I think that when you have, you know, a hobby or passion and you have an opportunity to pursue
it, I think that those can sometimes turn into like the greatest experience and best
memories of your life.
I don't want to have any regrets, so I'll leave it all out there.
You know, I'll do what I can to the best of my abilities or, you know, say whatever I have
to say to get, you know, my point or my heart across and, you know, let the cards fall,
how they fall.
Thank you for joining me on another episode of Life's Next Lesson Plan.
I'm Rachel and I started this podcast during my 29th and last year as a high school teacher.
The goal of my work with this podcast, as well as my Live and Learn Patreon, is to create
a connection where we are all teachers.
We all have lessons and stories to share that can help others.
I'm so fortunate to be able to extend the four walls of my previous classroom to an
unlimited audience where we can all learn from each other.
And my guests are some of the most inspirational people with the best stories and lessons I
know, which is why I want to share them with you.
Their words are something everyone should hear.
It is my hope that you are able to take away something from each episode to apply to your
own life, whether that be a career search, a path to a more fulfilling life, or new ideas
on current topics.
Today I'm joined by another unbelievably inspirational former student here to share
with you, Blake Leeson, who is now a professional volleyball player in Europe.
Blake's story will reinforce my main message of this podcast, that taking that chance to
live out your dreams means living with no regrets.
His wisdom reaches far beyond any lesson I could teach, and I'm honored to have him
here to share his story and his life lessons with you.
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and environmental toxins, it's more important than ever to make mindful choices in the products
we use every day.
That's why I trust Q&G, high-performing, clean products designed to support hormone
health while reducing exposure to harmful chemicals.
Because this topic has been my primary focus since ending birth control in 2024, in an
attempt to regulate my changing mid-life hormones, after making healthy swaps in my diet, personal
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I once relied very heavily on, and have restored balance to my nervous system and cleared up
the brain fog I was experiencing in perimenopause.
Q&G has played a key role in this transformation, offering safe, effective, non-toxic solutions
that support my wellness journey.
If you listened to episode 16 with certified Mayo Clinic health and wellness coach Tracey
Danielson Mitchell, you heard our talk about the importance of hormone health.
Coming in March, I'll be doing a deep dive into heart and hormone health on my Live and
Learn Patreon, where I'll list all the tests, supplements, and product swaps that have helped
me balance my hormones in my 50s.
Plus, Tracey will be back to answer all your heart and hormone health questions at the
end of the month.
If you're on this journey with me and are interested in exploring you and Grace's trusted,
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Visit hueandgrace.com.slashlessonplan to see how easy it is to start making some healthy
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So today, I'm so excited to welcome a former student of mine, Blake Leeson, to the podcast.
Blake and I met in pubs or journalism class back in the day.
And it was funny because I was telling my current students who I was recording with
this coming weekend.
And we have a poster that sits in my room.
They made these read posters and we were all holding a book in the poster.
And I said, it's that guy, the tall guy in the poster.
And so they're like, oh, yeah, he is tall.
That I had to explain what he does.
But I'll let him explain how his height probably has worked to his advantage and what he is
doing in life.
So welcome, Blake.
And can you give the listeners a little bit of background on yourself?
Yeah, absolutely.
I appreciate you for having me on.
And it's been quite a journey since graduating homestead in 2014, for sure.
A little bit of background on myself.
I would say that, like I just mentioned, I graduated homestead in 2014.
And without getting into specific topics of some more of the questions, but I decided
that I wanted to continue athletics after high school and I was involved in a bunch of different
sports and I eventually decided to go to Ohio State University and play volleyball there.
And there's some backstory that we can talk about later on, but I ended up going to play
volleyball there collegially, walked off, and eventually ended up getting scholarship.
Did my bachelor's, did my master's there, then had the opportunity to go play volleyball
professionally overseas.
And I took it, jumped at the opportunity, loved the travel, loved to see different areas
of the world and just how different people operate in different communities.
I thought that was a really cool experience to at least try to see, at least for a year
or two and see how it goes.
I was hooked and I loved that experience and traveling and I've been doing that ever
since.
And I'm going on to, this is your sixth now for me, playing internationally.
And that's kind of up to speed since high school at least.
I've been up to and I'm going back in between.
So six years and you, I think said 14 different countries.
Yeah, I actually recounted and I missed a couple.
I think I was at 17 or 18.
Oh my goodness.
Wow.
One that I've put in.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a lot to pack into six years.
Okay, so yes, we want to hear a little bit more about what led you to this amazing life
that you're living right now.
So going back to your high school days and then leading into your college days, what
are some of the biggest events that occurred for you in high school and then into college
as well?
Yeah, absolutely.
Obviously, everyone's probably got a unique store in mind.
It is interesting because my whole life I played football.
