SPEAKER_00 0:04

You're listening to the Hanging with the AD Podcast, where we break down hot topics in athletic administration and lessons learned through leadership. Now, here are your hosts, Josh Matthews and Don Baker.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome back to the Hanging with the AD Podcast. In this episode, we're joined by Rob Seymour, athletic director at Fishers High School in Fishers, Indiana, where he has served since 2014. Rob is the past president of the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and a member of the NIAA National Teaching Faculty for LTC 714. In this conversation, Rob explains how he uniquely shares the AD role at Fisher's and offers insights on culture change through the lens of Indiana football, purpose-driven leadership, and game day event management as hospitality, inspired by the book Unreasonable Hospitality. We also deep dive into AI, why Rob embraced it early, how he's using it today for visuals, videos, and daily AD work, how to educate coaches in a rapidly evolving space, and what athletic administrators may still be overlooking about AI's impact on our profession. Let's settle in for the first time in a while and get to know Mr. Rob Seymour.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Rob, we're so glad to have you joining Don and me for this episode of Hanging with the AD. I know we tried to work this thing out all year long in 2025. So we're great to have you finally on with us.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

I greatly appreciate the opportunity. Have a lot of respect for what the two of you have done and uh have enjoyed listening to your podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Yeah, for the record, the fumbling of it was on our end, not on Rob's. 100%. Yeah. So we are great. We are we are really excited to have Rob with us. Hey, and for our listeners, Rob Seymour is one of the athletic directors at Fishers High School in Fishers, Indiana. Rob has served in this role at Fisher since 2014. He's also the past president of the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association with the II AAA. He has served on the mentoring committee and as a professional development coordinator. He's a ball a ball state graduate, but is a very proud dad of an Indiana cheerleader. Rob is also a marathoner, having run 14 or more. I think every time I look on uh social media, he's running another marathon. So really cool uh uh uh uh accomplishment there. And as an athletic director, he is involved at the national level, being a member of the national teaching faculty for LTC 714 and has presented several times. Rob is uh an NFHS level three certified coach as well. Uh but we'll stop right there, let Rob fill in the rest. We call it the back of the baseball card bio. So, Rob, if you could take a minute, tell us what the back of your baseball card look would look like. And as we just mentioned, off air, please explain kind of how y'all set up the athletic director position there at Fisher's, as it's a very unique uh situation, I think.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yeah, so back in the baseball car. That one, I think the first thing would probably be that um I've been blessed to live in a community with caring and supportive adults. And that's part of my when I was going through and developing my transformative purpose, that's that's what helped me get there. Um, I am blessed to work in a community that I grew up with and grew up in and uh have so many great relationships. And I've been also been blessed with so many great mentors uh that have helped me get to where I am today. Um, so I, you know, that's I I am I've got a loving family. My wife is a principal, elementary principal in our district. Um, I have a son that's a junior here at Fisher's. My daughter did go through here. My older kids uh went to a different school. Uh they also have Indiana degrees. I actually have a B, my bachelor's actually from Indiana. My two masters are from Ball State. So a lot of Indiana ties uh uh to the Hoosiers, and it's been a great year. Uh expanding on the you know the way we have Fishers High School set up here. Again, I have been in it for 14 years. Uh Fishers High School came back online in 2006 because it originally was uh open in since like 1896. Uh it closed through consolidation in uh 1968 and became Hamilton Southeastern. And that's actually the high school that I went to, have a great relationship with a lot of the uh teachers and coaches still over there. Um so when we opened up in 2006, we had a two we came on with a two AD system, and that has remained as our model. Um, so yeah, the way you know what we kind of do is we go through and and we don't necessarily split boy and girl. I think that's a the the default that most people would think. Um, but we just have it split up with uh it was originally what we did is when I came in in 2014, I just took over the retiring ADs spots that they had. Um, but uh, you know, I you have uh, for example, boy girl soccer, I take boys and um Jim Brown, who's a longtime AD, you know, 40 plus years AD, um, he takes the girls' soccer. And so we kind of, you know, we we share football, obviously, because that's such a big animal. Uh boys and girls basketball, I take boys, he takes girls, but we're both, you know, we're both working boys' basketball again because we're we're dealing with so many people in the gymnasium at one time. Um, so it's yeah, which kind of just those are the sport splits. And then in regards to like, you know, the just the daily tasks, the daily grind, uh, some of it is uh kind of care um catered to like the strengths of uh individually and the interests of individually. Uh, you know, like for example, Mr. Brown, Jim Brown, he's he's fabulous at the relationships with the officials. Um, so you know, predominantly he's taking care of a lot of the officials, you know, making sure we have the money in our account to make the payments, making the payments, uh, those kind of things. Uh, I'm pretty handy with technology. So a lot of the tech stuff now in the in the world of athletic administration, you know, I'm taking care of those kind of things. So it kind of just goes like that. Um, I had a I came back into this role as a dean, uh, six years as a dean of students. So, you know, if we have any kind of um athlete, athletic suspension type stuff, I'll take that again and just kind of go into skill sets. So that's kind of how we hit it how we do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yeah, that's good. Kind of a all a mix between a traditional high school setup versus a uh collegiate setup where they do the sport splits and uh different uh components. That's that's really neat to hear and to know that it's been done different out there. Give guys or give it give ADs out there uh opportunity to think about it differently. Maybe you want to make some adjustments in your schedule. Rob probably could help you out with that. That's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

We have 3,700 kids here. We're the fourth school in Indiana. So I mean we there's a lot, you know. It's you guys, you know, this job has a lot to it, and you know, close to probably 1,200 athletes.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

