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BRX Pro Tip: Are You Telling the Right Story?

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Are You Telling the Right Story?
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BRX Pro Tip: Are You Telling the Right Story?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Today’s question, Lee, are you telling the right story?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:10] Yeah. When you’re talking to your prospect in a sales situation, there are some clues that – when you’re telling your story or you’re telling your pitch to your prospect, there are some clues that they might be giving you that you might have lost them or that you’re on the right track. The first clue is, are they nodding their head when you talk? If they’re nodding their head, they’re kind of agreeing with you. If they’re smiling, they’re kind of agreeing with you. They’re recognizing the truth in what you’re saying. They can kind of imagine themselves as part of using your services.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] If their arms are crossed, if they’re looking at their watch, or if they’re on their phone, you might have lost your prospect. They might not be interested. They may not be believing what you’re saying. So, you better make some changes when it comes to things like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] When you ask prospect about your solution and they talk about it as if they already own it, then obviously you’re on in a good place, and they’re already imagining themselves already buying what you’re having to sell. So that’s always good and it’s always good if you can lead them down the path where, as part of the conversation, they are taking ownership of whatever it is your service is providing.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] But again, if their arms are crossed, if they’re distracted, if they’re looking to leave, those are bad signs and you better change something, or else your prospect is not going to buy what you’re selling.

Eder Garavito with Scholarnetics360

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Eder Garavito with Scholarnetics360
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Eder-GaravitoEder Garavito is an Assistant Professor at the College of Saint Mary’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. His responsibilities encompass instructing and organizing coursework focused on managing patients with cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions, delivering care in acute care settings, health informatics, and telehealth/telemedicine.

With a background as a board-certified cardiovascular and pulmonary clinical specialist, Eder has a decade of experience working in acute care settings. Presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University, his academic emphasis revolves around learning design and technology.

Furthermore, he contributes as a PRN staff Physical Therapist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

In collaboration with three partners, Eder co-founded Scholarnetics360, healthcare’s first mentorship and knowledge-sharing hub, in the summer of 2023—a pioneering initiative in healthcare education.

Scholarnetics360’s aims to offer 24/7 access to industry leaders and specialists remotely and believes that a mentorship and knowledge-sharing network for healthcare students and professionals is the most direct and accessible method to access essential information for anyone in need, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Follow Scholarnetics360 on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:14] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Scholarnetics360, Mr. Eder Garavito. Good afternoon sir.

Eder Garavito : [00:00:36] Hey Stone, how are you? Thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:00:38] I am doing well and I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. I got a ton of questions. I’m sure we won’t get to them all, but I think maybe a great place to start would be if you could share with me in our listening audience. Mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks? Man.

Eder Garavito : [00:00:58] Yeah, no. So, um, I myself, I’m an educator in higher education, and I think for our society, it’s kind of become a norm to really sort of, uh, make comments such as the health care system is broken. But I think something that we don’t talk about is how the higher education system is broken as well. And I’m talking about my job in general. Right. But like, really, we have to understand the limitations of any school, uh, specifically in health care, whether it’s the most prestigious school or a developing program. And so with Scholarnetics360, what we’re really trying to establish is the fact that we are offering the power of choice to our users, uh, to be able to choose a mentor based on their individual needs. And we’re doing that through virtual mediums, uh, through live chat, voice calls and video conferences. Uh, we recognize that mentorship is a right. It isn’t a privilege, and we just don’t want to leave a good quality mentorship relationship to chance. And so because there are limitations to that didactic knowledge and programs, we’re just offering the ability for students and health care providers to connect with one another, specifically with leaders and specialists in their field.

Stone Payton: [00:02:17] Well, I’ll tell you, it sounds like noble work. It also sounds like you’ve, uh, answered that question before. That was an incredibly articulate representation of what you’re up to. I got to know, man. What what’s the backstory? How did you find yourself here in this line of work and on this pursuit?

Eder Garavito : [00:02:36] Uh, sure. So I am a clinician, a physical therapist with a little bit over ten years of clinical practice, and I transitioned to full time education four years ago. And, uh, I just I’m very observant, stone. And I just realized that even my own knowledge has limits. And I recognize that there are individuals out there specifically in what I would call the frontlines, meaning our clinicians who are practicing daily with patients. I see patients once every, you know, six weeks that know more than I do. And so what better way than to improve the learning experience of my students in all health care students than to connect them with those individuals and provide them with resources beyond what I can provide them? Why seclude our students in our learners to just what’s in their institution and instead, uh, allow them to really connect with individuals out there? So, uh, myself, I’m cardiovascular and pulmonary, uh, specialist, which really is there are about 400 or 600 in the United States, not many. So I’m a product of good mentorship. Stone and that’s how I got to where I am today. Uh, when I had my mentor, I literally looked at him and I said, you know, I kind of want to be like him when I grow up. And and that’s really the story behind this. And so we just want to ensure that we offer these opportunities to our learners and even practicing clinicians, our new grads or clinicians who transition to new jobs that they just are not sure we want to provide them with a support system 24 seven easily on our app or on our website.

Stone Payton: [00:04:05] Now, have you found that you wanted to, when you built this mentoring platform, I guess is the right way to frame it. Did you find that you wanted to try to do some things that were set it apart from other platforms and make it even better?

Eder Garavito : [00:04:22] Yeah, so the platforms, when we were doing our research, the platforms that we found usually were programs that mentorship programs provided by individuals across the country here and there, few in health care. But at the end of the day, not only are these programs sometimes expensive, but they are mentorship. They’re mentorship programs with the individual running the program. Right. So there really isn’t a choice. Besides that choice, our our our system U um, allows our users to put an inquiry in our chat bot and through AI and all these algorithms that I don’t even know how to explain to you that our developers are doing for us, programing for us. It’ll connect them with a two, three, four individuals based on the the user’s inquiry so they can choose who they want to connect with. And if they connect with somebody and they don’t enjoy the conversations or they don’t click, they can shift to somebody else. What we’re really trying to focus on here, a stone, is that it credentials and experience in the field and all these initials and everything. There’s no real, uh, correlation between that and good quality mentorship. Right. So we need to stop looking at all these individuals with all these initials and publications and everything. Mind you, they may be amazing mentors, but there are so many other individuals that are amazing mentors that we just don’t look for because they don’t have those qualities. And so we’re putting them on our platform and making them available to our users.

Stone Payton: [00:05:52] I love this element of choice, and I like the idea that I can get on a platform, and I’m operating under the impression even someone with my lack of technical knowledge can navigate that pretty easily. I almost hope, like when you get done with this, you’ll you’ll build one for the media industry. Because it would be. Yeah.

Eder Garavito : [00:06:16] That that would be nice wouldn’t it? But yeah. Stone, it’s as easy as that. Um, log into our app or our website now, you know, we’re we’re building up to it launching here in the spring. And, uh, just putting an inquiry, whether you’re confused about a topic, whether you want to talk to somebody, uh, because you need support in terms of how to communicate with individuals. You want to collaborate in projects, uh, you have clinical questions, anything of the sort, as easy as that. Then our algorithm does the rest, and it just gives you the power of choice. Instead of these forced mentorships that we see often when we get new jobs and things of the like, hey, this is your mentor, you might not get along with them, right? We again, just as you mentioned, we are offering that power of choice. You can choose who you want to chat with.

Stone Payton: [00:06:59] Well, I’m sure it was very exciting in the beginning, and and it probably has every day probably has elements of surprise and excitement. What? Uh. What are some of the challenges you’ve been running into? Have you been surprised as you’ve tried to reach out on this pursuit?

Eder Garavito : [00:07:20] I actually have been surprised, to be honest, and I’m just going to be vulnerable and transparent because that’s who I am. And I believe that that’s a strength that I have. I have access to several hundred students and a decently large network. And my assumption was when this launched and we kind of publicized it, that everybody would hop on board. And one of the biggest, uh, roadblocks that we’ve had is really creating trust with our, our with our, our followers and really getting that buy in and increasing awareness and making sure that individuals know that we’re trying to help them because these pain points exist. So we’re finally getting the traction, we’re getting traction. And you know what really keeps us going? Stone, is that me, somebody who has imposter syndrome and regularly sort of questions what they’re doing, we continue to get amazing feedback from individuals. And this feedback goes right to our developers and they build what they’re, you know, from that feedback because we’re still constructing the system.

Stone Payton: [00:08:20] And so in your line of work particularly, probably much more so than in my field, I’m operating under the impression that you’re going to want some kind of, uh, credential checking vetting process. I mean, so there’s some there’s some there’s some levels of, uh, I complicated is not the right word, but you’ve got to do some due diligence as you’re, uh, bringing mentors onto the platform, don’t you?

Eder Garavito : [00:08:48] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we we don’t want to really have just anybody hop on our platform because that’s what happens in the real world, right? We are really going to create we’re after creating an elite environment of mentors who know how to mentor. So we’re offering courses on how to mentor as well. So the vetting process of course will include credentials, resumes, CV well, resumes or CVS, uh, years of experience and some preferences that we have sort of like specialties, prior mentorship experiences and things of the like, uh, and you know, based on that, we we’re going to bring on board the people who we truly believe can make help us change this environment and the environment of mentorship in healthcare. So, uh, in terms of the legalities and all that stuff, Stone, we can have a conversation about an hour about that, but I’ll, uh, I’ll just I’ll just leave it at this. We have an amazing group of attorneys that are helping us make sure that we, you know, dot all our I’s and cross all our T’s.

Stone Payton: [00:09:43] Well, uh, I got to tell you, I went to school and got a marketing degree, and it was, you know, it was less than challenging to make it through the classes. But my roommate at the University of South Alabama studied and became a very successful physical therapist. But I know there was a great there was a great deal more academic pressure and rigor and discipline, uh, for him than there was for me. So paint for me if you could, as as a lay person. His name is Shannon. Like, what would his student life have been like? Or how might it have been enhanced if he’d have had this platform? Uh, should I even say it 30 years ago?

Speaker4: [00:10:24] I mean.

Eder Garavito : [00:10:25] Yeah, Shannon is now going to come at you for giving away their age, right? Yeah. Uh, so really, when we did an extensive market research stone, it was kind of scary to get the results back that most of our students are utilizing and leveraging social media to improve their didactic knowledge. Right. So your future health care professionals are learning from YouTube and before YouTube, you know, 30 years ago, we’re talking about textbooks and and faculty members. And so what if Shannon didn’t get along with the faculty members, or Shannon couldn’t understand concepts well, just from reading articles or textbooks, they could have hopped on to our app and asked the question or questions about specific concepts, and that would have connected them with somebody else who knows is an experienced leader or in their field on specific concepts that Shannon was confused about, and they could connect on the phone or on video conferencing and just talk things out. And hopefully that individual that Shannon connects with, with their clinical experience can help bridge that. You know, the that the excuse me, bridge their theoretical concepts into applying them into clinical scenarios. Right. So making that connection. So it could have been a lot easier for him to learn uh, or not.

Stone Payton: [00:11:41] So even right now, fast forward that 30 plus years, we do have practitioners and people who are wanting to are studying to become practitioners in these fields, and they’re already sourcing to some degree this, uh, shall we say, uh, less vetted, uh, some of these less vetted platforms to get some insight on the work that they’re doing, like they’re going we actually have practitioners and students going to YouTube and Google and that kind of thing right now.

Eder Garavito : [00:12:14] We do. Uh, and that’s what our market analysis came back as. And so, you know, when you have individuals who have a question about a concept and they go to YouTube and they learn it on YouTube, I don’t want to devalue those resources. They have value. But it could be a situation of the blind leading the blind. They don’t have the ability to really vet that content unless they really have that knowledge base. Right now, let’s say that these online resources that you mentioned, and even YouTube or Instagram are vetted individuals and are providing excellent, excellent, uh, knowledge that is asynchronous, right? It’s a video. They can’t speak to the individual. They can’t ask questions. Our platform offers those capacities. And heck, maybe some of those people that have those big accounts on YouTube or Instagram or what have you will join our platform as mentors and be able to connect, live with the individuals who really are just eager to speak to them.

Stone Payton: [00:13:08] Well, I love the idea that these folks are are life learners, and I like that they go out and they’re open minded and they try to find, you know, other ideas to to influence their work. But even as a layperson, I got to tell you, it’s, you know, it’s it’s concerns me a little bit that they they might be sourcing some material sometimes that, uh, you know, not might not be nearly as, uh, as well vetted, but I guess even more so I, I kind of I’m enamored with the idea of getting them connected with an actual person, maybe more than one person through this, uh, through this platform. Because from that relationship, you’ve got a seems like to me, uh, you know, an ongoing, sustainable foundation for continued education and sharpening each other’s soul and all of those kinds of things that life learners benefit from.

Eder Garavito : [00:14:08] Oh, absolutely. I mean, one of the biggest things we talked about vetting our mentors, right earlier, one of the biggest qualities that mentors need to have is vulnerability. And they need to understand that in a good quality mentor mentee relationship, the mentor is sometimes learning from the mentee, and the mentee sometimes outgrows that mentor. And if that happens, they can move on to somebody who knows better or knows different. Now, they could stick with somebody who has helped them through the years. And at that point, when they develop these amazing relationships and networking, the mentors can write them letters of recommendation. They can help them find jobs. You know, they can really help leverage their careers. It isn’t just a one and done. It can be if that’s what the mentee wants. But the mentee themselves are our users. Those are the they are in the driver’s seat. They can meet as many times as they request, as few times as they request. There’s no set requirement for either party.

Stone Payton: [00:15:02] It sounds like you’re at the practitioners. You’re connecting with the students. You’re you’re connecting with. It sounds like you’re getting plenty of individuals, at least open minded to the idea and intrigued with the platform and all those possibilities. How is, um. And I don’t even know if this is the right word. The establishment, the the the old guard, the health care arena? Or are are you running into some resistance at some points from the some of the established institution kind of thing?

Eder Garavito : [00:15:36] Oh, sure. And we’ve you know, for example, the big thing of that we hear is just that virtual mentor mentorship itself or, or teaching through virtual means. It lacks depth and connection that is found in face to face interactions. And we’re not going to challenge that because that is true. But still, in those face to face interactions that are argued, they are either by chance or they’re far and few in between are. So we are now offering the ability for people to connect nationwide, right? So seek those elite individuals in your field instead of just going to conferences and spending thousands of dollars or potentially cold emailing somebody or getting to know somebody because somebody knows somebody here. You know what? Let’s leverage our technology. Because let’s be real. Just like healthcare is dynamic, so is technology. So let’s adapt to it and let’s leverage it so that we can improve our knowledge. But the the true here, um, outcome stone is to improve patient outcomes. Right. That is the biggest thing. We want to make sure that we deliver good quality care to our patients.

Speaker4: [00:16:40] All right.

Stone Payton: [00:16:40] Let’s back it up a little bit. I’m trying to put myself in your shoes a little bit. Uh, successful practitioner and and educator. And then you decide to take on this very entrepreneurial pursuit. You got to find developers, you’re opening a business, you got to get out there and market it. It’s I mean, pieces of that had to be a little bit intimidating. Speak to that transition. And especially in the early days, what what has that been like? Just, you know, now you got a whole new, uh, a whole new job.

Speaker4: [00:17:15] And kind of sort.

Eder Garavito : [00:17:16] Of. Right. Uh, now I’m still working on my, my hours and my real job, I promise. But, uh, yeah, that was a very interesting transition, to be honest. Um, I bit a lot more than I could chew. Stone. Uh, and, uh, I’ve gathered amazing individuals that have really helped us grow through the process. And I think one of the biggest assets and and I have no shame in admitting this. Somebody who has been with us since the start, um, is we have this incredible business coach, and, uh, she’s just really helped us really strategize and make connections and make sure that we’re doing things right. We’re doing things appropriately because it has, you know, this concept grew so large that I had to get a team behind it. So I’m not alone in this. I have three other partners, you know, our teams of attorneys, our developers, and of course our business coach. And we have copywriters. Everybody’s working together in this project, and everybody’s so excited that it just makes working on it that much better on a daily basis.

Stone Payton: [00:18:12] Well, it does sound to me like it’s an awful lot to bite off. But you, it sounds like you are getting those kind of early wins and you’re getting some adoption and interest from people who can really contribute to the, uh, to the effort. And it may be a little early to ask this question, but but it does come up for me. Have you landed or do you feel pretty comfortable that you can land in a place that is going to provide, you know, affordability and accessibility to the people who need it and still be a viable business? Or are you still working out that part of the equation?

Eder Garavito : [00:18:50] We’re still working out that part of the equation. And, uh, you know, just for your listeners tone when they hear that we’re still working on that part of the equation, just know that we’ve been working on that part of the equation for about four months. And that’s a good thing, because we are taking all the input that we’re receiving, all the feedback, all the input we received on the on our surveys and our market research. And we want to make sure that what we develop is something that is accessible and is affordable. Now, I recognize that affordability can be subjective. What I can share is that we are diligently working to ensure that the vast majority of individuals who look at this, uh, look at our product and our service, it would almost be like too stupid for them not to refuse to use it because of the amount of value that it will have. And so that is our main goal. And so instead of sharing with figures with you, just trust us, we are. Affordability is at the forefront of what we’re doing.

Stone Payton: [00:19:46] Yeah. So now that you’ve been at it a while and I know and I’m going to ask you in a moment about, you know, what’s next and maybe a little bit about projected timelines on some key milestones. But now that you’ve been at it a while and it sounds to me like you’re neck deep in it, you’re like at a point of no return, which could be great for us entrepreneurs. Right? But but what are you finding the most rewarding about the day to day of this? What are you, uh, what are you enjoying the most?

Eder Garavito : [00:20:13] I’m enjoying the small wins. Whether it’s. We finished a task in our task list that’s, you know, giant or, um, when I am having my little moments of, uh, sort of negative thoughts, if you will, because, as I mentioned, I sort of self-sabotage somebody. And then I get an email or a comment or somebody reaches out saying they’re super excited about this, or, heck, people like you bring me on a show to talk about this because you’re excited. Those small wins just keep us going. And you are right, we’re at a point of no return, and we’re not going to back out because we’ve received so much positive feedback and excitement about this that, uh, we’re just we’re just excited to finish up and have something to to give back to the people.

Stone Payton: [00:20:54] Well, I won’t and we won’t hold you too tight to to some of these responses. But in general, uh, talk to us a little bit about projected timelines, some of the next, you know, milestones. What’s the what’s the near and mid-tum horizon look like?

Eder Garavito : [00:21:12] Sure. So, uh, you know, three of us partners are physical therapists. Uh, and one of them is a physician. So because of our knowledge base, we’re starting with physical therapy. First, we want to make sure we master the art first. And we have a really good recipe before we start moving on to other health care professionals, professions, which is the plan nursing physicians, occupational speech therapy, you name it. Right. Uh, in terms of our timeline, uh, we’re planning for a beta launch right around March or April of this year, we hope. And, uh, run it for a few months for free for our users, of course, where we can receive feedback from them and continue building what they want. Not what we want, but what they want. And we’re hoping for a full launch here in early summer.

Stone Payton: [00:21:56] What an exciting time. I’m so glad we got a chance to visit with you now, and we got to swing back around and pick up the conversation. Uh, you know, a little bit post, uh, past that, that beta launch. So what is the best way for people to tap in, get on the list, connect with you, start, you know, start learning more about this. Is there some way for them to start following what you’re doing?

Eder Garavito : [00:22:19] Absolutely. Uh, scholar analytics 360 on socials, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. Uh w-w-w dot scholar CNET.com is our website, our current landing page. Uh, and and then uh, they can email us at info at scarletknights.com. And we will make sure that we get back to them in time. But to sign up for our beta beta user list, you can go to www.com or follow any of our socials.

Stone Payton: [00:22:47] And I got to ask you, I don’t know when or how you could possibly find the time with everything you’ve got going on. Uh, but I am interested to know, uh, if you have time for them now, any other passions outside the scope of this work that we’re talking about that you try to pursue? For instance, my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. Uh, is there anything you do to try to unplug or any other pursuit, like you playing the drums or riding horses or anything?

Speaker4: [00:23:17] No, no.

Eder Garavito : [00:23:17] Yeah. Of course. Um, you know, kudos to my wife when she listens to this, because without her support, of course, uh, you know, wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be able to do this because I’m working early hours and late evenings. But to unplug. We love me. We have three dogs that we love hanging out with and going on walks with. Uh, we love traveling to Colorado and going skiing and have a boat. And we like going out on the lake and just kind of hanging out. And so we make sure that when we do those things, uh, we have enough time to do them so that we can unplug, meaning we go skiing or we go out on the lake and we’re not going to be doing work. We’re shutting things off.

Speaker4: [00:23:49] Oh, I.

Stone Payton: [00:23:50] Got to tell you, I personally think that, um, uh, colleague of mine calls it white space, but I think, you know, people that are on entrepreneurial pursuits, like you and I both, I think it’s important that we create that space and, uh. Oh, yeah, live a full life, for one thing. But also, I think it really does serve the business. Right. You kind of recharge, rejuvenate, and then you get back and and and get get at it again.

Eder Garavito : [00:24:17] Absolutely. Otherwise all you’re doing is just staring through the a screen or memorizing things, shutting off and just making sure that we commit to it. Whether it’s one day, half a day or a few hours, we commit, we’re shutting off. We’re not thinking about any business. We’re not answering phone calls. We’re going to spend time in whichever way we want. It is so valuable. And and you know what? So it sometimes it hurts and I can’t I just it hurts to turn off things off. But I know when I come back, man I’m like a gorilla. I’m ready to go because I have so much energy and, you know, just rejuvenated.

Stone Payton: [00:24:48] Well, that’s a great piece of wisdom. And you’ve already shared a lot of tips by virtue of your experience being in the arena. But I wonder if from an entrepreneurial standpoint, from a, you know, from someone who is trying to build something, uh, like like you are if, um, if there’s 1 or 2 just actionable tips that, you know, somebody out there, maybe they’re in a corporate job, maybe they’re a practitioner and they’re thinking about some sort of entrepreneurial pursuit. I don’t know, you know, 1 or 2 do’s or or or don’ts or just some things to be thinking about or reading that will kind of help them navigate these waters, especially when they get a little bit rough.

Speaker4: [00:25:33] Yeah.

Eder Garavito : [00:25:34] And look, the first thing is, I’ll say stone is just go for it. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve seen colleagues and friends of mine start businesses. And I always think to myself, oh, I wish that was me. And now I’m on this side. I just went for it and it was scary. But just make sure that you, you know, if it’s something that you’re not sure about and it’s scary. Find yourself a good team, take your time and make sure that the people you’re going to be working with are people that are going to help you, not only the business but help you grow, that you’re like minded. And the very last thing never doesn’t matter if your business is going to be worth millions or not, or it’s going to fail. Whatever. Be vulnerable, be humble and ask for help. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Stone Payton: [00:26:17] I am so glad I asked this. This 20 minute conversation could be a business seminar. All right, let’s make sure once again that our listeners know there are a variety of ways that they can tap into your work. So let’s leave them with with those coordinates again.

Eder Garavito : [00:26:34] Yes. Uh, email us at info at sacred-texts.com. All our socials scholar x 360, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook X, Twitter, whatever it is, etc. or our website scholar netflix.com.

Stone Payton: [00:26:50] Well, editor, it has been an absolute delight having you on the program. I’m quite sincere. We want to circle back. Continue to follow your progress. Congratulations on the momentum, man. You’re you’re doing important work and we sure appreciate you.

Speaker4: [00:27:06] Thank you, Stone, and thanks for having me.

Eder Garavito : [00:27:07] And yeah, we’d love to circle back once we have a little bit more to talk about.

Stone Payton: [00:27:11] My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Edgar Garavito with Scholar Genetics 360 and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Skinny Deville with Atlantucky Brewing

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Skinny Deville with Atlantucky Brewing
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Atlantucky-Brewing

Nappy Roots began experimenting with their home brewery, Atlantucky, which fermented their passion for microbrewing. In 2017, the group introduced their first two craft beers with Atlanta-based Monday Night Brewing.

The limited-edition brews were so successful that the group was inspired to expand on opportunities with other breweries across the county. Nappy Roots has produced more than a dozen craft beers to date. The group plans to open a brewhouse with their own taprooms in Atlanta this year.

Follow Atlantucky Brewing on Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Atlantucky Brewering, Skinny Deville. How are you, man?

Skinny Deville: [00:00:34] What’s good Stone man? Pleasure to, um, be a part of this awesome opportunity. Thank you for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:00:39] Uh, first of all, am I saying that right? Is it Atlantucky Brewing?

Skinny Deville: [00:00:43] Atlantucky.

Stone Payton: [00:00:44] That’s my first question. Right out of the box, man. Uh, what prompted you to call it that?

Skinny Deville: [00:00:51] Well, um, so we’re in the group Nappy Roots. Me and my business partner, Scales, and, um, I’m from Kentucky, and we’re living in Atlanta, and just just going back and forth from Kentucky to Atlanta. Um, a lot just to, you know, do what we do as the hip hop group Nappy Roots. Um, it’s just that little fictitious place of driving down, uh, driving up 75, uh, the 24 to 65. And between Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, that little area right there, a little sweet spot is kind of what we call the Atlantic. And so, um, when we were just coming up with ideas to open up a brewery, what not a better way to do it was something that no one else would think about. Um, but still, give us where I’m from and where we’re at at the same time. And so Atlanta, Kentucky is just this down home vibe. Um, you get the southern, get the southern hospitality, but you still kind of get the, um, Midwest kind of edginess that, uh, little, little villains have. And so, um, to make beer within that little, that little safe space that we call Atlanta was, uh, was the only the only option that we saw as a no brainer.

Stone Payton: [00:01:59] Well, I love it, and I’m so glad that I asked. And I was, uh, stalking you a little while ago before we came on air, and I. And I got a little bit of a peek at some of your, your merch. And my listeners know that I’m a hat guy, so I got to get my, my hands on a hat. And I definitely got to get my hands on on some of this brew. I got a thousand questions about the about the brewing business, and I know I won’t get to them all. But before we go there, you mentioned being, uh, part of Nappy Roots, a hip hop group. Tell me a little bit about that work, man.

Skinny Deville: [00:02:29] Man. Oh that’s true. We’ve been in the game over 20 years. We got signed to Atlantic Records in 1998 while we were all still in college. Western Kentucky University. Shout out to the Hilltoppers if any Hilltoppers are listening. What up? But, um, we started, uh, this group, uh, me and my partner, uh, my other partner, Ron Clutch, back in the early 90s, mid 90s, uh, just really impressed by what Goodie Mob and Organized noise and, and Outkast were kind of doing a representing the South, and we thought that we could have our own representation from Kentucky, kind of how they were doing it. And so we just said we were going to be the southern conscious hip hop group. That wasn’t just going to talk about, you know, materialism or things that we couldn’t afford, but talk about the things that made sense to us, um, coming from where we’re from and, you know, things that we can relate to. And so, uh, we got signed to Atlantic Records in 1998. Um, our first album that came out with, uh, under Atlantic Records was a watermelon, Chicken and Grits in 2002. It ended up going to, uh, sell platinum, and we got two times, uh, nominated for a Grammy off of that album. And that just kind of set us up for, um, you know, fortune and fame and how we thought it would have been, um, a little different than what you think it is, but, um, still fun nonetheless. Um, fast forward, uh, you know, 2015, 2016, we started getting into, uh, craft beer and we was able to make our first beer with Monday Night Brewing and able to take what we’ve done through hip hop and recreate it into what we’re doing right now with beer.

