Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Overcoming Setbacks: Brandon Siler's Path to Success

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Former NFL player Brandon Siler shares his journey of overcoming setbacks and finding a fulfilling career outside of professional sports. But just when everything seems to be going well, an unexpected challenge arises, leaving Brandon faced with a difficult decision that could change the course of his life. Tune in to find out what happens next in this gripping story of resilience and personal growth. My special guest is Brandon Siler Get ready to be inspired by the incredible journey of Brandon Siler, former football player and 2006 national champion at the University of Florida. As the owner of Legacy Pro Sports, Brandon knows firsthand the ups and downs of transitioning from a professional athlete to a new career. His passion for helping others and his unwavering determination make him the perfect guest for The Determined Society. With his charismatic personality and wealth of experience, Brandon shares valuable insights on overcoming setbacks and finding fulfillment beyond the world of sports. Whether you're a current athlete or someone navigating a career change, Brandon's story and wisdom will motivate you to push through challenges and pursue your dreams with unwavering determination. Get ready to be inspired as Brandon Siler shares his journey and offers practical advice on how to thrive in the face of adversity. The great stories are the ones where you overcome adversity and persevere to achieve success. - Brandon Siler In this episode, you will be able to: Harness the power of your mind to unlock peak performance in sports. Build a winning team through trust, unity, and shared goals. Inspire and motivate your teammates to greatness. Embrace discomfort as a catalyst for personal growth and success. Navigate the challenges of transitioning from professional sports to a new career with confidence and purpose. Build Strong Team Unity Tapping into his experiences from the sports field, Siler elucidated on the importance of a unified team in achieving greater heights. Siler emphasized that creating a team culture that fosters respect, understanding, and common goals bolsters unity and strengthens team performance. This serves as a poignant lesson for athletes and individuals in various walks of life, illuminating the power of shared visions and camaraderie in determining success. The resources mentioned in this episode are: Contact Legacy Luxury Builders for your big, beautiful luxury home in Southwest Florida. They are a family-owned and operated luxury residential construction company that believes in building legacies. Unlock your true potential on the field and court with The Determined Society. Train your mind to conquer challenges, enhance concentration, resilience, and confidence. Email Shawn French at [e-mail] for more information. Watch the Untold Netflix series Untold: The Swamp Kings to see Brandon Siler's story as a 2006 national champion at the University of Florida and his journey in football. Connect with Legacy Pro Sports, owned by Brandon Siler, for all your sports-related needs and services. Join The Determined Society today and elevate your game to new heights. Achieve unparalleled success with expert coaches guiding you through personalized techniques. Email Shawn French at [e-mail] for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Those muscles were not going to be able to do it anymore. And your mind would be the only thing pushing that weight, right? So think about that for a second. It doesn't matter. You could lift 500 pounds or you can live 150 pounds. But if you do it to the death, if you do it to you can't do it anymore, Now what do you do? Right?

So now you're talking into the mental capacity and the heart of an individual, right? That's where you know, okay, well, if I get into something, if I get into some real trouble here, if something really happens and physically it's not there. And because your mind, your mind can make your body do so much more than what you think, right? The body is capable. But it's your mind. Most people are the mind that keep you back. Southwest Florida is one of the most beautiful places.

on the planet to live. For those of you that are thinking of moving from other states to come to Florida, or even just moving to a different part of the state, I want you to think of a big, beautiful, luxury home. Contact legacy luxury builders. They are a family-owned and operated luxury residential construction company. As a family-owned business, they believe in the power of building not just homes, but legacies.

Contact legacy luxury builders. Unlock your true potential. on the field and court with our peak mental performance program for athletes. Train your mind to conquer challenges, stay focused under pressure, and achieve unparalleled success. Our expert coaches will guide you through personalized techniques, enhancing concentration, resilience, and confidence. Picture yourself outperforming your rivals, making split-second decisions with clarity

and achieving victory like never before. Join us today and elevate your game to new heights. Peak mental performance program where champions are forged in the email me today shan dot french at the determined society.com for more information see you inside what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of the determined society i am your host and the mental performance coach for all athletes and peak performers i have with me today y'all a wonderful gentleman who played football at the highest level possible before that he was a 2006 national champion at the university of Florida linebacker star of untold uh netflix series untold the swamp kings i have with me

the owner of legacy pro sports in the ever amazing brandon siler what's up buddy what's happening man how you doing shan i appreciate you for having oh absolutely man we've been trying to schedules for quite some time i'm happy we were able to finally lock it in on a nice little wednesday morning and in wrap a little bit yeah so dude so of course you you know, watching you on the Swamp Kings, I'm like, dude, this is someone I need to have on my show as soon as humanly possible because I just loved your, your fire, your passion for what you were doing back then. And I know you're bringing it into what you're doing now. And we'll get to that. I think what the audience is really going to really want to dive into is just the mindset of being a high performing athlete at a University of Florida when you had all the dudes there. And you guys were chasing so many different things under the leadership of over the mind. Tell everybody what that was like, man. You know, it was different, man, because everything was about production, right? I told a story of, like, how I had a chain that I would put on, and we had every link to that chain.

I'm talking about a huge chain. This thing is, you know, 100, over 100 pounds, right? And I would, when a guy would prove itself worthy, you would be able to sign. sign your name and you put it on a link on that chain, right? And we said that we was only as strong as our weak as link. Well, me and Urban used to get into it all the time about the names on this chain because, of course, him as a coach, he wants to put everybody on the chain eventually, you know. And I just was like, well, there's some guys that never should be on this chain because I don't

ever want that to be how strong we are, you know? So we not going to talk about that. But as the year went on and more people bought in and more people proved they're so worthy, more people got on. And then eventually, I think it was the first time was the SEC championship when everybody was actually on that chain, you know? Amazing. It's an amazing thing because, you know, at LSU, I played baseball there in 01 to 03. You know, so I'm an SEC brother as well. And we had this thing called Hold the Rote.

