THE ED MYLETT SHOW - When Your Dream Ends w/ Eric Wood

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

Every ending is the beginning of something great… First-round draft pick, 9 years in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Pro Bowler, and an amazing athlete I am so excited to have my friend, Eric Wood on The Ed Mylett Show! Not only is this man a peak performer, but he has also mastered the art of pivoting and found great success in life after football. Most collegiate and professional athletes have an extremely difficult time transitioning from life in the game to a life after sports because, by nature, we often define WHO we are by WHAT WE DO! And this is NOT THE CASE! And I’m sure some of you can relate to this. Over the last year, MANY of us have found ourselves in a position where we were forced to PIVOT. Whether we lost a loved one, lost a job, had to figure out homeschooling, working from home, had to shift your entire business model, or even shut down a business. While it may feel like your dreams are on hold or you feel cheated out of your dreams, this is a time to rely on your FAITH that God’s got your back! What do some of the most successful people in many areas have in common? Their ability to CONSTANTLY pivot, their ability to STACK GOOD HABITS, and their FAITH that things are happening for them and not to them. In this interview, Eric breaks down KEY STRATEGIES on how to shift your identity from being defined by what you do to being defined by WHO YOU ARE. We break down the key qualities and habits that all the GOATS practice on a daily basis that fuel them to greatness. AND you’ll learn how Eric was able to identify and use his natural gifts to pivot his life and find success after football. Whether you’re an athlete, a teacher, entrepreneur, parent, business person, or anything in between, you MUST learn this lesson of PIVOTING! 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈  → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK  ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE

This is the Edmmerlidge show. Welcome back to Max out everybody. My guest today, I like him a great deal. He's become a good friend of mine and we're getting to know each other even better and better. He played nine years in the NFL, Pro Bowl, or first round draft pick. And ironically, with all of his accolades as an athlete, it's not why I wanted him on the show. I wanted him on the show because he's a good man. He's articulate. And he understands pivoting. So many of you at this time are at a stage where maybe the dream you had is on hold,

or you've got to make changes, or it's over and you've got to come up with a one. And Eric Wood, more than anybody you were probably ever going to meet can relate to that. And so Eric, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you here, brother. It's an honor. It's truly a pleasure to be on with you, Ed. Eric's also got a great podcast that I was just recently a guest on so you can check that out too. He's doing all kinds of TV stuff for the NFL. He's a really unique man, guys. You're going to find this out in the interview. His ability to articulate his thoughts and teach you things is remarkable.

Remember, again, as we go through this, so you're talking about an elite level athlete. And a lot of the insights into what made him a good athlete, have also made him a good husband, father, and now business man. So let's start with the pivot first because there are literally millions of people right now, brother, that as you know, or like, hey, I had this dream,

COVID game or circumstances came or a divorce game and I got a pivot. You had the ultimate pivot. So take everybody through what happened with you. I think everyone's going to, their breath will be taken away by these moments that happened to you in your life. So tell them the story. Yeah, so I got to play. I was a first round draft pick to the Buffalo Bills played my entire nine year career with the Bills was extended by them contract-wise twice. Before my ninth season in the NFL, it was my final year on my second deal up there. I contemplated whether I wanted to maybe hit free agency or stick around with the Buffalo Bills. They had just hired Sean McDermott and

Brandon Bean, and I truly trusted their vision for the organization. I signed a contract extension before my ninth season, the 2017 season. That season was special, Ed. I'll never win a Super Bowl as a player, but when you break a 17 year playoff drought in the fashion that we did down in Miami,

we watched the Bengals beat the Ravens in the locker room, descended to the playoffs after we had won the game. Truly one of the most fun, joyful moments of my entire life. We go down to Jacksonville, we lose to the Jaguars in the first round of the playoffs. And I never liked to describe this as a win-win situation, but my wife was ready to pop with our son Garrett. And so I was either going to miss the birth of my son and we were going to win in the playoffs where I was going to be able to go home and be a part of that. So the season ends. I'm the only player on the team that played 100% of the snaps that year, which is pretty rare in the NFL, because you think you could either be beating a team really bad and you'd take it out,

you could be losing really bad and you'd get taken out. And then just inevitably throughout the season, there's a, your shoe could come off. But much, but generally it's getting hurt, you know, realistically. Only player on the team to play 100% of the snaps. I was an alternate for the pro ball and there was two centers in the, in the playoffs. So the chances of me likely going to the pro ball pretty good. So I told our team doctor at the end of the season, everyone gets an exit physical. That's your last step before the off season. And I said, look, I'm good. I'm the only player that played all the snaps. Send me home. I'm going to get out of here because I'm going to go catch the birth of my son. He said, well, you had these stingers this

year. Just go get an emerald on your neck. I said, my buddies in high school got stingers. Like, I'm fine. Send me home. I've done the Joe Thiesman leg break. I broke my other leg on Monday night football. I did ACL, PC, all Adam and Niscus. I've been through the ringer. These are stingers, I'm fine. I reluctantly get an MRI two days later, as I'm waiting in the hospital room for the birth of my son,

45 minutes before he's born, I get the news that my career is over. And it shocked me, and that happens to a lot of guys, but honestly in that moment, I just felt cheated because I felt like I had put in so much work to that point. I mean, I had so much joy on a day-to-day basis in that facility. I was a captain for three years,

should have been five. Rex Ryan doesn't do captains. He does game captains. So I should have had that big gold patch on my jersey. And I loved it. I loved everything about playing football. I loved the competitiveness, the camaraderie, the preparation.

I loved it all. And in that moment, I just, I was crushed honestly. But I kept thinking to myself, man, God is going to do something so special with this. I'm going to pivot. I'm going to be, I'm going to be roaring. And I don't know how many people are feeling that at this moment of their life, or COVID maybe has taken a loved one, or their career, their business that they've thought so hard to build.

