THE ED MYLETT SHOW - How to Build a Bulletproof Mindset Through Preparation | Ed Mylett

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

What if the real secret to an unbreakable mindset isn’t motivation, confidence, or talent but preparation done so relentlessly that pressure has nowhere to land? In this mashup episode, I bring together some of the most mentally tough competitors and leaders I’ve ever sat down with to break down what it truly takes to build a bulletproof mindset before the moment arrives. This is not about hype or temporary motivation. This is about the unseen work that creates certainty when everything is on the line. When preparation becomes your identity, fear loses its grip and pressure turns into fuel. You’re going to hear from Andre Ward on what separates champions from contenders when the lights are brightest, and why mental toughness is earned long before the first bell rings. Sean Casey shares how consistency and routine create confidence in moments when self doubt tries to creep in. Dabo Swinney breaks down how preparation builds belief not just in yourself, but in your team, your system, and your mission. You’ll also hear from Michael Chandler, who explains how he trains his mind to stay calm in chaos and perform at his highest level under extreme pressure. Terrell Owens opens up about the discipline, focus, and self trust required to thrive when expectations are massive and criticism is loud. And Ryan Hawk brings it all together with insights on how elite performers prepare daily so confidence becomes automatic, not situational. I want you to understand something. Confidence is not something you wait for. It is something you manufacture through preparation. When you know you have done the work, your mind becomes steady, your decisions become clearer, and your performance becomes inevitable. This episode will challenge you to raise your standard for preparation so high that doubt simply cannot survive in your presence. This mashup is for anyone who wants to stop hoping they will show up strong and start knowing they will. If you want a mindset that does not crack under pressure, this is your blueprint. Key Takeaways: Why preparation is the true source of confidence and mental toughness How elite performers train their minds long before the moment matters The role of discipline and routine in eliminating fear and hesitation How belief is built through reps, not positive thinking Why pressure exposes preparation, it does not create performance How to build certainty that travels with you into every arena of life If you want to perform at your best when it counts most, this episode will show you how to prepare like it already matters. ⁠👉 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

At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today, and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life.

Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. This is the Edmiler Show. Hey, everyone. Welcome to my weekend special. I hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to follow the Ed Milet Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Here's our first guest.

Welcome back to the program, everybody. Today's going to be a great one. I have a champion to share with you today. There's a guy I've followed for a long time. He's one of my favorite athletes in the world. I was telling him off camera. We have a lot of mutual friends. He and I've been talking for a long time.

He's one of my favorite men. leaders in the world. And not only was he a three-time Bellator lightweight champion, what I like to watch is just he just pulverized Dan Hooker in a recent UFC event, and he's a rising star in the UFC. He's probably going to get a chance

to fight for the title soon, but I love his mental and life approach. So Michael Chandler, welcome to Max out. Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it. It is a blessing to be here, and man, I couldn't be happy. Okay, question. You said something, there's so much depth to you. Earlier, you said, I'm not training against the dude necessarily that I'm fighting next. I'm not even training against the dude that I spar with. I think so many people that want to be

high achievers compare themselves to the person in the cubicle next to them or in their current office, you know, or in the local area, as opposed to the standard, the best possible standard. So could you just speak to that a minute about training to a standard compared to just the opponent or just the sparring partner or just what's in the gym that day? Because that holds us back as well, true? True. Yeah. And I think it's, I mean, for me, people ask, they're always asking about my opponent. My opponent, he's, he's this tall, he's got these attributes, he's got these accolades. And without sounding cocky, like I'm not, like I'm looking past the opponent. Truthfully, I can tell you this with 100% certainty that I don't need to be, I don't need

to train to beat that opponent. I just need to be the best version of myself. that night inside the octagon i need to be the michael chanler with zero hindrances zero second-guessing zero fears and only faith and excitement about about becoming my best self if i can if i can get done with that fight get my hand raised and have zero regrets about my performance knowing that i performed at the highest level that i possibly could that night then there's not a man on this planet that can beat me and i truly believe that so and i so my prayer before the fight isn't God give me the victory or God let my opponent stumble. My prayer is, God, just let me perform like I trained.

Let me perform in a manner that is consistent with the way that you see me, God, and that is consistent with my gifts and my abilities that you blessed me with. Because like I said, I truly believe that in that moment, if I'm inside that octagon and that cage door closes, if I perform at my best, I'm not going to lose. And this isn't like, and this isn't kind of the hurrah, well, you gave it your best. So you really didn't lose even if you didn't lose. This is this, you know, like they say, well, if you gave it your best, you didn't lose. You know, that's true in a lot of senses.

But also, I'm more just saying that if I can go out there and get in that flow state, there's nobody that can beat me. And I truly believe that. So how do you get, how do you make sure that you perform that way? Well, you can't ever make sure with 100% certainty. We're going to have bad days. We're going to have off nights. We're going to have bad performances no matter what.

But number one, never being afraid of having a bad performance. Number two, being okay with the uncertainty that's about to ensue. I mean, you can't really think of a career more volatile than mixed martial arts. Being inside of a cage, locked inside of a cage, being tied onto a tornado. You have to be okay with the uncertainty that's about to happen. And for me, I always say, you know, win-lose-or-drawl, I'm going to be okay because my God still loves me, my family still loves me, and I still love me. And the hardest thing was I always knew my God loved me.

I always knew my family loved me. But that hardest part was, and I still love me. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you have to be okay with the uncertainty that's about to happen. I talk about every area of life. We want to embrace uncertainty and run towards it. On the other side of uncertainties, everything you want, best relationship you've ever had, there's no certainty to it. Right? There's no certainty that at all.

Any great victory, anything you've ever done, you have to go through the uncertainty barrier. Everyone would say your comfort zone. Forget all that comfort zone. You've got to go through complete uncertainty. The other thing, too, for me, I don't know if you relate to this or not. I'm just curious. That I love me. Third one is my issue too.

And I've gotten a lot better of that over the years. And one of the reasons I've known me overly hokey here I am with one of the toughest men in the world. But one of the reasons that I would not give myself love or affirmation or permission to like myself even if I'm being completely candid. Like actually like myself. So everybody knows is to me, I had to be. perfect. And if I wasn't perfect, I didn't, I wasn't worthy of really liking or loving myself. And perfect is a cop-out standard. Perfect is impossible. But I've kind of heard you talk about this a little bit too, this notion of the perfect fight or the perfect sparring session or the perfect

husband, right? The perfect man of faith. Well, you're going to miss that one every time. So if that's your standard, you have wired yourself for misery. And then it stumbles into, at least for me, kind of this cycle of lack of confidence because I'm not hitting the promise I made myself, which was perfection, because self-confidence is keeping the promises you make to yourself. So I'm just curious how that plays with you. 100%. And that's, you know, I think especially whenever you, and not to get overly, you know,

overly spiritual about it, but when you truly believe that God, you know, Rick Warren's purpose-driven life. That's what everybody wants, right? How do I find my purpose? Whenever you feel like you've found your purpose, and I truly believe that mixed martial arts being put on a platform through mixed martial arts is my purpose. So I found my purpose.

So it's God ordained. So if it's God ordained, then, okay, I got to be perfect, right? Because this is the gift that I'm trying to get God, and God deserves, we all know God deserves a perfect gift when really he's looking down at us saying, you're all flawed individuals. I made you perfect in the image of my life. myself, but you are made perfect through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, right?

So we are striving for perfection. And that's really truthfully, if I'm being honest, why my first loss happened. So I go out and yes, and I win my, I beat Eddie Alvarez. I become the number three guy in the entire world. Everybody's saying, Michael Chandler's the next big thing. So immediately, okay, I'm the number three guy in the world. Everybody wants me to go win the UFC title when I'm done with my fellow, fellowship contract.

Media is talking about me award after award. You know, this guy's the next big thing. So what do I say in my human brain? Okay, now I got to be perfect, right? Before I was just trying to go, before I was just shooting off the cuff, I was working hard, I was doing things right. I was living the champion lifestyle. But now that I am the champion, now I got to be perfect.

So what did I do? Instead of taking my training to the next level, it went down in the dumps because just as you said, every sparring session was another opportunity to be imperfect. You know, I could win four minutes and 58 seconds of a round, but it was that two seconds that I lost, told me in my mind I lost that round. I could have I could have hit a guy a thousand times with the best combinations in the world but I got popped once with a jab and immediately my mind said, Michael, you're not perfect yet. You know, I could lift a thousand pounds but well, Michael, you're not perfect because that guy over there can lift a thousand and two pounds.

You know, so I gave, I started, I started living in this jail cell inside my brain of perfect and there was, it was impossibly perfect. And it wasn't until my mentor, Chris Patterson, talk about instead of trying to be perfect, why don't you just slow. focus on success. So because success can be gained 1%, 1%, 1% every single day. And over a long career, you know, I can joke about it now, but it took me 12 years to become an overnight success. And all of a sudden, I'm Michael Chandler, UFC lightweight number four in the world, probably

going to win the UFC title here in the next calendar year. But it took me 12 years to become this success named Michael Chandler, right? So I just needed to start, just stop putting so much pressure on myself to be perfect and just put the pressure on myself and the friendly pressure on myself to be above board, to be, to be excellent, but not be perfect. There's a lot of different things that we can strive for that are just below perfect, that allow you just enough grace, just enough, just enough leeway to still love yourself through your trials, through your, through your bad days, because let's be honest, man, it doesn't matter. You speak to a lot of high performers, millionaires, billionaires,

the people at the highest level, they have their bad days, they have their ups and they have their downs. And it's in those downs. It's in those bad days where they can continue to motivate, continue to see through the mud, see through the muck towards a brighter future, knowing that the sun really, the sun did go down today, but it will rise again tomorrow. And our best day could be tomorrow, even if we had a bad day today. It's one of these shows, brother, I will listen to back several times. So one of the things is really true is when I started to really work with, you know, what everyone would call, you know, higher elite performers or whatever it was, this is many, many years ago. I come home and think to myself, man, these are very human beings.

You know, like, I was struck by their humanity. I was struck by their frailties. I was struck by some of their weaknesses. And it actually gave me hope. I think that's what you're doing right now. And we've all heard this thing, like comparison is this deadly game to play? Compare with another person. The worst comparison is to perfection because that's a standard you're going to miss every

single time. You literally wired yourself for pain. I'm just curious about fighting in general. By the way, I love Chris Patterson. I just want to make sure I stick that in there. In fact, that's how you and I met. Let me ask you this question. I'm just curious.

