In Search Of Excellence - Jason Belmonte: Tuning Out Haters And Tuning In To Supporters | E76

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Welcome to part two of my amazing conversation with Jason Belmonte, the greatest bowler of all time. He has won a record number of 15 major championships and has been named PBA Player of the Year 7 times. He is also the second person in PBA history that has won the Super Slam, winning all 5 PBA major titles in the same year. If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check it out first. 00:00 Dealing with the defeat in 2008- At first, 60th of 63 contestants- Jason thought he was better- Watched what the best players in the world were doing- Won the eighth event 03:48 Tim Mack and the first contract- Tim was the best amateur player in the world- Called his sponsor to see Jason- Flew to Las Vegas for the tournament- Signed the contract for Storm Bowling 08:06 The courage to ask for what you want- You have to be OK to hear No- Finding the best way to ask for something- Show value and give them a reason not to say No 10:46 How to deal with hate and loneliness- Cheating accusations affected his mental health- Being constantly on a defense drained him- The jealousy of his competitors- Decided to focus on his supporters, not haters- The small inner circle of family and friends 20:24 Dealing with people that envy your success- His roommate wasn’t happy about his first win- Becoming successful very young feels lonely- The story of Norm Duke coming to his defense 36:13 Bowling with two hands- Jason doesn’t know the science behind it- Bowling with two hands became popular 39:17 The growth of the bowling industry- The industry is a wild beast- It has many opportunities to grow- The sport needs the right people in the right places 42:43 The importance of mental preparation and confidence- World Series comeback after 71 games- Self-belief is a huge element in the recipe for success- Understanding your own success 46:27 Throwing a ball outside of a NASCAR car- Promoting the game in an unusual and funny way- An incredible moment 50:25 The importance of Extreme Preparation- An honest discussion with yourself about why you are not as good as you can be- The goal is to figure out where you can improve and dedicate time to doing that52:54 Fill in the blanks to excellence- The biggest lesson I’ve learned- Number one professional goal- Number one personal goal- And more...Sponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

The sound of that hate was so loud. It was so deafening to me because I would read it. That affected me and my mental health a lot. The amount of people that go bowling every year allows the sport itself many opportunities to grow. The sacrifice, the dedication, this idea, this dream that you have, that's when it gets difficult. Because when you start to realize what it's going to be worth for you to do it, yeah, if you don't buy into it 100%, you're not going to get there.

You're listening to part two of my amazing conversation with Jason Belmonte, the greatest bowler in history. If you haven't yet listened to part two of my amazing conversation with Jason Belmonte, the greatest bowler in history. If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check that one out first. Your first tournament, 2008, you finished 60th out of 63 contenders. Talk to us about the mental state of mind you were in when you said, oh, geez, this is not so great, the first tournament? Were you dejected or did it even make you more motivated to come back and say, I got to do better and I am going to do better and I want to be the best in the sport? Yeah, I think the very first feeling I had when I bowled my very first pro event was I wanted to know the baseline.

Where am I at? These are the best bowlers in the world um the norm dukes of the world and I wanted to know where I was at and so that first tournament I was shown pretty quickly where I was at it was like okay um that that was a little a little uh ego hidden and that was a little hard to handle because I think I thought I was better. I thought I was closer to the top than I was to the bottom. I didn't think I was going to be near the top. I just thought I would be better than half of them. And I really wasn't. But I fell back into that idea of what happened because this was a new environment. This was a new oil pattern.

These were new bowlers that I was competing against. And so there was a learning curve. There was an experience that I had to eat up to become better. So I also took it with a bit of a grain of salt that first week. It was like, all right, you know where you are now, but it was your first week. Like you're going to have to learn a few of these PBA tour tricks and that's not going to be, you know, it's not going to be easy. So I think week two was, I finished 58th, I think out of 64. So I improved a little bit that that was a positive, but still, you know, really far behind. And I really watched. I watched the best players in the world and I watched what they were doing with the bowling balls and what they were trying to accomplish with ball shape and ball motion and what bowling balls they were using.

And I tried to translate that into my game as quickly as possible. And fortunately for me, in my eighth event, I put the puzzle together and was able to win in my rookie year in my eighth event. And that was a turning point in my career. That was when I felt like I belonged on this stage. Previous to the Pro Tour, I was a really, really great amateur player, very successful, but it's the big fish in the little pond analogy, right? And I wanted to be the big fish in the ocean. And so that's when I realized I could do it.

