Lessons from My Mentors

Count money, man.

Money, man.

Stacked riches.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but...

What's up gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grandcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

We're not going to take too much of your time today.

I got about 20 minutes of things that I wanted to share with you off of question that was asked to me.

And that was some of the biggest things that I've learned from my mentors,

from folks that have...

And there's so many people that have poured into my life,

asked for forgiveness if there's somebody that I forget to mention,

because I've been blessed with so many great people that have poured into me

and impacted me in my life.

But, you know, I'll start out with what I learned from my mother.

And I'd say, you know, my mom had me pregnant at 19.

My father and her, my father, you know, was young.

Over time, I'd give him a little bit more grace, rest in peace.

I met my father really as an adult for the first time, a 28-years-old in Miami.

But up until that point, my mom tells me I met one other time with him in Caracas, Venezuela,

which is where my dad was.

Him and his family were from.

But early on, there was a breakup and a disappearance.

So it was just me and my mom.

And we lived with my great-grandmother for a lot of my childhood on the East Side of Youngstown,

where I had grandparents pitching in, my grandfather, my grandmother.

My grandmother's husband, who would be a grandfather to me.

You know, a lot of...

It was a team effort that I was blessed to have folks helping us in that situation.

But, you know, we had beat up cars and cars for $1,000.

We bought that would break down and, you know, hand me down this and stuff.

So I look at my mom and what I learned from her was sacrifice and work ethic to start out.

I know how much one thing that we didn't have money ever really up until high school, middle of high school.

My mom worked her way up from minimum wage.

And, you know, I think I look at it and it was probably a 15-year journey

to, you know, where she's managing a regional manager of a women's clothing stores.

And, you know, I think at that point started to make, you know, good money, 60 to 80K a year.

It was able to buy me, you know, gloves for football and shoes and stuff at that point started to help.

But before that, it was a struggle.

You know, I remember asking my mom, you know, she would just laugh about it.

I know she wasn't always this way by herself.

But in front of me, she would never let herself get down to where I felt a ton of it.

So I remember her laughing about it, me asking her questions as I got older.

Like, how did you do it? She's like, Simon, I would just get bills that I owed that I knew I couldn't pay.

And, and as she's telling me, she's laughing.

She's like, I would just throw them in a trash.

I just throw them in a garbage like I can't pay them.

And so I look at that and what I've learned from that is her sacrifices because, you know, I watched her come up work two, three jobs.

We would go to night school together.

A lot of times I go to school with her at night.

And she, I would be, you know, she'd pull out of the driveway and I'm crying, you know, looking at her out of the window with my great grandmother there.

Because I know she ain't coming home till late because the mall would be open till nine.

She would close. She wouldn't be home till after 10.

So I know, I know it's like, that's it. I'm seeing her in the morning. She's gone.

You know how it is for a kid. You know what I mean?

My wife leaves the room sometimes in my three-year-olds sobbing.

You know, imagine knowing my mom ain't coming home, you know, for all day.

You know, multiple times. I had to work weekends.

And I know it had to be hard on her emotionally to put up, you know, with that.

And not just give up and say, woman, just stay where I'm at.

I'm going to stay, you know, on government funding.

I'm going to stay home. I'm going to put the time in with him because he's crying.

He don't understand.

And obviously it's a community, right?

So I had coaches and friends parents that would help me and my grandmother that were blessed to have that changed the game that others didn't have that type of support.

But I do look at the sacrifices that were made in evenings and weekends.

And, you know, a lot of her youth and childhood being kind of given up.

You know, all the way till today I look at my mom likes to ride horses.

And I'm like, you know, we grew up in the city.

We barely had a car let alone nothing even resembled a horse in the hood, right?

So how did you end up with horses?

And she's like, well, when I was a kid, all the way up until, you know, late teenager, your grandfather would take me and we would do horses.

And so she had that passion that just all of a sudden I come in and I never see it because it's just gone.

You know, what she would have liked to do to do all that time and extra energy was given away for me.

Right? So I look at sacrifice. I look at her work ethic. I look at her care.

You know, one thing I always felt like I had was unconditional love to where I knew that nobody would be chosen.

You know, no, she would have boyfriends, you know, a couple over the course of my life, not a ton, but there was a couple men in my life from kid till adult.

And I always felt like nobody, you know, she wouldn't pick them over me, which again is a tough struggle and a tough position to be in.

And then I think, you know, also I admire about my mom, you know, what I got from her is non-judgment.

