How To Do What The World’s Best Are Doing Every Day With Alan Stein Jr

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Proven recipes for ramping up your revenue. Now here's your host, Brad Costanzo. All right, welcome back to Bacon Wrapped Business. This is Brad Costanzo, and today I've invited a guy that I met recently at a private event to be on the show because he so impressed the heck out of me with the things that he was talking about from a perspective that a lot of people don't get to hear.

And.

And I really thought that you guys would appreciate hearing what Alan Stein Jr. Has to say as much as I did. So let me give you a little bit of backstory. A couple months ago, I was at my client Jesse Itzler's house, and we had a private retreat up in Connecticut at his lake house. And it was only about 35 or 40 people. It was a very exclusive private invitation where it was part summer camp for adults, part business mastermind, and a heck of a lot of fun. And Jesse invited several people to his to be speakers for his group because they brought something to the table, whether it was about business with his wife, Sarah Blakely, or transcendental meditation with one of the leading experts there or Frank Shamrock, the UFC legend, or Alan Stein Jr. And that's who you're going to talk to today. Hear me talk to today. Now, I'm going to read a little bit of Alan's bio here to you just so you understand kind of where he's coming from. And then I'm going to ask him to dive back into some of the stories that he shared with us and some of the insights on high performance. So Allen Stein Jr. Is a veteran basketball performance coach. He's a corporate speaker, podcast host, and a social media influencer. He spent the last 15 years working with some of the highest performing athletes on the planet, including NBA superstars like Kevin Durant. Allen delivers a very high energy keynote performance to develop genuine leadership, authentic team cohesion, and true mental toughness. And I can tell you he was one of the highlights of this event with some of the big takeaways that I still remember today, such as going to the grocery store and always remembering to put your cart away. Alan, welcome to Bacon Raft business.

Well, thank you so much for having me, man. I've been looking forward to this conversation since you and I had a chance to meet. And I tell you what, if your number one takeaway is to always make sure you put your shopping cart back, then I have succeeded. And I'm extremely exc about that.

You know, it's, it's great. Like, that was just a little piece of advice that you gave during your thing, but I always actually thought about that too. Like, I have, I've been the guy where, you know, you're at the grocery store and it's like, oh man, that, that, that shopping cart return path or whatever is, it's like 50ft away. Do I just leave it here? And in the past I've done that. But in the more recent past, like the past several years, I thought, I'm, I'm lazy as hell. If I'm not just walking it over there, why am I not doing that? So when you mentioned that, it was like, it's such a tiny little thing, but it's. So what is it? Like how you do one thing is how you do everything. Is that part of the whole.

That's exactly it, man. How you do anything is how you do everything. And I mean, I know we can say tongue in cheek and laugh that it's just about returning a shopping cart, but I'm a big believer that you going that extra 50ft to put the cart back where it goes will make all of the difference in your life. Because it's the small acts of discipline that we do on a daily basis that actually add up to the big acts of discipline that make, you know, huge changes in our life. So I'm, I commend you for going those extra 50ft, my friend.

I appreciate it. So let's jump back a little bit. Let's, let's give the folks a little bit of context for, you know, how you've come to this part of your life where you started off as a basketball and performance coach and kind of what you've learned through your journey and starting there and how you're translating that past just basketball, working with corporate clients and just high energy performers and what your message is all about.

Sure. You know, my career has gone through several iterations. You know, the very first thing that I ever remember being passionate about was the game of basketball. And I played my first recreation team probably in kindergarten or first grade. And I was very fortunate to have played a variety of different sports and do a ton of different activities. I mean, your conventional sports like football and soccer, I did BMX biking and skateboarding, you know, martial arts. I tried just about everything. And I always came back to basketball. There was something about the game that always drew me in, and that was my first love. As I got older and had a chance to play in college, I played at Elon College down in North Carolina. It's now Elon University. I started to fall in love with the performance side as well, which was improving my athleticism, getting stronger, getting in great basketball shape. And at that time, I really relegated performance to just being the physical, to how strong could I get, how fast could I get? So it wasn't a few more. A few years had passed before I started to embrace how important the mental side of performance was. And that was kind of the next iteration. But all the while I'm living in a space and I'm making my living combining these passions that I'm having of basketball and performance work. And as I got a little bit older and more mature, I realized that the basketball and the performance was only the platform. That my greater calling was actually to have a positive impact on young people, was to teach them life lessons and help them instill habits that would make them happier and successful in every area of their life. So at that point I realized that basketball was just my vehicle, but creating change with young people was my number one mission. And then again, as I started to matriculate up and get more experience and had so many amazing players and coaches in my life that were pouring into me, I started taking a much deeper dive into leadership and teamwork and what it took to build a championship level culture and was able to be a part of two really renowned high school programs here in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as do some work with groups like Nike and Jordan Brand and USA Basketball, groups that have incredible cultures. And as I'm learning all of this, it dawned on me that, you know, I should probably share this stuff outside of the basketball bubble, that there's no reason for me to keep this message only to players and coaches. Let's see if this will be of benefit to folks in the corporate world and to folks in any area of their life. And I found that as I dipped my toe in that pool about a year ago, it really resonated and I got some tremendously positive feedback with the groups I worked with. And that's when I decided to go all in. And I'll always serve players and coaches. Basketball is very important to me, but most of my focus now is teaching people and teaching organizations that the principles of achievement in basketball are identical to the principles of achievement in any area of their life. And you know, as a, as a father of three children, you know, this stuff helps me become a better parent, but it also helps me become a better business person, better consultant, better speaker. So that's really the Cliff Notes version of how I went from picking up my first basketball to now using those life lessons to help businesses become better.

Now. That's awesome. And speaking of cliffnotes, you did something really cool after the event that you emailed us. And I had actually not seen another speaker do this, which was you sent an email to everybody with a PDF saying, these are the takeaway notes. So thank you for attending a recent Allen Stein Jr event. Here's some key takeaways and it's a, I don't know, maybe a four or a five page PDF of a lot of the bullet points. I don't have to take notes, but it was really neat to be able to reread that and say, oh yeah, I totally remember when you talked about how you choose your habits. I totally remember how you talked about daily reflection. I'm just kind of reading off the Cliff Notes here. I give you props to that because that was a really unique thing, at least from what I've seen. What give you the idea to do that?

