Welcome to the debut episode of “Shooting It Straight,” where hosts Randy Black and Jim Clayton embark on a journey to translate life lessons from the basketball court into real-world success. Jim, a seasoned coach and mentor, shares his extensive background in education and coaching, emphasizing the importance of learning from failure and the power of motivation. Randy, with a rich history in education and podcasting, joins Jim to explore how these lessons can be applied beyond sports, aiming to inspire listeners to believe in themselves and achieve greatness.

In this episode, Jim and Randy introduce themselves and discuss the origins of the podcast. Jim shares his philosophy on life and motivation, including his famous “BAM, Son!” mantra, which stands for Believe, Achieve, and Motivate. The hosts highlight the importance of positive thinking and the impact of small victories, setting the stage for future episodes where they will delve into topics like courage, confidence, and overcoming pressure. Join them as they kick off this exciting new venture, aiming to uplift and motivate listeners with every episode.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Randy Black: 00:00:00

Shooting It Straight, episode number one, July 1st, 2025.

Randy Black: 00:00:04

Coach Jim Clayton: Bam, son!

Randy Black: 00:00:06

Coach Jim Clayton: This is Shooting It Straight, the podcast where life lessons don't come sugar-coated and excuses get pinched.

Randy Black: 00:00:12

I'm Randy Black, podcast guy, professional question asker, and apparently the only one here who doesn't yell, bam, son, in public.

Randy Black: 00:00:21

Coach Jim Clayton: We're working on that, Randy.

Randy Black: 00:00:22

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm Jim Clayton, coach, mentor, motivator, and a guy who still thinks a whistle may be the best motivational tool known to man.

Randy Black: 00:00:31

Each week, we're taking what Jim's learned from the court, the drills, the discipline, the drive, and translating it into real-world success.

Randy Black: 00:00:40

Coach Jim Clayton: That's right. This ain't just about basketball. It's about showing up when life presses full court.

Randy Black: 00:00:45

Coach Jim Clayton: It's about pushing through when the clock's ticking down.

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If you're looking for fluff, well, you might just want to ride the bench.

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Coach Jim Clayton: We're here to help you believe bigger, achieve louder, and motivate strong.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So buckle up, and whatever you do, keep shooting it straight.

Randy Black: 00:01:00

Bam, son!

Randy Black: 00:01:02

This is episode number one of Shooting It Straight.

Randy Black: 00:01:05

I'm Randy Black, joined by my co-host...

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Jim Clayton.

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Jim Clayton.

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Great name to hear if you know anything about basketball.

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And he's finally doing it.

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He's finally getting a podcast going.

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So we're going to take some time here on our debut episode

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to kind of go through and outline why it is we're doing this show.

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What is the reasoning for it?

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But before we do that, anybody who might be new,

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I'm sure there's a lot of people listening who know Jim but don't know me.

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There might be some people listening that know me but don't know Jim.

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We're going to take a minute to kind of introduce ourselves,

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give our background info so you kind of know where it is we're coming from on this.

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Some will throw to Jim and let him kind of talk for a minute about himself

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because I know he loves to talk a little bit.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, gosh, I hear you, buddy. Well, again, this is just something that I've been wanting to do for a long, long, long time. People have asked me, Coach, you need to write a book. You need to do this. So this is going to be like my first stage to get into that book.

Randy Black: 00:02:06

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay, so, you know, the things that I've learned, the lessons I've learned along the way, I've been an educator for 40 years in Cabell County.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I taught high school, started a little elementary school out of East Lynn Elementary.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Then I moved to Huntington East in 1980, coached there, shut school down in 96, moved to Huntington High, was there through about 2008, and then went to Cabell Midland and finished up there.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I've been in the thick of things, you know, in the trenches with the students, you know, really getting to the guts of what it's all about.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And so the things that I've learned along the way is what can I do to help make everybody better?

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Coach Jim Clayton: See, it's all about what can you do to help somebody else?

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Coach Jim Clayton: It's not really about me.

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Coach Jim Clayton: It's not about you.

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Coach Jim Clayton: It's about what can you do to make somebody else better?

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Coach Jim Clayton: Because really when you do that, at the end of the day, when you put your head down on the pillow, man, you've got a real sense of satisfaction.

Randy Black: 00:03:02

Coach Jim Clayton: action, you know, and it happens every day for me.

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Coach Jim Clayton: It doesn't happen for everybody else, but it happens every day for me because I make it

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Coach Jim Clayton: happen.

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Coach Jim Clayton: See, that's the key to the deal.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, I've coast all over the world.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I started my business in 1992 in Huntington.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I've been around for a few decades, a few decades, learned a lot along the way, didn't

Randy Black: 00:03:25

Coach Jim Clayton: have a business model to follow.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I just learned through trial and just figuring it out.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And that's what a lot of people need to learn how to do because everything's not going to be handed to them right in their lap.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Okay, here's what you do.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I had to learn through trial and error, learn through experience.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And I learned along the way one of the biggest lessons that I probably didn't know, especially being in education, is that failure and success are not opposites.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They run side by side every day down the road.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And you can't have really great success without some form of or many forms of failure.

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Do you remember my fortune cookie?

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Oh, yeah.

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Failure is feedback.

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And feedback is the breakfast of champions.

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Coach Jim Clayton: That's right.

Randy Black: 00:04:17

Coach Jim Clayton: That's exactly right.

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Coach Jim Clayton: But see, in today's world, see, in the old school world, the dinosaur world where I grew up,

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Coach Jim Clayton: that's how people learn.

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Coach Jim Clayton: In today's world, it's kind of opposite because kids think failure is like, oh, my gosh.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They don't know you're going to learn from it.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Everything's based like it.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Here's how I know that through my experiences.

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Coach Jim Clayton: When you ask a player, how did you do?

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Coach Jim Clayton: They go, we won.

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Coach Jim Clayton: We lost.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And I said, that's not what I asked you.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I said, how did you do?

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Coach Jim Clayton: And they say, well, I did pretty good.

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Coach Jim Clayton: But you see, they forget how good they did because they just think everything's based on winning and losing.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And so I come with this question.

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Coach Jim Clayton: This is the one I come with right afterwards.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I say, is it possible for you to play a good game and your team not win?

Randy Black: 00:05:07

Coach Jim Clayton: Yep.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I say, well, see, then don't be so hard on yourself.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Now, when all of your other players play really good, you're going to have a good team win.

Randy Black: 00:05:15

Coach Jim Clayton: Yep.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, so I've been through that segment.

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Coach Jim Clayton: You know, I've worked for Nike.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I've traveled all over the world, done Nike speaking tours with them.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Met some fabulous people and coaches all over the world.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I wouldn't change that for anything.

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Met some pretty famous basketball players as well.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Met some players along the way too.

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Coach Jim Clayton: You know what I mean?

Randy Black: 00:05:35

I've seen that picture of you and Michael Jordan hanging on the wall.

Randy Black: 00:05:38

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, yeah.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Now, that was probably the best of the best.

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Coach Jim Clayton: But I'd already been a little bit – oh, he is the best of the best.

Randy Black: 00:05:46

Coach Jim Clayton: Let me clear that up real quick.

Randy Black: 00:05:47

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

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Coach Jim Clayton: But I've been with some other NBA teams before I really got connected with him.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I was with the Nets, New Jersey Nets.

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Coach Jim Clayton: That's when they had Kenny Anderson.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They had Drazen Petrovic, Sam Bowie.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They had Ramil Robinson.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I mean, they had some really, really good players.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And then I was with the Portland Trailblazers,

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Coach Jim Clayton: and they had Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I mean, they had a heck of a team over there too.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Buck Williams back in the old school days from Maryland.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I got to do all that kind of stuff.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, and that's kind of the gist of how all this came together.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, I never really was.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I mean, I guess I just was an upbeat type of person.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I never thought myself was a motivational person.

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Coach Jim Clayton: But I got into, you know, motivation.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I said, do I want to be a motivated person where I motivate you one day and then the next day can't remember what I told you?

