Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Platform for Higher Understanding with David Caldwell - a Think Billions Experience Guest

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

In today’s episode, The Radcast is on the road at “The Castle” in Palm Desert California, the home of Billion Dollar Brand builder Howard Panes as part of the Think Billions Experience series.Ryan welcomes David Caldwell, former NFL running back, NFL Alumni Association associate and Founder of OHGI - Out Here Gettin’ It. Ryan talks with David about his time in the league and his entrepreneurial journey. Ryan and David get super transparent about that transition from the NFL and how ex-players need representation and support. It is a fascinating discussion you don’t want to miss!Key notes from the episode:David talks about his background from childhood up to being an NBA, MLB, and NFL player, then to  transitioning to medical device field and started his own business, a development consulting - OHGI (01:50)OHGI’s mission to take others lives to the next level - figuring out how to maximize potential (03:57)Ryan and David talk about being with the NFL Player association versus being with the NFL alumni association. (05:45)David being competitive and the first all the time - in school and in sports, and the power of building relationships (08:37)How David was molded in going to different schools developing different skills and improving his character (10:57)OHGI getting on like Netflix (13:34)This episode is packed with great advice and we know you will get a ton of value from the Think Billions Experience Guest lineup. The Think Billions Experience was developed by Howard Panes who assembled a group of the most notable multi-million and billion-dollar brand builders in the business, making the Think Billions Experience one of the highest net worth events of 2022. Learn more about future events at https://events.thinkbillions.com/ or follow Howard on Instagram https://instagram.com/howardpanesTo keep up with David, follow him on Instagram @ohgi_bigfish @bigfishpodcast or website https://www.ohgi.com/Learn more by visiting our website at www.theradcast.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcastIf you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, Like, Share, and leave us a review! 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. 

The hardest part of ending is starting again. 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. Coming live, well, pre-recorded for you wherever you are, but live for us here at the Think Billions event. I'm joined by my good friend, Mr. David Caldwell.

David, brother, what's up? Good to be here. Hey, man. Good to be here and good to be on the show. I know. Thank you. It's beautiful. If you're watching the video, you need to watch the video to really get the impression. A lot of our audience is on audio, but you've got to watch the video to see some of the landscape and background here to get a feel.

Just imagine paradise in a desert with mountains behind us, a lot of pools, a lot of lavish living. But like you said, down-to-earth people, so that's good. lavish living but like you said down to earth people so that's good david is with the nfl alumni association and all about maximizing potential which is really what this event's about and i'm excited to talk to david about what he's been up to and some big ideas actually when i start hearing anyway moves you know having had uh mr randolph one of the co-founders of netflix on the show when anyone mentions they've got an idea around this or that of Netflix, my ears perk up a little bit. So I can't wait to get to that, David.

But let's talk, you know, I see you kind of look like an NFL player already. I'm sitting here, you know, there's rarely where anybody I'm going, damn, yours might be bigger than mine. Not at all. Not that I made my transition to be mostly plant-based. So, no, I'm a little slim now. Yeah, no, man, you look good. Appreciate it.

Let's give everybody a little background on you, David, and leading up to today. 100%. So, from Jersey. I'm a Jersey boy. Grew up wanting to go to the NBA, NFL, MLB. Thought I'd be the first person to do all three. Just was always very confident just based on my upbringing. I had a huge support system, my parents and my older brother.

And went to Montclair High School, did a year of prep school at Lawrenceville, found myself at the College of William & Mary in Colonial Williamsburg. Don't know how I ended up there. Funny how life does that to us, right? It's funny. I went there on a seventh grade trip, and I was like, hell, who the hell would go to Colonial Williamsburg for college? Like, that has to be the worst place to go.

And five years later, I guess, you know, I ended up over there. But it was a tremendous experience. That followed up with getting the opportunity to play for the Colts, you know, in Indianapolis. Got to play with, you know, two of my idols, Bob Sanders and Antoine Bethea. Tremendous experience. Played a few years in the NFL, then went up to Canada, played for the Hamilton Ticats.

