May 4, 2025 • 44 mins
This week we meet with James Cordes.
James is a partner of the Mora group and the president of Boss Baseball.
We talk baseball, finance, parenting, living and growing.
https://www.instagram.com/the_mora_group/
https://www.bossbaseballperformance.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Thank you all for joining the firstStudio Pacific Northwest Hold podcast.
This is Todd Pryor and we'rehere with Mr. James Cordes.
James Cordes is a managingpartner of the Mora Group and
the president of Boss Baseball.
James was born in Sun Valley, Idahoand attended the University of Redlands
(00:21):
in Southern California where heplayed shortstops for the Bulldogs.
Shortly after graduation, hetook an assistant position at
Redlands East Valley High School.
He attended Boston College for hismaster's in English, along with infield
coaching position at UMass Boston.
As a postgraduate, James returnedto Revis in California as a
(00:42):
head coach and English teacher.
Court has spent eight seasons atthere at the helm and he amassed
a 165 to 63 with one tie record.
I wanna learn about that.
Tie won five CBL Champs Championshipswon five Coach of the Year Awards was
named the Western Region Coach of theYear, as well as named the 2016 San
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Bernardino County Coach of the Year.
During his tenure, he had fiveplayers drafted with the MLB draft
39 first team, all CBL players.
And dozens of players sent offthe play at all levels of college.
Sounds like a baseball podcast.
It really does.
So far as the all time leader inwins, league wins and league titles.
(01:24):
The high school retired coach,CO's coaching number 10.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Me and messy.
Yeah.
He also earned a coaching position inthe prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League
with the YA mouth, Dennis Red Socks.
There're studying under the tutelageof the legendary Scott Pickler.
Coors owned his coaching skills, namely anin fielding hitting and pitching in 2015.
(01:45):
He was fortunate to be part ofthe YD Red Sox Championship team.
James then spent spent a year and theinfield coach at the Riverside Community
College where he and his lovely wife Leah,spent a year planning their transition to
Bend Oregon in 2017, they made their moveand set up the roots in central Oregon.
(02:05):
Coach Cordes spent four years at thehelm of Ben Bucks, while also founding
Boss Baseball with Kevin Boss in 2019.
He has skippered both AAAsquads during the 2020 Covid
summer and the 2022 campaign.
Coach Cordes and his wife have ason, Quinn and young daughter Addison
James.
Yes sir. I think we're good then.
I know.
(02:25):
Just wrap it up.
Thanks so much for joining.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's great being here.
Thanks.
Yeah, good.
Nice talking to you.
I talked a little bit aboutyour background and experience.
And to say that you are just a baseballcoach or to just say that you are
a teacher is just, it's not enough.
With your permission, I just wannaknow a little bit of your life story.
What put you in those places so thatwe can learn a little more about you.
(02:48):
Oh yeah.
The only reason I became a teacheris 'cause I wanted to coach.
The only reason I wanted to coach is'cause I played baseball in college and
just one thing led to another, which ledme to Redlands East Valley High School,
which then led me to Boston College.
And the reason I went out to BostonCollege, my parents are from back east
and it's all just a snowball effect fromwanting to get into the coaching ranks.
(03:10):
Getting around the right people.
Re life as as we all know, is all aboutthe people you know, and the people you
meet and the timing of those meetings.
And so I got in front of theright people at the right time.
And because that opportunities wereoffered to me or given to me or available
to me, and so yeah, one thing led toanother and all of a sudden I had been
a teacher for 14 years and I had beena head baseball coach and all that.
(03:32):
And that was my identity for most ofmy twenties and into my early thirties.
And it was a great kindof chapter and period of
my life.
Absolutely.
When you were a teacherI know you did English.
Was there a special groupof students that you had?
Was it a
So it's interesting I was a generaleducation English teacher in 2008.
Recession hit, I was theyoungest English teacher.
I got pink slipped, I was pink slipped.
(03:53):
I was the youngest English teacher.
But because I was the head baseballcoach, they essentially opened up
a special education job for me.
And so I got my specialeducation's license.
At night while I was teaching.
And then I did that for 10 years orso as a special education teacher
and case manager and all that.
And that, transformed a lot of my life aswell and kinda my passions and all that.
(04:13):
And I've always been passionateabout that kind sector in education
and in people and, that was a great.
A great moment in my life to get intothat world and something I didn't expect
to be in, but something I absolutely
loved while I was there.
That's amazing.
So working with kids, with studentswith cognitive disabilities,
that's a whole different worldthan being an English teacher.
(04:34):
What was, when you take a stepback, looking at all the experiences
that you have, just doing thatas a teacher, because that's a
huge transfer of expectations.
What were, what did you.
Think you are going to be steppinginto as opposed to really what
we were and what did you takeit back from those experiences?
Yeah.
Eyes wide shut.
When I walked in.
I had no idea what I was gettinginto but ultimately I always loved
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being in front of a classroom, ofbeing in front of students, sharing
whatever it is we were talking about.
I always loved in, there'sa sense of performance to it
and I love that element of it.
I love being around kids and I knewgoing into it, the only thing that
mattered is if I cared about them.
And especially for kiddos whomight be dealing with learning
disabilities that others don't haveto deal with or not dealing with.
(05:16):
And oftentimes thatthere's a translation from.
How is that home life and reallykinda what is that level of
commitment they've gotten fromparents or family and all that?
It's all a direct result of anumber of different factors.
And so when they walked into thatclassroom, if you cared about them, if
you showed up every day, if you actuallygave to them when they walked in.
If you cared, if you taught,if you engaged, it was the
(05:39):
greatest thing in the world.
It was so much fun.
There, there are so many opportunitiesand so many jobs and so many walks
of life to, to do the bare minimum.
Yeah.
And teaching is no different.
But if you didn't do that.
And if you cared, that mightbe the highlight of their day.
And so I really leaned into that.
I had a co-teacher, she wasmy paraprofessional aid.
Her name was Mayor Gaffney.
(06:00):
I mean she was basically my co-teacherand we were incredible kind of
foils to each other, but we had adynamic to the classroom that I'd
like to think was a really specialplace for the students to come into.
And I think back on those timesfondly, 'cause I think we created
a really cool environment for 'em.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
When you're saying that I immediatelystarted thinking about, if I was gonna
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ask what you would get from baseball,which we'll talk about a little bit later.
When we, when you started bringingup the expectation, the relationship,
all the outside things, it alsosounds like your experience coaching.
Translated really well into working withki kids that had these behavioral or
cognitive disabilities and really gavethem something that, that a base that they
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might not have received somewhere else.
Yeah.
I think showing up isthe bottom line in life.
If you show up, people willmeet you where they need to.
But if you're not there, and I don'tjust mean physically, obviously, you
have to be there physically but beengaged, be there mentally, not just be
in the room, but be a part of the room.
If you're there, people will meet you.
And whether you're coaching, whetheryou're teaching, whether you're with
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your kids, it doesn't matter but.
But meeting them where they need to bemet and being there and being engaged,
it, that's everything in the world.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
And I think that's teaching,it's coaching, it's everywhere.
Oh, that's great.
When you were teaching wheneverI walk in I see these teachers,
I really appreciate all they do.
And from, 8:00 AM till three in theafternoon, they have to be on and.
(07:29):
Working with some of these students andjust, when it was you teaching English and
then you went to special needs, what wereyou doing and how did you keep yourself,
through the, eight, nine months a year?
I. Engaged.
And being able to wake up everymorning to say, we're coming back,
we're gonna do this, we're gonnakeep them engaged, we're gonna make
sure that they know that you care.
Because sometimes caringis just not enough.
(07:50):
Totally.
Yeah.
You have to deliver.
I loved writing.
I loved history.
And those are the two topics that.
I taught in special ed.
My dad has been a long time writer.
He's a sports journalist for 45 years.
And so writing is in our blood.
It's something I'm very good at.
I've been a newspaper writer myself,so I have a passion for English.
(08:11):
And so teaching that Ienjoyed, I genuinely did.
I majored in history and soteaching that I genuinely enjoyed.
And a lot of what I delivered the lecturesin front may not have even been the most
effective form of teaching, to be honest.
But I loved doing it.
I loved being a performer and beingupfront, and to be honest, I was
probably more ridiculous than.
Then they needed me to be, but I enjoyedthat kind of entertainment facet of it.
(08:34):
And so I think that's what helped me.
'cause there are plenty of days,you know this as a working grownup
that you just don't want to do it.
But if it's something that youenjoy, you're at least interested
in, it helps you get overthose hurdles when you need to.
Oh, that's fantastic.
It's, it is amazing to me to see what.
An engaged, caring parent or teachercan do to kids and being able to do
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those in three levels, teaching themsport, being an actual parent and then
doing that with students is amazing.
I couldn't even.
Imagine how much work that was, andthen at three o'clock in the afternoon
you gotta go out the door and makesure that these kids are, doing
right as a short stop or catchingball and doing all those things.
It's
interesting in Southern Californiawhere I was, our baseball started at
baseball was a baseball class, so Itaught the first four periods, then
(09:19):
we had lunch, then I had fifth periodprep, then we had sixth period baseball.
So our practice started at one 50.
One 20 every day.
What?
Yeah, it's just a great, and Iassume that's how it is still
down there, but it's ingrained.
I had, for the 10 months that Iwas teaching, I had baseball class
every six period, and so that's how.
Important sports are to the culture.
Especially down there.
These kids were I could have hold, I couldhave held four hour practices every day.
(09:43):
And so we didn't luckily, but yeah,it was a little bit different than
heading out there at three o'clock.
We were already out there forabout a, an hour and a half.
Now tell me, now
we've talked about this a little bit andwe've sent, text about this very subject.
And I just came back froma trip to Tennessee and.
Some of these schools that I saw,they, I wouldn't say they're in
disrepair, but they definitelycould use some improvements.
(10:04):
And next to them had somevery nice sports facilities.
And I know that's fromboosters mostly and all that.
And I'm glad that theyhave those things and I.
Most likely make sure that thekids have a good education.
When you're saying that you're goingout at every day, fifth period, sixth
period with kids is that a full-time,a full year of them doing that?
(10:25):
So they're in and outlike full of, full year.
They're doing baseball in,
in a lot of ways.
Our calendar was in the fall.
It.
We would be out there three days a week.
There was a time period we havewhen I fir or a time limit.
We had hours per week in the fall.
Okay.
We also played games though.
We would typically playabout 20 games in the fall.
Practicing three days a week,lifting three or four days a week.
(10:46):
Get into the winter,come January, February.
We're full bore at that point.
Five days a week, youcould go six on Saturday.
We played another 10 games, maybe.
The season actually starts theend of February, and then you're
doing the exact same thing, butyou have another 30 game slate.
And so in 10 months these kids areplaying maybe 60 games with you.
You have freshman JV and varsity.
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You practice however many timesthat is over the length of the year.
And I was always amazed when highschool, June would come around, the
season would be over and high schoolcoaches would be sending out emails
to set up their summer schedule.
And I was always veryadamantly against that.
Mostly because I. Thosekids needed a break from me.
Yeah, absolutely.
They didn't want to hear my voice anymore.
I didn't wanna hear my ownvoice, to them anymore.
(11:28):
And so I always encourage kids to goout there, get coached by somebody else,
play for a different program in thesummer, I'm gonna go do something else.
