Start With A Win - No One Succeeds Without a Team with Karl Mecklenburg

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Former All Pro Linebacker for the Denver Broncos Karl Mecklenburg applies the lessons he learned from football to all areas of life. As an inspirational speaker, author, and podcast host, Karl uses his winning mentality to guide leaders and team members to function as an efficient unit. He helps founders identify and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their team so that everyone is placed in a position that sets them up for optimal performance. Karl uses his 6 Keys to Success to practice clarity and consistency in personal relationships and business. He sets the example of what it means to live life with the courage to evaluate himself honestly. One of the biggest challenges in overcoming obstacles to success is offering forgiveness for ourselves and others. Once we give ourselves permission to move forward despite perceived failures, we can experience explosive growth as individuals and a team. On and off the field, honesty and dedication help us set goals that are both reasonable and attainable on our path to success. Main TopicsConverting sports principles to all areas of life (02:13)Maintaining leadership in the face of criticism (05:03)The power of positive feedback from leadership (07:50)Working with strengths and weaknesses on a team (11:20)Using vulnerability as a tool for problem solving (13:30)6 keys to success (16:25)Clarity and consistency in setting goals and achieving them with deliberate practice (17:30)  Episode Linkshttps://karlmecklenburg.com Connect with Karl:https://www.facebook.com/KarlMecklenburghttps://twitter.com/KarlMecklenburghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karlmecklenburg/https://www.instagram.com/karlmecklenburg/Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts

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 in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Kantos with Start With a Win. Producer Mark, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing so good. I love that. I know. I'm really excited because we've got Carl Mecklenburg.

Now, if you're not from the USA and if you're not from Colorado and if you didn't grow up in the 80s and 90s, you may not know who he is, but... Or you might totally know who he is. But you should know who he is. Oh, yeah. Because Carl Mecklenburg is a former all-pro linebacker for the Denver Broncos and appeared in three Super Bowls.

So why wouldn't you know who he is? Right. Okay. Considered the NFL's most versatile player, Carl played all seven defense front positions. He is now a motivational teamwork and leadership speaker, author, and podcast host. Carl, welcome to Start With a Win. Welcome, Carl.

Yeah, my pleasure. Just to get it out of the way for our listeners, so I grew up in Denver, or South Denver, actually, and I think I probably rode my bike past your house stalking you at some point as a kid when we would ride around and get the hero cards and autographs and bang on people's front doors. But watching number 77 on the gridiron for the Denver Broncos and the leadership that you exhibited, unbelievable. So first of all, thank you for the lifetime of entertainment in the sports space. But you set a lot of standards in professional football that still stand for crying out loud. I mean, you're still one of the top three linebackers on the Denver Broncos.

I mean, there's all sorts of cool stuff that even a couple decades later you're still known for, and now you're teaching corporate executives about the leadership principles that you've come up with. This is amazing. So thank you for being here. Like I said, my pleasure. It's amazing to me, the connection between sports and any other team activity. Any novice sports person can watch a game on television and say, you know, the team in white is playing like a team and the team in red is not. And I can see that. You can see that. But then they don't apply that to their own lives. They don't apply it to their business. They don't apply it to their family. They don't

apply it to their community. My job, the way I see it, is to remind them of things they already know and be able to allow them to convert that understanding of what it takes to be a team and apply it to their own lives. I want to dive right into leadership because that's an interesting point that you just made here. And you're absolutely correct. When you're watching a game and you see people on their heels where they've lost forward momentum and now they have backward momentum, I know you've been in both of those positions on the field where you're like, we're just getting killed right now.

Or you're like, we are killing it right now. Can you feel that difference on the field? And is there – because changing backward momentum is really hard to do. And increasing forward momentum is really easy to do it seems like. Momentum is a thing. There's no question about it in sports, in life. I believe that you have to have some standards that you're just not going to part from. Your standards of excellence that are this is who I am.

This is where I'm going. This is a blip in the road, whatever's happening right now. It's a negative thing. And this is a blip in the road, too, if it's just something crazy that falls in your lap. I look at leadership as the clarity and consistency of your connection with your team, the clarity and consistency of your commitment, which is the day-to-day, this is what I committed to when I signed on with this team, and then the clarity and consistency of the cornerstones of your organization.

Under Pat Bowen, that was winning championships and serving the community. And if he didn't fit within those parameters, he'd find you somewhere else to work. I mean, that just was part of being a Denver Bronco. And because of that, that clarity and that consistency, whether you're up or whether you're down, you're still trying to move higher. You're trying to take another step forward in your day-to-day activities and in your week-to-week games. That's incredible. And it speaks to the values of the organization, it seems, that culture that's built within the organization. And professional sports, that's a lot of work to build and maintain those values.

