Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Steve Weatherford: The Super Bowl Mindset - 066

Episode Date: September 26, 2018

From weighing 108 lbs as a high school freshman to becoming a Super Bowl champion, Steve Weatherford’s determination to succeed is unmatched. In this episode, Bedros Keuilian interviews Steve about the flaming passion that fueled his lengthy pro football career—and now his business career. He also talks about translating the fire he played with on the field to the entrepreneurial world. Watch or listen now to learn how to install the “never-lose” championship mindset inside yourself. “(Maintain) focus, intensity, (and) obsession, and lock-on.” - Bedros Keuilian Here’s what you’ll discover: 3:09 - The two ingredients you need to build a championship mindset 7:36 - How to buck the system and turn your weaknesses into strengths 11:15 - Why backup plans will stop you from becoming above average 21:58 - Why your follower count means NOTHING without the right entrepreneurial mindset 23:20 - The lessons Steve learned from football that he now applies to business

How does someone watching this, listening to this, get so sure about their outcome that they say when and not if? When the world, the entire world, tells you no, because of A, B, C, and D, you can either choose to accept that and agree with the world, or you can buck the system and work on A, B, C, and D. Be absolutely unapologetic with what you want to do in your life. Hey, friends, welcome to another great episode of the Empire Podcast. This is the show where we help you take. take your idea, your passion, and your business, and help you reach your fullest potential so you can make the most amount of income and impact in the lives that you want to serve. Today, we're doing an inside look into an entrepreneur and a world-class athlete,

a Super Bowl champion, my dear friend and brother, Mr. Steve Weatherford. How are you? Is it legal for us to hug it out? It is absolutely legal. Absolutely legal. Man, dude, I'm stoked to be here. And honestly, ever since having the opportunity to connect with you after speaking at Fitness Business Summit and to learn more not about what you're doing, but what you're being, like the person that you,

you show up. The way you show up every single day, not just in your business, not just in your family, not just with your friends, but like the energy that the world receives from you being alive. I appreciate you. I genuinely really, really feel thankful that I know I can call you and I know you're going to answer the phone. You know what I love about you? I'm a pretty happy guy. Like, I'm a pretty happy guy.

I'm a very blessed and grateful guy. but whatever the next level of gratitude and grateful and happy is, I'm that whenever you're around. And I'm not just saying that. And I know you're not just doing a fake hype man either. Like, I feel what you're sending me. Appreciate it. And I accept it.

Thank you. And I feel exactly the same way about you. You're a brother. You're a mentor. You're a friend. And so you're also someone who has done what truly, and Craig and I were talking about this last week, what very few professional athletes have.

you've gone from playing football for what a decade and a Super Bowl championship to now a very successful entrepreneur. Now most people might look at you from the outside with their outside eyes and go, well, he's obviously genetically talented as an athlete and intellectually superior and has this entrepreneurial mind and then write you off as he's just good at everything he does.

But I know your backstory and our dear friend Ed Milet who did an amazing interview of you did such a deep dive. And so what I want to really narrow in on is the championship win and only win mindset that you've developed, where you've gone from just humble beginnings. So why don't you maybe take us a tour down your humble beginnings? Was it Indiana that started, right? And how you took your genetics that weren't maybe the most superior and became a world-class athlete

and then used that same championship mindset to become an amazing entrepreneur making an impact. To win in life, to win in football. to win in life, to win in business, to win in relationships, to win in a marriage, it takes, in my opinion, it takes two things. It takes gratitude and it takes perspective. So if you can control the amount of gratitude that you bring into every single day and you can control the perspective in which you view life, you cannot lose. So you're talking about, you know, winning in football and, you know, going to college, you know, becoming an All-American and all the other athletic things that I did. That was what I did, not who I am. Who I am is what

enabled me to be able to achieve all those things. So at the end of the day, it's kind of like as an entrepreneur creating a really, really powerful brand that is respected, that is viewed as being full of integrity, that people can resonate with and relate to. People can't relate to somebody that's on the cover of muscle and fitness that made $15 million kicking a football. Like, I don't even want to say playing football because that is disrespectful to the other athletes. I kicked a football for a living. I wore shorts to work every single day and somebody paid me $15 million to do it over the course of 10 years. And then they gave me a Super Bowl ring, a Super Bowl trophy and the opportunity to build relationships with people like you. How could I not be grateful? But how do I get to the

