October 30, 2024 • 56 mins
Episode N° 1
In this MYJO Experience episode, we’re joined by Bryan Finnerty! From his days as a soccer enthusiast in Southern California to becoming a successful entrepreneur, Bryan's journey highlights resilience and leadership.
He discusses his family's influence, balancing sports and business, and surviving throat cancer, sharing the lessons and fresh perspectives gained.
Whether you’re an athlete, entrepreneur, or facing life's challenges, Bryan’s story offers inspiration and insights on overcoming obstacles and building a meaningful life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the MyJo Experience, a podcast designed to help you go further faster and do more with less.
(00:07):
Every journey is unique. At MyJo, we celebrate taking my journey, my way.
Learn more about MyJo by visiting joinmyjo.com and follow MyJo on all social channels at MyJo XP.
Here is our host, Daniel Workman.
Welcome to the MyJo Experience, a podcast designed to help you go further faster and do more with less.
(00:32):
Every journey is unique and at MyJo we celebrate taking my journey, my way.
Today on this episode, we are joined by Brian Finnerty. Brian, welcome to the show.
Man, I'm in. Faster, better. Let's go.
Hey, that's the goal, right? Get there in a lesser amount of time and hopefully today's conversation will help someone or some people do that in their own lives as well.
(01:03):
I just wanted to kind of give the audience an opportunity to get a quick understanding of who you are before we dive into your journey.
Kind of tell us a little bit about who is Brian Finnerty and what is life like today?
Boy, okay. Well, husband of 33 years, thanks to my tolerant bride for sure.
(01:28):
Father of twin boys that are now 23 and thankfully adulting, which is awesome.
You know, business person, I have a passion for entrepreneurship, a mentor. I really love working with not just young people.
I've mentored guys as old as 67 years old. So I love just kind of pouring in in the spirit of your show, helping others get there, maybe not take as many bumps and bruises along the way.
(01:53):
And, you know, I'd say Christian and a friend, right? I just I love kind of pouring into other people and I've been so fortunate and blessed that others did that for me along my journey at the ripe young age of 57.
So I feel like I've got a ton to pay back and it fills me every day. So hopefully that's a good overview.
I know there's pieces to that in between and somewhere in the middle years played pro soccer for 11 years and certainly love the game, still love the game very much.
(02:20):
So so yeah, that's a little bit overview anyway. Well, I can say for the audience, I met Brian about seven years ago and knew right away this is somebody that I wanted to have on this show when I was thinking about people to bring on because you're just you're just a cool dude.
(02:43):
Like you you can just tell like you can tell when you meet someone you're like they have a great story. They've got great wisdom. They got great insight, smart guy.
And then obviously there's so many common interests that you and I have in terms of the sport and other things that that also link us.
But, you know, I just want to say thanks for joining us and to kind of dig into your story. The first thing, Erie, I want to go to with you is kind of your earlier years that kind of shaped you into who you are today.
(03:17):
What was life growing up for you as Brian Finnerty? Where'd you grow up? What was life like? You know, what what kind of inspired you on on your earlier years of your journey?
Yeah, you know, I didn't grow up in a bad neighborhood. I wasn't on the wrong side of the tracks. I grew up in Southern California, less than a mile from the beach, rode my bike to surf every morning, worked on the fishing boats to earn extra cash to spend on
(03:42):
fishing or surf trips, fishing equipment, whatever it might be. So I was always out and about as a young kid. But a pretty formative thing for me, started my high school, my middle of my freshman year, my dad got laid off from work.
So he was an engineer, a couple years of junior college, so kind of worked his way up from mailroom literally up to be an engineer and had built a career there at his company.
(04:05):
And as technology started to catch up, we're talking about the early 80s, you know, CAD design was coming on the scene and and my dad just didn't have that training.
And so he was laid off. And in the four years of my high school days, we burned through all of our family savings to, you know, my dad trying to find a new job. And during that time, I didn't know it at the time, because it was just a kid hustling side jobs.
(04:29):
But I really got the sense that working for somebody else wasn't going to be for me because I could see the pain that it caused for my dad and the stress on our family.
And so I think that's where it's really the entrepreneurial bug started. And when I got to college at San Diego State, my freshman year, cashed in my second semester scholarship and loan money to buy a ski repair business.
(04:53):
And we could spend a whole show on that. But yeah, leveraged all my money to buy a ski repair business that was called the Speedy Snowman.
And little did I know based on the name, it was a side hustle for the previous owner to sell cocaine. Thus the Speedy Snowman.
That shows you how naive I was. I was just like, man, I got my own business. This is awesome. And a lot of guys are coming in for ski tune ups without skis. So yeah, we could we could spend an hour on that.
(05:20):
But those are the early days. I just couldn't help myself. I loved kind of betting on myself being in business, bringing on other people to help on that journey. So yeah, that's a bit of a start for sure.
So with you growing up, obviously experiencing that, what was what role did your mom have with you in your growing up in terms of your upbringing or kind of shaping you into that person you started to become there in college?
(05:51):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. A very solid rock steady just I call her, you know, she's affectionately known as Mrs. Claus loves everybody.
We were the Kool-Aid house, but she owned her own beauty salon. And I just had her on my podcast is sort of the OG entrepreneur in my life.
But again, as a kid, you don't you don't look at it like an entrepreneur. It's just that's what mom's doing. And dad's trying to hustle to find other work. But mom's got this steady haircutting salon. And she took on two, then three, then four other beauticians to kind of build a practice that support our family during that time.
(06:26):
And I again, I didn't know it at the time, but this stabilizing factor of mom doing the books, mom organizing things still being a mom. Yeah, it was my first view of you can kind of be a family member and have a business. It's not either or.
And it was all subliminal, right? It wasn't Hey, by the way, this is the way it works. It was just she was doing life. And it was a great, great example of show love and being in business and being in a business that she loved, which was very cool.
(06:54):
Yeah, that's awesome. My mom is similar in that way. She was a school teacher, but she also dabbled side, you know, on the side with her own little businesses. And then later, after she retired from teaching, she started her own little like piano teaching lessons and stuff and doing this thing.
(07:16):
She was always hustling. I think she got that from my grandfather, who was a pastor, but was never really like a full time pastor as much as he was always a bivocational. So he was always hustling, you know, buying and fixing up houses and doing construction and rental houses and different things.
(07:37):
So I think she definitely got the bug and passed it on to me in my life for sure. And, you know, going back to your your ski venture in college, I first want to ask, what did your mom and dad think when you made the hey, I'm going to make this big bet on buying this business?
(08:03):
Was there hair pulling? Was it like, hey, go for it? What was their reaction?
No, it was none of the above. I didn't even share it with them because I was scared to death. Right. I think I was thinking, how am I going to tell my parents I just use my loan and scholarship money to go buy a business that this doesn't make any sense in the world?
Like, why not just be a student? You've got the money there. It's paying for your housing. You've got you. I probably didn't really need to go get a part time job. Like, it was pretty good. But times are different, too. Right. I mean, not to really date myself.
(08:34):
But we think about what we know about our lives of our kids. Talking about this prior to the show. Yeah, my parents were like, yeah, you know, good luck at San Diego State. Have a good time. Come home on the weekends if you need.
They were an hour and a half up the 5 freeway. Eventually, obviously, it came out with what are you doing for work? I think they thought it was cool, but just sort of a hobby.
I mean, it turned into be a pretty good thing that I sold a couple years later and merged into doing a consumer ski show with the guy I bought the original business from. So yeah, I kind of parlayed it, which was great.
(09:07):
So you're a little afraid to tell mom and dad, hey, by the way. Right. And my dad is, you know, I love my dad. To this day, my dad still, for the most part, is like, so what do you do for work? And how do you know you're going to get paid every other Friday?
And I'm like, Dad, it just it doesn't work like that. And you could tell the hair in the back of his neck just, oh, it's a little bristly. He's as far from an entrepreneur and, you know, engineer, right? Like things are pretty linear and entrepreneurship is definitely not for everybody.
(09:41):
And yeah, I think he would have looked at me like I was a Martian. So probably better. He didn't know right away.
Well, you know, I do I do think that is an important point, though, is that entrepreneurship is not for everyone in the same way that, you know, you said, I realized early on, even in high school, like I didn't really want to work for other people.
(10:04):
Like and then you get to college and you and you make this big bet on yourself. But the flip side is, is that it's also not for everyone. There are a lot of people who just function better like your dad. My dad's the same way.
I could I could never envision seeing my dad being an entrepreneur. Of course, he's 73 now, so it's probably a little late for him to even try to think about doing that. But, you know, that mindset is is different.
(10:36):
And yes, there are things you can learn, you know, in running a business, as you and I both know. But there's also this kind of innate risk tolerance.
And you as you pointed out, you have to have kind of a willingness to be OK with having certain things just not be known. Like, well, I can control what I can control and I'm OK with the outcomes.
(11:06):
You know, I think my outcomes are going to work out and they may not work out exactly the way I think they are. But but something's going to work out. And where others really like, you know, the certainty of having the steady paycheck or, you know, knowing what's coming every two weeks or what have you.
(11:27):
And and you know, I don't think people should feel guilty if they fall in that camp of not being an entrepreneur. But on the flip side, if you have that proclivity to be.
You know, hey, I'm going to risk it for the biscuit. I'm going to go for it like, you know, it's OK to fail like go for it and you're going to learn and and and be better for it and get up and do it again and do it again.
(11:57):
And eventually you'll probably start figuring some things out and may not look like your friend who may be working a nine to five, but eventually you might get where you want to go.
So, you know, I just think it's important that if you have the bug, take the risk. Right. And for you, you took that risk going through college.
One of the things you mentioned earlier, but you didn't say when you were were talking about specifically about this ski project, you were playing.
(12:27):
At the university while you were running this business. So tell us a little bit about college and playing for the school and and handling all of that as a student and a student athlete while running a business at the same time.
Well, the times are different now and the requirements on athletes and I won't even include NIL, but just just most if not all college sports today are year round. You've got, you know, in soccer, you've got a fall season in your spring season can be equally, if not more difficult, just minus some travel.
(13:04):
And in the eighties when I played at San Diego State, we had a fall season and then some training in the off season. And to be clear, I was a walk on at San Diego State qualified for some scholarship money mostly loan money, which I used to buy the ski business.
And I was a fourth string goalkeeper. So, you know, some would say a really good water carrier, and then also a shot tackle dummy for, you know, the other guys when they're tired.
(13:28):
But the requirements for me on the field weren't that great. I think in the spirit of God's timing, me having a business, which was a great distraction for me.
You know, I thought I was all world coming out of high school like we all do. And then you get to college, you go, Oh boy, division one, this is a different level. I'm lucky to be a fourth stringer when I was an all state high school player.
