Steve Mesler

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: It's Calgary's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Bonnie LG coming to you today with Edmonton's podcast, a member of the Canada's
[00:11] SPEAKER_02: podcast network where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in the city
[00:16] SPEAKER_02: of Edmonton, Alberta.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: So welcome to the show, Stephen, thanks for joining us today.
[00:22] SPEAKER_00: Thanks, my friend.
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: Love me.
[00:24] SPEAKER_02: Okay, well let's jump right in and why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about
[00:30] SPEAKER_02: how you've got started as a social entrepreneur and your journey that's kind of taken you to
[00:35] SPEAKER_02: where you are today.
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my journey of being a social entrepreneur wasn't intended to be that.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't something that I thought I'd be doing.
[00:48] SPEAKER_00: My journey was, I was an athlete.
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: I was a Bob Sutter, which meant that my journey was usually like running for five seconds
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: and sitting for a minute, wearing tights with three other dudes.
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: That was my journey.
[01:00] SPEAKER_00: And right at the end of my Bob Sutter career, my sister and I, I was living this life for
[01:04] SPEAKER_00: the 10-year-old kid and that sort of just dreamt about it and what I thought was amazing.
[01:08] SPEAKER_00: And we wanted to do something about it and I realized that going to the 2010 Olympics
[01:12] SPEAKER_00: was probably my last chance to have a kind of voice as an athlete and have that kind
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: of influence on kids or what I thought would be my last chance.
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: And we wanted to just do something with it.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: Our parents were teachers.
[01:24] SPEAKER_00: She was getting her PhD in education and had been a teacher.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: Part of my degree was in education.
[01:29] SPEAKER_00: And we just thought that we could do something more impactful than the school visits that,
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: you know, I would do that.
[01:34] SPEAKER_00: Anybody would do that would be, you know, that dinner didn't make a difference.
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: Or we would walk away and say, if one of the kids listened, it's worth my time.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: So it really started off from just wanting to solve a problem that we saw.
[01:48] SPEAKER_00: We wanted kids to see there.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: It was more than just two and a half weeks in glory on television.
[01:52] SPEAKER_00: I wanted to talk to kids in schools about more than just health and fitness.
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: And I saw an opportunity to share my journey and the technology was there.
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: And I was a, I was a tech geek in class and champions is rooted in scale mentorship,
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: which is, which is virtual and being able to solve some big problems from,
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: from not being able to have enough role models in communities to helping teachers talk about things.
[02:16] SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, my path started not from wanting to be an entrepreneur,
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: but rather just wanting to do something that would make a difference right at the end of my, my sport career.
[02:25] SPEAKER_02: So, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit more about costume champions?
[02:29] SPEAKER_02: And what the organization is about?
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: Let's see, I guess, before I jump too far into Dom Met Road, I should mention that.
[02:34] SPEAKER_00: So, class of champions is an international education and mentorship organization
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: that works across the US and Canada.
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: And we partner athletes and elite athletes, whether they be Olympians or
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: Paralympians or NCAA athletes or pro athletes, with schools and classrooms for
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: a year long mentorship and curriculum and content.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: So, we also provide what's called social emotional learning, SEL in the schools,
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: which is a new way for schools to look at how they're addressing soft skills,
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: basically goal setting, ability, perseverance, empathy, self-regulation,
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: which are really the key factors for kids to succeed in school and costume champion support schools
[03:19] SPEAKER_00: in 34 states and every province and territory to do that.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: And this year alone, we'll reach over 10 million kids.
[03:26] SPEAKER_02: Wow. That's amazing, actually.
[03:30] SPEAKER_02: And I know that you are an North American organization, but you're headquartered in Calgary.
[03:36] SPEAKER_02: And our podcast is really about what it's like to do business in Calgary.
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: So, can you tell us a little bit about why you ended up setting up your headquarter in Calgary?
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we, it's a good, I mean, Calgary's home, Calgary's, being an American,
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: I've been in Calgary now for the Butter Part of 17 years.
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: My wife is from Strathmore and are the registered charity.
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: The organization is a non-profit and a registered charity in Canada,
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: 501C3 in the US. We just operate together, which is a whole another set of circumstances when
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: you're talking about trying to build a business. But, you know, being Calgary for us proves,
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: proves advantageous in a few different ways. One is that with the dollar exchange right now,
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: most of our income or majority of our income is coming in in US dollars,
[04:26] SPEAKER_00: but we're spending a lot of it on staff that are supporting your, your organization.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: So, in Canadian dollars, so there's a dollar exchange advantage that we have
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: from a personnel standpoint, having, you know, having healthcare provided here. So, that's more
[04:41] SPEAKER_00: of a Canadian advantage than an Alberta advantage. But also being here, we're also talking about it.
