Reconnecting with Jim Morris to discuss everything that's happened since the Disney hit film "The Rookie". Jim provides a sneak peek at the details revealed in his new book, Dream Makers – including why he left baseball, his personal struggles with addiction and chronic illness, and how he persevered through all of it. SHOW NOTES [2:28] Striking ou…

Chris Mallee is a journalist for 4th and Jawn, a popular Philadelphia Eagles blog. After 4 years of going to college to be a teacher, he flipped the script and decided to pursue his dream of becoming a sports writer. Here's how he did it. SHOW NOTES [4:31] From track team walk-on to school record holder [8:22] Taking a leap of faith to become a spo…

Pat O’Shea is an Advance Scouting Analyst for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He previously pitched at Haverford College (Division III) where he helped the Fords win the 2016 Centennial Conference Championship. SHOW NOTES [4:45] O'Shea vs. O'Shea in the Centennial Conference [9:16] Lessons learned as a college pitcher [11:52] A roadmap for starting your c…

Robert Klinchock is a left-handed pitcher in the Detroit Tigers organization. Despite pitching 3 straight complete game shut-outs and helping Shenandoah University win back-to-back conference championships, he wasn’t invited to any pre-draft workouts. Drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 35th round, Klinchock became one of just nine Division 3 play…

Richard Colman AM is a Paralympic athlete who represented Australia in four Paralympics. Richard was born with spina bifida, the second most common disability in the world behind cerebral palsy. Competing primarily in category T53 sprint events, Richard has won multiple gold medals and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2014. He is also…

Coach George Bennett won 531 games as a college coach at Saint Joseph’s University and Villanova University. He was named Big East Conference Coach of the Year twice and Villanova retired his jersey number 6 in 2003. Bennett produced seven major leaguers including Gene Schall and Gary Scott. His first recruit was a left-handed pitcher named Jamie M…

Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry is a New York Times Bestselling author and co-founder of IHHP, a successful research-based training company. He is an advisor to the US Army and Navy, Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Mercedes Benz, and Goldman Sachs and is a performance coach to NFL and NBA teams, Olympic medal-winning athletes, and even the CIA. SHOW NOTES [3:…

Sal Tartaglia is the author of World Series Chronology: Compare, Contrast, & Coordinate The Champions. In our conversation, he discusses the arduous self-publishing process, and the various creative marketing tactics he's using to promote his book. SHOW NOTES [3:25] Discovering his love for the game [9:00] Challenges of a first-time author [16:00] …

Randy Ginsburg is the author of Adversity to Advantage: How to Overcome Bullying & Find Entrepreneurial Success. Featured in major publications like Inc. and Newsweek, the book explores the stories of highly successful entrepreneurs who have used the trauma of bullying as fuel for personal growth. SHOW NOTES [5:35] Bullying within the friend group …

Frank King spent 20 years as a writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno before sharing his story of what was really going on behind the scenes. In 2014, Frank came out as depressed and suicidal in his very first TED Talk. Since then, he's become known as The Mental Health Comedian, speaking across the country and helping save countless lives in th…

Henry Duncan is a contributing writer at Joker Mag. In our conversation, Henry shares his deeply personal journey from 34% body fat to 11%, battling depression, and how the underdog mentality continues to shape his life. SHOW NOTES [7:27] Harsh truths about the underdog mentality [12:12] Battling depression and transforming his life [19:35] How to …

Frances Reimers is the CEO of Firestarter, a personal branding firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. Every day, Frances helps athletes, coaches, and sports executives across the nation to develop, manage, enhance, and protect a key professional asset: their personal brands. SHOW NOTES [3:27] What is a personal brand? [10:22] Leaving a six-figure job …

New to Hustle & Motivate? Start here!

Shawn Harper is a former NFL offensive lineman who played a total of seven seasons with the Rams, Colts, Oilers, and NFL Europe. He's also the CEO of a multi-million-dollar security services firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. But before he was blocking pass-rushers on an NFL field, Shawn was just a kid with a dream. In fact, he barely started in…

Raymond Power is an actor and writer. He's appeared in eight films and is also a college student with several honors under his belt, including the 2019 DREAM Scholar Award. As a teenager, he joined a gang and served time in prison after getting shot four times. After his release, he started a family which helped him find a new purpose. SHOW NOTES […

Tim Flattery is the host of The Moonlight Graham Show, a podcast celebrating the role player, underdog, and the great stories in sports. With 116 episodes and counting, the aptly named show features guests ranging from a Paralympic gold medalist to an NFL long-snapper to the PCL Pitcher of the Year. SHOW NOTES [3:10] How he played a real baseball g…

Papa Joe DeMaio is a singer, songwriter, actor, and speaker. A Vietnam veteran, he's battled PTSD and addiction on the way to living his dream. Joe and has toured with the likes of Eddie Money, Pat Travers, Randy Jackson (Zebra), and many other legendary musicians. Today, he's the lead singer of his band, The Papa Joe Show. SHOW NOTES [3:45] What i…