situation of being able to achieve all those things and then enjoy all the experiences and the relationships like ones with you, Louis House, Ed Milette, Grant Cardone, Joel Marion, all the different relationships that I've been able to build, it's awesome for you to introduce me. as a Super Bowl champion on your show, but we both know at the end of the day, Bedros, if I wasn't a Super Bowl champion, you'd still love me. Absolutely. Because of the person that I am. The person that I am enabled me to do all those different things. So people spend so much time on trying to control the result instead of trying to control themselves. So if you master yourself, everything within your path, there's only one of two things that you can do if you create a beast,

the way that you've created a beast in yourself and the way that I've created a savage in my own life. It's when you encounter things, it's not necessarily about what you're encountering. It's how prepared are you for what you're encountering. If you can control your perspective and you can control your gratitude, you can do anything because you'll reach adversity

and then you will view that because of your perspective and the control you have over your perspective, you will view that struggle as an opportunity. It sounds so cliche to do. Your struggle creates your strength. But at the end of the day, I just did a podcast with Joel Marion, and he talked about within, there was a portion of his career that he wrote a book when he was 24 years old. He got paid $100,000 advance to do it, and the book freaking flopped.

Where did he go from there? Like, how does somebody that has created, like, ridiculous wealth and become the best in the world at what he does? How does he have a book that? flops. But the reason, not the reason, that book flopped and that struggle and that failure, what people view as a failure, actually enabled him the opportunity to look inward and see, what did I not do right? Because the victim mentality has completely infected America. You know, and that's why you talk about having an immigrant edge. That doesn't come from America because America were entitled and we feel like when we show up, it should just be given to us.

Nobody works on their personal development. People work on their fitness, people work on their net worth, but people don't want to have the awkward, difficult conversations with themselves. When nobody else is around, they'll be accountable to everybody else. If you tell me you're meeting me at 7 o'clock in a morning for a workout, I know you're going to be there because you're an accountable person. But what about, let's say, that you're not you, you're just a regular person. Let's say you meet me at 7 o'clock, and one thing in life happens.

Let's say, like, the kid's crying when you're leaving and they don't want you. you to leave because they're sad, you stay with them for an extra 10 minutes, which makes you 15 minutes for our meeting at 7 o'clock. All this sudden, that's an excuse. It's not a reason. If you're accountable, you're going to kiss your baby. I love you so much. I'll face time you after our workout with Steve at 7 o'clock. And you'll be grateful that your kid loves you that much. You'll be grateful. And you'll also view your responsibility to your friend that you said you were going to meet at 7 o'clock. It's not the victim mentality. It's the Jock O'Willick, extreme ownership. So considering how you grew up, you weren't destined to be a world-class athlete.

I was 108 pounds when I was a freshman in high school. Nobody thought that I would ever play in the varsity team, but I remember having a conversation with my mom. 14 years old, 108 pounds had never played football yet, and it was my first year that I was going to play football. So I was playing basketball. I was just starting to try football, kicking and punting. I played soccer and I was running track like I didn't think there was a chance that I would go to the pros in the NFL like I didn't think I was going to go to the pros but I told my mom I said mom when I become a professional athlete what kind of car do you want like I had that I had the it and the it is only just a it's a negotiation you have with yourself like am I capable of doing

this when the world the entire world tells you no because of A, B, C, and D you can either choose to accept that and agree with the world or you can buck the system and work on A, B, C, and D and turn those weaknesses into strength. For me, my weakness was I'm 108 pounds. I was 5'8 it wasn't like I was short for a 14 year old. I was 108 pounds. I was 5 foot 8. I couldn't control how tall that I grew, but I could control how much muscle mass that I had so people can use the excuse like, well, I can't do it because I lack the intelligence. Well, you know what? If you lack intelligence, get resourceful. Well, I can't do it because I lack the speed. Go find a speed coach. You know, I can't do it because I don't know where to start as an entrepreneur. Hey, guess what, guys,

I got a really good coach for his name is Badros Kulian. He's helped me take my business from seven-figure. Pretty soon it's going to be an eight-figure business. So even as a young man, you had this internal drive and ownership of responsibility. Yeah, it was like responsibility to myself because I knew nobody was going to do it for me. I mean, you grow up in a family where, you know, if you're last at the dinner table, you might not get food. Speed of implementation, which is all that you preach about, speed of implementation for something as basic as eating dinner. If you want to eat, you better get to the table first. If you want to get bigger and grow stronger muscles, you really got to get to the table early because you need to get in for seconds before somebody else goes in for seconds because your body needs that.

