Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Charles Wallace from California.
This is a great conversation because we dive into the idea of creating a program around all the things Charles has learned about elite performance from his +20 years as a football coach.
As we talked, it became clear that Charles has a passion for coaching quarterbacks. They have a great opportunity to maximize their abilities and opportunities, but it requires discipline and a systems approach to developing their careers.
We outlined how Charles can approach something like this in a way that helps narrow your focus to a single target audience and also create something with an outcome that's worth pursuing.
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Transcript - More Cheese Less Whiskers 211
Dean: Charles.
Charles: Yes sir.
Dean: There he is. How are you?
Charles: I'm doing great, how you doing this morning?
Dean: I am good. Where are you calling in from?
Charles: I'm calling in from Southern California, a little town outside of Los Angeles called West Covina.
Dean: Okay, perfect. So I am excited to hear all about what you got going on. I read a little bit briefly about what you're working on, but I want to hear the whole story from you here and then see where we can go from there.
Charles: Yes sir. Okay well I'll be brief, I've been coaching high school football for about 20 years. Mixed in with that, also youth football as well. And then mixed in with that, I helped out with the sheriff's department, they had a team Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Grizzly team, helped out with that team as well. While I've been coaching football, just been involved with business, various jobs, and then trying to branch out and do my own thing, become an entrepreneur and in that process just been studying business, how are businesses successful. What I started to see is just a parallel between, you know what? Business is a lot like sports, a lot like the game I love of football.
I started looking at who are successful. The people who are really successful in football you understand one thing, there's not bad teams, there's only bad leadership. Top coaches, you see their leadership... They're a leader in their industry. That correlation between that and then just seeing how good businesses operate, the process that they use to find the leaks, fix it. The very good businesses that really care about their people. It's the same in football and the relationships you build. The longer I've been coaching it's less about scheme, it's more about the people. It's fun to see that correlation.
So what I want to do is just show coaches how you can use the business process to help your program. It's the same thing with businesses, if I can show businesses how, you know what? It's less about your numbers, it's more about your people and use some of the processes we use in football... Yeah use some of the processes we use with football to find the leaks, like how we watch film, we have to find out what's wrong fast. So we use film, we record... That's our process. We watch, tape, review and we get better. We create drills to fix what needs to be fixed, and I think in the business world you can take that and use it to fix the leaks fast rather than waiting a quarter, or seeing your numbers. No, it's things that can be fixed instantly so you can win.
Dean: Yeah there's so many parallels in both ways, I totally see what you mean. You think about an NFL, or any football team, all the way down they all mirror the same thing, everybody's unified for a single purpose, which is to win games and ultimately win the championship, win it at the end of the year. It's all competitive, everybody's grounded on a specific goal. Everybody knows that none of them can do it on their own and it requires operating as a unit to do all the things that a football team needs to do to get to the prize. Yeah, so I totally see that. There's a lot of parallels in football, in everything. Even the individual football players are at the NFL level, the elite of the elite, who've spent their whole lives coming up through systems like you've been a part of, to get to that level.
Charles: Yes sir.
Dean: Yeah there's so many neat things. In your 20 years have you coached or been around anybody who's made it to the NFL or made it through the system?
Charles: I have a couple kids that have played high level Division 1 football. A couple kids that went to USC playing receiver, a couple kids went to Washington State. So I've been around and I know the difference between that top 1%, you see it instantly, and it's easy, it's the work ethic. Not only do they have God given talent, but they work harder than everybody. When you couple that and they want to be coached hard because they want to get to that level, and I see it even in the business world. When you take a talented employee and that employee matches his skill with a very good work ethic, it's a win, win. And that's the top 1%, that's the separator. You want to be uncommon amongst the uncommon, that's what it is.
Using your ability and working hard, very hard to make that better. And when you make that better you have an all star employee, you have an all star player, you can't beat that. That process doesn't change.
