The School of Greatness - 356 The Power of Positive Self-Talk and Visualization with Super Bowl Champ Steve Weatherford

Episode Date: July 20, 2016

"Your brain is the most powerful muscle you have." - Steve Weatherford If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video and more at http://lewishowes.com/356

Episode number 356 with Super Bowl champion Steve Weatherford. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to a special, incredible interview with the legendary Steve Weatherford.

That's right. My man, my good friend is in town. He was staying at the Greatness Studio with me at my home. And for those that don't know who Steve is, he's a former NFL football punter for the New York Giants. He also played for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the New York Jets. Now, Steve is a dedicated husband, a doting father, an all-around family man, avid health and fitness role model, and a nationally recognized philanthropist and Super Bowl winning punter. Now, through his various initiatives, he has served as a role model to over 100,000 youths

with his primary outreach focused on children, health, fitness, and family. And Steve is one of the most positive human beings I've ever met. Also one of the most shredded, ripped guys that I know. It's pretty impressive just to look at the guy. There's not many men that I'm in awe of looking at, and he is one of those guys. Just super ripped, so dedicated. one of those guys, just super ripped, so dedicated. I don't think I've ever met a guy as dedicated and focused on his health as Steve.

Awesome human being and up to big things. And in this interview, we talk about why he retired from the NFL in the peak of his career, his advice for women who want a man that is driven and how to manage and navigate that. Also, why Steve sees retirement as starting over. The crazy idea that Steve came up with for him and myself to compete against each other in, why he wanted to have a big family since he was 15 and he's got four kids at 33. Also, how to get in the best shape of your life and change one simple mindset shift that could transform your life forever. That and so much more in this episode. Make sure if you're listening or watching right now, go to lewishouse.com slash 356. Share this out with your

friends over on Twitter and Facebook. It's at weatherford five and at lewis house over on twitter share it out let your friends know about it and also watch the full video over on youtube as well and share that also without further ado let me introduce to you the legendary steve weatherford welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legendary Superman himself, Steve Weatherford, in the house. Good to see you, man. You know that that's like the greatest way to butter me. I know, I know.

You know that, you know I love that. The real man of steel is in the building. You know I love that. In Greatness headquarters. You actually crashed here the last two nights so I got to, I feel like I've got some Superman rubbing off on me.

And you definitely Snapchatted me snoring on your couch. I did, yes. Snoring like a pig. It was great. You know, I've never actually

seen or heard myself snore before. It's pretty loud. It's pretty loud. You were on your, you were passed out, man. That's a comfortable couch now. It's not bad.

We've had Olympians sleep on that couch. I was just thinking to myself, we're in the school of greatness HQ. That's it, man. Which is an honor. To me, I feel like this is hallowed ground. I mean, how many amazing people have not only come into this room, but what has reverberated out of this room and inspired including myself like your podcast has made me enjoy running again and i hate running i hear you you know i appreciate it i throw that on and every once in a while like the podcast isn't done and i've

already hit like my keep running and i'm like all right Tay Diggs is gonna go for four more minutes I can make it you know what I mean I like it I like it it's cool man that's good um so for those that don't know who you are you are a 10-year NFL vet you're also all-american in two sports you have a Super Bowl ring and you just retired you were arguably one of the best punters of all time in the NFL but who's keeping track of stats here nobody's I mean I got four beautiful kids too too. Don't forget about that part. Exactly. Four kids, and you're only 33. Pretty amazing, man. You've lived a full life already at 33.

Well, I was just thinking the same thing about you, minus the kids that we know of. I mean, dude, we're both 33. I feel like that's one thing that kind of pulled me towards you when we first met on the summit to see crews uh because you stuck out there like i was a bigger guy there but you're abnormally tall

no i'm not that much taller than you at three two inches what are you inches is a lot yeah i mean if i'm two inches taller than everybody there and you're two inches taller than me you stuck out i don't know how i stuck out because i i in my own skin. You stuck out, big guy. It's good to know. And then, you know, found out like, oh, he's from the Midwest. You know, multiple sport athlete in high school and in college. World record holder.

418 yards receiving. Dude, my stats are like punning stats. Cool. You actually scored touchdowns, bro. What was the longest pun you ever had in a game? High school through pro. 79 yards. That's got to You actually scored touchdowns, bro. What was the longest punt you ever had in a game? High school through pro. 79 yards. That's got to be a record.

In something. I'm sure. What was that? Probably like a record for like the greatest celebration afterwards because what kind of punter celebrates? But I had a good one. Were you guys in the end zone? Yeah, we snapped it from, I want to say it was like that 10-yard line.

So I was like five yards deep in my end zone when I caught the ball. And I ripped it down all the way to like the other 11 or something like that. Wow. But it was real windy that day. We were playing the Iowa Hawkeyes. I've competed in Iowa, man. All I needed to do was like get the ball up in the air because it was like 30-mile plus. And it felt really good.

And then in the next quarter, I had to punt the ball into it. I wasn't celebrating quite as much. Dude, I was competing in the NFL. It's a humbling experience, my man. I competed in the national championships for the decathlon my senior year. The first time I did the decathlon was my senior year, and the national championships was in Iowa at, man where was it drake no i got invited this to run at drake but i didn't do it it's really fun i went to waverly iowa never been

there and i remember it was the second day and i'm throwing the javelin into the wind and i just couldn't hit it i couldn't pierce it man like you would think that a javelin there's really not that much surface area pierce it no i mean it mean, it was like, it was bad. But the nice thing is, is everybody had to throw into it. Everyone did. But I wanted those extra points, man. Yeah. You know?

So anyways. Javelin was one of my weaker events. Really? It's just, it's real technical. Like, that's something you have to practice a lot. You can't just be like a good athlete and grab a spear and chuck it 180 feet. Right, right. That's what I did.

Yeah, but dude, remember when we were kids and they had the presidential physical fitness test? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would have made it in like second grade, but I couldn't do the pull-ups. Wow. Interesting. I wanted that patch so bad, man. I hear you. I like it, man.

I like that. I like that. I've listened. I was actually, for the listeners, I've listened to so many of Lewis's podcasts that I've picked up on all of his common segue words. Interesting. Somebody will say something compelling or emotionally inspiring, and Lewis will, I like that. Or, it's interesting. And then he goes into his next and then he goes into his next

question so i'm going to start with uh what that what i usually end with is a question of what's your definition of greatness i'm going to mix it up because i know you're waiting you knew that i was prepared you're waiting for the end though but you know what i did is i once we kind of set a date that we were going to do this i I thought about what I'm going to say, but I didn't really want to prepare anything. So what is my definition of greatness? I think it's, for me, it's identifying what your gift is and then finding a way to leverage it to inspire, motivate, educate, just bring other people up with you. Um, and it was like,

I had to do a lot of soul searching in my own life. Cause I was like, well, like what's my gift? Like it's my gift kicking a football. It's like, so like obscure, but I, I think my gift is motivated and inspiring. You know, I love public speaking. I'm not nearly as polished as you, but I genuinely get so much fulfillment from it. And it could be, uh, an amphitheater of a thousand people, or it could be a second grade class of 18 kids. Like to me, like I get the same, like buzz when I leave the, you know, when I leave them like hanging on every word that I'm saying. So I was able to take my dream of playing in the National Football League and being a professional athlete. And that kind of gave me the platform to be able to share my gift. And my gift is motivating, inspiring.

