Bill Belichick’s Character Coach (Jack Easterby) Shares the Importance of Being a High Integrity Person

Audio Transcription

Let’s ask the question. He’s the secret weapon record of 225 wins and 79 losses over the past 19 seasons. The New England Patriots have won a total of six Superbowls and have appeared in nine in route to becoming the NFLs most dominant team. And they are the NFLs only team with a fulltime character coach on their roster. In a world where ECO magazine now reports that 85% of American job applicants why on their resumes? And we’re the U s chamber of Commerce and CBS News now reports at 75% of employees steal from the workplace and most do so repeatedly. Why would the NFL is most successful head coach bill Bellacheck be the only head coach that has decided to invest in the hiring of a full time character coach on today’s show, the former Superbowl winning patriots character coach Jack Easterby shares about what makes Patriots Captain Matthew Slater, such a valuable teammate, the coaching mastery and intelligence of head coach, Bill Belichick, the power of self reflection, the importance of being intentional about whom you surround yourself with and whom you spend your time with. How he organizes the first four hours of every day. His favorite book, recommendations and much, much more. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my interview with former New England patriots character coach, Mr Jack Easterby.

Yes, yes, yes and yes. Thrive nation on today’s show, I am super honored to interview today’s guests. This is the former character coach for bill Belichick, coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Mr Jack Easterby. Welcome on to the thrive time show. How are you sir?

Hey, I’m great. How are you man? I’m excited to be here. I’m thankful for you guys having me on and uh, just blessed to continue to learn together and grow and try to make it a little bit of a difference here.

Well, you and I share the same faith. And, and so I, I’m very excited to hear a guy like you who’s outspoken about, and I think a lot of our listeners are wondering what is a character coach? Can we start there? What, what, what is a character coach? What was your role on the Patriots during these past five years?

Yeah, well I think, you know, when you, or any business or any organization, you, you try to do the right thing. So the group that you’re with, and I think for the evolution of, uh, if you look at all the fortune 500 companies or major league baseball or any, any big companies, you’re dealing with the needs of people. And so what the evolution of character coaching has kind of come into is that people have needs, right? We’re human doings, we’re human beings, not human doings. And so people have needs and they have needs that need to be taken care of weekly, monthly, yearly. And so my job is to service the needs of the Schumann’s, the people’s side of the business and to make sure that we’re out in front of any, um, leadership or a potential bumps or issues, leadership challenges that may be out there for our players or coaches or our staff. And so it’s been an honor to serve and learn and, um, uh, do anything we can help do be the glue of the team.

Now I think a lot of people might say a character coach does that even a position. I think a lot of people aren’t looking at the roster of their favorite team right now. Going character coach. I don’t, I don’t see a character coach on our team. What was your professional path to becoming the Patriots character coach?

Yeah, that’s interesting. So I um, first of all, I would just say growing up as an athlete, you know, I always loved team. I always loved being with teammates. I love being on teams. I played multiple sports as many people do grow up and just always loved being around the team. Whether that’s team meals or it’s team building or it’s hanging out with your team at birthday parties when you’re little. I always love being around the team. And so my professional career was a bunch of different things, but they always centered around the team. You know, I played sports in College, uh, at Newbury college and then left there and went and worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars and salary cap, which was just a way to learn about team, uh, how a team is constructed and how a team is built. And then I left there and went to South Carolina and worked as a campus director for character, it’s South Carolina and worked with a bunch of teens.

And my goal there was to build teams. So I did team building exercises and we had Bible studies on campus and we did leadership for athletes and field trips for athletes to meet athletes they looked up to and those types of things. And, and uh, so it was always about building the team. And then when I went to Kansas City, it was about finding ways to build a team. And I serve Scott Pioli in that role there. And then with the Patriots, the same thing. So my professional path, I would say there have been different facilitators of that, but for me it’s always been about the team. It’s always been about trying to help the team to do right by the team and to build into the team. And the current title is character coast, but it’s about the team.

Uh, I, uh, I’ve started hop around and to not be linear, but I’m just so curious about so many you’re saying here, um, go back to tickets. Back to your childhood, how you were raised. How did, how did, how were you raised in, how has that impacted who you are today?

