IG Live | From Yankees Batboy to Entrepreneur: Inspiring Stories of Dreams, Legacy, and Reinvention

Speaker A: Um, good morning everyone. It is Thankful Thursday. There's always so much to be thankful for. Saying thank you before you go to bed and when you wake up is the fastest and easiest way to change your life. So do it. It's free. Takes 0.1 seconds. It's uh, simple. But remember, the simple things to do are simple not to do. We're gonna bring Billy on in a sec. Just as a reminder, we're gonna be in Chicago, then Newport beach with Jim, uh, with Tim Story, with Marie diamond, with uh, Jay Abraham. Abraham said just everybody's going to be with us. John Coyle so come and join us. Uh, then we'll be think about these cities. We'll be at the NBA Summer League. We'll be at the MLB All Star game. We'll be at Fanatics Fest, VIP dinners, holding courts, meetups. We're going to be at Messi, uh, with Messi at the FC Miami will be at SOFI in World Cup. Just email me David Meltzer.com text me if you want to be invited or informed. 949-2982-905949-29829 um 05. All right, we got the co founder at Batboy Publishing at, ah, Billy the Bat Boy and he has his new book out. That's right. Bat Boy's Glory Helping a dream come true. Uh, I was a ball boy for the Clippers so I'm really uh, in that journey as well as, uh, he understands the journey of Fernando, a pitcher chasing his dreams through hard work, setbacks and faith. Hey buddy.

Speaker B: There we go. How's it going? I appreciate you having me.

Speaker A: Hey, I totally resonate with your story and the glory of being a bad boy. Surrounding yourself, uh, obviously with the right people, the right ideas, uh, for you, you know, give me the journey of Fernando and how it's relative to your journey.

Speaker B: Sure, yeah, it's a pretty wild story because I was a bat boy for a local minor league team here in New Jersey and I started when I was 11 and a couple years after I began, we had a player by the name Fernando Cruz come through the system by us and I was like, this guy's a pretty good pitcher, I'd say. And it wasn't like he was blowing everyone away. You know, he was a solid guy but we just witnessed his passion, his perseverance and knew that there was something special in there. And uh, he had some pitch, it was called the Splitter and he was developing that pitch and it wasn't quite where it is now, but as the years have gone on, he went on to do some incredible things. Now he's with the New York Yankees, and that was about 10 years ago when I worked with him. But it was just such a story of resilience because a lot of these guys, they don't know exactly what's going to happen, what injuries there might be or the uncertainties that there are in baseball. And just to see that play out and know that he really put in a ton of effort and he just persevered through all of this in order to get to where he is today was a, uh, a pretty exciting thing

Speaker A: to see, you know, understanding unwavering faith, especially in baseball, because there's so many different variables on how to get to the big leagues, and then so many different variables when you're in the big leagues of how to stay in the big leagues, and then so many variables to take it to that level that Fernando's been able to take it to in his over a decade career. Um, but there's usually no evidence when you're playing minor league ball that you're ever going to get there. And uh, so this idea of unwavering faith, um, allows those players to get there, but most of them don't because of either, uh, fear or injury. And there's a divine destiny for certain players. What do you think it was that people saw in Fernando? Because he wasn't the best player on the team, but yet there was something that everybody saw in him that made him special. Special.

Speaker B: I'd say he's definitely in the top percentile when it comes to passion. I've never seen someone so passionate with so much energy and enthusiasm each day. Once that starts to dim, once players start to lose some of that, it's time to retire. It's. You shouldn't be out there anymore because when you lose that, and I've seen guys lose it where maybe they were a high draft pick at one point, they come to indie ball or they get sent down and then they lose some of that. And that's the thing that I see with so many, but I didn't see in Fernando. I saw that energy that continued on, want to necessarily be at, but it was what he needed to go through in order to continue on in his journey and his career. And he had a family at that point. He had a family. He wasn't making much money a month. All those variables can come into play and can kind of distract you from the mission each day of, uh, helping your team win and getting to that next level. But that's not an easy thing for a lot of these guys to do. And so many quit early. They stop playing. Maybe another year, if they put in another year of effort to. They could have gotten that break.

