Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Don Yaeger - Forbes Senior Contributor, Team Builder, Executive Coach, NY Times Best-selling Author, and Host of Corporate Competitor Podcast

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

Welcome to another episode of The Radcast! In this week’s episode, host Ryan Alford talks to Don Yaeger, Forbes Senior Contributor, Team Builder, Executive Coach, NY Times Best-selling Author and Host of the Corporate Competitor Podcast.Don talks about his inspiration, as well as the path he went through to become a Professional Speaker. He also explains what led him to become an author and shares which book resonated with him the most from all those he has written and co-written.Don elaborates on the difference between writing a book on his own versus collaborating with others, as he points out the challenges faced as a world-class storyteller. He also shares his writing experience with Sports Illustrated and as a Forbes Senior Contributor and gives tips for all aspiring writers.To learn more about Don Yaeger, visit his website https://donyaeger.com/. Follow him on Instagram: @donyaeger and Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donyaeger/.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com. Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube account https://bit.ly/3iHGk44 or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Well, hopefully no one will ever write a book about me. My job is to write about others. He was the greatest football player ever, in my opinion, and a better man than that. If I didn't wear my Jordans today, I'm still just jealous of all the time you've spent with MJ. Your curiosity allows you to pull from people really great content. I think people with a high CQ are the most interesting people in the world to me. Find a question that you can ask every great interview you're going to do that will make you better. But if you drive action, you're an enabler as a speaker. And that is the best and most powerful kind of speaker.

Wow. By the way, I just wrote that down. Trust me, you'll see it in my marketing before. Hopefully you won't charge me for it. No, that's a free one, Don. The first one's always free. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it.

Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the rad cast. We're staying radical like we always do here. If it's radical, we cover it. And Don Yeager is radical. What's up, brother? Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Rand.

I'm glad to be both with you today and feeling radical with you. That's great. You know, we joked beforehand. Everybody's got a lot of titles. And, you know, you're, you know, you know, you've done a lot of. lot of really great things and I'm excited to get to it. You know, you're Forbes contributor now. Team builder, executive coach, New York Times, bestselling author. Hey, and you know what? After talking with you more, I'm just going to say one hell of a great guy.

Thank you. I'd rather lead with that. That's good. No, man. I've enjoyed learning more about as I've read. I enjoyed, I know we've shared places here on each other's podcasts and stuff. And so I'm excited to further the relationship. But I'm excited to kind of tell some of your story today and make sure our listeners, you know, learn from a lot of your experience. And I mean, you know, I'm still, I didn't wear my Jordans today. I'm still just jealous of all the times you've spent with MJ. He's right back there on the wall. It's all good.

Cool. Well, Don, let's start down the, path and I will let you lead us. I know you've done a lot. You've you've written a lot. You've spoke a lot. But let's give everyone, you know, your version of kind of your life story or your professional story. And then we'll kind of get down to some specifics. Sure. Well, you know, for me, a lot of it really kind of came from growing up. I was a son of a preacher. My father was a Methodist preacher and was born and raised in Hawaii, lived in Japan for a couple of years, then ended up in Indiana.

And when I showed up in Indiana for high school, the night before school was to start, I got a phone call from the school counselor. I had signed up for ROTC. I was pretty sure I was going to be in the military because that was what I'd grown up around, a lot of military families. and they let me know that there weren't enough kids that signed up for ROTC, so they were canceling the program, but she was putting me on the student newspaper, right?

There was a slot there, and so they were throwing me into that role. And I'd never thought about writing or that as a potential, as anything that I might want to do. And it did not take me long to find out how much I enjoyed the art of chasing curiosity, which is what journalism is, right? I'm intrigued by things, so I want to go learn about them, and then I want to learn how to tell them to other people so that they can satiate their intrigue as well.

And so literally, by complete accident, I found, as a freshman in high school, I found what would ultimately be my career, which is, I think, a reasonable rarity. Most people don't have any sense that that's something that they would enjoy that much. I did, and it turned into, you know, now 33 books and, you know, a long-time career at Sports Illustrated, and several long newspaper gigs and travel all over the world.

