The Success Behind Steiner Sports | Brandon Steiner

 

About Brandon Steiner

Brandon Steiner is grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he began working at a young age to help provide enough food for the family. Despite his economic situation in life he went on to create a Steiner Sports, a $50 million sports marketing and memorabilia company. Brandon’s success can be attributed to the following: “if you forget yourself, you’ll fill yourself,” a principle that he’s put to practice which helps him serve and build with relationships with others. Brandon is also professional speaker and has spoken for many organizations including: BMW North American, Harvard School of Business, ESPN. He is the author of two books, “You Gotta Have Balls” and “The Business Playbook” and a blog with over 1,400 posts.

Interview Transcript of: The Success Behind Steiner Sports | Brandon Steiner

Alan
Welcome back. And with Brandon Steiner today and Steiner Sports welcome to today’s show.

Brandon
Welcome. I’m excited to be here when you said American dream, I feel like I have my name on it.

Alan
Well, you know, it’s you’ve done quite a bit in life. And for the listeners, I like to have you bring us up to say since you’re, you know, your your education date years to moving out into the real world and starting companies and and how you how you got to where you are today?

Brandon
I mean, for me, it’s always been the underdog. I mean, I’ve asked the best way to describe me. I mean, I think and I was the stupidest kid in the family. As 760 on my boards combined, went to a pass fail High School had no money to go to college, and have gone to one of the most expensive private schools in New York, Syracuse, I think it was just, you know, it’s really just about the fight. And I think that you’re, by the way, I mean, I struggled a lot AD AD AD HD issues, OCD issues, but I never let that stuff put me on the side. I mean, I didn’t fail in school, I think school failed me. And then school really didn’t recognize the grit, the fight I had in me been working some 10 Not out of joy and love at the beginning, but we didn’t have enough money, we didn’t have food. So I had to work. And there is something about being hungry when you’re a kid. The hunger, but I never let it get me down. I’m I always found the excitement of trying different things. I definitely had a very imaginative mind. And for me, I think really, things took off for me. I think when I was 12 I mean, I think you know, I had the paper out going I was giving circles underneath the L and taking the circulars, hiring kids couldn’t pay them in cash payment, fireworks bottleworks. You know, just manipulating a whole bunch of things, I knew there was something a little different with me. So I understood the you know, put a lot of work into something and do quality work get a good result. I got an accounting degree from Syracuse, which was, I’d say virtually almost impossible for someone like me to get. But you know, if I found the right kids at Syracuse, they were really smart. That’s a good, stupid kid like me along and they got a joy out of tutoring me and show me how to get through. I think if you want to get through anything, you can just see be able to kind of set your mind to it. Because I cry mom, I gotta come home, I’m not gonna get this, like I can’t do it. And she’s like, No, you get the economy, then you can come home. And if you want to go to the culinary school you can. So that’s kind of I mean that my childhood was rough. I mean, not a lot of money. Single parent, not easy, but I didn’t get to doubt about it. I mean, I found good mentors and found good kids to hang around. I was lucky that way, doesn’t always work that way. And my mother was extremely supportive. You know, my second book, you got to have balls, was my mother’s favorite line. And she was like, be fearless. do things the right way. Don’t be afraid to fail. And to Dream Big Think big. Why? Why? Why dream small. There was nothing small the way my mother operated. That’s her message to me.

Alan
You know, it’s interesting as you as you outline, nothing was really easy, but it seemed that you had you know, the the the ability within yourself to take the risk to bet on yourself and to move into the unknown.

Brandon
I think it’s essential. I mean, that was Steiner Sports, the combat started 3030 years,

Alan
How did it get started?

