Latest / Becoming / Jay Jackson: Turn Every Setback Into a Speed Bump

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Jay Jackson: Turn Every Setback Into a Speed Bump · Becoming

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is it that helps people to just get into
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: their own zone? How do they get their head in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the game?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Trust the work you've put in. If it's something you enjoy,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: then you've put the work in to be there and
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: understand why you're there. Practice is the hard part. The
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: journey is the hard part. So if I enjoyed this journey,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: now you get to see what this journey has become ultimately.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: So if you know why you're there and you're trusting yourself,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: then you can enjoy that moment. Just take a deep
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: breath and then you can go let it float, honestly,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: because you can already know what you're supposed to do.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Everybody, welcome back. My name is Bubba Page, the host
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of The Becoming Podcast. You guys, I'm so excited today
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: because I want to introduce you to Jay Jackson. I'm
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: going to read some of this stuff because there's so
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: much info going on here, right? So he spent 17
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: years as a professional baseball player, but the story is
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: so much more than just playing baseball. So Jay was
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2008. He went on
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to pitch professionally across the United States, Japan, Mexico, and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: even Latin America. His journey included years in the minor leagues,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: multiple injuries and comebacks, three consecutive championships, major league appearances
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: with organizations including San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, the San
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Francisco Giants, which is my favorite team. That's where I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: grew up in San Francisco, right? Atlanta Braves, even the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins. So, but here's the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: real deal, behind the scenes, the statistics is a story
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of perseverance. faith, family, fatherhood, and learning how to become
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: through every season of his life.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So today Jay is the author and he's going to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: talk about this. All right. The author, speaker, mentor, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: founder of the Smile Zone. This one though, the book
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: is Nine Innings to Living Your Best Life. And you guys,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I want him to talk through because not only did
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: he write the book to help as many people as
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: he could, he also created a the workbooks for both
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: an athlete and the coach. Jay, welcome to the podcast.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: You got it. So just give us a quick rundown
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: on these so you can show them in the camera
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: before we jump into the first question. Yeah.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: So created what we were talking about before I came on,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: wrote the book actually the last year I was actually
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: playing baseball. So it's a lot of love, sweat, tears,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: rehab because I ended my career actually with an injury.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: And had to end up getting a PRP in my
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: left knee and my right shoulder. So ended up writing
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: the book that year. And then as we were thinking
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: about it coming about, we were like, okay, we can't
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: get it necessarily into public schools because they have curriculums already.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: But how can we service like the kids and, you know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: athletes and students and just kids in general from a
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: young age that we were like, how can we have
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a curriculum? And we came up with this workbook to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: go along with the book just because. Yeah. You know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: maybe there's organizations or teachers or private schools or athletic
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: academies that could have this as a part of their
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: curriculum to help their students and their kids and their
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: athletes be better players, you know, better people first, but
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: better players ultimately and, you know, have more success. That's
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the ultimate goal. So we have the workbooks for the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: coaches and teachers for anybody. We have the student workbook,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: player workbook, and then we have the book that's for everybody.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: And then also. Bubba was so kind to say, I
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: have the app as well, which is more baseball-centric as well.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: So he's got books and workbooks and an app. You guys,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: don't make the mistake and not follow. You got to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: follow along, all right? And go to his website, go
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to his app so you can check it out. But today,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk a little bit about how this
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: all happened even before the major leagues, before the stadiums. Like,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: who were you when you were dreaming of what you want?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: What did you want to become? I think that'll set
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the stage for what we're going to talk about.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: No, 100%. So I was born and raised in Greenville,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. Proud Greenville resident, I would say. Got inducted
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: to the Greenville Baseball Hall of Fame not too long ago, too.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So I appreciate the city for having me and being
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: there for that and honor me with that. But my
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: parents like to say I was born with, you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the sports gene, I guess. You would say they said
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I had a baseball... you know, basketball and a football
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in my crib when I was born and all that time.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: But then also when I went to kindergarten and first grade,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: they like to tell me, and they still tell me
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: to this day that when my teachers asked me what
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be, I always said I wanted to
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: be a baseball or basketball player.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Funny what manifestation can do, right?
