Sport Coats Podcast

Meet Lauren Jensen McGinnis

Lauren is the owner and head coach of TriFaster, a professional speaker, co-founder of the nonprofit Making Waves Milwaukee, a contributing author to Tri'ing Times, and a world champion triathlete! As a licensed physical therapist and movement specialist, Lauren combines her extensive knowledge of the body along with over 35 years of multi-sport racing and coaching to help others to realize their full potential. Her style is to share in the adventure with the individuals that she coaches acting as a true partner in their journey and her company TriFaster provides professional multi-sport coaching and fitness programs to individuals of all fitness levels in both group and individual settings. 

Seeing as though you've participated in over 400 triathlons, if you could eliminate the swimming, running, or riding your bike and replace it with anything else, which one would be eliminated and what would you replace it with?

Well, my strength is on the bike, my secondary strength would be swimming. So from me being a person who's extremely competitive, there would be the temptation to eliminate my weakness, which currently is running. If I were to replace that with something, anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm constantly eating. So even though I'm five foot two and approximately 120 pounds, I could put down about 3500 calories in a day. So I think that my third very natural sport would be eating awesome.

I have actually performed a triathlon myself and it was slightly different than the ones that you do. It actually was a five k run, then there was a rollerblading component, and then we actually finished with a canoe a one-mile canoe down the Milwaukee River. So I don't know if you've considered adding the rollerblading/canoeing component to the triathlon. 

I will have to give up some thought. One year I did do this epic race, it was over four days with a partner. It was called the Border to Border, and it started in the southwestern corner of Minnesota and you ended up in the northeastern corner of Minnesota. The first day I think was 200 miles of biking and the second day was similar, and you're trading off with your partner. The third day was 50 miles of running. After this third day, you're really quite tired. And then the final day was 54 miles of canoeing, which included six miles of portages. Well, somewhere in the middle of this, my partner lost his shoe in the mud. So he's down to one shoe and then somehow his back went out and he was bent in half, 90 degrees. So I ended up paddling the last 17 miles on this by myself. And we get to the last Portage, which was a mile long. And thank goodness for the two army guys. They portaged their canoe a mile, walked back, got our canoe portaged our canoe for us and it took that entire time for them to walk those three miles forging two canoes for my bent-over partner to hobble the mile to the end of the portage, so we can finish.

When you hear about triathletes and just the mental preparation, whether it's through just the constant training like you said, you have to focus on so many different skills. In your experience does that create a different type of mentality for those athletes, so that when they're faced with adversity, specifically in competition, there is just this no quit mindset that they have?

I do believe that the athletes who are successful in the sport do develop the don't back down, I'm not going to quit, tough as nails type mentality. Another thing about the sport is the time in what's called transition counts. So you finish swimming, it's not like there's a break. I mean, there's a break, you could take a break, I mean, you could literally go in the locker room, take a shower, and apply makeup, but all that time counts when you race.  So what you'll see is the people that are more skilled at the sport, it's almost like you barely blink, and they've transitioned from the swim to the bike, and then from the bike to the run. So also I think it makes you highly adaptable because you go from one thing to the next, to the next, and you're thinking about one thing, and then you're getting to the end of the event, and you're already in your head mentally preparing for how you're going to do that transition. Then as that's coming to an end, you're mentally preparing for the next event.

So is there a component where you're still in the water and your brain has already moved to the bike? Or while you're in the water your brain is in the water?

I think when I personally am racing, I'm doing a couple of things at once. It's kind of like when you watch a TV show, and there's a bunch of different cameras. So you have the close-up view, and then you have like the faraway view where you're looking at the whole scene, and then you have all the different angles. So your mind is agile. So there's a big part of my mind that's like that close-up shot and all I'm thinking about is my form and exactly how I'm swimming. Then there's that camera that you kind of back up a shot and you're looking at everything that's happening around you. So one thing in the water, you can get a very big advantage by being right on another competitor's feet. It's called drafting and it's allowed in the swim. So there's this awareness of where you are versus your competitors and how you're using that situation to your advantage. Or maybe someone's banging the heck out of you, and how am I going to reposition myself in the swim and not lose my competitive advantage. But also get away from this person that's disrupting my rhythm? Because they keep elbowing me. Then there's this other part of you that's setting yourself up for what's going to happen. So for me personally, when I'm coming to the end of the swim, I'm thinking about my technique, but I'm thinking about, am I going to stay on their feet and come up, or am I going to come around them right at the end, like what kind of exit is there to the water? So you're doing all of these things all at once, so it's a little bit of a multitasking adventure.

One thing that you pride yourself on is your toolbox and just those experiences. So I'm just curious what would you say to some of these millennials who are maybe just jumping around and trying to find their niche and trying to really understand whether it's professionally, or location-wise, where it is that they belong?

I see a lot of positives about trying a multitude of different jobs. I think, for one thing, you're building skills, and you can be in one industry, and take those skills to a completely different industry. But I think even more importantly, they're giving themselves the opportunity to figure out what they're passionate about. I actually am lucky, I love coaching. I get up every day and I'm lucky to do what I love. I get to help people improve, I love it. I think until you find what you're really passionate about. A job is a job, and if you are lucky enough or smart enough to go look for what you're passionate about, and embrace that and find a way that you get to do it every day. It leads to a lot of happiness.

And so much more…

Connect with Lauren:

Email: [email protected] 

Website: https://trifaster.com/

Meet Adam:

Adam spent his childhood in Vermont, where he was raised on maple syrup and snow. Following graduation from high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he studied psychology, journalism, and cheese curds. He also captained Wisconsin's Big 10 Champion track and field team.

Adam started his advertising career as a copywriter at Cramer Krasselt working on iconic brands including Reddi-Wip, Ski-Doo, GNC, Snap-On, Briggs and Stratton, and Case IH. His next stop was at Engauge where he ascended to the role of Chief Creative Officer, winning work with such well-known brands as Nike, Coca-Cola, Nationwide Insurance, Wells Fargo, UPS, and Chick-fil-a. Publicis Groupe acquired Engauge in 2013 and folded the agency into Atlanta-based Moxie, forming a 625 person marketing powerhouse. Adam remained at Moxie until 2016 when he left to launch The Weaponry.

In your life story one of your stops was at Engauge where you ascended to the role of Chief Creative Officer, tell us about that. 

I landed there as a Creative Director overseeing the Columbus office and there are offices in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Orlando, and Austin. Two years later, I was promoted to Executive Creative Director, two years after that they made me the Chief Creative Officer overseeing all the offices, and we had 275 people. We started to crush, that was a really fun time. But over the course of the next couple of years after I became Chief Creative Officer, we won business with Nationwide Insurance, Wells Fargo, Cisco Systems, we won business with, UPS, with Bob Evans, Walgreens, and it wasn't all me. But by the time we were, we were really rolling, we did a bunch of work with Kraft and Nike. So it was a hot time and the private equity firm that owned us after winning all this said "Let's sell." So I was involved as part of the four-person leadership team that did all the singing and dancing for all of our potential suitors. So in the first half of 2013, I was on Wall Street every single week, presenting, singing and dancing, and being with people who were interested in buying the agency. That was my advanced degree in business, and it set me up for the rest of my career. 

What was that experience like?

The really interesting thing that happened to me here was that I spent my career in advertising as a creative. When I got into that sale process, and I got to sit down with, you know, the chief financial officers, chief executive officers and Chief Operating officers from these international holding companies, I quickly recognize going through the conversations with their banks, and such, that the people who are really making money in advertising are not the writers and the art directors, the media lady and the Account Exec who are up until two in the morning, trying to get the presentation ready for the next day. It's the bankers is the people who say, "Hey, I want to pay for that," or the investors who say, "I'll buy this business!" Those are the people who are really making bank. That was that that was all I needed to know. So I felt like, "Let's go change this in my next chapter."