As you know very well, it's like the macro one things what area has a pretty good feeder
program and Cardinal football program starts like fifth or sixth grade.
So I was at the mat for ever since I could remember and played up until high school.
All my friends were in that program and a lot of the sport.
But as you know, I'm not the most large individual this way.
That I played until my sophomore year where I ended up having a conversation with one
of the varsity coaches at that point that basically ended up in saying that they decide
to go with another player for varsity for starting.
I played quarterback during that time and in Cardinal.
So that was a tough kill to swallow because I thought that I was talented enough to continue
that journey and continue trying to play in college because I was always a goal of
mind.
I wanted to play football, I wanted to play football in college.
I think that that realization definitely opened up a new window or new opportunity for me to
explore other options.
So as much as it pained me to hear that in the moment, I think that Heinz had 2020 look
back at that and it's honestly like a blessing disguise.
Although I love the sport, physically I think that it would have definitely taken a bigger
toll than volleyball on my body and maybe my head with everything coming out now with
the CT and all the damage that can go beyond the sport.
So I think everything happens for a reason.
Big believer in that as cliche as it sounds.
So I ended up not playing my junior year.
I switched sports to volleyball, which was not a popular decision in homestead sports.
As we probably both know, not a successful program like the football team got a lot of
flack for that decision and I don't want to say I was ostracized, but I definitely had
friends in the football team that did not think that was a cool decision by any means,
which is fine.
You're in high school and that stuff matters a little bit more than it does now.
So I'm still very thankful that I ended up making that decision.
But when you're in the moment, you're definitely like, wow, am I screwing up everything or
am I making the wrong choice?
Even if something as little as switching sports.
So it's crazy the domino effect that it has because I went from a team that was winning
state championships to a team that barely won a game a year.
It was quite the difference of competitive nature and just like what you expect out of
yourself and your teammates.
It was definitely eye-opening too because all of our team didn't have that demeanor that
I expected to transition to any sport at home.
So it just wasn't the culture of the team at the time.
And I actually found out recently that they just won conference, so good for that.
But I'm on the map.
But yeah, so I ended up switching sports.
I had this couple injuries.
I broke my hand my sophomore year.
So that was another reason why I decided to switch sports along with what the coach said.
I kind of used that as a chip on my shoulder because when I was younger, I got, I mean,
everyone gets made fun of.
I think you should get made fun of to a degree.
I think it makes you more well-rounded.
But I got made fun of for my size and my weight and just how skinny I was.
And I think that definitely played a role in like the chip on my shoulder type of mentality
I kind of took into switching sports.
Because as I mentioned before, it wasn't a cool thing to do.
So switching sports was definitely a big thing for me.
And I didn't know about men's volleyball.
It wasn't big.
I would argue that still not that large, but it's definitely growing, especially with
the witness leagues now with the country either sport or professional in the leagues.
I think that, you know, in 40 years when I'm retired, I'll look back and it may be like
a cool sport now for guys to play.
At least I hope that that's the direction it's headed.
But yeah, so not to ramble, but I switched sports my into my junior year.
I played volleyball for my first year of high school, my junior year.
And then we were not very good.
I think we won maybe one or two games tops.
So we were bad, but I had a great time with the guy and they were good people.
Still guys I talked to this day actually.
So it's interesting how that all plays out.
And then junior year I played one more year and during junior year, I was like, hey, I'm
kind of half decent at this for not have been, you know, played as long as I have.
Because typically how it works with volleyball is like West Coast is primarily where all
the men's players come from all the towns, men's player players.
So they're starting, you know, use ages, you know, eighth, ninth grade, maybe even earlier
sometimes.
So I still want to play sports in college.
I loved competing.
And I thought maybe, hey, like, what's there to lose?
I've got nothing to lose.
I'm going to put some film together.
I'm going to send out filmed every college coach I can find on the face of the earth
because in my opinion, if you can't be your own self advocate, not a lot of things always
just fall into your lap.
You know, you got to go out and you got to, if you want something from my experiences
like you have to put yourself out there and you have to put yourself in a position that
you might get blessed with an opportunity or meet someone or come into contact where
a door opens and it gives you an opportunity to walk through a tight deal.
And that's kind of how it's always been in my life.
And if it wasn't for switching sports and sending out those emails, I would never had
an opportunity to walk on it on a high-state.
And when I got that email, you know, I told my parents I was going to send out emails
and my mom was super supportive, but my dad's more of a realist.
And he's, you know, he told me he was telling my mom that, you know, what is he doing that
before he's never going to get a reply.
So it's been, it's definitely been an interesting ride looking back on it.
But I got a reply from a couple of schools in Ohio State was one of them.
I fell in love with the place when I walked on campus and the head coach actually came
to Ohio or came to the Mech-Lon area to watch another player in the area that they were
offering scholarship to.
