What did lacrosse teach Dan Soviero about being a successful entrepreneur?
I’ve been doing this podcast for over two years and one of the themes that continues to shine through is that entrepreneurship mirrors sports. Athletes and entrepreneurs both take significant emotional risks to pursue outcomes that are not guaranteed. This requires both to develop resilience to continue on their respective missions.
My guest in this episode, Dan Soviero, is a former college lacrosse player and owner of Signature Lacrosse, among other successful businesses.
In Episode 59, Dan shares how his athletic journey shaped his desire to be an entrepreneur, how he left college to start his first business, and how his mission to serve others is still as strong as ever today.
So, what’s your biggest takeaway from my conversation with Dan Soviero?
My biggest takeaway is that there are opportunities to find purpose beyond sports. Retirement can be a source of great stress and negative emotions. However, finding a clear purpose beyond sports can help athletes move forward in a purposeful and productive way.
My suggestion to young athletes is to think about what makes you happy outside of sports and invest some time in those activities NOW. Having something to enjoy outside of sport will make your life easier and plant the seeds for a life of purpose down the road.
I want to thank Dan for his kind generosity and the wisdom he shared with The Freshman Foundation Community.
You can learn more about Dan’s businesses by visiting his websites at https://signaturelocker.com, https://signaturelacrosse.com, and https://10xlax.com.
To learn how you can BE READY for your next step in the game of life, visit https://michaelvhuber.com.
Thank you for listening. We’ll see you back soon for Episode 60!
00:01.10
mvhuber
Hey Dan great to see you? How are you thanks for? Thanks for joining me on your podcast and on my podcast because I was on your podcast and I got myself confused but um I want to jump in and and ask you about.
00:01.75
Dan Soviero
Um, hey great good to see you Michael.
00:17.28
mvhuber
You know your your background is an athlete your journey to entrepreneurship and when I was looking at your Linkedin page before we got started. It said your last stop for college was the University Of Tampa and it says dropped out to start my my first company in 2016 I think it was. So can you just tell me about how you got to that point.
00:35.50
Dan Soviero
Yeah, absolutely. Um so I I grew up down in South Florida I was always a 3 sport athlete I think I naturally really gravitated towards sports and um I didn't really do that. Well at school the structure of school and just the way it was. Really the way that school was structured just didn't didn't tie out with the way. My brain thinks. So I really locked in my identity as an athlete at a pretty young age and um, we can get into ah a little bit deeper about that. But um, that kind of segueed into um. I didn't do very well in school I was I was tying myself worth to my success on the field and so once I hit certain pinnacles like all american and certain goals that I had said I found myself really without a goal and and slipping into a pretty.
01:18.98
mvhuber
Is.
01:32.62
Dan Soviero
Ah, pretty deep depression and so um, it was around that time that I found business in the first business I was a junior in high school. Um I had just gotten my ah the all american award which was a goal of mine that I had set in like eighth grade and I was. Thinking as soon as I hit this goal I'm gonna be the happiest guy in the world and I hit the go and I just slipped into this depression that I had struggled with before but I had I didn't understand why am I now struggling with it again I just hit this great goal I'm an all american I have all the things that anyone could ever want. Um, and so. Fortunately through a series of situations I ended up finding my way to to the light side. Um, and in that process I was introduced to business so I was around a junior in high school I started doing private lessons for kids and it was really one of the things that um helped me break out of my depression was. Was focusing on other people and giving back to the community and that was actually really ties back to the story of of my dad was the one that really helped me kind of get past that and um, his recommendation was go coach. Go give something to somebody else without anything in return. And you're just going to find a new level of fulfillment and happiness that that I don't think you've ever experienced before I was a pretty selfish guy when I was younger and I think this really helped help me see a different path. So um.
03:00.30
Dan Soviero
I fell in love with it I immediately started doing private lessons. There wasn't a lot of guys going division one in lacrosse in Florida at the time it was pretty early in lacrosse days for Florida so I was fortunate enough to get a division one scholarship and so I started.
03:07.20
mvhuber
The.
03:15.20
Dan Soviero
D one training and we printed these little business cards. It had the St John's logo which was where I was going and then um it had the army logo which is where a friend of mine was going and we got up to like 30 kids we were doing private lessons every week with them. Um, it was going really really well, especially for high school kids. This is like a great business and we're being viewed as subject matter experts in the sport because there's just not that many in the area at the time and we're pretty young guys so that was my first exposure to management and what a nightmare I mean we had.
03:34.50
mvhuber
Is.
03:51.64
Dan Soviero
Friends of ours once we got up to thirty a week we were starting to really do like the calendar management and scheduling and then delegate the lessons to some of the younger guys on the team and we give them a checklist. This is the practice plan. This is what you need to show up with this is when you need to show up here's the field.
03:56.30
mvhuber
The.