So let's get into the next chapter where you start a business!

So after the sale went through I was incentivized to stick around with the next company for a couple of years. The company is called Moxie, based in Atlanta with offices in New York, LA, Columbus, and Pittsburgh. I was incentivized to stick around and I was trying to make the best of it, but I had an earn-out, which meant that a incentivize me to stick around for three years and every year on the anniversary they're like, "You did it, you stuck around another year!" By the end of my earn-out period, I was ready to go do something else. As I was thinking about what I might be doing next, one day, while sitting in my office at work in Atlanta, I get a phone call from a former client of mine named Chris Dawson who I had worked with him at Skidoo. He calls and says, "Hey, I'm I'm in a new situation, I'm now the chief operating officer of iKON Aircraft, we're launching this amazing new sport aircraft is like basically like a watercraft that flies and so I'd love to work with you again." He said, "I'd love to work with you, but I don't want to work with your current agency, would you think about starting your own business?" And I said, "Yes, absolutely I will do that." Well, so then two hours later, I get another call from another former client of mine who I worked with a Nationwide Insurance. He was a lawyer, and he was the Chief Marketing Officer of another good business. He said, "Adam, this new situation, I'm not a chief marketing officer, this new place, I love to work with you again, but I don't want to work with your current agency." I said, "Well as it just so happens, I started my business!" So then, two things happened. I looked around my office, I thought wow, this seems way too good to be true. Then I thought, "This is what I've been waiting for." When you think about going through life and waiting for those doors to open opportunities come your way, and this one just came my way. So now you got to run and figure out what to do next. I knew that I couldn't count on either of them to come through for sure, so let me see what else got what other kinds of interest there may be. So I quickly hit up a few other former clients and within about a week, I had five clients who said, "If you do this, we have work for you." So then I was like, Alright, here we go, but then I had a dilemma because I basically had a huge opportunity to go and start my own agency, which had been my goal from the beginning of my career. But I had been on the salary track all my career. I had a significant mortgage at the time, I had three kids and I have a wife that I really wanted to keep. So I'm trying to lock this how do you go from this, quote-unquote, sure thing of a salary position to entrepreneurship. One day, I was reading a blog post from a friend of mine, who's an entrepreneur, and it was 10 things you don't need to do to start your own business. I gotta tell you, it changed my life. I'm throwing that out there and making it seem dramatic, but it really unlocked the door for me, because I read this and there are things like you don't need a lawyer until you have money nobody's steal anything from you. You don't need a business plan, that's if you're looking for, you know, if you're looking for financing, you should have a plan, but you don't need any official business plan. But number seven was the one that really unlocked it for me. It said, "You don't need to quit your job, in fact, he says, I encourage you not to quit your job. Let your day job fund your entrepreneurial project, and hold on to that day job as long as you can." For me, that was the key in the lock, the door opens and I walk through because that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to start this on the side and I'm hoping it will be my future. I started taking on clients nights and weekends, right? So a little bit of night work and some weekend work and it suddenly starts snowballing and then my nights are full, weekends are full, I'm not sleeping at all. So that's how I got started. 

I want to read what you put on that front page of The Weaponry that in my opinion is like a mindset. You guys put on your website, "The weaponry is an advertising and idea agency that believes business is war and to win the war of business, you have to outrank your competition." You go on to say, "Sound aggressive? Oh, we are aggressive." 

I tell you what, I start off every company meeting, we say here's our philosophy, here's our belief, and if this is how you feel, then this is the place for you and if it isn't, then there's a better place for you. I absolutely believe this. I have a little bit of athletic background and one of the things that I have found is that a lot of athletes when they were college or professional, not so much if you're a high school athlete, but a lot of college athletes because it becomes such a big part of your routine in college, such a huge part of your time and such a such an important part of your identity. But when you are done with your athletics, a lot of athletes say, "I was lost, I felt like it wasn't me without sports." I would say I never felt that at all. As soon as I graduated, I just turned my attention to my career and took the exact same focus and drive, and willing to put in the energy to be great that I did for my athletics, and as a student. I put that into my career and it surprises me how few athletes do the exact same thing because it is the exact same blueprint for athletic success that drives the rest of the success in your career. The structure, the discipline, the focus, the background work that you have to do as an athlete you know, all those the little stupid things that we would do the little drills that you do over and over to perfect a piece of what you do. You do that in your career and it becomes highly specialized and you become world-class at the smallest thing. You add extreme value to organizations that make money off of that kind of work. So I remember early in my career, getting hyper-focused on concepts for a campaign or ideas for a new business pitch. It felt the same as those times where I was in the weight room, I'm focusing hard on getting those last few reps. It's the same thing, it's the exact same feeling.

Do you think college athletes in particular are given the room and space from what's expected of them? Do you think they're able to meet their expectations as a college athlete, and then also still have time to engage in these other facets of life?

No, that's a great, great point. The demands of the average college athlete are so great that it is hard to be well rounded, and that's and that's by design, right? I think that there's some truth to that with college athletics is that they give you time for academics, time for athletics, all you can eat, and then you have very little time to get in trouble. Then little by little and, and just enough time to get in trouble to blow off steam and almost no room to get involved with, you know, the jazz appreciation club, or to go and join the Outing Club and take sailing lessons on Sunday afternoon, and just to do all those other things that make you a really well-rounded human. 

So it sounds to me if you if there was one maybe thing in particular that you would like to see changed in this world of sports, specifically at a high level, it's the freedom to have other interests.

I think that your point is good, yes, that would be great for people in the long run. But I also believe if you really want to be great things, go all in. There's such importance to being able to focus, focus your energy, focus your time, focus it on a goal if you really want to nail that. So I wouldn't necessarily change that because it leads to high performance and I think that there's a lot of athletes who go to college and say, "I don't have the same focus, I don't, I don't want to have this tunnel vision, just to be a track athlete or a wrestler or a volleyball player." Then they stop and they say, "Hey, I found a big exciting life outside of athletics," and then good for them because that would have broken my heart if that's how my store would have ended. I really cared about the challenge of track and field. Track and field is a little different than a  traditional team sport because it is all you and it's so cut and dry right there. I put a tape measure out or a stopwatch to figure out if I was improving and if I was better than a bunch of other people who have tried this as well. So and so from that standpoint, I just found the challenge of self-improvement to be intoxicating.

And so much more...

Meet Emily

Emily was a Division 1 Rower at the University of Oklahoma who found that the lifestyle she was living to be unhealthy. Emily believed she was healthy because she was constantly active and could eat whatever she wanted without gaining weight, but realized that she didn't know how to train without overworking herself or how to fuel her body properly. Emily decided to start the Girls Gone Healthy Podcast when she realized how many girls just like her were struggling when it came to working out, eating right, and feeling confident in your body. The Girls Gone Healthy Podcast is her way of bringing affordable (it's free!) and accessible health and fitness information to listeners. Hear from Emily as she goes through her journey and is joined by certified fitness and nutrition professionals that provides girls in Emily's situation with advice on their bodies which are constantly changing and fluctuating. The link to her podcast is at the bottom of the show notes.

So your position in rowing is a Coxswain, what is that? How does someone become a Coxswain? 

Yeah, so lots of people don't even know that there are multiple positions in rowing. But I did not have an oar, I did not actually row, I sat at the back and I had a microphone so I'm instructing, I'm steering, and I'm coaching them. So I'm a little bit more of a coach than an athlete, but I'm in the boat with them. Physically what they're looking for is you got to be small enough to fit in that spot and you have to be 110 pounds and then you know to be a good Coxswain you just have to kind of know the most about the sport because you're the one critiquing everyone else's rowing style. You have to know a little bit more than they do to be improving your team and just being confident with it too is what they look for. 