And the idea behind it was, you know, Skip Berber talked about hanging the rope. down the cliff, what teammate do you want holding on the other end? If you're going to fall to your death, and some dudes would be like, you know, yo, I want Warren Morris. Like, hey, I want this guy. And Skip was like, well, the correct answer is it doesn't matter. Right. So it's kind of the same thing, right? You want everybody to be worthy of holding that rope. You want everybody to be worthy of having a link in that chain because it's so symbolic to what goes out on the gridiron, man. I mean, watching the story. And again, of course, I'm a big, you know, college sports guy. I just remember man like that era i mean being an ls u got i was like dude is like is like siler and tibo

ever going to go away because i can't stand this man i can't stand it um but you guys were some strong people dude how and again you know i have my theories but you know talk to talk to talk to the audience about how you guys got so close and so strong as a unit because the believability that you guys had in each other and yourselves was like that that's missing nowadays man in these young Yeah, and it's missing a lot of different places when it comes to team sports. I'll give another philosophy kind of that we went by, right? We had, Irma used to say, look, there's a wall in front of us, sitting in front of us, right? And every single one of us, if we run it 100%, you and your teammates, we run it 100%, we'll run

through that wall. And on the other side is everything that we ever want, okay? It'll be the championships. It'll be the money. It'll be the fame. It'll be everything else on the other side of that wall. But if one person didn't go at 100%, everybody that went at 100%

will break their necks and not be able to do this ever again. So how much did you trust that person next to you? That that person was going to run at 100% trusting the fact that you wouldn't be the one that let them down. and they break a net and not run through the wall. So those kind of philosophies are philosophies that are great for team sports, right?

Because what it does is it allows you to dub more into who the people are that are around you. What makes them go? What makes them don't go, you know, what makes them have bad days and good days, right? And that's why, as I told in the Netflix documentary of the story of basically how, I went and connected with every little subgroup there was. You know, I would stay after and study with the geeks, right? I would go to the club with the thugs, right? I would go hunting with the country boys, right?

So that when Jimbo Tart was not having a bad day and he was this big country kid, I knew what motivated Jimbo Tart. I knew why he did it, and I was able to pull on those strings. And then the second part of that is when you spend that time with them guys, also letting them in to who you are, right? Because a lot of leaders, they want to, oh, yeah, we'll do it. I'll hang with you. You let me know what makes you go.

But you never give a piece of that everybody else around you that you're eventually trying to lead. Then guess what? They won't go as hard for you. They won't be there as much for you because you haven't let them into your world. So that's kind of a two-prong thing when trying to get a team on the same page. and getting that kind of like family aspect behind, you know, making your team into a team that's so close that you're pretty much like a family.

Dude, spot on, bro. When you talk about getting in everybody's world, right, talking about studying with the geeks, going to hunt with the country boys, go clubbing with the thugs, all that kind of stuff. You know, you get a peek inside the world. You understand what makes them tick, but we're all, I don't say all,

but most leaders go wrong is that's where they stop. Right. And you mentioned something to me that, I don't know if you saw the reaction, my face, it really piqued my interest because I believe as a leader that if you cannot give a peek behind the curtain of what you're about and what makes you tick, what your fears are, your insecurities, whatever it is, everybody has those things. As a leader, if you can't show the people that are working with you or, you know, side by side or in your, in your case now,

as an entrepreneur, they ain't going to work for you. I mean, I can take that to parenting too. I let my three kids know exactly what my weaknesses are, bro. Like straight up. Like I apologize when I get it wrong. You're going to, you're going to like this story. So last night, but my son,

he's almost 10. He's got a little minor baseball game, ball ball. And he's in that age where he's like, I'm going to LSU dad. No problem. I'm like, bruh.

Like, you better get a little dog in you then because you, you know, you're not quite there mentally yet, right? As you're nine, dude, chill. Have fun. Fall in love with the game.

But he's at this age, man in this thing where every time he makes a mistake, wants to act like he's hurt, right? To cover up the fact that he made that mistake. And dude, I already had a bad day yesterday. We're sitting there and we're just walking the ballpark and not doing very well. Well, you know, nobody on, nobody out. He gets a ground ball at shortstop. Okay. Fields it cleanly. Looks around. Doesn't know where to throw it. I'm like, what in the hell is going on with this kid right now? and so he doesn't throw it. Like he doesn't throw it to the pitcher, but overthrows the pitcher.

So the guy, the runner goes the second. And then the catcher throws it. And apparently the second baseman had jumped and I guess the second baseman came down on his finger. I didn't see it. And all of a sudden he's on the ground crying. And daddy's pissed. Right. Right.

I'm going somewhere with this, man. So he comes off the field. I'm like, just go. Just go sit down. Like, why is it every time that you're getting hurt? hurt or you make a mistake you're acting like you're hurt man that's why i'm mad i don't care that you made a mistake i sat there and i thought about it like man i didn't even ask him what happened i didn't ask him what happened i go hey i'm sorry i didn't ask you what happened what happened he's like i stepped

on i was like well i made a mistake you know i'm your dad i'm your coach i'm sorry uh do you forgive me like a lot of times i jump to conclusions i said and i go that's not it's not a very good job of leading you right now. And so, like, that's the point, man, is allowing the people that you're working with or working for you to know that you're, you're just a flawed individual as well. And you're in apologizing and let him know where you fall short, right? Yeah. I understand that. And I completely hear your story. But at the end of the day, you also knew that he faked being hurt because he made that mistake, right? Dog. Hey, Homeboy was fine after an inning. And this is the thing. This is where, um, you take that.

level, that next level of understanding, right? It's like, I knew that he faked, right? But what I have to make him do is come to that conclusion on his own. Because if I just say, if I just say, hey, son, man, you, you can't keep faking every time you make a mistake. Right? He's going to say, well, he doesn't care about my finger. You know what I'm saying? So.

Well, I mean, a baseball player, I mean, you're a football, high level football guy. I'm like, you need that finger. Rodney Lotton did his own finger off. Like, he's in your glove hand, bro. It's what you need. So. You ain't thrown with that thing. Right.

And I think that is the thing that we have to learn, like, even as leaders, as teammates, as parents, everything, is that there's a way to talk him through that. You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, son, so you didn't know what to throw at the first base, right? And you're like, well, no, I didn't. Got a little confused there. That's not a problem, you know. But it stepped on.

