Episode 006:
Experience Matters with Eric Newton: Collin Sadler on Clemson Football and NIL Opportunities – 006

Welcome everyone. This is, experience matters with Eric Newton today. I’m with, Colin Sadler. Colin, glad to have you on the podcast. Thanks for, thanks for joining us. You’re, you are the first person to be in our new studio. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. So this is, we did this over Christmas break. we took a little bit of, of a break with our podcast for a little while, mainly because

one, were trying to get this ready and, and then time just flew by and it was a little longer than, than we had, we would have liked, but, so you’re, you were, you’re getting to break it in with me here today. so I don’t know what you think about it. It’s a really good setup. I haven’t done too many podcasts, but this is the nicest one I’ve done. will say that. nice. Well, and speaking of the pot, you, you, you, said, you’re telling me earlier that you’ve, you’ve been on podcasts before.

Yes, sir. Yeah. I had the opportunity to speak with a Walker parks and Blake Miller. Those are my two current roommates. I was able to have the opportunity to speak with them on two right turns. It’s kind of our in-house Clemson football podcast. So kind of got to break down stuff off the field, kind of like what we do, how we build our friendship and just kind of the chemistry we have. So it was fun to touch on. Now, where is that podcast room? Is that at the practice facility? So it’s in the facility. So we have a whole new area in the facility. I think it was completed last year. It’s called the cab.

which is basically it’s an area where we handle all our NIL stuff. We have an NFL locker room for guys that come back and train and do all that kind of stuff. Podcast rooms, studio rooms, pretty much anything you need for media production, we have it over there. So it was really nice to get that addition gives us a much bigger platform to be able to market ourselves outside of the field and really to showcase our personalities.

So how do they decide who gets to host the podcast? that’s different people every time, right? It is. I’m not exactly sure how they pick it out. I had Deja Robinson. She did an excellent job with us. I’ve also seen Alex Bina, our director of applied science for, for the football team. He ran one of those and then Ross Taylor, our media relations kind of head man there. He also ran one, but we’ve done quite a few now. There’s been a lot of guys who’ve had an opportunity.

Pretty cool. You’re doing that. That room looks pretty cool. It is. Yeah. They did a great setup over there. They have, um, they have this huge tiger rug. forgot exactly who it belonged to. It was one of like the early, early coaches at Clemson. So it was cool. Kind of being able to look at the history on the floor, kind of surround yourself with the modern, the old, was cool. Yeah. Do you recognize the floor? Does that look familiar? Oh, maybe not. But I can’t put my finger on it. So this was like our, our, our flooring supplier.

also does a lot of work over there at the university. I think this, I think this might’ve been a floor that was leftover, some scraps that were leftover from some of the stuff that they, did over, over on campus. So I about to say, recognize the pattern. mean, I’m so used to orange and purple everything. it all kind of blends into me this point, but I could be wrong, but I think that’s what they told me. And I wanted something with a little orange in it. And so, my wife had to figure out how to decorate this room based on the color. Cause she normally picks out all the

all the, you know, the materials that we use for, all the stuff that we do. And I said, this is what we’re starting with. So good luck. Here we go. Yeah, she did. She did. She did do a great job. This was a, this was my CFO’s office for a long time. And, I decided that, it’s doubling as a lounge, you know, like meeting space. got the TV there. So, we were doing the podcast in my, in my basement, the wine cellar and

And, funny quick story is like, was like, you know, we’ve been, we’ve been reaching out to a lot of different, a lot of different folks and, know, not on my, as big as you are, you would have had a hard time getting down the stairs. We’ve got a little spiral, you know, staircase going down. And, but I was thinking, you know, we had a real high profile guy, like politician type guy that we’re looking at, you know, bringing on the show and he still might, he still might come. I’m like, you know, how’s he going to feel like walking down and like going into this like.