Kevin Caliber is a Hollywood actor, filmmaker, and fitness model. A Marine veteran, Kevin is known for his work on the Hulu series Future Man as well as Supergirl and The Haves and the Have Nots. Since taking the leap of faith and moving to Hollywood at 30-years-old, Kevin has accumulated over 75 acting credits, 15 as a producer, and has worked wit…

Zack Bryers has been a homeless teenager, a soldier in Afghanistan, and a football player for Australia in the IFAF World Championship in Canton, Ohio. In 2018, he was named ACT Young Australian of the Year for his work with at-risk youth. Today, he's helping small businesses grow and leave a lasting legacy. SHOW NOTES [5:25] A near-deadly scuffle …

Manny Kess is the founder & CEO of The Kess Group, a full service concierge company based out of Las Vegas. His clientele includes A-List celebrities and superstar athletes such as Odell Beckham Jr., Von Miller, Jarvis Landry, Travis Kelce, Stefon Diggs, Kevin Durant, and many more. SHOW NOTES [3:38] How often Manny sees his NFL friends [5:41] Why …

Brittany Gilman spent the better part of her early life as an athlete. From skiing at 2-years-old, to snowboarding professionally, to strength training, she was always driven to be the best. But after an internship turned out to be a waste of time, Brittany decided -- right then and there -- to launch her own sports agency. It wasn't easy, and she …

James Perdue always dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. He had the attitude of being invincible and that nothing could stop him. Going to college on a baseball scholarship, the dream felt closer than ever. But just two weeks in, everything changed in a game of pick-up football. After scoring a touchdown, James took a late hit that i…

Brian T Shirley is a comedian and actor who's toured the US, Canada, Japan, and The Bahamas for over 25 years. As an actor, he's appeared in various short films, commercials, music videos, and even series on Amazon and Netflix! But on September 11th of 2018, everything came to a screeching halt. That’s when Brian suffered a near-fatal heart attack …

LeRon L. Barton has been a life long stutterer who was teased, afraid to speak, and often stayed silent in social situations. Refusing to let his speech impediment stop him from living his life, LeRon turned it into energy that's allowed him to appear on over 50 podcasts, become a guest on Al Jazeera, and speak at TEDxWilsonPark. He is living proof…

I can’t even begin to imagine going through what Jeanne Enstad has: 28 years of major surgeries, 4 open hearts, cancer twice, gangrene in both her legs, a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler, and 2 visits to heaven. By the end of it, she came out with $290,000 in medical bills and a new lease on life. Her first book, “A Journey of Hope to Heaven a…

In just three months, 35-year-old Jim Morris went from high school science teacher to flame-throwing major league pitcher. He captured the hearts of the nation when Disney turned his story into the feature film, "The Rookie", starring Dennis Quaid. Jim Morris never gave up on his dream. And today, speaking in arenas across the globe, he's showing o…

Joel Hawbaker is a professional speaker, award-winning teacher, and 3x Amazon best-selling author. Standing at just 5'3", he's fought an uphill battle to prove himself his whole life. From youth sports all the way to college athletics, he's shown that size isn't everything. These days, Joel is living his passion, teaching students of all ages about…

Ian Harding was overweight for most of his young life. Constantly picked on, made fun of, and picked last for team sports, he finally decided to make a change when he was about to graduate college. So he registered for a triathlon while weighing over 300 pounds and not having his own bike. Then, exactly one year later, he raced in that triathlon 10…

When he was just 12-years-old, Owais Raza's father abandoned his family, leaving them in a financial crisis. Too young to get jobs, Owais and his brother turned to the internet. Over the next four years, they figured out how to make money online to support their family. Then, at 16-years-old, Owais found himself in another dilemma -- no one took hi…

Maxwell Ivey was born into a carnival family. As a kid, he helped out with everything he could. Problem was, his vision was starting to go. By the time he was a young adult, he was totally blind. In our conversation, Max tells the story of his transformation from "morbidly obese failed carnival owner to a respected amusement equipment broker" in th…

When Josh Muskin graduated college, he lost a sense of purpose. As a lifelong athlete, he felt as if he had nothing left to train for. His competitive nature went away. Then, in the fall of 2017, he came across a Facebook post of a friend crossing the finish line at Ironman Canada. And it lit a fire under Josh. He decided right then and there that …

Growing up in a small California town, Huseyin Aksu always had the entrepreneurial spirit. In middle school, he started selling everything from Star Wars trading cards to song lyrics (this was the pre-iPhone era). After working for his college newspaper, Huseyin decided to start doing a fantasy football segment. That idea quickly turned into Fantas…

After coming out of a coma, Collin Saring had to re-learn how to walk, talk, and go to the bathroom on his own. When doctors released him from the hospital, his mind state was equivalent to that of a 12-year-old boy. By the time he felt back to normal, his life came crashing down on him again. Clinically depressed and weighing 305 pounds, he knew h…

