Make Your Mark

My first reaction was - holy cow, I have a General on my #MakeYourMark podcast! Even better was getting to know today's guest, Major General Jeffrey Milhorn, Commanding General of the US Army Corps of Engineers for the Northeast, Europe and Africa. The MG brings 29 years of military experience to bear as he oversees a critical group of military and civilians. He is an avid environmentalist, and yes, an impressive surfer!

Oftentimes when people join the military, it's never about 'me' or 'I', it often is service. The word service itself is indicative of joining something bigger than one's self. You're serving with and for others.

Jeff and I share a passion for helping veterans once they leave the service and make the often challenging transition into civilian life, and in this episode you will hear him not only describe the great work that the Army Corps of Engineers is doing, but also the importance of service to our country and how we need to educate and encourage men and women from all backgrounds on the far-reaching benefits of joining the military, and the 150+ functions and roles that can be pursued.

"As a young lieutenant at 22 or 23 years of age you're now responsible for 30 other soldiers in this case, and their families, and so you grow up pretty quickly because now you realize it isn't about you, it's about the team and how you build that team and move down towards whatever objectives are set before you."

Make sure you give this one a listen - Jeff's nearly 30 years of service to our country has truly made an indelible mark wherever he has served, and his focus on partnering with Mother Nature to help save our environment through his work with the Army Corps of Engineers is inspiring!

"I know what we need to do to continue to prepare ourselves and protect lives and property as best we can, and we're doing those things but still, we're just scratching the surface."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

2:50 "You get less focused on yourself and start thinking, 'how do I contribute to something much bigger than myself?'" [Initial interest in the military]

4:45 "I was kind of supplementing gas and pizza money on the side" [University of Florida and early military experience]

6:10 "You raise your right hand and pledge the oath to support and defend the Constitution of The United States and then you're off and running" [Transitioning after graduation]

7:21 "Now, you're not only responsible for yourself, but everyone else around you" [Challenges of a young leader]

9:38 "You're constantly assessing people in terms of their ability to accomplish what they've been tasked to do" [Moving up the ranks]

10:35 "You still do have an opportunity to express your desire in terms of what you want to do" [Individual freedom within the military]

12:58 "Bollywood to Hollywood, polar bears to penguins" [Being stationed in Hawaii]

15:03 "Everybody's gotta give way together… if the majority do, and others don't, you're going to still have problems" [Capability of sustainability efforts]

19:15 "It is real, and just look at the last couple of years..." [Climate change and recent natural disasters]

26:50 "It's really about meeting people wherever you go, and that's what I enjoy most about what I'm doing" [Favorite military station]

28:56 "How do you protect them as they transition from your organization into the world again?"

[Life after the military]

35:18 "You see the opportunity to give back and thank this nation"

[Passion for military service]

42:29 Hit Your Mark

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.

• If you would like to be a guest on the Make Your Mark podcast and/or know someone else who has either been an athlete, in a role within the sports industry, or a military veteran, and have made a successful transition into a new role, I'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email [email protected] and we'll discuss!

• If you would like more information on how I can get you unstuck and moving forward with your transition, let's talk. We can see whether it makes sense to work directly with me, or I can give you other options, but don't let your transition wait another day, let's connect!

Be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

How are YOU going to Make Your Mark today? Go get 'em!

If you are a current or retired athlete, this is the episode to listen to! The #MakeYourMark Podcast focuses on guests who are inspiring and are making an impact. My guest today @Grant Clitsome is using his NHL experiences to help build a program designed for athletes to transition out of their sport easier. Talk about finding my sweet spot! We could have gone on for hours on such a critical topic!

"I remember at the end of the camp, Hitch [Ken Hitchcock] pulls me into his office and he says, 'Grant, you're gonna be an NHL defenseman, you just need to go back to Clarkson and keep doing what you're doing.' So that was pretty inspiring, and that was a moment where I said to myself, 'okay maybe I can do this.'"

Grant had to retire earlier than he had hoped because of a back injury, but he has taken advantage of his athletic mindset, and been able to recreate the daily structure that was such a critical part of his athletic career and turn it into the After The Game program.

I'm excited to collaborate with Grant and elevate the athletes that he's working with, showing them all that they have an incredibly bright future ahead of them after they leave their sport. Make sure you give this episode a listen, especially if you are closing in on the end of your career, or have retired from your sport. Send me your experiences, would like to hear from you!

"I had no idea what was going to happen with hockey and I didn't anticipate to make a career out of it. That was my goal, but if it didn't work out or I had an injury or whatever I wanted to make sure I had a backup plan and I had my education. So, that was the big selling feature for me."

