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The Amazing Authorities Podcast
Reinventing Education: How ICL Academy Builds Global Young Leaders
00:40:31
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- [00:02]
Mitch Carson
Welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast, where game changers, visionaries and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist, and creator of the Instant Authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go to expert in your space, you're in the right place.
- [00:31]
Kirk Spain is our Amazing Authority guest today. And when I say amazing Authority, I don't use that word lightly. Those words, there are actually a couple of them. And I say this because I did some research on him, as I do with all my guests. I like to be thorough. Kirk, welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast. And you are an education innovator. That's how I'm going to label you, if you don't mind. I'm giving you instead of just ICL Academy, which you'll get to unpack and explain, I'm going to call you an education innovator because you're progressive. The old way of education has worked from the chalkboard days to now. You've got a whiteboard clearly displayed behind you. And I you're cutting edge for and that's fantastic. And how to educate the youth of today in a progressive manner. So I just want to welcome you, the Amazing Authorities.
- [01:30]
Kirk Spain
I appreciate that. Thank you so much for having me, Mitch. And you know, the education is such a large topic and on sort of everybody's, everybody's mind. Anyone with kids and you know, definitely needs a bit of a transformation. And I'm a fourth generation educator, so got to do things a little differently. I'm the youngest in my family, so we don't like to keep things standard. We want to shake the tree a little bit.
- [01:57]
Mitch Carson
What does ICL stand for?
- [01:59]
Kirk Spain
So ICL foundation, which was started over 20 years ago, was the Institute for Civic Leadership. And it was right around the time of 9 11, when there was sort of a need for creating leadership roles for youth to build character. And I was living in New York City and a lot of dignitaries, world champions, celebrities wanted to give back. They didn't quite know how. It was sort of a fascinating time. Every generation had their JFK moments of ask not what your country can do for you. And it felt like a lot of people wanted to give back and didn't know how. And the Institute for Civic Leadership was to bring back the idea of civic education and civic responsibility, which turned really into social entrepreneurship and how you could follow a roadmap of people who are successful and really to show that the power of youth is very, very strong and they can be agents of change. But the evolution over the last two plus decades has been pretty unique with ushering in kind of the digital era and being able to really reach to students and we call them ICL fellows in a completely different capacity. And there were a couple iterations of icl. One actually in your hometown of Los Angeles, we started a ICL School for Performing Arts on a movie studio. So we're helping young performers to sort of understand, to balance an education mixed with civic responsibility and saying, hey, if you make it, you're going to be the leaders of tomorrow. Which then evolved into the ICL Academy, which stands now for the Institute for Champions and Leaders.
- [03:49]
Mitch Carson
I love that, I love that, I love that. And you've got some amazing people. When I looked at your website and saw all the support, I saw Steve Nash there, there are tennis champions. I mean Steve is a NBA champion and I remember following him running down the court when he was playing for Dallas and then I think he went and played for the Lakers for a bit.
- [04:11]
Kirk Spain
And your team here, I think he has a ring Lakers.
- [04:13]
Mitch Carson
So yeah, yeah, no, he was an amazing athlete, Canadian and. But we're all inclusive and he's done a. He was, he was a champion. I mean in a whole group of other amazing people you've assembled and your faculty is impressive, all of this and you, you've taken. I don't know if it was inspired because of the pandemic or what, because what were kids doing during that time? They were probably twiddling their thumb and being impacted. And you pivoted, didn't you?
- [04:45]
Kirk Spain
It was really interesting. It was actually a pre pandemic I had learned we had a real impact when technology came in and so many of these champions that wanted to help, whether it be the Steve Nash's, the Novak Djokovic's, a lot of la serve Stanford alums like Kerry Walsh for volleyball, Bode Miller the skier. And everyone wanted to come and sort of give back and share lessons. Said, wow, if I could go back in time, what would I tell the 15 year old me? What were the lessons learned that could save them time? And really with icl it came down to the person first and how to create a purpose out of having a passion. Because kids, even in the pandemic, the numbers were staggering. The lack of engagement in school, I think a lot of parents eyes were wide open, like, wow, what is this traditional education sometimes that we're paying $50,000 for? Is my kid just a number? What is this. And so ICL had always been about sort of finding that super purpose and creating the slogan of building champions for life. The word champion. Steve Nash is not a champion because he was a two time MVP and this incredible athlete. He's a champion of causes. He's a champion. When you hear him speak of growth, mindset, of everything that he does, his habits, his rituals, the process he follows, those are the type of lessons that don't happen in a traditional school. And yet you can combine that. Those are life lessons. When you talk about being a podcaster, it's repetition, doing the right things over and over, getting these reps under your belt with the right intentions. And so that's what these champions come and share. So the idea of kind of being able to not have to be in a physical location that you can be pursuing a passion while getting a great education and being with peers, it, it sort of resonated, you know, with a lot of people because we've seen just tremendous growth.
