Speaker 1: To go or not to go to college? Part two.
Speaker 1: This is such a hot topic right now, the conversation
Speaker 1: that millions of families are having, weighing the pros and
Speaker 1: cons that benefits versus the cost. We hope these two
Speaker 1: episodes will contribute to those discussions. Part one featured two
Speaker 1: young entrepreneurs who bypassed college to carve their own paths.
Speaker 1: The focus for this episode making the most of college years.
Speaker 1: It features three guests who took control of their own educations,
Speaker 1: shaping college to fit their needs, avoiding the pitfalls that
Speaker 1: too many students fall into, and we'll get to those.
Speaker 1: I have a tendency to get a little worked up
Speaker 1: about wasted opportunities. My three guests are all applying lessons
Speaker 1: they learned outside classrooms, accountability, reliability, leadership, teamwork as they
Speaker 1: take on new chapters. First, to hear from James Kinoff,
Speaker 1: who took a gap here and volunteered for some life
Speaker 1: changing challenges before heading to Stanford and then co created
Speaker 1: the phenomenal nonprofit farm Link. Then two former college athletes,
Speaker 1: Clemson linebacker and captain Kendall Joseph, a part of two
Speaker 1: national championship teams, and Morgan william who was the hero
Speaker 1: of two runs by Mississippi State to the women's Final four.
Speaker 1: Morgan hit the long buzzer beater to snap the one
Speaker 1: D eleven game winning streak of Yukon, the team that
Speaker 1: had beaten the Bulldogs by sixty the previous year. Billyhams
Speaker 1: three sec It's to Morgan Williams. Morgan Williams just going
Speaker 1: to put it up, fires it up, and it is
Speaker 1: it's It's going to the national championship. Morgan Williams. Don't
Speaker 1: stop believing Hellos are playing five title Morgan william at
Speaker 1: the buzzer, ho my good move. Control your own destiny.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know what your cap beloved, not hard,
Speaker 1: you worked for something. You know your strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker 1: You know opportunities where you can capitalize on. Why why
Speaker 1: put someone else in control your Like for me, Uh,
Speaker 1: it just just reality hit Chris. I knew that, Hey,
Speaker 1: I have two degrees I have I do have an education.
Speaker 1: I can be successful in the next step of life.
Speaker 1: And it's like, do I want to continue to chase
Speaker 1: this and pursue this or am I a piece? And
Speaker 1: and and realizing that everything that God gave me to
Speaker 1: that point, I supposed to be appreciative. Well, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of that. That was just my mindset because I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people that they enter a dark
Speaker 1: space after their their football career is over and they
Speaker 1: don't know what direction they're gonna go in, and they're
Speaker 1: still training and they're hoping for a call. And I
Speaker 1: didn't want to just be hanging around waiting and training
Speaker 1: and waiting for a call. I wanted to take action.
Speaker 1: But I think if I just come straight from high school,
Speaker 1: I'd be missing the why why are we doing this?
Speaker 1: To beginning with? What is the purpose? What are we
Speaker 1: gonna use all that we're learning to actually go do
Speaker 1: in the world? Um? And otherwise you're gonna make like
Speaker 1: the uber for dog walking apps that that will be
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, you take all your learnings to
Speaker 1: go do that, um, And you'd really be missing the
Speaker 1: why and kind of the purpose. James sense of purpose
Speaker 1: is very powerful for someone his age or any age.
Speaker 1: Is it his fifth year at Stanford, a super senior
Speaker 1: who is set to graduate in the spring. He grew
Speaker 1: up in l A. His family emphasized the importance of
Speaker 1: gratitude and giving back, so James two weeks before you
Speaker 1: were set to start at Stanford, one of the world's
Speaker 1: great schools. You make a decision, a pretty quick pivot.
Speaker 1: What happened and what was behind it? Yeah, two weeks
Speaker 1: before starting school. Uh, I ultimately decided that I was
Speaker 1: going to take a year off. Um. And that was
Speaker 1: it kind of felt like you were kind of on
Speaker 1: this kind of career treadmill where you go from one
Speaker 1: thing to the next to the next and kind of
Speaker 1: race through school to get your job, to go, go, go,
Speaker 1: go go. Uh And I wanted to take just a
Speaker 1: second too, to pause, um and see if there's other
Speaker 1: ways that I can kind of give back. What was
Speaker 1: the spark of that idea? The spark of that idea
Speaker 1: was was a friend who was actually as older as
Speaker 1: as a journalist. Um. And he was just encouraging me
Speaker 1: to do this and kind of pushing me, saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you should really just take a year off. Hey, maybe
Speaker 1: reach out to some NGOs. You're you're half decent at
Speaker 1: making little films. You could shoot some things for them. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I ended up doing. And out
Speaker 1: of that decision, go over with with your parents or
Speaker 1: Stanford or other people they had to run it by
Speaker 1: because it's a little bit of a surprising move, as
Speaker 1: you knew at the time. Yeah, so I'm the I'm
Speaker 1: the fourth child in my family, so I think at
Speaker 1: this point that kind of given up and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll figure it out. I think if I was the
Speaker 1: first child, that would have been a much more difficult conversation.
Speaker 1: I think I was maybe one of three or four
Speaker 1: people from our school of I guess like maybe four
Speaker 1: students graduating that took a year off, um, you know,
Speaker 1: out of minimum coming out of high school. So it's
Speaker 1: definitely a different a different path. James emailed twenty humanitarian
Speaker 1: groups volunteering to film their efforts in Africa in the
Speaker 1: Middle eat East. He got one reply soon after. He
Speaker 1: was in South Sudan documenting lives ravaged by civil war
Speaker 1: and man made famine. Next was Syria, as the only
Speaker 1: American and a small group doing human rights work in
Speaker 1: Damascus at a very dangerous time. Later in his gap year,
Speaker 1: James and her friend spent a month in Nicaragua making
Speaker 1: a film about college students in crisis. At the time,
Speaker 1: the government was having a major crackdown on student protesters.
Speaker 1: Um they were ultimately literally kidnapping students from the classrooms,
Speaker 1: taking them because they had been protesting. And the students
Speaker 1: there ultimately rebelled and they kicked out the teachers, to school, everything,
Speaker 1: and they took over their university. They put up barricades
Speaker 1: around it, uh and basically defended it from paramilitary and
Speaker 1: police that were trying to come in to take these students.
Speaker 1: H We got in touch with a couple of students
Speaker 1: that were down there that were kind of leading some
Speaker 1: of this um, and ultimately decided that we were going
Speaker 1: to go tell their story. So you're really talking to
Speaker 1: the peers, kids who were slightly older than you at
Speaker 1: the time. What what did you take away from your
Speaker 1: experience talking to college students in another country? What what
Speaker 1: seems to be a different environment. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: the world of college students, some would say, is there
Speaker 1: worth is rather flat because there are universal experiences regardless
Speaker 1: of the culture. Man, what did you take away from
Speaker 1: your action with them that you later were able to
Speaker 1: reflect them when you got to Stanford. They're willing to
Speaker 1: throw away um, their entire future to fight for something
Speaker 1: that they believed in. You know, they were seeing their
Speaker 1: transcripts were going to be deleted everything, they would risk
Speaker 1: go into prison, never literally never leaving. And they were
Speaker 1: willing to put all of that on the line to
Speaker 1: fight for something that they believed in and to stand
Speaker 1: up for something that they saw was wrong, which is
Speaker 1: the government's oppression. That to me was incredibly inspiring. And
Speaker 1: I remember what kind of being at Stanfordius the first
Speaker 1: day walking around and he was like, would that happen here?
Speaker 1: Would would people here do the same thing? Humbling to
Speaker 1: see that experience absolutely it's it was absolutely humbling too
Speaker 1: to see and experience that. And yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: they're just struggling for words here. I still think about
Speaker 1: it because ultimately students that we followed they had to
Speaker 1: ultimately flee the country. UM. And we ended up, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, fleeing the country and they're still there and
Speaker 1: then you know they still can't go back, um, And
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of a hard thing because meanwhile, like
Speaker 1: well this, I'm I'm down there for you know, a month. Um,
Speaker 1: I ultimately get to go back to my life. I
Speaker 1: go to go back home, I get to go to school. Um.
Speaker 1: They don't have you kept in touch with some of
Speaker 1: those students are you still in contact with them, Yeah,
Speaker 1: every week. UM, I'm still talking with with my to
Speaker 1: them and hoping that they are going to be able
Speaker 1: to return home soon. How has your experience been at
Speaker 1: Stanford different from if you had been one of those
Speaker 1: fresh faced kids that came right out of high school
Speaker 1: in southern California and walked down a college campus and
Speaker 1: not had that year and I had those experiences, I
Speaker 1: think I'd be missing the why. So Stanford has so
Speaker 1: much to offer and you can learn so much and
Speaker 1: ultimately it's really it's an amazing and it's a special place. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think if I just come straight from high school,
Speaker 1: I'd be missing the why. Why are we doing this
Speaker 1: to begin with? What is the purpose? What are we
Speaker 1: going to use all that we're learning to actually go
Speaker 1: doing the world? Um? And otherwise you're gonna make like
Speaker 1: the uber for dog walking apps that that will be
Speaker 1: kind of like all you take all your learnings to
Speaker 1: go do that, um, and you'd really be missing the
Speaker 1: why and kind of the purpose. I think everyone comes
Speaker 1: with such a unique perspective that they kind of bring. Um.
