5 Ways You Didn’t Know Your Credit Rating Would Affect Your Life

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money. Building and maintaining a strong credit rating can significantly affect one’s financial health and open certain doors and opportunities. The opposite is also true. The following contributed post is entitled; 5 Ways You Didn’t Know Your Credit Rating Would Affect Your Life.

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Ah, credit rating. You have probably heard the term in financial circles when dealing with mortgage applications and cars, but your credit rating can have a huge impact on your life – even when you didn’t realise it. Most people don’t tend to concern themselves with their credit rating – particularly young adults, who believe that a credit rating is something for homeowners and richy rich people to worry about.

Credit can have an effect on the way that you do everything. If you choose to go back to school, for example, you may need a finance loan to help you to pay for your living expenses. If your credit isn’t great, you could find yourself instead turned down for mainstream finance and turning towards loans for bad credit instead. This is a good way to start building your credit from the poor to the good, but it’s not always that simple for everyone. So, with all of that in mind, how DOES your credit rating affect your life?

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Buying Property
It’s an obvious one, but you will find it very difficult to be approved for a mortgage if you have debt on your credit file. You need to clear the debt on the file to start improving your credit rating, otherwise you could find yourself with a very high interest mortgage instead of one you can actually afford.

Owning A Business
If you are aiming to own a small business, credit can really affect your ability to ensure that your business can stay afloat. You may not be the sort of business that needs external funding to start with, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t need it later. Personal bad credit can affect your business credit.

Getting A Phone
No one can live without a smartphone these days, well, you could but it’s not the norm anymore. The thing is, electrical items like this are never usually bought outright; they’re bought on finance. If you don’t have the right credit rating, you can be turned away from getting that contract.

Utility Bills
You need to access water, electricity and gas. If your credit rating is poor, there is a chance that you could be put onto special metres for your payments because the companies would see you as not being trusted enough to pay those bills on time. These metres are often higher in cost to run. Good credit can save you cash every month.

Property Interest Rates
The amount of interest that you can secure on your mortgage is directly linked to your credit rating. So, we mentioned earlier about having trouble buying a property, but if you manage to secure finance, your credit rating can push that interest rate right up.

The key to your credit rating is to work out how to pay off the debts that you owe and gently start improving the rating that you have. Once you start to do this, you can rebuild your credit with a bad credit loan and make efficient payments to prove you can do it.

Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. Doing business has changed significantly in today’s digital/information age. Many ‘brick and mortar’ retail stores have folded altogether, while others have had to rethink their business models in order to survive. What are the keys to running store in the modern world? The following contributed post is entitled; Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World.

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There are two schools of thought when it comes to setting up a retail store in the modern world. Firstly, you may find that your target audience doesn’t physically go shopping, but prefer to go online. But, conversely, the demand for a physical store in recent years has seen a rise. And if you are selling products of various types, the temptation could be to go via an online marketplace, but you could find that you are neglecting certain parts of your target market. But, are there things we can do to harness the online capabilities with the offline capabilities in a physical setting?

Implementing The Quick Checkout Service
The best way to marry the fast checkout service of an online store with the personal approach to the modern retail store is to have online payment services inside the store. The vast majority of stores have self-service methods to pay now, as well as various ways in which to provide payment, such as through your cell phone. But in addition to this, you need to still implement a personal approach to your customers, and this can be quite tricky to get right because it depends on each individual customer. At the end of the day, the customers come into a physical store because they want ease of access to a product, and they want to see it themselves. So, as soon as they find that the product suits their needs, they want to be able to pay for it without lengthy queues. On the other hand, others still prefer that old school approach. Implementing both covers all bases.

Taking Responsibility For Your Customers
And as the physical setting requires a lot more consideration in relation to health and safety, this means that you have a few more things to consider in comparison to an online store. Whether this is employers liability insurance just in case of accidents in your store, or ensuring there’s enough space for your customers to walk around, this is a deft combination of legal compliance with common sense. Taking responsibility for your customers isn’t just relating to the safety side of things, but also ensuring they have a good experience in your store, and this boils down to how your employees interact with the customers.

Looking After Your Workers
A very easy thing to overlook nowadays is the impact that your workers can have on the customers. Because personal interaction is at an all-time low, with the reliance of the internet to do the vast majority of our work for us, the personal touch is a very difficult thing to achieve. This is why you have to work with your employees to ensure that they are not just representing your store properly, but they have the common courtesy that we demand as customers. But in addition to this, the retail industry is notoriously underpaid and overworked, which this is something else you have to think about when it comes to making your employees work effectively for you, but that they’re also happy in the position.

The best retail store is a component of the old school personal methods, with the modern technological approaches. It’s a tricky balance, but they are both essential in the modern retail store.

Could You Be Making It Easier For Your Employees? Here’s What To Think About

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key to effectively doing business in today’s world is creating the best possible work environment for your employees. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Could You Be Making It Easier For Your Employees? Here’s What To Think About.

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When it comes to running your business often as you start to expand, you get to the point where you may end up having employees working for you. However, if you do end up having employees working for you, then you may want to ensure that you do what you can keep them happy. After all, happy employees means a happy and productive business workforce. So what can you do to make things easy? I thought I would help you by sharing some of the things your and your business could do.

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Making the working environment comfortable

One of the first things you may want to think about is the working environment that you have for your staff and whether or not you feel that it is comfortable. There are things that you can do to ensure this. First off, thank about their workstation and seating, their desk and where they are positioned. You may want to think about room temperature, not too hot out too cold especially on hot and cold days outside. You may also want to think about the facilities you have in place, such as drinking water, places to store food and drink for lunch breaks and lastly whether there is outside space for fresh air. These things can make life easier on your employee in terms of how they feel in work.