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: You manifested it, right?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: You manifested it.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: So they always.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Like to tease me on that, but. just family support
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: from there, just being a great athlete and physical and
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: things like that. But my dad always told me to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: be a student of the game. So that was kind
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of how this all ended up coming apart. Honestly, it's
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: because my dad, we were just talking about it on
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the way here is he always told me to be
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: a student in the mental game is so strong, not
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: only on the field, but in life that I think
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: we have to focus on that. And we take that
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: for granted a lot of times with our athletes and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: with our kids and with, you know, ourselves a lot
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of times. Right. So for me, It started with just
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: being in Greenville, having my family support me and my
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: dad and my mom just being at every game, taking
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: me to the games, basketball, baseball. I remember just going
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: from one basketball game, changing in the car, going to
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the baseball field, playing two or three games, and then
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: going to another basketball game, depending on what time. I
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: remember being at the Nationals for baseball and committing to
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: play in the Nationals if we made it for this
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: AAU basketball team I was in. So I was in
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Florida for a baseball tournament for Nationals and had to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: leave early. And I think right After the championship, right
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: before the championship game for the baseball nationals or baseball
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: tournament I was in, and fly to Las Vegas for
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the AAU basketball nationals.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Just the support, just the people I had around me,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: just the great role models. I think my father and
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: my mom would like to say I got my baseball
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: genetics and itch from her because she was such a
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: great softball player. My dad played basketball and football and
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: just was a great athlete as well. So I give credit.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: To them and just the foundation they gave me, but just,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: you know, just the family aspect and the support I
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: had from just a young age to get me to
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: where I'm at.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: So you had phenomenal parents who supported you. They helped
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you to get into the right programs, get the right
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: teams and all that stuff. It sounds like they also
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: worked with you from a mindset game, which is how
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of this came to be, right? So not
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: only were you raised with teaching, you being taught so
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: much of this, you've now been mentoring people your entire career, right?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And even you just told me before that we started
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that your team, most recent team you were coaching just
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: won the championship.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: That is correct.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit more of like, what
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: were some of the principles that you ended up putting
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: in the book that that really can help the mindset
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of whether it's an athlete or even just a mom
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: or a dad who's going to read the book.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Just enjoying your life, really being happy. I think our
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: lives have always been meant to be happy. And I
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: think we've taken this thing lately of being really negative
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and every clickbait thing is really negative, right? And spiraling
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: into negativity. I think You get to choose which path
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: you go down for the snowball that you want to have,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: either negative or positive. I think if you compound the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: more positive things, the more positive happens, right? But the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: more we click on the negative and the more we
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: dive into the negative and let the negative affect us,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the more negative things happen. And then we just get
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: used to be used and comfortable to be in the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: negative at that point. And I think instead of that,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: we need to change it into being positive. And I
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: think that's the main principles of the book is positive.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: You know, facing adversity with smiles, turning lemons into lemonade
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: type of things, right?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Failing forward instead of, you know, letting things hold you back.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I think I like to tell people as your life,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you know, you're driving your own car. I kind of
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: have a car analogy for that, right? You're driving your
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: own car. You can always have people come in the car.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: But ultimately, you're driving the car. People can touch the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: radio and control all the things in the car that
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: you let them control. But ultimately, you get to drive
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to your destination that you want to get to. And
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: everything that happens from them or outside the car, you
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: can use it either as speed bumps where you can
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: go to the auto shop and get them fixed. Some
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: people get it fixed by going to their faith, going
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: to their therapist, going to the gym, things of that nature.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: You can fix your car. Or you can let things
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: ultimately be a flat tire and run you off the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: road and cause a roadblock, and then you crash. And
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of times we've made it fashionable
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: with this thing lately of people crashing out, and that's
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: such a negative connotation too, right? Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: I think that we can do that. We can make
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: it either a crash or a speed bump or a
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: roadblock type of thing, not a roadblock, but like. You
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: can get around it. You can fix it. It's a
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: flat tire. It's a broken rim. It's a scratch on
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the car. It's a chipped paint job. You know what
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I mean? Okay.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: So now you're a fairly new dad, right? Your kid's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: three years old?
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Three.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. We got to hear some of the story because
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I know there's some people watching who don't know kind
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: of what happened. So new dad, you know, I'm a
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: dad of eight kids, right? Crazy.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Crazy. So fun. It's my beautiful chaos, I call it, right? Six-year-old.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: twins all the way up to a 16 year old
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: boy four boys four girls congratulations on all that thank
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you no i love it i absolutely love it being a.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: Dad it's like being the best thing ever right.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: It's you know it's funny this company true wear sent
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: me this hat because it's established 2010 that's when my
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: son was born oh awesome so they put the actual
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: year of when my son was born on this hat
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: which is cool for father's day right But we got
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to hear a little bit how the story of you
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: having your son and some of the trials you've had
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to go through have shaped more of who you are
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: now than maybe three years ago.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. So first, just JR being here and being
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: born is just an ultimate miracle and blessing. He was
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: born in 2023 when I was actually with the Toronto
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Blue Jays.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And that year was just kind of a hectic year anyway. Um, Sam,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: my fiance was, um, we had had some up and down.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: We had had some miscarriages anyway. She had gone through
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: some stuff and we had been to the ER a
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: couple times and then she was on bed rest like
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: the week before and he ended up being born at
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: 24 weeks oh my gosh yeah so he was born
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: extremely early and the day he was born the morning
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: he was born because he was born at i think
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: like two twelve o'clock in the morning yeah utah in
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: ogden and I was in Rochester, New York, and I
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: was actually getting called up to go to the major
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: leagues that night. We had had a long game and
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: we had one in the extra innings. And at that time,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I was one of the guys that pitched in high
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: leverage situations and we ended up losing the game. And
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: so I was pissed off and frustrated because I didn't pitch.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: And I was like, well, something's got to be up.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, like I want to pitch
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: in this game because we just lost, you know, so
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: my competitiveness in me, but. You know, I get in
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the locker room and my coach is like, hey, like, Jay, like,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I know it's been a long day, but hey, you've
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: got a flight in the morning to go to Chicago.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: The big league team's got a double header. I was like, oh,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I was like, why am I going? Because I had
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: been pitching pretty bad at that time, too. I was like,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: there's no way I'm going back. But at the same point,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: he's like, no, you got to you got to catch
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: a flight in the morning. So packing up everything, trying
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: to get a little bit of sleep for, I think,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: like a 6 a.m. flight.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: And I think our game had finished at like 11,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: almost 12 o'clock, somewhere in there. So get back and
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: then get a phone call from Sam's sister at, I
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: think like two o'clock in the morning, I think it was.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And she's like, Hey, so just letting you know, baby's
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: coming right now. They're going to have to like bring
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: the baby right now.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, what? Oh my gosh, totally unexpected.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, I knew there was a chance, like