Brandon
I mean, 4000 bucks. And honestly, I was supposed to be part of a group of guys that were I was gonna be a partner. And when I show up the first day, they basically told me they didn’t have room for me in the partnership, but I could have a little office over there for 400 a month. And you get down about I think it was a sign. I feel this signs in life if you actually have your eyes open to him was a sign this is brand new, Dustin do your own thing. The 4000 bucks can go a long way that was a Mac Plus a printer and a few 100 bucks for some office supplies. But you know, I grinded it out and you know, really my first company was marketing players, marketing athletes. That’s what Steiner did. We marketed players and all over the country. Back in the late 80s. There wasn’t a lot that going on from Rick berry to Johnny Unitas to Roger Staubach, there was nobody, I wasn’t marketing. And it was a retail boom. So I was doing all these grand openings all over the country with Walmart’s and cowl doors and targets and sports authorities were opening up these mega stores and we were getting all the athletes to go and grand opening them up. In the mid 90s. I went to my wife, I said, I gotta take 10,000 out of the bank. Because a lot of people were asking me for these autographed items, which I would bring along with the celebrity marketing, just as a leave behind for the client to use, maybe to give it to one of their kids or maybe to give to a client. And sure enough, the 10,000 hours was one of the better investments, because that’s where we started Steiner Sports collectibles, which is a international brand and a $50 million company does really well. There’s a whole bunch of platforms, Team partnerships and auction platform web platform. which really gets people closer to the game we’ve developed all kinds of products from game used autographed items. So we still book a lot of players still to this day for marketing, although a lot of people are doing that, but the collectible name has certainly been a brand that people recognized around the country.

Alan
And visiting here today with Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports pen I need to take a quick break and we’ll be right back after these messages

Alan
Welcome back I’m here with Brandon Steiner Steiner Sports and Brandon in the first segment we talked about your history did a lot of odd jobs went into hospitality you know for the for the fierce first few years and then you then then you started Steiner Sports some 30 years ago. What was it like getting your first client you had a desk and a computer and you know, the monitor but Glenny that first client, how did it feel?

Brandon
It’s funny out on my blog is the most frequently asked question, What’s it feel like? How do I get started, and we had your fail. And to me, I was so excited. I don’t know what it was like a light, lightning was just lightning, there was thunder it was, I just couldn’t wait to go to work. And I had nothing. So what I would do is I would call as many people as I could hope that they weren’t in this way they call me back and the phones would ring with some excitement. You find me very much outside of a lot of stadiums in the parking lot, literally just trying to wait. Because you know you needed a guy’s phone number was like the internet or anything you need. If you don’t have the guy’s home phone number, you didn’t have anything. So it was two parts. One, you’re outside and parking lots waiting for guys to come out and hoping they’re going to come out. And Lawrence Taylor would always laugh because you know, he’d see me out in the snowing and freezing out and waiting for him to come out. And then you’d spend the other half of the day running around to different companies with an idea. I think the real key to getting a business started for me was coming up with ideas that made sense, you know, nobody’s not taking your call if you have an idea to make sense that either can help you save money, make you money or help you with something that’s important to you. My main focus and value proposition when I call anyone still to this day, going way back 30 years ago and even further is how can I help you. So I think the hospitality that served me well, is about serving people. And if you really committed to that. And now and I know you are so I know you understand this, you really is about serving people, the best job I’ve ever had was bussing tables, waiting tables, serving people, because I’m still doing it. Because that’s nobody wants to get rid of somebody that’s helping that when a problem or helping you make money helping you save money, or can give you some influence to get you what you want. If you put out good, you’re gonna get back good. And if you serve you fill yourself, you know, if you forget yourself, you’ll feel yourself.

Alan
I love the way that you put that if you forget yourself, you’ll fill yourself and there seems to be a trend of those successful entrepreneurs who are never doing it for the money. They were doing it to fill a gap to solve a problem. And so when you came into your first customer, your client, you know, you’re sitting in the parking lot trying to get phone numbers. And you know what, what was the feeling that came back to you though? Do you remember you remember who it was? Well, first,

Brandon
it was the fan mail. You know, I remember I was I literally went crazy with people say how’d you get there or cheat? Or how’d you get Lawrence Taylor these players and they had all these fan mail boxes. I said let me help you with that. I’ll open up the mail, I’ll give you the important stuff. And we’ll sign some pictures. We’ll send it back to the fans. Now it sounded like a trivial thing. And then also, at the time was Keith Hernandez who just got traded to Cleveland who was on the mats at the time. And he had all his fan mail and also his regular amount. So it was regular stuff that he was getting in New York. Yeah, he was in Cleveland. So I was going through all that for him. Strawberry was Darryl Strawberry one of my first clients. I was trying to just help mark it and maybe help with some of his charity endeavors. So I just zoned in generally on the players that really needed to help. Derek Jeter didn’t need Brandon Steiner when we signed him 9697 But I know his turn to is really important. And he had and we’ve raised a lot of money for turn to and help his family surely and dot and Charles with developing the turns who had sponsors and that was my main focus for quite a while I wasn’t like on a Mac, the floodgates are open and we’re making money. I mean, we didn’t know Derrick was going to be Derek or they look like a pretty promising player but wasn’t like we’re going to be 20 years later ever known That was gonna be, but you know, you serve, and you try to figure out how to help people with their problems, it’s easy thing to say, it’s a much harder thing to do. And I think that a lot of people get confused about what they think and then what they do when it comes to having to give up your time. You know, how much would you do for someone that you knew couldn’t do anything back for you? And that’s a hard point. And a difficult part to really get through to someone. Because, you know, am I going to do this for you, but what are you going to do back for me? And, and that’s the real test. I think if you’re really committed, if you’re out there and you’re thinking about really getting yourself going, is you do need to do a budget things and not expect anything back. Because it’s just the right thing to do. And it’s a smart thing to do.

