Speaker 1: So I will ask the owner Mogul about owner mogil
Speaker 1: questions and we'll bring him and Michael Parker's hanging out
Speaker 1: with us.
Speaker 2: It has been entirely too long, my friend.
Speaker 3: Great to see it has been My apologies, John. It's
Speaker 3: been busy summer, but.
Speaker 2: I mean, but busy summer is a good thing.
Speaker 3: Though it's been a great thing. It sure has.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: We just got back from a week in California.
Speaker 1: So it was oh, oh, oh oh a week a
Speaker 1: week in California? Were there beaches? Was their golf?
Speaker 3: There are no golf but beaches? Yeah, great family vacation.
Speaker 3: We did San Diego and La and Joshua Tree.
Speaker 2: It was amazing San Diego. Yes, we know of San Diego.
Speaker 1: What I was discussing before you came in and kind
Speaker 1: of the opening kickoff set up, it's I was discussing
Speaker 1: the Tiago Al model situation, and this is where I
Speaker 1: wanted to to kind of ask the owner Mogul about
Speaker 1: things when it comes to economics and contracts and all
Speaker 1: of the shenanigans that are there. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask specifically when it comes to like dealing with contracts
Speaker 1: and players and all these kinds of things. Have you
Speaker 1: had to deal with so much legal stuff in your
Speaker 1: life in having to deal with player contracts and legalities
Speaker 1: and making sure that things get paid and everybody knows
Speaker 1: the the the the numbers on the bank accounts and everything.
Speaker 1: What is it like dealing with financials and players and
Speaker 1: trying to honor agreements. What's that like for a mogul
Speaker 1: and training and a club that is working its way
Speaker 1: off the ground.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you're asking me from my current.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, the current job in relation to you know
Speaker 1: you with your current gig, just what it's like to
Speaker 1: have to deal with all these different machinations and everything,
Speaker 1: because I know that folks will sit there. We were
Speaker 1: specifically discussing the Thiago thing and where they're at. Land
Speaker 1: United's owned thirty million dollars and it's being slowed down
Speaker 1: in the courts and the guy doesn't want to pay
Speaker 1: and it's like I'll gladly pay you tuesday for jiagu
Speaker 1: Almada today and all these kinds of things.
Speaker 2: And I was just trying to kind of.
Speaker 1: Pick your brain a little bit about what it's like
Speaker 1: to be in the in those rooms and negotiating contracts
Speaker 1: and honoring deals and being a solid businessman that kind
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that we take the stance that
Speaker 3: soccer is a small world and so relationships are super important,
Speaker 3: and so you know, we know that not every negotiation
Speaker 3: is going to be perfect and there's always some feelings involved,
Speaker 3: But can we just be truthful and open and honest
Speaker 3: about situations and when an agreement is made, that's the
Speaker 3: agreement and there's no backtracking. So yeah, we've got, for example,
Speaker 3: we've got two players who we told we'd get green cards,
Speaker 3: and that's a long process. They might not even still
Speaker 3: be with us when we finalize these green cards, but
Speaker 3: it's important for me that we follow through with said
Speaker 3: commitment because that's what we said we would and so
Speaker 3: that's important. And we haven't obviously dealt with a lot
Speaker 3: of transfers yet, we're just maybe getting involved with things
Speaker 3: like that, and so those conversations are always a little
Speaker 3: bit more tricky, I would assume, you know, as far
Speaker 3: as when the players already gone and trying to get
Speaker 3: sell on fees and all that stuff. But again, I
Speaker 3: just feel like you do the right thing and that's
Speaker 3: it comes back to you one way or the other,
Speaker 3: good or bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's always you mentioned the whole thing about
Speaker 1: it being a small world, and it's just one of
Speaker 1: those where your word is your bond, and I mean
Speaker 1: there's hand there's the handshake and your reputation and those
Speaker 1: kinds of things. And I would imagine that that in
Speaker 1: your time dealing with the the new avocation, that you
Speaker 1: might come across some dudes that you might sit there
Speaker 1: in the spider senses go up and you're like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we want to deal with that guy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's like rude awakenings at points from a business perspective,
Speaker 1: where you sit there and go, Okay, that's a guy
Speaker 1: that I really don't want us to mess with because
Speaker 1: that could take us down a bad path. And especially
Speaker 1: with finances being what they are these days, you don't
Speaker 1: want to sit there and look at the dude and
Speaker 1: go yeah, I'll do that and then get jeopardized for
Speaker 1: going down that road for sure.