almost like secret type room going down a little spiral staircase. He’s going to like, what in the world have I gotten myself into? You know, so I’m like, we got it. We got to have a dedicated room. Plus it’s, you know, it’s just a little, little difficult when you have to go over there and set everything up. but this is a, this is a much better setup and we’re really excited about it. Glad to have you here, um, on the show with us and we appreciate, uh, appreciate you, uh, uh, moving out to, uh, or

you’re going to be moving out to Maverick and we’ll talk about that in a little bit. so glad we were able to work out, you know, deal with you and, and, uh, are you excited about being on the billboards? Oh, I’m super excited. That’s such a cool opportunity. You you don’t see a whole lot of guys marketing themselves and having people market them through billboards these days because everything’s online. So it’s a really nice change of pace. I’m excited to see that. I already sent it to my mom and everything and they’re all freaking out. think I’m not just me. think a lot of people are excited.

Yeah, I’m excited for you. And, you know, we did have for the viewers, like we had, we had a little bit of a, a little bit of a connection. You went to Greenville high school and you were, you’re a year older than my daughter, Ella, who’s a sophomore here, right? You’re a year older than this. Yeah. So, and I think y’all, y’all were, you know, on knew each other from, yeah. So, so we had a little bit, it was, it was a real easy, real easy decision. And I’ve heard a lot of good things about you. So it’s like,

It was a good fit for us and the project that we’re doing over there at Maverick Hills. So to tell us a little bit about yourself, like you said, I know you’re from Greenville and just give us a little background about yourself. All right. Well, I’m Colin Sadler. Again, this is my fourth year here at Clemson. Things kind of get a little blurry when I mention about, am I a junior or a senior because I enrolled early. I came a semester early here. So I like to say I’m like a junior and a half.

You have two years left of eligibility. years. Three years left. I got a medical for this year. having just only had the opportunity to play in two games before I started getting hurt a little bit. But I mean, those two were really fun games. I enjoyed playing in them. Just trying to get healthy right now. an injury to my back. first it started with you just had surgery, right? Yes, sir. I’m nine weeks out as of this past Tuesday. Okay. So I think it’s been that long. It’s been a long time. Yeah. It feels like forever. Cause when you go through a whole season and I mean, all your friends are busy. So you’re just kind of in your own world with all the other injured guys. So it kind of makes time pass slower. Sometimes, sometimes it flies by, but it has been long enough in my opinion. I’m ready to get back going. Yeah. Is that, was that really hard for you? Um, you know, being on the field early on and playing in a lot of games and then getting hurt and then having to watch either from the sidelines or from home. mean, you did it. You weren’t able to travel. are you? No, sir. Um, I traveled to Florida state.

forgot exactly what game that was, but first half of the season kind of towards the end of the first half really, but I only got the opportunity to travel to that and I did go to Texas, well to Austin for that playoff game. So where do you watch the games when you’re, I imagine that’s a crazy feeling like, I’m supposed to be there right now.

You know, so where do you go watch the games? Do you go home because you’re close to Greenville or do you watch them in your apartment or where do you watch the games? I watch them at my buddy’s house actually. So Mason Johnstone, he’s a good friend of mine, kind of grew up in similar circles, but he has a house that’s right across the street from me. He was injured at the same time he had, he had knee surgery. So we were kind of, we were kind of buddies the whole process and they have this.

this whole crazy setup with like, it’s like four 70 inch TVs. wow. They’ve somehow managed to sink together on one wall. So I don’t know. The people on the screen are about as big as I am when I’m watching them. It was really fun to be able to go do that. Yeah. But, now when you’re watching the game, like what’s that like? Are you, are you critical or are you, are you, are you, are you a fan or like how, how was, how was that interaction with

when you’re watching the games. was kind of a weird progression. So coming off of my injury, I’d say I was more critical just kind of being in that football mindset, understanding what they’re going to do. But one thing that I was really grateful for with this injury, which I mean, it sounds crazy to say, but you learn lessons in every part of your life. be thankful for everything that I have. Like I remember nine weeks ago or even before that, like the last weeks, you know, I wasn’t able to put my own socks on. I wasn’t able to dress myself after surgery. Just like

