Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Shawne Merriman - Former All-Pro NFL Linebacker and Co-Founder of Lights Out Xtreme Fighting

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Welcome back to another episode of The Radcast! This week Ryan interviews former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman! Shawne shares his story from NFL stardom to co-founding Lights Out Xtreme Fitness!To keep up with Shawne, follow him @ShawneMerriman and @LightsOutXF on Instagram and Twitter!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 channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcast or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radicalresults @the.rad.cast @nick_weaver @christinaroseyasi  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.

They said, why do you play football? And I said, well, I can physically harm somebody and not go to jail, right? Like, that was my answer. You can't say that today, can you? You can't say that now, right? I've always felt that Lights Out was bigger than anything I could do in a football field. And that's why when I bought the name and rights of trademarks I bought in 2006, I'm sure all my teammates didn't like me and I didn't like every single teammates that I had.

But we found a way to come together to win football games. That was what was most important. 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 Radcast. I'm here today talking one of my favorite things.

Football with the Ex-All Pro, Sean Merriman. What's up, brother? What's up, my man? How you doing? It's good, man. I mean, the acronyms could go on and on now. We got life insurance. I know we're going to get into it.

We got lights out podcasts. We got lights out of peril, fitness. And we got some damn kick-ass UFC and fighting and all that shit, man. You got it going on, brother. You know what, man? I'm fortunate, right? Because, you know, growing up, like, you're a number one thing. You want to play football, right?

You want to be in the NFL. You get a chance to live out your dream. And now, you know, all the stuff that I'm doing now, it's like my second act to everything I wanted to do, right? And just that transition, because we talked about it off Air Force for a split second, it's not easy. Yeah. It's just not. But I've had a lot of fun with it. Yeah.

Well, you look like you having fun with it. I can't wait to get down some of those rabbit holes. But, Sean, I mean, you know, it takes half a second on Google for someone to read and do things. so we don't have to rehash everything. But I do want to give people some, you know, your back history, you know, you know, as condensed as you want it to be. But like your story, I know huge chargers. I mean, I remember you just wrecking people.

Like I remember you were like that dude, like that skit, like that freak. Like they talk about some of the freaks now. I'm like, dude, Sean Merriman would wreck some people. Somebody was asking me like, oh, I remember that name. I'm like, yeah, you remember that name because he fucking destroyed people. Like, you were a beast, man. but talk about the football background and then we'll get into some business. Yeah, I grew up in Prince George's County, Maryland.

And so we grew up in the late 80s and 90s where, and I was right next to Washington, D.C., which is like the, it was the crack epidemic, the murder capital of the country for, you know, almost a decade. And so I grew up around that. And, you know, it was tough. We were, you know, homeless, you know, several different times, you know, at least two or three. different towns where, you know, we lost our home due to fires because we couldn't pay our electricity bills. We're lighting, my mom lit candles in there because of light and gas got cut off.

We, a house burned down. We lost that. We lived in the shelter, back of cars. And so, you know, kind of just fast forward and everything like that because that could be a whole hour on its own. Yeah, no kidding. I ended up going to University of Maryland. And I committed to University of Maryland as a junior. And the reason why is because I was home. You know, I didn't want to leave, you know, my mom leave, my high school coaches, friends. I wanted everybody to come to watch me play. So I went to University of Maryland, you know, had a great career there, but I ended up leaving early. You know, when I found out that I was going to go somewhere in the top 10, top 15 of the first round of draft, I was like, this is a, this type of shit doesn't

happen, right? So you want to take advantage of it. And then the rest is history. You know, I got out and got that nickname lights out my sophomore year in high school. Yeah, I knocked out four players in one game in high school, and I ended up getting that nickname lights out, and I kind of carried that all the way through. Where was that, you know, that energy in that edge? Like, was that just bottled up physical capability, or was it like, you know, you were talking about it, you know,

some of those bad times and some of that, those challenges? I mean, was any of that bottled up? up from that, I mean, because I can't help but think that maybe it was. A hundred percent. And kind of taking a step further, it was my escape, right? I remember when I was rated my sophomore year in high school, I don't know, top 100 defensive player or something like that in the country. Yeah.