Stone Payton: [00:04:02] Well, I got to believe that there were a great many lessons learned. Surely some successes, surely some trials in the music business. But surely some of that translated and helped you get this brewing business off the ground. Yeah.

Skinny Deville: [00:04:18] Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The music business and the beer business or making beer and making music are very eerily similar. And I’ll just give you a quick synopsis of it. So you go to the studio. Studio, you know, you you got a an engineer in there. Um, you got a producer, you got your verses. It takes you about maybe 4 to 6 hours in the studio for, you know, a good session to really get going. And you got some songs coming out. You got about 4 or 5 hours to be creative so that that’s your brewing process. That’s your 4 to 5 hours of you making the beer. Um, you’re riding around listening to your music, you’re making some tweaks or whatnot. That’s your beer sitting in the fermenter for the 10 to 15 days that it takes to ferment. Um, you know, you get your song mixed and mastered. That’s your beer getting put into a keg. Um, and then, uh, you know, once you put that song out and people listen to it, that’s your song. Um, you know, finished version on streaming platform or your CD or whatever your, your can in the store. What used to be a CD on the shelf and distribution is distribution. Someone picks it up and takes it and puts it in this situation that’s, you know, that’s your that’s your universal distribution. And, you know, the consumer listens to a song for about three minutes and some change. And that’s about as long as it takes to drink a good IPA. And if you like that IPA, you tell someone about it. It’s like, if you like that song, you tell someone, you know where this song is at, how they hear it. And so for us to be from the hip hop standpoint and making music and us putting the same time and energy into the craft is the same thing.

Stone Payton: [00:05:50] So now that you’ve been at it a while, this the the brewing business, what are you finding the most the most rewarding man? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Skinny Deville: [00:06:00] The process in itself is really cool. Um, conversing with our customers and seeing them enjoy that beer that we spent, you know, so much time creating and developing, that’s always a highlight. But just as me and scale sitting in the back brewing and just, you know, we’ll sit there and watch it, you know, TV or we’ll watch a YouTube channel and we’ll laugh at some jokes and just the fellowship and camaraderie that me and my partner have is. It’s always a highlight. We brew about 2 to 3 times a week. And, um, I like the cleaning process. I like cleaning the tanks. I like prepping everything, getting everything measured up and weighed in. So when scales comes in to, um, fire up the brew system, he’s ready to go. And so we work hand in hand. Um, but just to know that I have a responsibility that people are counting on is is something that is better than me sitting at home waiting on a show to come down the pipe.

Stone Payton: [00:06:49] Like so many entrepreneurs I have a chance to visit with. Yes, there’s we all enjoy that end product and seeing our public, our fan base, our respective fan bases enjoy what we’re doing. And you know, we’re putting our soul out there a little bit for for people to kind of poke at a little bit, but almost without exception, for it to be sustainable. You got to really enjoy the work too, that the day to day of it, don’t you?

Skinny Deville: [00:07:18] Yeah. Absolutely, man. Um, and just like with music, you have to love to. You have to want to. To be an artist is is very traumatizing to a lot of people, because you’re trying to put your heart and soul onto this piece of paper and it’s just it’s just your opinion. And then someone who has a very terrible opinion will say, it sucks and your comments, and you have to fight through that. You want to be a performer, you have to not have stage fright. You know, you want to be a performer. You have to take all the nos that come with it. And to be in the beer industry is not based on my opinion on a piece of paper. It’s based on me writing this recipe, which is like my verse, and people appreciating this recipe that I wrote down and our execution of it. And so it’s very satisfying to know that what we’re doing on this side of it is just as as, um, gratuitous, if that’s the word I would use to making a song, you still get that same feeling of a sense of accomplishment when someone says, mm, that’s a damn good beer. And you’re like, yes, they like my verse. I mean, they like my beer, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like for me to be an artist and not have that concern, uh, about what people think about me allows me to really make this beer with the same type of kind of attitude and confidence.

Skinny Deville: [00:08:36] And once you learn how to make a beer, you never forget. Just like when you learn how to rap, you know, it’s just, you know, the gloves come off if you really get good at it and you spend some time doing it. So, um, I think we’re the best positioned for it. I think a lot of people, a lot of breweries, they don’t travel like we do. They don’t go to different cities and, um, try different breweries because they’re homebodies, you know, they’re pipe married, their wife. Don’t let them leave too far too long. They’re not comfortable with leaving because they got kids with responsibilities. But as an artist, we was on the road before the pandemic, about 75 shows a year. So when we were always going somewhere and getting a city and trying new beer and seeing how they did it in this city or this coast or this part of the country, and it just allows us to, um, talk to people where some people might be intimidated or shy or introverts. As an artist, you have to get out there and talk to people. And so we have that ability to get out there and talk to people to find out what’s going on. And we just have that easy, um, you know, uh, shake the hands and kiss the babies type of attitude when we’re making beer.

Stone Payton: [00:09:38] So in the early days of trying to take what is obviously a passion for for you guys on the brewing side and actually take it to market, commercialize it, did you find that you met with some resistance in some pockets, or did was it universally embraced, or did you have to fight through some things?

Skinny Deville: [00:09:56] Um, I’m sure at the very onset of us opening up, trying to open a brewery, even our closest friends, even my parents was like, yeah, right. And it’s almost the same thing as me saying, I want to be a rapper. It’s like, yeah, right, prove it. It’s like, okay, so like I said, our first beer we made with Monday night, they showed us how to actually do it and get the beer to actually to the tap. And what we did with Monday night is we ended up performing as Nappy Roots at our at that event that we had for the release of the actual beer. So we, we married our hip hop lifestyle to the beer itself, and fans of our music and beer came out. And so that says, okay, we can do this. And so we did that a couple more times with, uh, scofflaw. We did it with Cherry Street, we did it with arches, so we did it with some. We pretty much did a collaboration with some reputable, um, breweries, just like if we was a rapper and we got a feature from Jay-Z or Drake or Lil Wayne or T.I., we look for some people that already had some credibility in the game to help us establish our foothold. And once we started making our own beer and scales garage as a home brewery, um, brewer, um, we had some of these people that were supporters of us that come by the garage and try the beer and they’re like, man, this is good.

Skinny Deville: [00:11:14] You guys should open up a brewery. And then the pandemic happened. We were able to stop touring as Nappy Roots and really focus and hone in on what it takes to actually open up a brewery as, uh, Atlantic. And so while everybody was shut down for a year, year and a half, we were able to do all the paperwork and do all the filings to get the process started. So when the, the, uh, the curtain was lifted off of, you know, this, this, you know, once every 100 year pandemic, we were already had the brewery and we already had a lot of stuff ready to go. So we took that downtime to rehone, and we resharpen our blades in a different direction based off of, uh, the knowledge and and the assistance that we had from, uh, a lot of these breweries I named to show us how to get up to that level. Yeah, there’s a little bit of. Yeah, I’ll I’ll believe it when I see it. But now you see it. And we’ve been here for almost two years. Our anniversary, our two year anniversary will be the first Saturday of February.

Stone Payton: [00:12:08] Coming up man, congratulations on the momentum. And what you just described strikes me as a as a blueprint for virtually any entrepreneur to get a. Serious and productive concern up and running. You took something that was your passion. You honed your skills. You look for people who had had already put a dent in that arena. You collaborated with them. You continued to refine it. You took your, uh, a whole nother skill set. And that’s something you could leverage with your music career. And you married it. I mean, I would think that those are some timeless principles that would apply to virtually anybody trying to launch a business.

Skinny Deville: [00:12:47] Absolutely. I think if you want to get into anything, I think you need to be passionate about it because there are going to be some hard days, just like in music, if you know you’re meant to be an artist and you know you’re meant to put out this music, nobody’s going to stop you from you becoming that artist. And if someone does, then you weren’t meant to be an artist. And it’s the same way with anything you set your sights to be, even if it is brand new. Yeah, there’s a lot of heavy lifting at the beginning, but the view once you get to the top is what you you kind of work out and train for. You know, people that want to climb Mount Everest, they don’t start that day. They practice and work and probably go to some rock climbing. I’ve never tried it. I don’t want to go up that high. Uh, but I’m sure people that do put a lot of work to get to that point where they’re at least they get to the bottom of it and say, okay, now I’m here. Now the journey starts. And so with craft beer, you have to. It’s not a lot of money in it at the beginning, you know, um, it’s almost like taking all your money and putting it through a paper shredder is what some people have explained how to what? What’s it like to open a brew? Just take everything you got, throw it in the shredder, because that’s where it’s going.

Skinny Deville: [00:13:51] And if it wasn’t for Nappy Roots, me and my partner would be really in big trouble. Because as I tell everybody, this is skinny and scales of nappy roots opening up a brewery. But this is just William and Melvin trying to open a brewery. We be in really big trouble because we didn’t. We wouldn’t have the name in the brand awareness of Nappy Roots for people to come and be aware of just William and Melvin making a brewery in the middle of Atlanta, we would it would be very difficult because. And just just African Americans occupy less than 1% of the craft beer industry already. Mm. Less than 1% is what African Americans are a part of. There’s about 81 black owned craft breweries, whether they’re in distribution, whether they’re home breweries. Brewers are trying to get their start and actually open a brewery or the contract brewing with another brewery. And their brewery is putting their beer out under that brand that they have established. Only 81. There’s 81 breweries in Georgia alone, so there’s only two black owned breweries in Georgia. That’s us. And hip hop’s brick and brick and mortar. So you have to love it, and you have to know that it’s not. You’re not here for a quick lick. Just like an artist. You might work for ten years before you see any remote shot of fame and fortune, and the fortune part is probably not there. Both. It’s a it’s a, it’s a, it’s a drug. And once you find your first song and people like it and love it, now you’re hooked.

Skinny Deville: [00:15:13] Once you get to that first show and people scream when you come out, oh, you’re really hooked, you know? But you might not find another song for another ten years after that first song took off. We’ve been fortunate enough to have three good, successful singles and a lot of, uh, mid-level success in singles. Our Honor, Our Poor Folks, and Good Day have all gotten our nappy roots above the radar where people know about those songs. But there’s so many other songs that we’ve made that don’t get above that. But you just got to keep this. You got to keep making songs. You got to keep putting out projects. If you love and you’re passionate about what you do. And it’s the same thing as I feel like with the with the craft beer, you got to keep making beer and hopefully they will all stop and pay attention one day. And when they do, you have all these things. But, uh, behind you to say, hey, this is what I work for. It’s for you guys to pay attention to all 14 of my beers on tap, not just the first one I made as a home brewer. And so, um, like I said, you got to be passionate about it. Yes. I love what you do. Because there will be some dark, rainy days, and you gotta, you know, you just gotta embrace the rain just as much as you love the sun.

Stone Payton: [00:16:19] So where is this whole thing headed for you guys, man? What’s next for you on this front?

Skinny Deville: [00:16:25] Oh, man. Um, so we just ordered a cannon line. Um, that’ll be here hopefully by the end of March. Um, and we are not really interested in going to the distribution route because distribution takes so much money, uh, from the hands of the actual brewer themselves. So you got you got the brewer, you got the distributor, and you got the retailer and the distributor and the retailer, that’s they they pretty much take the lion’s share of what the brewers intellectual property and what they made. So for us, it’s like because we come from the music business and we’ve seen how Atlantic Records kind of did us. We went independent, um, back in oh eight, which allowed us to have independent success from, uh, our song Good Day, which went gold independently and allowed us to get the lion’s share of our artist royalties that most artists don’t get when they’re on a major label. So we took that same knowledge and said, well, why do we want to go to a distributor who’s going to take the lion’s share of our hard earned efforts? Um, let’s just sell the beer right from our brewery itself for as long as we can. And you know, those that are not from here. You better come in as a tourist, pick up a couple of beers and take it back.

Skinny Deville: [00:17:33] And hopefully in a year or two, uh, we’ll have those conversations again if we want to go the distribution route. But why go to a distributor and only get $2 out of a four pack when we can keep it here and get all 1699? And we could probably sell it for $2 cheaper than everybody and still make all the money. And so I was like, let’s just work smarter, not harder, and let’s not try to be famous as a as a brewery. Let’s just be respected as a, uh, as brewers and let’s just see where the where the cards fall after that. And if we’re respected and I’m, I’m on a speaking tour, uh, all over the world talking about craft beer, then great. If I just sit here on my patio and sip my own beer, and people respect me for that. Awesome. You know, I don’t want to sell myself short of whoever I am, and I don’t want to sell my soul just to make a little bit of money, because if I would have did that, I would have done a long time ago. So it’s not about the money for us, this is about having fun and growing old, doing something you’re passionate about, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

Stone Payton: [00:18:29] Amen. So how do we get our hands on your beer right now? Is there a place we can go, or how do we get to it?

Skinny Deville: [00:18:36] Absolutely. So we’re located on, uh, we’re at the corner of Northside Drive and Nelson, which is about a block one block south of Mercedes-Benz, and we’re 170 Northside Drive, suite 96, Atlanta. It’s right on the corner. Um, we sit below, uh, a big apartment complex called Intown Lofts. We’re on the ground level. And so, um, when you get here, you just park across the street. Um, walk about 20ft. Excuse me. I’m. My beard’s coming up, and, um. And you’re here, man, and we have, uh, three, 3 to 4 dope ass brew tenders that will point you in the right direction, no matter if you like lagers, IPAs, stouts. We have, uh, sours. We have, um, specialty beers like our shandygaff, which is a lemonade. Eliminate shandygaff. We have a sweet potato pie that’s about to kick. Um, we have a, uh, a honey wheat called honey. I Shrunk the Beer. That’s amazingly awesome. It adds real honey in it. And, um, so when you get here, you can hang out. We have, uh, 66. I said 66,022ft² of space that you can walk around in. We have games, we have TVs, you can watch a movie game, you can have your meetings here. Um, we’re just now getting into, uh, pizza. We’re doing gourmet pies and paninis here starting, um, next month. And, um, like I said, uh, hopefully by the end of March, we’ll have our canning line, uh, installed. And will you ever get these cans and take them to go right in time for the, um, the, uh, Atlanta United soccer season?

Stone Payton: [00:20:09] Man. Well, I’ll tell you this. You have certainly earned another fan here, and there is going to be a Business RadioX field trip to your facility. And we’re going to try every one of these beers when we get there.

Skinny Deville: [00:20:23] Yes, sir. I will not let you down. The beers are phenomenal. We’ve had a lot of, um, reputable, uh, beer aficionados come in and try the beer. They want to see what the hype was about. And, um, we we we we met the, um, we met up to their expectations. I’m very proud of the staff that we have. I’m very proud of the space that we’re able to, um, occupy. And I’m just honored to, uh, have a second chance at something that I’m passionate about. Thanks to the creator.

Stone Payton: [00:20:53] Well, your passion and your enthusiasm and, candidly, your business savvy comes through over the air. And I am so glad that we made the connection. Before we wrap, I want to make sure that our listeners know how to get to you. So once again, uh, let them know how to how to come have a good time and enjoy some of your beer, how to get there.

Skinny Deville: [00:21:13] Absolutely. So, um, we’re located on the corner of Northside and Nelson. It’s about one block south of Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Northside Drive. Um, we’re on the ground level of Intown Lofts apartment complex, but, um, when you come down Northside, headed south on it, you’ll see a big round sign that says Atlantic Brewing. And you see a big banner out there on the gate. Um, we have indoor seating, patio seating. Uh, we have the taproom. We have a lounge that’s very, um, cool if you want to have private meetings and whatnot. And you can find us at Atlantic at gmail. That’s Atlanta, UK at gmail. As far as our email, you can go to Atlanta Comm if you want to get a sense of it. But look us up on Yelp, look us up on Google, check out the reviews for Atlanta, and you’ll see that our, um, ratings are are we’re pretty high up there. Or you can look at some of the comments that the guests have and some of the things that they say. I stand behind our product, I stand behind our service, and I stand behind, uh, who we are as a, uh, a hip hop group as well as a up and coming brewery. But also USA today gave us the, uh, we made it to number seven best breweries in the country, according to USA today. That was last year’s, uh, voting. But we made it. And that was only our first year in it. So if USA, USA today recognizes this, I’m not saying it’s the word of God or nothing, but, um, pretty close.

Stone Payton: [00:22:37] Well, skinny, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show, man. Congratulations on the momentum. Keep up the good work and we sure appreciate you, man.

Skinny Deville: [00:22:50] Well thank you, sir. I appreciate, uh, taking the time out today to holler at you. And, um, it’s been definitely, um, a good. It’s been a good time. Thank you, sir.

Stone Payton: [00:22:57] My pleasure man. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, skinny Deville with Atlantic Brewing and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Chiquita Pollard and Heather Sexton with Kid Biz Expo Academy

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Cherokee Business Radio
Chiquita Pollard and Heather Sexton with Kid Biz Expo Academy
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Chiquita Pollard – Community, children, and entrepreneurship are what motivate and inspire me. I have an educational background in business from Kennesaw State University.

Heather Sexton –  10 year teacher veteran holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts, Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction & Accomplished Teaching, and Gifted Endorsement.

Austyn-GuestAustyn Guest is a young entrepreneur from the The Kid Biz Expo program.

 

 

 

Layla-DierdorffLayla Dierdorff is a young entrepreneur from the The Kid Biz Expo program.

 

 

 

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Kid Biz Radio. Kid Biz Radio creates conversations about the power of entrepreneurship and the positive impact that journey can have on kids. For more information, go to Kid Bispo. Com. Now here’s your host.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:00:28] Hello. Welcome to Kid Biz Radio. I’m Layla.

Austyn Guest: [00:00:31] And I’m Austyn.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:00:32] Today we have some awesome guests with us in the studio, Heather Sexton and Chiquita Pollard.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:00:37] Hi.

Austyn Guest: [00:00:38] Hello. Thank you for being here with us today.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:00:40] Um, so this episode is a little different today. Our guests are the teachers from the Kid Biz Expo Academy here to tell us about the upcoming classes they’ll be teaching. Welcome to our podcast for Kid Biz Expo. Please introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:00:54] Thank you for having us. I’m Chiquita Pollard. I’m a substitute teacher for Cherokee County, okay. Full time. I have two daughters who love selling everything that they could possibly create.

Heather Sexton: [00:01:07] I love one of their pens.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:01:10] She’s. She’s taking a little break now because of competition and everything, but she loves it. Um. That’s good. Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:01:16] I’m, um, Heather Sexton, and I am also in education. I’m a teacher. I’ve been teaching for ten years now. Um, started in California with older kids. Um, started with sixth grade from there, went down all the way to kindergarten. Wow. That’s all the way to pre-K. Pre-k? No. Thank you. Um, currently I am working with second graders, but I also, um, work with tutoring kids. And now I’ll be starting this journey with entrepreneurial kids. Yay! Very nice, very nice. Yes. Very nice. Um, so what inspired you to teach the upcoming entrepreneurial classes and kind of describe the classes that you guys are each doing, um, for? Well, for me, uh, recently I’ve been as a, as a single mom now to a three year old, I wanted to kind of be better and just acquire more skills and create opportunities for her and for I in the future. So I’ve, um, thought a lot about, well, what else can I do besides teaching, um, to potentially start earning side income and such? And so I. Had to acquire skills through a lot of practice and a lot of investment with my time and my money. But I bought myself a cricket and I taught myself how to create, um, t shirts, you know, with the vinyl. And I’ve done some cups as well and interested in trying out stickers and such. So, um, I’ve kind of been on my own journey and I’ve had some success with, um, selling to, you know, teachers, um, on campus coworkers, their family, uh, my friends and their family and in some, even in the community as well. So, um, it’s been nice to kind of, I guess, bridge what I’m doing personally in into professionally as well. It’s just kind of made sense. Yeah, I have had a cricket before. They are fun to work with. Some of the vinyl can be, um, a pain, but with the cheap the word is cheap. Yeah, invest in good products. Yes, it is definitely key. What about you, Shakira?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:03:29] Well, um. I just love being around kids. I found myself doing Girl Scouts. Yes. And then moving on to education. And I’ve always had a passion for business. I started my own small business when my daughter was barely one. Um, um, just because I decided to stay at home with her and we needed a little extra income. Yeah, yeah. Um, but high school, when I was you guys, age and younger, I’ve always had a passion for for entrepreneurship and going into the community and helping out and, um, marketing all of that. So I want to teach that to everyone that I can.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:04:08] That’s very nice. Okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:04:09] So in each of the classes that you are both going to teach, how do you plan personally for each of you to make said classes engaging to keep everyone you know, interested and participating, etc.?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:04:22] I’m a full on. In order to learn, I have to visualize it. I have to touch it. I have to be around it.

Heather Sexton: [00:04:29] I am the exact same way I feel you.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:04:31] Yes. I Cannot read texts and just absorb it. I have to be interactive. That’s understandable. All of my classes will be interactive. I set up a virtual store. Okay, cool. So yeah, so they can, you know, technology now, is everything right?

Austyn Guest: [00:04:45] Yes.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:04:46] You know, you want your video games, you want instant gratification. So we’re going to learn through that. We’re going to get to know everyone by interactive gaming. Okay. Um board games and also trying to go out and field trip.

Austyn Guest: [00:05:00] That’s okay. Okay.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:05:02] What else?

Austyn Guest: [00:05:03] Some little field trips every now and then.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:05:04] Learn from others. Yes.

Heather Sexton: [00:05:06] Well, they’ll just take a trip to Crazy Town with me anywhere. Uh, we’re going to stay indoors, but we are going to be super interactive. So when working with Chiquita and Rene and Amy, um, to develop the program, I thought it was super important to not just teach theory or the foundations of the business, although that’s important, but to actually do it, there’s, um, uh, in education, there’s a saying of like, tell me, I’ll forget, show me, I’ll remember and involve me and I’ll learn. Yeah. So I’m going to be doing a lot of involvement using some resources I was provided for kid entrepreneurs. I created the session to build upon, um, session by session, where we’re going to start with brainstorming ideas together. Um, they’re going to be writing on anchor charts. They’re going to be, um, you know, going back and forth with each other and just building up a really good bank of ideas to then choose their what they want to as a group for the one on one course, um, create. And from there they’re going to get their hands on actual materials, they’re going to produce the product, they’re going to be creating surveys, they’re going to be going to potential buyers and families and friends in their community to ask, um, for feedback and input. And they’re going to use that input and feedback to create an even better product. So they’ll be revising. And that’s something that a lot of kids will do in classes. Yeah. They don’t just you don’t get to turn a paper in and say, here you go. You do have to revise it. You have to revise it many times to then come out with a better product or a better outcome. Um, so after that they’re going to be creating business cards. They’re going to be using platforms like Canva. We, uh, very good platform to use.

Austyn Guest: [00:06:57] Yeah, yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:06:59] Uh, we’ve got, uh, some donations from laptops. So they’ll be using real, real world skills that they’ll need in their adulthood, um, to really actually do it. Not just think about doing it, but actually doing it.

Austyn Guest: [00:07:13] It definitely does help when actually sticking with the information if you physically do it.

Heather Sexton: [00:07:17] Right, and then they have to work through the challenges because it’s not your plan might not succeed the first time. And that’s I think a big part of being an entrepreneur is, um, practicing and becoming better at responding to those challenges because you.

Austyn Guest: [00:07:34] Have to expect setbacks. It’s it happens to everybody. It’s okay. Yeah. They’re perfectly normal. So.

Heather Sexton: [00:07:39] And in the real world, yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:07:40] Of course.

Heather Sexton: [00:07:42] Um, how will these classes kind of connect concepts to the real world? How do you plan to guide students through the challenges and turn them into positive learning experiences instead of.

Austyn Guest: [00:07:51] Like, dang, I failed, kind of learn from those.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:07:57] It’s just like we said, it’s okay to fail. You just it’s all about getting up and trying again, no matter how many times you have to try again. Because as a business owner, you try to read the consumer’s mind, you try to understand what they want, but you’re.

Austyn Guest: [00:08:09] Going to understand your.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:08:10] Audience. Yes, you’re going to, but it’s okay. Um, just keep trying. I want to start over the question again. Sorry.

Austyn Guest: [00:08:16] Oh, um.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:08:17] I had it triggered a thought and then it went away.

Austyn Guest: [00:08:20] So, like, how will you, like, do.

Heather Sexton: [00:08:22] The fail to positive experience, but also how you kind of connect it to like, real world entrepreneurship and not just.

Austyn Guest: [00:08:28] In the classes?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:08:29] Um, well, like the life skills we were talking about, uh, finances. You can make mistakes, but you got to know your finances if you make a mistake. Yes. Um, and just positive, positive reinforcement, helping them get through those hurdles. Uh, problem solving, skill solving. Mhm. Um, my thing is sitting with each student one on one and saying, okay, what is your business? What are we doing? What has failed? What has not failed? Let’s work through this. So not only are we teaching everyone in a group setting with this the advanced class, but I’m also sitting down with you one on one so that we.

Austyn Guest: [00:09:07] Think that would be very helpful to some of the kids.

Heather Sexton: [00:09:09] Yeah, I think it’s important to teach kids, um, mindset because it’s really easy to get um, like.

Austyn Guest: [00:09:18] Kind of discouraged.

Heather Sexton: [00:09:19] Discouraged with the setbacks. But, um, instead of, you know, them thinking that a failure is a stop sign, it’s more so. No, it’s a redirection. So where do we go from here? A little detour, it’s a detour. And I think that’s when, um, collaboration comes into play. They’re going to be in a class with other kids, and we all have different ideas. We all have different skills, and we all have different interests and different. Did I say experiences? Those experiences really do shape the way we think. And um, and so it’s really important in anything we do to collaborate, whether it’s, you know, personal or and making any decision, collaboration really gives you the, the strength of, you know, other people’s experience.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:10:09] Can I piggyback off your collaboration?

Austyn Guest: [00:10:10] Yeah, absolutely.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:10:11] Of course. I think it also gives you confidence when you have the confidence with the collaboration and seeing everyone else. Maybe someone else made that same mistake, right? Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:10:20] Um, so that helps you try and figure it out. Maybe with them too.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:10:23] Less alone and less alone. Yes.

Heather Sexton: [00:10:25] And, um, like the the idea of. No, you’re not you’re not in this all by yourself. Yeah, yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:10:32] You may be doing the business yourself, but everyone is working together to get you there. Right.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:10:36] And that’s the purpose of this organization anyways. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:10:40] You have to involve the community and allow them to support you.

Austyn Guest: [00:10:46] Yes, yes, it is very crucial. So, um, we’ve been talking about the kids now. So how can parents support their kids in the class and what exciting projects or maybe events are in store for the future of these entrepreneurial classes?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:11:01] I think the parents being involved, just being just being a parent, that’s just very vague. Um, but like with Aria, for instance, and she does her pens, she wants me to come in and spend time with her to do them with her. So the parents being involved in that child’s business is critical. Sit down with your child. Help them work through because the classes are only an hour or 15 minutes, an hour and a half. So there’s so much more that could get done outside of the classroom. It really is. Yeah. Take what we’re teaching them and help apply it at home so that they can. So that they can learn.

Austyn Guest: [00:11:39] Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:11:39] I think just encouraging the students and just remembering to reinforce the the growth mindset that, you know, failures aren’t like I said, they’re not stop signs. We have to push through them and they should expect those challenges and, and just, um, have a positive attitude towards approaching how to problem solve. Um, and I forgot my last thought here.