Speaker A: Yeah. The desire that they must be what they can be. Uh, you talk about a word called enthusiasm that actually means with God, enthusias. Uh, means with God. And enthusiasm M. Uh, is contagious not just for your teammates, but for your coaches and the organization. And there's a natural resonance of credibility that comes with that enthusiasm that you talked about. Uh, you also in your book named it Bat Boy's Glory. What was the. The glory of being a bat boy.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. It's funny, the co author of the book with me is Ray Negron and he was with the New York Yankees. He was a legendary figure over there, but been with the Yankees for over 50 years. George Steinbrenner brought him in very well.

Speaker A: So.

Speaker B: Yes, yes. So it's wild to see how you know, when you're a bat boy, you want to make sure you're doing your all in order to help these guys get to the big leagues if you're a minor league bat boy. And then you, you want to help them stay there if you're a major league bat boy. So to us, that was our mission. That was the glory. And it was to see these players help them to the best of our ability, realize their dream and help them stay there and just continue to have success. So that's what it was for us. And the players truly confide in you. They trust you that you build that relationship that maybe some people don't realize if you're just watching on tv, they might tell you some things that they don't really want repeated elsewhere. And you build that bond in that relationship. It's a great thing.

Speaker A: It's interesting as a ball boy for the San Diego Clippers and now that was almost 50 years ago that I was a ball boy for the Clippers. Um, it was one of the most unique experiences. In fact, one of my most popular, uh, videos, millions of views. I definitely check it out. It shows you the difference between Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Dr. J and how they treated me. Me as a ball boy. And it's a constitution, an illustration of being kind to your future self. Because neither of them knew when I was 12 years old and a ball boy for the Clippers, that the most commonly asked question when I ran the most notable sports agency was who's the coolest athlete and who's the biggest dick. And I think most people who know Kareem and know Dr. J probably know which one's which, uh, and how they treat a 12 year old that they had no benefit, uh, to be nice or mean to, um, and when you are in that side of it in the big leagues, you don't have an opportunity to be inspiring. Uh, you just have to be on top of your game to make sure you're not a hindrance to the success of the team. And, uh, it was one of the bigger honors in my life at 12 years old. Uh, but it also showed me what it took, uh, to be, like you said, the best of the best, be around, you know, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and James Worthy, uh, you know, and then to see Bill Walton every day practicing at old age, you know, while he was hurt. Um, you realize what it took, uh, for everyone, whether you're a billionaire, millionaire entrepreneur, celebrity athlete or entertainer, it's not coincidence. I call it coinciding. What you pay attention to and what you give intention to equals those coincidences. Now that you're an offer a speaker, you, you know, focus in on the same topics I do. Leadership, kindness and faith. Uh, what's next for you? You're so young still, so you probably have many options, opportunities and touches of favor ahead of you.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, definitely. I honestly, I would just like to continue doing what I'm doing and seeing what opportunities come from there. Just visiting more schools and creating more books to inspire the kids. Uh, Ray and I have a, a company now together where we're going to be working with some players on creating a book of their own. And a lot of players have great stories. They don't necessarily know how to go about getting it out there. And we want to help them just get those inspiring messages out there to people and to the younger generation. So that's what I feel called to do and it's exciting to just do that, continue to work in baseball. Uh, baseball has been, uh, an incredible passion of mine. So I'm looking forward to seeing what other opportunities might be out there as we move forward.

Speaker A: Well, we will be inviting you. We're doing, you know, keynoting Fanatics Fest and have a VIP dinner for Fanatics Fest with a lot of bigger names and would love for you to come and maybe speak on this panel or at least network. You and Ray are both invited. So all my team reach out and we'll see you, uh, the week of July 17th there in New York City for Fanatics Fest. You fit perfectly in. Yeah, I think more people, uh, need to know about you and Ray, that's for sure. So thanks for joining me and hopefully I'll see you in a couple weeks.

