Intro/Outro (00:04): It takes a bit of a blend of art and science to get baking just right and having extra eyes, ears, and hands can make a big difference along the way. That's where AB Maori, north America comes into play. We are the team behind industrial and artisan bakers that help optimize success. We'll discuss more on this episode of the Oven Light, so let's get going. Flip the switch.

Rick (00:31): Alright, welcome back everybody. The switch is back on the oven, light is on. So who's ready? We got a great show for you today. One you really don't want to miss. We've got our special guest. He's an entrepreneur, an innovator, a business leader, a motivational speaker, a sports enthusiast, the founder and president of both the Steiner Agency and Collectible Exchange. And boy, a lot, lot more to that, including a baker. Let's welcome Brandon Steiner to the oven light. Brandon Steiner, welcome.

Brandon Steiner (01:03): Thanks for having me, Rick. How are you doing today? It's a beautiful day in the spring. Got to take these days for granted and I'm certainly not.

Rick (01:11): Absolutely. We're coming off of the eclipse. We're coming off the NCAA championships for men's and women's basketball. It's been a wild ride here the last few days. What have you been focused on?

Brandon Steiner (01:22): I've been focused on everything. I just had shoulder surgery, so I've kind of been home bound for the last week, so I've probably watched, which I do watch a lot of sports in general, but I probably watched a little more than I needed to. I've had enough of the women's game and I've also had enough of, I love the women's game. I've been on the women's game for 15, 20 years. Matter of fact, we put together the first line of women collectibles with the collective group of women that are outstanding. Great. And what bothers me is all of a sudden people come and act like they just found. It was like the gold rush here. Oh, you believe this? I'm like, no, this has been going on for a long time. Caitlyn Clark did not invent women's basketball. There's been some amazing, amazing women players.

Brandon Steiner (02:06): If you had any kind of idea what was been going on, you would've been watching some of the wars going on between Sue Bird and Diana Terra Rossi and Phoenix against Seattle. That whole rivalry, you would add some idea about some of the Yukon run that Stuy had with four championships. And I like Caitlin Clark. She's a good player. Her run's over though. She's never getting away with that crapping in the pros because she's going to have to deal with some real women. Remember, she's about three years older than most of the women she's playing against. And she's a good player, very good player. But all my friends are finally calling, oh, you believe you're watching this? I'm like, I've been telling you to watch this for the last 10 years. Now all of a sudden you think you're an expert on women's basketball's. Unbelievable.

Brandon Steiner (02:47): But it's nice to see the women get a little momentum. It's really interesting to see how Yukon again seems to always figure it out and now they're back dominating again. And I think the days of these older brands, UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, them dominating any kind of where over because there's just too much movement. There's too many people that can contribute the money legitimately, and it's just too much transparency to find these players. It's really, it's a coach's league and it's also a semi-pro league. There's no more college sports anywhere, so who can pay who? And it's about what kind of coach and management you can put together and get away from the academics. This has nothing to do with academics. These kids have no interest in most of 'em going to school, which is really sad by the way, but true.

Rick (03:33): Yeah, you're talking about transfer portals and NIS and all that. So hey, so we got a busy show. We got a lot of ground to cover, so we're going to start fast. We have a segment called the Hot Pan, right? A little reference to baking. So we've got some quickfire questions for you. Three A or four in a row. First one favorite memorabilia item in your collection. And you've got a lot and things. It doesn't have to be the most expensive. It could be something that's just near and dear to your heart, like, wow, this was special.

Brandon Steiner (03:59): Well, first of all, since I started Collectible Exchange, I'm not at Steiner anymore. I don't, I've not kept a lot of my merabi as I've told many people to sell the memorabilia on collectible exchange, which you can. I have done that. However, I did keep my Bobby Mercer game used, bat that he was nice enough when I was with him to sign and he was my favorite Yankee and I had a good relationship with him. I miss him terribly. So that's my go-to.

Rick (04:23): That's awesome. My second question was kind of an aha moment, like meeting a sports and entertainment personality. I mean mine growing up I was lucky enough to meet Willie Starge, who is my boyhood hero, and he couldn't have been nicer and more charming. Did you have one of those, A starstruck moment or like Wow, I checked the box.