Speaker 1: Granted mind was a little bit different, um, but everyone's
Speaker 1: perspective is valuable and nonetheless, And I think what I
Speaker 1: ultimately realized is that a majority of people want to
Speaker 1: They really do want to make a difference. And the
Speaker 1: question is like, how do you bridge this gap between
Speaker 1: like the economic and innovation hub um largely of the
Speaker 1: world UM, and then everything else that's going on and
Speaker 1: all the problems and can we actually are there things
Speaker 1: we can do? Like can do these worlds have to
Speaker 1: live like this and be entirely separate? Um? Or can
Speaker 1: we put them together? And are there ways that we
Speaker 1: can take learnings from each to really build a better
Speaker 1: future what you expected it would be versus how it's been.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about when you are in classes, not
Speaker 1: when you're taking taking the breaks from studies. I've been
Speaker 1: so amazed by all the people. Honestly, that has been
Speaker 1: like the students sitting side by side and always feeling
Speaker 1: like wow, I did they mess up and letting me
Speaker 1: in here? Was this a mistake? Like g it is brilliant,
Speaker 1: or like that was the most beautiful thing I've ever
Speaker 1: heard someone say. UM, So I think that part has
Speaker 1: been amazing. Like you said, it's it's not the place,
Speaker 1: it's really the people UM. And I feel really really
Speaker 1: fortunate to just get to be a small part of that.
Speaker 1: I try not to preach younger people, but I endued
Speaker 1: joy giving ideas when I'm asked. Learning from other students
Speaker 1: in college is one of the least tapped into resources
Speaker 1: people your age. Education too often is viewed as a
Speaker 1: linear thing from the educator to the students who just
Speaker 1: listen and absorb. It's such a horizontal thing learning from
Speaker 1: each other. I tell if you just like open your eyes,
Speaker 1: open your ears, open your heart, you can come away
Speaker 1: from your college experience infinitely richer just from learning from
Speaker 1: other students. Forget what the professor is saying, if you
Speaker 1: don't even hear what they're saying, and never take a note,
Speaker 1: you can learn so much by the folks that are
Speaker 1: around you in college. That's that's spot on. It's like
Speaker 1: we always say, you're gonna learn a lot more in
Speaker 1: your dorm room than you are in the classroom. All right,
Speaker 1: it's kind of those late night conversations. Um, that's that's
Speaker 1: I think where you really learned. And that's that's one
Speaker 1: of the biggest values I think of of of college
Speaker 1: in general. Something mostly concerns me James is this begins
Speaker 1: really young in life. This begins, as you said, the treadmill.
Speaker 1: For a lot of kids, the treadmill starts about ten
Speaker 1: years old or even sooner. Living part of the time
Speaker 1: in New York City. Maybe it's the same in l A.
Speaker 1: When you're in the private school system. I mean, by
Speaker 1: age three, you're sort of tracking towards something and your
Speaker 1: future is mapped out and you're expected to be a
Speaker 1: high achiever, and the pressure is so realized. Actually, um,
Speaker 1: not funny, because the pressure takes its toll on kids,
Speaker 1: and you see the amount of anxiety and depression and
Speaker 1: kids who wrestle with all kinds of mental health issues,
Speaker 1: self esteem and and so on. And it's because of
Speaker 1: that pressure from such a young age finding a way
Speaker 1: to sort of release that, to keep it in perspective,
Speaker 1: what's been important for you to do that? What are
Speaker 1: the tools have you used to to not get into
Speaker 1: that trap so many students are. I think taking the
Speaker 1: year off before school was the best decision that that
Speaker 1: I've ever made, um And I think that that's given
Speaker 1: me a lot of perspective to really not It's not
Speaker 1: even like a tool to not fall into the trap.
Speaker 1: It's like it's now it's just how am I going
Speaker 1: to get all stressed out of a test the night
Speaker 1: before that I might not be prepared of prepared for. Like,
Speaker 1: it's those problems feel like relatively typally small, and you
Speaker 1: kind of realized that that like feeling of kind of
Speaker 1: perpetual competition is really artificial, UM, And then it's really
Speaker 1: it matters more about kind of what you do. UM.
Speaker 1: That's interesting because the feeling of perpetual competition is so
Speaker 1: real for so many students from much younger ages than college,
Speaker 1: and it's fostered by the sister them. It's a part
Speaker 1: of the system, it's built into the system. It's in
Speaker 1: some ways considered a key to success of elite schools
Speaker 1: to foster that competition, to pitt students against each other. Yes,
Speaker 1: so this is the part that I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I don't fully understand. UM. You know, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: You want to instill values of hard work, um into students,
Speaker 1: that's a really important thing. UM. But like the perpetual
Speaker 1: kind of competition where you just kind of keep moving
Speaker 1: up and up and up until you finally find other
Speaker 1: students who are like exactly like you, and therefore then
Speaker 1: you don't feel special, Like that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: And like how many kids who go into college freshman
Speaker 1: year and have all these dreams about what they're going
Speaker 1: to go on to do end up getting crushed by
Speaker 1: that system. Um, that's the part that that does bother me.
Speaker 1: But but just to clarify, I have not I have
Speaker 1: not experienced that at Sanford UM, which I have been
Speaker 1: really really grateful for, and I think that is a
Speaker 1: little bit different than some other schools, no doubt. Something
Speaker 1: else I notice when I talked to young people, not
Speaker 1: just college but even earlier than that, is this intense
Speaker 1: focus on their future, on what's next, on what they're
Speaker 1: getting ready to do, as opposed to what they're actually
Speaker 1: doing that day in the moment. I do my best
Speaker 1: as an older person to express some ideas that what's
Speaker 1: most important is what's going on right now with you today,
Speaker 1: And if there's a way to not get preoccupied with
Speaker 1: always getting ready for something else, what's down the road.
Speaker 1: That's part of that perpetual pressure and competition. If if
Speaker 1: what you're doing now, you know, is never good enough,
Speaker 1: it's always the next thing, the next big step. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a tough way to live man, and people are
Speaker 1: out in the real world way beyond college still live
Speaker 1: that way. It's because we're trained to live that way
Speaker 1: from a really young age. I think it's really important.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, if you perpetually are on the strength of like,
Speaker 1: what's the next thing to this? And then if I
Speaker 1: do that, if I just work for a couple more years,
Speaker 1: then I'll be there there there. I think that's when
Speaker 1: you wake up at sixty and realize you you wish
Speaker 1: you would have done something else with your life. Um.
Speaker 1: That I think this is. I think this is changing.
Speaker 1: Um and I see this when I'm at when I'm
Speaker 1: at Stanford, I think a lot of people, um are
Speaker 1: living more in the moment and are thinking more of
Speaker 1: the present. And maybe maybe it's the pandemic that has
Speaker 1: caused us. There's a consciousness raising in that area, you think,
Speaker 1: where people are reshuffling their priorities and understanding not to
Speaker 1: take the present moment for granted. Absolutely that it's it's
Speaker 1: not taking the present moment for granted, and then it's
Speaker 1: not over optimizing for yourself, like if all your thoughts
Speaker 1: are going into like what am I going to do next? Etcetera?
Speaker 1: This this, this h and rather like shifting more into
Speaker 1: the present moment and what can I do for others
Speaker 1: right now? Not what can I do for others in
Speaker 1: the future, but what can I do for others right now?
Speaker 1: I think that shift is happening, and I see it
Speaker 1: across campus. There's a lot of problems UM and it's
Speaker 1: messed up, and we have a long way to go.
Speaker 1: And you actually have the agency to do something about it.
Speaker 1: You've been you know, one the lottery and been able
Speaker 1: to go to this amazing school and have this amazing education.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do with it? Are you going
Speaker 1: to do it to kind of like continue your success
Speaker 1: or you're gonna do it to try to help others
Speaker 1: and try to level the plane field a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think that that has to be the focus going forward.
Speaker 1: Like I don't think we can really sustain UM, like
Speaker 1: in this kind of globalized world. I don't think we
Speaker 1: can sustain this level of inequality. This mindset led James
Speaker 1: and his buddy Aiden Riley, who was a student at Brown,
Speaker 1: to create farm Link. It's an amazing all volunteer group
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifties students around the country fighting
Speaker 1: dual problems, massive food waste, which is also very harmful
Speaker 1: to the ozone and widespread food insecurity. What was the
Speaker 1: spark for this not for profit student run organization that
Speaker 1: is UH done incredible work in a short amount of time.
