Soldier Passion Reignited

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Civic Warriors:
Innovative, dynamic, gritty, determined, warrior.

Hosts:
This podcast is about the innovators, the leaders on the front lines of adversity, the all around good people doing good deeds. They are the civic warriors of the world. Withum’s guests are the leaders in the nonprofit industry affecting change. They try, they fail, they overcome. Through their stories we can join forces to become civic warriors.

Brad:
Hey warriors. Thanks for tuning. In on today’s episode of Civic Warriors, we spoke with Harrison Bernstein of Soldiers to Sidelines about his journey, founding the nonprofit and making it a success. Soldiers to Sidelines is a 501C3 nonprofit that provides a renewed sense of purpose for veterans and service members to become character based sports coaches who serve in their communities. Harrison brings significant experience in coaching and leadership and helps to provide veterans an avenue to apply their skills and experience in a professional career. Let’s welcome Harrison to the show. Welcome to the Civic Warriors podcast. Harrison, we appreciate, uh, appreciate you, uh, volunteering, uh, both in your personal life, as well as in this podcast to share your story as well as share some insight into how, uh, you’re helping, uh, our veterans, as well as helping many, uh, uh, fulfill, you know, their, their goals and, and find their purpose. So thanks for, uh, thanks for being part of the show.

Harrison:
Of course. Thank you for having me.

Brad:
Awesome. So, so, uh, Harrison, Harrison Bernstein is the Executive Director of a not-for-profit organization called Soldiers to Sidelines. Uh, and so Harrison, maybe if you can give us a little background about yourself, uh, you know, how you got involved and, and with the organization as well as, how it got to where it is today.

Harrison:
Oh, thanks Brad. Yeah, actually I founded the organization. This was actually an idea that started in may of 2014 and full disclosure. I never served in the military. Um, this, this idea kind of grew organically and ultimately I’m a coach. Uh, I was a football coach. I was a strength and conditioning coach. I still like to consider myself that as well, but, um, but thank you. Um, yeah, and, and, you know, most recently over these past few years Soldiers to Sidelines has been my priority and my focus, um, and you’ll, you’ll start to see why. And ultimately what happened, uh, as the inception of soldiers to sidelines was a moment where I was, uh, I was a sports performance coach for the Washington Redskins as it used to be called at the time. And that was the organization I was coaching for. And I just had this out of body moment. I was just doing a workout actually with Santana Moss. And he doesn’t even know that this was actually happening and we have this great program for him. Right. And he, he and I had to do like this one-on-one workout this day because he was watching film and studying in other ways to prep for the, for the game on Sunday. So he came a little bit later and I was just like putting him through a very specifically tailored thing for him and he’s doing it and he’s doing a great job. He’s such an excellent prepare, but I’m having this out of body moment. Like, what am I doing? Like, how am I charged with getting Santana Moss better at football? This is makes no sense. He’s already so, so good. And I started thinking like, you know, the, the things that I could do with him physiologically to make him any bit faster or more athletic come with so much risk that it wouldn’t even be worth it. Right. So it’s like, well, what makes him great? Like what’s going on? And I’m like, well, he believes in all of the work that we’re putting into him. I think, so this belief is really what is, is giving him and the strength and the ability to perform on Sunday. Cause that was like, really all we really need to do is get him in a situation where he can express his true, authentic self on Sunday. And then if Santana Moss is Santana Moss to his purist, we’re going to win a lot of games because that guy is amazing. Right. And so then I started thinking like, well, that would mean that we’d have to get really good at practicing sports, psychology, motivation, influence, um, a lot, yeah. Out of the different sciences that center around the mind and behavior. And then also all the physiological stuff we’re doing is super important too. Like the reason he believes in me is because we put together a really sound program that specifically suits his needs. Now I was thinking, well, it’s also important to understand the sport very well. Like you would have to know all the techniques and the strategy at a super deep level. So that’s where that biomechanics kind of comes into this, but then you have to know the strategy. So at the time I was teaching at George Washington university at night. In their masters program of exercise science. So like this out-of-body experience, just like, it really inspired me to just start reading and researching deeply into all of these other sciences. And I started writing these curriculum, what would make the ultimate coach? And I would read all these textbooks and come up with this stuff and created a curriculum. And then I would pitch it to GW and be like, Hey, can we offer this course? And most of the time they’d say no. Like we don’t have enough room in the curriculum for that. But sometimes it’d be like, that’s a great idea. You can make it a class in an already existing course. Over, over the years I wound up just compiling all this awesome content that was just sitting dormant on my computer. Well, we got fired from the Redskins as football coaches do. Uh, our last year we were very poor in our performance. And uh, so I wound up, uh, just staying in Washington DC. And I wound up volunteering at a local high school just to coach defensive backs. And that was a lot of fun. And we were really good. So we wound up like get into like eight in the nation. We played a national schedule at this high school. It was really cool. And I had another colleague of mine, this is like 2013, he says, Hey, we have all of these service members coming back to DC from the Middle East, looking for something to do. Why don’t we bring them out to the football practice and teach them how to coach football? And I was like, Matt, that’s a great idea. Let’s do it. And he’s like, sure. You know, and he started working with this one guy and we would have folks come over, you know, get them involved in football. And it had so much success that, you know, Matt, then was like, hey, you know, I had more to this idea than just bringing folks to the practice field. We should start a nonprofit, call it soldier, society lines, and you should run it. I was like, wait, what? No, I’m not doing that. And he was like, no, seriously, you should do it. Think about it. Like, you’d be perfect for this, Matt. No, I I’m trying to be a great football coach. Like I’m going back into college coaching, you know, we’re gonna work our way back through the NFL and, and, and be, and do what we love to do, which is coach football, running a nonprofit is not what I love to do. Like I love coaching football and he’s like, I know, I know, but you should just do this. So anyway, he persisted for like six months and embarrassingly, it took me that long to realize like, Hey, you have like seven years of coaching curriculum, content sitting dormant on your computer. Oh. And by the way, the best, the best people on the planet to teach how to coach are our service men and women. And they’re here in our backyard. Maybe you should try it. So I said, you know what? We’ll do. We’ll do one coaching seminar and we’ll see how it goes. He was like, Oh man, just one just we’ll just prac. I said, okay. But I said, Matt, it’s gotta be my way. Like we have to use this curriculum in this way. Like you okey-doke me into this deal. Don’t start changing stuff. He was like, no, no, no, you got it. We’ll do it together. There’ll be so much fun. So Walter Reed opens up their doorsteps. We had contacts in Washington in DC and Walter Reed hospital loved the idea. So, uh, we get there and they give us this building to do it. And we had like six service members show up from all different branches for our first, you know, two and a half day seminar. And my gosh, it was so impactful, so impactful and I loved it. And so did the participants. So I was like, you know, we can do it better. Let’s do it again. Right. So like one year later we would do it again and it got a little bit bigger. And then sure enough, you know, I get into college coaching and uh, my buddy, whose idea it was winds up having this very successful career in business and starts a family. He’s like, I, I can’t do Soldiers to Sidelines anymore. It’s all you. So he literally like leaves me with this idea as while I’m still coaching football. And now I have this project called soldiers, the sidelines that’s having a pretty big impact. So anyway, I know this is a long story, but it eventually goes, and I feel like we have a, I have another good buddy who is an incredible lacrosse coach, super famous in the world of lacrosse. So we said, decided to like duplicate our efforts and go from football to lacrosse and start diversifying sports. And then that worked really well. So sure enough. Um, it just grew to a point where three years ago I resigned from coaching college football. I had other opportunities in the NFL that I met just kind of run its course. So I didn’t really pursue it because I knew that soldiers or sidelines was becoming my passion. Um, and mainly because we had, we had some of our participants who attended our live seminar events, come up to me afterwards, just talking about how w we just saved their life. Like they were considering doing some harm and, you know, didn’t feel like they had a purpose at that moment and that they realized coaching was it, and that they were born to be a coach. And once that happened and we start, you know, really changing someone’s life for the better, in a very, very real intense way. I was like, wow, I have an opportunity to serve a lot of people in this country. And that I went all in and soldiers, the sidelines, you know, really w we weren’t making money. I wasn’t making money. So I got rid of all my income. And I was like, I’m just going to figure this out. And sure enough, here we are. Now we have, you know, over 300 soldier coaches from four different, you know, from all the branches of the military and four different sports, and we’re growing and we’re growing fast. And, uh, that’s probably the most reward. It is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Brad:
It sounds like it, and it’s just an incredible backstory, just, uh, you know, I’m always, I’m always fascinated and, and audit when you, you know, you made a very, very significant career move to, I mean, you know, on top of, you know, you had an entire background in a certain area, and then you said, I’m going to transition this into something for my best use, or I feel that I can make a big impact on the world. And I mean, that’s a very, not only a brave move, but I’m sure at the time, a very uncertain one, uh, when you’re like, how am I going to, how am I going to subsidize this? Or how am I going to make this work? You know, both personally, as well as, you know, in that professional, what, what was that like for you? I guess just transitioning from being a professional coach, I had this entire career, and then tomorrow I’m going to run a nonprofit. What was that transition like for you?

