The Crotchety Old Men Podcast
From Court to Corporate: Mastering the Corporate ladder with Former Athlete Chelsia Lymon
After dribbling her way through the ranks of varsity basketball and coaching, Chelsia Lymon now navigates the boardrooms of the tech industry with the same finesse she once displayed on the court. On this episode of the Crotchety Old Men podcast, Gary Smith and I, George Crumley, sit down with Chelsia to uncover how the competitive edge and team dynamics of sports translate into the corporate world. Chelsia's story isn't just about scoring points in a game; it's a masterclass in leveraging athletic discipline for business conquests, particularly in the software as a service (SAS) sector.
After dribbling her way through the ranks of varsity basketball and coaching, Chelsia Lymon now navigates the boardrooms of the tech industry with the same finesse she once displayed on the court. On this episode of the Crotchety Old Men podcast, Gary Smith and I, George Crumley, sit down with Chelsia to uncover how the competitive edge and team dynamics of sports translate into the corporate world. Chelsia's story isn't just about scoring points in a game; it's a masterclass in leveraging athletic discipline for business conquests, particularly in the software as a service (SAS) sector.
Welcome back to another exciting episode of the Crotchety Old Men podcast. Hello, I'm Gary Smith, one of the co-hosts of the Crotchety Old Men podcast, and with me, as always, our main leader, george Crumbly. Top of the day to you, man podcast. And with me, as always, our main leader, george crumbly. Top of the day to you, george. What's going on?
Speaker 2:top of the day to you, smith. I don't know about being a leader, you know. I'm just trying to just hear about being careful, so just doing what I do. How's it going for you?
Speaker 1:well, you know, I put all those labels on you today we got a special guest.
Speaker 2:Uh, chelsea Lyman is joining us today and, as you know, we always talk about finances and things like that, but I thought it'd be a switch today to talk about something close to that. Chelsea comes to us. She's played basketball probably the majority of our lives. She played high school, she played college and she was also a D1 coach, and I thought it would be interesting for us to talk about transitioning from the basketball world, or sports world, into corporate world. She's currently working in Atlanta at a corporate office, so her life has completely changed from basketball to the corporate world. She's in corporate America now, so I thought it'd be interesting to talk about that. We always talk about what happens when the ball stops bouncing. So, without further ado, chelsea, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm good. I'm good. Thank you for having me, george, and I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Oh, good. Well, you want to tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, as you stated, george, I have played basketball pretty much all my life. If you add, you know, youth league in there, I've probably been playing since I was six. The one thing that I definitely will say is I started off playing with little boys at six, where I was a lot of times the only little girl on all boys team and I didn't actually start playing with girls until middle school and I had a little toughness. A lot of my best friends since middle school talk about how I came in and I could go dribble between my legs and just dribble. They said I was a little show off, but playing with boys gave me that confidence and kind of me, that, that swag, I guess, as they say now. And then, you know, I played through high school. I started playing in high school actually in seventh grade. I was able to dress varsity in seventh grade, started point guard from eighth grade on um, and then um got into college and I was a um, you know, starter, a scholarship player in college in middle tennessee state university, and I was able to get to uh, three ncaa tournaments out of my four years. So had that experience, had, I mean, we played some of the top teams in the country. We always were at the height of um, you know, top strength of schedule, and we weren't afraid to play anybody. I remember playing candace, parker and and then the tennessee balls when they were at the height, and I think they won a national championship that year. Uh, my freshman year I opened up with maryland and they were the returning champs from the previous year. So so, yeah, so I was able to get in front of the biggest and the baddest in our league and playing college.
Speaker 3:And then I transitioned into wanting to impact the game on the coaching level and I coached at three different universities in six years, started off at Morehead State, went and played at Tennessee State I know George knows a lot about Tennessee State. I coached there for three years and actually won a conference championship with them. That hadn't been done the previous year, it was 20 years ago. So I was able to be a part of that staff that helped them win a conference championship. And then after that I ended up getting my master's while also working and coaching full-time at TSU so I'm also a TSU alum in the graduate program.
Speaker 3:And then I went on to coach at the University of Louisiana, monroe, ulm, and back in the day they a really uh powerful um um conference and team uh back when uh kim mulkey actually played for la tech. So it's a lot of rich history and I was able to be a part of that, that area. And then uh coveted, coveted and and I decided to make a career change and um had a you know battle through covet as as a lot of us did, on not really having a job as to what I was going to do next in my career. And then I actually got the opportunity. I was blessed to become a physical education teacher and I was working on my teacher's license while I was in Tennessee at Laverne High School and I was able to be the head girls high school girls basketball coach there for two years.
