The Youth Sports Special

It always kills me with the people that are, you know, upset about it are like, “Why didn’t my kid pitch? “Or, “Why didn’t my kid play more? “It’s like, well, how much practice did your kid put in? Or, you know, unfortunately, you know, your kid’s just not as good as some of the other kids and that’s life, you know. That’s just like business. I mean, are you gonna hire somebody that is not as good just because, you know, you should be fair? That’s not how life works. But you chose to have 4 kids, Craig. Like, at the end of the day- I don’t know if I chose to. We haven’t done too many episodes where we’re really sharing like, you know, our personal lives so we thought it was important today to kind of share that. I’m Vern. I run the top mortgage brokerage in Massachusetts with over 20 years of experience. I’m Craig. I’ve done $100 million consistently since my second full year in the business and I’m Massachusetts’ top mortgage broker. We’re the Mortgage Daddies with real advice, real stories, and real results. Let’s get going. Welcome back to Mortgage Daddies. Got myself and Vern today. Gonna shoot the shit a little bit. That’s it. We don’t have anybody to tell us what we have to talk about. We’re not gonna talk about too much with mortgages today. We are- think we’re just gonna have some fun and talk about everything that’s going on in the world, maybe our kids, maybe our families, maybe some nutrition, maybe some working out. Craig and I, uh, you know, for all of our viewers, uh, decided to, uh, start working out and getting in shape and take care of our bodies and, uh, you know, taking some supplements. And Craig just started up with Little League Baseball- Definitely. uh, locally which I’ve been following on some of the, uh, local Facebook groups. And, uh, not for nothing, I do not have a child that plays baseball or softball so, uh, I’m living vicariously through all the people on social media and Craig. And, uh, I grew up playing baseball, loved baseball. Luckily for me, my son did not take to baseball at an early age because just last night I’m reading through some of the Facebook posts and like some of these parents, if you’re watching I apologize in advance, but you can’t be every- everything to everyone. You know, some of these parents are complaining about like night games, right? Oh, I saw that. So, I, it h- it kind of struck a nerve last night. I’m like, I’m up reading this and I’m reading all the posts, right? There’s probably 75, 80 comments. I read every single one of them. I remember being like, in Little League, playing the night game was probably the best part of Little League. It was like, A, we’re playing under the lights, it’s a different feeling. You get a little bit more amped up. And obviously the first game goes a little bit more delayed. Now you’re starting 15, 30 minutes late from the first game and the parents are talking about, “Hey, my kid needs to be in bed by 9:30, it’s a school night. “I get it, but at the same time, my 2 kids I- I- I had pretty strict for a long time, 8:30 bedtime. that was when they were like 7, 8, 9 years old. We’re going into summer. School’s already almost like letting out, like they’re not really doing much in school. But even still, like I get where they’re coming from, but just having that- that feeling, that camaraderie of a team and that- that experience to play under the lights, play withI don’t think the kids have a problem with it. This is what I was reading, right? Mm-hmm. You have these parents who are like, “My kid needs to be in bed by 9:30 or like they’re not gonna do well in school. “I’m like there are some people going crazy on the other side too. I know. What’s your experience with that with, you know, Austin and Owen playing baseball? Yeah, I mean, luckily, you know, with, they try. Like so the town that- that we’re in, they, you know, it kills me when people put these kind of comments ’cause they- they’re not involved in it. They don’t understand all the work that goes into it. There’s a select group of people that put in all the work. They don’t get paid for it. They do this because they love baseball, they love the kids, and they want to see them develop and provide a value. The- the town that we’re in, some of the guys that are there are the same guys that were there when I played. Yeah. So, you know, they’ve been there volunteering their time, not making any money, no- don’t have kids in baseball anymore. They’re there on the board. They’re there working the concession stand, filling the gaps, helping order the- the shirts, the scheduling, everything that goes into it. It’s a lot of stuff. Getting the fields ready. You know, I’ve spent countless weekends working on the fields. Like luckily I’m away. You know what I’m saying? You’re like, “Yeah, I’m gonna be at the baseball fields moving gravel. “It’s not, you know, and I- I think a lot of people don’t understand it. It’s not something that the town, you know, in Dartmouth provides any funds for. Everything that’s provided is from the kids pay to play and it’s not a lot. You know, so there’s not a lot of money that goes around, so it’s a lot of volunteer time. It’s a lot of effort of a select group of people to make it work. And at the end of the day, there’s only so many fields that we have, so you have to play night games. But they do a good job of trying to set the night games to the older kids. You know, the Little Leaguers, not the T-ballers. Like, you know, the T-balls kids don’t play the later games even though the- there’s really 4 leagues until you get to Pony League at different age groups so you have, you know, T-ball at let’s say four and five. Then I think it goes to X-ball, which is like an instructional league, from six and seven. Those kids don’t play the late games. Yeah. The eight and nine year olds, the majority of their games are early. Some of them go a little bit later and then the Little Leaguers go late. But, you know, once summer hits, I mean playing under the- the lights and staying- It’s all the time. I mean, you know, the kids that love it, I mean, our, my kids, some of the other kids, they just want to hang out there. They don’t even care if they’re playing or not. They just want to play at the fields. They want to go play wall ball. They want to play there