Making the work levels simpler for your employees

There are things that you may want to think about internally to help simplify the workload that you have for your employees. Such as document management. After all, there is a likelihood that there will be a lot of documents passing through your business. Things like invoices and receipts, contracts and signed papers, and a software system to manage them may help matters. This is when looking into websites like https://www.templafy.com/document-management-software/ could really help you out.

Keeping your staff and employees safe

When you have staff and employees working for you, you have a responsibility to ensure that you keep them safe. So you may want to think about how you can do that as an employer. Things like having a decent health and safety p-solicit in place is probably a good place to start. Regular rose assessments and ensuring things are checked over is a great way to do this. It can often be the simple things such as this, that can have employees feeling valued and respected while they are in the working environment. Having a policy booklet on hand can also help ensure that everyone is aware of the policies your business has in place.

Being approachable as a boss

Finally, being approachable as a boss is a crucial to ensuring that you can keep things going. Your employees will need to feel comfortable talking to you about things such as their career development, but also feel comfortable and confident enough to talk to you about personal issues that may involve them having time off etc. Being approachable is something you may need to work on, but it could help ensure that you do right by your employees and your business. Articles such as https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141008154953-152548954-6-steps could help you do this better.

I hope that these tips help you make things easier for your employees.

Niagara Falls Coaching Legend Pat Monti discusses building, and leading the LaSalle Basketball Dynasty Part Two

“It’s a great game. I love the game because there are so many facets to it – it’s so exciting and you’re teaching life skills in a sports-setting in my opinion.”

This is part two of my interview with legendary LaSalle Senior High School Head Basketball Coach Pat Monti. In part one, we discussed his background, and how he built the LaSalle basketball program. In part two, we discuss more aspects of coaching, memorable games, notable opposing players and coaches, and his coaching career after LaSalle closed. We end by acknowledging the hardworking staff of the Buffalo News who covered the Explorers and Section VI basketball throughout Coach Monti’s tenure as the Explorers’ leader on the bench.

The pictures in this interview come from an archive of Western New York basketball assembled over the years from issues of the Buffalo News, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and Sections V and VI playoff programs, by my first Coach at Hutch-Tech High School, Dr. Ken Jones. Other pictures were generously shared by Tim Winn, and Coach Monti himself. Click on any of the images to enlarge them. This interview is one of the earliest promotional offerings for my book project entitled, The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story.

Anwar Dunbar: In the late 1980s, Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News wrote a story saying that the Niagara Frontier League (NFL) officially had surpassed the Yale Cup as the best league in Western New York. Was that due to you guys or were the other teams in the NFL very competitive as well?

Pat Monti: No, I think it was just the great rivalries. Kenmore West had Dick Harvey who was a tremendous basketball coach (pictured to the left). I got into the New York Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, and I think Dick got in a little bit after me.

You had a couple of really, really good coaches at Lockport High School like Dick Crossett while I was still coaching. North Tonawanda always had a solid program. The NFL was really, really good. I don’t think it was just LaSalle. Niagara Falls always had talent. Kenmore West was the team we wanted to beat in the mid-1980s when we started getting really good.

AD: During that 10-year stretch when you guys consistently won the Section VI Class A championship, can you talk about the yearly matchups with the Rochester schools?

PM: Oh yeah. We went up against McQuaid a couple of times, East High School a couple of times – East was supposed to blow us out every time we played them because they had so much more size. The Greece-Athena matchup was really unfortunate. I wish New York State did what they do down here in Florida. In Florida, they don’t call them “Sectionals”, they call them “Districts”.

When you play in your District championship game, win or lose, you’re not out of the tournament. The winner hosts the loser from the District next to you, and your District loser goes to play the other winner so that the two teams could end up meeting again to see who advances to the Final Four. The game with Greece-Athena was unbelievable. We just had no answer for ‘DA MAN’, John Wallace (pictured to the left).

AD: Yes, I remember he actually did have that cut onto the back of his head for that game (laughing). Well it was close for first half and then it slowly slid away from you guys in the second half and –.

PM: No, it was close for three quarters! It was tied after three quarters, but we just had no answer for him. We kept the game under control as much as we could as a low scoring game, but we just couldn’t stop him inside. We were both undefeated at the time.

AD: Yes, they called the game “The Meeting of the Perfect Strangers” as you were both amazingly 23-0 going into that matchup.

PM: They not only won the Public School title easily, but they won the Federation also. Think about it – they struggled with us. Had we had another opportunity, you never know what would’ve happened. It was just a shame that the two teams had to meet each other before the Final Four. I went to the states that year as a spectator as I did most of the time when we didn’t make it ourselves.

The guys at the Glens Falls Civic Center loved us. We never had to get tickets or ribbons – we used to just go in where the players’ entrance was, and these guys would welcome us with open arms because the guys who ran the place just loved the style we played – the unselfish basketball and the way we played defense – we were always undersized, but we never, ever gave in. It could very well have been the state championship game – us vs. Greece-Athena. John Wallace obviously went on to have a great career at Syracuse and after that.

AD: Of LaSalle’s many berths to Glens Falls, are there any memories that stand out to you?

PM: We had some unbelievable runs in Glens. One year we played Hempstead – a powerhouse from Long Island – a much bigger school than us. It might’ve been the year after Jody Crymes and Terry Rich graduated – it might’ve been 1996, Timmy’s last year.

I was told by some people who had scouted them, ‘There’s no way that you can play this team man to man. I know that man is your dominant defense though you do play some zone, but if you play man against them, they’ll just kill you inside.’ They had two brothers that were going to play at Rhode Island – dunking machines – 6’8” guys, the Bell brothers.