Austyn Guest: [00:12:05] Have fun.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:12:06] With it. It’s fun. It’s a it’s an experience and it’s an adventure. You’re spending time with your child and learning more quirks about them, more things that they love to create. Just make it fun. Don’t make it all, you know, focused and money driven or, um, life. I know it’s life skill driven, but you learn that thing. You learn those things along the way through having fun.

Austyn Guest: [00:12:28] It’s so it’s a way to like, uh, connect with your kid and. Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:12:32] And to piggyback off of what Chiquita said, I remember my last thought. Now that it’s great that the parents actually spend time and help them, you know, think through things and help them possibly even create their products. But as a teacher and, and a mom, um, it can be easy for adults to just kind of shoot down kids ideas because they don’t like it. They don’t think it’s practical. I think it’s really a good idea for them to just sit and listen and. Their practice responding to them.

Austyn Guest: [00:13:04] Awesome, right?

Heather Sexton: [00:13:06] Not just immediately shutting their ideas down.

Austyn Guest: [00:13:09] Mhm.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:13:09] You know, get out of your comfort zone with your own child.

Austyn Guest: [00:13:12] Yeah. Yeah. Um, so these classes really do sound great for kids kind of getting ready to learn about entrepreneurship. When are these classes and when are they going to begin?

Heather Sexton: [00:13:22] First step is starting the classes on January 23rd and 24th, depending on which class they’re enrolled in. So upcoming Tuesdays and Wednesdays, um, there’s a 5 to 615 session and a 630 to 745. They all last about six. They last six weeks. And, um, and then we’ll start, uh, with session two, we’re going to introduce a 102 class which will expand. It will expand off of the 101 class to basically having the kids who have just started exploring entrepreneurship in a group setting to now trying it on their own individually.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:14:07] Right. And then they’ll merge it back into the getting the numbers wrong, the to the advanced class. Yes. And being on their own. Um, but we also spoke about, um, incorporating them into all of the expos. Yes. So you remember, you had a question earlier on how what events would be coming up and all that. Yes. So they’ll have their own, um, segment or portion portion at the expo so they could get a little experience on what it’s like to sell at a booth.

Austyn Guest: [00:14:35] It’s definitely helpful to have that experience. So now we’re kind of going to get ready for some more questions that require some deep thinking. Those yeah, those are.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:14:46] Already deep enough okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:14:47] Yeah. Those questions that might take a little bit longer to answer. It’s perfectly fine. All right. So for starters, if you had the attention of the whole world for five minutes, everyone was listening, paying attention to what you were saying, what would you say?

Heather Sexton: [00:15:03] So I think for me, I think this opportunity is something that as a parent I would jump on. Mhm. Um, because it’s encouraging the kids to think outside of themselves and I believe it will increase their self-confidence and their self-worth. And they’re going to really see that the world can make an impact on you, but you can also make an impact on the world. And, you know, businesses that are really successful now started at ground zero. So they they just have to start. They just have to start.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:15:38] That’s like a passion. Mhm. Compassion. Yeah. Five minutes I will speak on compassion. And then let’s wrap it back up into business. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:15:46] You got to add some of it in there. Yeah.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:15:48] Just a little bit more. So they have compassion for these kids that are trying and understand that they’re learning. And you know when we go to uh, when I do events with my daughter, you know, there’s adults passing by, you know, stop, have some compassion that these kids are learning how to sell. They’re learning life skills. They’re learning how to put themselves out there into the world, because that is hard enough as it is. It really.

Austyn Guest: [00:16:14] Is. Yes. That was that was like a really good point. You’re like just at least that they’re trying like like knowledge that like it’s hard to try.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:16:21] You don’t have to buy anything. Just give them the small interactions. Right. That interaction is turns into a life skill. It helps them not be nervous and it helps them have confidence.

Austyn Guest: [00:16:31] Yes. Um, my public speaking has definitely improved since I started this. Absolutely. Like 1,010%. Those experiences definitely helped with that. Another one, if you could choose one superpower to help make the world a better place, what would it be and why? Again, this can easily turn personal. Either way, it’s all right.

Heather Sexton: [00:16:51] Yeah, I thought immediately. Okay, personal. I would, um, I would have a kindness kick. Like if somebody wasn’t being kind, I’d just kick them and then they absolutely love that.

Austyn Guest: [00:17:01] That was definitely one I’ve never heard before. Love it.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:17:04] So I would piggyback off your kindness kick. But before they got kicked, maybe after they got kicked.

Speaker4: [00:17:10] Yeah, I would.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:17:11] Um, I don’t know, the superpower, but what is it when they make you feel a certain way?

Austyn Guest: [00:17:16] Um. Empath. Empath. It’s like what that man does. And like Guardians of the Galaxy where she’s like, oh, yes, her. Yes. I want to say empath.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:17:25] Yeah. I would do what she does.

Austyn Guest: [00:17:27] Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. That’s good, that’s good, that’s good. That is a very good one.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:17:30] And then you get the kick.

Speaker4: [00:17:32] Then you get the kick freak. She’s a control freak over here. Yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:17:37] Okay. Um, so now we’re done with those kind of deep thinking ones. Let’s do some fun. This or that. Okay, so these are a little bit different than normal questions, but, um, if you had to choose a spirit animal that represents your entrepreneurial style, which would it be? And maybe why, you know, take your time, think well.

Heather Sexton: [00:17:59] Oh, I, um, I already know this one. I would definitely be a dog. Number one, because I love them. They’re the best. Uh, I did actually want to be a veterinarian, but then I was, like, 12 years of school. I don’t want to do that.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:10] Yeah, that is a lot.

Heather Sexton: [00:18:11] And I realized I’m a teacher. I’ll be in school for the rest of my life.

Speaker4: [00:18:14] Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:18:15] Um, but, uh, their dog, a dog is because they’re so cute and they’re a little bit crazy. They can be mischievous at times, but they really just want to be happy and loved and accepted.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:26] Of course, I love that. Yeah. What about you?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:18:28] I would do it. Reminds you of. Reminds me of tangled. I would do a chameleon. Isn’t that a tank? Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:33] Yes, that is a tangled. Yes. I love that.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:18:35] Chameleon because.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:38] He’s definitely a fun little chameleon. Yes.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:18:39] Isn’t he cute? He is. He changes colors. I’m so cute. Only because, like, they adapt. So in the entrepreneurship world, you have to learn how to adapt. Whether or not it’s adapt your product, adapt your sales pitch, adapt to your finances, whatever you have to learn how to adapt.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:56] Yes of course. Okay, so.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:18:59] And be cute, don’t it?

Austyn Guest: [00:19:00] Obviously. Um, if a celebrity could be your business mentor, who would it be and why? Alive or dead doesn’t matter. That gives you a lot of options. So take your time.

Heather Sexton: [00:19:14] I personally love Selena Gomez. I think that she not only built a career, but she’s. She’s building kids up and building adults up. She inspires me. Um, it’s really silly, but there’s a song called Who Says? And it’s just very, like, empowering. And it’s become my favorite song. And my three year old daughter song, and it’s just really.

Austyn Guest: [00:19:40] Like, I love it.

Heather Sexton: [00:19:41] Yeah. So it’s just all about like, who says you’re not perfect? Who says you’re not worth it? We all are. Nobody is better than the other. So I think that’s important in in an entrepreneurial mindset to to remind yourself that, yes, you might not have the experience yet, but starting is where everybody has.

Austyn Guest: [00:19:59] You will get there one day.

Heather Sexton: [00:20:00] Right? Right. Yeah. And she’s she’s done a lot of inspirational speeches. And just in general, she’s she keeps integrity at the forefront of, of her career.

Austyn Guest: [00:20:09] She, she just feels so real I love yeah. Yes. Real.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:20:14] I had three in my head. All right.

Speaker4: [00:20:17] Okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:20:17] Let’s say all three if you want.

Speaker4: [00:20:19] Okay. Yes. Go for it.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:20:21] My first one that came to head, I saw a meme or something on Facebook that said, um, got her name Jessica Alba?

Speaker4: [00:20:29] No.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:20:30] Not her. Um.

Speaker4: [00:20:32] Uh, sorry.

Heather Sexton: [00:20:34] I can’t help you.

Speaker4: [00:20:35] Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:20:36] She’s alive.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:20:36] She’s alive. Martha Stewart.

Speaker4: [00:20:39] Okay.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:20:39] Yes, Martha. I have to think about the vineyard. Um, said she started her business at 50. Mhm. Mind you, you’re too old. Too young to know about everything that went beforehand. But she has reinvented herself so many times. So many times not nothing was a failure to her. She’s reinvented herself with different target markets. Mhm. You know stay at home moms to older different demographics, younger demographics to even involved herself in the rap industry. Like she’s just went every.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:13] She’s went every direction you can go.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:21:14] And she’s I mean even if it seems like a failure it was a success.

Speaker4: [00:21:17] Yeah. So she learned.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:21:19] She learned. Yes. So I love that. And then just the fact that she does everything.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:24] It is impressive.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:21:25] Everything. Like gardening everything. Everything is a business. Yes. Um, my other one was Jessica Alba. Um, as a mom, a new mom. I loved how she found different things I would have never thought about to ease babies pains or how she reinvented the diaper. Like, um, yeah. How many prints of a diaper can you get?

Speaker4: [00:21:46] Yeah.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:21:48] And my last, I’m so conventional. One would be the Kardashians. Like.

Speaker4: [00:21:54] They are.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:54] They’re smart and they’re they’re smart.

Speaker4: [00:21:56] Yes.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:21:57] Like every every makeup brand, every. They started off with a small boutique, opened one.

Speaker4: [00:22:05] And I remember that California.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:22:07] Yeah. Then they had one in Miami and New York. Shut those down. It’s not working anymore. We’re going to shut it down. We’re going to start over. Try again. Yes. And then they went to Baby Boutique, started that over. They went to Skims and everything else and cosmetics and all that lip. It wasn’t I thought you said something.

Austyn Guest: [00:22:24] I said, I said it almost like blew up.

Speaker4: [00:22:26] Yeah. It all.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:22:27] Blew up. Yes. So from retail to fashion to makeup to shoes or whatever, even her little daughter gets into like, social media.

Speaker4: [00:22:37] North. Yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:22:38] North is an icon. Yes.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:22:40] And has the face for it too. Yeah. So yes, I my whole thing is all around those that are reinventing and trying new things. So I love that.

Austyn Guest: [00:22:50] That definitely works. Yeah. Okay. This is definitely a bit of a different question. It’s awesome.

Speaker4: [00:22:56] Though. That was.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:22:57] Really long.

Speaker4: [00:22:57] Sorry. You’re fine.

Austyn Guest: [00:22:59] All right.

Heather Sexton: [00:22:59] So back to me now. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:23:01] If your business had a magical mascot, would it be a unicorn or a dragon and why? It’s very different from when we just asked, but.

Speaker4: [00:23:14] I.

Heather Sexton: [00:23:14] Would do a hybrid of both. I’m not going to say one or the other because I love the magic of a unicorn, but the fierceness of a dragon?

Speaker4: [00:23:22] Yeah.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:23:24] That was perfect. Yeah. Can we make but can we make the dragon, like, colored like a unicorn?

Speaker4: [00:23:28] Yes, yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:23:28] You can make it pretty.

Speaker4: [00:23:29] Yes, make it pretty and.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:23:31] Blow out glitter fire.

Speaker4: [00:23:32] Yes, yes. Of course. Okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:23:38] If you had to adopt an entrepreneurial alter ego, would you be a superhero or a villain? A super villain hero anti-hero. Anti-hero would work.

Speaker4: [00:23:52] Yeah.

Heather Sexton: [00:23:53] I again, I would be both because I love that the superheroes like their motivation is to help people. But I also love the selfishness of super villains and staying true to their goals as well.

Austyn Guest: [00:24:05] Of course.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:24:06] Yeah, yeah, this is where we can we connect.

Speaker4: [00:24:08] Yeah. They didn’t put their goals.

Austyn Guest: [00:24:10] Ahead of everybody else.

Speaker4: [00:24:11] Yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:24:11] Yeah. Okay, so another one. If you were seeking advice for business business decisions, would you be consulting a fortune cookie or a magic eight ball? Super important.

Speaker4: [00:24:25] Decision.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:24:25] Hands on the.

Heather Sexton: [00:24:27] You know what? I’m a troublemaker. I’m not gonna. I know I’m not gonna consult either. I’m going to consult. I have more confidence in myself. I consult myself a lot. But beyond that, I would consult other people that have, you know, had experience and learn from them as well.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:24:46] I think it depends on the situation. Yeah, situation.

Austyn Guest: [00:24:49] It would depend on your question.

Speaker4: [00:24:50] Like a, you know.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:24:52] It seems more random.

Speaker4: [00:24:54] Yeah. Yeah.

Chiquita Pollard: [00:24:55] I mean the, the cookies random too, but it’s more wiser eight balls. Like go with your heart. Do what you think.

Austyn Guest: [00:25:02] Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t give you a straightforward answer, right.

Speaker4: [00:25:05] Yeah, yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:25:07] All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Can you please remind everyone where they can get more information about the Kids Expo Academy classes and where to sign up?

Chiquita Pollard: [00:25:18] Yeah, social media, Kids Biz Expo Facebook page and the website Kids Build expo.com.

Heather Sexton: [00:25:26] Yes. Um, I did want to mention that we’re, uh, just some things that we’re going to be doing in the future. Um, beyond adding courses, we want to also create a summer program that is in the works right now. Um, and we’ll get some information about that out to you guys soon. Um, but it will look a little different than the courses.

Austyn Guest: [00:25:51] Okay, fantastic. We enjoyed our time with you today, and we know that the audience has as well. Thanks for listening to Campus Radio. See you next time.

 

BRX Pro Tip: What is the Real Desired Outcome?

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BRXmic99
BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: What is the Real Desired Outcome?
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BRX Pro Tip: What is the Real Desired Outcome?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, this is a question that I have to remind myself consistently to ask, to ask myself and ask a prospective client what is the real desired outcome.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Yeah. A lot of times a prospective client will tell you what they want, but sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to really understand their true motivation of why they would even consider hiring you. You have to understand what is the true outcome that this person desires. And, you know, the usual suspects around outcomes for most people is around making more money, having more influence. They want more information or knowledge. They want access to unique experiences. Or they want more control or more power. I mean, usually their outcome is somewhere around those kind of things.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] Now, if your service or your product can deliver one, two, three of those things to your prospect, you should be able to sell somebody something. And that’s why our platform in Business RadioX is so powerful for our clients and our sponsors is because we deliver almost every single one of those outcomes. We help our clients make more money. We help our clients have more influence. We help our clients become experts in real thought leaders in whatever space they’re in. We help our clients gain access to unique experiences. We help our clients have really more power and control in their community because they become the mega connector.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:42] They become the person that knows everybody that has access to folks. They have access to events. And they have a way to meet people and make more money in whatever form that they want to. And it gives them multiple revenue streams. So, that is the power of the Business RadioX platform, and that’s why so many people are attracted to it and want to become part of it.

Nick Smith with StageDive

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Cherokee Business Radio
Nick Smith with StageDive
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In this episode of Fearless Formula, Sharon Klein interviews Nick Smith, co-creator of StageDive, a new streaming platform for independent musicians and content creators. They discuss the difficulties artists face with current streaming services and how StageDive offers a fair and transparent payout system.

Nick shares the platform’s origin story, its commitment to community, and its direct support for artists. They also talk about StageDive’s upcoming paid beta launch and how it aims to empower artists by providing a one-stop shop for connecting with fans and selling merchandise without third-party interference. 

Nick-Smith-StageDiveNick Smith the one of the creators of StageDive, a new streaming platform designed to change the music and streaming industry.

StageDive allows more control and profit for the artist, small bands and streamers, and is a hub for consumers and listeners to have access to their favorite content, all with no ads.

StageDive exists to disrupt the norms, and to empower the voices of the creators and listeners – the true stakeholders of content creation.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Coming to you live from the Business RadioX Studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:17] Welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline, and I haven’t been here in like a month. I’ve been I’ve been sick for a while, but I am so happy to be back and have missed my fearless Formula Fridays. And I’m so happy to have in the studio the co-creator of StageDive, a new streaming platform that is being created to change the music industry not just for musicians, but for content creators as well. Please welcome to the studio, Nick Smith.

Nick Smith: [00:00:49] Hey, how are you doing?

Sharon Cline: [00:00:50] I’m good. How are you?

Nick Smith: [00:00:51] I’m good. Thank you for having me on the show. This is awesome.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:53] Thank you. I’m so happy to have you in, because I. What I love about what you’re doing is that you are a champion for the little guys in the industry and the people who don’t have corporate power behind them. So if you could give an explanation of what stage dive is, I’d love it. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:01:08] Of course. So like you just said, it’s built for the little guys. That’s actually exactly who it’s built for is the little guys. Um, we want to appeal to everyone, but, you know, strip it down to its most basic thing. We’re a streaming platform. So the same way something like, you know, a Spotify or, you know, even YouTube to an extent, like I know their videos, but they’re still just a streamer. Um, content creators just upload their, their stuff there. And that’s really the way music, podcasting, everything is listened to. I think most of the time now, you know, like now it’s it’s rare that you go and buy a physical copy of a CD or something. You know, exactly. Most of the time you are going to stream it from whatever’s the most convenient for you. I think, you know, Spotify is kind of king right now in terms of just convenience. Um, but the truth of it is, and and honestly, most people don’t even know this. What artists get paid out on it is really, really hard. Um, you just don’t get paid very well on streaming platforms. And it’s, you know, the, uh, the music industry has changed a lot over the years. And, you know, one of the things that you see is just you get paid terribly and it’s kind of for the reason of, well, you’re able to be everywhere all the time now, which is true. Like, I don’t want to just come in and just dogging, streaming immediately. We’re literally building a streaming platform. So there is, you know, a lot of, um, a lot of great sides to it. And part of that is that, you know, back in the day, you had to try really hard to go, you know, be, um, be noticed in a club somewhere and then go on tour, probably yourself, like, you know, self-fund tours and just try to get everybody’s attention and hope that a record label would sign you.

Nick Smith: [00:02:47] And that’s a big hope also, that a record label would sign you. And then if they did, you know, you have to hope that it’s not one of those, you know, horror stories that we’ve heard of, like Def Leppard, where these Sharkey, you know, um, deals that you get, where you don’t actually own your own music or anything like that, and then, you know, you just you have to hope for the best that way. And now you can be completely independent. You can do it yourself. You can learn to be an audio engineer online. You can do all these things. And it makes it really, really convenient and possible. And that’s that’s a big word. It makes it possible for, um, just an average musician to learn to do this themselves and put this out themselves. The flip side of that is you’re not in competition with your local town anymore to get noticed. You’re in competition with literally the entire planet. Everyone is able to do it themselves, and that’s awesome. That also puts you like you are now a small fish in an extremely large pond. And um, so I think, you know, the way streaming was kind of built where it’s done with this intention of like, people can stream you so much more easily than they could in the past. It’s a little bit of a double edged sword, that’s true. But because of the the payouts being what they are, it makes it really hard to actually make a living doing it.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:07] Totally makes sense when you consider I mean, I had an album back in the day that was on that I had made through CD baby, and, uh, this is a long time ago, and I still will get a check maybe every couple of years for like $30, you know, and I’ll be like, oh my, that was like 0.00 $0.02 for like one person listening, you know, to a couple different tracks. So it’s like very little money. It’s not actually I would never even do it for the money. You know, you have to do it because you love it and then hope that that big things come. But what I’m wondering is, do you find that the artists that are are fighting to get notice that their, their craft has to be pretty stellar in order to compete?

Nick Smith: [00:04:49] Yeah. I mean, and that’s all subjective too, because people there’s, there’s bands that you will love that someone else will hate. You know, some of my favorite bands are not like super well known. And they’re people, you know, people just don’t like them. And then there’s also some of the biggest artists in the world I just I can’t get into.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:04] So true. I’m the exact same.

Nick Smith: [00:05:05] So, you know something like that. It’s it’s subjective. But yeah, you know, like you have to you have to find some angle to, to get noticed. And again, you know, it’s great that now you can do all of that yourself. But it’s also it’s hard to ask someone that, you know, I think of myself when I first picked up a guitar and did it because I wanted to be on stage and I wanted to be, you know, Eddie Van Halen somewhere and like, you know, just I just I wanted to to just be cool on stage, like, that’s what I wanted as a little kid. And, you know, you pick up a guitar for something like that. Now you kind of also have to wear the hat of being the audio engineer and a marketing director for yourself and videographer. Videographer make your own merch. Like there’s a lot of stuff you have to do that. Sorry. I know back in the day you would kind of look to a label to do a lot of those things, and now, you know, you’re able to do it all yourself, but you kind of have to do it all yourself now. And not everyone is wanting to do that. Not everyone is built to do that either.

Nick Smith: [00:06:06] There’s a there’s a lot of people that make incredible music that are terrible at marketing. And, you know, there’s always a band like which this is not new. There’s everyone can think of a band that was phenomenal, that just never made it. And they were never going to because they didn’t know how to, uh, how to kind of harness whatever it was to get out on the road or to market themselves the right way or to like, you know, they might have written an awesome song, but they never had a chance to actually get into a studio. They were they were never able to, like, just get it together, you know? And there’s a lot of those people. And just because you’re not a marketing director doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to get paid for what you’ve done. Now those people are gonna, you know, cream rise to the top. Those people are going to do better, probably because they’re putting all that work in. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s great. Good for every single one of those people that’s able to do that. I champion every one of them. But that’s not everyone. And everyone else does deserve to still get something for their time.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:06] I agree with that. And some of the best artists I’ve ever heard are ones that I’ve never heard of and just happened to come in through, like a playlist that someone made sure that I happened to find on Apple Music or whatever in a streaming way. So it is wonderful. It’s like beautiful music, well crafted, well written that just doesn’t have the big Columbia label behind it or whatever. So what I what I love, though, is what you’re talking about is giving a space for someone who whose passion is to create music and create content, even if they are able to go and perform live, which I’m sure is all part of it as well. You know, be Eddie Van Halen on a stage somewhere. But still, to be able to to have that second part of it, which is being able to have access to the whole world by being able to stream and and like you said, being an engineer. And I find that many people who have such a great skill in music may not have the interpersonal skills that balance it, but that doesn’t take away from the talent that they have, right? Yeah, it just means they can’t wear all the hats. I can’t either. So I mean.

Nick Smith: [00:08:12] And it is a lot to ask, you know, it is, it is. And for the people that can do it, that’s awesome. And yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:16] Wonderful.

Nick Smith: [00:08:17] All right. That’s that’s great. But it’s just it’s not everyone. Um, and you know, I had mentioned like, back in the day, you hoped to get a record deal, and you hope that it’s not one of these, like, kind of predatory deals that you hear about a lot. You know, you hear a lot of the horror stories, especially around that time, you know, like the kind of like 70s and the 80s where a lot of the bands that you think of, you know, Def Leppard and Motley Crue and that kind of era of bands, they got kind of a raw deal where, yes, you do get to live your dream of touring all over the world, of being on stage, and everyone knows who you are and, you know, um, that that’s that’s great. But they don’t own a lot of the music. And I know at one. Def Leppard was considering rerecording everything they had ever done. Which that also is next to impossible to, you know, you can’t replicate exactly what you did back in the 70s, in 2015, or whatever it is that they were talking about doing it and have it sound exactly the same. Especially, you know, you’re older, your voice doesn’t sound the same and all that. But they were thinking about doing that because they didn’t actually own their music. The label owned their music, and so they were making pennies for all of these classics that we hear on the radio all the time. And so their money was all coming from t shirt sales. That’s how they were staying relevant touring. And yeah, but I mean, even tickets with that, like they weren’t making a lot of money because in their deal their label got a lot of those ticket sales. So it was mostly t shirts as how Def Leppard was able to to stay relevant. And that’s crazy that they’re a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band that’s, you know, that’s broke.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:47] I think about Taylor Swift, who did the same thing. He did all of her music because Scooter Braun owned her music. And so she’s like, that’s it. I’m going to make it all new for me for sure.

Nick Smith: [00:09:56] Well, and you see, you know how much she’s exploded. I really think that’s part of the reason why she exploded the way she did is that that kind of became such a big deal, um, publicly, that she did all of that and kind of just took it into her own hands. And I think people resonate with that.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:12] They do. When you’re talking about the fact that artists don’t have control so much over their material, that’s what you’re trying to combat or you’re trying to provide the service of with stage dive, allowing them to control where their content goes and and profit from it directly. So imagine that I’m an artist and I’m signing up with Stage Dive. What could I expect?

Nick Smith: [00:10:35] Sure. So, um, real quick to kind of a long way of answering that. Yeah, I have some notes. I do kind of want to break down what the actual payout looks like on, you know, the streaming platforms that are out right now versus how we the reason that we that we built things the way that we did. So. Just to, uh, to put it into perspective. So for a single stream, YouTube pays out 0.0006 $0.09 for a single stream. Um. Spotify pays out 0.00437. Apple is 00735. So on a million streams on YouTube, you make $690. Wow. On Spotify, you’ll make just over $4,000. And on Apple you’ll make just over $7,000. But Apple has kind of fallen off a lot with, you know, really just taking away a lot of the convenience that they had before. So they’re really not the best. Um, you do make a little bit more through Apple, but they’ve kind of just. Fallen by the wayside a little bit. So like I said, Spotify is kind of king right now. And so they’re the easiest one to compare to. And a million streams is $4,000. That’s. Look, $4,000 is a lot of money in your pocket just for the average person. But a million streams is a hard, hard number to achieve. Um, if like, you know, again, if you are not a massive touring artist, if you’re just the guy who’s busting his ass playing in a bar that is really, really trying to make it, and you’re putting out music and you’re trying really hard, you’re out there selling t shirts, you’re self-funding a tour, you’re doing everything that we talked about.

Nick Smith: [00:12:14] Million streams is a hard number to reach. Um, especially because, you know, they’re they’re an ad based platform. That’s how they make their money, which means you put Taylor Swift face on an ad you’re that’s going to sell. Everyone knows who that is. And her fan base is enormous. If you put my face on an ad, nobody cares. Nobody knows who I am, you know? Um, so it’s not. That’s not really built for that either, because realistically, it’s just an algorithm. It’s not. It’s not picking and choosing. I don’t like your music. I do like their music. It’s just looking at it and saying, you’re not making us money. You are in our way. Um, what’s making us money is whoever the biggest in whatever genre it is. So again, people like Taylor Swift and, you know, on the on the other side, you know, a band like Metallica, if you’re a rock band, like their put their face on an ad, it’s going to sell. Well. If your face isn’t going on an ad, you’re kind of getting lost in that algorithm. You’re not. Not only are you not being promoted, you’re kind of being pushed down because you’re in the way actively. Um, so a million streams, you’re not just competing with everyone to get a million streams, you’re competing to just stay above water, to hope for a million streams. Um. So with stage dive, we are we don’t we don’t have a free version. So we’re a paid version. And 3.99 is what it costs. And we tried to keep it as cheap as possible.