and they have a great time and it’s a fun summer, you know, activity. But it- it’s definitely can be a lot. It made, it made me think of, right, like how often do I keep my kids out past 9:30, 10:00 at night? And, and you know me more than probably most people. I’m a big Celtics fan. I’m a big Patriots fan. I’m a big sport fan. So if I take my kid to a Celtics game and it starts at 7:30, typically it’s at 7:00, 7:30. Some, the- the later ones, you know, 8:00. I’m not getting back after the drive from Boston till minimum 11:30 till 1:00 in the morning, right? But it’s the experience that I’m giving the kid to have that, you know, for the rest of their lives. These kids that areAnd this is only my opinion. You’re- you’re 11, 12, 13 years old. You only get to be that age for that small period of time, right? So, uh, you know, to everybody, you know, part of that baseball community, my hat goes off to you. You guys do a great job. I know Craig does an amazing amount of work over there, getting the fields ready, coaching. Uh, you know, one of the, one of the gentlemen I, I read and I, I know of him, I don’t know him, but I have a feeling based on his, you know, one of his posts is, he’s been doing it a long time, you know, and he, he kind of broke it down. And it makes sense, right? Like, this is, like you just said, it’s part of community and we, we preach that in the business world and everything we do, is it’s that sense of community, getting out there, being with your friends, uh, learning how to interact. But also, like, overcoming adversity. Like, somebody had posted, the real world has you getting up, working weird hours. You have to do some things you’re not really wanting to do, but, I see both sides of it. But playing under the lights, it’s not happening every night. You guys are not playing baseball 5 nights a week until 10:00, right? Like, you might have one or 2 games a week- Yeah. max that it’s going past- Yeah. 10:00 at night, right? Like- Yeah, may- maybe, maybe 2. Most of the time, probably one. I mean, again, the Little Leaguers play a little bit later, but the younger kids, I mean, the kids that really can’t handle being up till 10:00, they’re really not playing until 10:00 at night. And kudos to all the volunteers. I mean, I didn’t realize, even though I live in the town, I didn’t realize it’s all volunteer. These guyYou know, the volunteers are wor- like you said, working the concession stands, cleaning the bathrooms. Like, I only have 2 kids, I don’t know if I wanna clean the bathroom at my own house sometimes, right? Like, never mind after that entire big group. So, kudos to you guys. But, you know, I, I start off with the Little League thing and just the post because it made me think, you know, Craig comes in on a, on a Monday, Tuesday, we talk about what he did that weekend. And he came in, you know, a couple of days ago and we’re shooting right off the cuff today, we’re going, we’re going right at it. He’s like, “Dude, I went, I went pretty hard at my, uh”His, his third child, uh, Owen, pretty hard ’cause he, uh, he didn’t do so well at his game. So he, uhTell us a little bit about that ’cause you were- So-you were pretty pumped up. Yeah. Anyone that knows Owen knows that he probably doesn’t have the, uh, competitive athletic drive that my older son Austin has. He just wants to play with his toys. He has a great imagination, you know, he just loves life, but not in, you know, a competitive way. But, you know, he wants to do good and he wants to try, but his attention for it just doesn’t seem to be there. So, you know, half the time he gets up, he, he s- either forgets to do what he’s supposed to do or he swings, he spins around-and he hits the ball. So, you know, it’s just, it’s a hilarious thing to really watch, but it’s like, you know, he can do it, but he just doesn’t, you know, focus on it and that’s tough for me with him because Austin kind of just got it- Took off. and, you know, just kind of ran with it and everything. But Owen’s, you know, a little bit different where, you know, we’ll see how much, uh, baseball he plays in his life growing up. But I’m waiting for that kind of age ’cause, you know, he’s 5 now, but he’s tiny too. Yeah. He’s, he’s a little guy. So, you know, if he kind of develops a little bit and, and, uh, kind of gets into it a little bit more. But, you know, I mean, there’s, at that age, you know, I look at the other kids too. The majority of the kids are kind of similar. Yeah. You know, at that age group, so- They’re still finding themselves. Yeah. There’s a few kids that kind of, you know, are a little bit more of a standout where they’re a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger and they kind of get it a little bit more. But, you know, he, he definitely just wants to be there for a fun time. He’s, he’s happier when he gets to go to the concession stand after the game. 100%. Yeah. I probably get that question 15 times a game, “Dad, can we go to the concession stand after? “Just wants to hang out with his friends. Yeah, yeah. Part of the community and getting back out there. It’s, uh, it’s wild. It’s wild. For everybody who doesn’t know, I know we haven’t done too many episodes where we’re really sharing, like, you know, our personal lives. We thought it was important today to kind of share that. Uh, you know, Craig has 4 amazing kids. Your oldest daughter is, uh, one of, one of my daughters’ best friends. And tell us a little about her. She’s gymnastics. She’s got kind of a whole different thing, right? She’s not playing- Yeah. She’s, she’s more, uh, you know, not, not so much on the athletic side of, like, traditional sports. She’s more into, super into gymnastics now, which is great. She did it when she was young. She kind of got out of it a little bit. And then a few years ago, she got into it pretty heavily and now she really likes it. You know, this weekend for Memorial Day, we live close to where the parade goes by, so we had a bunch of, of our, you know, friends and people who have kids all similar age came out and my whole front yard was covered in gymnastics, those little- Wow. You know, and she’s sitting there coaching and teaching all the younger kids how to do the stuff, so she loves gymnastics. And then she’s just, like, a super girl’s girl. Like, painting