The Power of Mentorship with Stephon Leary
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Welcome to the All In Podcast. I'm your host, Rod Watson. I'm a proud father, husband, son, former athlete, and business owner of the LAVIPH&T. The All In Podcast is a dynamic audio experience where we interview the brightest minds in sports, entertainment, and business. Join me as I host real conversations with industry elite top performers that foster growth and development, which leads to success in life and business for our listeners.

Being all in is my mantra and it's what I live by. I hope that you find value in this podcast and I look forward to connecting with you on the other side. Let's go.

Welcome to this edition of the All In Podcast, where we interview the brightest minds in sports and in business. And today I got a really, really special guest, my mentor. He goes by the name of Coach Larry, but his actual name is Stephan Larry. Coach Larry has been definitely a big inspiration in my life. He's someone that has helped me throughout my journey in life. He's actually been in

sports for over 27 years as a successful high school coach, teacher, college coach at the NCAA Division I and Division II level, NBA trainer, agent. He's also a business owner of Reaching New Heights basketball and training program in Houston, Texas. And he also is the author of his new book, They Call Me Coach, and an inventor with a patent on a training rehabilitation shoe that is

to come out here in the near future. And he's also a former college basketball player who was a star at the University of Liberty in Lynchburg, Virginia, that is to be exact. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome my main man, my guy, my mentor, Coach Leary. Hey, Rod, man. It's good to be here, man. It's great to see you, man. Great to see you doing well. I appreciate the opportunity to come on and just visit with you, kind of relive this journey we've traveled, right?

Yeah, man, this is a special moment. I'm definitely happy to have you on. I mean, I'm 44 now. When I met you, I was a kid. I think I was like maybe 14, maybe 13, 14 years old when I first met you. And I never would have thought I could even envision. First of all, we have this level of technology where we're looking at each other through our phone.

I wouldn't have known anything if I couldn't envision what a podcast was and what it would look like. And here I am today having this opportunity to tell your story, which I believe is important to share, primarily to tell African-American stories, because oftentimes our stories aren't told or they're not told in a manner and a way in which they should be. I say this often. I use these words. You are definitely someone that should be celebrated because the impact that you've had on a lot of young men and women.

across the world to, you know, just to kind of, you know, put that out there and put it on record. So before we get started, I like to start with what we call it all in or not. So I want to talk a little sports and a few topics on a political level before we jump into, you know, who you are as a person, the impact that you you've had on other people's lives.

And of course, this particular podcast episode where we talk about mentorship, the power of mentorship, and we're going to dive into talking about what that means to you and the impact that you're having on other people's life as a mentor. So starting with all in or not.

Are you all in for the players' recent protests and basically sitting out those couple games and causing a shift in actually during this period of time for the playoffs where it was potentially looked like they were going to be sitting for the remaining of the season, the season was going to be canceled. So were you all in for that or not?

So I'm all in for anyone taking a stance for what's right, for being activists in whatever manner that we need to get attention. However, my hesitation with the all in is, you know, wanting to see action. I think as a culture, as Black people, African-American people, minority people,

I think we've done a lot of talking. We've done a lot of, you know, taking a stand, protesting. You know, for me, you know, having been an educated person and understand it's time for action. And the action to me doesn't necessarily mean players not playing.

The action means it's time to see where the roots of the problems are and to start to put foots on the grounds and hands in the pile and start to, you know, to remedy the problem. If you ask me, I think they get up, go ahead, get this basketball over with and then get to work. I don't think you stop the work and you stop playing and you're prolonging

These guys are needed in neighborhoods. They're needed in their communities. They don't need to be down there in the bubble. So either you go ahead and play, get it over with, or, you know, go home and get to work because there's a lot of work that needs to be done, you know, with the voting initiatives.

going to law enforcement, going to political governors, senators, Congress, going as high as you can, man, and making it known that, you know, we want to see change. But that has nothing to do with playing in the bubble or not. But it was good to see that those guys took a stance to get their attention. And then WNBA women as well, you know, took a stance. It got some attention. But it's time for work.

