THE ED MYLETT SHOW - 9 Unbreakable Rules of Consistency and Commitment | Ed Mylett

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

If you want uncommon results, you have to live by uncommon standards, especially on the days you do not feel like showing up. In this mashup episode, I’m bringing together some of the most disciplined competitors and leaders I’ve ever sat down with to break down what consistency and commitment really look like when the lights are off and no one is clapping. You’re going to hear from people who have won at the highest levels of sports, business, leadership, and life, and every one of them shares the same truth. Success is not built in moments. It is built in habits. Troy Aikman takes us inside what it really means to be trusted as a leader when everything is on the line. He shares why the greats are never outworked, how daily preparation creates belief inside a locker room, and why commitment is proven long before game day. Jim Rome brings his trademark intensity and clarity, challenging the excuses we make and exposing why most people talk about wanting it but never back it up with action. His message is simple and uncomfortable. Consistency is not sexy, but it is undefeated. Gerard Adams opens up about discipline in entrepreneurship and why momentum is built by honoring small promises to yourself every single day. Dabo Swinney shares how faith, standards, and consistency shape culture, not just wins, and why who you become matters more than what you achieve. And Mark “The Undertaker” Calaway gives one of the most powerful reminders you will ever hear about longevity, professionalism, and showing up prepared for decades, not seasons. This episode is about doing the work when motivation fades. It is about staying committed when results are slow. And it is about building a life you can count on because you have become someone who can be counted on. If you feel stuck, inconsistent, or frustrated with your progress, this conversation will reset your standards and remind you what winning actually requires. You do not need more inspiration. You need more follow through. This episode will challenge you to raise your standards, lock in your habits, and finally live with the level of commitment your goals demand. Key Takeaways: Why consistency beats talent every single time How elite leaders earn trust through daily preparation The difference between being interested and being committed Why small habits done daily create massive long term momentum How discipline creates confidence even before results show up What it really takes to sustain excellence over decades, not months ⁠👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ←  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, enjoying a good night's rest in your lie flat seat, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. This is the Edmiler's show. Hey, everyone, welcome to my weekend special. I hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to follow the Edmyshow on Apple and Spotify. Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Here's our first guest.

Welcome back to the show, everybody. Today's special. It's not every day you sit across from a three-time Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP. Let's just be real. One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. One of the greatest athletes of all time.

And by the way, ironically, I think actually one of the most underrated athletes of all time. It's a fact. But actually, as impressive as his football career was, I like the fact that the dream didn't stop there and he was able to post-football create an incredible brand, an incredible career, an incredible life post-football.

So I just want to pick the brain of the great Troy Aikman, Troy. Good to have you. Yeah, great to be on. Great to meet you. I've been looking forward to this. You too. Boss away, he's also an entrepreneur. We ought to just talk about that first. Yeah. He's in the beer business now. Yeah. Tell me about that a little bit. It's been an interesting year and a half or so. Actually, we started two years before we launched. We've now been in stores for a year and a half, strictly in Texas. But I worked for a distributorship in college. I like beer. I don't drink a lot. You don't look like you drink any. Yeah, no. I, but yeah, I met my partners, and we started

kicking it around and seeing if it's something that I might want to do. And, you know, I work out. I'm mindful of what I put in my body, all those things. And I said, well, if we can do something that complements my lifestyle, then I'm all for it. And so we spent two years coming up with the recipe. And what's unique about eight, which is the name of the beer, is that we're 100% organic grains. We have no adjuncts and no fillers. So we're the only widely available beer that can say that. Every other widely available beer adds corn, rice, syrup, or sugar. So there's a lot of junk that's thrown in there. Ours has none of that. And yet we're still at 90 calories and just 2.6 carbs. So my next question of those two things. So it's been really good.

And, you know, I feel like we're a lifestyle brand, quite honestly, because the people who I've always been inspired by are the people who never settle and the people who do the work and all those things that. And I feel like I'm one of those people, you know, and that's why I'm usually drawn to that. And so that's really who this beer was made for. Now, anyone who wants to drink it that wants a better for you beer will certainly accept. By the way, you're in the right demo in this audience. They can drink beer and be healthy

And it's actually unique They can get it anywhere? Where can you get eight? In Texas Yeah It's distributed across the entire state Eventually we hope that we'll move outside of Texas And, you know, be in other states

Let's get it online so we can buy it online Yeah I don't know what the restrictions are on that I've been asked about that a lot But it's done really well So we just we just kicked off our second year And a lot of good stuff is happening Congratulations, yeah, thank you

Like I said, you've had this incredible life I'm going to ask you hard stuff today, stuff that I don't think you get asked all the time. I had a chance a few weeks ago I was with Brady for a few days at an event. And I've been blessed that I get to have been around some guys that played your position at a pretty high level. Woody, John Elway, has been a friend of mine for a long time. What's a through line for the great leaders in anything, but especially we'll just take quarterbacks now. What's a through line? Don't be humble today.

Between like a Troy Aikman, because you're different personalities, very different. Troy Aichman, a John Elway, a Tom Brady. what is the through line that made you all great leaders? I know there's differences, but what's a through line? Yeah, I think we are all different. We all lead in a different way, which is true of any field, of course. But I think that probably what the through line is for all great quarterbacks, great leaders at that position, or in general,

is that they put in the work and they're not outworked. You know, and I think that that, first of all, you got to play well, but you have to also be the guy who your teammates understand is there putting in the work and doing what's necessary in order to be the best that you can be. And I think that those guys that you mentioned, I'd like to think that I'm one of them as well, that your teammates never questioned your commitment, your dedication, and your persistence to being the best that you could be. Why does it matter? Like I, like in business as an entrepreneur, I'll tell entrepreneurs, one of the reasons you got to outwork every. is when you're leading a team, an ironic thing, and maybe this isn't true in football, but I think it is, you actually create safety for everybody around you, stability when you're the hardest working person in the room and the leader. I think that's one of those, like,

invisible things. Like, you actually have created a sense of stability just by your mere presence and your work ethic that doesn't exist if you're a little bit hit and miss in an environment. Do you see that? Yeah. And I think that in football, maybe this is true in all sports, but I know that that what I can relate to is the dynamics of a locker room and within an organization. And what generally happens is for the quarterback, the quarterback, the franchise quarterback, is always viewed as the guy who didn't really have to fight necessarily for his pay. He's been treated well. You know, that, okay, well, the organization, and maybe even more so now,

even though we've seen situations where some quarterbacks have had to hold out and hopefully get what they feel is their, you know, corrected pay. But I think in general, when you have a franchise quarterback, it's like, oh, okay, well, his contract's up, so we pay him, and then we move on, and these other guys are holding out, and then they got to, you know, they've got to fight a little harder. The quarterback usually has great relationships with not only the coaches, but also the owner himself and all that. So I think that with that, the quarterback has to, in his way, make the other player,

his teammates understand that he's with them, you know, that he's one of them and that he's doing the work just like they are. And it's not always easy to do. And there have been those quarterbacks, those guys, those franchise quarterbacks that have struggled in that area. And it's not easy and not to get off tangent. But I think that becomes a challenge right now with what we're seeing in college with the NIL, is that now you've got 18-year-olds instead of 24-year-olds that are having to navigate those waters of getting paid more than the rest of the players within the locker room and how do you do that it's not easy that's interesting because i uh i've had a chance i had paten manning interviewed peyton i interviewed john montana and then you and when i when people make

their list this is which is interesting to me i don't know if you take this personally or not but when people go okay my top five quarterbacks of all time you're usually going to hear joe's name you're going to hear brady's name right and then they'll interchange you know marino Peyton Manning, you know, whoever. They get their list. Rogers, I guess, is on that list somehow now. But Mahomes already. I want to know where Otto Graham is.

That guy won like 10 championships back in any of it. But what is it in your case? I mean, it's clear you should be in that. And by the way, I'm sure on many lists you are. I don't mean to say. Well, no, that's not. Well, no, I'm not. I'm not.

And why? And quite honestly, Ed, it doesn't affect me at all. I mean, it really doesn't. I mean, I played the game, hoping that one day I would be thought of amongst the greats of all time. And I feel like that happened by the simple fact that I'm in the Hall of Fame. That kind of happens. But, you know, when you're talking about, okay, name the top five. I wouldn't probably be in there.

Maybe I would be if they mentioned the top 10. But I understand that my career really was about winning championships, which ultimately is what everyone's career should be about. That's what they pay us for. But I think that the world that we're in, especially with fantasy football and then, for those fans or people who are making those lists that if they didn't see me play, they look at stats and they say, okay, well, shoot, I mean, Troy, my numbers are pretty modest relative to many others. And there's reasons for that. You know, Emmett, of course, there's a reason why he's the all-time leading Russia. And, you know, but when we didn't throw

the ball as often, but when we threw it, we threw it as well as anybody. And that's why Michael Irvin's in the Hall of Fame as well. So no. It doesn't bother you. It does not bother me. In fact, during my Hall of Fame speech, what I mentioned was that I feel like everyone talks about how team comes first. You never hear a player say that, oh, no, I'm all about me. They'll say, hey, I just want to win. But there's very few, as you know, who really only want to win.

They want to win as long as they're also putting up their big numbers. For me, I felt like I did sacrifice individuals. I feel like I could throw the ball as well as anybody, but I feel like I did sacrifice individually for what was best for the team. And so the greatest reward for that was that I then received the greatest honor, an individual can ever receive. And that is to be voted into the pro football hall fame. So that's what meant so much to me. And the rest of it, I'm proud of my career, you know, overly proud of it. If someone had told me, I, you know, I always wanted to be a professional athlete.

If somebody had told me that I was going to go on and win three world championships and have the teammates in the career that I was able to have, I would have taken it, you know, all day long. And so I'm proud of it. And where that ranks or where everyone else thinks I just, you know, I've never, I've never really dwell on that. It's just not. Because you know a lot of guys, other guys do. I mean, look at Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech. He's considered the goat and he's still like nail.

dudes, you know. Yeah, right. And nothing wrong with that. I just, there's an ego that comes with being great at anything that I think is a healthy ego. But you did. You're also known as like one of the most accurate throwers of the football of all time, right? One of the most cerebral guys. Stuff that quarterbacks do. I asked Nolan was zone one time. You know, the quarterback guru did. And he's like, probably the most accurate guy I've seen throw the football was actually Troy Aikman, but it was all the other things. It's actually getting into protections that you're supposed to get into the drug. I remember when Peyton really couldn't throw anymore. Yeah. Yet, they ended up doing a lot better with him than they did with Brock because of his ability just pre-snap to get them into the right formations and block.

