Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Young Harris College Leadership Academy w/guest speaker Mike Cunningham

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BONUS: Young Harris College Leadership Academy w/guest speaker Mike Cunningham · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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OK, everyone, so this is Mike Cunningham, National Business
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Development Manager from Gill Athletics.
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I wrote some things down. I'm going to share a little bit
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about Mike from from his LinkedIn profile, but also
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personal anecdote that kind of will let you know why I thought
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he'd be a good person for for our group specifically.
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And yeah, so before I go through the formal introduction, I'll
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tell you How I Met Mike. Well, I thought he'd be great
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speaker for the leadership Academy.
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And for me that boils down to the word trust, right.
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We, we know that there are many aspects of leadership on our
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teams, on our campus and there will be for us professionally as
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well. But I think Mike has become a
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leader in his world and in the world of athletics, more
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specifically track and field Is is because you can trust him.
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You really can trust him. A a professional from one of
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Gil's competitors once told me. Mike is one of the best guys in
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the sport, domestically and internationally.
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I'm not going to tell you who that was, but that's a drinks
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builder, I promise. So one of the goals of
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Leadership Academy is to translate our technical
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knowledge into soft skills. You may be an expert, but if you
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want a community builder, a listener, or an impactful
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communicator, it won't matter how much you know.
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Mike is an expert, but he's also a world class connector.
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I would say networker, but I think that seems kind of cynical
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sometimes. So I'll say connector a world
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class connector. My first day on the job, at the
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last institution I served, I was given blueprints, a contract and
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an MOU for a public private partnership for a 20 year lease
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and a $4.1 million new track and field stadium.
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It was a long day. I was overwhelmed.
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It was my first director job and I started reaching out to folks
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and everyone I talked to said the same thing.
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You got to call Mike, call Mike, get a hold of Mike at Gill.
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And I had a lot of input, but the project was being managed by
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the head of maintenance at the school district and the
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contractor had never built a track and field facility before,
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right? So it was a tougher set on the
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job. And I called Mike and by the end
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of the week I had a little book that took me through the
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prospect. I had a plan for our capital
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expenses in our program and I felt much better.
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I don't remember anything about that meeting, but I remember
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getting off the phone and feeling like it was OK, it was
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going to be all right. What stood out to me was as
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important it was, was for Mike to impart his technical
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knowledge. He also asked how I was doing.
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I think he was genuinely concerned and saw the 80 hour
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weeks ahead. I felt like I had a partner and
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not just a vendor. So I'd like to introduce to you
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Mike Cunningham from Gill Athletics.
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Mike, he's been with Gill for 18 years, the last two serving as
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the National Business Development Manager.
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He has been an adjunct instructor in the Communications
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Marketing department, I think at Triton College.
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Before that, he spent about a year as a professional poker
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player. He started his professional
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career as the head track coach at Neosho Community College
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Neosho County Community College and then as an assistant at Ball
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State where he coached my former assistant coach's spouse, Kyle
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Oregano. So I think we talked about that
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last time so and then served in the same role at Mississippi
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State University. We have one no raise your hand.
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So Noah's a big he's from Mississippi he's a big
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Mississippi State fan. So we got one here so and I'll
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tell you one little story so one morning this is all script here.
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One morning I I got a text from the contractor and he said, how
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do you want your finish? It's 6:30 in the morning.
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How do you want your finish on your Shop 1 ring?
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And I said, I don't know. I have no idea.
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I'm a distance coach. I don't know what that's about.
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And so I text Matt Adams I think Mike and then I texted another
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buddy who's the the the throws coach at University of Central
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Arkansas and it was early so it was 630 Eastern.
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So in Champaign it was 530. And Mike got back to me and said
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who who who else is on the line here who else am I working with.
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And I and I let him know privately and and and because I
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told the contractor, I said give me 30 minutes, OK, give me 30
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minutes And they said the concrete is at the facility.
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And so I I just think that in our sports, in our world, we
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obviously need the technical knowledge but we also need
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people professionally that we can trust.
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And being a person of trust and how that affects your leadership
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is why I thought Mike would be such a good guy to come speak to
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us today. So Mike, we're going to give you
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30 minutes or so and then we have to like AQ and a portion.
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But if you want to change that and whatever you want to do, OK,
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sound good. Yeah, absolutely.
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And and thank you for that Matt, man.
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That's it's really humbling. It's really amazing.
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Thank you so much, Noah. Did he get it right?
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Is it actually Mississippi State or is it Ole Miss?
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How is the? Music State 100%.
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OK, Do you ever get that where people say, Oh yeah, you're a
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big Ole Miss fan. You're like, no man, that's the
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exact opposite, right? Yeah.
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OK, go Bulldogs. Good.
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Just wanted to make sure you know some of these non
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Mississippi guys, they don't know the difference there
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between Ole Miss and and Mississippi State.
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Hey, thanks guys and gals. You know I I think probably the
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most important and maybe value added portion of this talk here
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is going to be the Q&A, right? Like you, you know you guys all
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have your own individual questions and thoughts and
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desires and dreams of what you may want to do and maybe there's
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some of my experiences and knowledge that I can help you
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with. So you know, me kind of doing
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this big long spiel about myself might not really give you a lot
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of help, but your actual questions will.
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So I'll do kind of just quick introductory kind of expand a
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little bit of what what Matt kind of gave you there in
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regards to my, you know, resume or whatnot and and all those
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things. Matt said, by the way, the
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different jobs, you know, coaching for 10 years, yes, I
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went to Vegas and I was a professional poker player.
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Now I've been here at Gill for, you know, getting on 18 years.
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All that means is I'm old. That's literally all that means.
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Everybody gets experience if you stay alive long enough, right.