Hempstead had us down by 15 points at the half, and I was playing zone because I was told that there was no way I’d be able to match up with them. I went against the voice in my head which said to go with what got us there, so I played my 1-3-1 matchup zone and they just got too many easy baskets and our pressure wasn’t good enough. At the start of the fourth quarter, we were down by 13 and I said, ‘Screw it. Let’s go back to our “Run and Jump” 1-2-2 full court press and see what happens.’ I believe we still hold the state record for points scored in a quarter in a finals championship game. We scored 39 points in an eight-minute quarter, turned them over, and over, and over again and we ended up beating them by 12 points.

AD: Wow.

PM: In hindsight you say, ‘Dammit I wish I hadn’t listened to those people who gave me all of that scouting information. I should’ve just gone with what got us there, but you live and learn. And that’s the thing as a coach, anyone who tells you it’s their thing is crazy because we all steal from each other, or we all share with each other. Even after 50 years of coaching, if I see something I’ll say, ‘Hey that’s going to work with the team we’ve got this year at Gulf Coast High School or Naples High School,’ the two places I’ve coached down here.

That’s what you’ve got to do as a coach, you’ve got to give your kids the opportunity to win, by putting them in position to win, depending on who your opponent is. So, do I prefer man to man? Of course. But do I play a lot of zone? Sure. If I think a team is going to run up and down the court and jump over the top of me, and I don’t think I can match up with them athletically, I’m going to zone them. It’s just the way of life.

Maybe the best example of that is after we won the states in 1988. We weren’t supposed to win the Niagara Frontier League in 1989, but Elon McCracken (pictured to the left) – the experience he had helping us with the state title in 1988 and the cast of characters around him – we not only won the NFL, but we won Section VI again, and then a supposed upset over McQuaid. We then won our first game in the state semifinals against Long Island-Lutheran that had this Vasil Eftimov that played at the University of North Carolina. The guy was a beast – he still owns the record for rebounding in the state tournament, but he was 6’11”.

I played a ‘slowdown’, very smart game and we beat them by a couple of points and kept it in the 40s. The year after that, we were supposedly an even lesser team and we won the league again, and we won the section again. We played East High School out of Rochester with their old coach Sal Rizzo. Our biggest kid was 6’3” who came over from Bishop Duffy/Niagara Catholic, Duke Davis. Who else was on that team? Milo Small? I think Modie, maybe Carlos Bradberry, a really good guard –.

AD: Did Carlos have an older brother named Cazzie?

PM: Yeah Cazzie was a year older than Carlos (pictured to the left). Cazzie was a forward, a solid player who played for me. Carlos was younger – more of a ballhandler and a big guard and could score. As a matter of fact, Carlos was the school’s leading scorer until Timmy came along. Timmy ended up being the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Anyway, we were playing East High and they had six guys 6’6” or bigger. We had one 6’3” guy – chunky Duke Davis (pictured in the gold shirt below). I had one week to prepare for the Far West Regionals and I put in “delay and strike” game – I said I’m going to keep this game in the 40s and it’s the only chance we’re going to have to win because if we run up and down with this team, we won’t have a chance because they had good guards too. That’s why I said you’ve got to do what’s best for your team and not be hard headed and knuckleheaded and think, ‘This is the only way that we play.’ To me you’re doing your kids a disservice. But that game with East High, do you know what the final score was?

AD: What?

PM: It was 36-33 in triple overtime (laughing).

AD: So, you guys did really slow it down.

PM: Well what was great was that Sal Rizzo who was the nicest guy you’ll ever want to meet, God rest his soul – I honestly don’t think he knew a lick about the game of basketball. He had so much talent year in and year out – he should’ve been in the Far West Regionals every year – that’s how talented East High was. He got so ticked off because the score at halftime was something like 17-15. He came out at halftime and came over to me and said, ‘What are you doing? This isn’t basketball!’ I said, ‘Coach, I’m doing the only thing I can do to give our team a chance to win!’ He said, ‘Well two can play that game Coach!’ And guess what he started doing –.

AD: He started delaying the ball?

PM: He started delaying the ball! (laughing). I said to my assistants, ‘Oh my God. Can you believe this? He’s playing right into our hands!’

So, it’s a great game. I love the game because there are so many facets to it and it’s so exciting. You’re teaching life skills in a sports setting in my opinion. If you looked at my contacts in my phone, probably more than half of them are our former players. It’s those relationships you make – I mean some of them still call me, ‘Dad.’ My wife and I weren’t fortunate enough to have children, and it’s funny when people ask, how many grandchildren we have, my wife will say, ‘Oh we don’t have any children or grandchildren, but we have hundreds, and hundreds and hundreds of sons and daughters,’ from my teaching and coaching.

AD: When your LaSalle teams advanced to the Far West Regionals, how were you able to scout your opponent from Rochester, if at all? Your Final Four opponents?

PM: We usually got to see our opponent one way or another. Sometimes my staff and I would head to Rochester for their semifinal games when and if they were being played on different nights than ours. Also, sometimes their Finals were on different nights than ours – either Friday or Saturday. There were sometimes when we had to send someone to scout for us if we were playing our Semifinals or Finals at the same time as the Section V schools were out in Rochester.

One way or the other I always made sure that we had adequate information on whomever we were to play. I was and still am a firm believer in deep and thorough scouting of any of our opponents no matter how strong or weak I thought they may be! There’s a very old adage which says, ‘leave no stone unturned,’ and it was a real belief of mine in preparing our team for battle!

AD: What did the LaSalle players do in the offseason? Did they play in camps? Did they play in leagues?

PM: Back in the day there was nothing like there is today with this crazy traveling all over the country – this AAU stuff. They have this great thing down here in Florida. Do you know how in college football they have spring practice and they have a spring inter-squad game? Unless you’re Michigan and you go to Rome or Paris (laughing).