And, you know, I mean, you know my story. You know, being a freshman in high school school 108 pounds and having dreams and aspirations of you know one day being a professional athlete and then for me to have the vision of being that professional athlete and set the goal of one day achieving it but then you have to develop your own plan and it's not like there were podcasts like yours that would give you the tools that you need to be able to kind of apply into your life and and mentors because whether you know it or not you're mentoring millions of people like literally 1.3 million people per month yeah you know you've mentored me over the last eight months you know it's like weird to say you're the same age as me you know i'm a 10-year nfl veteran and you know the stuff that i've done there uh but you've

mentored me by kind of bridging the gap between all of these amazing people who have gifts of all different industries and spaces and you've brought them to me and all the other like listeners it's heavy man it's really cool i appreciate that it's it's it's fun to be able to sit my butt cheeks in the same seat that all the people that I've been listening to. Because I haven't listened to all 356 of these, but I've listened to well over 100 of them. And we did the math. I've listened to, since we met, I've listened to at least three per week. Wow. So, yeah.

I like it. I've spent. I like that. per week. I like that. I've spent a good three and a half hours with you every single week and you didn't even know it.

That's good. The thing is interesting is that you're so successful. You've achieved a lot. You're in the top 1% of 1% of your niche as a punter. You're one of the best in the world at what you do or you were. I still am.

I just don't want to do it anymore. You're just not doing it anymore. It's true. Yeah, you're still in the top 1% of 1%. You've got four kids. You've got a loving family. You've been married for 10, 15. Almost 10 years.

10 years. You're transitioning into the next thing and you're still learning. You're still growing. And most people don't realize that the people that are on the top already are the ones that are constantly learning. And they're like hungry for information. They're starving to feed their soul and their mind for ways to continue to stay on top or grow. And so I think people need to hear that whether you're listening to me or someone else, you're doing the work still. And that's important for people to know.

You've worked really hard over the last two decades to get to where you were, and now you're still working hard. I feel like I'm starting over. You're starting over. I'm sure we're going to get into it later, like why I decided to retire from the NFL. I've actually never officially announced

it. So why are you retiring? Why are you retiring? It's because... I mean, you're at the top of your game. You've got another 10 years you could punt. Yeah,... I mean, you're at the top of your game. You've got another 10 years you could putt. Yeah, but it's... You're a physical specimen. You're one of the best athletes in the league.

I mean, I don't know if I'd say... What do you consider the top? Physical, strength, speed, athleticism. If all those other guys competed against me in a decathlon, I'd mop the floor. Exactly. You know what I mean? A well-. Yeah, you would win. I would mop the floor. Exactly. You know what I mean?

A well-rounded athlete, you're one of the best. Yeah, yeah. I don't have a lot of weaknesses, but I'm not – the cool thing about the decathlon is it's – you don't have to be the best in any of those 10 events. They could be 20 guys, and I could get fourth place in every single event and crush everybody. So it's about – the decathlon is about not having weaknesses. It's one well-rounded. Right. So like when I first went to college and tried the decathlon for the first time, I'd never pole vaulted before or touched a javelin or a discus.

And those are like technical events. Those are hard. Yeah. I was not a good pole vaulter, but you know, you work hard on something and you know, I eliminated that weakness. Now, pole vault was never a strength of mine, but I got it to where it wasn't a weakness. What was your highest pole vault? 14.10.

That's good. Mine was like 14.3, I think. Right. I mean, you probably crushed me in javelin, though. Yeah. You know what we should do one day? Go do a decathlon? Go do a decathlon.

I'm in, man. I would do it. Let's do it. Dude, could you imagine running a 1500 right now? Like hard. I would die. Like with spikes on. I would die.

With a unitard and spikes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would die. Can we put that in the show notes whenever him and I compete against? That would be the event I can beat you in right now, a 1500. That might be the only event. You'd beat me in a 1500. Dude, I'm probably overconfident, but I feel like I could run a 530.

1500. My best was 455. You beat me in a video straight out. Dude, I'm probably overconfident, but I feel like I could run a 530. 1,500. My best was 455. I want to say that mine was right there. I might have been 457. I might be at 530 right now. I broke five minutes. I know that. That's good.

Barely. You know what? How funny is this? When I was 12 years old, I ran a 502, and I don't think I could run a 502 right now. If I trained, I could. You're also 108 pounds. Yeah. It's a lot harder to push around. Dude, when I was't think I could run a 502 right now. By trade, I could. You're also 108 pounds. Yeah. It's a lot harder to push around.

Dude, when I was 12, I was like 79. It's a lot harder to push around 240. Yeah, yeah. There's no question about that. A lot harder. Yeah. We went and ran the other day, and you were leading the pack, man. I mean.

That was a fun run. It was fun. It was good. That was a great little route we went on. So why you're at the top of your game, you're making a couple million bucks a year as a punter. People still want you. Why say, I'm done?

10 years. You got another 10 years in you probably to punt. This is people's dream. My wife is asking me the same question. People would kill to be a punter in the NFL to have your career and you're walking away from it. Why? I don't want to

sound as if I didn't appreciate it because, man, it was my dream. It was my lifelong dream to be a pro. Now, when I dreamed it up, I wasn't a punter. I was in the NFL. What were you playing? What did you want to play? Something cool, like wide receiver.

Strong safety? You know, not running back, but, yeah, like a wide receiver, safety. What did you play in high school? I punted, kicked. Because I punted and kicked at the same time as playing soccer. So I would play soccer games on Tuesdays and Saturdays and football games on Fridays. So you weren't a receiver in high school or a running back?

Just kicked only? Just kicked. I played safety for, like, the first six games of my senior year. Then I got a stinger in practice, and I'm like, screw this. I don't like hitting. I don't like getting hit. I'm a kicker. Let me go to the other field.

Wow. Okay. And then you got the college scholarship at the University of Illinois, right? And then you just punted there the whole time? Punted and kicked. I actually got to campus, and we were doing summer conditioning, and my team wasn't that good. We didn't have a lot of talent on my team.

Great school. Would not trade the four years I had there for anything, but we didn't have a ton of talent. Where is Illinois? Champaign, Illinois. How far from St. Louis? It's on the completely other side. So St. Louis is on the edge of Missouri and Illinois west side.

And Champaign is on the east side. About two hours away. So probably about three hours. You know, we were playing the same time. I was playing in Elsa, Illinois, and you were playing in Champaign. Yeah. No, we do have so much. Like the more time I spend with you, like just talk about like.

We're both two-sport All-Americans in the same sport. We played four sports in high school. It's crazy. it's really cool and so like when i see you finding all this success and like in after sports yeah impacting millions of people like dude i'm kind of peanut butter and jealous you know what i mean i am you know because you would have loved to play in the nfl oh man it was a dream that was your dream it was a dream. That was your dream. It was a dream, man. An arena football was my dream. But what you're doing is my dream.

You know, maybe it's podcasts, maybe it's public speaking, maybe it's TV. I don't know, like, what my dream job is, but I want, like, to me it's impact. And I didn't feel like playing in the NFL I was having an impact anymore. I felt like I had reached the point where financially I had saved enough money to follow my passion. Like, do I need to still generate some money? I mean, I got four kids. I'd love to have another one, God willing. I want to spend more time with my kids.

