Joel Green: #Filtering

Our interview of Joel Green for “The Creative Influencer” podcast is available today for download on iTunes, Spotify, and premier platforms everywhere. Joel is a former professional basketball player, the CEO of Pro Level Training,—through which he runs Nike Sports Camps,—and is also the author of the upcoming book Filtering: The Way to Extract Strength From the Struggle.

Joel shares lessons learned from his transition from professional sports to business. This led him to develop a process he calls “filtering” to gain insight from your daily experiences and continually improve and grow from them. Joel also gives us his thoughts on student athletes being able to use their Name, Image and Likeness. Finally, we talk about how he engages with fans on social media.

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A transcript of the episode follows:

Jon Pfeiffer:
I am joined today by Joel Green. Welcome to the podcast.

Joel Green:
Hi. Thanks for having me on, Jon.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Oh, you bet. So now, just as a tease, you are an author, a new book coming out in September. You are a motivational speaker, you've given a TED Talk, a former professional basketball player, you now are the CEO of Pro Level Training. But I want to start with the important thing, you are the face of Cheez-It Crackers.

Joel Green:
That's the important thing.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I see the Cheez-Its show up in the background.

Joel Green:
Right, right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How did that come about?

Joel Green:
It's been a blessing, man. It's been a lot of fun. I'll say that. Just being a part of the campaigns, the programs, the annual games that takes place each year, which is always in different locations. It is always in the location of the final four during that same weekend, which draws a lot of people out, there's already a ton of people, different celebrities in town. So they come out and we have a celebrity basketball game that Kellogg's puts on for Cheez-Its, it's always Cheez-Its versus Pringles. Shaq is always involved, just other personalities.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I saw a picture of you sitting next to Shaq and to give our listeners an idea, you're almost as tall as Shaq and you're 6'8".

Joel Green:
Right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
He's bigger.

Joel Green:
And I still look small, exactly. And I still look short compared to him. So he's a human wall in essence, man. It's pretty funny.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. So I had to start with that just because I saw. Okay. So I wanted turn to a little bit more serious is, I wanted to talk to you about your background. Where are you from?

Joel Green:
I'm from Philadelphia.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And I read where something happened to you when you were six years old, that just doesn't normally happen to a six year old. Can you tell us about that?

Joel Green:
Sure. I was just hanging out with a friend after school and just to spend some time playing video games at his house. And I left a little while after school was probably about 4:30 or so. And just walking back, there was nobody else outside near the school grounds and walking back and about 10 feet away from me, a shooting takes place. It was two shooters, one kid that got shot. And I was right there. Obviously scary situation, I still remember the feeling, the freeze that I had, was like a cold feeling just kind of ran through my body from head to toe. And I paused, I saw the whole thing, being a curious little kid and just ran for my life. And to make it plain and thought I was going to get shot in the back myself. So, it was a pretty traumatic situation, but I had to handle it.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And then I've heard you talk about how the environment, you can either shape your environment or how your environment affects you. Can you talk about that?

Joel Green:
For sure. I mean, I feel like I've been told a lie my entire life, along with a lot of other people saying you're a product of your environment and you could say that's the case to an extent, but that removes the accountability from our side, from having us to see that our environments are products of us. I really feel that if we had the power to create or deteriorate our environments, but to just simply tell me that I'm a product of my environment shows me I have no control over what I do. So, I'm big on letting people know, no, you control what's around you. The moment you begin to change the things around you will begin to change. Even the people around you many times will begin to change.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And when for you did that happen?

Joel Green:
Whew. Yeah. As I got older, as I got older. I didn't realize that early on in life, it began to dawn on me, not that old, but as a teenager, I begin to see, okay, when I do X, Y, Z, or A, B, C, X, Y, Z happens. I began to realize the cause and effects side of life and just seeing, okay, if I do a good thing, good results begin to even trickle from that. And it's a nice domino effect from that. And as I inflict positive change, more positivity begins to happen as a result. And I just began to do as much as I possibly could to keep that going. And I began to see things around me change, and that showed me right then and there, I'm not a product of what I'm surrounded by, or I don't have to be. Now, there are cases to where so many fall victims to becoming nothing but a product of their environment, but I hate to not have people recognize that it can be the inverse as well.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which is a great transition to your book. The book's title is Filtering the Way to Extract Strength From the Struggle. And I read where you started writing this about six years ago. What prompted you?

Joel Green:
Yeah, just going through a number of things about six years ago, just going through life and difficulties, just transitions as far as really trying to make things work in business and just trying to figure out how, a lot of different how's. And I began reading a lot, researching a lot, just trying to figure things out, putting pieces of this huge puzzle together, called life. And coming up with ways and different things I can practice for myself that would allow me to have things become more streamlined as far as results. And feelings, that was a big thing for me, I just wanted to feel better, I just wanted to feel good. And in the process of doing that, I just began writing out different things I can practice, not just do once or twice, but actually practice on a daily basis. And I came up with this method called filtering. And-

Jon Pfeiffer:
What is filtering?