Harrison:
Um, steamless and I know you would think it cam comes with a lot of hardships, but it does. Right? And so for me, the earning money and making it grow was certainly uncertain, certainly uncertain. Um, and that was a little bit scary, scary, but I wasn’t scared at all. I just felt so natural. It was one of these things where like, spiritually, I just felt it like deep in my solar plexus. Like, this is exactly the right thing to do. I was being pulled into this, and it’s almost like God, and the universe is showing me like, Hey, numb, numb this is what you’re supposed to be doing. So, uh, it was really easy to do that. Uh, and, and for me, it’s not like I stopped coaching. I I’m still coaching. We’re just, I’m just coaching coaches to be the best coaches possible. And I felt like if I wanted to have an impact as, as a football coach, you know, I could affect everybody on my team, which is extremely rewarding. But if I can coach a number of coaches that can affect all of their teams in the right way now, you’ve just, exponentiated it your effect in this world. And, you know, right now our country needs great coaches. We need better character-based role models. We believe our military can be that. And at the same time, you know, really provide the sense of fulfillment and purpose that I always had as a coach for all of our transitioning service members and veterans.

Brad:
That’s awesome. What do you feel, I guess, from, from working with a lot of, a lot of our, uh, you know, a lot of our veterans in, in, in assimilating them into, into, you know, becoming coaches, what do you feel some of the, uh, you know, cross disciplines that work out really well that make it such a good synergy between being military, going into, you know, coaching at a, at a professional level, what do you feel some of those synergies are there that you’re able to kind of bring out of people or, or, or link that that really helps.

Harrison:
Okay. There’s, there’s a bunch. And so I can just speak to what I observe, not to what I know, because I’ve never served in the military, right? So like, um, I’ve never been through that, but what I observe is, uh, there are so many different skills that you can develop within the service. The first and foremost thing though, is just more important than anything is selfless service. So whether you see combat or not, it doesn’t matter. You are giving up your time, you are sacrificing the things that you want to do for a greater purpose. And that’s what sports is all about. And I think sometimes right now in sports, that’s, what’s missing, you know, with this name, image, and likeness stuff, that’s going on in the NCAA and kids about like, what kind of scholarships can I get and what can I get? You know, the whole reason sports are exciting is because you’re doing this for something bigger than yourself. Um, and, you know, service members just do that. Otherwise you wouldn’t have join the military. So there’s that, then there’s this innate institutionally, um, taught sense of leadership, right? And there’s a sequential way to grow and improve that I think really translates to coaching young athletes. Also, I get to see a lot in project management. So if you’re going to accomplish any kind of task in the military, there’s, there’s a sequence. And there’s a thought out way to do this, um, which is important in planning, even at the youngest level of youth sports. Right? So even if you’re coaching five-year-olds, you would never want to go to practice without a plan. Right. And if it’s intentional and it’s thought out, you can be super effective and the five-year-old recognizes it and they wind up having fun. Right. And that’s the whole idea. So if you’re just a dad that’s coming, that has never had that kind of training, or you don’t think about it like that. And you’re just in like the civilian workforce, you leave your company and then you rush over to the field. And then it’s like, you’re, you’re playing with kids, which is not really coaching. Right. And then sometimes it’s very undisciplined, right? So that’s the word it’s, it’s discipline, but, but think about discipline in, in, as it relates to organization and planning, not discipline as like the drill Sergeant yelling and screaming, because for some reason, the civilian world thinks that’s what military is. That is not what military is. Right. And so the best military leadership leaders now, like just, they don’t, they don’t coach that way. They don’t lead that way. And that’s why we just need, uh, more of these folks ingrained in our communities, teaching kids and teaching the community, how to coach the right way.