"After the surgery, I came back and played a little bit the following season, then re-herniated the same disk. I had a second surgery and that's when it just didn't heal the same way and the doctor's recommended I stop playing."

"When you're playing in the NHL you have a schedule every month that's handed to you and tells you where to be and what to do at every second of the day. Your meals are all lined up and ready for you, your travel is all lined up and ready for you. There's just so much structure. Then you go from that environment to just the complete opposite, which is no structure and you're the one now having to create your own structure. (you can end here for website quote if that helps) It's challenging but I think the biggest thing for me was to stay busy. If I was just sitting doing nothing I would go crazy, and that's when you start to get into that dangerous spiral of depression and mental struggles."

"I think if we can help players prepare for this [life after hockey] before they're even close to retiring, I think it does so many things for them. From simply a mental health standpoint, I think it gives you a very healthy distraction during the season. There's so much pressure associated with performing at such a high level throughout the season. It gives you something else to focus on, and channel your energy, and grow and develop as a person outside of just the athlete."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

4:29 "When there was no snow on the whole lake you could just skate for miles and miles" [Growing up in northern Ontario]

8:02 "I was woken up by my mom knocking on my door saying, 'the Columbus Blue Jackets are on the phone'" [NHL draft experience]

10:37 "The pep bands and the whole student section - it was love at first sight...I wanted to make sure I had a backup plan and I had my education" [Decision to play college hockey]

12:43 "It came down to opportunity and the ability to play and be able to develop" [Attending Clarkson University]

16:18 "That was kind of a moment where I said to myself, 'okay maybe I can do this'" [Realizing that pro hockey was within reach]

19:35 "I didn't sleep for a second. There was no way I was falling asleep" [First NHL call up]

21:57 "Wrist shot top corner on Roloson...it was pretty cool having everyone there to see it" [First NHL goal]

24:38 "I was looking forward to a fresh opportunity and being able to re-establish myself" [Trade to Winnipeg]

26:34 "It just didn't heal the same way and the doctors recommended I stop playing" [Conclusion of hockey career]

29:28 "You kind of go from feeling totally sheltered and supported to just feeling like 'okay, now what'" [Adjusting to new life]

31:06 "I like wine a lot, and I like to learn. So I thought, 'what better thing to learn about'?" [Post hockey endeavors]

37:45 "Every athlete goes through some sort of major adjustment" [Involvement with the After the Game Program]

45:46 "It can always be better. There can always be more engagement and more awareness" [Resources provided by the NHL]

50:10 "Get them working on it while they're still playing, to me that's the ultimate goal" [The objectives of the ONE Sports' transition program]

52:25 "An athlete brings so much more to the table than they often realize" [Leveraging your athletic background]

53:53 Hit Your Mark

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.

• If you would like to be a guest on the Make Your Mark podcast and/or know someone else who has either been an athlete, in a role within the sports industry, or a military veteran, and have made a successful transition into a new role, I'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email [email protected] and we'll discuss!

• If you would like more information on how I can get you unstuck and moving forward with your transition, let's talk. We can see whether it makes sense to work directly with me, or I can give you other options, but don't let your transition wait another day, let's connect!

Be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

How are YOU going to Make Your Mark today? Go get 'em!

"That sound wasn't an electric fly swatter. It was a gunshot!" Wow! Most of my guests on my #MakeYourMark podcast have great stories, but when you hear of ex-NFLer @Hakeem Valles' ordeal in Haiti, you'll be drawn right in. Hakeem and special guest Max Valles jam so much entertainment and stories in less than an hour!

"It was amazing just getting that phone call, it really didn't feel real! You watch it on TV, you watch everybody else get the call, those emotions just immediately hit you. That was definitely the best moment of my life so far!" - Max

Hakeem's story impresses me because he made the bold move to retire from the NFL early mostly because he was doing so well in real estate development, and it was too challenging to balance learning his playbook while looking at leasing opportunities and multi-family building. Max is still playing football, and we get to hear both brothers' experiences surrounding football, and where both are headed going forward.

It will be hard to find two nicer guys, and you'll truly enjoy hearing (and watching) this episode beginning to end! Enjoy!

