Office Hours #889 | The Hidden Future of Business: AI Search, Workplace Burnout & the Rise of US Lacrosse

Speaker A: Hey, my friend. How are you? Blaine? I am doing well.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker A: I love it. Yeah. Yeah, you've been busy. You've been, uh, kind of cavorting around lately. I have.

Speaker C: I was in your neck of the woods and.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Did a little whale watching when I was out there and did a little conference, you know, stuff, and then, uh, back here in North Carolina for my son's graduation tomorrow from college, so. Tomorrow.

Speaker A: Okay, good.

Speaker C: Been, uh, been. Been on the planes and doing the stuff, but. And I cannot think of anywhere else I'd rather be on a Thursday afternoon with you, so.

Speaker A: Well, hey, flattery will get you everywhere. Did you, did you see a whale?

Speaker C: Did. Man, we, um, I didn't get out in Vancouver harbor, but, uh, we were down in San Francisco and did. We got to see a couple gray whales and that was raised migrating?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Oh, man, that's, you know. You know what that's. I mean, you know.

Speaker A: Oh, they're beautiful. Yeah. Just love them. I love them. Yeah, you probably see them out of your.

Speaker C: You probably see them. Hm, out your window.

Speaker A: Yeah, I've actually seen some out my window here and we've got the, uh, we've got a couple of, uh, resident pods of killer whales here too. So. Yeah, that's pretty, uh, spectacular when they are actually out and about. Yep, yep.

Speaker C: I, I can't imagine that.

Speaker A: That's beautiful. Well, let's get this show started here. Uh, David is on the Aspire, uh, tour, uh, this week. I think he's in Austin right now. He was in Minneapolis yesterday, so he's in Austin right now. Uh, and given the way that airplanes have been canceling flights left and right and postponing and delaying, you know more about that than I do, I think right now. Rich, you've been traveling a bit more than I have, but, uh, been lucky, so. Okay, good, good. Yeah, we were doing, um, uh, filming the last episodes of Office hours, uh, 10, the Apple TV, uh, season 10, uh, on Tuesday and David's flight, you know, everybody's flight got delayed. David was, you know, we had a meetup on Monday morning or Monday evening for dinner. He didn't show up. It was supposed to be 5 o'.

Speaker D: Clock.

Speaker A: He got there at 8 o' clock and just slide delays. Yeah. Held. Yeah, yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. Winds just going like crazy 70 mile an hour winds in Vegas. And you know, he was putting a holding pattern over, uh, the Grand Canyon for about an hour and.

Speaker E: Nah.

Speaker C: Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I hope dinner was great anyway.

Speaker A: I hope you guys pulled yeah, the dinner was awesome. We had a great crew. The, the guests were amazing. Uh, yeah, season 10 wrapped really strong. We had, uh, you know, the legendary Jack Canfield, and he was one of our guests. And yeah, and John Asrock. And we just had some really good folks, uh, on the show, so. And the panels were really good too, so that's good. Very pleased. Missed you. Yeah, you should have been there.

Speaker C: Well, I was there a few weeks before, but I. Yeah, you were. But, you know, I think, um, that that crew is always fun to talk to. John's a pleasure. And, and, uh, you know, spending time with you would have been great. But, um, next season.

Speaker A: Next season. Next season.

Speaker C: Yeah, we will do that again. No doubt about it.

Speaker A: Um, so our got a really interesting slate of guests, uh, today here on Office Hours. This is, uh, number 889, the solo business edition of Office Hours. And, um, our first guest, uh, Dr. Uh, Jamie Shapiro. This is. I'm fascinated. We had a little bit of conversation with you, Jamie, before, uh, we got started here, but just to give the folks that are listening a little bit of a, ah, taste, ah, of your CV, PhD, uh, in positive organizational psychology and MBA and Ms. In information technology. You've got a couple of books, you've got a new book that's coming out. And what I'm fascinated by is, is, uh, something that, uh, was in the notes that I got to presage the show here and position it. Why leaders get pulled into the weeds. And this is something very near and dear to my heart. I work a lot with entrepreneurs and I do.

