6 David Anderson: From NFL to the Business World

Welcome to episode 6 of The School of Greatness. This episode features someone who I instantly connected with, David Anderson. I had an instant connection with David because we both played most fun position in football (wide receiver), wore the jersey #4 at some point during our career, played professionally, and have a passion for relationships […] Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Hello everyone and welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes. I'm an author, lifestyle entrepreneur, former pro athlete and world record holder in football. My goal with the School of Greatness is to share with you stories from the most inspiring business minds, world-class athletes and influential celebrities on the planet to find out what makes great people great. So please leave us a review on iTunes and join us on the web at schoolofgreatness.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out. Now let's get after it.

• 0:50Lewis Howes?

  Hey, hey, hey, what's up guys? Thanks so much for checking out this episode. And before I get into it and introduce who my next guest is for the School of Greatness, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone out there who's been listening, downloading, commenting. You guys have been leaving me some amazing messages online about this show and it's extremely inspiring and motivating me to continue bringing on great guests for you and covering this topic on the School of Greatness. Now, wanted to say something really quick. I've had a lot of five-star reviews on iTunes. Just want to say thanks to a few of the people out there who've left some reviews and I'll

• 1:30Lewis Howes?

  mention a few at the end, but Julia Price I saw left a great message, Canal Girl, Chicago Crazy, Chris G10, I see Daniel Coleman, The Motivated Creative, Todd Bowen, Ram427, Johnny King, Nicola James, lots and lots of great people. I'll mention some more at the very end again, but you guys are a part of the reason what's driving me to continue doing this and it's extremely positive. Had well over 20,000 downloads in the first couple of weeks of the podcast. It's been on the top of the new and noteworthy section on iTunes, pretty much in the first few spots every day. So I couldn't do it without you guys. I appreciate you.

• 2:14Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much. And our next guest that I'm bringing on is a cool guy that I've recently met. And his name's David Anderson. Now, he played in the NFL for about six years and he'll actually share his story here in just a second, but this is a guy that does not really look like an amazing athlete. When you, when you meet him, when you talk to him, you know, he's a, he's a smaller guy, but he, he played at the top level of one of the most athletic leagues in the world, the NFL, and he played at a, at a high level for a long time. Now, we're going to talk about his whole story, what he really did while he was there, kind of some, some interesting stuff he did with Peyton Manning and some of the best quarterbacks

• 2:59Lewis Howes?

  in the world, what he learned from them, the mindset of a champion and some other great things. He'll get into that in a second, but I just want to take a quick minute to let you know that we, we have a new sponsor for the show and the sponsor is onit.com. Now with that, let's get into the interview with my man, David Anderson.

• 3:26Lewis Howes?

  What's up everyone? Hope you're having a great day today. I'm with a new friend of mine who we've hit it off pretty well. We just had lunch here in Hollywood area and now we're back at my place in West Hollywood. Thought we'd get together and do a little recording for the School of Greatness. His name is David Anderson and he is a six-year NFL vet, wide receiver for the Houston Texans most of your time. And then tell me a little bit more about all the other places.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Well, Houston Texans, I had the privilege of getting cut five times. So if chasing your dream is something that I definitely was doing that, but I played a little training camp with the Denver Broncos, went back to the Texans and then finished up my career with the Washington Redskins.

• 4:07Lewis Howes?

  Washington Redskins. And then you got, so you didn't get injured, you just got cut at the end, right?

• 4:11Speaker 01

  I didn't get injured. Actually finished my career. I was just fine. I just didn't sign back with Washington. I was planning on finishing out a great season and getting a big $10 million deal like Wes Welker, but they didn't, we weren't on the same page. So instead, I just kind of waited throughout free agency and you know, like probably 99% of the NFL, the NFL retires you instead of you retiring from the NFL. Not even Brett Favre got to decide when he wanted to quit. So I walked away healthy and happy and Now ready to go on something new.

• 4:40Lewis Howes?

  Right, so tell, tell the listeners what type of player you, you resembled or what type of.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  Well, unfortunately, NFL is a rather a, a label type of business. Um, you know, I'm, I'm white and I'm five ten, so immediately. I came in the NFL and Wes Welker was still unknown, so they didn't compare me to Wes Welker. They would say Steve Tasker or. Tim Dwight or, you know, basically they're five ten white people is what it is. When I always thought my game kind of resembled a little more of like a Santana Moss. Or some, or Steve Smith, who actually went to Utah and was a punt returner. Granted, they're, they're actually were a little more athletic, but our numbers weren't that different. And I was planning on playing receiver. There wasn't a position called slot receiver when I was, uh, first. I was gonna be a wide out, yeah, just like what you think you're gonna do and, uh, not until you leave college.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Are you, do you realize that you're not, A, you're not as good as you think? And you can't be a craft of everything. You have to learn what you do and do that well. There's only probably two receivers, probably not even. You wouldn't put Calvin Johnson in the middle of field to run five yard outs, cause. He's just not good at that. Step strides are too long or something like that, so you put him outside where he does best and his matchups are, are, you know, you can exploit them a little better, so. Um, you gotta realize what you do well and, and that happened to be in the middle of the field where some guys aren't willing to go and, and a lot of guys. They, they grow alligator arms in the middle of field and I was willing to throw my body around there and I understood the position of defense, so. I, uh, was able to exploit them a little better.

• 6:12Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly. So you went to Colorado State and you had four successful years there. Did you play all four years?

• 6:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, didn't red shirt, went there right away. I graduated in three and a half, actually. Be proud of me.

• 6:23Lewis Howes?

  Did you start as a freshman?

• 6:24Speaker 01

  I did not, I started two games as a freshman. Uh, I didn't play my first game, my. Freshman year at CSU, we beat Virginia, at Virginia, and then we beat CU at, at Mile High Stadium. Uh, Virginia was ranked, I think fifteen, CU was number four, and we weren't ranked, CSU was not ranked. And then we came to the Rose Bowl and played UCLA and we lost by two point conversion. We were supposed to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but that was when Fresno State had David Carr and they won and they got on the cover of Sports Illustrated, so. We just missed the bus there, but yeah, uh, played my freshman year and then started sophomore, junior, senior.

• 7:00Lewis Howes?

  What was the most exciting game you ever played in in college?

• 7:03Speaker 01

  Uh, against Colorado at their place. It was a back and forth football game. We were down four. Um, with like a minute thirty left, we drive down the field. I catch the ball. And if there was a review, it would be a touchdown, but it was before there was the review. So they could spot the ball on the one yard line and we don't have any timeouts and there's like twenty eight seconds left. We have a run play. We get stuffed at the one again. We run off the field, try to run jumbo on, we snap the ball.

• 7:36Lewis Howes?

  Field goal.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  No. Down four. Jumbo, the big package.