Speaker B: Thank you, David. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker A: You got a Billy pick me. Check out his book at the Bat Boy. And his book's called Bat Boys Glory Helping a Dream Come True. Thanks so much, Billy. Uh, all right, we are rocking and rolling here. Remember David Meltzer dot com. David means D is my first initial. Meltzer means servant. Let me be your beloved servant. Email me davidmeltzer.com. happy to give you our schedule or just join our text community. Be informed and invited. 949 is the area code. 298-2905. It's pinned right here. 949-298-2905. All right, we are moving and grooving. Travis and Justin hanging out in the green room. The Lobster boys. Go toLobster Boys dot com. Uh, it's a direct to consumer seafood company founded by two brothers, Justin and Travis Madeiri. Ah, they're almost together. Squeeze in, boys. Pretend like I got brothers. I know you guys, we might end up in a fight if I put you too close, but it's fine. Good to see you. Good to see you guys again.

Speaker C: Good to see you.

Speaker A: Right on. Well, um, you guys have just unbelievable growth, uh, since last we spoke. Uh, give me an idea, let me know where you're at. You guys are fourth generation lobster men, right? From Long Island, New York. We'll be visiting there, as you heard. You guys also will be invited and you know, we are happy to have you bring a lobster or two along for our VIP dinner, that's for sure. Uh, but more importantly, give me an idea of where lobster.com is today.

Speaker D: Yeah, so you said it perfectly. I mean, we are fourth generation fishermen out of the Long Island Sound. Unfortunately, due to poor regulations and overfishing in the summer, me and, me and Justin as, uh, fishermen, we lost our fishery. And what happens now is we've been on a mission to buy from only in season independent fishery fishermen all over Canada in the United States. And what we do is we'll bring them direct from our fishermen to the end consumers. And we've done the hard job of what a lot of people, you know, it's very tough to do in a corporate setting is cut out the middlemen. Like we literally been through every level of middlemen and cut them all out to get the fisherman the best price and the, uh, end consumer the best price and the Best quality without no one touching them. So on our website, lobsterboys.com uh, that's the transparency we're bringing to everybody.

Speaker A: And how's the inventory, uh, the workflow? Is there plenty of lobsters when you cut out the middleman or is there still a shortage?

Speaker C: Lobster is a seasonality, uh, product. So right now, probably the best time of the year to get the best quality lobster plentiful. All the seasons are open. Uh, it's a great time of the year. But we do go into a season where they shut down the fishery, especially across the border in Canada and in Maine. We're big advocates of shutting down the fishery during the summer because Travis just said we lost our fishery due to overfishing in the summertime when the lobsters are at their weakest state. And a lot of people don't understand this but it gets into uh, heavy details when you talk about, imagine the traps are sitting on the bottom of the ocean and they got to get pulled up to the surface and there's these little baby lobsters and they, in the summertime they're mushy, they're soft shell. So when they're falling through the funnels all the way 3, 400ft to the surface, all the fish are under there and they're eating them. But when the lobsters are in their hard shell state in the winter months, and even these months right now the water temperature is really cold. Those baby lobsters, they have spikes on their noses, their elbows and the fish, they can't eat them. So we're big advocates of stopping the summer fishery. And we only buy from USA fishermen during the summer. During the non summer months in November, December all the way through. Right now in July, we'll stop buying from USA fishermen because we can't support that fishery. It's a uh, it's a dying, it's a dying breed.

Speaker A: Yeah, we deal with that out here in California. Different type of lobsters, you know, the Baja lobster and the overfishing. And although we have limits and permits and all the things you both know, uh, you know, people are diving down on those traps and putting up traps and causing uh, some great damage to the sustainability of, you know, a great industry and a great benefit to the United States, uh, consumer as well. Um, I also have a friend I gotta introduce you to, ah, famous lawyer out here, Wasserman. Uh, he's been importing to China or exporting to China, Maine, uh, lobsters being the lobsters for years, has all the connections flying them directly over there. So I uh, don't know if you've ever met him or run into him in the business, but does about $57 million worth of lobsters a year sending, uh, them to China. He also does, uh, chicken feet from Israel to China, where they're waste in Israel because they're not kosher and they can't tell if it's a man or a feet. But he does over 50 million.

