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Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
Sean Crane shares his story of Redemption and how his struggles early on in life helped him develop a mindset and perspective that he has used to cultivate the life of his dreams. Sean walks you through his most gruesome moments from seeing his mother overdose as a kid to watching his father in a standoff with police. After years of experiencing a living hell Sean was arrested and faced life in prison. Sean shares the most impactful moments behind bars and how they changed his life forever. After 5 1/2 years incarcerated Sean returned home a different person with a compelling vision to inspire the world. Now, a family man, successful entrepreneur and person of influence, Sean is on a mission to spread his message and impact lives across the globe with his lessons and the same breakthroughs that have helped him in his life to this point.
Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
Changing The World with Bill Hoopes
What if your greatest setbacks could fuel your most profound breakthroughs? Join me as I sit down with Bill Hoops, the visionary behind 60 for Me, who turned personal tragedy into an unyielding mission of resilience and redemption. From his early days of selling candy at 13 to the harrowing loss of his father, Bill's journey is a testament to the power of perseverance. Together, we unravel how these defining moments continue to inspire his roles as a dedicated husband, father, and leader in youth sports.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the healing journey through family trauma, a shared experience that has profoundly shaped Bill's life as well as my own. We reflect on the challenges of growing up in turbulent family environments and how these experiences have influenced our paths. Bill's story, from a Navy officer to a thriving entrepreneur, underscores the transformative power of overcoming adversity. His commitment to empowering young female athletes is a shining example of turning personal pain into a platform for positive change.
Embracing failure as a stepping stone to success, Bill and I explore the essential role of authenticity and accountability in personal growth. We discuss how sharing our struggles and triumphs openly fosters a community of mutual support, especially in today's interconnected world. Through his ventures, including the Firecrackers Girls Fast Pitch Softball organization and his leadership programs, Bill exemplifies the relentless pursuit of purpose and fulfillment. Listen in as we celebrate the journey of resilience, highlighting the lessons learned from past mistakes and the relentless drive to inspire and empower the next generation.
Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, shawn Michael Crane. We're here in the beautiful podcast studio down in Santa Barbara, california the Unstoppable HQ and I got my man, bill Hoops 60 for me joining me today. Love his brand 60 for me. You guys check out Bill. Check him out on Facebook under William Hoops. On Instagram it's Bill Hoops. You'll see everything that we put in the description of the notes right here. But remember this name 60 for me because this is going to be a worldwide brand. Mark my words. You know, that's like the first thing I told you, bill, when we connected. I love the name.
Speaker 1:Bill is a great guy, man. The reason I wanted him on this podcast today is to share what he's doing in a lot of different arenas. He's making an impact in a lot of people's lives as a husband, a father, a coach, right as a business owner. I'm going to let him share with you exactly what he's doing, but the main thing is he's out there taking massive action every day. He's pursuing his vision and he's making an impact on the world. So, bill, what's up, my man? Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know, wow, man. I appreciate that introduction. Man, what a, what a great opportunity to be able to share the message of of 60 for me and and lead your journey. And you know just everything it is.
Speaker 2:That's kind of happened in my life in the last not just 45 years, but really the last five years. Right, life has been full of stages and different what I call right angles. Right, you're going on a path, you make a hard right turn, your life goes into a different direction. So I'm just very humbled to be able to be here on a stage with a gentleman like yourself and what you're doing as a world changer and helping people every single day. You know, I think you and I immediately kind of realized we had some alignment, a lot of the same goals, a lot of the same things that we've went through, even though different pains. There were certainly a lot of pains and things that we had to work through. So I'm just excited for the opportunity to be here, man, and I appreciate you giving us a chance to tell a little bit of our story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, absolutely. I mean you got the gift of gab right. You're very articulate, you're passionate, like I love it, because we go on coaching calls right, like we're working together to build your brand, to reach more people and make an impact. And we get on those calls and you just bring the fire every time and your content, like everything, it resonates with people because they feel your energy. That's something that you can't just teach or buy Like.
Speaker 1:That's something you have to cultivate within and people that have it you can tell they got that special touch. Like when they talk, other people listen, their ears perk up. And you got that man. You got that fire inside of you and I love it. It's attractive to the world. You know people are going to be gravitating towards you left and right because they feel how much you care in the way that you speak. You know what I mean. And so where did you get that man? Like, where did Bill Hoops get so fired up and passionate? Let's talk about your journey. You know lead your journey. Let's talk about your journey and how you came up with the idea of 60 for me and what it is like. Break it down for the audience so they know exactly what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I, and I appreciate that Right. So you know, it depends on who you ask, right? If you ask my mother, I've always been this way, right? Since I was able to speak, I've been talking from standing on the couch in the living room telling stories about what I was going to do. I opened my first business at 13 years old, selling Snickers and Blow Pops in the middle school arena.
Speaker 2:Girl asked me one day if she could borrow a Blow Pop. I said no. She said I'll give you a quarter for it. That turned into a two-year business where I turned food stamps that I took out of mom's purse into a $400 a week business at 13 years old. You know, um, but that's the fun stuff, right? Who is Bill Hoops? Bill Hoops is a different uh in different phases of his life, depending upon where, where you've caught me. Uh, at 13 years old, my life changed completely and and I was uh I was told, uh, four days before Christmas, that my father killed himself and committed suicide. Right, that was the first hard part of my life where, you know, I learned what giving up looked like and I learned that I would never give up, right?
Speaker 1:How old were you, Bill? How old were you when that happened?
Speaker 2:13.
Speaker 1:I was 13 years old, yeah, december 21st, december 21st 1992.
Speaker 2:I'm home from Christmas, december 21st 1992.
Speaker 1:I'm home from Christmas and I'm driving to school. You were 13.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm sorry. 13. Yeah, 13. So I'm driving home or I'm driving to work with my mom. You know we go to work she's a home health aide taking care of somebody and we get a call. Pops took his own life four days before Christmas, right? So that was my first time with real pain, right?
