****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Walter Bond 0:00

Now I am Walter Bond and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:21

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me Shark. I am a keynote speaker, a strategist, a shark diver, host of this show, and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:33

If you listen to this show often at all, or if you've ever been on my website, then you know how much sharks in the ocean have meant to me my entire life. I was supposed to go shark diving one morning in Florida, but because of scheduling, the trip got moved to the afternoon. So that morning, I went back to the corporate event where I had a chance to catch a speaker where we both spoke he spoke day one I spoke day two, and one of his books really resonated with me because I also frequently speak about what we call a shard mindset. So what can sharks teach you about business and life as well as your environment and the ocean around you? We both have plenty of fish tails if you will, and here's one to keep you swimming forward towards success.

Kenneth Kinney 1:14

Walter Bond is a former NBA player, a Hall of Fame speaker, a business coach, and the author of “Swim: How a Shark, a Suckerfish, and a Parasite Teach You Leadership, Mentoring, & Next Level Success.”

Kenneth Kinney 1:26

And on this episode, we will discuss playing in the NBA and the transition to speaking a fish tail of a book and the story of Paul and Scottie and in all caps swim, the sacred six mentoring and coaching peak performance moving forward being curious sharks in their environment Michael and LeBron game winning shots and keynotes subs in the 99, MAVs jazz and pistons, and a lot, lot more. So let's tune into a motivational speaker with yours truly a motivational shark on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 2:01

Walter, welcome to A Shark's Perspective. Tell us a little bit if you will, about your background and your career today, please.

Walter Bond 2:07

Easy, you know, in a previous life, you know, a couple of pounds ago I played NBA got a chance to play for the Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz Detroit Pistons played in Italy, Greece and Germany, and got a chance to become an elite basketball player in NBA. And the good news is, it really gave me research on how to be elite. And it applies to other things other than sports. So right now, my wife and I launched a training and development company 22 years ago. I'm a Hall of Fame motivational speaker. She's a top business coach. And we really go around the world teaching companies, leaders, executives, employees, you know, the fundamentals of how to become elite and so short and long answer for me MBA ball player. Now I'm a Hall of Fame speaker, teaching people how to never be average and playing their own personal NBA.

Kenneth Kinney 3:06

Outstanding. Well, I knew a little bit about you beforehand, I got a chance to meet you because my diving trip change from morning to afternoon you keynote a day one and I was on day two but I enjoyed your presentation a lot was lucky enough to see that and also get a copy to read your book swim. How a shark a sucker fish and parasite teacher leadership mentoring a next level success, which was obviously catnip for me forgotten, nicknamed shark. It's not the metaphor though, that I would have envisioned for a former NBA player to write, but it's a great fishtail. Why swimming and fish why shark parasite, and I asked this as a fan and someone who literally swims with sharks.

Walter Bond 3:46

It was organic, right? And so you know, one of the things I teach people is that they'll never decide a career before you discover your gift. And as a young age, I was just bigger and better in sports than all my friends. And it was just naturally just a natural gift, right? And so when I left sports, I needed to make money. And I discovered another gift that I'm really good speaker, but I'm also creative and innovative. And so one day I went fishing, and not even thinking just a regular day, and I caught this little bitty fish. And I'm a Midwest guy, right? And we have lakes and I'm in the ocean and up catches little bitty weak fish. And my thought was this week fish can't make it in a lake. How in the heck does it make it an ocean? And this is what the captain said. He says Walter, it's a sucker fish. And it's waiting for shark to come by. And it just hit me different man. And then he took the fish and stuck it on top of the boat and the suction on the top of the sucker fish. The five gravity right I came home and I did a restart. or some shark and a second fish and learn about their symbiotic relationship. And I thought about coaching and mentorship. And I was like, man, you know what I'm gonna sacrifice my whole life connected to great coaches, and I just stopped thinking. And so we created something special. That's really helping people. And people love the book. It's a great story. But it really teaches a solid fundamentals of how to be successful. So we have what we call the sacred six, very similar to the seven habits that Stephen Covey made famous through his book. So the sacred six is very important from a personal development standpoint. But we also taught the power of coaching, and the power of leadership. So the book is really special, because it, it can help an individual who is just a professional, and it can really help business leaders, or any type of leader really learned how to be a more impactful leader. And so we, we wrote the book with two different purposes. And honestly, from everything we're hearing from our customers, and clients and fans, we mailed it. And so we're really excited about it.

