015 Corey Jackson––Much more than football…

Lots of controversy over NFL players these days. Criminal behavior, domestic violence, and protests are driving some even diehard fans from the game. Do players really care about the fans? Do they really care about their communities? Or are they just a bunch of spoiled millionaires getting rich off a child's game and our adult obsession with it? Today you're going to meet one player who really does care, and you're going to learn about his initiative that supports and cultivates the best in the NFL. That professional athletes have to offer far beyond sports.

Welcome to Walking the Walk, the program for people who want to become better leaders and leaders who want to become better people. Start Walking the Walk with your host, renowned leadership speaker and author of The Sensei Leader, Jim Bouchard.

Cory Jackson is no stranger to big ideas. At 19 years old, Cory left his home in South Carolina with nothing but a one-way bus ticket to play basketball at Ranger College in Texas. The problem was he wasn't enrolled there. In fact, nobody even knew who he was. I don't want to be the spoiler, so we're going to let Cory tell the rest of the story about how he transformed himself into a leader, a professional football player, and now the CEO of Quirks, a remarkable company blending entrepreneurism and social responsibility on the front lines. Cory, you tell the story the best. Can you give us a quick summary about your early years of that bus trip?

Oh, absolutely. Um, I was 19 years old, um, pretty much got rejected by every college in America, you know.

That's quite a record.

Yeah, I had this idea of who I was. I wanted to be a collegiate basketball player. Um, I felt like I had the talent and the ability. Um, but truthfully, um, I struggled academically, academically. Had a lot of trouble reading. So that was a big issue for me. And my senior year, when I spoke with my guidance counselor and I told him about my idea of wanting to be a collegiate athlete, he basically pulled out my grades and the classes I was taking and said, I think we need to find something else for you to do, right? Yeah, right, there you go.

That's encouraging, right?

Which, to be honest with you, he was 100% correct. I think based upon when we look at life in a vacuum and we look at data and we look at the facts, a lot of times it is what it is, right? You know, numbers don't lie. I think in my case, the numbers didn't lie, but I always say that you have opportunity to change that, right? Like you can do something different. And so even though the facts were what they were, eventually I found the way to convince myself, right? That I can do what I have never ever been able to do, right? And I think that's entrepreneurship in a nutshell. The ability to convince yourself that you can do something that you've never done before. And so at that moment when the guidance counselor told me that, I believed them. I said, wow, you know, I'm not going to be able to go to college. I'm not going to be able to pursue my dream. And so I took a job at work, working at Walmart, making $7 an hour. And I was super miserable there. And it wasn't because it was a bad environment or a bad place.

It was great.

The people were great. It just wasn't where I wanted to be.

Wasn't where we— I was just gonna say that. Wasn't where you wanted to be. You saw a bigger vision of yourself.

Yeah. And so I'm in this, this space where I'm like, well, why is my life like this? Why am I not living my dream? Why am I not doing the things that I want to do? And at that time, when I thought of that, and that started running through my mind, I realized that I didn't have a good enough reason not to be doing those things. Even though the facts and the data said this wasn't possible. I just knew that it was something deeper behind it. And that's when I quit my job and went to the bus station and bought that one-way ticket. And I bought the one-way ticket by default, right? I went to buy a round-trip ticket, but I didn't have enough money to buy it.

Oh, come on. I thought when you told me the story first, that was— it was your total belief, right? You were just going one way. Yeah.

And so when I went to buy the tickets, she told me how much it was. And I was like, well, I don't have enough. And I said, well, how much is the one-way, right? And I think that was a defining moment in my life. You know, when you start to think about transformation and change, right?

Yes.

You need to think of one-way, right? That one direction, I need to go in this direction and not look back. And so that was a defining moment. Bought that one-way ticket, hopped on that bus, and was scared out of my mind. I'm talking about everything in me was telling me to get off the bus. My heart beating out of my chest, you know, you know, the whole deal. Mouth dry, throat dry, just trembling with fear.

Oh yeah, I've been there once or twice. Yeah.

