when I talk about my coaching staffs or I talk about my trainers and
It will put together basketball camps or we'll put together
Basketball training stuff will put together even tournaments. I try to do that same sort of method
That's awesome
Huge if you're not taking notes, I highly recommend taking notes
Rewinding a little bit hearing what Sean laid out there as an opportunity the sports world is one of the highest income producing
industries that exist
And so if you even if you look at sports outside of the scope of oh, yeah
These these people play with the ball if you start looking at it from a business standpoint
They're also one of the most transparent business models that exist you get to see their win-loss records
You get to see what contracts they sign and don't sign you get to see what players they reject
You get to see what they say in postgame interviews
You get to see how they're preparing and what they're up to you get to see how they lead each other talk to each other
You know, yeah, Pavarazzi's following them around showing you how they live. There's so much you can learn
From diving into the sports world and modeling
What you see and saying how does this apply to my business?
What I was what I'm doing with growth and it's one of the reasons why
I'm just grateful that I'm I'm so in love with the game
You know and what I can learn from the game and the operations the teams behind it switching gears almost completely
First off. Thank you for your service
Absolutely second. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your service experience?
And some of the lessons you learned in the service to your country. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely
So I was an 11 charlie, which means I was a mortar man. I was an airborne guy
So I jumped out airplanes and helicopters and all that sort of thing while I was at it
I thought I was super indestructible there for a while and
This was after all of my basketball stuff. So I didn't go in till I was 25, right?
Going so my mother was in for 23 years and my father was in for eight
So it was one of those things like I did everything I could not to go into the military
Then when I had nothing left and I was like, all right, I'm kind of winding down from basketball stuff
I'm not getting what I think I'm gonna get out of this or what I thought I was gonna get when I originally started
What's next and I just I fit right? I've I've got a lot of stuff that I've got to do
I've got a lot of stuff that I've got to do
I've got a lot of stuff that I've got to do and I just I fit when I originally started what's next and I just I fit
right, I've been around my whole life and I fit right into it went into the military and
I competed for
Special forces contracts in basic and things like that. I mean I was I was one of the top level people there
and that was all great and dandy but
I think from them
I went to my unit and and I think the biggest thing that that I picked up out of that and then I learned out of that
Was that these guys?
I think when we're talking about circles, these guys are some of the best in the world at that right they realize
Once you go down range
Nobody's gonna look out for you except for the three people around you the four people around you right squad size
The guys that are standing right next to you
Those guys are really the only ones that came out of that
Next to you. Those guys are really the only ones that care
And that's why I've never used well, I can't say never since i've been out of the army
I don't use social media. I don't and I and I understand this kind of this hurts some people as far as
Networking and whatnot, but for the most part you don't use social media
So you don't have that negativity you don't necessarily deal with all the headlines and all that sort of thing, you know, you you
Really embrace that circle that you have around you and it makes you
Indestructible is the best thing I can come up with it really does it you bring the right people around you
You find the right friends and and they just you know skyrocket you I i'm at
Her name's Sharon. She just opened up a place called field experience
And she's the one that got me the final four
Opportunity, I got an internship for the men's final four this year
um, it's awesome down in down in houston and she just she's been part of my inner circle now where she's
always
Pushing and shoving and trying to make me meet new people and and teaching me different things about you know
She was uh, she's been to I think she told 27 super bowls or something like that. Just doing the same thing. She's
Sports event management world, right?
And so when you get those sorts of people around you
Much like I did when I was in high school people that were older than me people that were further along than me
I'm still stuck in that rookie sophomore stage of this whole event management part where I have these veterans that are just
Overly telling me all the time. Hey, this is what you got to do. This is who you got to meet
These are the people that you have to impress
You've got to be on your feet for 16 hours and the military helps with all of that tremendously, right? You're yeah
Doing stuff all the time and there is no quit. There's no stop. There's no pause button
It's my weekend off like that doesn't happen in the military
So whenever you when you get out the whole world is really easy
There's there's not much to it. You're not getting shot at anymore. You're not getting nothing blown up. You're not none of that
So it's it's easy. You don't have to jump out airplanes no more. Although I would still wish I could do that, but um, yeah, you know
Some of those things there's there's wishes and hopes that I could go blow stuff up and but it's that sir
It's still that circular motion constantly
It's it's all about who you put next to you and how they can affect you and how you can affect them
Don't don't get me wrong. This isn't all a singular motion thing where you just have to get people around you who think you're going to
Be the greatest thing of all time
You know, you've got to help other people the exact same way and and that means you must get better every single day every single day
You must be better than you were yesterday so that you can affect the four or five people that are around you
So that they can get better every day so then they can in turn get you better
Every day and and that's just how it works
That's a virtuous cycle
At play and and taking it to new levels by having a couple of of comrades a couple of friends a couple of accountability partners
Who were there to help make sure that?