Speaker F: Yeah.

Speaker A: As they start to scale, it's kind of like you got to shift your mindset here, guys. There's a whole different skill set that comes into play. So, Jamie, welcome to the show.

Speaker F: Thank you. Thank you for so much for having me.

Speaker A: Yeah. You have founded Connected EC and, uh, we'll talk a little bit about the company. But I'm just going to go full circle back to my opening comment here. People get pulled into the weeds, leaders get pulled into the weeds. And there's a different skill set, there's a different mindset, there's a different way of behaving that needs to happen if you're going to scale your organization and not get sucked back into. I'm a personal performer dynamic. Let me go fix it.

Speaker F: Yeah, it's.

Speaker A: Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker F: I'm happy to. I call it altitude management because I think as we grow in our leadership, we grow in our businesses, it's really easy not to recognize what altitude you're flying at.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker F: Sometimes you actually do need to be at that low altitude and in the details, but as you scale, you need to start lifting up to that 10,000, that, uh, 30,000 foot level and really understand when are you focused on strategy, vision, when do you need to step into execution, and when do you need to get into the details? And one of the mistakes I see leaders and actually C suite teams make all the time is they don't calibrate. Where are we? Where's this conversation? Where do I need to be? And sometimes I see leaders getting driven more by their, uh, anxiety and need for control versus their awareness of what altitude they need to be at.

Speaker C: Yeah, I can identify with that. I. You know, I swear, when I spent years, when I. When we started our first toy, our first, uh, company, it was a children's toy company. It was a horrible business model. Uh, we bought a one product company. And the way that they did this was they. They, uh, made the product during the week. They made it in house. Then on the weekends, they would get in their vans and they would drive it to little community shows all over the place.

Speaker F: Wow.

Speaker C: And it was. It was what attracted us to the business because the product was so good. And they would sell out every weekend. Kids would be like, six deep in line to get this. This thing, and all weekend, but terrible business model. And we did this for a couple years, and we were struggling. We weren't growing. We weren't. And somebody just said to me, said, you know, you know, you got to get off the truck, and you need to be at home, are in the office thinking strategically how you distribute this, how you distribute it. Because the distribution model is terrible. Where you make it. Because where you make it, you only have a limited capacity. And it's all these things. He said, you know, you need. You need to be the strategic one. I'm like, but I can't afford having someone else go out and sell the product. I. I don't know how else to, you know, um, but. So I identify with this idea of, like, being strategic and getting out of the. Out of your stress. And I get why stress drives it. Let's put that into today's context, though, because I think all I hear from leaders that I coach and that I work with and when I go to these conferences is, our teams are really stressed right now. Our leaders are stressed right now. How do we get out of this? From the. From m. From the psych. From your psychology background and your work.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, how do we pull ourselves out and how do we pull our teams out? Most importantly, how do we pull our people out of this?

Speaker F: Great questions. The first thing is, you know, I always say leadership is a battle between our short term and our long term self. It is really, really easy to prioritize the short term urgency and not create the space for what you need strategically. And the first thing we have to do is really take a look and say, are we in that mode? Are we just so focused on the short term that we're actually not giving the long term any space? Because that's just going to continue the cycle over and over again. And as hard as it is, if you're in that cycle and as a team, you have to break it and you have to create some space as a team to say, I know we're in firefighting mode, urgency mode, high priority mode, but we need a little space to start thinking about the long term. And you can start small. Even if that's an hour a week, you got to start doing it or else you're just going to stay in the same cycle. And people constantly tell me, well, I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time. Well, you're never going to have time. It's just never going to happen unless you actually prioritize and say, our long term vision and strategic plan is so important that even though we're in this mode, we're going to pause, we're going to create the space so we can eventually get ahead of this. And so I always say behavior change, it starts small. If you can start small and keep growing that behavior, that's what's going to make the difference.

Speaker C: So intentionally break it every week, set aside a time to sort of call it what it is, call it what it is. And then. Right.