And it was my first ESPN. Mind you, I had no media training and stuff like that then, right? So I didn't, you don't get that from where I came from. They said, they said, why do you play football? I said, well, I can physically harm somebody and not go to jail, right? Like, that was my answer. You can't say that today, can you? You can't say that now, right?

But at the time, because of everything that did go through, like, that was my, that few hours a day at practice or games was me being able to escape what I was going through at home and not having much, you know, whether I was going to come home and the eviction notices on the door or were we going to have food or life school. So that two hours was my getaway from everything else. And in return, I just started to light people up. You know, I was like, angry and physical, I need to, you know, get out aggression. And I hated, you know, my circumstances in life. And then I felt good. After practice, after games, I was like, that was my meditation, my therapy, whatever it was. But, you know, over a period of time, I just started to play like that.

Like, that was just my attitude. I was nasty and physical and wanted to hit everybody because that was the only way I learned the game. and it's just, you know, translated all the way through college and then through the pros. It was hard to turn that off, like, you know, coming off the field, you know, both, you know, we'll talk about the transition after football, but like, seems like some of that would be, you know, hard to turn off. But was it, was it hard to kind of leave that behind when you got off the football field? No, not really. But the attitude did you feel like you needed to carry it forward?

Like, was it like? I definitely had a like a chip on my shoulder, right? There's no doubt about it. Even now, now the chip has changed from, you know, me seeing another opponent to me be eager to want to, you know, prove people wrong in business or grow and, you know, all that, that stuff. So the chip is definitely changed, but it's still there. So yes, I have a chip on my shoulder. But the walking off the field, it was almost like a, like an actor, right?

to go and, you know, take Lina on DiCaprio and the Great Gatsby. He's not calling people old sport, you know, right in the street and acting great Gaspi was like he was an actor. He was a character for that movie and for that role. And that's how I felt. It was like I had this lights out demeanor. I ended up getting a blue mohaw. I had tattoos everywhere, flying around and just being like this guy.

And actually, when I walked off the field, it was it was the opposite. You know, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't that. guy. Yeah. But during those, doing that, you know, those four quarters,

um, 60 minutes of football, you can go out and be whoever the hell you want to be. Uh, and then, you know, kind of, and I always say this,

leave it on the field. Yeah. Everything, everything you have, leave it on the field. And I still stand true to this day. How did you, um,

you know, how many years did you play in the pros? Eight. Eight. Yeah. I mean, I, you hear,

you hear pros talk. about it. But I don't know that people that didn't have that energy flow and got the, both the attention, everything like that, how hard it is to transition. I mean, maybe, I mean, in your own words, like, you know, you've heard Jerry Rice talk about others, like getting away from the game, like the highs of that, you know, like the emotional highs and everything. How hard was that transition?

That first year is beyond tough. And I'll tell anybody that is about to retire and I talk to guys all the time, right? They said they got a year, two years left, maybe three. I said, whatever you want to do when you're done, start doing it now. And that way, when you're done, you do it right away because if you have downtime, you're going to struggle. And, you know, for me, I went right in the TV. I went NFL network and I had my clothing line. I was selling in, you know, a variety of sports shops and sports stores and retail.

I had plenty of things to do. And it was still some days I sat around was like, is this it? Like there's no more, you know, going out to practice or working out or hearing the whistle, training camp, OTAs, many, I mean, all this is done, right? And so it still hit me and I had plenty of things to do. So I can only imagine a guy that's not lined up and ready to transition how hard that would be. And that's why sometimes you hear these horrible stories. Is it the highs and the endorphins that are missed?

or is it almost like the army? Is it like the structure? Because I heard hearing you talk a little bit made me think less about the lights on and all the attention, which I think is probably some of it. But what I heard from you there a little bit was just maybe the structure of it all.

It's the structure. And the number one thing is being around the guys right in the locker room because things happen and be talked about in the locker room. You cannot do out in the workplace. It's just point blank. You can't do it. Yeah.