The amazing thing, Jim, like, it's just I had to convince myself. I don't know if you've ever been on a Greyhound bus, but if you're traveling 2 days on a Greyhound bus, this bus is going to stop in like a million little towns that you've never heard of before. Right. And so each time that bus stopped, I had to convince myself to stay on to the next stop because it was just that difficult. I couldn't even think about the trip like holistically. I had to think about it in these little stops. And so each stop I had to convince myself to stay on the bus all the way until I got to Texas. You know, and that was 2 days. Got there and didn't know what I was gonna do. I was about 15 minutes away from the school, didn't have a ride, so I called the school, asked to speak to the basketball coach. Guy comes on the phone, has no idea who I am, right?

That's the part that freaked me out when you first told me that story, you know, and you set me up because the bus ride's a good enough story. But then, yeah, then you show up to play basketball and the basketball coach doesn't know who the hell you are.

Yeah, he doesn't know who I am, Jim. And the other thing was, so we're having this conversation, I'm telling him who I am and he's saying, well, listen, we need your coach, or, you know, just send us some stats and some film to see if we want to recruit you, that whole, you know, the whole deal, right? And so I'm like, well, I can't do that. And he's like, why can't you do that? I'm like, well, I'm at the bus station, man, I need a ride. And, uh, the guy, his name is Coach Nabors, man. Todd Nabors, a good guy, man. Matter of fact, we spoke, uh, not too long ago. Um, he's actually a part of my documentary, um, and he talks about that on there. But, um, Coach Nabors, uh, he says, well, how big are you? You know, and at the time I was about 6'5", 185 pounds.

So still growing, you were still growing.

So, so naturally I said I'm 6'8" and so, and so, um, I knew that there's not a college basketball coach in America that would leave a 6'8" basketball player at the bus station. Um, so the guy says, uh, you know, Coach Never says, well, if you're not 6'8", I'm gonna leave you at the bus station, you know. Um, finally he comes pick me up, he looks at me, he says, close enough, get in the car, you know, throws me in the car and we head off to, uh, to school. And where he tells me, I have 25 guys on my basketball team, I don't have any scholarships, you're not even enrolled in this school. I can't help you. I'm like, oh my God, what am I going to do? And he drops me off at the admissions office and they're trying to help me get into school. And when I leave there, I walk past the gym and the gym is actually open and the guys are in there playing. I can see the doors and they're open and I walk in, I'm watching them play. And Coach says, hey, they're just playing pickup, you know, next game if you want to play, feel free. Right. And so I walk onto the court the next game, we get the ball. And a guy on my team takes this horrible looking 3-point shot. I know that he's going to miss, so I'm going to get the rebound. 3 other guys, we've all fighting for the rebound. Ball hits the back of the rim, pops up. I dunk it back in over the 3 guys. And like, as soon as I come down from like swinging on the rim, the coach is on the floor like, man, hold up, everybody stop. Nobody moves. I don't know why you came here, but I'm glad you here.

Now we got to get you enrolled, right?

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was magical. It was really magical because I haven't played competitive basketball in over a year, you know. So that was a magical moment. And then that kind of taught me that you can change your circumstance, that, that you can— you don't have to have the ideal situation, and you don't have to have all of the resources in the world either. And a lot of times we think that we have to have all of the resources in the world to be able to be successful. And typically it's when you don't have the, you have the least resources, when you don't have all of the resources, when you become the most creative and the most courageous. And that was just my courageous moment. And so I stayed at that school for 2 years, graduated there, earned a scholarship at the University of Nevada, where I became one of the top rebounders in the nation at power forward. You know, um, under a great coach, Trent Johnson. And it was a fantastic moment for me to overcome all those challenges. Um, and I was ready to go off to the NBA, you know, excited. Had a great senior year, had over, uh, 353 rebounds, which is over 11 rebounds a game. Average a double-double. Just, you know, great statistical year.

Um, before, before people start Googling your NBA stats, that then Then what happened?