It's it's a lot. Yeah, it seems to be growing every every month or two. We get something new, or you know, there's a new component because just the uh just like the kids get bigger, faster, stronger, the uh role of this athletic administration team gets bigger as well. So uh totally understand that. All right, Rob, let's uh jump in. Let's start off by uh looking at something we've already mentioned. You mentioned being an IU grad. Uh it's kind of a lot of fun right now, I think, being an IU football fan, uh, which there haven't been that many of you know until lately. Uh, but I wanted to dig deep into that because you did mention you have a daughter who's a cheerleader there, so you're you're involved with it, you or you have a certain perspective. I know as all ADs, you're probably really studying the success of this program over the past two years. Uh, it's very intriguing, right? I think I saw where Indiana had no 10-win seasons from 1888 to 2024. Uh, that's kind of unheard of, or maybe I just got the stat wrong. I'm not sure. Um, they won 11 last year and uh just this weekend won the Big Ten championship in 2025. So, based on your viewpoint, what has Coach Signetti done to change the culture and environment with Indiana football? Some things that you've seen maybe that we could learn from when it comes to developing our cultures.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

Yeah, so obviously, my viewpoint, I mean, I have been to every home game this year, um, and it's a it's a their their game day experience is awesome. They they you know, they get there, uh the two charter buses pull in, and the cheerleaders have a they call it the walk, and the team gets off and goes through, and uh there's a bunch of fans, the the bands there playing, cheerleaders are there. Um, and so again, I got to experience that this year. Um, you know, last year I obviously was not nearly as tied in. But what you have is, I mean, you know, but Coach Signetti has said is he's he needed to redefine the culture, redefine the expectations of of IU football. And and he has definitely done that. And and that's you know, just having high expectations, and you can see it. I mean, when they get off the bus, you know, I mean, it's what you would expect to see. They're all in the same uniform, they're all wearing the same gear. They and um I think I really do believe that what Coach Signetti has done is he's made it a family culture. And and you really when you hear Mendoza talk, like what a humble kid, right? Like he is, you know, first giving grace to God, and then uh he's passing it off to a teammate. Even like you know, even in the interview Saturday night, he tried to give that microphone away real quick to you know to the defense. And so he's that's just phenomenal. Um, you know, I think that's when you look at uh you know great cultures, it's uh you got to be consistent. And I think Coach Signetti is definitely consistent and very calm, uh, and in the in his you know, the way he uh carries himself on the sidelines to the point where you know people got bobbleheads, and there's people in the stands that are dressing up like him and and standing just like him. And I mean he's got a presence. You know, he he came up right, came in right away. And he'll and he's I've even seen interviews where he, you know, when he said when he was like when he came in, he tried to he tried to make a loud bang um right away with the you know, being introduced at the basketball game and his interview of the Google Me. And and he says, that's not me. And it's not him, right? He just he he's like, hey, I'm gonna make a change here. We've got to make a change. And I also really appreciate just how quickly he passes off um to you know to the athletic director and to the president of the university and giving them credit. So he he's been, I think, a tremendous thing for Indiana, and it's been a great uh to be a part of it, even if it's just through the parent of a cheerleader.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

I'll tell you another thing, too. He's he's good for a soundbite, you know, and and it's and it's like a calm sound. You're talking about it's almost like a uh like a calm, quiet confidence, I guess is the way that I would say it. Uh my mom said a long time ago, it ain't bragging if you can do it, and he's got the resume to prove it. And I so I I find it interesting. Anytime that they put a mic in front of him, uh it's kind of must see TV for me because I think he's it's it's pretty entertaining in a good way. Now, shifting to your personal leadership style, uh, on your LinkedIn page, you openly share your personal purpose statement. Uh, how does having a mission or a purpose statement guide you as a leader? Uh and and why do you believe it's important for leaders or really anyone to develop one?

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Yeah, I encourage everyone to to go through that process of developing. And mine took me quite a while. Um, you know, we started the Inside Out initiative here at Fisher's High School. We were one of the first uh schools to do that with the you know, the NFL and through the Colts. And in that process, that was one of the first steps we did. And it took me, it didn't, it took me a long time. You know, a lot of people I think were able to drill down and come up with some descriptive words that they felt fit them. Uh, it I had a lot of, you know, a lot of the words that are traditional integrity on, or what a lot of the things just didn't fit what I really wanted to portray or guide me, you know, the bro, the map to keep me in the in the groove type thing. Um, you know, I was I was actually on a trip with my family and I was listening to a Simon Sinek podcast, and he basically said that, you know, your purpose has to tie back into what you experienced in your formative years as a kid. And I'm like, wow, that was like a light bulb, man. I as I mentioned earlier, I grew up in a in a community uh that had caring and supportive adults. And you know, I was a wrestler and I had a tremendous relationship with the basketball coach. Uh, you know, and I had a tremendous relationship with other coaches uh and teachers that were, you know, my mom worked at the junior high and she was involved with the school system. So and it was a small, small school at that time. Um, so you know, it was it was a great community. But now when you look at like what I do as an athletic director, as a leader, um, you know, I want people to know that I care for them and I support them. And again, I, you know, I'm serving the community I grew up in, right? Um, and so that I think when you have your transformative purpose, I'm gonna use a ND500 expression, you don't want to get out in the marbles, right? It's easy to get in the marbles in this job. And if you can, the more you can stay in the groove, the better you're going to be, the better version of yourself you're going to be. And my son, I was talking to my son about this, a very similar thing on the way back from Milwaukee. And it's, you know, here's a summer break. Everybody enjoys summer break, but I found myself getting in the marbles because I wasn't in my daily routine. I wasn't in the routine of consumption of material and leadership type stuff. I wasn't making decisions on how to, you know, slightly improve uh process. Um, and so that's one thing that, you know, I think when you have your transformative purpose, it helps you stay in the groove. And that's what I would encourage people because you know, like when you go back to care and support, right? There's jobs, there are people we have to interact with that we may not uh they're not our top priority. But when they come to us, they need to feel like I cared and I supported them.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Right. So now let me ask you a question. You said that it took you time to to find that to hone in on that. Is there such a thing as creating a purpose statement too early in your journey? Does it take the journey to create it, or can you do you feel you know, as a young coach, a young teacher, a young, does does it have to be there later to kind of define that next chapter, or can it be there early and then evolve?

