DITRLI #4 Verge Ausberry 11.11.24
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Dreamed It Then Real Lifed It, the podcast where we dive deep into the journey from vision to reality. I'm Kelly Jackson, your guide on this path of self discovery, transformation, and intentional living. Here, we explore everything from mindset shifts and personal growth. to spiritual alignment and entrepreneurship, sharing insights, stories, and actionable wisdom to help you live a life in harmony with your dreams.
Every episode we'll dig into what it means to not only dream big, but to actually consciously create the life you envision. Let's turn your [00:01:00] dreams into real life.
Okay, friends. On today's episode, I'm going to be joined by a special guest. He is responsible for managing a $203 million budget, 500 student athletes, and anywhere from 300 to 3,500 people depending on the day. Without any further delay, let's jump right in to this conversation. All right, guys, welcome back.
I am here today. I've got a special guest, Verge Ausberry. He is the athletic executive athletic director and executive director of external relations for the LSU systems. And I'm also very honored to call him a [00:02:00] friend. And I'm so grateful to have him sitting here with us today. And We're not going to be talking about football, guys.
We're not going to be talking about football. Verge is a very interesting man, and there's a lot of things about him that I respect. And I think people need to hear some of these things that we're going to be talking about today. And every time we have a conversation, I walk away feeling lit up. He has great energy.
I'm really excited that he's here with us today. I'm going to hand it over to him. I'm going to let him tell you a little bit more about what he does. And then we're going to dive into this conversation. We're probably going to cover topics all over the place, but I promise you we're going to have a good time.
So Verge. Why don't you tell them a little bit more about yourself. The mic is yours. Thanks, Kelly. I'm glad [00:03:00] to be here today. You know, uh, when I do these type of things, I always like to tell people about, you know, who I am outside of that long title you just read. I'm Verge Ausberry. I'm from New Iberia, Louisiana.
I was a single child growing up. educators. Um, both parent, both parents came from sharecroppers children. Uh, and so I came a long way and uh, through my family being educators helped me understand the value of education and what it is and the importance of it is. And I was able to uh, get an education to, to my children.
Uh, I was fortunate and blessed enough to be a good athlete and a good student and was able to, uh, come to LSU, uh, play football at LSU and had, you know, played professionally football and world league football and things of that nature. But I was able to finish my master's degree and, uh, my specialist in higher administration and all my PhD coursework.
So, uh, that was a blessing. Have two boys, one play here at football at LSU and another one play at, [00:04:00] uh, LSU. Notre Dame, um, Um, I've been married for 23 years and a family and just, uh, you know, we just, just like I say, you just let things roll in my life and, um, it's been a, it's been a, it's been a great, been great.
You know, you have adversity, ups and downs in life, but the thing is though, you know, your spiritual life and, uh, you know, deep spiritual life and faith and trust in people, you let that, let Take this course and, uh, and my purpose, you know, do good things for people, you know, every day I wake up, uh, try to make somebody's life better.
And a lot of times we, you know, take things for granted, uh, and that, you know, you sit back and look like, wow, when you walk somebody on the football field or you walk somebody in an athletic venue, you introduce them to an athlete or a coach, you know, we take that for granted. And I always tell my children, don't take those type of things for granted because you're blessed and you're in that special percentage, uh, and God gave you the talent and the ability and the intellect, uh, to be [00:05:00] successful in life.
So many little gems just in that that you said and I love it and it resonates and you mentioned Spirituality and that's one of the things that I love Verge has a group on Mondays. He sends a Monday motivational text first thing in the morning before the Sun even comes up and I love being on the receiving end of that and Sometimes it's about spirituality, not always, but definitely that's something that's included in those messages.
And, uh, What gave you the idea to start that Monday Motivational Text? Because I really do love getting those. You know, I have an executive coach, and he's a good friend of mine, and we talk a lot. And you find out the higher you move up in life, the lonelier it gets. It's very lonely at the top. People might not realize that.
You have a lot of people that you're friends and associates, but you have really a true group of friends. You have a lot of associates, a lot of people you [00:06:00] meet. And I think about people who have been very successful and doing great things. Sometimes you need that little motivation. He's that little bump on a Monday morning.
And people take it for granted that, you know, Okay, he's successful. He's this. He has everything that he wants in life. But sometimes, you know, you need a little pep talk. And all of us do. No matter where we are in life. No matter how successful we are in life. He's that little pep. And that's what he does.
He gives that Monday morning You know, hey, Monday morning, here's a new day, a new start, a little motivation to get you through the week. And sometimes, uh, some people relate to it that day, and some people come back later, and sometimes it'll be later months. But I say, you know what? What you sent me, it's really got me through this week.
So, it might not be at the time that it's needed, but sometimes it comes in handy at the right time. And that's why you do that, and that's why you send that. That's the education part in me. That's the teacher in me, uh, trying to educate and help people. But, really, a support, a support system, because life, uh, As you know, being in [00:07:00] athletics, there's ups and downs.
You're winning, everything good. You lose the first game, everything's bad. It's part of life, and you know, you can't sit there and dwell on it. You can't dwell on the bad things. You have to move on. You know, I learned from great coaches, from my coach Bill Osborgen and Nick Saban, who's one of the best, and Brian the same way.
Hey, you make a mistake, you have to move on. And that's life. Things happen. It's not the decision you make. It's making the right decisions. And that's it. So everybody makes decisions. And you have to make that decision right. And so that's the thing I do on Mondays. You know, help people. And during the week I send some things out to people also.
And, you know, a lot of it's about people. Broad spectrum of people. It's unbelievable. I keep it confidential at least but there's something where and they send me little things back at times Too but some things you just need to hear when you're riding by yourself at your office by yourself Or you sit at your desk or you're doing something that you're working out.
Sometimes you jogging just like you know, what that's a good quote I want to send this to everybody to make sure that they get in understand and [00:08:00] and people here. Wow. I needed that today oh, yeah, I know it comes through for me like that and And I love, too, that you take the time to put it all together, and I'm telling y'all, I'm telling y'all, he doesn't miss, he doesn't miss its consistency.
So I do enjoy that. One thing that it reminds me of, and I mentioned this to you before, but Napoleon Hill, I'm sure many of us have read his books, but in the law of success, I think in the very first chapter, he talks about the importance of a mastermind and having just kind of what you talked about, that group of people that, that you meet with, that you collaborate, that you have those masterminds with.
And I love it. I love the idea. Now, mind, body, soul. So we talked just a little bit about the spirituality side. I want to talk about the body side, the fitness. And this actually doesn't just limit itself [00:09:00] though to body because we also do this for our mental health. We also do this for our emotional health.