Dean: Yeah, that's something isn't it? What's the old saying that talent beats hard work, unless someone comes up talent and hard work. It's a trump card, you know? It takes talent to do it...
Charles: That's the trump card.
Dean: But the hard work is a given. Or the talent is a given, the hard work is really what the differentiator is.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: So, tell me about then what your... So you're thinking about these coaches then, for saying you're looking to create a business around this kind of idea?
Charles: Yes, I want to see if I can create a business around the premise of, how do we get... Because I think we're in the crossroads right now with kids in general, just in society in general because it's harder at this time... Where we are right now as a human race, it's harder right now to get everyone on the same page. It's hard to build really good teams, it's hard for whatever reason. I don't know if it's people are just more individualistic, but it's hard to bring people together and realize a common goal.
Dean: I think probably one of the things is, in the new generation now too, the kids that are growing up have never been in a world without social media, without games and the internet, they've never been in that world. How old are you Charles?
Charles: I'm 42 years old, so I'm more... Yeah, I've seen it.
Dean: You've seen it, yeah. So you had the tail end of... You kind of remember when you were young, young, young there really wasn't internet.
Charles: Yes, yep.
Dean: Yeah, so you've seen and experienced that. Now the whole thing, you've also seen when you were old enough to get awareness of it. What year is 42? You were born in...
Charles: 1978.
Dean: 1978, okay. So your whole childhood was analog, I mean no digital stuff. So youth football and all of that stuff, was really a... It was one of the things that you did for entertainment and for engagement, your attention had to be involved in something, right?
Charles: Yes.
Dean: And so after school programs filled a role of, it's that or do nothing right, right?
Charles: Yes.
Dean: Even at that point there wasn't all of the other options that we have. So now you see there was a difference between athletes and people playing Dungeon's and Dragons or something, right? Like the old world of gaming, that was gaming then before all the fantasy kind of games. I wonder now, now that it's all about... There's probably more kids playing Madden Football than real football.
Charles: I think so.
Dean: And they're softer kids probably.
Charles: Yes they are.
Dean: I mean in terms of not as athletic because their world isn't about being outside playing, and climbing trees and doing all the stuff that we did growing up. They're more indoor cats.
Charles: Yes, yes.
Dean: I get all of that, that's an interesting thing. So the coaches, you're trying to help coaches really make the programs a success.
Charles: Yeah because I was going to get all the coaches because I didn't know how to coach this new generation, I didn't know how to reach them. So I had to spend time learning, okay how do I reach these kids? If I wanted to get other coaching, I think there's a lot of other coaches that want to as well and you see the decline.
Dean: Do you make your living as a coach?
Charles: No, I have coached high levels, I have coached the highest level in California, which is in the Trinity League and Division 1 football. I've coached at the high level, but that' not how... Most coaches do not make their living off of coaching. Usually they're going to pay the head coach, who's going to get a larger salary than everybody else under that. But it's just, I've never wanted to take that next jump. If you want to make money, you've got to go to college or be at one of the top level high school programs and be a head coach, I'm not there yet. It's just not really what I want to aspire to. I think for me personally, I like the business, I would rather own a couple of businesses than be a head coach.
Dean: Yes, okay. Are all the coaches in that same situation? I'm just thinking of, from a business standpoint when we look at this, part of the thing that you have to do is size up the viability of the market for it.
Charles: Yes, right.
Dean: When you ultimately say, who do you want to be a hero to? Who is it that you're trying to serve? You're saying it's the coaches of the programs who are doing it for the love. Who would pay for what it is that you're doing?
That's how you would think about it when you turn it into a business, right?
Charles: Yes. I'm probably going to attack those high level programs that were, let's be honest, in private schools if you're not winning, your enrollment's probably going to be down and you're going to get fired, you're going to lose your job. I would need to be a hero to them first, it's a benefit to them to... Number one what I would like to do is, most coaches when they hire other coaches, it's just an interview, they'll kind of check your background and that's it. But I think what they're lacking is, in a business when you hire an employee, that onboarding process, in the process that they're going to teach you about the culture and let you know, this how we do things. This is what we're about, this how we do things.