If it wasn't after that play, you'd like you probably would have came out still. I don't know that. You know, well, now we got to combine these two. So when you make a mistake like this, we can't have you reacting like this to an injury because you usually wouldn't do that, right? If you made that play and then got stepped on, you're back up and you're still in the game, right? teammates are counting on you and if you're going to be the type of player that you need to be, when you fail or when something goes wrong, you can't cop out by saying that you hurt

because then you miss the opportunity to be a hero in a situation where they really truly true. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? And bro, to be honest, like I said, like for real, and he was back in next inning. He was fond. Of course. You run around? He ain't not wrong with his finger. You know that. Yeah, you know it. Same thing. Oh, bro, all these parents are looking at me like, oh boy, French is about to lose it. He's about to lose it on his kid. I said to my coach, my assistant, oh, hey, bro, you handle this. I can't ride it.

People are bringing him ice. I'm like, oh, my God. But, you know, it was one of those moments, man. And you're right. And I got a 10-year-old. Same thing, man, it's that age, you know, limping off the field. And I told him, like, son, you're limping off the field. You don't ever have that opportunity.

If Jordan misses a shot with the, minute left and he goes out of the game, it's only 60 more seconds left. If he goes out of the game, faking like he's hurt, when it's nine seconds left and it's somebody, they need somebody to pass the ball to, you're not there, right? So it's all about that ability to be able to take controversy or take things that go wrong and fight through them so that you can still be there when it's time for things to go right or when you work your butt off. I'm with you, bro.

And do you. that's life. That's life. Yep. That's it. That's life, man. I mean, it's one of those things like sports, man, like our job when we're, you know, walking our kids through, you know, sports and extracurriculars.

It's not about the sport. It's about, I want to know, I want to teach you how to react in life, you know, or I'm sorry, respond and not react because like yesterday I think that was a reaction, right? And then here I am reacting, not responding in the same moment. It's just, it's a vicious cycle. It's like, didn't. Grace. It's like calling myself out here. Dang it. I can't do it. He made me do it. Oh, man. And you know, these kids, they get stronger as they get old. You know, and that, just that age is right there in the

middle of it, too. But, you know, you just get it. And like you said, that's life, right? It's teaching them to fight through it. It's just like every game, right? There's nobody, the true stories, the great games aren't the ones where they executed perfectly, right? Nobody's never going to remember the game that went that was 49 to zero, right? They were in the game that you were down 29 and a half time and came back. You know what I'm saying? Like that is okay, they had adversity. And then they was able to fight through that adversity and persevere and overcome that adversity and ultimately still win. You know what I'm saying? So those are the great stories. That's why everybody, every after wants to claim that they're from the hood, right?

It's like, well, no, you're not, right? You know, you didn't have a trouble. You didn't have a trouble growing up. It's like, yeah, I did. You know, only rode, I rode in a three-year-old Lexus. You know, it was three years old already, you know, we struggled. You know, it's like, oh, there was Craig windows. But that's the story, right?

Everybody wants to hear the story of perseverance, you know. It's why, you know, it's the difference between. fans of somebody like LeBron and then fans of somebody like Steph Curry, right? Now, as I hit this moment in my life where I'm different, I was raised way different than my sons are going to be raised, right? Like, I'm raising my son.

Sure. You know, riding around in Mettlies, you know? So where do they find that motivation? Actually, I feel like, I used to feel like the story was all of mine, right? It's like, this is a guy that fought through everything, but a more interesting story to me now after raising my kids is, well, how do the guys like stuff, right?

How do they, where do they find the motivation, right? Like, mine was, I want to change my whole family, dynamic. I don't want to support anymore, all of that. Now, if you have it, you got to draw even deeper. There's got to be a deeper sense of wanting to be great for yourself and who you are, right? That when you're somebody that grows up with it, you got to go and tap into that.

And even parenting style, it's a lot harder for us in that next generation because we don't truly understand what makes our kids go without talking to them and understanding, you know, where they come from. And I made a, I made kind of a, I was talking to one of my buddies the other day. And I was like, you know,

what I've learned, learned is that my kids have the same level of problems that I have that I had growing up. Right. If mine was, oh, we didn't know what we were going to find our next meal, right? He has a problem that's that important to him in his life. It might not, as detrimental is my problem. Like, dang, there's no, there's nothing without peanuts in the ice cream line. And I'm allergic to peanuts.

And he's stressed out because of everything. Everybody is eating the peanut ice cream and he ain't. But it's that level of problem and that's where you got to meet him at. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's the same thing with all of my employees at all my different companies. I think it's the same thing when I was trying to lead a football team or you're trying to lead someone in sports. It's that same thing. You've got to meet them where they at.

And in order to do that, you got to really get to know the person and know what makes them go and what doesn't make them go, what they like what they don't like, what they love. I love that, dude. It's so, it's so important, man. And it segues into the next topic because I think that you, you know, in a sports team or, you know, in companies or even just in a family dynamic, you really don't know what anybody's made out of until you see them break, right? And I think that is, that's the moment, right?

So walk us through those moments in college, right? Because, I mean, it's documented. I mean, your guys's workouts scare the shit, scare the absolute, you know, out of me. Like I'm, I'm looking at you and I'm like, is this guy mental? Like, what is he doing? Right? But again, you can see it in someone's eyes when they're about to break and they're going through so much physical pain. What can their mind, where can they put their mind to push through it? That, that embodies how they're going to perform on the field and in life. So walk us through that. I think that is one of the strongest things ever is what our workouts was, to me, wasn't even physical.

you know, it was so much physical that it took the physical element out of it, right? Because it didn't matter how much you lift when you were there. We were going to lift it so many times that you were going to die, right? Those muscles were not going to be able to do it anymore. And your mind would be the only thing pushing that weight, right? So think about that for a second. It doesn't matter. You could live 500 pounds or you can live 150 pounds.

But if you do it to the death, if you do it to you can't do it anymore, now what do you do? Right. So now you're talking into the mental capacity and the heart of an individual, right? That's where you know, okay, well, if I get into something, if I get into some real trouble here, there's something that really happens and physically it's not there. And because your mind, your mind can make your body do so much more than what you think, right? The body is taking, but it's your mind. Most people, it's their mind that keep them back.

So those workouts that we had, the midnight lives, the Halloween lives, all of that stuff. To mentally strong people, we loved it, right? A guy like me, a guy like Tebow, I mean, those nights, I loved it. I couldn't wait till I get there, right? I'm there early, like getting ready for it. But you could see. On Halloween, just ready. And you can see guys, like, scared to walk in there because they know that they're not going to be able to hide.