- [06:54]
Mitch Carson
And the first question that comes to mind, setting aside the interruption, I'll call it of the pandemic, let's just call it a big interruption and what was normal, now it's a new normal. Prior to that, getting an education online was almost a cheat code in some perception. In the perception. Today it's embraced. Today it's embraced. I don't think there's any division or judgment or stigma associated with online education.
- [07:26]
Kirk Spain
You know, it's a great point. I think there are different camps, right? I think that you like technology, you sort of have Online Education 1.0, which I think was rote about memorization. It was that perception of fear which is, oh, a student in front of a computer with no interaction with peers.
- [07:47]
Mitch Carson
Just kind of no socialization.
- [07:49]
Kirk Spain
Exactly, no socialization. And the reality was I was very much inspired by Steve Jobs. Before he passed away. He gave an amazing talk. Sadly, he wasn't able to accomplish what he spoke in this talk as he passed away, but was, he said the two areas he was going to really get involved in was television. And then he lit up and said education because as the Internet and the ability to interact with people with great teachers, inspiration, engagement. He said that education in a virtual setting could actually become more personalized and customized and than being in a huge regular school. And so that's really the sort of mantra that we followed, which was how do you respect tradition but embrace tomorrow. So, you know, I do not believe that teachers are not in the equation. I do not believe that children should be taught by AI. I Think that technology enhances and augments what great teachers can be about. That great teacher can now impact thousands of students instead of the 20 students in their classroom. And I think that that's a real game changer if you use the right way. So you're right. The stigma has. It opened up a lot of doors, the pandemic, and particularly with kids who have a passion, they want to be entrepreneurs that want to be athletes that want to pursue something. The idea that they can be pursuing outside passions and still have an efficient education is huge.
- [09:20]
Mitch Carson
Well, and you look at. During the pandemic, LeBron James supported, and I'm sure he's got a piece of the business, this particular type of. And I. I don't remember the name, but you'll. You'll get it if I jog your memory of athletic training device. It was against the wall, Kurt.
- [09:42]
Kirk Spain
You're.
- [09:42]
Mitch Carson
You're muted.
- [09:45]
Kirk Spain
Did not mean to hit the mute button. All right.
- [09:47]
Mitch Carson
Okay. Yeah, he. He had this device which was against the wall, and it showed him exercising, and he was endorsed. What's it called?
- [09:56]
Kirk Spain
Tonal.
- [09:57]
Mitch Carson
Yes, yes. And that was an answer to the condition that we were in because of the pandemic. He did that. Education is the same. That's no longer looked at. We go back to the Jetsons to when I grew up. You know, they were being educated via a computer screen back then. And some of the sci fi movies show people being educated with a face and someone talking to them. And that was considered so progressive. You've embraced that. You really have. And then you've also bridged the gap nicely and answers the question of socialization. Well, you have a summer camp. Tell us about your summer, because. So that's where kids can play and interact, fight as they do. Kids are kids, and they. They do what they do in order to deal with real life situations.
- [10:53]
Kirk Spain
Well, that's. That's a great point. And I think that, you know, the actual parents are worried about socialization. So when you start in an online school, first we build community. They're digital natives. My kids are already more advanced, you know, before they hit the second grade than I am technologically. They're not fearful of making real friendships with their peers. And what we have is an isolated group of kids and peers that share a passion for a sport, for a performance, and now they're linked all over the world. So the days of pen pals are gone. I mean, I happen to have in my life a great friend that started out as a pen pal when I was 8 years old. Who lived in France, and we're still great friends. But those days are, have now evolved because we're interconnected in such a unique way. But I think the blend of the hybrid model is really what we're moving towards in education. It's efficiency that you don't have to go to school from 8:30 to 3:30 every day. And education is not defined by, you know, four walls, the school for nine months, five days a week, and that's quote, unquote, education. You education is all around us. It's the interaction. It's utilizing AI, it's tackling technological issues, it's learning debate, it's communication skills, it's personal interactivity. And so, yes, having the opportunity for kids to meet up is super important. And it doesn't have to be. You don't make your best friends in geometry class. It's when you're working on projects together, it's in the schoolyard, it's pursuit, it's a sports team, it's a choir, it's, you know, a school play. That's when these real relationships get formed. So it's, it's just creating an efficiency that I think allows the socialization to happen really organically.