What do they say iron sharpens iron iron? So I don't know why I couldn't say that iron sharpens iron
It's not a time twister Jackson
All right, so
All right, cool. So we went through some of that experience that you had
You also had something else you had to back you had to bounce back from
While you're in the military, you know what happened if you don't do you want to talk about that or do you want to skip to another?
There's plenty of opportunities plenty of wisdom to draw from you. So go ahead man. Let's hear what happened in the military
So I was on a jump
I was on a jump in
2017 18 18 and I
I had a mortar strap to my side. We were just doing a field exercise out in North Carolina and
I jumped off and pulled a pulled my string to try to make my mortar hit the ground before I did it
Normally hits the ground about two to three hundred feet before you do so that you don't get hurt or anything
It never came off and um, and so when I hit the ground it hit the ground
It came up and hit me in the shoulder pocket and just bent me completely backwards
And now i've got some metal in my spine and i've got some pretty bad nerve damage down my left side
But uh, I was in I was in a wheelchair for two years almost two and a half years
uh where my left leg wouldn't move at all, it was just kind of locked at the knee and
i've
I got here after I got out so I got here is boston, right?
I got to texas and was like well, we've got two options here
I can either figure out how to live with family for the rest of my life and be dependent on someone else or be
I can figure out how to do something about this and uh, I went to the gym and
I
There's a there's a gym down in down in hutto, texas that was
Really small and they gave me a 24-hour pass
I don't I was the only person that had it but like I had a little key tag to get in
And so I would go at like one o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the morning because I was super
You know, uh, I didn't feel good about working out in front of people and they just let me go in and they would
Um, I passed out from the pain a lot a lot of times
I had to come in and wake me up and I was just like stuck underneath weight or something
I was just stuck for the middle of the night because I had passed out with pain hurt so bad trying to get back
But but i'm here now, you know, i'm in a men's league now and I can play basketball again
Maybe not anywhere near the level I could but I you know
Couple years out of it and and we're we're okay now
Dude, that's huge. I feel
I feel like I should allow this to inspire myself so much because out of back surgery
um, and i've i've been
playing
Not like a coward but so small in relation to what you just talked about
Um, you know and part of it's the fear that is this pain setting me back further
Right part of it's like is this pain a good thing that's contributing or is this pain something?
That is destroying me. Um, and am I going to die because of this right? That's the exaggeration side of fear taking over
Um, how did you overcome that as you went through that process?
So I had the same exact idea that you just said right I thought well there's metal in my spine
Does that mean if I lift too much weight or if I move the wrong way i'm going to bend the metal and hurt myself worse
Right?
So I did research so I figured it out. I I did the research and said how how strong is this metal?
How does this metal work? Is there this is there that whatever it was whatever?
Whatever I had fear of I just started trying to find information if there wasn't any information I created
I created it. I created it through myself and said you know what?
You know, we're gonna die like this and I think that scared me more than anything
Like i'm going to die in a chair with someone pushing me around
I'm not doing this. I don't I don't care. I don't care what it takes if I die
On this path to getting back
It's probably better than me sitting like a vegetable in a chair
That I mean that and that's that's what comes down to it
It really does. Um, you know and and that's what's
Uh, it's it can be hard too because you have social you have social pressures to protect yourself
Um, right or to protect you right? Uh, it could be a sibling or friend. That's like no don't do that. Sean
Um, you know, no jackson like you're gonna hurt yourself further
Um, you know people want to put us in a box and keep us safe
Um, and we can allow ourselves to get into that box if we listen to that. Go ahead. Sean. What's up?