And I love how Pat Bullen did that and how his selection of coaches and players was all around that. Is that something that, I mean, it seems like the more public you are, the more that gets challenged every day. How do you combat against that and maintain your leadership while people are trying to throw stones at your values and your standards that you have on your team, yet you need to go out there and perform at the highest level? How do you continue to switch your mind on like that? Yeah, I think it has to do with personal commitment of this is who I want to be. This is where I'm going. This is who I am. And if you can apply that to your organization,

it's amazing that people need leadership. And it's not just the CEO. It's all up and down the organization. So a team to me is like a teeter-totter or a seesaw. On one side, you've got leaders. They think long-term. They think we instead of me. They put the team passion, the team mission first. On the other side, you've got egos. They think short instead of me. They put the team passion, the team mission first. On the other side, you got egos. They think short term. Where's my money? How little can I do today and still keep this job?

And that thing goes up and down depending on the numbers on either side. So you've got to have leaders throughout your organization. If you want to tip that teeter-totter in the direction it should be going, you've got to develop leaders within your organization. It's not just you. It's the whole team. I played with a guy named Gary Kubiak. Gary was a ninth round draft pick in 1983. I was the 310th pick in the draft, 12th rounder. But despite that, we were friends and we were teammates and he was an amazing team guy. When he came in, he was going to be the starter. They traded Mark Herman for him.

They had planned on him being the next guy. And then they ended up trading for John Elway. And he wasn't going to play. He knew he wasn't going to play. Instead of making a fuss, he figured out a way to be a leader from the sidelines, and he's still doing that. He's a consultant, I think, for the Vikings now. But, I mean, he's won multiple Super Bowls.

He's done all kinds of stuff as a player and a coach and has just been a tremendous leader. I remember before every game he'd come up to me before the game and say, Mech, hold up the class. Now I'm thinking, what does that mean? Right. Well, we were drafted, what does that mean? Right. Well, we were drafted the same year. Maybe that's what that means.

But I think bigger than that, it was, Carl, I have worked so hard this week to get you prepared to play for this team. He was a scout team quarterback. He would imitate what the other quarterback would do. He'd watch film of the other team's quarterback, make sure he would throw the ball to the same guy against the same defense. He would go through all these extra steps to make us better. So to me, he's standing on the sidelines with a ball cap and a clipboard saying, Mac, it's

your turn. Hold up the class. Go out there and play. That's an interesting leadership concept because he didn't have to go rah-rah you or offer you a bonus or anything like that. I mean, it was simply his presence and a little nudge of leadership, some personal attention and appreciation. Talk to us about that. How much did that put gas in the tank? And does that put gas in the tank for an employee, from a leader, to come up and do that? Or from a star performer, even, for a leader to come up and do that, or from a, you know, a star performer, even for a leader to

come up and do that. What is, what's the impact of that? And why should we be thinking about that as, as a tool for our leadership? Yeah, no, no question, Adam, that makes a huge difference. And, and we were, we were, you know, we were teammates, we were on an equal level from a, from a team graphic standpoint, but that same thing, that connection that leaders can build with their team, individuals, to me, a great team is built up of people who the leaders put in position where their talents will allow them to succeed and also put them in a position where the team can cover for their weaknesses. And the only way you can do that is by connecting with your teammates and understanding what they're capable of and what their strengths are and what their

weaknesses are. So for me, that's huge. Joe Collier drafted me as a nose guard. The team, I was a nose guard. I tore a ligament in my elbow first training camp. They moved me out to defensive end. A couple years later, Randy Gretishar had retired and they were looking for somebody to play linebacker. He knew me well enough to say, you know what, I think you have the skill set to make this move. It's a lateral move. I'm just going from one position to another position, but they were very different positions, and I'd never done it before in my life. I ended up starting the 10th game of that year as a linebacker. Rick Dennison, our starter, got hurt. I played six games as a linebacker for the Broncos, made the Pro Bowls, an all-pro linebacker. record. Joe gave me an opportunity and put me in a position where there was a need on the team,

but there was also that connection, that internal connection. And so many times people go outside the company to find help in an area. There are people out of position in your company right now. There was a job opening. They signed up for the job, they got the job, but they'd probably be a lot better and help the team more in a different position. As a leader, it's up to you to find out who those people are and what they're capable of. That's a, that's a strong point. I mean, and I completely agree. I mean, I, I look at like my career, I started as a consultant. I ended up seeing marketing, sales, chief operating officer, CEO, things like that. I didn't, I mean up seeing marketing, sales, chief operating officer,

