Love, Truth, and the Business of Building What Lasts

Josh W: Who is a, a deal guy, through and through. He's, he, he's brilliant at, at seeing a lot of ideas and kind of like putting them together in a way that actually makes money. So I love hanging out with him 'cause I have an abundance of ideas and he tells me 99 of them are really trash and then we dig in on the one.

So really grateful for this relationship. And we're gonna hear, uh, some of his questions. So you might hear a few different voices if you're just tuning in on the audio portion of this and sit across from me. We have an idea guy too. Mr. Lance, welcome to the Deal Podcast. 

Lance S: Thank you Josh. Appreciate y'all having me.

Josh W: Yeah. So, uh, as we're, as we're going through, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are? 

Lance S: Yeah. Well, uh, I am born and raised here in Lafayette, Louisiana. Uh, big fan of our hometown, uh, of Acadiana. And, um, I am son to Daryl and Shirley Strother, and I'm one of five of their children. Um, went to, uh.

St. Thomas Moore coming up and, uh, loved my time there have, uh, you know, so many dear friends that, uh, I made there in high school. I, I left, uh, St. Thomas Moore and had the opportunity to play division two football at Arkansas Tech University. Go Wonder Boys. And, um, loved my, my four years there. Um, and, uh, married my high school sweetheart and Catherine Giglio.

We've been married for 25 years. We have four children, Maddie, Landon, Gracie, and add. And I, um, three of them are with us here and, uh, we got one little guy up in heaven and, uh, I. After playing football, Kat and I moved to Shreveport where she, uh, was doing medical school. We moved back to Lafayette to raise our families, you know, the, the best place to raise a family.

And, uh, I had the opportunity to go the insurance route, which is where I started, um, in Shreveport while Kat was in medical school, or to go back to my alma mater at St. Thomas Moore. And, uh, teach and do ministry and coach football. And I, I chose to go back to St. Thomas Moore to teach, to do ministry and to coach football.

And, uh, I haven't looked back, uh, along that way. I've got an, I've got an entrepreneurial spirit that's kind of always been part of me that started off with a lawn business, uh, that my dad helped me get. Going at 13 years old, uh, helped afford some of the things I wanted to do as a young person. And, um.

That entrepreneurial spirit, uh, has turned into, uh, a couple of businesses and, uh, a couple of other things that's been fun along the way. Yeah. 

Josh W: So we, we talk about ideas now before we get into the business of ideas. You're a coach, a leader of men, you're an inventor, you play some music, and, uh, and you're also a man of faith.

Mm-hmm. 

Right? So, uh, you know, a modern day kind of maybe renaissance man, you got your, you got a lot of things kind of going. Why do you think, um, why do you think you, you choose, and this is a hard question to ask or articulate, why do you think you choose to explore these different avenues and, and things, rather than some people saying you need to find one and dig in tight?

Dig in close. 

lance S: Yeah. I, it took me, it took me growing up and, uh. Prayer, discernment and mentorship from some wonderful people, my parents, uh, being primary to understand that we're all different and along the way. Uh, I've always done, I've always had a lot of irons in the fire. Yeah. And I spent some time, um, trying to get irons outta the fire because that's what seemed to be what people were telling me I need to do.

It took a little while to realize that God made me to have a lot of irons in the fire, and it seems like a lot of things, but it's coming from the same heart, same place, same mission. I love my Lord. I love people, genuinely love people. I love the differences in people, and I absolutely love development.

So however possible, I get the blessing of participating in somebody's life to meet 'em where they're at and move 'em forward. That's what I'm here for. 

Josh W: Yeah. All right. So one of the really good things about being a podcast host is you get free life coaching, right? So I get asked you the questions that I'm struggling with as a human, and you being a, a coach and life coach and consultant and is, is, uh, is an honor to, to be with you.

But, you know, growing up, you know, I'm a, I'm a visionary, right? So ideas, right? I have books of ideas and, and things and, and I too am I, I tend to do better when I have a lot of different irons in the fire, but they all kind of float into the same vehicle. And if I, in the past I didn't have the right vehicle, it's just I'm scattered.

But with the right vehicle, it, it flows. So what advice do you have for maybe guys like me out there or just me specifically on, you know, you say, God made me this way. I think some people might use that as an excuse. Oh, God just made me this way. I'm just gonna do it the way I want, versus. Prayerful discernment, you know, some mentors in your life.

So where would you take that man? 

lance S: Well, um, the Bible is full of truth and for skeptics and, and in my faith journey, I, I like to say I wasn't a band wagoner, uh, especially once I started to think for myself, which happened kind of in my middle teen years, um, where I really wanted to evaluate things critically and deeply.

Uh, it turns out that a lot of the biblical teachings, uh, when tested produce fruit, one of which is about fruit. You know, a tree by its fruit. So when you, uh, are somebody like you who might have a lot of irons in the fire, um, and. You take it to prayer, Lord, what, what direction in my life are you really calling me to?

Um, you know, it's, it's wise to pay attention to the fruits of those irons. If, uh, for me, and I like guiding people this way, when the result of my hard work and passion only feeds me, it's not of the Lord. Um, when I find that my passion, my hard work, my sacrifices is growing me, but my growth is my family's growth, it's my marital growth, it's my kids' growth, and it's the growth of everybody who's part of that.

Um, uh, that's one of my litmus tests, uh, whether or not God is really part of this or not, if it's lifting the hole. Um, I tend to trust it. If it's serving only me, I definitely do not trust it. 

Jude D: I love a theme that you're hitting on, um, talking about being a band Wagoner. You talked about, uh, people always telling you to focus on one thing, but you kind of were renegade and bucked against it.