Brad:
Yeah. It’s more of that structured methodology that I always found in working with, you know, many, many folks in the armed forces. It’s, it’s, they, they, they’re always just very, you know, it’s, it’s planned three times then execute once. And it’s, it’s very structured methodology in everything you do. And definitely with, you know, we have, we have young kids. So I do know that, you know, if you go even just go play in the yard with them, like if you, if you come up with a structure to it, they’ll follow it. If you don’t come up with the structure to it, then they go aimless. And it’s not, it’s not mean to cut off creativity or cutoff having fun. But the reality is, you know, they want to be molded. They, they wanna, they want to follow believe in something and they want to follow something like I was doing the other day. I’m like, Hey, let’s, you know, my kids are going crazy. And I asked them like, let’s do the shuttle run. They’re like, what’s the shuttle run. I’m like, Oh, you put on a timer and he run back and forth and you pick up the block and you bring it back here and we’re going to keep doing it faster every time, and they’re doing it and they’re doing it and they’re loving it. I’m like, all right. See, instead of them, you know, beating them, you know, each other up, now we have a good structured game and they’re getting exercise and they’re getting stronger.

Harrison:
That’s exactly right.

Brad:
Five-year-old experiment.

Harrison:
Well, but that, I don’t think that’s an experiment. I think that is the methodology. Right. And that was, you know, the, the purpose of my book that accompanies our entire curriculum. It’s soldiers, the sidelines it’s called The Everyday Coach harnessing the magic of influence. So yeah, that, that book right there. So every coach, uh, soldier coach that comes through social sidelines gets that for free because that supplements everything that we discuss. And one of the main themes in the book is everybody is a coach every single day in every aspect of your life, whether you realize it or not. And if you can approach life like this, all of your relationships are going to be much better and you are going to be more fulfilled in life is going to be Mary. Um, but it requires a lot of work. And, you know, a lot of times folks don’t look at life like that, right. And there was a way to influence everything that’s happening. So, you know, we can all reach a common, desired outcome and folks at the highest levels of the military and the most effective coaches, not to mean that the coaches that are at the highest level, the most effective coaches understand this. And I think we can develop all these skills. In fact, I know we can develop certain skills to become better. Coaches have better lives, which is ultimately having better relationships.

Brad:
No doubt about it. No doubt about it. That’s and that, and that’s, that’s phenomenal, just that philosophy and you’re right. I mean, if you, if you approach your everyday like that, you know, certainly it will be better than, than if you don’t. I mean, you know, certainly there’s a lot, a lot of merit to that. When you, when you approach, um, you know, your coaching program, what, what is it, what is your, your coaching program look like now? I guess just as what soldiers does islands offers, what, uh, what does that framework look like as far as timing and, uh, you know, a little bit on the curriculum, what, what does that look like?

Harrison:
Ah, that’s a great question. So, um, everything starts with an initial coaching certification seminar that we gear specifically to specific sports. Um, we have a sports performance line of effort that is mostly sports agnostic. And in fact, right now we’re in the middle of our military women’s coaching certification, which is sports agnostic, but specific to, um, female veterans, right. Or, and service members. Right? So we have active duty folks in here as well. So what does that seminar look like? It’s free for anyone, anybody who has served in the military at some point in their lives, right? If you are going to sacrifice your time for a greater purpose, which is our country, this is the least we can do for you. And that seminar is about 20 hours of content split over six days. And then there’s some like prerecorded stuff that you do on your own time. And its central purpose is to get folks to understand that coaches, coach people. And then we teach the sport coaches, coach people, and then you teach business strategy or you teach whatever the craft is. So how do we do that? And then what we start off with is this inverted pyramid of coaching success. And it’s something that I’ve come up with that really is described in that book, the everyday coach. And yeah, if we can look at most things in life as an upside down pyramid where the base is at the top and the reason the base is at the top is because it’s the biggest part of a pyramid, which represents that’s where we need to spend the most time learning and paying attention, um, to get better. And that that band is called inspiration. So the first level, which is the base of the pyramid at the top is inspiration. So if you can inspire your people at work on the field, in your kitchen to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it, you can be extremely successful. And then the second part, okay, because part of this inverted pyramid is motivation. So we talk about motivation as being self-motivated, but also how to motivate others. And it’s really the consistent perpetual inspiration that you initially achieved over time. Right. Cause you know, it’s like, we want to be successful. You know, you go to a motivational, um, weekend or speech fired up, right. And then you start doing that stuff for like a week. And then sure enough, like two months later we’re getting back into our old ways and it starts to wean. So what are the skills, what are the strategies to be able to motivate ourselves and others for the long haul, right. To create winning teams. And then the third, most important part is fitness and in sports, that’s easy. You think about like, you know, your players. Yeah. If we’re bigger, stronger for longer, we’re going to win more games. Right? Yeah. That’s true. But what about us as coaches? And like then what does it really mean to be fit? And we’ve talked about this mind, body spirit connection, um, from a physiological perspective, but also from a psychological perspective and just this bigger spiritual, spiritual, uh, way of approaching life. And if you can really get those three things working really working together, and I don’t mean just going to church, I mean like, and practicing, uh, like the sentiment behind the lessons that were taught at church, right? Like whatever it is for you, if you could do those three things, you’re going to get composure, serenity and flow. So imagine as a leader, as a coach, right? Every single day, you went to every moment with complete composure, serenity and you were operating in flow. You’d make a lot of good stuff. A lot of people now that’s aspirational, but something we gotta be working on all the time, just like inspiration and motivation. And then the fourth, as part of this pyramid, as it, as a pyramid starts to get smaller to the point, but also towards the bottom then becomes technique. So there’s a way to deliver all this stuff, right? There’s a way to teach or there’s a technique to shooting, throwing, catching, passing, but there’s also a technique in sales and there’s a technique in marketing and there’s a technique in communication and learning the best ways to do that is going to help you execute all of the plans that you might have. So how do you do that? And we go into this into some detail and then the tip of the pyramid is strategy. Well now you have to actually have a plan, right? You got to go into the game with something, right. And then same thing. If you’re growing a business, you have to have a business plan, right. Something to follow, but it’s only the tip, the pyramid, right? Um, because if, if this, the strategy is clearly described and illustrated and everybody on the team completely understands what they’re supposed to do, do in that plan, you’re going to win, but it doesn’t work if the folks executing aren’t inspired and motivated and capable to do it. And sure enough, like think about everybody in coaching. Like when people want to get into coaching sports, the first thing they start doing is drawn plays. Uh, we’re gonna run this offense. I’m gonna run this defense. And this is how we’re going to beat that team. Sure enough. It works about 50% of the time, time plus, or minus 10%. Then you get in the middle of the season and someone goes, man, we just have poor leadership on the team. Or these kids just aren’t inspired. Or how do we get through to these kids? Yeah. And it’s like, well, we should’ve thought about that first. And then come up with any plan. Instead of we did it, the reverse, I think about life and business, right? You go to, you go to business school and you learn how to write all these business plans and you get this sweet business plan. It’s like got all these macros built into this Excel sheet and you can change this number and six tabs over. It’s going to show your outcome. That thing is awesome. That’s the thing is garbage. Because if the people don’t want to do it, it aint workin, so it’s just something I think we have to change the way we approach success