And so after I finished, like I set my goals, you know, to get into the NFL. And then I got into the NFL. And then my next goal was to make it to four years because the league average of the duration of a career is 3.1 years. And so when I made it to four years, I achieved that goal. But I also became eligible for the retirement and the pension. And so I hit that mark. I was like, man, you know, what about 10 years? Do I think maybe I can do it? And I'm like, you know what? If I make it 10 years and I have a Super

Bowl ring, I'm going to reevaluate and see if I want to set more goals or, you know, it's been real, but I'm out. And so really when my mindset changed, I really wasn't thinking about retiring at all before my 10th season had started in the off season of my career, before my 10th season. And I was in Southern California and my wife was about to give birth to our fourth child, Josie Jacqueline. And my wife had the child smooth delivery baby came out 10 and a half pounds just beautiful and and the very next day i had to leave and go back to new york because uh the mini camp was starting and so i called coach and because he was on kind of like high alert because there was a chance that i wasn't going to be at the start of practice on Monday because of the baby.

So if she didn't have the baby on time or whatever. And so it was on a Saturday night at 7 PM. She had the baby. I spent the next five or six hours with her. Then I went home to my other three kids and then brought them to the hospital in the morning. We spent three hours with baby JJ. kids and then brought them to the hospital in the morning. We spent three hours with baby JJ.

And then I left my three older with my mother-in-law and got on a plane to fly back to Newark, New Jersey. And once we got probably about 60 miles out from Newark, New Jersey, there was a big storm that was happening in Newark. And so we circled for about an hour and we still couldn't land because of weather. And so we circled for about an hour and we still couldn't land because of weather. And so we redirected to Dulles airport in DC and we ended up landing at like, I want to say 1230, uh, like 30, 30 minutes past midnight. We landed and they said, United said, you know, we're going to have a bus that's going to drive everybody the three and a half hours up to Newark. And then you guys can all disperse from there. your, you know, your luggage and this, that, the other will be brought with you. And so the bus never came two 30, three o'clock, still no bus.

So I was like, man, if I don't, if I don't leave now in a rental car, then I'm going to be late to practice. And I've never missed a practice or a workout in the nine years up until that point. I've never missed a practice or a workout in the nine years up until that point. I'm like, I'm not going to start now. I rent a car, and I'm driving, and the roads are bone dry. No rain or anything. Then I get to about mile marker 58 on the New Jersey Turnpike, and it's not raining. I'm running at about 75, speed limit 70.

It's kind of standard protocol you go five miles over and i wasn't in a rush because um i was scheduled to get up to to practice at about six o'clock and i didn't have to be there till seven so i wasn't rushing and there was a blockage in the drainage system on the new jersey turnpike and i was driving a red Volkswagen Jetta and I hit that body of water and my car hydroplaned and it it spun three times and it was almost like it was like slow motion so I gripped the wheel as I saw the the center what is it an embankment cement embankment I knew I was going to hit it so I tucked my chin I, I gripped the wheel. And, and as I hit it, my car came up off, off of all four tires and like went sideways on the embankment and then bounce back down across all the way to the other guardrail off across three lanes of traffic, bounced off of that

back into the middle lane of the New Jersey turnpike. And it's like three o'clock and four o'clock in the morning at this point. And I had my eyes closed the whole time and I could feel myself pinballing around. Then I opened my eyes and I'm like, I touched myself. I'm like, oh my God, I'm alive. And then for whatever reason, I'm like, I got to get out of the car. I'm in the middle of the New Jersey Turnpike. And so real quickly on buckle, my seatbelt, my door won't open. The passenger door won't open. And so I crawled through the middle between the seats and then the back right door opened. I got out and I went to the shoulder of the road, called 911. No more than 30 seconds goes by. I hear another splash. I look to my left. Another car hit the same body of water hydroplane three times and smashed into my car going at least 75

80 miles an hour and i rush over there and there's a big dude probably 250 pounds much bigger than me slumped over the steering wheel blood gushing from his face he's unresponsive um i can't get any of the doors open and then the back right door the same door that i crawled out of in my car i end up like getting my fingers into the door jam and prying the door open like hulk and then i crawl into the crawl into the back seat wake this guy up and he's like what happened i'm like dude you're in a bad car we got to get out of the car right now and so i i pull this gigantic guy through the middle of the seat it was like a a Nissan Altima or Sentra. And then he spills himself onto the road, the New Jersey turnpike, and get him to the shoulder of the road.

And the whole reason I'm telling you this story is after that happened, something in my mind changed, and I wasn't passionate about football anymore. I wasn't like – I got to practice on time, and I wasn't I wasn't passionate about football anymore I wasn't like I got to practice on time and I was there and it just like something changed like it was I I just knew that that wasn't my journey anymore and so you know I was committed to the team and so I kind of you know I tried to fake it you know fake the motivation and you but it just, it wasn't there for me anymore. And so then after that season was over, it was like, you know, it's, I think it's time. So, um, and I've always got the most fulfillment from, from sharing my journey and sharing my

experiences and sharing what I've learned from people in my life, like you and the people that you've had on the show, you know, whether it's the three gratitudes in the morning or it's perspective or it's little things that I've learned on the show like the art of giving. These things that I've applied into my own life, like I picked you up a nice pair of Nike tennis shoes last night. I got them on right now. Nice. Because I'm thankful that you let me stay at your home.

Sure. There's no reason you – I came here to visit you two days ago. You're like, nah, man, just stay at my house. I'm like, nah, man, just y'all go get a place. He was like, no, I insist. So it's just like little things in my life that I've learned from mentors and friends and people who are prosperous. You know, when I say prosperous, it doesn't mean they make tons of money or they drive this car. Prosperity to me is like a combination of health, wealth, happiness, love.

And I gravitate towards people like that because I want that in my own life and I want to share that with other people as well. So that's kind of what brought me to, to your audience and your friends and your family and the people that you surround yourself with and motivate on a daily basis, myself included. I want to be that for other people. When I grew up, I want to be Lewis house. I appreciate that. I want to be as fit as you. I don't know if that's possible. Being fit is cool when you go to the beach, but it really doesn't inspire anybody. You know, it's cool on Instagram. You throw a couple filters on there and you actually look even better.

Love it. When was the last game you played then? The last game I played. Did you know that was your last game? Yeah, so this is a good story. So after I decided I was done, I accepted a job with ESPN. So I'm in the Upper West Side of Manhattan hosting my ESPN radio show. I'm sitting next to my co-host, Dave Rothenberg, and we're taking phone calls.

It's a Saturday at about 11 a.m. My show was from 9 to noon. And we're taking calls and we're kind of teasing up, previewing the games that are going to happen tomorrow, which would be Sunday. And it was New York radio. And so we were talking about the Jets-Patriots upcoming game. They're division rivals.

