Good points Chris... so very true. Chris, at this point, we've stepped through much of your career, let's talk about a major move you embarked on relocating your family from Miami to
We were not looking to leave Miami, we were really happy there. Our son was two at the time, we had it in our minds that by the time he was preparing for kindergarten or going into kindergarten, we wanted to be back in an area where the public education was a little bit better. In our minds, we had three or four years, but Arkansas ended up being an opportunity that we could not turn down.
What we didn't know about Arkansas at the time, is a little bit of what you alluded to in the question… it is a beautiful area, it's hill country, but more than anything the neatest part about living in Fayetteville Arkansas, is that it's a community that's growing. It is a community that's thriving and that has incredible infrastructure support. So many of those little things that improve the quality of life that you no longer have in cities once they become established.
I tell people all the time, Northwest Arkansas is what imagine Austin and Nashville were before they became these mega cities.
As far as the job, you know, it's still an underdog institution. That theme has remained true at my last three stops. We are in the middle of the pack in the SEC, the most competitive conference in college athletics.
What's unique about us, is we are the only school in college athletics, that has the opportunity to have an entire state rally behind it. Our entire state supports the Razorbacks with both with their heart and their pocket, and that is really, really unique. We have 3 million people in this state that grew up, and are bred and are raised and in every way are expected to be Razorback fans, and that's a huge opportunity.
The other two parts that have shown themselves to be huge opportunities for me, is while we are an underdog within our own league, we certainly have the resources to do big projects. And I've been fortunate to have leadership here, both in Jeff Long and our current athletic director, Hunter Yurachek, that have given us the opportunity to take risks and experiment. That is part of what makes this place and this job invigorating. You are competing in the biggest conference with the biggest spotlight, and I have been encouraged to take some big risks.
You shared that your leadership is willing to allow you to fail as well as succeed. At SEAT, we talk about project failures as well as successes, because there's so much to learn from failing, as well as successes. What would you say up to this point at the University of Arkansas, what are two lessons you have learned along the way ?
Yeah, I would say the first thing that Jeff Long taught me, and he almost taught me indirectly, is to start with story. Jeff's decision making process, and I'm talking about actually getting into his mind and getting him locked in when you are presenting a proposal or a project, has to begin with a story. I made the mistake early on here of bringing in spreadsheets and full project proposals with 15 pages of documentation. You could almost see his head spin. And he would say, "Stop, slow down.", and eventually what it would lead to is, "Okay, we need to have another meeting about this."
We also have an executive staff of 11 people right now and that is a big room when you're making decisions. What I've really focused on is, don't start with all the data and the research, start with a story so you set their mind frame, maybe pull at their emotions. Then proceed to a cliff notes version of the research that validates the recommendation.
CHRIS FREET INTERVIEW
Arkansas.
10