(13:49):
And it was a great distraction for me to see that I could be good at something else while I was learning this next phase of my collegiate career. And, you know, San Diego State wasn't a Harvard for sure.
But I think just balancing academics, we were very fortunate as athletes to have help tutoring. I think mentorship for me looked like that in the beginning, someone there to pour into you to help you sure they might have been making five bucks an hour, but they really cared.
(14:16):
I was leveraging the tutoring I took full advantage as my wife will protest about got the right classes with the right teachers took full advantage of all the tutoring I could get wasn't a fantastic student, but I needed it.
So finding that balance was great in the classroom. And then again, I think just working on something that was my own that I was, I love skiing. So I was passionate about it too, was a good sort of off the field balance and gave me some health and life that wasn't just
(14:43):
always me. I'm a fourth string goalkeeper. What the hell am I doing here? Way before transfer portals existed. Where's what's my exit strategy is like, No, this is where you're going to be for the next four years like make it work.
Right.
So as you're going through that, and you, you're running a business, you're on the soccer team. What are you thinking life is going to be like when you're finishing school, like looking ahead, projecting into the future at that moment what thoughts were running through your mind.
(15:13):
Yeah, great question. So for me, especially my freshman year that I was red shirting. By the end of that freshman year, another goalkeeper got recruited from a junior college so it's like okay I just essentially became number four again.
And I really thought I was going to be just a good soccer player that ended up probably working in some sports marketing firm or or doing something I kind of wanted to be an agent but I didn't know what that was fortunate spend some time with Tony Gwynn's agent Tony
(15:43):
Gwynn to learn that I did not want to do that job. He was awesome. But yeah, I just thought I was going to go do my own thing after as a business person, I did, or an entrepreneur I didn't really think about soccer, being my thing.
But four years, five years of, you know, being there and kind of getting better and better at my craft kind of change that trajectory for sure.
(16:05):
So, let's, let's move forward, you come, you get through that time and it shapes you you become better.
Tell us a little bit about I mean, the the the og professional athlete story let's let's get it. So, you leave San Diego State, and what happens.
(16:27):
I think it's interesting along that path because most young athletes don't get to see this so you know in the spirit of I wish I knew then what I know now which is be consistent, always be getting better and be available, meaning stay healthy take care
of yourself and I was fortunate to do that by luck or happenstance, I was always available. Third string goalie, end up leaving I moved up to third string, our first string goalie, Felipe Hernandez, world class, breaks his leg, my sophomore year.
(16:58):
And the number two goalkeeper who I was sitting behind goes into the game was a nervous wreck literally physically throwing up in the back of the goal.
And had to be subbed out and the coach looks down the bench and I think literally is probably like oh shit finnerty you're in, you know, like, not by choice this guy was just a water carrier and here he goes into a game against USD our Crosstown rivals.
(17:21):
Hold on for the one zero win that was midpoint through the 1987 season.
We strung together eight wins in a row so I kind of held my spot and proved I was good enough and available. And we make the back then only 24 teams on the men's side made the NCAA tournament we're the 24th team.
Clemson was ranked, I think number one that year.
(17:42):
And as the brackets all worked out we won on the road at St. Louis one on the road at UCLA one on the road against Harvard and then played Clemson at Clemson in the final.
And that kind of solidified okay I for me personally I think I'm good enough to be here playing ESPN which was amazing.
Have two, another two good years and make the NCAA is the next two years and then drafted by San Diego Soccer's, which hometown team fantastic, but they had a world class goalkeeper and Detroit was an expansion franchise that year and I was put into the pool,
(18:14):
which rightfully so probably for a case of beer and a roll of tape and got picked up by Detroit. So it was like well, I'll sign a one year contract I definitely don't want to be in Detroit and here I am 33 years later still there.
But yeah, came to Detroit kind of fell in love with the sports landscape here we're owned by the illich family that owns red wings go tigers Little Caesar's pizza among other things, and they treated us like one of their own, we weren't this also ran entity like I think most sports franchise
(18:41):
soccer franchises were back in the day pre MLS. So it was a great start to career and yeah, 11 years later I got a chance to have the most minutes played in my cell played 11 straight years missed four games over 11 years and four games over 10 years my rookie year I split some time.
So yeah, just very fortunate to be available. So it was great. So during that path of professional sports. Were you still running a concurrent business life like you were doing in college with running businesses or projects to list a little bit about about that.
(19:21):
So I sold the ski tune up business to fund a consumer ski trade show called San Diego ski show, where we sell out booths and then consumers come in and buy ski equipment or book travel or whatever it might be.
After my rookie year in Detroit, obviously I'm now in Detroit and fairly barely splitting time sold that back to my partner.
And then my wife and I got married that summer, and we opened up a summer camp company. So we played basically from October through May, and had the summers off paid like teachers were so we got paid in the off season.
(19:52):
But it was a way for us to kind of leverage the panache we had in the Detroit metro market and grew that almost 2000 kids per summer. So great side gig for us my wife is also a teacher like your mom.
And she had the summers off so it was a great way for us to be in business together and we became a staple over the 10 years and upon kind of retiring from soccer and oh one we opened up an indoor soccer facility called high velocity sports and sold the camp company back to the professional
(20:21):
soccer team. So yeah, we've had some good experience kind of doing that along the way which has been fantastic. So, in that journey, what were some of the lessons you learned that helped you.
You do that successfully, start new projects, and then be able to eventually find a buyer for that project or some of those lessons that you think you picked up on that that helped those become successes.
(20:51):
Well one that took a long time to figure out that I definitely get now. Looking back I'm a really good armchair quarterback so I'm awesome at looking back and saying what exactly that was the path.
The camp company specifically I think, oh my goodness, seeing the whole field.
So we, so we think right we could play every position so yeah.
(21:12):
No, I think for me it was, I always believe I could outwork a problem and that's a little bit of my imposter syndrome, a lot of us entrepreneurs have that that we just, regardless of where we went to school or, or where we worked or whatever it is we don't believe we're
deserve to be here and it's not a martyrdom. It's just this constant you, whether you're seeing something on social or I'm looking over here at my bookcase going man there's a lot of great authors on the shelves.
(21:36):
Always feel like I just had to outwork the problem and in doing so you don't involve other, I didn't involve other people. It was a huge mistake, because it was working crazy hours.
And thankfully for Denise and I were doing it together. We didn't have kids, so we could pour into it but the growth was quite frankly in hindsight we could have been at four or 5000 kids per summer not to.
But it was always me doing me doing. And not until we got later towards that seventh eighth year of the career. Elaine maverittas comes in and works for us now only Matthew's brilliant marketer.
(22:08):
She was working for our franchise before she took over all marketing. Well then she took over hiring our placement coaches, then took over getting all the signups done.
And it relieved me from being the doer to being a thinker, you know in today's world being a visionary.
And it was like, oh my goodness and Elaine still works for me and several other businesses.
(22:29):
And it's the spirit of Dan Sullivan's who not how, like can you find somebody that the who that can be really extraordinary what they do so that they can make that happen.
I didn't learn that until late but when you do that, then you have a sellable entity, because in the end, it's not about how hard does Brian Finnerty or Daniel work.
It's how hard does the business work for its PNL and for its balance sheet. That's an asset. And so that's definitely what I've learned that when you put the right people in place.
(22:55):
Number one, it's opportunity for them, which is huge, gives you a chance to give me a chance to mentor and teach and lean in.
And at the end of the day, if you're going to sell it, the people that may want to stay with that business a huge opportunity for them, which could include ownership.
And if that's not what they want to do and they want to go with you on your next part of the journey.
You know, I call it my SEAL Team 6. I've got an amazing SEAL Team 6 for men and women that have worked with me for me.
(23:21):
I've worked for them. We've got this tribe of people that we go conquer the world, which is awesome.
But it started with they're really good at what they do and I just try to stay out of their lane. So my long answer to that's kind of what I figured over time.
That's awesome. In that whole process of growing up and getting to this point of your journey, finishing professional soccer and running businesses, selling businesses, was there ever a stretch or a project or something where it just didn't work and had a big learning lesson that shaped future projects?
(24:00):
Was there any kind of thing like that for you that really goes, man, this didn't work, but it set me up here because of what I learned through that.
Do you have any of those those moments or stories?
Yeah, I think if anybody's looking to have a mentor, if they don't have some of these stories run for the hills, right?
Because I don't care whether you're talking to Richard Branson or Mark Cuban or whoever it is.
(24:23):
There should be some of those stories. For me, it was the sale of a business post soccer life.
We were a cell phone insurance company way outside of my sports technology space, but I was doing this with one of my best friends who was an expert in that field.
So I was happy to be sort of the team builder around that. We went from three employees to 125.
We got recognized by the Inc. 500 doing over a million dollars of revenue per employee. So we were doing over 125 million, sold that company to a publicly traded insurance company.
(24:54):
And the first part of the miss was I went and worked for that company next, which was a total J.O.B.
It couldn't have been further from being an entrepreneur. I really felt responsible for the people transitioning into their new roles.
It didn't take two years. I believed it did. I could have done it in three months, but I stuck around for two years.
And what created there was some scar tissue, which is I got to go back on my own and go do my own thing.
(25:19):
And in doing so, Denise and I started a foundation called Opportunity Seed, which was to address and still is in place today to address the pay to play sports conundrum.
And really that could go to music, arts, engineering, STEM, any place that a family cannot afford to do something related to their activity.
We're trying to help in our community, which has been fantastic to fund that.
(25:41):
It was a go make investments in small startup companies because that's what you do really well.
Denise fired me from the foundation said, go do this. And whenever these companies grow and sell, we'll put the money back into the foundation.
Well, obviously that's going to take some time. It doesn't happen overnight. But in the beginning, I made the mistake of investing in startups.
And as much as I love that in the spirit of your strength is your weakness, it is totally my kryptonite because I want to go in and go back to my roots and outwork the problem.
(26:09):
It's not my business and it doesn't work very well. And I'm investing in companies that were really pre cash flow.
It financially, you know, in the spirit of we had to have a setback to get set up, it was a financial setback because it really we were using money off of our balance sheet, not the foundation to go make those investments.
And, you know, some of them six figures and it was it's stung to watch them go from a six figure investment, work diligently on it with the founder for a year or two, year and a half, and then watch it fail.
(26:39):
And so I really found that I'm better off jumping in when the company's post cash flow positive, hitting their head on efficiencies, founders learning how to be a visionary, which we talked about a little bit ago, and I can help them hone that craft.
We've had massive success on that side. So my learning curve was stay out of the weeds in the mock where you started. Yes, it's part of your story, but it's not it's not my superpower.
(27:03):
Right. It's actually my kryptonite and financially, we definitely had some setbacks there for sure. You've mentioned a couple times the visionary.
