Meet Alan

We recently connected with Alan and have shared our conversation below.

Alan , thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?

I was fortunate enough to attend Southern California Military Academy in the 1970’’s in Signal Hill, CA. We were tought self disciplined and structure under our school commandant, Colonel Aden.. I started boxing at a very young age and discipline was a key factor in the sport. I was up around 4am in the morning and would run two to three miles to start off my day before school while attending Banning High School in Wilmington, Ca and eventually transfering to Carson High School Discipline in my personal opinion is a must in sports or running a business or sitting down to write a book.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My professional boxing career was short lived due to a serious accident while driving a company truck. I founded Bay Cities Paving Company in 1989 at 27 years of age not realizing that two short years later that my professional boxing career would come to an abrupt end. I had spent most of my youth and adult life training on a daily basis so that I could preform at the highest level possible.

It took me about five years to get over the fact that I was not able to box anymore and went into a deep state of depression. Having my wife Annamarie and a new daughter, Victoria took away some of the pain and helped to take my mind off of boxing. I did not even watch a fight and had walked away completely from the sport.

One day I get a phone call from a friend that had asked me if I would like to send out my resume to the World Boxing Hall of Fame who was headquartered in Los Angeles and become part of this amazing organization. That was my re-entry into the world of boxing, from there, several doors opened up for me in the sport as a commentator here in California, working fights up and down the state. I would meet Sergio Sotelo one night durning the WBHOF inductions and we would become very good friends after that night.

Sergio was a supervisor for the World Boxing Federation and called me one night and asked if I would like to come on board as the North American Supervisor for the WBF. Sergio was the head supervisor for Mexico and I was in charge of the entire United States. I would eventually become the North American President for the WBF and go on the supervise several world title fights here in the United States. I would also become an international boxing judge where I would judge several world title fights and went on to work with the American Boxing Organization as well all while continuing to run my paving company Bay Cities Paving.

It was around 2018 when I had decided to sit down and write my first book titled Unprotected Boxing Business and life. It would go on to become a best seller at Walmart and was picked up by Barnes and Noble and several other online outlets. The force behind the book was to educated boxers, athletes and business owners alike about the pitfalls of being a professional athlete and not being taken advantage of by many of the sharks in the sports world. I had seen way to many former boxers and professional athletes wind up completely broke and in some cases destitute and on the streets. Due to all of my experience in the business world and sitting on a few boards of directors in the past,

I also saw a need to help business owners navigate the daily ups and downs of running a business. Over several years in business, people would reach out to me and ask for
advice of how to start a company and the necessary steps needed in order to get their company up and running. I had went through several recessions while in business and was usually able to work through them and even grow the company while in a recession. Along the way my wife and I, would go on to raise a full family with our eldest daughter Victoria, twins, Austin and Andrew and last but not least our youngest son Aaron. I would start my
non profit No Teen Riders in Atlanta GA around 2006 to educate teenage drivers around the country and helping to save lives ONE TEEN DRIVER AT A TIME, after my second cousin Sean was killed in an automobile accident in Kentucky. My non profit would go on to be recognized both nationally and internationally for my work with teen drivers in high schools across the country..

I am also a national reading ambassador for Read60. The program teaches elementary school children to read at least 60 minutes a day. This program is near to my heart because it is also an anti bullying program. I was bullied as a little boy in elementary school school and I feel that it is very important to address this serious issue with my book READ60 with Alan Santana. The book is published by Donelly Publishing Company who is one of the biggest publishing companies in the world.

I have just recently won awards for my book Unprotected internationally from, International Impact Book Awards. I recently attended the awards ceremony in Phoenix, Arizona, where I met Nim Stant and her amazing team. While I was there the company decided to film a documentary short on my life based on my book Unprotected. We just had a screening of the documentary and book signing in San Pedro, CA at the Warner Grand Annex Theater that was a huge success, due to my Publisist Christian Alan. My latest book title UNPROTECTED THE FINAL ROUND will be coming out in the next few weeks under Simply Best Reads based in New York.

I continue to work with elementary school children locally to help mentor them with my program Read60 with Alan Santana. My latest book has already opened up several doors for public speaking engagements and my documentary Unprotected The Final Round will be entered in several film festivals around the country and world with the help of my Publisist Christian Alan and at this point all I can do is hold on for the ride and see where it takes me.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back over the years and seeing where I was when I first started my paving company and where it is at today, I would have to say that resilience and perseverance are the keys to running a successful company. You also need to have a solid team of employees and people who have the same vision and work ethic as you do in order to be a success. There are many ups and downs when running any type of business, whether it is a small business or a big business. You have to also be hands on when running a company and truly know what you are doing within the business to make it successful. In my book Unprotected, I write about these exact same things that ai am talking about here.
You have to have People Skills, Business Skills and be able to make decisions that can make or break you. I have always said that running a business or writing a book is not easy -and no matter what you need to be passionate about whatever it is that you do. Never ever give up on yourself and believe in whatever it is that you are doing. Confidence will take you a long way. Most
Important is to remember without solid employees who are the backbone of your company, you will get nowhere.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

I usually start my day off by receiving a text message from a good friend around 4:30 am in the morning with biblical scriptures. It is a wonderful way to start the day off. There have been many times that I have had to take a step back and look at what Inwas doing and felt a lot of pressure whenever I would stop and think about all of the different things that I had going on in the day from running my company, to sitting down and writing a book. It can be overwhelming at times and when I get that feeling there is one place that I will usually drive to, and spend about half an hour there parked in front of the ocean at Royal Palms in San Pedro, CA. The waves crashing against the rocks somehow brings me back to a place in my mind where I feel at ease and find an inner peace. This refuels my mind and puts me in a place where I am ready to go out and take on the world no matter what obstacles may be in the way for the rest of the day.

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Alan Santana

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