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: Tom is, you know, not only philanthropic but entrepreneurial. So, as we're trying to grow an
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: organization from, that's really bringing a concept of scaled mentorship from 0 to 1.
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: There is nobody who does something that does the things that we do that's changing the way that
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: people who are doing big things interact with schools in the way that an organization kind of
[05:06] SPEAKER_00: can get behind that and support teachers in schools to implement those things that actually make,
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: you know, measure differences in schools, whether it be attendance or behavior. You know, Alberta has this
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: this entrepreneurial spirit to it that there are so many people around here who either want to help
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: in the communities in Calgary or Alberta and Western Canada. And they work with us to do that,
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: whether that be in, you know, North of Fort St. John or, you know, or, you know, right here in
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: Northeast Calgary. But also, I have no lack of mentors for myself of people who have started
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: businesses from 0 to 1. So, those are, you know, those are a few things that, you know, I look at of
[05:45] SPEAKER_02: why we've decided to plan our routes here. And speaking of mentors, is there a piece of advice
[05:51] SPEAKER_02: that you've received over the years that's really stuck with you or maybe some coaching that's
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: really how to use you've you've set up and run classroom champions? Yeah, I mean, yes, you know,
[06:05] SPEAKER_00: I've gotten some of the classic advice from, you know, one of our largest sponsors, you know,
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: somebody who built, built a company from 0 to 200,000s of barrels a day, you know, who early on in
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: our building of staff, you know, gave what is now like to me, classic advice of, you know,
[06:24] SPEAKER_00: higher smart people and put them around you. I like, I do and don't subscribe to those theories.
[06:30] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I also think that, you know, it's okay to, it's okay to know what you're talking about.
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: It's okay to, you know, it's also okay as a leader to know what you're doing and not just have
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: to subbrone yourself by smart people, which was, you know, also advice that I've gotten from a mentor
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: that I have now, which is, you know, given, would give, give leaders a little bit more permission as
[06:52] SPEAKER_00: well to not kind of just say, oh, you know, I don't do anything, I don't know anything. I just
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: surround myself with smart people and, and they get it done and you hear that a lot. And I think
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: it's also actually pre-self defeating and, you know, a mentor of mine from Odys to Gain and
[07:06] SPEAKER_00: John Barardi, who started and, you know, recently, you know, started precision nutrition and
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: was one of our nutritionists back in the day. He's got a great new book out called Changemakers,
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: or Changemaker Academy. He, you know, he's really been somebody who, you know, when you're an entrepreneur
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: and you're going through ups and downs and you go through whether the mental health struggles or
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: whether you're going through, you know, people challenges, it's really nice to have some people
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: around you who have been there before, who have had those problems and had those challenges and
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: had to figure it out so you don't have to necessarily read the wheel every time.
[07:40] SPEAKER_02: Right, right. And I'm curious, what have you taken from your, your history as an knowledge as
[07:47] SPEAKER_02: a professional athlete into what you're doing now as an entrepreneur? Like, what have you been
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: able to bring forward from that time in life? You know what I'm saying, Miss, there are plenty of
[08:00] SPEAKER_00: parallels in sport. You know, you see athletes going to talk to business leaders all the time,
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: I think there are a lot of parallels in sport and there are a lot of things that just straight
[08:08] SPEAKER_00: don't work. Some of the things that do work for me are like, we, you know, we used to look at,
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: in the wind tunnel, we would look at, you know, one inch differences or half an inch differences
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: in where our shoulders are positioned for drag and what that would mean for us going down the hill,
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: doing 150 kilometers an hour and you know, talking about Whistler, where we want our golden
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: metal, the fastest track in the world, and you're hitting 100 kilometers an hour back to her too.
[08:33] SPEAKER_00: So there's a little differences. So finding ways to really pay attention to the details and, you know,
[08:41] SPEAKER_00: whether you're a leader or whether you are, you know, on the ground floor and getting the work done
[08:46] SPEAKER_00: is paying attention to those details is really important. And that's something that from sport,
[08:51] SPEAKER_00: like was content like I would wake up and having an extra egg or two, meant an extra six or 12
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: grams of protein, which helped me recover that much more, which helped me, you know, finish the one
[09:00] SPEAKER_00: more rep. And it's really hard when you're an athlete, when your goal is four years away.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, as a business leader, if you're building a business, you have to, you know, you have to have
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: patience, you have to, you can't just look tomorrow in the next day. You do have to address problems.