And so I got basically told no again, right? Like that recurring thing, all of the NBA teams were like, well, you're a good athlete and we think that you could play, but you know, you're kind of a tweener, meaning we don't really have a natural position for you here. And so I got some offers to play in Europe and overseas. I was excited about that. And then I decided to come back to the University of Nevada to finish my degree. Where one of the football coaches said, hey man, listen, you need to come out and play football. And that was like the furthest thing away from my mind. Like, I'm like, man, I never played. I didn't even play varsity football in high school. I don't want to play football. And then he kind of hyped me up a little bit, said, listen, man, with all this athletic ability and speed and talent, man, I'm telling you, you should play. Um, so I went out and played, Jim. I was excited because I knew I was going to be a beast, right? So I go out on the field, they give me all my pads and, and all of my pads, my cleats, my helmet, everything. And I go out there and I'm like worst player ever. Like, I'm talking about, uh, it was, it was embarrassing. Uh, it was so bad, a few of my teammates pulled me to the side and said, listen, man, we know you can go get paid to play basketball right now. Like, what are you doing? Yeah, you know. And so I end up playing 12 plays that game— I mean, that season, not 12 games, 12 plays. And it was a great experience. I stuck it out to the end, uh, got my last tackle, uh, the last game of the season. Against Boise State, so I never forget that. And then I went back to focusing on basketball and just, you know, finishing up school. And one day one of my coaches called and said, hey, we have 30 NFL scouts up here asking about you.

Nice, nice.

Like, this got to be a prank call. Like, this can't be real. Like, what are you talking about? Um, they— I go up, I work out, I do this workout, and then my life changed from there. Um, after the workout My phone is ringing off the hook, agents calling, just saying, hey man, you know, we want to represent you, you know, you got a chance to get drafted, and just all of those things. And it's just, my life just changed dramatically.

And the rest, as they say, is history, right? But yeah, let's dial it back because the key word that you said, and this is something we talk about so much, you know, is that idea of transformation. I, so, and I remember you I remember you using that word several times the first time we talked. That's the key, isn't it? You know, when we're talking about leaders born or made, you know, I like to say, well, no, no, no, transformed. You have a much better, a much more positive story than I do. You know my story, I was a two-time dropout and drug addict, right?

Right, right.

But somehow we find these places, right? We find these little places in our life, these little opportunities that any number of people, you could put 10 people in that same position and they would have got back on the bus or 10 people in that position and they would have walked off that football field, right? Just hanging their head. So where did that energy for transformation come? Because in all these steps, and this is one of the things that really impresses me about your story, you know, there's so many people talk about, oh, they had all this talent, experience, skill, whatever. But it seems like every time you put yourself in a situation, you had work to do. Right? You weren't starting from, from the top by any means. So how'd you get that energy for transformation? Where'd all that come from?

I think, I think part of it is, and to say this kind of somewhat reluctantly, but I think part of it is genetic, right? And then the other part of it is experience, right? And so when you have, you, when you're kind of built a certain way, right, you want to win, right? Like, you have this hunger inside of you, you want to win. Even though— even when you don't have a plan, even though when you don't— can't see through the fog, right, you still have this fire, like, you want to win. Um, and I think, um, that was just something naturally that I had. I didn't experience, um, when I was small, um, you know, 6, 7 years old, um, my parents, you know, it was 5 of us, it was 7, 7 of us living in a single Y mobile home, right? And my dad's working at this cotton mill and 5 kids and a wife and, you know, just little money and struggling, right? And one day he walked off of his job with 5 kids and a wife. And the reason why he walked off of his job, he didn't have intentions of walking off his job, but he was up for a promotion and they gave promotion to someone else, which he didn't have a problem with. And then they turned around and asked him to train the person that they gave the promotion.

Don't we hear that story a lot, right?

And then so he's like, okay, I'm not doing this anymore. And so he walked out of that sweatshop and got in his car and he did an amazing thing. He came home. You know, like he didn't just keep driving, right? Like he came home to his wife and his 5 kids. And obviously my mom is like flying off the handle, right? Like, what are you doing? You gotta be crazy. Yeah. And he said, I'm gonna figure it out. And one day he was driving past this building, it was empty, and he had this epiphany. He was like, I could put my business inside this building. Um, no money and no business, right?

