Kirk Spahn brings leadership to life at ICL Academy, a school built for students who aim higher—on the court, on the stage, or in their communities. In this conversation, Kirk breaks down what it takes to lead with purpose. He shares how ICL moves beyond academics to develop discipline, resilience, and character. The goal? To build champions for life.

Kirk reveals how elite athletes and performers grow not just through hard work but through intentional structure and mindset. He details how ICL pairs students with mentors, designs custom curriculum around passions, and instills the habits of high-performance leadership. Whether training with Novak Djokovic or guiding a student to the French Open, Kirk’s focus stays the same: build people who lead with integrity and impact.

He also addresses equity in education, explaining how ICL delivers personalized, values-driven schooling to students—90% of whom are on scholarship. The model blends traditional respect with forward-thinking tech, ensuring students thrive both online and in the world.

Want to learn more about Kirk Spahn's work? Check out their website at https://www.iclacademy.org.

Connect with Kirk Spahn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-spahn-10a913/.

Key Points with Timestamps:

• [01:23] – ICL’s mission: build character through passion-aligned education

• [03:03] – How tennis built Kirk’s global network and leadership mindset

• [04:35] – Competitors as lifelong collaborators: the leadership lesson in sport

• [06:17] – Mentorship from champions like Monica Seles and Novak Djokovic

• [08:49] – Story behind Novak’s role in Kirk’s US Open proposal

• [12:57] – Why the U.S. fell behind in tennis—and what ICL is doing about it

• [15:36] – The mindset of champions: discipline, self-work, and love of growth

• [17:02] – Iva Jovic’s post-win training: a real example of leadership maturity

• [20:40] – Education at ICL: blending sport mindset with academic rigor

• [23:18] – From “dumb jocks” to scholars: reframing how we teach high performers

• [25:07] – Teach the “why”: how purpose fuels learning and leadership

• [26:46] – Inspire, educate, act: ICL’s leadership development journey

• [29:12] – Personalized education that’s affordable, mission-driven, and scalable

• [33:07] – Using tech to create efficiency and tailor learning to each student

• [36:13] – Who ICL is for: students underserved by traditional systems but full of drive

• [37:15] – Community and connection in a virtual-first learning model

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;23;24
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Kirk Spahn. He is a fourth generation educator and the founder of ICL Academy. It's an online private school that caters to elite athletes, actors and other people that, for whatever reason, don't fit in the regular school system. Kirk holds degrees from Dartmouth and Columbia University, and he's really focused on an innovative educational framework that blends at athlete level academics with students passions.

00;01;23;24 - 00;01;27;29
Craig Andrews
And the goal is to really build character. And,

00;01;27;29 - 00;01;32;29
Craig Andrews
with a mindset of servant leadership and serving their community.

00;01;32;29 - 00;01;36;02
Craig Andrews
Today, ICL offers a virtual and hybrid,

00;01;36;02 - 00;01;38;14
Craig Andrews
grade. Fifth through 12th

00;01;38;14 - 00;01;50;23
Craig Andrews
school, transforming traditional education by integrating real world applications and personalized learning experiences to build champions for life. Kirk, welcome.

00;01;50;26 - 00;01;53;14
Kirk Spahn
Thanks so much, Craig. Great to see you again.

00;01;53;17 - 00;01;55;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah it's great. Yeah. Great to see you. The,

00;01;55;27 - 00;01;58;20
Craig Andrews
for those who don't know, Kirk's also running a,

00;01;58;20 - 00;02;02;12
Craig Andrews
podcast, and he was so generous to invite me on that.

00;02;02;12 - 00;02;06;15
Craig Andrews
And it was a delightful conversation. So,

00;02;06;15 - 00;02;12;23
Craig Andrews
the thing that struck me when I first ran into, you know, so Annika introduced us,

00;02;12;23 - 00;02;18;21
Craig Andrews
I went and looked at your profile, and obviously, you're very passionate about tennis, and,

00;02;18;21 - 00;02;22;00
Craig Andrews
and so I mentioned to you, and I'm not going to say his name live on,

00;02;22;00 - 00;02;26;11
Craig Andrews
on air, but I said, well, my neighbor is so and so and you're like, oh, yeah, I know him.

00;02;26;11 - 00;02;29;25
Craig Andrews
He's he's a great guy. Brilliant mind. And,

00;02;29;25 - 00;02;33;28
Craig Andrews
and it's just funny how small of a world it is.

00;02;34;00 - 00;02;37;14
Kirk Spahn
Absolutely. My, my wife sometimes calls me Forrest Gump.

00;02;37;14 - 00;02;40;22
Kirk Spahn
I find myself in situations with people,

00;02;40;22 - 00;02;43;26
Kirk Spahn
and I usually trace it back down to tennis.

00;02;43;26 - 00;02;52;26
Kirk Spahn
It's one of those sports that's, you know, when you play your whole life at a highly competitive level, it touches people from all over the world.

00;02;52;26 - 00;03;03;21
Kirk Spahn
I've been fortunate enough to, you know, have build relationships with the greatest players in the world to the teaching pros to now actually having

00;03;03;21 - 00;03;11;24
Kirk Spahn
some of my competitors and the juniors in college and beyond sending their kids to my school, who are the next generation.

00;03;11;24 - 00;03;15;11
Kirk Spahn
So we definitely seen a full cycle. But I, I owe a lot of,

00;03;15;11 - 00;03;19;17
Kirk Spahn
of my relationships and experience I've had to the sport of tennis.