CEO, things like that. I didn't just, I mean, you kind of work your way through and your talents develop and start to shine. And you also fall in love with these different positions that you play. And I think that that passion has a lot to do with your desire to grow in that. Don't you agree? I do. I do. I loved having the opportunity to work with Joe. Joe would put me at where he thought the ball was going to be. As a defensive player, that's where I want to be. That's perfect. I'm not fast enough to run it down from behind, so put me where it's, you're, you're on the line. It's a different story than when you're back there and you're judging the entire field practically because you're, you know, that, I guess you could say that second line of defense or something like that, or, you know, you're, you're keeping that breakaway from happening. And, um, that's, that's an important position. I want to, I want to go back to something you mentioned before, strengths and weaknesses of

players. And, and we, you know, you strengths and weaknesses of players. And you talked about people have different talents that you might not recognize, but we have weaknesses that a lot of times we know we have, but we're afraid to share. But it seems like your class, as Kubiak called it, or your group of players, your team at that time, you guys were pretty transparent with your weaknesses and your strengths so that you could supplement those. I mean, it seems like that is a lost art in a lot of business. People don't walk into a meeting and go, hey, I suck at that.

Can you help me? Give us your perspective on how that strengthens the team. Oh, there's no question. Like I said, I was drafted as a nose guard. I run a 4'9", 40. If I had to run 40 yards, we were in huge trouble on the football field. So I had coverage limitations. There was no question about that. Joe understood that. My teammates understood that. If there was a situation where I'm somehow tricked into being man-to-man on a real fast guy on the outside,

there were people there helping me. And I expected there to be people there helping me. And there was no, and I expected there to be people there helping me. Then again, you know, if it's a, if it's a goal line play and, and they didn't substitute properly and there's not a defensive lineman and an extra defensive lineman in the game, I'm going down on all fours and I'm going to go back to my nose guard roots. And I did that numerous times. There are strengths and there are weaknesses. And if you can be clear with those, with your team, then you're going to be in a position to succeed, right? And that's what it's all about. If the team succeeds, you succeed. Nobody succeeds by themselves. It just doesn't happen. Awesome. Let's talk about a struggling team here. A lot of people that listen to this,

I mean, we all end up on a struggling team at some point, let's face it. Life is not Pollyanna, all butterflies and unicorns and everything's perfect in life. And we win every game, no problem. That's a bunch of BS. You got to work for it and get better every day for it. But let's say you're having a rough time with it. You're in the locker room at halftime and you're trying to gather your thoughts. How do you deliver vulnerability at that point without getting emotional? How do you break it down into problem solving instead of complaining? Wow, that's a huge question. And not a lot of that going on in the NFL. So what happens when that's, I mean, is everybody like, you suck. We're getting our asses kicked, whatever. I theoretically, you can sit in a meeting watching film of yourself, watching film of yourself practicing.

Everything's on film. Everything's evaluated. There is no question who did what they were supposed to do and who didn't do what they were supposed to do. And you sit in those meeting rooms with the coaches, and the coaches will go over what each player does on each play. No punches are pulled. And if you grade out 90%, you're an all pro level player. Wow. 10% of the time, the coach is screaming at you right in front of your peers.

Each of us have failed. Each of us have failed miserably numerous times. The idea is you figure out what you're doing wrong. You fix that. You figure out what you're doing wrong. You fix that. You figure out what you're doing right. You repeat that. You set some goals around the mistakes. You fix them by the next time you're out on the field.

And the next time you're going to do something else wrong. So the finger pointing, the blame throwing, every single player is wrong. Yeah. Right? There is no way that you can say I played the perfect game. It doesn't exist. And, and so, uh, that's wide out in the open too, in the NFL. And, and, uh, that's something that's not even close to wide open business. Uh, it's really, it's really becomes a personal thing and an attack in, in business.

And it shouldn't be, it should, the't be. People should be honest and forgiving with themselves. That's one of my keys to success I talk about in a speech, honesty and forgiveness and self-evaluation and with others. And if you can do that, you can take another step forward. You can say, okay, this is wrong. I'm not going to do that again. I'll figure out another thing to do. And it's so easy to say it's not not my fault. You know, the other, the defensive end should have jammed the line, the tight end as he left the line of scrimmage. So he was easier for me to cover and he didn't. So then it's not my fault, right? Well, no. What, what can I do differently? Awesome. I love that honesty, forgiveness, and self-evaluation. It sounds like that word accountability that I've heard before. Yeah. Yeah. No question. But yeah, accountability with

yourself. I think ultimately, if you're going to get better, if you're going to get better as a team, you have to have players who, yes, can say, yes, I was wrong. Let's fix this. All right. You mentioned some of your keys to success. And you said the NFL has taught you six keys to success. What are those? Teamwork with leadership being the ultimate expression of teamwork. Courage, the courage to try new things, the courage to be decisive. Dedication, which is hard work, constant learning, refusing to quit. Desire, that's the overriding passion, theme, mission. Honesty and forgiveness with yourself and self-evaluation with others.