Speaker 1: So when the pandemic first hit UM, in addition to
Speaker 1: the health crisis that was going on, there was an
Speaker 1: economic one. Millions of families were forced to flood a
Speaker 1: charitable food system that was never really designed for a
Speaker 1: crisis UM. And at the same time that that was
Speaker 1: happening as a result of closures to schools, hotels, and restaurants,
Speaker 1: farmers were being forced to throw away billions and billions
Speaker 1: of pounds of food. So eight and I were seeing
Speaker 1: that really really big problem. And then the problem became
Speaker 1: really really small when our local food bank and put
Speaker 1: out a statement saying that they if they couldn't raise
Speaker 1: more money or find more source of food, that they
Speaker 1: could have to close their doors and start turning people away.
Speaker 1: And so we said, Okay, here's this really big probleming
Speaker 1: of these two things, maybe there's something we could do
Speaker 1: UM And that's how we got started. So you've got
Speaker 1: an idea that's a long way from making it reality.
Speaker 1: How how do you do the work of locating farmers,
Speaker 1: getting them to understand what was going to happen to
Speaker 1: their wasted food who they couldn't get to market. They
Speaker 1: were going to benefit from it financially, but it was
Speaker 1: going to go to the help other people. And then
Speaker 1: linked the food banks. Because it's one thing to have
Speaker 1: an idea to know it's a problem. Be awareness is
Speaker 1: an essential, amazing part of it, but it doesn't get
Speaker 1: the job done. Yeah. So, and this is what we
Speaker 1: always say. I don't think it's actually that impressive an idea,
Speaker 1: and I think probably thousands of other people read those
Speaker 1: same articles and had the same idea, like, wow, that
Speaker 1: makes no sense. We should connect these two things. Um.
Speaker 1: And what we tried to do is take that really
Speaker 1: big problem and make it really, really small. And so
Speaker 1: what that meant was literally getting on the phone and
Speaker 1: calling hundreds of farmers trying to find surplus, talking with
Speaker 1: hundreds of food banks to try to understand what items
Speaker 1: they were actually looking for. Initially, we just spoke with
Speaker 1: our local food bank. They needed eggs, so we called
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty egg farmers got hung up
Speaker 1: on most of the time. One of them happened to
Speaker 1: have surplus, and that was kind of the start. At
Speaker 1: the time, we didn't have transportation, so we rented a truck,
Speaker 1: drove to the farm, picked up the stuff, and actually
Speaker 1: delivered it to the food bank. Very hands on. How
Speaker 1: did it grow? What was the growth process like? And
Speaker 1: and listing other students to do this. Yeah, yeah, without
Speaker 1: getting paid for it. I mean, friends, family, like, everyone
Speaker 1: wanted to help. Um, wow, yeah, let's let's do this.
Speaker 1: Let's figure out and just slowly we took a really
Speaker 1: open approach that anyone who wants to join just jump
Speaker 1: on our team. H and put it out on social
Speaker 1: media and other people started saying, hey, we have the
Speaker 1: same problem. I want to do this in my town. Um,
Speaker 1: And pretty soon we had college students from across the
Speaker 1: country calling farmers locating surplus. People were Americans were seeing
Speaker 1: this through news that it started to pick it up,
Speaker 1: and they were starting to just send us money. They're like, hey,
Speaker 1: here's ten bucks. It's it's all I have right now,
Speaker 1: but I know you guys will put it to good use.
Speaker 1: And that's really how this got started. The reaction and
Speaker 1: the enthusiasm from a number of other college students from
Speaker 1: around the country. What was your reaction to that. I mean,
Speaker 1: people of my generation certainly voice feelings pretty frequently about
Speaker 1: people of your generation and what what their priorities are
Speaker 1: and all the shortcomings and all the cranky old person
Speaker 1: stuff that we say. What did you perhaps learn or
Speaker 1: figure out about your peers people in your generation by
Speaker 1: the response to the farm link idea. I think when
Speaker 1: when there's a crisis, that's when we have to come together. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not an option. And I think we saw that
Speaker 1: through the farm, like through hundreds and even thousands of
Speaker 1: students saying, hey, let me help. Yes, I'm in I
Speaker 1: have free time right now. How can I how can
Speaker 1: I do my part, whether it's a big act or
Speaker 1: a small act. And there's like the classic view of
Speaker 1: like the the entitled millennial or I don't even know
Speaker 1: what are we gen z or um you forget about labels.
Speaker 1: People who are you know, approaching college age, in college,
Speaker 1: just out of college. That's the generation we're talking about her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people who are just that. People want to make a difference,
Speaker 1: People want to make the world a better place. Uh,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that you just need to spark um. That
Speaker 1: allows for a pathway to do that, and so that's
Speaker 1: what we really tried to create. Yeah, wanting to is
Speaker 1: not quite the same as busting your butt and doing
Speaker 1: it and figuring out a way to do it and
Speaker 1: staying committed. Saying committed not not because it's a novel act,
Speaker 1: not because it makes you feel good for fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: but because the hard ass work that it takes, you know,
Speaker 1: day after day, week after week, month after month. This
Speaker 1: problem isn't going away, and it's it's really, in some
Speaker 1: ways you could say, continues to worsen despite everybody's efforts. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: people like the pandemic has broughten out like sadly, like
Speaker 1: a lot of like the worst UM and people at
Speaker 1: least kind of through the lens of the news. UM.
Speaker 1: And in this example, this is something of bringing out
Speaker 1: the best in people. Where you have college students who
Speaker 1: are doing everything they can to try to help others,
Speaker 1: talking to as many farmers as they can, finding surplus,
Speaker 1: delivering it to food banks, just doing everything they can
Speaker 1: so Americans can keep food on their dinner table. UM.
Speaker 1: And you'd expect that maybe, like you know, we're a
Speaker 1: year into this, UM, it's only picking up speed. There's
Speaker 1: only more students who want to do this. There's only
Speaker 1: people who want to put in more time. People have
Speaker 1: been there for a year doing this as a volunteer
Speaker 1: and they're still driving forward. That to me is really
Speaker 1: inspiring and it gives me a lot of hope that
Speaker 1: we are going to come out of this stronger. For
Speaker 1: the second time, you put your college education on the hold.
Speaker 1: The first time is your choice have experiences. The second
Speaker 1: time is to grow farm like I mean that that's
Speaker 1: a that's an interesting path and it prolongs I guess
Speaker 1: your time at Stanford, but you just felt that there
Speaker 1: was no other way. The time was now to sort
Speaker 1: of stop and give full attention to farm link. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is this crisis is something that you know,
Speaker 1: this is the time where you have to set up,
Speaker 1: You need to put aside whatever is going on in
Speaker 1: your life, whatever it's like can mean for you at
Speaker 1: the time, and if you're able to, you want to
Speaker 1: step up to help others. It's it's times of crisis
Speaker 1: that really form character and who we are as people,
Speaker 1: as a country, just as as humans. It's these crisses
Speaker 1: that are going to define us, and it's what you
Speaker 1: do in them that matters. Did you kind of escape
Speaker 1: and slip away or did you try to step up
Speaker 1: to help those around you? Um, it was a no brainer.
Speaker 1: You talked a lot about the importance, the crucial role,
Speaker 1: the gap you're played. What would you say though, the
Speaker 1: people who say, yeah, that's great, but I don't have
Speaker 1: any money, my parents don't have the resources to fund
Speaker 1: me doing this. Obviously, you know you had to knock
Speaker 1: on a lot of doors, deal with a lot of nose,
Speaker 1: so you've got the one yes to eventually head to
Speaker 1: Africa be a part of that group. But it's still
Speaker 1: fortunate that during the circumstances be able to do that.
Speaker 1: A lot of kids are not able to. So what
Speaker 1: would you say, Hey, there's still ways to gain experience,
Speaker 1: to gain perspective in between high school and college or
Speaker 1: after college before the quote unquote real world, if they
Speaker 1: don't have a pile of cash to use. I think
Speaker 1: it's all it's about service and finding ways to serve,
Speaker 1: no matter kind of where you are um in your life,
Speaker 1: whether that means kind of finding ways just to volunteer
Speaker 1: your local foodbank while you're while you're at school or
Speaker 1: it's after school. Maybe like a lot of people they
Speaker 1: join the Peace Corps or US like a IDEA, or
Speaker 1: doctors without orders or all these different perhaps finding finding
Speaker 1: a different finding a different path. I think it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be someone else's past. It has to be
Speaker 1: your own unique path, and that's going to give you
Speaker 1: a perspective that that that will then be valuable, UM
Speaker 1: and that you can ultimately use to probably try to
Speaker 1: make the world a better place. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's just it's finding ways to serve throughout your life.
