December 7, 2023 • 50 mins
We take a deep dive with someone who is used to Swimming with Sharks, in business that is. He is a Hall of Fame National Speaker, former NBA Player, and best selling author of “Cultivate,” “Swim,” & “All Buts Stink." He talks about how every company should be a Leadership & Development Center. How to have a mastery mind-set, and learn how to recalibrate and motivate your team all the way to the top. You don’t want to miss his “Sacred 6” strategies and hear how his business coaching transformed the "Jersey Mike’s” brand to become the top franchise it is today.
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Episode Transcript
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Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with the common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:28):
inspired. So let's get started.This is It Happens. Welcod All right,
Hello, Hello, Hello. Wehave got another exciting guest today.
As you know, we have wefeel all sorts of stories about grint and
how it forms, how it creates, how it helps people in their life,
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and you know, we all haveit. No one is no one,
and we're not getting out of herewithout it, that's for sure.
And some people become a diamond.Some people just join the sand and the
sea and they don't go very far. But there are those that take that
grit and turn it into a diamond. And our next guest today, and
we're excited to welcome a former NBAplayer, highly coveted Hall of Fame national
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speaker, and a motivational executive coach. This guy hasn't played college basketball and
is a life of grit determination andwe're very excited to get college basketball professional
basketball too and the NBA's and hehas a strong mentor in his life and
we want to hear all about hisexperience. We've welcome to the show,
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Walter Ball. Hey, Walter,welcome, And I love the title.
Love your show. Grit happens mylife, and so I'm honored to be
here. So I got to meetWalter. We were both invited speakers Trust
Edge conference at a conference and itwas an awesome conference about trust and Walter's
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got a story, I tell youknow. I was just actually hanging out
yesterday with the owner of the PhoenixSuns and had dinner with him and no
with him and no, what's hisname? From Detroit? He was the
nemesis of of Michael j Michael Jordan'sNo, not Dennis Caah Thomas, Isaiah
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Thomas. Yes, Isaiah Thomas.Yes, that's who was Thomas. Yeah,
so I had dinner with him.You can't remembers to drop. Oh,
yeah he was Yeah, he wasa big, a big guy.
Yeah, no Isaiah Thomas. Butyeah, and uh we just yea,
we were there this the other day, watched a little basketball, so it
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was fun, awesome. It's agreat sport. That's a great sport.
Yeah, let's talk about your journeygetting there. Let's talk about a little
bit of your gretty story. Areyou starting how you ended up in the
NBA. That's that's a big noteverybody gets that story, and it's very
that's a little bit beer background.I went to our well, you know,
first of all, the NBA isa journey, right, as you
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said, it took me fifteen yearsto become an NBA ball player. And
it's fifteen years of development, fifteenyears a grit, fifteen years of practice,
fifteen years of setbacks, fifteen yearsof victories. And I grew up
in Chicago, on the South sideof Chicago, and my parents were teachers.
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My mother was a kindergarten teacher,my dad was a high school principal,
and so obviously school and athletics wasimportant in my family. My big
sister played college ball at USC outthere in California. My dad was in
the Hall of Fame at his college. My uncle I was named after playing
in Bajor League baseball, and soI came from a very athletic family,
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but we were really in education andso I kind of struggled academically and that
was a bit of a challenge growingup. Not because I wasn't smart enough.
I was just so focused on sports. I didn't care about school,
you know, and so I wouldn'tfocus on sports. But I also didn't
do too well either. Well youknow, it's a lot of students out
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here in recovery, right. Yeah. And so got a chance to play
college basketball at the University of Minnesota, and at that time I had never
struggled in sports. And then Ifound myself sitting on the bench in college.
And so earlier before that I kindof had some academic challenges, got
that worked out, and then forthe first time in my life, I
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was sitting on the bench in sports. You know, the one thing that
came easy for me, natural forme. But the truth is I was
at a new level and you know, using your term grit, you know,
initially I was kind of feeling sorryfor myself, you know, throwing
pity parties and making excuses and hada long talk with my dad and he
kind of taught me accountability and hewas like he chose me to go make
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it work. And I went backto my coach's office and I said,
Coach, what do I need todo to play in the NBA. He
laughed and he said, son,you don't play for me, you know,
and he was yeah. But thisis what I told him. Guys,
I said, Coach, I'm goingto become someone different. Just tell
me what I need to do andI'll do it. And at that moment,
I was committed to doing whatever ittook to become an NBA ball player.
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And that kind of created a journeyof development. And I tell anyone,
especially in our business coaching profiles,that it is impossible to reach our
potential without a coach. You know, if I didn't learn anything else on
my journey to the NBA. Ithink it's so important to have some type
of advisor. You know. Weall hit these crossroads in life, whether
you start a company, lose acompany, leave a job, become an
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entrepreneur, or whatever, you know, leave home for the first time.
You know, we always hit thesecrossroads, and many people are making these
life changing decisions by themselves on theirown. I've had coaches my whole life,
and luckily my college basketball coach helpedme get my basketball career on track,
and I listened, I executed,and I ended up making it to
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the NBA. Played for the DallasMavericks, where I met my wife.
And I tell people, you know, when you're an athlete, you see
pretty, you see cute all thetime. It's something about pro sports attracts
pretty and cute. When I sawmy wife, I saw wife for the
first time and we dated four monthsand got engaged and married within eleven months
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and had an eight year professional basketballcareer. I made one mistake through my
basketball career that I regret. Ididn't recalibrate. You know. I believe
in continuous improvement. I believe ingetting bigger, stronger, and faster.
And I'm very transparent. You know, you guys heard me in Minneapolis.
I don't hold anything back. I'vebeen successful, but I failed. And
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my biggest disappointment after making it tothe NBA, I didn't recalibrate, you
know. I was just so focusedon getting there. I didn't sit down
and say, okay, now,how how what do I need to do
to stay? You know, AndI ended up playing in the NBA three
years, and I regretted that Ididn't do what it was required of me
to stay longer. But I learnedthat lesson and now I recalibrate. Every
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year. My wife and I wedo conferences for small business owners. It's
called the off season, you know, business acceleration and recalibration. Like you,
we're due opreneurs, you know.We work together with business partners,
and so the journey to the NBAreally was preparing me for my purpose.
And now my wife and I wego all over the country. We go
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international motivating inspiring business leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners on what it takes really
to become elite, but most importantly, how to stay elite. Oh gonna
have all the time. I wasgonna say that, Walter, because so
many people can acquire money or acquiresuccess at a job or a you know,
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we're in the NBA or wherever,right, and when you get there,
you go, wow, look atme, man, I made it,
Aren't I great? And then yousit back and you think wow,
you know, like I yeah,And then you know and the reality is,
it is one thing to make it. It's another thing to keep it
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right. And so that requires themindset and the hard work because getting there,
I've always now that I've been fortunateto have some success and some businesses
getting there. That's kind of beenthe fun part. Man, Let's drive,
let's go, let's work harder thanthe other guy, Let's stay later,
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Let's do it. Everybody get,get, get, And then you
get to the top, and you'relike, and if you just tick your
eye off the ball, right,then you're going to get run over,
man, because other people are workingjust as hard to get to where you
are, where you want to be. And you say that, and it
just reminds me of so many businessowners and so many other people. I
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know that when you get there,that's only the beginning of the work.
Now the hard work comes. Yougot to stay there. You got to
work again, even harder because nowyou're competing at a level where everybody's great,
right, And how do you staythere? So what happened when you
finally got there? Did you sitback a little and do that, you
know, and get run over?Or what happened? You know? Honestly,
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I don't think I gloated, youknow, I don't think I got
full of myself Honestly, to betotally honest, I had such a journey
to get there. Now you're talkingabout a guy who didn't start on his
college basketball team. My senior year, I broke my foot twice. I
mean, it was a hell ofa trip getting there. And I think
by the time I made it,I think I was somewhat fatigued. I
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think I was a little exhausted.I don't think I got arrogant or anything.
I think I just wanted to resta little bit. But unfortunately,
I rested for three years and Iwas good, but I didn't keep getting
better. Right now, that hadbeen the story of my life. And
the good news for me is thatthat was not my purpose because when I
got cut, you know, thinkabout this, it took me fifteen years
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to make. It took me fifteenseconds to get cut. And I remember
it like it was yesterday. JaredSloan was like, Hey, check with
the trainer. He has your planeticket. We're going in a different direction.
That's what I said to me.And literally it was a fifteen second
conversation after fifteen years of work.And I was literally devastated, and I
went home and I cried in mywife's arms like a little baby. I
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mean, I'm talking about sobbing,because it was it was my life,
it was my dream, it waseverything that I knew, and at that
moment, you know, I madea commitment that you know what, I
told my wife, I'm going tobe great at something and I didn't know
what. But you know, Ilearned how to become e leap, but
now I realize how to stay aleap. Yeah, you know that's that's
a two step press process. Andwe help our clients become elite, the
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more important we help them stay alead. You know, I was thinking
the other day, you know,Kingdom's rise and fall all the time,
you know, and think about likeMaxwell House and Folgier's coffee. You know,
when we grew up, every househad it, always had one or
two. But how did they losethe coffee game? You know, they're
not number one anymore, you know. So it's so easy to be number
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one, but if you take youroff the ball and relax, you can
easily get passed by. In yourindustry, every dog has his day off
the ball. And how you subwaydid that because you came in Jersey,
Mike recruited you to their team,and talk about that story. That's an
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incredible story of someone being on topand taking their after the ball because someone
else is working a little harder.You know, your great point, Kingdom's
rise and fall all the time.You know, Subway obviously has more locations,
but Jersey Mikes were opening up threehundred stores a year and Subways closing
stores, you know, and they'restill eight hundred pound guerrilla. I mean,
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they still are a force to bereckoned with what the truth is,
Jersey Mikes is the hottest brand enfranchising. But here's why. You know,
Jersey Mikes and has allowed us toinfluence the culture. And they have a
great team, you know, amongstthemselves. But you know, I'm kind
of like their secret weapon. Andwe came in eight years ago, my
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wife and I both and say hey, we're going to kick Subways. But
when we first started saying it,they kind of looked around, like what
And again, Kingdom's rise and fallall the time. And you know,
Jersey Mikes is in the people business. And I think that's probably the biggest
difference in Peter king Crow, thefounder. He and I spent a lot
of time together. You know,I've learned a whole lot from him,
obviously, and you know, he'shumble enough to learn from me and he
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said, May Walter, you isso important. I want people to know
you know what you've done for us. And we basically came inside of Jersey
Minke and really help the mindset.And that's probably what my wife and I
do best, is help people developa mastery mindset, but also learn how
to keep getting to that next leveland really achieve your personal best. You
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know again, you know you talkabout Michael Jordan or Lebron James. You
know I played in the NBA,But what would be unfair to myself to
say unless I become as good asLebron James or Michael Jordan. You know,
my career wasn't important. I hadto become the best version of me.