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I was supposed to be on like high alert for
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: like the next, you know, couple of weeks anyway, but.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: The day I get caught up is kind of just,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you know, it's one of those things that you never
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: think is going to happen.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: And people know the story but don't really know the story.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: And so I end up talking to Nadine's Sam's sister.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: She asked the doctor because I was like, yo, so
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: what should I do right now? Because I'm like, do
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: you want me to fly back now and just get
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: the first flight? I can tell them I can leave.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Or the doctor's like, no, there's nothing you can really do.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Baby's coming right now. Yeah.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: So she's like, there's nothing you can do. Go pitch
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: in the game. We'll make sure everything's taken care of here.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: So thank you to the doctors in Ogden. Yeah, who
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: helped take care of things. Yeah, for sure. For making
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: sure Sam and JR got out of that all right.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: That's scary, though. Yeah, 100%. That's scary stuff. And then
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: he got transferred, airlifted to the University of Utah like
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: three days later because of that, too. But yeah, so.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: end up the, the right, you, again, it's kind of
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: same thing that I wrote the book and everything too,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: is like, you take the positives out of this whole
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: scenario is I get called up, go through, get the flight. Well,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: the whole time the organization is calling me every like
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: 20 minutes, asking me if I'm sure I want to
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: pitch and all this stuff, making sure like I'm going
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: to the game. I'm like, I'm on the flight. I'm
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: in Chicago now. Like I'm here. Yeah. I'm going to
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: play it out. Right. But they're trying to, you know,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: do their thing. Like it's a business. This is what
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: they're supposed to do. And, I get there and still
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: pretty much haven't slept. And I'm like, okay, well, at
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: least I'll pitch in the first game so I can
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: possibly catch a flight home early to make sure I'm there.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Don't pitch the first game. So we ended up winning
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the first game. Kevin Gosman, shout out to him. Love him,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: great guy. He just got traded to the Cubs too,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: which is crazy. Oh, interesting. Ended up, Gos, I think,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: pitched the first game until I ended up pitching in
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: the bullpen the second game, but I ended up getting
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: a win. So the day JR was born is one
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: of the wins in my career that I have. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: so it's definitely a special day and I got it
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: autographed by everybody and signed and authenticated.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's awesome.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's definitely a big deal for me and
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: it was definitely a great day. And then I tried
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: to make the trek home, which didn't end up being
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the easiest way either. I was supposed to have a
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: direct flight at 6 a.m. the next day, ended up
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: getting canceled somehow some way ended up having to switch
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: airlines because they weren't going to be able to get
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: me out to like one o'clock in the afternoon from
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: a 6 a.m flight or something like that so i
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: had to switch airlines and then finally got got ogged
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: in at like 12 p.m or somewhere in there so
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: but yeah jr came out and then like i said
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: he was airlifted to the university of utah so thank
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you 100% to all the University of Utah nurses in
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the NICU and the doctors there and everything they did.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: How long did he stay in the NICU?
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: JR was there for 166 days.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he came home December 19th.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's a long time. How did you
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: guys handle that?
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Sam handled that more than anything. She literally drove the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: 45 minutes every day, even though they offered us to
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: use the Ronald McDonald house there, that was on site.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: We wanted to make sure that the families that actually
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: had to travel farther than us could use it and
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: use that space and put it to good use where
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: she was willing to travel the 45 minutes, almost an hour,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: literally every day. They had to kick her out. The
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: only time she left is when The doctors and nurses
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: kicked her out pretty much to tell her that she
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: needed to either come see me at the time in
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the season I was in or either, you know, just
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: take a break from being at the hospital every day.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: She was there every day. And then me, thankful for
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: the team, the Blue Jays, I tell everybody is my
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: favorite organization that I played with just because of how
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: they treated me as a person, how they helped handle
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: that whole situation because they could have handled it a
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: lot differently than they did. Yeah. And I give him
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: credit for a lot of it. I hate that how
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: it happened because I did end up losing a lot
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: of end up like my salary that year just because
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: of how they had to probably maneuver it for me
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: to be able to go home. But I ended up
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: being able to a lot of off days fly from
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: wherever we were at and fly back to Utah for
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: the day and spend the whole day that night next day.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: And the next morning was Sam and JR and come
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: to the hospital and stuff and then fly back the
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: day of the game. So we did that a lot
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: that year. That was, that was, that was a lot
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: of traveling. We definitely got a lot of points. Shout
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: out Delta for sure. Jet blue for that, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: but they, they definitely helped be a lot more seamless
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: than some of the other airlines when they kind of
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: knew the things that were going on too.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: So what were some of the things that JR struggled with?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: And now he's three years old, you said, right. And so,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: you know, having a premium, there's people watching who, who've
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: had Nick, you know, babies in the NICU. So, you know,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: help us understand like what you guys are still dealing
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with some of the effects.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Some of them, yeah. When he was born, they told
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: us that he had kind of like a little stroke
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: and brain bleed when he was there. And just the
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: process that we had to go through and that he
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: had to go through being so early. I mean, there's
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: different phases, right? Like seeing him the first time being in,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: you know, the little tube and seeing how small he
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: was when he was born. And then seeing the process
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: of him being on oxygen the whole time, he still
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: uses oxygen from time to time. Not as much now,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: just realistically only when he's had serious breathing problems, but we've,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: the he's really progressed through most of it. Thankfully. And
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: like I said, it's a miracle and it's a blessing
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: just for everything and all the prayers and all the
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: support from everybody that I had throughout that whole process, me,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Sam and the families, um, just like I said, the
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: nurses and everybody that we had there just, um, You know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: he still has his G-tube in a little bit, but
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: we only use that just pretty much when he's sick, too,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: just because he doesn't like taking medicine orally sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Because,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: you know, I just want to make sure that he
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: gets all everything he's supposed to get into it.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Right. But his body is still developing, still developing everything.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's having some. So, we just, like, just seeing
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the process, like, the tubes and stuff like that, right?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: The oxygen, having the oxygen and the heart rate monitors
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: and stuff on while we were sleeping for, geez, he
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: finally got off the heart rate monitors and the breathing
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: stuff probably, I think, when he was, like, two and
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: a half or so like that. That's recent. So, yeah. So,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: he decided to pull his own breathing tube out when
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: he was in the hospital, though. No way. Everybody likes it.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Sam and the doctors and everybody like to say that
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: he always did everything when I was in town, which
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: was kind of funny when like he would take like
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: his next step to whatever he would.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: He had to show dad.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Something like that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: So it was kind of cool to see that, but
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: it was kind of also worrisome. Oh, yeah. But like
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I said, I appreciate all the support and all the
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: people that were in the University of Utah system and.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: All the doctors and nurses everywhere that, you know, realized
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: where he needed to be to have the best chances
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: to survive and be where he's at right now. Holy cow.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, that is so scary, you know, to have
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: to go through something like that. You know, I had
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: eight kids and we haven't had any of those health
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: issues like that, right? We've had a few scares of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: things going on, but it's fascinating to hear the story
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and how you guys have handled it. It sounds like
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Sam is an amazing mom who's helped out throughout this process, right?