Like, what's truly inside of them, they can live 500 pounds all they want, right? That's a strength thing. But they knew that in that workout, they were going to get broken down. And all of what they had up underneath that 500-pound body was coming out of it, right? They were going to go tap deep down into their heart and to their mental capacity to a point that when you can't do it anymore, what do you do? Do you keep fighting? Do you get everything that your body can give for those one, two more reps? Or do you quit?

Right? And when you quit in our organization, when you quit in our team, it was a spotlight shone right down on you and tell that you quit. I mean, some of those things that we did, like, you know, you had to get past a line and there was no rules, you know, like, you know, my move, you know, get somebody in the headlock, they can pass out, right? And then let's go, y'all wait for them off, I won, you know? So those are the other things that I love, right? I was like, give it to me. I love all that. But what happened is after doing that over and over and over again, what it does is it strengthens people's mind, right? Because they understand. that they got to go through this anyway. So why not just keep fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, and give everything that you got, even when you ain't got no more, just give it.

And now you don't got this spotlight shining down on you, and you've learned that your mind can take your body so much further than you thought it could in the first place. So that was kind of the philosophy behind that, and I think that's what, you know, one of the philosophies that made us unstoppable to a point, you know, like we just felt like, nobody could beat us.

Well, scary. I mean, those squads are scary, man. And I'm going to tell you, this is a great point because when, and this is something I think that people really struggle with in today's society is they're so apprehensive to go to that place, to go to that place of absolute and utter discomfort of darkness, of despair. And like, dude, that's where they're going to find themselves. That's exactly where they're going to realize, wait a second, all the stuff in my mind of how bad it was going to be, how terrible I was going to perform, those were just bad thoughts.

And that's head trash. And what really happened is I got through it. So why can I do it again? And now when you're sitting there, you know, in the middle of the swamp and there's 100,000 people there are yelling and screaming and it's a, you know, big SEC matchup, you know. Like, you've already been there in your own mind. Like, the outcome is going to be the outcome. Let's just go. Yeah.

I mean, I go back to my very first play in the swamp. It was probably the biggest blessing that I had, right? I'm on kickoff return. We're playing maybe Middleton Cs, somebody, one of the smaller schools. And I'm on kickoff return, and I've been working this thing all week, right? Special teams, I've got to run all the way back. I got to go get R4, you know, I got to go. run back 20-something yards, turn around, engage my block and keep it, try to get this turn

out of there. So all I was thinking about was that, right? And lo and behold, was my first play ever in the swamp. And I'm like, oh, right, go back, get our four, get off of it, get off of it. And I go to turn as the ball is kicked, and they own side kick it right at me. And I'm like, I know they don't. didn't just on side kick this damn ball. And I go to jump on it and boop, it squirts out and they get the ball.

My very first play in the swamp, right? Welcome to the swamp, baby. I will never forget the amount of anxiety that I had inside of me before that first play. And directly walking off that field afterwards, Charlie Strong, I'll never forget this. He says, well, the worst thing that ever could happen to you has happened. So might as well go play football now, right? And I said, and I said, you know what? Like, now I'm free.

You know, like the worst has happened. So nothing else can be worse than that. So now I can just go play freely. And it allowed me to erase that anxiety. And that tells you that something negative, right? How you react to it, how your mindset is after that happens to you is what really makes you into that ultimate warrior. What really can prepare you as a leader and as the ultimate teammate. Like that is, you take that spin it and like, well, shit, now I'm loose.

Now I'm loose. Everybody got to get it now, you know, and the rest is his. I really hope that for the people that are listening, right, now. I want you to close your eyes and think about all the anxieties you have before you go make that sales call before you hop in the batters box, before you throw your first pass, jump off your first block. Like, guys, if the bad thing happens, there's always the next play, right? There's the next time in your job is to understand that it's okay. You know, peak performance, I talked to this with the athletes that I work with. Peak performance does not mean perfect performance

by any stretch of the imagination. Like, if y'all are saying, shooting to be perfect. Like in the year you guys won the national championship in 2006. It looked like a perfect season, but it wasn't a perfect season. There was many failures, you know, throughout that season. So let's walk the audience through maybe one of the biggest things, like adversity things that you guys experienced that year and still walked through and won the national championship.

I mean, we lost that year. We lost the Auburn, right? And I still remember for about 20 minutes, I just sat on the field like, not believing that we ever could lose. I was so strong in my belief that nobody could beat us that it took me 20 minutes after the game to stop saying, we got it, we're coming back, we got it, we're good, we're coming back. The game was over, and everybody was looking at me like I was crazy,

I'm like, no, we could, we got it, we got it, we got it. And then once the trigger let off that, oh, shit, we don't got it, we lost. Right. Then the eruption happens, right? And that talks into that eruption of the locker room when I went inside when I got back in the locker room. And it was just a instance of, listen, guys, I'm holding everybody accountable, right? You did this. You did that.

You did this. It needs to be fixed. This is something that you've been doing for a long time. And ain't nobody saying shit, but you need to be doing this and you ain't been doing it. And now it shows up in a game. now we get beat, right? So holding everybody, it was a lot more violent of a situation than that. But that's pretty much what happened afterwards, right? And it wasn't just a point in fingers thing, right? It was an accountability thing. But I also made myself accountable to them. I said,

you'll never see anybody that's going to push harder and go harder. Right. And you have to understand when I do that whole thing at Albor, you know, Tim Tebow's, a freshman, sitting in the locker room watching that, right? And then I loved it because the year, years after I left,

you see Tim go up on that podium and basically say, I'm holding, you won't see a person that works harder than me. You won't see a team that works harder than me. And it was like, looking in the mirror, like, oh, my God. God, here it is, right?

I put all my money on these jokers to win the national championship after that because I understood where he was coming from, and I had seen that. I had seen that fire in my eye when I did it in Auburn, the year that we wanted. You know what I'm saying? So that's where it's just like you have to understand that adversity is going to come, right? And the assumption of perfection is one of the things that keeps people from doing ultimately what they're able to do and being as great as they possibly can. I'll give you an everyday scenario. I have a guy that watches my cars.