Talk us through how that part of your position developed the leadership and the ability to talk to your fellow teammates, not in a way where you seem like a coach because I would imagine that that would be difficult.

Yeah, it's like a weird identity to be in. You do need to have some leadership over the team, but at the same time when I came in as a freshman, I was instructing people that had been there longer than me. It's that fine line where you're communicating between the coaches and the athletes and also back from the athletes to the coaches, but you also do want to be that friendly figure, you want to be their teammate. So I think that you just kinda have to balance that really well. Especially when, you know, I picked it up at 14 in high school. I'm like, I don't even know what this means. Like, it's a lot of pressure that I just would talk whatever came out of my mouth.

What does that pressure like to feel responsible for ultimately staying on a straight line and providing the right you know, the right tools for your team to be successful?

Yeah, there's a lot of trust that goes into me, all these people can't see what's going on with the racing field, they don't see what's coming up next. So they have to be able to trust me where what I'm gonna make that decision is the best possible one at that moment. That's a lot of pressure sometimes because I have nine people's opinions, and I'm the only one voicing them. But I think that at the end of the day, they are my teammates, and some of them make mistakes, too. So I just had to realize that even though I do have more leadership than other positions, we're all still learning together, all competing together. 

When you're on your site, and you read about your story, this is really kind of where it seems like your story starts at this point in your college career where you felt like you had consistently been able to maintain that 110 pounds, and then all of a sudden one summer you bumped up to 120 and then you spent the rest of your college career trying to almost be your former self in a way. What was it about that struggle that that really stands out to you now, and that motivated you to ultimately want to be a voice in this community for young girls or young women who might be going through the same struggles?

Yeah, so for me, you know, I jumped up that 120, I needed to get back down. I always thought it was going to be easy for me because I'm an athlete and I should know how to do this. But as an athlete, you're not taught weight loss, because usually that's not really needed, maybe if you're a wrestler, but besides that, not really. So all the ways that I kept going about it were just super unhealthy ways. But in my mind, I was like, "But I'm an athlete, so I must be healthy, right?" I keep thinking about my body, so I must be healthy, I'm losing weight, so I must be healthy. In actuality, it was just unhealthy, I was draining myself mentally, I wasn't well physically. So once I removed myself from that, and I was no longer an athlete and was no longer striving to hit a certain weight, I could start incorporating healthier habits. I was like, "There are so many people that are still stuck on that struggle of dieting, dieting, trying to drop weight, when that might not be the healthiest thing." That's why I wanted to start sharing my story of, you know, I was an athlete, and I was struggling with it, and just because you work out a bunch doesn't mean your nutrition is healthy and just because your nutrition is healthy, doesn't mean you're healthy in other areas. I think that a lot of time, we do focus so much on just one thing.

What do you think maybe could have been a differentiator for you during your time in college, that maybe could have allowed for you to get out of this slump a little bit quicker? Is there anything that sticks out?

I think it's just the pressure that I was putting on myself and the expectations of, you know, I thought it was my first time ever trying to lose weight, and it was 10 pounds, I thought it was gonna be like so much easier. Then I had 10 different coaches telling me different things of how to get there, and when I still wasn't seeing the results, it's really hard to go to the people that are so certified and so qualified to give you advice and be like, "Actually, it's not working for me," because it wasn't. Not because their advice was bad, but because I was just in the wrong mindset of thinking this isn't working for me. If I had taken some of that pressure off myself of you know, I need to hit one specific number and I have one specific goal, then that would have brought back the love of the sport that would have encouraged me to lose the weight instead of just doing it because I hated myself and I was putting this pressure on. It would have come more from the love of the sport and that's how I started it and really enjoyed rowing, to begin with.

What advice would you give to someone who's a current athlete, who is facing similar struggles of trying to stay on the team, trying to make the starting lineup, or trying to cut weight, but they don't realize the mental side of it yet? Are there triggers, or things that you can point to that would help athletes in similar situations?

I think everyone could kind of benefit from taking a bigger approach towards their mental health even before it starts to spiral, right? For me, once I started to spiral, it's easier to be like, "Okay, clearly, this isn't working." But I think that you just have to check in with yourself because being an athlete at any level, you have so many outside influences telling you what you should be doing, how you should be acting, and how you should be performing. That's not always realistic and even as you go on throughout your career, you change and your goals change. So I think that if I had taken the time to reevaluate, like maybe if I didn't beat myself up over five pounds, and I just was in a lesser boat, I think I would have saved myself two years of stress. But in the moment, it's like, "I promised high school Emily, that I was gonna go all the way." And it's like, well, everyone kind of ends sports at some point. Anyways, I wish I enjoyed it more. As athletes, you put so much pressure on yourself. Even former athletes in different areas of their life put so much pressure on themselves. Like I know so many people that then they go on and get jobs, and they're like, "Oh, I can't quit this job, I'm not a quitter." Like, I've had that mindset, you know, I'm like, I'm not a quitter, I never quit anything, because you're used to just training yourself and building yourself up. That might not be the best mentality to have there, either. So I think, kind of training yourself to think that even though we might have been athletes then, maybe we should learn some healthier ways now because we're not going to be athletes forever.

You spoke that you really want to cover four major categories inside of your podcast. So talk us through what those four categories are, that you would that you highlight throughout your shows, and interviews with your guests.

Yeah, so we start with mindset because that's how I started my transition. I had all the resources with fitness nutrition, but without having that mindset of where I should be with my health, I was never going to get there. 2 is balanced nutrition. So you know, there's no set meal plans or diets that will make you healthier or won't. It's just having a balance of it all. Number 3 is movement. I'm no longer going to the gym and being like  "I have to do this amount of workout or burn this many calories for it to count." I just include every movement as part of my exercise even just going for a walk with my dog or my mom, those count as being active. 4 is habits. When you are transitioning into this new period, it's really easy to be like, "I'll just work out like once in a while," but just having that consistency in the habits is how you'll be living a healthier lifestyle versus just kind of like a health kick.

And so much more!

Check out Emily's Podcast: https://girlsgonehealthypodcast.com/home

Andy is the CEO at InCheck which is located in the Village of Wauwatosa just outside of Milwaukee.  InCheck provides full service customized nationwide background screening and drug testing solutions since 2002. Their clients represent a diverse range of industries and sizes ranging from local family run companies to enterprise level multi state corporations. For over 29 years Andy has been a basketball official for The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and he brings with him a phenomenal insight into the sporting world from the referee side of things, as well as a long and recognized business career.

I've been coaching hockey now for seven years and I always find myself always trying to change the refs mind. I'm still actually looking for the secret sauce on how to do that so I'm curious if you could start the show by telling us what the secret sauce is to changing a call and ultimately changing a referee's mind?

It might not be about the one that you're questioning at the moment, but you might be able to get the next one to go in your favor if you play your cards right. Also, it is based off just how a coach approaches you throughout a game and what things stand out to you. It's not that they're going to change your call so much, but whether or not you go up and you talk to them after a call or whether or not, or if you take the time to kind of hear them out after a call. I've had it both ways where sometimes I'll have to say, "Coach, I need you to sit down and he just shut the heck up," or "Coach, I'll give you the time of day and let's talk through it." With experience comes an understanding of when I expect to hear from coaches. So if there's a bang-bang play, or a 50-50 call, especially in a crucial situation of a game which goes against the coach, I can understand in that moment why he or she may want to talk a little bit more about that particular play. If it's a call that maybe I knew that I kicked, yeah, I'm gonna listen a little bit more and give them a little bit more rope, but that's not usually the case. As a coach, pick your spots as to the calls that we're going to talk about because it's not going to be every single one of them.