I had to become the best versionof me. And for me,
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that was important for me to becomethe best version of me. And so
I think that's what life is allabout. You know. Michael Jordan obviously
was more talented than me, Hehad more gift than I did. He
had a different responsibility. He hadto go become Michael Jordan, right,
I had to go and become thebest version of Walter Bonn. I think
at the end of the day,I think God is looking for all of
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us to become the best version ofourselves and against with the mindset mentality.
And you know, if you getyour mind right, I think it's really
easy to become the best version ofyourself. You talk about the shark mindset,
and then is there a moment whereit switches from your going from being
a minno to a shark? Isthere something? Is there somebody or something
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that helped implement that switch. Youknow, if you think about every great
movie, and our book Swim reallyencapsulates what it's all about. If you
think about every great movie that welove, Karate Kid had Mister Miaki,
right, Rocky had Mickey. Youknow, every great movie, there's always
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some type of coach or advice.And the reason why sharks run the ocean
is because of one thing their mindset. Sharks are freaking relentless. And in
our book Swim, we teach whatwe call the sacred six. You know,
sharks never stop moving forward or theydie. The way shark breathes is
student their movement in the water,they get oxygen. They whole life depends
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on their movement. And so younever see someone who's depressed, the frustrated
and angry they're moving, you know, they just kind of they're not making
progress. And of course if you'renot making progress, you should be frustrated.
Right. It's easy because you knowinside that I'm not going anywhere and
I know it, right, Andso we help our clients create progress.
The most you guys have six kids, right, the most important step a
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child makes is that baby step.You know, think about that. You
know you you want to retard thatbaby step? Why because that baby step
represents progress, it represents independence,it represents movement. And so sometimes in
life we discount baby steps. Youknow what, if you're making progress,
that one pound is progress, right, and if you lose one pounds,
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you can lose one hundred pounds.So we really teach and celebrate progress.
Is that the baby steps or whatare the let me go through them real
quick? Sharks never stop moving forwardor they doing right. So that's about
being tenacious, being relentless making progresstoo. This is in the book swim
Sharks only look up, they neverlook down. Oh yes, people who
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swim with sharks, they stay belowthe shark. As long as you stay
below the shark, the shark didn'teven notice you. How about that,
which is cool, right somethings?How many people get distracted by petty?
They're from the top, that's right, petty. Some thing's gotta be below
you or beneath you, right,And so if you get down in the
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weeds and get petty, you're gonnaeasily get distracted. You know one thing
I never did as about ball player, I would never allow a heckling fan,
even though I heard them. Iwould not even acknowledge a heck Now,
if you say, hey, greatgame, i'might acknowledge you. But
if I heard a fan of hecklingme, I would ignore them. I
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would not even give them a satisfactionthat I heard them speaking. Why Because
I'm in the NBA, I'm wearingthe jersey, and you're a freaking fan
heckling me. You know what Itell you, Walter. The we've had,
you know, a lot of successin our businesses, and there's been
times when people have come in andgo, do you hear what the competition
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is saying about us? They're sayingall this negative stuff, and they keep
you know, I've heard this mywhole life, and I say, isn't
it wonderful they're talking about us?You know. I mean, we are
moving the needle and these people arenervous that they got to throw out all
these things that get people and juststart get nervous. Well, that's that's
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actually a compliment to your success,to all your hard work. You know,
we got to stop looking at thepettiness as things that distract us and
say, isn't that wonderful that theydo that? Move on? You know,
you know, you know what I'msaying. People, guys, if
you don't have haters, your visionis too small. That's rights are part
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of the last we got kep swimming. Only look up, never looked down.
Sharks are curious and always learning.Curious at all. Sharks are intelligent.
I mean they remember hunting grounds,they remember everything. They're just intelligent,
right, But their intelligence is drivenby their curiosity. And imagine if
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all business owners were curious about beinga better leader, curious about building better
cultures, you know, curious abouthow to create better engagement with their employees.
You know, if you're not curious, you're not learning. So sharks
are curious and always learning. Ijust about millionaires. The most of the
millionaire billionaires read books, lots ofbooks, Like every week they're reading a
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new book because they all you needis one good idea that makes you lots
of money. You know what agood book is a twenty dollars coaching session.
Think about that, for twenty freakingbucks. I can have a coaching
session with any one who's ever writtena book for just twenty dollars. But
you know, sharks are sharks respectthe environment and they recognize other sharks.
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No, no, So think abouta simple employee, not simple employee,
but just thinking about an employee whorespects the fact that they have a job.
You would never have quietly quitting.You never have employee apathy. Why
because I might not love my job. I might not love my boss,
but hey, I get to eatbecause of them. You know, I
pay my riding for the brand,that's what we call it, can exchange
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for a roof over my head.All I have to do is a care
and work hard. You know.So if a person had that mentality that
I recognize, I respect my environmentand recognize other sharks, that alone can
make you successful. Because when Isee someone successful, I see what they're
doing, and I observe them,I admire them, and I see how
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they move. Now here's a bigone. Guys, we only got through
four. I got two more.Sharks move different. Think about that.
Sharks move different in that water.But so do millionaires. You know.
I find it fascinating that some peopleare millionaires, right, and that's like
the number everybody wants to hit.Oh he's a billionaire. You know,
millionaires move different. You know,they just move different than people who make
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one hundred thousand dollars. Right.But here I live in the neighborhood with
six billionaires. If you really thinkabout that, whoe billionaires. You just
move different, You just think different. Your approach is different. And one
day my wife and I were jokingand we were with a really successful guy.
We were in his house, andwe love being around successful people because
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as far as we're concerned, we'vedone nothing yet keeps us very humble.
I looked at my wife. Wemust have been in the twenty thousand square
foot home. I said, babe, you know what I want to apologize
to you. I wish I wassmarter. He looks back at me with
a straight face and says me too. You know what it is, It's
that confidence, right, and it'salways that's why you surround yourself with other
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people that maybe have got game.I guess you could call it as well.
And you sit there and you go, Okay, you know what I
can do better? I can keepand as long as we keep to your
point, moving and keep thinking aboutyou know, because once you get to
the top, so to speak,and you don't see anybody else up there,
it's hard to grow. But you'vegot to surround yourself with other people
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that say, I can keep going, I can go better, I can
go harder. That's the way yougrow, you know. And so I
like being around people that, youknow, make me think, oh,
I'm still I still got a longway to go. You know, no
matter what level you're at, yougot to always have something to reach for.
Well, you know, iron sharpensiron, guys. I mean,
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you know we've all heard that saying. And when I played in NBA,
I mean I was around the bestbasketball players in the world, and that
demanded excellence out of me. Butthe smartest thing my wife and I did
when we left the basketball environment,we had a conversation. She was like,
you know what I need to getyou around business people. I was
a great idea. So we joinedthe country club. We joined the country
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club as soon as our career wasover. We weren't golfers and we just
joined as social members, but itgave us access to successful business people.
And through these relationships, I builtmy confidence. And I was like,
you know what, these guys aren'tsmarter than me, you know, and
you know what pissed me off.They only wanted to talk about sports with
me. That's the only time theywould engage a conversation. I was like,
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Oh, I'm just a dumb jockover here. And I began to
take that a little personally and Ibegan reading books, I began getting educated.
I began to learn business and beforeI knew it. Now we live
in the country club now and theycome to me for advice. Hey,
Walter, I need you to Canyou join our long term planning committee?
And my wife's owned committees, andthey really respect our intellect, They respected
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diversity that we have. We bringa different energy, a different mindset,
a different mentality. And you're right, I mean, it's so important for
people to get access to successful peoplebecause if you get access to successful people,
that's the best way for you togrow and develop. So sharks are
curious and always learning right, andthere's two more. Sharks have made a
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cartilage, which means they're flexible.When think about that, every other fish
has bones. You eat fish,they have hard bones and too many bones.
It's like I don't even want toeat the fish. But sharks have
made a cartlage, which means they'reflexible. They know how to pivot,
they know how to change, Theycan adapt to their environment. And when
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the when COVID hit, Peter Kingkrow, the founder of Jersey Mikes, called
me and he had just brought everybodya copy of Swim. They all read
the book, and so they knewsharks are curious. Sharks never stopped moving.
They knew the same for six right, and he goes, you know
what, I'm a shark, soI'm gonna pivot. That's what he did
through COVID. We're gonna feed allfirst responders for free, every cop,
every farm, and every public responderthrough COVID eight three at Jersey Mix.
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And then he gave every customer afifty percent discount. Right, America was
you know, the world's been challenged, but America was was struggling. Right,
So you can go to Jersey Minksand get a fifty percent discount,
but then he backed it up forthe franchisee and gave them the fifty percent
discount on the back end. Soas an operator, I gave the customer
fifty percent off, but then Istill got paid for the one hundred percent
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of the service. So he madethat pivot through COVID, and I'm telling
you, Jersey Mins is not lookedback. And so he remembered that sharks
had made a cartilage. I'm thefounder, I'm the owner. I gotta
do something. I gotta pivot andso we, through are coaching and the
Sacred Six have been able to helpinspire this brand to go to new heights
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and they love us forever. Andfinally, of the six, of the
Sacred Six, sharks are codependent onthe suckerfice have a long story. But
no matter how big a shark get, it's vulnerable to parasites. If a
parasite gets into the nostrils or thegills, it could kill a severely damaged
your shark. So shark recruits teammatescalled suckerfish, and it's a symbiotic relationship
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that work in tandem. I needyou and you need me. And a
sucker fish gets to go on freeRise and Ocean. So the moral of
the story is that mentors are needed, and a mentor's job is to take
you places that you can't take yourself. But the suckerfish job has one freaking
job. You're gonna get free meals, you get free riseing Ocean, Okay,
but you got one job to do. Take care of my host.