04:10.80
Dan Soviero
And these guys would show up without balls. It's like that's the first thing on the checklist. So that was our exposure to management and at that point I could see the writing on the wall I was getting ready to go to St John's and in Queens New York you can't take this business with you. The kids aren't going to travel up for private lessons. So.
04:25.70
mvhuber
Right.
04:29.43
Dan Soviero
Um, around that time I started really thinking about what's another business I could start that I could grow without a lot of people and I didn't know what I didn't know at the time I think I was 19 um I'm just getting to college I fortunately got a lot of the. Partying and fun out of me in the in high school. So my fresh and sophomore year I got in a little trouble but it was really um I was ready to take the next steps I think and I knew that business was my next step and so um. My freshman year at St John's I actually had the idea for for the first premium lacrosse ball. All lacrose balls were the same we wanted to make a better ball and I think it was a lot of the lessons I learned through sports that gave me the confidence to say I want to make a better ball figure out how to do it I don't know.
05:15.63
mvhuber
Think ah.
05:21.25
Dan Soviero
How but we'll learn along the way and fast forward now. We've got 22 people full time and and we'll do. We're nearing 10000000 in sales for the year so it's um, it's grown to be something pretty pretty substantial over the last. ah
05:21.53
mvhuber
Yeah, yeah.
05:35.19
mvhuber
It's amazing.
05:39.77
Dan Soviero
7 years and a lot of its credit to to my background in sports and the lessons I was able to learn from some of the coaches who poured into me along the way.
05:46.28
mvhuber
Yeah, well,, there's a lot.. There's a lot in that response right? and I definitely want to ask you about that business. The Lacrosse balls and and the other things that you're doing now but I want to go back because I I think we maybe talked about this the last time we spoke you talked about how like you know you were sort of. Ah, ah, outcome driven or you were egoored and you were sort of setting these external goals for yourself and and then you hit them and and rather than sort of feeling great about It. You got depressed that sort of sapped your motivation So like can you just talk about like. Your identity as a lacrosse player at that time in your life like what was what was Lacrosse versus everything else.
06:22.27
Dan Soviero
Um, yeah yeah I would say so so when I think back to it. Um I picked up lacrosse in Eighth grade. So I was pretty late to pick up the sport I was a really big football guy and I think every kid in South Florida
06:33.65
mvhuber
Wow.
06:40.55
Dan Soviero
Plays football and things are going in the Nfl so I was convinced I was going to go into the Nfl and I just I had associated my um, my persona was I'm an athlete I'm a dumb jock that's who I am I'm not good at school I'm good at sports and it was idolized.
06:52.45
mvhuber
The.
06:59.86
mvhuber
Sure.
06:59.90
Dan Soviero
I Think it still is to an extent. Um, and so I think once you just like grab onto that Identity. You don't really realize that Um, how much you're associating with that identity and the transition out of being an athlete and into being an entrepreneur or a husband or. A son or a friend or all the other identities that make you who you are who really just don't realize it and I don't think I was giving any ounce of effort to anything other than being an athlete.
07:22.73
mvhuber
For sure.
07:31.38
mvhuber
Yeah, So so when you when you started giving those lessons at your father's suggestion in high school did that change the way you thought about Lacrosse or did that start to shift your identity because you had this experience of helping other people or was that. Still like early on.
07:51.57
Dan Soviero
It's a great question I think um, there's there's a little more color to like how bad that a fresh it was pretty bad and so I think um, he he just knew that I I was my.
07:57.42
mvhuber
Okay.
08:07.96
Dan Soviero
The reason that I was struggling so much was because I was taking such a selfish approach to life and he I'm sure had been through it before to some extent Otherwise I don't know that he would have known that this advice would work. But um, it was incredible. I mean I.
08:11.93
mvhuber
A. Right.
08:25.52
Dan Soviero
Finally opened up to him about it and his response was the exact opposite of what I of what I thought it would be He didn't like open his arms and warmly hug me and say I'm here for you. He was like he turned around and I thought I was gonna get I thought I was gonna get a whack like he turned around and he was like.
08:30.37
mvhuber
Sure.
08:43.91
Dan Soviero
How selfish could you be um, look at all or look around you at all these coaches. All these people who have poured into you and now you're going to sit here and you're going to tell me that you're depressed and you're unhappy and bla Blah Blah Why don't you go do something for somebody else and I would just I get goosebumps even thinking about it because I don't know that that would have worked with everybody. But he was an incredible dad. Super empathetic, really understood me and who I was and he knew that that's what I needed to to take the next step and move down my path and and kind of snap out of this self-inflicted depression really? so um, yeah, kind of a roundabout answer I don't I don't know.
09:06.37
mvhuber
Sure.
09:17.11
mvhuber
Yeah, yeah.
09:23.42
Dan Soviero
Um.