nails, I think she probably painted 5 different people’s nails. A couple facials. Facials, toes, you know, the whole thing. At the end of the day, she’s sitting there grinding my step-sister’s, uh, you know, toes off. I’m pretty sure she’s bleeding at this point. But she, she loves that stuff. She loves to go, you know, do all theWhat are youWhere do they go, the Sephora? Sephora and Ulta. Ulta, that’s the place, yeah. All we have to do is look at our credit card statement, we know exactly where they’re going. She was bartering with people, like, “Hey, I’ll do your toes if you take me to Target,” or, “Take me to Ulta so she can get something. “And she’s more kind of on the artsy side of it, you know, likes doing all that stuff and likes drawing and things like that. So, you know, she’s, she’s definitely a lot different than the boys where she’s, you know, into that kind of stuff, but also very, you knowShe’s not the person that when, when something’s left out, it’s gonna be her. Yeah. It’s the boys are the, the disheveled and disorganized group. It’s the same thing with Olivia, like my daughter. She could be fine just staying by herself in her room playing with her- Yeah. nails and- Think she FaceTimes with her friends 24/7. That’s what I do. Everything that they do. It’s crazy. I mean, we never had that when, when we were kids, you know? You’d maybe start to talk to somebody on a phone, but you’d have to, like, I’d haveMy mom would make me, like, sit in the living room if I was gonna talk to people on the phone. Picking up the other one in her bedroom. Like, “Craig, it’s time to get off the phone now. “And then- Get off. AIM or AOL or something started where you can message people, now these kids are connected at, you knowMyA-Austin’s on, uh, FaceTime or whatever with his friends playing games on his iPad, you know, all the time, and they’re just, they’re constantly connected. But, you know, going back to kind of, like, the baseball thing, it’s nice to see the kids get together and, like, get away from, you know, all the iPads- Yeah. and get away from all that stuff and actually just get outside and be kids. Yeah. Screen time has been, uh, screen time, right? SoMy son is the pain in my ass, he’s the pain in my existence. I love him, but he is, uh, he is aJust attached, right? Like, like we all are, right? But seeing somebody that’s in their teenage yearsThe last week, I put the parental control on his screen time from, like, 9 o’clock at night, I shut it off, and it’s off until 7:00. It’s wild how much better. Sleep, he’s getting, everything, right? So. He stays up all night, yeah. Screen time, I never did it before. Yeah, I’m like, “What are you doing up there at 10:30? “Like, “Why do I hear little footsteps on upstairs? “But it’s wild. It’s tough to shut it off, you know. You kind of got to monitor it a little bit, because if not, I mean, if I, if I let Owen, he’s 5. If I didn’t tell Owen to go to bed and shut off his iPad when he wants to watch his shows or whatever, he, he would probably stay up all night. All night, never ends. It’s crazy. So, with all that being said, we’ve talked about P, we’ve talked about Austin, Owen. So, now we definitely have to talk about the legend. I think he’s just gonna be a legend. I’m already nicknaming him Lincoln the Legend. Your youngest- Lincoln the pter-son. We were, we were away, we went, we went to New Hampshire for the weekend. This kid can cry, scream, and belt it out. He’s a pterodactyl. His lungs are this big. They’re just filled with air. It’s crazy. But you chose to have 4 kids, Craig. Like, at the end of the day for all- I don’t know if I chose to. For all of our viewers, 4 kids. And any of you guys have more than 4, comment below, ’cause, uh, kudos off to anybody who went zoned. 3 was, like, easy. Like, I remember you being like, “How do you do with 3? “I’m like, “Oh, no, it’s not that bad. “But they were also, like, a lot younger at the time, too. So they weren’t involved in as many sports. Like, we weren’tWe’re at the baseball fields now, Austin has games Monday, Wednesday for the most part, Owen, Tuesday, Thursday. Austin just made the all-star team, so now he has practice on Fridays, give or take. They try to move it around depending on everybody’s schedule. The boys both have practices on Saturday. One at 8:30 in the morning, one at 2:30. Austin has flag football on Sunday afternoons. That’s just the 2 boys. Never mind Peyton’s gymnastics that she has, her competitions. I don’t know how you guys do it. So it was, like, a lot easier before when they weren’t involved in so much stuff, or it was only one or 2 of them that was. Because taking a, you know, almost 2yearold pterodactyl to- I love this kid. 2 sporting events is- He’s literally my favorite. And he’s, he’s nothing likeEmily, my, my wife always says this, like, “Austin and Owen as babies were just, like, the easiest. “”Like, you could just leave them, they’d play with their toys, they’d do whatever, they were pretty content, didn’t really cry. “This kid, just the opposite. You know, he isHe wants to be in something, doing something, jumping off of something, throwing something, breaking something, whatever, and then also, he’s probably the only one that’s been absolutely obsessed with me versus my wife. So, the second he sees me, he screams bloody murder until I hold him. I know. Then, then I have to hold him for a while until he’s finally like, “Okay, I’m gonna get down,” but if I try to leave, he screams bloody murder. And, you know, it’s, it’s tough. It’s cool, though. It’s cool. Like- He’s gonna be, uh, I think he’ll be another athlete, just by- Oh, yeah. how much of a brute he is, and he throws a ball and he beats up his brothers already, and he’s onlyYou know, that youngest one always kind of seems to be the little terror. Little bit more nimble, too. TheyAnd they get away with a little bit more, ’cause we’ve already gone through it. Yeah. I think as parents, I, I feel like- We couldn’t even bring him, like in the winter, we couldn’t even bring him to Austin’s basketball games because in Dartmouth, like, the courts are-when they’re that young the courts are literally like court and you have about 3 feet on each side. So you gotta sit right there. He would scream bloody murder and try to run and get the ball every single