I agree with what you're saying as far as being all in with them taking a stance, but I agree with you as far as taking action. I think there are a lot of actionable steps that can take place or can take place in the coming months to come to some form of a resolution where

action can be taken to bring about real change. And one of those, I think, internally is at the ownership level. I think we need to see more minorities, people of color, women, also men with the opportunity on the NBA franchise. I also think we need to see more black coaches. Me and my good friend of mine, we were talking about this this morning. When you look at the teams that are in the playoffs right now, there isn't one black coach that's on the sidelines for any of the teams that are actually – I take that back. There is one. There's Dr. –

Doc Rivers' direction, Doc Rivers. But outside of that, I mean, there's a very lack of representation as far as black coaches. And I think that's been a stigma since the league has been, you know, originated. Has it improved? Yes. But when you look at 90 plus percent of your players being African-American or some form of, you know, minority, it's,

And you're not seeing that being reflected. I know that there are a lot of great coaches, coaches like yourself. And I believe you can be an outstanding NBA coach. And a part of having success at the NBA level is that players are able to relate to the coaches and that they truly believe that the coaches have their best interests as opposed to some hidden agenda to keep their job, et cetera. So I definitely think that can be a conversation that I'd like to see on the table to bring about that change in action, which is the leadership roles, even from the executive roles. And as far as general managers, I know that there are a handful of guys

I definitely believe that there can be more. You know, Stephen A. Smith, man, recently caught a lot of flack about, you know, raising a question about, you know, Steve Nash. But you got to remember, you know, Kyrie Irving was one of the ones who said he didn't think they should go to the bubble because they needed to bring attention to social, you know, injustice. I remember that. Yet, you know, they criticized him. They pointed out.

his head coaching job was open and he and Katie signed off on, you know, someone who, who of another race, which I don't have a problem with. I'm not really big into the race thing, man. What I really feel is the most important as you're saying is, uh,

The equipping of African American and minority people to be able to obtain or get job offers in whatever endeavor or venue that there is, certainly there is a huge difference between African American and Black people in offices.

as well as on the sidelines. And we do need to improve that. But the players aren't taking a stand for that. I agree. So, you know, to me, I think there's a lot of things that need to be discussed in unity, right?

As black people and minority people want more opportunities and demand more attention, we have to be unified in an approach to what is it that we really want to see because you and I have a conversation about

you know, coaches and administrators in the NBA. But that problem exists all throughout, you know, college basketball, football. It's on every level, right? And so how do we get to the point where we can have those kind of opportunities? I think it's about equipping our young people, preparing them while they're young, putting them in positions where they're educated, where they understand the plight of a black man or a minority person.

in terms of getting those jobs. I think those opportunities, when they come, we have to see them and be ready for those opportunities and do a great job. Unfortunately, you know, when we get certain opportunities, you know, like myself, you know, I've been a head coach at the college level, but the two head coaching jobs I got were

startup jobs. You know what I mean? If we're ever going to get that job that has like, you know, Steve Nash is inheriting two of the all-time players in this era. You know, if we're going to get those opportunities, then, you know, we need more people in position to be able to make those decisions. There are not enough administrative people. One of my good friends from back in high school is now with the Timberwolves, Joe Branch.

I'm happy to see that he's an African-American young man that just got an executive office job with the Minnesota Timberwolves. We need more people like that advancing in basketball.

you know, in all businesses to see that opportunities are available to us, but we need to be prepared for those things. I agree. We definitely have to be prepared. We have to be on a unified front. I think we definitely, players themselves have to vocalize that across all platforms. That's the college level. That's the pro level. And I think it's not just about, you know, I want to make this clear, just giving black people opportunities. It's about giving the black

people the opportunities that have put in the work that have been sitting on the bench, that have been on the sidelines, that have been participating in building franchises and organizations that are not given these opportunities where we see individuals like Steve Nash. And I also brought up the argument that

It's okay for me to see Steve Nash to get that job. I don't think that's a bad hire. When you look at a Tyronn Lue, you look at, you know, B. Shaw, you look at all these great guys that have been on the sidelines. The question is, were they given the opportunity? Were they considered? And so I think those are the things that have to be brought to the table and conversations have to be had. So hopefully we will see that as we move forward from a lot of the players. And I was talking to a good friend of mine, Karan Bullen. He said they're actually in negotiations about some things where ownership is

Players are holding on as accountable to donate X amount of dollars annually to, you know, impoverished or less fortunate communities within the cities where these franchises reside. And I think that's a good start. And I think, you know, one of the things you and I talked about before, it's about education. But we don't see like we used to see. We don't have enough guys going back to the city and letting the kids see them.