• 7:39Lewis Howes?

  Got you.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  They hiked the ball, the running back goes the wrong way, quarterback peels back around, gets tackled, we lose the game.

• 7:45Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  They stormed the field.

• 7:47Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  I'm throwing punches at students. And that was the last game against Colorado.

• 7:52Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man. My friend, Adam Bornstein is a huge, uh, a huge Colorado guy, graduated there, would love to hear that story from your side.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know. But, uh.

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  He was probably storming the field that game.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Mason, I can say Mason Crosby, the kicker for the Packers ruined my college career. I think he made a, he made four field goals over fifty yards, my junior and senior years.

• 8:13Lewis Howes?

  Oh, wow.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  It was crazy.

• 8:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  And I mean, you're in that Colorado altitude. I'd see him warming up, kicking like seventy five yards.

• 8:19Lewis Howes?

  Geez, man.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  You kick field goals in college?

• 8:23Lewis Howes?

  I kicked a, I kicked a forty two yarder in high school, actually.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  With the old toe punt?

• 8:27Lewis Howes?

  No, man, soccer stuff, because I used to play soccer. I was a varsity soccer player my freshman year. I didn't play football until my sophomore year in high school.

• 8:34Speaker 01

  I played my freshman year, it was my first year.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  Did you? Yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  I was basketball, otherwise.

• 8:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I played basketball too, so, interesting. Um, so this is, you guys are learning a lot about David, just like I am, because we just met a few hours ago. We've been talking online, did Twitter and email, back and forth, kind of. Talking about stuff because David is now retired from the NFL. This was his last season was in two thousand.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Last year, yeah, so not this year.

• 8:58Lewis Howes?

  Two thousand and eleven.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  Twelve season, but yeah.

• 9:00Lewis Howes?

  Two thousand twelve, two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve, whatever.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:03Lewis Howes?

  And so this year he uh he was in shape, you know, hopefully gonna play, but then for whatever reason didn't happen. And you feel pretty okay with that, right?

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, um, you know, it's tough. You obviously you stay in shape. You hope someone calls. You're considered a free agent and there's a lot of good players out there just waiting to get picked up, but. Um, you could blame a lot of things, you know, the CBA structure, that the guys had to pay you a certain amount to bring you in. Um, that there is younger players, you know, that the practice squad can only be filled by certain players. That they had these vets that a player of my size or caliber can only play these certain positions. There's a lot of factors which you could use excuses.

• 9:41Lewis Howes?

  A lot of excuses.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  But that's all they are is excuses.

• 9:43Lewis Howes?

  But really, if you're a playmaker, are they liked you now?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  If they really liked you and you're in the right system and you fit and then then you you make plays and then they then they pay you and they keep you and um. You know, that goes for a lot of things in life, you know, you could you could very well still be on a couch in Ohio for all your listeners. I learned that today, so you just hope that you meet the right people, that you get put in the right situations and you know, it happens in the NFL, just like the business world, you know. You could go work for NBC, but if you were on CBS, you'd have your own show and instead you're you're you're watching television, so. It's uh it's humbling, but I mean, I still got to play six years.

• 10:19Lewis Howes?

  You gotta take it.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  It was fun.

• 10:20Lewis Howes?

  Now, was the dream as a kid always to be a in the NBA or to be a pro foot a pro athlete?

• 10:26Speaker 01

  I think in fifth grade, my mom showed me this uh like book report. I wrote that I wanted to play either. Football for football for Notre Dame and in the NFL or play basketball for UCLA and work for Fox. I don't know how this.

• 10:41Lewis Howes?

  Fifth grade?

• 10:41Speaker 01

  Fifth grade is what I said this, so I didn't do any of them in college, but I played in the NFL, but yeah, I I. I had aspirations to always. Be the best in athletics. You know, I think that's just the way I looked at it that. I I was I was good, oh, oh, growing up, I was always the best player on the team. In eighth grade, I was probably not the best player on the team. I played on an inner-city basketball team here in California. Four, four of those guys play in the NBA.

• 11:10Lewis Howes?

  They're probably grown ass men.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  They were grown men. Gilbert Arenas was on our team, uh, Brandon Heath who plays over in Europe, was a great basketball player. Poo Richardson, who plays for the Trail Blazers, there's a lot of great players around that team and I end up playing football in NBA. So it's just, it just shows that athletically. To all you guys, to all you people listening that are parents, your children will decide what sport to play and. They will get found. You don't have to put your kid in third grade and. You know, the school, the Peyton Manning school and and learn how to be a quarterback already. If they're a good athlete and they learn how to play.

• 11:41Lewis Howes?

  Cause you get found or when you're fourteen, not when you're.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, and and just like you, you played all sports growing up and and I think that's a healthy way to do it. Cause you get a taste, you find out what you like and you don't get burnt out. You kind of uh, go about it at your own pace and. And you know, as a parent, you wouldn't decide a a career on your kid. So that if you're trying to decide a sport, that's that might be a career. So you gotta be careful in what you're picking. You wouldn't tell your kid, you know, you gotta be a photographer and. You don't ever put this camera down. So it's the same thing for uh, you know, say, oh, you're gonna play basketball your career or tennis or whatever it is.

• 12:15Lewis Howes?

  Right. Now, why did you wanna be, why did you wanna be the best at what you were doing? Why did you wanna be a pro athlete? Why did you wanna be like? What was it mentally or was there something that happened when you're?

• 12:27Speaker 01

  When I was, I had older brothers, uh, that are ten years and twenty years older. And so I was always challenged. I'm the youngest, youngest of three, um, and my brother was ten years older. So when I was eight, he was eighteen and I remember him coming back from his freshman year of college. And asking if I wanna play basketball and that was my sport and I beat him in one on one.

• 12:47Lewis Howes?

  When you were eight?

• 12:48Speaker 01

  When I was eight and he was eighteen.

