Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kaz Langness. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kaz, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
In 7th grade I had a dream of playing in the NBA, known as the National Basketball Association. The first test I had to pass was making the 15 man roster. Weeks leading up to the tryout, I was practicing as much as I could. Outside with gloves on shooting so I could give myself a better chance at making the team. The three day tryouts came and I felt confident, hitting shots like Kobe in his prime, Rest in Peace Mamba. At the end of the three days, the coach had us sit on the bleachers and thanked us for coming out then handed us all letters letting us know whether or not we made the team. In my head im thinking “theres no way 15 players are better than me, I’ll see you boys at practice next week”. My brother, who is home for the weekend due to Thanksgiving Holiday, picked me up and asked me how it went. Wanting him to hurry and rush home so I could open the letter, I reply with a quick good. We get home, I rush to the living room waiting to open my ticket to the NBA, I rip it open, reading..scanning and there is was..my heart sunk and tears start flushing from my eyes. I was devastated. Thoughts of “whos better than me, was I really that bad, did I get the wrong letter”? With tears still flowing out, I hopped on the phone and called my best friend, who of course made the team due to him being a great player. I discussed with him not making the team and he gave me great encouragement, even amidst feeling a bit discouraged. He said a couple words that stuck out “Don’t give up”. After talking with him, my brother, encouraged me to call the coach and ask if I could be the team manager and practice with them for the year. I looked at him as if he was crazy, “What?!? Are you crazy, thats embarrassing, I should be out there scoring instead of keeping track of the score”. After a few minutes to think about it, I decided to give it a shot, called the coach up and he goes “That would be great. It would allow you to get better and understand the game more”. Seeing that was my first year ever playing organized basketball, I would agree that I was pretty Raw. I practiced with the team the full year, even being Blessed to play in one game due to it not counting for the league standing. A sign that not giving up, staying resilient, eventually pays off.
I transferred schools the following year, and I would say it was where my confidence in athletics was formed. I made the basketball team, even though all players did due to only having ten try out. The coach was hard on me, but believed in me. He gave me opportunities in the areas that had large impacts on the game and that showed me that there’s others out there who believe in you, all you have to do is believe in yourself because no matter how much they believe, their belief can’t live your life, you have to live your life and believe. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t have a life. The end of the season banquet came around and coach pulled me aside, he goes “I was hardest on you this year because I saw you had the most potential”. And to this day, those words have stuck with me.
High School came around and I was riding pine all 3 years I played. I hated it. There were some very embarrassing times, such as, walking into a gym and with being the only black kid on the team, I would hear “Oh I bet he’s good” “yeah we’re gonna lose” “dude I bet you’re really good” knowing all along that I wasn’t even going to see the court after warm ups. I had to face it, stay committed to myself and keep my belief that I belonged out there. It was an opportunity to develop resiliency and a no quit mindset. A mindset where I don’t care what you say about me, I know what’s inside of me and the one thing we will always be able to control is our response. I won’t respond by giving up. I’m going to stay in this game until I achieve what I know I can achieve. To my high school coaches, thank you, you helped me become who I am today, That’s what Unshakable Confidence is, never giving up the belief you have in yourself. Most situations will be out of our control, but Response is always in our control. My Response, my self belief, my resiliency helped me go on to play college basketball. It helped me write back with no words, just confidence, to the teammate in High School who once said “you’ll never start”. Hey thanks, I became that starter you never said I’d be.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I engage with Athletic Programs throughout the nation, helping their student athletes develop Unshakable Confidence, providing three main principles, Commitment, Resiliency, and Sacrifice into their lives. Being able to provide value and impact the lives I am blessed to be able to spend any amount of time with, I highly value. The youth have so much potential and I love being able to help them achieve their success in all aspects of their life, along the beautiful journey. Encouraging them to embrace the journey. Helping them understand that failure is inevitable and with the obstacles being faced climbing up the mountain to the top, all are stepping stones to accomplishing what we have set out for ourselves, to get to the mountaintop.
Services:
25-60 minute Team Engagements
6 Week “Unshakable Confidence” Workshops
7 Week “7 C’s to success” Workshops
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
My Faith. I have relied on my faith and relationship with God to help me get to where I am currently in my journey. Gods given us all a vision and a unique purpose on this earth. Our job is to live it out to the best of our ability and I am committed to doing so. My Confidence has always been there. Without my faith, I wouldn’t have my confidence. Understanding the greatest stories and victories happen due to having confidence in yourself and having confidence that you can be successful with the task at hand. God’s right along side me everywhere I go, how can I not be confident when I’ve teamed up with God, who’s undefeated. How can I lose?
Be You. Just be you. There is only one person who is capable of living your life, and its the person staring you back in the mirror, you. Don’t focus on the world and all the shiny objects that you cant take with to the graveyard, focus on leaving a legacy that God’s placed you here to leave. You can fail more than once, and thats the wonderful of life. Stay true to you, be you and live the life God wants you to live.
The advice I can offer is stay consistent the best you can. Distractions are going to come, Failure, adversity, will be faced but staying consistent with your relationship with God, being confident in yourself and always being the authentic you, you will develop and go on to produce great results in following years and you will improve. Embrace the Journey.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
“The most important thing is life is to try and inspire others that they can be great at whatever they do” -Kobe Bryant
The great Helen Keller has a quote that says “Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much”. I believe that our power is together. I would love to discuss in partnering with you to provide value to others. I look for those who are in need of bringing someone in to solve a problem, to bring encouragement, hope, valuable insight. Please reach out via email or website ( kazlangness.com )
Contact Info:
- Website: kazlangness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kazlangness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kazlangness
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaz-langness-482393178/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kazlangness
- Other: beyouklothing.com
Image Credits
Angelo Bush Photography