In Florida, football rules and basketball takes a second seat unfortunately. Several years ago, they let them start practicing in May – right now they’re practicing – real football. The first week, no pads, just a helmet, and they walk through stuff and do cardiovascular training. The last three weeks they have full equipment, tackling and everything and then by the end of the month they play a game against another high school that they won’t be playing in the regular season.

I guess the basketball coaches approached the state and said, ‘Hey, we know that we’re second class citizens but we’re a pretty important sport too. Can we do something like that?’ So down here in June, you can coach your own kids in your own gym with your own gear, and then every weekend, there’s a tournament somewhere around the state.

They usually have 16 teams and they break you up into pools of eight. Over the weekend if you make it to the championship, you can play as many as four games on the last day which you play from Friday to Sunday where No. 1 from this side will play No. 8 from that side and so on, so you can play as many as 6-7 games on a weekend. So that’s what’s big down here even though they also still do the AAU thing which is going on right now. Come June, there’ll be actual basketball practice going on which is really great.

Back in my day there was no AAU though there was ‘traveling’ basketball and my better players played on what I would call more ‘All-Star’ teams. There was a guy – Mickey something out of Syracuse – he picked up Timmy one year and he picked up Modie another year. They’d travel around Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York in probably what is now AAU basketball. I myself used to put our team in summer leagues. Based upon the rules I couldn’t coach them, so I’d have one of my unpaid assistants – a player or a parent who knew the game and I would come and watch.

You wanted them to be thinking the game 24-7, 12 months a year but I was a firm believer in pushing my kids to play another sport. Down here in Florida it’s a shame. There are really good baseball players would could be good basketball players. There are some tremendous football athletes who would be phenomenal basketball players. But down here the coaches don’t get along with each other and they have the tendency to almost threaten their players saying things like a, ‘Well if you do that, then you’re not going to do this,’ type of thing.

I was the opposite. I wanted my kids to play a second sport for two reasons. Most of them were inner-city kids and I knew where they were – they weren’t running the streets if you know what I mean. It also kept their grades up because you had to have a certain average to stay eligible.

So, I used to push my basketball players and say, ‘If you want to play football, go play football. Go run track.’ A couple of them used to run Cross Country to get into cardiovascular shape in the fall for basketball. So, I always pushed them to do another sport, and they don’t do that enough anymore. They get them too isolated into the one thing and I personally don’t like that myself, but it is what it is.

AD: Are the kids different today than they were 20-30 years ago?

PM: Oh God. Are you kidding me? Of course. Absolutely.

AD: Are they less tough?

PM: There’s a lot more entitlement. I don’t know why. Maybe not up there, I haven’t been up there in a while – maybe 15 years. I hear from people about how bad the NFL is now. I hear about how bad the Catholic league is except for a couple of schools. Ritchie Jacobs used to be one of my assistants. He called me before he was playing Canisius the second and third time – I guess they got throttled by them the first time they played this year.

He called me and picked my brain for a good 40 minutes asking, ‘Coach what do I do about this? How do I do this? I’ve got this guy who can do this –.’ Over the phone I said, ‘Get your white board out – this is what I think you should do –.’ Then he turns around and wins the whole thing.

My tree has grown exponentially and it’s fun to have these young guys still contacting me. One of our LaSalle super fan’s brother coaches his son’s 10-year old team – they live in Mississippi or Alabama or something. He said, ‘Coach, my brother wants to contact you. Is it okay if I give him your number? He’s got this pretty good little 10-year old team but there’s this one team they can’t beat because they have one kid who scores three quarters of their points and you always run that gimmick defense. Do you think 10-year olds can do that?’

‘Anybody can do it if it’s taught properly,’ I said. So the brother of Dave Universal, this super fan and one of my former students, Dan Universal calls me and with pen and paper out, and I explained to him what I do when I want to, ‘chop the head off of the monster,’ so to speak. He got a hold of me a week later and said, ‘Yeah we beat them. We held that kid to six points,’ and he was so excited. He says, ‘Your thing works.’

‘It’s amazing more people don’t do it. You can’t do it if you’ve got a team that’s got two or three monsters. But if you’ve got one guy who’s primarily the ballhandler and also a scorer-facilitator and kind of the team leader – if you can take him away the right way, the rest of the guys get rattled, they don’t know what to do, and they shoot the ball differently than if he were involved,’ I said. I’ve proved it down here twice. We played two private schools down here – ritzy schools kind of like Nichols is or was. One of them called the “Community School of Naples” costs $22,000 a year to go there believe it or not.

AD: Wow.

PM: They had a kid who was averaging 23 points a game. Just the week before they were being touted in the newspapers here as “the best local high school basketball team”. The team I was coaching at Gulf Coast High School, we were pretty good – we had only lost one game locally. The other losses were to big teams out of Miami and Tampa. I had a week to put in my gimmick defense which held Lamar Odom to 7 points, and Stephon Marbury to 11 points. We put it in, and this kid from this Community School of Naples only scored 1 point. It’s effective if you don’t have too many monsters, but you can’t do it all the time.

AD: Would the LaSalle dynasty have gone on had the school not closed?

PM: Oh absolutely, and I probably would’ve gone on myself another five years or so. Who knows, some people say that if it were still open, I’d be coaching now at 71 going on 72 years of age. I ask them, ‘What are you crazy?’ I enjoy playing tennis or golf every morning. I go to basketball practice after school and just show up and teach without doing anything else.

I remember when I first started doing this down here, my former players and assistants would say to me, ‘Coach you can’t be somebody’s assistant! That’s impossible!’ I tell them, ‘You guys don’t understand. I’ve got the best of both worlds.’

Most of these teams I’ve been coaching, they buy into everything I teach, and it’s like watching LaSalle. As a matter of fact, Mark Simon, the outgoing St. Joe’s coach – he has a place here in Naples and he comes down in the winter once and while when he gets a break from work. He must’ve seen something on Facebook so he reached out to me and asked if he could come by a practice and pick my brain a little bit. He came by practice this winter and stayed the whole two hours of practice – watched our Gulf Coast High School team practice and picked up a few things.