Having the opportunity to go watch your friends and these people that you’re so close with go compete, do what they love to do and just be supportive for your guys. Because I mean, when you’re hurt, that’s really all you can do. You can cheer them on, be their biggest supporter. So I’ve been able to step into that role pretty well in my opinion. I’m really grateful to be able to do that. Yeah, that’s awesome. So how are you feeling? You feeling better or? Really good. Yeah, I feel good. They’re taking a little bit of a slow approach, which I mean, with the extra time that we get out of season, I feel like that’s a smart approach.

I should be able to start working back into some strength training and things like that in about three weeks time. So they’ve been real slow, real careful and making sure I don’t feel any pain or anything. But I was able to jog on a shred and all for the first time today and nine weeks. So super grateful for that. Feel good right now. Can’t complain too much. That’s good. That’s good. So what did you, how’d you feel about the, the way the season ended? It was disappointing. I feel like, you know,

especially like knowing how much that our guys put into it. feel as though everybody was disappointed obviously, but I think the biggest thing that we proved ourselves and other people is there’s nobody in the country we can’t play with. We’re a competitive football team. have all the makeup to be a great team. But I think the big step this off season is really making sure that we’ve all gelled well, build relationships out of position and make sure we’re just a closer team going into next year. Right. I mean, you got to.

I mean, basically, practically the whole team coming back or a chunk of it, a lot of, a lot of starters. there’s loaded and you’re going to be good. You’re going to be loaded. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. I’m really, really grateful for the people that are coming back. you know, our NIL collective did a great job retaining our talent, making sure that guys are happy with their situation, making sure that guys not only are motivated to stay, but want to stay. So that’s important. You know, you can tell when somebody’s on the field and doesn’t really want to be there.

So being able to see guys that are excited about this upcoming year and the opportunities ahead of them has been great as well. So from your perspective, you were recruited to come to Clemson right out of high school. And then there’s a lot of pressure now with schools using the portal and everything. What is your take on the portal itself? And do you find it to be a useful tool or do you think it’s a

you know, stepping on toes kind of a thing or like, just tell me your kind of your thoughts on, the portal. I view it as a double edged sword. I mean, obviously there are guys that utilize it for the right reasons, finding the right fit and the right team is going to put them in a better position in the future. But the other side of the sword, I feel as though it’s kind of degrading within a team loyalty standpoint. You get a lot more individual guys who are just chasing zeros in a bank account. I mean, you’re to get that in any industry where money’s getting thrown around, especially with young guys who

don’t necessarily know how to manage their money right. And that’s another area that I’m really happy about is Clemson’s taken a really big initiative and making sure people are educated about their money and what they’re doing with it. Like we have, we have an entire department allocated to just finance stuff, making sure that guys are putting money away and want it right. And that’s been my big step, especially being out and having more time off the field is making sure that I’m utilizing what I have in a smart way and being a good steward of what I have.

Right. That’s been a big stepping stone for me is getting my finances right. But super grateful for the resources that we have at Clemson. do an excellent job. Yeah. And I mean, the facilities at Clemson are second to none. I unmatched. Yeah. In my opinion, you know, we have we have an area for media. have a hundred yards of wellness, which I mean, that’s any kind of any kind of recovery equipment that you could even ask for anything under the sun. And I mean, we get we get new student interns every semester and just seeing

At some point it just kind of becomes normal to players because you’re around it so much. You kind of get in this mindset of, this is the norm. Everybody has this. It’s not true. You talk to these student workers and they’re dealing with, we have these rehab laser machines. We got them everywhere and they’re talking about, we had one and we had lines of five people waiting outside to do this. They really allocate their resources well. They make sure that we’re well taken care of. Yeah, that’s good. Have you gotten a haircut in the facility?

