Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Rob Hackash here. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. So, Rob, take a moment and tell us just a little bit about yourself.
Rob Hackash: Well, my name might be unfamiliar because I didn’t grow up around here. I grew up in the coal region, but I moved here in 1997. I started a job right out of college working with the then Reading Phillies. I spent 13 years with them there in the front office. Did another eight as one of their television broadcasters, and then for the last about year-and-a-half, I’ve been the marketing manager at Diamond Credit Union.
Toni: Okay. Well, I’m glad you showed up today. Let’s get into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Rob: Inspiration means to me you have the desire or the drive to give all you have to something where the results of your effort benefit more than yourself. I think that goes for your work life or your personal life. I don’t really always feel there’s a separation of the two. I think that we aren’t whatever our jobs are. We aren’t a spouse. We aren’t a parent. We aren’t a son or a daughter or a friend at different times. We’re kind of all of that at once, but maybe just little different percentages of it from time to time. Some percentage of us is all of that, and I think all those different roles we play can positively impact the others.
Toni: I’m wondering if inspiration would be the common theme of all of those roles that we play, of how you’re inspired, and then how you act?
Rob: I think that’s a fair way to look at it, without a doubt. Yeah.
Toni: So, do you remember the last time you felt inspired?
Rob: I think I probably get a little inspired every day in some ways. I have two small children, 7-year-old twins. They’re inspiring every day to see them grow and them developing. After working 20+ years in sports, I now find myself in the financial world, so there’s plenty there to learn. The opportunities to learn and grow there, I can't help but be inspired with some of the new opportunities that are in front of me.
Toni: So, do you know? Is it a feeling that you have when you’re inspired? Do you know when you’re inspired?
Rob: I think sometimes you do. I think something clicks, and you just kind of get that. You know it. You know “it” when “it” arrives. But I think there might be some other times where maybe it doesn’t hit you right away and if you think back a little bit to a recent experience, you might realize that that was a moment there where I think inspiration may be struck.
Toni: So, how do you take that, when “it” happens and you know it, or whether you’re inspired and something later happens because you were inspired, how do you take that and put it into practice here in Berks County?
Rob: Well, I mean, I hope that I’m making an impact trying to play my part at work, Diamond Credit Union. It really is a cool place. I think we genuinely want to help our members live their best financial life. That’s such a cool thing to be part of. Even at work, we’re very active in the community. We volunteer a lot. We’re heavily involved with the American Cancer Society and the United Way. In my community — I live in the Fleetwood area, and I try to get to as many school and community functions — just be present. Just be part of it. Getting a little more involved.
I’ve coached youth baseball now for three years and counting, and you know, that’s pretty neat. Seeing the kids improve — maybe a kid where they’re not getting it right away but they start to figure things out, or you can relate it to them a little bit. We had a youngster this year who was pretty talented, but wasn’t all that focused or into it. We had a conversation one night. He really likes art. So, I started to relate baseball to art, and things started to click a little bit more for him. He dialed in a little bit more. Just finding that thing with him that we can relate to and try to get him to focus, because he had some ability. He had some ability, and that was good to do. You see the kids when their hard work is realized, and I think baseball helps teach life lessons and really get the kids ready for the road of life. I hope in those ways I’m putting it in action, both at work and at home and all those different roles that I talked about.
Toni: I think it’s pretty cool listening to you tell the story of how you put inspiration into practice, that you are using the connection or relevant point with someone to inspire them to do something differently or better.
Rob: And I’m talking about a 7-year-old boy here.
Toni: That’s amazing.
Rob: To figure that out and get them to make that connection with you, where you can see they take you a little more seriously at that point — and serious being a relative term, because again we’re talking about 7-year-olds — but you can see that you bonded a little bit, and they’ve gotten a little something out of it.
Toni: So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Rob: There’s a lot of people, and I could probably talk all day, because I really think you can find inspiration in anybody, whether you’ve known them forever and you’ve never been inspired by them or they inspire you every day, or it’s somebody you just met. I’ve got to start with my family. My wife’s is deaf. Everything she has, she puts into our family. She also has a very rewarding job with the Reading School District as the Director of Finance. She puts a lot into that. She’s right by my side supporting me in all things I do.
A couple years ago, we were short on baseball coaches and she was right out there on the field with me, coaching along. She’s like, “I don’t know anything about baseball.” I said, “You just kind of need to herd cattle. You’ve just got to keep the kids safe and all in the right spot.” She’s also gotten involved with the league helping out in the concession stand. She is the official/unofficial equipment manager in the Hackash household, making sure the kids always have their gear.
Then, my kids, too. They’re an inspiration. I think as adults, we have a lot of distractions, and understandably so. But you watch the kids — when they’re reading a book, they’re reading a book. When they’re watching a show or watching a movie, they’re watching that show; they’re watching the movie. When they’re doing their schoolwork, they’re doing their schoolwork. They’re playing a sport; they’re playing a sport. They’re just kind of in the moment, and they’re not all that worried about anything else. I get it. They’re kids. Adults, we can't be worry free, but I think we can table worry to a little bit later more than maybe we do sometimes, and just be in that moment and in that experience.
Then, on a professional level, gosh, there’s so many from the time I spent in baseball. Right now, my teammates at Diamond, they amaze me every day, because they really take serving that member and customer service to a new level. As a person in marketing, you’re putting the messages out there that you hope hit home with somebody and they want to come in and check you out. They’re so good, you have complete confidence that if you do something that hits home with somebody and gets them to come through your door, that person is well taken care of, and that message is backed up. It’s real. That means a lot.
Secondly, just in my time that I’ve been there, a year-and-a-half-ish, welcomed with open arms. Just an outsider that came from the world of sports into the financial realm, and the way everybody’s taken me in and made me feel part of things and trusted me, that means a ton. You don’t want to let those people down. That’s really inspiring, the way they’ve just welcomed me and made me feel one of their own. The other day, one of my friends at work said, “What have you been here now? Like four or five years?” It’s just been that good of a fit and feel. So, I think those things really — those are folks, people I admire a lot. They inspire me.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Rob: Wow. I think, first of all, I hope I have a long, long time to go yet before we start talking about my legacy, but I think I hope that people will say, “We were able to depend on him. When he was around and he was a part of the project or whatever, no matter if it was big or small, that we had the confidence in him,” to the point knowing that I was going to fulfill my role that would put you at ease, so that you can thrive in yours. You can count on me. That’s what I think I would want my legacy to be.
Toni: As I’ve said hundreds of times in this interview, we live our legacy every single day and every single moment, and the way you’ve answered these questions, how you describe who inspires you and why and what it means to you, it sounds very much like you’re very dedicated, you can count on you, and what a wonderful way to be living your legacy every day.
Rob: Thanks, Toni. I appreciate that very much.
Toni: You’re welcome, and thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Rob: It was a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome.