Speaker 3: And where it becomes more complicated though, is so especially
Speaker 3: for South American and African players, it's they could have
Speaker 3: three agents, uh, you know, three people that think they
Speaker 3: are players agent. And I just remember hearing things when
Speaker 3: he signed Barco about the how things went down and
Speaker 3: just the degree of difficulty and just the situation and
Speaker 3: the people that expected to get paid and there's just
Speaker 3: so much and so I doubt that's unique to Barco, right,
Speaker 3: And that's where I think it becomes more complicated, is
Speaker 3: who's getting what out of these deals? Because you know,
Speaker 3: for some of these guys, they're, yeah, they're setting their
Speaker 3: life on one player or two players, and so this
Speaker 3: is life changing money for them and they don't want
Speaker 3: to miss it and they will do anything and everything
Speaker 3: to make sure they get what they think they deserve.
Speaker 2: And that's yes.
Speaker 1: And to to Alex's point, using the technical jargon of
Speaker 1: the back rood, no take backs, Yeah, there's no takesie backsies,
Speaker 1: there's there's no takebacks in these kinds of negotiations.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so right now with Rhode Island FC, Sir, I
Speaker 1: look at the standings. Actually, I was told to ask
Speaker 1: a question and you may not have an answer to it,
Speaker 1: but I was supposed to ask you about the situation
Speaker 1: with Conno on the roof.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he got a red card at halftime of a
Speaker 3: game a few weeks ago and he was trying to
Speaker 3: figure out where he was going to watch the second
Speaker 3: half of the game and decided that he wanted the
Speaker 3: best view in the house, so he went on the
Speaker 3: roof and then you know he was up there with
Speaker 3: another assistant coach, and then the photograph came with him
Speaker 3: and just yeah, it got a little bit of a notoriety.
Speaker 1: Well, when you're on the roof in your new building,
Speaker 1: is it an easy thing to access?
Speaker 2: Can you get safely up and down? Can you watch?
Speaker 1: Or is it like NASCAR and spotters where you're kind
Speaker 1: of like nineteen floors up.
Speaker 3: I would not be watching the game from up there personally.
Speaker 3: I understand it's a good view, but my fear of
Speaker 3: heights would not allow me to go stand on the roof.
Speaker 3: But I know that, you know, he didn't have a
Speaker 3: pre set location to go, and he wanted to be
Speaker 3: by himself and not bothered with anyone. So he made
Speaker 3: the most of it and it kind of blew up
Speaker 3: a little bit, which was in a good way.
Speaker 2: Yes, understandably.
Speaker 1: So you're in the playoffs right now, You're in the
Speaker 1: eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. Your takeaways right now
Speaker 1: at being five nine and five and working the chaos
Speaker 1: of the East where it is Louisville, Charleston, and then
Speaker 1: a lot of you other folks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sure is. Yeah, we haven't been thrilled, honestly,
Speaker 3: it's been a disappointing season so far, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 3: We had high expectations to really push to get into
Speaker 3: the top four and we just haven't been good enough.
Speaker 3: And we've had some injuries and that have hurt us.
Speaker 3: And we're relatively healthy right now, which is good, so
Speaker 3: hopefully we can make a run here. We did just
Speaker 3: sign another player, a Jamaican player who was with them
Speaker 3: for the Gold Cup, who I think he'll help us
Speaker 3: out in the attack, which is where we're struggling. We're
Speaker 3: struggling to score goals this year and so we need
Speaker 3: to we need to move things in the right direction
Speaker 3: there and it's been a struggle though. So we've got
Speaker 3: a month left in the window. We will be active
Speaker 3: and try and right this ship. Because yeah, it's to
Speaker 3: your point, there's not a lot of space in between
Speaker 3: three and twelve, so anything can happen, which is a
Speaker 3: good thing when we're having a season that we're not
Speaker 3: proud of yet, so we know we can turn it
Speaker 3: around and make a run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we had to we had to get
Speaker 1: those questions out because of the well rounded, three dimensionalness
Speaker 1: of Michael park Kers.
