IAM2116 – President and Owner Produces Extensive Digital News Content and Global Coverage of Competitive Aquatic Sports

In this episode, we have Steve Hasty, the president and owner of Hasty Awards, and his involvement in Swimming World. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry and has made significant impacts in the world of Olympic sports.

Steve’s approach to serving and impacting clients is rooted in connecting with elite and age group swimmers.

He emphasizes recognizing and celebrating athletes’ accomplishments, creating a real connection that transcends digital platforms.

Steve highlights the importance of face-to-face contact and personal connections in leading and managing employees, customers, and suppliers.

Website: Swimming World
Website: Hasty Awards

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Full Interview:

Transcription:

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Steve Hasty Teaser 00:00

We know in a world of swimming where most of the events are annualized, it's easy for us to help coaches out. We know when their events are going to be coming up and two or three months ahead of time, we're able to reach out to them and help them with their next order, keep their awards fresh and things like that. It's a similar thing to what we're doing with the magazine.

Intro 00:24

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:51

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Steve Hasty. Steve, excited to have you on the show.

Steve Hasty 00:59

Glad to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:01

Yes, super excited to have you on and talk about all that you're doing. And of that, I want to read a little bit more about Steve so you can hear about things. And Steve is a co world where his deep and to the sport of swimming role in the company's vis the president owner of where he and his family have significantly impacted the world of Olympic sports through their dedication to providing meaningful awards for athletes. With over 30 years at the helm at the as Hasty Awards, Steve has expanded the company's reach to encompass awards for swimming, gymnastics, wrestling track and many, many others. And many is also a majority owner Smarter Paw brand and he also serves his commune University Board of Trustees things I really love doing for this is I always you'd love to do. You your life and I think that Steve's passion for swimming, all the awesome things he's doing probably definitely bring true. So Steve, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

Steve Hasty 02:04

I absolutely am. It's good to be here.

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Gresham Harkless 02:06

Let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit. Here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Steve Hasty 02:12

How I got started with the HACI Awards or with Swimming World?

Gresham Harkless 02:15

Yeah, both. I would love to hear both.

Steve Hasty 02:16

So son of a swim coach and my father was, it was one of those situations where he was a college swimmer and of course wanted his kids to be involved in swimming. So coached us until we were late into high school. Neither one of us were quite good enough to go on to college, but we both my brother and I enjoyed teaching swimming lessons and coaching other teams and working our way through college and later my kids when they were younger were on swim teams but again they decided to go in a different path but my father felt like there was a better way to provide awards for the swimming community.

And he, of course, had a vast network of fellow coaches, not just in the area, but across the country. And he and my mom started off as the American dream out of their garage, building awards and putting them together. And I'm the youngest son, so the joke in the family is my brother left to let me finish raising my parents. And I only planned to be here for a couple of years, but here I am 40 years later. So we basically grew the company from my father and I had a great working relationship. We never really stepped on each other's toes. Things that I was passionate about he was supportive of and vice versa.

And in 1999 we transferred the ownership of the company over to my wife and I and we have owned I forward. And from that be throughout the sport of Hall of Fame. Been on the board now for about 7 a wonderful experience. A you're doing something that you're passionate about, The Brent Rudemiller was World magazine when we we a wonderful experience. And like you said, if you're doing something that you love and you're passionate about, it just works out. The Brent Rudemiller was a publisher of Swimming World Magazine. When we were starting to grow nationally, we needed a media that we could use to spread the word about what we were doing. We had outgrown my father's contacts and I developed a really good relationship over 20 years with Brent.

And actually we started discussing the possibility of becoming a partner of Swimming World. We started that probably back in 2016 and that didn't really get us anywhere. And in terms of the magazine really needed to have a bit more of financial resources that have at the time. And so the magazine to the swimming donated it in exchange for 5 years. While he was there, he did amazing things for the Hall of Fame. The magazine did well. It probably didn't thrive. COVID was not easy for any sort of print media.

And as Brent went through his five-year contract towards the end, he got very sick and was not able to really focus on Swimming World. And so as a board member, it became a passion of mine to keep it with the Hall of Fame. And as the Hall of Fame is no through $190 million reno that they sit on in Port needed new ownership. Jack basically donated his time to building a business plan and once we were ready to go, we acquired it from the Hall of Fame.

Gresham Harkless 05:59

Nice. I appreciate you sharing that journey and many great things I've heard. You start from that garage. So I love hearing how that seed has been planted and how it blossomed in so many different ways. I think so many times when we look at industries, we can get very siloed in how we're looking at what the industry could be. But I love how that passion has ran true for you, your family, in so many different ways and how it's manifested itself to all of the paths and the journeys you've been on. Of course, the impact that you're making as well now with the magazine as well.

Steve Hasty 06:27

Right. Yeah, it's been a, it's truly an American story. If you work hard enough and you're passionate and you know the things that you do well, but more importantly, the things that you don't do well, and you stay away from those, it's been a great journey. Very thankful.

Gresham Harkless 06:43

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I would love to drill down a little bit more here a little bit more on how you're serving and impacting the clients and customers you work with. Could you take us through exactly what you're doing and how that process works?

Steve Hasty 06:54

So swimming is just one facet of the award side, but swimming is absolutely our number one sport. And of course, the awards company is the gateway to and the other avenues that take a philosophy that we at a very high level. We of swimming where most of it's easy for us to help when their events are going and two or three months and we know in a world of swimming of the events are annualized are going to be coming up them and help them with t a similar thing to what W & I is that I understand the nuts and bolts of the sport.