I want you to expand on that for just a second, just for the audience. When you talk about the visionary, what would define that?
Yeah, sorry. So, you know, Wickman, who's very famous, you know, two decades ago, invented EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system was very clear that a company starts with having a visionary, somebody who understands the pure vision of I probably work at something I love doing.
(27:36):
I would I do it if I wasn't even getting paid. I can see around corners when it comes to this thing. I do have a vision for where we're going.
But that doesn't work unless right underneath that you have what's called an integrator in the org chart, maybe be a COO, someone who gets the vision from you, the visionary, and then says, good, okay, I'm going to go make all the trains run on time.
(27:57):
I'm going to coordinate with sales, marketing, ops, finance, tech, etc. You stay out here and be a visionary. Keep your ear to the track. You know what's going on in the industry.
You're making those relationships, you're probably the best salesperson organization because you just live it and breathe it and have this passion. But whatever you do, don't come back into the company and muck it up by trying to be the COO, because most of us are not true visionaries are not detail oriented.
(28:22):
And all we do is we start breaking things inside for no good reason. So a true visionary can see those things but really has their quite frankly the most important person in the company is that integrator slash COO who says, I got it.
I just want to make linear sense of it all, make it work and keep the trains running on time. That makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. So let's, I want to keep going into your journey because you have kids, you have you have twin boys.
(28:51):
Twin boys, as you mentioned, and your and your wife, you've finished your career, professional career. Were they born before you finished your career or were they born after?
They were born in the middle of the season of my last year so they were born in Buffalo which I was playing my last season they're born February 7 so I'd say they got to see a couple of games.
(29:13):
They would giggle and the only games they've seen in the ones that are affectionately known as on tape or my wife, at least move them to DVD, you know, and got to see crazy madman dad cursing at referees and defenders and, but yeah, it was right at the end of my career so didn't
get didn't get to be live in the arena during those events but certainly have seen some of the hunt.
(29:36):
They can, they can reminisce like this is my crazy dad. Oh, so going forward, you finished, you know, your soccer career, and you're in business you're entrepreneur you're running your foundation you're investing you're doing these different things.
And just a few years ago.
(29:58):
You get diagnosed with something that kind of probably I'm sure, since you, you know shockwaves through you personally but also through your whole family to us a little bit about that.
Yeah, so beginning in 2022 got diagnosed with throat cancer and you know the short backstory is and maybe a lesson for anybody who's got some concerns, spent the summer in Germany with my son Owen who was there on a couple of trials for soccer, like most
(30:28):
was due we change locations you change your diet a little bit and when I came back from Germany that fall had a little white spot on my back tonsil.
And like anybody I played Dr. Google and looked it up and it comes back it's most likely a tonsil stone which is a calcium build up and it'll go away when you bring your diet back to normal month or two later it doesn't go away so I decided to go to the end
(30:49):
at University of Michigan. And, unfortunately, and here's my learning curve don't tell the doctor what you think you have, because it just predisposes their thinking I, of course the doctor, what do you think and I go I got a tonsil stone.
Flashlight in my mouth and yep that's probably what you had to go away in two months I'm like perfect that's exactly what I read the entire appointment literally took 20 seconds.
(31:10):
That was in November. Fast forward to January we spend the winters in San Diego, I'm out in San Diego, and middle of January, the spots getting bigger.
And I think you should go get it checked out. So we googled ENT near me right up the street happened to be a guy and called the office she's like babe actually we just had a cancellation today come on in.
(31:32):
He looks at it I of course tell him what I think it is he's like man that might be it but I'm gonna take a biopsy.
A week later I come back to his office he's a soccer player from USD, ironically, imagine my first game that I played in college we had a lot to talk about. He's a little bit younger than me so we're there at the same time.
But Mr soccer friendly guy meets me at the door of his office the week later. And the first question is did your wife come with you, and I'm like, no, thought we were me yucking it up about soccer.
(32:00):
And he says yeah I test came back you've got stage three borderline stage two borderline stage three throat cancer. But we got to get really aggressive at this right now and I get chills saying it because it is a holy crap moment, like wow, I, this is the stuff that happens other people, I'm healthy relatively.
I don't you know what the heck. Fast forward to get me right into surgery within three weeks which is a pretty speedy time it didn't seem like waiting 20 days made any sense but that's what it takes.
(32:30):
I did 33 rounds of radiation double duty on Fridays, seven chemo treatments and I went from 200 and about 20 pounds to 156 so I don't recommend the weight loss program for anybody.
My son said that it was like a factory reset for your body that it really did reset my weight. It reset my perspective, surrounded by amazing friends and family who were just cheering me on I was able to surf the first three weeks of treatment, which was just kind of
(33:04):
amazing and helpful and people jumped in the water with me until we couldn't even carry a board back up the steps and it was just an amazing journey of love and healing and amazing doctors and so I look at is like a blessing, right, it's not what was best for me at the time
but what was best for me in the long haul and it has totally reshaped my thinking to you know what I'm doing today to the important things to do I have freedom of time. We, I think jokingly talk about that I wish I had more freedom of time.
(33:35):
And so you're forced with your mortality. I spent the last eight days in the ICU, you know my wife, they're getting coached from the doctors about getting wills and trust put in place and it's like wow, you know get forced some pretty serious conversations in life and it does force you to reset for sure.
So, happy to be on the other side of it and you know I'd say to anybody if you've got a inkling there may be something wrong don't tell your doctor what you have and go get it checked out ASAP because you just never know.
(34:05):
You never know. So, how were your, when you know you mentioned the doctor asked, hey it's your wife with you. She said she wasn't so how was breaking that news to her and also subsequently to your kids.
Yeah, it was, as you can tell from my voice pretty emotional. I couldn't hide it. I'm a pretty, I'm a softie as it goes right I cry in movies. So, when I got home Denise knew immediately.
(34:37):
I mean, I wasn't right didn't know what it was so letting her know was tough but she's a rock star, you know it's like, I don't even know if she flinched, it was like all right, let's call Dr Roscoe let's get things going.
Do we have to start anything new with the diet I mean it was just, she went into like high performing athlete coach mode ASAP, which was so good for me because there was no pity party. Why me why us it was like no we're just going to go get this thing and we're getting it now.
(35:10):
So that was really awesome because it did set the stage for communicating with the boys, and one of my. So, Owen who wasn't, he was actually just on trial with his first run in the MLS. Josh was on a 40 day trip with
the guys for years that he was out in the New Mexico wilderness with no like they literally only had a sat phone. And so we had no way to check in with him until he was back I think 20 days into the start of that journey of what was going on when he left it was, I was just
(35:41):
going in for doctors appointment so we didn't get to catch up with him until a little bit later which I think all worked out for the best but I think the boys kind of took the lead from mom, which was a, you know, suck it up.
So, Owen, we got a plan we have great doctors.
Very fortunate to be in the US with health insurance and you know be able to do like we're going after this thing hard.
(36:03):
And the doctors to give us that choice, like do you want to go this route or the aggressive route and I think anybody who knows me would say, you know which one we picked.
We went after it hard we knew that answer by your, your story, when you got to college taking your scholarship money loan money.
All in the other, the other way to put it. The way Brian approaches those tackling those issues. So, as you're going through this you've now recovered, and on the other side of it.
(36:40):
What, what are some of the projects that you're working on these days what's kind of captivating your passion and your attention.
Yeah, so really it's been a focus inward on our portfolio so few of the companies have grown and sold which has been great so we've got a golf clothing company called Galway Bay golf.
(37:02):
It was doing a couple hundred thousand a year. You know, in 2020 and then coven with the explosion of golf helped a little bit I think this year we're going to triple revenue, again, we'll go from 1.3 last year to maybe 4 million.
And just having a focused effort there we've got amazing guys on the team my integrator Mike Brown has been a rock star through the cancer journey and seeing shepherding that company through is both CEO and CEO at times.
(37:30):
So I just can't speak enough about his work in being part of creating a self managing company, he just, he's been with me in several companies and he just gets it does it knows it.
So he kind of helps us also manage. We make some investments axis core is a golf company the college golf experience, leaning in with camps and clinics for kids in high school looking to play college golf, so that keeps us in the golf world.
(37:56):
And then kicked off a podcast so we're at I think 10 10 episodes in now which has been amazingly scary and awesome and one of the only things I've ever done with no business plan.
And people are like well how are you going to make money I'm like I don't really think it's about making money I think it's about spreading the word like you are how can we pour into others who should not be afraid if entrepreneurship is calling.
(38:19):
So I think it's about breaking into pro athletes and high performers kind of in that transition journey and at the same time if it's not a calling. There's no shame in that either.
I think society today as pendulums often swing, you know vilify some things and amplify others and being an entrepreneur seems to be amplified right now and how awesome and amazing you can work from wherever and you set your own schedule you could work
(38:42):
from week number one, none of that is true. You don't you know your schedule does control you sometimes, and being a high performer in a team working for somebody else is equally as fulfilling if that's what your DNA says makes you happy.
Yeah, that's a little bit about what we're doing is just trying to spread the truth, you know that like it's not for everybody but if it is for you, like, we're going to give you some tips and tricks we don't think that there's any super shortcuts but we want to shorten the time
(39:13):
that it may take you so I think you and I are very much in that similar journey for sure for sure.
And the name of your podcast is what's next podcast so if you're watching and you want to check out Brian's podcast definitely do that check out what's next with Brian Finnerty.
In terms of, you know, you've been very vocal about your support team.
(39:37):
You've still team six on the business side you've also talked about your support team with your family your mom and dad growing up transitioning into your wife and your in your kids and then and then how they've walked alongside of you during your health
journey in the last few years and recovery.
Can you give some, some thoughts about the importance of team, and how that impacts, you know, your ability to achieve your dreams to take what you're passionate about and actually making it not just become a reality but an overwhelming success.
(40:20):
Can you talk a little bit about the importance and the impact of teams.
Yeah, and maybe I'll add some context from from like my perspective right this is my truth. So I love experience not opinion you and I have talked about that or big fan of experience not opinion is teams especially high performing teams need to be put in place before
(40:42):
it presents itself. Right, so we know that in sport, that's called practice that you're going to practice during the week and working on what so that you can play the game.
How many all star games we watch that you go okay that was they scored a lot of baskets they scored a lot of goals but didn't really look like team sport it was just a bunch of really good individuals.
And it was an event, but it wasn't like you wouldn't take that group and go try to compete because they'd have to practice. And I really believe building a team along those lines is surround yourself with people that don't look like you.
(41:12):
First and foremost, our temptation is I want a bunch of people are like me. They all love golf they all love surfing they like fishing. They're okay with manipulating a schedule to nice sunny day like it is today let's just go bail and go play golf.