I coached summer ball in theCape, like you referenced and I
learned myself while my playersare learning from somebody else.
I was never afraid of them goingand meeting another coach and
working with another coach.
And so I, I think that wasan important break, but.
(11:49):
That's 12 months outta theyear these kids are playing.
Yeah.
12, 12 months out of the yearthey're playing baseball.
Think about how many thousandsof throws there are on their arm.
And one of the reasons we moved up toBen was to get away from that culture.
Not that I didn't love it at the time.
I loved it as a baseball coach.
It was incredible.
It's not where we wanted to raise ourkiddos in that culture of having to
play 12 months outta the year like that.
(12:11):
It's, that was just our choice.
It doesn't mean it's wrong.
That's, that was just notwhere we wanted to be.
Yeah, we we both saw that that, thatquote by Tommy John non-baseball fans.
A also, he has a surgery named after him.
From a procedure that when he wasabout 29 years old, and it was the
first person that received saidsurgery so he can go back and play.
(12:31):
And he started talking about how, kidsin high school started getting this.
Yeah.
And how that repetitive motionmay not be the best thing.
And as you were justsaying, it just seems.
Y as you'd wanna learnfrom a different coach.
You may wanna learn from a differentsport, you may wanna learn from.
Oh, absolutely.
A different activity.
Yep.
And I think we're bothon the same page of that.
Is the things you'll learn.
(12:52):
The challenges that you'll have toovercome will be worth it in the end.
Yeah, multi-sport athleteshave a huge advantage over
kids who specialize early on.
Just the athleticism itself, that abasketball player helps to create,
but also the, I think the abilityto maybe compartmentalize certain
things in certain situations.
I just think it creates a better athlete,which then creates a better, an athlete
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handling situations better as well.
And, yeah.
Tommy John, we had, when I was at Rev in2005, 2006 maybe, Tyler Chatwood was the
best freshman in Southern California.
He went to Rev, he had Tommy John.
When he was 15 years old, I wanna say.
Wow, it might been 14.
And he ended up coming back andI mean he was, he pitched in the
big leagues for probably 15 years.
(13:37):
He ended up having a second, Tommy John,I believe, when he was 20 when he was 25.
And they, it says, they say ithas about a 10 year shelf life.
And he had about 10 years later, hehad a wildly successful major League
baseball career was drafted real early.
But yeah, to that point, thatwas the earliest I had ever heard
of somebody getting Tommy John.
And he needed it.
I hear stories.
I have no.
An actual account of somebody doing thisis just what I've heard, that there'll
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be people who elect to do it, as kids tohopefully strengthen that tendon, and in a
couple years be throwing harder for that.
And just that idea of that'sinsane of needing to do that.
It's an unnatural motion throwing.
Yeah.
And so it's, you just,you have to control.
The amount of stressyou're putting on the arm.
And it's not necessarily just curve ballsearly, it's the amount of repetitions.
(14:20):
It's the amount of time you fireup your arm at an early age.
And that's ultimately whatcauses injuries at 14 years old.
And then kids are doing it voluntarily.
Yeah.
And again, ridiculous.
Maybe not, but Yeah I've read things
about that.
Yeah.
No, I understand.
It's conjecture.
I'm sure there's some story ofsomebody wanting to do that.
It just seems a little crazy.
So you now have transferred outof teaching and you are now in the
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mortgage industry at this time.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you've been doing thatfor quite a few years now.
Yeah, about five years, yeah.
You've been wildly successful.
It goes back to you surroundyourself with the right people.
At the right time andthings are hard to screw up.
Yeah.
I think is ultimatelywhat it comes down to.
I think that's a very fair,
I loved seeing your progressionthrough your career doing this because
(15:06):
I've, it was deer in the headlights.
Do I change my career for real?
What does this all mean?
And then seeing you be very successful.
And it was one of those thingswhere as soon as I saw you.
Walking around saying,oh, I'm gonna do this.
It was obvious.
I was like, of courseyou're gonna be doing that.
Of course, this is the rolethat you're gonna take.
And it was the idea of you coachingyou, you vastly care about people.
(15:27):
You vastly care about, not justthe end result, it's the person in
the family that's involved, what'sgoing on with them and making
sure that they're taken care of.
And I've seen that time and time again.
And that goes along with one of myquestions that I actually wanna ask you.
As technology grows, as does the abilityfor individuals to get, very low price
deals and get all this wonderful thingsdifferent types of mortgage or realtors
(15:51):
or lawyers or financial advisors, youcan get these zero costs situations.
And that sounds wonderful at onset.
Wow.
It's free.
However, in my humble opinion.
I think a local professional's farmore important for a variety of
reasons, but I thought it'd be greatfor you to give some thoughts on that
yourself and why they pitch myself.
We just pitched overallwhy it's important.
(16:13):
I will say this it's onlyimportant to the people.
It's important to, this having been onEarth 40 or 50 years, it is amazing.
How vastly different everybody is fromone another and the amount of people
you have who choose to do it one wayversus the amount of people you have
who choose to do it the other way.
You know somebody very well may never wantto talk to a mortgage advisor, a financial
(16:34):
advisor, CPA or anything like that,and do it on their own, and that might
absolutely be the right route for them.
Good for them.
That's just how they choose to operate.
Absolutely.
Some people like the idea of speakingto somebody just to hear it, it makes
them feel better Speaking with somebodylocally who has relationships, that might
be the way that they have to do business.
And then you have people in themiddle where they're not necessarily
(16:54):
sure what they want to do.
And so I wouldn't say there'sany right or wrong other than
what it is that you want to do.
The people we tend to work withtend to want to have somebody.
On the phone with them or on theother side of a text or on the
other side of an email telling themit'll be all right, giving them
updates all that sort of stuff.
There are plenty of people who don'twant that, and that's right for them.
(17:16):
So luckily there are so many peoplein the world that we get to deal with
the ones who want to deal with us.
Absolutely.
And everything I've seen has,been gangbusters for your team.
You've been there and consistent andthoughtful when they needed people.
And for me personally, when I thinkof the largest financial decisions
you make in your life, buying a home,I. Getting married getting, having,
(17:38):
a trust account for your children ora will or all these types of things.
It's, there is benefit to sitdown and talk with a professional.
Because you don't knowwhat you don't know.
Totally.
And.
Yeah.
Having that person there is exceptionallyimportant, in my humble opinion.
And I don't know, I would ever be in asituation where I wouldn't get a realtor,
a loan officer, a financial advisor, ora lawyer for these types of situations.
(18:01):
Yeah.
Just because the long-termcost could be such a big
deal.
Yeah.
And it's just peace of mind.
We, you mentioned trust.
We set up our trust lastfall and we did it in haste.
'cause we, my wife and I, wereabout to go on a trip to Europe
and wanna have everything.
Yeah.
We wanna have everything set up incase the plane went down or something.
And so we did it quickly, but there wasno doubt we were gonna use a local lawyer.
It cost a good chunk of money, butthat wasn't even a thought to try
(18:25):
to do it on our own to save a buck.
'cause it, that's just not somethingit feels like you save money on.
No.
At least in, in our.
In our case, no, not at all.
And by the
way, you said 40 or 50 years.
It hasn't been 50 years yet,so let's just, I po We're
almost there though.
Yeah, we're almost there.
We're almost there, but I just
wanted to, make sure thatwe're on the same page.
It's not 50 years, I shouldhave said 40 so or so years.
(18:47):
No.
Thank you.
One of the things I just wanna know.
There's, it would be fun to learna little bit more about, like any
stories that you think that make you.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
I, so I've made two really big decisionsprofessionally, at least in my life.
And I just like to thinkabout them because I was.
My wife and I were talking about someonewho has a big decision in front of her and
(19:11):
how hard it is to make those decisions.
And we are just talking about howwhen you have to make life decisions,
rarely are they ever black and white.
Rarely is the answer ever veryeasily, one way or the other.
It's almost always gray.
It's almost always the rightanswer, whichever way you go.
And it's always hard to do.
And I remember when I was 25years old, I was living in Boston.
(19:32):
I just got my master's.
I loved Boston.
I was bartending.
I had this great group offriends I was coaching.
I was just wrapping up my masters.
I could see myself livingthere for the rest of my life.
And I got a call from SteveHernandez, who was my mentor at Rev
Redlands East Valley High School.
He was the head coach and he was retiringand he was giving me the program.
He called me, he had set it up.
(19:53):
I talked to the assistant superintendent.
It was set, it was mine if I wantedit, and I didn't know if I wanted it.
And I spent like a month hemming andhawing, and I remember he finally
called me up, he calls me meet,he goes, meet, what are you doing?
You need to make a decision.
People are waiting on this.
And it's I was waiting for something tofall outta the sky and tell me what to do.
(20:15):
And obviously that doesn't happen.
So I finally I made the decision, I tookthe job and I remember leaving Boston.
I loaded up my Jeep and I wasdriving away and I was bawling
because I didn't wanna leave Boston.
I thought that's where I should be, butI. Going back there turned out to be the
best decision I had made at that point.
I met my future wife and I hada very successful career there,
(20:37):
and it just was found buildingblocks for the rest of my career.
And so that was great.
And so the same decision happenedwhen I decided to leave teaching.
I'd run the course ongetting a lot out of it.
The job up here in Oregon wasvastly different than the one in
California, so I wasn't just, Iwasn't as fulfilled as I used to be.
And I had somebody also named Steve sMoore come to me and he and I had met each
(21:00):
other through baseball and he basicallyin a very kind of Steve Moore type way,
he basically said, I think you'd be reallygood at this if you're ever interested.
And he just left it hanging like that.
And I. I stewed on that for a longtime we had a 1-year-old, or maybe
a 2-year-old, we were trying for oursecond, it was about the worst time
I could ever think about changingcareers in terms of stability.
(21:22):
Not to mention going from maybe one ofthe most stable careers in the world.
Teaching to one of theleast stable careers sales.
And I ended up making the decisionbecause IF it was a bet on myself.
It was probably the biggestdecision I've ever made as a
grownup, at least professionally.
It could have been the biggestone in terms of backfiring.
I remember telling my parents about it.
They were not thrilled about it.
(21:43):
But again, I go back to man.
Decisions are never easy,they're never clear.
And Mo most big ones are not clear.
You literally just have to make thatchoice and then you deal with whatever
consequences from that decision later.
But it's just never that,it's never that clear when you
have to make those big ones.
And luckily for both of these,they've worked out very well.
And hopefully that's stillthe case down the road.
(22:05):
Oh, absolutely.
It's lovely to hear the idea ofmoving from Boston, the place that
you wanted to be, because it'sromantic if you think baseball.
I don't think I can thinkof more of a romantic place.
It just is.
And then being in this lovely area,like the Cape Cod, and then moving
back to where you feel, and it's,you have no idea what's gonna happen.
And it's this wonderful fractals of lifewhere you're, you don't know what's gonna
(22:26):
be, but you can look at it now and go,this is obviously the best decision.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But at the time it's, oh, not at all.
There's nothing obvious about it.
None.
Not at all.
And that's so hard.
And I think a lot ofpeople in life get stuck.
Waiting and maybe that's the right choicefor them, but it's just, man, it's a
lesson and this is how the world works.
You just gotta, you gotta make thosedecisions when they come to you.
Absolutely.
