Start With A Win - Developing a Team Mentality with Scott “The Sheriff” Parker, NHL Stanley Cup Champion

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

Scott Parker is a former professional ice hockey right winger who played for the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL. Scott earned his nickname, "The Sheriff,” from his reputation as a feared fighter and enforcer. In 2006, Parker and his wife Francesca, started a charity called "Parker's Platoon.” Parker’s Platoon is dedicated to helping military veterans and retired professional athletes who deal with PTSD and traumatic brain and body injuries.The conversation kicks off with Scott’s story about growing up in Alaska and discovering hockey—a sport he new nothing about. But in the second grade, after seeing a flyer for hockey tryouts, he learned to skate with the family, and his love for the game was born. Scott also shares about some of the leadership lessons and skills he learned as an enforcer in the National Hockey League for the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche. One important skill he developed was how to have a mindset of always learning through studying opponents. Scott had to spend hours studying his opponent, learning their tendencies and their weaknesses. “And if you didn’t, you got your head kicked in. …The sport is 80% mental and 20% physical." Scott and Adam chat about the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning.The two round out the conversation with the story and heart behind Parker’s Platoon, the nonprofit organization started by Scott and his wife, Francesca. The Parkers have a passion for helping our military veterans, as Scott’s father-in-law served as a Marine and his father was a gunner in the U.S. Army. Following his own diagnosis with a traumatic brain injury, he saw the need for mental, emotional and physical support for veterans who might be suffering from injuries like TBIs and PTSD. And since his retirement from the NHL, Scott found that he really missed that locker room dynamic and the way he and his teammates bonded through shared experiences. So, through Parker’s Platoon, the organization is able to partner wounded veterans with wounded athletes so they can grow in relationship and go through the healing process together. From meeting physical needs through meals and health access to meeting emotional needs through retreats and mountain getaways, Parker’s Platoon provides an avenue for holistic care and support. Episode Links:ParkersPlatoon.orgJoin the Leadership Factory and get early access to courses and exclusive content from Adam!Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/

We didn't have YouTube. We didn't have social media back in the day. So we had VHS and we had all that old school technology, but you did what you had to do to evolve. And I remember even in junior hockey, when I was 16 to 19 years old, I watched a lot of VHF to see my opponents, to study, to learn them. And I wanted to know what they were capable of doing because I wanted to stop that from happening to me. So I think you had to be really diligent on that side and know who your opponent was and what they brought to the table. Because if you didn't, you got caught off guard and you got your head kicked in. So I think being a kid and being in team sports and watching that way and being a voyeur and seeing, OK, well, if I do that, that's good. If I do that, that's bad. It's just a learning experience for the whole team. Instead of every individual having to go through that, you know, one person does it, you know, gets yelled at. We all have to, you know, get bag skated and then you get back to

it, but you learn. Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. And coming to you from Brand Viva Media Studios here in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Kantos with Start With A Win. Producer Mark, how are you doing, buddy? Oh, I am stoked. So stoked. I'm excited about this show. This is a longtime friend of mine, an amazing human being, one hell of a leader, athlete, and just, I mean, great, intense person with a lot of conviction and life in him.

Are you talking about Scott Parker? I am. The sheriff. The former professional ice hockey right winger who played for the San Jose Sharks and our very own Colorado Avalanche in the NHL. Scott earned his nickname, The Sheriff, from his reputation as a feared fighter and enforcer. In 2006, Scott Parker and his wife, Francesca, started a charity called Parker's Platoon. Parker's Platoon is dedicated to helping military veterans, thank you, and retired professional athletes who deal

with PTSD and traumatic brain and body injuries. Scott, welcome to Start With A Win. Love that you're here. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. Really appreciate it. Hey, it's good to see you, brother. And the best to your amazing wife, Francesca. She's awesome also. Let's get right into this hockey thing because the Stanley Cup finals are going on right now. You played for the Avalanche when they won the cup the last time, 2001. It's been a little while, but tell me about how did you get into professional hockey? Honestly, I was born in California. I grew up in Alaska.

