Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Players Win Games Coaches Win Players with Coach Bill Courtney

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

TAKEAWAYSBackground and journey of Coach Bill Courtney from football coach to CEO of American HardwoodsInfluence of coaching and core values on young athletesPerspectives on the economic forecast, with a focus on the lumber sectorRelationship between coaching tenets and their implementation in business and personal spheresOverview of the hardwood industry, covering operations, sales, and international reachTIMESTAMPSWinning the Players (00:00:00) Coach Courtney discusses the importance of winning players as a coach by instilling confidence and accountability in them.Economic Outlook (00:01:30) Coach Courtney shares insights on the economic recovery, particularly in the lumber business, as a leading indicator for building and overall economic growth.Impact of Pandemic on Housing Market (00:03:37) Discussion on the impact of the pandemic on the housing market, leading to an eight-year deficit in multi and single-family housing in the US.Business and Personal Journey (00:10:29) Coach Courtney shares his personal journey from being a football coach to becoming the owner of a lumber company and the impact he had on a struggling football team.Coaching Principles (00:17:34) Coach Courtney explains the coaching principles he follows, emphasizing character, commitment, integrity, and the value of hard work in coaching football and beyond.Foundation of Success (00:21:03) The conversation shifts to the importance of building a strong foundation based on character and discipline, applicable to both personal and professional life.Ins and Outs of Hardwood Business (00:24:41) The discussion transitions to the details of Classic American Hardwoods, including the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) aspects of the hardwood business.The timber industry in the United States (00:25:07) Coach Bill Courtney dispels misconceptions about the timber industry and highlights the sustainable forestry practices in the United States.The process of hardwood production (00:25:53) Coach Courtney explains the process of hardwood production, from selective harvesting to shipping to manufacturers worldwide.The global impact of hardwood production (00:27:19) The conversation touches on the global reach of hardwood production, including the use of hardwood in products like guitars and the intricate process involved.Founding and growth of American Hardwoods (00:29:38) Coach Courtney shares the entrepreneurial journey of founding American Hardwoods with a small initial investment and rewarding key employees.The concept and purpose of "An Army of Normal Folk" podcast (00:32:59) Coach Courtney discusses the origins and purpose of the "An Army of Normal Folk" podcast, aiming to highlight the stories of ordinary people making a difference in their communities.Impact and success of "An Army of Normal Folk" (00:39:16) Coach Courtney reflects on the positive impact of the podcast, including connecting individuals and organizations to effect change and inspire others.Leadership and societal impact (00:45:33) Coach Courtney emphasizes the importance of leadership and the actions of followers in effecting positive societal change.How to engage with Coach Bill Courtney and "An Army of Normal Folk" (00:47:18) Listeners are encouraged to engage with Coach Courtney's work through his website and the "An Army of Normal Folk" podcast, with an emphasis on the nonprofit nature of the initiative. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

Players win games. Coaches win players. The question then is how do you win the players? And you coach them well. They need to have confidence that when you're putting an offense or a defensive system in around them, that what you're instructing them to do on the football field is accurate and sound and gives them a great opportunity to compete. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks?

Well, it starts right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. Wherever, whenever, however you are, we hope you are fabulous. Thank you for making us number one on Apple Podcasts. We appreciate it. Wouldn't be here without you. We like to say, even though we changed the name, we like to say if it's radical, we cover it.

I got another radical guest today. It's Coach Bill Courtney. He is the CEO of American Hardwoods, but best known as the subject of Oscar-winning documentary, Undefeated, and author of Against the Grain. And we're definitely going to talk about his latest podcast, An Army of Normal Folks. What's up, Coach? What's up, man? Living life. Yeah. Hey, man.

You're staying after it. I thought I was a busy guy, but then I just read through. I've been reading through your stuff and trying to keep up with you. I'm like, you know, you're still just, you know, one step after the other, dude. You got it all going on, right? Yeah. I mean, last month I was in India for four days, flew back for three, was in Dubai for four days, threw back for four,

was in New York for three days, flew back. And it's stupid, dude. And at 40, that was fun. You know, in my 50s now, I'm just a beat, wore out dog. But I'm having a blast with all of it. And I'm, you know, far more blessed than I deserve. So no griping. Now, is the travel like media related or hardwood related?