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So really that's all that means. So, you know, I my story is
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probably just a reflection of the future of what you have in
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front of you. You know, as an 18 to 22 year
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old, I thought I knew what I wanted to do for my life.
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I thought I knew what I wanted that paycheck to come from.
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And, you know, three careers later, I've actually found my
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passion and desire for what, You know, what I want to kind of be
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remembered for when I shuffle off this mortal coil, when I
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pass away. Right.
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So, you know, growing up, you know, I thought I wanted to be,
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I thought I wanted to be in the Air Force.
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I actually studied computer science.
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I thought I wanted to be a computer programmer.
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So I went to college for that to start with.
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And then I found track and field, and I found that I was
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not good at it at all, by the way.
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So scratch that thought that if you know, you think you need to
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be a good athlete to do anything inside of athletics.
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I was a terrible athlete, actually.
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But because of that, that's what drove me into coaching.
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I wanted to not I I wanted to be kind of the catalyst for someone
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that that could be better in their sport.
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Not because I was a bad coach. I wanted to be a good coach
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because of that. So my whole focus, I'm I'd
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consider Alabama my home. That's where I went to high
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school and college. So my whole focus in my coaching
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career was to coach in the SEC. I'm a big you know, we talked
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about Mississippi State. I'm a big SEC Homer.
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I think it's the greatest conference in the world.
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If there's a Tiddlywinks national championship, I would
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bet that a school from the SEC would win that.
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That's just how good those schools are, right?
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So my whole career I I coached for 10 years and was at 5
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different institutions. So every year or two years I
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kept moving all to get to the SEC and then I got there.
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Now I got to Stark Vegas and you know, it was awesome.
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He had success, you know, had an SEC champion.
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Many, all Americans, you know, ran 3 flat or whatnot in the
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four by four. I was kind of stuff, but it it
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wasn't the same. You know, they're in sports and
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what we're learning in business and in life, it's about
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relationships, it's about teams. And the biggest difference I
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went from, you know, little old How many of you guys raise your
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hand? Have you even heard of Ball
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State University? Have you ever even heard that?
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Yeah, one. Yeah.
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More. more than I would have thought.
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Some of you definitely never heard that.
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Now raise your hands if you've ever heard of Mississippi State
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University. Yeah, everybody, right?
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Yeah. So kind of the same thing.
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You know, no one air quotes has heard of Ball State.
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I wanted the big time. I wanted to go to a place where
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everybody had heard of. Let me tell you, the time at
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Ball State was really magical and I didn't know about it.
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Didn't realize it until I'd left.
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We had a group. I was on the women's side there
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primarily. We had a group of coaches and
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athletes that, you know, if I told them to run through that
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wall, it'd make you faster. They would do it.
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We were always in the hunt for a conference championship, meaning
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everybody contributed. You know, if someone got 8th
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place in the high jump, that one point might be the point that
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set us over for the title. When we got to the SEC, it was
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less about the team and more about the individuals.
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And now the individuals were much, much better.
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I mean the caliber of that. You know, I worked with several
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10 flat kids. I've worked with several kids
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that went to the Olympics, but we we weren't going for a team
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title. And that really taught me a
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lesson about the people to your left and right that are, you
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know, holding hands. Kumbaya.
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Working towards a goal is way more enjoyable, way more fun and
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way more successful than you trying to go by yourself.
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There's an old saying, I'm not sure.
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I think it's an old like maybe Native American saying it's it's
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go something like if you want to go fast, go by yourself, if you
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want to go far, go with others. And I think that's really
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important about who you surround yourself with, the type of task
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that you work on, the type of jobs that you work on.
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I think it's really important that you always look to left and
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right and who's who's with you? Who are you taking with you and
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who's taking you with them as well.
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So that was an important lesson with the Mississippi State and
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you know, it just, it just wasn't enjoyable.
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It just was not a a a a fun overall experience for me.
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I love my time there, love the people that I had there, Just
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the the team aspect was missing. So I decided.
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So I decided to really go no team and decided to go get as
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far away from track and field as my 10th year coaching.
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I decided that let me just get away from track and field and
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see if if I'm really supposed to do something in track and field,
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if it'll bring me back. So I went completely individual
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and dropped everything, put my two weeks notice in, had never
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been in my life and I just moved to Vegas.
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I just drove out there and started playing poker for a
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living. That is a true individual
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activity by the way. It is literally you against the
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world trying to get their money and trying to protect your
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money. That is also not as fun of a job
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as you think it might be. You know, I I didn't wake up
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until 2:00 every afternoon, but I didn't go to bed until like
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10:00 the next morning. You don't see the sun, you don't
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see friends, You don't see people.
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It's a it's a terrible job. It really is.
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And at that time, for about a year or so, Gil Athletics was
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looking for a sales and entry level salesperson.
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I'd always bought my stuff from Gil when I coached and you know,
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thank God they hired me. It's the best thing that's ever
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happened that my wife, two kids, and I've really gotten over the
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18 years here to do really just a ton of fun stuff.
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I've earned a lot of trust, a lot of respect here.
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And so I get to do things that we've never done before and try
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them out. Every position, every title that
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I've had here has been a new title we've never had.
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You know, I was the national sales manager, the national
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business development manager, now operations manager.
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At one point, all those titles I got to create, I got to create
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the job because I saw the need here inside of the company.
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And today, you know, I get to do really just a ton of fun stuff.
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I started all of our social media.
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So all of the social media that comes from us was started for me
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back in the day without even asking, you know, again.
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And you always got to be careful with this.
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But you know, sometimes you just got to see a need and fill a
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need even without getting permission.
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You got to do it right and you got to earn that trust to do
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that. But you know, I just started all
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of our social media without even talking to our bosses and stuff.
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And you know, Can you imagine a company without social media
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today? Like thank goodness we have
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that. I wanted to continue to uplift
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and honor our very core customer, which is our coaches.