• 12:49Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Pushed me in the back and I slammed my head through the garage. My dad comes out and asks what happened and he said that I got mad and I punted the ball into the garage. And right then I knew that I was, that I had won because my brother not only lost, but had to make an excuse for his loss. They didn't lie about him losing. So I was like, okay, this is the way it's gonna go. I'm fine with this and and. And I just kept, you know, I used that type of motivation and I never. You know, people meet me, they're like, oh, you're small, or you're this, or that. I never, I nev- I've never had a different body, so I don't know how that works. I just know the gifts that I was provided with athletically, I I use them to the best I knew how and um.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  I just always kind of found a way to get open playing football in high school. I I wasn't that much smaller in high school. I was kind of full grown almost, so. And speed wise, I was just fine. And in college, I went to Colorado State where I probably had had a. Earlier opportunity to play, opposed if I went to an SC school or Pac-10 school. I I'm I'm confident that I would have played at those schools. But I've probably been like, yeah, junior, senior. Right. So I got on the field earlier, I got exposed to the talent, I got exposed to the speed and I learned and. My sophomore year, one of our receivers got drafted and I was better than he was. Really? So my sophomore year, I knew. He was a senior. He was a senior. My sophomore year, I knew I was gonna play. I'm like, alright, my new goal, NFL. Wow. Get drafted. And so basically, that's what I s- I set set my sights on. And that was as high as you can go, right? So.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  At that point, you know, you're you're you're in and I was in it to win it. And so. You know, I just I trained every day sophomore, junior year, like I was trying to play in the NFL. If they said run once, I'd run twice. Yeah. They say six AM run and three afternoon run, I ran six AM and three in the afternoon. Wow. Um, I was never a huge lifter, because that really didn't matter. It I felt like with my size. There's not a big difference between one ninety-five and two oh five. You're still small, a a smaller receiver. It's more about speed and. It's more about what what is your, what do you feel comfortable in your body doing? Yeah. And how can you, you know, what is your weight to play best at? Not what do they think your weight is to play best at? And so. I understood that at an early age and and I kind of just went about sports like that and.

• 15:00Speaker 01

  So, you know, better asking your question, why I wanted to be great is I didn't know anything else, to be honest. It was just the way I was gonna do it. Hmm. Now.

• 15:09Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. What's been the hardest uh thing mentally for you through college and the NFL? Like to learn how to adapt? Cause when you go from high school to college, I remember my freshman year was like a smack in the face just trying to learn like system, the offense and new team and everything. What did you do or how did you deal with the mental challenges of college football, big time college football and then the ama- immense stress in the NFL?

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, uh. I would say going, when people ask about the speed and and everything, I'd say when you play high school football, everyone everyone's ran on ran on a treadmill. So high school football was like walking on a treadmill and talking to the person next to you. That's what high school football was like. College football was like you hit hit it up five miles per hour faster and now they asking you questions and you have to answer questions.

• 15:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, like.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  Just normal questions. It'd be like if we were doing this on uh on a treadmill, we're running now, you know, you sometimes you you think of two things. NFL is you turn it all the way up and they ask you, you know, factor out, factor out the X in this equation, you know, give me, give me the slope of this line. You're like, well, I remember that, but how do I do this? And you're running as fast as you can, like the routes aren't any different and stuff like that, but you're already running full speed and you know you have to catch up and stuff and so you have to fight that mental. Some some way you have to slow the game down. Either you have to be fast enough to where the game's slow or you have to think fast enough to where the game is all is in front of you.

• 16:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  So that would be the way I would say how to adapt. Now, it's about putting in hours. Uh if you go back to my phone, I was doing it the other day. I have voice recordings of me saying the plays to myself and then thinking about the play because I didn't learn, looking at a playbook is is fine. I learned the plays, but you don't, the quarterback doesn't come out with a book.

• 16:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  He says them to you, so you do have to be able to visualize it. It's not about reading it and putting and being able to do it. It's about hearing it and be able to do it. So I would read myself the plays. It's about finding a way to learn, finding a way to prepare yourself for when the opportunity comes. And I think that's the way I showed up and I was constantly present and I was, I was never hurt. I was always on the field. And if someone needed a rep or was tired, I would, I would go get a rep and you know, I would, I would be open backside. Yeah, I didn't get the ball, but they can never say he was covered backside like, hey, we maybe we should throw this guy the ball. So.

• 17:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  You know, it's about just finding, finding what you do well, uh, finding your approach and, and setting yourself apart and however you have to do that. You know, some guys, and we had guys that would tape on, you know, with the white tape on the wrist. If you look on the inside, they have the 10 routes that they have throughout the day and they're all written down, left side of the formation, da, da, da. They, they don't want, you don't want to be the guy that's getting wrong. And some guys.

• 17:51Lewis Howes?

  Do whatever it takes.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  They gave him 10 million dollars so they can make more mistakes and some guys are giving them 10 grand and you have to be perfect on every play. So.

• 17:57Lewis Howes?

  Jeez.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  You just got to know your, know your role as they say.

• 17:59Lewis Howes?

  Know your role. It's interesting because you know, in business or in sports, I always talk about. You've got to put a lot of the time and, and energy and experience, get the experience first and then just so you're ready when your number's called. Because just like you said, you gotta be ready, you gotta be open when they throw you the ball.

• 18:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:16Lewis Howes?

  If you're not open, then they can't throw you the ball. You gotta have the chance to be open.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  Absolutely. You know, and, and, and it's about setting that groundwork, that experience. It's, it's why, why would they give you this opportunity? You have to prove that you've, you've earned that opportunity.

• 18:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  You know, and that's something we talked about at lunch and we'll probably touch on here is, is getting that experience to prepare yourself. And then finding what you want to do to, to do that. You know what I mean? Like a lot of people are like, oh, I can do this. I can do that. But no one's going to hire someone for six months.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  If someone wants someone that's going to grind for two years and then they'll give you an opportunity and so, you know, it's gotta be. NFL will expose you and uh, if you're just, if you think you're going to go in there and get a job in six months, you're wrong.

• 18:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  Cause they don't, they don't pay seventh rounders until you're three. So you have to hang around for at least three years. And so.

• 19:02Lewis Howes?

  What's, what's, what's the minimum salary for?

• 19:04Speaker 01

  Minimum salary for a seventh rounder when, when I was there was 265. Now I think it's 365. So it goes up like 25 uh, a grand a year, but um. Which is nice money, but say you only play one season, you've made 365,000 dollars. You probably take home 120. Cause you've got to pay your agent, you gotta pay some bills. You probably owe, you know.

• 19:25Lewis Howes?

  Student loans.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  Student loans or some credit card bills or your car or whatever. So now you have 120,000 dollars. You have, hopefully you graduated from. You know, Mississippi State, if you didn't, you gotta go back to school.

• 19:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  So now you have, where are you? You know, I mean, that's the problem with a lot of guys.

• 19:41Lewis Howes?

  Twenty-four, twenty-five and you're.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  And you have zero experience and you're and you're, you know, just sent out there on the world and hopefully you've made, you know, you didn't make too many mistakes. Personally, where you have mouths to feed or anything like this, but that's just too common amongst players, you know, they think that. You know, they've had so many coaches and people helping them in their entire lives.

• 19:58Lewis Howes?

  It's indebted to like.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:59Lewis Howes?

  When someone asks you, you wanna give back.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, so now it's.

• 20:03Lewis Howes?

  Well, I think the stat on from Sports Illustrated was eighty, seventy-eight percent of NFL athletes go bankrupt two years after they retire.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, the NFL and basketball is pretty bad and it's not the exact reason because the career is not over three years, alright, so those guys are almost most definitely go bankrupt because I don't have any money to begin with. And so, I mean, bankrupt, if you had fifteen, you have zero, I guess that's considered bankrupt too, but you always want, you always hear about the guy who had.

