Noob School - Episode 61: Noob School Hall of Fame - David Wyatt

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

On this episode of Noob School, John sits down with David Wyatt, owner and director of Wyatt Law, to discuss a plethora of topics from law to the SC Football Hall of Fame, and much more in between. I'm going to be sharing my secrets on all my social channels, but if you want them all at your fingertips, start with my book, Sales for Noobs: https://amzn.to/3tiaxsL Subscribe to our newsletter today: https://bit.ly/3Ned5kL #noobschool #salestraining #sales #training #entrepreneur #salestips #salesadvice

New School. All right, well, welcome back to Noob School. Today I've got a good friend going back a long time, David Wyatt, from Wyatt Law. He's got his own law firm, and he does a lot of specialization now in entertainment law and in sports as well. So I thought he'd be very interesting to hear from David how he built his law firm, how he chose law, and then how he decided to make a specialty out of sports and entertainment. So welcome aboard, David. It's an honor to be here, John.

Thank you for having me on Noob School. You're welcome, man. You're welcome. You have been not only a good friend, but you've been quite a fan of the Noob School. I am. I am a fan. I mean, when I went to see you to talk about,

we were talking about this podcast or something, and man, you had the book out, and it was all like you had little notes in it and everything. You really read it. I did read it. Well, I mean, first of all, let me just say, I'm a little bit star-strot. Yeah, right.

I have been following your career, and you have helped Shepard a lot of friends of mine who I respect a lot. Their respect for you is legend. So when I saw you were putting your book out, I was like, man, I need some help in sales. And it was great. It was good. So, yeah. Thanks for saying that. We all need helping sales.

Me too. I'm always working on trying to find some thing to do better. But, yeah, a lot of those people that you went to school with at Clemson, we hired all the salespeople at our company data stream. Todd Lorbach, obviously, one of your good friends who did that. He's one of the few that has not been on the podcast yet. I don't know how that happens. Yeah, he just won't. He won't.

He's elusive. He's elusive. He is elusive. He lives in Portland. That doesn't help his chances either. But when he gets back here, that'll be good. Todd was, I think I've talked about it before, but Todd followed the formula of literally, I'm just going to outwork everyone.

He would get in earlier. He would skip lunch. he would stay late, he would make twice as many calls. And it was just amazing how fortune followed that work ethic. You know, not a lot of people want to sign up for that play, but that's a pretty good play. It's a good play to run. Yeah, that's right. People don't want to sign up for that, but it's kind of a sure thing.

Yeah. Because we as managers, we would see someone working that hard. We'd be like, we've got to give this guy a better territory or some mentoring or, you know, something. So it works that way everywhere, doesn't it? Well, I think that is, you know, the harder, I'm my dad used to say, you know, the harder I work, the luckier I get. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But you did go to Clemson, and what did you major in there? I started in engineering.

Okay. And, you know, in engineering, I took an econ class. And in econ, you know, they give you some credit for making some assumptions. Yeah. And in engineering, they really don't do that. And it was all stacking up on each other. So after a couple years of that, I was like, wow, you know. Yeah.

I'm going to assume that I'm not going to need this engineering degree. Yeah. And I'm going to switch to econ. Okay. So I graduated with the econ. Okay. Had a minor in law. Okay.

And did you think you were going to law school? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But not as an engineer, though, or were you thinking that? Well, you know, I had been in a lawsuit. I was in a lawsuit when I was in high school.

was in a wreck and and local attorney here who's awesome Paul Foster he was my lawyer and of course my uncle's a lawyer and he's awesome and it influenced me but but being involved in that wreck and had we'd have tried that thing twice you know really it was like yeah like I like that I like that yeah sort of being able to go into the courtroom and represent people and champion causes and and help people out it was great and you know get a little bit of of um ability to put on a show, if you will. And so that's kind of fun. Anyway, so when I was thinking about school

and people were advising me, they said, you know, you go to engineering, number one school in the country at Clemson. If you get in, you can always transfer to something else. And if you want to be a patent attorney, you got to, you know, you got to have that law degree or you have to have that engineering degree to be a member of the patent bar.