"I'm part of a church group called the First Haitian Baptist Church, its missionary part called "all hands together". They go to Haiti, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, but most of the people are Haitian, and we went there three days after our graduation with nurses from Villanova University, and our mission was to give medicine to different churches and orphanages across the country." - Hakeem

"Three missionaries and I were playing a card game called spades, we were using electric fly swatters all week because it is kind of a muggy country, and in the middle of the night there was a storm. We did not have an air conditioner, so we opened our steel door to let the breeze in, all of the sudden we heard this sound and I was thinking "who's hitting flies all this time" and was completely frozen. The guy who was at the table across from me lunged over the table and pushed me out of my chair. The sound was a gunshot, and after the gunshot I saw a foot go through the screen door, eight people ran into the house, and that guy across the table saved our lives." - Hakeem

"I have a four-plex in Arizona, a duplex in Michigan, I own other land in Michigan, and on Friday we closed a deal for seven-unit apartment building in Iowa. Now, we are building teams in different markets that we want to focus on. You need a solid broker, in every market you need an appropriate management team. You need to meet them, compare their properties, compare how they manage, how's the percentage they take on a lease, and those types of things. Then I usually find a former player from the NFL that lives in that market, and try to connect with them as well, so if we do projects in that market there will be a potential investor." - Hakeem

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

4:23 "We were always on the sidelines watching" [Growing up in Sicklerville, NJ]

7:37 "Monmouth was the only school that stayed faithful to me" [Hakeem's recruiting process]

9:25 "They had us lifting weights when I was in the eighth grade before I even went to the school" [Max's high school football experience]

10:45 "It was a blessing in disguise" [Playing at the University of Virginia]

11:45 "Five slices of pizza at the end of every meal" [Hakeem's switch from wide receiver to tight end]

14:18 "We were playing volleyball every night with a jump rope we tied to a clothing line" [Missionary work in Haiti]

18:21 "That sound wasn't an electric fly swatter. It was a gunshot" [Haitian bandits' attack on the compound]

22:27 "Both of my shoulders feeling like they're almost popped out because my arms were tied so tight behind my back" [Aftermath of the attack]

24:42 "That was definitely the best moment of my life so far" [Max's NFL draft day]

26:25 "When they didn't draft me I was pretty happy" [Hakeem's free agent signing]

28:17 "At the end of the day you're a puppet controlled by 32 of the wealthiest people in the world" [Lack of job security in the NFL]

33:35 "I'm looking at my in-season playbook and half of the page is Dallas Cowboys who to scout this week, and the other half of the page is investors to call, brokers to call, properties to check out" [Hakeem's transition from football to real estate]

37:36 "We couldn't fit the stairwell through the front door, but the window was big enough on the second floor" [From house flipping to property managing]

44:14 "It's a big humbling experience … but I like Tim Horton's" [Max's move to the CFL]

48:25 Hit Your Mark

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.

• If you would like to be a guest on the Make Your Mark podcast and/or know someone else who has either been an athlete, in a role within the sports industry, or a military veteran, and have made a successful transition into a new role, I'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email [email protected] and we'll discuss!

• If you would like more information on how I can get you unstuck and moving forward with your transition, let's talk. We can see whether it makes sense to work directly with me, or I can give you other options, but don't let your transition wait another day, let's connect!

Be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

How are YOU going to Make Your Mark today? Go get 'em!

It was a stroke of luck that Dan Hunt, head football coach of Colgate University, my alma mater, was happy to be meet with me for a live #MakeYourMark podcast recording on campus. As you will hear in this episode, he's a successful coach, a great guy, and just about the best hire a storied team rich in tradition and history could hope for.

"As far as football goes, the biggest thing right now about the sport is that it's a little bit under attack, and one of the messages that I would love people to understand is that football did not invent the concussion. This would be the best time, if you have young kids, for them to play football. There is awareness. Was there a time when playing football was not smart, was not safe? Yes, but I think those days are over."

Hearing how Dan approaches recruiting, finding not just solid football players, but young men who are respectful, smart, and exhibit clearly the long term potential of success in whatever they end up doing. Over the course of this podcast, there were so many pearls of wisdom and advice that clearly make an impact that I had trouble whittling them down for this summary!

"With Tradition Comes Responsibility. A lot of kids choose to come here because they want to be part of a program that's a winner, and they want to be part of all that comes with that. What they have to understand is that they are signing on to take the responsibility to continue that. We use the term culture a lot. The freshmen, their biggest thing is they have to understand the culture, you have to get caught up in it, it's like a big sticky wheel. Here it comes for you, and you have to stick to it and keep rolling. The biggest part of being here is that you have to give the boys the confidence they can do it, they have to understand that we would not have recruited them if we did not think they were good enough. Admissions wouldn't have let them in school if they did not think they could do the work, that is a big part too here, balancing the academic load."