SPEAKER_04 14:20

That's a great question. Um prior to my transformative purpose being defined, I had some um mantras, I guess if you want to call it, right? Like I had some cornerstones that I did believe in, uh, which was you know, be better tomorrow than you are today and do what's right for kids. And though so I kind of just lived on that, and that was fine. Um and I so but it did, you know, it took me time to do that. I think like what I would encourage people, it takes the journey changes that too. So let's say if you know, if I talk to a first year AD and I and I say, hey, let's help you, let's drill down your transformative purpose. Well, one, they haven't had uh all the experience yet, um, especially now that we have some kids maybe come in non-traditional paths to athletic administration. Um, but when you, you know, that so the journey is going to change that. So whatever they develop in year one as their as their transformative purpose, just they need to know that that's going to change. It should change, right? I did not have competitive grit on the back end of mine. And then I realized, you know, through after living that transformative purpose, I'm like, okay, I need to add one little piece to it. Um, and then also you got to make sure that you're not, you know, it's not this real long wordy paragraph. I mean, this should be an elevator pitch, uh, because otherwise you're gonna forget all of it.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

So um, but yeah, it it's a it's been a game changer for me. Um, and it again, I I try to remind myself, again, transformative purposes. We, you know, you're not gonna live there. I mean, you want to live there, but you're gonna you're gonna fall transactional from time to time. Um, but it the more I can put that lens on through my transformative purpose, I think I do do right by most people then.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Yeah, it's really good. I agree 100%. I've got one. Um, but uh having yours out there public is really cool. I think it it shows how much you use it in what you do. Um so the best book I'll read all this year in 2025 is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Gadera. I've shared that many times. Uh connecting that to uh something you did, you did a quick video recap for Coach's Insider of a workshop presentation you did at the NADC about looking at game day event management through a lens of hospitality. I loved it. A lot of what you mentioned in that recap made me think of tactics Will Gadera used to take his restaurant to the best of the in the world. One of the focal points for you to offer a hospitable athletic environment was to empower your people. So important, um, you know, I think that's really important and freeing for the leader, right? But I wanted to ask, what caused you to shift from looking at game events as management requirement to seeing them as opportunities of hospitality? What moment changed that mindset to pursue hot pursue hospitality over game managing?

SPEAKER_04 17:12

Josh, we have not discussed this, so I really cannot believe that the way you led to this question. Um, I'm gonna say say something to you, and you're gonna go, holy cow, it's a street hot dog. That's what changed my personal. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:25

That book, I read that book, and immediately I'm like, okay, how can we make this happen at Fisher's high school? That book was was the genesis of all that. Um, and the street hot dog, right? Yeah. So I even I will tell our workers that exact story. Because think about it, like when you're taking tickets, yeah, you're doing you're taking tickets, that's very transactional. But you might see a family over here to the side that's trying to figure out how they're going to pay for like the eight of them to get in, right? And six of them are below third grade. So I try, I tell my workers, I'm like, hey guys, if a big family comes up and there's like two or three kids that wouldn't, you wouldn't trust them to make macaroni and cheese without burning the house down, let them in free. All right. You have the power to do that. That's the empowering the workers. And again, you have to you kind of have to pay attention to the the peripheral. Uh, and that's exactly what in that book when he talks about the street hot dog, you know, he's walking by a table, and that's the one thing that they didn't get to do while in New York. And he runs out to the vendor, has his chef plated up, and and they'll never forget that. That's you know, how can we do that? You know, also like uh when you talk about hospitality, I try to I try to explain this to my workers, like you're more hospitable when you're standing up than when you're sitting down behind a table. And what how do we normally set up entrances? Put a table, two chairs, people sit down, and you and it just doesn't feel as hospitable if someone comes in and they're standing and that that greeting and everything else. So yeah, it's it's funny that that book is what uh what what that you've read that book. It's a good book.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense on how uh on your uh presentation topic there for sure. Um yeah, that's that's good.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Tell you another thing, too, that in in that there's so many things in that book, but the how they use a lot of nonverbal communication, you know, he talks about that. And I think that that's something that we have even implemented into our uh emergency action plans. I saw a trainer do that uh uh before a game. We huddle up with everybody that's part of that EAP, and he was like, Listen, if I if I make an X with my arms, it means I need you now to the paramedics. He was like, it me it means I need you now. If I give you an X and then I tap my head, it's a head injury. So I and it's a way to um it's a time saver, right? In in what could be a critical situation because I understand a lot of times paramedics they they don't want to rush in because it creates panic, but at the same time, I mean they look like a herd of turtles sometimes when when they're coming onto the field. If there's anything we can do to speed it up. And so him doing that, I was like, you know, that's that's right out of that book. That that's something we need to implement into what we do. And we've tried to start doing that a little bit more. So that's like that that that's a a game changer of a book for anybody looking for one.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Now let's talk AI for a minute. You kind of touched on that idea of you leaning into the tech side of things when y'all were giving up responsibilities. At the 2024 NADC, one of the biggest buzzworthy moments uh was your workshop with Nolan Dowling on the topic. Uh what motivated you to dive into the AI space at the time when most ADs were still trying to figure out what it even meant, right? And you were already far enough ahead to deliver such a strong forward-thinking presentation. Talk about that for a minute.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. Um I try to go back and think like what got me in engaged in that. Um, I think to to probably best describe it is we always talk about how networking in our profession is a positive. The relationships we have with other ADs, right? And the sharing of content and uh the borrowing of content. Like that's always been something that's um that we applaud ourselves for rightfully. Um and when so when I first got, I think when I first touched like some AI stuff, which obviously would be chat GPT, um, you know, I I started just jumping into it and just kind of playing with it and seeing like what it what it was, what does this truly mean? And that's simple stuff, like you know, like you know, tell me how to change a flat tire in the voice of Shakespeare, right? Like just stupid stuff, just you know, have fun with it, you know, changing the, you know, in the voice of Ted Lasso, you know, write a uh social media post, you know, applauding our team for uh a victory, you know. Uh and so I just kind of have started to have fun with it, really.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

