Right About Now with Ryan Alford - 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. 

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 Radcast. 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, Rad. 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've done a lot of really great things and I'm excited to get to it. You know, you're a 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 you 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 learn from a lot of your experience. I didn't wear my Jordans today. I'm still just jealous of all the time you've spent with MJ. He's right back there on the wall. It's all good. he's right back there on the wall. It's all good. Cool. Well, Don, let's, uh, let's start, um,

down the path and, uh, we'll let you lead us. I know you've done a lot. You've, you've written a lot. You've, you know, spoke a lot. Um, but let's give everyone, you know, your version of kind of your, 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 the 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, 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, that's something that they would enjoy that much. I did, and it turned into now 33 books and 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. They say bloom where you're planted. I think you did more than bloom, my friend. Well, and it was an accidental planting. And so I think that's the other really good lesson there is that sometimes we want to be, 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 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 screaming, you know, I find, uh, I I'm one that lives in ironies and, uh, you know, being in a creative space, you know, finding those insights, but, uh, that's probably the path I would go if I was writing my, a book about you, you know, like, well, hopefully no one will ever write a book about me. My job is to write about others. I know. Well, is that, I will say, is that hard? I mean, you know, right. Do you, Well, 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've actually never written about myself, but I've written, I mean, again, for me, I consider kind of my sweet spot is helping identify 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. But for those who do have a book inside of

them, having someone guide 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. script, it's about knowing when to go off script. And when you can do that, well, you find that there's this, 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'll be intrigue, 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 for the sports illustrated side, the sports side.

Can you kind of share a little bit more of the highlights of, 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 of the greats you've written about? Well, 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's 46 years old. I mean, we have like, you know, 13 year old gymnasts who are writing their life story today, um, in books. And I'm thinking you haven't even lived a 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, um, and my good fortune was as he was searching for a writer, um, I happened to be on Oprah Winfrey show one particular day, Walter was watching it, realized that I would be, I could be the guy that would be the right writer for him. And he invited me into his life. And I lived, uh, the last 10 weeks of Walter's life, uh, 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 over and said, I trust you.

Because that's what giving someone your life story, especially if like Walter, he passed away by the time the book came out. So he fully had to trust 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, uh, I don't know, just the integrity and the belief that someone has in you when Walter Payton, the greatest of all time, and his last moments turns to you to tell that story. I mean, that's just so moving. Like, 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, uh, 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, um, I, I, he was my hero, right? I mean, I grew up worshiping like Walter Payton. I, I wanted to be Walter Payton. Everybody did, right? You know, if I could high step like that, if I could, you know, I would give anything. But the challenge was that when he offered the invitation to me, I did not know that his condition was terminal.

And then he, you know, 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 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, you valued every, every question, every answer and, um, uh, 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 it was that,

that had to put a toil on you. I would think just a curiosity question. I mean, was how it was that that had to put a toil on you? I would think just watching that struggle. It was and to watch him dwindle to remember he was physically like the beast, right? I mean, he was 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 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 and talking about what he was up against, but instead to be talking about good memories. 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 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 is a big white guy, and Walter, obviously, a black guy. And so we're sitting there one morning in Walter's basement, or one 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 Sayers. 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 you know this is essentially like walter and matt suey and and so walter says hey let's watch a little brian song and matt was like uh and he jokingly said you know walter it's kind of like our story and walter looked at him and said yeah but in in our story the black guy gets it in the end, right? And just to make the moment light and funny, 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. stories. And that's really what, 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 as a person. And like, I mean, look, you all, we all hope we're gracious to 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 from storytellers like yourself and you know you you wanna 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 of a person he truly was.

He was the greatest football player ever, in my opinion, and a better man than that. I think those are too seldom used. They seldom go together. Yeah. I know. What other highlights? I mean, 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. If you'd have told me years ago I would ever have won New York Times bestseller, I would have been ecstatic. And to have experienced it 11 times is really incredible. Obviously, Walter stands out, and it's obvious why. Obviously, Walter stands out, and it's obvious why. But maybe with 33 and 11 bestsellers,

maybe one that you don't talk about as much, but you'd want to put on the radar people that are always, at least us, curious creatures like you and I, looking for the next read and things like that. What would be another standout or even for maybe a different reason, um, that kind of, uh, 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, uh, 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 understand why that particular affliction would make the ability to do an Ironman 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 pushup today, let's do our best to try to work a few days and then do two pushups. And then, you know, 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 things and here's this guy. So the book is called 1% better, right? And it's, it, it is literally, it's, it's the story of, of Chris and his family and how he worked. Um, it came out just a, just a few months, a couple of months ago, but it's, it was intended to come out in time for this year's Ironman in Hawaii, which got canceled. And so, you know, it kind of ruined the launch for him. But he was in the ESPY 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, you know, 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. At Ohio ohio state 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 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, cause watching that kicker story, I was like, unbelievable. Now I'd not heard of Chris, um, and the triathlete, 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, then you're, you're, you're 112 miles on a bike. Then you're, you know, running a full marathon. I mean, to do, and to do it all in less than 17