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And, uh, and, and so, you know, good for her
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to be able to, to be there and support you
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and her as you take care of things, man. So,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: so you've had, uh, you know, everybody has to go.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I always say everybody has to go through some kind
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of challenges in life, right? We don't get to choose
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: what we go through, but everybody has to go through it.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: And probably more than one thing in our lives that
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: we have to go through. So how did you and Sam, like,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: how did you guys grow together? How did you guys
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: handle this stress? How did you get through it? Because
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: people are listening and they're either going through it right now,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: they just got through it, or they're about to go
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: through something. Can you help people understand? I talk a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: lot about becoming. How do we become what God wants
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: us to be? How do we become the best parent?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: How do we become the best spouse? The best entrepreneur?
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: The best whatever. But you guys facing this type of challenge.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: What is something you can help people, you know, know.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: From your experience? I think it goes back to, honestly...
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: trying to take the positives out of everything. Right. There's
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: a reason, trying to figure out the reasons why and
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: the positive reasons why not the negative reasons why this
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: thing happened to me. Just being like, Hey, you know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: JR in the different stages that he went through, it's like, okay,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: why us? But it's like, it's a miracle that he
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: keeps going through these phases. So keep thinking positive, keep
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: thinking that he's going to make this next step and
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: everything's going to be okay. And Sam's like, did you
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: ever worry? I was like, yeah, worried, but I put
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: trust in God that like, he didn't let him get
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: to this point to like, Not get to the final stages. Like,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and if so, then there's a lesson to be learned
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: in all of it. So let's just find like, as
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: long as we can to enjoy what we have with this.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the main thing, because if you
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: enjoy what you're doing and you're trying to do it
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: for the right reasons, I tell people then, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: that shouldn't stop you from doing it ever. because once
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: you stop doing that, then you're not living for what
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to be doing and what makes you happy,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: because you're going to put your all and you're going
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: to enjoy the bad days as long as, as well
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: as the good days, right? If you're something you truly
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: enjoy doing, that's why, you know, I ended up creating
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: the app and I ended up trying to, you know,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: manifest the baseball thing and trying to do these things
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: and give back to the world in a positive way.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: I got known as Smiley J just because I tried to,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: you know, try to make the best out of situations.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I've had some times through my life, same thing where,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: could have taken it for the worst. And I knew,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and I've learned through my dad and other role models
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: and seeing, you know, people, how other people have handled it, that,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: you know, if I take it as a negative situation
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: and act negatively on it, it's only going to compound
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: with the negative. And at that point, what do you do? Right.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It's hard to come back from a true negative. If
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: you're trying to be positive rather than trying to start
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: with a positive and compound that. So it's just, you know,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: you try to tell people right now, whatever you're going through,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: it might be tough. It's definitely going to be tough.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: There's going to be tough moments, but try to find
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: the positives out of it. Try to make sure whatever
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: you're doing is something that you enjoy doing. There might
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: be reasons why you don't have to enjoy doing it,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: but there should be a reason at the end that
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: you're enjoying it. Because for me, if you're living your
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: life to be happy and the best person you can
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: be in positive, then things will end up going the
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: way you want to. And if they don't, then you
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: can live with the fact that like you did the
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: right things, honestly, rather than you regretting something later on.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I love that you said something about you're seeing the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: positive with whatever trial or challenge you're going through. Even
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: if it doesn't work out the way you wanted, you're
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: still going to try and find the positive in no
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: matter what the experience is. So many of us struggle
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to see that. And then we get angry at God
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and it's like, why did this have to happen? And
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: like you, I like to lean on God in these circumstances, right?
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's just, I don't know how people do it without it.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I honestly don't know. And so when I lean on God,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I ask the question, okay, what am I supposed to
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: learn from this experience? From whatever I'm going through, like, okay,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: there must be something I need to learn from this.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm seeking and asking in prayer, like, what is it?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: that I'm supposed to learn. And it's been fascinating because
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: sometimes the answers come like right away. And other times
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: it takes a little bit of time, right?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: It varies.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: It varies, right?