Yes. The New York and L.A. type stuff is typically media related. And then we do business in 42 different countries. My company, Classic American Hardwoods, and we're still in a hangover, COVID hangover in Asia. And so we are just now able to get back into our customers in some markets. And so we're on a fast track pickup on travel and relationship building and visits we should be doing to factories over the last four years. And we're having to pile it all in this year to catch up. So there's just a, it's just a lot, man, but it's good. And I'll tell you something else. The world is starting to recover economically. And we can feel that. The lumber business is kind of a leading economic indicator for building, which is a massive leading economic indicator for the overall economy, both in the United States and the world economy.

And when lumber feels growth, you can just about guarantee six to nine months later, you're going to see decent economic numbers. And we are feeling growth for the first time in a while. That's good. That's a positive metric. Is it worldwide that you, when you say that growth, are you saying U.S.-based than we normally are? Well, the real growth right now is U.S.-based, which is – so my kids are 27, 26, 25, and 24, and that generation really dealt with COVID in college or just after college or as young adults if they weren't in college. COVID in college or just after college or as young adults if they weren't in college.

And that generation is also, as a result of COVID and interruptions of life, have largely lived in their parents' basement, really. And going into COVID, there was already about a three-year deficit of multifamily and single-family housing in the United States. and single-family housing in the United States. Well, after the four-year hangover that exists because of COVID and those kids, young adults, not getting out and buying, entering the buying market, there's now an eight-year deficit of multi- and single-family housing in the United States. You pile that on top of the fact that anybody with a house,

back when interest rates were 3, 4%, probably refinanced or bought at three or 4%. Now that there are eight, they might could sell their house for $200,000 more than they bought it. But what they buy to replace it because of the interest rates, their notes going to be more for less house. So nobody's going to sell their existing house. So when you have this eight-year deficit of housing and nobody's selling their houses, the only answer is we got to build. And so building is starting to meet that demand and interest rates had to be dropped. And I will tell you, interest rates are going to drop this year two, maybe three times. I would argue three times because the Biden administration is going to try to win an election and they've got to get people excited about the economy come November.

So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of pressure to lower rates. So when you lower rates and spur building and purchases of new product right into the face of an eight-year deficit housing, you've got a pretty good recipe for a large sector of the United States economy built around building that's going to be pretty active. And typically, that leaks into Europe and then Asia, who makes a lot of goods coming back into those houses in the United States, both in furniture and flooring, toilets, cabinets, everything. They're going to see a resurgence of business as a result of that. So, you know, I'm kind of a contrarian economically anyway. But from everything I'm seeing, I would expect a pretty robust second half of this year and a pretty strong 2025.

Well, that's positive news. We like sharing positive news. I was the only one that said a year ago that we were not going to have, not the only one, but amongst a lot of my peers, I said we were not going to have the downturn that everyone was calling for. You were dead right. I was right with you, and you're dead right. Just too many markers. I just didn't see that happening. I don't know.

I was like, you watch all this data. I don't know. But at the same time, it was like, have we ever been more attempted to be talked into it, though, than we were like a year, a little over a year ago. I mean, everybody, the news, I mean, everyone was trying to talk us into, you know, the biggest deficit of our lives. media and the folks in DC are incented by an enormous amount of power and a doubly enormous amount of wealth to craft narratives to scare the hell out of us so they can get our votes and they can get our dollars and they can get our advertising dollars. So the narrative I just said to you doesn't sell, but doom and gloom sells and people get scared and they get clannish. And so you're right. Um, those aren't the things that we really hear. Um, but I think part of the social

and cultural issues we have right now are because so much power and wealth is concentrated in such a small area in DC and New York. And those narratives that come out of there are crafted in order to divide us up and clan us. And the very narratives that do that, that maintain their power and wealth scare the hell out of us. And, you know, we can go, we're not going to get into an economics lesson. We can

talk about inverted yield curves and everything else. There's one other thing. All of the historical data that economists and all the smart people constantly point to when they do their prognostications of up or down markets over the next three, four, five, six quarters are really accurate stuff. And there are smart people in Harvard and Yale and MIT that figure this stuff out. But there's a difference this time. And we've never had a year and a half, two year business interruption because of a pandemic. And all of our numbers and data are skewed as a result of those six to eight quarters. And so all of the indicators and all of the yield curves and all of the things that people point to to prognosticate what the next year or the next year is going to look like are frankly screwed up.