Brandon Steiner (04:43): Oh yeah, no doubt. I mean, first of all, Willie Starge was amazing, got to work with him and probably his autograph is really very similar as far as you could read. Every letter was an amazing autograph. Like up there with Mickey, Madeline, Marianne Rivera level. If anybody is a big autograph collector, I Willie Star. The autograph was money. Perfect. Well spelled out. You could read every letter on Bolt, his names. I always remembered stuff like that. But's only a few players. You could say that with Joe Namath to that list. Boy, aha Moments. I mean there's a few, I mean certainly the relationship I had with Mickey Mantle was amazing. And then also Muhammad Ali being able to represent and do his collectibles through Holland and Warner was amazing and did that for four or five years and that was breathtaking. To be honest with you.

Brandon Steiner (05:27): My whole Yankee run with all the Yankees was epic. But I'll tell you one thing that stands out as aha moment, believe it or not, I know it's going to be weird. You're probably not going to think I'm going to say this, but Bubba Smith, Bubba was such a big, big dude, a major football player, one of the first black players to start on Michigan State. I don't know if they ever had a start on defense in Michigan State, but it was black. He was the first won a Super Bowl and probably should have won to if the game wasn't fixed according to him and all those police academies. And we did, that's

Rick (05:58): Right, all the screen time. We

Brandon Steiner (06:00): Did a marriage with children's episode, which was amazing and we're on the field with me, Lawrence Taylor, Ken Stabler, and I think there was another player, and that's a whole show in itself, what happened there. But Bob came and saved my ass because Lawrence really wanted to leave and he was going a little crazy, but she wanted to go golf. And Bubba stepped in and saved me and I learned a lot of stuff from Bubba. I met him early on and sometimes God just gives you these people and Bub was able to explain how a lot of things work, liked him a lot. That was an odd moment.

Rick (06:32): That's awesome. That's awesome. All right, we're going to slip in a little baking here. So I'm reading a little nugget, a nice little nugget on LinkedIn and there's some story and some truth to this. You kind of taught yourself as the creator of Everything Bagel. I mean, this is like an icon for the city of New York. How did that come together? What is that all about? Well,

Brandon Steiner (06:53): First of all, back in the seventies there were not a lot of bagel stores. It's important people now don't take it, don't understand they get a bagel every corner. But back then it was like this bagel factory right around the corner from my house. And we used to bake bagels there for all the different stores, delis, it had a route. There were very, very few bagel stores around, and this was one of the few that was in Brooklyn. So every morning I would deliver all these newspapers and I convinced the people to get the newspaper from me, bring them bagels and milk on Wednesday and Sunday, which is kind of a whole story in itself. But it was amazing. I was picking up more bagels and milk. I was building a really big paper route, and that was my value proposition, trying to find what people needed and they needed bagels of milk.

Brandon Steiner (07:35): So one morning when I went in to pick up my bagels of milk, the guy said, yeah, it's unbelievable. You're here every day. You're a really hardworking young man. Would you like to come in at four in the morning, help us bake bagels, and then you could pick up your route at seven 30 and still be at school by nine? I said, definitely. So anyway, I did that and that lasted about three months. Meanwhile, he taught me how to bake and we were baking thousands of bagels and really was a great education. I'd make the bagels and bake 'em. And when I went in to quit, I couldn't get up at four in the morning. I was only 12 or 13 at the time. He said, you can have the night baker's job. So when I was at night, I wasn't baking them any. I would just bake 'em as people came into the store and needed them and I was really bored.

Brandon Steiner (08:14): So I started messing around with all the seasonings and I was trying every kind of seasoning combination you could imagine. And then one night I had all these seasons on the pad, I just threw everything on top of the bagel. I'm like, okay, we got everything. Just so you know, it was a cool thing at that time and it did kind of take off, but there were a lot of great adventures of bagels that happened. Cinnamon raisin, which I didn't invent, but cinnamon raisin pumpernickel wasn't that popular bagel. There's a bunch of things that happened with that. There's a lot of stuff that happened along the way that people just take for granted, but it's true. I mean, the bagels were really hard to go find a bagel, let alone a good one. And now it seems like they're all over the place. It's interesting.

Rick (08:55): Well, I love, give me a great Sesame Bagel and throw some cream cheese and I'm pretty happy. What's your go-to option?