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When you see a parasite, eatthe freaking parasites, and keep me clean.
So for a company, the companyis the shark. The employees are
the sucker fish, and we're gonnawork together in tandem, and we're gonna
go places together that we can't goby ourselves. Can we use another word
than suckerfish? The official name isa ramorra. It's called but they have
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a sumption on the top of theirhead that's like a sumption, and that's
what which means they're smart. Thinkabout it, the sumption on the top
of their head. If you're smart, you'll always have a mentor. If
you're smart, you'll always have acoach. And the sucker fish connects to
the shark, and I'm telling youit's beautiful relationship. And my story,
guys, I've always been a suckerfishwith great coaches, great mentors, great
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leaders, and I stayed close tothem and allowed them to influence me.
It was one of the motors thatreally stuck out. To explain your one
of your early mentors, well,you know, my father became a high
school principal when I flunk out myfirst high school. Wait, so that
that was a big moment because itwas all about academics. Then. I
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was a great athlete. I wasone of the best players in the country,
and I did well on the court, but in the classroom, I
wasn't getting it done. And sohe became a high school principal. To
my wife. You know, mywife worked for doctor Pepper and she was
a pharmaceutical drug rep. And sowhen I retired from basketball, I never
had a job. I never hada real job, and so I needed
her to go get a job andget some benefits until I was able to
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kind of figure out some stuff.And she was able to teach me basic
business terms. And she comes froman entrepreneurial family, right, So when
my career ended, you know,after eight years of pro basketball, you
know, I needed my wife,you know, and she kind of helped,
you know, man the ship untilI can get my business legs up
under me. And now we doit together. But you know, I've
always been coachable. You know,the book Swim, we got mentored by
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Mark Victor Hanson some chicken soup foryour soul, he mentored us. So
I don't do it. I don'tdo anything without an advisor or a coach
or a mentor. And some ofmy mentors obviously are in my life,
but I'm paying for a coach.You know. We were with our business
coach yesterday for two hours. Sothat's the whole moral of the shark and
the sucker fish. You know what, at any time in the day,
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we should always be a shark ora sucker fish, you know. And
quick story, when we were withPeter can Crow of Jersey Minkes, we
stopped in Detroit and we had abusiness meeting with Tom Monahan, the founder
of Domino's Pizza. And so whenwe left the meeting, I looked at
Peter that said, Peter, that'syour shark. He goes, yeah,
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yeah. I was like it wasthe first time I'd seen him be a
suckerfict and I was fascinated. Thisguy's a billionaire. It as a coach
and a mentor and all. Heasked Tom Monahan, who took dominoes back
in the seventies and eighties, rememberthirty minutes or is free, And he
asked him. He was like,you know, how can I take better
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care of my franchisees? And hewas asking Tom Monaghan, you know,
one of the historical franchise oars ofall time, how to do it?
And he sat there just like TomMonaghan was mister Miyagi and he was karate
kid. And it was a beautifulthing to see someone that successful. And
I've seen be the shark everywhere hegoes, except that one moment he was
(29:04):
humble in the presence of Tom Bonney. So the moral of the story,
I am totally convinced, I don'tcare who you are. I don't care
how big you get, I don'tcare how rick you get. You should
always have a mentor. You shouldalways have some type of coach or an
advisor. You should always be asucker fish and allow somebody else to be
your shark. And that's the wholemoral of a shark and a sucker fish.
(29:26):
If I ever get in the presidenceof Tony Robbinson. I'm a sucker
fish. He's a shark. JohnMaxwell, I'm a suckerfisher. He's a
shark. Mark Victor Hailson, I'ma sucker fish. He's a shark.
Most places I go, I'm ashark, and I'm able to be other
mentors. But I'm smart enough torealize when I'm in the presence of someone
who needs to be my shark,I will humble myself in a minute.
(29:48):
Whether you're a great author, aspeaker, or whatever, it doesn't matter.
I'm humble enough to know that there'salways someone out to get better that
you could learn from. And that'sbeen the story of my life because I've
been like the incredible c student whogot it figured out. The one thing
I know for a fact is thatthe book Swim and the Sacred Six has
(30:08):
been transforming companies, transforming lives.It's a parable, so it's a great
story. People pick up the book, they can't put it down. And
we have people showing us photos witha tattoo of a shark and it's religious.
It's just awesome. Our friends wrotethe book how to Swim with the
Sharks. He lives there. Helives. Harvey McKay. I know Harvey
(30:32):
McKay. I know Harvey McKay absolutely, He's a Minnesota guy. I lived
in Minnesota twenty five years. Youknow Harvey McKay very well. Love that
book. So were you gonna say? I was just very in line with
a lot of what you said.Being in business, uh for so long
and having mentors and and looking alwayshaving someone to look up to is so
(30:56):
important because you know, you canget to the top of the game,
but you have to keep striving forsomething, you know, and it's so
important to find people. And uh, you know, it's it's one thing
to to always you know, it'sit's a reciprocal thing. As you said,
right, you can't just take.You have to be. You have
(31:18):
to give. And uh, there'sone thing we've always said, too much
as given, much as required,right, And so when you continue to
keep that mindset, that of givingback, and no matter what how big
you are, I think it helpsyou grow in your own business as well.
You know, and taking on mentorshas always been so critical to me
(31:41):
because I know it's gotten me througha lot. But then turning it around,
we're always trying to give back toyounger people or it doesn't matter their
age, but people that are stillwanting to learn as well to talk about
it. I'm mad. One morecomment. Here's a beauty. Remember I
talked about a shark, a suckerfish, and a parasite. So when
(32:04):
people read the book, it's clearedthree kind of people in this world.
Sharks, suckerfish, and parasites.The only difference between a parasite and a
suckerfish it's powerful. A parasite takesand does not give. Think about it.
They're both connected to a shark,but one takes and takes and takes
(32:25):
and takes and has no intentions ongiving. So to your point, you
know, life should always be reciprocal, give and take. But if you
ever find a selfish person in thebooks, when we let you know this
hope for a parasite, I tellyou that person doing is being selfish in
that moment, you know, Walter, we had I've had times. I
(32:45):
had two great mentors in my lifethat helped me and I sat with them
through the most incredibly difficult times,and at one point they both came and
said, hey, I want toinvest in your business. And I was
you know, at the lowest Icould possibly be. I was on my
knees ready to give in and giveup, and and and as they kept
(33:10):
saying, tell me how much?How much do you want to sell your
business for? And I kicked itdown the road for a couple of weeks,
and I finally said, you knowwhat, there's not enough money in
the world worth my friendship with youand advice I get and to get and
tie the money into it, Ijust don't want to do it. And
(33:30):
I knew these guys were so successfulthey didn't care really about being in my
bed, and they were trying togive me a helping hand, and I
didn't want to mix the money withthis mentorship. And it ended up working
out very well. I didn't getinto business with them, but they would
(33:51):
kick me all the time away shouldI should have made you invest, because
you know, we did really wellwell. I've had some people that I've
mentored and then you know, maybea few months into it, they go,
you know, I was wondering,can I borrow some money? And
and I'm like, all right,listen, are we gonna work here as
(34:12):
mentor mentee? Or am I yourbank? Because there's a big difference,
right and and you know, Ithink it's uh, it does. It
feels more parasitic when all you wantis money from somebody. There wasn't enough
money in the world for me worththe advice I was getting from these great
men, who again they've to thisday they're there. I look at them
(34:36):
as the two best giants in mylife. You know so well, you
know one thing that I've learned,and I'm sure you guys would agree.
Money is important, very important,but it's overrated. And a lot of
times when people don't have money,they really believe that's the only thing I
need and if I get some money, I'll be fine. The truth is
(34:58):
who you are. It is themost important thing. And you know,
for example, a guy like MagicJohnson, you know, he's always been
I've never met him, I've neverhung out with him. He's someone I've
always admired. And I think he'ssuccessful, not just because he was a
great basketball player. I think MagicJohnson successful could be because he's just a
successful person, you know, andhe does the right thing. He treats
(35:21):
people the right way. And Ithink that in life, if you do
want to make more money, ifyou do want to be more successful,
financially, you have to become agreat person. And I've seen some wealthy
people who are miserable, and Ithink a lot of times they put all
of their self esteem and enjoy intothe money instead of being a great person.
(35:42):
Money only when agniflies who you are. That's right, That's right.
It allows you to express who youare better. Right. So if you're
a good guy, you could bea really good guy with some money.
If you're a jerk, you couldbe a really good jerk with that's right.
Like a bittle bit about audacious goalsyou mentioned that is when you speak
(36:06):
of audacious, love it well.You know. It's a part of our
teamwork coaching program. We take companiesthrough and we talk about winners, losers,
and champions. And unfortunately most peoplejust talk about winning and losing.
But as an athlete, there's alwaysa champion, right, And so in
business, I think we can bechampions. And the only way to be
a champion is to be focused onsome type of audacious goal. And I
(36:31):
remember playing for the Utah Jazz.Loved Utah. We were winners, but
we never talked championship. It wasn'tlike a conversation we had in the locker
room. And before I signed withthe Utah Jazz, I was in Chicago
with Chicago Bulls for like five daysand I ended up leaving Chicago because Utah
gave me more money on my contract. But the truth is, so those
(36:52):
five days in Chicago, one thingthat was clear to me that the only
goal was a winning championship. Andif we don't won a championship, this
is a bad season. If we'rerunning up right and lose, it's a
bad season. And to me,that taught me that a champion has an
audacious goal. And once you havean audacious goal, that's what you get
(37:14):
excited about, and that's what youcan rally your company around. I just
did two half day workshops with twodifferent bankers and I took them through the
champions road map right and my firstquestion for them was what is your audacious
goal? God silence, God silence, And I don't bail you out.
I sit there like, Okay,what's your audacious goal? And I was
(37:37):
quiet until the CEO of the banksays, well, I guess we don't
have one. And I knew Iknew the answer, but I wanted them
to know the answer because the playin the NBA was an audacious goal and
that's the only thing that kept megoing right. I broke them food twice.