If you could talk to sports fans that haven't put on the black and white and haven't been in your position, what do you think is a logical expectation to have of referees at the high school, collegiate or professional level?

Just to understand that the amount of training and time that they put into it makes them highly qualified for that position. I don't think most people understand, especially the basketball floor, what it's like to blow the whistle and then have thousands of people looking at you, and having to be the ultimate communicator in that moment. Now, at a professional level I think what we see as sports fans is that the NBA refs take a ton of criticism from the general NBA fan public. But quite honestly, those are the best basketball officials on the planet, and the percentage of plays that they get right is probably not understood.

When you leave that arena after a game and you're in your car by yourself, thinking back to that one play you might've got wrong, over your career, how have you evolved in handling those situations?

A great example of that is the last game that I worked last year was a high school sectional game, right before the season was cut short due to the quarantine. There was a play in that game that I'm still thinking about, a call that I should have made that I didn't make. I don't think it affected the outcome, but it sticks with me. I think for most officials, we are our own biggest critic and so getting certain plays wrong, or missing calls all together are things that can stick with us for a while. If we're trying to improve and do things the right way, we use those experiences as learning opportunities, digging further into the rules, or maybe having our peers review a certain play by sharing video with others and things like that. Definitely a lot of self critique that comes with this profession.

What are some of the similarities to facing adversity as a referee and as the ultimate leader of business? How have those experiences benefited one another from your reffing career to your professional career?

So I think like any person, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and I think one of my strengths and weaknesses is that I'm an emotional person. On the basketball floor in emotional situations, I may say something or react a certain way to something that a coach yells at me that I may regret. So for me, it's trying to manage my emotions through those situations, trying to maintain that calm, maintain my composure, maintain my focus. I think in situations at work, whether it's losing a big deal where we're at the finish line and we just weren't selected as the vendor of choice, or its working with a client on a particular project that has a lot of challenges along the way, I am competitive so I want to win and I want things to work out. I think it's just managing my emotions through the ups and downs of certain work related cycles or processes that is a challenge for me at times as well. 

I can totally relate to being competitive and wanting to win, but that can't always happen. How do you communicate to your team specifically after a loss? 

I like to ask if there is something that we could have done differently that would have put us in a better situation to succeed? And if yes, how can we improve to build that into how we do business that may help us win in the next opportunity? As a leadership team, we meet on a quarterly basis to review our successes and failures, both individually and collectively. We try to have open and candid conversations to figure out what we can do better, but also to celebrate the wins. Then in those meetings, we will also plan for the next quarter by understanding what each manager in each area of our business is identifying as the number one target that they're looking to achieve for the next quarter, and then that next quarter, we review successes and failures from the previous quarter. On more of the micro level we have managers that are meeting with department managers more on a weekly basis, kind of digging down to the more granular details. So there's a consistent process for talking about what's working and what's not, and reviewing weeks, months, years, that is built into how we operate at InCheck. 

And so much more...

Meet Todd Townsend

A former team captain and member of the 2003 Final Four team at Marquette University, Townsend's coaching tenure has helped him build strong ties for recruiting in the Midwest.  Todd played and coached in Europe before returning to the States and coaching at NCAA DI Schools such as NIU, Drake, UW-Milwaukee and Valparaiso.  Within the last year Todd decided to make a career change and currently serves as Commercial Lines Sales Executive at R&R Insurance, where Todd helps companies improve their value by enhancing education, training, processes, and procedures that reduce the cost of doing business and offer our clients the best products, programs and professional services.

Q. Tell me about your transition that you went through from being an assistant coach at Valparaiso during the 2019 season to where you are now at R&R Insurance?

"Yeah, I would like to say it was a hard transition. At this time, it wasn't only because over the last seven-eight years I've been trying to make that transition, but to give up something that you love and coaching at the division one level or at the college level in general is a lifestyle, it's one of those things where you work in for 365 days a year and you're texting recruits on Christmas day to say "Hey merry Christmas" Hey, what did you get?" You know, you have that fear if you don't do it, another coach will.  You're always trying to get that leg up and, you do all that for 33 nights a year, trying to get the 34, 35, 36 in March. For the last 15 years my summers have been, either you're in a gym or you're on an airplane or you're in a car for 22-23 days out of July recruiting you know you spend all the June working basketball camps from seven in the morning to four or five and then hosting recruits and now I'm in sales it's like "hey, you want to golf?" "I was like during the week?" So I will say that the hardest part of the transition is actually not necessarily the job duties and things like that, it's realizing that my Saturdays and Sundays are actually for me and my family after the five or six o'clock at night you're with your family and for 15 years that wasn't the case."

Q. What is your current relationship with the sport of basketball since you have left it from a full time stance?

"I still have to get my little taste and I talk to the coaching staff and players at Valpo every day. I kind of play a consultant role with them. I talk to NBA scouts here and there, so I spend about an hour to two hours talking basketball every day, whether it's 7am in the morning after I get off my peloton, or if it's at night, but it's hard with social media because I don't follow it too much mostly because I don't go on to social media to follow it. I don't want that itch to go back and coach because I really like how life is right now."

Q. What were some of the biggest aspects as an individual, and as a family man that you were dealing with while you were deciding on your future as a basketball coach?

"Yeah it was even before the last six, you know, six, seven years, I've been trying to get out of coaching from the moment I got into it, or after the first couple years. My first couple years I coached Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews, Lazar Hayward, Steve Novak for a year and Joe Chapman. You go into the Big East, the NCAA tournament, and you're doing this stuff and for 33, 34, 35 nights of the year which is fun. But when your mom says, "life shouldn't be that hard'', or "you shouldn't have to work that hard, and you start saying, "Mom, you don't understand," and "I'm happy, I'm happy," and other things like that... Moms know when you're not happy. Other than that I would say the lack of friends because when you get into coaching so early it's tough. My best friend (Travis) Diener is still playing Europe, my former teammates are still playing and here I am in my mid 20s and all my friends are 40 year old coaches. They have grown kids and I found myself actually hanging out with their kids playing basketball more. So as you see social media begin to rise, you see your friends having fun and see you missed out on every teammates wedding. I made a couple but for the most part, I missed out on all those things. I started to realize I was missing out on a chunk of my life that I really wanted to be a part of."

Q. I'm going to follow it up with diving a little bit deeper into the recruiting process itself, then do you agree with this beast that is college recruiting? And do you think that the NCAA should be responsible for making more stipulations on how and when coaches can recruit and when they can be talking to recruits and then that might lead to just a better lifestyle for coaches?

 "It's tricky because I absolutely love recruiting, I absolutely love it.  I love the chase, I love the competition. You compete at something literally 50 times a day, whether it's this drill, whether it is a shooting drill, you're constantly competing, and  most people in life do not compete like that. I miss practice more than anything. I miss practice more than those 33, 34, 35 nights of the year where you where you're suiting up and playing, so I miss being competitive and recruiting. You have this list, and it's this chase of trying to win. You're getting to know people and along the way you're changing kids' lives. You develop this unbelievable relationship and then they've got to make a decision, and it's not really them making the decision so you've got to get to the decision maker and things like that. Then there's heartbreak. When I got the call that Fred Van Vleet was committing to Wichita State over us, that was my first real heartbreak. On the flipside, it is screwed up because for 365 days a year, you are prioritizing other people's kids before your own. You'd be gone all of July to come back off the road to try to get these recruits on campus in August before school starts, and every weekend of the fall you're hosting recruits. Then when you're in the season, you've got to worry about your team and in any free time you have you're going to see a high school game. College athletics is screwed up because every recruit is the most important recruit, and your boss is on the hot seat even if he just won 20 plus games, and you just need to be there for a recruit. Bottom line is that recruiting is not healthy, especially when you're at that low major-mid major level and you don't have money to take a plane, so you've got to drive six hours on the back roads in the Midwest after a seven o'clock High School game to get back in the morning. You know, it's not healthy."