Kenneth Kinney 6:12

Well describe the story of the book a little bit, you know, a little bit about Paul and Scotty as well.

Walter Bond 6:19

There was a young man, Scotty, who came from a troubled home, and he got in trouble. Right? Like most kids, you don't know support at home, kind of run in the streets, Dad was alcoholic, got in trouble. And the judge gave them a choice. Either you can go to this juvenile detention center, or basically, I'm going to send you to the Boys and Girls Club as an intervention. And no brainer there, right? He chose the Boys and Girls Club. And what Scotty got there, he met a guy who became his mentor. And the rest is history. Right? So the big lesson there is that we all need support, we all need mentorship. It wasn't Scott, his fault that he came from a broken home. He luckily, you know, after getting in trouble stumbled into a great opportunity. And that's the backdrop of the story. I wrote the book when I was on the board and the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County. So that was why I wanted to write a book where the start of the book was a Boys and Girls Club kid, which is awesome. So we're excited about what we're going to do through Boys and Girls Club with the book. But scouting Paul with friends. And Paul was kind of like a frat guy, clean cut all American. And he just always had this screw up friends. So they separate for 30 years. And Paul has no idea how Scottish life is gone. He just assume the Scottish still kind of screwing up and has no idea that he really got connected to an amazing mentor. They get together 30 years later. And honestly, there's some magic that happens on the boat. So that's kind of like the backdrop of the story. And Drew was Scott his mentor, and really coached him up. And I don't want to give too much away because I want people to read the book. But

Kenneth Kinney 8:18

no, it's well worth the read people get a bite and dive in better character for you to write about as an author, Paul or Scotty Did you see yourself that more as the mentor or as the mentee,

Walter Bond 8:29

you know, in my life a little bit of both right? And so you know, life is situational. You know, there's a lot of times in my life now that I'm the mentor. And I'm the coach, but I still have a coach, I have a business coach, right. And so, you know, the whole metaphor of the shark and a sucker fish. There's a fluid where sometimes in the day, I'm the shark. Sometimes in the day, I'm the sucker fish. And I'll give you a real vivid example. My biggest client is Jersey Mike's subs. We fly out to Detroit founder Peter can't grow, you know, obviously very wealthy. And we had a meeting with Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza, who's his mentor, and we were leaving the meeting. And I said, Peter, Tom is your shark and you're the sucker fish. And he just laughed because he had bought everybody at Jersey, Mike's the books with him. It's like a part of their culture now. And he hadn't really thought about, you know, and I was like, Yeah, you know what he is? He's my mentor. So here it is, is very successful. business guy has 2500 locations. But man, his mentor is the founder, founder of Domino's Pizza, so I don't care who you are. I don't care how much money you make. We all need a mentor. Right? We all need an advisor. And I've learned that in sports that the coach's job is to make you better. And the biggest mistake we make sometimes is we try and go and do like by ourselves. and not get help. And that's when we really underachieve because mentorship is foundational to success.

Kenneth Kinney 10:09

Well, a lot of people too, you know, where they get a little bit of gray hair or start losing their hair, they think that gives them more wisdom. And it should teach you that you got to keep learning as much or more than anything, but we're gonna get to the sacred six shortly. But there are a couple of key quotes that I wanted to point out and ask you to elaborate on briefly, there were some of my favorites. In the NSA, he talked about these on stage as well. sharks don't just swim, they in all caps swim, elaborate on that. What you mean by that

