It is nine thirty ish on a Friday. The regular crowd shuffles in to paraflate to paraphrase the philosopher William Joel, and that means we get to welcome in one of our friends, Michael Parkhurst. How are you, sir?
Good morning and happy New Year, John.
I am good. So we are apparently facing snowmageddon here in Atlanta. Uh oh, I heard two three four inches of snow. Everybody had better have run to the store and gotten their their run on milk, bread and water, and the shelves. The shelves are empty, and people are frolicking, and animals are sitting there and going bruh, I ain't going out and all that stuff. Uh. You look outside,
people are putting covers on cars and things like that. So, uh is it just cold, nasty and freezing where you are and you're laughing at the rest of us here on the planet. Is that how this works? Oh?
No, I'm not laughing. I'm I mean, yeah, I'm laughing a little bit.
Yeah, I remember how it is. I mean, that's great for the kids to enjoy a little bit of snow down there. Yeah, we had a we didn't have much snow up until, of course, the day before the kids were finally supposed to go back to school. They had been out for what felt like a month. I mean, it was a great two weeks around the holidays, but a full two weeks out honestly felt like a month. And so first day back, five forty five am, the phone call comes in, school is canceled.
So the kids enjoyed a snow day. So we've had snow on the ground.
We have.
I don't think we're gonna get rid of it anytime soon. We're not gonna get above freezing for a while. So yeah, we've still got probably h four inches on the on the ground.
So do you do you still have your moments where yet you act like a teenager and you want to go outside, you want to throw snowballs in general and just like throw them at you know, buzz them right past your kids' heads or or the boss or anything like that. Do you still have those moments that you just sit there? So now that's for the young of them, Yes.
I do, brought on by the kids and the dog, right, the dog loves the snow, so she loves being back out there and she loves chasing snowballs and then eating them.
And I mean the.
Kids are at a good age to you know, throw it right back. So yeah, I enjoy a nice little snow day.
Okay, do the kids eat snow themselves or just the dog?
Newly fresh snow?
Sure snow that's been down now for you know, almost a week.
You.
I hope I've taught them better.
You just ew ick by the way, new year, I.
Mean, new platform, new background.
Here that I'm looking at, a fancy schmancy here, John, I mean, I expect nothing less.
But well blame Longshore. He's the one who's the one who decided to get everything all gussied up in fancy. If you want me to do it, I'll screw it up. I'll play things out of order. It'll be like music sounders and it's like literally somebody with the hot keys kind of going like this and just mashing things out of order. That's me so far, trying to learn all
this technology looks great. So what I wanted to do, and thank you for dropping by this morning, I wanted to kind of look back at twenty twenty four for beyond goals and look at now. I don't know, do you? And Greg and everybody at BGM set New Year's resolutions or do you have goals aspirations, a to do list? How do you guys tackle how you want to grow into a year? Did you guys have a list of things you want to accomplish in twenty four? How did you attack this? Yeah?
I think actually the marketing folks that we've been working with the last probably four or five months have really helped us in that regard, because when we started, it was kind of just like, well, we'll see where it goes and you know, growed as much as we can, and we didn't really have any goals because you know, it's just kind of like, yeah, we're just going to
grow it as much as we can. So they've kind of helped us in that regard of setting some goals and you know, both for the year and then we do it by the quarter and saying, okay, hey, what do we want where do we want to get accomplished this quarter? Where can we go? What do we want to do, what do we want to implement? So in that regard, it's been really good and it kind of just helps Greg and I kind of set the tone going into the year and where we need to be
and what we want to do. And again we're not answering to anybody, so it's kind of like if we don't hit a goal, you know, we just adjust things and move on and you know, why didn't we and how can we get better?
Type thing?
And you know, same thing that we encourage our mentees to do really well.