time. So we could not bring him toWe had to get a babysitter so my wife could come to the games because he would try to go get the basketball every single time and if he didn’t he would just scream bloody murder the entire time. And back to basketball, like let’s talk about a little bit of that. So Craig also coaches basketball in the wintertime for his sons. Mm-hmm. Um, how’s, how’s that go? Like, I mean, you don’t have any competitive edge- Yeah. in you whatsoever. It’s, it’s awesome having Craig come in the night, the, you know, the day after a game, or a couple d- couple days later. And I’m like, “Hey, how’d you guys do last night? “”Yeah, we’re gonna win the goddamn championship. “Mm-hmm. “Yeah, my team is stacked. “He’s out, like, recruiting and watching the other kids team, he knows what player. He’s like, “We’re gonna have to play this defense, box in one on this kid. “I’m like, these kids by the way are like 10 years old. They were only 8. 8 or 9. Craig is more competitive than anybody on that court. Basketball is tough because basketball is just go, go, go. So it’s like a lot happening, so it’s really easy to, like, let yourself get very involved. Like baseball’s like one play then it slows down so, like, you can get a little bit, high str-And I try, like, to back it down a lot with the kids because if not my screaming and yelling would become very, very excessive. But- It’s wild. I mean- I love it. I, I, I think I do better than I did originally but, you know, in a tight game or a close game that means a lot. It’s tough not to, and you know, IIt’s tough. You know, I, I get both sides of it, like I grew up, I was very competitive and I think sports are competitive. And you know, we, we kind of dealt with this in basketball a little bit, you know, with some of the coaches because we, we did have a better team. We had one of the bestWe had the best player probably on the, in, in the league on our team which helped a lot. And at that age one really good player- Of course. can kind of dominate. So there’d be games where it gets a little out of hand with the scoring and stuff. And you know, we, we would try to move kids around or, you know, take kids out and stuff. ButAnd some of the other coaches, you know, and it wasn’t just my team that was, you know, winning by quite a bit too. There’s a few others. But, you know, they felt like we were running the scores up and it really wasn’t the case. And what, you know, a lot of kids or some of the parents I think didn’t understand and that is, you know, we’re not trying to run it up, but at that age, you know, one ball handler is very important. Not every kid out there can go and dribble it up the court and not get the ball stolen the second he gets over it. Yeah. So if you take out that one kid or you take out those 2 better players that can really help to move the ball around, to pass the ball, to get the game going, to kind of make it so a kid can actually get a shot, well now it just turns into a, a madness, kind of a scramble, like ball’s all over the place. It’s n- you know, there’sNobody’s getting an opportunity to shoot, nobody’s moving the ball around. So there’s like a plus and minus to that. It’s not necessarily that you’re trying to run up the score, keep the better kids in. But at the same time too, it’s like those better kids wanna play. There’s only so much time, the games are only so long. It’s like, you’re gonna penalize, you know, the kids that arewanna play, that, that do well, that help the game move along to, to pull them out. You know, sports are competitive in nature. And I mean, I know we’re not playing for the NBA championship but at the same time, you know, in my opinion sports are a good life lesson for kids that, hey, not everybody wins and that, you know- Yeah. Or, and not everybody gets a trophy. And not everybody can be the best and not every- You know, and you’re not gonna get the most playing time if you’re not the best. But, you know, do youAt the end of the day sometimes I think, and this is the same thing that kind of comes back to business is like, once you grow up and you realize, “Well, well how come, you know, you make more money than I do? Well, do you work harder than I do? “You know, maybe you’re, you’re more talented, maybe you’re better. Do you practice? Like these kids that are better practice. They put the time in. And you know, there’s, there’s requirements in every league, especially in rec leagues where you have to play kids a certain amount of times, which is great. But, you know, the, the better players are always gonna play more. Yeah. You’re gonna put them out there, 1, to keep the game moving. You know, just the same thing for baseball. It’s like every kid wants to pitch. Well, unfortunately every kid can’t pitch. Yeah. It’s not becauseIf you could pitch, you would pitch, you know. Pitching is very difficult at that age. But there’s only a few kids that have the ability because they practiced, they went to trainings, they learned the fundamentals, they, you know, spent all winter going to, you know, training facilities to learn how to pitch and they have that ability to pitch. You can’t go likeHow’s a game gonna go if you take a kid who can barely throw the ball and go put them on the mound? Well, they’re gonna walk every kid and how is that fun or how is that good for the other team? ‘Cause now that kid the other team doesn’t even get to try to hit. Yeah. You know there’sAnd that’s the same thing that kind of translates over to basketball too, is, you know, I’d- I’d done that where I would take the better kids out and I would take Austin and this other kid, um, you know, Elijah, who was unbelievable at basketball, out, and now the ball doesn’t move. And now nobody is getting an opportunity to shoot the ball. How is that beneficial for the other kids? Right? And if I can keep Elij- you know, Elijah in the game and I tell him, “Hey, don’t shoot the ball, but pass the ball and, you know, move the ball around and get these kids opportunities, drive the ball, kick it out,” now they’re happy. They got to take a shot. Yeah. They got to score. You know, there’s kids that would go all season and they only scored a couple of baskets or they would never get that opportunity. And the same thing for baseball where it’s like every kid wants to