Changing Lives Through an Army of Normal Folks | Coach Bill Courtney

Speaker 1 When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or skins, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing, but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business, making selling and for shoppers, buying simple.

Speaker 1 For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

Speaker 1 With Shop Pay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.

Speaker 1 So, if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between.

Speaker 1 Businesses that sell more, sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses.
Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/slash Westwood One, all lowercase.

Speaker 1 Go to shopify.com/slash Westwood One to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/slash Westwood One.

Speaker 3 October brings it all. Halloween parties, game day tailgates, crisp fall air.
At Total Wine and Moore, you'll find just what you need for them all.

Speaker 3 You'll find thousands of wines, spirits, and beers at the lowest prices. Mixing up something spooky? Total Wine and Moore is your cocktail central for all your Halloween concoctions.

Speaker 3 You'll always find what you love and love what you find. Only at Total Wine and Moore.
Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas. See TotalWine.com for details.

Speaker 3 Spirits not sold in Virginia, North Carolina, drink responsibly B21.

Speaker 4 This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help.

Speaker 4 But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need.

Speaker 4 With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist.

Speaker 4 And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule, wherever you feel most at ease.

Speaker 4 If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner, or just need a little extra one-on-one support, TalkSpace is here for you.

Speaker 4 Plus, TalkSpace works with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance?

Speaker 2 No problem.

Speaker 4 Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code Space80 when you go to talkspace.com. Match with a licensed therapist today at TalkSpace.com.
Save $80 with code SPACE80 at talkspace.com.

Speaker 5 And her father told me, and I will try not to get emotional saying this, but her father told me, you know, Bill, if she had one friend, she'd be alive today.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 10 Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look easy.

Speaker 11 Hey, stand up.

Speaker 12 The Ryan Hanley Show shares the original ideas, habits, and mindsets of world-class original thinkers you can use to produce extraordinary results in your life and business. This is the way.

Speaker 2 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2 You are about to hear one of

Speaker 2 the most emotional, the most engaging, compassionate,

Speaker 2 connected, powerful conversations that I've ever had on this show. Coach Bill Courtney.

Speaker 2 is well known for his time as a head coach in Memphis at a local high school that was documented in the Oscar winning movie Undefeated, which came out

Speaker 2 back in the early 2010s.

Speaker 15 Now,

Speaker 2 Coach Bill has created a podcast, a community, a not-for-profit around the idea of this, an army of normal folks, in which Bill tells stories of everyday people doing the work on the ground to help their communities improve.

Speaker 2 He's connecting individuals from around the country and around around the world who want to support these types of organizations and making real progress. And the stories he tells,

Speaker 2 guys,

Speaker 2 I had tears streaming down my face during the show. You'll see it if you watch on YouTube.
It is incredible. It is powerful.
And these are the kind of messages that we need to spread.

Speaker 2 So if you're not someone who normally hits that share button, do so. If you don't want to share this episode or the show, go to Bill's work.
Go directly to his podcast and share his work.

Speaker 2 This is powerful. This is the kind of stuff that changes lives.
It was such an honor, such a pleasure to have Coach Bill on the show. And I know you are going to enjoy this conversation.

Speaker 2 This is your first time here. Would love for you to subscribe wherever you listen or watch.

Speaker 2 And if you have thoughts, if you have comments, if you want to connect with Bill, I highly encourage you to do so.

Speaker 2 I appreciate you for listening to the show. I love you for listening to the show.
Let's get on to Coach Bill. Bill, I am so excited to have you on the show.

Speaker 2 I knew who you were

Speaker 2 from the movie Undefeated, and I knew a little bit of your story.

Speaker 2 But I'll be honest with you, when I dug into what you're doing now with Army of Normal folks, I just,

Speaker 2 that's what really lit me up. I mean, I have a million different things to ask you, but

Speaker 2 I love this idea. So maybe just give me the, when you, when this first hit your face, right? First hit you in the head and you're like, ooh, there's something here.
What was that moment?

Speaker 2 What was that moment where this idea hit you in the head?

Speaker 19 Honestly, it didn't hit me in the head, if you want to know the truth.

Speaker 21 It hit my producer, Alex Cortez, in the head.

Speaker 23 And here's how it went.

Speaker 27 I do a lot of interviews. I do a lot of speeches.

Speaker 29 And, you know, from the movie and my book, Against the Grain,

Speaker 23 Alex was just a dude who was interviewing me.

Speaker 31 And about, I would say, close to two years ago,

Speaker 20 he was doing an interview for

Speaker 21 his radio show,

Speaker 34 which is called Our American Stories.

Speaker 36 And it was one of those days, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 28 It's one of those days where something happened in the news cycle that was really obvious, right?

Speaker 19 But if you watched Fox report on it, and then you watched CNN report on it, it was like two completely different things actually happened, you know?

Speaker 46 And then

Speaker 38 the GOP people in DC started, you know, having their conversations about it, and the Democrats started.

Speaker 19 And again, it was like

Speaker 26 it was obviously what, and I wish I could remember what it was, but I don't.

Speaker 52 But it just one more of the infuriating misinformation and

Speaker 53 how

Speaker 28 an obvious situation can be completely

Speaker 6 tilted 19 different ways to satisfy a certain narrative that had to have fit a certain way of thinking regardless of the obvious situation.

Speaker 43 And it just was bothering me. And so

Speaker 26 that just happened that day as a backstory.

Speaker 43 Alex is interviewing me, not about that, but just interviewing him about Undefeated Against the Grains, some other current events.

Speaker 29 And in the middle of it, I said this

Speaker 43 to the question: what do you think is going to fix the division?

Speaker 6 And I said, you know,

Speaker 32 there are

Speaker 17 areas in every city in our country where you drive over a viaduct or you drive down the street.

Speaker 60 And when you peer over the edge of that viaduct and you see all the poverty and the disenfranchisement and the despair and the loss,

Speaker 48 you think, good Lord, don't let me have a flat tire here because that's the place you don't want your car to break down. But then, as you safely do pass by and

Speaker 19 you're past your fear of that area and your

Speaker 27 recognition of what that area is, and you think to yourself, man, somebody ought to do something about that down there one day.

Speaker 64 As if that sentiment matters.

Speaker 38 And it doesn't.

Speaker 21 And my suggestion is we tilt that rearview mirror to the left about 15 degrees and look ourselves in the face and say, you know what, maybe I can do something about that one day because the government has proven woefully inadequate.

Speaker 61 The people on Fox and CNN using big words that nobody understands

Speaker 42 aren't fixing anything.

Speaker 32 And if we want to be truly honest with ourselves, there is an enormous amount of power and thusly wealth as a result of that power garnered by people in D.C.

Speaker 43 and New York

Speaker 72 who garner that power and wealth by fashioning narratives about obvious stuff that divides us.