I have yes. Tyler, Tyler does a great job with my hair. I need to actually go see her before too long. I got, got a haircut somewhere else before the first week of school, but having that in house, I mean, we, have, really, we have a golf simulator, a game room with bowling and stuff like that. So there’s no real reason you have to leave. I mean, they give that they, it’s an open door for us if we want to. Yeah. I mean, you got a chef there to cook.

They cook meals every day, right? Everything. You know, they put out a huge buffet, breakfast, lunch and dinner during the season. Um, and then like for breakfast, you have stuff that you can order. Like I do, I do a double egg, bacon, egg and cheese omelet with tomatoes and banana peppers every day. That’s my breakfast. just go up, I tell Vern, he’s the guy who, uh, who works behind the omelet bar. just tell him the usual. He knows what you want. Oh yeah. Yes, he does. Got to eat. Yeah. Especially at my position. It’s really important to be able to

get your calories in, maintain your weight and they do a great job helping out as well. Yeah. But occasionally you’ll go to Mo’s right? I’ve seen you at Mo’s a couple of times. Yeah. I indulged a little bit. Yeah. We, we, we go, my girls, whoever can go, but every Thursday we go to Mo’s. nice. The one right here. Yeah. They did a great job renovating that too.

Yeah, they did. They did do a great job. It’s funny how, you know, you go to these franchise places and, you know, you go to, you have one like two miles up the road and it doesn’t taste as good. Like the quality’s not as good or whatever. Like this, this one’s like, seems like it’s always good. It’s legit. Yeah. It’s very legit. Yeah. I get the, what do you usually get? I just get a veggie burrito. I got you. Well, no, no, sorry. No, I get a white meat chicken burrito. Nice. That’s a good order. Yeah.

But I, it’s, uh, yeah, I mean, the only downside to this one is it’s packed during school years. Yeah. It’s like you go, there’s a line outside the door. Oh yeah. But yeah, it’s downtown. mean, that’s, that’s the hub. Everything’s you’re going to get pretty good lines. Right. Yeah. Chipotle is like that too, but yeah, that’s a, that’s our go-to spot on, Thursday nights. Um, so how do you, how do you see your recovery process from, from this point forward being like, is it

I know you said it’s going to, they wanted the doctors, it wanted you to kind of slowly progress and everything. Like, what do you like, tell us a little bit about how you think that’s going to be the next, you know, over the next few weeks and months. over the next few months, I’ll be able to do basic straight training within three weeks. I’m already doing some stuff with like handheld weights, nothing where I’m really loading my spine or putting much compression on that. So they’re being really smart in that aspect. strength and conditioning wise, I mean, I don’t know if I’m to be able to make it back.

for the time of like the first half of spring ball, like I should be working back in maybe doing some non-contact stuff there. But the second half of spring is where I’m kind of hoping to make a jump, be able to get back on the field and take some competitive reps. So I think I’m tracking really well. They say I’m ahead of schedule and I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see where it goes, but I think that’s the plan right now. Yeah. So being, we didn’t get to finish. I kind of interrupted you on you were going over your, you know, your,

your personal life and how you got got here. Like I grew up in Greenville. Like, did you always know that you wanted to be a Clemson Tiger or did you? I didn’t actually. Yeah, I had absolutely no idea where I wanted to go. You know, all these top programs in the country, you they have the best people recruiting for a reason. Everybody will give you a great sales pitch. But I mean, at some point, it kind of sounds like a broken record because everybody’s preaching faith, family football. Yeah. So what came down to me in my decision was

seeing which program walked that out the best, talking to people there, getting their opinions from people who had been there two, three years. I mean, I had the opportunity to come in and have some great people ahead of me that kind of I let their tail lights be my headlights, just kind of followed them, tried to learn off of them, specifically Will Putnam and Walker Parks, two kind of older guys in our program. They did a great job bringing me in under their wing and just really brought me along. that was my biggest thing is just getting player opinion, getting real world opinions from these guys. Because I mean,