Brandon Steiner (09:04): In my childhood, I never ate white bread or rye bread. We only had bagels because there were 5 cents and right around the corner and we'd always pick up some, and that's, we always ate a sandwich on whatever, but it's really hard to find when I go into a bagel search earlier, I know a good bagel and I know why a bagel is not good and I know why a bagel is great. So it's very hard sometimes when I go get bagels to eat 'em because I know it's bullshit. It's not good. I know the guy left the thing out, the bagels out too long, they left them in the kettle too long, left them in the oven too long. I mean, there's a real art, especially when you have a weather that's changing the humidity particularly. So when you're in an area where humidity changes often or you don't really see the humidity coming, but you are leaving bagels out to poof in and out of refrigerator, there's a whole bunch of temperature changes. But I like a good salted bagel. That's probably my favorite. Yeah.

Rick (09:55): Well let me ask you this. Is it all about the water? You always hear about New York water. Is there a thing?

Brandon Steiner (10:00): No. Okay. What's about is a bagel goes through five temperature changes and what happens is, and there's five temperature changes, a lot of times a different person or two could be handling the bagels and you really almost need a person to see the whole thing through. So when you're going through those temperature changes, if you're not adjusting for certain weather changes and whatever, that's when the bagel kind of gets away from you. That's why you see bagels on the west coast is in the water. No, it's about after. It depends how the bagels get made. If it's done by hand, a lot of bagels now made by machine, so that dough is now hot, it's got a poof, you got to put it in a refrigerator to stop the poofing, then you're taking it out and let it get to room temperature. It's poofing again.

Brandon Steiner (10:41): Then you're putting in a kettle, you can't over put in the kettle hot boiling water. Then you're putting cold water on it. And then when you actually put the bagel in the oven, you got to be careful as well because if you're baking quantity, you're putting 'em on these racks and you got to get things in a rhythm. So you leave them on the rack too long, one side's going to get cooked in properly. And that's one of my most common things I see. And the other ones I see is a lot of holes. We see a lot of air holes in a bagel. It meant that somebody wasn't paying attention in the proofing process. Admit it's sound bagel baking. But I'm 64. I haven't done that in so long, but I feel like I can go into a bagel bakery and get it right right now.

Rick (11:19): Well hey, you're welcome. Anytime to come in and visit with the ab Maori folks. We've got a baking hub baking facility here in St. Louis. If you find your way to the Midwest, you are welcome to come. Hang with us anytime. Alright, one more little rapid fire hot pan question. And this is going to separate people. You got 50 50 is a hot dog a sandwich?

Brandon Steiner (11:41): Well, you're talking about a kid growing up in Brooklyn and I ate more hot dogs than any kid should have eaten. So it's not only is hot dog a sandwich, but is it a meal? Can you have hot dogs meal Now my mother was very big on taking hot dogs and putting on a club roll with mustard and coleslaw and making that into a sandwich. So I ate that sandwich many, many times and I just had it a couple months back where I had them take the hot dog drum a little more. Well done, put it on a roll with mustard and coastal and it's delicious.

Rick (12:13): That's fantastic.

Brandon Steiner (12:14): Right next to the bagel place, three doors down was the kosher deli and that was the place we had an account at. And I ate more hotdog. You can imagine. So we ate the hotdog as a sandwich and a lot of times we ate those two hot dogs as a meal with the mustard and coleslaw and some french fries.

Rick (12:32): Well, I will say I love sauerkraut on dogs, but there is a coleslaw thing and if you've ever gone to the varsity in Atlanta, you know how that is, right? You can put chili on 'em or you can do the coleslaw style and it's outstanding. I don't

Brandon Steiner (12:43): Do ketchup though. I'm a hot dog. I don't believe in it. I love the mustard and I eat a lot of hot dogs. What's a crazy good hot dog is the hamburger place. What's a really good hamburger place now? It's really popular.

Rick (12:56): What? Shake Shack.

Brandon Steiner (12:57): Shake Shack has a crazy good hot

Rick (13:00): Dog. I've never had one there. I'll have to try that.