So, you know, when I switched out of engineering, I was like, well, there goes my patent law practice. Yeah, but it's all right. It's worked out. It's funny. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer too. And I majored in political science down in, it said it all in Charleston, and I was obviously a little bit older than you are.

But I had no clue. One of the reasons I did the Noobs book, because I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do, really. And I was frustrated by that. And so I think the book is meant to try to help people figure it out. But I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, and I went to see a guy down there in real estate who's very successful in Charleston

and he goes, well, he goes, if you don't really want to be a lawyer, he goes, maybe you should be a real estate lawyer and just live in Charleston and everyone, you know, not everyone, but you know a lot of people in Charleston, you went to school here, be a real estate lawyer, invest on the side, because you'd crush it.

And of course he was correct. I mean, he was completely correct. I just had it in my mind. I wanted to do something else. But it was interesting. Even though I didn't take that advice, I thought it was very good advice. That's interesting.

Good advice. I mean, you were pretty much a baller, you know, at the Citadel. Yeah. That being grounded down and looking at titles

might have been a little tedious for you. Good point. That's a good point. Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. And then after Clemson, you did go to Carolina law school, South Carolina.

That's right. Right? Yep. Now how did that feel? walking on that campus, the enemy? You know, I grew up a Gamecock fan. You did? Yeah.

Okay. I didn't know that. My mom is a huge Gamecock, and she's a huge football fan. She's the biggest football fan in the family, and so I watched games with her. And the first football game I went to was the Gator Ball with George Rogers, you know, faced off against Hugh Green, Pittsburgh. And so I was a Gamecock fan. And, of course, I loved the Burgundy.

I didn't necessarily like the orange. But, you know, I did have my granddad was a Clemson guy. He was the editor at Taps, you know. And my big brother and sister both went to Clemson undergrad. And as I mentioned, it was the number one engineering school in the country. So I went to Clemson and fell in love with the place. I mean, it's an awesome place. But when I went to Carolina, you know, again, you got ACC, you got SCC.

To me, I was able to distinguish those. And I remember the first football game I showed up down there at Williams Price outside tailgating. And some of my big Gamecock fans looked at me in there like, what are you doing down here? I was like, man, I'm a student. I'm coming to cheer. Well, you're not, you know, you can't do that. And so it's been an interesting. And when I started at Leatherwood, sometimes I would pull for the Gamecock, sometimes I'd pull for the Tigers, you know, when they played each other.

Sam out and one of my mentors, you know, some people called him. the tour mentor. Yeah. But that's a whole other story. But he was like, Wyatt, look, man, you went to Clemson undergrad. You're confusing people out here. Quit, you know, confusing people. You're pulling for Clemson when, don't act like you're a game cock.

When they tee off against each other, you're a clompson. Any other day, you know, I'm okay with you go for the cock. So, you know, that's my story about the Clemson, Carolina. But, you know, I do find, and I love what's going on down there now. So it's great. Yeah, good. It's a good robbery. It is.

It is. It's a good robbery. pretty healthy i would say pretty healthy sometimes gets over the top and you you kind of yeah you had your roots and being a lawyer

from your high school experience and then from your uncle so you kind of had that exposure to see what it was like right yeah and again that's part of the nobs book is I think most people you know

very often they go with kind of whatever they get a glimmer of but they don't see everything you know and I think that people would do better if they saw more choices. It really is. Especially today, you know, careers have changed and what can you do.

Yeah. And it's just, it is. I think you're right. That new book really does put you on a lot about who you are, self-reflection, habits, and exposure to things that you never know. I mean, you've got to follow those gifts that, you know, you've been given, but also the things that you like. Yeah.

Because if you don't like it. Right. There's a drudge. Right. Yeah. So when I met with you, you were moving, like the next day. Where's your office now? Well, I've moved twice.

Okay. Since then. Okay. And, yeah, I was, it's right. You were the last appointment that I had at the field house. I've been in the field house. Those guys were great. David Glenn.