We got said but but that's but that's certain people's circles, right? I
I brought my circle around whenever I was working out and my circle consisted of people
that were also
For for example, uh, there was a e6 in my inner circle at that time that had one leg
He got blown up in iraq
Um, there was another guy in my circle that was 100 disabled and he had some bad mental triggers some really bad mental triggers
And so every time I looked at my circle, I was like, I got it easy, man
I got I got both legs and both arms. They may not work yet
but
I have them which means I have the ability to try to make them work
These guys don't have that
and so that and that's like that's the way it goes though, that's the evolution of your circle and so I
We might be a little bit off topic here
But i'm just to try to try to get back to the community to some to some extent that's
There's people in your life
That will do great things for you
And you have to know who they are and what they should be doing for you, right?
And what you can do for them. So yeah, those two guys that I just talked about
We haven't talked in years, but that's what we were there for each other for that certain amount of time
We were there for each other and I helped them through things
They helped me through things and then once we got through those things together
We're like, okay now this is your new circle. This is my new circle
This is what we need to do over and over and over and that's the evolution of being
A person right being successful. It is about being successful. There you go
Because success doesn't come without that possibility and ability to pivot
It's very rare. And now there's certain people in your there's certain circles. You may not want to replace in life
You know, you may want to make sure are permanent. You know a nuclear family for instance being one that
You know, I wish mine had been permanent
You know both times when I tried to create that I wanted that you know
And so if you have that, you know, we're not Sean's not saying go away
You know go find a new circle quick. But you have different circles for different purposes
Right a different influence of five perhaps for your spiritual life
Than a different circle of five for your health life and physical education life, you know, whatever you want to call that
So yeah, dude way to way to throw down on that and
Yeah, I need to I need to make sure that I'm not making any comments
I need to make sure that I'm not making an excuse finding a circle for my health as well because we're also better business owners
You know when we're taking care of ourselves, you know and have that that full confidence of i'm doing all the things right for my health
temporal spiritual mental
Physical so yeah, appreciate that if you're not if you're not finding value in that then this is the wrong podcast for you
But i'm sure you are so sean
You know, why do you care? Um, why do you care about others? I?
my
Because nobody cared about me
And that that sounds like oh woe is me. I get it everybody says that whenever they're down and out, right?
I hear it a lot. Nobody cares about me
the difference was
I decided to go do something about it
Therefore want to make it easier for anyone and everyone after me that is anywhere near what I did
And and there's a million people out there that'll say you don't understand me
You don't get where i'm coming from but the realism of it is is there's billions of people on this planet
I can promise you if you throw a rock you're going to find 12 people that know what you're going through
It may not be exact, but there are definitely people that are out there
And and and that's what makes me care so bad is that I can find people like me
And it may not be specific and it may not be perfect just like me
But I can find people that are going through rough stages
where people are maybe doubting them or people are
Experiencing some kind of hey, man. I don't know where to go from here and then I can I can
Help them in whatever way possible whether that be, you know on on that
Coach level of hey just get up
We got to go do this or whether that be on a on a more tender level of of you know
Let's talk about why this is not working for you so you can find out your solution
And nice. I want to dive in with a little bit of context on that. So
Um when you said nobody cared about you, um, do you
What what about parents? Um, you know, you have good parents, uh parents that were aloof or um, yeah
I I wouldn't I wouldn't say that my parents are
Horrible people or they didn't care about me anything like that
My mother was a single mother trying to do the best she could to
Make a great living for it. She was in you know, the military for 23 years
And she was national guard for most of my all of my life
Well, she's not now but for most of my like my growing up. She was
She went to desert storms. She went to the iraqi war
I mean there was plenty of times where she was in and out of my life and then made me more independent
It was a great thing. It was a great thing for me, right?
But it didn't allow her the opportunity to be in everything that I do
She couldn't be what we had called a helicopter parent, right?