Brandon Steiner (13:02): Nobody thinks about getting a hot dog there, but I put it up in my top five best hot dogs I've ever had at Shake Shack. There's another place in Westchester called Walter's. It's an unbelievable hot dog. It's made out from veal and pork. It's delicious. Grilled right in front of you, but there's nothing like Nathan's. But the problem with Nathan's is you have to go to Coney Islands to really get the authentic, real, real Nathan's hot dog. And so people think they go to Nathan's, they're getting a real Nathan's hotdog, but you got to go to Coney Island, which I grew up in Brooklyn and we'd go to Coney Island often and there's a distinct difference. For some reason I don't,

Rick (13:36): Well, I'm going to throw one at you. And this is something my dad taught me and he grew up near Buffalo, New York, Jamestown, New York, and one thing that he put on hot dogs and my wife and son just think I'm crazy for even considering it. Peanut butter, it's unbelievable. You get the sweetness of the peanut butter and a little bit of salt with the hot dog. It's pretty good. I never

Brandon Steiner (13:55): Heard that My mom had potato salad on a hot dog. She was big on that, but I'll try that. I never heard of that. That's crazy.

Rick (14:01): You can go creamy or crunchy, I'm telling you. Alright, jump into, let's go into the business at hand here. So tell us about, we'll talk about Steiner Sports and the agency and all that, but Collectible Exchange is your latest endeavor, I think about five years now. How'd you get it going and why you kind of morphed, I guess we can talk about Steiner Sports a little bit. You kind of sold off actually your name a little bit to Fanatics, which has become a household name in any kind of sport and now you've got collectible exchange, so collectible with a big X exchange.

Brandon Steiner (14:34): Well, thank you. I mean listen, it's hard for even, it's hard because Steiner not being at Steiner, I'm glad that they keep that legacy alive, but Steiner is not at Steiner and people know me and know what I'm about when I'm putting these product lines and stuff together. And I think that they're really finding their way to collectible exchange, which I'm very grateful, so thank you. And also star stock.com is a site that I just bought. It has over a million trading cards on there, so if you're a trading card person, but the main thing with those two sites is that if you have stuff you want to sell or trade, you can do that on these marketplaces as opposed to buying something again, stuck with it so to speak. I didn't lose Steiner by accident.

Brandon Steiner (15:13): I wasn't by my choice. I had sold Omnicom and then there was a little bit of a hostile takeover. I was about to buy it back and the best thing that's ever happened to me, I'm so grateful. Sometimes the worst thing that's ever happened to you can be really the best thing that's ever happened to you and you got to love sometimes the worst. You got to love the things that are really bad when they're happening because it will all lead you to gratitude and all lead you to something great. And that's exactly what's happened. I had a new idea in my mind for 10 years that just sitting on it, I really want to do it with these marketplaces where people can buy trade and have an online channel where I can educate people about cards and collectibles and I just couldn't get it going at Steiner what I wanted to do because it was a locomotive that was too far out of the station. So now I'm actually chasing after at the age of 60. It is tough to start from scratch, but what I tell people out there, what's an important concept is especially after you've done something on a high level, is like stop trying to do another thing on a high level. I go home, I tell my wife we're trying something, I'm just looking for a little proof in concept. It was something that,

Rick (16:27): How did she receive that by the way?

Brandon Steiner (16:29): She told me I should retire like many of my friends did and I told them, I said, I'll retire when I want to retire. Not because of my age and not because of anything else other than I do what I want to do when I want to do it. I've earned it. I think I'm one of the best at this business. I think that when it comes to athlete marketing and collectibles, I'm one of the best. And when you do something and work as hard at doing something as I have, I didn't do it so one day I wouldn't have to do it. I don't got to do anything, but I get to do this and it's a privilege and I never take it for granted that people spend their hard earned money on my vision of what I think a good collectible is or my vision of an athlete that they should come and meet.