But you need to have different perspectives that's to me the start to a team. Again I was liking it back to we don't need a team of goalkeepers, thank God because it's never be a team. You need defenders and midfielders and forwards that are all different they have different views on the game.
(41:38):
Surround yourself with your team of different people not just by discipline. Sure you can go get an accountant, a tech person salesperson a marketing person.
But they surround you do they think differently than you do they look differently than you do they come from a different background like those are important aspects to building a team.
So I spent a lot of time on that we spend when I talk about my seal team six it's over years of work and I have a very disciplined process to what someone might look like fitting into that seal team six because there should be a lot of healthy tension and what we discuss
(42:09):
about and and work on especially if it's for another founder in a company and I'm going to bring in any of those members of the team.
They each another role. They have their spot and they have a voice, because it's not a dictatorship. So we are a team.
So I think the build up of that is important. And then obviously when you. I'm not having spent any time in the military so being respectful, you know over the top to anyone who is.
(42:34):
Reading about it and understanding that all that training so that when you do go into your form of combat. If you're on autopilot, you just go do what you're supposed to do.
It's not sure you're going to get punched in the nose you got to change your game plan, but it should be pretty well known. You don't want to get in there and say okay guys now it's time to huddle up.
Sorry, 14 points have just happened that you don't have that kind of time. So to me a team is, can we bring different experiences, can we hash it out through healthy conflict.
(43:03):
Can we decide on what's going to be best for the team or for the endeavor and then we go into battle and we just do that and we're disciplined. That's one of my last thing.
Do you have people that are disciplined to do that.
So sorry, probably a lot more words than needed. That's great. I think through that formation and the overarching thing is, you know, passion and discipline.
(43:24):
You just can't replace that and to me it comes out very quickly when you talk to people like they're they really passionate about what they do and if they have a past experience history, like not one time but a history of experience that says they have proven they can be disciplined when the chips are down.
Because it's easy to be disciplined when you're winning.
For sure, no problem for sure. But when the chips are down, can you stay with the game plan, can you execute and yeah, that's what makes it my team anyway.
(43:50):
Well, I think that that is a great way to look at building a team and cultivating a team.
A lot of that also to me kind of flows into this idea of culture, you know, and you know culture to me is just another way to to describe what's actually going on within a team.
(44:13):
You know, how are they operating is their discipline is their passion is there, and you start to, to see that, you know, as an outcome of their processes.
You and I in our in our past conversations offline I've talked about, you know, people and processes and in those aspects and and to me that's what I see with with culture and I see that with with your words there about team as well as, is being intentional
(44:45):
and and really taking time and not rushing through, because I know I've made mistakes and I'm sure we all have. Whenever you're building a team it's like I have a spot to fill.
And it's, it's more important I get somebody in the spot and getting the right person in in the spot or having the mindset I'm going to put this person here.
(45:15):
I'm not going to make a change but going into it with that mentality where you're not married to to that, you know I, I would, I had seen this, the story of a coach getting fired.
The other day and there was this conversation about the coach being fired and they were like, you know, was he a great coach, the answer was no. And then they were like, but we didn't think you should get fired this way and I'm sitting there going.
(45:46):
If the owner identified.
He didn't have the right coach.
Then, he made the right decision to move on, and it sounds harsh.
But that's the reality, even with building teams it's like, I can put someone in this spot and I think they're going to be the right person I hope they're the right person.
(46:07):
But there's always that challenge of okay, at what point, and this is my question to you at what point with that tension when they're not the right person, when when you've built this team and you've created and cultivated this culture of high performers
and I think you've identified someone to join that team.
(46:29):
And then it's not working.
At what point.
Do you have a process for that you have a timeline for that. What's your mindset regarding a team member that maybe doesn't quite fit.
I'll go backwards, because I'm going to say not really process and not really timeline but in the spirit of hire slow fire fast.
(46:55):
I, I strive to do that, my soft heartedness doesn't always allow me to do that.
But I will say john Maxwell very famously says there is always culture in every organization company.
Whether it's research wherever whatever you're there is always culture. We as leaders to determine whether we set the culture or the culture sets itself.
(47:17):
There's always culture.
So if we don't intentionally set it as the leaders, then what gets set is a tolerance and it's only to the lowest rung. Right, so then you can't fire fast because no one's going to vote for that because they're afraid it could happen to them.
So part of the culture is, we spend a lot of time bringing somebody into seal team six, so that we know they're right. But, and we have criteria about that right there work ethic their honesty, how they are as a human, how they treat other people.
(47:48):
A host of things that kind of make up like you really have to be a great human to be in our team. That's not always true for every team, it could be do you work the fastest you get the biggest deals, and you make the most money.
So wherever you do that is up to you, but just go do those three things. That's culture.
Ours is a little bit different. So, the hiring slow means someone's got to really earn their way into that. But then if any of those principles get violated.
(48:11):
Even the person himself would understand like you're going to get fired or let go because you, you just violated the stuff that we're about, and culture actually makes the decision I'm just a mouthpiece.
And quite frankly, most of the time someone comes to me in a company even outside of seal team six, and would say, I just don't feel like I'm the right fit here anymore. Can you help me find my right fit.
(48:32):
Perfect culture really helps sort that out because we're intentional about creating it.
And it's not aspirational it's not man I hope everybody works 90 hours a week and all the other BS. It's like no creative framework that really does work for the way you want it.
And just uphold it. I don't mean to oversimplify it but it's not that hard. If you hold those principles, and then everybody that joins is like yeah I want in on that culture. Cool.
(48:57):
But know what you're signing it don't don't give me some bullshit interview.
Don't say all the right things because I'm telling you what it's going to look like when you get here. Right. Right. So don't act shocked that we want a coach that wins.
The answer is, you got to be 750 or better. And you're at 65% when you kind of know what's going to happen, and it could happen any day. Right. How we let you go. Yeah, I, you know, of recent news, I, we could all argue that.
(49:24):
Sure. But at the end of the day, it comes down to, was it a violation of preset culture, and if the answer is yes to your point.
The owner the college president whoever the ad, they have the right to make that decision if it's a violation of culture. 100%.
I want to close with a couple questions to leave the audience with some tips some advice, maybe, maybe they're in a similar place in life in their journey or maybe they're, maybe they're Brian Finnerty and they're, they're in college.
(49:55):
And, you know, they've got some NIL money and they're trying to figure out what to do.
Go by the, the snowball surf shop located in Southern California.
You know, my one question I would have for you to consider is, what, what is one thing that if you knew, then what you know now would have altered.
(50:26):
Maybe a major path of your life.
I'm not sure I'd want it altered. I think part of the story is the scar tissue.
One that Denise and I really tried to impart on the boys was, and you mentioned this earlier in the show.
(50:47):
Understanding that controlling the controllables. It sounds trite, but if you control the controllables.
And I don't mean to oversimplify, but the reality is most people look at the things they can't control and they spend so much energy either trying to fix it or ruminate on it or complain about it or whatever it is.
(51:09):
And it's just a waste of time and effort. So I think if, if I were to speed up my journey, it would have been, if I just controlled the controllables, I would have gotten there faster. It would have cost less money.
I would have had less scar tissue. And I know that can be a big statement, but I think for anybody, whether you're at work, at home, raising kids, working on your marriage, building a business.
(51:34):
When you really write down, like I'm a big journal guy. So I like the journal because I'm a goalkeeper and you probably have a short term memory.
I want to know what are the things that I'm thinking about that are actually out of my control and why am I, draw a line through it, man. Like put it on a board somewhere.
But I've got enough to worry about in controlling the controllables that that's really good return on effort. So that would be mine. Control the controllables.
(52:00):
That's a good one. Is there something you wish you knew earlier that in terms of, you know, raising kids and who've gone on to do some incredible things.
We were talking a little bit about some of their current projects that they're working on.
(52:23):
Is there something that you wish you would have known starting out your journey as a young dad that maybe would have helped you in that process to raise them?
Looking back.
Yeah, I'm going to probably break it up into two chunks, right? One sort of preteen and then one post. But the preteen one that Denise was really, really good, again, in the spirit of telling me some things I don't want to hear.
(52:54):
We're in the midst of opening our sports facility. We're full blown. Like we took 125% loan on our home back when you can do that, by the way.
Seems like this recurring theme of leveraged to open our sports facility.
All in.
Yeah, and Denise said, look, if we have to sell the home to move in an apartment, I'm okay with that. Like, I really think we should do this. So it was a huge gift.
(53:20):
But as a parent, young parent, my boys were born in 01. We opened up the facility in 01. Those first five, six, seven years, I still believed I could outwork any problem.
And so 506070 hours a week was normal and can be in any business you're starting. But I would come home on the phone, thinking that I'm home, but I'd walk in the door.
(53:42):
Denise had been dealing with the boys all day. They wanted to see me. And here's dad on the phone. And I think I thought I needed to be on the phone and it came down to let's let's an interim step will be just sit in the driveway and then finish that call and then come in.
Pretty soon. Don't come into the neighborhood until you finish that call. So maybe finish it at work. We had I have about a 20 minute drive from the facility and it took a little time. But honestly, then the drive home was me just decompressing.
(54:08):
Listen to a little music, thinking about being home with Denise and the boys when I walked in sort of ready, rejuvenated, refreshed. It made a huge difference. So I think that was the first and the second, you know, in their sort of formative teen early teen and beyond would have probably been to give them a little more latitude to just.
Skinny try some stuff. Let it break. Not have to know most, if not all the answers as us parents always think we have, you know, within reason, right? I don't want them going doing crazy wild stuff, but I would have given them more latitude to just try some things and instead of saying, you know, man, a lawn mower and serves that won't work.
(54:46):
Like, you know, understand how much lawnmowers cost and then your reputation in the neighborhood. If you don't do it and then you got a snow blow and during the winter, I should just let them go do it like who knows, right? It could have been their speedy snowman.
So yeah, those have been my chunks. But you know, all in all, I think we've we're we're doing the best we can as parents and we love them, which is awesome. And we've we've leaned into them. So, you know, we did the best good.
(55:11):
Well, I can concur on the phone situation. My wife gives me the same or has given me the same.
Side eye conversation lecture, you know.
Yeah, I mean, I think I think I think I get it. I get in trouble with that and I've gotten in trouble with that before myself. So I can I can testify that that was good advice that your wife gave you.
(55:42):
Well, look, Brian, we appreciate you coming on the show and again want to give you an opportunity to let anyone know where to find your show, your podcast and other projects you're working on so that that can be found where what's the title of your of your show?
Yeah, what's next with an exclamation point. So what's next with Brian Finnerty, you can find us at what's next podcast dot com and then on the investment side, it's opportunity seed dot com and the links to the show are there.