00;03;19;19 - 00;03;29;21
Craig Andrews
Wow. Wow. That's cool. You know, I can't remember his name. I don't follow tennis, but I remember there was. I think it was a Chinese American player.

00;03;29;21 - 00;03;39;03
Craig Andrews
That retired probably 10 or 15 years ago. And when he retired, he said, I want to thank my opponents because they all made me better. Do you know who I'm talking about?

00;03;39;04 - 00;03;41;06
Kirk Spahn
It was probably Michael Chang.

00;03;41;09 - 00;03;41;28
Craig Andrews
I think so.

00;03;42;05 - 00;03;42;21
Kirk Spahn
And,

00;03;42;21 - 00;03;47;05
Kirk Spahn
we are lucky enough to have Michael as an ICL champion.

00;03;47;05 - 00;03;57;11
Kirk Spahn
He's an incredible human being. He, I have to. I can't say just his name, but I have to admit, reference his wife as well, who is just an extraordinary,

00;03;57;11 - 00;04;04;07
Kirk Spahn
All-American NCAA champion as well. From Stanford. But. But you're exactly right. I mean,

00;04;04;07 - 00;04;13;20
Kirk Spahn
Michael exudes that he's raising some incredible children who are also attending my who are also students in my academy right now.

00;04;13;23 - 00;04;35;20
Kirk Spahn
And we're very fortunate to, to have a lot of his wisdom and learning, but you you hit it on the head. I mean, your competitors, I joke with all of our we have over 500 of the top juniors and in our in our school and I say, you know, this is your band of brothers. It's, it's, you know, Craig, you were in the Army and you serve in the military and so much is building camaraderie.

00;04;35;23 - 00;05;03;24
Kirk Spahn
And people sometimes think you know, tennis can be a very lonely sport. The reality is that everyone that you play at an elite level, you share a bond with, and that comes full circle later in life. It's in a business meeting. Pretty much all of my businesses and nonprofit work is is all relationships I've built introductions, have been through someone I competed with against,

00;05;03;24 - 00;05;07;09
Kirk Spahn
and yes, your opponents push you to do great things.

00;05;07;12 - 00;05;09;02
Kirk Spahn
That's a that's a great quote.

00;05;09;04 - 00;05;15;01
Craig Andrews
Well, and, you know, on the subject of elite, I gotta make a minor correction. I was in the Marines and.

00;05;15;02 - 00;05;18;18
Kirk Spahn
That's right. Sorry, I that is very important. Yes. Marines.

00;05;18;20 - 00;05;19;29
Craig Andrews
And, you know,

00;05;19;29 - 00;05;39;04
Craig Andrews
kind of tied to that. I mean, you know, my story. You know, I had to learn how to walk again. And when I was coming out of my coma, and one of the things that pushed me was and my wife was running around telling folks, well, he's he's a marine and what have you. And I realized if I didn't recover, well, it wasn't my name that was on the line.

00;05;39;04 - 00;05;40;15
Craig Andrews
That was the name of all all.

00;05;40;16 - 00;05;41;06
Kirk Spahn
The Marines.

00;05;41;13 - 00;05;47;10
Craig Andrews
All the Marines. And so part of my mission was to recover in the way a marine would, for sure.

00;05;47;10 - 00;05;47;24
Kirk Spahn
And that's,

00;05;47;24 - 00;06;02;20
Kirk Spahn
I think a great lesson and tool to live by is, you know, you, your reputation and what you represent. What you do is a representation of those behind you, in front of you and those you're you're trying to help and serve.

00;06;02;22 - 00;06;06;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So speaking of,

00;06;06;13 - 00;06;09;01
Craig Andrews
elite tennis players, you,

00;06;09;01 - 00;06;11;13
Craig Andrews
you mentioned something about,

00;06;11;13 - 00;06;17;04
Craig Andrews
Novak Djokovic being involved in your engagement.

00;06;17;06 - 00;06;19;12
Kirk Spahn
Like I said, I've I've been very fortunate,

00;06;19;12 - 00;06;24;15
Kirk Spahn
to have built relationships with really, really inspiring champions. And,

00;06;24;15 - 00;06;26;27
Kirk Spahn
it just so happens that,

00;06;26;27 - 00;06;33;20
Kirk Spahn
one of our, our first board member, I call her co-founder, best friend,

00;06;33;20 - 00;06;44;04
Kirk Spahn
inspiration to me is a former champion named Monica Seles. And Monica and Novak shared a coach who inspired both of them.

00;06;44;07 - 00;07;05;18
Kirk Spahn
But Novak was very inspired by Monica. And at an early age, I think, when no, no one had heard the name and couldn't pronounce the name Djokovic, it wasn't something that rolled off the tongue when he was 180. In the world, we all know it now. 24 Grand Slams later, but I met a young Serbian Novak with a huge smile, big heart.

00;07;05;21 - 00;07;13;14
Kirk Spahn
We became fast friends. Because of Monica. You know, there's there's an aura around Monica Seles that,

00;07;13;14 - 00;07;25;06
Kirk Spahn
she's just anyone that meets her. She's humble, she's magnet. She she is the definition of what we hope to teach and character and service, leadership and caring about others,

00;07;25;06 - 00;07;29;27
Kirk Spahn
while also being just one of the greatest competitors in any sport in history.

00;07;29;27 - 00;07;36;23
Kirk Spahn
So Novak and I bonded over Monica, and he is a joker like the like his namesake is a joke.