However, are you okay with me sharing your age? Because we talked about it the other day. No, I'm 57 years old. I'm happy about my age. Exactly. That's what I was going to say too. Wasn't going to do it without asking. So Verge is 57 years old. Y'all, he is absolutely amazing. High level position, right? I mean, he's all of this stuff I read to y'all earlier for Louisiana state university.
And traveling all the time, hopping on jets, going to games, all this stuff. You know what he doesn't do? He doesn't make up excuses for not prioritizing his fitness. He's 57 years old, high level position, traveling all the time, has a family, still prioritizes his health and fitness. Guys, I'm going to let you tell, talk a little bit more about this, but.
This is so important to me. Y'all know, this is close to my heart. Movement is medicine and all of this [00:10:00] stuff. And so I plan on, I train for longevity. I train because I want to live a long life with the quality of life. And I, I feel like you do the same thing. So let's talk about it. You know, as an athlete, a high level athlete, you know, you train at a different level, train at a high level.
And then when your playing days are over, you don't really have to train at that level anymore. You're like, well, what am I going to do now? So it was a few years that I, I didn't train as hard as I train now. And then. Uh, my good friend, Scott Woodward, who's the athletic director, you know, we started jogging together.
We started three miles, four miles, five miles, just regular jogging. And then I started picking up some other things. I said, you know, jogging gets kind of old and boring sometimes. And you get older, your knees on the concrete, you start feeling your body. Let's do something different. So a friend of mine brought me to a yoga class.
I'll never forget it. It was on Chimes Street. And the teacher there was a lady, I could call her names, Allison McGee was my teacher. And Allison's a good friend of [00:11:00] mine. And I walked in, I hadn't seen Allison in a while. In fact, we marched together in the best dress ball, the council ball, in town. And I saw her and I'm like, I haven't seen you in four years.
I said, you teaching yoga? She said, yeah. So I went and I tried. The friend brought me there. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to blow through this here. It's going to be easy. It's like an easy workout. I walked out of there and I looked at my friend and I said, man, what did you get me into? So that was my first taste of yoga and then it just took over and I just started going more and more and more and enjoying it, mixing in a lot of my other workouts.
I have another friend, you know, we do stadiums together, a group of us do stadiums together and I really enjoy and love the stadiums and it's something where it gives me my time. And it's an hour of my time. So what I started doing, and so I have a lot of friends who are cardiologists and people like that, and I have a cardiologist, and we talked about those things, and he said, you know, you got to keep yourself in shape.
You got to keep your mind and your body, and you got to be healthy. It helps clear the mind. So, every morning, [00:12:00] you know, I give an hour to myself doing something. If I have a meeting at 8 o'clock, I'm going to do it at 6 o'clock. Sometimes I double up. Sometimes I do something in the morning, but you know what?
I'm going to do a yoga class or something in the evening. Uh, because I think you're fit. Keep your mind clear, uh, you're healthy, you're not worrying about those type of things, and things could happen to you. Things, I tell people, you could work out all day and you could drop dead tomorrow, but you know, at least you're in shape.
I tell people also to make sure you go and get physicals, going to the doctor and checking your body, checking what's going on in your body. You know, it's not the doctor's fault. You have to tell, you have to get in tune with your body. You know, I went through a little bout, bout five years ago of the AFIA Bay Flutter.
And, you know, people can't realize sometimes their heart get out of rhythm. And I was able to do that and detect that something's not right in the car. I just say, well, I went to cardiologist, kept saying, well, you, you, you're great. You're in good shape and nothing's wrong. Can't tell anything, but they could jump out of rhythm.
I could catch it. You see, not many people could do that and I was able to catch that and feel it and get it corrected. And, uh, [00:13:00] I'm going to stop my workouts and my workouts helped me, uh, get through that. But you know, we all could have some issues, but you want to be in the best shape possible when those issues come.
So what do you say? Because people often use age as an excuse. In their mid 30s age is already an excuse in 40s and of course into 50s, right? People use their career as an excuse. They use having a family as an excuse. So like, what, what do you say? Like, how, how do you, how would you. Guide them or encourage them to prioritize fitness.
I mean, because it's common. It's, uh, you know, everybody, it can be, don't have to be an age thing. I think people come up with excuses and they just don't want to do it. And I think you have to, uh, you have to be very disciplined. And you have, you have to be a little different. You have, you have to want that in your life and want that to be a part of your life and [00:14:00] get up and you want your health, you want your, uh, you know, glucose levels to go down.
You want high blood pressure, uh, anxiety, those type of things. You have to move around and do something no matter what age you at. There was a lady in town just passed yesterday. She was 107 years old, and she started doing yes. She started running at the Senior Olympics at a hundred and getting out and moving around.
So we have to do this. The bodies are for and to take care of your body and your body is a temple. So you look at spiritually, your body is a temple. So they want your body to be in great shape and you want to be in good shape when you're doing things and it clears your mind. And giving yourself, you have to, if not, no matter what you're doing, especially high stress jobs, like most people have, uh, if you're a doctor, you're a police officer, you're a fireman, you're an athletic department, you're a president of a university, no matter whether you're a principal or a teacher, it's all high stress.
So you have to relieve that stress some kind of way. And if you don't work out, if you don't do something, then you're [00:15:00] opening up yourself to many other diseases also. So you need to get the blood flowing and stay healthy, but more importantly, like you said, your mind, your mental health. Uh, you have to be in a clear head when you're making decisions, you're making important decisions.
Uh, you know, we were responsible for about 300 people in the athletic department, uh, about 500 student athletes on a football game day is about 3, 500 people. So those are big numbers. You make big numbers and you're making big decisions and you know, decisions, you know, you have to have a clear mind and working out also calms you down.
That's the yoga does. Uh, we always, you know, we all had these issues and problems when we were coming through the business and you make decisions fast, you know, shoot from the hip real quick, you got to make a decision when you're young, you try to impress people and show people what you know and how much you know and how much you could talk at a point.
Sometimes we even get rude when somebody is talking, you interrupt them and you start talking. [00:16:00] So by slowing down, um, Clear mind, you can listen to what the person is saying, get all the information, and then try to make the best decision possible. And like I said, you know, you don't always make the great decision, you gotta make the right decision at the right time.
And those are things that working out do for me, personally, I think we do for a lot of people. Keep their minds clear. Because people think, you know, I don't have time. But you do have time. You do have time. Get up a little earlier. Go to bed earlier. What do they say? Try rephrase that by saying, It's not a priority to me.
That's right. When you say, I don't have time, they're like, well, we'll just say it's not a priority and see how that feels. Because really and truly, if we prioritize our time, structure our day, it's In a way, where we just make that a priority, then there's always time for it. Kelly, you know, my thing is, as a, as a manager, as a supervisor, [00:17:00] as, and I never like, you know, people don't, I don't ever say, I'm the boss.