And he came up to one of our practices.
He offered me a walk-on spot, which is code for, you know, you're still to pay tuition,
but not state tuition, but you have a spot on a tee.
And my parents budgeted for state school, which is more than I could ask any parents
to do, especially with the cost of tuition today.
So like the fact they're able to save enough money for me to further my education in any
capacity I think is incredible.
But Ohio State out of state tuition was more than that budget.
So I was kind of on a one and done type year contract going to Ohio State at my side.
Figured out how to find an extra 30 grand a year out of nowhere, you know.
So I was like, you know what, I'm going to regret this isn't for the rest of my life.
I don't go and my parents are on board.
Like, yeah, I go for one year, try it out, see how it goes, type deal.
So I went, I got on campus.
I was by far the worst player in that gym.
It was not even close.
And it was very, very apparent that I had a lot of work to do, especially in like the
strength department.
I was just not physically where I need to be compared to the other guys.
So the head coach actually wanted me to redshirt, which I was not a fan of because I was kind
of on a shot clock for earning scholarship and, you know, making a name for myself enough
to make enough money to make the difference up between state and state tuition.
So here again, this isn't life or death, but for, you know, an 18 year old kid who was
a pretty big deal of time, I was, didn't want to leave.
Love the place.
Love my roommates.
Love my teammates.
Love the campus.
People always say, why don't you go to Wisconsin, you know, like you traitor.
Well, they don't have a men's team, so I can't be a traitor.
But yeah, so long story short, in that department, it was just, it was a kind of a full circle
event.
I was the only player who redshirted.
And if you're familiar with that term, it's basically, I was the only person in travel.
I worked one-one for a year straight with our strength coach, Andy Britton, who is an
incredible human being.
And I attribute a lot of my success to you, especially after that time.
So he spent every day with me in the weight room.
We got to know each other really well.
And thought I was getting stronger.
I thought I was putting in a lot of good work.
And it came to the end of that first year.
And I was like, well, I gave it my all.
You know, I didn't play.
It's like, I can't afford to go here anymore.
I got my transfer papers ready to go to Minnesota and play club ball with some friends that
also went there from Homestead.
I was also looking at going to play in Oshkosh, where some of my aunt and uncles went and
just kind of lived closer to home.
And I had a meeting with my head coach at the time.
And before, I probably made a month before the second semester was over.
So I ended the year type time.
And he's like, Blake, we like the work you've done.
We've seen the improvement.
And like, we want to offer you the difference of in-state, cost-state tuition.
And I like was super, super emotional there because it was, I thought I was pretty much
done.
I thought that I was transferring.
I didn't tell him that I had my papers ready.
But I mean, I knew from a financial standpoint, I wasn't going to take on X amount of dollars
of debt because that was my goal to not come out of college with any student loan debt.
And I didn't want to take on that financial responsibility regardless of how good the
opportunity was.
I just didn't want to put myself in a hole after coming out of college.
So hearing that from him was awesome.
And getting to that point was definitely open the doors for everything else because from
then on out, I just all fell into place.
I got, I don't want to say it was all luck because I did work exceptionally hard that
year and put myself out there to give myself an opportunity.
But that year after was, I'd say, one of the best years of my life.
I ended up starting every single game that next season.
We went like 32 and two or 32 and three and we won a national championship at Penn State.
And I was fortunate enough to have the match winning kill against BYU in that match.
So that was a very surreal feeling to go from thinking you're going to leave not financially
being able to stay there to getting scholarship.
And then that next year, winning a national championship.
It was a very flick of a switch type moment from one year to the next.
So that was a really cool experience.
And I was just extremely lucky to be on a team that was really, really talented.
I mean, I slid into a spot that was the pieces were there and I've tried to fill that last
piece.
I actually got recruited as a right side, right side, which is not the position I play
now, but I had a meeting with a coach during the time was like, Hey, what's the fastest
way on the floor?
What's the fastest way to get scholarship?
Because only playing for two years in high school, you're not necessarily like locked
into a certain position.
You know, it's still pretty early in your, in your fresh in terms of like body mechanics
and things like that.
So I was like, Hey, if you need me somewhere, where is the most needed position and that
I can potentially are in scholarship and he's like, we need middles.
And I was like, all right, guess I'm going to try and be a middle.
So that was kind of that.
Now do I love playing middle?
Not necessarily, but it was the, it was the opportunity that I had and I tried to make
the most of it and it kind of just fell in place after that.
The year after that, we had another incredible year.
We had everybody returning except for one starter.
We got a transfer from France.
We actually knew my roommate, my one of my best friends, Nick surgeon, who's Polish.
And he filled in that O2 spot and we went back to back and won another national championship
the following year in 2016, 2017.