I could actually do this. I beat them all, you know, in my eighth event. Like maybe I can. This is what I can really do. I can really win out here. So many athletes at a young age get recognized and as part of that recognition, when somebody knows they're going to be a prodigy

or they are, they get contracts. You look at LeBron James when he was 18 years old, he signed a report at $80 million with Nike. Ryan Sheckler, one of the best skateboarders of all time, had a pro contract when he was 13 years old. He signed a reported $80 million with Nike. Ryan Sheckler, one of the best skateboarders of all time, had a pro contract when he was 13 years old. Tell us about Tim Mack and your first contract with Storm Bowling and how much were you getting paid? Yeah. So Tim was an American amateur player, but the best amateur player in the world he came to australia for a tournament and it was a tournament that i was also invited to and so timmy as i affectionately call him

um watched me bowl for the very first time this unique two-handed delivery um and it really blew him away it was it was weird to see but kind of cool and the fact that i could do it really well i think excited him so he made the call to his sponsor which was storm bowling and he spoke to the owner of the company and expressed listen you've got to see this kid bowl. This kid does it in a way that we've never seen before. He's very good at it. I think he's someone that we should sponsor. And it wasn't too much longer, maybe a year or two after that conversation that Timmy had after seeing me compete in Australia, that I got a call from the owner of the company, Bill Chrisman

and he said listen you know you're a kid i get it you bowl a little different haven't seen it myself but i'm looking forward to seeing it so i want to i want to invite you to america and i want you to bowl in a tournament that i sponsor um and i want to bring you over for it and i want you to to kind of do is do your So I said, that would be amazing. So flew to Las Vegas for this tournament and I met Bill Chrisman. I bowled in front of him and as soon as I was done bowling, he put his arm around me and he said, I've never seen anything like this before. You're incredible and I want you to represent my company. And so later that night, I think I had this very base, I mean, I didn't have an agent. I didn't even really know about contracts.

All I knew is I was about to be signed by the best bowling company in the world. That, to me, I would have done it for free. I nearly did. It was basically free. I think I got paid like maybe $1,000 a month to represent Storm and I got my equipment for free. And it really wasn't about the money.

It was about the fact that I was now a part of this team, that I had access to resources and it was an incredible moment because I wasn't expecting it. But that was in 1999. I think I signed that contract with Storm. Maybe, no, no, no, no. The first contract, yeah, was an amateur contract that I signed with Bill. I think it was 2001.

That's the first year that I signed with them. And so that $1,000 contract lasted a year or two. And then my performances would allow me bonuses. And I was able to escalate my way up through the ranks. And every year, every time I did well, like Bill Chrisman and Storm, like they never once, it was never an argument. It was like, hey, you did really well. You deserve a raise. Hey, you did really well this year. You deserve another raise. And I keep asking every year, hey, I did really well. Do I get another raise? And Mr. Chrisman continues to say, yeah, you deserve it. So they've been an incredible partner of mine and yeah i i really do believe that a lot of my my success is due to the fact that i'm using the best equipment

they are the best bowling balls in the world which allow me to strike more than than i would normally would using anyone else's and so i'm incredibly grateful and in debt for them to helping me have the career that I've had. And all the coaching that I've done over the years, one of the things that I say to people is, if you don't ask, then you don't get. And when you were young as part of this sponsorship, you need to get a tour exemption. Instead of asking for one exemption, you asked for two. What's your advice to all those people out there today who are afraid to even ask the first question

for something that they want to get or want to do? And how do we inspire them to get up and actually have the courage to do it? Yeah, I think the first thing that I would say is you have to be okay with the response back to you of no. You have to be okay that the response back to you of no. Like you have to be okay that you're going to hear it. You might ask for too much.

Whatever it might be, you might ask for something that's unreasonable, but you're going to hear no. And so if you can handle the idea of them saying no to you, then asking becomes way easier the fear of rejection the fear of upsetting somebody if you ask you have to be able to let it go and be like okay there are good and bad ways for asking for something i'm going to learn the better ways to ask for something where it doesn't sound rude or arrogant or annoying, but I'm going to be okay if they say no. And then the next thing is you have to give them a reason

to not say no, that whatever you're asking for, show value in what you're asking. Have it on the table ready to go and say, this is what I'm worth, but this is why I'm worth what I'm worth. And if the choice comes down to a yes or no based on purely financials, well, in my career, I tried to always illustrate, if you're going to invest this much in me, this is how I'm going to return that investment back in profits for you. I want to do these appearances. I want to do marketing campaigns. I want to perform well and win tournaments. I want to be a part of research and development. You give all of these lists as to what their money is getting

them. And then perhaps they add to that list with other obligations. And then you have to decide if it's the right thing for you to do. But those are the two things that I've really learned is you've got to be okay with them saying no, but you've also got to give them a reason not to say no. Like make it clear, this is what you're worth. I've had some incredible guests on my show. And one of them was someone named Sam Zell, who is one of the greatest real estate investors of all time. He created something known as the Modern REIT.