Speaker F: Uh, I'll literally look at my clients calendars and say, okay, let, let's talk about when we can create the space because I see, you know, back to back doesn't work. I always say if you're a CEO and you're not creating time for thinking, you're actually in an energy depletion mode. And that's not going to serve the business. You have to have time for reflection, thinking, strategizing, vision. That's part of the role.

Speaker C: Perfect.

Speaker A: And I see David nodding his head here.

Speaker F: Hi Jamie.

Speaker B: Yeah, you're. Hi Jamie. You're speaking my language. You know, I. Both on a professional and personal, uh, perspective, non negotiable behavior and understanding assigning time is essential. And you said Something really, I, uh, think, um, pertinent in the respect is that you don't realize how much energy you're interfering with when you're not, as you said, making the space, when I call it assigning time, making things non negotiable. And so many. We talked, I, uh, think Blaine, last time we talked about Parkinson's law, about, you know, how time fills itself. And we have, John Coyle's one of the leading experts on time and how the time is utilized and perceived and it's not all equal, um, and how we can use it with attention and intention coming from Napoleon Hill. But, uh, just real quick, because I was late, you know, when you were talking about, I look at their calendar, that was interesting for me. Do you believe that doing two minutes a day is worth two hours on a Saturday or a Friday? Is consistent intention exponential to what I call the extra milers out there that go, you know, an extra mile every once in a while? And they use that to justify whether or not where they want to be or if they just weren't consistent, they would have greater outcomes?

Speaker F: Yeah. I think consistency is key. And in my research I study something called leader vitality, which is all around the energy that leaders have that can then be utilized for teams, organizations, whatever you're wanting to apply that energy to. And one of the key things that I ask leaders to think about is shifting their focus from time to energy. What are the things that actually bring energy in? And so for some people, their workflow is going to be completely different than mine. And so for me, for example, I'm most energized in the mornings. That's when I'm going to get my greatest decision making done, writing, really doing things that make my brain work harder. Um, whereas after 7pm I'm done and someone else may have a totally different energy flow to their day. So I think it's consistency and it's also attention to where your energy inputs are happening and where the outputs are happening and how do you get energy in so that you don't become a depleted leader that creates negative environments around you.

Speaker B: It's beautiful. Well, I appreciate your patience and certainly appreciate Rap Power and Blaine Bartlett carrying the load again with Jamie Shapiro, author and CEO of Connected ec. Make sure you follow her as well and learn more about Connected EC@Connected E DEC ConnectedEC.com There we go. My reading and writing. Thank you so much.

Speaker F: Thank you.

Speaker A: Thanks.

Speaker E: So happy.

Speaker B: Thank you guys. Amazing. Sorry. You know, the Aspire, uh, tour, when Andrew gets on stage, it seems to go a little bit over time. So we, we gave appropriate amount of, uh, extra time to get here and still running a little bit behind time. But, but Austin Holmes is in the house and we are blessed to have a great young entrepreneur, uh, who I'm blessed to work with and they do such a great, uh, job helping, uh, me. And, uh, here to talk about Signal Raptor, Austin Holmes. Welcome to Office Hour, episode 891 or so.

Speaker G: Dave, it's always amazing spending time with you. I always learn so much in 10 seconds of listening to you. Uh, you normally don't see me smile because we're on the phone. Uh, it really does bring a smile to my face. You've helped us an incredible amount over the past couple years. And, uh, not being as reactive as you guys were just talking about and uh, being a negative influence on the team, but Instead being positive 1. Bringing people, lifting them up, uh, showing gratitude and everything, all, all of that is so important and it's made such a difference for us.

Speaker B: Yeah. And you've been able to balance as a young entrepreneur what Jamie was talking about. Right. This reconciliation of short term success and pressures versus long term investment, uh, into your own success. I'm going to let the boys go as, uh, we were running behind. So, uh, Blaine, what's our first question for my friend Austin?