09:23.94
mvhuber
I Think your dad was pretty smart. Guy. You know I think not only because it worked for you and that he was able to sort of identify what you needed in that moment. But I think there's a bigger.. There's a bigger application to that and in some of the work that I do in terms of you know teaching. People to practice Gratitude right? We as athletes we have this sort of you know we have this gift that we're given right to to be something special and to you know to channel our abilities and and and to get recognition at a young age for a lot of athletes and a lot of times it manifests itself in. Depression or anxiety or like I'm not good enough or I need more versus like hey man this is great I'm lucky like I should be grateful for everything I have which in turn creates that same effect of hey let me go be of service to somebody else because I'm not the center of the universe like I need to give back. It gives us a ah good feeling. It gives us a good feeling makes us feel good about ourselves.
10:21.24
Dan Soviero
Um, yeah, yeah I think that's that's really where for me where fulfillment really became a thing I don't think I have had ever felt really fulfilled until I started serving others and and seeing that impact.
10:29.64
mvhuber
Is is. Yeah, and I think entrepreneurship. Really you know I think people when they I think when they hear entrepreneurship and I think you could probably speak to this better than I can because your journey's a lot more robust than mine. But I think when people think of entrepreneurship they think of sort of stereotypically you know. Technology big technology companies and millionaire 20 year old kids or billionaires even in some cases but entrepreneurship is really about coming up with an idea to serve people that ultimately becomes profitable and leads to a bigger business to serve more people right? like.
11:07.22
Dan Soviero
Yeah.
11:10.70
mvhuber
Not, It's not just about the money itself. It's about the mission.
11:14.70
Dan Soviero
Yeah I would I would say it's It's more so about the mission and the money for I would I'd argue every entrepreneur because um, regardless of your success with it or the time spent in it and every entrepreneur can can relate. You're gonna.
11:20.78
mvhuber
Oh yeah.
11:31.35
Dan Soviero
Put a disproportionate amount of effort out in in exchange for what you're going to get back people. Don't people see like I don't know bill gates or or Steve Jobs and they're like well look at this guy made all this money. So for Zuckerberg whatever that's like.
11:35.88
mvhuber
Is it.
11:49.47
Dan Soviero
Point Zero zero zero one um the majority go through and even those guys they went through an uphill battle. Just it's brutal. It's really brutal. But if you're really passionate about the and I think you know that the problem that you're solving.
11:55.10
mvhuber
Sure.
12:05.30
Dan Soviero
And you're really passionate about the market that that solution is serving. You're going to have a blast doing it the same way you do when you're playing a sport and you're just competing because you just love to compete.
12:14.54
mvhuber
Yeah, yeah, and I think you know we've talked about this.. It's the the Parallels between sport athletics and entrepreneurship are really really Great. You know Sports are very structured as you know, but they also lend themselves to a great Deal. Of Creativity right? as a lacrosse player I'm sure you were able to be very creative to ultimately create the outcome that you wanted which I presumably is to score goal right? It's the same as entrepreneurship right? You can you can go in a straight line up or you can run in circles but you can still get to the same goal and.
12:41.73
Dan Soviero
That.
12:46.83
mvhuber
And the outcomes the the benefits of it are unlimited because you control your destiny.
12:49.88
Dan Soviero
Yeah, yeah, and I I think I would I would tie it the correlation more to winning the aim than scoring the goal because I think scoring the goal is a lot like just being the the the a player on the team and and winning the game is.
12:55.52
mvhuber
Easy. Okay.
13:04.47
mvhuber
Yeah.
13:09.49
Dan Soviero
To your point. Sometimes you're the a player when you win the game Sometimes you got to take a B role and let somebody else step up to be the a player because it's their domain or or you're trying to mold them into a better player or. It's a game in the beginning of the season and you got a freshman on your team and you know he's going to be an important part of playoffs and you need him to get those goals along the way to build up in confidence similar thing happens I think in business where you're trying to groom somebody or develop somebody into more of a leadership role which should be your job.
13:28.40
mvhuber
And.
13:34.52
mvhuber
Sure sure.
13:40.82
Dan Soviero
But everybody on your team I think.
13:40.87
mvhuber
Oh yeah, for sure and I agree with that right? But you also have the same dynamics in a company that you do on a team which is not everyone's going to be pulling in the same direction all the time.. How do you get them to pull in that direction. How do you motivate them? Maybe how do you choose? not to keep somebody around on your team or in your business. If They're not serving the mission that you're aiming for.. Can you talk about the key talk about that.
14:04.41
Dan Soviero
Yeah, yeah, I think um I can give ah a personal story about it. So I I when I was first getting recruited. Um I was a junior in high school I just went all american and there was I was at the public school Jupiter high. And we had just won ah our first playoff game my sophomore year I wasn't allowed to play sports my sophomore year I was I was recruited so that fhsa wouldn't let me play any sports my sophomore year highly debated. But.
14:20.86
mvhuber
Um.
14:37.50
Dan Soviero
My junior year so they won the first playoff game that year my junior year. Um, we in St Andrews was the private school. They were the ones that won state championship for last however, many years and they had an all american on their team. His name is Conor Whipple um long story short. We both got recruited to georgetown in high school growing up I hated this guy I wanted to kill him I mean you know when you have a rival across town. They're the private school. You're the public school you make up all sorts of stuff in your head like these prey you know these prey kids like.