(56:14):
And if you've enjoyed listening to some of this banter, I think you're going to hear a lot more of the same, which is just, you know, pearls of wisdom and nuggets, a little scar tissue.
But that's kind of what we try to bring right to enlighten some people on finding their path of what's next as they're making that transition. So I appreciate it.
Well, I appreciate you coming on the show. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to the MyJo Experience, a podcast designed to help you go further faster and do more with less.
(00:07):
Every journey is unique. At MyJo, we celebrate taking my journey, my way.
Learn more about MyJo by visiting joinmyjo.com and follow MyJo on all social channels at MyJo XP.
Here is our host, Daniel Workman.
Welcome to the MyJo Experience, a podcast designed to help you go further faster and do more with less.
(00:32):
Every journey is unique and at MyJo we celebrate taking my journey, my way.
Today on this episode, we are joined by Brian Finnerty. Brian, welcome to the show.
Man, I'm in. Faster, better. Let's go.
Hey, that's the goal, right? Get there in a lesser amount of time and hopefully today's conversation will help someone or some people do that in their own lives as well.
(01:03):
I just wanted to kind of give the audience an opportunity to get a quick understanding of who you are before we dive into your journey.
Kind of tell us a little bit about who is Brian Finnerty and what is life like today?
Boy, okay. Well, husband of 33 years, thanks to my tolerant bride for sure.
(01:28):
Father of twin boys that are now 23 and thankfully adulting, which is awesome.
You know, business person, I have a passion for entrepreneurship, a mentor. I really love working with not just young people.
I've mentored guys as old as 67 years old. So I love just kind of pouring in in the spirit of your show, helping others get there, maybe not take as many bumps and bruises along the way.
(01:53):
And, you know, I'd say Christian and a friend, right? I just I love kind of pouring into other people and I've been so fortunate and blessed that others did that for me along my journey at the ripe young age of 57.
So I feel like I've got a ton to pay back and it fills me every day. So hopefully that's a good overview.
I know there's pieces to that in between and somewhere in the middle years played pro soccer for 11 years and certainly love the game, still love the game very much.
(02:20):
So so yeah, that's a little bit overview anyway. Well, I can say for the audience, I met Brian about seven years ago and knew right away this is somebody that I wanted to have on this show when I was thinking about people to bring on because you're just you're just a cool dude.
(02:43):
Like you you can just tell like you can tell when you meet someone you're like they have a great story. They've got great wisdom. They got great insight, smart guy.
And then obviously there's so many common interests that you and I have in terms of the sport and other things that that also link us.
But, you know, I just want to say thanks for joining us and to kind of dig into your story. The first thing, Erie, I want to go to with you is kind of your earlier years that kind of shaped you into who you are today.
(03:17):
What was life growing up for you as Brian Finnerty? Where'd you grow up? What was life like? You know, what what kind of inspired you on on your earlier years of your journey?
Yeah, you know, I didn't grow up in a bad neighborhood. I wasn't on the wrong side of the tracks. I grew up in Southern California, less than a mile from the beach, rode my bike to surf every morning, worked on the fishing boats to earn extra cash to spend on
(03:42):
fishing or surf trips, fishing equipment, whatever it might be. So I was always out and about as a young kid. But a pretty formative thing for me, started my high school, my middle of my freshman year, my dad got laid off from work.
So he was an engineer, a couple years of junior college, so kind of worked his way up from mailroom literally up to be an engineer and had built a career there at his company.
(04:05):
And as technology started to catch up, we're talking about the early 80s, you know, CAD design was coming on the scene and and my dad just didn't have that training.
And so he was laid off. And in the four years of my high school days, we burned through all of our family savings to, you know, my dad trying to find a new job. And during that time, I didn't know it at the time, because it was just a kid hustling side jobs.
(04:29):
But I really got the sense that working for somebody else wasn't going to be for me because I could see the pain that it caused for my dad and the stress on our family.
And so I think that's where it's really the entrepreneurial bug started. And when I got to college at San Diego State, my freshman year, cashed in my second semester scholarship and loan money to buy a ski repair business.
(04:53):
And we could spend a whole show on that. But yeah, leveraged all my money to buy a ski repair business that was called the Speedy Snowman.
And little did I know based on the name, it was a side hustle for the previous owner to sell cocaine. Thus the Speedy Snowman.
That shows you how naive I was. I was just like, man, I got my own business. This is awesome. And a lot of guys are coming in for ski tune ups without skis. So yeah, we could we could spend an hour on that.
(05:20):
But those are the early days. I just couldn't help myself. I loved kind of betting on myself being in business, bringing on other people to help on that journey. So yeah, that's a bit of a start for sure.
So with you growing up, obviously experiencing that, what was what role did your mom have with you in your growing up in terms of your upbringing or kind of shaping you into that person you started to become there in college?
(05:51):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. A very solid rock steady just I call her, you know, she's affectionately known as Mrs. Claus loves everybody.
We were the Kool-Aid house, but she owned her own beauty salon. And I just had her on my podcast is sort of the OG entrepreneur in my life.
But again, as a kid, you don't you don't look at it like an entrepreneur. It's just that's what mom's doing. And dad's trying to hustle to find other work. But mom's got this steady haircutting salon. And she took on two, then three, then four other beauticians to kind of build a practice that support our family during that time.
(06:26):
And I again, I didn't know it at the time, but this stabilizing factor of mom doing the books, mom organizing things still being a mom. Yeah, it was my first view of you can kind of be a family member and have a business. It's not either or.
And it was all subliminal, right? It wasn't Hey, by the way, this is the way it works. It was just she was doing life. And it was a great, great example of show love and being in business and being in a business that she loved, which was very cool.
(06:54):
Yeah, that's awesome. My mom is similar in that way. She was a school teacher, but she also dabbled side, you know, on the side with her own little businesses. And then later, after she retired from teaching, she started her own little like piano teaching lessons and stuff and doing this thing.
(07:16):
She was always hustling. I think she got that from my grandfather, who was a pastor, but was never really like a full time pastor as much as he was always a bivocational. So he was always hustling, you know, buying and fixing up houses and doing construction and rental houses and different things.
(07:37):
So I think she definitely got the bug and passed it on to me in my life for sure. And, you know, going back to your your ski venture in college, I first want to ask, what did your mom and dad think when you made the hey, I'm going to make this big bet on buying this business?
(08:03):
Was there hair pulling? Was it like, hey, go for it? What was their reaction?
No, it was none of the above. I didn't even share it with them because I was scared to death. Right. I think I was thinking, how am I going to tell my parents I just use my loan and scholarship money to go buy a business that this doesn't make any sense in the world?
Like, why not just be a student? You've got the money there. It's paying for your housing. You've got you. I probably didn't really need to go get a part time job. Like, it was pretty good. But times are different, too. Right. I mean, not to really date myself.
(08:34):
But we think about what we know about our lives of our kids. Talking about this prior to the show. Yeah, my parents were like, yeah, you know, good luck at San Diego State. Have a good time. Come home on the weekends if you need.
They were an hour and a half up the 5 freeway. Eventually, obviously, it came out with what are you doing for work? I think they thought it was cool, but just sort of a hobby.
I mean, it turned into be a pretty good thing that I sold a couple years later and merged into doing a consumer ski show with the guy I bought the original business from. So yeah, I kind of parlayed it, which was great.
(09:07):
So you're a little afraid to tell mom and dad, hey, by the way. Right. And my dad is, you know, I love my dad. To this day, my dad still, for the most part, is like, so what do you do for work? And how do you know you're going to get paid every other Friday?
And I'm like, Dad, it just it doesn't work like that. And you could tell the hair in the back of his neck just, oh, it's a little bristly. He's as far from an entrepreneur and, you know, engineer, right? Like things are pretty linear and entrepreneurship is definitely not for everybody.
(09:41):
And yeah, I think he would have looked at me like I was a Martian. So probably better. He didn't know right away.
Well, you know, I do I do think that is an important point, though, is that entrepreneurship is not for everyone in the same way that, you know, you said, I realized early on, even in high school, like I didn't really want to work for other people.
(10:04):
Like and then you get to college and you and you make this big bet on yourself. But the flip side is, is that it's also not for everyone. There are a lot of people who just function better like your dad. My dad's the same way.
I could I could never envision seeing my dad being an entrepreneur. Of course, he's 73 now, so it's probably a little late for him to even try to think about doing that. But, you know, that mindset is is different.
(10:36):
And yes, there are things you can learn, you know, in running a business, as you and I both know. But there's also this kind of innate risk tolerance.
And you as you pointed out, you have to have kind of a willingness to be OK with having certain things just not be known. Like, well, I can control what I can control and I'm OK with the outcomes.
(11:06):
You know, I think my outcomes are going to work out and they may not work out exactly the way I think they are. But but something's going to work out. And where others really like, you know, the certainty of having the steady paycheck or, you know, knowing what's coming every two weeks or what have you.
(11:27):
And and you know, I don't think people should feel guilty if they fall in that camp of not being an entrepreneur. But on the flip side, if you have that proclivity to be.
You know, hey, I'm going to risk it for the biscuit. I'm going to go for it like, you know, it's OK to fail like go for it and you're going to learn and and and be better for it and get up and do it again and do it again.
(11:57):
And eventually you'll probably start figuring some things out and may not look like your friend who may be working a nine to five, but eventually you might get where you want to go.
So, you know, I just think it's important that if you have the bug, take the risk. Right. And for you, you took that risk going through college.
One of the things you mentioned earlier, but you didn't say when you were were talking about specifically about this ski project, you were playing.
(12:27):
At the university while you were running this business. So tell us a little bit about college and playing for the school and and handling all of that as a student and a student athlete while running a business at the same time.
Well, the times are different now and the requirements on athletes and I won't even include NIL, but just just most if not all college sports today are year round. You've got, you know, in soccer, you've got a fall season in your spring season can be equally, if not more difficult, just minus some travel.
(13:04):
And in the eighties when I played at San Diego State, we had a fall season and then some training in the off season. And to be clear, I was a walk on at San Diego State qualified for some scholarship money mostly loan money, which I used to buy the ski business.
And I was a fourth string goalkeeper. So, you know, some would say a really good water carrier, and then also a shot tackle dummy for, you know, the other guys when they're tired.
(13:28):
But the requirements for me on the field weren't that great. I think in the spirit of God's timing, me having a business, which was a great distraction for me.
You know, I thought I was all world coming out of high school like we all do. And then you get to college, you go, Oh boy, division one, this is a different level. I'm lucky to be a fourth stringer when I was an all state high school player.
(13:49):
And it was a great distraction for me to see that I could be good at something else while I was learning this next phase of my collegiate career. And, you know, San Diego State wasn't a Harvard for sure.