And so when society and the world is telling me that I can't do this because of that and that, I'm not going to, I'm not going to sit here and dwell on the fact that they told me I can't do this. I'm attacking A and B because if I attack A and B, then the overall opinion of whether or not I can do it, it might be like, well, you probably won't do it. So if you take like you can't do it to you probably won't do it to doing it, you're essentially taking impossible and making it I'm possible. And that's 100% your choice. Like you choose to be able to say, I can do that.

There's a million reasons in life why you can't become a billionaire and make a massive, massive impact on this world. You don't need a million reasons why you can't. You just need one reason why you can. Yeah. So what was that one reason that you didn't tell your mom, if I become an athlete, what kind of card do you want? You said when?

You notice that language. The words, the language patterns are important to me. And everyone listening to this needs to realize that your language patterns. And we were just sitting in the Empire Mastermind, and you helped us kind of coach Chad through the language patterns that he was using that were self-defeating language patterns. So you didn't tell your mom, if I become a professional athlete, what kind of car you want?

You said, when I become a professional athlete, what kind of car do you want? How does someone watching this, listening to this, get so sure about their outcome that they say when and not if? Make a decision. Like it's, it goes back to the two things in life that helps you win in every single thing in life. You want to win in your marriage? Decide you're going to win in your marriage. You want to win in business.

Decide you're going to win in business. Like don't, don't plan and then build in a contingency plan. Because it's so easy and it's comfortable for us to rely on a contingency plan. So we've all heard, I mean, at least I have, being, being a professional athlete and being in locker rooms and either giving or receiving epic pregame speeches. it's not like burn the ships man like don't leave yourself an opportunity for well if this happens no it's not it's not wishing it's not wanting it's not hoping it's willing things to happen so if you use the language i will do this yeah then guess what there's no other options for well i will do this if throw that language away because that is the

the language of average. Society is average. Society is is the very same ecosystem and the container of people that want to keep you down and press you down because if you start to rise up and you start to build something epic that nobody else has done before that they said that you couldn't do, that doesn't make them feel bad that you're doing it. It makes them feel bad that you're doing it and they're not. They're stopping you from doing it. But you're making a choice to let them stop you by accepting it and recalibrating your life to use average language. And so what happens when parents give this advice to their kids, and they mean well, but they say, honey, have something to fall back on.

What I'm hearing you say is burn the ships. There is no safety net. You won't hear, I'm a parent, you won't hear me say that to my kids. You know what I mean? So what do you say to the young men and women watching and listening to this who were told, to always have something to fall back on just in case. Okay, well, is the advice, is there advice that you're receiving from your parent or from your coach or from your pastor or from your mentor?

Is that person that's giving you advice? Are they living their dream? Because if they're living their dream, take their advice. But if they're not living their dream, I'm not telling everybody out here that's listening, your parents are wrong. I'm telling everybody out here listening, your parents are dead ass wrong. Because my parents, they didn't tell me I couldn't do it, but there was several, well actually there was two interactions I had with my father.

One of them was two days before I left for my first NFL training camp, and another one of them was when I was 17 years old. And starting high school at 108 pounds, by the time I got to 17, about three and a half years later, I was 205 pounds. So I gained almost 100 pounds in three and a half years, and there started to become like a little bit of a whisper of gossip that Steve Weatherford was taking steroids because it was the greatest compliment that I ever got in my whole entire life when my dad sat down with me and noticed that I was making so much progress

towards my lifetime goal of becoming a professional athlete that people in my hometown thought that there was no way that I was able to make that much progress unless I was cheating. So that like motivated me so much in my life that I knew obviously that I'm not cheating, but even my dad like sat me down and said you know like I love you and I'm proud of you but I just want you to know like if you're doing something to achieve this goal I want you to know that I'm going to love you either way but we're going to get you help and I'm like what are you talking about 17 years old and I had a good relationship with my dad but it was like I was a rebel so I was like you know like I didn't say it but I'm like if you dad but then I when I got back into my car

my 1986 Cadillac Fleetwood Brohan with two and 15 inch subwifers in the back, 15 inch Dayton's and three inch white walls. When I got back in that car, wait, whoa, you had Dayton's on your padding? I had Dayton's in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Those of you who don't know what Dayton's are, Dayton's are what you, those are the spoked wheels that are just sexy as fuck. And, man, no kidding. I've always wanted a... I'm going to find that car.