Walter Bond 10:38

was, it's really about how you move, right, and shirts move with purpose. And they don't waste a lot of energy, doing dumb stuff, they don't waste a lot of energy, doing things that don't really benefit them. If you really think about the world we live in. Hopefully everyone listening right now is like, you know, you can't waste time, right? doing dumb stuff. And, you know, the truth is, we all get 24 hours a day, time does not discriminate. And so what a shark does the next 24 hours is way more effective than that red snapper or the yellow tail, to know whatever's in there. See, sharks move differently. And that's the message that I have for anyone in our coaching programs. For example, our masterminds, we have something called Peak Performance huddle, all we're doing is teaching people how to move differently. So if you're an employee, and you want to be a manager, why not managers make more money? Let's move differently and move like a manager. Oh, you want to be a VP? Okay, let's go figure out how VPS move. And how can we get you to move differently? Just like, Oh, you want to be the CEO? Hey, they're human. Okay, how can we get you moving differently? Right, until you become a CEO, I had to move like an NBA ballclub. I mean, it really, I can't fake it. You can't sneak into the NBA, you got to be legit, right? And so I had to learn how to move like an NBA ball player. So now, let's say sharks don't swim. They swim lessons when people know that man sharks run the ocean, simply because they move different than any other fish. And anytime you find someone, like a neighborhood I live in, you know, we have six billionaires in this neighborhood. Those six men move differently than everybody else. Tons of successful people. Right? Everyone in my neighborhood is successful. But six billionaires not think about them, billionaire, so they're moving different. And if I can figure out how they move, man, I'll be a billionaire too. So that's why I live here. Because I want to observe and figure out are you making moves to become a billionaire.

Kenneth Kinney 12:51

Another quote, Drew told me that sharks respect the ocean, and the ocean respects them, they don't kill any and everything. They're curious and investigate everything before they strike. I love that quote, because often talking about curiosity, but elaborate the way you think about curiosity,

Walter Bond 13:06

you have to respect your environment, right, you have to respect opportunities, you have to be aware of an opportunity, you have to be aware of your environment. And a lot of times people don't, you know, they just get up and live and work and have no strategy, that really understanding how to take advantage of an opportunity in a positive way, right. And so if you really think about it, all God is going to do for us is give us an opportunity. And the rest is on us to take full advantage of opportunity. We all we all have blown opportunities. But you know, the truth is successful people take advantage of opportunities. They're looking for opportunities, they see opportunities, they respect opportunities, and they maximize opportunity. So it's a whole ecosystem. You know, we've built around the sacred six and shark mindset theory, but we have 1000s and 1000s of people moving differently, because they've made themselves available to be coached mentored. And I'll tell you what, my coaches helped me become an NBA ball player. And they taught me how to move like an NBA ball player. That's what they get paid to do. That was their job, right? To develop me. And that's why we take it very seriously here to help professionals of all levels, learn how to move differently, so that they can be successful. And obviously, we use the shark in the fish as a metaphor, but we talked about real statement, we talk about real life dynamics and situations and how we should handle them. And if we handle our situations, and our opportunities effectively, that's where we get success.

Kenneth Kinney 14:47

Well at a high level, then talk a little bit if you will, about what the sacred six lessons are.

