Today's guest is former N NFL player, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker Sean Harper. Sean was expected to become just another inner city statistic. Many others who have suffered challenges similar to his, have gone on to lead lives of crime and destruction. Now, a little background on Sean. He was a failing learning disabled student, yet he went on to play football and graduate from Indiana University. He was a below average football player, yet through hard work and focus, ended up with a seven year N F L career as an offensive lineman. He was a problem stutterer, and now is a powerful national motivational speaker. He was a struggling leader who now is the author of several life transforming books. He never worked in the corporate world, and he went on to become an entrepreneur, a company founder, owner, and c e o of his company, American Services and Protection in Columbus, Ohio, which he started 25 years ago. So how did this young man from a poverty stricken, abusive and broken home rise from the ash heap and take his leap to the top of his entrepreneurial game? How did he do it? Well, he shared with me that he learned to shift his success mindset to a winning mindset. And if you don't know the difference you're about to find out during our chat, you are going to love Sean's entrepreneurial story and certainly the energy he has. So here we go. Enjoy my chat with Sean Harper.

Sean, welcome to the Entrepreneurial Leap Podcast. I am so grateful that you've joined me today. This is gonna be a lot of fun.

You know what? Thank you for the opportunity. Let's go, let's win. Hopefully let's

Do, this

Can just really have an actual impact. Let's go.

I have a feeling you're an impactful person just from doing some research on you. So stay tuned everyone who's listening, but I always like to start with a quote. Sure. And then I'll ask for your feedback on it. And, and I'll also ask you if you happen to know who said the quote. Okay. And it goes like this, the culture is not what you make it. It's who you are. Do you know who said that quote and what comes to mind when you hear it?

Something like, something that I would say, but

Sean. Okay, I'm gonna let you off the hook. Yes. That was you.

Yeah. Wait, you know what actually comes to mind with that? Is that, that that oftentimes we focus on the individual, the talent, right? Or I would call it the seed, the seed, the seed's, the individual. And, you know, we want the best seed, you know, the best college, the best, you know, credentials. You know, this is who I am, and this is, you know, here's my experience, this is my pedigree. But we don't pay attention to the soil. The seed has to go into the soil. Now, lemme tell you, I don't know a lot about planting, but I do know that you can have some really good seeds and you can have some jacked up, rocky untreated soil. And guess what? It's not going to grow. Or if it grows, it's going to grow miniature. It's not gonna produce, it's not gonna be fruitful. It's gonna be a struggle. It's gonna be a fight. And, and you can start off with having great soil, but if the pH changes in that soil, I don't care what type of seed you have, it is not going to grow. So, in my opinion, A C E O is a farmer, and his or her job is to tend not only to the seed, but to tend to the soil, guard the soil, watch the soil, nurture the soil so that when the seeds are planted, they will grow, they will be fiery, and they will prosper.

I love it. I love it. You know, you had an interesting upbringing that you've talked quite a bit publicly about, and I'm wondering if you can share a bit about your life growing up. And I read that you're a rags, Rich's fairy tale. So share with the audience a little bit about that.

Right. So for those that you know, might not know the full story, now I, I played about about seven years professional football with the Rams and the coats and the N F L Europe. And I'm also a business owner. And I've been a business owner for over 20 years. O over 20 years owning, you know, a couple firms, a couple businesses doing quite well. But a lot of that is, I would call the glory. But now we need to focus on the story because it was in the transitions or in the capillaries of life that I was able to make distinct changes that allowed me to not just perform, but to outperform. Coming from an individual with one, with a high school GPA of 1.62, a cumulative GPA on my a GPA voted most likely to fail, stuttered my entire life, couldn't complete a sentence till college kicked out of several schools for disciplinary issues at several schools.

I only mentioned, often mentioned two, but there was more than one in, in just being challenged in every aspect of my life. One of six kids on the south side of Columbus, Ohio got mom had to scrub floors, literally scrub floors to, you know, earn a living and, and repeating the first grade. And, and on the outside I was a tough guy, you know, you know, I was the bad kid. I was the rebel inside, I was broken, low self-esteem, jacked up self-concept. And as far as sports is concerned, I wasn't even honorable mention to a conference. I, I, I, I barely started a b slightly below average athlete. But the coach saw potential and he got a hold of a junior college in Iowa. And then that junior college in Iowa, like I went, you know, for the first year I sat the bench.