[09:14] SPEAKER_00: If you're hurt, you have to address the problems. If your business is about to go under, you have to
[09:18] SPEAKER_00: address that, that today problem. But hopefully you're not living in that space. So you're actually
[09:24] SPEAKER_00: able to plan out for us, so they call it quads. So four years out. So as a business leader, thinking
[09:29] SPEAKER_00: being able to think five and injury today, understanding that I have to address it, but also
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: understanding that there's a bigger context that I can't address it by doing something that's
[09:38] SPEAKER_00: kind of hurt me four years down the road. You know, on the flip side, you know, I think empathy
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: and sport is maybe not necessarily an athlete's specialty or strong suit, but when you get in
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: the working world and you're trying to motivate people who maybe aren't all on the same wavelength,
[09:56] SPEAKER_00: you know, you as a business owner, you as an entrepreneur, no one cares more about your business than you.
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: When you're on a bopsal team of four people, all four of you care equally about winning that gold
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: no. And, you know, to expect the people around you to rise up to that level of caring in your own
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: business, may or may not be realistic. So I think you have to have more empathy for that. You
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: have to be able to work with people and find ways for them to balance their lives a little bit.
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: You want them to enjoy it. You want them to work hard, but you also have to expect that maybe they
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: won't, you know, hit some work at seven o'clock in the Saturday night. Right, right, right. And so
[10:38] SPEAKER_02: what advice would you give to somebody who's maybe thinking, you know, I really would like to do
[10:43] SPEAKER_02: something meaningful with with my life, but I do have this entrepreneurial spirit and and
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: interested in doing something similar to you where you found a blend to do both. Is there any advice
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: that you could pass along? I mean, get after it. Like, I mean, I, you know, I left consulting. I was,
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: you know, had a great job consulting after I was Bob's wedding. And, you know, my day rate was,
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: was what my monthly stipend used to be as an athlete. It was fantastic. And I just woke up one day
[11:14] SPEAKER_00: and realized that's not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I, you know, I was in the
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: unique situation where at 31 years old, you know, the summer after we won our gold medal is sitting
[11:24] SPEAKER_00: back in Buffalo with some of my friends that grew up with. And one of the guys turned me in, said,
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: you know, what's it feel like to, to, you know, write the first line of your obituary at age 31.
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: And that'll wake you up when you realize that the best thing you've ever done and might be behind
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: you at 31 years old. Hopefully a third of the way into my life. And I just thought, you know,
[11:44] SPEAKER_00: that's not going to be me. I don't want that to me. So that's been a big motivator for me personally.
[11:48] SPEAKER_00: As fine the motivation, you know, for me, it was, I want to do something that would be so impactful that
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: a gold medal would be second or third on my, you know, in my obituary in my life. And I wanted
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: that for myself. I wanted that for a time, my future family. And now my, you know, my little girl,
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: I wanted to see that you can do something really, really big in one area. And then you can leave
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: that area. You can go do something really, really big in another area. So I say to people that,
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: like, if you feel like you've accomplished some things that you want and you're ready for a change,
[12:19] SPEAKER_00: there are ways that you can do that. If you don't feel like you're in a position to accomplish
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: something that you, the things that you want in life, I've, you know, never been happier and I've
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: never felt more challenged. Most athletes leave their sporting career thinking that they're never
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: going to have something that is that, that they're that passionate about. And it causes depression,
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: causes malaise for much of their life or causes anger. And for me, I was able to have something
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: that was, I would never, it would not trade that 10-year period of my 20s disappearing going down
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: Bob's Lattrac traveling the world and doing something that, you know, I never thought I could
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: actually do. So then now having the opportunity to work with, you know, Olympians and Paralympians
[13:01] SPEAKER_00: and NFL players and NHL players and Insta-Blystune athletes and and have them teach millions of
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: kids how they've done it. So there's a, you know, a longer-winded way of saying to people that,
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: you're not too far down a path to not to make a change and go out and start your own thing and we
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: are, we do live in a place where that's possible. And what are the parallels do you think between
[13:26] SPEAKER_02: running a not-for-profit and like say more of a traditional business? You must see a lot of
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: assimilarities? There is, it's the same. I mean, I think I have this conversation quite often where
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: not-for-profit simply has two bottom lines. A for-profit has one bottom line, a bottom line.