Speaker A: Yeah, Austin, I mean, I'm fascinated by your background in the Navy, and I'm going to actually link this to what you're doing right now. But yeah, you specialize in diffusing bombs, so I'll land that one. And as, um, the founder and the CEO of Signal, uh, Raptor, one of the things that you do, I think, and I'm going to check this out, is work with, um, one crunchy bite

Speaker H: of Hershey's cookies and cream bar, and I'm taken right back to college. Move in. Day I was a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. Boxes were everywhere. I needed a break from unpacking. But just as I was able to take a breath and open my Hershey's cookies and cream bar, my new roommate Rachel walked in. I offered her a piece, but she said no. Then after a beat, she said, actually, those are my favorite ones. We left. The ice was broken, and we've been friends ever since.

Speaker F: Hershey's. It's your happy place.

Speaker A: Yeah. Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, folks that are looking to scale their business, um, with how do they get the message out? And in part of that is avoiding the bombs that could actually blow up in their face because it's all about pr, it's all about marketing, it's all about positioning. What are, what are one or two, you know, relatively simple hacks that you can provide to folks that allows them to navigate a little bit and maybe steer away from that, that minefield that could actually, uh, blow up in their face, metaphorically speaking.

Speaker G: Absolutely. That is a great question. And I will start by mentioning m. Uh, crisis Communications is one of the largest segments in pr, uh, because it's a lot more expensive to it than to make sure that your messaging is on point and you know, you want to start with your story. Uh, people talk about this as far as authenticity. People need something to connect to. They need a point of relatability. And you're gonna grow your audience, your tribe, your community by being authentic. And that also requires intentionality. Um, so be intentional with what you're trying to accomplish, with what you're trying to put out there, with how you're trying to help people. That's going to make a bigger difference than any spin that you can put on your story.

Speaker A: Beautiful.

Speaker C: Thank you, Austin. Man, you, thank you for your service, first off.

Speaker A: Second.

Speaker B: Second.

Speaker C: Ah, is this, um, this is a. What you're doing right now with AI, basically, SEO for AI is the way I would interpret that is, I mean it's the brand new frontier, right? Because if I try to get recognized on Google as a coach, that's going to be really hard to rank really high up on. On Google, for example, like, is it, is it possible now for, let's say like a coach like me to really start showing up in AI search, um, much higher and much more, in a much more visible way. Uh, is that, is that essentially what you're working on with AI and searching and search?

Speaker G: Yeah. So the problem came in when we went from, if you get on tv, that's where it is. You had billboards and TV as all of the new platforms started coming in. Each one has its little technical piece and how do I get positioned here? And now with AI, it's pulling from all of those data sources. Some of the highest ranked ones are social. What people are saying about you, Reddit, Quora, uh, the review style websites, if you want to call them that media is still powerful though. It's still referencing that high domain score. And so when we're looking at the AI side of things, ranking in LLMs, there is a technical side just like SEO, but it's more like Amazon books. You want to hit your niche in order to rank the best you possibly can. There As a coach, it's going to be easy for you to get local media opportunities because they want those people who can come in and speak about their expertise. Um, we did this in Atlanta with one of our clients. She now has recurring segments with the local station because she can come in and be that expert, and the audience loves her. So picking your niche, making sure that you're speaking to that, communicating on it over and over. And it can feel repetitive, like, I'm telling my story over and over and over, but, you know, we kind of have to assume that no one has heard it before. And so we want to keep telling that because that's the authenticness or the authenticity that we can bring. Um, so it's absolutely possible. And with AI, it's kind of open. There are established people who already just naturally rank, but for most of it, it's wide open. You can go attack these specific technical things. Make sure your website's set up not just for SEO now, but also for the schema that are being read by these LLMs. And we track 11 for ourselves. So you want to look at all of them, because most of them are a little bit different.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's important, Austin. You know, you talk about saying the same thing again and again, and human beings don't like repetition, and they don't like honesty. They definitely don't like feedback in the present. But when you look at this repetitive nature, it's not just that you have to assume that nobody's heard it before, which the majority of the people haven't. With 7.6 billion people in your total addressables, people haven't heard it. But the most interesting thing that I found, Austin, is that, um, the people who have heard it are conditioned and they love it. And if you don't believe me, any grandparent in the world, you can ask Blaine. Uh, any grandparent in the world will tell you that their grandchildren want you to read the same goddamn story every single night to them, or they want to watch the same Disney film they want to write. Or if you're older like me, too. I own a suite at the. At the stadium. And the Rolling Stones came. Every One of the 46 people that came to my suite said the same thing. They better place Satisfaction. And I promise you, they've heard Satisfaction a thousand times. Why would they want to hear the same song? And so, uh, I try to coach people, uh, in alignment with you and the great job you do with small businesses, especially, that the whole world is your stage now, and you better learn to do what human beings hate to do, which is to be repetitive and honest, uh, which means you're at your essence. And you do such a great job of not only guiding people, but leveraging, uh, the technology that exists today to amplify the repetitive messages. And I know you've helped grow, you know me, uh, in my brand exponentially. And a lot of members of my community, uh, all work with, uh, publicity for good, and with Signal Raptor. So, uh, I just am so blessed to have you in my ecosystem and so proud of you as well. So please come back, teach us more lessons about branding and marketing and, of course, AI.