And because nobody's ever had those data in their numbers to give their prognostications, even the smartest people right now are still just guessing. So I'm not even looking at what they say. I'm just telling you what I'm feeling in my business. And being in the lumber business, which is a leading economic indicator, we are busy. And we are busy in India. We are busy in the Middle East. We're busy in Pakistan. We're busy all over northern and eastern Europe. And we're real busy in the United States. And Central and South America are on fire, busy. So when you go to all four corners of the globe

and people are buying as fast as they can and building as quick as they can, you know, people on Fox and CNN can say whatever the hell they want to. I just know what I see. Yeah, that's was similar for me and what I was feeling and what I was seeing in the hiring market and all that stuff. So we'll come back to maybe some of that. We'll see what happens. How the hell is a football coach become, you coach become the owner of a hardwood company? Well, that's an interesting story. I graduated from Ole Miss.

My mom was married and divorced five times. My fourth daddy pulled out a.38 caliber pistol and shot the house up one night and shot at me, and I had to dive out a window to save myself. I didn't come from much of nothing and a lot of backwards stuff, really. And the only decent people in my life were my coaches. And had it not been for my coaches, I'm really not sure where I'd ended up. So when I graduated from Ole Miss, coaching was not really just a profession. It was kind of a calling.

It was something I really believed in. And I still believe in the inherent ability of a coach to have a lasting impact on young guys that really need it. And so I started coaching and teaching for a living. You know, you're never going to make a whole lot of money doing it, but it's what I wanted to do. And, you know, you can see me. This ain't that great. And, I mean, this, I worked to get to this, all right?

And I ran into a girl named Lisa who's a straight-up dime. And she married me. And, you know know i don't know if you fish but if you've ever lit into like a 20 pound slab on six pound test line you don't yank too hard you ease it in you let it wear itself out you get your net you do everything you can to get in the boat to keep it in you know getting off the hook or breaking the line and that's kind of what i felt like when i married lisa she was 20 pounds slab by six town test and so i didn't know what to do to keep around so we're in the south we just i just started having kids so we had four kids in four years and um seventeen thousand dollars a year as a teacher and a coach wasn't getting it. So I had to get out of that as a profession, but it's still my passion. And so in the state of Tennessee, if you go take a bunch of classes in Nashville,

which is our capital, you can be what's called a certified non-faculty coach. And so I took those classes. So I continued to coach, not like a dad helper, but coach while pursuing other interests to try to make more money for all these kids and this hot wife I had to keep around the house. Bounced around and when I was 31 years old, we had $17,000 in the bank and I started a lumber company

and now 23 years later we're on 50 acres I have a manufacturing facility here in Memphis and a sales office here in Memphis sales office I've got an office in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam I've got an office in Shanghai 130 employees we, Vietnam. I've got an office in Shanghai, 130 employees. We do about 80 million a year in sales. And so it grew and I was blessed. But the whole time I did that, I coached football. And when I opened my business, there was this little school not far at all from my business that needed help. And when I showed up, they had a previous 10 years record of four wins and 95 losses. And they had 17 kids on the football team. They were terrible. Seven years later, we had 75 kids on the team. Our previous year's record was 18 wins and two losses.

And it's the fifth poorest zip code in the United States. An 18-year-old male is three times more likely to be dead or in jail by his 21st birthday than it is to have a job. That's the demographics around the area. And we turned the team around. The kids turned the team around. We got to be 18 and 2, 75 kids on the team. 75 kids on the team. And these three guys from LA showed up, said they wanted to make a movie that we thought we might see on channel 380 at 2 a.m.

One Wednesday on Xfinity. And a year and a half later, I'm walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards. What a story, man. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. Wasn't looking for it. So how does a football coach and a lumber

guy and all that? I don't know. I mean, I coached football. I've gotten married, had kids, chased an opportunity to try to make some more money, kept coaching football. Some dudes showed up and the only difference in me and thousands of other Americans is my story got told, but it gave me a platform. I'd speak all over the country, wrote a book, and then started a podcast because Lisa, my wife, said, we ain't moving to Hollywood. We ain't moving to New York.

Our business is in Memphis. We're Memphis people. You coach in Memphis. Our children grew up in Memphis. Memphis is our home. So don't get the big head and think anything about this. But if you want to use this to talk about stuff that matters, I'm all in. If you want to use this to try to make a little extra money

and act like you're somebody you're not, I'm all out. And so the whole shtick has been since the Academy Awards and all of it is use the opportunity and blessing of all of that happening to have conversations about stuff that matters. And so that's what we've been trying to do. Man, a lot to unpack there. I think I love the I love what you said about, you know, a lot of Americans have stories. Yours just happened to get told a lot of truth to that. You know, it's amazing. I mean, I get the blessing of talking to a lot of different people. And some of them are famous. Some of them aren't. It's like everybody's got a story.