(22:46):
I'm glad you did it, because if not Idon't know who would've hung out with.
I know during Covid, who wouldbe on your first podcast.
I know.
It would been, it'd been impossible.
No one else would've done this.
You can't do the second without the first.
Thank you.
One of the things James and I were.
Met through mutual friends.
And both of our wives werepregnant at the same time.
And our first children wereborn like A week apart.
(23:07):
A week apart.
Yeah.
So we've experienced a lot ofchildhood rearing together.
Both the positives and the negatives.
Yeah.
And I want to get a little bit intothat because, I always admire some
of the ways that you hold yourselfaccountable and the way you treat
yourself and you treat your children.
Thank you.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
This is, I could, I would say thatwithout this you know that No,
(23:28):
but we got on tape now, so Yeah.
We have it on tape.
Yeah.
You're better looking.
You better too.
Okay.
One of the things I wannatalk a little bit about is.
You have, and you've had this, andwe've seen, I've seen this before,
where you were coaching heavily for awhile and you had one or two children.
I don't know if it was during thetime when you had both kids and you
were working a very full-time job.
(23:49):
And I saw that you pulled awayfrom coaching for a while.
So that you could be more, more presentfor your wife and your children.
Yeah.
And I could applaud you on thatbecause being able to walk away
from something that is a passion.
Is a lot more than just that action.
It's also saying thatthis is part of my life.
This is ending.
Yeah.
And I'm not saying that it, but you speak.
No, it's so true.
(24:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can, you're going to teach, yourson maybe Addie on some things, but.
That part of your lifemay not be the same again.
Yeah.
And it's a huge transition.
When you're doing that, you hadto have this balance, of your
passions and your family and career.
How do you do that, on a day to day orjust when you're looking at it, do you
look at it a yearly basis a phase basis?
Or just on a daily basis?
(24:30):
Yeah, and to go back to whenI left baseball that was one
of the hardest decisions.
I thought I was gonna have to encounter'cause I knew that time was gonna come.
Quinn, my son was gonna startLittle League and Addie was gonna,
I knew that time was gonna come.
When the time came.
It actually turned outto be relatively easy.
Really?
And I was shedding an identity that had.
(24:51):
That I had worn for 20 years.
Almost everyone who knewme as a baseball coach.
And I also, but leaving wasfine because I got, I love being
a parent, I love being a dad.
I love my family.
And so it wasn't hard.
But I still carry guilt about, Ihelped make something with Boss
Baseball in 2019, and Kevin and Iare very close friends and all that.
(25:11):
And I stepped back quite a bit andI still feel guilty about that.
I know it was the right decisionfor me and my family, but I also
know I did a good job with it and
it was tough to leave it.
And I still feel guilty about it.
But that's just, that was thedecision I had to make at the time.
Yeah.
(25:31):
And in terms, you probablyfeel this all the time too.
I think any parent feels this, like,when it comes to time with your family,
it never feels like you have enough.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It always feels like the clock'srunning out every single day.
Both of our kiddos go to the same daycare.
I always deal with, man, we'redropping 'em off in the morning,
we're picking 'em up in the afternoon.
How much actual time arewe getting with them?
I think about that all the time because wedon't have family here in Central Oregon.
(25:53):
And so I think we're alwaysevolving and how we feel about that.
Our emotions are always evolving,but you just do the best you
can and we all, we talk aboutparenting together all the time.
Yeah.
And the struggles and the guiltand the joys we get from it.
And so it's always evolving and changing.
Yeah.
It was interesting.
I was talking to somebody lastnight and there was this, we had
a great conversation about childrearing and she asked me, are
(26:18):
you one of those parents that.
Say, wants to say to the kids,oh, I gave up this for you.
I gave up that for you.
And I was like, of course not.
Of course not.
Why would I ever do that?
Because everything I've ever donehas been a decision of my own.
And when I hear what you're saying,and this is a big di, this is a
big deal, and I don't think youacknowledge this as much as you should.
(26:40):
When you said you were enteringthat season of your life.
In no way was it in blame ofyour children or your wife.
There's no animosity there.
Sure.
And that's a big difference inwhat a lot of people I think feel.
And that's such a positive thingto say, I'm doing this to run
to you, not because I have to.
(27:00):
Sure.
And it's such a wonderful thing to hear,and I think you should really embrace and
acknowledge that a little bit more andbe really proud of that decision because
of so much time, effort, and work youtook for literally decades in your life.
That you walked away for thereason that made the most sense
to you?
The, that's really cool to hear.
I've never thought about it that way.
That's really neat that youlooked at it that way, and I
appreciate you saying that.
(27:22):
Yeah and I think it helps thatin Leah, my wife would've been
fine with me continuing to coach.
She's a, an incredible mother.
She was fine for thosedinners I missed and all that.
But it came down to, that'snot where I wanted to be.
I didn't wanna be on the field.
I wanna be having dinner with my parents.
But yeah, I appreciate you saying that.
That is a good way to look at it.
Yeah.
You're going to.
And I know that you're gonnacontinue being, you're gonna
coach and do that type of stuff.
(27:42):
And it's more of a passion to to handwhat you've learned through the years
to others in a really joyful manner.
And I think that's wonderfulto do and to be as a father.
I think that's fantastic.
Let's see . one of the things Iwanted to ask is your two minute rule.
Yeah.
Two minute rule, five minute rule,three minute rule, 62nd rule.
Yeah.
One of the things I, if you ever get achance to go over to James's house Yeah.
(28:04):
He has a junk drawer that isthe cleanest junk drawer I've
ever seen in my entire life.
It's amazing.
I love it.
I'm so impressed.
And he uses some rules to makesure that he's taking care
of himself in multiple ways.
So what, tell me about this to you.
I think that, I think we shouldpreface it with, I'm a bit OCD and
talking about being a good parent.
I probably take away from my time with mykids because I'm picking up constantly.
(28:26):
I'm that person who's always picking up.
And that's just a, probablylikely a flaw in myself.
But the two minute rule, and I don't know.
Where I heard this, I don't rememberwhen I heard it, it was years ago,
but it was a, the essence of it isif something takes 60 seconds, if it
takes two minutes, if it takes lessthan five minutes, do it right then.
Do it right.
When you think about it, when yousee it and your life becomes easier.
(28:49):
And so I've always tried toadhere by that, picking that
thing up, putting that thing away.
If it takes, if it's veryquick to do it right then.
Because if you do one thingthat's very quick, it's over.
If you now have 10 things,those things take a lot longer
because there are 10 of 'em.
And so it feels more daunting.
And so I always try todo that again to a flaw.
(29:09):
Or to a fault.
I think.
Our house is spotless.
It is probably too spotless.
I spend a lot of time picking up and allthat, but that is my two minute rule.
And it applies to work, itapplies to relationships.
And it goes back in, in a interesting way.
So when I graduated high school.
In Haley, Idaho, this small highschool in Haley, Idaho, we had our
(29:31):
graduation committee decided to payfor a celebrity to come and give their
graduation comm commencement speech.
They paid John Raquette.
You remember John Raquette?
John Ette night court, you recognize?
Oh my God, yes.
But to your point, that's a celebrity.
You don't even realize who it is.
John Leket comes to our graduationceremony and he gives this speech.
(29:52):
He doesn't know any of us.
We don't know him, but he did saysomething that, that stays with me,
which to his credit, and he remindedeveryone and he told everyone,
don't forget that the road to hellis paved with good intentions.
And that line, I think about.
Constantly because I think about humannature and if I'm sitting here and I say,
you know what my wife handled the kidsso great last night, I should send her
(30:14):
a quick text and be like, babe, I reallyappreciate how you handled that situation.
Life happens.
You go on your way, but you feel goodthat you thought about sending that text.
So it's almost like you give yourselfthat credit for not having done it.
Yeah, but to the point thatline, the road to hell is LA
is paved with good intentions.
Just thinking about doing the rightthing or doing the good thing.
(30:37):
Isn't enough, you have to actually do it.
And I think so many times in ourlives, we all think about that about
the right thing to do, or we thinkabout doing this thing that might be
good for a family member or a kiddoand all that, and then we don't do it.
But we still feel goodthat we had that thought.
And the point is thatthought isn't enough.
The action is the only thing that matters.
(30:57):
You could argue that if you thinkabout it and you don't do it, it's
even worse than not thinking about it.
And so it's funny I've thoughtabout that line forever.
I think it's an incredibleline and there's still plenty
of times I think about doingsomething nice and I don't do it.
But it, that, that kind of goes into the,the picking up and doing something quick.
If you think about doingsomething, just do it.
If you think about doing something nice ordoing the right thing, just do it because
(31:19):
it's not enough just to think about it.
Makes
tons
of sense.
I love it.
I love it.
Going along with that, one of the thingsthat I started thinking about using
that rule a little bit was I realizedI hadn't been reaching out as well to
some folks that I really wanted to.
And so at least once a week I'll just,instead of driving the work, and we live
in Bend, so it's, very short drives.
Yeah.
Five minutes.
Yeah, I'll just.
Start telling Siri text so and givethem a message and just totally,
(31:42):
really just, it's not much work.
It's really easy.
It's actually, as you said,it's actually doing the thing.
Yeah.
With no additional work,no additional time.
You're just listening toless talk radio on the road.
So like that.
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
that's great.
And that goes a long way.
Yeah.
And think about maybe who you sent it to.
Is having a really shitty, are weallowed to swear on this podcast?
(32:04):
You're good.
Have we
covered that?
We have not covered that.
You are allowed, wehaven't talked about that.
I would say that we have,I've not sworn on it yet.
Okay.
You just did it.
So congratulations.
I'm the
first I'll take it.
Say they're having a really shittyday, week, whatever happened,
they get that for some reason.
That helps 'em through that day.
Yeah.
There's nothing bad thatcould ever come from that.
Not at all.
No.
That's awesome.
Yeah, I think that's great.
Yeah.
I love doing it and itmakes me really happy to do
(32:24):
yeah.
Let's see.
All right, so one of the thingsthat I notice is two things.
I want some advice, parentingadvice, life advice from you that
you may not always take yourself.
So you can give the adviceand don't feel like I'm gonna
hold you to it all the time.
Oh, man.
(32:44):
I, I think this idea of tryingnot to yell or raise your voice.
I think is one of the hardest thingsto do as a parent because we're human.
Yeah.
And there are times we boil over.
We have our daughter is this fireballwho's who can have really big
emotions and sometimes I meet heron that level and it's, and my wife
(33:08):
handles it so much better than I do.
And so I, I'm constantlytrying not to do that.
The higher.
Emotion.
They go, I'm trying togo lower, but you can't.
Yeah.
Not all the time anyway.
Yeah.
And so I would say that's my biggest,maybe that's just my biggest flaw
that I'm always trying to work on.
So that would be the piece of advice.
I would say Stay calm evenwhen they're escalating.
(33:30):
Yeah.
What was the other part of it?
Oh, no I was that was it.
Yeah.
I was just asking some advice about that.
Yeah.
So it makes total sense.
I do the same thing.
It's difficult and you'retrying to figure out whether.
You have to keep remindingyourself that you're the adult.
Yeah, absolutely.
You're the one with the developed brain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, and you've taken,early childhood education.
You understand that thechild brain doesn't.
(33:51):
Yeah.