And

SPEAKER_04 22:00

And that's the best way to do it. You know, uh, I think I talked about in my presentation, like if someone is not uh leaning into it, then you know, find what find a find something they're interested in, show them how AI can do that, you know, how they can take them to the next level on planning a vacation, you know, an upcoming vacation for them or something. Um, and that's how and so that's kind of because that was my path. And that's one thing I think that I've that I've kind of put a twist on when I start talking about AI is is like how I how you how I help someone find the path to becoming effective with it. Um, part of my path, to be honest with you, was Chris Chisholm. He's gonna be, you guys have had him on uh here and he's gonna be a presenter um at the national. Um, I watched an interview with him, and at the end of it, he gave out his phone number. I'm like, holy cow! So I sent him a text and asked him some advice on things. And he happened to be on vacation at the time, and he's like, hey, I'm yeah, it was actually uh custom GPTs. He was gonna he was gonna show me how to do that. And he goes, Why don't you call me tomorrow at nine o'clock and I'll sit down on a Zoom meeting with you and show you how to do it? And like, I mean, I'm thinking, holy cow, you kidding me? One, I can't believe you gave your phone number out. And two, you actually responded to my text. He gave me like an hour and a half the next day on how to create custom GPTs. That leveled me up in AI. But yeah, it's I think it when you start looking just through the applications of what it can do, and I'm just I'm intrigued. I'm a I'm a like I went through the uh you know, the NIAA cohort, uh leadership cohort. And when we did our leadership styles and all that, my one of you and I came out with learned or futuristic, idealistic, it was all green. Daryl Nance was like, who is Rob Seymour? And I've never seen someone all green, you know, indicators. And that was me. And I think so, AI kind of just I just kind of lean into it because it's part of my personality to be inquisitive and and see what it truly can do.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Yeah, I think too, the the the point that you made about finding a hook for someone that's new to it, you know, finding something that they will latch on to. But we talked to Chris when he said he took all of their policy and he uploaded it in there, so all he has to do is just ask the question and then it will direct him to that policy. Anytime you've got a document, you know, that's a dense document. And a lot of the job that I do, you know, at the district level, I'm a compliance officer in a lot of ways, right? I I use our constitution and bylaws to determine if we're doing what we need to do in them, and it can be a very dense, complicated document. And it was like it was a you talk about a light bulb moment. I was able to put that in there and then go, tell me which bylaw refers to this, uh, and then give it to me word for word, and then give me an interpretation and all that kind of stuff. And obviously you got to check it because sometimes it doesn't always hit, but it has been a game changer for me, and it took that hook to really tell me this is something that I need to lean into, you know, whether it's a personal hook for somebody or a professional one. I think that's that's really good advice.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Yeah, my the one of the custom G GPTs I created was just that as well. I put in like our student handbook, I put in the bylaws for the you know, for our state association, um, and and you know, the pay scale for our for what we pay officials, because that seems like to be like, what do we pay officials again? So that's a quick reminder. Um, one of the uses I'm really wanting to do, and I and we've kind of I've kind of dabbled with creation of it, is for our double IAA. You know, we got monthly meetings, and you got the minutes, and you've got these agendas, and and we keep out, you know, hey, when did we approve this? Like, you know, after every meeting, we need to be uploading those into that custom GPT because we'd be able to it'd be like a you know, just a like a filing cabinet of all of our stuff we've done as a state association, and we would it would just it'll it'll know that information. So that's one really thing I'm really looking forward to doing uh as a again in the role of professional development is to help the double IAA uh build that custom GPT that'll help our meetings be more efficient and our leadership, you know, because leadership changes right uh over time. And and uh if there was something could that could reflect back and know, like like we've been trying to figure out like what year did so and so was our keynote. Like, you know, we should if we put that stuff into a custom GPT and just maintain it, all that would be there. So I will one thing I'll say I got from Chris Chisholm. And and um as a runner, I used to subscribe to Runner's World magazine. And every there's always just these advice articles, right? And they're just kind of coming at you like three of them within the same article. And I was you would just get overwhelmed. You didn't know, like, shall I be training this way or training that way? And then you're overwhelmed. That's what I feel AI has the potential to do to us right now if we're not careful. After talking with Chris Chisholm, he's like, I only do chat GPT. So when he said that, that was my cancel my runners world subscription light bulb moment, and I only do chat GPT. These people are like, Why don't you do this? I'm like, no, I'm gonna be really good at the one, and that's gonna that's gonna help me.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

So that's a good lesson right there. But I love how you said the the custom GPTs can be a file cabinet. That that's a great visual of where we are in today's leadership world uh with that. Uh you jumped in there and talked about some different tools or different ways you want to use it. It's been about a year since your presentation, and I I you know think people are gonna continue to go to you as a leader of this. Uh talk about the different AI tools. Uh I I guess you or maybe since you said you use only solo chat GPT, talk about how you use it differently or how the things you get out of it. Uh specifically, maybe graphics videos, things that people wouldn't really look to as you started off by saying just a you know a funny letter or a you know a reference letter or something like that. What all can you get out of Chat GPT that may help athletic directors?