Speaker 1:Like, can I ask you, can I? I'm not trying to interrupt you, but like, dude, can you take yourself back to that moment? I could just imagine at 13, man, yeah, how close were you and your dad when that happened.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, close enough to where it had a huge impact. Um, my mom and my dad never really could figure it out right, they had a baby but could never really figure it out. Dad and mom were together for a short time and then mom went her way and struggled with mental illness and self-worth and pride and, you know, always needing acceptance. Dad went the other way, became very angry, became an alcoholic and, you know, actually started putting hands on my stepmother and, you know, just wasn't a through Right. So, yeah, I lived with my dad from nine to eleven, right Nine, ten and eleven years old.
Speaker 2:These were good years, but I saw a lot of nasty things during these years. I wrestled, I played baseball, I played football. It was the years I played sports and really found out what competition was right. Give me a ball, let me go be the best. I found something that I can do. It quiets the noise, it takes everything away.
Speaker 2:So I lost myself in sports but I found, as an 11 year old kid, it couldn't keep it quiet enough and the beatings and the punchings and the alcoholism, it was too much. So I called my mom at 11 and I said I need to come back home. This is a violent atmosphere. I'm not comfortable. I need something better.
Speaker 2:I was afraid of what people tell me. You know, an 11 year old isn't that conscious, but I'm telling you, I was afraid of becoming him at 11 years old. So I had to go home Right him at 11 years old. So I had to go home Right and I did. I left my dad and, and you know, sean, the last thing my father ever said to me when I lived with him was, if you leave, I'll be dead within a few years. You know, because your brother's too old he was 18. Your other brother's too young he was two. And I was right at that age to kind of, I guess, give him something to do, help him find purpose, whatever it was Right. But I didn't stay, I left and two years later, on December 21st, I got a call at 13 years old, that my father committed suicide.
Speaker 1:So I want to ask you or talk to you about that, because it sounds like you were very aware at a young age of like kind of who you didn't want to be and who you wanted to be, and having an example, even though it was your father, you're like, I don't want to be like that. The reason I'm asking you about this man is because what you're doing now is so impressive in the heart that you have to serve and help other people. Like someone might go on your social media now and have no idea the stuff you went through as a youngster. It's important for us to share these things, bill, because we want people to know that you can go through these dark times in your life and you can come out of it and persevere. Like that's why I've shared my whole story so transparently online. It's because I want people to know I've been in the depths of despair and I've found things within my mind and my spirit that have helped me to persevere, and other people can do it too, you know.
Speaker 1:So I mean I lost my dad at 14. He went to prison though he didn't die and, like I was really close with my dad and I just always wanted him to be better. He was an alcoholic, he was addicted to drugs. He was just battling his own demons. So I can relate to you with that, and the thing that you brought up that I wanted to talk about is putting pressure on your kids like that, like my dad would do the same thing to me Almost. He would look to me like I was the parent sometimes and that's how I felt I had to check in on him and my mom. I had to mediate between the two of them. Can you relate to that as a youngster?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, listen, the reason that they both wanted me around was so that the other one would have to call them right. It was a weird twisted little relationship that they had where they would both tell me I loved your other. You know the other one more than anybody else in the world, but they could never figure it out for themselves, right? So so kids become the pawn, right? No-transcript him as well and kind of just went into trying to be a normal kid in a normal environment, which didn't work. So that was that. And then there was some conversations back and forth. So the last time I moved back I didn't talk to him that much. She stopped talking about him and for a few years I just went on and lived life.
Speaker 2:And then there was the phone call, and then there was everything that came with that, and getting on the plane and you know, walking down in a cold dark, you know funeral parlor, with all of these people looking at you that you haven't seen in two years. And there's some moments that you remember in your life, right, there's some key moments and things that happened to you that when you think about it, you can smell it, you can hear it, you can feel it. You're there, right it just it transports you there. And for me, you know, putting hands on my dead father. But I did, I'm a, I'm a sense person, right, I can't sit there and just I gotta be in it. So I did.
Speaker 2:I was that weird kid that I put my hands on his face, on his lips, on his hair, on his suit, like I touched every part of him, um, you know, in that coffin, and I've never forgotten that moment and it is a driving factor. You know, again, I worked for years to hate my father because he took his own life, and it was about four years ago and we'll get to this point in the story, but it was about four years ago that I went on a real long healing journey. I'm still on it today, um, but I've learned to forgive him because it's it's not what he did, it's what life did to him, it's what his brain wouldn't let him help control. Um, and and and. Now I think that's part of the driving factor on why I want to help people so much, because he never found the right person to help him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is so good, Bill. We're very similar in the way we think about our past, the way we've been able to heal and grow, and so, for me, I always tell people I'm making the wrongs of yesterday right today, in the way I live, and I'm honoring all of my family members and friends and anybody for that matter that didn't make it because they were afflicted by their demons and they couldn't persevere. I'm honoring all them in the way I live every day. That's my inspiration, because my dad, my uncles, they were brilliant. They had this side of them that was so charismatic and loving and fun to be around and they were very intelligent, but they had this dark side. They used to call it the crane curse growing up. Intelligent, but they had this dark side. They used to call it the crane curse growing up. Like.
Speaker 1:I had all these uncles who were brilliant and athletic but they went into, you know, organized crime. They went to prison, they got in trouble and they had bad parenting from my grandfather growing up and they were just in these bad environments. And so, you know, you look at these individuals and, like, as you get older, you don't look at them as your dad or your uncle, you look at them as just another human being who is struggling to find their way and they didn't make it right for me, like I don't look at my dad as my dad anymore. I look at him as just a man or a boy who went through a lot of traumatic things and never could rebound. And it breaks my heart, you know, like he went through such bad stuff that I learned about after he passed away and that took that anger, that resentment, and really helped me to to accept who he was and to just have sympathy and empathy for him.