And much more...

Meet David Mylrea

David is the president and CEO of Engage Technologies Corporation. Engage owns a number of companies in the printing and packaging sector - including selling inkjet printers. Prior to becoming the CEO of Engage he was Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Engage. In addition to his duties with Engage, he was also a Capital Partner with the national law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, a firm of in excess of 650 lawyers in 30 cities across the United States, as well as London UK. In the sports world, David is a member of the St. Olaf Football Hall of Fame and has spent many years as a hockey coach.

Where are you speaking to us from?

I'm speaking from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Actually a suburb in the southwestern corner of the City of Minneapolis. And I'm working from my office, my home office this morning. The last several months have been very interesting as a result, obviously of COVID-19 and how that's impacted our company and the operations we are in the industrial packaging business, we do coding and marking - meaning inks and printers. But we have another side of the company that does packaging and delivering. So we package, we sell equipment that packages products, we sell equipment that puts codes and marks on products. Everything from bottles of various types of vitamins and foods - to the little white plastic clips that you see on a bag of hot dog buns that you buy at the grocery store. Those little white plastic clips have  a code or a mark that's printed that say this bread is good through this date. Our motto is that we help companies deliver their products to the world. Last year we sold products into 50 countries all over the world. We've been operating largely remotely, our entire sales team operates remotely because of COVID. My marketing group, including our social media people, operate remotely. Most of our engineers are operating remotely. All of our accounting group except for a couple of folks who work daily out of the office, but substantially all of them at our customer service group are all operating remotely. So we've had to make some adjustments that way to allow us to continue business, but not business the old fashioned way, where everybody went into the office all day every day.

Relating to sports here, we're all waiting as the various leagues' executives sit behind closed doors and discuss what's best for their respective sport. So what's it like having those types of conversations as a company executive?

I don't want to sound cliche, but the most important asset that we have is our employees - and I think we really walk the walk. We take all of this COVID-19 stuff very seriously. Since February, I have taken to writing notes, emails to all of our employees, to talk to them about what we're doing and why we're doing it and why we want them to participate in things like being very careful. Wearing face masks, social distancing, doing all of the things that the CDC recommends that we do. We spend a lot of money on cleaning our facilities, much more than we did in years prior. We now require people that visit our facilities to wear masks and have their temperature taken.They also have to fill out a form stating they haven't felt sick - all of those provisions that the CDC suggests. I also regularly communicate with our entire team and let them know how we're doing on the COVID front and also how the company is doing. My way of dealing with this has been to communicate openly and freely with all of our employees on a regular basis and to do everything that we can that the CDC requires. The goal is to maintain the health of our employees because if we lose our employees, we're out of business. So far we've been very fortunate, we haven't had any COVID direct hits so far.

When you look at what you guys have been able to do, do you think that it is possible for some of these professional sports organizations to put together a successful bubble that will be able to keep their athletes and team personnel safe?

There are much smarter people involved with those leagues than me. But, I have my doubts and very serious reservations about whether they ought to be going back on the field. You know, as well as I do, there's a ton of contact in these sports and there's a lot of speaking and yelling at these high levels. There's lots of contact and I don't know how you can minimize that. Why would you want to strap on the skates and go out and play hockey? Knowing what we know about how contagious COVID-19 is. Or would you want to put a football helmet on and run out on the field and tackle on an offensive lineman, running back, wide receiver or  a tight end? In this environment with this highly contagious situation I don't know, honestly. Everybody's chomping at the bit to get back on the field, and certainly the fans want to see that but I personally think that it's too early to do that. I think that we're going to see a lot more sick people than we have right now.

Being in Minneapolis, not only have you been recently dealing with the pandemic, but also the protests and everything that has been happening locally there. Has your corporation put out any statement? And as a leader where do you find your resources on how to handle situations that aren't in your original job description?

In my prior life, I was involved in managing a gigantic law firm, and I had contact with just about every kind of issue that you could imagine. So it isn't all new for me. I've been the CEO for, going on four years. But I've known the company and the senior management for many years. Everyone has a set of skills within each of our departments, each of our department leaders. Also, we're an ISO certified company, which means we have gone through the process of creating structure, organizational structure, documentation, policies and procedures - things that we have to do every day, every week, every month, every quarter, just as part of our normal business regimen. So part of learning how to deal with situations is just experience. Part of it is an ongoing training regimen. The head of our HR group is constantly involved with HR associations. Since she's getting the input from lots and lots of leaders. So we have the benefit of not just our own people but other people that support them and the same is true for our engineering, operations and accounting - each one of the leaders in those divisions are constantly getting updated, constantly being trained and have constant access to the information that we need to make the hard decisions and the right decisions when when called upon to do that.

And so much more...

Meet Mahdi Al-Own

Mahdi is the Host and Founder of the podcast The Project Kuwait. He started off his career by playing all sports and gaining experience in different fields - baseball, gymnastics, swimming, basketball, bodybuilding and most recently crossfit. He is an established baseball coach in Kuwait and personal trainer certified by Exos as a performance specialist and strength condition and coaching. He has been in the fitness and sports industry for over 20 year. In addition, he holds a Masters in business administrations with a Minor in Psychology. He is a loving, proud dad and owner of the account The Dad Project aiming to better dads everywhere. 

So, where exactly are you from?

Some people might pick up a Boston accent - that's because my mom is originally from Boston. My dad is Kuwaiti. So I traveled back and forth. When I first went to play baseball in the States, I think I was like nine or 10 years old, I was visiting during the summer and in Kuwait we didn't have baseball like you guys have in the States. So growing up I was probably the top level ballplayer here, but in the States I was far from the top. But I lived the best and the worst of two worlds.

How are youth sports structured differently in Kuwait compared to the United States?

How I see it, in America there is a grassroots dig deep mentality within the society of America. Kids find their way out of their small towns to the big stage and the brightest lights and that's what they're told to work for. And that mentality is celebrated in a way. Here in Kuwait, I would say, we're not the most athletic people - our body types are relatively small. The average height is anywhere between 5'7" to 5'10". I'm considered a big guy in Kuwait, but when I'm in the States, I'm the smallest guy in the room. So when I look at that, there's already a big gap between the United States and Kuwait. And then there are the various levels and leagues - I can think of a ton of different baseball leagues. There's also the various soccer leagues, basketball, hockey - so all year round kids are playing sports. Here in Kuwait, from May or June all the way until September, kids can't even go outside because it's so hot out. But even during the time when they can play, in my experience as a baseball coach, parents emphasize the study routine - more education than playing sports. In my perspective, sports can be a really important piece of the developmental puzzle. Time management is a big one. Sometimes those skills that they're not developing on the field, they lose when they get into the business world later on in life.

What are some of those other traits that you as a baseball player and coach can attribute to baseball?

I think there's so much in life that I learned from baseball - work ethic and calculating decisions. I was a catcher so part of my job behind the plate was figuring out which pitches to throw, who's running where and really thinking multiple batters ahead of my pitcher. But I can't give all my props to baseball. I was a gymnast before I was a baseball player. And then I was a diver. But the first time I tried out for baseball, I was 12 years old after really discovering baseball in Boston and finding out there was a league in Kuwait. I decided baseball would be my focus. So I get placed on a team with all 16- to 18-year olds and that was the first time I learned that I had to work harder than everyone else because I developed a little slower, obviously being younger and smaller than everyone else. That first year I learned so much that I still take with me to this day. 