Um, I think so many people struggle with living for other people's approval. Uh, tell me about that journey. Where did you come to that realization in life? That it's not about living for other people, it's about, you know, finding your own way and, and living true to yourself. 

lance S: Yeah. I think, uh, I like to say it this way.

One of the great insurance plans, maybe one of the greatest insurance plans

for living a fulfilled life is authenticity. And it's hard. It's very hard. It's hard to. It takes courage and risk to start to discover your own gifts, your own passions, your own differences, your own uniqueness. It takes risk and, and courage to start trusting that and living that, particularly when it's not gonna please everybody.

And particularly if you grew up being a people pleaser, um, having a relationship with the Lord where you quickly understand, especially as an adolescent or an adult, that it's, it's the Lord's approval that matters the most to me. And then learning about my faith and understanding that if how I'm choosing to live will be pleasing to the Lord.

As I mentioned earlier, the center of that is aimed at lifting everybody up. In that is freedom and surrender. I don't have to worry about pleasing you or pleasing Josh or anybody. Um, as a result of having a centered, focused, focused on God and pleasing him, there's a,

it is a gift to other people when I choose to live in a way that desires to lift them up. Um, and so my attention doesn't have to be there, it's just gotta be on the, on the right thing. So central to me, in everything that I do and in the in deepest way that I know how to live are is a scripture verse.

And it's three words. And I tell people this single verse. Truly was a paradigm shift in 2001 for me. I, I, I share, it was an intellectual conversion. It wasn't very feely. It was really intellectually stimulating and it changed my life. And the verse comes from First John, chapter four, verse seven and eight.

And it is, God is love for me. It's not a fluffy three words. It is an all together change in how, how I see the world, what I'm committing my life to, um, and what my, what my end goal is. Um, so to be godly is to get better and better and more and more pure at loving, which requires great humility, self-sacrifice, and seeing the other as more important than me.

Man, that 

Jude D: is such good words. Um, you know, they say that love is willing the good of another. And I feel like most people think that love is I tell you that I love you or I do something for you because you ask me to. Or maybe even like, we have some symbiotic relationship where, you know, you get something from me, I get something from you.

Mm-hmm. That's not love. And it's, it's willing and the good of another. Love what you just said there. 

Josh W: Hmm. So, in the world 

Jude D: of, 

Josh W: in the world of business, let's talk about love. Like, how, how could we, as a business guy, you're, you're sitting across from, you know, some business guys, you are too. Mm-hmm. How do you translate Love in?

Man, I, I make products. Man, I, I sit behind and I, I code stuff or I interview people, or I buy and sell companies where, where's the love there? 

lance S: I think when you make love your highest value and, and as a business person, not only can you do that, I will, I I will always be a person that encourages all business leaders, owners, and influencers.

Make love your highest value, and then consider what that means. It is not only is it the most genuine thing that you can do, so that at the end of your business life you can look backwards and truly be proud of what you accomplished. You guys are, are very successful businessmen. You know, very successful businessmen.

When you start visiting with people who have made a lot of money. Doing great business. You learn there's a common denominator that money didn't fulfill it once. Once you have it, it's, it's like, hmm, what else is there? So having love is your highest value is going to make people and relationships your biggest focus.

It turns out that that's a really great business strategy, and it's a business strategy that a lot of people talk about. It's something that they highlight. Uh, it's, it's a common piece of professional development. Um, what I get interested in is what's the integrity of that point within each business?

Many people highlight the value of relationships, but if I'm highlighting that. And the truth of it is if you, if you strip it down and really look at it, is like sacrifice you, for me and my business, you're not really about people or it's not love for sure. If, when you strip it down and you look at the integrity of really being about people, and it's, we will look for ways when necessary to sacrifice for you, whether that's an employee, it's a client, it's a potential client, whether it's just us doing community service in, in our local areas.

Uh, that's a very, very different business culture and approach. 

Josh W: When you're talking to a, a business leader and you tell them, we're gonna use the, the, the corporate strategy, and you drop on the whiteboard LOVE, right? The, the pushback might be like, come on man, we're. Private equity, you know, we do leverage buyouts or you know, like part of our process is going in there and doing this or that.

You know, like, man, how can we do this with love? That's, this is a part of our strategy. This is just who we are. 

lance S: Well, I I love that question. I appreciate that question. It makes me giggle. Um,

I'm a, I am a competitor. 

Josh W: Yeah. 

lance S: I coach football. I absolutely love coaching. You know, there are certain things that flip my switches 

Josh W: mm-hmm. 

lance S: And made me wanna battle, like I am coming with the very best of me, wherever, certainly in business included, wherever love is received as an invitation, as fluffy without traction.

Where's the teeth in this? This is, this is, thanks for the. Pie in the sky, cloudy invitation for love. Wonderful. Can we get to the real nitty gritty stuff? Let's talk bottom line. Let's talk like hard decisions where that exists. I love battling. I, I am called to serve it in that space. Um, and, and it's very possible to bring love in in the boardroom to numbers.

It's very possible to do it to me. It's just, it just challenges integrity. That's what I, that's what I appreciate about it. Yeah. Uh, where are you working from? Where are you coming from and what's your end goal? 

Josh W: All right, so here we are. You love the, the, the battle aspect of this talk about love and battle, right?

So, so bring, bring a little bit of that battle to, this is our boardroom. This is our board table. Custom made, by the way. It's really nice, dude. Good job, man. Uh, talk to us about the, the battle of that. You're like, man, I love a good fight. I'm a competitor. I love that. Love is not just this like, fluffy thing in the sky.