00;07;36;23 - 00;07;49;12
Kirk Spahn
He loves to tell jokes. He loves to be part of of anything that's fun. And he did when when I was thinking about innovative ways to propose to my wife, he said, why don't I help you? I said, well, what does that mean?

00;07;49;12 - 00;07;53;28
Kirk Spahn
He's like, well, why don't we do it on center court at the US open? So I was very lucky.

00;07;53;28 - 00;07;59;05
Kirk Spahn
He kind of if asked if Ashton Kutcher was still running punked, it probably would have been aired on that. He,

00;07;59;05 - 00;08;02;23
Kirk Spahn
he kind of punked my wife into calling some lines, and,

00;08;02;23 - 00;08;06;18
Kirk Spahn
I had to step in and be a white knight and and save her,

00;08;06;18 - 00;08;11;16
Kirk Spahn
from, you know, see the Novak who was having a bit of a John McEnroe rant.

00;08;11;18 - 00;08;23;14
Kirk Spahn
And then it's the only time in my life where I, quote unquote, went viral. You know, the New York Post picked it up, and next thing you know, it's being, you know, this this internet is such a phenomenon that, you know, this proposal that was videoed,

00;08;23;14 - 00;08;26;20
Kirk Spahn
had been downloaded it out 2 or 3 million times or whatever.

00;08;26;20 - 00;08;30;02
Kirk Spahn
So people got a kick out of seeing that proposal.

00;08;30;05 - 00;08;33;10
Craig Andrews
That's pretty cool. That's really cool. You know, I,

00;08;34;04 - 00;08;39;07
Craig Andrews
as a marketer, I, I'm, I felt like Novak and the,

00;08;39;07 - 00;08;54;03
Craig Andrews
country of Serbia missed a golden opportunity. So when he was blocked from playing in the Australian Open, they should have figured out how to start the Serbian open and say, if you want, if you want to see me play, come to Serbia.

00;08;54;10 - 00;08;58;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah. It could have been that. That was like a narrow time that that door cave opened for them.

00;08;58;26 - 00;09;03;15
Kirk Spahn
They thought about saying that they tried it. And here's a story that people tell know,

00;09;03;15 - 00;09;14;25
Kirk Spahn
Serbia was trying to position itself as the only country with zero cases of Covid so bright, like the smack dab hard of quarantine.

00;09;14;25 - 00;09;16;26
Kirk Spahn
And I only know this because I was,

00;09;16;26 - 00;09;18;28
Kirk Spahn
And those of you that have seen Schindler's List, I.

00;09;18;28 - 00;09;37;23
Kirk Spahn
I joke around that I was sort of Oskar Schindler for professional tennis players who got caught in Indian Wells, California, because when the curtain of Covid came down, it was during the Indian Wells tennis tournaments. So all of the top players in the world were in Palm Desert. So,

00;09;37;23 - 00;09;40;00
Kirk Spahn
some of them ended up staying with me.

00;09;40;02 - 00;09;57;01
Kirk Spahn
We opened up our house to great players. My wife joked and said, how is it that people are in these little tiny quarantine bubbles and your quarantine, you know, bubble is people that are posters on your wall like, it's kind of crazy. So I got very lucky again. And one of,

00;09;57;01 - 00;09;59;15
Kirk Spahn
one of the players who was staying with me,

00;09;59;15 - 00;10;01;21
Kirk Spahn
after a couple months said, hey,

00;10;01;21 - 00;10;06;03
Kirk Spahn
Novak called and Serbia, there are no cases of Covid Serbia.

00;10;06;03 - 00;10;10;12
Kirk Spahn
So we're going to put together a tournament and it's going to be great, and we'll we'll do what you said. And,

00;10;10;12 - 00;10;12;24
Kirk Spahn
he got some of the greatest players in the world,

00;10;12;24 - 00;10;20;16
Kirk Spahn
to go show up. And what happened, you know, four days in, they, they all tested positive for Covid.

00;10;20;19 - 00;10;21;11
Craig Andrews
Oh. Wow.

00;10;21;12 - 00;10;33;06
Kirk Spahn
It was, it was kind of a wild one. I mean, not picked out publicly, but I remember that. Well, so there was talk of attempting to do that, but now I'm I'm listen, I'm a huge fan of Novak. I, I try not to weigh in

00;10;33;06 - 00;10;39;29
Kirk Spahn
on a lot of those matters, but I do believe that he has a right to decide what he wanted to do.

00;10;39;29 - 00;11;05;20
Kirk Spahn
I mean, he is the most acute human to understand everything that is put into his body. I mean, he he's the most inspiring, motivating, just workhorse. Like he's a competitor, but he he's seeking any way to learn how to get better. He will take advice. He there's no he never says I know. He's always like if I can learn from anyone I will synthesize it.

00;11;05;20 - 00;11;15;09
Kirk Spahn
And so, you know, he talks the talk, he walks the walk. And that's why he's he has the most wins of anyone in the history of the game.

00;11;15;12 - 00;11;20;26
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Wow. I didn't realize that. I, I didn't realize he had the most number of wins.

00;11;20;28 - 00;11;29;21
Kirk Spahn
Oh, yeah. And I mean, he he just wanted his 100 title. He has the most grand Slams. He has. He's he's just just downing records. And

00;11;29;21 - 00;11;41;24
Kirk Spahn
and in a way that's sort of unimaginable because he also lives at a time with not the number two and three greatest tennis players that ever lived, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

00;11;41;24 - 00;11;48;15
Kirk Spahn
So to do it in an era where, you know, we've never seen the height of tennis,

00;11;48;15 - 00;12;00;26
Kirk Spahn
like this, you know, and so it's pretty amazing. And it's, it's it's tough because now that Roger is gone and Rafa has gone, it's it's a little hard for Novak to stay hungry and stay motivated because he, he owns all these records.