Speaker 1:And I think that's hard when you're younger, because we just want our parents to be the people we need. We need superheroes, we need examples, we need leaders. I think that's why we're so passionate about giving back and working with youth or parents specifically. I mean, I can imagine that's why you are right. So let's talk about, like that journey from 13 to where you're at now, maybe some of the pivotal moments or things that stand out to you on that journey to creating your brand and making the impact you're making.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so here we are. Right, 13 years old, fast forward three years. I'm a kid who's lost, trying to figure it out. Mom's not doing well Now. Her and dad were never really together, like I said, but she's not doing well. She's a single mom working, you know, basically 16 hour days, making eight dollars an hour to try to raise two boys. That is tough, you know.
Speaker 2:So at 16 years old, I was done with school, like I was sitting school, bored out of my mind. I had, you know, made some money. I'm working two jobs, going to school. Mom's looking at me, you know, the rent needs to be paid. My older brother is helping where he can, but off doing a whole bunch of his own stuff. So I dropped out of high school at 16 years old. Mom signed the paper and that was it no-transcript life. And as the older you get, you start to see that plan because you have more experience and you've done more. So you realize the only thing that could have intervened in here or used you as a puppet is God. The things that I've done in each phase of my life have set me up for what we're trying to do now, right.
Speaker 2:So at 16, I'm in Kentucky, away from home. I get a GED and I finish a year-long course in culinary arts which is the first time I've ever introduced to food. Right, go home, I'm back in Florida, 17, 18, 19. I'm working at a Ruby Tuesdays a Checkers and I'm going to P-TECH for another culinary degree. I've never been a kid to just be able to sit down, work five, six, eight hours a day and then go hang out with my friends for 20 more hours. I've always had to been doing something. If I'm not working, I'm going to school. If I'm not going to school, I'm working. Yeah, I party and did some stuff like that.
Speaker 2:But anyways, 19 years old man, here's the next pivotal moment. Right, 13, pop, 16, ged, high school, all that 19 years old. I'm sitting there. I'm like. I'm at that moment. I'm like is this it? My boys are smoking weed and getting drunk every night. People are going to jail, kids are overdosing, mom's not out, you know, two and a half years in prison, just it, just. Things are going crazy. My uncles are OD and and dying. My aunts are getting murdered. Like no way Is this all I'm meant to do on this earth? So I pick up a piece of paper and I look down and it says hiring firefighter and I say, well, whatever we bring the fire, let's jump into the fire. I said I can go fight fires, you know what I'm saying. And they answered the phone USA Navy how can I help you? I said you know what? How can you help me? How can you help me? Well, what do we got to do here? Because you know, a year before, let's go.
Speaker 2:Two years before I got arrested for marijuana possession I'm a 16 year old kid. I got a blunt in my pocket. I'm doing stupid things in the wrong neighborhood. Found it in my pocket. I go to JDC that's the only trouble I ever really got in went through a program, they put me in one of those scared straight things and I took a tour of prison and that was enough for me, right, so I, I so I stayed away from all the garbage pretty much after that because God bless you. But I don't know that I'm made for that, right? Not that anyone is. That's a whole nother experience. My brother did three years in prison and the stories he told me I just. God bless you. You're stronger than the world knows, right, so you know.
Speaker 2:So, at 19,. I went to a recruiter station or excuse me, at 18 and tried to join the army. And the army told me no, you got a good score, you got a good physical, but a year before you'd been in trouble because you got a GED, you got to wait two years. Well, okay, right, that was me putting the military in my mind to go do something, but God intervening saying you're not ready for this, because in three years 9-11 is going to break out, right, and we want to make sure that you're in the right spot of the world when this happens.
Speaker 2:So two years later, 19 years old, I joined the Navy. Man joined the Navy and I said how soon can you get me out of here? And 45 days later I was on a plane to bootcamp. You know, six weeks, 12 weeks after that, I was in Mississippi. Nine weeks after that, I married my first wife. Six weeks after that, I was on a plane to Virginia. Two weeks after that, I was in Rome. I did a six month deployment after being in the Navy for nine months, first year in the Navy, I went to 20 different countries, saw so many different things and it was just like dude, are you kidding me? I'm making steps to get out of whatever, wherever I came from, all these people, generations before me that only cared about themselves, holy cow. Now I've got an opportunity. Now there's no excuses. Now no one can say I never had a bump. Now, here I am. Now, what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 1:So let me ask you about your attitude there, cause you went through and saw a lot of bad things and it could have steered you down a completely different path where you became hopeless. You expected that to happen to you. You became a victim in your thinking. You see that occur in a lot of people's lives. Why do you think you were so driven and open-minded and willing to just go out there and experience life? A lot of people are scared to do anything. Why do you think you were able to incorporate that attitude and mentality?
Speaker 2:So you remember, I told you, I put my hands on him, I touched him, I felt him every part of his body. Right, that's what quitting felt like, that's what giving up felt like right, I was feeling in that moment what, what giving up felt like right and I and I didn't ever want to feel that again. Right. So there was no other option but to keep going. Mom's on food stamps get another, you know. Let's go get a job and help her out. Right, you know that you're not going nowhere. Let's join the Navy and keep going. Right, your first marriage didn't work out. Let's take yourself to personal marriage counseling by yourself, because God put me here to stop generational things.
Speaker 1:Well, look at this is so good to learning from other people Anyone listening to this. You can learn so much from watching other people and the mistakes that they make. Yeah Right, you could come from a poor family in a poor neighborhood and you could either become a product of your environment or you could look around and go. You know I'm not going to make the same decisions they made to get here. I'm not going to think the way they do. I'm not going to behave the way they do. It doesn't mean you don't love your family or whoever that is, but you don't want to end up like that.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things Bill's sharing here having faith and believing that there's a greater purpose to your life. People who believe that always do better. Because if you don't believe that there's a meaning to these life circumstances and what you endure, you're going to feel like a victim and you're more likely to lose hope and inspiration. But if you believe that you go through this stuff because God's teaching you something and you have a greater purpose, you look for the lesson, you're more optimistic, you believe that this is part of a bigger plan and you don't let these situations beat you down or lead to you becoming jaded in life, and I think that's really important to point out.