Nah man. There's something, there's something warrior IC about love. 

lance S: Uh, I'll, I'll give you a a real life example. Recently, my partner and I did an offsite, a day and a half offsite Yeah. For a, uh, company, for their leadership team. And, um, I'm shouting out this, this leadership team and, and their owners. They basically, they, they asked for this and, and, uh, they wanted a facilitation of the opportunity for each of the leaders to sit in front of the other leaders and have a round where they hear from each of their colleagues where they're failing.

Josh W: Oh. 

lance S: So you wanna talk about battle and you wanna talk about integrity? Uh, like love, I, I have literally been on a, on a mission to understand it and to unfold what love is. I'm, that's my daily commitment since 2001. Love is bloody and I'm a, I'm a Christian, so I look to Christ most to understand what love looks like.

So laying down one's life for his neighbor is love. Um, so when I, in business with leaders, just recently saw the humility, and I literally could watch it on the facial expressions and the nonverbals of each person that sat on that chair, uh, it was hard. Um, but they were willing to be patient. It's a feature of love.

Uh, they were willing to be humble, to hear the truth. Uh, love, love never excludes hearing the truth because it's hard or because it's offensive or it hurts my feelings. Um, the truth is gonna grow me. You know, I like to say, uh, growth is perfectly correlated to the measure of humility a person is willing to embrace if say, say that again.

Growth is perfectly correlated to humility and the measure of humility a person is willing to embrace. If, if I'm seeking to grow and you have a hard truth for me, that is, it's a blind spot, or I'm just too prideful to hear it. If I'm, if I'm, if I don't have enough humility to receive that from you, then I'm stuck.

There's no growing. Beyond what I'm unwilling to look at and deal with. Um, so watching this group of leaders receive some tough news, but to like embrace the, the fact that I'm not perfect. I, I make mistakes, but like, man, to register it. I, I like, man, I I knew that about me. Thanks for sharing that. That's consistent.

'cause that's exactly what he said. But that one, ouch. I actually thought I was pretty good at that, but apparently I need to work on it. That's an example of something underneath the umbrella of love that has teeth. 

Jude D: But I, I think so many people feel that Christlike love is being non-confrontational, not challenging your neighbor.

I, I feel like. Masculinity has turned into that in our society. It's like as a man, you have to restrain yourself and hold back and there's no such thing as righteous anger and whatever else. And how wrong, like read the Bible, Christ flipped the tables in the temple whenever he was angry. That wasn't because he was trying to be non-confrontational.

Um, and we need more men in society. Willing to just tell people exactly how it is. I think one of the biggest problems in corporate culture, uh, especially at the board level, is that people wanna be so kind to each other and nice and they don't challenge each other on ideas. They don't tell each other what they're doing wrong.

And so a lot of people stay too long at organizations. You know, people that should have left a long time ago end up staying for a long time 'cause nobody challenged them. Uh, and, and organizations don't grow. So what a great exercise that you guys did. 

lance S: Yeah. And, uh, I credit the leaders of that company 'cause they initiated that.

I, I I, I facilitated it and deeply benefited from the inspiration of it. And it reminded me, man, courage, humility, truth and honest communication, uh, go a long way in business. 

Josh W: Yeah. That's cool. You play the guitar. What was the first song you learned and what's your favorite song to play now? 

lance S: Well, thank you for asking that.

Uh, uh, it's a, uh, it's a gift for me. It's like a, it's like cathartic therapeutic. First song I ever learned how to play was in high school after, um, a friend of mine and, uh, many of my buddies in Lafayette, Trey Schilling, uh, was killed in an accident. And, uh, at his funeral they played, uh, wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.

And, uh, that song, it was, I guess, so meaningful. It was kind of piercing in the context of, uh, that loss of ours. And, uh, I don't know why I, I was like, I wanna be able to play that song. So, uh, I had a buddy in high school that started to teach me how to play. And from that point, I love writing, um, my guitar play and I think has been a, a gift to me to, to be an outlet of where I can write from my heart and express my heart.

Josh W: What's the latest song you played? 

lance S: Well, I, I play a lot of worship music. Um, so it would be probably a worship song. Uh, my brother-in-law is a phenomenal, uh, artist. He and I write music together. I lost my sister in April of this year. My oldest sister and, uh, am writing a song for her. That's what I've been focusing on.

Josh W: Okay. We, we have to kind of pause from the, the deal making side. There's a few topics that came up and I mean, this will circle back around to deal makers, uh, mindset, durability, moving through tough times. You mentioned three times loss during our, our conversations thus far. And I'm sorry to bring this up, but I think that it's, IM important for the audience to hear, so I gotta dig in just a little bit.

Do I have permission to Please, yeah. Ask, ask us. Kinda put you on the spot on that too. But, um, you talk about loss of a sister, loss of a, uh, man, I'm sorry. Uh, loss of a child and loss of a friend. How do you, how do you reconcile loss and love and your faith and, you know, keep going in the world of coaching and leader of man and, and building businesses and inventing new things and writing songs and creativity, like, talk us through that.

Man, you've lost a lot. 

lance S: Yeah. Uh, you and I say that with great sensitivity to people who I know who've lost a lot more than me. Um, but, you know, Christ is a. Is a, a redeemer and a savior. And I, I believe that firm is. So my first response to that is, that's where I go with that hurt and that pain. Uh, that's, that's where I deal with it.

Uh, and, you know,

my desire and my study and my work with people is, uh, deals a lot with o optimizing the human spirit, the human mind, the human relationships, human business. So in loss, my desire is still like, Lord, what's the best way that I can go about this? I have my, all of my own feelings. I have my, all of my instinctive reactions to it, which, uh, are good and normal and normal emotions, but like, how can I channel these and I desire to channel 'em in a way that gives honor?