And, you know, obviously, you know a lot more about that than I do. But I want to ask you also about your career. I'm just fascinated by the people that are the best. Like, people don't realize this because they watch it on TV, but every guy that's out there in the NFL was not only the best player more than likely on their, you know, their high school team, but they became elite in college. You were a UCLA guy. Do you come from Nebraska before that? Oklahoma. So you didn't get it at Oklahoma.

You end up red shirting at UCLA and ends up winning three Super Bowl's and a Super Bowl MVP. But I look at guys like that are just different. And I think, what's the commonality? Because even me as an entrepreneur, I'm different than Alon Musk. I'm not anywhere near as wealthy as Alon Musk. But, you know, Phil Knight, Alon Musk and, you know, Mark Cuban, three very different dudes. What's the through line, right? And I look at Jimmy Johnson.

I'll look at Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, and let's just say Andy Reid right now, they're very different for human beings. You know all of them or knew all of them or met them. What is common amongst them that made them great leaders? That's a tough one. Well, that's a great question. I mean, it really is because I actually was just having this conversation with somebody that, for the most part, for the most part, I would say, if you tell me someone's a player's coach, I will tell you, then they probably haven't won at the highest level, in general. Okay.

In general, all right? But I think Andy Reid would be regarded as a player's coach, and he's been one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game. So, but I do think that players in general, they want to be coached by people that they know are going to make them better. Right. You know, and that's that's the body. bottom line. I mean, that's the key. And so do they know something that I don't and they can put me in a position to where I can achieve the things that I want to achieve, both individually and then as well for us as a team? This is true in business. True and true in life, true and everything.

I mean, it really is. And so there's obviously a lot of parallels between sports and business and other things. But, you know, you take Bill Belichick, for instance. I've talked to a number of people, you know, clearly regard as, you know, what may be the greatest coach of all time. he's on certainly a short list but you know he's not a whole lot different in a lot of ways from the guy that we see but when you talk to people who have played for the patriots I said how how is he so effective and they say we know that if we do what he asks us to do there's a really good probability that we're going to win the game right and so did you feel the way about jimmy yeah yeah and jimmy was tough I mean jimmy was really tough he he'd

manned a lot, attention to detail. No detail was too small. And we worked hard. So we had really talented players. That was his, Jimmy's greatest strength probably was his evaluating of talent. I mean, he was sensational at that. So we had really talented players that worked exceptionally hard. And then Jimmy didn't let anything slide. And so that's a pretty good formula. I watched something, I don't if it was last year or the year before. I happened to be watching we have some mutual friends that are involved at fox sports for football and uh i watched the day that they told jimmy johnson that he had made the hall of fame and then they threw to you yeah and i watched your reaction and i thought i don't know that these guys necessarily got along

that well when a dude's beating the drum when you're playing and you know threaten you with you don't i'm going to play walsh or whatever yeah yeah yeah but you sincerely seemed emotional yeah on his behalf and i wonder if you're going to play walsh or whatever yeah yeah yeah but you sincerely seemed emotional about it on his behalf. And I wonder if that's just because when you're forged in a battle, even if you're building a company or a family or a football team, that when you get to the other side of that, although it may be messy in the middle, but at the end, there's this tremendous, you know, in moderation that you've done something great together. Is that what that was or what was it? Because you were pretty emotional. Yeah. And I didn't know that he was going to be

told that he was going into the Hall of Fame. We were going to halftime and my producer said to me, hey, the studio wants you to watch a little bit of this halftime show. They're going to be doing something. And I just thought, okay, they're going to be doing something. And then sometime in the second half, I'm going to be asked to maybe talk on it. And so I'm just watching what's going on. And then when I see David Baker walk out, who was running the Pro Football Hall of Fame, then I knew that Jimmy was going in, and I knew that there was a chance, but I had no idea that he was going to be told that night. I thought he was going to be months before he was going to ever find out. Okay. And so why I was emotional, Ed, was, you're right, our career, I've known Jimmy since I was

about 14 years old. He was recruiting me out of high school when he was at Oklahoma State. Okay. And I didn't go to Oklahoma State, of course, and then he went to Miami, recruited me there, and I didn't go there. And then I go to Dallas, and he takes over for Tom Landry. So now he's coaching me. And then he drafted Steve Warren. Walsh. And you're right. It got off to a really tough start. But he and I have gotten, we're really close. And so he's never gone into the Ring of Honor at Cowboys Stadium where they have all the names. And we all feel those of us that played for him feel that if any of us are in the Ring of Honor, he certainly should be in the Ring of Honor. But that's a decision for

Jerry Jones to make. And so I never was certain he would get into the Pro Football Hall fame because he hadn't coached long enough was the reason not that he didn't deserve to be in i just didn't think that well he he wanted to go on and do do his boat and be in south florida and all that and so i just didn't know that because he'd been a finalist for a number of years and so knowing how much that meant to him and had not yet been recognized for what he had done for those teams with the Cowboys. To see him go into the pro football Hall of Fame, that night was really special. I mean, that's why I was so emotional. I was so happy for him. And then to take it a step further is he asked me to be his presenter. So I presented him then, which is the greatest honor. I mean,

the greatest athletic honor I've ever received is, as I mentioned, going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the greatest honor I've ever received in general. was Jimmy Johnson asking me to be as presenter because when you go into the Hall of Fame, you can ask anybody you want to be your presenter. And so when he asked me, I just thought, man, that's a pretty special thing. Oh, wonderful, man. Congratulations. Speaking of emotions, dealing with failure, it's part of being an athlete.

I think back to, I just watching a lot of football, your rookie year was not gorgeous. so most people that listen to my show may not have to be football fans but I'm interested to hear why don't you describe it a little bit tell them what happened your rookie year which was not you weren't winning a Super Bowl that year and how you dealt with a lot of the

rejection and failure criticism that came with it and probably even to this day you get criticism people saying things about you that aren't real favorable how do you deal with that my rookie year was I guess when I first got criticized or had to deal with that was at Oklahoma. You know, I was trying to run an offense that just didn't fit my

skills. And so it was a real challenge. And OU, of course, is a hotbed for football. And we were pretty good at the time. And I was probably holding this back just because we're trying to run this wishbone offense. And it just wasn't for me. So that was the first time I really had to deal with it. I broke my leg. And then I went to UCLA and end up going to Dallas is the number one overall pick. but I went to the worst team in football, and then my rookie year, you know, new head coach, college coach, bringing in a lot of different players every week. We really did not have much of a fighting chance. I was 0 and 11 as a starter.

Crazy. And it was tough. I took a beating. We weren't very good up front. O and 11, everyone. Oh, and 11. And so there were games where we should have lost based on how I played. And then there were other games where I thought I played pretty well, you know,

and we'd have a lead with 30 seconds left in the game and somehow we'd lose it, you know. And I just remember thinking, man, what does it take to win a game in this league? I mean, this is brutal. But I never lost confidence. And I think the reason was I had a quarterback coach by the name of Jerry Rome, and he had played in the NFL. And he just, he refused to let me get down on myself. And there were days when it was hard.

It was hard to be positive. It was hard to be upbeat. It was hard to believe that good things were going to happen. But he was always there being my champion, and he was in my corner. And so fortunately, my very first game, my second season, we won. And so I got that monkey off my back. And then over time, we slowly got better and better. And then, of course, we won the Super Bowl in my fourth year and had great success.

but yeah I just think that does criticism hurt you even now well nobody likes it you know it's easy i hear people say hey I don't pay any attention to criticism I have a hard time believing that anyone just can totally brush it off but if you get criticized enough you know and and I'm now that I'm still in the public eye with the broadcasting and all that that you just learn that that that it's just part of it you know uh someone once told me that hey it's part of the you know comes with the dinner and and and criticism just comes with the dinner and you know i'll read twitter from time to time and if and if you've called a game and you read twitter be buckle up my god i can't even but some of the it's some of it's pretty funny uh and and i laugh at most of it but what i like

the reason i do it is because you know you know deep down if there's truth to those criticisms sure you know yeah and so i try to evaluate myself objectively and i don't dismiss that i mean i i i listen and then think yeah you know what they're right me too they're right i do the same i kind of dig some of it yeah some of it's ridiculous but some of it i'm like you know what that's i've heard this enough times there's some validity to this that's right i do need to make that adjustment and it's it's a bit of a wake up and and and all that's good so i i i don't i don't mind it i mean i honestly don't mind it what about the criticism if you know deep down like you've you've done your best and whatever it is and then you just accept it and move on and now as you know i mean uh the critics

now everyone has a platform so uh you get you get all the i everyone gets criticized now i mean yeah we don't we definitely don't lack feedback in this day and age there's plenty of feedback i want to ask you about winning i've always wanted to ask somebody who's won a lot this i'll be honest with you so the things that have happened in my life where i've kind of won in business or whatever there were there were um it was amazing there were elements of it that were better than what i thought it was going to be. But there are also elements of it that surprised me. And I'm curious, you win this, as much as you can go back and really be there, you win this first Super Bowl. Maybe you're still on the field, you're in the locker room, it's the next day. Was it what you

thought it would be? Like, did you feel what you thought you would feel? Because there's these new studies that actually say that you get more dopamine in the pursuit of something that actually when you hit it, there's like a dopamine crash in your brain and it's like, is that all there is? There's a little bit of a letdown. Yeah. Did you have that? that happened to you? What did it really feel like? Well, I'll take you back a little bit earlier than that. When I was about 14 years old, I couldn't wait to get my driver's license. I mean, I thought that anyone who could drive, how could they ever have a bad day in their life? I mean, I just thought, how could you ever be upset about anything? I mean, you can drive. Well, you turn 16,

you get your driver's license, and you learn to drive and all that, and you've got a car. And then you realize that, hey, you still have bad days, and that always stuck with me. So I've, so I, I, I, I've, I, I've, I've always known that achievement isn't going to, it's not going to fulfill you anymore. I mean, it, you, you're proud and you're working towards that and, you know, you reach these goals, but it doesn't, it's not going to make you any happier. It's not, you know, that comes from a totally different place. Now, I will tell you, I was, I was, I was in my 50s before I really figured that part of it out really and so but when I won my first Super Bowl I I knew it was at least I knew that was in my back pocket and that's what I was drafted to do so that's where the satisfaction came like for the rest of my career

they can't say I can't win the big one was it was it satisfaction or relief great question I would say in all honesty it was more relief yeah yeah because I was never one of these athletes who people would say how come you don't how come you don't you know you don't look like you're really enjoying playing I I didn't smile or enjoy it till it was over until we won you know till we won the game I mean that's when that's when you were really able to enjoy the effort yes but during it no I mean it was it was a grind you know so but yeah I think I think in all honesty it was it was more more relieved that's been my emotion too. It's interesting you say that. It wasn't what I thought it would be, although there's

other benefits that come with it that you don't dream of or imagine as well. But it's almost like, okay, a little bit of relief. But the other thing that's unique about you, brother, is that you repeat. And I know it's a team sport. But we're going to get into broadcasting in a minute. Then you repeated, I mean, most of you know this, but if you don't, I mean, Troy has had this prolific career at Fox. Now he's Monday Night Football at ABC. He's like, he's the number one sports broadcaster in football now. He's also become number one of that. So he's guys, that has to leave college to go to UCLA because the offense didn't work for him. It ends up becoming the number one pick in the draft,

ends up being one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and then after that duplicates it with a career that's been dominant. And by the way, he could be a professional bodybuilder if he wanted to do right now, too. So, like, the guy is this finds this way to the top position. But a lot of people don't deal very well with rejection or failure, but a lot, a lot, and you know this, whether it's been business people you've met in your life or people that are in a good relationship or an athlete,

Like we're talking about the UFC guys that I work with with, the boxers. Guys work really hard to win a championship. And then something happens to them after they win a championship, that hunger, the drive, whatever it is. They don't, most people deal very poorly with winning, is the truth. It seems like that has not happened to you. No, it hasn't. And I think in general, most people, well, my approach, whether it's in football or whether it was in broadcasting or it's, in my personal life is that most people aren't willing to do the work.