And maybe you're not quite out of it. And I'm three years removed from that ad, and I've gotten to build these wonderful relationships. I'm in broadcasting now, which I truly love. But I think it's a constant state of pivoting as opposed to one day when you just think, okay, I've arrived at my next step of my journey. Really good point. I mean, I want everybody to picture this. This is a guy I got one college scholarship offer. Didn't play till his junior year to get the scholarship offer. And so being in the pinnacle of his career, signs a brand new deal. In the waiting room for the birth of his son, the future's perfect.

Gonna have a baby married to his dream woman, get a renew for a bunch of money. It's over. And so Eric can relate to what so many of you are going through. Now you said something Eric, I want to ask you about this. You said the one hand you're like, Hey, this is devastating. Did you really in that same moment in the moment go, but God's got some big plan for me? Or did this sort of a curtee with some perspective down the road? Or was it where you holding both thoughts at the same time? I wish it happened in that moment. Honestly, when my son came 45 minutes later, you're so distracted from the moment. And of course, like most players would do, we sought a bunch of different opinions from that moment on too. So over the next couple of weeks, it's this limbo of watching the playoffs, my family's wondering, how are we going to get Garrett down to the

pro bowl? He's going to be two weeks old. but my daughter went, when she was six months old, and we flew her to Hawaii. So we're like, of course, we can go to Orlando from Louisville, Kentucky with a two week old. You know, we'll make it work. In this whole time in my mind, I knew that it was done. I got to see the X-ray of Disgum bone sitting into my spinal cord at C2, C3.

And that's loss of respiratory function and paraplegia from the neck down if you have any damage. And I had it sitting into my spinal cord. I don't know why or how I wasn't affected more than just the stingers. And many doctors got to tell me that you are very lucky to walk away. And they said, even with surgery,

you'll never pass a physical again. So it's all for nothing. Right, it's not gonna happen. You can keep fighting this. No one will ever clear you. And I'll give you some perspective, Ed. I know what being disabled looks like. My little brother was born with severe cerebral palsy.

He never walked, talked, breathed on his own. He died when he was 11 years old. I was 14 at the time. I have a picture of what that looks like. And so to get that news and be able to picture myself in my own brother shoes, and what could have happened or should have happened, you're at this crossroads of,

grateful that it's not worse, but also devastated that you're faced with this. Wow. Now see, I did not know that about your brother. See everybody, I want you to just hear what he said there if you have had a dream end or a relationship end or you're just gonna have to pivot. We're gonna talk about the steps Eric took here in a minute.

So it's gonna be some note taking as well. But, you know, there is a hidden blessing in it. You think there's none. You don't know what could have been worse had you stayed in those circumstances. I mean, you just, you never know. There could have been, had you stayed in those circumstances. I mean, you just you never know. There could have been driving to the place you used to work. You could have been in a car accident that you're no longer in because you don't drive there anymore. You have to have some faith that everything is happening for you and not to you and that that is a true

principle of life that God's got your back. And we'll talk about faith a little bit, but to think brother in all this devastating news that you were one hit, one play, one anything, one slip in the shower, right? Like one squat wrong in the gym away from being in that situation. So there's a ton of blessing in there, but you've managed to make it a blessing. And I know, you know, you guys, we're recording this right after the playoffs. He's watching as some of his old teammates in the playoffs right now. So this is how mentally tough this guy is. But you had to remake your identity, I think, too. Like I, or correctly, if I'm wrong, but a lot of times many of us are identity is tied to something external. So if you've had a marriage and perhaps you're part of your identity was being in that relationship,

or in your case, I'm an NFL football player. Most athletes who lose a career, suddenly or not suddenly, having unbelievably difficult time of ever creating a new identity. Maybe you are a high school athlete or a really good student or you're just changing and your identity is tied to this other thing you were doing. So how did you change that Eric? How did you change

this idea from a football player into maybe the identity is not now what I do but who I am. I'm not sure what your answer would be but I'm really curious I think a lot of people would like to know. Yeah, so throughout my NFL career I always pride in myself on having a foundation outside of football in an incredible family. You mentioned, I married the woman of my dreams and I have my family, my extended family, that all supports me. Great friends, I have my faith. I had some business stuff going.

I had a foundation where, I'm not quite all football. I'm more than just a football player, but you realize that maybe that's not the case when it's taken away. And you find out that next morning, when every day for the previous 15 years, my goal was to be the best center in the National Football League. From the second I walked on the Louisville football campus.

When you step into your shoes the next morning, and it doesn't matter if you go workout, it doesn't matter what time you get up. Yeah, I want to be a great dad of great husband, but what am I trying to be the best in the world at? What am I going to try to chase? And when there's not a clear cut vision for that, man, it's tough. And that sent me on a journey to figure out what was next for me, my podcast is titled What's Next with Eric Wood, because I went on a journey to try and meet people like Ed Mylett in the countless other people to figure out what was next for me.

And I got some advice early on, and that was the quip worrying about myself so much. Like you're making this way too much about you, get outside yourself and start serving others. And it's amazing when my mentality quip being about, man, what am I going to do next? What am I going to pivot into? How do I now be the best broadcaster?

How do we take our gym to the next level? How do I lose more weight? Whatever it may be, and just start serving others, it was amazing the people that God started to connect me with, to start give me more clarity that man, life is a journey. And it's not a sprint either. You know, I'm three years removed from that. It's amazing that me and Ed recorded on my podcast, on my son's birthday exactly three years later. Ed's the biggest guest I've had on my podcast.

