Speaker 1: Now now it's official.
Speaker 2: What's up, dude?
Speaker 1: You've been running around the planet, brother, been traveling, I know.
Speaker 1: Uh so, uh what what have you been doing on
Speaker 1: the on the road? Is it? Is it both work
Speaker 1: and enjoyment where you're globe trotting right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's always work. Work is every day, work never stops.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just enjoying some time. I think I believe
Speaker 2: I just moved, So I think the last couple of
Speaker 2: weeks i've been my mom was in town trying to
Speaker 2: help me move everything. So that's always I feel like
Speaker 2: we've done so much but so little.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I get that, especially because moving is
Speaker 1: a pain in the you know what, and you've got
Speaker 1: to figure out. Okay, So if I'm doing this, it's
Speaker 1: like you peck, you pack up your life, then you
Speaker 1: figure out, Okay, it's one of those opportunities where I
Speaker 1: maybe should hang onto this, maybe I can let this go.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can do this and then move into the
Speaker 1: new place. Is it larger or smaller? I guess is
Speaker 1: my first question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, much bigger, much bigger. So yeah, now it's figuring out,
Speaker 2: figuring out where everything goes, needing to buy some new things,
Speaker 2: selling things, that don't fit all that kind of stuff. Man.
Speaker 1: Okay, so then let me ask it this way. Since
Speaker 1: you since you're discussing moving, let me let me apply
Speaker 1: it to your your mentoring here when it comes to
Speaker 1: your mentors and your mentees specifically when it comes to
Speaker 1: making those big life adjustments, whether it's making it taking
Speaker 1: a change in location, a change of environment, those kinds
Speaker 1: of things. How many discussions do you get to have
Speaker 1: with your mentees about these kind of life changing things.
Speaker 1: Where As we get older, we do get used to
Speaker 1: the idea of moving and compressing or expanding our lives,
Speaker 1: but what about young mentees having these big moments about Okay,
Speaker 1: do I make this choice to help my career? Do
Speaker 1: I stay at home? Do you have any of those conversations?
Speaker 2: Of course, right. I think I had a great conversation
Speaker 2: with a young boy yesterday from an MLS academy and
Speaker 2: just just speaking about just speaking about the sacrifices that
Speaker 2: are needed. Right. I think sometimes whenever you're going through
Speaker 2: the academy level and when you're kind of okay, this
Speaker 2: is my dream, this is really what I want to do,
Speaker 2: This is this is I think I can get this
Speaker 2: close and then I think you come to realization like,
Speaker 2: oh crap, this is this is a lot. And I
Speaker 2: think it takes a pretty special person to you know,
Speaker 2: I think in total, I don't know how many homes
Speaker 2: I've lived in in my career, or how many homes
Speaker 2: I've lived in my life. This has got to be
Speaker 2: this has got to be upper twenties right now. Wow,
Speaker 2: of how many homes I've lived since I was twelve
Speaker 2: years old. So, you know, I think it's it's you
Speaker 2: look at your life and I mean, finally, this will
Speaker 2: be a place to where I can call home, sweet
Speaker 2: home for quite some time. So it feels it feels good.
Speaker 2: It definitely feels good.
Speaker 1: Is there a greater sense of with your mentees knowing
Speaker 1: that these are things that I have to do or
Speaker 1: is there still I guess the level of comfortability from
Speaker 1: like when you were twelve and you know, I was twelve.
Speaker 1: Back in the late eighteen hundreds, the idea of leaving
Speaker 1: home it was something that we really had to grapple with.