To the fullest extent of the people that I love, that I lost. And what better way to honor a person, particularly those we believe are with the Lord, than to, to like double down on serving other people. And when possible, uh, let the people that were were serving let them them know, like, this is, this is to honor my sister.

You know, that's a, that's an example most recent. It's like, what's, what's the best thing I can do? Uh, in the wake of losing my oldest sister? We, there's all kinds of things we, we can do. Like me and my siblings, we can, we can dance. She was, she was wild and fun. You know, we can, we can take a trip and have an adventure and that would honor her.

But I think the highest form would be, she was super charitable. She, she always saw the least among us and, uh, her door was open. So, uh, how can I grow? Extend myself beyond my comforts to care for somebody in need. That's where I go with a loss. Yeah, I know. I feel very deeply confident and joyful to serve someone else in their great need in honor of Tanya.

Josh W: Yeah. One of the man, I, I started this by saying one of the benefits of being a, a podcast host is you get, you know, free, uh, life coaching. One of the challenges I think as a podcast host is sometimes you ask, you have to ask tough questions that you feel in your spirit you're supposed to ask. Mm-hmm. And, uh, man, I hope I was right on that one.

'cause I think that theres someone out there who needed to, you know, maybe hear that and feel that. And for people who have experienced loss, man, much love and hugs to you guys. Just another way to say that. Moving on. Um, you're an inventor. There's no good way to segue into this. Here we go. All right. So, uh, you're, you're an inventor.

Talk to us about the, the business of invention and ideas and, uh, yeah. What's, what's the business behind that? I've never done that. 

lance S: Um, it's been an interesting journey. It started in college, playing college ball, um, uh, being a, I'm a, I'm a receiver's coach in football. I've been the, the receiver world of the sport of football has been my world since I was little.

My oldest brother was a receiver, uh, very good one. And, uh, so I've thought in that world a lot. And, uh, I'm a technician. I love details. Uh, I love the science of things if, uh, to the extent we can know it. So just a desire to, uh, in my, in my invention experience, it's having an idea that after vetted amongst all the other ideas, you're a visionary.

You understand it for idea people. Mm-hmm. They just never stop, you know? But, but once, once you land on one that you're like, man, or for me, it's like this, this really works. Like the, the, the purpose and the function, uh, for me is I, I, I've had some ideas on sports training aids. Uh, our, my, our first, uh, invention was called the catch right glove.

It was a glove with 20 different levels of sensitivity and on off button on the front, front side, it had a red, uh, red and green light on the front side. It blinked green. When you caught the ball properly, it was all built into a glove. It had a sensor in the palm, the ball. If the ball hit the palm, it would give a sound indicator to me as a coach that that player's catching the ball with bad technique and, uh, it would blink red.

Uh, that idea worked. We got it into a prototype phase, but it was the finances. Where I got to meet my partner. And now one of my very best friends, Mark Weber, who's a, a great finance guy and a great money mind. We met on that idea. He was listening to that idea 'cause he had taken, helped take something to market before.

And uh, I told him an idea of another training aid called The Great Catch, which is a lot simpler, no intention of doing anything on that. And Mark who's uh, got a financial mind kind of stopped me and said, uh, what are you doing with that idea? I said, well, that's nothing. I'm not here for that idea. I'm here for the catch right glove idea.

You say, well, the catch right glove, financially it's not a good, not gonna work. It's cost too much money to build it. But that other idea that could work. And that was, that was a, I had a magical moment at t Koons at that breakfast with Mark Weber and, uh. From that day forward, that idea started to take shape and became, uh, ESPN's next best training aid for two years.

So we got to feature the product at two Super Bowls with ESPN and, uh, a a lot of business learned along that journey. The, the, the, the biggest business lesson in that journey was having the right business partner. So, good.

Josh W: I know Jude has a, a question. Let me throw one in, uh, to Right, right before he does. 'cause his is gonna be a lot more profound than mine. Uh, the first one was a fail, not, not a failure, but it didn't work. Mm-hmm. So maybe a failure. Right. It was the second one. Mm-hmm. Having someone to, to see past that first failure and you going past that first failure.

I'm calling it a failure. It wasn't, 

lance S: it's in a Ziploc bag in my closet. We could call it a failure. 

Josh W: I'd like to think it's like from back in the day, the Nintendo glove that used to play as a kid. Uhhuh. That's what I'd like to see, what it looks like. But anyways, but like a lot of times I think we get caught on that first one and we won't give up with that first one to go onto that second one or have that person who sees past that first one to see that second one.

So man, kudos to your, your guy for seeing that and for you humbly hearing that instead of going like I did in the past of going, oh, this is the one, this is the thing. And then running it and then realizing five years later that I was wrong. 

Mm-hmm. 

So, Jude, dig in a little bit on ideas. How do you know you're a synthesizer of ideas?

You're like his his partner. How do you know if an idea is good? How do you know if an idea is not good? 

Jude D: Well, if it started at breakfast at Koons, it's probably a good idea whether it's, you know, sweet potato pancakes or biscuits and gravy. Either way. Okay. Um, no, we go through a lot of ideas. We're, we're constantly, you know, brainstorming one thing after the next.

And, um, you know, every decision in business for me runs through a filter of ROI, I mean, it's just a matter of can I get a proper return on this investment? And the first glove, I mean, it's a better mousetrap. Like, it's, it's a much better product probably. But the ROI was just wrong. Uh, and, you know, fortunately found the right business partner to tell you that.