He's the biggest guest that most people will have on their podcast. He's one of the most phenomenal speakers in the world. So Ed comes on my podcast. He's one of the most phenomenal speakers in the world. So here comes my podcast, that's three years. Great. It wasn't a one month deal, it wasn't one week later. I think in my mind when I got that injury, I said, man, God's gonna do something so crazy.

He gave me this platform through sports and he's just gonna take me off. Well, Monday night football didn't call. My football didn't call. I wasn't speaking at that next big conference and that's okay because I needed to grow internally as well. Brother, you're gold. Like you're gold. And what you are doing, by the way, thank you for saying that. I certainly won't be the biggest guest long term as for Don't Sure. But I gotta say to you that, you know, a as for Don't Sure, but I got to say to you that,

you know, a couple of things you said, I just want to unpack. Guys, there's so much depth to what Eric just said. That's why I wanted Eric on. And you're watching why I wanted him on. So here's what really happened. He's being humble. One of the reasons that Eric made a pivot and that one of the things I would recommend to you is Eric obviously had some natural giftedness. This is not a small man. So he was gifted with some physical strength with some mental toughness, but probably not the type of physical strength that the grade of the grades had, but certainly had some giftedness. What he did post his career is he took an inventory. He had those gifts, could he use those again. What are some of my other two or three gifts that I know I have? Clearly when you listen to Eric, it is his ability to articulate. It's his ability to communicate verbally, to take thoughts and

very rare skill to think something, to say it the way you think it. So when I met Eric, I said to him immediately, 15 minutes into our conversation, I go, okay, I get it. Your calling is to be in broadcasting, your calling is to be speaking, your calling is to be in podcasting, probably ministering in some small way eventually at some point too in your own unique way. And so for those of you looking to pivot, I just want wanna add to what he's saying. Taking inventory of your gifts that made you successful previously, and maybe you'll use those same gifts

as Eric said in the service of others, or are there a couple, two or three you haven't dusted off in a long time or never used, that might be the pathway to your pivot. So I just wanna acknowledge what Eric said there and just add my spin to it. Now, here's the other thing you've done really well. And I love how you say this.

You didn't get to be, you know, the only scholarship you got was Louisville to go from that to a first round pick to a pro bowl or casually. So what's the difference? I love how you say this of being committed and not just interesting. Because I think most people are just interested in their dream, interested in changing their life. What's the difference? A commitment is a daily sacrifice. A commitment to anything is daily steps. It's not a one-time thing.

When I speak often to teams, I talk about when I was a junior in high school, I didn't even start on our football team. Wow. But there was always coaches around playing on a pretty good high school team. And we had this practice player of the day jersey in basketball. And I was probably a hard worker, but I wasn't that hard of a worker. You know, I never, you wouldn't look around the high school and say, Eric Wood is the hardest worker that we have. Well, I wanted that practice player of the day, Jersey, every single day because when the college coaches came around to recruit people for basketball or football, I had a different color jersey on.

So throughout that entire basketball season, I kept it the entire year after every practice we voted on who got the practice player of the day jersey. And it wasn't pure points. It was a lot of it was effort. And I kept it the entire season because I said, I can't let someone else have this on if Louisville shows up tomorrow. If university since the night, whoever may be walks in that door, I got to have it on. Well, months and months and months of making

myself push myself to the limit, Will you become accustomed to that? You become callous to that. And then it became uncomfortable for me to not be the hardest worker to the point where I went to the university and I set our strength and conditioning record with Joe Ken, big house Joe Ken. He only strength coached ever be a national strength coach of the year in the NFL and in college.

I broke his all-time conditioning record at 300 pounds. And, you know, I could get into my brother never got the walk, so how am I ever going to complain about running? And I would take that mindset to it. But honestly, I think it was that basketball season where I just started to ingrain myself, and then it became uncomfortable not doing those things. And so, it started with a commitment to working hard. I've really started to enjoy the preparation that comes with it. And that translates the business to anything, not going to be late. I'm going to be prepared. I am not going to show up, not ready to roll. And it's just you do enough of those things and you stack enough habits that become autopilot. Everyone warns you don't leave your life on autopilot.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was, don't get somewhere 15 years down the road on autopilot in which you hadn't got there. But if you can make enough habits autopilot in your life, then you can start stacking those things. And it's amazing what happens five years later. I read my first year at Louisville, so I spent five, four and a half years there.

And then you end up a first round draft pick. And then you get to the Buffalo Bills and just receive some incredible advice when I got there. Someone said, watch the undrafted free agent work, and he better never outwork you. If you want to be the best, you outwork every undrafted free agent, and you put that first round draft pick title beside you. And it was just habits stacking over and over, taking advice that people gave me. And it's amazing with conscious effort, looking come from that. Speaking of the so good brother, I'm eating this though, as I knew it was going to be this good. So I knew we would be speaking of advice. I just have an inclination about you just with your humility.

You have that thing I talk about where inclination about you just with your humility. You have that thing I talk about where you really nuance confidence and humility together. I don't think enough people want to be coached hard. And I sense in you, you know, being a former athlete myself, not anywhere near to the level that you were.

I kind of know when I'm around someone who wants to be coached hard and I was surprised at the higher levels I got it. Some guys, even at the highest levels, don't want to be coached hard in business and personal development. Somebody feels like, I want to mentor, but they don't want to be coached real hard. They don't want to be accountable. They want to choose the way they're spoken to. You don't get to choose the way you're talked to. So speak about that. When my right, did you like hard coaching and how critical is that? If If you're gonna get somewhere, I love feedback.

Like, you didn't do this right. I'm like, thank you. I want to know. Any more than if I was dropping my elbow when I was hitting, I want to know if I'm making a mistake in business. So speak about that, because I think that's a subtle separator nobody talks about.