Walter Bond 14:53

Okay, so we took all of the characteristics of a shark that are really cool. And we humanized right In a way that man, you know what, if you do these six moves, if you operate like this sacred six and forces you to do, you're going to be more successful than who you are. I don't care how successful you are. If you can move in all six of these sacred ways, you're going to be more impactful. If you think about sacred, that means it's very, very, very valuable if something sacred. So here's the first one. Shirts never stop moving forward. Are they? The prettiest thing about that sharks are in constant motion. There's a lot of ways we spin that sharks are relentless, okay? Sharks are hard workers. Okay? Sharks are consistent. Sharks. I work everybody else, right? Sharks always making progress. If they stopped moving, they stopped breathing. Think about that. If they stopped moving, they suffocate. And it's a great metaphor for all of us. I don't care if you work in a corporate environment. I don't care if you're an entrepreneur, you got to have that sharp mindset and say, You know what, sharks never stop moving forward, or they die. So what happens if you get fired? You know what, I'm sure I gotta keep moving. Divorce, I gotta keep moving. Bankruptcy don't matter. I'm gonna sharp. I gotta keep moving. When my NBA career was over, you know what, I gotta keep moving at 54 Right now, I make more money now than when I played in the NBA. A lot of my friends who played NBA with me don't want to stop moving. And they're sitting there like a 54 year old former ballplayer. When nobody wants a 54 year old NBA ball player. You're done. So well. My career was over. My wife and I were able to keep it moving. We left sports we got right into business. And the rest is history. Why? Because we move different with sharks. We don't sit around and glow and complain and, and wonder and and philosophize? Who's better? LeBron Michael, okay, they're both amazing. We kept them moving. Because that's what sharks do. Sharks only look up and never look down. Which means sharks are incredibly positive. You know, as well as I do you swim with sharks? When you beneath the shark, they don't even notice you don't even care, right? You believe me? You know, I'm, I'm looking above me. I'm looking in front of me. I'm definitely looking below me. And think about how many people are crippled by their past. They keep looking at it. They keep talking about they keep agonizing about something that happened three years ago. Or five years ago. You know, you're all the time and I was doing good. And then my mom died. You know, oh, my life was great that I got divorced. it well. Okay. Well, that shouldn't stop you. People die. Right now. It's just a fact of life. People die, right? People get divorced people file bankruptcy, people. But look, there's so much good out here in this world. If you really, really take time and take inventory of your life, there's way more positive things going on the neck. But if you choose to focus and lock in on negative stuff, of course, you're gonna be depressed. Are you like your neck and stuff? Of course, you might be discouraged. If all you do is look at your problem. Look at your past, look at your situation, and play it over and over in your brain. like a broken record, of course, serves only look up. They never looked down. I remember getting cut off NBA teams. And as soon as I got cut, I like man, a crazy man, I was better than that. Do whatever, keep them open. And that was the mindset that really, you have to have. Right? And so when basketball is over, cool, I make more money business. Let's go. Right? So we've always been optimistic, right? Three sharks are curious and always learning. sharks don't want to eat us. They bite us because, you know, we love Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. And we love french fries. So sometimes they can tell us from a turtle. Sure. But their curiosity is overwhelming and they can't help it. The only way we can get smarter is by being curious. If you're not curious about leadership, you're not gonna get smart. If you're not curious about culture, you're not gonna get smarter. If you're not curious about selling more, in whatever business you're in, you got to be curious. You got to become curious, and that drives the hunger to learn. And so that's why we really teach that so sharks never stop moving forward. Sharks are positive. They always look up sharp security and always learning for sharks recognize other sharks, but they also respect their environment. sharks don't live to eat, they eat to live. Of course they eat fish, but they're not just just blatant murderers, that expect the light if I gotta eat you, I'm gonna die. It is what it is. But if they know that we're human, they're not going to eat us. Why? Because that's not what they want. So sharks are very respectful of their environment. But they also recognize another shirt. Right? And so, to me that's important in the industry, who the stars in your industry. Now, we always talk about music and sports and in movies, we always we always know those stars. But your industry as a star, I don't care for your podcaster. Who's the star? I don't care if you're in sales. Who's a star? You're franchising? Okay, well, who's the star franchise? And, you know, I tell all our people that our coaching programs, our masterminds, everything we do, don't you stop until your household name your industry? They look at me like, don't you stop until you become a household name and your industry? Why? Because it's important, when we see a great white shark and that water, it's like, man, as a great white shark. We sail we recognize them, or whale, like when there's a whale shark. You know, what did we see LeBron was all right. It just it is what it is. And so sharks grow out of for a year. And then we keep growing just like a shark. Maybe you don't become a household name in your entire industry. But maybe you become a star in your company. Right? Maybe you become a star in your region. Bottom line is this. Sharks got it all there. And that's why we wrote the book swim, to really teach people why they run the ocean, and how they run the ocean. And that we operate like a shark we got to run our environment to so they recognize other sharks, but they respect their environment. Here's a couple of more than a fantastic sharks are made of cartilage. Which means they're flexible. How many people have you met? Kevin? That just says this is just how I am? What? If you're 18 years old, that's just how you are. You don't have any expectation to grow, mature, change, learn from your mistakes. You know, this kind of love me for me. I'm gonna love you food for you. But I love you enough not to let you say sorry.