I had my teeth knocked out.I didn't start in college. My
wife and I our first business wentbankrupt. We bought a franchise called Jimberree
(38:00):
playing music, and we went bankrupt. We were busted. But our goal
was to make more money in businessthan we did in sports. And that's
when the grit came back. Soeven though we were rock bottom, even
though we were broke, broke,broke, broke, broke, we still
had an audacious goal of making moremoney in business than we did in sports.
(38:22):
And that's what's got it that gotus back on our feet. Yeah,
that has got us back in thelife laboratory. You know what we
learned we will never ever do abusiness just to make money. That's the
only reason we bought this franchise becausewe thought we could make some money.
And my wife and I realized wewere not passionate about their business. This
training and development company we founded intwo thousand and one, we are passionate
(38:45):
about helping companies and individuals grow.And let me give you one tip for
all business owners. Most business ownerswant to grow externally making more money.
The fastest way to grow externally isto grow your peace internally. And that's
what we do with Jersey Mike Subbs. We're teaching the sacred six, we're
teaching the mindset. We're teaching howto be better leaders. We're teaching them
(39:07):
how to manage their culture, whichwe call the locker room, and by
them brewing their people, that's howyou kick the competitions. I just gave
a million dollar secret, probably amulti billion dollar secret that for any business
owner, you must turn your companyinto a training and development organization. Why
your most valuable asset are your people. So if you're going to treat it.
(39:29):
In sports, we had to getin the weight room, we had
to left, we had to develop, We had to build your muscles.
Same thing as true in business.You got to develop your people. And
if you can be a leader whothinks like a coach, we just finished
creating a whole training on turning leadersin the coaches. Because I'll be honest
with you, when I left sports, i was thirty years old. That's
how I saw leaders as coaches.When I got into the business world,
(39:51):
I was expecting the same thing anddidn't see it. I was like,
they don't even think like coaches.And so we've been on a mission to
really turn and all of our clientsleaders into coaches, and that a lull
is transformation. So my wife andI we love what I do, what
we do. She's our head coach. She does all of our coaching programs,
(40:12):
builds all of our curriculums. I'mjust a pretty face and a smile.
But the heavy lifting and the heavycoaching, we have a whole team
of coaches that do it. AndI stay pretty much in a key keynote
lane and really communicate our core messagethat you must turn your company into a
training and development organization. And thenmy team comes in and does all the
heavy lifting. Yeah you know,we just had a big event. Yeah
(40:37):
we had a great event. Ohyeah, you're now that's right. You
know, We've got thousands of brokersthat work with us at kind Lending,
and you know, it kind ofbecame pretty apparent when every event we ever
went to, all they wanted totalk about, or not all they wanted
to but all that was talked aboutwas interst right, and whether the market's
(41:00):
going up and down and these things, and you know, you start thinking,
what about personal growth? What aboutthe fact that we're not here just
to see if interest rates go upand down, but about how do you
become a better leader, How doyou become better at being happy? You
know, it didn't have to beabout business. It had to be about
your life. If you spend somuch time together, how do we develop
(41:23):
ourselves more than just thinking about italone, but how you get to your
again the inside here right, Andso we had a wonderful event and had
a lot of just the most amazingfeedback ever because it was different and it
was all about really personal growth.Had a hard time in the last few
(41:45):
years business has been very difficult,and you know, you just want to,
like you say, you got tohave the cartlet, you got assume,
you got to try something new thatpeople haven't seen before. And it
was a really really successful kind ofa debut, if you will, in
the industry, very well received.And that's kind of like the leader that
Glenn is. He I love theidea, the analogy you talk about being
(42:06):
a leader. You either leave witha machete or you leave with a whistle.
And with Glenn, I think youare you have your whistle and that's
kind of what we're doing. Willyou expand upon that a little bit about
being a leader with those two tools. Yeah, Well, you know,
you can lead people, you knowin a great way and still challenge them,
you know. I mean that's whatcoaches do. They challenge you,
(42:27):
but at the same time, youknow that they got your back, You
trust them, and you know thattheir number one goal is to get you
better. And the truth is,the answer is yes, I would love
to come and do something for youguys at your conference. But you know,
again, here's what the average humanspirit is looking for when they get
hired by a company. Can Ireach my potential here? Yeah? You
(42:50):
know, whether they're saying that overtlyor it's really bird deeper into subconscience.
That's what people are thinking. CanI reach my potential here? If the
answer is yes, I stay.If the answer is no, I leave.
So why not have training and developmentbuilt into your culture, because at
a conscience or a subconscious level,they'll say to themselves, well, hell,
I can stay right here. WhyBecause I can reach my potential here
(43:14):
this environment. I'm learning leadership skills, I'm learning how to be a better
communicator. I'm learning how to overcomeobjections. I'm growing as a business person.
I'm growing when I love this environment, So I want to stay.
You know, our book now iscalled Cultivate. Think about that name.
Cultivate. Isn't that a beautiful name? Because that's what leaders must do,
cultivate. And so we're on amission to teach leaders how to cultivate their
(43:37):
team. You know, you cancultivate accountability, you can cultivate commitment,
right, you can cultivate chemistry.And so most of our leaders don't know
what they don't know, and sowhen they come to our workshops, when
they come to our sessions, they'relike, dude, this is simple but
brilliant. Thank you. Because again, on my way to the NBA,
(43:58):
it was like God was preparing mefor my real purpose. And so now
my wife and I work together asa team transforming individuals and organizations. But
it requires immersion. I mean,it took me fifteen years to become and
when I watched the NBA now,I'm like, oh my god, I
cannot believe I used to play.These guys are good. But I was
(44:21):
under such great coaching that I beganto do things that I didn't even know
I was capable of. But Iwas immersed in the industry and a culture
where my coaches knew how to cultivate. And so now I don't call my
business leaders leaders. We call themcoaches. And at very turn alone,
(44:43):
if you just tell a leader yourjob is to coach and cultivate, they
look at you and tilt their headlike wow, like I've never even thought
that. Or because you've been focusedon money, cultivate your people because that's
your most valuable asset and it's yourbiggest expense. This is your biggest expensive
payroll. Duh. If your biggest, biggest expensive payroll, why not cultivate
(45:07):
the people that are your best assetthat you have to pay for. That's
right, get amount of the moneyyou're paying them, you know, like
that, Yeah, that's our nextmeeting. I'm bringing a whistle, had
a flag and a penalty flag.That's right. Well, we absolutely you
know again, when I saw you, I was like, you are right
(45:29):
up our alley with what's going onagain? You know a lot of the
people you know that that watch thisare our business owners and our people that
are or they want to be businessowners, right and they've got to understand
how to uh navigate these waters andthat life isn't perfect and that we need
to keep moving and you know,and be flexible up and that's right,
(45:52):
or get yourself some remora, that'swhat. Well, you know, we're
really kingdom builders and let's say earlierKingdom's rise and they fall all the time.
And a lot of well meaning businessleaders and business owners honestly don't know
what they don't know. And soour job is to really educate so people
(46:13):
can think right, execute so theycan win right. And we're seeing clients
get amazing results. We had amedical device company. We coached them for
twelve months. Now think about this. You can stay the same the next
twelve months, or you can getradically different in the next twelve months.
You know, the choice is yours. We helped the medical device company grow
their sales by sixty million. Andall we did twice a month. We
(46:37):
did a coaching program for their managers, and then we did a coaching program
for their sales team, and sowe were coaching everyone but their executive.
So we did middle managers and theirsales team, and in one year they
grew by sixty million. Dollars whilea coach and were strictly coaching. We
(46:57):
developed their people and their culture onfire. They all developed the same mindset,
the same mentality. And I'm tellingyou it's a beautiful thing to see.
And I just wish more companies wouldlisten to the message. You must
become a training and development organization atyour core and master keyta industry dominance.
(47:21):
All right, Walter, you areso inspiring. You just where can people
find you? They want to getyou, bring you in, hire you
and follow you. Where where dothey go? They got your books?
We have We have two websites andI don't know if you can put it
in the chat or make it easy. It's Peak Performers Huddle dot com.
(47:42):
So Peak Performers huddle dot com,or you can go to Walterbond dot com,
Walterbond dot com or Peak Performance Huddle. We created the huddle because if
you think about it, you haveto have a place to go, right,
you know? I mean, andif I'm a professional, if my
(48:04):
company doesn't believe in training and development, where do I go to get better?
I went to the gym to getbetter as a basketball player. Everything
I needed was at the gym.The weight room was at the gym,
the showers, the trainers, thecoaches. The video going into that building
was hope that if I go intothis building, I can get better.
And so we created Peak Performance Huddlefor executives, for fellow speakers, entrepreneurs,
(48:28):
anyone who wants to get better andneeds a place to go. That's
why we created the Peak Performance Huddle. Love it, love it? And
then are you on Instagram? Peopleare a president? Yeah, we're on
Instagram. We're on all social mediaInstagram. I don't think so it's just
a website, Walterbon, Oh,we do have I've been corrected. My
(48:52):
teammate just corrected me. We dohave Peak Performance Huddle on Instagram and Facebook
and LinkedIn. I'm getting real timeand you is that? Is that?
The that is? Come come sayshe's so pretty. I want you guys
to see how pretty is. Ihave inspired by her. She is just
(49:14):
she woke up like this, guys. Good really enjoyed Walter the other day.
Yeah, I love you, loveto meet you. She woke up
this. Dang, that's something else. We love you entrepreneurs. So let
(49:34):
it rock. There we go.I love baby Shark and Shark and Mama
Shark. So nice to meet you. Well, thank you, Walter,
Thank you for joining us on GritHappens. We appreciate you being part of
our our day and boy we gotinspired, so many notes and so much
great inspiration. But uh, andwe'll be looking for you and looking forward
(49:58):
to talking to you about our nextvibe next year. Excited to have you
part of it. But thank you. Thanks again. We love California,
we travel, so let me allright, Well, we appreciate it,
Thank you, Walter. All right, you've been listening to the episode of
but you can find it here andanywhere you get your podcast, Girls It Happens.
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with the common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:28):
inspired. So let's get started.This is It Happens. Welcod All right,
Hello, Hello, Hello. Wehave got another exciting guest today.