So she was the woman that a lot of my friends could attest. You know, I don't matter if you had 4.0 great grades in your dad, you know, was a teacher and your mom was a nurse.

And you come from this great family and you came over to hang out or if, you know, your dad was missing and your hang with gangsters and you got saggy pants and braids in your hair.

You know, mom, like mom was going to treat everybody with love no matter what. Like non-judgment, no like treating somebody better than somebody else or worse than somebody else.

She just was like all love with everybody. So from the gangsters to the people, you know, at the bank, like they all liked my mom because she just showed love and gave love to everybody.

And then lastly, I would say and I could go on forever by my mom was just the balance of personality. You know, she fought 4.0 11.

So I wasn't this is why I'm like this y'all, you know, I wasn't born with my genetics were against me when it came to size and stature. You know, so my mom was was 4.11 and beautiful, you know, to the point where I'm 16 years old and people were, you know, we take pictures and they were like, man, is that your girlfriend?

You know, my mom looked like she was early 20s, you know, when she was in her mid 30s and always looks two decades, you know, behind. So I think what I looked at, you know, from her was her balance of she could be sweetest pie, hard to go, give you the shirt off her back.

Like literally the most giving person just want to give and help and, you know, she would just wants to help, you know, all the time that type of heart, but at the same time is a beast.

She's so strong such a dog when it comes time to be like tough as nails straight dog, but at the same time so soft and so loving, which is so rare in a person that I've tried to emulate some of those things.

Leads me to my grandmother nicknamed her Boo Boo. So anybody that knows me knows my mom's mom I call her Boo Boo.

Man, there's so many similar things that I could get from her, but I'd say again work ethic sacrifice from my grandmother work ethic as far as, you know, she had in it when I was growing up, my mom would drop me off at her house and go to work and my grandmother had a barbershop hair salon downstairs in her basement.

And it would be all day people coming in people coming out all day work so just work ethic on her feet constantly, but sacrifice and for me she had her sister who was my aunt, she took care of her.

She had Down syndrome at one point. She was I think one of the oldest living people with Down syndrome. That's like raising a child, but on a whole another level.

So out of everybody, my grandmother takes in, you know, her sister with Down syndrome, sacrifice, major sacrifice doing that. All of a sudden you raise your own kids. Now your kid has a kid. Now she got me thrown at her. She's like a mother to me, second mother, not sacrifice again. Here we go.

For years, I remember my only new pairs of shoes would happen from her cutting hair and all this grind to drive me to get me a new pair of shoes was like a holiday, you know, for this to happen. And I look at all the things that she would have had to do to get me a pair of Jordans, you know, back then. So I look at her sacrifice to look at her work ethic.

And to be honest, you know, one of the traits is stubborn. You know, my grandmother is stubborn in a good way. And so I think that's where I got my that attitude of when I get my mind set on something. My grandmother don't take no for an answer.

So she'll be like, yeah, they said no, they said this can't happen or they're not going to do this. And like you could just see in her mind like, yeah, that's all nice, but that don't register here that that I'm not stopping like she's like a pit bull. She's not stopping until she gets what she wants. And another little beast that sweetest pie four foot 11 don't cross her.

She can have you over for dinner and stuff your belly or or she's relentless, you know, at the same time, just tough. And so I got that from her that stubborn mindset. This is what I think transferred over a lot in business for me. And my mom will remind me like, oh, you're just like, you're like booboo with that. Like once booboo puts her mind to something she ain't taking no for an answer. She don't care what you got to say, you don't matter what this one said or this ain't possible or whatever it is her mind gets set on something.

It's getting done. It's going down and she's going to find a way to make it happen. So I got that from booboo then I look at, you know, my grandmother's husband Chuck who was my grandfather.

Both of them, I've been blessed to have in my life as a young kid till now. Chuck, I think the importance of discipline from a man.

And not being afraid to force kids, force people into doing something that's best for them and having a healthy physical outlet. So, you know, Chuck, another one, sweet.

Nice guy, everybody to meet Chuck, super nice, but super tough was a boxer boxing coach. So I'm blessed to have him in my life. I remember him getting me a membership, you know, most of my upbringing when I look at man, I had a membership here.

I got to go to a basketball camp at all was because of Chuck. He was the one that had extra resources that he would throw in my direction to help me go to a school or help me go to a crack a camp or whatever it was.

A lot of those things never would have happened if it wasn't for for this man that took me on as a grandchild and I wasn't even his own grandchild.