And it is amazing, though, that how many might could be, you know, Hollywood classics. There has to be a few plot twists in there, which I heard with your story. But it is, you know, sort of the blessing. But I also believe you sort of create your own blessings in a lot of ways. And I think the impact that you had on those kids and, you know, in coaching and, you know, some of your own talents that you shared with others had a lot to do with it, it sounds like. I mean, I appreciate you saying that. And I mean, yeah, a lot of work, a lot of all that. But the kids did the work.

I just kind of gave them an illustration of what life could look like if you went about it a little bit of a different way. What was the difference between them being, I don't remember the exact record, but over those seven years, you know, being 2 in 18 versus 18 in 2 or something, you know, along those, you know, you did something. You 2 or something along those. You did something. You instilled something in them. I mean, what were the tenets of that success? First, you got to understand that my belief set is players win games and coaches win players.

I've never seen a coach make a touchdown. I've never seen one throw a pass. I've never seen one make a tackle. Players do that stuff. Players win games. Coaches win players. So if players win games and the players that win games are the players that are won by the coach, the question then is how do you win the players? And you coach them well. the coach, the question then is, how do you win the players? And you coach them well. They need to have confidence that when you're putting an offense or a defensive system in around them, that what you're instructing them to do on the football field is accurate and sound and gives them a great opportunity to compete and win. That's true. But that is really only 20% of it. The other part of winning a kid is being able to hold them accountable, discipline them, all while them understanding you love them

and that you are disciplining them, holding them accountable, coaching them and teaching them because it will make them a better version of themselves and to instill fundamentals and tenets in them that are going to last them long after the days of playing football are over. So we coach character, commitment, integrity, the dignity of hard work, what a good teammate is, the value of understanding the difference in being hurt and being injured, the importance of forgiveness and grace.

We coach fundamentals and tenets that are basically in my book, Against the Grain. That's what Against the Grain is, is a listing of these fundamentals and tenets and exploration of them. And we coach that. And we coach that. So we coach football. Yeah, you got to be good at the X's and O's. But you don't win your players with just football. You win your players with preparing them to be better versus themselves, better young men, and hopefully have a foundation

that they can build a meaningful life after football is over. And when you talk that stuff and you walk that stuff and coach it and preach it, and it's daily and you, and it takes more importance than winning or losing a football game. Gradually you start to win kids. And when you win kids and they believe in you and they believe in themselves and you surround them with a system that is sound and will allow them to go win football games, you win football games.

I've coached in five different schools now, and everywhere we've been, we've won. And I'm telling you, it's not because I am a genius at the X's and O's. I'm sound at the X's and O's. I'm sound at the X's and O's. What I'm good at is talking to people about the very stuff that my coaches talk to me about when I was diving out of windows, dodging bullets in my home. Talking with Coach Bill Courtney, founder of Classic American Hardwoods,

subject of Undefeated, the Oscar-winning football documentary. Coach, you know, I heard you talking, and for a minute, I thought, you know, we're talking about kids and football, and then I was like, sounds like you're talking a little bit about employees and business, too. I think there's some correlations. That's the trick. So what was that dude's name?

Carnegie. Yeah. He wrote a Carnegie sales course that was big in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and people still take it. One of his big things is a good sales operator, a good sales manager has to be a chameleon. His argument is you've got to be able to talk to the blue-collar guy and the got to be able to, you've got to be able to talk to the blue collar guy and the white collar guy. You got to be able to talk in the boardroom.

You got to be able to talk to the small business owner and the C and the C level executive of big company. You got to be a chameleon. He sold that idea for decades. And I think that is bullshit. I think you have to be consistent in who you are. So if you're going to coach your football team the way I just talked about, you also got to manage your business that way. And very most importantly,

you've got to walk that way with your children and your spouse. I do not think you need to be a comedian. I think you need to, look, man, you can win the Super Bowl and you can make $45 million. And if I put that Super Bowl trophy on the ground and asked you to stand on it, you would slip off of it and fall down or it would break. And if I piled up $20 million in hundreds, if you think about what a brick of a hundreds looks like, that's $100,000. And I said, I just stacked them up. And I said, if you can

stand on that for five minutes without it falling out from under you, I'll give it to you. You can try all you want to, but those dollars are going to buck when you're going to fall on your ass. So, I mean, if you are, if the basis of who you are is accolades and money and what society exalts you as, that is not a proper foundation. You will fall and bust your ass.