anybody can sell you the world, not everybody can show it to you. Right. So that was my biggest way of actually walking it out and making sure I made the right decision. Yeah. And you know, one of the things that I hear from players and coaches like how, you know, some people think that that, you know, all that’s like not real. It’s, just a persona or whatever. And like, you know, Dava puts on this persona, but it’s like everybody had talked to says that is, is genuine as it gets like Davos, a genuine, genuine person, the

the everything, the culture that he’s created there and everything is is everything that that you would think it would be. And would you I mean, obviously, you’re not going to say any different. But like, I mean, would everybody that I talked to says that that’s the case and that. But what me, what’s your what you’re feeling that I mean, you know, I would imagine that you can you know, these schools can preach faith or you say faith football and faith family football, not really live it. I feel like.

our program here at Clemson really does do that. Most definitely. I mean, the biggest compliment that I can give to Dabo is he’s the same guy when the cameras are rolling versus when it’s a one-on-one meeting in his office. know, nothing about him changes at any point. He’s going to shoot you straight. He’s a real human being. Like, um, I feel like a lot of coaches generally try to keep it only about football and kind of separate the personal life from what they do outside of that in the facility. And I mean, he takes us into our, into his own house.

We have a dinner there every year. We get to see how him and his family live. So just kind of getting that personal insight and that aspect of him is something I really appreciate about him. Yeah. And then one thing I think is cool too, or many others, a lot of things I think are cool about him, but he, you know, you see him out in public. mean, he shops, I mean, he makes a point to go shop at local places. I mean, you’ll see him at, you’ll see him at Chipotle or you’re seeing at restaurants and you know, he’s, he’s not afraid to get out there in public and you know,

Talk to people and everything and I think that’s that goes a long way and that says a lot about him too his personality and His character and everything else, you know, I’ve you know I’ve been here a long time and I’ve seen seen some coaches that you know They just they don’t interact with people is like they are annoyed by it but he seems to embrace it and like it and love it and love interacting with people and And I think that’s really really cool. It is he’s a man of the people especially, know in a small town like this where

generally a lot of things are focused around football. think having that aspect of being personable, getting to know people, not being afraid to just have your normal conversations on the street. I feel like that’s why this town and this community is really rallied around our program is because they believe in the person that’s running it. Yeah. And I think, you know, we try in our organization, we, you know, we have our core values and everything and like you can hire and hire and fire people based on whether they are adhering to those core values. mean, and it’s, it’s, it’s,

You know, it sounds like a cliche in any business, but it’s, really is true. if you don’t fit into a culture, you’ll, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly. you know, in our, with our company, you know, people that, that you may think will fit into the culture. You find out pretty quickly that they don’t. And so they just kind of weed themselves out and you see that with the football program. And, know, as things have progressed with, with college football and college athletics in general, with the NIL and.

and the transfer portal and everything. It’s been really refreshing to see that Dabo’s been able to maintain that high level of success and not change who he is to adjust to that, all those pressures. And I know that, and there’s probably a lot of people that are relieved that he jumped into the portal this year and got a couple of guys. But I think it’s really cool that he’s able to win and do what he’s doing.

maintain that culture, you know, in spite of all that pressure that he’s getting from the outside. Definitely. I mean, I feel like when you’re trying to build a culture, the worst thing that you can possibly do is compromise. Yeah. You know, he’s been really very, very specific about the guys he recruits from the day that he started that job. And I mean, just to see that and see the personal change that I’ve had in myself because of that has been like really, really special to me. Like I was, when I came in from high school, I was the guy that I thought I was smarter than the whole system.

I thought, know, oh, you know, they have these class checkers or something just to make sure that you’re going to class and like doing your part of the job. And I was like, oh, you know, I woke up 20 minutes before class. I’m just going to I’m just going to sleep this one out and see what happens. just like seeing the level of discipline and integrity that’s grown within me as a human being and all my friends has been really special. I mean, I just can’t I ran right about this program because I genuinely believe it. Yes.