I loved, loved living up in Canada. The money was a little bit different. The money was a little bit different. Scenery was beautiful, but that paycheck was a little less. Right, right, right. So, you know, I played up there for a couple years. Then I always had in my head that, you know, I was always going to use football. You know, I always say to myself and the young kids, like, use football. Don't let it use you. And I always just wanted to use it as a platform to dive into whatever, you know, was next for me as I transitioned out. I got into the medical device field, did that for a little bit with Stryker and Arthrex, then started working

directly with surgery centers, figuring out the ins and outs of the business. After that, my mentor and I, we decided to go out on our own. We started doing business development consulting, which just means helping companies make more money increasing their profit margins and now I'm doing that and while doing that I should say well actually before that I came up with a concept or a brand I'm not sure if it was a lifestyle it's taking many transitions itself I'm called out here getting it Oh Oh G that's the name of it it's an acronym for out here getting it. Oh, oh, gee, that's the name of it. It's an acronym for out here getting it. I'm a play on words, you know, oh, yeah. And everything like that. I like it as a marketer. You know what I mean?

You feel it. So that was pretty much always about just figuring out how to maximize your potential and whatever you're doing. Just just taking things to the next level. You know, that's just been something for me that has been the most rewarding for me, doing that for myself, but then also being able to have people go all in with themselves and really buy into the brand, the culture, the lifestyle, and really just use it to take their life to the next level. I love it, man. And I remember, I'm going to go back a minute, for the Colts days I remember like a three-headed monster when they had the running I think it was you I remember that Bob Sanders you got they did

they had like the you guys had the three-headed monster at running back did you like it was like three guys always sharing the rock yeah it was it was well well we all right so you're probably thinking I know who you're thinking about you're thinking of of, like, Marshall Falk, Adai Diggs. Well, I remember them, but I remember the Bob Sanders name, and I remember your name from – you played. Yeah, no, no. I played, but we were mostly – it's funny. When you look at a guy like Bob,

because you probably saw him running the ball so much because he got so many damn interceptions and turnovers, and even with Anton Bethea, but they were on defense playing safety. So when I went there, it was – you know, I'm playing with my idols. So I got the opportunity to learn under them, and I didn't stay there as long as I would have liked everybody's story, injuries and everything else, but just to have that experience. It's a brutal game.

Yeah, my kids will never play. My kids will never play. Yes. How is it, you know, we were talking pre-episode. I think it's fascinating. I think people find interesting the dynamic of the Players Association, the NFL Players Association versus the Alumni Association. You know, like talk to, I think people would just find some interest.

Right. Because that's how popular the NFL is. I think people would just find some interest because of how popular the NFL is. But as popular as the NFL is, I'm not – and I think it's probably by design. You know what? Like, the game's what's important. But the business and the politics and the dynamics, you know, I know there's a lot there.

I mean, so break down, you know, kind of the differences there and how you guys help, you know, past players. Right. So it's a tough sport. So break down, you know, kind of the differences there and how you guys help, you know, past players. Right. So it's a tough sport. As you said, it's brutal and it's ultra competitive. And that's what makes it so amazing. But the things that make it so amazing are what take a toll on the actual players. One, with it being so competitive and brutal. But two, just based on the fact that a lot of the contracts aren't guaranteed.

So it's a week-to-week. People think that when you sign your contract, like I remember my friends used to look up my contract and it said whatever it said, and I'm like, you have to understand, like I have to play that week. Like it's a week-in, week-out thing. And if you're not playing, you can get in a lot of trouble and you miss one game and you could be out of there just because it's that competitive. The only reason I got the chance to play was because guys got injured, got an opportunity, you make the most of it.

So then when I got injured, same thing. It's a rotating cycle. And most of the time the guy that's fifth string is just as good as the first string guy. But to your point, being that that the sport is that you need former players you need older players veterans to really develop a structure when it comes to the cba and providing a different support system that allows the players to transition when when their playing days are over and that's what we do on the NFL alumni side.

It's a completely separate organization, company than the NFL. So the NFL Players Association, the NFLPA, is directly tied into the NFL. That's current players as well as former players, which obviously you're going to focus a little bit more on the current players. That's your business. You've got to focus on the current players. That's where the checks are coming today, right? Exactly.

So the alumni it's uh almost looking at it like if you're 40 years old i'm a little bit under 40 right now the things i care about and would advise players in right now is a lot different than when i'm 22 23 22 23 i'm just like yo give me my check so i can go to the club like give me my check so i could just enjoy life and um all that other stuff theBA stuff, you guys kind of handle that on your end. I just need to make sure that I'm getting paid this week. So it's different. So you need a lot of those former guys to really just knock some sense

into younger guys and establish that foundation. So that's what we do. It's interesting you talk about that, the buildup. I mean, there's – I think people know that players don't play long, but I don't think they realize how short that lifespan really – the average lifespan of the NFL player is and how, you know, yeah, those checks are there and they're higher than most people make, but you've got to be thinking about life after ball.