Speaker 1:Bill, you've demonstrated that all throughout your story so far is having faith, believing in a higher power guiding you, and then not taking things personal, but learning and growing from them. Like something as severe and difficult as losing your father, you use that as leverage to say I'm never going to quit on life. I don't want to end up like that. You know there's something more for me and I admire that in you, man, and, I think, a lot of people. If you're listening to this, you can learn a lot from what Bill's sharing right now.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that, right, and you know it's it's it's. Life has been good, man, I've had a lot of good memories, but the struggle, um, you know it, it continues, right so. So joining the Navy was an opportunity. So now, now, it's a little different. Now I'm a 20 year old kid. I'm making $40,000 a year. Like this is more money than really anybody in my family has ever made in a single year, right, so? So, um, I have no idea what to do with it all. So instead of saving it, investing it, putting it in, in, you know, in in all these accounts, I'm just enjoying life and life's good. For a couple of years, right, you know, I, I I did end up getting divorced really early from my first wife, but, you know, no harm, no foul.
Speaker 2:I have nothing bad to say about that marriage. We got married as young kids. She couldn't handle me being gone. She needed somebody there. And my first couple of years of the military I was gone. All the time. She was a good girl, you know. She ended up, you know, having a great life, and she's been married to another gentleman now for 20 plus years. So great that you know that was just. We got each other through whatever we needed to get each other through, right.
Speaker 2:So now I'm a single sailor. You know, I'm hanging out. I'm an E five, a second-class petty officer in the Navy, and Sean, I just threw myself into the Navy, right, like, like, here's an opportunity. Here's an opportunity where you're telling me all I got to do is work hard, left, right, left, right, left, yes sir, no sir, and you're going to give me a promotion, you're going to give me more money, you're going to give me more responsibility. You're going to send me to these schools. You're going to teach me how to be a leader. You're going to teach me how to be a man. You're going to, you're going to show me what it I needed to do before I left.
Speaker 2:I went in as an E3 because I had the GED, the culinary school, you know. So I studied my behind off man. I just threw everything I had and I made E4 first time up. I made E5 first time up and then I went to recruiting and if you could imagine, you said gift to gab. If you could imagine putting me in recruiting. And now this is my job. I get to be in the Navy, have stability and I get to talk to kids about making their life better. Come on, man, why did you make me God? Well, here's why I made you, and we're going to read now.
Speaker 2:Now you know, people join the military, sean, and, like a Navy SEAL, he gets taught to do what Covert ops, be a sniper right, to have stealth, to be able to read and do the supreme of the supreme in spec war and spec ops. Well, as a recruiter, I became a career recruiter, so I went into. That was my whole job. I did it for 11 years in the Navy. So what does the Navy do then? They send you to sales schools, they send you to speaking schools, they send you to refinement schools, they send you to psychology classes and they teach you how to speak. So come on right. So now they're teaching me.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the military real quick. For a young person who's listening to this, who's contemplating what they're going to do after high school. You know you see a lot of kids going to college nowadays who don't really do anything with their degrees and they get in debt. Uh, you see other kids that you know they're just going to a nine to five and typical nine to fives right out of high school. You're not going to really make a lot of money or be able to grow that much. What would you tell a young person about the benefits of going into the military after high school?
Speaker 2:I mean listen, the Navy, absolutely. I tell anyone this who will listen? And then some that don't right. The Navy absolutely revolutionized my life. I went into the Navy as a 19-year-old high school dropout and I left as a 36-year-old father of two with a master's degree, right. So you know, I I earned an anchor right. I I made chief petty officer, which is the top end of enlisted uh on the Navy side. You know, only 25% of the guys uh that that ever joined the Navy even have an opportunity to make chief and a smaller percentage even make it Um. So you know, you know we can talk about that as well. The Navy told me no to chief seven times and I told him, okay, well, it's not, no, it's not yet. I'm coming for it. I love that, I love that.
Speaker 1:So talk to me about the transition from the Navy into a business owner. Like what was the? Because you've always been a hustler you said, said from day one you were selling lollipops and candy at school. You know, I think some people, some people got it and others got to cultivate it over time, meaning like, if you know, deep down inside you got something special, you got that energy like it seems like you had that from day one and I love that. Other people they got to work at it and we all do. We got to kind of sharpen ourselves over time but it's no wonder you ended up becoming a multiple business owner. Just kind of hearing your story so far in your drive. What was the first business you started coming out of the Navy?
Speaker 2:Doing the softball stuff was the first actual business that I engaged in, but I just want to tell one more story about the Navy, if I could. And this transitions into civilian world. It was me leaving the Navy, and I think this is important for your listeners to hear, because we're talking about taking chances, overcoming, taking risks and great things that can happen sometimes when you drop the anchor and take off on a new course. I did something that I've yet to find anyone else has done right. So maybe there's somebody out there and I'd love to talk to you because I finally find somebody that shares the same experience. So, sean, I'm 16 years in the Navy. I'm four years away from a lifetime retirement right, four years away from a lifetime retirement. I've given the Navy 16 years. The Navy says, all right, you're up for orders. Now, mind you, I'm in Tampa, florida, and they say I can have San Jose, san Diego, phoenix or Washington State right. So everything on that coast, right.