And we just went on a crazy run and I just fell in love with the sport.
We, the second national championship happened to be at home, which is the odds of that happening
and you playing in it is like crazy because as you know, another sports, I'm sure they
make those bids like years ahead of time.
So it wasn't just like, Oh, like we're good this year.
We're going to bid for it.
It was like, that was set five, six years in advance and it happened to line up when
we were at home.
So being the final game was in our state on 17, we had like 10,000 people in the arena
for our game, which for men's volleyball in the country of America and specifically Ohio,
which is like a very like football wrestling oriented type state.
And if you play men's volleyball, it's probably, I don't want to say frowned upon or looked
down upon, but it's not like an actual line of sports you could play as a male.
So having 10,000 bucks, I show up for that game who maybe didn't even know we had a men's
volleyball team at the time was crazy walking out in front of that arena.
It's a memory I will never forget.
You couldn't hear yourself think.
And to this day, it's the most people I've ever played in front of.
And so from there, yeah, I just, we finished with two national championships and three
top first championships from 2015 to 2019 from the time I was there.
So we had a pretty great run.
And after those national championships, I think I can say this now because I don't
think that I'll do matters anymore, but I had some agents contact me.
So I was like, Oh, there's like professional volleyball overseas.
It's like you can go travel and see the world and get your expenses covered for you relatively
and get to play a sport.
Like that sounds incredible.
So I didn't talk to him immediately, but as time went on, I got closer to graduating.
I lined something up and from there, it was the rest was the history.
I went and played in my first year.
And then I went to Switzerland and then Germany and then had a little stint in between where
I wasn't sure if I was going to play again.
Had some personal things that popped up in my life.
And I was kind of at a crossroads of do I quit?
Do I continue pushing and falling in a dream that I had to play like at the highest level?
You know, families, relationships involved and things like that make you say, I can
guess yourself to a degree in some of those situations.
So went through a little bit of that year and there.
I thought I was going to quit and then ended up getting a kind of like a breakthrough contract
on the team I'm at on now.
That just is one of the coolest places I've ever played for.
And then the team is really, really incredible.
So that I kind of sped through that last part and go in more detail if you like, but that's
kind of the wholesome opposite of how I got to here and now.
And I just think that it's been a crazy ride looking back because I look at it back and
I think, oh, like if I didn't switch sports, what would I be doing now?
If I didn't have that coach tell me, you know, XYZ, they kind of put a salad taste in my
mouth about, you know, competing for it and having to fight for it, you know, where would
I be now?
Like something that I missed too.
I think I remember this.
I was in a year class in a boot probably.
My junior here, I believe, I don't remember the time frame exactly, but I tore 75% of
my Achilles, which was another, you know, bump in the road.
And I had, this is why you always get multiple opinions whenever you go to a doctor.
Let me tell you, I had one doctor basically looking nine said that I'd never played competitive
sports ever again.
And that was a tough kill to swallow.
Obviously it turned out fine.
But I got another opinion that was like, we can rehab it and you can try and work it
back.
We'll do, you know, ultrasound therapy and ultrasound therapy and regrow the tissue to
try and resilitify that cut.
I actually tore it in gym class with Dan Kloss and on, what was the gym class called?
You got your lifetime sports or something?
Yes.
I was riding a bike that was not big enough for the size of myself.
It was a little bit too high and snapped off with my Achilles gearbox.
So you live and you learn.
I haven't written a book since the last one.
Yeah.
So it's, it's just been a wild ride.
And I'm very thankful for the opportunities and the people I've met through it because
I just can't imagine, I can't imagine any other way after everything that I've done.
Right.
Wow.
Your story is such a testament to the other cliche, right?
Like when one door closes, another one opens.
And yeah, having been around high school students for 29 years, when these things happen, it's
like their life is over, right?
It's like a huge thing at the time.
And then like you said, you have to deal with the peer reaction and you're dealing with
your own emotion.
And there's two paths that you can take, right?
Like you could have said, well, I can't play football.
So forget it.
Like that's just out the window, but you definitely looked at that and saw another opportunity
and went for it.
And when you said that when you walked into Ohio State and you felt you were the worst
player, how could you have imagined that you would be sitting here talking about the accomplishments
that you've had today?
And you wouldn't without that what seemed to be life-ending situation that happened.
And there's so many times as a teacher of high school students that I want to say, this
won't matter.
Or it's going to be okay or even better than you could have imagined, which your story
is definitely a testament to.
I know just talking in my last guest episode or a few ago with Anna Strelow, who, you know,
her dream was always to be a professional athlete.
She was a soccer player.
She thought she was going to, you know, that was her path.
And after doing a half marathon one time, now, story, story, story, she's a professional
Ironman triathlete, right?
She never could have predicted that.