I think the person in today's society is much more important or just as important as, you know, the monetary value of money. We need successful. For me, I've been in education as well. You know, recently, like you said, I invented a shoe shoe.

I think we have more inventors, we have creators, we have athletes, we have entertainers, we have smart people in every genre. But are we going back into the cities and encouraging these young people or telling these young people or demonstrating to young people that you can also be what I have become and you can also achieve what I have achieved?

Our foundations are doing things. We're hiring our best buddy to run our camps.

to show up, and then we show up that one day and make an appearance. We're not there to physically tell the story anymore. As you know my story, my whole life changed at Pistol Pete Maravich basketball camp. And then I got a chance to work with Pistol Pete. You see him in my background. He's someone who touched my life. And I'll never forget the impact he had on my life.

But I got to touch him. I got to talk with him. He became a mentor to me. And then he hired me on his staff. Yeah. See, if we go back into the cities, you got all of these guys that are in the NBA, WNBA, even entertainment industry.

We're not going back and helping young people understand what it takes and then giving them a path to become who we are ourselves and offering them opportunities, right? We're doing it all with our buddies and our friends, which is good, but we need help in the cities, man. We got to do more in the inner city.

and underdeveloped and unfortunate areas of our cities, we need to do more to help young people understand that there's a path and a journey that you can take to become successful. Crystal Pete did it for me. I did it for you and you're doing it for others. We pass that on through generations and then all of a sudden we see a matriculation of

successful black and minority people that are helping one another reach the highest level in every aspect.

Yeah, well, you talk about, you know, going back to the inner cities, clearly there's a pipeline of talent there, whether it be in sports, outside of sports. We've always had creators, very bright minded creators, innovators, people that have changed and impacted culture for generations to come. And that's on record, which leads me into our main topic of discussion, the power of mentorship. You're someone that's had over a 30 year career in sports.

You've been involved from the professional pro level to the collegiate level to the high school level. So it's safe to say you've seen it all. Someone with your level of impact, which I can profoundly speak on from myself personally with my experience in dealing with you, I believe you're right. We do need to see more of the players on the ground level really helping plant the seeds and get the younger generation to understand that, one, I think sports isn't the only way.

and sports can be a platform right sports can be the platform that leads you into other opportunities but it doesn't have to be the end all and be all so I want to get into talking about who you are the power of mentorship and what you know that means to you and how you've lived by that through your life so as we open up and get into the discussion about the many great things that you've done since you've been on this earth and all the people that you've helped in lives that you impacted tell us a little bit about where you're from and then

your journey as you entered into sports, as you kind of touched on that impact that Pistol Pete has had on your life as you begin your journey into sports. So I tell people, and this is going to be in my book that's coming out in a couple of weeks, sports saved my life, man. I was an inner city kid, you know, born in a small town in Louisiana, but my mom left my dad,

And came to Houston, Texas, where I grew up in the inner cities. I've been all over Houston, man. Third Ward, Fifth Ward, South Park, Sunnyside, Southwest. People always say, how do you know where everything is? I say, because I lived there. Every time the rent comes around, we were moving, you know. You know that whole thing. Yeah.

basketball, football, baseball, track, you name it. If it was a sport, if it was competition, I found myself involved with it. And what I'm saddened by that we have done to inner city kids is what you said earlier, is that we've only told them, we've kept this same message that have kept us from being successful in other industries and

that our way out of the inner city or the way to be successful is through sports and entertainment. And while sports was huge in my life, when I had the opportunity to go to Pistol Pete Maravich basketball camp, although he was a Hall of Fame basketball player and has achieved first million dollar man in the business,

he told me about life. That's what changed my life. I was a young man that was, you know, into sports, but I went to a hall of fame basketball players camp who told me my character was not good enough to achieve the level of success that I wanted. And so my character, you know, um,

that he challenged me with when I first went to his basketball camp. He didn't give me the player of the camp award because he said my character didn't fit the award. And that changed my life.

I became a Christian at his camp. I came back to the inner city, single mom of seven kids. And it was like the lights turned on for me that there's something more to life that I'm missing outside of sports. And I began to get curious about life and to the point I met a coach who invited me to come out to a private school and transfer and play for a private school and

I decided I was going to do that. Then a white family, kind of like the Blindside movie, decided, hey, we'd like to offer you a place to live. I went from the inner city to the suburbs. What I tell people today is, Rod, my zip code changed. That's huge for people to understand. My zip code changed. Therefore, my mentality changed.