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: A for-profit or a non-profit has two bottom lines and those, the first bottom line,
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: bottom line one and bottom line one B are money. You have to have the money to do it and you have
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: to have the impact. You have to make the impact because if you're not making the impact, you can't
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: raise the resources to then be able to go make the impact. So it is this circular, you know, or back
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: and forth line that goes between making impact, creating impact and value for people, whatever part
[14:17] SPEAKER_00: of society you're working in and actually having the money to go do it. So I think that, you know,
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: the CRA, the King government has started to really open their eyes on that one. The overhead myth
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: within the nonprofit sector is starting to go away. I was shocked when I first got into the
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: nonprofit world about the concept of overhead and we look at class and champions to run lean and
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: we look to be efficient with our resources, but I also don't want that to drive our business
[14:47] SPEAKER_00: case and I don't want that to drive our impact because I think we're better off and I think our
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: kids are better off in our organization being in a place where, you know, this organization is
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: investing in itself to reach more kids, to get out there more, to be able to track more people
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: to be a part of what we're doing. So I think that in the nonprofit space where I've really been
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: trying to push people is, is we have to invest in a business and entrepreneurs know that and I think
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: the CRA is getting on board with that and I think society is getting on board with more and more of
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: that where we have to operate in the space more like a business and invest in it.
[15:31] SPEAKER_02: And so what is your vision for classroom champions? Where do you hope to take the organization
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: over the next few years? We are just in the process ourselves of expanding and pivoting in a way
[15:44] SPEAKER_00: the way that we do it. We've been a donor and fundraiser and sponsor based organization for
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: the better part of a decade now. We've seen a wonderful opportunity, especially in the US market,
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: to to enter the market in a way that allows us to to sell curriculum and provide curriculum to
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: schools that are now paying for it. You're seeing when we started 10 years ago in the US there was
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: one state that had legislation, you know, legislating and mandating social emotional learning,
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: SCL in schools. In the US now you've got 17 states that do that and other 15 that operate like that
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: and there's legislation for dollars so we're investing in a new police just invested this year
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: in a new platform that we're going to be able to automate a lot of what we do and the relationships
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: that we connect athletes who are currently competing to kids and the content that we create.
[16:36] SPEAKER_00: So where I see us going now is, you know, first in the US and then doing the same thing in Canada
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: offering really for us the barrier. We've had a wait list of schools and teachers for years. We've
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: had a wait list of athletes in all kinds of genre of sport who are waiting to do something like this
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: because what we do is we provide them a way to connect and make a difference with kids that's
[16:56] SPEAKER_00: measurable while not interrupting training and they can do it from over there in the world.
[17:02] SPEAKER_00: So for class and champions we're going to be the place where athletes come to make a difference
[17:06] SPEAKER_00: or you'll be the place where schools come to actually, you know, work with us to get curriculum
[17:12] SPEAKER_00: into their schools that's going to help them change the culture and the fabric of what they're doing.
[17:17] SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm so excited about. I mean, organizations that are doing this, you know, well,
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: are 30 to 40 million dollar a year non-profits that are getting content into millions of,
[17:30] SPEAKER_00: you know, millions of kids' hands. We're creating partnerships with the Canadian Olympic Committee
[17:36] SPEAKER_00: and Canadian Paralympic Committee to do that in Canada. We have a big announcement coming up with
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: them in the next November 15th or 14th and an amazing ambassador, Canadian, you know, Canadian
[17:46] SPEAKER_00: and athlete ambassadors can be a part of that. In the US we're announcing a partnership in January
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: with a major media outlet and a major education platform that's going to get our content
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: from a 10 million kids. So I'm excited for the opportunities those things are building and,
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: you know, within the entrepreneurship world partnerships and doing things across a space
[18:07] SPEAKER_00: are really important, especially in today's world where people can get so many things so easily
[18:11] SPEAKER_00: if you can serve everybody in that way. But also, in the non-profit sphere, you know, when somebody
[18:19] SPEAKER_00: can come to us and donate to us and they can both impact First Nations youth, you know, in the
[18:26] SPEAKER_00: city of Calgary while at the same time impacting kids in Camden, New Jersey across the river from
[18:32] SPEAKER_00: Philadelphia or, you know, Yellowknife and we can be a place that they can do that. I'm really
[18:38] SPEAKER_02: proud of what our team has built. Yeah, we have a lot to be excited about these days and
[18:44] SPEAKER_02: that's one. Awesome. Well, we're going to switch gears a bit and I'd like to just ask you a few
[18:49] SPEAKER_02: personal questions that help our listeners get to know you a little bit better. Let's do it.