Nick Smith: [00:13:38] Um, just to make it accessible for everyone. So 50% goes to the company and that’s what gets, you know, reinvested into our marketing and, you know, paying out employees or whatever. The other 50% goes directly to the artists. And instead of paying out per stream, we pay out, um, broken down by time. So that’s the other part of being an ad based platform is we also have no ads, by the way. So we’re not doing any, any ads because that is infuriating to everyone. Um, but it also helps keep us honest, because when you’re an ad based platform, um, the money goes to the people that are selling those advertisements. So it’s kind of trickled down to everybody else. So whoever you listen to doesn’t matter who it is. Your favorite band that maybe, like you said, you found through a playlist that, um, that isn’t, you know, a super big artist. They’re just someone that you found you really like when you support them on Spotify or Apple or any of these platforms, your money doesn’t actually go to them. If you have like a, you know, like the paid version of whatever, it goes to whoever’s at the top, and then eventually they’ll get a little bit, you know, and that’s where you get this .00, whatever number. Um, that’s the reason it’s, you know, less than a quarter of a penny for a stream seems because, you know, the $11 that you’re paying is going to Taylor Swift first. Even if, you know, even if you actively don’t like her, which, you know, nothing against her, but she’s just the biggest artist today.

Nick Smith: [00:15:06] So it’s easy, even if you don’t like her, that’s where your money goes. So by breaking it down by time, it’s it’s like a pie chart, right? So if you have three bands that you listen to this month, you’re, you know, $2 that goes to them. Um, if you listen to one band 50% of the time and one band, you know, 35% of the time or whatever, that 50% of that money goes to that band that you listen to, 35 goes to the other band like it’s broken down exactly by who you’re listening to the most, because it’s not really fair. Not everyone, you know, you you’ve been sick. You said so. You haven’t been here recording in a month. So you probably also haven’t been driving around as much as you normally would. So if you’re not driving around, you might not be listening to music as much as you normally do. But that doesn’t mean that if you’re in the car and you listen to those bands that you like and you want to support, you’re still paying the same amount of money. So if you’re listening to that band 50% of the time, it’s still 50% of your money that you would expect to go to them. So we want it to be very transparent, you know, like this is what you’re paying and for what you’re paying. This is who you chose to support, so it should go directly to them. There is no third party that it goes to first. It goes directly to who you are choosing to support because that’s the way it should be.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:23] It does keep you honest. It keeps the band. Also, it’s got some statistics behind it so the band can see, or the artist or the podcaster can see how successful they’re being as well, which is important information to have, which is their most, most streamed or listened to song is super important as well. I’m thinking about how you created this whole platform. What was the how did it get started for you?

Nick Smith: [00:16:48] Right. So I have to give all the credit to, uh, to John Bruce. So he’s the one that started, uh, he’s the one that had this idea, put the team together and started all this stuff. And actually, oddly enough, um, so growing up, you know, uh, my dad and I would play Call of Duty online with, with people just all over, you know, and, uh, and you find people on there that you end up playing with more and they kind of become like your friends online or that.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:13] Like, for years. You can be friends with people you’ve never been in the same room with.

Nick Smith: [00:17:16] So my dad is also in a band. He’s also a musician. He plays bass. And that’s part of what got me, you know, interested in music and everything. Young. And he was playing online with someone that said, hey, I know a guy and I know you’re in a band. He’s starting this streaming platform idea thing. It sounds cool. You should talk to him. And so he put him in touch with, uh, with John. And I have a, uh, a media company. That’s that’s a very small startup. It’s, you know, it’s very, very small. It’s not, you know, we’re not a big company, but, um, it was built for this exact same reason, though. I was trying to do this kind of my own way and helping people to produce podcasts and produce music and music videos and things like that.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:58] Control it. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:17:59] And that kind of became our tagline is we don’t own you, you know, and was trying to build something grassroots that way. And, um, you know, you and I were put in contact through Zach Goodfellow, who was also on your show and means that go back a long way. Uh, we’ve been friends since middle school, you know? And so, uh, my wife and I did a podcast together that, uh, we don’t do anymore. But when, um, when we had our baby, she kind of took some time off from the podcast. And so I just had guest hosts come in and just kind of hang out with me. And Zach was one of them. And so we were talking about Sage Media, which is my media company. And, you know, he said something that I love and I kind of carried with me, which is, um, he liked what we were trying to do because there’s this idea that, um, there’s not enough room at the table. And that’s just not true. There’s room at the table for everyone to eat. There’s enough money to go around. There’s enough business to go around. There’s enough to go around.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:57] There’s enough unique sounds. There’s enough of an art of of an audience for whatever kind of music you have. There’s plenty for everyone.

Nick Smith: [00:19:04] Yes. And just content in general. Like there’s enough there for everyone to eat so that, you know, I love that he said that. And so I kind of took that with me. And when I started talking to John, so, you know, when my dad talked to John, he was like, you know, you need to talk to you. My son has a media company. I bet he would be into this. So when me and John started talking immediately, I was like, this is this is how everyone gets to pull a chair up to the table. This is how everyone gets to eat.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:30] Isn’t it amazing how you got hooked up with someone you know in just like a sort of a serendipitous way where you wouldn’t have even known if your dad wasn’t playing Call of right? Yeah, sometimes it just cracks me up. And it’s fascinating to me how people get put together. Like even your being on the show today is due to Zach and and his ties to music, and he and his dad played music, and you and your dad played music. And you’ve known each other since, you know, school. So cute. Um, so after you got in touch with this gentleman, um, now, now you you actually have, like, the bones of how you wanted to have this company get started.

Nick Smith: [00:20:05] Yeah. So, you know, John and I work together all the time. We have the, the dev team that we work with is phenomenal. So I got to give credit to, you know, he already had a team built and originally, you know me and him were just talking about me just, you know getting some stuff up there. And you know how this could help me. And right away I just I saw so much value in what this was. And me and him just started kind of talking and I was throwing ideas out. And, you know, I wasn’t looking for, you know, let me in. You know, it was just kind of, I, I love this and I want to help.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:38] You believed in it. Where are you geographically? Not together. You’re not.

Nick Smith: [00:20:41] Close? No. So there. The rest of the team is actually out in California. Got you.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:45] Um, but it doesn’t matter, does it? No, it.

Nick Smith: [00:20:46] Doesn’t. And that’s, you know, that’s something that’s that’s great about this. You know, like I said, streaming. It’s a little bit like social media and stuff like that. It’s really a double edged sword. But this is where it’s awesome for me, you know. Um. And so once we started talking a little bit and just kind of bouncing back and forth a lot, he was like, man, I want you to be a part of the team. And so they brought me in. And, uh.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:07] What an honor.

Nick Smith: [00:21:07] Right? Yeah, absolutely. So I, you know, like I said, I got to give all the credit in the world to him and to our dev team, especially who, you know, they bust their ass and makes it much easier for me and John to, uh, to be a pain in the ass for them also, because we can come on here and promise things that now they have to try to stick to. So let’s not do.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:26] That too much today. Right? Well, we were talking also before the show about how, um, you know, they’re able to on your, on your platform stage dive, you’ll be able to have access to merch if, if a client has some.

Nick Smith: [00:21:39] Yeah. So that’s, uh, that’s stuff that’s kind of coming down the road a little bit. So we’re, uh, we’re still early stages on this, you know.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:47] But you’re not on the App Store yet. No.

Nick Smith: [00:21:50] So we actually won’t be on the App Store. So I’m glad that you said that we actually won’t be on the App Store or on the Google Play Store or anything. And the reason is, um, you know, we know that’s going to be a little bit of an uphill battle for us to get people to kind of come to us directly at first, but for us to be on the, uh, the App Store or Google Play or anything, we would have to pay a pretty decent amount for anytime anyone were to download that, which would have mean which would mean that we would have to charge everybody more to be a part of our platform. So which is what.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:22] You’re trying to avoid.

Nick Smith: [00:22:23] Right? We’re trying to avoid that. We’re trying to keep it as cheap as possible and still have it be able to be something sustainable so that we can kind of share the wealth without, you know, no one’s in business to lose money. You know, like we still have to be able to make money ourselves. Right?

Sharon Cline: [00:22:35] But do you have to have an app?

Nick Smith: [00:22:37] So we will have an app. It’s just you’ll have to come to us to get it. So stagedive.com will be, you know, like we’ll have a, um, we’ll still have a website.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:46] Gotcha. And then you’ll have the links or whatever to be able to.

Nick Smith: [00:22:48] And from there you’ll still be able to get an app. It’ll still be on your home page, just like you’re doing it that way.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:52] Isn’t that so great?

Nick Smith: [00:22:53] Yeah, just going independent seemed to be the right way to do it.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:56] And for some reason, thinking about having an app at like the App Store. Apple Store. Yeah, who also has their own music just seems kind of wrong anyway. But it’s like the energy behind it feels like it matches what music is all about, which is not having someone control who you are and being able to freely express and to be able to profit from the way that you’re made and the way your mind works and where your soul is. So it just feels like exactly a perfect match, right?

Nick Smith: [00:23:24] Well, and that’s, you know, we had to have the conversation of, you know, look, this is going to be harder to convince people to come here instead of where everyone goes for everything, you know. And it is a little bit like, you know, if Walmart has taken over the town and we’re going to try to open up a small mom and pop shop, like it is hard to convince people to go around convenience to get to something that even if they believe in it, it’s just not always the easiest thing for people. Um, but the whole, the whole point of this is that it’s built to help, you know, independents and people that are trying to do this and that are kind of having to go underground with it and all of that. Like it just seemed to fit exactly what we were trying to build. And we just decided, like, look, we’ll take on a little bit more of the work there and, you know, we’ll have to be better at the marketing. We’ll have to be better at, you know, like getting this in front of everybody’s eyes. And, you know, however, we we feel like we need to do that. It just it just made more sense to do it instead of going like, all right, well then immediately we’re going to have to charge people more than what we thought. And it just felt like we’re having to immediately compromise.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:27] Exactly.

Nick Smith: [00:24:27] And cater. Yeah. And we just don’t want to do that. You know, it’s. It was a hard line of we’re not going to do ads. And when I say that, I also want to be clear because, you know, obviously podcasters and stuff, they make their money on ads. Any artist that’s on our platform, they can have ads themselves. You can do whatever you want with your airtime, but we’re not going to stop playing your music to put an ad because somebody gave us money. Um, you do whatever you want with your airtime, but we’re not going to force ads on anybody. Um, and so right away, we kind of had to figure out, like, how to still be able to make money and stuff like that because, you know, we just don’t want to compromise the, the vision of this and kind of what we saw from the beginning.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:10] What are the plans for marketing? Because I can imagine that is the big thing. I think if people know about it, they’re going to use it.

Nick Smith: [00:25:17] Yeah. And what man, what’s been so great is kind of what you’ve said a little bit too. Like, everyone has identified so much right away with man, if I could help out the people I listen to the most, that’s where I’d want to go. And it just seems like people are really craving, like, some sort of authenticity there. Um, so for us, a big, a big thing that’s been working well for us is really, um, a lot of the bands are so excited for this. They’re they’re working with us, which is great. And kind of just being able to say, like, hey, can we use you to help promote, you know, and, you know, running essentially what would be like a commercial or whatever using the bands on our platform. And they’re so excited to be a part of it. And that’s what’s connecting, really, is people are just finding exactly what you said, finding new music, finding people that they care about. And when you find, um, I think people are just naturally kind of tribal, you know, so when you find someone that you feel like you found them early, you love seeing those people kind of rise through the ranks a little bit, you know, like everyone wants to cheer for their hometown person, even if they’re not from your hometown. If you feel like you found them before everybody else did and you were there early, you love getting to say, I found them back four years ago before they were big, you know?

Sharon Cline: [00:26:27] Yeah, you’re invested, emotionally invested in doing well, too, and watching them grow. You know, I think what’s what’s exciting too, is, is the energy behind it being I am not going to allow someone else’s decision to dictate whether or not I can be successful. I’m not going to change who I I’m going to be. I’m going to live my truth and let that be the authentic part that comes out, and I can benefit from it, not anybody else. I always hated the fact that there were artists that were told they needed to change their sound, to be more marketable in some way. Yeah. You know, I always thought that was like, well, I mean, why the reason that they’re being successful or noticed at all is because they have raw talent. Right?

Nick Smith: [00:27:08] And, you know, I do want to shout out a specific band. Actually, there’s a band from Atlanta, uh, called Silly Goose. And it was these kind of young kids that, um, we went to a concert and when we were leaving, this ended up being the highlight of our night. And it wasn’t even the show we went to go see when we were leaving, there were these kids that had a show where they built a trailer, or they had their trailer and they secured all their gear on it so they could very noticeably, easily get away if the cops got called. But they were, uh, they just threw their own show out in the parking lot and they would strategically go like, okay, there’s shows going on here in Atlanta. There’s a big show here. Let’s get in front of a crowd. There’s a crowd that will be leaving an amphitheater at this time. Let’s get in front of them. And they were awesome. Like they were just their energy was incredible. Their music was great. And immediately like, you know, like I said, it was it was, who are these kids and how can I support them? And, uh, you know, we brought them on the podcast. We just started talking to them. We’ve gotten to know them and they’re awesome. And now, you know, they’re playing these, you know, like we saw them at Louder Than Life when we went. They’ve played Rockville. They’re they’re blowing up and they’re playing these big festivals. And everyone you can see in their crowd found them in the street, saw them doing it their way because nobody wanted to book them anywhere. They weren’t the most marketable band to anybody. They weren’t, you know, just no one wanted to book them. And getting to be in a room where, uh, where they finally got booked and they sold out a room and getting to say, like, you know, none of you wanted to give us a chance that we did this ourselves. How many people saw us in the street and the entire room went nuts. We were like, that’s it right there.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:42] Don’t you think it’s such a testament to the fact that that music companies and the industry in general don’t really know what it is? That’s not all the time knows what it is that’s really going to resonate.

Nick Smith: [00:28:53] Well, nobody.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:54] Does. I mean, it’s like a catching lightning in a bottle. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:28:58] I mean, you never know what’s going to what’s going to resonate any, any band or solo act or anyone that you can think of. At some point somebody looked at them and was like, nah, they’re not going to make it. Everyone. I mean, I can’t think of I mean, now, legends like Jimi Hendrix at the time, there were so many people that were like, you know, just not on board with what he was doing. And now he’s thought of as, you know, one of the greatest of all time, you know, and there’s just always going to be people that don’t get it. That’s not a reason to stop doing it. That’s not a reason to change either. I. If if there’s something that’s being done because it’s the best way, that’s fine. But if everything’s being done a certain way, just because it’s always the way it’s been done, I hate that I’ve never believed in that. It’s so.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:41] Contrived. Yeah, it’s not authentic and can’t. Can’t you feel authenticity when you’re in the midst of it? Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:29:47] And that’s and like I said, that’s really what has been the driving part of this in terms of, uh, like marketing and stuff like that is people are seeing it and they’re feeling it. And when we start talking about this, um, and thank you so much, because, you know, these being able to go on shows and stuff like this and being able to really explain this, um, when people hear about it, it just connects with, with something in them where they go like, yeah, that’s who I want to support. I want to support who I chose, not who you’re telling me I have to.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:14] There’s just something about the freedom of it. Like, I think it’s just innate in our personalities that we want to be able to choose and not be forced or told we have to. So being able to have stage dive, which gives people that freedom, it’s like the energy behind it is so infectious. I feel like.

Nick Smith: [00:30:32] Yeah, well thank you. And also I do want to backtrack a little bit to one of the things that you said. So you had talked about, um, like merch and stuff on stage dive and all that. So, you know, like I said, we’re early stages, but coming down the road, we want to be a one stop shop for the bands also. So being able to have a way for them to communicate with their fans having like almost like a, um, just a direct line to everybody so that when you see an artist, you’re not having to again, go to a third party. You don’t have to leave and try to find them on, you know, social media or find a website or whatever their merch is, their, their tickets are there. You can reach out to them there, you know, like just ways that bands have a direct line to their fans, and fans have a direct line to the people that they are a fan of. Um, and just rebuilding a community that I feel like has fallen off in music. You know, that’s that’s a big part of it too, is there’s think of when you go to a live show, there is a community there. There’s people you have never met. In fact, it’s full of people you’ve never met. And there’s something bringing you all together. And you can look around and just connect with people all around you, and that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. You don’t go to the grocery store and look around and just start connecting with people. But you go to a concert and you do.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:41] Well. I had gone to see an artist here in Atlanta probably ten years ago, big artist and. It was sold out at Philips Arena. Is it called Philips Arena? State farm arena. I don’t know what it’s called now. Next is CNN and it’s I looked around at one point, one of his famous songs, and I just kind of turned around and watched the crowd and everyone was singing like the same song, the same thing, and just watching people so happy. It was wonderful to be able to step back and really appreciate what was happening.

Nick Smith: [00:32:12] That’s my favorite thing, actually, is exactly what you just said. It’s my favorite thing to do at a show is, you know, when we went to like Louder Than Life this last year, like going to these, like big festivals or going to a small show, uh, you know, going to see somebody at Smith’s Bar or going to see somebody in amphitheater or wherever. It’s the same thing, like standing in the room and just looking around and seeing like, wow, all of all of these people came here for the exact same reason I did. Like everyone came here to be a part of what’s happening right now. And it is like as soon as it’s done, this moment is done. You know, like even if you can watch it on a video or hear it on, you know, an album later or something like that, this moment is done as soon as we leave here, and there is something that just that doesn’t happen again, like music can bring something out that that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. And that’s incredible, you know, so being able to to give back to the artists that are doing that on stage, you know, they worked really hard to be there. And they’re just there’s not an avenue for them to like kind of own their own, like art anymore.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:13] I always feel like it is a reflection of this. It’s like a child, you know, it’s a little part of who they are and they own it. And so for someone, you know, imagining someone taking some of the music that I had made and used it for their own or not paid me for, it would hurt me so badly, you know, it sucks, you know? Yeah. And it would be like, that’s that was that was from my brain, you know, like that belonged to me. And so having control over that I think is it’s an emotional thing.

Nick Smith: [00:33:38] Yeah. Well and you know, like you said, you, you wrote music and put out an album and everything. So, you know, there is something really cool that I, I wish everyone was able to experience in some way. And you just don’t unless you do some type of some type of art. Yeah. Something creative. Yeah, but there’s not that many notes the same way. There’s not like there’s not that many colors, you know, like if someone starts painting something like you have all the same colors everyone else does, you know, but you paint something and you go, wow, that now there’s something that existed that didn’t exist before. When you make a song, it’s the same thing. Same thing.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:09] Yes, I totally agree. I can remember completing a song and and and you know, learning learning it and like singing it as I’m doing things around the house. And I was like, what? This is so crazy that this never the words were not put together exactly the way I did and the notes weren’t, and it just felt so, um, powerful, but not in a, um, a way that I want to control the world. I just felt like I can create something that now exists. I mean, that album exists out in the world that didn’t before. So it’s almost like, what else can I do? You know, it’s it’s exciting and, um, it’s sacred work. I felt like it was very sacred to me.

Nick Smith: [00:34:46] Yeah, well, and I do wish there was a way that everyone could feel that in some way. But you know that there just is a creative thing. You know that unless you have this creative process or whatever, it’s really hard to try to describe what that feeling is. It’s hard to describe the feeling of. Creating something and again, like you have the same stuff everyone else does. You have the same notes, you have the same equipment, you have the same same.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:09] Clay, same exact thing. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:35:11] And putting something together with especially, you know, like a band, like you put something together with your friends and go like, holy shit, that didn’t exist before. And now it does. And then you go on stage somewhere and you do this thing, and then when you’re done, people start cheering like, I don’t know how to put that into words for people if they haven’t experienced it before.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:28] It’s so true. I’m like, get chills when I think about that moment. I had given some money back to like a charity after I made some money on my album, and I can remember it was for Feed the Children, and I could not control myself as I was like getting the check from the bank because I felt like there are people out there that are going to eat. And have like a full belly from something that came from my brain. Like I could not.

Nick Smith: [00:35:53] A whole second level of that. I couldn’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:35:54] Handle it. It was like, I mean, the guy handed me the check was like, you’re doing a really good thing. Like, he felt so bad for me because I couldn’t couldn’t even speak. But it was it felt like very sacred work. And it felt like I did something that gave me joy, but also brought something good to someone else’s life. And like the win win was just so much. And that’s what I think. That’s what you’re talking about here is the win win.

Nick Smith: [00:36:18] Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you know when when you talk about that, I have some other stuff here that, um, you know, what’s crazy is you kind of know about this stuff if you’re in it, you know, like if you’re if you’re a musician that’s putting up music, you know, that.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:32] You think about it and you’re you hear about.

Nick Smith: [00:36:34] It. But the average person that’s listening to music or listening to a podcast, you don’t really think about what is, you know, this hour of my time, this three minutes of my time that I’m listening to the song, what is this person getting paid for it? Like nobody thinks about that, really?

Sharon Cline: [00:36:47] Um, you just want to enjoy the song. You don’t care. You’re just trying to get to the grocery store, right?

Nick Smith: [00:36:51] Well, and but you also don’t think about it in the sense of like, um. If you knew that I could give this directly to my favorite band. Or I could give them, you know, a couple cents and give the the the dollars here to someone else that I don’t know. And that isn’t really doing much for me other than just giving me a name. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:37:13] Your name associated.

Nick Smith: [00:37:13] With. Yeah. Not many people I think would do that. And what? In doing research for this to try to like, you know, again having these numbers so that people could kind of understand all this, it’s way darker than, than than I originally thought. And now a lot of venues are, um, they’re taking cuts of merch also. So we talked about, you know, merch being kind of the way that most bands were able to stay afloat because you don’t make a lot of money in streaming. You don’t make a lot from ticket sales. And we’ve seen what happened with Ticketmaster and all that lately. And it just. So merch cuts, um. It’s not new, but it’s definitely becoming more prominent than it’s happening. Okay. Um, it’s becoming a much more regular thing, and it could be as low as 10%, but it could be as high as 40%. Wow. And from that. Depending on where you are. Some some cities, there’s 10% in tax that you have to pay on that. There’s 5% for credit card fees. And if you have a manager or lawyer, anything of your larger band, anywhere from 5 to 20%, you have to pay out on that too. So. I looked it up. Estimated 23% of Americans buy merch on site as opposed to, you know, going online and ordering it or whatever. You buy it there at the show. That’s almost a quarter of your fan base is buying it there at a venue. And it’s not guaranteed, but you have the potential to lose 85% of your money from that. If you add all those numbers up together, 85% on a quarter of your fans is what you’re losing. And those fans that are buying a shirt are buying it to support you. Yeah, they’re at a premium.

Sharon Cline: [00:38:48] Want it to go to you.

Nick Smith: [00:38:49] Yeah. Yeah. And that’s just it’s crazy to me that you could lose 85% of your money on that big of your fan, like, you know, that big a portion of your fan base just because there’s not another way to do it, because it’s either that or you don’t play at this venue. Well, if you’re a huge band, maybe you have the, you know, Taylor Swift can go somewhere and say, I’m not going to do that. Well, the venue is kind of beholden to her at that point. If you’re not that, if you’re someone who’s this is your only shot at a venue, you pay it because there’s not another way around that for you. Um, tour, you know, when bands go on tour, uh, you know, I grew up metal head and being, you know, Megadeth is is a band that I’ve loved my whole life. Right? And recently I was watching an interview with Dave Mustaine, and he talked about this. So a single day, if they’re not playing, like if they’re just if they take a day off, they still pay about $50,000 to their crew for that day to just be parked somewhere on a bus, um, because they’re paid a per diem. So they’re paid every day. Whether you’re playing or not, you still have to pay your crew.

Nick Smith: [00:39:54] So, you know, in the news lately, Taylor Swift, it’s great that she did this, but she paid $50 million in bonuses for her Eras tour to her, to her staff and the crew and everybody coming with her. That’s an insane number. And that’s awesome that she paid that. But think of those numbers like you’re paying 50,000 a day to just sit there. And I’ve seen them live like they put on a great show, but they are very much about the music. They don’t have a gigantic stage show the way she does, you know? And just those numbers just don’t seem real. And 50 million to get paid out to the staff. Like, you hear that? And it’s like, wow, how awesome that she did that. And for sure it is. It’s great that she did that. But. How expensive it is for her to go on tour to begin with. If she’s losing money on all of these things. The fact that, I mean, the fact that she’s making as much money as she is is incredible. But think of how much she’s having to pay, and she’s constantly losing just to be able to go out on tour and do all this. That’s I mean, those numbers are criminal.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:51] They are. And considering how successful she is, let’s compare and contrast an artist who does not have access like that. It’s just exponentially much more difficult.

Nick Smith: [00:41:01] Yeah, it’s it’s really hard when you think of, you know, so like I said earlier, um. It’s it’s kind of easy if you’re a band that’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to look at it and go like, well, this sucks that we’re losing this much money, but you’ve been around for however long and you’re still, you know, the Rolling Stones aren’t hurting. You know, uh, Taylor Swift is not hurting. She’s, you know, the biggest star in the world, but she’s still not getting paid what she should, you know? And, um, so I do like to do this when I come on shows and stuff. I asked you when we were, uh, trying to set up a time for me to come in some of your favorite bands, um, and one that you put on here is actually the perfect example of this. Uh, the Eagles are a band that that I love. They’re one of my favorite bands, and they have the number one and number three highest selling albums of all time. Uh, which I’m not going to use the number one because that’s their greatest hits, so I’m not going to count that.

Sharon Cline: [00:41:53] But yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:41:54] Uh, Hotel California is the third best selling album ever. It is 36 times or I’m sorry, 26 times platinum and has 32 million in sales. Um, which actually, I don’t think that 26 is right anymore, because the reason I used a million, uh, for my number before is that’s what qualified as a platinum album. Gotcha. So that should be 32 times platinum.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:17] Okay. Right.

Nick Smith: [00:42:18] Um, so I kind of break it down in. I know vinyl is more expensive, and especially for the Eagles, a lot of their sales are in vinyl, but a lot of it is in cassettes and CDs and whatever, which is roughly about $10. So I kind of keep it to that $10 number knowing that it’s it is more than that because that’s not, you know, taking into account vinyl and everything else. But if you just go with that $10 number. 32 million in sales would have made this a $320 million album. What that is in terms of streaming for 32 million streams is $139,000. Oh my.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:59] God.

Speaker3: [00:43:02] And oh, it’s that’s awful.

Nick Smith: [00:43:05] It’s crazy because then you look it up. Hotel California. The song streams about 778,000 times a day. So just that one song, not the album, just that song, which, you know, like I said, double edged sword. That’s the part of it that’s great. Is 778,000 times a day that that’s being streamed. That could not happen back in the 70s. That could not happen, you know, through the majority of their career. It happens every day, literally every day. Now on one platform that’s only on Spotify. That’s not including Apple Music, that’s not including, you know, any.

Speaker3: [00:43:37] Music, Amazon.

Nick Smith: [00:43:37] That’s not including anything else. That’s just one platform. So that’s incredible, that unbelievable unbelievable. But that also means on Spotify, they’re making, uh, about $3,400 a day. Again, that’s that’s a lot of money to stick in someone’s pocket every day. I’d love to have, you know.

Sharon Cline: [00:43:59] Well, then it’s passive income, right.

Nick Smith: [00:44:00] Exactly. So I would love to have someone just give me a check for, you know, $3,400 a day. But that’s also keeping in mind that they’re putting out, you know, what, a quarter or three quarters of what would have been a platinum album. They’re doing that every day on one song, and that would have been worth 320 million. And, you know, the 70s, if you just break it down by, you know, 70s, 80s, 90s.