Speaker G: Thank you, Dave.

Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you. Go learn more. Put that back up there real quick. Learn more about Signal Raptor. We just smooth as silk here at episode891. You think it was episode 91. There it is. SignalRaptor.com and goes forward slash, offer page. All right, boys. All right. I hope you guys like lacrosse. I know that Rhett likes lacrosse, because we. We got. We got, uh, our friend, the head of the USA Lacrosse CEO at. And hopefully here. Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker C: There he is.

Speaker A: There he is. Good.

Speaker B: Yes. You never know. Yeah. The Olympic committee's paying for. Are you guys blamed.

Speaker A: Yeah, I see you.

Speaker C: Oh, you're cutting out, though, David.

Speaker B: There's Mark.

Speaker A: Yeah, Mark's up.

Speaker E: Um,

Speaker B: I thought. All right, well, since I'm cutting out blame, why don't you introduce.

Speaker A: You're back. You're back.

Speaker B: Uh, he's a great CEO of USA Lacrosse.

Speaker E: Hey, guys. How you doing? Can you hear me okay?

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: We got you, Mark.

Speaker E: It's great to be here

Speaker A: now. Okay, here.

Speaker C: Here's the handoff.

Speaker E: There you go.

Speaker A: It's flawless. Okay. Uh, I'm fascinated, Mark, by, um, something

Speaker B: that they want to introduce him since I'm having technical. Uh,

Speaker A: we got you covered, David. Okay. We got you covered. Lacrosse originated, as I understand it, originally as an Iroquois. I mean, the Iroquois Indian tribes. You played it? Yeah. Correct me if I'm off base with this, but it's a Native American sport that has been around for hundreds of years, and I'm really, uh, excited to see that. It's getting some of the publicity that I think it deserves, and it's getting exposed into a mainstream audience. It is an exciting, exciting game. And it. Yeah. As a former rugby player, I thought rugby was rough. Uh, I. I tried my hand at lacrosse one time and had my head handed to me, literally. I mean, it was kind of like, okay, this is a different level of different level of pay attention sort of a thing. So, uh, right now you've grown it to what, about a half a million members? Um, what is it that you're looking to have happen, um, as it becomes more. It's going to be an Olympic sport in the 28 Olympics, right?

Speaker E: Yes.

Speaker A: And that's the first time it's been positioned as an Olympic sport.

Speaker E: Well, actually the men played in the Olympics, um, 1908. The women have never played. So in essence, in the modern day, yes, it's the first time, but it's unquestionably the first time for the men and women together. And considering the game was played, you know, you know, well over 100 years ago, uh, this really is our modern moment. And it will, uh, be on the field of what is now BMO Stadium, which is Exposition Park Stadium, right next to the LA Coliseum, um, in the second week of the Olympics in LA28. And the men versus the women and six nations will compete at an unprecedented, you know, visibility, uh, moment for the sport of lacrosse.

Speaker A: What are you finding to be the greatest challenge in shepherding it into the Olympics? Because this, you, uh, know, like you said, this is the first time the combined teams are coming together. What's the biggest challenge that you're looking to overcome at this point?