00;12;00;26 - 00;12;06;04
Kirk Spahn
But at 38, he's still just a specimen of an athlete.

00;12;06;07 - 00;12;16;05
Craig Andrews
Wow. You know, and I was talking to my neighbor about this and I'm interested in your take on it. You know, it used to be that you had a lot of,

00;12;16;05 - 00;12;27;17
Craig Andrews
American players, elite American players like John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and what have you. But you don't hear that very much these days. Why do you think.

00;12;27;17 - 00;12;28;03
Kirk Spahn
Our goals,

00;12;28;03 - 00;12;30;12
Kirk Spahn
you know, there's a lot of reasons for that.

00;12;30;12 - 00;12;57;06
Kirk Spahn
I can go. This is something I could definitely talk for a long time about. You know, one of our goals at ICL Academy is to facilitate that idea of a champion, you know, building champions for life. It's a lifestyle. And I think what happened was in Serbia, you see so many Serbian players coming in Italy, you see so many Italians breaking through now because of Jannik Sinner.

00;12;57;06 - 00;13;25;03
Kirk Spahn
And so what they do is they put people together, the federations get together and say, we are going to invest time, money, effort into our youth as a federation. And we're we're very fortunate. The ICL academies created relationships with the Usta, the United States Tennis Association, to create ways that the top players can be motivated by these pros that came before.

00;13;25;03 - 00;13;55;16
Kirk Spahn
These champion mentors. But the real reason, again, is because it became a global sport, like happened to the age. Like there were the Ivan Lendl from Czech, there was nastasic, but the Americans had consistently, you know, dominated. Then you saw Bjorn Borg and the rise of Sweden. If you may remember, there tons of Swedish players and you had the one offs, but historically, until relatively recently, there was always 1 or 2 Americans in the top 10 or 15.

00;13;55;18 - 00;14;17;09
Kirk Spahn
And we went through a long drought of that. I mean, we've not had an American Grand Slam winner since Andy Roddick in 2002 at the US open. So it's, it's a long drought. But right now, the good news is there are we ended the year last year. There are 4 or 5 Americans that are that are right in the top 15.

00;14;17;09 - 00;14;42;24
Kirk Spahn
I think Taylor Fritz may have ended 4 or 5 in the world. Tommy Paul, but again, it's in talking about marketing and leadership. A lot of it, you know, has to be it's not just about a coach and a player. It's about a mindset and getting together and galvanizing to really support the entire process. Right. It has to be, you know, out of you filter out of many.

00;14;42;26 - 00;15;03;27
Kirk Spahn
And the USGA cut their their funding for the high level, you know, program and they, they, they didn't they wanted to put a racket in tens of thousands of people's hands thinking that will produce the next Venus or Serena. And obviously on the women's side, we've had some incredible success with the Williams sisters and Coco Gauff and and we're in a good place now.

00;15;03;29 - 00;15;19;19
Kirk Spahn
So yes, this are a tennis podcast. We we would say American tennis is in a good place, but hopefully hopefully ICL and what we're doing will will be somewhat additive to that. And we can see that Grand Slam trophy hoisted by American again soon.

00;15;19;21 - 00;15;25;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well one of the things that you talked about was

00;15;25;09 - 00;15;36;09
Craig Andrews
the, the mindset, the way these guys train when you don't see them on camera. Incredible. And what do you say?

00;15;36;11 - 00;15;51;00
Kirk Spahn
You know, having had the chance to live with some of these guys and train with them. Hey, there's just no no other way besides just an incredible amount of hard work and discipline.

00;15;51;00 - 00;16;01;08
Kirk Spahn
I was fortunate enough some of our students compete, and they're competing through our graduation, which is next week in Orlando at the United States Tennis Association main campus.

00;16;01;10 - 00;16;17;29
Kirk Spahn
So some of our kids in California are playing at top junior tournaments. Said, oh, let's do a mini graduation. Let's hit. I'm going to have you hit with a former absolutely legend of the game. James Blake and James played at Harvard and then got to know top five in the world, and the kids got a chance to talk to him.

00;16;17;29 - 00;16;45;03
Kirk Spahn
They got they asked questions like we're doing, you know what what is this difference? And James just said, work harder and work smarter and continue and know your body. But but be there. Put in the hours that Kobe Bryant there are there's a mindset of a champion that puts everything on the line. Like it's such a competitive nature that it's just wanting to win.

00;16;45;03 - 00;16;46;09
Kirk Spahn
But the one thing

00;16;46;09 - 00;17;02;19
Kirk Spahn
wanting to get better. So now wanting the other opponent to get hurt or or to miss a shot like they, the great ones, see it every a bit, every time they step on a court as a chance to get better. And I'm actually inspired by one of my students who,

00;17;02;19 - 00;17;10;11
Kirk Spahn
went around. She's, you know, 16 or 17 years old right now, still in high school, went around at the French Open yesterday,

00;17;10;11 - 00;17;11;14
Kirk Spahn
named Iva Jovic.