Kenneth Kinney 22:24

Yeah, that's what they tell themselves on social media.

Walter Bond 22:27

Well, the truth is, we should be constantly growing, constantly improving. And here's what people don't understand. Let me be honest about this. Adversity. Adversity is designed to increase our value. How we respond to adversity is everything. If we respond to adversity the right way, we're going to increase our value, because it's going to force us to change pivot ship. So I'm going to ask everybody listening, what do you need to change right now that could be transformational for your life? What pivot do you need to make? That could be a game changer for you? And I'll give you one example. I had a guy on my coaching program, he heard me speak, he bought a coaching program, like you saw in a live event. And he was like, You know what, I don't feel respected by my boss. He was in the insurance industry. That's okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start publishing articles. Whatever pisses you off in your industry, just start writing articles. one a month, one article a month, posted on LinkedIn. A year later, he got an offer that doubled his salary, he got a country club membership, car allowance, he called me back and says, Oh, my God, you don't believe just what happened in 12 months, we helped him change his whole personal brand, and his whole value. But most importantly, he pivoted and shifted, and it had tremendous impact. So we're able to customize things for all of our coaching clients. Who wouldn't want to double the sale, I mean, come on, in 12 months, so think about it, you can stay the same. In 12 months from now, your life can be the same. Or maybe you can get a coach, you can go join a coaching program. make the right adjustments based on your coach's advice. In 12 months from now, you're gonna be a totally different person making totally different money. Totally different responsibility. Totally different levels of respect. See, I'm an athlete, you only have four years in college and make it too late. So I had to transform it like what 48 months. The clock is ticking. I gotta get stronger. I got to sculpt my body. I gotta get my jumpship I got 48 months to become elite. So what we did This guy, and 12 months of transformational, but he was able to pivot because sharks and mela cartilage. Finally, success is a team sport. And sharks understand that their job is elevated suckerfish. What does that mean? You can be so focused on your success, that you don't mentor other people. You know what sometimes we can get so selfish, right? I need a mentor, I need a mentor, I need a mentor. Okay, got it. But who you mentoring, right? Remember, the book is about a shark sucker fish, and the parasite the parasite takes and never give up. So ironically, the same coaching client is an executive now, and just hired me to speak for his new company. He didn't have to ask anybody. It was his decision. It was his call. So think about that killer. I met the guy, he was a devalue frustrated employee, about six years later, he's an executive with the authority to make the call and hire me and bring me and he brought me in confidence, because he sold them on the impact that I had in his life. And it all happened relatively quickly, if you really think about it. Right. So you know, the whole Sharpe mindset has really helped a lot of people, because they're gonna get progress. And we start with your mind. First, it's a part of our personal development formula, if you will. And the mindset is the first thing that we work on, we teach accountability. We teach teamwork, we got a whole system. But the first thing we do that we got to work on that man, if you don't think right, it's going to be impossible to be successful. So once we get a person thinking, right, we take them through the other fundamentals. And when we spit them out the gauntlet. On the other end, they're going to be a totally different person, and a whole lot more valuable. But we always start with the mindset.

Kenneth Kinney 27:02

Well, I love books like this that are fables and tales and parables, as opposed to boring stories are things that put a lot of mid level leaders who tell their stories, and it puts you to sleep. So kudos to you for writing it this way. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a Hall of Fame speaker, what is it that you want people to think feel or remember, after watching you speak at a conference or an event?