AD: Now you may not know this, but the other Section VI Class A coaches – the Lancasters, the Williamsville Norths, the Lockports, the Hamburgs – did they all breathe a sigh of relief when they heard that LaSalle was closing?

PM: Well (laughing), the last year – the 1999-2000 season, that’s when Niagara Falls finally beat us. God, they had six to seven kids who were just tremendous basketball players, and all we had was Dewitt Doss and a cast of characters, and little munchkins. Believe it or not, that’s when they were still doing that crossover stuff where you had two divisions.

We won our side, and they won their side and we played them at North Tonawanda. We had a 7-point lead on them with about four minutes left in the game, and all we did was turn it over. We ended up losing them by two, and we ended up playing them again in the sectional finals, and they beat us on a buzzer beater. I’ll be honest with you in that we should’ve been blown out by 20 points, and we kept both games in the 40s.

Your kids have got to believe in you, and you’ve got to believe in them. I see too many screamers and yellers. Did I yell? Of course I yelled, but I yelled for a purpose and for a reason. If yesterday I put in an out of bounds play, and we went over it 20 times in row, and then we ran it tonight in the game, and you went the wrong way, you better believe you’re going to hear it from me. Right? I’m a teacher, and I taught you to do it this way and not that way.

I think people misconstrued me as a ‘win at all costs’ guy and it’s never how I’ve been. Am I a competitor? Absolutely. Do I like to win? Of course. I love to win. Show me someone who loves to lose and I’ll show you a loser, right? But you talk to my players and they’ll tell you that they learned more life lessons than they did the game of basketball. Talk to Modie Cox – do you know Modie?

AD: We met and spoke briefly a couple of years ago.

PM: Well you talk to Modie (pictured in the gold uniform below) and have him tell you some stories. He’s got a great program he runs now. It’s his business and it’s called “Winning Because I Tried”, and he speaks all over the place – all over the state at Boys Clubs and middle schools, and he’s just turned out to be one hell of a great and dynamic young man. He was a freshman I brought up from the JV on that 1987-88, 27-0 team. I’ll remember it until the day that I die. We still get together and every time I see him, and he still brings it up. He says, ‘Coach, that was the moment that changed my life.’

He didn’t play a lick in any of those games. If I had 11-12 Varsity players, I would always bring my three or four best JV players up to the Varsity team. They’d practice with us all through the Sectionals and all through the Far West Regionals. I’d take them to Glens Falls so they could see what it was like and want to do it themselves.

He was on that team, and after the game – he didn’t play a second and he was crying like a baby. He hugged me and said, ‘Coach this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life!’ And now he’s turned out to be doing the right things for the right reasons and is just a great young man. He had a nice career at UB. If you have a chance, you should talk to Modie and Timmy Winn.

AD: Okay that would be great. Well thank you Coach Monti. I think readers are really going to enjoy this interview – your players, the LaSalle alumni who I see have their own Facebook page, others who knew you, and basketball fans alike. I have some pictures and news clippings from the Buffalo News to go with what we’ve talked about here.

PM: Well the stuff you want to get is the stuff that Allen Wilson wrote up back in the day. Do you remember Allen Wilson? What a great guy. He loved, loved, loved my kids. He followed us as if he was our number one booster. That guy really, really liked our team. He came to a couple of our postseason banquets – great guy and it’s a shame what happened to him.

His wife Lisa who used to be the sports editor for the Buffalo News – sweet girl. He met her when she was doing sports for the Niagara Gazette when he was doing the Buffalo News, and I sort of introduced them.

AD: I moved away from Western New York in the mid-1990s. What happened to Allen Wilson?

PM: He died of Cancer after my retirement. I want to say that he’s been gone maybe 10 years now. Great guy. Tremendous guy. Great sports reporter. He loved high school basketball – a Carolina guy.

AD: I know Mike Harrington was writing most of the stuff and then Allen took over?

PM: Yes, Mike moved up to the big-time and Allen took over the high school beat. And after Allen, there was Keith McShea. Did you go to college after Hutch?

AD: Yes, but I didn’t play after high school. It was a bit of rocky road for me. I got injured my junior year and had some issues with my grades, and then the coach I started playing under retired. Then my senior season was a wash.

PM: Who did you have at Hutch?

AD: Ken Jones. His 1990-91 team won the Class B Sectional and advanced the Far West Regional where they lost to Newark my freshman year, and we just had a hard time getting back and making things work, and then he left.

PM: And you said one of my teams played you guys in one of the Christmas tournaments?

AD: Yes, it was the 1991 Festival of Lights Tournament – my first year on the team. I remember the day before the game, following practice, one of my teammates said, ‘We’re not going to beat LaSalle!’ I wondered why he would say such a thing, but I was in large part unexposed to Section VI basketball at the time so I didn’t know who you guys were (laughing).

PM: Who did I have on that team?

AD: You had: Carlos Bradberry, Todd Guetta, Curtis Ralands, Chris Frank and Shino Ellis – those guys (pictured in the team photo above).

PM: Oh the team that played against John Wallace and Greece-Athena in the Regional.

AD: Now I hope my Coach and teammates don’t get upset with me for this, but from the opening tip, it was like a Lion jumping on a Deer where the two teams were playing at two different speeds, and you guys beat us handily, 72-42. I was hoping to get at least one basket in ‘garbage’ time, but Jody Crymes and the other reserves were still playing at full speed (laughing).

PM: Oh (laughing). Well towards the end there when we used to go into opposing gyms, people used to say, ‘Well it’s already 10-nothing LaSalle before you even come out of the locker room.’