Not because I’m a player and I’m supposed to say these things and make sure that everybody’s in adherence to what you want a persona to be. It’s because I genuinely believe it. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing that’s really cool to me is, you know, growing up a Clemson fan, you know, I’ll always pull for Clemson athletes. mean, whether they’re continuing their pro career or, know, you know, whether it’s, you know, going to work, you know, on wall street or whatever, it’s like you want them, you,

You know, I want them to be successful. And so, and you can, you can tell that, that the program itself, the culture that’s been built, like they genuinely want, cause they, not everybody’s going to make it in the pro, right? I mean, it’s not everybody makes it from high school to college and not everybody makes it from college to pro. And so you have to be preparing yourself. Even if you do make it to the pros, there’s going to be a, there’s going to be a point in time where you’re not, you’re not going to be able to football anymore.

And you’re going to have to go get a job doing something. and that, the program seems to prepare the athletes for that. And, and because there’s, there’s, you know, much more than football, you know, there’s only so long your body will, will be able to sustain, you know, the, um, all the bumps and bruises and everything. And so it’s really, yeah. So it’s like, it’s, it’s cool to see it. It’s like, all right, I’m looking at the big picture here. Like there’s, there’s a.

There are a lot of kids that are gonna make it to the pro, but there are a lot that aren’t. And they get a great experience, great education, and they’re preparing them for life in general. Yeah, I think they’re really very intentional about making sure that we’re well-rounded, eclectic people. We have an entire department, it’s called PAW Journey. It’s our player development initiative down there. Their whole job essentially is to make sure that we have opportunities outside of football, that we’re learning how to.

build resumes, portfolios, make sure that we’re managing ourselves well. Um, like for example, they also do job hiring fairs. You know, you get fortune 500 company representatives coming in and you just get to sit down and have lunch with them. Put yourself out there, make sure that you’re known. And then we’ve had dozens of people just hired off that alone. Um, another area that they do is micro internships in may. Uh, they take a week where they offer us a whole lot of different opportunities. Like there’s a banks construction.

down in Charleston. Me personally, I did one last spring with with the Gozlenold Seegers. He’s a Clemson alum. He has a cattle ranch up in Montana. So I to go via ranch and for a week. That was super fun. And they also do other stuff like they do. They do abroad service trips every year. I think that started last year. They went to Cape Town, South Africa, kind of helped the youth and like underprivileged youth down there. That was really special to see. I didn’t go, but I heard great things from my teammates. And this year,

they’re doing another service abroad trip to Italy, which I will be going on because I won’t turn down a free trip. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m really excited about that. I’ll get a chance to do, I’ve looked at the itinerary, but I’ve forgotten a few things. I think we’re doing like a beach cleanup day. We get to go see Pompeii, a bunch of really cool areas. think we’re three hours from the Coliseum. So we’re trying to get out and see that. Yeah, that’s fine. That’s a fun trip. It is. Yeah. You’ll, you’ll, you’ll enjoy that. That’s awesome. You get, you get to do that. Do you have to apply?

Or is that anybody that wants to go? I think they just, put out a little Google form the other week where you can just sign up, say why you’re going, what you bring to the table and they’ll make selections from there. I don’t see anybody getting turned down from. Yeah, that’s really cool. That’ll be a, that’ll be a fun trip. So enough about the athletic stuff. Tell me about what you like to do besides football. Well, I grew up on a horse farm.

So really anything outside I enjoy. Me and my dad have been hunting since I was little, mostly deer, turkey, my family, half my family’s from Iowa. So we had a century farm up there. So we get to go up there, hunt pheasant, bigger deer, obviously. So really anything outdoors, fishing, I enjoy. Me and one of my buddies, he has a little passboat. So whenever it gets a little bit warmer, we’re going to go out on Hartwell, try to get something good. I like TV. I just started watching Lost. That’s a great TV show.