But one of the things I look at was toughness that he brought. And so we had this opportunity to get a membership to the wide downtown and this other gym membership.

And I would go there and these were a lot of kids, you know, coming from all over the city, you know, inner city, a lot of people from all over the city.

And he was the one to like, man, let him get roughed up. So I dropped, he dropped me off. And you know, some of those drive down, or I'm thinking like, yep, I just got to mentally get prepared because I know I'm

going to get it in a fist fight. It was like basketball in fist fight, almost 100% of the time something was going to happen. I remember one time I got a black eye and I come home and I'm trying to hide it. And my grandmother spots it.

And she's like freaking out. And my grandfather's like, nothing wrong with that. Like he's going to be fine. He ain't going to die. This is good for him. And like made sure that I kept going back there. And so I

appreciated that toughness, even to the point where, you know, one of the biggest, if not the biggest thing to happen in my life, transitionally was eighth grade to ninth grade. And I'm like, I don't want to play sports no more. I don't want to play football no more. I was coming off of

eighth grade year, where in trying to help me because of that period of my life, I was struggling there. My mom moves me out outside of the city. So I go from

inner city and in youngstown, dropping me off in Camel, Ohio, right right outside of youngstown, also diverse blue collar, you know, tough, tough city.

So I'm going from those two places, then they throw me out to Canfield, which is like the nice area for a year. My mom gets an apartment, small little apartment, but at least gets me an opportunity to go get a better education. I go to the school. And it was just horrible. Like 12 months there

seemed like five years. I just didn't click with a lot of the people. And there was a lot of people I did click with, you know, that I'm still cool with to this day. But when you look at transitioning somebody like where I was coming from to there, it was like worse than the fresh prints, you know, like very difficult, very difficult transition that I did that I wasn't prepared for. And so that was a, that was a challenge, you know, for me. And I look at it.

And I look at Chuck, making me play football because I didn't want to play. You know, at that point, I just didn't want to play sports anymore.

I was pissed off at the way sports were going on. If that's cool in eighth grade, I was better than a lot of people athletically and wasn't getting a starting job that I should have gotten, you know, all that stuff. And and teammates knew it. Everybody knew it's a kind of just was took my love of the game away.

And I didn't want to play. And I'm looking at all the fun things I can do. So man, football already started.

They're forcing me to go to Ursula and high school, which was in the city of Youngstown, but it was a Catholic school and phenomenal sports like best sports in our area.

I'm already small people are telling me you're never going to play there. So I'm like, man, I ain't even going to go out. I ain't going to play.

So freshman year already in the mix during the camp. My grandfather forces me like tough.

It's like getting the car like yelling at me never yelled at me before like just yelling at me like you're getting in the car. No choice. No option. I thought he was going to beat me up through me in the car.

Force me to go. Drops me off at coach Roland Smith in Ursula and fast forward time. Not only did I start and have a good experience in football.

Meet some of my best friends, you know, within two weeks of that happening. My love of the game comes back. The dog comes back by the time.

I'm a senior in high school and I had started and let her multiple years at this powerhouse school. We went to state championship. I get a scholarship to play college football.

Gets me out of Youngstown. Gets me all that.

stuff was started from chuck forcing me to make a decision. And so I look at that

in my own life is like I know you don't want to force kids too much because then

sometimes they rebel but there's also got to be a balance sometimes I think as

a parent where you know better than they know and they're mentally not

developed enough to understand that I'm not afraid to force somebody that's

to do something that's best for them as a parent when I'm looking at my own

children and I could go on and on about what Chuck has done and then my grade

school coach coming up playing football his name was Brad Turnbull toughness

this this for sure I would just say toughness and camaraderie so as a coach we

had ridiculous teams I was playing for Camel at the time little Red Devils and

ridiculous teams you know we had kids that go on to win state

championships some of the best athletes you ever see we had a great team put

together we were smashing people but he would have us at his house all the time

and he would drop kids off in the projects and so I just see how he would

develop loyalty from players and the love he would get but just the camaraderie

of bringing people together at his house how to build a team I got that a lot

from him at a young age and I didn't realize I was getting and then also just

toughness like I look at the things that he would have us do at nine ten years old

and we joke about it and we say you know this is abuse you know this stuff wouldn't