As you know, we have wefeel all sorts of stories about grint and
how it forms, how it creates, how it helps people in their life,
(00:49):
and you know, we all haveit. No one is no one,
and we're not getting out of herewithout it, that's for sure.
And some people become a diamond.Some people just join the sand and the
sea and they don't go very far. But there are those that take that
grit and turn it into a diamond. And our next guest today, and
we're excited to welcome a former NBAplayer, highly coveted Hall of Fame national
(01:10):
speaker, and a motivational executive coach. This guy hasn't played college basketball and
is a life of grit determination andwe're very excited to get college basketball professional
basketball too and the NBA's and hehas a strong mentor in his life and
we want to hear all about hisexperience. We've welcome to the show,
(01:30):
Walter Ball. Hey, Walter,welcome, And I love the title.
Love your show. Grit happens mylife, and so I'm honored to be
here. So I got to meetWalter. We were both invited speakers Trust
Edge conference at a conference and itwas an awesome conference about trust and Walter's
(01:57):
got a story, I tell youknow. I was just actually hanging out
yesterday with the owner of the PhoenixSuns and had dinner with him and no
with him and no, what's hisname? From Detroit? He was the
nemesis of of Michael j Michael Jordan'sNo, not Dennis Caah Thomas, Isaiah
(02:29):
Thomas. Yes, Isaiah Thomas.Yes, that's who was Thomas. Yeah,
so I had dinner with him.You can't remembers to drop. Oh,
yeah he was Yeah, he wasa big, a big guy.
Yeah, no Isaiah Thomas. Butyeah, and uh we just yea,
we were there this the other day, watched a little basketball, so it
(02:52):
was fun, awesome. It's agreat sport. That's a great sport.
Yeah, let's talk about your journeygetting there. Let's talk about a little
bit of your gretty story. Areyou starting how you ended up in the
NBA. That's that's a big noteverybody gets that story, and it's very
that's a little bit beer background.I went to our well, you know,
first of all, the NBA isa journey, right, as you
(03:13):
said, it took me fifteen yearsto become an NBA ball player. And
it's fifteen years of development, fifteenyears a grit, fifteen years of practice,
fifteen years of setbacks, fifteen yearsof victories. And I grew up
in Chicago, on the South sideof Chicago, and my parents were teachers.
(03:35):
My mother was a kindergarten teacher,my dad was a high school principal,
and so obviously school and athletics wasimportant in my family. My big
sister played college ball at USC outthere in California. My dad was in
the Hall of Fame at his college. My uncle I was named after playing
in Bajor League baseball, and soI came from a very athletic family,
(03:57):
but we were really in education andso I kind of struggled academically and that
was a bit of a challenge growingup. Not because I wasn't smart enough.
I was just so focused on sports. I didn't care about school,
you know, and so I wouldn'tfocus on sports. But I also didn't
do too well either. Well youknow, it's a lot of students out
(04:18):
here in recovery, right. Yeah. And so got a chance to play
college basketball at the University of Minnesota, and at that time I had never
struggled in sports. And then Ifound myself sitting on the bench in college.
And so earlier before that I kindof had some academic challenges, got
that worked out, and then forthe first time in my life, I
(04:39):
was sitting on the bench in sports. You know, the one thing that
came easy for me, natural forme. But the truth is I was
at a new level and you know, using your term grit, you know,
initially I was kind of feeling sorryfor myself, you know, throwing
pity parties and making excuses and hada long talk with my dad and he
kind of taught me accountability and hewas like he chose me to go make
(05:00):
it work. And I went backto my coach's office and I said,
Coach, what do I need todo to play in the NBA. He
laughed and he said, son,you don't play for me, you know,
and he was yeah. But thisis what I told him. Guys,
I said, Coach, I'm goingto become someone different. Just tell
me what I need to do andI'll do it. And at that moment,
I was committed to doing whatever ittook to become an NBA ball player.
(05:24):
And that kind of created a journeyof development. And I tell anyone,
especially in our business coaching profiles,that it is impossible to reach our
potential without a coach. You know, if I didn't learn anything else on
my journey to the NBA. Ithink it's so important to have some type
of advisor. You know. Weall hit these crossroads in life, whether
you start a company, lose acompany, leave a job, become an
(05:47):
entrepreneur, or whatever, you know, leave home for the first time.
You know, we always hit thesecrossroads, and many people are making these
life changing decisions by themselves on theirown. I've had coaches my whole life,
and luckily my college basketball coach helpedme get my basketball career on track,
and I listened, I executed,and I ended up making it to
(06:10):
the NBA. Played for the DallasMavericks, where I met my wife.
And I tell people, you know, when you're an athlete, you see
pretty, you see cute all thetime. It's something about pro sports attracts
pretty and cute. When I sawmy wife, I saw wife for the
first time and we dated four monthsand got engaged and married within eleven months
(06:30):
and had an eight year professional basketballcareer. I made one mistake through my
basketball career that I regret. Ididn't recalibrate. You know. I believe
in continuous improvement. I believe ingetting bigger, stronger, and faster.
And I'm very transparent. You know, you guys heard me in Minneapolis.
I don't hold anything back. I'vebeen successful, but I failed. And
(06:51):
my biggest disappointment after making it tothe NBA, I didn't recalibrate, you
know. I was just so focusedon getting there. I didn't sit down
and say, okay, now,how how what do I need to do
to stay? You know, AndI ended up playing in the NBA three
years, and I regretted that Ididn't do what it was required of me
to stay longer. But I learnedthat lesson and now I recalibrate. Every
(07:15):
year. My wife and I wedo conferences for small business owners. It's
called the off season, you know, business acceleration and recalibration. Like you,
we're due opreneurs, you know.We work together with business partners,
and so the journey to the NBAreally was preparing me for my purpose.
And now my wife and I wego all over the country. We go
(07:38):
international motivating inspiring business leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners on what it takes really
to become elite, but most importantly, how to stay elite. Oh gonna
have all the time. I wasgonna say that, Walter, because so
many people can acquire money or acquiresuccess at a job or a you know,
(08:09):
we're in the NBA or wherever,right, and when you get there,
you go, wow, look atme, man, I made it,
Aren't I great? And then yousit back and you think wow,
you know, like I yeah,And then you know and the reality is,
it is one thing to make it. It's another thing to keep it
(08:31):
right. And so that requires themindset and the hard work because getting there,
I've always now that I've been fortunateto have some success and some businesses
getting there. That's kind of beenthe fun part. Man, Let's drive,
let's go, let's work harder thanthe other guy, Let's stay later,
(08:52):
Let's do it. Everybody get,get, get, And then you
get to the top, and you'relike, and if you just tick your
eye off the ball, right,then you're going to get run over,
man, because other people are workingjust as hard to get to where you
are, where you want to be. And you say that, and it
just reminds me of so many businessowners and so many other people. I
(09:13):
know that when you get there,that's only the beginning of the work.
Now the hard work comes. Yougot to stay there. You got to
work again, even harder because nowyou're competing at a level where everybody's great,
right, And how do you staythere? So what happened when you
finally got there? Did you sitback a little and do that, you
know, and get run over?Or what happened? You know? Honestly,
(09:35):
I don't think I gloated, youknow, I don't think I got
full of myself Honestly, to betotally honest, I had such a journey
to get there. Now you're talkingabout a guy who didn't start on his
college basketball team. My senior year, I broke my foot twice. I
mean, it was a hell ofa trip getting there. And I think
by the time I made it,I think I was somewhat fatigued. I
(09:56):
think I was a little exhausted.I don't think I got arrogant or anything.
I think I just wanted to resta little bit. But unfortunately,
I rested for three years and Iwas good, but I didn't keep getting
better. Right now, that hadbeen the story of my life. And
the good news for me is thatthat was not my purpose because when I
got cut, you know, thinkabout this, it took me fifteen years
(10:20):
to make. It took me fifteenseconds to get cut. And I remember
it like it was yesterday. JaredSloan was like, Hey, check with
the trainer. He has your planeticket. We're going in a different direction.
That's what I said to me.And literally it was a fifteen second
conversation after fifteen years of work.And I was literally devastated, and I
went home and I cried in mywife's arms like a little baby. I
(10:41):
mean, I'm talking about sobbing,because it was it was my life,
it was my dream, it waseverything that I knew, and at that
moment, you know, I madea commitment that you know what, I
told my wife, I'm going tobe great at something and I didn't know
what. But you know, Ilearned how to become e leap, but
now I realize how to stay aleap. Yeah, you know that's that's
a two step press process. Andwe help our clients become elite, the
(11:05):
more important we help them stay alead. You know, I was thinking
the other day, you know,Kingdom's rise and fall all the time,
you know, and think about likeMaxwell House and Folgier's coffee. You know,
when we grew up, every househad it, always had one or
two. But how did they losethe coffee game? You know, they're
not number one anymore, you know. So it's so easy to be number
(11:26):
one, but if you take youroff the ball and relax, you can
easily get passed by. In yourindustry, every dog has his day off
the ball. And how you subwaydid that because you came in Jersey,
Mike recruited you to their team,and talk about that story. That's an
(11:48):
incredible story of someone being on topand taking their after the ball because someone
else is working a little harder.You know, your great point, Kingdom's
rise and fall all the time.You know, Subway obviously has more locations,
but Jersey Mikes were opening up threehundred stores a year and Subways closing
stores, you know, and they'restill eight hundred pound guerrilla. I mean,
(12:09):
they still are a force to bereckoned with what the truth is,
Jersey Mikes is the hottest brand enfranchising. But here's why. You know,
Jersey Mikes and has allowed us toinfluence the culture. And they have a
great team, you know, amongstthemselves. But you know, I'm kind
of like their secret weapon. Andwe came in eight years ago, my
(12:30):
wife and I both and say hey, we're going to kick Subways. But
when we first started saying it,they kind of looked around, like what
And again, Kingdom's rise and fallall the time. And you know,
Jersey Mikes is in the people business. And I think that's probably the biggest
difference in Peter king Crow, thefounder. He and I spent a lot
of time together. You know,I've learned a whole lot from him,
obviously, and you know, he'shumble enough to learn from me and he
(12:52):
said, May Walter, you isso important. I want people to know
you know what you've done for us. And we basically came inside of Jersey
Minke and really help the mindset.And that's probably what my wife and I
do best, is help people developa mastery mindset, but also learn how
to keep getting to that next leveland really achieve your personal best. You
(13:13):
know again, you know you talkabout Michael Jordan or Lebron James. You
know I played in the NBA,But what would be unfair to myself to
say unless I become as good asLebron James or Michael Jordan. You know,
my career wasn't important. I hadto become the best version of me.