Joel Green:
Filtering is-

Jon Pfeiffer:
Just full disclosure because it hasn't come out yet, normally I read the book of the person I'm interviewing. I have not been able to see the book, so I'm going in blind.

Joel Green:
Makes it even more enjoyable then, I have no problem breaking it down to you.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah, please.

Joel Green:
Filtering itself is an extraction process. As far as with your emotions, your daily happenings, to really do your best, to get from the situations, to get from your emotions, to get from your problems, what they came for. Everything happens for a reason. I truly believe everything has a purpose whether you desire for it to be in front of you or not. And if we just simply ignore those things or sweep them under the rug like we so often do, then we get nothing, we get absolutely nothing from them. And those same situations will continually revolve as opposed to be resolved. And that's the whole intention of filtering is to get from what has happened or different ways we may feel so that we can start to resolve our situations in the moment as opposed to waiting for life in hindsight, to reveal all these answers to us, we can start to gain foresight and even avoid different things in the future.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So take us through an example. I'm trying to think of a problem where we could even...

Joel Green:
For sure, for sure.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. Say you get in a traffic accident and now you don't have a car. How would you approach that problem with filtering?

Joel Green:
All right, perfect situation. So with me, with filtering, I begin with just questioning the situation, but not emotionally. And that's one thing I tell people all the time, don't question your circumstances with emotion. Why did this happen to me? Or why is this going? You don't want to take it there. You can ask the same questions void of their emotions. That's when you're able to truly brainstorm and come up with solutions and answers with a level mindset. And by doing that, again, the brainstorming is a huge part of filtering. You're breaking everything down so that you can really figure out different solutions, different ways to get beyond the situation.
So if I'm out of a vehicle now because of the accident, I'll say, okay, what are some other avenues of transportation? Number one. Maybe who can I call, who can still get me from point A to point B? Okay. Are there some car sharing services in the meantime? Okay. What things that will have to take care of to expedite me getting another car back? These are things that we may not always feel like doing, obviously, the insurance company, things like that, but the most important things is doing what you need to do. It's not about what you always feel like doing or want to do. And for me, it's really breaking down that situation and saying, this is probably going to allow me to get a better vehicle at the end of this, if I go about this thing in the right way. And that's just really what it's all about.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Let's take a different example. That was kind of a mundane one. Let's talk about a personal, your... God, it's too dark to say your spouse leaves you. Your...

Joel Green:
Go for it.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. Your spouse leaves you. How do you work through that?

Joel Green:
That's a great one. So, right there is a situation to where you can question the entire situation, but also question yourself. You should always look in the mirror with these things, have a great level of accountability when it comes to filtering, because we are the primary controllers of our life. So if we remove ourselves from a situation, we'll never truly figure things out. A situation like that, you ask, okay, well, why did they leave? Things like that. Is it me? But again, asking these things without the emotion being involved, because you won't have clarity in that moment. So if there's things to where you may say, okay, let me look at myself, let me look in the mirror, let me see different insecurities that I may have. Let me go ahead and look at different areas where I may be incomplete.
Even if it's not your fault or something like that, you may still be able to discover incomplete areas of yourself, to where you know what, you say, okay, let me actually work on these areas. Let me actually listen to some of the complaints that they had, let me consider them. Let's see if they actually made sense. And by doing that, again, these aren't easy things to do because you're still seeing faults of your own, but if you dare try to have some empathy, even from the other side and say, okay, does any of that make sense? You may discover a few things that will actually help you to improve even beyond your current situation. Let's say you get into another situation. You'll be even more complete vessel and person in that circumstance.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So when does the book come out?

Joel Green:
The book comes out September 6th.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And where can people find it to pre-order?

Joel Green:
Right now, you can pre-order through my website, which is joelbgreen.com. It will be up on Amazon pretty soon as well. As far as the ebook, you can pre-order, I think it's all they allow right now, as opposed to paperbacks and hardback, but once it's released, it's going to be on every major platform, barnesnoble.com, Amazon and as well through my website, which I'm providing an incentive for people to pre-order, I'm personalizing copies as far as autographing different messages for anyone at pre-orders.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Cool. So I want to transition now because you played professional basketball, but first let's talk about your college experience. I read where you were on two different teams that won national championships. I don't know anybody that's done that. Tell us about that.