He was a member of the Forbes for 100. And unfortunately, he passed away a few months ago. But he was investing in real estate in a way that nobody else was doing before him. And he said to me, and he's talked about this a lot is he felt like he was doing something that nobody else was doing. When people were going left, he found himself going right. And he was the only one doing that. And he talked about the loneliness of doing that. And he wasn't fearful. He was confident in that what he was doing, but he couldn't understand why no one else was doing it. In your career, the two-handed bowling was something that no one else was really doing with success. I think there were one or two

people before you, but you changed the nature of the sport. And when you start winning, funny things happen. People are jealous, they get angry, and it became very controversial because you were the only one with success on the pro, you were the only one with success on the pro tournament circuit who was winning, and you were called a cheat. And talk to us about what that was like being called a cheater and a professional lead when you're winning and talk about your feeling of loneliness and how you dealt with it yeah it's it's kind of been something that i've had to deal with and at different stages in my career um but probably the most painful one was when when you're on tour because now you're on a much larger platform and by this point in my career you know we had social media we had the

internet and so the the sound of that hate was so loud it was so deafening to me because I would read it and I would hear it. And I took it all very, very personally. And so that, that affected me and my mental health a lot. The hardest part about it all was when you're, when you're referenced as a cheat, but you're not actually breaking any rules. That was the hardest thing. Like I couldn't understand why they used that word. You know, they could have said any other word about how I bowled, you know, whatever they wanted to say.

But to say that you cheat means that you are navigating the course beyond the boundaries that everybody else is stuck in. And I wasn't. I stayed within the lines. I mean, the amount of people that went through rule books trying to find clauses or a word or a phrase that would ban me. No one ever found it. It didn't exist. And that was because I wasn't doing anything wrong. It was just, I found a different way to throw a ball down the lane. And so I spent a lot of my early rookie seasons defending myself, like, and I'm in pouring a lot of energy, constantly replying back to haters this is you know no you're calling me a cheat but I don't break any of the rules I'm just constantly on this defense about you know what it is that I'm doing and um yeah it drained me

and I was sad it was like I'm not enjoying this this is is, this is not a, this is not a good time. And so then you look to your friends and your competitors, cause you're like, well, they'll, they'll get it. Like they're doing what I'm doing. So they understand the trials and tribulations of what it's like out here on tour. And it was, it was just as lonely. Cause, cause then I started to have success on the pro tour and I was taking money out of their pockets that they were trying to provide for their family. And I was becoming more famous than they were and there was a jealousy aspect of it all and so not only are you a little different I'm also foreign born I'm not from the US and so I didn't have an entourage of people surrounded by me while I was on tour from people from home you know when

a tournament would end we would have a day or two between the start of the next tournament. I didn't have the luxury of going home to see my family like my competitors did. They got to go home and see their family and their friends. And so you're on the road constantly. You're not getting a lot of feedback that felt positive from the community of bowling because you're a little different.

And bowling is an old game. It's a traditional game. And you're beating your competitors, so they weren't really enjoying you out there either. It was hard. It was really, really hard. And it took a change of perspective to, I guess, unshackle that part of my career the the the wanting to please everybody was something that I had to let go of and it's just human nature you know you could cure cancer tomorrow and there will still be someone that says hey you cured the

wrong cancer why did you cure that cancer? You know, it's like, it doesn't matter what you do. Everyone isn't going to love you. There will always be people that just, they don't like you. And once I realized that, the focus went from, why am I paying attention to these haters when I'm noticing there are some fans, like there are people that are supporting me and that are saying nice things. You know what I'm going to do? Instead of replying back to the

people who are not in my corner, I'm going to start replying back and engaging with those that are. And like overnight, you feel this confidence and the love, like you feel it. Because now you're focusing on these people who are saying, I'm amazing, and that I'm inspiring them to be bowlers, and that they love to watch me compete, because what I'm doing is crazy to watch. And it's so much fun. And then you start to enjoy it. Then you start to say, you know what, well, I'm going to do this better for them. You know, I'm going to do this better for me. I'm going to do this better for my family, but I'm going to do this better for the people who are enjoying this from the community of Bolin. And that I'm just, I was so much happier at the end of the day. You know, you write a post,

you go through, you filter through the ones that aren't so great and you focus on the ones that do. And then all of a sudden now you almost had a group of people that was willing to defend you as well and so then I felt like I had more support that when someone said hey you're a cheater well before I even would see the comment I would open it and it would be 50 to 100 people defending me saying what are you talking about you know crazy man like just because he does it a little differently and that was when i realized that um it's so important to see what your what your focuses are on what are you looking what are you really looking at and what are you really hearing and there's a difference between hate and

constructive criticism right like when you hear that you could do something better, I would never label that as, oh, they just hate, they're haters, you know, but true haters, you can tell, you can see them from a mile away. And so you just, you have to be able to, to not make that a focal point. Made my life a lot happier. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by Sandy.com. S-A-N-D-E-E.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world. More than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries. Sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad, and to make sure you're never

disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sandee.com. The link is in our show notes. Stay sandy, my friends. Many of us have a lot of haters in our life. And I think the great advice there is cut out the haters of your life because they're a cancer to your mental well-being. And it's better to surround yourself with people who are supportive, who love you and really want the best for you. Yeah. And I also realized that we live in a day of social media where a number of followers has some meaning to some people. And to me, the number isn't what's important.