And you know the reason I ask is because I know that when when we all dive into this idea of Okay, I want to I want to start this, I want to do this, I want to do this as a business, you know, I want to I want to make sure that this is the next stage of my career that you want to hop in and as driven as we all are, it's like, yeah, I want to do it right, I want to do it well. I want to do it this way, this way, this way, this way and this way. How do you not get
bogged down if you don't accomplish something? How do you how how easy is it to just kind of sit there and say, Okay, well, we'll work just as hard to continue to get there and not get mad about not accomplishing something that you had on a list.
I guess with something, Yeah, that's challenging, and I think, you know, that's why we encourage to have these smaller steps on the way, because you know, if we're accomplishing what we want to get done on a weekly basis or a monthly basis, and then at the quarter we don't hit our quarter goal, you know, we look back and say, you know, what we did what we could, it just didn't follow our way this quarter, so hopefully we'll make up for it next quarter type thing.
And so, you know, really our goals we try not to make financial goals because we're like, you know, our services are there and we try and grow it and it is what it is. If people want to sign up, great and if they don't, great, So you know, a lot of our goals are kind of like what can we do to put ourselves in a position to grow the business and then just seeing.
Did that help? Was that successful? And adjusting things from there.
What was the most surprising thing that you learned beyond goals in twenty twenty four.
I think the potential for growth. I think the.
Looking outside of the box and thinking what more can we provide? What else could this become? And just knowing that the getting the feedback that we did from players and families just re emphasize like Okay, we've got something here and we can do something.
And so.
I think that was the best thing that came out of twenty four And then working with this this group, I think is going to really help us, you know, just on social media, get more organized, help us with goals and things.
So it was.
A good year in that regard, and we grew the business healthily, which was which is awesome. Know Greg works extremely hard in that regard, and yeah, he crushed it.
What did you learn from Greg? And what do you think Greg learned from you?
I think I can learn a lot from Greg's work work ethic, Like he grinds hard, and you know, I think that you need that in any startup business and young business. We're trying to grow it and do things, and I think that we just we understand each other's role within the business really well. Greg grinds and gets the customers and is so good with customer relations and
connecting with people and talking to them about why. And I'm just trying to come up with new things and new projects and new partnerships and Okay, where can we go and what can we do? And Okay, how can we hire somebody new? And you know, I think that we just we work well together. So I definitely learned from Greg, both in the hustle side of things, but also mentoring wise and how he works with some of
his younger players and what he talks about. And we share ideas and we're continuing to grow obviously, and we encourage each other to grow and read and get better and improve things. And just seeing kind of where he talks to kids about and how he approaches sessions. Sometimes it's just different than.
How I do.
So it's nice for each for both of us, I think to see the other person in action.
What's the last book you read?
That's John It's number one on my list right now of I need to do better in twenty five.
Oh wow, okay, because I think.
I started off well in twenty twenty four and I probably have not read a book in like four months.
So that's not good.
It.
So the last book I read.
Where is it? Where'd you hide it?
I think it's still hidden potential to be fair.
I did reread this one because it was so good. Yeah, but yeah, that's the last book I read.
So when you when you read a book. Do you high do you take a highlighter and and destroy the inside of it and then end up getting another copy later? How do you when you take notes from other people to apply to what you want to do it beyond goals? How do you learn? How? What's the best way for you to learn from, like, say, a reading situation. Do you do you highlight? Do you write something down separate? How do you how do you learn? When you read?
I take a picture of whatever paragraph or sentence or whatever, So I've got just a bunch of pictures when I'm done or halfway through or something, and then I'll go write notes in a Google doc and so that I can keep it organized of like, Okay, why did I take a picture of this?
What does it have to do with whatever?
That way I can kind of organize it into where it would be helpful, because some of these notes go into like more broad topics, and some of them are like, Okay, this would be really useful when I'm talking to a kid about X, and so I want this information or this idea in this little area of notes that we have, you know, for ideas for when we're talking to a kid about that subject. So that's how I do it take a picture and then go back to it and write it.