Yeah so if there was ever a dynasty, for that one stretch, I think we were truly a dynasty. I know there was a lot of banter back and forth. Who was better? St. Joe’s or LaSalle? Traditional or LaSalle? Turner/Carroll or LaSalle? But, I don’t think there’s anyone who did what we did for that stretch of time.

It sounds cocky, but I’m very, very proud of that. We were able to do it year in and year out with a change in personnel every year. And it all goes back to what we talked about in the beginning – the system. It was the system!

To see the first part of my interview with Coach Monti and other basketball-related pieces on my blog, see the links below. There will be one more installment in addition to this ‘question and answer’ portion of my interview with Coach Monti. During our interview, Coach Monti told numerous stories from the LaSalle basketball dynasty which were quite substantial length-wise for a standard interview format, and were more appropriate as ‘standalone’ stories. Those stories are coming soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy:

Pat Monti discusses building, coaching, and leading the LaSalle basketball dynasty part one
Tim Winn discusses playing point guard in the LaSalle basketball dynasty and beyond part one
Jason Rowe discusses Buffalo Traditional Basketball, the Yale Cup, and State Tournaments
Buffalo Traditional’s Jason Rowe discusses his college and professional basketball careers and coaching
Lasting lessons basketball taught me: Reflections on basketball camp
Chris Herren discusses his journey, drug addiction, substance abuse and wellness

Closing Thoughts

I intend to create more promotional/teaser pieces for The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story, both via print and video as I journey through the final steps of completing the book. I created a page on Big Words Authors for the purpose of giving a background of the book and grouping all the promotional pieces, such as this in one, for interested readers.

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at [email protected] . Best Regards.

Finding Your Target Audience

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key to succeeding in the business world is understanding your target audience and clientele base. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Finding Your Target Audience.

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When it comes to creating a marketing strategy for your company, one of the things you will want to think about is finding the right people to market your business towards. There is no point for example trying to market a teen fashion brand to people in their 50s and visa versa. In order to get your name out into the world and be as successful as you can in your business you need to make sure to find the right audience and target all of your marketing to them.

Business or Consumer?

The first and easiest question you can ask yourself to narrow down your market is whether you are aiming to sell to businesses or consumers. Both b2c and b2b sales have their own style of marketing and you will notice that B2B companies will often be more formal with their work than B2C because it is seen as more appropriate. Make sure you know which one you are going to choose for your business and this will have a big impact on the type of content and the tone of voice you use later on.

Age and Gender?

One of the biggest things you will need to consider when looking for your ideal target audience is their age and their gender. Let’s say for example that you plan to sell birth control products or sanitary products. You can’t focus your marketing towards men because this wouldn’t make any sense, and similarly you wouldn’t target it to women who are under the age of 13 or over the age of 60. Make sure you understand how your product or service is going to fit into people’s lives and how you can put across your point in a clear and interesting way.

Hobbies and Interests

One of the other things you can bring into your decision as far as your target audience goes is their hobbies and interests. With sites like google analytics you can monitor what your audience is interested in and this allows you to use their hobbies as part of your marketing campaign. For example let’s say you are a food company and you often share recipes on social media to demonstrate your cookware. You might notice that a lot of the people who follow you and engage with your brand also enjoy Game Of Thrones. Here is the ideal opportunity for you to create some Game Of Thrones style video content such as a recipe for Arya Stark’s Pie, Daenerys’ dragon eggs or the beer which the nightwatch drink at the wall. Think of being relevant and make sure that you can interact with your audience on a meaningful level.

Who will value the product?

When you are trying to gain an insight into who will use your products, think about what everyday problem your product solves. If you are selling a bathroom cleaning product which can make the job much easier, to won’t be targeting this towards teenagers. You would instead be targeting it for new homeowners and anyone who stays at home for work or runs their home full time. Really sit down and think about what your product does, what value it will add to your customers lives, and who would appreciate it the most. This will allow you to narrow down your audience easily to find the ideal one for you.

Choosing Social Media Platforms

When it comes to finalising your target audience and narrowing down the field of who you will market towards going forward, the main way you can do this is to choose a social media platform which fits in with the customers you are looking to target. For example, if you are a fashion brand looking to target women between the ages of 18-30, the best social media site for you would be Instagram, because most of Instagram users fall into this demographic. Think about what social media accounts will suit the type of content you share and who exactly you need to reach out to.

Creating great content

Now that you have chosen your target audience and you are set up on social media, you need to start making content to draw them in. People are visual beings and video content is becoming more and more popular on platforms outside YouTube. If you are struggling to know what kind of content you should create, you can always take a look at your competitors and see what kind of things that they are doing. This can be a huge help and it will give you the inspiration and ability to get out there and reel in your customers.

Unexpected Wellness Benefits Of Motorcycling

One of the focuses of my blog is Health and Wellness. There are several perceptions of motorcycles. In some instances, they are viewed as status symbols, and in other instances they are viewed as health hazards. It turns out that there are some therapeutic benefits to riding motorcycles. This contributed post is thus entitled; the Unexpected Wellness Benefits of Motorcycling.

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If you own a motorcycle, you’re already conversant in the arguments made against them on a regular basis. You probably hear them fairly regularly from your significant other, your parents and /or your children. They constantly remind you of just how unsafe you are on a motorcycle compared to on a car or how they worry about you every time you don your leathers and take to the road.

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While it could be argued that motorcyclists are actually safer than their car driving counterparts as not only does being able to turn their heads for an unimpeded view of their surroundings make for better hazard perception and eliminate blind spots, motorcyclists are also much better positioned to react quickly and decisively when they perceive a hazard. Of course, if you are injured on the road as a result of someone else’s negligence you should always contact a motorcycle accident lawyer to pursue justice. Nonetheless, your family needn’t worry for your wellbeing. While you hit the road on your trusty steed, you actually benefit from several unique health benefits…

Improved cognitive faculties

A study by the University of Tokyo demonstrated that motorcycling regularly can have a positive effect on cognitive function. In the study, a group of 40-50 year old male motorcyclists were compared to non-motorcyclists of the same age for 2 months. After 2 months of daily riding, the motorcyclists not only scored higher on their cognitive tests than the non-riders, they found a cognitive improvement of over 50% in some cases.