But all these, you know, follow the doors that open, I think is such great advice.
Definitely in your story is a testament to that.
So for those of us or at least me or anybody who's not familiar with what the process looks
like of becoming a professional athlete, we got to hear the amazing story of how you got
to these national championship experiences from switching sports midway through your
high school career.
So what does that look like?
Does that happen during your senior year?
I know you said you had agents reaching out to you.
Can you explain to us kind of how that all works?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that if you're one of those players in college that are already getting looks
from the national team, like that's a conversation that they have with you.
And I know a couple of those guys that were in those places that went to those California
schools that were kind of already in the USA pipeline even before college.
You know, they have those feeder programs that work their way up and they're kind of
just like a shoe in and they have those relationships where, you know, they give those athletes
that advice and those agents to talk to.
I was obviously a little different along with a lot of other people that go and play who
don't have that connection, I guess, right away.
So when I got reached out to by an agent, I was like, well, this is weird.
Like, is this legit?
Is this real?
Like, because I had no idea.
And what you don't know, you don't know.
So you try and find out as much as you possibly can about, you know, who is this agent?
Are there anybody who played in a pass for your school?
Anybody you know through mutual friends?
You can talk to to get advice, you know, places that are good to go, places you want to stay
away from, right?
Because you're essentially picking up your life and moving to this random village or
random city in the middle of Europe that you've never been to and never heard anybody from.
And you know, you may not know a single person, you know, you may not even have an American
on your team or Canadian or so that definitely a little nerve wracking, but also kind of
exciting at the same time.
I mean, it's not for everybody.
But so after I got that message from a few agents, I was like, all right, so what's the
process from here to ideal?
And I was actually works is you sign with, you know, an agent who, you know, typically
takes, you know, a standard five to 15%.
I've heard, I guess, and you're from that range of a part of whatever contract they
get you as like a finder's fee also, like just to have somebody on your side in case,
you know, it's a lack of better term shit.
It's a fan and something goes wrong because there's a legal way of doing it.
And then there are also agents that don't necessarily are not backed by the FIBB, which
is like the overarching organization that like runs volleyball in Europe.
So they're like agents who are licensed and agents who are not.
And so just making sure you make the right choice in that direction.
I tried to talk to as many older graduates of Ohio State that I found out that played
or any mutual friends of other programs that went and played for a couple of years or many
years.
So once I picked, you know, an agent and thought that, you know, this is the right choice for
me.
They basically contact, you know, their connections and teams.
Usually a lot of these agents are former players or well rounded individuals just in the community
of volleyball and know a lot of people that have a lot of connections to different leagues
or different countries or different managers or different coaches.
And those connections, obviously you have to have the talent because they have to, you
know, see your film and whatnot.
But basically they, those agents help you put together like a volleyball resume per
set.
So just like you would for a job, basically I have a CV, which is like highlight film,
two or three games clipped up and then like accomplishments, stats, stuff like that basically
in like a, you know, a normal resume format but for volleyball essentially.
And you have that kind of constructed and you give that to your agent, you help them
together and they send it out to teams.
And essentially it's like a wait and see game, you know.
Obviously if you're, you know, one of the best players in the world, like in any sport,
you know, even football, you may have, you know, people knocking on your door to, you
know, offer you big, big league contracts.
Not the case in my situation, but at the top of the top, you know, of the sport, there
are players that are getting over a million dollars in volleyball.
So those players definitely probably have people seeking them out to a degree.
But typically how most players are handled is, it's the way I'm explaining.
So once you have that volleyball CV, your agent kind of goes and talks to different
teams.
And I may say as a player, like I had a preference to not play in certain countries based on
things I've heard, you know, not getting paid on time or like things being a little shady.
Some countries are more professional than others.
And once you find out, you know, what's a better move if you have the ability to avoid
those leagues for other leagues, then that's typically how most people I've talked to
navigate it essentially, if that makes sense.
So Finland was my first country, nothing crazy in terms of league level, but it was a fine
place to start.
And it was a good experience.
I did have one American on my team actually from the University of Loyola.
So that was nice to have a former, I guess, American on my team.
And then after that, I went to Switzerland, did not have any Americans on my team.
And then after that, I went to Germany, or I had two other Americans on my team.
So it's very common for you to have Americans in your league, not necessarily always on
your team though.
And there are some leagues that like really enjoy having Americans.
And there's some leagues who are one of my best friends on this team.
This first year was in Bulgaria.
And he was the only American to ever play in Bulgaria to my knowledge.
So it's like he was kind of on Island a little bit when he went on this first year.
So that's kind of how the process works.
Obviously, they send you, you know, contract negotiation to get into like the nitty gritty
of that stuff just to get people an idea.
Everyone's like, oh, like, you know, what's your day like?
Or how does the contract work?