- [12:47]
Mitch Carson
Well, and I think if you're in a remote area and if you work on a farm in remote Iowa, I'm just picking a state, I've never been to Iowa. But just using that as an example, and you've got kids and, and the father needs his son to work and help with certain circumstances. I think there's a real place for your type of education and, and maybe just coming in for exams on the occasion. Is that available or is it all done online? How do you handle the exam portion?
- [13:20]
Kirk Spain
You know, it's so interesting. AP exams are still, you still go in for them. And, you know, the end goal of ICL is actually to be supportive of the public school system. It allows the athletes to train more. It's in, it's. I kind of call our program like Switzerland. You know, we can actually get along with everyone. We can add value to everyone. And, you know, I think that there is an openness now because I think when parents see that the traditional education system is broken, there's just not a debate. But I want to defend teachers in the school system because there's not a silver bullet, right? There's not sort of, if you do this all of a sudden, our country's education system will jump ahead of Finland or, you know, but the truth is we're dropping and we're not focusing on things that are real life applications. And so the idea of education to me is I call myself Peter Pan. I mean I created the school because it's what I wish I had had as a, as a touring good junior tennis player that probably wouldn't have made the USC team, who are unbelievable. I was traveling a lot and I had to make this decision at 15 years old, like, do you go full time in this sort of training mode, but then you sacrifice a great education and that's a sad thing. That shouldn't have to be. Kids shouldn't have to make that choice. You can now have a great education, couple hours a day and then follow through with your training that I believe is sort of creates the full person. And you know, it's those soft skills per se, the character building, the leadership, what the discipline that the training gives you. The, you know, you look at what are the skills that kids are going to need in the jobs of the future? Because it's the biggest conversation, right? AI taking over jobs of the future. Well, we want to teach kids how to ride the, how to control the AI and to be the people that actually utilize it and have these skills that are beyond what robotics and AI can do.
- [15:32]
Mitch Carson
Fantastic. So you're. Who's the ideal client for your education method, we call it.
- [15:41]
Kirk Spain
You know, it's funny, you hear there's the international baccalaureate, there are different Singapore math and all these education. Our term for the icl. The foundation is really about impact. We want kids to have an impact and we call it kind of impact learning. Impact learning is really about passion based. How do you absorb what kids are passionate about? Because let's just cut right down to what's critical. If your parents listening out there, it's engagement. You gotta hook the kids. If they're not hooked and they're not engaged, it's not gonna retain. And the second part is application. You know, what we focus on is applying what you're learning into your life, into the real world. Because then it sinks in. And that's what true mastery is. If you can, then you know, when your grandmother or your little brother asks you what you're doing, you can internalize the material and talk about it as it relates to you. As opposed to traditionally when you and I went to school, which was like memorize, shoot out the name and date, talk about the battle 1812. And it's not how does that apply? Like where does that stand for today when you learn it? How is that impacting us right now? And so I think the Application is really important and it seems when we talk about it, kind of a no brainer, like, yeah, that makes sense. But as we know, there's a lot that goes into government funding and test scores and it's all about teaching for the test because if the kids don't get the test, then they don't get the funding and then it, it's sort of this vicious cycle that, that repeats itself.
- [17:18]
Mitch Carson
And how many students are in, in your system right now? Can you share numbers?
- [17:23]
Kirk Spain
Sure. I mean, we, we had an orientation today, you know, with over a thousand students and when you asked about who it's for, it's, it's really for those kids that have a passion, you know, whether it's obviously the, the first people have come to mind are athletes. Right? You talk about NIL as a big topic and youth sports has become somewhat of a dogmatic religion. If you're where I am in the San Diego area. Soccer, you're a USC Trojan. You know how sports can dictate so much of a whole educational experience. And now with nil, where kids can actually be paid starting as early as their early teens, it's really changed the game. So sports, you know, any athlete, because it's, it's sad in a way that sports has moved from, you know, your high school team to really the individual. Right. It's more about clubs and nationals and once you get better at all sports, it doesn't matter if it's baseball, basketball, even team sports. You travel a ton and traditional schools don't fit that in. The schools get paid by butts in seats. And so it's always a bit of a clash. So athletes are big performers, young entrepreneurs. I mean those high schoolers that say, wow, I'd like to start a career in media and start a company, it just allows that passion driven. When a young person turns a passion into their purpose, they say, I want to go for that, it start now. And traditional schools don't really allow for that. And again, nobody's fault. Like a majority of kids are not, you know, purpose driven at age 13, 14. But for those who are something like ICL has been a, you know, kind of a godsend to them because they can really excel and pursue those passions.