Speaker 1: Is it easier these days for the young athlete to
Speaker 1: sit there and get that this might be something that
Speaker 1: I need to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just throwing that out there and
Speaker 2: kind of helping them understand not only the discipline that
Speaker 2: goes beyond it, but just just the sacrifices, right, the
Speaker 2: things that they most likely will have to be in
Speaker 2: front of at some point if they want to take
Speaker 2: soccer as far as they can. But I think it's
Speaker 2: not the reg dealer or the average you know, the
Speaker 2: average joe, average Joe's kind of trajectory, right, I think
Speaker 2: the trajectory of sometimes what they play in their head
Speaker 2: is completely different than what it what it can truly be.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I wrote down as we
Speaker 1: take our first right turn of the morning, uh, from
Speaker 1: your last visit, it says coaching up and p k's'
Speaker 1: with the with it says coaching up. P K. Garza Literally,
Speaker 1: this is the note that I have from the last
Speaker 1: time that we were that we talked about these kinds
Speaker 1: of things, and I just want to first off, I
Speaker 1: just want to take it from the idea of coaching
Speaker 1: somebody else because you moving going into someplace new, taking
Speaker 1: that next step, digging those next strides in your life
Speaker 1: and living in a big capital h house, you know,
Speaker 1: something like that. When it comes to coaching up an individual,
Speaker 1: coaching up a mentee. Obviously, they wouldn't have knocked on
Speaker 1: your door if they weren't receptive to the idea of
Speaker 1: hopefully listening to what you have to say. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to coaching them up in a situation, in
Speaker 1: addition to understanding, yes, this is why I'm here, what
Speaker 1: do you have to do to get to that next
Speaker 1: level of encouragement? Because I get that there's probably a
Speaker 1: baseline of being a mentor, and then there's that level
Speaker 1: of comfort and then okay, I've got to go to
Speaker 1: this next level with these individuals. So when it comes
Speaker 1: to coaching up your mentees and going to that next level,
Speaker 1: that second level with them, obviously I would think that
Speaker 1: it differs from individual to individual. But how do you,
Speaker 1: as a mentor gauge Okay, I've really got to dial
Speaker 1: it up with this person I see promise, or I
Speaker 1: need to dial it up with this person so they
Speaker 1: can see the promise. How do you figure out when
Speaker 1: to dial it up with a mentee's.
Speaker 2: That's a great question. I think once you start to
Speaker 2: build that kind of trust, and I think I think
Speaker 2: Mike and I always say this's like personal stories telling.
Speaker 2: I think is by far my favorite thing to do
Speaker 2: because it allows you to build that connection with each
Speaker 2: an individual, helping them understand whether it be the trajectory
Speaker 2: of the path that you took that that is so
Speaker 2: much different, but just to give them an idea of
Speaker 2: who you are and what you've been through, right, or
Speaker 2: who you are and kind of what got you to
Speaker 2: where you wanted to go. I think breaking the ice
Speaker 2: there and kind of you know, building a better bond
Speaker 2: and relationship. In those moments are when I think I
Speaker 2: am able to pull the trigger and then say, okay,
Speaker 2: this is this is now something that we can speak
Speaker 2: about in regard to maybe building more responsibility or bettering
Speaker 2: their accountability or helping them understand, hey, this this can
Speaker 2: be something that you can look forward to for a
Speaker 2: really long time. And if you do it this way,
Speaker 2: this is how we did it, this is how I
Speaker 2: did it, and it worked for us. So you know,
Speaker 2: each each and every individual is different. And I think
Speaker 2: that's the beauty of mentorship. And Mike and I always
Speaker 2: speak about it as well, is that some kids just
Speaker 2: want to make varsity from JV, right, and some kids
Speaker 2: want to truly aspire to become a pro. Some kids
Speaker 2: want to take the life values and the life hacks
Speaker 2: of what we what we speak about into maybe a
Speaker 2: business they want to run one day. Right, there's there's
Speaker 2: there's so many different little nuances and things that we're
Speaker 2: able to implement and apply to all of our sessions.
Speaker 2: And each each and every kid differs. That's the beauty
Speaker 2: of it as well. Each and every kid thinks differently,
Speaker 2: Each and every kid reacts differently, each and every kid
Speaker 2: aspires differently, Each and every kid wants wants something different,
Speaker 2: And I think kind of building them up within their
Speaker 2: own internal belief uh, and kind of helping them understand
Speaker 2: what they see in the mirror every day and what
Speaker 2: they're working with every day. That that's that's something that's
Speaker 2: you know, a massive, a massive you know benefit I
Speaker 2: think to our.