To me, it's the relationship or the engagement that I have with whoever is following me. And that is really important. On top of that, when you break away from that public, I guess you could call them support crew, and you start to then look inwards to your near, your inner group, your inner circle, I realized that didn't have to be very big to feel loved,

to feel supported. You know, that inner circle of mates and family can be really small and still have a huge impact on your, on your wellbeing. And what I had found is when I had allowed that inner circle to be too large, you would get a few fakies that would kind of sneak their way in you know that they they claim to be close to you or that they they you know they love you or that they respect you and then you eventually come to find that that isn't the truth and so you start to weed them out and that that group gets a bit smaller but the smaller it gets the stronger that group becomes because you realize that you all feel the same way about each other. And so you're always going to have each other's back.

You're always going to be there to call you an idiot when you need to be called an idiot, but you also are going to be the first person to congratulate you and feel truly happy for their successes. And that's also made me a lot happier doing that. After a horrible start to my career, I had three jobs in eight months. I started to turn it around when I was 27 years old. I had a chance to work directly for someone who had started two Fortune 500 companies. And when I left that job for an unfunded untested startup commuting from los angeles to boston people thought i had lost my mind but and i took a

big risk and at the end of the day our company went public when i was 31 years old and it resulted in a large financial gain and what i learned at that point in time, and there was a lot of notoriety at that time because there weren't a lot of companies that were founded by at least one. I was one of four founders. I was 31 years old. At some point, our company had a $35 billion valuation, which was insane when you think about it. It ultimately ended up losing 99.7% of its market value, went down at $1.49 million, but it's now back up to, I think, $16 billion. But right in that heat of the moment where there's a lot of publicity regarding you, I learned something that was very interesting, which was when you make a lot of money or you're

successful, there are an enormous number of people who are not happy for you. And it was really a wake-up call. Wow, how could this be? I love reading about people who are successful. I want my friends to be successful. You experienced that as well. I mean, what's behind all of this when you start winning and you have all these haters? How do you deal with it and why do you think people do it?

There's been a handful of times on tour where a moment that for me was pure joy, some type of success that I couldn't believe I was able to achieve. And I would look around going, well, who can I share this with? Oh, I'm going to share it with these people out here. And then you try to and you realize, wait a minute, they aren't actually thrilled. I actually had a roommate one time. I'd won my very first major championship, my first one of my career.

I was on the most insane adrenaline run. Just, I was so excited. And my roommate hadn't congratulated me yet. And it was at the end of the night and we're kind of, you know, I'm laying on my bed. I look over to him on his bed and I say, you know, I won today, right? Like I won over to him on his bed and I say, you know, I won today, right? Like I won my first major. I'm like, are you not, are you not happy for me? And he said the weirdest thing. He said, why would I be happy for you? And I said, whoa, I'm like, I don't know, because we're mates and something good happened to me. And he goes, yeah, but you know, you can

be happy for you, but why would I be happy for it? Like I didn't win. And I said, but if you won, I'd be happy for you. And that's when I kind of realized when you're competing to take it personal as a bit, it's hard not to, but to him, it was a business transaction. He didn't win, therefore he didn't provide or he didn't attain a goal of his. And therefore, whilst it might appear to be selfish from everyone else, I guess it could be considered selfish, but to him, it's like, this is what I'm here to do. I'm here to win. I'm not here to be a cheerleader for anybody else.

And I couldn't understand it because for me, I'm not saying that you've got to, you know, support every single player on tour, but, you know, you're roommates, right? You're closer, smaller inner circle perhaps. And it wasn't felt from me that that's how it was perceived by the other players, even within that inner circle. I don't know why people do it because I just think it comes down to a lack of happiness. Like if I see success from someone else and I feel genuinely happy for that

person, it just makes me happier that I'm feeling a version of happiness for someone and to share it with them or to encourage them that how great they were. To me, that just makes me a happier person. And I can't see why it would make someone else unhappy to do that. But I think when it comes to the elite of business or sport, there is an element of jealousy that comes in. It's why did they get the promotion and not me? I wanted the promotion.

I wanted to win that event. That's what I want to do. And this other person is doing it. I can tell you that if you're someone that has success very seldomly, you don't feel it nearly as much as someone who has a lot of success. The more success you have, the better business deals that you do, it definitely feels like you are more and more alienated from those in that environment around you. From that inner circle that's beyond it, sure, you might still get and feel that love. But for me on tour, the more I

won, the lonelier it got. And it's not a new story. We've all heard it. It's lonely at the top. But I experienced that for the very first time in that way. And yeah, the hardest part was, is I just didn't have anyone here, no family, no inner circle friends from back home. And so you're trying to deal with this loneliness, these haters, your competitors, hating that you're winning. You know, the only thing that I could really rely on was my sponsors because they were thrilled that I was winning, right? They're seeing their product win. And so it wasn't the worst to have them as that support crew, but you also wonder like, you know, are you happy for me or are you happy for the business that's doing well

through me? And so you have to navigate that, which luckily for me, I think the company itself, I've been there 20 plus years now. So I feel like it's gone beyond a business transaction. We are definitely very close with each other. But that is, it is a question, Randall, that I often ask people when they don't seem happy for whom I thought was in their inner circle. And I say, I'm telling you, this is unhealthy for you. Because if your success is the only cause for your happiness, then if you aren't successful, you're going to be miserable. And no one wants to live a life of misery and not base it purely on success or not. Like you have to find value in things around you that aren't focused purely on your own success levels to create happiness. And I don't know,

I try to share that with the younger competitors out here right now. I hope they listen because I went through it. I saw it. And I can tell you that it's not a great way to live. You want everyone else to fail and you want to be the only successful one. It just, life doesn't give you that. So you can't expect it. You've got to find the joys in other things, in other people.