Yeah, I honestly take that being coachable aspect to every part of my life. I like to play golf now. I refuse to just go practice bad habits. I take a weekly golf lesson to make sure that I'm not practicing the bad things over and over. I take it to my house. I have my wife every week,

give me a grade as a husband and dad. I got some phenomenal advice from someone. Every week reach out to your wife. Ask her to shoot you a text and you can't respond with anything besides thanks, baby, I love you. So pour into me. I want to hear what I'm doing wrong because I want to take my same approach on my marriage,

but in football, it was always natural. You go to the, on the practice field, everything's on video, you analyze it after practice, you get in the meeting rooms. Every rep step hand placement is judged. That's what I was used to. And I saw results because of that. One of the hardest things for me transitioning into podcasting, broadcasting, speaking is the lack of feedback.

And I've almost had to, I feel like I'm bugging people at times because people aren't used to it. But there's a lot of people that don't like that feedback. So I think over time, they stopped giving it as much. And so I've reached out, I've had to pay people to look at my podcast, tell me what I'm doing wrong. And in its little things, Ed, it's, hey, quit asking people two questions because when you ask them two questions at once,

they either only answer the first one halfway because they're still thinking about the other one or you make a fool out of them because they have to ask you again. I'm like, I never knew that. And so I think coaching, being coachable in life in all aspects of your life is just beyond important. It is, and it's one of the things no one talks about.

So I'm gonna tell you, most people take hard coaching personally. It hurts their self-esteem and you can't be that way. And you can't choose the way you're spoken to. You can't choose the methodology, you know, the way you're receiving it. This is such a huge thing because I've seen that in you. You've asked me for advice already. We just were getting to know each other.

So go ahead. You wanted to jump in there, jump in. I talk a lot about how the timing of my curending was, I think, a God thing. Six months prior to my career ending, a teammate of mine in Buffalo was forced to work with a therapist or a life coach. I hope too many people don't try and read between the lines there. I was his accountability partner. So I asked this coach that he had, I said, okay, well, if I was working with you, where would you start? He said, well, you talk about your daughter Grace a lot. She's two years old. 15 years from now, pretend like she's introducing you to her high school class. How does she describe

you? I said, well, give me a few minutes. He said, well, I'll just paint a couple scenarios. She could say, this is my dad, Eric. He is my best friend. He's come to every recital game I've ever had. He was a great football player, but he's so special to me. Or she could say, this is my dad. He was a football player. He took that success into the business world. He's a tycoon in the business world.

He's built all these businesses. You'll learn so much from him. Those are two great things. Just don't show up at one by accident. And I said, oh man, all right, when do we start? So I actually started professional executive coaching six months prior to my career ending. And I talk about being coachable everywhere in your life. I didn't know to write out core values. I didn't learn to write out a morning routine to live by. I wasn't meditating.

I got taken to a different level, and I basically had a six months preparation to transfer into the real world, the non-sports world, because as an athlete, to pull back the covers on the locker room, yeah, it's a ton of fun. It's like, you laugh harder on a day-to-day basis in there. One day, it's a ton of fun. It's it's like it's you laugh harder on a day-to-day basis in there one day

It's country music. It's rap music. It's fighting over the stereo. It's jokes. It's games. It's filling a guy's car up with packing beads like it's fun But you don't always progress don't always progress socially like maybe your buddies that have to transition into working right away because you're still playing a kids game. Very good point. By the way, one of my questions in the future in the interview was take us into that locker room.

And for me, I miss games. I don't miss practice or anything. I do miss the locker room. I miss the time with the dudes. It's why I like golf, because I at least get a little mini slice of that for three or four hours. But what you said there, there's so much in what you're saying, but I think one of the things that you talk about when being coached to is that I want you guys to picture the

humility that's required. You're an NFL football player. What's the thing about this? A starting NFL football player, a dad gum good one, you're gonna probably make another pro ball. Think about the humiliates this, will you coach me? Cause I find the higher people climb, the more their limitation is by, I think I know this.

People are surprised often, people that work with me or even for me in some cases. I'll ask for their feedback. They're like, you want feedback from me? I'm like, yes, you see things with a set of eyes. I don't. You don't only learn from people who are further down the road than you. Oftentimes, you can learn a whole lot from about everybody if you're willing to receive

it. So I love that you sought that out and grabbed a hold of it. Now, I ask you about the locker room a little bit, but I'm really clear. It's about this. You've been really good post your career at connecting with people. Obviously, it didn't hurt that you were an NFL football player, but I didn't connect with you because you played football. Right. I connected with you because you regularly communicated with me. I saw value in you. But if I'm listening to this, like, look, one of the keys to getting next levels, I do need

to get coached and I do need some mentors. How do I learn to connect better with people so that they will pay attention to me and help me? What would your council be? Serve them. Figure out a way to elevate them, whether that's their business then personally. If you want to connect with someone, me and Ed's first interaction was, he posted a podcast with Phil Michelson. I'm a big golf fan and I just put it on my Instagram story and said this is an unbelievable interview. Ed said thank you and I said no worries big fan of the show. A month later I asked Ed I said hey I started this podcast I don't think we're doing it right. I don't know. Can you connect me with someone from your team and Ed said I'll do it myself and actually send me back an audio message, because I

didn't, you know, I don't know if he's running his own social media. All I did was post Ed's deal, but there was, it wasn't a, how can I get on Ed's show? That was two years ago, you know? So, so it's amazing, just by serving people, by trying to elevate them, to just speak to them, to teach them something, what can come back to you in the end. So true. And I think people think they underestimate that, well, everybody does that with you. You'd be surprised. There's a lot of reciprocity in life.