I think that right there is lacking, just how we're grooming the people that's coming into our culture. I think we're just letting anyone in and not really teaching them, okay this is our culture, this is what we need to be teaching our kids. I would try and attack building a program where coaches can mentor their coaches, I think that would be huge. The mentorship with the head coach, where he can coach his coaches and build that relationship, that bond where we're all doing this together to get the program to a certain level.
Dean: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thinking this through here, when you say that enrollment, is that when you think about private schools or whatever, I would almost take this approach of tying it into... Because somebody is going to be paying for this, right?
Charles: Yes.
Dean: And the coaches are going to have to go to... It's maybe not the coach that you're talking about, but the program director, is that who?
Charles: Yeah, it could be the athletic director or the head coach, but they need to see the value in developing their coaches.
Dean: And it's not just for... If you think about the athletic directors, then it's not just about... The same things would be true for lacrosse. Or are you saying, your things are specifically about...
Charles: No, I think it's sports in general. Or even the teachers, to have a good teacher.
Dean: It's time to because there's lots of... On 60 Minutes this week, I don't know whether you saw it, there was a feature about all the sports programs that are getting canceled right now because it's a different world, people are coming to things, all the revenue is down. And of course they're not cutting the football programs, but they're cutting all these other sports that are not revenue generators, specifically they were talking about the track team and the gymnastics team. That's happening all around the country right now.
So the work that came to my mind when you were talking about this is, linking the... No athletic director ever got fired on the championship season, if the teams winning everybody's happy, so it's job security if you want to be a hero to them. Any program that you were doing for coaches would likely, would it be paid for by an athletic director or out of a budget for the programs? Or would coaches be paying for that out of their own pocket?
Charles: For me personally, I have a coach for myself that I come out of pocket for because I see the value of it. I'm at a certain level, the only way I'm going to get to that next level, I need a coach. So I see that value in that for me, but most coaches, they're probably not going to pay, there will probably have to be something in the budget to help. Especially now with these kind, it would have to be something the school would need to see the value in.
Dean: Yes. You mentioned some things about programs when they're losing, that their registrations drop and all of that kind of trickle down effect. Do you have evidence of, and this would be an amazing thing, do you have evidence of programs that were losing programs, they put an emphasis on football or on some intervention, doing something, and when they started winning that that enrollment goes up. And likewise the same thing, programs that were winning and are now losing?
Charles: Yes I do, I could easily get those numbers because it's simple. When these private programs are winning, not only are you getting kids coming in on the freshman level, you start getting transfers. So each level, you could count the numbers. So on the freshman level, if you started off with 30 kids junior, varsity, like 25 varsity 60 and you start winning, you start seeing the freshman level increase. There's just a direct correlation at each level.
Dean: Yes. And you're talking about high school levels now?
Charles: High school level, I'm talking high school level.
Dean: High school level, right. Because you think about that, when you look at the difference I think that there's something to be said about that winning, that it's all about that pride. The association with winning teams, that everybody wants to be a part of. I mean the deep psychology of this as you go down here, what's riding on it, to wear the jersey, to wear the hat, the gear, to wear the logo of the team. That pride, nobody's wearing the losers. It's interesting, it's so funny winners carry in... I mean, there's a lot of new Tampa Bay fans that have come along with Tom Brady. Even though Tampa Bay's a great... We've had a great team, and great runs and a really great fan-base.
I remember 1976 when the Tampa Bay Bucks started...
Charles: The cream jerseys.
Dean: The coolest jersey every, right? I mean how cool was that Tampa Bay Bucks Jersey?
Charles: Oh man, I remember that.