Ashley:
A hundred percent. Yeah. I really like the way you look at that. Um, I actually had a question too. So do the coaches ends up teaching during the seminar? So if they’ve been there for a certain amount of time or if they show interest or if they’re excelling to a certain point, do they then go back and they start training the, the incoming coaches during the seminars?

Harrison:
Sometimes that’s a great question. So, uh, what happens is when you go through that seminar, you get your initial. So it’s just a sidelines certificate of completion. So like you’re certified that you’ve accomplished this number of hours. Then our soldier coaches have opportunities to opt into our membership development program where we have this whole suite of online courses that develop all of those high human skills. Um, yes, the course is online, but it comes with one-on-one coaching and interaction. Like as if you’re going to school, we have so many courses in the actual sport that you want to focus on as well. So at that moment, you can go as deep as you want into your development and work. One of the goals of the seminar is to inspire and motivate everybody who went through the seminar to want to commit to a lifetime of coaching mastery. So we then try to push them into every possible learning environment, immerse them into coaching. We have folks that come through our program that have been coaching for 25 years. They’ve been coaching that long already and wanting to get better. We also have folks that are, have never coached a sport a day in their life. And they’re like, this is what I want to do. So it doesn’t really matter where you are on that spectrum. It’s about developing our leadership practice and our coaching practice forever moving forward. And some of our best coaches certainly teach. We have a number of them that are integrated into our seminars now that weren’t before. And then we have these other live events that are coming up as, as COVID starts to relax, we get better, um, in, in our communities that, um, we start teaching each other and then we also have like these different community groups, um, within soldier sidelines or coaches start sharing information, they start sharing jobs. Um, and then that’s the other thing, like if you are in our membership development program, soldiers sidelines, that becomes like your agent to help you get a coaching position in your community. Um, and it doesn’t matter the level. So if you want to coach college sports, we’ll help you do that. If you want to just, you know, coach at the youth level in your town, like we know we know a lot of folks. So if we don’t know that person directly, we will know one person that does know that person directly we’ll get on the phone and say, hey, you know, you need to, you know, call, uh, Brad interview Brad, cause he would be a great JV basketball coach or this person should lead one of your youth football teams in your community. And then that’s how we connect everybody into the community and then let it grow.

Ashley:
Awesome so your like the trusted web resource for – like do people, I’m sure people come to you and seek out coaches and, and then you can kind of supply them with coaches too.

Harrison:
Absolutely. And so one of the challenges, which is actually a good challenge that we have right now is, you know, there’s such a demand for good coaching and the supply is so short. And if you think about what it means to be a master at coaching, it requires effort and time and we invest, we go deep into the development of each individual. So would it be awesome for us to have 10,000 certified soldier coaches right now that, yeah, that’d be awesome. But if we, if we tried to cast a super wide net, we’d only go so deep. So we’d have, like, it would be a shallow impact on each of the service members, which wouldn’t have the best effect in the community because we haven’t dove real deep into their development. But if we have 300 right now that we’re going really deep into now they can become super effective. So it’s this, it’s this balance of increasing in numbers, but really increasing in depth in the quality of each of our soldier coaches practice.

Ashley:
Yeah. Very awesome. Really, really inspiring. Um, do you have stories about specific coaches who have then come back to you and been like, this just changed my entire life, like altogether every aspect.

Harrison:
So, um, well I’m not going to put words into their mouth. You have to read our own testimonials because it’s not fair for me to tell their stories. Um, but what’s has happened. What has happened is since we have been growing, we’ve been hiring our own soldier coaches. So, um, I can tell this one story of a guy we just most recently hired. He, he attended our first football coaching seminar, uh, three years ago, three years ago. And I think I was alluding to this before. Like he just gave me this huge hug at the end and was like, you changed my life. And he hadn’t been coaching. In fact, he admitted at the time that he hadn’t really left his house in two years. I mean, it wasn’t working. That was the first time he’d been out. And then, so he tells me the depth of his story and it’s profound. And he was at living in Florida and then he was moving to Ohio. So I was like, we got you. We moved to Ohio, we developed them, we got them a coaching job coaching at a high school football organization. He absolutely loves it. He’s really intelligent. Um, he has taught himself, um, some really important skills, uh, you know, you in graphic design and art and computer stuff. And um, anyway, over time, not only is he, is he coaching, we have now brought him onto our team. Um, and we have three other folks like that, um, that, that have just gone through the program and then we’ve actually hired. And there’s just countless stories. Like if you were to hear this stuff, it’s mind blowing. Um, it’s not fair for me to tell that story. We let them tell their stories as they wish.

Ashley:
Hmm. Yeah. Makes sense. But it seems like your impact. You’ve probably can’t even, there’s no way to really measure the impact because you’ve even impacted them. They’ve impacted probably millions of kids at this point. And how many years has it been with all of that, that you feel like maybe like how many years of it taking off? When did it really click for you? That things hit a new level and the, the outreach and impact was just beyond measure.

