Matt Farago- How to Make Your Voice Louder Than the Noise

We trace Matt Farago's broadcasting path from calling simulated NBA games to walking away from a dream tour to care for family, and how that choice reshaped his idea of success. Along the way we dig into empathy in media, preparation as an edge, resilience under scrutiny, and launching a foundation to amplify young voices.

• COVID-era simulated NBA calls and lessons on painting the picture
• Early validation, mentors, and managing praise versus blame
• Empathy-first interviewing, timing questions, building trust
• Why high school sports still matter and the value of reps
• Preparation as the differentiator and creating your own doors
• Leaving the Globetrotters to be with family and finding perspective
• Serendipity, loss, and new opportunities at Duquesne and the Pirates
• Handling criticism, circles that tell hard truths, staying authentic
• Education, mental health, and teaching the why
• AI, individualized learning, and curiosity-driven growth
• Launching Voices Are Heard Foundation to support young entrepreneurs

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Transcript

Calling Fake Games During COVID

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Well, I ended up getting this crazy gig from a company called Mischief out of New York. And it was calling fake NBA basketball games because the NBA had been shut down. And so like they re they made this website called NBA.fm.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

And they were basically going through this NBA schedule as if it was still happening with hyper-realistic broadcasts. So it was me and Ashton doing the play-by-play in color of they would just send us simulated 2K games and he'd come over at the basement of the house and we'd do the game and we'd send it out to them. And then at seven o'clock, whenever that game was supposed to be played, it would air on NBA.fm and people were doing bets and like just because you had nothing to do during COVID. But it was the craziest.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

That is insane. Is he still broadcasting or is he?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

No, he's in the G League now. Oh, is he really? Yep. He's coaching the G League.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

That's not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Yeah. Um, with G League under DC, I think now.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Wash.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

That's uh what a unique experience. Do you think that helped you as a broadcaster all doing like voiceovers like that?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

It was it was just so unique. I don't know if I I think like you took from what you had done in the past, and then also it was just so different in comparison to anything that I had ever done. Um, like literally calling a video game, but trying to make it real.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Um, but it puts into perspective the purpose of like painting the picture, how important that that is. But yeah, there's the hits were on it, were crazy, and it was a fun, it was a fun time. And I like to joke. I was joking with Ashton and Josh Taylor did a couple games with me too. And I was like, we're the only broadcasters working right now. Yeah, yeah. At that time, there was nothing going on. Shortly thereafter, they got the bubbles, yeah. Right.

Finding A Voice And Early Validation

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, and but there not many, not many, yeah. But uh, so you did announce you know over 400 Harlem Globetrotter games, 24 different countries, including in venues like Madison Square Garden. When was it that you realized like you had truly mastered or created a craft?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Man, uh, I think I always knew very young that I had such a passion for sports, and I loved playing them, but I wasn't very good at them. And I was a beanpole growing up, so I didn't have, I wish I would have had the size that I do now. I might have been able to be plugged in somewhere, just bit of body. But uh, I always had the passion for the sports side of things. But even growing up, at one point I was working at Applebee's as a host, and it was maybe my second or third day on the job, and all of the girls that I was working with didn't want to do the announcement of like when your party's ready, there was a wait and you had to announce. So, like, I started doing that, and then I I remember like doing like John said partying two, your table's down, and people were like turning around and going, like, who is what is going on? And I like people were shaking my, I will never forget this. A guy shook my hand, older gentleman walking out of the restaurant, shook my hand, and he was like, You're going somewhere. And I'm like, like, maybe this might be something that that I can pursue. And that was actually the last, like, truly normal, for lack of a better word, job that I ever had. Is like I thought that maybe there was some belief in that. And then doing a lot of high school games, and one of my favorite things when I was coming up through the ranks and being younger was you'd always look at the visiting team because the home team has heard you before, but I always look at the visiting team and see like what was their reaction when I first like did my open because the open's the best part for any announcer, right? And like, so and then you could always see like there was a little bit of a surprise there. So those were like those fun little like everybody needs a little bit of reassurance of like I'm on the right path. And certainly there were people around me that were saying that I am, but you know, you always wonder, I think even as a kid, you always wonder, are they being honest with you, or are they just saying, you know, they're just being supportive?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Isn't it amazing though how that confirmation from an unexpected source that just someone comes up to you and says you're going places?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Yeah. And why do we do that in terms of uh a person that we don't know and we value almost that opinion more than we do our loved ones and our friends' opinion? But it's probably for the exact reason that I just mentioned of like, are you just saying that or do you really believe? And I think there's not many people, there's not many strangers that are going to come up to you and give you a false sense of you've made it, or or I think that's good. So I think that's probably why we we invest more into the strangers.

Praise, Blame, And Staying Centered

SPEAKER_00 4:44

There's always this like tension in, you know, between virtues is what I call it. Is other people's opinions don't really matter, but sometimes other people's opinions do really matter. And walking that tightrope as a performer, as an athlete in any domain is is challenging. But sometimes those other people's opinions are really can what change the trajectory of your career, give you a deeper, further belief in what you're doing. When someone else notices something that you do is unique or special or that you originally believe, you know, I feel like I'm kind of good at this. But then to just get that other person's belief just further confirms that you're right in the way that you think about yourself. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

And I think that coming up through it, I got a lot of that. Um, a lot of people, I was announcing out in Clinton, Pennsylvania, youth town, doing a lot of baseball games. And one of my true mentors and someone that I really appreciate his craft is Tim Debacco, former PA announcer for the Pirates. And the amount of people that would, and I put this in a box because sometimes they all think every announcer sounds alike. But a lot of people would come up to me and say, like, you sound like the Pirates announcer. You sound like the Pirates announcer. And it's just like, as a 18, 19-year-old kid just getting started, that's that's words of encouragement of like, if I sound like him, maybe I could be like him one day.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

How do you then balance now, going back to the balance or the tension between those virtues, not getting too caught up in other people's opinions, knowing that one can change your life and then others can pull you down?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah, it's a hard part. And I think being a young person, it's the hardest at that time because we often make the noise that is negative louder than the positive noise. We don't like to listen to our parents that are telling us that we're on the right track and tune out them. But I also at this, in the same sense, I think like let it wash off is really good advice to say and very, very hard to actually implement. I think we see that all the time when we're driving in traffic and see adults yelling at each other. It's like it's really easy for that adult to say, let it wash off to a kid on the playground, but you're not letting it wash off because someone cut you off in parkway traffic. So I think that you see people struggle with that throughout, but I do think that it is part of you also have to tune out the people that are saying you you're the greatest and you're you're going places and everything. I think that's equally as important on trying, and it gets easier as you get older to make the loudest voice yours because that's the voice that's in your head constantly, whether it's when I'm putting on a headset and going, you know, I got this. No one's in my headset. My producer's not in my headset now saying, Matt, you're the greatest. Like you're not getting that then. So I think maybe just kind of trying to control as much as it is great to hear positive things, we all need that positive encouragement, but making it matter maybe as as much as the negative ones is probably the the recipe because there is a there's a balancing act that goes along with that.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