pitch. Well, you gotta put the work in outside. Like youth sports, in my opinion, there’s not enough time for practice, right? It’s games. We get one practice a week and then it’s games. So there’s not a lot of times to teach all the kids the fundamentals of everything, so you have to put that work in outside of your practice. You know, we try to work on certain things, but it’s impossible to teach a kid how to pitch, teach a kid how to, you know, learn how to be a catcher, or teach a kid how to playevery kid to teach a kid how to play first base. You gotta come with some ability and then you can fine-tune it because it’s an hour and a half practice at best, and then it’s games. You know, and there’s not a lot of time during it. So it’s like when you start to hit a certain age group, and when they’re young you move kids around a lot, but once you start to hit a certain age group and the games start to go more on their own without coaches in the field, somebody there to tell you what to do every single time- They have designated positions. you have to start to play designated positions to a point because you have to know what you can do. But, you know, it’sit always kills me with the people that are, you know, upset about it or like, “Why didn’t my kid pitch? “Or, “Why didn’t my kid play more? “It’s like, well, how much practice did your kid put in? Or, you know, unfortunately, you know, your kid’s just not as good as some of the other kids and that’s life, you know? That’s just like business. I mean, are you gonna hire somebody that is not as good just because, you should be fair? That’s not how life works. I’m glad you just brought in the business aspect. Everybody’s watching this when they go and they cut this up and- and switch it all out. Just listen to everything Craig just said and put it into your own life into business, right? Like, you talk about practice, you talk about there being 1 one player who can dribble the ball up to keep it moving. Why would you take that person out if he’s the only one who can cross half-court to get a pass to somebody to get a shot off? Mm-hmm. I think in business, for me personally, sports got me to where I am today. I’m very competitive. I kind of peel it back a little bit because, you know, earlier in my career, I would start throwing stuff if I was losing and I’d be like, “IJust practice. I work harder. “I think we lose that, you know, tho- those parents getting involved at thatsuch a young age that there’s almost like a lifeline. I see it like with my kids, like, I’m like, they’re not putting in the practice but they want their kid to play every minute of every single game and they can barely run, right? Like some of these kids, even atI’m not even talking 5 years old, like 12, 13, 14 years old and like, “You can’t dribble a basketball but you want to be the point guard. “Okay, like, here we go. And I think from a business standpoint, if you just look at, primarily in sales, right? Your- your real estate, financial planners, mortgages, whatever it may be, I bet you, and I don’t know the statistic on this, if you’re in the top 25% in your industry, you have some type of athletic background or some type of competition, right? Like it might be gymnastics if she’s competing, likeBut there’s gotto be that feeling of failure, right? I- I love teaching my kids like when they lose, like, “You lost. Why’d you lose and what do you need to do to get better? “Right? “Do you need more time outside, more batting practice, more- more free throws? “Teaching them the basics, right? I just said free throws and it popped in my head. I get a kick out of it when I- I watch NBA games and these guys are making 5 to $50 million a year and they’re at the free throw line and they’re like, “All right, well, he’s a 63% shooter from the free throw line. “And I’m like, “You know you’re gonna end up here every single game on average, whatever their average is, 2 times a game or 10 times? 6 60-something percent? “Like, you get paid to do this. LikeYeah, not everybody is gonna be as good as somebody else. There’s always gonna be somebody better than you. Yeah. But there’s a way that you need to work to develop and especially at a young age. And, you know, a lot ofuh, I mean, unfortunately, a lot of parents don’t put that time in with their kids to- to teach them and it’s notYou can’t just show up to a rec league and expect that that’s gonna be enough to teach your kid how to play baseball, teach your kid how to play basketball, soccer, whatever it is. There’s not enough time and there’s- there’s only a couple of coaches with a bunch of kids and you’re trying to work on more situational stuff or game stuff to get them ready to play in a game. You can’t really spend the time to teach a kid how to learn how to throw at 12 years old or 10 years old or 8 years old or, you know, how toYou have to goY- you have to work on those abilities on the side and then come back in to play the games. And that’s just like anything in life. I mean, you’re never going to succeed if you don’t put in any effort on top of just what you have, the minimum requirements, you know? And that’s where, you know, the- the people that succeed in any type of business don’t just do the minimum, right? Never. They’re notThe people who succeed are not the punch a clock kind of person, hang out at the water cooler, go to the bathroom for an hour a day, shoot the shit, try to make the day go by. Those are not the people that are gonna succeed. Those are also not your pitchers, those are not your quarterbacks, and those are not your point guards. That’s your right fielder. Yeah. Let’s call it what it is. And that’s fine. There’s people of- Somebody has to play right field. Somebody has to play right field and right field’s important when you get to certain levels. some of those best players that are pitching and playing shortstop now, as they get older and they get to high school, they’re gonna go out to the outfield because there’s gonna be somebody that put in more time and developed to be a better shortstop. You know, and we have this allWe had an all-star practice for- on Friday night for the first time and, you know, one of the first things that Adam said to, you know, all the kids, which is 100% true, is like, “Hey guys, all of you are the best players on your