Well, it's kind of twofold. One, and this is what. One of the things that I thought was so remarkable about the retreat was that I know folks were taking lots of pictures because they were making new friends, were having cool experiences, but most people were not on their phones and laptops the way we normally are when we're at home. I found that the group was incredibly connected. And it's kind of funny that we had to unplug to connect with each other, but that's really what we had to do. So we. When I'm giving corporate talks, it's actually built into my talk that I say, look, folks, I'm going to politely ask you stay off of your phones for the duration of my session. And don't worry about taking notes because I'm going to send them to you. All I ask right now is that you're fully present and I have your full undivided attention. But I'll make sure that you get the notes. So that's one of the reasons that I created it. But the other is as I'm exploring this speaking business, I enjoy speaking, I enjoy being in front of people, but I don't want to be a tap dancing monkey. I want to actually help people create change. No matter how good you are, even if you're Tony Robbins, you know, when you give an hour talk, you're not changing anybody's behavior in just that hour. You're gonna give them some nuggets and some thoughts, but they're the ones that need to actually make the change. So anything I can do to reinforce that, like provide them with additional notes or reminders, provide social content regularly. So if they're following, they're gonna get some type of message from me every day. It just increases the chance of them sticking to and implementing these different habits and strategies that I'm sharing during my talk.

No, I love that and I would love for you to talk. Some of the most fun parts of your speech had to do with some of the stories that just really demonstrated, I think some of the component, the key components that we can all take away from. You're talking about how Kobe Bryant never gets bored with the basics. And was it Kevin Durant? Was he the one you were talking about how I think you were training him early on and he was, was it really just weak and didn't have a good workout and he's like, but this is what I have to do to be the best? Something like that.

Oh, yeah.

Go into these stories a little bit more specifically because not only do they have an amazing moral that every single one of us can take away, but you've had a very unique insight with some of the most world class performers we've ever known. Start with the Kobe one. I thought that was great.

Absolutely. And I'll tell you what. To kind of work backwards and give a summary of all of these things I've been able to witness is. Success isn't an accident. It's not happenstance. Success is a result of doing the little things and sticking to the basics consistently. And to me, it gives me tremendous optimism and positivity to know that I can have a tremendous amount of influence over my own personal and professional success if I'm willing to commit to those things. So anytime I'm around a high performer or achiever or somebody like a Kobe Bryant or Kevin Durant, and I see that the main reason that they're successful is because of this commitment that gives me hope. Now, I'm not a fool. I know that, especially from a genetic predisposition standpoint, that to play the game of basketball, guys like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant were born with some genetic tools that most guys like you and I were not born with. So I'm not discounting their talent. But I also know that, you know, Kevin Durant's not the only 69 guy walking the earth right now, but he's one of the only ones that's willing to do the things that he does regularly to become as good as at his craft as he is. So going into those stories, the first time I ever had a chance to meet Kobe was in 2007. And for the most part, most people would agree that follow the game closely, that in 2007 Kobe was the best player in the world. You know, Michael Jordan had already retired twice at that point and LeBron was amazing. But LeBron was still climbing that mountain. He wasn't the LeBron that we know and are enamored with today. So most would say Kobe's the best in the game and, you know, having a chance to work his camp. I wanted to know if I could see one of his private workouts. So I asked him and he said, sure man, I'm going to go tomorrow at 4, which confused me for a second because I knew we had a camp workout tomorrow afternoon at 3:30. And he was like, no man, I'm going at 4 in the morning. And he gave me the address to a local high school. And first and foremost, as I'm piecing this together, I'm like, okay, the best player in the world in the off season is going to get up to work out at four in the morning at a high school. Okay. He's already doing things way different than I would have ever expected. And then, you know, my goal was to try to beat Kobe to the gym. You know, I was going to try. I wanted to impress him. You know, here I am thinking I'm a performance coach and I'm going to impress the best basketball player on the planet. So I wanted to get there before he did and I wasn't successful. I got there at 3:30 in the morning figuring 30 minutes ahead of time would be plenty. And he was already in the gym in a full sweat. He was going through a very strenuous warm up before his actual workout started, which immediately set the tone and let me know. I mean, this is one of many reasons this guy's the best. But the real thing that surprised me was as I watched the beginning of his workout, he was doing such basic stuff. He was doing very rudimentary offensive moves and footwork drills, stuff that I had seen done with middle school age players. And I was shocked. I was expecting to watch the best player in the world do some majorly, you know, some high end sexy stuff. Some, some, just a lot of flash and I didn't see. And later that Day I had to ask him because I was just curious. He was like, kobe, you're the best player in the world. Why are you doing such basic drills? And he kind of gave me that infamous smile and smirk and said, why do you think I'm the best player in the world? Because I never get bored with the basics and that, you know, it's funny, I have told that story no short of a thousand times, and I still get goosebumps when I tell it because I remember specifically how I felt when he said that. And my takeaway was, if the person that's the best in the world at what they do can commit to the basics, then I sure as hell can as well. And, you know, in today's day and age, when you've got 8 billion people on the planet, to be the best in the world at anything is pretty remarkable. But especially in something like basketball, where millions of people play. And his quote unquote secret was to stay in your lane and stick to the basics. And now, again, to make sure I'm painting the picture correctly, he has an unparalleled work ethic, and his precision and attention to detail was razor sharp. So I don't want to make it sound like what he was doing was easy, but what he was doing was basic. And that's when I kind of put two and two together and realized that just because something's basic, it doesn't mean that it's easy. Because if it was easy, everyone else would be doing it. But how many players in the NBA? There's 450 players in the NBA. How many of them do you think are waking up at three in the morning and in the off season to go work out at a high school gym, are going to spend the vast majority of that time doing the basics? You know, maybe, maybe three or four guys in the entire league are willing to do that, and that's why he's the best.

And that's, you know, that is one of the things that, you know, in one way, for me personally, it's so inspiring, right? And then the other way, it's almost. I want to say it's almost disheartening or discouraging because I look at it like myself going, what kind of. And I don't know if you actually can teach this drive to people, because I can just imagine that, listen, if I've got any degree of the success of Kobe and the financial success, and I know that I can probably carry myself a little bit, I've got a good work ethic, but it's nowhere near that caliber. Now, granted, I'm not making tens of millions of dollars a year, but it just always blows me away that the kind of drive and work ethic that you can still have at that such high level. I know it got you there, but I mean, one of the reasons I think a lot of us want to work hard and we want to make a lot of money and we want to build something really cool is so that life doesn't have to be so hard.

Right.