That’s a great, great question. I think our childhood impacts all of how we’re, um, how we are today. Whether it’s a good, bad, indifferent or it’s just the, in the way in the shaping of your parents or grandparents or guardians, whoever raised you. And I would say the two greatest insertions in my life, the two greatest things that I was given as a combination were love and truth. And for me personally, I think that love and truth as a combination is what grows the human soul. And so I was blessed to have a great relationship with two greatest generation grandparents who has spent a lot of time at their house growing up and they inserted love and truth from a faith-based prism to me, um, at uh, telling me they love me, but also telling the truth about the decisions I was making or principles that they believe would be timeless.

And in my parents the same way my mom was a banker and my dad was a counselor and I heard from them love and truth, whether it was the circumstances of playing on a field or it was going to youth group or being a part of all star teams. I always heard love and truth. And so I think for me, if I could say anything to parents or leaders out there, if you’re shaping youth or you’re shaping young people, to me the insertion of love and truth as a combination, as a, as a one two punch a, that’s what people need. A, whether you’re 50 years old or whether you’re a 12 year old playing little league baseball, you need love and truth. You need to have unconditional love and you need to be told the truth even when it hurts.

Get competitive for a second here. I have five kids now how many kids are you going to go for him? What’s, what’s the, what’s the Max number of kids you’re looking to have?

Okay,

so I’m at two right now, but the shot clock’s not out. Okay,

well, that’s the clock’s not out. Oh, my clock is out. So my clock is out. Various things have been done. Uh, so my wife had been married 18 years and she said, you got to go see whoever about that thing and then we’re done. So I’m done. But are you thinking like five kids, four kids? What’s, what’s the number?

Okay.

I don’t know. You know, it’s interesting you put some pressure on me with that one. We’ve talked about adoption and my wife and I love, um, we’ve always loved foster parenting and we got two beautiful girls. My girls are going to be, I always say the first girls to win the Miss America pageant and full body weight suits. Right. Nevertheless, wear a, been sued in front of a guy. Uh, Nah, I’m just kidding. We, we, we love children. Not My wife is a teacher by nature. And so we, we’ve back and see us adopting a couple more, but if the race is to file, I think I’m gonna let you have that one.

All right. I appreciate that. I get, I get one mega point right there. So even though I might be losing other categories one point for me. That’s great. Now did you talk about your, your career as a player, Newbury college? How, how good were you as a, as an athlete and in what position did you play?

Okay.

Yeah, so I played basketball

and golf and um, I was blessed to when we, we played for a championship in both. We won the championship then in golf. We did not win it in, uh, in basketball. We lost in the finals of our championship. But um, yeah, I was good. I mean, I was good enough. I competed, I was a, a role player on the, and basketball and golf. I was one of the better players on the team relative to starting and being in the top five and going to all the tournaments. But, um, you know, I, I wouldn’t say that they were naming buildings after me or anything there, but I, I, you know, I participated and, uh, I would say my time as an athlete, the thing that I learned most is we had six coaches in four years for two different sports. And so, you know, getting to know a lot of transition and, and, and getting the chance to meet people that were in and out of my life is leaders that did it different ways.

And some were Parker’s and some were servers and some were, you know, strategists and some were people guys. And so I think just learning different transitions and having a transition through people, a was a huge advantage to me, uh, in my college playing career. Because if you think about it, so many people learn one way and that’s one way may not be reduplicated will have a different circumstance. So for me, man, it’s really been, college was really a great set the table, a moment for me to be able to learn transition and leadership. I, uh, my partner and I, and we built multimillion dollar companies between the two of us. He’s 54 and his three kids and I’m 38 and have five kids. And about 18 years ago I began this obsession with coach Belichick and it was beyond, you know, just uh, football. It’s, it’s the philosophy of, of management.

And uh, I just, I’m obsessed with it. We actually named a room in our building and our 20,000 square foot facility, the bill Bellacheck room, it has the name plate on there and everything. Uh, so I, I’m obsessed with coach bell a check. And is he a perfect human? No, but I just love the principles and the philosophies and the culture. And I know that a lot of it is, uh, you know, it’s, it’s kind of behind closed doors and I’m not asking to paint you into a corner or ask you step. You, obviously you can’t share, but what did it feel like to work on the Patriots Organization and to be a part of one of the most winning, uh, organizations over a two decade span of, of any organization in professional sports history? What did it feel like to work with coach Belichick and the Patriots?