When I was six years old, my dad transferred from California to Alaska with his job being a federal game warden and brought home a piece of paper when I was in, I believe, second or third grade. It said learn how to play hockey, and I didn't even know what hockey was. So I took it to mom and pop back home and they were like, well, what's this? So that's how it basically started. Knew nothing about it. The whole family got skates. We went and skated. There was rinks all over Alaska. So that opportunity was pretty amazing. So it just kind of started there and just, you know, took off. And obviously there was ups and downs when I was little, you know, growth spurts and, you know, trying to get gear and try not to break the bank that way. Cause it's not a cheap sport, but, uh, you know,

we definitely made it work and, uh, you know, you know, the, it definitely showed. Well, there's something that, uh, you know, some people may know or may not know, but a very small percentage of hockey players actually make it into the NHL. And it is a grind and a lot of hard, hard, off-the-stage, out-of-the-spotlight work every single day for you to, I mean, not just to master the sport itself, but know, the intensity of the game and the man-on-man and how hard you guys are hitting each other. And, I mean, the accuracy with the puck. I mean, it's nuts, all of these different things. What drew you to this? Honestly, I always loved hockey.

I mean, it was a team sport. I love team concept. Everybody does what they do, and you get the job done. There's just something about that that always sparked me as a kid. And I think the enforcer role really took off when I was in juniors, when I was younger, and we lost our two enforcers. They taught me a lot before they left the sport or left the game, but it was a do-or-die situation.

So I just said, you know what, I'll step up. I'm tired of watching my guys get beat up and there's nobody doing this role. So let me step in and see how, you know, what can, what can happen. And it kind of spiraled, took off. You know, I got my head kicked in a few times early, but those are those learning lessons, you know, even that fight against Bob Probert in the NHL, you know, everybody went after me about that, but it's a learning lesson. And I learned what not to do against guys like that, because you're fighting men. When you get to that level, the speed at every level is huge and you don't realize it until you get sent down. And then you're like, Oh my God, I'm the fastest guy on the ice. And I'm the heaviest. I'm the biggest, like this isn't right, but it's amazing to see

the progression of the speed. And like you said, the accuracy and everything at those levels that it doesn't get any easier. You have to really raise the bar and you have to step into that and not be a hindrance. You have to bring something to the game or you get sent back down or you get washed. You win some, you lose some. Obviously, you lose a lot more than you win in life, and you learn every single time. And this is one thing I've noticed about professional athletes, because you and I have done certain things together where we've gone shooting, we've hung out, things like that. Where I see you and your colleagues that are professional athletes, everybody's watching everything, and they're learning from it all the time. It's interesting.

How do you develop that mindset or does it just kind of come through the pressures of performing for your team? I mean, help me understand, how do you become that way? I think it's just, you know, we didn't have YouTube. We didn't have social media back in the day. So, you know, we had VHS and we had all that old school technology, but you did what you had to do to evolve. And I remember even in junior hockey, when I was 16 to 19 years old, I watched a lot of VHF to see my opponents, to study, to learn them. And I wanted to know what they were capable of doing because I wanted to stop that from happening to me. So I think it was probably early and not everybody did it, but I think you had to be really diligent on that side and know who your opponent was and what they brought to the table because if you didn't, you got caught off guard and you got your head kicked in.

So I think it's a lot of, I think, being a kid and being in team sports and watching that way and being a voyeur and seeing, okay, well, if I do that, that's good. If I do that, that's bad. And then it's just a learning experience for the whole team. Instead of every individual having to go through that, you know, the one person does it, you know, gets yelled at. We all have to, you know, get bag skated and then you get back to it, but you learn. So, you know, that's what the whole team mentality is all about, I believe. And, you know,

just being there and getting the job done. I love it. And you talked about stepping up. I want to talk a little bit about this enforcer role because I know this is something that the NHL, professional sports, has tried to pull out of, which is going to happen. I mean, it's a competitive environment. People are going to push the limits. And it's like the enforcers there to step up and say, hey, you're crossing the line. Or don't cross the line because I'm here. Tell me, what was the mindset when you hit the ice? And how did the team use you in order to keep things on the game and regulated that way?