Hey, man, they say bloom where you're planted. I think you did more than bloom, my friend. Well, and it was an accidental planning, and so I think that's the other really good lesson there, is that sometimes we want to be, we want to, like, we want to script it out. And sometimes life doesn't allow you to script it out, right? You have to just, you have to go where, where, where, where things allow you to go sometimes. It's crazy. I mean, the irony of you saying that, but like, you know, being the talented writer that you've been and are, you know, literally scripting, you know, like, you know, your life's work, both living it and script, you know.

I find I'm one that lives in ironies and, you know, being in a creative space, you know, finding those insights. But it's probably the path I would go if I was writing a book about you, you know. Well, hopefully no one will ever write a book about me. My job is to write about others. I know. Is that, I will say, is that hard? I mean, you know, right? Do you, you've written for others and been awarded for writing for others and had the, you know, the amazing ability. to write about it and I want to get more into that, you know, everyone you've written about. But is that, do you find it hard to write about yourself? Yeah, I don't, I'm not, I've actually never written about myself. But I've written, I mean, again, for me, I consider kind of my, my sweet spot in, is, is helping

identify the, the really great stories that exist within other people and then helping them figure out how to make those great stories tellable to the public at large. And so, you know, it's funny. I read some statistic once that said that like 81% of the population believe they have a book in them. They, you know, they believe there's a book inside of me. And obviously, you know, a tiny percentage of that number will ever write one. Right. But for those who do have a book inside of them, having someone guide them, them through the process, which is what I do, asking the right questions, listening appropriately, doing the follow-up questions as you and I were talking, right? It's not just about having a script.

It's about knowing when to go off script. And when you can do that well, you find that there's there will always be work for you if you can do it well. So, you know, I don't want to gloss over, you know and I think there will be intrigued you know with our our listeners and and viewers with some of the who's who of you know who you've written about you know I guess we can talk the Sports Illustrated side the sports side can you kind of share a little bit more of the highlights of some of the past writings and everyone you've been both fortunate and I like to think you create your own fortune with the success that you've had you know, but some of the greats you've written about?

Well, you know, probably right at the beginning, one of the biggest breaks in my career occurred when a pretty decent NFL running back named Walter Payton, a guy who had a mediocre career. Anyway, actually, probably the greatest of all time, I think, in my opinion. Sweetness, yes. Sweetness, exactly. I had known Walter through my work in writing, and then suddenly Walter, at age 46, encountered a rare form of cancer that was going to kill him.

And he knew he was going to die. He had received the diagnosis. The world did not know it at the time. And Walter decided it was time for him to try to tell his life story, which is funny to me. I mean, he's the greatest of all time. He was 46 years old. I mean, we have like, you know, 13-year-old gymnasts who are writing their life story today in books. And I'm thinking, you haven't even lived the life.

Like, what life story are you going to live? But Walter Payton hadn't yet written his book, and he decided it was time. And my good fortune was, as he was searching for a writer, I happened to be on Oprah Winfrey's show one particular day. Walter was watching it, realized that I could be the guy that would be the right writer for him. And he invited me into his life. And I lived the last 10 weeks of Walter's life with him and to write his autobiography, never die easy. And for me, that was the game changer. Right.

Up until then, I was a solid journalist and made my career was good. but now someone like Walter Payton reached over and said, I trust you, because that's what writing, that's what giving someone, you know, your life story, especially if like Walter,

he was going to be, he was going to be, he passed away by the time the book came out. So we fully had to trust that I, that I was going to treat him as he deserved to be treated. And when Walter Payton said, I trust you, basically there wasn't another athlete on the planet that wouldn't say,

if Walter trusted you, I trust you too. So it changed my career. What a testament to, I don't know, just the integrity and the belief that someone has in you when Walter Payton, the greatest of all time. And, you know, in his last moments, turns to you to tell that story. I mean, that's just so moving. Like, what was that, what was that like? I mean, it had to be. both the opportunity and embracing it, you know, like there's the excitement of that opportunity

and then the subject matter and knowing that you're, you know, the man is dying. I mean, what, what a, I don't know, that would just be, that had to be a struggle of struggles. Every bit of every bit of it. I mean, you know, I, he was my hero, right? I mean, I grew up worshipping like Walter Payton. I, I wanted to be Walter Payton. did, right? You know, if I could high step like that, if I could, you know, I would, I would give anything. And, uh, but the challenge was, um, that I, when he offered the invitation to me,

I did not know that his condition was terminal. Um, and then he, you know, when, when he invited me into his house to tell me, he wanted me to be the writer, he let me know that that was what I was up against was an uncertain amount of time. And yes, so there's high emotion because you're constantly, every day, you're wondering, will I get another question in, right? Will tomorrow be the last day? Will today be the last? I mean, you didn't know.