She had to allow me my own space and time to do my own thing because she couldn't she she couldn't be there. So
Um, it may be that it's probably looked down upon nowadays
But back then eight nine years old I was staying at home by myself and that was kind of the way it was, you know
Um, and she was uh, she worked for a company called nature aid and she was selling uh colostrum
So she was off at shows and off doing all different things
So she was she was very busy made a great life for us. She made great money
We always had a house. We always had food. It wasn't like I was in a in a bad place
But she was just not there
And she doesn't know anything. She didn't know anything about sports. So that didn't help
You know, it was it was I felt I felt alone all the time
And my father wanted me to play baseball because he played in the minor leagues and and that was all he cared about and then
Again, not not to say that my dad is bad whatsoever. He was he's a great father at what he did
But he wanted me to do something specific and I wasn't willing to do that
So he continually told me I was never gonna make it in the basketball world. I was too little
It's too small. I was too this I was too that and so again
Yeah, it put it put me on an island where I felt like I was alone
So now I get to care for all the other alone people all the ones where maybe
Grandma and grandpa now because something happened to mom and dad
So now there's a kid growing up with grandma grandpa and they can't connect
They need somebody to care for them on that level, right or maybe dad and mom aren't
They don't like sports or they don't think sports will ever get them anywhere
But the kid is really interested and really wants to try I can connect with that
So that's my biggest care is that I want to bring someone else
Joy in the ways that nobody was able to do it for me
Oh, I love that. So yes, and that's a fantastic way to put it
So we're not saying that our parents don't care about us or siblings don't care about us or other people that are in those
Those different levels of circles, but we're talking about specifically caring
about
the passions pleasures excitements desires dreams, you know of an individual and and then
Caring enough to also impact and make a difference in that in that particular
Zone of let's call it zone of expertise
And that's what we're talking about. So that's a great way to do it
So I think we're going to go ahead and move on to the next question
So what are the things that you've been doing with the kids in the past?
In this case being sports, so let's hear a little bit about the final four as well
What did you do with the final four? You tell me a story that was pretty cool about one of the basketball teams
So I love the about one that you're getting access for for kids
Who may have been a little bit late to the event and wouldn't have gotten in otherwise
so the question would be what measures would be likely to be foreseen by that team has been
A yesterday i think it was up to kids like what is their
really
with the rest of the fiduciaries
is it was an internship so I wasn't stuck in any one thing. I worked with a
company called Populous who is kind of oversight over the entire event so we
helped roughly you know a thousand different vendors kind of do the do what
they do right make sure that they all had their space to do what they were
supposed to do so that it could run without a hitch so our job was just kind
of make sure everybody did that and then we just fill in the gaps whatever
whatever needed to be helped we can help. So final for Friday I was outside
I was doing infill and exfil helping out all the security teams helping out the
gates making sure everybody had tickets that they needed making sure that
everybody could essentially just do their job. Our job was necessary not
necessarily to do anything it was just make sure everybody else could so we had
four kids show up all came from Connecticut is where they said they were
coming from they came to watch UConn play or no they said they came from New
York that's what it was they came from New York they're coming to watch UConn
play and they showed up oh man they probably showed up seven eight ten
minutes late to the game and they they get up there and they go through the
students section and we have no more tickets we have no more wristbands for
for students so students got to sit down in the bowl and everybody else had to
sit up right so they're trying to get down into the bowl with this student
section also we don't have any tickets to give them if they're students to like
go sit up anywhere else because that's all sold out we have forty three thousand
people in the building there's not necessarily space we can just sit
somebody right so we have to get them into the student section can't do it I
take it upon myself as a mission to go find these kids something I didn't know
what it was gonna look like didn't know how late I was gonna get them into the
game I got him in with probably five minutes left in in the Final Four Friday
maybe maybe ten minutes something like that but I mean they missed the majority
of the game just kind of hanging out trying to figure it out but that
opportunity changed my life so to where I knew I had to work these as they call
mega events right the way I have to work these because I saw this this one young
lady just the way her her face lit up and I saw her on championship Monday too
and she was like I will never forget what you did I've I we would never be
here you know we we came from New York all the way down to Texas and when we
got here we thought we were there for nothing and you I mean I ran around for
45 minutes just trying to find somebody I went to it I went everywhere you could