It actually reminds me of our friend Jesse Itzler. So Jesse is. Had so much success that he could easily live on easy street and live very comfortable for the rest of his life. Yet he continues to push himself physically and in business and everything else, but he doesn't have to because he's got that drive. By the way, if you guys hear a little buzzing outside, the gardeners just took this moment to start trimming the.

Love it.

Yay. Yay for non podcast friendly gardeners. That being said, anyway, it just always. It's one of the. Do you, do you think that that kind of drive, that work ethic can be taught or learned to a degree or some. Are certain people just born with it?

I don't, I believe it's a little bit of all of that. I do believe some of it. It's genetically wired. I also believe a good portion of it is, is from what's modeled for us when we're younger. You know, I know that, you know, Kobe's father was a professional player and he was always known for sticking to the fundamentals and being a very fundamental player. And I'm sure that Kobe grew up seeing that his dad was in the gym working on his game relentlessly, and he made that connection in his mind. My dad's really good at what he does, and my dad is always in the gym working on his game. And then he just intrinsically knew that in order for me to be good, I have to be doing the same thing. So I think that modeling is important, but I do believe that, that we're all wired differently and, and what you just said is so accurate and it used to discourage me, but I'm at a point in my life now where I no longer try to play the comparison game and I have the humility to give myself some grace. And I will tell you and all of your listeners, I do not have the same work ethic or mindset as Kobe Bryant. I mean, most of them are probably laughing now because they're like, hey, we already knew that, you didn't have to say it, but I'm not trying to pretend to be something that I'm not. You know, same thing. I'd like to believe that I do work hard and I do meaningful work, and I believe that I do, but I don't have the same work ethic as him. I like to believe that, that I can intentionally get myself out of my comfort zone and push my mental and physical limits, but I'm not anywhere close to being on Jesse's level for doing that. So I don't try to play the comparison game because I'll always lose that. So for me, it's much more about staying present, doing the things that make me happy and give me fulfillment and serving others and working as hard as is necessary to, to design and live the type of life that I want to live. But, you know, some of those guys, I almost think it might be a prison for them. You know, when you're talking about the Kobe Bryant's or the Michael Jordan's or even the Tom Brady's or Beyonce's for that matter, I mean, they're so committed and so driven to excellence. I often wonder if that's a prison. I mean, I just wonder. I mean, can Kobe Bryant, when he was playing, could he ever. Could he ever just take an afternoon off and hang out with his wife and kids and lay on the beach? He might not be able to do that. And that's okay because that doesn't give him enjoyment. So it's not about me placing judgment on him. It's for me to say that, you know what, man? If I want to knock off work early and take my kids to the beach this afternoon, I'm going to do so without an ounce of guilt. And if that means I make a couple less dollars and I'm not quite as successful when this whole show's over, I'm willing to make that trade at this point in my life. And that is one of many things that I really respect and admire about Jesse is, despite all his success, as you just mentioned, he's designed a life based on his happiness and his fulfillment. And he does those things. And you know that I don't say this to be cliche, man. That retreat had a very powerful and profound impact on my life and my perspective.

That's awesome. It did me as well and every single person I've talked to afterwards. I mean, I don't think we even expected it to have as big of an impact on a lot of the people as it did. And speaking of that, and along with one of the points you just made about at those levels, not being able. Like a prison, not being able to take a moment off, whether it's what you're doing or what you're thinking about. I know as an entrepreneur, I can never divorce my thoughts from my. From my business. It's constantly in the back of my mind, doing enough. And that's one of the things that UFC legend Frank Shamrock, who was also at the retreat, was talking about. He said, for years, like, for, I don't know, 20 years, every single day I had in the back of my mind, somebody's trying to kill me. I have got to get stronger than them, right? Because when he steps in, he goes, I'm just constantly, constantly thinking about that. And it does. It wears you out. And Frank's in a great position in his life where he doesn't have to think about that anymore. He's also translating a lot of the things he's learned in sports over to business and helping other people be high performers and be better leaders. And that's a good segue into another one of the things that I wanted to ask you about. You're working with a lot of leaders right now, and you've got some of the things that you've noticed that all leaders really have in common. Would you kind of go over those?

For sure. And I would say it always starts with self awareness. The best leaders that I've ever been around, and for that matter, the happiest and most successful people I've ever been around, have a very high sense of self. They know what things they do well. They know what things are challenging for them. They know what things they love to do. They know what things they aren't really interested in doing, and that helps them stay in their lane and play their position of what makes them great at what they do. So it always starts with self awareness. I also believe that the best leaders, they use their empathy muscle all the time. I mean, they really work hard to see the world through the eyes of the people that they're leading and walk in the shoes of the people that they're leading. And to me, that's arguably our best mechanism for human connection, is empathy. And I believe great leadership starts with both of those things. And then certainly there's a long list of traits, you know, from doing the little things to embracing discomfort. There's all of those type of things that are extremely important for leaders. But I find if you don't have empathy and you don't have self awareness, those things are I won't say irrelevant, but they're a lot less impactful.

Yeah, you also talked a lot about that, about that bringing people up and that empathetic aspect. I mean, you had a good story about. Was it Steve Kerr?

Steve Nash.

Steve Nash, that's right. Tell that story. Because I thought that was really brilliant. And it goes to show you how just a little thing can go a long way.