I mean, that's what I believe. And I don't know where it came from for me. I don't know if it was the way I was raised by my father. But that, to me, is what has driven me throughout my life and everything that I've done. Now, the Super Bowl, as far as that goes, I can't imagine winning a Super Bowl and then not being more hungry than you were. And the reason I say that is because it is such a great experience that how could you not want to go and do that again and again? But you played with the guys you didn't. You played with guys.

I've been with and I've seen those teams and we all see because it is. It's a bit of human nature. Jimmy was great in our repeat. Jimmy Johnson. He treated us harder. I mean, he worked us harder the second year. And it was a reason for that. Jimmy was a psychology major and he felt that, hey, he felt that.

hey, now is when people get complacent. I'm not going to allow it. And so he worked us even that much harder. But, you know, Ed, I'm asked a lot about why I work out so much, why I do all this. And the reason really is simple that I feel like my success as a player was because I just refused to be outworked. And so I was going to do whatever was required. And when I got into broadcasting, I'm not the greatest. speaker in the world. And, but I just said, I'm going to, I'm going to give myself at least a

fighting chance. And I'm going to put more time into this. And so I, I work hard at trying to be as prepared as I possibly can be to go into a broadcast. And then with the working out now in my personal life, it's been about discipline and commitment. And if I let myself go, I feel like it, I feel like then I become a bit of a fraud and what I believe is the foundation of who I am. and why I've been able to have some degree of success. And so I think it's, you know, when you talk about a through line when you've been asking me those questions,

but that's the through line for me. It's discipline, it's consistency, and it's commitment. Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far. Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Now on to our next guest. Welcome back to the program, everybody.

I'm so fired up today. I have, this man I've admired from a distance for so many years. he is one of the great leaders in American sports. He just is. And he does it with a style that is all his own. And it's one that I've admired from a distance. Some of our mutual friends have confirmed what a good man he is for me.

And let me tell you, 140 and 33. Well, he's been at Clemson as the head football coach there. But he started to get better and better and better. Last three years, only lost three games, undefeated in 2018, two national championships. The list goes on and on. And this is from a guy who was a walk-on at Alabama. by the way, which is even more ironic that you went to Alabama.

Now you coach at Clemson, but I am honored to have Davo Sweeney on the program today. Coach, thank you for being here. Thank you, Ed. It's good to be with you, man. This is what a great, great treat to be on this podcast or show and opportunity to meet you. Yeah, my pleasure, coach. So we're going to go all over the place. We're going to talk leadership, recruiting, culture, all these different things.

but this is like a master class on leadership and recruiting. But there's one thing I've got to ask you because I've always wondered this about you. Lots of coaches talk about faith in the locker room, right? Before a game, let's pray together. Or they're Christian men or women that lead teams. You were the first coach that I saw do it outside the locker room in like post-game interviews. Now, I'm sure it's been done before, but it's not been done before, to my understanding, on the level you compete at, the magnitude of your job.

And I remember watching you get interviewed after game going, this dude fires me up. Man, he always acknowledges God. He always says something about his faith. And that's bold. And I actually thought at first, I thought it was aggressive or amazing because I'm not if it cost him some recruits. And it must be okay with him that he does do that.

Was that a conscious thing where like, I'm going to be bold about what I believe in the locker. I'm the same guy in the locker room that I am in an interview that I am with my family that I am coaching baseball. And I'm sure you might have caught a little flack for it at one point in your life for being so bold about it. I just want to know your thoughts about your faith, how it plays into being a coach, a leader, and your boldness about it. Oh, yeah, I've caught a lot of flack about that. I think, you know, that's why the Bible says you better put your armor on every day. I mean, like,

every single day. You know, and listen, I don't judge people or think. I just, I just believe what I believe and you know Colossus 323 says one of my favorite verses says it says whatever you do do it with all your heart as if you're working for the Lord right whatever you do all right I tell me if you're cleaning the room your bedroom do it as if you're working for the Lord because that's that's the that's the perspective God wants us to have and that's you know we have a really crazy world you know we're in a falling world sin is real the devil is real too Nobody wants to acknowledge that. That's what I believe, all right?

And maybe I'm wrong. I'm going to meet my maker one day, but I know what I believe. And I believe in Jesus. And I believe in God. And I believe that in Colossians, where it says, whatever you do, you do it with all your heart as if you're working for the Lord. And when you do something with all your heart, you're going to go above and beyond, right, in everything that you do.

And so God, I don't get how you can separate that. And so, yeah, I've had all kind of flack. One year where some group that, man, they tried to, you know, come and like, they said all this crazy stuff. Like, I'm only playing Christian. I'm like, let me tell you something. If I'm only playing Christians, we ain't winning like we winning. I promise you.

You know, ain't nobody check and roll at Chapel. I got Chapel. But I don't sit around and go, oh, you didn't come to Chapel. You don't play today. No, give me a break. You know, I just think you have to be who you are. And that's what I said back then. There's nobody that comes to Clemson.

If I was an atheist, guess what? everybody who came to Clemson would know that. I think you just be who you are. You know, and there's nobody that comes to Clemson and goes, well, that guy, man, I know Coach Winnie was a Christian, you know. And so I just think you just be who you are. I know what my job is. My job is to win football games, but I know who my maker is, too.

And I know that when you are a person of faith and you're a Christian, that's not something you turn on and off. You know, whatever you do, you do it as if you're working for the Lord. And so, yeah, my pay. checks has Clemson University, but let me tell you, at the end of the day, I'm working for the Lord. Because one of these days, there's going to be a scoreboard a whole lot bigger than the one that hangs out here in Death Valley. And it's going to be, you know, Davo, I gave you all these things and all these young people. What did you do for me? And listen, my job's not to save them.

But I do feel like that I have a responsibility to be an example. And I try to live my, man, I'm the biggest center in the world. I try to live my life in a way that glorifies God. And in those moments from time of time, listen, I don't ever want anyone, we live in such a superficial world. I don't want anyone to ever think that, man, this is because anything that I am is because of God. Anything that I've done is because of God's favor on my life. God's grace.

You know, man, God's grace and his favor, his, his will, his holy spirit, you know, leading the way. I mean, that's just how I look at it. And so, because we live in this world now where everybody wants to put you up on this pedestal. And I try to be quick and say, hey, listen, it ain't nothing great about me. If there's anything great about me, it's the Holy Spirit inside of me, all right? And guess what? Everybody can have that. And you said something a minute ago, and listen, greatness is for everyone.

And I told our team back in 2013, we beat Ohio State and our first ever BCS win in an orange bowl. And then we've beaten Alabama a couple of times. and we've beaten some of these big, big schools. If we walked out there at the middle of the field and we compared checkbooks and we compared budgets and we compared all, we'd get dominated. We would get smoke. Or if we, guess what I mean?

Number one recruiting classes we've had in 12 years as the head coach. Zero. Right. Zero. None. None. You know, so it's not all about that.

All right? It's about people. It's about passion. it's about, you know, synergy, iron-sharpen an iron. It's about attitude. It's about belief. That's what it's all about. And so, you know, I don't see it as being bold when I give God the glory.

You know, I don't want anything for anything that happens in my life. We're two guys that have that in common. I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God, too. Thank God. And, but I'm told that I'm bold. when I do it because I catch some criticism for it, just like you do. That's the thing what I meant by bold. And I like you so much. Yeah, well, I can't worry. I just don't worry about that. You know, I mean, listen, I mean, that that outside noise is always going to be there.

And again, if we spend our lives sitting around worried about, you know, what we need to worry about is pleasing God. And when you live your life and that's your belief pleasing God, well, you're going to upset people. That's just part of it. And you know what? the it goes back to what I said earlier being inside out you know I don't know who said it but there was a quote I love it it says you know ships don't sink because of the water around them they they sink because the water gets in them right and so we can't let all that stuff in us yeah and you know we got to let the light inside of us be brighter than the light on us at all times you know and so the light gets bright man that was the last thing I told our team in 16 I was like hey you know

this is what we got to do the light's going to be bright man but we've got to let the light inside of us be brighter. What an opportunity that we have. And listen, you know what? Some of the best opportunities that we have is when we have failed miserably, all right? That's when, especially when you're a Christian, you know? And so, you know, it's all good. That's what God teaches us.

It's all good. All things, all things work together for the good, for those who love the Lord. And so it's a mindset, it's a mentality. Yeah, it sucks. We hate it. We don't, you know, but guess what? All things. All right.

And so we're all here for a blink of an eye. I mean a blur. I mean, we've lived long enough. You and I, we've seen young people die. I've spoken at a bunch of funerals. I've had, you know, former players die. I've had family die. We've all, we, it's, boom, it's a blink of an eye.