possibly go trying to find these little wristbands turns out us at populace had
more wristbands we just didn't know we had and so I was tearing apart the whole
populace off I mean it was it was fun but we finally got them tickets they went
down with like 10 minutes left in the game and they ended up you can't end up
winning it all so they won Friday they got new tickets for Monday I saw the
girls Monday and man they came up giving the biggest hug we're taking pictures
you would have been my absolute hero yeah I was a celebrity at that point
right and and that changed my whole my whole demeanor on like why someone would
do the things we do because those are 16 17 18 hour days sometimes I
realistically I think there was final for Friday was probably 17 to 18 hours
and then Monday just because you kind of didn't want to leave their locker room
they're celebrating too hard we didn't get out until two o'clock in the morning
then either so it was they're long days they're hard days to make sure that it
goes off without a hitch and everybody gets to see what they're supposed to
see but having those where you get to see players that'll never forget that
you you talk to people and watch interviews and stuff and all these kids
are like I'll never forget this experience that the players you know even
these players that you know they want to be treated special while they're there
we'll call them special they want to be treated really well while they're there
these guys will never forget these opportunities and and that's where I
want to be I want to be in a spot where we can affect people's lives to where
they're never gonna forget they'll take that with them wherever they go right
absolutely no that they experience and the hype on I mean anybody who's been to
you know a New Year's event you know or a 4th of July Parade or party that just
like got you lit up you know that's like scratching the very surface of an event
of the magnitude like you're talking about and you're talking about extreme
first-class service hospitality skills at the top levels and if we were to
apply those same types of principles to our businesses you know and we're to show
up you know making sure we found the wristband so to speak what's the
wristband for your brand what's the wristband you know that you can do to
help make sure that your prospects get in the door and feel special and
understand the value that you place on them it would it be it would be amazing
how much that would transform revenues and growth for all the companies that
are out there in their influence so well said and I and I want to touch on
something real quick I want to say from from the way that populace treated us
while we were there just as interns right we were interning into this so I
worked with everybody into your teams exterior teams all that good stuff right
but from the second we walked in mark line that the owner made us feel like we
mattered and that was one of the biggest things from a company he gave with
there was three of us interns helping out he gave each one of us specific
actual duties to work with and I've taken that back to me being a tournament
director now and an assistant general manager now I now at all my events
regardless of if it's a 20 team tournament an 80 team tournament if I
have more venues than one or if I just have one I will always wear a suit
because I realized at this event if you are dressed to the nines if you're
dressed better than everybody else it looks like you're running something
people will ask you questions they won't ask where is the tournament director
they'll find the guy in the suit and they'll go hey do you work here are you
the tournament director are you the guy I'm supposed to talk to and it's worked
out insanely well for me but it's because people like Mark put faith in
in those interns and those lower level people and finding what we're talking
about those wristbands right finding that that value to even the smallest
person in your business and showing them that hey you matter and I want to make
you better at what you do dude that speaks to some of the principles in the
emeth it's one of my favorite business books one of the ones I regret not
leading reading sooner than later I had eight years from my desk and the
ability to read it and I just passed over it a couple times so many business
books are recommended that is the one book that I wish I had read much much
sooner so if you ever read it definitely get the audible at least and listen to the
audible he talks about how important is to gameify the process of hiring and
ultimately make it a game experience that you actually put a lot of effort
and thought into what are these people going to do how do the rules work what's
the reward that comes out of it the experience and the the person you're
talking about was it mark you said same mark Klein here he is already has the
game in mind right he didn't have to pull out a book for it he's assigning the
duties knowing specifically that man I'm I am gearing these people up these
interns up to own their role to make sure they show up and believe in it they
don't feel like interns they feel like bosses they feel like managers they feel
like people who can contribute and give back so I love that thank you for
sharing that those are our final words Sean we look forward to having you back
in the future I look forward to having you in my circle continuously thank you
so much for blessing us all this information vision pros have a
fantastic evening and we will see you tomorrow on the next episode never go
more thank you for being here today I'm really happy that you tuned in to
vision pros live I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move for this is gonna get more and more fun we'll have more more
engagement as well one by people to participate