• 20:27Lewis Howes?

  Twenty million.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  You know, twenty million is bankrupt. Well, it wasn't really twenty million, um, he got, he spent a lot of it having fun, living the lifestyle. Um, he was kinda risky in some business investments and then he just didn't understand how it really works. The day he retires, it's, it's over, that paycheck isn't coming, there's nothing coming. People are like, oh, you have an NFL pension. Well, a lot of guys don't retire officially retire for two, three years because they still wanna be can be able to go back in the NFL, so that hasn't even showed up yet. And that's only about thirty-five grand.

• 21:00Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  If you're used to living off a million, five, two million dollars, thirty-five grand you can waste in a weekend.

• 21:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  And they're, so they're just trying to figure out, you know, a way to stay afloat. And so they're hoping this new risky business is gonna come in, oh, I gave, you know, three million bucks to this sports facility in Florida that's supposed to, you know, turn athletes forties and, you know, drop three tents and all of a sudden, oh wait, the trainer, you know, dipped out and now we have no money and he's living in the Bahamas. And you're at.

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  Fifty grand a month.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're gone, yeah. And your name's on the lease and you still owe nine million dollars, now your three million turned into a six million dollar investment and you got none of it back, so. That happens, I mean, I think that happened to Mark Brunel, that's happened to a lot of guys that played fourteen, fifteen years and.

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  So, I mean, they do a better job of educating you now, but you're just not prepared, the, the difference is you work your whole life. Uh, as a normal business person and you're forty years old and you're prepared to get money. You've worked your way up, you've steadily stayed afloat, you know how to get money. Well, these kids, myself included, you're twenty-three years old, you they've been, you know, pushed through school in order to just be eligible. And now they hand you ten million dollars, you don't have any idea. How to really turn that ten million into something that's sustainable for life, how to manage it, who not to give it to, where to put it, how to save it. How not to, you know, what to spend it on, what not to spend it on, and so it's just gone in an instant.

• 22:25Lewis Howes?

  And the NFL tries to do some education programs, but really. There's a disconnect between the the people talking and the the athletes, they're not listening to them, they're not, they don't really care, they just wanna make money.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  Knowing things that can happen to them, you know, and they're and uh.

• 22:39Lewis Howes?

  You get the huge checks coming in every week. Uh, a friend of mine, Jared Nicholas, who played for a couple of seasons for the Rams back in the day and another team. Uh, I think the Patriots, he he, I remember he told, he said that. First week after he signed with them, after training camp, he got like twenty-five thousand dollar check or something, the first week he was just blown away by this check, it was like twenty, twenty-five grand. And he said next to him was, uh, shoot, who's the old? Who was the quarterback before, uh? That's for the Patriots, before Brady, Bledsoe, right?

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, Drew Bledsoe.

• 23:13Lewis Howes?

  He got a in- head injury or whatever?

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 23:15Lewis Howes?

  So he was a quarterback then, and he said he was his locker man or whatever, and he threw down his check, cause he didn't really care, he's like, ah, whatever, he threw his check down. It's a quarter million dollars.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:24Lewis Howes?

  So every week he's getting a quarter million dollar check.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  Well, there's a great story about that, Mike Flanagan used to play center for the Houston Texans, he said he was cleaning out Brett, he'll helping Brett Favre clean out his lockers. Brett Favre had two lockers in Green Bay, and he found a check in the back for four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars that he had. Yet to cash, it was like a year and a half old.

• 23:43Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  He didn't even know it was in the back, he didn't, nor did he care, and he's like, oh, I'll I'll take that, like, he's like, yeah, by the way, there's just a. Almost a half a million dollars sitting in the back of the locker, so.

• 23:52Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, and now they do direct deposit, otherwise guys would have a serious problem. Could you imagine how awkward it is, some guys walk in with a hundred thousand dollar check to Wells Fargo in your student account that you had last year, and they're like, you should probably invest this. And I mean, they don't know any better, it happened to me.

• 24:09Lewis Howes?

  They're gonna buy a bunch of cars or something. What'd you do with your first check? Your first.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  I drove a Toyota SR5 all through high school and college. That's the year before they came out with the Tacoma. Eighty-nine. I was six years younger than I was, the car. And so I, I, I seventh round, I got a signing bonus.

• 24:30Lewis Howes?

  Well, what's your claim to fame about seventh round pick?

• 24:32Speaker 01

  Seventh round, two fifty-one. Marcus Colston was one pick behind me. Still playing.

• 24:38Lewis Howes?

  What's his contract like?

• 24:39Speaker 01

  I don't know what it is now. I think he got a, I think he's on his third deal. He must be because we signed three-year deals or four-year, now he might be on the tail end of his second deal, but anyway, he's got a lot of money.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  And so I bought a Ford F-150 out of Houston. That's the first thing I bought. Then I got my mom a new washer and dryer.

• 24:58Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  I was a good son.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  You gotta get your mom something, right?

• 25:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, your mom's, I told her I was gonna get her a car, but I just didn't have the means yet. It's never happened, but you know, she's, she's doing just fine.

• 25:08Lewis Howes?

  Nice. So tell me about, I wanna know more about the mindset of some of the greatest athletes you played with in the NFL? And what really separated the guys like, uh, like you said Peyton Manning at lunch, who was just like the most unbelievable quarterback you've played with or caught with. What really separates these guys' minds over maybe a a great athlete, but that doesn't perform as well?

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Um, you uh, you know, they're not bullshitting. They, they speak in very simple terms. They can break down the game or their process just the same way that they play the game or the process. Athletically, they look like it's not difficult. The game does not look that hard for Peyton Manning. It looks like he has plenty of time. It looks like he know, like, like his players are wide open or every now and then he'll make a great pass. But he knows what he's doing before the game, uh, before the ball's snapped. He's done all the preparation throughout the week and he speaks the same way. So when you're standing there and he's explaining to you why you need to come out the route downhill, why you should bleed up field on this certain route.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  You understand why, cause he's using, you know, terms you understand.

• 26:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  He's relating it to the way you usually run the route. He's explaining the defense and their leverage and how you can use that against them. And then you watch guys like Andre Johnson and Arian Foster that I that I played with in Houston. And they do the same thing, but without words, you know what I mean, the you. You don't have to use a lot of words to get your point across and that's uh something I see in the business world that translates is. Some of the smartest men just listen.

• 26:42Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  And they let you make the mistakes and then they'll they'll they know where to capitalize or things like that and.