Speaker 73 And I'm just sick of all of it.

Speaker 6 And answer your question, Alex, I think it's going to take an army of normal folks, just us, guys like you and me, that see areas of need and quit relying on them, the proverbial quote, them,

Speaker 6 to do something about it and maybe get our hands dirty and jump in.

Speaker 64 So I said that in the interview.

Speaker 26 Six months went by, didn't think about it.

Speaker 65 Alex calls me back and he says, hey, Bill, I can't quit thinking about what you said in our interview.

Speaker 71 And I was like, oh, gosh, did I cuss?

Speaker 73 What's he talking about?

Speaker 20 And he reminded me of what I just told you.

Speaker 65 And he said, you really feel that way.

Speaker 39 And I said, yeah.

Speaker 47 He said, I want to start a national show where we will do the work.

Speaker 42 finding normal people all over the country doing the very things you're talking about and let's highlight them since the national media won't and let's, in doing that, grow an audience that is the army of normal folks and use these stories not only to entertain and tell the stories and bring light to great stories going on, but also to literally grow the army inspired by one another's story.

Speaker 6 Cross these divides, cross these narratives, and tell the government in New York, we don't need you.

Speaker 27 We can fix this without all your BS.

Speaker 20 And I was like,

Speaker 39 that sounds cool. Okay.

Speaker 19 So that was it. That was a year ago.

Speaker 42 And within four weeks, we were in the top, you know, 10 or 20 in the nation on podcasts.

Speaker 84 And we have done nothing but grow and grow and grow since then.

Speaker 62 And Iron Light Labs up in Chicago with Alex is the producer, and Iron Light Labs up there does all the artwork and the music and all that.

Speaker 7 And iHeart

Speaker 74 picked us up and started distributing us.

Speaker 20 And we've been doing this for a year now.

Speaker 38 And our goal is very, it's just that, to inspire everyday, average, normal people to put aside all the preconceived notions they have about one another.

Speaker 38 And let's see if we can't change the country and quit waiting on them who are purposely

Speaker 42 anchored by enormous power and wealth dividing us.

Speaker 2 I love that.

Speaker 2 I couldn't agree with your sentiment and the foundational idea behind that more. Frankly, I run,

Speaker 15 I have a

Speaker 2 core of other podcasters that are just friends, right? And we share ideas. And

Speaker 2 the reason that we all do it is for that exact reason.

Speaker 2 The reason I do this show, it's not the same mission, but it's, or the idea behind it is trying to tell people's stories in a way that, that doesn't divide us, right?

Speaker 2 I'm so, you know, the, the, the podcast episode that actually kicked my show off and sent me to kind of the next level was an episode that I did with a dear friend who I tend to skew a little more conservative.

Speaker 2 He's a little more liberal Democrat, but we're like best buds. I mean, I love this guy to death.
I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd run down and give him my shirt down in New Orleans if I, if I could run that far.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 we did a podcast episode called How to Disagree with a Friend About Politics and Still Love Each Other.

Speaker 2 And that show just went crazy because what we were trying to show everyone is that we can discuss things and we can disagree, and that ultimately, and this was my hope, though it ended up happening, was we're trying to solve the same problems.

Speaker 2 We all see the same things and that we can learn from each other how to get there.

Speaker 2 But we can't learn from each other if we're following the politicians and the mainstream media that you just outlined because it is not in their best interest to do that. They do not get re-elected.

Speaker 2 They do not get campaign dollars. They do not get clicks in advertising if they're not hyper

Speaker 2 intentional about creating

Speaker 2 fear and anger and dissent and division. And you just cannot trust the stories that come out of them any longer.
And

Speaker 2 it's why this podcast movement in general has taken off so much, in my opinion, in the last five years. And,

Speaker 2 you know, I just, I couldn't be happier that you guys are doing this. So, my question out of that little diatribe is

Speaker 2 what does it mean to be part of that army? You, you hear that message and you say, oh my God, I, I need to, I need to, to do something. I need to get involved.

Speaker 2 What are the, what are the first steps someone can take? What does it look like being part of this army of normal folks?

Speaker 79 So.

Speaker 19 If you listen to the show, you will hear this at least twice a month, maybe more.

Speaker 61 And you will certainly hear it on Shop Talk.

Speaker 66 Army of Normal Folks releases every Tuesday, which is a guest interview, long format, usually broken into two or three episodes on that one guest.

Speaker 6 Then on Friday, we release Shop Talk, which is a quick 15-minute snippet about a

Speaker 42 current event.

Speaker 43 If you listen, you will, in one of those two things, each week, hear me say this.

Speaker 9 The magic happens when passion and discipline, and when I mean discipline, I don't mean following the rules, I mean ability.

Speaker 34 When passion and discipline intersect with opportunity,

Speaker 6 you do not have to be part of some massive 501c3.

Speaker 74 You do not have to be part of the smart, pretty people.

Speaker 6 You do not have to be elected.

Speaker 6 You do not have to be part of some NGO.

Speaker 61 to have massive effect on another person's life or another group of people's life.

Speaker 87 You simply have to be passionate about a discipline and have that passion and discipline intersected opportunity.

Speaker 65 I just interviewed a guy who was suicidal

Speaker 88 and

Speaker 21 dealt with addiction and got over it.

Speaker 81 He ended up putting a quick YouTube video out of him dancing.

Speaker 64 And it got three and a half million views.

Speaker 84 And now he has 1.2 million followers on Instagram and like 1.6 on TikTok.

Speaker 9 And he is a UPS driver.

Speaker 65 And he is called the dancing UPS Man.

Speaker 9 And he goes around and finds people who look down and he dances and puts a smile on their face because he knows when he was sitting on the edge of his bed with a loaded gun in his hand about to put in his mouth, a smile would have saved his life that day.

Speaker 82 And so his goal in the world is to put smiles on people's faces.

Speaker 89 He's not part of anything.

Speaker 59 He's just a normal dude

Speaker 13 that has a passion for dancing and really is good at it and sees opportunity every day when he sees down people.

Speaker 74 And when he's delivering a package and he sees a down person, he'll put on some ice ice baby and do some stuff you wouldn't believe.

Speaker 76 You can look at him on Instagram and TikTok, The Dancing UPS Man.

Speaker 26 That guy from

Speaker 43 a girl who was dealing with bulimia and all kinds of issues.

Speaker 80 Her father had lost everything gambling.

Speaker 26 She'd just gotten a job in Philly.

Speaker 2 Are you tired of endless follow-ups and missed opportunities in your sales process? Chasing leads is a losing game.

Speaker 2 That's why I created the One Call Close System, a battle-tested sales system that uses behavioral psychology to close deals in just one call. No more, let me think about it.

Speaker 2 No more, I'll get back to you. Using the one-call close system, we took new reps from 25% close ratio to over 80% in just three months.