Great at washing cars. I mean, looks like it came fresh off the dealership every time that he washes him. But I started off washing, he washed two cars. Well, now I have three cars in a big Sprinter van, four cars, right? But every time that he comes, he's only able to watch two cars at a time, right? Because he's blown up, he's gotten that busy. He's that good. And I asked him, I said, hey, you know, why would you only watch two cars when you come,

when you have the capacity to make the amount of money or even over double because the other one's a sprinter, right? And he says, well, you know, you trust me to watch the, cars so I don't trust anybody else to wash your cars and I have to schedule it out and I'm busy boom boom right I said I said but that doesn't make sense because now you're leaving business on the table I said why don't you train somebody like you know I just don't trust people you know to watch the cars the way that I do I said bro that's all in your head I said if you go hire somebody and you train them good and they do 80% of the job that you're doing,

I'll never notice. I say, as a matter of fact, after you watch my cars, I don't even look at them anymore. I just get it because I know it's going to be good. I get it. I drive off. I didn't even look at it. I got in the car.

I didn't even look at it. I know it's done, right? So if you screen somebody to do 80% as good of a job as you, you can have four more trucks running at the same time, and all of your clientele still would love you and still will be happy. But what you're scared of is that that person won't do 100% of the job the same way that you will.

Well, nobody said they needed to. No, that does his own bottleneck. And that's how it works. So a lot of times that thought of perfection and that thought that you have to be perfect at doing something in order to do it great, that is what scares people from growth and elevation inside of themselves.

And he took that and he ran, with it and it's growing it now. But that opened up out of him because he was like, what? Oh, my God. The whole time I've been thinking this way, but all of a sudden now I got that perfection out of the way, that thought of perfection or chasing perfection, and now it allows me to be the greatest company I could possibly be, you know what I'm saying? I love it, dude.

That's a great job being there for that guy and, you know, giving him a little leadership. And it's because you believe it. I saw it already work. You want him to help him scale. You want him to be, you know, you want him to have bitlies of his own, right? You want to, yeah. So listen, man, I think one of the biggest things, like, you know, we could talk about, you know, your time at Florida all day long. But I think the one thing that is going to interest my audience and it interests me because I went through it myself, the transition from being an athlete to a normal person.

Like, I know you struggled with some stuff, you know, couldn't even watch the game of football for a while. I couldn't even look at a baseball for years, dude. So let's walk the audience through a little bit, something like that. And then I want to get to what you're doing now and talk about your book because I want everybody on here. I'm going to put a link and I want everybody to buy your new book, dude. I mean, straight out. There you go. Well, you know, interesting story with me.

After winning the national championship, I was like at an all-time high of football. Ultimately, that ended up being my all-time high in football, right? because I got drafted in the seventh round when I was supposed to get drafted in the first and second lost about $16 million in one day on that. Yeah, but you stayed an extra year too, though, didn't you? No. No. No? I left early, right?

Oh, man. So I drafted in the seventh round, right? And when I submitted my papers, it says anywhere as late as the second round. So, okay, I'm going to go make some money for my family, right? Get drafted in the seventh round, but not only do I get drafted in the seventh round, I get drafted to the San Diego charges. and they have a guy drafted, a middle linebacker drafted in the third round the same exact year, right? So, lo and behold, here I go, right?

Just me and this guy. And of course, they want him to play because they want to justify the draft pick, right? So I fight, beat him out for two years, end up leading the NFL and special teams tackles by second year. And that was a whole shift, right? Like having to assume a new role. I went from leader and captain of a team to be. to being a special team player, right,

and getting a special team tag on me. Fought that out, actually got to start my third and fourth years, and it was time to get paid, right? Like, okay, here's my next time to get paid. I've been four years in the NFL, and now it's time to do. And what happens?

The NFL lockout. Right? So then it's like, oh, God, all these guys are signing for nothing. So, okay, got to go prove myself another year, go to kids. I'm in the best shape of my life, having the best training camp I could have. Last play of the last preseason game, bang, tear my Achilles.

It's like, well, what the hell? Right? Come on, man. Then my last year, we're playing, and one of my best friends on the team, plays Mike Linebacker with me, Javon Belcher, shoots yourself in the head at Kansas City facility. Right. and I'm on my way as I pull in, he does this, right? That was on a Saturday.

We played on Sunday. And everywhere that his name was, they kind of just scratched his name out, put mine. And mentally the toll of that having to play a game on Sunday, it wore on me. It made me fall out of love with the game. And I retired after that year, right? I knew I was going to be going.

I enrolled back in school. I was a 3.8 GPA student. And I would have finished in three years because I ultimately, that was the plan. But in football, it's really two and a half years because then you got to go train for the combine or whatnot. Enrolled, went back to school, went and talked in front of the gate of boosters because I knew there was, when I went into and when I approached having to retire from the NFL, I knew that I had to do something else that was a career. I didn't want a job, right? And how I told this to people was going to be very important on the next steps of my life.

So I went and met with Gator Club, Gator Boosters, and I told them. I said, look, I'm a leader. I'm a smart individual, and I have money, right? So I'm not mowing lawns, and I'm not looking for a job. I'm looking for a career. And if you have any careers where you need fresh eyes, some, some strong leadership, and you need somebody to bring an element that is outside of the circle and spear that you've had in this company for a while, then I'm your guy, right?

And they bid on me like Shark Tank, right? So they, everybody was like, by the time I got down speaking, everybody's like, oh, got to have them. right and I ended up choosing and even urban my was trying to get me to coach at that time and I knew coaching wasn't and I was like look I'm you know I'm a family guy right I want to be at every football game my kids I want to do all of this and I in coaching in that industry if I was going to be the best I wasn't going to have time enough to do it no and I love that about you man that was this unacceptable to me you know um for people my best friend is the special teams coach at Maryland great for him

For me, I was like, I'm not going down that path. Right. So I ended up choosing C-Mex, which was one of the biggest cement companies in the world, right? And a guy 10 years before me that played in Florida, David Nabobi, he gave me an opportunity to manage, you know, the ready mix department. And I built a bunch of apartment complexes all around central Florida, right? built big chilt wall buildings for Amazon and that kind of stuff. And I had, I thought that I was doing pretty well, right? You're making six figures, got to go up the car, you're the boss, you know.