Dean: Yes. So you look at that, and it's like, that built a lot of fan-base. I wonder, there's an interesting thing if you were to position something with athletic directors as return on winning. Turning football program success into bottom line profits and job security. That's their thing is going to be the job security, but it turns it into profits for the school.
Charles: Yes it does.
Dean: Almost like who would be the athletic director's boss? Hopefully you could get the CFO or somebody thinking about the, yeah the principle maybe, has to behind. Because whatever the principle is saying, he's steering the ship.
Charles: Yes. I don't know how it is in other states, but I know in California right now there's a big push for, not public schools, not even private schools, but charter schools. So what these charter schools are doing, they got smart to start sports programs and high schools are losing those top kids. They're going to these charter schools because they're getting to focus on sports plus the education. It's not alarming yet, but there's a push where kids are leaving the private sector and the public sector, and going to charter schools.
Dean: Yeah. I think that whole thing too is that there's... A lot of that has to do with, you could make an argument about design and creating an environment that's sexy, or feels good to get pride, that you want to be a part of that and the swag that goes with it, the uniforms, or the colors or the stuff that you wear to show that, show your representation. There's a reason everybody always favors the certain things. We look at Champions having a bit of a run right now, but you and I remember when Champion was a lower level brand.
Charles: Yes, yes I do.
Dean: But it's funny, when we were growing up Champion was just like the lower level brand, football, undergarment brand. And now it's all the rage.
Charles: They're huge, they're huge now.
Dean: Yeah exactly, and supreme. Kind of funny. So I think there's something there, it's kind of taking that approach any time that you can build a case for something, it's going to go a long way. I'm exploring that with you, if you can show the return on winning, which is ultimately what all of this... Once they're set on winning and the outcome is increased enrollments and revenue, everybody intuitively knows the reason that people at the college level spend so much money on head coaches, is because the importance of winning. That's why they do it, right? Obviously in high school, they don't have that kind of budget, but imagine that there's some competition on getting the best available coaches for the budget that they have.
Charles: Oh yeah. The private schools have more money to work with, so they're going to get the upper tier coaches, so everybody goes there first and then the publics get pretty much what they get.
Dean: When you think about if we could wave a magic wand and design your outcome, what is it that you want to do? What does that look like?
Charles: I've been thinking about this because I can't just get completely around it yet, but I would think if I was at my end point it would look like this. I'm able to help coaches develop their coaches and also add value to that head coach, where he's staying... I'm able to coach him or provide the service to coach him where he's staying ahead of any curves that's coming, any trends that coming. My focus would be more on the mental aspect rather than the x's and o's, I want to focus on the mental aspect of getting to push towards performing at a high level. Really pay attention to the key performance indicators, so we can find the leak fast and focus on team building.
Dean: Have you been doing coaching with people so far?
Charles: You know what, I've been doing it, not on a paid level, just I'm been doing it just because I know I want to do it. So I just started doing it. I started coaching a group of kids, started coaching a couple of friends that I have, just because I know I want to get in the industry, I want to do it. So I've just been doing it for free, just to do it. I enjoy it.
Dean: When you say coaching kids, who do you mean?
Charles: Quarterbacks. The quarterback position is so much pressure. Like I said, I focus on the mental aspect of you need to be a leader. My people have to believe in that huddle all the way around, what does a leader look like? It's a servant, what is a servant? So I've just been teaching kids, what does a leader look like because as a quarterback, you need to perform at a high level. That's what I'm teaching the younger kids.
Dean: That's interesting, so it's a different sort of program than the coaches in a way. And you can imagine there might be an opportunity there, because that's an interesting thing. Imagine that there might be some opportunity around that, or there might be an existing.
Charles: It's huge, it's huge.
Dean: Is there quarterback coaching that's available?
