Beyond the Gam | Joel Green

Watch the episode here

Episode Topics:

• Learn how a pro athlete’s mindset can transform your approach to business and life
• Discover the powerful “one more” mentality that creates champions
• Experience an emotional story of loss, redemption, and purpose
• Get insider insights into developing elite performance in any field
• Understand how to turn your darkest moments into your greatest strengths

 

Rick Jordan:

What’s shakin’? Hey, we’re back. I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. And if there’s ever any data going all in this guess that I’m bringing on today, I’m so pumped because this dude is just absolutely phenomenal when it comes to team sports and uh, and helping people that’s what we’re all about. Right? So I’m not even gonna like to bring a long intro because I’m the National Director of Nike Sports Camps. There you go. Former pro ball player basketball and motivational speaker. Joel Green. What’s up my man? It’s good to see you. 

Joel Green:

Ah, same here Rick. I appreciate you having me all man. 

Rick Jordan:

Dude, we’re gonna have an awesome convo cuz I mean there’s a lot of things that you’re involved with and teams are the big thing, uh, that I want to talk about today, man, because there’s so much that’s involved in that and you’ve got some insight I would imagine. And, uh, especially playing team sports, right? 

Joel Green:

Yeah. 

Rick Jordan:

I’ll, I’ll give you a quick background too because I was talking with, uh, some of my team the other day, like instilling culture into them and we were talking about metrics with business, right? And I’m like, listen, it’s like I played baseball for nine years, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it’s cuz they were team metrics and bonus incentives and all that. They’re like, I think we should focus on individuals. I’m like, listen, I’m like, people are gonna know and curious, like going back to your pro ball days, right? It’s like everybody else on the team is gonna know if somebody’s slacking, if somebody’s up to practice right 

Joel Green:

Up a dime, you know it right away. 

Rick Jordan:

Yep. Right on. So what is your experience with that man? I mean, pro ball player, Tell me about your time. 

Joel Green:

It was a fun time, man, you know, but again, you know, as ups and downs, um, you know, you don’t get every, as a pro, you don’t get every contract that you want. Um, but that’s a part of the journey of it. And, you know, I embrace it all. I took it as a challenge, um, to improve myself just to show, Okay, okay, no, I’m, I’m worth X, Y, Z. And, um, I really loved, it’s funny speaking of the team aspect versus the individual aspect, I would tell, it’s funny, you know, it was, I was only a captain for a couple teams that I played for as a pro, you know, one of the captains and I would always tell them like, look, during the all, we gotta get better individually. So we worked out a couple times a day. I’m working out outside of our team practice just on my own. 

Joel Green:

Like, look, come to the gym with me because if you get better, we get better. Simply put. But don’t, don’t rely on me for you to do well. Like don’t, don’t bank on me for your success. You know what I mean? And a lot of times I was the, the American, you know, you can say the American star abroad cause they only bring in two, maybe three depending on what league you’re playing in. So I was heavily relied upon, but I was just so big on a team doing their job, man. It was like, do not rely on me to do what you’re supposed to do or for us to get a w like I’m gonna do my part, You better do your part. You know? And as far I ruin my business the same way Now, you know, I tell everybody, let’s individually improve and do our research and, and read up what we owe to so that collectively we’re unstoppable. 

Rick Jordan:

Dude, that’s an insane viewpoint as an insanely awesome viewpoint cuz you’re bringing up something I didn’t even think about when I was going through this with my teams, right? Is this, when you have talent, and you can see this right? When you have talent, and I mean like if it’s speaking or whatever, you know, it happened to me when I was in all these mastermind groups, doing business mastermind groups. It’s like, just because I could put two sentences together, it was like, Hey Rick, we want you to lead us. You know? Right. Like 

Joel Green:

Exactly. Yeah. Right on. Like, it makes us look good, you know, And I’m like, that’s cool. But I love seeing the rest of the team being elevated, you know? Absolutely. I can set a course in all these things, but how do you, what’s the best way that you learn as a captain of the team to be able to coach people that way, to have them not rely on you. You know, and by the way, everyone that’s listening, I want to cut this dividing line because there’s a coach of mine who taught me this because I used to try to refrain from saying, Oh, I’m good at this, I’m good at that. Because when you’re good at something, you know you’re freaking good at it. Right? Right. And you should be able to say that too, because it was like a humility thing that I was trying not to come across as arrogant. But, you know, arrogance for everyone listening, arrogance is having a higher opinion of yourself than what is actually reality. Look it up. Like look up the definitions. Exactly. You know, otherwise it’s just a literal fact. Right? 