SPEAKER_04 27:53

Yeah, so I've given a couple of presentations on AI. Yeah. And almost every presentation has been different, and that's because my usage has changed in the duration of time. So, you know, we presented in December. Uh Noah and I went back to present in New York to the public schools in April, and the message was a little bit different. And if I were to do it again, uh, we're gonna do a little bit of talking and trading at the NADC, um, and it'll it'll have different different content. Um, you know, obviously the first thing that you know I think the the entry level is obviously playing with it, and then you move into like the applications of the of the profession. And that was like, you know, you receive an email of from an angry parent, and you can you know copy and paste that into Chat GPT and say, hey, read, analyze this, and give me three key points um of reply uh in an empathetic, you know, tone, a lot in alignment with with our philosophy. Um, you know, and Chat GPT knows all that because I've put that into the background of it and I've trained it to know like you know what Fisher's High School stands for, what I stand for, um, what's my philosophy, all that kind of thing. So that's a real entry-level way, and that really does work. You mentioned reference letters. I think a lot of people are using it for reference letters nowadays. Um, my transition, I think probably one of the most unique things I'm doing now. Um, well, real quick, I actually trained for my last marathon 100% with Chat GPT. I I I'm starting to have more, it's kind of crazy, but like again, it's a network, right? So this is just a co-worker that a colleague that you're using that has the ability to have a high intellectual capacity in all realms. So I would go in, I put in my training. I I had him actually, I had Chat GPT, so I had him, so it mine's him, obviously. I had him evaluate uh the training I did in 2021 and 2022 for the Boston Marathon. I gave it a few tweaks, I told it the workouts I really enjoyed that I felt I could stay consistent with, and then it wrote my plan. And then every week I'd go in and say how successful I was with what it prescribed that week, and then we would kind of change it. Um, and so that was that was pretty cool. That was a really unique way of doing it. Athletically, um, back in January, we got electronic boards in our gymnasium through score vision, and uh, and we have to put rat uh rosters in every week for the visiting team, and you get those just like you guys probably get them. You get a PDF sent to you uh from the opposing team. And you can go in and you can convert that to Word, you could do whatever, right? Well, what I've started doing is I just literally, my you know, our administrative assistant, she'll make the copies. I'll go up, I'll take a photo of it, and I'll throw it into Chat GPT and say, create me a CSV file with first name and last name, roster, because that's rostering our jersey number, because that's the only thing that uh the program needs. And uh, and it literally will change, make you know, it'll create that CSV file. I download it and then I upload it into the back end dashboard on scoreboard nation and uh and boom, I'm done with that. So just taking pictures of things and having it transcribe it is probably a a cheat code that has saved a lot of time. You know, if I go to an opposing school, um, like the majority of athletic directors, your view is a lot of times on like how are they doing this or how are they doing that, like you know, how they set up the entrance, the security, what signage do they have. And if if I see that, I mean I just take a picture of it and it drop that picture into Chat GPT and it puts it into text, and then you can quickly carry it over into other some uh some other type of medium media that you're wanting to use it for. Um the other thing is it's not perfect at creating graphics. It is a lot better than it was, you know, 12 months ago. Um, but what I like to do is I'll go in there and say, hey, create me a graphic for our next home contest, and I'll give it some you know detail. Uh, and I say like in my branding colors because it knows our school colors, it knows I I've down, you know, I've uploaded our logo. I will upload it a lot of times again, just so it knows that which logo I'm talking about. Um, and then it creates a graphic, and then that gives me an idea that I then jump over into Canva and I create myself. Now, there's probably a you know AI tool out there that can do that. Um, but again, I'm really trying to just come up with a system that works for me. And so that's kind of the current system that I have. Uh, because again, you know, like what I what I tell people a lot is like, because so you know, Chat GPT and your you have the content, right? And we want our coaches to have the right message. Um, but we don't have to, we don't want them to worry about developing the right message and the delivery of that message and polishing that message, like that's a lot, right? Our coaches are busy. So if they can, if they can just, hey, use you know, things you said to your kids, things you're you know that you have coming up, like throw that in the chat GPT and let it let it carry the baton for a little bit, and then that way it makes it more efficient. So that's kind of where where I'm at with it.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

All right. So I've before I ask my next question, which you almost kind of teed up for me, how was your time? Was it better? Having chat GPT train you? Just curious.

SPEAKER_04 33:04

Um, well, so I did not follow one direction probably by the planning. And I ran a long run in uh in my carbon fibers at the end of September, and it it actually tore up my hips. Uh yeah. So then for five weeks I was on injury kind of maintenance. Um, so it it did I did not have a good time, but that was not because of Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

That was I was fixing to say that's more of a you problem. You didn't listen.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

That was a me problem. And I'm still dealing with it. Matter of fact, I I'm I am yeah, I'm still dealing with it. Maybe a surgery is in my future, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Okay. You kind of touched on what I was gonna ask next, that this idea about coaches uh and that trans the translation from the athletic leader using it to help them do what they do uh in their day-to-day, uh, and then transitioning that to introducing it to your staff. Maybe that maybe they are familiar, maybe they aren't. Uh but those that haven't introduced a whole lot of AI training to their coaches, what is the best place to start? Uh you know, because you just mentioned this just a second ago when you're talking about the images. AI has evolved so quickly, honestly, it's different today than it was yesterday. So a lot of people haven't really helped coaches integrate it into their work because they don't even fully get it, right? Where should we begin to create the greatest impact and maybe provide meaningful support for coaches when it comes to using AI?