Because, you know, there are the rules, and then there's the feeling of the sport, which your job was to keep it going. Yeah, there's the rules and then the unwritten rules. And it's kind of the big brother mentality, though. I mean, it's kind of like you do that to my guy, I do it to your guy, and I'll raise the bar, and you're not going to like what I do.

But it's amazing how mental the sport is. I mean, I'd say it's probably 80% mental and 20% physical because when you can beat somebody or you can shut them down with just vocals, it's amazing to see them hold up or slow down or maybe not make that play that crisp and good. And if you get in their mind, then everything else falters. So it's amazing how many times back in the day where you could just go to a bench and be like, I'm going to break your leg, I'm going to hurt you, I'm going to run you over. It's just you plant that seed, and then they're thinking about you, and they're not thinking about Peter Forsberg scoring three goals

or Joe Sackick doing what he does. I mean, you kind of take that on and you take that, you know, like you're the punching bag. So it's just part of that role that you do that really most nights you try to keep your guys safe. And, you know, the other enforcers trying to do the same thing. If you have that mutual respect, there was times where I would talk to the other enforcer and say, hey,

you keep your guys at bay and I'll make sure the other enforcer and say, hey, you keep your guys at bay and I'll make sure my guys are good and I'll catch you on the next one. But it's just that mutual respect at that level with your teammates as well as other teams that you're playing when you have that mentality and you have that history with each other that you can really just vocally talk about it and get something done without having to even throw myths. So it's amazing all the inner workings. And even like now they're trying to Mike guys and trying to get the inside

stuff. There's so much stuff happening inside the game that people don't see. And I think they're getting there, but you know, a lot of the stuff's explicit too. So HBO or something to cover that. That's funny. It's interesting.

When we would get together at some point, you'd introduce me to another NHL player or whatever. You're like, oh, this is an enforcer for whoever. And you're going, have you fought this guy? And you're like, oh, yeah. I mean, it's not like you guys disliked each other. You just had a job to do, and you respected each other for it. So how is that mutual respect?

It doesn't look like it when you said people are throwing mitts, but it seems like there's a great deal of mutual respect out there for the most part. Is that true? Well, there is, and I think even like you learn everything in Sunday school, do unto others, have them do under you type of mentality. So, you know, if you're getting the better of someone and they happen to take a knee, you know, I'm not going to take advantage and I'm not trying to uppercut them. I'm not trying to knock them out. I'm not trying to, you know, to berate them anymore.

So I just kind of let it go. And I would hope that they would do the same thing to me if they caught me off guard and caught me on the chin. So it's just that that whole thing, you know, how would you want to be treated? So there were certain guys in the league that took advantage of guys. So usually they were marked and pretty much every night they were tussling with someone because they didn't have that mutual respect. And it's amazing how far that goes in sports and in life in general. So, you know, you get what you give. So. I love that. You get what you give. And I want to talk about your giving here momentarily, but let's touch on the Stanley Cup finals. Tell us about your

perspective. Last night, the Avalanche won against Tampa. Yeah, tell us your perspective on what you're seeing right now and what we should be thinking about. Honestly, I love it. It's good to see. I like to see the abs in it. I know the past couple of years and the second rounds, they've kind of faltered. But it's good to see guys step up, and that's where it really takes.

I remember the year we won, Peter Forsberg was out because he lost his spleen. So, you know, Alex Tanguay, Chris Drury, Milan Heyduke, you know, there was guys that stood up and stepped up and said, hey, this, you know, that guy's out. So let's, let's do that much more. So that's what you need at this time of the year, because guys aren't 100%. If you are 100%, you're not playing right. So everybody's injured. Everybody's tired. But they're playing at the highest level they can because that pinnacle of that 35-pound trophy is almost at their grasp. And Tampa knows what it's about.