00;17;11;14 - 00;17;47;27
Kirk Spahn
And and I was talking to her and she just said, you know, I love this sport because I have the ability to get better every day. And I can tell you tricks that Novak does of James Blake, but either he's still in high school. She won a professional tournament that I was at with her, and I what I saw was she'd shake hands after winning or losing a match, put her rack in her bag, pick up the bag, go to a back court wherever she was, ask her coach to come over and spend 40 minutes working on what she felt didn't feel right in her game.

00;17;48;00 - 00;18;05;03
Kirk Spahn
That's like unteachable, like the class. I asked her coach who did you tell her to. You know, that's her just wanting to get better, wanting to constantly you know feed that that sort of that process the consistency, the effort. And so yeah I mean there isn't a silver bullet.

00;18;05;06 - 00;18;06;20
Craig Andrews
You know, what that reminds me of is,

00;18;06;20 - 00;18;16;03
Craig Andrews
I heard when Michael Jordan's baseball coaches interviewed, you know, so when Jordan was playing or playing, yeah, he,

00;18;16;03 - 00;18;19;17
Craig Andrews
he would play a full game of baseball, and,

00;18;19;17 - 00;18;26;17
Craig Andrews
the guys would hit the showers, go out for beers or what have you. Jordan would go over to the batting cage.

00;18;26;20 - 00;18;33;27
Craig Andrews
And he'd spend another half hour hour, you know, 30, 60 minutes in the batting cage after playing a full game of baseball.

00;18;33;29 - 00;18;52;14
Kirk Spahn
And this is Michael Jordan as Michael Jordan. This isn't Michael Jordan as a 16 year old. This is already the most famous person on the planet. So keep that up. And that's that's the most amazing part, right? People can do it when they're hungry and they're 16 and 17. They want to get there. But imagine they've they've been at the top.

00;18;52;14 - 00;19;14;03
Kirk Spahn
They've become the greatest at their sport already. They they have the private jets, they have the cars. They have money for ever. And they still do that. And that, I think, separates the greatest of all time. Because that mindset, there is no reason. I mean, Mike, like so many people, get complacent, right? It's so hard to stay at the top.

00;19;14;03 - 00;19;36;09
Kirk Spahn
And that's why I have such respect for Novak and Roger. I mean, to to maintain that, to really have the whole world gunning for you, these young guys coming up in Brazil and Italy that are, you know, younger, with more firepower. But you you have to have that drive. And that's a it's a great story. And obviously if Kobe Bryant were alive, I mean he hit he was the same.

00;19;36;11 - 00;20;07;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well you know I know for myself you know in the in my own recovery you know. So one I survived something that killed pretty much everybody. I mean very, very small percentage of survivors. And as I've heard about few other survivors, why here is their their bodies are a wreck. I mean, they're barely functional. And so I have when people see me, they're like, oh, Craig, you're back to normal.

00;20;07;01 - 00;20;09;10
Craig Andrews
I'm like, no, no, I'm,

00;20;09;10 - 00;20;13;09
Craig Andrews
come out to camp Gladiator with me at 5 a.m. and you'll see. Not normal.

00;20;13;09 - 00;20;19;27
Craig Andrews
But what people miss is I think they believe. Well, just with time, I got better.

00;20;20;00 - 00;20;41;10
Kirk Spahn
Not at all, Ty. Time is more of our enemy. Brave you. If you hadn't put the work and time would have actually done the reverse. And so you're exactly right. And this is why the application so much of why I was inspired to start the ICL Foundation to start a school for these kids is because it is a mindset, right?

00;20;41;10 - 00;20;50;05
Kirk Spahn
It's it's a mindset that I think today's youth needs. It's it's about building that character, that resilience. Talking about perseverance.

00;20;50;05 - 00;21;07;23
Kirk Spahn
And so if you can apply what you're learning in your sport and the dedication you have, and you can apply that into an academic setting or an entrepreneurial setting or a philanthropic setting, and you teach those skills, those you know, those transitional skills.

00;21;07;23 - 00;21;28;14
Kirk Spahn
Obviously, the fact you're a marine and went through a lot and understood what the body can go through you, you mentally kind of knew that you could do this, that if you didn't want to end up like that, you just you had to force you to flip a switch in your mind, because we all know it's it's easy to not do the work.

00;21;28;16 - 00;21;50;04
Kirk Spahn
I mean, it's, you know, showing up and then doing the work is everything. And and so I think that, you know, a million people have great ideas, a million people have talent. But what separates you is, is the work that you put in and and there is working efficiently. I do believe that you can work smarter and harder.

00;21;50;06 - 00;21;55;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Let's talk about that a little bit because, you know, the work harder.

00;21;55;08 - 00;22;01;09
Craig Andrews
I mean, I work as hard as it takes, but eventually I run out of hours in the day.

00;22;01;11 - 00;22;05;26
Kirk Spahn
Correct. And you can and you can hurt your body. And it may not be the best thing for your body.

00;22;05;29 - 00;22;32;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And whether it's, you know, whether it's physical work or mental work, you know, and I think that's, I think that's another part of the equation when you're going up against naturally talented people and it's I, I suspect it's a little bit more than just work harder. It's you have to make more of the time. You have to work hard, and you have to make more of the time that you have.

00;22;32;14 - 00;22;43;17
Kirk Spahn
I think it's efficiency. And so a big, a big goal of mine, life is is being efficient. And if there are talents I didn't have as much talent on the tennis court.

00;22;43;17 - 00;22;54;11
Kirk Spahn
But I could cut through problems. I could see things. You know, if you can help kids see where they want to go and kind of work backwards, it becomes easier.