Brandon Steiner (17:09): I'm very, very blessed to have that confidence from a fan base and a customer base that I put a lot of love and energy towards creating. So my first thought is not to run away from that, but it's the thing about what I always thought about, which is what do I need to build and what do I need to do to make this industry that I'm in better? If somebody else is already doing it, let them, those people are lazy. If you're doing something everyone else is doing that's lazy and that's not why what we were put here. You're

Rick (17:38): Saying going for the blue ocean and the blue sky, right,

Brandon Steiner (17:41): I'm up for what I can do that's different that if I don't do it, no one else is going to do it. And when I do it, I don't get myself too worked up about it. I'm just trying to find some inkling that what I'm thinking about because no one else is seeing what I'm thinking. No one else is thinking about this marketplace and this thing that I've created, but I'm just trying to find some proof of concept, something that gives me some momentum, says Brandon, I think you're on the right track. So I haven't bet my house on it. I'm not worrying around going, you know what I'm going to build. It's going to be the biggest thing. No, I never thought that way when I was building Steiner and I'm certainly not building that kind of mindset when I'm building a collective exchange.

Brandon Steiner (18:17): I'm just trying to do the best possible work I can that's unique, that's different that if I don't do it, no one else is going to do it and I'm hoping that I'm right and if I'm not right, well I know I put my best effort in because you got to look at a bunch of things. You're looking at the market, you're looking at the way people are thinking, you're trying to understand how people are viewing the services, the product you're offering. And sometimes those things change and you're trying to alter your game plan based on that. Not just about what I'm thinking what I want to do, but based on what people are feeling, what they're thinking and what they need. And I think I'm good at that. Matter of fact, I'm much better at than I was at Steiner even as far as my flexibility and really wanting to do things that are more for the common good than just my own personal good. If that makes sense.

Rick (19:04): I like what you're talking a lot about thinking differently, also being customer centric. But we're going to go back a few decades here. So we're going back kind of late eighties and you had spent some time working in the hotel business, hard Rock Cafe, I'm assuming that's how you met Mickey Mantle and Lawrence Taylor and all that. But you were part of a group that started really was maybe one of the first modern sports bars called the Sporting Club up in New York. So how did that come together? And then, I mean honestly to work with Mickey Mantle, right? I mean he's revered the 52 tops card as on the top list of every card known to man. So how did that come together?

Brandon Steiner (19:45): I mean it's crazy. When I was at a Hyatt, I was lucky enough and it was really a lottery ticket, which I was never the one where you pick a name out of the hat was my hat. It just was never me except when I go in these hard rock interviews and thousands of applicants and somehow I get picked to be the assistant general manager, the youngest manager and a managerial staff of about 12. And the managers were not happy about that. But what happened was at Hyatt, they had created the first computer system that was multi, so you'd have a terminal, but fact when you were younger you'd write the check and you'd run it into the kitchen. Hyatt was the first one to develop a computer system and you went to a terminal and it would spit out in the kitchen. And then because of those computers, the central office can see the best times when the most business was going on, you were able to track how many sold of each item and you could really do a lot more inventory control and revenue control based on staffing and things like that.

Brandon Steiner (20:41): I just got really into it. I mean I'm not a computer tech person, but I just got really into it and I needed to because the only way I got promoted with Hyatt is by getting into that and being able to figure out how to save money, raise money, make money, increase the average check. So when I went to Hard Rock, they were thinking of using that system and I told 'em, I said, I know that system inside out. So that's what really got me that job. And what's crazy about the Hard Rock is that they had no TVs and I was a big sports nut and whenever athletes came in, nobody paid attention to you got Elton John walking in and Peter Framp the biggest names and of course everybody's flocking to them. And when Darryl Strawberry or Keith was walking in, that was big to me.

Brandon Steiner (21:23): So when I decided to leave the Hard Rock, there was a guy that was a little bit part of the Yankees. He was thinking about opening up a really, really cool sports bar and I told him we should do something like the Hard Rock burning sports. And that's how he came to that idea. The Mickey Mantle thing came about because I was going to invest in Open up Mickey Mantle's with Mickey Man and a guy named Bill Lieman and I thought the restaurant was just too small. I was thinking more like an ESPN zone. And as it turned out, Mickey Mantles opened up. I became a really good relationship with Bill and Mickey but didn't own a piece, but I did all my events there and that's how I got friendly with Mickey and then ultimately represented Phil Zuto and Yogi and did a whole bunch of stuff with every Yankee you can imagine.