Oh, for sure. You know, I've always been partial to the players I've had a chance to work with. So if you ask me, you know, who are my favorite players in NBA, I mean, it's hard for me not to root for Kevin Durant because I met him when he was 14 years old. But outside of anyone that I worked with directly, I would say Steve Nash is my all time favorite player. I did have a chance to meet Steve Nash, you know, I think it was in 2008 or 2009. It was an amazing conversation. But there's two things. One I talked about at the retreat and I'll share that with your listeners. But then one, I didn't even mention at the retreat that I'd love to share with you. Steve Nash. I talk all the time about the difference between thermostats and thermometers. If you think about the setting in your house when the AC is on, you know, the thermostat is what dictates the temperature in your house or your apartment. The thermometer simply tells you what it is. So the thermostat is the thing that actually regulates and creates the environment. And the thermometer is rather passive and just reads it. So all of us need to strive to be thermostats. We need to strive to create the environment. Especially as a leader in whatever organization you're in. It's up to you, excuse me, to get everyone to raise up to your level instead of you sinking to the the level of the collective group. And that's extremely important. And I don't think that's ever been epitomized better than with a player like Steve Nash. I laugh because the first year that Steve Nash won his back to back MVP titles, I believe it was 2004. He only led the league in two statistical categories. One was assists, which I think most people can agree that means you're sharing the ball, you're getting other people involved. That is a tremendous trait of a leader. But the second were touches. And yeah, I'm talking physical touches, high fives, fist bumps and pats on the butt. And the reason I know he led the league in touches was because a research team from Cal State Berkeley was doing a study. They wanted to see if there was a direct correlation between winning basketball games and showing signs of enthusiasm, which for the most part are relegated to high fives, fist bumps, and pats on the butt. So their team of researchers watched every minute of every NBA game that season and tallied every time a player gave a fist bump, a high five, or a pat on the butt. Well, the Phoenix Suns were so enamored with this that they actually hired a full time intern to do the exact same thing. But they just wanted the intern focused on Steve Nash the entire time because they knew, I mean, that guy was electric. And in his first game where the intern was keeping this Tally, in a 48 minute NBA game, Steve Nash delivered 239 high fives, fist bumps and pats on the butt, which is remarkable. So really, the moral to that story is Steve Nash is a thermostat. One of the best shooters in the game, tremendous ball handler, savvy passer, high basketball iq. But one of the major things that he did to add value to the Suns organization was his ability to be enthusiastic and raise the energy of everyone else. And I really believe that was why he was able to continue playing until his early 40s. I mean, I'm 41 right now. I think Steve Nash was 41 when he retired, which is an extremely long career, especially for a guard to play that level. And it wasn't that his on court play was, was the reason he was able to do that for so long. A good portion of it was because he was such a good teammate and such a good culture guy and he got everyone else to raise their level. So it was an extremely valuable trait for him to have. And that's how I try to go through life, man. I try to be a thermostat. I try to pour into other people to fill their buckets and to raise their level anytime I'm around them. Whether I'm in an elevator with you for 30 seconds or I get to spend an entire weekend with you, I want you to leave that interaction a little bit better than when it started. And that's, you know, I am a competitive person and that's kind of my challenge. So I'll think, you know, hey, Brad and I had an awesome conversation for this interview. Did he leave that interview a little bit better than when we first hit record? And if the answer is yes, then I feel like I'm a thermostat.

You know, I loved that I loved that analogy, and I definitely wrote that down here in my notes. I did, like, a little weekend recap of that, and that was. It was great. And I love it because it's very visual, and it's a very. Am I being this or am I being that? You can kind of check in with yourself quite often to say, man, am I. Am I reacting to the crap that's going on around my life? Yeah, there's a lot of bad stuff.

Going on in the world.

Maybe bad stuff in my business, maybe my relationship. Am I reacting to that? Or am I. Or am I causing the temperature to be what I want it to be? Am I making it on my terms? I love that.

Exactly.

And I think you said it. I've always been a big proponent of just trying to not take for granted how much time we have on this earth and how short and precious life can be, and realizing that, you know, the time is actually. It's always now, right?

Yes.

And I think.

Absolutely.

And correct me if I'm wrong or take credit for it either way. Were you the one who talked about the hourglass?

Yeah, that was. That was me. And in fairness, on some level, I had that epiphany about it. And I'll certainly elaborate. But I know that these truths I've learned about time. I've had so many people, mentors, and folks pour into me to really cement these things. But before I forget, I want to tell you that second story about Steve Nash, and then let's dive headfirst into the time. So when I had a chance to talk to Steve Nash, and this was. He had his own skills academy as well for point guards. And he said, my number one job as the point guard is the ball into the lane, is to get it into the paint. Because in the NBA, statistically, they're called paint touches. Anytime the ball is in the paint, and it can go in there on a drive or it can go in there on a pass, team shoot. I mean, it's something astronomical. Like 17% higher field goal percentage anytime the ball touches the paint. So he says, you know, his goal as the leader in the point guard is to get the ball into the paint. That's goal number one. And he said, goal number two, when I get there, is to be able to have as many options as possible. And this is where you can really translate it to the business world. He didn't want himself to be limited in any way. So if he got the ball into the paint, he wanted to make sure that he could stop and pull up and shoot a jump shot. He could take it all the way in and finish it with either hand or finish off of either foot. He wanted to make sure he could pass to any of the four players with either hand, or he could dribble the ball back out and kind of reset. But he wanted to make sure that he was fully capable of going right and left. He could go all the way to the basket, he could shoot, he could pass. He didn't want to limit himself from an option standpoint. And he said that was the reason he was so dangerous. And if you think of a player that can only go to their right, well, they've eliminated half of their options. If you think of a player that can't shoot a lick, well, they've eliminated a good portion of their options. And he never wanted that. So he always worked relentlessly to have as many options as possible, which is why, you know, he pushed so hard to become almost ambidextrous from a passing and ball handling standpoint. And he also said that what he chose to do at the end of every single workout in the off season was he would pick one kind of unorthodox finish, maybe it's a running hook shot or an offhand layup or whatever, and he would, he would shoot it 100 times before he left the gym. That was his ticket to leave his workout, was to try something out of the box and unorthodox a hundred times. And he said, alan, if you ever see me do something that looks almost magical, borderline lucky in a game, trust me, man, I've done that behind closed doors hundreds and hundreds of times. It's not luck. And that you take those parallels to in business, are you limiting your options or are you working on everything that you need to work on to be able to have those type of options? And are you doing things behind closed doors during the unseen hours that will pay dividends down the road? So those were two firsthand lessons that Steve Nash told me about that I just thought was absolutely remarkable.

I love that. And it's a concept of like, in business or in show business, it's the ten year overnight success, right? You see somebody so true and they look like they're amazing, but you don't see all the work and all the blood, sweat and tears that they put into making it look easy. And, you know, I think that's also one of the things that just in our society, everybody's now got the ability to show off in social media. And we all do it. We just oftentimes show the best of what we're doing. And because it's now everywhere and we. And it looks as if everybody's got, you know, you know, success or happiness or whatever they're showing off. You don't see behind, you know, you don't see underneath the surface of the work that somebody's put in there. You don't see the hardships they've had. You just kind of see that every, everybody looks like they're killing it and I'm not killing it. So it kind of breeds that, you know, sometimes depression. But I mean that's, oh for sure topic for something else. But I love that. I love that concept. I love the stories about Steve Nash. I was a big fan of Steve Nash. I was, I used to live back in Dallas and oh yeah, sad to see him go when he did.