Well, I would say it was a complete privilege every day, every minute, every hour. Um, I took pages and pages and pages of notes. Um, bill is one of the smartest people I’ve ever interacted with. His mind is a gift from God. He has tremendous, um, analytical mind that can be used in so many different ways to lead people and put them in the best situations to be successful. I think he knows people’s gifts well. He knows what they do well, what they don’t do well, and he’s just got an amazing gift. He cares for people. Um, you know, the perception. Some people always share with me about what they think and the media, just not the truth. Bill has been amazing to me and my family and I’m so thankful for him. And, and, uh, it was really a life changing experience for me to work for him and I’ll still maintain that relationship the rest of my life. And, um, you know, anyway, so, uh, I think that it was an honor. It was a privilege and I’m eager to see, uh, as I continue to grow, how many of these lessons I’m going to put right into practice because he truly changed my life and the Patriots away, the Patriots operate, uh, in last small piece in that really helped me to become better at the best version of myself.

I have one patriot or that you don’t know, but it happened during your tenure. Okay. So here we go. My mother in law was a flight attendant for jet blue and they hop on the hop on the mic. You know, they make the announcement. I say, Ladies and gentlemen, we have a mom who wants to sit with her child. If anyone’s willing to move, we’d like to make room for it, my room so that the child can sit with her mother. They make that announcement several times. You know, in jacket starts to get awkward. You know, cause they’re doing it again. Oh he’s a gentleman. If you want to, um, make it, someone would like to volunteer. We’re trying to make room here for a mother to sit with her daughter and nobody’s moving on to jet blue plane. Nobody’s moving. And guess who gets up and moves?

It’s bill Belichick. He gets up in homes and no one knows who he is until everyone discovers who he is cause no one moves. So he moves. Does it make a big deal about it? And My mother didn’t love the way she tells the story. Apparently people start going, oh my gosh, that’s bill Belichick. He’s moving his seat and people kind of start clapping and they’re like getting all excited for the guy. And apparently, he does these kinds of things all the time, but he doesn’t like to get up there and you know, hop on social media and talk about it. Could you brag on coach bell a check or something? Maybe that was a, I’m not asking you to share a secret, you know, but the kind of things that he would do behind the scenes where you would go, I’m proud to work with that guy.

Yeah. I mean, I could give you hours and hours of stories. My phone would go dead.

Okay.

You know, just because of the intentionality. You know, the one word that I always say about bill, when I think of, of his leadership, his intentionality, I think there’s nothing better to say about a leader then he intentionally did that. And whether that’s how he’s, uh, reciprocated his investment in Navy and, and what they meant to his father, or whether that’s, uh, how he’s invested in as children and now grandchildren, I think, I think his wisdom of the investment of intentionality is, um, you know, you think about what most people do with success, right? What do they do with it? What do they, when you get successful, what do you do? And I would say when you get successful, it shows a lot about who you are. And so bill has been extremely intentional with his success. You know, he gave a, I’m sure you saw the rich eyes and thing where he gives to rich eyes and every year it’s a calm behind about what he’s thankful for rich and how rich makes a difference. Food St Jude there. So I just that the word that comes to mind beyond a specific story is intentionality and a man, I’m blessed. We’re so blessed to have the overlap. And I’m proud to call him friend

you. And I hate to have to preface you guys are in the limelight. I’m sure you’ve been on interviews before where there’s always somebody trying to trick you into some question, you know, some headline things. So that’s not my goal and I just met you. So I’m just prefacing all of this. Is that what happens? You know, I feel bad for some of these players. You know, some of these players are doing interviews and someone’s trying to trick them into it. They take one line, you know how it is and it’s just, it’s unfortunate. And so our podcast is a long format show. I’ve been doing this for years. So, but I just want to preface this. Um, there’s a lot of players that get, get a bad rap. You know, there’s all sorts of statistics you’ll see where it says eight at a 10 NFL players go bankrupt within five years of retiring or two years, you know?