be allowed you know today and it's true you know some of the stuff we would do

at ten years old I haven't seen done today and I don't think you can do today

but the things that he had us do at ten years old I guarantee I promise I know

what he what he would bring out of us the that that dog so to speak was forced

into a lot of us that when I got to high school I carried it with me and and

then when I look at I got to college how do you have that and when you

reverse it all the way back I think man to be honest with you it had to start

there with the dog and toughness that he kind of forced and all of us through

through fight and and making young men be tough you know early on and that

and that in that that carries my high school football coaches plural you know a

bunch of them but head coach was Jim V. Vaughman have him on a podcast real soon

so many things I could say about him but one thing again camaraderie how to

build an atmosphere of bringing people together from all different walks of

life he had a team from you know one person is in the inner city and their

brothers you know going to jail for for prison for murder and the other one is in

the country you know these people are playing together on a on a team and he

brings them all together and found a way to get everybody to to love one

another and to build camaraderie by the the balance he would have he would have

the balance of being tough on us and being our head coach but still our

friend and and that's a tough dynamic for people in business but I I got to

watch it in person it's hard to teach but it's easy to learn when you watch it

and so I would say that's one thing that jumps out you know of of of my high

school football coach college football coach Marty Schetzel you know I got he

transferred in after my freshman year of college so it was my red shirt freshman

year and he would open up down a road to say I he was down to just open up

scholarships he wanted to go and see who was soft there who was hard there trying

to open up you know scholarships to get rid of people so he can bring in people

that he wanted to actually recruit and so his first year was like what no

disrespect to the military but I think this was like a bootcamp anybody that

that that survived it knows what I'm talking about there was not a lot that

survived it five o'clock four o'clock and five o'clock running up at four o'clock

in the morning 200 up downs in a row you know which is which are pads on just

super tough discipline almost mean you know to a sense and then down the road

me and him end up getting super super close and and I have so much respect for

him and so again I think that lesson learned you know from him was if you could

hang on a survive when you want to quit good things happen you know I went

from wanting to transfer to be in a four-year starter in a period of a little

bit over a year from one I couldn't even see a glimpse of hope to where I knew

I was going to be the starter for the next four years just from not giving up

when things look like crap and for a period of time that you never know how

much you're being tested sometimes the test is what you need because his

test that he gave caused other people ahead of me to break in in to open up

opportunity for me and me the opportunity to earn his respect when he was

looking to see who was gonna break which would open up a lot of of of of of

opportunity and so I think that would be that would be another big one and

then it leads me into Jim Sirace Jim Sirace was my first mentor in this

business him and Marcus Smith Jim Sirace I would say just faith and I would

say you know he was the closest that I had ever seen to somebody walking

like Jesus so what I got from him is I'm so far from it I tell people that if

I become half the man Jim Sirace you know was that I got to watch you know I

being good shape but I watched him sacrifice for other people he taught me how

to give taught us how to give to others always taking what you have in your

money and resources and giving to other people taught me about humility and

really develop me in my relationship with God which I think would be the

foundation for all the success that will come after that I wouldn't have been

able to handle it without meeting him and then his partner Marcus Marcus to

this day is one of my best friends but I think Marcus what I got from him you

know some of the biggest things was how to grind I already had to work hard new

how to work hard but Marcus built the business alongside of me when we were

coming up in the business and we would start at seven o'clock in the morning and

go till you know nine ten eleven o'clock at night so I mean just what it

took to build a business you know I learned from Marcus that grind and and then

I learned how to think big from Marcus for sure I didn't know how to think big I

knew how to work hard I knew how to be mentally tough I knew how to compete but I