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Coach Jim Clayton: or do I want to be somebody that leads you and helps you and mentors you so that you don't forget

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Coach Jim Clayton: it and you can use it every day in your life and help make your life better? So I chose the second

Randy Black: 00:06:50

Coach Jim Clayton: one. So I said, if I'm going to be good at this, I got to get with the best. If you want to be the

Randy Black: 00:06:54

Coach Jim Clayton: best, you got to get with the best. So I got with my buddy named John Maxwell. He's the leadership

Randy Black: 00:07:00

Coach Jim Clayton: guru of the world. If you don't know John Maxwell, then you don't really know a whole lot about

Randy Black: 00:07:05

Coach Jim Clayton: leadership. He's only written about a hundred bestsellers. Yeah. Okay. So I went down and

Randy Black: 00:07:09

Coach Jim Clayton: trained with him and learned and got all the best of the best, you know, and still use that,

Randy Black: 00:07:16

Coach Jim Clayton: all that stuff. Every day I listen to him say something and it don't matter how many times

Randy Black: 00:07:21

Coach Jim Clayton: I've heard him say certain things. If he says the same thing over again, somehow I get a different

Randy Black: 00:07:28

Coach Jim Clayton: vibe off of it, you know? And because, you know, learning is a lifelong skill. And there's an old

Randy Black: 00:07:34

Coach Jim Clayton: saying that says is what you learn after you think you know it all that counts. Well, how many people

Randy Black: 00:07:39

Coach Jim Clayton: think they know it all? Well, there's a lot of people out there with that. So, you know, that's

Randy Black: 00:07:44

Coach Jim Clayton: kind of my background information of how I put all this together. And, you know, I've always wanted

Randy Black: 00:07:49

Coach Jim Clayton: to do it. And really how the last thing I'm going to say on this is a great story. And this is how I

Randy Black: 00:07:58

Coach Jim Clayton: got the idea to do it. I didn't come up with it. And I was reading a story about this, this, this,

Randy Black: 00:08:03

Coach Jim Clayton: This grocery store.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And they had three or four lines of people in there, you know, like the other grocery store.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Well, all of a sudden, everybody's in this one line.

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Coach Jim Clayton: The cashier's ever going, hey, we'll take you over here.

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Coach Jim Clayton: We don't want to get in that line.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So they're looking like, why do they not want to get in that line?

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Coach Jim Clayton: Well, there's a little boy that was bagging groceries, and that was when it was brown paper bags, not plastic.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And every time he'd bag a grocery, he'd put little words of wisdom in that thing, like your fortune.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Like a fortune cookie.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And they were in there wanting to get that fortune for the diet.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I'm thinking to myself, man, that is cool.

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Coach Jim Clayton: What if I did that?

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Coach Jim Clayton: So instead of talking myself out of it like most people do,

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Coach Jim Clayton: I didn't know anything about a computer.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I couldn't type, cut, and paste, couldn't do anything.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I got one of my boys in class.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I said, well, you going to help me do this?

Randy Black: 00:08:52

Coach Jim Clayton: He goes, yeah, I'll help you.

Randy Black: 00:08:54

Coach Jim Clayton: So I gave him the first quote.

Randy Black: 00:08:56

Coach Jim Clayton: And we did 25 on the first page.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So I cut it out in little squares and put it in my pocket.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Well, I ran the cafeteria.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And so I just got them in there.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They're all on their lines, getting ready to eat.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And I go, yeah, anybody want to hear the word for today?

Randy Black: 00:09:10

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah, coach, what's the word?

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Coach Jim Clayton: I'd hand them one of those little strips.

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Coach Jim Clayton: They go, that's cool.

Randy Black: 00:09:15

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, well, I use it.

Randy Black: 00:09:17

Coach Jim Clayton: So the next day, they want to know the word of the day.

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Coach Jim Clayton: So that 25 went to 50, went to 75, went to 100, got up to 500 or 600.

Randy Black: 00:09:24

Coach Jim Clayton: And then I was passing out.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And then I started thinking, man, I could do this a whole lot.

Randy Black: 00:09:28

Coach Jim Clayton: Because that was before social media.

Randy Black: 00:09:30

Coach Jim Clayton: Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:09:31

Coach Jim Clayton: So now I've kind of taken the same thing and turned it a little bit.

Randy Black: 00:09:37

Coach Jim Clayton: Now you don't have to be in the line in the cafeteria to get the word for the day.

Randy Black: 00:09:41

Coach Jim Clayton: You can get it every day.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And this is going to help share that even to a bigger audience.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And what I found out is, which I'm sure you know,

Randy Black: 00:09:50

Coach Jim Clayton: a lot of people need to hear positive vibes every day.

Randy Black: 00:09:53

Yes.

Randy Black: 00:09:54

Coach Jim Clayton: When I send those things.

Randy Black: 00:09:56

I'll talk about that in a second.

Randy Black: 00:09:57

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, yeah.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I send that stuff out and they send that back and go,

Randy Black: 00:09:59

Coach Jim Clayton: Coach, I needed to hear that today.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Thanks for sharing that, Coach.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I needed that today.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And I go, if it helps one person, to me, it's worth it.

Randy Black: 00:10:10

Coach Jim Clayton: It's worth it.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I don't worry about 100,000 people, one person.

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Coach Jim Clayton: That's the key.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And that's how the whole thing kind of started.

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Coach Jim Clayton: And that's how I met you.

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Coach Jim Clayton: I was doing a motivational speech at Teen Institute.

Randy Black: 00:10:22

And we'll talk about that in a little bit.

Randy Black: 00:10:23

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:10:23

So my background info, you know, like Jimmy, I was an educator.

Randy Black: 00:10:28

I still work in education, but I'm not in a classroom.

Randy Black: 00:10:30

I haven't been in a classroom for over 10 years now.

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And I tell people I miss it because I miss the kids.

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I miss the interaction with the students.

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When you teach a student something, and it's so cliche to use it, but it's so true.

Randy Black: 00:10:44

That light bulb that goes off above their head, when you see that happen, when those eyes get big because they've got it,

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that jaw drops because they're so just caught off guard by something.

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That feeling is the best feeling in the world.

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I know you know it.

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I know it.

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Anybody who's ever taught in a classroom and had success knows it.

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That feeling, I miss that.

Randy Black: 00:11:04

100%.

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I still work in education.

Randy Black: 00:11:08

I was a teacher.

Randy Black: 00:11:09

I taught social studies, mostly history, some geography, sociology.

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I loved sociology.

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I loved teaching that course.

Randy Black: 00:11:15

I was in a classroom for six years, and then I slid into the tech side in education, was

Randy Black: 00:11:19

a tech coach for about two and a half years at Huntington Middle and Cabell County Schools

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here in West Virginia, and left Cabell County and went to Putnam County.

Randy Black: 00:11:28

worked in the technology department in Putnam County for another two, two and a half years or so

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before I left. And I lived in Wayne County at the time and the high school that I graduated from,

Randy Black: 00:11:38

Spring Valley High School, had a position open. And I went back there, stayed there for about eight

Randy Black: 00:11:42

months and realized I needed to move on because it was not the fit for me. And I went back to

Randy Black: 00:11:48

Cabell County, worked there at Huntington High, made connections back with people that I knew

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because I did my student teaching in 2004 at Huntington High.

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And I went back in 2019.

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And the first person I saw in the hallway

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after I got in and got acquainted

Randy Black: 00:12:05

back to the building and everything

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was the guy I did my student teaching with, Bruce Sr.

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And Bruce turned and looked at me

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and he pointed at me and said,

Randy Black: 00:12:12

I told you you'd be back.

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And I laughed because he was right.

Randy Black: 00:12:16

And it was a fit.

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I enjoyed it.

Randy Black: 00:12:18

It was a stressful job handling technology for that building.

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You know, we're the, you know, County Huntington High is the fourth biggest school in the state of West Virginia in population.

Randy Black: 00:12:27

It's, you know, one person handling technology for that whole building was rough.

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And I just had other things going on in life and I had to move on from it.

Randy Black: 00:12:35

But I'm back in Putnam County, still working in education, working in technology, trying my best to make a difference every day.

Randy Black: 00:12:42

I still get those interactions with the kids every once in a while.

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And it just, I have those and I just, I leave the situation smiling.