Speaker D: He must be Asian.

Speaker A: He's Jewish. That's. That's the funniest thing, right? But he knows how to make money, man. He learned something in law school. Um, now you, you have traceability, transparency, and a commitment to the industry because of the setback that you guys experienced. And a lot of people, they just quit. Uh, I was talking about, you know, the Judaism of Wasserman. But just in general, you got to have faith. When shit doesn't go right, doesn't go as planned. When you're dealing with perishables and, you know, seasonality, there's a lot that goes wrong. Uh, you know, for you, just in a general idea, you know, your faith and things working out, how important is that when the days come, there's no evidence or it's contrary that you guys are ever going to get to where you want to be.

Speaker C: I mean, uh, it's literally everything for us. Because when you lose a fishery like we did as children, you have nothing but faith to lean back on. And then later on in our business, after many attacks from who we call the middleman mafia, they put us through subchapter 5 bankruptcy another time. You're leaning on it. And we don't feel like we inherited a business. We feel like we inherited our responsibility through our experiences in our life as fishermen, and then again as entrepreneurs, we've had massive attacks and setbacks in our life, and faith is sitting there every time to, to be the floorboard that you can bounce off of. If you just keep your faith. A lot of people, like you said, they don't have that resilience and they don't have that, that mission. That mission, that underlying. It can't just be about money. It can't just. There has to be something more, uh, powerful underneath it for you to make sure that you don't have that quit in you. And that's what we have. We have fishermen by the thousands that we're changing their lives. We're putting a lot like millions of dollars. You know, you got to understand the amount of lobsters that come in in a very short period of time is £50 million in one month. And when we go back, pay A dollar more, $2 more. Sometimes on the shore, that trickles down to all the Fishermen. You're putting 10, $20 million back into these fishermen's pockets. And for the longest time, they've been pinned into a corner by this group of dealers that literally controls them through intimidation, through a lot of things that I don't even know if it's right to talk about on here. But they have a lot of things that they do to these fishermen. And then on the other side, they keep the dealers in check and say, hey, China man, you want to come in here and start buying lobsters? You're going to cooperate with us or you're going to be out of here. And they got the trucking companies, they got the clientele, they got the bat, they got the banks. I mean, it was. We didn't know the big, the size of the war that we were getting into. But it just goes to show our resilience, and it comes back to faith, as you had mentioned.

Speaker A: You know, I've grew, uh, up with five boys and a girl in my family, and, uh, my brothers are extremely amazing people, but very different from me. And I've always avoided at all costs working with any of my brothers. As much as I'd love especially to work with my youngest brother. He's a Wharton Penn, Columbia University School of Economics, just a seasoned, unbelievable entrepreneur. Um, but I probably would kill him if I was working with him. Uh, how do you guys avoid killing each other?

Speaker D: Well, we grown up each other, we're best friends, we're brothers. I mean, we've been through everything together. I think that the entrepreneur spirit in both of us, and we had the really, we have the same mission and goals, even lifestyle, as far as fitness, health, nutrition, everything. And it really helps that we have the same mission on top of everything. So, like you just said, you kill your brother. I mean, we've been at our battles, we have our wars. But, you know, at the end of the day, we own the same businesses, we are best friends, we are brothers, and we keep everything professional on that level. And that really helps us attack, you know, all these corruption, the wars stuff that Justin just talked about. Because really, sometimes, you know, you're down in the dirt, and Justin can say, we got to keep going. And sometimes he's down, he's like, listen, man, I'll get what they want, whether it's on the consumer side or the fisherman side. And, uh, it's the resilience that, you know, the brotherhood lets you, you know, go at it every day and pick each other up when you need to.

Speaker A: Nice. And who's older? Travis, are you older?

Speaker C: No. You have to, you have to guess. We should have made you guess. No, I'm older than him. But we, we're equal. We don't really play the brother role like that.