Speaker E: The biggest challenge is also, you know, and I would also say this for most people, like, your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness. Your biggest challenge can also be your greatest opportunity. For us, it is the biggest challenge as well as opportunity is the recognition that this, the discipline that will be played in the Olympics is called sixes. And so, so many people are familiar with the version of the game that you see in college and high schools. And that's, you know, full, uh, field 10v 10 or 11v, 11 of men and women playing up and down the field like a field the size of a football field. The version of sixes is just six on six. It's a much smaller field, comparable, a little bit bigger than a, uh, than a rugby field. I mean, excuse me, a little bit bigger than a basketball if you will. But outdoors, and the game is very fast paced back and forth. It's much like basketball, it's very intuitive. So if you were a casual fan and you were viewing for the first time, you're going to get it like, and you're going to see a lot of movement, you're going to see like a lot of goals and a lot of action. No specialty, just athleticism, a lot of physicality. But think basketball with a Stick and a ball. And so the challenge is really continuing to educate people. If you want to use rugby as a good example, there's Rugby 15s to a side in the traditional game. But Rugby Sevens is in the Olympics and there's a reason for that. And this is, is the same reason in terms of you need less athletes to have very competitive teams. So parity is, is really equal. The games are much faster and more intuitive. It's also a cost structure from an IOC perspective in terms of the number of athletes participating. But that is an incredibly exciting version of the game. And so it's a challenge a little bit in terms of educating people on that. And it's also a challenge that we've have a full national team program and we've had to add two additional national teams because a field athlete doesn't necessarily mean you're a Sixes athlete. And all the other nations are now, as an Olympic sport, getting money from their governments. So they are now funded in a way that they never have been before. So USA is the most successful across nation in the world 36 world championships. But the competitive gap is narrowed, if not now non existent in this in the sport of Sixes. So that's great for the game, but it's also a challenge for us. Uh, you know, who wants to go out there and win gold.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me back, guys.

Speaker A: You're welcome.

Speaker B: You know, you know, Mark. Mark. I represented many USA teams with Lee Steinberg and uh, Warren and I marketed many as well. And my latest was USA Rugby, which I find it ironic who faced the exact opposite that lacrosse did in rugby, where they were not competitive rugby, and then created Rugby Sevens, uh, and closed the gap on world rugby as well, um, in a variety of other, other things along with that. When they took out baseball and softball, I didn't mind baseball, but when they took out softball, that was a huge tragedy. Um, there, there's always a money issue in, in usa, uh, events. And it's really more than just the support of the Olympics or the support of the teams. It's the individual athletes. I was with John Coyle last night, silver medalist in the speed skating. And we represented Lashawn Merritt and uh, Carl Lewis. And most people don't know how little the athlete gets for this, the investment they make to be on the Olympic team. Um, and uh, I was wondering if you saw any advancement on the funding side with the new NIL side and professional Lacrosse league with Rabel, if there's more money going to the athlete because I think I was told less than 2% of the money used to go to Olympic athletes.

Speaker E: Well, I can say if I would, I'll. I'll unpack those in two different tranches and one being the full time lacrosse athlete and the other being the Olympic athlete. Lacrosse included in that, the full time lacrosse athlete is becoming a reality. The work that the PLL is doing and that's premier lacrosse league. The work that the nll which is the National Lacrosse League, which is the indoor league and then the wll, which is the women's lacrosse league, which is aligned with the pll, is the outdoor women's league. Those athletes are now making mid six finger, mid. Uh, excuse me, mid to high five figures. Going into the low six figures. When you put two contracts together, you add in your other opportunities, whether that's coaching, training, uh, endorsement, nil if you will. So we are now moving to a full time lacrosse athlete which is where the sport needs to head.

Speaker D: My name is Shannon Maldonado. I'm the founder of Yaoi, a gift shop. From the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms it was definitely one of the most user friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future. Future. All of the tools for reading your sales, like planning inventory, they're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest thing I can tell you, it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it. Start your free trial on shopify.com now.