And we have children the same secondage of the same age, and we spend a
lot of time trying not to yell as well.
Yeah, I think it's reallygood advice no matter what.
I got a couple random questions for you.
Oh, love it.
Oh, this is fun.
Let's do it.
Alright, what would you tell yourselffive years ago or 20 years ago?
Oh,
man.
Five years ago, eyes or other,five years ago, or 20 years ago?
(34:12):
20 years ago.
I. I would tell myself,
I'm probably gonna sit here and thinkabout this for five minutes, and then
you'll have to cut this giant space.
Buying Apple stock and Apple stockwould be, it would be a good idea.
Or buying a house.
Oh, that'd be a good idea in general.
Yeah.
You know what?
It's funny I think I coasted through alot of my life not knowing a lot about.
(34:34):
Real life finances and how kind ofthe real life I don't know if real
life is the right term, but how thegrownup kind of financial world works.
I just skated through life withoutreally knowing much about that.
And so maybe 20 years ago, I would'vetold myself to choose a different major.
Yeah.
It's funny, when I got tocollege, somebody told me, and
I forget who it was, just choosesomething you love to major in.
(34:55):
Yeah.
That way your experience will be great.
And I did that and Iloved my history classes.
I had an incredible historyprofessor named Dr. Gr Greg
Barton, I think it was Greg.
Anyway, Dr. Barton who was incredible.
And so like I loved majoring in history.
I probably could have used.
I don't know.
An engineering major.
Yeah.
Or, whatever it might be, mathematicalmajor, something like that.
(35:17):
That's probably more practical.
And I still would've hadjust as much fun in college.
Yeah.
Chances are.
So maybe something like that that'snot a very fun answer or a very sexy
answer but maybe something like that.
I also wish I would've saved more things.
I had so many emails with my bestfriends and my old Hotmail account.
I don't have them anymore.
Old pictures, all that.
I wish I would've saved more to relive.
(35:38):
'cause man, life is long.
Yeah.
And you're like, God, 20 years ago,30 years ago, what was happening?
It would be fun to kinda relive that.
Yeah.
Having those digital.
Memories.
Yeah.
When you have that now it'sdefinitely nice to have, but, and
as we go on and progress, we havephotos for every single thing.
Totally.
But totally going back andjust having those simple little
ones would've been a big deal.
Would
be awesome.
Yeah.
I love that.
It would be really cool.
(35:58):
That's really cool.
Yep.
I wish.
Yep.
If you could get encyclopedic knowledgeof one subject, what would it be and why?
Oh my God.
Encyclopedic knowledge of one subject.
Man, I, my mind immediately goes to Romanand Greek times that history and we just
(36:20):
went to Italy and Greece and all that.
Like I would love to know more abouthow world civilization worked and
know the ins and outs and all that.
But that again, that sounded great.
That's not a great answer either.
If encyclopedic knowledge about
something, you'd be so annoying ifyou had encyclopedic knowledge about
the entire history of the world.
Oh, man.
When I, all the time.
But boy, I'd
be good at trivia.
(36:40):
Oh, very good.
Yeah, because I'mincredibly bad at trivia.
Yeah, you'd be much better at it.
Like I'm terrible at trivia.
I can walk the sheet up and turn it in.
But I rarely provide anything.
I've found that I don't retaininformation well, I process pretty well.
So I talk well.
I don't hang on to anything.
So trivia.
'cause you're a trivia king.
Yeah I'm okay.
I'm
better than the moderate level.
Yes.
You're better than most.
(37:01):
Most,
yes.
Top 10.
I'd probably say top 20.
Okay.
Yeah.
Trivia.
Yeah.
You're incredible at trivia,so you remember all that stuff.
So even if I had all thatencyclopedic knowledge, you'd still
be better at trivia than I would.
All right.
Thanks.
Yeah.
What is a perfect client to you?
A perfect client.
Oh, a perfect client.
Yeah.
A perfect client.
I would say someone whochallenges me but appreciates me.
(37:23):
It's funny, I just had a client likethis close about a month ago, and
this guy, and he's awesome and hewould appreciate me telling the story.
I'm obviously not gonna say his name,but he wore me out for the first week.
He had talked to five different lenders.
He was grinding me and wewere like, we had a great kind
of back and forth about it.
(37:44):
He knew he was grinding me,I knew he was grinding me.
We acknowledged it, but we're still in it.
He ends up, we're where he needs us to be.
We end up closing the loan.
And as we're getting to theending, man, we're just shooting
the shit back and forth.
And he was like, man, I'm so sorry.
I was like that, butthis has been awesome.
Like you've turned out to be great.
And I was like, same thing.
Let's grab a beer and all that.
(38:04):
And so I think that's it.
Make me work because you should,because of this big financial decision.
So you should do what you'redoing, acknowledge it.
And then stick with me andclose it up and we'll have fun.
I love that.
Yeah.
It was a cool story.
So I would say
that's it.
That's a great con.
Yeah.
One of the things that is importantto do when you're having a client like
that, and I think going into sales andbeing, doing mortgage, those types of
(38:26):
things, it's incredibly important to.
Take these things, thesecomments not as attacks.
Totally.
But as, as tell they're actually justwanting to know more information from you.
Yeah.
And I think that's, oh, it's not personal.
Yeah.
No it's not.
No.
And being able to be on that level.
I think he was doing agreat job testing you.
I love that kind of line.
To, to that point.
When my wife and Irefinanced, we used Steve.
(38:48):
And our assistant Tiffany, who I, nowthat's our team, right before I started
becoming a lender, we refinanced with themand I was an annoying ass client to them
and I still to this day will apologize toTiffany and Steve for being so annoying.
And I think we're, everyone actsin certain ways when it's their
own transaction or whatever it is.
I appreciate that.
(39:08):
I don't get mad at people for that.
No, that's fantastic.
What would be in this line of work?
Two things, not just what are some,what would be a huge compliment for you?
And we've talked aboutthree things more or less.
Your business in mortgage teachingslash coaching and being a parent.
Yeah.
Is there any of the, any of thoselevels that you'd think about and
the compliments that you've receivedthat were really meant a lot to you?
(39:31):
Yeah.
Coaching.
I've kept in touch with a lot of players.
You know what, this is a good story Igot, and I don't know how long ago it is.
I know exactly where the letter isat home, but I got a letter from
a former player, his name's Chris.
I won't share his last name, but hisname is Chris and he's now an attorney.
And I forget where he's anattorney and Chris didn't.
Oh he's gonna remind you soon.
(39:52):
Oh yeah, he will.
Okay.
I'll get a cease and desist.
He played for me.
I don't think he started and I think hewas always frustrated with me for that.
And when I was early on as a headcoach at Rev, I was a bulldog.
I was tough and hard on them too.
Probably too much.
I was 27 years old.
Yeah.
And so I think I was maybesubconsciously creating that gap by
(40:15):
being a pretty tough disciplinarian.
I get a letter from Chris.
This was probably whatever I said,five or so years ago, acknowledging
Coach Corti when I was in your program.
You drove me crazy.
You were so hard on us, in so many words.
I hated you for it andbeing out of it now.
I appreciate it so much now that I'vestepped away and it was elegantly
(40:39):
written, eloquently written and beyondwhat I just said, but man, I read that.
I remember crying becauseit, that wasn't my goal.
My goal wasn't to be hard becausein 10 years they're gonna like me.
I was just doing what Ithought was best at the time.
But that compliment of him being ableto step back and say, I, I know you
were doing your best and you were tryingto do what the, what was best for us.
(41:01):
So that was probably the bestcompliment I've ever gotten.
And I've gotten that from otherplayers in different forms or fashions.
But when it comes to clients in, inmy professional world, obviously just
referring us out to, not because I wantmore business, the act of referring
somebody out means if I was gonna dothis again, I would do it with them.
Absolutely.
That speaks volumes.
And yeah, I would say that's it.
Those are great.
(41:21):
Yeah.
It's being young and being a coach,being young, being a boss, being young.
Yeah.
Having those responsibilities.
There's a maturity that you have to learndoing that as well with a different role.
And I think it would be impossible foryou not to have that, especially in
your early twenties or in your latetwenties teaching a bunch of kids
that are 10 years younger than you.
Totally.
That basically physically are inthe same stature that you are.
(41:43):
Yeah.
Probably taller than that.
Yeah.
Some of 'em.
Yeah.
And.
I would not expect anything else.
And I know that when I startedmanaging, leading and doing those
things, I had the same situation.
I like needed to curlit back a little bit.
Totally.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Couple things just to wrap this up.
I have a couple questions now.
I. This is a questions on books.
Any books that you advise?
Books?
Yeah, books.
I books.
I've heard you've readbooks before in your life.
(42:05):
I've read books.
And is there any books that you'dsay the Road, Cormack, McCarthy,
Cormack McCarthy the Road.
Post apocalyptic, dystopian dad and a son.
The only book in the lastdecade I've openly wept to.
Wow.
And part of that is therelationship with the son.
And I was I think Quinn wasmaybe three when I read it.
(42:27):
So that really really stuck with me.
My favorite book.
Ever to read was of Mice and men.
The amount of times that I readof Mice and Men aloud, because I
would read it to all my classes.
And I did that for eight straight yearsand, four classes a day or whatever.
I love of Mice and Men.
It's my favorite book that I canI could recite so much of it.
(42:48):
And so I loved readingthat any John Crocker book.
Into thin air, into the Wild,under the Banner of Heaven.
He has this kind of journalistictype approach to storytelling,
which I appreciate.
And then I just read one that Ilove the writing of and I didn't
read it, it was an audio book, butthat's how we read books these days.
Yeah.
If we say we read, we actually listen.
So it's mostly total, it's total a bs.
(43:08):
But it's the last part of New York.
My best buddy down in Austin, Texasreferred it to me and I just finished
it two days ago and it was great.
Oh, nice.
I think that's about it.
You used, I was just getting warmed up.
Hey, you just getting warmed up?
I could ask you more stuff if you want.
I, Nope.
No, you're like, I'm all done.
I'm all done, man.
No, I gotta go.
No, I really appreciate.
Gotta go check emails.
(43:29):
You gotta go make people'slives better or worse.
We'll see.
Or worse.
See what rates do maybe worse.
It's I've been looking at that andthe, frankly, the rates have been
sitting at the same place for the lasttwo years, up and down a little bit.
So it's, it's taking a little bitlonger to close houses than they did
some time ago, but I'm really glad thatyou're out there taking care of it.
It's, I,
I got into the business when rateswere 3% and you literally couldn't
(43:53):
fill out applications fast enough'cause there's so many people.
And now and the highestrate hike in history.
And so it's been fascinating for me.
Yeah.
I dunno, down from up, I mean it's, andso it's been a fun learning experience.
Yeah.
We'll see what happens.
No, I and what I really love tosee this time these changes that
happened in 2007, 2012 is you seeso many people leave the market.
(44:14):
And those people that can make it Yeah.
Are just going to destroy.
And I'm so happy for you to be there.
Thank you.
So we have James Cords here.
He is a managing partner of MooreGroup and the president of Boss
Baseball First Studio episode.
James, thanks so much, Todd.
I really appreciate it.
It was a pleasure, man.,
I always love talking with youand with these headsets and
these microphones so clear.
I know.
It is.
It's great.
It's delightful.