So one of the things that I'm big on with young people and mentoring young people is live like your zip code is what you want to achieve in life. Because I left the inner city and went out to the suburbs.

my culture changed, my environment changed, my discipline changed, my character changed, my habits changed. All of those things changed that shaped me and formed me into a young man who now saw that education was important, doing the right thing was important, staying out of trouble was important, working hard to get a scholarship to get educated was important.

And so that's what happened for me. I moved from the inner city to the suburbs. My eyes were open to all that life had to offer me, the opportunities for success, not only through sports now. I saw that education was a path to success. And so I decided I was going to go to Liberty University, not because that was my only offer. I'd actually turned down A&M and Baylor and big schools,

to go to Liberty. And so I went there because I wanted to grow as a Christian young man and I wanted to get a great education and surround myself with people that were going to help me become the most successful I was capable of being. And so that journey, man, that launched me on a platform to begin to understand that there was more to life than sports and entertainment. I quickly learned

that there was more to life and when I couldn't play anymore, right? When I saw that basketball wasn't an opportunity, I had to come to grips with what was I gonna do with my life in order to become successful. And to sit here and think to myself, Rod, a young man who grew up in the inner city,

single mom and wasn't educated until I was 17 years old to think, man, that I have invented a shoe and wrote a patent for, and I have a certificate from the United States of America of a number that says 99373472B2.

That number signifies my patent number that Stefan Leary, for the rest of my life, will be in the history books of inventors. I never would have imagined that would have happened. But that number to me means a lot, Rod, because as you know, in growing up and in my family, a lot of my siblings have been in and out of prison where they assign you numbers. And so that number means a lot to me because it means a lot of good for me.

To think that I've written a book, man. I've written a book and I've invented something. I've built a business working with young people through training and basketball and have coached a lot.

all these many years. It's been a humbling journey, man, to say the least. I feel blessed that I've had the opportunity to be a part of your life and your journey, as well as the other kids that I've had the opportunity of touching their lives along the way. It's very humbling for me to sit back now and look at that journey and to say, you

You know, the slogan behind my book is, if I can, you can. And that's my message to young people. That's my message to people all across the world. If I can, you can. But we got to see life for what it is. We got to seize the opportunities that are given to us, like we were talking about with black and minority people.

But we got to take advantage of those opportunities. We got to choose to do what's right. We got to commit to working hard and doing the things that allow for us to become successful at whatever it is that we want. I agree with you there with that statement. You know, it's interesting because listening to your story, you know, you had...

You had a lot of success as an athlete on the court. And you talk about those experiences and encounters like with Pistol Pete and how that impacted and shaped your life and your perspective. You talk about changing zip code. I vividly remember going from Fifth Ward to Cato. For those of you that don't know about Fifth Ward, Steph and I grew up in this community. It was a prominent black community before the fall, which I used the term before the fall, before drugs and crime.

basically decimated the community. It was a great place to live. However, it was a tough place to grow up to as well, because I remember as a kid really literally having to fight every other day. That's in my book, man. There's a chapter that says fighting back. I literally had to fight every day. And then when I went to the suburbs, it was a different type of fighting. It was a type of fighting that I had to show that I belonged there, that I could learn, that I could

fight the system and to be able to find my identity, who I was as a person. And I profoundly remember, I get emotional about this, the day that I met you, it was a rough, I was in a rough place in my life because my mom had got remarried. She was in an abusive relationship. And here I am in this new community and I'm like, I'm trying to figure out who I am. And I'm no longer around my people that look like me and what's my worth? And

I remember being in the gym and bumping into you and you, you, you, like, for whatever reason, you took a liking to me. But then I was like, I'm seeing this guy come down the court and shoot from half court. And I'm like, I don't know. You know what I mean? And it's like, it was, it was, you know what I mean? And, and, and from that point on, it was like, we jailed and, and,

And I just remember saying to myself that if I could ever get to that level, I know that I can change my life. And that's where sports really began to impact me because I was just trying. I was trying different things to figure out who I was. And it just so happened that basketball became that one thing. But like millions of other kids that look like us that come from situations that we grew up in, they don't get those opportunities to play.

change zip codes, right? They don't get those opportunities oftentimes to have a family that doesn't look like them, take them in and provide for them. And one would say that, man, you know, you guys are blessed. You're lucky. You're one of the few. Even though our paths wasn't easy, when I listened to your opening testimony, you being a man of faith, one thing I always remember, you always had a smile on your face. You always were someone that really uplifted everyone else.