Walter Bond 27:28

Here's this weird can you know, for a long time that my speaking business, I kind of bragged about me. You know, and it was like, after a while, I was like, Yeah, you know, and people are looking at you like, wait a minute, you played NBA good for you, but help me, right. And so now I get to brag about other people. You know, like our insurance client, I got I got another guy named Mookie, go check this out. He worked at a Jersey Mike's got fired. Just making subs got fired. When got his mindset right now he owns 15 locations. He went from being a fired employee, to now he's one of the star franchisees in the whole entire system. Same guy, different mindset. And so when he heard me speak, the first time, he came down to the stage, he just looked at me. He didn't say a word. He just looked at me. And just some spiritual connection there. Movies like my little brother, he bought copies of swim for his entire staff. And you can't work from Wilkie. If you don't read the book, swim, and I've done some book clubs for him. And this book has really helped transform him and his mindset, because he couldn't articulate what happened to him. He couldn't really put some some thought behind, like, how did he really transform? So when he met us in the book and got a hold of the Secret Six and the shark mindset, and his favorite, is sharks elevate sucker fish. And that's what he's teaching all of his managers, man, your job is to elevate the person that you're managing, that's your job to make them better, when in fact, you should coach them so hard that they can take your job. He's opening up the stores, right? So there's tons of opportunity to go around for everybody. Right? And so you think about the ocean, everyone gets to eat. Everybody's eat. It's all ecosystem out there. Right? There's tons of fish in the sea. So So you know, I don't want people bragging about me, per se, because I'm enjoying bragging about people and the things that we're doing for other people to be successful. But we basically in the here's a thought that's that's, you know, really, I think transformational based on what we do. If you really think about it in my basketball I had somewhere to go. It was a gym, at the gym where basketballs, rims, lockers, weights of trainers, nutrition, it's a place I went to go get better, right? So as a professional, where do people go, to get better, to improve, to get stronger to get strengthened. So everything that we do with our training and development company, and our books and our products, is a place for people to go to get better. You want to be a better leader, you got somewhere to go, you want to be in better sales, you got somewhere to go, you want to become an entrepreneur, you want to grow your business, we create a peak performance huddle. It's a fabulous place for people to go at their budget. You know, so we have some clients that say, look, I want to I want all my people, and they'll pay for our good employees and go through it, or just want to be an individual and say, You know what, my company didn't really invest in us. But I'm going to invest in me, right? So people focus idle. To me, it's like this ocean that we created, that people have a place to go, so that they can grow. And if anything people want to say about wall to bond, it's like, you know what, I'm here for you. I'm here to help you grow. Because you get a chance to play an NBA man that's like, I can't even describe how amazing and special I felt. But every individual has their own dream. And I want every individual that comes in contact with us, and all of our programs, all of our other coaches, to know hey, we're going to help you live your dream, whatever it is like, Okay, you want to you want to be a president, we're gonna help you reach your dreams. You want to be an entrepreneur and be a millionaire. We're going to help you reach your dreams, all the NBA representatives reaching the top and having a dreams come true. And we're devoted and committed through all of our books and trainings and programs, to help anyone who's willing, anyone who's coachable, move different. Because you're not gonna come around us and stay the same. If you get connected to anything that we do with our company in our books and our products. You definitely gotta move different when we're done with

Kenneth Kinney 32:11

Walter, I ask everyone who appears on the show, and it only seems apropos to ask you, other than me. What is your favorite kind of shark and why?

Walter Bond 32:21

You know what, there's a lantern shark?

Kenneth Kinney 32:23

Yeah.

Walter Bond 32:24

Have you ever heard of a latern shark?

Kenneth Kinney 32:25

Oh yeah. I know lantern sharks. That's not the one I would have anticipated you saying that?

Walter Bond 32:30

is very small. But the thing I love about the lantern shark, it gives off his own life. And to me, I tell people, man, some people brighten up a room and they enter. Some people brighten up a room and they leave. And a lantern shark has the light inside of them. And they brighten up the path everywhere they go. So as a motivational speaker, that's my job. But I want to encourage everyone to be their own individual motivational speaker, if you don't call them motivate millions like I have been motivate yourself. Right? Motivate yourself to be the best. Motivate yourself to go for your dreams, motivators. Talk to yourself. We'll help you, we'll support you. Right, no doubt about it. We'll teach you the tactics. Right. But the most important thing with the lantern shark is that I love that they create their own life. When people get, as you know, exposed to the shark mindset, we got a video on YouTube with 4 million views. We've had people call us and say, Man, I got a shark tank to before because of you, I gotta sharpen them up because of you. Because the whole metaphor of a sharp a lot of people never related to human behavior. So the sacred six males it and I'm telling you, once people get the sacred six, and after about 12 months, they begin to operate in that, in that in that place. They have the shark the ability to move like a shark, their results are different. Why? Because they move in different, right? So so really, the shark mindset is just a part of our overall training and development system. But it's the perfect place to start. And we've got 1000s and 1000s of us social proof that this thing is hot. And it's really impactful. And it's not some cute slogan, now we're really helping people live their dreams.