Charles: Yes, there's two parts. There's on the field coaches where they just focus on mechanics and footwork, stuff like that. My thing is more mental, where I show them, this is how you break down the defense. This is how you process a coverage. This is what you're looking for in your reads. I want to focus on the mental aspect, let's get in the zone and let's watch a defense, let's watch what you're doing. I'm more of that part, I don't want to get on the field and do all the throwing. I think it's more mental than physical. At the end of the day, the physical part adds up when you get to the highest level, which is the NFL. Everybody has a rockin arm, has great footwork, but what's the difference? The difference is always mental. So for me, that's my focus. I'm more of like, you're going to become a leader and you're going to know how to operate when you need to at the highest level, you get to perform at your highest peak when you need it.
Dean: There might be an opportunity to work with quarterbacks like that. I look at what I'm going through here is, I'm kind of bookending for you the way I think about this stuff, the profit activators. Profit activator number one is, select a single target market. And with the bookend that with what's the ideal thing that you want, what's the end result? I would say if you could imagine, what would be the best thing that you could do for somebody? Knowing everything you know now, if somebody would just get out of the way and let you do it, what's the biggest impact that you could have?
Charles: My biggest impact would be working with the top 1% of quarterbacks in the country. Like the kids that you know are going to college, the kids that are in college, or the kids that's on the cusp of going into the NFL. That is where my end goal would want to be, working with that top 1%...
Dean: That would be your dream?
Charles: Yes, that would be my dream.
Dean: That's a really interesting thing and there's something about that. I used to be a tennis player, I would train... This was in the 80s when elite tennis was really getting to be...
Charles: Tennis was huge.
Dean: ... A thing. There were two big players in that, this whole idea of the academy, these coaching academies. There was Nick Bollettieri and there's Rick Macci.
Charles: I saw the documentary on Bollettieri by the way.
Dean: Okay yeah, yeah. So I trained with Rick Macci. Rick has trained, I don't know how many now, five or seven number ones in the world that have come through. Like when I was there, Jennifer Capriati was just coming up, Andy Roddick, the William's sisters. He's the one that basically got the William's sisters going. They moved from LA to Florida to train with Rick at the academy, there's a whole movie about it coming out actually. But Rick to this day, he runs the Rick Macci tennis academy in Boca Raton now and his love is just training Junior tennis players, the elite ones who are on their way to being pros.
He's not gone on tour to coach pro players, they come to pick up some work with him, but he's not gone to that. He's stayed true to doing this developmental tennis and there's nobody better in the world at it than him. It's a really interesting thing when you're crystal clear on what your joy is, but so much of it is the mental game. I owe so much of my mental attitude to Rick Macci, I mean introducing me to positive thinking. We would train for three hours a day doing drills and then he would do a little sermon basically, motivational talks in between things. The power of setting goals, all the stuff there.
So I think when you talked about the elite quarterback, stuff like that, you had a different energy in your voice. So when I gave you permission to do that, it's like, well if I could do anything, this is what I would love to do.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: Yeah, so I think we got to begin with that because that's a really high stakes thing for people. If you say you groom high school quarterbacks for D1 scholarships, that's a journey. If we did a case study of 10 good quarterbacks coming into their sophomore year, where would you ultimately want to intervene with someone?
Charles: I think to have the biggest impact, you would really need to get them before they get to high school. But then as well, there's talented high school kids where they just need to know that mental part to get them over that hump. So there's two parts, I would want before they get to high school and then the guy with the talented arm, let's fix him.
Dean: Yeah.
Charles: And see if we can get them to that elite level.
Dean: And that's an interesting thing, when you start to look at the level here of where you can have an intervention with someone, would you now make an impact on someone who's in their junior year before it's time to go to scholarship level?
Charles: Yes I could, the process would have to be speeded up. It's possible, there's going to be more work involved because the window's shorter, but it's possible.
Dean: Yeah, and that's where I wonder where the amount of time and the payoff for the ultimate... For the parents, because when you look at this, if the parents are looking at paying money for college or getting a scholarship, that's a big win if they could get a scholarship, especially to a D1 school. 100 or 200,000 dollar outcome for someone probably.
Charles: Yes, yes.