Brandon Steiner (21:59): Besides I was a crazy Yankee fan, so I've really worked with every Yankee since the beginning of time other than you get the Babe Ruth and Lou ge, but Joe Diaggio all these guys and that's how it came together. And the sports bar thing was an amazing concept that I came up with way before ESPN zone. I mean that was my view on it and I was just too young. I was only 25 and I didn't know how to raise the money. I didn't know how to do multiple to go expand that out or I probably would be sitting there with a hundred sports bars around the country and I've done that, but I was young and God took me in a different direction. So if you believe that divine intervention, you believe that things all happen for a reason. For me, so many things I've been through happen for a reason and I think a big part of taking advantage of them is really making sure you put your best effort in to what you're doing and Ernie, your Keep. Hey,

Rick (22:49): You were just mentioning some great New Yorkers and when I think of Brandon Steiner, I think of the big Apple, Syracuse grad Yankees aficionado. You're kind of attached to the hip with the Empire State, aren't you?

Brandon Steiner (23:01): I mean, I've grown to really love this world a lot more as I've traveled it and moved a little bit away from the typical Brooklyn attitude, which if it's not happening in Brooklyn, it's not happening, which is generally the attitude I had growing up and my mother was really big on it. I think part of it was to keep me local and that me move away, but she's like, if you can't make it in New York and not make it anywhere, if you made it in New York, it's enough. And it's true. I mean when you look at the numbers, I mean New York is like one sixth of the country. It's almost a national market in itself and I was really destined to want to make it in New York, but there's some great amazing things happening around this country, amazing people and around this world and I've grown to really enjoy that a lot more than I was very hyper-focused coming out of school about wanting make it into New York and really kick some butt and be this incredible New York company. And with collectible exchange, I feel like I'm definitely looking much more worldwide, rugby, cricket, a lot of different things than just focusing on the Yankees to be honest with you.

Rick (24:01): Well, let me ask you this too. So there was a great movie recently and that's kind of a little bit of the premise for the next question. The movie was Air. So we're going to talk about Michael Jordan A. Little bit. We're going to talk about David Faulk, his name's on the College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse, where you went. I went to Ohio, you another great sports administration program there. But as you can see on this hand, I've got one running ring. I don't have a championship ring from the Magic because there's some guy named Michael Jordan who was represented by Falk at the time. Boy, how did that all come together for Syracuse? I mean, what a combo.

Brandon Steiner (24:36): What happened was is I started that school and nobody wanted us Sports Marketing was the early two thousands and we were treading along and then David Far came along and just blew it up and did everything that needed to make it into the school. Today, one of the top sports marketing schools in the country, David is an amazing businessman. Everything's said about him is true. He's an assassin and he's got great vision and also he put his heart and love and money into this. I'm the chair of that board and I've been involved with that school now for, I think it's 15 years now since we started it. And it's just amazing the progress and what we've done and the level of education and teachers that we've been able to recruit. Now, I don't know, to me I bleed orange, everything in Syracuse in my world.

Brandon Steiner (25:26): I love Syracuse for what the opportunity that it gave me. So I'm very grateful to Syracuse. I'm nervous that in this day and age now with reverse discrimination and everything else, I got in because I was poor, extremely poor. My grades were under market and I had no money and I'm white and that's why I got in and they gave me that break and I took full advantage of it and I hopefully I've gone back and made them proud. Moving on to the movie for a second, which is very upsetting to me. That movie, being a big sneaker guy and knowing David and having worked with Nike in the nineties, first of all, the way they portrayed David is completely outrageous. I mean, just to make sure you had the whole hype of everything to make David into this. I mean David came up with all that and he deserved to be treated better in the movie.

Brandon Steiner (26:19): I'm happy. I was just talking to Sonny Vaccaro the other day actually trying to get him to do something and I'm glad he got the props. He was a blazer, he was amazing and they did make a big deal out of him. And what he is done for the coaches and college and kids is amazing. I am glad that he did get the fame and the prop of what he did. Well, I'm a big Michael Jordan fan. Matter of fact, I was just showing my friend a picture of Michael when I went to his camp and happened to beat him in a game of four and four. I love Michael, but to say his mother was, who

Rick (26:51): Were the other three? That's what I want to know, who was hunting scheme