And it’s confident. There’s nothing wrong with confidence. Look, you, you can, like, I trust me, man, I, I tell people to be extremely confident in themselves. I tell people to overachieve. I tell ’em those are the ones that stand out. I’ll be honest. You know, the more you, you just, you know, do the status quo. When you just do the bare minimum, you’re gonna blend in. Yeah. And as much as many of us may not wanna admit it, we don’t want to blend in. We wanna stand out in some capacity, but most just may not have the willpower to put in the work or the effort to stand out. So they just say, Ah, I don’t need to do all the extra stuff. Yes, you want, you wanna do it though. But, um, 

Rick Jordan:

Captain, I can blend in. I can just, you know, ride his coattails. 

Joel Green:

Right. That’s right. I mean, that, that’s the thing, you know, if, if, if you know there’s somebody that can, you know, lead the ship and kinda right the wrongs, if things happen to be going terrible, then yeah. You know, I’ve been there. I’ve been the guy that’s been on the team with some amazing ball players. Like, you know, I’ve been there and it’s like, for me again, the, the, my makeup says I want to be that as opposed to let me just ride at coattails. But I know everyone doesn’t think that way. Like I, you know, I admire those guys. Yeah. To where it’s like, okay man, I know I have something like that inside myself too. So let me step my game up to become that. But you know, for me, what made me used to telling others, that was honestly being as much of an extension of our coach as possible. 

I knew the things that the coaches would tell the team, they would come to me first a lot of times, Hey Jay, what do you think about us doing X, y, z you know, next week I’m game planning this. And that’s what I did respect about some of the coaches I had now, every coach. But they would bring things to me first and say, Hey, what do you think? How do you think it was fine? Stuff like that. I’m like, I think it would be good. Let’s rock with it. Let’s roll with it. And they’ll ask, they’ll tell me, Look, we, you better do well with it first cause we expect you to leave. Um, so I would be an extension of my coach and just kind of coaching them away from the coach. So they would then listen to me mid game or while we’re at the apartment to, you know, things like that. So, um, I told them also what I told myself about being straight up with you. Uh, it was just me telling me, you better do your part. Step it up. So when the game comes, you know, you, you’re, what you’re counted on for is executed. So I’m then relaying to them what I told myself that morning. You’re like, Okay Joel, do you think Yeah. You know, now I’m telling them, Hey guys, do you think individually so that when we come together, you know, we’re a beast 

Rick Jordan:

For sure, man. Well, what was, or who was one of your favorite coaches that you had? Cuz I mean, you spent a lot of time as a captain, but dude, who was your favorite coach? 

Joel Green:

Man, it was, uh, and it’s a crazy part of, you know, not crazy, but, um, <laugh>, a whimsical part of my journey in college, right? So I went to four different colleges, right? Um, due to the NCAA and this whole thing called a 4 24 transfer. Cause I couldn’t transfer directly to another four year division one because I would’ve to sit out redshirt. And I’m like, I don’t wanna have to do that. Cause I just redshirted my freshman year due to tearing my hamster. Oh. So I’m like, okay, I can’t go straight to another division like I wanted to. And there was another D one that already wanted me, St. Joe’s in Philadelphia. And I’m like, I can’t do that if I, or I have to sit out. So I went into junior college, they said, you can do a 4 24 transfer, which is going from a four year school to a two year institution for two years just to get back to division one. Hopefully if you get offered a scholarship again 

Rick Jordan:

Wow. 