And because he was in pain, there was a, you know, there were periods of each day where morphine and other things that were having to be used to control his pain would make our time together unusable, you know. So you valued every question, every answer, and every interaction. And it was really powerful. How was he in that time? I mean, once he knew, you know, like this is more just a curiosity question. I mean, was how was that that had to put a toil on you, I would think just watching that struggle.

It was. And to watch him dwindle, too. Remember, he was physically like the beast, right? I mean, a 210-pound beast. And by the time I got there, he was 155 pounds. So he'd already whittled away, and he continued to lose more weight as I was there. So you're looking at this person that was as physically dominant as anyone in history in that sport. And yet, you know, you can't, I mean, it reminds you what cancer is, right?

And so pretty powerful. But, you know, the one thing about it was, He had accepted his fate and he actually was careful to always lighten the room because he wanted people not to be worried in talking about what he was up against, but instead to be talking about good memories, right? As it happened one day, so his best friend, I'm sorry, I'm telling all these long stories. No, this is what, Don, I love it, man. This is like, this is what engages everyone. his best friend was his fullback, a guy by the name of Matt Suey, who played at Penn State and was the fullback for the Bears.

And Matt, Matt is a, you know, a big white guy and Walter, obviously a black guy. And so we're sitting there one morning in Walter's basement, or one, you know, like late morning in Walter's basement flipping through channels. And up comes the movie Brian's song, right? Which you might remember was about Brian Piccolo. and Gail Sairs. And Brian Piccolo was the player who was dying in that movie. And in that case, Brian was white and Gail Sayers was black. And so the movie comes up and everybody froze like, oh, no.

This is essentially like Walter and Matt Sui. And so Walter says, hey, let's watch a little of Brian's song. and Matt was like, uh, and he jokingly said, you know, Walter, it's kind of like our story. Walter looked at him and said, yeah, but in our story, the black guy gets it in the end, right? And just to make the moment light and funny, he could, he could make it humorous in that, which relieved the tension and allowed us to laugh and allowed us to engage in good stories. And that's really what made the book really special for me. When you think about his legacy and how great he was at everything, you know, hearing that just like further cements like him is a person.

And like, I mean, look, you all, we all hope we're gracious and death and everything, you know. But the reality is not everyone is and not. And I don't know, hearing that and knowing, you know, what you read and, you know, what you read and, you know, from storytellers like yourself and you know you you want to i don't know hope for that but to hear it firsthand from you is i don't know i think just so special and you know for how special a person he truly was he was not just i mean he was the greatest football player ever in my opinion and and a better man than that and i think those are those are too seldom used um you know they they don't seldom them, they seldom go together. Yeah. I know, what other highlights? I mean, you know, you've

written, how many total books is it now? 30. So my most recent book, which was with the golfer Bubba Watson, was book number 33, which is crazy. And then I've been lucky enough that 11 of them have become New York Times bestsellers, which is kind of a crazy number. I would, if you had told me, Years ago, I would ever have one New York Times bestseller. I would have been ecstatic. And to have experienced it 11 times is really incredible. What, obviously, Walter stands out. And, you know, it's obvious why.

But maybe, I mean, with 33 and 11 best sellers, I mean, is maybe one that you don't talk about as much. But, you know, you'd want to put on the radar of people, you know, that are always, we're always at least us curious creatures like you and I, you know, looking for the next read and things like that. What would be another standout or even for maybe a different reason that kind of you think would be good to highlight? You know, it's it's it's it didn't get all the attention that some of the other ones have gotten, but I had an opportunity, just a random crazy opportunity that came up a few months ago where a publisher reached out, they had just secured the rights to do a book with a young man named Chris Nickich.

