In this motivational monologue delivered on June 1, 2022, the speaker—part of a US team traveling to Cincinnati—shares a brief story that illustrates the power of small, intentional acts of kindness. While the team’s staff (assistant coaches, analytics, scouting, and video personnel) travel together in a minivan to daily training sessions, they repeatedly encounter a homeless man at a city corner. After a brief exchange, they decide to give him a to‑go breakfast box from their hotel, adding water bottles the next day and noting his gratitude. The gesture not only brightens the man’s day but also profoundly lifts the team’s morale, reinforcing the speaker’s message that simple, contagious acts of decency are a “moment of yes” that can spread positivity throughout a day. He encourages listeners to look for similar opportunities to extend kindness to others.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here is your moment of yes for Wednesday, June 1st. It is June 1st, another new month, another new opportunity to live your yes, to live your purpose. We are here in Cincinnati for one more day. We've got our game tonight, travel to Kansas City tomorrow. Looking forward to a new environment, hotel mainly, but looking forward to that. So your moment of yes for today. So when we are in a city, We go to training every day, right? So we go to a training complex. And so to get there, the players all go over on the bus, and then all the staff and the coaches go early. And we take, you know, minivans to get there and to get set up. And so there's typically 5 or 6 of us in a minivan, and we tend to be in the same minivan each time. So in my group, I've got, you know, one of the assistant coaches, actually 2 of the assistant coaches, one of our analytics guy, an advanced scout, video guy, me. So we always tend to be kind of in the same van, kind of our crew. And as we were going through Cincinnati on this trip, like the first day, we were at the stoplight in the city, and there was a homeless guy there with a sign, and he said, even if you can't give anything, if you could just kind of like, you know, wish me a great day. So, you know, we didn't have any money or anything, so we wished him a great day. He said, hey guys, you know, what are you in town for? We're, you know, with the US team. He's like, oh, well, good luck. So Second day we saw him, he's standing there, same corner, and we talked to him again. And so as we left, we're like, hey, I wonder if we're gonna run into him every day. And so we came up with the idea of putting together a to-go breakfast box for him in case we ran into him the next day, which we did. And we put the window down, we gave him this nice breakfast box from the hotel, and he was super grateful. And everybody in the car, there was like this sense of like, oh wow, that was great, that was awesome. One coach in particular, a new guy, he's like, man, that just like, that totally made my day. And so the next day we're like, hey, let's amp it up a little bit more, right? So we gave him a to-go bag with his breakfast in there and a couple extra water bottles. And sure enough, hit him up yesterday and said, hey, this is the last time we're gonna see you. I just wanted to wish you well. And he's like, hey, God bless. And so what was cool again, we talk about it here, is having an impact. is really simple and it's contagious and it's powerful, right? The impact it, you know, the impact it had on him was great, right? The impact it had on sort of each of us was powerful as well. And again, it's contagious, right? All of us kind of felt, you know, felt that energy and just— you're reminded of just how simple it is to get outside of yourself, to Think about someone else and just do a simple, simple act of kindness, simple act of decency, simple act of humanity. And so that's your moment of yes for today. Hey, there's going to be your guy on the corner, or there's going to be so-and-so who's having a bad day, or there's— that opportunity will come across your path today. And let's see what we can do. Let's see what we can do to spread that yes to someone else. Have an awesome day, everybody. That's your moment of yes.