So are we going to live for something that's just superficial? You know, that's not my choice. And here's the good thing about the God we serve. He gives us the choice. it's a choice and it's everybody's choice but i hope that that we can live our lives in a way where maybe other people may say you know what there's just something different and you say well let me tell you about that there's this guy named jesus and man if you just put your eyes on him in the good and bad and you believe and you don't quit man he's he's gonna he's gonna bless your

life and some things this side of eternity will never know we'll never understand yeah all right but that's what fate's all about you know it's really just just believing when you don't understand and then one of these days when we meet our maker man we're going to we're going to celebrate and you know and see the bigger picture of life so awesome I was saying earlier I just like you I just like you I respect you but I like you I'm so glad I like you you know when you have somebody from a distance you've admired then you meet him they kind of exceed your expectations that's a wonderful thing and you're doing that for me and i know this for millions of people too that was a great conversation and if you want to hear the full

interview be sure to follow the ed my let show on apple and spotify links are in the show notes here's an excerpt i did with our next guess welcome back to max out everybody i'm ed my let fired up about today because this is a man that i've admired from a distance we have some mutual friends that connected us and today is uh about really the longest 10-year WWE superstar and the history of the organization, kind of the leader in the locker room, more television appearances than anybody ever, had the streak at Russellmania forever.

But what I'm excited about is we get to talk out of character now, not just in character the whole time, so we can talk about life and growth and longevity and being productive with someone who's highly qualified to do it. So my guest today is The Undertaker, aka Mark Calloway. So Mark, thanks for being here, brother. no thanks for having me man i'm excited talk about the very unique relationship you have with

the overall leader of the organization in viz McMahon it seems that that's become a special friendship forged through loyalty probably more than anything and i got to think that friendship's been both good to his career and your career as well so speak to those couple things yeah absolutely so as far as that you know being the leader it was never really it was never really something and like I tried to pursue. It just kind of happened through the years. And I fell into this unique position where the boys, the guys, the wrestlers, you know, they saw what the business meant to me and that the business always came first.

No matter what, the business came first. When we're out on the road, obviously, you know, your family comes first, but in a business a sense when I'm when I'm when I'm I'm I don't care how late we stayed out how whatever we did nightlife wise it did not affect the next day's performance if it did then you knew you were going to get you know you get pulled aside and say look if you can't handle this then maybe you shouldn't be doing this because at the end of the day it depends on what we do for our audience the next day guys appreciated that but they knew like okay hey you know takes one of us he goes out and he has a good time just like everybody else,

but at bell time, all that goes out the window until after it's all over with. And so, yeah, so there was this, and then I had the, also I had the trust of what we call the office. You know, there's the office, and then there's the boys. Somehow another, I kind of landed in the middle. I was always accepted as one of the boys, but the office knew that they could trust me

And there were a lot of times, like whoever our talent relations BP was, there was a lot of times they would come to me and say, hey, this is, you know, we're having this issue and I could go to the guys or a guy or a person, pull them aside and say, look, man, you know, I understand and they appreciate that because I know that I've been through everything possible to go through. So, you know, it wasn't like, oh, well, you know, Undertaker's a stooge for the office and he's trying to, you know, they trusted me. So I had that trust on each side, but I could, many times I could talk to somebody and say, hey, look, this is, this is their perspective. Okay. I understand your perspective because I'm, you know, I'm talent, right? I'm with you. So a lot of times that happened and I could divert bigger issues with guys. if they could kind of get over, you know, if they could get over the ego.

And then they knew and they trusted me enough like, well, you know, taker's not going to screw me over. So it worked out, it worked out really nice. And then with Vince and the loyalty and everything else, I, so I was told by WCW. I was told I went, I'd been there for about a year. My contract was coming up. up. And I went in to renegotiate my contract. And I wasn't looking for a huge bump, but I was looking for, you know, I'd been, I had a pretty good year. And I was just looking for a slight, just a slight bump. And I was told by, you know, Jim Hurd, who was running the company at the time, Oly Anderson and Jim Barnett, they looked me square in my eyes. And they said, you're a great athlete, but no one's ever going to pay money to watch you wrestle.

Seriously. Okay. That's all I needed to hear. So Vince. So I get a meeting with Vince and, you know, he eventually gives me that opportunity. And that's all he ever promised me was an opportunity. He never told me, hey, you're going to be, you're going to be this guy here for 30 years and do all these things. He said, I'm going to give you an opportunity. And then, but that's all I always remembered. when I did become a commodity when WCW wanted me back

they wanted to pay me big bucks because they were paying everybody big bucks you know it's like no I can't do that they're offering me a lot more money but this is the man who made me and that's just the way it is and then obviously we just

we've been through so much together professionally personally that you know most times now I don't even deal with hardly when it comes to business. Our relationship, 90% of the time, is more of that of friends than it is of business. Unless there's a special ask that nobody else wants to ask me to do, then you're the only one that's going to be able to get him to do it.

So, yeah. Before we start the interview with my next guest, just want to remind you all that you can subscribe to the show on YouTube or follow the show on Apple or Spotify. We have all the links in our show notes. You'll never miss an episode, though. way. Now on with the show. Welcome back to Max out. I'm Ed Milet, and I am so fired up about today's program because I have one of the most successful human beings on the spinning earth right now that is under 35 years old. This guy to my right right here, you all know who he is. You can

tell from looking at him, but let me give him the right introduction, okay? This young man right here founded Elite Daily, sold that thing for about $50 million. He's one of the great thought leaders on social media today. He's a serial entrepreneur, Forbes Magazine. called you the millennial mentor right and above all of that stuff having getting to know him today I must tell you my favorite thing about him is a caliber of man that you are and how generous you are and your spirit and your heart and your character so today is gonna be amazing and so this is Gerard Adams Gerard thanks for being here brother thank you so much I really appreciate it

yeah it's so inspired right now it's like you know it's one thing when you look through the lens of social media and you look through on the videos it's another when you're able to actually come and feel the energy and see it and most importantly right back at you brother like there's a lot of successful people in the world but for me it's about character yeah and not only do you show up for your community but the way that you are you know when I met you and how humble you are and how welcoming you were for me and our team really appreciate that man thank you it's my pleasure man to have you here you know I wanted you to do this for a long time and so the stars aligned so yes let's do something great

here today. I hope my billing of you was accurate because Gerard has a lot, you know, the very few people you would meet with the success that Gerard's had so young who has kept such a humble spirit about them too and such a generous giving person. So, but I think some of that, haven't got to know you a little bit, has to do with your upbringing. I always like to take people back just a little bit. So you grew up a little bit like I did in the middle, right, in the middle class. But tell everybody, you know, just a little bit about young Gerard, even though I still think you're young, but young, Gerard. How'd you grow up? Tell us about your background well um you know I I really had an unbelievable upbringing because I had a really

strong you know group of parents like my mother you know she just really showed me a love and compassion and empathy and like the things that you know a lot of people I feel like don't have that's worth more than anything in the world and my father was just a strong man you know He really instilled the leadership in a very young age. What he used to do is you used to write notes and leave them from me hidden throughout my house. Really? So if I went to go get a glass of milk, there's a freaking little ripped up note in there. If I went to bed, there's something under when I pulled a blanket up.

If I wanted to go to school, he's dropping something in a freaking notebook for me or something. And there were these, you know, just quotes them, whether it was John F. Kennedy, Marcus Aurelius, you know, just different leaders. And for me, you don't really understand it when you're really young, you're kind of like, oh, this is kind of cool again. But I really started to appreciate it as I started to get older. So I grew up with unbelievable parents, hardworking. They really instilled the work ethic for me. But I walked to school. I took the bus.

I loved BMX. I was a skater. And, you know, for me, I was just a very creative person. Even young. Yeah, I had charisma even when I was young. I used to make my own clothes. I used to, I begged my parents for one thing only. Put me into art school.

Really? Yeah, I wanted to go to art school. Were you only child? No, I have two unbelievable sisters. Okay. Yeah. Did he do the same thing for them? Was he writing them?

You know, it's funny? I've actually never asked them. Yeah, it'd be interesting to know. Yeah. Were you the only one getting these notes? You know, it was just, you know, they were, he was very protective of my sisters. Okay, yeah, I'm sure. You know what I mean?

Yes, dad. And he just, you know, they were way more educated. And of course, he nurtured them. With me, it was a little more tough love. For sure. And your mom, by the way, I just get this feeling your mom's a major influence. Just because of how hard you worked.

And I watched earlier when you talked about your mom. There's certainly something very special there with you and your mom, too, right? What you learned from mom? Well, you know, on both sides of my family, I'm extremely grateful of my heritage. Which is what, by the way? I know you get asked this all the time, right? So I'm Colombian and Italian, but, you know, my mother's side, I'm just, I'm going to say like 30 days ago,

I went and visited my grandfather. He turned 99 years old. And I, you know, I said it to myself. I wrote it down. I was like, my grandfather's turning 99 this year. I don't care what I'm doing. I don't care what interview. I don't care what, who wants to pay me for anything,

what business, you know, opportunity there is. I am going to see my grandfather to help celebrate his 99 and ask him these questions about immigrating to this country. And, you know, I'm second generation, and I just feel like, you know, My mom's, you know, parents, my grandparents, they came here, you know, with that typical immigrant story with nothing. My grandfather came here first. Then he sent back for my grandmother and my mother.

My mother was born in Columbia and she came here. So I think that work ethic and that, you know, and just the appreciation for being here and like in making and building a life is instilled in my mom. And then so I'm really, I really think about that and that's what really drives me. but it was the moment that I saw my mom working seven days a week in a supermarket. And that was my first job. You know, I wanted to work. I wanted, you know, my parents weren't like, they didn't give me things. Like I had to earn it.

So my first job, believe it or not, was like working at the supermarket where my mom worked. She was an employee there. And I'd never forget getting that first paycheck. And it was like maybe $300. I looked at that paycheck. And I remember just seeing my mom working there. And I'm just like, wow. Like, there's no way.

I got to get my mom out of this. Like, this isn't real money. Like, how, you know, and at that moment, I started to really feel and think about that. I'm so proud of them. I'm so proud of what they've done. You watch your mom work. You see this struggle that she's gone through.

You go away to college, which I'm sure was like a major priority for your dad and your mom, especially for you to go, right? But you didn't last in college. And so I want people that are listening to this because a lot of millennials are going to watch this because you're here.

They're in my audience as well. What happened with you in college? Well, this is really interesting. I really didn't want to go to college. I was a bad kid right before graduating high school. In fact, I lost touch with a lot of my, you know, my good friends that I had grown up with earlier. I started hustling weed when I was in high school. And I almost had a moment that really set me back.

And I'll never forget the day my father caught me scaling in my bedroom. And typically, you know, my dad, my dad was a little bit more from the old school Italian. So like growing up, if I did something wrong, He kind of like, I got the belt, like, my dad like pushed me around. It wasn't like... I know what you mean. You know what I mean. I relate.