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And so I decided, you know what, what's a better way to do that
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than to showcase who these men and women are and get them on a
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podcast and talk about their journey.
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Don't talk about how to coach. There's lots of places for that.
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Don't talk about business, don't talk about how to sell stuff and
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all that kind of great stuff and products.
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Talk about them, learn their journey in this profession.
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And that started almost five year, four years ago, right
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before COVID started. And that has grown to be one of
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the most successful podcasts in the in the world, really in our,
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in our space here inside of track and field.
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And something I get to, I mean literally, I get to interview
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coaches for, you know, an hour to two hours at a time on a
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weekly basis. And I get paid for it.
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Like this is my job is to go out and tell coaches how awesome
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they are and you know the meaningful impact, positive
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impact that they make on young people.
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And that's really what my day-to-day job is today.
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I get to work with an amazing sales team.
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I get to work with an amazing group of men and women who Weld
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and paint and ship and just do really interesting things and
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serve coaches, which allows me to serve athletes around the
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world from the local middle school JV team all the way up to
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Olympians. And it's a fascinating and
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absolutely fun, fun opportunity. So really my skill set and this
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is where I kind of want to transition into Q&A and really
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no questions off limits here. My real passion is social media
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podcasting called business development in regards to how
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you work with others, your job, searching resumes, how to get a
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better job, how to get a job, things like that.
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I've helped a lot, I've done this kind of thing many times
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with other colleges, students out there.
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And really the the value is if you have questions.
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So, Matt, is it appropriate or is it?
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Do you have any questions for me to start with Q&A?
14:47
Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to save my battery
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life here. Yeah.
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And one of the things that comes to mind is so, so you you work
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with coaches, but you're also working with administrators for
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those big sort of capital projects.
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If somebody's building the track and field you you've said things
15:09
that I think are obvious but things that somebody you might
15:12
not expect somebody in your position to set like an example
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is coaches should absolutely be paid more.
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Oh yeah, 100% right. And and then you have to talk to
15:23
administrators to like are looking for those, you know
15:27
those big capital projects and things and sometimes it's
15:29
coaches depending on where you are.
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But right, the the administrators are going to be
15:34
the ones that are pulling the strings a lot of the times to
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make that happen. When when you think about making
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sort of advocacy statements or or statements to be, yeah, an
15:46
ally to a certain group. How do you weigh that
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professionally? I think we live in a world where
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we we want to, we want to make our voices heard and and think
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about justice and think about all the things that are
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important to us. But we also know that there
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might be repercussions for some of those things.
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So when you do that, how how are you weighing those two things?
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Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I think back to the
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you probably heard the the slogan, the statement if you
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don't stand for anything, you stand for nothing.
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And, you know, so for me, my advocacy for track coaches is
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pretty simple. The problem we have in
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athletics, whether it's collegially high school,
16:23
professionally, when it comes to coach track coaches
16:27
specifically, it's it's a priority problem.
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It's not a financial problem. You know, when you look at
16:32
schools that are paying football coaches 7-8, nine, $10 million a
16:36
year and then they paid their track coach, you know, maybe
16:40
$50,000 a year. I'm not saying that that
16:43
football coach doesn't deserve million, two million, 3,000,004
16:47
million, 5 million whatever number there.
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I'm not saying they don't deserve that because I know the
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hours a, you know, a power for football coach puts in.
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I I know what the detriment that is to their family because of
16:56
those hours. I understand the impact that
16:58
they make on young people and I understand the financial impact
17:02
that they they make. You know, here recently, you
17:05
know Coach Saban retired and yeah, I think he retired at ten,
17:08
$11 million a year, what not. And they talked about how much
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was he really worth? Was he really worth 10 million?
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In fact, he was probably worth 20 million.
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When you look at the attendance enrollment at University of
17:20
Alabama from before he got there to what it is today, it is I I I
17:27
don't know if it's tenfold. It's a it's a unbelievably large
17:30
amount of more students are coming to University of Alabama
17:32
today than they were back then. And a lot of that has to do with
17:35
the marketing of the football team has had over the, you know,
17:38
the 10 year run that he's been there.
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So he he is paid, you know, his salary has been paid 100 times
17:44
that. So I'm not, I'm not advocating
17:45
for less pay necessarily for a football coach.
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But what I'm saying is when I talk about it being a priority
17:51
issue is track and field, specifically on the high school
17:54
level. It's the number one most
17:56
participated sport. When you talk about boys and
17:59
girls, track and field, that is the most.
18:02
It's more than football. It's more than the basketballs
18:04
added together, baseball, softball together, etcetera.
18:07
When we get to college, it's the same thing again.
18:10
It is the most participated sport in collegiately.
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When you add men and women, track and field, it's more than
18:17
all the football players, it's more than all the women and men
18:19
basketball players together, etcetera.
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So again, it's not a financial, it's not a we're not bringing in
18:27
a lot of receipts like so we're not bringing in people to our
18:30
track meets, which needs to change.
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But we are bringing in a lot of undergrads that are paying
18:36
tuition and that will in the future pay a lot of donation to
18:41
the school. So the track and field coaches
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at absolutely critical, critical component to a healthy college
18:48
and a healthy athletic department inside of a college
18:51
and in the high school side where we're not necessarily
18:53
looking at the financial side there, they are a huge advocate
18:57
of positive impact on young people inside of that high
19:00
school. They're affecting probably more
19:03
students than a chemistry teacher is.
19:06
And so that's an important aspect of the school in general
19:09
that goes way beyond athletics, goes into the social side of it.
19:13
It's Fletcher and then of course the financial side of it.
19:15
So for me to advocate, to advocate for a track coach, it's
19:20
super simple one. It's personal.
19:21
I had track coaches that thank goodness did not give up on me.