It's a big game because the Jets were killing it at the time. And they were actually like half a game back from the Patriots. And so it was a big game because the Jets were killing it at the time, and they were actually like half a game back from the Patriots, and so it was a big game. So I talked about the Jets and their quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and how he's done an incredible job this season, having the best season of his career in his 10th season. And I made some really positive comments, but then I also said, he really lacks the arm strength to be able to compete against Tom Brady,

which is not a knock on Ryan Fitzpat fitzpatrick tom brady's probably the best quarterback of all time yeah and we go to commercial break and my cell phone rings and i pick it up and the caller id says jets front office i'm like my mind is racing i'm like oh my gosh what did i say did i did i say something bad because i had their numbers saved because i used to play for the jets yeah so i answer the phone and it's their general manager. He's like, hey, Steve, how are you doing? I'm like, I'm doing great. Hey, you wouldn't happen to be in New York, would you? I'm like, yeah, actually I'm in ESPN radio, ESPN studio doing a radio show. He's like, what are the chances of you getting to Boston tonight? I'm like,

do you guys need me to do the pregame show? I'm not kidding you. You had no clue what he was asking for. And he was like, no, he's like, you know, our punter has an infection in his shin and we're not sure if he can play tomorrow. And he's like, you know, we'll give you X amount of dollars. And I was like, I don't have to practice. I just show up and play. He's like, yeah, we don't have any time to practice. He's like, tell me what size jersey you wear, what number you want to wear on the back of it and i'll meet you in boston and so i went up to boston it was the first time in my pro career when i stepped in between the chalk lines onto

that football field i had no idea how it was going to go wow because i hadn't practiced i hadn't punted a ball in like two months really it wasn It wasn't my best performance. It wasn't bad. I mean, I think I averaged like 41 yards a punt. Sure. But that was my last game. That was the last game. That was my last game. For the Jets. For the Jets.

Before that, it was three. I played five years with the Giants. So I started my career in New Orleans, played three years. Then I played a year at Jacksonville Jaguars, two years with the Jets, five years with the Giants. And then at that point, I was like, you know what? This has been a wild ride. I'm so blessed. I'm so thankful. I'm ready for a new pursuit. What was the last game with the Giants when you thought it was going to be your last game?

I was also playing against the Patriots. Preseason game. It was a preseason game. It was a preseason game. So you retired in the preseason. Well, I didn't announce my retirement. I was cut because my heart wasn't in it, and my salary was $2.9 million that season. You get a rookie for half a million or whatever. And so what they ended up doing, final cuts, is they traded a seventh-round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers to get their young punter that I think his salary was like maybe 400,000. And so they're going to save $2.5 million by cutting me. And they had to find a place where they could save money because they were about to give Eli Manning a

$90 million contract. And it's really easy to say, Hey, what's more important? The, you know, the weight room junkie punter or Eli Manning two-time Super Bowl MVP? Okay. But I am so thankful for the Giants. Like a lot of people, when they get cut, they're like really sour about it. and really my life because they gave me the ability to pull my son out of the stands in Lucas Oil Stadium while confetti is pouring down on us as Super Bowl champions. And my son's four and a half years old. And I pick him out of it.

I mean, it was like a movie. I pick him up out of the stands. He's like, Dad, we did it. We won the Super Bowl. And I'm like, it's a crime. Nobody could make me cry like I cried right then. Because it's like you dream about sharing something like that with your legacy, with your son. Wow.

And so he was not only was he able to experience it and I was able to experience it with him. Like I asked him, I'm like, do you remember that? He's like, I remember everything. So, you know, I'm super fortunate that, and blessed that he was there for that. And I'm fortunate that my firstborn was a son and not that I wouldn't want to enjoy that with my daughters, but it's, it's, it's different with your son, you know, because he, he might play football. Right. Right. What was that like going into the Superbowl game? I mean, what was that whole process like? It was 47 miles from my hometown.

Yeah. Talk about like a storybook ending, except I played for four more years after that. It was amazing, man. It really was because we got there on a Monday. Who'd you guys beat? Patriots. Long, long, rich history with the Patriots. Right.

So we get there on a Monday. We're playing the game the following Sunday. And we arrive and, you know, like all of the news reporters from my hometown are there. I mean, there's news reporters from all over the world, but from my hometown were there. And they hadn't really interviewed me since I was in high school. And it just kind of brought me, you know, brought me back. And it helped me to kind of realize the gravity of, like,

how far I had come and how blessed I was for the opportunity that I was about to have. And then Tuesday is media day where they put us in the stadium and all of the media has an opportunity to interview us. And so after that media day was done at about 2 p.m., I had my parents pick me up in Indianapolis and drive me to Terre Haute, Indiana, 47 miles from Indianapolis. And my high school had a pep rally for me. No way. And it was so cool, man. That's really cool. It was my second favorite part of my NFL career was the pep rally at my high school.

My first favorite was the Super Bowl parade in Manhattan the day after the Super Bowl. Must have been nuts. That was unbelievable. So that whole week, you know, there's two teams. One team's going to come out a champion. Yep. How do you not psych yourself out to be like, wow,

all I have to do is punt well and hopefully, you know, Eli does his job and my team does his job and I'm a champion? Or, you know, what are you thinking about the whole time? Well, you know because there's media everywhere you go. So it's almost kind of like you're locked in a hotel for a week. But for me, it was really, I don't want to say easy, but I just relied on my teammates. Because they had won a Super bowl in 2008 just four years earlier

and so i remember going to like eli manning and justin tuck and brandon jacobs the guys that had won a super bowl four years prior and i was you know just how do i handle this week you know i want to play my best game on sunday i know you guys want me to play my best game on sunday you guys have been here before you've done done it. You had great games. School me up a little bit. They just gave me the advice of take lots of pictures, but don't emotionally get invested in the hype surrounding this game. Take the pictures. Take the videos with your phone. Then when the Super Bowl is over and we're champions, go back and look at them and then revel in that

excitement because if you get too caught up in the hype leading up into the game, you're going to change the way you approach the game. You're the best punter in the world. Do what you've done for every other game up until this point and just go out there and play the game. I took that advice and it could not have been better advice because I had the greatest game of my life and the biggest game of my life.

My first punt was down to the two yard line in the very next play. Justin Tuck sack. It was our first possession. We drove down to the 42 yard line and then we ended up stalling out. We punted. I punted to the two yard line. Justin Tuck sacks Tom Brady on the very next play. So the first two points of the Super Bowl were set up by me.

But it was one of the things that validated my importance to the team, at least to me, was after Justin Tuck sacked Tom Brady in the end zone. He went on a beeline straight to me on the bench and pulled me off of the bench he was like he's like that you know you gave me an assist on that sack man couldn't have done that without you and it must have felt nice oh my gosh because i mean dude punters are not a cool position you know like if you're looking at the hierarchy of the team yeah i'm barely above the water boy you know exactly but for the the four-time uh team captain to

at that moment of one of the biggest plays of his entire career the biggest stage on the biggest stage to come tell me that and validate my worth to the team it made it so much more special when we got our super bowl rings and i put it on because he told me, he's like, we couldn't do this without you. And then I ended up having three more punts, and out of my four punts, three of them were inside the 10-yard line. That's a Super Bowl record, and Wes Welker was the punt returner, and he had zero return yards the entire game. Shut up.

He's one of the best returners in the game. He never touched the ball. That's pretty sweet. You guys won by two points, didn't you? Yes. No, four points. Four points. Four points.

So on their last possession, they technically could have kicked a field goal to win if that wasn't for the safety. So, yeah, you can play. You know, if this would have happened, that would have happened. But, you know, to me, what Justin Tuck said to me validated my entire career. That's pretty cool. And it was special. I'll never forget that. And when he retired, I actually wrote him like an open letter.