Okay, when it comes to twenty twenty five and getting getting your your mentees to learn, do you encourage resolutions? Do you? And it might just be goals and aspirations instead of resolutions, because when you think of a new year's resolution, the first thing you think of sometimes is like, yeah, I'll give me like three weeks and I'll break it,
you know, like working out. I'll set a new year's resolution to lose ten pounds and then three weeks and you sit there and go, man, this is this not happening. Do you encourage goals and aspirations at the beginning of a calendar year? Do you just sit there and have that as something as a part of a continual conversation.
How do you bring in a new year with someone that you're that you're having to, that you're working with as a mentor how do you break down outlook, I guess is probably the best way to phrase it.
Yeah, it's a great question, and it depends on who we're working with and if we've worked with them before, because I think that, you know, with soccer being not
a calendar year, sport. It kind of gets a little confusing, right do you make your goals at the beginning of the season for the soccer season or do you make it at the beginning of the calendar year for the year, And so it just depends on you know, if this if the player is playing year round, or if they're playing multiple sports, or or when we started working with them.
So a lot of them we do, right. I think it's it's great to have calendar year goals where you want to be this time next year, and then we work backwards, right, we always are working backwards. Okay, we've got this big goal here, or a couple of big goals that where we want to be. Okay, how are we going to get there? And then what are we
going to work on to get there? And ideally we're coming back to like a weekly or bi weekly checklist of Okay, have I hit these small little steps in order to get to my goal at the end of the year, because like I said earlier, John, we could hit all these steps.
Right.
I've got a kid.
He wants to get back with the national team, right, he's been with the youth national team before. He wants to get back for the Youth National and that's his goal for twenty five. I said, that's an awesome goal. Now, how do we do it?
Right?
Okay, we need to be playing consistently. Okay, we need to be healthy right, Okay, great, what are the steps to that?
Right?
How are we going to take care of our body on a daily and weekly basis so that we are healthy enough? And you know, so you just small little challenges and goals along the way.
But at the same time, I think that when you mentioned these these small goals, these incremental steps, I think that a lot of times we have a tendency to either take those small steps for granted and just it's like, yeah, you know, I'll skip this chapter because I know that I do that, when in fact, you might be found out that you don't, or you sit there and it's just like, oh I did. It didn't quite register to me that I need to have that small of a
step because it is one of those building blocks. I thought that that was interesting that you just mentioned that, because a lot of time, as we sit there and we'll take those small steps for granted, thinking that, yeah, they're already a part of the process, when they may not be. I thought that was really interesting that you brought that up.
Yeah, it's a it's a crucial, crucial aspect and that's where a lot of people go wrong and why a lot of resolutions fall right.
The goal is just too far away.
It's it's a big aspiration, a big goal, like it's a yearly thing or it's a huge thing that's going to take months and months. That's just tough for mentally, right where you're not accomplishing something, you know, especially if it's not a number or something where you can really you know, if it's just to look better or thin down or whatever, that's just tough over time. So yeah, we highly encourage it. I saw this video the other day.
It was really really good. I think it was a was a school teacher trying to teach his kids about this concept. And he had this kid who needed to get from one side of the room to the other side of the room, and he had pieces of paper that the kid could step on, and so the kid stepped on the pieces of paper to get to the other side and said, okay, now go back, and then he took away a few pieces of the paper and
it was really more difficult. And then he took away all the pieces of paper, and he said, if you don't have these steps along the way to get to your goal, it's impossible to get there.
I see now, I had I like the idea of pulling all of the pieces of paper off of the floor. And it's like, okay, so now what are you gonna do. And if you don't have the if you don't have those pieces laid in place, then you're gonna miss them coming back. You're not gonna have them coming back, or you're just gonna walk on the desks to get from one desk to the other and just do it up above.
I mean, there's gotta be always a way. And like in Star Trek with the Kobe Yashimaru and James T. Kirk when he when he went around and broke the machine and just kind of refixed the machine to his own bends.