And I had a moment where I got pulled over and I thought that moment I was about to get arrested and it was going to completely ruin, you know, the respect that my father would have for me and just for my community. And that story I've talked about, but someone who's committing grand theft daughter in front of me and when I was doing this drop off, they end up figuring that out, letting that person go and saying, hey, kid, all right, get out of here. And when I had drove all the day, that was like, okay, I'm going to college. Whoa. Okay, like, I got to take this muscle mentality and I got to learn about business. Like, I cannot be someone who ends up. Life-altering

moment. That was a life-altering moment for me. But I ended up crying during graduation because my father wanted me to get into a good college. You wanted me to go to Princeton. And I got into so barely a community college. So I remember just completely freaking distraught being like- You're crying because you thought you let your dad down? Actually, no. I was actually really more about the fact that like the people that I had been friends with, they were going to these great schools.

And I was alone going to this community college and I was like, fuck, like, I'm such a disappointment to myself. And but going to college that first semester, I instantly was like, this just isn't for me. just knew. I just knew. I think it was part of the reason why I hustled. Like, I just always was this creative. I wanted to be outside the box. I didn't want to be, you know, I wanted to break the rules. That's that art thing in you, huh? The art thing in me, very creative to this day. And you know, being in school, I was like, this isn't for me. Yeah, I went to college. And it's one of the things that I, you know, there's more and more people I interviewed, but that wasn't their thing.

And I think the consciousness about that is changing too. Because when I was in college, one of the things that I observed, too, was like, it just sort of brings out the. these cookie cutter people, the business school, you know, you kind of, and it sort of squashes from people their ambition, their creativity. I'm not knocking college at all. I have a degree. Me neither. And I'm prodigating. If I kids, I would sell them. It's a great debate in my family. My wife's like, they don't need to go to college. They go, absolutely they're going to college. Well, they're going to be entrepreneurs anyway. It'll give them experience. And it's an achievement. It shows work and finishing an idea.

That was a great conversation. Be sure to follow the Ed Mylett show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. I'm so excited about today's show because this is somebody that I admired from a distance for, shoot, a couple decades now, at a minimum.

And to put it bluntly, he is the most successful man in the history of his craft. It's the most successful man in the history of sports radio. And he's done a whole lot more than that when it comes to television as well. Right now, the Jim Rome show

is hosted on the CBS Sports Radio Network. It's simulcast over to the CBS Sports Network. He also makes appearances on CBS for the NFL. And he's had a storied career in an area and an arena that I'm very, very fond of. And it's great to have him with me here today. So, Jim, thanks for being here. That is so good to see you. Boy, that is some kind of view, my man.

That lives up to all the hype. That is a beautiful, beautiful scene. Well done. Very blessed, for sure. And so have you been, by the way. I'm curious as we start, because most of my audience knows you for sure. And I've admired you for so long. And one of the things I admire about you is your humility for how successful you've become.

But today, I want to give you permission to be, you can brag a little bit. bit when it comes to the truth about your career. So I want to ask you, how did you get started? Because I know that you went to the University of Santa Barbara, because we were both in the Big West Conference. But did you know way before you even got to Santa Barbara that this is what you wanted to do? You know, I would say this. My only advantage I think that I really had was I did know exactly what I wanted to do at an early age. You know, unlike you, I mean, I had professional athletic aspirations, but I did figure out early on this was not going to happen for me. You have to understand. I grew up in Los Angeles at a very different time when there

was no internet and there was no cable but I was obsessed with sports man I loved it I had my childhood heroes and I couldn't get enough I mean if my old man was not saying to me get your ass out of the house it's beautiful day I would have watched sports all day long and read sports but I did realize at a pretty early age that I could not hit a curve ball I was not blessed with this great size and ability so how do I stay in sports and I just kind of got it in my head maybe I could be on the radio maybe if I got really lucky I could be on TV so I knew at an early age and what did for me it was I knew that the second I got to UC Santa Barbara I checked into the dorm and I went right to the radio station and I never left and I just kind of

locked in so my one advantage was I knew when you're not supposed to know who knows when they enter college what they want to do did you know well you want to be a pro baseball and it didn't work right yeah you ended up doing what you want but but I think it's like my son just started college it's okay not to know when you start college right absolutely but I knew and I was willing to lock in and start paying the price so yes I knew that's awesome you so you get started, I was a radio TV broadcast major. I was a communication major. And one of the things that I tell all entrepreneurs is, I think especially in this day and age of the internet technology,

everybody wants stuff to happen right now. Like, hey man, I'm going to give this a shot for six months. I'm going to make a run at this, you know, until it hurts a little bit. One of the things I admired about you because you chose a craft that it does not happen quickly in. So what about like staying power? You get going. You leave Santa Barbara. It's not like the next year you're you know, in San Diego, you know, becoming the gym room that we know now. No, you know, there's like, there's lots of layers to that. It's a really interesting question. You know, like Mike Tyson said, everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face.

Everybody's like, I'm going to do this. Like, when I was in Santa Barbara, we all thought we would go right to the top because you're in college and you're naive. You don't know how the world works just yet. So we all believe that until you actually get into it. And then all of a sudden, you'd see what's going on around you. So when I was a young person in the business, I would apply myself. But then I see my other friends who were not.

the business and they're going to law school or they got into marketing or they got into sales or they went to wall street and they're killing it and all of a sudden now i'm still grinding in market 174 which is Santa Barbara and i'm not making much money and all my buddies are just thriving and they're killing it it's at that point that people start to say it's a dream it's a pipe dream it's not meant to be it's not for me i'm going to give in and then people give in so i would say this is a great story i knew not to give in but you know what i did i was one of the guys that gave in So here's what happened. When I was in college, I had seven internships in three and a half years because I was obsessed. Man, I was like, I was terrified of falling behind. And I was so committed, but then I had one bad experience.

I got punched in the face once and did not react well to it. I'd work for a radio station in Santa Barbara for free for nine months. Wow. A paid position opened up. The news director says to me, you're the guy. You've earned it. It's your time. I'm just kidding. You cut a demo tape. We played for the owner, and then you're in. the owner hears it he hates it he goes I'm not hiring that guy and I'm like wow but I had a fallback plan my parents owned a business so I go to my own man because I have visions of there's the BMW there's the house there's the presidency so I go to my tough old man from Boston I'm like hey dad listen I want to go to work for you he goes no no I'm like dad every old man wants their son to follow in their footsteps their legacy he's like not this one and I'm looking at him like what

And he says to me, you've never once displayed any interest in the family company. You don't come to me now right now and say you want to? No. He said, no. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, what do I do? I want to control my own fate, my own destiny, and then radio's not fair. Life's not fair. So I talked him into it.

I wore him down. Because I always had this kind of drive and passion. I wore him down. I worked on him for six months. Of course it was the wrong thing for the wrong reason. He fired me. And then, you know, to make this super long story short if possible. I've never heard this before.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. Yeah. So he, and keep in mind, I grew up at a dinner table every night when my parents owned a small business. They were manufacturers. And they manufactured high-tech garments, and they had a factory in Chatsworth. And I heard every day at dinner, business is business. Business is business.

You take care of the business. The business will take care of you. So about six months in, he fires me nicely, but business is business. He said, what are you going to do now? I said, I'm going to go get a sales job. He looks at me like I'm crazy. He's like, you suck at sales. I just fired you.

I'm like, no, I suck at selling your product. I will sell something else. I got a job working at Harris Lanier selling dictation equipment. Oh my God. And because when I went to a headhunter, they said, we're going to send you out, and here's the best one. Here's the one that everybody wants. I can always sell me, but nothing else. So I got the job.

I stay there 38 days. I quit. They're furious. And then I'm selling phone equipment. And it's going terrible, man. I'm getting my face beat in. And finally, in a fit of just, like, I'm near tears. I call my old boss where I had an internship in Santa Barbara, and I said, my life, he's like,

hey, Rome, what's going on? I'm like, nothing good. Nothing good. He's like, what? I lay out my whole sales life. I'm a failure. I'm worth nothing. Do you have any radio work in Santa Barbara?

He said, I got one thing. 30 hours, vacation relief, traffic reports, $5 an hour. Do you want it? I said, yes. Yes. And I tell my old man. He's like, how are you going to live? I said, I have no idea.

But my life is going right down the gutter. I got to get back up there. And so I committed to this. I had $5 an hour, 30 hours a week for one month, no benefits. Because a kid was on vacation for Christmas. And I said, I'll figure it out when I get up there. I just know that I'm not good at sales. Brother, I don't even know where that question started.

Sorry about that. No, no. I knew your whole story, and I did not know that part of it. Like, that's a huge thing. Like, I'm so grateful you said this, because a lot of entrepreneurial types listen to this, right? And probably in your life, you know, you've pursued the business side, and maybe a lot of you listen to this right now, you've gone back to some goofy plan B that you know you don't belong at. You know it's not your calling. You know you're not great at it.

It's like this place you're kind of hiding because this other thing's so painful. And it's really cool to know that, I mean, and you're humble about it, but someone who becomes the best of all time at what they do. This man's in the Radio Hall of Fame, guys. I mean, legitimately, three decades plus on the air. I mean, the staying power has been unreal. To know that you went through this little stage where you were a little bit lost is nuts to me. Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Yeah, no, no. What I was going to say, the thing that I admire about you is that post that, it seems to me you made this decision like, okay, I went and played with this stuff I'm not any good at. And then there's becomes this part of you.

I love what you talk about this. You're like, this is what I'm going to do now. I'm going to figure this shit out, and it's like a burn the boats type thing for you. You've almost got this theory about success that it doesn't always go to the, That's sort of the most talented person with the most gifted person, but it goes to the who. No, and I've seen you talk about this as well, that it's not always the talent, but it's the grind, and it's the effort, and it's the dedication.

And I think that's where the separation is. And by the way, if you know that you're not the most talented guy and you know that you're not the most brilliant person, what are you going to do? Like, here's the one thing. The one thing that I had aside from, I knew what I wanted to do at a pretty early age. I knew the price that I was willing to negotiate with myself to get that done. Like that's the other sidebar. When I was in UC Santa Barbara, I thought nothing of getting up at 4.30 in the morning to go work in internship for free when the other kids were saying, dude, I'm not going to make that 8 o'clock class. And I'm not saying I'm a hero for doing that.

In fact, I'm kind of a loser for doing it because I was terrified of falling behind. I was afraid that somebody else would get that gig if I didn't do it. But because I knew what I wanted to do and because I negotiated that price with myself in an early age, it was nothing for me. It felt good, man. I've heard you talk about this, like the dopamine that goes off in your head. It was a drug. It was an adrenaline thing. It was natural.

I felt good. I was getting up early, going to work, getting the line on the resume. So I felt good. But at the same time, to your point, the reason I was self-aware, and the one other advantage I had, I did this, I did this math. When I got to UCSB, I thought to myself, why you? Why you? You were not a professional athlete.