Joel Green:
It's funny. As I think about it, I think, wow, okay. It's a different experience to be able to win a national title, which is no small feat, go to another school and do the exact same thing with a whole new group of people, whole new coaching staff. For me, I was recently talking to a group about this. I told them, they asked me about celebration, they said, "How often do you celebrate your victories?" I said, "I celebrate them, but not that long." I'm not big on becoming complacent. And I know what brings about complacency. And for me, it's as a result of extended celebration. I don't want to rest on my laurels. I don't want to say, "Oh wow. I'm amazing." It's funny, I keep myself with a level of insecurity so that I continually improve.
That's something I do intentional. I don't want to be perfect because there's no growth from there. I love growth. So I keep myself with a level of imperfection, but still fortified enough to where I can still excel, but I'm not trying to be perfect. I never wanted to be. So when it comes to, after winning the national championship, I say, okay, it was cool. I celebrated probably for a few days. And I moved on from it because I wanted to do it again. So in order to rinse and repeat that process, I said, okay, I got to get back to work as if it never happened. And I expressed that to my new team that I joined. I said, "Okay, yes, I got that last year, but I want another one. Here's what we did last year, but we can do this. And we do a little bit more."

Jon Pfeiffer:
How long did it take your new team to buy in?

Joel Green:
They bought in right away. I mean, because they already had a mentality, which is why I went there, they had a mentality that was already ultra competitive and they attacked me every day and that's what I wanted. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone there. I told the coach-

Jon Pfeiffer:
Go ahead.

Joel Green:
I told the coach, I said, "If the team is not going to compete, I don't want to be here."

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. And I read where you would work out like 10, 11 hours a day?

Joel Green:
Absolutely.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How did you transition from having that kind of physical commitment to when you stopped playing professional sports and transitioned into the business world? What was that transition like?

Joel Green:
It was tough, man. That was one of the toughest transitions I've ever made. I went through depression, anxiety, all the above, just transitioning out of that competitive environment into just a more domesticated, sedentary side of life. I was used to moving around, just traveling a little bit more often and just getting that adrenaline rush from competition, that was the cherry on top of everything, for athletes, athletes know that's why you played the game. You just can't wait to take your skill out on somebody else. And to not be able to do that, it was extremely tough, man. Extremely.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Tell that to Tom Brady.

Joel Green:
Oh, right, right, right. He doesn't get it yet. He hasn't fully felt that just yet.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I want to take you back to your college days. When you were playing, they didn't have name, image and likeness rights. You couldn't sell your NIL, so-called NIL. What's your take on it? Is that a good thing for the sport or is that a bad thing for the sport?

Joel Green:
NIL, to me, is an amazing thing for the sport. Being a former collegiate athlete, we discussed this even then. This is over a decade ago now, but we've talked about this. Hey, we walk in a bookstore, look at our jersey being sold to all the students, look at our posters being signed, signed posters with our signature that we would many nights, we would go to the coach's office and they say, "Hey guys, can you sign these posters?" So we're sitting there signing hundreds of posters, signing these different basketballs, and these things are being sold. They're being sold for cost because of our signatures. Our jerseys are being sold because our names and our numbers are on them. And we got nothing for them. And we were on video games. We got nothing for it.
We would be walking through the student center and people were playing with us. "Hey guys, look, we're playing with you right now." We have to stare at ourselves on a video game and we get nothing for it, so I'm glad that now the NIL is in. And I'm going to talk about a side that isn't really discussed. It adds to the professional side of sports as well, because we're always talking about how rookies and just professional athletes in general, don't know how to handle their finances. They don't know how to be a professional, to be honest with you. It's their first major job, all pro's, it's their first major job. So they don't know exactly how to do, they're learning as they go.
The thing I like about the NIL now, is it gives you a two year or so, maybe three to four year headstart on how to be professional, how to show up to an appointment, how to show up to a photo shoot and how to handle your finances. And typically for these college students that are now allowed to be paid, they have a great team around them because they truly don't know how to handle themselves. You know what I mean? I think allowing these star athletes and just many athletes to have a head start as to how to be a pro. It's kind of like, not an internship, but it is giving you a little bit of a co-op situation where you're learning how to do it.

Jon Pfeiffer:
A little taste of it.

Joel Green:
Right, right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. What advice would you give to college students that look like they're good enough, they might have a shot at the pros on managing their brand, if you will?

Joel Green:
Be consistent, be consistent. You want to make sure that people know and can recognize your brand as something. And the only way it can be recognized is if you're consistent, if you're inconsistent, they won't be able to say, okay, they are X, Y, Z, they won't know what they're going to get, so they won't buy into you. So my advice would just be obviously, in addition to being consistent on the court or on the field or on the ice, I would say be consistent with how you interact with the public. It's a huge side of branding. If you don't know how to interact with the public, they won't want to buy into you. So, that'll be my greatest advice to them.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Now, you played how many years of professional ball?

Joel Green:
Only about five. I really wanted to do-

Jon Pfeiffer:
Well, that's five more than I played.