Joel Green:

From going into the junior college ranking. So, you know, I was confident in myself. I said, All right, cool, I’ll do it. I said, I just wanna keep playing. I wanna play basketball. I just had to sit out all last year, because of some injury. So I went into junior college after being at division one for a year plus a year and a half, and won a national championship down in, in, in Texas. And, um, I wanted to be closer to home. And I said, Okay, wanted to see, have my family see me play. So I transferred to a school in Maryland called Cecil Community College and won another national championship. So, you know, winning back to back titles at two different schools was like this. My mind was blown. And then I earned a scholarship back to division one for my final two years of eligibility. 

But that coach in Maryland, just before I got back to D one, dude was nuts, man. <laugh> in a great way. And oh my, like you know about Bob Knight, right? Yep. So he was what the general, I think he is what, what they called him. Um, we called our coach the lieutenant. So Bob, he used to actually come to recruit. He was recruiting one of our guys, uh, he was at Texas, Texas Tech at the time. So this was after Indiana Days. And we like, Oh man, coach is gonna show out today, man, you know, I’m talking all the suicides. We can run all the conditioning drills. We are just on the floor with our hands. And he was tired. But this coach, he, helped bring the best outta me because I always, I already thought I was playing well. I already thought I was in shape. But man, this guy literally made me get to the point of almost passing out so many times that once the games came around, they were a piece of cake. 

Rick Jordan:

That’s awesome. 

Joel Green:

Practices and our workouts, they were dangerously hard. Um, in a good way, again, this is me coming from the division one level at a junior college. I’m experiencing this. Our junior college conditioning was 20 times harder than the division one level. Wow. And, you know, you can get away with a few more things. You can kind of be out a little bit later and practice and, you know, there’s not as many guidelines and rules. But this guy bought the best outta me man. And I, I just became, along with my team, we, we became amazing. We won 29 straight games, One of the, you know, national championships. And, um, he helped me just develop a mindset of, of, you know, superiority, to be honest. You are great. You have the ability to just show it. Always do one more thing. If your teacher tells you to read 10 pages, Nope, nope. 

You gotta read 10, you gotta read 10 to 15. And I always had to check in with him. Did you read a few more? I forgot to, All right. Get off the phone, read a few more. And it was things like that that I instill now into my son and have a nine year old. I’m like, Okay, do one more. You know, we, we, we got baskets, we got 20. Okay, we finished. Alright, let’s get another one. And that’s what allows us now to stand out as opposed to just doing what everybody else is doing. What’s written in black and white Go beyond what’s written in black and white. 

Rick Jordan:

Dude, that’s awesome. You carried that with you. I was gonna ask like, what’s <laugh>? You answered my question. You know, cuz I’m listening and I’m like, before I even asked it, it’s like, you know, what was the, the one thing that, that this coach, the lieutenant right? That you take now and instill in everybody that you’ve coached over the years, but all the way down to your nine year old brother. That’s awesome. 

Joel Green:

Yeah. Yeah. It stuck with me, man. It was hard to break it, you know, I went to military school for a year that helped discipline me when I was about 17. But being here was like another form of it, man. It was like military school all over again. We were in the weight room at 12, midnight. You know, we, again, it was always one more. It was written on our shirts. We had it, you know, one more with an exclamation point. So we always, that mentality was ingrained in us, man. So everything I do now, man, um, it has that one more mentality behind it. 

Rick Jordan:

That’s so cool. Dude, you gonna have one more son? <laugh> 

Joel Green:

Do it. Right, Right, right. <laugh> not 

Rick Jordan:

Right there. Not right, not right there. 

Joel Green:

Oh, cool. 

Rick Jordan:

That’s cool. So your dude’s nine? Yeah. 

Joel Green:

He’s nine. Yep. He’s nine years old.

Rick Jordan:

What’s his name?

Joel Green:

Jayden. 

Rick Jordan:

Jayden. That’s a cool name. Jayden. Yeah. Do you see some basketball potential in him or just some pro athlete potential at all? 