Alan
Welcome back and visiting today with Brandon Steiner, Steiner Sports. And Brandon, in the last segment, you talked about this service component, then and how that has really helped you with giving without necessarily a large expectation of getting something in return. But you know, how difficult was that in the early years? Because I’m sure there was like a lot of hand to mouth and trying to make the bills paid.

Brandon
I think my mom was a great example. She always we didn’t have a lot. She was always trying to help people never stopped helping people as part of our DNA and you pick that up as a kid. I think if you’re a parent out there, you don’t realize the kind of impression you can make on your kids. But it’s funny, I got a job at the Hard Rock Cafe when I came back to New York after doing a stint with Hyatt, which is my dream job, frankly. And Isaac Taggart, one of the founders of the Hard Rock. This was the second hard rock that opened up in the States, Peter Morton in LA Isaac dragon in New York. And in the Hard Rock, New York was Laval servile, and I ran into Isaac. I was running the place at night. And it was packed and he said, Yo, Brian, I’m scared. I’m scared, we’re too busy. And I’m scared that we’re gonna disappoint people, we’re not going to be able to give enough good service. And I don’t worry about discuss, I don’t worry about much money no matter what I worry about doing the right thing. And he, you know, Sai Baba, he was a very big fan of, he had a guru. And he started sharing some of that with me. And I started to understand the spiritual part of business and the spiritual part of what needs to happen every day. It was it was another sign. It was a moment. Here I am grinding, working really hard trying to develop my career. And this guy’s telling me to slow it down. Don’t worry about the money, but worry about doing the right thing worry about serving these people, and having you know, making sure that the experience is right. And if we make little less money, it’s okay. And I had to have a boss told me that by the way. And I always remember that, that they were the lasting impression. So I’m out online and it’s cold as Twitter people when I’m giving people soup, it’s 100 degrees outside in the summer giving people iced tea. It is about over delivering and being empathetic and thinking of people when you’re serving them in a real authentic way. And I think that at Steiner, I really tried to do that we put extra products in the boxes, we put personal notes in there. We sent people gifts without them ever expecting it. Every morning at Steiner Sports. My first thing I do is two acts of kindness. Been doing it for years. Why send two random things out? Check a book a note to somebody that I know needs it. I see on the news, some I had a fire we sent him a box of stuff that they could put up in their new house, or maybe a check or whatever it is. And it’s the best thing I do every day. And then that about two hours later the mail comes to get to thank you notes. I’m a crazy collector. So I save all those notes. And it’s it’s the joy that people say what’s your favorite collectible? They think it’s a Babe Ruth or Lou Garrick and those are great collectibles. My thank you notes are

Alan
you know that that says a lot right there. And as you’ve given in giving out a lot of service to come back with the people expressing gratitude tells you Okay, I did something right here.

Brandon
I you know, listen, I think a lot of people listen, don’t have to go chase, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera down. Yes. And you’d have to be fearless in that but within sent to help them not what what they can give to you. And that takes a lot of thought. And it’s not who you know what you know, but what you know about who you got to go do the work to find out who you’re chasing to really understand who they are, and how you may be able to help them and what they need. But if you can find that. That’s the beginning. I think the start of a relationship that’s gonna be worth both people enacting and getting involved with and I think That’s how I mean, you look at some of the characters that I’ve been able to land over the last 2530 years. I mean, there’s some of the biggest names from Eli and Peyton Manning Mark Messier a cheater, Rivera, the Yankees, Notre Dame, the Dodgers. I mean, this is not easy. But always with the intent that I think I got a solution to some of your problems not I think I can make a lot of money off you or with you. And it’s a it’s it’s not easy to keep that mindset. I got that from my mom. And the, by the way, you gotta have balls is not a sports book. It’s everything my mother taught me. And I made a ton of money from Listen, my mom, I mean, that’s my advice to the people listening out there is like, Listen to your mom, like I did, I made a fortune off, it’s not great for the ego in front of all your friends. I never really admitted that. But I took our advice. And I made a fortune, and a fortune not only in money, but in relationships and friendships and the charity work I do, I just followed a follow her lead. And it took me someplace really, really good.