Harrison:
It was about three years ago. It was right before I resigned from coaching college and pro football. Like it was, think about this, that it was like, that’s like a lifetime childhood dream and goal of mine forever to do this. And I am doing it. And the impact from the interaction I had with our soldier coaches was so profound that I gave it all up to do this because this is that much better. Um, and I did it without money. Like you know it’s like, Oh, you know, you know, never quit a job until you have another job. Well, I didn’t do that. Like I quit a job and kind of event something that may potentially produce money.

Brad:
Yeah. But like you said, you took a risk to, to realize your dreams. I mean that, you know, high risk, high reward is, you know, very true in that scenario, but in the, in the fundraising role, that may not be that easy. It’s challenging,

Harrison:
But when people hear the story, I mean, to me, it’s like, it’s a no brainer. Um, yeah. The good thing is so much of the civilian world in the corporate world, they want to really help veterans and service members there. There’s a huge movement for that. I think what we’re doing now is trying to educate folks on what that looks like. So how do we move beyond saying thank you for your service and actually doing something that people want, uh, to help service members. And there’s a lot of organizations that do do that kind of stuff, and we are one of them. And so I think if you, if you’re looking to support a veteran service organization, make sure you, you’re looking at ones that actually are providing value to the service member in some way.

Brad:
Yeah. Yours is yours is a domino effect. So certainly certainly there is, and it’s, it’s a tangible skill that can be taken and used and then grown. So, you know, very clearly it’s not, it’s not, uh, it’s not, it’s not an intake. It’s not a service. It’s not a, you know, come here and we do this for a day and that’s it, you’re on your own. And you’ve created a network after people leave. I think, you know, those are the, the, the mechanisms that help create a fulfilling and lasting impact

Harrison:
For sure. And then, so there are companies that get it really, cause now what’s happening is, um, for instance, there’s a wonderful organization called higher echelon. That’s sponsoring our, uh, military women’s, uh, coaching certification seminar currently. Right. And they are, they have hired and they’re looking to hire soldier, coaches, people who have come through Soldiers to Sidelines, um, the company, John Deere is doing the same thing because what they start to realize is, yeah, they’re, they’re soldier, coaches. We, they are committed to developing their own leadership practice as a coach. And if we can have more coaching leaders in our for-profit organization, insert company here, They’re good. They’re going to be more productive for our organization. So now we’re finding pathways for employment, with companies that are sensitive to their desire to serve their community as a coach. Because once you, once you transition out of the military, it’s not like you’re done serving, you can still serve your country as a coach in your communities. And like the smart companies out there are hiring those people because they also understand the benefit of if I have great character based employees serving the communities that we operate in, that that’s better for the company, that’s better for the individual. And so, yeah, and, and there there’s a few really forward-thinking companies like higher echelon and John Deere right now that are putting money behind this, where they help the service member, but also helping themselves beyond just a good PR story because they have entree into super qualified, passionate people.

Brad:
Yeah. No doubt. How have you, um, I guess in your, in your fundraising efforts, just as an organization, how have your, I guess previous ties or your relationships with, you know, the NFL or working in different organizations, has that helped you in your fundraising fundraising efforts? Or is that, how have you found synergy with, uh, you know, some of the professional sports leagues, if you will, whether it’s the NFL or you said lacrosse supporting now your cause, have you found kind of a, uh, you know, kind of cross-functional relationship there where, you know, you’re supplying them, they’re, they’re kind of funding you to help operate. I mean, obviously you need funding to help operate the program if the program is free to the participant.

Harrison:
Yeah, certainly that has absolutely helped. And, uh, in particular, the New York jets have been an incredible partner of ours. Um, they, they were the first ones to really get it and move beyond saluting service members to really providing for them. Um, and so we became their salute to service partner, um, three years ago. And what they actually did was for their salute to service game, they brought us in for a live coaching seminar where we took over their, their team film room, the two and a half day event there while they were in season. And then our class of 30 soldier coaches were invited out onto the field on Sunday when they were playing the giants. And then they got saluted, which is really cool, but they spent all this money and time developing them to become coaches and utilizing their facilities and their staff to really show, Hey, you can do this and then we can help get them jobs. Um, and so that what happened with COVID-19, you know, we couldn’t do these live events anymore, which was a blessing for us because then we went fully virtual that allowed us to, you know, really build and grow and reach more service members and veterans at one time. Uh, and then the jets jumped right on board with that. And we’re like, yes, we’re going to sponsor that virtual event. And we did that this past year and there’s other, there’s other NFL teams that are really interested in getting on board with that right now. Um, you know, COVID-19 has, uh, you know, derailed operations, I think for everybody in this world right now, um, we have a lot of momentum there and at the least it provides a bunch of, uh, bonus CDs, right? So like other sponsors are like, yeah, I want, I want to associate with these high visibility sports organizations, um, and also develop our service members and veterans as coaches. So yeah, it helps

Brad:
Certainly. I mean that, and that’s, I mean, you know, it not only from a fundraising side, but also from an experience side, you’ve now provided your soldier coaches in the program. Another experience that they’re going to not forget, I’m sure those 30 individuals are not going to forget that experience of being at that facility.

Harrison:
No, they won’t. And we have so many opportunities like that. Uh, we have a national ambassador program where our most zealous and qualified soldier coaches have volunteered to become ambassadors. And what they’re doing is they’re setting up a series of live events, very similar to that in their community. So what we’re going to do, uh, once we’re allowed to again, is start hosting free sports clinics for communities throughout the country, coached by our soldier coaches in that area. One, it’s a way for us to really give back to that community. Um, and at the same time, it provides opportunities for our soldier coaches to get together, strengthen their bonds and have a great time in doing what they love to do. And that’s coach sports.

