My Story

Who is Justin Allen

Father, Athlete, Life Coach, Marketing Executive

Justin Allen's story of how he discovered his purpose and created his purpose-driven business - image of justin 7

Where It All Started…

I grew up in Malta, Illinois, a small town (actually it is a village) two hours outside of Chicago. The population was about eight hundred people, this is not including cows and horses and sheep (it would have been the 2nd largest city in Illinois if they counted in the population).

My high school, Malta High School, had an enrollment of seventy-eight students (take some time to read that again. It isn’t a typo, it really only had 78 students in the entire school. Being a 6’8 human being definitely has some perks in a small town. In 1999, I was a Two-Time All-State Basketball Player, Three-Time Little Ten Conference All-Conference Performer, and managed to graduate with a 3.8 GPA. Til this day, I hold the Malta High School scoring record (2,143 points) and rebound record (929 rebounds) and I can confidently say that my records will never be broken! Hold up……before you start judging that I am super cocky, I am confident that my record will never be broken because it will be impossible. Ok, that still sounded cocky. I am confident that my record will be broken, because in the year 2000 they shut down the school due to the lack of enrollment and the expenses were too much for our tiny town. It is safe to say that I had a successful high school career, but I always had this dream. My dream was to become the first Division 1 basketball player out of Malta High School. I learned very fast that in order to make a dream come true, you had to put in the work. First, I made sure I surrounded myself with people that I knew would push me harder when I got too comfortable, and support me when the naysayers told me I couldn’t do it. I had to overcome people constantly telling me I wasn’t a good enough athlete or that the town I come from was too small. This was only the beginning to a long journey.

Sometimes It Takes a Little Dirty Work…

In December of my senior season, I had zero Division 1 scholarship offers. I remember at one point thinking to myself, “maybe those who doubted me are right.” I became discouraged, but a little support from momma got me right back on track. My family and friends started to instill self-belief into me, and it motivated me to put in the time and effort to achieve my goal of becoming a Division 1 basketball player. One day during my Senior year my mother read a book on recruitment and how to recruit the recruiters. After reading that book, we started to build a highlight tape to send to coaches all around the nation. I grew up in the VHS era; therefore, we sent off heavy VHS tapes in packages with my resume. Days after the tapes went out, I started to get phone calls from several Division 1 Colleges across the nation and my recruitment and interest went to the next level. After taking a visit to Tempe, Arizona to meet with the Arizona State Sun Devils, I decided that ASU was the place I wanted to advance my academic and basketball career. Even though going to a big university would be a challenge, I figured it couldn’t be too hard when it’s always sunny and you are playing in one of the best basketball conferences in the nation, the Pac 10 (now Pac-12).

Living My Dream…

I learned very quickly that your job isn’t finished once you have accomplished a goal. You must continue to work hard, if not harder, to maintain that goal. My freshman year at Arizona State was fair, to say the least. I was able to play every game that year, find my role on the team, and I had outline of what I needed to do to get better throughout my college career. But just as most college freshmen, my grades had suffered severely. It got bad to the point of me almost being ineligible after my first semester. It was hard for me to adapt to the change of culture, living on my own, and of course a new world of beautiful women. All these things had a negative impact on my grades; however, I always stayed focus on basketball. I went into the summer after my freshman year knowing what I had to do to get my academics back on track and how to increase my playing time on the court.

The Calm Before the Storm…

As I worked out over the summer continuing my weight program to gain weight, I noticed the exact opposite started to happen. I started to feel sick and I was down about 5 to 10 pounds heading back to Arizona State for my sophomore year. I had work so hard to get to 240 pounds from 180 pounds coming in my freshman year. I continued to workout with the team in the Fall. It was a constant grind between weight lifting, conditioning, training on the court, and increasing my GPA. I thought I had pulled an abdominal muscle due to all of the stomach pain, but I was soon to find out that it was more serious than that. The trainers had treated me for a pulled abdominal muscle, until things got more serious. We had an early 5 a.m. practice one day and I felt extremely exhausted. My body felt like it was giving up on me and I knew that this wasn’t normal. As I was suiting up for practice, I had passed out and I needed to go to the hospital. The doctors had performed a multitude of tests and I was soon diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a form of Lymphoma Cancer. At that moment I had felt like everything I had worked for was for nothing. I had worked so hard to get to play on the Division 1 level and I worked even harder to ensure I could make an impact at that level. Everything had been so perfect up until this moment. I soon realized that God gave his hardest assignments to his most resilient warriors. Just when I had thought I faced my toughest challenge yet, I had to prepare to battle cancer with the support of my team, coaches, and my family.