Speaker 2 To grow fast, you must close deals faster at zero extra marketing cost.

Speaker 2 The one-call close system allows you and your reps to build trust, address pain points, all while watching your revenue skyrocket. Ready to stop chasing leads and start closing?

Speaker 2 Visit masteroftheclose.com today. Close twice as many deals this time next week.
Visit masteroftheclose.com to learn how.

Speaker 80 And she ran past a homeless shelter because her therapy therapy was jogging.

Speaker 44 And she ran past a homeless shelter for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 83 And one time they yelled down at her, hey, is all you do all day is run around?

Speaker 49 And she screamed back up, is all you do is sit on your ass on the front porch all day.

Speaker 61 And then they started kind of barbing, but friendly barbing.

Speaker 73 When she looked up on that porch, she saw her father in her mind's eye.

Speaker 74 She decided those people need some exercise.

Speaker 30 So she went up there one day, knocked on the thing and said, I want all your homeless people.

Speaker 61 I'm going going to start a running club.

Speaker 50 And

Speaker 57 the curator's like, homeless people don't jog.

Speaker 77 They don't run.

Speaker 26 And she said, give me a chance.

Speaker 34 She got six guys, made rules about not being late and all of this.

Speaker 42 And she said, you know, if they can learn the discipline of being on time, getting off their rear end, fighting through, because running, you can't cheat.

Speaker 60 You've got to.

Speaker 20 you know.

Speaker 8 Anyway, she started a thing called Back on My Feet that has 20 chapters now all over the country, which is running clubs for the unhomed, for the unhoused.

Speaker 49 And they have gotten over 6,000 people back on their feet, not literally running, but back on their feet with full-time jobs and full-time housing, all because she had a discipline and a passion for running and saw an opportunity.

Speaker 43 Every single story is like that.

Speaker 34 So, what does it mean to be part of an army?

Speaker 73 Figure out what you're passionate about, what you're good at, find an opportunity, and fill the the hole.

Speaker 2 Why do we not take action in this way?

Speaker 14 Fear.

Speaker 67 Will people think I'm weird?

Speaker 74 Will people think I'm stupid?

Speaker 21 Is this part of the world unsafe to go in?

Speaker 21 But the big one is this: who am I?

Speaker 75 Who am I?

Speaker 92 What can I do?

Speaker 36 You know, what, what, can I really make some measure of change?

Speaker 68 And the answer is: absolutely.

Speaker 63 You know,

Speaker 23 Plato said,

Speaker 61 the penalty for not involving yourself in politics is you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Speaker 56 Likewise, I would say, the penalty for not involving yourself in culture and society is you end up losing it.

Speaker 43 We are afraid of a culture that we are unwilling to fix, then we get what we deserve.

Speaker 2 Where does that fear, like what, is that intuitive? Is that human nature, do you think? Or has that been instilled in us?

Speaker 91 I don't, you know, I we're clannish people.

Speaker 94 We've been clannish people since the advent of humanity.

Speaker 35 And if you look and think and vote and act like me, you're safe.

Speaker 91 If you don't,

Speaker 10 I'm a little fearful of that.

Speaker 48 And then we exacerbate that fear

Speaker 6 by CNN and Fox and the divided government we have.

Speaker 76 Pew Research, I'm going to mess these numbers up a little, but you'll get the idea.

Speaker 71 Pew Research, and I actually wrote a

Speaker 67 column on this that somebody picked up.

Speaker 9 Maybe it was USA Today.

Speaker 20 I can't remember.

Speaker 31 But anyway, Pew Research reported,

Speaker 95 and Pew Research is, they're good.

Speaker 31 And so they reported that like

Speaker 9 80% of us recognize that depending on which news station we watch, we know the content we're getting is slanted toward our political view.

Speaker 73 We also, Pew Research, also found out that

Speaker 43 the same,

Speaker 43 about the same percentage of beliefs that we know about the information coming out of politicians' mouths.

Speaker 16 We also know

Speaker 65 about the same amount that the information we get on social media is tainted.

Speaker 50 Okay, so we know we're being divided.

Speaker 36 We don't trust the news source, and we know social media is not to be trusted.

Speaker 53 Yet these same people admit to spending over three hours per day either on social media, on TV, or listen to the same stuff on the radio.

Speaker 31 So

Speaker 39 here's the paradigm.

Speaker 64 We know it's crap and we know it divides us, but we feed ourselves with it three hours a day.

Speaker 56 And if you stay awake normally about 12 hours a day, 25% of our waking hours, we're feeding ourselves with the stuff that we know divides us.

Speaker 40 It's like we're addicted to it.

Speaker 46 So

Speaker 78 one, I do think we're born in it.

Speaker 84 I think we're clannish.

Speaker 83 I think human beings have an innate clan mentality to them.

Speaker 90 But then the second part to your question, I think we're also feeding ourselves with this clan mentality, even when we know it's bad for us.

Speaker 48 And my belief set is this.

Speaker 50 I don't know much about you.

Speaker 18 Okay.

Speaker 67 I don't know how you vote.

Speaker 17 I don't know how you worship.

Speaker 66 I don't know how you

Speaker 16 don't know how you love.

Speaker 59 I don't know who you love.

Speaker 19 I don't, I don't, I know what color you are.

Speaker 21 So, okay, but most, you know,

Speaker 68 does it really matter who you love, what your sexuality is, how you vote, who you worship, what you look like, or what you come from, if you're doing something extraordinary for other people in your community.

Speaker 46 If you're doing something extraordinary to serve people in your community that aren't as fortunate as you, regardless of what you look like, how you vote, who you love, or any of that other stuff, I can celebrate you.

Speaker 43 And likewise, if I'm doing the same thing, regardless of all that about me, you can celebrate me because we can celebrate one another's humanity.

Speaker 21 And if that creates a foundation

Speaker 74 where I can celebrate and I can buy into you because of what you're doing and you can buy into me from what I'm doing, now we have a

Speaker 38 foundation of mutual respect and admiration and trust that we can now then have non-threatening civil conversations about the stuff that matters, and we will find commonality.

Speaker 72 An army of normal folks using their discipline and their passion

Speaker 30 where it meets opportunity and finding out about one another and celebrating one another and joining one another in community around the stuff that matters then creates a foundation that we can break down all these stereotypical crap that's dividing dividing us.

Speaker 67 There's the goal.

Speaker 2 I coach a lot of entrepreneurs, and one of the first exercises that I do with them, whether it's in person or virtual, is I have them open up their Instagram and just start slowly scrolling through it.

Speaker 16 And the reason I do that.

Speaker 10 That's great.

Speaker 10 I love that.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 14 My, my,

Speaker 2 you know, knowing how social media works, right? Everyone says, well social media feeds you negative stuff

Speaker 2 no social media wants you to stay on the app so they can feed you ads that people pay for so the only reason that they would feed you some negative story or political story or combative story is because you're spending time on it so if you look at my instagram it has two things it has motivational business stuff because i'm a sucker for a good michael jordan quote or you know whatever just like anybody else and it has how to coach 10-year-olds baseball because I love baseball.