And I never told anybody that story before, but I posted that as a tribute to him when he announced his retirement. Because a lot of the guys that I came in with are retiring now, but they have a whole lot more mileage on the tires. Yeah, yeah. They have concussions and surgeries. They're getting hit every day. And me, man, mileage on the tires. Yeah, yeah. You know, concussions and surgeries. They're getting hit every day. And me, man, I'm super fortunate.

No concussions. Actually, I think I had one, but undiagnosed and no surgeries, you know, only one marginal injury. So I'm walking away from the game healthy, you know, with enough money in the bank to pursue what I'm passionate about. I didn't make $500 million, but I made enough to be able to say, I want to do what I want to do now. Right. That's great, man.

If I can make money within my passion, that's fantastic, but I'm not handcuffed to be able to have to do that. So what's missing in your life then? You've created a lot. You've achieved your dream. You're still 33. You've got a lot. You've achieved your dream. You're still 33. You've got four amazing kids, amazing wife. Health is on point.

I mean, it could be a little better. You're a little chubby around the waist. I'm a little soft on the side. What's missing in your life? That's a good question. I've never really asked myself that. You ask good questions, Lewis. You drive this show well.

Thanks. What's missing in my life? I literally, I mean, I have, when I was 15 years old, the first goal that I really set out for myself was I always wanted a family. I always wanted a family. Why? I don't know. I just, the way my dad fathered me and the things he did for me and the in the way that he you know mentored me and he was patient with me um and he you know unconditional love for me i wanted i wanted to give that to to my kids and so that was a really really big motivator for me was to you know to get married and start a family. And I've done that. You know, I wanted to have multiple kids. I've got four and love to have another one, but I feel like I definitely have everything that I wanted as far as my family is

concerned. And, um, you know, I have a relationship with my wife that I like genuinely enjoy to be around her. There's a lot of people that can't say that, you know, like they're married and they have kids, but you know, they're like, ah, my wife, you know, I mean, don't get me wrong. There's days where I'm like, oh man, she's killing me. Right. But there's a whole lot more days where, you know, she's feeling the same way about me. So, uh, she's helped me grow so much and mature so much. Cause when I started dating her, I was 19 years old and I probably had the maturity level of like a 14 year old, you know? And I was probably always like five years maturity wise behind where I really needed to be. And, and she, she's helped me grow up a lot. I mean,

I'm 33 years, right? 33 year old, 33 years old right now. And I still, I have so much self-improvement to make it, but she's patient with me, you know, and she knows like there's things that I struggle with, you know, like there's things that, you know, innately you struggle with and innately I struggle with. And she's just, she's very patient with me. But one thing she's always very proud of is when she identifies something to me that I can improve, I'm always going to work hard. You know, so as long as she sees me working hard to improve something, you know, maybe it's my time management. Maybe it's being less self-centered. Maybe it's, it's being more patient. You know, I'm not a patient person. I'm,

you know, innately self-centered. And I think in order to be the best in the world at something, gotta be a little bit, you've got to be a little bit self-absorbed because it requires a lot to be able to become the best at what you do. And, um, so yeah, she's, she's very patient with me, man. I love her. She's, she was a godsend. What advice would you give to women out there who are one, a guy who's going after being the best at what they can be, but, um, don't try to change them. You know, I say don't, don't make them wrong for it? Yeah, don't make – and she still struggles with this now because I worked so hard and I became the best in the world at what I was pursuing. But now I'm starting all over again. I want to be an entrepreneur and I'm in the middle of –

It's even more time now. Oh, my gosh. You got to obsess even more because you don't know the skill yet. Yeah, because I'm sitting – I got to spend a lot of time with people like you. You're like, I don't know anything. Right. Um, but I'm hungry and I'll work hard. And so she, I think she felt like when I retired, then I was just going to be home, you know, but I'm not wired that way. Like I, I'm always, I, I want to do something. I can't sit still. Um, I got ADHD like next level, you know, but I've, I've been able to use that as a benefit, you know, almost as a weapon. You know, when I was in school, it was really difficult. I couldn't

sit still. And, you know, I know that you weren't a good student in high school either. And I don't want to say school wasn't for me because I enjoyed school and I enjoyed classes that I was interested in, but it's really difficult for me to sit still in general. Especially when you're not interested in it. Yeah. So when I had teachers that were receptive to the fact that I had ants in my pants and I had to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes, I got good grades, even if it was a class I didn't like because I was fairly above average intelligence.

I worked very hard, but I can't sit still. If I have to sit still longer than 20 minutes, then I lose my focus. So it's really difficult for me to sit and read books. It took me like three weeks to read your book. It's not that many pages. That's good. But I would read like 20 minutes at a time and then I'd have to be done because if i tried to read 40 minutes i would retain the knowledge of 20 minutes of it and my i would be reading the words but my mind would go to la la land so um the teachers that that were receptive

to that and my son is the same way you know he's he was diagnosed with the exact like impulsive um you know energetic and i i learned to use that overabundance of energy and my parents funneled that into sports at a really young age and so when you're playing sports and you don't get tired obviously you're going to get better at them or you're just going to outrun everybody else and and i've I've got, um, a little bit of OCD, not nearly as bad as ADHD, but I've also been able to use that in goal setting. And so I will find like, have this vision and set my goal and I'm just obsessed with it. And so everything I do during the day, I'm thinking about that goal and that, that drives my wife nuts because she's the opposite of me. goal. And that, that drives my wife nuts because she's the opposite of me. When I think something,

it comes out of my mouth. And so I may offend some people, but they know where I stand, you know, and it's good and bad because if I love somebody, I'm like, man, I love you. I won't keep it inside. You know, if I appreciate somebody, I'm just like, I really appreciate you. And, um, I wear my emotions on my sleeve and it's good and it's bad, but that drives her nuts. Yeah. You know? You know, the thing is, we need to fully immerse ourselves in anything we're doing if we want to become great at it. You can't just say, I'm going to dabble a little bit and have a balanced lifestyle. I kind of want to be successful.

No. No, you've got to, there's got to be a moment of time. There's got to be a span of time where you're all in on something and that's all you think about if you want to learn and master this skill. You didn't just punt for an hour a day and not think about it the rest of the day when you're in high school or college. You probably

watched game film or watched specific video of a punter that you wanted to emulate over and over. You watched yourself. You went to camps. You studied it. You practiced it. How many times that you wanted to emulate over and over. You watched yourself. You went to camps. You studied it. You practiced it. How many times have you listened to podcasts of people that you admire?

Just researching. Right. I mean, I do a ton of research. Right. That's what I'm saying. A ton of research. I'm sure you did a ton of research for your interview with me. Yes.

And we're boys. Exactly. You know me well. Exactly. But you're going to come in well prepared. Exactly. I'm curious now. I know me well. Exactly. But you're going to come in well prepared. Exactly. I'm curious now. I think people want to know, you do a really good job of Snapchatting your day and Instagramming things.

What does a daily routine look like for you? What would an optimal schedule be for you? Obviously, you're traveling and things change. You got up this morning at 3.15. You drove to Venice. You worked out at 4 a.m. I was going to come into your room and Snapchat you snoring like you did to me. But I was in his home.