(44:34):
So this has been episodeof Pacific Northwest Told
thanks so much andwe'll see you next week.
Thank you all for joining the firstStudio Pacific Northwest Hold podcast.
This is Todd Pryor and we'rehere with Mr. James Cordes.
James Cordes is a managingpartner of the Mora Group and
the president of Boss Baseball.
James was born in Sun Valley, Idahoand attended the University of Redlands
(00:21):
in Southern California where heplayed shortstops for the Bulldogs.
Shortly after graduation, hetook an assistant position at
Redlands East Valley High School.
He attended Boston College for hismaster's in English, along with infield
coaching position at UMass Boston.
As a postgraduate, James returnedto Revis in California as a
(00:42):
head coach and English teacher.
Court has spent eight seasons atthere at the helm and he amassed
a 165 to 63 with one tie record.
I wanna learn about that.
Tie won five CBL Champs Championshipswon five Coach of the Year Awards was
named the Western Region Coach of theYear, as well as named the 2016 San
(01:03):
Bernardino County Coach of the Year.
During his tenure, he had fiveplayers drafted with the MLB draft
39 first team, all CBL players.
And dozens of players sent offthe play at all levels of college.
Sounds like a baseball podcast.
It really does.
So far as the all time leader inwins, league wins and league titles.
(01:24):
The high school retired coach,CO's coaching number 10.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Me and messy.
Yeah.
He also earned a coaching position inthe prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League
with the YA mouth, Dennis Red Socks.
There're studying under the tutelageof the legendary Scott Pickler.
Coors owned his coaching skills, namely anin fielding hitting and pitching in 2015.
(01:45):
He was fortunate to be part ofthe YD Red Sox Championship team.
James then spent spent a year and theinfield coach at the Riverside Community
College where he and his lovely wife Leah,spent a year planning their transition to
Bend Oregon in 2017, they made their moveand set up the roots in central Oregon.
(02:05):
Coach Cordes spent four years at thehelm of Ben Bucks, while also founding
Boss Baseball with Kevin Boss in 2019.
He has skippered both AAAsquads during the 2020 Covid
summer and the 2022 campaign.
Coach Cordes and his wife have ason, Quinn and young daughter Addison
James.
Yes sir. I think we're good then.
I know.
(02:25):
Just wrap it up.
Thanks so much for joining.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's great being here.
Thanks.
Yeah, good.
Nice talking to you.
I talked a little bit aboutyour background and experience.
And to say that you are just a baseballcoach or to just say that you are
a teacher is just, it's not enough.
With your permission, I just wannaknow a little bit of your life story.
What put you in those places so thatwe can learn a little more about you.
(02:48):
Oh yeah.
The only reason I became a teacheris 'cause I wanted to coach.
The only reason I wanted to coach is'cause I played baseball in college and
just one thing led to another, which ledme to Redlands East Valley High School,
which then led me to Boston College.
And the reason I went out to BostonCollege, my parents are from back east
and it's all just a snowball effect fromwanting to get into the coaching ranks.
(03:10):
Getting around the right people.
Re life as as we all know, is all aboutthe people you know, and the people you
meet and the timing of those meetings.
And so I got in front of theright people at the right time.
And because that opportunities wereoffered to me or given to me or available
to me, and so yeah, one thing led toanother and all of a sudden I had been
a teacher for 14 years and I had beena head baseball coach and all that.
(03:32):
And that was my identity for most ofmy twenties and into my early thirties.
And it was a great kindof chapter and period of
my life.
Absolutely.
When you were a teacherI know you did English.
Was there a special groupof students that you had?
Was it a
So it's interesting I was a generaleducation English teacher in 2008.
Recession hit, I was theyoungest English teacher.
I got pink slipped, I was pink slipped.
(03:53):
I was the youngest English teacher.
But because I was the head baseballcoach, they essentially opened up
a special education job for me.
And so I got my specialeducation's license.
At night while I was teaching.
And then I did that for 10 years orso as a special education teacher
and case manager and all that.
And that, transformed a lot of my life aswell and kinda my passions and all that.
(04:13):
And I've always been passionateabout that kind sector in education
and in people and, that was a great.
A great moment in my life to get intothat world and something I didn't expect
to be in, but something I absolutely
loved while I was there.
That's amazing.
So working with kids, with studentswith cognitive disabilities,
that's a whole different worldthan being an English teacher.
(04:34):
What was, when you take a stepback, looking at all the experiences
that you have, just doing thatas a teacher, because that's a
huge transfer of expectations.
What were, what did you.
Think you are going to be steppinginto as opposed to really what
we were and what did you takeit back from those experiences?
Yeah.
Eyes wide shut.
When I walked in.
I had no idea what I was gettinginto but ultimately I always loved
(04:55):
being in front of a classroom, ofbeing in front of students, sharing
whatever it is we were talking about.
I always loved in, there'sa sense of performance to it
and I love that element of it.
I love being around kids and I knewgoing into it, the only thing that
mattered is if I cared about them.
And especially for kiddos whomight be dealing with learning
disabilities that others don't haveto deal with or not dealing with.
(05:16):
And oftentimes thatthere's a translation from.
How is that home life and reallykinda what is that level of
commitment they've gotten fromparents or family and all that?
It's all a direct result of anumber of different factors.
And so when they walked into thatclassroom, if you cared about them, if
you showed up every day, if you actuallygave to them when they walked in.
If you cared, if you taught,if you engaged, it was the
(05:39):
greatest thing in the world.
It was so much fun.
There, there are so many opportunitiesand so many jobs and so many walks
of life to, to do the bare minimum.
Yeah.
And teaching is no different.
But if you didn't do that.
And if you cared, that mightbe the highlight of their day.
And so I really leaned into that.
I had a co-teacher, she wasmy paraprofessional aid.
Her name was Mayor Gaffney.
(06:00):
I mean she was basically my co-teacherand we were incredible kind of
foils to each other, but we had adynamic to the classroom that I'd
like to think was a really specialplace for the students to come into.
And I think back on those timesfondly, 'cause I think we created
a really cool environment for 'em.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
When you're saying that I immediatelystarted thinking about, if I was gonna
(06:21):
ask what you would get from baseball,which we'll talk about a little bit later.
When we, when you started bringingup the expectation, the relationship,
all the outside things, it alsosounds like your experience coaching.
Translated really well into working withki kids that had these behavioral or
cognitive disabilities and really gavethem something that, that a base that they
(06:43):
might not have received somewhere else.
Yeah.
I think showing up isthe bottom line in life.
If you show up, people willmeet you where they need to.
But if you're not there, and I don'tjust mean physically, obviously, you
have to be there physically but beengaged, be there mentally, not just be
in the room, but be a part of the room.
If you're there, people will meet you.
And whether you're coaching, whetheryou're teaching, whether you're with
(07:06):
your kids, it doesn't matter but.
But meeting them where they need to bemet and being there and being engaged,
it, that's everything in the world.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
And I think that's teaching,it's coaching, it's everywhere.
Oh, that's great.
When you were teaching wheneverI walk in I see these teachers,
I really appreciate all they do.
And from, 8:00 AM till three in theafternoon, they have to be on and.
(07:29):
Working with some of these students andjust, when it was you teaching English and
then you went to special needs, what wereyou doing and how did you keep yourself,
through the, eight, nine months a year?
I. Engaged.
And being able to wake up everymorning to say, we're coming back,
we're gonna do this, we're gonnakeep them engaged, we're gonna make
sure that they know that you care.
Because sometimes caringis just not enough.
(07:50):
Totally.
Yeah.
You have to deliver.
I loved writing.
I loved history.
And those are the two topics that.
I taught in special ed.
My dad has been a long time writer.
He's a sports journalist for 45 years.
And so writing is in our blood.
It's something I'm very good at.
I've been a newspaper writer myself,so I have a passion for English.
(08:11):
And so teaching that Ienjoyed, I genuinely did.
I majored in history and soteaching that I genuinely enjoyed.
And a lot of what I delivered the lecturesin front may not have even been the most
effective form of teaching, to be honest.
But I loved doing it.
I loved being a performer and beingupfront, and to be honest, I was
probably more ridiculous than.
Then they needed me to be, but I enjoyedthat kind of entertainment facet of it.
(08:34):
And so I think that's what helped me.
'cause there are plenty of days,you know this as a working grownup
that you just don't want to do it.
But if it's something that youenjoy, you're at least interested
in, it helps you get overthose hurdles when you need to.
Oh, that's fantastic.
It's, it is amazing to me to see what.
An engaged, caring parent or teachercan do to kids and being able to do
(08:55):
those in three levels, teaching themsport, being an actual parent and then
doing that with students is amazing.
I couldn't even.
Imagine how much work that was, andthen at three o'clock in the afternoon
you gotta go out the door and makesure that these kids are, doing
right as a short stop or catchingball and doing all those things.
It's
interesting in Southern Californiawhere I was, our baseball started at
baseball was a baseball class, so Itaught the first four periods, then
(09:19):
we had lunch, then I had fifth periodprep, then we had sixth period baseball.
So our practice started at one 50.
One 20 every day.
What?
Yeah, it's just a great, and Iassume that's how it is still
down there, but it's ingrained.
I had, for the 10 months that Iwas teaching, I had baseball class
every six period, and so that's how.
Important sports are to the culture.
Especially down there.
These kids were I could have hold, I couldhave held four hour practices every day.
(09:43):
And so we didn't luckily, but yeah,it was a little bit different than
heading out there at three o'clock.
We were already out there forabout a, an hour and a half.
Now tell me, now
we've talked about this a little bit andwe've sent, text about this very subject.
And I just came back froma trip to Tennessee and.
Some of these schools that I saw,they, I wouldn't say they're in
disrepair, but they definitelycould use some improvements.
(10:04):
And next to them had somevery nice sports facilities.
And I know that's fromboosters mostly and all that.
And I'm glad that theyhave those things and I.
Most likely make sure that thekids have a good education.
When you're saying that you're goingout at every day, fifth period, sixth
period with kids is that a full-time,a full year of them doing that?
(10:25):
So they're in and outlike full of, full year.
They're doing baseball in,
in a lot of ways.
Our calendar was in the fall.
It.
We would be out there three days a week.
There was a time period we havewhen I fir or a time limit.
We had hours per week in the fall.
Okay.
We also played games though.
We would typically playabout 20 games in the fall.
Practicing three days a week,lifting three or four days a week.
(10:46):
Get into the winter,come January, February.
We're full bore at that point.
Five days a week, youcould go six on Saturday.
We played another 10 games, maybe.
The season actually starts theend of February, and then you're
doing the exact same thing, butyou have another 30 game slate.
And so in 10 months these kids areplaying maybe 60 games with you.
You have freshman JV and varsity.
(11:07):
You practice however many timesthat is over the length of the year.
And I was always amazed when highschool, June would come around, the
season would be over and high schoolcoaches would be sending out emails
to set up their summer schedule.
And I was always veryadamantly against that.
Mostly because I. Thosekids needed a break from me.
Yeah, absolutely.
They didn't want to hear my voice anymore.
I didn't wanna hear my ownvoice, to them anymore.
(11:28):
And so I always encourage kids to goout there, get coached by somebody else,
play for a different program in thesummer, I'm gonna go do something else.
I coached summer ball in theCape, like you referenced and I
learned myself while my playersare learning from somebody else.