When our company went public, I was 31 years old, and there were not a lot of 31-year-olds, especially in Los Angeles. The tech market there hadn't really taken off. Now it's one of the premier tech hubs in the United States, a large amount of startups, venture capital firms, but it wasn't like that back then. So there were only a few of us, one in particular, who had really done very, very well. His company had gone public when he was 26 years

old. And it's very lonely. You do talk about the loneliness. You do talk about attention, criticism. And I was 31. It bothered me. And it happened very, very quickly. It wasn't like we had started this 10 years before our company. And this is a record that will never happen again. It went public a year later once we had started the company. But it was very, very helpful to me to speak to someone who had been through something similar like this at a young age because it's very lonely. There's no one else to talk to. And he gave me some great advice, which was, among many other things, tune out the haters and don't listen to them. And it's hard to do, frankly. You're young, immature to some extent, and new to this entirely entirely new life-changing event for you where,

in my case, I bought a beautiful house, my dream house, and I was 31 years old. And at some point, it was a little unusual to have your friends come over because I was living in a two-bedroom apartment next to the jack-in-the-box. I went from that to a very beautiful large home. And it's just something that was very, very difficult to deal with. Yeah, the tune them out part is, it's a conscious decision that you have to make, right? And even when you said you bring your friends over and it's a conscious decision that you have to make to be able to find the weeds. But more importantly, you have to allow yourself to be okay that this is a part of the game you're playing. This is a part of it. You can't change the rules.

Some people will not like that you have become successful. That's ingrained in the coding of success. That's just it. Deal with it. And if you try to think that you can recode it, that you can change all of these people's opinions about your success and that they will overnight or over a period of time become happy for you, you're chasing an impossible goal and it's not going to end well for you. And so the tuning out whilst it's really difficult, if you can take a step back and say, well, what's really important? Like what is really important? Is this individual person that I'm reading or that I'm hearing from, are they that important to me that it matters? And the answer to that for the most part is no, they're not that important to me. Do I care that Twitter user 11213 hates me? Like,

no, you know, I don't know this person. I'm never going to know this person. And so you start to chop the fat really quickly. Those are the easy ones. When it gets a little harder, it's like, yeah, when you invite your friends into your new beautiful home and they're still living in a small one-bedroom apartment somewhere and they're struggling to pay the rent or whatever it might be and they see what you have, that jealousy, if it's too much for them and it comes out, that's a difficult one because sometimes we have people that we think are going to be there for you or have that happiness for you and they're not there for you or they don't have that happiness for you those are the ones that are really hard to let go of because you you've probably experienced time with them you've experienced thing when you were potentially both on the same playing field where you financially

you might have had the same stuff or career-wise you might have achieved the same things and then when you go beyond it and they stay stuck there that's a really hard one. For me, it's more on them and dealing with that issue on their side than it is for me to have to deal with it. But letting those people go is hard. It's really, really hard, but you know it's the right thing to do because you just don't want to spend your time with people who are looking at ways to pull you down a peg or two. You want people to lift you up. It was actually a quote Norm Duke gave me that I will never forget. And when a lot of the haters were very vocal on tour, Norm came out in support of me he would he would comment in interviews at how great i was and

how incredible the things that i'm doing and that's that was one of the very emotional times is my idol was actually stepping up for me like you know they say don't meet your idols well i'm so grateful that i did meet mine because this this this man was was an incredible human being and i i approached him one time and I said, Norm, why are you saying these things? You don't have to. You don't have to do this. You're a Norm Duke.