Like, not the exact car because it's probably rusted out by now. But that car, I'm going to find that car again. And I'm going to dress it up exactly. like I had in high school. How you got cooler to me is impossible because I thought you were just the coolest cat ever. In fact, I asked you for like, hey man, where do you get your shirts?

I want to get shirts like that. You just got additionally cooler. Go on with your bad self. So I get back in my 1986 Cadillac Fleetwood Brohan and I still had a cassette player by the time. And so I'm driving home and it's only like a five minute drive. I'm thinking to myself I'm like pissed off. Like nobody wants to give me any credit and then I thought to myself I'm like, wait a minute. This goes back to perspective and gratitude.

Let me think about this for a second. I've made so much progress that nobody believes that I did it the right way. It just, it completely poured fuel on my obsession of achievement because I realized that 17 years old that I can do anything I want to do. Like at that point, because I went from being the skinniest kid in a school of 2,200 kids, a very small country town, Terre Haute, Indiana. and became the biggest, strongest, most athletic, most explosive kid, possibly ever that went to the school. Scholarships for all four sports. And at the time when I said the goal, I'm going to become a professional athlete, I'm going to become an Olympic champion, I'm going to become a dad, and I'm going to get on the cover of muscle and fitness.

It was over my four goals. The goal that took me the longest to do wasn't becoming an Olympic champion. I never did that, but I came a world champion. So we'll say that counts. I became a professional athlete for 10 years. I became a dad five times over. I got five kids. And then the last goal was achieved in November of 2017.

Last year, I was on the cover of muscle and fitness. Yeah. And the reason that was one of my lifetime goals at 14 years old is I remember going to the dentist, getting my teeth clean and waiting in the room for my sister to get her teeth clean. And I remember opening up my first muscle and fitness. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if I could look and have the same form and function of, these elite athletes, my dream could come true. So it was at that point that I realized that this magazine, muscle and fitness, could give me the tools that I need to overcome the A, B, C, and D

of reasons why people are telling me I'm crazy. Because you can lock on to that one thing. Exactly. But it was my, but it was my perspective and it was my gratitude that allowed me to view the conversation that I had with my dad. And then to view the second one that I didn't allude to yet was two weeks or two days before I go to my first NFL training camp, I was competing with, his name was Mitch Berger, he was a pro bowler, he was the best punter in the NFL, and my dad, he's a statistics guy, he's an executive cost analysis, and so he bases all of his decisions and feelings off of metrics. Right. Based upon the metrics, this guy is the best punter in the world, and you're a 23-year-old kid that's really talented, your chances of making this team are

slim to none. And he pretty much told me that. And so, many words and I remember hearing that and I could have if my perspective was not in my control if I wasn't the master of my destiny I could have let my dad the person I look up to the most I could have let my dad's perspective become my own perspective two days before I go to the most important job interview of my entire life I could have adapted that perspective and just be like well I don't know why I'm here because even my dad doesn't think I'm going to be I'm going to make it You know what I mean? Yeah.

But I chose to stay to stay resolute in my conviction that I can do it. I just need to show up thankful for every day, thankful for every opportunity, and never look at anything that I quote unquote have to do. It's not an obligation. Every single thing that I have to do, I don't have to do it. I get to do it. So suddenly, obligations become operational. opportunities. And then when you play a game that's full of opportunities instead of obligations, it's pretty freaking easy to win because you're like, oh, wait, I get to go to practice today.

I get to wear an NFL jersey and I have a locker next to Drew Breeze and Reggie Bush and Joe Horn and like all of these legendary NFL players. And I'm thinking to myself, I don't freaking belong here. I'm playing with house money. But the only reason I had that opportunity and the only reason I viewed it as an opportunity was because I was thankful to be here and I had I had perspective that this is an opportunity so my gratefulness of having that opportunity and viewing that opportunity as an opportunity versus an obligation because I chose to stay resolute in my perspective instead of adapting my hero at the time's perspective it's hard to it's hard to tell your your hero that he's wrong yeah you know what I mean like if you told me like this business

model that you had will never work if I wasn't the master of my destiny, you could, you have the power to crush my dreams. Sure. I don't want to give my power away. Goes back to taking back control and not giving people control of your outcome. No, man, you're the master of your destiny. If you let other people's opinions or snide comments or Instagram comments, if you let that stuff seep into your life, it's poison, man.