I was never afraid of them goingand meeting another coach and
working with another coach.
And so I, I think that wasan important break, but.
(11:49):
That's 12 months outta theyear these kids are playing.
Yeah.
12, 12 months out of the yearthey're playing baseball.
Think about how many thousandsof throws there are on their arm.
And one of the reasons we moved up toBen was to get away from that culture.
Not that I didn't love it at the time.
I loved it as a baseball coach.
It was incredible.
It's not where we wanted to raise ourkiddos in that culture of having to
play 12 months outta the year like that.
(12:11):
It's, that was just our choice.
It doesn't mean it's wrong.
That's, that was just notwhere we wanted to be.
Yeah, we we both saw that that, thatquote by Tommy John non-baseball fans.
A also, he has a surgery named after him.
From a procedure that when he wasabout 29 years old, and it was the
first person that received saidsurgery so he can go back and play.
(12:31):
And he started talking about how, kidsin high school started getting this.
Yeah.
And how that repetitive motionmay not be the best thing.
And as you were justsaying, it just seems.
Y as you'd wanna learnfrom a different coach.
You may wanna learn from a differentsport, you may wanna learn from.
Oh, absolutely.
A different activity.
Yep.
And I think we're bothon the same page of that.
Is the things you'll learn.
(12:52):
The challenges that you'll have toovercome will be worth it in the end.
Yeah, multi-sport athleteshave a huge advantage over
kids who specialize early on.
Just the athleticism itself, that abasketball player helps to create,
but also the, I think the abilityto maybe compartmentalize certain
things in certain situations.
I just think it creates a better athlete,which then creates a better, an athlete
(13:16):
handling situations better as well.
And, yeah.
Tommy John, we had, when I was at Rev in2005, 2006 maybe, Tyler Chatwood was the
best freshman in Southern California.
He went to Rev, he had Tommy John.
When he was 15 years old, I wanna say.
Wow, it might been 14.
And he ended up coming back andI mean he was, he pitched in the
big leagues for probably 15 years.
(13:37):
He ended up having a second, Tommy John,I believe, when he was 20 when he was 25.
And they, it says, they say ithas about a 10 year shelf life.
And he had about 10 years later, hehad a wildly successful major League
baseball career was drafted real early.
But yeah, to that point, thatwas the earliest I had ever heard
of somebody getting Tommy John.
And he needed it.
I hear stories.
I have no.
An actual account of somebody doing thisis just what I've heard, that there'll
(13:59):
be people who elect to do it, as kids tohopefully strengthen that tendon, and in a
couple years be throwing harder for that.
And just that idea of that'sinsane of needing to do that.
It's an unnatural motion throwing.
Yeah.
And so it's, you just,you have to control.
The amount of stressyou're putting on the arm.
And it's not necessarily just curve ballsearly, it's the amount of repetitions.
(14:20):
It's the amount of time you fireup your arm at an early age.
And that's ultimately whatcauses injuries at 14 years old.
And then kids are doing it voluntarily.
Yeah.
And again, ridiculous.
Maybe not, but Yeah I've read things
about that.
Yeah.
No, I understand.
It's conjecture.
I'm sure there's some story ofsomebody wanting to do that.
It just seems a little crazy.
So you now have transferred outof teaching and you are now in the
(14:44):
mortgage industry at this time.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you've been doing thatfor quite a few years now.
Yeah, about five years, yeah.
You've been wildly successful.
It goes back to you surroundyourself with the right people.
At the right time andthings are hard to screw up.
Yeah.
I think is ultimatelywhat it comes down to.
I think that's a very fair,
I loved seeing your progressionthrough your career doing this because
(15:06):
I've, it was deer in the headlights.
Do I change my career for real?
What does this all mean?
And then seeing you be very successful.
And it was one of those thingswhere as soon as I saw you.
Walking around saying,oh, I'm gonna do this.
It was obvious.
I was like, of courseyou're gonna be doing that.
Of course, this is the rolethat you're gonna take.
And it was the idea of you coachingyou, you vastly care about people.
(15:27):
You vastly care about, not justthe end result, it's the person in
the family that's involved, what'sgoing on with them and making
sure that they're taken care of.
And I've seen that time and time again.
And that goes along with one of myquestions that I actually wanna ask you.
As technology grows, as does the abilityfor individuals to get, very low price
deals and get all this wonderful thingsdifferent types of mortgage or realtors
(15:51):
or lawyers or financial advisors, youcan get these zero costs situations.
And that sounds wonderful at onset.
Wow.
It's free.
However, in my humble opinion.
I think a local professional's farmore important for a variety of
reasons, but I thought it'd be greatfor you to give some thoughts on that
yourself and why they pitch myself.
We just pitched overallwhy it's important.
(16:13):
I will say this it's onlyimportant to the people.
It's important to, this having been onEarth 40 or 50 years, it is amazing.
How vastly different everybody is fromone another and the amount of people
you have who choose to do it one wayversus the amount of people you have
who choose to do it the other way.
You know somebody very well may never wantto talk to a mortgage advisor, a financial
(16:34):
advisor, CPA or anything like that,and do it on their own, and that might
absolutely be the right route for them.
Good for them.
That's just how they choose to operate.
Absolutely.
Some people like the idea of speakingto somebody just to hear it, it makes
them feel better Speaking with somebodylocally who has relationships, that might
be the way that they have to do business.
And then you have people in themiddle where they're not necessarily
(16:54):
sure what they want to do.
And so I wouldn't say there'sany right or wrong other than
what it is that you want to do.
The people we tend to work withtend to want to have somebody.
On the phone with them or on theother side of a text or on the
other side of an email telling themit'll be all right, giving them
updates all that sort of stuff.
There are plenty of people who don'twant that, and that's right for them.
(17:16):
So luckily there are so many peoplein the world that we get to deal with
the ones who want to deal with us.
Absolutely.
And everything I've seen has,been gangbusters for your team.
You've been there and consistent andthoughtful when they needed people.
And for me personally, when I thinkof the largest financial decisions
you make in your life, buying a home,I. Getting married getting, having,
(17:38):
a trust account for your children ora will or all these types of things.
It's, there is benefit to sitdown and talk with a professional.
Because you don't knowwhat you don't know.
Totally.
And.
Yeah.
Having that person there is exceptionallyimportant, in my humble opinion.
And I don't know, I would ever be in asituation where I wouldn't get a realtor,
a loan officer, a financial advisor, ora lawyer for these types of situations.
(18:01):
Yeah.
Just because the long-termcost could be such a big
deal.
Yeah.
And it's just peace of mind.
We, you mentioned trust.
We set up our trust lastfall and we did it in haste.
'cause we, my wife and I, wereabout to go on a trip to Europe
and wanna have everything.
Yeah.
We wanna have everything set up incase the plane went down or something.
And so we did it quickly, but there wasno doubt we were gonna use a local lawyer.
It cost a good chunk of money, butthat wasn't even a thought to try
(18:25):
to do it on our own to save a buck.
'cause it, that's just not somethingit feels like you save money on.
No.
At least in, in our.
In our case, no, not at all.
And by the
way, you said 40 or 50 years.
It hasn't been 50 years yet,so let's just, I po We're
almost there though.
Yeah, we're almost there.
We're almost there, but I just
wanted to, make sure thatwe're on the same page.
It's not 50 years, I shouldhave said 40 so or so years.
(18:47):
No.
Thank you.
One of the things I just wanna know.
There's, it would be fun to learna little bit more about, like any
stories that you think that make you.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
I, so I've made two really big decisionsprofessionally, at least in my life.
And I just like to thinkabout them because I was.
My wife and I were talking about someonewho has a big decision in front of her and
(19:11):
how hard it is to make those decisions.
And we are just talking about howwhen you have to make life decisions,
rarely are they ever black and white.
Rarely is the answer ever veryeasily, one way or the other.
It's almost always gray.
It's almost always the rightanswer, whichever way you go.
And it's always hard to do.
And I remember when I was 25years old, I was living in Boston.
(19:32):
I just got my master's.
I loved Boston.
I was bartending.
I had this great group offriends I was coaching.
I was just wrapping up my masters.
I could see myself livingthere for the rest of my life.
And I got a call from SteveHernandez, who was my mentor at Rev
Redlands East Valley High School.
He was the head coach and he was retiringand he was giving me the program.
He called me, he had set it up.
(19:53):
I talked to the assistant superintendent.
It was set, it was mine if I wantedit, and I didn't know if I wanted it.
And I spent like a month hemming andhawing, and I remember he finally
called me up, he calls me meet,he goes, meet, what are you doing?
You need to make a decision.
People are waiting on this.
And it's I was waiting for something tofall outta the sky and tell me what to do.
(20:15):
And obviously that doesn't happen.
So I finally I made the decision, I tookthe job and I remember leaving Boston.
I loaded up my Jeep and I wasdriving away and I was bawling
because I didn't wanna leave Boston.
I thought that's where I should be, butI. Going back there turned out to be the
best decision I had made at that point.
I met my future wife and I hada very successful career there,
(20:37):
and it just was found buildingblocks for the rest of my career.
And so that was great.
And so the same decision happenedwhen I decided to leave teaching.
I'd run the course ongetting a lot out of it.
The job up here in Oregon wasvastly different than the one in
California, so I wasn't just, Iwasn't as fulfilled as I used to be.
And I had somebody also named Steve sMoore come to me and he and I had met each
(21:00):
other through baseball and he basicallyin a very kind of Steve Moore type way,
he basically said, I think you'd be reallygood at this if you're ever interested.
And he just left it hanging like that.
And I. I stewed on that for a longtime we had a 1-year-old, or maybe
a 2-year-old, we were trying for oursecond, it was about the worst time
I could ever think about changingcareers in terms of stability.
(21:22):
Not to mention going from maybe one ofthe most stable careers in the world.
Teaching to one of theleast stable careers sales.
And I ended up making the decisionbecause IF it was a bet on myself.
It was probably the biggestdecision I've ever made as a
grownup, at least professionally.
It could have been the biggestone in terms of backfiring.
I remember telling my parents about it.
They were not thrilled about it.
(21:43):
But again, I go back to man.
Decisions are never easy,they're never clear.
And Mo most big ones are not clear.
You literally just have to make thatchoice and then you deal with whatever
consequences from that decision later.
But it's just never that,it's never that clear when you
have to make those big ones.
And luckily for both of these,they've worked out very well.
And hopefully that's stillthe case down the road.
(22:05):
Oh, absolutely.
It's lovely to hear the idea ofmoving from Boston, the place that
you wanted to be, because it'sromantic if you think baseball.
I don't think I can thinkof more of a romantic place.
It just is.
And then being in this lovely area,like the Cape Cod, and then moving
back to where you feel, and it's,you have no idea what's gonna happen.
And it's this wonderful fractals of lifewhere you're, you don't know what's gonna
(22:26):
be, but you can look at it now and go,this is obviously the best decision.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But at the time it's, oh, not at all.
There's nothing obvious about it.
None.
Not at all.
And that's so hard.
And I think a lot ofpeople in life get stuck.
Waiting and maybe that's the right choicefor them, but it's just, man, it's a
lesson and this is how the world works.
You just gotta, you gotta make thosedecisions when they come to you.
Absolutely.
(22:46):
I'm glad you did it, because if not Idon't know who would've hung out with.