Dan and I shared a ton of laughs, this is what happens when you put two Seinfeld fans in the same recording studio! Meeting the Beatles, avoiding concussions, we covered it all! A top 3 episode easily, give this a listen!

"I think athletes in general really have some traits that allow them to be successful. One thing with football in particular, I might be biased, but I think football is the ultimate team game, you look at an offense, almost half of those players would go out and never touch the football, they're on the offensive line, but yet they still play. I think being coachable, being a teammate, being able to see goals through adversity, I think all those things that athletes do really lend themselves to life after football. The good thing about being in a school like Colgate, all of my guys want to go to NFL! The fact that they chose a school like Colgate, they already understand there is life other than the NFL that they need to be ready for."

"When you meet Colgate alums from all over, it is kind of a common trait in them, they are just interesting people who are trying to be successful, almost like a common gene. The same type of people are like, whether they play football or basketball, rugby or hockey, it does not matter, you can kind of tell that's a Colgate person. I think that's what is special about this place, it is like a blood line."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 02:35
• Growing up in Canajoharie - 3:40
• Being a Three-Sports Athlete - 4:04
• A Coach for sure! - 6:00
• Choosing Colgate - 7:54
• Becoming a Head Coach - 8:45
• You Have to Work to Win - 9:50
• That Is a Colgate Person! - 12:03
• What Makes a Better Recruitment Experience? -13:25
• With Tradition comes Responsibility - 15:05
• Screaming Loud in the Fargodome - 21:50
• Running into the National Champs - 22:35
• Weather vs Climate - 26:37
• Not Everyone Goes to the NFL - 31:53
• Be Someone They Can Trust! - 36:25
• Life After Football - 38:45
• Hit Your Mark - 42:30
• Favorite Seinfeld Episode - 44:05
• Football Under Attack - Concussions - 45:40
• Dispelling Football Stereotypes - 47:10
• Wish I Had Invented the Keurig - 49:00
• Hanging out with Jimmy Buffett - 51:10
• Meeting Ringo Starr - 53:00
• Wrapping Up - Read Win Again! 57:45

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.

• If you would like to be a guest on the Make Your Mark podcast and/or know someone else who has either been an athlete, in a role within the sports industry, or a military veteran, and have made a successful transition into a new role, I'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email [email protected] and we'll discuss!

• If you would like more information on how I can get you unstuck and moving forward with your transition, let's talk. We can see whether it makes sense to work directly with me, or I can give you other options, but don't let your transition wait another day, let's connect!

Be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

How are YOU going to Make Your Mark today? Go get 'em!

Play ball! Having a career in baseball for over 30 years just sounds like a great way to earn a living, and my guest today on the #MakeYourMark podcast, Jeff Idelson, has been the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY for 11 years! Not only has he presided over an exciting time in baseball history, but he's made his impact on America's pastime, and he has great stories to tell!

"I got the Yankees job in December of '88, and I go to a kick-off cocktail party before the team is going to spring training in '89, I was 24 years old and he is there, and I walked right up to him and said, 'Hey Mr. Steinbrenner, I want to introduce myself to you. I'm Jeff Idelson, I'm your new assistant PR Director.' He puts his hands on my shoulders, and says 'Good to have you! You're that young man from Detroit, aren't you?' I said 'No sir, I'm the young man from Boston!' and he said 'Great to have you on board, I have three words of advice for you. Rent, don't buy!'. I nodded my head, you know, the sage advice from your new boss. Working for him was incredibly rewarding, very difficult guy to work for, a guy who was focused on winning, focus on putting together a product, and we were terrible when I was there. But I learned a lot from him about just being ahead of the curve, how to anticipate, how to manage relationships, it was tough love but it was perfect for me at that age."

Jeff's career in baseball has spanned from selling hotdogs in Fenway Park, to working for the Boss, George Steinbrenner, and 25 years in Cooperstown, and we cover a wide range of baseball topics, including the chances of Pete Rose along with those suspected of steroid use to be inducted into the Hall, and the incredible HOF Class of '19!

"I remember having a conversation with a guy named Seymour Siwoff, who bought the Elias Sports Bureau 60 years ago, in fact he still runs it, he's like 98 now, great guy, but you want to talk about a different era. He calls me on a Saturday morning 7 o'clock and I was like, why is my phone ringing, I don't work for the team anymore! He says 'Hi Jeff, it's Seymour!' This was in 1994, the internet was just being born and he says, 'You know I've donated every day-by-day for every player in the history of baseball to your library' and these are giant ledger books, it's the statistics for every guy, and he says, 'I understand you're going to put all those things on the internet.' And I said, 'Seymour, that's the furthest thing on my mind! All that I am trying to do is to drag people to Cooperstown!' and he says 'Good! The internet is a fad, it's like the hula hoop, it's going to be gone in a few years!'"