You will always, you look at all the people, look at people in our society right now, culturally in the news cycle, whose entire foundation is their, their, their, their popularity is, is their money is their brand, all that crap. If that's who you are, if that makes up the foundation, you are, you're going to collapse eventually. However, if you build a foundation on character, commitment, integrity, discipline, all of the things we're talking about, those fundamentals I coach, the fundamentals that are in my book, the fundamentals that I hold my employees accountable to, the fundamentals that

I have instilled, my wife and I have instilled in my children, the fundamentals that I have instilled, my wife and I have instilled in my children, the fundamentals that I employ in my relationship with my beautiful wife. If that's what defines you, then when the accolades and the money and all that stuff comes, but you have that foundation to stand on, you can handle it. You can hold it and you can use it. And you're not going to collapse under the weight of it because you're on a proper foundation. And so, yeah, that's what we talk about in our families. What we talk about in my marriage is what we talk about in my business. What we talk about in football.

And that's what I talk about in speeches and my book and everything else. else because I genuinely believe that you can do anything from a proper foundation. But I do think culturally and societally over the last two and a half, three decades, we have gotten what is supposed to define us completely upside down. Yeah, it's a lot of house of cards out there or a sand, as we say, not, not a ton of foundation and substance, unfortunately, but talk to me, let's talk a little bit more about classic American hardwoods. Are we B2B, B2C? You guys, how does, talk to me a little bit more of the ins and outs of the hardwood business. First, before anybody out there is an environmentalist, I got to say this.

I want to dispel a very inaccurate popular national narrative. There is 65% more harvestable timber growing in the United States today than there was in 1970. Number one, the United States is the premier country in management forestry. We have more standing timber today than we did 50 years ago. We will have twice as much 50 years from now as we do today. ago, we will have twice as much 50 years from now as we do today. So for any environments out there, they're hearing this lumber guy thinking he's destroying the environment.

That's crap. We selective harvest and we cultivate stumpage trees in a professionally managed way that actually regenerates the forest at a 50% faster clip than we cultivate from the forest. Very important that Americans know that about the American. Now, that is not true in Brazil. It is not true in Africa. It is true in the United States. So what we do is we take, think of it, I'm in the hardwood business. Think of it this way. Softwoods build a house, hardwoods furnish it. So hardwoods go into flooring, furniture, cabinets, moldings, millwork, things like that. There's probably hardwoods all over the inside of whatever room

you're sitting in that you don't notice every day. We take rough sawn hardwood green lumber. rough sawn hardwood green lumber. We stack it in order to get airflow over to dry it. We put it in kilns. We reduce the moisture content down to six to eight percent in order to keep it flat and straight without destroying it. We take it out. We grade it. Separate it into different grades. We mill it, surface it, edge it, and then we ship it by container, tractor, trailer load, and van load to large manufacturers of furniture, flooring, cabinets, molding, millwork, case goods, guitars, all over the world. That's what we do. B2B then. B2B. Yep. So the other companies, they're using all the wood that you're growing and harvesting. If you like a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar. Yes.

Yes, please. That's mahogany. That mahogany was cut in Fiji, brought to my plant. We dried it here, milled it. Then it was glued up here and sent to nashville to be made into a guitar body that's one of the things we do one of the many many many things but that's kind of the process it's a it's a global economy yeah uh it's fascinating it was funny when you were using that analogy i've got wood behind me.

I've got it covered with some of our wall of fame. I want to get Coach Bill Courtney up here. But Ann in front of me, staring at me on both sides. I was sitting there thinking about, you were describing that process. I'm going, thinking through the mill process of like how this happens. But it's funny. But it is fascinating. We've got a table next to me.

That's I think that's all the same thing. I mean, when I tell people I'm a lumber business, you know, they envision me sitting in a 10 by 10 metal hut counting boards. If some guy leaves the 16 foot trailer and that's good enough. I think that's, you know, I don't care. But the truth is no manufacturing lumber is a heavily asset laden, lots of employees, lots of moving parts business. And it's also a commodity. So you're constantly dealing with the ups and downs of a market while also manufacturing the commodity and then trying to distribute it across the globe.

It's a trying business, but I love it. I really do. It's because it's so competitive and so trying. I think that I do love it. Are you the sole owner of Classic American Hardwoods or privately owned? Basically, I've got three key people that own very small minority shares because i wanted to reward them but yeah yeah i'm the ceo the chairman of the board and own most of it and literally started it was seventeen thousand dollars in my living room one day that's a great american entrepreneur story there it's's the American dream, bro. Fat, redheaded, and broke. And I married a dime, and I got a business, and I'm talking to you.