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: It varies a lot of times.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: It varies.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: But I do really appreciate that sentiment. And hopefully people
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that are listening, when you're going through something hard like this,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: that you can, number one, lean on God and then
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: understand no matter what the outcome, even if it doesn't
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: come out to be the way you want it, there's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: still a positive way to look, even if it's the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: worst case scenario. And hopefully that can change people's lives
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to have a little bit of a glass half full mentality, right?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: 100%. That's the whole point, right? For me, my mom
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: always used to tell me, and I give her credit
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: for this a lot of times, is she would be like,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: take a nap. And I'd be like, okay. and like
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: you said, with the whole trusting God thing, we have
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: to go through our things to finally and truly like
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: trust him. Right. We have to go through our moments
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: and figure out ways. I'm a philosophy major too. So
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I had to learn my way to ultimately I went through,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: you know, being a Southern Baptist with my dad, being
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: a pastor now too, and just going to church all
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: the time and stuff. And then being a philosophy major
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: questioning and figuring out the ways I had to go. Um, but, it's,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: you know, you try to figure out like where your
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: next step is. Right. Yeah. And where to go from there.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: And leaning on him is just, I've had so many
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: different things that have happened. So for me, I, one
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: of the biggest things that happened, which kept me in baseball, honestly,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: was at the time I had an, I had a,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: my ex wife, we were actually laying in bed one
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: night and we were about to get, this was before
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: we got married. And, uh, was in the midst of
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: being in the minors and the minors, a lot of
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: people don't know this because the CBA is coming up
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: now and people think that baseball players make a ton
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: of money, but in the minors at the time when
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: you made such little money and barely get by money,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: you're barely in mind. So I had, I'm like, okay,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: how am I going to afford a family trying to rate,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: trying to do this thing? We had two dogs to China, like,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: you know, have a family, a house and probably two
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: places to stay and things of that nature. And, I
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: asked God that night, I was like, okay, if baseball
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: is what I'm supposed to do, then give me a sign. Like,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: just let me know. Cause if not, then that's cool.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Like I'll go figure it out from here. I always do.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: I know you're with me, but just show me what,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: what we're supposed to do. And the next day, or
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: it might've been, I'm pretty sure it was the next day.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: It might've been two days later, but I'm pretty sure
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: it was the next day. I get a call from
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: my agent and be like, Hey, there's a team that's
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: going to allow you that wants you to sign you
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: for the winter. And you get to go home for
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: your wedding and they're going to pay you for the
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: days that you're going to miss for your wedding. And
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: as long as you come back and you just can't
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: go on your honeymoon yet and blah, blah, blah. And
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: so I was like, okay, well, I'm going to be
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: able to make enough to ultimately, you know, get through
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the off season and support the family for, you know,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: at least part of the next season. So I was like, yes,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: a hundred percent. So I was like, okay, this is
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: what we're supposed to do. I'm never going to take
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: it for granted. I'm going to enjoy it all the time.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And so for me, that's what I'm trying to pour
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: back to, because yeah, There's so many things that could
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: have gone, like I said, haywire in my life before.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Even after that, me just being like, okay, it could
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: be worse, one. But two, am I doing something that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: still feels like the right thing to do? Am I
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: doing something that makes me happy? And if so, then
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: this time is just the same thing. It's a speed bump.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Things happen.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Totally. Things happen all the time. God throws some curveballs.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: All right. So I've got to ask. So seven years
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: after being drafted, you finally made your major league debut, right?
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: So tell me about receiving that call and walking onto
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a major league round for the very first time.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. So, yeah. It's like seven and a half,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: eight years just about because it was in September that year.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: It was technically after the season had ended because normally–
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: At that time, rosters could expand. They don't do it anymore.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: But at that time, you could have your full 40-man
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: roster come join your team in September. And so they normally,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: first day of September, every team would add their guys, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: But that year, we were in the playoffs for our
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: AAA team. And so they didn't send everybody. They sent
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: like two or three guys. And so everybody else was like, okay,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: we're not getting sent up. And so we ended up
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: losing out of the playoffs. and then nobody hears normally
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: you would hear that night of like after the game, like, okay,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: you lost like, Hey, like this person, this person, this
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: person's coming to join the big league team because you
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: guys are done. Nobody heard anything. So we were all like, okay,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: so everybody's taken off going home and stuff. Right. I
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: stayed back in El Paso an extra day just to
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: pack up, take my time because I was like, the
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: season's over. Like let me decompress and let me take
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: my time for getting home. Like it's not gonna, home's
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: not going anywhere at this point. So I was like, okay.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And then they, get a call. And I'm like, okay.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Like I was actually on the phone with my ex
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: wife at the time. I was like, hello. And he's like, Hey,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: so how long has it been? I was like, how
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: long has what been? He's like that you've been in
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: the minors. And I was like, now technically eight years.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: And he's like, well, congratulations. Um, you're going to make
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: it to meet us in Arizona if you like to
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: today or tomorrow. And I was like, well, I'm actually
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: on the other line right now. Let me click over
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: and call you, like not call you. I was like,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: click over and like, get back to you. And he's like, okay.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: So I called over, told his wife, like, Hey, let
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: me call you back. So I talked to him, got
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: the logistics and was just like, thank you. This is
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: an opportunity, you know, I've been looking for like eight
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: years is a long time. I had a lot of
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: good years, had some ups and downs, a lot of, again,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: same thing as before, a lot of support from different coaches, players, personnel,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: and different organizations that allowed me to stay in the
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: game that long. But ultimately I think it was you know,
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: me enjoying it and the happiness and the gratefulness that
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: the gratitude that I had for the game itself more than,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: you know, the organizations and stuff, because there's also a
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: lot of politics that went on behind the scenes, obviously
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: with those teams and organizations and stuff. So, you know,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: for me to be able to stay in it that
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: long enough for eight years to make it to the
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: big leagues at that point and have that chance and
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: that opportunity, you know, I was grateful for it. And then,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: you know, after that, Called the ex-wife, called parents, told
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: everybody like, hey, I'm finally getting a movie.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: You made it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Got to fly to Arizona. And then I actually made
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: my debut the next day.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The very next day.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: The next day.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: So what was it like when you're watching? up on
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: that mound? Nervous.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: It was probably one of the most nervous times I've
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: ever had in my life just because like, I think
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I just, I was so nervous because I wanted to
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: be so good and prove to people so bad at
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: that time that I was deserving of that opportunity instead
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: of as you become who you're supposed to be, right?