Speaker E: The more investment we get into the sport, the more financially um, strong lacrosse is. The more investment not um, only in the program but all the infrastructure around it. Streaming live events, world championships. The better we all are in terms of that viability and that that flows its way through the athletes. So that's been a priority. And, and we're making significant progress there. And credit to. You mentioned Paul Rabel and Mike Rabel, his brother, but Bradford, the commissioner of the nll, they're making really serious headway there, which has been great. The Olympic athlete. We are now a certified national governing body within the usopc and that happened officially a couple of weeks ago. So we are now at uh. Have a seat at the table and have a line of sight into what athletes from an Olympic standpoint have to go through. Whether you're on a team sport or you're an individual athlete. And you are correct, most people don't realize like they're not paid there are there is athlete stipend. There is athlete compensation that either comes from the US from the NGB through the USOPC I will say that the USOPC has made this an absolute priority. All the meetings, all the onboarding, all the conversations we're in, they're keenly focused on funding athletes. And the best way to do that through the athlete insurance program and through, through direct compensation. And direct compensation comes in different ways. The last piece I'll say which has been a game changer is if you win a gold medal, you actually get dollars from the US OPC. I think it's up to $37,000. A bronze medal is like, silver is like 25,000. But through the USOPC foundation, all L. A 28 rostered athletes will receive $100,000. They'll save another $100,000 in a life insurance policy for future payout. So that's $200,000. That is all through uh, philanthropic and foundation work through a big gift secured through the foundation at the USOPC level. So that's the level of emphasis the USOPC is putting on athlete compensation.

Speaker B: I love it. I'm by the way a free agent now. I was on the Olympic committee for USA Shooting, uh, which I'm not that well versed at. But uh, if you ever need a good uh, marketing sponsorship guy for USA Lacrosse, much more well versed and relate relative to that. So I'm putting myself up as a free agent to come back on board.

Speaker E: Love it.

Speaker C: Mark, I just have one quick question. Yeah. 36 World Championships. Can you help U.S. soccer, please?

Speaker E: Listen, I, I gotta tell you, U.S. soccer is a, is a warning for everybody in America. And I'll tell you why. And I think you, uh, you probably have communicated, uh, talked about this before. Youth sports in America has an access and affordability problem. It's a pay for play model. So so many great young athletes either never get the opportunity or they can't sustain competing because they don't have the funds. They can't travel to a field. And as a result so many young athletes leave a sport before they, they bloom. And, and we have that issue in lacrosse, in football, soccer, basketball. The rest of the world caught up to us in soccer. The rest of the world caught up. Uh, I mean women's soccer for that matter, women's global football, rest of the world is caught up to us in basketball in part because we don't develop athletes at the youth level very well in America. That's a, that's a systematic, you know, systemic problem. That we all need to address. And soccer is a warning shot for everybody. And that's why they're small nations. They. They're very good at developing footballers.

Speaker F: Yeah.

Speaker B: Ah, such a good point. Well, there is the issue of money in all areas of sports. If I've Learned from the 35 years of running the most notable sports agency to global marketing, to sports media, money matters. And we want to support our team. And I want to make sure that our community is supporting Mark and our USA Lacrosse team to continue to win the gold. And we'll see you in my offices there at SoFi Stadium and around Los Angeles for the Olympics coming up. Hopefully, we'll have you back on some other shows as well. Mark. If there's anything we can do to help everybody support USA Lacrosse, the USA lacrosse.com your dollars will be well spent. It's an amazing sport and, uh, just amazing kids playing it. So thank you, Mark. We appreciate all the support you've given our country.

Speaker E: Thank you very much, guys. Really appreciate the chance to. To say hello and chat a bit.

Speaker B: Great to see you. Thank you. All right. I. Six different networks, but I'm here. It's amazing. I. I was bummed, man. I really wanted. I love Austin. I really wanted to. To talk to Mark. So, uh, you guys are terrific for always covering and carrying, uh, the OG Double B, Blaine Bartlett, who I got to see in Las Vegas. Season 10 is completed of office hours, and Rhett was on the beginning of season 10, and Blaine was on the end of season 10. So thank you both for supporting us there. Uh, we're taking that as well to the next level. We will be doing a Mastermind on the 28th that you're both invited to in Orange County. Uh, that's the next thing on the agenda. So please everybody on the community and YouTube especially, come. We got a really good lineup. We got Tim Story. We have myself, Bill Walsh, uh, Jay Abraham. John is coming. John. John Coyle, uh, the Olympian as well, uh, and many more. Hopefully you guys can join us. But before I let you go, as always, I want people to take something away. If, uh, you don't have a happy Meal, hopefully you can give me something else.