But you know what's funny is when I talk to high performers in any, they almost are offended if you tell them that they're lucky. You know, that if you being able to make that shot was lucky. And he's like, no, man, that ain't luck, buddy. I've been practicing that, you know, in empty gyms for 20 years. You know, when I'm in high school and everybody else is going to the movies or hanging out on the corner or going to prom, I'm in a gym putting in work. Trust me, man, it's not luck. And you know, Steve Nash was always famous for saying, and this is another quote that I absolutely love, he's like, man, I'm. I'm a six three, Canadian born white guy. If every basketball player in the world worked as hard as I did, I would have never been able to make the NBA. I simply wouldn't be good enough. But because most of them choose not to work as hard as I did, I was able to gain and have a long career in the NBA. And that really is such a powerful statement that he has the humility to say, you know, so many guys were born with so many more tools than he was and if they would have actualized it through their habits and discipline and work ethic, he would have been out of a job because he simply wouldn't have been good enough. And, and I love that. And that's another one that, that gives hope, you know, that you don't have to be the most talented person in the world. You certainly need some talent. And I would never in a million years imply that Steve Nash is not talented. He's incredible.

But you can develop. Yeah, of course, because there's there's, there's natural born talent and then there's earned talent. And I mean, one of the greatest books I think about, that's one aspect of the topic is the. It's not Tipping Point, it's Outliers.

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, several times.

Yeah. So if you guys haven't read, I.

Won'T go into the.

All the details, but if you haven't read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, grab that. Because it talks a lot about this, about this concept. And it's, you know, something. Right. You know, we all catch ourselves. Sometimes we're not working harder, as hard as we should. Sometimes we're. Most of the time we're not working as smart as we should. We just keep on doing the exact same thing over and over and expect to get better. When you're not pushing yourself, when you're not staying longer and trying something new. And that can be, that could be learning a skill set in business, that could be pushing yourself in health, that could be pushing yourself in physical activities and sports. Because I think, like you said, it all comes back to how you do one thing is how you do everything.

Exactly.

And just kind of circling back to that one statement that you made that impacted me about the hourglass. How, you know, we all know that we are not, you know, tomorrow's not guaranteed. Life is precious. Anything can happen. But I love the analogy, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you said something about it as if when we're born, somebody gives us an hourglass and flips it over. The only, you know, the stand starts dropping. The only problem is you can't see how much sand you've got in the top.

No. And that's, yeah, that's the big mystery. And I do believe our lives are analogous to an hourglass. And I've learned three indisputable truths. And you just teed up the first one so perfectly that once that hourglass gets flipped over, we have no clue how much time we have. We don't know how much sand is at the top. You know, it's not like an actual hourglass when you're playing a board game that you can see how much that you have. We don't know that you know. And I'm 41 years old. I'm fairly healthy by design. The average male life expectancy in the United states is around 79, 80 years old. So statistically, I'm at about the halftime of my life, But I don't consider myself average, especially from a health standpoint. So I don't see any reason why I shouldn't live well into my 80s or 90s. But I know for certain that that's not promised. And every single person listening to this right now knows of someone who sand ran out well before their time. They lost a loved one or a friend or at least heard somebody on the news whose sand ran out well before their time. So I know that it's not promised and my sand could go out next week. So that helps me really respect and appreciate time. But the other two things that the hourglass shows me is one, we can't stop time or pause time. It's continuous. It's always. It's fleeting, and it's constantly in motion. So no matter what you do, you can't stop time. And the world's going to keep on trucking no matter what. I mean, if you decide to take tomorrow off and just lay in bed all day, that doesn't stop anything. You just lost one day of your life because the rest of the world keeps trucking. And then lastly, which really hammers home the ability to stay in the present moment is once the sand hits the bottom of the hourglass, it's gone forever. There's nothing we can do to change it now. We can learn from the past, and smart people do learn from the past, but we can't change it. There is nothing I can do to change anything that happened to me yesterday. I can learn from it. I can pivot and make some changes on how I'll approach today based on it. But whatever outcomes I received yesterday, or for the first 41 years of my life, for that matter, are unchangeable. So I find a lot of people spend a tremendous amount of mental and emotional time and effort focusing on things that they can't change. So what's, I mean, what's the point of that? And I'm not acting like I'm, you know, that that doesn't happen to me. I mean, all these things that I shared with you guys at the retreat and I'm sharing now on this show are things that I have to constantly remind myself and put myself in check because I don't have this whole concept of living present mastered either, but I'm aware of it. And now I have the self awareness to know that. Alan, you're worried about something that happened yesterday, man, you know, you didn't get that. You didn't get that speaking gig that you wanted. Okay, well, it's over. And the more time you think about, you know, worrying about it or Pouting about it or whining about it. You're not devoting towards getting the next speaking gig that you do want. So at least now I have the awareness to snap myself out of it. And my trigger is the phrase, be where your feet are. Be where your feet are. And that's what's really powerful to me. And perfect example, you know, right now, I'm sitting in my office, my home office in Gaithersburg, Maryland, just outside of D.C. and I am 100% present and focused on you, our conversation, and your listeners. I'm not worried about anything that happened to me this morning. I'm not worried about anything I'm going to do tonight. I'm focused on being here in the present moment. But conversely.

Oh, wait, by the way, you're making me feel bad for sitting here playing Angry Birds while you're talking. I guess I shouldn't be doing that.

Damn it. I need to. I need to work on being more entertaining, because if Angry Birds is more entertaining than me, then I need to sharpen my sword as a. As a speaker. But. No, but you're 100% right. And this is the challenge, because, let's be honest, we've all, quote, unquote, played Angry Birds while we should have been present. There have been plenty of times I've been with my children, but I'm not with my children. I'm with them in body, but my mind is on my phone or my mind is on a project I have to finish. And instead of. It's basically like trying to serve two masters. Now, I'm not really being productive with work, and I'm certainly not being present or attentive with my children. I get nothing accomplished. So for me, the trigger of saying, be where your feet are. If you're with your kids, be with your kids. If you're working on writing or you're editing this podcast, then be fully invested in that and then move on to the next thing. And. And while I'm getting much better at that, still haven't mastered it, but at least I'm aware. And now within a couple of minutes, I recognize when my heart and my brain are not where my feet are. And I could get myself back there pretty quickly. So I'm moving in the right direction, but certainly far from mastering it.