And that’s okay. That’s like a shocking headline. You know, people go, oh my gosh, wow, I’m a business coach, I’m a consultant, I own businesses and I coach businesses and I’ll just let everybody know nine out of 10 startups fail. So I mean actually more people fail as a startup business owner than NFL players. But talk to me about working with a player and some of the character, I wouldn’t call them issues, but character coaching opportunities that you see. Cause a lot of these players, you know, come from broken homes. A lot of them come from two parent families, some don’t. What, What does, what does coaching look like on a daily basis with these players? What kind of things do you go over? And again, I’m not looking for any specifics or any specific players, but what kinds of things do you talk to with players, talk to players about,

well let’s think about it like this. So you made a great point there on your analogy of that data. I think here’s what I would say. Let’s start with this, right? For every single person, and this includes non athletes, but my specific call it gives with athletes is we’re not necessarily born winners or losers, but we are born choosers and I would say making choices is going to determine how your life begins to unfold and the choices that you make will ultimately make you. And so what I believe is that my work with them is true almost strategically and specifically centered around them being a better decision maker. So for example, okay, you are getting ready to navigate NFL, like who are the people that are going to do this with you? Okay. And so we do a circle to exercise for example. And we say, okay, who are the top three people in your life?

Who are the top 10 people in your life? Who are the top 30 people in your life? And as the circle expands, what are the different layers for your life? What is something that somebody has to have to be in your circle? What are the values that you have in your life? And we make them do self reflective things that we’re going to make them evaluate who they are. Because in the end you can’t make a good choice unless you’re being self reflective and evaluate the prism in which you’re making that choice. And so I would say all the things I do with our players and really anything I’m doing in general with trying to make an impact in this culture is around being a better decision maker. Because you can’t be with someone all the time to make choices for them and do it for them. You have to make them a better decision maker. So when the heat’s on and the speeds up, they make good choices. So we’re not winners or losers, we are born choosers, right? And then you make your choices and your choices make you. So I think in the big picture, everything I’m doing is about making choices and trying to help them be, have a better prism to make those those choices

and I know it was a character coach. You know, you don’t want to hear personal anecdotes with specific players, but I just would like to brag on someone that I don’t think the listeners get to hear enough about. Matthew Slater is just a great human. Every everything I hear, Matthew Slater, great guy, great guy, great guy. Patriots have so many high character guys on the team. When you think about your time with the Patriots and these high character players, do you have a highlight or a part of your career where you thought, man, that was cool being on the sideline, winning that super bowl, or maybe it was somebody like Matthew slayer, Slater doing work in the community, or maybe a charity event you participated in. Was there a, was there a highlight during your five years with the Patriots?

You know, I don’t think there was one specific moment where I would say, you know what? This is why I was here. I will say when Matthew won the, um, the awards that they give out for character to all of the NFL athletes and action gives out a character award each year. And basically what they do is they have large stars, they call it the Barnstar Star Wars that have Bart’s towards wife call the recipient. And they liked to do it like with the owner or the GM or you know, maybe specifically the head coach. Well, for us it was, we were in the playoffs and we being, and so I kind of tricked up and had a Bible study, uh, that we were going to have a in. I filled the entire room with all of Matthew’s best friends and teammates and I had, um, basically had her call me on the speaker phone and give Matthew the award in front of us, just call it 30 of his teammates.

And so, um, it was one of those moments where, you know, he was emotional and the, his dad had also won that award, uh, when his dad played for the rams. And so I just, that was a moment where not only did we have 50 people in Bible study that day, which was awesome, but we, we, we really celebrated character and the unseen things here, we tend to celebrate, seen things in our culture. But really one of the things that I’ve been encouraged by is celebrating unseen things. You know, how people are treated when nobody’s watching, how people communicate to try to encourage confidence. And Matthew obviously is to me that the pillar of that in the sporting world, not just in football but in the sporting world, um, he’s the epitome of character and what it means to be a true, um, Christ centered leader, uh, in a tough place and tough locker room, not just in, in our building, but just the NFL in general. So I think I would say that was a moment I’ll never forget because it was kind of a setup slash event slash celebration of character slash team building all at once. But, um, man, I don’t know, man. I could, our phones would go dead again talking about how awesome my time in New England was. And it was life changing.

Do you remember getting the call or the email or the text or the invite to become part of the Patriots organization? Do you remember where

I, it’s so funny, I’ve never told this story before to anyone publicly, but never forget. I was in Fort Caswell, North Carolina. I was speaking at a southern Baptist Convention and I, there was a lady there named Mary Johnson, and Mary Johnson was one of the best. Um, her husband had left and, uh, passed away, uh, early in her life. And she had two unbelievable boys that were great, um, to her. And, um, uh, her boys played in a band. And so I was speaking and I got done speaking and, uh, went for a walk on the beach and I had a five oh eight number that was left on my voicemail and it was a bill and I’d never met him in produce itself to me on the phone. Like he was, you know, just, uh, just a regular, regular old guy. And, uh, and I called him back and, and, uh, we just had the most amazing conversation.