A Battle Within Itself…

During these

During hard times I had the unwavering support of my family, a community, and a close knit ASU athletic program. While battling this disease I had an experience, a sort of awakening that forever changed my life. One minute I was an 18-year-old basketball player with dreams of playing for a championship, and suddenly I was facing the biggest challenge of his life.

I shifted my attention to battling not on the basketball court, but instead battling for my life. I took a full academic schedule and decided that I was not going to let this disease set me behind anymore than I already had done my self my freshman year. I went to every single practice and game that I was physically capable of attending and sat next to the coaches and studied the game. When feeling up to it, I sat in the corner and shot 3 point shot after 3 point shot, not wanting to lose my jumper. After a yearlong battle with cancer, I learned that there was no sign of the tumors that once had filled my body and I immediately, against all odds, set my sights on a quick return to the court. The experience had been a traumatic one, but the shift in my attitude and academics would ultimately prove the experience to be invaluable to my development as an athlete and more importantly a person. The very next season I found himself on the court and in a Sun Devil Uniform, a feat that many didn’t think was possible. I often say that cancer was a blessing and while it seems like an odd statement, it is 100 percent true. I am not sure where I would have been in life if I did not have this challenge to overcome and this wake up call that changed my perspective on life.

Sweet Victory…

I played another three years at Arizona State going to the NIT tournament 2 times and the Final 32 in the NCAA tournament in 2004. The next 3 seasons I was constantly battling fatigue and injuries that were surely after effects of the chemo, radiation, and the beating my body had taken from the cancer. I took on my role from the coaches and my shift changed from “I have to get to the NBA” to “I love this game of basketball and what it can do for my life.” My mental shift created a maturity level that I am not sure I would have reached if it weren’t for my battle. My mindset shifted to not what the game of basketball was going to get for me (money, girls, NBA), but instead it changed to what the game has provided me. I started to see the game as a vessel along my journey and a way that my passion had provided me with countless opportunities. The game up to this point had gotten me my school paid for, friendships that would last a lifetime, and it had taught me life lessons that would be hard to learn any other way.

During My Time At Arizona State University

I Was Awarded With…..

–

THE GENE AUTRY COURAGE AWARD

2003

JIMMY V COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR

2004

THE SPARKY GOLDEN HEART

2004

THE NCAS GIANT STEPS AWARD

2005

3x All Pac-10 Academic Award Winner

2001 – 2004

Featured in the book 100 heroes in sports

2005

Upon graduation I took a head varsity coaching job at Florence High School in Florence, Arizona. During my first season coaching, I learned valuable lessons on player, personal, and mental development of youth athletes. I thought that this was it. I was going to start my career as a basketball coach and this would be my future for the next 60 years (yes I planned on coaching until I died). After just one season, I had an itch to play basketball again and chase down one of my dreams of playing professional basketball. It was a hard spot to be in as I had taken one year off from playing and my college stats were not eye catching for teams and agents alike. I could not get an agent to give me a call back, I guess a slow guard or undersized forward who averaged 3 points per game in college was not on the top of there list. I finally accepted an invitation by one of my former ASU teammates to a Free Agent Camp at an international scouting event in Las Vegas, NV. The forward that was supposed to attend could no longer show up and they were desperate for another body. My ex teammate set it up and I headed to Las Vegas to give playing basketball another attempt. While in Vegas we played five games against high level competition and and in those 5 games I averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds, shooting over 55 percent from the three point line. A career shift was about to happen, unintentionally, but again one that would prove to play a vital role in my development as a person. Agents started to call and my journey to play professional basketball started. I signed with an agent and with a heavy heart I said goodbye to my high school team and I continued chasing my own dream of playing basketball professionally. I spent the next five years playing professional basketball internationally in places such as Argentina, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, Kuwait, Israel, and South Korea. The experience traveling the world was one that only the gift of basketball could have provided me. The game of basketball had provided me with a career doing what I loved while allowing me to travel the world and not only learn, but participate in some amazing cultures. During this time I had the most amazing blessings that any man could ask for. I was blessed with the birth of my two amazingly awesome children – Elijah Jayce Allen and Kennedy Charlize Allen. Kennedy and Elijah are both miracles as I was told that my chance of having children was reduced and possibly unattainable due to the chemo and the radiation. Always wanting to have a family, this was something that had put a great deal of pain in my heart.