Dean: This reminds me, I have a client who does packaging branding management for hockey players. They put together a directory of US hockey scholarships as the lead generator. So you wonder how you find the kids and the parents who are aspiring to a scholarship, and then present them with the information that they need to... You know that anybody who downloads the guide to the US hockey scholarship programs is someone who is likely now wanting information on how to make their kids stand out, and how to improve the chances that they're going to get that scholarship.
Charles: I understand. So would it be like me creating a funnel?
Dean: I mean you go to think about how you can... You got to be able to show that you can do it, first off.
Charles: Got it.
Dean: I think that's part of the thing is, you've got to think about... Part of the thing that these football dynasties are built on is, they've got unwavering commitment to a single goal, which is win the championship. Everything about it is that. When you look at, what would that look like? If you're thinking about it that there's some building process to it, what would be the very best thing that you could do is to find one, or two or a handful of elite prospects that you could work with to show your game.
I'll tell you what built the Rick Macci legend. What built the entire thing was Tommy Ho. When Rick Macci came into Grenelefe, which is here in Orlando, that he took over a program that was really like a corporate program, it was a convention kind of place, and he would run really great tournament programs for team building and people who were there for corporate outings. They had this great facility and he started a junior program there. He picked Tommy Ho, he was a young kid, he was eight or nine years old when he started working with Rick. He went on and to this day he's the most successful junior tennis player ever in the history of the United States. He's won more and every single US age group title.
Charles: Wow.
Dean: Yeah all the way through. 12, 14, 16, 18 multiple times. All of the variety that came from all eyes on Tommy, and then that brought Andy Roddick, and that brought Vincent Spadea, and that brought Ivan Baron, and that brought Lindsay Davenport, and that brought the William's sisters, and Jennifer Capriati. All of this trickle down effect started with pouring his heart into doing the very best thing with this one... It's an unlikely scenario. Grenelefe is in the middle of nowhere and Tommy Ho is from Winter Haven, near where I live. And Tommy Ho, he's a great talent, but there's no way he would've gone and done that without the guidance and shaping from Rick.
Charles: I understand.
Dean: So think that putting yourself in a position to be able to do that, to make a name for yourself, all it takes is one. Here's an amazing example of it. No matter what you think about LaVar Ball, you've got to give the guy credit for...
Charles: You're right.
Dean: There's no way around it. He's shooting off his mouth the whole time, the big thing, but to start with an intention. When he first laid eyes on his wife Tina, that was then intention. She's tall, 6'2" or something, he's 6'5", and he said I don't know what, we're going to do something together.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: Their whole intention from before anything happened was, we're going to make the three best basketball players ever in the history of the world. And now they're the only people in the history that have two brothers picked in the top three of the NBA draft. LiAngelo's about to get on. This is interesting, you feel bad for LiAngelo Ball because all he's ever done is win, he's going to get a chance here with Detroit now, but LaVar... Now that all three of them are in the league basically, he's done it. He set his intention there. He could start a big baller program about he did it, I mean why wouldn't you? I can't imagine that nobody's offered him the chance to write a book about that yet.
Charles: You're right, you're right.
Dean: Yeah. All that stuff, there's a lot of work before the payoff comes. The good thing about football is there's longevity in it and stability, it's a long historical thing. I think there's still going to be a place for it, the tradition of it, it's not going to all of a sudden go away I don't think.
Charles: I don't think. I think the biggest fear was when the concussion stuff came out, it was looking like it survived it. I think that was the biggest hurdle there, and I think that it was a good thing because it changed the game, made it safer.
Dean: Yeah. So I wonder if you start to think about that, what would it take to build an elite quarterback program?
Charles: I'm writing that down right now.
Dean: Yeah. That's part of the thing when you're going through stuff like this is, trying to think through like, what does it look like? You did get more excited about that, that's your target audience there.
Charles: Yes, yes I could. That helps me a lot.