Everyone loves you. The bowling, saying nice things about me is not changing your career. And he said, au contraire, that it is, though. And I said, why? He said, well, let me give you two scenarios and tell me which one you would rather have uh come come true if i were to trash you and i was to say that you're awful and that you're a terrible talent and then let's say we were to compete against each other well now i'm supposed to win because I've just trashed you I've said to everybody that you're

awful and so now if I beat you there is just this expectation of ho-hum this was meant to happen because Norm's so great and he's so bad but if you beat me after I've just trashed you what does that look like for me okay now conversely if i tell people how great you are if i lose to you well he's great there's no shame in losing to someone who's great and if i beat you after telling the world that how great you are he said it elevates me he said the only other thing I would add to this is don't say something unless you think it to be true. So don't lie. Don't say that someone is great at something if they're not, but find something that they are great at and focus on

that. Use that as the point of reference when talking about them because it's only going to elevate you when you win against them. And it just slapped me across the face. This bucket of water just, you know, in real time hit me in the face. Like he's so right. Like people who say that I'm awful when I beat them, what do they say back next? What's the next thing they say? Because they've lost that leverage i i

they no longer can say that i'm bad because if i beat them they're below me they're behind me so what does it say about themselves and i i love what norm taught me then because i do i try to find a a positive in someone's bowling even if it's someone who I've known has been quite nasty to me if asked directly about them as a player I think about well what are they great at and you know what if they're great at it they should get credit for it they've they've spent a lifetime developing that skill I don't have a problem telling somebody that they're doing something really well if anything it just makes me motivate me even more to be better at it than them. And so it's just one less thing that they have against me when they want to trash me. So I don't know,

I often think about that thing that Norm said. Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend, colleague, or loved one? Bliss Beaches makes the perfect gift. This best-selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world. It's the perfect housewarming gift, a great addition to any home or office, and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner. Bliss Beaches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five-star rating. Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of Bliss Beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. So many of our listeners and viewers right now are thinking,

how do you bowl with two hands? I think we can all see it when we're 18 years old or four years old, but describe for us the technique, the RPMs, the science behind it. And does this take a harder toll on your body in the long term, in terms of what you can keep doing from an endurance perspective? Yeah, it's a good question because I don't know. I don't know any other way. All I can tell you is that I wake up every morning and I feel fit. I feel good. I don't have aches. I don't have pains. And so I don't know what the style will do in the long term for everybody. I think everybody's different.

Injury is a part of sport. And so I do my best to try to prevent injury as much as I can, like most athletes try to do. But I just don't know the science, if there's a specific percentage on how much less friction on this part of the body is caused. I don't know. I just know that it doesn't hurt me. I think the best way to describe how I do what I do,

if I were to use only words is imagine a rugby pass um that's how that's how I bowl like a pass in rugby and if you're not a rugby fan and you don't know what that is then the best way to describe it is go to youtube and type in my name and then just watch it for yourself that's the easiest and fastest way to figure out how it is to do what I do. But the interesting thing is in today's bowling climate, and you know, there's, I guess the number that gets thrown around a little bit is somewhere between 70 and 80 million people go bowling in the US alone every year. And it's said that close to 30% of that bowling public will bowl two-handed or try two-handed now.

And to me, that is just the most wild thing to think about because you grow up as an individual as a solar as solar solar you know the word i'm trying to say solar the singularity that's the word i was looking for let me let me say that again um and so it's super wild to me that there's such a high percentage of people that are now trying to because growing up when you're an individual you're a singularity um to see hundreds of thousands millions of people attempt to do what you do it's you know to be part of a movement that has allowed a new technique to become normalized is, dude, it is wild. It is really wild. Let's talk about some stats. You mentioned 70 million people in the United States.

There's roughly 100 million people in the world who bowl. The first documented appearance of bowling appeared in ancient Egypt with wall drawings depicting bowling being found in a royal Egyptian tomb dated to 3200 BC and miniature pins and balls in an Egyptian child's grave around the same time, 3200 BC. Balls were made using the husks of grains covered in a material such as leather and bound with strings. The bowling industry has grown from $4 billion in 2014 to $10 billion in 2018. It's projected to go to $60 or $70 billion in the next 5 to 10 years. It's an affordable sport.

A lot of families will do it. The TV contracts are very, very small today. They're on... Fox did a deal in 2018. It's not even on a Fox channel. It's on Fox FS1, I think is the channel. Could bowling be the next WWE or Formula One? Or even pickleball, which is the fastest growing sport in America. Yeah, I'd like to think so, for sure. Just to kind of touch on that comment about Fox, in fact, our relationship with Fox has been really, really great.

This last season that just went by, we were on Big Fox Network television nearly, I think it was like 10 times out of the 18 times that we were on on big fox network television um nearly i think it was like 10 times out of the 18 times that we were on television so more than half of it now was on the major network and that relationship is growing more and more positively um and who's to say that you know all of bowling doesn't move to network television rather than being on f1. And so that's a really positive thing. The industry as a whole is a dragon. It is a wild beast. And the amount of people that go bowling every year allows the sport itself

many opportunities to grow what we hope and what we rely on is that the people who are running the different parts of our organizations and parts of our industry do the do the right thing do the do their research and and make great decisions because ultimately those stats everything it just doesn't matter if you've got the wrong people at the helm you know and so i'm hoping that our sport chooses the right people that they make the best decisions and then who's to say that we can't be yeah another version of wwe um i don't i don't know why we couldn't be more successful i mean wwe is pretty huge i mean it'd be quite arrogant of me to suggest that we would be as big as them but the idea of it growing on that same kind of bell curve like you know because at one point wwe or wwf at one point it it wasn't as

successful as it is today you know and so why not think we can do something similar you know i'd like to think i'm a i'm an optimist in that in that regard i like to think the best can happen let's talk about your world series comeback after 71 games you trailed fifth place by 324 pins. You had 12 matches to make up the deficit. And you had this quote that you've given. And this is how you think about a tournament. I think I've won before I even throw a ball down the lane. How important is mental preparation and confidence to our success? It's a huge element to the recipe of success, the self-belief, the confidence in believing you're capable. If you don't have that, I assure you someone else does.