Speaker 2: We had to get those questions in this.
Speaker 1: Morning with all of the stuff you mentioned going to
Speaker 1: Joshua Tree in California and spending time with family. When
Speaker 1: it comes to mentoring, how important is it, I guess
Speaker 1: to a recharge and be reassess where you were during
Speaker 1: the previous season and school year and everything so you're
Speaker 1: ready for the twenty five twenty six beyond goals minering
Speaker 1: rush that you and Greg and the still to be
Speaker 1: publicly an outstand or named in an individual that you're
Speaker 1: adding to the stacks are being added to the stacks.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's it is important, and it's been a constant
Speaker 3: battle for me this summer a little bit where it's
Speaker 3: kind of hit me that, hey, I've got four summers
Speaker 3: left with my kids before they're out of the house,
Speaker 3: and I'm so balancing, Hey, getting some work done, but
Speaker 3: also if they want to go do something, I want
Speaker 3: to be available and hang out and they still want
Speaker 3: to hang out with me, which is cool. So to
Speaker 3: be able to do that, and so I haven't been
Speaker 3: as productive this summer as I envisioned myself. But I've
Speaker 3: also really enjoyed the summer, which is important. And it's
Speaker 3: the same thing for athletes, right we know that, hey,
Speaker 3: you need to get ready for next season, but you know,
Speaker 3: being in a good space mentally is just as important,
Speaker 3: and you know, taking advantage of some time off is
Speaker 3: super important. So yeah, it's it's been nice. And that said,
Speaker 3: I mean, even when I'm on vacation, I'm answering a
Speaker 3: couple of texts and I you know, a kid got
Speaker 3: two college i D camps this week, so I talked
Speaker 3: to him on Monday. So it's it's little things. But
Speaker 3: you know, I definitely have slowed things down a little
Speaker 3: bit over the past few weeks and trying to step
Speaker 3: back a little bit, which is important sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask, do your mentee still
Speaker 1: circle back here when it's the summer and the calendar?
Speaker 2: Do they have that kind of constant contact?
Speaker 1: Are they checking in those kinds of things even if
Speaker 1: even if they don't have anything going on. Are they
Speaker 1: still just checking in randomly to sit there and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I had a question about X, Y or Z.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And it depends on the age. It's some
Speaker 3: of the older players who are doing college things in
Speaker 3: the summer becomes a little bit more important. You know.
Speaker 3: I think the younger kids are kind of checked out
Speaker 3: a little bit, which is good. We tell them to
Speaker 3: check out and make sure they do check out a
Speaker 3: little bit, which is which is great. So, yeah, it's
Speaker 3: more of the older crowd in the summer of preparing
Speaker 3: for college and ID camps and you know, maybe some
Speaker 3: showcases and big tournaments. When we were down at San Diego,
Speaker 3: the Surf Cup was going on, so uh yeah, there's
Speaker 3: there's I mean, throughout the summer there's always these big
Speaker 3: tournaments and showcases and things. So just helping kids get
Speaker 3: prepared for those things.
Speaker 1: What did you learn about yourself as a mentor last season?