And I thought that I was doing pretty well, but there was something inside of me that said, look, I'm not doing, this isn't why God put me here. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know exactly what you're saying. This isn't why he gave me all of the ability. I wasn't like other football players, right? I was always the smart guy, right? And Kansas City, you know, I played with three other pro-bow linebackers,

but I had the mic in my ear. You know what I'm saying? Like, and it was, I was like, you know, I got to be, there's something that he put inside of me, there's a reason that he put all this inside of me. And I had about six of my boys that were trying to get disabilities from the NFL, and they were failing. So they came to me and asked for my help.

I'm like, let me look into this. and the more and more I dug, the more and more I found that there was a disconnect. There were things that we didn't know or that we didn't know how to do. There were obstacles that we just naturally could not do, right? So I said, oh, my God, nobody's going to know this. I don't know this.

I'm one of the swarvers, right? I was like, and nobody knows this. Nobody that I know knows this, right? So I said, shoot, I can help these guys out. And I got those six guys disability. And I was dealing with my mental health right before

that, right? And I was like, you know, I got these guys to disability. This is what I need to be doing. Because somebody has to get this right. Somebody has to do this for these guys. So that's how my company started. Right. And then

from there, from near you just problem solved, right? You start figuring out what the price is and all of that corporate experience that I got over those two and a half years at CMEX, I was able to throw that into the bucket when building my company and say, okay, look, this is how much it's going to cost. At this time, we'll increase the price. At this time, this is when I hire a person. This is how I train up this person. And I started using those same philosophies. I started making, being able to train people and then replicate myself in

this area and replicate myself in that area. And five and a half years later, now I represent over 5,000 NFL players. And I'm basically like the Amazon in that market, right? I get guys disability. So cool. I also have two rehab facilities where it's only athletes, right, because we know as professional athletes that for us to heal mentally, right, for us to open up mentally and be able to get the healing that we need,

a lot of times we need to be around and in a circle of people that's going to understand the exact same things that we understand. Going through the same problems we go through. You know, no offense. But the normal, regular person that we consider just a drug addict off the street and you go put them in a group meeting with a guy that's famous,

that's famous to an extent that's had a career in the NFL and we're sharing back and forth in the room, just doesn't feel right. Doesn't feel right. I'm not letting you in, right? But if you go with, and we got our facility out in Oxnard, we basically, it's like

glamp rehab, right? Because, of course, you got to have it glammed up for these guys. So we have houses on the water. It's $3 to $5 million houses. They go, they get their treatment. They go see psychiatry, psychologists, neurologist, neurosites. They get brain

mapping, TMS therapy. But they also have a private chef that cooks through three meals a day. They get massage therapy. They do boxing, yoga. We're even implementing, you know, art therapy from the Art of Olympians charity that's going to go out there and help these guys to do art

for when the Olympics comes to L.A., they'll have somewhere for the art to go up inside of, you know, what they put together for the Olympics. So we got a lot of, of things going on out there. And the amount of guys that come to me and say, hey, man, you saved my family. You saved my relationship with my kids. You saved my marriage. You saved my life. That right there is what ultimately gets me on an all-time high. And I don't rather be doing anything else in the world than what I'm doing. Right. I'm still in it with my guys.

Right. Everybody picks at me because I'm brother, brother, brother. I always say brother, right? First text message to you, right? I love it, man. That was the energy. I'm like, oh, okay, okay. Because most of the time I'm working with my brothers and I still get to win with my brothers. Occasionally, I lose with my brothers. But they know that I'm fighting and they know that I'm fighting the same way that I was fighting when you see me on the documentary for us to win and become champions. I'm fighting for those guys the same way to change and make a big impact in their life. So that's where I'm at. And that's why that's how it started. That's how, you know, now I own 11 companies.

And, you know, I have a book. I have a definition of a leader, leadership academy that will be rolling out next month. Oh, really? You have an academy. One line academy, yes. Very nice. Can you talk about that? Yeah, so the academy is kind of like a different style at leadership, right?

Because everybody's going to tell you kind of the same thing with leadership, right? Well, I look at leadership a lot different. And I say this in my book, right? A lot of times they'll tell you that in leadership, you have to find somebody that does it like you, right? Find somebody that does it like you would see yourself doing it. That's very helpful, right? But what if you have, what if you're in a place where you don't have it? that, right? Because growing up in Pine Hills, I didn't have many people that I said, oh, I could go

talk to this guy. He's doing everything that I ever want to do in life. Right. And even the average person, right, I have friends like Jarl Rule and Jamie Fox and I've met President Obama, right? I can go up to these people and have these conversations. Most people can't, right? So what happens When you can't have those conversations with those people and learn directly from those people, what you have to do is re-engineer your vision, right? So you have to see what the people are doing around you that's making them unsuccessful, right? And do opposite, right? When I, why do I, why did I go my whole all through elementary, middle school, high school, college? I've always made straight A's.

And the reason was because the people that were around me, they made Ds and Fs. Right. They were terrible people in the community. You know, they wasn't doing the right thing after school. And I said, I'm going to be different than them, right? I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to be the person that's making the A's and Bs that's studying. I want to do something different than the people that are around me are doing.

And I think everybody bought into that when they saw me doing those things and how strongly I cared to do that. And now you see where it gives motivation. It gives that strength to a lot of people that aspire to be something greater. And I have people that come up to me all the time. Like, man, you and your wife, y'all, you know, we've been together since high school. You and your wife, you know, y'all inspire us, right? We met in middle school. So the people that have known us our whole time, right?

They've known us the whole time. and now they see all of the things that we're doing, they're like, look, we could do this, we can do better, we can do this, we can do that. And inspires people. So a lot of it is that. Like you're going to get that uncandid leadership stuff. And a lot of my stories of how I became that kind of leader

is going to be inside of that leadership course where you're going to get still the same curriculum of like the real leadership, what takes for leadership, is what happens in these scenarios. But then where it separates itself, you're going to get these individual stories and real life stories and real ways that you put this stuff in place in your life and how I did it in mind so that you could be successful, you know? I think it's great. You know, leadership, just like you said earlier, in entrepreneurship, is a lot about problems solving, right?