It was so genuine and um, you know, so I’d never will forget that moment because it was one of those things where, you know, you just, you talking like you’re talking to the boss, you already were working for you, you just didn’t know it yet. You know, so it was crazy. It was a, a great moment and a life changing moment and a man, you know, I’ll never forget the first time I met Matthew Slater, I’ll never forget the first time I met. Um, you know, Devin McCourty, I’ll never forget my first hug with Nate soldier. Uh, those are all moments that God, you know, just, just Kinda stop time for, but I’ll never forget when bill called me because that was truly life changing. No question.

You know, coach Belichick talks a lot about you want a higher character over skill, you know what I mean? If, if, if all things being considered equal, you know, if a guy’s got a lot of skill, low character, go to character guy, you hear about that all the time. I follow the team long enough to see that play out over decades. You see that consistency there? Let’s talk about it on a bigger picture because I know, I know now you’re doing, speaking, you’re doing leadership training, you have so many things going on. Let’s look at it from a bigger perspective as a, as a culture. Where is culture going the wrong way right now in America specifically and as it relates to character and what can we do to correct the course?

Well, I, I really think that, um, you know, we never want to evaluate things and say this is wrong. This is right. Because usually every decision or everything that happens is a product of other decisions. Right? Okay. So we really want to make an evaluation of whether it’s culture or team or a person. We need to do a deep dive on what the pro, the prisons are that we’re making our decisions by. And I think that one of the things that I’m seeing, uh, both in leadership and in, um, uh, really whether it’s, whether it’s specific position leadership like government or, or, um, Co companies or people that lead like that or its position or just leaders in general, people in, um, families and, and in businesses that are just interacting in the, in the social realm. I think for, for what I’m seeing is we’ve, we just lacked the route we lack the thorough approach of evaluating every nook and cranny of our lives.

Um, and realizing that you can’t relegate character. You can’t, uh, only put character and part of your lives. You can’t only ask hard questions in some things in your lives. You really have to do a deep dive and look at who you are in every circumstance, in every part of your life, every nook and cranny of your building, every nook and cranny of your heart, and really take a thorough look and x ray of who you are, uh, in all area. So, man, you may be a great leader in this area. But what about some other areas that may come up? Because what we’re seeing in culture is people are celebrated for the one or two things they do well, but then the things they haven’t addressed ended up costing everybody they leave. Whether that’s a scandal, whether that’s an addiction, whether that’s an area where they don’t take a real hard look at themselves in the mirror and get over themselves from an ego standpoint.

But the truth is that we, we, we got to take a harder look at ourselves and that’s me and you and everybody included to take a more thorough look at every single area. Um, personal relationships, professional relationships, what binocular we’re using, what habits we have, how we carry ourselves, eye contact, body language, saying play please. And thank you all the things that we’ve all heard growing up and many people have heard just in general, but I just think we need a more thorough look. I don’t think it’s one thing that the culture is missing. Um, I don’t think it’s one thing that the culture said. All we got to do is this. I think it’s about being more thorough. I think our leaders need to be thoroughly vetted so that when they get in charge, they can give a charge and not just be in charge.

There is, there’s just a lot of opportunity for you. Now you’re in a time of transition where I’m sure a lot of teams are reaching out to you in other organizations are asking you to speak. Uh, what, what do you see over the next 12 months? What do you, what do you feel like God’s looking for you to do over the next 12, 18 months maybe? What do you feel like you’re called to do? Just talk to us about what, what do you see the Jack Easterby show doing over the next 18 months?

12 months, man, I tell you what, I’m thinking about 12 hours right now. I think, uh, you know, for my family, I think in a, I would ask you, you know, or anybody, if you’ve got the 12 month plan for your family, I want to see it cause I don’t know. I don’t know how many people could do 12 months and 15 months at a time in this day and age, but we, we as a family or just evaluating some things and we’re looking to see where can we serve and where can we come alongside? Some people that we know are, uh, you know, uh, being willing to use the gifts that God’s given us and serve. And, uh, again, our time in New England was absolutely awesome. Um, but just, just looking to serve and to continue to learn and, um, but we haven’t really, we’re not going to rush that. We’re not looking to copy and paste a, we’re looking to just continue on this journey. You know, God’s given us a few assignments here, Jacksonville and South Carolina and Kansas City and now new England. And we’re just, we’re just wanting to learn. We don’t learn, serve, do every everything we can do, um, to leave each person better than we found them.