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

Nothing. We have nothing to complain about. And the 1%, what an aptly titled. I mean, less than 1% of all perfectly healthy men can even do triathletes. I mean, I have to think it's less than 1%. Absolutely. Much less with Down syndrome. Wow. I'm going to read that. I feel motivated and blessed sitting here even hearing that. I appreciate it. I know our listeners will as well.

Don, I know you've co-authored some books. I do want to get into a little bit of your process. Is it co-authoring easier or harder? I think it's harder because, obviously, anytime you're committing to collaboration, my opinion of everything isn't necessarily the way it has to go. I have to, I have to be, uh, aware. I have to try to read, uh, my partner, whatever it is. And under, and by read, I mean, understand them.

Yeah. Uh, 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 more 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 story. No, all stories are not lessons there. You can be entertaining, but not have a lesson. It's funny. I told almost this exact thing. I was invited to speak to a bunch of athletes who wanted to learn to become speakers. There's some superstar athletes.

There was this longtime All-Pro from the Denver Broncos. He comes up to me afterward and he said, man, that was really enlightening. And I said, well, what caught your attention? He goes, my stories, like they have to have a point. I said, yeah, they do. And he said, wow, I've been telling all these stories and I've been thinking everybody's just really enjoying them. And I said, well, I've been telling all these stories and I've been thinking everybody's just really enjoying them. And I said, well, 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 had never once thought that the story needed to come in for a landing you know you know what makes me think of it's this time of year uh with uh john candy and steve martin and playing strange and i'll go here's a here's a here's a great idea map your stories have a point this 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'd be perfect. And he's like, I'd like to meet my friend. He has a lot of interesting anecdotes. Here's a gun. You'll thank me later. man you're like you're quoting planes trains and automobiles in our in the podcast it's us

oh no maybe think of that but it is true that there's not a every story it doesn't have a lesson uh not even a point necessarily it might have a point but it doesn't have a lesson no i love it i love it um what about like on the sports illustrated side uh talk about some of your writing there i mean what would um what would be familiar to people or you know maybe some of the uh the the the athletes you covered or you know some of the specifics behind what you've done with sports illustrated so? 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 12 years I was there. And, um, uh, and the one thing that, that, um, and so several of the key writers had important beats, right? Peter King covered the NFL, you know, Tom Bernucci in baseball. I was one of those who was, you know, 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 China covering a story about counterfeit golf clubs. Um, and the next week I could be at the Kentucky Derby. Right.

So, um, you had no idea where you, but it was an extraordinary experience because you, um, unlike a beat writer where you're really fully invested in a subject, uh, like the NFL and you know everybody.

I would have to jump from 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? with people that were far greater experts, right? Whether it was, you know, 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 the tests were being done, then they could know how to alter a sample to help beat the test. Again, far more detailed content than I would ever have wanted to have learned, except that was the beauty of it. Every time I would take on an assignment, it would often be into a space that I had no previous knowledge.

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 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, to build, I think people with a high CQ are, are the most interesting people in the world to me, but they're also the people that, um, can do more varied things. And, um, and that's, uh, that's what, that's what Sports Illustrated allowed me to do. Yeah, and we talked about it. I've come up with my top three variables of successful people. One is natural curiosity. Two is tolerance for risk.

I'm with you there. And three, I'm still determining it's some amount of craziness and something else. I'm not sure. Probably, uh, discipline, maybe, you know, uh, but, uh, yeah, well, well, to be determined, I guess, when I write that book, you know, 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 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. The better prepared you are, the better any conversation is going to go. And the better the conversation goes, the better the answers will be. The better the answers will be, the better your follow-up questions are. But it all begins 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, um, and, and if, and your, um, your commitment to, to preparation will, will show in everything

you do from there on. I love it, Don. Talking with Don Yeager, bestselling author and one hell of a great guy. Um, so Don, I do, you know, what's interesting about yourself that I've, I've been wanting, I didn't even have it on the outline, but I was like thinking about it. Natural, you know, writer, you come up, you know, 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 speaker's 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 you're Caterpillar

and you're deciding to host 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? How does 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? 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'm going to go try speaking. I mean, I'd 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 would I 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, um, and lo and behold, a decade later, I'm doing 80, 80 speeches a year all over the world for companies as large as Microsoft and Oracle and Cisco Systems, all the big companies. And I learned how to do it, even though it hadn't been on my idea.