Chris is the only athlete with Down syndrome to have completed an Ironman triathlon. Wow. And I didn't know enough about Down syndrome at the beginning to to understand why that particular affliction would make the ability to do an Iron Man so impossible. And you look at where he started, right? I mean, a kid on a couch playing video games and his father created a plan with him to just be 1% better every day. right if you can do one push-up today let's let's do our best you know to try to do work a few days and then do two push-ups and then you know and and and so he was able to build out a plan very well-defined whiteboards all over his bedroom marking out every day how

he was just going to get a little bit better just a little bit better and it allowed him to break every barrier and to tell everybody don't tell me I can't because I'm afflicted. Sit back and watch because I'm going to prove something to you. And you realize, man, I mean, A, does it make the rest of us feel like slackers, right? We've got a million reasons not to do things. And here's this guy. So the book is called 1% Better, right?

And it is literally, it's the story of Chris and his family and how. he worked. It came out just a few months, a couple of months ago but it was intended to come out in time for this year's Iron Man in Hawaii, which got canceled. And so, you know,

it kind of ruined the launch for him, but he was in the SB Awards last year on ESPN as the most inspirational athlete of the year. He is just, I marvel at, and it just, it taught

me so much, right? For sure. I mean, I watched a special. I'm always the sucker for the game day specials. They do like college game day. They do the guy. And I don't remember his name, but he had Down syndrome and he was a kicker. A kicker. Yeah. Yeah. And now he's wanting to be an Ohio State kicker. And I mean, they were telling the story about how he played football and all these things. And I have a couple down the line, not not, I think it's like third cousin or something, and they have Down syndrome that I, you know, grew up with and watched and knew. And like, so I was around it enough to know how limited they were, you know, and I'm sure there's variations.

But still that, you know, because watching that kicker story, I was like, unbelievable. Now, I'd not heard of Chris and the triath, I mean, unbelievable. I mean. Think about it, right? To do a triathlon, you're swimming in an open ocean, right? 2.4 miles. then you're 112 miles on a bike, then you're running a full marathon. I mean, to do it all in less than 17 hours.

And he comes in at like 1650 or whatever it is. But for 16 hours and 50 minutes, this young man, you know, was driving toward something. And, you know, 11 minutes later, he doesn't qualify. He doesn't finish. But he, you know, he bicycle crashed into an ant pie. All these things that could happen. And yet, you know, from what he had, from where he had started, none of that mattered to him because he was just tougher than his circumstances. And it reminded me, boy, you know, I got zero to complain about, baby.

Nothing. We have nothing to complain about. And the 1% what an aptly titled. I mean, you know, one percent, less than 1% of all perfectly healthy men can even do. I mean, I have to think it's less than 1%. Absolutely. Much less with Down syndrome. I mean, wow, I'm going to read that.

I feel motivated and blessed sitting here, even hearing that. So I appreciate it. I know our listeners will as well. Don, I know you've co-authored some books, and I do want to get into a little bit of your process. You know, like, is that, is it co-authoring easier or harder? I think it's harder because obviously, you know, anytime you're committing to collaboration, you've also, you know, my opinion of everything isn't necessarily the way it has to go.

I have to, I have to be aware. I have to try to read my partner, whatever it is. And by read, I mean, understand them. so that I know, am I pushing too hard in one direction? Am I going? Is this the right mix of, you know, the storytelling and the lesson teaching? Because, again, I don't think any book should just be a story. I think every book should be a lesson. And so that's where I try to make sure those two things are always blended properly.

So, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, difficult. I would think so. I love that story versus lesson, though, because I was hearing you say that. And I was like, well, it doesn't, don't all stories, no, all stories are not lessons. You can be entertaining, but not have a lesson. It's funny. I told this exact, almost this exact thing at a, I was invited to speak to a bunch of athletes who wanted to learn to become speakers, right? And so there's some, some superstar athletes. And there was this longtime all pro from the Denver Broncos. And he comes up to me afterward.

And he said, man, that was really enlightening. And I said, what caught your attention? He goes, my stories, like, they have to have a point. And I said, yeah, they do, you know. And he said, wow, you know, I've, I've been telling all these stories. And I've been thinking everybody's just really enjoying them. And I said, and they probably do enjoy them. But boy, how much more impactful is your story if it includes a lesson, if it has a point?