The baseball place. Yeah, that's right. And I had about a 30-day notice to move out, and I found a spot. But my dad has a spot. You know, my dad runs the Wyatt Institute of Real Estate. Oh, really? So right there, when you're coming in off 385, I tell people he was the original tweeter, you know. He had put in those pithy sayings on his sign.

How long has you been doing that? Well, he's been there for over 50 years. Wow. I don't know how long that sign he's been putting those sayings up there. I do know that Billy Carpenter stood up, I think, at one of the city council meetings and said this is a landmark. So they kind of helped keep that sign. there for there a widening the highway. But I'm right across the street from him right now.

He's my landlord on one Witsitts Street. Okay, one Witson. Okay, I know exactly. Well, that's cool. I did not know that was your dad. That is an institution. But one thing about, you know, being a law, I mean, you go to law school and you learn the law in your specialty.

But when you have your own law firm, you're now a businessman. That's right. You're a business owner, and you're in charge of the finances and the taxes and the selling and the marketing and all that stuff. So talk to us about that. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things. I grew up with Leatherwood, great law firm, great place to train, and then went off into some smaller firms, Dana Mitchell, and ended up with my own firm, and you realize that, like you said, you know, no law school doesn't necessarily teach you how to be a business, small business man. So there's the services that you provide

in the legal field. And it's products and services that you can develop and define. And then it's a matter of really keeping track of all of that to where you, you know, you stay in business, you grow, you're intentional about things so you don't get overwhelmed. It's easy to get overwhelmed with work and you've got too much stuff in the house and you can't manage it. So it really has been one of those things. that, I mean, hey, this Noob School's book also helps you keep on the focus. Well, good.

Is there any certification or course or anything that a lawyer would take when they're going out on their own? You know, there are courses out there that you can take, and I have invested in some of that. I mean, I found that book called Traction, Gino Wickman. Yeah. was pretty good at just helping me figure out the sort of the vision 10-year, three-year, one year, and put it on a quarterly track. So it's been very helpful. Good, good, okay.

And then you've also, lawyer, business owner, also a professor. So you teach as well at what school? I teach at the University of South Carolina School of Law. So at the law school in Columbia, Joe Meefebush. McCullough taught me there sports and entertainment when I was there. And about 15 years ago, he asked me to, I started just guest lecturing once a semester. I'd come in to teach sports one class and then entertainment in the fall. And he about 15 years ago said, why don't you co-teach this with me? So it's been fun. It's been great. You know, drive down there on Thursdays.

we just we've got our exam review coming up in this month in April and then they'll take a take-home exam but you know and then sports sports law next fall working on hopefully get Lee Steinberg to come in and teach them up but it's great because so have you found with with that many classes under your belt where they know you as professor and expert in your field um have you have you gotten like from that net work of people, have you gotten any new business? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that being known in the sports and entertainment world,

there's not a lot of sports and entertainment lawyers in South Carolina. I mean, when I told folks that I wanted to be a sports and entertainment lawyer, I believe I was in an interview with Sam Outton and Joanna Searle, and they busted out laughing. I mean, just busted out laughing, thinking I was kidding. And, you know, I am one to kid around a little bit. you know, probably not as much as I used to be, but they could tell I wasn't kidding. You know, I was serious about that. If I was serious about one thing, I was serious about that.

And they were like, oh, yes, of course. You know, you can be a sports and entertainment lawyer here in Greenville, South Carolina. You know, just make sure that you get your billable works and you get your billable every year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but, you know, 27 years later, it's worked out pretty well. And, you know, so I think that when you think about sports and entertainment in South Carolina,

you know, my name does come up pretty frequently. Have you, of course, have you gotten involved with, is it NIL, NIL, NIL? The name, image and likeness. Yeah. Tell us about that. What's going on there? Well, I tell you, I have heard a lot of folks obviously talk about name image and likeness, everybody from Joe Mowgliah down there at Coastal Carolina.