So, oh yeah, I hear that. Idea.

He has this idea, so he meets with the guy that owns the building, tell him he wants the building, wants to put his business in there, and then he tells the guy he doesn't have any money. And the guy's like, oh, like, how do you expect to get the building? And so they talked for a while and he kind of, you know, just like, like my dad and he, they connected a little bit and my dad walked away with the keys to the building.

Nice.

And he, he hasn't worked for anyone else since. And so when you have that experience as a young kid and you see like when everything's on the table, right, it's, it's, I got, you know, a man who has a wife and kids and bills and, you know, all these things, and he can do that. If he can do that, surely at 19 I can get on a bus, right, with no wife, no kids, um, and go 2 days. And so that was a perspective for me.

Now I'm glad you brought that up because, you know, too many times I think— and, and we're struggling with this in, in the leadership world right now too, where, uh, there's a controversy about why so many leadership programs fail. And we definitely want to get into, into quirks and what you're doing to help athletes become business leaders. But the thing is, people— too many people look for a formula, right? Look for the formula. And for instance, you know, I'll say, well, no, there's certain leadership traits. Sure, if you adopt more of those traits, that increases your probability of being an effective leader. If you adopt certain strategies, that helps. You know, you acquire certain skills, that helps. But you can't just pick one list and say, okay, I learned that right? I always bring it back to the idea of black belt, right? You can't earn a black belt from a book, you know, right? You have to go out and experience it. So, um, it's the same thing, you know, with what you're saying. You talked about it being somewhat genetic, somewhat, uh, environment. And I think that's, that's the thing, right? To take what we're born with, because none of us can determine that, right? That's, that's luck of the draw. Um, some people are born with a propensity for athleticism. Some people aren't. Some people are born with, with more intelligence than others, and it's just the way it is. The environment is crucial, but it's interesting to me, uh, we had a debate over— I usually use the Kennedy family as an example. I mean, they produced remarkable leaders, but they also produced some, some reprobates too, right? Same, same environment, same upbringing, same basic genetics, but they go different ways, right? So a lot of it And again, this is part of what I admire about you is the choices. And now you're helping a lot of athletes. So I kind of want to shift it a little bit where I promised some people I wanted to put you on the spot about this.

Okay.

So much controversy about athletes today and getting to know some folks that are professional athletes. I see it. The media has a lot to do with this. There's this perception that there's a bigger problem than there is. I strongly believe that. You know, if you look at people on par, you know, sure, there's troubles in pro athletes. There's troubles in society. The percentages shake out about the same. Yet there's this, like I said, there's this perception we're trying to overcome. You're doing something just remarkable where you're making sure that athletes are literally walking the walk. How about that for a little brand slip in there?

Love it. I love it.

But that's exactly what you're doing. I can't think of a better way to say it. Um, you know, where the criticism is, well, there's a lot. And believe me, I'm not judging one way or the other, uh, any of the actions that people are taking. I don't know certain individuals. I don't know why they're doing what they're doing. But there certainly is a perception that, uh, professional athletes— and it's not certainly not limited to football, uh, and of course entertainers the same way— like to talk the talk but seldom do something themselves, right? To roll up their sleeves. But that's what you're doing, and you're helping these guys succeed in business. And the coolest thing I thought about Quirks is also that that theme of social responsibility goes through there. So do you want to talk about that a little more and tell us what you've been up to?

Yeah, yeah. Um, I definitely wanted to kind of address what you were saying about the perception. Yeah, athletes not walking the walk. I think, I think that is a huge misconception. Um, and when you're an athlete, you have so many things tugging at you, so many people needing help, so many people, uh, wanting help, and you have to decipher how much can you help, who do you want to help, why does it make sense. And it's every day, um, it doesn't stop, right? And I don't know if most people can imagine how vigorous that is, like every day, um, people expecting you to be able to help. And then the idea of the scope of what you can do financially as one person, right?

Right.

Um, which is, uh, also like, this is a tough thing, right? Like, you're only one person. You can only do so much financially, um, through, uh, your earnings to be able to help and give back.