Speaker 1: Program well, and I would imagine though that it's also
Speaker 1: a learning experience for you and trying to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's where I hit the clutch, here's where I hit
Speaker 1: the brake, Here's where I hit the gas. Because of
Speaker 1: understanding where that mentee is coming from, it's like, Okay, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be messy. I just want to get to college. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be messy. I just want to
Speaker 1: figure out, Okay, how do I apply these life skills?
Speaker 1: How much of a learning experience has that been for you?
Speaker 1: And cap to to gauge, Okay, I might be I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm pushing hard enough. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm pushing too hard. How much of a how
Speaker 1: much of a life hack has it been for you?
Speaker 2: It's it's been immense because you learn. I think that's
Speaker 2: the cool part. And we talked about it before you learn,
Speaker 2: you learn a lot from your mentees. You learn how
Speaker 2: they view certain things, and and you and I have
Speaker 2: gone over like the self belief, self discipline, self regulation,
Speaker 2: self assessment. And there's been times to where I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously I have to kind of push push the envelope
Speaker 2: a little bit more with with with some of the kids,
Speaker 2: right and kind of really help them understand certain phrases
Speaker 2: or paraphrases or synonyms or things that I think of
Speaker 2: in which how those apply to me. But there will
Speaker 2: be some kids that just absolutely blow it out of them, right,
Speaker 2: They just completely explode with amazing phrases and amazing things,
Speaker 2: and you're like, wow, this is this is how this
Speaker 2: kid views this that I want to use that, right,
Speaker 2: I'm going to use that for myself. I'm going to
Speaker 2: use that in being committed to something or finding consistency
Speaker 2: in something like sometimes they'll they'll just completely take you
Speaker 2: by surprise. And I think that that's that's where you know,
Speaker 2: having that flexibility and just being adaptable and and and
Speaker 2: the willingness and and wanting to learn. Even for us
Speaker 2: as as adults, we're teaching kids, but we're also learning
Speaker 2: a lot from these kids as well, which is h
Speaker 2: which is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, so i'll bite what are some of those phrases
Speaker 1: and descriptors that they're introducing to you that you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have necessarily thought of or applied into a situation where
Speaker 1: oh man, what the hell of a way to sit
Speaker 1: there and think of something?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish, I wish I've saved. I mean, whenever
Speaker 2: I do the exercise with them, I usually I use
Speaker 2: post it notes. Ah, and I'll kind of it's really interesting,
Speaker 2: I'll be able to fit all of our phrases within
Speaker 2: and we'll divide that. We'll divide that post it note
Speaker 2: in four right, in four sections, and we'll do the
Speaker 2: four selves, and I mean I can't really, you know,
Speaker 2: I wish I would save all of those post it
Speaker 2: notes of some of the kids to where I'm just
Speaker 2: completely blown away by some of the phrases that they
Speaker 2: come up, because it's it's ultimately what applies to them.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: If I look at self belief, for me, I'm thinking about,
Speaker 2: you know, taking risks or making mistakes, or you know,
Speaker 2: just the good old confidence, right, a good old taking responsibility,
Speaker 2: or having the faith in yourself or you know, ability
Speaker 2: to take over or come into a flow state. And
Speaker 2: there'll be other kids to where they'll look at those
Speaker 2: excuse me, niece, go for it, lost it. But there'll
Speaker 2: be other kids that that you know, you do that with,
Speaker 2: and they'll just come up with things that are completely
Speaker 2: different than what you would ever what you would ever
Speaker 2: kind of think self belief to be. You know, I
Speaker 2: can't think on the top of my head, but you know,
Speaker 2: there's there's so many interesting ones that we have gotten,
Speaker 2: whether sometimes be speaking with high schools or even middle
Speaker 2: schools or teams. But my favorite is just the individual
Speaker 2: work because you're really diving deep into how that individual
Speaker 2: thinks about about certain qualities of themselves or you kind
Speaker 2: of look at it and I you know, one interesting
Speaker 2: thing for me is whenever we do finish like that
Speaker 2: exercise with a lot of kids, they'll they'll look at
Speaker 2: it and they'll stare at it, and they'll kind of
Speaker 2: they kind of think to themselves of like, Okay, I
Speaker 2: have some of these, but man, I really need to
Speaker 2: focus on a lot of these that I've just written
Speaker 2: down for myself. And that's the power of writing things down.