Is there fear before a fight for you? In other words, 10 minutes out, you're going to go in there. This is the thing about fighting that I think people just forget, because it almost looks like a video game when you're watching it on TV for guys, right? I've had the pleasure of being in the cage a little bit myself. And so I know what it's like, not like you do. But there's another man in there. You can't hide.

They close the door. Michelle Waterson said on the show, you know, and there's you and another man. That's the ultimate form of combat. It's the ultimate form of you dealing with you, ironically, as you said. Do you have fear in those moments or is there no fear because of confidence, because of faith, because of preparation? Or what do you do with the fear if you do have it? You know, I actually, there is no fear of the physical, you know. Could I get injured?

of course. Could I break a bone? Could I, you know, even worse, could I end up, could, could tonight be the night that my career just ends, career in the injury, of course, those things could happen. But once again, as I was alluding to earlier, if you're afraid of that uncertainty that's about to happen, if you're afraid of that physical aspect of the fight, it's going to be tough because you're not going to, you're not going to be fighting in that flow state. You're not going to be fighting at your, at your top level. Me standing across a wrestling mat or standing across the cage from another man my size doesn't doesn't scare me the biggest fears that I have are you know going out there and

performing at a subpar level and not just subpar but you know yep a really bad level right you know we've all had those moments where we you know you get back in your car after a meeting or for me go back to the locker room after a fight and you just you just take a deep breath and take a step back and say what just happened that was that was such a bad performance and and I've had those And those are those are the worst that's the worst feeling in the entire world because for a mixed martial artists, you know, we only get two, maybe three opportunities a year to showcase our skills in in a cage in front of millions of people. So there's so much riding on that one performance. But I've gotten to the point where once again going back to no matter what, win or win or lose or draw, my God still loves me. My God still loves me. And because I've gotten to that point, knowing that once again, leaning on the fact that I'm not going to. I'm not going to. I'm not. going to be perfect, just trying to be successful. You know, if I would have hang my hat, hung my hat on the couple losses that I had in my past, I never would have got here to become

the overnight success, who is Michael Chandler and the UFC, right? You know, it took a, took a long time for me to get here, but I, I'm the battle-hardened veteran. I was galvanized by the road that I took, you know, I was, I was a new name to a lot of people when I made my UFC debut back in January at UFC 257, but I was not a new name to, to the true MMA fans. That was not a new mixed martial artist, a new professional fighter. For me, all roads had led to me being backstage at that UFC 257. But it's almost a weird parallel because before I felt like I always had something to lose. When I was fighting in Bellator, I was fighting a lot of guys who I was supposed to beat in the first round.

There was almost no way to win or it be a positive outcome unless I went out there and finish somebody in the first round. And you're talking about fighting, fighting world class. They're still world class athletes. They still trained every single day. They're still across the cage where you wanting to rip your head off just like you want to do the same. But I was always fighting guys who, for the most part, were ranked below me. And I had to go out there and have a dominant performance. So I could go out there.

And if I beat someone in the second round, people would always say, well, you should have been in the first round. You're Michael Chandler. You're supposed to be that much better than them. Whereas this was also a beautiful thing at UFC 257. I was fighting Dan Hooker, the number five, number six guy in the world. I had nothing to lose, you know. So that was a beautiful feeling, having nothing to lose, because I would venture to say that the guy, the underdog is in such more of an advantageous

situation because they have nothing to lose compared to the guy who is on top, who has everything to lose every single time he steps into an arena. And I got to that point at UFC 257. And luckily for me, I'm going to be an underdog the next fight, probably an underdog the next fight. So you're going to see the best version of myself for sure the next couple of fights. I was going to say to you, I want you to remind you. I want you to remind yourself of that no matter what situation you're in because you're exactly right.

In every situation, it's the illusion of loss that causes us to underperform. So if you can always not give yourself this bogus illusion of loss, even if you're the world champion and anything you do, even if you're the best, when I'm on a speaking ticket and there's 10 other speakers, but everyone maybe assumes in that case potentially I should dominate that stage when I speak. I don't let myself think that there's an illusion of loss coming if someone, if I don't live up to my game, because that's when I slip. that idea that subpar fight, I just had a subpar engagement recently. But for me, every time I've had one of those what just happened moments, if I'm really self-reflective and it's really self-reflection, there was something in my preparation that I could have done better.

It's always back to me. Like you said earlier, it's not my opponent, especially in business. It's always preparation. How much of your confidence, in this particular situation, there were a couple things where I said to myself literally, what just happened? No joke. And by the time I got on the plane to come home, I'm like, I know exactly what happened. I'm BSing myself. Here's what happened. I took a little bit for granted this one area that's my big strength. I didn't need to work on that preparing for this. Turns out I did. Right. And so is that for you usually the answer to what just happened and how much of your confidence is linked to preparation? Being the small guy from the small town who had to always fight to scrap and claw his way to be being seen by the coaches or being seen by the team, I had to be the hardest worker in the room. You know, I talk about the walk-on mentality. You know, I walked on to University of Missouri. There were 16 guys in my class. Only two of us ended up becoming All-Americans. and one of them was going to become an All-American.

His name was Raymond Jordan. He was a state champion from Newburgh, North Carolina. He was my roommate. He was destined for big things. It was full-ride scholarship guy. But I was the walk-on guy. I was the guy who the coaches didn't look at for a whole year, didn't say a word to him for the whole year.

So, you know, me being the naive young guy, I had to outwork everybody. I was the first one at practice. I was the last one to leave. I was putting the extra reps. And although that might sound a little bit, maybe insecure to a lot of maybe people listening right now, you still have to have that walk-on mentality, that mentality that says, even though I've gotten to where I am now, even though

there's a couple zeros in my bank account, even though I got this name, even though I have this account, even though I have this level of success, I have this level of platform, you still have to be working every single day like you're a walk-on. So for me, my preparation is the most important part. I know for a fact that if I step inside the cage and there is doubts about my preparation, I'm never ever going to perform at a, at the highest level. Now, I might win the fight still. I might win the contest, so to speak, but there still will be some self-reflecting of, you got kind of lucky because you slacked in this area, you slacked in that area. And that's, I think, what a lot of high achievers do. They hold themselves to a higher standard, not the, not the

perfection standard. Yep. That's where you fall into that valley of trying to be too perfect. But that level of excellence, am I excellent in all these areas that I need to be excellent? And if that answer is no, then chances are you're going to get, you're going to be in a spot that you're leaving yourself open to having failures and having loss. I just think it's amazing that when you walk into an octagon, you walk into the cage,

by the way, I'm going to take this from you, myself. God still loves me. My family still loves me. I still love me. Everybody listen to the show should be writing that down or watching the show. That'll be a mantra you give yourself the gift of on a very regular basis. What a beautiful reminder. As you're going into combat, it's just amazing.

That's what you're saying to yourself. Okay, physical. On game day, pain can hit hard and fast, like the headache you get when your favorite team and your fantasy team both lose. When pain comes to play, call an audible with Advil, plus acetaminopin, and get long-lasting dual-action pain really, up to eight hours. Tackle your tough pain two ways with Advil plus acetaminop. Adville, the official pain relief partner of the NFL. Ask your pharmacist at this product's rate for you. Always read and

follow the label. When I look at you and I, you know, I'm around a lot of athletes, I see a superior physical specimen. And even as you've gotten older, I look at you six, seven years ago. I look at a dude now. This is a superior physical specimen. And a lot of my self-confidence just comes from my physicality. I'm not the same as you, obviously, but I think self-confidence can come from moving your body. It's one of the first places. Everybody listening or watching this can transform their self-confidence because it's something you can control.

You can't control a sales call or a close or the amount of money you've got or even how someone's treating you in a relationship. Is there something specific you've done the last two or three years? Is it heavier lifting? Is it incorporating more weights? Is it, you know, like in Brady's case, it's all this pliometric stuff he's doing to be more pliable? What is it for you that's made you, I mean, to me, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you were physically better before, but you look physically better to me now. Am I right about that and what's the difference?

I think you are right about that. I think I, when I got into the sport, I was already going to be more athletic or stronger physically than a lot of people because of my wrestling background. Division I, in my opinion, is the hardest, most. physically demanding sport in the entire world. So when I was going to come from Division I wrestling into the sport of mixed martial arts, where these guys had just been training mixed martial arts, I knew for sure I was going to be faster than them, stronger than them. I wasn't going to have great striking.

It wasn't going to have great submissions or submission defense necessarily, but I was going to be a good athlete coming from wrestling. Since then, I've always trained to become the best athlete I can possibly be. And it was actually interesting that you say that because there is a young football player from MCSU here in Nashville. I was training with my trainer, and he asked my attorney. He said, hey, Jay Holt, if you've never fought before, how do you train a fighter? And I love that I heard it because I wanted to hear his response.

And his response was, well, we're just training to become a better athlete. Because I say, if I can be the better athlete in the cage that night, it might not win me to fight for sure, but it will put me head and shoulders above my opponent when it comes to speed, quickness, changing angles, closing the distance, strength, picking a guy up, putting them down, and cardio. The only one who is undefeated is father time, you know. So eventually there will come a time when that clock ticks for the last time and okay, it's time for me to be done fighting. I just don't have it anymore. So the more I can turn back the hands of time by doing explosive, more pliometric movements, the better and taking care of my body. You know, it'd be crazy.

I've been training out for 12 years and probably only about the last five or six years have I been doing body work every single every single week I get I get bodywork by a massage therapist a a highly knowledgeable uh physio uh body worker who understands the body and I live in back pain for a really long time and I discovered a product called the SOW right um realize my soaz my so as my so as muscle from running jumping kicking doing all these things was hindering me physically and also I just woke up in pain every single day so I had a low back pain at all time so i started lengthy my so as um and you call michael so right okay p s o dash ritee i'll send you a few of them um because i believe um you've heard david goggins talk about it i actually spoke about it on the jo

rogan podcast um because everybody you speak to anybody what's the one thing that hurts everybody their back always hurts and i think right now i'm sitting at a at a desk right now in this chair and my soaz is being crunched down and we god didn't design our bodies to sit for the crazy amount of hours that we do or if you're sitting in you know beautiful southern california traffic you're sitting in your car it doesn't matter how nice your car is and how beautiful the leather is on the seat you're still sitting down in a non-optimal position i think when it's affordable people need to investigate more of this body work stuff i've neglected that all my life i've done pretty good with nutrition i've trained really hard i've not done enough body work

and i know that there's a dollar amount although i have sponsors on my show with little different gadgets and different things that do help you with that i'm not plugging the sponsors i'm just telling you guys um the theragon is something that's really made a difference for me and i'm not plugging the product i'm just saying that's a form of body work uh the other thing i want to just say to everybody too this is one of my favorite conversations of all time bro which i knew it would be but the fact that you define yourself as an athlete as much as you do a fighter and i just want all the business people or moms or dads out there what if one of the definitions one of the terms you gave yourself is you were an athlete you can be an athlete at any age i actually call myself that like it's one

of the words i use in my affirmations is i'm an athlete i think about about that I think that way. I think more athletes are attempting to become business people. If you look at the LeBron Jameses and the Michael Chandler's and the Tom Brady's are good examples of they're becoming business people. More business people need to become athletes. That's the future. That's the present of where we are. So totally agree with you on that. Okay. Got to ask you about maybe my favorite thing I wanted to talk to you about all the time that we've, you know, known one another.