Speaker3: [00:44:26] Yeah. Break it down by.

Nick Smith: [00:44:27] Just album sales or something. That’s what that would have been worth. And it’s now worth less than $4,000 every day. Like, again, you are getting way more eyes. You’re getting way more ears on it all the time. So it’s you know, it does genuinely really help you. And and I know I’m kind of taking a lot of shots at Spotify. It’s only because they’re.

Speaker3: [00:44:45] Well, they’re the number one.

Nick Smith: [00:44:45] They’re the number one. But also in doing all this, they’re not even the worst. Like I’m not picking them because they actually pay out significantly more than a lot of the other platforms, which is crazy when you hear these numbers that what would have been, you know, almost a platinum album pays less than $4,000, knowing that is the best it gets right now. That’s as good as you can hope for right now, is that? And that just doesn’t make any sense. And, you know, the the CEO of that company doesn’t write music, has never put out music. He’s three times richer than Paul McCartney. And that’s just. It. There’s there has to be a better way to do that.

Speaker3: [00:45:23] There’s got to be a balance.

Sharon Cline: [00:45:24] It’s not balanced at all. Right? And you’re you’re trying to create a balance.

Nick Smith: [00:45:28] Yeah. That’s why you know we again it’s it’s a hard line of we’re giving half literally instead of us keeping 99.9%. And that 1% goes back to we’re we’re taking half and sending it to the artist.

Sharon Cline: [00:45:41] So imagine people listening right now who believe in what you’re doing, like I do. What would be the best way that they could help you?

Nick Smith: [00:45:48] So next week, actually, um, so like I said, we’re in early stages. Alpha stage right now is kind of where we’re at. So we do have a site that’s live, but it’s, you know, we’re still I signed up on it.

Speaker3: [00:45:58] Yeah. It’s awesome. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:45:59] Um, so our paid beta launches on the 18th. So next week.

Speaker3: [00:46:05] Thursday. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:46:06] So next week the paid beta is going to go out. So you can sign up and and pay the 3.99. And the artists that are on there will start being paid. So whoever you’re listening to like everything is it starts going live next week@stagedive.com. Um, the app isn’t quite ready yet, but it’s coming very soon. I know that’s not the most convenient thing for people, but it’s it’s on the way. All the extra features that we’re talking about are they’re actively working. Like I said, our dev team, we’re they are busting their ass. You know, you got got.

Speaker3: [00:46:36] You have a deadline coming.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:37] You want to be able to fulfill.

Nick Smith: [00:46:38] Well and all of us have jobs still. You know, all of us have day.

Speaker3: [00:46:41] Jobs and everything.

Nick Smith: [00:46:42] You know, like I’m welding all day and then coming home and then working on this. And me and John are working on marketing stuff and, you know, these ideas and everything and the, the dev guys all have jobs. And then, you know, a lot of them are working, you know, into late hours at night, um, just trying to get the stuff ready. And they do a phenomenal job. But, you know, stuff takes time. So, um, all of that is coming and we’re hoping it’s going to be here really, really soon. Um, but it will, you know, there’s stuff streaming, there’s music on there, there’s podcasts on there. There’s stuff for you to go listen to. And again, it’s all it’s ready to go that whoever you’re listening to know that they’re getting paid for it. Know that the whoever you’re supporting, that’s who your money is going to look. 399 isn’t that isn’t that much, you know, less than a cup of coffee.

Sharon Cline: [00:47:27] That’s exactly what I was thinking.

Nick Smith: [00:47:28] Yeah, less than a cup of coffee gets to support, you know, artists for real. You know, um, it doesn’t take that many people for $2 to add up compared, you know, comparatively speaking, to what’s here.

Speaker3: [00:47:40] Wow.

Sharon Cline: [00:47:41] I’m so excited for you. Next week’s a big week.

Nick Smith: [00:47:44] Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s going to be big. And then at the, uh, the end of this month, we’re going to Nam out in California.

Speaker3: [00:47:50] Are you really? Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:47:51] So, uh, again, I got to give all the credit in the world to John getting getting us badges, and, uh, we don’t have a booth, but we’re going to be there, uh, walking around, talking to everybody and trying to make a big impact out there.

Sharon Cline: [00:48:03] Well, I know that you’ve got stage Devcom. Um, but what is a way that people could contact you directly if they would like more information or would like to figure out different ways to help besides just being able to support? Sure.

Nick Smith: [00:48:17] Um, any of our socials at Get Stage Dive, or if you want to just reach out to us directly, um, you can reach out to me at, um, Nick at Stage dive.com if you want to just email me and if you have any questions or you want to be a part of it or anything, just reach out directly. And, you know, we’re always open to talk to to everyone about this. Because the other thing, um, I think people are just inherently skeptical. Also, you know, so there are a decent amount of people that have been like, no, this sounds too good to be true. I don’t I don’t trust you, I don’t, I don’t, you know, and we we kind of have to just break down everything that I got to do here, you know, which is which is why again, thank you for allowing me that to, you know, kind of have a platform to talk about all this.

Sharon Cline: [00:48:59] What I love so much is that music in itself has, um, um, lands where it’s supposed to and people are, um. Putting thoughts and words into something that they hope lands into someone else’s heart and has meaning like it does for them. There’s a belief that they have about themselves and what they’re creating, and you are also having a belief in them and a belief in what you’re doing. So it’s like, to me, this is so perfect. It’s the perfect marriage of energy, of being allowed, of allowing people to have control over something that they created themselves, that will keep them from being horribly bitter when they see how much money is being. Because I would be, wouldn’t you? I would be horribly like like it’s not worth it. It’s not worth my doing all of this when I’m a.

Speaker3: [00:49:47] Lot of people are.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:48] Oh, I can only imagine. I mean, I’m sure it would turn people away from even wanting to be artists when they see just how difficult it is. But here’s what you’re doing. You’re giving them an alternative that gives them hope and a platform that they know that they’ve got people behind them that believe in them just as artists. Not the big name out there, but just who they are as people and bands and podcasters. And I just, I love it because it’s it’s that belief that, um, it gives hope to people. Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:50:15] Well, thank you so much. And like I said, you know, we just we have so much coming down the road that we’re so excited. I can’t talk about everything, of course, but, um, there’s just there’s so much that we see on the horizon for being able to offer bands and the fans, you know, being able to just like I said, the biggest thing to me is just that one stop shop for for a band, having the opportunity to just have such a direct line to their.

Speaker3: [00:50:36] Fans, nobody has that. And well, he has that.

Nick Smith: [00:50:38] Yeah. I mean, and especially not without third parties, you know, just everything. You have to go somewhere else to get whatever it is, whether it’s, you know, merch or tickets or, you know, you want to find them on social media or, you know, some bands have like a discord chat with their fans or whatever, trying to put all that in one place where you don’t. If you find a cool band like you’ve talked about, like just stumbling on a band or whatever, everything’s right there. You don’t have to, you know, you might be on the way here and you’re in the car and you look down and go, man, these guys are really good. Who is this? And then now you’re supposed to remember who that band is and go find them on, you know, Instagram after you’ve done an interview with somebody and, you know, like you’re not going to remember that, but being able to just have everything right there, um, having the ability to, you know. We’re going to have. So you can tip artists like if you want to throw.

Speaker3: [00:51:23] Them a little bit extra.

Nick Smith: [00:51:24] Like just stuff like that. Just just opening everything up to where you can support who you want to and.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:29] Know it really goes.

Speaker3: [00:51:30] To them. Yeah. And no it goes to them.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:31] Confidence in that.

Speaker3: [00:51:32] Yeah.

Nick Smith: [00:51:32] And that’s you know that’s that’s been huge is just people knowing like yeah this is real and this is authentic. It’s going I’m I’m supporting who I chose to not who you’re telling me is on top right.

Sharon Cline: [00:51:45] That rebel spirit man that just I love it because you’re not allowing someone to tell you what to do and how it’s going to go. Um, well, would you like to come back maybe in, like, I don’t know, a few months and let us know how things are going? I would love to hear your progress. I’m such a fan of what you are promoting. And, um, please come back so we can kind of just discuss the things that you’ve learned as well, you know, along the way.

Speaker3: [00:52:09] Thank you so much. That would be awesome.

Sharon Cline: [00:52:10] You’re welcome. Nick Smith stage dive. Com. Thank you so much for coming into Fearless Formula. Thank you. And thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula. And again this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

 

 

BRX Pro Tip: Promoting Yourself is Essential

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BRXmic99
BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Promoting Yourself is Essential
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BRX Pro Tip: Promoting Yourself is Essential

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tip. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, here again, sometimes I think some of us are a little bit reluctant to do this, but the matter of fact is in business, promoting yourself, it’s essential.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Yeah. You have to invest some time, energy, resources and letting other people know what you do and how you can help them. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, have a billboard necessarily about, “Hey, this is me. Look how great I am. You should buy my stuff.” It doesn’t have to be that inelegant. But you do need to invest some resources in creating some brand ubiquity around your service and your offering.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] So, that means it’s important for you to show up in places your prospects are, and they need to see you performing the service that you’re selling. That’s why at Business RadioX, we show up at business conferences, trade shows, business events. This helps remind our prospects of what we do and all the content that we produce at these events demonstrate how good we are at doing this kind of work.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] So, it’s one of those things where we create brand ubiquity and show up at these kinds of events, not only to serve our business community, which is part of our mission. And this is why we wake up every day and do the work that we do, but also to remind people, “Hey, this is us. We’re Business RadioX. This is the kind of work we do. We could be doing this for you.”

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] And, we must be good at it because why are these groups inviting us to appear at these prestigious events to cover them? If we weren’t good at it, they wouldn’t invite us. And the fact that we’re there demonstrates it creates social proof and it lets people know what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. And it reminds them that we’re available to help them if the need is there.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:50] So, I think it’s super important to invest resources, letting people know what you do and how you can help them. But it doesn’t have to be in a traditional way. I’m not saying that you have to run ads for yourself. Demonstrate what you do by doing the work that you do in places where the people that are important to you see you doing this.

Coach Kenny Graham Jr. and Nathan Bates with CMIT Solutions

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Charitable Georgia
Charitable Georgia
Coach Kenny Graham Jr. and Nathan Bates with CMIT Solutions
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In this episode of Charitable Georgia, host Brian Pruett is joined by former professional athletes Nathan Bates and Kenny Graham Jr., who discuss their transitions from sports to community involvement. They share personal stories of resilience in the face of adversity, including career challenges and personal losses.

The conversation covers the importance of networking with authenticity, the impact of sports on mental health, and the need for athletes to find purpose beyond their sports careers. They also address the evolving landscape of college athletics, including compensation and the transfer portal. Finally, they emphasize the importance of allowing kids to enjoy their childhood and not pushing them too hard in sports. 

Kenny-Graham-Jr-headshotKenny Graham Jr. was born and raised in Laurinburg, NC. He attended college at North Carolina A&T State University with a major in Computer Engineering.

Kennny played professional baseball for seven years and is now coaching 14 & 16 year olds and Collegiate Summer baseball with a goal of being an outfield coordinator at the professional level.

Kenny is the father of Savannah Reign Graham, age 7, who is currently in dance & gymnastics. He’s a man of God and truly values family and being a mentor and leader to help others.

Nathan-Bates-headshotNathan Bates went to HS in Fayetteville, GA at Starr’s Mill. He played baseball and basketball, lettering all 4 years. He ended his basketball career as the second highest scorer in school history, and went on to play baseball at Georgia State University.

After three years at GSU and a career 4 ERA as the Friday Starter, he was drafted by the LA Angels in the 15th round of the 2015 MLB draft. Nathan played 7 years in the minor leagues where he went from starter to closer and eventually hit 100 mph, but not before having Tommy John surgery first.

Nathan played as high as AA and played in the prestigious Fall league twice. In his 8th year of pro baseball, he played in Mexico and retired in July of 2022.

He’s been head of sales at CMIT Solutions in Marietta, GA since Fall of 2022.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources. We put the fun in fundraising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good fabulous Friday. It’s another fabulous Friday morning. And first of all, everybody happy New Year. This is the first show since for being back from the holidays in 2024. So I hope everybody had a great holiday season. And um, even though it’s kind of nasty weather out there, it’s still a fabulous Friday. We’ve got two fabulous guests this morning. If this is your first time listening, Charitable Georgia is all about positive things happening in the community, whether it’s a business, individual or nonprofit. And I’ve got two guy. I’m like a little kid in candy store this morning. I got two guys in the studio. I got to call friends too, but they played professional sports. I get to dream about playing professional sports. So Nathan Bates, Kenny Graham, Jr., thanks for being here this morning.

Nathan Bates: [00:01:23] Of course. Thanks for having us.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:01:23] Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:25] So, uh, Nathan, we’ll start with you just for just for a second. Um, you currently work with CMIT Solutions in Marietta, but you, uh, played college ball at Georgia State, and then you went on to played in the angels organization and played professionally in Mexico. So share a little bit about your background, if you don’t mind.

Nathan Bates: [00:01:42] Uh, yeah. My, uh, I moved a lot when I was younger. My dad was, you know, in corporate sales job. So bouncing around quite a bit, quite a bit. Um, and then, uh, went to high school down in the Peachtree City Fayetteville area, went to Starr’s Mill down there. And then, like you said, three years at Georgia State, um, as a pitcher, uh, playing baseball and pitching, was drafted by the angels in the 15th round and was bouncing around the minor leagues, traveling all over the place, doing that and having fun doing it. And until it wasn’t fun anymore, after about eight years, um, you know, got engaged, getting ready to get married, had some some other things going on and priorities had changed. So it’s time to take a different direction there. But loved every second of, uh, of the playing, playing career. And like you said, now I’m in it sales for a company called Cmit Solutions. We do it for small, medium sized businesses up in the Cobb, Douglas and Paulding County areas. But, you know, really anywhere in metro Atlanta. So, um, yeah, thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. You know, I’ve played in a couple of, uh, golf tournaments, um, that you’ve invited me to a couple of charity scrambles, been on a panel to talk. And whether it’s, you know, giving back and having a conversation or donating money, it’s just a lot of fun to be involved in everything you do and happy to be invited to do it. Awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:51] Well, I appreciate that. And we’ll get back to you in just a second. So, uh, Kenny Graham Jr, you also played pro ball. You were with the White Sox for a while, and then you actually spent one year in arena football until the nasty Covid thing hit. But. Right. Absolutely. Give us a little bit about your background if you don’t mind. Uh, yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:03:06] So originally from Laurinburg, North Carolina, um, born, uh, my mom and dad, uh, they actually still happily married. They actually just celebrated 32 years of marriage last week. Uh, I did my undergrad at North Carolina State University, had a degree in computer engineering and minor in public speaking. Um, I actually wasn’t drafted. I was an undrafted free agent. Um, at that time, they had something called the American Baseball Institute, um, down in Clearwater, Florida, at the Phillies, uh, spring training complex. And it was like an institute for guys who got overlooked in the draft or guys who got released. And I went down there for a tryout. Me and my dad and my uncle, um, I just happened around, like, a six for 60. Um, I topped out at 110 miles an hour from the outfield, left handed. Uh, and then I took BP. My BP sucked. Literally. I was so nervous. I was 19 years old, so I was nervous. And it was over 600 guys at this tryout and everything. We had ten swings and everything. I hit, hit my back, hit the tarp and went back into the screen. Um, and I looked at my dad and my uncle. I said, yo, they’re sending me home like I’m not coming back, because the next day was like the inter-squad day. And I was like, dad, I’m going home, man. Like my BP sucked. So the next day it rained out. So we had like an off day. So we go back the next day and they called the names out for, you know, for the Inter-squad games. And they said Kenny Graham Jr. And I’m like, what are you talking about?

Nathan Bates: [00:04:33] You hit 110 from the outfield run A64. Yeah, exactly.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:04:36] So and that’s exactly what they told me because I asked I said did y’all not see my BP. They was like nah, you looked a little uncomfortable up there. So make a long story short. They said, we want to see what you look like in game like situations, so they can’t really determine off of a little tryout style. So, um, I ended up going three for four, two bombs and a double. Made some plays in the outfield, you know, some diving plays, man. And I had a representative from the Chicago White Sox and Dominican Republic out of Boca Chica. Um, he literally came up to me and said, hey, we want you. Um, I was like, I’ve never been out of Country Day in my life. You know, I’m a spoiled little boy from North Carolina. I love my mom and dad like I’m still in school, so I ended up, like, leaving. Aren’t for that year. I moved to D.R. for that summer. I played in Dominican Summer League, played for the Los Tipicos with, uh, Robinson. Cano’s father was our GM, Jose Cano. I mean, um, yeah, Jose Cano. And then I ended up staying there for like a whole year. And I played winter league over there as well. And then that’s literally how my whole career started. Say I bounce around in the minors for a little bit. Um, tore my knee. I got married at 24 years old, so I’m 34 now, so I got. Little younger, uh, a lot of baseball players.

Nathan Bates: [00:05:47] Right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:05:47] Right. Yes, yes. Uh, you know what I mean? We got, uh, my, um, my previous wife, she had three kids before me, so I took care of them as my own once we got together. And then we have our seven year old daughter together. So I got four kids. You know what I mean? Um, so basically, what happened once I got hurt in 2017, I just, you know, I tried to bounce around, said bump baseball. And like you said, I mentioned you mentioned arena football. So I started training for arena football down in Tampa. I went down there, I think I as a matter of fact, I reached out to the guy that trained me on email and I said, hey, man, I play pro baseball. I’m tired of baseball. Don’t want to look at it. I want to play football. I got a lot of anger and aggression. I want to hit somebody. Can you train me? I’ve been able to.

Nathan Bates: [00:06:29] Do it in baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:06:30] There you go. I was like, can you train me? So they emailed me back and said, fortunately, we can do it. I was like, okay. So it was a little expensive. It was like $2,200 a week that I spent. But I was like, I told my wife at the time, I said, look, I got to go for a couple of weeks. Make a long story short, man, I did NFL combine training, totally different. So I got a whole nother respect for NFL players. Football players, totally different. The first day warm up, I felt like I was about to die just in the warm up. Yeah, we didn’t even do speed and agility. Not even training yet. It was just the warm up. Wow. My lower back was tight, so after the first week I was fine. And then, um, I met some good NFL guys, some Buccaneers guys at that time. Arena ball is right around spring training. So when the Yankees guys came in, I got to meet CC Sabathia and all them boys. So they were trained there too. And then the Tampa Tornados had a tryout and I went to the tryout. Now, mind you, I’m a little flashy. So I pulled up to right. So I pulled up to the tryout in a drop top BMW. Okay. I was like, yeah, I’m I’m gonna show out. And my trainer was with me. So I’m the only guy that walks in with a trainer. So now everybody’s looking at me. So I’m like, all right, I got to show out.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:07:36] So make a long story short, man, I ended up we ended up doing the drill. I did good on there. And then we had to run the 40 and I ran a 445. And I thought I ran that. One of the owners was like, yo, get his number right now and he comes. So the player developer, he was like, uh, you know, I had my my college shirt on and he said, uh, man, you went to ANC. I said, yeah, I did. He said, uh, when did you graduate? I said, man, it’s 2011. He said, wait, wait, wait. You play in the NFL? I said, no. He said, you play football, right? I said, I ain’t never play football a day in my life. He said, what you do? I said, I used to play pro baseball. He was like not looking like that. And I said, yeah, man. I said, I just, I’ve always been a football guy. I just never played it. My dad wouldn’t let me. So he was like, man, I’m gonna send you a contract at night. So make a long story short, I get home back to the hotel, I check my Facebook, I get a friend request from both owners, the player developer and the head coach and the starting quarterback. And they they messed me and said, you’re getting a contract tonight. I looked over at my wife and I at the time, went to Vegas, celebrated, signed it on Facebook Live. Boom, played arena football. And then Covid happened.

Nathan Bates: [00:08:44] Especially after not not having done it previously. That’s incredible.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:08:47] Yeah, I played defense. I played defensive end too. As soon as.

Nathan Bates: [00:08:49] You said, I mean, you got to have some kind of physicality to throw 110 from the outfield too. I mean, I do, but mine is just leverage. I don’t have that. I got that strength that you got. But you run A64. Yeah. There’s some other sports they’re gonna come knocking like yeah yeah yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:09:01] Right now I’ll be transparent. If I knew what I knew now. Especially at baseball because I’m a lefty. If I knew what I knew now I would. Yeah. Because when I was in college, I was like 96 off the mound with no mechanics. But I got to respect you, too, because y’all did a lot of conditioning. And when I used to see the conditioning in college, I was like, I’m not doing that, and I don’t know how to swim at that time. So we making swim pitchers doing swimming workouts in the pool.

Nathan Bates: [00:09:27] Which is the best thing you can do health wise to keep your arm. Yeah, I believe it’s great. But so I before I when I turned ten I stopped swimming. My sister was an All-American swimmer in college Georgia Southern. Yeah. And I swam for a couple years. And when I was ten, I was like, this is worse than running because all you’re doing is going back and forth, except for, you know, you could drown. And I just my arm never felt better, but I was like, it’s still not worth it.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:48] So I read a story about Lenny Dykstra. Now, it wasn’t swimming, but he was in the pool. And, you know, Lenny Dykstra was a switch hitter and he the what I read was he took 100 swings on from both sides underneath the water with the bat.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:10:01] Now I do that surprise me.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:03] Yeah. Yeah. Because that’s, that’s a way to get resistance without putting any stress on anything, any, any joints or anything like that. Which is why it’s so great for pitchers, because all they do, you can only throw so many pitches off the mound, you can take a lot more swings, not unlimited, but you can take a lot more. It’s not like going to a gym and shooting a basketball. You can’t just stay there for eight hours and get shots up. I mean, there’s a limit. So being able to to add some of that work in without putting the stress on your body is really good if you can do it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:10:26] But again, that’s old school. If you can, if you can do it.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:29] Yeah. If you can do it, I’m not worth it to me.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:31] So I got lots of questions. So hang on for the ride. All right.

Nathan Bates: [00:10:35] Um, so I’m sure we’re both used to it, right? Yes.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:39] Um, well, well, first of all, I want to. I just want to. I want to do this. So you guys, again, like I mentioned, have done some things with me for fundraisers and I’ve started my business a B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources doing community fundraising. And, uh, like you said, Nathan, you’ve recently done some golf tournaments and we did the locker room chat and, uh, Kenny, you were it was a while ago, but you came out to the thing we did in 2015. Can you believe it’s been that long?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:00] I had just moved here in 2014 and I got.

Nathan Bates: [00:11:03] Drafted in.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:04] 2015. Really? Oh, man. Dang, I got you by a long shot. He made me feel old, man. So our our.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:10] Mutual buddy Eric Greens when he got us connected. Yeah yeah. You know but we did the thing when Skip Wells. Yes. We did the trivia night for his, you know, 25th.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:11:19] I was 25 years old. Big dog. Damn. I’ve been in Georgia that long. That’s crazy. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:26] So first of all, I just appreciate you guys coming out and giving back to the community. Um, so, uh, Nathan, this is going to start with you with this question. So. Obviously playing sports and and being in professional sports. While you may not have had the name in the major leagues, but you still were professional. Mhm. Um, just give me a reason why it’s important for you to be part of the community now.

Nathan Bates: [00:11:51] Well, I think a lot of it was like the culture or, you know, whatever sport it is in the locker room, and you get that camaraderie with the team and you build a lot of really good relationships. And that’s, you know, half of the fun of, in my opinion, of at least baseball. If not, you know, most professional sports is that those relationships and that camaraderie and the and the culture you build in the clubhouse. And so that was one of the things when I retired, that was one of the things I was kind of I realized I was missing, and the more I went out and was doing networking and, you know, doing sales and business development in, in our area, that was one of the things I realized that was, um, it was good to me on a selfish level because I got to, you know, build more relationships, get to know some really good people and, and expand, you know, network and center, new to the Marietta area, you know, getting to go around in a lot of places like that. But, um, but giving back was a really, really important to me because there’s the more I think about it, there’s so many people that helped me get where I am, and without almost any one of them, I wouldn’t have gotten there.

Nathan Bates: [00:12:45] Um, and so even if it’s just something small, you never know when someone you’re going to say something about a sport and oh, hey, my son plays baseball. Could you talk to him? Even if it’s a five minute conversation? You know, I still answer the phone every time my high school pitching coach picks up, because I know it’s always because he’s got a student with him or a kid with him, a high school player, and he asked me a question that he knows the answer to, but he just wants the kid to hear a professional baseball player or former professional baseball player say it. So it’s important to me just because of one way or another. There’s a lot of ways to give back, and a lot of people did that for me when I was younger, and it’s extremely important for me to to do what I can to do the same thing. However, that, you know, looks right.

Brian Pruett: [00:13:22] Kenny, how about you?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:13:23] Um, I’m actually in the same boat with him, and I’m all about giving back, um, especially the environment that I grew up in. Um, so, like I said, if you don’t know too much about Laurinburg, North Carolina, we’re actually ranked number one most dangerous place to be in the state of North Carolina. Wow. And I mean, when I tell you we’re beating Charlotte in Charlotte is extremely big. Excuse me, but like, my hometown is one high school, three middle schools. At that time, we had five elementary schools. You know what I mean? So but the way the time is now, there’s nothing to do for the community, nothing to do for the youth. Um, and it’s almost kind of like, man, if you don’t get out, you’re stuck. So it’s like when I go back home and I see people that I graduated high school with that’s 34 or 35 years old, and they’re looking like they’re in their 50s and stuff now. You know, it’s kind of sad to me because at the end of the day, you know, they probably didn’t get that opportunity like I did. And again, it’s it’s about networking. I’m a relationship person. Um, I just I just really big on, uh, developing great relationships, not burning bridges.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:14:23] Um, so I feel like being in the community, like you said, you’re going to have a lot of individuals that get to see you. Um, you will have somebody who say, like I said, I want to play sports. I want to play baseball, or just somebody that say, you know what? This is somebody that’s been through something and look where they are now, you know what I mean? And they use baseball or another sport or even a business to use that as a platform to get to where they’re at now. So like I say, it’s real very pivotal that you are in the community as much as you can. Um, that’s one thing I hated about covet, because I had so much I was going to do in the city of Tampa, Florida. I mean, my my spiritual advisors there, like I said, the Tampa Tornadoes football team, um, especially in the rural areas, um, I wanted to do so much, um, you know, doing that. And it’s, uh, man, I just hate, covet happened, but things happen for a reason. But again, being being connected in the community is is very pivotal for me.

Brian Pruett: [00:15:15] You guys both mentioned it. And, uh, so it’s a good segue because I always ask this too. So you both talked about, uh, networking and and Kenny, you’re right on. It’s all about relationship building, right? Most people come in and networking if they’re new to networking and they try to sell, sell, sell. And that’s not the way to do it. You got to learn about the other person and build that relationship. Um, so let me start with you, Kenny, because you’re you’re now training kids, right? Right, right. Um, do you get to do much networking now?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:43] As I do. I do because I’m gonna be honest. Uh, a lot of people ask me what I do.

Nathan Bates: [00:15:48] You train baseball or football?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:49] Baseball. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, let’s let’s let’s let’s be transparent. I can’t do younger kids.