15:10.49
mvhuber
Ah.
15:11.19
Dan Soviero
And so I'm thinking like we're the tough school. They're the like preppy school meanwhile where it's jupiter high school at Jupiter is probably a pretty preppy high school so but school stuff. Um I don't know what I was thinking but we ended up both getting recruited to Georgetown and when we met. In the recruiting process we were I was like wow this guy I get along with him so well and then we ended up he left georgetown id committed and went to St John's and ended up leaving and we both ended up at University Of Tampa where his dad was coaching and this is now my sophomore year we actually lived together. In a house with 6 division 1 transfers coming to this d two like powerhouse and we thought we're gonna win a national championship like there's no question. We've got we had 11 guys that year transfer from division 1 programs to play at this d two school that had been a top 5 school but never. Broken into the to the championship and so we get there and and we're all we're all aligned. We all want to win right? The championship and Nca championship. Even it's division 2 but still, it's it's awesome and it's a great goal and we were all living in the same house. Um.
16:08.15
mvhuber
The.
16:25.98
Dan Soviero
But at this time like the business really started to grow and so I started to feel this divergence between my whole house. My whole team. They're all fighting for this national championship I'm really fighting to grow this business and now when I come out to practice. I Want to go hard and I want to compete because I love it. But I'm more there to have fun and compete and like it's a break from building the business and school versus let's win a national championship and I think that lack of alignment became really Clear. Um. And that was the point where I had to decide am I gonna am I gonna drop out because if I'm not playing on the team and then I'm definitely not going to go to school and the reason for that was because I I had I didn't want to pay for school. Um I had a scholarship and.
17:12.45
mvhuber
Um.
17:19.36
Dan Soviero
I I had gotten all that I needed out of college I don't think this is the path for everybody. Some people say like you don't need school I don't believe that I think it just depends on who you are and and what you need I think college is amazing I think you get a lot out of it.
17:27.45
mvhuber
Sure.
17:33.76
Dan Soviero
I had gotten everything I needed I Found what I was passionate about I knew what I wanted to pursue and I was all in on it. So at that point it was a decision I could finish I could get a degree I don't really need it for what I'm going to be in be doing and so. I Had to sit down with with my longtime friend at this point and his dad's the coach sorry about the dogs um his dad's the coach and I had to sit down with him and I had to say like I'm sorry but I don't think I'm the right guy for this team and um it was really it was a really hard decision for me.
18:00.77
mvhuber
And.
18:07.44
Dan Soviero
Um I could see it on his face like he was super disappointed. Um, but at the end of the day I wasn't aligned with his vision of where he wanted to take the program the team and um, they ended up winning a national championship a couple years later so
18:15.43
mvhuber
Yeah.
18:23.82
Dan Soviero
It all ended well for everybody. We're super involved with the University now through the business. But yeah, that alignment of vision is when you're on a team and in an organization it is. It's everything and if if you lose that alignment at some point It's not a bad thing. It's just not your time to be on that team anymore.
18:37.50
mvhuber
Um, right? Yeah I think for 20192020 old 20 year old 21 year old kid at that point's a pretty mature choice right? like and maybe you didn't see it exactly that way when you were that age but right. Like the idea that like hey this is not for me. It's going to be I'm going to do. It's best for me and I'm going to go stand up and be a man and say like this isn't for me and what I what you guys want isn't the same as what I want and I don't want to get in the way and oh by the way I want to go pursue this dream and you decide hey I don't want to go to school. Which I can't imagine that that was that easy of a decision in the sense that I think people always have these expectations that you're supposed to graduate from college and I don't know if that crossed your mind but like can you just talk a little bit more about like was it an easy decision was it hard I mean how.
19:27.96
Dan Soviero
Um, So yeah I can say it was probably one of the harder decisions. Um that I ever made and it's because my my dad was really really big on you don't quit whatever you're doing if you make a commitment to a team. It doesn't matter if you signed up to do cheerleading as a joke or gymnat. Whatever it is. You're gonna do it and you're gonna go all the way through the season because you committed to your teammates and to your coaches and that was really it was weighing Super super heavy on me and so I had basically made the commitment to. All my employees and the company and then I had also made the commitment to to the school that I would be a full time student and then also to the team and I just was just spread too thin and I had to make a decision and it was very very very difficult. Um.
20:16.23
mvhuber
Um, yeah.
20:20.33
Dan Soviero
So and I never really got to have my breakout college lacrosse year when I was a freshman at St. John's I um I got some burn but it wasn't a significant amount and I was on a pretty good path and probably could have had ah a pretty substantial role on that team. But um when I got to University Tampa I was like. Great d two I'm gonna dominate this is gonna be awesome and I never really got to have that that season so it was it was pretty hard I think I still have three years of eligibility left. So maybe who knows 35 year old now. Um. But yeah, it's it's that alignment to the vision I think is is really important and and when you make these big fork in the road decisions. You gotta really lean on your values and lean on what is what's your north star. What's what are you really out here to do and I was not.