Speaker 1: I guess we'll phrase it that way. What did you
Speaker 1: learn about yourself as a mentor last year that you
Speaker 1: might not have known or that got reinforced about what
Speaker 1: you thought you knew about yourself.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that even though I've got a
Speaker 3: confidence about my knowledge and what we're doing, I still
Speaker 3: think there's sometimes this doubt that creeps in of Hey,
Speaker 3: you know, am I really making a difference, Is it
Speaker 3: getting through? Is this what we envisioned it could be
Speaker 3: or what we thought it could be. And so every
Speaker 3: now and then we get really really good feedback that
Speaker 3: says that it just validates kind of what we're doing
Speaker 3: in division and how we're helping players, And I think
Speaker 3: that's that's always nice and that's always important to get
Speaker 3: because there's sometimes where we have sessions and we don't know,
Speaker 3: you know, we think session went great with a team
Speaker 3: or an individual, or even four sessions with an individual,
Speaker 3: but maybe they're just on the quiet side, or there's
Speaker 3: just not a ton of feedback, and that doesn't mean
Speaker 3: it hasn't gone well and it hasn't been successful. So
Speaker 3: it is nice sometimes to get that validation to know, oh, Okay, hey,
Speaker 3: we're on the right mark here. And I think that's
Speaker 3: some of the conversations we've had with partnerships and different
Speaker 3: events and things in the future, I think has shown
Speaker 3: us that hey, we're on the right path. We just
Speaker 3: need to continue to grind in it and grow slowly.
Speaker 2: But that.
Speaker 3: What we set out to do we are doing.
Speaker 1: How do you and Greg and Beyond goals as an
Speaker 1: entity gauge success? How do you grade that considering all
Speaker 1: of the individuals that you touch, all of the individuals
Speaker 1: that you consult, all the individuals that you mentor all
Speaker 1: of the organizations that you're in bits and pieces with.
Speaker 1: How do you and Greg and everybody there at BGM
Speaker 1: gauge success? And you can take that word and put
Speaker 1: it wherever you want, but how do you gauge success
Speaker 1: for what you've been doing over the last.
Speaker 2: Couple of years.
Speaker 3: I think there's there's a there's two different aspects to success.
Speaker 3: One is obviously financial, and then two is the motivational success.
Speaker 3: So are we growing the company year over a year?
Speaker 3: That's important, you know. I think the next big piece
Speaker 3: of growth is our sales inbound instead of us finding
Speaker 3: an outbound, which is slowly occurring, which would be nicer
Speaker 3: when that fully transitions. B g TV is not the
Speaker 3: success yet that we want it to be, but I
Speaker 3: think it's going to grow. But then, to my point earlier,
Speaker 3: is just the feedback from athletes from families of hey
Speaker 3: this is making a difference, or hey you really helped
Speaker 3: my child, or hey this really helped me prepare for
Speaker 3: this upcoming season, for this tournament, for this tryout, for
Speaker 3: this ID camp. The more we hear that that's that's
Speaker 3: the SSS for sure. And then anytime a player or
Speaker 3: a family lets other people know about us and we
Speaker 3: get more sign ups from that that we know as success. Right,
Speaker 3: if we're getting word of mouth sales, we know that
Speaker 3: we're we're making a difference, we're doing good things.
Speaker 1: So then how difficult is it for you and Greg
Speaker 1: as you're growing to be patient considering we know where
Speaker 1: ground zero was? Yeah, for sure, we know where you
Speaker 1: are now. We know how competitive the two of you
Speaker 1: were on the field, and obviously that carries over into
Speaker 1: business life and wanting to carry on in the next stage.
Speaker 1: Is how difficult is it to be patient? Because you
Speaker 1: mentioned BGTV as an example, it's about investment up front,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's elbow grease or what have you,
Speaker 1: knowing what you want it to be. So how difficult
Speaker 1: is it to be patient knowing how you were on
Speaker 1: the field as an athlete.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's challenging because it's not necessarily Hey, the more
Speaker 3: work you put into it, the more success you have
Speaker 3: right away. And I guess that's true on the field
Speaker 3: as well. Sometimes for some players you just have to
Speaker 3: wait for your moment. But yeah, I think that's where
Speaker 3: the marketing group that we work with helps out because
Speaker 3: they know that. For one example is the blogs that
Speaker 3: we do for the website, and they always said, hey,
Speaker 3: once you start this, you won't see results for about
Speaker 3: eighteen months, right, but the SEO and all the algorithms
Speaker 3: and stuff will eventually lead more people to the website,
Speaker 3: which will lead more to inbound sales and things that
Speaker 3: you know, we don't have to put the work in
Speaker 3: to go find the players or to really spread the word.