Dean: There's an opportunity if you create this thing, then you start thing think, well who corporately would love to get behind something like that. McDonald's has been forever a sponsor of developmental basketball. Nike I guess has done something similar in football. Who are the Under- Under Armor, I guess.
Charles: Under Armor, yes. Even some of the insurance companies have sponsored the playoffs, State Farm.
Dean: Yeah. I think you start to think about your opportunity there. It would be really neat to think about the story there of what you're looking to build.
Charles: Yeah.
Dean: Because the sky's the limit, you know?
Charles: It is. When you look at it from that perspective, it is.
Dean: Yes. Who's that quarterback coach that Tim Tebow would work with? There's a coach in LA that people just flock to.
Charles: Yeah, Steve Clarkson, that's one. There's another one in San Diego who's worked with some pretty top named guys.
Dean: Yeah. And those guys have, it seems like, a pretty steady business.
Charles: Yes and they only work with the college guys, they're pretty exclusive.
Dean: Yes. I think it's an interesting thing, that's kind of what... When Rick started out with Tommy in the under 12s, it wasn't long within a year he was playing nationally and winning all the national titles. By the time he was nine he was the under 12 champion nationally, yeah and then it just built from there. All the kids would come to camps and get prepared for the Orange Bowl, the nationals, all the other events, and then doing summer camps. That's the academy, where people would come and live there, we would live right there at Grenelefe and train. It's a great environment, IMG bought the Bollettieri Academy.
Charles: Oh that's where the property is for IMG? I didn't know that, okay.
Dean: Yeah, IMG's got a big academy here. Not Rick Macci, Rick Macci is independent still. But IMG bought the Nick Bollettieri Academy.
Charles: Oh.
Dean: IMG has built a... And again, they're a sport's management company, so it's like an incubator for them, it's seed angel investing. They've turned their development stuff into a profit center because all the parents paying for their kids to come to full emersion stuff...
Charles: Wow, that's amazing.
Dean: ... Paid for all the development, and then of course they've already got a relationship with them by the time they go to D1 and then they turn pro.
Charles: Then their relationship pays off.
Dean: - A good kind of relationship, to be... They're management.
Charles: That's a smart move.
Dean: It's a longterm build.
Charles: Wow.
Dean: Yeah interesting, right?
Charles: Very interesting. Very interesting when you look at it that way, very interesting.
Dean: Yeah, so they have to start somewhere. Because a lot of it is that, Rick could have picked anybody really. And I love Tommy Ho, but he's not an athlete perse. He had incredible focus, and really smart, and he did have athletic reflexes and ability, but literally he couldn't throw a football, shoot a basketball, he's not a well-rounded athlete.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: He was a machine that knows how to play tennis, and it was like chess to him. But he had all the physical components of it, he had the ground strokes, and the serve and all the components that go into it. So when you go those, it was his mental game, his mental toughness, his mental understanding of the game and his competitiveness that really drove everything. Not his athletic ability you know?
Charles: I understand.
Dean: Yeah. And I think you could say that same thing about Tom Brady. The fun thing is to see the NFL combine videos.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: He wasn't really what you would say as a physical specimen.
Charles: No.
Dean: Not like the kids coming in today.
Charles: No, but mentally he's the best probably who ever did it.
Dean: Yeah, so I think there's an interesting opportunity for you. How many quarterbacks do you have that know you right now? Or that you know of?
Charles: That know me? Probably about 12-15.
Dean: Okay, yeah. And you start to look at, how many quarterbacks are there?
Charles: There's a lot.
Dean: Yeah. You just wonder about that. Like at every... Hey Alexa, how many high schools are in the United States.
Speaker: The United States has 37,100 secondary schools.
Dean: 37,000 high schools.
Charles: Wow.
Dean: Yeah you look at that, that's a lot of quarterbacks.
Charles: Yes.