21:05.40
mvhuber
And.
21:15.93
Dan Soviero
There to win a national championship that wasn't my north star that was another end goal for me or means goal. It wasn't the end goal and so I think having that eye on the end goal really helped make the decision. Yeah, so.
21:21.82
mvhuber
Um, yeah.
21:27.26
mvhuber
Chair So when you made the choice where was where was your business out at that point.
21:33.95
Dan Soviero
I think at that point we just crossed a million a year in revenue we had 3 or 4 employees and it was um I kept walking in with my backpack 2 3 in the afternoon and I was like and this isn't this isn't gonna cut it.
21:45.31
mvhuber
Yeah, and so at that point did you have like specific goals for the business or it was just hey I want to put all my time and energy into it and and grow it.
21:57.34
Dan Soviero
So at that time. Um I think I was probably still figuring it out. But I I had a good sense of um business was gonna be my path and and my northstar is making a positive impact on the world through business. So.
22:01.42
mvhuber
Is it.
22:14.22
Dan Soviero
I Don't know that I had that crystallized at that point but that became very clear through my journey and I think that's why I was so drawn to that that path in the fork in the road as opposed to finishing school finishing my college lacrosse career and then um.
22:29.53
mvhuber
Um, great and so I guess so to get to that that point that's the Lacrosse ball business.
22:32.90
Dan Soviero
Starting at that point.
22:40.62
Dan Soviero
Yeah, so at that time we we were just all the balls were the same. We made a premium lacrosse ball that was it um and then as that really started to grow and as I I left college one of the things that I was really I think too focused on was. I had gone from a full student athlete schedule and building the business. So I was putting in easily easily 16 to 18 hour days and I did not want to lose that effort. So I took that same. Drive and put it into the business. So I was putting in easy sixteen eighteen hour days every day seven days a week I had just met the woman who I ended up marrying Maddie my wife amazing woman I way out kicked my coverage. She looks super patient with me in the early days and she even.
23:24.75
mvhuber
Jesus.
23:32.38
Dan Soviero
She even reflects back and talks about this this time in our story where um I was I had broken it off with her and she was I mean way out of my league Amazingly beautiful. Super smart Everything a guy could ever want everything I could ever want. But I didn't think it was fair to her.
23:43.95
mvhuber
The moon.
23:50.25
Dan Soviero
Um, because I didn't think I could give her what she needed because I was so committed to the business and I wanted to spend 18 hours a day on the business I didn't I didn't want to allocate the hour or 2 to our relationship and even if I did that wasn't enough for what she really deserved. So um, that was a pretty interesting. Another fork in the road where I had to really decide like but having a positive impact on the world through business is my end goal am I better served having a wife and and having a partner in this mission or on my own. And I at that point I had been super independent that had been my path I'd always been that way. Um, and I was just super. My brother was the one actually I called him and after I spent like three days sleeping at the office and I was like this is I'm just gonna sleep at the office every day I don't even have to shut like I'll just keep working. And um, he was like dude you're gonna you're gonna burn out by the time you're 30 and how much of an impact. Are you gonna have then and Maddie gives you this amazing perspective. She makes you a better person she she helps you take your game from where you're at to where you're trying to go.
24:50.24
mvhuber
Yeah.
25:02.80
Dan Soviero
You'd be silly a fool to not invest in that relationship and um, you deserve to be happy too. That was the other thing I was not considering my happy I wouldn't consider it was just I want to build businesses. This is what I want to do.
25:12.49
mvhuber
Well I think that I love that I Love that story because I relate to it quite a bit because I'm I'm in a much earlier phase of developing my own business and I'm divorced with children and I'm single. And I think sometimes you know there's a benefit to being single because you could do whatever you want, but then you realize that like running a business takes so much energy and effort and there's so many ups and downs that if you try to do doing it on my own is really really hard sometimes because you don't have somebody that's. Propping you up saying hey it's okay, keep going or I got your back and to have that is is pretty cool, right? like it sounds like you've got somebody in your life who like unconditionally supports your your your your goals and your your desire to build businesses and that's like. That's a big thing that's ah, that's a really important life lesson.
26:05.81
Dan Soviero
Um, yeah, it's it's incredible and I'm super fortunate to have it and I should mention she is also equally a badass and has built a million dollar business over the last three years so she she and she had no idea that that would be her path but she was a communications and um.
26:13.10
mvhuber
You love it.
26:23.48
Dan Soviero
She was a communications she was double major and then had like three myers. She's brilliant but she didn't take a single business course and now she runs a company they have I think 50 part time employees coaches all around the country. Um and she'll do about $1000000 in revenue this year. So it's um.