Maybe we'll find a video. Maybe we'll download the video. I'm very thankful for Lewis. And, you know, I don't want to disturb his beauty rest because he's got to interview some wildly successful punter today. Give me the breakdown. All right. So my perfect day. Like what would it be?

I'm going to bed at 10 p.m. Okay. I'm waking up at 5 a.m. A nice seven hours of sleep. When I wake up, I'm going to have six egg whites, two whole eggs, spinach, avocado, turkey bacon. Then I'm going to have. Why? One piece of wheat toast dry. Why? Why that food?

To me, I've grown accustomed to like that. And I know if I eat that, my energy levels are going to be where they need to be. I'm going to get enough proteins. I'm going to get the right amount of carbs. It's going to fuel my day. And so after I eat that at this time, it's five 35. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to start out with a nice 15 minute yoga slash static stretch session. Then my favorite body part to train is probably back. So I'm going to do a good 80 minute back workout, finish it up with 10 minutes of core. Then I'm going to do a good 80-minute back workout, finish it up with 10 minutes of core. Then I'm going to –

Why back? I don't know. I just – it used to be my weakest muscle group about four years ago and I trained it so hard. You love it so much now. I love it now because I'm good at it now. My chest sucks still to this day and I hate training chest. Okay. chest sucks still to this day and i hate training chest you know um okay so then i'm i'm gonna be finished up with all that around call it 7 30 and i'm gonna go home i'm gonna get the kids dress

i'm gonna take them to school i'm gonna fix them breakfast i'm gonna take them to school for 8 15 kiss them uh get them into school then i'm gonna come come home and I'm going to bust up my emails. Um, and I forgot to mention, I'll be Snapchatting when I'm eating for breakfast and my workouts, the reps, the sets, the technique tips. Um, and then I'm going to, I'm going to work for about three hours. And, um, at that point, I'm going to go have lunch with my wife and, um, you know, whatever she wants to do for the next call it two hours. Then I'm going to go have lunch with my wife and, um, you know, whatever she wants to do for the next call it two hours. Then I'm going to pick the kids up from school at three o'clock and take my son to some type of sports activity take. And then I'll get home at about five o'clock

and then I'll have two hours with my three little girls and they go to bed at seven 30. Then I'm going to watch a movie with my wife and then I'm going to bed at 10 o'clock again that's to me that's a great day I like that too okay so I want you to I want you to go into a zone for a second and you've got

what kind of zone are we talking about a happy place like happy Gilmore you're about to go in a zone to give the speech of your life you're about to go in a zone to give the speech of your life. Okay. You're about to go in a zone in a place where there is a high school athlete who's preparing for the state championship in football or basketball. There is a man or woman about to go and give the speech of her or his life

in front of 20,000 people, or there is an athlete that's going to prepare for the world championship or the Super Bowl. And they call you. They say, we need Weatherford. He's our guy. So I'm going to speak to 20,000 kids? You're going to speak to one person.

Okay. We need Weatherford to come in here and get this person ready. We need to have Weatherford get them in the zone for the speech that's going to inspire the world. That's going to bring the greatest performance of their life to this moment, to this hour. Speech, Super Bowl, championship. I'm going to speak for an hour? No, you're about to speak for one minute. Oh, boy.

Okay. You got one minute to go into the room. I could rock them. You got one minute to go into the room, into the locker room, backstage, and speak one-on-one with this person or one to ten people on the team. And you get to move them into the state they need to be in to prepare for this game. They've done all the hard work. They've gotten to this place. But mentally and emotionally, they're not ready. You got to get them ready.

So I need to take them into their zone. You got to take them into their zone. Okay. Whether they're, again, any stage, any big stage, what would you say? But also you could also think of this as a moment of like, essentially what I want you to do is get us into a place where you think about before you go work out. Because you get into such an incredible mental state before you train. And I want to know how

you get in that place every single day. So how can you give us harder than others? Sure. Um, but if you're going to give me the speech of my life before I go into the biggest stage, let's say you're, you're in the Olympics for the handball team and I'm about to go on and you've got an injury. Uh, you're our best player and And you've got an injury. You're our best player. And I need to get you ready. You've got to get me ready. To win. Mentally, emotionally. To bring it home for America.

That's it. What would you say? One to two minutes. One to two minutes. All right. Give me your hand up when he's got 10 seconds left. You know what? I'm a big quote guy.

Okay. And I'm going to start right now. Bring it to me. My favorite quote of all time, to give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift. Now, for me, Lewis, tomorrow is the biggest opportunity that you've had in your life to show your mother, to show your father, to show your friends, to show your family. Everything that they have invested in you is going to come to fruition tomorrow. You're going to have an opportunity to submit your legacy and put your mark on this life. And it's not only affecting you, it's affecting every person that you've met,

every person that you've spoken to. You have the opportunity for them one day to say, I knew him. I coached him. I taught him. I was his preacher. I rode the bus with him. You have an opportunity to inspire every single one of those people who has ever touched your life. But what you need to do is the best that you can do. You've done everything that you needed to do up until this point to prepare yourself for your greatness. You're not doing it for anybody else but you because you've done the work. But the reverberation of your actions and performance tomorrow needs to be for an audience of one. It needs to be for you.

There's a million people that have invested in you up until this point, but if you show up there tomorrow and do everything that you're capable of doing when you leave that court or you leave that field or that gym, you'll be proud of you and so will everybody else. Let it rip. I'm going to drop the mic. I just got a little chills at the end there. That was good. Do you want to go play in the handball championship now? Let's do it. I like it. Let it rip. I'm going to drop the mic. I just got a little chills at the end there. That was good. Do you want to go play in the handball championship? Let's do it. I like it. That was great.

Play for an audience of one, man. There you go. You know? I like that, man. I do like that a lot. Thank you. That was good. Let's go work out. I'm in. I'm ready, man. And what do you say to yourself before you prepare when you're at the gym? Is there a state that you take yourself in do you go through a uh i think about my goals man you know i one thing i've always prided myself on is being the hardest worker in the room and one thing i've changed in in my routine

in the last four years it's kind of of taken me from an elite athlete to, you know, the upper echelon of elite is I've done it smarter. And so I've done a lot of research and research is difficult for me because I can't sit still. And so I have to kind of like compartmentalize the amount of time that I invest into researching. So I have to schedule that. So like, you know, 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. And I have to have like a to-do list that I want to accomplish with that 20 minutes. But I've garnered a lot of knowledge and wisdom to be able to get maximal effect for minimal input. So like you've trained with me, like I train hard,

but I don't train as hard or as long as what a lot of people think. I train really smart. You know, I don't throw around thousands of pounds in the weight room. I'm very cerebral with my approach to what I'm doing. But more importantly, you have to ask yourself, like, what is your why? Why are you doing this? Are you doing this just because like you saw somebody on Instagram doing it? Are you doing it because it's going to be a cause and effect? If you do this, you're going to get that. And so my approach to nutrition, my approach to training, my approach to recovery, my approach to kind of attacking your day, the way that I'm able to be most efficient and get the most out of every 24 hours that I have is planning. I mean, it's

because I'm a bad time manager even now, but I've been able to accomplish some pretty amazing things because I plan my day out. So every Sunday before I go to bed, my business partner, Michael Martucci, and I will sit and write down goals that we have for the following seven days of things that we want to accomplish. And some of them are within my family because he actually lives with me now. Some of them are within business. Some of them are fitness related. Some of them are relationship related. And I map out kind of, I don't want to call it my to-do list because it's not picking up laundry. It's not going grocery shopping. It's more things that, that I want to accomplish for that week. Now my week never goes exactly as I planned,

but you have an overall arching plan for that week. And then I break it down into days. And so at the end of Monday, Monday is like the day that I attack the most. You've spent a few Mondays with me. We get it. You know, like I only slept, I only slept two hours last night, but I knew it's Monday. And no matter what the weekend had in store for me, I get up early on Monday because that sets the tone for the rest of my week. That's the most important day for me because I'm setting the tone for my mindset, my productivity, my efficiency, just everything. So tired or not, I've got this routine on Monday. I call it Monday momentum.