And by we're going a little longer, brother, sorry, it's just so good. I love it. But the last part I want to ask you about is your faith. because your sinner, saved by the grace of God, just like I am, I don't want anybody thinking either one of us are perfect people because we're not, and neither one of us have all the answers. People say all the time, you've just got all the answers that. I said, no, I have all the mistakes, and I can save you on your life with all the mistakes

I've made, more than those, more than I, just some, you know, the Yoda of answers. But my faith has been central in my life. It's giving me the most comfort. I love it the first thing you say is God still loves me. How important is that to you in your life? Overall, pre and post your fight career. I'm just curious. I mean, it's the most important part because it's the wellspring by which everything else flows from.

You know, I think the overarching theme of this of this entire talk that we've been having, even though we haven't even said the word, the actual word too much, but the word is gratitude. You know, operating in gratitude, realizing the gifts that I've been given. realizing that to give anything less than my best every single day is to sacrifice these amazing life that God has given me. Man, I got every single thing. I don't have a lot, but I'm not missing a dang thing. I'm not missing a thing in my life that I need. And all of that is by the grace of God. All of that is when I think about the young Michael Chandler coming from High Ridge, Missouri, he got every single person, every single setback, every single up, every single down,

every single door that stayed closed, every single door that opened. God had me in the palm of his hand all the way through it in the entire time. And if you can, and I do do, I do this often too, even just visualizing the hand of God. It looks just like my hand, right? Because we were made in the image of an almighty God. But I see myself, the young Michael Chandler, the middle school Michael Chandler, the high school Michael Chandler, who had all those doubts and insecurity. And then the college and high school wrestler Michael Chandler who just wanted to win medals and wanted to be put on put on the top of that podium and then now the fighter Michael Chandler, the father Michael Chandler, the husband Michael Chandler, all of these things I can see and I can see him all the way through my entire life knowing that there's so much comfort and there's so much rest in God having me in the palm of his hand. And it's it's such a humbling feeling. And I think I think when you really pull yourself back from a 30,000 foot,

view of man, there's been some tough times and man, there's been some tears shed, and man, there's been a lot of dark, you know, sleepless nights and there's been some rough roadblocks. But all of those things, Romans 828, everything worked out for the good of his people, you know, and it's, as you said, I by no means of any any better than you or anybody else listening, but we are sinners saved by the grace of God. And it's that humbling feeling of knowing that you don't get what you do deserve and you do get what you don't deserve every single day and every single season and and now arguably I'm you know every single thing I've accomplished so many of the things that I wanted to set out to accomplish and I still have so many things left to accomplish and all of them are tied to my faith and a faith in an almighty God who is merciful enough to see me through the tough times and he is gracious enough to continue to bless me even when I look and say man why how the heck did this work out for me You know, and it's just such a beautiful thing.

And I'm just so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given. And I feel like I can take this thing to the top only because I live in a constant state of gratitude. And truthfully, if I can just help other people live with a little bit more gratitude, knowing that their best days and their blessed days are out ahead of them, because a guy like me who comes from a small town who I was taught to do small things that somehow I've touched every corner of the globe somehow because God's giving me some amazing, gifts that hopefully a few people can be inspired by my story and all of it all of it ties back to my faith. I'm so grateful for you, bro. And I'm really proud of you. This has been an absolutely

remarkable conversation. I knew that when you and I got together and did this in front of everybody, that it would be special. But I mean this. I just want you to know, I'm so proud of you. I'm so grateful for you. I'm grateful that I got to share this man with the millions of people that I love so much in my audience. I started out by saying that only you're a special athlete, but you're a special man. And everybody saw that on full display today. Your calling is even beyond fighting. It's this. It's this platform. It's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then someday it's going to be all of this based on that platform. But you stepped into a state today, brother. That was a championship level state. And so thank you, man.

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. Hey, everybody, Ed Milet. I'm so excited to be back with you today with another program on the max-out show. We bring you people all the time

that have maxed out areas of their life that are the best in the world. And the gentleman to my left, the reason I've been after him to do this show for so long is because I think he's maxing out multiple areas of his life. The obvious area is that this is one of the greatest boxers of the last two decades.

might even argue in the history of the sport. And so the gentleman to my left here is retired this last year to be a year ago this week, 32 and 0, 32 and O, has not lost a fight since he was 14 years old and was an Olympic gold medalist went on to win the Super Six tournament in the super middleweight division and was a light heavyweight champion of the world.

And so this is one of the greatest athletes, but I think one of the great men in the United States. So Andre Ward, thank you for being here today. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me. This is going to be awesome. So I wish, as some interview, I wish we were recording the pre-interview because it's been it's been so good.

So thank you so much. Man, I'm happy to be here. Talk just for a second. I'm just curious because I didn't know I'd go there. Virgil, did he play a role in your life in any other way other than boxing? In terms of your confidence or any other stuff, like even your demeanor to some extent. And watching him in interviews, he's got sort of a, I'm sure he burns rages on the inside, but he's got kind of a cool, calm exterior about him that I see in you too.

Go ahead and speak to that. that. No, I mean, I have a lot of my father in me and I also have a lot of a lot of Virge in me. It's hard not to have their imprint on me, you know, when I've been around them and spent so much time, you know, we spend so much time together. And that, again, that's probably something throughout the course of my life as a fighter and just as a man that has separated me is like they came, you know, Virgil and my dad came from old school. Like they didn't come in the social media era where, you know, a lot of athletes today. They'll show you. hard work and you really don't know how much work they're put really putting in behind the scenes

like we really got it the hard way yeah and one thing that they always like we didn't just go to the gym and work the body they always were working my mind whether i was on my way to a run that morning didn't really want to be there and was dragging getting ready as a as an 11 12 year old kid or going to a big tournament where i wasn't touted to really do anything like the mental reps him being in my ear year after year day after day telling me listen son you're meant to be here i'll an example, Athens, Greece in 2004, had not fought the upper echelon of international competition. I had fought Puerto Rico, Mexico, but never the Cubans, never the Russians. Those were the countries that dominated boxing.

They were really professional boxers in the amateur ranks. They do it full time. And most of the time, unless they come over to America, they don't turn pro. A smaller guy, I fought at 178 pounds. should have been at the lower weight class of 165 pounds, but I had a cousin that during the Olympic trials was trying to make it. I said, okay, I don't want us to fight. I think I'm going to grow anyway, so let me go up.

Are you kidding me? You took a different weight class? I didn't grow like I thought I was. Okay. So I'm weighing in every morning at 170, 171, maybe 72 on a good day. I'm drinking waters and gator raise. And gain weight. Power raise just to be respectable when I get on the scales.

And the weight master, they were looking at me and say, you're little you're small you should be lower and I just kind of point to the sky I had a burner phone that they gave us and Verge had a burner phone and he would just call me and he's staying in my ear look son you're here for a reason God didn't bring you this far for nothing and those types of words like would would just like just caused me to be emboldened you know when we first got the draw and I found out what bracket I was in I got the toughest bracket if Yankee Mac and Renko, the two-time world champion from Russia, was going to be my second fight if I won my first fight. And everybody's kind of like, you know, everybody on the U.S.

team was like, oh, my God, you know, act like it was a death. Like, man, Drake, got a tough draw and this and that. Inversa, that's the way it's supposed to be. That mentality that he had, that those types of words, that type of faith and belief has been something that has been ingrained in me and steeled in me, drilled in me, since I've been a kid. Well, that's gold. the couple of gold things. One is just having somebody in your life that you can find and seek out that's feeding you all of these

beliefs, this confidence you have, finding that mentor in your life. And then also the part that you shared earlier, I just want to make sure we reiterate too about if your dad had it his way in the very beginning, you probably wouldn't have been unboxing. And that's true for me and my career.

I think if my family had it their way in the very beginning, I'd have been working at some employee job and paying my bills. And so many of you out there listen to these voices you have in your family. These are people who love you, but they don't necessarily

have the vision or the wisdom to know exactly where you're supposed to go in your life. Thank God that you got Virgil and your own beliefs in yourself. That was a great conversation. And if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Milet show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. Welcome back to the program, everybody. I'm so fired up today.

I have, this is a 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 Sween. 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, great treat to be on, on this podcast or show and an 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 as I was reading about you, you know, you walked on in college, and then you end up, you win a national championship as a player too, A lot of people don't know that.

So he's done a lot of winning in your life. But you get this job. And I heard you say that they rated you a D plus higher because you were like the interim coach. But is this true? I want everyone to get this. A lot of you that are listening to your entrepreneurs, your leaders, maybe you're a little bit young in some cases too. This man was 38 years old when he takes over this program. Is it true that when they hired you, you went like literally into a closet, like a physical closet and we're talking to yourself?

Is that actually true? That is true. So what happened? And as I just, you know, came to work on October 13, 2008. I was an assistant in my sixth year here as an assistant. And middle of the season, three and three, we were coming off a tough loss. And they decided to make a change at head coach,

the head coach position. And, you know, I had no, really, I mean, absolutely no idea. We had a 7 a.m. staff meeting that morning. And it was actually my day to do the, the devotion kind of rotates around the room and just happened to be my day that day. And it was just business as usual. It was a Monday. We were going to play Georgia Tech that weekend and at our staff meeting like we always do.

Went on in our offensive meetings. I was an offensive coach. And so we're in our planning. And about mid morning, about 1030 or so, the operations guy walks in and says, hey, Coach Bowden needs to see the whole staff in the staff room. Well, that never happens. We had already had staff meeting that morning, so it was really kind of odd. So we all got in there, knew something was going on.