He's someone who I look to and Chance Miller down the, there at South Carolina came and spoke to our law school class last year. And he, and then we had, of course, Senator Marlon Kempson come in, who was one of the authors of the bill, and he came in, and we were chopping it up with the Department of Consumer Affairs because, you know, they enforce all these laws. And so when they passed the laws, it really changed some things because we were cutting edge here in South Carolina by going out and having our own law. But then we assumed that maybe there was going to be something more restrictive.

out there. And what happened was the NCAA just kind of abandoned their, you know, responsibility. It became a Wild West. And so actually what happened was because South Carolina had a law in place, it was more restrictive than what the NCAA was like, well, if you state has a law, great. Otherwise, just figure it out, you know, for your school. And so the legislature here in South Carolina went back in and, you know, de-commissioned that law. pretty quickly. I think they left some teeth in there for certain elements, but it became very confusing, and it still is to this day very confusing exactly what you're able to do. And so I've been advising some of the businesses in terms of, you know, what, because if you, if you

do jeopardize their eligibility, you know, that can be... You can be sued. You can be sued. You can be personally liable. You can be liable to the university if you call somebody their eligibility and certain. It's criminal. You can go to jail. So, yes, I've been involved with that, NIL.

But it is happening, right? It is happening. What is just rough numbers? What is the most of players getting paid in one year? You know, I would not be the one to answer that question. I mean, I can't tell you. I mean, there's, I've heard all kinds of different courts. More than a million.

More than a million? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. There's, there's a, there are players that are. coming in getting paid more than a million dollars that have never played in the college game. Just a top recruit kind of. Just a top recruit, yeah. And, I mean, I think, first of all, let me just say, name image and likeness is a good way to allow you to profit.

I mean, you should be able to profit on your name. And a lot of these guys aren't going to necessarily even have a collegiate career, but they may be able to parlay some of their brand for, you know, to make money, to make a living. And that's one of the things that's been very challenging as an NFL agent and a sports agent over the years is to try to help folks that have a lot of talent, but not necessarily a lot of economic resources.

And then they're restricted in what they can earn. It's kind of, it's been really a challenge for them. And I think that, you know this being in sales, people are more motivated by the fear of loss than they are gain. And so I see this name image likeness, and we talk to a lot of the younger folks, and try to encourage them to look at themselves as a brand. You are building a brand, whether you're a middle schooler these days or even an elementary schooler. And so you have a brand, and your brand is something that you develop every day.

And so now that you have a brand that can actually be monetized, potentially even as early as now, that you have a brand. something you could lose because if you go out there and associate that brand in a way that isn't congruent with the you know who you are or it looks you know like something you can alienate all of corporate America and cost yourself a lot of money so I think you're motivated it has the ability to motivate and that's what I'm hoping will come out of it well I was just thinking I'm no student of this like you are but the first one I could remember who had a real on-purpose brand was Dion Sanders. Where he knew coming into Florida State

that he was going to act a certain way, talk a certain way, and he's still doing it today. Yeah. I'll tell you, I would not have thought of him, although I do, I like Dion Sanders, and I think you've got to respect what he's done. When he points to the end zone and takes it back, I mean, that's calling it.

Were you there for that? game. I had the Panoroski. I don't believe I was actually there, but I may have been. Oh my gosh. I'm trying to put it out of my mind. I still don't know what happened. I mean, I've seen the diagram, but unbelievable. But yeah, so, but, you know, he's in Colorado now. But I didn't know, I didn't see him. I mean, I remember when he came to Atlanta, the radio guy was like, oh, Dion Sanders, I don't know if there's enough mustard in all of Atlanta to cover this hot dog. I mean, what did you see him? What was his brand? Well, I mean, Neon, Dion Dion. Dion. Dion. Yeah. Yeah, he was styling and profiling. He was a little bit of almost like a Rick Flair type guy in football. Yeah. You know, he was cool and lots of rhymes and stuff. But anyway. Give a shout out to Rendrick Taylor, who was one of my clients,

a big Clemson fullback that is now his strength coach out there in Colorado. Really? That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, we'll see what he does out there. It wouldn't surprise me if he does real well. Yeah, I hope he does. But he's a heck of a recruiter.