• 26:48Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  If you understand, you know how to ask the right questions, you pay attention to the right pieces of information. You you can do wonders and those guys do that, they they understood blitz pickup, they understood when they can, you know, run the route a little different. They understand athletically what they can get away with. And and they did that and they exposed people and. Um, you know, you have to know what you just like I said earlier, you have to know what you do well. And fortunately for those guys, they're such talented football players and athletes, they do a lot of stuff better than anyone else. So they just do that and they say, you know, come get, catch me if you can, basically. So, uh. That's a fun way to look at it and I think it's it's easy for people to understand because.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  It looks so easy to them and it's and it's not, it's not easy to them, they just have, they they understand themselves, they understand the game. They understand how to tell people, they understand. You know, uh their awareness is is is like heightened, I don't know why you knew how to spin, the guy was behind you, how did you know the spin? You know, they're like, I don't know, I just felt it, you know, things like that, why did you invest in this, I don't know, it just. It sounded like a great, it's sound, you know what I mean, like everyone, everyone did it, why would you do that, da da da, it's the same thing and so. Um, it's interesting to see those people and you just hope that they have success off the field like they did on.

• 28:06Lewis Howes?

  Now, why, how do people like that, how do you think a person like Peyton Manning will learns how to be that way? Like, how does he transform his mind from just a kid? Playing football in the backyard, probably going through stress and struggle with high school to football, college, girls and relationships to like. How do you, how does someone mold their minds?

• 28:24Speaker 01

  I would say first reps.

• 28:26Lewis Howes?

  To think like a champion.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Reps, you know, uh, he's probably never. Everything done on the field, he's probably repped out ten times in person in practice and he's probably repped a hundred times mentally already.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Every situation.

• 28:39Speaker 01

  Oh, every situation. I, I, I'm willing to bet he's probably been caught by surprise two times in his NFL career. You'd never see that guy just get laid out, meleeed from behind, like unless something breaks down protection, like you see a left tackle just get, you know. Bulldoze or something, yeah, so, and it's their fault. So, uh, I'd say reps and then that's what creates the, his comf- he's comfortable. He's comfortable and then he's confident because he's comfortable and then when you're confident and you're comfortable and you're prepared. It's up to you and, and however successful you are to things. Oh, it's, it's like the matrix all of a sudden. And that happens to every great athlete you see and I remember it happened to me in college. In the NFL, I think it happened. One season I had the game slow down and then other seasons after you don't get a reps, it speeds back up again.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  But I specifically remember in college against Fresno State in my freshman year, all of a sudden it's like. Everyone was a step slower than I thought they were. It's just like every, the game just went on slow mo and pause. And that's what it must be like for Peyton Manning, even amongst the fastest humans on the planet. It just looks to him like the game is just a game of chess that he's sitting back there. And he's toying with you with his language, he's pointing at people that doesn't matter. He's doing mic calls and that's not even the mic, but he's sending, you know, they're doing opposite calls and so he, he's definitely a step ahead of people. My favorite is when you listen to like those NFL audibles or those, uh, sound FX and they're like, I know what he's saying. When he says this, they're doing this and then you see him all run to the left and he goes to the right and like he, he, he knows you think you know, he's, he's. The old double reverse psychology.

• 30:11Lewis Howes?

  That's hilarious. Now you said you got to catch with him a couple of times or one time?

• 30:14Speaker 01

  One time I caught, I caught a couple of Peyton passes. Uh, well, you know, I caught a lot of, I caught a couple from Tom Brady. Majority of Southern California can catch a lot of SC quarterbacks. So I caught a lot from Carson Palmer and Matt Liner and Matt Castle. Um, your boy Brandon Hance. Uh, he's very down then, but, uh. Realist, I mean, you get to that level, it's hard to tell. And I think, I think Peyton puts it on, puts the ball in a certain place, which is nice. Carson Palmer looks like robo quarterback. I mean, he just, the ball's so sharp, comes out fast. You know, sometimes it's a little behind you or whatnot, but it, he definitely looks a part in his deliveries.

• 30:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  I mean, you look at Peyton's balls, they're all wobbly. You know, and awkward, but they're exactly where they're supposed to be. So it's tough to say, but you know, those quarterbacks. I always wished I played quarterback, but then when I got to the NFL, I'm like, no, thanks.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  Oh, right.

• 31:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, no.

• 31:08Lewis Howes?

  Beatings, man.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, no.

• 31:10Lewis Howes?

  Drew Brees is doing pretty well. He's about your height.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  You say it, maybe he's your height.

• 31:14Lewis Howes?

  He's like six.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  How tall are you?

• 31:15Lewis Howes?

  Six four.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  You're six four?

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  You gotta look up your profile.

• 31:19Lewis Howes?

  I'm six four. I was six four, flat foot at the Ohio State combine.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 31:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  Never, never creeped over six.

• 31:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's all right. He played in the NFL. I did it.

• 31:31Lewis Howes?

  All right, so what, um, tell me some other, tell me some other stories about, um, we're talking about, um, Tebow. Now, this is a guy that people either love or hate.

• 31:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:41Lewis Howes?

  And, uh, you don't have to tell me if you love him or hate him, but you told me I had some interesting conversations with him. You have, you have to catch with him when you were playing with the Broncos for a little bit. Uh, but you actually didn't play a game with the Broncos.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  I played, well, I played preseason game with Tebow. I was second, uh, I was, I was running, I was running with the twos. And so I would go in there with Tebow. And actually I preferred to go in with Quinn at the time.

• 32:03Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  Cause as a veteran receiver, um, and you go in with Tim Tebow, a lot of times you weren't sure, um.

• 32:10Lewis Howes?

  He's gonna put the ball to the mark.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  Well, not, not only that, was he gonna put the ball on the mark or not, but a lot of times you're like, I'm not supposed to get the ball in this coverage. I'm not supposed to get the ball. Why is he looking at me? Why is he looking at me? He should not be looking at me.

• 32:20Lewis Howes?

  On the third option.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Do not throw the ball over here. There's a guy standing right in front. And then you would throw it and you look bad because you're like, you run the other direct. You don't want to get melee'd or something like that. And say what you want about guys getting alligator arms. But when you know you're not supposed to get the ball and they throw the ball your way, you're like, this is gonna end in disaster. So.