SPEAKER_04 34:35

I think the first thing you have to do is you have to let your coaches know that you care about the product that they are putting out there, whether that is a preseason meeting agenda or a response to an email from a parent, um, you've got it, they've got to know that you care.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Right.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

Right. Um, so once, you know, like if you ask, if they start telling you about a situation and that that that's going to require them to create something, whether it's a response or a uh camp registration, you know, I just say to my, I just say to them, hey, let me take a look at that prior to you sending it. Okay. And then when I take a look at it, I'm like, you know, I'll look at it and I and I'll give them my feedback and I say, let's see what AI says. And you know, maybe, and again, like, you know, the reason you put things into AI is so that you can make it more clear, more concise, you know, and and that's like what I found is a lot of people they just write too much, they just say too much, right? Less is more type of philosophy. Um, so that's like, you know, I mean, think about how many people will send you something like a booster parent. They'll be like, hey, can you read this over the PA at basketball? And it's like two pages. And you're like, uh, no, I'm not, you know. So throw it into AI and say, shorten this into one paragraph that takes less than 15 seconds to read. Yeah. So I think that's the one of the key things that I do with our coaches is um, one, I I I do a very slow trajectory with them. That's the first thing, right? Because they probably have developed systems um that they are very confident in. They may not be one that likes change. Um, so you kind of have to, you know, you kind of have to say, what is my trajectory? And as long as I feel like they're they're moving toward the direction I want them to be, then I'm patient enough to let them take their time. Um, you know, I have a coach that's a tremendous communicator. Every Sunday, he, you know, he sends out a very detailed uh plan for the week, and and it's a lot of reading. And so that's why I try, you know, I try to explain to him. I'm like, hey, let's see what AI and Chat GPT could do, maybe making some things bullets, uh, shorten some stuff up, and and just kind of helping him with that process. And it that's what it is, it's a process, right? Like you're you're trying to get to an end product uh and you're kind of trying to develop new processes for them uh while being patient.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

I think too, uh one of the things that you as you're talking there, I'm thinking so many times you have veteran coaches that you'll have young coaches that come in and every every first year coach wants to be a head coach, right? Like they all they all want to, you know, that's a big problem that I know that we're having right now. It's this idea of I am 23 years old and I I want everything. Um, but it's an actually a space probably where that 23-year-old could step in and help that more veteran coach because that's kind of the world that they've grown up in and live in, probably more. I you know, I'm making a very broad assumption here, than say a more veteran coach where they could kind of lean in and find some value there by saying, Listen, you know, he's you know, our AD's leaning into this. I know a little bit more about this than you do. You know, let me let me help you and let me help us here. And that way it's not just the AD having to lead everybody in this thing, because you got a lot of people on that staff, probably younger rather than more veteran, that could help in that space.

SPEAKER_04 37:57

Yeah, I I agree with you on that. I think the you know, obviously the technology knowledge base is is greater with our younger coaches. You know, and so that's you know, I think they just need to, they would probably just need to be able to, we kind of guide them in a way that they can see the application of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Right.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Yeah, Rob, I wanted to share a story about AI that I just uh recently experienced, but after I share a story, I kind of wanted you to talk about how uh we can how we need to embrace AI in um just all the components of athletic administration, right? As events or whatever. And and I'll share the story, and it may jog uh um another story or two that you probably have where it's been used. But just recently I thought about you when I heard this at a cross-country meet recently. So our cross-country team luckily did pretty well, but you know how cross-country meets the the live scoring is there, you can see what the individuals do, but it takes a little while for the team scores to pop up, uh, especially you're waiting on kind of the last runners and they got to process it and all that. Well, I was there and we had finally gotten the team scores and mentioned, hey, our boys finished third while we're waiting on the girls to run. And one of our students who had come along uh to the to the meet, she looked up and she goes, Yeah, AI was right. We got third. And I was like, Wow, and she went on to say, Hey, I just took all the individual results, dumped it in chat GPT, and it told me the team results. I was like, Wow, we don't have to wait on those team scores anymore. That's pretty impressive from a student athlete, and you know, they're using it. I it never crossed my mind. Once again, I'm kind of a mix between the uh the young and the old, and I I'm not there yet where I go automatically to uh AI, Chat GPT, which tells me I haven't embraced it like I need to and like I eventually will, I hope. So talk about embracing AI in some of these non-traditional ways, maybe that you've experienced.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Yeah, I you mean you I don't know how I would solve popsicle stick scoring for uh cross-country with AI, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

We're a little bit past that, thank goodness. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

In that situation, though, like if you've taught it how to score a cross-country meet, right? Yeah, it would easily be able to do that. Just looking at a CSV file or you know, and and to do that. I think the biggest thing, um, again, I kind of mentioned that I'm a learner, so I everything I do, I'm trying to find that one nugget out of it. And you guys have hit on that a lot with this podcast. Uh, I recently just listened to your uh three episodes in a row with um oh gosh, now uh purpose of coaching uh author, and then um Brian Dodd, you know, you had those three right in a row, right? I listened to those on the way back last night, and they talk about this as just like, you know, what's the value of a book, right? Yeah, that's that's what AI is. You kind of have to just look at everything you look at, you've got to try to figure out okay, how can AI help this or how could I use Chat GPT to make this better? Um, you know, there's times when I'm putting a phrase into Chat GPT that I've drilled down and everybody would be like, Yeah, that's good enough. Well, I don't really want good enough. I'd like to be, you know, as best as it can be. Um, so I mean, there's times I'll I'll work with Chat GPT, um, several prompts, trying to just replace one word in a statement, uh, just so I so I can get it to fit. Um, and then I also have a kind of a teachable moment that I think with AI and I use it, it's like the three-strike mode. Like if you if you put a prompt in there, it doesn't do what you want, you put it in a second time, doesn't do what you want to do a third time, then move on. Like, you know, it's you you you either need to change what you're doing or or something. But um don't just keep beating your head against the wall to try to figure something out. Um but you know, like when you I think that's my it's just kind of my default now. When I see something, I'm gonna throw it through the filter of of Chat GPT and see what it says. And and that's the networking, right? I mean, how many things have we developed and we walk next door and we ask someone that it's a colleague, like, hey, what do you think of this? That's what Chat GPT is. It is, it's it's you know what? I I have a great relationship with our assistant principals here, great relationship with our principal. We've got a great administrative team. And I go to each individual with their strengths, right? I mean, that's what we do. We pick, okay, I here's a problem I want to solve. I have an idea, uh, and it's this person's wheelhouse. So I go to them. Well, Chat GPT is that it's all encompassing of all.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