19:25
And thank goodness they gave me second, third and 4th, 5th.
19:29
I actually probably needed 6th and 7th chances.
19:32
Thank goodness that they did not give up on me because I'm here
19:35
today, I'm able to support a a family.
19:37
I'm able to help other people because of what track coaches
19:40
poured into me. So that's a super simple wave,
19:44
the reason for me to advocate. And then business wise man, you
19:47
know, without track coaches, we don't have anything.
19:50
We literally have nothing here. We don't don't matter how many
19:52
pole vault poles we make, pole vault pits, high jump shop hits,
19:56
et cetera, because it wouldn't matter if there were no track
19:59
coaches. So for me, it's easy.
20:00
And anybody, whoever wants to punch down and say, well, how
20:04
come you don't advocate for basketball coaches or how come
20:06
you don't advocate for teachers and things like that.
20:09
Those people are absolutely important.
20:11
They they need and there needs to be advocates for them.
20:13
I'm just not that advocate. I'm going to be pretty
20:16
singularly focused on track coaches and I hope other people
20:19
are singularly focused on teachers and administrators,
20:22
etcetera, because they they deserve it as well.
20:24
But for me? Super easy.
20:25
You can punch down all you want about my advocates.
20:28
See, for track coaches, it'll never that that flame will never
20:31
die down. It's a very simple, very
20:33
important group to my life. So why I promised everyone that
20:37
was the plug. OK.
20:39
So so like in our in our leadership Academy we have lots
20:44
of students, we have a couple of track guys, cross country guys,
20:48
but we do have most of our students are from traditional
20:50
non revenue sports. And so you would say this, I
20:53
mean obviously that's not your you know sort of role to
20:56
advocate for those. But I think we always think
20:58
about what the the big rap sports are.
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And So what I'm hearing you say is like if this is important to
21:05
you and you see the value in this and you bring value to the
21:07
institution and as student athletes you should be
21:09
advocating for yourselves too. We've got men's and women's
21:12
golfers here. We've got women's lacrosse
21:13
players. We've got men's lacrosse player
21:15
here in the room too and and so and I'll pivot to to asking
21:22
maybe a more fun question what's the what's the funnest?
21:26
What's the best track you've ever been to?
21:28
The one that you were like, my gosh, I can't believe I get to
21:31
do this for a living kind of kind of place.
21:34
Yeah, I'll answer that in a second on yourself.
21:36
Advocacy there, whether you're a golf or lacrosse, whether you're
21:39
a chess team member, member of the drama club, etcetera, yeah,
21:43
that's absolutely important. Long as you're not doing
21:45
anything that's hurting others. What you do really matters, you
21:49
know, for, you know, I probably can't even spell lacrosse, but
21:52
if you're a lacrosse player, if that's helping you get through
21:55
college, whether it's financial, whether you're getting a
21:57
scholarship or not, but it's helping you.
21:58
Like, I enjoy being a college because I like going to practice
22:00
and competitions, things like that.
22:02
That's a big positive thing for you, and you should absolutely
22:06
advocate for it because it doesn't hurt anybody.
22:08
We're not, you know, success athletically, personally, Even
22:12
in the business world, people will disagree with this side of
22:15
it. But even in the business world,
22:16
success is not pie. If your slice of the pie is
22:20
bigger, no one gets a smaller piece of the pie.
22:22
It is much, much bigger than that.
22:24
A lot of people can have success with what you're doing out there
22:28
And so don't think that someone else getting, you know,
22:32
accolades is taken away from you that that has nothing to do with
22:35
you. You can also get those
22:37
accolades. So self advocacy is extremely
22:40
important. Today, yesterday and and
22:43
tomorrow. In regards to my favorite track
22:45
meet, yeah man, this is pretty simple.
22:47
I got to go to the Prefontaine meet for the first time
22:49
probably, I don't know, 10 years ago now.
22:52
It's a professional meet that they held at the University of
22:55
Oregon and it's kind of a two hour, 2 1/2 hour meet.
22:59
You know, most track meets unfortunately, are, you know, 12
23:02
hour endeavors. This was a 2/2 hour meet that
23:06
just, you know, there was always something going on.
23:08
The 100 meter dash would go off soon as the 100m was over.
23:11
The announcer's directing your attention to the shot put.
23:14
Soon as that's over there, you know they're at the last mile of
23:17
the 5K and they're talking about that.
23:18
It was just bang, bang, bang action going on set in a 2 hour
23:22
setting. Fans were into it.
23:25
The announcer was amazing and of course the athletics, the
23:27
athletes were just you know all the Olympians and stuff.
23:30
It was amazing. It was, it was really, it showed
23:32
me what track and field can actually be.
23:34
It doesn't have to be you know these 12 hour, five day, you
23:38
know, relay meets, those are part a good part of our sport.
23:41
But every weekend it it becomes an an issue I think.
23:45
So, so Mike this is my last question and I'll open up to the
23:47
group. We have lots of folks who you
23:50
know sit some mostly upperclassmen, some of you have
23:53
50 years from your room who are going to go out into the job
23:57
market soon, right. And it can seem like a scary
24:01
place and so when when you kind of made the transition.
24:05
So I will say traditional, I'll use non traditional, non
24:08
traditional outside of the not the world of athletics but
24:13
coaching specifically within an institution, being part of the
24:16
NCAA, one AI, whatever institution whether you're an
24:19
athlete or a coach or an employee and then moving into
24:23
like now I'm at Gil Athletics. What what sort of advice would
24:27
you give to add value to make yourself marketable in the in
24:32
the workforce and how is it different?
24:34
How is being on a team or being part of a team in the NCAA
24:39
different than being part of a team at Gil or at Sony or
24:44
whatever, right. And and whatever places these
24:47
folks end up or being a teacher what what have you.