Yeah. Was it. Did Turney Duff also talk something about that, about reminding yourself? Yeah, because I remember that you talked about that. Turning. Talked about it. And what's so cool is it's. It's probably one of the hardest things in the world to do is to be just present, right? Because it's just. There's a million things going on, especially in today's day and age, what you just said, like, just remind yourself, like, just look down. Where. Where are my feet? What am I doing right now? What am I doing? Like, turning said I'm walking down the street in Manhattan. I may have a million things going on in my brain, but I'm sitting, sitting here doing a podcast with Alan. And just that simple stating of what you're doing and recall, like, even out loud or even just to yourself. But just doing it can help kind of recenter you. And I love that. And I never really even thought about that concept up until the weekend retreat and when I heard you say it, but I've used it several times since.

Then, so I love it. You know, one of the biggest changes and takeaways for me from the retreat was on the meditation side, on being more mindful. I will be quite honest, I've resisted meditation for about a decade. I've had people telling me, alan, you got to meditate. It's good for you. And it just, for some reason, it never struck a chord. And, you know, hearing, I believe it was Bob Gray talk about it. And then someone told me about the app called Headspace, which I downloaded while. Yeah, I downloaded it while I was at the retreat. And this morning was the 34th day consecutive day that I've done Headspace. I do it for 10 minutes when I wake up. I do it for the 10 minutes before I go to sleep. And it's really had a profound impact on my ability to control my thoughts, to stay present. And it's really improved the quality of my sleep. And for me, I kind of need that. The guided meditation that an app like Headspace offers, it's been very, very helpful. But, yeah, it's not easy for any of us to control our thoughts. I mean, that's one of the main reasons I couldn't sleep before was I could not turn my brain off for all of the things that I had going on. Yeah, we all are. And I think a lot of high achievers and high performers and type A driven people, that's how we all are. And I found that that's really helped me get a little bit of serenity and to be more mindful. But you're right, it's not something we master. You know, I'm not. I'm not a golfer, but I have a few friends that do play golf, and they've all told me the Same thing they said, golf is not a sport that you master. I mean, you take the best golfers in the world. They still hit bad shots occasionally. They still have bad rounds, they still have bad days. Now, what makes them the best in the world? They very rarely hit bad shots and very rarely have bad rounds or bad days. And when they do have a bad shot or a bad round, it's probably better than anything I could have ever done. So their level of bad is extremely high. But you can't master golf. And it's the same thing with this living present. We have our good days and our bad days, and part of my constant recalibration and self evaluation, you know, if I drop my kids off back at their mother's house and on my drive home, I'm like, rating myself, you know, how present was I with my kids tonight? Some days I give myself a really high score and, you know, consider ordering one of those shirts that say father of the year. And then other times I'm like, damn, man, that was not your best, Alan. You. You were way too occupied with, you know, the project or engagement you have tomorrow. You did not give your kids your best. But I give myself the grace that I don't beat myself up over it. I simply say, next time I have my kids, I'm gonna do a better job. So I stay in the present moment. I don't live in the past, and I quickly move on.

That's powerful. Very much so is. So I want to switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about your business and some of the stuff you're doing now and just get a little bit more insight. So now, first of all, do you still coach and lead basketball? Is that still a part of your career, or have you totally moved towards working with. Whether it's executives or leaders or other.

People, I'm very, very, very selective about the basketball stuff that I do. There's still a few groups and some relationships I have that I basically gave them a lifetime commitment that if they ever need me, I'm there for them because of what they've been able to do for me. I do. The podcast that I host is called the Pure Sweat Basketball Show. So most of your listeners are not going to be interested unless they happen to be high school or college basketball coaches. It's a very niche show, but it's really important to me. And pouring into coaches that I love to do. And anytime, if I can offer some. Some wisdom or some training to a young person to help them with their career, I want to be able to do that. So I'll always keep one foot in the basketball space. But most of my time, my energy and my focus now is in this corporate world. So yeah, that's really the direction that I'm heading. But I don't think I'll ever abandon basketball completely. Just means too much to me.

So what have you been doing on the corporate world more specifically? So are you working with typically executives or entrepreneurs and small business owners? What do you find is kind of your sweet spot of your ideal either client or corporate client that you typically work with?

Most of them have been small to medium sized businesses that have anywhere from 15 to 50 employees. And I do a three hour half day workshop that's really an elaborated version of the talk that I gave at the retreat and it includes many more reflective activities and some little breakouts and some things where they're evaluating themselves and they're evaluating the team. Some things that they do in pairs, some things they do in small groups. So it's very. The principles that I shared with you guys at the retreat are still the foundation of what I do during the workshops, but it expanded a little bit and give them some ownership and do some reflection on their end to improve their self awareness. That's what I tend to be asked to do the most of. I still do some keynoting and kicking off some events. I mean I'm a high energy guy so lots of groups like to bring me in just to start the thing off with a bang. But then I'm also doing some executive coaching and some leadership coaching which consists of much more customized, you know, a program as far as some of them consist of just weekly calls. But that stuff I really customize based on what it is that they're trying to achieve. But what's most important is I stay in my lane and I know my position. I will be the first to tell you I have never been the CEO of a medium sized business. I've never had 50 employees. So I don't try to teach people something that I don't know. I don't teach anything about sales, I don't teach anything about negotiations, I don't teach anything about, you know, P and L statements, account none of that because that's not what I know. What I do know is how we can improve individual leadership for everyone in the organization. How you can get people to improve their care factor and buy in so that they are a better teammate and how to uphold standards to create a much better culture with your organization. So I don't Deviate from those things since those are the things that I've seen at a high level, have been a part of at a high level and have had some really high level people pour into me. So that's kind of where I am in my journey now. And I'm still exploring to figure out what are some other things that I can do that would add value to to an organization and what things am I good at? So this is just where I am. And I know that my business and my career will have several more iterations the same way it did in basketball.

How have you been finding your clients?