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I feel good because I know that I have had an impact on that kid.

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I've taught him something.

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I've showed him something he didn't know about.

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Something has hit, and it's made a difference.

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And that's what it's all about.

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It's about making the difference.

Randy Black: 00:13:06

I've been in podcasting now for about a decade, been involved in the space.

Randy Black: 00:13:11

I've had, I can't say I've had success.

Randy Black: 00:13:15

I had moderate, moderate things happen in podcasting, but it's allowed me to make connections with people that I never thought I'd have connections with.

Randy Black: 00:13:23

People that I can reach out to and go, hey, I've ran into this problem.

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Can you give me an idea?

Randy Black: 00:13:28

Can you kind of guide me along the way and help me get there with what I'm doing in podcasting?

Randy Black: 00:13:32

And it's been amazing.

Randy Black: 00:13:33

It's been great.

Randy Black: 00:13:34

You know, people I never thought I'd ever talked to in my life, like Adam Curry.

Randy Black: 00:13:37

Adam Curry is the guy that invented podcasting.

Randy Black: 00:13:40

He's the podfather.

Randy Black: 00:13:41

He's the goat.

Randy Black: 00:13:43

He is.

Randy Black: 00:13:43

He won't say he is now.

Randy Black: 00:13:45

He used to.

Randy Black: 00:13:45

Now he says that because he's made changes in his life.

Randy Black: 00:13:48

Now he says that God just guided him to it, to find a way to get messages out in a new way.

Randy Black: 00:13:55

That's how he sees it now.

Randy Black: 00:13:57

Never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd ever exchange messages through telegram or email or even talk to the guy.

Randy Black: 00:14:06

And I've had that opportunity.

Randy Black: 00:14:07

Coach Jim Clayton: Don't underestimate yourself.

Randy Black: 00:14:09

Thank you.

Randy Black: 00:14:11

Coach Jim Clayton: And see, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.

Randy Black: 00:14:13

We sat in this room in July of 2018.

Randy Black: 00:14:18

How about that one?

Randy Black: 00:14:19

And recorded an episode for one of the podcasts I did at the time

Randy Black: 00:14:23

where we talked about things that Jimmy has done in his teaching career,

Randy Black: 00:14:29

working at the schools, working here at Sports City U, his business,

Randy Black: 00:14:33

and how that has impacted things and impacted lives and things

Randy Black: 00:14:36

and the way his mindset has worked and changed and grown over time.

Randy Black: 00:14:39

Great podcast.

Randy Black: 00:14:41

You can actually find it on YouTube.

Randy Black: 00:14:42

If you search for the Randall Black show, Jimmy Clayton, you'll find it.

Randy Black: 00:14:47

It's still, it's archived on YouTube right now.

Randy Black: 00:14:49

It's not available anywhere else though, but it's out there.

Randy Black: 00:14:52

Um, and we had a fantastic time.

Randy Black: 00:14:54

And at that time we sat here and somebody looked across the table for me and said, I'm going to start a podcast.

Randy Black: 00:15:00

Well, we've done it seven years later almost.

Randy Black: 00:15:03

So it took a little while, but we got it going.

Randy Black: 00:15:06

We've got it going.

Randy Black: 00:15:06

Coach Jim Clayton: That's why I got you.

Randy Black: 00:15:07

Coach Jim Clayton: See, I had to get a guy that knew what to do, that knew how to do everything.

Randy Black: 00:15:12

Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:15:13

Coach Jim Clayton: And this guy, this is the guy.

Randy Black: 00:15:15

Coach Jim Clayton: This is the guy.

Randy Black: 00:15:16

Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be sitting there doing this.

Randy Black: 00:15:20

Coach Jim Clayton: So, I mean, all the kudos go out to him.

Randy Black: 00:15:23

Coach Jim Clayton: I mean, because, I mean, really, it's really weird how things happen.

Randy Black: 00:15:28

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:15:29

Coach Jim Clayton: But I always believe that things happen for a reason.

Randy Black: 00:15:31

Oh, yes.

Randy Black: 00:15:32

Coach Jim Clayton: And I don't always know the reason.

Randy Black: 00:15:34

Coach Jim Clayton: And I'm not trying to always, I don't even try to figure it out.

Randy Black: 00:15:36

Coach Jim Clayton: I just go with the fact that this is what I believe.

Randy Black: 00:15:40

Coach Jim Clayton: We're blessed to be here.

Randy Black: 00:15:41

Coach Jim Clayton: This is going to be a cool experience.

Randy Black: 00:15:43

Coach Jim Clayton: We're going to share stuff with you guys that's going to blow your mind.

Randy Black: 00:15:48

Coach Jim Clayton: And it's going to help you.

Randy Black: 00:15:50

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's the whole key to everything.

Randy Black: 00:15:51

Oh, yeah.

Randy Black: 00:15:52

So, you know, the idea is that we came together because we got to know each other.

Randy Black: 00:15:58

You know, Jimmy mentioned earlier, the very first time I met Jim Clayton,

Randy Black: 00:16:02

I was a sophomore in high school.

Randy Black: 00:16:03

So that would have been 1996.

Randy Black: 00:16:07

596, probably in that range. I was attending CK High School, Sherrito Canova High School. It

Randy Black: 00:16:12

doesn't exist anymore. And we had a teen institute. And at the teen institute, I remember this guy

Randy Black: 00:16:18

came in and was talking about things. And he was the most, I can't tell you exactly what he talked

Randy Black: 00:16:22

about, but he was the most positive, upbeat, energetic guy I had ever listened to. And I

Randy Black: 00:16:28

remembered that. And it didn't go away. It stuck with me. Come 2004, I get my placements to do my

Randy Black: 00:16:36

student teaching. And that second happens to teaching, I was at Huntington High School.

Randy Black: 00:16:40

And every day at lunch, I had the opportunity to sit down and eat lunch with Jim Clayton.

Randy Black: 00:16:48

And I got to know the man that I remembered from that event taking place when I was a youngster.

Randy Black: 00:16:55

And we struck up.

Randy Black: 00:16:58

I can't say at the end it was a friendship, but we knew each other.

Randy Black: 00:17:00

We talked to each other every day for the time I was there.

Randy Black: 00:17:03

And then there was a break and we didn't see each other until I took a job teaching at Cabell Midland High School.

Randy Black: 00:17:09

And at the same time, Jim got transferred to Cabell Midland High School.

Randy Black: 00:17:14

And we had the opportunity for a couple of years to work together in the same building.

Randy Black: 00:17:18

And I can remember walking in to the office, front of the building, to Mrs. Daniel's office.

Randy Black: 00:17:24

And Jim's there and he's talking about something.

Randy Black: 00:17:25

He's like, I don't know how to do it.

Randy Black: 00:17:27

I need help with it.

Randy Black: 00:17:28

And she looks at me and I look at him and I go, let's go.

Randy Black: 00:17:31

And we went back to his classroom and I helped him look at the thing, get the idea of what he was doing, try to help him get started with it.

Randy Black: 00:17:37

And from that point on.

Randy Black: 00:17:38

Coach Jim Clayton: I didn't know anything about this.

Randy Black: 00:17:40

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:17:40

And I can say from that point on, I knew I had a friend that if I needed something, I could reach out and go, hey, I need some help, Jim.

Randy Black: 00:17:46

Can you help me?

Randy Black: 00:17:47

And it's been that way.

Randy Black: 00:17:48

You know, when I was doing that podcast, I reached out and I said, hey, let's sit down and talk.

Randy Black: 00:17:52

What do you think?

Randy Black: 00:17:54

and he's like, okay, let's do it, and we were able to take it, and I turned it into two episodes of

Randy Black: 00:17:58

that show because we were able to talk for a little while and get a great conversation going

Randy Black: 00:18:03

and share some great info, so we've come together because Jim's wanted to do a podcast. He's wanted

Randy Black: 00:18:09

to talk about these things, and I reached out to him several months ago because Jim's had some

Randy Black: 00:18:15

health issues that I didn't realize were going on, and when I found out, the first thing it is,

Randy Black: 00:18:20

I reached out to him and I said, hey, I just want to check on you.

Randy Black: 00:18:23

Make sure you're doing okay.