And a few of the guys on the abs do, but not the whole team. So it's just really cool to see how it's all playing out. And it's just good to see that it was a close game. You know, everybody's like, oh, I want to blow to blow out no I want a close game because they're fighting and you never know that next goal I mean 48 seconds there's two goals last night so in less than a minute things can change and you saw the momentum of we call it tilting the ice so you're skating downhill when everything's going good when the other team changes the momentum you're skating downhill when everything's going good. When the other team changes momentum, you're skating uphill and it's that much harder to get passes. And it's amazing that that little bit can make that big of a difference. Wow. And for a lot of people, you know, I'm not a hockey player, but I felt that in life in different things. So that's a great analogy.

And I appreciate you sharing that with us. What kind of, I mean, do you want to give a prediction on here? What are you thinking? How many games and who's going to take it? I mean, I remember the year we won, we went seven with Jersey in the last round. So I just want to see a hard fought series. I want to see guys step up. I want to see guys that never really got on the scoreboard, you know, be a part of that. Because, you know, this is the finals, you know, there's three

more games that the abs need and obviously Tampa needs four. So you need 16 to win. This was our, our saying back in the day was mission 16. So this was for Ray Bork and basically need four wins around 16 total. And that's the mentality is getting to that 16 wins. Awesome. So you, you have a very giving mindset, a very giving attitude. I know your wife, Francesca, does as well. And you guys started Parker's Platoon. I want to get into that now. A lot of professional athletes really take their success into significance and help others that need that help. And you guys have just truly been amazing. I've seen some of the meetings with some of the PTSD warriors out there.

And it's incredible. Tell us about Parker's Platoon and how can our listeners help you? Well, really, Parker's Platoon was started back in the day. Francesca, my wife, her father was a Marine. My dad was an Army. He was a gunner My dad was an Army. He was a gunner in a helicopter in Vietnam. And it was just their stories coming home and just them dealing with what they dealt with.

Like, they should be able to be proud about what they did and how they fought for. And, you know, they fought for our freedom, not because they wanted to just do something, you know, out of the normal. So it's good to see the mentality's changed and the veterans and active military are getting, you know, the recognition they deserve because, you know, the stuff that you guys went through and you guys did for our country, I mean, people can't even fathom unless they've walked in your shoes and people have opinions. It's just hard, you know, if they haven't been where you've been and you know I think it's the same thing with kind of with hockey like you were saying too with you know not being there and not knowing the inner workings about certain things but it's those little things that add up to the big picture and I think with Parker's Platoon there was a real need we saw with

when we were in Castle Rock and we we knew a lot of veterans and it was really just that locker room mentality. That's what I was missing from being retired. And my wife had seen that and she's like, you know, let's do this. Let's mix, you know, a wounded athlete with a wounded veteran and let's let them transition together and have like-mindedness. And, you know, maybe they like to shoot guns. Maybe they like to do art. You know, maybe they like to, you know, just go on trips. You know, it's just really connecting like-mindedness and just healing the same way. I did a brain study at NIH when I was out in Bethesda, Maryland, and they were studying my brain with a wounded combat veteran brain, seeing the differences.

And they were really similar for a lot different reasons but to be able to heal together and to have brothers outside of sports or military or anything and to try to connect people like that we saw was a was big because they could transition and they had a phone a friend and they had people to do things with and they didn't just sit there and have their mind race and just wonder. So I think with Parker's Platoon, what we do, we try to bring people up and we try to do snowmobile rides. We try to fly fish. We try to show them everything they fought so hard for. So let's enjoy it now. Let's enjoy it together and let's heal together and let's do some fun things and let's live really together and let's heal together and let's do some fun things and let's you know