Um, I was really digging in on the, the thought about how finding the right business partner made all the difference. I would love to go down that path, you know. How did you know you found the right partner? Um, you know. Have you had other business partners along the way? And, and, you know, how do you know when it's the right one or the wrong one?

And, you know, if, if you're in a deal with, with the wrong partner, what do you do? 

lance S: That's a really good, good question. Um, I would probably say, to be fair, one of the, you know, I don't have a large sample size on that. Um, because I'm, I'm not, uh, the deals I'm making and the business that I'm, I'm running is in the context of a bunch of different irons in the fire.

That being said, for me, I mentioned authenticity already. This, this, uh, podcast. I personally first look to see if I have a match in the quality and character of the human being that I'm looking at doing business with. For me personally, it's, it's, I talked about love, like if the highest values. In my value system, don't match the highest values in that person's value system.

Even if you have a great idea, and it could be a great business, uh, opportunity with great ROI, I'm not, I'm not the guy to be in partnership with that, that person. I would rather have less ROI and

a, a dear friend with the same mission where our impact on the hearts of people is as good or greater than the impact on our accounts and bottom lines. So I'm gonna vet that early. Uh, meals have a good way of doing that. Uh, traveling together has a good way of doing that. You know, uh, I'm laughing about some experiences I have with that business partner, Mark Weber.

But once that is established for me,

identifying that my business partner. Um, has a skillset different than mine where I know I'm weak, and if I don't, if I don't fill that gap, this idea is gonna do exactly what the other ones did that never came to fruition. They're gonna have only me or me and a couple of buddies that are the same, and we get stuck in vision mode.

And it never, it never met the critiques and the necessary modifications to the idea and the business of it that it needed to meet in order to get to the market. So, uh, for Mark Weber, he was across the T dot the i, um, finance mind and not just the excitable visionary. Uh, I, I know this will work for people mind that I am.

Um. Our very, our very first meaningful business was very personal. It was very personal. And, uh, coming out of one conversation in particular, I knew I can trust this guy. I can trust this guy with my family. I can trust this guy with my finances. And, uh, we're either gonna be very successful relationally and neutrally successful financially or, or moderately, or we're gonna be very successful relationally and wonderfully successfully, financially, wonderfully successful financially.

Josh W: Hmm. 

lance S: So that's, that's coming from my value system. 

Josh W: Talk to us about the business of inventions. What did you learn along the way? So you were building this, you know, really cool Nintendo glove back in the day, you know, caught and told you exactly, Hey, you need to get more fingers on this. You need to cone it better.

You need to, whatever. I was the receiver, by the way. 

Hey, there you go. 

No, not good. I sat the bench, but I, I made the, I made the freshman team. But, um, in that, like, what's, what's the business of that? You built it, you went through a prototype and then, you know, how, how do you kind of walk us through the, the lifecycle of a product?

Mm-hmm. 

lance S: Well, the nature of our, of our great catch, uh, training aid, well, it was simple enough that we were able to build, uh, the prototype in office. Mm-hmm. And then, um, you know, the next big business step that was critical for us was researching, uh, partners. Mm-hmm. On. Manufacturing, how do we, how do we, how do we get this thing?

So one of the things I learned in business from Mark is how to be lean in, in launch, how to be lean in launch, and, uh, mark never got distracted with any kind of fluff, with respect to expenses in getting this thing to the market that that's like a natural gift of his. Um, so finding manufacturing was huge.

Testing the product, uh, which I was able to do as a football coach. Mm-hmm. Um, so that, that was great. Like the, the testing of the function of the idea I got to do, we didn't outsource that. Um, I got to see that up close and personal. And then, uh,

another same point, but. Connections in manufacturing was critical. Uh, huge cost savings. When we, we found the right connection, um, we were able to piggyback on, uh, the manufacturing of our product with another product, which saved us a lot of money. And, uh, and then connections in the, in the marketing and the launch of it was huge.

So, uh, mark and I's partnership turned out to be very valuable with respect to, uh, who we knew in the business, uh, the business intersections of what we needed to get done in order to get it to market. Uh, I had a lot of connections in the sports world. Mm-hmm. Mark had connections in the business world and the sports world.

So for my journey, um, I guess I can't emphasize connections and people. And then having the, uh, the relentlessness to find those connections if you don't have those already in your network. So, uh, we mark, this is a great story. Uh, mark calls me on a Wednesday. It's a random Wednesday, okay? We wanted to get our product to NF Ls, get it on, on some of these guys' hands for all kinds of reasons, you know, to get the business going.

Well, mark, instead of sitting back and waiting for some big break, got in his car, found out where the mini camp was for the Saints, drove to Mississippi and he calls me from the sideline of the Saints mini camp. He's standing on one side of the fence and they're practicing on the other side of the fence.

And he is like, Lance, you'll never guess what just happened. It's like, what? He's like, I gave a whole coaches pack of great catch to the Saints. I'm like, how did you get that done? I. So I just drove over here unannounced, stood at the fence, and when they went on break, they walked right by me and I dangled a coach's pack of great catch in front of Joe Horn, or I think, I think it was Joe Horn at the time, and he took it and they're out back for their second practice using the great catch.

That, that to me is like, that's the difference of a lot of business people 

Josh W: sure 

lance S: had, had. Mark and I just sat back and waited in our office shooting emails out, making phone calls to people hoping to God somebody bites on this thing, versus him taking that kind of initiative. That was a huge, that was a huge moment in our business.