You don't have an amazing look, you don't have an amazing voice, yet you want to be on the radio, yet you want to be on TV. Exactly, what do you have to bring to it? Why you? And I couldn't answer the question at first, and I thought, man, if I don't come up with that answer, I'm not going to make it. So why you? Why you? Why you? And what I finally came down to was this, it's going to be me because I'm going to come at it differently with a different slant. Rather than being the answer man on the radio, I'm going to come out with a declarative slant, a point of view, a take. Have a take, don't suck.

And then the other thing that I was going to bring to it, if I wasn't smarter and I wasn't better, I damn what we're going to want. I was going to want it worse than anybody else. I was not going to give in. I was not going to give in. And I learned my lesson by going into business and sales. Luckily, I got my face beat in.

So now I knew what it took. I'm like, this time you don't punk out. You lock in. It's not up to you to know how long it's going to take. You just put your head down and you go to war until you find out. And that was my thing. I forget love it. And that's what you're, that's what people that I know that know you, that's what you're

known for. This dude has a psycho work ethic. He's ferocious. And I'm curious about the mechanism that drives you. Like that's loaded with stuff there for all of you trying to do something great. I'm curious, you said something like, almost like fear-based. Like, hey, I might miss this or it may get past me. That self-awareness piece is a monster.

You and I both, most of the most successful people we know are very self-aware. They know what they're good at. They know what they're not good at. That's it. You agree with that? Yes, I do. Yeah, I, like, immediately I'm meeting you too. It's like, this is one of your great gifts.

And I think it also gives you an element of humility too. Like, I know what I'm not good at, so I'm going to have to outwork somebody. But I'm curious what's made you. To this day, and I don't know the answer, I'm curious, do you have this little thing where you're afraid it may leave you? Is that a driving mechanism for you or is it always what you're trying to create? Which one moves you more? It really is both those things.

And I think one drives the other. And understand this. I don't, yeah, I have this fear that they're going to come to me one day. And listen, if they came to me today, if I walked outside your door and somebody came to me and said, yo, man, you've had a pretty good run. We really don't care. The last thing this world needs is a 50-something smack talker. And you hit the bricks, eh-hole, that I far exceeded anything that I ever thought that I would

do and it was a great run. However, I don't want it to end and not for the reasons you may think. Like, I'm not one of those guys like, I got to be on the radio. I got to be on TV. I got to, it's not about that ego. It's about the process. It's about wanting to be relevant. It's about me still wanting to be competitive.

It's about me wanting to have another act. It's about me wanting to reinvent. It's about me wanting to have people to look at me and my brand and say, damn, man, that guy's not looking for an off-ram. That guy's not going away. I still care what that guy thinks. Because one day it will be over and it will be a great run. But man, I feel good and I'm still really motivated by the puzzle.

The whole world has changed. It's not the way it was when I got in or when you were getting in. So now it's up to me intellectually to figure it out again. And I want to be able to say, hey, man, I did not give in, and the world changed, and I changed with it, and I'm still relevant. And that's important to me. Like, right now, it still gets me out of bed. Like, literally, right now, as much as when you're that guy that got the $5 paid 30-day deal,

like you think you want it that bad still right now? Yeah, yes. And I frequently, I don't keep notes, but I don't have to. I remember what my mindset was. It was a weird deal. You probably know this, too. Like, I could get to a flow state back then. Like, I knew.

I knew. I'd walk around campus, and I could lose an hour to, time because I was just so into this this is what I need to do this is what I want and if you think about it hard enough and you're vivid enough with your imagery and how badly you want it you lose time don't you do you get into a flow state you do and I knew it and so now I'm trying to think back with like any athlete right you guys always they want to get back in the flow state so when they have their best game ever what did they do they thought about what they did that morning they thought about what music they listened to they thought about the rituals yep and I'm trying to think man

Do it again? Do you have a big ritual you do? Do you have a big ritual you do? Do you have anything specific you do? You get up real early, don't you? Yeah, I drink coffee. That's my ritual. I mean, too.

I get up early but not as early as I would like and I fight that thing every single day. But I try to be very ritualistic about it, man. Get up, get going, get to work, lock in, and you know, like anybody else, like any entrepreneur watching, get yourself to do the things that you do not want to do because that's also one of the separators between those who do and don't. Make yourself do the things you do not want to do. do them consistently. Hmm. You guys see where I wanted them on?

You guys are getting it. I think because a lot of us read the same things, think about the same things. Like even before I got into this, I probably read a lot of the stuff that you read on the way up. I would read Zig Ziglar, Augmandino, Tom Hopkins, Dale Carnegie. You know, like, and some of it resonated more than some of the other stuff, but I read a lot of that stuff too. Yeah, I have this feeling and you don't need to acknowledge it. I think that some of your brand is going to end up in this area. that here's what's rare about you.

And it's significantly different about you. One, you were born with some incredible giftedness to articulate thoughts. Let's be real. I mean, you're given a great voice. You were given the ability to think and process information through your mouth at the speed of thought. That's a very rare thing.

But you seem to be, I think a lot of people, success leaves clues. I think there are a lot of people, and you've met them too. I don't think they can explain to you why they're successful. A lot of people have arrived to success because they're not self-aware. They can't explain to you. you the steps, you're very unique and that you do know what the things were that made you

who you are and you can articulate them very well. I think you'd be short-changing people by not doing more of this stuff. This is fun. Yeah, I mean, this is fun. I like this. I've always, I've always liked this. And again, I don't, I think about these things. I think the reason I can articulate it is because I've thought about it long and hard because of what you're talking about. I really, I'm not being cute when I say this. I really think that I'm pretty average in most things so I wanted to figure out where I could be above average or way above average and the only thing I kept coming back to was have a very different approach to the format as it exists and if you're lucky people will like it and then control what you can control and that's your attitude and your

energy and your grit and your ability to deal with adversity and bounce back yeah and you do something else I've seen guys that outwork everybody the first year or two or the third or fourth year and then there's this point where like they're bought. We all know these. They just get bought with their success. Their price tag gets met. And then all of a sudden they don't show up like they used to. They don't innovate. They don't evolve. They don't think through. For most people, what makes you special why I was so attracted to you is it's 30 plus years and you're still trying to get better. You're still fighting for these inches. That's the separator. It's like that's what that's what separates to me, someone like a LeBron in a 17th year from somebody else. Don't you? A hundred

I was just going to say to you that you will, you will recognize this. It is exactly like LeBron. It's exactly like your guy, Tom Brady. Explain to me how people who've had that much success that have paid that kind of price, that have all the shiny things and the view of the ocean, why are they still working as hard as they are? Because you know what? It wasn't about the shiny things. It wasn't necessarily about that money, man.

It was about the right stuff. Who in their right mind is still getting up at 3.30? the morning when they've got money that they can't get to and their kids can't get to and they can't get to because they still want it so badly we're this is what i'm saying this is why i watch you and we talk to similar people how do you bottle this stuff how do we get this stuff yeah and and how do we go to our kids right right right how do you do that how by the way that's a whole sidebar yeah but when you have this your kids aren't coming up the way you came that's right yeah i have a guy i know and your kid never went to a public shower at a swim

you know because this old man busted his ass exactly so how do you put that in your kid and by the way if they don't want it as badly that's fine it's okay that's okay yeah however just know the whole world isn't this yeah it's tough out there i do think one of the ways you do it by the way i have a dad from boston too really i was born in boston and my dad and my mom or boston yeah and my mom and my dad and mom or boston too but one of the things i've tried to do and i'm and you have the same situation your children have grown up completely different than you grew up right But one of the things I think is a key to that is that they have seen their old man still after it. In other words, they've linked it to the work.

So many kids that get to this. And other things that have a success, if you have children, you know, your children may be later in life than your effort was paid, your price was paid. My kids have still seen me paying the price even after the money part, don't you think? Oh, yeah. And same with years, like, I bet if I asked your kids, they'd be like, hey, one thing about my dad, he's a horse. This dude gets up and goes all the time. They've linked what they see you doing to the work. Suppose maybe someone who inherited it or something.

You'll get this. Like my son Jake, so now he's a freshman at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, or Wisconsin-Madison. And what I do on Fridays, we have a little ritual. I'll go in my backyard. It's probably like you, Ed. Like, how hard do you work just to get the five feet over there? Right. It's not easy, right?

And so you spent your whole life trying to get to those five feet, but I bet it's hard to get to, unless you already understand. I know I'm killing myself to get to that backyard, and it doesn't happen very often. on Friday afternoon, once I put in a long work weekend, I've done my workout, I'll go in the backyard, and I'll pour myself, you know, a dope beverage, and I'll take a picture of it, and I'll send it to my kid, and I'll write, cheers. Love you, son. And you know what he says to me? Dad, now Pops, pops, you earn that. I love that. I love that. And I'm like, man, that is just so deep. Like, it worked. Yes, yes. He got it before he left the house. Not, not, I love you, I miss you, send money, and that may all come later on. But the text, always always,

says you earned it enjoy that I love that beautiful that's beautiful that's a key man that's one of the keys one of the things you've done well that I've noticed so you said something that is another line that I agree with line of thinking I mean I had a guy on here a few weeks going to mark Lori he runs Walmart said a couple big exits successful do pretty good by the way just at the combine for 250 grand he's a 43-year-old middle-aged white dude for 250 he races Jerry Rice in the 40 how that go he beat him yeah man he beat Jerry by the way Jerry's taking care of himself Jerry's in still good shape. This isn't like running against some guy who's put on 30 pounds.

He beat him. I guarantee he wants some rich guy to beat him. Yeah, I know, like legit. That's amazing. He ran around about 5 flat 40, which at that age is remarkable, right? Anyway, one of the things he said was, I said, give me some advice for entrepreneurs. And he said, find something that already exists and just do it better. Quit trying to make up some brilliant thing. Interesting. And what you've done on your show, I want you to talk about this for a minute. One of the separators for entrepreneurs for any business is culture. Your show with the vine, the jungle, the clones have a take don't suck the way you lead the group the way you talk to them there's a culture to the gym room experience did you consciously kind of create that whole

deal not consciously but I think was part and parcel of what I was doing that it was different and I didn't know how they would react to it here's the funny thing that the real secret of the whole thing is I just did on the radio what I was doing with my buddies in college we just talk shit mm-hmm I just love sports and that's just the way I saw the world literally I did not sit around with a legal pad at night and just think of, I'm gonna just make up all these terms and just like call the Knicks, the bricks,

because they can't shoot the ball. That really was the way I saw the world. You know, and we would just talk shit, and I'm like, wow, this is amazing. They might pay me to come up with this as a format. Right. So, but luckily, again, understand the world that I came into.