I know during Covid, who wouldbe on your first podcast.
I know.
It would been, it'd been impossible.
No one else would've done this.
You can't do the second without the first.
Thank you.
One of the things James and I were.
Met through mutual friends.
And both of our wives werepregnant at the same time.
And our first children wereborn like A week apart.
(23:07):
A week apart.
Yeah.
So we've experienced a lot ofchildhood rearing together.
Both the positives and the negatives.
Yeah.
And I want to get a little bit intothat because, I always admire some
of the ways that you hold yourselfaccountable and the way you treat
yourself and you treat your children.
Thank you.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
This is, I could, I would say thatwithout this you know that No,
(23:28):
but we got on tape now, so Yeah.
We have it on tape.
Yeah.
You're better looking.
You better too.
Okay.
One of the things I wannatalk a little bit about is.
You have, and you've had this, andwe've seen, I've seen this before,
where you were coaching heavily for awhile and you had one or two children.
I don't know if it was during thetime when you had both kids and you
were working a very full-time job.
(23:49):
And I saw that you pulled awayfrom coaching for a while.
So that you could be more, more presentfor your wife and your children.
Yeah.
And I could applaud you on thatbecause being able to walk away
from something that is a passion.
Is a lot more than just that action.
It's also saying thatthis is part of my life.
This is ending.
Yeah.
And I'm not saying that it, but you speak.
No, it's so true.
(24:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can, you're going to teach, yourson maybe Addie on some things, but.
That part of your lifemay not be the same again.
Yeah.
And it's a huge transition.
When you're doing that, you hadto have this balance, of your
passions and your family and career.
How do you do that, on a day to day orjust when you're looking at it, do you
look at it a yearly basis a phase basis?
Or just on a daily basis?
(24:30):
Yeah, and to go back to whenI left baseball that was one
of the hardest decisions.
I thought I was gonna have to encounter'cause I knew that time was gonna come.
Quinn, my son was gonna startLittle League and Addie was gonna,
I knew that time was gonna come.
When the time came.
It actually turned outto be relatively easy.
Really?
And I was shedding an identity that had.
(24:51):
That I had worn for 20 years.
Almost everyone who knewme as a baseball coach.
And I also, but leaving wasfine because I got, I love being
a parent, I love being a dad.
I love my family.
And so it wasn't hard.
But I still carry guilt about, Ihelped make something with Boss
Baseball in 2019, and Kevin and Iare very close friends and all that.
(25:11):
And I stepped back quite a bit andI still feel guilty about that.
I know it was the right decisionfor me and my family, but I also
know I did a good job with it and
it was tough to leave it.
And I still feel guilty about it.
But that's just, that was thedecision I had to make at the time.
Yeah.
(25:31):
And in terms, you probablyfeel this all the time too.
I think any parent feels this, like,when it comes to time with your family,
it never feels like you have enough.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It always feels like the clock'srunning out every single day.
Both of our kiddos go to the same daycare.
I always deal with, man, we'redropping 'em off in the morning,
we're picking 'em up in the afternoon.
How much actual time arewe getting with them?
I think about that all the time because wedon't have family here in Central Oregon.
(25:53):
And so I think we're alwaysevolving and how we feel about that.
Our emotions are always evolving,but you just do the best you
can and we all, we talk aboutparenting together all the time.
Yeah.
And the struggles and the guiltand the joys we get from it.
And so it's always evolving and changing.
Yeah.
It was interesting.
I was talking to somebody lastnight and there was this, we had
a great conversation about childrearing and she asked me, are
(26:18):
you one of those parents that.
Say, wants to say to the kids,oh, I gave up this for you.
I gave up that for you.
And I was like, of course not.
Of course not.
Why would I ever do that?
Because everything I've ever donehas been a decision of my own.
And when I hear what you're saying,and this is a big di, this is a
big deal, and I don't think youacknowledge this as much as you should.
(26:40):
When you said you were enteringthat season of your life.
In no way was it in blame ofyour children or your wife.
There's no animosity there.
Sure.
And that's a big difference inwhat a lot of people I think feel.
And that's such a positive thingto say, I'm doing this to run
to you, not because I have to.
(27:00):
Sure.
And it's such a wonderful thing to hear,and I think you should really embrace and
acknowledge that a little bit more andbe really proud of that decision because
of so much time, effort, and work youtook for literally decades in your life.
That you walked away for thereason that made the most sense
to you?
The, that's really cool to hear.
I've never thought about it that way.
That's really neat that youlooked at it that way, and I
appreciate you saying that.
(27:22):
Yeah and I think it helps thatin Leah, my wife would've been
fine with me continuing to coach.
She's a, an incredible mother.
She was fine for thosedinners I missed and all that.
But it came down to, that'snot where I wanted to be.
I didn't wanna be on the field.
I wanna be having dinner with my parents.
But yeah, I appreciate you saying that.
That is a good way to look at it.
Yeah.
You're going to.
And I know that you're gonnacontinue being, you're gonna
coach and do that type of stuff.
(27:42):
And it's more of a passion to to handwhat you've learned through the years
to others in a really joyful manner.
And I think that's wonderfulto do and to be as a father.
I think that's fantastic.
Let's see . one of the things Iwanted to ask is your two minute rule.
Yeah.
Two minute rule, five minute rule,three minute rule, 62nd rule.
Yeah.
One of the things I, if you ever get achance to go over to James's house Yeah.
(28:04):
He has a junk drawer that isthe cleanest junk drawer I've
ever seen in my entire life.
It's amazing.
I love it.
I'm so impressed.
And he uses some rules to makesure that he's taking care
of himself in multiple ways.
So what, tell me about this to you.
I think that, I think we shouldpreface it with, I'm a bit OCD and
talking about being a good parent.
I probably take away from my time with mykids because I'm picking up constantly.
(28:26):
I'm that person who's always picking up.
And that's just a, probablylikely a flaw in myself.
But the two minute rule, and I don't know.
Where I heard this, I don't rememberwhen I heard it, it was years ago,
but it was a, the essence of it isif something takes 60 seconds, if it
takes two minutes, if it takes lessthan five minutes, do it right then.
Do it right.
When you think about it, when yousee it and your life becomes easier.
(28:49):
And so I've always tried toadhere by that, picking that
thing up, putting that thing away.
If it takes, if it's veryquick to do it right then.
Because if you do one thingthat's very quick, it's over.
If you now have 10 things,those things take a lot longer
because there are 10 of 'em.
And so it feels more daunting.
And so I always try todo that again to a flaw.
(29:09):
Or to a fault.
I think.
Our house is spotless.
It is probably too spotless.
I spend a lot of time picking up and allthat, but that is my two minute rule.
And it applies to work, itapplies to relationships.
And it goes back in, in a interesting way.
So when I graduated high school.
In Haley, Idaho, this small highschool in Haley, Idaho, we had our
(29:31):
graduation committee decided to payfor a celebrity to come and give their
graduation comm commencement speech.
They paid John Raquette.
You remember John Raquette?
John Ette night court, you recognize?
Oh my God, yes.
But to your point, that's a celebrity.
You don't even realize who it is.
John Leket comes to our graduationceremony and he gives this speech.
(29:52):
He doesn't know any of us.
We don't know him, but he did saysomething that, that stays with me,
which to his credit, and he remindedeveryone and he told everyone,
don't forget that the road to hellis paved with good intentions.
And that line, I think about.
Constantly because I think about humannature and if I'm sitting here and I say,
you know what my wife handled the kidsso great last night, I should send her
(30:14):
a quick text and be like, babe, I reallyappreciate how you handled that situation.
Life happens.
You go on your way, but you feel goodthat you thought about sending that text.
So it's almost like you give yourselfthat credit for not having done it.
Yeah, but to the point thatline, the road to hell is LA
is paved with good intentions.
Just thinking about doing the rightthing or doing the good thing.
(30:37):
Isn't enough, you have to actually do it.
And I think so many times in ourlives, we all think about that about
the right thing to do, or we thinkabout doing this thing that might be
good for a family member or a kiddoand all that, and then we don't do it.
But we still feel goodthat we had that thought.
And the point is thatthought isn't enough.
The action is the only thing that matters.
(30:57):
You could argue that if you thinkabout it and you don't do it, it's
even worse than not thinking about it.
And so it's funny I've thoughtabout that line forever.
I think it's an incredibleline and there's still plenty
of times I think about doingsomething nice and I don't do it.
But it, that, that kind of goes into the,the picking up and doing something quick.
If you think about doingsomething, just do it.
If you think about doing something nice ordoing the right thing, just do it because
(31:19):
it's not enough just to think about it.
Makes
tons
of sense.
I love it.
I love it.
Going along with that, one of the thingsthat I started thinking about using
that rule a little bit was I realizedI hadn't been reaching out as well to
some folks that I really wanted to.
And so at least once a week I'll just,instead of driving the work, and we live
in Bend, so it's, very short drives.
Yeah.
Five minutes.
Yeah, I'll just.
Start telling Siri text so and givethem a message and just totally,
(31:42):
really just, it's not much work.
It's really easy.
It's actually, as you said,it's actually doing the thing.
Yeah.
With no additional work,no additional time.
You're just listening toless talk radio on the road.
So like that.
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
that's great.
And that goes a long way.
Yeah.
And think about maybe who you sent it to.
Is having a really shitty, are weallowed to swear on this podcast?
(32:04):
You're good.
Have we
covered that?
We have not covered that.
You are allowed, wehaven't talked about that.
I would say that we have,I've not sworn on it yet.
Okay.
You just did it.
So congratulations.
I'm the
first I'll take it.
Say they're having a really shittyday, week, whatever happened,
they get that for some reason.
That helps 'em through that day.
Yeah.
There's nothing bad thatcould ever come from that.
Not at all.
No.
That's awesome.
Yeah, I think that's great.
Yeah.
I love doing it and itmakes me really happy to do
(32:24):
yeah.
Let's see.
All right, so one of the thingsthat I notice is two things.
I want some advice, parentingadvice, life advice from you that
you may not always take yourself.
So you can give the adviceand don't feel like I'm gonna
hold you to it all the time.
Oh, man.
(32:44):
I, I think this idea of tryingnot to yell or raise your voice.
I think is one of the hardest thingsto do as a parent because we're human.
Yeah.
And there are times we boil over.
We have our daughter is this fireballwho's who can have really big
emotions and sometimes I meet heron that level and it's, and my wife
(33:08):
handles it so much better than I do.
And so I, I'm constantlytrying not to do that.
The higher.
Emotion.
They go, I'm trying togo lower, but you can't.
Yeah.
Not all the time anyway.
Yeah.
And so I would say that's my biggest,maybe that's just my biggest flaw
that I'm always trying to work on.
So that would be the piece of advice.
I would say Stay calm evenwhen they're escalating.
(33:30):
Yeah.
What was the other part of it?
Oh, no I was that was it.
Yeah.
I was just asking some advice about that.
Yeah.
So it makes total sense.
I do the same thing.
It's difficult and you'retrying to figure out whether.
You have to keep remindingyourself that you're the adult.
Yeah, absolutely.
You're the one with the developed brain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, and you've taken,early childhood education.
You understand that thechild brain doesn't.
(33:51):
Yeah.
And we have children the same secondage of the same age, and we spend a
lot of time trying not to yell as well.