24:49
So can you talk about the difference of those two things
24:51
and then I'll open up to the whole group.
24:53
Yeah. Hey, I I think, you know, I'm
24:55
probably going to tell you something a little different
24:57
here. When you're working on
24:59
interviewing for jobs, I think you, I would implore you.
25:04
I implore everybody who interviews for our jobs.
25:06
I've heard a lot of people here be yourself.
25:11
And that's easy to say. And that's easy to nod your head
25:13
and say, well, of course, who else can I be?
25:15
Right? And what I mean by that is, you
25:16
know, you're faced with a lot of stress and pressures as you're
25:21
going in to get a job, right? And so it's all about winning
25:23
that job. And you know who who do they
25:25
want me to be and what do I got to see?
25:27
What what are the right words I got to say?
25:29
And a lot of times, people get hired for the wrong jobs because
25:34
they fake their ways into that job.
25:37
They say the things that you're supposed to say, and the boss,
25:42
the hiring manager, asks you questions like, OK, well, I
25:45
think she wants me to be this kind of person, so I'm gonna
25:48
answer my questions that way. And then you get the job and you
25:51
are who you are. You're going to fall back to who
25:53
you are. And that's not a bad thing.
25:54
You're going to, but you're going to be who you are.
25:57
You're going to get found out, You're going to get exposed real
26:00
quick, and that's a bad thing for you.
26:02
Now here's the other part of it that means that there is some
26:04
other job out there that was right for who you actually are.
26:08
Go find that job. Take the find a job.
26:11
Finding the right job is a lot of work.
26:13
That's hard work. But honestly, I would just tell
26:16
you to be yourself. And by the way, I I say this
26:18
when I talk to hiring managers around the country as well.
26:22
Be who you are. Like ask the, you know, tell
26:25
them the job part that sucks because what what you think
26:28
sucks, this person might love and that's the kind of person
26:31
you need. You know, the real leaders hire
26:33
people who do things that they're not very good at really
26:35
well, all right. So if I'm not really good at
26:37
time management, I better be. You know, if I'm a smart leader,
26:40
I'm out hiring people who are good at time management.
26:42
So be who you are. Don't go in and fake the funk on
26:46
a job interview man. You're going to be miserable.
26:48
They're going to be miserable. It's just there.
26:50
It's a no win situation. Be yourself.
26:52
And when you don't get the job because you you were who you are
26:56
and you you spoke your truths and you have self-awareness of
27:00
what your strengths and weaknesses are.
27:01
When you don't get that job, it's not a bad thing.
27:04
That's a good thing. You saved yourself a lot of
27:06
heartache, a lot of time that you could be putting that time
27:10
and energy and attention into what the right job might be for
27:14
you. So for getting a job, you know,
27:18
I'll give you kind of, you know, here's something I'm really
27:20
interesting and interested in. We we use the podcast on the
27:25
business development way kind of this way as well if you want a
27:28
job inside of an industry that may be hard to break into.
27:32
And what industry isn't nowadays?
27:34
To be real frank with you, here's kind of a This is kind of
27:37
an insider trip tip, trick tactic, whatever.
27:42
Start a podcast. Start a podcast which is super
27:46
simple and it's cheap. You can do it for $0.00 zero.
27:50
Start a podcast where you interview people inside of your
27:54
industry. So I spoke to a College in Iowa
27:58
last semester and someone she said she wanted to work in the
28:01
Chicago Cubs front office, like in marketing, ticket ticket
28:05
sales, marketing, things like that.
28:07
And I said okay, you're a junior now.
28:09
Start interviewing people who work inside of Major League
28:11
Baseball marketing ticket manager type of positions.
28:15
Just start a 1530 minute. Whatever you want, whatever time
28:18
you want to put into it. Call up some assistant ticket
28:21
manager at the local minor league Chicago Cubs affiliate
28:28
and interview them about their job for 30 minutes.
28:30
Trust me, we all have egos. Everybody wants to be
28:33
interviewed when you call. It's rare when someone says no.
28:36
You call the the president of the Chicago Cubs.
28:39
Right now he's going to say no because he's too busy for you.
28:42
But you get that assistant ticket manager.
28:43
They're going to be like, no one talks to me.
28:45
This is amazing. You want to interview me for
28:46
your podcast. So you interview these people
28:48
that are inside of your industry.
28:50
One. You're going to learn.
28:51
You're going to learn about what the real job is, not what the
28:54
job description is. 2. You're building your network.
28:58
When you go to actually apply for a job, let's say you do it
29:02
inside that Chicago Cubs organization and you've
29:05
interviewed maybe two or three people inside that organization.
29:08
You're going to have a leg up on someone who just slides in their
29:10
resume. So to me, I'm really interested
29:14
in how people use social media and I consider podcasting social
29:18
media to kind of not gain the system but really do your
29:22
homework and increase your network in a really authentic
29:24
way, not just by meeting them at some cocktail hour and you think
29:27
they automatically should be a referral on your on your resume.
29:30
So using the tools in front of you, I think for for job
29:34
interviews, for for future career advancement, I I think is
29:38
it's really interesting to do something unique and outside the
29:41
box and it's it's fun. It's more fun doing, you know,
29:44
say, like an interview on a podcast than it is to, you know,
29:47
cold call people about jobs. All right, y'all, what questions
29:53
do we have? Just where you just blink,
29:58
stare. Look at me.
29:59
I'm not that you know, I didn't even shave today.
30:01
There's some questions. You all have questions about a
30:04
lot of things. Every one of you has social
30:06
media in your pocket. Maybe you have questions about
30:07
that. Come on, someone, be brave and
30:10
throw out that first question. Did you first get into like your
30:13
job, like track and field and where you are now?
30:17
Yeah, track in general, like my first first was a coaching job.