Speaker A: Yeah. So Justin, was the last time that you hit Travis?

Speaker C: Oh, never. I mean, it's never decades.

Speaker D: No.

Speaker C: Decades.

Speaker A: You are way better brother than me. I, I stopped at about 21 or 22.

Speaker C: Getting, you know what, you know what it comes down to, though? Like, like he was just talking about. You almost get to this point where you stop the, the combativeness because you're on the same team. And when you can get to that point and put the egos aside and realize, listen, if he has a different perspective than me, we got to figure this out because he might be making us make a better decision. Vice versa. Like when you can get on the same team, there is no stronger partnership in business. If you can make that mend happen. It's the most powerful. We make the best decisions because nobody's going to care. I could bring in, uh, uh, like you said, a Wharton street, you know, big guy, and he's not going to care about Lobster boys the way that he cares about it and the way that I care about it. So there is an, um, extremely powerful relationship. If you can get past that in brotherhood.

Speaker A: I love it. Go to Lobster boys dot com. Yeah, you can follow them at Lobster Boys team and hopefully I'll see you guys in New York. Always invited, not obligated. Uh, but we're doing two different dinners. One in Long island, uh, with the EO people out there. And then we'll be doing one Fanatics fest, uh, in mid July. Invited, not obligated, but I'd love for you guys to join our community. Uh, we have a huge lobster eating community just in my family alone. So Lobsterboys dot com. They're doing it right. Uh, it's what America's been founded on. These types of teams. The brother we love, uh, that has transcended four generations of the lobster and seafood, uh, company. The fourth generation lobster men themselves, Travis, Justin. Thank you guys for joining me.

Speaker D: Thanks for having me.

Speaker C: Thanks, David. Take care.

Speaker A: Keep up the great work, man.

Speaker C: Thanks, guys. Bye.

Speaker A: Awesome. These guys are awesome. They, uh, keep growing lobster boys. If you love lobster like I do, it's the only place to buy it from. Direct to consumer seafood company founded by two fourth generation lobster men. Doing it right, sustainably all right, last but not least, CEO at Document Review Law. And his name is Adam Schwartz. He's about the seventh Adam Schwartz in my phone. Uh, but more importantly, today, reviewing documents has changed. Adam, welcome, my friend.

Speaker E: Good morning.

Speaker A: Fateful Thursday.

Speaker E: Thank you. It's good to be here.

Speaker A: Well, you know, I love getting any type of technological law companies on because that's what changed my life. I graduated law school as an oil and gas litigator and was one of the four fourth person at Westlaw when everybody said the Internet was a fad.

Speaker E: Oh, wow.

Speaker A: When Justice Scalia told me nobody will ever do research on a computer, you need books. Um, one of the wisest legal scholars, obviously not a great businessman. Um, but more importantly, Document Review Law, ah, reviews documents stored on your own computer. It's faster, it's more efficient. Uh, but obviously now with DOC AI, it's extremely intuitive as well. And uh, I know how value building works. I know time is money when you're a lawyer. And Document Review takes, uh, a lot of time. And it's also, uh, there's human error. Uh, now with technology, I imagine it's so fast and so accurate. Um, and you've had more than 18 years of experience handling these types of documents, uh, in all areas of law. So, uh, give me an idea of the advancement. Just like almost, I GUESS that was 1992, 34 years ago. I was talking about the advancement of just legal research. Yeah, give me the advancement of browser based platform powered by AI.

Speaker E: No, you know, well, 20 years ago it was, can we somehow get it to highlight all the names of lawyers in red so we don't accidentally produce a privileged document? And that was, you know, several days of tech support on the other end. And well, we can do it this way, but we can't do it this way. To today, our AI assistant is like a second pair of eyes. It is there to catch what you miss. It is there to help you see what you didn't see the first time. It is there to help you put all the information together. Uh, it's not going to do legal research. It can't go on the Internet and find things. It can only look at the documents that you load into the review tool. So it's, it, it's very restricted to the facts of the case, but it'll help you, you know, build a timeline. It'll help you identify the key players and it'll help you put the facts of the case together. And facts drive cases. I mean, without, you know, facts, without documents, cases are built on Documents.