Speaker 3:And then, as all of us know, there's times in life you have to say, is this really for me? So I decided to go a totally opposite direction and get into the tech field, which is the SAS field, and you know for you all that you know SAS is pretty much, it's basically it's a software, pretty much software as a service company. And you know, and that's why you know, as me and George work together. You know I help assistant coach at Centennial High School with George. That's how we got connected, you know, and just telling him stories about the transition from you know sports and now taking it over into you know the tech field and how it's helping be successful. So that's a lot said, but that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Very good, very interesting, very interesting. Now you know. My first question here, salisa, is how has that transition been for you, going from sports to business? Let's say, transition.
Speaker 3:As George said, in corporate America, the one difference is I work actually remote. I work from home. If you guys can tell, in my background I got a lot of sports plaques but I work from home, remote. I've never done that Going from a gym or going from a classroom, and I've always had to go in. So here in almost two years I've actually been working remotely but, you know, carrying a lot of that discipline that I had to have as an athlete and even as a coach. You know it's a different type but it's still the discipline that you have to have as a coach.
Speaker 3:You know I've carried that into my career here in the tech and I started off at tech sales. So, um, you know, the competitive part is, you know I take everything I learned from sports into sales. You know, being competitive, setting goals, reaching them, goals accomplishing, wanting to be the best, you know, at my craft. Um, not, not having the basketball in my hand doesn't mean that it changes my perspective of wanting to do the best that I can do, you know, with what I have in front of me. So I've definitely taken that mentality. I've transitioned that mentality from, you know, a basketball court to being on a computer all day long.
Speaker 2:That's real interesting. And you know, one of the things that I always talk about regardless of what you're doing, it's mental. Regardless of what you're trying to do, if it's sports, if it's business, it's more mental than physical. So talk about how the mental aspect of sports has formed you and what are some of the things that you've taken with you from sports into the corporate world.
Speaker 3:Well, preparation, one thing you know. We had. You know, practice that get you, you know. You know, prepare for either a game or just prepare for a season. And that's what I've had to take here.
Speaker 3:The corporate world is preparing, you know, preparing for meetings, preparing for presentations, preparing for the new, the new quarter, you know. You know in sales, you have four quarters. You know you have quarter one, two, three and four. So there you go. I'm used to quarters.
Speaker 3:So, preparing for my next move, my next plan of attack, in each quarter I was put competitive, the competitive mindset. All I needed to know when I started this job is how do I get there? Let me know what my you know. Okay, all right, so this is level one. How do I get to level four? You know I don't want to just stay at level one, I want to move up and that actually has helped me get into the position that I'm in now.
Speaker 3:You know the first I started in June of 2022 and I was level one, entry level, and I became a senior sales development rep within about four months of me being in the company and then, from January, from getting promoted in January, I got to promote it again in July to principal, which is the level three senior development rep, and I asked my manager. I said, hey, I want more leadership, responsibility, so being more assertive again what I've taken from basketball. Going to my coach I want to be a better leader. How do I lead my team better? How do I become more authoritative? How would also being respected as being a point guard not the easiest position on the floor. So I took that same mindset and went to my manager, said I want to be more involved. I don't just want to sit and make calls all day, every day. I want to be more involved in the company so that I can have a better understanding as to, you know, my role and my position and my worth into the company. And she did that. I had great leadership. She did that and put me in positions, put me in front of people so that I could pretty much sell myself.
Speaker 3:And after level three it was actually I had hit all the levels. I couldn't even get promoted anymore in the position I was in. So then I looked at him and I said, well, where are you going to put me, cause you know you don't want to let me go Right. So, um, kind of put them, put their backs against the wall. It was a good position to be in and, uh, they ended up. I'm not going to say they found me a position, cause I do feel like I earned it. I worked my butt off to get it, um, but now I'm in a leadership position where, where I'm actually in a senior, enablement business specialist. So I train all the people that come in in my position. I train those people and again, that's coaching, that's player development, taking that with me.
Speaker 3:I didn't want to be. The path that they had for us was like account executive. I didn't want to be an account executive, I want to be more of a leadership. So I made my own path and I said I've been a leader, I want to continue to be a leader, that's my niche. And they found a way to get me an enablement. So, now that I'm training every new hire that comes in in my role and also training the current, you know, continue to enable the current people that are in my role, so definitely taking a lot, a lot of my mindset from from sports and from basketball into my current role right now in the company of motive.