- [19:15]
Mitch Carson
Yeah, I was a, a competitive athlete growing up and then I turned, I was on the pro karate circuit in my, in my 20s.
- [19:24]
Kirk Spain
Yeah, that was my, that was my 1985 All Valley. Were you trained by Mr. Miyagi?
- [19:29]
Mitch Carson
Oh, well, here, here's an interesting story related that the nemesis, the, the villain was a character named. Whose real name is Thomas Griffith. He was the fellow with the gray hair and a ponytail pulled back. I used to work out together for, at the same time, Taekwondo school in la, which was on Wilshire Boulevard at La Jolla, if you're familiar with that side of town. My, My former master and I went to his 50th anniversary of the school a couple years ago in LA. I flew back just to. To attend that to honor him. June Chong is his name. We had his school there for many, many years and he still has it. He's turned it over to his son, now is running it. And Terry, I think he went by Terry Silver was his character name in that.
- [20:20]
Kirk Spain
Yeah, of course I remember that. Thomas Mitch, you were, you were in icl. This is perfect. We had made it for you. Who, who, who knew?
- [20:28]
Mitch Carson
Well, it's. I mean, it got my interest. It's like me, my gosh, every weekend I was off in. While I was still. I was going to sc during this time I was off every weekend I was teaching my martial arts at 6am at the Jonathan Club, downtown LA, to a group of big executives. And then I was competing on the weekends, traveling city to city throughout California, fighting. I loved it for the sport. Not going to bars and picking fights, but totally.
- [21:00]
Kirk Spain
I, I was probably on the squash courts when you were doing the karate, but that's okay.
- [21:03]
Mitch Carson
Yeah, well, I loved it and I. And that's why I thought, wow, this would have been really cool because do kids have to responsibly show up at a particular time or do they consume the information and then get back to their teachers later?
- [21:20]
Kirk Spain
It's a great question. We are a blended model. So it means what you're talking about is the asynchronous learning and asynchronous. Not to get too geeky into pedagogy, but it's. There's a big movement in the flipped classroom. So the idea that you don't really learn. Like when we were sitting in classes, kids with that chalkboard being written on and we're scribbling notes, it's like talking, scribbling, writing, we're passing notes. That's not where the learning happens, but in our day, that's where it was supposed to happen. Then you were supposed to go on your own and do homework. And it's like, wait, if you missed it in class, I don't know how to do this problem. Now you're spending two hours on something that you know, should have taken 20 minutes, but. So that's all flipped now. So the idea is the learning can happen at your own pace. So we talked about geometry, the Pythagorean theorem. Like you're going to learn what that is and then you're going to come in and meet with a teacher and other students and you're going to talk about how does the Pythagorean theorem apply to tennis. Let's talk about angles. Let's talk about the US Open is going on. How does Djokovic serve 120 miles out wide, but only 104 down, you know, down the T, the angles that they choose and relate that.
- [22:33]
Mitch Carson
So understanding that science.
- [22:35]
Kirk Spain
Exactly. The application that all that we're learning. You know, I was one of those annoying kids in class who would raise my hand and say, sorry, why do I have to know this? And if a teacher gave a good answer, I would be all in. But if it was like, oh, you need it for the test or you know you need it, it's like you're not convincing me yet. So my brain sort of shoves that off to the side. And so that's why the application is so important. So to answer your question, the structure is actually more like a college schedule. So the idea that in a normal school, you don't really know if I start on a Monday, I don't really know what I'm supposed to be learning the following Monday or the following Monday after that. Whereas in college you come in, you get your syllabus, you know exactly what's expected, you can jump ahead. You know, if I have to be doing this next week, I gotta, I gotta get ahead of that. That's the concept that we use, which is really, you can speed up or slow down. And the in person courses are about debate and how to communicate with others. And how do you apply what you're doing. And the learning, which, the definition of learning is interesting, but how the information gets put in your head can be at your own time. But then how it's then applied, you do with others.