Will you ever go into full time ministry as a pastor you give her to see that in your future? Maybe 20 years down the road, 10 years down the road?

Um, you know, I don’t know. I love the church. One of my best friends is a pastor here in Massachusetts. Uh, I don’t know. I love God’s word. I love teaching and scripture and, uh, uh, you know, I think our culture needs, um, people who have values and lead was a conviction. Um, uh, but I don’t know. I haven’t thought, I haven’t nailed that down yet. I, it’s intriguing. But, uh, uh, I couldn’t tell you, couldn’t tell you what, what 15 years from now hold.

Well, I know that a lot of people want to hire you to speak on youtube. You can see examples of you speaking. If somebody who does want to get ahold of you for speaking. Are you doing that right now? Is that something you’re open to or,

yeah, I have several, uh, opportunities to share and, and willing, you know, the same way you guys, uh, did our, our, uh, contact is just the greatest thing.org, the greatest champion.org. And we have a staff there that get back to you. And that’s our foundation where we do orphans, scholarships, and we do camps, uh, for churches. And, and mainly in South Carolina for basketball camps. And then we also do character curriculums for coaches that are trying to lead and we believe in the way that makes a difference, uh, through character and leadership development. But yeah, um, that’s, that’s, that’s where we go there and try to do a few things but not overwhelmed or not trying to get overwhelmed by any sort of, uh, speaking towards, just want to serve and do right that people and, and use the opportunities we’ve been given to make a difference.

Jack Easterby Patriots, fullback, James Devlin has described you and a USA today article saying before every game, and I mean every game he comes to each of us and tells us he appreciates us. Why do you do that?

You know, I’ll say pre game in any sport is such a, and you probably been a part of a lot of sports sportswear pregame or when you’re in a golf round three, you know, warming up or anything, there’s always an element of a ritualistic performance by everybody. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s you got your, your verses, you read and you got your, you tape that you put on your arm and you get your certain, you know, I blacked that you wear or whatever. For me, I’ve always thought if we go on the playing field, no matter what we’re doing, if we go on a place that playing field, I just want every single person I’m interacting with to know that I’m thankful for him if I can. And you know, again, time doesn’t always allow for that, but I just want them to know I’m thankful for him because I think if they’re going to play and give all that got the best thing, they could knows that they’re the, again going back to love and truth is that they’re cared for and that they’re gifted and that the gifts that they have to be given to them by a giver who wants to bring glory to his name through their gift.

And so I tried to just thank a man. Hey, thank you for who you are. Thanks to the man you are, have fun today. And just try to make sure that, that, that authentic interaction will wash off any pressure or any outside influences that may be distracting.

Matthew Slater is not a household name for most people unless you are a bill Belichick fan like I am. But Matthew Slater is not that name that most families know. Um, but yet he’s the captain of the team, special teams, a specialist they’re at in a locker room celebrations, you know, he brings it in there to the team, you know, brings it in with her. Did you guys celebrate new yell all yeah. Together, you know, uh, before him, Teddy Barista had the honors of doing that. Can you talk about the post game celebration of the aw yeah. And what that’s all about.

You know, I’ll tell you this, Matthew does an awesome job with that. He really does. He, you know, it’s one of the things you pour into and I think the NFL specifically, people see you pour into the week all week long and no one sees practice on Wednesday and film study early in the morning. And these guys lifted weights and running together and all that. They just see the three hours or four hours on Sunday. And I think that that’s the culmination, that moment where Matthew shares with the team about how hard their work was this week, how much he appreciates everybody in there and as a captain, how he cares that all of them understand the power they have of influence and leadership in the community and over their families. And when they, you know, they give that all yes, everybody agree and that man, we put it in and let’s do it again next week. Um, it’s a great tradition. I love that.

You know, that the Patriots, obviously you guys are obsessed with practice and preparation over there. Can you share with the listeners about the hills, what he’s hills are? Uh, they’re, they’re, they’re kind of legendary. You know, if you do a little bit too much time searching online, you can discover the a hills and the legend of the Pate Hills and he patriots practice. What are the hills all about?