I think it was Chip Kelly. One of my one of my guests came on and talked about this thing, and I believe it was Chip Kelly that said, praise and blame are all the same. And you have to learn to kind of navigate those weeds because usually the same people that will praise you are the same people that are going to blame you, particularly again when you put yourself in the spotlight, you are subjecting yourself to all kinds of different opinions. And you have to become stoic in that sense of not letting too much praise or too much blame get into the way that you operate or think, because either one can be a distraction and point you in a direction that you really don't want to head to.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Sure. And I think you you look at that in the sense of anybody's career of like when they're struggling and you're getting jeers, and it's like, yeah, I told you he wasn't any good. I told you, I told you. And then they have a comeback, and it's like, I knew you would always make it. I knew you were always gonna turn around. And it's like everybody just wants to be right at the end of the day. And and they're a lot more invested in their own self-promotion of being right rather than actually knowing what on the surface is going on with you or what your career, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

I think something that's really interesting about being in like the broadcasting field is like when you do have an opinion, it carries weight. And so when you think about the exact thing that you're talking about right now and the jeers and the cheers, it's at the end of the day, there is objective criticism that comes in all of the athletic roles that anybody could hold. It's how do you view that from like an empathetic light, whether you're interviewing a coach or when or whether you're giving an opinion online about said person, like where do you rationalize all that in your approach to criticism and praise when working with different athletic departments, different coaches, different players?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

I think uh I always have the what would their mom think approach. I think that that's and maybe that's because I come from a household where my mom was one of my biggest supporters, but also would tell me, Matt, what do we what do we do here? So, like I think that there's a great gray area of like that middle line of you can be empathetic and understanding in a moment. I think two times everything. If I'm on the sideline of a game and I'm pulling off a coach that just lost, I'm asking them very different questions as if we're doing a season recap and I'm we're going back to that week two loss. So timing and then just that, what is their family and friends going to think? Well, we're am I being fair? Because I still need to do a job, right? We still need to ask the hard questions. You know, I thought that it was interesting recently when the reporter in Jacksonville gave uh coach a little bit of uh positive encouragement. And then so many reporters were like, she took time away from, and it was like a 20-second, it wasn't she didn't go on a dissertation, but it was like a 20-second of like just I think she was in her motherly moment there of like seeing that he needed to hear something positive. So while I, you know, that always is, and I think the relationship you build with a coach and or a player helps with that too, where you're not just always asking them the hard question. You're checking in on them, you're congratulating them when they're winning, just those little messages throughout the course of a season. I'll be messaging guys and talking to guys throughout the year, knowing that we have them in week nine, just because you get that so much more comfortable, genuine reaction from somebody, as opposed to, hey, I'm just here getting a paycheck. Give me, give me my three, you know, three-word answer and I'll move on. Like I feel like establishing those types of things really help and allow a harder question to be asked because they feel like you're not just coming at them.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

And that's the human element, is understanding that we are humans. And just because you hold a certain role or you get paid a certain amount does not mean you're void of the emotional attachment to what you do.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

And I think that was my biggest like take back. With I didn't like, I couldn't believe there was such negative feedback to that woman just giving that, you know, giving Liam Cohen praise or for whatever. In a moment, he probably needed it. Yes, you know, that's a tough way to lose after having a historic type season for Jacksonville. Yeah. And there's going to be a million tough questions that he's gonna be asked. And you're probably like the truth is a lot of it, you're gonna get coach speak answers, at least in the public setting. Sure. Immediately after a game where it's like you don't have time to reflect, understand exactly what you're wrong. Yeah. Right. You know, and so it's like, what is the what is wrong with someone taking what was it, less than a minute? No, yeah, to give someone a human, like, hey, like, you did a really good job. And like, I feel like the media world is losing that human element to where, like you said, that does build trust. That enables you to ask a harder question there because you know it's coming from genuine curiosity and not, hey, I'm trying to put you as a front, you know, newspaper headline to put you in a bad light or to get you fired or hold something against you later and have you trip up on your words. You know, that's where I think when you see it with a lot of players too. There's a distrust between media and players, worrying that every time someone says something, it's going to be taken and become front headline in the news.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah, and it's one of those things where it's one of the hardest things for an athlete, you know, this an athlete, a coach, especially getting on that podium after a loss. I mean, it is a test of mental fortitude because I think we all know whether there are great media people out there, but there are also media people that just want the headline, and that's what they're asking for. And to those people, I always wonder, you know, what would you? They often are the most to excuse like their own kids in athletics and be like, well, he didn't he's not starting because it's this, that, and the third, and it's all politics. Or and then, but you're so willing to go after people in your job, but when you go home, you don't implement those same things, and you shouldn't, but you should be carrying some of that of like just because we're all adults and we get paid to do a job doesn't mean that it should lose its human element as much that it as it does.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

And like the other thing that I get caught up in as well, is normally a lot of the loudest people in the media industry, and uh, this is not a war on media, I was I broadcast with you, so I do podcasts on like a part of it, right? But usually the people that are the loudest to criticize are the worst at handling criticism of them and their jobs. No question. And that's where my beef in that industry comes in is like, if you're gonna deal with criticism, you should be able to take it. And I was just actually having this conversation in the gym this morning, talking about everything that's going on in the coaching landscape, people getting fired, etc. I was like, it is very easy to criticize when you're not in the arena, when you don't feel those emotions, the pressures to make the decisions, and like how hard it is to win and win consistently, and to always put yourself in those arenas, which we were talking about, is like the grass isn't always greener. And the more you try and push people out, it's gonna come back to bite you.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

I've always wanted to do something like a skit of basically the pressure that is involved in sports, but bring that into the everyday nine-to-five job and have every moment of your job be broadcasted by two people that are critiquing your every every move, the lunch that you go over an hour on, that break that you skip out on, the email that you just don't choose to send, and every moment of every day is scrutinized. And I think that might help put into perspective the mind left line glass that sports has, and that it's so easy for people to type fire him, fire him, fire him. And it's like, what would you feel like if you were literally encouraging someone to get food taken off their plate? Like that to me, that concept to me is you must live in a very sturdy brick house to be able to shovel out those blames. And to your point, more times than not, those people live very uh flawed lives and and can be criticized in a lot of different ways.

Why High School Sports Still Matter

SPEAKER_00 16:22

And to be and like to be fair, like when you hold those positions, like you subject yourself to criticism. Sure. Part of the job, everybody needs feedback, everybody needs to get better. I just think we I'll throw myself in this fail to apply nuance to situations.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

In how certain moments in time dictate what happens next. And if one of those moments goes your way, completely different trajectory.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Well, and too, we're now in this like instant gratification world now where so much of what we want can happen. If I want food, I can get a door dashed here in 20 minutes. Like I don't even need to get in my car and go anywhere anymore. And I think that instant gratification has pushed winning to be instant gratification of teams and expectation of teams. And if you don't do that, then it's like, well, the answer has to be somewhere else. And like, you know, specific to the Rooney's case and the Steelers, like they've proven that I'm gonna invest some time. Like the funny part about this Tomlin stuff and the the you know, everything that's come out with the Steelers is you know, the nine straight seasons without a playoff win and won seven last wins. But Cower before him, he won a bunch of playoff games, but couldn't win the game. So much of his career was he can't win the big game, he can't win the big game. We're gonna win a couple playoff games, and he's not gonna be able to win the big game. And then you have a guy who has a bunch of success early on in his career and winning playoff game, does win the big game in his second year. All this stuff happens, and then it's well, he can't win a playoff game. Well, if he won a playoff game, it wasn't he can't get to the FCT. There's always going to be something. And I think people's expectations are skewed on how difficult it is to win, and not just in the NFL, but just in general, of like you know, the the questions that get asked to you and I of like, oh, what's next? Yeah, well, why does there need to be something that's next right now? What why why isn't what I'm doing right now good enough for you?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Right. No, it's it's the yes, that what's next question, it's like meant to be flattering. Yes. And in some ways, it's not. It's like, well, like you said, why does there have to be a next? Why can't I get really good at what I'm doing or where I'm at? And you know, whatever happens, happens. But why does it always have to be what's next? And I I think that's a fascinating conversation because I can fall into the trap of asking that question too. Ah, what do you got going on next? And it's like, why and that's where being more intentional in your questions is important, thoughtful and understanding, hey, what is the purpose of what I'm asking? If it's a generated conversation, maybe ask a more targeted, open-ended question, then what's next? Right. And in the like even in like interviews, right? Like this, I try and be super detailed in the types of questions I ask that give my guests the ability to talk about what they want in the way that they want.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