Brandon Steiner (26:55): Of four? Well tell their job was to pass me the freaking ball. I was on fire and you got to read my first book where I talk about the story. Or you can go online, look up Brandon Stein and Michael Jordan. And by the way, he's a great Ted Talk. Brandon Steiner, Syracuse Ted Talk. Great story about I sold \$50 million of dirt and a whole bunch of things, which is the theme of it is your first idea is not your best idea. It's one of my favorite, favorite talks that I've done. I speak around the country, but I love the movie. What David did with Michael Jordan was amazing. Times two, I'm not sure how many agents would've been able to do what David did, but he did it. And not everybody always can accomplish what he did. And particularly as far as brand Jordan, who doesn't love winning Jordan's stuff. I mean the guy's amazing. So interesting movie, interesting brand. I mean Nike is an interesting brand. A lot of things you can learn. I just bought the book Shoe Dog and I have to give that a read and really understand what Phil Knight said's at amazing, what he accomplished really when you think about it too.

Rick (27:52): Absolutely. Alright, we're going to go back to a quick hot pan question here. So favorite sports movie. There's a lot of good ones out there and it's curious, but what do you like?

Brandon Steiner (28:03): Oh boy, there's so many. I mean, I watched

Rick (28:06): What's On TV and you're like, it's 30 minutes into it and you're like, well, I'm stuck for the next two hours.

Brandon Steiner (28:11): Well, I mean I've watched Rocky One my entire childhood. We had that on those big reels and we were able to steal that when you're not supposed to do it. I watched Rocky, I can almost recite the entire movie. I love Hoosiers, love slapshot. Those are great, great movies. Bull DM is a classic. I mean I've watched all those movies a million times, but by the way, my favorite movie is Rudy. I can never not pick up Rudy on any level. I know Rudy well. I know Rudy rid Good. Well, and when I speak a lot of times he's on my same agenda, kind of similar type speakers. And I love his story and I love that movie. I just love it. It is never a wrong time to play that movie and watch it

Rick (28:56): For sure. Everybody loves the underdog and it's a feel good story and it's outstanding. Okay, so you've been called the Sports Marketing Guru. Do you like a moniker like that? I mean, just with all the things you've been able to accomplish and the foresight ahead of a lot of people.

Brandon Steiner (29:12): Here's what I know. I mean, I'm not here to judge my legacy or judge up that that's for other people that view. What I do know is that the way this brain works is not probably normal. I've come to grips. My mother told me that at an early age, I really didn't pay much attention to it, but I don't think the way most people think, or maybe even the way anybody thinks. And I always say one of my keys to marketing is one, the basic stuff and then telling the truth. I have the ability and I don't care how it makes me look or feel of getting to the bottom line of the truth. I have a high level of curiosity that helps me get there. And that's kind of my secret to my sauce of being a good marketer. I've always wanted to be a marketer.

Brandon Steiner (29:56): I didn't grow up, wanted to be a doctor, didn't think I was going to play baseball. I hurt myself. That's why I don't play sports. I was a mediocre athlete, but I knew that I was a good marketer at an early age, I mean early, and I loved it. And even when I went to college, my mother's like, if you don't want to go to college, I would understand. You could probably go up there and teach marketing. So you're not going up to go any kind of marketing degree. You can go teach Mark a and then my mother maybe get an accounting degree to get me that discipline business principle off there.

Rick (30:26): Well, it's worked out and it's worked well. Alright, let's talk books a little bit. I mean, one of 'em is probably my favorite title called You Got To Have Balls. And obviously you've been in the sports merchandising world for a long time, so it makes sense. The Business Playbook is another one. And then your most recent one from just a handful of years ago, living on purpose stories about faith, fortune, and fitness that will lead you to an extraordinary life. Any highlights?

Brandon Steiner (30:51): Well, you got to have Boss, my Mother's favorite line. And the book is a little different. If you really are interested in being a great parent and being a great entrepreneur, that's a story of worth reading because of the simplicity of it. There's nothing in that book that you can't put in play. The Business Playbook is a book that I wrote for people that just want to start their journey and how to really build a brand. And my message to younger people is don't wait. You are always building your brand regardless of what job you have. Living on purpose is probably my best work. What do you do after you have some success? And what do you want to leave behind and why are we really here? How can you be a better husband? I can be a better friend. How can you be healthier?