Burning away body fat

It’s not only your brain box that gets a boost from setting out on your bike. Regular motorcycling also helps you to keep some of that unsightly wobbly matter at bay. Steady state riding in urban environments can burn around 200-300 calories per hour. Riding over uneven terrain can burn up to 600 calories per hour. Who needs to be bored rigid on a treadmill when you can be working out with the open road.

Increased core strength

A strong core is important for much more than having a set of shredded abs that make you able to stroll down the beach with confidence. Good core strength is at the heart of most of the movements that we take for granted in our day to day lives including (of course) turning and banking on your bike. If we hope to retain great mobility even in old age it’s essential that we maintain good core strength and regular journeys on your motorcycle are a great way of doing this without spending hours in a packed, sweaty gym.

Boosts your mental health and encourages positivity

There’s no feeling in the road quite like the freedom of the open road. The feeling of speed and exhilaration combined with the raw power beneath you all combine to create a thrilling experience that beats sitting in a stuffy car any day of the week. Moreover, motorcyclists enjoy a meditative state feeling at one with the road that few drivers get to experience.

It’s a great stress buster and mood booster that can help you maintain a positive outlook no matter what the rigors of your job, career and family life.

Could You Start A Sports Club?

Some key focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship, and Athletics and Sports. While not everyone can go on to play in college and the professional levels, many individuals go on to start their own Sports Clubs. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Could You Start A Sports Club?

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Thinking of starting up your own sports club? Here are a few of the steps you may need to consider to make your club a reality.

Get qualified/licensed

Some sports are governed by an official body – to teach these sports you may need to obtain a license or teaching qualification that is officially recognised. For example, you can’t teach skiing without completing a ski instructor course, whilst you can’t coach a swim team without registering with USA Swimming as a coach. Even in sports where qualifications aren’t necessary, taking some kind of course can be beneficial for helping you to understand the process behind running a club.

Know your competition

Before starting up a club, you may want to check that there aren’t any other similar clubs locally. You may find it difficult to get people to join your club if there’s already a well established club in the area teaching the same sport as you. If you’re starting a club that’s part of a national organisation, you may even be restricted from starting up a club if there’s already one in the vicinity. Either way, make sure to do your research.

Shop around for equipment/venues

You’ll need certain essentials such as equipment and a venue. Shop around to find something that suits you need – you should weigh up factors such as cost, availability and practicality. You may want to design your own equipment in some cases such as custom basketball jerseys. Also consider whether you may need a van to transport equipment in – this may not be necessary with a pilates class but could be much needed if you’re running an outdoor boot camp.

Work out your running costs

On top of upfront costs of equipment, you’ll need to consider the running costs of renting a venue and possibly insurance. Make sure that you’re going to be making enough money to cover these costs. If you’re not making money from your club or only planning on breaking even, you’ll need to to ensure that you’ve got a job that supplies you with a source of income large enough to afford your club’s running costs.

Consider the commitment

A club is a big responsibility. People will expect you to show up and run the club each week, so make sure that you’ve got the time and the personal drive to do this. Quitting the club could let down any members who you build up – it should be something that you plan to be in for the long run.

Do your market research

Market research will help you to understand the demographic of the people that live locally to you and the people that are most suited to your club. If you’re going to be charging high fees, you need to be sure that people in the area are wealthy enough to afford your club. If your club is aimed at children, you may want to check that there are a lot of schools in the area and therefore a lot of kids to market to. This will all help you to realise how feasible your sports club is.

The Ethics Of Uber

Two key focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship. Uber has become a prevalent means to making money for the lay persons while also providing competition for conventional Taxi services. While Uber has become a convenience for most everyone, are there any drawbacks? The following contributed post is entitled; The Ethics of Uber.

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It goes without saying that consumers are crazy about Uber. From their point of view it has numerous sizable advantages over the conventional taxi model. First of all, it’s cheaper. As a digital intermediary between owner drivers and their passengers, Uber has significantly fewer overheads than your average taxi firm and are able to pass the savings on to their customers. Secondly, since Uber can recruit more owner drivers than your average taxi firm, it’s likely that wherever you are you can get an Uber at your door much more quickly and efficiently than you could get a conventional taxi. But while Uber may seem like the perfect option for those who want to get around quickly and affordably, it does have its ethical caveats.

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The transportation giant has had its fair share of ethical scandals over the past few years which have faced considerable public scrutiny. While this blog wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do with your money, here are some things that must be borne in mind before you tap the app…

Uber’s practices could push drivers to act unsafely

One would assume that unfettered the of overhead costs that befall most taxi operators, Uber would be able to guarantee a better deal for its drivers. But there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest that this is not the case. In fact, last year the intermediary restructured its pricing and increased its own cut of fares while reducing the drivers’ take home.

This has left Uber drivers having to make more fares to make their operation economically viable. Unfortunately, more fares means faster driving and with faster driving comes more scope for accidents occurring as drivers are more concerned with getting passengers to their destinations quickly rather than safely. You can read more about Uber car accident law online if you have been involved in an incident where this has happened. Suffice to say that Uber will have to either raise its prices or relinquish some of their cut if they are to pursue more ethical standards.