Speaker 2 I played baseball in college a little after, and now I coach my sons.

Speaker 2 And so I have, so if you look through my Instagram, there's literally two things that comes through, right? And none of it is political stuff. So half the time, I don't even know what's going on.

Speaker 2 And I didn't even find out that Trump got shot until the next day.

Speaker 93 I just didn't even know.

Speaker 93 I didn't even know.

Speaker 97 I didn't even know he got shot.

Speaker 57 I just found out the next day because then I got it.

Speaker 2 I woke up to a text message. Hey, did you see this crazy shit about Trump?

Speaker 2 And I was like, I I didn't even know because I, I just, I don't, it doesn't come through for me because of what I spend my time on and where I put my focus.

Speaker 2 And what I just heard you say is what you focus is on is who you become. And if you focus on your family, if you focus on your community, if you focus on

Speaker 2 positive change, then that's what comes back to you. And

Speaker 2 what I try to combat so much in the work that I do in this podcast and the people that I have on and the stories I try to share is

Speaker 2 starting to move away from this cultural self-orientation that somehow has just been baked into our interactions in a way that, like, if I don't go get mine, then everything's going to be taken from me.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, what I hear you describing is a path to start to break that. that I think cultural virus down.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 59 you know,

Speaker 2 I don't, you know, I think it is, it is a, it's going to take a million, 10 million, 100 million,

Speaker 2 I wanted to say knife cuts, but that sounds very negative, you know, touch points, interactions that, that change that. And,

Speaker 2 you know, I don't mean to bogard here because I'm supposed to be interviewing you, but I had this really interesting interaction with my son the other day. He's 10 years old.

Speaker 2 He's a very inquisitive little kid. He kind of watches every single movement.
The little one could give a shit what I'm doing.

Speaker 93 The older one watches literally every move that I do.

Speaker 2 And so the older one's like watching me and we were just kind of moving through something. We were at a gas station or whatever.

Speaker 2 I can't remember what we were doing, but I smiled to the woman when I held the door. And then I walked in and I said hello to the person getting a drink out of the cooler next to us.

Speaker 2 And then I, you know, was chatting up with the, with the person who checked us out and walked out. And my son was like,

Speaker 2 why did you, you smiled at every single person? And I was like, yeah, why would I not do that? Like, I don't want, I don't want them to have a bad day. You know what I mean? Like, what?

Speaker 2 I want, you know, what if that smile means something to them? Maybe it means nothing, but what did it cost me? It cost me nothing.

Speaker 2 And that's the part that I struggle with and how, what are the words, actions, and this is really the question back to you, that,

Speaker 2 that,

Speaker 2 that get us in a mind frame where we can kind of... kind of get out of ourselves a little bit, a little, a little more intentional in, in our interactions with people.

Speaker 2 Is there something that you recommend or someone that you know that has a good philosophy around this or a quote or something that can can kind of we're just so wrapped up in our day-to-day lives that we forget that like a smile from you through this screen could change my entire day you know and

Speaker 2 if we could the more we do that that spreads that that spreads a positive virus a positive a positive virus throughout versus this negativity that we feel all the time I don't know, man.

Speaker 52 I mean, maybe it's a little old school and hokey, but I think the golden rule still applies.

Speaker 14 Yeah,

Speaker 77 you know, I mean, just do unto others as you would like done unto you.

Speaker 59 How hard is that?

Speaker 88 That is so old-school, time-tested, and applicable today as it was whenever it was written.

Speaker 42 And I love what you're saying.

Speaker 33 Um,

Speaker 16 likewise,

Speaker 54 um,

Speaker 20 you know,

Speaker 53 if

Speaker 23 you

Speaker 71 have a child with autism

Speaker 87 that's being bullied

Speaker 48 at school, think about, for those of you listening who have children, think about how your basic instinct, your most primal basic instinct, is to love and protect your child.

Speaker 17 Imagine the gut-wrenching feeling you have sending your kid away from your protective cocoon every day to a place called a school where you know they're about to live in agony

Speaker 67 because of the bullying.

Speaker 43 Imagine the difficulty.

Speaker 42 And

Speaker 6 we had guests

Speaker 37 whose

Speaker 58 really beautiful teenage autistic kid

Speaker 30 was ostracized and bullied and not included in anything who at 17 year old killed herself.

Speaker 28 And her name was Erin.

Speaker 5 And her father told me, and I will try not to get emotional saying this, but her father told me, you know, Bill, if she had one friend, she'd be alive today.

Speaker 53 One.

Speaker 7 Two days later, they're sitting in Aaron's bedroom because I got to clean all this stuff out now.

Speaker 45 Their daughter's dead.

Speaker 40 And they're sobbing and holding each other and trying to just figure out how to get through the next day.

Speaker 45 And in that moment of despair, their passion and their discipline

Speaker 53 overtook them.

Speaker 9 And they said, we don't ever want this to happen to any more parents like us if she only had one friend.

Speaker 59 And so they started an organization in honor of the daughter called Erin's Hope for Friends.

Speaker 7 And the first time it was eight kids in their community.

Speaker 9 And all they did was reach out to parents who had children with autism.

Speaker 66 And they picked out a night and they brought them together, and they had cokes, and snacks, and video games, and music.

Speaker 45 And they said, Hey, have a blast.

Speaker 46 We're leaving.

Speaker 38 And the parents got the hell out of there, and they let these kids do what kids want to do: hang out, be buddies.

Speaker 27 And then they started these things called, I think they're called e-houses or whatever.

Speaker 66 Anyway, now

Speaker 27 there is

Speaker 41 Aaron's e-houses and e-clubs and errands.

Speaker 92 Anyway,

Speaker 39 there's thousands of Autistic kids who have places to go twice a week all over the country as a result of this.

Speaker 43 This is just another one of our stories, right?

Speaker 61 Aaron's Hope for Friends.

Speaker 42 And

Speaker 42 if somebody in the middle of the most desperate time in their life,

Speaker 81 losing their child to suicide who they knew was getting bullied and they just desperately couldn't do anything to help her,

Speaker 72 can find a way

Speaker 86 to

Speaker 77 help

Speaker 77 other people.

Speaker 67 We all can.

Speaker 88 And

Speaker 10 it's simply,

Speaker 63 it is really simply,

Speaker 17 how would I have liked to have been helped?

Speaker 66 How would my daughter have liked to have been helped?

Speaker 68 And so it is. It's just,

Speaker 63 to me, it is that simple.

Speaker 6 It is just having the temerity to get out of your comfort zone and out of your bubble.

Speaker 65 We see opportunity every day, and we also know what we're good at and what we like to do.