What else can you ask for? Yes. The American dream. We'll put all that on the bucket list. Maybe the last part, you know. Well, I don't know. The dime and the business sound like the winners but uh coach is uh what's i mean what's the day-to-day job for you now like what's i heard

the travel port like what are we doing like to keep and drive the business like what's what are sort of your to-do tasks at this stage with the business? Well, it's not just business. So, um, you know, I'm here at six 30 most mornings, uh, make sure we start production at seven. So I've got a, I've got a CEO. I mean, I got a CFO, I've got a VP of sales and ops. I've got a chief operation officer, kind of meet with them, make sure we're headed down the right path. I'm always expanding so that I talk with my maintenance crew about what we're working on and what piece of machinery broke that we're fixing. And that usually takes the first couple hours of the day. And even when I'm on the road, we have those, those calls over zoom or phone. Um, um,

my book is being turned into a movie. And so I spend a little time daily with that. Um, the podcast, uh, my producer, Alex is a complete pain in the ass, which all producers are, as you probably will know. So I got to deal with him on a daily basis. And then typically, there's 19,000 things that come up in a manufacturing facility in a commodity business when you're doing business all over the world that just hammer you. business all over the world that, you know, just hammer you. And I try to get home by 530 every day to cuddle up to Lisa. There you go. Let's talk a little bit about the podcast, Army of Normal Folk. You know, I'm from the South, Coach. I'm from South Carolina.

We were in Greenville, South Carolina. That's where I'm from. I've lived in New York, L.A., Chicago, but I'm a Southern kid. And listen, man, your town is growing. It's a great place where you live. Yeah, dude. The secret's out. The secret is out.

Yeah, for sure. Part of what took me while I was a was a little late to the show here, was just the traffic. And I live like 0.7 miles from my office. And it was like Detour City. But yeah, the secret's out there. Greenville, 25 years ago, was just a spot. Now it is. I mean, what a great town you got. Yeah, it's wonderful.

I've been excited to be part of it. But anyway, go ahead. Yeah. We're Southern guys. Yeah, an army. Because, you know, it may be. I've been excited to be part of it. But anyway, go ahead. Yeah. We're Southern guys. Yeah, an army, because, you know, it may be an army of normal folks, but I just wanted to say an army of normal folk. The podcast, what's it about? What's the premise?

Who are you talking to? So back to something we were talking about earlier, you know, when you said, yeah, it's true. There's all these people all over the country and their stories don't get told. So Alex, my producer worked for another show and radio station back a year and a half ago, or maybe two years now. And just like this, he did an interview. I do a lot of interviews. You do a lot of interviews you do a

lot of interviews big deal do an interview and he asked me um what i thought we need to do to fix the proverbial it and we could spend a year on what the proverbial is but i think i think your listeners get the idea right yeah and i said and I was particularly exercised that day because it was one of those things that were like, kind of like the boat that hit the bridge in Maryland and the bridge collapsed and the folks died on it. Can we not just focus on the fact that a boat hit a bridge and some people died?

That's the story. The boat lost electricity. It hit the bridge, a very important bridge, blocking a very important harbor, which is changing the way we're getting goods in and out of our country. It will have an economic effect. The bridge itself is a multimillion dollar loss. The poor people on the boat were doing everything they could do to control that boat. So now they have on their conscience what happened.

And there were men working on the bridge that died and families that lost those people. That's the story. Somehow in less than a week, we're already talking about how this is a microcosm of the scourges of our immigration policy. We're talking about how this just shows how we don't think brown skinned people's lives matter as much on one side. The other side is saying, well, we're just showing that if we secured the border, it would be, these people may not have died on the bridge. And so

we're actually the more humanitarian approach to it. I'm like, how in God's name are we having this argument in the national political and press discourse, a boat hit a bridge and people died. That's the story. Quit trying to spin every single damn thing that happens in our country to some political narrative to win more power and more money and scare more people into more corners. I'm just, I've had it, dude. It's bullshit. So that's today. About whenever Alice came and interviewed me, something else like that had happened, and I was just as exercised about it.

I'm just so sick of it. And he said, what are you going to do, fix a proverbial? And I said, man, you know what? In every city in this country, you have one. You have one of these places. I don't know what it is. But it's a viaduct off the interstate or it's an area you drive down that you look off the edge of the viaduct or down the street. And there's poverty, loss, disenfranchisement.