It’s a little bit, I don’t know. think I might like TV a little too much. I was up to like two in the morning finishing squid games the other night, which probably isn’t great now that class starts, but I’m trying to manage that well, kind of set deadlines for myself. But I’m a big outdoors guy. I love hiking. My mom does too. She knows a bunch of like waterfall hikes up in North Carolina. I like to do those during the summer when we have our off time, kind of be able to stay in shape A and then just get outdoors, get a nice little reset. So that’s me. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah.

It’s fun. I like doing all those things too. Although I’ve never been turkey hunting. I’ve been invited, but I’ve never, I hear it’s really addictive. There’s some smart birds though. They make me real mad. I’ve never seen one when I’ve been in a stand and my dad will come back out saying the same property, same everything. He’ll come out, you know, it’ll be, get one within like maybe an hour and I’ll be doing everything in my power to do it. And I just can’t seem to get one yet. So I don’t know if the birds are just smarter than me or if I’m just doing something wrong, but hopefully I’ll be getting one before too long. Yeah. I hope you do.

so let’s see. You’re moving out to Maverick. Yes, sir. You excited about that? really excited. Yeah. That’s a great development over there. I’ve already told my buddies about the pool, so I that’s going to be the spot this summer. Yeah. Got a good area. it’s quiet. It’s kind of out of the way. That’s what I like personally. I don’t, I don’t enjoy it on a hustle and bustle. I like being able to sit in my own living room at peace and quiet. So I’m really excited about that opportunity. So which

Which floor plan did you end up? you in a two? I’m in a two person. Is it a cottage or town home? It’s a cottage. Yeah, cottage. Okay. I don’t think we’ve determined the unit yet, but that’s the floor plan. Yeah. It’s a good plan. It’s a really good plan. It is. Yeah. It’s nice. Great parking, great everything. Yeah. Get to put my little grill away from the house, obviously. Right. But being able to do that, it’s going to be awesome. Have some guys up, just relax after summer workouts and just kind of kick back a little bit. Right.

Yeah, I think I underestimated how much yard we’re going to have there. the, and then in the cottage section, it’s the, the yard, especially on the two bedrooms, because the footprint of the house is a little bit smaller. So the yards are going to be huge. Definitely. we’ve just been just absorbing the sites, absorbing a ton of sod right now. So I like, I’m, I’m I’m big on landscaping. So, but, so you’ll have plenty, plenty of yard,

to roam around in and we’ll have that trail, you know, around the perimeter. And if you want to do some of your hiking, it’s down by the creek. Yeah. So I’m excited about that. So, um, yeah, but we, uh, you know, appreciate you coming on and doing this with us. I know, I know things are busy, especially now with, with, with classes, starting and everything. Um, do you have any questions for me? Um, I guess my biggest question is you, like, you know, being a business man yourself, what’s, um, well,

First of all, let me preface, know, eventually I kind of want to get into an entrepreneurial role. I’ve been taking internships. did, um, I did an internship with, uh, ever convert out of Greenville. It’s a lawyer marketing firm, a close family friend who has kind of built everything he had from bottom up. So for you personally, what’s the biggest piece of advice you would give to an aspiring entrepreneur? Yeah. I mean, do you have any idea what you want, what you want to do? That’s my thing. have no idea. just know I want to work for myself. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so

Probably the biggest piece of it. We always have, we have a lot of students that work for us and I’ve mentored a lot of people over the years. And one of the things that I tell people and I actually lived it when I, you know, I went to Clemson, I was a finance major, graduated in 98. And I had decided that I wanted to work for myself as well. And I said, you know, I’m used to being a poor college kid, you know, so I’m just going to try to learn as much as I can. know, the thing, the challenge that

that students have coming right out of school is that they don’t have experience. You have the degree, but that doesn’t, you you may not have the experience. So I realized early on that I wanted, came from a construction background. So, and I wanted to learn more of the development side of things. So I had a couple of developers that I identified that, that I, that were, that mentored me and allowed me to go hang out with them and ride around with them. And I did it for, you know, I did things for them for free, like a, and