Speaker 78 It's just having the temerity to employ, to spend a little time and employ that passion and ability where need is.

Speaker 82 And if you, like you said, you talked about touch points, but if we had

Speaker 46 a hundred million people, a third of our country, doing that,

Speaker 21 What would our culture look like today versus what it does?

Speaker 2 Because we can't wait.

Speaker 91 No, there is no waiting.

Speaker 94 Who is going to come save us?

Speaker 78 The government, CNN, and Fox?

Speaker 94 We know that's not going to happen.

Speaker 40 And we all sit around hand-wringing about, look at the division, look at the disintegration of culture, look at where our society is going, you know, what's going to become of us.

Speaker 90 Well, here's what's going to come of us.

Speaker 56 We were started by we the people.

Speaker 48 We can be fixed by we the people.

Speaker 43 It's just, do we have the same courage and foresight that our forefathers did?

Speaker 26 They were fighting the British.

Speaker 56 We're fighting ourselves.

Speaker 96 All we got to do is break it down and understand that we still have all the power, liberty, ability, passion, energy, and opportunity today that we did two and a half centuries ago.

Speaker 42 We just have to have the willingness and the temerity to address it.

Speaker 72 And I believe with everything I am, a literally army of normal folks engaging in culture, breaking down stereotypes, working hard for one another, using passion and discipline to employ it in areas of opportunity genuinely fixes this country.

Speaker 76 So, how do we inspire those messages?

Speaker 68 We tell them every week.

Speaker 90 Every single guest leaves their personal information.

Speaker 43 So, if you're in

Speaker 87 a literal thing that happened, you're in Scottsdale, Arizona, and you hear a story about a guy in Memphis who's working to properly help grow the black middle class.

Speaker 43 You like that?

Speaker 73 Connect with each other and then bring that guy to Scottsdale and do it in Scottsdale.

Speaker 30 And that happened this month.

Speaker 58 It's connectivity, it's inspiration,

Speaker 27 there's always safety in numbers.

Speaker 77 So, it's encouragement and it's taking back our culture and our narrative from the people who were incented by power and wealth to divide us.

Speaker 2 I wrote this article called How to Keep America the Greatest Country on Earth. And in it, the crux of my argument is that while most people quote, and this is not

Speaker 2 any context on what you said, but we the people most often, to me, the the most brilliant part and the core message of that document is actually this, the

Speaker 2 paraphrasing obviously, to form a more perfect union. What our founding fathers gave us was our mission in that sentence.
We the people, yes, right? It's about the people.

Speaker 2 However, they gave us our mission, the continual improvement of the union.

Speaker 2 And it is through these micro actions that we take on an individual basis, as your term, common folk, that, you know, everyday folk, that

Speaker 2 it's these actions that are so important.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 to me, this is, it's a difficult thing because

Speaker 2 life is tough. It is complicated.
The world does seem more confusing and faster paced than ever before. Obviously, I've only lived since 1981.

Speaker 2 So I can't, and you know, for most of some of those years, I was a child and had no idea. So I can't say beforehand whether life was more hectic or not.

Speaker 2 But my understanding, my reading, talking to people, this is most likely the most hectic, most fast-paced, most confusing time

Speaker 2 in the existence of our species. And

Speaker 2 the only way to break through that is

Speaker 2 through these little micro actions, through these little positive touch points. And like you said,

Speaker 2 this is the part where I think people get hung up and I'd really like your opinion on it.

Speaker 2 When I talk to people about these things,

Speaker 2 oftentimes they feel like

Speaker 2 if they were to do something, if it doesn't create some massive improvement, then what's the use? Right.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I give,

Speaker 2 you know, I take a portion of

Speaker 2 what I make through my business and the various ways that we generate revenue. And I give it to this small

Speaker 2 veterans charity.

Speaker 2 I didn't serve.

Speaker 2 I wish I did. I almost did.
I didn't. I ended up getting a baseball scholarship and chose that life instead.
But

Speaker 2 these guys just have a store that basically

Speaker 2 veterans in our community get to come down and they get allocated a certain amount of credits, call it every month. And they can come down and shop for what they need.

Speaker 2 And they sign up for the program and they, you know, there's certain stipulations, but as long as you fit whatever the criteria is you know um you know most of it a lot of these people are homeless or or near near homeless and they get to come in and they get to shop for stuff and and they don't have to pay for it they get to allocate a certain amount and and depending on what they need and whatever and

Speaker 2 the amount that i give them is not like you know it doesn't like make their year but it's like you know i said to my friends like you know what

Speaker 2 you know geez why do you do this or this and i just was like i don't know what if one like you said one person is going to be hungry this month and my 2,500 bucks that I give them or, you know, something depends on what it is,

Speaker 2 allows somebody to freaking eat. And I'm not, that's not like, I'm not trying to say that I'm perfect because I'm certainly not.
I certainly could do more, but it's like,

Speaker 2 why?

Speaker 2 I just, I'm, I, I guess I'm looking for, and, and maybe we just don't have the answer, and you've given it, and maybe the answer is probably in the various episodes that you've done of your show is like, what is that, what is that statement that someone like me, so I finished this show with you.

Speaker 2 I mean, I started crying about the story. I'm completely inspired by you, your mission, and

Speaker 2 Alex and what you guys are doing.

Speaker 2 Like, what is, when I get pushback or someone who doesn't understand this concept or maybe just is caught up in themselves, I guess I'm looking for the words or the concept that I can give to them to kind of crack them open, to turn their brain a little bit.

Speaker 2 If someone's listening and they're like, ah, yeah, I hear Bill.

Speaker 2 And man, he sounds like a great guy and love what he's doing, but what's that word, that concept, that idea that we can put in front of them to just crack them open a little bit and maybe get him to do something?

Speaker 10 First,

Speaker 43 tell Aaron's family that one person would have made a difference.

Speaker 16 Just hear that.

Speaker 66 Okay.

Speaker 36 Second, to your initial thought that, you know, if it doesn't make some huge, big splash, it's not worth getting involved in the first place.

Speaker 20 You know,

Speaker 57 tell Aaron's family that.

Speaker 86 Tell Aaron's family that.

Speaker 50 And I know this sounds like a shameless plug,

Speaker 36 but I dare you to listen to any three episodes of An Army of Normal Folks and not see

Speaker 97 the answer to your question i dare you a double dog dare you

Speaker 92 uh triple dog um i'll make a bat i'll do anything um

Speaker 61 because honestly your question is a really fair one i was asking that of myself when this started all right i please remember I don't find the guest.

Speaker 46 I don't do the production.

Speaker 7 I don't add the music.

Speaker 32 I don't do the artwork.

Speaker 61 I don't run the social media.

Speaker 36 I'm the host.

Speaker 17 Right.