• 32:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  That would happen a couple, happen a couple of times, um. I had never seen anything like it when when Tebow was in Denver. He was beyond a fan freight uh favorite. He would he would scramble in seven on seven drills for for all of you listening. Seven on seven is uh no no alignment. But it's not even seven on seven. It's actually a quarterback and four receivers. Yeah, a quarterback, four receivers and a running back. So we actually have five against their seven for uh three linebackers and four DBs. So uh and yeah, and you're supposed to get rid of the ball in like two, three seconds, like if there was a rush. Well, Tebow would start scrambling. Shut up. During seven on seven drills if no one was open and some and I would stop running because I was with when I was with the Texans, you don't scramble. You just throw the ball to the back if no one's open.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  Or bury it and go to the next play. He would start scrambling and all these guys would run around and stuff and I wasn't used to it. And then he would throw this bomb and someone catching his own, the crowd would go crazy. I'm like, this isn't. That's not real. There's no one chasing him. And then every now and then he would do it in real life. So he'd be like, well, I guess it's kind of real. But uh it was interesting and I have. My perspective is that he's he's pretty guarded because just like you said, you either hate him beyond belief or you absolutely love him more than anything and uh. He does a great job with with all his charities. He gives a lot of his time away to people. I know he was very generous to a lot of uh you know, underprivileged people. You know, all throughout Denver and you know, pretty much I think he's got charity in Philippines and you know Cuba or whatever, all over the world.

• 34:07Speaker 01

  But he also has this edge about him that he always wants to compete and things like that. And some people take that the wrong way, especially within a locker room. Like if you're a backup quarterback, a lot of time you're supposed to be a support system for the starter. Not trying to get. Not trying to get it or or you know, pushing the media towards you or anything like that. And he wouldn't back away. And so there's nothing. Wrong with that, the way he did it, but he also didn't deflect the the attention and stuff. So. Yeah. Um, I could see how that wrote people the wrong way, but. I mean, he won a Heisman Trophy, uh he got drafted in the first round, won, I think, two national titles. So. You can't mock him as an athlete as as far as where he's gonna go, you know, from now on and and whatnot, you know, you just wish him the best of luck. He'll be just fine. I think he just signed a but.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Couple million dollars to say he likes TiVo, doesn't he? I think he does, he's back with TiVo.

• 34:56Lewis Howes?

  TiVo.

• 34:57Speaker 01

  TiVo, yeah, I don't know, they start, they signed him as a brand ambassador. I was like, I'll be a brand ambassador for anything. The old foot cameras, I'll be a band, the, the wind up cameras, I'll bring those back. You want a brand ambassador?

• 35:10Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Now, um, greatest athlete you were talking about before, who do you think is the greatest athlete you've ever seen?

• 35:17Speaker 01

  Great, the two greatest athletes, uh, that, that I've seen are Reggie Bush and Andre Johnson. Uh, that I've seen in person once is LeBron James, I saw him play against the Lakers.

• 35:26Lewis Howes?

  He's a freak.

• 35:27Speaker 01

  Uh, and so I like to put those guys kind of all in the same carry category because I think not, not only are they athletically superior, obviously great mindsets when it comes to sports. But they're great athletes too. They could probably play any professional sport, just so happened they played the one they could play.

• 35:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  I mean, it'd be, it'd be, if you said LeBron wanted to go play goalie for the US national team, you'd be like, he's gonna be the greatest goalie I've ever seen, no one's gonna get by this guy. If you said, or receiver. Or he could play tight end receiver, or if you just say, hey, he picked up a tennis racket, wait till you see him play. None of us would be surprised if all of a sudden he was smashing a hundred, a hundred mile power serves on people. I mean, the, the, even with the tennis racket, his reach would be sideline to sideline. And the same goes for like Reggie Bush, I bet, you know, feet wise, it'd be tougher, you can give him a soccer ball or, or something like that. And so that's what I always tell people when they're like, who do you think the greatest athlete is? I was like, not only, you have to think athletically, you have to think, can they play another sport? Because of course you're gonna think like, can a basketball player play football or football player play basketball?

• 36:30Speaker 01

  But I would always say like, you know, uh, call it, is it Charles Rogers? No, uh, Sean Rogers, the D tackle that used to play for your Browns and a couple other, and the Lions, was one of the freakiest athletes I've ever seen. He's like three hundred and sixty pounds, he could three sixty dunk.

• 36:44Lewis Howes?

  Jeez.

• 36:44Speaker 01

  But he could never play in an NBA game, he wouldn't make it up and down the court, but I, you put three hundred and sixty pounds on anyone and for them to dunk a basketball, you'd be like, you have so much power.

• 36:53Lewis Howes?

  It's impressive.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  It'd be ridiculous.

• 36:54Lewis Howes?

  That's impressive. Now, I once heard this somewhere, I can't remember where, if this is a documentary, if there's some ESPN analyst or some, someone said that, um,

• 37:05Lewis Howes?

  The best champions in the world have one of two things. They have a belief in themself, a huge belief in themself. Uh, or a huge belief in their faith or God. And when you look at it, when you look at interviews of guys after they win a game or something. You either see a guy who's super cocky, who's like, yeah, I did this, I did this, me, me, me. But they so believe that they're like a god themselves, that they're so athletic and it's like all on them. It's that belief that allows them to like be so successful and dominate on everyone. Or you got the Tebow who's like, God first, you know, put my faith in God. He's like all God, God, God, faith, faith, faith, belief in something else. That he gets his strength from something else.

• 37:49Lewis Howes?

  Um, now, do you think that that's a true?

• 37:52Speaker 01

  I could get behind that.

• 37:53Lewis Howes?

  You get behind that?

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I could get behind that.

• 37:55Lewis Howes?

  Cause if you don't have the confidence and belief in yourself, either way.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:58Lewis Howes?

  You can't be successful.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  I, uh, I was kinda raised to be a open minded to all religions.

• 38:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Um, and so I, I think they all come from the same thing.

• 38:07Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  A belief that you're not here alone, that you're not, uh, you all share something. Whether, where you disagree about what you call that God. Or who is the messenger, the main messenger, that's fine. Everyone believes that you should be good to other people.

• 38:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  That you feel this spirit inside you, that this world was not created for something. So I can get behind that because I believe that.

• 38:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  And I believe that, you know, I, I'm put here for a reason, that there's a plan, that things happen to me and I'm supposed to go forward and make people around me better.

• 38:36Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  And to, uh, you know, whether it's part of a team, whether individually I do that and people rally behind me. However, that works, I, I, I believe in that. But you ultimately have to have a belief in yourself too.

• 38:47Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  Um, I don't, cause that, my only argument would be like, well, there's plenty of guys who, you know, those old school, uh, documentaries where he says, oh, I, you know, you, you used to drive around this neighborhood and I told my mom I'd buy her a car. I'm, I'm betting there's tons of athletes who didn't make it that also said that to their moms. As well as I bet there's a ton of heavy Christians or Catholics that didn't make it in the NFL as well. So you have to have a combination of both, I think, would, is what would really happen. Uh, or what's the, the truth. But yeah, I could get behind that. Yeah, I mean, it, it's about.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  I don't know, it it is about an inner self. You you don't you don't expect to lose.