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: And as you that we're trying to teach people and
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: have the community to teach people to be who you
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: are sooner. So you don't have to worry about those
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: nerves later. Right. So as I grew and as I
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: became who I was supposed to be and a better
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: baseball player and understood the situations, the nerves left. But
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: that first time, Oh, I didn't finish the inning. I had,
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: luckily we had a great bullpen and I had some
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: guys behind me that got me out of the situation,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: but I gave up a few runs. So yeah, the
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: first one didn't go as clean as it should have.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: You know what, though?
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I think any of us can relate to that. This
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: is your first time doing the big shot thing, and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you're just sweating bullets, right? So if you were to
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: help somebody who's in their first big thing like that,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: how do they get their head in the game to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: where they can get those nerves to calm down? And
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: maybe they haven't built that confidence yet. So is it
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: just a process? Is it something that you cover here,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: like in the book? what is it that helps people
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: to just get into their own zone so they can
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: perform at whatever level it is. If they're an entrepreneur
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: and they're leading a business, if it's going on stage
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and speaking, if it's going onto the baseball field, like
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: what can they do to get into that zone?
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's, Enjoy the moment. Trust the work you've
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: put in because, again, if it's something you enjoy, then
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: you've put the work in to be there and understand
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: why you're there. So if you know why you're there
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: and you're trusting yourself, then you can enjoy that moment
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: and just take a deep breath and then you can
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: go let it float, honestly, because you can already know
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: what you're supposed to do. I think a lot of
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: times we get so nervous because we either, one, haven't
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: prepared properly for it, or two, we want to prove
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: to everybody else why our work has been been our
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: worth exactly i think that's you see it i think
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: kobe's talked about it and lebron and jordan all these
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: greats have talked about it in other sports right brady
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: like i've prepared so much for this moment like now
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: you get to see the practice is the hard part
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: the journey is the hard part so if i enjoyed
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: this journey now you get to see what this journey
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: has become ultimately and that should make me happy because
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: now you get to for us as baseball players football
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: players basketball players we're entertainers right so you get to
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: enjoy our entertainment our hard work But as an entrepreneur,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and like I said, what I'm doing now, and as
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: a speaker, everything else, you get to be like, hey,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: you get to see and hear my story. Or hey,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: you get to see and be a part of my
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: app and see the benefit that I can give to
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: you because of the work I've put in for it already.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: So you have that preparation that gets you ready for
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: that time. You know, I remember one of the first
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: times I got up to a stage and speaking in
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: front of a few hundred people. Nervous, right? Sweating bullets,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: didn't love it, you know, and, and honestly did not
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: do a great job. And, and it's one of those
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: pieces that if somebody is, if that's what they want
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: to do, a professional speaker, I am not a professional speaker.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: I got certified, but I'm not. Oh, that's awesome.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: That's a good thing. But like just that practice and
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: consistency has got to be it. And so you're talking
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: about that, doing that as an athlete, um, if you're
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, you better get out there and start practicing.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: If you want to be a public speaker, you better
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: get out in there and fail the first few times.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: If you want to do a podcast and you're too
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: afraid to get on camera, you probably should just get
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: on camera and start practicing.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: And so I'm trying to teach my kids this. Um,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: so they have just this repetition and, you know, I've
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: got my son who's, who made it to a national
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: American tumbling team. We're going to China in November.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I just got back from Taiwan. Not too long ago.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: I went to, I actually went, went around the world
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: kind of in 22 days.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: I went from, well, I started here in Salt Lake
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: and I'm counting obviously my layovers. I went from Salt Lake,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: went to Florida, which is, I split my time between
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: here and Florida. Cause I have a place where I
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: was training that and my place down there. Went from Florida,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: flew from Florida. I stayed there for like two or
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: three days. Then went from Florida to New York for layover,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: layover to London, London layover, then landed in Egypt, spent
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: a week in Egypt, And helped MLB with a play
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: ball because baseball organization over there. So I spent a
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: week there.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Which was amazing. And then flew from there, laid over
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: in Beijing and then went to Taiwan and spent two
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: weeks in Taichung and different parts of Taiwan doing lessons
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: and clinics for elementary, middle and high school and private
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: lessons for prospects and stuff over there as well.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: And then flew back to Salt Lake.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: You literally went around the world. That's amazing. That is
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: so cool. What a cool opportunity. You can do that.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Help people out.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: That's the main thing. All right.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I got to get, I got to hit this point
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and I know we're already running out of time. There's
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: just so many questions I wanted to ask you. Okay.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Hold on. All right. How did becoming a father change
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the way you understood what success meant to you?
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: I think it was one of them. like I said before,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: I think it's one of the reasons I ultimately kind
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: of retired so I could spend more time being a
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: father because I feel like me having that journey and
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: putting my, my career necessarily, even though it was to
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: provide for the family and yes, they probably would have
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: came to Mexico and stuff like that. But the risk
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: of me doing that. And again, me not being who
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be through the process and knowing that
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: the outcome wasn't what I truly wanted. I'd rather, you know,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: it showed me, first of all, like hard decision-making one, right.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: That I need to lead with what's going to be
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: best for again, me and what I think ultimately is
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: going to be best for the family. But two, it
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: showed me patience too. Since I've, since JR has been
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: here with, like I said, being in the hospital for
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: 166 days and then having to, you know, check stuff
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: during the night all the time, which parents, if you
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: got kids that have, you know, the, the cords and
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: the tubes and having to check things all the time.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Then you understand the, the, the patients that you have
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: to have with the beeping and being able to check
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: things at night, making sure you're kind of a light
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: sleeper and making sure that you're patient, not only with yourself,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: but the people around you too, because little things can
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: set off a whole like event of emotions and things that,
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: like I said before, just spiral.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: So, um, and is he's taught me the main thing
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: is just, like I said before, to enjoy life, the
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: gift of life and the miracle that he has to
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: be here itself and in itself just helps me just
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: enjoy each day even more. Like I wake up every
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: morning and I'm just blessed that he's still here. So
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: for me, it's just the enjoyment of life.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: I love that. Was there ever a moment when your
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: child needed you and baseball was asking you something completely
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: different from you?