Kenneth Kinney 34:27

Walter, it's a special time in the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked today? Yeah, let's go. All right, number one. You referenced it earlier. So I gotta ask the goat, LeBron James or Michael Jordan.

Walter Bond 34:43

Man. First of all, I'm disappointed in all of the ballplayers from my era that are hating on young players. I'm like, Come on, man. Like, come on. Like these guys are great players. Just like we were great players and That era I just don't understand. disrespecting a whole era that's just so ego driven. I just, I could go on and on. I could be Stephen A Smith on that one. I'm not gonna do that. But you know LeBron and Jordan, two amazing athletes, two amazing competitors LeBrons 39 still going strong. So can I just say a tie? Can I Can I just can I just default? So you know what?

Kenneth Kinney 35:27

Well, we'll do we'll substitute a different question for that, because that won't have anything to do with it. But a side question Who is the greatest shooting guard he ever came up against? Not named Michael Jordan. Rensing.

Walter Bond 35:40

Miller? Yeah. Reggie Miller, Indiana Pacers? Absolutely. Six Seven. Fan was strong, never stopped moving.

Kenneth Kinney 35:50

His ears had had a seven foot wingspan. And

Walter Bond 35:53

he had three guys that get paid millions of dollars and set screens. Yet Rick Smith's in the Davis boys Antonio, and Darrell Davis. So for me, my toughest matchup was Reggie Miller all day long, all day long.

Kenneth Kinney 36:08

He could shoot a three prettier and anybody and he was a killer. He was a killer. He was a skinny little guy. And he was he was so good. Alright. We'll agreed. So number one will be because you're from Chicago, originally. Chicago food, like deep dish pizza or Miami's cuisine. The general area where you are now especially the Cuban food.

Walter Bond 36:36

You know what, I'm gonna stick to the hometown. You know, there's some great food here. My wife has turned me on to plantains and fried calm things I've never heard of. So the food down here is very, very different. Very unique. It's awesome. There's nothing like some deep dish pizza from Lu Malnati. Oh, man. Nothing like

Kenneth Kinney 36:59

Yeah, yeah, I love more where we spoke. I had the conch fritters for dinner, but you don't find that in the airport, you find deep dish pizza. So you just know which one's more popular.

Walter Bond 37:09

Favorite crumb fritters are my mother in law's circle critters.

Kenneth Kinney 37:13

There you go. Number two, better emotional high. Hitting a big and crucial shot in a game or delivering a great and killer keynote speech.

Walter Bond 37:25

genome. Gina? Nothing close. But you know, here's why. You know, basketball was for me. I didn't help anybody. You know, you kill a keynote with 3000 people 25,000 people, man, you know that you impacted a family. You know, because if that man becomes a better employee, the family wins. If the wife becomes a better employee, the family wins right in. I talk about family to have if they go home become a better dad. A better mom, right? A better employee, a better leader, a better boss is no comparison to the feeling I have impacting lives versus knocking out a jump shot. You know, ESPN, you know they can have their fun with the tournament. I had one of those. I did that one of them. Yeah. But nothing like there's nothing like a keynote. I love it.

Kenneth Kinney 38:19

All right, number three. You're going to Jersey Mike's for lunch. Call sub razza.

Walter Bond 38:26

Yeah. My favorite sub is called a 99. It's not even on the menu. Trust me if you want. If you'd like Philly cheesesteak, just go to your local Jersey Mike's and request the 99

Kenneth Kinney 38:43

That's great. All right. Number four, your best experience as a player and why playing for the Mavericks, the jazz or the pistons.