Alan
xpect is tough to get some of these athletes to open up. But how effective are you in terms of getting to the personal level?

Brandon
I think I’m good at it. I mean, it’s difficult because I have so many people coming at them. And I think you got to be able to know when to move quick and also didn’t be very patient slow. I think consistency over time equals credibility. It’s not a race, though, sometimes it is. And you got to be aggressive, although sometimes you can’t be all these players are different, especially now with so many international players. There’s a different approach with a lot of a lot of them depending on where they from. But I’m a straight shooter. I’m not afraid to tell any athlete anything from Mickey Mantle back in the day, to Alex Rodriguez to whoever it is, hey, that’s not going to fly. That’s not going to work. And maybe you want to keep doing that. But this you know, you won’t be hearing from me much. Because you know, how people perceive you, your image, your brand is very important. I think what’s confusing now is a lot of athletes with their social media, because they have big numbers means they have a big brand, but unless you understand who those numbers are, and a lot of athletes miss that. So you got an offensive lineman blue collar, and he’s putting Mercedes, you know, he’s dropping posts on Mercedes, he’s not reading is who’s following it. And so, there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with these followings. And it’s important that the athletes understand that

Alan
the industry that you serve, is there a lot of competition?

Brandon
Oh, it’s crazy. Because now you got more now not when I first got in, but there was an industry that existed. So every day I would come home my wife like what are you doing? Somebody’s gonna pay for that. Somebody’s gonna pay for an athlete celebrity marketing is big, but it’s very competitive. You have to get up every morning and go get it you know, you can’t you know, you got to beat yesterday is kind of one of my favorite lines. So you got to be this is not an industry you can get passive with because the names are changing every day, every week, when year these guys are hot next year, another set of guys are hot. But I think the sports industry is healthy. I think the players is probably smarter today than ever had been, the better. They’re better trained from a business standpoint than they ever have been. And there are more people watching and know more of these players than ever before, which is very optimistic for me. As I’m growing with this business 30 plus years.

Alan
I’m visiting here today with Ben and Steiner, Steiner Sports and Brendan in the we just have a minute really, to talk to you all day. Well, it’s but but in the in the final final question here. So So in, in, in context of where you’re at today are what’s the greatest accomplishment? Would you say that you’ve?

Brandon
I think it’s straightening out the industry. I mean, I always had a feeling whatever industry I wanted to go into, I wanted to be better because I’ve gotten into it. I wanted to be better because I was there. And I think I’ve done that for the sports industry. I’ve helped so many players. I created a sports collectible business that didn’t exist before I was there. And it comes from a lot of hard work and a lot of things that you had to do that didn’t necessarily help me initially, but hopefully in the long run would help me Yankee Stein was probably one of my biggest accomplishment. So you know, starting a partnership with the New York Yankees, one of the biggest brands, along with Notre Dame Steiner to put my name next to theirs, and then have a full blown partnership now for 14 years has been amazing. The other thing is I’m half illiterate, have always had trouble reading or writing and you know, I’ve read 1400 blogs that now over 500,000 people read I was the idiot in the family Alan that couldn’t read couldn’t write. My brother was incredible writer, you’re an idiot. Meanwhile, I’m working on my third book. I got a blog on Brandon started.com with 1400 posts and I’m proud of that because I love when people get tell me about all the things I can do. And then just keep doing whatever I want whenever I think’s appropriate whatever things best

Alan
For the listeners wanting to contact you. How would they go about that?

Brandon
I mean, I’m Facebook I love going on Facebook or even on LinkedIn with big LinkedIn guy email me at be Stein or at Steiner sports.com and my website Brandon steiner.com For you want to get the blog and any other

Alan
brand and thanks for being on today’s show.

Brandon
It’s been great. Well, Alan, love your show. Keep up the good work, man. I’d say a big fan of you. Big fan

Alan
Thank you for being here today Brandon Steiner of Steiner sports. We’ll be right back after these messages.

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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