And then I had a very interesting conversation with myself. And the conversation was is that I, you know what? I might not be able to be successful, but I can win. And the moment I said that I drew a, I drew a huge distinction between success and winning. And so I turned life into a competition. And the greatest competitor is myself. I'm gonna push myself past myself. I begin to see obstacles as opportunities, and I begin to do what winners do. And one of the first things a winner will do, or actually realize, is that he is or she is a winner. So I had to really do a deep dive into myself concept. And every day I'll say, I'm a winner, I'm a winner, I'm a winner, I'm a winner. And what that did is that it began to, like, I began to move outta creation and I began to move into what's called a manifestation.

And I was smart enough back then, I couldn't believe it. I was able to recognize the changes that was happening, but I stuck to my guns. I stuck to the fact that I was a winner. And then I begin to do what winners do, separation, saturation, multiplication. And I forced that. And that enabled me to be, to put individual, barely starting in high school football to play seven years professional football, stutter my entire life to become a national, international motivational speaker, 1.6 to accumulative gpa and become a double major graduate from Indiana, ie. Bloomington postgraduate studies, both divorced homes, me and my wife, or my wife and I, and been married for almost 24 years to define and to shatter and to break odds. Because if life is a game, you play the game to win. And that is my platform, is that live this game and play this game to win.

I love it. I love it. As you were growing up, was college something that you had your sights on with? Or this coach that saw something in you? Was this the person who encouraged you? You ought to go to college, that'll be important for you in your life? Yeah,

College was the furthest thing from my mind. Football wasn't, however, football was something that I could do. I didn't really like the game, but it was, yeah. You know, what are you gonna do with your life last day of school? What are you gonna do with your life? Hmm. Oh, well, I know football and football was my ticket in the sense that as long as I played football, I had to focus on football, I had to stay eligible to play football. And that was able to carry me through junior college and ultimately throughout college itself.

Yeah. Did you notice at all growing up that you had some entrepreneurial tendencies?

Yeah, I got it from my mama. So

My mom, when she would script floors for these very affluent people, they would drip knowledge, they would tell her things, purchase this, purchase that this is how we do things, this is, you know, blah. And she would come home and she would just drip it on us and we would just pick it up and just learn. And, you know, it, it was, it was really interesting. So yeah. One of the things that I've learned about entrepreneurs is that we might not make the best students. And the, the reason why is because in a not, so, this is not a very PC type. In fact, this won't even be a PC podcast. Okay? I'm not that person and entrepreneur. And, and, and a true blood entrepreneur is not politically correct. Okay? It's not. You have to be willing to swim against a current, go against a tide, be that radical cuz you are that radical.

But back to my statement, I digress, is that school who in some senses is not created for you because school teaches and also educates is teaching you conformity. Okay? That's one of the first rules that if you wanna really be a true, authentic, world-changing entrepreneur, you have to be willing to shatter and break rules. Don't break laws, but break rules. Rules to say you have to, you know, conform, sit a certain way, act a certain way, live in a certain subdivision, oh my God, get a job, work real hard for 30 years and get a watch. Oh my god, you're gonna start a business. Where does that come from? Oh my God, you're gonna do this. Step out. I don't know what that, that comes from 12 years of teaching in school. They teach you the same subjects, the same five subjects 12 years in a row, but they're brainwashing you to be conformed to go to work somewhere in a factory or nine to five recess at the same time, lunch the same time five day work week, you are being conditioned. So you'd have the audacity to do something different and something weird and something strange, like start your own company. I don't know. The schools are not meant for us.

I love it. And when you came out of your professional career, was this the point where you said, I'm gonna start a business, and what kind of pinged that for you? What and how did you get into this business? American services and protection.

So when I was playing football, I bought into, into a another company that spun off into this company. And then actually it was my brother's company.

Okay.

So that's what happened. And, and, and you know, I officially retired in the year 2000, and I'm like, what else am I going to do now? And the company was up and running and they needed, you know, a vice president. So there I am, I just flowed into it. Didn't know any, they didn't know what I was doing and, you know, just sat there and just trying to figure it all out and kept stumbling and stumbling. But, you know, the mark of a, of a true entrepreneur is persistence through resistance, you know?