You know, I work with people, no matter what level you are, I work with you. But if you work out though, and you do things, and you take care of your health, and you have a healthy workforce, and that's important. People are not calling in sick. People are calling me with problems and those type of things and everybody's given a hundred percent to the job and what's need to be done to make your success or make the program successful.
So a healthy workforce is very important. So you have a manager position, you're at a high level position, you should want your workforce to be healthy. Yeah. Well, I love that you are in this position and you're leading by example because I'm sure that's one of the things that you do. realize is important for you to be in a leadership position is that people do look up to you for, you know, like, what's Verge doing?
Yeah. And people, a lot of people are amazed, especially when I do the stadiums, they laugh a lot. They'd be like, you stick every step of the stadium. I say, yeah, I say it's fun. And they're like, no, it's not. I [00:18:00] got flashbacks when I was playing. I was playing football. We used to have to run in the north part of the stadium, and that was a bad mental thing for me.
It was, it was, it was back then in the 80s, you had to carry people on your back, you had to carry weights on your back, you had to go all the way up to the top, you know. That's all illegal today. You know, they put people in jail for that today, but, uh, it used to be brutal workouts back then. So I did flashback sometimes in the north end zone, and I'm like, wow, I got to go back to this north end zone again, but it's healthy and it's a mental thing for me.
And I tell people, do, do what you could do. It's not a race. If you want to walk a mile a day, I say, just take an hour, take a slow walk in the park. You want to ride a bike. If you want to swim, if you want to go to elliptical, you want to go to a workout facility. You want to lift weights. You want to do yoga.
You want to do Pilates. I mean, you can do anything you want to do, but just get active and do something. Even just walking around the mall for an hour, just walking, keep walking the mall, do things so you don't have to be this, this person, you know, professional athlete type workout deal. You know, just, just somebody who moves around.
And it helps you, [00:19:00] it helps society as a whole. It makes it a healthier society. When you look at some of the problems we have as a state in Louisiana, especially health is always at, we're always right last in that. And that's some of the problems. And then what we put in our bodies, you know, that's important also.
Uh, people, you know, look, I like ice cream. I love ice cream. We're in Louisiana. Remember I said you don't eat fried foods? No, you don't eat fried foods in Louisiana. It's just the way we, we are. But you know, you have to, you have to monitor how much of that you eat. You have to prioritize how much you're going to put in your body.
So on weekends, I kind of splurge. I do what I want to do, eat what I want to eat. But during the week, I try to cut back on some carbs. Um, don't put any carbonated water into my system. And, um, just try to live a healthy life. Watch how much alcohol intake you have. Those type of things. All that's important to this whole mind, body, and your health.
100 percent like absolutely 100 percent it's a holistic approach. It's. You've got to be [00:20:00] looking at what you're consuming, what you're eating, what you're watching, what you're listening to, the people you're surrounding yourself with. All of this stuff matters and all of this contributes to your overall health, your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health.
If you're around people, if you're a friend group and your peers are always active in some way, you're, you're going to like. Join them for a walk or like, yeah, why don't we play pickleball with you or you know, you're going to do it and if on the other hand, right, that's not the case, then you're probably not going to be as likely to do it either.
I think this is stuff we all know, but you know what they say, common sense isn't always common practice. So yeah, it's good to be reminded. Okay, now this is interesting. So, You played football in college and now here you are, you, so you were a student athlete. It wasn't even just about football and what I'm about to say.
So you were a student athlete and now [00:21:00] here you are a generation later because now you have children who were student athletes. And so. And not just that, but you're also in a position where you're dealing with all the student athletes. So what is the difference, the big difference that you feel like from when you were a student athlete, aside from you, you have to carry people up the stadium steps on your back, to These athletes now, like, what do you think?
Because now there's so many opera, because this is about entrepreneurship. And I mentioned, we maybe get into a little bit of that and branding. So what do you feel like now with these opportunities, or just the difference between being a collegiate athlete when you were, and now that Your boys are and these other student athletes that you're managing because it's different worlds apart, worlds apart, not even close.
You know, we came out of school. We were just happy to have a scholarship in, uh, free education and, uh, free meals and a free place to sleep and hang out with our friends [00:22:00] and play football. And when the coach say run through the wall, you run through the wall and you listen to what your coaches say. It's structure.
Yeah, it's, um, it's some good qualities to that, but, uh, people today, you know, the world has changed. A lot of people, they're like, well, I wish we could bring it back to when it was that way. No. Uh, I'm more progressive now. You learn more. Science has taught us a lot of things about the body, what goes into the body, work out.
Training, all those type of things. Um, your brand. Now student athletes have, you know, revenue sharing, they have NIL, those opportunities. Uh, so your brand. People came out, and science has got us to this part right here. And people try to fight, you know, change. Change is good. I like change, and it's changing for the better.
It changes for the best. You know, my kids have an opportunity to do what they do, the opportunities they have, the brand they have, the workouts they have are totally different. The workouts they're doing now is the workouts that, I wish I [00:23:00] had yoga back then. Players doing yoga and Pilates to help the body, to heal the body, and how fast the body heals.
Science with, um, It's stem cell research and things of that nature. How you can hurt an ankle, you can take it and generate the stem cells in the ankle and get the person back healthier quicker. The medicines we use, the things we put inside of us, the drinks we put in us to keep us from dehydrating, those type of things, there's a totally different world.
So you know, at LSU, one thing that we do, and Scott, myself, and Kelly, and all the rest of the executive team, we welcome change. We like change, and change is for the best, and it's putting student athletes on a pedestal, putting the university on a pedestal, but it's also helping them attain the things that they want to attain, and yeah, you get your degree, but also, you know, how far we can push you to be a better person when you leave here.
Better and the person give back to society. You know, those things are important [00:24:00] and that's, that's the difference we have now. The differences we have now than what we had when I played. It was just then just play. And there's a game and you know, you expose us so much more now with TV and technology and those type of things.
You know, like Livy Dunn, you know, she did a commercial the other day for some company it was 50 million hits. Wow. Let's think about that. Fifty million people hit on her name. And that's the brand. That's the brand of LSU. That's what we want to promote. We don't want to take away from this here. You know, we work with people in the entertainment business, you know, how we help these people sit down and do an interview like I'm doing with you right now, do a podcast or you want to be in film, you want to work in the movies, those type of things.
So we educate people now beyond and much farther than what we had. And these young people today also, Kelly, much, much smarter, much more advanced than what we came about. So comparing it to us, we didn't have those type of things. People say, you know, how good are you to your kids? It's not a comparison, they're much better than me.