Regulatory ducking and weaving

Unlike other taxi services which are beholden to strict state and federal regulations, Uber has demonstrated some regulatory ducking and weaving over its lifespan that might put the legendary Muhammad Ali to shame. All over the world the app has used a technique called greyballing to deceive authority inspectors in locations such as San Francisco, Boston and Las Vegas. Greyballing was used to prevent officials from accessing Uber drivers by using personal data derived from their devices to mark them out as officials. This has enabled the taxi giant to avoid scrutiny but it’s far from the only measure taken to avoid regulation.

After the giant was effectively banned by London’s transport authority due to potentially unsafe practices and lack of corporate responsibility, Uber managed to dodge regulations which would have irrevocably altered its working practices. The giant has also been hit with a multimillion dollar fine for refusing to reveal its business data to US authorities.
While Uber has tightened up on their background checks for drivers and some territories are actively pushing for the taxi giant to operate with greater transparency and a better deal for its drivers, there are certainly a number of reasons why ethically minded passengers should be given pause.

Healthcare Business Ideas You Can Set Up Yourself

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, and Business and Entrepreneurship. It is predicted that there will be a lot of opportunities for growth in the Healthcare industry. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Healthcare Business Ideas You Can Set Up Yourself.

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If you are looking for a business idea which makes a big difference to people’s lives, you need look no further than setting up a healthcare company. With a rising and ageing population, there is always going to be a demand for a wide range of products and services directly related to people’s health and wellbeing. There is also more of a widespread focus on health and wellness than there has ever been before. However, you may feel like you need a bit of focus when it comes to what sort of healthcare business you would like to establish. To give you a helping hand, here is some inspiration in this regard, here are some possible ideas about the type of company that you could set up.

Home Healthcare Service

Nowadays, there is a greater and greater strain being put on hospitals. And as beds continue to fill up, there is a call for more healthcare at home to pick up the slack. Just some of the types of people who could utilise home healthcare include those recently discharged from hospital, senior citizens, and those in regular need of personal support. Of course, you will need to have all the proper skills and qualifications, as well as equipment like a portable ultrasound machine for sale. With all of this, you could have a very rewarding business concept on your hands.

Medical Records Management/Admin Business

One of the main problems which many medical professionals have is trying to keep up with the mountain of paperwork which regularly comes their way. You could help to alleviate this issue by setting up your own medical records management and administration business. Of course, you will need to have a high level of organisational skills and a keen eye for details to make a success of this particular venture.

Physical or Occupational Therapy Centre

Another area of medicine which comes in for high demand these days is physical or occupational therapy. Pursue this particular business path and you can play a central role in helping patients recover from their injuries, regain a full range of the motions which they had before, and perform some of the tasks involved in daily living. Again, you are going to need to have the correct certification and qualifications in order to pursue a business of this variety.

Nutritionist or Dietician Business

A lot of people are highly concerned with what they are putting in their bodies these days, and if you are one of these people, you could start your own business as a nutritionist or dietician. Since this is becoming a more complex field these days, you could even specialise further to focus on an area such as sports nutrition, weight loss or something else.

As we mentioned at the start, healthcare is always going to be a field which requires dedicated people working to improve it through innovative businesses, and these are just some of the business types which you could set up yourself.

How To Beat The High Co$t of Living

Two major focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, and Wealth Building. A key part of both of these areas is budgeting, planning and controlling costs. The following contributed post is thus entitled; How To Beat The High Co$t of Living.

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Another day, another bill. Another day, another dip in the bank balance. Another day, another moment when you wonder how you are going to cope with the rise in energy prices, bank charges, insurance costs, and more.

Rather than confront another day like yesterday, we wouldn’t be surprised if you huddled under your duvet in the morning, fearful of losing yet more money simply by going about your daily life.

Don’t despair! It is possible to beat the high cost of living, but you are going to have to work at it. You can put the ideas we give you in this article into your five-year plan, or better yet, your yearly planner. You see, you don’t have to let the financial aspects of your life get on top of you.

For starters, quit those bad habits that are eating away at your monthly income. Not only will you have more money in your pocket, but you will feel better as well. We are thinking of smoking and drinking alcohol, two expensive habits that are harmful to your health. We are thinking about watching too much tv; despite the many wonderful things to watch (and the utter drivel), you will save on your electricity bill if you spend time doing other things, such as (dare we say it), exercise! And quit your spending addiction. If you’re forever buying things you don’t need, then it’s little wonder you have no money for the essentials in your life. Put that credit card away!

Don’t let your utility companies take more money than they should. They are forever putting their prices up, but you are in your right to ditch them. You can get the same gas and electricity from another supplier, so use a price comparison service to find a cheaper deal. After switching, instill good habits around the home to make further energy savings. We have already told you to stop watching so much tv, but there are further ways to save money. Ensure your family are up to speed with your energy-saving habits as well, because as you know, they can often be responsible for draining your bank account!

Cut down the cost of driving too. For starters, don’t use your car if you are only travelling short distances. Why waste money on fuel when you can save money (and feel healthier) by using your two legs. As with your utility companies, use a price comparison site to save on your insurance. We use this site, https://cheapautoinsurance.co, but there are there are plenty of others available. Then practice safe driving. You see, the less reckless you are on the road, the less likely you are to do damage to your vehicle, and the less likely you are to pay out on huge maintenance bills. Driving safely saves money on fuel too!

Don’t let your bank take you for a ride. If they are charging you monthly fees just for having an account with them, it’s hardly fair! As with some of the other things on this list, you can do yourself a favour by ditching those banks who are inflicting damage on your account and transferring to another. You should be able to find lower rates and fees, and may even get rewarded for making the switch too. Check out this banking guide as a way to make the most of your money.

You can beat the high cost of living by making changes in your life, and by doing your homework into finding cheaper alternatives to the people who take your money away from you. So, don’t delay, start to make savings today, and continue to practice good habits and price comparisons in the months and years to come. It does make perfect financial sense, after all!