That sounds like a crazy thing to do. when I tell, when I tell people that they look at me like, what you, you know, but I just said, I’m used to being a poor college kid. I’m going to go, I’m going to go, you know, it’s amazing what somebody will let you do if you’re willing to do it for free. said, send me on errands, like dump, you know, let me do things that you don’t want to, you don’t want necessarily do. So I wasn’t like, you know, I had lots of friends that were concerned about, I’m, just got my degree and now I’m worth, you know, a ton of money right out of school. And I’m like,

I guess early on, I realized that you have to provide value for what you do. So you can think your worth something all day long, but you got to be able to provide value in what you do. Me knowing, being an entrepreneur and knowing that I wanted to get into development, I knew that I would have to, there were going to be steps that I’m going to have to take in order to learn, in order to gain the skillset that I needed in order to be valuable later down the road. So I made sacrifices early on.

Now I did start working, doing some things and I started doing deals right out of school. when I give advice, I’m like, look, don’t be so concerned about what you make. you figure out what it is that you actually want to do or the career path that you want to go on as an entrepreneur, go try to learn from somebody that’s doing that and not be concerned about what you’re making right out of the gate and learn from those folks.

And it’s amazing what people teach you. And I’m not saying you have to work for free, but you you can, you can certainly go work for them and with, with the expectation that you’re not going to have to make a lot of money. You just want to learn, you know, and you want to learn and learn as much as you can before you go try to do it, do it yourself. You know, read a lot of books, like read a lot of, read, you know, I like to read, you know,

You don’t have to stop learning after you get out of college. You can keep reading and read trade articles and the things that, you know, and, you know, in the, on the career path, you know, with related to the career you want to, um, eventually go with and, know, become an expert, you know, and, and when you become an expert and you develop that, you develop a skillset, people see that and then they’ll want to work with you and it makes it a lot easier. Definitely. That’s great advice. I want to thank you for that. I’m, I’m trying to learn to enjoy to read right now. That’s one of

biggest problem. So I don’t know. I’ve been doing a year in the Bible. That’s my goal right now is kind of learning how to read and read effectively. So I do like five chapters a day and hopefully I’ll be finished by December. But I mean, I figured that’s the best way I can do it. Cause you know, this whole platform and all the opportunities I’ve been given, it’s just a byproduct of my faith. It’s a byproduct of my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t be here without him. So yeah, really being intentional, not necessarily with just learning how to read and like how to read well, but also learning how to

I mean, I would say that I’ve been very intentional about having a relationship with God, but not necessarily about fully understanding it. So that’s step that I’m trying to take while also kind of trying to transfer over some valuable skills from that. Yeah. Well, and it’s so great and refreshing to hear you say that. You know, we live in a world now where, you know, sometimes people are afraid to talk about their faith. And now it seems like people are really starting to come out, you know,

come out and talk about their faith more and in public settings, know, and people are not as, it seems to be that they’re not quite as scared. And I’m not sure what the shift has been, but maybe it’s people are starting to realize that, you you have to live a Christ-centered life and that is the best option. It is the best option. It is. And I mean, that’s something that I really want to get into this year is like, you know, one thing that

you Jesus told all his disciples, you know, go out and make disciples yourself. You it’s not just about you building a relationship. It’s how you can help other people do that as well. And, know, that’s something I want to do for these young guys coming in is just be really transparent about my faith, use my platform to further build that and help build other people up as well. Yeah. And that’s awesome that you’re doing that. Yes, Well, this has been great. Yes, I really appreciate you coming on and doing this with me and.

Hopefully maybe we can do it again some other time and I and I wish you all the best in your your recovery There’s no doubt in my mind. You’re gonna be back on that field and in in the fall and kicking butt and hopefully leading us to a Championship. Yes, sir. I can’t thank you enough for having me out here. It’s been a great time talking to you I will definitely be back if you feel like having me back. Yeah. Thank you All right. Great Colin. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. This has been another experience matters with Eric Newton