Speaker 1: For those of us that took some time off ended
Speaker 1: up just traveling and um meeting people and drinking the
Speaker 1: various local beverages and um going to a lot of museums,
Speaker 1: I really feel unworthy of the time after talking to you,
Speaker 1: I wish I'd had those thoughts occur to me. But
Speaker 1: you know, I thinking my time off was also really beneficial.
Speaker 1: I think we grow from all experiences. I just wasn't, uh,
Speaker 1: I wasn't giving a lot back other than giving back
Speaker 1: to the the local economies of the bars where I
Speaker 1: visited there's and tipping as well as I could as
Speaker 1: a college student. You know, I think it's just you
Speaker 1: kind of just said it there. It's it's about realizing,
Speaker 1: just even being aware that you're on this treadmill. Um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of pushing you the next thing. The next
Speaker 1: thing is perpetual artificial competition. And as soon as whatever
Speaker 1: it is you travel and you all fuel the local
Speaker 1: bar economy, if you leave that with that perspective and realize, hey,
Speaker 1: there's more to this than this kind of perpetual competition,
Speaker 1: Like what are we actually competing for? Wait a sec
Speaker 1: um that matters. You speak about farm like in the
Speaker 1: mission with great clarity and persuasiveness. Is this how you
Speaker 1: are walking around every day? I mean, do you do
Speaker 1: you have to resist you know, proselytizing and spreading the
Speaker 1: Gospel and trying to get everyone to commit their life
Speaker 1: to service and doing good and and reducing inequality and
Speaker 1: things like that. The people do your friends just kind
Speaker 1: of roll their eyes out. Here comes James again. It's gone,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do that again? No, No, absolutely not. I
Speaker 1: think that's like almost the worst thing you can do
Speaker 1: is like, oh, I'm so yeah, I know that. It's
Speaker 1: like shut up, you don't know anything. I don't know anything. Um.
Speaker 1: I prefer to I prefer to have this conversation and
Speaker 1: at a bar, and I think it would sound a
Speaker 1: little different. James and his friends since junior high, Aid
Speaker 1: and Riley were honored by the Congressional Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: Society with the Citizens Honor Award for co founding farm Link.
Speaker 1: They accepted it with real humility, deflecting credit to the
Speaker 1: dedicated team of farm Link volunteers who have already delivered
Speaker 1: almost fifty million pounds of food to people in need.
Speaker 1: They plan to serve about a hundred million meals this
Speaker 1: coming winter. To learn more about the problems they're fighting,
Speaker 1: or to contribute, go to farm Link project dot org.
Speaker 1: Now that my two guests, who met the challenges of
Speaker 1: playing college sports at an elite level, will also earning
Speaker 1: their degrees. Of course, most of the college students have
Speaker 1: gotten to know over the last thirty years or so
Speaker 1: have been athletes, of course, and so often I've been
Speaker 1: so impressed with the players I've gotten to know, not
Speaker 1: just their toughness and resilience, but also maturity, intelligence, perspective,
Speaker 1: wisdom beyond their years. Both Kendall Joseph and Morgan William
Speaker 1: fit that description. They both told me they are very
Speaker 1: grateful for the opportunities athletics provided them, starting by that
Speaker 1: full scholarship, but also the advantages academic support, tutoring, medical care,
Speaker 1: mental health support are typically easier for athletes to get
Speaker 1: the non athletes, but of course there are the obvious challenges,
Speaker 1: the mental and physical wear and tear, the demands on
Speaker 1: their time. Many athletes are reminded why they're in college.
Speaker 1: They told me they have to push back to create
Speaker 1: time for their school and some piece of a normal
Speaker 1: college life. Kendall Joseph was a three year starter at
Speaker 1: middle linebacker for Clemson. He was chosen captain. I covered
Speaker 1: the Tigers games a lot, and I saw Kendall achieve
Speaker 1: the kind of championship career everyone dreams about. A CC titles,
Speaker 1: college football playoff bids every season, winning two national titles,
Speaker 1: a victory formation, and a fifty five. For this Clemson
Speaker 1: senior class, the Tigers reclaimed their crown by crushing Alabama. So, Kennall,
Speaker 1: when you thought about your life path, did it always
Speaker 1: involve going to college somewhere? And was going to college
Speaker 1: always linked with being a football player? Um? I would?
Speaker 1: I would definitely say in the beginning, before I really
Speaker 1: fell in love with the game of football, it was
Speaker 1: more just education and wanting to go to college and
Speaker 1: experience that. Right. I always heard that was a great experience,
Speaker 1: So that was something I always wanted to do. UM
Speaker 1: When I started fall in love with football, and I
Speaker 1: would say really fall in love with it's probably anthem
Speaker 1: not great UM. And by tenth grade, I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: I might have the ability to actually go play football
Speaker 1: at the next level and receive athletic scholarship. So once
Speaker 1: I knew that was a possibility, once I knew I
Speaker 1: had a window to receive an education for fruit per se, um,
Speaker 1: I knew that was what I wanted to do. I
Speaker 1: knew that was something I needed to do. I wanted
Speaker 1: to make my mom and family proud and and so
Speaker 1: in high school was really focused on that. And I
Speaker 1: didn't care what school it was. I didn't care if
Speaker 1: it was d D two or whatever it was. I
Speaker 1: just wanted the opportunity to, you know, get an education
Speaker 1: for free. Well, you chose to school, it's definitely not
Speaker 1: D two. It was at the pinnacle of the highest
Speaker 1: level of college football. So you get and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about quote unquote free ride, because nothing's free in life.
Speaker 1: But you get to go to a great academic school,
Speaker 1: it's in your home state, and the program is competing
Speaker 1: for championships. Was was your sense? And when you got
Speaker 1: there and you got surrounded by these guys that their
Speaker 1: choices were based mostly on football and what might prepare
Speaker 1: them for the NFL versus the whole college experience and
Speaker 1: and the pursuit of a degree. Right, Um, I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, you definitely have the majority of the guys,
Speaker 1: or not even a majority, but some guys that definitely
Speaker 1: chose plumpson because at that time, that was, you know,
Speaker 1: a highway ticket to the NFL. But I think one
Speaker 1: of one of the things that separates Plempson is the
Speaker 1: fact that they do recruit based on the audiology. Uh, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a family here, and the community is great
Speaker 1: and it's all you know, just a really a tight
Speaker 1: knit group. Um. I think that that resonated with a
Speaker 1: lot of the people that they were able to bring
Speaker 1: in a lot of these athletes they wanted, They wanted
Speaker 1: something that felt like a family. Um. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to be an NFFL yet, right, They didn't want to
Speaker 1: go to a college program that just ran like an
Speaker 1: NFL program. And so I think with Clipson, the family aspect,
Speaker 1: all the resources that you got outside of football, those
Speaker 1: were really the main reasons why people chose clumpson. So
Speaker 1: that kind of makes it important to you and your
Speaker 1: family growing up. You arrive at college and you look
Speaker 1: around and realize this is gonna be very demanding in
Speaker 1: my time. How did you immediately balance the commitment it
Speaker 1: takes to get the most out of yourself and football
Speaker 1: and the academic piece. Knowing that you arrived as a
Speaker 1: three star recruit, I mean, a good football player, but
Speaker 1: you were surrounded by guys that were more hyped and
Speaker 1: more sort of NFL targeted than you were. So what
Speaker 1: was that balance between sports and that makes when you
Speaker 1: first got there? UM, it's it's definitely it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's definitely a lot of a freshman UM. You have
Speaker 1: the eight am classes, you have all the mandatory tutor
Speaker 1: tutor sessions. I mean, your schedule is jem packed as
Speaker 1: a freshman UM. Thank thank god. I was used to
Speaker 1: kind of having a little bit of responsibility UM as
Speaker 1: far as just time management and and doing what I
Speaker 1: need to do right. So for me, it wasn't too
Speaker 1: tough to go to class when you need to go
Speaker 1: to class, they have a well ride out, you know,
Speaker 1: rode out schedule for you. All you have to do
Speaker 1: is follow wood, follow it and be on time. And
Speaker 1: so from our experience, it wasn't too hard, but it
Speaker 1: definitely takes a lot of maturity to be able to
Speaker 1: handle all the responsibility. A lot of college players and
Speaker 1: their progress would all say encouraged to get a degree,
Speaker 1: to take their school seriously, but the time commitment is
Speaker 1: so tough that many feel limited by the choices they have,
Speaker 1: what degrees they can pursue, what kind of classes they
Speaker 1: can take because you're competing in the classhipgainst folks that
Speaker 1: don't have that that responsibility. The hours that it takes
Speaker 1: to be a college athlete, did you ever feel kind
Speaker 1: of forced in one direction or steered away from a
Speaker 1: direction you would have liked to pursue because it just
Speaker 1: didn't make sense for the amount of time it took
Speaker 1: for those classes. Um. Not not for me. Uh just
Speaker 1: with the major's health science. UM, I knew that's what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. Um. But when you speak about
Speaker 1: the instances like that, you're thinking about some of the
Speaker 1: engineers and guys where the program is a lot is
Speaker 1: very demanding and at the end of the day, there's
Speaker 1: sometimes there's classes that happened at three or four o'clock
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, and obviously we're on the football field
Speaker 1: bout then. I can say from my experience at Clemson,
Speaker 1: there were a few guys um walking on in a
Speaker 1: few a few other players that did have you know,
Speaker 1: majors where it was a little bit more extensive, and
Speaker 1: Sweeney definitely worked with those guys. Right. Um, I can
Speaker 1: I can only speak for coach Sweeney and pumps and
Speaker 1: football program, but um, there were times where people did
Speaker 1: miss meetings because they had to go to this class
Speaker 1: or there was a study session that somebody really really
Speaker 1: needed to get to. Okay, we'll make it work. Um.