One summer night after his sophomore year of college, Collin Saring's life changed forever. He spent two and half months in the hospital with a brain infection and was in a coma for two weeks. When he finally came out of it, his mind had regressed to the state of a child. He needed to re-learn everything -- how to walk, how to talk, and how to go t…

Dan Lazzaroni a former professional pitcher who endured a rollercoaster of ups and downs throughout his career. He spent time bouncing around the indy leagues before signing a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. After rising through the ranks, all the way up to Triple-A, a shoulder injury threw his career off the rails. With his dream …

André Butler went from being barely recruited to a Division 3 school, to being an assistant coach on one of the top Division 1 baseball programs in the country. Coach Butler started a movement at Penn State called the "Graveyard Mentality". He describes his outfield as "a place where the hopes of base hits are laid to rest". The "Graveyard" has hel…

Manny Espinal is a Major League Baseball reporter for Big Sports Bulletin and Canal America, a news station in the Dominican Republic. Based out of New York, Manny spends a lot of time at both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field throughout the season interviewing players. In our conversation, Manny gives us a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a pro…

Matt Morrison put in serious work before finding his home at LW Branding, a boutique branding and marketing agency working with professional athletes such as Kirk Cousins, Matt Carpenter, Brent Suter, and more. His insane work ethic and genuine nature is a reason he's been able to get to where he is today. In this episode, Matt tells his story and …

Jesse Bradley is a former professional goalkeeper who played in Africa and Scotland. He’s also a radio host, podcaster, author, and pastor at Grace Community Church in Auburn, Washington. Since he was 3-years-old, Jesse's mission was to be a professional athlete. He played three sports in high school and was a goalkeeper at Dartmouth where he won t…

Before he won Lost Reality Music's $10K contest, King Blitz was grinding on the independent circuit. Through years of raw determination, passion, and unwavering self-belief, he broke through the noise and emerged as the label's new breakout artist. You can keep up with King Blitz at KingBlitzMusic.com Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag…

A few years ago, Tanner Reklaitis was a sophomore NAIA pitcher throwing 81 mph. Then, one day, he decided he was tired of being average. After a grinding away on the Driveline training program six or seven days a week for two years, he topped out at 95.9 mph, putting himself closer than ever to being a legitimate draft prospect. Today, he’s helping…

Corey Taylor was born with a severe facial deformity and has spent the last 30 years of his life inspiring others and showing them that you can overcome any obstacle put in front of you. This is a man who's been through a heck of a lot more than most people and has kept a positive attitude the entire way. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by Joke…

Athlete Nation started as a Twitter account in 2012, when Hunter Radenslaben was just 12-years-old. Heading into his freshman year of high school, Hunter lost his mother to cancer. It was during that time that he made the decision to create something bigger than himself. A place to share uplifting messages that would create a positive impact on the…

A year ago, Joe Hart decided to change his life for the better. After detoxing his social media and getting back in shape, he made the decision to start sharing his message with the world. That message? Average is the Enemy. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag.com, the home of the underdog. Subscribe to The Underdog Newsletter: https://…

Quiet and shy growing up, Anthony John turned to music as an outlet. Through consistent hard work, his confidence grew over time. And it's taken him a long way. A short time ago, he won the Funk Flex freestyle contest. Today, he's an up-and-coming artist who's worked with the likes of established hip-hop heavyweights such as Cassidy and Mark Battle…

Russell Wilde joined the Front Office Sports team after founder Adam White posted in the University of Miami's Facebook group asking for some help with a new project. Since then, they've built their publication into an authority in the sports business industry. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag.com, the home of the underdog. Subscribe…

Just a year ago, Nicolas Sebastian was playing Fortnite in his college dorm room. Now he makes a full-time income online. And he's made it his mission to help you do the same. It all starts with your mindset. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag.com, the home of the underdog. Subscribe to The Underdog Newsletter: https://jokermag.com/new…

Chatting with New York-based Steadicam Operator, Kat Kallergis. From working at her father's restaurant to shooting the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live, Kat's pursuit of her dreams is filled with lessons we can all learn from. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag.com, the home of the underdog. Subscribe to The Underdog Newslette…

Chatting with Jacolby Gilliam, a walk-on Division 1 athlete at Oklahoma who built his own sports media platform called 9INE POINT Magazine. It's an athlete-driven platform with the goal of inspiring athletes to achieve their version of greatness. Jacolby has found a way to overcome every obstacle put in front of him, and his journey will teach you …

Chatting with Maxim Magazine staff writer and Billboard contributor Brandon Friederich. Hailing from a small town in Iowa, Brandon worked his way into a role with one of the most popular men's magazines in America. His never-say-die attitude will show you what it takes to reach your goals. Hustle & Motivate is brought to you by JokerMag.com, the ho…