You know, and some of that is asking harder questions, harder follow-up questions, but always doing it in a light that comes from curiosity and less of I'm trying to press you. And that's hard. It's something you have to refine. It's certainly something I'm certainly not great at. Sure. Um, something that I'm improving upon. But the art of asking questions is an art and it's challenging with you. It's like, do you have a reflection process, whether you're in the broadcast booth or doing the pregame interviews with coaches or on the events that you're on the sideline? Like, how do you curate your questions in a light that's going to get the best non coach speak answers in that maybe two part here that isn't, you know, that doesn't feel like you're trying to insult.

Preparation Over Talent And Creating Your Own Reps

SPEAKER_02 20:01

I think it's knowing and having the background of a situation and not asking those. And I mean, you we could rift through a bunch of sporting events at the highest level, at the NFL, at the Division I football level of the type of question that get asked. And then people are like, well, why did I get that answer? And I was well, you asked, Coach, what adjustments need to be made at halftime in a 30-second interview? Well, we got to get better. What do you because I I mean you're you're talking to a guy that is has a billion things in his mind right now. And I I, you know, I haven't done as much sideline as recently, but I do like in even those instances to give you one example on that third down play, then you can you can there's something to expunge upon that. You could go, you could deep dive a little deeper. And then more so in a lot of the formats that I announce I interview people now, it's you know, longer form and it's extended to a season or looking forward to a season. And then it's just having some background of, you know, where did where did you come from from last year? And you know, Vin Scully, I adapt this throughout my broadcasts, whether it's interviewing people or calling games. But Vin Scully, legendary announcer for the Dodgers, always used to say, if they paid me for the time I prepared, I'd do the games for free. And I think that that works for in a lot of you can use that in everyday life, but for broadcasting, it's really true of like, I do not, and you know this, but a lot of people don't realize that like I don't just grab two rosters and go up into a press box and just start rifting. Right. Like, there's so much that goes into preparing for even a high school game on Friday night, always would say, if you can do a game on Friday nights, you can do a game on Saturday or Sundays because the information is so much harder to get and all that stuff. And it's also teenagers, so you're interviewing people that aren't used to being interviewed at that point either.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

You know, it's funny you bring that up because I would say, like, when I'll talk to different people, like the number of things that you don't realize when you're watching a broadcast, like what's going on behind the scenes. But I always say I was like, I actually feel like I would be better doing a college or NFL game because like I have all the information possible. Where it's like when I, you know, doing the high school stuff, I'd be like scraping, looking for like different things that I could bring into the conversation. And it's more readily available now than years, I'm sure years prior.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

But like I was like, I could get on a broadcast and call an NFL game and honestly think I did better than sometimes when I did high school or you know, went professional women's football. Like it's a it's a different dynamic. And you know, honestly, I talk about the comparables in coaching. I was like, some of the best coaches in the world are high school and like division three colleges because you're not working with world-class athletes.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

You're getting blood out of a rocket a lot of times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

And I'm like, I don't care what where you are on the totem pole. I really care more about two things. What type of person are you and what do you actually know? And that is something so true to what you just said.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

Yeah, I like that uh so many people have asked me now more recently of like kind of going back to the what's next thing of like, why are you still doing high schools? And I was like, well, hey, I love it. Like, it is the most truest form of football or basketball. I enjoy doing baseball and softball in the spring. Like, I love this level, and I love making high school athletes feel like they're playing on Sunday night. That that's a feeling that will never go away. You know, there's it's cool now to see guys that have made the league and can still reminisce about when I was doing their games in high school. It ages you, but it also makes you feel good that you know, so much of what you do is impactful, not only to the actual player, but the friends and family. And I mean, there's games that Charlie Batch and I did games, games of the week back in 2013, Panera Bread Bowl games, and there's they still get hits on YouTube to this day. And like thankfully, 2013 was an awesome whippy year of high school sports athletes, but it it it's cool to now look back and and see the the athletes that come back. And like then you know, to go back to your original question of you've done your best to put them on a pedestal in a spotlight, and whether or not whether or not they made it to the next level or the one after, you were impactful in that moment where that's a keepsake forever. Because you only get four years out of that that level. I think that's why it's so special, is and that's why I keep coming back. And for me, because I didn't play high school athletics, it really hasn't changed for me. If you think about that, like for you as a high school athlete, you got four cracks at it, and then it was over, and those were abbreviated. Yeah, but like for me, I'm I was announcing high school athletics before I was in high school, so I was younger than everybody, and but it never changed. It was always go into the press box, you know. At that time it was like spotlight my friends, which was that was even that was cool. And now, you know, I get razzed about you know what I said back in 2012. But it's it's a cool thing to be able to look back and and connect some of the dots, no matter where the career goes.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

How did you like how do you grow? Like, how do you coach yourself? How do you get better at announcing? And how do you maybe avoid some of those being fearful of being embarrassed on the on the TV, on the commentary? Like, how did you grow past those stages early on?

Perspective, Fame, And Staying Grounded

SPEAKER_02 25:36

I mean, I think that while that it wasn't, I didn't have the answer when I was a kid. I remember um I I was playing baseball, got hurt, didn't play in that all-star game, which I still don't even know how it was. Someone had to pay somebody for me to get into that. But I was injured, couldn't play in it, so I announced. And I was announcing the names and I didn't have pronunciations or like and I was messing up names, and kids were coming up to me and like saying, Let me do it. You don't even know what to do, you know, that kind of thing. And uh, and I was like, No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get it. Like, and then the next game, because you know, there's like six of them. So the next game, like I go through and I actually get pronunciations for them. And I'll never forget I I came back home and I like told my parents that story because I'm at this point I'm probably in seventh grade. And and my dad said, What did what did you get paid? And I said, like 25 bucks. And he gave me another 25, but he said, That's for sticking with it. And so, like, things like that stick with me on going back to what we were talking about, being prepared and you know, preparing and making it worth more than the game, but also on the level of not trying to prove people wrong and just trying to bet to better yourself, you know, self-promotion rather than trying to, and I I struggle with that. When I was growing up, chip on my shoulder. I mean, I really struggled through school, was diagnosed in second grade with amblyopia. So I was blind in my left eye. They tried to patch my my good eye in second grade. They tried patching it and going into second grade, and I say that this would be the case now, but send a second grader to school with an eye patch on and let me know how it works out for him. Not well. It's not gonna be well. And and kids are kids are rough. Like that, it ended up putting me into a box, and I ended up getting taken out of um regular classes and went into special ed classes. Um, I didn't have a learning disability. I had a physical disability. My ability to learn wasn't being changed at all, but it was because you know, it's a you're all we're all products of our environments. Where we grow up, what we get taught, the teachers, the mentors, the people that are around us. Well, if you take somebody who's growing and you take them out of that environment and put them into an environment where everyone's growing slower, it it's so it's going to happen to you too. And that was one of the most challenging things that I went through in terms of hearing now, you're not going to make it, and just get by, maybe look into trade schools. Like it was like that kind of environment. And that's a long-winded way of saying, even though I didn't have the answers then, sometimes you just need that one voice, going back to our original topic there of a little bit of an inspiration of a person that can push you in the right direction. The onset of my origin store, I feel like so many people see the last you know 10, 15 years, and it's been a great, great run. But it didn't certainly start that way.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Now, I think that's what people miss too when they see people in certain positions on any scale, they don't see the moments that led up to that. Sure. And understanding that if you're someone just starting out or you're someone in a rough patch, that if you persist, you find ways to make it through, there is opportunity on the other side. And I've, you know, you see people quit too soon and give up too soon instead of just keep knocking on the door, keep knocking on that door. And the theme of a lot of conversations we've had today, eventually you're gonna kick it through. And that winning is really hard. But eventually, I have this deep belief that anyone can achieve within reason some type of level of immense success. You know, I think one of one of my guests, Dr. Julie Gurner, I love it. She says, if you have just an average IQ and a healthy body and mind, you can do just about anything that you want.