How has your story with your brother changed you and your life?

I had an older brother who passed away in 2005, it was right after the Red Sox won the World Series. And at the time I was headed down a dark path in my life, I was getting into trouble, going job to job with really no direction in my life at the time. I dropped out of college and it just wasn't a good time in my life. When my brother passed away, it kind of hit me. I picked up the pieces and it really reshaped the rest of my life. To this day, I believe my brother's death was a message to me and really him saving my life. 

What's something that yourself today would have told your 22-year-old self when you were going through some of your toughest times?

If I could go back and give perspective on my life I would. I'm pretty proud of my life now as a father, businessman, podcaster - before the show I told you that I run one of, possibly the leading podcasts in Kuwait and it's been built on hard work and nothing easy. At 22 I wish I knew the value of hard work and work ethic. Just working smart and trying to get things done the proper way and not procrastinating. 

What do you wish I would have asked you about? 

I think we covered some great topics, Will. It's just sports and kids - I think it's such a foundational pillar in our society. I think we're starting to neglect to see how important it is that kids are exposed to multiple sports versus just sitting around in front of an iPad or a TV. Yes, technology is the future, but at the same time if you aren't a well-rounded individual you're going to be screwed. I've coached kids that have gone on to Ivy League schools, and they all have just worked hard. I think parents can teach their kids that work ethic is important and coaches can make sports all about the kids and teach them that as long as they're striving to succeed they eventually will.

Meet Cecil Harris

Cecil is the author of four books on sports and sociology: Different Strokes: Serena, Venus, and the Unfinished Black Tennis Revolution, Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters, Call the Yankees My Daddy and Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey. Harris has also covered sports for The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Newsday, The New York Post, The Indianapolis Star, The News and Observer, Sporting News, The Hockey News, USA Today and the Associated Press. 

So behind the obvious answer of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, what has been your favorite playoffs or championship that you've covered?

I really did enjoy the Stanley Cup Playoffs during the finals in 2001 - The New Jersey Devils beat the Dallas Stars. I'm in New York, and New Jersey is just across the Hudson River, so it was like a local team had won. But, in reality my favorite was the 1996 Yankees when they won the world series. I had to suppress my rooting interest and wear that journalism hat for all six games and it was so great when they clinched game six here in New York and then had a huge parade along the Canyon of Heroes, which goes from Battery Park to City Hall.

What kind of impact did the Yankees have on New York back in 2001 right after 9/11?

It's interesting, at the time, I was in Indianapolis covering the Indianapolis Pacers for the Indianapolis Star, but I was rooting passionately for the Yankees. They ended up playing the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 playoffs and lost the first two games of the series in Arizona badly. Then they won the three games in New York and that was such an uplifting event. I'm watching on TV from Indiana, but I was in touch with all my New York friends and family members - and for the Yankees to come back and win the three middle games and then go back out to Arizona, and unfortunately they lose, what those games did for New York just a few weeks after the 9/11 tragedy, it really galvanized the city. That's the great thing about sports, it can really bring people together in a way that few other things can and allow a lot of people to forget about things. For example those three games allowed people to forget about losing loved ones, the World Trade Center and being targeted by terrorists - at least for a while.

We look at where we are today, and there aren't sports to galvanize cities and populations. As an author and journalist who has been covering sports for the last 20-or-so years, do you think your job as a journalist who covers black athletes is more important now than maybe ever before?

I think it is now because the athletes have found their voices. For example that video that the NFL players put out with Odell Beckham Jr., Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley where they mention the names of some of the blacks who have been killed through violent interactions with the police. It was such a powerful statement that the NFL went to Commissioner Goodell and told him that he had to put out another statement because the one he had before was widely mocked. But this new video he made, where he actually said the words "black lives matter" you could not envision that four years ago when Colin Kaepernick was taking a knee for the San Francisco 49ers and was vilified for it. But now he might get a tryout for a team because the mood of the nation has changed. I think a lot of it has to do with the jarring reality that we have seen video of what happened to George Floyd for many of those other victims of violence. For other protests we didn't see video, but the whole world has seen video of George Floyd with a police officer's knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. The only reason people have seen that is because a 17-year-old girl from the community was filming it with her smartphone, basically doing citizen journalism and now the whole world has seen it.

What has it been like in New York and New York City?

There are daily marches and rallies in New York City. The Mayor of New York City. imposed a curfew but eventually lifted the curfew because they were peaceful marches and demonstrations. There has been some looting and that's really the terrible part because some people are destroying businesses, and sometimes it's outsiders causing the problems with the looting, but for the most part it is peaceful. What I find really intriguing is that all of this is going on during a global pandemic. And people are risking their lives to be out there marching and protesting with like-minded people about something they believe in. I see it especially in healthcare workers who are already putting in really long days - and everyone has been asking for police reform. 

What do you consider to be the responsible message for sports leagues, franchises and even players to be putting out on social media?

I think the parse "Black Lives Matter" was considered controversial a few years ago, but now everyone understands that when you say that you're not saying that other people's lives don't matter. People say it because there are so many instances of unarmed black people who are killed, so Black Lives Matter should matter. So I think it's responsible for athletes to recognize that they need to use their videos in a responsible way and amplify these issues like the murder of George Floyd or the black bird watcher in Central Park who was just asking that a woman's dog was on a leash - which is the law. They should be saying that these acts of disrespect need to stop and the solution should not always be, "I'm going to call the police." People weren't saying Black Lives Matter a few years ago, but now I think we have to look a bit deeper to see how diverse and inclusive these sports organizations are. 

You certainly bring it up in your book, Different Strokes: Serena, Venus, and the Unfinished Black Tennis Revolution, but do you think people who have kept their mouths maybe a little bit tighter and kept their thoughts to themselves a little bit more have an easier time speaking out?

In Serena and Venus Williams' cases I think it is easier for them now that they have been known to speak up. Their parents really instilled that in them. As they were coming up they learned about early tennis history. They learned about Althea Gibson, who was the first black major tennis champion in the 1950s. Some of what she did helped pave the way for the Williams sisters - I mean, no one has told Serena that she can't change into her tennis clothes in the locker room. And these two have taken full advantage of their opportunities.

What were some of those Venus-Serena match-ups like?

It's amazing because they're the most successful sibling act in the history of sports really. They've combined for 30 major titles - 23 by Serena. They both basically came of age in professional tennis in the 1990s. When Venus was 17 she reached the final of the US Open, and in 1999 when Serena was 17 and won the US Open. Within two years, the Williams sisters were number one and two in the world. They are the reason that the women's final in the US Open became a prime-time event. CBS had the rights at the time and their story was so great, and transcended sports and tennis in such a way that they put it against a Notre Dame-Nebraska football game when both of those schools were powerhouses and their ratings were higher.

And so much more...

Meet Brian Weaver

Brian serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of Torch.AI, an augmented intelligence platform. Brian also ranks among the top amateur Ironman athletes in the world. He has achieved all-world gold athlete status five times and the US AT All-American six times. 

How would you define AI?

You could go as far down the rabbit hole as Elon Musk goes where you've got completely automated decision making by a machine that ultimately would achieve what a human being is capable of. But the reality is you're looking for a machine to help inform and make some decision that a human might not be able to contemplate. The bottom line is the system itself needs to learn and have continuous improvement. That's what the "L" in machine learning means. It doesn't mean applying to a static model. At the end of the day, what you're really looking for and what the real companies that are really working in the space are this notion of what we call common editorial analysis, where you've got machines teaching machines. You've got the idea that you've got a system learning from itself. 

If I've got 12 months trying to understand AI or training for an Ironman, which would you recommend being easier?