And I just remember saying to myself, like, that's where you want to be. You want to get to that level, right? Yeah, it brings me to that. You know, my next question is, you know, when you were going through those ups and downs, you weren't able to make it in sports at the highest level as far as being an NBA player. You realize that you still have a greater purpose and calling on your life. And it wasn't just to be an athlete. It wasn't just to make millions of dollars. It was about what impact can I have on other people? And you were having an impact even during your difficult times.

times and during your journey, you had an impact on my life just with your presence, your smile, the way you encouraged me, you know, you encouraged me to work on that left hand. You know, you didn't take it easy on me on the court. You used to strip me and I was like, I got to get that left hand better, you know what I'm saying? And then he was like, you need to know how to hit that jumper, you know, and you helped me with my shot and all those things. That was with mentorship. That wasn't just you saying, I'm going to be a nice guy. That was living a life of purpose through mentorship, right?

So that brings me to my next question. What was that pivotal point for you when you realized, like, you know, my life is going to be more about being a mentor to people and uplifting people to achieve great things beyond what they oftentimes think is just my purpose is to be this athlete or my purpose is to be this famous individual or my purpose is just to have a lot of money. It wasn't about that, Bobby.

It was really about reaching out to people and getting people to tap in and focus on really harnessing their best and achieving their overall purpose, which is far beyond any personal accolades you can get for the things we do from a monetary standpoint. It's really about how do you help people go from a dark place to this place of light and live a full life of purpose. So when did that become like that aha moment for you?

So one of the most difficult things, Rod, that you know, as well as all athletes know, is coming to grips with, I can't do it no more. One of the toughest things that you have to come to grips with is, I guess it wasn't meant to be. And for me, like I said, I tried. I got back from my ad break.

a knee surgery and didn't even play my senior year. And my coach at the time, Jeff Meyer, he told me, he said, why don't you, to earn your scholarship, be a student assistant coach? And I said, okay, what am I going to do? And I don't know that he knows, and we're still friends today. He's still a mentor today. I told him, thank you. I've even thanked him in my book.

I don't think he knew at that time what he was saying to me was there's a different path in life. I want you to train like you're saying our guys. You're the best dribbler on the team. You've got a great shot. You're probably the best shooter on the team with distance. Why don't you help our other guys? And why don't you take over the weightlifting, oversee the guys in the weightlifting program?

Do you understand the manifestation of what this guy spoke into my life? As a senior in college, he put me in charge of helping guys dribble better, shoot better, and lift weights. I spent the last 28 years of my life training and coaching people. He doesn't understand what he spoke into my life was he planted a seed for me to revisit one day.

And so once I was done,

You know, Tony Dutt was very instrumental in my life. He was the NBA agent that I worked with. But he also tried to help me play professionally overseas. And I played in pro-ams and played well. And he would say, I'm going to try and get you into a Rockets camp, Spurs camp. He was trying to help me play professional ball. And people were saying, hey, you're still good enough. You're still good enough. And I was trying, man.

I was trying like tell me where to go, where to be, what league to join, whatever. And I would play well. Unfortunately, the flare up of swelling in my knees and whatever just never allowed for me to be consistent enough ever again to have an endure long season of playing professionally. So I found myself at church one day and I met after church,

Rick Tankersley, who was the principal of the school when I transferred out to Katy. He was the principal of the school that I went to my senior year. And so we just reconnected. How you doing? What are you up to? You know, I told him I just got to be trying to play professionally. I'm looking for a job, trying to find out what I want to do next in life. And he said to me these simple words. You ever thought about coaching? And I thought...

No, not really. That's the first thing from my mind. Right. So even when I wrote this book, the thing that I say in the book is coaching chose me. I didn't choose coaching. You see what I think happens, Rod. Along our journey in life, people are saying things and speaking things into our lives

that we have to hear what they're saying and allow for those seeds that they planted in our life to flourish.

Coach Meyer did it when I was in college. I met my principal and he planted the seed, reopened that seed, poured water on that seed and said, hey, I want you to come and build the program that you were a part of. We went to state my senior year and lost the state championship game and then went to national tournament and won the national championship. And so he said, well, I want you to come back and help us do that. And so...