Leaving The Globetrotters For Family

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah, I think uh, you know, looking back into when I first started in broadcasting and I did it because I loved it. And I think that that's an important part of it is you know, finding that passion, finding something that you believe in, and then you get good at it because you a lot of times we get good at what we love to do. And I really like the amount of Fridays, I love saying this, the amount of Fridays that I gave up as a kid, where you know, we my group of friends was going to the football game and they were gonna go in the student section and then go to the wherever the local restaurant was to after the game. And I missed all of that. And I missed a lot of those because I was at another high school doing high school football on Friday nights. So I gave up a lot of those, but I was always hoping in a lot of ways that it was a means to an end, but it still wasn't. Like, you know, I got the Globetrotters job 10 years ago in October, October of 2016. Before that, I was announcing for Geneva College. I was trying to keep my streaming network, Cham Sports Network, floating, which it was at that point floating, and I was Uber driving to make ends meet. And I didn't think that I had a resume that was going to be beneficial to the Harlem Globetrotters. I was an announcer for Geneva College. Best thing about that, birthplace, birthplace of college basketball. That's cool, but I don't know if the globe trotters really care that much. And one of my really good friend and mentor, Tim O'Sullivan, who's the director out of Youthtown, said, You should just throw your name in what's the worst that can happen, and threw it in and got called back to fly down to Georgia, which is where they're based out of, and for an audition. Ten of us auditioned in front of each other. I've never been through anything like that. And then you were listening to everyone. I went second, and the first guy was the announcer for LSU and like just killed a big, like baritone voice. Just and I'm like, I'm in trouble. And and he he like we were talking before, and his there, everybody's like, Oh, I I announced at LSU, or I'm the announcer for the Atlanta Hawks, or you know, they're just big names. And um, and they're like, How about you? And I said, uh, Pittsburgh. And they're like, Oh, you announced for Pitt. I'm like, No, I'm from Pittsburgh. You haven't heard of the school that I announced. And but a lot of the times you get into those situations and reps are so important. And I had a bunch of them, probably more than I looked like I had, and um, did a good job on the audition. And then I also, what maybe people forget about, especially in a talent-driven business, which applies to athletes as well, is you could be the most talented. But then we got into the room and did an interview. And how do you carry yourself in that as well is equally as important because I found out months and maybe you know, months into my job later that they were down to two of us, and the interview was what sold me over the the other guy. And it was just more of a well, I'm I'm this and I'm that, and I'm that, you know, sometimes when you get to that division one level, is that the highest you can go? Because that's that's where you've been planted. So I, you know, it was a cool experience to go from division three basketball to then the next my next my first game with the Globetrotters was in Tel Aviv Israel. And that was my first my first tour out with them. But um a lot of a lot of games and a lot of sacrifices between getting that gig and and and and starting it out.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

What do you attribute that leap of faith to go from Geneva to the Harlem Globetrotters? What gave you that conviction that I can do this?

Serendipity, Loss, And New Doors Opening

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Well, people people believe in you. That that certainly helps. You know, I uh I was announcing at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. I went to Lincoln Park for much of my high school years, and then I finished with cyber school because I moved for a brief stint in Charleston, West Virginia, doing semi-pro football um and semi uh pro baseball down there as well. And I was 17 when I went down there. So I was doing school online, living in Charleston, which was a you know, that's an eye-opening experience for, but it made me grow up. And I think it also kind of teaches you some things of you you the best room to be in is the room you're not the smartest person in. That is so like that's I learned that from Clint Hurdle. And like that is one of the biggest things that for whatever reason we're taught growing up that you you try to be the smartest, you try to get the best grade. Like you're always asking your friends, well, would you get on that? And it and it applies to, you know, what was your 50? What was your 40 time? What was your, you know, those types of things. Like everybody's competing against one another. And it's like, no, it's a good thing to not be the smartest in the room because there's a burden that comes with that. And learn from so many, so many great people, and also learn that it's all not as important as we make it out to be. I think, you know, because you're in the media or because you're an athlete, you get put on a pedestal. And it's like, you know, I learned this when I was with the Globetrotters of like you're not famous, the globetrotters are famous. No one player is famous. The Globetrotters brand, you put that on, you're famous. You take that jacket off and you walk down to Applebee's, you're just some guy. And you know, there's a there's a humanizing element in that. When I was at Our Lady the Sacred Heart announcing games, Geneva, one of the coaches, came up to me and says, Do you do this anywhere else? And I'm like, Oh my god, I'm being recruited. This is what it feels like. And it genuinely, I genuinely felt like, well, I was like, wow, this is the first time this has ever happened to me. And uh, sure enough, like they they pulled me in, and and at that point, you know, I had never done like Division III basketball. That was a big deal to me to get that opportunity. And and then the the conference championships came there, and I got to do that. And then the conference was interested in me in me, so they wanted me to go do some of the regionals, and so like it kind of started building there. But also, I I don't know that there was ever a moment that I said, yeah, I can I can do this at the highest level. I think it's just keep shooting. And if you if you keep shooting and you keep getting the reps and you keep getting the opportunities, then one door is gonna open. And there were times where I wasn't getting opportunities younger on, and that's why I started Cham Sports Network. If someone wasn't going to give me an opportunity, I was going to create one. And then I won't started going to these other colleges. I was at Penn State Greater Allegheny for three seasons, a branch campus of Penn State, that they needed games broadcasted. And and they didn't know that they needed games broadcasted until I came to them. And this was all up and coming when streams and broadcast and everything was like really starting to get popular back in the like the 2010, 11, 12, 13 years. But you know, I I I look back fondly on those times because um you you don't know, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only turn around and connect them backwards. And it makes a lot more sense when you turn around and you're like, wow, like that all makes sense of why you could get where you're going, but you're not. It's a lot easier if someone showed up to you and said, Colin, if you do this, that, and the third, you're going to be exactly where you want to be. It's you got to have a little bit of faith on that everything's gonna play out the way that it needs to.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