It's sad that it gets measured in that term too. I want to make sure people, you know, hear that, that, uh, and it's the same thing. Yes, almost anybody that has some success has, has accumulated some wealth, financial wealth, Right? You're right, get attacked from all angles. I remember just a little taste of that when we had some— well, people thought we had success in the music business. We didn't even have it yet, but people were after us, right?

Yep.

And but there's other ways, right, that people can— that often do contribute. And yes, I think that's— I think you brought up a huge point. There's also this perception, and I guess, you know, I understand, I guess the average guy on the street looking at a ball player, so that guy's making all this money. Well, sure. But put it in perspective for how long, right? How long is your career going to be? How does that go out on par? What are the expenses against it? Because an athlete really is a business, isn't it?

Right.

I mean, you as an athlete, I don't mean to diminish you as a person, but you have to look at it and say, I am— when you were a ballplayer, I am Corey Jackson, football player. That's a business, right?

Yeah. So you're constantly toeing the line of human being, right? Right.

Yeah.

Right? And so everything that you do, for the most part, that's public is going to be scrutinized in some way if it doesn't fit. Like, for instance, like, people will say, oh, Corey doesn't, like, support what we're doing, right? But they— but that may not be my mission, right? Right. That may not be, like, what, like, I'm passionate about supporting. And so you have to look at what I do support and what I am doing and say, well, he's not supporting what we're doing, but I see that he does have a mission and he's supporting these other entities over here to help give back in this way. And I think sometimes if, if you're not directly helping a certain cause, then it becomes like, oh, they don't do anything.

Yeah, well, there's plenty of whining going on, and, you know, that's the flip side of it, right? Um, I can't stand it when people judge that way, and you say, you don't know, you don't know, uh You know, I'm pretty involved with politics, and sometimes people will come at me that way, and I know I accept the risk, right?

Yep. But politics is a really tricky thing, right?

Yes, tell me about it. But then, you know, I have to, you know, I have to look inside myself and say, look, it really doesn't matter. This person doesn't understand me, doesn't know what I do. And I don't like, I don't like to toot my horn a lot about the— there's things I do quietly that I know make a difference, but, um they're not things that I want to broadcast. And I, you know, I hear that from you sometimes. I hear, I hear that from a lot of athletes and successful people, right? Yeah, it's none of their damn business.

I mean, you, you have your cause, um, you do it for the right reasons. Yeah. And so what we did was when I started Quirks, which Quirks is a private app for professional athletes that focus on business and entrepreneurship, um, it's a place where they can share ideas, connect with each other, um, do business, um, as well When I started that, it really was designed around the makeup of the athlete and how we do want to give at scale and be able to give back for a very long time. I think traditionally there's been trouble with athletes being able to continue to do well financially after the game.

Right, mm-hmm.

And I think that has limited the resources of their ability to give back in a way that they want to freely, right? And not just, not just monetarily for his finances, you know, really getting involved in causes that really move them. And so we saw this, and when you look at all of the opportunities and how vast they are when you're an athlete and the things that you can do and create outside of the game and outside of sports itself, It's remarkable. It's remarkable. And that's where we came up with the idea of the Billion Dollar Athlete, right? And what that essentially means is just, there's so many opportunities. There never should be a time where you can't take advantage of that and do really well outside of the sport or the game that you play in order to create jobs, new business, being able to give back at certain causes, whatever it may be, whatever you're doing, right? Because of these resources that are around us, and they're so vast. And so our platform is designed to really scale down those opportunities in a way that athletes can digest them, see them, recognize them, and then take advantage of them and be able to grow their brands, businesses, the things that they're doing at scale so that they can become bigger and stronger and become this economic machine that's able to give back to whatever it is they want to give back to and do it in a way that's free and in a way that is not remorseful. And they don't have to broadcast it across, you know, every platform as well. They can just do what they really care about, what they're really passionate about. And so we've focused on that, and it's been remarkable. The response has been crazy.