This episode was special for me as it stirred up some great memories I have within baseball, including Little League, trading baseball cards, and attending the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This is a perfect listen for the season!

"Pete Rose is a good example. When I came to the Hall in 1994, the big topic was Pete, who back in '91 had been banned by baseball. Arguably one of the top hitters of all time, and here you have a Hall of Fame without the all-time hits leader! But baseball's rules for election don't consider players who are on the ineligible list, which Pete was on and is still today, and he did nothing to show he belonged in the Hall. As you walk into every clubhouse, as I have done, and the first thing you see is, 'Don't Gamble on Baseball', and Pete admitted to gambling on baseball. Now you have legalized gambling on baseball, you have casinos involved on a tangential level, yet I don't see his candidacy changing."

"I am trying to make sure the game remains relevant to the younger generations, and it's challenging, because you have a sport that is tried and true to its traditions, we don't like to change things very often, and the game is a game of beauty. But as we talked about growing up, and we wondered why we love baseball so much, well, the reality is that we did not have a lot of choices, and kids and adults today have a lot of choices, and that's why you see maybe the interest in baseball waning."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 2:03
• Gravitating into Baseball - 3:13
• Landing with the Red Sox - 5:37
• Working With the Enemy, the Yankees - 8:46
• Taking Advice From The Boss - 11:58
• Changing My Lifestyle - 13:37
• The Hall of Fame! - 14:58
• I Am The Baby Boomer - 17:01
• Becoming President - 20:14
• Old Timer's Game - 23:18
• Should Pete Rose be in The Hall? - 29:23
• What would you change in Baseball? - 30:59
• It's All About Power! - 32:31
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 37:50

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

When you think of an NFL player, it's 6'5" and 240 lbs or more. Imagine being barely 5'10", not even 160 lbs, and playing a 9-year career! My guest on today's #MakeYourMark podcast, JJ Birden, discusses his unexpected rise into the NFL, lessons learned from Joe Montana, and his successful sales and speaking businesses. Throw in a house full of kids, and you have quite the episode!

I was always thinking about life after football, I was always thinking about the transition, planning ahead. I graduated from Oregon, and I always thought the NFL was providing me an amazing opportunity, but also what about the network, what about the opportunities afterwards, and quite frankly I never thought I would play for 9 years. When I got to year 2, year 3, I was like let's see if we can make it to year 4, year 5, so by the time I got to my ninth year I was thinking, here I am 5'10' and 157, one of the smallest players in the NFL, I am relatively healthy, I can stop now and be able to live a life physically well. At the same time I created some really nice relationships in the business world that made me ready to make the transition.

What stands out about JJ is his passion to teach his audience about the critical importance of seizing opportunities when presented, of taking the leap and going for your dreams. We've all heard of those who we wonder "How did that person get there, that makes no sense?!"...JJ teaches us how to become that person!

I was not the kid who was raised thinking I wanted to be an NFL football player, it never really crossed my mind, and when I got drafted by Cleveland, even then I was still thinking about getting ready for the Olympic trials. It wasn't something I expected, I did not believe I could play for the NFL at that point.

We had a superb conversation, and JJ is one of the truly nice guys who wants the best for whoever he interacts with! You'll get plenty of advice from both of us in this episode, happy listening!

This is probably the biggest thing I tell people about speaking: I want you to take your laptop and just start writing all of the different things that have happened in your life, the memories, the stories, because we all have content. You have to take time to think what happened throughout your life, what were the experiences, and collect all those moments so when you figure out your messages and what your audience is, then you can start building what that signature keynote is going to be.

Not everyone is going to agree with your path, your choices and every thing that you do, it is not for them to understand your mission, your direction, your goals, it's for you to understand it and to believe it. That's what I've always focus on in different stages in my life.