Every club's a little different.
And every league's a little different, but a lot of standard clubs will cover your housing.
Usually, they will cover your insurance as well.
Some clubs or the better clubs will, you'll get a car.
And that will also be covered.
Usually it's covered in logos.
Mine is covered in logos.
And you're driving around like a billboard on wheels, but it's cool.
And then typically, you know, you can say whether you want to live alone or live, you
know, with a roommate, and that's kind of just up to like the club and, you know, the
availability of what apartments that they own or they range or they lease or whatnot.
And some clubs provide like a meal a day when the money is not as lucrative.
If it's like my first year, it was like every day I could go to this, you know, team sponsor
who happened to be a restaurant and you could have lunch for free.
That's how they like mitigate some of your costs when you're not financially getting
paid that much, which was like my first year for sure.
But again, like it's part of the experience.
Like I think that, you know, if you believe in, you know, you believe in yourself and
you believe in, you get the opportunity and try and really put all your eggs in one basket.
But it's really turned out to be a cool experience getting to, you know, work with agents and
travel and see even parts of the world.
So in terms of like the contract and how a viable works, I hope that answered it a little
bit.
But yeah, the top, the top, the top leagues, you know, they don't, you're getting paid
so much they're not finding you, you know, they're not getting your apartment that you're
getting paid so much that you can get your own apartments.
There's levels to it, right?
Like there are leagues that are known for, you know, starter leagues that are leagues
that are like middle of the road or like top five.
And there's like, you know, the top two to three leagues in the country or in the world
where most players are getting some serious money.
So it just all depends on just like the ability to play on like a national or European level
and enter competition is also something that is super valuable.
My first two years I did not play on a team that played in any European competition.
And historically that means the team isn't as good in the league.
If that makes sense, I'm not familiar with like European soccer and Champions League
how it works and whatnot, but every country usually has one or two teams in each league
that play in Champions League, which is like the best teams in every league play in like
a tournament essentially.
So the team I'm on this year and last year played in Champions League.
It was us at Berlin recycling volleyball club.
So it was Luhrenberg team I played for as for Julian Bergen and Berlin with the two
teams in Germany that represented Champions League.
And then so example, like France will submit one or two teams based on the previous year
and how well they performed.
Italy would submit one or two teams and all those teams were playing in the tournament
in the year while you were doing regular season only in your league.
If that makes sense.
Oh, wow.
So we're playing weekends on a Saturday or Sunday.
And like for example, we just played a team in Munich.
But before that we played a Champions League in Chemin, France.
So not every team has that luxury.
These past two years I've been super blessed, super fortunate to be able to play in that
because it's rare.
Like I said, only one or two teams and the better leagues get that opportunity.
And some leagues don't even get any nominations if the league isn't strong, isn't that strong,
if that makes sense.
So that's been a really cool, cool aspect of the job as well just to travel more.
That's why the number of my playing country has been so high because playing last year
is three teams.
You know, Bulgaria, Greece, France, Spain, you know, you play in a bunch of different
countries when you play in that type of competition versus if you only play for a team that plays
in your country, then you're only playing for some teams against some other country.
Oh, that makes sense then, why I can never track where you are.
So have you been with the same agent the whole time and do they have to renegotiate a new
contract for you after every season?
Yeah, yes and no.
So I have not been with the same agent the entire time.
I made a not a great business decision, but I had a swithing agent after my first year
in Germany.
I played in Finland, Switzerland, and then I got an opportunity in Germany.
In Germany it was the best that I played in up to that point, but the team in Germany
was about a half team.
So we were not great, but the level of the league was higher than the previous two leagues
I played in.
And I had a really good season that year where I was top three in attacking percentage for
my position and kind of was a little bit of a breakout year for me.
I got noticed by some better clubs, one of them being the one I was on right now.
And that opened some doors for that.
Sorry, I totally forgot your question.
Did you switch, you talked about switching agents and then do they have to negotiate
a new contract for you after every season?
I switched agents that year and I ended up switching agents to a bigger agency.
I knew that this was a possibility of happening.
So it was a little bit of a gamble, but there are some agents who have, you know, they keep
10 to 15 people or 20 people and there are some agents who have got like 50, 100, 150
players and then okay, you have to think about it rationally.
Where am I at that list?
You know, with agent has 15, maybe I'm a big fish in a small pond.
And agent has 150, maybe I'm a small fish in a big pond.
And that's something I came to realize when I made that switch is that the level of communication
stuff wasn't as good to some degree.
And I was kind of left on the island and that was around a time when I actually came back
and worked for like six months and coached volleyball and did a volunteer opportunity
in Chicago where my brother lives with his family.
And I thought I was done playing even after one of my best seasons just because I made
a core decision where I ended up basically with no contracts that were necessarily vertical
move, they're all kind of horizontal moves.