I think the approach is the same. I have some of the most brilliant minds around me at Torch.AI, but the bottom line is that you need to enlist the help of others. This goes for Ironmans too. If I was serious about it, I needed to get the best people around me that I could. Fortunately for me, I've had the ability to work with some of those folks. As you have success, even as an employer, it's hard to sustain. I had a couple of coaches that had this great network around them and really helped me polish my racing up. Then, I did the same thing when I built Torch.AI. I knew that I needed to have certain people that knew how to deliver to customers in a technology environment. I knew I needed to have some really advanced brains working on the applications and I knew I needed to have the same ideas around the technology. I did the same with racing - a bike coach, triathlon coach and a nutritionist. So I would say pick your poison - and I don't race today because I got injured, but if you had that choice, I would say pick which one intellectually stimulates you - and I found both of those intellectually stimulating for me.

How did you begin the process of building your various teams? What type of culture and characteristics were you looking for out of the people you had join your teams?

The first part is be aware of yourself. I know that I'm super disciplined. I grew up with a father who worked in Army intelligence so it was a very structured household because of that. Even though I have this proclivity toward chaos and doing things differently, I'm still a very disciplined person because of that. I need to have someone around me that is more that defender type. If I'm out there I need to have some defender persona to make sure I don't kill myself at what I'm doing or hurt the company. You have to be aware of that balance. It's almost a mathematical approach. You need to take inventory of yourself and what you are and realize what else you need to succeed. Then you need to have the guts to reach out to those types of people. How I got my bike coach, Matt Dixon, who really only trained professionals and wanted nothing to do with amateurs, I asked Hunter Allen, who develops the math behind these intense bike workouts for Tour de France type athletes, and he said Matt Dixon is the guy, if you can get him. So I reached out to Matt and he kind of blew me off. But eventually he took me and it worked out. So really some of that is cold calling and just trying to see what you can get done. I also had to do this a lot with my work because it mixes with the political sphere so I was calling senators, getting blown off and then calling staffers and just working my way up the food chain until I could get to them. 

How would you approach those types of calls you had with some important people?

I think about how I'd want to be approached. I try to contribute something meaningful. I think that at the end of the day when you're planning on talking to somebody you should think about their world and find something that means something to them. What I've enjoyed is my relationships with these people are genuine and lifelong and that's because these calls are coming from a good place. I don't go into them thinking about what I'm going to get out of them, I'm almost thinking about what I can contribute to them. If you go into it with a good heart and you're not trying to get something out of somebody and really thinking about it like an ecosystem, then they'll feel something and be more receptive to you. 

How do you view failure? How is it an integral part of your eventual success?

I remember talking to one of my first customers at an event and he just said, "with age comes wisdom." And what I think he meant by that was, as you get older and wiser you gain a different perspective. I'm still a young guy but I've had 10 lifetime's worth of experience. I've done a lot of crazy things, but at the end of it all, resilience is a key thing. The setbacks you sometimes don't feel in the moment. I've been through some dark little moments thinking that I was about to lose everything and what you realize coming out of those is it's never as bad as you thought. It's like training. I'm going to lift weight, I'm going to do a sprint workout or I'm going to do a threshold workout on a bike. If that's stress, it builds muscle. What I've found is most of the CEOs that haven't lived through the gauntlet, they're ill-equipped. It's like the situation we're in now, but I'm sort of excited to have some of the wisdom that I have because I've lived through some tough times and I know how to adapt. It's all about stress and recovery, and it's that cycle that's critical.

As a CEO, do you encourage your employees to take time away and clear their minds while getting out of the office?

I've often thought about doing running clubs and things like that at work. I think there are some times where it can be a little oppressive with a company, but what I've found is that I need to be supportive of those that have a curiosity and want help. I've done a bunch of couch to 5k programs for people who find that fun. But I think what's better as a CEO is not getting too into it. Again, there needs to be some balance for employees. What I have been focused on is realizing and making sure that others realize that work habits can change and be flexible. There are family things that are more important, especially now. The best thing I can do as a leader is to make sure that the culture around the organization supports a balanced approach to life. I'm not a big fan of the whole work-life balance thing. I think you should have a kick ass job as much as you love your life. As an employer I really think about how I'd want to be treated if I were an employee. I did one of my biggest sales I've ever done in my career while I was sitting in my bed with my kids jumping all around, and I remember distinctly, writing on a pad of paper, "enable people to work from anywhere." I think that you've got to have accountability. What are your tasks and stick to them and you've got to be committed. 

You launched your own company in 2001 where you focused on using data to influence customer behavior at NASCAR events, what was that first project like?

To this day, it's pretty profound. It's the equivalent to a Super Bowl for some types of people, so it's really a fascinating business. As an employee of a company, I did a program for one of the speedways and the program worked incredibly well and the speedway was very excited and wanted to keep doing it but my employer didn't see value in that audience. I actually got reprimanded for differing from their opinion. I had this idea to go in and do it for the company for all these speedways and they didn't hire me as an employee and so I put a program together to start a company and build this marketing and information services around race fan retention and ticket sales and it just took off like wildfire.

Meet Adam Sherlip 

Adam is the Executive Director and Founder of The Hockey Foundation where he empowers under-served youth, promotes social change, peace and prosperity and supports community development through hockey worldwide. He also served as the first Head Coach of the Indian Men's National Ice Hockey Team.

So you've been a hockey coach in both America and Canada, what are the differences in the way hockey is taught in America and Canada?

There are differences. I think some of those differences also tend to be regional more than just national. But there's no doubt that at a national level, USA hockey and hockey Canada operate differently, not at the organizational level so much as everybody beneath the organization. All of the parents and players and coaches and referees. Coaching in New York there was definitely an openness and a willingness to deal with coaches that had different perspectives and backgrounds and experiences, and certainly the part in New York that I'm from, which is Long Island, there's a fair amount of people with money and business acumen and they do see it as an investment, but they're willing to make that investment if they believe in their coach, and that their coach is treating their kids in a way that fits for them. And of course, there's old school and new school, but USA hockey - and especially the New York Region - has done a great job of showing current coaches the value in adapting to the ADM, the American Development Model, and long term athlete development and then multi sport and not always focusing on on systems at a young age, just all these things that are fairly standard and commonplace now for a lot of American hockey players and families and that's been a little bit more of an uphill battle to get that message to disseminate around Canada. I live in Quebec, which is a French speaking province and I was coaching at an English program here and that put us in a little bit of a position where we were different from the rest of the population. So having an American coach who was teaching in a different way fit very well into the program. The coach who was running the program was a bit new school as well and really focused on skills development and giving the kids all different activities to make sure that they're becoming better hockey players, and that's not always the case. Around the province there's a lot of coaches who are still focused on winning frankly, which is not the point in youth hockey for Canadians minor hockey. The point is to get these kids to improve and to keep them having fun and to just help them be better people ultimately, and the cream will rise if you give them every resource possible. Blue cream will rise and hockey Canada knows that. Hockey Canada has looked at the success of USA hockey over the past decade and that it's clear that USA hockey is doing something correct. And hockey Canada is trying to get those same messages out there. And some of the things that are being done in the US are starting to happen in Canada with significantly more resistance.

I want to kind of go back to something you said early on when you were speaking, specifically about New York and some things you've seen there when you talked about the investment that people are making. Can you elaborate on that a little bit and talk about how some of the local businesses are involving themselves in hockey?