They had better things, they were better equipped, [00:25:00] uh, science and technology had moved on and, and put people in better positions in life. It's no different from medicine or anything else that you learn over a period of time, this is best and this is best for our bodies. And so. That's the differences I see right now, which is moving in the right direction.
A lot of people don't like it. A lot of people fight it. You know, a lot of people hate change. Change is hard. And when you change it and you move it, things, and especially as fast as things moved in our business, it uses like a battleship, turn a battleship on land, but now it's sailing and it's moving so fast and things are instant.
I mean, one year, two years, three years, things has totally changed. And, uh, we like it. I like it too. You got to be adaptable, ready to pivot and to adjust and for sure. Okay, so you mentioned in that conversation, I heard that with the student athletes, they've incorporated yoga and Pilates into [00:26:00] their training.
Now, okay, this is amazing. Yoga is something I'm kind of like you. So I was an athlete my whole life. I would say never on a professional level or anything, or even a collegiate level. However, I was an athlete my whole life, different sports, never heard of yoga even. And it wasn't. Um, I heard of it before. I always say like yoga found me and, you know, kind of found me at the point in my life when it was meant to find me.
I had heard of it before. I had a girlfriend, a really dear friend who had discovered yoga or yoga had found them. And. I remember they were like doing this challenge and they were going to yoga every day for 30 days. And I was like, what even is that? And why are you doing it every day? And then when I did find it, wow, did that change my life?
You said something earlier where you said, you [00:27:00] know, your body is your temple this past weekend. I was at this amazing event experience. I told you about it. It was called aligned awakening. And we were in a yoga class there at this I'm not sure what you want to call it. And one of the things the teacher said while we were flowing and I loved it is my body is my temple and Asana are my prayers.
And you know, it is a moving meditation and when you're moving through your yoga class and you're flowing, you're not in your head. And I think this is what sometimes and probably me when I first. When yoga found me the way it found me the way it got my attention was by all the Instagram poses, you know, these beautiful poses on the beach or on the whatever.
And the gymnast in me, the artist in me, the creator in me was like, drawn to it. I was like, Wow, they're making art with their [00:28:00] bodies. This is amazing. And I was a gymnast growing up. And so that was, there was something about it, the handstands that was like, pulling me in. And then, once I got there, I realized what It was really about, and it was about coming home to myself and this sacred union with myself and all of that kind of stuff.
And so I think that there are a lot of people that might look at yoga or have heard of yoga or have seen yoga and they're not, they don't really understand what it's about. It's not about the poses. It's not about the poses at all. I think about what that teacher said. My body is my temple. The Asana are my prayers.
It's a moving meditation. It's. For me, it's the celebration of what my body can do, that I have this mobility and in my body, and that I am free to move in my body without restriction. And I can breathe life into those parts [00:29:00] of my bodies that are tight. There's so much more there. So what's What are your thoughts on that?
Because do you, do you feel like some people might have a misconception about what yoga is? Well, let's take it on a man's perspective. I would love to hear a man's perspective. Most men are very, what, competitive, especially if you're an athlete. So that's when I first got into yoga, like, okay, this is a workout.
And I'm going there, you know, I'm going to do this, I'm I'm going to do this here and, you know, you go there and like, Whoa, you're not breathing, you know, teaches you how to breathe because most times you, you lock up and you get tense and you work it out. You're lifting weights. You're not breathing. You pumping weights and things.
And it really changed. Yeah. You know, your perspective and your mental perspective about what it does. And talking to guys that say, Versh, you do yoga? I'm like, yeah, I do yoga. They're like, uh, that's a lie. I say, well, why don't you come try it? And so, most men are very competitive, and they think it's like, you know, you have to be a game of strength.
Uh, game of power and you know, if people have [00:30:00] power, you're hot, you're over the classes, but it's not, it's about the breathing. It's about really getting your mind out of the place that where you are and into yourself and then you just let it flow because a lot of times whenever I feel myself competing because I do have that still in me to compete, to win.
That's what I do. That's my job is to win. You know, my, my poses are bad. My class gets bad. I forget about breathing. I get more into, okay, I'm gonna get through this and I'm gonna get done with it. I think that's the problem most men have when they go to yoga and we have to really, it's almost like being a golfer.
Everything about golf is opposite about being strength and power and hitting the, you know, the ball as far as you can. It's about keeping the ball straight, keeping the ball in play. This technique and it's the technique of keeping the club head down and hitting it slowly. And speeding up without forcing it, not using all your muscles.
And the same thing with yoga, you know, you're not using all your muscles, using your mind and your [00:31:00] breathing to get you through the poses and good teachers to tell you, you know, breathe through the, when you get tired and your arms get tired, breathe through it, breathe through it. And then you know, the value and spiritually what the breath does for the body and how many breaths it take to help the body get through the day.
How many times you breathe a day? And how important that breath is to your, to your life. And that's what yoga does. It helps you, you know, get out of that mindset to breathe. And it's not about competition. You know, there's things that you can do, Kelly, that I can't do and probably never will be able to do.
I'm bigger and I'm thicker and, you know, some of the poses. But you do the pose that fits you. And so sometimes I like to just do my own thing in class. I know what the flow is. I know what's going to happen, but I'm going to do it in a different way that benefits my body. I like to communicate with the teachers about that.
You know, what could I do? And I see this pose here, like I can't do that, but what could I do that's equivalent to that? So those are the important things about, you know, you can't go in there with an ego. Yeah. Drop the ego at the door. You know, most people [00:32:00] walk in there. You can go in there with the ego, but you're going to come out there a different way.
So exactly. Go ahead. You know, most people go in and they enjoy it in yourself and it's not a competition. It's not where, you know, I'm going to race, I'm going to be at the finish line before you. I'm going to finish this before you, I'm going to lift more than you. It's not about that. It's about taking care of your, your inner personal self and that's what's important.
100%. I love it. And I'm glad you mentioned the breath because it is about the breath that in following the breath and letting the breath lead and guide you and moving with the breath and the breath. That's your life force, you know, and the breath is the one thing that it is the first thing. that you take when you come into this world and it is the last thing you take before you leave this world.
And it is the only thing that is with you. It is with you every, it is always with you and it is [00:33:00] freely accessible. And so guys, when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're feeling anything, whether it's stressed because you're holding a warrior two for 30 seconds, or whether it's stressed because you've got a lot of responsibility in your job and a quick deadline and a lot of.
decisions you have to make, right? Regardless of what it is, you can come back to your breath. It's freely accessible to you and it's there for you anytime to like bring you back to center. And yoga does help you with that awareness of breath and this aware, just self awareness in general, body awareness.