So in this case, I mean, it's all problem solving, right? You find a problem you solve it, right? And then you work backwards from that. Like, you know, what's the market for it? What's a charge, et cetera. You know, when you're looking at, you know, your marriage, that you met your, you met Pam when you were back in middle school. And now, you know, you started dating in high school or whatever it was. And now here we are as adults, right?

And you guys are building these companies, building this life for you and your children. And people are inspired of it is because you problem saw them because you looked at everybody else. And you saw what everybody else was doing. Because you had the opportunity of seeing what all other football players did on the road in the SEC. You saw what they were doing the NFL. It's like, well, if I want a successful marriage, maybe I do the opposite. Right? Maybe I just do things differently.

And that's the one thing that I'm just sitting here, not the one thing, but one of the things that I'm blown away by because that's exactly how I am. That's exactly how I am. And if I want a certain amount of success in my career or with my show, I look at what everybody else is doing. And I go, okay, maybe I'll do the opposite, right? Maybe I'll grow organically instead of buy listens and downloads. maybe all, you know, really try to gain relationship capital of my own with a brand and Siler just by being a good dude, right? That's it's a difference.

Everybody else wants to pay for them. They just want to show up on these stages. They want to pay all this money and buy friends. I'm not about that. And if I can't make it in this industry long term because of that, I'm okay with it. Because, but I know I will. But I know I will. And then my relationships with dudes like you are going to be.

actually right there you go i mean it's just like in this in this industry now um since netflix you can only imagine all of the different things you know i've been on fox of playing pickleball i've been on the fox couple shows uh i saw you i saw you doing a lot of pickleball stuff yeah so the business of pickleball is not one that's crazy yet but i was my my my partner ryan Sherry, he's one of the top pickleball players in the world. And we started about five years ago into this pickleball mania as well. And it has grown up and blossomed into something that's crazy. Right.

So we've always been there. We were ahead of the curve a lot where I played in tournaments and developed. And I kind of go back and forth from golf to pickleball, golf to pickleball. And it was like with him growing and playing it all the time, it put me in that sense of like the business of pickleball, what can be done as it grows and that kind of stuff. And that's more of the fact of where I'm at with the whole pickleball situation, like the business of pickleball is where it takes off to.

So that's what pickleball is with me. I love to play the game. I think it's a great game. I love the fact that we were just, the owners of publics have just opened up a pickleball court in Lakeland, right?

And the brand opening was yesterday. And they invited us up to play pickleball and they had this big tournament and invited us up. So go sit and eat dinner with the owners of publics, right? And it's one family, right? They're not even a publicly traded company.

It's just one nice little family that just went, whoosh, and they keep it together, built the golf course all for themselves, right? And it was just like, wow, you know, it's like, what in the heck? The same dude that built a big course, you know? So, but people to be in that circle and be around those people, it allows you to understand that there's a consistency of successful people, right? They all are very oriented on problem solving and understanding that,

things aren't going to be lined up perfect, but all you have to do is just figure them out. You go, you keep going, you keep pushing, and when something gets in the way, you figure it out, and you keep rolling. You know what I'm saying? So, I've learned that through all of my successful friends sitting around them,

talking to them, being able to have these conversations with people that, like, own public. I got a partner that's the vice president of Firemark Bank and was the CEO of Chico's clothing store, right? The white down here in the four.

Yeah, white market, black market, right? So he did that, blew that company up, right? And then 30 years later, retired. And now is one of my, is a small partner in our business, right? So these are the people that I'm able to learn from and to take things from that I can utilize. And what I'm doing in my academy and what I do in my book is try to give people insight to take advantage. of those things without meeting those people, right? Able to use those things without meeting those people, right?

And that's where that is the genuineness of wanting to help people, right? When I did the book and when I did the academy, it's about, okay, let me help you to establish. Let me give you sort of some type of playbook or rhyme or reason or how I did it. And there were certain people that influenced me and things that I took out of my life that switched how I did things. And you can do the same thing in your life and become successful in business and entrepreneurship. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, man. I think it's important, man, especially, you know, seeing the success you had, you know, in your career, you know, football and then going into entrepreneurship and into real life.

And like we touched on earlier, athletes really struggle with that. When they retire early from a sport, whether it's because of an injury or, you know, they were forced out or whatever it is. Like, bro, something psychological happens. In fact, I'm preparing a TED talk right now for it. And I'm sending applications everywhere. So, you know, the bottom line is I know it's going to get picked up. I know I'm going to go talk about it.

I know it's going to get accepted. And, you know, for me, they created a massively hurt individual. Like, I was so hurt. I did dumb stuff and I hurt people, not physically, but emotionally. And it was just, I didn't have somebody like you. right and that's my point that's that's the reason i wanted you on the show yeah you know swamp kings that was the catalyst i'm like oh shoot like brandon's doing some cool stuff in his life i should probably dig into that right and so for me it's about bringing this message you know so because i have

professional former professional athletes that listen to this show it's like hey like they listen to this there might be some ways that they can partner with you and and get your message out even further and for you to continue to help people and pour into their lives i mean that truly is your purpose. Like, could you imagine still working at CMAX? Like, like, dude, like, that's not your purpose. Like, I know what my purpose is. Like, and I'm fighting like hell every day to fulfill it.

And I love CMEX. Don't get me wrong because they gave me. Yeah, that was great company, man. Of what, you know, why I was able to build what I was able to build, you know, the corporate sense of it. But also, I see this every day. Our guys retire from football. And I'm, I'm a piece.

I'm a little piece. of this small part of sports where I was one of the guys that walked out. Like, you think about it. Even all of the athletes, all of the greats that you hear over time, the game walks away from them. They don't walk away from the game, right? There's only a very, very small percent, maybe two, three percent that say. Dude, honestly, the only guy I could really think of other than you is Barry Sanders.

Somebody like that, right? And there are other instances, but they're very few and far between because you wanted to do this your whole life. You know, unfortunately for me, it was because I fell in love the game because of traumatic death and something happening, right? But for two years, they still called me and said, hey, you're going to play football? I'm going to play football. I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good. I'm going to playing football, right?

But what I've seen over time and what I see with other individuals is the mental state that happens with that, right? If I have given this sport my whole life, and even I had this this happened to me, I dare this sport move on without me. Right? I dare this sport move on without me.