Yeah, I think it's reallygood advice no matter what.
I got a couple random questions for you.
Oh, love it.
Oh, this is fun.
Let's do it.
Alright, what would you tell yourselffive years ago or 20 years ago?
Oh,
man.
Five years ago, eyes or other,five years ago, or 20 years ago?
(34:12):
20 years ago.
I. I would tell myself,
I'm probably gonna sit here and thinkabout this for five minutes, and then
you'll have to cut this giant space.
Buying Apple stock and Apple stockwould be, it would be a good idea.
Or buying a house.
Oh, that'd be a good idea in general.
Yeah.
You know what?
It's funny I think I coasted through alot of my life not knowing a lot about.
(34:34):
Real life finances and how kind ofthe real life I don't know if real
life is the right term, but how thegrownup kind of financial world works.
I just skated through life withoutreally knowing much about that.
And so maybe 20 years ago, I would'vetold myself to choose a different major.
Yeah.
It's funny, when I got tocollege, somebody told me, and
I forget who it was, just choosesomething you love to major in.
(34:55):
Yeah.
That way your experience will be great.
And I did that and Iloved my history classes.
I had an incredible historyprofessor named Dr. Gr Greg
Barton, I think it was Greg.
Anyway, Dr. Barton who was incredible.
And so like I loved majoring in history.
I probably could have used.
I don't know.
An engineering major.
Yeah.
Or, whatever it might be, mathematicalmajor, something like that.
(35:17):
That's probably more practical.
And I still would've hadjust as much fun in college.
Yeah.
Chances are.
So maybe something like that that'snot a very fun answer or a very sexy
answer but maybe something like that.
I also wish I would've saved more things.
I had so many emails with my bestfriends and my old Hotmail account.
I don't have them anymore.
Old pictures, all that.
I wish I would've saved more to relive.
(35:38):
'cause man, life is long.
Yeah.
And you're like, God, 20 years ago,30 years ago, what was happening?
It would be fun to kinda relive that.
Yeah.
Having those digital.
Memories.
Yeah.
When you have that now it'sdefinitely nice to have, but, and
as we go on and progress, we havephotos for every single thing.
Totally.
But totally going back andjust having those simple little
ones would've been a big deal.
Would
be awesome.
Yeah.
I love that.
It would be really cool.
(35:58):
That's really cool.
Yep.
I wish.
Yep.
If you could get encyclopedic knowledgeof one subject, what would it be and why?
Oh my God.
Encyclopedic knowledge of one subject.
Man, I, my mind immediately goes to Romanand Greek times that history and we just
(36:20):
went to Italy and Greece and all that.
Like I would love to know more abouthow world civilization worked and
know the ins and outs and all that.
But that again, that sounded great.
That's not a great answer either.
If encyclopedic knowledge about
something, you'd be so annoying ifyou had encyclopedic knowledge about
the entire history of the world.
Oh, man.
When I, all the time.
But boy, I'd
be good at trivia.
(36:40):
Oh, very good.
Yeah, because I'mincredibly bad at trivia.
Yeah, you'd be much better at it.
Like I'm terrible at trivia.
I can walk the sheet up and turn it in.
But I rarely provide anything.
I've found that I don't retaininformation well, I process pretty well.
So I talk well.
I don't hang on to anything.
So trivia.
'cause you're a trivia king.
Yeah I'm okay.
I'm
better than the moderate level.
Yes.
You're better than most.
(37:01):
Most,
yes.
Top 10.
I'd probably say top 20.
Okay.
Yeah.
Trivia.
Yeah.
You're incredible at trivia,so you remember all that stuff.
So even if I had all thatencyclopedic knowledge, you'd still
be better at trivia than I would.
All right.
Thanks.
Yeah.
What is a perfect client to you?
A perfect client.
Oh, a perfect client.
Yeah.
A perfect client.
I would say someone whochallenges me but appreciates me.
(37:23):
It's funny, I just had a client likethis close about a month ago, and
this guy, and he's awesome and hewould appreciate me telling the story.
I'm obviously not gonna say his name,but he wore me out for the first week.
He had talked to five different lenders.
He was grinding me and wewere like, we had a great kind
of back and forth about it.
(37:44):
He knew he was grinding me,I knew he was grinding me.
We acknowledged it, but we're still in it.
He ends up, we're where he needs us to be.
We end up closing the loan.
And as we're getting to theending, man, we're just shooting
the shit back and forth.
And he was like, man, I'm so sorry.
I was like that, butthis has been awesome.
Like you've turned out to be great.
And I was like, same thing.
Let's grab a beer and all that.
(38:04):
And so I think that's it.
Make me work because you should,because of this big financial decision.
So you should do what you'redoing, acknowledge it.
And then stick with me andclose it up and we'll have fun.
I love that.
Yeah.
It was a cool story.
So I would say
that's it.
That's a great con.
Yeah.
One of the things that is importantto do when you're having a client like
that, and I think going into sales andbeing, doing mortgage, those types of
(38:26):
things, it's incredibly important to.
Take these things, thesecomments not as attacks.
Totally.
But as, as tell they're actually justwanting to know more information from you.
Yeah.
And I think that's, oh, it's not personal.
Yeah.
No it's not.
No.
And being able to be on that level.
I think he was doing agreat job testing you.
I love that kind of line.
To, to that point.
When my wife and Irefinanced, we used Steve.
(38:48):
And our assistant Tiffany, who I, nowthat's our team, right before I started
becoming a lender, we refinanced with themand I was an annoying ass client to them
and I still to this day will apologize toTiffany and Steve for being so annoying.
And I think we're, everyone actsin certain ways when it's their
own transaction or whatever it is.
I appreciate that.
(39:08):
I don't get mad at people for that.
No, that's fantastic.
What would be in this line of work?
Two things, not just what are some,what would be a huge compliment for you?
And we've talked aboutthree things more or less.
Your business in mortgage teachingslash coaching and being a parent.
Yeah.
Is there any of the, any of thoselevels that you'd think about and
the compliments that you've receivedthat were really meant a lot to you?
(39:31):
Yeah.
Coaching.
I've kept in touch with a lot of players.
You know what, this is a good story Igot, and I don't know how long ago it is.
I know exactly where the letter isat home, but I got a letter from
a former player, his name's Chris.
I won't share his last name, but hisname is Chris and he's now an attorney.
And I forget where he's anattorney and Chris didn't.
Oh he's gonna remind you soon.
(39:52):
Oh yeah, he will.
Okay.
I'll get a cease and desist.
He played for me.
I don't think he started and I think hewas always frustrated with me for that.
And when I was early on as a headcoach at Rev, I was a bulldog.
I was tough and hard on them too.
Probably too much.
I was 27 years old.
Yeah.
And so I think I was maybesubconsciously creating that gap by
(40:15):
being a pretty tough disciplinarian.
I get a letter from Chris.
This was probably whatever I said,five or so years ago, acknowledging
Coach Corti when I was in your program.
You drove me crazy.
You were so hard on us, in so many words.
I hated you for it andbeing out of it now.
I appreciate it so much now that I'vestepped away and it was elegantly
(40:39):
written, eloquently written and beyondwhat I just said, but man, I read that.
I remember crying becauseit, that wasn't my goal.
My goal wasn't to be hard becausein 10 years they're gonna like me.
I was just doing what Ithought was best at the time.
But that compliment of him being ableto step back and say, I, I know you
were doing your best and you were tryingto do what the, what was best for us.
(41:01):
So that was probably the bestcompliment I've ever gotten.
And I've gotten that from otherplayers in different forms or fashions.
But when it comes to clients in, inmy professional world, obviously just
referring us out to, not because I wantmore business, the act of referring
somebody out means if I was gonna dothis again, I would do it with them.
Absolutely.
That speaks volumes.
And yeah, I would say that's it.
Those are great.
(41:21):
Yeah.
It's being young and being a coach,being young, being a boss, being young.
Yeah.
Having those responsibilities.
There's a maturity that you have to learndoing that as well with a different role.
And I think it would be impossible foryou not to have that, especially in
your early twenties or in your latetwenties teaching a bunch of kids
that are 10 years younger than you.
Totally.
That basically physically are inthe same stature that you are.
(41:43):
Yeah.
Probably taller than that.
Yeah.
Some of 'em.
Yeah.
And.
I would not expect anything else.
And I know that when I startedmanaging, leading and doing those
things, I had the same situation.
I like needed to curlit back a little bit.
Totally.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Couple things just to wrap this up.
I have a couple questions now.
I. This is a questions on books.
Any books that you advise?
Books?
Yeah, books.
I books.
I've heard you've readbooks before in your life.
(42:05):
I've read books.
And is there any books that you'dsay the Road, Cormack, McCarthy,
Cormack McCarthy the Road.
Post apocalyptic, dystopian dad and a son.
The only book in the lastdecade I've openly wept to.
Wow.
And part of that is therelationship with the son.
And I was I think Quinn wasmaybe three when I read it.
(42:27):
So that really really stuck with me.
My favorite book.
Ever to read was of Mice and men.
The amount of times that I readof Mice and Men aloud, because I
would read it to all my classes.
And I did that for eight straight yearsand, four classes a day or whatever.
I love of Mice and Men.
It's my favorite book that I canI could recite so much of it.
(42:48):
And so I loved readingthat any John Crocker book.
Into thin air, into the Wild,under the Banner of Heaven.
He has this kind of journalistictype approach to storytelling,
which I appreciate.
And then I just read one that Ilove the writing of and I didn't
read it, it was an audio book, butthat's how we read books these days.
Yeah.
If we say we read, we actually listen.
So it's mostly total, it's total a bs.
(43:08):
But it's the last part of New York.
My best buddy down in Austin, Texasreferred it to me and I just finished
it two days ago and it was great.
Oh, nice.
I think that's about it.
You used, I was just getting warmed up.
Hey, you just getting warmed up?
I could ask you more stuff if you want.
I, Nope.
No, you're like, I'm all done.
I'm all done, man.
No, I gotta go.
No, I really appreciate.
Gotta go check emails.
(43:29):
You gotta go make people'slives better or worse.
We'll see.
Or worse.
See what rates do maybe worse.
It's I've been looking at that andthe, frankly, the rates have been
sitting at the same place for the lasttwo years, up and down a little bit.
So it's, it's taking a little bitlonger to close houses than they did
some time ago, but I'm really glad thatyou're out there taking care of it.
It's, I,
I got into the business when rateswere 3% and you literally couldn't
(43:53):
fill out applications fast enough'cause there's so many people.
And now and the highestrate hike in history.
And so it's been fascinating for me.
Yeah.
I dunno, down from up, I mean it's, andso it's been a fun learning experience.
Yeah.
We'll see what happens.
No, I and what I really love tosee this time these changes that
happened in 2007, 2012 is you seeso many people leave the market.
(44:14):
And those people that can make it Yeah.
Are just going to destroy.
And I'm so happy for you to be there.
Thank you.
So we have James Cords here.
He is a managing partner of MooreGroup and the president of Boss
Baseball First Studio episode.
James, thanks so much, Todd.
I really appreciate it.
It was a pleasure, man.,
I always love talking with youand with these headsets and
these microphones so clear.
I know.
It is.
It's great.
It's delightful.
(44:34):
So this has been episodeof Pacific Northwest Told
thanks so much andwe'll see you next week.
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