Speaker 2: I think that's the power of putting things out into
Speaker 2: existence because they're giving themselves almost like a guideline and
Speaker 2: an accountabiit. I tell them it's an accountability list, right,
Speaker 2: It's a it's a way to hold yourself accountable and
Speaker 2: and and also kind of consistently see things towards where
Speaker 2: where you want to go, where you want to get to.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: So you know it's it's it's that it's that guideline
Speaker 2: to your personal success of it essentially.
Speaker 1: How do you not get lost in all of the
Speaker 1: information that I And this might be something that you
Speaker 1: address both as a mentor and a men tee because
Speaker 1: of all this this flow of information that seems like
Speaker 1: it comes to you from a mente and from you
Speaker 1: as a mentor, how do you prioritize all of the
Speaker 1: information that might be coming your way, because they all
Speaker 1: might be great hints, they all might be great ideas,
Speaker 1: But how do you look at the list and prioritize
Speaker 1: and go, Okay, this needs to be number one, This
Speaker 1: needs to be number two, instead of getting lost in
Speaker 1: the sauce and looking at it as a piece of
Speaker 1: paper that has a lot of information on it and going, man,
Speaker 1: what do I knock off first? How do you talk
Speaker 1: to a man t to sit there and go, okay,
Speaker 1: this is what you need to do first. Don't get
Speaker 1: lost in those other four here's the order that you
Speaker 1: need to attack or is there an order that you
Speaker 1: need to attack? Just hit whatever you can knock off
Speaker 1: the list.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, like for example, in the foreselfs, they're
Speaker 2: all interconnected, right, and so if you're lacking in one,
Speaker 2: you can always reroute yourself to another. And I think
Speaker 2: that's the beauty of it as well. Usually, like kids,
Speaker 2: at the end of that exercise, they'll usually kind of
Speaker 2: make arrows pointing to where they can go if they
Speaker 2: are feeling a lack in one of them. And I
Speaker 2: think that's something that really helps them. And I don't
Speaker 2: meanly as a mentor. I don't try and give too
Speaker 2: much information within every session that we do. I try
Speaker 2: and mainly focus on just one thing, right, whether it
Speaker 2: be a lot of acronym exercises that we've created or
Speaker 2: acronym exercises that I've created with my just just thinking
Speaker 2: about and looking and learning from things. I don't try
Speaker 2: and give too much information so it'll allow them to
Speaker 2: just truly focus on what that is for that day,
Speaker 2: because I feel like for me, I'm such a visual
Speaker 2: learner as well. I need to see things to kind
Speaker 2: of understand them the best way possible. So I try
Speaker 2: and I try and teach the way that I guess
Speaker 2: I learn as well. But you know, giving them hints
Speaker 2: and giving them showing them proof, for giving them video
Speaker 2: footage of something to kind of explain more of what's
Speaker 2: needed from them, I think that's a massive point of
Speaker 2: it as well. But I don't try and jump all
Speaker 2: over the place. I think. I think having a lot
Speaker 2: of you know, great minds alike. You know, whenever we
Speaker 2: did the ICA training for for MLS, the Inner Cultural
Speaker 2: Awareness which we have those meetings in a couple of
Speaker 2: months to kind of revamp ICA two point zero for
Speaker 2: two thousand and twenty five. So we just I just
Speaker 2: got that email a couple of days ago to be
Speaker 2: involved again and to be one of the head speakers.
Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting because now I think now
Speaker 2: even doing that has allowed me to bring in a
Speaker 2: lot of things that I do in mentorship, uh, and
Speaker 2: I have a lot of ideas, and so I think
Speaker 2: that now building that trust with them and helping them
Speaker 2: understand from from a league standpoint, hey, this guy can
Speaker 2: speak to people, and this guy can really get a
Speaker 2: message across. Well, I have a lot of messages as
Speaker 2: well that I work with mintees that I feel like
Speaker 2: would be fantastic to work with with professionals. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's that's just another another way that we
Speaker 2: can another path that we can take. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's interesting to to to you know, when we
Speaker 2: talk about giving so much information. Whenever we started those
Speaker 2: ICA trainings. In that first day, we did like a
Speaker 2: seven hour workshop all day and at the end of it,
Speaker 2: I think every single one of our brains was just
Speaker 2: absolutely fried because it was just too much and they
Speaker 2: wanted us to speak for like three hours to all
Speaker 2: the players, and I was like, look, the most you're
Speaker 2: going to get out of a professional athlete is like
Speaker 2: thirty five forty minutes, if that right. So you know,
Speaker 2: you have to find a way to interact keep them connected,
Speaker 2: and you can't just be speaking to them about certain things.
Speaker 2: You have to you have to get them on board
Speaker 2: with with what you're trying to the message that you're
Speaker 2: trying to portray. So you know, I think it's the same.
Speaker 2: It's the same with a lot of kids as well.
Speaker 2: If you really think about it, the kid's attention span.
Speaker 2: My kids attention span is ten seconds, right, So I'm
Speaker 2: trying to think about things within my sessions that it's
Speaker 2: just one piece of information turned into a bigger exercise,
Speaker 2: but always leading back to what that initial conversation or
Speaker 2: that initial point within the exercise is.
Speaker 1: Because there's a difference in speaking with someone then speaking
Speaker 1: to someone.
Speaker 2: I'm always for speaking with someone rather than speaking to someone.
Speaker 2: And even when I go and speak to title I schools,
Speaker 2: or even when I go and speak to middle schools
Speaker 2: or kids who are struggling in school, or kids who
Speaker 2: are getting in trouble and iss and oss with those kids.
Speaker 2: I always start with questions first. I never do questions last.
Speaker 2: I never speak to them. And I'm like, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: now we're going to leave the last ten fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: and open up for questions. I want you to give
Speaker 2: me the questions first. Give me the questions first, because
Speaker 2: then it opens up a great conversation to have and
Speaker 2: now I can give them proof or I can kind
Speaker 2: of dig deep and think about stories, whether they be
Speaker 2: personal or with other people that will help connect their question.
Speaker 2: And it's not just giving. Uh. That's where I think
Speaker 2: that personal storytelling becomes, you know, key and clutch to
Speaker 2: to to really giving and kind of getting that message out.
Speaker 1: Because if you because in a situation like this, and
Speaker 1: I do want to get into your acronyms, so put
Speaker 1: you put that in the back of your head for
Speaker 1: the minute.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: But questions first versus questions last. Traditionally, if you are
Speaker 1: called up to speak, and we see this a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, even when we were growing up. You know, hey,
Speaker 1: it's a show and tell day and we have some
Speaker 1: we have an adult here. If the adult starts by
Speaker 1: or the expert of the leader, what have you starts
Speaker 1: by talking. Then by the time they have finished talking,
Speaker 1: you just want to get out of the room. All
Speaker 1: of that momentum that the speaker or that that dignitary
Speaker 1: or that person of importance might have had coming in,
Speaker 1: all of that momentum is lost, and the interest is lost,
Speaker 1: and everybody's tie and you just want to leave. So
Speaker 1: questions last won't necessarily lend itself to a learning back
Speaker 1: and forth where questions first puts the onus on the
Speaker 1: listener to sit there and look at their own curiosity
Speaker 1: and it's like, Okay, well, why are you here? How
Speaker 1: can I how can I play off of you and
Speaker 1: get my energy moving first, as opposed to having all
Speaker 1: of the energy dissipate and wanting to get out with
Speaker 1: questions laugh.
Speaker 2: Most definitely, I think it just it kind of for me.
Speaker 2: It kind of softens it softens the room. It allows
Speaker 2: them to kind of feel an easier way to speak
Speaker 2: to an adult. I think sometimes it's hard for kids
Speaker 2: to have that courage and and.
Speaker 1: Kind of confidence, and especially someone that's not family.