But I think just balancing academics, we were very fortunate as athletes to have help tutoring. I think mentorship for me looked like that in the beginning, someone there to pour into you to help you sure they might have been making five bucks an hour, but they really cared.
(14:16):
I was leveraging the tutoring I took full advantage as my wife will protest about got the right classes with the right teachers took full advantage of all the tutoring I could get wasn't a fantastic student, but I needed it.
So finding that balance was great in the classroom. And then again, I think just working on something that was my own that I was, I love skiing. So I was passionate about it too, was a good sort of off the field balance and gave me some health and life that wasn't just
(14:43):
always me. I'm a fourth string goalkeeper. What the hell am I doing here? Way before transfer portals existed. Where's what's my exit strategy is like, No, this is where you're going to be for the next four years like make it work.
Right.
So as you're going through that, and you, you're running a business, you're on the soccer team. What are you thinking life is going to be like when you're finishing school, like looking ahead, projecting into the future at that moment what thoughts were running through your mind.
(15:13):
Yeah, great question. So for me, especially my freshman year that I was red shirting. By the end of that freshman year, another goalkeeper got recruited from a junior college so it's like okay I just essentially became number four again.
And I really thought I was going to be just a good soccer player that ended up probably working in some sports marketing firm or or doing something I kind of wanted to be an agent but I didn't know what that was fortunate spend some time with Tony Gwynn's agent Tony
(15:43):
Gwynn to learn that I did not want to do that job. He was awesome. But yeah, I just thought I was going to go do my own thing after as a business person, I did, or an entrepreneur I didn't really think about soccer, being my thing.
But four years, five years of, you know, being there and kind of getting better and better at my craft kind of change that trajectory for sure.
(16:05):
So, let's, let's move forward, you come, you get through that time and it shapes you you become better.
Tell us a little bit about I mean, the the the og professional athlete story let's let's get it. So, you leave San Diego State, and what happens.
(16:27):
I think it's interesting along that path because most young athletes don't get to see this so you know in the spirit of I wish I knew then what I know now which is be consistent, always be getting better and be available, meaning stay healthy take care
of yourself and I was fortunate to do that by luck or happenstance, I was always available. Third string goalie, end up leaving I moved up to third string, our first string goalie, Felipe Hernandez, world class, breaks his leg, my sophomore year.
(16:58):
And the number two goalkeeper who I was sitting behind goes into the game was a nervous wreck literally physically throwing up in the back of the goal.
And had to be subbed out and the coach looks down the bench and I think literally is probably like oh shit finnerty you're in, you know, like, not by choice this guy was just a water carrier and here he goes into a game against USD our Crosstown rivals.
(17:21):
Hold on for the one zero win that was midpoint through the 1987 season.
We strung together eight wins in a row so I kind of held my spot and proved I was good enough and available. And we make the back then only 24 teams on the men's side made the NCAA tournament we're the 24th team.
Clemson was ranked, I think number one that year.
(17:42):
And as the brackets all worked out we won on the road at St. Louis one on the road at UCLA one on the road against Harvard and then played Clemson at Clemson in the final.
And that kind of solidified okay I for me personally I think I'm good enough to be here playing ESPN which was amazing.
Have two, another two good years and make the NCAA is the next two years and then drafted by San Diego Soccer's, which hometown team fantastic, but they had a world class goalkeeper and Detroit was an expansion franchise that year and I was put into the pool,
(18:14):
which rightfully so probably for a case of beer and a roll of tape and got picked up by Detroit. So it was like well, I'll sign a one year contract I definitely don't want to be in Detroit and here I am 33 years later still there.
But yeah, came to Detroit kind of fell in love with the sports landscape here we're owned by the illich family that owns red wings go tigers Little Caesar's pizza among other things, and they treated us like one of their own, we weren't this also ran entity like I think most sports franchise
(18:41):
soccer franchises were back in the day pre MLS. So it was a great start to career and yeah, 11 years later I got a chance to have the most minutes played in my cell played 11 straight years missed four games over 11 years and four games over 10 years my rookie year I split some time.
So yeah, just very fortunate to be available. So it was great. So during that path of professional sports. Were you still running a concurrent business life like you were doing in college with running businesses or projects to list a little bit about about that.
(19:21):
So I sold the ski tune up business to fund a consumer ski trade show called San Diego ski show, where we sell out booths and then consumers come in and buy ski equipment or book travel or whatever it might be.
After my rookie year in Detroit, obviously I'm now in Detroit and fairly barely splitting time sold that back to my partner.
And then my wife and I got married that summer, and we opened up a summer camp company. So we played basically from October through May, and had the summers off paid like teachers were so we got paid in the off season.
(19:52):
But it was a way for us to kind of leverage the panache we had in the Detroit metro market and grew that almost 2000 kids per summer. So great side gig for us my wife is also a teacher like your mom.
And she had the summers off so it was a great way for us to be in business together and we became a staple over the 10 years and upon kind of retiring from soccer and oh one we opened up an indoor soccer facility called high velocity sports and sold the camp company back to the professional
(20:21):
soccer team. So yeah, we've had some good experience kind of doing that along the way which has been fantastic. So, in that journey, what were some of the lessons you learned that helped you.
You do that successfully, start new projects, and then be able to eventually find a buyer for that project or some of those lessons that you think you picked up on that that helped those become successes.
(20:51):
Well one that took a long time to figure out that I definitely get now. Looking back I'm a really good armchair quarterback so I'm awesome at looking back and saying what exactly that was the path.
The camp company specifically I think, oh my goodness, seeing the whole field.
So we, so we think right we could play every position so yeah.
(21:12):
No, I think for me it was, I always believe I could outwork a problem and that's a little bit of my imposter syndrome, a lot of us entrepreneurs have that that we just, regardless of where we went to school or, or where we worked or whatever it is we don't believe we're
deserve to be here and it's not a martyrdom. It's just this constant you, whether you're seeing something on social or I'm looking over here at my bookcase going man there's a lot of great authors on the shelves.
(21:36):
Always feel like I just had to outwork the problem and in doing so you don't involve other, I didn't involve other people. It was a huge mistake, because it was working crazy hours.
And thankfully for Denise and I were doing it together. We didn't have kids, so we could pour into it but the growth was quite frankly in hindsight we could have been at four or 5000 kids per summer not to.
But it was always me doing me doing. And not until we got later towards that seventh eighth year of the career. Elaine maverittas comes in and works for us now only Matthew's brilliant marketer.
(22:08):
She was working for our franchise before she took over all marketing. Well then she took over hiring our placement coaches, then took over getting all the signups done.
And it relieved me from being the doer to being a thinker, you know in today's world being a visionary.
And it was like, oh my goodness and Elaine still works for me and several other businesses.
(22:29):
And it's the spirit of Dan Sullivan's who not how, like can you find somebody that the who that can be really extraordinary what they do so that they can make that happen.
I didn't learn that until late but when you do that, then you have a sellable entity, because in the end, it's not about how hard does Brian Finnerty or Daniel work.
It's how hard does the business work for its PNL and for its balance sheet. That's an asset. And so that's definitely what I've learned that when you put the right people in place.
(22:55):
Number one, it's opportunity for them, which is huge, gives you a chance to give me a chance to mentor and teach and lean in.
And at the end of the day, if you're going to sell it, the people that may want to stay with that business a huge opportunity for them, which could include ownership.
And if that's not what they want to do and they want to go with you on your next part of the journey.
You know, I call it my SEAL Team 6. I've got an amazing SEAL Team 6 for men and women that have worked with me for me.
(23:21):
I've worked for them. We've got this tribe of people that we go conquer the world, which is awesome.
But it started with they're really good at what they do and I just try to stay out of their lane. So my long answer to that's kind of what I figured over time.
That's awesome. In that whole process of growing up and getting to this point of your journey, finishing professional soccer and running businesses, selling businesses, was there ever a stretch or a project or something where it just didn't work and had a big learning lesson that shaped future projects?
(24:00):
Was there any kind of thing like that for you that really goes, man, this didn't work, but it set me up here because of what I learned through that.
Do you have any of those those moments or stories?
Yeah, I think if anybody's looking to have a mentor, if they don't have some of these stories run for the hills, right?
Because I don't care whether you're talking to Richard Branson or Mark Cuban or whoever it is.
(24:23):
There should be some of those stories. For me, it was the sale of a business post soccer life.
We were a cell phone insurance company way outside of my sports technology space, but I was doing this with one of my best friends who was an expert in that field.
So I was happy to be sort of the team builder around that. We went from three employees to 125.
We got recognized by the Inc. 500 doing over a million dollars of revenue per employee. So we were doing over 125 million, sold that company to a publicly traded insurance company.
(24:54):
And the first part of the miss was I went and worked for that company next, which was a total J.O.B.
It couldn't have been further from being an entrepreneur. I really felt responsible for the people transitioning into their new roles.
It didn't take two years. I believed it did. I could have done it in three months, but I stuck around for two years.
And what created there was some scar tissue, which is I got to go back on my own and go do my own thing.
(25:19):
And in doing so, Denise and I started a foundation called Opportunity Seed, which was to address and still is in place today to address the pay to play sports conundrum.
And really that could go to music, arts, engineering, STEM, any place that a family cannot afford to do something related to their activity.
We're trying to help in our community, which has been fantastic to fund that.
(25:41):
It was a go make investments in small startup companies because that's what you do really well.
Denise fired me from the foundation said, go do this. And whenever these companies grow and sell, we'll put the money back into the foundation.
Well, obviously that's going to take some time. It doesn't happen overnight. But in the beginning, I made the mistake of investing in startups.
And as much as I love that in the spirit of your strength is your weakness, it is totally my kryptonite because I want to go in and go back to my roots and outwork the problem.
(26:09):
It's not my business and it doesn't work very well. And I'm investing in companies that were really pre cash flow.
It financially, you know, in the spirit of we had to have a setback to get set up, it was a financial setback because it really we were using money off of our balance sheet, not the foundation to go make those investments.
And, you know, some of them six figures and it was it's stung to watch them go from a six figure investment, work diligently on it with the founder for a year or two, year and a half, and then watch it fail.
(26:39):
And so I really found that I'm better off jumping in when the company's post cash flow positive, hitting their head on efficiencies, founders learning how to be a visionary, which we talked about a little bit ago, and I can help them hone that craft.
We've had massive success on that side. So my learning curve was stay out of the weeds in the mock where you started. Yes, it's part of your story, but it's not it's not my superpower.
(27:03):
Right. It's actually my kryptonite and financially, we definitely had some setbacks there for sure. You've mentioned a couple times the visionary.
I want you to expand on that for just a second, just for the audience. When you talk about the visionary, what would define that?
Yeah, sorry. So, you know, Wickman, who's very famous, you know, two decades ago, invented EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system was very clear that a company starts with having a visionary, somebody who understands the pure vision of I probably work at something I love doing.