I'm sure you've noticed that too. Um, it's just so good. And the other thing. Um, going off of what you were saying, um, alignment, that's the other thing with yoga. You were saying like working out, you know, it's the pushing through and the more of the force and yoga is definitely flow and alignment. [00:34:00] And that's why we always say yoga on and off the mat because the things that you learn in class.
You definitely take with you into the world. I've, I've done that a lot to, uh, especially in stressful situations, big games, things of that nature. Just take a breath. I was laughing the other day. I was telling someone about, I was driving the car. I'm looking, traffic was horrible. I looked at everybody in their cars.
You know, people watch while I was in traffic. I didn't hit anybody. You know, it wasn't on my phone. So I was just people watching. And I was looking at people and everybody was just sitting there and it was frowned up and it was grabbing and stirring with so hard. And I'm seeing that kind of smile on my face.
It's like, you know what? I get there when I get there. I don't know why. I'm rushing to somewhere where I don't really need to be. I don't have a meeting. But I'm just mad because I'm sitting here in traffic. And the traffic is not moving. So something up there must be going on. Something must be happening.
It might be somebody in an emergency situation. You never know. And so you just sit there and you I also learn from people that sometimes when you're thinking about People feel this way [00:35:00] about you, or somebody's saying this here. You sit back, relax, and just breathe. It's not that way. And it becomes clear, like, you know what?
I thought it was gonna be this way, and it's not. So sit back, relax. You know, breathe any workout I do now if I'm running, doing stadiums, lifting weights, stomach workouts, breathe, breathe, and my old strength coach used to tell us when we were lifting weights to breathe, and we didn't understand what it was at that time, but understand how much breath is important to us and everything we do in life, just take a take a minute and breathe.
You don't always have to be the first one to answer something, to do something, to move. Um, Just take a step back and say, you know what, let me think about this here. Let me take a deep breath before my response comes out of my mouth and use that response much better. And it makes everybody in the room feel more comfortable, especially when you're talking to groups or talking to people, you're talking to staff and, you know, make them feel a part of it.
And then they'll feel more comfortable opening up and talking to you. [00:36:00] Yes, because if you take a deep breath. It goes from being a reaction to a response if you don't take that breath friends It can be a risk like a reaction right like and I think the beauty of That comes with age and the beauty that comes with this intentional practice and with self awareness and all this stuff is that we start to learn how to regulate our nervous system and we start to, because I'm sure that's a big part of you doing what you do and doing it successfully and doing it where you have people who want to be around you and who want to be working for you.
Right. And like who want to come here and be part of this team. team that y'all have, if y'all call it a team, I'm not sure, like within your organization. Yeah. And you do that because that's something that you've learned how to do. And [00:37:00] how would, because this is so important to me and I'm sure, um, Um, in your career, not just your career at LSU, I'm saying your athletic career as well.
You've probably dealt with people who have not mastered the art of regulating their nervous system. And then you've probably had experiences with people who have, and you've been on that journey as well. And so this is something I like to advocate for the importance of, of really being, having that autonomy and being able to like, Um, have that kind of control over yourself where your emotions don't control you and you're really able to bring yourself into this homeostasis, right?
So like, what, how are you feel about that? You know, you know, every party you deal with, you said that about staff, so we're talking about the other day and dealing with people who think differently than you, uh, we don't think. All the same, you know, I don't want anybody to think just like me. I want people with different [00:38:00] opinions when they come into the table.
And some conversations you have to have are easy conversations. Some conversations you have is difficult conversations. It's about how you handle those conversations because no matter who it is you're talking to and what they feel and how they feel, you want to get them to remain on the team. They remain part of the organization.
And you want to just try to help them get to a point where you might not always agree, But you come closer together on where they're trying to get to, and you're trying to help that person get there and be successful. I always tell people, you know, I don't business everybody want to fire everybody every day.
You know, coach lose a game, you need to fire the coach, you need to fire the coach. Well, you keep firing people and moving people on. That's a reflection of you as a leader. Um, the people that you keep around, people that you help in their careers. And I went back to my earlier conversation about building people up.
And building their careers and letting them leave better than when they came in. If you don't do that for everybody you touch, then that's a problem. You know, you try. Now, some people might not want it. They might not accept it and they might not want to take that direction, [00:39:00] but you should as a leader, try to help make sure that when you're working with people or your organization that you leave it in a better position when you left, uh, when you leave.
And. The people that you're guiding and you're working with, that, you know, when they leave or they go on with their careers everywhere, I love it. They have people working all over the nation and doing very, very well and very successful. People are athletic directors now and in great positions, and them and their families.
That's a reflection on, you know, what you do to touch a person. So, that's why you take the breath sometimes. There's little things you could say. It could change your whole conversation. Little things you could say, people could interpret it totally different than what you interpret it as. So it'd be very clear when you're speaking to them, in the right tone when you're speaking to them.
The attention, when you're speaking to them, you know, people say focus, uh, but a lot of times today, well, you know, people are talking to you and you're doing this here, you're on the computer and doing things, you know, that used to be me. That used to be me. That used to be me, too. Uh huh, [00:40:00] yeah. And it's, it's rude.
Mm hmm. And, you know, first you don't think about it like, oh, okay, I just, you know, that's the way it is. You know, I was texting and I was talking to her, or talking to him. Well, it's, it's rude, and sometimes that person wants your attention. You know, you talk about that Monday morning when I sent out to people, you know, sometimes people just want to be, you know, is there somebody out there that's listening to me?
A lot of people want to be heard. That's why a lot of people are confused. They're not heard. Nobody's talking to them. And they're not talking to anybody. And they think their voices are silent. And we have to help make sure that we never get everybody's voice out there, that they'll be heard. And the more people are heard, the better it is for society, the better it is for your organization, the company, whatever you're working with.
Absolutely. You know, you're giving them a platform. When you give people platforms and you let them fly, let them do great things, let them show their talents and everybody has different talents. Some people go get in front of a microphone and speak all day. Some people don't like to do this. A lot of people hate it.
A lot of people like to be in the front. Some people don't like to do it. You know, in a way, I'm a shy person. [00:41:00] I've learned how to do these type of things, but growing up, I was like, you know what? I'd rather walk behind the benches than go in front of everybody to walk. And, you know, just as time comes, you develop those talents, and those talents come out.
And, uh, but everybody's different, though. You have to accept that. I think that's the problem. Some people don't want to accept the differences of people. And you have to do that and help them no matter how we think, no matter what we do. And I want people to think different. How, how differently, especially for me, I want them to know, tell me something out there that's different.
You might not be the right time for that at this time, but eventually, you know, there might be a smart idea. So no idea is a bad idea. No idea is a dumb idea. And I'll tell my mid level managers, don't criticize people. You know, they talking to you and they speaking to you or something. Just open up to those ideas and say, Hey, you What do you think?