He walks in, and he basically just said, you know, he didn't have a lot of words. He just said, you know, how much he appreciated us. And, hey, this is something that's going to happen. We're going to make it, they're going to make a change. And he said, you know, hey, look, I'm good. He said, I just, you know, we're about all you guys. I'm going to visit with you individually in due time. But right now the AD wants to step in and say a few words.

So you're sitting there, you know, you got a lot going through your mind. I'm a young guy. I got a young family, you know, people going on AD steps in. AD was not a man of many words either, old school guy from Arkansas. And he basically just said, hey, look, you know, this isn't something that I wanted to happen. But he did tell Coach Bowden, he was going to make a change at the end of the year, regardless of what happened. And Coach Bowden, they revisited later on that morning and said, you know what,

this is going to be a negative seven weeks. You know, why don't we just make a change here and let's let Dabo be the interim? And Coach Bowden, the head coach, he kind of, you know, said, hey, would you consider Dabo being the interim? And AD said, absolutely. He said, you know, and so anyway, next thing you know, he walks in and he says, hey, here's what's happening.

You know, I know it's a tough business. I expect you all to just continue to do your job. We've got a bunch of kids that's counting on us and he said, dabbo, you're now the head coach, and I need to see you in my office in five minutes. And walked out. And so, you know, he walks out, we're in there.

It was this weird moment, kind of slamming pins and notebooks. And then all of a sudden it got dead quiet. And everybody in the room is looking at me. I mean, I'm in sweatpants. I mean, this is Mondays or long days in our world. And just, you know, I didn't even really know what to say, but it was just, I mean, I was like having an out-of-body experience, you know, but I just said,

you know what, hey, guys, you know, look, let me go meet with them. We'll get back together a little bit. I didn't even really know what to say. And I went and got, went to my office and grabbed a notebook and PIN called my wife on the way to his office, said, hey, you know, we just got let go. They just fired Tommy. Oh, my God. I said, oh, it gets worse. I'm the interim. And I said, I don't know when I'll talk to you, Kath. And so I go around and take a deep breath. I walk in his office, and I really went in with the mindset of this is going to be a miserable. We had six games left and an open date. So seven weeks, this is going to be a miserable seven weeks.

But I'm thinking he's probably going to tell me, hey, do a good job. I'll try to get the next guy to keep you or something, you know, along those lines. But just the opposite happened. There's such great lessons that came out of that that I still tell people to this day when I go speak. So I walk in this man's office and I sit down and he looked at. and he looks at me and he said, he said, dabo, let me tell you something. I know you're in a tough spot here.

He goes, but here's what I want you to know. And he kind of told me how it all kind of came about. He goes, but here's where we are. He said, for the next seven weeks, I want you to be the head coach. I don't want you to be the interim head coach. For the next seven weeks, I want you to do whatever you think you need to do to fix us.

He said, if you need to fire the whole staff, fire the whole staff. He said, whatever you think you need to do, for the next seven weeks, you have my full support. That was a mistake on his part, okay? But this is what he tells me. And then he goes, he said, for five and a half years, I've watched you. I've watched how you led your players, how you've handled yourself in the community. I watch you with your family.

He said, I see these kids in your office. I've seen how you handle discipline and recruiting. And he said, Dad, well, I'm going to be honest with you. I've done this a long time. He said, personally, he said, I think you're what we need here at Clemonds. He goes, he goes, so what I want you to know is when this thing's over, you're going to get an interview for the job. He said, he goes, whether you win them all or lose them all, he said, I'm going to give you an interview for this job. He goes, now I'm going to hire the best coach.

And I'm going to go all over. I'm going to hire the best coach. He goes, but I'll say it again, I think you're what we need at Clemson. He goes, he sure would help if you could win a few ball games. And then he goes, and then he kind of sits back and he says, you got any questions? And I'm like, I mean, my mom, my whole mind, so now my mind is racing. So I leaned up and I said, so you're, you know, I said, well, I appreciate that. And I said, you're telling me that, that like I can be the head coach.

And for seven weeks, he said, I'm telling you whatever you think we need to do, you need to do to fix us. You got my full support. And I'm like, and I, and so, so I walked out of this, this office and I'm, I've had a notepad and my mind is racing. Yeah. And I, you know, because I went in there with one mindset and I came out with a different mindset.

And the lesson that I got from that was, number one, you never know who's watching. So just be great at whatever you do, you know. I mean, whatever it is you're doing, just be great at it. So many people, especially in this business, they're chasing things. They want this title or this and that. and the grass is green where you're watering it, right? You know, just be great where you are. Just be great where your feet are.

Bloom where you're planted is what I always say. You don't know who's watching, but I know this. If you're great at what you do, people will notice that. Amen. That was a lesson. And I learned that as a player.

Same thing happened to me as a player. A sophomore, I'm a walk on. I come to a Tuesday practice. Boom. They say, hey, we're going to give you a shot. You know, and I didn't even know he was paying it. attention. Next thing you know, I let her three years, I get a scholarship, win a national championship. But the second part of that lesson is you got to be prepared for your opportunity.

You know, you got to be prepared for your opportunity. You may not ever get it, but, but right, better be prepared, you know. What does you do, coach, to be prepared? Like, so he tapped you on the shoulder. You're ready. Did you think you were ready? Absolutely. So to answer that. So when I walked out of there, I went in a closet. I literally, I went in like a half, janitor closet, half vent, and I just closed the door, and I just sat in there, and for 45

minutes, I just started writing. I just started writing, and I was all over the place. You know, I'm thinking recruiting, I'm thinking, discipline, how I want to change practice, what would I want to do this week? How am I going to meet with the team? I got to meet with the staff. Is there anybody I need to make a change? You know, I'm going

to run the offense. I'm going to, you know, I had all these things going on, and I'm just scribbling a hundred things, you know, for that moment. Yeah. All right. but as I and so so I go through that but the second part of it is from the time I got into coaching in 1993 I was preparing to be a head coach all right I didn't know if I'd ever get a chance to be a head coach but I was just I love what I do I love what I was doing I love my I mean I just trying to be the best at whatever it was but I started kind of building a book started putting a

head coach book together in 19 I mean literally right out of the gate things I liked, things I didn't like, you know, academic stuff, philosophy of offense, philosophy of defense, philosophy of defense, philosophy of recruiting, philosophy of special teams, you know, who I would want to hire, you know, what would be my staff expectation, you know, whatever, how I would run practice, you know, and I started putting all this, just building this all over the years and all through the years, oh man, I like that, throw it in the book. Or, you know, a lot of times, so I coached eight years at Alabama when I finished playing.

and I played five, coached eight. And a lot of times we learn more from the bad than we do the good. You know, and that's called experience, you know, when we touch that hot stove and we get that big, you know, we learn, right? Yes. But the wise man learns from other people's experiences. So we all learn from our own. That's just life.

But, man, I just spend a lot of time learning from other people. And I do that when my players to this day, I send them stuff from all over the country all the time. you know, whether it's something good or something bad, you know, to learn from others. And so I just started going through things. And I spent the first seven years, I spent all seven years of Coach Stalin's career at Alabama with him. And then all of a sudden I start working for other people, getting exposed to different things. And I started going, oh, well, now I know why he did it that way. You know, and so I started having things reinforced.

And then I started, you know, growing into my own as far as, yes, my beliefs, my philosophy. And I started putting all this together. And what happened to me, this was a great, great turning point for me. In 2000, I think it was 2006, they were starting a football program at the University of South Alabama, the Jaguars down in Mobile, and they're a good program. But they were starting football there. And they reached out to me to come interview for the job. And I'm like, you know what?

You know what? And to be quite honest with you, and I only told this to my wife, if I had gotten the job, I wouldn't have taken it. But I told Kath, I said, you know what? Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to prepare for this job like it's the University of Alabama. Like it's the job. And so it forced me to take all those years of stuff and I put it together and I organized. And I went after that job like it was the greatest job. I mean, I had Jaguar Nation. We're fixing to rule the world. Man, I had everything in there. And so I had, I was prepared. And, you know, and I finished like second or third on the job. They didn't offer me the job. But I finished second or third on the job.

But I really wouldn't have taken if they'd offered it. But it was such a great process. And so all a sudden, two years later, I'm the interim head coach at Clemson. And so when I'm going to get an interview, so I'm in the middle of the season. I'm in chaos. I'm making changes. I got all this stuff going on. But when that season was over, you know what I did? I walked in. I had the president. I had the AD, the assistant, and I had them all a book and I say, hey, this is who I am. This is what we're going to be. This is how we're going to do. This is what our philosophy is. This is how we're going to run the program. This is the staff I want to hire. This is, you know, our discipline policy. This is what I believe in. And, you know, bam, here we go. That to me is like, coach, I feel like we just did the whole show. Like, I hope everybody got this and goes all the way back.

All this stuff about blooming where you're planted, the grass is greener, where you're you water it. I've actually never heard it said that way before. But this idea that he was blooming where he was planted, being the best and great at what he did, but preparing for the future all the time. It's amazing to me, even entrepreneurs that even will listen to the show, they'll write down little keys, but are you watching how the guest says it, how they phrase it, how they position it, how they tell a story, how I do it, where you work right now? If you're, if you're, you know, an employee somewhere, are you prepping to be a business owner someday, study and what works and what you said to about what doesn't work? Are you keeping that

binder that coach kept of keeping these notes and experience allows you to anticipate too. If you don't have an experience, I think you're constantly reacting. Yes. And I think what happened was when you got this job, a lot of guys get that opportunity. They didn't prepare like you. Now they're just reacting, recruiting this problem, the boosters. We just had this loss. Oh my gosh, our centers hurt and they're reacting all the time. This allowed you, I think would you agree with me, coach, that preparation allows you to anticipate situations sometimes that you wouldn't get if you weren't prepared. You got a plan. You know, Abraham, one of my favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln was, if you, Abraham Lincoln said, you give him six hours

to chop down a tree. He's going to spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. You know, I mean, it's all about preparation. It's just in my world and what we do, we only play about 3% of the time. We prepare 97% of the time. But it's what you're doing when nobody's watching. That's what separates people. You know, you didn't get here. I don't know your whole background, but I guarantee you didn't get here doing this show. You didn't just. show up. I mean, it's what you're doing. Championships are one when nobody's watching. They're when the stands are empty. And it's the same thing with people. Champions are made when what you do when nobody's watching. So it's that 97% of the time, you know, we all work,

we have jobs, but it is all about preparation and having a plan. And so having a vision, being able to articulate that vision, you're going to deal with young people today. Number one, they better know that you care. Number two, you better be able to communicate why. All right? And so, and you've got to be able to articulate a vision and get people to buy in and get behind that. I don't care if you're running a company or whatever it is. But the other key thing, this is very important because, you know, especially in my world, and I deal with a lot of young people and I deal with a lot of young coaches now, you know, and I've been, I've been, I've been an 18 to 22 year old and I have a PhD in 18 to 22 year olds

because I've spent my entire life with that group, my whole life. And in fact, I was at a convention a couple years ago. And I had this young, a couple young guys. I'm going up, we were in Louisville. And I'm going up to, going back to my hotel room. And I'm standing over by the elevator. And these couple of these young guys came up to me. And they were like GA's at grad assistants somewhere at, I don't know if they were

at Baylor or where some school. And they came up to me, go swimming, go, swanee. You know, just wanted to introduce some. I'm like, nice to meet you guys. And I'm literally standing there at the elevator. and they're like, they're like, you know, Coach Winnie, listen, we just, you know, we just want to, you know, they wanted me to give them like, you know, 30 years of stuff and knowledge in a minute here. And they want to go, they want to go from GA to head coach.