Like today is the day that I create momentum for myself and carry that through the rest of the week. Now, will I crash and burn tonight and probably sleep like nine or ten hours? Yeah. I'll have to clip my afternoon short and get into bed at like nine to be able to get up early tomorrow. But it's that important to me. So the question is, you know, how do you achieve those goals the rest of the week? At the end of the night on Monday, I'll go back and look and kind of self-scout myself. Like as an athlete, you know, you self-scout yourself when you play a game,

you come in on, you play a game on Sunday night football, you'll come in on Monday and watch the game film with your team and see the things that you did well and identify the things that you did poorly. And then you, the rest of the week, you work on your weaknesses to improve them to hope to execute better the next Sunday. And I do that every single night. Do you have a planner? Do you just have a notebook? Yeah, my phone. I've always got my phone on me because I treat Snapchat like a video diary.

I mean, I'mchatting all day but the reason that i do that is man i'm i get to do some really rad stuff you know like this this is a very cool life experience for me because this is a show that has motivated me to do things that i'm uncomfortable doing you know things i've never done before it changes the way that i live my life it changes the way that done before. It changes the way that I live my life. It changes the way that I treat people. It changes the way that I love my friends and my family. And it's taught me a lot about myself through other people's journeys of successes and failures. And so I think for me, it's about self-scout. So I self-scout myself every single night to see how I did in that day. Identify what I did well.

Give yourself a pat on the back. And identify the things that you did poorly and try to lock and load for the next day. What's something that a lot of people are missing that you think they could learn about you to gain experience from, that they could be better in their lives from, or something that you do? What's missing from a lot of people that you see, A lot of people that follow you, ask you questions. What are most people not doing that you think? Most people don't do enough positive self-talk. They don't speak things into existence. Every single morning that I wake up, I tell myself out loud, today's going to be a great day. And I will literally

talk. I will tell myself exactly how the day is going to go. Like I'm like my, my buddy, Mike, my business partners with me pretty much all day, every single day. And every single morning we'll get in the car on our way to wherever we're going. And I'm like, man, today's going to be a great day. We're going to go to this meeting and I'm going to crush the meeting. And then, you know, we're going to go and do this podcast and I'm going to deliver, you know, the thunder in there. I'm going to leave these listeners with something that's going,

at least it's just one thing that's going to change their life or the way that they live it or the way they treat people or their view, their perspective on chasing their own dreams. And I'll positive self-talk myself through the perfect day. Wow. Exactly how everything is going to go. Does he do that, Mike?

I did it. I did it this morning. I do it every morning. Does he ever say anything negative out loud? If you say something negative, he'll shoot you down right away. I've said a few negative things and Mike won't be negative, he'll shoot you down right away. I've said a few negative things, and Mike won't be like, dude, you've got to be positive.

But he'll have a look on his face, and he won't even have to say anything. I'm like, you're right. When he says something negative, though, you instantly switch it. I knock that out. What will you say when he says something negative? I'm like, no, you're wrong, man. It's going to go exactly like this. And then he's like, I'm just being realistic. I'm like, no, you're being negative. You know what I mean? My buddy, Matt, is more of a realistic

person. And I'm like, I don't believe in realistic, man. I mean, what do you set out for the day to be realistic? No, man, I set out in the day to crush. I want to crush the day. Every single thing that I do during the day i want it to go perfect yeah does it no but i have but if you come from not even not even the expectation i have the dream that it will go and up until this point i got up at 3 15 this morning we got a great workout in this morning at gold's venice which is like the mecca of fitness and bodybuilding and weightlifting. Had an awesome workout there. Then we went and had a great breakfast on Venice Beach.

Then we showered up. Then we went to my meetings. I had meetings with NBC today for possibly being on some really cool shows, possibly dancing with the stars. I don't know if it's going to happen, but when I left that meeting, I felt great. I crushed the meeting. And then we left there. We went to In-N-Out. Celebrate.

Give me a triple patty, animal style. Hold the cheese. And then we went to the park. We ate those, Snapchatted the whole thing. And then we actually saw a you know poor homeless guy sitting uh sleeping under a picnic table next to us and i went searched through my car to see if i had any food in there i wish i would have seen him before i ate that gigantic hamburger because i had given it to him and gone back and got another one but i had some jack links beef jerky i gave him that

and a quest bar that i took from your pantry this morning. And then we came here. And I could not be more excited for how my day has gone but for this opportunity right here. So, yeah, to go back to your question, what could I share with other people that they may not be doing right? Positive self-talk like you have to see things happen in your life before before you can do it like it's visualization and i learned that as an athlete don't ever go out on the field of competition thinking about what you don't want to happen because there's been times where i you know you know where it's two minutes to go in the game, the ball snapped from the four-yard line,

my heels are on the back of the end zone, and I need to hit a good punt because we're up two points, and if they get a field goal, we lose. You don't ever get in that situation like, man, I hope I don't shank it here. I hope I don't catch it fat and it goes 15 yards out of bounds. Because once you let those negative thoughts in your mind, they manifest. And that's when negative things happen in your

life. But if you are in a place of positivity, and it sounds so cliche, but man, I'm telling you, I encourage people to try it, to think about the perfect scenario. And before I go out, you know, it's third down and, oh, we had an incompletion. Now I have to go out and punt. I'll close my eyes. And even if it's just for three seconds and just rerun the clip in my mind of what the perfect play would be for me. Don't think about, oh man, it's wet.

It's windy. What if the long snapper skips it back to me? I don't want to think about negative things. All I can control is me, and I see myself hitting a 55-yarder out of bounds. And you go out there, your percentage chance of hitting the perfect punt is higher, much higher, because you're thinking about what you want to do, not what you don't want to do or you don't want to happen. So it manifests itself inside of your brain. And your brain is the most powerful muscle you have and it controls so much.

And it's kind of like that movie on Netflix, the book. I say the movie because I can't sit down and read. The secret. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like the energy that you project, you know, you attract. It's the same thing for being an athlete. Like if you think positive things, chances are, if you've worked hard up until that point and you truly believe that it can happen, it's going to happen. You know, and the greatest example of that, that I have had in my life was the Superbow and it sounds cliche to say it but I

saw myself having the greatest game of my life before it happened before it happened and then after the game was over and I'm holding my son and confetti's coming down and then I start crying you know and then there's Al Roker interviewing people like it was surreal. And then you hold the Lombardi Trophy. And I remember the long walk from Lucas Oil Stadium in this underground tunnel that fans couldn't get in. So it was like a safe passage to our hotel. And I remember getting to the after party and Kenny Chesney singing.