I like doing that a lot with a lot of younger people. Tell me what you think about it. Tell me the reasons. And a lot of times they're talking about, well, this guy didn't make this right [00:42:00] decision and they don't realize that, you know, the financial situation, they can't make that decision. And sometimes we take it for granted.
When I go back, so we take things for granted sometimes and not knowing the whole picture. You have to know the whole picture before you start making some decisions. And that's where the yoga helps you. You take those steps back. You get the plan, you get to see it, and yoga opens it up more to where you say, you know what, that's why we made that decision.
That was the right decision we made. It helped everybody. You know, everybody's, you know, came out, everybody I might be is totally, I can't make everybody happy. You know, it's like I said, it's difficult decisions you have to have, difficult conversations you have to have at times, but at least you get a person to the point, uh, where they could be, okay, you know what, I can live with that.
You know, the difficult conversation thing, communication in general. Okay. I actually want to say two things. I want to say, I want to go back first to what you were saying, cause I was the same way with the [00:43:00] distractions. And it really is one thing that I appreciate just this conversation we've had to be able to have guys, eye contact is important and I'm going to have verge because of this high level position he's in.
He can probably tell you this, really tell you this, how much can you tell about a person? But just by their, their ability to be able to take eye contact from you, right? Because don't you think that that is a really important thing to be able to do? To be able to have a conversation with someone and look them in the eye, because I feel like that's a really important thing to be able to do.
You know, two things, Kelly, we can't teach. Two things I can't make a person. Uh, trust and integrity, which is the same thing. And so, by looking you in the eye, shaking your hand, especially young people when I meet them, That's what I do. I shake their hand. Firm handshake. I try to break their fingers with a firm handshake, but eye contact, you [00:44:00] can't look people in the eye.
Then, you know, it gives a little what, what they're trying to hide, what they're trying to mask. So look at people in the eye, how you handle yourself. And we've been trained to watch people when they walk in a room. When I walk in a room, I scan the room. You know, how people are sitting, how you're standing, if your arm's folded, if something's not defensive, you know, what's going on, you know.
Heart's closed off. That's right. So, I'm trying to figure out, you know, when I walk in a room, scan in a room, I tell young people, when I walk in a room, we're interviewing you. It's an interview. Uh, you walk in there, you know, you, you're not interested, your eyes closed, a hat on your head, things of that nature.
So all that plays into that, into that. So the eye contact is always important as you're looking into the person. That's the only way I got to look at you and to see what you're about through your eyes. That's the only lenses we have of each other. You know, not all the body parts do that. Your eyes guide you to where you want to go, the direction you're going and things of that nature.
So the eyes tell a lot about people when you look in [00:45:00] their eyes. You know, how bright their eyes are, how lit their eyes are. You know, what, what in life, you know, what's burning? You know. Yeah. In that mind. Yeah. It's true. It also tells people who, who look at their eyes and also say there's, there's problems there.
There's issues there. There's pain there. Uh, all of that is part of the eyes. I agree. You can see it all. They say the eyes are the window to the soul. And I know another thing I used to do, and I'm really mindful to not do this anymore is have sunglasses on. When I'm like meeting or particularly meeting someone, I will always take them off, lift them up.
Now, if it's bright, if I needed to put them on, but I pretty much will have conversations to people eye to eye, um, because, but that's something that I used to, I would leave them on the whole time, really just unaware of it. And I believe that through my intentional journey of self I've been on just all of this is part of the self awareness.
But I really love that I've stepped into. [00:46:00] this era of life where I do have the awareness about this sort of things because I do feel the connection and I do feel the way that my life feels elevated now that that's more of just my nature of who I am because I think that in a way I was hiding back when I had the sunglasses on or when my eyes were shifting.
I remember a point in my life where someone who was really good with eye contact. It was almost like. Made me feel a little uncomfortable, like I needed to look away, but that was more of a projection of my own insecurities, some things that I was dealing with. So now I'm empathetic to it. I'm compassionate to it, but I do recognize it in other people.
And what I recognize is only those bits of myself when I was the same way. I have a, I have a good friend. He's a, he's, He played in the NBA, uh, great basketball player. In fact, he's in the NBA Hall of Fame, the Naismith Hall of Fame, one of the best of all time. And, I introduced him to [00:47:00] some guys, uh, a couple of years ago, and the guys had shades on.
When I introduced him, he wouldn't put his hand out to shake his hand, and it was kind of strange. And he said, I'm gonna shake your hand, but I just want you to take your shades off. He said, I want to see your eyes. He said, when you introduce me to somebody, I want to see their eyes, see who they are, who I'm talking to.
And it was interesting when he did that, it kind of caught us all off guard. I'm like, but that is a true statement. Yeah. You know, take the shades off, because the shades are hiding something. Yeah. It is hiding something. And if you meet somebody for the first time, you want to see. You want to look into their eyes, look into their face, and those eyes tell you everything about that person.
They tell you if it's a defensive conversation, if it's an easy conversation, they're happy to see you, whatever. Your eyes, when you smile, your eyes what? Light up. They open up. So it was interesting when he did that. It taught me a lot. I learned from that also. And when I meet people now myself, I pull my shades off completely.
Yeah. I take them off and meet them. I pull them, put them on. Same. I go somewhere. I know your period of time, you got shades on. That's different. Yeah. [00:48:00] You should take your shades off because it opens up. I'm with you. And you said, because you're hiding something. And again, I know when I was, I was, and sometimes the things that we're hiding are only our own insecurities, our own feelings of maybe unworthiness or, or.
Shame or y'all sometimes who even knows the things that are pain, just sadness, like the things that we just don't want to be seen because I think we recognize the vulnerability of the eyes and making that sort of connection, uh, which is great. Okay. So I don't even, do you want to do a time check? Cause I don't even have a clue how long we've been, it's, uh, it's three 35.
Oh, we doing good. We doing good. All right. So, let me just take a little second here. Now we,
I wanted to talk a little bit about the branding, [00:49:00] just a little bit about branding. Now, You may or may not know if you're listening. So I am an LSU alumni myself. I have a bachelor in fine art. I have a concentration in graphic design. I am a graphic designer. I love the marketing, the branding. I love all of the things and LSU is this really amazing brand.
And this is what I want you to hear. That's what it is, guys. It's a brand. It's a university. It's a college. Yes, it's all those things. And it's also a brand. And so I want to, at least for the sake of this conversation, I want to speak on it in that context. It's more than just a brand, but that's how I want to talk about it right now.