I think it was George Saint Pierre. If I'm wrong on the fighter, I apologize, but there was a fighter, I believe it was him, that he would get so nervous before his fight and like it would restrict him from his performance, right? And then he said there was like this realization, I don't know how it came to him or who gave it to him, but he was like, someone told me, go to the grocery store and see how many people know who you are. And he was like, it was such an eye-opener for me that like then when I would start going on walking around on the street, nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew if I got submitted or knocked out. And it put things into perspective that you're really not as important as you think you are.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

And this is the landscape that I love to talk in, is again going back to that dichotomy between different tensions and different mindsets and different, you know, ways to look at things. And it's like you should care deeply about what you do and try really hard and take it really seriously. But then on the same note, be able to pull levers that put things into perspective for you. It's really not that important. Nothing that we do is really that important in this world. It's good to care, it's good to try, it's good to take things incredibly seriously and do your best. But in that same breath, on the other end of the spectrum, it's we have to curate the understanding it's really not that serious. It's not that important.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

No, and and it's one of those things, too, where people aren't even noticing the way that you're noticing. You notice more because you care. And you're this is your thing. You know, like we do it all the time in our broadcast on high school football of like, you know, we'll record the pregame and like there's one thing out of place or what the chances of someone noticing that, yeah, you try to be perfect, you try to nail everything 10 out of 10 every time, but that doesn't happen that way. And nine times out of 10, people aren't noticing the way that you think that they're noticing. I I can't tell you how many broadcasts that I've done where I've gotten a car on the way home and gone. That was terrible. Like, what was I doing? And then you listen to it, or you, you know, I'll call a friend or call parents, and they're like, that was great, great job. And then you know, it goes back to like, are they just saying that? And then you you listen to like we'll always post the highlights and the clips will come up and you're like, yeah, it wasn't as bad as I I thought it was. And I think that there is a, you know, I I'm not uh nearly uh educated well enough to know what what that is in our minds that make things Often worse than what they are. But I think that if you have that voice in your head, it's a good thing because you're always chasing something that may be impossible in perfection, but you care enough that you continue to chase it. That's important because if you're not if you're not doing that, then what are you have you perfected it? Is it is it perfect? Or you know, do you still have room to grow in it?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

I just posted today something about like the negativity bias that we have as humans have. And one of my guests, and that's why I posted a clip from it, Justin Seo, he's one of my favorite thought leaders, like in the high performance space, but he talks about the negativity bias and how over evolution of many years, like negativity threats, threat detection is like served us. Like if I saw, if I heard a rustle in the bushes thousands of years ago, me assuming that's a tiger is gonna save my life, then assuming it's nothing and then getting eaten, right? And so then you evolve that over time, but it's negative things impact us twice as much as good things influence us. And so you could get a hundred good positive comments, but you get the one and it negatively impacts you. And when we self-evaluate, it's only amplified because we live in our heads all the time. And we know what our version of perfection looks like with ourselves. And when we don't hit that or doesn't feel like we hit that, it feels worse. Luckily, we have now we can go reflect and watch and be like, yeah, it wasn't that bad. And one of the best advices I ever got as a player from one of my coaches was you know, it's never as bad as you think, but on the other side, it's it's also probably never as good as you think.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Yeah.

Building Resilience And Handling Criticism

SPEAKER_00 41:39

And if you perform what you think as perfect, you're gonna go back and realize, oh, actually, I could have gotten better there. And to really just use the performance itself or the outcomes as data. And then what really matters is your preparation and how you take that next step forward. How do you become productive with the information that you use is something I've learned to apply in all domains of my life. Now, obviously, I don't have a watch back of an argument I have with my wife to see how it could get better, right? But to just take that landscape, we can set that up. I don't know about that. But uh to be able to take that and use outcomes as data and not the end all be all, but data of what do I need to improve and what am I doing well, and just have that concrete question asking and evaluation that's really just gonna help me improve.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Yeah, it's that famous saying of if things are going well, this too shall pass. If things aren't, this too shall pass. Makes things, man. You know, it's that you how would you navigate through some of the challenges in your life, knowing that earlier on, I know I would, of you know, you take things so to heart. And, you know, sometimes, you know, the person that's coming at you is a lot more broken than they're trying to make you. Um, and just from the negative side of, and I've said this before of like so many of us spend our younger years, high school and even into college, trying to find ways to fit in. And we we all do that in so many different ways, whether it's what we wear, our personalities or our activities and our hobbies. And then they spend the rest of their years trying to spit stand out. And it's such a wild concept of we're all trying to formulate down to being, you know, well liked, and I have this group of friends and everything. And then everything that we do, whether it's your job or you're trying to stand out on a podcast, you're trying to stand out, you're trying to be different than everybody else. So why are we not embracing that earlier on in the high school realm in like in the college? But I think that it's you know, it's probably one of the biggest reasons why I didn't go to college. I did, I just I wasn't, I didn't see myself going where the pack was going. And I didn't like where that direction was going. And I thought that I might be able to find and forge my own, but it's a it it blows my mind because it still happens now of like everybody's trying to be like everybody else until they're not. And it's like, well, why not, why not just start now and you're gonna end up further off ahead down the road?

SPEAKER_00 44:18

You could go into it, could be a much deeper conversation on the systems that teach us to conform. And I'm I'm fully aligned with you. And we are taught, and some of it's natural as well, because we're human beings, we're group oriented, but we want to conform. And at some point in your life, you realize even when you're trying to conform, you can't make everybody happy. Yeah, and even when you're doing your best to fit in and make everybody like you, there's still gonna be people who don't like you. Because everyone likes you. Right. And so, you know, at some point it's like, well, I'd rather make myself happy and upset other people than try and make other people happy and upset myself because I have to live with myself.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

And that's where that uniqueness element comes in is like, well, what do I actually believe? Do I have strong foundational beliefs? And that am I always looking to grow? Am I understanding where other people are coming from? Right. And that's where like my view on like conformity is just because I empathize with someone doesn't mean I agree with them.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

100%.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

And I can understand your point of view. And even if you're someone attacking me, if I can look at it from the way, like what's going on, because everybody's going through something you can't see, but what's going on in their life? What situation are they in that's making them have such a targeted approach at me? And then if I understand that, then I can have a more fluent response.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Right. And then I can rationalize things like, okay, they're coming at me like this. Instead of me falling into that dumpster fire, let me take a different approach to this. Even if they don't like me, I don't care. I'm gonna be authentic, I'm gonna understand where they're coming from. And this is gonna be my perspective and how I handle the different viewpoints or why you're attacking me, or whatever you know, the case may be, is to just take it from that empathetic point of view, but understanding not everyone's gonna like me, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Yeah, and also realizing, too, and this is hard for for some people to acknowledge of just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're attacking you. Right. Sometimes hearing the hard thing to hear is a benefit to you. And I think the best friends that I have are the ones that can tell me the hard thing, and I don't take offense to it because I know where their heart's at. It's not the person that I'm gonna walk outside and get get criticized by. But at the same time, someone attacking you is a lot different than someone that's just trying to give you, no, I don't think you handled that right. I think you should have done it this way. Or I think that we like compartmentalizing people that aren't agreeing with us as people that are against us. Right. That's no, that's more than not, it's not always the case.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

You need to find people who serve different roles in your life. Like, use example, like if I need hard feedback, last person I'm going to is my mother. Like it would be a fool's errand. Not gonna get she's just gonna tell me how perfect I am, which is sometimes the last thing you want to do.

unknown 47:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Right. So, like knowing who gives you what feedback when you need it. I have people who check my ego, hey, where am I wrong on this?