live really long happy lives and uh our big thing with parkinson too and is right now we're just really doing donations it's kind of hard to do events with covid and the past couple years have been really up in the air but they're every day there's there's somebody in need and you know even if it's a side of beef or maybe it's a service dog or we've actually done service cats because people aren't always able to be at home. Sometimes they're in apartments and they don't want to travel up and down the stairs multiple times a day because sometimes they can't. They may be amputee or just mentally they don't want to leave. But if they have their friend to take care of, then they're going to be with us for a very long time. So it's just those little things that add up to the big picture that I think

we've made some differences in veterans' lives, and we're just still trying to continue that on. Awesome. And for everybody listening, please go to parkersplatoon.org. Parkersplatoon.org. parkersplatoon.org. We'll put that link in the show notes as well. Please make a donation to this great cause, Scott and Francesca.

And by the way, full disclosure, Francesca and I were street cops together. I know she's been through a lot of crazy stuff in her life as well. And thank you to both you guys for serving our communities so well. Parker's Platoon is on a fundraising drive right now. They actually had gathered a great deal of items to auction off in order to raise funds, and they lost so much of that in some forest fires in Colorado recently.

So, you know, we all face our challenges, and unfortunately this amazing organization has faced some as well. So please, everybody, take a look at parkersplatoon.org and give what you can and help these veterans with, you know, having an amazing freedom life like Scott talks about and thank them for that. Scott, quick question. You've implemented so many leadership lessons in your life. I mean, you're a great man. You, you know, you battle through your own challenges with, you know, traumatic brain injuries and things like that that you've faced in your life.

You've led so many people, both as that stalwart protector in life, as well as helping people through some of their challenges. Give us a good leadership lesson that you've implemented in running your nonprofit and from your sports leadership time? I think a big part of the leadership is just being a teammate and having those options. Not everybody likes one certain direction. So it's really nice to have options. And it's really good to, I guess, just be a good listener and just really listen and hear what people need. I think we've learned a lot with our charity throughout the years and just really listen and and and hear what people need um i think we've learned a lot with our with our charity throughout the years and just sitting there and just letting the

veterans vent a lot of the stuff's just getting getting it out there and once they're able to talk about it then they're they're able to release that burden and it's amazing you can almost see it instantaneously happen too when they're actually talking to you about it and you know i think that's a huge part of leadership is just listening and um just really being able to take that information in and and making the best given the best options you know for that person that that's bringing that that issue to you so um you know i think that i think the people that are quiet in the back you really have to watch the most than the people that are in the front, you know, just speak in or having all the all the words. You know, it's the people back listening that really, I think, think do do a lot, a lot more than than the people just just speaking.

So true. So true. Thank you, Scott. I mean, it's being an active listener, being aware is so incredibly important in leadership. And thanks for bringing that to light to us from your experiences. Scott, I have a question I ask all the amazing guests on Start With A Win, and that is, how do you start your day with a win? Honestly, every day. My wife's an early riser, so she's usually up by the time I'm up, but I literally make my bed. I think doing something positive like that and starting out your day, you know, doing that, I'm able to come upstairs, have coffee. I'm able to spend my morning with my amazing family, Francesca and DJ and our little service dog, Rue. It's just nice to be able to have that family mentality and know that you have people in your corner that get your

back every single day. Awesome. Scott Parker, Stanley Cup champion, amazing individual, contributor to society, and the founder of Parker's Platoon. Check them out at parkersplatoon.org. Scott, brother, thanks for being on Start With A Win. Awesome. Thank you, Adam, and thank you for your service. Thank you for Dave Linegar and everything you guys do. Keep up the good work. Thanks, man. Are you wondering how to grow your business?

It might be something you're missing, and it's not sales, and it's not marketing. I'll tell you that right now. It's something most people don't even think about. And that's leadership. Okay. Whether you're leading yourself or a team, leadership is the key for next level growth. And you're in luck because Adam has put together three of the techniques and ideas he used as the CEO of Remax to develop himself and his leaders to produce amazing growth and results. If you want to download these three keys, head over to adamcontos.com slash leadership and get those. So until next time, remember, start with a win.