And especially even now, more so you can't do it because, you know, it's just being around the guys, wins and losses. Didn't matter. It was you're around the guys no matter what. And what happens is you have players that come from from the South or Wisconsin, Midwest, and East Coast. You got some city boys, guys who are married, guys who aren't. And one day a week, you find a way to get on the same pace so you can go out and win the game.

All these personalities. So you look back and like, man, this guy was funny as hell. Right. The guy was crazy as hell. So you missed being around the guys more so to anything else. And that was what people struggle with first. And then you're right. The structure of somebody telling you, hey, you got to be here to work out at 8 o'clock in the morning.

We got film after this. We got practice. You got lunch at three. So the structure part is going. You got to figure it out. So we transition. You were ready. You teed up.

You had the NFL network. You've got the apparel company. company lights out. Nature or nurture? Like, were you just a natural born entrepreneur waiting to come out of the bottle? Or, like, did you absorb and learn from others? No, I was just, I was natural, man. I've always been, when I was a kid, I was selling, you know,

five or six Nintendo games to get the one best one, right? And I'll go out and wash cars, you know, during the summers cut grass, shovel snow, wrecked leaves, and I would take it and use all the money for what I wanted to, you know, whether I wanted to go buy a new mouthpiece or football equipment or cleats. I was always hustling in a way. And I think that this entrepreneur word has kind of become more recent, but you look back on everything now, even to the point of branding, right? I mean, I look back on everything that I did when I was a kid or even, you know,

having a nickname like lights out at 16 years old. getting a tattoo and my right forearm to it was branding. It was marketing. I think that we just used the word for it now. So, you know, though I had mentors and things, I was doing this long before anybody came in a picture. No, but you did. You created the brand.

I mean, you talked about the mohawk and the look and the feel. And like, you became the character, I mean, character, so to speak, but the persona of a brand or a machine. I mean, like, you were that. I mean, and yeah, I mean, all these words have gotten. you know, buzzy and everything like with social media and stuff, which I know we're going to talk about.

But like I think you are probably a little ahead of your time with having that both on the field. I mean, it's one thing to do all those gimmicks and then not live up to it. But then, you know, you destroying quarterbacks and taking people off the field, you know,

like you lived up to it in both, uh, stature and, uh, brand. Yeah. And you know what? And,

um, so as you, as you, As you said, right, you had what I did on the football field as creating his character, this persona, all these things. But in the hindsight of it, I was just kind of the launching pad to everything with the brand. I've always felt that Lights Out was bigger than anything I can do on a football field. And that's why when I bought the name and rights, the trademarks I bought in 2006,

I bought it for, you know, numerous of things and clothing, workout stuff, and equipment, marketing and advertisement, energy drinks. This is something I acquired from another company at the age of 21 years old. And so I don't even know if trademarking was even that big, then the people talked about it enough. And I just took those extra steps to know that this brand was going to be a lot bigger than I ever could be. So what's that transition?

Like, you know, you've had a lot of iterations. What's the, how would you compare being in business versus? being in football. You know, and I know business was football was business. There's contracts. Right. You're working. So I don't want to minimize that at all.

I know it's a business. But how did you compare the two? So funny story. I used to absolutely hate when I go, when I retire and I go into these business meetings. And people would always use a football analogy to explain whatever business opportunity that we're talking about. And in my head,

I think like, dude, I'm not dumb. You know, you can, I speak to the same lingo you speak. Right. So I don't care if it's like, you know, trademark stuff or, you know, stocks or whatever,

whatever the business we're talking about, somebody in the room would always make a football knowledge and say, hey, you know, this is like, you know, the quarterback and say, listen, you don't have to, you don't have to do that. So fast forward after enough of those meetings. And I would listen to what some of these people say about making these comparisons. And I said, holy shit, this is very much like football. and I started thinking of over and over again, right? There's a team aspect.