Speaker 1: In my in my experience, UM, like I did have
Speaker 1: a tough class and anatomy where there were study sessions
Speaker 1: and labs and things that all the other students were
Speaker 1: doing that I just didn't have the access to. Right,
Speaker 1: So we try to make that up with tutoring that's
Speaker 1: provided to us and things like that. And it can
Speaker 1: be tough. You're gonna miss some study groups, You're not
Speaker 1: gonna be in the library as much as some people
Speaker 1: maybe um, you just have to find that balance. Was
Speaker 1: the message delivered to you. Hey, we want you to
Speaker 1: take your acnake seriously. But remember, Kendall, you here in
Speaker 1: a football scholarship. I mean, the coaches have one idea
Speaker 1: about what your main job is. Professors might have another idea. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you you They might not say it outright, would you
Speaker 1: you understand? Hey, you're you're here. You're here to play football?
Speaker 1: Um uh, you know, to make sure you show up
Speaker 1: the class and be a great student. Actually, and you know,
Speaker 1: put everything you happen to that. But more so when
Speaker 1: you walk into the facility, it's time to lock in.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened in your day, whatever happened in class, leave
Speaker 1: it at the door, and give some football everything you have.
Speaker 1: No doubt part of college is getting to know people
Speaker 1: from different backgrounds that are different than yourself. How much
Speaker 1: contact were you able to have in your busy schedule
Speaker 1: with non athletes, with folks who didn't share that same
Speaker 1: experience as you were having. I mean you had you
Speaker 1: had pretty good access in class um um, around campus,
Speaker 1: whether you're in the liberry and things like that. It's
Speaker 1: definitely friendship that you do outside of the football community.
Speaker 1: But as much time as you spend around your brothers
Speaker 1: and your teammates and people like that, that's that's what
Speaker 1: you're really around. So um, you definitely have that balance,
Speaker 1: you know, after games, you know, we're all out and
Speaker 1: doing the wins after the games and things like that.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you if you're really committed, you're either
Speaker 1: in class or you're at the facility, whether that getting
Speaker 1: training or treatment, you're doing some rehab is. There's all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff that you can be doing, watching film. Um,
Speaker 1: just certain stuff like that that can take up your time.
Speaker 1: So it's not a lot of time to hang out.
Speaker 1: A lot of college students, athletes are not living a
Speaker 1: bubble and they have to work hard to connect with
Speaker 1: people outside of that bubble. And was that the case
Speaker 1: do you think for for most athletes that the opportunities
Speaker 1: are there, like you said, whether it's in a classroom,
Speaker 1: if you've got time at a party, but you have
Speaker 1: to you have to take those chances. You have to
Speaker 1: work to have those connections. Otherwise you could come through
Speaker 1: the experience and knowing only people that are doing the
Speaker 1: same thing you're doing. Yep, exactly, And it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's really just about having that awareness. Um, some guys
Speaker 1: out of side, out of mind, but for some people
Speaker 1: they realize like, oh man, it's the there's are these
Speaker 1: are a lot more connections and resources that you can
Speaker 1: be making down the line, right, and you're when you're
Speaker 1: done with football and you're in the professional world. All
Speaker 1: these students that you're sitting in class with, that's who
Speaker 1: you're either going to be working with their meeting or
Speaker 1: somehow you know, connecting. If so, it's it's pretty smart
Speaker 1: to just make sure you're kind of your balanced as
Speaker 1: far as your free grouping. You know, you got your
Speaker 1: football guys, but you have guys that you know, live
Speaker 1: a whole different lifestyle and you have different experiences, and
Speaker 1: you know there's something to learn from them as well.
Speaker 1: The personal growth in college outside of improving as a
Speaker 1: player and going to class, just gaining life experience, gaining
Speaker 1: confidence being in front of people, and and having the
Speaker 1: opportunity as a captain of a really popular, prominent team
Speaker 1: to meet all kinds of people from all walks of life.
Speaker 1: Did you sense early on that that might be an
Speaker 1: important part for your future. Yeah, Well, as a young player,
Speaker 1: you you don't necessarily thinking about it, Um, but as
Speaker 1: you grow, as you get closer to that finished line,
Speaker 1: that's that's something you want to start thinking about. And
Speaker 1: again closing and the Paul Journey program, everything that they
Speaker 1: have there, they're they're trying to help help guys have
Speaker 1: that awareness. Right, Hey, you're you're beating all these people.
Speaker 1: You get to speak in front of these people. You're
Speaker 1: doing interviews every week, UM, so they can see how
Speaker 1: you speak, they can see how you know, just your
Speaker 1: your mannerisms and things like that. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunities to impress people and to make a good first impression.
Speaker 1: And so I would definitely say by my junior and
Speaker 1: senior year, I understood the advantages that the advantages of
Speaker 1: UM saying yes, the different commitments outside of football where
Speaker 1: you can just get in front of these people and
Speaker 1: beat them and you know, make those connections. And at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's it's not a hard
Speaker 1: connection to make, right, they love him, your your crops
Speaker 1: of football player, So UM, just going and be yourself. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of very successful people who
Speaker 1: are Clemson graduates and fans and they want to pat
Speaker 1: you on the back if things are going great, you're
Speaker 1: winning rings and trophies. Did you have any sense that, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll give them this, I'll give them this some time here.
Speaker 1: It's not bad to be praised, but maybe I can
Speaker 1: get something out of this, Maybe this might lead somewhere
Speaker 1: in life after football. Yeah, and it's and it's hard
Speaker 1: to think like that. You know, for some people it
Speaker 1: is that that might not necessarily feel authentic. Um, but
Speaker 1: it's a part of the game. And if you're meeting
Speaker 1: these people made, they want to take some of your
Speaker 1: time and they want to meet with you, and you
Speaker 1: know they're patting you on the back, make sure you're
Speaker 1: you're building that connection or your acting questions like what
Speaker 1: do you do? How did you get into that? You know,
Speaker 1: all all these kind of conversations, because really open your
Speaker 1: mind to you know, different avenues after football. Hey man,
Speaker 1: there's times in the sport when it's tough, um mentally
Speaker 1: and physically. You come back from a road trip. You
Speaker 1: didn't lose room any games in your career, but win
Speaker 1: or lose, it's a demanding experience. How many times you
Speaker 1: have to see that alarm clock go off, get up
Speaker 1: and go do a commitment to be a college student
Speaker 1: and did you ever have to wrestle with that and say, Man,
Speaker 1: this is tough, this is suffer than I thought it
Speaker 1: was gonna be. Yeah, it's it's um, it's a lot
Speaker 1: to handle. Um. Like you said, it's some women's or
Speaker 1: we I might have played eighty snaps in the game,
Speaker 1: and that's a late Saturday night game. You're back at
Speaker 1: the facility on Sunday to get treatment and to watch film,
Speaker 1: and then you have that at least five dirty alarm
Speaker 1: on Monday morning to go live weights and you're you're
Speaker 1: still feeling everything that you felt from the game on Saturday. Um.
Speaker 1: It's situations like that where it starts to catch up
Speaker 1: on you when you really get into the thick of
Speaker 1: the season. The great players are all the great players
Speaker 1: I was around. They were able to keep that mental
Speaker 1: toughness throughout the entire season because it's long, it's monotonous.
Speaker 1: You're doing the same thing every day. You have these weights,
Speaker 1: you have this treatment you need to do, you have
Speaker 1: all this film you need to study, and as a linebacker,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of film to study. UM. So
Speaker 1: there's there's days where you kind of just don't feel it.
Speaker 1: And that's Okay, you're gonna have those days, and but
Speaker 1: you have to be consistent and just kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: just just be even about it. So you're a starting
Speaker 1: linebacker for three years at the highest level of college football.