I understand what the end users are looking for and what they need. And Jack, of course, has a wonderful swimming background as well. And but he brings to the table the media experience. And so between the two of us, we're able to bounce ideas off of each other, people who he knows, I don't know, people that I know he doesn't know, and it's really just been a great run, especially here for the last 7 or 8 months.

Gresham Harkless 08:14

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And so do you feel like that's part of what does set you apart and make you unique? That ability to tap into that, but not also just realize like how you can understand that human element, how you can understand the impact that you're making, but manifest it in a different way. Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Steve Hasty 08:30

So absolutely. We are. We connect the dots between not just the elite swimmers, but also to the age group swimmers we have back in the day. You could send in your results of your swim meet, say to swimming world magazine. If you finished in the top 3 of your event, you could flip through the magazine to find that meat and you would see your name in print. That's pretty phenomenal. Even in this day and age, you may be looking at a phone which has a digital screen, but you're still looking for your name and your accomplishments in print are being broadcast. And so that connection is real. It's just as real today as it was 60 years ago.

Gresham Harkless 09:13

So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Steve Hasty 09:23

What makes me more effective and efficient? I think that technology is great. I think that being connected is to your business or businesses is very important. However, I do think that face-to-face contact and phone calls and even Zoom are critical pieces to how we are able to lead both employees or customers or suppliers. So I'm much more of a hands-on person. I'm able to connect to my companies via my phone or my computer, but at the end of the day, my most effective tools that I use are calling people, traveling to go visit them, or scheduling Zoom calls. Nothing can replace face-to-face contact.

Gresham Harkless 10:08

Yeah, I love that. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, or if you happen to a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Steve Hasty 10:22

I think that the piece of advice I often give is do what you do great. In everything that we do, there's opportunities that are outside of what you mainly do. I use the example that McDonald's does not sell onion rings, and they could block Burger King from having that niche, but the problem is that the onion rings make your french fries taste different, and in McDonald's, their french fries are epic. And they're a great example of, they've tested and tried other types of foods and at the end of the day they make hamburgers and cheeseburgers and they do it really well and none of the other things have really taken off for them. And so if I was telling somebody who's just starting out, I would tell them, know what you do and do it better than anybody else. But if you try to do everything, you're gonna fail epically.

Gresham Harkless 11:17

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So what would you consider being your answer to my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO? And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Steve, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Steve Hasty 11:30

If you have a small organization, a CEO's definition is one thing. If you have a larger number of people, to me, it doesn't mean that you're the best at any one thing that goes on within the company. I think to be an effective CEO, you have to hire their role better than any usually good at a lot of master of anything. And a day, you're the head of that are human beings that you and so you have to be able as individuals, what's going on in their persona of that trickles into the life. And so being an effective a good listener, being able you're going to have to that but really at the end of the day, it's a family and you need to treat everybody with respect and just like you would your own children.

Gresham Harkless 12:33

Nice. I love that definition. So I almost feel like as you talked about being a CEO, it's not being a master of one thing, it's sometimes being a master of none and aware of the things that are going on so you can provide those solutions and bring it all together.

Steve Hasty 12:47

Absolutely. Yeah. I always tell people that the best part about my life is that the people who are involved in the many different companies, they allow me to be the times it's easy to be at the top is making the decisions. But at the end of the day, it's not an easy job. And it's not a job that really everybody wants or everybody's cut out to have. But what I've always been appreciative of, and I have a lot of tenured people who have worked for me for more than 20 years. And I always say the best gift they give me is they allow me to be the CEO.

Most situations are work in process. You have to, like you said, you have to use your experiences that you've gained over a lifetime to solve problems. But more importantly, you create an atmosphere where the problems don't repeat themselves. And sometimes that's, it's easy to kick something under the rug, but it's a different thing to solve it to where it doesn't happen again. And that's the people around me allow me to be able to do that. And that's a big part of the success.

Gresham Harkless 13:57

Yeah, that's an absolutely huge thing. Steve, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass on the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find about all the awesome things you and your teams are doing.

Steve Hasty 14:15

Swimming World is the newest addition to what we do and there's no question that the exciting things that Jack especially is bringing to the table and belong for the ride when it comes to a lot of that Jack and I our relationship is such that I take care of the back of the house and he of the house. And and I w people who are interested to to check us out at swimmingworldmagazine.com and to maybe even sub there's some great article editor and john loan whose for 25 years. We have just some of the best reporters on the planet. We just got done with the NCAA Women's championships, one of the fastest meets, if not the fastest female meets of all time.

The NCAA men's was equally as impressive and the Olympics this year are just going to be phenomenal. We cover internationally and of course there are s from France and and and o do swim for American coll their performances this l incredible. So it's going Olympics. It's going to be Olympic trials is our first going to build an incredible world is going to be cover along the way. And again, past Olympics. It's going Olympics. Olympic trials I think we're going to but and swimming world is going all of that all along the I just if you're time to get interested in haven't been before and a is the way to get your information and to get excited about what's going on.

Gresham Harkless 15:59

Absolutely. I truly appreciate that Steve. Obviously we're going to have the links and information to show us as well too, so that everybody can follow up, subscribe and find out about all the awesome things that you and your team are working on. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Steve Hasty 16:10

You bet, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

Outro 16:13

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business as CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you.

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