Speaker 2:So most people would have sucked it up and just went okay, do my four years come back. Life is good. We just had too many moving parts. My wife was getting ready to graduate as a teacher, certified in Florida, then would have to get certified out there. Then come back. My daughter was chasing a softball scholarship. It just didn't make sense. So I fought the Navy to stay on this side and they called my bluff. So I fought the Navy to stay on this side and they called my bluff Right. So it's 16 years in the Navy as a chief petty officer, in perfect health, with a perfect record, with no reason other than to not be separated from my family, to be able to pursue being a father and not be separated from my kids anymore. I signed a DD 214 and I walked away from a 16 year career and I became a teacher. What's a DD?
Speaker 1:214?. Dd 214 is a military separation paperwork.
Speaker 2:Sorry, it's a. It's the paper you sign when your service is over, right.
Speaker 1:Is that like a honorable discharge?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, 100%. I was on a DD 214 is the paper. Your discharge is honorable, other than honorable. There's several other ones. I'm not an expert on that, but but I walked away from a 16 year career with a perfect record as a chief petty officer and just I took a chance on myself because the option was take my family, disrupt them, bring them back. Too many things that were just couldn't calculate, it didn't make sense. The other one was be a geo bachelor, meaning leave my family in Florida and go work out here for three years and just fly back and forth. I wasn't doing that in my daughter's high school years, so I just walked away and I started my life over and that was it. And then we had to move on and do something else. So I became a teacher. I was a teacher for four years and this is where PGF came about and my first business. So that's how that transitions into that.
Speaker 2:So I walked away from the Navy, became a teacher and I built a softball organization in the state of Florida called the Firecrackers girls fast pitch softball. My daughter was 14 years old, pursuing a fast pitch scholarship, working hard to be a great softball player. I enjoyed being with her, coaching her. I enjoyed softball and business and leadership and talking and recruiting all came to play and I built an 18 team organization from Panama city down to Miami in Florida. And because of that, an organization reached out to me and said hey, we're running some tournaments in the state of Florida. We'd like to know if you'd like to help us, because you've got a big social media outreach and softball. We see what you're doing. Uh, we like your energy and we'd like you to help us run some tournaments. And I looked him dead in the face and I said no, thank you, I'm too busy. I've just got a new career. We're struggling. I have no more time to be able to do anything. And I told them no and you know God's persistent when he wants you to do something. And about two months later, they called me again and they said no, really, we see what you're doing. We think there's an opportunity here. We'd like you to help us. So this time I listened a little bit and engaged a little bit and I ended up helping them.
Speaker 2:And in March of 2018, we ran our first softball tournament in Gainesville, florida, newberry in Gainesville, florida, newberry, florida at Champions Park. And it was 18 teams and we helped 18 teams. And that weekend was another one just like losing dad, dropping out of high school, joining the Navy, marrying my wife, which we haven't even started to talk about, my amazing, beautiful life transforming wife. But anyways, that was the start of the first business. We ran our first tournament, then we ran our second tournament, then we ran our third and then I really started to see what was happening and I went from softball coach to tournament director and the impact that I was able to start being able to have on youth sports.
Speaker 2:Right, as a coach, you're like you play. I don't like this, I don't like that. If I could change this, if I could change that. Well, now, here I am, sean. I'm in a spot to be able to have direct impact on change for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kids every week, every week. Right, I'm meeting families, I'm meeting players, I'm meeting parents, I'm playing in the tournaments, I'm running the tournaments.
Speaker 2:I'm teaching full time, like this didn't all just show up. Like I'm waking up at five o'clock in the morning, I'm I'm getting ready for school, I'm teaching all day, you know. I'm coming home for an hour, going back to school, coaching volleyball, coaching basketball, coming home hanging out with my kids, coaching softball, kissing my wife they all go to bed. Now I'm up at nine o'clock at night till two o'clock in the morning, working on my softball business, right Like I'm here, and now I'm really starting to. I'm a 24 hour a day guy because I'm trying to provide opportunity for everyone and people are calling hey, we want more of this, we want more of this. Okay, let's give you more of this, but it was about the product quality.
Speaker 2:I've always been about product quality. I will not run events or not sell. It comes down to tacos, too. If the rice ain't good, the beef ain't good, the tournament ain't good, the Snickers and Blow Pops ain't good, we're not going to sell them. You have to have a standard and you have to have a product quality, right, I mean? Yes, I'm a business owner. We make money off of things that we do in all realms, but money isn't the intent, right, money isn't the intent. Taking care of people is the intent. Delivering a good product is an intent, changing lives is an intent and anything else is a by-product of that intent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent. And when you have that mentality like, you always make a lot of money. But if you chase the money, you'll make decisions that could, um, you know, affect quality, could affect the way that you treat people, customer service, like people that are just chasing, chasing, chasing the money and not having a bigger picture of purpose behind what they're doing. You, you can tell and, and that's what stands out like, that's why you have unlimited energy bill. Because you're inspired. You don't get tired when you're inspired, you can stay up until two in the morning and grind like that because you have a vision of where you're going and that vision is so compelling and it captivates you and it's not. You're not going to slow down, um, so you know every step of the way you've been so willing to move forward. You know out of the Navy, you're like screw it, I'll move on.