[18:54] SPEAKER_02: First one is circling back to Calgary. Do you have a favorite spot here in the city that you like to
[18:59] SPEAKER_02: go when you just need to like maybe be stressed a bit or recharge your creative batteries? Where do you
[19:05] SPEAKER_00: like to hang out? Yeah, I mean, you know, I've got a two-year-old daughter right now. So for me,
[19:16] SPEAKER_00: it is like it's going to the zoo with her. It's going to the park with her because when I can sit
[19:22] SPEAKER_00: back and watch those of you who have kids or have friends with kids and the energy a two-two-and-a-half-year-old
[19:27] SPEAKER_00: brings can't help you realize that everything's going to be okay. So, you know, I've gotten to the
[19:33] SPEAKER_00: zoo lately which doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it, you know, is what, you know, those favorite
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: things used to be five years ago but for now that's my favorite place to go. Well, and Calgary has
[19:43] SPEAKER_02: an awesome zoo. It's with pandas, so it's awesome. So tell me, you weren't doing what you do now for
[19:52] SPEAKER_02: work. What do you think you would be doing? I'd be coaching. Yeah, I'd be coaching whether it'd be
[20:02] SPEAKER_02: and can you tell us about a favorite book that you're reading or one that you would recommend to
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: our listeners? Yes, I'm trying to think what did I read recently.
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: Just read and ask by Ryan Lovesk. It's a really great, from an entrepreneurial standpoint. It's a great
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: book for the audience right now. It talks about sales and talks about funnels and it talks about
[20:30] SPEAKER_00: audience and how to take advantage of a digital world. I really enjoyed that.
[20:36] SPEAKER_00: Art of Racing in the Rain is one of my favorites. You know, I read it a little bit. I read it
[20:41] SPEAKER_00: before the movie came out and then just read it. I think that's a great, just like a separate
[20:46] SPEAKER_00: like a separate book, a fiction book that's, you know, out of work. I think, and I've also,
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: I've got into listening to books a lot lately too. So I am a slow reader. That was always like a big
[20:56] SPEAKER_00: barrier for me for reading a lot. I'm just slow reader. Like my wife can read three times bad.
[21:01] SPEAKER_00: We're looking at a computer screen. She is through the computer screen before I'm a third
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: of the way through the page. And that's what you get for marrying an academic. But for me,
[21:12] SPEAKER_00: now I can listen and, you know, I'm tearing through books that you're going to have time speed now.
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: So I get through another really great one is Ranged by David Epstein. That is probably my current
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: favorite book right now. I've read it or listened to it two and a half times at this point. I get
[21:29] SPEAKER_00: into how the concept is how generalists will try and find a specialized world where the whole
[21:35] SPEAKER_00: world is getting more and more specialized. You have to be, you have to be in such a small sliver
[21:39] SPEAKER_00: to be successful. And it talks about how much, you know, how much more successful people are with
[21:44] SPEAKER_02: a broader range of skills. And what about podcasts? Do you have any that you are kind of your go-toes?
[21:51] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Masters of Scale. With Reed Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn,
[21:58] SPEAKER_00: Masters of Scale, that's my go-to for the last couple of years now, you know, trying to grow,
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: trying to grow an organization. I mean, in the early days, he's got Zuckerberg on there. He's got
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: re-hastings from Netflix on there. And he's, you know, going through some really amazing people
[22:16] SPEAKER_00: who have built some crazy, some crazy things with maybe products or others. So yeah.
[22:24] SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure being an athlete, you would have had a routine. But do you have like some non-negotiables,
[22:30] SPEAKER_02: either in the morning or at night before you kind of idea for the day that are what you need to do
[22:36] SPEAKER_00: to really keep your right mindset? I don't have anything that I would call non-negotiable.