Nathan Bates: [00:15:56] Oh.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:15:57] No, I get it. High school pitching. Yeah, high school. I I’d rather do college, at least you know what I mean. And then just do pro guys. But high school is my limit. But again I get to network a lot because of the fact that a lot of people ask what I do, you know, like for work now. And I’m like, I just chill, you know what I mean? Just because of, you know, the relationships that I had. And God’s kind of put me in a position to where I don’t have to, you know, punch a clock anymore. And I can just march to the beat of my own drum. So I do have a lot of time to network. Um, and again, being in the the Milton and Alpharetta area is so many baseball guys out there. Yeah, so many. Like, I didn’t know that Dexter Fowler went to Milton High School, you know, and I live.

Nathan Bates: [00:16:41] Across in that.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:16:42] Area. Right. And I live right across the street from Milton High School. You know what I mean? We was talking about baseball facilities in the area, you know, uh, uh, Chris Buczek. Mhm. Um, is that precision? I coached that precision a couple of years back.

Nathan Bates: [00:16:55] Was a coach in the angels organization. Well, sorry. He played in the angels organization and then coached at Georgia State as a as the pitching coach when I was still going back in the off season. So I know Chris.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:03] Yeah, you know what I mean. Him and then I’m real good friends with Ryan Vogelsong. I know.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:07] Vogelsong, yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:08] Just because of the fact that I coached travel ball with the bombers. So, uh, Ryan Snare, I.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:13] Almost never have a conversation with a baseball player. It’s like, you know, this guy is like, oh, yeah, he never is happy where it’s like, nope, don’t know any of those guys.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:20] Well, I mean, you’re both are. Well, you North Carolina but local growing up. Right. And he’s still now here.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:25] So East Cobb baseball is nationwide even though it’s in very local to I mean, I live right next to Sprayberry now and Sprayberry is Five-a but still not really a powerhouse in terms of baseball. And there’s all kinds of other high schools up here, along with, um, uh, what is it, North Point now? Is that other.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nathan Bates: [00:17:41] Facility up there that’s not as big as East Cobb, but it’s getting there. And so this is a hot spot in the country for sure.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:47] Yeah. So so Kenny, let me ask you this. Do you have a positive story you can share about networking that’s kind of helped you?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:17:53] Positive story about networking. Oh, man. Okay, I could be positive networking. Uh, let’s go back to Ryan Vogelsong. All right? I’m to the point where I’m good friends enough to call him by his nickname. And basically, again, I used my public speaking skills to and my baseball background to talk to Vogey. Right. So I’m coaching his son. He played on my 13 youth team with the bombers last year. And, you know, he he spoke to me on the phone when I asked him that he wanted to play for me because, like, it was my first year with the bombers. So I was kind of new to the organization, but a lot of the kids were already on the bombers, but they was going through transitions as well as far as coaching wise. So I definitely had to win all the parents over. So I’m talking to Vogey and um, and he let me know, hey, this is who I used to play for and everything. And I’m like, wait, I’m on the phone with a World Series champion. Like his statue was outside of the San Francisco Giants, like stadium. And this man is telling me he trusts my coaching with his son.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:18:52] So I’m like, all right, I got to make sure I come correct. So I just always I was not doing no starstruck or try to be like buddy buddy type just because of who he is. I just kept it honest. Um, and I guess my networking and the way I kept it honest with him, he felt comfortable enough to come to me about his frustrations with his son, because he expects his son to be a certain type of way, because of who he was. And he felt comfortable enough to, you know, talk to me. And I was able to build that, that bond with him and be like, hey, man, it’s okay. Like, let your son, you know, break out on his own time. He’s not you. But just because of that relationship and that networking, I did. Now he’s spoken to the front office with the San Francisco Giants, and they picked up my resume. And there’s an opportunity in the fall, in the off season of 2024, that I can get the outfield coordinator job with the Giants, which is one of my goals. So that’s that’s a positive thing for me, and.

Nathan Bates: [00:19:48] That’s not usually something that someone just comes right into. Usually you got to be in the system and get promoted. Even as the coaching side of things, it’s very similar.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:19:55] Yeah. So it’s just like I said, just for me, just being who I am. That’s another thing too, about networking and be authentic. Yeah. Be your true self. Don’t try to be nothing you’re not. And then at the end of the day, you know, if that’s what God wants for you to happen, you know that relationship is going to happen. And like I said, you know, it’s not concrete, but the fact that he even thought of me right to, you know, give ask for my resume, send it to the front office. And on top of that, they just gave him the job to be the special assistant to the GM for this season. Right? So. Right. You know what I mean. But yeah, you.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:26] Just talked about being not being star struck. Now look, I’m going to tell a little story on myself. So one of the things that I did back when I worked for I won’t name the company because it was not a good thing, but the best thing that came out of it was, I got to meet a lot of you guys, former athletes, right? And I maintained those relationships. And I always tell somebody, somebody sends me a text or somebody calls me and I look down and it’s one of you guys. I’m like, I’m like, I seriously like a little kid in a candy store. And then I go, what’s up, man?

Nathan Bates: [00:20:54] Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:56] So all right, Nathan, what about you? You know, I do a lot of networking and some of the same groups, but how about you? What kind of story can you share a positive about? Networking?

Nathan Bates: [00:21:03] Um, yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of positives that have come out of networking. And a lot of times, again, as I, there was probably a couple of months in between the end of my baseball career, in the beginning of, I would say, my, my real job, my real world job of, you know, sales for an IT company. And I realized very quickly that even though at first it felt like I was tooting my own horn to stand up and say, hey, I played professional baseball for seven years. Um, but every time I did that, there was a literally a line of people of 4 or 5 people waiting to talk to me after the networking event. Um, and so finding a way to kind of not try to look like I’m puffing my chest out when I say it, but realizing that that adds a lot of value and it creates a lot of credibility for me. And so there’s a lot of times where people have come up and was like, hey, I know, I know, you probably don’t do this a lot anymore, but my kid’s eight. Or, you know, he really wants to be a baseball player. Is there anything you can tell him? And then it turns into the, you know, 30 minute conversation of, you know, what’s what? Sports does he play? How you know, what team is he on? What are these coaches telling him all that stuff. And so for me a lot of the positive is people, again, like you said, they they see me at a networking event. All they hear me say, they hear me be honest and they can tell I’m being myself.

Nathan Bates: [00:22:06] Um, and then they’ll come up to me and ask me for my advice on how their kid, who, you know, most parents love more than anything in the world, how they should approach their sports career. And to have that trust is, I mean, that that happens quite a bit, which is really great. Um, but I will say that talking to, to people and having the conversation go from networking kind of into sports a little bit and then kind of like we’re doing right now, eventually it turns into, hey, do you know this person or do you know this person? Oh, I know somebody that would I’d be great to connect you with. And so I’ve gotten some business doing that, which is great. It’s not really the I mean, if my boss is listening. Yes. That’s the that’s the reason, you know, you want to get business. But, you know, I just want to build relationships with people and be able to, to help people however I can. So that’s a lot of the positives is really just the little things of. Going off topic and people being like, hey, my son’s ten and he wants to get into pitching. I don’t really know how to teach him how to throw a curve ball. Can you do it? And I’m like, no, I’m not teaching your ten year old how to throw a curve ball. I don’t want him to hurt his arm. Right. And like you said, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you. Yes. Just because I think that’s what you want to hear. I was told not to or I wasn’t really allowed to play professional.

Nathan Bates: [00:23:09] Not professional. I wasn’t allowed to play organized sports until I was like ten. Um, you know, no tee ball, nothing like that other than soccer. Because soccer at that age isn’t really the same thing as it is once you get older. Um, and I hated it because I was all my friends were playing those sports. My parents would never let me, and now I get it. And so a lot of those conversations that I have with parents of, of athletes now, um, it kind of comes full circle. And so that’s where most of the positive outcomes for me, outside of the obvious, you know, building network or building relationships and having it, you know, grow our business is just the the questions I get were again, like Kenny said, people asking for advice on how they should coach and bring up their kid. Right. And it’s just it’s really rewarding to help. But like the same thing he said at. There’s only so young with baseball that you can start training and teaching kids. And so there’s a fine line. There’s a lot of parents that want him to start when they’re six, because that’s what all the East Cobb coaches are saying, that you got to start them now, and they got to specialize because everybody’s specializing now. And that’s the only way they’re going to get. So a lot of those conversations I get that you can maybe kind of tell, since you’re in the room with him getting fired up about it a little bit right now, because pitching is so much different than other sports and even even playing a position in baseball. Bat. Right. That’s what.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:24:19] It is.

Nathan Bates: [00:24:20] Yeah. And that’s like I said, I almost am shooting shoot myself in the foot for being too transparent and too honest sometimes. But when it comes to networking, I refuse to change because that’s it’s it works. And I feel more comfortable telling people what I truly believe, especially when it comes to again, I’m going to relate it back to the I because I hear it all the time. It’s like, oh, curveballs and sliders. How’s my kid? Throw one. Your kid doesn’t need to throw, right? Um, and so that’s just being able to really make those parents understand that, hey, this isn’t the end of the world. They’re eight years old. A lot of that is mostly the positive experiences I have. But they’re they’re all over the place almost every day when I’m out, you know, all the networking events that I go to and see you out, there’s always somebody that, you know, some kind of conversation, um, that’s at least an uplifting conversation. If not, you know, a physical, tangible positive that comes from it. So.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:06] Well, most people, everybody’s listening. So there’s no cameras in here so they can’t see. But most people probably think you played basketball because you’re how tall I do that.

Nathan Bates: [00:25:13] I’m six eight. Yeah. That a lot.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:25:15] Yeah. When he walked in I was like, yeah, he whooped. He did.

Nathan Bates: [00:25:17] But yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:25:19] I want to piggyback real quick though, when you said about, uh, you know, not trying to pump your chest when you say you play professional ball, it’s very therapeutic to hear somebody say that sometime they say that’s what they did. But not coming from a cocky standpoint. Right. Because I do that a lot, you know what I mean? But for real for me when you like I’m six, three, two, six, five. So clearly I look like an athlete, especially because all I wear is athletic clothing. Right. So the question is going to be asked what it is that I did or what I do. Um, and so I of course, I would bring that up. And again, sometimes it is it’s a great conversation starter as well. Absolutely. Um, you know what I mean, like you said, how people look at you, but there’s a lot of people who don’t understand that neither. So, you know, I’ve been around a lot of people who will be like, oh, why you tell somebody you play this, or why you got to let somebody know that? And I was like, honestly, you don’t understand.

Nathan Bates: [00:26:15] Sometimes I’m not doing it for people to think how awesome I am, right? I’m not doing it for people to to tell people how great I am.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:26:21] That’s right. Right. And also, you don’t understand some type of the conversations that can happen. Like I’d be like, give you real quick my, uh, my, my, my wife and I before we, uh, you know, when we were together, uh, we was on a cruise ship, man, back in, like 2016, I think. And we did, like, an eight day cruise. And of course, like I said, out at that time, I was really in shape, you know, walking around my shirt off and stuff. Right? So it was an older couple and the guy was like, man, what do you do? Like you play ball or something and you ask, I’m not going to lie. So like, yeah, so you know, I play pro baseball, whatever. And um, kid you not. Next thing I know, I had a full, like, bottle of Louis Vuitton. I mean, uh, Louis. Louis the 13th. 14th. Yeah, yeah, it was sent to our state room. Literally. And I was like, where did this come from? Because I’m looking at my bill like, I’m not paying for this.

Nathan Bates: [00:27:09] That’s right. So we go.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:27:11] So we go to dinner later on that night, and him and his wife comes up to me, to us at the dinner table. He said, you like your gift. I was like, wait, that’s from you? He was like, yeah, man. He said, I’ve never met a pro athlete before, and I love baseball. So I was like, oh, so this is what that title sometimes have. But again, it still opens up other type of avenues as well to people like, okay, look, what can I do? You know what I mean? Even if it’s not from a sporting standpoint. They want to understand your mentality and you can give them some mentality things to help them get to the next level that what they’re trying to achieve. So that’s why yeah, it was just very therapeutic. Hear you say like, okay, I say it sometimes and I try not to say it like I’m sticking out my chest. And a lot of times when I do it, I’m not sticking out my chest, but I’m going to let you know I work my behind off for this. So yeah, yeah, I throw that in there and there’s.

Nathan Bates: [00:28:00] A they hear all the time like, oh yeah, it’s a grind. And it is. And I mean high school baseball is probably what people relate it to. And if they play college ball it’s the same thing. They oh yeah I played college ball. It’s just. College ball is hard too, because you have to balance the schedule, but it’s just a whole nother beast. Mentally. It’s just wearing different level and the same thing. When my wife’s in public and someone will ask, I mean, like Brian said, I’m tall. And so someone asked, oh, did you play basketball? And I’d say, no, I played baseball, and it kind of naturally turns that’s like, oh, where’d you play that kind of thing? And then my wife would be like, why did you have to tell him? Like, well, I know they didn’t ask if I played basketball or baseball. Right, right, right. They were looking at me like you played something. So you’re not getting away from me, you know? So I. Yeah, I get it. And the longer the longer I’ve been out of the out of the game, the easier it is for me to to say it without feeling like I’m sounding.

Brian Pruett: [00:28:43] There’s a difference between confident and cocky. And I think what? Because again, now I grew up around sports. I played in high school, uh, I went to a private school, so the only thing we had was basketball and volleyball. Believe it or not, we had a guys volleyball. So that’s what I played. And I was manager for the basketball team. Um, but I grew up around sports all my life. I went to Kennesaw State, worked in athletic department. I was a sports writer for a while. And, uh, so I’m just a big, big fan, and and it’s I’ve dealt with guys who played professional sports who had the nose up and said, you know, they’re better than you because they got to that level. And look, I mean, I I’ll be honest, I’ll, I went my buddy Chad Blake. You’re welcome. Chad Angel auctions. He was doing a silent auction for Marquis Grissom’s golf tournament a few years ago. Okay. Um, Pete Smith, you know, played for the Braves, came in with a with a little jersey that was for, uh, a nine year old boy whose mother had sent him the jersey asking for his autograph, but he knew he was coming to that. So he was trying to get all the other guys that were playing for the golf tournament to sign. This little boy had cancer. Okay. I’m probably going to get shot if he hears this story, but I’m going to say it anyway because it just they say never meet your your heroes. Mhm. Bo Jackson was there and would not sign the jersey because he said, I’m not here to sign any memorabilia. And he was just I mean, he was so rude about it.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:03] And I’m like, all the other guys are signing. Yeah, this is for a little boy with cancer. Here’s the letter from the mother. He just walked off and as he’s leaving, I tried one more time and he didn’t even acknowledge it, you know? And it’s just, you know, things like that. It’s just. It’s hard to see something like that when you’re trying to do good in the community. And and I mean, you guys, I mean, let’s face it again, I can only dream about being a professional. You guys made it, right. Uh, even if you didn’t make it to the big, big levels, you still were there. So I think it’s awesome that you guys come in here. And the majority of the guys that I hang around with and do things with and invite to are the are you guys that give back to the community and love doing, I mean, Kevin’s event, the the locker room chat. That was awesome. You know, I mean, it was there was eight of you there, but you’re talking about knowing about a professional athlete and asking. So last January I take my mom to Kroger. We’re in Acworth. And you know how you cross people up and down the aisles, right? And everything. And this gentleman’s walking up and down the aisle, and he’s massive, like he’s tall, but he’s also built. Right. And people think I’m crazy when I say this, but we’re on the peanut butter aisle. He picks up the massive family jar of peanut butter and sticks it in his cart. And I looked back at my wife and my mom, and I said, he played. He played something.

Nathan Bates: [00:31:19] Mhm.

Brian Pruett: [00:31:20] We get behind him in the checkout line. So I go up to him and my mom and my and my wife are just shaking their heads like being you. So I said who’d you play for. He’s like, oh, he’s kind of played for the Patriots, the Panthers, the Chiefs and then the BC Lions and Stephen Williams. Right.

Nathan Bates: [00:31:37] Okay.

Brian Pruett: [00:31:37] So uh, and then I got him to come to some events too after meeting him because I told him what I did and he gave me his number. And I’m like, sweet, there’s another one, right? No, but it’s just kind of cool, right? Because again, you guys are used to that, I’m sure. Right, right. But but the fact that he took the time to talk and we’re in the checkout line, so he’s wanting to get out and everything, but he time he took to me and talked about it. So, um. All right. So I got a couple uh, like I said, I got a lot of questions. So we, we, uh, we talk about life on here as well as business. And, um, well, I’m going to ask a couple of these first. So before we get into that. So, uh, Nate, you talked, uh, you spoke at the, uh, Morning Joe and shared a story about, um, adversity and your complete turnaround on the thought. Would you mind sharing that?

Nathan Bates: [00:32:21] Sure. I thought you were going to say something about Ronald Acuna story I told you. Um, no.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:26] Not unless you want to know.

Nathan Bates: [00:32:27] It’s quick. Um, no. It was there was a lot of things throughout, um, my college and professional career that were almost career ending for me and could have been, um, college. I was I got in trouble over the winter break my freshman year before the season even started. Um, and out of 14 pitchers, I was the 14th one to get an inning that year. I mean, I was lucky to be on the team. Um, but they they gave me an inning and I think it was the bottom of the eighth against Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech, and the score was like 16 to nothing. They had scored in every single inning that they had hidden. And so basically it was a Tuesday, and they didn’t want to waste any of the pitchers that they usually use on the weekends. So they were like, hey, good luck, go for it. You know, hopefully you can get out of it. And luckily 1 or 2 of them were pinch hitters, but got three up, three down and ended up getting a couple more opportunities and played well from there. And then sophomore year had a something went wrong. I was pitching at Ole Miss and was topping out at 80 miles an hour and uh, so took a couple of weeks off and kind of fought through that. And again, like I mentioned earlier, I was drafted in the 15th round, was never really a huge prospect.

Nathan Bates: [00:33:36] Obviously. Again, if you see me, I’m pretty tall. And that was you know, I was very late developing physically. And so that was all of the people that were looking at me were like, yeah, you know, he’s got a good frame. Once he puts weight on, he’ll develop. And so that was most of my, uh, my draw when I was in college. But between those two injuries and then got lucky, got a chance to, um, to prove something when I, when I got signed with the angels and then, you know, right. As things got going with the angels, I was throwing a little bit harder. They moved me to the end of the bullpen. And then I had, uh, an elbow injury that was not. I didn’t feel a pop like a lot of the guys that have the full Tommy John surgery feel. So they tried a PRP injection, which has been known to work on a lot of other parts of the body, joints, muscles, things like that, but not as much on the ligament and the elbow. That’s just a very high stress, not a natural motion. And so it’s less successful there. Um, but it was recommended to me and we tried it and ended up not working. Hindsight is 2020, but still can’t look back and say, I would have tried anything different and had my my Tommy John surgery came back from that and with a month left in the year was pitching really, really well.

Nathan Bates: [00:34:41] Throwing upper 90s was consistent, you know, felt as good as I had in my career. I was, you know, six seven, six eight, 245 I put some weight on. I was really feeling good. And then the next year was Covid. So, you know, I went to got invited to some big league spring training games, was pitching. That was when Joe Madden was our manager. Um, pitched in a game, you know, threw okay, came out of the game. Joe Madden patted me on the butt and said, hey, we really like you. Keep it up. And the next day is when they sent everybody home for Covid. So they had an off an alternate site that they invited a lot of guys out to that year. Um, I was not one of them, which was a real mental shot. Somewhere in the middle of the year there, I got what I thought was Covid ended up testing negative, but was, you know, lost 20 pounds. And so the whole time I was that year, I was working out, trying to stay in shape in case they called me to be ready. And then I physically wasn’t ready and getting towards the end of the year. And so even if they did call me, there was no way for me to be ready. And so that was a mental, um, real.

Nathan Bates: [00:35:36] Mind game. Really? Um, and it was, it just it always felt like throughout the, the 8 or 9 years of me playing baseball, it was like, right when I felt like I got going and got some momentum, something out of my control happened. Um, to where I’d have to kind of take a step back and reevaluate and go from there. But, you know, I’ve actually heard it a few times lately, and maybe that’s or recently I’ll say this quote and, um, maybe it’s a sign, but I’ve heard a few times in the last week, you know, you make plans and you hear God laughing. And regardless of what you believe, I mean, you can make plans, you can have all this set and have all this lined up to for what you want to happen, what you think’s going to happen. And then one thing can throw it all off the rails. And there’s plenty of that. That happened during my career. And it’s, uh, it was not as quick of a learning process as it should have been. But just instead of saying, oh, woe is me, and oh, this isn’t going to get to happen anymore. And and maybe if some of that stuff hadn’t happened, then maybe, you know, I would have gone a different route and maybe I’d still be playing baseball. But, um, you know, that’s not really something I think about a lot because my like I mentioned earlier, my priorities changed towards the end of my career once I got engaged.

Nathan Bates: [00:36:36] And, you know, now we have a house and I’m have the flexibility in my schedule to work from home. And we have two dogs and two cats. And it’s and it’s a I love the situation I’m in now. But if I hadn’t had a lot of that adversity to kind of keep my myself in check and keep me that perspective, excuse me, that perspective at the front of my mind, then, you know, it could have gone very differently, and I could have still been thinking about that. What if? And not focusing on the here and now and then, who knows what could have happen? So there’s all kinds of stuff, and I’m sure every athlete has very similar stories. I mean, we heard some from Kenny earlier. It’s, uh, there’s there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, and it’s just up to you on how you respond to them. And so the first couple times, maybe I didn’t do what I should have, but it happens enough. And it’s kind of the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So eventually I got to react differently. I got to do something else. I got to make the best out of this. So, well.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:27] You shared somebody somebody said, actually said something to you, right. One of the players.

Nathan Bates: [00:37:31] Oh yeah. It was uh, well it was one of. Oh, are you talking about during my surgery? Yeah. One of the players was, uh, a Dominican guy who was a younger guy, and there was some guys complaining about, you know, we’re in the we’re in Arizona, and there were some younger guys that weren’t there for the same reasons I was there. I was, you know, on a rehab assignment from AA. But still, in terms of perspective, there was this young guy that was really nice, spoke a little bit of English, and I would talk to him every once in a while, and he came up to me one day. He’s like, you know, it’s really hard to hear these guys and not as good of English. But he’s like, you know, I don’t like hearing these guys complain about their paychecks. I was like, yeah, you know, it’s it’s frustrating. It could be a lot worse. And he was like, I don’t even see my paychecks. I was like, what do you mean? You should definitely be seeing your paychecks? And he’s like, well, I they’re sent straight to the Dominican because I don’t have a dad. And my mom is home, doesn’t have a job, and my sister is young and has health issues. So I’m the provider. He’s like, I don’t, you know, I have some of my friends pick up food for me or the angels will will be nice and bring in some extra food. He’s like, but you know, I don’t even know how much I make. And after a good bit of reflection, because that’ll hit you pretty hard when you’re not expecting it. And so just thinking about that in the situation that I’m sure he had to or was in now and not even talking about the situation, I’m sure he overcame to be where he was.

Nathan Bates: [00:38:40] Just again, that perspective is just if you’re not paying attention to it, it’s easy to miss. But if you if you are able to take a step back and see the forest and not just the trees, it’s, uh, that adversity actually, you know, people say all the time it’s how you respond to it. But being able to have perspective, I think, helps you respond to adversity, how you should in a way that you know is healthy and not to where you can look back and say, oh, this should have happened. I mean, every we’re all in sports. We hear the guys that are like, oh, you know, I would have I would have gotten drafted if it wasn’t for my I had our shortstop that was two years older than me at Georgia State. Had like a 890 fielding percentage as a shortstop. Wow. Won’t say his name, even though he probably won’t be listening. But, um, I mean, he after his junior year, he was like, oh, yeah, our head coach took my name off the draft board. I was like, that’s not how that works. He can’t do that, right? The teams have to do that. And so, I mean, you hear guys like that say things like that all the time. And it’s having talked to some of those guys and having some of the other experiences, it’s like, all right, that’s enough of a reality check. Like it could be a lot worse. I’m very happy with where I’m at. Don’t don’t get to that point. Right. So the adversity to me is just added a lot of perspective. Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:39:47] All right. So since you brought it up tell us the story.

Nathan Bates: [00:39:50] Yeah. So I was I was in the Fall League, which is a um a league for about a month and a half after the minor league season ends, that each organization asks about 5 or 6 people to go out and participate in. And there’s six teams total. And each team is made up of about five organizations. Um, and so the team that I was on was the Reds, the Yankees, the Mets, the Giants, and us. I think that’s everybody. Um, but we were playing the team that had the Braves on it, and I was pitching. And Acuna comes up and this is before he’s in the big leagues, and I knew of him. He’s a big prospect. He’s a good athlete. And they had played, uh, our AA team in the minor league season that year. So I’d heard of him. And so I threw a couple of off speed pitches and trying. To get ahead and trying to get him not to swing at one. I didn’t want to challenge him early and so I threw a slider one zero, tried to get back at, you know, even in the count with another slider. Same spot, two zero. I was like, okay, you know, my ball moves a little bit. I’ll try to get one, um, you know, middle inside because I’m sure he’s looking to extend his arms and I’ll try to maybe get get one back and try to sneak one inside on him since I went two away. And then it started away and ran back over, right over, right where you’d asked for it to be.

Nathan Bates: [00:41:03] If you were hitting batting practice in a home run derby, that’s where it was. And, uh, don’t look it up, because there’s definitely not a video of this on YouTube. Uh, but he makes contact. I throw a fastball, he hits it, and he starts to watch it and kind of puts the bat down a little bit, and I put my head down and say a four letter word that you probably can’t hear, but it starts with an F, and then as soon as I turned around to see where the ball was, it was bouncing over the wall. So it got there in about a second flat, and luckily it was just a ground rule double. Um, but yeah, he was he was the real deal like everybody had said he was. And then sure enough, the he was on second base and the very first pitch, right as I lift my leg, he’s three fourths of the way to third base, stole third right in front of me. And I was like, all right, I get it. You know, this guy’s the real deal. Everybody, every once in a while, there’s a really big prospect to come through the minor leagues. Everybody’s like, oh man, he’s the one. You know, his player comp is Mike trout. And I was like, all right guys, you can’t compare anybody to Mike trout. And then I saw him throw from the outfield. I saw him run. I saw him hit. And I was like, this guy’s like the next Mike trout. That’s pretty accurate.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:02] What’s funny though, Kenny, is he he talked about that story and said the same thing about YouTube at the locker room chat. And the little kid comes up to him afterwards thinking he’s going to. And he asked him, can what’s the video again?

Nathan Bates: [00:42:14] He’s like, can you show me this? I was like, yeah, man, I’ll look it up, give me a second. I got to find it, but I’ll show it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:42:18] To you, I.

