Episode 75

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Published on:

18th Feb 2022

Ep. 75 Kevin Stark, Director of Coaching, Arena Labs

On this episode of Investors & Operators, Jordan sits down with KEVIN STARK, Director of Coaching at Arena Labs. Together, they discuss:

  • Kevin’s experience as a “slow” endurance athlete 
  • Tough moments and how to handle them 
  • The 80/20 Rule 

...and so much more.

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KEVIN STARK is a 22-year Navy SEAL veteran, endurance athlete, and performance coach. As the Director of Coaching for Arena Labs, Kevin leverages his expertise to bring the tools, frameworks, and resources of high-performance cultures to the nurses, doctors, and administrators serving on the frontlines of healthcare. Kevin is passionate about helping others create and walk a path of meaning and excellence through the actualization of purpose and values and has developed coaching programs and curriculum to help clinicians flourish despite the pressures of the modern medical environment.

Prior to joining Arena Labs, Kevin served as a Navy SEAL for 22 years. His most recent role was on a Naval Special Warfare Unit as a team leader in a rapid innovation group. In this role, he led and coordinated the activities of a diverse team of SEALs, explosive ordinance technicians, pilots, engineers, and national-level labs in the experimentation, adaptation, and acquisition of cutting-edge technologies in direct support of national defense priorities.

As a SEAL, Kevin deployed overseas multiple times in support of US National Defense Strategy, led SEAL training as the senior instructor, managed the US Naval Academy SEAL candidate selection process, and served as team leader in a purpose-built innovation cell. In total, Kevin has either trained, coached, or mentored nearly 10,000 SEAL candidates and US Naval Academy Midshipmen through some of the world’s most demanding selection courses. Two of his fondest adventures were leading a group of Naval Academy students to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and another group on a multi-day trek to Patagonia.

At his core, Kevin is passionate about tapping into the inner strength we all possess to turn obstacle into opportunity. Kevin values honor, integrity, determination, respect for others, and believes that reaching our edge is only the beginning of what we are capable of. He has completed expedition length adventure races, rock and alpine climbs, and 100-mile ultramarathons. He received an MBA and an MS (Special Operations) from the Naval Postgraduate School and is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer.

Most importantly, Kevin is a proud husband and father to three children. As a family, they enjoy learning, seeing new places, spending quality time together, and surviving until the kids’ bedtime.

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About the Podcast

Investors & Operators
A Podcast by 51 Labs
The M&A market can be boring, but everyone has a story. The Investors & Operators podcast is about discovering the stories people were holding back, didn’t know how to tell, or forgot about. The goal is simple: fresh, authentic storytelling to bring people together in the M&A community.

With over 1M organic views and counting on LinkedIn, 51 Labs is disrupting the M&A market through the use of videography and content creation. In a market that longs for authenticity, 51 Labs helps strengthen your brand and tell your story. From concept to distribution, we strategize and produce thoughtful content to be used across a multitude of channels, to help you stand out in an otherwise traditionally boring market.

New episodes every other Thursday at 6:00am Eastern.

About your host

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Jordan Selleck

Founder. Recovering Investment Banker. 3x Entrepreneur. Philz Coffee Enthusiast.

Jordan Selleck is a recovering investment banker turned 3x entrepreneur. While teaching English in China, Jordan met an investment banker in a bar and before he knew it he’d spent six years in cross-border investment banking advising global corporates and private equity firms on M&A deals up to $250 million.

As much as Jordan loved investment banking, he always knew he was meant to do something more. In 2016, Jordan founded Debtmaven, a deal management platform for debt financing in the lower middle market. It was while he was marketing Debtmaven on LinkedIn that Jordan found his true passion: building meaningful relationships in the lower middle market.

Seeing over 50% of Debtmaven’s $450million+ in deals come from LinkedIn, he realized he’d found an untapped market and began his journey with LinkedIn consulting. Dozens of clients and a handful of extraordinarily talented employees later, 51 Labs is a thriving marketing agency for the lower middle market that produces captivating content and generates organic traffic across LinkedIn.

Jordan was born in San Diego, grew up in North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill. He has traveled to 32 countries, lived in China for 18 months, trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is a fourth-generation private pilot, SCUBA dives, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is a husband and father of 2.