[22:43] SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in those. I believe if you have non-negotiables, you set yourself up for failure
[22:49] SPEAKER_00: because like circumstances are going to change and you're going to get knocked off your game. And if
[22:54] SPEAKER_00: you all of a sudden have a non-negotiable and you can't do it that morning because life happened,
[22:59] SPEAKER_00: you know, you can't let it throw you, you can't let somebody out throw you off your game. For as an
[23:03] SPEAKER_00: athlete, I learned that a long time ago. I mean, the Olympic race started at one o'clock. It didn't
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: matter what happened from 7 a.m. until 1. The race was going at one. If I had a non-negotiable,
[23:15] SPEAKER_00: well, no, I've got to do this, this, and this until we race. I mean, that's not up to me. So I have
[23:23] SPEAKER_00: things I love to do. I like to do. I like to wake up early, go downstairs, you know, press some coffee.
[23:29] SPEAKER_00: I'm a big like, I'm a coffee snob now at this point. Our office is in Bo Valley Square,
[23:35] SPEAKER_00: things to Oxford. And we're, you know, we got monogram over here. We've got analog over here.
[23:39] SPEAKER_00: We've got, you know, develop over here. But in the morning, I like to, you know,
[23:43] SPEAKER_00: go through the like ritual of, you know, grinding the beans, get in a coffee, going, have some
[23:48] SPEAKER_00: greens, sit in my computer for 30 to 45 minutes and get some work done between like five or five
[23:53] SPEAKER_00: or 45 men, go downstairs at the gym and work out for an hour. And then, and then get going at my day.
[23:59] SPEAKER_00: So that's my preference is to be able to do something like that in the morning.
[24:04] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. And what's your favorite place in the world to visit? Do you have like a favorite vacation spot
[24:09] SPEAKER_00: or? Yeah, Munich, Munich, Germany. I learned to speak German when I was a Bob's letter. When you're
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: locked up in hotel rooms for five months with the guys on tour, like, and half that time is spent
[24:22] SPEAKER_00: in German speaking countries, I like the concept of being able to like just walk out and go get coffee.
[24:26] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we spent two weeks in Munich before in between the first half and second half of
[24:31] SPEAKER_00: season during the Olympic year going in a Vancouver. And like, you know, many times my life had been
[24:36] SPEAKER_00: happier than happier than that and gone back with my wife and, and just love like my favorite
[24:42] SPEAKER_00: little restaurant, Antics or Omdam, which is a block and a half off, Marien Pots, which is this
[24:46] SPEAKER_00: big square in the middle of Munich. And it's just my favorite restaurant in the world. This German
[24:51] SPEAKER_00: style, dramatic style, low ceilings across from the church. How do you place?
[24:56] SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a place to put on the the must-see list. Oh, it's, you know, if we, as
[25:03] SPEAKER_00: Closetchapiens grows and one of our goals is to be global and the system that we have in the way
[25:08] SPEAKER_00: that we interact with athletes, you know, we presented to the International Olympic Committee in
[25:12] SPEAKER_00: Luzon and we solve problems for whether they be professional teams like one of our partners
[25:17] SPEAKER_00: with the Buffalo Bills or whether they be for Olympic committees, you know, like Team Canada or
[25:22] SPEAKER_00: in the US. You know, we solve, we solve the problem of engaging currently competing people, whether
[25:27] SPEAKER_00: they be Olympians or other athletes. And, you know, to me, a big responsibility to that is
[25:33] SPEAKER_00: making sure that we grow this thing so that more kids across the country or kids across the
[25:40] SPEAKER_00: world get access to the knowledge that these people have to be successful. And we're not teaching
[25:46] SPEAKER_00: kids sport, we're not teaching kids on a Bob's Lead, but being able to give them access to what
[25:50] SPEAKER_00: it means to achieve a goal, what it means to persevere doing it in a demonstrable way. So hopefully,
[25:55] SPEAKER_00: one day, we can set up an office in Munich and we can spend a few years over there doing that.
[26:02] SPEAKER_02: Well, before we wrap up, I have a hypothetical question that we ask all of our guests in every city
[26:08] SPEAKER_02: that we have a podcast. So I want you to imagine that there is this small beautiful tropical island
[26:16] SPEAKER_02: pretty much in the middle of nowhere. And we are going to drop you off there. And there is no
[26:21] SPEAKER_02: technology. You can't bring your iPhone or anything like that. But when you're ready to leave,
[26:29] SPEAKER_02: you can just, there is one pay phone and you can give us a call, we'll come pick you up.
[26:33] SPEAKER_02: So curious to know how long you think you would last and what you would do while you're there.