It's that place when you go by, you think, Lord have mercy, don't have a flat tire here. Because if I got to get out and change my flat tire at night down here, I'm liable to get mugged. And you have that sense. And then as you pass safely by, you think to yourself, it really is terrible what's going on there down there, man. Somebody ought to do something about that one day. there, down there, man, somebody ought to do something about that one day. And as you look in the rear view mirror, that's what you think as if that sentiment matters. And my suggestion is we kick that rear view mirror about 15 degrees to the left and maybe say, you know, maybe I ought to do something about that day because government has proven woefully inadequate. Otherwise, there wouldn't be three generations of people living like this. The press isn't fixing anything.

They continue to craft narratives about a boat hitting a bridge that want to divide us. I don't know why we can't just all collectively say that's horrible and people died. We should surround those families with, with concern and compassion. And, and it just drives me crazy. And because government doesn't do it, the press isn't helping us. I just think it's going to take an army of normal folks seeing areas of need in their community and fill them. So that's what I said on the, on the, on the interview. Right. and then alex left and i

didn't think about alex anymore and about six months later he called me back he said i can't quit thinking about what you were talking about when i interviewed you and i'd forgotten what i said i thought maybe i cussed too much or something i was like what man i'm sorry my bad bro he's like no he said all right he said do you really feel that way? And I said, I do. And I absolutely believe it. And it really kind of parlays into my whole, let's build a proper foundation conversation. Let's start having, we need to talk about race and politics and faith and creed and all of that stuff. We got to quit canceling each other and deciding you're my enemy if you don't believe like me. We got to start having real conversations, but just do it in a civil,

non-threatening way from a basis of a proper foundation so that we can start to understand one another and grow to one another and find commonality. And so, yeah, I do believe that. And he said, well, I want to start a podcast where you're the host and you go around and our production team will do all the music and the production. And that's what he did. So he's good at all that. And we're going to find your normal folks. We're going to find the stories of people like we were talking about earlier who don't get told, who are doing extraordinary things in their communities that change lives and better communities

who nobody knows about the story. And we're going to tell stories and create a proverbial army of normal folks. So I said, that sounds good. Whatever. You know, kind of like when the movie guys showed up. I mean, these guys that made the movie, dude, had one credit to their name before they

made undefeated. And it was a documentary on the world series of beer pong. That was it. They're 29 years old. They don't know nothing. And you know, and then they went in Academy. I mean, so I kind of thought the same thing. So we, we started interviewing people and what I have found out is this. There are the vast majority of people in our country who really do want to do something to help their community, their culture, their society, but they don't because they don't know how. They don't know where to start. They have their own inhibitions. They have fears. They think, what can I do? What can little old me do?

So what we found out is an army of normal folks is really well produced. And it's entertaining and you laugh and you cry and all of that. But it's also inspirational because you hear these stories. And if you listen long enough, we interview people from all walks of life doing all kinds of different things. If you listen long enough, you will eventually hear a story of somebody who is engaged in something that you have a skill set and a passion for. And that show ends up being a blueprint of just how, and every guest leaves their personal contact information. So you have the architect of the blueprint to call.

contact information. So you have the architect of the blueprint to call. So we literally are creating this commutative army of normal folks doing amazing things all across our country that our listeners get to tap into in order to take their ideas to their communities. And I've learned that where passion and ability meet opportunity, magic happens. So all we got to do is have people listen long enough and they will eventually hear a story that aligns with their passion and their ability. And point out in every community where there is opportunity and things happen. And so that's an army of normal folks. And it sounds good. We've been live nine months.

We've been as high as number 10 on Apple when we first opened and we've got a bunch of it, but we're growing it. We want people to subscribe. We want people to go to normalfolks.us and check us out and listen in. But I'm telling you, man, already we have connected

one nonprofit from North Dakota with a pastor in Florida and an orphanage in Haiti that is now making beds for kids without beds in Haiti through the show. We have connected people that do Christmas giveaways with other people in other cities. It's already working and we're only nine months old. So I am kind of jazzed about it because it is where I can put my money where my mouth is. You build these foundations, you tell these stories, you do them well, you make them entertaining and you create this community of a bunch of dadgum do-gooders, but you erase the barriers of fear and not understanding how by giving that community license to go do things, but also give them blueprints of things they can do and amazing things start to happen. So we release every Tuesday and it's been,

it continues to grow and go bonkers. And it's really not just a podcast. It's kind of a movement. It sounds like it. I love the interplay, like you said, of connecting the people like in making it accessible. And that's one of the interplay, like you said, of connecting the people, like in making it accessible. I mean, that's one of the biggest struggles with, you know, media and especially podcasting. It's like you have this audience listening, but how can you like connect them to the stories that you have going on so that real action can take place? So that's powerful. I love that, man.