And I just, and they'd listen. I said, well, here's what I would tell you guys, all right. And it's exactly what I just said. I said, be great. Whatever you're doing, if you're the GA, be the best GA and the history of GA's. If your job's to go get the coffee, man, you bring the best coffee that anybody's ever. you get that coffee, man, everybody's going to manage. You get that call.

This guy's unbelievable. All right, people notice that. I said, I can't tell you how many people I've hired that they don't have some fancy resume. What they got is they got an unbelievable work ethic and attention to detail. And they're just so focused being great at what they're doing. They don't get distracted. So that's number one.

Prepare, but you need to hear me on this. Guys, I'm about to get on this elevator and I'm going to hit 14 because I'm on the 14th floor. And when the door is open, I'm on the 14th floor. Well, let me tell you. tell you this you got to you got to take the steps all right there's no elevator to being a head coach there's no elevator to being the CEO there's no elevator to greatness you got to put the work in and take the steps period and you know what enjoy it yeah enjoy it it's not about because because i've been to the top i tell our guys all the time i've been to the mountain top and it's awesome

we love it we climb a mountain every year at clemson that's kind of our our thing you know how you calm mountain one step at a time we love it. that and we we start out base camp you know and and the top of the mountain is awesome but that's not what it's all about that's just a moment what you what you will cherish more than anything is the journey that it took to get there like man what it what it took to get there the people you were with the relationships that you developed along the way the failures that you had the mistakes that you made that you learned from that you grew from that's what you cherish more than anything Everybody looks and they see the grand moments, you know, Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl, that's great.

You know what, Tom Brady's going to remember more than anything. Man, those practices, you know, getting together with the guys, the bus rides, the plane rides, the when nobody's watching, the preparation. That's what it takes. I'm getting goosebumps, y'all. You've got to fall in love with that. You've got to embrace the suck, right? There's a lot of it that just sucks, and you've got to fall in love with that part if you're going to, you know, do anything.

great in life. It's not going to just happen. So the preparation and falling in love with the preparation, all the great players that I've been around, that's what separates them. They love the preparation. Everybody loves to play. Yeah. But it's falling in love and embracing the suck along the way. That's what separates us. Oh, my gosh. Very rarely, I'm in the middle of these shows. I'm like, this is freaking great. You know, we're in the first quarter. Just because it's a I just want you I just want to keep going but I was going to say this to you I just gave a talk this weekend bunch of entrepreneurs very high and entrepreneurs and so I'm going to give you my overall business philosophy it's going to surprise you I said here's what it is everybody you encounter wants to feel this from you that you love them care about them believe in them and you can show them how to get a little bit better that's it and they're saying help me you said it of young people but it's true I think coach of all people as you said and then this notion I just want to review I'm not going to review everything he says but he says so many good things this idea of the love of the preparation I promise you that's true across the board with the athletes I've worked with too. But in addition to that, being able to create a vision that you can articulate that people buy into is like you're listening to this man talk. There's a rhythm.

It's so easy to listen to him. He wasn't born with that. That's something that he's worked on over time. 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 that way. Now on with the show. Welcome back to Max Out with Ed Milet. The gentleman to my left does not need an introduction. This is Terrell El Dorado Owens. Not my full name.

Otherwise known as T.O. To most of you out there. And newly elected NFL Hall of Famer T.O. So congratulations on that. Appreciate it. And welcome to the program. Appreciate it. Max out, right?

Max out, exactly. We're going to max out the day here today. So let's talk about that for the career for a second. I'm curious, because this small town guy, Not a big time school. Now you're in camp with the Niners. Your rookie year, okay? Jerry freaking Rice is there. Probably your hero growing up, right?

I never, like I said, my grandmother's so strict. I didn't get to do a whole lot. Didn't watch a lot of TV. That's crazy. The only TV shows that I really got to watch was Will of Fortune. I got to watch the Channel 6, Channel 12, Channel 12 News. And I got to watch the Cosby show.

Get out, really, for real. But did you know who Rice was? Yeah, no, not until like my junior year in college. Oh my gosh. bananas. You didn't know who Jerry Rice was until your junior year in college. I had no idea because I never followed football like that. Okay. So I never really was a football fan. So you go to camp though. I know a little bit of the history. So Jerry Rice is there. Then there's a number one pick in front of you, Stokes out of UCLA. Yeah, he got drafted the

year before, 95. So they got a number one. They invest a third round picking you, right? What was that like on? Did you have to earn a roster spot? Like were you the first thing like, I got to make the spot? Oh yeah. Well, absolutely. I again, not really knowing. and being aware of what the draft consists of, what it encompasses. I mean, I thought, okay, you drafted, you're on the team. I mean, I didn't know you had to go through the process that you got to make the team.

That's awesome. Like I said, that was kind of how clueless I was to really me playing beyond the collegiate level because I never thought that I would play beyond the collegiate level. We mentioned basketball. I played three years of basketball. I mean, the program wanted me not to play my senior year, understanding that I had an opportunity to play professionally. Football.

But my love was so great for basketball. I was like, no, I'm not going to forego my senior year of playing basketball to concentrate on football when that was never really on my radar. That's crazy. But, yeah, I was drafted, war number 15 in camp. My coaches, Larry Kirsey at the time, they drafted me on potential based on my physical attributes and what I could probably add to the game. They thought that I could learn under Jerry Rice, JJ Stokes, and then I got to be there and saw guys like Nate Singleton. These are veteran receivers, Chris Thomas, and a lot of other free agents that were on the team at the time. So I'm looking around.

I'm like, I'm number 15. I don't get an 80 number. You don't get an 80 number, a legit number until you make the team. I didn't know that. So 15 was my number going all the way through preseason. And as this preseason unfolded, you started to see the cuts break down as we get closer to the season. So I saw guys that I felt in my mind were better than I was. Really?

They were getting cut. So, I mean, it's natural instinct, okay, if you know that you're not, your skill set is not where theirs are. Yeah. You're like, okay, well, I'm next. You're next. Yeah. That's the same. I was a realist about my abilities when I was in high school and college.

I knew that there were guys that were better than me. That's crazy to hear. I knew in college, I knew that there were guys that were bigger, better, faster, and stronger than me, even in college. But that's what prompted me to get the key. Not only did I work out in my spare time when I was in high school, those 30, 45 minutes. Yeah. I didn't go home during the summer after my freshman and sophomore year of school. So I got the key from the strength and conditioning coach.

I did the same thing. Got the key to the weight room. Here we go. did the same thing. I would go into, that's how I got stronger because I was in there by myself. So I had to lift off by myself. I had to be careful because I was in there by myself. Nobody spotting me. So that's how I got stronger. So these are some of the things that I did, unbeknownst to the world out there in terms of how I made it. This is so good because you outworked everybody. It's also the things you do when no one's watching. Like when you played, one of the things everyone who say, oh, his physique, his physique. Now you know where this comes from. It doesn't happen overnight.

That's awesome to hear. I hope everyone's here. in these lessons, business sports, you name it. And then again, this running theme of you take an advantage of opportunity, right? So during that season, Rice gets hurt. My second season. Second season. Is that when you had your breakthrough was really the second season? Yeah, kind of sort of.

Yeah, I played sparingly. Yeah. My rookie year, I played a lot of special teams. Yes. But what you got you a couple passes that year? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I had my, I don't know how many yards I had. No, I think I had like four touchdowns my rookie year.

But again, I started kind of just familiarized myself with the play. playbook, Steve Young, just a culture of professional football in itself. And so I go in my second year, again, going into the offseason, I'm preparing myself. Just to be a vital part of value to the team. And so we go into my second season, first game, we go down to Tampa, Jerry Rice, I think he runs a reverser or something and Warren Saps, I think just beat our defensive in, got him from behind, and he tears his ACL. From that point on, I mean, I get thrown into the fire.

Here we go. And so that's where that preparation, you know, that I, and just me familiarizing everything that I had done my rookie year leading up to my second year, I was preparing myself for this moment. I love it. And if I wasn't prepared, then I wouldn't have been able to add value to the team. You see, I didn't say success because I hadn't, I hadn't, there was no level of success at that point.

Wow. I was still trying to add value. I was trying to add value to the Jerry Rice's, to the Steve Young's, to the JJ Stokes, to the organization, to the team itself. Wow. So I hadn't really experienced any success at this point. I was still trying in that mode of proving myself that I could play at the professional level. What a great distinction. So when did the, by the way, I want to tell you one thing, just off the whole thing.

I turn on a football game. It's the playoffs that's you guys against Green Bay. The best catch I've seen in the clutch moment in my entire. higher life is that catch you made in the end zone. That says a lot. What here was that, though? 99. Okay, we're going to feed this in right here.

You're going to watch this guy come across. It's the middle, and you get obliterated and hold on to this football, right? That's the kind of stuff about it. Like, you added value, added value, out of value. And then it was like, oh, my God, this guy is special. It's literally like where I caught the ball. It's like it's equivalent to going in between two, two cars. Unreal.

Or going into the eye of a hurricane or a tornado. Because Steve Young, he put that pass where nobody else could catch it but me. How much time was left in the game? I think at that time when I caught about eight seconds left. Eight seconds left in the game, right? So I think things like that start happening. So you took advantage of your opportunity. Then there's these special moments and you start going, wait a minute.