26:42.78
Dan Soviero
Think our past intersected at that point and it it was a really defining moment for our relationship and um, she decided that that she wanted to have her own lane and run in it really hard and and build to make the impact she wanted to make and I think.
26:56.66
mvhuber
And.
26:59.46
Dan Soviero
That allowed us to grow together which is I think one of the most important things that um and it it applies to the team that you're on it applies the relationship you're in it replies it applies to a business. Um you you got to be growing with your team and you got to be bringing them along if you're not. You'll start to grow in different ways and then that's where you have that fragmented. Well my vision doesn't really align with this vision anymore and that's okay, sometimes people naturally grow apart. But if you're pursuing a clear mission and you're both really aligned on it that.
27:20.68
mvhuber
The.
27:34.59
Dan Soviero
The power is just incredible.
27:34.66
mvhuber
I can only imagine and and and what you just described about diverging is exactly the way my divorce went was like I'm on this trajectory towards building this business that I really really believe in and I wanted that support. But it just wasn't there and you like you said it happened sometimes and you had to make choices and and I did and and that was okay, there's no regrets there but you're right like if you have that person who's sort of on that path with you now. All of a sudden It's like the power of 1 is not as nearly as great as the power of 2 or more and now you've got it. You know you got a team.
28:09.69
Dan Soviero
Yeah, absolutely and I think you find that in ah in a life partner. You find that in a business partner. You find that in your teammates you find that a lot of there's a lot of different relationships that can be that for you? Um, but it's it's putting yourself in a position where you're around a group.
28:10.20
mvhuber
Rather than just an individual.
28:16.66
mvhuber
Yeah.
28:29.61
Dan Soviero
People that are trying to get to the same goal and are working towards it. You're just going to get so much more out of the experience. Yeah.
28:35.82
mvhuber
Yeah, yeah, so so I want to ask you about the Lacrosse ball itself. So what was the idea what was like the idea that you had that that this premium Lacrosse ball was different or better. What's the the nuance of it.
28:52.20
Dan Soviero
Yeah, so so um I grew up in South Florida like I was saying so I play a lot of golf growing up and all the there was different tiers of golf balls I noticed I'm in the pro shop one day and then I'm out at the fields. A little later that day. Getting ready for practice and a ball ricochets off the post. It hits me in the back while I'm leading the stretching for our team and I picked it up and I was like man these lacrosse balls similar to a tennis ball. They go bad after like a week or two we call them drill killers or greasers and so um. I set out to make the the first premium ball that would last twice as long as all the other balls and it it started with I'm going to do this on my own very independent. Um, and then led to I don't know what thell I'm doing I need to find somebody that knows what they're doing partner up and then and then figure out this solution. So. Fortunately I I had Linkedin had just become a thing I found a guy who who used to be a rubber chemist at shell oil. He was retired I reached out he wanted to help me. Um and so for I think it was at back seven years ago it was like five hundred bucks thousand bucks and he helped me come up with this and it was really the relationship I think I don't know the value of of the formula I mean now we've sold over 20000000 balls. So it's proved to be super valuable and um, we did go back and take good care of that guy. But um, if the yeah the idea just.
30:10.43
mvhuber
How.
30:17.43
mvhuber
Since.
30:22.28
Dan Soviero
I was I think the 1 thing that I think about a lot too is you're gonna your business is gonna be as successful as the problem that you're the size of the problem that you're solving so that became super evident to me. Um.
30:36.34
mvhuber
Um, yeah.
30:40.20
Dan Soviero
When we got to a couple million in sales and we realized like there's not much more room to grow and so that's what um, got us into making complete sticks that all come game ready right? off the shelf and then quick connect goal instead of stringing the net to the gulf frame. You screw it in takes 5 minutes instead of 2 hours and so. Just like a series of ah products in the lacrosse space that could solve problems for players for coaches for parents. Um and through that process we we realized how cash intense. Um. Ah, business like that is you're selling out money for r and d every time you're developing a new product then you're sampling then you're purchasing the actual inventory. The inventory takes sometimes 90 to one hundred and twenty days to come over here then you got to sell it a lot of times if you're selling to retailers. They're gonna want.
31:15.27
mvhuber
Um, yeah.
31:34.18
Dan Soviero
Terms payment terms so they're not going to pay you when you ship them the product they're going to pay you ninety days later so now you put up the money one ah hundred and twenty days before the product got there then the product gets there. You sell it. Hopefully you sell it right away but sometimes it takes time.
31:48.46
mvhuber
And.
31:50.84
Dan Soviero
And then once you sell it. You're not gonna get paid from that person for ninety days so you're out the money for at least one hundred and eighty days sometimes longer so a half of a year or longer. So um, that business grew to a good size but it was it was starting to really suck up all the cash and um.
31:58.37
mvhuber
Um, sure. Yeah.