I'd never set out to be a speaker. It just happened to be something I found that I enjoyed. But I hired coaches. 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 good to hear you talk about watching yourself and learning and everything you took. 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 I'm like, yeah, I do. But I listen to our podcast and she's like do you not get sick of yourself and they're in

like have i'm 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 i 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 the things where 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 and training. for my purposes, which is constant growth and training. What, um, how would you describe your style of speaking, you know, for someone that might need a corporate speaker or, you know, obviously they can go check out your website and we'll get to all that at the end. But, um, you know, but how would you describe your, uh, your speaking approach?

So I'm a storyteller first, but I, 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 what word we used. Are you motivational? Are you inspirational? 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. So I don't just tell you the story and say, now go do it.

I try to tell you 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 is something? 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, Ryan, 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 on getting better at my craft, whatever my craft was.

I listened to you say all that, and I'm thinking, okay. And I'm the marketer in me. I distill things. 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. Because sometimes speakers do things. 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. 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. 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 someone that's getting into writing or speaking? 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, uh, you put out there?

The other thing that I wrote down when I, when I considered the question, cause I was preparing, right? The question that you, that you had shared that you might ask me, 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? 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, 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 listened to what you do? It's that yes, you have a script if you will, right? Something, 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 lists and these are the questions I'm going to ask. They've come up with their list, and these are the questions I'm going to ask. And you have to listen, but do it with an active mindset. Yeah, I love that. That is an art. And I don't know. My wife thinks I'm not the best listener, but you know what it is. Well, you're probably not for your wife.

No, the problem is i have a bit of add and 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 i'm one of the best listeners on the planet when i'm focused. I'm probably one of the worst listeners when I'm not. And so you have to create an environment for focus. And that doesn't mean it's perfect, but 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. I can focus in the moment while layering the three

that are coming. I don't know. 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, I mean, you know, I'm not used to being interviewed. I'm used to being the guy asking the questions, but, um, but I, 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, uh, and I, uh, I'm blessed to have met you the, uh, and, but you know, I'll, I'll give you another one. I call it creating space like it's it's one of those other things like where if 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're you carve out time for things but like we all do things that create space for other things to happen. Like, and I think that's another one that I put out there, but so, um, Don, let's talk as a, you know, we're starting to close out a bit here. Um, you know, what's, what's the now and the future for you, my friend? I mean, you've, you've done so much, you're doing so much. You've got the corporate competitor podcast, which I was blessed to be on. 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 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. 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, 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. 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 often happened in a sporting environment. So the podcast has become extraordinarily important to me because it opens doors for me to interview people like Kate Johnson, who's a marketing leader at Google. And she became a goal-setting genius when she was on the Olympic crew team for the United States. I had Disney's CEO Bob Chapek on. They talked about how to be better prepared. And CEO of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastian, came on to talk about 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. 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 rad or fad?

I give you one keyword, and you tell me rad or fad. 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 limit and be right. First is online coaching. Rad or fatted? 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 the cynical type, but 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 funny, right? Especially when you start, when you realize now there are like, you know, weekend courses where 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, 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 and you realize 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 that's the model. Yep. Ding, ding, ding. Three, Facebook meta. The metaverse.

That is so fad. I'm lost on it. And the timing of it could not have appeared more questionable. Exactly. Like, oh, Congress is investigating let's let's let's change our name i did a tiktok video i was pretty much like uh let's see here i would 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. Yes. Yes. 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, first off, thank you. So I would tell you, our episode and some of the stories you shared, the time, hooping it up, it's great. I hope that people will go to 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 yours. And, um, and as I said, it's episode 73. Um, uh, I should have given you a Jersey number or something like that. Uh, but, but then everything else is really, uh, at Don Yeager, which is D O N Y A E G E R on all social and then Don Yeager.com. And for that one, uh, 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 I want to get to, to know each other even better down the road. I know we can help each other and I just like you,

man. Ditto. I so great. And, and thanks for the time, the preparation and the hard, the, the,

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 Yeager. Hey, guys, you know where I'm at, at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time on The Radcast.