Speaker A: Uh, well, for me, uh, I'm just real simple. Uh, yeah, I mean, you know, Jamie,

Speaker H: um,

Speaker A: I think kind of, you know, exemplified this in a lot of ways, but just the ability to know what altitude is appropriate for, what it is that I'm trying to make happen. So being able to, you know, kind of disengage, if you will, from what I'm doing long enough from the, uh, from the, uh, uh, personal performer dynamic and just kind of go, wait a minute. I've got. I've got to get a better picture of where we're at right now. Whether I'm defusing bombs, uh, in the PR field or positioning lacrosse or whatever it might be, there's conversations that need to be had at different levels. And the takeaway is know what level, what altitude is appropriate for, what needs to be done by you, for you.

Speaker C: Yeah, spot on, Blaine. I. You know, what I love today was that enthusiasm. I mean, Jamie's enthusiasm. I mean, you saw the enthusiasm in her for what she does. David, when you came on, there was a certain enthusiasm that. That you brought in, and that just infused a. A, uh, light in. Into the conversation. I mean, you know, you. You talk to, uh, Mark just now and, uh, I mean, m. His enthusiasm for what he's done, and that's just contagious, right? It's contagious for your team, for your. For your clients. And I. I just, like, I felt that today for. On the show, and I thought that was. That was really sort of stood out to me.

Speaker B: I love that. And enthusiasm, as, you know, comes from the root of enthusiasm with God, and it's exactly relative to being a part of everything and how you can see energy flow and where it goes with people and places, things, etc. And it's, uh, when we're very conscious about where we're flowing our energy. And these three guests obviously are aligning their energies for good, which is really great. I know Jamie, uh, obviously helping individuals to enjoy that pursuit of their potential in a variety of different ways. And then Austin, you know, as much as signals, uh, his Raptor signal, it's all relative to Publicity for Good, which is the umbrella company that he works for. And of course, you know, sport has been the cornerstone to bring us together for years. And the Olympics, it represents, uh, the unification of the world through sport. You know, throughout time, people, just like today, are killing themselves over silly things. Uh, even as silly as the one thing that says do not murder causes the most murders. Um, and so I'm a huge sports person, as both of you are. Um, and it's just really great to see this unification with everyone here with the great ideas that we have. And, um, you know, I'm blessed to be a part of 891 or so of these shows and thousands and thousands of interviews and always taking it to the next level as the community grows. It's so much fun for at aspire for people to come up. And I love, you know, love watching office hours on LinkedIn or whatever it is. I never thought that when we started at Blaine, you know, there'd be millions of people and thousands of interviews. So thank you both and we will come every day with enthusiasm and we'll figure out what we're doing to interfere with that expression of God which they have appropriately named genius. And my two genius friends, Blaine Bartlett. Blaine Bartlett.com, my mentor, teacher and coach. Join him at his masterminds. Come and follow him, listen to his podcast. And of course, my business partner, full ofpower RET power retpower.com and, uh, he is the head of mental himself. Thank you both. We will see you next week, if not sooner. Thank you. Love you guys. All right, we are completing an 8 city, 10 day trip. I got to go home in between, but not a big deal. Uh, we will be next week. Tim Story, Jay Abraham, me, John Coyle, Bill Walsh, hopefully Rhett and Blaine. Mastermind Newport Beach Thursday VIP dinner for charity for the Unstoppable Foundation. David Meltzer.com we are on pace for over 200 cities. So if you want to be invited or informed, our text community is 949-298-2905. We got a jingle now. 949- area- code, 298-2905. Remember, most importantly, be more interested than interesting. Be kind. Be kind to your future self and do good deeds. Hit a Gigi.