didn't know how to think and Marcus taught me how to think big and I remember

Marcus my biggest week was seven thousand in production and him brainwashing me

to think that I could do 20 in a week and and I do 20,000 in a week in

my first six months in the business and you know what changed the only thing

that changed was my belief and before I had my own belief in myself he was the

one that would believe in me so much that it made me believe in me because he

believed you know so much in me and so I think just Marcus stands out to me as a

big thinker teaching me how to think big and the power of of believing in

somebody I look at John Maxwell who I've had an opportunity to meet and spend

times with but I think he was a mentor before he knew he was a mentor reading

books he was the first book that I ever read was by John Maxwell and and John

Maxwell helped to soften me up you know I came up football tougher you know hard

nose all this and and my leadership style emulated that I think Maxwell brought

me that balance of he would he would talk about you got a first lead with your

heart before asking for somebody's hand you got to ask for their heart before

asking for somebody's hand before people don't care how much you know and

today know how much you care just learn teaching me through my reading and

studying of of Maxwell that you don't have to be so rough you know on people

although accountability is necessary at times you can leave with love and still

get crazy results and you know I wrap it up with the final two you know mentors

Jim Tressel what a blessing he's been in my life a former Ohio State football

coach Hall of Fame coach Youngstown State multiple not national champs at a

Ohio State and in Youngstown State president former president of Youngstown

State University we we really started to connect really formally outside of

football when I was late 20s getting ready to start a branch of inspire minds

Youngstown and my hometown starting a youth program showed up never met him

before really you know deeply and he gave me I asked him for five minutes he

ended up giving me an hour and we were connected ever since I asked him for his

helping and a fundraiser I want him to be a speaker and then we would develop a

relationship over that and then I asked him to be a mentor I thought he was

going to take you know tell me no years and years and years ago I thought he was

going to tell me no and this is just go to show you like man you miss a hundred

percent of the shots you don't take and also he would be a mentor you know for

me where we went and I don't know it's almost been almost a decade not quite of

consistently every month spending hours you know together and so I've learned so

much from him I've learned loyalty you know it just extra loyalty I've

watched from him how to treat the mailman you know he treats the mailman and

treats you know people that the world wouldn't always see is the most

special I've watched him treat those people more special than the people that

have the most money you know around us and how to goal set in other areas

other than business you know he would he would give me the what we frame is the

block A the block O which is you know goal setting for your for your spirit and

for your ethics and for your giving to others for your family for your business

goals for your physical conditioning goals how to goal set but walking me

through how to have it make sure it's specific and measurable something that you

can measure I'm gonna work out three times per week and I'm gonna be this by

this date some way to measure it and slow down and have solutions to those have an

action plan not just having a goal but how to have an action plan of here's how I

plan to obtain these things and in the power of of writing them down work ethic

giving of yourself consistency this man will wake up at six o'clock in the

morning and meet me at six thirty seven o'clock in in the morning I watch him

give of himself always to others he was another gym serace you know to me I had

two great gyms in my twenties and thirties lead me into my forties of both of

them just servants of wanting to help other people and I could go on and on I

probably need a whole podcast just to walk through you know I probably need to

do a book I got notes of a decades of wisdom from from coach Tress and then

lastly I just say Isaac my jujitsu current jujitsu coach been a 13 year

journey I've had so many people coach me in jujitsu that I've learned from and

just for the sake of time I'm just gonna highlight Isaac and what I've gotten

from him not even just the the game of jujitsu and grappling in general but just

Isaac Greeley here in Pittsburgh heads up to Matt factory what I learned from

him is Isaac is currently in his mid forties multiple time world champ pan

M world champ former all-American wrestler also a chiropractor and business

owner by trade but he has the Matt factory and what what I've learned is again

how much you can care for somebody and how much that would make somebody run

through a wall for you because I think one of the secrets that he has and why his

team does so well is because of how much that he loves on them and how much

he cares about them that perfect balance again of toughness being hard on

people pushing people to their about the break but you know for a fact that

that he loves you I don't I don't even know how he has this much heart to go

around because I I know that anybody the coach by I feel gets field feels the

exact same thing but his heart for people and how much he gives to his team to

people that walk into that room that are committed it's just amazing to watch

that balance how you could be hard on people but then also for myself I

needed a person to erase my excuses to keep my grappling journey going I

had so many people in my ear you know even in my own mind of like man how many

times do you want to get injured you know I've had multiple surgeries and

injuries and stuff that I've had to do and and miss because I get hurt you know

grappling anybody that's been on the journey knows what I'm talking about but

Isaac mid 40 still training and still can compete and hang with people 20

years old 22 years old that's all I needed was one person to show me one person

to show me that that you erase these excuses you could still push and hang with

people in their 20s if you take care of yourself in your 40s that's what Isaac

has been able to do to to inspire me and that you don't need a sexy huge gym to

make a huge impact you know our our gym at the mat factory is smaller you know the

mat space is is smaller than many gyms big commercial gyms with more mat

space but there's not a lot of people that want to go to battle with the mat

factory because of the spirit that's put in that room and it starts with Isaac

how much he pours in to the people there so if you give of yourself all of

yourself people are gonna respond to that and and no excuses when it comes to

Isaac he has a wife he has a daughter he got a business and you'll find him at

the mat factory you know oftentimes till nine ten o'clock at night working

with people traveling on the weekends just no excuses you could be a dog and

have a big heart for people at the same time so I'll wrap it up there in in a

30-minute segment again I want to thank everybody as always for coming on the

ground casping at some time with us get ready as a new day let's get it