It's been a little bit of both. Luckily I had such a powerful Rolodex. There you go. Showing my age again. A list of contacts in the basketball world that all were within a couple degrees of someone in the corporate space. So, you know, it might have been a company that was in the basketball space that sponsored a clinic that I spoke at and they wanted to bring me in to work with their team. It could be a high school coach. You know, his wife is the head of HR at a company and he told her about. So initially my basketball contacts got me going and then thankfully I've earned additional business with some referrals and from those. So I've spoken at a couple conferences and walked out with five or six really hot leads of people that wanted me to do the same thing with them. So at this point, I'm slowly going to start switching gears and being more offensive minded and more proactive in reaching out to companies that I believe I'd be a good fit for. But currently I've kept a very full schedule with folks reaching out to me. Some of it comes through social. I might post a video that resonates with someone and they reach out. But here's a cool story. Susie Schnall, that was at the retreat with us, she enjoyed my talk and she just invited me up to her house. I went there this past Sunday to give a similar talk to 20 different families in her neighborhood, personal friends. So I talked to probably 20 kids and maybe 30 adults and gave a very similar talk. But the best part was there were three or four parents there that are all entrepreneurs and business owners that then said, shoot, man, this was awesome for my kid. You need to come in and give this talk to my company. So I was able to pick up some business there. So, you know, here I go to Jesse's retreat. I get to meet you. I get to meet Susie Sue. Susie brings me in to talk to her family. Now People there want me. So I'm very thankful that it's kind of snowballing and turning into some other things.

I love it. Are there any nuts you're trying to crack right now in your own business? Whether that is getting more clients or more exposure or any skills you're trying to learn, any people you're trying to meet, trying to hire? Just anything here where myself or some of my listeners might. It might kind of jog us an idea of how we can add value to you.

Well, you know, one thing that's really cool, and I told you before we hit record that you had a gentleman on that was kind of the YouTube expert, and that was. I've listened to so many of your episodes, really love your show. That one really struck a chord with me. So I'm gonna reach out to him and hire him for a consultation on how I can better showcase what it is that I'm doing and add more value to the people following. And, you know, being able to serve people is what this is all about. I mean, I. I really enjoy that, whether it's in person speaking or it's through social media. So it's just neat how these things all connect the dots. You know, as I mentioned at the retreat, I've always had a bucket list of people that I wanted to meet and in my life. The first one was Michael Jordan, and I was able to meet him. The second one was Coach K, and I was able to meet him, and I started having this list. And then Jesse Itzler was the next guy on the list that I really, really wanted to meet. And at that retreat was the first time I had ever met him. I had never met him before that, so. So that was really a neat experience for me. How did you guys connect? We have several mutual friends, especially through the basketball space, and every one of them, to a T, gave the same description of Jesse. He's extremely unique. He's unbelievably likable. He's very authentic. He doesn't believe in any type of limits. He's truly genuine, and he's very generous. He's just a wonderful guy that every time you spend time with him, Alan, you'll feel better about it. And once I had about 10 people tell me that, I was like, I have to meet this guy. So I started reaching out to him. I sent him a couple of unsolicited emails and a couple of social shouts, and he was always very professional and courteous in getting back to me, but it was just kind of like, you know, hey, thanks for your support. I appreciate it. So there was never really a reason for us to get together. And then somehow, as luck would have it, about a month before the retreat, he sent me an email and just said, hey, I hear about some of the work you're doing with your speaking. I think you'd be a good fit for this private retreat. Would you be interested in coming and speaking? And I'll tell you, Brad, it is literally the best email I've ever received in my entire life.

I was gonna say your jaw had to drop, because it's one thing if he just invited you, it's another thing when he invites you to speak.

Oh, it was incredible. I mean, I literally had tears of joy, and I think it took me 0.4 seconds to hit reply and say yes. And, yeah, kind of the rest is history. So I'm trying to figure out right now the next person on my bucket list. Now that I've crossed Jesse off, who that's going to be, I'm probably going to aim super duper high. I've always been infatuated with Tony Robbins. I've never been to a Tony Robbins event, but I love his authenticity. And anyone that's been doing something at a high level for four decades is really impressive to me. So I think I'll go on record and saying Tony Robbins is the next person that I'd. I'd love to be able to meet. So, yeah, we'll see. And I'll make sure I check back in with you if and when I cross him off the list.

Well, I know a decent amount of people who know Tony personally, so.

Well. There you go. All right, well, you might be able to help me with that.

See if I can do that. Absolutely. I've actually never met Tony myself, but as I said, I know. I know quite a few people who actually used. As I said, used to work with him and.

Oh, wow.

On different stuff. So if there's a. If there's an opportunity there, if you have something you'd ever like me to try to put in front of him, I can't guarantee that I can. Of course there's a. There's a good chance. Well, this has been great, Alan. I really appreciate you taking the time on the call today and kind of following up and. And fill in some of the blanks that from our last meeting, as I said, I got probably more really tangible takeaways, like memorable takeaways from your speech than I did from anybody else's. And I think part of that, I mean, Obviously it's just due to a lot of the insights that you've had and the stories you've told. But you've actually done a very masterful job of creating your speech, creating the follow ups to it, creating very stories that people can really grab onto. And you know, it actually reminds me of one of my, one of my favorite books and especially for, I mean this will really be good for anybody who likes copywriting. But it's called Great, Great Leads Le a d s and a lead being the, the lead into like a hook for, for like some sales copy. And there's a lot of different stuff but one of the things in Great Leads they talk about, oh actually, you know, I take it back, that was a great book. But that's not where I got this from. This one is called the microscript Rules and by the way may be written by the same person. That's why I may have mixed it up. But the microscript rules. And the key being that, you know, they say, oh, it's not what people, you know, it's not what people hear, it's what they remember. But that's not true. It's not what people hear, it's what they repeat. And if you can give somebody something that they can repeat, like I can repeat that, that hourglass story, right?

Like, yeah.

The only thing is you just don't know how much time you got. The top, it's very visual, it's very tangible. The whole be, you know, make sure your feet are, you know where your head is or your head is where your feet are. That's it's easy to remember. It's, it's more importantly it's visual and it's easy to repeat. Just giving you some props. You've done a very good job in the constructing of your message for very repeatable sound biteable things that can be attributed to you which I would continue to magnify those. If I was giving you any unsolicited advice there. I continue to magnify those. And the more that you can be not only known for an item, if you can get people to repeat that kind of. One of the easiest ones, you know, one of the most famous taglines in history was the whole dominoes. 30 minutes or it's free. That's a great benefit late in line but it's also people would just repeat was something that, yeah, it's one thing to remember it, it's a whole nother thing to tell somebody else about it because then that's how the word of mouth Spreads. But I recommend that book both for you and my listeners.

Absolutely.

Microscript rules and how a microscript is different than a tagline.