Josh W: Jude had a, had a question. Uh, the part of the, his second part of the question was, how do you, what if you're, what if you find out you're with the wrong partner? So it might not be Mark Weber. He's awesome. But maybe a manufacturer, uh, a marketing company, a something. 'cause I'm sure along the way, not all was beautiful roses along your product launch.

lance S: Um, well, I think Jude said something earlier that was of great value. You know, the ability to look at, at truth and to be able to communicate honestly like this isn't working. Or, you know, as opposed to taking a more passive route where you, the consequences of how much has been lost, potentially even the whole business before you say, Hey, this is, this is not our partner, this is not working out.

Or we need to take this in a different direction. Um,

for me, and this, this is, well, for anybody listening that is doing business on a, on a scale, small enough. That you can miss and it not be hugely consequential. That's, that's been the nature of my businesses. If we miss, um, the consequences aren't huge versus people who are dealing on scales much higher or the, you know, if it misses.

So for me, it's, uh, being honest enough with your business partner as early as possible, understanding that the consequences could be the whole business, especially at the start of it. Um, especially if you're not dealing with a lot of capital, which we weren't, uh, which is, was why being lean was so important.

Um, I would, I would point back to Jude's point on, especially when getting the business going, if you're not really, really honest, maybe even taking time, I don't know, once a week to say, uh, what is not working? Mm-hmm. First with me. I think it's critical. 

Jude D: That's right. Back to love again. That's kinda what I was thinking, right.

Back to love again. You know, how am I not contributing the way I need to, uh, to make this relationship work? I think so many people get in bad partnerships and they just assume it's the other person's fault. And, uh, you know, look, I, I think the way you outlined it was right. You know, this person's highest values have to meet my highest values.

They have to be at a confidence level that's equivalent to mine, and they have to compliment my skills. You know, we can't have the same outlook. We have to have complimentary outlooks. I think all of those are the right things, and it happens plenty of times that people jump in too quick with a business partner and they find the wrong one.

And it's probably because one of those things didn't line up quite right, but. You know, I, I think whenever you have minor mismatches, it's all about how do I bring more to them and help them to grow? And that's, that's starting with love, man. It 

lance S: is. Yeah. Like, uh, you wanna talk about traction, real traction The old, uh, recognize the plank in my own eye before I call out the splinter in another person's eye.

I, I don't, with all due respect, I, I don't care what anybody tells me in like, just in human relationships, period, business included. Um, just having that as how I am going to do business with you is highly functional for communication. It's highly functional for drawing up to the top problems if the approach is the opposite, where every time we get together, I've spent a lot of time figuring out how bad you are and what you need to do different.

It's, it's, there's dysfunction. Results in that relationship. Eventually it'll be less about good business and more about winning a resentment battle. Uh, you're gonna have a, you're gonna have a lot of drag mm-hmm. In, in the business. 

Josh W: Yeah. 

lance S: I, I didn't know this was about marriage advice. Yeah. It, uh, that old, uh, plank in my own eye is applicable everywhere.

Josh W: Man. This is good. Uh, before we go into maybe product launch strategy, product to market, product market fit, before we go into that, one of my favorite parts of this podcast is one is sharing, you know, wisdom collectively, like we love. This is one of the missions of why we did this, is to to share. Uh, experiences to make connections and, you know, we love making connections with, with deal makers.

You know, like, this is who we serve day in, day out, you know, being, being a part of the deal making community. Um, but one of the, the other joys we get is from the guest we meet and from the guest to guest relationship. So one of the guests who just came through, uh, has a question for you and you get to leave a question for the next guest.

But Jude, this is from, uh, Paul George who just sat in your, in your seat prior to you, and he has a question for you. I, I, I did not read it, so I, it could be silly. Who knows? 

lance S: If it isn't silly, I'll be very 

Jude D: surprised. Do you 

Josh W: know, Paul? Okay, 

Jude D: I think there's two questions. One silly one, not silly. Okay. So, uh.

First question. I'll let you figure out which one's. Silly. Lance, if you could have a smaller nose, would you? Of course, Paul. Of course. Okay. Uh, real question, if you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? 

lance S: Y'all, y'all interviewed a good guy and Paul, uh, love Paul. Um, if I could give my younger self advice, what would it be?

Well,

I think, I'd probably say,

um,

maybe two things. I would say offload the shame. The doubt, like now, like that's a spiritual, there's a lot of spiritual application there, but, but, uh, but the doubt not so much. Like, and I would say I was, I was confident as a young person, but I don't know if I was, I, if I would take the risks in business, uh, or in the way that I've done it in my young adult and adult life, I would say offload the shame and the doubt now because on the other side of it is freedom, fulfillment, relationship, and opportunity.

Um, and maybe I would say go thank the people that are pouring into you. In all of the best ways they know how. Right now, who was that for you? Who was pouring into you? Uh, I'm, I'm blessed to have awesome parents. They, uh, you know, they raised me to the best of their ability, which I so appreciate. But they also, like, they were teaching me like great values.

Uh, and then like, you know, as a, as a young person, you know, you don't really, it's not real obvious that this guy, this teacher, this coach, this friend of my parents that like, stopped to talk to me, they saw something in me. They, they could, they, they were seeing into the future that I had something about me.

And so they invested in me. They took me to a meal. They told me, Hey, one day you'll do great things. Um,

I'm so indebted to so many people. That I have a, I have a great desire for them to know how grateful I am to them. Do you feel 

Jude D: like we do that less now? Like, you know, I think back and there were, you know, coaches and teachers and, uh, aunts and uncles and whatever. That just took an outside role of pouring into me.

And I look around the world today and how fast everything moves and I just, I can't help but feel like we're all missing opportunities. You, you feel like, do 

lance S: you feel the same way? I do. And, and I say this not as some wise person that's doing it perfect or great. I say this outta conviction that I'm not doing it as good as I wish I would.