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, a hundred percent. Like the hundred percent that whole,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: that whole summer, right? I wanted to be there. And
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: be there every day, the 166 days that.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: But you had to work.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: I had to work. I had to work every day.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I had to work every time that I didn't have
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: to be there with him. So, um, and the last
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: month we were in the playoff push too. So.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: That last month, it wasn't, I didn't get to travel
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: back as much because the team was like, Hey, like.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: It's playoff time. Yeah. We need you here. And I'm like, no,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: I completely understand that. Like, we understand that. Like, this
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: is what we signed up for. Like I've, he. We
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: have the team in place and I appreciate what you
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: guys have done so far. So me being who I
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: am too, like some guys might've, you know, said, you know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna, I'm gonna shut the season down. But
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know what? Like I'm grateful for
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: the opportunity one. And the team we had in place
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: was doing such a wonderful job that I trusted what
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: they were doing too. So I was like, Hey, things
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: are good on the home front. So well, I can go,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I can go to battle kind of thing. Right.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: And now you're transitioning from athlete to entrepreneur, right? So
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: obviously you've been trained for your whole life to perform
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: as an athlete. I mean, literally since you were a
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: tiny little kid. So you've been a performance athlete your
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: whole life, professional athlete. Now you're coming into being an entrepreneur,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: building your own app. You've got your book. You've been
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: mentoring and coaching. You've even got calls that are happening
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: every month, right?
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do two calls a month. We do one
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: for the parents, one for the players. especially if you're
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: part of the community, we're going to start branching it
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: out and letting other people join possibly for a fee,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: but possibly for free. We're trying to figure out how
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: we want to do it, but I think we want
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: to definitely just have as many people on the calls
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: as possible. So I think we're going to do at
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: least till, you know, for a certain amount of time
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: for free, just to get it going, but also just
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: to get, get people introduced to our coaches because we
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: have such great coaches. Like it's not only me, but
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: all the coaches I have under me that work with
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: me because part of the program that I do have
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: for the app is you can, guys can get one-on-one
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: mentorships with former pros. So not only me as a
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: major league baseball player, but I have three other guys
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: that are former major league players as well that are
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: willing to mentor and give their time and advice to
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: the younger generation and different kids as well. So we
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: just want to make sure that like, everybody understands what
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: we're doing. It's not just the development on the field,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: it's definitely the development off the field mainly. And just
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: to give people a chance to get, especially these players
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: and kids, a chance to do something that we wish
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: that we all would have had before, like when we
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: were growing up, right? Even now, we all have mentors
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: that help us get to the next level. So this
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: is a way where, a rare chance where you have
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: multiple people from different backgrounds that have been through different situations,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: but all reach the same height level that some of
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: your kids might be wanting to do oh yeah in
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: just every area and you're all in one place and
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: then you can obviously buy different hours and buy different
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: packages for you know different mentorships but Yeah. I'm transferring
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: over that. And I'm also, I just recently got asked
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: to do private pitching lessons in Utah. So when I'm
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: in Utah, I will be now doing private pitching lessons.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. I do pitching lessons in Greenville as well. So.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: I'm doing a little bit of everything. Just trying to
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: help as many people, like I said, especially the younger generation,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: enjoy the game of baseball because we were talking before.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: 70% of kids are stopping sports at 13. And I
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: think 13 to that 15 to 18, like the middle
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: school to high school age range, right, is when we
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: learn a lot of our life lessons. And if we
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: don't have the best foundation or the best support systems
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of times, then I think we end up
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: going off the rails. Like I said, compounding negatives instead
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: of compounding the positives. And I think that's what this app,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: the book, the workbooks, but I think mainly, especially once
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: I start branching this app out to different sports, but
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: mainly for baseball players or just athletes and parents in
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: general right now, just building a foundation and support system
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: that they can be proud of and positive with that.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: You're going to get them to the next level. Wild.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: All right. Everybody needs to know what is the app called?
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: It's called the smile zone. So the book's called nine
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: things to living your best life, achieve success when you
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: smile and smile stands for start making intentional life efforts.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: So the app, Naturally, everything is built off of Smile.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: And so, the app is called the Smile Zone. Love it. So,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Smile Zone.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Find it on any app store kind of a thing?
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: It's on the website right now. It's on the community.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: It's on the website right now, smilezone.app.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: And then you can find it on my page as well,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: the Jackson 5A. You can find it on the IG
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: page and the TikTok and the YouTube and all the stuff,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: pages for … all the social media pages. You can
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: find the website app for that and all the stuff,
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: but you can find it on also my personal page
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: where you can get the book and the workbooks as well.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: All right, you guys, I wanted to do one last thing.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I want to do some rapid fire questions and we
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: got to close out. Is that cool?
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Fine.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Rapid fire. You guys ready? All right. Who was the
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: most intimidating hitter you ever faced?