(27:36):
I would I do it if I wasn't even getting paid. I can see around corners when it comes to this thing. I do have a vision for where we're going.
But that doesn't work unless right underneath that you have what's called an integrator in the org chart, maybe be a COO, someone who gets the vision from you, the visionary, and then says, good, okay, I'm going to go make all the trains run on time.
(27:57):
I'm going to coordinate with sales, marketing, ops, finance, tech, etc. You stay out here and be a visionary. Keep your ear to the track. You know what's going on in the industry.
You're making those relationships, you're probably the best salesperson organization because you just live it and breathe it and have this passion. But whatever you do, don't come back into the company and muck it up by trying to be the COO, because most of us are not true visionaries are not detail oriented.
(28:22):
And all we do is we start breaking things inside for no good reason. So a true visionary can see those things but really has their quite frankly the most important person in the company is that integrator slash COO who says, I got it.
I just want to make linear sense of it all, make it work and keep the trains running on time. That makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. So let's, I want to keep going into your journey because you have kids, you have you have twin boys.
(28:51):
Twin boys, as you mentioned, and your and your wife, you've finished your career, professional career. Were they born before you finished your career or were they born after?
They were born in the middle of the season of my last year so they were born in Buffalo which I was playing my last season they're born February 7 so I'd say they got to see a couple of games.
(29:13):
They would giggle and the only games they've seen in the ones that are affectionately known as on tape or my wife, at least move them to DVD, you know, and got to see crazy madman dad cursing at referees and defenders and, but yeah, it was right at the end of my career so didn't
get didn't get to be live in the arena during those events but certainly have seen some of the hunt.
(29:36):
They can, they can reminisce like this is my crazy dad. Oh, so going forward, you finished, you know, your soccer career, and you're in business you're entrepreneur you're running your foundation you're investing you're doing these different things.
And just a few years ago.
(29:58):
You get diagnosed with something that kind of probably I'm sure, since you, you know shockwaves through you personally but also through your whole family to us a little bit about that.
Yeah, so beginning in 2022 got diagnosed with throat cancer and you know the short backstory is and maybe a lesson for anybody who's got some concerns, spent the summer in Germany with my son Owen who was there on a couple of trials for soccer, like most
(30:28):
was due we change locations you change your diet a little bit and when I came back from Germany that fall had a little white spot on my back tonsil.
And like anybody I played Dr. Google and looked it up and it comes back it's most likely a tonsil stone which is a calcium build up and it'll go away when you bring your diet back to normal month or two later it doesn't go away so I decided to go to the end
(30:49):
at University of Michigan. And, unfortunately, and here's my learning curve don't tell the doctor what you think you have, because it just predisposes their thinking I, of course the doctor, what do you think and I go I got a tonsil stone.
Flashlight in my mouth and yep that's probably what you had to go away in two months I'm like perfect that's exactly what I read the entire appointment literally took 20 seconds.
(31:10):
That was in November. Fast forward to January we spend the winters in San Diego, I'm out in San Diego, and middle of January, the spots getting bigger.
And I think you should go get it checked out. So we googled ENT near me right up the street happened to be a guy and called the office she's like babe actually we just had a cancellation today come on in.
(31:32):
He looks at it I of course tell him what I think it is he's like man that might be it but I'm gonna take a biopsy.
A week later I come back to his office he's a soccer player from USD, ironically, imagine my first game that I played in college we had a lot to talk about. He's a little bit younger than me so we're there at the same time.
But Mr soccer friendly guy meets me at the door of his office the week later. And the first question is did your wife come with you, and I'm like, no, thought we were me yucking it up about soccer.
(32:00):
And he says yeah I test came back you've got stage three borderline stage two borderline stage three throat cancer. But we got to get really aggressive at this right now and I get chills saying it because it is a holy crap moment, like wow, I, this is the stuff that happens other people, I'm healthy relatively.
I don't you know what the heck. Fast forward to get me right into surgery within three weeks which is a pretty speedy time it didn't seem like waiting 20 days made any sense but that's what it takes.
(32:30):
I did 33 rounds of radiation double duty on Fridays, seven chemo treatments and I went from 200 and about 20 pounds to 156 so I don't recommend the weight loss program for anybody.
My son said that it was like a factory reset for your body that it really did reset my weight. It reset my perspective, surrounded by amazing friends and family who were just cheering me on I was able to surf the first three weeks of treatment, which was just kind of
(33:04):
amazing and helpful and people jumped in the water with me until we couldn't even carry a board back up the steps and it was just an amazing journey of love and healing and amazing doctors and so I look at is like a blessing, right, it's not what was best for me at the time
but what was best for me in the long haul and it has totally reshaped my thinking to you know what I'm doing today to the important things to do I have freedom of time. We, I think jokingly talk about that I wish I had more freedom of time.
(33:35):
And so you're forced with your mortality. I spent the last eight days in the ICU, you know my wife, they're getting coached from the doctors about getting wills and trust put in place and it's like wow, you know get forced some pretty serious conversations in life and it does force you to reset for sure.
So, happy to be on the other side of it and you know I'd say to anybody if you've got a inkling there may be something wrong don't tell your doctor what you have and go get it checked out ASAP because you just never know.
(34:05):
You never know. So, how were your, when you know you mentioned the doctor asked, hey it's your wife with you. She said she wasn't so how was breaking that news to her and also subsequently to your kids.
Yeah, it was, as you can tell from my voice pretty emotional. I couldn't hide it. I'm a pretty, I'm a softie as it goes right I cry in movies. So, when I got home Denise knew immediately.
(34:37):
I mean, I wasn't right didn't know what it was so letting her know was tough but she's a rock star, you know it's like, I don't even know if she flinched, it was like all right, let's call Dr Roscoe let's get things going.
Do we have to start anything new with the diet I mean it was just, she went into like high performing athlete coach mode ASAP, which was so good for me because there was no pity party. Why me why us it was like no we're just going to go get this thing and we're getting it now.
(35:10):
So that was really awesome because it did set the stage for communicating with the boys, and one of my. So, Owen who wasn't, he was actually just on trial with his first run in the MLS. Josh was on a 40 day trip with
the guys for years that he was out in the New Mexico wilderness with no like they literally only had a sat phone. And so we had no way to check in with him until he was back I think 20 days into the start of that journey of what was going on when he left it was, I was just
(35:41):
going in for doctors appointment so we didn't get to catch up with him until a little bit later which I think all worked out for the best but I think the boys kind of took the lead from mom, which was a, you know, suck it up.
So, Owen, we got a plan we have great doctors.
Very fortunate to be in the US with health insurance and you know be able to do like we're going after this thing hard.
(36:03):
And the doctors to give us that choice, like do you want to go this route or the aggressive route and I think anybody who knows me would say, you know which one we picked.
We went after it hard we knew that answer by your, your story, when you got to college taking your scholarship money loan money.
All in the other, the other way to put it. The way Brian approaches those tackling those issues. So, as you're going through this you've now recovered, and on the other side of it.
(36:40):
What, what are some of the projects that you're working on these days what's kind of captivating your passion and your attention.
Yeah, so really it's been a focus inward on our portfolio so few of the companies have grown and sold which has been great so we've got a golf clothing company called Galway Bay golf.
(37:02):
It was doing a couple hundred thousand a year. You know, in 2020 and then coven with the explosion of golf helped a little bit I think this year we're going to triple revenue, again, we'll go from 1.3 last year to maybe 4 million.
And just having a focused effort there we've got amazing guys on the team my integrator Mike Brown has been a rock star through the cancer journey and seeing shepherding that company through is both CEO and CEO at times.
(37:30):
So I just can't speak enough about his work in being part of creating a self managing company, he just, he's been with me in several companies and he just gets it does it knows it.
So he kind of helps us also manage. We make some investments axis core is a golf company the college golf experience, leaning in with camps and clinics for kids in high school looking to play college golf, so that keeps us in the golf world.
(37:56):
And then kicked off a podcast so we're at I think 10 10 episodes in now which has been amazingly scary and awesome and one of the only things I've ever done with no business plan.
And people are like well how are you going to make money I'm like I don't really think it's about making money I think it's about spreading the word like you are how can we pour into others who should not be afraid if entrepreneurship is calling.
(38:19):
So I think it's about breaking into pro athletes and high performers kind of in that transition journey and at the same time if it's not a calling. There's no shame in that either.
I think society today as pendulums often swing, you know vilify some things and amplify others and being an entrepreneur seems to be amplified right now and how awesome and amazing you can work from wherever and you set your own schedule you could work
(38:42):
from week number one, none of that is true. You don't you know your schedule does control you sometimes, and being a high performer in a team working for somebody else is equally as fulfilling if that's what your DNA says makes you happy.
Yeah, that's a little bit about what we're doing is just trying to spread the truth, you know that like it's not for everybody but if it is for you, like, we're going to give you some tips and tricks we don't think that there's any super shortcuts but we want to shorten the time
(39:13):
that it may take you so I think you and I are very much in that similar journey for sure for sure.
And the name of your podcast is what's next podcast so if you're watching and you want to check out Brian's podcast definitely do that check out what's next with Brian Finnerty.
In terms of, you know, you've been very vocal about your support team.
(39:37):
You've still team six on the business side you've also talked about your support team with your family your mom and dad growing up transitioning into your wife and your in your kids and then and then how they've walked alongside of you during your health
journey in the last few years and recovery.
Can you give some, some thoughts about the importance of team, and how that impacts, you know, your ability to achieve your dreams to take what you're passionate about and actually making it not just become a reality but an overwhelming success.
(40:20):
Can you talk a little bit about the importance and the impact of teams.
Yeah, and maybe I'll add some context from from like my perspective right this is my truth. So I love experience not opinion you and I have talked about that or big fan of experience not opinion is teams especially high performing teams need to be put in place before
(40:42):
it presents itself. Right, so we know that in sport, that's called practice that you're going to practice during the week and working on what so that you can play the game.
How many all star games we watch that you go okay that was they scored a lot of baskets they scored a lot of goals but didn't really look like team sport it was just a bunch of really good individuals.
And it was an event, but it wasn't like you wouldn't take that group and go try to compete because they'd have to practice. And I really believe building a team along those lines is surround yourself with people that don't look like you.
(41:12):
First and foremost, our temptation is I want a bunch of people are like me. They all love golf they all love surfing they like fishing. They're okay with manipulating a schedule to nice sunny day like it is today let's just go bail and go play golf.
But you need to have different perspectives that's to me the start to a team. Again I was liking it back to we don't need a team of goalkeepers, thank God because it's never be a team. You need defenders and midfielders and forwards that are all different they have different views on the game.
(41:38):
Surround yourself with your team of different people not just by discipline. Sure you can go get an accountant, a tech person salesperson a marketing person.