32:10.10
Dan Soviero
That's where we came up with this 24 7 365 on-demand team swag store experience and that has just taken off over the last three years and that has become really the core business. So we we deem it the the fanatics of youth sports. So we set up these these twenty four seven shops for youth programs travel programs in all sports all around the country. Everything's made on demand it drop ships right? to the parent store and it solves a really clear problem for program directors. Um, they were spending 50 to 100 hours on admin work collecting all the orders. Information for my little son Johnny's a size large short medium shirt small penny and he wants number 84? Um, and so the program directors used to collect all that pass it to a rep the rep would pass it to a factory factory pass it back and then director gets the big box. Bags it all up hands it out at the fields. We've all been through it if we've ever coached or been a program director. Um, yeah, it is a brutal process and it's not what the program directors sign up to do and I think that was the part that really resonated with me the most was.
33:15.26
mvhuber
Ah, 100% more than I care to admit.
33:22.73
mvhuber
Right.
33:28.77
Dan Soviero
Um, these are a lot of times volunteers a lot of times they're dads a lot of times or moms a lot of times so parents I should say um, a lot of times they're going through their own personal stuff. Maybe they're starting a business. Maybe they're going through divorce maybe struggling in school like who knows.
33:43.95
mvhuber
Um, yeah, right right.
33:47.34
Dan Soviero
They want to give to the community. They sign up to be the director of this this program because theirre kids in the sport. They really love the sport blah blah blah and then nobody tells them nobody tells them about this administrative where you got to run the website. You got to do all the marketing you got to go raise sponsorships. You gotta make sure the fields are locked every night even if you're not there all the the goals are locked up everything and then on top of this every season you're gonna have to collect all the order information from all the parents collect their money. Go hand it to this. This guy on a spreadsheet and work back and forth with him to make sure the spreadssheeets right? He's going to send you a big box of stuff. There's gonna be 10% of your order is goingnna be wrong. You're gonna have to bag it up and then go hand it to the parents when the parent gets handed the bag of of whatever they ordered for their uniform. Um, and it's wrong. Who do they yell at the program director. So this stands to gain nothing in the process and just takes on this workload unnecessarily and so we developed this model to solve that problem for those program directors and.
34:43.13
mvhuber
Um, right? ah.
34:52.75
mvhuber
Um, yeah, yeah.
34:58.84
Dan Soviero
It's been transformational I think um, the programs we're working with on average. Um, if they have 200 kids in the program. They'll drop an extra $25000 in profit to the bottom of their P and L and that gives them money to scholarship the kids who actually need it. You know, um, and so we're seeing that. Programs We're working with are consistently growing at a faster clip than they were prior to working with us. It's a number of reasons. But um, really like that was our intent we wanted to solve this problem and power program directors to focus on the quality of the coaching and getting more kids into sports.
35:23.32
mvhuber
Sure. Ah.
35:35.35
Dan Soviero
That's that's it.
35:35.41
mvhuber
Yeah, yeah, and I think it goes back to sort of your motto or your example of you know the bigger the problem the more opportunity there is and I think what you've described is ah a problem. That's really about making people's lives easier as opposed to a product which solves a problem. But in the Grand scheme of things. It's not as valuable as giving people time back and giving them efficiency to run ah an operation so is the is the is the the business only for Lacrosse or is it other sports.
36:04.26
Dan Soviero
So We started in Lacrosse. That's our roots Signature lac across the equipment brand will always exist in the Lacrosse space and then Signature athletics The parent brand has now branched into basketball football cheerleading Soccer. Um. Baseball Softball Archery a number of different sports anywhere where there's ah a program director where we can clearly solve this problem for them and we want to help.
36:34.77
mvhuber
That's awesome. So you talked a lot about the nuance of business which I'm not going to get into because I don't think that the people on this show. Want to listen to it Even if I want to indulge myself but but you did.
36:42.98
Dan Soviero
Me.
36:46.47
mvhuber
I think I want to I do want to touch on the idea that you know when you're running a business I don't think people really understand the idea and the importance of cash flow. You can be making money but you don't actually have the money in your hands and that's what you describe right? I'm getting I'm getting these ah invoices fulfilled or purchasing agreements fulfilled. But I have I'm not getting the money for three months four months five months I mean meaning that I have to put the money up to front. You know the the business's growth while I'm still waiting for that money like was that your biggest challenge or was there something else that you experienced that was like 1 of the the biggest challenge you ever had running a business like can you talk about? maybe. Name 1 thing.
37:24.61
Dan Soviero
Yeah I would say um, it's it for me at least it was it was finding the business model that was that was going to really work I think being the best Lacrosse equipment.
37:33.77
mvhuber
And.
37:40.67
Dan Soviero
Brand is it is a goal that some people have and we've done a really good job in the space and we've we've made some products that really solve clear problems and um, we are the number one ball we always will be. That's that's definitely something that I'm very proud of and that I um I hold on to tightly. Um. But finding the business model that was really going to enable me to have the impact that I really wanted to have and realizing along the way that that it wasn't going to be just signature across it was Goingnna take um, it was gonna take more than that to really have the impact. So now we have we have.