Nathan Bates: [00:42:18] Love it. And then he just didn’t really say anything and just kind of looked at me and gave me a high five. I was like, no one’s giving me a high five for that yet, so I’ll take it. There you go, I love it.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:27] That’s awesome. Well, talking about adversity, Kenny, you’ve always been through a lot of it. You talked about your injury and then Covid with the with the football into it, but you’re still really kind of going through. You just lost your grandfather, what, a few weeks ago and, and uh, your, uh, I mean, that’s.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:42:41] My OG because I didn’t know my dad’s. My dad’s mother passed away when he was 15, and, um, he didn’t know his father. He had a stepfather who passed away way before I was even thought of. So my only grandfather was my mom’s parents. Um, and I’m the oldest grandchild on my mother’s side. And, you know, they were from New York, so, you know, there was a lot of distance between New York and North Carolina, of course. But, you know, when I wasn’t playing summer baseball, when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in New York. So, you know, that was my that was my OG man. You know, that’s where I got my swag from. You see my pictures with all my fedora hats or whatever I got there from him. So it was a it was a hard thing, uh, losing him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:25] Well, and you’re, uh, I mean, you’re still kind of going through a divorce, so, I mean, you’re you’re you’re kind of going through all kinds of stuff right now. So just share a little bit about what adversity has, I guess, taught you.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:43:37] Um, absolutely. It goes back to what you were saying, man. You know, you want to tell God your plans. You know, you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. Um, again, I’m not big on divorce. Divorce is not an option for me. But sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles, you know? Um, and like I said, she and I honestly are actually, like, better. We’re, like, better for each other as best friends. And that was my best friend before. And again, man, we we got married. I was 23, you know what I mean? And she was 30. She was just getting out of her first marriage, you know, and I’m still a young buck, you know what I mean? So I had a lot of growing to do, uh, within that marriage. So, you know, I’m not going to sit here and say, oh, it was just her fault or point of blame. And I had a lot of learning to do. I had a lot of growing to do, of getting married at such a young age. And again, you know, she had three kids from her first marriage. So I’m playing bonus dad to a two year old, a six year old and a 13 year old at the age of 23. So, you know, I had to learn how to, you know, grow up extremely quick, be a man that way.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:44:40] Like I said, we had our baby girl. She’s seven now. We had her in 2017. Excuse me. Then, you know, we had a business together, you know, that’s extremely successful. Um, and like I said, man, it’s just we just started to become two different, totally people. I wanted certain things. She wanted certain things, and we just couldn’t get it right, you know what I mean? And I can honestly say, too. And a big advice for you, man, especially getting married. Just make sure God is at the center of your marriage, because once you. Absolutely. And that’s what I learned. Now, once you stray away from keeping him in the front of your marriage, um, you know, that’s where you know, the devil come in and start throwing any type of adversity. And I always used to hear her say, I used to always worship her as my God, because I did. I used to, you know, Brian, man, that was that was my. That was my love. You know what I’m saying? Like everybody, even Stevie Wonder could see that. That’s. Yeah. You know, Stevie Wonder could see man, that was that was. You know what I mean? Sorry, Stevie.

Nathan Bates: [00:45:36] What?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:45:36] I’m just saying. Like every everybody can see that. You know what I mean? That was truly like that. That was my best friend right there, man. And, um, you know, like I said, just to finally get to that point where we had this having this conversation where it’s like, okay, we can’t get it right, you know what I mean? It was very detrimental to my mental for a while. Um, she was just like, look, man, we’re going to be best friends. We’re always going to be in each other’s lives. And I wasn’t trying to hear that at first. But again, the adversity that we all been through or whatever, it allowed me to mature and to see that. And as well, the kids are now seeing a more healthy interaction between us. So like I said, I mean, I’m always over there, you know what I mean? That’s my homie, you know what I’m saying?

Nathan Bates: [00:46:17] And y’all aren’t sitting here talking behind each other’s backs. Yeah.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:46:19] Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, she definitely wants me to I mean, she even told our seven year old the other day, she was like, uh, because I have I have a full time. And she was like, Savannah, don’t you think you need to let your dad live his life a little bit? Because it’s always she and I. She was like, let your dad found love again. You know? I want your dad to be happy. Don’t you want your dad to be happy? She was like, yeah, I do. So, you know, um, make a long story short. Now, once I heard that and she gave my daughter that briefing and I heard my daughter’s voice, she was like, okay, yeah, I’m cool with it. So, you know, now I’m out there on a limb now, you know, met somebody, you know what I mean? So, uh, it’s just a it’s a beautiful thing, man. But like I said, just adversity. I, I love it. I feel like you have to embrace it. You have to embrace the adversity. Yeah. Um, and if anything, you talk about adversity, man, I always look at my father and like I say, even my mom, my dad’s, uh, my mother’s dad, um, you know, being an African American, owning a business in Brooklyn at that, where he was at, it was a hard thing. He had seven cleaners in Brooklyn back in the day, you know, going through, you know, the segregation times and everything.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:47:24] And, you know, the lack of equality, man, it was a very, you know, very rough thing for him. I didn’t hear too much about it, more so I heard a lot about my dad’s upbringing. You know, my dad, like I said, my dad not knowing his father, um, losing. He’s the baby of my my, my my aunts and uncles, you know, being in the room, seeing my grandmother, you know, flat out on the floor, like, passed away. He he witnessed that, um, my oldest uncle, who I never got to meet, my Uncle Harold, he was the oldest. Um, and he’s actually my motivation for baseball. He got drafted to play for the Athletics. Okay, um, as a catcher. But what happened was, um, my dad was telling me that my uncle’s, uh, female at the time had my uncle shot up and killed, so he never got to go play. And my dad was a kid and was in the other room and witnessed everything happen. Um, you know, my dad told me stories about how, you know, I said we’re from a small country town. So it was a lot of country where I’m from. Um, so there was a couple of prisoners that basically broke out of prison, and they came to my my dad’s house at the time when my, my grandmother was still living and basically broke into the house, had them, like hostage and everything. Wow. Where my dad and uncles used to have to, like, eat rabbits and birds and stuff to, like, kind of survive.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:48:40] And what happened was when they tried to make their move, they tried to steal my my dad’s stepfather’s truck and it stormed extremely bad. And it was a dirt road. So the truck ended up getting stuck. So that’s when the law enforcement finally found him and everything. So dad and my dad had colon cancer in 2005. My dad fought in two wars. You know what I mean? He’s been through PTSD. Um, I mean, I even witnessed my mom literally packed up me and her stuff because my dad’s PTSD and the medications that the military had him on was so bad to where she was about to leave. So just seeing my dad just go through all the adversity as a man, you know, and just I always used to hear him say, I didn’t name you after me for nothing. You know what I mean? Sometimes I wish I didn’t name you after me because you wouldn’t be going through adversity. So he feels like it’s a curse that he named me after him. So just seeing him going through all the adversity that he went through as a man, um, just kind of was like, you know what? Look at my dad now. You know, he’s went through everything. He’s 65 years old, looking like he’s still in his 50s. You know what I mean? He’s gotten every car he wants now.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:49:46] You know him and my mother doing good. He’s got some grants, some, you know, some grandkids. And this is like, man, everything that my dad go through, look at the character that he is now. So I feel like for me, the adversity that I’ve been through from being heard, you know, going through divorce right now, um, being married so young, oh my gosh, that was that’s a whole different story, right? Being married so young, taking care of somebody else. Kids. That’s not yours. And you’re dealing with the bitter father that’s still in the picture. You know what I mean? That’s a lot for at that age. Yeah, that’s a lot for somebody at 23, 24 years old. Um, so like I said, I feel like adversity is is a great character building and it build the character that I am now. And that’s why I walk out. I walk with my chest out, not because of what I did, not because of what I played, but I walk with my. Chest out just because of the fact that the adversity that I face and I know that God has brought me through all of that. So it’s like when somebody try to judge me as a character or try to, you know, judge my character is like, you can’t tell me nothing about being a man because you don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve been through. You know what I mean?

Brian Pruett: [00:50:50] Yeah, we’ll come back to that in a second. I am going to mention, though, March 21st. You get too much, both of you there. But I’m we’re hosting a first annual America’s Hometown Heroes Expo in Acworth, and it’s for veteran owned, first responder owned businesses. And a portion of the proceeds are going to the Outer Circle Foundation, which is a nonprofit based in Dallas, Georgia, that works with veterans and first responders on PTSD and suicide prevention. Um, and the gentleman that runs it, Matt Payne. Matt and Buffy, you’re welcome. Shout out for you. Um, he’s a 16 year Air Force vet, combat specialist, as well as a retired police chief at a new Jersey. So and he suffered so so we’re going to come back to this in just a second. So I got a couple questions and there’s a lot to talk about. We don’t have time. But I do want to ask a couple of questions. Um for you. So so Nathan, I’m going to come to you for a second, share a little bit of the experience on what it’s like, the differences, I guess you would say. I wanted to ask you this in the locker room chat, but we didn’t get to it. I might ask this year, but can you share a difference, uh, of the experience of a difference between traveling around the minors in the, in the, in America and then playing pro in Mexico? What kind of share a little bit about that difference?

Nathan Bates: [00:51:59] Yeah, it was uh, well, first of all, the obvious difference is, I mean, the cultural difference between English and Spanish is one thing. And then the thing about the Mexican League is that there’s teams like Tijuana, where I don’t know if any of you all have seen videos of the games in Tijuana, but it’s they’re called, like the Yankees of the Mexican League because they make the most money, but they have like six mascots at every game, like four on the field in foul territory while the game is going on and pitches are being thrown and music is being played, it’s just a totally different environment. Um, but yeah, I mean, they’re traveling around the I, I got very lucky that the only place I haven’t played baseball in America is the Pacific Northwest. So, I mean, I’ve gotten to go to big Sky country, Southern California, Northern California, Arizona, Texas, southeast obviously played up in Maine and all that for the first year of college ball. And one of the summer college leagues I played in was the Necbl. So I’ve been very fortunate to travel a lot, but it’s, uh, yeah, in the minor leagues, it’s still kind of a hybrid in between, like you’re on your own and like a college situation where it’s very structured and everybody’s telling you what you have to do all the time. Um, and in Mexico, it’s like, we’re not going to tell you what to do if you don’t do it. You’re just gone. I mean, and that’s to an extent that’s kind of how it is in the minor leagues, but there’s a little bit more of a safety net, like, hey, get it together.

Nathan Bates: [00:53:14] This is, you know, don’t be late. All that stuff. There’s no warnings in Mexico. If you’re late, you don’t pitch well. I mean, I showed up, that was the only time in my career I’ve been released, and I deserved it. It wasn’t pitching well at all. It wasn’t. Wasn’t throwing strikes. Um, but they also have a certain amount of American born players or foreign born players that are allowed to be on the team. Um, and there’s obviously there’s not a whole lot of, uh, Mexican people that are six foot eight. I’m not saying there’s none, but it’s less likely that there’s any Hispanic heritage or Mexican heritage in me with my height. But you can only have so many. And so they’re on an even shorter leash. Like if you’re not performing, they got to get those spots filled with people that are, you know, they know what they’re doing. And I played with Addison Russell. Pablo Sandoval was on that team. Josh Reddick, uh, Carlos Martinez with the Cardinals. I mean, it was a big, big names on the team, which I wasn’t expecting when I went down there. Um, and even there was a guy. You remember the guy for the Athletics that took the knee during the national anthem? The first one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he’s down there. Okay. That dude is big. He’s like your height. He’s maybe 290. He has the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. This dude. I mean, physical specimen. Anyways, I’m getting off track.

Nathan Bates: [00:54:15] Um, but, yeah, I mean, the traveling is a lot different. I mean, it’s still bus rides, really. I mean, you get to Triple-A, then you start flying just because the leagues are so big. But, um, the bus rides are are in the minor leagues and in the Mexican League, but the, um. The the I’ll say the I’m trying not to get myself in trouble here, but the precautions and the parameters on which the trainer or the what the trainer adheres to, what he is allowed to and not allowed to do is different, I’ll say, in Mexico versus the minor leagues. And that was a bit of an eye opener even, you know, as little as I was down there. I mean, you just again, it’s a little bit of kind of a downhill flow from just the being Mexico versus the United States. I mean, you go into you can get Xanax and a bunch of different pills just from the, uh, pharmacies down there. I mean, they’re over the counter. So there’s just a lot of, uh, what seems like a big deal in America is not in Mexico. Um, but there’s I would say 90% of it was just a cultural difference, and it was a bit of a shock. I mean, I speak enough Spanish to get by to tell people I’m learning, and then I, you know, I can hold a conversation. I was just fine down there, but it’s it was a it was still a cultural shock, even though I was kind of expecting it. But what was the locker.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:29] Rooms like different, I’m sure even in the minor.

Nathan Bates: [00:55:31] Leagues. Yeah. They were. I mean, there’s a lot of cards, which is in the minor leagues too. There’s a lot of a lot of similarities. Um, but it was, it was a little bit different just because, I mean, I had never been in a locker room with that many big names in the big leagues. I mean, there was, what, three World Series champions in that locker at any point? Um, obviously Pablo Sandoval Kung Fu Panda being the big one. Um, but the amount of talent that was in the room, I just feel like there was a lot more in depth conversations when it would I mean, locker room conversations, they’re very rarely about baseball or the sport you’re playing. Um, but I feel like there was a lot more intentional and very fine tuned. Uh, things to pick up from the baseball side was the biggest difference. Just because, I mean, a locker room you’re sitting around changing, waiting around for BP or for the game to start. So there’s only so, so many things you can do, um, when you’re waiting around like that. But yeah, I would say the, the actual sports conversations were very lots of nuggets to be picked up from guys like that for sure. Kenny, you.

Brian Pruett: [00:56:26] Shared a little bit, but let me ask you, what’s it like the difference between going from baseball and playing arena football?

Nathan Bates: [00:56:31] Very curious.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:56:32] Oh, man. Um, it’s very different. It’s very different. Um, again, for me, with arena football is now it’s more physical, you know what I’m saying? It’s like, okay. It’s because like I said, I play in defensive end. So it’s like. And in arena ball, the office alignment are like six, eight, six, nine, 400 pound plus.

Nathan Bates: [00:56:54] That’s not as big of a field. I feel like you don’t got to they don’t got to move as much.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:56:57] Right. And that’s the thing too is it’s different from outside football because with outside football the defensive end he can have time to do six, seven, eight moves. You know what I mean. To try to get around that that that the offensive linemen and arena ball. You got like 2.5 seconds uh literally because it’s a 50 yard field. You know what I mean? So you got literally 2.5 seconds. So if you’re not, at least have your foot, you know what I mean? Past that offensive lineman foot. As you’re about to cut that corner within at least one and a half, two seconds, that’s it. Because the pocket collapsed so quickly. You know what I mean? Um, and again, that was just different, uh, especially with arena ball because now, you know, you’re playing on turf, but the turf that I played in, in baseball is different from this type of turf that you’re playing on arena ball. Um, the fans and everything is closer to you. You know what I mean? If you never if you ever been to a hockey game or whatever, it’s kind of like that with set foot. There’s no guard, there’s no no, you know, whatever the clear thing right there. Right. So arena ball, like when you hit somebody into the wall, you know what I mean? You got fans literally like patting you on top of the head, like hitting you on the helmet because they’re so into it. And I didn’t realize how many arena football fans there are in this, in this world, like in the United States. I mean, for instance, we’re playing against the Jacksonville Sharks. Okay. What else in Jacksonville is there Jacksonville Jaguars. So at that time, um, like I said, my ex-wife, she was sitting in the stands and she sat beside a guy who said that they have season tickets for the Jacksonville Sharks. They don’t give a rat’s behind about the Jaguars.

Nathan Bates: [00:58:31] I mean, it’s the right. Right. No offense, but that’s a good example.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:58:34] But it’s like they care more about the Jacksonville Sharks. And like I said, the environment um, you know the music during the games. Like I said it’s the crowd engagement the player engagement with the crowds. How fun it is. Um, and just learning the rules of arena football. Like I said, there’s three linemen, three on offense, three on defense. Right. And the reason why the scoring is so high, it’s really a receiver DB game because you got that one. You got that one receiver in motion. And that’s when the quarterback hits the ball. Once that receiver hits that line of scrimmage, that’s when the quarterback hits the ball. You know what I mean. So now you got that receiver. You know it’s one on one. You know. And if you’re not a good defensive back you’re not a good defensive player. You’re going to get schooled. Yeah. You know what I mean.

Nathan Bates: [00:59:21] Um it’s that timing makes a difference too. Like since you can kind of time as a defensive player, you can kind of time that receiver. Because if you. When he’s about to cross the line. Either he’s offsides. I mean, he’s going to beat you. So I feel like that’s.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:59:33] What helped me, honestly, was being a baseball player, the hand-eye coordination, you know what I mean? Seeing 90 something plus miles an hour, you know what I mean? Being able to hit that not all the time, but, you know, being able to touch it, getting ready.

Nathan Bates: [00:59:45] To hit it, the whole.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [00:59:46] Thing. So it’s kind of like and my trainer, who I was training when I was living in Loganville, his name is George Herron. Shout out to body by George. He’s the one who actually encouraged me to do football. He was a football. He went to Auburn and played. He played with Bo Jackson at Auburn. So you know, George encouraged me to do football. And he was like, Kenny, you got to understand, man, when a defensive guy that big throws his shoots his hand out at you and you’re so used to reacting to a 90 plus mile an hour fastball, like your fast twitch muscles are going to, like, help you in this game.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:17] You didn’t realize it. You’ve been training him the whole time you’ve been playing baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:00:20] Yeah, right. So it was like, now when I’m training, even when I was in Tampa and I’m training, right? And then when I actually see the offensive linemen shoot his hands out at me, now I’m learning to swim moves, whatever. But with my hand and our coordination and the twitching, the fast twitch, it’s like, oh man, this ain’t nothing. Yeah, really.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:37] That learning curve is this big, right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:00:39] Oh, you about to shoot him? Oh thank you. You know what I mean. It was it was different. But I wanted to pick you too. When you say you played in Mexico, you know, by me being in Dominican Republic. Mhm. Oh my gosh. Different. So that’s and that’s another reason why Vogelsong and I are real tight. Because he played in Venezuela. Oh and right. See just your reaction I’m.

Nathan Bates: [01:00:59] Supposed to be playing down.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:01:00] There right. You know he was like he said Kenny the fact that you played in doctor is like it’s very therapeutic to me because nobody I can’t talk to anybody about playing in Venezuela. They don’t get it. Yeah. And like he said man. Oh shoot man. We like I said of course I’m older than you. So this was 2011, 2012. And I was down there. So the mascots you know what I mean. The cheerleaders on top of the dugouts. And that was so hard for me being 20, 21 years old, finding out we can’t talk to the cheerleaders. And I’m looking at you like, what? What do you mean we can’t talk to them? Yeah, you talk to them if you want to. You might have a finger missing, you know what I mean? Um, like you said, the structure.

Nathan Bates: [01:01:41] The top of the dugout, like.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:01:42] Oh, yeah. Like that, uh, like they’re literally like. And again, like, I went to a black. I went to a HBCU. North Carolina ain’t. So you hear about you probably seen me post it like Jeho stands for greatest homecoming on earth. That’s our that’s our hashtag. So it was literally like a black college homecoming every single game. So when you have it and again when I played I played winter league there too for the Tigers. And that’s in Santo Domingo. That’s the that’s the capital. So I’m playing with that’s something that’s Hanley Ramirez from Miguel Tejada.

Nathan Bates: [01:02:15] A lot of the big names that are Dominican, they’ll play down there year round.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:02:18] They’ll play down here year round and that’s what I loved about it. That’s why I tell people, if you can play over there and keep up with them, man, you can come over to the States and kill because it’s a lot of big name players who just love the they love doctor so much, they don’t care about coming to America, you know what I mean? And like you said, being able to get stuff right over the counter that easy over there, the structure is you’re on your own type thing. It was a it was a very different issue. I faced the rawness Chapman over there. I didn’t say I was successful, I just said.

Nathan Bates: [01:02:52] I mean, you heard me talk about a union. I got nothing like.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:02:55] Literally I get over there. And that’s before he was a big guy. He was big and who he was. And basketball is big in Dominican Republic, too, especially in Santiago, because Santiago and Santo Domingo are two capitals and whatever. So Santiago, their basketball is real big. So I’m seeing Chapman at that time I got there, and we’re in this regular random field with goats in the outfield. I played center field, so there’s goats in the outfield. Okay, we’re at this and this is before the season began. They got especially the American players. They got us used to it, right. Used to the culture. So we was playing pick up baseball. You know, like pick up basketball. It’s pick up baseball. But they always had three umpires. It could have no fence, nothing whatever. But there was always three umpires and you always saw kids laughing. It was better than.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:39] Most minor league crews.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:40] Right? You know what I mean?

Brian Pruett: [01:03:41] Well, the goats were the field crew. I mean, come on.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:43] Still better than most other crews.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:45] So. And the thing is, when we get there, you have these little kids practicing training, whatever. And I tell you, striking out was very embarrassing because once you strike out, you got these kids laughing at you as you walk back to the dugout.

Nathan Bates: [01:03:58] Remember you the next time you come.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:03:59] Up and they remember you the next time because they’re like, man, we can do this. And we’re eight years old, 15 years old.

Nathan Bates: [01:04:04] And they’re probably right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:04:05] Too, honestly. And so I just remember, man, they, uh, I get there. This is my very first day. And, um, I remember his name was Pierre de Vos. He picked me up from the airport, and I was like, man, you got some Gatorade or something? I’m thirsty. I just came from, you know, from North Carolina, man. And like, I got you, papi, I got you. And then it was a culture shock because I didn’t know everything was pesos. Right. So when we stop at the gas station, this man is $50. Yeah, the guy’s filling up the limo, and it’s like $175, right? I didn’t know it was pesos. So I’m looking. I’m like, what is this? And then I’m watching the speedometer go. I didn’t know it was in kilometers. Oh, yeah. So I’m like, do y’all not see this man going 130 miles an hour? I’m sitting in the back like. And everybody just man this thing.

Nathan Bates: [01:04:49] Smooth going 130.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:04:51] And I’m kind of nervous. So when we get to the field, man and Chapman is standing off to the side, he’s just in some shorts and a shirt. I’m like, man, that’s he play basketball. He got to be right. So they was like, Kenny, you going to lead off man. You’re not playing the field. You’re going to lead off today. And I’m like all right cool. So mind you I haven’t met all the team reminds you right. So they just got me from that from that workout. So it was a lot of American players I’m introducing myself talking to the Dominican guys speak no Spanish at this time so I’m okay. See. Right okay. So next thing you know man I’m leading off. I got my back turned towards the dugout just talking whatever. And then I hear POW! What the hell? I turn around, it’s Chapman on the mound now. In baseball clothing.

Nathan Bates: [01:05:32] Yeah, he’s got that big.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:05:33] Yes.

Nathan Bates: [01:05:34] His whole body.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:05:35] Yes, Lord. And mind you, this is before it was extremely developed. Right? So just imagine how wild and scary it was looking then. So I get up there and the very first pitch, I see it and I don’t see it. By the time I got myself set, the ball was already in the mitt and I was like, okay, but it was a ball. He did the next three like that. Okay, okay, so I got three zero count, right? I’m like, all right, here we go. He threw the same exact pitches right down the pipe. The next 31I swung and missed struck out. Wow. And I was like different. Yeah man. It’s it’s a it’s a different ball game. Well like you said most.

Nathan Bates: [01:06:11] People are like are you going to the Dominican in the off season. You just need to get some work in. And it’s like, no, you can get you get paid pretty well down there and there’s really good competition because I know pools for a long time will go down there. I mean, again, guys from the Dominican would just in the off season, right? They don’t like to take time off. They play baseball because they love the sport. And so when everybody sends them home they’re like, all right, we’re gonna go play more baseball. So even doesn’t matter if you’re a big leaguer, World Series champion, minor leaguer, everybody, you know, if you’re there. That’s why they have those games.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:06:36] And they take it serious because you represent now you represent where you’re from. So just to be from an American American descent and I’m playing for let’s say, tigers and I’m with that’s what Vladimir Guerrero and I mean that’s Samuel Sosa Manny Ramirez that’s a big thing over there. Right.

Nathan Bates: [01:06:52] And the loyalty and the country loyalty is way different than it is in America. Doesn’t matter where you’re from, whether you’re a Mexican born, Dominican born.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:06:58] It’s yeah. It’s patriotism.

Nathan Bates: [01:07:00] Yeah. It’s different than it is here. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:02] Well, we could go on all day. I do a couple of questions for we because I’m seriously. But I know you guys.

Nathan Bates: [01:07:06] I know we’re going on doing the same thing. I know you.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:08] Guys got to go somewhere, so. But I do want to ask this. Well, it’s going to wind up being a two questions. And then we got three more after that that we’ll try to make this quick. The and the sport of the business of sport. Let’s be honest. It’s a business. Yeah. Multi-billion dollar business.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:07:24] Absolutely. Absolutely.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:25] I’m curious on you guys takes being, um, former college athletes, former pro athletes. To me, the college game has gotten ruined. I don’t necessarily think the Nil but the transfer portal now. Football. Obviously you didn’t play the college football, but I still could see it. You know, you got these teams that went to the bowl games. These guys started transferring in and out. What are your guys’s take on the Nil and the transfer portal and nil now in the state of Georgia, the high school athletes get it, which to me is just insane. So, um, Kenny, what about you? What’s your what’s your initial thoughts on.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:02] Honestly, man, I’m I’m I’m I’m on both fences. Both sides. Um, because for one thing about it, if you are a player who’s playing at these power five schools, you know what I mean? And you’re extremely successful.

Nathan Bates: [01:08:13] You generate a lot of money.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:14] A lot of money. You know what I’m saying?

Nathan Bates: [01:08:16] I’m saying especially in football, basketball, baseball.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:08:18] Right. Sports, especially if your jersey is being sold in stores, you know what I mean? And then you have nothing like you can’t do anything about it, you know what I mean? And you still sitting here eating noodles and noodles, right? And you’re sitting here generating all of this, like I feel that, you know what I mean? Because. And then also, you know, even if you do have some type of conversation or sign something for somebody now, it’s kind of like it can be detrimental to your career as a college athlete and also going to the next, uh, going to the next level. And then on the other side of it, it now it’s kind of like you think about it, uh, you know, the girl that plays for LSU. Uh oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, if she doesn’t go to the NBA from a financial standpoint, it’s not really going to bother her, you know what I’m saying? And I feel like too, that can start killing the passion and the drive and the heart and the grit of an athlete, um, to really take the game serious. And one thing I tell my travel ball kids that I coach like, I’m not going to allow you to disrespect the game that I love so much. And really, that took care of my family for a while, and I busted my hand and went through adversity to get to. But now it’s like, if you’re now you’re saying at the high school level and like now it’s like these kids, they just going to go for the money. And that’s the thing.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:34] They’ve taken the passion away. And like you said, and in the love of the game is gone.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:09:38] Yeah, absolutely. I see that.

Nathan Bates: [01:09:40] There’s no incentive for it. At least it’s like, oh, all right, I’m good at this. All right. I’ll go be good in college and make millions of dollars. And who cares if I go pro?

Brian Pruett: [01:09:46] Well, and you talk about Mikaylah Williams. You know, the quarterback. Usc has come out and said, now first of all, he’s to me. He’s not that good of a quarterback. He’s proved that this year.

Nathan Bates: [01:09:54] Well he he spoke too soon.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:56] Yes. But he’s he’s demanded that whoever drafts him he becomes part owner. And I’m sorry four.

Nathan Bates: [01:10:01] Games.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:01] After that.

Nathan Bates: [01:10:02] Exactly. But either way.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:03] Right, Nathan, what are your thoughts?