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yep.

Conformity, Authenticity, And The Right Circle

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Right. Or someone who can give feedback that will say, like, if I'm asking, if I'm wrong on this, and they tell me that, like, no, like I don't think you're wrong, like that is conviction because I know it's coming from someone who's gonna give me the real. As opposed to just inflating your ego all the time and getting yes men or yes women surrounding you, telling you the things that you want to hear, maybe not the things that you need to hear, is whether you, I don't care what domain you're in, whether it's your personal life or whether it's your professional life, you have to have people who are willing to give you the cold hard truth when you need it. It's just knowing which people can do that and putting them in your circle.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Yeah. And sometimes I found that it's a person out of your circle that you're, you know, more of an acquaintances with that can give you the best non-biased opinion. Because every time we we add someone to that circle, there's probably that voice in their head that's saying, do they really want to know the truth or do they want to know, or they do they want to hear what they want to hear?

SPEAKER_01 48:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

And, you know, having that phone call to pick up. And that's why like I think it's probably not as pushed on young people now of like, I have mentors that are 20, 30, 40 years older than I am, and like that the knowledge that they bring with them, and that you know, when you if you could sit down with somebody that is a little older or a lot older and allow them to give you some advice, and there's so much, so much advice and experience. Like, I just think that, you know, maybe it's because we are culturally just, you know, I have my friends and they're in this age bracket, and my parents are the people that I'll go to if I don't want to ask my friends. And then it's like, well, then who else are you going to? You're either going to get a potential, very biased answer from parents or a very biased answer from friends. So, you know, expanding that outside of a circle, I think, could be important to hearing what you maybe you need to hear.

SPEAKER_00 49:06

When you reflect back on your career, your decision to leave the Glove Trotters was one of the hardest things you had to do to be with your mom. How did that experience maybe change your perspective of what success really looks like and what maybe some of your core values were?

Mentors, Hard Truths, And Growth

SPEAKER_02 49:22

You know, it that's a great question because the actual like act of leaving was not hard. It was thinking about what was next. That was what made that hard. It wasn't, I mean, I was I got the phone call. I was in Phoenix, and I had actually just been in Philadelphia. My dad had called me and said that they had rushed my mom to the hospital, they didn't know what was wrong. Well, the next morning I was on a flight from Philly to Phoenix because we had a game there. And I was like, one of those things where I'm not going to over you know, complicate things or get into my head on what's happening. We had no idea. So I'm like, I'm gonna take this flight out to Phoenix, and if it's something really serious, I'm another flight back home. And the next day, I was on the phone with my my mom, my dad, my sister were at the hospital and found out that she had two forms of leukemia and they were going to start treating her immediately. So I told the globe trotters, and they were gracious in them the situation and understanding that I'm also putting them in a tough spot. We have a game the next day. But you know, family is the most important thing. And I wouldn't have announced any globe trotter games if it wasn't for mom. And so I'm there the the next morning. And it wasn't, you know, there's the fear of what's going to happen, certainly for her and our family. But then there's also a selfish or an internal thing that's what did I just do? Because here I am. I just got, I, in a lot of ways, at that time, I thought I made it. Um, I thought, you know, I'm I I've been outside Madison Square Garden. I've gone through, you know, 25 countries and been had different interpreters and 15 different languages. And like I like, I thought, you know, I hit a level that was it. You know, checking a lot of that stuff off and then coming back home and seeing my dad be the person that's next to his wife. And, you know, when you say those vows, they they they're words a lot of the times until until you're living it. And like just the appreciation factor from a from a family standpoint, I was like, there's a lot more to this whole thing than checking boxes off of countries and you know, getting to explore, which is incredible. That that's great. But to to see the person that brought you into the world fight for her life and then be there for her. And it was really nice too that like the globetrotters came back that December and gave her a really nice message. And I think the power of prayer can be the most powerful thing on this planet, and it proved to be because she's still here now. And the wildest part of all of that is that I went on FMLA from August until February, and in February of 2020, uh, Love Trotters called and said, you know, it's it is still business, like you know, and they're saying, Are you coming back? And at that point, my mom was nowhere near when she was just about to get a stem cell transplant from a 20-year-old in the UK. They were flying the stem cells over to uh to essentially save her life. And I'm like, I'm not leaving while this is going on. And um, they're like, Okay, well, I guess that's it. So March 1st, 2020 was my my last day with the Globe Charters. Well, we know how history played out, and three weeks later, the entire country, entire world shut down, and I would have been done either way. But those three weeks mean so much to me on deciding to do something that was certainly not beneficial to my career, but one that I just believed was the right thing. And to do the right thing and not have to have God or anyone navigate you to do the right thing, which I believe would have happened if I decided, mom, let me know how that goes, and uh keep in touch. The world shut down because of COVID, and the globetrotters were shut down for a better part of two years. And um during that time, uh a dear friend of mine, Dom Rico, unfortunately passed from COVID. He was the PA voice of Duquesne. Well, at this time, he was in the hospital, and Duquesne was opening their brand new Cooper UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. And they had asked Dom, who should we reach out to to have you fill in, to have to fill in for you while you were um on the mend at the time he was still in the hospital. And he suggested me. And that also was a lesson in like so often we get caught up in a competition battle with with what we do. And uh Dom and I were always like rooting for each other. We always said one of us is gonna be the announcer for the pirates, and one of us is gonna be the announcer for the Steelers. You know, I I believe that one there was a semi-pro game that he couldn't call, had me fill in to call, and then he ended up showing it, showing up halfway through the game, and then we both called the game. And it was one of those, like that would never happen with half the announcers because there is an ego involved with it. And and Dom ended up passing, and I to this day, uh he gave me one of the coolest gifts a friend can give to a friend is a a job opportunity that I'd never done Division I basketball, and that came with March Madness and um and then it led to the pirates eventually. So, you know, I thought I kind of feel like a lot of that is thanks to to Dom and him knowing what my dreams and aspirations were. But it's wild, again, with the dots, to say none of that would have happened had I not decided to step away from the globetrotters and been been home with mom. And then to to be able to have her at a game, at a Duquesne game, and then have her there for that first pirates game, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, you know, storybook stuff. You can't write it any better. It it's special to me. And to to long form answer that that second part of the question of checking boxes off and careers are great, but who we get to check them off with is the biggest part and one that should not be left unnoticed, because if you're checking things off and you're going through everything and you don't have anybody to share it with, what's the point of it all? It's uh now reha has reformulated my opinion on making it. I don't know if we ever do. Um, we just have you know steps along the way, and some of them are better than others. And, you know, going back to what we were saying, if like a lot of times you know things are going good, well, get ready because you're gonna get you're gonna get a storm coming your way, and and vice versa.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

No, it it goes back to what I said a little bit earlier, too. You never know what someone's going through.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

Yeah.