But we're just so distracted. And with respect to that question, I, I definitely believe we're expressing gratitude in Thanksgiving, way less face-to-face. And I think there's a, a certain kind of magic. When you look at somebody in real life, flesh to flesh and say, thank you so much for the way you poured into me, as opposed to a text or, or a, a post or something.

It's very different. I think that's less and less. And I, I would like to be a part of making a contribution to revaluing that, that 

Josh W: we just had. Um, we just had, uh, an audience member reach out and they have a, a question for you too. This is from Aunt Monica Brouchard's, her nephew Elliot, who's going to school right now to, to learn the world of deal making studying as a jd, uh, MBA.

And he had a question, so shout out to him. Thank you for listening in. He's a long time listener. First time caller. I think they say on the radio, right? His question, uh, for you is, looking back, what skills or habits do you wish you'd built earlier that now make the biggest difference in your deal making career?

Good question, Elliot. 

lance S: Yeah, very good question.

I think looking back a skill that I wish I would've developed earlier is, um,

the power of, of the ask, the power of the ask. As a young person, there's, you know, all kinda like restraints to, to asking. Um, I mean, I'm intimidated. I don't know enough. I'm ignorant. Uh, it's awkward. That person doesn't have time. I'm just a, I'm nobody. Uh, all of those things are nonsense. The sooner a young person can get past those and become a masterful asker, uh, I think the, the sooner.

They're going to realize the full potential of their gifts and the sooner they're going to accidentally build a team of people desiring to see them succeed. 

Jude D: I really wanna piggyback on that. I feel like there is such an inclination for parents to help their kids avoid making mistakes. And it does such a disservice for people that are coming up in the world because they feel like they need to do everything they can to avoid making a mistake.

And so something like making a big ask where somebody's gonna tell you no, that's just terrifying. It's the idea that I'm gonna ask you for something and you're gonna say, Hey, I'm a little insulted by that request. It's like, oh, okay, I'm sorry. You know? Like, like, what's the worst that's gonna happen here?

But I feel like we're teaching kids that it's, you know, wrong to make a mistake and. That's one of the biggest things kids have to learn. Like you're gonna make a thousand mistakes whenever you get outta school and you're gonna learn from all of them. 

Josh W: Mm-hmm. 

Jude D: Um, I'm sure you see that in coaching. I'm sure you see it in teaching and everything else.

lance S: Oh yeah. That's one of the, one of the magical things about coaching is that by nature of the profession, you facilitate failure. You take a a per a person who, without you as the coach, would stop at this limitation. And the beauty of coaching is like you're paid very little to, to meet the person right there at that limitation and push and pull 'em, convince 'em, motivate 'em, inspire 'em, teach them one, one step beyond that.

Ah, you see that one more step? Yeah. That's the, that's the beauty of it. And yeah, I appreciate that point. Uh, Jude of, uh, we have to be careful, uh, to not. So much shelter the child that they don't make mistakes. Uh, growing up it's, uh, I, I find that the majority of people agree in the value of like making a mistake or failing.

Far fewer of us, particularly with our children, are like, Hmm, well, kind of mistake. Okay, I like that. I like it. I believe in it, but can I pick the categories? Mm. Can I pick win? You know? And, uh, I think that's a challenging part of it. Absolutely. 

Josh W: Jude, let's, let's fire that question back to you, ma'am. Is if you, you know, could develop a, a skill earlier in your life that would benefit you today, what, what skill would you choose?

Oh gosh. 

Jude D: Um, I feel like early along, um, it was drilled into me that education is the path. To success in life. Like the more you're educated, the more you learn, the more you, um, you know, figure out about the world, the better you're gonna be at it. And I think if I could talk to my younger self, I'd say that has nothing to do with anything.

The only thing that has to do with anything when it comes to success is finding out what the world needs and being the best at giving it to 'em. And that's, that applies to every facet of life. If you're trying to run a business and you want to have a product that sells well, you need to figure out what that customer wants and figure out how to be the best at making it.

Um, if you're providing service, um, you know, you can't tell the client no a lot because I, I find that people love to figure out what it is that they want to do. And anything that a client wants that's a little bit outside of that, it's like, oh, I'm sorry, I don't, that's, you're gonna have to find somebody else for that.

And the client says, oh, okay, well, I'll go find somebody else for everything. Mm-hmm. So, um. You know, figuring out what the world needs and figuring out how to be the best at providing it, um, is really what makes the world go round. Because people pay for value. People don't pay for your hours. People don't pay for your time.

People don't pay for you showing up. They pay because you provided value to them. And, uh, if you can figure out how to provide more value than anybody else, you'll be successful. 

Josh W: Hmm. Yeah. Elliot, great question, man. Good luck in school. Glad, uh, glad you reached out, man. Two powerful answers for you. Hope.

Hope, uh, hope we met your expectation there, man. Thanks for reaching out fellow audiences. As, as audience members, if you have questions about mergers, acquisitions, deal making, uh, you know, we would love to hear your questions from the audience. And, you know, especially you students out there who are learning like this is, this is a platform where we can, you know, maybe provide some of those answers you might not ever get face-to-face time with, with some of these people.

But we might be able to pose some of your questions. So the deal podcast.com, uh, you could fill out a quick form, maybe ask your questions there and, um, you know, I'd love to dig in there. But let's go back to, uh, back to the, the, the world of inventions and deal making. So we, we've gone through this process and, you know, you've chose the right people, the you've, you've mastered and, and learning to master the art of the ask.