And I love this stuff. So I'm going to give you a quick little background. So I started, uh, t shirt company when I was in college, I had a silkscreen machine and all this stuff. [00:50:00] And because I'm born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU has always been a thing. So I had this idea that I wanted to make some shirts and things for LSU.
I already had this idea. And there's this whole process you have to go through with the CLC. That's the Collegiate Licensing Company. And so if you want to produce a shirt, say I had some ideas with this. Okay, here was one. It was more for kids, but you know how it was like a, it was just this little see you at the box, but it was letters in this little drawing, right?
Well. The thing was, even though it didn't say LSU anywhere on it, the facts that the box is Alex box stadium, and it was going to be known that it was that way y'all that still counts. So To be able to manufacture this, you would actually need to go through a process ahead of time where you submit your design and a prototype to the collegiate licensing company along with a business plan.
Where are you going to sell it? How they want to [00:51:00] know all kinds of stuff y'all. And there's a reason they do this because it's important and it matters. And yes, it's a business, all of this. I Geek out on this kind of stuff. I really love it. And this is I like to ask pick Burgess brain about this kind of stuff sometimes.
So I just want you to share a little bit about this topic because it excites me. No brands are important. Let me tell you what's the brand brand of people. Oh, I like it. Brand, you know, everybody thinks about the brand. You know, LSU is special. Nothing is bigger than those three letters. LSU. Okay? No person, no athlete, no professor, no Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Anybody. It's LSU. But the people though, Generate and makes the brain take LSU to the next level. The, the professors, the faculty, the staff, the, everybody works on that campus. All the different departments on that campus. The research that takes place. The [00:52:00] important research around the world that takes place.
It's just not, people think of LSU, they think about just athletics. That's a small part of it. We have 500 student athletes out of 32, 000. Students on campus. That's just the Baton Rouge campus. That's right. And 45, 000 in all of the LSU campuses, the whole LSU systems. So we're a small portion of that, but all that's part of that brand also.
There are those big buildings over there called Tiger Stadium and the PMAC and those other buildings and the Box, as you said. But the people that that perform in those places The student body, uh, as I said, that's the brand of LSU. Uh, the great students who graduate, the people, the alumnus, those who go out and, uh, do, there's a lot of constituents that make up LSU and speak on behalf of LSU and represent LSU.
That's your brand. Uh, and people get caught up in the brand, the brand. Well, you know, you have to, you have to make that brand. And then every year you have to continuously make that [00:53:00] brand what it is. You can't just relax and say, okay, we have a good brand. That's it. You know, corporate America doesn't do that.
Uh, they, they go out and they find the people and they find the right things to do to keep that brand growing. How you make that brand growing. You talked about earlier about how times have changed over the years. What we've done at LSU to improve our brand, you know, look at LSU, let's take African American students.
You know, when I was there. Coming up in the 1970s, there was very few African American students on that campus. Now, LSU is number one or two in African American students at public institutions in the country. Really? I didn't know that. Yes, if we would graduate, if, you know, if we was at HBCU, we would be third, historical black institution, third in African American graduates.
In the United States, so that's how the brand grows and people grow and fall in love with the brand. Athletics was a part of that. The university is a part of that. A good institution is a part of that. In times of [00:54:00] change, how you change that brand, how your brand could withstand the changes. in time.
That's the important part. So you can create a great brand. Look how many companies when we were growing up, Kelly, out of business. Now you don't even hear about, look at the typewriter. We don't use typewriters anymore. Okay. Calculators. You very seldom use a calculator. A lot of things we use back in the day, you don't use today.
So that brand is the people and how you change and evolve in your brand. Okay. That's the important part. Secondly, you know, you're talking about the brand, you know, we talk about the people, but you bring it to have people. also around that brand to protect that brand. Okay. And each of us individually is a brand.
Also, you talked about the brand of LSU. a brand of us. You know, Kelly Jackson has a brand. Verge Osbert has a brand. Friends of ours have brands. You are a brand. I mean, when any young man or woman who's a great athlete or entertainer or whatever they want to do, musician, it's a [00:55:00] brand. And yet, how do you protect that brand?
So the people you put around you, If it's your family, if it's somebody that you, you know, that you, that you have a lot of respect for, or somebody that's a professional, that the greatest in this industry. And you know what, I want you to be my mentor. Okay. I want you to be the people that I could go to and ask the question to, and they tell me the truth.
Because those people, I call it your corporate board. That's what I call it. Everybody needs a corporate board. A group of friends around them. And that corporate board need to be the ones that tell you, not pat you on the back, and tell you everything's great. They gotta say, Vernon Kelly, you're making a mistake.
You're going in the wrong direction. That's not the right time. I know you want to do this, it's not the right time for that. Like the old people used to say, you know, I got a boogie in your nose or your pants are split. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me sometimes, and don't beat me up about all my faults, but just tell me, you know, do you think that's a good idea and why do you think it's a good idea?[00:56:00]
And to talk about it and discuss it and sometimes they can say, you know what? Let's wait on that. It's not the right timing for that. So you got to have people around you. That's all part of your brand building. You know, everybody has that. Don't care how great your brand is. It could be Michael Jordan, who's the greatest brand there is.
Uh, to this day. Look at his brand. How he's protected that brand also. I mean, this is a guy who hadn't played basketball in 30 some years. In fact, all the kids who wear his shoes now, they've never seen him play. Let's think about that and where his brain is and how large his brain is and you know very few people have that, very few people have a brain where you can say their name in one word, Shaq.
Right. Brand. Tiger. Yeah. Your brand. You see? Yeah. You see that? Their names and that's their brand. And so to protect that brand, you know, how you protect it, not only how you get to that point in that brand, but how you protect that brand so that brand, alas, longevity of the brand. That's important. [00:57:00] So anybody could create a brand.
You know, One Night Wonder, Hit Wonder, boom you're the brand. All of a sudden the brand fades off musicians and every other profession, you said, happen all the time. So sustaining that, that, that, you know, from our Garth Brooks to, you know, the great artists and entertainers of the world we know today. It's a, it's how you protect that brand and how you You know how you progress and sometimes those brands get damaged and sometimes those brands get hit and they all all the big brands gonna take a hit one day and we take hit sometimes but it's how you get back over that and how you build from that so you have to keep continuously building the brand and just not here's the brand here what I am here what I do you have to change you Yeah, I can tell you earlier, you have to be a change agent in that brand.
How we progress, how we get better, how we do things, okay? When we win a game, Nick Saban's the best at it. When he wins a game, the worst he gets. The more pressure he puts on you, the harder it's going to get. [00:58:00] But it's hard to win. It's hard to be successful. It's hard for a brand to last. How do we last for the long haul?