[26:39] SPEAKER_00: Is there food here? Yeah, you can assume that the basics are taking food or Uber eats or pizza,
[26:46] SPEAKER_02: like what are you talking about? There's no Uber eats, but there'll be some healthy tropical food for you.
[26:51] SPEAKER_00: I can last forever there. Yeah, I mean, do I have, is my, is my family with me?
[27:00] SPEAKER_02: Well, no. Myself.
[27:02] SPEAKER_00: You're by yourself. Oh, so I have to leave a little curly haired girl. Yes. Oh, back. I mean,
[27:10] SPEAKER_00: I would last as long as I think that it wouldn't like developmentally delay.
[27:15] SPEAKER_00: Which I mean, she may be better off without me there. So who knows?
[27:19] SPEAKER_00: If I, if you know, I think if there was no family there, I could last. I could, you know,
[27:25] SPEAKER_00: I could go as long as I need to. I feel like I, like, I'm very content with the things I've accomplished in life and I'm very
[27:35] SPEAKER_00: full and fulfilled by those things. So I, I don't necessarily look at my life, I think I need to accomplish more.
[27:42] SPEAKER_00: I look at my life, thinking I want to accomplish more. I would have been perfectly happy with, to bring you back
[27:47] SPEAKER_00: at the beginning. I would have been perfectly happy with the first line of my obituary to be
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: one of Olympic gold medal and was the best in the world at something. That would have been great. I just,
[27:55] SPEAKER_00: you know, that would have been fine, but I wanted more and I want more. So, you know, I think
[28:01] SPEAKER_00: it's called a month. A month, I think, you know, Brett would probably be, you know, happy enough to see
[28:07] SPEAKER_02: me by the time I get home at that point. Yeah. And you know what? That's a lot longer than most of the
[28:12] SPEAKER_02: people we ask. So that's great. Well, not for a survivor. So before we go, Steve, do you
[28:20] SPEAKER_02: have anything else that you'd like to either say or kind of pass along to our listening audience?
[28:28] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm excited for what class and champions has coming. I think, keep an eye out for class
[28:34] SPEAKER_00: and champions this spring. Wait, spring. I am positive that there will be something for, for most
[28:44] SPEAKER_00: people out there, whether they have families or kids or they're an educator or they're a company
[28:49] SPEAKER_00: that it's looking to do big things like we want to, you know, we want to get together and find some
[28:55] SPEAKER_00: really great partners that do stuff and help us do things that are coming down the line. So
[28:59] SPEAKER_00: no, nothing else to add other than keep an eye out for class and champions coming up. And
[29:03] SPEAKER_00: for everybody out there listening, who's grinding away, who is, it is hard, it is hard work being
[29:09] SPEAKER_00: an entrepreneur's hard work. It is, you know, it's not a task that anybody takes lightly. It is
[29:17] SPEAKER_00: your heart, it is your soul, it is, you know, it is your excitement, it is your depression,
[29:23] SPEAKER_00: it is your financial gain, it is your financial ruin, all at the same time, all within one day sometimes.
[29:30] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I thank you guys for putting something on that, you know, can help, help entrepreneurs
[29:36] SPEAKER_00: connect with each other and help us find, find inspiration, what other people are doing and
[29:42] SPEAKER_00: find empathy and what other people are doing. So, you know, keep up the great work and thank you
[29:47] SPEAKER_00: so much to them, like so honored and humbled to be invited on to something like this.
[29:52] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you. And why don't you tell our listeners where they can find you online and they can
[29:57] SPEAKER_02: connect with you, they can tell you where are the best ways to find them.
[30:02] SPEAKER_00: I mean, at Steve Messler on Twitter, it's probably a really great way and then classfromchampions.org.
[30:09] SPEAKER_00: So, at Steve, ST-E-V-E, M-E-S-L-E-R on Twitter and classfromchampions.org for the organization.
[30:16] SPEAKER_02: Awesome. Well, Steve, thank you so much for being our guest today. It was really fun to talk to you
[30:21] SPEAKER_02: and I'm sure that our listeners learned a lot from you. Great to chat about social entrepreneurship
[30:27] SPEAKER_02: and Olympic gold medals and everything else that we covered today. So, thank you so much for being
[30:32] SPEAKER_00: on the show. And running around with guys and tights too. That's the headline.
[30:38] SPEAKER_02: All right, thanks so much. Bye.