Speaker 3: The word will spread by itself. And so you know,
Speaker 3: we've stayed committed to the blog, and same thing with
Speaker 3: BGTV and staying committed to doing the videos every week
Speaker 3: even though we probably have twenty thirty members right now,
Speaker 3: but the goal is to get two thousand or three thousand,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, but we've had some conversations recently with
Speaker 3: a club and then an organization who are interested and
Speaker 3: want to figure out some way to institute things. And
Speaker 3: so then you get the spark and you're like, okay, hey,
Speaker 3: this is this can be what we think it can be.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine that the feedback is cool and
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, you know, it's but just the anxiousness
Speaker 1: of wanting to succeed and wanting to continue to help,
Speaker 1: and wanting to aid, wanting to continue to help, be
Speaker 1: wanting to continue to grow. See you know what you
Speaker 1: want to do, all these kinds of things. It's it's
Speaker 1: got to be. It's just this difficult mix of you
Speaker 1: want to sit there and it's like, ah, I know
Speaker 1: what we're doing, I know what's going to work, and
Speaker 1: it's just like, come on, let's get this thing going
Speaker 1: the where to the level that you want it to.
Speaker 2: I imagine that you're like that.
Speaker 1: There are some days where you're just kind of like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, we got to get this done.
Speaker 3: Let's most people, some conversations are very frustrating, and yes,
Speaker 3: test patients with huh, not only organizations but people, and
Speaker 3: you're just like, gosh, let us help you or let
Speaker 3: us help your kids, and you'll see it. But we know, hey,
Speaker 3: not everything is for everyone, and not everyone's going to
Speaker 3: see the bigger picture or honestly want to see the
Speaker 3: bigger picture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like they just you know, don't tell me
Speaker 1: about the birth, show me the baby. Basically one of
Speaker 1: those kind of things. It's just like to there, what
Speaker 1: was the last book you read.
Speaker 3: I have a book that I brought on vacation that
Speaker 3: I read zero pages of John.
Speaker 2: So, what's that book that you want to read?
Speaker 3: It's John Wooden's book. I can't remember the title, but
Speaker 3: his book I wanted to read, and.
Speaker 2: So I heard he was pretty good at what he.
Speaker 3: Did, as have I. So that's why I thought I
Speaker 3: needed to read it. But I haven't gotten there yet.
Speaker 3: But kids start up school next week here in Columbus,
Speaker 3: so i'll I'll have a little bit more time to
Speaker 3: get back to reading.
Speaker 2: Do.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I know I need to
Speaker 1: get in the picture frame is the pyramid of success
Speaker 1: when it comes to and I know that they exist
Speaker 1: because look if Ted Lasso has it in his office
Speaker 1: at AFC Richmond. I know that I can get the
Speaker 1: framework of the pyramid of success somewhere.
Speaker 2: You know, when it comes to.
Speaker 1: Keeping up to date with the latest things and reading,
Speaker 1: I know that that's something else you need. You need
Speaker 1: to kind of clone yourself at points I would imagine
Speaker 1: to sit there and it's like I need to have
Speaker 1: this version of me do this and get back to me.
Speaker 1: I need to have this version of me do this
Speaker 1: and get back to me. How difficult, is it to
Speaker 1: juggle all of the different use to make sure that
Speaker 1: you are devoting the amount of effort that you want
Speaker 1: to devote to all of these different us these days.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a challenge for sure, because you know where
Speaker 3: they're in the Rhode Island hat and then the mentoring hat,
Speaker 3: and then obviously the dad hat. And yeah, it's sometimes
Speaker 3: you know, there's overlap and decisions and I could do
Speaker 3: a lot more traveling to Rhode Island to Atlanta two
Speaker 3: events and things, but that takes away from the dad
Speaker 3: hat a lot. And the Dad hats the most important
Speaker 3: hat right now. So you know, there's always decisions to make,
Speaker 3: and I've learned to say no and that's important and
Speaker 3: so you know, I do what I can and know that, hey,
Speaker 3: that's the best I can do right now.
Speaker 1: Tom Ayo, the Executive director, League's Cup joining us in
Speaker 1: about ten minutes after we have our Friday free Kick conversation.