you know, hard to say no to that guy. How about, you know, in terms of selling, one of the things I've already heard that you do is by teaching at that law school, you know, you're creating this large network of future entertainment and sports agent people that you can refer business back and forth to. Is that part of the plan? Well, I don't know that I was smart enough or intuitive enough to know that that would actually happened, but that has happened. So, yeah, sales, and growing up, nobody really told you, at least not me, hey, you know,

everybody's in sales. Yeah. I mean, it was one of those things that I kind of came to the party, maybe a little late. Yeah, I mean, I certainly, I would have thought the same thing. If I was going to go to law school, I would think I've got to be technically a great lawyer. And I'll be working somewhere, delivering that bring me the cases, and I process them. and, you know, and I think even in a law firm now, if you want to be a partner and make a lot of money,

you better be, you better have relationships with some CEOs, big businesses. Let's, you know, it's like, you know, what you teach, and, you know, how can you add value to somebody? How can you add value to the situation to where you're solving problems? You know, I'm in sales, I'm solving legal problems. You got a legal problem? Hey, I want to help you solve that problem. problem, if I can. If I'm not the right person, that's another thing that I think is as you grow,

you realize, look, not everybody is right. Just because you're not right for that situation, you know, you've, you know, make the best out of it because it may not be today. It might not work out for us. I mean, you know, when I first started trying to sell you was years ago and you weren't buying anything. And, you know, it was all good, though. I mean, I respect the relationship and appreciate the opportunity to be sitting in here talking to you now. That's good. That's good. Well, I think that's a good point you just made underselling.

And this is a basic point, but people miss it all the time. And if a new misses it and somehow survives as a salesperson, they might continue to do this their whole career. And here it is. When you start a conversation with a prospective client, very often the salesperson will start talking about themselves. and I did this and I did this and I know George Rogers

and all this kind of stuff and the person's sitting there they won't say anything or just sitting there thinking I don't want to hear it you know I would be very pleased if they would find out what my problem is because that's what I'm curious about

I'd like someone that listened to me to get me right to really get what I'm thinking and what my problem is and if you really get somebody and what their issue is they very often don't even check what the heck you do, right? They just assume you can do it.

Yep. Right? Because you understand them. That's right. So I think you're very good at that. Well. You must work at it. I guess I have, you know, I have the ability to learn.

I mean, if you're going to be in sales, which we all are, then we need to figure out how are you going to add value to a situation. How is it that I'm and the only way I can do it is to ask. Right. That's good. That's good. So let's talk about something that you've added to your work avatar over the last, I don't know how many years since you got involved with or started the Sports Hall of Fame.

The South Carolina Football Hall of Fame, when it started, it was 10 years ago. 10 years ago. In 2012, we had the first vote. and we had the first class, the South Carolina College All-Star Bowl, which did not last. We had the first enshrinement the night before that All-Star Bowl up at North Greenville. And that was in March of 2013. And Coach Jeffries was in that class.

He was actually coaching the – we had the low country versus the upstate. And so Danny Ford was the upstate coach. Sam White was the commissioner of the. game. Wow. And Nick Eason was one of the presenters along with Will Merritt, and we had Brian Dawkins coaching in that game and Charlie Brown. We had a lot of great football players.

Patrick Sapp had come to me, said, David, a lot of these guys, they want to coach, but they don't have the ability to go out here and start at the high school level. And so if you start this All-Star game, I can get some of these guys in here to coach. and because all the NFL scouts and everybody comes by to see these players, then it could be a good network. And that's what we were trying to help the entertainment and sports business in South Carolina. We had the broadcast crew. We had Todd Ellis and Will Merritt on the broadcast crew, which was incredible,

and had a lot of great talent showcased all over that. And we were going to, and we did this at halftime, we brought out, it was televised regionally, and we brought out the class at halftime and introduced them. but about a week or two before the game, Coach Jeffries said Willie Jeffers. He's like, David, I want a proper ceremony. I need a proper ceremony. And I'm like, well, you deserve that. And Kevin Jones was a friend of mine that was working at, he was selling the real estate right there right next to.