They're they're all in the same room. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

They're all in the same room. And and so it is a time, you know, it does save you time. Now, I wanted you to kind of mention this about time. Like what kind of how's that work? Okay, I think, oh wait, no, no, I know it was. Don, you were asking about time. You were asking about the marathon time. I thought you were gonna ask me about does AI save you time? Right. My and my question to that is no, because I just find myself doing things more and more efficiently. So I, you know, I mean you might have taken one project to work on for an hour, and now I'm gonna do three or four projects in that hour, and they're all at a higher level. So I I don't I'm not sure it saves you time, but it doesn't save you money if you're if you're not careful. That's another reason I like Chris Chisholm to drill down to one because you could $30 a year yourself to death with AI. And that can become very expensive.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah, very true. Now, what aspects of AI's impact on your role as an interscholastic athletic administrator do you think we've overlooked? Maybe maybe something that we haven't discussed today as we put a bow on this conversation that we should be paying attention to.

SPEAKER_04 43:43

You know what I would do is I'd take that exact transcript from this one, I'd ask Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Good answer. That's well played.

SPEAKER_04 43:51

It would it would tell me what I've been what I've been missing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Yeah, that's a that's that's that's a good answer, actually. If you know one thing I think that's

SPEAKER_04 44:00

big with it and I and we I kind of talked about it a little bit but like you've got to treat it like a colleague and you've got to you've got to put all of the and Christian kind of again was the one that kind of helped me uncover this you've got to put everything into that and then I like to also just kind of test it from time to time. Like I put you know in preparation for this I put I I went into chat GPT and I said you know what would what would uh people say my top five character traits would be and it goes through and it tells me you know what they go according to and it says things you've shared with me and it throughout you know five things. And then what I can do is I can look at that and say yeah this is pretty accurate or that's way off. And I think that's true with anything. Like I with our you know I I've had some different coaches uh this is done like going back to coaches I'm like hey what do you what are you focused on this week what's your main goal and oh we want to practice you know I can go back to cross country I used to coach cross country oh we want to we want to focus on the last K of the race okay let's just throw in a chat GPT write a write a practice plan for this week that with the focus of a strong finish in the last K and it spits it out and then let the coach look at it and say here you're the expert in this how close is this right so um that's kind of that's kind of the testing of it. So I would say that the you know fill it with information about you, uh your school your personal life I mean it knows it knows that my daughter's a cheerleader at IU um I I try to work with my daily schedule and I said hey I've got games on this day and this day and this day coming up you know how how best should I align my week and you know it's like well don't forget you've got Chloe's you know game on Saturday down at IU you know and so I mean it knows everything and I and I I try to do that and per you know you know purposefully so that it's helpful to me. Um so that's that's just some some things I don't know just I think the big thing is just making it your default that I'm gonna I'm gonna push it through that filter.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Yeah default filter treat it like a colleague that's really good. Good stuff there. All right Rob we're gonna shift back for one last question back to leadership. You can tie it to AI if you want but uh you probably heard this question get asked on this podcast you listen to so now your turn get to answer it and it comes from that book The Five Graces of Life and Leadership by Gary Bernerson want to give him credit uh the statement is leadership it starts with a leader but it's not about the leader. Leadership it starts with a leader but it's not about the leader. How do you respond to that? I think it's spot on first of all um I think it's hold on stop question did you run it through chat GPT knowing this was coming? I did not there you go all right I did not over the course of your career how you answer that is or is going to change more so probably how you're living that is probably going to change right like when you're a younger AD it probably uh there's probably more younger ads that do feel it's about them um but as you get older and you have more experiences you start to learn that um influence is more important than anything in leadership and you're the end result is somebody else not you it's not influence to benefit you it's you know influence that you can have as a leader that will have a uh eventually in our position have a greater impact on our community and our kids right um so I think that's when you you know when you look at having courageous conversations or things of that nature the the lens just has to always be that you're trying to uh again offer up um an influence to your coach or an influence to a parent um to help them become in alignment with with what your vision is for your athlete department and for your community and again when you if you're answering all those questions you're never saying like me right it's it's them good really good thank you thank you for your uh wisdom expertise on leadership and AI you definitely made us better today I know this will be something people listen to again I imagine they'll reach out to you about AI stuff and we look forward to hearing you again at the conference in a week uh here in Tampa so uh thanks for that hey we're gonna get to know you a little bit better with some uh two minute drill questions here so I'll let Ron start us with that all right Rob we're gonna hit you with some rapid fire questions you just tell us the first thing that comes to your mind okay perfect what was the first job you ever had ever in your life well the first job I had did not last long and that would be according to Tassler um and I I wasn't real big I was very small when I took on that task and I think they told me I was done by lunch so fair enough you were probably glad to be done by that I was more than happy to be on that bus. Yeah that's right that's good all right so I ran one marathon in Birmingham it was I think 25 degrees at the start line so it probably wasn't the best place or best time to run one but where is the best place to run a marathon in your opinion Chicago okay yeah Chicago I yeah is my favorite the just the way the crowds are sandwiched in between the big buildings and the noise uh it is very loud and it's it's an awesome awesome marathon yeah all right good deal give a plug for your favorite place to eat in Fishers my favorite place to eat in Fishers um that's a great question though my my favorite place is no longer there and that would have been a place that had great chicken fingers with a great dipping sauce um oh my goodness I think uh probably my favorite place would would I mean it'd be so simple and that would be just like a McAllister's you know lunch yeah we've got some great places uh ail emporium is uh there's one in Fishers and they've got tremendous wings so that might be a good one if someone's from outtown.