Nathan Bates: [01:10:05] Well, obviously I’m sitting here shaking my head a bunch. I, I agree, I think there’s a way to do it and I’m on both sides of the fence. I mean, yes, beforehand, being a college athlete, I mean, I it’d be easy for me to be like, oh, it’d be nice if the nil was there when I was in school. But again, I wasn’t a huge enough prospect and I wasn’t a big power conference where I would have gotten anything different, really. Um, but for the people that a high school is way too soon, right? That’s ridiculous in my opinion. But I mean, in college, like you said, there’s once you get to college, there’s no incentive to try to go to the next level because you’re getting paid just fine if you’re good enough. Athlete at a big conference, big school in a decent sport here. So why not stay for four years and get paid? Because it’s safer that than to take a risk after the first year, even if that’s statistically and, you know, in the past, if that would be the best time for you to leave, let’s say, football after your freshman year. Now, why not stay four years? Because, yeah, there’s some money that’s guaranteed, but you might get injured.

Nathan Bates: [01:11:00] You never know. I mean, even before the end of the season, you could. Something could happen. So it’s guaranteed. It’s almost like, that’s great to get to the point where you can sign a contract that gives you guaranteed money in a sport, but you get guaranteed money in college now. So it’s really taking away from the incentive, right? Like you said, to to grind and to push to the next level. But don’t you? I do think there’s some compensation. I think there’s a middle ground. I don’t think millions of dollars in these. And I think it’ll all sort itself out. I think it’ll kind of just like most things do. It’ll kind of settle somewhere in the middle. Um, but they do need to be compensated, especially at the big schools where they are making the school money, the institution money, which is most of the conversations we’re having. Um, but I don’t think immediately allowing them to sign all kinds of endorsement deals and make millions of dollars is the answer. I think there’s a way to do it. But again, it’ll sort itself.

Brian Pruett: [01:11:49] And I do agree that, you know, obviously if they’re making the school money, they should get some. But, you know, most of these kids are getting the full ride. They’re getting the scholarship, they’re getting paid to the school. They’re getting their their meals, paid the books and all that. But you add now on top of it and again, you’re just diluting what the what. So I agree. Let’s touch just real quick on the transfer portal. What are your thoughts on that.

Nathan Bates: [01:12:11] I mean, I don’t really have that big of an issue with it. I think kind of the same thing. There’s pros and cons to it, but I just with guys like Dabo Swinney that refuse to use it, I’m like, hey, whether you agree with it or not is one thing, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot by not using it. And then I get it. If it’s for a moral or, you know, you don’t agree with it and you’re protesting it for the lack of a better phrase, if that’s why you’re doing it, then that’s fine. But don’t sit here and complain about not getting good players. And that’s the reason because you have the tool just like everybody else. It’s whether you agree with it or not. Again, a whole nother thing, but everybody can use.

Brian Pruett: [01:12:43] It and I can. I see where I think it’s gotten. It’s detrimental more to football than some of the other sports. What about you, Kenny?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:12:49] Uh, I feel the same as that way for me. I see a lot of players to, um, some of them do it from being from a spoiled standpoint because they.

Nathan Bates: [01:12:59] Don’t play like they thought they were going to play.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:13:01] Right? Because. And you know what I mean? And I hear a lot of talks about baseball. And just because I’m in travel baseball and which is a whole nother different ball game, but I hear it a lot now, um, where, you know, even coaching travel ball right now, you know, you got these kids, man, who’ve been praised so much coming up from like a young age to up into, you know, high school or whatever. And then it’s almost kind of like, you know, they get recruited to the school and now things aren’t going their way, you know, not not even because of the program is not good. Maybe just because they’re facing adversity and instead of them, you know, putting ten toes down and really like owning and embracing that adversity, they feel like, okay, hey, look, well, I struggled here for whatever reason. So now I’m going to go transfer to another program because I feel like that that program is going to, you know, stroke that ego.

Nathan Bates: [01:13:52] And then the coaches that they’re going to transfer to are telling them the same thing that the coach they were at. I could not.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:13:56] Agree with what you yeah, you know what I mean. So I feel like it’s like I said, I’m on the fence with that as well. Like if for for if you’re really not getting what you think you feel like you need out of it as an athlete at that program, then I get it, you know what I mean. But then like again, you know, then you got some players, man. They’re just they’re trying to chase. They’re trying to chase a ring. You know they’re trying to chase a stat. And again I go back to travel baseball. You got parents who will be you know like not a college parent. I got a parent who called me the other day and was like, hey, um, because I coached to eight teams with the bombers, so that’s the best teams. And I had a parent call me and say, hey, man, you know, I know my player may not play on your team, but I want him to play on your team. Just to say he played on the A team. And it’s like, but your son is starting every single day with the B team, and we’re playing in the same competition. We’re playing in the same tournaments. So are you more concerned about the name, or are you more concerned about the development of your son and I? Right. And I see that in the Trans Reporter, too. I see a lot of players now was like, okay, for instance, Coach Prime, you know, when Coach Prime left Jackson State, how many players go to the transfer portal when you get to win to Colorado. Right. And then yeah, they started off good. But then look what happened. Right. You know what I mean. So it’s yeah it’s.

Brian Pruett: [01:15:08] It’s well you talked about the parents. My my dad, uh, when I was really young, he was an umpire for, uh, this was Little league. Little Little League. And he lasted one season and he stopped because of the parents.

Nathan Bates: [01:15:20] That’s why I coached two weekends. Coached, uh, travel team. Uh, ninth inning down in Chamblee. I coached two, two weekends of in the fall. And I was like, I can’t do it. Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. And I you absolutely agree with you saying that travel has put this, this thought into whether it’s the kids or the parents, like, okay, well, if I’m not playing and I want to play, I can just go to a different team until I find one that will let me play. Yeah. And that’s I think that’s what they’re trying to do in the transfer portal is like, well, people have been telling me since I’m seven that I’m the best, so why would I not be? And every time I’ve heard a kid say that, I was like, you know what? Chase Smith, best player, was recruited by every school in Georgia, played at home plate where I played on the big name travel team when I was a freshman sophomore, and I didn’t play with him junior or senior year, played with a different team that let me play both positions and that was fine. But I was like, you know what Chase is doing now? They’re like, what? And I was like, I don’t know. I didn’t even know where he went to school. I don’t even think he went to college. It’s like what you do in your sophomore year or even most of the time in high school. Really, in the grand scheme of things, means nothing, right? Absolutely. Really doesn’t mean anything. But I think a lot of the putting a lot of the the stress on succeeding and being on a big name team and being the shortstop or the center fielder or the leadoff three hole, whatever. And I think a lot of that, the them thinking that’s the most important thing and travel ball. And in high school, I think that’s also going into college and the transfer portal and it’s like, well did it in school and it worked. Or I did it in high school and it worked well. Transfer to USC now and then I’ll be a USC quarterback.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:16:44] Yeah college is that’s college is a different grind man. It’s you know what I mean. Like you say even at pro ball I was talking to a guy the other day and it’s like okay when you get to the Pro Bowl, especially as a position player, right. Like I was a center fielder. So it’s kind of like, clearly you were a center fielder. You’re good enough to be at this level. But there are other guys in the same organization as you that plays the same position. So now the thing is, okay, you’re a center fielder for the San Francisco Giants, right? You’re in the center fielder for the San Francisco Giants organization. But now what are you. Yeah. You know what I’m saying.

Nathan Bates: [01:17:20] Is, are there a lot of center fielders in front of you? Are there less right fielders maybe moving to right since you have a good arm? Maybe. Is that a career path? Right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:17:27] I mean, there’s all kinds of what separates you now. Oh, you run A65. He runs A65, right? You hit 20 bombs. He hits 20 bombs. You know what I’m saying? What makes you different?

Brian Pruett: [01:17:36] Well, now you got the universal DH. That’s a whole nother topic, right?

Nathan Bates: [01:17:40] I just think it needs to be even. Whatever it is, it’s fine. Just fine as a pitcher. Dh right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:17:47] Hey look, I’m not gonna lie, if I could D.H. and not worry about because when I got hurt, they moved me to first base. Okay. Hot corner, come on now. Right. If you can just be like, hey man, just DH.

Nathan Bates: [01:17:57] If it was just taking the throws and picking, I’d be great. Oh my god. Yeah. Oh dude I’m great. You hit a top’s a big lefty. Hits a top spinner at me I’m moving out of the way.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:18:05] Think about Big Papi hitting you a hot shot at first base.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:08] But, Nathan, you’re so tall, you can be able to get it.

Nathan Bates: [01:18:11] Well, I’m so skinny right by me. I don’t have any whip, you know?

Brian Pruett: [01:18:14] All right. Real quick, because I know we’re going to. Again, I could talk all day, so, um. But, uh, so I’d like for you to. Guys, this is a two part question to give some advice. And I know I don’t want to rush you on the advice, but if somebody’s listening that either A has a child playing sports, uh, or B that are wrapping up their career, whatever the case may be, it’s a two part question. I like for you guys to give advice on dealing with, uh, your mental health because you guys go through a lot. I mean, people I don’t think people realize athletes have a lot of mental health challenges, you know, because of the disappointments and whatever. But then also it give advice from transitioning from playing pro ball into getting back into society and doing a career. Yeah. So, Nathan, I’ll start with you.

Nathan Bates: [01:19:00] Um, yeah. I mean, I think the on the mental side of things, it’s have have an outlet, whatever that is, is fine. But just remember that whatever sport you’re playing, it’s not the only thing in the world. I mean, I played multiple sports, which was great. I loved going and playing tennis and soccer and messing around and doing all kinds of things. So I never got burnt out on baseball. Um, so I never in high school, at least in college, I never really had that, um, that dreading it or really hitting a wall or really having that mental frustration. But there was plenty of that, um, when I got to pro ball. And I think the biggest thing for me that helped me do that was even then, there’s 12 months of me, 18 months, actually, of me going into a facility for a few hours in the morning and then going back to the same apartment with three other guys every night. And it’s like, this is all I’m doing all day. I have to find something else to keep my mind off of it, or else all I’m going to sit there is this downward spiral of, you know, I’m not healthy. Am I doing everything I can to get healthy? What if it doesn’t work? And then your mind starts to go off on all these tangents that can really be detrimental and destructive, really from a mental standpoint.

Nathan Bates: [01:20:01] And so I would say the one thing is have an outlet, whatever that is, it can be, you know, another sport, it can be an art or a craft or playing video games, whatever. Going and hanging out with people, that’s fine. But you have to be able to disconnect from the sport you’re playing and be able to not take yourself too seriously. Um, and that’s that. It actually ends up going a long way for the player. Um, and as a parent, I guess just understand that because of a lot of the advice that people are getting now is you got to start them young. You got to like I said earlier, you got to play baseball young. It’s specializing is not that big of a deal. As everybody says it is the travel coaches and the high school coaches. Yeah, they all say it. And even sometimes in college, the first thing that they said to me when I got to pro ball, we were taking on the mound and I, you know, fielded a bunt down the third base line planting my foot and threw the, you know, ghost runner or whatever you call it out at first.

Nathan Bates: [01:20:50] And immediately one of the coaches looked at me and said, you played more than. One sport, didn’t you? I was like, yeah, I played basketball and they’re like, yeah, it’s really obvious. We we try to promote people playing more than one sport that cross athleticism. It helps for whatever sport you’re focusing on. But it’s like I said, it’s just all these the parents and some of the travel coaches saying, you’ve got to focus on baseball. You can’t you don’t have time for basketball. I mean, even when I was in high school, both of the sports were telling me I needed to quit the other one or else I wasn’t going to have a future in it. And it’s just it hurts my heart to hear that, because the kid that really wants to play is the one that’s starting to have all these negative thoughts, and it’s like, maybe I’m putting pressure on myself, you know, I got to do really well because all this stuff that my parents are doing for me and they want me to succeed, and it’s just it can be really, really destructive. So that’s what I would say from a, um, a sports side of things. And then from getting into the honestly, it’s kind of the same advice from going from the pro sports world or the sports world into the like.

Nathan Bates: [01:21:42] I said, the real job, it’s just after, you know, I still have that competitive nature. And I really I like to compete, but I can get that other places. You know, I play golf, I play men’s league basketball sometimes. And so I, I have that outlet. But just remembering that the sport that you’re playing is not the end of the world. There’s other things out there and there’s other things that you need to go enjoy and invest your time in and completely disconnect from the sport you’re playing. And to a bigger extent, it’s harder to do after the after you retire. But I was very lucky that I had a very soft landing spot. Like I said, a house and a fiance now wife with a bunch of animals. And that was where my priorities were when I retired. So it wasn’t as hard for me, um, as I as I’ve heard that it can be for other people. But either way, I would say the best advice is just have somewhere to go, whether it’s somewhere mentally or something to do that you can just disconnect and enjoy something. And it doesn’t have to be all the stress and pressure of whatever sport it is you’re trying to succeed at. Kenny.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:22:35] Yeah, man, I definitely agree. Uh, for me, um, I can also say, especially from a sports standpoint, an athlete, you I had to get to a point where I had to realize and my spiritual advisor helped me with this. The sport is not who you are. It’s what you do. Um, and, like, I know we didn’t get into it, but I was. I was suicidal, um, you know, literally about to jump over 400in Alpharetta to where I was in peach for hospital for, like, seven days by myself. Um, you know what I mean? Going through it by myself. And a lot of it came from my depression of being hurt, uh, with baseball. Try to get back into it. And then, you know, when I said bump baseball and I did the arena football thing, I’m thinking that my my, my life is back in order. You know what I mean? The money’s coming in now, you know, playing a sport. I’m back playing a sport. You know who the endorsements. And you know, I had an Adidas, uh, Adidas sponsorship, you know, so I got a lot of Adidas stuff. I had a core water sponsorship. Like, I thought I was a man again. Right. And then when Covid happened, you know, it kind of killed me. Um, it killed my whole mood. And then it was very detrimental to as me, as a husband. Um, so I had to get to a point where I felt like for me, if I didn’t was if I wasn’t successful in sports, like my life was over.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:23:53] But I had to understand sports is what I did. It’s not who I am. You know, I’m a father. At that time, you know, I was a husband at that time. You know, like I said, a coach, a leader. Um, and the biggest thing I can say is for that person transitioning, you got to find your purpose. You know what I mean? And that’s not easy. It’s not always easy. Oh my gosh. No. Um. And that’s why I stay grounded in my faith, you know what I mean? Like, I’m a real strong man of God, you know what I’m saying? And I really take that seriously. Um, because, again, you’re not going to find your purpose unless you have him, like, really seeking him and doing that. And once I got that comfort into finding my purpose and my spiritual advisor said, you know, um, I don’t know when or where or how, but you’re going to come back to the game of baseball. He was like, um, like I said, I threw everything away for baseball. I didn’t want to talk about it. I mean, my cousins Jackie Bradley Jr, right. Like literally, I mean, he was playing in the World Series. My dad was like, man, you talk a little jacket today. I’m like, yeah, I talked to him on Facebook and we talked on the phone, but we didn’t talk about baseball. You know what I mean?

Nathan Bates: [01:24:55] Because he probably knows.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:24:56] Yeah, you know what I mean? And me and Jackie’s not playing anymore. You know what I mean? Oh that’s true. Yeah. He reached out to me like, yo, what? You know, I need some help. He’s a family man, too. But it’s like, I didn’t. I didn’t talk about baseball anymore. Don’t talk to me about it. If you wanted to talk baseball, I was. I would be so irritated. Like, leave me alone about baseball and my dad. I had to stop answering my dad’s calls. During the World Series when Jackie was playing, I was like, dad, I don’t want to talk about baseball. I just can’t do it right. So but my spiritual adviser, Pastor Mojo, shout out to him, um, he was just like, look, Kenny, you’re going back to baseball. Whether it’s the play or whether it’s the coach, he said, but God is going to bring you back to there because there are so many other people that you can touch. You know what I mean? Uh, with that sport, with that platform. So I feel like now that’s why I’m coaching now, and I’m so passionate about coaching, and that’s why I want to go to the next level at the pro level, because I feel like the message that I have a 13, 14 year old kid can’t relate.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:25:53] The message that I have right now. I feel like the collegiate level players and the pro level players can’t connect to my message because for one, I got married young, you know what I’m saying? Um, I’m a father. Some of these guys are fathers now already. And my goal now is to build strong men outside of the game of baseball. So I feel like, you know, once you really tap into what your purpose is, and that’s what anybody, not even just an athlete, that’s just anybody who’s facing something now. Um, sometimes once you tap into your purpose, the money is not it might not be a lot of money, right? But at the end of the day, you’re getting that fulfillment that you’re tapping into what you’re what your assignment is while you’re here on this earth. And once you tap into that man, it don’t matter if you make $1 million or $10, $10 an hour. You know what I mean? That once you realize your purpose is that’s what’s going to take over the happiness and just make you be extremely happy.

Brian Pruett: [01:26:44] I’m living that myself right now, right?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:26:47] You know what I mean?

Nathan Bates: [01:26:47] And then I know exactly what you mean.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:26:49] And then, like I said, from the the parent aspect, man, let kids be kids, like, literally like my daughter, she’s seven years old and everybody sees my daughter like nothing against Natalie. Okay. Now we still cool. I love you, but Savannah has all of my athletic, right? Natalie has not one athletic attribute on her body. She’ll tell you, but the business. Oh, yeah, she’s top notch in business. And Savannah got that from her. But the athleticism. Savannah has it from me. So she’s in gymnastics. She’s in soccer right. She’s in dance. Mhm. Um you know what I mean. So and I’m wanting to put her on track because her gait is just so amazing when she runs. So it’s kind of like I remember I had her in dance and then I did gymnastics with her last year. And mind you, she goes to school in Johns Creek. So Mondays and Wednesdays was dance in Roswell from 4 to 530. And she’s in Ariel as well, and she’s the only kid under the age of ten in Ariel. So where they used the silks and they climbed up the silks and flipping and everything, that’s what she does. She does that too. And in gymnastics. Right. And then in gymnastics, I went literally one day for the first time ever. And the owner of the gym was bio gymnastics and and coming. And he comes up to me, he says, hey, uh, Coach Cameron wants to look at your daughter.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:28:01] And I was like, wait, why? What’s going on? He was like, he’s like, she she wants to see her. I was like, wow, what happened? And I was like, did I sign her up for the wrong class? He said, no. He said, have your daughter been doing gymnastics before? And I was like, no. He was like, well, we want to look at her. So Coach Cameron, she looks at Savannah for an extra 30 minutes and she comes and she said, hey, we want to put Savannah in mighty mice. I said, what does mighty mice? She said, well, it’s like an intro to real gymnastics competition and whatever. And she was like, and once she passes that, we’ll give her a test and we’ll start moving up the level one, level two, level three, whatever. And so basically I’m like, okay, how much is it going to run me? I was like, bump it, okay, let’s do it. So basically, make a long story short, Savannah was in Mighty Mites for like four months. And then January of last year they did her evaluation. They moved up to level one. Then literally after level one, three months later, they moved her up to level two, and her test for her to go to level two was to have the rope right all the way up to the ceiling, and she made it up the rope in 6.5 seconds back down.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:29:04] Right. And so basically they moved up to level two. But what it was, I had to realize when I say let kids be kids, Savannah gets out of school at 3:00 right from Johns Creek Valley Christian Cabin, Johns Creek. And then it’s like a 30 minute commute to, uh, um, to gymnastics. So my baby girl was only 5 or 6 years old. She didn’t have time to rest. Right. And then now they’re doing all this ab work, these fish holes and stuff. And baby girl just came to me crying one day. She’s like, dad, I’m tired, I’m tired. I can’t do it anymore. And I say, you know what? You’re only six years old. You know what I’m saying? It’s way too. I’ll let you be a kid, right? I’ll let you be a kid. So I say that. So now she loves. She wants to get back in gymnastics, right? And now that I met my my my new lady, Sarah, she, like said, play pro soccer before. She’s big into soccer and she’s a physical therapist now. So Savannah is so motivated to get back into soccer and she wants to get back into gymnastics. But when I say let kids be a kid right now in this age, just let let them be kids.

Nathan Bates: [01:30:03] Yeah. If you hadn’t done that, there’s a good chance she’d be like, I whenever you finally let me stop. I’m not going back to it.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:08] Right, right. And so it’s like I had to recognize that. So like, say the parents, man, especially when you travel ball kids, you know, man, I be in the baseball all of a sudden I see these parents, man with their eight year old nine year old kids and they, you know, just drilling them, drilling them. I’m just like, man, you’re literally going to be the reason why your child does not want to play a sport ever again, because you’re trying to live vicariously through, you know, through them, man. So yeah, that’s that’s that’s my that’s my advice.

Brian Pruett: [01:30:32] So real quick, you guys obviously are doing something. Now you talked about you’re doing the coaching and the training. Yeah. Uh you said high school age right.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:39] Yes.

Brian Pruett: [01:30:40] Uh, so if somebody’s listening, first of all, where can they get where where can they get a hold of you? And how? Um, if they want to talk to you about training.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:30:47] Oh, yeah. So they can definitely go on Instagram if they do have Instagram. And it’s at Kenny Graham Junior. Nothing. Um, of course, you know, my Facebook is Kenny K Graham Junior because CJ’s my nickname. Um, and, you know, that’s it. Um, Twitter. Uh, Twitter was big when I was in college back in like, oh, 7 to 11. So I’m just now getting back on that because now with me coaching, um, I’m starting to hear from other travel ball coaches who’s been in the game for a while that a lot of the scouts and a lot of the collegiate scouts and everything. There’s a couple of, uh, platforms. Um, that’s big on Twitter. And if you hashtag those platforms and things, these coaches go right to that now, like you don’t, you know what I’m saying? They just do that with the hashtag. Yeah. They just search the hashtag. So but definitely on Instagram and Facebook. Like I say it’s just at Kenny Graham Junior. Um, I’ve actually had a couple of guys, a couple of parents, um, reach out to me via Instagram. Um, just because of the content that I coach about me, you know, that I post about my coach and like I said, I’m very authentic. So if you go on my social media, you’re going to see myself and my daughter and you’re going to see me having fun being passionate about the coaching thing.

Brian Pruett: [01:31:52] So what facility are you at?

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:31:53] Uh, I’m at Grand Slam facility in Johns Creek. So we used to be the Georgia bombers, but we merged with a company called ZT, which is a real big out there on the West Coast now. So now we’re the ZT bombers. So we have, you know, 217 U teams, uh, 16 U 15 U 14 U 313 U teams because they have a southeast team now all the way down to eight U. And then I’m also the head coach for the Black Cobras, um, 18 U team and Black Cobras, actually a guy named Willie who named myself Black Cobra. Um, he’s a very big, uh, media content guy. Oh that’s big. I mean, he shoots, uh, he’s YouTube. Uh, I mean, he’s on a couple of teams now on contract, but every single kid in high school in the state of Georgia, especially in the area, who was trying to be somebody or some type of content, they utilize him. He goes down to the the, you know, the 17 U. Tournaments in Florida and West Palm and stuff. He’s real big. But he put an 18 U. Team together. And then of course, you know, I do collegiate summer league ball with the Brookhaven Bucks and the Sunbelt League. I coached with Corey Patterson. All right. Yeah. Another, uh, MLB champion. Yep. Yeah.

Nathan Bates: [01:32:57] I definitely know that.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:32:57] Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. He’s literally I’m I over tower him. Right. So it’s hard to believe that he has so much power when he played. But yeah. So he’s the head coach for the, um, Brookhaven Bucks we play at at Oglethorpe University. And then like I said, I’m the assistant coach.

Brian Pruett: [01:33:11] Next time we talk to him, tell him to respond to my text.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:33:14] Oh, I got you, I got you, I got you, man. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s where I’m at, man. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [01:33:19] All right. Uh, so, Nathan Cmit solutions. Marietta. So obviously it’s kind of in the name. What you guys do everything. Computers. Right? As far as, uh, the way shared a little bit about that. And how can people get hold of you?

Nathan Bates: [01:33:29] Yeah. So, um, our, our cmit solutions is a is a franchise. There’s about 180 locations around the country. Um, but ours is Cmit Solutions of Atlanta Northwest. We have a parent franchise that’s down in Peachtree City. Newnan area. That’s Atlanta southern Cmit Solutions of Atlanta, Southern Crescent. Um, but I am not the technician that fixes the computers. I’m in sales and business development, so I just find the people that need their computers to be fixed. Um, but the way I put it is anything that beeps or blinks we take care of and protect and monitor and manage and all that kind of stuff. Um, all the mobile devices, remote monitoring, the network and the data backup, the business continuity, all that good stuff. Um, but on LinkedIn and, uh, I would say Facebook, if you search Cmit solutions, uh, Atlanta Northwest, you can find us or, um, cell phone is (770) 584-0026. I’ve my mind was just about to say business card, but that’s hard to do. Um, but yeah, I mean, you can find us on, uh, on, on Facebook and LinkedIn and anything technical related, we offer free assessments. So even any questions or anything like that, we don’t charge you for it. We just like to help as many people as we can. And our goal is to just whether you become a client or not, just leave you in a better spot than than you were when we found you. So, you know.

Brian Pruett: [01:34:41] You share your website too?

Nathan Bates: [01:34:43] Uh, yeah. It’s, uh, just cmit solutions.com. And then that’ll take you to the franchise website, and, and you can find. Uh, Typekit. I think it makes you type in your zip code and then it’ll direct you to to the appropriate franchise. And that should be us. All right.

Brian Pruett: [01:34:55] So as we wrap this up, um, I always like to end this with a positive word or quote, starting off the new year 2024 and beyond with you already shared something earlier, you can share it again if you want to, but if you got some different, what kind of. Uh, would you share the best?

Nathan Bates: [01:35:11] I don’t even know if it really qualifies as a quote. It’s too short, but my my dad and my grandpa have told me for my whole life that everything is relative. And then just really talking about perspective. I mean, just like the the story I shared about the kid from the Dominican that sent his whole check home. I mean, yeah, I thought it was a really tough situation that I was in. And then relative to his, it’s really not that bad. So just keeping in mind that everything is relative is some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten. It took me a while to kind of realize exactly what that meant, but um, once it kind of clicked for me, that’s that’s the best advice I’ve gotten. Kenny.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:35:43] Uh, yeah, for me, man, I take it, uh, especially from a spiritual standpoint, too. Um, especially what I’ve been hearing, you know, growing up and even now, sometimes when you go through adversity, sometimes God will sit you down and knock you down to to shake you up a little bit and get you back on track. Um, so I can just tell people, man, just embrace adversity. Um, and just and just be better in 2024. So, you know, whatever happened last year, year before that, just learn from it, embrace it, and sometimes understand that, you know, God got something better for you that nobody can see, not even you can see. And sometimes you’re going through these type of things to literally for him to be like, look, I need you to start relying on me more. Um, and once you do so, you know, greater things can happen. And the last thing I can say sometimes when you are trying to go different places, go better. You know what I mean? Sometimes in order to elevate, you got to separate. Um, so, you know, if there’s a group of friends out there that you’re with that’s caused you not to elevate and what you’re trying to do, sometimes you got to separate from there. Sometimes you got to separate from a from a relationship, you know, or even separate from a job or whatever, you know, that’s stopping you from going to where you go. So that’s all right.

Brian Pruett: [01:36:53] Well, the last thing is, uh, the thank you is a lost art these days. So Nathan and Kenny, thank you for what you guys do in the community and being former professional athletes and just being regular human beings.

Nathan Bates: [01:37:05] I was going to say the same thing. Thank you for doing what you do and being who you are, man.

Kenny Graham Jr. : [01:37:08] Absolutely, man.

Brian Pruett: [01:37:09] So everybody out there listening, let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.

 

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