Mental Health, School, And Teaching The Why

SPEAKER_00 56:17

Part of my story I probably don't share that often is when I was in high school, you know, my my stepdad had leukemia, my mom had a rare form of disease called Yambrae. And all four years of my high school, you know, I think football is my sport. I played three sports, but like football was like the sport I cared most about. And it was every single year, my first game, someone I loved or cared about was in the hospital with some type of life-threatening illness. And, you know, obviously, when you're young like that, you don't handle everything the best. And I'll never forget in like one of my classes, I remember it was a teacher I didn't get along with. Part of the reason I was kind of a jerk, but like I was a young kid, right? I was saying my friend group who I was associated with was far worse than I was, objectively speaking. So I got associated with them. But I'll never forget the one night my stepfather had to be like rushed to the hospital. I had a test the next day. And I remember just like going to the teacher and just being like, I'm sorry. Like my stepdad has leukemia. He was rushed to the hospital last night. Like, I just really don't think I can take this test today. And she was like, you could see like a realization in her, like probably my behavior was reflected in that. Yeah. And she was like, realized like kind of like how hard she was, like on me. And she was like, I didn't realize like you were going through that. Like, take your time, like whenever you can make up the exam. And that's where like the empathetic side comes, or that like I was put into a position at a young age where I had to view myself as like a parental figure in my household, even though I was the third out of four. You know, my older brother has Down syndrome, you know, my sister's great, you know, and then I have my younger brother, but like for me, it was always my step that was like, you got to be the man of the house. And, you know, when you're younger, you don't handle that as well. But like there were so many things I learned through that, and part of it is like the empathy side, where it's like you never know what someone's going through. And their actions derive from some of the things that are behind closed doors. And I think about like your situation, like this the decisions that you make and the uncertainty that that comes with all that, and probably the you know, you call it it selfish, but like that internal anguish of like, hey, like I am part of a business, like I am chasing audible goals, I have all this going on. And the importance of whether you're high-level athlete, broadcasting, whatever, learn to give yourself some grace too when it's necessary and find a way to just generate an optimistic belief that things will work out exactly the way that they're supposed to work out.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

Yeah, and that's hard to in moments of you know turmoil and um life potential life-changing situations. But yeah, I mean, it's um it almost numbs you in a way um when you go through that, especially when you go through that at a young age. Like, you know, I had a lot of all my grandparents were gone by the time I was 12. And you know, I had a lot of passing in my in my family when I was young. Like then you get to be uh, you know, in your in your 30s, and then you know, some one of your friends is like, my grandma passed away, and you're like, my my condolences, man. And it's like, you know, yeah, and and and that that that's a challenge at times, but also, you know, you still need to show the the side of that could be the first death that they've ever had in through their their family. It it's an element to what you've said a couple times, which is we're all going through something and we're all and we don't know what that that thing is, and it's Easy to say that I think a lot of people say that, and it's probably harder to implement into your everyday life of knowing that you know the person that's cutting you off and the you know doing those those little things, they might be, you know, late for late to get to the hospital because of a loved one or something. But it is a a realization that I think we all kind of need to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

Yeah, and there's this thing, I think Joe Rogan says it. It's the the worst you've experienced is the worst you've experienced. And it's like whether you're a high school kid who missed your first layup or whatever it is at a at the buzzer, or whether you're someone who lives on the front line, you know, in war. Yeah, you know, the worst experience you have is the worst experience you have. And it's really hard in this world of grade to make things super black and white. And that's why, you know, a lot of it, I go back to like storytelling. What's the story you're telling yourself? How are you rewriting this? How are you building this into a larger narrative of your life? And that's how you build that, you know, quote unquote like mental toughness, that mental fortitude is rewiring events in your past that have happened into part of your personal narrative and how you can accomplish more, how you can take on more, how you can have more responsibility. Not that you're seeking more, but that you are building a more robust person that's capable of taking on challenge.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

Yeah, I think uh when I uh when I was growing up in school, I uh I couldn't handle noise. And and meaning people that would just pick at you and they know and they knew your buttons, and you know, the worst thing in the world is you know, giving somebody like that a reaction. And I was very good at giving them reactions, so I got it more. Me too. Yeah, like and and and it it almost like puts you in a you're you're not at fault until you react. And now now you're at fault and you get the narrative that you're the bad kid, yeah. But in reality, no, they set me off, and it's wild because one of the things, you know, in in the globetrotter world, I mean, there's athletes, but there's also you know, a stage crew and a promo crew and people that set up and DJs and MCs and all these other people on the traveling tour, and they were like almost, in my opinion, my adult test to what I couldn't handle when I was a kid, and get in on the bus, and then you just get little things thrown at you. And then I got really good at either totally ignoring it or throwing a good one right back where that now they don't want to, yeah, they don't want to have to deal with it. And it's just like learning from an instance like that, and I always feel like we get we get the test that we can't pass until we pass it. Whether and through through life, I feel like we'll continue to get that same test until we can prove that we can we can get past it. And for me, that was like a wow, I never thought, I always thought that well once I get through high school, I won't have to deal with this again. And no, like I get put in a it's it's a it was a very immature situation that you get put in because you just get these people that are like all they know is tour life and they've been torn on cruises or wherever. And it's um it was it was like one of those like eye-opening. I'm glad that I was able to react differently than I was when I'm a kid.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

You know, I always think about like what advice would you give to like younger generations? And sometimes I think it's actually really important that you just have to endure and learn some of these things on your own.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:40

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

Like I could tell you like a million different things of like in my own experience, right, how to overcome injury, how to do whatever. But if I didn't learn the suck of those things firsthand, I wouldn't be able to have the same perspective that I do. And if you're someone going through, I guess the piece of advice is understand that there's something to be learned from whatever it is that you're going through. You just have to learn to utilize it and make it productive in your own life. And you may not know for 10 years, but eventually you'll look back at something and it will have served a purpose for you going through it. And there will be, there will be a story that you can craft as to why it turned you into the person that you are today.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

I think the hardest part is for young people is that that's all they've ever known in school, and it's a tunnel, and like you just can't get to the other, the other side of it. And then you realize that, like, in the grand scheme of things, you know, eat high school is four years, and four years goes like that when you're an adult. And, you know, from the it is the the embracing of the suck in a lot of ways. And I would argue that your challenges and the things that you go through when you're younger create the baseline and foundation for a story that maybe you're meant to have a chip on your shoulder, because the only way that you are going to get to where you're supposed to be is with that chip on your shoulder. Imagine if someone comes to you and has this blueprint of how to navigate all the challenges and go around them. Well, you're gonna go somewhere else. You're gonna end up somewhere else than where you're supposed to be. So that's so hard to hear when you're going through it. Yes. Uh, but at the same time, you know, I think podcasts like this and opportunities to hear people that have gone through it and gone through it in different ways, but still know that there's a lot more people that have gone through tough times and come out on the other side successful than have gone through tough times and had more tough times.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:39

Right. My favorite analogy I always use is you know, things don't get easier as you get older, your problems don't get easier. You just become more equipped to handle them. No doubt. It's the analogy to the weight room, right? I think of the first time I started bench pressing when I was in, I think it was seventh or eighth grade, and just like putting any weight on the bar felt insurmountable. Now it's, I'm not gonna sit here and try and brag on my weight, but like a lot of weights on the bar and it feels easy, right? And it's like the weight didn't become lighter. I just became stronger, I became more equipped. And it's the same transition and metaphor to life life, professional life, and your personal life. Like you are going to become more equipped. You're gonna build more robust skill sets to handle the challenges that life come with you, and you're gonna handle it a little bit more gracefully.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:26

The biggest part, though, I think that can help change that is having more conversations like this one in schools at that time. Because I think we need to stop worrying a little bit less about the war of 1812 and Romeo and Juliet and bring in some mental health life skills stuff into schools. I it's bizarre to me that, you know, I saw a post the other day that's like all the things that changed, cars look different, cell phones weren't a thing, you know, all these things in life that are that are now changed. And then there's a 1800s classroom and a classroom today, and they look eerily similar of everyone sitting in rows in desks, raising their hand to talk. And uh, while I think it worked for a time, we're headed for a time where, and in my opinion, past that time of where, you know, implementing these simple things and and acknowledging that mental health is a thing. Like when you have any other thing wrong with your body, you go to a doctor, you get you talk to somebody, and I for whatever reason, we just would rather to not talk about it until it gets to the point where you you have no other choice. And, you know, it's it's people go through mental health things that don't have the the top of the line problem, like the the insurmountable problem or the one that that really needs, you know, a doctor's attention. People go through that every day. They're you know, you deal with athletes every day that are going through the pressure of being in a sip situation and how that they need to perform their absolute best in that moment.