Oh, that's amazing. And you hit the nail right on the head with something too, where, uh, you know I think it's easy for most people to associate maybe social responsibility directly with charity, right, or something like that. And, you know, I know, I know we talked about this before where, um, you understand what you went through restarting another business, getting into the speaking business. And I know we shared some similar, uh, experiences there. You had a name established through sports, so that's a little bit different. But, you know, there's these restarts, these challenges, and when you people sometimes don't realize how much it takes, right, to start a business, how much risk is involved. Um, and that when at the end of the day, even if you're not contributing to charity at all, whether it's openly or not, gosh, someone creating even a handful of jobs is such a remarkable contribution, right, to the community. I mean, you're— if you create 5 jobs, you literally change 5 lives.

Absolutely. And they go further than that, even more than that. The lives of those 5 people are taken care of, and whether it's their kids or their, you know, and so that, that just, you know, trickles down so much. And so, you know, the grand scheme of Quirks is the idea of being able to help these guys be able to, you know, expand and do great things. And, and knowing that that's going to trickle down in so many different ways and it's going to help so many different people And then also it's gonna change the idea, and I call it the idea, that athletes don't do well after sports. There are so many athletes that are doing phenomenal things and doing extremely well in business and entrepreneurship that you don't get to see. And it's amazing how that perception has preceded the game. And so we're on a quest to change that as well. We want people to know that guys are doing well. Yeah, yeah. There are guys who struggle, and I think that that's what a lot of times is appealing to people, right, to report on or share the struggles of someone losing millions of dollars.

No, it's the price of visibility, isn't it? I mean, really, I mean, you know, it happens at every organization you go to. There's going to be people that fail, but it's invisible, right? But you guys are in the spotlight. So yes, it makes, you know, it makes it interesting, kind of sickly interesting to the rest of us sometimes. You know, you say, oh yeah, that guy had everything. Apparently not, right?

Yeah, it's amazing because I mean, I tell people all the time, like, I mean, you say, Nick, guys like me, I never made millions of dollars, right? Um, but I'm going—

I heard— I hear you.

Yeah, who you been talking to?

No, that's a misconception too. Like I said, so many people think, again, you look at the visibility, the marquee players, right? It's like any other business, isn't it? There's a, there's a top 10% that makes a ton of the money, and that's fine. That is what it is. But there's a lot of guys that are just hardworking people that translated their discipline, their skill into some revenue. But I think the other thing— and NFL is such a short career too, right, for most guys.

But I think the other thing too, Jim, is there's not a lot of focus on like those guys who didn't make millions of dollars, but they're doing even better now than they did when they were playing, right? It's like, wow, like how— like you had this experience and you didn't hit like the top tier, you didn't become a Hall of Famer, you didn't become a Pro Bowler, but you're doing better now outside of the game than you did when you were playing. How did that happen, right?

Maximize those resources, right?

Yeah, like what? Yeah. And so it's a, it's a real system and a process that allows that to happen. Um, you know, I tell people all the time, as an athlete, you know, and I can just speak from my point of view from an NFL athlete, you get to do what I call cut the line, right? And I'm not talking about like at the nightclub, right? Like you get to go to the front of the line. I'm talking about like I can go meet with some of the greatest business minds that exist in America, right? But because of the fact that I played in the NFL, and so I can take a meeting with so many different people who don't want anything from me, don't need anything from me, and have a wealth of knowledge that they're willing to share with And that's a great test because then what really rises to the top is the idea, right?

If the idea doesn't have merit, these guys aren't going to be interested.

Yeah, absolutely. And so you had this thing where you can get a meeting with anyone at least once, right? And so you have to come with real substance, right? You have to come with, uh, great substance and understanding of your business and your industry and the things you want to do, and they'll take you seriously. Um, and so that's the idea. Um, but like I said, we're building around athletes for the long term. Like, a lot of, uh, firms and people that service athletes think short term because they're like, okay, well, when they're no longer making this type of money, then they may not be, uh, valuable to us anymore. And we're saying, well, we're betting on the long game because if we can help these guys create these sustainable processes in their business and entrepreneurship, then they can produce for years and years and years and years. And if I leave the game at 30 or 28, I have another 40 years, right?