So you're not going to be successful without a good team. And that's whether there's employees, partners, whatever it is. So there's your team aspect. Overcoming adversity, football, knee injuries that I've had, Achilles, body parts, whatever it is, you're overcoming, having a final way to get back on the field, business, you're going to get knocked on your ass, you've got to find a way to get back up and go back at it again. being able sometimes to work with people you don't necessarily like. You know, like I'm sure all my teammates didn't like me and I didn't like every single

teammates that I had, but we found a way to come together to win football games. That was what was most important. Also being able to be creative, right? I mean, I had this sack dance and all the stuff that I, you know, kind of created about this moniker, this presence that I had in the football field. So there were so many similarities that I got to the point where I started to go to meetings and give these like these comparisons. And I'm like, yeah, we're talking about, you know, whatever deal or whatever it was. And I say, okay, that's like, you know, the fullback, right, going to the flats.

You know, you got to, you know, so I started to use that because football was so much like real life and the things you have to deal with. and that I started looking at it as an advantage when I retired more so than a disadvantage. Yeah, I love it, man. Talk with X, all pro Sean Merriman. Sean, I mean, I want to transition to more social media and the business side, but like what's the biggest thing you miss about football and, you know, maybe I don't know, if there's any misconceptions about football players in general? I think the biggest thing I miss is being able to compete, right? Like, you know, to go against Peyton, Tom Brady,

some of these all pro left tackles, right, Hall of Fame left tackles that I played against, you got to get up for that, right? Because it's you, it's like man versus man, you versus him, and some big, oh, this guy's going to do this, he's not going to let you side to the quarterback. You'll watch your film,

looking at certain tendencies, and what the offensive line do and what plays they like to run or what yard line to just the preparation and to be able to compete I miss probably the most because in my opinion

there's no game like team game especially like football. You can have 10 guys on the field doing the perfect thing. Everything he's supposed to do. You got one guy not doing what he's supposed to do and that whole play is ruined.

Right. And so that part I missed a lot. yeah and i it's so funny you bring up the the 10 and the one like i was talking to someone about that like it wasn't that into football and they go why do you love football i don't know i think i just appreciate the the symphony of it all like it's kind of like the orchestra like you know there's a bad violinist you're going to hear it it ain't going to work the song ain't going to sing you know like it's not going to be good the uh so let's talk about lights out so the brand carried forward uh you've got fitness gear you've got a pair of

I know you can share all that. What's that experience been like? And, you know, if I was an ex-N-FL player, I would probably be like, if I build it, they will come. But something tells me it's never as easy as that. No, never. I'm still knocking down those same doors that a lot of other people have to knock down. Right?

I'll get into any need and just about I want to meet with anybody because, you know, by football play and people name recognition, people know who I am, so they know I'm not just coming to meet with them to, because I got some free time to waste. So I'll get in the meetings, but I do have to do the same convincing that everyone else is out here trying to promote a girl company. It doesn't change, right? You got people that going there, they won't see your vision,

they won't understand what you're trying to build, and you may have to go do it on your own so they can realize it and come back. And that's happened to me several times. You know, when I launched LifeSout Extreme Fighting, I had to go and pitch it to Fox Sports because that's what we started out at, the regionals. And I had to

see it, make sure they gave me an opportunity. And, you know, now we're on Fubo Sports, Football TV. I have to do the same thing. So it's not like I called and pick up the phone, but hey, I'm Sean Merriman, I play football, give me a deal. Like, it's none of that going on if anybody thinks that.

Yeah. It's flying across country, right, sitting down with all the important people in the room to make decisions, letting them know what my vision is and how I'm going to execute it. And then you still got to come back. You got people in the room that may not be convinced. And so you have to, when you get your opportunity, you got to convince it. Yeah.

Is where all is the fitness stuff. I mean, are you, I know you got your own D to C stuff, but where all can, like, are you distributed? Yeah, we were in Tilly's for some years. And actually, we're going to, this time next year, we should be fully back in the retail. We're going to potentially launch a really, really big retail store, probably one of the biggest in the country. And again, going again because the apparel space is like, honestly, my first love because that's where I started at even when I was playing. I was still in sports mail and billion shops. I was still selling lights out gear.