Speaker 1: But still many folks don't realize what a small percentage
Speaker 1: of even elite college players are lucky enough to play
Speaker 1: in the NFL and stick with the team. So your
Speaker 1: expectations are probably that. But the draft comes and goes
Speaker 1: and your name is not called. At what point did
Speaker 1: you start to feel like, wow, life after football just began,
Speaker 1: and how did you feel about that? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I had the two tryouts with the Kansas
Speaker 1: City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, and I didn't get
Speaker 1: signed with either one of those teams. And you know,
Speaker 1: it was at that point where you know, I was
Speaker 1: either going to go to the Canadian Football League or
Speaker 1: the XFL at the time, or or I was gonna
Speaker 1: start my career. And I definitely had a long talk
Speaker 1: to my family and and they actually they wanted me
Speaker 1: to keep pursuing it. They know how much I had
Speaker 1: to vote it to the game, and you know, we
Speaker 1: were shot that we didn't get an opportunity in the
Speaker 1: NFL um But for me, uh, it just just reality
Speaker 1: hit Chris. I knew that, hey, I have two degrees
Speaker 1: I have I do have an education, I can't be
Speaker 1: successful in the next step of life. And it's like,
Speaker 1: do I want to continue to chase this and pursue
Speaker 1: this or am I a piece and and and realizing
Speaker 1: that everything that God gave me to that point I
Speaker 1: should just be appreciative of. And that's kind of that.
Speaker 1: That was just my mindset because I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people that they enter a dark space after their
Speaker 1: their football career is over and they don't know what
Speaker 1: direction they're gonna go in, and they're still training and
Speaker 1: they're hoping for a call. And I didn't want to
Speaker 1: just be hanging around waiting and training and waiting for
Speaker 1: a call. I wanted to take action. And so it's
Speaker 1: you know, there's really no no advice or guidance you
Speaker 1: can give for a situation like that. Everybody it ampacks differently,
Speaker 1: But for me, it was just like, Okay, I had
Speaker 1: a really impactful season of my life at Clempson. Now
Speaker 1: let's go do it in the professional world. And so
Speaker 1: that was my mindset. What kept you from going to
Speaker 1: that dark place, even for a short time. What skills
Speaker 1: did you have or what mindset that you adopted this
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go down that path when I'm faced
Speaker 1: with the reality the football is over. It was gratitude, um,
Speaker 1: gratitude that I did experience everything I did experience, Gratitude
Speaker 1: that a little three star started three seasons for Clemson
Speaker 1: football and was a captain and you know, all a
Speaker 1: CC selection. Nobody had had that written on my name.
Speaker 1: And so for me, it was just like I said, gratitude. Man,
Speaker 1: that was an amazing experience of my life. And I
Speaker 1: can either, you know, now reflect on it and always
Speaker 1: have this pain about it, or I can say, man,
Speaker 1: that was a great opportunity and now I have all
Speaker 1: these resources and all these connections to help me in
Speaker 1: my next step of life. And so that was just
Speaker 1: the mindset I chose. It wasn't easy, but if you
Speaker 1: can continue to just be, you know, grateful for everything
Speaker 1: you have, and you'll be all right. Great mindset, great mindset.
Speaker 1: I know it's a lot of things, but if you
Speaker 1: were to say one or two things that you got
Speaker 1: out of the some totally your college experience, athletics, academics
Speaker 1: that are helping you right now as you begin a career,
Speaker 1: what would they be? Um? The first thing that comes
Speaker 1: to mind is accountability. Accountability excuse me, um, just as
Speaker 1: far as being a football player and a students, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of a lot of responsibility on you,
Speaker 1: but you have to be accountable. Nobody's gonna, um make
Speaker 1: you be accountable. But when you can stand up and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I made a mistake or this is my responsibility, I'll
Speaker 1: take care of it, that's really bottle in life. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's the biggest thing. And then, uh, something that
Speaker 1: always rings with me is just being a servant leader. Um.
Speaker 1: This is more or so from the crimps and football
Speaker 1: side of things, But how can I serve others and
Speaker 1: in turn you know that that helped them out and
Speaker 1: benefit their life? Right, That's what I think of. When
Speaker 1: you're being a leader, you're looking for ways to serve
Speaker 1: others and no matter whether that's in professional world or
Speaker 1: when I have a wife and kids five years, five
Speaker 1: or teen years down the line, you know, being a
Speaker 1: servant leader that would be really effective. So those are
Speaker 1: just two random things that come to my head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the lessons learned O the Great Memories. Now you're a
Speaker 1: cardio as killer ultrasound sales specialists for GE Healthcare. Your
Speaker 1: your regions are Georgia and Alabama. Alabama the team against him.
Speaker 1: You played four consecutive national championship games. They got you twice,
Speaker 1: you got them twice. How do your experiences as a
Speaker 1: football player impact your dealings with people in that state
Speaker 1: in a business in a business arena. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's just having that confidence when you walk in the door, right,
Speaker 1: um uh. I think that's just the biggest thing that
Speaker 1: I can take away from it. And it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I can go play in front of the eight
Speaker 1: thou people, surely I can walk into this hospital department
Speaker 1: and and make these connections and and find a way
Speaker 1: to build a poor and just at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, in the in the field I'm in, it's
Speaker 1: about being a solid, consistent person. Can they trust you
Speaker 1: enough to even give you their money? Um? So for me,
Speaker 1: that was kind of the things that I was able
Speaker 1: to translate and at the end of the day, hard work. Um,
Speaker 1: no matter what what area you are in the life
Speaker 1: and what job you're doing, Um, if you can apply
Speaker 1: the hard work that you learned when you had a
Speaker 1: five thirty am workouts and things like that, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay, and so those are those are things that
Speaker 1: really helped me just make the transition. Um I would
Speaker 1: say that. And then just again accountability, being able to
Speaker 1: manage my time, manage my schedule, because in the in
Speaker 1: the field I'm in, you know, I pretty much have
Speaker 1: free reign. I had to build my schedule and decide
Speaker 1: who I need to go see and who I need
Speaker 1: to go take care of. So um I would say
Speaker 1: the footballers possibilities definitely helped me with that. A lot
Speaker 1: of folks who graduate college who were in athletes get
Speaker 1: out in the real world and they're now faced with
Speaker 1: the experiences they were exciting to them and very intense
Speaker 1: in a new way. But when you've experienced as a
Speaker 1: college student holding a trophy for the national championship, being
Speaker 1: part of that brotherhood, get into the pot of goal
Speaker 1: to the end of the rainbow, and also coming short
Speaker 1: that wide variety of intense experiences, then you go into
Speaker 1: a business world. I mean many people I feel like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I am never gonna live anything like that.
Speaker 1: I peaked when I'm twenty one or twenty two, and seriously,
Speaker 1: that nause at people. So your day to day world
Speaker 1: does not include chasing a trophy, But how is the
Speaker 1: excitement of what you're doing day to day if it
Speaker 1: can match it or at least not be a come
Speaker 1: down from that? Right, Well, that's a great point that
Speaker 1: you even made. Um just speaking with other guys that
Speaker 1: you know play football now are doing different things. The
Speaker 1: point you made and the fact that you know you
Speaker 1: have these kids that's had this dream their entire life.
Speaker 1: They worked as hard as they possibly could, played college
Speaker 1: football at one of the top programs. You have everybody
Speaker 1: knowing your name, you're flying on planes, you're eating filet
Speaker 1: me on and steak and lobster, and you're doing all
Speaker 1: these things and then it's done at twenty two. Like
Speaker 1: you said, some people in the professional world, they might
Speaker 1: not technically reach their goal and their peak to their
Speaker 1: forty years old. And now you know, you have these
Speaker 1: kids that have feel like they reached their peak and
Speaker 1: it's now what. So that's a great point that you made.
Speaker 1: And for me, I think it's hard to master the
Speaker 1: excitement and intensity of football and the competition level. But
Speaker 1: I will say that's why I got into the world
Speaker 1: of selves because I'm able to compete against myself. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a leaderboard, just like there is in football to
Speaker 1: see how many who had the most tackles this game?
Speaker 1: We have who had the most sales? You know, things
Speaker 1: like that. So it's very competitive in this field. And UM,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you have to you know,
Speaker 1: have that competition against yourself. You you have to hold
Speaker 1: that standard. Hey, I want to succeed. I want to
Speaker 1: be successful. How can I translate that into the next
Speaker 1: step of life? Man, if you do that, you'll be Okay,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Advice to what would you say to young
Speaker 1: people who are entering into college and the opportunity to
Speaker 1: play a sport but don't fully yet understand the challenges
Speaker 1: about what's ahead for them and what they need to
Speaker 1: make sure they accomplish to get where they're going to go. Um,
Speaker 1: I would say it, always tell the truth to yourself,
Speaker 1: hold yourself accountable and um really assessed. Okay, Am I
Speaker 1: ready for this next step? Man? Am I ready to?