Randy Black: 00:18:24

He said, I'm good.

Randy Black: 00:18:25

I'm good.

Randy Black: 00:18:26

I said, well, I'm going to come by and see you.

Randy Black: 00:18:28

And I stopped in here at Sports City U because we are currently upstairs.

Randy Black: 00:18:31

We are in the, what I'm going to officially dub today on the show, the Sports City U podcast

Randy Black: 00:18:36

studio upstairs here in the building.

Randy Black: 00:18:38

And I stopped in to check on him and talk with him.

Randy Black: 00:18:40

And, you know, I don't hide it.

Randy Black: 00:18:43

I'm a Christian.

Randy Black: 00:18:44

I have a very strong belief in God.

Randy Black: 00:18:45

And I believe God has the ability to touch individuals and heal them and take care of

Randy Black: 00:18:49

them.

Randy Black: 00:18:49

And we stood right out here in the middle of this court, my arm around Jim hugging him.

Randy Black: 00:18:53

And I gave him, I prayed for him right there.

Randy Black: 00:18:55

Coach Jim Clayton: You did.

Randy Black: 00:18:56

Coach Jim Clayton: I'll never forget that, ever.

Randy Black: 00:18:57

And since then, he's had some good news with things.

Randy Black: 00:19:00

Things are getting better.

Randy Black: 00:19:01

Things are looking better.

Randy Black: 00:19:03

He's on the mend.

Randy Black: 00:19:04

Things are going good.

Randy Black: 00:19:05

But that day he told me, I want to start a podcast.

Randy Black: 00:19:08

He's like, I want to do it.

Randy Black: 00:19:09

I want you to help me.

Randy Black: 00:19:10

I said, okay, let me think about some stuff and we'll get to it.

Randy Black: 00:19:13

And it took us a little while.

Randy Black: 00:19:14

It doesn't matter.

Randy Black: 00:19:16

But we got to it.

Randy Black: 00:19:17

We got back to it.

Randy Black: 00:19:17

And we sat down for a couple of evenings and we talked about things and worked our way through it.

Randy Black: 00:19:23

And we were maybe 30 minutes into that second night talking.

Randy Black: 00:19:26

I said, you're ready.

Randy Black: 00:19:28

Let's go.

Randy Black: 00:19:28

You've got the topics.

Randy Black: 00:19:29

You've got the ideas.

Randy Black: 00:19:31

Let's start looking at things and let's get ready to go.

Randy Black: 00:19:33

And that's why we're here today.

Randy Black: 00:19:35

We've come together because, like, I'm not a sports guy in any way at all.

Randy Black: 00:19:43

I coached football for a couple of years because I was helping out a friend.

Randy Black: 00:19:46

You know, it's one of those things.

Randy Black: 00:19:47

It was a school I was teaching at at the time.

Randy Black: 00:19:49

I'm not a sports guy, so I don't have those lessons like Jim has from the court that he's used all these years and teaching people the game and teaching them not just about the game, though.

Randy Black: 00:20:01

Taking that and applying it to life and how they can be a better person by what they're learning there.

Randy Black: 00:20:07

I'm here because I'm the tech guy.

Randy Black: 00:20:09

I'm keeping the tech going.

Randy Black: 00:20:11

I'm making sure the recordings are good.

Randy Black: 00:20:13

I'm the editor, so I'm going to edit this together, make sure it sounds good.

Randy Black: 00:20:16

get it all posted online, ready to go.

Randy Black: 00:20:18

And I might be a guardrail in a way

Randy Black: 00:20:21

because sometimes Jim talks and you got to keep him going.

Randy Black: 00:20:24

But we're here because he has stuff he wants to share,

Randy Black: 00:20:28

stuff he wants to tell everybody about.

Randy Black: 00:20:32

Coach Jim Clayton: 100%.

Randy Black: 00:20:33

Coach Jim Clayton: And I'm going to tell you something.

Randy Black: 00:20:35

Coach Jim Clayton: If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here.

Randy Black: 00:20:38

Coach Jim Clayton: So it's a two-way street.

Randy Black: 00:20:41

Coach Jim Clayton: It's not a one-way street.

Randy Black: 00:20:43

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay.

Randy Black: 00:20:43

Coach Jim Clayton: It's not the general patent rule, my way or the highway.

Randy Black: 00:20:45

Coach Jim Clayton: way, it's a two-way street.

Randy Black: 00:20:48

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay?

Randy Black: 00:20:48

Coach Jim Clayton: And like I said, the things that he's really good at, I'm not very good at.

Randy Black: 00:20:52

Coach Jim Clayton: Some of the things I'm really good at, he might not be really good at.

Randy Black: 00:20:55

Coach Jim Clayton: But so some things we're sharing, he can take it and use it in his life.

Randy Black: 00:20:59

Coach Jim Clayton: And then the stuff he's sharing with me, I can take it.

Randy Black: 00:21:02

Coach Jim Clayton: Not very far, but I can take it and use some stuff in my life, especially tech stuff.

Randy Black: 00:21:08

Coach Jim Clayton: Because I'm not a real, I'm not really like super novice, but I just don't have any patience.

Randy Black: 00:21:14

Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:21:14

Coach Jim Clayton: And tech doesn't like me.

Randy Black: 00:21:17

Coach Jim Clayton: It works fine until I need it.

Randy Black: 00:21:19

Coach Jim Clayton: Then it breaks.

Randy Black: 00:21:21

Coach Jim Clayton: And that drives me crazy.

Randy Black: 00:21:22

Coach Jim Clayton: But I ain't worried about that.

Randy Black: 00:21:24

Coach Jim Clayton: You know what I mean?

Randy Black: 00:21:24

Coach Jim Clayton: We're here.

Randy Black: 00:21:25

Coach Jim Clayton: We're going to make it happen.

Randy Black: 00:21:26

Coach Jim Clayton: We're going to make some cool stuff happen.

Randy Black: 00:21:28

Coach Jim Clayton: We're going to have some great guests.

Randy Black: 00:21:29

Coach Jim Clayton: We've got some great topics to talk about.

Randy Black: 00:21:32

And I'm pumped.

Randy Black: 00:21:33

We've got an idea.

Randy Black: 00:21:35

There's going to be times where we're sitting here and it's, you know,

Randy Black: 00:21:37

Jimmy's going to come to the table and he's going to have a topic.

Randy Black: 00:21:40

And we're going to start talking about it.

Randy Black: 00:21:41

He'll let me know ahead of time.

Randy Black: 00:21:42

I'll do some research, look into some stuff,

Randy Black: 00:21:44

come up with some ideas. And he and I will just sit here and shoot the breeze and go through it,

Randy Black: 00:21:49

talk about it and see how he takes that idea and uses it to apply it to life. And then I'm going

Randy Black: 00:21:54

to take those ideas and see how I might be able to do the same. So we're kind of taking two

Randy Black: 00:21:58

different perspectives on it to try to share that and try to help people to see that there are ways

Randy Black: 00:22:07

Coach Jim Clayton: to do things in their lives that they may not expect. And not just one way to do it. Exactly.

Randy Black: 00:22:11

Exactly. There's not just one way. There's always multiple paths to get somewhere. The story I've

Randy Black: 00:22:16

shared with people before in the past, I mentioned her a little bit ago, Mrs. Daniels at Cabell

Randy Black: 00:22:20

Midland High School. Mrs. Daniels and I, to this day, get along great. If she sees me out somewhere

Randy Black: 00:22:26

or I see her, I walk up to her. She walks up to me, big hug. How you doing? Checking on me. Make

Randy Black: 00:22:31

sure I'm okay. I make sure she's good. But we did a lot of headbanging at first. We did not,

Randy Black: 00:22:36

We did not see eye to eye.

Randy Black: 00:22:39

But what happened is we both realized we had the same end goal in mind.

Randy Black: 00:22:45

We just had different paths to get there.

Randy Black: 00:22:46

And once we figured that out, we were able to communicate with each other.

Randy Black: 00:22:51

We could talk our way through it.

Randy Black: 00:22:52

So if I thought her way didn't work and she kept pushing on me about it, I'm like, well, Ms. Dan, why don't we think about this?