Dean: Even if you take the top 20% of those, you're still at 5,000 quarterbacks, potential as the thing. So you look at that, that's an interesting thing. It's nice to have Alexa though. Alexa, how many Division 1 football programs are there in the United States?
Speaker: Here's something I found on the web, according to NCSSports.org, there are 890 college football teams all across the United States.
Dean: 890 college football programs. Yeah, so that's an interesting thing when you look at that, that's Division 1. It's all the math, right?
Charles: Yes.
Dean: You've got all these, 37,000 high schools, every one of those quarterback is looking to be the guy who gets one of the jobs. 37,000 quarterbacks competing for 890 positions.
Charles: Wow.
Dean: Right there, that's something alone.
Charles: Yeah that's eye opening.
Dean: Yeah. So now it becomes, what I would start to bookend this around is, who owns the world of the aspiring quarterback? Who has their attention? Who's creating content or programs for... Like if I am an aspiring NFL quarterback, or Division 1 quarterback, what am I paying attention to? What would I really want to see?
Charles: Got it. I'm just writing that stuff down, thank you.
Dean: Yeah. It's interesting because when you look at the 37,000 of them, and that's just one quarterback representing each of those schools, but there's probably... That's not accounting for the back-up quarterback who's a sophomore this year, he's coming into the thing. So you've got 70,000, probably 100,000 quarterbacks to choose from. When you get down to the 1%, the top 1,000, is there anybody ranking the quarterback rankings? I'm sure there are. That's the other thing about football is that, there's a deep scouting program, infrastructure to football.
Just like tennis, there's a ranking system, there's a way to get to people there. So, showing people up on that and then showing improvements in the ranks.
Charles: Wow. The pictures are a lot clearer.
Dean: Yeah, that's kind of the thing, when you start... Couple of books I would recommend, Rick Macci has a book on Amazon that would be good for you to hear the stories kind of thing, because it tells the whole mindset of the evolution of it. Yeah, that would be a good start. And then there's another... What was the other book I was just going to recommend? Oh, Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold.
Charles: Read it, great book.
Dean: Right, so there you know. Even from the beginning of the call, I think that this feels like a more vivid vision of what you're excited about, there's some emotion in that.
Charles: Yes. A lot more clear with working with quarterbacks.
Dean: Yeah, I like that a lot.
Charles: I do too, thank you.
Dean: It would be a great thing to treat these quarterbacks like you're responsible for helping them.
Charles: Got it.
Dean: The ones you know right now, start with what's around you. Just grab one of them. I mean, Rick went way overboard on Tommy, because the investment is in developing his ideas and his methods.
Charles: Got it. I'm going to start pouring into them, I'm going to start pouring into them.
Dean: Awesome. Well keep me posted because this would be a fun thing to see what this turns into for you.
Charles: I will, just with email? The email that I have.
Dean: Yeah.
Charles: Okay, I will. I'm excited, I'm pretty excited.
Dean: Yeah, I can't wait. Well that was fun.
Charles: It was fun, thank you so much for your time, I appreciate it.
Dean: Awesome Charles, I'll talk to you soon.
Charles: Take care.
Dean: Bye.
Charles: Bye.
Dean: And there we have it another great episode, thanks for listening in. If you want to continue the conversation, go deeper in how the 8-Profit Activators can apply to your business, two things you can do. Right now you can go to morecheeselesswhiskers.com, and you can download a copy of the More Cheese, Less Whiskers book, and you can listen to the back episodes of course if you're just listening here on iTunes. Secondly, the thing that we talk about in applying all of the 8-Profit Activators are part of the breakthrough DNA process. You can download a book, and a scorecard and watch a video all about the 8-Profit Activators at breakthroughDNA.com.
That's a great place to start the journey in applying this scientific approach to growing your business. That's really the way we think about breakthrough DNA, as an operating system that you can overlay on your existing business and immediately look for insights there. So, that's it for this week. Have a great week and we'll be back next time with another episode of More Cheese, Less Whiskers.