And beating that person becomes exponentially harder. So you've got to walk into the boardroom, the business, the bowling center, the golf course, and you have to have that belief that no one here is going to win this tournament or do a better deal than you. No one. And it's a very fine line between arrogance and confidence. I get it. So you have to choose your words sometimes very carefully when you're trying to present that confidence. But ultimately, it doesn't matter. If you believe it, then you're already a step ahead of someone else who doesn't feel that way. All of us dream as a kid, we want to be successful. At some point in our life, we want to be the next Tom Brady. And we hope to be LeBron James or Kobe Bryant

or Michael Jordan. What was it like dreaming as a kid that you wanted to be the best? And what kind of responsibilities do you have today that you are the GOAT in bowling, you're the best ever? And what are your responsibilities going forward in the sport and to the community at large? Yeah, I think when you're young, the understanding of what it means to be the best in the world, I don't think the gravity of it really hits you. It's more of just the thing that you say, right? And as you get older, you understand what it's going to take. And that's the moment that you have to buy into it. The sacrifice,

the dedication, the time that you're going to give up to chase this idea, this dream that you have. That's when it gets difficult because when you start to realize what it's going to be worth for you to do it, yeah, if you don't buy into it 100 you're not going to get there so you have to you have to do that i think for me understanding that the juice is worth the squeeze as they say um that's what motivates me now is you may call me the goat someone else may call me the goat, someone else may call me the goat, but I have my own position that I think I'm at and I have my own goals that I want to reach. And the moment that I get complacent in allowing myself to say, hey, well, Randall thinks I'm the goat, so I'm good. I'm done. You know, that's when I think my career will suffer its biggest fall,

is allowing others to dictate where I think I should be. I'm not there yet. There's so much more for me to do. Therefore, the motivation levels have to be high. The sacrifice still has to be high. And the belief that I'm going to reach my own goals has still got to be there. If I do those things, when it's time to lace them up, And the belief that I'm going to reach my own goals is still got to be there.

If I do those things, when it's time to lace them up, then I'm very happy to look back at my career and stack it up against anybody else's. And we can argue black and blue, you know, who's the best ever. But I'm not there yet. So I got to get there. Tiger Woods single-handedly increased the popularity of golf. You have single-handedly increased the popularity of bowling. People want to see you. They know you. You're the star of the circuit, but you're also a lot more than that. You've done some things that are very unique that have raised your profile and made you a more well-rounded person,

entrepreneur as well. Tell us about the Google Glasses and throwing 140 mile an hour strike outside of a NASCAR car. Yeah, I mean, and this kind of loops back into because I didn't get a chance to actually answer your other question about responsibilities, what I think my responsibility is. But I think part of all of what you just said is it's fun it's so much fun doing this type of stuff to actually take the game that i love and that i do competitively and be able to to not do it at that level to be able to just do something fun and crazy is awesome but it also i think is part of the responsibility of creating awareness of the game and to generating a respect,

I guess an acknowledgement that we exist. Bowling definitely has taken a backseat in terms of the mainstream media sports. And so doing a Dude Perfect video, throwing a ball out of a NASCAR, whilst fun, it's promoting the game and just letting everybody know, hey, we're still here and I'm a part of it. And doing interviews like this, again, broadens that reach a little bit. To be very specific with what it's like to do Dude Perfect and NASCAR in particular,

the guys from Dude Perfect, NASCAR in particular. The guys from Dude Perfect, they're brilliant, brilliant guys. Very thoughtful, very funny, love what they do and their craft is where you see it through their videos. They truly love what they do. Throwing a ball out of a NASCAR was something I never thought I'd be, I'd be doing in my life. But, um, going around the track with, um, with Eric Almirola was just that to get in this seat and say, yeah, drive as fast as you want. And just for him to, to smash that track and go quick was, was thrilling enough, let alone holding a bowling ball in my lap and making that last turn saying,

are we good? And he gives me the thumbs up and then I throw the ball out the window trying to get a strike. You know, doing all of those things. Can you say that again? Because we lost you for about 30 seconds there, throwing the ball from an Askar cart.