When I got my first big break in 1990, not to date myself, there was two sports talk radio stations in America, F-A-N in New York, and Extra Sports 690. In fact, when I started to apply for that station, which is a whole different story onto itself. They weren't even all sports. They were like news talk, but they had the Chargers' rights,

and there was a sports talk show in the afternoon. Were they the Mighty 690? Sure was. Yeah. The Mighty 690, exactly. So there was nothing. And when they did that, there certainly was not a format like that. You had a couple of gunners that would kind of come pretty hard,

but I just came out at a whole different way with a vernacular and the way I was kind of going after athletes and doing tough interviews. But smart. I want to make sure that I could always back up what I was saying. Like, even if you didn't agree with it, it was well-reasoned. I didn't just get on there and start running off the mouth. You're not a hot taker. You, like, really believe the things you're saying. Yeah. You might not like me at all, but this is really who I am.

Now, that said, that's it. I think part of your thing, I might be like, I want to talk to this guy because I think there's more to this guy than that guy was on the radio. Of course, it's a show. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, I mean what I say, and I say what I mean, and I wouldn't walk any of this back except the stuff that I was factually wrong about. I mean, this is who I am, but I don't go around talking smack 24 and 7. It is a show. The one I did figure out too. Be different, never give in, always keep coming, but give him a show. That much I understood early in my life. Make it a show. It's show biz. Anything you regret you've done? I mean, sure. I mean, sure. They're, yeah, I mean, yeah, I kind of regret

calling Jim Everett Chris several times. I know he was so. I regret that I didn't understand that situation better. That's really interesting. So, so Jim Everett, people know, a lot of people know me as the guy, the quarterback attacked him. Understand this about this, this incident. That was not a setup. That was not me. People think this, really. What happened was there's a whole backstory to it that I've told a few times. But this guy was coming on the show, and it was kind of interesting how it got booked.

Okay. Like, I didn't say go get this guy as a guest, but I always had a standing policy, yes. Okay. And you understand that. That's good. We have always had a standing policy, especially back in the day when I was really coming hard, really coming hard, that if somebody, and I could tell you lots of stories about athletes that had an issue. And I said, if you have an issue, here I am. Here I am.

Come on the show and we'll discuss this. And we'll be up for us. Put him all on the table, man. And so he wanted to be on the show. And I'd been pretty critical at him. And I said, good. That's fine. But I didn't know how that came to be.

So I said in my booker, did you call him? And my booker said, no, he called us. I said, okay, because that's what my policy was. And then right before, like the night before. And I asked the question a few times. Now, you called him. He called us, right? Yes.

Yes, yes, Jim, he called us. Right before my booker admits to me, I called him. I said, all right, let's get on the phone and be sure that he knows. He knows. So my producer, who is an extraordinarily successful guy, my name, Mark Shapiro, he ran ESPN for years. He now is with William Morris, where I am right now. And he said, hey, listen, you know Rome has called you Chris Everett. Yes, we know.

He's talking to him. He's like, yes, I know. He's going to say it on the show. because he would never not say to a guy's face what he said about him on the radio. Yes, I know. We know what show we're getting on. But this is not gonna be the show.

We really wanna do this interview. There's a lot here. He's like, I know, I'm aware. And then he came on. And then I said it. And then he goes, I bet you don't do it again. And I said it again. So one regret is I didn't need to say it again.

You know, and I really, honestly, I didn't know he was that angry. It was live TV. And I didn't play it right. It was live. It was live. Yeah. And so I was a really bad day at work for me.

Jim, good to have you on the show. Good to be here, Jim. Thank you. Check that. Chris Everett. Good to have you on the show. You know what? You've been calling me that for about the last five years. About two years, actually, Chris. Well, hey, you know what, let me say one thing. In that game, how many sacks did I have that we came back in one? How many sacks did you back?

Yeah, how many sacks? Well, see, but this was back in 1989. So you may have even been Jim Everett back there, but somewhere along the way, Jim, you cease being Jim and you became Chris. Well, let me tell you a little secret, that, you know, we're sitting here right now, and if you guys want to take a station break, you can. But if you call me, Chris Everett, to my face, one more time. I already did it twice.

You better, you can call it one more time. We better take a station break. Well, it's a five-minute segment. Our five-segment show. We've got a long way to go. Well, we do. We've got a long way to go. We do.

I'll get a couple segments out of here before. Well, it's good to be here with you, though. Well, it's good to see you, too. You've been talking like this behind my back for a long time. But now I said it right here. Right, exactly. We've got no problems then. I think that you probably won't say it again.

I bet I do. Okay. Chris. That was a really bad day at work. Was that a career-threatening type day for you? You bet it was. You bet it was. And people to this day say to me, it made you, it made you.

I kind of take exception to that. I didn't want to be known for that. I did not want to be known for that. I don't look, I'm accountable. I had a bad day. That was my bad. I've apologized for that a million times. I always will.

I did not handle that well, period. The backstory is pretty interesting though, to be honest with you. I mean, he knew what he was getting into. The reason I asked you... You know, I think... Here's the thing, though. Somebody said to me, excuse me. Somebody said, I think he was coming for you.

I don't know that he was. I think that he got really upset and understandably so. I think in the moment... You bet. Of course he got upset. And you'll find this more interesting. For years, I tried to do the interview after it happened. I'm like, let's get some closure.

And not for the wrong reason. Now people want to see it just to see it. Would you believe to this day we've never spoken? Wow. I tried for years and years and years to do the interview. in years to do the interview and he always said no. Wow. And I just stopped asking after about 10 years.

Well, of course, after a decade of asking. Right. Maybe he'll see this and agree to do it. Maybe. That would be awesome. Maybe I don't want him anymore. That's a big takeaway. The reason I asked you, I wasn't going to bring the incident up.

I was going to see what you answered was that's the other thing I kind of want people to get another lesson through you is that that could have been a career-altering day for you. It certainly didn't. It was scary. Right. It certainly didn't make you. That's not true. What's made you is the prolific culture you've created.

and your relentless work ethic over time. That's what's made you. Your preparation, the way you interact with the athletes, your ability to articulate. However, it's a great lesson. It's a great lesson because I look at a guy like our mutual buddy, Arod's a good buddy. And I look at Arod three, four years ago, he was a pariah, right?

Like nobody in the world would touch him. And he's remade himself into this, like, he's the face of ESPN baseball. He's revered again, right? And so why that's important is for everybody, A lot of us had this one mistake in our life. It could be a divorce, a bankruptcy, and we shame ourselves the rest of our life.

Like, okay, I can't win again because I've made this one particular error in our career. You're proof of that whether there was an error or not on air. It was one of the most shocking sports interview moments in the history of sports interviews. I don't want to give myself too much credit. It was one of the most shocking moments on TV. Ever.

In a long time. Ever, ever. And I will tell you one more thing, too. I don't know if you know this, but it's a little cheesy, but I think it is apropos. The LA Times did a piece shortly. thereafter and the title of the article was, is this the end of the Roman Empire?

I put it on my mirror. I looked at it every day for a year. I sat every morning when I shaved. I sat every morning when I got out. They're speculating that my career is over before it starts. And so it's one thing to pump yourself up with don't give in, don't quit. Yeah, easy to say all that until adversity hits. Adversity hit. And, you know, the world was different then. I mean, there was no social media then, which would have made it tougher. But I'll say, what there was, there was Saturday Night Live, Katie Korik talking shit about me. They were killing me on Saturday Night Live. And so people like now say, yeah, well, that's awesome. It's not awesome when you're in it and you think that maybe you're not getting contracts renewed. And then

all of a sudden when people don't know you, you're going to restaurants and everybody knows you and it's for the wrong reason. Because it was one bad night. And let that be a lesson. One bad decision could impact the rest of your life. During those moments, I'm curious about Janet. Yeah. So I've been married once and she's had my back through a bunch of different ups and downs. You talk about Janet on the show, but I think she's only been on the show like one time. One time. Yeah, we both also have this thing where we're real private with our families.

We're doing a lot of posts and pictures and things like that. I'm protective of that too. But if you don't mind talking about it, because I just think she's been such an important part of your life. How important has Janet been through moments like that in your career? Or are you just like, do you do your thing and she does her thing? No, no, she's definitely right in the middle of that whole thing, because we met through the business. The funny thing about Janet, when I met Janet, she was way more successful at this business than I was. She was a vice president of the corporation that owned the Mighty 690.

Okay. Janet heard me and tried to fire me right away. So Janet's a vice president of human resources. And the funny thing about because the corporate office was in San Diego where the station was, but they owned several stations nationwide. they all had a vote at the conference table about programming. I always thought that was kind of weird that why is accounting voting on programming? Why is human resources voting on programming? Because they could, I guess, and they did.

Because I did this differently than anybody else had, they had never heard anything like that before. So Janet rose up in Long Beach. She's a huge Dodger fan. And I get on the radio and I said, let me tell you about Fernando Valenzuela. Man, that old man will be on food stamps by the end of the week. And she was, she literally was mortified. This is a church-going girl who grew up loving.

the Dodgers and she was mortified she's like I don't know who the new guy is I don't know where he came from I moved that we fire him right now really so I married her ultimately but but the the moral of that story is she was doing way better than me making a lot more money way more successful and she saw me before any of this happened and so we I kind of schooled her and my friends and family that when I came up and people who liked me loved me and people who didn't like me hated my guts and said things that were not nice in some cases horrible and didn't know me and family and friends get really upset I'm like listen this is part of it this is what we signed up for so you

need to understand you cannot react to this you can't fight everybody who says something yeah but they don't know you well you can't control that right so she knows that so when when it hit the fan she was there she was fine that's awesome man you've had a great partner all these years which led you into I'm just want to talk about this for a little bit because I think this is a really weird part of your story. Like, somehow the sports guy was in all these other sports, and I knew enough about you.

We had no interest in horse business before. Yeah. Like, all of a sudden, you're like, and by the way, like anything you've done, like you didn't just do it a little bit. I mean, eventually you got into, like, you're pretty deep. Yeah, I was really deep. And I had no interest in that either. So no interest in that.

So there's a guy named Billy Koch. And Billy Koch, actually was a college baseball player at Northwestern and a Beverly Hills kid. And he was in this. He had a racing syndicate. So what he would do is he would go out. people and they'd invest and they'd buy pieces of a horse. And he saw me in Del Mar and said, hey, hey, hey, he knew me. And he's like, you're going to love this. You're going to love this.