Yeah. So

Kept falling and you kept falling and you kept falling and, but you get back on the bike. Right? And that's how, how to ride.

Yeah. And so we, there's in the book, there's, oh, there's different, a different section for where we talk about the nightmare and the dream. And I'm curious if you can share in your 25, I think years of experience now with this company, what was or has been the nightmare scenario for you, and how did you get yourself through it?

There's, there's

What year, right? It's month.

Yeah.

It's fun.

It's, one nightmare scenario would be, you know, losing certain accounts that it's like that that has a direct impact on your cash flow to where it's like, okay, how do I make payroll? You know, how are the officers going to get their checks? And I have about 85 90 officer, about a hundred officers out there. Okay. You let one or two officers not be able to cash your check. That rumor spreads like wildfire. It goes through the company quick. It's like, you know what, you're not sustainable, you're not, you know, reliable. And sure, you know, you have, you know, lines and you know, this and this and that and that. But yeah, not being able to make payroll is tough. And unfortunately, fortunately, I don't think we've had that once, maybe once or twice. I'm like, you know, we will never, we will never go there again. Ever.

Yeah. Yeah. And where did you begin to realize the importance of cash flow in your business? Because for startup companies, one to nine employees, a lot of times that's not something that they're aware of or focused on.

Right. Probably within the second year.

The second year, yeah.

Understanding that, understanding the actual importance of having that cash flow, it's huge.

What about the dream? What, what was, what, what has been one of the scenarios during this time? You've had this business where it just felt like it was the dream.

It, it's, it's landing. Landing, you know, particular contracts that I've always wanted. You know, being able to leverage, which is huge, being able to leverage the company. And a lot of entrepreneurs don't realize that the greatest blessing that you have as an entrepreneur is that you have the ability to, you have the ability to leverage time to where it's like, you know, you don't have to go in at exactly eight o'clock, you can do this and you can do that. Like just now, my flight just landed yesterday from Houston. I just spent four days in Houston. You know, I didn't have to go run and ask for, you know, hey, you know, is it possible you know that I can have this day off? Oh my God, I hope they say yes. Time is the greatest ask. Ah, that's, yeah. And once you begin to realize that and understand that now you know how to leverage that used to being, and oh my God, being so caught up in being so caught up in the procedures and the processes.

If you're not careful, you can miss the true product. And the true product is that man, you know, you have a chance to be a blessing to other people. You have a chance to encourage other people. You have a chance to look around and enjoy this ride. If you get so caught up in this process, you forget to enjoy the ride and what, and what power and what freedom you truly have. So the dream for me is evolving. And where I'm at right now honestly, is that I'm like, you know what? This is great that I can be a blessing to people. You know, I can serve, I can actually connect with people on a whole new level, a whole new level. Like I can talk to another boss, I can talk to another owner Now, this is awesome. It opens doors for me.

Yeah. Do you have, or had you ever had a business mentor?

Yes, it was my father and I was from a single parent family setting. But my father, he had, he had left when I was, you know, about four, about four or five years of age. And early on when early on in the business, he had came back to the company, he was downsized from his company. And we said, you know what, why not, let's give it a crack. So he became our client liaison and he mentored me for 28. He literally raised me all over again. Unfortunately, I buried him about three or four years ago. But in that time, I mean, he was my mentor and he showed me and he showed me things that of course I didn't listen to, but you know, but now I'm starting to really understand what he meant by that. Mm. You know, how important a relationship is, how important to connect and then involve and upgrade people, connect, involve, upgrade, not just communicate, but to connect. Now he showed me that and the value of that. Yeah.

There's six essential traits that we talk about that entrepreneurs have. And I'm wondering, I'll read them one by one and I'll let 'em sync in. And I'm just curious if you feel that you have them or if any of them don't quite resonate with you. Sure. The first is visionary, the second is passionate problem solver driven, risk taker, and responsible. Now, when you hear those, what comes to mind for you? Do, do, do they seem to check with you?

Oh yeah. Every, every, every single one of 'em. Most, most definitely. But I wanna put emphasis on visionary.

Yes.