And the more that you do seek to serve first, you'd be surprised, no matter who it is, people have asked me, you know, some of the people that I coach, you know, how did you end up meeting them? It might not have been them, but there's someone else they're connected to that I did serve who then they then refer me to somebody. And so that is one of the absolute legitimate ways that you can distinguish yourself. And Eric still does it. You know, there's just little things, you know, and I do it as well.

You send a gift here or there that's just like special and unique or guys, a handwritten note to somebody. You just be surprised by what that does. You talked about routines. I'm curious about yours now. It's probably a little bit different than when you played, but what does a routine look like for you?

Do you have a morning or an evening routine? And if you do, what does that look like at your level? Yeah, I actually have both. And evening routine is something I've just started implementing because I found that there was a blind spot there in my evenings. When I was playing, I was 310 pounds. I'm around 250 now, depending if I'm taking Cree-A-T

and I'm up five pounds, if I'm lifting, if I'm golfing more, I'm right around 250 pounds. So my days look a whole lot different. Every day when I was playing started with some type of high calorie shake and end with one. When I got done, I had to switch those habits up because I was just going to the cabinet. So I generally implement some intermittent fasting in my life, which is basically just a guardrail of stay out of the pantry during these times. But when I wake up in the morning, I have I go straight, brush my teeth, I do my memory verse, try to do a Bible verse or a quote once a week and I talk about habits stacking. I'm

already going to be brushing my teeth. Well, what can I do on top of that to enhance my life? The Bible says, your words are the overflow of your heart. Whatever you're pouring into yourself is gonna flow out of your mouth. There's times I hear myself on a podcast and I'm like, where are those words even come from? It's podcasts, it's books, it's reading Bible. So then I head into my pantry.

I take my morning supplements and then in a shaker bottle I put apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, turmeric, creatine, and pink Himalayan salt, chug that down. And for me, I had a brain doctor tell me that all those spices are good for you. Well, I'll just knock them all out first thing in the morning. Then I had I had into my office for a little bit of quiet time that looks different some days from others, but generally it's a devotional. It's a gratitude journal. It's a some light reading of whatever I'm doing.

If I got a lot of my mind, it might be 10 minutes of meditation, just to clear my mind and then get going on the day. I love physical activity in the morning and I think this comes from playing, but I never truly feel like I'm woken up until I get the blood flow going. And so we own a gym in Louisville. So a lot of times I'll head over there. If it's a busy season of life, it's it's heading down and begging some weights or hitting a cycle class. I'm I bike down here, but it's getting moving in the morning, and then I mentioned the evening routine for me. I was waking up and I feel blind now, thinking about it, but not planning out my next morning

the night before and taking an account of what happened that day and truly appreciating what happened that day. It, because otherwise, there's two types of autopilot, we talked about good and bad, get on that autopilot and you don't truly appreciate some of the victories, celebrate victories throughout your life where

maybe you remember at the next morning when you're in your gratitude journal, but maybe you don't, maybe you don't remember that one conversation that funny moment with your son or daughter, think about those things that night, fuel yourself. And that evening routine is honestly, I feel like helped me just from some inner peace.

By the way, you've hit the area that I'm working on. So I have a morning in Eden, you've seen I've written about in my book, I talk about it a lot, but if I'm really being honest to everybody, and this is everyone will agree with this. Eric's nailed something here. Most of us in this day and age you come up with a morning routine.

Because you're awake, it's the beginning of your day. You're like, I got to do this stuff right. The evening we're all weaker. We're more tired. There's more distractions. Typically, television is involved in our life. And, you know, lovey-novy time. All these other things can happen in the evening. If you've got kids, put your kids to bed. That's the part for me. I'm like, where can I separate this year? What's something? I have an evening routine, but it ain't that great. I need to be more wired in the evening. Little thing I'm doing everybody, seems silly.

I'm laying my clothes out now every single night for the next day. You think, why do I do that? It's just one less thing to think about. It's just one less thing I've done to prepare. It's autopilot when I walk in. And for me, that's usually my workout clothes, because that's the first thing I'm gonna do. But they're just laid out there

my socks, my stuffs all there. And it just tells me, hey, man, I'm ahead of the curve here. So it seems small, but it's one of those things that I've added to mine as well. You talked a lot about devotionals and faith. And I know enough lately from being around you that it's a center part of your life. But how important is faith in your life? And what would you say to somebody, you know, maybe looking for more faith in their life right now?

Faith has not always been an important part of my life. A lot of times it takes being broken down to come to the point where you need a relationship with Christ or you need faith, whatever religion that may be. But for me, it's a non-denominational Christian. I've done enough digging. I've basically determined in my life that I believe Jesus rose from the dead. There's a whole lot of apologetics books that if you can read those and not think that this dude Jesus wasn't a real person that showed back up. And if you can believe that, then you can believe the rest of everything that goes on. And for

me that's been the foundation of my life and honestly the way I was turned on to Christianity was when I got out of college and I started being around these athletes that I wanted to aspire to be like the ones in the bills locker room they were all Christians and the guys that I was meeting around the country, they generally had a pretty strong faith. The best dad's the best husband's. I'm not saying that there aren't men of faith that I don't know that are true,

rock stars in their life. That, you know, I'm not saying that, but the ones I was around were. And I was looking at these common denominators in all their lives. So I said, man, what is this about this, this Jesus guy? What is this? And just over time, I just started seeing it show up in my life, man,

I was like, temper started to, to diminish, especially at home, being able to turn off that switch, leaving the football field coming home. And just little by little, it's just been amazing. Just the peace that has come from my relationship with Jesus Christ in my life. It's beautiful. For me, same thing, a little bit of calming of my temper. I think everybody's kind of got this edge to them

that's successful and that's one thing I wanted to touch on. So you guys are listening to Eric. He's obviously this incredible man. Seems like a gentle man, too, doesn't he? Right? Like a kind man. Yet he dispensed violence for a living on Sundays, right? And so I want to ask you about that kind of duality. And here's why I ask everybody, this is where the podcast gets so good, I think. You're a complex person, everyone, even though you may think you're simple. And sometimes there's two sides to your personality.