And I just, I love the apparel space so much because it's a part of the overall lights. brand. Yep. It's, um, the transition into fighting, you know, like I told you pre-episode, like I,

I remembered you. I remember, like, uh, I'm never scared of anyone over TV, but if there's everyone, I was like, I didn't want to get hit by.

It might have been you. And I'm a big dude. And I'm like, I don't want that fucker hitting me. Um, and, but like, was fighting just always a passion?

And it's like been this national transition for you? Yeah. Actually, that was probably my most natural transition, right? Because, you know, for one, I grew up in Prince George County, Maryland, that Washington area, that Washington, D.C. area, that DMV area, it was a ton of boxes, professional boxes, champs. And so they would come around my neighborhood. I would box a lot as a kid. We would always throw in the gloves in the neighborhood and boxing the cookouts of family reunions. It was just a part of it.

And so when I transitioned into M.M.A., a good friend of mine, Jay Glazer, in 2000. and six got me involved in the may. My first day training in the May was with him and Randy Gator. And so that was my interesting. Welcome. Welcome to the sport. Right. Yeah. And like you can imagine, it wasn't so great, right?

Yeah. Because Randy was at that time still, even still on top of his game. So, you know, MMA picked up a lot of steam in the mid-late 2000s. And, you know, the UFC has done a great job. branding the hell out of the sport and making it as big as it is today. And now, look at the, well, a week or two ago, Adrian Peterson just fought LeBion Bell, right?

The boxing match. There's going to be a long list of former athletes that get into some form of combat sports when they've done, and it's recommended, in my opinion, because that transition, as we just talked about, is not easy. And some of these guys get done and still have something left in the tank. and they want to go compete

to something. They can't play football anymore. They're not going to get picked up by team. And a lot of these guys start training combat sports in the May. So I'm actively transitioning former guys right now. When that's interesting because, like, you can play in the pro. That's what's so fast thing. I look at you and you, I mean, you look young anyway.

But it's like, I mean, if I didn't know better, I think you were still, you know what I mean? Like a lot of you guys play six, eight, 10 years, which is good career in the pros. but then you're 30, 31, 32, 33. I mean, you're still very athletic, maybe not, maybe a bad ankle, bad knee or something that you just can't be at all, you know, be full force football. But there's still a lot of athletic ability there.

So it does seem like kind of a, and like, shit, who's these boxers, some of these fighters, you know, at 40, I mean, if damn Tom Brady can play football at 45, then I think an ex-football player can kick somebody's ass at 33, Yeah. No question about absolutely. And you know what's funny about that is, um, it's not, if you look at the grand scheme of things, it's not that long in football, right? So I retired at 28. You know, you said 33, 34. The problem, why I didn't sign and fight when I got done because they wasn't paying. They, you know, when I, I remember

pitching, when I, when I retired in 2013 and said, hey, man, I want to go fight in pay per view. I remember asking for half a million dollars for me to fight, which is now is not much. If you have a name and you can fight and you can sell paper views, that's a starting point. Half a million dollars for anybody that is fighting another person with a personality you're following is a starting point. So that's why I'm like, come on. You know, these guys, they only play two, three years. They still, you know, they can't get back into the NFL. They're tired, maybe tired of getting pushed to decide i bring them i bring them over yeah is um what's the what's what's what's been the learning curve with promotion and you know everything that goes into the fight game i'm curious on that and also curious

on you know i know dana white has done an incredible job with ufc i'm not less question about why they're so popular i know what you know the machine he's built what he's done but damn i i grew up watching boxing with my grandfather and like i you know to see kind of the decline of boxing you know has has hurt me a bit you know and i don't know why i mean maybe it's starting to pick back up but i know that was kind of a double loaded question but uh i'd let me know your perspective well for one um what would kill boxing the fastest is the uneven matches right you got you got these guys is 23 and old fighting somebody is 10 and 20 right or 10 to 15 And also I believe that the promoters and managers, you know, kind of made the sport decline

faster what is because they're holding their chant back or somebody with a big name from fighting another big name, afraid that if they lose, they're going to lose the breadwinner. And that's happening too much. And what Dana and those guys done at UFC is the best are fighting the best, right? You're getting the number one and number two, the number one and number four. number one and number three. They're fighting each other all the time. So the best man actually, it literally wins.