That is true.
I got to find alternative ways sometimes.
Yeah excuses, Yeah exactly, Michael Parker. Yes, it's all about finding different ways and that the and then your instructor goes, man, I wish I'd thought of that.
But speaking of yeah, New Years and like h goals and things and have you heard of the uh the viral like a hard seventy five challenge.
Uh no, what's this?
Okay, Well you look it up, John, it's uh it's I think it's a little older, but it became viral again. And basically there's like five or six things and you're supposed to do it every day for seventy five days. If you mess up or miss one day, you start over. And it's really intense. That's why it's called hard seventy five. Okay, But it's basically it's like drink a gallon of water a day, read x pages a day, exercise twice a day, take a picture of yourself once a day, and there's
a couple other things. I think so, I think Greg and I are going to implement a modified version for any mentees that want to do like a thirty day thing with us, where you know, you read a few pages a day, you get x amount of sleep per day. We're not taking photos of ourselves. That's not the goal here,
you know. But exercise could be something as small as stretching or getting core work in right, And it's just kind of like a more of a mentality and a discipline thing than it is, Like we're not trying to lose weight or do it for any specific reason. It's more like, hey, can we do something. Can we accomplish it for thirty days and stay dedicated to it and you know, get them thinking about and learning by reading,
focusing on their sleep, getting certain amount of sleep. So we're tossing around the idea of, hey, should we start this for kind of the end of January and February type thing based off of this viral thing that's going around Andy Forsella.
Think of this as an iron man for your brain. How to take complete control of your life and only seventy five days. Yeah, voting for Sella. There's nothing worse than rolling through life in the past in your seat. You wake up, go to work, and drift through each day with no direction or driving force. Then you drive home, flip through your favorite TV shows, go to bed, repeat that same cycle the next day. Weekdays all run together.
You find yourself trying to pass the time until the weekend so you can relax, unwind, and finally enjoy yourself. You start doubting yourself. I'm skipping forward, and so he said, this is why I believe in the seventy five hard program.
I know exactly how you feel. I've been there myself spent years feeling like I was nothing, floating through the days with no game plan and no results, letting myself go mentally and physically, trying program after a program to try to get back on track, only to fall off right after I completed it. I knew I wasn't the only one going through this, realize the root cause of all of my problems was not addressed by any existing program. And so Andy Frasella is the guy that did seventy
five hards. So you want to spin off and do well ninety hard because there's ninety minutes in a match, mane.
Well, maybe maybe we'll get to that. But you know, I think you know as far as smaller steps, I mean.
Forty five, give me forty five, Parkhurst, Can you start and give me forty five? Then you can start it for me.
Yeah, we might even do thirty just a thirty day thing.
See how we can do it, see what the response is like, and then we'll take it from there. If it was fun and everybody enjoyed it, maybe would do another one.
There are other things that you guys did in twenty four that I thought were really cool like BGTV. What's it like for you doing the television thing where you cut your teeth on programs like this, but then you actually, you know, then you go to BGTV and you do that work there. What was that like for you doing the video side.
Yeah, I enjoyed doing the videos where I feel like I'm passing off knowledge of the way I see the game and the way high level athletes see the game and why they make the choices that they do on the field, and little little things that probably go unnoticed by a lot of youth athletes about what's making these professionals successful and what they're doing before the ball comes to them, and all these little things that I'm just trying to point out and help about. And uh So
I really enjoy doing it. It's it's fun for me. I hope that we continue to grow that. You know, it's it's a challenge getting kids to see the benefit of it, I think right now, but I still have big hopes for it.
And I mean when you when you have different mentees of different age groups, different aspirations. Uh whether it's you know, early high school, high school, I would you know, for me, I would say middle school, just to just to be different middle school, high school, Uh, different levels of professional aspirations,
things like that. How how much of a challenge is it for you and Greg to make sure that your messages are catered to the individual and not just have blanket thoughts going in two every you know, everyone who is a mentee. How difficult is it for you for you and Greg to segment and break apart all of your messaging with all of your different mentees because of all the different directions they're coming from.