I had to become the best versionof me. And for me,
(13:33):
that was important for me to becomethe best version of me. And so
I think that's what life is allabout. You know. Michael Jordan obviously
was more talented than me, Hehad more gift than I did. He
had a different responsibility. He hadto go become Michael Jordan, right,
I had to go and become thebest version of Walter Bonn. I think
at the end of the day,I think God is looking for all of
(13:54):
us to become the best version ofourselves and against with the mindset mentality.
And you know, if you getyour mind right, I think it's really
easy to become the best version ofyourself. You talk about the shark mindset,
and then is there a moment whereit switches from your going from being
a minno to a shark? Isthere something? Is there somebody or something
(14:18):
that helped implement that switch. Youknow, if you think about every great
movie, and our book Swim reallyencapsulates what it's all about. If you
think about every great movie that welove, Karate Kid had Mister Miaki,
right, Rocky had Mickey. Youknow, every great movie, there's always
(14:39):
some type of coach or advice.And the reason why sharks run the ocean
is because of one thing their mindset. Sharks are freaking relentless. And in
our book Swim, we teach whatwe call the sacred six. You know,
sharks never stop moving forward or theydie. The way shark breathes is
student their movement in the water,they get oxygen. They whole life depends
(15:03):
on their movement. And so younever see someone who's depressed, the frustrated
and angry they're moving, you know, they just kind of they're not making
progress. And of course if you'renot making progress, you should be frustrated.
Right. It's easy because you knowinside that I'm not going anywhere and
I know it, right, Andso we help our clients create progress.
The most you guys have six kids, right, the most important step a
(15:26):
child makes is that baby step.You know, think about that. You
know you you want to retard thatbaby step? Why because that baby step
represents progress, it represents independence,it represents movement. And so sometimes in
life we discount baby steps. Youknow what, if you're making progress,
that one pound is progress, right, and if you lose one pounds,
(15:50):
you can lose one hundred pounds.So we really teach and celebrate progress.
Is that the baby steps or whatare the let me go through them real
quick? Sharks never stop moving forwardor they doing right. So that's about
being tenacious, being relentless making progresstoo. This is in the book swim
Sharks only look up, they neverlook down. Oh yes, people who
(16:14):
swim with sharks, they stay belowthe shark. As long as you stay
below the shark, the shark didn'teven notice you. How about that,
which is cool, right somethings?How many people get distracted by petty?
They're from the top, that's right, petty. Some thing's gotta be below
you or beneath you, right,And so if you get down in the
(16:34):
weeds and get petty, you're gonnaeasily get distracted. You know one thing
I never did as about ball player, I would never allow a heckling fan,
even though I heard them. Iwould not even acknowledge a heck Now,
if you say, hey, greatgame, i'might acknowledge you. But
if I heard a fan of hecklingme, I would ignore them. I
(16:55):
would not even give them a satisfactionthat I heard them speaking. Why Because
I'm in the NBA, I'm wearingthe jersey, and you're a freaking fan
heckling me. You know what Itell you, Walter. The we've had,
you know, a lot of successin our businesses, and there's been
times when people have come in andgo, do you hear what the competition
(17:15):
is saying about us? They're sayingall this negative stuff, and they keep
you know, I've heard this mywhole life, and I say, isn't
it wonderful they're talking about us?You know. I mean, we are
moving the needle and these people arenervous that they got to throw out all
these things that get people and juststart get nervous. Well, that's that's
(17:37):
actually a compliment to your success,to all your hard work. You know,
we got to stop looking at thepettiness as things that distract us and
say, isn't that wonderful that theydo that? Move on? You know,
you know, you know what I'msaying. People, guys, if
you don't have haters, your visionis too small. That's rights are part
(17:59):
of the last we got kep swimming. Only look up, never looked down.
Sharks are curious and always learning.Curious at all. Sharks are intelligent.
I mean they remember hunting grounds,they remember everything. They're just intelligent,
right, But their intelligence is drivenby their curiosity. And imagine if
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all business owners were curious about beinga better leader, curious about building better
cultures, you know, curious abouthow to create better engagement with their employees.
You know, if you're not curious, you're not learning. So sharks
are curious and always learning. Ijust about millionaires. The most of the
millionaire billionaires read books, lots ofbooks, Like every week they're reading a
(18:45):
new book because they all you needis one good idea that makes you lots
of money. You know what agood book is a twenty dollars coaching session.
Think about that, for twenty freakingbucks. I can have a coaching
session with any one who's ever writtena book for just twenty dollars. But
you know, sharks are sharks respectthe environment and they recognize other sharks.
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No, no, So think abouta simple employee, not simple employee,
but just thinking about an employee whorespects the fact that they have a job.
You would never have quietly quitting.You never have employee apathy. Why
because I might not love my job. I might not love my boss,
but hey, I get to eatbecause of them. You know, I
pay my riding for the brand,that's what we call it, can exchange
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for a roof over my head.All I have to do is a care
and work hard. You know.So if a person had that mentality that
I recognize, I respect my environmentand recognize other sharks, that alone can
make you successful. Because when Isee someone successful, I see what they're
doing, and I observe them,I admire them, and I see how
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they move. Now here's a bigone. Guys, we only got through
four. I got two more.Sharks move different. Think about that.
Sharks move different in that water.But so do millionaires. You know.
I find it fascinating that some peopleare millionaires, right, and that's like
the number everybody wants to hit.Oh he's a billionaire. You know,
millionaires move different. You know,they just move different than people who make
(20:15):
one hundred thousand dollars. Right.But here I live in the neighborhood with
six billionaires. If you really thinkabout that, whoe billionaires. You just
move different, You just think different. Your approach is different. And one
day my wife and I were jokingand we were with a really successful guy.
We were in his house, andwe love being around successful people because
(20:36):
as far as we're concerned, we'vedone nothing yet keeps us very humble.
I looked at my wife. Wemust have been in the twenty thousand square
foot home. I said, babe, you know what I want to apologize
to you. I wish I wassmarter. He looks back at me with
a straight face and says me too. You know what it is, It's
that confidence, right, and it'salways that's why you surround yourself with other
(21:00):
people that maybe have got game.I guess you could call it as well.
And you sit there and you go, Okay, you know what I
can do better? I can keepand as long as we keep to your
point, moving and keep thinking aboutyou know, because once you get to
the top, so to speak,and you don't see anybody else up there,
it's hard to grow. But you'vegot to surround yourself with other people
(21:22):
that say, I can keep going, I can go better, I can
go harder. That's the way yougrow, you know. And so I
like being around people that, youknow, make me think, oh,
I'm still I still got a longway to go. You know, no
matter what level you're at, yougot to always have something to reach for.
Well, you know, iron sharpensiron, guys. I mean,
(21:44):
you know we've all heard that saying. And when I played in NBA,
I mean I was around the bestbasketball players in the world, and that
demanded excellence out of me. Butthe smartest thing my wife and I did
when we left the basketball environment,we had a conversation. She was like,
you know what I need to getyou around business people. I was
a great idea. So we joinedthe country club. We joined the country
(22:04):
club as soon as our career wasover. We weren't golfers and we just
joined as social members, but itgave us access to successful business people.
And through these relationships, I builtmy confidence. And I was like,
you know what, these guys aren'tsmarter than me, you know, and
you know what pissed me off.They only wanted to talk about sports with
me. That's the only time theywould engage a conversation. I was like,
(22:26):
Oh, I'm just a dumb jockover here. And I began to
take that a little personally and Ibegan reading books, I began getting educated.
I began to learn business and beforeI knew it. Now we live
in the country club now and theycome to me for advice. Hey,
Walter, I need you to Canyou join our long term planning committee?
And my wife's owned committees, andthey really respect our intellect, They respected
(22:48):
diversity that we have. We bringa different energy, a different mindset,
a different mentality. And you're right, I mean, it's so important for
people to get access to successful peoplebecause if you get access to successful people,
that's the best way for you togrow and develop. So sharks are
curious and always learning right, andthere's two more. Sharks have made a
(23:15):
cartilage, which means they're flexible.When think about that, every other fish
has bones. You eat fish,they have hard bones and too many bones.
It's like I don't even want toeat the fish. But sharks have
made a cartlage, which means they'reflexible. They know how to pivot,
they know how to change, Theycan adapt to their environment. And when
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the when COVID hit, Peter Kingkrow, the founder of Jersey Mikes, called
me and he had just brought everybodya copy of Swim. They all read
the book, and so they knewsharks are curious. Sharks never stopped moving.
They knew the same for six right, and he goes, you know
what, I'm a shark, soI'm gonna pivot. That's what he did
through COVID. We're gonna feed allfirst responders for free, every cop,
every farm, and every public responderthrough COVID eight three at Jersey Mix.
(24:03):
And then he gave every customer afifty percent discount. Right, America was
you know, the world's been challenged, but America was was struggling. Right,
So you can go to Jersey Minksand get a fifty percent discount,
but then he backed it up forthe franchisee and gave them the fifty percent
discount on the back end. Soas an operator, I gave the customer
fifty percent off, but then Istill got paid for the one hundred percent
(24:27):
of the service. So he madethat pivot through COVID, and I'm telling
you, Jersey Mins is not lookedback. And so he remembered that sharks
had made a cartilage. I'm thefounder, I'm the owner. I gotta
do something. I gotta pivot andso we, through are coaching and the
Sacred Six have been able to helpinspire this brand to go to new heights
(24:48):
and they love us forever. Andfinally, of the six, of the
Sacred Six, sharks are codependent onthe suckerfice have a long story. But
no matter how big a shark get, it's vulnerable to parasites. If a
parasite gets into the nostrils or thegills, it could kill a severely damaged
your shark. So shark recruits teammatescalled suckerfish, and it's a symbiotic relationship
(25:15):
that work in tandem. I needyou and you need me. And a
sucker fish gets to go on freeRise and Ocean. So the moral of
the story is that mentors are needed, and a mentor's job is to take
you places that you can't take yourself. But the suckerfish job has one freaking
job. You're gonna get free meals, you get free riseing Ocean, Okay,
but you got one job to do. Take care of my host.