Speaker 1: Am I willing to put in the work? Um? I
Speaker 1: think that's the first step and then it's just uh,
Speaker 1: more than anything, just staying a balance. You can't get
Speaker 1: too high, you can't get too low because you're competing
Speaker 1: each and every day. You're gonna have good days of priordays,
Speaker 1: bad days. You're gonna have good days of class, bad days. Um,
Speaker 1: and if you're like this, it's hard to really fund
Speaker 1: that consistency, and it's hard for your your teammates and
Speaker 1: trust you. So I would say, just, you know, try
Speaker 1: to be even killed and take each day, you know,
Speaker 1: with the you know, optimistic outlook, and uh, just just
Speaker 1: show up each day and just give it your best
Speaker 1: each day. And if you show up each day, you'll
Speaker 1: be okay. And that was fun. I really enjoyed reconnecting
Speaker 1: with a guy whose college career I had covered pretty closely.
Speaker 1: And I think even bigger things or ahead for Kendall
Speaker 1: Joseph Now, like Kendall Morgan, william has already gained a
Speaker 1: foothold in the business world. She's a sales district leader
Speaker 1: for PEPSI injuries kept Morgan from pursuing a w NBA career.
Speaker 1: She played with pain throughout her Mississippi state time, A
Speaker 1: serious stress factor in her ship. A steel rod inserted
Speaker 1: from her knee to her ankle. She also had her
Speaker 1: nose broken. Now, Morgan's mom remarried when she was three.
Speaker 1: It was her stepdad who first put a ball in
Speaker 1: her hands. End she grew up with stepbrothers who were
Speaker 1: also passionate about sports. But if I have to, she
Speaker 1: was told you're too small by many colleges. She grew
Speaker 1: up in the state of Alabama, but wasn't recruited by
Speaker 1: the Crimson Tide or Auburn Tigers, and Morgan told me
Speaker 1: she never lost to either school in her college career.
Speaker 1: She made the most of her time in Starkville, but sadly,
Speaker 1: her stepdad wasn't alive to see it through every challenge.
Speaker 1: Morgan perseveres, what was that feeling when you're walking across
Speaker 1: the stage. You know what's gonna happen, You're on track,
Speaker 1: It's been the plan all along. But when you get
Speaker 1: that that final moment when you realize you've achieved it
Speaker 1: and you've done it. Can you take yourself back to
Speaker 1: that moment when the when the diplomas handed to you. Um,
Speaker 1: it was a very special moments. I have for stiblance
Speaker 1: some second to lads. So I saw my oldest brother
Speaker 1: graduated from Tennessee. My brother's here older than me graduate
Speaker 1: from South Alabama. So it was just like it's a
Speaker 1: cycle foot of family and name my sisters five years
Speaker 1: younger me. So she just graduated chico Um like a
Speaker 1: week ago. So for me during that time, it was
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know, is this what's supposed to do?
Speaker 1: Kind of de side bill. Uh. My mom was crying
Speaker 1: and that was pretty nice to see Herry just so
Speaker 1: super proud of me and ecstatic everything that I've done,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't did it without her. Graduates get a
Speaker 1: special patch on their game jerseys when their athletes in
Speaker 1: Mississippi State. I understand you went in there the next day.
Speaker 1: Let's get that patch on the jersey. Because this was
Speaker 1: the middle of the year, so it's in the middle
Speaker 1: of basketball season. Get that patch on the jersey so
Speaker 1: I can show him. I graduate right away, and then
Speaker 1: very next game it's like, I did it. Go to
Speaker 1: Passbay to get the degrees, so I mean, I gotta
Speaker 1: do it. The college experience away from basketball, how did
Speaker 1: it match up to what you expected? When you think about, okay,
Speaker 1: not just playing hoops, but going to class, pursuing a read,
Speaker 1: getting good class grades, and then all the outside things
Speaker 1: going to being a student. How did that experience match
Speaker 1: up with what you expected in the real world. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: just while you were at school. How did the college
Speaker 1: experience what you imagine it was gonna bate versus what
Speaker 1: it was? Well, college sports was not what I imagined.
Speaker 1: It was definitely ten times harder. I thought I worked
Speaker 1: out enough, I thought I was in good shape. I wasn't. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think you could really match the college intensity
Speaker 1: until you get there. As far as school, um, it was,
Speaker 1: it was good. I just feel like it's definitely difficult
Speaker 1: to not do well the student athlete because you have
Speaker 1: so many resources, so many people around you study hall
Speaker 1: um that you everyone should be have to graduated within
Speaker 1: three and a half years. I feel like, unless obviously
Speaker 1: if you're engineer and premid and stuff like they had
Speaker 1: to have extra classes. But um, everything else, I mean,
Speaker 1: school was it was cool, and like I said, you
Speaker 1: have so many resources, But athletics it was. It was tough.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of the days where I was
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, I'm not built for this, especially freshman year.
Speaker 1: But you know, because I almost didn't go to college. Um,
Speaker 1: like I said, myself. Fall passed two months before I
Speaker 1: went off to college in March. When I went out
Speaker 1: to school, like June, first, I wasn't gonna go. I
Speaker 1: was also wear four in college. I ended up changing
Speaker 1: too because you were you were two in college at
Speaker 1: Stamford University, and I didn't like it when he passed,
Speaker 1: I can work out for a whole month, and then
Speaker 1: I had a month like I should start preparing or
Speaker 1: am I even gonna go? So freshman was definitely tough.
Speaker 1: I think it was just the was a deviating but
Speaker 1: it was just tough to find the motivation at that
Speaker 1: point after he passed away. And then um, we started
Speaker 1: working out in the summer because it was going on
Speaker 1: the European trip in August. So like June, I had
Speaker 1: my first couple of days weeks of practice and I
Speaker 1: told my point guard close like, I can't do this.
Speaker 1: I'm not physically mentally strong enough to do this right now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, she pulled me inside. I was just like, uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, this isn't gonna be easy. But I know
Speaker 1: your father, he wouldn't wants you to get up and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. You know. Gave me a pep talking.
Speaker 1: I mean, she stayed close to me throughout the freshman
Speaker 1: year and so on. But yeah, it's times where I
Speaker 1: wanted to quip before I got hurt. I mean, it's tough.
Speaker 1: I'm losing someone he's been known forever and then going
Speaker 1: to live on you know, the things we talked about,
Speaker 1: like go be the best point guard, will be the
Speaker 1: best playing sec, go do all these things, and then
Speaker 1: when it's time for you to go, he's not there.
Speaker 1: So it was just like, I feel I got for
Speaker 1: a minute to have the hit that I had just
Speaker 1: lost my purpose. I mean, that was him, that was
Speaker 1: me and him thing, and then it's just me and
Speaker 1: I'm seventeen at the time, so it was weird. Do
Speaker 1: you believe that he's stayed connected with you? Do you
Speaker 1: feel his presence and whether you're on the court or
Speaker 1: off the court, do you still feel that there's a
Speaker 1: strength and a guidance there that even though he's not
Speaker 1: physically around, he's helping you. Yeah. Uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They always say that people know that when it's time's coming.
Speaker 1: I feel like the last couple of months, he kept
Speaker 1: talking to me about stuff, and I'm just like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm seventeen. You know, I we're talking about this. I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about it. He's the last couple
Speaker 1: of months. He was just like, you know, the boss
Speaker 1: gonna stop bossing one day, you know, make sure you
Speaker 1: lost college and resources, get your degree and figure it out,
Speaker 1: like what is you want to do? Because it was like,
Speaker 1: I know, you want to have a family and kids
Speaker 1: one day and you're not gonna be playing to your
Speaker 1: forty more again. So I think him having those conversations
Speaker 1: early on with made my transition of you know, walking
Speaker 1: with from athletics more easier because I have been hearing
Speaker 1: it for a while. College athletes to a lot of
Speaker 1: people are living the dream because they're getting to do
Speaker 1: something they love. But the challenges you mentioned too, and
Speaker 1: it's extra challenging there that two do the class work,
Speaker 1: to stay on track, to get your degree, to have
Speaker 1: a little enjoyment in life, to have a little fun
Speaker 1: in college, which is supposed to be part of the
Speaker 1: college experience. Any regrets at all or was that the
Speaker 1: path that that you chose and you just you knew
Speaker 1: what you were getting into. No regrets. I'm thanking for it.
Speaker 1: I went to college forum on a scholarship, so I
Speaker 1: don't have any student loans. Uh. I think that's when um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, what's it called the waste when athletes
Speaker 1: starts getting paid. Then we started getting paid like my
Speaker 1: sophomore year, so we started getting stifers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So all that's a blessing, you know, because I know
Speaker 1: some of my regular friends like they didn't have it,
Speaker 1: so you know, I mean, it's it's a blessing to say,
Speaker 1: at least because student athletes we we it's a privilege.
Speaker 1: Looking back on it, I think some of us take
Speaker 1: advantage of at the time, some people, like you say,
Speaker 1: some people don't finish, some people transfer and it doesn't
Speaker 1: work out for him, and then there's still being a
Speaker 1: regular student. And it's kind of just like a damn ship.