Uh, well I think any coach wants to do things to grow his team. You know, and I think that one of the things we’ve done here is opportunity to run some hills and, and um, you know, after practice, during training camp, during, you know, uh, certain specific times to, to get better and Moses Cabrera or strength and conditioning coach and bill and others thought that’s the best way to continue to develop a mental and physical and emotional and, uh, you know, growth process. And um, yeah, so it’s a, it’s not that complex. It gets a little hill, but, uh, the life, sometimes it’s simple, but it’s, it’s what makes you get over the hurdle to continue to get better.

Now, my final three questions for you. On the Patriots, there’s a appears to be a strict no fighting rule and a strict dot. Don’t talk trash about the other team rule. You know, if you watch a patriots interview in the interview, the players, uh, you know, the reporters are always fishing for antagonistic statements they can use against the other team. You know, the headlines and the page is just don’t participate in that. It seems like every single player, uh, does not ever speak negatively about the other team and doesn’t seem to, there’s a lot of fights in practice. Is that intentional or is that just a random thing that happens?

Well, I think that speaks to the kind of people you have, right? I mean, each, that’s not one person’s decision. That’s a, you’re talking about the litany of a wide myriad of people that you know, have, uh, made that same choice. So that shows you that the culture is intact, that people don’t see benefit and slander and other people and creating a bunch of nonsense. It’s going to be out there for no reason and also show you that no business and fighting your teammate. Let’s say that. And let’s work on the techniques we need to get better so that we can go fight the opponent. Um, uh, I think that really speaks more to the character of the men in the locker room and bill’s leadership.

Now you on the Patriots, you guys are very intentional and you come across as a very intentional person individually. Well, how do you typically spend the first four hours of your day and what time do you wake up every day?

Oh, that’s a good question. So I get up at different times throughout the year during the season, you know, it’s usually four 35. I’m in the building and reading my Bible and starting to find a way to put notes out and chairs and, and um, encourage guys. And um, I think for me the first couple of hours is about energy to continue to get the day going for the players and coaches and get around as many people as I can. And then in the afternoon or in the next two hours, it becomes real functional, right. Knocking to have a lot of, to do’s and meetings with our staff and making sure we got what we need while the players are meeting with their coaches. And then we do all the support staff stuff and then, uh, you know, as it gets to practice, go to practice and make sure that goes well.

And then after practice, the personal stuff, the relationships with the guys and meeting with them personally. One on one and helping any meetings we may need to have to help make sure nothing’s in the way of them being the best they can be. And then in the evening and serving the coaches, you know, if that’s getting coffee, if that’s doing anything we can do to help them have fun and be who they’re called to be and who they think they need to be, um, and, uh, uh, prepare them for, for helping us be prepared to win on Game Day. So, um, yeah, the first four hours I would say, you know, five o’clock and get going in the office by five and Roland. But, uh, you know, just depends on the day for what we’re really trying to do. Um, uh, from a systematic standpoint,

if you get to work at five, have you ever beat bill Belichick to work?

Okay.

No.

Have you ever left at two in the morning just to see if he’s, I mean, have you ever left after him?

Uh, well, you know, I’ll tell you, when you get a season flow, you’re always working, you know, so it’s, it’s the NFL. Obviously, there’s a lot of,

he’s missed a lot to do. I’ve already never left the holding or never actually gets there. He’s just always there.

Well, he’s a, I’ll tell you this, the best leader and, uh, the amazing mental strength and capacity and vision and, uh, just, just can’t say enough good things about bill.

Now, final question for you. Uh, books. Our listeners love to read books, love three actionable books, principal books, books about leadership, vision management, entrepreneurship, business character, the gamut. If you could recommend two books, it can be any two books for the listeners. What are two books that have made a big impact on your life where you would go, you got to buy this book in that book?

Uh, if I could just do two, well, I would always say the Bible because I think leadership has its origins in the ability to make decisions. You’re not a winner or loser, your chooser. And I think the prism in which you make decisions that will matter most. But I would, you know, I think they’re the two books that I’ve read. Uh, well let’s, let me give you, let me give you a few more. Yeah. I would say start with the why Simon Sinek. I think that’s a good one. I think the good to great is a good one by Jim Collins. I think I’ve read recently emotional intelligence 2.0 good one. I fixed Steven. Yeah,

we just had him on the show.