Can you just pick 30 seconds there uh throwing the ball from a nascar car if you just pick it up there yeah and so you know never did i think throwing a ball out of a nascar would be something that i was doing but you know in fact just sitting in the car with uh with eric almarola and saying to him yeah hit the track as hard as you want like i'm'm, I love speed, you know, and letting him just flog this car around the track and just that in itself was thrilling. That was exciting just to sit in the car, let alone have a bowling ball in my lap, seeing the pins on the road coming up, him moving into position and then kind of give him the thumbs up that it's good to go. And then throwing a ball out there to only then somehow throw it at the right trajectory hit the track

at the right spot to get the strike uh that was an incredible moment that was an incredible and actually a little fun fact about that is uh right after we nailed that strike the engine itself overheated and the car was uh it was unavailable for us to use for the rest of the day. So it was like, we didn't even know it, but it happened to be our last attempt before the car overheated. And so it was just one of those wild, you know, it was meant to be, you know, the universe was saying you were going to get it now because the car's about to blow up. We talked about mental preparation has been one of the most important factors in our success. Can you talk about something I call extreme preparation,

preparing way more than anybody else and how it's been important and a crucial element of your success and give us some examples, please. Yeah, experience is the first thing I would say that helps you understand what preparation really means. I think when you're younger, you have the, it's almost there's an arrogance to like, you know, I don't need to practice. I don't need to worry about this thing. I'll just, I'll rely on my natural talent. And so that realization that when it's not true,

you have to be able to dedicate time into the preparation of, all right, where are you going? What are you doing? Why didn't you do well the last time you did this? And when you start to think of it like that and you start to be honest with yourself, and I think that's probably key, right, Randall, is having an honest discussion with yourself as to the things that are causing you not to do as well as you possibly could then you can start to rectify those things but you know you you see it all the time you see the boxer who thinks he's the you know he's the he's the best

boxer ever that's ever you know stepped into a ring and yet someone will say but yeah you know you're you don't have the great defense and says, I'm the greatest defender there ever is in boxing. And then all of a sudden he gets in a ring with someone who's faster and better than he, and the defense doesn't hold up and he gets knocked out. It's like, well, if you had have been honest with yourself, that there was improvement there, you might've been able to block that punch, but now you get, you know, smashed in the face and you're on the canvas. So the same thing can be said about pretty much everything else is if you know there's a weakness, then acknowledge it. It's not shameful. Everyone's human. We're not all perfect. So the goal is to figure out where you

can improve and then dedicate time in doing that. And I think that's part of the preparation is the understanding of where you want to go, but what is required to get there and what elements do you not have that is holding you back from getting there. Those honest questions that need to be answered honestly then need action after it to rectify it. So if you can do all that, I think you've got a big chance of being successful.

Before we finish today, I want to go ahead and ask some more open-ended questions. I call this part of my podcast, fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play? Fire away. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is? To love yourself.

My number one professional goal is? I want to leave a legacy that's impossible to catch. My number one personal goal is? To incrementally become a better human being every day. One of the things on your bucket list is to play a few games with Roger Federer. Are you going to achieve that goal at some point in your life? Pretty much retired from tennis now, so he's got more time on his hands. So there may be an opportunity now to be able to find him somewhere. But I'll leave that one to the universe to handle. If they put us on the same path somewhere, to be able to hit a tennis ball with him or bowl a ball with him

would be definitely a highlight. Why not just pick up the phone and call him? I am 99% confident he would bowl or play around in tennis with you, with you being the greatest bowler in history. Yeah, I might just start looking up the possible phone numbers of the world and just start dialing random ones and saying, hello, is this Roger Federer? No. Okay. Scratch that number off the list and just keep going until eventually I hear Roger's voice and I go, ah, I knew I'd finally get you. Roger,

would you like to have a game of bowling with me i don't i don't have his number i don't really have a way to contact him but uh like i said if the universe wants us to pair up at some point we will okay you can call us management company agency it's a public record and once we're off the show i'm going to help you do that if you could go back in time the one piece of advice you'd give to your 21-year-old self is? It's not always meant to be easy. So deal with the challenges, accept that that's part of life, and not expect it to be easy because it shouldn't be.

If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be? Other than Roger Federer. If I could meet one person in the world, who would it be other than Roger Federer? If I could meet one person in the world? Yes. Ah, look, this is a weird one, but I don't know. I actually don't know why this person more than any other person, but Judge Judy Shyneland. I'm a huge fan of Judge Judy. I love her show. I think it's outrageous. And I just love the way that any interview I've ever seen of her, she seems like someone who is just oozing with wisdom. Like the way she talks about things it is not over simple it's not over complex she really simplifies it but boy does she uh does she have some great pieces of wisdom and and she's hilarious she's i'd love to just have dinner with her that would be just a thrill jason this has been awesome

i greatly appreciate your time you have a phenomenal story. I love bowling. I hope people will go out and play bowling. I hope they'll watch you. I hope they'll follow your career. And I really appreciate you being on my show. Thank you for doing In Search of Excellence today. Randall, not a problem in the world. Thank you for hosting me. And yeah, I'll continue to listen to other guests that you have on your podcast. It's a great podcast. So I'm enjoying what I'm learning through you. And I again, appreciate you having have on your podcast. It's a great podcast. So I'm enjoying what I'm learning through you. And I, again, appreciate you having me on your show.