Joel Green:
Right. I mean, it was a whole lot of fun, man, and got my business license while I was even abroad playing in Europe. And I had a true urge to entertain the other side too.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And now, you are the CEO of Pro Level Training. What is Pro Level Training?

Joel Green:
Pro Level Training, we're a company, we train the minds and the bodies of athletes. That's a huge thing for me. I have a degree in psychology, so I'm big on the mindset of life, but even regards to sport of course, I saw what it did for me in sport, what it did on the court, when it did for me, I ran track and field in high school. I saw what it did for me as I began to hear about these things early in life, once I started to really study it, it was a game changer. So in Pro Level Training, we just do our best to really help develop the mindsets of these athletes, any sport that we work with through our camps, our Nike camps, and through other clinics that we put on around the country. And just try to make a complete athlete.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You can't just slide that one by, Nike camps, talk about the camps.

Joel Green:
Right. So, I mean, I'm a national director with Nike sports camps. So I mean, we have our Pro Level Training Nike camps all around the country. We have, literally this summer, close to 70 camps in a matter of about eight and a half weeks taking place and close about 40 cities. That's something that we tackle with a number of different sports, and we're so big on making sure this is taken care of, making sure the mindset of the athletes are there, how do you handle problems at home, but still be able to perform on the court? How do you handle anxiety and still be able to perform? These are the things that we talk about. We actually have classrooms within our camps. Each and every day, we take the kids and put them in the classroom as one of our drill stations, so that we can talk to them and understand them and help build their IQ toward the game of basketball and other sports that we cover.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And I read where you have programs for high school and college students talking about goals on your three step method to achieving goals. Can you tell us about that?

Joel Green:
Absolutely. So, I mean, the thing is, I talk to everyone, but when it comes to speaking to athletes, that's nothing like home base. I've been around them, whether they know it or not, I know exactly who they are. Literally, we can say, blood, sweat and tears and mean it. We've bled on our courts and fields. We've cried as a result of defeat and victory. And we sweat like... We really just understand one another. So when I speak to them, I talk another language. And I tell them one thing all the time, I give a scenario just so they can see how important goals are and goal setting is. I tell them all, whether I'm talking to lacrosse players, hockey players, basketball, football, soccer, I tell them all to envision their sport with no goals, no physical goal, no net for soccer and for hockey, no hoop for basketball, no goal line for football, no field goal posts for football.
And I tell them, I said, if they had no goals out there, they would be wandering around aimlessly, nothing to aim for, truly. And I let them know that's the same way it is in life. If we don't set goals for ourselves or have something to aim for, we're kind of just here wandering around aimlessly and having things happen by osmosis and with no intent.

Jon Pfeiffer:
That's a great example. I've not heard it put quite that way. So I want to start to wrap it up, but you have one or two children?

Joel Green:
One.

Jon Pfeiffer:
One. Boy or girl?

Joel Green:
Boy.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How old?

Joel Green:
Nine.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Okay. Is he athletic?

Joel Green:
Absolutely.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Now, there's a debate about how soon you should push a kid into sports. What's your view? Should you do all the sports or pick a sport early on?

Joel Green:
I would say it is both as far as just kind of reading, some kids just navigate toward one. Others just want to do it all. And I say embrace what they navigate toward. For me, obviously, let's take my son as an example, he navigates towards basketball because he's around me. He knows that sport better than any other sport, his IQ for it is high. However, he loves playing all sports, loves playing soccer, enjoys playing football in a yard or baseball. So, let's play those sports. Let's do them. He played soccer when he was about three or four years old, but he didn't like getting kicked in the leg, so he was like, all right, let's do something else.
My opinion is to entertain it all, see if they do have a knack for one or two over others and help groom those areas more than the other areas, that way you can still help them. You can help them to specialize in one or two sports. Because I know how it is as a child, when you have a specialty, your self confidence is through the roof. When you know you do something really well, it goes through the roof. And it's nothing like having that self esteem, that self confidence as a child, you just can't wait to do that thing to show other people what you can do. So from my end, obviously I help him with basketball. I know that personally more than I know any other sport, but I help him with athletics as a whole. When we workout, when we train, we don't just do basketball. We do just training. So I tell parents that all the time, just help cultivate what you see them going toward naturally. And if you can help them, help them.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Last question, where can people find you on the internet? You teased it a little earlier, but if people wanted to follow you, where can they find you?

Joel Green:
Right. So you can find me all over. I'm on social media. I'm on Instagram pretty heavy, @jaygreenplt. That's J-A-Y green P-L-T. I'm on Facebook. You can find me with Joel Green. But again, through my website, as I mentioned earlier, joelbgreen.com. And I'm very big on interaction and engagement, so if anyone contacts me, I'll get back to you and I'm always looking to help others.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Thank you. This has been really enjoyable.

Joel Green:
Absolutely. I appreciate it, Jon.

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