It's not necessarily local businesses in any way that are significant in New York. I think local businesses do a better job of getting involved in youth hockey here in Quebec, where you'll actually see youth sponsorship. That happens because a lot of parents of players are coming. They're wealthy, they're successful. They might be business owners or executives. They have a business mentality, so many of them are invested in their children's development as any good parents would be. The big thing is, there's so many options for them to invest in their children's development and hockey is a significant investment. It's among the more expensive ones that any parents could make for their children's development. And they want to see return and I could understand it, I don't agree with it. They're expecting that their child is going to improve in ways that are often unrealistic, depending on their age and their skill level. Even if you have an elite coach, if the player is eight years old, they're not elite, and they can't become elite overnight. I mean, elite is when you're ready to be in the NHL, and we use that term, unfortunately, too much at too young of an age. And there's so much pressure to perform. And again, because these parents are spending thousands and thousands of dollars and shuttling their children around they want to see that return on investment that I think negatively impacts hockey development in the region. But there's so much investment that I mean, inevitably kids are going to still come out of that system. 

Have you thought about what that message could be to transition from a mindset of, "I need my kid needs to develop." And my return on investment is not so much what type of hockey player they become, but what type of child to preteen to teenager to young adult they become and how hockey plays a role in that?

That message has to start with education on the coach's part. The coach needs to know and be prepared. And not every coach can have the same amount of knowledge and experience, but we can all pursue improvement. We could all pursue more experience and more knowledge on the game and on coaching techniques and on children's brain and body development. So it starts with being deliberate and intentional and having a clear goal and communicating those goals. Not necessarily, "Why did I do this one drill?" But, "Why do i do drills a certain way? Why do I run my practice this way? Why am I interacting with the team in a certain way?" And so for me, in New York, I mean, I've had groups of players and parents that are easier and more difficult, and I try to keep an eye on them now that I've moved away and seeing how some of them are succeeding in the game I have some pride of like, "Maybe I was part of that foundation for their development when they were 9-10 years old." But I had meetings with every single player and parent. In those meetings I would ask the parents their questions while the player was there. We talk about the game, we talk about how the season is going, and we talk about positions, and then all those basics because I didn't want to get into anything too sophisticated. And then I'd ask the player, how does he think things are going.  Ask if they have any stress, and then treat the player and the parent with respect and communicate clearly, with them. My objectives, and how I see things playing out and we didn't always agree, but at least if I was clear on that, they couldn't poke holes in it, if I just operated from a distance with my arms crossed.

Looking back at some of those kids, even though you've moved away, would you say that that system has produced not only good hockey players but also kids who have grown up with their head on their shoulders outside of the game of hockey?

For the kids I've coached in New York, I would like to believe so. I have less contact with them and their families. But there were the players that I coached in a country far, far away that I've been able to see over many years of development. And of course, they're starting without a hockey culture. Whereas Canada is a country so influenced by hockey. In the US not as much but for the people who love it, they love it no differently. We have access to it at least. But for people on the other side of the planet who don't have the access or the hockey culture that's a part of theirs, they've been sponges and they absorb the information. I really got to see some of those lessons over the years change the culture, not just the hockey culture, but kind of changed the culture in little subtle ways.

Let's just dive right into that. I want to talk about your journey. I want to kind of hear about how it got started. Tell us a little bit about The Hockey Foundation.

I mean, it's such a big story. Sometimes I don't even know where to start. But The Hockey Foundation, it's now in its 10th year of operation. It came out of my first trip over to India to the Himalayas, where I coached as a volunteer and donated equipment. I saw just how much these people love talking about hockey and benefited from hockey and were dedicated to improving. That was based on previous experiences I had coaching in China when I worked for the Islanders. And so that came out of those two experiences just wanting to formalize it and then start the organization with a mission to help. That's it, help via hockey. There's different ways that I've written that over the years and described that. But it's been that broad and open. We all know as hockey players and lovers and fans and coaches and everybody who's involved in the game, we know that it leaves an indelible mark on who we are. I know we're in an era right now where there's a lot of criticism on hockey culture, and I could understand those critiques but at its core, it is a game that teaches teamwork and accountability and in my opinion, honesty and acceptance and it is an expensive game and it is a difficult game. It's fast and physical and requires coordination that few other sports require. And so, we've really worked hard to provide access to that game, not just in India in the Himalayas. But in other communities and including in an Inuit village in northern Quebec, we've sent gear to two countries in Africa and the Middle East, a little bit in Eastern Europe. So we have a few different projects going on and we're always looking for other projects that might be relevant. Supporting communities that don't have access, who's the winner, there's already great charities that that are supporting New York City and Philadelphia and in Minnesota, all these there's great hockey charities around the US and around Canada, but they're often providing access to people near hockey communities, people that don't have the money. We're trying to support communities that don't even have the access in the first. 

You speak about your time with the Islanders and whether it was the Islanders or it was the NHL, they clearly had a mission of extending the game into China. I'm curious about what that mission was? How did that come about? And what role did you play there for the Islanders?

You know, it's funny because when people talk about the history of the NHL, in China, they rarely talk about the Islanders. And in many ways, the Islanders were the first ones because the Islanders had a Chinese American owner in Charles Wong. The NHL has known for a long time that there's value and potential in China. But a lot of that early potential was shown by what the islanders were calling Project Hope. And it was a charity, founded by Charles Wong and the Islanders. And so that was one of the things that I was first brought on to work on after my internship. And so I had worked on hosting and running the tournament that had become annual and big tradition. The Lighthouse Invitational - it took on different names over the years, but that was one of the names. And we brought over teams from China and then teams from other countries would come over as well and have this great cultural exchange with a team made up of children from northern China, a team from Long Island, a team from outside New York City, and then there was a team from Finland one year. I know they brought a team from Japan another year. So that was one aspect and then we went over to China into this Heilongjiang Province near the Russia and Korea border, super cold. The first time I think I really experienced blistering cold like that. It was just an incredible cultural awakening and shock to my system. This was in 2007 that I went and there was already one or two years of history before that, and it continued on and then the organization changed and the missions changed and Project Hope changed. And everything changed inside the organization and sort of moved on and other clubs got involved and Boston and San Jose and LA and, and Vancouver, a bunch of them got involved in China and, and sort of the story seems to pick up there. And the narrative seems to be there and then you get players going over and drawing a lot more attention. And of course, now you get the Olympics happening and there's a ton of hockey Development and there's hockey programs that have been going on there for a few years now that are doing a wonderful job of growing the game. But where it was in the early 2000s it really bare bones.

You went over there one 2007 and, what was the state of hockey even like? How would you compare that to even anything here that we could relate to?

Man I mean, it was all outdoors, there were some arenas and there were professional teams at the time that played kind of in an Asian league. I think that the League has since folded or merged or some teams folded. The status has changed so many times and of course then the cage l expanded in but but at the youth level, I mean, there was only a few communities in Heilongjiang, Harbin and Qiqihar being the the primary two where hockey was being actively played and kids were getting fast tracked. If they were deemed good at hockey they were put into a better school, better program and they were hockey players. That's it, you're going to play hockey, and you're going to represent China if you're good enough. And if not, you'll be on one of the teams and still represent. It was just such a clear system of favoritism and opportunity in a country so massive where opportunity is not always presented. And understanding that it is a different way of life. It's not for us to necessarily judge. We could judge aspects but the fact that these kids were given opportunities to excel because of hockey stood out to me at the time. And so seeing the drills that we gave them on that 12 day trip, we would run like two camps a day at different schools and just seeing the following year. I mean, there were a few kids that were like the best toe draggers I had ever seen. We had like one drill just to show them how to do a toe drag and one kid, I swear, the next year it came back to New York in the tournament, and he toe dragged every single player in the tournament. But at the same time, he was the best player on the team. So everybody got him the puck and said go score. That's it. So there wasn't yet the team game and the kind of the team skill development and systems play. They're kids, I'm not expecting there to be, but it was sort of running around and just letting the best player try to do the best he can to help the team win and it's gotten so much better since then.

And so much more...