Speaker 1: I guess catching up with Cap is probably the best
Speaker 1: way to phrase what we're doing today.
Speaker 2: Is this true, sir?
Speaker 1: What Ropes has brought to the table, The Big Red
Speaker 1: is going to be a part of BGM.
Speaker 2: Is this true?
Speaker 3: Big Red was originally part of the conversation when we
Speaker 3: were starting BGM.
Speaker 2: Okay, it was the three of us that we're.
Speaker 3: Going to start BGM, and then he decided, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm going to focus on on the field coaching and
Speaker 3: I'll leave them mentoring to you all. So he was
Speaker 3: part of it at the startup, helped us build the
Speaker 3: websites and do some things and had discussions, but then
Speaker 3: he just decided, no, I'm going to focus elsewhere. So
Speaker 3: he's not joining us. No, but we will have I
Speaker 3: believe John, and I've said this for a few weeks
Speaker 3: I think. But Monday or Tuesday we're supposed to announce
Speaker 3: our newest mentor so we're excited for that.
Speaker 2: I bet you know, I mean, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just this is part of the growth that we
Speaker 2: talk about.
Speaker 4: It's h holding holding us, holding us hostage Informationally, it's like, hey,
Speaker 4: wait a minute, wait, this is promised.
Speaker 2: Who is this individual?
Speaker 1: How difficult is it to make sure that this information
Speaker 1: doesn't get leaked.
Speaker 3: We're not that big, We're not that important, John, Come on,
Speaker 3: So I think only the five of us know the Greg,
Speaker 3: Greg and I the marketing folks that help us out
Speaker 3: and I'm oviously the lady that's going to join us.
Speaker 1: So how important is it to make sure that you
Speaker 1: have the representation both male and female sites, considering what
Speaker 1: WOSO has been doing and building here in the States,
Speaker 1: and to make sure that that it's that there's an
Speaker 1: equal representation, I guess is probably the best.
Speaker 2: Way to phrase it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the women's game has grown tremendously, and yeah, I've
Speaker 3: got a big respect for NWSL now that I watch
Speaker 3: a lot more games, I watch a lot more highlights
Speaker 3: for the BGTV, And so first it was like, hey,
Speaker 3: we need to include as many or almost as many
Speaker 3: highlights of the women's game as we do men, right,
Speaker 3: why not? And but that led us into hey, we
Speaker 3: know that younger soccer female soccer players want probably to
Speaker 3: be mentored by fellow female, so that's important. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: we always thought, hey, if we grow or when we grow,
Speaker 3: we want to add a female and so we're at
Speaker 3: that point now, which is great, and so we're excited
Speaker 3: to bring her on and see what Kaa can do
Speaker 3: for the growth of BGM.
Speaker 1: Well, and is there a universality of messaging and mentoring
Speaker 1: or are there things that when you bring in someone
Speaker 1: who is from the women's soccer side that are different
Speaker 1: than mentoring from the side that you and Gregor coming
Speaker 1: from it, other than another voice in the room, or
Speaker 1: there are other things that we're missing out on not
Speaker 1: knowing the women's soccer side and the perspective coming in.
Speaker 3: I'd assume. So, I mean, I don't want to be
Speaker 3: dumb to think that, say, hey, you know, soccer player
Speaker 3: is a soccer player. Whatever I know can help you
Speaker 3: if you're a male or female. You know, I'm sure
Speaker 3: there's things I don't know for certain, but I think
Speaker 3: that the growth will tell us if all of a
Speaker 3: sudden our numbers increase significantly. On the word them inside,
Speaker 3: we know, okay, yeah, they definitely would rather be mentored
Speaker 3: by a female than Gregor I, which is totally fine.
Speaker 3: Can we still help them for sure, but maybe they
Speaker 3: feel more comfortable, so, you know, whatever it is where
Speaker 3: we want to explore that.
Speaker 1: I bet you didn't think you were going to get
Speaker 1: into a big philosophical discussion this morning about BGM and
Speaker 1: all the growth and everything leading into the new season.
Speaker 3: Digit very open minded coming on to your program, John,
Speaker 3: because we never know, you know, there's different trails we
Speaker 3: go down sometimes.