SPEAKER_04 49:58

Sounds good all right what's a hobby you'd like to try if time and money weren't an issue um I would like to be able to hike more I enjoy hiking uh but when you talk about time as you said you know our our our schedules aren't as you know open to that but yeah I love to hike.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

You get to hike up to the football field or hike up to the baseball field right for all the hiking we do.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

We get our steps in yeah we get our steps in hey here's an interesting thing so you know when you wear like so if I run a marathon I'm running I you know the steps I had completed were almost the same as hosting a Friday football game.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

Really? Yeah so it's pretty interesting. Holy cow okay let's play a game of hot or not so uh these are hot takes so unpopular opinions that people feel strongly about if you agree with it you say hot if you don't agree with it you say not phone calls are better than texting hot definitely all right hot or not paper books are better than ebooks I do like a paper book but I consume more ebooks. Alright a little a little bit of both the top of the muffin is not better than the bottom not no better all right last one eating the pizza crust first is the only way to go no no seeds backwards yeah no yeah don't really know why you want to do that what are you gonna hold on to good point then you got to use a fork and a knife and then you're a clown in the yeah so yeah there's that one does that all right so uh this year or this season anyway we have uh asked all of our uh guests uh a question uh out of Brett Ledbetter's book uh 365 questions so Rob Seymour pick a number between one and three hundred and sixty five let's go with uh one thirteen thirteen think of the last year the last 12 months what makes you think why did I make such a big deal out of that you know it's it's interesting because like one of the things I try to stay strong with is equanimity right not making a big deal of something um in the last year something I made a bigger deal than it needs to be uh I I you know I can't I would say that there's times that the and I can't necessarily speak of one specific but um we will obviously we want to react we don't want to react we want to respond to situations and I know there's been some situations this this year that probably is more reactive nuclear reactive um than I should have been uh and so that's you know I there was a situation on Friday night that I I wasn't explosive by any means but I was very transactional right and I could have been I could have been a little bit more patient probably in the situation.

SPEAKER_04 53:13

Equanemony is huge though for me. You know I think I really do try to stay calm and peaceful in most situations and not get too crazy with things. So yeah not a perfect answer to that question. I which just goes to show you I didn't look it up at ahead of time either.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Yeah there you go why why'd you pick 113?

SPEAKER_04 53:31

Just curious is that right yeah well uh weight class and wrestling okay there you go that's good all right okay I'll probably know the answer to this one but what app on your phone besides email and text do you use the most lately I've started trying to dive in on it on on LinkedIn but actually uh so I'm gonna tell you there's actually three because my running log I have three different apps that all talk to my watch um and I I use each one to get different information for so the if you have the apps I probably look at the most would be those those running apps. All right what what are those three running apps? Strava it's kind of like the Facebook for runners um and I use that a lot again to it has some good uh predictive stuff in there uh my Garmin Connect which is that's my watch in the Garmin so that's the other Garmin app. And then the uh third one is called Training Peaks and that's a uh I have the ability I have a really good friend who's a elite marathon trainer here in Indianapolis I've been good friends with him forever and he'll write plans for me um as I'm and he can drop them into that training peaks so that's the reason I kind of maintained that one but all three of those kind of talk to one another um if I were to just drill down to one it would probably be Strava. All right uh Rob let's finish with this uh last question that's our trademark question today you've been hanging with the ADs but let's say you can hang out with anyone who would that be and why yeah so I I have heard this question so I have given thought to this uh it's a great question I think as I get older I find myself self becoming more nostalgic about things at times yeah um and so I think that's gonna drive the answer here and that would be my grandfather um you know he uh I if I were to go back and say my first non-paid job it would have been him he would have been my boss right uh I did a lot of picking up sticks and stacking firewood and and doing things for him at my grandma's grandpa's house. I spent a lot of time with him and uh he actually passed away right about the time I was starting to become a professional in education, uh right before my first year of teaching. And I think it'd be fun just to sit down and be able to uh talk with him about the experiences I've had over the last 32 years and uh and just to share my successes with him because he poured a lot into me um about just work ethic and you know and being the best you can be and making sure that no mat no matter how small the task that you you do it right. So yeah that that made my answer to that one my grandfather.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

That's a good answer. We're all a product of a collection of people right that have poured into us. Rob thank you so much for taking the time uh and helping our listeners better understand the changing landscape of AI as we look to embrace it as a tool for good in what we do daily. So thanks again.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Appreciate it thank you guys well how about that great time with Rob Seymour, athletic director at Fishers High School in Fishers, Indiana. Rob thanks for joining us today and helping us get better in leadership and specifically in the area of AI, artificial intelligence and how we can use that in our daily jobs as athletic administrators or just leaders. Rob and he's a leader of leaders he's very experienced and you heard him talk about just how to make games and events more hospitable to our visitors you heard him talk about inside out initiative and how to coach kids and make them better people not just better athletes uh having a purpose I think that's one of Rob's focuses purpose and values and Rob has his purpose out there publicly if you don't have a purpose statement you heard Rob talk about how much it helps your leadership so hopefully you can add that now if you do maybe it's time to revamp it. I know I was questioning mine and kind of drilling down and just reflecting on that but you also see Rob's a leader in the world of AI and he uses it often. I think Rob's a great resource if you're an athletic director at the high school or middle school level and you're going to the NADC you're going to hear Rob talk about it even more after he spoke on it last year. He talked about it being a file cabinet having a file cabinet we all had that visible image in our head of that file cabinet or multiple file cabinets sitting in the corner now we have it right there on our phone right there on our computer with ChatGPT and other AI abilities. So I believe Rob made us better today I hope you did too if you did if you learned something if you'd like to share something we'd love to hear about it. Just reply on our socials and we'd love to hear from you. We would love to get a rating or review. Maybe stop right now hit a star rating give us a good star rating that just helps us pop up there to the top of the list and we appreciate what you think we appreciate your time listening and as always thank you for spending your time hanging with the 80s