What I mean by that is, which I get, I get chest ties for often, often in the office, is that you're supposed to be able to see six months out or six years out, you need to understand the trend before it happens. You need to understand a paradigm shift and make sure that you're on the right side of the paradigm. But sometimes problems and persecution and this things are happening and it's just a day-to-day operations can constrict your vision to the moment. And if that happens, you are in trouble. You are, as a business owner, you are in trouble. You have to be able to pull back. And I'm not just saying pull back, you know, for, you know, four or five hours, you know, once a quarter, you know, it's mandatory. You gotta go away for two days. You gotta lock yourself away. If you can't, if you can't. And look at the company from a 40,000 mile high perspective. Look at the, look at your industry, look at the paradigms, look what's coming. Deal with mistakes. Deal with setbacks before they deal with you. Definitely.

Yes, yes. You know, in my research in preparing for this, I thought, this guy's a visionary all the way through. So I'm so glad that you started with that. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's great advice to, as you say, put yourself in a room every quarter and really think at a very high level. Yes. So important. And it's one of the must-dos that we talk about in the book. Another one, which I felt was right on spot with you, is work hard, really hard. Yes. And I thought about these, you know, a few things that I'm gonna mention and then if you could just expand on it, you did 22 hours in one semester at a community college. You realized that you had to work harder than everybody else to go to a division one university, which you ended up doing going to Indiana University. And you had to create a separation from the average. And so now I'm curious how this is showing up for you in your business.

Yeah, it's, it's, I'm finding what everyone else is doing then I, then I make it a point to do something slightly different. I have to be different. So I also speak, but you know what, I rip phone books. I'm different.

I

Have to figure out a way to be different. I have to figure out a way. I have to figure out a way to be a disruptor. I don't want my message to be the same message. Yeah. I don't want my website to be, I would, I need you to pause for about 15, 20 seconds. I need to get your attention. You see, everyone has a preconceived notion of what is going, basically of what's going to happen. Pancakes or pancakes. But what happens if the pancake is filled with like strawberry cream? Whoa, that's different. Oh, you got my attention there and let it be halfway. Good. I'm coming back. Cuz no one else has it. Remember a long time ago they had a concept of chicken and waffle. It's like whoa. That is the craziest combination I've ever had in my life. But you know what, it works. And when I went to the your event, there was a lady and she was selling cookies. And I was like, okay, I have a preconceived notion of what the cookies are gonna taste like. But it blew my expectations now at everyone there. Why is it that I remember her and no one else. It was a disruptor. You have to become a disruptor in your industry. God, you had, you have to be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, another thing that you talk so well about, and you speak a lot about is your philosophy on having a winning mindset. Yes. And one of our must dos is we talk about this idea to, as you think about the success of your business, see it every night. And so I'm wondering if you can, you know, correlate the two of those, this winning mindset and you have these different rules that you talk about as well.

Sure. It's, it's, to me, all actions stem from thoughts and your thoughts come from your belief system. And that's probably where about 90% of all success and motivational speakers stop at what do you believe, believe to achieve. You know, but there's one step deeper, believe it or not. And that's caught yourself concept. Your self-concept is the crux of basically who are you? Okay? So whatever I touch, I win at. Okay. So having that winning mindset to where I am here to win plain and simple, it's not what I believe. It's who I am. And now what happens is that you have the ability to bring your entire being in your body into alignment and into agreement. Cuz before they can buy into the vision, before your employees buy into the vision, they have to buy into you. They have to be able to feel that and sense that without you even saying a word. So that has to be nestled deep within the confines of the crux of who you are. I am a winner. Plain and simple. Yeah.

Yeah. So good. And, and we talk about these stages that you go through in a business. And you know, one that I recognize that you have very clear is core values. You have nine main pillars to becoming a ologist ologist. Right? I love that. Can you talk about how this came to you? And are any, you know, if you wanna talk about one or two of them to help us? Yeah, yeah,

Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. So, so theologist patent pending by the way, no one else.

Good for you. Good for you. Right. Very entrepreneurial. I mean, come on. You have to do that. Exactly.