Ashley:
Yeah. And there’s a chance, how do you, I was going to say that a chance to anybody who is observing this and they find out that the coaches are from your organization and they go, Oh, well, you know, my dad or somebody else that I know is a vet, um, let me, let me get the word out. It’s a good word of mouth too. How do you guys go about getting the word out of your organization, in addition to all the other stuff that you’re doing,

Harrison:
I’m glad you asked that because we would love everybody who has an interest in, in coaching and sports to get involved. And, you know, if you get involved, you don’t actually have to attend a seminar right now. So you can go to our website, which is WW w dot soldiers to sidelines.org, right? And if you just join our mailing list, you’ll now be privy to all the events that we have. So like this year we have nine coaching certification seminars, um, two for each line of, of sports. So our next one is specifically for basketball, someone out of March madness, April 26th to May 1st, we have our men’s and women’s basketball coaching certification seminar. And, you know, the, the last basketball seminar we did, we had eight coaches present at this seminar, eight NCAA coaches from this year’s March madness, this NCAA tournament, this year eight of our coaches presented in the last seminar. And most of them were returning again. So in April 26, you’re gonna hear the likes of, uh, um, like Josh pastor, who is the head basketball coach at Georgia tech, huge supporter. And he just won the ACC championship. He’s going to be talking to folks. Um, you know, last year we had, uh, Steve Pikal, uh, at Rutgers, you know, he spoke and, you know, Nate oats, the head coach at Alabama, who I believe is still playing and being successful in the tournament right now. He spoken, we have so many of these awesome coaches coming again. So not only do you learn from like our curriculum, but the seminars become their own networking opportunity. And you get to just learn from the best of the best around, uh, so that’s April 26th to May 1st. Then we have a football one going up into Memorial day. Then soon after we have another lacrosse one and at the end of June, and then we have a sports performance, one in July, then we’ll do basketball again in August. And then we have football again, leading up into veterans day. That’ll be with the New York jets again. And then, uh, we have sports performance. So even if it’s not the sport that you love, coaches, coach people, that’s what we’re developing. So just join us, just go to you, just register for any of these events on our website. They’re free. If you’re a service member,

Ashley:
Well, you’re helping people align with their purpose. So anybody helping people align with their purpose or realigned with a purpose, then maybe they felt like they lost a little bit. And then you’ve also provided a huge network for them. And then throughout the year, it seems like you have a ton of great stuff for them to get involved with, to keep up the, what it really, what it is is momentum like the positive momentum that influential momentum, just it’s really endless. When you look at, like you said, it’s a perspective shift, but it also takes a lot to really embed that in your mind to get that perspective, to look at life that way, like there’s endless opportunities to influence and serve that higher purpose. And you’re giving them the perfect community to do it. It’s just like restructuring, how they once looked at what their purpose was. And now it’s maybe coaching and maybe they never thought of that. Just like you with your organization. It was so seamless for you because you already had all the tools you already pre qualified for the job pretty much.

Harrison:
Yep. That’s right. So it just made sense. And I’m so happy. And you know, one of the things that I get super excited about what we do is, you know, so just the sidelines is not transactional. Like it’s like when you, when you become part of the Soldiers to Sidelines, tribe as a soldier coach, it’s like you’re in for life and as life gets crazy and you know, you have family and things happen. We’re always here. So, I mean, you could take our courses as long as you want. Like we, once you’re in, you’re in and we will develop you, uh, with you for as long as you can. It’s not like you just do this once and you’ve forgotten about, that’s not the idea unless you want to be like, so then if you come and go, as you want, what we tell everybody is just use us and we will help.

Ashley:
Yeah. You know, uh, in finding Nemo when they jump into the current and then they just get carried away. That’s what I envisioned like you jump in and there’s really no way to avoid it. If it’s something that you’re passionate about and like you, again, I just keep thinking about your own personal story. You’re gravitated towards it. It will take you off as soon as you take the step in that direction. Um, it’s funny, Tony Robbins talks about like, there’s two millimeters between like where you are and where you want to be, or just like that shift. And if you take that one step in the direction that feels good or right. It will, it will take you off into the right place. So I feel like that’s what you guys are. That’s exactly that, that’s what I envisioned in my mind.

Harrison:
Yeah. It’s true. And part of that though, is you still got to swim, right? So we’re providing the current, like we’re also providing the motivation, the encouragement, like you still gotta, you still gotta swim. You still gotta do that. You still got to move. Um, and that’s the best part about having a support system is, you know, there’s times where, you know, it gets daunting and you don’t feel like it, but you have your peers who are share the same interests saying, come on, let’s go, you know, show up to that interview, you know, do this. Yeah.

Ashley:
Awesome. Endless opportunities.

Harrison:
Yeah. If you, if that’s the way you see it, it is.

Brad:
So you talked a little bit about it, but, um, you know, how, where, where, I guess as an organization and as just a leader of an organization, do you feel you need help, uh, you know, from the public, uh, from, you know, those that can help, where do you, where do you feel that the organization can be helped by you, our listeners and those out there?

Harrison:
Well, clearly this, this is free for our service members and veterans because we have to generate financial support from the public. So, um, you know, small donations, even if it’s just five or $10, uh, goes such a long way in scholarshipping our veterans and service members to become great coaches. And, you know, we have this, um, this legacy campaign where, you know, if you become a recurring donor, you’re now joining the current, walking alongside with everybody, uh, to develop their career. So even if it is just five or 10 bucks a month, you know, you become a part of the soldier. So sideline success, and the, the fulfillment that each one of our service members have. So, um, you could just donate at our website soldierstosidelines.org. And, um, and then when you do that, we have so many free live webinars from some great coaches. Like last year we did 122 webinars that we put out through social media. So, um, you know, donors get access to all of that, um, which is really cool. And then if you’re, if you’re a company, um, that wants to get involved for real, with a veteran service organization, we have tons of sponsorship opportunities with our seminars. Um, we do live fundraising events. We have an incredible golf outing that we do in the Washington DC area. Um, and this year we’re also doing our first ever legacy of Lea leadership fundraising dinner in Atlanta, Georgia in, in, in December. So, um, yeah, if anybody wants to get involved, you can just reach out to me through the website or just go to the website and donate.

Brad:
Good deal before we go. Because I, I love when I get authors on phone calls, so I can pick their brain and ask them questions about books that they wrote. Um, I always pick out, I was always a big fan, uh, when reading people’s books, I’ve just, you know, call them isms or calling them, you know, phrases that they use or points that they make. I always love, I always love people’s one-liners and, and kind of how they bring a point home. And so maybe if you just spend a minute, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna throw a few one-liners at you that you use and just your immediate reaction to it, or your thoughts behind it. So, first, first one, which, uh, which I think is a great point in concept that, you know, not all of us think about, but the first one I saw in here was, uh, get your misses up.

Harrison:
Yeah.

Ashley:
Love that.