Speaker 1: True, but it's just it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: it's fascinating to see your to see BGM grow, to
Speaker 1: see the two of you branch out in this way,
Speaker 1: to see what you're tackling as you're learning and growing
Speaker 1: from a business perspective and bringing the athletic perspective and
Speaker 1: reaching out to those new generations. To me, it's just
Speaker 1: been the whole growth curve has been fascinating and building
Speaker 1: a business and all those kinds of things. And what
Speaker 1: folks may not know is that, like I said, it's
Speaker 1: the whole thing about the dog in the pond. You
Speaker 1: know that analogy that I bring sometimes where you know,
Speaker 1: if does Deacon like to chase sticks in the water.
Speaker 3: She's not around the water enough honestly for us to
Speaker 3: really know she's gotten in before, but not a ton.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, on those instances where we see the stereotypic
Speaker 1: dog and the stereotypic owner on the side of the lake,
Speaker 1: owner throws the stick in, dog goes and gets the stick,
Speaker 1: what do we see above the water line? We see
Speaker 1: basically stick in the mouth of the dog. Dog just
Speaker 1: kind of huffing and puffing and getting back to shore.
Speaker 1: What we don't see is the dog doing all this
Speaker 1: underneath the water line to make sure that everything's fine
Speaker 1: to get back to shore.
Speaker 2: And so it was just it's.
Speaker 1: An opportunity sometimes is the beginning of a new season
Speaker 1: to find out about everything going on below the waterline
Speaker 1: that folks don't get the chance to know about, to
Speaker 1: learn about what it's like for folks that they've seen
Speaker 1: as an athlete go into this new part of their lives.
Speaker 1: And so that was I guess part and parcel to
Speaker 1: when that door got opened this morning. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's go there and see what's going on. That was
Speaker 1: why I brought it. I love it, but okay, before
Speaker 1: you go. Atlanta Nighted gets out of League's Cup. They
Speaker 1: scored a lot of goals up against Atlas. Obviously, it's
Speaker 1: been along slog slog continues to be long.
Speaker 2: What have you seen?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good to get a win hopefully that obviously
Speaker 3: can provide a little momentum going back into the league play.
Speaker 3: It's good to see Alexi playing well. Latte laugh. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I still think he's a good player, So
Speaker 3: I think that I still think the attack can get
Speaker 3: it done. I don't. I don't know why it can't.
Speaker 3: With Miguel lat Sava and Alexi, it just seems like
Speaker 3: I don't know what's holding them back. But the talent
Speaker 3: is there, and so yeah, on one hand, you think, hey.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're alone in that assessment with their.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just frustrating because it's it's like why, And
Speaker 3: it's disappointing to be in the situation that we in
Speaker 3: because now it's kind of like, well, I guess we're
Speaker 3: looking forward to next year because I don't know if
Speaker 3: the playoffs it's still doable, right, this playoffs is still doable. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't have many losses, and just given how the
Speaker 3: season's gone so far, it's so unlikely, but crazy things
Speaker 3: have happened, so you know, Shoot, they beat Miami last
Speaker 3: year when nobody gave them a single chance, so you
Speaker 3: never know. But for me, it's more probably getting ready
Speaker 3: for next year, seeing who's going to be part of
Speaker 3: that roster and who's not, and who can you rely
Speaker 3: on and what youngsters do you want part of the team,
Speaker 3: giving them more time and things. So that's probably the focus.
Speaker 3: As disappointing as that is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, two weeks left the transfer window. We see what
Speaker 1: happens with five out and four in, we'll see where
Speaker 1: we go from here. As always, my friend, it's great
Speaker 1: to see you on Fridays and find out the growth
Speaker 1: of Beyond Goals Menering b GMTV and we'll hit the
Speaker 1: trumpet when the announcement is made about the third member
Speaker 1: of the group.
Speaker 2: So looking forward to it, my friend.
Speaker 1: It's always great to see you enjoy the time that
Speaker 1: is left before school starts and it gets running all
Speaker 1: over again.
Speaker 3: Thank you, John, have a great weekend.