Speaker 2:When you, when you, when you talk about athletes, as you're coming up as an athlete, you're going to have a mindset of playing this game. I'm sure you had a mindset of playing this game for as long as you possibly could. I'm sure you probably had ideas of maybe playing pro basketball.
Speaker 2:So talk to us a little bit about that mindset as far as when you really discovered that hey, maybe I'm not going well, actually first talk about that mindset of preparing yourself to go pro, but then talk about how you had to change that direction and actually look at reality and say this is not going to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, george, that was a very tough part of my life, to be honest. Um, like I said, I have played since I was six and um, that was my goal. Um, you know, believe it or not, when I was playing, the wmba had just come out and I think 95, 95, 96, and it really wasn't, you know, it wasn't a lot of every little girl's dream, you know, because that's that wasn't what was, you know, presented to us it was either the NBA or overseas, you know, so I did. I had goals to play overseas. And to make this story a little bit more interesting, george, I actually had a contract to play in Dubai after my senior year.
Speaker 3:And to show you, you know what I had a passion in my performance, I beat my body up in college, you know, four years I had two major surgeries. I had a labrum tear, acl tear, messed up hamstrings, messed up ankles, you know, and you know my, my little body frame, I'm I'm only 5'4", you know. And and the doctor that, our team doctor, you know, he, actually, the day I had my shoulder surgery, he was like well, you have options, you can either have surgery on your shoulder, your ankles, or I can do both. And I was like no, let me just, let me just do the shoulder first. And, you know, after, you know, during recovery, you know, my, my, my doctor and my and my mother, we all sat there and you know he brought this to my attention and he said hey, you know you're not going to play forever. He was like and your body? You, you know you're not gonna play forever. He was like and your body, you gotta start thinking about your body, he said. And he said, because when basketball is over and that now your body's gonna really feel it. You know, and, um, I had that contract in my face and and at the time, you know, shoulder surgery was a little different because, as I always say, your arms are out there, you know, and it just messed up kind of. You know me, my performance and what I knew I could do, and I just didn't want anyone to see me at 70 percent, because I always gave 100. And it was a tough decision. It was, and I'm not going to lie, it was a tough decision. It was, and, and, and I'm not gonna lie, I graduated at um 23, 22, 23.
Speaker 3:And I and I, and I pouted I tell people when I tell them my story. I said I pouted for two years, I didn't coach, I didn't dribble, I said. I said I'm done with it. If it's done with me, I'm done with it. And I was lost. I was lost in Nashville, tennessee.
Speaker 3:I was just aimlessly walking around trying to figure things out and I couldn't understand. I'm like, why am I so lost? I got this degree, basketball has been in my life. Why am I so lost? And I realized because I don't have basketball in my life. Why am I so lost? And I realized because I don't have basketball in my life. And at 25, that's when I started calling some folks that I knew and I'm like I need to get into coaching, I need basketball in my life. I said the world doesn't care that I'm pouting. I got to get myself together and use what basketball gave me all my life and start giving back to the game, you know, because it gave me so much. And, like I said, at 25, that's where I got my first coaching job as an assistant at Moorhead State and it's been going uphill ever since then.
Speaker 2:Good, good. So let's talk about our audience. I mean, there's a lot of athletes out there and I'm sure they're in the same position. You have to think, wow, I'm going to play basketball, I'm going to make all this money, I'm going to do all these things. So here again, from a mindset perspective, what kind of advice can you give some of our athletes that are, say, graduating from, even from high school, that have had good careers in high school but, you know, aren't getting those offers from colleges and are now looking at what they need to do? And I'll tell you one other situation. I had a parent talk to me about his son. Play was actually was pretty good baseball and got a scholarship to play baseball and then all of a sudden he decided he won't play baseball anymore, baseball anymore. You know, he's in college and they'll also don't play. So let's talk a little bit about that mindset here again.
Speaker 3:um, as far as advice you would give those that are in, maybe in those situations, um, how, how I can say what I would suggest to to athletes and and maybe this is a bad analogy, but look at as your career or as basketball, kind of needing insurance. We all say, like I say, life insurance. We hate talking about the subject, but we know we need it because we know we're all not going to be here forever. So basketball, you love it, or whatever sport you love it, that's what you think you're going to be with forever. But we know that's not true. You know you're not going to play forever. You know that's not true. Look at having an insurance plan, having that backup when that ball stops, when you don't have to swing that bad anymore, when you're not playing soccer anymore, kicking that ball anymore. What am I going to do next? You know I never.