- [23:52]
Mitch Carson
Well, that's great. And how long has your learning model been around? When did you form this? And you're publicly traded now. Weren't you a NASDAQ listing?
- [24:03]
Kirk Spain
Well, it's really funny. So there have been different iterations. I'm a fourth generation educator, so I grew up. Some kids call themselves army brats moving around. I was shipped around to every ib International Baccalaureate conference from Argentina to Singapore. Well, my family opened up schools all over the world, sort of independent private schools from New York, London, Vancouver island to you know, to China and Dubai. So I sort of got exposed to all these different cultures and how they learned. And, you know, the idea of impact, I always kind of applied it to myself. I was like, well, I'm a tennis player. Like, how. How can education be tailored to me? Like, I. I'm, you know, you know, so much of my brain is, what's my ranking? How. How can I do this? And. And what can I use to get me better at tennis? Then I'm all in. So if someone said, wow, physics is actually hugely relatable. I'm into physics. No, nobody did that for me. So I said, oh, well, I'm not a science guy. And so, you know, if someone said in biology, like, wow, I get really tired after big points. Well, learn about your internal system. Learn about how oxygen you through the body and everything. So it's really tailoring it there. So this all kind of started, I'd say my interest was in. Probably start in 0405. We got accredited, started working with the IB on distance. They call it distance learning, virtual learning, online learning around 2010, got accredited as a school virtual school in 2014. So, you know, now that we are mainstream and kind of winning awards, it's, you know, they always say that it takes 10, you know, at least a decade to become an overnight success. So.
- [25:51]
Mitch Carson
Right, right.
- [25:52]
Kirk Spain
But we actually opened the NASDAQ early on, as for the nonprofit, for the work we were doing in youth leadership. So we had sort of set a new bar for galvanizing kids to support causes that they believed in. And we had the most amount of Congressional medal of Service winners ever. And really teaching about how kids can be impactful. And specifically at the Nasdaq, we worked with the United nations and won a bunch of awards. And then specifically the Nasdaq, there was a big tsunami and there was hurricane relief, and our students just did an unbelievable job to show the power of what kids could do to help with relief and impact. K through 12, 5 through 20. You know, I. I would have. I would have said 7 through 12. We started 7 through 12. Where I always feel where, you know, I always use it where I was. I said, wow, I got so into tennis and, you know, when I was around, you know, seventh grade, that was a big decision time for me. It's gotten younger. We see it with gymnasts, we see it with golfers, we see it with tennis players. We see it because of nil. I kind of was forced into it. I'm not a disbeliever in traditional education. In Fact, I think that traditional schools up to a certain point is critical. I'm not homeschooling my kids that are 8, 5 and 2. But I think, you know, by the time if they have a passion that they want to pursue when they're, you know, 12, then they can't wait. You know, they, they love that dad does this and they love watching all of our athletes and performers. But, but I think that before fifth grade, I think that's when you're learning essentials. I think there's a lot of tactile learning in the early grades. And so I think up to fourth grade, it's really important to be at a school.
- [27:45]
Mitch Carson
And so when did, when does your school begin? At what age?
- [27:49]
Kirk Spain
I'm sorry, grade five. So it's 10, 11.
- [27:52]
Mitch Carson
10, 11 years old. Okay. And prior to that, it's more in the traditional setting that you would encourage and then. And any plans ongoing, because you mentioned Bachelorette for college or a totally different model.
- [28:09]
Kirk Spain
So it's a different model. We do a lot of college level courses.
- [28:15]
Mitch Carson
AP and whatnot.
- [28:16]
Kirk Spain
Or honors. Yeah, all honors. All aps. You know, it's, it's funny, people call themselves college prep schools. Like prep schools. The definition is college preparatory. I find that that's not really the right word. You know, so much is about what school can you get into. I'm more worried about when you get to college. Are you ready for that new newfangled schedule? Are. And if you're a college athlete, your college experience is night and day from a normal person going, you know, if you're, if you're on the SC football team or Tennessee, and you're having a totally different experience than a normal student that isn't as a college D1 athlete. So we're really preparing them to thrive in that type of environment. So we start young. It focuses on energy management, which includes time management, sleep recovery. When is it optimal to study understanding your own. We call it Yoda and so the kids love it because we try to create Yodas in everyone. But Yoda stands for your own decision advisor. And that was thought up by a partner and a mentor of mine, Dr. Jim Lehrer, who's sort of the godfather of sports psychology. He's written 19 books now.