But that's, that's awesome. You know what's crazy is, and I don't know why I never connected the dots until you just said that. And first of all, thank you so much for those kind words. That's, that's amazing was, you know, everyone's always talking about how young people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. And I've always believed that you can't stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. And that was how I viewed the last several years of my coaching career, working with players. And I had all of the mentors I was working with were saying, man, you have to coach in bullet points, you have to coach in sound bites, that if you can't get a point across to a teenager in 15 seconds, then it's done. And I really had to work hard to make my messages more concise. And I think social media does that as well. You know, I had another friend, he kind of updated the terminology and said, you have to coach in tweets, don't coach in blogs when you're talking to young people. And I guess that's. It's been so ingrained in me now that I'm taking that, I guess into the corporate world. And most of what I do, I try to make very small, digestible, repeatable, you know, stuff you can remember, chunk sized nuggets for the same reason that I was doing that with players. So I appreciate you saying that, man. That really reinforces it. Thank you.

And the best way to continue to do that, and you've done this masterfully, is with stories.

So.

Have you ever heard of Robert Cialdini?

Yes, absolutely.

Author of the book Influence, which is one of the best selling books like marketing persuasion books of all time. And then recently he, he wrote a book called Pre Suasion, which is amazing as well. Equally as I didn't think it could be as good as Influence, but it is. And I was at it recently at a little copywriting workshop here a couple months ago with Robert Cialdini. And one of the things that he said that this is another thing that is repeatable. Right. But it really stuck with me because I mean, one of the primary things my specialties is sales, marketing and sales and getting people to buy things that I want to sell or my clients want to sell. That's my, that's what I'm good at. So I'm always Studying this stuff. And he talked about in your sales copy, whenever you're trying to convince somebody to take an action to purchase with you, to hire you, it is very natural for the human brain to look for. Look for things that. To call bullshit on. Now, I don't believe that. I don't believe that we have this skeptical brain. So if you make a big claim, like if you were to make a claim to me, says Brad, if you work with me in basketball, I'll get you to be as good as Kobe Bryant. And I'm gonna call bs, right? Just because I don't believe that. But if you told a. The one thing that. The two things that people don't.

We.

Don'T, it doesn't trigger our BS meter and it doesn't trigger us to immediately. Cause, like, you know what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

Stories and metaphors, as humans, we accept them as true. We don't argue with them, we just accept it. Now, they may not impact us and they may not make the big point, but we don't argue. So if you can tell your. If you can tell the benefits to me of joining your coaching or whatever via a story or a metaphor, such as my product is like, let me give you an example. Steve Jobs with ipod. It's like having a thousand songs in your pocket.

Oh, yeah.

You know, we didn't say if he said this holds X amount of gigs of this, that, and the other.

And it.

I mean, I might immediately say, who cares? It's not sexy. I can't. But I can visualize a thousand songs in my pocket. And now that's all I'm focusing on is that visual and then a story about maybe a client who's worked with you, who is this, that, and the other. And they've kind of come around to seeing it like this. I'm listening to the story of what somebody else or what you had. And I accept it as not only true to a point, as long as it's not ridiculous, but I just don't argue with it. And that can be really powerful. Whenever you're saying, instead of saying, and I will do this for you and this for you and this for you, you just talk about it. Listen. Other people have experienced this, such as when Brad Costanzo worked with me and he had this and he wanted this. So here's how we got it. And it was really amazing. As a consumer, as somebody who's reading or listening to your sales message, I just go along with that and I accept it. I just thought it was One of the most brilliant things to do. And I wanted to share that with you because you do make such good use of metaphors and stories and analogies.

Well, Ben, that's incredible. And this is what's so neat. I mean, here's, you know, I'm a guest on your show and I've easily taken three pages of notes and pulled things away from what you've taught me. So it's. Yeah, that's amazing, man. Again, I guess I kind of walked ass backwards into that because I enjoy telling stories, but never realized, I guess, conclusively, that it's actually a better and more powerful way to influence. That's awesome. Thank you so much.

Absolutely. And I think, like, if I could get in my business, my client's business, to where it's almost 100% story and metaphor driven, you know, like, I'm working on that with another one of my clients who's got a service for real estate investors. And we're talking about, you know, what is this like, like, what is this service like? Because sometimes people won't necessarily buy it if we just say, here's what it does. It does this, this, this, this, this for you. Right. So they might think, well, I bet. I wonder if it does this as well. I wonder if it does that as well. Or how does it do this? Right. But if I say, hey, it's like having Amazon.com like, I don't know.

Yes.

Making this up. It's like the Amazon of this. All of a sudden, go, I know what Amazon does. I like Amazon. And if that's like this, I want to know more. Right, Exactly.

So anyway, and I tell you, I've heard, I've heard the, the comparison to Uber so many times. This is the Uber of this. This is the Uber of this. And you're right, it just paints such a crystal clear picture that you know immediately what they're talking about.

Yeah, exactly. So anyway, that was my fun little share with you as well.

Awesome.

You help me, I help you. But that being said, I really appreciate your time on the show today. If, if some of my listeners want to find out more about you, whether it's your podcast, your website, your personal coaching, or to hire you to speak at their next event, what are the best ways to get ahold of you?

Everything can be found@alansteinjr.com and that's a L, A N S T E I N J R. And then I'm Allan Ste Jr on all social handles as well. So try and keep it really simple. Try to make my stuff fairly user friendly and I'm relentless about returning emails and returning social inquiries. So yeah, if any of your listeners reach out, even just to say hi, I love engaging with people and would really enjoy that.

Awesome. Well guys, you heard it and hopefully you've enjoyed this episode with Alan. If you liked it. If you want more things like this where we're focusing on a lot of or the mental aspects of success, let me know. And if you have questions about your business, if you're stuck, if you need some new ideas, if you want a second opinion on maybe a business marketing strategy or hurdle you're trying to solve, I've got the fortune of not only working with some amazing companies and people and clients who are trying a lot of different things both in my business and in theirs, but I also have the fortune of for the past three years having world class experts, people like Alan, people like Derral Eves who he listened to, one of the top YouTube experts and people from all fields of business and life on my show where I can systematically pick their brains for their best bacon wrapped business ideas so that I can learn. Very selfishly, I like to say I've got the most selfish podcast on itunes because I only talk to people I want to know something from and hopefully that bleeds over to you. But that means I've got a lot of ideas resources, whether or not I'm an expert or I just know the expert or the idea that you need to make your life a little bit easier. You can email me directly@askbradaconwrappedbusiness.com and I will make sure to respond and help you any way that I can. Alan, thanks again for stopping by the show. To everybody else, go visit Alan, send me an email, share this episode on social media and tell me how much you like it it in the itunes reviews. I read every single one of them. Till next time Alan. Thanks a lot brother.

Thank you.

And we done.