Speaker 67 And I'm the host because something rolled out of my mouth that sounded interesting and they built a show around it.

Speaker 72 Okay.

Speaker 89 But I got to be honest with you.

Speaker 53 I was also,

Speaker 6 you know, on the fence.

Speaker 21 Does this really make a difference?

Speaker 82 Hey, Alex, can you give me the thing, the thing we just did for Shop Talk?

Speaker 43 Does this really make a difference?

Speaker 45 Ironically, before we got on, I just recorded Next Friday Shop Talk.

Speaker 19 Okay.

Speaker 18 Yep.

Speaker 35 So I'm going to give you some some stuff.

Speaker 15 Yeah.

Speaker 24 Love it.

Speaker 59 But I wondered, right?

Speaker 79 So

Speaker 19 here you go.

Speaker 95 Two listeners have joined CASA, where they

Speaker 85 advocate for Foster Children, the legal system.

Speaker 95 A Haitian orphanage, which is called a place of hope.

Speaker 90 Haitian orphanage now

Speaker 40 is adopting the model of another show we did called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, whose volunteers have built 140,000 beds for kids without them in the United States.

Speaker 21 These Haitian orphanage has a woodworking shop.

Speaker 46 So now Haitian orphans without families are building beds for Haitian children who have families but no beds.

Speaker 35 That orphanage pump went out and it's the only pump to provide

Speaker 84 clean pump and generator to provide clean drinking water for an entire area of Haiti.

Speaker 73 We put a call out to the Army.

Speaker 74 Within two days, $27,000 was raised, and this whole place has lights and clean drinking water because people just listened in.

Speaker 34 A member of the Army, meaning someone who subscribes to the Army, started running with the homeless through the Atlanta chapter of Back on My Feet, which I told you about.

Speaker 40 He's reached out to Sleep in Heavenly Peace to volunteer with them.

Speaker 77 He's donated to meet several requests on CarePortal, another thing we had.

Speaker 58 And he is now supporting a future superhero in Friends, which is another episode.

Speaker 40 Tommy Norman, who was one of our first guests, is considered the Michael Jordan of Community Policing in North Little Rock. Bill, just want to say thanks for the hope.

Speaker 34 I reached out to your guest, Officer Tommy Norman, after your episode, and to my amazement, he called me back like you said he would.

Speaker 20 We talked about my daughter who's facing addiction and I almost lost her.

Speaker 65 I genuinely think he saved her.

Speaker 50 Army wrote

Speaker 92 about my thing on Mike Rowe, inspiration.

Speaker 58 An Oklahoma listener named Jim Pina is replicating the model of another guest, Big I'll hold in Secret Families, and they will now give 10,000 gifts to 2,000 kids whose family can't afford Christmas on Christmas Eve.

Speaker 81 Premium member Pastor Donald Fry

Speaker 73 has talked about several episodes in his sermons.

Speaker 34 As a result, his church is involved in a number of activities that have been highlighted on our Army of Normal Folks, and he even preached on a thing called Don't Be a Turkey Christian, based on a billboard we had in Times Square and my appearance on Kelly Clarkson's show talking about this.

Speaker 81 It goes on and on and on.

Speaker 57 None of this is big.

Speaker 78 None of it.

Speaker 48 Did you hear everything I said?

Speaker 61 There's nobody here who started some massive organization,

Speaker 61 but these are, to your word, touch points all over our country.

Speaker 19 What if we had 100 million of them?

Speaker 21 Think of what our culture looks like, how different we approach and think about and appreciate one another.

Speaker 52 And Army of Normal folks, we the people, making differences every days where they can.

Speaker 74 Your passion, your discipline, your ability at areas of opportunity, not in massive ways, but in small ways, just with massive volume, changes all of it.

Speaker 43 And this is proof. We've been on the air 10 months, dude.

Speaker 2 Love spreads.

Speaker 39 It does.

Speaker 48 It's contagious.

Speaker 91 It's contagious.

Speaker 35 I didn't even mean to have that list.

Speaker 20 It just, the timing happened to be that we did that today, but there you go.

Speaker 2 I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 I'm moved and inspired. And,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 it's funny. You know, you hear these stories and you start questioning your own contributions.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 26 You should. I do.

Speaker 63 It is so true.

Speaker 81 When I interview somebody and they go through their whole thing, I find myself inspired every interview.

Speaker 76 And then I think to myself, damn, Bill.

Speaker 52 You could do more here.

Speaker 26 Or you could, I mean, hell, this thing's costing me money because every other week I'm donating to something I never heard of because the guest inspires me, but you know what?

Speaker 35 I don't miss it, yeah, you know, and

Speaker 81 man,

Speaker 9 now I'm gonna brag, but there's two of my kids work in DC, believe it or not.

Speaker 31 And there's a kid up there, I'm not gonna use any names, there's a kid up there who is really, really bright

Speaker 9 and has an internship in D.C.

Speaker 9 Goes to the University of Alabama.

Speaker 21 I don't know what the exact word for what he has is,

Speaker 27 but he slurs and drools a little when he speaks, and um, he doesn't walk particularly well.

Speaker 21 He, when he was a baby, was afflicted with something that

Speaker 61 causes him to have motor function issues, but cerebrally is 100% there.

Speaker 36 Now, this guy is in D.C.

Speaker 29 on a

Speaker 47 internship

Speaker 94 by himself.

Speaker 94 Do you think he's making many friends?

Speaker 55 Do you think people are really engaging with this guy in D.C.?

Speaker 21 One of my daughter's friends noticed this guy walking in the rain and pulled up next to him and shared her umbrella and walked him and got to know a little bit about him.

Speaker 79 And yesterday, he celebrated his birthday in D.C.

Speaker 42 with my daughter and her daughter's friend and 17 other people all around him and had a birthday party for him.

Speaker 36 And he said it was his first birthday party by ever through.

Speaker 66 for him.

Speaker 16 Now, look,

Speaker 56 that's not anything.

Speaker 63 That's not an organization.

Speaker 53 That's not anything.

Speaker 56 It's just normal folks being passionate about someone not as advantaged as they are, seeing an opportunity or need and feeling it, and changing this kid's life.

Speaker 35 He doesn't even want to go back.

Speaker 79 He's going to stay in D.C.

Speaker 42 now and work for a nonprofit serving people, writing grant requests because one person was simply kind to him.

Speaker 17 We can change this country if an army of normal folks will break through all the noise, use our passion and discipline in area need, and fill it.

Speaker 98 And we're telling those stories and through those stories, trying to inspire more and more people to do the same.

Speaker 2 Guys, I hope what you hear in the stories that Bill is telling, because this is what I'm hearing, is

Speaker 2 it's one moment. You can change the course of someone's life in right now.