00;22;54;11 - 00;23;18;23
Kirk Spahn
And I think efficiency when we if we talk about, you know, we're talking about kind of on the sports side on the, on the education side. And a lot of people are like, oh, you know, there's, there's a, an inconsistent theory, you know, oh, I'm of a dumb jock. Well, I lived with two NFL football players that in school were selfish and MIT didn't do any work at school.

00;23;18;23 - 00;23;39;10
Kirk Spahn
And yet I saw them memorize 3000 plays in a massive binder that when I looked at, I thought were like math equations I couldn't process. Yeah. So they're not done right. It's about how you apply it. So nobody tapped into them at a younger age and said, hey, you can do this because they saved my life is on the line.

00;23;39;10 - 00;24;00;18
Kirk Spahn
I if I don't memorize these plays and cut from the team, my life is over, right? So but no one said that with a math problem or the Pythagorean theorem. So what we're trying to do is create that synapse that says, you know what? You can be efficient in all of that, right? You don't have to spend hours and hours and hours on a math equation.

00;24;00;18 - 00;24;18;28
Kirk Spahn
If you're stuck, get some help. You know, have it. You can have someone talk to you. Same way a coach talks to you that you you know, people get the yips where the golfer is serving like everything else, and it's a process. You look at your body. I mean, you rebuilt your body and and other people didn't. So you see the results of that time, right?

00;24;18;28 - 00;24;39;07
Kirk Spahn
It didn't happen. The body didn't come back overnight. It was it was a gradual process. It's, you know, continually. And that's the same with education. That's the same. I think that we we kind of expect too much. It's weird. It's it's it's a throw away like in education. Oh people don't turn around and say, well, why I always start with why.

00;24;39;08 - 00;24;56;00
Kirk Spahn
I mean, everything at our school, everything that we teach is why, why are we doing this for you? Get into a classroom like, why do you need to learn this? If you get and teachers back in our day say, oh, you need it for the test, you need it to get a grade. It's like, no, no, show me how it applies to my life.

00;24;56;03 - 00;24;59;02
Kirk Spahn
Show it how to please my passion. So,

00;24;59;02 - 00;25;16;00
Kirk Spahn
you know, passion based learning, application based and then showing. I always think that mastery comes from when you can dissect something that's complex and teach it to a five year old, you know, like, you know, can you teach your grandmother this or could you teach it to your little brother, little sister?

00;25;16;00 - 00;25;23;10
Kirk Spahn
And so I think that that applies to so much in life, right? Keeping it simple. You know, when people talk about Jordan or Federer,

00;25;23;10 - 00;25;33;28
Kirk Spahn
talk about dancers who make it look easy, right? I don't the greatest. And you always hear that they make it look easy. Yeah, yeah. They're the what? They're doing the hardest things, but they're making it look easy.

00;25;34;00 - 00;25;36;12
Craig Andrews
You know, it's it's frustrating for me as,

00;25;36;12 - 00;25;45;21
Craig Andrews
for me. And in some marketing people I'll explain something. They're like, oh, that's easy. I can do it. And like, no, you can't. Yeah. But,

00;25;45;21 - 00;25;46;04
Craig Andrews
they,

00;25;46;04 - 00;25;54;28
Craig Andrews
but it's, it's ultimately a, it is a compliment. Those who are truly exceptional make the hard stuff look easy.

00;25;55;01 - 00;26;01;18
Kirk Spahn
Let's talk about marketing for a second. I mean, just do it right. Campaign three simple where like how easy, you know,

00;26;01;18 - 00;26;19;18
Kirk Spahn
but 5000 iterations. I always tell our kids, Steve Jobs, you know, before his Mac, he would always show five slides. Super simple. Well, if you follow his process, he started with 5000 slides and he started four months before.

00;26;19;18 - 00;26;46;09
Kirk Spahn
And you just got rid of them. Rid of simplify, simplify so you can't get to greatness without doing everything kind of from a mindset level. You have to start at the basics. And that's why, you know, I think to change the world or to, you know, when I started the nonprofit, it was, hey, let's start young. If these great champions can share their stories with kids, it can light a flame.

00;26;46;09 - 00;27;07;23
Kirk Spahn
It can be that spark. Right? And once you spark it, everyone, every well, we saw as we have a model that says inspire, educate, impact, to inspire, educate, take action. And that's a student journey. They get inspired by a speaker, oh my God, I want to do this. I'm ready to help. Whatever. Cause and do whatever. Let's take action right now.

00;27;07;25 - 00;27;29;18
Kirk Spahn
If you don't have the skills to like, you get so excited to do it. But you got to have that. You got to have the educate part. And once they realize that, oh my God, it transition. And now I become better at school. I mean you shared your journey where earlier you didn't when you were in school. You weren't that into it because you didn't really have a it was like, what am I doing this for?

00;27;29;18 - 00;27;42;08
Kirk Spahn
I didn't have a great purpose. When you got into the electrical engineering, you're like, oh, my grades were much better because you saw a pathway and you realize that you could do something with this, but you needed this fundamental knowledge first, right?

00;27;42;11 - 00;27;47;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah. And and I mean, I just,

00;27;47;03 - 00;27;54;25
Craig Andrews
you know, when I was in high school, I just, I, I was bored and and poorly inspired. And so I,

00;27;54;27 - 00;27;57;17
Kirk Spahn
Had been at one of our Dare to Dream conferences. You never know.