Joel Green:

<laugh> as a whole I’ll be an honest man. Yeah. And I don’t feel like I’m being biased, but I see a whole lot in him. Um, he’s more, I was very much into ball at his age too. Like, I was a baller as far as loving the game of basketball. Yeah. At that age. He’s a historian with the game, you know, his favorite player, Michael Jordan. Um, and he wasn’t even born while Mike was still active as 

Rick Jordan:

A player. Yeah, yeah. 

Joel Green:

But he loves to look up the game. He was telling me about Artis Gilmore the other day. I’m like, How do you even know Artis Gilmore? Like, he was in the sixties and so, but he loves basketball. Me and him, we play, I mean he looks like he’s like 12 already, but he’s nine. So he has that potential. His body type is already there, <laugh>, 

Rick Jordan:

You know, it’s pretty cool. Dude. Dude, it’s so cool as a dad, cuz I’ve had this with my kids too, right? I’ve got two boys and a girl. But you see, like, you see these little sparks of potential, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just seems to come outta nowhere. You just kind of raise an eyebrow. It’s like, oh, oh, oh, okay, I got you. Right, right. I can see this. Exactly. I know. And then the toughest part for me is balancing as a father, because I don’t ever wanna pigeonhole them from my own impressions that I’m impressing on them. You know? Right. It’s cool. But then it’s a, it’s the balance between that like staying out of their lives enough to allow them to make their own choices, but then also encouraging them in a certain direction to at least mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause we see things as parents right. As dads. Right. That our kids won’t at a certain age, you know? 

Joel Green:

Right. You know better. Right? Yep. Right. 

Rick Jordan:

For sure man. But it’s so cool that, I mean, there’s nothing like, I mean, there’s two things, right? There’s nothing like when you actually become a dad, when you first see your dude for the first time, brother. You know, tell me about that. Cuz I mean, I’m looking down and I had twins, like a boy and a girl at the same time. Like, oh my gosh, Wow. This is like, like the best feeling ever. What’s it like for you? Man? 

Joel Green:

It was, it was, you know, it was a crazy experience for me. Um, I gotta let you know. So, you know, as a teenager, I, you know, tragically lost one of my older brothers, right? Yeah. And that happened on February 16th, 2002. And so that day was just like, you know, obviously the worst. Um, I was only 17. He was only 25 out of the blue. Just a tragic incident happened. Um, so mind you, I’m just, you know, I’m going about life and you know, my wife at the time, you know, uh, she was pregnant. I’m like, All right, this is the best thing in the world. Like, you know, I remember where water broke and we woke up in the middle of the night like, oh, you know, I woke up cuz she was already, So I’m like, we rushed to the bathroom and everything and next thing I know, you know, the next morning she, she has our son and what do you know, man, The day ended up being February 16th, 2013. 

Rick Jordan:

Wow. 

Joel Green:

So on a Saturday. So my older brother passed away on Saturday, February 16th, 2002. 

Rick Jordan:

Huh? 

Joel Green:

My son was born 11 years later on a Saturday, Saturday morning, February 16th, 2013. So when it happened, dude, I remember, you know, I held him first. Um, and I stepped out. I remember it was, it was strange. And I stepped out in a hole. I just started balling. Yeah. You know, cause uh, every day that, every year, that was like a tough day for me. Um, to just even think about my brother, man. It was, it was super tough. But it’s like I got some redemption in some form that day to where it was like a day of death turned into a day of life. So, like, me and my son’s bond is just so crazy cuz he just always just, he’s a reminder for me. You know what I’m saying? Like, man, I gotta go, I have to go all out for this kid. I have to. Yeah 

Rick Jordan:

Brother, you got me fighting back tears. For real. That’s just, that’s mind blowing, man. That’s awesome. 