30:21
You know the the first time I wanted to coach, I just cold
30:26
called the guy, man. I was at a fraternity that
30:30
stared right into a high school and I called the the track coach
30:33
up and was like hey man, do you need someone to volunteer like
30:35
two days a week. I was working a full time job
30:37
doing and I remember what at that point and and the guy was
30:41
like well yeah what what would you coach.
30:43
I was like oh probably distance you know that's kind of more of
30:45
what I was I did in high school and he was like oh man you know
30:48
I'm the I'm the distance coach I really need a a sprints hurdles
30:51
coach and I was like Oh yeah cool.
30:53
I can do that too. Like I hurdled once like I could
30:55
coach that and you know one thing letting another I became
30:59
as a full time assistant coach he worked you know I my life has
31:02
been real real lucky here too he retired after that year I
31:06
somehow convinced this school to let.
31:08
I mean, I was 1920 years old at the time to let me coached as a
31:12
head coach in middle of downtown Chicago basically.
31:16
So And then it just, you know, again a lot of stories like
31:19
that, if I just called, someone said hey man, I see you got a
31:21
job. Would I be, You know, would I?
31:24
Would you consider me at all and then, you know, talk your way
31:27
into it and show experience? I'm genuinely curious about this
31:36
one. Based on what you said, I think
31:39
other folks in the room are What do you think about the future of
31:41
the NCAA? I mean.
31:45
It's a it's a huge question surrounding us and I think you
31:50
know my, I I think some of the folks at sort of mid major
31:53
division ones are in different situations.
31:55
We're at a private liberal arts school with about 1000
31:58
undergraduates. So athletics right, plays a huge
32:02
part in our enrollment, keeps the lights on, keeps the doors
32:05
open, right, has to make sense. And so athletics financially
32:08
makes a lot, a ton of sense for us, right?
32:11
For obviously we want to be competitive, we want to do well.
32:13
But also you know my my AD is not in here right now.
32:18
So we wouldn't have a school without athletics here, we just
32:20
wouldn't. And so I'm curious about what
32:23
you think about the future of the NCAA with all of the the
32:26
conference realignments that going on?
32:28
Yeah, Full disclosure, we're the equipments, a national equipment
32:33
official, equipment sponsors for all the NCAA championships.
32:35
So not that I have to be careful, but just Full
32:38
disclosure, you know, I do have a business relationship with
32:40
NCAA. You know, really what I think,
32:42
Matt, regardless of what happens with NCAA and you know, the only
32:47
thing constant life has changed, incidentally, today in 2024 is
32:51
definitely different than what it was in 2014.
32:53
But it's also different than what it was in 1974, right.
32:57
You know, it was a big deal when the NCAA was going to integrate
33:01
with AIW and actually have men and women athletics.
33:05
It was just a men's organization to start with here.
33:07
So, I mean that was a big up in arms like, Oh my God, this is
33:09
going to destroy the NCAA because we're going to add women
33:12
to the official association, which is, you know, we look at
33:15
today and it's like, well, that's just ridiculous.
33:16
Like, you know, what do you mean it was going to destroy it?
33:19
And then of course as you went through and football and you
33:21
know the incidentally basketball tournament and now NIL and you
33:26
know Alford case and things like that, here's here's what is in
33:29
my opinion is going to happen no matter what.
33:32
Sports and athletics will continue to move forward.
33:36
It might look different. It probably will look different.
33:39
Track today looks different. Lacrosse, it looks different.
33:42
There are many more programs today than there were ten years
33:44
ago in a sport like that. So it's going to continue.
33:47
I I used to be a little concerned is like man, if the
33:50
NCAA goes away what happens to Gil?
33:53
You know that's a big part of our our business.
33:55
And then someone reminded me, you know, the number one, the
33:58
largest division for track and field collegiately is the
34:02
Division Three, which gives 0 athletic scholarships.
34:06
And it has more programs and more participants than Division
34:10
One or division two or NAIA or junior college.
34:14
So I think to your point about what you said there about, you
34:17
know, the school is there because of the athletics, like
34:19
thank goodness for athletics for your school there specifically.
34:22
I think a lot of places would say that.
34:25
And even if let's say the university, you know, using that
34:28
University of Alabama example with Coach Saban, even if
34:32
University of Alabama says, yeah, but we don't need track
34:35
for enrollment with that. That's what football and
34:38
marketing and and things like that do.
34:39
We don't need track for that. There's still the health.
34:42
I don't mean the physical health, the mental health, the
34:45
overall experience of your athlete, of your students at
34:49
your schools. And there will still be, even
34:51
without scholarships. Track is the number one most
34:54
participated sport in high school, so they'll still be
34:56
people who want to continue doing that on the next level.
34:58
So it may look more clubbish, more non scholarship funded, but
35:03
I think this the the, the health of all sports.
35:06
There will still be a golf team at the University of Alabama
35:09
that that golf team makes $0.00 for Alabama.
35:13
There will still be a golf team, probably a lacrosse team.
35:17
Heck, there's a a rugby team at Alabama and you don't even know
35:19
about that because it's not an NCAA sport.
35:21
Athletics is extremely popular. There's you know, of course, you
35:26
can probably clip this in 20 years.
35:28
I'll be wrong. Athletics isn't going anywhere.
35:31
It's just going to look different in my opinion.
35:33
So whether it's NCAA NAIANJCAA, that to me doesn't matter.
35:39
The sport and sports will thrive and therefore there will be a
35:43
lot of business and a lot of job opportunities centered around
35:46
that. Like we have some golfers in the
35:50
room. What's your handicap?
35:52
I hate golf. Now, now, now you're going to
35:57
get me on a rant. 2 things. One, I suck at it.
35:59
My, my little brother tried to teach me golf in college and
36:01
he's like, oh, it's so relaxing. I never cursed more than when I
36:05
was on the golf course to save my life.