Boxing, that's what killed the sport. That's what killed the sport because you got a guy that's an extreme, talented fighter, big name, fighting somebody that no one heard of. And when you have that enough, people are not going to pay for it. Why do you think people are okay with, you know, and I know there's a few of these now, but for the most part, the champion in any divisions like 16 and 5. You know what I mean?

It's okay that he's lost, you know, because they're fighting their ass off. They fight the best. But in boxing, you do kind of, they've built it up to where, even I think I do it myself, oh, he's got a couple losses, he must not be, you know, and I'm like, shit,

I don't know why I think that way. I don't know why it's acceptable in UFC to lose, but in boxing it isn't. Well, because, you know, MMA, there's so many different disciplines, right? You might have a guy that's a great wrestler, a jujitsu, Muay Thai, a striker, box, you know. And so sometimes you're just outmatched.

You get outsmarting. Yeah. And, you know, most of these boxers have been boxing since they were 10, 11 years old. So they're so technical that if you lose in boxing, it's automatically that that guy is so much better than you, right? And that's not true. I give Canello all of respect in the world for stepping up a weight class, even though he lost. Yeah.

You know, he went for it. And he didn't go fight another guy who can just. put through the ropes and knock out. And so while other people said, oh, he lost and and that's the boxing community, right? That's the boxing community, which I don't agree with. Other people are

saying that. For me, I'm like, damn, that, he went to go, he was unmasked. Yeah. Right? He was fighting a bigger guy and it wasn't an even match, but he did it. And so boxing is not going to pick up unless Giovante Davis go

and fight Ryan, Right? Or, you know, what? He's finally got freaking Spence and whatever there's name in. I can't keep it with every name. But Errol Spence, Jr. and freaking Terrence Crawford. Crawford. I mean, like, those guys should have fought three years.

I mean, it gets to where it's the end of the guy. The guys should have fought three years ago in their prime. You know, like we're going to see Canelo and Triple G for the third time. Which is good, but it's like, you know, some of these things get delayed so much. Yeah, and because, you know, Hayney need to fight Terrence Crawford or Aerospace. Like that has to, in order for boxing to come back

to compete with the any MMA, those fights are going to have to happen. And if the promoters and these people are guarding them and not, and trying to have this huge, huge, huge big payday, yes, everybody get paid, but it's not going to do much for the

sport. And so unless the, you know, number one fights, number two or three, number four guy fights, no, number eight, number seven. That's not, the boxing is going to stay where it's at. It's never going to be able to take MMA again. Yeah. I hope somebody gets their head out of their ass.

But talk to me about your fighting league and with lights out. Like, where are we headed with that? I know you talked about some of the ex-pro players, where you want to take your league and everything. Yeah, so we're on, we're on Fubo TV, Fubo Sports. We start back up in November. We go every month. after that.

And so when I'm looking to do here probably the next few weeks start announcing three days at a time, venues and so forth. But I love this sport, man. I wish that somebody saw back in 2013 I retired that

you know, how much I love the sport and I would have done it and paid me accordingly. But, you know, to be on the backside of this now, being part of the production, being part of of the, you know, we have big TV trucks outside and, you know, just everything. Yeah. We want to be, you know, the biggest minor league there is out there, right?

We want USC to come and see our talent and be respectable and have a great brand. And back to me, I just, I want to be able to get these fighters more fights, right? You have so many fighters out there and not enough quality promotions to give them an opportunity and lights out, you know, we can do that. Yeah, that's great, man. Is, um, are you partnered with anyone? I mean, I know it's back, I mean, a lot with your name and stuff, but are you partner, like, other than like Fubo and stuff like that? Who else, who else are some of your partners or sponsors? Um, well, we have, uh, what Fubo is obviously our exclusive partner with our fights.