Speaker 1:A lot of people get hung up on those decisions and they beat themselves up and they're indecisive. But when you just make a decision and you just move forward, it's so crazy how better things typically come, or new things into your life that you never would have experienced. So I love that about you You're open-minded, you're willing to try things and you just move forward. You move forward to the next thing that's in front of you. Um, so, as you're doing all this at the school and you're getting more recognition for your ability to coach and lead young people, and you know you're you're doing the stuff with softball Um, when did you transition into opening your first taco business? Cause you have multiple locations, franchises now right, when did that come about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a whole lot of story in between there, right? Um, we, uh, we started looking into tacos and in probably 20, well, just franchising in general in 2021, you know so, from from 2018, uh to 2021, uh, we, we, and even now, 2018 to 2021, and even now, 2018, to present my team with my partner, jason, my team, christine, kim, all the directors that help us. We went from running a few tournaments a year, sean, to we now run the biggest, most competitive girls fast pitch softball organization in the Southeast United States. Uh, I mean, we do 40 high level competitive girls tournaments every year. Uh, our biggest event is is the show me the money series where, you know, in the first week of June of every year, we do a tournament in Gainesville, again, newberry champions park. We partner with the university of Florida and, uh, we give away fit what is $40,000, $50,000 that weekend back to the teams. There's over 150 college coaches present. We play our championship games at the University of Florida, at the KDC Soul Presley Stadium. So, like this has turned into just so much opportunity for so many kids. I get messages daily on how the events have impacted lives, changed lives, and you know we have girls that have come through our program that have now graduated from major universities, all kinds of places, and are now going on to be strong, powerful women. But to get to tacos right, you got to get to 60, right? 60 comes before tacos, right? So I want to make sure that the mindset of when I went into the restaurant business is really understood and why it happened. So bring on 2020, february of 2020, right before COVID. Right Just right before COVID, the softball season had started. I'm a high school softball coach, so you know I'm knee deep in softball, right. So I got a call in 2018 to go coach high school softball. Well, 2019, we won the 3A state championship, so I've got a Florida high school state championship under my belt as a coach over 2020. We've started a first game of the year. We get a win against a rival school that we haven't gotten in many years. The game's over.
Speaker 2:I'm driving home 45 miles an hour on a main road. You know green light is day, I'm not on my phone, I'm not doing anything wrong and all of a sudden, out of the blue, here comes this guy who runs a red light, not paying attention, no driver's license, no insurance. Nine felonies held his own mother hostage, right? Just a bad, bad, bad guy. And he was in a hurry and ran a red light and took me on head on at 45 miles an hour. So that was another one of those life-changing moments.
Speaker 2:I was in a bad place in my life. You know a couple of the things that we miss when you talk about fighting through. I went through a bankruptcy after getting out of the Navy. We hit rock bottom. I went from making a hundred grand a year down to making 40 grand a year as a teacher, right, so went through all of our savings. I had to look my wife as a man in the face, you know, in 2000, end of 2017 and tell her and my kids that the savings had run out. All of our money was pretty much gone and we had to go take a bankruptcy. And I did it, okay, and it was about five months later. Everything reset and the path started moving forward again, right, um, so head on collision in 2020. Sean, I was in a bad spot here 210 pounds. If I could screen share here, I'd show you some pictures. I got out of the Navy, I took the bankruptcy.
Speaker 2:Here's this high-powered guy who has been killing it most of his life.
Speaker 2:And now he was alone. Right, he did. He made a move for his wife and kids in order to not stay in the Navy, but he lost his team. Right, there was no more hey chief. There was no more left left, left, right left. There was no more accountability, there was no more incentive.
Speaker 2:I was teaching and changing lives, but there was no chance for promotion. I was in a you know eight by eight box, doing a job that made an impact, but not one that I loved, right, and? And so I went from a high impact military environment where we worked out all day, to a low impact you know, primarily military people that don't work out all day and they were feeding me cakes and candies and pizzas and popsicles and I was eating them. And I went from 175 pounds fit to 210 pounds fat and I was just depressed and I believe that God said you're falling off track, young man, you're letting the world get a hold of you and I'm going to give you a reset and we're going to see what you do with it.
Speaker 2:And he took me out in a head-on collision and I got knocked out in that collision and I opened the door. Cars encapsulated in airbags, sean, I wasn't even wearing a seatbelt and the cars encapsulated in airbags, right, and I get out of the car and I look at the guy I hit and he's there. I'm like buddy, are you okay? You were in a car wreck. And then I turn around and I look and it's my truck. I didn't know it was my truck until I saw it.
Speaker 2:And so that was the single next, probably in this moment, a changing moment of my life February, covid, march, april, may, june, june. Sean, I'm sitting there, I'm in pain. I just had a wreck. I'm on the toilet. I can't even see the water, bro, I can't even see the water as I'm sitting on the toilet. And I just had enough and I told my wife. I said I'm done with this, I'm just done. I'm done feeling this way. I'm done being fat. I'm putting on my shoes and I I Forrest Gump did, bro I started running and, uh, you know, one day, on one of those runs, right, it was a 15 and a half minute mile.
Speaker 2:I can run an eight minute, seven and a half minute mile today, but in 2021, it was a 15 and a half minute mile and I just made a selfie. I don't know if you watch my social media, there's a lot of pictures of me on Right. So I made a selfie and I said today, guys, I worked out for 60 minutes 60 minutes today. And then the next day I said got my 60 minutes today and it's just a bunch of pictures of a fat guy with a bald head and a big neck going. Hey, I'm going to figure out a way to use this thing that I have to look at every day to hold myself accountable. And I was really just posting these pictures so that a year from now, if I wasn't where I wanted to be, the fat guy would show up in my memories Right and I would be telling myself hey, you're still a fat guy, you need to get it together.
Speaker 2:But doing that turned into somebody one day coming up to me and going I've lost 25 pounds because you're working out 60 minutes a day, thank you. And it was like when that girl gave me, you know, the quarter for the blow pop, not the money part, but the transaction. I'm doing something that somebody needs and it's helping them Hashtag 60 for me. And I just started posting it and posting it and posting it Right Because I wanted to be able to again. I'm weird man. Like I use Facebook. People think I'm talking to them. A lot of times I use Facebook and I'm talking to myself, so let's talk about this. Yeah, this is so good.