I talked a lot about that with Sean Merriman, who I had on the show about a month or two ago, and he was fascinating to talk about that same dynamic. But I will say this, and I'll say this about you, I'll say this about Sean. You definitely have a certain business acumen and a certain, I don't know, air about you that just feels universally set up for business. Where does that come from? There's a professionalism you. Like my parents,

my parents, you know, my parents, my dad, he was the youngest of nine kids. His all his brothers and sisters grew up on a sharecropping farm. He was the only one that grew up in South Carolina, your home. And he was the only one to grow up in New York. He was born in New York, the only one. And he was the first to go to college. My mom was an educator. My grandfather, he was like one of the first black principals, you know, also played professional baseball. So it was always for me just competing in both ends. Like I never saw sports as just football. I always saw school as sport as well. So when I was trying to compete in sports, I needed to make sure that I was the number one on this test. I'm looking at the rest of the class,

making sure that I'm competing just as well. And I always understood the power of just relationships. And I don't know where I got that from. You know, I like to just say I just had my upbringing, my parents, just different things. Nature or nurture? Yeah. A little bit of both.

Right. And you just, I don't know, you smile, you listen, and my parents just different things. Nature or nurture? Yeah. A little bit of both. Right. And you just, I don't know, you smile, you listen, you figure out different ways to make people feel good about themselves and lead them in a more positive direction. That's kind of what I've always been trying to do. Oh, I sense that about you. And I also sense, you know, you live in the playbook, the Ryan Offer playbook, which is leveraging where you know that everything is temporary.

So how do you leverage what you're at now for the next opportunity, right? And people don't get that. People don't get it, and players don't get it. And that's the most disappointing thing. For me, I didn't go to one of these football factories. You know, I didn't even have a scholarship out of high school. I had to go to prep school for a year, and then William & Mary was the first team that offered me a scholarship.

I'm like, I'm going. But what it did was it gave me a lot of different skills that I developed along the way, and players don't realize that the exact skills that they're developing through playing sports, like it's not how to backpedal. It's not how to sack a quarterback. they're developing through playing sports like it's not how to backpedal it's not how to sack a quarterback it's having time management discipline overcoming adversity all these different things that employers are looking for because they bring tremendous value those are developed through playing high level sports but we don't necessarily realize how to kind of mold

that or to change our perspective and to see things that way. So you see a lot of former players, you know, a lot of my former teammates, they don't feel comfortable having conversations like this unless it's about football. But that's just because of a lack of confidence to where my parents always had me up doing public speaking. My mom was a second grade school teacher. So I was in middle school and high school that she made me do the, whether it's we used to have different assemblies. She'd have me speaking at the assemblies and doing all that stuff. So, yeah.

She did you a favor, man, because you got, I call it the PIQs, professional IQ. You have it. You got a lot of it. Thank you. Thank you. David, transitioning a little bit and, you know, bringing it back to being where we're at, you know, at the Think Billions event, thinking bigger, thinking broader, going bigger. I know you've got plans and, you know,

nothing to sneeze at being with the NFL Alumni Association, but I know you're thinking bigger, you're playing bigger. So what's on the horizons? I want to influence as many people as I can that they have the ability to maximize their potential and the want and desire. If I can figure out a way to do that, well, let me not say if. That's when I'm going to figure out a way to do it. I'm going to figure out a way to do that, and that's what we're doing right now. Because to me, that's the biggest impact that we can have you know figuring

out and a lot of that impact is done by doing it yourself first so you know people want to lead somebody that's not just talking about it but they're actually being about it you know tell me what you did show me what you do and what you did not telling me you know what you think I should do so I just want to embody it I want to live it and. And I want to make sure that when my days are done on this earth, that people understand that I squeezed every single drop out of life that I could. I love it, man. Words to live by. Wise man.

Way beyond his years. So let's talk about this big plan. How much can we talk about? We can talk about it. Netflix, I'm coming for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Netflix for business, our business content. I think it's a little broader than that, but I want to hear about it.