Speaker 16 today

Speaker 16 today

Speaker 14 right now out where do you live I don't even know where you live upstate New York Albany area okay I guarantee you

Speaker 21 I don't know how big Albany is I can guess I guarantee you there's 5,000 people right now in your town in serious distress

Speaker 2 many more but yes yeah yeah okay

Speaker 9 it would not take much to change one person's life today yeah 100% 100

Speaker 2 I want to

Speaker 2 change topics slightly, same vein, slightly different question

Speaker 2 as we get towards the end here,

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 something that's very near and dear to my heart is sports and the coaching of sports. And as I've gotten involved in the coaching of youth sports, I have been

Speaker 2 very disenfranchised by

Speaker 2 the way

Speaker 2 I would compare how I was coached as a youth to how kids today are coached.

Speaker 26 I did an episode on it.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 2 In particular, so my kids play travel baseball.

Speaker 2 They love baseball and they both enjoy it. And they play other sports too.
I don't, I am not a, you pick a sport, certainly not at eight and 10 in any, you know,

Speaker 2 the younger one plays football and basketball. The older one just plays basketball and baseball and then does all kinds of camps and shit.
They do all kinds of stuff. That's great.

Speaker 2 And I do coach, I do coach both of them as an assistant, but

Speaker 2 I have seen things

Speaker 2 that I just don't remember seeing when I was a kid. And I was a pretty aware kid.
I wasn't, you know, I was pretty aware of what was going on.

Speaker 2 My dad coached me, and I had all kinds of different coaches. And it was a different era.

Speaker 2 high school football coach one time shoulder pressed me by my face mask

Speaker 2 for getting a 15 yard late hit penalty. I was a, I was you deserved it.

Speaker 93 Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, you know, and that's the funny thing.

Speaker 2 You know, the funny thing is, um, you know, so I tell these stories to my kids because I want them to understand where I come from, right?

Speaker 2 Because, you know, my whole message to them is outcomes don't matter, attitude and effort is all that matters. It's attitude and effort.

Speaker 2 There will be a time in your career if you continue down this path where outcomes matter, but today it's attitude and effort.

Speaker 2 And, you know, and I share some stories with them how, you know, like I had,

Speaker 2 I played for an American Legion post.

Speaker 2 When I was coming up, that was like the best travel ball in the area was American Legion. And I

Speaker 2 was playing for a Legion post. And I loved being part of that community.
It was great. They would host us and the guys would come in.
And it was awesome.

Speaker 2 And they would come to our games a lot of times. It was, it was a wonderful experience.

Speaker 2 But I'd have my third base coach would be smoking a cigar and my first base coach would be, would be ripping heaters down at first base as he's giving signs with his other hand.

Speaker 2 And I told them, you know, and I just explained to them how

Speaker 2 we were, we were, it was very direct, but honest and sincere and caring, but, but gruff and direct and to the point. And I shared with them a story about how, you know, I

Speaker 2 was younger, whatever.

Speaker 2 We were losing to this team. They were talking trash.
And I came up with two guys on. I hit a home run and I

Speaker 2 pimped the home run. I shouldn't have.
I'm not advocating for that in any way, but I did. And the moment my foot hit home plate, I expected my teammates to be there.

Speaker 2 It was the head coach of my baseball team who literally picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, walked me to the dugout, and threw me into the dugout, right?

Speaker 2 And I sat there and I looked at him and I was like, yeah, I deserve that. That was my mentality, right? And today it's completely different.
I mean, if you look at them wrong, they start crying.

Speaker 2 And so let me get to my question. Sorry, that was a lot of context.
My question to you is more, what I have seen today, and what I would love for you just to comment on however you feel fit, is

Speaker 2 the parents today have taken over in a way in which it feels to have so much of these sports have been corrupted by adults, by the parents off the field, by coaches who are either hell-bent on winning or hell-bent on making their kid the starting shortstop, number one hitter, you know, whatever, all these different things.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I just struggle with this so much.

Speaker 2 And I'd just love for you to talk a little bit about it with all your experience, what you see, and what may be a solution or a path to start to break free of this, or even just very personally to me, how I can continue to coach my own kids and the kids on my teams to become,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 I just want them to love the game and appreciate it and enjoy it and be the best versions of themselves. you know what just a kind of open-ended where where wherever you want to take that

Speaker 39 it's revolting

Speaker 61 it makes me want to throw up hey what's the uh alex what's the episode i think we did a shop talk on parents and kids and sports do you know what episode that was

Speaker 2 yeah about a month and a half ago we did a shop talk episode on this very thing um i'll find it and have it linked up in the show notes for everybody so i'll make sure that that's in the show I wish you would.

Speaker 71 It's a shop talk.

Speaker 40 Do you remember the title?

Speaker 89 It's like Flagging Parents.

Speaker 36 See if you can find it, and I'll tell it to him because he's going to link it to the show.

Speaker 35 It's revolting, and it's gross.

Speaker 29 And

Speaker 37 ultimately, we're robbing the kids of what the experience should be, which is long after the days of playing football and baseball are over,

Speaker 42 what you learn on the baseball field should serve you in your family, in your business, and in society, and the way you approach life, all of it.

Speaker 59 And if pimping a home run is the basis of who you are,

Speaker 16 well, you're going to

Speaker 61 suffer those consequences one day.

Speaker 27 And in my opinion, your coach was easy on you.

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 35 On May 23rd, there is a thing called that week titled Flagging Parents for Parental Interference.

Speaker 71 Got it.

Speaker 26 Which will give you my real, and I've got a few stats in there that might be helpful.

Speaker 50 But the bottom line is

Speaker 65 helicopter parents, people who want to live, relive their high school hero days through their kids, people who didn't have high school hero days that want to live vicariously through

Speaker 27 the successes of their kids,

Speaker 75 all of them make me want to vomit.

Speaker 19 So what do I do as a coach?

Speaker 86 I have a pre

Speaker 65 whatever meeting, a preseason meeting.

Speaker 20 And look, honestly, I am one of the most competitive human beings you've ever want to see.

Speaker 42 And I expect to win every game and want to win every championship, state, whatever.

Speaker 78 And I know in travel ball,

Speaker 19 you're recruiting kids a lot, right?

Speaker 57 So I think coaches are oftentimes afraid that they may lose their two or three best players if they put their foot down.

Speaker 88 And

Speaker 67 then if that is the case, you are therefore, as the coach, part of the problem too.

Speaker 72 I would rather coach a bunch of five, six level talent kids that are 9-10 character kids than the exact opposite.

Speaker 13 And that goes along with parents. So I have pre-seeding meetings and I lay it out there.

Speaker 67 And if parents don't like it, I invite them to understand that the door was not locked when you walked in and you're welcome to get the hell out. But do it now because I'm not playing.

Speaker 75 But if you stay, your kids will learn the value of character, commitment, integrity, discipline, teamwork, leadership.

Speaker 22 and most importantly, grace.

Speaker 16 If they stay, they're going to learn those things.