Randy Black: 00:22:58

And give her that other route to look at.

Randy Black: 00:23:01

And she did the same thing to me.

Randy Black: 00:23:03

And it shows you that there's more than one way.

Randy Black: 00:23:05

Coach Jim Clayton: All roads lead somewhere.

Randy Black: 00:23:08

Coach Jim Clayton: Some people just got better roadmatch or GPS.

Randy Black: 00:23:10

Exactly.

Randy Black: 00:23:11

Coach Jim Clayton: That's kind of how I take that right there.

Randy Black: 00:23:14

But we've also got people lined up.

Randy Black: 00:23:16

Jim's talked to some people he knows from all over.

Randy Black: 00:23:19

No, not just the basketball world.

Randy Black: 00:23:20

There's some people that are also in some other fascinating areas of life that we've got lined up to that we're going to talk to at times.

Randy Black: 00:23:28

You're not even going to believe it.

Randy Black: 00:23:30

Well, we're going to bring people on the show.

Randy Black: 00:23:31

Let them, you know, weigh in on topics or talk about things.

Randy Black: 00:23:34

And, you know, some of these people, like I know we have a lady who plays professional basketball in Australia who was one of your students.

Randy Black: 00:23:42

Yeah, she played 16 years.

Randy Black: 00:23:44

Pro player for 16 years.

Randy Black: 00:23:45

She is going to come on and I know we'll get her to talk about what she's learned from the teaching she got playing basketball or learning basketball, learning that game from Jim.

Randy Black: 00:23:55

And how she's applied that in her life.

Randy Black: 00:23:57

So it's just, it's a gamut of things to talk about and look at.

Randy Black: 00:24:00

We don't have a very specific, we're always going to talk about this.

Randy Black: 00:24:06

We've got a lot of different ways of looking at stuff.

Randy Black: 00:24:07

I know we've talked about, we're going to look at the idea of courage.

Randy Black: 00:24:11

And having courage in the game can lead you having courage in your life that can lead to you having more success in your life because you're willing to put yourself out there.

Randy Black: 00:24:21

And it's stuff like that.

Randy Black: 00:24:22

You know, courage, determination.

Randy Black: 00:24:24

Confidence.

Randy Black: 00:24:25

Confidence.

Randy Black: 00:24:25

Confidence is a big one.

Randy Black: 00:24:27

Oh, man.

Randy Black: 00:24:28

Pressure.

Randy Black: 00:24:29

Pressure.

Randy Black: 00:24:29

So we have, we've got a lot of different ideas, ways we can go with it, ways we can kind of shape the conversation to help illustrate these ideas for people who are listening.

Randy Black: 00:24:41

Looking to level up your basketball skills?

Randy Black: 00:24:43

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Randy Black: 00:24:48

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Randy Black: 00:24:55

From private sessions and skills camps to team development and advanced clinics,

Randy Black: 00:24:59

Sports City U offers a range of programs that fit your goals.

Randy Black: 00:25:03

So if you're ready to train with purpose, improve your game, and learn from one of the best,

Randy Black: 00:25:08

call 304-562-2424 to get started today.

Randy Black: 00:25:15

One of the big things, though, with this show that I want to make sure people know

Randy Black: 00:25:19

is that this is the vehicle for Jim.

Randy Black: 00:25:23

This is his vehicle.

Randy Black: 00:25:25

I'm along for the ride.

Randy Black: 00:25:26

I'll share stuff.

Randy Black: 00:25:27

I've got stuff that's going to be valuable.

Randy Black: 00:25:29

I know I do.

Randy Black: 00:25:29

100%.

Randy Black: 00:25:30

But this is Jim's vehicle.

Randy Black: 00:25:32

I'm the guy who's helping him to steer that ship.

Randy Black: 00:25:35

I'm the guy helping him keep the train on the rails.

Randy Black: 00:25:36

The guy that's making sure the roller coaster stops when it's supposed to

Randy Black: 00:25:40

and then goes along and gets through the loop when it needs to.

Randy Black: 00:25:43

Coach Jim Clayton: Let me tell you, that is critically important.

Randy Black: 00:25:47

Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, it's just that's, you can't have one without the other.

Randy Black: 00:25:52

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay.

Randy Black: 00:25:53

Coach Jim Clayton: So, you know, everybody talks about this and that.

Randy Black: 00:25:55

Coach Jim Clayton: Everybody talks about me, me, me, me, me.

Randy Black: 00:25:57

Coach Jim Clayton: This is not about me, me, me, me, me.

Randy Black: 00:25:59

Coach Jim Clayton: It's about we, we, we, we.

Randy Black: 00:26:01

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:26:02

Coach Jim Clayton: It's not

Randy Black: 00:26:23

to work together to help get this message out, to get these, get this information out, to

Randy Black: 00:26:27

have these discussions, you know, and some of these discussions, they ultimately may

Randy Black: 00:26:31

not be, they may not be fun.

Randy Black: 00:26:33

There may be some hard stuff we talk about because, you know, there's, there's always,

Randy Black: 00:26:36

you know, the idea of you've got to somebody, you know, you can talk about from, from anything,

Randy Black: 00:26:41

from basketball, from football, to being an artist, being a musician, you know, that the

Randy Black: 00:26:46

idea of, you've already mentioned it, the idea of failure, that's a hard conversation

Randy Black: 00:26:50

to have.

Randy Black: 00:26:50

100%.

Randy Black: 00:26:51

Same principles apply.

Randy Black: 00:26:52

Coach Jim Clayton: It doesn't matter what you're in.

Randy Black: 00:26:55

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay?

Randy Black: 00:26:55

Coach Jim Clayton: So same principles apply.

Randy Black: 00:26:57

Coach Jim Clayton: So it's not just, you know, it only works for basketball.

Randy Black: 00:27:00

Coach Jim Clayton: It doesn't work for it.

Randy Black: 00:27:01

Coach Jim Clayton: They transfer, you know, right into each other.

Randy Black: 00:27:04

Coach Jim Clayton: They run parallel.

Randy Black: 00:27:06

Coach Jim Clayton: The lessons you learn over here can run parallel in the game of life.

Randy Black: 00:27:10

Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, that's really what it's all about, the game of life.

Randy Black: 00:27:14

Coach Jim Clayton: Yes.

Randy Black: 00:27:14

Coach Jim Clayton: And, you know, my motto on the game of life is today's the day.

Randy Black: 00:27:18

Coach Jim Clayton: Because we can't do anything about it yesterday because it's history.

Randy Black: 00:27:20

And we don't know what Tarot is going to be.

Randy Black: 00:27:22

Coach Jim Clayton: Nope.

Randy Black: 00:27:22

Coach Jim Clayton: So that's, hey, that's the future.

Randy Black: 00:27:24

Coach Jim Clayton: And so today's a gift.

Randy Black: 00:27:26

Coach Jim Clayton: That's why they call it the present.

Randy Black: 00:27:27

Coach Jim Clayton: So we're in it right now.

Randy Black: 00:27:29

Coach Jim Clayton: So we're going to make the best of it.

Randy Black: 00:27:31

Coach Jim Clayton: And at 1201, here's what I want you to understand.

Randy Black: 00:27:33

Coach Jim Clayton: This is stuff you're going to learn.

Randy Black: 00:27:35

Coach Jim Clayton: At 1201 tonight, it doesn't matter if you had the best day of your life or the worst day.

Randy Black: 00:27:42

Coach Jim Clayton: Because you know what?

Randy Black: 00:27:42

Coach Jim Clayton: It ends.

Randy Black: 00:27:44

Coach Jim Clayton: And at 1201, you're starting a new day.

Randy Black: 00:27:47

Coach Jim Clayton: So I'm not going to start a new day dealing with what I did yesterday.

Randy Black: 00:27:51

Coach Jim Clayton: That's history.

Randy Black: 00:27:52

Coach Jim Clayton: It's gone.

Randy Black: 00:27:53

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm going to learn from it, but I'm going to be better today.

Randy Black: 00:27:56

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:27:56

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's your attitude and your gratitude.

Randy Black: 00:28:00

Oh, there we go.

Randy Black: 00:28:01

Coach Jim Clayton: That's the most important two things, baby.