So I don't want to say I drank the tea, but I drank the tea of this one agent and it didn't
end up working out well for me.
So I kind of have a good gap here almost where I kind of screwed myself over a little bit.
And I thought I was done after that.
So, but the short answer to your question is yes, they are renegotiated each year.
Some teams will sign me on a two year or three year.
I've only signed once.
I've signed one here my first year.
And I re-signed again on a one my second year, but there are guys on my team that have been
signed for two or three years.
Typically the local guys, if there's like this one local guy on our team that's a very
good player and they want to keep him here.
So like it's a little bit different of a situation because his family's here and stuff like that.
And also a lot of players, unless it's like really good money, they wouldn't sign a two
year and go someplace they've never been before without seeing the clubs, seeing the
organization because America, especially coming from Dan Stilgale, athletes don't understand
until they go play overseas how good they have it.
There's a lot of things that happen overseas that you just take for granted once you get
over here because you just realize like, wow, that was done for me in college.
Especially if you play like a power five school or if you went to like a big division or
not high school even.
Sometimes you take for granted that they pay active attention to state side, kind of get
overlooked to some degree in Europe.
The emphasis on some of those items just don't, they're not a priority.
So they get lost a little bit here and there and that can be frustrating to some Americans
or North Americans even.
But yeah, that's the short answer is yeah, the ring adosha year and that's when you obviously
can have your agent say, hey, like I've been played well, you know, he wants 10%, you know,
whatever he wants, you know, a nicer apartment or, you know, he wants to bring his wife or
you know, things like that are all like negotiable pieces.
It depends on what you play and like what type of financial situation the club is in
or what they can offer, what they're willing to offer based on like how well you play
essentially.
Wow, that's super interesting.
All new information to me have no idea.
Yeah.
So you mentioned a couple of your career highlights before we move on.
Are there any other highlights that you want to mention before we get into kind of your
goals of where you are at this stage of your life?
Yeah, I would say like, I think my house to me like every every time I've like achieved
like a pretty big highlight like the year before has always been one that's been very
testing.
I've found.
I think that, you know, before, you know, game, win national championship and all that
stuff happened in college and like thinking I was going to play in college or thinking
I had to leave our state like with the injuries and stuff like that.
Then I had some pretty great successes after that.
Same thing happened in in professionally like I was ready to hang it up.
I was I was I was in a long term relationship for a number of years that I thought was was
probably going to last or be the one per se.
And like I was making a decision based on like, oh, do I still want to, you know, play
and live out this dream?
And when I was like pretty pretty low point, I would say like your your questioning if
you know you should continue because you know you're put in three years and you know you
don't know if you've moved the traction and financially like it was the first couple years
from you was a struggle.
And I think that having that realization again, just being like, no, like I'm so close, like
I'm right there, like stay stay with it has been something that like has really paid dividends
now more so than ever before in my life.
Because if I would have quit then I wouldn't have achieved any of the accomplishments professionally
that I've had up until that point because up until that point, I wasn't on a team that
won anything.
We never placed.
So the past two years, we got third in the industry last year.
So we meddled, which was awesome is first time getting a medal for me personally in a league.
And then we also played Champions League.
So we in our champions name pool last year, we finished third out of four, which on paper
was never supposed to happen because if you looked at just sure budget of those teams,
we were by far the lowest budget.
So on paper, we should have been last.
So just to squeeze out that third place was awesome.
And we ended up going to see the cuff.
I don't want to get too nitty-gritty basically it's like Stampingons League.
And then that's like the top one, two teams that we lead.
And there's thing called CeeV Cup, which is like that three, four spot.
So basically we got not the Champions League, but then we got moved into playoffs of CeeV
Cup.
We won in CeeV core files.
We won in CeeV semifinals.
Then we made to the finals and we played like a Polish team that's very, very strong.
It's one of the strongest leagues in the world.
And then the fourth and last, but we got second in CeeV Cup.
So that was another medal that we were able to get, which is a really cool experience
playing internationally, especially the semifinal.
We played a team in Turkey and we got smacked at their place 3-0.
And then we came back and in international competition, it's based on points.
So it's like three set win and a four set one is three points.
One of the five set win is two points to the winner and one point to the loser.
So for us to tie it at home, we'd have to win in three or four sets to get the golden
set, which is like a tie breaker.
It's kind of fun.
It's unique.
So they won in three at their place and then they have to come to us.
And if we didn't win in three or four, we wouldn't get the golden set and we would be
knocked out.
So we lost the first set at home, aka we'd have to win the next three to even have a
chance.
So we won the next three, forced a golden set, which is just one set of volleyball to
determine who moves on.
And we won the golden set at home, which pushes to the final, which was maybe one of the coolest
moments internationally I've had.