team. “But you’re in a different game now. This isn’t the same league anymore. We’re now in, we took all the best players for the league and we put them on one team. Well, guess what? I know you might be the pitcher on your team, you might play shortstop on your team. You can’t p- and not everybody here can play shortstop and pitcher on this team because there’s other kids that are gonna be better. And also, these other positions are very important so you have to accept that and understand that. And, you know, when I wasWhen I played baseball growing up, I felt like I was pretty good going into it. You know, I was in junior league, I was very good. I played in little league but I was tiny. very, very small. And, you know, I was a very good infielder but I wasn’t very big. So on my team in Dartmouth, on my regular team, I played shortstop, I pitched. I go to my all-star team and I, uh, literally it was like walking into Space Jams with the monsters. Like, this team is crazy. The picture of this team is still in the DYA because we won almost ev- I, I wanna say we lo- and don’t quote me on this, we might have lost 2, but I think we only lost one tournament from when we were 10, 11, and 12. We had monsters, absolute monsters. So I was the best kid on my little league team but I was not the best kid on my- You had to play center field or right field? I had to go play right field. Yeah. Sometimes second base because these kids were absolute monsters. You know, my dad, my, we, me and my dad always joked about this because at the time my dad was working for TaylorMade and they were owned by Adidas so he got us all cleats, baseball cleats for the team. You know, and I, and I don’t know what my size was at the time but say I was a six or whatever, these kids are size 12, like adults. My son- And they would just hit bombs out all the time and we would win every tournament and these kids were just monsters. So I literally felt like I was, you know, Bugs Bunny going out and playing with the monsters from Space Jam because these kids are so massive compared to me. But I put the work in and by the time I hit high school, I didn’t play right field when I was in high school, I played shortstop. Yeah. When I was a freshman, for my freshman team played shortstop. For JV when I was a sophomore. Junior year I played shortstop for varsity and third base, you know- Yeah. I didn’t play outfield because I was able toAnd that, that happens- Improved. with kids. You improved. I was able to get bigger, get stronger. Other kids didn’t develop. And th- that’s the thing w- with youth sports too is you might be big when you’re 10 but are you big when you’re 15 or when you’re 18? It’s a big difference. There’s a big difference. There’s a lot of kids that when I played I was the tiniest kid. I was 5 feet tall going into 8th grade. I got outta 8th grade I was 5’10”. I got outta my freshman year I was 6 feet tall. I grew way later in life. Yeah. All these kids were, hit those growth spurts to be 5’8″. I think what you just said- When they were 10. just made me think of something, right? So here at Milestone we’re not, and we didn’t wanna talk a lot about mortgages, but you talked about growing into different positions and the, the actual importance of what you just said of being able to play shortstop, second base, ended up at third base. You played right field on some all-stars. Maybe you played left field but you could, and you, and you pitched. You were able to cover 6 or 7 positions on a baseball field. At Milestone most of our loan officers come in and we s- we, we, all of our operations people start off doing XYZ order outs, processing. I think it’s important to learn all the different positions that you possibly could ever be thrown into to really find the one that you really like, but B, find the one that you excel at. Not everybody’s gonna be a great salesperson or a great loan processor or underwriter or whatever it may be. Um, I think that’s, that, that’s another thing. I’m, the more we just keep talking about sports, like, you’re talking and I’m like that’s exactly how Milestone is operated. It’s like a baseball team. It’s like you’re the best shortstop we have, play shortstop, right? Um, and just to break this up a little bit, a little PSA for everybody out there. Craig mentioned coaches. Guys, it’s very important as parents to let the coaches coach. They’re doing the best they can. The umpires, the referees, please leave these guys alone. Too many times I go to these, th- th- these games where I’m coaching in a summer league and I got somebody’s mother or father yelling at me th- about playing time or a bad call on a shot. These kids are all doing this for fun, to learn the sport, and to obviously try their best to win. But these coaches, these umpires, they’re not getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. PleaseI’m not saying don’t be a part of the game. piece, no reason to start yelling. I mean, I’ve seen parents fighting over this and, like, threatening umpires and referees. I’m like, “Guys, back this down. “These are either- The parents get more competitive-5 or 12-year-old kids. and aggressive than the kids. It’s wild. Like- Yeah. And you know what? I mean- See some of the stuff online, fights in the, in- in the stands and everything. D- moms? It’s crazy. Moms are the worst. Hockey games. There’s some hockey ones- D- j-that people going at it. Have you ever seenUh, d- I mean, I- I- I haven’t been to a baseball game since I was younger, right? Like, that’s not, like, professional, but the moms scare me. Like, I can handle a dad, just, like, as a fellow man, like, as youI can have a conversation with that guy and be like, “Hey, man, like, c-” You see 100, 120-pound woman yelling at the top of her lungs at a referee or at a coach, I ain’t saying nothing, man. Like, you know that her husband or boyfriend that’s sitting right next to her, he’s got his lips glued, there’s a reason for it. She’s crazy. Mm-hmm. Like, she is going to cut you if you say something. It takes a special person to interrupt that lady, though. I just, I feel bad for the- the- the umpires, the referees. We, I- I’m at AAU basketball every weekend, or my kids playing in school, and even the refs, I’m like, “These guys are making, like, 30 bucks- Yeah. 50 bucks a game. “I