Speaker 3:I went to college with a and got a marketing degree and it's very rare that that people go to college and actually right out of college they get into the field that they went to school for. I wish, I wish the percentages were higher, but but they're not. A lot of times you come out of school and you kind of got to wait, you kind of got to prep yourself for when that opportunity comes but go to school, get the knowledge you need in the field that you're interested in. But also know that when I get out of school, when I'm done with the sport that I'm currently in, what's my next plan? And I say, look at stuff that you're interested in. There's not a lot of time. When you're in your 20s you feel like you have forever to make these decisions and you do to a certain extent. But that's the time you start planning. That's the time you use to prepare yourself for the next move and kind of feel things out. You know, see if that's going to work for you, see if it's not, see if you like it, see if you don't. You know that's what you do in your twenties. And then when you move closer into your thirties, that's when you're trying to. Okay, you've eliminated the things that you know you're not interested in and now you're getting more into what you, what you would like to see yourself into. You know I didn't see myself in sales but if, if, but once I started peeling back the layers and and everything I've done in my life.
Speaker 3:I've always done sales, life I've always done sales. Yeah, I've always done sales. So even in coaching, recruiting is sales. I had to speak with parents and families and kids and really sell to them our coaching staff, our education program, our university, our area. I had to sell that.
Speaker 3:So, even when you're playing on the court or on the field, a lot of times I would use the analogy to players as you got to use some sale, you got to sell a little bit. Look off, you know. If you're going to go live, look right, you know, you know. So that that is what I saw and, to be honest, a lot of sales companies like athletes because we have, we have characteristics that they're looking for and it's just not. A lot of athletes look at sales as what they've been doing all their lives, look at sales as what they've been doing all their lives. But there's sales jobs out there that are paying well, that are giving us great growth opportunity, and I mean again, that just fits our model. That's what we do every day in our sport is wanting to grow and wanting that opportunity to. So you know, just as you're an athlete, look at it as an insurance program. What am I going to do next? I know I'm not going to play forever, but what's my next move? What's my plan?
Speaker 1:That's excellent. That's excellent because you're so right in terms of sales. A lot of the characteristics and attributes that an athlete has, particularly the mindset, that same mindset is certainly a critical component to even owning businesses and things of that nature. So, and making that transition, it sounds like that you have found purpose in your passion.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I speak with my manager right now, in my current position, and he gets on me all the time and he's like, he's like chelsea, close your laptop at five o'clock. And I had to tell him the other day and I said, I understand, you know, um, I'm, I'm, I'm building, I'm raising, building a family right now and I have a lot of personal things going on. But I don't look at this as a job, I look at this as a career and I look at it as you know he doesn't know when I played ball, I'd go in that gym after practice and I'd get a thousand shots up because I wanted to make sure that when I got past the ball, that I was accurate, you know, and they, my coach, didn't come in the gym and say, chelsea, get out the gym.
Speaker 3:It it's five o'clock, eight o'clock in the night, you know, and that's kind of how I take my. My career is, yes, I do have a time, but I'm not done until I'm done. You know, and and and and I go until I feel like it's time to. You know, I've accomplished what I needed to accomplish. So, yeah, that mentality is definitely tough for people. That don't understand. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. I hope y'all are listening out there to this young lady because she's bringing it Tenacity, perseverance, goal setting. I mean you've heard all the salient points about improving yourself, self-improvement, pursuing your dreams and things. And then you look at the transition of coming from you know sports into the business world, where you're not going to get a lot of people standing up give me a standing ovation or rooting for you. Ok, if anything in business, sometimes it can be the other way around, but it sounds like, chelsea, you have learned how to navigate.
Speaker 1:Like you said, you know the sales piece, certainly the mindset and being able to help others as you help yourself. I like that because, as you continue to climb the ladder and pursue and build your career, where you are even now is just a stepping stone. I can see that now this is pretty soon You're going to outgrow that Okay and either buy a company like them or buy them out or go on to a higher height. So kudos, congratulations, and the only thing I can say is I just want to encourage you to keep going, keep it going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I guess one of my takeaways is the fact that we need to make sure our student athletes take advantage of every opportunity, and that's getting your education. You know that was one of the first things you talked about. Not only did you get your four year degree, but then you got your master's also, and that's an insurance policy that you were referring to. You've got to compare, compete, you got to prepare yourself and make yourself a well-rounded person, regardless of when the ball starts bouncing, because you know, nothing says that you couldn't have.