36:06
So now when I do half the golf and I only golf when I
36:10
absolutely have to, and that's maybe once every like couple
36:12
years. Now I use three.
36:15
Who's the golfers? Raise your hand.
36:17
Yeah. OK.
36:18
OK. OK.
36:19
You guys are going to laugh. I use 3 clubs.
36:21
This is all I can use. The driver because you have to
36:23
write the laugh at you if you don't use a driver off of the
36:26
tee. Right?
36:27
Putting I I use a putter because you know, you probably get in
36:30
trouble if you use any other club, right?
36:32
And then for everything in between, the only club that I
36:35
can hit with any decency is a sand wedge.
36:38
Now I can hit that bad boy. I'm going to be a little
36:40
exaggerating here. I can hit that bad boy 300 yards
36:43
and I can hit it within 30 yards.
36:46
But I tried going to a 2A6A set. I can't do it.
36:50
Almost said something to get mad at me.
36:51
I just don't like the sport. Here's another reason why I
36:53
don't like the sport. Raise your hand.
36:55
Does anybody listen to podcast now?
36:57
Like, are you a podcast listener?
36:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now raise your hand.
37:00
Does anybody know Malcolm Gladwell?
37:02
Has anybody heard of Malcolm Gladwell?
37:04
Oh my gosh, you guys have to find Malcolm Gladwell.
37:06
First of all, he's an amazing author, storyteller, But he has
37:10
this podcast called Revisionist History.
37:13
And he he goes and he finds kind of like misunderstood or
37:16
forgotten stories. And then he's just a great
37:18
researcher and storyteller. And he has one about golf
37:20
courses, specifically ones out in California, and what a waste
37:25
of taxpayer money and space. And yeah, so you're smiling
37:29
because you know it's true. I see you smiling there, golfer.
37:33
It's, you know, it's the amount of square footage per person
37:39
that a golf course uses. The equivalency for basketball
37:42
would be something like every basketball player gets a
37:44
basketball court the size of a mile by mile square.
37:48
Like, it's just ridiculous, ridiculous.
37:51
So I think golf should just be relegated to like, putt putt or
37:54
something. Gosh.
37:56
Nobody can be fan. I I can't stand when you said,
38:02
when you said there's golfers in the audience, I was like, oh
38:04
God, someone's going to say something.
38:06
I just know it. Yeah, not a not a fan.
38:07
Not a fan. I love that you golf.
38:09
I love it. I love it.
38:09
But man, how do you, you know, you're young, so you don't have
38:12
this. How do people take four or five
38:15
hours off of their family time every week?
38:18
Like, I just think you just don't like your family if you're
38:21
golfing every Sunday, man. And maybe for a young person,
38:24
maybe that's perfect. You're like, yeah, I'm that's
38:25
why I do it, buddy. I don't want to be around, you
38:26
know, my brothers and sisters and whatnot.
38:28
But man, stick to lacrosse. I like lacrosse is great.
38:31
That's awesome. So, and what is it awkward if
38:35
somebody invites you to like a tee, time for a big business
38:38
meeting, Or do you just? No, no.
38:41
In in our realm it doesn't happen.
38:43
You know, there are golf tournaments and stuff like that,
38:45
and I can easily wear my way out of it.
38:47
I just, you know, I've got pretty bad ankles and knees.
38:50
I just, you know, use that as my excuse because it's a true
38:52
excuse. I don't want to be out there.
38:57
Any other questions? The golfers don't want to ask
38:59
any. Yeah, the golfers.
39:00
Don't want to ask anything now asking me about the golf.
39:02
No, I was just going to say, as you said, you've hired a lot of,
39:07
a lot of people and like coming out of college, like like all of
39:10
us are about to do and getting into the business world, How can
39:14
we separate ourselves or even compete with someone who has a
39:16
lot more experience than us? Yeah, be yourself.
39:20
You know, especially for entry level jobs there, there's
39:23
nothing to go on that you're better than the other person,
39:26
right? I mean the degrees don't matter
39:30
anymore. What I mean by, you know, if
39:31
someone has a if your two degrees, if you're going for an
39:33
accountant's job, I don't know. And your two degrees are roughly
39:36
the same, you know, name wise and all that kind of stuff, it's
39:39
like, well, I don't know, you're you're a 22 year old college
39:42
grad and this is a 22 year old college college grad.
39:44
What's the difference between you?
39:45
You know what the difference is? The guy, you know, I like this
39:47
guy for some reason he's a golfer.
39:50
I don't know, maybe. You know, a lot of people like
39:51
that stuff I see. So maybe that's it.
39:53
That's why I talk about in the interview process and throughout
39:56
the entire interview experience. Be yourself, be honest, be self
40:01
aware, really think about what your strengths and weaknesses
40:04
are and have those discussions during the interview process.
40:09
If you you know there's a really another great author for you,
40:12
Patrick Lancioni. He wrote the ideal team player
40:16
and his newest one is called Working Genius and it talks
40:19
about, you know, how work is done from ideation phase all the
40:23
way down to implementation phase.
40:25
And we're all strong at a couple of those things.
40:28
And then there's a couple that we're just not that strong.
40:30
We're humans. We all have our strengths and
40:31
weaknesses. Having self-awareness around the
40:34
things that you're not great at and having those discussions
40:37
during the interview process can be very scary.
40:39
I get it. You want and you need a job and
40:41
you think working at this place would be the greatest place in
40:43
the world. But having those discussions of
40:45
like, hey, so I'll be honest with you, I'm not real strong at
40:48
XY and Z. How would that play into this
40:52
position And they may tell you Oh yeah, hey that none of that
40:55
you won't have to worry about. You know we we have other people
40:57
to do that aspect of it. Oh perfect.