Yeah, right.

Great life of like producing. Um, and so that's what we bet on. We're betting on that. Um, and, and that's why we exist.

Now there's a fan connection too, right, according to your website? Is it— is it— was this to educate the fans as to what's going on, or is there some sort of interaction? Um, I'm sure people would be interested in that.

Yeah, yeah. And so, um, just to kind of break that down a little bit, um, we started off with the fan connection to be able to give the fans a bird's-eye view of what these athletes are creating and producing, because they will be amazed to see, uh, some of the things that guys are doing creatively. Um, and so, but we're transitioning out of that space because the athletes want more of a privacy around these things because everything that they do is so public and so open, right? And so, um, we're transitioning out of that fan piece and Going into 2018, we'll be completely out of that and it will be just 100% just athlete-focused and the fan piece won't exist anymore. But we'll be doing some things from a media standpoint to inform fans and being able to share with them some of the things that athletes are doing that will definitely get them excited.

How do entrepreneurs connect, you know, already established entrepreneurs that are outside of athletics? Is there a mechanism for them to connect with the athletes? Because it sounds to me like there'd be some powerful partnerships that available through that.

Yeah, absolutely. So our platform is designed to do that, right? It's designed to connect the, um, these companies or businesses outside with athletes in regards to, um, great partnerships and things that resonates with what the athletes are doing. Um, and so that's what we do throughout technology. And so the idea is to be able to make sure that athletes are being able to share all the things they're working on as well as their interests. And we— our system learns as much about those things as possible and then connect them to the pieces that give them the best advantage or give them opportunity to have the best deals in front of them.

That sounds so exciting. You know, I'm glad, I'm glad we visited today because— and we, we have to do this more often. I know when you said how long has it been since we talked, it seems, seems like not long ago, but that's because I've been pounded in the head a few times too.

You know, time moves fast enough.

Yeah.

The helmet deal either. So I think we both may have, uh, yeah, had little bumps there.

Well, I didn't wear a helmet when I was boxing.

Well, you can't see— the problem is you can't punch with your head, man. You shouldn't do that.

Yeah, I wish, I wish someone told me that earlier, you know. Anyway, but, uh, yeah, let's, uh, let's make sure people understand how to get in touch with you. And, and, you know, you need to People need to know too, Corey's one of the best speakers out there. So if you want him to come to your conference and talk about, you know, there's a number of things he can talk about, but just his life experience I think is really, really valuable to help people understand that idea of transformation and to, you know, interact with a living example of that. So let's talk about how people can get in touch with you and how they can get in touch with Quirks.

Yeah, absolutely. So if you're a professional athlete, you can download the Quirks app. It's on iOS and Android. Um, and what will happen, because it's a private app, once you download it, um, we will get a notification and then we will vet the situation to make sure that you are who you say you are before we accept you onto the platform. Um, but once you do that, you'll be into the community and then you can be able to communicate with all the other athletes and share all the things you're doing as well.

Um, is that available for minor league athletes too? Is it any professional athlete?

Yeah, and so right now on our platform directly, we have, you know, the major sports. We have the NFL, NBA, but we will probably look at other professional athletes as well as we continue to grow and decide kind of how we want to work with them moving forward. And then for those of you that want to connect with us from a speaking standpoint, you can just email me directly. Bookcoryj@gmail.com, and we'll be happy to take your email and come out and speak at your company or organization.

Well, we've got to have you back sooner rather than later this time.

Absolutely, absolutely. Now, it's always a pleasure speaking with you. I love what you're doing. I love the mindset, the Black Belt mindset. You know, it's a bunch of synergy between us, so I love that idea. So, so definitely keep it up.

All right, we'll talk, Corey. We'll talk again soon. And thanks for being with us.

Absolutely, Jim. Thank you.

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Jim Bouchard is in high demand presenting keynotes and workshops for conference, corporate, and community audiences all over the world. To book Jim for your next event, meeting, or retreat, visit thatblackbeltguy.com or call Alexandra Armstrong at 207-751-4317.