And he was like, oh, man, awesome. And you realize that this guy for 10 years had been out telling stories to groups and audiences, and it never once thought that the story needed to come in for a landing, you know? You know what makes me think of at this time of year with John Candy and Steve Martin in Plains Strange. And I'm the here's a great idea. map your stories have a point it makes it so much more interesting for the listener

I need to go I hadn't even thought about that line but that is so there you go Steve Martin you need to have that on your that should be part of your social media like a meme or something that would be perfect and he's like I'd like to meet for my friend

he has a lot of interesting anecdotes here's a gun you'll thank me later I love him You're quoting planes, trains, and automobiles in the podcast. It's awesome. Oh, no, maybe think of that. But it is true that there's not a, every story doesn't have a lesson. Not even a point necessarily.

It might have a point, but it doesn't have a lesson. No, I love it. I love it. What about like on the Sports Illustrated side? Talk about some of your writing there. I mean, what would be familiar to people or, you know, maybe some of the, the the athletes you covered or you know some of the specifics behind what you've done with Sports Illustrated so in my time there i mean there's at the at the senior writer kind of associate editor

level which is where i was there are only 30 of those writers in the entire world at any given time at sports illustrated at least in the window in which i worked there the twiggers i was there and um and the one thing that did and so several of the key of the key key writers had important beats, right? Peter King covered the NFL, you know, Tom Verducci in baseball. I was one of those who was, you know, I was a, I was a utility infielder. I'm ready to, one week I could be in China covering a story about counterfeit golf clubs and the next week I could be at the Kentucky Derby, right? So you had no idea where you, but it was an extraordinary experience because you, unlike a beat writer where you're really fully invested in a subject,

like the NFL, and you know everybody. And I would have to jump from, you know, one topic to the next and immerse myself pretty quickly to get to a place that I could become conversant with people that were far greater experts, right? Whether it was, you know, how to how to avoid getting caught taking steroids by, you know, by working with chemists and scientists in Europe who were showing me how, you know, the testing was run so that they could then, once they knew how to the tests were being done, then they could know how to, how to alter a sample to help, you know, beat the test. again, far more detailed content than I would ever have wanted to have learned, except that was the beauty of it.

It was, you know, every time I would take on an assignment, it would often be into a space that I had no previous knowledge. But I had to make you well-rounded if nothing else. It did. I mean, but that's what we, again, remember why I told you I got into this was because I have a high, curiosity quotient, right? I have a high CQ. And, and I think that that's what makes anybody like yourself successful is, I mean, why did you start a podcast like this? When you and I talked about it, I mean, you were on episode 73 of my podcast, right? And the reason that I had you on was because the more I listened to what you're doing here, your curiosity allows you to pull from people really great content.

It allows you to pull from your team, really great ideas. It allows you to build. I think people with a high CQ are the most interesting people in the world to me, but they're also the people that can do more varied things. And that's what Sports Illustrated

allowed me to do. Yeah, and that's, you know, we talked about it. And I think there's, I've, I've come up with like my top three like variables of successful people. One is curious natural curiosity. Two is like tolerance for risk. And then like you. And three,

I'm still determining. It's some amount of craziness and something else. I'm not sure. Probably. Discipline, maybe. You know, but,

uh, you know, well, to be determined, I guess, when I write that book. Maybe I'll have you write it. It's it.

You know, it's funny because if I could give you a third one, it's in part of the, it's part of the work that you did prepping for our conversation today and some of the things that you suggested we might discuss. And one of them was like, what do you tell younger people, right? You know, who are kind of aspiring into your profession.

And for me, the key to everything is being over-prepared. It's people, the person that you're in front of will always be impressed if you're over-prepared. And if they're impressed, they're going to open up in more ways to you. If you, you know, the better prepared you are, the better any conversation's going to go. And the better the conversation goes, the better the answers will be. The better the answers to be, the better your follow-up questions are. you know it but it all begins with this with this really solid foundation of of being well prepared and i

think that's if i had to give somebody like a a nugget there it's that is your you control that you control how well prepared you are and and and if your your commitment to to preparation will show in everything you do from there on. I love it, Don. Talking about Don Yeager, bestselling author, and one hell of a great guy. So, Don, I do, you know, what's interesting about yourself that I've been warning,