(25:38):
When you see a parasite, eatthe freaking parasites, and keep me clean.
So for a company, the companyis the shark. The employees are
the sucker fish, and we're gonnawork together in tandem, and we're gonna
go places together that we can't goby ourselves. Can we use another word
than suckerfish? The official name isa ramorra. It's called but they have
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a sumption on the top of theirhead that's like a sumption, and that's
what which means they're smart. Thinkabout it, the sumption on the top
of their head. If you're smart, you'll always have a mentor. If
you're smart, you'll always have acoach. And the sucker fish connects to
the shark, and I'm telling youit's beautiful relationship. And my story,
guys, I've always been a suckerfishwith great coaches, great mentors, great
(26:27):
leaders, and I stayed close tothem and allowed them to influence me.
It was one of the motors thatreally stuck out. To explain your one
of your early mentors, well,you know, my father became a high
school principal when I flunk out myfirst high school. Wait, so that
that was a big moment because itwas all about academics. Then. I
(26:47):
was a great athlete. I wasone of the best players in the country,
and I did well on the court, but in the classroom, I
wasn't getting it done. And sohe became a high school principal. To
my wife. You know, mywife worked for doctor Pepper and she was
a pharmaceutical drug rep. And sowhen I retired from basketball, I never
had a job. I never hada real job, and so I needed
her to go get a job andget some benefits until I was able to
(27:10):
kind of figure out some stuff.And she was able to teach me basic
business terms. And she comes froman entrepreneurial family, right, So when
my career ended, you know,after eight years of pro basketball, you
know, I needed my wife,you know, and she kind of helped,
you know, man the ship untilI can get my business legs up
under me. And now we doit together. But you know, I've
always been coachable. You know,the book Swim, we got mentored by
(27:33):
Mark Victor Hanson some chicken soup foryour soul, he mentored us. So
I don't do it. I don'tdo anything without an advisor or a coach
or a mentor. And some ofmy mentors obviously are in my life,
but I'm paying for a coach.You know. We were with our business
coach yesterday for two hours. Sothat's the whole moral of the shark and
the sucker fish. You know what, at any time in the day,
(27:56):
we should always be a shark ora sucker fish, you know. And
quick story, when we were withPeter can Crow of Jersey Minkes, we
stopped in Detroit and we had abusiness meeting with Tom Monahan, the founder
of Domino's Pizza. And so whenwe left the meeting, I looked at
Peter that said, Peter, that'syour shark. He goes, yeah,
(28:19):
yeah. I was like it wasthe first time I'd seen him be a
suckerfict and I was fascinated. Thisguy's a billionaire. It as a coach
and a mentor and all. Heasked Tom Monahan, who took dominoes back
in the seventies and eighties, rememberthirty minutes or is free, And he
asked him. He was like,you know, how can I take better
(28:41):
care of my franchisees? And hewas asking Tom Monaghan, you know,
one of the historical franchise oars ofall time, how to do it?
And he sat there just like TomMonaghan was mister Miyagi and he was karate
kid. And it was a beautifulthing to see someone that successful. And
I've seen be the shark everywhere hegoes, except that one moment he was
(29:04):
humble in the presence of Tom Bonney. So the moral of the story,
I am totally convinced, I don'tcare who you are. I don't care
how big you get, I don'tcare how rick you get. You should
always have a mentor. You shouldalways have some type of coach or an
advisor. You should always be asucker fish and allow somebody else to be
your shark. And that's the wholemoral of a shark and a sucker fish.
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If I ever get in the presidenceof Tony Robbinson. I'm a sucker
fish. He's a shark. JohnMaxwell, I'm a suckerfisher. He's a
shark. Mark Victor Hailson, I'ma sucker fish. He's a shark.
Most places I go, I'm ashark, and I'm able to be other
mentors. But I'm smart enough torealize when I'm in the presence of someone
who needs to be my shark,I will humble myself in a minute.
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Whether you're a great author, aspeaker, or whatever, it doesn't matter.
I'm humble enough to know that there'salways someone out to get better that
you could learn from. And that'sbeen the story of my life because I've
been like the incredible c student whogot it figured out. The one thing
I know for a fact is thatthe book Swim and the Sacred Six has
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been transforming companies, transforming lives.It's a parable, so it's a great
story. People pick up the book, they can't put it down. And
we have people showing us photos witha tattoo of a shark and it's religious.
It's just awesome. Our friends wrotethe book how to Swim with the
Sharks. He lives there. Helives. Harvey McKay. I know Harvey
(30:32):
McKay. I know Harvey McKay absolutely, He's a Minnesota guy. I lived
in Minnesota twenty five years. Youknow Harvey McKay very well. Love that
book. So were you gonna say? I was just very in line with
a lot of what you said.Being in business, uh for so long
and having mentors and and looking alwayshaving someone to look up to is so
(30:56):
important because you know, you canget to the top of the game,
but you have to keep striving forsomething, you know, and it's so
important to find people. And uh, you know, it's it's one thing
to to always you know, it'sit's a reciprocal thing. As you said,
right, you can't just take.You have to be. You have
(31:18):
to give. And uh, there'sone thing we've always said, too much
as given, much as required,right, And so when you continue to
keep that mindset, that of givingback, and no matter what how big
you are, I think it helpsyou grow in your own business as well.
You know, and taking on mentorshas always been so critical to me
(31:41):
because I know it's gotten me througha lot. But then turning it around,
we're always trying to give back toyounger people or it doesn't matter their
age, but people that are stillwanting to learn as well to talk about
it. I'm mad. One morecomment. Here's a beauty. Remember I
talked about a shark, a suckerfish, and a parasite. So when
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people read the book, it's clearedthree kind of people in this world.
Sharks, suckerfish, and parasites.The only difference between a parasite and a
suckerfish it's powerful. A parasite takesand does not give. Think about it.
They're both connected to a shark,but one takes and takes and takes
(32:25):
and takes and has no intentions ongiving. So to your point, you
know, life should always be reciprocal, give and take. But if you
ever find a selfish person in thebooks, when we let you know this
hope for a parasite, I tellyou that person doing is being selfish in
that moment, you know, Walter, we had I've had times. I
(32:45):
had two great mentors in my lifethat helped me and I sat with them
through the most incredibly difficult times,and at one point they both came and
said, hey, I want toinvest in your business. And I was
you know, at the lowest Icould possibly be. I was on my
knees ready to give in and giveup, and and and as they kept
(33:10):
saying, tell me how much?How much do you want to sell your
business for? And I kicked itdown the road for a couple of weeks,
and I finally said, you knowwhat, there's not enough money in
the world worth my friendship with youand advice I get and to get and
tie the money into it, Ijust don't want to do it. And
(33:30):
I knew these guys were so successfulthey didn't care really about being in my
bed, and they were trying togive me a helping hand, and I
didn't want to mix the money withthis mentorship. And it ended up working
out very well. I didn't getinto business with them, but they would
(33:51):
kick me all the time away shouldI should have made you invest, because
you know, we did really wellwell. I've had some people that I've
mentored and then you know, maybea few months into it, they go,
you know, I was wondering,can I borrow some money? And
and I'm like, all right,listen, are we gonna work here as
(34:12):
mentor mentee? Or am I yourbank? Because there's a big difference,
right and and you know, Ithink it's uh, it does. It
feels more parasitic when all you wantis money from somebody. There wasn't enough
money in the world for me worththe advice I was getting from these great
men, who again they've to thisday they're there. I look at them
(34:36):
as the two best giants in mylife. You know so well, you
know one thing that I've learned,and I'm sure you guys would agree.
Money is important, very important,but it's overrated. And a lot of
times when people don't have money,they really believe that's the only thing I
need and if I get some money, I'll be fine. The truth is
(34:58):
who you are. It is themost important thing. And you know,
for example, a guy like MagicJohnson, you know, he's always been
I've never met him, I've neverhung out with him. He's someone I've
always admired. And I think he'ssuccessful, not just because he was a
great basketball player. I think MagicJohnson successful could be because he's just a
successful person, you know, andhe does the right thing. He treats
(35:21):
people the right way. And Ithink that in life, if you do
want to make more money, ifyou do want to be more successful,
financially, you have to become agreat person. And I've seen some wealthy
people who are miserable, and Ithink a lot of times they put all
of their self esteem and enjoy intothe money instead of being a great person.
(35:42):
Money only when agniflies who you are. That's right, That's right.
It allows you to express who youare better. Right. So if you're
a good guy, you could bea really good guy with some money.
If you're a jerk, you couldbe a really good jerk with that's right.
Like a bittle bit about audacious goalsyou mentioned that is when you speak
(36:06):
of audacious, love it well.You know. It's a part of our
teamwork coaching program. We take companiesthrough and we talk about winners, losers,
and champions. And unfortunately most peoplejust talk about winning and losing.
But as an athlete, there's alwaysa champion, right, And so in
business, I think we can bechampions. And the only way to be
a champion is to be focused onsome type of audacious goal. And I
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remember playing for the Utah Jazz.Loved Utah. We were winners, but
we never talked championship. It wasn'tlike a conversation we had in the locker
room. And before I signed withthe Utah Jazz, I was in Chicago
with Chicago Bulls for like five daysand I ended up leaving Chicago because Utah
gave me more money on my contract. But the truth is, so those
(36:52):
five days in Chicago, one thingthat was clear to me that the only
goal was a winning championship. Andif we don't won a championship, this
is a bad season. If we'rerunning up right and lose, it's a
bad season. And to me,that taught me that a champion has an
audacious goal. And once you havean audacious goal, that's what you get
(37:14):
excited about, and that's what youcan rally your company around. I just
did two half day workshops with twodifferent bankers and I took them through the
champions road map right and my firstquestion for them was what is your audacious
goal? God silence, God silence, And I don't bail you out.