Oh Great. Yeah, I think that’s a really good one. I think he, uh, how to read others’ emotions and understand how they, uh, you know, just function. Um, you know, and then, and then I, I’ve always, you know, I’ve been a little bit of an old school, Stephen Covey, seven habits of highly effective people. I’ve always liked that. I think there are more than seven habits of highly effective people, but the seven that he outlines to me, uh, have challenged me is a, is a leader. So those are a few.

Jack Easterby, I cannot thank you enough for being on the show today. I know our listeners want to support you, get behind you. Is there a specific website you would encourage everybody to check out or is there a newsletter you’re putting out or anything where you’d say, Hey, the best place to stay in touch with me is to go here?

Yeah, thank you. Again, just the greatest champion.org is our foundation and our goal is to make a difference to leadership and curriculum and sports and find to make sure we’re influencers. That’s the goal. And um, again, your, your podcast does that I’m thankful to be on here. I’m thankful to be noticed at all by people because the goal is to serve and do right by those that we influence and interact with and humbled to be a part of the Patriots. 100 will be humbled to be a part of all the different teams at South Carolina and Kansas City Jacksonville I’ve been a part of and I’m just again just excited about what God’s teaching our family and we’re going to do our best to continue to serve.

Jack, thank you for what you’ve done with your career and I know your next stop will be just the beginning of something even greater. My friend. Thank you for being on the show, thrive nation. There are so many nuggets of knowledge that you’re just not going to find in the typical business college that were unveiled on today’s show. But here are a few action items I would encourage you to think about and to just right down here, get out a sheet of paper, write down these, these, these ideas. We’ve got two action items I want for you to really marinade on. The first one is I would ask yourself, who are you hanging around? You know, there’s so many quotes that say, I’m, I’m paraphrasing, but Jim Roan the best selling author, r, O, h, n, Jim Rohn. He says that your network is your net worth.

We’ve heard porter gale, the former, uh, virgin, uh, executives had the same thing. Your network is your net worth. Tim Ferris, uh, the bestselling author, the Orb wooding podcaster says, you become the average of the five people that you spend your most time with. Any self help book. And I’m going back to Napoleon hill where he talks about the mastermind. At the end of the day, the people around you become the sort of the average of what you allow into your life. You know, in terms of financial, mediocrity, moral character, moral excellence, moral mediocrity, financial integrity, financial mediocrity, just every aspect of your life really is dictated by the people you spend time with. So be very intentional today, but who you’re spending time with. And I would encourage you to write down the names of the five people that you do spend the most time with in your life.

And if you’re hanging out with idiots consistently, chances are you too will become a morally deprived idiot. If you’re hanging around high character people, chances are you will become a higher character person. Now action item number two is I would encourage you to take a hard look at yourself in every area of your life and to evaluate yourself and the areas of, of faith, family, finances, fitness, friendship and fun, faith, family, finances, fitness, friendship, fun. Is anybody perfect in all these areas? Now we all know pooh super people. We all know people who are super physically fit, people that are in great shape physically who are just the biggest jerks. We know people that are financially well off, that are in a bad shape physically. We know people who are the best of friends, but the worst of providers, right? We all know these things well, let’s look at for a second and say, in what area am I dropping the ball and what area could I improve?

Who am I talking to? Hell, am I talking hell? Am I thinking? How am I saying things? It’s just so important to look in the mirror and to become very clear about where you’re at. If you cannot be transparent with yourself, if you can’t know thy self, it’s very hard to improve yourself, right? Well, other times we take selfies and we optimize the photo. When we post it puts, ask ourselves, where are we at right now in the areas, our of our, of our faith or our family, our finances, our fitness, our friendship, and our fun. And those are the action items I would have for you today. And if you learned something from today’s show, or if you’re a patriots fan, or if you’re somebody who just says, you know, Clay Clark, I appreciate you putting these shows together. Or maybe you say clean, I don’t even like you, but I liked the team. You have like the team of people that helps you produce this show. If you learned something today and you, and, uh, you could find five to 10 seconds to share this with somebody on Twitter, on Facebook, via text or email, it would mean the world to myself and the entire thrive time show team. And we’d like to in each and every show with a boom. And so now that be furthered two, three, two, one, boom.