Brandon Steiner (31:29): And I think that the way I went about writing that book is amazing because I went to some of the highest level people in each of these areas to go get their best advice and put that in the book. So love that book. I'm writing my fourth book, which will come out over the summer. I've been writing a book about urban policing. I've been driving around in police cars in some really bad neighborhoods. And I'll be talking about what the importance of urban policing and how we need to adjust to make sure that urban policing is in sync with the communities that they're servicing. And so it's part of is about us understanding all the work that police do in these bad neighborhoods. It's different than anywhere else. And part of it's really increasing our empathy to the people that are living in these neighborhoods and some of the hopelessness that's going on there that puts a lot of pressure on the police.

Brandon Steiner (32:17): The book is, my wife's not a fan of this book because obviously driving around in these dangerous neighborhoods was not a safe, probably not even a smart thing when I look back on it, but I did it already and I have a couple more ride alongs before I finish and I'm kind of done with it. But it's been an amazing experience and humbling to be a part of the police department, them give me access to seeing what I've seen and to really see the big picture of what it takes to keep a city safe. And then also at the same time realize what it takes to maybe these people that are in some of these really bad neighborhoods, they're crying for help and then no one's picking up the phone. So I think people are going to really love this book. It's completely different than the other three. So if you're a salesperson, you really want to pick up a good book, the Ball's book, living on Purpose. If you're a young entrepreneur, pick up the business playbook or just follow me on LinkedIn. And I'm constantly putting out videos and content that is motivational, sales driven type of stuff.

Rick (33:13): That's great. When is the new book expected to get published?

Brandon Steiner (33:16): I had a little setback. I was supposed to come out in June. I think it's probably going to come out in September.

Rick (33:21): Awesome. We'll keep an eye out for that. So hey, so if you're listening in and you're listening and you're excited about Brandon Steiner and the things that he is saying, if you've got a question for him, you can always send us an email, the oven light@abmaori.com. We'll get your a response back from Brandon where you'll get some swag from Ab Maori if you're a baker, even better, we'll send you some spatulas and stuff like that. So hey, before we sign off with our good friend, is there a quote out there or maybe a mantra or something that maybe could be from a sports personality, somebody in entertainment or business that you just latch onto, you're like, boy, this kind of sums it up.

Brandon Steiner (34:00): Well, in the back of my book are a bunch of Steiner, so I live by a whole bunch of truths. One of my favorite things that I live by now is that I'm fine. The stuff that I'm working on, the stuff that I'm doing may not be okay, but I'm going to be fine either way. And that's an important thing for me to live by is sometimes you need to get so caught up in what you're doing. And if you're not successful at the moment, you start feeling like you're not successful. But I know that regardless of whatever I'm doing, that I'm going to be fine either way. And I think it's important that I think that when people are trying things, there's always a risk that they're not going to work. But it has no reflection to whether you're a good person or whether you're going to be okay. We're all going to be okay and that we're here to try different things and we're here to create and build. And sometimes it's a losing proposition. Nobody's pitching a perfect game here. So I think it's just important to realize that don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to try. And when you do, if it doesn't work, there's a lot to be said about things that don't work and where that's going to lead you to. And either way, you're going to be fine.

Rick (35:01): I like that theory and kind of in the baseball world, Hey, we'll get 'em tomorrow, right? We got another game. There's another day to play live to fight another day.

Brandon Steiner (35:11): Absolutely. I mean, compete and don't do what everybody else is doing that's lazy. Go and do something that is going to make a difference and make an impact on the business and the neighborhood or the industry that you're in. And so it's better than when you found it.

Rick (35:30): I tell you what folks, we've had a great chat here with Brandon Steiner from Collectible Exchange. Be sure to check 'em out again, Brandon, what are ways that people can connect with you or at least stay in touch based on new things coming out from you?

Brandon Steiner (35:46): Well Rick, thanks for having me. If you go to collective machines.com or star stock.com, you can actually get one of my books for free. Just pay for the shipping. I'm a big LinkedIn guy, you got to follow me or like me on Facebook. I'm pretty active on there. So I'll answer all your questions if you go on there. And thanks for having me again. Appreciate you.

Rick (36:03): Thanks Brandon. And for now, the oven light is off. The switch is off, and we'll see you next time. Cheers.

Intro/Outro (36:11): We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Oven Light. Until next time, when we discuss more about the wonderful world of baking technology trends and more, the switch is officially off. Goodbye for now. See you next time.