Thanks. I mean, I even my email, I get my emails on it. I get five to 40 emails a week from the show. And I personally respond to every single one of them. All of my guests personally respond to every single one. I mean, we've had guests like Mike Rowe. We've had, you know, we don't, we have a lot of guests of, you know, some pretty substantial folks that you don't know anything about what they're doing. But the deal is, if you come on the Army of Normal folks, you're joining the Army, and that makes you a normal folk.

So if somebody reaches out to you because they're inspired by you, help them. Let's grow. Can you imagine what our country would look like if instead of all this BS we get from D.C. and Fox and the division, if we literally had millions of people gather around the idea of just service? I'm going to tell you something else, man. I do not care how you vote. I don't care who you worship. I don't care what you look like. I don't care what your skin color is. And I don't care how you vote. I don't care who you worship. I don't care what you look like.

I don't care what your skin color is. And I don't care who you love. If you're doing something in your community to serve and elevate people that are not as fortunate as you, I can celebrate you. And if I'm doing the same thing and I vote, worship, look, act, and believe completely differently than you. But I am also elevating somebody in my community that's not as blessed as I am. That is something that we both can respect about one another and get our arms around.

And now there's that foundation that we can now start to have real conversations about. And that is what's happening inside this army of normal folks. And it's awesome. Ding, ding, ding, ding. There you have it, folks. Instead of trying to get served, start serving others. It's amazing what happens. And let me tell you, we say we're taking the BS out of business.

Well, that would do it right there. That's it? That's what we're trying to do. Break down those barriers that talk about this shit instead of all the politics and all the other bullshit that doesn't mean anything because it's all so serving brother one of my other look coaches have sayings right i'll never get away from it i've given you one i will give you another the greatest measure of the success of a leader. Now, that leader can be a business owner, a coach, a podcast host. It can be a spouse. It can be a dad. The greatest

measure of the success of a leader is the actions of the followers. That's how you measure yourself as a leader. What are my followers doing? If my followers are acting crazy and all messed up and things aren't going the way I want it to do, instead of raising hell with them, the first place I need to look is the mirror because I'm in charge. The greatest measure of the success of a leader is the actions of followers. Now, let's look at the actions of our cultural and our societal issues right now. I'm not blaming the folks engaged. I'm not completely blaming the folks engaged in a bunch of bad stuff right now.

I'm looking at the leadership and it's poor. So how do we fix that? We break down the narratives dividing us. We serve one another. We start elevating the people that are actually doing good work all over our communities. And we start having conversations about that stuff and start illustrating how that stuff can change all of our lives collectively for the better. And then we don't need the narrative out of D.C. and New York anymore. It's always been about we

the people. It's an army of normal folks going to fix this. And we really do have the power to do it if we'll simply have the temerity to act. Amen, brother. Where can everybody keep up with Coach Bill Courtney and an army of normal folks? Coachbillcourtney.com. You can go to that website and book and speeches and all that mess. I mean, I guess it's an okay website. I don't take myself that seriously, but some smart people put it together. And then for the other thing, go to normalfolks.us and join.

Join the Army. Subscribe. And we drop every Tuesday. Listen. We drop Tuesday and then almost every Friday. We've got little 15 minute vignettes. But the podcast self is Tuesday. It's normal folks dot us. And, you know, subscribe, listen, rate, review it, share it. Because as much as any of us can, as much as we can grow the numbers, the more people, the more impact.

And that's really what it's all about. And I'm also going to drop this on you. It's also a nonprofit. Um, so, uh, in keeping with what Lisa told me to do on day one after the Academy award, we're not doing this so I can lie in my pockets or make up much, much money. This is about using a platform to, to try to encourage a different way of viewing our society and our culture and, and hopefully making a little bit of a difference.

I think you are, man. And I'll leave you, I'll leave the audience with my favorite part. Players win games. Coaches win players. I love it, man. I love it, coach. Thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate your wisdom and everything you're doing and giving back.

I really appreciate you having me, man. And good luck with everything you've got going on in your life. Thank you so much. Hey, guys, you know where to find us. Ryanisright.com. You'll find all of the highlight clips, the links to Coach Courtney's information, his podcast, everything from today. And, hey, let's serve each other.

I'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit RyanIsRight.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.