40:59
We might be a good fit or they may tell you hey this job
41:03
requires nothing but that like that's what you will be doing
41:05
24/7 in your job. Oh hey thanks for letting me
41:09
know that because we're probably not a good fit and and move off
41:12
the the process. I know that sounds crazy because
41:15
you're supposed to win every job.
41:17
You know every it's it's like a contest.
41:19
This ain't contest, man. This is your life.
41:21
You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy at work.
41:27
So find the right job that's going to help you to find maybe
41:30
the next job. Now I'm on my my third career
41:32
here. There's nothing wrong with that.
41:34
But ultimately, be yourself. Don't be what you think that you
41:39
think they want you to be. Don't be.
41:42
Don't. Don't try to be something you're
41:43
not. Be who you are and get enough at
41:47
bats and the right opportunity will be there for you.
41:53
And take them on a golf course or something.
41:54
And people love that stuff. But you could be a golf hustler,
42:00
you know what I mean? Combine the poker playing with
42:01
the ball, yeah. I'm glad I didn't get into that
42:05
part of gambling. They they they gamble a lot on
42:08
the golf course. No way.
42:12
Mike, have you ever been to young Harris, GA?
42:14
Have you ever been or bought near it?
42:17
I'm sorry, say that again. Have you ever been to young
42:19
Harris, GA? I have not no what?
42:21
What? So tell me, where, Where in
42:23
Georgia is it? Yeah.
42:25
So, you know, like Colby, where Western Carolina is, of course.
42:30
Yeah. So we're 45 minutes or 30 miles
42:35
southwest. It's right on the North
42:38
Carolina, Georgia border. I'm trying to think in terms of
42:41
track, right. We're also like we're we're an
42:44
hour 30 from Lee University, right, Caleb Morgan's group,
42:46
Berkeley. And then we're we're we're two
42:51
hours north of Atlanta, the Atlanta suburbs.
42:53
So we're in the mountains. We're up here.
42:55
There's about 1500 people in the community of young.
42:58
It's a metropolis. Yeah, yeah, right.
43:01
Where where are you guys from? Are you guys all from Georgia in
43:04
that kind of area or where's everybody from?
43:06
I see a couple heads shaking. Album Sweden pretty far away.
43:11
That's a that's a suburb, I think, right.
43:13
Yeah. Well, Mississippi, right, Yeah.
43:20
Yeah, yeah, Mississippi. Athens.
43:26
Athens, yeah, yeah. All right.
43:30
Y'all we we, we want to be respectful of our time in Mike's
43:34
time. So are there any final questions
43:37
before we let Mike go? All right, Mike, thank you so
43:42
much. If you want to give a parting
43:43
shot before you log off here, that's fine.
43:46
But really appreciate you doing this for us.
43:49
Obviously I know you from the the track and field side, the
43:51
advocacy side and and you know and also you're helping us out
43:54
with building that facility at the last hopefully maybe you
43:57
know 10 or 15 years. I'll be calling you again when
44:01
we when we build 1 here. So appreciate you so much for
44:04
for doing this and if you have any party shots please leave us
44:08
with those. Yeah.
44:10
Hey, you know, as a coach and now on this side of things, you
44:13
know, the lifeblood of this entire system, of this entire
44:17
world is you young people. And I know it's hard at 20 years
44:21
old to think about, Oh, God, when I was 20, I thought 40 was.
44:24
I was basically in the grave. I'm 47 now, and I feel like I'm
44:28
barely at halftime. You know, I'll be 8090.
44:31
Heck, with the way, you know, medicine's going, I'll be 100
44:34
years old. So I still got, you know, 4045
44:36
years plus to affect young people.
44:39
So one day you're going to be old and I'm still going to be
44:41
affecting 20 year olds in a positive manner.
44:43
So if there's anything that I can do to help, find me on
44:46
LinkedIn, find me on Twitter. It's, you know, it's pretty, I'm
44:50
pretty much on all the social. I'm a huge advocate.
44:53
I think social media is a very positive thing.
44:55
So I'm a huge advocate of that. But don't be afraid to reach out
44:58
if there's anything I can help you with.
45:00
If you like that podcast idea, I'd love to help you.
45:02
I teach podcasting one-on-one for a junior college.
45:04
Would love to help get you set up there for free, things like
45:07
that. But don't be afraid to reach out
45:09
if there's somehow anybody in my network.
45:12
My my real strength is not any kind of knowledge that I have,
45:16
but I know a lot of people really well.
45:18
So if there's anybody in my network that I can help
45:20
introduce you to, please reach out.
45:23
Matt knows how to get old. Me as well.
45:24
If you can't find me on those platforms, but just know that
45:29
you have a long, long runway in front of you, I'm sorry.
45:33
That society and maybe even your parents expect you to have all
45:36
your crap together today at 20 years old.
45:38
It's so unfair. You should be tasting like a
45:41
little buffet. Everything.
45:43
Go try this job, go try that job, go try this class, go try
45:46
that sport, etcetera. Because I guarantee you, you're
45:49
probably not going to find your real calling until you're 2530
45:53
forty years old. And that's cool because that
45:55
means you got a lot of time to make mistakes.
45:57
And that's awesome, man. Me and Matt, we don't have a lot
45:59
of time to make mistakes anymore.
46:00
It affects the our retirement too quickly.
46:03
So go out, make mistakes, try different things and have a lot
46:08
of fun. This is this.
46:10
Life is only good if you have fun.
46:11
So I really appreciate you guys, your time and attention and your
46:14
questions. Matt, appreciate the invitation
46:16
today. It's a real, real highlight for
46:18
me, man. I love doing this.
46:20
All right. Thanks, Mike.
46:21
We'll talk soon. Take care.
46:22
Appreciate you guys. Have a great week.
46:23
Have a great weekend. Bye bye.
46:26
See you, brother.