Maybe I got something here, right? Maybe I'm special. When did you have the, this guy, just so you know, this man had 20 catches in a single football game. So I'm curious, did you know going into that game, like whoever the corner was that way, I'm going to eat this dude up? Or was that just the game kind of fell in your direction? No. Well, for everybody that don't know out there, this is Jerry Rice's.

last home game. Okay, I didn't know that. So yeah, this is Jerry Rice's last home game. We play in the Chicago Bears. Okay. We go into this game with the game plan and the mindset of we're trying to send this guy off into the sunset. You know what I mean? We're trying to send him off and it's something like this. You know what I mean? So our first 15 plays scripted or 20 plays, they were, if it was, I think it was 15. Okay. I guarantee you 13, 98% of the past plays, 13 to 14 of the past plays, or the plays in general, were for Jerry. Okay. We're trying to send the greatest receiver of all time out the best way possible.

Got you. But not only did we know that, but the world knew that. The Chicago Barron knew that. The defense knew that. So they tried to prevent, and they did a great job of taking him out of the gameplay. Which opened up place for you. What did you just mention? You segue into this by saying, me taking advantage of opportunities.

So that's what I did. So Jeff Garcia, the quarterback at the time, he had to be smart going through his progression progressions, knowing that, okay, I can't imagine what Jeff was like. We're trying to get the greatest receiver of all the time. We're trying to get him off. And he's, so he has to be smart about the game plan, not to force anything. So he goes through his progressions and Jerry been the number one receiver. And you could have said that me and JJ, again, depending on the receiver sets or formations,

We're two and three in a progression. Yeah. So I was just basically running my routes to win, to be open, to be that secondary receiver. If Jeff goes through one option and Jerry's not there, he goes to two or he goes to three. I was on the receiving end of 20 of those passes. It's interesting. This is like the most telling part of the interview, just so you know. Because the perception of you, I think sometimes is that this is, and it's completely opposite.

I'm going to bring another example up in a minute. I think like the ultimate team player on the field. I just asked you about a record you had for a long time, and you credited Jerry with it. You literally just said that he created opportunities for me, right? It really was. That's what a team person. Actually, most team guys would not even say that.

So that's incredible. I ask you about a record you hold, you basically give credit to Rice for moving coverage his way and opening things up for you. And to your quarterback, by the way, too. I'm curious because now you become the Jerry Rice the rest of your career. One of the things that's unique, you guys, when you get a high level of sports,

is that, you know, you see the records he's got, but you have to understand something. Every football game this man went into for about a decade or more, the defense on that Monday, when they got together, was how do we stop 81? Right? You understand the whole structure of the defense

is how do we take away their best weapon? This was their best weapon. What's that like? I'm curious, like all week, you've got to be so good. You're going to face their best corner, right? Or they're going to slant coverage your way. You're going to get double cover most of the time,

whatever it is. What's it like knowing a whole team scheming against you and how did you end up prevailing week after week after week beating coverage like that what was that was it your was it your ability to run the route was it your film study all of it like what was it just my preparation understanding what they're gonna give me understanding my coaching them helping me they were helping me perfect the craft of becoming a receiver coming out of Chattanooga I I had no idea of really, I wasn't faced with the level of competition that I was going to be facing in the pro.

So I had to work on these things, you know, day in and day out after practice, working with my hands, working with my feet. My physical part, that was a given. I mean, I could run through a guy all day, all day. But I knew in order for me to progress and get to the level of Jerry Rice, then I had to add some tools to my toolbox. I probably had a toolbox, but I probably had maybe two or three tools in there. Wow. You know what I mean? So I was lacking. So I had to add some tools to my repertoire into my box in order to really perform at the level that I knew that I could once I started to grasp what I could do on the football field. So the separator was that extra preparation, those extra tools again?

You have average, you have good, and you have great football players. Yeah. And you see that there's only, the margin with good and great is very, very slim. And what separates those guys, when you think about in football, you think about the Jerry, you think about the Tom Brady's, your Steve Young, all the, you know, Hall of Fame caliber or talent guys. In basketball, you think about the COVID, you think about the Michael George, you think about the LeBron's, and what they're doing later on in their careers. It's because they realize that there's something that separates them to go from good to great.

Coming out of high school, I wasn't that great. them out of high school, but these guys, when you think about Kobe's, the Kevin Garnett's, the LeBron's, they're projected to be great. Yes. But it'll be a big disappointment and failure if they don't exceed or live up to those expectations. But you think about what Kobe did, he took the blueprint of what Michael Jordan did. You think about what LeBron is done.

Not only you can't just pinpoint and characterize him with one particular player. He possesses so many abilities from all these great players that are paid away from him. He realizes that and he took advantage of the opportunities. So he takes the time to play 15 seasons. And now you feel like you look at this guy play, he can play 15 more. Because he's invested in himself. He believes in himself. And that's what I had to do too.

I knew that I wasn't good at that one point. I was average. I started from average. And I worked my way to good. And then once I saw him like, okay, I'm a pretty decent athlete. What can I do to take me to the next level? I utilize the resources around me from my personal trainer to my coaches. I listened when I would be on the football field and I would see Steve Young talking to Brent Jones

or he would be talking to the quarterback coach Matt Kavanaugh, or when Bill Walsh may walk on the field, or he's talking to Jerry Rice. These are conversations that they had. I was in earshot distance. I would be paying attention. So if there is something that he and Steve and Jerry are trying to get on the same page with, I knew that he's talking to him, but I'm being taught at the same time. So I'm taking all this into account, into consideration,

because I may be in that situation one day, and ultimately I was, because I had some big shoes to feel. Honestly, I was afraid to be average. I was afraid to be good. I wanted to be great. I wanted to be better than good. And so that's what enabled me to do the things that I did on the football field. When I saw smaller guys, you know, squirt through defenses,

how quick they were, how agile they were. I knew as a big body, in order for me to get to that level, I had to work on these things. Wow. This is awesome. Like, maybe some of my favorite three or four minutes in the history of doing this, because this is like inside the inside of the inside of a Hall of Famer and anything. Same is true for any of you guys in business. You get to that level where you're good.

You want to get to that level where you're being great. It's fighting for these little extra things, those extra mentors, extra conversations, extra preparation, extra tool in your toolbox to communicate or clothes or product or whatever the heck it is. It's awesome. curious, this is a football question. Tuffest corner you had to go up against in your career. Annius Williams. Annius went from the Cardinals. Was he the Cardinals? First, he was with the St. North Rams.

Yeah, Rams and then Cards, right? Because we played, I was in the NFC West, so we played them twice a year for my first three and four years. And so he was a big corner. Okay. I was a big receiver. So, again, I'm sure he did film study. Just like I had to do film study and guys that did film study to try to minimize you. Like you said, they game playing.

you stop this guy? Yes. You know, I was just a young book, 81. How do you stop this young kid? Yeah, how do you stop this young kid? Yeah. So him being a veteran, I'm sure he studied film on what I did good, what I did decent, um, what I did poorly. And he probably tried to minimize those things, eliminate those things, what I did great, um, a good at that time. And so it was, it was tough getting off bump and run because going to a small school. Yes. I wasn't, I wasn't faced with a lot of that. Okay. So everybody probably wanted to get physical with you at the line of screens, but very few guys had the capacity to do it because you were so strong, right? And Williams could. Right. And the thing is, especially for him, he was just my size,

so he could, there was some room for error for him to make up. But if it's a smaller guy, if they mess around and they slip, I use my physicality or my quickness to get by, they know it's a rap. They know it's a rap. Yeah. So they didn't, they didn't come up and impress me as much. But he was the guy that forced me. I'm like, man, I got to get better because I can't only just, I can't only just get by with getting having some success against these other corners. Yeah. They're going to be other big corners in the lead. They're going to look at him like, okay, he stopped T.O.

So let me see how he did it. Wow. So I had to prepare myself for any and every situation. I love hearing this. The other thing about you as a player, then we'll move off this, but I want to say one thing is I think people underestimate how tough you were. First off, the best ability is availability. You're available all the time.

You just, you were durable like LeBron. It's one of the great things about LeBron James. Nutrition. Nutrition. Brady had the one year with his knee, but this dude plays football, right? Like he's available. It's how you rack up these numbers, right, and help your football team, bring value. You were tough, though.

And so I'm a Patriot fan, so I just want to talk about this one situation. You know what I'm going to say, right? Super Bowl 39. Super Bowl 39. So this man gets to the Super Bowl, and the truth is, a few weeks prior to that, he basically breaks his leg and has a screw in your leg. Is that not really clear your foot? Yeah, I had two screws in my ankle.

I try a lot of the ligaments in my ankle. Okay. upon the diagnosis once I got my MRI the following day. A lot of legaments torn. I didn't know my leg was broken until I got an x-ray because they MRI'd my whole leg because I went to sleep that night and my leg was really, it was aching so bad. Not my ankle. I got iced it, but I was throbbing throughout the course of the night up by my knee.

And so I told the radiologist, I was like, yo, it's like my leg was aching throughout the course of the night. He was all right, cool, we'll just, we'll just x-ray the whole leg or whatever and see what's going on. What's going on? This is one of the most underreported story. Seriously, I think in the history of the NFL, right? This man played in the Super Bowl. No one thought he was going to play. They weren't sure the game planned for it, but no one thought he played.

This man played with a recently broken leg in the Super Bowl. This is something that no one talks about. There was even a slight limp when you would watch him warm up, and then he flat early in the game. I'm watching the game. I go, oh God, Owens is going to kill us. The only reason, I'm not being negative about anybody. I want you to talk about playing with that injury, playing through some pain, because you had to be in some pain or some discomfort or you weren't at your best.

But I'll be honest with you. I watched that Super Bowl. If they'd have continued to get you that football in that game, there would have been a different result in that football game. I remember that last couple drives you had were taken forever. I'm like, thank God it's taking forever. They're not getting the ball to T.O. They literally, if they just kept feeding you the football,

they could not cover you. You were like a man on a mission in that football. I'm not saying that because you're sitting here either. It's a standout moment for me in sports. I coach a lot of athletes. I know that you weren't at your best, and you came into, again, the greatest opportunity of your career was this Super Bowl

to shine and you shine. And had they won the football game, it would have been a legendary story people would tell forever because you played so hurt. That was a great conversation. Be sure to follow the Ed Milet 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, everybody. My guest today played 12 years in the major leagues. Let me just tell you something. He could flat mash. This dude could hit. I used to watch him going, that's the natural. He should call him the natural. But then the more I got to know his story,

turns out it wasn't natural that he worked really hard to build this incredible swing, three-time All-Star. And I'm just telling you guys, any of you that know baseball, this dude could flat out hit. But today we're going to talk about, you know, you got someone here that played in the big leagues and the major leagues that long. There's a mental aspect to what they did

and how they live and what they do now that got them there. So we're going to talk about peak performance today and overcoming adversity, all kinds of incredible stuff with Sean Casey Casey. Welcome to the show, brother. Thanks for having me on. Dude, so fired up to be here, brother. You came all the way in.