- [29:37]
Mitch Carson
I've heard of him. Yes.
- [29:39]
Kirk Spain
Unbelievable. And talking about the. He really became famous with tennis players, first from Monica Seles and Novak Djokovic and Andre Agassi. But then he talks about the power of full engagement and this purpose and individual stories. And it's sort of evolved that in his last and latest books have really been about how to control your inner voice. Like you're in. You know, everyone has it. And that's why Yoda is teaching kids to become your own decision advisor. Because we hear about the anxious generation, we hear about the social media destroying everything, and they're like, what do we do? You know, there's a mental health cross crisis in America facing youth. Well, there is. Again, there's no silver bullet. But if you can teach kids to be their own decision advisors and to actually control that inner voice that they don't, you know, parents are here, friends are, your social media is here, the Internet, everything's coming at them. How do they stay calm and say, and you know, karate and studying martial arts teach teaches a lot of this, a lot of calmness, a lot of quiet. You know, the object is not to fight. It's really like how to defend and be prepared. And it's really internal. And so I feel that it's not a silver bullet, but becoming your own decision advisor above all else is really critical.
- [31:01]
Mitch Carson
Tell me about the six Ps, because that was something I was able to deduce. I've got passion, purpose, perseverance, perspective.
- [31:09]
Kirk Spain
Yeah. So the whole idea is whether it's education, parents ask, well, you know, I don't care what you end up ranked. I don't. If you go pro, you know, the colleges, it's that the entire sort of experience is how do you take a passion and make it a purpose? Because passion. I am super passionate about music, but by no means am I a musician. Like, no how so knowing what you actually are kind of good at, what you're, what you want to create as a purpose. So, you know, for me, that passion for tennis became a purpose and I had a passion for a different type of education, how to blend those two. So the purpose ends up evolving into a super purpose, which is, you know, how do I help others? So first it's about you, like, what's my purpose? And then you sort of find your super purpose ultimately. But you know, when you have a purpose, the process is the most important. Right. If you don't get the right process, you can dedicate and say, I want to be a great tennis player, I want to be a great martial artist. But if you don't have the process of waking up at 6, if you don't follow it day in, day out, you're never going to reach what your goals are because that process is really what makes that happen. And then you have to have people along the way, you talked about coming back after 50 years from your sensei and no one does it alone. There is no such thing as the individual success story. There are always people around that have either been supportive, the naysayers, you know, some people are driven by the people that don't believe. So people is a really important p to prepare you for perseverance because I'm sorry, there is, you know, a great hero and role model of mine is Roger Federer. And he speech at my alma mater at Dartmouth and he said, you know, guys, I had this winning career, but you know, I lost more points than I won. You know, I, I, I lost thousands and thousands of matches. And you know, he broke it down in such an amazing way for kids to learn. And just, just those facts of, hey, there is no such thing as just hockey stick and you have to be ready that, you know, you hear the terms grit and resilience and you know, facing challenges, but the truth is they're gonna come and you are going to lose. There is not one athlete on this planet that doesn't lose. There is not a performer that all of a sudden goes, you know, number one, hits right away. It's, it's, it's a mixture of the 10,000 hours, the losing, and we all know that the great, the threat comes.
- [33:51]
Mitch Carson
From the outliers, from one of our.
- [33:54]
Kirk Spain
One of our first champions in all the way.
- [33:56]
Mitch Carson
One of my favorite books, man, and I got to tell you a side story to that where I saw it into application. I taught a course in Singapore just going back a few years before the pandemic. And you walk up the stairs of what is called lifelong learning in Singapore, which is a government funded teaching model. And I walk up the stairs, on the left side of the stairs in the main entrance, it says 10,000 hours. They wrote it.
- [34:25]
Kirk Spain
And, and you know what? It's just a symbol, right? You know, it's always debated and you're like, guys, guys, understand what we're really saying. We're saying that process and dedication, the right habits, you know, just day in, day out, there is, there is no, there's no other solution besides hard work. I don't care who you are, you hate a certain athlete. But like, if you get to that level of any of our champions, that's why I respect any human being in the Olympic Games. When you become that elite, elite, elite level, my hat's off. I have all day. The utmost respect because they've overcome insane odds. And of course, oh my gosh, gifted. You know, there are These gifted people, but having gifts and having talent, you know, we can walk down the street and find a lot of talented people. That does not mean that they can get to where they've been.