38:03.81
mvhuber
The.
38:18.50
Dan Soviero
3 wholly owned subsidiaries and then we have the parent company I haven't mentioned the other subsidiaries I could do that another time but it's grown from from that original and the concept stayed the exact same. What is a problem that our clients are having that we could solve.
38:25.96
mvhuber
Um, if they think.
38:35.33
Dan Soviero
And if we just stay true to that those are timeless businesses they will. They will always exist. Um I think when you're trying to follow the next fad. That's where you get into a little bit of trouble.
38:48.28
mvhuber
Yeah, right? exactly? Well I think when you chase fads you're chasing dollars and that that changes the the motivation equation I think to a certain extent. So ah, just a couple more questions. Um, and I was just asking you sort of about some of those challenges maybe are what you've found to be challenging I mean. Is there like 1 thing about running a business that really like stands out as like gets you excited every morning when you wake up out of bed.
39:12.40
Dan Soviero
Oh yeah, for sure. Um I always say actually if you're not waking up and you're jacked Up. Go do something else and it's just it's It's so true when you're an athlete when you're an athlete I mean at least for me I remember I woke up and went to school. For Pe class and practiceets after school that was it that was the only reason getting out and going you know and every day I look forward to practice and if it was raining I was pissed I was like please stop the rain stop I'll do I'll do whatever it takes stop the rain stop the rain um and then even as.
39:30.70
mvhuber
Yeah, sure I can relate to that.
39:46.26
mvhuber
Um.
39:49.60
Dan Soviero
Can we still go to practice or can we go to the fields and just throw whatever it is um but I think that ah I'm sorry what was the original question I got totally lost in oh was get fire up. Yeah, so it's the impact I think number one is is having a positive impact on the world through business.
39:57.80
mvhuber
Um, like what gets you why? what? get? what makes gets him the excited. Yeah yeah.
40:07.21
Dan Soviero
And that happens in a number of different ways. Um I think the most ah direct feedback loop is your people your team and seeing their growth over time and seeing them take on challenges that maybe um. They would have taken on on their own. But maybe as a team. We're able to support each other taking them on a little bit faster and those are personal growth. It's professional growth. But really, it's one and the same a lot of those principles that you learn in business that you learn Personally, you can apply across your whole life being a good person is being a good person. Um. So I'd say that that really gets me going and then the impact on the Market. Um, and that's a little bit of that delayed like Gratification. You see it more over time and there is a lot of um, asking for feedback is super important I'm a big believer asking for feedback's one of the most. Valuable skills you can ever develop and and you learn it through that process of being an athlete where you're trying to get Better. You're trying to get to the next level you need a coach to give you that feedback? um in the same way if trying to build a great business. You need your customers to give you that feedback.
41:01.76
mvhuber
In.
41:17.61
Dan Soviero
If you don't get it. How do you know that you're solving their problem. How do you know that you're solving it to the full extent that they need it solved. They're solving it the way they want it solved so many nuances to it.
41:27.89
mvhuber
That's great. Great answer. Final question. It's a question I asked everybody at the end of every podcast. Um for you I'll frame it this way you know as as a former athlete. And now an entrepreneur.. What's the one piece of advice. You'd give to a young athlete. Um, whether it's related to their athletic career or whether it's related to a life in business.
41:57.27
Dan Soviero
I would say one of the bigger pieces that stands out to me right now I think it's because we're we're in the lacrosse season. Um is if you know your coach is a good person and there's someone you want to be more like when you're older. Really take a step back. Take yourself out of the situation you're in and really hear them and really listen to them and be inquisitive with them the the passion that a coach has who's there for the right reasons they're there to pour into you. They want to give you their life experience and help you. Get ahead of problems that they went through that they maybe didn't have the advice when when they went through that challenge and now they want to give you that so you get an edge and if you can take yourself out of the situation where you know you're in high school you have like you know you're chasing girls. You have all this other stuff going on. You're in a game. You're really intense like you think it's life or death if you win or lose this game I promise you it's not um, I've been there. It's not that big of a deal just take that extra second to really listen when you get 1 on 1 time with your coach and. Value. You'll be able to get out of it and even if you don't you don't maybe like the coach but you know he's a good person or she's a good person. Um a lot of times those the coaches that 105 years down the road you look back and you you find their phone number and you call them to thank them because you can now appreciate.
43:28.28
Dan Soviero
Some of the lessons that they were trying to give you along the way so that'd probably be my biggest advice slow it down really take the time to like soak in what these mentors are trying to give you mentors being the coaches.
43:42.30
mvhuber
It's a great answer and it's a great way to finish Dan thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. It was great to see you again. Ah I only I wish you the best of luck in everything that you're doing and hopefully we could do it again sometime all right? Thank you.
43:48.20
Dan Soviero
Um, yeah.
43:51.28
Dan Soviero
Absolutely Michael thanks so much for having me really appreciate it.