Joel Green:

It was, it was, uh, cuz it didn’t even dawn on me right away until I’m like, you know, I’m holding him and I’m like, man, I had to give him to somebody. I gave him to his mom. Yeah. I said, I’ll be right back. And I, I, you know, I kind of just felt things coming, man. I just kinda excuse myself from everybody, you know, that the grandparents were in there. Everything. I’m like, man. Um, like I wrote about it, you know, I recently released a book and I, I have it in there. I didn’t go into too much detail on that part, but it was just like, it was, it all the ru it just rushed on me and I’m like, whoa, this is the same day. You know what I mean? Um, Yeah man, It, it was pretty surreal 

Rick Jordan:

For real. And it’s so cool when, when we have these conversations on, on this show, especially cuz you don’t know where it’s gonna go, dude. You know, so 

Joel Green:

<laugh>, it’s just Exactly, exactly. 

Rick Jordan:

I’m loving this dude. I mean it, I know everyone that’s listening is just able to connect on a human level now, brother. And it’s just, it’s reality, right? Cause  It’s the ups, it’s the downs, you know, no matter where you’re at in life, what you end up accomplishing, you always have that tether to reality, you know, with things. I mean, everybody experiences the same stuff just in, in, in very different ways. And I said, but then we can pull on it. And I, I love what you’re doing because I mean, you wrote a book recently, you mentioned, you know, which we’ll talk about. And you’re also the national director of Nike Sports Camps. Dude. I mean, it’s just incredible leadership that you’re projecting in this world. Tell me about your book, brother. 

Joel Green:

I appreciate it. Um, yeah, my book is, um, you know, it is a six year journey of writing it to begin with. Um, just going through, you know, a lot of difficulty in life when I began writing it. Um, you know, having a potential divorce come about and being a father at the same time, loving fatherhood, loving marriage, You know what I mean? It was like, it was a tough time for me not wanting for this huge, you know, uh, split to happen, you know what I mean? Not just for myself, but for my son. And knowing how much he loved the whole family dynamic. So I just was, you know, searching for a whole lot of life, man. And, and was just trying to figure out how to not just get through what I was going through, but how to pull something from, as crazy as it sounds, but pull something from those dark moments. 

You know what I mean? I tell people, you know, from the stage now, like the most successful people are the ones that aren’t afraid of the dark. Like them, they lean into the dark moments of their paths. They actually draw motivation from those moments. And that’s what I was attempting to do. And I came up with this tool, you know, the method I developed for myself called filtering. And that’s what I, I made my book filtering the way to extract strength from the struggle. And, you know, I just literally began leaning into the different moments of my life, man. And pulling amazing motivation from them leaning into the looming divorce that was, you know, seemingly happening. We were just separated at the time and pulling motivation from it. And I just began to find, you know, having all these questions. So I began reading nine books every three weeks. 

I will never forget, man. I went online, and I ordered nine books at once. I just wanted to know about all this stuff and just found out who I was and, you know, secure the insecurities that I had. I was questioning myself a whole lot, you know what I mean? So I’m like, okay, no, I, I’ve never been secure. I’ve always been a confident person. I’ve been bred for pressure and, you know, anxiety and moments like this in sports, but this was life. This was different. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so I just began learning so much more about myself, about life and became so secure in myself and who I was. And I said, Okay, I, you know, begin speaking these things from the stage and so many people ask, “Do you have a book? You, you anywhere we can kind of follow for what you just spoke? 

No, sorry, I don’t have a book. So I began writing the book, you know, about six years ago. And, um, just, it just really tells people how to persevere, how to overcome different things, but beyond that to really draw from what you’re going through and convert those moments into an advantage for yourself. And again, I discuss how I grew up in an abandoned house, you know, uh, in North Philadelphia. I discussed how I was 10 feet away from a shooting when I was six years old and thought I was gonna get shot cause I was the only person there outside the other kid that got shot. And you know, so it was just, I talked about how I overcame these things, having a knife pulled out on me at nine years old and called the N word cause I was quote unquote in the wrong neighborhood. So like, going through all these things and still being able to succeed in life despite those things people wanted to know, like how, and that’s why I had to put into the book, you know, how I overcame these things and began using these things against themselves. So they canceled themselves out. 

Rick Jordan:

That’s incredible. Dude. You, you got it on audio book now too on Audible. 

Joel Green:

Yes. Yes. It’s in an audio book as well. 