Exactly. It's, it's basically, I look back over my life and I'm like, hmm, how is it that I was able to basically reach and break the parameters? Like the chances of a person playing in the N F L is 0.02%. Okay. And so I begin to write that one. Okay, this is what I did, I did this, I did that. Okay. All right. All right. Now I gotta put this in a book. So basically what I'm saying is that these aren't rules, these aren't guidelines, these are spiritual laws. These are laws of the universe that you have to adhere to. Not only myself, but other winners out there they adhere to. And one of the ones that I love that is, that's actually congruent with nature is the law of two 12. And basically what that says is that water is water at 211 degrees.

And at 212 degrees, water boils and boiling water has changed the world. And I'm always pushing myself into the two 12. But the secret to the two 12 is that water can't do it by itself. It has to have another source, an outside source to push it one degree further into the two 12. And that's heat and that's fire. So now I purposely put myself in situations that it will force me to function within the two 12 or, or, or in the two 12 to overperform, to outperform, you know, just to take it one step higher, anybody who plays sports, you know that that coach, that mean coach will make you run the extra sprint. I mean, you think you're tired, but that coach will take you one or two steps, one or two phases past you. Why? Because he's forcing you in the two 12. And that is one of the concepts that I've used and I've always used, is how can I force myself and always keep myself in an uncomfortable environment? Yeah. To live in the two 12.

Yeah. You know, one of the Miller, one of the pillars that you talk about is weed out culture killers.

Yes.

Can you talk, can you expand on that one

Mind? Yeah. So as a farmer, and I think I'm gonna write a book called Farmer, c e o, by the way. I'm working on that. Yeah. As a farmer, you have to be able to do two things. You have to position your crops or the individuals to win. First thing you gotta do is within the individual, you gotta prune, right? You gotta prune the crop, you gotta cut 'em back so that they can grow more prosperous. But also there's weeds will grow, weeds will grow. And the purpose of the weed is to steal the nutrients. The purpose of the weed is to sap the energy from the productive crop or the productive people. There's no playing with the weed. There's no trimming and pacifying and, and I just snip this off. No, no, no, no, no, no. Once you identify a weed, you gotta go to the root and you have to, with violence, you have to extract that individual out of your culture. Or they will destroy your culture. They will suck the energy from your culture. They will suck the air out of the room. They will, productivity will actually decrease. And you're trying to figure out why is theone not ringing? Cause that person is a cultured killer. There is no negotiating with that. When you have a bad weed, you extract it immediately.

Yeah. One of the other things we talk about is holding yourself accountable. And you talk about that when there's a problem with one of your security, security officers repetitively, you actually look at yourself first. Yes. Then your core T team. And I love this idea that you share about, it's like wifi, it's like coming from the inside out. Can you talk more about that?

That wasn't in the book, was it?

I don't know where I found that, to be honest with you. I do a lot of research advice. I don't know if it was in there or someplace else.

I'm, I'm like, where the heck man, how'd you get ahold of that? Wow. It's the truth though. Yeah. It's

The truth and it's good stuff. What you're co what you say.

Yeah. So, so a lot of issues. So when there's an issue in the company and it's a repetitive issue, I look at leadership first because it exudes from you. And oftentimes what's going on at the bottom is really what's happening at the top. If there's lazy people there, or Sean, are you given 212%? Have you got kind of soft hair? So then I begin to look at my inner core and then I begin to examine it first. I take care of my inner house first before I take care of the outer house. In fact, what I do is I take care of the inner house and then I give them some grace to course correct. Because I'm like, okay, I gotta take responsibility, I gotta take responsibility for your actions. So let me look at myself first. Then once I clean myself up, now I'm going to deal with you. I'm gonna give you a little bit of grace though. I'm gonna give you a little bit of grace, but I'm gonna deal with me now. Yeah, yeah.

Look at yourself first. You know, another thing we talk about is communicating frequently with your employee, with your employees. And you talk about, you know, transformative teams creating internal agreement to have and having a sense of oneness.

Yeah. Yeah. And, and good teams work together. Great teams work is one, there's a word and the word is called synergy. Not just energy, but synergy. When you have two or three people, it's a spiritual law. When you have two or two or three people who are gathered under one idea, it creates you as a c e O or you as a owner, it's like one G, right? When you got three people and you're all on the same page and you're all fired up, it's like 10 G, that's enough said right there. That's great. Like one G versus 10 G. It doesn't just stack on top, it multiplies. It's a 10 G and it shoots out and, and people pick up on it just like that.