Speaker 1: Took more advantage of this because I had all these
Speaker 1: all these access to things. It was successful, it was free,
Speaker 1: and I just kind of ruined it. I can safe
Speaker 1: to say you didn't ruin it. You you took advantage
Speaker 1: of the opportunities. And what do you think you learned
Speaker 1: from athletics that you can now apply your career and
Speaker 1: PEPSI And it's a it's a very good job in
Speaker 1: a competitive business world. What did you take away from
Speaker 1: the sports that have helped you and are helping you
Speaker 1: right now? S accountability, um, step outside your comfort zone, persistent,
Speaker 1: a lot of things. I was a point guard, so
Speaker 1: times had to lead the pack, but I'm just silent.
Speaker 1: I did by example now I mean sales kind of
Speaker 1: just like you have to be vocal with the trust
Speaker 1: your team that they're gonna go do it are executed.
Speaker 1: But I'm kind of like a hands on. But can
Speaker 1: I always be hands on? Like that's why you have
Speaker 1: a team, so they can help you to become very
Speaker 1: leader and whatnot. But I would say athletics have a
Speaker 1: lot of transfer transferable skills. As far as um, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think we'll just go talk any stranger.
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people do that. I
Speaker 1: would say when I hit the shot against you, con
Speaker 1: I was definitely an entry, which I still am. But
Speaker 1: when I came back to campus that that week later,
Speaker 1: whenever we came back, She's like, everybody want to talk
Speaker 1: to me and take pictures, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to do that, and it's not because what
Speaker 1: I did I wasn't doing that beforehand, so like it
Speaker 1: was like the culture shock, and then like when people
Speaker 1: want to talk to me and take pictures at that time,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to do it. They were just
Speaker 1: like she's there and she's this, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: excuse you, Like I've always been in the same place.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to take pictures and do all
Speaker 1: this stuff all the time. So um, that's that's a
Speaker 1: different phase. But just going through that whole celebrity fame
Speaker 1: status is definitely tough for me because I wasn't outspoken.
Speaker 1: I was an outgoing I went sociable, but defice blessing
Speaker 1: the skies and alcoholm and still so I do a
Speaker 1: lot of that. So I talk strangers, don't interact with people.
Speaker 1: I don't want to err it, interact with the networry.
Speaker 1: But now I'm starting to enjoy It's like I became
Speaker 1: a social butifly when I'm altbum my home is just
Speaker 1: like after Morgan's heroic shot to beat you kind of
Speaker 1: the final four. The Bulldogs lost the National Championship Game
Speaker 1: to their nemesis South Carolina, but the next year morgan
Speaker 1: senior season, they made another deep run in the n
Speaker 1: c A tournament. The next year though, you got you
Speaker 1: guys make it back to the championship game. And it's
Speaker 1: so hard to do that. It's so hard to keep
Speaker 1: it together. You get back to the championship game, it's
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. It's a game that's close, back and forth.
Speaker 1: And after you hit the buzzer beater year before to
Speaker 1: put you guys in the championship game, you now lose
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame for the National Championship on a buzzer
Speaker 1: beater and are denied Mississippi States first ever team n
Speaker 1: c A championship. I know how badly you guys wanted that.
Speaker 1: That had to sting back to back years losing at
Speaker 1: the last stage. Yeah, I mean, we definitely should have
Speaker 1: won that last year. I could think about karma, like
Speaker 1: lou be someone buzzer beater, You lose someone buzzer beater, Um,
Speaker 1: you know we should lost their game up sixteen going
Speaker 1: to have It's just things happen. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: But I would say me, my teammates, we enjoyed those,
Speaker 1: experienced those moments. Any athlete you know who has opportunity
Speaker 1: to the n c A tournament to keep advancing especial
Speaker 1: or something you always remember in charans for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life. What did you gain from that? All
Speaker 1: experience provides growth. If it's an intense experience, it can
Speaker 1: equal intense growth, even if it's a deep disappointment. What,
Speaker 1: if anything, could you take away from that pair of
Speaker 1: championship game wasson and say I'm a better, stronger person
Speaker 1: for that experience. Yeah, at least you thinks. The first
Speaker 1: thing I can think of right now is attention to
Speaker 1: tail is so important? Uh, marginal era, he slammed to none.
Speaker 1: When you get down to the bottom of the barrel
Speaker 1: a couple of teams, everything really matters, preparation, everything leading
Speaker 1: up to it. Um, I would just say focus, attention
Speaker 1: to to That's that's what I followed a little again, Well,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe you said attention to detail. That is
Speaker 1: my selling point to your young people. I'm gonna sound
Speaker 1: like an old person talking to young people now, but
Speaker 1: I think attention to detail in an era where everybody's
Speaker 1: attention is so scattered, and everybody's trying to do three
Speaker 1: or four things at once, and it's so easy to
Speaker 1: lose focus, and it's so easy to not pay attention
Speaker 1: to details. I mean, now you are in a in
Speaker 1: a kind of a pressure situation. You're expected to sell
Speaker 1: big corporation, very competitive industry, you know, the colal worst.
Speaker 1: I mean attention to detail. The fact that you got
Speaker 1: that as a takeaway. I wish more people could come
Speaker 1: away from their tough experience is realizing that is so
Speaker 1: much of what doing a good job is about is
Speaker 1: the small things. Being reliable with the details is so crucial.
Speaker 1: And it's rare exactly that those one or two things
Speaker 1: you don't focus on, you get about it. Those things
Speaker 1: they follow up. Everything comes back for a circle. So
Speaker 1: you don't everything serious, like everything you prepared for everything
Speaker 1: that matters. If you come away from the college experience
Speaker 1: with friends for life too. And that's one of the
Speaker 1: things we haven't talked about, but I think that the
Speaker 1: bonds that people make and create during college years are powerful.
Speaker 1: You still have a core group that you stay in
Speaker 1: touch with, you're close to from from your planning days,
Speaker 1: not that they were that long ago. You know. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: My junior year when after a famous shot, I think
Speaker 1: up making like two regular friends, like outside of athletics
Speaker 1: and Missy State. That was like my best friends now
Speaker 1: and as far as like my teammates, I mean I
Speaker 1: talked to some of them. There is my roommate all
Speaker 1: four years, but we still kind of like stay in touch.
Speaker 1: But everybody else kind of like I was just growing up.
Speaker 1: But it's not like I can't come but hey, what's up?
Speaker 1: Like we haven't been talking forever, but we spend so
Speaker 1: much talking with someone for four years straight, all day
Speaker 1: every day. It's just like, I mean great, like like
Speaker 1: I think my mad junior year, I was just like
Speaker 1: you know, and I leave practice, I don't see any
Speaker 1: of I don't even want see my roommate. I just
Speaker 1: want to go see normal people and not talk about basketball.
Speaker 1: I wanna talk about practice, I wanna talk about game.
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about anything. I just want
Speaker 1: to be normal. That's a sentiment a lot of college
Speaker 1: athletes share. If you could talk to yourself back when
Speaker 1: you were in high school and struggling and not sure
Speaker 1: what to do, when not sure if college was for you,
Speaker 1: not not sure basketball was gonna be a passion for you,
Speaker 1: or talk to someone else who was in your position
Speaker 1: who was told repeat, really not good enough, too small
Speaker 1: to this, to that? What would the message be now
Speaker 1: that you've gained some experience and gained some wisdom. M
Speaker 1: I mean you control your own destiny. I mean you
Speaker 1: know what your cap beloved and not hard. You work
Speaker 1: for something, you know your strengthen with weaknesses. You know
Speaker 1: opportunities where you can capitalize on. Um Why why put
Speaker 1: someone else to control your life? Well, I think those
Speaker 1: are pretty wise words to leave you with, and I'm
Speaker 1: very grateful to James Kinnoff, Kendall, Joseph, and Morgan William
Speaker 1: for sharing their stories and their perspectives. We hope that
Speaker 1: both episodes of To Go or Not to Go help
Speaker 1: contribute to the conversations going on around this interesting topic.
Speaker 1: If you know others who might benefit from the words
Speaker 1: of our five guests, you hope you'll spread the word
Speaker 1: and I love to hear your feedback on Instagram or
Speaker 1: our brand new website Chris Fowler dot com. As always,
Speaker 1: thank somebody co executive producer Jennifer Dempster and the Jason
Speaker 1: whitehelp for is that any skills? And help in this
Speaker 1: episode to Miles Coplin, Tim Brey, Holly Row and Josh
Speaker 1: Lively and is Zach keating for help in Part one
Speaker 1: our next episode of Filer. Who You've Got, We've got
Speaker 1: a very old friend, Lance Armstrong. It's a powerful, honest,
Speaker 1: emotional conversation if you want to check it out and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you soon