It used to be the gauntlet. And so he helped me connect all of the dots and actually played music in this thing and had his buddy fly in from California. He was a former high school coach. And so we did it, standing room only, in what used to be the gauntlet. I'm thinking of the name, but drawing a blank on it, right next to North Greenville Stadium.

And it was just classic. Danny Ford was there. George Rogers was there. Banks McFadden's daughter and granddaughter were there. Donnie Shell came in with his wife. For the Pittsburgh. Oh, it was incredible. Sam White's was shining people.

shoes, talk about humble. But just an amazing, you know, kickoff for this South Carolina Football Hall of Fame. That class, you know, now we're, we're about at our 10th class. Wow. It's been and why did you, did you start it? I did start it. Why did you start it? Well, when I, my entertainment, sports entertainment company melted down. And, uh, and so I was back practicing law and had a lot of the, you know, it was a problem. Basically, you had the nonprofit community that was reaching out saying, hey, I need a ball, I need people to come and raise money. And then I had these young men that had many of them played the game

or played in entertainment sports world and had just not been prepared for the next level. So they're coming to me and they've got problems. And I'm like, all right, well, look, you can't afford to pay my fees. But I want you to go play, you know, go go with Deb Osborne and do some bowling, salemate bowling and raised money. We were raising money for meals on wheels. We get people to drive. And, you know, it was just a great way to bring the community together and celebrate football.

Football is a great sport. And it's my favorite sport. And when I was an NFL agent, we had an entertainment company that was, we were athletes love entertainers. Entertainers love athletes, you know. And so we were thinking, man, this is great. And we had bought the old Capricorn recording studio. and moved it from downtown Graemeville, had, you know. And so we were selling some of these football players on the fact that we had, you know,

record company and the ability to help them with that. And I had a one of the guys was like, who are you signing with? Well, it's you and this other guy. Well, who tell me about the other group? Well, you know, tell them about us. What do you like about them? Well, you know, they do entertainment too. He's like, well, let me ask you this.

What are you going to do? He said, what do you mean? He said, well, are you a musician? He said, no. He said, how are you going to make your money? He said, well, we'll play football. He said, well, that's all we do is football. Good line.

That's a good line. So I said, you know, we need something that's just football, football is South Carolina. When you think about South Carolina, if you're a marketing guy and you're going to be selling South Carolina. And I say to you, you can't use the natural resources or just the people. Then, you know, I think you might come up with football. This is something that we do well. We're great. It has national significance.

You know, we're the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame. Great leadership. Yeah. And I think we can solve a lot of problems through football. Yeah, it's serious down here. Serious. Well, that's cool. And so you've done it for 10 years now, and you've got the next event coming up.

It's like in three weeks? It's in three. Well, you know, April, the 20th, we have the Bridge Builder Excellence Award, which is like our high school heisman. Okay. All these are great players. When you see the top 10, we have 84 nominated across the, state and all of those guys are winners. I want to make that point because that's what we're doing.

We're celebrating, recognizing, and encouraging excellence. We're bringing the top 10 to do like a Heisman ceremony up here. And that'll be April 20th, that's Zen. At Zen on Main Street. April 20th on Zen Main Street, right across the baseball stadium. And then the 21st, we'll bring the winner of that event, which is Bridge Builders, to the Hilton on Haywood and and do our 10th enthrignment class, which is, it's going to be on fire this year. So if somebody wanted to come to the South Carolina Hall of Fame on the 20th, the 21st, how would they do it? Go to SCF Football, H-O-F dot ORG. SCF FootballH-O-F dot O-RG.

The Hoff. Yep. Just click on that, buy tickets, and if they're not sold out, you're in. All right. I love it. Love to see you. I love it. That's great.

Well, again, I think you have a real good handle on sales. And I wondered, besides the book, of course, did you have any other, like you take any other courses or study sales in any other way? I've done a lot of studying of sales. Okay. There's a book called Sales Dogs. That's a pretty good book out there. I think that's a good one.