• 39:27Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  You find ways to win. You change, you're not scared of change. You change your plans. You can adapt. You separate yourself somehow. You understand things better. You communicate. You do something that separates you constantly. And those are the people that I find that are great. Whether it's in business or in sports, you know, I've I've dabbled in broadcasting and there's these people that that make mistakes and they just run right over them and they don't even think of them and they think, you know, those people, I'm just like, wow, I'm like, I I used the wrong word there and I really like. Now I was even scared to say that word again. And they're like, oh, don't even worry about blah blah. It's the same that goes for the guy in business that made one mistake in the stock market. He's like, ah, happens.

• 40:10Speaker 01

  We're going on the next investment. This is going to do well. Same in sports. Oh, you ran the round route once. Ah, don't worry about it. They're going to throw it to me next time.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  Scan and they can bounce back.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  It's just, it's amazing and it's resilient. They're resilient, you know, and you have to be because as you get higher and higher, there's more people poking and prodding you. And there's more haters if, you know, no one boos the mailman is what Reggie Jackson used to say.

• 40:31Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  You know, if you can hide and do nothing and you'll be fine. But if you start getting, climbing the rakes in eighth, then you're more exposed.

• 40:38Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Now, what, um, why do you think these great athletes, super successful champions in football, any type of sport, why do you think when they retire, when they stop the game, that some of them can translate that mindset and that attitude into the business or life and others can't? You got guys who are committing suicide a lot recently. You got guys who go bankrupt and then who never get back on their feet, but they're once this amazing champion and really great. Why can't guys, or why can guys and then why can't they translate?

• 41:12Speaker 01

  I think, uh, there's a There's a bigger emphasis now on putting on creating a network while you're playing um. And getting a team behind you and getting a team to join, getting people in your corner. Now when you're playing, cause too often when guys are playing, everyone wants something from them. Hey, I got this investment. Hey, can you uh T-shirt company? Hey, you know, this record label I'm starting. Hey, do this, can you do this for me? But and everyone's trying to take from them, take, take, take. So they become really guarded and they shut down. And then your career's over and those people disappear because the fame and what you can give them is over and now no one's in your corner. And so you're at it all alone and you're probably in your mid thirties. And you're depressed because you're not playing.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  And you're depressed and you have your own thing and no one's in your corner, but maybe your wife who's nagging you about this and you're always at the house now. And your whole life basically gets flipped upside down. Time, your your time spent different, your money spent, everything changes. Media is not a. You're no longer, you're no longer relevant. And so some guys. Understand that before they retire and I would say those are the guys that the tran- you know, that. The transcend careers pretty well, that you know, they go and go into business. They become a solid investor and things like that. There's there's few guys that. Have dominated in a couple of industries and I couldn't even name them off the top of my head, but you know, a lot of times it's golfers.

• 42:32Speaker 01

  They're very individual and they do a good job of of creating their network and a worth and then they can do something golf oriented and like. Oh, whether it's clubs or they learn how to design golf courses and they make money this way. When you play a team sport, it's really hard to do that unless you start a camp, but even then, how many kids are gonna pay? You know, another night, they pay you twenty million dollars to design a golf course. No one's gonna pay me twenty million dollars to design a football field. Let me guess, it's a hundred and twenty yards long and it's fifty-three and a half yards wide. Dang it, ah, I got no money out of that one. So like, there's just not a lot of opportunities and and. Guys don't realize that and they think that they have. You know, and I I felt victim to it a little bit, too, is is you retire and you assume that you have this um

• 43:17Speaker 01

  this aura of of invincibility that no one is can do this and stuff like that, and you do have it. But only in playing football. Then once you're done. But once you're done playing football. You're human, just like everyone else. Exactly right. You're exposed for a lot of different reasons that you don't have a credibility in anything. Oh, you wanna be in the media? You know, you look at a guy like Tiki Barber, right? Immediately thrown into Good Day L.A. He should have been on air in the middle of nowhere, practicing getting reps on how to speak in front of people and what to say because you know, that's not natural for anyone to go do stuff like that. So a lot of guys just get exposed really fast and they and they lose confidence. That's when they're most vulnerable. Yeah. That's when you're done and you're.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  So you gotta learn how to what you just, you know, and just how you did it in the NFL, you gotta learn that you you gotta be willing to start start small again and and build up your career and unfortunately, for some guys, it's when they're thirty five and they have and they just are, they're not humble enough to start over. Their their ego's too big. They think why isn't anyone hiring me as a CEO? It's because you have no experience. You have no experience. And and the thing is, you have that mentality. And I know I would be a good manager of people. I know I could be a good motivator, a good coach. But I don't have the experience to deserve that opportunity. Right. You know, those those days are gone when, you know, I, you know, back in the day, they used to hire the baseball players to immediately be the manager or he'd be a player manager like Bill Russell. They have no clue. Now, no way, you know, there's there's no way you're gonna walk right off and and get that opportunity. So

• 44:42Speaker 01

  you have to, you have to start over at something and you really have to find something you're passionate about and if you spend your whole life being passionate about football, you never have time to be passionate about anything else. So you just hope that you you know, hit the ground running with something else. Otherwise, hopefully, you know, gave yourself enough of a bankroll to to buy time in order to find that passion. Some guys did it and some guys, you know, spend the money too fast and Right. Now you're just like we were talking about. You're you're in the hole hoping that one of your investments hits. Right. The Lewis Howes T-shirt company is not doing too well. We're living out of the basement.

• 45:19Lewis Howes?

  Man, so what's um.

• 45:22Lewis Howes?

  What's one thing about you, one of your passions that a lot of your fans and maybe some of your friends don't know about?

• 45:29Speaker 01

  Uh, I really enjoyed making people laugh. I got off, I got asked to do a stand-up comedy set for the Houston Dynamo. Um, the soccer team.

• 45:39Lewis Howes?

  The Dynamo's a soccer team out there and they had their major league soccer all-star.

• 45:44Speaker 01

  Thing and the one of the players came up and he's like, hey, we heard you, you know, you're willing to get out there and say some funny stuff. We've seen some things you do. Would you be willing to get on s- on stage? And you know, entertain the crowd for five minutes. I was like, so what do you, what is everyone doing? And he's like, well, some guys are gonna tell some jokes. Some guys are just gonna tell some stories. I was like, oh, okay. And so I remember one night I had a couple of drinks and I sat my buddy down and I grabbed the, you know, the rock band mic, mic stand and I told him some jokes and I thought if I could make one of my best friends laugh like with a set. I'll do all right. And like, I remember at the end, he's like, you had two funny jokes. Those are, those are two, like, you didn't laugh. You just told me those two jokes, it might do well out of like ten. And I was, cause I had no idea, tell a joke.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  And so I didn't know if that's what they were gonna do or not. So we got up there, I got to the event. He said there was gonna be like five hundred people there. Twenty-five hundred people there. You're gonna go on stage. Guy Torrey, the little comedian, the little comedian, uh, was the emcee. I'm like, oh, good, someone get me a cocktail. I need to loosen up. So I had like, you know, glasses, I think I had a Red Bull vodka and I was like all amped up, liquid courage. And so I went up there and I told jokes and I just killed, well, I did, I thought I killed it. Now, if you, it was your first time ever telling jokes on stage, I, I would, you could go YouTube and I would be impressed if you didn't think it was decent at worst. Like, you're like, okay.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  I mean, I played off, yeah, I played off the role of being, you know, football. I used some of those jokes about how, you know, football players get a lot more tail than soccer players and stuff like that. And so it went over well and stuff and I really enjoyed it. You know, it really got me going. And so I enjoyed. Entertaining people in that area, not necessarily like I wanna be a standup comedian or anything like that, but I I enjoy.