I sit there like, Okay,what's your audacious goal? And I was
(37:37):
quiet until the CEO of the banksays, well, I guess we don't
have one. And I knew Iknew the answer, but I wanted them
to know the answer because the playin the NBA was an audacious goal and
that's the only thing that kept megoing right. I broke them food twice.
I had my teeth knocked out.I didn't start in college. My
wife and I our first business wentbankrupt. We bought a franchise called Jimberree
(38:00):
playing music, and we went bankrupt. We were busted. But our goal
was to make more money in businessthan we did in sports. And that's
when the grit came back. Soeven though we were rock bottom, even
though we were broke, broke,broke, broke, broke, we still
had an audacious goal of making moremoney in business than we did in sports.
(38:22):
And that's what's got it that gotus back on our feet. Yeah,
that has got us back in thelife laboratory. You know what we
learned we will never ever do abusiness just to make money. That's the
only reason we bought this franchise becausewe thought we could make some money.
And my wife and I realized wewere not passionate about their business. This
training and development company we founded intwo thousand and one, we are passionate
(38:45):
about helping companies and individuals grow.And let me give you one tip for
all business owners. Most business ownerswant to grow externally making more money.
The fastest way to grow externally isto grow your peace internally. And that's
what we do with Jersey Mike Subbs. We're teaching the sacred six, we're
teaching the mindset. We're teaching howto be better leaders. We're teaching them
(39:07):
how to manage their culture, whichwe call the locker room, and by
them brewing their people, that's howyou kick the competitions. I just gave
a million dollar secret, probably amulti billion dollar secret that for any business
owner, you must turn your companyinto a training and development organization. Why
your most valuable asset are your people. So if you're going to treat it.
(39:29):
In sports, we had to getin the weight room, we had
to left, we had to develop, We had to build your muscles.
Same thing as true in business.You got to develop your people. And
if you can be a leader whothinks like a coach, we just finished
creating a whole training on turning leadersin the coaches. Because I'll be honest
with you, when I left sports, i was thirty years old. That's
how I saw leaders as coaches.When I got into the business world,
(39:51):
I was expecting the same thing anddidn't see it. I was like,
they don't even think like coaches.And so we've been on a mission to
really turn and all of our clientsleaders into coaches, and that a lull
is transformation. So my wife andI we love what I do, what
we do. She's our head coach. She does all of our coaching programs,
(40:12):
builds all of our curriculums. I'mjust a pretty face and a smile.
But the heavy lifting and the heavycoaching, we have a whole team
of coaches that do it. AndI stay pretty much in a key keynote
lane and really communicate our core messagethat you must turn your company into a
training and development organization. And thenmy team comes in and does all the
heavy lifting. Yeah you know,we just had a big event. Yeah
(40:37):
we had a great event. Ohyeah, you're now that's right. You
know, We've got thousands of brokersthat work with us at kind Lending,
and you know, it kind ofbecame pretty apparent when every event we ever
went to, all they wanted totalk about, or not all they wanted
to but all that was talked aboutwas interst right, and whether the market's
(41:00):
going up and down and these things, and you know, you start thinking,
what about personal growth? What aboutthe fact that we're not here just
to see if interest rates go upand down, but about how do you
become a better leader, How doyou become better at being happy? You
know, it didn't have to beabout business. It had to be about
your life. If you spend somuch time together, how do we develop
(41:23):
ourselves more than just thinking about italone, but how you get to your
again the inside here right, Andso we had a wonderful event and had
a lot of just the most amazingfeedback ever because it was different and it
was all about really personal growth.Had a hard time in the last few
(41:45):
years business has been very difficult,and you know, you just want to,
like you say, you got tohave the cartlet, you got assume,
you got to try something new thatpeople haven't seen before. And it
was a really really successful kind ofa debut, if you will, in
the industry, very well received.And that's kind of like the leader that
Glenn is. He I love theidea, the analogy you talk about being
(42:06):
a leader. You either leave witha machete or you leave with a whistle.
And with Glenn, I think youare you have your whistle and that's
kind of what we're doing. Willyou expand upon that a little bit about
being a leader with those two tools. Yeah, Well, you know,
you can lead people, you knowin a great way and still challenge them,
you know. I mean that's whatcoaches do. They challenge you,
(42:27):
but at the same time, youknow that they got your back, You
trust them, and you know thattheir number one goal is to get you
better. And the truth is,the answer is yes, I would love
to come and do something for youguys at your conference. But you know,
again, here's what the average humanspirit is looking for when they get
hired by a company. Can Ireach my potential here? Yeah? You
(42:50):
know, whether they're saying that overtlyor it's really bird deeper into subconscience.
That's what people are thinking. CanI reach my potential here? If the
answer is yes, I stay.If the answer is no, I leave.
So why not have training and developmentbuilt into your culture, because at
a conscience or a subconscious level,they'll say to themselves, well, hell,
I can stay right here. WhyBecause I can reach my potential here
(43:14):
this environment. I'm learning leadership skills, I'm learning how to be a better
communicator. I'm learning how to overcomeobjections. I'm growing as a business person.
I'm growing when I love this environment, So I want to stay.
You know, our book now iscalled Cultivate. Think about that name.
Cultivate. Isn't that a beautiful name? Because that's what leaders must do,
cultivate. And so we're on amission to teach leaders how to cultivate their
(43:37):
team. You know, you cancultivate accountability, you can cultivate commitment,
right, you can cultivate chemistry.And so most of our leaders don't know
what they don't know, and sowhen they come to our workshops, when
they come to our sessions, they'relike, dude, this is simple but
brilliant. Thank you. Because again, on my way to the NBA,
(43:58):
it was like God was preparing mefor my real purpose. And so now
my wife and I work together asa team transforming individuals and organizations. But
it requires immersion. I mean,it took me fifteen years to become and
when I watched the NBA now,I'm like, oh my god, I
cannot believe I used to play.These guys are good. But I was
(44:21):
under such great coaching that I beganto do things that I didn't even know
I was capable of. But Iwas immersed in the industry and a culture
where my coaches knew how to cultivate. And so now I don't call my
business leaders leaders. We call themcoaches. And at very turn alone,
(44:43):
if you just tell a leader yourjob is to coach and cultivate, they
look at you and tilt their headlike wow, like I've never even thought
that. Or because you've been focusedon money, cultivate your people because that's
your most valuable asset and it's yourbiggest expense. This is your biggest expensive
payroll. Duh. If your biggest, biggest expensive payroll, why not cultivate
(45:07):
the people that are your best assetthat you have to pay for. That's
right, get amount of the moneyyou're paying them, you know, like
that, Yeah, that's our nextmeeting. I'm bringing a whistle, had
a flag and a penalty flag.That's right. Well, we absolutely you
know again, when I saw you, I was like, you are right
(45:29):
up our alley with what's going onagain? You know a lot of the
people you know that that watch thisare our business owners and our people that
are or they want to be businessowners, right and they've got to understand
how to uh navigate these waters andthat life isn't perfect and that we need
to keep moving and you know,and be flexible up and that's right,
(45:52):
or get yourself some remora, that'swhat. Well, you know, we're
really kingdom builders and let's say earlierKingdom's rise and they fall all the time.
And a lot of well meaning businessleaders and business owners honestly don't know
what they don't know. And soour job is to really educate so people
(46:13):
can think right, execute so theycan win right. And we're seeing clients
get amazing results. We had amedical device company. We coached them for
twelve months. Now think about this. You can stay the same the next
twelve months, or you can getradically different in the next twelve months.
You know, the choice is yours. We helped the medical device company grow
their sales by sixty million. Andall we did twice a month. We
(46:37):
did a coaching program for their managers, and then we did a coaching program
for their sales team, and sowe were coaching everyone but their executive.
So we did middle managers and theirsales team, and in one year they
grew by sixty million. Dollars whilea coach and were strictly coaching. We
(46:57):
developed their people and their culture onfire. They all developed the same mindset,
the same mentality. And I'm tellingyou it's a beautiful thing to see.
And I just wish more companies wouldlisten to the message. You must
become a training and development organization atyour core and master keyta industry dominance.
(47:21):
All right, Walter, you areso inspiring. You just where can people
find you? They want to getyou, bring you in, hire you
and follow you. Where where dothey go? They got your books?
We have We have two websites andI don't know if you can put it
in the chat or make it easy. It's Peak Performers Huddle dot com.
(47:42):
So Peak Performers huddle dot com,or you can go to Walterbond dot com,
Walterbond dot com or Peak Performance Huddle. We created the huddle because if
you think about it, you haveto have a place to go, right,
you know? I mean, andif I'm a professional, if my
(48:04):
company doesn't believe in training and development, where do I go to get better?
I went to the gym to getbetter as a basketball player. Everything
I needed was at the gym.The weight room was at the gym,
the showers, the trainers, thecoaches. The video going into that building
was hope that if I go intothis building, I can get better.
And so we created Peak Performance Huddlefor executives, for fellow speakers, entrepreneurs,
(48:28):
anyone who wants to get better andneeds a place to go. That's
why we created the Peak Performance Huddle. Love it, love it? And
then are you on Instagram? Peopleare a president? Yeah, we're on
Instagram. We're on all social mediaInstagram. I don't think so it's just
a website, Walterbon, Oh,we do have I've been corrected. My
(48:52):
teammate just corrected me. We dohave Peak Performance Huddle on Instagram and Facebook
and LinkedIn. I'm getting real timeand you is that? Is that?
The that is? Come come sayshe's so pretty. I want you guys
to see how pretty is. Ihave inspired by her. She is just
(49:14):
she woke up like this, guys. Good really enjoyed Walter the other day.
Yeah, I love you, loveto meet you. She woke up
this. Dang, that's something else. We love you entrepreneurs. So let
(49:34):
it rock. There we go.I love baby Shark and Shark and Mama
Shark. So nice to meet you. Well, thank you, Walter,
Thank you for joining us on GritHappens. We appreciate you being part of
our our day and boy we gotinspired, so many notes and so much
great inspiration. But uh, andwe'll be looking for you and looking forward
(49:58):
to talking to you about our nextvibe next year. Excited to have you
part of it. But thank you. Thanks again. We love California,
we travel, so let me allright, Well, we appreciate it,
Thank you, Walter. All right, you've been listening to the episode of
but you can find it here andanywhere you get your podcast, Girls It Happens.
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