There's an online academy, business-making. Simple University, Don Miller, and he really talks about using story and inviting people into a story, which I think is fantastic. And we've used a lot of that to try to create. And it's challenging, too, because it's like what problem are you solving? Yeah, right. And let me just say this, too, about the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame. You know, it wouldn't exist without a lot of people.

And there's a lot of folks out there that I want to think and can think and should be, thinking and you know Mikey football is one of those guys and we have a new executive director this year Michelle Wolford who we're really excited and Levin carclan i mean you know our friend levin was the one that really came up with the fact that South Carolina is 43rd in the country in college and career readiness so when you think about that college and career readiness you go wow 43rd in the country and uh and so that's where Levin was like why i've never been satisfied being 43rd out of 50 in anything, you know, and why don't we get this to the top 10 in the country in college and career readiness? And, of course, I think you asked me the same thing. I mean, how are you

going to do that? I mean, it sounds like a lofty goal, but how are you going to do that? And he said, well, you know what? We're going to educate, encourage, and empower excellence, you know, in ourselves first, and then in others. And we went out under that sort of auspice, meeting with leaders around the state and have had great support and everybody's really coming together behind us now and I appreciate you. You challenged me. You said what was the one thing you got to do? I don't know if you remember what I told you.

Tell me, I forgot. I sent back a one word response to that email. It was belief. Believe, yeah. I think people got to believe. And so when you're selling, you know, I think you've got to believe in what you're selling. You got to believe in yourself and you've got to believe in whoever you're, you know, going to see. Yeah. Well, that's true. I would just tack on that what you're doing proactively with this South Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, I mean, it is all positive. You know, you're, you're spreading the word to all of these, you know, high school students, college people,

people who used to play sports, coaches, all of them, like, this is a positive thing. We're finding the best of the best. We're trying to get people more ready for college and for life. And that seems wonderful. Yeah. It's wonderful what you're doing. And, you know, nobody solves every problem immediately. It's just like, are you moving in the right direction or aren't you? Yeah. I mean, it's the bridge builder excellence community. Yeah. I mean, can you get on board with that? I'm on board. I got my tickets. I'll be there. Thank you. What's the dress code? It's, you know, you can wear business casual. A lot of people wear suits, don't they? Some people wear suits. You'll see some women you know, dressed up a little nicer.

You'll see some people in there with a golf shirt and a pair of slacks. You're going to feel cultural. It's a great group. There'll be some people in there with suits and ties, though, coats and ties. I know, I know. Well, we've talked about a couple of books. Do you have a favorite book? Favorite book.

I mean, other than the good book. Yeah. You know, I like, I do like some of the classics. like the how to win friends and influence people. That's a good one. Classic.

That's a good one. That's a good one. And then favorite word? I think my favorite word is excellence. Excellent. Yeah, excellent. I love it. I love it.

And we've promoted the Hall of Fame event a little bit, but do you want to talk about it a little bit more, anything else you want to promote? Well, I mean, I would say that if folks are listening and they're interested in getting involved with, you know, whether it's the fact that we're, helping students or helping the community or you just like the legends of the game. I mean, we are actively recruiting folks to get involved and be part of the bridge builder excellence community.

You know, we're working with mentor programs around the state. Yeah, we're working with the new superintendent of education. Ellen Weaver and her chief of staff Larry Huff's been a friend and the supporter of ours for a long time. The legislators getting together. We got Dabo and Shane Beamer and Joe Moglia and all the football. legends coming together and really trying to get the industry and all of the leaders here that care about South Carolina and want to see a great South Carolina community where we're in the top 10 in the country in college and career readiness. I mean think about how awesome South Carolina will be yeah when we're in that top 10 we should be and and so I would just say to your listeners first of all thank you and and second of all if you want to get involved you know

SCF FootballH-O-F-O-F-O-F.org, and we'd love to have your support. All right. Well, you've got mine, and thank you for being here today. We all appreciate it. Hey, thank you, John. All right, man. Thanks. Okay.

Thank you.