In 2009 I ended my playing career and started coaching club basketball for Arizona Premier Basketball Academy, under the leadership of Russ Pennell (U of A, Grand Canyon University,Phoenix Mercury Head Coach, and Central Arkansas). This was not a paying job and I was in the middle of trying to figure out how I was going to support my family. I got a surprise interview with a data analytic company, Teradata Corporation, that specialized in selling data analytics to larger corporations. This was a job that I was unqualified for, never being in technology or sales, but through an ex teammate and networking I landed an interview. I remembering going into the interview nervous, like it was my first game of the season. I had never been in sales and something this complex and high level, and it was a dream job for most. I met with the VP of the territory and we hit it off. He had told me that “me being an athlete was a major bonus as he knew I possessed skills such as hard work, loyalty, teamwork, ability to overcome adversity, and competition. I worked this job for 3 years, but the entire time I did not feel like it was my calling. I loved the job, I loved the people I worked with, and I loved the company. I just knew that selling data analytics was not what I was put on this earth to do.

One day I was watching Oprah, please don’t judge me, and Will Smith was on the show. I loved Will Smith so I didn’t not change the channel. He was sharing his story and was telling it in a very inspiring manner when he made a comment that changed the course of my journey. He stated that “If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you are wasting your time.” I heard this and It was like a jolt went straight through me. Who’s life was I impacting? I had a great job and was making great money, but was I using my skills and my story to make an impact? From that moment I vowed to chase down my passion, do what I love, and impact the world in the process. That night I laid down to go to bed, but I could not turn my mind off. I had spoken at events in the past, but I had never really fine tuned my message and I didn’t even think much of it. All of a sudden I had an idea, I jumped out of bed, and I just started to type away on my computer. The next morning, without any sleep, I was sitting in front of the computer to what looked like the start of an inspirational children’s book. I then started to plan for how I could go and share my story with children, youth, and adults alike and how I could use my story to hopefully inspire and motivate others. I landed a couple speaking gigs and the way I felt sharing my story was something I hadn’t felt since knocking down a big three point shot in a game. I also decided to dedicate more time to coaching and training in efforts of helping other inspiring athletes chase down their passion to play basketball and hopefully the game will impact them the way it did me.

Battling a War in My Mind…

If you would have looked at my life, you would have thought I had it all. I was married, I had a big house, two beautiful kids, and I had just had a moment of clarity that my journey was much bigger than athletics and selling data analytics to corporations. This clarity was short lived and there was something holding me back from fully immersing myself in my life’s purpose. As I reflect back, I realize that I still had some of the most powerful life lessons and challenges still ahead of me.

I had a secret that I had never shared with anyone, not even with those that I loved the most in my life. Since 2000 I had been struggling with severe depression. I battled the cancer and won, but I had felt like a big piece of my life had been altered in such powerful way and I was struggling to come to grips with my new reality. After beating cancer I was showered with several national awards, hundreds of messages/comments about how inspiring I was, and media outlets constantly sharing my “courageous story,” but I felt this massive separation between how I was feeling and how the world saw me. I tried my hardest to connect these two “selves,” as I pushed harder and harder to share my story, the lessons learned, and the blessings that were uncovered, but nothing seemed to work. I lived in constant fear that someone would uncover this truth that I was in fact not courageous at all, but instead I was weak and breaking. I continued to dive deeper into darkness internally, while fighting to keep inspiring and motivating others. I believed that I would let so many people down if they knew how depressed I really was. “Would they lose hope? Would they see me differently?” These questions haunted me for years as I struggled to connect my heart to my mind.