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 02:05
• Born and raised in Portland - 4:15
• The Buzzing Program - 5:35
• Let's try The Long Jump! 7:25
• Embracing the opportunity - 10:35
• Proving them wrong - 12:13
• Getting injured - 17:30
• Meeting Joe Montana - 20:05
• Life After Football - 22:27
• Being an Entrepreneur - 24:49
• Running my Own Business - 26:45
• Building the Signature Key Note- 29:20
• You'll Do Whatever it Takes! - 32:00
• Believing in your Mission and Journey - 35:20
• Speaking from the Heart - 37:59
• Getting to Know People - 44:05
• A Family of Eight! - 46:13
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 52:05

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

I've been a big fan of Front Office Sports and its newsletter almost since its debut, as it delivers daily content covering the convergence of sports and technology, along with other sports-related articles and excerpts. I was happy to capture an hour for my #MakeYourMark podcast with Russ Wilde, the very busy COO of Front Office Sports, and schoolmate of founder Adam White.

"Like any sport or activity, once there's enough eyeballs and sponsorship dollars, it just opens up the floodgates, and the only ceiling is how many people will watch this stuff, which seemingly continues to grow."

What I appreciate about the strategy that Russ and Adam are following is how they are looking past the horizon, realizing that some of the big fish they are starting to catch now will only lead to a bigger bounty in the very near future. Russ and I had a very lively chat, covering a variety of topics including the Kentucky Derby controversy, why millennials might continue to attend baseball games, and the dramatic growth of FOS.

"I think going to a game is still an experience that people want to have. It is becoming more corporate, and a family of 5 or 6 going to baseball game costs a lot of money. Millennials spend money on experiences. I just went last week to to a ballgame with a few of my friends. So I don't think that's necessarily going away, but I think what is going to go away is you'll have less fans buying tickets for personal use. It's no longer a family of four buying season tickets, it's Wells Fargo or Morgan Stanley or a law firm. So that's the one thing that I think is changing the most."

At 26, Russ has a super bright future ahead of him, and the direction he's helping steer Front Office Sports will impress you. Give this a listen, you'll see how natural of a guest Russ is!

Happy Listening!

"For us the biggest thing is our newsletter because we feel that's one of our best products, and it's a way for us to have one to one relationship with our audience. A lot of media companies want to have an app, and there are benefits to that, including the data perspective. One of the main reasons why you build an app, outside the data, is to be able to push content to people. So for us when we draw people to our newsletter, typically they stick, and that's a way for us to keep in the news feed every day with that platform."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 0:50
• College life and sports in Miami - 5:20
• The Creation of Front Office Sports - 9:58
• Morning Brew style - 11:26
• Kentucky Derby controversy - 13:36
• Betting in sports! - 15.35
• Brands diving in - 17:10
• Streaming or Live sports? - 17:63
• A smart way to save money - 21:10
• It is not just about selling out! - 23:10
• Crawling before you walk - 24:67
• Two Passion Points: Sports and Business - 28:22
• Sponsoring and Media Companies - 29:25
• The Only Competition is Ourselves - 30:13
• FOS Production - 32:54
• Growing the audience - 33:41
• Target Market - 35:30
• Living your dream - 36.43
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 38:15

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

Whenever I think I have a plate that is completely full, I have a guest like Otis "Hoop" Hooper on my #MakeYourMark podcast to remind me how accomplished some people can truly be! Hoop not only has served our country for almost 20 years as a pilot, but has some many other accomplishments under his belt, and wait until you hear about being on American Ninja Warrior! And that's just the tip of the iceberg...

I had no desire to be a pilot, but what I did enjoy was leading and inspiring others, affecting change. So while I was there over the 4 years we listened to many different leaders, learned about the military history, and what I observed was those in the Air Force who would affect change the most were the leaders of the organizations, they were pilots, so I figured out that for me the fastest way to affect change and to lead was to be a pilot, and so that's why I decided to become a pilot.

What really stands out about Hoop in my mind is his ability to focus, to put a beacon on what he wants to achieve, and once he's set his mind to it, it gets done. Just imagine not wanting to necessarily become a USAF pilot, but doing so in order to lead. Think about how hard it is to swim with 3000 other swimmers starting an Ironman Triathlon, and hear how Hoop got through it.

While I was deployed I had my first son in 2003, and so during that period I realized I was not the kind of father I wanted to be, just absent all the time, so I decided to make a shift from active duty to National Guard, I didn't know anything about the guard, it was on of the best kept secrets in the military, so I started talking to some guard guys and they explained me how it works. I found a Guard Unit in D.C. that also flew airplanes, had a similar mision, so I transferred and applied for an instructed pilot position. They had a VIP mission, so I started doing that and I really enjoyed it, and starting in 2005 I flew those for 12 years.

Hoop and I covered a ton of ground, and offer up advice not just for servicemembers looking to transition into civilian life, but for anyone who feel like they're in a bit of a rut. Give this episode a good listen, Hoop truly impresses!