AI, Individual Learning, And Curiosity

SPEAKER_00 1:07:59

So why not at minimum have some type of life lessons, curriculum to where even if you're gonna teach about the war of 1812, is like teach some of like the underlying emotions that went into that time. Yeah. And understand, hey, this is potentially what these people were experiencing and had to do these without really having another choice to make, and understanding concepts of like the psychology of war, you know, how certain life events or certain like stories of, you know, Romeo and Juliet, if you want to still teach those things, whatever. I may not agree with it, but at least like weave in the actual importance and highlight the deeper meaning behind the events and stories that we teach and how they are applicable to kids. Because if I read Romeo and Juliet, which I did as like a 13-year-old kid, I had no idea why. Did not understand the why behind anything. Maybe you could illustrate a story. And I don't really remember too much of the Romeo and Juliet story if I'm being honest, but like illustrate the importance of why that's applicable to a 13-year-old boy in eighth grade or ninth grade. Yeah. Why is that applicable? And I think that we struggle again, generalizing because there are some teachers and professors that are amazing. Yeah, and it's not to knock teacher, they have the hardest job in the world. Or they do, and are underpaid to do it. Right, exactly. And it's, you know, but that art of weaving the importance of why we're doing what we're doing, and that's a coach thing, too. A lot of coaches aren't good at explaining the why behind concepts. And I think that's where, from a human element, we miss that connection piece.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

Yeah, I think it's one where, you know, you're seeing now the benefits of AI. And there, there's this school, the high school now, uh alpha school, that only does core curriculum class from three hours a day, and then the rest of your day is doing based off of an AI test that learns the way that you individually learn. Because going back to this whole thing about, you know, we're all individuals, we're all different. Well, why are we teaching everybody the same way? Right. Um, now we have these abilities to learn how you learn versus how differently that is from how I learn and adapt the curriculum individually. Like, that's the cool thing about what you know, we hear a lot about what you know, the videos and the craziness that the videos can produce and everything. But like there's so many good things that can come out of that of, you know, we don't need eight hours a day doing these core subjects. Let's, let's, let's go into passion. Because again, if there's a, you know, I went to a place where you know Lincoln Park was ahead of its time where half the day was spent on core subjects and half the day was spent on your on your major, on your art. And I think even a formula of that to allow that's going to excite kids to want to go and and to want to learn and maybe have a little bit more of an attention span.

Launching The Voices Are Heard Foundation

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

I'm excited for where AI is going. You can do a whole podcast. There are several podcasts on that, on its own. You recently started a foundation. Tell me what you got going on with your foundation.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

Yeah, Voices Are Heard Foundation. I this has been a passion project for me for like I bought this to a main name, VoicesArHerd.org, 12 years ago. Um, because I always knew that I wanted to do a foundation. I've always wanted to know, I always wanted to have one. And I've always wanted to help kids. You know, it was it's based off a lot of the struggles that I went through when I was a kid. And I would my voice alone wasn't loud enough to to reach the people that I needed to in a lot of ways. I was struggling with amblyopia and the vision loss. And then everything that came out out from that, which was lack of confidence. And, you know, I I wasn't, it was, I was impossible to get out of bed in the morning to go to go to school because I just didn't want to go and I wasn't motivated in that way. But um, you know, this foundation, because I've been surrounded by so many great foundations, I think also, and nonprofits, like the Miranda Foundation, Best of the Batch Foundation, I've done work with, and saw what they have done to help kids. So I was like, mine my foundation is a little bit more niche in in terms of um I we want to start helping kids uh become entrepreneurs and maybe take the path that's less chosen. With uh, you know, I I don't want my doctors and nurses and teachers winging it. They need still need to go to school. I'm not, you know, I work for a lot of great institutions and universities. So I, you know, I support that. But from the creative mind, I think sometimes the path that isn't fully trimmed and and plowed is sometimes the best kind. Um so giving kids an opportunity to have grants to start their businesses. Um, I'm gonna get out and start speaking at schools, which I'm really excited of and excited to do and and kind of tell my story in a way that I think still resonates with with kids and they can get behind. And I'm really excited for for what the the future has for the for the foundation because, like I said, it's been a long time coming. It was just one of those things where timing was a lot of it, and and a quick story about the timing of it, I was struggling with when I wanted to announce it. I just things weren't being set up. The the government was shut down, so I was struggling getting the the paperwork filed and all of that. And and I came up on an Instagram post that said, uh, God wants you to see this. And I was like, I don't get those all the time, uh, but every once in a while I'll I'll get something like that. And for whatever reason, I was in the right headspace, and one of the one of the posts in in that slide reel was a passage from Matthew 19, 26 that said, With God all things are possible. And it I was like, that's it. January 9th, 2026, 1926. That's when I need to announce the foundation. So um, you know, that now that correlation with the foundation starting and that passes because it'll never be another January 9th, 2026.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:05

But the foundation will always be founded on that day. So, you know, I think for people that have have faith, and I've I think I, you know, struggle, and we could probably do a whole podcast on that as well. But it's one that, you know, spoke to me. And I think that in a lot of ways, the success and the broadcasting and the Emmys and the things that have come, I think are almost uh a byproduct of what my real calling is, is to go back and turn around and you know, if we could pick up one kid and and lift them up in a way that you know maybe doesn't excuse all every trial and tribulation, but know that there's light at the end of the tunnel, then the foundation will have done its job.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:44

Heck yeah, man. I love that. Well, I appreciate you coming on, man. It's uh it's fun to get to ask you the questions instead of you being on the other side.

Closing Gratitude And Listener Actions

SPEAKER_02 1:14:52

Yeah, it's always weird being on the other side. I'm certainly uh still capable of uh of rapping for a while, but uh but no, I appreciate it, man. It's always good to see you get doing this. Go this is really cool that what you're doing, and uh looking forward to all the good things that you have coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:07

I appreciate you, man. And if uh people want to reach out to you, if you have anything to promote, uh please take the next time to tell people where they can find you and what you got going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:15

Uh, voicesareheard.org, if you want to get involved with the foundation, um, you know, that will uh benefit a lot of uh high school and college kids uh is is our kind of our our age demographic. But yeah, if you want to get behind it in any way, whether that's your your time, your talent, your treasure, whatever, whatever it is, uh, we would appreciate it. And um obviously you can find me on on social medias and all of the uh all of the networks that are uh JRM, which uh gotta give a shout out to the to the JRM video production people because they're they're special group and uh you know two Emmys down and hopefully a whole lot more to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:50

Heck yeah, brother. Appreciate you, man. Thank you for coming on. It means a lot. Uh it was a blast to get to speak to this side of you. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. Tune in next week. Go to the YouTube channel, subscribe to our YouTube channel, download the pod. Five stars on the baby. Thank you, guys. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you.