At that time, I was, you know, not even experienced. I think when you're called to do something, Rod, you don't have to have all the knowledge. You don't have to be equipped the way you think you need to be equipped. Sometimes you just need to have the faith to walk in that opportunity, to seize that opportunity. And that's what I did. For the first time, I thought, hmm, a coach and athletic director.

I don't know anything about it, but it got to do with sports. I'm all in. And so my love for sports once again drove me into the direction that I ended up going. And so I took that job. I took a school that, you know, we were probably one of the worst schools in the city and state. And ultimately we became state champions in basketball and basketball and basketball.

I tried to get you to come over and play with me too, but we didn't have the grade that you were in, so we were a little bit behind. So the pivotal change in my life was seeds turned to planet that somebody else came along and fertilized that seed to make me believe that I could become something.

which leads me next to, you know, the book that you wrote. I, they call me coach, you know, before I asked this question, one thing I will say from my experience is being around a lot of coaches, some of them really suck at the X's and O's. It makes me question why, why they're even on the sideline. But,

You went beyond just the X's and O's. It was more like, as you stated before, it was about life, right? Anything that you spoke to your players and I being one of them about was beyond just putting the ball through the hoop. It was like, what are you going to do after this? And really tying it into life, the game itself. So take me on the journey of why you put the book together, They Call Me Coach. Where did that come from? Was it your 27-year career coaching? What was the personal motivation to write the book?

So I think what happened was I, you know, I've met enough people in my lifetime through coaching in high school and college. I've had a lot of opportunities to speak to a lot of different groups, business groups, young people, you know, family, families that were broken, kids that were struggling and families that

And one of the things that I've always done, as you know, I've shared my testimony on how I made it. And when I shared that story with people, people always told me, you need to write a book. You need to write a book. So I kind of had it in my mind one day, maybe I should write a book. But Rod, you know, the thing that people don't realize, and this is what I revealed in the book,

I was scared to write a book and I didn't feel qualified. I wasn't a straight-A student in high school in English, right? I wasn't equipped to write books. It was something I never dreamed that would ever happen. And the fear of writing a book, the fear of failure, the fear of revealing yourself,

the hurts and pains that you go through in life. You know, this book was for me an opportunity for me to share my journey in becoming who I am, but to orchestrate along the way the path that God has planned for my life. The people who played a role in my life along that path and to ultimately say to people that

I wanted to motivate and inspire young people and people in whatever industry. If I can, you can. There's no excuse for why, you know, we can't rise above the abuse, the neglect, the fears, the failures, the insecurities. There's no reason why we can't rise above those things and still become a great and successful business.

It's about taking, allowing God to take that pain and use it for a purpose. And so I began to be driven. Actually, you know me, I went through a divorce and going through that divorce, I found myself questioning who I was.

I started to question who Stefan Leary really was. And what I came up with, Rod, was revolutionizing and revealing. And I said to myself, I have lived my life from 17 when I came to know Christ at Pistol Pete Meredith's Roswell Camp to 50 as a Christian man, never, ever, ever acknowledging my zero to 17 life.

It was almost like I forgot about where I came from. Not in that I didn't always go back and give because I've always helped my family in whatever way, monetarily or whatever. But not dealing with those pains and those troubles and failure and abuse and the doubt of you'll never be anybody or whatever. So,

For the first time in my life, I was alone enough to look Stefan Leary in the mirror to discover just who I was and what I was created for.

And I've always believed that I was created for a purpose bigger than sports. It was for me to figure out how God, what I was going to let God use the platform in my life to share that. Well, then the book became a reality of, okay, I need to write this book, but you got to understand, I didn't write this book right away. This was like 60 years ago that I had that thought. And over the course of the past six years, I,

Through my discovering who I was and reliving some of my zero to 17, coming face to face with what I call in my book, the wounded child. I believe that I live my life as a wounded man that I think has cost me some relationships in my life, cost me even professionally in my life.

Because, you know, I didn't know how to handle those things. I would always run and hide, right? And so coming face to face with who I was, I realized, man, I'm just a wounded dude, man. I'm broken and wounded. I really need once and for all to allow God to heal me of my past failure, pains, insecurities, and hurts, right?