And oftentimes the one that maybe you don't like all the time, you use to discredit the good you. And you think, well, because I'm, you know, maybe I've lied before or because I have this lazy side to my personality, that just qualifies me from my deep vision. No, you're just complex. You got both sides. Eric's a pretty good example of this. There's this really gentle kind man, but your job was to basically punish people for a living as an offensive lineman in the league. So if you ever reconcile that or thought about that, explored that in yourself, that both sides of the coin with you. Yeah, I mean, that's one thing with NFL players that you're going to,

you're playing a violent game for a living. And that's okay. You're playing a game. There's rules. You're playing within the rules. It's okay to be violent. You're using the gifts that God gave you to go support your family to try and create generational wealth, to make an impact on society. There's violence involved with that. I heard your podcast recently with the woman in the MMA and she talked about how she wasn't great until she came to grips with it's okay to punish that other person. And I thought that was gold when she said that.

But yes, and it's all about doing within the confines of the game. I had a press conference when I first got the buffalock cringe thinking back at it now, but they said, what do you like about football so much? I said, you get to do stuff on a football field that you get arrested for in public. And I kind of met it. I grew up, I was a little bit of a fighter. Even on the football field, I, we used to joke that I would set the record for most fights

in practice. I would always say, but I always just said, it's, it's a laziness thing from other people. They're mad at me because I'm going hard. And I say that from a, from a sense of humility now. But I would say that at the time, like, I'm going hard enough that it ticked them off bad enough that they wanted to fight me. But it's amazing. We can think about all the times in NFL practices. So picture this said, I played on one playoff team in nine years. So towards the end of the season, you're always picking up guys.

Guys are getting cut. Will your beat up come week 15? Well, now you got this practice squad defensive lineman coming in. He's trying to get elevated and you're coming off of your 14th game in a row. Beat up. Well, inevitably there's going to be some fights in there like calm down, dude. Nope. I'm trying to make the team. But it's about turning that off. And where if you look at the stats actually NFL players have less issues in society with arrests with domestic violence than the average person. But you gotta realize that as an

athlete you have this opportunity to make an impact because you play a game for a living. You need to take that very, very seriously and be very cognizant of the fact that you got to turn that off. But, I mean, I pride myself on being physical, of finishing people to the ground. That was my style. That's how I led. That's how I tried to lead from the front.

Watch me. I'm going to go, put myself on the line. But then I also took pride in, hey, I'm going to be at Couples Bible Study. I'm going to be gentle with on the line, but then I also took pride in, hey, I'm, I'm going to be at couples Bible study. I'm going to be gentle with my wife. Yeah. Turning it off is huge and I had to learn to do that. And I want everyone to listen to this. Things that make you successful in an area, it's okay to hear that way. Like I've considered myself kind of an intense butt kick and dude in my business life. That's part of my persona, right?

That doesn't work when I come home with my daughter, right? And so I learned to turn it off. That doesn't mean I don't want that part of my personality. And so a lot of you, I mean, I spent a long time not turning it off, by the way. So I know what it's like not to, right? I'm an impatient person in business. I want things done now.

Let's go, quick, move it. Let's make it happen, right? When I'm at home, that doesn't fly. And so all of you evaluate that about yourself. What's working and work may not work in family. They're not all the same things, but that doesn't mean you don't wanna lose your intensity in your business life.

Just learn to turn it off. And that's a very big piece of advice. So let's talk about the best, because I'm loving this. We're gonna go a little longer. Some of the best. So you and I are talking off camera. People are accused me lately of having this Brady fetish, you know.

I am from Boston originally and Tommy's family is a member of a club I belong to. I'm a fan, right? And I don't say a fan means I know him. I just respect him, right? I respect what he's done. What's the difference with, let's just use him as an example. Your thoughts on him, number one, whenever this comes out,

the man's going to his tenth Super Bowl, 14 conference championships. You guys, he's had a, he's had a Hall of Fame career since he was 35 years old. Right. He's been a four to five last Super Bowls for God's sakes, like it's just unbelievable, but you played against him and I think you built a relationship with him that we've talked

about as well. Like what separates him from the really good ones? Honestly, it's his discipline. You're talking about a guy that struggled to be a starter at the University of Michigan was a six round draft pick and And there's been a lot made of that, and he's gotten to the point where he's at in his career, but it's discipline. Tom Brady is never satisfied. And I would argue, I don't wanna pretend like I know every Olympian that's ever competed.

But in the sports that I'm familiar with in the athletes, I would argue that he has discipline himself. He has sacrificed more time, energy, effort into being the best in the NFL than anyone I've ever seen or heard of. I mean, this guy structures his entire years around peaking for the Super Bowl. So in the years that he gets eliminated from the playoffs, he continues to work out through the Super Bowl so that his body is peaking each year at that exact same time. He eliminated a lot of the social things he'd like to do. He's a different person.

When I run into him at the Kentucky Derby now, then he was 10 years ago. He has made continual sacrifice in his life to be the best of the best. I should hate Tom Brady. Played against him 18 times. We beat him when he was suspended for deflagate. We beat the Patriots suspended for deflagate. We beat him when they rested their starters in week 17 and the second half and then one time in 2011, we beat him straight up at home. We went three and a half. That sent them to one and two to start the season. So truly, we beat him one time. I should hate this guy.