- [35:15]
Mitch Carson
Yeah, and it's, Thomas Edison said very astutely, it's 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration, completely.
- [35:23]
Kirk Spain
And if you start young, but you know, then again, Kobe Bryant of your Lakers, you know, he cut it down into, hey, I work out three times a day because if everyone else does it and you do the math and I, you know, over a month, it doesn't make a big difference. But you do that for a decade and you're doing three a days and you've, you've practiced 2,000 more hours than your competition and the same shots that they hit, you know, a thousand times you did a hundred thousand times, you're going to be better. And so, yes, you know, when I relate that to ICL and education, it's just start early. Right? Like there's no downside. It's like, get an internship, get a job. There's no reason that a 16 year old can't be, you know, as much as an intern as a college student. Why wait five more years to have that first experience? I don't think there's any correlation to the brain level, you know, there. So I think it's just how our system is based right now. So we're just trying to change that and say, you know, get going.
- [36:23]
Mitch Carson
Is your, is your student base mostly American? Do you have any international students? Is that part of international?
- [36:31]
Kirk Spain
49 countries represented and no market, but, but no marketing. But you know, listen, it's, it's word of mouth when, you know, tennis is a very international sport, golf like, you know, people look to who the best are. And again, I'm going to take my television time out to check on one of my students at this second to see how she's doing on the US Open. Playing in the US Open. Right, right this second. All right. She's in a battle with a number seven seed right now. She's holding her own. But these are the type of things that are super important. So I, you know, I really think that having that international flavor, having people from other countries, it adds to the, to everything.
- [37:17]
Mitch Carson
Bravo. Bravo. Absolutely agree.
- [37:21]
Kirk Spain
It's sharing, it's, it's getting out of, you know, whether it's California, New York, Iowa that you mentioned. But all of a sudden I was teaching a class, you know, my last semester and I had, I had a young female golfer from Saudi Arabia, who had to tune into my class to be there live at 2 in the morning, her time. I had someone from Argentina in the class, but they're both golfers all of a sudden. They now are connected. And then the US Kids are there. And so, you know, part of our time in class is to share where you're from, like, tell us more about that. And that's never happened in history. I mean, it happens in college. And that's a big part of the college experience, is meeting people from not where you're from, or, you know, getting those kids in other states, other countries. This is. This is starting from the fifth grade. I mean, you're in class with kids, as I said, from 49 different countries, and you're learning about them. And it's cool because you're linked by, wow, we're both tennis players. We're both in the same school. We're both here. So it's pretty.
- [38:22]
Mitch Carson
That's awesome. That's awesome. So where can people get in touch with you, Kirk?
- [38:27]
Kirk Spain
Very easy. We're at ICL Academy. ICLAcademy.org is. Is our website. You know, it's. It's very easy. You can follow us on Instagram, you can see kind of the students. But, you know, anyone that has kids that are pursuing a passion, we are, you know, constantly open and building out, you know, new disciplines, new passions. You know, to be honest, started out really, as for tennis players, and it's just we have over 500 tennis players, but now it's golf, it's skiing, it's swimmers, it's. I looked at my screen and saw that we actually have three martial artists enrolled. So there you go, right up your alley. So it's really growing. And like I said, there's not kind of an end in sight, because you can apply it to musicians, you can apply it to the entrepreneurs, the tech side of things. I don't think you need to go as far as Peter Thiel, who's like, don't go to college. Get right in the workforce. Well, I think Peter Thiel would agree that, well, this makes sense, right? Have a knowledge base, start young, apply it to technology. And that's we're kind of here to do. And we don't want to compete with the school system. Hey, we can work with any superintendents of schools, of people. We can add that flexibility that allows a bit more flexibility, freedom to know, do more.
- [39:53]
Mitch Carson
Great. Well, you've been a great guest. Thank you so much for your time today, and I look forward to having you back in the future.
- [39:58]
Kirk Spain
Thanks so much Mitch. It was a great, great, great chat with you.
- [40:02]
Mitch Carson
Thanks for tuning in to the Amazing Authorities podcast. If today's episode inspired you, take a moment to subscribe, rate and leave a review. It helps more experts like you rise to the top for behind the scenes access and free resources to boost your authority. Head to MitchCarson.com until next time, stay amazing.