Harrison:
Yeah. And that’s the whole thing is to redefine failure as missing. It’s like when you’re little kids think back to when we were five years old and we are just playing with a ball in the yard catch with your dad or your mom, it’s like, you weren’t good. You picked up the ball, you threw it. It went in some wild direction. Not only did your parents not catch it, you were so stoked that you threw it. You ran over to wherever it was, picked it up again, to throw it back at them, not even close to reaching your parents and you just kept doing it. Cause you’re like, let me try it again. Let me try it again. Right. So there wasn’t like, Oh, I made a bad throw. It was, Oh my gosh, I got to throw the ball

Brad:
Opportunity, opportunity,

Harrison:
Opportunity. So you, so essentially what the child is doing is missing and loving it as they grow. And imagine if we had that perspective in everything we did in our life, like how good we could be.

Brad:
Without question, if you don’t worry about the consequences of failure, you know, to a degree, you don’t worry about the consequences you’ll you will naturally I know with myself, I know I fail because I I’m afraid of failing. And so I don’t do something. And it’s like, you know, if you just did that, you would fail and it would be quicker. And you wouldn’t think about it for 13 years.

Harrison:
Exactly. So what we talk about in the book, it’s not failure that people are scared of. It’s the fear of failure, right? So as coaches, if we have players and people around us, there are ways in which we can mitigate the fear of failure in others to give them the, to keep messing.

Brad:
No doubt.

Harrison:
You just know that I’m not just like theoretically talking crap right now because I wait my lifetime vocation to do this without money and not knowing how to run a nonprofit and just doing it anyway. And I was like, well, just go to miss. And it’ll, we’ll miss 1 million times in a row and it’ll grow.

Brad:
Yeah. True.

Ashley:
And if you’re passionate, passionate enough about it, then just do it. Like don’t hesitate. Don’t spend so much time in your head. Cause that’s when things start a sowing down. That’s when nothing gets done.

Harrison:
So I approach it like the kid, like I, I do that. Like I just run with exuberance over to the ball, pick it up and throw it again. And then eventually I’m like, man, I can probably target this thing and land the plane once.

Brad:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s true. I mean, listen. Yeah. You’ll be more successful if you have more chances to be, um, yeah. The other one, the other one that I think resonated pretty well with me, just at the, uh, at the end of this one chapter here, it was just, uh, the secret to successful lasting results is not quitting. It’s not, not failing. It’s not quitting. That was another, that was another big one that is somewhat similar, but also had that same, you know, leadership principle that just carries a long way in my head.

Harrison:
Certainly I recently posted on LinkedIn, something about this, right. And it’s people quit when they only have 10% left on any project, even writing a book, like my book coach, she is so phenomenal. And she just said something that blew my mind. Like you get the manuscript done. She’d be like, Harrison. You’d be surprised how many people never publish their book after it’s even gone through the editing process. Right? Yeah. And it happens to a lot of people. And if we think about in our own lives, it’s, you know, we quit right when we’re just like 10% before the finish line. And the problem is it’s you don’t know that you only have 10% left. It’s like you’re blinded. Right? Think about what’s happening to us in this COVID world right now. It’s like, I can’t wait for the, and I can’t wait for the end. Right. It’s don’t quit. Keep moving forward on till that whistle is blown or you break the tape of the finish line at that moment, you, you have achieved. But until then, I know it’s daunting. It’s hard. It’s dark. You don’t know where the end is. All you have to do is take one more step, just take one more step. And don’t think about it more than that. And then see it through. And you know, everybody wants to judge and tell you like, why, why it’s not good, but those folks are going to be really jealous of the fact that you made it, like you did it.

Ashley:
Do it. They’re excited. And then when their own fears kind of step into your of opportunity, that’s why they say the things that they do. It’s their limitations, not reflective on the person doing and she’s sitting there.

Harrison:
Yeah. So when you miss, just keep doing, just keep going. You’d be surprised. I love the bill Gates quote, it’s something like, I think it was bill Gates. Excuse me. If I bastardize this entire thing, that’s come out of my mouth. But it’s, uh, it’s, you know, people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and drastically underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years.

Ashley:
And it’s like opposing, they’re totally opposing logic.

Harrison:
Yeah. Because you you’re like, Oh, I’m going to do this. And then I’m gonna do that. And I’m going to do this and you have all the, and then once the energy runs out, right, you get 90% of the way there. And then you quit. But if you just keep taking another step, okay. You know, just do one thing or two things in your one, complete it and then go to year two. And then have you amassed that over 10 years? It’s like, wow, you did all that. Yeah. I just kept going.

Brad:
Keep going. Yeah. I I’m reading a book right now. Um, another one on, uh, on habits. And, and the big thing is like, there’s this, there’s this kind of like economy of scale with habits, but it’s like, you have this, this, this point in time, that’s like the pit of despair, which is like, you know, if you develop these habits, you’re going to do one, you know, one thing every day, small thing everyday, everyday, everyday, every day, every day. And there’s a point where it’s just like, you feel like nothing’s happening. And then all of a sudden one day, it just, it just takes off because all of that stuff that you just did for the last, it could be a year. It could be six years where you did the same thing every day for six years, you know? And it’s kind of, it’s kind of very similar to the, you know, your story of taking the organization and it’s, you know, you do these small things and it’s like, it’s not gonna work out. It’s not gonna work out of stock a workout. And then boom, all of a sudden, it’s like all the things that you were, all these little things you were putting in a place, all come together at once. And it, and it creates the bigger picture. Um, but that, that also I’m like, I gotta, I gotta try that every time I want to change something, like, let me change something small, as opposed to trying to like move a mountain in a year, you know, and not do it on January 1st. Let me try to do it like, you know, cliche holiday or cliche, a point in time,

Harrison:
It’s a true story, Brad. It’s like, you know that. And all of us listening know that to be true. Like we’ve even heard that own our own advice, but that’s why we all need coaches. It’s coaches remind you of this stuff. It’s like, we start to forget there because our eyes point outward. So we’re not very good at looking inward. So if you have a trusted confidant that can really speak the truth, that’s another big part of this book is mining for the truth. If you have someone that can say, Hey, you know, stay on task, do this, do that. And you trust them. They can remind you of these things where it’s like, Oh yeah, you’re right. I was, I was getting out of my, you know, out of my wheelhouse. Let me just refocus and take that next step. And I think that’s one of the reasons why soldiers, the sidelines has been super successful is because we’ve hired our own soldier, coaches and people who have had successful military careers and folks that I trust deeply like, like family. Um, they are very quick to tell me, Hey, that’s not right. We should do this. And I’m very quick to accept that coaching as the leader, because I don’t know. And as long as I can keep reminding myself that you don’t know what you’re talking about, Harrison, listen to everybody else. I can have this filter and then, and then grow. It’s like, once I feel like I got to figure it out is when you know we’re going to come to a grinding halt.