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Intimidating? Ooh, a lot of people would like to say
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Shohei just because of Everything what I faced Shohei so
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: many times over the years, so I've seen him progress,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: and he has got more intimidating over the years. But
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: I think the most intimidating hitter I ever faced was
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: probably Adrian Gonzalez, and that was like the first season
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: that I got to when I got my first call-up
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: in 2015 when Adrian Gonzalez played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: I think that was my most intimidating.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: That was intense. All right, favorite major league stadium?
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: To sit at and see a game, I would say PNC. Okay.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: to play at and be a part of would be
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Toronto and Oracle in San Fran. Oh, that's awesome. I,
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: I had a great time with the San Francisco giants
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: and I love the, I love the time I had
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: there with them, even though they're struggling a little bit
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: right now. They are struggling.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: And I'm headed there on Thursday. I'm literally going back.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: My niece is coming home from serving an, a mission
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: in Mexico from the church, Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints. I
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: get to go back into my old hometown and, Go Giants.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I know it wasn't your favorite team.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: It's in the top three.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: Okay, good.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: I think they're probably the second team for sure just
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: because they took care of me as well. We had
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of good times. I actually talk about resilience.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I tore my hamstring that year. Oh, my gosh. We
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: have four tendons in our hamstrings, and I'm missing two
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: of them now because of that.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: I ended up making it to the big leagues that year,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: so they took care of me very well as well.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I love it, man.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Go San Fran.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: Go San Fran. All right. Best baseball city?
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, there's so many. I think Yankees fans are just
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: absolutely ruthless. I'm not a huge fan of the Yankees fans.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: But I think best baseball city, I'm going to have
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: to say Chicago with the Cubs fans.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: That city, like during the summer, a day game at Wrigley.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: That's special. It's crazy to see and it's crazy to
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: be a part of. I got to play against them
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: a few times. Didn't get caught up ever with them.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't get that lucky. But getting to see and
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: be a part of those games and seeing how the
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: city comes alive during that time and how Chicago kind
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: of is during the summer is awesome.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: All right, Chicago it is.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: All right, let's see here. What is the hardest pitch
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: to master?
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's pitch. I think for me it's
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: a fastball, a located fastball. I think everybody just wants
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: to throw so hard nowadays that we take the command
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: for granted. And I think we've started making baseball more
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: highlight oriented instead of making it more baseball and playing
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: the game the right way oriented. Because like people just
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: want to see home runs and strikeouts instead of it being,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: you know, not station to station, but playing good solid
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: baseball because it will create its own highlights.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: So I think a well-located fastball is probably the hardest
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: pitch to master.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. All right. Who's one player who influenced your
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: career the most?
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: There's three. Okay. There's three because I say the same
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: three all the time because when I played in college
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: and high school, I didn't only pitch. I played outfield
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: and infield too. So the three players are King Griffey Jr.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: Love it. Barry Bonds.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, giants.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: And Pedro Martinez. Oh, my gosh. So those are the
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: three guys that I always tried. Like I said, my
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: dad told me to be. a student of the game.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: So I would always watch those guys play and try
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: to be a student as much as I could. When
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I played baseball, um, basketball, I had different.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Different role models, right?
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Let's see here. If your fiance, if Sam could describe
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: you right now with just one word, what would she say?
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, one word. She probably say tiresome right now, just
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: cause I've been busy. I've been busy just trying to
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: promote this app and get everything off the ground.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: You're in hustle mode.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Like I said, trying to build this community out,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: trying to get people on it, trying to make sure
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: people see the value in what we're trying to give people.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: So trying to get in front of as many faces
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: as possible so she knows that I'm all over the place.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: Like I said, went to Egypt, went to Taiwan, then
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: went here, then had to be back in Florida, did
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: a little camp in Greenville for a minute, came back
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: to Florida, helped my friend open up his facility just
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: to have, you know, a speaking engagement and have an
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: MLB presence there. So I've been trying to just go everywhere,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: have talks.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: So she would probably say tired.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: You're in the grind.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. A hundred percent.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: I get it, man. Entrepreneurship is a grind for sure.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Last one. What currently makes Jay Jackson smile? Life.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up, I tell people every day
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: I'm blessed to wake up. I can figure the rest out.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: So every day I wake up, that's what, you know,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: it makes me smile. It makes me happy as every
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: day I get a chance to wake up. Cause then
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: from there, I know as long as I'm able to
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: take a breath, I can make other people happy as
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: well because I know that I'm here. Right. So for me,
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: it's just life. But then behind that is family. Um, JR, mom, dad, sisters, Sam,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: her family, like the people around me, our families, our friends,
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: the people that care about us, you find out, you
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: find a lot during this transition period from being, you know, a,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: you know, former big leaguer to being an entrepreneur, you
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: find out who really wants, who is there for you
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: and who really supports you kind of thing. Like I said,
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: the support system that you had before and you're grateful
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: for it because, you know, the same people that I
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: thought were going to be there that asked me for
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: things and wanted me for so much stuff to help
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: them build their things going, you know, before now in
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: the same position where I know I can be useful
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: to them and help them, you know, help their people
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: and help their friends and whatever else. It's kind of
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: funny how, you know.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: It changes.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So what makes me happy is just life and
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: me being able to pour into other people still and
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: the people around me and enjoying that.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: That's cool. Well, you guys, thank you for coming on.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Jay Jackson here, you guys. It's your host, Bubba Page.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you for coming to The Becoming Podcast. If something
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: like this that we've shared, any of the stories resonated
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: with you, please share it with others. We'll make sure
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: to get these out and all of his links all
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: here in the YouTube description and everything like that. Wherever
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: you're listening to or watching, we're grateful you're here. Let's
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: go get them. You guys, thanks for being here, man.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks. I appreciate you.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Nice work, dude. Thank you so much.