Randy Black: 00:28:02

Coach Jim Clayton: There you go.

Randy Black: 00:28:03

We've had several Jimmy-isms coming out there.

Randy Black: 00:28:05

That's what I call them.

Randy Black: 00:28:06

Some people don't.

Randy Black: 00:28:07

I call them Jimmy-isms.

Randy Black: 00:28:08

It's Jimmy's little phrases that he puts out there.

Randy Black: 00:28:10

And that's another thing.

Randy Black: 00:28:11

Every week here on the show, we're going to have what I call, I've dubbed it,

Randy Black: 00:28:18

Jim's Wisdom of the Week.

Randy Black: 00:28:20

Now it's time for Jimmy's Wisdom of the Week.

Randy Black: 00:28:23

This is where Jimmy shares one of his famous Jimmyisms to inspire the listeners.

Randy Black: 00:28:28

We're going to start it off with the phrase that is, and there's another way to say it.

Randy Black: 00:28:36

It's the brand.

Randy Black: 00:28:37

It is the brand.

Randy Black: 00:28:38

And it's this phrase right here.

Randy Black: 00:28:41

Bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:28:42

Bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:28:44

I've heard that said so many times by this man that I had to make sure that he explains what it is for those people who don't know.

Randy Black: 00:28:53

So, Jim, bam, son, what's that mean?

Randy Black: 00:28:57

Well, I'll tell you.

Randy Black: 00:29:00

Coach Jim Clayton: Bam is a word that when somebody says, I don't care if you hear it on TV, somebody goes, bam, it just kind of gets you excited.

Randy Black: 00:29:08

Coach Jim Clayton: It's a fast twitch word.

Randy Black: 00:29:10

Coach Jim Clayton: Boom.

Randy Black: 00:29:10

Coach Jim Clayton: It pops you up.

Randy Black: 00:29:11

Coach Jim Clayton: So if you're sitting there boarding that, bam, it's going to bring you up out of your seat.

Randy Black: 00:29:16

Coach Jim Clayton: Okay?

Randy Black: 00:29:16

Coach Jim Clayton: It's a little different than boom.

Randy Black: 00:29:18

Coach Jim Clayton: See, boom, bam.

Randy Black: 00:29:19

Coach Jim Clayton: See, there's a little different than that.

Randy Black: 00:29:21

Coach Jim Clayton: And so I'm thinking, okay, so bam, what's that mean?

Randy Black: 00:29:26

Coach Jim Clayton: What does that mean?

Randy Black: 00:29:27

Coach Jim Clayton: So I started to think about it.

Randy Black: 00:29:29

Coach Jim Clayton: I started writing it down.

Randy Black: 00:29:30

Coach Jim Clayton: It's one of those 3 o'clock in the morning things.

Randy Black: 00:29:32

Coach Jim Clayton: I wake up at 3 o'clock a lot of times, and I've learned to have my notes and my pen and pencil right by me

Randy Black: 00:29:39

Coach Jim Clayton: Because some of those are the greatest things and thoughts I've ever had.

Randy Black: 00:29:42

Coach Jim Clayton: And if I don't write them down, I'm going to forget them because they're in my subconscious.

Randy Black: 00:29:47

Coach Jim Clayton: I think I'll remember that tomorrow.

Randy Black: 00:29:49

Coach Jim Clayton: No, I won't.

Randy Black: 00:29:50

Coach Jim Clayton: So I wrote this down.

Randy Black: 00:29:51

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, okay, what am I going to do?

Randy Black: 00:29:53

Coach Jim Clayton: Bam.

Randy Black: 00:29:54

Coach Jim Clayton: What's the biggest thing?

Randy Black: 00:29:55

Coach Jim Clayton: Believe.

Randy Black: 00:29:57

Coach Jim Clayton: Believe.

Randy Black: 00:29:58

Coach Jim Clayton: If you don't believe in yourself, then don't expect anyone else to.

Randy Black: 00:30:06

Coach Jim Clayton: So I said, okay, I'm going to go with believe.

Randy Black: 00:30:08

Coach Jim Clayton: So what's A going to be?

Randy Black: 00:30:10

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, hmm, achieve

Randy Black: 00:30:13

Coach Jim Clayton: Well, what do I want to achieve?

Randy Black: 00:30:15

Coach Jim Clayton: Well, I want to achieve greatness

Randy Black: 00:30:17

Coach Jim Clayton: I want to achieve the right mindset

Randy Black: 00:30:20

Coach Jim Clayton: See, because with the right mindset

Randy Black: 00:30:23

Coach Jim Clayton: Anything is possible

Randy Black: 00:30:25

Coach Jim Clayton: Because you're listening to the right side of your brain

Randy Black: 00:30:27

Coach Jim Clayton: It goes, you got this coach

Randy Black: 00:30:29

Coach Jim Clayton: You can do it

Randy Black: 00:30:30

Coach Jim Clayton: Unfortunately, we flip the coin to the left side

Randy Black: 00:30:34

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's the side that goes, no, you can't

Randy Black: 00:30:36

Coach Jim Clayton: You're a failure

Randy Black: 00:30:37

Coach Jim Clayton: You can't do it.

Randy Black: 00:30:38

Coach Jim Clayton: It ain't going to happen.

Randy Black: 00:30:39

Coach Jim Clayton: Nobody's going to do it.

Randy Black: 00:30:40

Coach Jim Clayton: And so, see, so many people flip back and forth.

Randy Black: 00:30:43

Coach Jim Clayton: I don't even turn that on my dial.

Randy Black: 00:30:45

Coach Jim Clayton: I call that W-E-A-K radio, the sound that brings you down.

Randy Black: 00:30:51

Coach Jim Clayton: I don't turn that on my dial.

Randy Black: 00:30:53

Coach Jim Clayton: So I achieved the right mindset.

Randy Black: 00:30:56

Coach Jim Clayton: So I believe in myself.

Randy Black: 00:30:57

Coach Jim Clayton: I achieved the right mindset.

Randy Black: 00:30:59

Coach Jim Clayton: And no matter what you do in life, you got to be motivated through the process.

Randy Black: 00:31:05

Coach Jim Clayton: See, everybody goes through a process.

Randy Black: 00:31:07

Coach Jim Clayton: And the ones that are successful, here's the difference in what they did that nobody else did.

Randy Black: 00:31:13

Coach Jim Clayton: They paid the price.

Randy Black: 00:31:15

Coach Jim Clayton: There's always a price you have to pay.

Randy Black: 00:31:18

Coach Jim Clayton: And if you don't invest in yourself, you can't expect others to.

Randy Black: 00:31:22

Coach Jim Clayton: And you got to be motivated.

Randy Black: 00:31:24

Coach Jim Clayton: Now, motivation is a hard pill because it's not a natural thing.

Randy Black: 00:31:28

Coach Jim Clayton: Now, I get up every day, man.

Randy Black: 00:31:30

Coach Jim Clayton: I always say, your day is determined before your feet hit the floor.

Randy Black: 00:31:35

Coach Jim Clayton: so when I swivel those feet and I come out of that bed, it's on.

Randy Black: 00:31:40

Coach Jim Clayton: It's on.

Randy Black: 00:31:41

Coach Jim Clayton: And some of y'all out there that are listening to this, you walk downstairs,

Randy Black: 00:31:45

Coach Jim Clayton: your mom says, well, how's it going today?

Randy Black: 00:31:47

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm tired.

Randy Black: 00:31:48

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm tired.

Randy Black: 00:31:49

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, well, it'll be okay.

Randy Black: 00:31:51

Coach Jim Clayton: You go to school.

Randy Black: 00:31:52

Coach Jim Clayton: Hey, what's up?

Randy Black: 00:31:53

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm tired.

Randy Black: 00:31:54

Coach Jim Clayton: I'm tired.

Randy Black: 00:31:55

Coach Jim Clayton: By the end of the day, what kind of day did you have?

Randy Black: 00:31:58

Coach Jim Clayton: A tired-ass day.

Randy Black: 00:32:00

Coach Jim Clayton: That's what you had.