Speaker 2:You know, like I said, gone overseas and played for a number of years, but at some point you know your body, your body to wear and tear is going to catch up with you, so at that point you still have something to fall back on. So you know, here again, like Smitty said, I applaud you the fact that you know you took advantage of all the opportunities that were in front of you. Even though it sounded like you were single threaded and focusing on basketball, you were also building character and building yourself something for the future. So, yeah, I mean that's, that's exactly what our student athletes need to do and need to keep in mind. You know this one and done stuff is fine, but you need to make a commitment to yourself that I'm going to go back and get my degree or I'm going to prepare myself in a manner Whereas, you know, when the money stops flowing from that sport, I'm going to have something to fall back on, because it will stop will, it will stop.
Speaker 3:It's just a matter of when. I mean, and as you said, george, about opportunity, um, I can only speak on on my company. You know, I work at a company called motive. Um, we actually, um, we, we build hardware and software, uh, for the physical economy. So we work with trucking companies. Um, the physical economy, so we work with trucking companies. The physical economy, the truck company, the industry is not going anywhere. They've gotten hit due to the economy, but they're still standing and we build hardware and software that actually helps them be safer, helps them be safer and more profitable in their company.
Speaker 3:And Motive has been around. We celebrate 11 years, so we're actually new. We're actually still considered a startup in this industry, but we have some of the newest technology that is out there. In AI, you know, everything is AI detected. But, with that being said, we're hiring. We're hiring in Nashville and we're hiring all over. And guess what? They're looking for? Fresh college graduates, you know, and it's on my LinkedIn. I posted on my LinkedIn. I'm not savvy with social media, but I do have some postings on my personal LinkedIn for you know, cause I really think that we should get more young people into those, into these positions? Yes, it is sales positions. Yes, there are other positions, but you got to start somewhere and a lot of it is starting at that sales entry level and then you'll see other paths you can take.
Speaker 3:Similar to what I did I started at the ground level, learned about the company. I was new to it, I had no clue. I was talking with my new hire class and I'm training now and I told him I said I was new to trucking, I was new to tech, I was new. I didn't have a clue. I was like, but I wanted to get it and I knew how important our services were to this industry, to the trucking industry.
Speaker 3:And yeah, and I'll go ahead and put that out there, they pay very well. And yeah, and I'll go ahead and put that out there, they pay very well. You know the tech world, the tech world pays very well, has really good benefits. I mean, and coming out of college, that's what you're looking for. Yeah, you know good benefits, cause you're gonna get kicked off mom and dad's insurance at a certain age and put some money in your pocket on top of you know, like you said, commission and reaching goals, um. So yeah, I wanted to put that out there that we are hiring for any fresh college grads or you know, anyone that's looking for a career change? We're hiring at my company called Motive.
Speaker 1:All right, good stuff.
Speaker 2:Real good stuff, real good stuff and I applaud you because I think sometimes women, and especially Black women, get so short of what they're actually able to accomplish and I think you're a great representative from what you're doing and how you're approaching things. And it's interesting when you said I didn't know about any of these things to get started in this job. But what you did know is you had determination, you had skills in the fact that you learned a lot of this in in you know your previous basketball and college and that's what I tell people you know it doesn't really matter what college you go to. College is there to teach you discipline and how to you know think through issues and those are the kind of things that you have definitely honed in on and picked up on and I really appreciate, applaud you for everything you've accomplished.
Speaker 3:Definitely. Thank you, yes, yes, definitely looking for more african-american in the tech field.
Speaker 2:um, I am one of two in my segment and we have over 23 almost 3 000 employees nationwide hey, hey, I'm gonna tell you right now don't feel like the Rolando Ranger, because I did over almost 40 years in telecommunications and I was always the only one at the table. Smitty can tell you the same thing You're always going to be a trailblazer. That's just life. That's just life. You think it in the right direction is continue to pull up others that have the same capabilities as you. That that's how. That's how we you know we build.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, here again. Thanks for coming on to the podcast. I think this has been a lot of valuable information, as always. Smitty, you got any words of wisdom, some pearls to leave our audience with today?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think I found one and hopefully this is apropos for this particular conversation and it goes like this If it doesn't bring you peace, profits or purpose, then don't give it your time, energy or attention. I saw that quote somewhere and I said it's mine now there you go there, you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks again, chosen. As we always say on the Crouch it Old man podcast, if you didn't know, now you know, take care. God bless, be safe.