 How are you my friend? I'm fantastic Casey, great to be with you. Thanks for joining us man. You know I was thinking the other day as I knew we were coming upon this and I'm like man I've known you for I think it's 20 years now. You know when we met at the gym in Rockville and you know I was training to kind of increase my stamina and endurance for live performances you remember that and and you were you know helping athletes become elite and it's it's incredible how far you've come. No I appreciate that you know one of the reasons I think you and I always got along so well is I always remember admiring and respecting you for for you trying to master your craft because that was exactly what I was trying to do and it's really neat to circle back 20 years later and and see how far we both have come and to be honest I don't think either one of us have aged a bit I think we look just as good as we just as good as we looked 20 years ago. I'd like to think so man. Well let me ask you a question man with with all that said I know you've spent a lot of time you know teaching companies and people how to be more productive. Given the current situation with COVID-19 you know how are you staying productive and clear headed through this crisis and what sage advice do you have for others? Well first and foremost I mean we are living in really challenging times right now but but what gives me a little bit of serenity and peace is I wake up every single morning and say to myself I'm just going to do the best I can with what I have where I am that's it. I realize we're all riddled with so many limitations right now and that nothing in the world is ideal but I'm still going to do the best I can with what I have where I am and I'm being really sensitive to doing my very best to not complain to not make excuses and to not blame anyone or anything. And I say that with a smile because as basic as that may sound that's not easy to do. I'm well aware that right now there are plenty of things to complain about plenty of things to blame or to make excuses about but you know as well as I do doing those three things won't improve our situation and they won't make things any better. So I look at those things as almost like an emotional weight vest and I simply want to take that weight vest off so I can be much more nimble. And instead I tend to focus on my own attitude and my own effort because those are really the only things I have 100% control over. Wow. No that makes sense and you know I was looking back and I know you tell the signature story about meeting the late great Kobe Bryant for the first time. And how do you think that story is applicable to everyone at Boston beer if you don't mind sharing? Oh I definitely don't mind it's my favorite story ever and and even though it's been well over a decade it still gives me the goosebumps to tell it. Well back in 2007 Nike actually flew me out to Los Angeles to work the first ever Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. So Nike decided to bring in the best high school and college players from around the country for the best player in the world and and I know you love basketball as much as I do but for any of your colleagues that aren't aware in 2007 Kobe was the best player in the game and I grew up in a basketball bubble so I had always heard this urban legend of how insanely intense his individual workouts were. Well now that I found myself on his camp staff I figured this was my chance this was my shot so my earliest opportunity I walked up to Kobe and asked if I could watch one of his private workouts. He was incredibly gracious and he said sure man no problem I'm going tomorrow at four and I got a little bit confused because I had just got done looking through the camp schedule and the camp schedule said that the first workout with the players was the following day at 3.30 and and Kobe recognized that confused look on my face and he quickly clarified that with yeah that's for a I couldn't think of a reason on why I couldn't be somewhere at four in the morning so I'd committed myself to being there and I figured if I'm going to be there anyway I may as well try and impress Kobe I may as well show him how serious of a trainer I was so I came up with the plan to beat him to the gym so I set my alarm for 3 a.m. the alarm goes off I jump up I get myself dressed I hop in a cab and I head to the gym and when I arrive it's 3.30 in the morning so it's pitch black outside and yet the moment I step out of the cab I can see that the gym light is already on even from the parking lot I could faintly hear a ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking well I walk in the side door Casey and Kobe's already in a full sweat see he was going through an intense warm-up before his official workout with his trainer started at four well out of professional courtesy I didn't say anything to him I didn't say anything to his trainer I just sat down to watch and for the first 45 minutes I was shocked for the first 45 minutes I watched the best player in the world do the most basic footwork and offensive moves he was doing stuff that I had routinely taught to middle school age players now this is Kobe Bryant so let's not get it twisted doing everything at an unparalleled level of effort and he was doing everything with surgical precision but the stuff he was doing was very very basic and the whole workout lasted a couple hours and when it was over again I didn't say anything to him or his trainer I just quietly left but boy my curiosity kept nipping away at me and I had to know so later that day at camp I went up to him again and I said Kobe you're the best player in the world why are you doing such basic drills and he flashed that million dollar smiled and said with a wink why do you think I'm the best player in the world because I never get bored with the basics I never get bored with the basics Kobe Bryant the best player on the planet and someone that has truly mastered his craft said his secret is that he never gets bored with the basics and as obvious as that may sound to everybody listening right now that was a life changing lesson for me it was at that moment that I realized that just because something is basic it doesn't mean that it's easy if it was easy everyone else would be doing it and you guys know we live in a world that tells us it's okay to skip steps tells us we should always be looking for a shortcut or a hack but anytime we do those things we're making a huge mistake because the basics work they always have and they always will and it doesn't matter if you're trying to improve something personally or professionally if you're trying to improve something individually or organizationally the very first step is admitting that the basics work but you also have to acknowledge that implementing the basics and the fundamentals every single day is never ever going to be easy and and I share that with with you and your amazing colleagues because if you won't want to continue to be elite and continue to separate yourself from everyone else don't worry