Flew from Pennsylvania to be here today. So thank you for being here. I know you got a lot of family stuff going right now. Dude, I just wanted to say, too, like, before we get going, like, listening to your podcast, dude, like, who's the guy? Who's the guy? The guy that does that he introduces your show. He used to do. It's incredible.

Yeah, he used to do something for the NFL, and I heard his voice. This was way back in the day. It's so funny. Seven years ago, I told my team, I go, I don't know who. that dude is. I want that voice saying my name. And what's funny about that thing is, too, is that even to this day, he still can't say Milet correctly.

It's welcome to the Ed Milet show. He still doesn't even say my name right, but his voice is so good. I'm like, okay, he can just say my he says my name wrong on my own show. But he says it was such a great voice. I'm like, let's just leave it. Every time he does the takes, I'm like, can you get him to say Milet. Like, no, it's Milet. Whatever. Anyway.

So, I want to go back to the, kind of the beginning with you. So Michael Jordan's got this amazing story that everyone throws around that, you know, he ends up being the greatest of all time, but he didn't even, you know, make his varsity team his sophomore year. There's this great story. And it's a great story. But the guy went to North Carolina, had a bunch of scholarship offers. You, on the other hand, when I say this guy could hit, I mean, I, other big league baseball players envied your swing and just were, you know, you're just a remarkable hitter and player. But in high school, we go back. Like, you didn't really have. have any juice. No one wanted you. Out of high school, you couldn't even get a scholarship. You couldn't even get someone to look at you. I want you all think about this that are listening. Wherever you are in your life right now, you're like, no one knows me, nothing's happening. This dude couldn't even get someone to come scout him. Never mind him offer you money. No one even come look, right? Is that true? I mean, you know, it's funny. We were talking about,

you're out California. You got, you got, hey, we had nine dudes from my high school get drafted. I'm like, what? I couldn't, I haven't seen, I haven't seen nine scouts in my life in Pittsburgh. You know what I mean? It was incredible. So, you know, it's a great. It's a great. story and I you know as I look back and I I think we were we were talking earlier like my dad's in a place right now where he's has gone through two open art surgeries and and all this stuff so you know even more like he and I have connected and and we we've kind of gone back down memory late and you know it's funny when I look back at when I look back at you know growing up in Pittsburgh like you know I was one of better players probably 10 11 12 you know that goes then you go to the bigger fields 13 14 and so I remember being 14 years old and and and and I

wasn't I didn't play it all freshman year And I'm like, man, why am I not playing at all? You didn't play? Like, I played a little bit. I was like, hey, Casey, get in there and pinch hit. And I'm like, what? You know, so, yeah, so didn't really play much. Played a little bit here and there.

And I remember, like, a few games into the year going to my dad and being like, hey, dad, help me out here. You know what I mean? Like, you know how good I am. You saw me hitting bombs and I was 12, crushing balls, like 220 in the gap. You know what I mean? Like, dominating, you know? And I'm like, you know, and I, you know that I should be starting as a freshman, you know, freshman baseball. And he's like, and I was like, do you think you'd go talk to the coach?

You know, that'd be, that'd be just help me out. You know what I mean? You know, get your dad to kind of snowplow in there and, hey. A lot of guys do do that. That's what I mean. Exactly. You know, and I think back now as a dad, and I know you do, too, Ed, is the conversation you have with your kid.

Like, man, am I enabling my kids? You know, I feel like you disable people when you enable them. You know, am I enabling my kids sometimes? Am I making it too easy? And do I say no enough to maybe sometimes for a lesson, right? And like, so when I look back at this conversation, had my dad gone and talked to the coach, we're not even talking. Yeah, and that incredible. We're not even talking.

So he says no. So my dad says no. He's like, you know what, Sean? I'm not going to talk to the coach. He goes, he goes, but he goes, one thing I will say is the kid that's playing ahead of you, I don't think he's better than you, but you're not glaringly better than him. You're not glaringly better than him. He goes, if you want to start playing, then you've got to start taking accountability for who you are as a player and for you who you, who you are as a player. And for you who you are as you know putting in the work he goes there's a batting cage that just opened up in the town next to us

He goes I'll make you a deal He goes I'll buy you as many tokens as you want as long as you hit every day As soon as you stop hitting the deal's off I love your dad Yeah, it was incredible when I said you know what you got a deal dad He goes you got to start being accountable for who you are and putting in the work And Ed dude I I started falling in love I went I went to the cages and I went to this batting cage.

It was Grand Slam USA. Yeah. Yeah, you remember Grand Slam? They first came out. And I look back like things you're grateful for. I literally, in my gratitude journal recently, was like, I'm so grateful that that guy, Dick Thomas, decided to put a Grand Slam USA in the town next to me in Pittsburgh.

Wow. You know, it's incredible when you think back of your life, you know what I mean? So I end up meeting a guy on Tuesday night's named Frank Porco. Never played, never ever played college baseball, but he was a hitting instructor. I wanted to ask you that. So this guy that helped you didn't even play college baseball? didn't play college baseball just high school and he was making some money on the side but ed talk about divine intervention yeah this guy knew hitting this guy new hitting and all the years i played

in the big leagues and all the all the you know hitting coaches i've been around i still feel like frank porco really in bethel park you know pennsylvania was the best coach wow so i would go to him every tuesday night my dad didn't make a lot of money he was a chemical salesman making like 33 grand a year you know so i knew those tokens were a big deal yeah i didn't take that for granted. I knew those tokens. I knew the deal was a big deal, right? So I would go every Tuesday night, hit with Frank Porker for 30 minutes, 5, 36 o'clock, 20 bucks. You know, it's a lot more now. It's not 20 bucks, but 20 bucks. And then I would just stay, man, and I became obsessed with the mechanics of a swing, all because I wanted to play JV baseball. That's crazy. All because I want to start my

sophomore year, really, right? And it's just, when I look back and like, you know how you talk about just like the compound pounding and the marginal games? It's like, I could see myself. getting like a little bit better every time like oh man my front shoulder's staying a little better i'm really driving off my back side so next year it comes along and my dad was right he's like man this is going to work so sophomore year i start jv right and i'm like wow this is working my dad's right like it's that you know and he was always telling me you want to and i was like well i'm like i'm like college baseball one day i was like all right preparation meeting opportunity like be ashamed one day sean if you came if if the opportunity came along and you weren't prepared

And I kind of took that stuff to heart. It was just such great lessons. So my sophomore year, hitting every day still. I didn't play any other sports. I did play some football and basketball, but by my sophomore year, I was just playing baseball. But I hit every day, hit every day after school. Next, you know, I'm junior year, I'm starting varsity. And then senior year, I'm starting varsity.

Now I'm a good hitter, though, Ed. Now I'm like, this works. Yeah, yeah. Doing stuff every day, like, you know, those invisible games, he really do work. And I was driving balls all over the park. So we get to my senior year, man. And, you know, kind of another, just a great lesson from my dad. He had just started a new company called Casey Chemical.

I've been waiting to do it. He's 50 years old now. He's like, you know, I'm going to start it. It was a, you know, he was like a middleman for like, you know, for selling surfactant chemicals, right? Okay. And so I saw how much he grinded. I saw like the work ethic that he put in. And I could see now what he was talking about three years earlier.

So, and we, every month I'd come home with school and, and, um, you know, he would be here hey time to send out the network marketing he's like we got 5,000 letters Shawnee get those let those lips ready because you're gonna be licking those envelopes and sending them off and we would send them out he would say hey listen if we get three or four people to come back we got a sale we're gonna pay the bills and that was like the kind of the thought process right so during my senior year I had no college scholarship offers not division one division two division three right just like they they weren't there and you know remember back in high school you'd go to those tryouts where like yes you know the big

league teams would come and you run the 60 and that's why you got and you're getting drafted he's like this my leg could fly you know what I mean they're like this Casey like does he have a disease we don't know about that looks like he's ice skating quicksand you know what I mean so I run the 67 4 7 5 I'd come I'd come back at you after the trattle oh yeah when are we gonna hit and they're like all right these guys are coming back for day two yeah they'd go down the list like and I'm like Casey I think you left off Sean Casey like no No, you're not on the list. 745.

We'll see you next time. Go to the Royals tryout next week. I'm like, so dude, it was like so frustrating because I'm like, is this a track tryout? Or are we going to hit? We're not going to hit like that. Right. So my dad at that point, I was getting not many looks. And my dad said, you know what, Sean?

I sat down with him like, said, Dad, really want to play college baseball, but no one's coming. And he goes, no one is going to come. He goes, no one's coming, Sean. He says, you want to make, you want to go play college baseball? you gotta start playing offense, not defense, and quit waiting for somebody to come. He's like, how about tomorrow? You come home from school, you come out to my office, Casey Chemical.

You sit down with me. We're gonna write 30 letters. You're gonna write the 30 schools that you wanna go to. Division two, division three, wherever you're gonna. So I come home for school that day, I'm kind of fired up. I got a game plan. I sit down with my daddy goes, here we go. So bam, I read the first one to Penn State,

next one to Clemson. Then I'm writing a college, Worcester, Mary. I'm right, and whoever will listen. Yeah. I just opened my mind. I'm like, I'm going to play in the big leagues one day, but I got to get to a college first. Why do your face change when you started to talk about your dad writing a letter? I'm just curious, like your face changed a little bit. You know what? Because it fires me up. I'm so grateful. Yeah. I'm so grateful. You know, I'm 48 now. So you're grateful for those, you're grateful when you look back when you're 18 years old,

17 years old. And, you know, you've got a dad that's, that's willing to stand next to you when you're grinding. You know what I mean? You know, when it's, you know, when it's not, you know, when everyone tells you you're too slow, you're this and that, you know, you've got the guy next year to say, you can do it. Yeah. Why not you?

Yeah. You know, and told you the truth too, right? Like, hey, no one's coming. Hey, bro. No one's coming. And, you know, and I think that's the reality of it. Yeah. That was the reality of it.