00;27;57;19 - 00;28;14;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, it's but, you know, it worked out. The six years I spent in the Marines were amazing. And I'm. I'm thankful for what the Marines did to shape who I am today. And coming back to my recovery.

00;28;14;22 - 00;28;20;13
Craig Andrews
I may, you know, if it weren't for the Marines, maybe I wouldn't have recovered the way I did from Covid.

00;28;20;13 - 00;28;21;17
Craig Andrews
And,

00;28;21;17 - 00;28;24;19
Craig Andrews
I'd be a weak shell of myself.

00;28;24;21 - 00;28;43;28
Kirk Spahn
Totally. I mean, that's and that's that's how life goes, right? And then now you're sharing your message with your audience and it's it's similar. Right? It's it is resilience. And it must be difficult. You see other people that have your same situation to not recover. And it's like you kind of have that choice, you know, to, to to put the work in and do it.

00;28;44;00 - 00;29;12;24
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So, so this is really fascinating. I, I didn't realize something like ICL Academy existed. I, you know, I just assumed all these elite athletes had like private tutors. You know, there were following them around. And so like the first thought that would come to my head is this must be horribly expensive, even though it's not elite tutors, this must horribly expensive.

00;29;12;26 - 00;29;17;17
Kirk Spahn
We're so lucky. The nonprofit that I, that I co-founded,

00;29;17;17 - 00;29;37;18
Kirk Spahn
over 20 years ago, the Institute for Civic Leadership Foundation had been really the bedrock of that. And and there was always a passion to galvanize people, to help the youth, basically cut the cut to the chase, reach their full potential. Right. You want to see next generation and have a have a positive impact.

00;29;37;18 - 00;29;43;13
Kirk Spahn
They reach their potential and they realize that actually service to others is even more important,

00;29;43;13 - 00;30;10;11
Kirk Spahn
and more fulfilling than than to themselves. But really, I'm fortunate enough to have seen my grandfather father building schools and what goes into it? Soup to nuts. And I was also right place. Right time. My first job out of college were in the internet in the 90s, and I got to see, wait, this whole I saw the early stages.

00;30;10;14 - 00;30;18;07
Kirk Spahn
You know, instant messaging, a video. And I always knew I said, wow, if video, this could change the game.

00;30;18;07 - 00;30;40;28
Kirk Spahn
I saw the impact of doing conferences for 1200 students, like everyone they could pack into, you know, a small facility. And I saw what what inspire what, what inspiration could happen when we had white class and Mayor Bloomberg and Malcolm Gladwell telling stories in the New York Giants talking about things, and these kids just getting so excited.

00;30;40;28 - 00;31;13;28
Kirk Spahn
But I'm you're impacting a thousand at a time. This whole video saying, what could we do? And being early and internet, it's, you know, prices were high and everything is timing. Right. So cost and and we've seen it. You've been in the tech business and marketing costs start really big. And over time they get they get smaller. So the ability to deliver this personalized education, which again Steve Jobs talked about right before he passed away, I think it was one of his final interviews ever.

00;31;14;00 - 00;31;35;01
Kirk Spahn
The question was asked, Steve, what are you going to focus on next? Right. You got iPad and music. Said two things television. I want to read you television, but the biggest one is education. I think that the internet use properly can create a more customized and personalized education experience for all youth, and I want to focus on that.

00;31;35;04 - 00;32;01;18
Kirk Spahn
And he passed away. But those those words rang true. And I never saw myself as sort of a pioneer, because I always assume kind of you did like, hey, this is already happen. And the more research I did, I realized that they didn't. And most of the elite sports academies didn't integrate. They treated the athlete and the coaching and the training here and then all the way over here.

00;32;01;18 - 00;32;22;26
Kirk Spahn
Oh, by the way, you have to check the box. You need a get you got to get an education. Their mission statement said they care about education and training, but they were more about well, how do we produce this kid into the athlete? Not understanding that the greatest athletes are so intelligent. They're so inquisitive. I mean, Bodie Miller, every time I go, it's reading books and trying to gain more knowledge.

00;32;22;26 - 00;32;49;03
Kirk Spahn
Novak Djokovic, the greatest, are just constantly seeking knowledge in so many different subjects and fields and so I said, well, this is crazy. Like, why it should be together. But it took about 25 years and cost to come down. And we can actually offer, you know, the difference, I always say, between a public and a private school education really just comes down to personalization, right?

00;32;49;03 - 00;33;07;27
Kirk Spahn
You can be a big public school. Sometimes you become a number. And the the concept is if you're a private school, it's smaller. You get more personal attention to who you are. So it's person first. The internet, we can actually make it person first. And so we always try to put the person, the student, what are their likes.

00;33;07;27 - 00;33;30;10
Kirk Spahn
Like we have to cater to them. It's not that old. You have to be a x, y, z schoolboy. You know, you have to fit into this mold. Now will fit into yours. Like what are your interests, what excites you, you know and we can actually now using AI, the internet, great teachers we can adapt math science to kids passion for tennis.

00;33;30;10 - 00;33;49;12
Kirk Spahn
So so tennis players can be, you know, getting ready for a big tournament. But their math class they'll be learning how to that angles they're cutting. You know they're working on cutting off angles in their training. But we're teaching that actually everything is a game. It's all math on the court. So it's exciting and the cost goes down exponentially.

00;33;49;12 - 00;33;59;25
Kirk Spahn
So we're able to deliver this, you know, private school education, integrate into your passion for less than half the cost of what a private school would normally go for.

00;33;59;27 - 00;34;06;23
Craig Andrews
Wow. And I think you said that 90% of your students are on scholarship.

00;34;06;26 - 00;34;29;01
Kirk Spahn
Yeah, we're very lucky because, you know, you never again. Running nonprofit is very tough and there's so many incredible ones. And it would be so hard to decide what you give to what you don't. So, you know, the foundation from day one has just been all the money that comes in goes to support these kids in their in their education, their training.

00;34;29;01 - 00;34;57;00
Kirk Spahn
Just help them fulfill their dreams because they are the people you want to hire, right? We talked about GE and stuff. I mean, we want to hire people that are dedicated, that, you know, athletes and have the intelligence, but it's really expensive. Sports are very expensive. And we don't have the foundations to really help support them. You know, the United States Tennis Association gives a very small percentage,

00;34;57;00 - 00;34;59;00
Kirk Spahn
of kids get get that funding.

00;34;59;00 - 00;35;06;23
Kirk Spahn
And so we want to be that we want to we want to sign kids that are, you know, daring to dream, have great character, have courage to risk.

00;35;06;23 - 00;35;12;08
Kirk Spahn
And they show their leadership through action. So we're very fortunate to have the foundation funding this.

00;35;12;10 - 00;35;14;24
Craig Andrews
Very cool. So as we wrap up,

00;35;14;24 - 00;35;20;06
Craig Andrews
who for people listening, how do they know that their kid or,

00;35;20;06 - 00;35;26;10
Craig Andrews
should be at a ICL Academy? What's the hallmark of the ICL Academy? Student.

00;35;26;12 - 00;35;27;11
Kirk Spahn
You know,

00;35;27;11 - 00;35;52;11
Kirk Spahn
I have a mantra that says respect, tradition, embrace tomorrow. I'm a huge believer in having a personalized relationship with your teacher. So we have all live teachers. I think it's about using technology to create efficiency, but it doesn't have to be the the kid that's a champion right now. In fact, some kids get into their sport of grow later and start getting good.

00;35;52;14 - 00;36;13;20
Kirk Spahn
But we live in a world of nil where we're so many kids are going home schooling so young because they're already at the top. And so and there is a huge advantage at the end of the day to come to a place like Excel. But most other home schools, they don't care about the person is the athlete. They're just racing to get there.

00;36;13;20 - 00;36;25;01
Kirk Spahn
They're sort of busy work done, so they get back on the court or back on the field. So I think a lot I mean, yes, we have we're fortunate to have the best tennis players, golfers, skiers.

00;36;25;01 - 00;36;36;02
Kirk Spahn
But if I were looking into it, it's my 13, 14 year old. It's like right on the cusp. You know, the old Michael Jordan of like, didn't make, you know, didn't make the varsity team.

00;36;36;04 - 00;36;55;12
Kirk Spahn
If he had an ICL and could have trained more, had the flexibility to get so much better. And these are the what I'm hearing from families is, oh, I wish I started earlier for my kid. Like, because there's always a hesitation with the concept of home school and I hate that word. I call ourselves a a family.

00;36;55;12 - 00;36;58;23
Kirk Spahn
We're a hybrid school where everyone knows each other.

00;36;58;23 - 00;37;15;10
Kirk Spahn
You get to meet great friends. You're not isolated. Because I think the perception of online learning is like, I'm in a dark room. Open my computer and just, you know, it's me and the and sort of filling out forms. And ICL is completely different. And we have a huge sense of community.

00;37;15;10 - 00;37;18;13
Kirk Spahn
So it is for those, those people that want to dedicate themselves.

00;37;18;13 - 00;37;40;00
Kirk Spahn
And traditional school is just not right for them. You know, from to go somewhere from 8 a.m. to 330 where you're not getting the full amount and sort of the data shown in the each day you're getting about two, 2.5 hours of real learning in that. So we can we can create more efficiency with ICL on your own time and

00;37;40;00 - 00;37;44;11
Kirk Spahn
it's been working wonders for a lot of these top athletes and performers.

00;37;44;13 - 00;37;48;26
Craig Andrews
Well, excellent. Well, how can people reach you?

00;37;48;28 - 00;37;49;16
Kirk Spahn
We have

00;37;49;16 - 00;37;56;26
Kirk Spahn
ICL Academy is our website is dot ICL academy.org.

00;37;56;26 - 00;38;00;07
Kirk Spahn
And to learn more about the foundation that started it all and it's there

00;38;00;07 - 00;38;01;22
Kirk Spahn
if you want to support the foundation it's

00;38;01;22 - 00;38;16;02
Kirk Spahn
the ICL foundation.org all spelled out. So yeah, any families that have young performers, athletes and interested in this and sort of juggling that home school question, we are we're one of one

00;38;16;02 - 00;38;20;06
Kirk Spahn
unlike you, I would have thought that there would have been a lot more and things like this, but,

00;38;20;06 - 00;38;24;05
Kirk Spahn
there really we're we're the only one doing this.

00;38;24;08 - 00;38;27;15
Craig Andrews
All right. Well, Kirk, thanks for coming on, leaders and legacies.

00;38;27;15 - 00;38;32;22
Kirk Spahn
I appreciate it. Thanks for being a champion mentor for us.

00;38;32;22 - 00;38;59;16
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;38;59;16 - 00;39;01;13
Craig Andrews
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00;39;01;15 - 00;39;24;25
Craig Andrews
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00;39;24;27 - 00;39;33;02
Craig Andrews
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00;39;33;02 - 00;41;35;05
Craig Andrews
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