don’t know, butIt’s tough. I mean, at the end of the day, everybody’s trying the best they can and it’s hard not to get upset if you see- Yeah. a call and you’re like, “Hey, that thing’s way off,” but, you know, I- Hopefully you get the next one, though. Yeah. That’s how I look at it. Yeah, and I mean, at the end of the day, like, with the rec, like, the rec stuff when it’s younger, it’s like at the end of the day, these games don’t matter that much. It- it gets tough when, you know- I mean, I think they matter to you, Craig. I mean, from- Oh, no, they definitely matter. a competitive streak, like, Javy, did we not just hear him bring up from like his, like, you know, 10, 11, 12, 13 picture on the wall- Still a dy. still a dy, maybe lost one or 2 tournaments. Still there. So I understand that they mean something, but, you know, managing people, coaching, some youth basketball, I’m not getting into, like, the baseball and the footballs, you just learn to understand, for me, I was like, one call, 2 calls, 3 calls, it shouldn’t dictate the outcome of the game. Maybe in baseball more than anything else, but unless it’s happening in the final 2 minutes, right? Like, I get a kick out of it, it’s like, th- the ref sucked in the Patriots game or a professional football game, like, second quarter, there was a blown call. Guys, we have to make it up. Like, that- that’s what we’re here for. The last 2 minutes, like, I’ll get heated in the last 2 minutes, but some of these calls I see and the parents going crazy. I think the ability for, you know, kids or- or- or coaches or parents is- is just to be able to move on quickly. Yeah. You can’t change it. It’s easyI’ve, trust me, I’m the first person to get upset right away. Oh, 100%. But within 30 seconds, it’s over. It’s next. It’s done within, you’re, you know, you gotta go onto the next, because if you stay upset or you stay pissed off about it, and, you know, it’s something I try to work with Austin on, ’cause he- he’s very similar- Yeah. to me where he’s very competitive and, you know, he doesn’tWhen we first started playing in this league in the fall and he’s pitching and he’s hitting and he’s like, “That’s a strike,” and they’re not calling it a strike, or he’s hitting and it’s way outside and they call it a strike and he’s not understanding and he gets upset. It’s like, “Listen, y- y- eight and nine, the strike zone’s gonna be big, one ump’s strike zone to another,” like, it’s something we have, we try to talk to the kids about because one ump’s strike zone is a much bigger than another ump’s strike zone- Yeah. that’s a lot smaller. You just gotta figure that out and then work with it. When you’re pitching, it’s gonna benefit you. When you’re hitting, it’s gonna benefit you on the opposite side. So, you know, at that age, it’s like, you gottaWhat I try to say is don’t let make the decision, like, don’t wait for that perfect pitch. If you can hit it, it. This is just going right back to business, right? Like, we’reThese kids in these sports and- and playing athletics, baseball, basketball, whatever it is, they have to adapt to their situation and what’s going on in the game, just like in life. If you let a bad loan scenario eat you up for 3 days, you lost all the opportunities- Exactly. and different things because- Just like it ruins- ruins your game. And I think that’s what kills me, like, with seeing the parents just keep drilling, because then you start seeingIf you- if- if you watch, and maybe it’s a little different, but I’m talkingThe parents that are yelling at the refs or the coach, now the kid has that much little bit more disrespect or they think they have the ability to now talk in a- in a negative way to the referee or to the coach. That’s gonna translate into your adult life. So if you’re the kid who’s on the court, and I see it all the time, and you’re yelling at the referee, and I’m not saying, like, you can’t say something back, but if you’re just non-stop referee, your mom’s the one in theI’m not hiring you whenyou come fill out a job application to work with me, I- I do not want that guy on my team. No, no, no. Right? LikeAnd I think, like, you know, one of the other things that is tough more on the coaching side and, like, everybody parents differently. Yeah. There’s ways I think is better to parent than somebody else is gonna think. But when it comes to sports and it comes to coaching, uh, like, when I grew up, my coaches were stern and they were- Tough. aggressive and, you know, they got you to listen. They weren’t gonna deal with any bullshit. Well, it’s a different time now, and I find that it’s tough because I think, personally, you’re playing baseball, you’re playing basketball, you’re playing whatever it is at a certain age, and I’m not talking about a five and six year old. I’m talking about an eight and nine year old. These kids are in second, third grade. They know how to listen. They know how to behave. They choose not to. Well, as a coach, I have no issues getting at a kid about that. If they’re horsing around in the dugout, I have no issues trying to talk to them if they don’t listen, getting to a point where you’re borderline talking to them very sternly or borderline yelling at them because they need to listen. I think that’s an important piece in sports- Yeah. where the discipline and the respect level is huge, and that translates-business when you get out. Because if you tak- can’t take criticism or you can’t take somebody getting after you or telling you that you’re doing something wrong, you need to do it this way, and you cry every time and youOr you get all pissy or youYou know, you want to fool around and it’sYou know, you don’tYou don’t expect anybody to be able to talk to you, like, you’re never gonna succeed down the line. In school- Yeah. when you get older, you know, you’re never gonna succeed. When, whenYouNobody’s gonna wanna work with you. Nobody’s gonna wanna deal with you. Like, I don’t wanna deal with that. Like, if Austin throws a pitch, it’s a dead strike. They call it a ball. The longer it sits in his head that thatthat ump called that wrong- The next-the next 5 pitchers are bad. The next 5 pitchers he’s probably gonna throw in the dirt orJust keep, keep it ripping, right? Like, just like life. We’re likeJust in a given day, how many curveballs are thrown at just everybody that’s watching this, right? Like, your whole day from the moment you wake upLike today, I wasn’t planning on waking up at 4:30 in the morning. I wanted nothing to do with it. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning ready to, ready to run. Like, I was telling you at 9:30, I’m ready for, for lunch. But you have to makeYou have to make do. Like, I’m up, right? So, go get my workout in, which is gonna get us into, you know, our nutrition plan that we don’t really have, so if anybody wants to comment below-and, uh, you know, give us some, some tips here. We got Javier Rosa. If you guys haven’t seen him, he, he works out a little bit. He’s looking so small compared to me now. Yeah, no, you’re looking pretty jacked right now. We’ve, we’ve been doing this, like, little bit of fitness for, like, a week. Maybe like 5 hours. Um, but we keep on track- Did a bunch of curls yesterday. Right? He’s got the Bowflex in the office, so. Um, Craig, you do really well with, like, taking care of your body for the most part, right? We allWe all have, like, some stuff going on. Like, I’llI’m the worst person when it comes to eating lunch. I’m ordering Jersey Mike’s, steak and cheese subs. I walk into Craig’s office, he’s got Factor meals. Have you always been like that? Like, just kind of regimented? Eat something? I mean, you don’t really seem to eat during the day. Like, you’ll have your Factor meal thenIt’s gone up and down over the years. So, you know, when I was a kid, I was tiny and I could eat whatever, so it was like habit-wise wasn’t the best food that, you know, was made at home or the ability or the things that were at home weren’t the healthiest. And then when I got out of high school, I started working, and it was like, you kinda just kept those same shitty habits. And it was like a couple years and I’m like, “Damn,” like, not looking too good, starting to put some weight on and stuff. So, you know, I got into eating v- very healthy for a while and lost a bunch of weight. And then I got into working out for years and I was very disciplined and very into it, like obsessed with it for a while, um, when I was a firefighter and, and paramedic and, you know, I was very disciplined with my diet before I started working out. And then when I started working out, just trying to put size on so you get a little more flexible with what you’re eating. Uh, but then when I got into mortgages, I kinda just went like totally backwards where I stopped going to the gym and really, you know, wasn’t eating super healthy. So, you know, started trying to get back into eating healthier, not eating so much crap a few months back. Now try to get, you know, lost some weight, feeling better, feeling more energy. Like, the energy thing is huge- Yeah. ’cause, you know, when you’re not eating healthy and you’re just go, go, go all the time, you’re ju- I’m just exhausted, you know, all the time which was tough ’causeTo try to get you back into the gym. So, now trying to get back into starting to work out again and, and hopefully, uh, continue that for, for a while. But- I mean, if anybody that works at Factor has anything, we’re looking for some sponsorships here at Mo- uh, Mortgage Daddy, so. I love them. I mean, honestly, IThey’re g- they’re great for me because, like, that was my problem, I wouldn’t eat during the day and then go home and eat, you know, eat a bunch of junk orAgain, it’s like you’re eating what’s around, so. I have 4 kids, my wife, the kids eat whatever. Animal crackers, cookies, mac and cheese. Mac and cheese you know, chicken nuggets, all that stuff all the time, so, you know, it’s tough. So, having those meals is easy ’cause now it’s like, all right, I’ll eat one during the day for lunch, go home, bring a few home. Yeah. If sh- she makes, you know, that kind of stuff, I can eat those. If sheWe make something different. But I like the summer and, and everything ’cause you just grill a lot and eat a lot of steak and chicken and, and stuff, you know, on the grill. It’s a lot easier. So, before we wrap this up, I’m a big fan of holding people accountable in my life and loan officers that I coach or operations, and I know you do the same exact thing, so out there today, this is right around the end of May we’re shooting this episode, so our goal here is for you guys to hold us accountable on everything going past. So our goal, we don’t really have one, but I think we shouldW- we should set 1like are we saying like mid-July, uh, I was able to, you know, ask Craig what his weight was yesterday, I think on the phone. He’s rightCan I share this? It’s okay? 240 pounds. 240 pounds. I weigh 234 today, 234. 2. I’d like to be down to 220. So 220, how long do you want to give yourself? We have to do the accountability. We’re working out. taking care of our bodies. We’re eating right. Factor, send us some free meals, we need it. Sponsor the show. How long do you need to get down to your, your goal weight, 220? How long and fast do you want it to be? All right, so this is where it’s going to go because I know how competitive he is-and we’re going right back to the beginning of the show for the sport. So I’m thinking, like I feel like men, and I don’t know this because I’m not a woman, but I feel like men can shred it a lot faster- We have a lot more to shred. because we’ll justYeah, we have a lot more to shred and we just won’t eat, like right? Like I think if we eat right, we exercise, and you and I hold each other accountable on that, I’m thinking I want to get down to about 215. I’m at 232. So we have about the same amount, right? Yeah. So to lose. 6 weeks, do you think we can pull this off by like a June 15th showing, or do you think we should go to the end of July? I think we go to the middle of June. Middle of June? Middle of July. I’m sorry, everybody out there. Middle of July, and when we shoot an episode, we’re going to make, make sure we schedule something for like July 15th. We’re jumping on the scale, 220, 215. The loser has to buy 2 months worth of, 3 months worth of Factor meals for the other person because they have a lot more work to do it. It’s expensive. Oh shit, I don’t know how expensive this is. We’re good, but guys, thanks for tuning in. Mortgage daddies as always. Appreciate it. See you guys next time.