I think it's interesting. Sometimes when people have an idea or like a concept or like a category change, we like to fall in love with our own ideas and overcomplicate it. But when you bring it to the net, you immediately get it on people's levels of understanding when you say the Netflix of X, Y, and Z, which I like because it simplifies it for people. Okay, they get the mind frame.

Okay, you're curating because Netflix is about curating and discovery of content, of entertainment. So I immediately get there, but I know there's a spin on it with, with where you're going. Let's talk about it. Yeah, 100%. So, you know, what do we do? We go on Netflix, TV's almost dead now because we want to be able to choose exactly what category we want to watch, what we want to dive into. So for me, we're creating a platform that focuses on health and wellness, fitness, professional development, entrepreneurial, adventures, whatever you want to call it, getting all of these different experts who may need a platform, they need a platform,

providing that platform so that when you go on to OG instead of Netflix, you can click on Oh, I need a yoga class for today. Okay, when you finish a yoga class, of Netflix, you can click on, oh, I need a yoga class for today. OK, when you finish a yoga class, shoot, I need to tap into, you know, learning a little bit more about sales. I need to tap into learning a little bit more about marketing. I want to do this cooking class, you know, or I have my mom, who is a school teacher, you know, be able to go on there and say like, oh, Mrs. Caldwell's class. We're going to she's going to be reading a bedtime story, you know, being able to access all these different things that are going to enhance and elevatewell's class. She's going to be reading a bedtime story. Being able to access all these different things that are going to enhance and elevate everybody's life, that's the platform that we want to create. And while I said that we could talk about it, somebody earlier said,

everybody has ideas, but not everybody takes action. So by me talking about it right now, I'm putting pressure on myself to make sure that I put the action behind all these words before somebody does it before me. You're doing more than that, David. We'm putting pressure on myself to make sure that I put the action behind all these words before somebody does it before me. You're doing more than that, David. We're putting this on the damn Rackcast. We've got a half a million people out there that are going to hear it and hold you accountable.

Let them hear it. You've got to welcome competition. No, I don't. It's competition, but it's just putting it on the record. Right, putting it out there. It's needed. People want a monthly subscription that they can go on and have access to everything that can take them to the next level of their life like what would that number look like like what would it be worth you know would it be worth paying thirty dollars forty dollars what would that price be per month to where you can tap into experts that can really enhance your life?

And, you know, we'll bring it to another level, have different tiers where they can now, they can have a one-on-one with Ryan, and Ryan can tell them about marketing. It's going to cost you, though. That's going to be in the upper tier. Yeah, that's on the upper tier. That's the platinum tier. Oh, yeah. I got a, I've been listening to you talk.

I'm going to give you a freebie. Skills on demand. Skills. Because that could be your subhead. There you go. Because that's really what it is, right? You're giving me that? That's free.

You got it. It could be the OG, skills on demand. Because that's really what it is. That's what you're saying. That's exactly what it is. On your time, on your time on your dollar when it when you want it skills on demand and be clear audience he said i can have that not y'all so skills on demand there we go see now i'm putting the pressure on you to activate i gotta move on

cool man hey where can everybody keep up with you david you know what are your social platforms and where can they follow along on your journey and everything that's going on? All right, so at OHGI, so this is Instagram, at OHGI underscore Big Fish. We'll get into the Big Fish, another podcast, but at OHGI underscore Big Fish. And then January 1st, damn, I'm putting the date out there. January 1st, OG.com, OHGI.com. You'll be able to check us out. We got Howie P. Howie P.

Hey, this is a legend. I want Howie P on record. This program has already, it's already worth it. This is already worth it. We've already worth it. This is already worth it. We've already drawn lines in the sand, Howie. We're getting things started.

Big ideas. We got Howie's son on board with some stuff. We're just building. This is all about elevating. Yeah, man. Cool, man. Well, David, I really love your story. I love your energy.

Man, I can't wait to just follow along and be connected and I'll help you any way I can. That means a lot. Thank you. Skills on demand. OG skills on demand. There you go.

I love it. I love it. Hey, guys, you know where to find us, theradcast.com. Search for skills on demand. You'll actually find all the episodes from today. Any keyword from today's episode, you'll find the highlight clips with my man David. And go follow his journey online. You know where to find me.

I'm at Ryan Offford on all the platforms. Ryan.Alford on TikTok. I'm blowing up. We'll see you next time on the Radcast.