Randy Black: 00:32:01

Coach Jim Clayton: to say it, but see, that's, you believe that crap, okay? So, when you go, how you doing, man? If I was

Randy Black: 00:32:08

Coach Jim Clayton: worried about me, man, hey, it's happening. I'm having the best day ever, you know? Ordinary man

Randy Black: 00:32:17

Coach Jim Clayton: be dead, you know what I mean? So, see, hey, if I was worried about me, you know, I'm not worried

Randy Black: 00:32:22

Coach Jim Clayton: about me because I've got it going on, you know? And that's how I look at it. So, I believe,

Randy Black: 00:32:28

Coach Jim Clayton: I achieve and I motivate.

Randy Black: 00:32:30

Coach Jim Clayton: Now, the sun part, that came a little bit later.

Randy Black: 00:32:34

Coach Jim Clayton: And I got that off of it.

Randy Black: 00:32:36

Coach Jim Clayton: I was watching one day.

Randy Black: 00:32:38

Coach Jim Clayton: I was watching the Legends of the Bluegrass basketball.

Randy Black: 00:32:41

Coach Jim Clayton: And I was just sitting there.

Randy Black: 00:32:43

Coach Jim Clayton: And I was about half paying attention.

Randy Black: 00:32:45

Coach Jim Clayton: And there was a guy, Billy Mike Runyon.

Randy Black: 00:32:47

Coach Jim Clayton: He was a legendary coach at Paintsville High School.

Randy Black: 00:32:51

Coach Jim Clayton: And there was a section in that video.

Randy Black: 00:32:53

Coach Jim Clayton: He's got these boys in the locker room.

Randy Black: 00:32:55

Coach Jim Clayton: And he's going, dag, son, you can't guard that boy's son.

Randy Black: 00:32:59

Coach Jim Clayton: He's wearing you out, son.

Randy Black: 00:33:01

Coach Jim Clayton: What are you going to do about that, son?

Randy Black: 00:33:03

Coach Jim Clayton: And then I just said, bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:33:05

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's how that took.

Randy Black: 00:33:08

Coach Jim Clayton: And I just put it together.

Randy Black: 00:33:10

Coach Jim Clayton: Then it just kind of goes, bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:33:13

Coach Jim Clayton: Just there it is.

Randy Black: 00:33:14

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:33:14

Coach Jim Clayton: And if it wasn't for that, so I met with him later.

Randy Black: 00:33:17

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, I got a saying, which is kind of like my brand.

Randy Black: 00:33:20

Coach Jim Clayton: I go, bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:33:23

Coach Jim Clayton: And I said, I got the son from you.

Randy Black: 00:33:25

Coach Jim Clayton: He goes, for me, I said, you remember that episode in the locker room?

Randy Black: 00:33:29

Coach Jim Clayton: He goes, oh, yeah.

Randy Black: 00:33:31

Coach Jim Clayton: So then this is how you learn.

Randy Black: 00:33:34

Coach Jim Clayton: I was at a camp here one time called my college prep camp.

Randy Black: 00:33:37

Coach Jim Clayton: And I had a guy in there that was a heck of a player, Johnson Central.

Randy Black: 00:33:41

Coach Jim Clayton: His name was Cole Crace.

Randy Black: 00:33:44

Coach Jim Clayton: What a player.

Randy Black: 00:33:45

Coach Jim Clayton: He says, coach, we're sitting out there at half court.

Randy Black: 00:33:48

Coach Jim Clayton: He goes, I don't mean to be critical, but he goes, I'm going to tell you something.

Randy Black: 00:33:53

Coach Jim Clayton: If you do this, you're going to make lots of money.

Randy Black: 00:33:56

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, well, okay, Mr. Big Shot.

Randy Black: 00:33:58

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, show me what you got.

Randy Black: 00:34:00

Coach Jim Clayton: He says, I ain't saying your face ain't, whatever.

Randy Black: 00:34:03

Coach Jim Clayton: He goes, if you take your mustache and put it on a shirt and put,

Randy Black: 00:34:08

Coach Jim Clayton: bam, son, you're going to sell a bunch.

Randy Black: 00:34:13

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, really?

Randy Black: 00:34:15

Coach Jim Clayton: He said, really?

Randy Black: 00:34:16

Coach Jim Clayton: And everybody in the camp goes, that's right.

Randy Black: 00:34:19

Coach Jim Clayton: So the lady across the street from me was an architect.

Randy Black: 00:34:22

Coach Jim Clayton: So I said, let me, this is what I got a little bit.

Randy Black: 00:34:25

Coach Jim Clayton: Now, she wasn't a graphic artist.

Randy Black: 00:34:26

Coach Jim Clayton: She was an architect.

Randy Black: 00:34:28

Coach Jim Clayton: So she kind of drew it out a little bit.

Randy Black: 00:34:29

Coach Jim Clayton: I said, yeah, that's kind of cool, but that ain't what I want.

Randy Black: 00:34:32

Coach Jim Clayton: So I got a hold of my buddy I had in school, graphic artist,

Randy Black: 00:34:35

Coach Jim Clayton: one of the best in the country.

Randy Black: 00:34:37

Coach Jim Clayton: And I gave him the idea, and guess what?

Randy Black: 00:34:40

Coach Jim Clayton: He came back.

Randy Black: 00:34:42

Coach Jim Clayton: There it was.

Randy Black: 00:34:43

Coach Jim Clayton: So I said, all right, I'm going to print some shirts,

Randy Black: 00:34:45

Coach Jim Clayton: and I'll be dead if old Cole wasn't right.

Randy Black: 00:34:48

Coach Jim Clayton: Those things went like hotcakes.

Randy Black: 00:34:50

Coach Jim Clayton: Now, they've been on the stove for a while.

Randy Black: 00:34:52

Coach Jim Clayton: broke them out for a while.

Randy Black: 00:34:54

Coach Jim Clayton: But if I break them out, they're going again.

Randy Black: 00:34:56

Coach Jim Clayton: I'll break them out after this podcast.

Randy Black: 00:34:58

Coach Jim Clayton: Guess what?

Randy Black: 00:34:59

Coach Jim Clayton: And on the back, it tells you what it is.

Randy Black: 00:35:02

Coach Jim Clayton: Believe in yourself, achieve the right mindset,

Randy Black: 00:35:04

Coach Jim Clayton: and stay motivated through the process.

Randy Black: 00:35:07

Coach Jim Clayton: Nice.

Randy Black: 00:35:07

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's the formula to bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:35:10

Coach Jim Clayton: And if you do that every day, you're going to have a great day.

Randy Black: 00:35:14

Coach Jim Clayton: I'll do it every day.

Randy Black: 00:35:15

We may need to take this logo and make some stickers or something.

Randy Black: 00:35:19

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, I got it.

Randy Black: 00:35:20

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, I'll send it to you.

Randy Black: 00:35:21

Coach Jim Clayton: You can put it out.

Randy Black: 00:35:22

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, I got it, man, I got it everywhere.

Randy Black: 00:35:24

Coach Jim Clayton: But you'd love.

Randy Black: 00:35:26

Coach Jim Clayton: And I haven't seen it in a while, and these kids have it.

Randy Black: 00:35:28

Coach Jim Clayton: I got it in every different color and a rainbow.

Randy Black: 00:35:31

Coach Jim Clayton: But that's how the word came about.

Randy Black: 00:35:34

Coach Jim Clayton: And it's probably never, ever going to go away.

Randy Black: 00:35:37

Coach Jim Clayton: And I'll send you one time.

Randy Black: 00:35:39

Coach Jim Clayton: You're going to die on this one.

Randy Black: 00:35:40

Coach Jim Clayton: Had this little girl from Logan.

Randy Black: 00:35:43

Coach Jim Clayton: She is in here, and she was a firecracker.

Randy Black: 00:35:49

Coach Jim Clayton: She had on her little Logan shirt.

Randy Black: 00:35:50

Coach Jim Clayton: She had on a sweatband.

Randy Black: 00:35:52

Coach Jim Clayton: And so what I said to her, so I said to her, I said, what do you got to say about that?

Randy Black: 00:35:57

Coach Jim Clayton: And she goes, bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:36:01

Coach Jim Clayton: Woo!