Yeah, it's tough, That's that's tech a challenge, right because we work with nine and ten year olds who obviously have different goals, aspirations and just ability to absorb knowledge differently than a seventeen year old who wants to get back with the national team. Yeah, or college kid who's playing D one, you know, So it is completely different levels.
So we do try and we separate things. We know that not every message is going to hit every mentee, but some messages will hit some and some messages will hit others.
And that's fine.
Not every message, not every piece of information is for the entire spectrum, But that doesn't mean they can't take something from it. But yeah, it's that is a challenge. And it's the same as like when I do soccer camps and you know, you try have an age range of kids and you've got a level and you're just you're trying to do your best to teach everyone something so that they can get better.
And have fun.
But that's a challenge when you're dealing with different ages and different skill levels.
I know that one of the words that we use a lot these days when it comes to approaches and learning and things like that is the a holistic approach. And I know that you believe in that at Beyond Goals. When I mentioned the word holistic to you when it comes to an approach at BGM, what does a holistic approach mean to you?
Specifically, A holistic approach means all encompassing and yeah, looking at everything to become better, so on the field, off the field, mental, physical, nutrition, sleep, everything that for me is a holistic approach when we're you know, three sixty view of your life and what is helping you or hindering you to get better.
Because there are some folks who may sit there and think of holistic and think that it's all new, that it's new age you know that they get stuck in this notion of oh, it's you know, just twenty first century thinking, and it's this you know, you know you're looking at chakras and crystals and you know those kinds of things. That's why I wanted to get your definition of when you say a holistic approach, then it's a three hundred and sixty degree Okay, you've got to focus
on this as much as you focus on this. You have to focus on the inside as much as you focus on the outside. You've got to focus on sleep and your your own mechanics as much as you do anything else. That's why I wanted to ask you, because there are folks that may sit there and look at it, and their idea might be, you know, the person that wanders around and you know there's just flipping smoke everywhere.
You know, those kinds of things. So that's why I wanted to get when you say holistic, That's why I wanted to get your definition, because some folks may get stuck in an idea and it's not where you're going at all.
No, you don't want to be on that that edge of the row seat when the guy's coming by with that stuff you know who a little a little strong.
I remember that.
Yeah, now when you're when you're doing that kind of stuff, that's very cool.
To Bart's question over here, John, it's funny how snow day activities differ when you get a little bit older. My favorite currently is if we're going to get snow, I want a lot of snow so I can get the snowblower out right out sucker, so I want to use that sucker. And thankfully we had enough snow last week to use it. So yeah, getting that guy fired up and using that that's that's fun for me. And I still like sledding. Uh oh, if the kids are going to go sledding, I want to go sledding.
Yeah. I don't blame you a bit. As always, my friend, Great to see you, Great to catch up with you. Glad that the Beyond Goals canntinues to kick some serious ass out of twenty four and heading into twenty five. And what I wanted to do this first time around is kind of recap twenty four, look at twenty five, what you guys have learned and what you're planning on
learning going forward. So I wanted to I wanted to have the whole approach and kind of like a recap review preview, kind of a thing for your first visit this year, to let everybody know how things have grown there at BGM. And for putting up with questions like mine on a yearly basis.
I like it.
And if we don't have a female hired in the next like three or four months, sean, you got to hold me accountable.
That's I will, I will, all right. So Q one all right, so Q one goal Parkhurst female higher. Okay, So I have officially written it down. There we go, and so by May first, if this is if this has not happened, and this particular individual has not been put in as a part of the rotation, we're gonna have a talk. Park Urry, that's right.
It's like a little public peer pressure.
Be well, my friend, safe, stay warm. We'll catch up with you soon. Thanks for dropping by, a safe down in the snow, Yes, sir, As always, there goes parking.