But you talk about how you guy. But, but you talk about how you, you know, do you get accused of this Brady fetish? I mean, I have the same man crush because to me, I have so much respect for him. He's also a very cordial, respectful, elevating type of person, but I've talked to guys that play with him. You want to know some of the stuff he does. So Tom, so Rodney Harrison talked about one time how he got to the facility in New England. He leaves the calls. He goes to the Patriots and he gets there like 615 in the morning and Tom said, you sleep in today and Rodney Harrison said, no, he said, so then the next day I got up there at 6, Brady did the same thing. He said, look, Tom, I'm not getting here any early in 6 a.m. I don't care.

But Tom Brady's got that Jordan deal, that Uggs deal. Well, he'll put gifts for people to give to their wives, buddies in the locker room. First five people in the door, take him. Cause he knows he's gonna be the first, so the next five, so we rewards people for working hard as well. And to me, Tom's the goat.

He is the absolute man. He's the end all be all when it comes all this. And it's just not surprised to me one bit to see him have that success that he has down in Tampa. And this doesn't necessarily even need to be a separate like Brady Bell check because the roster that New England rolled out there this year was not very good.

And anywhere Tom Brady goes, he's going to attract talent. We could talk about the law of attraction and positive people. Well, ballers like Tom Brady attract other ballers because people know that Tom Brady is going to win. You're so right. And by the way, there's not one personality type that's a go because, you know, I get the feeling I've been around MJ a couple of times. MJ's got some swagger and he's a cool dude, right? LeBron James seems like a cool dude. Tommy's a little nerdy, you know,

I mean, like he's, you agree with me? Like he's kind of like a aw, shugs goof, you know, like, I don't mean that in a demeaning way, but different personality types can be the greatest ever. Do you agree with that, by the way, with him a little bit? Absolutely. And you want to talk about a guy that can turn it off and on. Listen to him in his post game, 20 minutes after he's custom out dudes on the sideline. I mean, that's a guy that's got a great balance in his post game, 20 minutes after he's cussing out dudes on the sideline. I mean, that's a guy that's got a great balance in his life of being able to compete in a playoff game against Drew breeze. And then 30 minutes later, go out there and throw the football with breeze as kids because he has that much respect for him.

This is a guy who knowing Tom's mentality all week was pitting himself up against Drew breeze. There's no way that Drew breeze ruins my legacy. This and that. And then he's got the respect for that man to go throw the football with his kids knowing that's likely breeze his last game. Couple more things. This is so good, brother.

Competing. So, you know, I'm, I think one of the things you love to do. I love to do is to compete. That's easy when you're playing a sport. This is a subtle thing that makes people great. So everyone listen to this. If you're a mother listening to this, you can still compete. You know what I'm saying?

You can compete to be the best version of you. If you're a stay-at-home dad, you can compete. If you're a business person, if you're in the gym, I believe a separator is people that want to compete. Whether that's against another person or against their personal best or against as good as they could be, but you left something ultra mega competitive.

Everything you did was being evaluated, right? You're getting graded every week. You're playing in actual games and practice. Everything's filmed. It's over. And now you got this vision, you're pivoting, you're doing what you're doing. But have you found a way to get that competitive thing again?

I don't know if the same level is playing professional sports, but is that found a way to get that competitive thing again? I don't know if the same level is playing professional sports, but is that also an element for you that, you know, if you strip that from somebody, I don't know that they're their best and it's not talked about a lot. So what about that with you? Definitely. I mean, I've always been a competitor. I don't care if we're playing cards, ping-pong, golf, football. I'm competitive. I'm not a great loser and that's fine. I hate losing maybe even more than I love winning. I'm that type of guy where I think that everybody needs to compete in their lives right now. I get so careful when I tell people that

because everyone's holding a comparison machine in their hand right now. I'm not asking you to go compete against. I'm not telling my wife to go compete against Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper and you know this idealized I'm not asking you to go compete against. I'm not telling my wife to go compete against Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper and you know, this idealized self that you're seeing from people. And I gotta be really careful with that myself

because I can play, I'm so competitive, I can play that comparison game. Hey, my podcast is not where he is. I'm not in the money and I football booth. I can play that game and not just accept that, man, I have a lot of great things going in my life too. And now it's about making daily steps. It's about daily progress. It's this growth mindset. People talk about why the bills are so good. Now, Sean McDermott preaches growth mindset at all times. And I'm so glad I got to play for him

for a year and continue to be a friend of his. But it's that growth mindset every day where you're competing against yourself where daily progress. And I talked about part of my evening routine is celebrating little victories during the day because I was never doing that. You know, I'd get to this phenomenal news during the day, but it was onto the next thing. And then if you pick up your phone on Instagram and you're like, man, that me and this dude retired at the same time. He's lost more weight than me. He's doing this business-wise.

And so for me, it's this intentional daily, not struggle, but intentionality around just making sure I'm competing against myself and celebrate my own victories. So good. So the lack of competing is holding many of you back. You get a fine place to compete. I'm telling you. However, I'm not going to be able to do this. and celebrate my own victories. So good. So the lack of competing is holding many of you back. You're gonna find a place to compete. I'm telling you, however, that fine line

where it turns into comparison is a killer. And that guy did a whole podcast on it, just myself, just if those of you that are listening, if you haven't heard it, you should go listen to it. But I completely, totally agree with that. I'm just curious, man, if you're being completely transparent the last three years, if you've gone through any depression, I know you got your act together, you're doing TV,

you're growing, you got your podcast, you got a great family. But are there, if you just share, because I wonder if there's just days or weeks or hours where you're like, no, man, I'm just, this all sounds good, but I'm not, I'm not snapping a ball any more in the NFL. And I don't, you know, does that happen?