Rick Jordan:

I think this book’s gonna become my workout book. That’s what I do, brother. Listen, <laugh>, I love it. Love it. Coming up in the, in the next week or so. I’m gonna, I’m gonna download it today, man. For real. That’s, 

Joel Green:

That’d be awesome, man. I appreciate 

Rick Jordan:

That’s, uh, that’s my space right when I’m working out and that’s when I, that’s when I listen to podcasts, that’s how I consume knowledge. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is just during that time. And you, you’re moving me today, dude. You’re touching my heart today. I appreciate you. 

Joel Green:

I appreciate that man. That’s, I, we, we sound alike. I mean that’s what I take in a lot of content too, man. I’m working out, I’m trying to see what little tidbits I can pick up. So it’s not always music. Sometimes it’s music, sometimes, you know, it’s just like, okay, let me throw some, some Earl Nightingale gear with somebody you want. That can kind of feed my mind right now. 

Rick Jordan:

Right on brother. It’s funny how you talk about that with music cuz it’s been like the last two workouts that I’ve been doing music, it’s been really driving music, Right. Because it’s been like Yeah. Yeah. Cause it’s, I’ll listen to if I’m, if I’m doing a, a maintenance or something Right. If I’m not pushing it too hard, it seems like that’s what I’ll do, the audio books, you know, But then it’s like, I’m gonna bump it up five pounds today, you know, <laugh>. Right, right. 

Joel Green:

It’s like still something hardcore. Right? Yep. 

Rick Jordan:

<laugh> for sure. Dude, man, I appreciate you. You know, before we head out here, tell me a little bit about Nike sports camps. Right? You be, you’re the national director that right? 

Joel Green:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he’s a passionate man. Yeah. That’s, uh, it’s, it’s sports. You know, I, I, I played three, I played, you know, basketball obviously, and, you know, played football for a high second in high school. Running Track is a passion of mine. So I just love athletics. Um, and just overall, I love the mentality beyond being, you know, behind athletics. Again, you, you know this more than anybody else. It is a mentality that you have to have. Yeah. You know, it’s a violence that you have to have that’s not really spoken about. You know, you have to be a student athlete in school. Like that’s, that’s a, that’s a serious violence that you must have and it’s an obligation and that, uh, that you have to uphold. So I tell kids all the time, like, Look, pay close attention, lean into what you have going on right now. 

You have a gift of being an athlete, and you have an advantage that a lot of non-athletes may not be experiencing right now because your teammate’s gonna be called coworkers one day. Yep. Like your coach is gonna be called bosses and managers one day. These referees, they’re gonna be called officers out of society. Like you have an advantage that you’re gaining right now in sports that others don’t. So you can actually be more prepared than the non athlete out in society. So just lean into what we have going on. So I love that aspect of being able to direct Nike sports camps and bringing others on board to direct the camps. That’s a big part of what I do. Bringing other people on board so that we can grow the brand around the country, grow my company around the country, and just really instill the proper mindset into these kids to help prepare ’em for life. It’s not just about sports. I mean, it is a whole lot bigger than that. So, um, that’s what I love the most about it, man. It’s again, it’s helped my business to expand and to grow. We’re partners with Nike Sports Camps and it’s helped me to grow in that position. Um, I love it man. I love it too. 

Rick Jordan:

It’s amazing the stuff that life throws us, isn’t it? And it just, you become so grateful for the opportunity. 

Joel Green:

Absolutely. It’s awesome. Absolutely man, 

Rick Jordan:

Though, filtering is available everywhere, right? It’s a 

Joel Green:

Available everywhere man. It’s everywhere.

Rick Jordan:

Sweet 

Joel Green:

Brother. Thank you. Thank you again. You gotta let me know what you think about it, man. Definitely respect your opinion. 

Rick Jordan:

Yeah, you bet man. Thanks for coming on dude. Go, go everywhere. Follow Joel in everything he’s doing. Go buy his book. Most of all I’m gonna do it today cuz I’m gonna listen to it while I’m working out tomorrow morning. Thanks. So good to have you, brother. 

Joel Green:

Appreciate it.