Speaker 1:You're talking about using social media for accountability for yourself. Yeah, and I've done that too. Every step of the way since I built my brand and my coaching business, I use it as self accountability. If I'm, if I'm not sharing my messages and my story, then it's because I'm not. I'm not operating at a high level and I got nothing good going on in my life to share with others. I'm not doing anything that I'm proud of. So, every step of the way, like like you, I would get on social media and do a live video on Facebook and I'm talking to myself, or a past version of myself. I'm firing myself up by reliving these certain memories or, you know, keeping that fight alive inside of me. And that's how you build a real brand, bill, and that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1:60 for me started off with you just getting pissed off and sick and tired of being fat and going. You know what. I'm going to do something about this, I'm going to do something about this, and you were holding yourself accountable every day by posting Guess what. It resonated with people, because how many individuals are going through that same struggle right now? So, for anyone listening to this, if you want to build a real brand. It starts with who you are and what journey are you on. Are you on a journey to make a lot of money and provide, you know, financial freedom for you and your family? Are you on a journey to build a business? Are you on a journey to get fit and lose weight? Whatever you're doing, document it the good, the bad, the ugly.
Speaker 1:Don't think social media is just for those pretty pictures where everything's going right in your life. That's what everyone does. Post those moments where, like Bill, you got the chubby cheeks and you finally ran your first mile and you feel so proud of yourself. Post on your days where you're not feeling it. Talk about battling depression. Talk about wanting to achieve your goals but doubting yourself.
Speaker 1:Achieve your goals but doubting yourself like that's the stuff that resonates with your audience, because that's what they experienced too. And when they know that you have gone through or experienced what they're feeling now, there's trust that's built and they're more likely to continue following you and watching you on your journey, because they think, dang, he's one of us, he's gone through what I'm going through right now. And then, as you start elevating and growing, they're paying attention because you're literally giving them the blueprint as to how to break free of that stuck point and improve their lives as well, and that's what you've done. So I just wanted to point that out, man, because your brand is crushing it, because it's it's relatable to people and you're living the brand. You're not just trying to promote something that you haven't lived or that you don't represent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, and I, and I appreciate that Right, and, and it is. And there's so many gaps in the story, right, Like you know, my, my second, my current wife, she's a second wife of mine, I'm her second husband. Well, we've been married for 21 years, you know, but the first five years of our relationship we split up twice because I was a moron, because I was fighting and struggling with every terrible thing that I had seen that a relationship should be right. I grew up seeing that a relationship should be rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, I'm sorry, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, I'm sorry. That's not relationships. Relationships are talking, communicating, understanding each other's feelings, give and take, being able to take the other person's feelings into consideration and not making moves for yourself but making moves for others, and I had to learn that.
Speaker 2:So, after my wife and I got together, we split up twice. The second time she didn't come back and I had to take myself to marriage counseling. As a man, I went to marriage counseling by myself because I didn't want to have a fourth wife. I was already destined to have a third. I didn't want to see a fourth Right, but I kept letting my you know, Alicia was my wife Know what I was doing. I was persistent because I wanted this one, sean. I wanted the opportunity to get right and keep her. She was it.
Speaker 1:I love that man. I love that you know you fight for what you want, bill, and you're you're resilient and persistent as heck man and you know I see you posting content with you and your wife, dude, and I love it, and I know people online do too, because it's like behind the scenes of what's going on in Bill Hoops life right, all the businesses, all the travel, all the stuff you're doing to make an impact. People like to see how you talk to your wife. They love to see you guys being goofy together.
Speaker 2:You can tell you're in love.
Speaker 1:You can tell you guys you're in love man and a lot of people in their relationships. After 20 years they don't do that stuff anymore. So let's share with the audience what you're going to be doing in the future, what you're currently doing to make an impact in people's lives. Let's talk about the coaching, the speaking, the book, the podcast. I'm going to call this little last 10 minute segment, segment we have call your shot.
Speaker 1:I always tell people from day one. I've called my shot. I told everyone what I was going to do, every phone call from prison, every letter I wrote home and I pulled it off. I told my wife from day one baby, we're going to the top. Everything I promised her I've always brought to fruition and I backed my word up with massive action. And I know you're the same way. I knew that from day one, but hearing your story more in depth right now, I already know you're that way. So I want you to share with the world what what Bill Hoops is going to do in the coming years, with the impact you're making and the trajectory you're on right now.
Speaker 2:Sure, you know, uh, just to wrap all that up, right so, running the PGF business we talked briefly about the tacos I do own two taco franchises, uh, called capital tacos, here in the Pasco County, one in Trinity and one in Lando Lakes. We've been running those for the last two years, right. So we own the softball company, we own the two taco restaurants, all of that combined, right? Like, again, I told you, I got a master's degree right, my formal education, sean. I'm finally finally, 12 years after I got, it able to start using it I've got a bachelor's degree in psychology and child development. I've got a master's degree in youth leadership and policy development right. So I went to school to be able to really understand kids and development and policy and how to help kids and do all those things. And you know, 10 years as a neighbor recruiter, 15 years as a softball coach, now the 60 for me, I'm designing programs. We're starting in the youth sports world, right? Softball, that's my community, that's where I am, it's what I love. I love working with kids, I love being in the softball world, I love speaking, teaching, coaching. It's just what I was designed to do. I believe it's the true spot where I'm supposed to be. So, through the help of your program and the drive and the will and the connections and Josh and everybody that you've been able to get us connected with, we're building a solid program called Lead your Journey. Lead your Journey is the name of the company. 60 for Me is the program. 60 for Me, it's really. It's taken some time to figure it out, right. You know how does it. How does 60 for me transition? How does lead your journey and 60 for me tie together? Well, for me, lead your journey is the company. Right. I can lead your journey in youth sports. I can lead your journey in business. I can lead your journey in, you know, losing weight right. Whatever your goal is, the business that we're growing is ultimately going to be able to lead multiple paths right.
Speaker 2:If you're in youth sports, I can help you there with mindset performance. I've worked with young female athletes for the last 20 years and we're focused on helping young female athletes today work on their mindset, work on their performance, handle anxiety, relationships with their parents, you know, and working towards a college scholarship to be able to live their goals and dreams, because for girls there's very few professional sports or end lines after college. So I'm working hard with young female athletes to be able to pursue college education proper mindset, because when the game ends, what do we have left when the military ends? How did I end up? Let's fix a problem. When the game ends, we're now preparing them with the tools that they need to be able to live without something they've had for 15 years, right. So we're changing mindset, we're changing thought process, we're bringing families together.