Speaker 2: Especially someone that's not family, especially someone that like I
Speaker 2: look at like title win schools, or kids that I
Speaker 2: speak to that are in trouble, like they that their
Speaker 2: their level of trust is probably quite low, right because
Speaker 2: they feel like you know, anybody around them, they probably
Speaker 2: most likely don't don't trust. So I think allowing them
Speaker 2: to kind of build that connection from the off and
Speaker 2: and and asking specific questions that might be of help
Speaker 2: to them is a huge is a huge benefit to
Speaker 2: to to lead off.
Speaker 1: You mentioned acronyms, All right, I'll bite. What kind of
Speaker 1: acronyms are ones that you that you have or that
Speaker 1: you've created that help in your creative process?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, we got a lot. Obviously. We have the
Speaker 2: the four selfs. We have the three s's. Three seeds
Speaker 2: is a good one.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: I can't give all my secrets away.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, but I mean three.
Speaker 2: Seasons ago and it's confidence, consistency, and commitment. We have
Speaker 2: a lot of them. I have the three most I
Speaker 2: have three m vts. That's a good one to kind
Speaker 2: of always tell kids. Look, I like to focus on
Speaker 2: the mindset and even when I speak to to to
Speaker 2: even parents as well. I truly like to focus on
Speaker 2: the mindset. But I think that the heart has a
Speaker 2: lot to do with it as well. So heart, heart
Speaker 2: and head connection, the three three m VTS is three
Speaker 2: most valuable things in your life. That's one of my
Speaker 2: favorite ones to do with kids because it allows them
Speaker 2: to kind of see how fortunate they are and and
Speaker 2: kind of build that internal connection of the people around
Speaker 2: them providing support, which is which is a really good thing.
Speaker 2: There's a lot, there's a lot we have, I mean
Speaker 2: a lot of three things. You have three controllable factors.
Speaker 2: I like things that come in threes. Yeah, just just things,
Speaker 2: things that are controllable, things that can essentially help them
Speaker 2: understand how to how to process, how to process circumstances
Speaker 2: and maybe trials and tribulations that they'll they'll encounter in
Speaker 2: the future. I think that's that's the that's one of
Speaker 2: my biggest messages, is just helping these kids. It's not
Speaker 2: necessarily hey, give us a call or work with us
Speaker 2: when crap hits the fan. Yeah, it's more so of
Speaker 2: just hey, this is this is preparation because life is
Speaker 2: going to have it's ups and downs, it's ebbs and flows,
Speaker 2: and it's it's it's hard times and good times. But
Speaker 2: you know the way that you react, the resiliency that
Speaker 2: you have within is going to be a massive It
Speaker 2: can be a massive turning point for you and in
Speaker 2: that moment of your youth soccer career, or in that
Speaker 2: moment of your professional career and whatever you choose to
Speaker 2: do in your life. So I like to really connect
Speaker 2: it to that.
Speaker 1: As well, because consistency is key in all of this.
Speaker 1: Where you don't want to hit somebody at a high point.
Speaker 1: You don't want to because they'll sit there and they
Speaker 1: may think that they're you know, unbeatable or what have you. You
Speaker 1: don't want to hit them at a truly low point
Speaker 1: because they might be so down on themselves that they
Speaker 1: either won't keep the information, won't listen to the information,
Speaker 1: or or just not want to be engaged in the process.
Speaker 1: I think that the key here is to engage them
Speaker 1: and keep a level of consistency so when they have
Speaker 1: those highs, they understand why it's a high and understand
Speaker 1: why while it might be a low point, it is
Speaker 1: not a fixed low point, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: You want to try to you want to draw them
Speaker 1: back to the middle, as opposed to you don't want
Speaker 1: to sit there and say, well, having a high as
Speaker 1: bad or being in a low is going to get better.
Speaker 1: You want to try to eight you want to keep
Speaker 1: the consistency and have them understand the highs of thelow that.
Speaker 2: There are so many different ways to use the word consistency.