Like, and then, you know, I was like, when you, you know, we'll fight with reality, only you lose 100%. I'm like, he's like, so we sit down and write these 30s, 30. It's amazing. I just got to tell you, like, you're getting me. Like, I don't know why my eyes are watering. But, like, I know that that was a, like, you're not here if you don't write those letters. You're not, I know they're going to hear it in a minute.

But, like, you're not here if you're not here if you don't play offense. He doesn't tell you, no one's coming, Shawnee. No one's coming. No one's coming. It's just amazing how moments in life can define us, right? That's what I mean. Like, even when my kids, I'm like, God, I hope I'm saying the right stuff. Me too.

You feel that way. Yes. Yes. I hope I'm not just snowplowing, you know, the road for them and making sure everything smooth you know what I mean yeah the the last the adversity that I had was the what that's where I got my advantages right so so you write the letters do write 30 letters right before I'm done I get up to go he goes hey hey hey sit back down he goes got one more letter he goes University Richmond sent you a flyer I'm like a flyer

you know now it's like social media these kids are like hey look at my swing check me out look I got millions of followers yeah they're like hey University Richmond sent you a flyer last year from the Keystone steak if why you send them one too so bad last letter University Richmond dear University of thanks for the flyer. Yeah. I really think I can play there. You know what I mean?

Boom, boom. Boom. So, bam. So I'm four for four, eight RBIs, you know, and four doubles. And you know, bro, like, you could probably look back at your high school career, college career, and you know the games. Yeah. There's a handful of them where you're like, that was incredible.

Yeah, yeah. That was my greatest high school game ever. Hands down, no doubt about it, 100%. So Jerry Malarkey, who's the coach at Upper St. Clair, I'm running out to play first for the seventh inning. We're dominating his team. He's like, hey, Case. He's like, yeah, you've had a heck of a game.

He goes, how many hits you got? I got four hits, man. He goes, how many ribbies are got? I got eight ribbys, Jerry. He goes, yeah, you know what, that's great. You go to see the guy behind the backstop right there? That's Mark McQueen. Just drove six hours from the University of Richmond to come see you play.

And I was like, are you serious? He's like, yeah, he wants to talk to you after the game. Oh, my gosh. So after the game, I went over. Preparation meeting opportunity. Preparation meeting opportunity. I remember thinking to my dad, like with dad. What's this preparation meeting opportunity?

You're doing here? stuff. Are you BS in here? Because I don't see any opportunities, right? But he's like, and he was always adamant. One's going to come. One's going to show up. You know, and I went over to Markle King, shook his hand. He said, hey, man, he's like, really like your swing.

You know, he goes, let me get back to you tomorrow. So he went back to Coach Atkins back in Richmond, called me, offering me a $1,000 scholarship. I think at the time, Richmond was like $30, my dad made $33 grand. I was like, Dad, what are we going to do? He's like, we'll figure it out. We'll take a second mortgage on the house. will get some financial aid.

So I went to University of Richmond, brother, on the only offer that I had from those letters that I sent out playing offense and not defense, right? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, incredible. I go to University of Richmond. Are you all hearing this? Just so you know, the end of the story is,

this man plays 12 years in the major leagues is one of the greatest hitters over a decade in the major leagues. Multiple all-star teams, this dude got no looks. No look. If you feel like you're missing your, like, are you hearing this? It's a thousand dollar and all due respect to University of Richmond. All due respect. But this is not like Arizona State either, right?

It's a mid-major. Right, exactly. It's like incredible. It's incredible. So I go to University of Richmond. Hadn't even seen the school. Show up first day with my buddy Jay Adams. Hey man, hey, nice campus.

You're taking 45 visits. You're like, hey, Ed Milet, let's get him to be. This guy's going to be leading off for us for three years. We've got boom, boom, boom, boom, Pac-10, SEC. I'm like, hey, great. campus. And I'm interviewing you now. Just so you know. And you're the one who played 12 years in the big league. So it all works out. Okay.

You're on my show talking about your big league career. Is that incredible? It's incredible. It's incredible. It's so true. So I go to University of Richmond, bro. I end up starting my freshman year. I have a good freshman year. Freshman all-American. Like, you know, I mean, in that living old. Yeah. But I'm still developing as a player. My sophomore year, I do well. And I go to Cape Codley. And you obviously know, that's your ticket. If you can get to the Cape, you know, in that year, Todd Helton was there at Durner. That was there. some good players, right?

Have a really good summer, hit like 340 with the wood bat, you know, almost, you know, lead league and RBIs. And the only reason I say that is because it's the part of the story. I go back my junior year and I be and I and I, and I hit 461 and I'd led and C. Division 1, NCAA, and batting. Four-sixty-one. Incredible. So I think back to three years earlier or six years or seven years earlier, I'm asking my dad to go talk to the freshman high school coach because I'm not playing. And he just gives me the lesson of you've got to work harder.

You've got to put the time in. You've got to start being accountable for what you do. Set new routines. What are your habits after school? All that stuff. And then for me, then all started to develop. I look back and like seven years later. Gosh.

With the, like you talk about, the compound pounding, that pinata effect of the invisible games, all that stuff. Seven years later in the NCAA Division I champion. That is freaking incredible. And I become a second round pick of the Cleveland Indians. Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show. far don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify links are in the show notes

now on to our next guest all right Ed it's so great to have you here on the Learning Leader show welcome in pleasure to be here and you know I told him a fan of your work for a while so it's great to finally join you it means a lot to me the feeling is mutual going back to earlier in your life your athletic career so we have that in common right at college sports in your athletic career I can tell looking at you just jacked and instilled amazing shape, but your career was cut short by an injury. Can you share more about what athletics meant to you and then how you felt when it got cut short based on getting hurt?

Yeah, athletics for me was the only place, man, where I felt any confidence. When you're raised with anxiety or, you know, dysfunction your family, dysfunction could be they didn't love you and didn't tell you they loved you enough. They didn't give you enough water, you know, fighting, divorce, bankruptcy. You know, one version of child neglect is a parent not chasing their dream. That's a form of neglect. It's an insidious one that most people don't appreciate. But a parent not living their full potential, installs that software on that child.

That's a form of neglect if you're a parent. And so when my career ended, it probably ended something that would have ended anyway. You know, quite frankly, it's a hidden blessing. But at the time, it was devastating because it was my only dream. And it ended. And I was really lost for quite a long time. sort of flailing away, trying to find who I was because the mistake I made, this is true for a lot of executives listening to this too, I'd link to my identity to what I did. My identity was what I

did or what I accomplished or what I had. It's a very dangerous way to live because that stuff changes and sometimes it goes away. And now I learn my identity is who I am as a man, the decisions I make, the way I live my life, the way I treat other people. And I'll never again allow, I'm, you know, become pretty wealthy guy and got jets and houses and islands and all this stuff. But I'll never allow my identity be tied to things I do because that's fleeting. And I know many, many people have climbed the corporate ladder. They finally get that position. They finally get that influence. They're like, wow, I thought I'd feel differently. I thought it was be more. I thought it would be better. And that's because their identities tied to what they do. And that's a shallow way

to live your life. And that's something I had to learn in that moment when my identity disappeared, which was baseball. Now, if you fast forward and see that you've gained immense wealth, like you said, the planes, the cars, the houses, the islands, you got the Richard Branson type stuff going on. But even I noticed, like I think, as you know this as a podcast host, you learn a lot in the first few seconds when you meet somebody prior to pressing record.

And sometimes people flip a switch and kind of go into. character once that you hit your cord. You have been the same guy from the second we started. And one thing I noticed, too, is an immense amount of humility, which I'm not going to lie. Like, I was pleasantly surprised, Ed, because you could have easily not have that based on all of the other stuff that you've accomplished. How do you, how do you think about that? I'm curious of humility in the role, not just like fake humility, which we all have seen some. I'm talking genuine, real. Hey, man, it's good to get to know you of.

Listen to your show. Like, you can tell, like, this is real. And that, to me, is like a really, a key cog when I think about your future. It's like, how does it not continue to go like this when you have this humility about you? Thank you. By the way, great question. It's one of the most important things in my life with people I want around me is humility. Well, one, I'm a faith-based person.

So I'm not, I don't think that everything that's happened in my life is just me. That does not mean I haven't busted my tail. But I know there's an element of blessing. Quite frankly, there's been a little luck too, right? I've made my own luck, but there's a little bit of luck. The second thing is I know how, you know, fragile it is. It could go away. And so I don't really catch up too much in that stuff.

But the big thing is this. The people that I like the most, like I try to surround myself with, also have a ton of self-confidence, by the way. I think there's a nuance. I want people that nuance this line, and it's not an easy way to live. I mean, it's difficult to find this balance. Tremendous self-confidence with humility. Because we all know really self-confident people that don't have any humility.

What happens? They're not curious. They don't grow. They usually finally flame out and make mistakes because they believe their own press clippings, right? Then we also have friends that are really, really humble with no self-confidence, and you're dragging their butt through life all the time, right? come on, man, we can do this. You're not a victim. So I try to have a lot of self-confidence with the degree of humility. And most of the people I surround myself with have that as well.

I like curious people. I want to grow. What a ridiculous way to live to not be curious, to not want to learn. Like I people go, why do you even do your show? It's not a financial win for me, right? I love people. I love learning from people. I'm watching you. Your level of preparation. I'm like, all right, I got to up my game a little bit. How does he know about these index cards with my dad? Like, that's not a very public thing. So I'm always trying to grow. I get in an Uber.

You can ask my wife. Do you always have limo drivers? No, I take a lot of Uber's. Why? I want to meet real people. Man, and automatically, everyone will tell you. If I have a server in a restaurant, tell me your story, what's your story? I had a guy drive me yesterday really quick.

Guys from Lebanon, right? Driving. He's got a kid at Harvard, a kid at Yale, and a kid at Stanford. He's driving an Uber to put them. through school. And I'm like, tell me about your family. How did they get? Well, education's important. Tell me about Lebanon. I didn't want to get out of the car. It was like a 20 minute ride. I'm like, I'm like extending the drive. You know, I wanted to learn more about this man. What a fascinating man. You get into who they're asked guys probably to making him three, two kids in an Ivy League and another one at Stanford.

What a remarkable man. And I'm like, tell me about your wife. You must have an amazing wife to have these three kids. And he's lightened up about his wife. We met when we were 14. I said, oh, man, I met my wife in kindergarten. We started dating when I was 14. That's the juice of life is to have humility. It's where you learn and you reach people.