Look how many corporations, bed, bath and beyond, closed down, shut down with great brands when they open up, you know. But very few stay up like the Walmarts, the Targets. You look at corporate brands. How do they do it? The IBMs, the Coca Colas. How do they keep that brand up where they don't go bankrupt?
They don't go out of business, they don't go out of existence. You see brands change, you see fast food restaurants change, healthy menus now, things like that. The best, one of the best brands and one of the best guys, and he's the wealthiest man in Louisiana is Todd Graves, and I like to talk about that, you know, his brand, you know.
What he did with his brand. You know, everybody's telling me, you know, Todd, why don't you sell hamburgers? Why don't you sell hot dogs? Nope. We're selling chicken fingers, we're selling crinkle fries, Texas toast, and some sauce. Period. Period. It's gonna be hot. You can get three, you can get four, or you can get five.
That's [00:59:00] it. That's it. Period. They had a chicken sandwich. I didn't even realize that the one day I walked by. It's still, it's still chicken fingers on a sandwich. Right. In the sauce. But that brand though, just think about it. That's their brand. You travel all over the world. And people were raising canes, raising canes.
And we from here. So, you know, we take me like, okay, I go to places like, Oh, you have a raising canes there. And I'm like, yeah. Oh, we've got to go to raising canes. And I'm like, okay. It's good when it's hot. And that's, but that's how he built a brand. You have to be disciplined when you're building your brand.
You can't be all over the place, trying new things and doing this here. You know, different people have tried many different things and it's failed. Be good at what you're going to be good at. That's your brand. Be an expert in what you're going to be good at. A lot of times we waste time in our brand working on things that we're not strong at.
Keep building what you're strong at. What you're not strong at, you know, don't [01:00:00] waste 70 percent of your time trying to get that to the level of what your strengths are. Your strengths are the one that's going to carry you in your brand. We waste too much time going back and trying to get things that we are not good at to be part of that brand and be the best.
So that's my, I love it, going brands. Yeah, it's good. It's important information. Everything you said. And look, I'm also, I love the Todd Graves story that, um, I have some, I have some Um, personal things about that story like in my life that that's tied into so he's one of the ones that I always go back to as well as kind of an example of, you know, because I know when he was first had this idea of people like, No way, you're not going to make it.
Yeah. You're going to see a degrade on it. The professor at the University of Georgia. That's what I'm saying. So, it's like, you know, I love these stories. That's kind of what I talked about, about overcoming adversity and just knowing. And at [01:01:00] that point, like he, he knew what he wanted the brand to be. And sometimes you got to.
Lean in, trust your intuition, and be like, nah, this is what I'm doing. Yeah, it's good. It's good stuff. I think we've been chatting for a good bit. Do you have anything else that you can think about? Because I mean we've talked about yoga, and we've talked about LSU and a big brand, and about being at a high level position and not making excuses for not exercising and prioritizing your mental, physical, and emotional health.
And the importance of it. You know, like having a mastermind and a really, or like a corporate, what did you call it? Corporate, corporate board, your corporate board. Yeah. This group of your surround your, you know, we get to choose who we surround ourselves with friends. And, um, The thing is, even if in your life, you might not have these people that like, you know, personally, like verge and I are sitting here face to face, but like, [01:02:00] when I first began this intentional journey to self and really like taking my life in another direction, And I maybe hadn't met or aligned with these people like you yet, it hadn't happened yet, but I knew that I needed to have these people in my life.
Guys, that's when you, we have social media now and we have blogs now. And so I created my circle and it's Brendan Burchard and it's Jenna Kutcher and it's these coaches and mentors. It's these people who we get, this is what I wasn't using Instagram. To like see what my friends were doing on the weekend.
I curated a feed that was every day. I was surrounding myself with the people. I was like, if I got to choose the people that I wanted to like be in my circle, right? Like, I'm going to choose the people that are in my circle. Um, that every time I listen, I'm like, yes, you know, that are just lighten me up, that are positive, that are, um, have integrity, that [01:03:00] are making a positive impact in the world, that are serving, that are reminding me to live, laugh, matter, like all of the things.
And you. Don't feel lonely. Don't feel alone. Don't feel like I don't know anybody. Yeah, you can create that community for yourself. And then when you stay at that vibration long enough, and that becomes your, your talk, your dialogue, it just becomes kind of who you are, you will discover that you begin to you.
Attract, align your energy, gets to a place where you, you will start to draw it into you in your community where you're not just going online for it. And now, and it's wonderful. This has been my personal experience and just want people to hear that because sometimes we want this. We're like, well, I want that, but I don't know those kinds of people.
You don't have to know them personally to be in their community or to invite them into yours. Kelly, keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate you. I've [01:04:00] watched you on Instagram and I've watched your story and what you tell and help people, uh, young men and women, and I think, uh, you have a lot of followers and it's important that we need more people like you.
I appreciate you. You have the time to do this. It's very important to a lot of people. I appreciate you. I appreciate you being here. This has been, I told y'all we would have a good talk. And I might be biased, but I don't know, Verge, I think that was a pretty good talk. It was a pretty good talk. I think that was a pretty good talk.
And I feel like, uh, you guys would have gotten some value information out of that. Now let me ask you one more question before we head off. Is there anything that you've got going on? Is there anywhere that you want to direct people? Do you have a cause, something you're working on? Is there anything that, where you would send people?
No, not really. I tell people to just help people. I love it. That's it. You know, I don't need, I don't need any more attention than I get. I get enough. The good and the bad, you work at LSU and the athletic department, you get all the attention you need. Whether you want it or not. Whether you want it or not.
So I just tell people, just be nice to people, be kind to somebody, touch one person, meet somebody new [01:05:00] and try to help them. and try to help people around you and try to make other people better. That's how you make your community better. Yeah. Talk about how you make Baton Rouge better, how you make, no politician gonna do it for you.
Okay. But I think this magic person, a governor, a president, a mayor, anything like that, we the people got to be the ones who make our community better and the people we live with and just make our whole society better. Oh, I love it. And make eye contact. That's right. And make eye contact. All right, guys, that was amazing.
And, um, Yeah, I think we're going to wrap it up. See you later. Bye.
Thank you for tuning in to Dreamed It Then Real Lifed It. I hope today's episode sparked something powerful within you. Remember, every step you take towards your vision counts, no matter how small. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please take a second to hit that subscribe [01:06:00] button or leave a review.
That would be amazing. Or share the podcast with someone who's ready to bring their dreams into reality too. And if you're looking to dive deeper, connect with me on social media at dreamedit. com or at BE underscore what you want or visit dreamdithinreallifedith. us for more resources on aligning your life, business, and dreams.
Until next time, keep dreaming and keep manifesting your dreams into real life. Love you, friends.