Yep. Um, but we always partner for our fights with different casinos. Okay. Uh, Fubo, obviously Fubo sports book who just, just launched this recently. Yep. And sooner or later, you will be able to bet during our fights through the Fubo app, you know, bet knockouts and chokes and everything else. You know, we're getting to that point where, you know,

at least 10 of 9 of 10 states, you'll be able to, you know, gamble with this and bet on the fight. Being in gambling, that's changed a lot. Hadn an end from your days, you know, that's going full circle. I could tell you, man, several years ago, I felt uncomfortable talking about it. Yeah. because it was so frowned upon that I'll tell you this, I didn't even know what the over under was until like I retired. I had no idea.

If somebody asked me what the over and it was, I looked at you like, listen, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. That's probably a good thing. Yeah. But at least while you're playing. But it's crazy.

But now it's, I mean, it's wide open. It's the Wild Wild West out there. I mean, I really commend how you've used social media. We talked pre-episode a little bit about this. How much power there is in social media for growing a brand and doing business.

Talk about how you've leveraged it. You know, for me, I like for one, one thing I never really talked about social media is politics, religion, that type of thing, because it's a waste of time for me. It's not like I'm not interested in politics, so I don't care what's going on. But, you know, for me, social media is not the place for me for that, right? So I use, I have these sign them up or don't sign them up. funny videos where I post fights and people like it. So, you know, as funny

it's entertaining, if the guys can fight, sign them up, they can't fight, don't sign them up. And I saw, for that, I promote the league, I promote what I do. And so I see people sometimes taking these vacations, you know, once a month or this and that, which is all fine. I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't go on vacation, but I'm just about growing this brand and working. Give me a gym, an hour and a half, six days a week, give me some food, give me six hours of sleep,

and just let me work, man. That's how I like my schedule. I was going to ask you what your routine is these days, you know, still lift a lot? Yeah, I just, so this morning, I work out this place in Vegas. I live in Vegas full time called Dragonslair, Flex Lewis, his former bodybuilder, he owns, and so I go to every days a week, and I go to Extreme Couture, train there, Randy Couta's gym. a few days a week to actually, you know, hitting mitts and rolling and stuff like that. So I'm pretty active, man. It's so much part of my makeup like I'm scared not to.

I always felt that if you've been doing something for so long and then you just stop, I don't know if I'm just croaking far right over if I missed a gym for a week. So I don't even know what that feels like. I know. What does Sean Merriman do for fun these days? What's fun? Don't say go to the gym. But what is?

No, no. I you know what I like to do is so I try to base everything around what I'm already doing right so yesterday I was in I was in Arizona I had I had some meetings meet my really good friend Jeff Hoffman who co-founded the price line and so what I would do is I'll like stay an extra day somewhere right so if I got a meeting in Miami or New York wherever I go I'll try to stay there and hang out you know get some drinks ketchup dinner with whoever I can so that that's pretty much the fun, the most fun that I get. But, you know, it's not, you know, going somewhere for a week or vacation.

I mean, that's just totally out of question. So I'll just try to book trips where I can stay an extra day somewhere and enjoy it. Yeah. Do you think, is there good, like, you know, you've embraced it. You've taken advantage of the opportunities of social media and growing brands and making deals and all that. But like the average players, are they kind of just left to their own devices? I mean, is it like you either see it and you go after it or you don't?

Like, I mean, I just, I don't see a lot of education or what I don't know what happens. You know, like some of these guys like yourself, go make it happen and some just kind of fade away. You know, we talked about, you know, the adrenaline and running out to 70,000 people to spotlight and all this stuff. and just really a passion for the sport that you played. You know, I tell a lot of former guys, if you find that same passion, right, that, whatever that was, and let me tell you, it's next to impossible to replace that feeling of running out to 70,000 screaming people,

or you making a big catch, big tackle sack, turnover, everybody's going crazy. Your teammates are slapping you on top of the head and patting you on the back. You get home and you got, you know, 50 text messages for everybody, you just had three sacks on Monday night football, you can't replace that feeling. That part of it is just not going to happen.