I didn't even have anything in the outline, but I was like thinking about it. Natural, you know, writer, you come up, you've written 33 books, 11 bestsellers. But you've translated this into an ability to speak. So you're not only a great writer, a great communicator, which I know all our listeners are, I think they're checking that box every moment we continue. But talk about what you felt like has been your ability to translate the beautiful writing and storytelling and lesson telling

into speaking. So thank you for asking, because that's actually a really interesting transition for me in my life. I had been a writer, obviously, for many years, but while at Sports Illustrated, they actually had a speakers bureau, right, where if you were an advertiser who spent a certain amount of money with the magazine, and you were hosting an event, like let's say your caterpillar and you're, you know, and you're deciding to host your, your largest sales representatives at the Masters, you could actually get Sports Illustrated to send over a writer for, let's say, a dinner that you're having to share a few stories, maybe kind of answer some questions. Most of the other writers hated it, right?

They didn't want to do it. They didn't find it intriguing. I loved it. I loved the idea of learning, because I did all the prep work, right? I went to understand what does it mean to be successful at Caterpillar? What had a success there in their business differ from success in the NBA where I was writing a story at the time or whatever it might be, you know, I wanted to try to compare what they were doing to what I already knew so that I could tell them stories that would really matter to them. And I got excited by that opportunity. and so ultimately door opens Sports Illustrated is offering early retirement opportunities for people because the economy was changing.

And I said, I'm going to go try speaking. I mean, I've done these events for Sports Illustrated, but I had never tried to sell myself as a speaker. But I went out and hired coaches. I went out and I explored who was the, who was the, who was, I'd be competing against. I went to events to watch my potential competition to see what they would look like. I did everything you would want to do if you were an athlete trying to get better, right? I watched game film of myself after a speech to see if I could, what I was doing well and

what I wasn't. And lo and behold, a decade later, I'm doing 80 speeches a year all over the world for companies, as large as Microsoft and Oracle and, you know, the Cisco systems, all the big, all the big companies. And you just, I learned how to do it even though I hadn't been, it hadn't been on my idea. You know, I'd never set out to be a speaker. It just happened to be something I found that I enjoyed. But I hired coaches. Like I didn't, I don't think much of what we do in life is completely natural.

I think we have to go find people who can shorten our learning cycle. And that's what I went to do. It's, it's, it's good to hear you talk about, like, you know, watching yourself and learning and everything you took. Like, my wife gives me a hard time because she'll hear me listening to our podcast. And she's like, do you not get. sick of yourself and like have and like yeah i do but like i listen to every podcast because i'm trying to get better you know like i want to hear what i said and how responded to something and how i made someone feel or like you know but you have to do it to get better that's exactly right and i

think you know anybody that that that stops doing that i mean i watched the speech yesterday that i gave three weeks ago that the company just sent me there and that's one of things right we we we say, sure, record anything you want, do whatever you want with it. Just make sure I get a copy of it. And I'm using it for my purposes, which is constant growth in training. What, how would you describe your style of speaking, you know, for someone that might need a corporate speaker? You know, obviously they can go check out your website. We'll get to all that at the end.

But, you know, but how would you describe your speaking approach? So I'm a storyteller. Yeah. first. But it's funny because I was literally at an event a couple of weeks ago in Pensacola and myself and several other speakers were talking about how we, what word we used. Are you motivational? Are you motivational? And I for the first time tried, I said, you know what? I think I'm an activational speaker. Like, I want to tell you a story that is inspired to get you to take action. And so I don't just tell you the story and say, now go do it. I try to tell you the story. I try to tell

the story and explain how you could go do it based upon what I've learned from the people I've worked with. So I kind of look at it and say my goal, I study high performance. That's what I've been doing my entire life. I look at the very best and say, how do they do it? And I began when I was fresh out of college, my father challenged me that every interview I was going to do, he said, ask them what what is something you know find a question that you can ask every great interview you're going to do that will make you better and the question I settled on was you know Ryan if you could if you could think about the habits you've built into your daily routine that make the difference in your life give me the one habit that you think most affects your capacity for success

what makes you great and what I learned was as I collected other people's habits, I began to understand how I could make myself better too. And so that constant commitment to improvement, all of those things, those are just lessons. And then I just put the lessons into application. And in the application, I worked on getting better at what I was at my craft, whatever my craft was. I listened to you say all that.