But they surround you do they think differently than you do they look differently than you do they come from a different background like those are important aspects to building a team.
So I spent a lot of time on that we spend when I talk about my seal team six it's over years of work and I have a very disciplined process to what someone might look like fitting into that seal team six because there should be a lot of healthy tension and what we discuss
(42:09):
about and and work on especially if it's for another founder in a company and I'm going to bring in any of those members of the team.
They each another role. They have their spot and they have a voice, because it's not a dictatorship. So we are a team.
So I think the build up of that is important. And then obviously when you. I'm not having spent any time in the military so being respectful, you know over the top to anyone who is.
(42:34):
Reading about it and understanding that all that training so that when you do go into your form of combat. If you're on autopilot, you just go do what you're supposed to do.
It's not sure you're going to get punched in the nose you got to change your game plan, but it should be pretty well known. You don't want to get in there and say okay guys now it's time to huddle up.
Sorry, 14 points have just happened that you don't have that kind of time. So to me a team is, can we bring different experiences, can we hash it out through healthy conflict.
(43:03):
Can we decide on what's going to be best for the team or for the endeavor and then we go into battle and we just do that and we're disciplined. That's one of my last thing.
Do you have people that are disciplined to do that.
So sorry, probably a lot more words than needed. That's great. I think through that formation and the overarching thing is, you know, passion and discipline.
(43:24):
You just can't replace that and to me it comes out very quickly when you talk to people like they're they really passionate about what they do and if they have a past experience history, like not one time but a history of experience that says they have proven they can be disciplined when the chips are down.
Because it's easy to be disciplined when you're winning.
For sure, no problem for sure. But when the chips are down, can you stay with the game plan, can you execute and yeah, that's what makes it my team anyway.
(43:50):
Well, I think that that is a great way to look at building a team and cultivating a team.
A lot of that also to me kind of flows into this idea of culture, you know, and you know culture to me is just another way to to describe what's actually going on within a team.
(44:13):
You know, how are they operating is their discipline is their passion is there, and you start to, to see that, you know, as an outcome of their processes.
You and I in our in our past conversations offline I've talked about, you know, people and processes and in those aspects and and to me that's what I see with with culture and I see that with with your words there about team as well as, is being intentional
(44:45):
and and really taking time and not rushing through, because I know I've made mistakes and I'm sure we all have. Whenever you're building a team it's like I have a spot to fill.
And it's, it's more important I get somebody in the spot and getting the right person in in the spot or having the mindset I'm going to put this person here.
(45:15):
I'm not going to make a change but going into it with that mentality where you're not married to to that, you know I, I would, I had seen this, the story of a coach getting fired.
The other day and there was this conversation about the coach being fired and they were like, you know, was he a great coach, the answer was no. And then they were like, but we didn't think you should get fired this way and I'm sitting there going.
(45:46):
If the owner identified.
He didn't have the right coach.
Then, he made the right decision to move on, and it sounds harsh.
But that's the reality, even with building teams it's like, I can put someone in this spot and I think they're going to be the right person I hope they're the right person.
(46:07):
But there's always that challenge of okay, at what point, and this is my question to you at what point with that tension when they're not the right person, when when you've built this team and you've created and cultivated this culture of high performers
and I think you've identified someone to join that team.
(46:29):
And then it's not working.
At what point.
Do you have a process for that you have a timeline for that. What's your mindset regarding a team member that maybe doesn't quite fit.
I'll go backwards, because I'm going to say not really process and not really timeline but in the spirit of hire slow fire fast.
(46:55):
I, I strive to do that, my soft heartedness doesn't always allow me to do that.
But I will say john Maxwell very famously says there is always culture in every organization company.
Whether it's research wherever whatever you're there is always culture. We as leaders to determine whether we set the culture or the culture sets itself.
(47:17):
There's always culture.
So if we don't intentionally set it as the leaders, then what gets set is a tolerance and it's only to the lowest rung. Right, so then you can't fire fast because no one's going to vote for that because they're afraid it could happen to them.
So part of the culture is, we spend a lot of time bringing somebody into seal team six, so that we know they're right. But, and we have criteria about that right there work ethic their honesty, how they are as a human, how they treat other people.
(47:48):
A host of things that kind of make up like you really have to be a great human to be in our team. That's not always true for every team, it could be do you work the fastest you get the biggest deals, and you make the most money.
So wherever you do that is up to you, but just go do those three things. That's culture.
Ours is a little bit different. So, the hiring slow means someone's got to really earn their way into that. But then if any of those principles get violated.
(48:11):
Even the person himself would understand like you're going to get fired or let go because you, you just violated the stuff that we're about, and culture actually makes the decision I'm just a mouthpiece.
And quite frankly, most of the time someone comes to me in a company even outside of seal team six, and would say, I just don't feel like I'm the right fit here anymore. Can you help me find my right fit.
(48:32):
Perfect culture really helps sort that out because we're intentional about creating it.
And it's not aspirational it's not man I hope everybody works 90 hours a week and all the other BS. It's like no creative framework that really does work for the way you want it.
And just uphold it. I don't mean to oversimplify it but it's not that hard. If you hold those principles, and then everybody that joins is like yeah I want in on that culture. Cool.
(48:57):
But know what you're signing it don't don't give me some bullshit interview.
Don't say all the right things because I'm telling you what it's going to look like when you get here. Right. Right. So don't act shocked that we want a coach that wins.
The answer is, you got to be 750 or better. And you're at 65% when you kind of know what's going to happen, and it could happen any day. Right. How we let you go. Yeah, I, you know, of recent news, I, we could all argue that.
(49:24):
Sure. But at the end of the day, it comes down to, was it a violation of preset culture, and if the answer is yes to your point.
The owner the college president whoever the ad, they have the right to make that decision if it's a violation of culture. 100%.
I want to close with a couple questions to leave the audience with some tips some advice, maybe, maybe they're in a similar place in life in their journey or maybe they're, maybe they're Brian Finnerty and they're, they're in college.
(49:55):
And, you know, they've got some NIL money and they're trying to figure out what to do.
Go by the, the snowball surf shop located in Southern California.
You know, my one question I would have for you to consider is, what, what is one thing that if you knew, then what you know now would have altered.
(50:26):
Maybe a major path of your life.
I'm not sure I'd want it altered. I think part of the story is the scar tissue.
One that Denise and I really tried to impart on the boys was, and you mentioned this earlier in the show.
(50:47):
Understanding that controlling the controllables. It sounds trite, but if you control the controllables.
And I don't mean to oversimplify, but the reality is most people look at the things they can't control and they spend so much energy either trying to fix it or ruminate on it or complain about it or whatever it is.
(51:09):
And it's just a waste of time and effort. So I think if, if I were to speed up my journey, it would have been, if I just controlled the controllables, I would have gotten there faster. It would have cost less money.
I would have had less scar tissue. And I know that can be a big statement, but I think for anybody, whether you're at work, at home, raising kids, working on your marriage, building a business.
(51:34):
When you really write down, like I'm a big journal guy. So I like the journal because I'm a goalkeeper and you probably have a short term memory.
I want to know what are the things that I'm thinking about that are actually out of my control and why am I, draw a line through it, man. Like put it on a board somewhere.
But I've got enough to worry about in controlling the controllables that that's really good return on effort. So that would be mine. Control the controllables.
(52:00):
That's a good one. Is there something you wish you knew earlier that in terms of, you know, raising kids and who've gone on to do some incredible things.
We were talking a little bit about some of their current projects that they're working on.
(52:23):
Is there something that you wish you would have known starting out your journey as a young dad that maybe would have helped you in that process to raise them?
Looking back.
Yeah, I'm going to probably break it up into two chunks, right? One sort of preteen and then one post. But the preteen one that Denise was really, really good, again, in the spirit of telling me some things I don't want to hear.
(52:54):
We're in the midst of opening our sports facility. We're full blown. Like we took 125% loan on our home back when you can do that, by the way.
Seems like this recurring theme of leveraged to open our sports facility.
All in.
Yeah, and Denise said, look, if we have to sell the home to move in an apartment, I'm okay with that. Like, I really think we should do this. So it was a huge gift.
(53:20):
But as a parent, young parent, my boys were born in 01. We opened up the facility in 01. Those first five, six, seven years, I still believed I could outwork any problem.
And so 506070 hours a week was normal and can be in any business you're starting. But I would come home on the phone, thinking that I'm home, but I'd walk in the door.
(53:42):
Denise had been dealing with the boys all day. They wanted to see me. And here's dad on the phone. And I think I thought I needed to be on the phone and it came down to let's let's an interim step will be just sit in the driveway and then finish that call and then come in.
Pretty soon. Don't come into the neighborhood until you finish that call. So maybe finish it at work. We had I have about a 20 minute drive from the facility and it took a little time. But honestly, then the drive home was me just decompressing.
(54:08):
Listen to a little music, thinking about being home with Denise and the boys when I walked in sort of ready, rejuvenated, refreshed. It made a huge difference. So I think that was the first and the second, you know, in their sort of formative teen early teen and beyond would have probably been to give them a little more latitude to just.
Skinny try some stuff. Let it break. Not have to know most, if not all the answers as us parents always think we have, you know, within reason, right? I don't want them going doing crazy wild stuff, but I would have given them more latitude to just try some things and instead of saying, you know, man, a lawn mower and serves that won't work.
(54:46):
Like, you know, understand how much lawnmowers cost and then your reputation in the neighborhood. If you don't do it and then you got a snow blow and during the winter, I should just let them go do it like who knows, right? It could have been their speedy snowman.
So yeah, those have been my chunks. But you know, all in all, I think we've we're we're doing the best we can as parents and we love them, which is awesome. And we've we've leaned into them. So, you know, we did the best good.
(55:11):
Well, I can concur on the phone situation. My wife gives me the same or has given me the same.
Side eye conversation lecture, you know.
Yeah, I mean, I think I think I think I get it. I get in trouble with that and I've gotten in trouble with that before myself. So I can I can testify that that was good advice that your wife gave you.
(55:42):
Well, look, Brian, we appreciate you coming on the show and again want to give you an opportunity to let anyone know where to find your show, your podcast and other projects you're working on so that that can be found where what's the title of your of your show?
Yeah, what's next with an exclamation point. So what's next with Brian Finnerty, you can find us at what's next podcast dot com and then on the investment side, it's opportunity seed dot com and the links to the show are there.
(56:14):
And if you've enjoyed listening to some of this banter, I think you're going to hear a lot more of the same, which is just, you know, pearls of wisdom and nuggets, a little scar tissue.
But that's kind of what we try to bring right to enlighten some people on finding their path of what's next as they're making that transition. So I appreciate it.
Well, I appreciate you coming on the show. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.
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