Because I was at home and something to sold out crowd.
And then we went to Poland and got our butt kicked in three-fifths.
It was still a great experience to get to that point because for example, the team we
played in and Poland has guys that are getting paid over $500,000 to do their job.
And let's just say like, I'm not hurting for money, but nobody on our team is getting paid
$500,000.
Let's just put it like that.
So you're kind of saying like it's always darkest before the dawn.
Like you had these lows and then you had these highs.
Correct.
Yeah.
And I think that 2023 year for me was probably one of the hardest years of my life just because
I was like, I thought that like all the work kind of didn't succumb to anything.
And that same like it has to all the time, but obviously like when you put so much into
something, you want to push to get something out the other end, which I think is the normal
human nature thing to have.
So getting to that point after thinking, you know, maybe it's time to hang up or maybe,
you know, this isn't for me or whatnot.
I think it's also like when you realize like who is truly in your corner and like who is
like there for you, no matter what as cliche as it sounds.
I mean, I've just, I've, I've realized that a lot in life that just like it's, it's when,
it's when it's not convenient.
When you, when you find out who's really in your corner and who wants to see you doing
well regardless.
So.
Oh yeah.
Big life moments that happens.
Definitely low points in life that happens.
Right.
So you definitely have a lot of life experience and stories to impart on others.
So let's just transition right into your lesson that you have for us today.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I, like I mentioned, I follow a lot of, I don't want to say inspirational quote like
counts because that makes me sound very strange, but I really value like different perspectives.
And I think that the more you can surround yourself with, with different viewpoints,
I think the, the more like well shaped, shaped you can, you can look at life and go about
life.
So a lot of people are familiar with Jay Shetty.
He's got a quote that says open every door that you possibly can the doors that close,
let them close and keep walking through the ones that remain open.
I just think that for me personally and, and in my lights that things that I like had that
gut like I really want to do this, like we're not always the most safe or they're very nerve
wracking and just like not the ones that you know, maybe your stereotypical family or stereotypical
answer would be to do in life.
Because at the end of the day, it's all you can do as cliche and corny as that sounds,
but you don't know until you try.
So I think that would be that lesson for, for me personally.
We must follow the same accounts because you're saying exactly what the advice that I have
been trying to follow as I make this decision to retire before my pension is ready.
And you know, a lot of teachers have very strong opinions about the choice that I'm making,
but regret like there are things or other things that I want to do in a different way
I want to live my life and I'm just going to go for it.
So thank you for reconfirming the choices that I am making.
It's so wise, so wise.
Okay, so let's help other people who are listening with some takeaways as optional homework.
What would you suggest for them to do to make, take some action steps?
Yeah, I just think for me it's like you, I just think that it's so important to like
take a serious step or effort in, and whatever it is that you wish you would have done or
wish you would have tried.
I think there's a lot of things as you get older that you're like, oh, I would know if
I would know if I was 20 again, what would I have done?
Well, you're not 20 again, and you're never going to be 20 again.
So why not start now?
You know, I'm not saying you got, you know, flipped your world upside down, but you, it's
like people have time you have weekends you have after work and it's like if you, if you
want to make something happen, you can, you know, foster that in your off time to develop
it in your full time.
It doesn't even have to be a job.
It can be, it can be a hobby, it can be a person, it can be truly anything, you know,
it just, I think that people get stuck in their ways.
And I think that's true a lot of times.
The more I've traveled, the more I've met people both younger and older.
And obviously now everyone has the luxury of traveling as much as I have, but I think
it's given me a very unique perspective on like life.
And I just challenge people to, to take that step or do that thing that, that is maybe
uneasy or, you know, that they're scared to do because it's like, I always go back to,
you know, and not saying, you know, a desk job is like the worst thing in the world.
But it's like, whatever you're fearing, it's like, you can always go back to that.
It's like, okay, it's sales.
All right.
And then, then what, you go back and you know, you take that job and you start again or like
it goes back to not wanting to have that regret aspect.
So I just, I wish that anybody listening takes a serious shot at whatever that thing
may be for them personally, because I think regret is, is for me the biggest thing in
my life that I would have a hard time sleeping at night at the end of the day.
So hopefully that's clear.
Yes.
I think that's, I saw something the other day that said, you are never going to be younger
than you are today.
Yeah.
So one day just keeps passing into the next.
And so it has nothing to do with age.
It has to do with courage, right?
And be willing to take that step.
Yeah.
Such wise words, Blake.
Thank you so much for being here today.
I cannot wait to share your story.
It's amazing with all of the listeners.
Thank you.
I appreciate you having me on.
It's been a pleasure.
I hope you found Blake's words as inspirational as I did.
Next week I'll be back with a new lesson and more takeaways to apply to your classroom
or to your life.
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