And I'm thinking, okay. And I like, I'm the, it's the marketer in me. I distill things. You know, clients tell me, a thousand things and I distill it. That's beautiful. But here's what I would call you. You're an enabler.

You enable like you because sometimes speakers do things. And but if you drive action, you're an enabler as a speaker. And that is the best and most powerful kind of speaker. Wow. By the way, I just wrote that down. Trust me, you'll see it in my marketing before. Hopefully you won't charge me for it. No, that's a free one, Don.

The first one's always free. It's good, because I don't think I can afford you. Oh, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I know you mentioned it, and it was one of our questions. So I am, you know, age is not the point. Maybe it's just more where they are in their journey. But what are some tips and some recommendations for whether it's the youth or the early, you know,

someone that's getting into writing or speaking, like, you know, what are some of those? And you've shared some, but maybe if there's other specifics and you just talked about your process for betterment, which is probably a lot of it. But are there other things that you'd put out there? The other thing that I wrote down when I considered the question, because I was preparing, right? The question that you had shared that you might ask me was the power of learning to become an active listener. You know, many people think of listening as a very passive experience.

It's really not, right? A good listener, it requires attentiveness. It requires a willingness not to be putting yourself into the next question, but to be present in the conversation right as it stands. To be a great listener is a lost art. And I think that that's one of those things. things. You know, you and I talked about it before we even got on today. What's the, what's part of your gift as I listen to what you do? It's that, yes, you have a script, if you will, right? But you're a

great listener, which allows you to find the next great question. And that's where I just, I think that most people, they've all, they've come up with their list. And these are the questions I'm going to ask. And you have to listen. And then, but do it, do it with an. active mindset. Yeah, I love that. That is an art. And I don't know, like, I was, my wife thinks I'm not the best listener,

but you know what it is. Well, you're probably not for your wife. But the problem is I have a bit of ADD. And when I'm in podcasts, like with you, I mean, every other distraction in my world is off. When I'm, when I have a podcast guest and I'm talking with someone, I've got my headphones on. And when I'm one of the best listeners on the planet when I'm focused, you know,

I'm probably one of the worst listeners when I'm not. And so you have to create an environment for focus. And, you know, that doesn't mean it's perfect. But I also, my brain works in weird ways. I can be talking with guests and I can layer my thinking. I can be listening to absolutely everything that you're saying. But I can stack four questions because you'll say something. or a guest will say something, and it will stack three questions down the line.

And I can focus in the moment while layering the three that are coming. I don't know what. It's a blessing and a curse at the same time. I love that. I love that creating an environment for focus. Again, I take notes even while I'm, you know, I'm not used to being interviewed. I'm used to being the guy asking the questions. But so I can't help myself.

You're saying good stuff. I'm writing it down. No, I love it, Don. Hey, we're learning from one another. and I'm blessed to have met you. But, you know, I'll give you another one. I call it creating space. Like, it's one of those other things like where if you don't create space for things to happen,

and it's a little different than focus. It's kind of like some people might say, well, you carve out time for things. But like we all do things that create space for other things to happen. And I think that's another one that I put out there. So, Don, let's talk as, you know, we're starting to close out a bit here. You know, what's the now and the future for you, my friend? I mean, you've done so much. You're doing so much.

You've got the corporate competitor podcast, which I was blessed to be on. And, you know, but what's the here and the now for you? Well, the podcast is one of those things. I mean, you've been doing this. I'm a little late in the game. I started it during the pandemic because like everybody else in the world, I thought another podcast was necessary. Yes.

But what I was looking for, and, you know, as a marketing genius, as you are, you understand the key is too many people want to be everything to everybody, but the really successful people find their lane, right? They find their lane and then just dominate. And so I looked at my two worlds were sports and business, right? That's who I'm speaking to today are corporations. And so I wanted to know what did business executives who had, I read an ESPN article that showed that Ernst & Young had done some research that shared that 92% of the women who work on the C suite, right,

who are C-level executives of Fortune 500 companies were once athletes. 52% of them played sports in college. You start watching, there's an equally disproportionate number of men who also were athletes, who are now today leaders. So I wanted to talk about what did being an athlete teach them as leaders? How did you become a better leader by being an athlete? And when you start to mix those two, and the stories are fun, I mean, listening to you, and your history was awesome.