Brad:
Yeah. There’s, there’s no figuring it out,

Harrison:
Pick up the ball and throw it again.

Brad:
Pick it up and throw it again. 90% of life is showing up. Yeah. I realized that in the fire service show, you show up, you’re there. You’re there. You’re not there. You’re not there. You’re better off if you were there.

Ashley:
Yeah. You can’t, you literally can’t figure it all out. And the more you find out, the less you have figured out to be honest, and that’s really like the spiral of things. So the quicker you get that and let it inspire you versus freak you out, like I’m 26. So I figured that out pretty quickly, like the sooner I figured that the better off I’m like, I cannot, I cannot figure it all out period. And that just means that I’ve been learning and I’ve been adopting so much more into my life and that’s what’s bound to happen. And that means things are going in a good direction.

Harrison:
And you know, here is something that can help us all, not get freaked out by the totality of what we don’t know. It’s the thing that we talked about in the book. We, you can’t possibly know anything with a hundred percent certainty in this world. There’s just, even gravity starts to break down when you start thinking about what gravity is, right. It’s something that we know to be true, except when you start getting into the quantum world and right. So anyway, we, we can’t really know everything that there is to know. And if we get freaked out by like that, we’re never going to have it figured out the way to have courage is approach the unknown with curiosity and wonder thinking back again to when we were five years old and you could look at a blade of grass for like 30 minutes, you were like looking at the bugs, crawling through it. It was like mindblowing. And it was so cool. And if we look at everything in life with that kind of curiosity and wonder, it’s not scary at all, it becomes entertainment, right? And so much of our life and happiness in our life is really for our own entertainment. But we get to do this.

Ashley:
Yeah, exactly. Really awesome. Coaches are. And like going back to coaches, I think, can you just talk real quick? You pretty much talked about it the whole time, but what is the importance of like a good coach in people’s lives? Just in general, throughout life, especially maybe in a veteran situation at that stage in life, does the value of a coach ever go away? I already know the answer to this, but I want you to take away.

Brad:
Nothing’s certain. Remember what you just said? Right, right. You can already know the answer.

Ashley:
You’re right. You’re right.

Harrison:
But, but you can, but you can know this answer without being able to fully articulate it. Right. I think sometimes it’s like to say we have an answer means we have an explanation means I have to come up with words to explain this, but sometimes there’s a knowing that is not explainable. You just know. And the reality is you do know, so think about the worst boss or coach you’ve ever had in your life. Think about how awful that person was and how they made you feel. Right. Try to remember what they smelled like, what was going on. And if you get really good at conjuring up those feelings, you’ll did that last with you. And then think about the best coach you’ve ever had in your life, how they inspired you to do whatever it is. And if you can recall that moment or those moments and how that makes you feel does that last with you?

Ashley:
Absolutely. Yep.

Harrison:
So you get to choose which one you want to be every single day in every aspect of your life. Do you want to leave the scar? Like the bad coach did for you? Do you want to be the one that lives in that person’s memory and their heart as the one that hurt them, hated them, put them down, or do you want to be the one that is talked about as being inspirational and the reason you’re doing good in the world, that’s all of our choices.

Ashley:
Love that explanation. And yep. And I love that you, you touched on every person being able to step into that, whether it’s within their professional title or not, because that’s the truth of it.

Harrison:
Yeah. And it’s usually, if it’s your professional title, if the, if a person is talking about their title, that’s a red flag. You might not want that person as your coach. If people are talking about the resume runaway.

Ashley:
Exemplified through, through how to act versus how to talk.

Harrison:
Well also no one gives a shit. Like this is the thing that people don’t understand, like have you, when was the last time you were excited to read someone’s resume? Never. Probably never. Like even still,

Brad:
I have to say, I like when I find someone who has the intelligent background and I have certain other activities, like, like they’re a first responder or they’re in the military, they worked in a restaurant like for our business, but yeah, I don’t get excited over it, but I get excited when I find someone that has, that has both skills.

Harrison:
Well, so they can then tell you the story and they can tell you the story, right. Want to know exactly. And so like in sports, we, I mean, we have some phenomenal athletes that have done incredible things in their own sports career. And then those phenomenal athletes get into coaching sports at a high level. And the athletes on that team do not care. What hall of fame you went to? I don’t care if you were in the hall of fame, just how are you treating me? Like, do you have something relevant for me today in this moment? Yes. Good. No. Awesome. Don’t care about your gold jacket, green jacket, gold jacket. If you have a jacket, it’s awesome.

Ashley:
It doesn’t matter what jacket you have on.

Harrison:
All the rings, the trophies, like sweet. They’ve done for me. It’s all about when you’re giving back,

Brad:
We appreciate your time Harrison and just, uh, you know, sharing your, your insight, your wisdom, uh, kind of laying out there as far as how you got to where you are and your organization itself, you know, certainly, uh, I hope our audience kind of checks you out, goes to your website, uh, read your book, uh, which is called The Everyday Coach. You can buy it on Amazon. If you want to look for a place to get it by Harrison Bernstein, I would greatly recommend giving it a read. You know, whether you’re a coach or not. I think there’s a lot of very valid leadership lessons, uh, within it, as well as life lessons that can help you, uh, kind of think about things differently or approach a situation differently. So a great book, great organization, and we really appreciate your time and efforts in what you are and what you’re doing. So thanks. Thanks so much for being here.

Harrison:
Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Brad:
Hey warriors. Thanks for tuning in. On The next episode of Withum’s Civic Warriors we speak with Corrinne LeBaron from Embrella and Darryl McDaniels from the Felix organization on how they are helping children and young adults in foster care live great lives by realizing their fullest potential. Make sure to subscribe to Civic Warriors and thanks for all your support. Have a great day.