Walter Bond 38:53

Whoa. Wow. Probably the Mavericks because I was my rookie year. I didn't start in college. And so me making it to the NBA was basically a miracle. And my second NBA game I had my career high. I either at 25 or 27. Second game, in front of my hometown audience in Minneapolis where I played college ball. That game probably was a great moment because the fans cheered for me, even though I played for the visiting team. Because they followed my career that didn't start in college. I broke my foot twice. And here, here I am scoring 25 points, and they just cheered clap for me and it was a special moment for them. It was an extra special moment for me that I'll never forget

Kenneth Kinney 39:46

cubing on the team at the time,

Walter Bond 39:49

no play for gaming Donald Carter, who sold to Mark Cuban.

Kenneth Kinney 39:54

Alright, number five and the most important question that you're going to be asked today, biscuits or cornbread

Walter Bond 40:01

depends on time of day. If it's morning biscuits Absolutely.

Kenneth Kinney 40:06

You get to pick one or the other though you can set whatever time of day. Let's say this is almost like the last meal on Earth kind of question. Doesn't matter when it is

Walter Bond 40:16

risky. That's risky because misc is versatile. miski can go with breakfasts equal, you can. Kentucky Fried Chicken sells them all day, biscuit finalists.

Kenneth Kinney 40:25

Bojangles biscuit is my favorite on the planet. So, okay, I gotta go get one. Walter, where can people find out more about you. Get a copy of the book. Learn more about your keynotes and your workshops and your masterminds and coaching and everything else.

Walter Bond 40:42

You everything's at peak performance huddle. Peak Performance, huddle is simple, we created a place for people to go. Like I said earlier, I will go to the gym, that was my place to hope to get better. And we created peak performance huddle for business leaders, speakers, entrepreneurs, HR executives, it doesn't matter. We are experts in helping people move differently, to think better, execute better and win better. So peak, performers. Huddle has everything you need at every price point. So it's really no excuse not to engage.

Kenneth Kinney 41:22

Awesome. Walter, thank you very much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Walter Bond 41:27

All right, thank you.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 41:33

So that was my conversation with Walter bond, a former NBA player, a Hall of Fame speaker, a business coach, and the author of “Swim: How a Shark, a Suckerfish, and a Parasite Teach You Leadership, Mentoring, & Next Level Success.” Let's take a look at three key takeaways from our conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 41:49

First, as someone who is a fanatic has sharp tattoos and is someone who dives with sharks frequently. You know, this kind of stuff is catnip or shark nip anyways, for me. I love the metaphor and factually not everything about what he talks about with sharks is true. Like not all sharks have to keep moving. But we get it hammerheads, for example, can see downwards, but to his point, and it's a great lesson, you have got to keep moving forward, we all get beat up with issues in life, I've had my share, and I know you have, if you choose to lock in on the negative, then you'll figure it all the swim backwards, or even stop, but you can't, you have to move forward because you know that there's much more positive in life than negative.

Kenneth Kinney 42:26

Second, I agree, we all need a mentor, whether it's your mom or dad or boss, or coach, we all need an advisor looking through a lens that we cannot use to see, we get used to thinking we can Google everything for how to do everything in life. As he said, we try to do live by ourselves, and then we under achieve. And a big difference is that a mentor cares specifically about you. And it sure does help to teach you to open your ears and listen, it can move you ahead more quickly in your career, and much more importantly, more quickly in life. And if you want to start somewhere, then the Boys and Girls Club in your local area is an amazing place to start and be a mentor. I've been blessed to work with my local club. I was a mentor for a lot of kids there. But honestly, they did much more for me than I was ever able to do for them. Great organization!

Kenneth Kinney 43:13

Third, of his sacred six, here's another reminder to recognize that you need to respect your environment. I know that from looking for sharks in the water. And we all know that for why we need to respect our oceans and stop polluting them. Same applies to work in life. And I love what he said about environment. Don't stop until you're a household name in your industry. I know that I won't and I hope you won't either. Mr. Shark worldwide. It's coming.

Kenneth Kinney 43:35

Got a question send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 43:40

Thank you again for the privilege of your time, and I'm so thankful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 43:44

If you're listening to this, you're moving through the ocean differently than any other fish. Then let's keep swimming and join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)