That's so great. That's now another thing we talk about for an entrepreneur is staying in your personal sweet spot. Now, one thing I picked up on my research with you is you are a motivator. And so I'm curious, what is your sweet spot in your business and how do you make sure you actually stay in it?

Wow, that's a great question. It was something that haven't been very, very productive at. Yeah. I, I

Appreciate that. We could all relate,

But my sweet spot, yes, I'm a motivator, but in the business, I'm a forecaster and, and just being able, you know, there was a, there's a famous crypto guy out there, right? His name is Richard Hart, right? He has his coin called Hex in crypto. And he said something yesterday that was just so profound. He said, smart people see, he said, smart people see what is hard for other people to see, right? He said, but genius people see what's not there. Hmm. It's not there, but you see it and you have to be able to forecast you, you have to watch your company and watch the industry and watch it all like a huge, like sim city. You had to sit back and be able to forecast, okay, this is going on. How is this going to affect this? How's this going to affect that? This is where we need to go.

I'll give you an example. There was this article at a couple years ago and there was, and they had this robot security officer, right? And everyone was laughing cuz it fell into the fountain, but I wasn't laughing. I'm like, oh. I'm like, we got about 10 years, we got about 10 years. I said, that's coming. There's no overtime, there's no sick days, there's no worker's comp, there's nothing. I said, they just wind up and go, I'm like, oh, now I'm looking at that and trying to steer the company into that. Interesting. Why don't you stay away from certain contracts that the robot can do? And then you focus on con contracts that are more interactive people friendly. That's where you're gonna say, because AI probably won't catch up in my lifetime and sit there and have a meaningful connecting conversation. Yeah.

Interesting. Okay. What advice would you give an early stage entrepreneur?

Oh yeah, ma begin to master one area. I mean, there's a, there's a few areas, but learn more about people than you do yourself and you'll be unusually successful. It all comes down. You are in the people business. Understand what business that you're in. You're in the people business. I, yeah, you might sell cell phones, but eventually it comes back to people and you have to be able to understand people, deal with people, connect with people, know what makes people tick, understand people. And, and, and, and the companies that are doing that are, are just blowing people out the water. Like how is it that a chicken franchise can be like in the top three of all fast food chains and they're closed one day a week, but really, do you know how much the revenue is lost on Sunday? They're closed, but when they, but when you pull up and they're like, hi, how are you? May I help you? I mean, it is a, it is written into their culture. They connect, hello, how are you? And you know, we missed that. And then so, and like if you walk into like a Apple store, my Godard, you can't even get two, three steps in. The person is in why is the person in your face? He's connecting or she's connecting with.

Yeah.

Connection. Connection connect and understanding people, connecting with people, negotiating with people. And you will be

So successful. Yes. It's all about people. All right. Well one last question for you, unrelated to entrepreneurship, that's fine. But for those of us, for those that are watching this on our YouTube channel, they might notice in the background you have a football stadium and obviously you mentioned you were an N F L player. So it, and it looks like it's the Indianapolis Cult stadium. Yes. So is this of, because you played for more than one team. Is this your team? Is this the, are the Colts, the, the one that is the, the team. Okay.

The N F L,

The NFL is your team. N

F NFL is my team. It's a very, very powerful love it, amazing organization. Yeah. They work together, they compete, they, when it's time, they will circle the wagons. They will work as one. They have done so much for communities throughout the country and the world. I have to be utmost respect for them.

All right. And you're from Ohio, Columbus. Yes. You were a, you went to Indiana University. So are you a Hoosier or are you a Buckeye?

Both

In Buckeye Nation. Can you be both?

I didn't know that. Yeah. Yes. So, so who, who's to say as an entrepreneur, entrepreneurs hear me. It doesn't have to be, and or

I love

It. Like who, ma who, who says I have to have one team? Who, who makes these rules? No. So here's, so here's, here's how it works. I love Ohio State, but Indiana has my heart.

Ah, I love it.

So whenever they play the week and it's coming up soon, I curse Ohio State. I cannot, I hate Ohio State. And then the moment the game is over, I'm back to being a Buckeye. You're

Back to loving him. I love it. Oh, Sean, thank you so much for taking time to chat with me.