Speaker A: So yeah, and accuracy is very important. And oh yes, now with technology it's much more accurate as well. Um, being able to store it on your own computer, uh, also provides value to lawyers as well and to people. Um, why is it so important to store it on your own computer?

Speaker E: Yeah, that's one of our key tenants that we design around. So we come into a problem and we're like, well the documents are on their computer. We have to work around this problem. And it's so important because it maintains privilege and confidentiality. And you aren't giving your client's documents to a third party and trusting that the third party is going to protect them, is going to store them properly, is not going to have them destroyed or stolen. You know, when lawyer likes to be in control, being control of your own documents on your own computer system is something that no other document, uh, review platform is really doing right now. Everyone else, you have to load the documents and pay for data storage. We don't have data storage fees because we don't store your documents so good.

Speaker A: And then speaking of money, when I was selling Westlaw early on, uh, being able to explain how it's a profit center, uh, was essential. And there's a variety of different ways that it was a profit center. Value billing, time billing, we were charging on DOS 9,600 baud modems, $4.86aminute, uh, to access different databases within Westlaw. And then you had this space back then you would have the fed reporter fed, uh, your state cases codes advance. There's so many different areas of profit. Um, how do you articulate uh, document review law as a profit center?

Speaker E: Yeah, uh, the document review law,

Speaker A: you

Speaker E: know, saves save attorneys time and money because you're, you're reviewing documents faster, you are writing off less time. Uh, the document review is extremely time intensive and we are designed for small firms and solos who don't typically have a legal budget for a browser based platform. And we are bringing them those browser based tools at a cost that their clients can afford by not storing their documents, by designing the tool so it works for the lawyers.

Speaker A: It's amazing. So if you have a small or medium sized law firm, haven't really thought about having a platform, A browser based platform powered by AI, utilizing all types of reviews very quickly, efficiently and effectively, being able to value bill, save time for your clients or yourself so you can take on more clients. There's a variety of ways that you can make more money for the sake of helping others and enjoying what most people don't enjoy, which is document review. Go, uh, to documentreview Law at Document Review. If you're at all interested, go ahead. See how document review can change your practice and change your life. Adam Schwartz. Hopefully, uh, we're doing a mastermind down in Newport Beach. Love to have you down there. And our office is at SoFi. We'll be doing one there. But love to see you next week. Week all my team reach out to invite you down to see us.

Speaker E: Wonderful. Yes, that would be great. Thank you.

Speaker A: We'll do some more content together. More lawyers can learn about document review. We got tons in our neighborhood. So, uh, go to Document Review Law. Adam Schwartz. Genius, my friend. You're just 30 years behind where I was in technology and law. I hope you have the success we had at West.

Speaker E: Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good one.

Speaker A: You got it, man. I'll see you hopefully next week. Take care. It's amazing. We changed, uh, my life. We exited for 3.4 billion. That's with a B in 1995. West Publishing sold to Thomson Reuters. Anyways, we're rocking and rolling on Thankful Thursday. Remember, the fastest and easiest way to change your life is to say thank you before you go to bed and when you wake up. It sounds simple to do, but the simple things to do are simple not to do. I'll, um, be in Chicago then Newport beach is mentioned with Tim Story, Jay Abraham, Marie Diamond, John Coyle, and many more. We then, uh, will be in Vegas and New York and Philly for the All Star Game. Be in, uh, London for a private member, uh, investor networking Mastermind. These all include Mastermind interviews, holding courts, speeches, keynotes, VIP dinners for charity. Come and join us if you want to be informed and invited. There's the text. Number 949,2982905. Email me. David means beloved at D means first initial. Meltzer means servant. Let me be your beloved servant. DavidMeltzer.com Please reach out to us. I'm here to be of service and value to you. Remember, most importantly, be more interested than interesting. Be kind. Be kind to your future self and do good deeds. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks.