We are so excited for you to meet Max Smith. In this episode, you will be inspired by Max’s entrepreneurial life and impact on his family and community!
Max Smith, hailing from Eagan, Minnesota, is a dynamic entrepreneur with a rich background in both business and philanthropy. A graduate of Eastview High School and Concordia College, Max grew up in an entrepreneurial family, deeply influenced by his late mother, Jennifer Smith, who founded Innovative Office Solutions in 2001 and grew it into a $180 million company before her passing in 2022.
While in college, Max founded the InSports Foundation with the vision of helping more kids participate in sports. Today, the foundation has impacted over 60,000 children through free camps, scholarships, and team sponsorships. Max has dedicated over 15 years to Innovative Office Solutions, focusing primarily on sales and business development.
Recently, Max launched a new venture, IN SPORTS LLC, which features a podcast that interviews college and professional athletes, uncovering valuable life lessons to help people become the best versions of themselves. IN SPORTS LLC also has a real estate division that invests in and operates sports facilities.
Max’s wife, Bridget, is heavily involved in the InSports Foundation, IN SPORTS LLC, and Innovative Office Solutions. Together, they have three children, Braxton, Stella, and Briggs, and enjoy keeping their kids active on the golf course, hockey rink, and various other sports fields and courts.
Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-smith-2b29a241/
Athletes IN Sports Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/athletesinsports/
InSports Foundation: https://www.instagram.com/insportsfnd/
Mr. InSports: https://www.instagram.com/mr.insports/
Transcript
John Simon 0:06
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 0:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon 0:16
Our guest today is max Smith. Max is founder of the in sports foundation and in sports LLC. Max, welcome to our podcast.
Max Smith 0:26
Hello. Well, thank you for having me, John and Dina
John Simon 0:28
Max why don't you take a minute or so and tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your family? Yeah. So
Max Smith 0:34
my name is Max Smith. I grew up in Eagan Minnesota. Still live in Eagan Minnesota, so haven't gone too far. But have I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Both of my parents have ran and owned businesses separately and together, and so that's been just a really fun way for me and my sister to grow up and see a little bit different ways of living and what work looks like, and that's really inspired me to get into a bunch of different types of businesses, which I'm sure we'll get into as the podcast goes on. But I've got three amazing kids, a beautiful wife that I work with as well, both in our for profit and nonprofit entity, and we spend a lot of time chasing our six four and one year old around with all the activities that they're in?
Dina Simon 1:22
Yeah, they're busy kids, yes,
John Simon 1:24
yes, yeah, based on the information that Dina said to me, it sounds like they're pretty active in sports, also
Max Smith 1:31
Very Yeah. So my my oldest son, Braxton. He's six now, and he plays football, hockey, golf. He wants to play basketball, he plays baseball, but there's a few sports he wants to get into. And we're like, okay, we and we're all about trying a bunch of different sports and so, but there's also a time where, okay, we need to be able to have some weekend where we're we can spend as a family and and so our daughter is a little less competitive when it comes to, like the team sports. So she's done gymnastics, she's done skating lessons. She's in dance right now, and she kind of sticks to one activity at a time. But our oldest son is just go, go, go with, with everything.
Dina Simon 2:14
He also is huge into so I've seen lots of the like, little videos and stuff. And he actually is a really good golf player, right? Like, he's, yeah, he's a good golfer.
Max Smith 2:24
Yes, good golfer. He, you know, I haven't really taught him anything. He's just since he was two years old. He, you know, picked up a knee hockey stick, picked up little golf clubs, and he just had the that motion down, which is, it's a hard thing to teach but, but sometimes kids just get it and yeah, he just needs to work on his his temper a little bit. He can get very frustrated, very, very competitive.
Dina Simon 2:48
So does he predict who's going to win the football games? Or he recites at the end who won him? Because he's really good with stats.
Max Smith 2:55
Yes. So we were at the Vikings game yesterday. They played Houston. I don't know when this will air, but they were playing Houston, and he guessed that the Vikings were gonna score 34 points, and they scored 34 points. He thought Houston was gonna score 21 and they only scored, I think, seven. But we do a football board in our neighborhood where we pick every winner of every team each week, and we do it together, and we won this week. There's two Monday night games tonight, and we already won, and he did all the picks. Oh
Dina Simon 3:24
my gosh, that's awesome.
John Simon 3:26
It's, it sounds like he does a lot of studying on it, too. I mean, you just don't make a red to pick. He probably knows a little bit about statistics.
Max Smith 3:35
Yeah, he is glued to football on on Sundays, and he watches a lot of like YouTube videos. It's a lot of like the people who do the video games on YouTube with Madden, NFL, and I wasn't a big video game person, but he, and he doesn't play video games, but he watches, and they talk about all the players and what, what teams are good. And he just, he's a numbers guy, so he always wants to know what the score is, what the odds are of the game, and yeah, it's pretty, pretty fun to watch.
Dina Simon 4:05
Yeah, okay, well, your dad's a numbers guy. So do they sit and talk about this like, Is your dad that way at all?
Max Smith 4:10
Yes, he he's a CPA, he's he's our he does all of our law work. He does all he does my personal taxes, and my wife and a lot of our family, and she definitely will call Braxton and ask about, you know, how many points do you think this team's gonna win by? And they talk about fantasy football the numbers. So I think he get, he definitely gets that from, from my dad first.
Dina Simon 4:33
I love it. So the baby just turned one. Yes, Briggs is our youngest. Yes, um, do you want to chat at all about Briggs and what you went through this first year of his life?
Max Smith 4:44
Yes, yeah. I mean, it was crazy, because I'm sure we'll get into this too. But my, you know, my mother passed away a December 2022, and at the time, we just had Braxton and Stella, and when I got home, I was. In California, I was was with my mom when she passed away in at the City of Hope hospital bill in LA my sister and my dad were there, and we spent about a week out there just to kind of unwind and, yeah, just trying a little bit of time together and process. And the day I got back from LA Bridget told me that we were pregnant with our third kid. It was kind of just this weird cycle of my mom passes away, and now we're going to have a new baby. And there's still times where I'm just sitting with Briggs and I'm looking him in the eye, and I just see my mom and feel my mom's presence. And I know there's some there's some connection there absolutely so Briggs was born. He was very, a very healthy baby. He was born on time, normal weight, normal hospital stay for the most part. You know, every, every, all the signs were pretty normal. And about maybe when he was four or five months old, he kind of started to be very lethargic, and he wasn't wanting to move around a lot. TMI, but he was having trouble going to number two to the and it just didn't seem like, like something just seemed off. And we hadn't experienced that with our other kids. And I think we went to the to his pediatrician four times, like, what you know, what's going on. And so he, we started having him drink a lot of juice to try to pass bowel movement. And we, you know, we, but he just still didn't seem, seem right. And going back a little bit, our daughter, Stella, when she was two years old, she woke up Christmas morning and and was unconscious, and it was due to low blood sugar. And so she she's been to the hospital probably four times from it's called ketotic hypoglycemia. So blood sugar are very low levels. And it was something that that, you know, the doctor's like, you know, by the time she's four or five, and she's eating regularly, and she can tell you when she's hungry, she'll probably grow out of this. There's nothing chronic going on here, but we spent a year of her life checking blood sugars every day, making sure she eats enough at night and and so we were kind of used to that blood sugar, checking blood sugars. And my dad's a type one diabetic. So fast forward, Briggs is about six months old. It's, it's just this 2024, in March. Yeah, and I was at hockey practice with Braxton coaching him, and usually Bridget and Briggs and Stella would come to hockey practice. You know, after we we'd go early and get ready and go out there, and then I'd see them there, and this practice, they didn't come. And so I thought that was a little weird as an early morning. But I get home and Bridget's holding Briggs and something, he just did not seem right. And he his face just went completely pale, and he was almost having these little tremors. And so we brought him outside to try to get him some fresh air and and then we tried to give him some juice. And then we checked his his blood sugar, and it was, it wasn't severely low. It was, it was in the 50s, but he had just ate and just had juice. So it was like that that seems a little low. And for those who don't know about blood sugars? You know, typically you're between 70 and 100 is is a normal range. If you're a diabetic, you're pro you might trend a little bit higher and depending on how old you are, but anything under 50 is a Hypo glycemic state where you can start to have brain brain issues, brain damage, from being that low. So he was at 50, but he had just eight, and so it just, it seemed that, and he was, he was acting, going in and out of consciousness. So we called 911, really having a flashback to Stella, when she woke up. Actually, I said, I think, I said she was two, but I think she was, she was she was one when, when that happened the first time, one or two, it's so hard to remember.
the the paramedics came. They checked his blood sugar again with their device. And what was really crazy, when our when our daughter had it, the blood sugar was the last thing that they checked. They checked oxygen level, Heart heart rate like everything. When blood sugar was last and she had a she had a blood sugar of 26 Wow. When, when we took her to the hospital the first time, so when the paramedics got to our house with Briggs, he was at like, 36 and then I rechecked on our device. And luckily, we had a device like most people don't have a glucometer. It's not a common first aid or a thing that you have, and it's one of the things that Bridget and I think every family should have and know how to use if somebody is not acting right, because unfortunately, a lot of kids die of SIDS that have what, what Briggs has, which is called hyperinsulinism. Uh, but so, so he's got a low blood sugar. He immediately goes to the ambulance. We go to Children's Hospital in Saint Paul, and we think it's the same thing that Stella has, like, Hey, he's just low. He may be sick. He's fighting something off because that. But that's what Stella had. It was just a she got sick and her body didn't have enough storage to get her blood sugar to the right level. And with Briggs, they would they so they gave him an IV. They they started pumping, you know, sugar D 10, sugar water, into his system, and his blood sugar would spike and go down, and just kept going up and down. And so they ran a test they they were thinking, you know, that this could be something different than what, what his sister had, and they diagnosed him with with hyperinsulinism, and kind of how we explain it to people. It's probably not the scientific way, but it's kind of the opposite of diabetes. So a diabetic doesn't have their pancreas, can't produce insulin, and depending if it's type one or type two, they might be cured. If it's type one, you can't but for hyperinsulinism, your pancreas produces too much insulin, and there's nothing there to stop, because usually when you when you eat, your blood sugar goes up produce insulin, and the blood sugar goes back down. And with kids or adults that that get hyperinsulinism, your pancreas just keeps producing insulin and nothing stopping it. And so we were in the hospital. We were at Children's Hospital for 24 nights, 24 nights, and having two, you know, other children, yes, at home, it was six and three at that time, and thank I mean, my sister and her husband, Mark, stayed at our house for pretty much that whole, whole time frame. They became mom and dad for for them, and we were able to focus on Briggs and in the hospital. And we had so much support and so much help from people. It was, it was overwhelming, just the amount of prayers and and support and it just, it took a long time to figure out what he needed to be able to go home. And so we ended up, he's on a medication. It's called diazoxide. He takes it three times a day, and it helps with keeping his insulin levels intact. But the downside of that medication is it makes you not it's appetite suppressing, so it makes you not want to eat, and he needs to eat to keep his blood sugar up. So it's kind of this, like it's working on one side, but then the other side, it's a hindrance. So we decided to have a feeding tube placed in his stomach that because, at the time in the hospital, he wasn't eating, so we were doing all of this feeds through his his feeding tube. So I mean, when we got home, we were up for probably two months. We were feeding him throughout the night, just continuous feeds. So there was not a lot of sleep happening in our in our house, and one day he just snapped, and he just started eating and and the beach therapists who kind of deal with with infants, with with eating, were like, they might just retrain themselves to know when they're hungry, and that and that happened. So we just had such good nurses, so many good doctors that we worked with, and we're just so thankful that we were close to a hospital that added and the endocrinology I mean, we're we go to endocrinology chronologist often now with with him, and he's a little bit behind developmentally now, because there's about three months of his life where he Just wasn't wanting to move wasn't wanting to do thing, normal things that a five, six month year old does. So now we're just working to getting him strong again. So, and he just turned one in August, and he's the happiest little kid. He's so happy and joyful. So we're very blessed. But he does have, yeah, I'm not gonna say a long road ahead.
Dina Simon 14:00
It's a, just a different road.
Max Smith 14:03
he's gonna have to, you know, in our family, we'll have to just work with him on to make sure he's got his blood sugar under control, and then he just keeps getting stronger and stronger. But, I mean, my wife is, has she's been working from home, and have she's been caring for him? And I, I don't know how she does it, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 14:24
Oh, my goodness. Well, God bless Briggs, because he does have the, he just is the smile. It's just so fun to see pictures. And he will want to keep up with Stella and Braxton, so he'll, yeah, he'll catch up.
Max Smith 14:36
Yep, we can already see, yeah, see it. He loves, loves just being around them. And it's so fun to see like your your older kids interacting with like the baby. It that because you don't see that with your firstborn. So it's, it's been, it's been a lot of fun.
Dina Simon 14:51
Yeah, absolutely.
John Simon 14:53
So back when you were in college at Concordia College, you decided to start a foundation. The in Sports Foundation, young college students aren't thinking of putting together Foundation. And I know you said you come from an entrepreneurial background. Your parents, what made you want to jump into that while you were in college? Yeah,
Max Smith 15:15
so it probably goes back to high school a little bit. And even my just my upbringing in youth sports. Sports were a very important part of my parents lives. Growing up, they learned a lot of life lessons from playing sports. Met a lot of great people. There's just something that you get from being on a sports team that you can't get in a lot of other scenarios. And there's a lot of physical and mental health benefits just from being being a part of a sports team. And so, you know, for me, I was very fortunate, and I the two sports that I love are hockey and golf, which are probably two of the most expensive sports when it comes to equipment and paying for ice time, paying for green fees on the golf course. And so, but my parents knew that that was important to me, and they did whatever they could to make that happen, all while taking huge risks on the business side, with start, starting new businesses, and some some months not being able to make payroll, but still putting a huge emphasis on myself and my sister to be in the things that we're passionate about. And so when I got to high school, our our high school team, decided to start volunteering at domestic violence shelter where we would go. And I think it was around the holiday times we'd bring gifts for for the kids who are at this, this violent domestic violence shelter. And I think we were all just taken back because there were like, there's no way that these kids have anywhere near the same opportunity that that we did growing up, being able to be fortunate enough to play a sport like hockey, where it's expensive and it's a huge time commitment, and now you've got these kids, and there's a lot of different scenarios, whether It's a homeless shelter, just a low, low income household, maybe the maybe the parents have enough money, but they don't have that as an importance. When they're not, they're not investing time and resources into their their kids development. So that was kind of the light bulb moment where it was like, there's just, there's, there's a huge gap here. Some of these kids who are who don't have the opportunity, could be the next superstar athlete, or they could just learn these great life lessons that my friends and I did from playing sports, but but they just didn't. They were not set up the same way for those opportunities. So then I graduated from EastView High School in Apple Valley, decided to go play junior hockey out in Washington, DC. And my mom was like, Okay, I know you don't have to go to school when you play juniors, but you are, you are taking a class. And I'm like, Well, I'm gonna I found a community college in in the in Maryland, and took an entrepreneurship class. And the whole basis of the class was to create a business plan and then pitch it to mock investors, and if the investor said, said they would invest, then, like you passed the class, and it was a very social entrepreneurship focused class. So we watched, like a documentary on Tom's shoes to kick it off just about, you know, buy a shoe, give, give a shoe. And so that was a huge inspiration. So my original idea in this class was to start a golf clothing company and then use those proceeds to teach kids how to play golf and give them lessons and really focus on those domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, just kids that would never get the opportunity to play golf. And so at the end of the class, they voted on the best idea these mock investors, and that idea was was the best one. And so it that kind of kicked off my like just thoughts on creating business plans and starting something from nothing, and all the different things that go go into that and things that I've seen my parents just just do while I was while I was growing up. And so after playing a year juniors, I had always worked at innovative office solutions, the company that my mom started in summer. So I I did marketing, I helped with installations of furniture. I helped with sales. I kind of got a variety of a lot of different things, but giving back was always ingrained in my mom's entrepreneurial spirit, and however she could make a difference in the community, even if she had no money to do so, she would, she would spend her time, but, but getting back to the communities that she was doing business in was a huge part of of her and that I that was one of the best things that I learned from the business side. Like, if you have the opportunity to build something, you got to give back, because it's that that's really what, what makes everything go around. And so she was. Starting these really cool sports partnerships with the Minnesota Wild and the twins and the Vikings where she would they were customers of ours. We were customers of theirs, but we we spent our sponsorship dollars to a community program to make a benefit to different nonprofits, which I think Simon says, Give heads received. I'm not. I don't remember which one, which one we were
Dina Simon 20:25
part of the Wild. The wild, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was super fun. And
Max Smith 20:30
yeah. So that was one of our first sports partnerships. Was with the Minnesota Wild when they were signing that deal, the wild rep. Rep saw that a picture in my mom's office of me playing hockey, and he's like, and get your son to skate the flag on a wild game. And she's like, done, I'll do I'll do the deal. So, but I was little at that time, yeah, yeah. We had kind of always just seen that, that that sports connection and giving back, and so that was always in my head, too. So when I decided to go to Concordia College up in Moorhead, I played on the hockey and golf team up there, and met who's now our executive director of the in Sports Foundation. He was on my hockey team. His name's Andrew deters. Also met my wife up up at Concordia, and she's a big part of of the in sports foundation. And how we started as well, and I just start, I'm a big idea person, and I just fired these ideas off to right now, it's a lot of my sister, my wife, and Andrew and I was doing the same thing in college. So, you know, I was talking to Andrew and like, I, you know, I really want to start a nonprofit, I really think there'd be a huge benefit, especially in that Fargo Moorhead community, of getting more kids access to sports. And so we started just putting on free camps on campus, and we got kids from other teams at Concordia to be a part of it, and we would invite kids from the Indian reservations, Boys and Girls Club onto Concordia College campus, and we would do these multi sport clinics for kids, and we did a hockey focused one too, but we had a great platform in college. So as a college student, we use all of our resources that we were able to to have. We also had an apparel company on campus. So through innovative we started our own company called the in sports apparel. And we would do apparel fundraisers with all of the different sports teams. But they got a it was a fundraiser for them. So they got some money back, and then we put money in into starting the in sports foundation through that. So it was like we had, we had this nonprofit going. We're helping, you know, doing, doing free sports camps for kids and and we were selling apparel at the same time. So I think in in college, I think I had about eight to 10 people that got paid internships under, yeah, it was like their signer. I'm like, a sophomore in college, and I'm signing off on internship credits for kids, but it was just, it was a great experience, and it was a Concordia College up in more it was a great place to be able to try a lot of different things. And we're still very involved in the college up there. I'm going up there on Wednesday.
Dina Simon 23:15
Well that's great. That's wonderful.
John Simon 23:16
The interesting thing is that they were willing to reach out and help support it.
Max Smith 23:22
yes, yes, they've been huge supporters. The last year we we did a another fundraiser with them. If you're familiar with the the brand unreal, they do a lot of the Viking hoodie drops that are kind of exclusive. And so we did that, we kind of replicated that, and did that for Concordia, and we've been able to use that money raised from there to get kids from local elementary schools back onto campus, meet the different athletes at Concordia and do do some sports programming there. So we're kind of continuing to what we left off maybe 10, years ago, where we're kind of picking it back up right now.
Dina Simon 24:02
Max, I think that you and there was somebody else that was working with you at the time, and I think you were on like WCCO or something, and with our with our relationship early on, with WCCO, and I connected with you because I knew that you'd be such a great resource for Mandi, who was quite a bit younger than you at the time, but just to us, starting out with Simon says, Give so always been just so impressed. We are huge entrepreneurial spirit and just giving back also to the community and everything that you've done so the amazing things that you've done through the foundation, but like 60, over 60,000 children have been supported through your programming. That's huge.
Max Smith 24:44
And it hits really taken a focus since we were in college, like, we really refined, like, what our programs are what and we work with a lot of school districts in the Twin Cities and Sioux Falls now as well, and have a great scholarship program for for families who. Are in need of funding if they need to be able to get their kids registered for a season or a camp, and some of them qualify for a free and reduced lunch program. But sometimes it's just a there's a medical hardship, a death in the family, something that's hindering them from being able to commit financially. And so we take into account all of those different things, and then we have some great partnerships with different sports clubs, associations and other nonprofits, and we try to help them reduce their their fees and their barriers to getting kids playing. But I do remember when I, you know, I was a college student, and we're doing, you know, trying to set up this nonprofit, and then meeting you and Mandy, and I'm like, she, I think she was 11 or 12, years old at the time.
Dina Simon 25:48
Yeah, probably even younger, but yeah, yeah,
Max Smith 25:51
yeah, probably young, yeah. And just, just very impressed with everything that you guys do, on, on Simon says, Give as well.
Dina Simon 25:57
Yeah, we've been able to partner in a couple ways. So one of the fun things, too, just to share with you, is that buy one, get one. We thought of that as well. So buy a backpack, donate a backpack. And we actually talked to your mom a little bit about that back in the day. So we definitely want to talk about your mom. But let's stay on this for a second. So the in sports now, LLC, yep, and your podcast, yep, and in your bio, I didn't even know about this part, but there's a real estate division. So can you tell us just a little bit about what you've got going on there? Yeah.
Max Smith 26:28
So we're, we're, you know, working on, you know, just different ways to generate revenue. But a lot of that profit will go back into into the in Sports Foundation, and there's only so much, you know, we can do. We've got so many things going on at innovative and so many different categories, but then there's some sports specific things that we want to do. So we decided to create a for profit version of in sports. We're still working on what that really looks like. You mentioned real estate. So we've got some opportunities to develop and also manage some different sports facilities, and then have our foundation run programming, you know, free or really reduced cost, sports programming in some of those facilities, as well as open it up to different associations, so that that's that's in the work, and can't really share where we're we're looking at yet, but hopefully next year, if we chat again, we'll have a better idea on where, where that that kind of lies. And then the podcast. So athletes and sports podcast, we launched that this June. We shot our first episode back in December. But we want, we kind of wanted, to have a few episodes lined up so we could, we could release them, instead of just having a kind of a waiting period, and that that's really sparked us to have some different ideas of potentially creating some some books and some other resources for athletes, whether it's athletes, parents, coaches, whether it's us going out and speaking at, you know, schools or teams. So we are also kind of in development of what, what that kind of looks like, but ultimately, any revenue profits that we have for that a percentage will go back to our foundation to put on more free camps, more scholarships and really helping more kids play sports so very, very infinite stages, but it's been a lot of fun to navigate, navigate that as well.
Dina Simon 28:27
That's brilliant. And John on their first podcast, was it $1,000 that the person was gifted to back to her sport.
Max Smith 28:35
Yes, we were with a couple of the athletes we've done. Done a surprise. We call it play it forward, where we've donated $1,000 and then we tack on whatever their number is. So we've had like $1,044 for Josh Metellus, but then we'll partner with with those athletes on finding ways to give back, to get more kids in sports that fit, fit our our mission. So those are also stories that are in development of how we're how we're gonna do that and impact the community with with these athletes,
John Simon 29:05
excellent.
Dina Simon 29:06
Yeah, it's just so inspiring. It's so fun to hear you talk. So talk for a second, because you do have a day job at innovative as well. Yes, so you're at innovative bridges and innovative your sisters at innovative Mark's innovative. So how is the second generation in the big business? How are you guys? How is that going?
Max Smith 29:26
It's, it's been good. I will say it's, it's really tough not having my mom here. I mean, she was the vision. She was our fearless leader and and it I but I feel like I'm sitting this is her office. I'm sitting in her office right now.
I recognize that
It's now my dad's office, and he stepped into the the CEO role. But there's, there's still things, you know, every day we're like, well, what would, what would Jenn do? What? What would, what would she do here? And it's, it has been fun to, you know, read some. Things. I just listened to some few podcasts that she was on that at the time, I didn't really listen, because I'm like, I talked to my mom all the time. But I've been uncovering some things, and it's been really fun to find just different video clips and different things that that she did. But it's, it's been good. We've been we've been growing as a company. And for those of you that don't know, innovative is, it's a B to B Company. And, you know, we started in office supplies, but we do a lot more than that now. So furniture is a huge category for us, cleaning and facility supplies, printing and promotional products, AV technology, and then we're, we're just launching a new category of industrial supplies. So I think anything you could find at a hardware store, we're going to have on our website. So for people that are managing facilities and buildings, we'll have the tools and hardware to do that. So there's always an acquisition going on, always a new category, just continuing, continually evolving. And it's fun, because we all our family kind of all works in different areas, but we, we all work together, and in sports is a big part of of our innovative family too. So really, I never think of like, okay, I've got to do in sports time now, innovative time. It all kind of goes together. Yeah, if we can do a fundraising event and invite customers, awesome vendors like it all, it all kind of meshes together, and that's what's really fun. It doesn't feel like I'm I'm hopping around doing things, and like everything that I'm doing is, is it? It's building on top of each other, and it's just expanding our footprint and allowing us to get into more communities and and help these different nonprofits that's fantastic partners in schools.
Dina Simon 31:49
So how many? Just to show size, how many employees? Is that innovative? Now we have about 300 Yeah, crazy. So, I mean, I know the first like 20 of you, right? Like it's just how it's continued to to evolve. So just John a couple things too, and I may have shared this, but how we've partnered through the years. It we've partnered in a lot of ways, but one of the just crazy ways too, is Tony and his delivery guys in helping us get things to and from locations we don't have a warehouse. So the opportunity there, as you said, so like the US Bank Stadium opening, we were a part of, and that was from connections with you guys, as well as the wild that was super fun. And then over the years, like our legacy awards, we've partnered with the with pearly on all the beautiful awards that we've given out, some of your team members have received our legacy awards for partnership in all these different areas. And then this last year, you know, we always had such great purchase power when we would go purchase our supplies, for our backpacks, for Simon Says, give. And your mom always tried to match those prices, and she's like, I just can't do it. Like, however you're getting this done. And so this year, Pearlie and Carla and team were able to do it and do it so well. So we're so excited that we figured it out, because we just will continue every year, you know, to put that purchase power back in your mom's honor, but also keeping it in Minnesota, which is awesome, definitely. Yeah, so I'd love for you, you know, just to share a little bit about your mom and that legacy you have throughout the podcast. But, you know, I was a raving fan, and I still say, What would Jen do like if I was to call her right now? What would the advice be that I would, you know, get from her, so that's definitely out there for so many people. And I think you know that, like, just the huge imprint that she had on so many lives,
Max Smith 33:50
yeah, well, like, for her, relationships matter was the her, she calls it her guiding principle. Like she, she just took the time to build relationships and make meaningful relationships, and she focused on customers, vendors and also employees. And she never put one of those things above any of the other. They were all part of the overall picture and and without all three of those customers, vendors, employees, you couldn't run a successful business. So she was just so strong at building those relationships, and it's something that that I strive to do as she she did it better. I don't know if anybody can do it better than she did, but she was also just huge into culture, and having an intentional culture, not just an organic culture, but, but also having employees have buy into what that culture means. So some of our original 20 employees that that really help develop that those, those you know, core values, are still living and innovative and and it does change, you know, they're there, and it's okay to change. And have you know, as as we've. Now have, I think, 13 physical locations, so we're not all in the same building either, and sometimes not everybody's in the office, whether they're out and about or working from home. And so it that that culture changes a little bit, and that's okay, but I feel like the core of it is is still there in that relationship pieces is a really big part of it. She was also always learning and always taking risks. And every time I heard her speak, she had this thing called rol so and she would always ask people, What does rol mean? And nobody would really get it, and it's return on luck. And what her meaning on that was, is like, the more opportunities you say yes to and the more things you try, and the more things you do, you're gonna get lucky at some point, or it's gonna look like luck to others, but you really just did enough things to make it happen. And I think a lot of people are okay with being stagnant and just staying, you know, at budget and being being good with that, but she was just always willing to do the extra step stretch out of her comfort zone. And I think that's what really made her a great leader and just an awesome person to to work for,
John Simon 36:15
well. And it sounds like she was a risk taker also, yes,
Max Smith 36:18
yeah, she took a lot of risks, and I don't think failure was in her vocabulary. I think if, if it didn't, if the outcome didn't turn out the way that she wanted, she looked at it as just, well, that didn't work the way I thought it would work, but maybe, maybe this other way is going to work better. And so just that term failure just never occurred to her. She was just always willing to to take the risk and and sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't, but she was always learned from from that risk, no matter what the outcome when
John Simon 36:52
you're doing that, the failure, you learn from that also,
Max Smith 36:55
yes, that that's another great thing that I learned from her is, is it, it's okay to fail and come up short. And if you're dreaming big and you've got big goals, you probably are going to come up short and but that's going to feel better than having just an achievement, achievable goal, that that's easy to reach, and you might fall short to that. So would you rather fall short to a big dream, a big goal or a small one. And she always had the big goal,
Dina Simon 37:25
yeah, yeah. And John, when you're in town, next time, it would be fun to take you to their headquarters down in Burnsville. But one of the things I love that you guys, do you do a culture book every year?
Max Smith 37:35
Yes, yeah. My mom learned that from Zappos. Zappos does something similar, and it really started out as an employee piece, kind of like an employee here are the events that we did, here are the nonprofits we were involved with, and here's some different quotes throughout the year. And it really turned into a customer facing piece, because we would have it out at our in our office, and we love to get as many people in our office as possible, because it's kind of hard to talk about what we do, but we can, we can show it really well. When somebody comes into our office and we would sprinkle these culture books around, and, you know, somebody was waiting to meet with somebody, they'd just pick it up and start reading it and like, this is awesome. So we've got culture books, a culture wall. We've got it digitally and so that that that's a really fun piece that still stayed alive, and one of the really cool things, and I haven't even been able to get through it all, because it, it's it's a lot, and it can be tough to read sometimes. But our employees, after my mom passed away, gave each each person in our family. They didn't call it this, but it was essentially a culture book of my mom. Everybody shared stories about, you know, a funny story, a sensitive story, some way that my mom, you know, gave back. And it's a pretty special piece, but it's, it's in the same format as our culture book, so I love it. It almost feels like a Jennifer culture book, and,
Dina Simon 39:02
oh, I love that Max. And just also, for for your kids like to be able to sit down years from now to get to see her through that lens, that just blows me away. I love that,
Max Smith 39:14
yeah. And she love, oh my gosh, she loved Braxton and Stella so much. And would just play with Braxton and play, even when she was sick, going through chemo and radiation. And you know, she she battled cancer for for four years, three different types of cancer over a four year period, and ended up dying cancer free. She had leukemia twice, breast cancer once, but, but B leukemia, but the chemo and radiation just her body couldn't keep up her her organs and but she
Dina Simon 39:44
she was a fighter
Max Smith 39:45
little her little football. She loved the Vikings and football too. So they they would talk about football all the time and throw the football around. And so it's fun that my two oldest kids still have a pretty good match. Absolutely. Yeah.
Dina Simon 39:59
Absolutely and so just really quick, because I know we've gone long, but I want to ask a couple things so the City of Hope you are still very engaged in. And you and your dad were out. I saw that you got to play at Pebble Beach, which was very fun, yep, yes, very, very fun. And a beautiful time of year to be out there. And then you were just all at some beautiful gala this weekend, honoring your mother and you as a family. Were honored. I think your sister is engaged, so tell us just a quick minute about that.
Max Smith 40:27
Yeah. So that was the NMDP Gala. And so NMDP was formerly Be The Match, and yeah. So Be The Match had three different sections, and they were all called something different. So this year, they rebranded into NMDP, and so at their big gala, because they're based in Minneapolis, so their big gala, they have a couple of them, was, was just over the weekend here in at the depot in Minneapolis. And so our family was the honorary chair. So we all got to speak and tell them, tell my mom's story, and just the the benefits of being on the registry and giving to something like an MDP who's trying to help people match with with bone marrow donors, and something that my mom needed based on her her leukemia diagnosis and her brother was actually her her match. So she actually wasn't on the register. She didn't find her match from the registry, but if her brother wasn't, they had four other people from from the registry that were lined up. And then all of us and our family signed up, and then a lot of employees here at innovative sign up to be on the registry. So it's become a very near and dear to our heart nonprofit that that we've been supporting. And then City of Hope. To my mom, was at City of Hope for about two years. And you know, she, she had an amazing doctor there, Dr Marcucci. He's one of the leading leukemia doctors, and while my mom was in the hospital bed, she was able to raise a million dollars for his research. And based on the, I mean, I'm not a medical person, but based on the clinical trial that she was in the second time she had leukemia, they're just one step closer to having a treatment that that will kill that cancer without having to go through all the chemo and radiation that that she had to so that became, kind of became her purpose near the end, when I don't think, think she kind of, she never said this to us, but I think she knew that it was going to be really tough to beat it, and she just wanted to do whatever she could to help others that were going through the same thing that she was going through.
Dina Simon 42:33
So yeah, yes, because that's what Jen would do. Yes. Yes, exactly. Okay. One last thing I just wanted to share. And then if you have anything else, we'll wrap up. So Jen also Max has mentioned this love for the Vikings. So Jen was huge with the Vikings, including you guys, did all the furniture for the suites for the Vikings, correct? Yes,
Max Smith 42:55
yes, yeah. That was our biggest order transaction, whenever you want to call it ever it was a huge project and and a lot of challenges and new things that we learned, but it it's been a unbelievable showcase to like, be able to say, hey, we provided all the furniture at US Bank Stadium and work very closely with the Vikings on that. Yeah.
Dina Simon 43:17
So huge connection to the Vikings. They loved your mother so much that her funeral services were at the stadium on the stadium on the what do you call it? I'm not the right out right on the field. They
Max Smith 43:31
thank you the field. That's something over the turf, but it was right on the field. And it was the first funeral service that they had ever had at US Bank Stadium, and then when bud grant passed away, he was the second so that's
Dina Simon 43:45
how big it is. But so that's how big it is. I remember Bridget saying that when she talked to the Vikings people. She said, Well, I'm sure you do. Like, what's the protocol? And they're like, Bridget protocol, we've never done this before, like So John, that's how amazing Jennifer Smith was. It was the most beautiful. I mean, it's just so moving to be there in the stadium, and you all did such a beautiful job in that and continue to everything you just talked about. I just know she's beaming right now with everything that you and Bridget have gone through with the kids. And as you said, when you hold Briggs Absolutely, she's right there with you, with him, but just so proud of you and of knowing you, and it's just such an honor. Oh,
Max Smith 44:30
well, thank you. And I know every every Viking GM, I know she's there. She's helping, especially the first three wins we've had here.
John Simon 44:38
I know I've two of them been amazing start this year,
Max Smith 44:41
yes, yes. It's been, been a lot fun to watch. The last two years were very what, how do I want to say it dramatic,
John Simon 44:50
challenging, all
Max Smith 44:52
the close games and close calls, and we've had, had some, some nice, solid wins here. But I know Dean, I know my mom loved. You, and loved your passion and everything that you and your family do to give back. And I know you were very, very special to her. And if I can share this quick Dina, you know, when she passed away, you sent me a letter, and I think it was one of the most thoughtful things that anybody has ever, ever done. And you get a lot of texts and a lot of Facebook messages, but you took the time to send a letter, and you wrote a check to my sister. And I won't, I won't share the amount, but you just, you said, Do something with with this money that reminds you of your mom, whether it's buy a piece of clothing, go out to eat, whatever it is, and and my sister and I decided just with, with the spirit of our relationship, and with what my mom is so passionate about, was we created a fund for her called the purple pack. And so we, we use that money to buy some apparel with with the logo that we have all tattooed on our our wrist. It's a little purple heart that she drew. And we put it on some some hats, and sold those hats and and also collected donations in her honor. And so all of the money that we raised from the purple pack are going back to helping girls play sports, just because sports are so important to her, and if more girls can can play. And she was always about hiring. She loved hiring people that had an athletic background, but it was a lot more men than females. So being able to give back to girls specifically is what we decided to do with that money. So thank you. I don't know if I ever actually said thank you, because sometimes just overwhelming, but it was very special to us. So we really appreciate that
Dina Simon 46:40
I got my hats, and we should talk. Are you gonna do it again?
Max Smith 46:43
We are planning, planning on, on doing again. We don't know what the item is, but we'll do that over her, her birthday again, which is November 18.
Dina Simon 46:50
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Well, count me in love it. Thank
Max Smith 46:54
you. Yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 46:55
So thank you so much. It's been such an honor to have you on.
Max Smith 46:58
Thank you both. It's it. I hadn't been a guest on a podcast yet. I've had a bunch of guests on now, so it was, it's fun to be on the other side of it. Max
Dina Simon 47:09
Smith, this was so much fun having you on the podcast. Thank you so much. Max is the founder of in sports foundation and involved, as you heard, in a lot of different things, including innovative office solutions. And then the in sport LLC, which is the podcast and future real estate division, super excited to see what happens there. Max, you are an amazing husband, father, brother and son. It's so inspirational just to see what you are accomplishing and will continue to accomplish. You've been through so much, both you and Bridget and just your resiliency. And just like Jenn, I don't think failure is a word that you recognize. You're just going to keep pushing forward and keep moving on, and it's just super inspirational. So love you. Thank you for being on the podcast, and it would be fun to have you back on in a year or so and see what's happening. I will make sure that everybody knows how to get in touch with Max in the show notes and listen to their podcast that just launched this year, which is extraordinarily successful so far. And as always, I think my father in law, John Simon for CO hosting with me. Our podcast is produced by Simon and Associates and a proud member of the C suite radio you.
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 0:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon 0:16
Our guest today is max Smith. Max is founder of the in sports foundation and in sports LLC. Max, welcome to our podcast.
Max Smith 0:26
Hello. Well, thank you for having me, John and Dina
John Simon 0:28
Max why don't you take a minute or so and tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your family? Yeah. So
Max Smith 0:34
my name is Max Smith. I grew up in Eagan Minnesota. Still live in Eagan Minnesota, so haven't gone too far. But have I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Both of my parents have ran and owned businesses separately and together, and so that's been just a really fun way for me and my sister to grow up and see a little bit different ways of living and what work looks like, and that's really inspired me to get into a bunch of different types of businesses, which I'm sure we'll get into as the podcast goes on. But I've got three amazing kids, a beautiful wife that I work with as well, both in our for profit and nonprofit entity, and we spend a lot of time chasing our six four and one year old around with all the activities that they're in?
Dina Simon 1:22
Yeah, they're busy kids, yes,
John Simon 1:24
yes, yeah, based on the information that Dina said to me, it sounds like they're pretty active in sports, also
Max Smith 1:31
Very Yeah. So my my oldest son, Braxton. He's six now, and he plays football, hockey, golf. He wants to play basketball, he plays baseball, but there's a few sports he wants to get into. And we're like, okay, we and we're all about trying a bunch of different sports and so, but there's also a time where, okay, we need to be able to have some weekend where we're we can spend as a family and and so our daughter is a little less competitive when it comes to, like the team sports. So she's done gymnastics, she's done skating lessons. She's in dance right now, and she kind of sticks to one activity at a time. But our oldest son is just go, go, go with, with everything.
Dina Simon 2:14
He also is huge into so I've seen lots of the like, little videos and stuff. And he actually is a really good golf player, right? Like, he's, yeah, he's a good golfer.
Max Smith 2:24
Yes, good golfer. He, you know, I haven't really taught him anything. He's just since he was two years old. He, you know, picked up a knee hockey stick, picked up little golf clubs, and he just had the that motion down, which is, it's a hard thing to teach but, but sometimes kids just get it and yeah, he just needs to work on his his temper a little bit. He can get very frustrated, very, very competitive.
Dina Simon 2:48
So does he predict who's going to win the football games? Or he recites at the end who won him? Because he's really good with stats.
Max Smith 2:55
Yes. So we were at the Vikings game yesterday. They played Houston. I don't know when this will air, but they were playing Houston, and he guessed that the Vikings were gonna score 34 points, and they scored 34 points. He thought Houston was gonna score 21 and they only scored, I think, seven. But we do a football board in our neighborhood where we pick every winner of every team each week, and we do it together, and we won this week. There's two Monday night games tonight, and we already won, and he did all the picks. Oh
Dina Simon 3:24
my gosh, that's awesome.
John Simon 3:26
It's, it sounds like he does a lot of studying on it, too. I mean, you just don't make a red to pick. He probably knows a little bit about statistics.
Max Smith 3:35
Yeah, he is glued to football on on Sundays, and he watches a lot of like YouTube videos. It's a lot of like the people who do the video games on YouTube with Madden, NFL, and I wasn't a big video game person, but he, and he doesn't play video games, but he watches, and they talk about all the players and what, what teams are good. And he just, he's a numbers guy, so he always wants to know what the score is, what the odds are of the game, and yeah, it's pretty, pretty fun to watch.
Dina Simon 4:05
Yeah, okay, well, your dad's a numbers guy. So do they sit and talk about this like, Is your dad that way at all?
Max Smith 4:10
Yes, he he's a CPA, he's he's our he does all of our law work. He does all he does my personal taxes, and my wife and a lot of our family, and she definitely will call Braxton and ask about, you know, how many points do you think this team's gonna win by? And they talk about fantasy football the numbers. So I think he get, he definitely gets that from, from my dad first.
Dina Simon 4:33
I love it. So the baby just turned one. Yes, Briggs is our youngest. Yes, um, do you want to chat at all about Briggs and what you went through this first year of his life?
Max Smith 4:44
Yes, yeah. I mean, it was crazy, because I'm sure we'll get into this too. But my, you know, my mother passed away a December 2022, and at the time, we just had Braxton and Stella, and when I got home, I was. In California, I was was with my mom when she passed away in at the City of Hope hospital bill in LA my sister and my dad were there, and we spent about a week out there just to kind of unwind and, yeah, just trying a little bit of time together and process. And the day I got back from LA Bridget told me that we were pregnant with our third kid. It was kind of just this weird cycle of my mom passes away, and now we're going to have a new baby. And there's still times where I'm just sitting with Briggs and I'm looking him in the eye, and I just see my mom and feel my mom's presence. And I know there's some there's some connection there absolutely so Briggs was born. He was very, a very healthy baby. He was born on time, normal weight, normal hospital stay for the most part. You know, every, every, all the signs were pretty normal. And about maybe when he was four or five months old, he kind of started to be very lethargic, and he wasn't wanting to move around a lot. TMI, but he was having trouble going to number two to the and it just didn't seem like, like something just seemed off. And we hadn't experienced that with our other kids. And I think we went to the to his pediatrician four times, like, what you know, what's going on. And so he, we started having him drink a lot of juice to try to pass bowel movement. And we, you know, we, but he just still didn't seem, seem right. And going back a little bit, our daughter, Stella, when she was two years old, she woke up Christmas morning and and was unconscious, and it was due to low blood sugar. And so she she's been to the hospital probably four times from it's called ketotic hypoglycemia. So blood sugar are very low levels. And it was something that that, you know, the doctor's like, you know, by the time she's four or five, and she's eating regularly, and she can tell you when she's hungry, she'll probably grow out of this. There's nothing chronic going on here, but we spent a year of her life checking blood sugars every day, making sure she eats enough at night and and so we were kind of used to that blood sugar, checking blood sugars. And my dad's a type one diabetic. So fast forward, Briggs is about six months old. It's, it's just this 2024, in March. Yeah, and I was at hockey practice with Braxton coaching him, and usually Bridget and Briggs and Stella would come to hockey practice. You know, after we we'd go early and get ready and go out there, and then I'd see them there, and this practice, they didn't come. And so I thought that was a little weird as an early morning. But I get home and Bridget's holding Briggs and something, he just did not seem right. And he his face just went completely pale, and he was almost having these little tremors. And so we brought him outside to try to get him some fresh air and and then we tried to give him some juice. And then we checked his his blood sugar, and it was, it wasn't severely low. It was, it was in the 50s, but he had just ate and just had juice. So it was like that that seems a little low. And for those who don't know about blood sugars? You know, typically you're between 70 and 100 is is a normal range. If you're a diabetic, you're pro you might trend a little bit higher and depending on how old you are, but anything under 50 is a Hypo glycemic state where you can start to have brain brain issues, brain damage, from being that low. So he was at 50, but he had just eight, and so it just, it seemed that, and he was, he was acting, going in and out of consciousness. So we called 911, really having a flashback to Stella, when she woke up. Actually, I said, I think, I said she was two, but I think she was, she was she was one when, when that happened the first time, one or two, it's so hard to remember.
the the paramedics came. They checked his blood sugar again with their device. And what was really crazy, when our when our daughter had it, the blood sugar was the last thing that they checked. They checked oxygen level, Heart heart rate like everything. When blood sugar was last and she had a she had a blood sugar of 26 Wow. When, when we took her to the hospital the first time, so when the paramedics got to our house with Briggs, he was at like, 36 and then I rechecked on our device. And luckily, we had a device like most people don't have a glucometer. It's not a common first aid or a thing that you have, and it's one of the things that Bridget and I think every family should have and know how to use if somebody is not acting right, because unfortunately, a lot of kids die of SIDS that have what, what Briggs has, which is called hyperinsulinism. Uh, but so, so he's got a low blood sugar. He immediately goes to the ambulance. We go to Children's Hospital in Saint Paul, and we think it's the same thing that Stella has, like, Hey, he's just low. He may be sick. He's fighting something off because that. But that's what Stella had. It was just a she got sick and her body didn't have enough storage to get her blood sugar to the right level. And with Briggs, they would they so they gave him an IV. They they started pumping, you know, sugar D 10, sugar water, into his system, and his blood sugar would spike and go down, and just kept going up and down. And so they ran a test they they were thinking, you know, that this could be something different than what, what his sister had, and they diagnosed him with with hyperinsulinism, and kind of how we explain it to people. It's probably not the scientific way, but it's kind of the opposite of diabetes. So a diabetic doesn't have their pancreas, can't produce insulin, and depending if it's type one or type two, they might be cured. If it's type one, you can't but for hyperinsulinism, your pancreas produces too much insulin, and there's nothing there to stop, because usually when you when you eat, your blood sugar goes up produce insulin, and the blood sugar goes back down. And with kids or adults that that get hyperinsulinism, your pancreas just keeps producing insulin and nothing stopping it. And so we were in the hospital. We were at Children's Hospital for 24 nights, 24 nights, and having two, you know, other children, yes, at home, it was six and three at that time, and thank I mean, my sister and her husband, Mark, stayed at our house for pretty much that whole, whole time frame. They became mom and dad for for them, and we were able to focus on Briggs and in the hospital. And we had so much support and so much help from people. It was, it was overwhelming, just the amount of prayers and and support and it just, it took a long time to figure out what he needed to be able to go home. And so we ended up, he's on a medication. It's called diazoxide. He takes it three times a day, and it helps with keeping his insulin levels intact. But the downside of that medication is it makes you not it's appetite suppressing, so it makes you not want to eat, and he needs to eat to keep his blood sugar up. So it's kind of this, like it's working on one side, but then the other side, it's a hindrance. So we decided to have a feeding tube placed in his stomach that because, at the time in the hospital, he wasn't eating, so we were doing all of this feeds through his his feeding tube. So I mean, when we got home, we were up for probably two months. We were feeding him throughout the night, just continuous feeds. So there was not a lot of sleep happening in our in our house, and one day he just snapped, and he just started eating and and the beach therapists who kind of deal with with infants, with with eating, were like, they might just retrain themselves to know when they're hungry, and that and that happened. So we just had such good nurses, so many good doctors that we worked with, and we're just so thankful that we were close to a hospital that added and the endocrinology I mean, we're we go to endocrinology chronologist often now with with him, and he's a little bit behind developmentally now, because there's about three months of his life where he Just wasn't wanting to move wasn't wanting to do thing, normal things that a five, six month year old does. So now we're just working to getting him strong again. So, and he just turned one in August, and he's the happiest little kid. He's so happy and joyful. So we're very blessed. But he does have, yeah, I'm not gonna say a long road ahead.
Dina Simon 14:00
It's a, just a different road.
Max Smith 14:03
he's gonna have to, you know, in our family, we'll have to just work with him on to make sure he's got his blood sugar under control, and then he just keeps getting stronger and stronger. But, I mean, my wife is, has she's been working from home, and have she's been caring for him? And I, I don't know how she does it, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 14:24
Oh, my goodness. Well, God bless Briggs, because he does have the, he just is the smile. It's just so fun to see pictures. And he will want to keep up with Stella and Braxton, so he'll, yeah, he'll catch up.
Max Smith 14:36
Yep, we can already see, yeah, see it. He loves, loves just being around them. And it's so fun to see like your your older kids interacting with like the baby. It that because you don't see that with your firstborn. So it's, it's been, it's been a lot of fun.
Dina Simon 14:51
Yeah, absolutely.
John Simon 14:53
So back when you were in college at Concordia College, you decided to start a foundation. The in Sports Foundation, young college students aren't thinking of putting together Foundation. And I know you said you come from an entrepreneurial background. Your parents, what made you want to jump into that while you were in college? Yeah,
Max Smith 15:15
so it probably goes back to high school a little bit. And even my just my upbringing in youth sports. Sports were a very important part of my parents lives. Growing up, they learned a lot of life lessons from playing sports. Met a lot of great people. There's just something that you get from being on a sports team that you can't get in a lot of other scenarios. And there's a lot of physical and mental health benefits just from being being a part of a sports team. And so, you know, for me, I was very fortunate, and I the two sports that I love are hockey and golf, which are probably two of the most expensive sports when it comes to equipment and paying for ice time, paying for green fees on the golf course. And so, but my parents knew that that was important to me, and they did whatever they could to make that happen, all while taking huge risks on the business side, with start, starting new businesses, and some some months not being able to make payroll, but still putting a huge emphasis on myself and my sister to be in the things that we're passionate about. And so when I got to high school, our our high school team, decided to start volunteering at domestic violence shelter where we would go. And I think it was around the holiday times we'd bring gifts for for the kids who are at this, this violent domestic violence shelter. And I think we were all just taken back because there were like, there's no way that these kids have anywhere near the same opportunity that that we did growing up, being able to be fortunate enough to play a sport like hockey, where it's expensive and it's a huge time commitment, and now you've got these kids, and there's a lot of different scenarios, whether It's a homeless shelter, just a low, low income household, maybe the maybe the parents have enough money, but they don't have that as an importance. When they're not, they're not investing time and resources into their their kids development. So that was kind of the light bulb moment where it was like, there's just, there's, there's a huge gap here. Some of these kids who are who don't have the opportunity, could be the next superstar athlete, or they could just learn these great life lessons that my friends and I did from playing sports, but but they just didn't. They were not set up the same way for those opportunities. So then I graduated from EastView High School in Apple Valley, decided to go play junior hockey out in Washington, DC. And my mom was like, Okay, I know you don't have to go to school when you play juniors, but you are, you are taking a class. And I'm like, Well, I'm gonna I found a community college in in the in Maryland, and took an entrepreneurship class. And the whole basis of the class was to create a business plan and then pitch it to mock investors, and if the investor said, said they would invest, then, like you passed the class, and it was a very social entrepreneurship focused class. So we watched, like a documentary on Tom's shoes to kick it off just about, you know, buy a shoe, give, give a shoe. And so that was a huge inspiration. So my original idea in this class was to start a golf clothing company and then use those proceeds to teach kids how to play golf and give them lessons and really focus on those domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, just kids that would never get the opportunity to play golf. And so at the end of the class, they voted on the best idea these mock investors, and that idea was was the best one. And so it that kind of kicked off my like just thoughts on creating business plans and starting something from nothing, and all the different things that go go into that and things that I've seen my parents just just do while I was while I was growing up. And so after playing a year juniors, I had always worked at innovative office solutions, the company that my mom started in summer. So I I did marketing, I helped with installations of furniture. I helped with sales. I kind of got a variety of a lot of different things, but giving back was always ingrained in my mom's entrepreneurial spirit, and however she could make a difference in the community, even if she had no money to do so, she would, she would spend her time, but, but getting back to the communities that she was doing business in was a huge part of of her and that I that was one of the best things that I learned from the business side. Like, if you have the opportunity to build something, you got to give back, because it's that that's really what, what makes everything go around. And so she was. Starting these really cool sports partnerships with the Minnesota Wild and the twins and the Vikings where she would they were customers of ours. We were customers of theirs, but we we spent our sponsorship dollars to a community program to make a benefit to different nonprofits, which I think Simon says, Give heads received. I'm not. I don't remember which one, which one we were
Dina Simon 20:25
part of the Wild. The wild, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was super fun. And
Max Smith 20:30
yeah. So that was one of our first sports partnerships. Was with the Minnesota Wild when they were signing that deal, the wild rep. Rep saw that a picture in my mom's office of me playing hockey, and he's like, and get your son to skate the flag on a wild game. And she's like, done, I'll do I'll do the deal. So, but I was little at that time, yeah, yeah. We had kind of always just seen that, that that sports connection and giving back, and so that was always in my head, too. So when I decided to go to Concordia College up in Moorhead, I played on the hockey and golf team up there, and met who's now our executive director of the in Sports Foundation. He was on my hockey team. His name's Andrew deters. Also met my wife up up at Concordia, and she's a big part of of the in sports foundation. And how we started as well, and I just start, I'm a big idea person, and I just fired these ideas off to right now, it's a lot of my sister, my wife, and Andrew and I was doing the same thing in college. So, you know, I was talking to Andrew and like, I, you know, I really want to start a nonprofit, I really think there'd be a huge benefit, especially in that Fargo Moorhead community, of getting more kids access to sports. And so we started just putting on free camps on campus, and we got kids from other teams at Concordia to be a part of it, and we would invite kids from the Indian reservations, Boys and Girls Club onto Concordia College campus, and we would do these multi sport clinics for kids, and we did a hockey focused one too, but we had a great platform in college. So as a college student, we use all of our resources that we were able to to have. We also had an apparel company on campus. So through innovative we started our own company called the in sports apparel. And we would do apparel fundraisers with all of the different sports teams. But they got a it was a fundraiser for them. So they got some money back, and then we put money in into starting the in sports foundation through that. So it was like we had, we had this nonprofit going. We're helping, you know, doing, doing free sports camps for kids and and we were selling apparel at the same time. So I think in in college, I think I had about eight to 10 people that got paid internships under, yeah, it was like their signer. I'm like, a sophomore in college, and I'm signing off on internship credits for kids, but it was just, it was a great experience, and it was a Concordia College up in more it was a great place to be able to try a lot of different things. And we're still very involved in the college up there. I'm going up there on Wednesday.
Dina Simon 23:15
Well that's great. That's wonderful.
John Simon 23:16
The interesting thing is that they were willing to reach out and help support it.
Max Smith 23:22
yes, yes, they've been huge supporters. The last year we we did a another fundraiser with them. If you're familiar with the the brand unreal, they do a lot of the Viking hoodie drops that are kind of exclusive. And so we did that, we kind of replicated that, and did that for Concordia, and we've been able to use that money raised from there to get kids from local elementary schools back onto campus, meet the different athletes at Concordia and do do some sports programming there. So we're kind of continuing to what we left off maybe 10, years ago, where we're kind of picking it back up right now.
Dina Simon 24:02
Max, I think that you and there was somebody else that was working with you at the time, and I think you were on like WCCO or something, and with our with our relationship early on, with WCCO, and I connected with you because I knew that you'd be such a great resource for Mandi, who was quite a bit younger than you at the time, but just to us, starting out with Simon says, Give so always been just so impressed. We are huge entrepreneurial spirit and just giving back also to the community and everything that you've done so the amazing things that you've done through the foundation, but like 60, over 60,000 children have been supported through your programming. That's huge.
Max Smith 24:44
And it hits really taken a focus since we were in college, like, we really refined, like, what our programs are what and we work with a lot of school districts in the Twin Cities and Sioux Falls now as well, and have a great scholarship program for for families who. Are in need of funding if they need to be able to get their kids registered for a season or a camp, and some of them qualify for a free and reduced lunch program. But sometimes it's just a there's a medical hardship, a death in the family, something that's hindering them from being able to commit financially. And so we take into account all of those different things, and then we have some great partnerships with different sports clubs, associations and other nonprofits, and we try to help them reduce their their fees and their barriers to getting kids playing. But I do remember when I, you know, I was a college student, and we're doing, you know, trying to set up this nonprofit, and then meeting you and Mandy, and I'm like, she, I think she was 11 or 12, years old at the time.
Dina Simon 25:48
Yeah, probably even younger, but yeah, yeah,
Max Smith 25:51
yeah, probably young, yeah. And just, just very impressed with everything that you guys do, on, on Simon says, Give as well.
Dina Simon 25:57
Yeah, we've been able to partner in a couple ways. So one of the fun things, too, just to share with you, is that buy one, get one. We thought of that as well. So buy a backpack, donate a backpack. And we actually talked to your mom a little bit about that back in the day. So we definitely want to talk about your mom. But let's stay on this for a second. So the in sports now, LLC, yep, and your podcast, yep, and in your bio, I didn't even know about this part, but there's a real estate division. So can you tell us just a little bit about what you've got going on there? Yeah.
Max Smith 26:28
So we're, we're, you know, working on, you know, just different ways to generate revenue. But a lot of that profit will go back into into the in Sports Foundation, and there's only so much, you know, we can do. We've got so many things going on at innovative and so many different categories, but then there's some sports specific things that we want to do. So we decided to create a for profit version of in sports. We're still working on what that really looks like. You mentioned real estate. So we've got some opportunities to develop and also manage some different sports facilities, and then have our foundation run programming, you know, free or really reduced cost, sports programming in some of those facilities, as well as open it up to different associations, so that that's that's in the work, and can't really share where we're we're looking at yet, but hopefully next year, if we chat again, we'll have a better idea on where, where that that kind of lies. And then the podcast. So athletes and sports podcast, we launched that this June. We shot our first episode back in December. But we want, we kind of wanted, to have a few episodes lined up so we could, we could release them, instead of just having a kind of a waiting period, and that that's really sparked us to have some different ideas of potentially creating some some books and some other resources for athletes, whether it's athletes, parents, coaches, whether it's us going out and speaking at, you know, schools or teams. So we are also kind of in development of what, what that kind of looks like, but ultimately, any revenue profits that we have for that a percentage will go back to our foundation to put on more free camps, more scholarships and really helping more kids play sports so very, very infinite stages, but it's been a lot of fun to navigate, navigate that as well.
Dina Simon 28:27
That's brilliant. And John on their first podcast, was it $1,000 that the person was gifted to back to her sport.
Max Smith 28:35
Yes, we were with a couple of the athletes we've done. Done a surprise. We call it play it forward, where we've donated $1,000 and then we tack on whatever their number is. So we've had like $1,044 for Josh Metellus, but then we'll partner with with those athletes on finding ways to give back, to get more kids in sports that fit, fit our our mission. So those are also stories that are in development of how we're how we're gonna do that and impact the community with with these athletes,
John Simon 29:05
excellent.
Dina Simon 29:06
Yeah, it's just so inspiring. It's so fun to hear you talk. So talk for a second, because you do have a day job at innovative as well. Yes, so you're at innovative bridges and innovative your sisters at innovative Mark's innovative. So how is the second generation in the big business? How are you guys? How is that going?
Max Smith 29:26
It's, it's been good. I will say it's, it's really tough not having my mom here. I mean, she was the vision. She was our fearless leader and and it I but I feel like I'm sitting this is her office. I'm sitting in her office right now.
I recognize that
It's now my dad's office, and he stepped into the the CEO role. But there's, there's still things, you know, every day we're like, well, what would, what would Jenn do? What? What would, what would she do here? And it's, it has been fun to, you know, read some. Things. I just listened to some few podcasts that she was on that at the time, I didn't really listen, because I'm like, I talked to my mom all the time. But I've been uncovering some things, and it's been really fun to find just different video clips and different things that that she did. But it's, it's been good. We've been we've been growing as a company. And for those of you that don't know, innovative is, it's a B to B Company. And, you know, we started in office supplies, but we do a lot more than that now. So furniture is a huge category for us, cleaning and facility supplies, printing and promotional products, AV technology, and then we're, we're just launching a new category of industrial supplies. So I think anything you could find at a hardware store, we're going to have on our website. So for people that are managing facilities and buildings, we'll have the tools and hardware to do that. So there's always an acquisition going on, always a new category, just continuing, continually evolving. And it's fun, because we all our family kind of all works in different areas, but we, we all work together, and in sports is a big part of of our innovative family too. So really, I never think of like, okay, I've got to do in sports time now, innovative time. It all kind of goes together. Yeah, if we can do a fundraising event and invite customers, awesome vendors like it all, it all kind of meshes together, and that's what's really fun. It doesn't feel like I'm I'm hopping around doing things, and like everything that I'm doing is, is it? It's building on top of each other, and it's just expanding our footprint and allowing us to get into more communities and and help these different nonprofits that's fantastic partners in schools.
Dina Simon 31:49
So how many? Just to show size, how many employees? Is that innovative? Now we have about 300 Yeah, crazy. So, I mean, I know the first like 20 of you, right? Like it's just how it's continued to to evolve. So just John a couple things too, and I may have shared this, but how we've partnered through the years. It we've partnered in a lot of ways, but one of the just crazy ways too, is Tony and his delivery guys in helping us get things to and from locations we don't have a warehouse. So the opportunity there, as you said, so like the US Bank Stadium opening, we were a part of, and that was from connections with you guys, as well as the wild that was super fun. And then over the years, like our legacy awards, we've partnered with the with pearly on all the beautiful awards that we've given out, some of your team members have received our legacy awards for partnership in all these different areas. And then this last year, you know, we always had such great purchase power when we would go purchase our supplies, for our backpacks, for Simon Says, give. And your mom always tried to match those prices, and she's like, I just can't do it. Like, however you're getting this done. And so this year, Pearlie and Carla and team were able to do it and do it so well. So we're so excited that we figured it out, because we just will continue every year, you know, to put that purchase power back in your mom's honor, but also keeping it in Minnesota, which is awesome, definitely. Yeah, so I'd love for you, you know, just to share a little bit about your mom and that legacy you have throughout the podcast. But, you know, I was a raving fan, and I still say, What would Jen do like if I was to call her right now? What would the advice be that I would, you know, get from her, so that's definitely out there for so many people. And I think you know that, like, just the huge imprint that she had on so many lives,
Max Smith 33:50
yeah, well, like, for her, relationships matter was the her, she calls it her guiding principle. Like she, she just took the time to build relationships and make meaningful relationships, and she focused on customers, vendors and also employees. And she never put one of those things above any of the other. They were all part of the overall picture and and without all three of those customers, vendors, employees, you couldn't run a successful business. So she was just so strong at building those relationships, and it's something that that I strive to do as she she did it better. I don't know if anybody can do it better than she did, but she was also just huge into culture, and having an intentional culture, not just an organic culture, but, but also having employees have buy into what that culture means. So some of our original 20 employees that that really help develop that those, those you know, core values, are still living and innovative and and it does change, you know, they're there, and it's okay to change. And have you know, as as we've. Now have, I think, 13 physical locations, so we're not all in the same building either, and sometimes not everybody's in the office, whether they're out and about or working from home. And so it that that culture changes a little bit, and that's okay, but I feel like the core of it is is still there in that relationship pieces is a really big part of it. She was also always learning and always taking risks. And every time I heard her speak, she had this thing called rol so and she would always ask people, What does rol mean? And nobody would really get it, and it's return on luck. And what her meaning on that was, is like, the more opportunities you say yes to and the more things you try, and the more things you do, you're gonna get lucky at some point, or it's gonna look like luck to others, but you really just did enough things to make it happen. And I think a lot of people are okay with being stagnant and just staying, you know, at budget and being being good with that, but she was just always willing to do the extra step stretch out of her comfort zone. And I think that's what really made her a great leader and just an awesome person to to work for,
John Simon 36:15
well. And it sounds like she was a risk taker also, yes,
Max Smith 36:18
yeah, she took a lot of risks, and I don't think failure was in her vocabulary. I think if, if it didn't, if the outcome didn't turn out the way that she wanted, she looked at it as just, well, that didn't work the way I thought it would work, but maybe, maybe this other way is going to work better. And so just that term failure just never occurred to her. She was just always willing to to take the risk and and sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't, but she was always learned from from that risk, no matter what the outcome when
John Simon 36:52
you're doing that, the failure, you learn from that also,
Max Smith 36:55
yes, that that's another great thing that I learned from her is, is it, it's okay to fail and come up short. And if you're dreaming big and you've got big goals, you probably are going to come up short and but that's going to feel better than having just an achievement, achievable goal, that that's easy to reach, and you might fall short to that. So would you rather fall short to a big dream, a big goal or a small one. And she always had the big goal,
Dina Simon 37:25
yeah, yeah. And John, when you're in town, next time, it would be fun to take you to their headquarters down in Burnsville. But one of the things I love that you guys, do you do a culture book every year?
Max Smith 37:35
Yes, yeah. My mom learned that from Zappos. Zappos does something similar, and it really started out as an employee piece, kind of like an employee here are the events that we did, here are the nonprofits we were involved with, and here's some different quotes throughout the year. And it really turned into a customer facing piece, because we would have it out at our in our office, and we love to get as many people in our office as possible, because it's kind of hard to talk about what we do, but we can, we can show it really well. When somebody comes into our office and we would sprinkle these culture books around, and, you know, somebody was waiting to meet with somebody, they'd just pick it up and start reading it and like, this is awesome. So we've got culture books, a culture wall. We've got it digitally and so that that that's a really fun piece that still stayed alive, and one of the really cool things, and I haven't even been able to get through it all, because it, it's it's a lot, and it can be tough to read sometimes. But our employees, after my mom passed away, gave each each person in our family. They didn't call it this, but it was essentially a culture book of my mom. Everybody shared stories about, you know, a funny story, a sensitive story, some way that my mom, you know, gave back. And it's a pretty special piece, but it's, it's in the same format as our culture book, so I love it. It almost feels like a Jennifer culture book, and,
Dina Simon 39:02
oh, I love that Max. And just also, for for your kids like to be able to sit down years from now to get to see her through that lens, that just blows me away. I love that,
Max Smith 39:14
yeah. And she love, oh my gosh, she loved Braxton and Stella so much. And would just play with Braxton and play, even when she was sick, going through chemo and radiation. And you know, she she battled cancer for for four years, three different types of cancer over a four year period, and ended up dying cancer free. She had leukemia twice, breast cancer once, but, but B leukemia, but the chemo and radiation just her body couldn't keep up her her organs and but she
Dina Simon 39:44
she was a fighter
Max Smith 39:45
little her little football. She loved the Vikings and football too. So they they would talk about football all the time and throw the football around. And so it's fun that my two oldest kids still have a pretty good match. Absolutely. Yeah.
Dina Simon 39:59
Absolutely and so just really quick, because I know we've gone long, but I want to ask a couple things so the City of Hope you are still very engaged in. And you and your dad were out. I saw that you got to play at Pebble Beach, which was very fun, yep, yes, very, very fun. And a beautiful time of year to be out there. And then you were just all at some beautiful gala this weekend, honoring your mother and you as a family. Were honored. I think your sister is engaged, so tell us just a quick minute about that.
Max Smith 40:27
Yeah. So that was the NMDP Gala. And so NMDP was formerly Be The Match, and yeah. So Be The Match had three different sections, and they were all called something different. So this year, they rebranded into NMDP, and so at their big gala, because they're based in Minneapolis, so their big gala, they have a couple of them, was, was just over the weekend here in at the depot in Minneapolis. And so our family was the honorary chair. So we all got to speak and tell them, tell my mom's story, and just the the benefits of being on the registry and giving to something like an MDP who's trying to help people match with with bone marrow donors, and something that my mom needed based on her her leukemia diagnosis and her brother was actually her her match. So she actually wasn't on the register. She didn't find her match from the registry, but if her brother wasn't, they had four other people from from the registry that were lined up. And then all of us and our family signed up, and then a lot of employees here at innovative sign up to be on the registry. So it's become a very near and dear to our heart nonprofit that that we've been supporting. And then City of Hope. To my mom, was at City of Hope for about two years. And you know, she, she had an amazing doctor there, Dr Marcucci. He's one of the leading leukemia doctors, and while my mom was in the hospital bed, she was able to raise a million dollars for his research. And based on the, I mean, I'm not a medical person, but based on the clinical trial that she was in the second time she had leukemia, they're just one step closer to having a treatment that that will kill that cancer without having to go through all the chemo and radiation that that she had to so that became, kind of became her purpose near the end, when I don't think, think she kind of, she never said this to us, but I think she knew that it was going to be really tough to beat it, and she just wanted to do whatever she could to help others that were going through the same thing that she was going through.
Dina Simon 42:33
So yeah, yes, because that's what Jen would do. Yes. Yes, exactly. Okay. One last thing I just wanted to share. And then if you have anything else, we'll wrap up. So Jen also Max has mentioned this love for the Vikings. So Jen was huge with the Vikings, including you guys, did all the furniture for the suites for the Vikings, correct? Yes,
Max Smith 42:55
yes, yeah. That was our biggest order transaction, whenever you want to call it ever it was a huge project and and a lot of challenges and new things that we learned, but it it's been a unbelievable showcase to like, be able to say, hey, we provided all the furniture at US Bank Stadium and work very closely with the Vikings on that. Yeah.
Dina Simon 43:17
So huge connection to the Vikings. They loved your mother so much that her funeral services were at the stadium on the stadium on the what do you call it? I'm not the right out right on the field. They
Max Smith 43:31
thank you the field. That's something over the turf, but it was right on the field. And it was the first funeral service that they had ever had at US Bank Stadium, and then when bud grant passed away, he was the second so that's
Dina Simon 43:45
how big it is. But so that's how big it is. I remember Bridget saying that when she talked to the Vikings people. She said, Well, I'm sure you do. Like, what's the protocol? And they're like, Bridget protocol, we've never done this before, like So John, that's how amazing Jennifer Smith was. It was the most beautiful. I mean, it's just so moving to be there in the stadium, and you all did such a beautiful job in that and continue to everything you just talked about. I just know she's beaming right now with everything that you and Bridget have gone through with the kids. And as you said, when you hold Briggs Absolutely, she's right there with you, with him, but just so proud of you and of knowing you, and it's just such an honor. Oh,
Max Smith 44:30
well, thank you. And I know every every Viking GM, I know she's there. She's helping, especially the first three wins we've had here.
John Simon 44:38
I know I've two of them been amazing start this year,
Max Smith 44:41
yes, yes. It's been, been a lot fun to watch. The last two years were very what, how do I want to say it dramatic,
John Simon 44:50
challenging, all
Max Smith 44:52
the close games and close calls, and we've had, had some, some nice, solid wins here. But I know Dean, I know my mom loved. You, and loved your passion and everything that you and your family do to give back. And I know you were very, very special to her. And if I can share this quick Dina, you know, when she passed away, you sent me a letter, and I think it was one of the most thoughtful things that anybody has ever, ever done. And you get a lot of texts and a lot of Facebook messages, but you took the time to send a letter, and you wrote a check to my sister. And I won't, I won't share the amount, but you just, you said, Do something with with this money that reminds you of your mom, whether it's buy a piece of clothing, go out to eat, whatever it is, and and my sister and I decided just with, with the spirit of our relationship, and with what my mom is so passionate about, was we created a fund for her called the purple pack. And so we, we use that money to buy some apparel with with the logo that we have all tattooed on our our wrist. It's a little purple heart that she drew. And we put it on some some hats, and sold those hats and and also collected donations in her honor. And so all of the money that we raised from the purple pack are going back to helping girls play sports, just because sports are so important to her, and if more girls can can play. And she was always about hiring. She loved hiring people that had an athletic background, but it was a lot more men than females. So being able to give back to girls specifically is what we decided to do with that money. So thank you. I don't know if I ever actually said thank you, because sometimes just overwhelming, but it was very special to us. So we really appreciate that
Dina Simon 46:40
I got my hats, and we should talk. Are you gonna do it again?
Max Smith 46:43
We are planning, planning on, on doing again. We don't know what the item is, but we'll do that over her, her birthday again, which is November 18.
Dina Simon 46:50
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Well, count me in love it. Thank
Max Smith 46:54
you. Yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 46:55
So thank you so much. It's been such an honor to have you on.
Max Smith 46:58
Thank you both. It's it. I hadn't been a guest on a podcast yet. I've had a bunch of guests on now, so it was, it's fun to be on the other side of it. Max
Dina Simon 47:09
Smith, this was so much fun having you on the podcast. Thank you so much. Max is the founder of in sports foundation and involved, as you heard, in a lot of different things, including innovative office solutions. And then the in sport LLC, which is the podcast and future real estate division, super excited to see what happens there. Max, you are an amazing husband, father, brother and son. It's so inspirational just to see what you are accomplishing and will continue to accomplish. You've been through so much, both you and Bridget and just your resiliency. And just like Jenn, I don't think failure is a word that you recognize. You're just going to keep pushing forward and keep moving on, and it's just super inspirational. So love you. Thank you for being on the podcast, and it would be fun to have you back on in a year or so and see what's happening. I will make sure that everybody knows how to get in touch with Max in the show notes and listen to their podcast that just launched this year, which is extraordinarily successful so far. And as always, I think my father in law, John Simon for CO hosting with me. Our podcast is produced by Simon and Associates and a proud member of the C suite radio you.