I have one of my good friends that played long time in the NFL, right um we had we had a we had a conversation um sitting down in back porch just kicking it having a couple of drinks and we have a conversation and he says you know i don't understand the negative stigma that comes with saying that i'm brandy sara you know uh you know i played in the NFL i'm the NFL football player right like why is that such a negative stigma that's what i did that's who I am, right? And I said, I said, see, that's where you get it misconstrued, right?

I'm also Brandon Sala, the high school graduate. I'm also Brandon Sala, the number of two high school recruit in the country. But I don't say that. But dude, like, this is it. Sorry, go ahead. And I said, do you know why I don't say that? because those are things that I did. That is not what I'm doing or who I am currently.

And when you find what you want to do and what you want to do after you get done playing, you want to attach yourself to that. You use what you've done in your past to make it better for what you're doing now. But when you find something else, you want to go be that. because I was 25 years old,

played six years in NFL, and I was 25, 26 years old when I retired. So now from 25, 26, let's say that I'm going to live to 80, right? Like, you ain't even halfway, right? You barely pass a quarter way, you know, of where you're going to be in life or who you're going to be in life.

And you retire. So now holding and cleaning on to that, in a sense is just not being able to identify what you want to do and where you want to go with the rest of your life. You know? Dude, this is so important because this is all about identity. This is exactly my point. This is exactly my point, Brandon, is like, listen, I played baseball in LSU. You played football.

You were an NFL player. That's not who we are. It's stuff that we did, right? Who am I? Right. And I think that's the big, I know that's the big disconnect because when these athletes, they don't have someone like you. They don't have that purpose, someone to help them guide them afterwards. They're usher back into real life, so to speak, or outside of their sport. They don't know who the hell they are. Right. That's when the depression that's in. That's when they get in trouble with alcohol. That's what they get in trouble with drugs. The law. That's when they, the law. They drink too much and they hop in a cargo, 150 and kill somebody. And now, boom, they're gone. They're in prison, the rest of the law. Like, so I just, you know. Yeah, and I think, and that's why my rehab facility is so important to me, right?

It's because you go out there for 30 to 60 days and you're locked in. And for them 30 to 60 days, it allows you to be selfish. Right? Because think about what we do as athletes. We go make it for everybody else. usually when we get there we want to take care of everybody else right and then we get done and most of those people that we were taking care of and looking out for they disappear or they call us stupid for blowing it or they you know anything it's like where the hell I was blowing it on

you out you know how can you call me stupid I was caring about you yeah nice help yeah so it's like um it's like when you go out there now it allows you you to be selfish again and it allows you to find yourself who am i really what do i want to do right you know why am i feeling this way and then once you start up being able to identify those things then now you can progress and say okay look uh what things do i need to do in order to be able to do the things that i like to do the things that i love to do the person that i really want to become right And one of the things that I think it's awesome about us getting

God's disability is because the very first thing that you have to figure out is financially how you're going to survive, right? So you could talk about all this hoopla, hip-law, all you want. The bill's got to be paid. And guys like us can't just go to Mickey D's or subway and go get a job in the community, right?

No. So this disability, we get them a disability for seven and a half years, 15 years or pretty much for the rest of their life. Right. And that helps you figure out the financial part of it. Now you go out to the facility, you get your mind right, you understand what things you want to do

while you were thinking of yourself a certain way and being able to re-engineer that. We also do some neuron work where you can really see neurons that basically have disrupted and aren't connected. It's just like a muscle. Like, let's say you tear a muscle, right? The problem with tearing a muscle is that, you know, you can't get from here to there, it ain't commuting.

Right? Same thing happens when you have a traumatic brain injury or something happening in your head. Right. So now there's TMS that can massage and ice and stem those neurons in your brain, basically, and get that back healthy to make that connection back stronger. And that connection is basically the difference

between looking at the same exact situation, glass half full compared to looking at a glass half empty, right? And you can be looking at the same exact thing. And that's where, you know, when you start connecting back to that, because in order to make it as a pro athlete, you got to have a shit ton of fight in you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Everybody wants to be a pro athlete. So if you get there, you got some shit in you. that other people don't have, right?

And now you have to find out how to use that shit that you got inside you and other ways than what you always used it for and what you always wanted to use it for. And that is where you make that connect. You know what I'm saying? And that's where you're able to do. That's where it's something else in life.

Oh, bro, man. Look, dude, I appreciate you coming on. We're going to land the plane here. For those of you listening, I just really encourage you dive into Brandon Siler at B.Syler.com, pick up his book, you know, learn about leadership. And really when his academy is launched, I really encourage everybody to go check it out, enroll in it and, you know, see how he can help you.

But more than anything, guys, I want you to share this episode with your favorite athlete, your favorite former athlete, and all of Brandon's contact information with his companies and everything like that are going to be in the show notes. So that way you guys can be connected. And if you're one of those players that is retired that are looking for some help and some aid, Brandon's your guy. So Brandon, dude, thank you so much. And I cannot wait to connect with you more. And, dude, I just appreciate you.

Thank you for having me. Sean, we're actually starting baseball disability too. So. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, you know me, man. I know a lot of baseball players. I'll be in contact with you about it.

But we're doing our first few cases right now to help these guys out. will be in contact. Thank you, man. I appreciate you for having me. It was fun kicking it with you, man. You know it, baby. Only the beginning. Peace. Southwest Florida is one of the most beautiful places on the planet to live. For those of you that are thinking of moving from other states to come to Florida or even just moving to a different part of the state, I want you to think of a big, beautiful, luxury home. Contact legacy luxury builders. They are a family-owned and operated luxury residential construction company. As a family-owned business, they believe in the power of building not just homes, but legacies. Contact legacy luxury

builders. Unlock your true potential on the field and court with our peak mental performance program for athletes. Train your mind to conquer challenges, stay focused under pressure, and achieve unparalleled success. Our expert coaches will guide you through personalized techniques, enhancing concentration, resilience, and confidence. Picture yourself outperforming your rivals, making split-second decisions with clarity and achieving victory as never before. Join us today and elevate your game to new heights. Peak mental performance program where champions are forged in the mind. Email me today, shan.com at the determined society.com for more information.

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