And finally, goal setting. Reasonable, short-term, specific steps that get you to that next level. That's cool. Let's talk about the goal setting here real quick. All of these play together. You talk about getting better and self-education and learning, things like that. How do we tie our goal setting in? Everybody makes these goals of, I want to lose 20 pounds, or I want to make more money. I mean, there are all these superficial things, but they never put the,

instead of, I want to be stronger, it's, I'm going to add five pounds to the weight bar each week or each month or something like that. Everybody talks about these lagging indicators, which are the results of their goals instead of the actions to take to accomplish their goals. Give me your feeling on how should somebody look at trying to get better on the front end instead of hoping to get better on the back end? Yeah, it's a clarity and consistency thing. It's being able to say, I have an issue here. What are the reasonable short-term specific steps to get me there? Not I'm going to do this, but I'm going to take this little step and this little step and this

little step. For example, I remember one particular series of games that we had when I was playing linebacker and I played a terrible game against Houston. My hand placement was wrong when the offensive lineman would come out. I was too high. I was hitting them on top of the shoulder pads instead of underneath and standing them up. And I got beat up. I mean, it was a tough game. I went in, saw the film. Coach Moore pointed out that I was getting beat up. There was no question about that. And I set some goals all week. That week in practice, I was putting my hands in the right place. Every time I took on alignment, every time I took on a tight end, every time I took on a running back, my hands were right up under the armpits and, and on the way up, um, the next week, uh, we played Pittsburgh.

I had a great game. I had four sacks and was a defensive player of the game in the NFL and whatever. I mean, I had an unbelievable game and it, and it wasn't because I said, you know, I, I suck. Uh, I, I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm going to play harder next time. It was identifying what was wrong and working on fixing that and then going in the next game, allowing myself to do it. And that's the decisiveness piece. A lot of people know what to do, but allowing themselves to do it in a timely manner is really the challenge in many cases. I've heard that what you're talking about called deliberate practice with professional athletes where, you know, like say you're a professional golfer and it's that five to seven foot putt that messes you up. So you go deliberately practice everything from within that five to seven foot putt.

With a linebacker, you know, it could be hand placement, you know, a soccer player or a soccer goalie. I've heard it's a lot of like your hips and your feet. But what you're doing is you're doing this deep self-analysis of what can I deliberately practice and work on in order to create that little tiny micro lever that creates macro adjustments. heard that as one, it's interesting to listen to you talk about it practically here, because it seems to be one of those levers that professional athletes and true professionals in business life recognize and use of, if I fix this little bitty thing, I get this massive result. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah, no, it makes a huge difference. And people who are in sales, particularly anybody who's dealing with customers, just a word choice, just a facial expression can make all the difference in the world. Great point. Great point.

Carl, it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you. As one of my heroes growing up, it was really cool to watch you on the gridiron out there kicking butt for the Broncos. I do have one final question that I ask all of our amazing guests on this show, and that's how do you start your day with a win? Wow. So when it's the right day, and not every day, but many days, when I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do is I do a little bit of Bible study, and I think about who I'm going to run into that day and how I can positively influence their lives. To me, decisiveness happens when you've already thought about something, when it's already gone through your mind. We all know when we have meetings. We all know when we have opportunities to bump into

people. Then if you think about what that exchange is going to be ahead of time, then when opportunity arises, you can jump on it. Awesome. Awesome. Carl Mecklenburg, former All-Pro linebacker from the Denver Broncos, been in three Super Bowls, considered NFL's most versatile player. I mean, he played seven defensive positions for crying out loud. Now does a lot of motivational and teamwork speaking and business consulting. Thank you for being on Start With A Win. I appreciate it, Adam. If people want to contact me, they can go to carlmecklenburg.com. Awesome. carlmecklenburg.com. Make sure you're checking them out. That's right.

Hey, and thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. For more great content, head over to adamcontos.com. You can download Adam's foolproof time system that helps you manage your time like a successful CEO. So until next time, remember, start with a win.