Speaker 2: You can talk about the emotional curve, which is probably
Speaker 2: what you're talking about right now, right, and we use
Speaker 2: I use another Chinese proverb which is great Chinese farmer,
Speaker 2: his son and the black stallion, which is a great
Speaker 2: Chinese proverb. Not sure if you've read it before, but
Speaker 2: it's a great Chinese proverb. Tea teaches about the emotional
Speaker 2: curve and understanding how to stay closer to the baseline
Speaker 2: there there, you know, these are these are stories that
Speaker 2: I can tell, Like that story right there, I can
Speaker 2: tell a young kid, right, a very young kid who's
Speaker 2: at the age of eleven twelve, and they're there. Their
Speaker 2: emotions are just I mean, even my son emotions are
Speaker 2: all over the freaking place, right, and so it's it's
Speaker 2: helping them. Hey, can you be the Chinese farmer, right,
Speaker 2: think about the Chinese farmer next time this happens. Just
Speaker 2: self talk Chinese farmer. And there are so many kids
Speaker 2: that I work with that are like man. The parents
Speaker 2: will be like man. After the game, I was like man,
Speaker 2: my son or my daughter didn't react a certain way,
Speaker 2: and you know, asked them, what do you tell yourself, like,
Speaker 2: how'd you get through that moment? Oh, because I remember
Speaker 2: coach Craig we did the Chinese farmer and so you know,
Speaker 2: there's so many proverbs that you can give within especially
Speaker 2: with an Asian culture that kind of linked them, you know,
Speaker 2: teaches the essence of life, which is great. But the
Speaker 2: coolest thing for me about consistency is that any kid
Speaker 2: that I ask what consistency means on the field, and
Speaker 2: every kid will tell you that consistency means that you
Speaker 2: always play well. And it's interesting, every single kid, nine
Speaker 2: out of ten kids that I ask, will always say
Speaker 2: consistency means that because you know, what their coaches are
Speaker 2: telling them is that you need to be a consistent player.
Speaker 2: You need to be a consistent player. You need to
Speaker 2: be a consistent player. And I'll always ask them, you know,
Speaker 2: how many games do you think you've played in your
Speaker 2: youth career so far? I mean, these kids played two games,
Speaker 2: three games every weekend. So if they're fifteen, sixteen years old, man,
Speaker 2: they've played six hundred games in their lives so far.
Speaker 2: And so it's It's always an interesting one for me,
Speaker 2: and I always ask them, well, how many games do
Speaker 2: you think you've played really well? In those six hundred games?
Speaker 2: Maybe half right, and maybe maybe you know a quarter
Speaker 2: of them or the other half that they've they've probably
Speaker 2: done terrible, right. And so in my mind, consistency is
Speaker 2: not playing well always, because even as a professional athlete,
Speaker 2: you're not always going to play well. But I always
Speaker 2: tell them to write things down that they do on
Speaker 2: a consistent basis whenever they play, because that's what makes
Speaker 2: you a consistent player. I knew the second that Brad
Speaker 2: Guzanne had the ball, my absolute tale was going to
Speaker 2: be on the touch line before anybody was ever going
Speaker 2: to tell me, right, And that is something that I
Speaker 2: did consistently well. I knew that whenever the ball went up,
Speaker 2: the first thing that I thought to myself was making
Speaker 2: sure I was going to stick with my line right.
Speaker 2: So I was looking over at LGP and Parky and
Speaker 2: you know, Franco or Julian whoever was on the other
Speaker 2: side of making sure that I was in line with them.
Speaker 2: That was something that I did religiously and consistently well.
Speaker 2: So it gets them once again, it gets them to
Speaker 2: start thinking, Wow, Okay, they're probably things that I do
Speaker 2: on a consistent basis. Do I always try and play forward?
Speaker 2: Do I always try and make sure I'm in a
Speaker 2: defensive stance?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: There's little little nuances and little things that they have
Speaker 2: within their game that they've never thought about before, and
Speaker 2: so that, to me, I think is a big one
Speaker 2: to help them understand the value of what consistency truly
Speaker 2: can be. And I think it gets them away from Okay,
Speaker 2: I need to always play well. No, If I do
Speaker 2: these things, then you know I'm giving myself a chance
Speaker 2: of performing consistently.