• 47:27Lewis Howes?

  Making people laugh.

• 47:28Speaker 01

  Making people laugh, having fun, uh, you know, enjoying a situation, being able to relate to people and stuff like that because. That transcends through everyone, everyone wants to have a good time, everyone wants to smile, and if you're not. That's your own fault, you know, you should be having some fun in what you're doing, otherwise you shouldn't be doing it, so. I kinda, I don't know how, where that works, but I know in in the business world. Whether it's giving a presentation, I won't be scared, I'm comfortable doing that, I I I'm comfortable, you know. Making people com- you know, making other people comfortable, whether it's asking them, you know, the good questions or. Or relating to their business and things like that, so I'm I'm hoping that stuff. Kinda, you know, works well and I can use that, and I don't know if that means that.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  You know, I start asking you questions here, but that's, you know, that's what, uh, that's what I'm hoping.

• 48:15Lewis Howes?

  Right, cool, so what do you think, we'll we'll start to wrap it up here, what do you think makes, in one sentence, what makes great people great?

• 48:27Speaker 01

  Uh, not the easiest question, cause you have to do it in one sentence, what makes great people great?

• 48:31Lewis Howes?

  In a couple sentences, or no?

• 48:32Speaker 01

  Um.

• 48:36Speaker 01

  They separate themselves, I would say.

• 48:39Lewis Howes?

  It's a good football analogy.

• 48:41Speaker 01

  As a receiver, yeah, especially you separate yourself, but. Um, whether that's taking a chance, whether that's working harder, whether that's never giving up. I think ultimately you separate yourself from the pack.

• 48:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 48:56Speaker 01

  Um, that way, not like lone wolves do well, because you need to be part of the team and stuff like that, but you separate yourself through your performance, and I think. The greatest, they, that's what they do, um, you know. There might have been, you know, ten CEOs, but when they get their opportunity to be the in in charge, they take the business to another level, there might have been. Two scouts, but they, he went out there and scouted these ten players and found four great draft picks, um. You know, you might. You might be asked to type up, you know, ten pages and he did fifteen pages consistently. And so over the course of a year, he, you know, quadrupled everyone else's performance.

• 49:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  Whatever you do to separate yourself, how you can separate yourself, I would encourage you to do that. Cause I know that's what I did.

• 49:41Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  When I was on practice squad and I was asked to be on scout team, I would scout the other team's corners. And the teams were playing receivers. So I would give the corners on my team. Uh, cause I wanted to know why those receivers were starting and I wasn't. I would give them a book on our, on the players they were, uh, they were gonna play. As well as I would have stuff for our receivers to look at. And so we were prepared to play. So I was preparing both sides of the ball. I understood why people were making it as receiver. And what defenses were doing to try to take away receivers. So I learned double and I got the exposure. And I turned, you know, a, a time on practice squad scout team into a time where I could really learn the craft.

• 50:21Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 50:21Speaker 01

  You know, just like you said, putting in the groundwork and I separated myself. There was other scout team receivers and they got cut and I played week eight and I, I did pretty well. So I would say the greatest people separate themselves.

• 50:33Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. So what's next for you? Where can we find you online first? And what's next for you?

• 50:38Speaker 01

  Twitter handle, David Anderson eighty-nine. Um, I currently have a digital media job with Package Sports Entertainment. And helping out with EA Sports and their NFL Films. Um, I'm going to continue my, uh, search for education. There's a couple of programs through the NFL about a coaching academy that I'm going to go to. As well as there's a program in Stanford and an advan- uh, advanced broadcast bootcamp thing I'm gonna do. So I'm continually just searching for my, uh, I don't wanna say next passion, cause I'm passionate about all these things. But about something I really wanna get behind for the next five years. In the meantime, I'm always out there, you know, trying to connect with people like you. Uh, I really admire what things that you've done on LinkedIn and, and hearing about your story and your transition.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  It's, it's impressive and it's honestly inspiring to all athletes and. You know, any, any, and, you know, on air, I want to offer my ability to connect with some other guys to you and then everyone listening that, you know, I think this is great. And, uh, we talked about how Facebook, everyone just bashes you or says bad things and LinkedIn and getting together with people and just offering, you know, a conversation, a couple, get a, cut together and get a cup of coffee and see if there's any way everyone can help each other. That's the way, you know, everyone, everyone moves forward and I, um, you know, I just really, you do great stuff online.

• 51:54Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  I think everyone's got a great following. If, you know, I'll, I'll be getting more involved in this side of, of, of business and, and the internet landscape and media and social media. And so, you know, I'm hoping to, you know, follow kind of in your footsteps in that landscape and then, uh, it'll be fun. And so hopefully within the next couple of years, you'll see me doing something where I can interview me again in another, another aspect.

• 52:18Lewis Howes?

  Sooner than that, hopefully, sooner than that. So make sure to check David out at, uh, at David Anderson 89 on Twitter. And if you're listening to this right now, go ahead and send him a quick tweet, let him know you enjoyed this interview. And, uh, other than that, man, appreciate you, brother.

• 52:32Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 52:32Lewis Howes?

  Let's make it happen.

• 52:43Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this interview with my man, David Anderson. Awesome story and I'm really excited to see what this guy has got coming up with next after retirement. Now, again, thanks so much, everyone, for leaving all the five star reviews. Some more people I saw who are leaving reviews is, uh, Todd Bowen, King Large, uh, we've got Austin Henry. I saw Vegan Mafia left me a cool review, The Shadow Boxer, Sean Malarky, Kara Singleton. So again, lots of people leaving five star reviews on iTunes. If you haven't done so yet, please share the love with me over there on iTunes and leave a quick five star review. Other than that, guys, looking forward to sharing with you guys some amazing interviews coming up soon.

• 53:28Lewis Howes?

  Stay tuned, leave us a comment over on the blog at schoolofgreatness.com if you enjoyed this and I'll catch you guys next time.