about chasing the shiny and the flashy and the sexy have a relentless commitment especially during the unseen hours to mastering the basics so one of the first things you have to ask yourself or what are the basics I need to master to be great in my role with Boston beer company and if you can figure out what those basics are and work relentlessly towards mastering them you guys will continue to elevate the way you have been that's powerful Alan yeah and I think and I and I have felt that myself you know is is you know like you said there's a hack for everything there's a shortcut and and sometimes you know when we do the basics it feels boring but who but anytime you've done something for a length of time you know there is there is this mastery that can be achieved and and that in and of itself is worth the journey through some of the boring stuff so I hear you said I've also heard you say before that guys like Coby maximize their performance and productivity by focusing on three things can you share what those are yeah and I tell you what Casey those three things are that the same things that I'm trying to work on right now especially during this global pandemic and these are three things that if everybody listening can learn to focus on you'll not only see your performance go up which I know is important but equally important you'll see your happiness and your fulfillment go up as well which ultimately is what we're all trying to achieve the first thing is the ability to always move to the next play which means no matter what happens you simply refocus your lens on the next play you know I did spend most of my life in basketball so you all will have to excuse the basketball analogy but but if a player misses a layup like that play is over move to the next play you know if they turn the ball over it's not ideal but we have to move to the next play if the referee misses a call I get it it's not perfect but we have to move to the next play because anytime we spend worrying about the play that just happened we're taking away our mental physical and emotional energy to deposit in what's happening now and the present moment is always what's most important so no matter what happens because I'm sure we're not completely out of the dark with COVID-19 we're going to continue to have new limitations and new guidelines and all sorts of stuff and the quicker you can move to the next play the better off you'll be the second thing that we need to focus on I kind of teed up earlier is we just have to learn how to focus on what we can control it's controlling the controllables and that's our own effort and our own attitude we are responsible each and every one of us for showing up every single day even if it's virtually and giving the best effort that we are capable of working hard is a choice but there is also another side of that coin which means not working hard is also a choice and if you want to be happy and fulfilled and successful you can't choose that very often and then on the attitude side it really comes down to how do we choose to respond to the things going on in our life you know I can say with a wink that you and I had some technical difficulties before we got going to the end of almost an hour that it took for us to be able to do this and neither one of us got bent out of shape or frazzled or rattled because we chose a response that would actually help the situation and when when IT is not working for you getting upset and cursing and throwing stuff doesn't make the situation better instead we chose to laugh stay composed and troubleshoot in any way that we could and now here we are face to face so we chose a response that moved us forward so no matter what life those at you good bad or indifferent always choose a response that that moves you forward and then the last one is just learn how to trust and respect the process whatever your goals are that's your north star but you don't need to spend a lot of time worried about the north star what you need to focus on is the process of what it'll take to get there and here's the best way I can explain it I'm 44 years old I know I look 24 but no seriously I'm 44 years old and I've got this this loose vision of the man I want to be 20 years from now so who do I want the 64 year old Allen to be well without going into too much detail I want the 64 year old Allen to be physically mentally and emotionally fit I want the 64 year old Allen to have a deep connection with his children and his friends and his family and his closest clients and colleagues I want the 64 year old Allen to be doing what he considers meaningful work in service of other people so that's my north star that's who I want to be but what I focus on is my daily behavior and every single decision I make in my life Casey I quickly run through the filter of is this going to take me closer to being that guy or is this going to take me further away from who I follow on instagram to what I eat for lunch I ask myself is this going to increase the chance that I become that guy or decrease the chance and then obviously my goal every single day is to consistently choose the option that's going to take me closer as often as possible but I'm not perfect I'm not batting a thousand I'll make some I'll have some lapses in judgment and I'll make some mistakes but if I can consistently pick the right choice then that's inevitably I'm designing my own future and and I'm well aware of the fact that time is not promised there's no guarantee that I'll even live to see the age of 60 but if I do I'm pretty confident that that's the man that I'll become because these are the decisions I'm making now so I don't get too caught up in in the end result I get caught up in what I'm doing today and and on that note here's a question that I would love for each and every one of you to ask yourself every night before you go to bed say I just traded 24 hours of my life for the progress that I made today am I happy with that trade and if most nights when you go to bed you can smile and say yes I'm happy with that trade then you're on the right course yeah Alan thank you so much you know I you know it's it's you know we don't see each other as much as we used to but I have an enormous amount of respect for you and you know I just really appreciate you know you know you coming on and spending this time today I know it means a great deal to you and it certainly means a great deal to me oh absolutely my pleasure and you know I'm pretty active on social media so anybody listening if you'd like to connect and you'd like to ask me a question or throw something my way you can find me pretty easily just at Alan Stein jr on instagram twitter facebook whatever your favorite platform is just tell me you're part of the boston beer company family and if there's ever anything I can do to serve you guys it would it would be my honor to do it and Casey I think the world of you my friend and it's it's I'm very thankful that that we can still connect after 20 years thank you so much Alan right back at you my brother stay safe man