Or you just, it does not in your personality. Yeah. And I call it who gives a crap mode. You know, you get in this routine daily of, you know, I can, I can try and get a big podcast guess. I can go watch more films. I get a better broadcast deal, but, but who gives a crap? You know, like what's, like there's no one measuring this, you know, there's metrics, but yeah, it just doesn't really matter. And I say this extremely humbly, the game of football

blessed me with a financial circumstance where our lifestyle doesn't change that much. We didn't spend a ton of money while I was playing to where we maintain a, you know, we live in Louisville, Kentucky. We can maintain this lifestyle, whether I go out and compete super hard in business or not. So you get in this, who gives a crap mode? And I have to snap out of that and just remind myself that God has given me gifts to serve others, to encourage others and to pour to my family and lead my family first.

And what am I doing? What's, I'm modeling to a boy every day. I need to model to my daughter, the man I want, heard a Mary, and then I can modeling to a boy every day. I need to model to my daughter, the man I want her to marry, and then I can quickly snap myself out of it. But, you know, especially through this COVID time, I think so many people are waking up to, man, that vision I had isn't quite as clear anymore.

And I would encourage people, people all the time, when my career ended, the thing I hated the most was when someone would say, well, what are you doing now? And I'd say, yeah, I'm just kind of figuring out and I could list a bunch of things. I'm on three foundation boards, including my own foundation in Buffalo. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But I just say, yeah, I'm just figuring out and they say, you know, you're too young to retire. I said, I'm not retired.

I'm not retired. I'm 32. I'm pivoting. I'm figuring out what's next, but I'm not retired. And so, you know, I would encourage those out there during this time that may be struggle with what I call that, who gives a crap mode. And for me, it's less depression and more anxiety, just because I think deep down, I'm always striving to kind of beat that yesterday version of myself that I can put a little bit

of pressure on myself as well. I'm rarely down in the dumps, but there's times where I don't sit down in a day and my wife will have to be like, dude, you got chill out, bro. Like calm down. I'm 100% with you on the Who Gives A Crap and on the anxiety over depression.

I'm more of a warrior anxiety guy than I am a depression guy, but so many of you have this who gives a crap mode and it's different. It's not the same as maybe Eric's or myself where you're like, it doesn't matter. I'm already wealthy. It could be the reverse. We're like, even if I got this done, I'm still broke. Even I got this done. I'm still out of work. Even if I go to the gym, I still got to come back and face this set of problems. Who gives a crap? And you can't do that.

It does matter. Everything matters. Everything stacks. Everything compounds. Little things you're doing can create momentum that could be the catalyst you're meeting that person. You're one decision, one thought, one meeting, one encounter, one moment away from changing your life.

Unless you don't give a crap. You don't give a crap. You're not going to see those moments. So I've loved today, brother. I got one more question for you. First off, everybody go follow Eric on social. What's your Instagram? That's the best place to go to get your show, everything there.

What is it? Yep. At EW7, the podcast is called What's Next with Eric Wood. And then I got a website. It's Ericwoodmedia.com. And everything's kind of combined there. And by the way, he said far more prominent guest to me. He was being nice.

He really said some top athletes on there, fascinating people. And he's a great interviewer, like he's just a great interviewer because he is interested. He does care. All right. Last thing, the show has been about pivoting. You made the ultimate pivot. So I'm listening today. I've listened to the show.

I've learned a ton. I've written notes. And here I am. I'm sitting here. And maybe I'm starting to get an idea of what my gifts are, how I'm going to apply them. What would your advice just be to me, man? If I could get 15 minutes with you, I want to make my dreams come true. I want my daughter in 15 years or whoever it is, my mom and dad, my future children, to say the things I want them to say about me. And I just got to get a little bit of a nudge here. What advice would you say to me if I'm maybe coming to this today, maybe a little bit hurt and maybe a little bit lost,

what would you counsel me on? Man, we've all been given gifts, no matter what we've all been given gifts, analyze in your life what your gifts are. And if you don't know what they are, ask someone who cares about you because they'll be quick to tell you because other people see it in you

and use those gifts to start serving others, to make an impact. And when you start to make an impact, if your goals are to make more money, more money will start coming to you. You will be rewarded for using your gifts to impact others. But honestly, get outside yourself, start serving in a way,

and I'm not necessarily saying drive downtown and start serving the homeless. Start serving your wife, start serving your mom and dad. Try and impact people spread as much joy as you can in your life, and watch the positivity fill up your life, and watch the positive people that God, the universe, whatever you believe,

watch them start to come into your life. And through this extremely tough time, and me and Ed have talked about this, we come to this with a point of no judgment. There's so many people at different circumstances right now because of COVID. But I think there's one commonality in all of us that if we get outside of others and we start outside of ourselves and start serving others. We're going to make an impact and you'll be rewarded for that impact in your life financially through business and your relationships. Brother, Eric would everybody.

So good. This was so good today. And listen everyone, listen, the fact that you listen to this or watch this today, you're in the 1% of the 1% that you're just trying, you're feeding yourself, you're growing, you're after it, you're engaged, right? You're in the 1% of the 1% that you're just trying, you're feeding yourself, you're growing, you're after it, you're engaged, right? You're intentional. Give yourself some credit for that. I told you Eric would be awesome. You guys, I don't just bring athletes on the show. They got to be special to be on this show to share with you. And you saw what specials all about today with Eric Wood. So thank you, brother, so much for being here today. Now thank you. Thank you for the impact that your show,

our relationship has had on my life. For all those out there, keep digging in on Ed's stuff. It will show up in your life. When you fill yourself with the positivity that Ed brings, it's gonna start showing up in your life in your words. And I just can't thank you enough for this opportunity, brother. My honor, man.

Share the show, everyone. Share this with people you believe in, care about, and you wanna help grow. God bless you. Max out. Yeah. Yeah. This is the In My Life Show.

Yeah. you