Speaker 1: Okay, the fourth is holding up the light board, so
Speaker 1: I know that we're gonna add a couple of minutes here.
Speaker 1: Last question for you has to do with the pressure
Speaker 1: of decision day and right now, specifically Land United. They
Speaker 1: got to win down with the Purple Team, They got
Speaker 1: to get business taken care of. How do you handle
Speaker 1: or how would you advise handling the pressure of gotta
Speaker 1: have it to have a chance.
Speaker 2: What did I call the Purple team last year? What
Speaker 2: did what was I think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do? I can't remember.
Speaker 2: I heard somebody say it and I started cracking up,
Speaker 2: and I completely forgot it. You just said the Purple team,
Speaker 2: and I was like, man, that somebody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see. But now you're thinking about it, and
Speaker 1: I know you can text me when you remember it.
Speaker 2: Text me. I don't remember, dude. I got too many
Speaker 2: other things on my mind right now. I gotta get
Speaker 2: all these boxes out of my house and recyclement.
Speaker 1: Recycling money.
Speaker 2: It's Tuesday here, Tuesday here.
Speaker 1: How do you handle the pressure of decision day knowing
Speaker 1: that you've got to have a result.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't think about anything else. You just have
Speaker 2: to do what's what's in front of you. I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's it's I've been in that situation before, even in Mexico,
Speaker 2: to where we did not qualify. We had to wait
Speaker 2: for other we were playing away in the Cosa and
Speaker 2: we had to have like two other games finish the
Speaker 2: way that we wanted to and did not go with
Speaker 2: the way that we wanted because I think we were
Speaker 2: probably already extremely disappointed with how the whole entire season
Speaker 2: had gone, and I think it was just kind of
Speaker 2: one of those things to where we just let let
Speaker 2: our guard down, or it was too much thinking about
Speaker 2: other results, and so it's it's it's a really difficult
Speaker 2: place to be. I think you can even look at
Speaker 2: you know, even Rob's Rob's inner right, if you watched
Speaker 2: his last interview, I think pregame of maybe yesterday. You know.
Speaker 2: I think it's a very tough situation to be in.
Speaker 2: You know, you you have to focus on what's in
Speaker 2: front of you, but at the same time, you're not
Speaker 2: too confident, you know. I think you can kind of
Speaker 2: hear that within their voices whenever they give the interviews
Speaker 2: of you know, it's it's you can only control what's
Speaker 2: in front of you and hopefully you can get a
Speaker 2: good result. I would say, in the back of my mind,
Speaker 2: the only thing I would have is just to get
Speaker 2: a good result, to leave a last impression, to finish
Speaker 2: off on a good note.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And if for some odd reason something miraculously happens, then
Speaker 2: it's happened. I don't know if it's deservingly, but it's happened, right,
Speaker 2: And so I think that's that. That's probably that's probably
Speaker 2: my main focus, just to finish off on a good note.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even I wouldn't even think about qualifying or
Speaker 2: getting into the playoffs, just just finish.
Speaker 1: On a good note, because there's other things at play,
Speaker 1: like your job future, whether it's in the town that
Speaker 1: you're in currently or somebody else that might be looking
Speaker 1: at you.
Speaker 2: Seven. There's a lot of guys having second thoughts about
Speaker 2: where they're going to be in a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: right now. So yeah, you got it. You gotta you
Speaker 2: gotta perform for who's watching you right now, or you
Speaker 2: got to perform for somebody who's watching that last game you.
Speaker 1: Got Yeah, all right, So what's going on with beyond goals?
Speaker 1: Mentoring my friend? Other than you? Other than you moving
Speaker 1: boxes for recycle?
Speaker 2: Same old, same old man, same old, same old, working hard,
Speaker 2: getting into that cold weather business. So high school is
Speaker 2: right around the corner. So I'm sure we'll be making
Speaker 2: some really cool connections here in a couple of months
Speaker 2: and just continuing to build a game.
Speaker 1: Love it, go sneeze, Be good, my friend. We'll see
Speaker 1: you soon.
Speaker 2: It's good, always good to connect it.
Speaker 1: Take care all right, all right, you too, Greg Garza