You're just letting little bits of cancer inside of the only thing in life that you can control. And that's your mind and your body. So in this final three minutes, I want to ask you this. You went from an all-American athlete to a decade in the NFL, Super Bowl ring, and then you come out and you make this transition. What seemingly looks like, man, he made that look easy into an entrepreneur and social media influencer who's actually making money. Because, by the way, everyone watching and listening to this knows that Craig and I have a chip on our shoulder. when we get messages from social media influencers that have 600,000 followers, one gentleman has 3.2 million followers, and both of them are broke

because they don't know how to turn followers into dollars, because they don't know how to add value and solve problems for society. I'll take it a step deeper than what you're saying. So you've got 660,000 Instagram followers, you've got 3.2 million Instagram followers, and they're not making money, right? Why do you think they're playing the game of life? I have no idea. They should stop. the acceptance of other people.

Like how do you get the 600? How do you get the 3.2? And people don't really know who you are, but you just burst under the scene. You understand how social media works, but you are pandering your life and those posts for the approval of other people. So when you're getting the likes and you're getting the comments and then your account is growing, you wake up every single day when you have an audience that big and you're thinking to yourself, what can I put out today that people are going to like?

not what can I put out today that I freaking believe in. You know what I mean? And that's why they don't make money because they are only creating what other people want instead of giving people what they need. That's how a successful business is created. It's a successful business isn't created with a massive Instagram phone or a massive email list.

A successful business is created by giving something to someone that they don't even know that they need. Love that. So are there one or two or maybe three takeaways that, because I wouldn't know this. I've never been a high-level athlete. Is there anything that you've taken from sports and athletics

and applied to your actual business? Man, there's so many things that I've taken from. Well, just throw a couple things out. From my experience from pro athletes is the leadership that I got to experience, the leadership that I got to provide, the feedback that I got from my teammates and my coaches. But at the end of the day, like what makes a professional athlete successful what makes an entrepreneur successful what makes a husband

successful it makes a friend successful it's it's having I'll give two takeaways the first one control your perspective control your gratitude right yeah and and the second thing is be absolutely unapologetic with what you want to do in your life like it's we come to these masterminds bedros and some of these people have successful businesses that are making you know, a million dollars plus. And when they come up with a new idea, kind of like in our hot seat

where people bring up ideas that they have for their company, but they can't create and make them real, they say it so sheepishly. Like, well, you know, there's this new, you know, green powder supplement that I want to...

Dude, get excited about it. Like, people are almost like, with their tonality. They're like apologizing for their idea. I'm not going to buy your product, much less, like, spend any of my creativity, genius to help you learn how to market this or create this manufacturing or distribution.

Like, I'm not even going to waste my time talking to you because you're already like apologizing for having the idea. This is never going to happen. So here's my takeaway from Steve Weatherford on the Empire Podcast Inside Look. Focus, intensity, obsession, lock on in taking what everybody says and filtering it through perspective and gratitude. It's turning into fuel, man. You are human gasoline, man.

You just light everybody up on fire, and I love that. Thank you so much. I love you, brother. Love you. Thank you for joining the Empire podcast, buddy. Hey, folks, thanks for watching the Empire podcast. Thank you so much for taking what we're teaching you and applying it into your business, into your life,

and turning followers into dollars, turning your income into impact. And the best way you can show gratitude for us is to actually pay it forward. If you like this episode, Send the link to someone else. Let them listen to it. Let them grow their business, their life, their ideas, their dreams,

and of course reach their fullest potential. Thank you for watching and listening. Take care. Thank you so much for joining us for another amazing episode of the Empire podcast. Now, the greatest compliment that you can give to us is liking, loving, and sharing this episode with all of your friends. So please go to iTunes and give us a five-star rating and then share it online and social media with everyone that you know

and make sure to tag us because we love hearing from Empire listeners. And if you own a business that's doing half a million dollars or more in annual revenues, and you know it's got massive potential, and you like myself and Craig Ballantine to help you scale it by 5x, 10x, and 20x in the shortest amount of time possible, then you might be a great candidate for the Empire Mastermind Program that we have. To learn more about the Empire Mastermind Program, go to bedroskulian.com forward slash empire.