Speaker 74 And along the way, they're also going to become better at this particular discipline, whether it's basketball, football, or baseball.

Speaker 83 My leading mantra is,

Speaker 84 I have never seen a coach hit a home run.

Speaker 39 I've never seen it.

Speaker 85 I've never seen a first base coach throw a no-hitter.

Speaker 46 I've never seen a coach turn a double play.

Speaker 50 They're the dugout.

Speaker 43 Players win games.

Speaker 39 Not coaches.

Speaker 16 Not parents.

Speaker 70 Players.

Speaker 34 Players win games.

Speaker 79 Coaches win players.

Speaker 50 And how does a coach win a player?

Speaker 21 Does he care about me?

Speaker 76 Is he holding me accountable because he's an asshole or is he holding me accountable because he wants me to be a better human being?

Speaker 16 Do I have

Speaker 42 a clear understanding of where I am on this team and why I'm on this team and how to improve and move up in the batting batting order or get more reps

Speaker 42 and

Speaker 67 what is this character and commitment and integrity and all these basic fundamentals about I tell all of my teams and all of my parents we can be progressive and I don't mean politically progressive we can be a progressing

Speaker 53 evolving

Speaker 62 growing society without abandoning the core principles that got us here in the first place.

Speaker 5 And long after the days of playing the game are over, it is those very core principles and that foundation that will lead to a meaningful life with your family, with your spouse, with your children, in your business, and in your society.

Speaker 61 And I am far more concerned with your kid being a productive member of society than a productive member of this football team.

Speaker 39 So.

Speaker 45 I'm going to coach that stuff and I'm going to win my players.

Speaker 98 And along the way, we're going to teach that's as an O's.

Speaker 70 And then I'm going to go let the players win the football games because that's what they do.

Speaker 13 Now, you stay the hell out of my way.

Speaker 77 That's it.

Speaker 90 And if I lose some good kids and some good families, I'll lose them.

Speaker 82 I'll coach up what I got.

Speaker 26 But I believe so,

Speaker 60 I believe

Speaker 90 so strongly in that coaching ethos that I've let many walk before.

Speaker 16 But I'll tell you something else that happens.

Speaker 83 Charles Barkley was being ribbed by Shaquille O'Neill one day when Charles Barkley's daughter turned 16.

Speaker 20 And they were like,

Speaker 50 hey, man, you have guys coming over. You know, they're ribbing Barkley about having a daughter about to be taken out.
And Chuck said, you know, I've got the answer. I ain't worried about it.

Speaker 46 They're like, what?

Speaker 35 And they said, well, the first one that comes over, I'm going to invite him into the... into the living room.

Speaker 30 I'm going to sit him down right there and I'm going to offer him a glass of tea or water while she's getting dressed.

Speaker 43 I'm going to be very polite.

Speaker 30 And then when he stands up to shake my hand, I'm going to beat his ass to a pulp

Speaker 50 before he ever even sees my daughter.

Speaker 78 And they're like, why?

Speaker 65 And he said, because when he gets back to school, word will get around.

Speaker 81 Word will get around.

Speaker 20 Ain't nobody going to call my daughter.

Speaker 16 Word will get around.

Speaker 23 You know, it's funny metaphor to the truth is word does get around.

Speaker 21 So if you set this foundation as a coach for your program, you may lose people the first year or so.

Speaker 43 But what happens is people start talking up the difference

Speaker 77 and the kids that you lost or the parents that you lost because you're not putting up with that crap, there's umpteen hundreds more that want their kid to be part of it.

Speaker 85 And what you end up doing is creating the proper culture and you start attracting the proper kids and the proper parents, and then it's not a problem.

Speaker 59 Word will get around.

Speaker 2 Bill, this has been an absolute pleasure. I couldn't thank you enough for sharing all the stories that you have and your insights.
I appreciate the hell out of you.

Speaker 2 We are going to be pushing here at this show and the venues that I have.

Speaker 2 We're going to be pushing what you guys are doing a lot, not just through the release of your episode, but out through our other channels as well, because I think you're doing God's work.

Speaker 2 And whether the people listening believe in God or not, I do. And I think that this is incredibly important to the culture of our country.
So I just thank you so much.

Speaker 76 Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the support.

Speaker 39 And let's keep in touch.

Speaker 12 Let's go.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Make it look, make it look, make it look easy. Hey, stand up.

Speaker 12 Thank you for listening to the Ryan Hanley show.

Speaker 12 Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 2 Close twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible? It's not.
With the one-call close system, you'll stop chasing leads and start closing deals in one call.

Speaker 2 This is the exact method we use to close 1,200 clients in under three years during the pandemic. No fluff, no endless follow-ups, just results fast.

Speaker 2 Based in behavioral psychology and battle-tested, the one-call closed system eliminates excuses and gets the prospect saying yes more than you ever thought possible.

Speaker 2 If you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning, visit mastertheclose.com. That's mastertheclose.com.

Speaker 18 Do it today.

Speaker 100 Hey, Fidelity.

Speaker 100 What's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app?

Speaker 101 Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs.

Speaker 100 Hmm. That's music to my ears.

Speaker 101 I can only talk.

Speaker 97 Investing involved risk, including risk of loss. Zero account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts only.
Sell order assessment fee not included.

Speaker 97 A limited number of ETFs are subject to a transaction-based service fee of $100. See full list at fidelity.com/slash commissions, Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member NYSE, SIPC.

Speaker 102 Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, a leader in RV insurance.

Speaker 102 We've all made RVing mistakes, like not pest-proofing the RV for winter, but there's one mistake you shouldn't make, not insuring your travel trailer.

Speaker 102 Progressive RV insurance can protect your travel trailer when your auto or home insurance can't. Get a quote at progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Speaker 103 We all take good care of the things that matter. Our homes, our pets, our cars.
Are you doing the same for your brain?

Speaker 103 Acting early to protect brain health may help reduce the risk of dementia from conditions like Alzheimer's disease.

Speaker 103 Studies have found that up to 45% of dementia cases may be prevented or delayed by managing risk factors you can change. Make brain health a priority.

Speaker 103 Ask your doctor about your risk factors and for a cognitive assessment. Learn more at brainhealthmatters.com.

Speaker 104 AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes.

Speaker 104 Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice.

Speaker 104 Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails, and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation at rubrik.com.

Speaker 104 That's r-u-b-r-i-k.com.

Speaker 99 Lowe's knows that saving is always top of mind, especially this season.

Speaker 11 That's why we've picked some great deals for early Black Friday. Get free select DeWalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit.
More tools? Why not?

Speaker 99 Plus, we've got select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees starting at $59.98 because it's never too early to think Christmas. Get Black Friday prices without the crowds.

Speaker 16 Lows, we help.

Speaker 11 You save.

Speaker 99 While supplies last, selection varies by location.