But the next thing you can do is replace the feeling of something you're building, right? And see it pan actually panning out like you plan for it to pan out. That is the closest thing for me that I can get back to that feeling. And because athletes are some of the most disciplined, hardworking, like, I mean, think about it. My whole life has been structured, right, since I was 10 years old. I was told what time to eat, told what time to wake up, told what time to watch film

and be in practice and go to the time I had to go to sleep to be ready for practice next day. My whole life is structured. And so what do you need out here to be successful? Two things, discipline and structure. If you have those, you got a good chance to be successful at anything because that's what a lot of people lack.

A lot of people lack just being disciplined and having structure in their life, which is one of the only things that I know. I love it, brother. I know I'd be remiss if I didn't, like, get in life insurance. I mean, we're the life insurance. I like, you know, like, is it lights out life insurance? Come on.

Yeah. You know what's crazy is so during a pandemic, right? And everybody I felt got hit in some kind of way during the pandemic, right? You lost something. You had to figure it out. Everybody, no matter if you were worth, you know, $1 billion or $100, during a pandemic, everybody had to figure it out. And when everything shut down for me, the MMA league, the TV shows,

when I was shooting some stuff with Fox Sports then and doing some broadcasting work, everything shut down. I lost everything in a matter of four days. Shut down, done. And so one of my best friends came up to me and said, hey, man, you should get you, you should do life insurance. I laughed at him. I said, okay, you want to have a red shirt and some khakis too when I'm at it? Or knock on doors and, you know, and I made a joke of it.

Yeah. And I say, you know what? We were three or four months into the pandemic. I said, let me just go ahead and get my insurance license. I might not ever use it. Might not do anything with them, but at least I'll have it. So I end up partnering with this company called a Family First Life. And I went with them, one of the founder of it, his name is Sean Mike. we had a really good conversation, same mindset when it came to a bunch of different things. But the second part of it is they were paying more compensation than everybody else.

And at the time, I knew nothing about insurance. Compensation, what company did, what? And so I said, and I immediately started to think, damn, everybody don't know you can make more money. So I started to build an agency. So now I have, you know, 207 agents in my agency. And, you know, we're probably growing 30 to 40 agents a month at this point. And so my goal is to get to a thousand plus agents and help people make as much money as they possibly can. I love it, man.

Hey, help. It's funny. When you help others, it usually comes back around to yourself, right? It's so, you know what? You don't think about doing it as you're doing it, but somehow, some way, it's like a boomerine effect. It happens every single time. Sean, man, I could talk to you all day. But tell me, let's tell everybody where they can keep up with you.

your brands, your insurance and all that stuff, people want to get to learn more about you. Yeah, just follow me at Sean Merman on Instagram and Twitter. The Lightsout XF is an MMA handle, Lights Out XF for Lights Out Extreme Fighting. And looking for a job, man. LightsoutAgency.com. And that's pretty much it, man, but I'm rocking over here.

No, you are. And, you know, ironically enough, you said, you know, beginning you're talking about, like people having to use the football and all that analogies like they needed to like talking in different languages. I think I listen to you and I hear a businessman that just happen to play football. You're right, man. People joke about that now, especially because I'm so far removed from the game.

Yeah. So everybody, when I'm talking to some people, they may not know or remember what they didn't watch football. And so they automatically assume I have this stuff going on. Like, hey, which business school did you go to? Which, you know, I said, I didn't go to business school. Trust me. School of Hard Knocks called Real Life. That's right.

Sean, man, I really appreciate it. And everybody out there listening, you need to go watch Sean take somebody's head off if you hadn't seen any of those highlights. But then didn't want to listen to this episode and you'll learn even another lesson. Sean really appreciate you coming on, brother. Hey, thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. Hey, guys.

You know where to find us, the radcast.com. Search for lights out. You'll find all the highlight clips from today. You might throw up some highlights from Sean, knocking people out on the football field, and now he's knocking them out on the business field. We appreciate Sean. You know where to find me. I'm at Ryan Alford on the platform.

Go follow me on TikTok blowing up. We'll see you next time. All the Radcast.