As these questions lingered and the pain dove deeper into my heart, my actions stopped aligning with the integrity I had expected from myself. I started to break down and found myself lashing out. I would get in my car and go for drives that lasted hours in the middle of the night trying to out-run the fear. I would get cheap hotels and sit in darkness, hoping to sleep/drink away the pain. I purchased the necessary equipment (I will save the details) needed to finally end the pain, picked up a cheap bottle of vodka, and went to a local hotel ready to say goodbye. As I sat and drank, trying to muster up the courage to exit the world in peace, I finally prayed and said my goodbyes. The next morning I woke up and I was still alive. At this point in my life I turned away from spirituality, so I did not believe in miracles (later I realized it was one). I laid on the floor crying uncontrollably wishing that I would have been successful with my plan. In the darkest way possible, I had actually felt like a failure for not completing the goal I set out to achieve that night, to end my life.

Slowly the time crept by with every minute of every day full of the same question playing in my mind “Will this be the day you say goodbye to the world.” It felt like Groundhogs Day with the same day replaying over and over. I slept all day, barely getting up to eat, hoping that it would all just end. I hadn’t really been paying much attention to the way I looked and I had attributed all of my fatigue and sleeping to my severe depression, but everyone was concerned (rightfully so). One day my mother noticed a lump in my neck and made several calls and scheduled an appointment with a doctor the day after Christmas.

Cancer

Round 2

You have Cancer.” These words rang in my ears again as the doctor told me the news. A few short weeks after my appointment, I was scheduled for surgery to remove my thyroid and the lymph nodes that were near it. “Was this really why I stayed alive? To battle cancer again and do it alone?” I thought with tears in my eyes.

My mind continue to contemplate my decision weeks earlier to continue living. My surgery was successful, I was now on medicine that would take over the function of my thyroid and everything looked like a success. It should have been a time to pop the champagne and be grateful for another miracle and another cancer that took the L. I was 2-0 against cancer and most people would have rejoiced and felt like they were given a second chance. Even with this big victory, I had still not overcome the depression that continued to darken my soul and threaten to take away my sanity.

Once night as I laid alone, unable to fall asleep, mind racing like a thoroughbred horse determined to win the Kentucky Derby, I had a moment where I saw a light of hope peak in to my soul. I woke up, grabbed my computer, and 4 hours later I had a 30 page power point presentation of a trip I had always dreamed of taking, my pursuit of purpose and passion! I shared my plan with my family, with my counselor, and my life coach and passionately explained why this trip was my last hope. Several days later I created my plan, I turned my car drunk into a closet, packed a huge cooler full of clothes, updated my Ipod, and I hit the road with an attention to find passionate people and learn from their stories.

My Pursuit of Passion, Purpose, & Love

The trip was intended to be a pursuit of passion, where I traveled around the United States in search of finding passionate people that would not only inspire me, but hopefully inspire others. What i found was that this trip was about so much more. On just the third day of my trip I met the most amazing Spiritual Healer, Yessica, who spent hours working on my energy and preparing me for the journey ahead. She assured me that I needed to take this trip to get in touch with the person that God intended me to be. “This trip is about your spiritual, physical, and mental healing that must happen for you to find your true calling.” Along my pursuit I traveled over 10,000 miles, stopping in 24 cities, over a 2 1/2 month span. I started meditating, listening to audio books whenever I was in my car, visiting historic landmarks, meeting new life long friends, sharing energy with some of the most amazing people this universe has to offer, and most importantly I re-introduced myself to God and asked for his forgiveness.

As I drove the last five hour stretch from Las Vegas, Nevada to Scottsdale, Arizona I reflected back on the journey I just had with all the hope in the world. After three months on the road, I now was back to a new reality where I had a clearer mind, loving heart, rejuvenated spirit, detoxed soul, and the power of the universe ready to guide me to continue the work I started along my journey. I was ready to fulfill my destiny.

Since my return I have been focusing my attention on anything that aligns with my new found purpose……..

…..Shifting the energy of the world

Through Love

I have become a certified life coach training high performers, re-started my passion4ball training business, and I am continuing my work to shift the energy of the world through my inspirational business: Chase My Passion. I believe that the work Chase My Passion will be doing, we will play a major role in spreading love and peace and impact the energy of all those that come in contact with us. Stay tuned for more inspiring blogs, vlogs, documentaries, books, interviews, and a podcast.