And I sat down one day and started writing and it just started flowing. I recently met a publisher who told me I was trying to get the book published and they said, how many words do you have? And I said, I got about 30,000. They were like, that's a short book with your life story. You should have more than that. And I thought, oh, okay. Yeah. So yeah,

I went back to look at what I wrote, and I realized I left out zero to 17. And so I went back recently when COVID hit. I shut down my basketball program, and I decided I'm going to finish this book. And for the first time, I sat down, Rod, and I allowed Stephon Leary to be vulnerable, to be transparent with myself,

and to allow God to just break me once and for all. And I can't tell you how difficult that process was in getting this book done. I cried on many a tears. But recently, I have felt like I've gotten a freedom of being me, accepting my journey, accepting my past, my failures, my insecurities, my fears,

And I doubled the size of the book, man. And I contacted the publisher. I said, hey, I've got about 60,000 words now. And they said, you're ready to go. And so I signed with Beyond Publishing and the book's going to be out. I'm going to a red carpet event later this month on the 28th and hopefully to launch the book.

I'm excited about it because I cover a lot of things we've talked about here today, not just my journey in becoming a coach. I wanted to title with that because, like I said, coaching chose me. I didn't choose coaching. It was my path and journey to becoming who I am that allowed for me to experience the other things through coaching.

I've always wanted to use my life to give back to others, to help others along their journey, to inspire others, mentor others. And I just think this book is my next step in my journey of doing that. I hope that people will read it and not just look at my journey, but my hope is that they'll discover themselves inside of their own journeys because they see the way that I discovered mine.

Well, Coach, I appreciate you coming on today. In closing, how can people contact you? How can they connect with you if people want to learn more about who you are as a person, if they want to bring you on as a guest speaker, if they want to eventually purchase your new book that's coming out? How can individuals connect with you?

My website right now for my business is newbiteshoop.com. My phone number is on there. My email is on there. My name is StephanLeary at 15.gmail.com. You can email me. I'm on Facebook as StephanLeary. I'm on LinkedIn as StephanLeary.

Feel free to reach out. I'm happy to anyone out there in whatever areas that I can. And hopefully we can try them to do great things as well.

And for all you new aspiring up and coming coaches, I definitely encourage you if you happen to come across this podcast and listen to view it, don't ever hesitate to reach out to coach. I can tell you he's one of the brightest minds in the game of coaching. He's won at every level. Um, and he's definitely someone that understands how to maximize talent and, and bring out the best in any player that he's ever kind of came in contact with. And I'm one of those that, you know, can speak of, uh, being, you know, under his tutelage and watching him, uh,

as well coach other players. So don't hesitate to reach out to him. He definitely will make himself available and answer any questions that you have. So in closing, when will the book be out, Coach? When can we expect to actually get our hands on the book? September 28th, I'm going to a big company event in Dallas.

The book should be ready by then. I'll make sure that I have the contact and post it. It'll be on my Facebook. It'll be on my LinkedIn. In just a couple of weeks, man, I'm really just humbled. I got my edits back. I've got the first layout of the book back. They're finishing the layout, and then we're going to approve it for print. Awesome.

Okay. Well, thanks again, Coach. We appreciate you coming in. Thank you, man. I love you, brother. Yep, this concludes. Keep up the good work, man. I love you. I love my little girls. Yep. The girls are getting big, man. They're growing up real fast. I remember when you were at our daughter's first, when she was first born, Renise, and now she's 16. She's actually going tomorrow to take her driver's license exam. Wow. I'm a little moved. Time flies, man.

Time flies. That was good, though, man. Keep up the great work, brother. All right, well, this concludes our podcast with Coach Leary. They call me Coach. Expect the new book out at the end of this month, September 28th. And don't hesitate to reach out to him. For those of you that are out there in life and you're trying to find your way and you're trying to find your purpose, I believe today's message will be great for you. And I believe that if you just continue to believe in yourself and connect with great, great people –

And don't ever hesitate to reach out to those who you think can be a mentor and help encourage you along your journey in life. Till next time on the next episode. Stay tuned. You guys keep hustling out there and keep winning. Take care and have a great day. For more information on the All In podcast, visit LAVIPagent.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube at RodWatson23.

No matter where you are in the world, you can connect with us for motivational and inspirational content. Subscribe to this podcast series wherever you get your podcasts. Till the next episode of All In, keep believing, keep hustling, and keep putting in the work.