Speaker 2:On the business side, I'm consulting and working with other business owners and networking with other business owners here in the community and as I grow and develop and build two franchise restaurants, we'll eventually sell those restaurants and move on or maybe hold them as family heirlooms, but the goal will then be able to have enough knowledge to be able to then open a consulting branch of lead your journey and start leading other entrepreneurs and other business owners to shorten their time to success with capital tacos. I'm on the corporate training team and I've helped eight other or, excuse me, we're working on eight I've helped five other. At this point, restaurant owners open, start and develop their business right. So we're working on that end. And then, on the parent and the adult end, my wife and I are working on a coaching program to be able to bring couples together. Young couples struggle so hard and true therapy and counseling is sometimes just not direct and effective. I you know. So we work with several other couples in the area to be able to develop programs and help them rekindle. The greatest gift my wife ever gave me was her patience for me to grow up and be a man and know how to love and treat her. So if I and she and we can shorten that path for couples, that's what we're working on Helping kids, helping community and business, helping couples and adults to be able to live their best life 60 minutes a day, because ultimately that's what happens, sean.
Speaker 2:People look externally. How can I help this person? How can I help that person? And they never take a moment to look at themselves. They never take a moment to look at themselves and that's where the power is right. I was fighting so hard to take care of everybody else my whole life. You know heal from pops. Help mom, help my brothers, help everybody else, pay rent, be a father, be a husband, be, you know, all of these things a myself. That a hard life became easier, right. That an indescribable or an unseeable path came clear the moment I closed my eyes and started focusing on my mind, my body, my soul. Even with eyes closed, I was able to see more clear. The vision was becoming what it needed to be. So as I opened my eyes, there was nothing to see. There was only action to take because I'd already seen it and done it in my mind.
Speaker 1:Bro, I love that so much. I mean you got your hand in a lot of different things that are going to create massive impact, from the businesses you're running to the business coaching you're providing for others. I really like what you said, too, about providing mentorship for couples, because what can you teach to others at the most efficient and highest level? It's things that you've mastered and you've gone through in your life. The thing I love about you is you're not pretending to be anybody that you're not. You're not like braggadocious or you're not trying to paint a picture of somebody that you're not. You're being so real and authentic. You're like look, struggled in my marriage. My wife was patient. She gave me grace. I learned a lot. This is what I learned. This could help you right. Same with being overweight and out of shape. I started putting in the work 60 minutes a day. Look at how it transformed my life, you know. But every step of the way you've gone through stuff that could have been looked at as a negative and led you to becoming a victim of circumstance, rather than this champion mindset you've developed that's allowed you to persevere and grow stronger and wiser every step of the way.
Speaker 1:And you guys, if you're listening like, success leaves clues. All the successful people I know that are making an impact, that are living really amazing lives. They had to earn it and they had to fight to get to where they're at. It wasn't given to them, it wasn't gifted, and they faced a lot of adversity. But when they went through those difficult times, they didn't look at those circumstances as negative. They found the opportunity for growth. They found an opportunity to pivot. The way they interpreted it resulted in motivation, inspiration, a new angle, a new idea, and you're open-minded and willing to keep going for it. So, bill, I mean, whether it's kids that you're coaching in softball, which I love, whether it's the parents of those kids that need help getting healthy and fit or helping their marriage, or other individuals who want to become entrepreneurs and business owners you got it all, bro. You're the real deal, and so, for anyone listening to this, we're going to post Bill's social media handles in the description, but on Facebook it's William hoops.
Speaker 2:Everything's just at 60 for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, simple, easy at 60 for me, give Bill a follow, show him some love. If you saw this episode, share it with somebody. Make sure that you drop some hearts, some comments, let us know your takeaways and be on the lookout for this guy. You're going to see him on stages. You're going to see him on social media. I guarantee it. You'll be seeing his book and his podcast soon. We're working on that right now and I'll be seeing you in Tampa come October, right At the moving Titans retreat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, should definitely be there, man, I and I appreciate all of it, right and and you know, shameless plug for you here right Like, I just want to say thank you, right Like, uh, you have set me up with some great people, uh, great mentoring, your calls provide a lot of good stuff. So if anybody's on the fence, right Like, you have to invest in yourself. I'm a coach and even a coach needs a coach, right? You know, even a coach has to go out and find somebody to invest in them. And at some point in time, you know, you have to invest in yourself. And and my last thought will be you know, you have to fail. You have to fail. You cannot be successful without failing. Right Failure right Equals a failure, equals experience.
Speaker 2:When you fail, you have experience. With that experience, you have to make adjustments and when you make adjustments, you find success. At any point in that time that chain gets broken, you will not find success. So you have to fail in order to get experience, and that experience that requires adjustments. That's where the rubber meets the road, and you either are in or you're out, and many people fail at that point because they're too scared, too tired or they don't work long enough in order for those adjustments to take place. Once those adjustments are made, you start to find success. Most people cannot get through the adjustments and they quit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. Failure is part of the equation to quit yeah, a hundred percent. Six, uh, failure is part of the equation to success? Yeah, right, and if you're not failing or, stumbling, stumbling or struggling, it's because you're not dreaming big enough and pushing hard enough. But every step of the way you got to keep fighting and moving forward and like, if anyone doubts that, go back and listen to this whole episode and listen to the bill story. You went through a lot of stuff, man, and you know. Number one, I'm honored to know you, to get to work with you. I'm honored to teach you the things and strategies that have helped me to grow my online coaching business, hit big stages and make an impact, because I know you have a heart to serve, just like I do, and bro, together we're going to make a massive impact and change the world. So, bill Hoops, thank you for joining me. My man, we'll definitely do another episode in the future and until then, let's go out and make a massive impact together.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on.