The idea of learning, and for some of these executives, they haven't told those stories in 20 years, right? So it was fun for them, but for me, I get to learn the root of their leadership genius today because it often happened in a sporting environment. So the podcast has become extraordinarily important to me

because it opens doors for me to interview, you know, people like, you know, Kate Johnson, who was, who's a marketing leader at Google and was, you know, she became a goal-setting genius when she was on the Olympic crew team for the United States. I had Disney's CEO Bob Chapec on. They talked about how to be better prepared. And CEO of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastion, came on to talk about how, you know, he said, you know, how important it is to be a visible leader. Like he has a rule that he spends no more than 50% of his time in his office. The other 50% he's in the field meeting customers and employees. I mean, that's a pretty high bar for an executive who could probably spend 95% of his time in the office. So I love, again, it's just I'm satiating my own curiosity, but I'm getting to do it with people like you, which is awesome.

I love that, man. I love it. Before we get into where everybody can keep up and find you for speaking, find your books and all that, you got time for a little rat or fad. I give you one key word and you tell me rad or fatted. You know, everyone wants to add some context. So it's turned into that. So you can add context if you want to. I'll do my best to be to limit and be appropriate. Be right. First is online coaching. Rad or fad. Rad. Absolutely rad. I'm a big fan. Now, I have to ask a follow-up, though.

Does it, you know, you don't strike me as this, the cynical type. But like everyone, you know, your joke about the 13-year-old that's writing the book. Do you get it cynical at all about everyone's kind of a coach now? It is, you know, it is funny, right? Especially when you realize now there are like, you know, weekend courses, you can go become a certified life coach or whatever it is. You know, I mean, it's like, first off, I don't even know what a life coach is exactly. But more importantly, I think, you know, as I told you, I'm a big fan of coaching.

I seek it all the time. So I'm willing to go learn from everybody. The question is sometimes what I'm learning is what not to do. And so, you know, yes, I think sometimes it's a, you know, you listen for a very short period of time. you realize my, my takeaway here is I'm not going to learn how to do what they're suggesting. Learning not what to do. Rad. Look, it's legit, right?

All right. Number two, social selling. Rad. I totally believe that, you know, that that's the model. Yep. Ding, ding, ding. Three, Facebook meta. the metaverse.

That is so fad. I'm like lost on and in the timing of it could not have appeared more questionable. Questionable, exactly. Like, oh, Congress is investigating.

Let's change our name. Hmm. I did a TikTok video where I was pretty much like hmm. Let's see here. I would miss it. The only thing that scares me is my kids do put a lot of value in their digital presence.

So I don't know. I'm somewhat fearful that we're, you know, at least when I'm, I don't know, in the nursing home or wherever I am in 35 years or whatever, that it's going to be in a virtual world. Yeah, exactly. When they're changing your digital diaper. I don't know. Dodd, it's been awesome, man.

Tell me, let's tell everybody where they can, you know, learn about the podcast, find you, check out your books and speaking and everything else. Well,

first off, you know, thank you. But I, but the, so I would tell you, our episode and some of the stories you shared in the time, you know,

hoovered it up. It's great. I hope that people will go corporate competitor podcast. It's on all the major platforms like yours. And as I said, it's episode 73. I should have given you a jersey number or something like that. But then everything else is really at Don Yeager,

which is D-O-N-Y-A-E-G-R on all social. And then Don Yager.com. And for that one, because I would have listened to a good marketing executive like you, I own all of the misspellings of my last name also. Smart. So that they all direct you to the right spelling at some stage. So you can botch my last name and you'll likely find me nonetheless. I love it, Don.

Hey, man, I want to continue this and want to get to know each other even better down the road. I know we can help each other. And I just like you, man. Ditto. So great. And thanks for the time. the preparation and the hard, the, the work that you put into making your community whole. My pleasure, man.

Hey, guys, you know where to find us. We're at the radcast.com. You can search for all of our content. Any keyword. Search for badass. You'll find Don Yager. Hey, guys, you know where I'm at, at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time.

On the Radcast.