Recruiting command was out in San Antonio, Texas, and they were specifically trying to increase the African-American representation at pilot training, because the statistics are not good, including women as well. So they asked me to come on board and target specific conventions, different seminars and to help the process, and the ones who were interested in flying to get into the program.

You've trained for this moment, just trust your training, and I got through it. I think a lot of those things can apply to military. We trained for a long time, and doing what we've done, it is just about translating the skills that we have into where we are today, and just taking the first step. Once you start doing that process and get into the rhythm, you just go for it. So for me the event itself was not the hard part, it was getting in my own head.

Afterburner is a group of what we call elite military professionals, Air Force Pilots, Navy Seals, Army Rangers, VIP pilots as myself, and what we do is we go and talk to both big and small businesses, and we just talk about the process that we use in the military to accomplish a mission. It is not complicated, but we explain how we plan in the military, how we brief the plan, we're going to execute and most importantly at the end of that we debrief, and we debrief for the process and the purpose of accelerating future performance, and we repeat that cycle. And we talk to businesses about the importance of doing those steps in that order, to do it efficiently.

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 02:23
• Born and raised in Virginia - 05:58
• Living in a Karate School - 6:20
• Leading, inspiring and affecting change - 8:08
• The hard task of refuelling - 12:53
• Being part of the 09/11 afterwards - 15:28
• Transition into Instructoring - 16:03
• Flying for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - 18:25
• Increasing African-American representation - 21:15
• The Challenge of Recruitment - 22:30
• Serving the Country through the Military Life - 24:43
• Being part of American Ninja Warrior - 26:00
• Watching behind the scenes 29:53
• The Ironman - 31:21
• Training hard to execute well - 35:28
• Beating the time - 37:68
• Afterburners league - 40:44
• Incorporating personal story into the speech - 44:21
• Sky rocking it - 45:26
• Mastering Yourself in Acting 48:31
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 51:20

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

The "Get Out of Arkansas" Plan! Nothing against Arkansas, but my guest today on the #MakeYourMark podcast, Derrick Furlow Jr., made a commitment to overcome a severe injury in football, attend a top college program, and be able to provide for himself and his family for years to come. Hear about the obstacles he has overcome to become a leader in helping athletes transition out of their sport.

"Getting out of the operating room, I had this brace on my left leg, and when I touched it I asked, 'Hey doc what's this brace on my leg?'. His reply changed my life forever, 'the brace is for your ACL'. It wasn't even torn! In that moment I became obsolete on the football landscape; my dreams, my goals, everything I've been working on had been taken away. I remember one day crying, sitting on my bed, using this machine to rehab, and I heard this voice saying 'I gave you this football stage for the glorification of my kingdom and you are using that stage for your own purposes, so I had to take it away to get your attention', and that moment my life changed forever, because it gave me a different perspective."

If you join Derrick and I in a room full of current and former athletes, we'll show you how to leverage your athletic skill set into business success. Derrick can show you the mindset needed using his college football background experiences, and I'll follow it up with the how to's on getting in front of the right people in business and entrepreneurship to get you to that higher level. Make sure you give this one a listen, it's non-stop energy and advice!

"The crazy thing is that I was with the number one recruiting class in the country. I had to prove why I was there. This was not the road I thought I was going to take, there were a lot of undefined things I had to redefine. I hadn't played a game in a year, the stadium seats 107,000 people, and I have to prove this to myself and to the coaches. I didn't have the easy route. I knew what I had to do to get to that point, I had to do what I expected to do, and I exceeded it."

Derrick is such an engaging, funny, caring and knowledgeable guy, and has lots of great advice for you, happy listening!

"I sat down and asked myself, 'What made me a leader in sports? What did I do to make me one of the best of the best?' And I thought, we learned our playbook and we studied our opponents. So we're going to see different scenarios and we're going to practice it, and it is going to be recorded. While we watch it we'll make adjustments and corrections, and then we're going to go back and practice again. So the next day we know what to say, or not to say. I started doing this on a regular basis, I became really good at selling, and I could duplicate it. Sure enough my sales started to go up, my sales team started to go up, and it became really easy."

"Sports gives you the opportunity of controlling the environment. You watch it and you can take things from it. Athletes who people look up to and admire, you can take things from them and apply them directly to your life and achieve the same level of success in your life and your business."