I'm like, no, I won't. No, I want. I have no interest. I have no interest. Why would I want to do that? I want to go to Del Mar. I want to watch the races. I'll put on a suit, have a few pops. And I'll do that. He's like, no, no, you'll love it. You'll love, love it. I didn't want to do it. Janet says me one night, you know, you really should, we should do this. I said, do what? She said, buy a horse. I'm like, why would I do that? You need a hobby. You You need a hobby, we buy 10% of a horse. I go to Santa Nita, the horse's Argentinian bread, they bring him in, he runs, and I was naive.

I thought, I'm a sports talk show host, man, I know everything. I didn't know that much about horse racing. I really didn't, running styles, strategies. I buy 10% on the horse. The horse is running dead last. I'm like, I must be the biggest sucker ever. There must be like easy mark on my forehead.

I'm trying to put a stop on the check in the middle of the race, asshole. The horse comes from dead last to win the race. race in the most exciting fashion ever, and I've told this story, it's like somebody rolled up behind me and injected me with equine crack. I look at this guy, I'm like, dude, you got anything else you can sell me? What else do you have for sale? And I couldn't stop. It felt so amazing, you know? So then I'm all in, and some of the best and worst days of my life have been at the track. But you went up to like 14 horses or something, right? And then you get to

misdirection, and you're talking about a horse that's like multiple victories at the breeders college. So, yeah, so the really short version is, so Janet's, like, hey, how much money have we lost, by the way, doing this? I'm like, a lot. She's like, maybe we should stop. I'm like, you told me to get a hobby. She goes, I didn't tell you to get one that expensive. I said, here's the thing.

One more time. There's this horse named Miz Direction. She's like, Jimmy, stop. I'm like, listen to me. This horse won it's made and raised by nine and a flanks. We've never been anywhere near an animal like this. I want to take one more shot. She's like, all right.

So that was it. Misdirection literally saved my horse racing life because up until then, That was the last shot. And then I bought it in. They made us the majority owner. We ran in our silks, and she won two Breeders Cup races against the boys, which was unbelievable. And to this day, I've never experienced anything in business that felt like that first win that she had. It was the most surreal moment of my life that did not involve the things that matter.

So that was the high, the lowest shared belief, right? The lowest shared belief. Yeah, just tell them about that. So shared belief was a, so we sold misdirection at auction because we wanted to retire her, give her the right life. Sharebelief is a horse that we bought that we thought we'd have some fun with. He was a gelding, okay? So you cannot, if they're gelded, they've got no residual value. You cannot breed them.

That's why he was for sale. And we bought the horse, and the horse was unbelievable. We had no idea. He went from a horse that we thought we'd have fun with to the top-ranked thoroughbred in the world. He was the number one ranked horse in the world. He beat California Chrome. He won the award for the two-year-old male of the year. He won the Pacific Class in Del Mar, which is the best.

biggest race here, I think, the sand need a handicap. I mean, I'm an unbelievable athlete, Ed, unbelievable. And then he comes down with colic. I get this phone call one morning during my radio show from my race manager, Alex Solis, who says, Jim, the big horse has colic. And I said, oh my God, how bad is that? He goes, they're rushing him to Davis Medical Center. He may not make it. Keep in mind, the horse is four. Wow. The horses lived to be in their 20s. And he was like larger than life and the horse passed away you know and I'm still not over it like it's like anything in life right the really bad things happen you hope to get beyond it but some things you don't really ever get over so it's like also in sports the lows are much

more intense than the highs are high yeah so as good as it was the misdirection won the breeders cup twice the intensity of losing shared belief like that I think will far outweigh everything I can see on your face yeah it's hard man even now I said in my I told the story maybe you've seen the video I did, but I said to my 10-year-old at the time, Logan, was in my office crying, my desk at work. I had this whole thing, man, don't you ever cry at work. Don't cry at work. I don't care.

I don't care. Unless you get a phone call with some really bad news, you don't cry at work. And my 10-year-old goes, Dad, I've never seen you cry. I said, because I don't very much. Man, I love that animal. Wow, man, I'm so sorry about that. But the whole reason you did it, I'm going to get into like your mind a little bit. So, or you.

Like, be real. I know you've been real, but be real. You needed a hobby. That sounds like something my wife would say. And one of the things that I've always struggled with, and I just want people that are like this, maybe you're this way, maybe you're not. I'm not, as much as I relate really well with people,

I'm not like one of the guys. Do you know what I mean? No, I know exactly what you mean. Because I think this is a model or a personality trait that I see in a lot of people that are successful that surprises people. But like my social circle is not as big as most people would think. As many people as you and I both know, like who I really spend time with, it's surprising.

I'm shaking my head because I totally know exactly where you're going with that. Yeah. So what is your, what is that like for you? Like, is your social circle really as big as most people would think? Are you, like, what are you like socially? And what's your kind of, are you a dude who's like kind of playing grab ass with dudes all the time? Or are you typically more seriously? No.

No. No, I've got like four guys. You know, I got friends. I have associates. But I've got three or four dudes. Like I don't, I used to be a big Bombay Sapphire guy. So we had a Bombay club because who drinks gin, only old men, old lawyers, and me until I didn't. But I had a crew.

I got some guys. And I don't want the guys. I'm not doing this in any order of importance. But my guys are guys like Rob Guthrie, Mike Treasel, Matt Coleman. You know, I just have a crew. And we used to be almost fanatical about once a quarter. No matter where we are, we drop everything. We go out and we hit it pretty hard responsibly.

And as you get older, it's tougher because everybody has lives and kids. kids but no I'm not my job was my thing yeah my career was my career and family career and family family family family and career I didn't need all that other stuff yeah and if I had to blow off some steam I'd blow off some steam and then get right back to the grind so when you say to me that you have a tight-knit circle of the people who matter most you that you want to hang out with yeah I understand that I really believe what you said like I take to heart that I think you have some unbelievable gifts and talents but I I know from being around you now like this man's made it because he's a crazy competitor he evolves he works his ass off

and he flat out wants it probably more than most people right and i feel like i'm kind of in that boat in my own unique way too like i know i don't have a super high IQ you know i'm not six foot three i'm not super gifted in any particular area yeah but ed you can bench the house though no i can't bench the house you know what i put i had michael herne on here if you know who that is that dude can bench the house like but comparatively speaking but i but i but i but i do like I really want to win. Yeah. Like I really want to be somebody. I connect with athletes. Why do you think that is? Like what here's the thing I always always ask guys like this nature or nurture are you wired for it or are you a product of your culture? Where

does that come from? What do you think for you? What do you think for you? I think. Okay, for me. For me this is the ultimate question of all questions right here. Because I have an upper middle class upbringing. Me too. Okay, I did not come up the hard way. Me either. I lived in a gated neighborhood. Okay, I didn't quite go there, but same close. I mean, I wasn't, you know, my parents were not wealthy, but they

worked hard and they had a business and they did well. I'll be honest with you. Me, personally, because even my old man, my dad, he passed away when he was 59. He had leukemia. And this is amazing to me, really, just sidebar really quickly. He was fine with it. Like, it's a strange thing.

Like, he, this Boston guy, he's diagnosed with cancer at 50 and he and my mother don't tell anybody they don't tell anybody they pull yes just just us though my sister and i and they say to us we're not telling anybody i'm like are you what you just tell me you have leukemia and you're not telling anybody he didn't tell his mother they didn't tell anybody in business they're like this is how we're handling it if you want to talk about it we'll talk about it all day every day but we're not talking about outside these doors i thought that was unbelievable and then and then when it's it gets into his brain and it's terminal He has brain surgery. He's fine. He's fine. He's at peace. He's like, man, I had an amazing life. I've got these incredible kids. He didn't. He's like, I had this, I never thought I'd be good in business. I am. Like, he was fine. He had this peace of mind. But we had this one talk. Back to your question, he's like, you got to relax. I'm like, what do you mean? I got to relax. He's like, I don't know where you got to relax. He's like, I don't know where you got to relax. He's like, I don't know, dad. You've had a pretty good run. He's like, you didn't get it from me. So to answer your question, where did it come from? I don't know, man. I kind of had a

on my shoulder. Maybe it was because I was a dorky kid. Maybe I don't know, but I wanted it. I wanted it and I was able to feed it and tap into it. And you still do, though. That's the crazy part. You still do. Like, I can feel you. Like, I think you're as hungry like this minute after Hall of Fame, 30 years, millions of dollars in income, live a great life. Part of it is game recognizes game. I think I'm kind of in the element. But no, I mean, I still. it gets me up in the morning still yet. And you've got to answer your question now. Where did yours come from?

I think it's a great question. I think it's probably similar to years. My dad, here's what I got from my dad, maybe you did. I did model like a work ethic from my old man, like and a decency from my parents that they treat people well. There's a, like I think I picked up some of that, I hope. But my dad never had ambition. My dad's told me many times.

I just wanted to work and provide for the family. I wanted a good life. Like, what the hell happened to you? My dad and I have this conversation all the time. I bet. And it sort of shocks him. I don't even think they saw. I think they knew they wanted me to be successful, but I'm not sure they thought whatever

happened happened. I think that... So what happened? I don't know. I think some of it was that I was an undersized athlete, stuff like that, too. But again, I think it's probably more nature because I'll just... Four siblings grew up in my household were very different people. Same stimulus, same family, same parents.

And I'm different. I'm always fascinated by that. I am too. But I think that the people that have that... Psycho streak that have that I want to be somebody thing need to know that it's great like I my dad says that to me too You need to chill like hey when's enough enough and hey even this morning we're talking about some deal I'm doing He's like you know put the pressure off yourself a little bit because I think as a parent you want them to be okay Right I don't know that that's maybe it's good that he dials me in once or all that someone does that

But I wouldn't recommend that to somebody like if I'm not in pursuit of something I'm miserable I tried for like a half a year to like golf and sit on the beach and I just, it's not what makes me happen. Yeah, but you enjoy this, though, right? I do. I think it'd be a real mistake to hit it, and it took me a long time to figure this out. And, man, you have all these things that you work so hard for, but you just keep grinding and grinding and grinding, and then it got away. You didn't take that minute.

I'm not saying dial it down. I'm not saying downshift. I'm saying this is the best view I've ever seen. Hopefully you get your ass out on that deck, and you have some of that tequila once in a while. I mean, you have to do it, right? We both had a little before we started today. I didn't. Well, maybe a little. You had a sip, but I had a little bit.

I do do that. I think that's one of the things that maybe you're right. Maybe one of the things, you're pointing on something out to me. Maybe I need to show that side of me a little bit more that people go, I want to be like that. I want to have some fun doing it too. Or not even show your side. Just do it. Yeah, do it.

Just do it. Like I'm not saying, don't ever, ever compromise who you are and what you do because you're right. You're not going to be happy. You're not going to be. What are you going to do? I did not get up in the morning and work out, not get up and go to work. Right. You know, one day, maybe.