You've got manufacturing testing. Interesting thing about testing is you chose something that you could test yourself. Mm-hmm. That you have personal experience in, that you have personal expertise in. If you chose something outside of that, how would you know? It's good. Right? So, like, it's very clever what you did.

You built something that you knew would need. 'cause you see it every day as a coach. You got the launch, you got the connections in marketing, he had the, the business connections, you had the sports connections, and you both had the tenacity to go do it. What then? Because you guys were a two year running ESPN's, you know, great, great product.

What then? How do you make money? 

lance S: So we, once we got the f the f the final uh, sellable product back, we had our first batch of great catch. Um, we needed to introduce it to the market. And um, I was a rookie at that. Okay. And I was already in rhythm of going to. Football coaches, clinics, as a coach, every clinic I've ever been to has exhibitors.

It seemed like the low hanging fruit. Uh, I'll get a booth, I'll go to the coaches clinic. I'll learn when the coaches are teaching, but when it's the off time, I'll go sit at our booth, a great catch booth and we'll show it to coaches. So kind of the initiative that Mark took to, to bring it, you know, to the Saints.

Mm-hmm. Um, I'll never forget it. Speaking of lean, uh, we looked at the cost of an exhibit booth, a nice exhibit booth, and we were like, okay, let's go plan B. So we, uh, we went to a local hardware store. We bought some master turf and some plywood. Uh, we borrowed a projector and a screen and we showed up for sure.

In fact, our exhibit booth was so lean, so simple that we stood out accidentally. Um, and then I needed, I needed people. At that clinic, the first clinic, to not look at the product. I needed people to experience the product. I didn't need 'em to read about it. I didn't need to watch a video. We had a product that was capable in very short time of me putting it on your hands and throwing you a football.

And I can sell what I'm passionate about. I can do that, but I'm not called to be a salesperson. Okay? So Iowa didn't, I'm a coach. I know what it feels like to walk through the exhibits. So the very first clinic was in Houston, and me and my partner stood in the walking thoroughfare. So we did not stand behind our table with brochures saying, take this coach.

We stood in the, in the way of people, they had to walk around us to keep going. And as they came, I'd say, coach, put this on your hand. A lot of 'em did throw it on. I said, catch it. Catch it. It did what it said it would do it. They felt the promise. So they, you know, we started to get mad. I like that. I like that.

One guy bought it here, one guy bought it there. Well, I happened to stop a guy, gunner Brewer was his name, who happened to be like the next keynote speaker at one of the sessions. He was on his way to get ready and I, I'm in front of him. He's like, Hey, hurry up. I gotta, I gotta go. I said, coach put him on.

He keeps on walking, like, throw it to me. I threw it to him. He called it, he threw it back almost as he is walking backwards. He said, you mind if I keep him? I love him. I said, sure. He said, I'm the keynote. I'm gonna tell everybody to buy him. It happened just like that. Wow. And I looked at Mark and I'm like, uh, that's the speaker at the next session.

And he just told me that everybody's gonna, he's gonna tell everybody to buy him. Sure enough. I go into that session packed with football coaches. Very first thing he said, he said, y'all see these things, these things are awesome. Y'all should all buy 'em. We sold out and we were like, we should do this again.

So we found a clinic in Dallas the next weekend, got another big order, and, uh, sold out that weekend as well. That's how we we got going. So you could say that we s we didn't passively ask the market to consider our product. We met the market, we got in front of the market and before the market could walk around us, we put our product in their hand and that, that was the start of it.

Jude D: And I'm taking up on the same thing again that I saw before. People tell you to do a certain thing, they try to put you in a box and say, this is the way you go to that convention and present. You go and you pay somebody to make you a first class fancy booth. No, we're not doing it. People tell you whenever you're selling, you need to stand in your booth and wait for people to walk by and come to you.

No, we're not doing it. We're gonna, we're gonna make the booth ourselves. We're gonna make it the way we need it. We're gonna come to you and block your way in the aisle and keep you from walking. What's given you that passion to just, you know, buck Convention. Whenever somebody tells you you're supposed to do it a certain way, you say, nah, we don't need that.

Yeah, we're gonna do it our way. I was 

lance S: not created for that. I have a intense repulsion in my spirit when people try to box me in, my God is unbox able love. Is unbox. It doesn't look just one way. Um, a young person is unbox. They're unique, like every single person's unique. And the more we can tap into that and fuel it and empower it and serve to draw it out of a person, the more beauty we're gonna experience in life.

The, the, the more innovation, the more, the more we move along each other to the next best version of ourself or, or business or industry. Um, yeah, it's a, it's a, my spirituality draws that outta me, but like, I, I like serving people in a way that says, listen, you got restraints and limitations you're putting on yourself, or you're believing that other people are putting on you.

We gotta get those down and see what's possible. 

Josh W: Lance, it is an absolute joy to meet with you, connect with you, hear your story, hear your passion. Um, I want to encourage all our, all our listeners and audience members to, to connect with you. Your contact information will be in the show notes and, and dig in there.

And, and Jude, thanks for, for diving in and, uh, helping with this project, having the vision for this podcast and, and putting it all together. This is such joy. Uh, Elliot, thanks for your questions. And, uh, we just, we just wanna say thank you to everybody. If you're a fellow deal maker in the audience and you'd like to, you know, have a conversation about specific types of deals, maybe when should I sell my business or how much is my business worth?

You know, we'd love to have a conversation with you and heck, maybe even get you on the show. Head over to the deal podcast.com, fill out a quick form and, uh, maybe lead you to being on the show here. Until then, we'll talk to you all on the next episode. See everyone. Thank 

lance S: you, Josh. Thank you, Jude.