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 01:24
• Growing up in Georgia - 03:23
• Rapper or Sports? - 06:35
• Rush for 2200 Yards, and Live Happily Ever After - 09:40
• To control Freedom and Control my Happiness - 12:50
• Junior to Senior year - 14:35
• Obsolete on the Football Landscape - 16:38
• A Different Perspective in Life - 17:50
• Deciding My Future after the Injury - 20:45
• Taking the Difficult Route - 21:54
• Focusing on Something Bigger than Me - 26:26
• Start Preparing Before the Moment Hits - 32:55
• Torn ACL Leads to Uncertain Future - 36:19
• Relevant tools, from Sales to Real Life - 38:00
• What the Game Taught Me vs What I Gave the Game - 40:35
• Decode Your Own Message - 44:45
• Struggling After Sports - 47:48
• What Athletes Bring to the Table - 49:13
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 52:24

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

One hit and an awkward fall into the boards was all it took to end an NHL career. My guest today on the #MakeYourMark podcast, Jesse Winchester, had just signed a two year deal with the Colorado Avalanche, and was looking forward to a great season with his new teammates before a severe concussion in the pre-season took that all away. And I don't think I've had a more grateful and appreciative guest! You'll hear about his less traditional entry into the NHL, backyard rinks, and the year + recovery needed to rebound from his injury.

Because the symptoms persisted, it was a little bit depressing, but with time I got better. It sucks that I cannot play hockey anymore, but I've been able to transition into coaching because I still have that love for the game. I probably missed out on a year of earning potential, but I had a pretty good run. Once I got through that darkness, I have great memories, and I am healthy now, excited for what's ahead.

Jesse and I spoke about how a concussion leaves you injured in ways that are not visible to teammates and others, how visiting a grocery store was almost impossible, and life after the NHL. We focus on the need for further resources for retired athletes, along with the importance (and difficulties) of preparing for life after sport while you are still playing.

I was fortunate to receive a full scholarship from Colgate. My first year was really rough, but going into my second year, my body and my skills all came together, and I started to become an impactful player at that level and received some recognition and scouting advice from people. I realized I might be able to have the chance one day to play somewhere professionally.

This was a special episode as we dove deep into how an injury can be mentally and physically traumatic, and how family and friends play such a pivotal role after retirement. Please give this a listen, especially if you are a current or retired athlete, you'll be glad you did.

My mentor was one of my best friends and coach at the time, and we had a real chat about whether or not I thought I could still improve at the college level, or if I was ready to embark on a professional level. I made the decision to come back to Colgate, graduated with my buddies - my teammates - and tried to focus on really preparing myself for a pro career in my senior year. After that I had pretty much pick of the litter, probably over a dozen teams to choose from, and I chose Ottawa because they were going to put me in a game right after my collegiate season was over.

When my buddies were finishing senior spring and I had to balance the workload there, honestly it was a fantastic experience. I had tons of support, my teammates from college trekked on the bus and watched my first game, and it was very, very special. You know, those are memories I will have for the rest of my life, and they are also a big part of helping me to reach my goals and dreams!

I was that kind of guy just driven to compete and play, and there was the frustration of not getting better on my time. Being around the guys and trying to not feel like you're hiding something, and you look like you´re fine, but you´re not. I think it's important to have a solid network of family and friends. I wasn't able to connect with my teammates, they were on the road and I had to stay back. But the sun comes up in Denver, and that's where we enjoyed exploring the mountains. I tried my best to get back to playing, and made the best decision ultimately. I don´t wanna go through that again, but it is part of my journey, and minus that year, I have pretty nice memories of hockey to look back on, and that what I choose to focus on now.

I was never super secure, I was replaceable in the NHL. Looking back probably I wish I could have spent more time looking ahead, but I don't know how that would have worked out for me. There are guys who are super established, they are going anywhere they want, and are able to develop other interests. I would have loved to recognize that sooner, but I don't know if I would have been able to change it because I was so focused on skating. The opportunity is there.

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 0:40
• Getting into hockey - 2:50
• It might lead to something - 6:20
• Colgate University and Scholarship - 7:50
• Getting the balance in a young age - 10:40
• Wanted to play professionally - 14:00
• Finland-bound - 18:20
• Coming back to the NHL - 20:10
• Contract with Colorado - 22:10
• Suffering a severe concussion - 23:00
• What the symptoms were - 25:45
• Facing the symptoms - 27:20
• Advice for other concussion sufferers - 28:50
• What's next - 32:25
• What the NHL offers for career planning? - 35:40
• Resources from the Player's Association - 41:40
• What athletes bring to a business - 48:25
• LinkedIn as a networking tool - 50:25
• Hit Your Mark - 55:20
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 56:40

How to get involved

• Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly.
• If you're looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email [email protected] and I'll get you going right away.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!