Randy Black: 00:36:03

Coach Jim Clayton: So I've got this video.

Randy Black: 00:36:05

Coach Jim Clayton: You have to see it.

Randy Black: 00:36:07

Coach Jim Clayton: Once I see it, oh, you'll go wild.

Randy Black: 00:36:10

Coach Jim Clayton: So now when I go at my house and I go, my little granddaughter's, one's four, one's six.

Randy Black: 00:36:16

Coach Jim Clayton: I go, the one that's four, I go, bam, son.

Randy Black: 00:36:19

Coach Jim Clayton: She goes, woo!

Randy Black: 00:36:20

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh!

Randy Black: 00:36:22

Coach Jim Clayton: Nice.

Randy Black: 00:36:22

Coach Jim Clayton: And what's everybody do?

Randy Black: 00:36:23

Coach Jim Clayton: They smile.

Randy Black: 00:36:24

Coach Jim Clayton: They laugh.

Randy Black: 00:36:25

Coach Jim Clayton: Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:36:26

Coach Jim Clayton: They take the edge off.

Randy Black: 00:36:27

Oh, yeah.

Randy Black: 00:36:28

Coach Jim Clayton: And really, that's the key.

Randy Black: 00:36:30

Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:36:30

Coach Jim Clayton: I mean, don't take life so seriously.

Randy Black: 00:36:33

Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:36:33

Coach Jim Clayton: You know, it's the little things.

Randy Black: 00:36:37

Coach Jim Clayton: It's those little victories that we get every day.

Randy Black: 00:36:41

Coach Jim Clayton: Not the big victories.

Randy Black: 00:36:43

Coach Jim Clayton: We'll see those down the road.

Randy Black: 00:36:44

Coach Jim Clayton: Yeah.

Randy Black: 00:36:45

Coach Jim Clayton: But all those little success stories, I call them little victories.

Randy Black: 00:36:49

Coach Jim Clayton: Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:36:49

Coach Jim Clayton: And all those little victories, you know what they do?

Randy Black: 00:36:52

They add up.

Randy Black: 00:36:53

Oh, yes.

Randy Black: 00:36:53

Coach Jim Clayton: And if you don't pay attention to the little things, don't worry about the big ones.

Randy Black: 00:37:00

Coach Jim Clayton: This ain't going to happen.

Randy Black: 00:37:01

Mm-hmm.

Randy Black: 00:37:01

Coach Jim Clayton: Everybody wants the big one.

Randy Black: 00:37:02

Oh, yeah.

Randy Black: 00:37:03

Coach Jim Clayton: They don't want to take the steps.

Randy Black: 00:37:05

Coach Jim Clayton: And in my world, there's no elevator to the penthouse.

Randy Black: 00:37:09

Coach Jim Clayton: There's just step.

Randy Black: 00:37:10

Coach Jim Clayton: Oh, yeah.

Randy Black: 00:37:11

Coach Jim Clayton: And we got to take the steps.

Randy Black: 00:37:12

Coach Jim Clayton: And when you step from one step to the next one, you're leaving people where they are.

Randy Black: 00:37:17

Coach Jim Clayton: And you're stepping on people that are happy where they are.

Randy Black: 00:37:21

Coach Jim Clayton: So you're leaving something behind to get to the next step.

Randy Black: 00:37:25

Coach Jim Clayton: And every time you step, you're leaving somebody to go to the next one.

Randy Black: 00:37:30

Coach Jim Clayton: And all the room is where?

Randy Black: 00:37:32

Coach Jim Clayton: It's at the top.

Randy Black: 00:37:34

Coach Jim Clayton: What's the most overcrowded place in America?

Randy Black: 00:37:38

Coach Jim Clayton: The bottom.

Randy Black: 00:37:39

Coach Jim Clayton: Doesn't take much effort to be on the bottom.

Randy Black: 00:37:42

Coach Jim Clayton: And everybody gets that when you tell them.

Randy Black: 00:37:44

Coach Jim Clayton: But they think that.

Randy Black: 00:37:46

Coach Jim Clayton: I say it comes back to your mindset.

Randy Black: 00:37:49

Coach Jim Clayton: Your mindset, is it open or is it closed?

Randy Black: 00:37:53

Coach Jim Clayton: And if it's open, man, sky's the limit for you.

Randy Black: 00:37:56

Coach Jim Clayton: And that's kind of how it all came about.

Randy Black: 00:37:59

Awesome.

Randy Black: 00:38:00

So we're going to close this one up.

Randy Black: 00:38:02

Before we do, though, I want to give a shout out real quick.

Randy Black: 00:38:05

As you listen to the open on this show, there was some music playing there in the background.

Randy Black: 00:38:10

Kind of sounded a little bit, you know, like Jackson Brown there.

Randy Black: 00:38:13

Had a nice beat to it.

Randy Black: 00:38:14

Coach Jim Clayton: Nice rhythm to it, man.

Randy Black: 00:38:15

Coach Jim Clayton: Good punk.

Randy Black: 00:38:16

And I just want to give a shout out to my brother.

Randy Black: 00:38:19

I have a twin brother for people who don't know me.

Randy Black: 00:38:20

And he works in education.

Randy Black: 00:38:22

He works in technology and education as well.

Randy Black: 00:38:24

He's a math teacher for several years.

Randy Black: 00:38:26

But he's also a musician.

Randy Black: 00:38:27

And I said, hey, I got an idea.

Randy Black: 00:38:30

I need some help.

Randy Black: 00:38:31

Jim and I are wanting to do this podcast.

Randy Black: 00:38:32

We need some music.

Randy Black: 00:38:33

And he's like, okay, tell me what you're looking for.

Randy Black: 00:38:36

And I laid it out to him.

Randy Black: 00:38:38

And I don't know why, but for some reason, I said, how about something that's kind of southern rock?

Randy Black: 00:38:45

And his reply back was, are we talking like Leonard Skinner or are we talking like the Allman Brothers?

Randy Black: 00:38:50

And I went, uh, Southern rock was not what I meant.

Randy Black: 00:38:53

I said, I'm thinking more like that Southern California country rock sound.

Randy Black: 00:38:57

He's like, okay.

Randy Black: 00:38:58

I said, you know, the Eagles, early Eagles, before Don Felder came in.

Randy Black: 00:39:03

He's like, okay.

Randy Black: 00:39:04

I said, maybe Jackson Brown.

Randy Black: 00:39:06

And it's like that light bulb went off and he went, got it.

Randy Black: 00:39:11

And a couple days later, he sent me just a basic MIDI file.

Randy Black: 00:39:15

He's like, what do you think of this?

Randy Black: 00:39:16

And I was like, okay, that's good.

Randy Black: 00:39:17

And I sent it to Jim, and Jim's like, yeah, this is going to be good.

Randy Black: 00:39:20

Off to charge.

Randy Black: 00:39:20

It was off to charge.

Randy Black: 00:39:21

He worked on it, put that together, and we want to give a big shout out and thank him for that.

Randy Black: 00:39:26

Rick, you did a great job, and we appreciate that.

Randy Black: 00:39:29

Love it.

Randy Black: 00:39:29

Love it.

Randy Black: 00:39:30

Appreciate it.

Randy Black: 00:39:30

And it sets the tone on the show.

Randy Black: 00:39:33

It builds us in, and it's going to catch you here on the way out here in a second when we close out the show.

Randy Black: 00:39:40

But come back each week.

Randy Black: 00:39:41

We're going to be here.

Randy Black: 00:39:42

We're going to be spreading this message, building up these life lessons and sharing them with you here on Shooting It Straight.

Randy Black: 00:39:50

If you've enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe, share it with someone who needs a boost, and follow us online at shootingitstraightpodcast.com.

Randy Black: 00:39:58

That's where you'll find every episode, updates, and more.

Randy Black: 00:40:01

Coach Jim Clayton: In life, just like in a game, it's not about being perfect.

Randy Black: 00:40:04

Coach Jim Clayton: It's about showing up, putting in the work, and taking your shot when it can.

Randy Black: 00:40:09

Coach Jim Clayton: And remember, keep shooting it straight.

Randy Black: 00:40:11

Coach Jim Clayton: Bam, son!