And everybody's spraying champagne everywhere. And I always like in my mind i'm like man if i ever win a super bowl i am gonna get so loaded you know sure and i got to the party and you know my mom and dad are there and uh you know my uh my sister-in-law betsy and her husband todd are there and they're like my favorite people in the world. My grandmother is there. She's like my best friend and my, and my kids are there and you know, there's beers everywhere. And I grabbed the first beer I, I could find and I took like two drinks of it. And I remember, I'm not kidding you. I remember looking at my wife. I'm like, I'm not going to finish this because I don't want to feel any different, you know, because I've had nights where, you know,

you party so hard and you don't even remember the night before. I did not want that to happen on this night because I was so much self-sacrifice and discipline and, and people investing in me and giving me opportunities maybe that I didn't deserve or giving me love, unconditional love that I didn't deserve or compassion. And it all led up into this opportunity for me to play for the audience of one, but for it to touch them. And it did, man. It was like I couldn't have played a better game. It was crazy to think about that.

So for me, like it's not hard for me to walk away from what I thought was my dream. And it was my dream, but I lived it. And now I want to take that experience and share the tools that helped me to be able to not only get to that level and get to that opportunity, but then grasp it and squeeze it for everything that I could. And then when it's over, just to walk away and feel fulfilled. That's great, man. You know? That's great. What do you think is the biggest obstacle in your way now for getting what you want?

I would say it's focus because there's so many. I'm overwhelmed right now. You know? I feel like there's, like, so many, I'm overwhelmed right now. You know, I'm there's, I feel like there's like so many things I don't know how to do. I feel like there's so many things that are out of my control. I feel like I don't know where to start. You know, it's, it's overwhelming because I have dreams and aspiration of where I want to be in, you know, in this journey, but there's so many things that have to happen in between now and when I reach that place. And so it's but also teach me, then I really don't feel like I can fail.

I feel like it's going to take some time. But I'm okay with that. I've never, you know, when I had the dream and the vision and I set the goal of being a professional athlete when I was 14 years old, I was 5'8", I was 108 pounds, I didn't share that dream or that goal with very many people, you know, because the people that I did make the mistake of sharing that with, they laughed at me. You know, it's not a good feeling for you to have a dream or have a goal and have somebody just not even shoot you down but laugh at you.

And have somebody just not even shoot you down, but laugh at you. You know? There was one guy who bullied me every single day. Hey, Joey Satarsky, if you're listening to this, thank you for your motivation. That's good. He bullied me every single day for like two years. He made me hate school. Wow. And I remember coming back after the summer between my – I finished my freshman year and I literally lived in the weight room.

Because of this guy. I mean, he wasn't my main all right but he was a motivator for sure you know he made me miserable wow and i remember coming back after the summer break and i i left school at i don't know like maybe 125 and i came back at like 145 150 and i wasn't jacked but i had put on a lot of weight more confidence i was i put on a lot of weight and i like started to feel myself a little bit i'm like i hope i hope joey satarsky comes up to me you know what i mean i mean i still only 150 pounds but i feel like i had like i had earned the confidence and so um it was it was a pivotal moment for me because I felt like I earned the right to stand up for myself at that point.

How important is mastering your body and your health in terms of achieving any other goal in your life? That's one thing I really love to go and speak to kids about is my formula for prosperity. And it's real simple. It's, you know, it's identifying what your vision is. And for me at 14, my vision was to be a pro athlete one day. And right now my vision is different, but I'm just as far away from being where I wanted, where I want to be in this journey as I was when I was 14. There's a lot of things be in this journey as I was when I was 14. There's a lot of things that I'm going to need to do before I'm able to realize that, but I've already done it once. I know what it takes, and it's just about maintaining my focus, trusting my plan, and then working every day and, and being diligent and consistent and, and optimistic and positive

because, you know, you, you have your vision and then, okay, that's my vision. That's where I want to be. You set your goal. And then after you set your goal, you have to spend some time researching and, and seeking out advice and wisdom and humbling yourself to people, providing them value so they want to help you. And then you can put this plan in front of yourself of what you need to do. And that's the third step of the formula for prosperity.

And then the fourth step is where 90% of people will fail in reaching their full potential or reaching their goal and making that dream become real to them. And it's work. You know, people just, they don't execute. There's a lot, there's people, there's dreamers everywhere. This is Los Angeles. There's dreamers everywhere. But how many dreamers are consistently making that daily investment, that daily sacrifice that it's going to require in order for those tiny, very small decisions over time, the compounded interest of sacrificing this to get just that much closer to your goal. of sacrificing this to get just that much closer to your goal. People have a real problem choosing what they want 10 years from now to what they want today. And I did that.

And I was able to be able to experience seeing the manifestation and the culmination of all those sacrifices and all those, those times that instead of going out and smoking cigarettes and smoking dope and drinking beers with my buddy, I decided to go to bed and wake up early and, you know, put the work in, in the weight room. And it's not just about being in the weight room and, you know, going through the motions, it's being committed and being present in that moment and invest in everything you have. Because that's one of the things that I love about fitness is it's one of the only things in life that you're going to get out exactly what you put in. You know, doesn't lie. You're a really kind person.

You're a really generous person. You're one of the most well-rounded guys that i know but you're not always going to get what you deserve man you know but if you take that well-roundedness and you funnel that into fitness a fitness journey you're going to get you're going to get what you deserve like you can't you can't cheat on a diet and then expect the results of your body to reflect the sacrifice because you didn't make it yeah you know so that's one of the things that you know i i don't use my body to compete in athletics anymore um but we were talking about it the other day there's something i really

enjoy um and i admire about people when they walk into the room and they're real fit. Not like, oh, he's pretty fit. Like I'm talking about a one percenter. When a one percenter walks in and you, you know, they don't even have to have their shirt off. I'm just talking about somebody who's got a T-shirt on, but you can tell they're tuned up. There's several things you can tell about them instantly. You know, you can tell that they practice self-discipline, self-denial,

consistency, hard work, having a vision, a work ethic. So all of those things you can tell about somebody without them even opening their mouth. Right. And that's one thing that I like about fitness because it says a lot of things about me when I enter a room that I don't even need to tell people, you know, they know I'm a hard worker. They know, uh, that, that I'm goal oriented. They know that I'm willing to be disciplined and work towards a goal. Like you don't, it's going to say arrogant to say, but you can't look that way with genetics. Genetics play a role, but there's no way that you can be a one percenter with just genetics. It's going to take some work. It's going to take some sacrifice. It's going to take consistency. Yeah. All right. Final couple of questions. First one is what are you most grateful

for in your life recently? Recently. Okay. I'm glad you put recently in there. I'm, I'm very, very thankful, um, for two people. Um, I, and I mean this, I'm really, really thankful for you and I'm not good at what you need. I can help you get bigger arms. You know what I mean? I can help you get a six-pack. I mean, those are important things to have as part of the full scope of what Lewis House is. Yeah. But you have so much more to offer me. And, and I'm, you've been, I mean, every single time I call every single time I text every single time I

FaceTime you and I FaceTime you a lot. I FaceTime Lewis 80% of the time versus a phone call. The only time I don't FaceTime you is when I don't have very good service and I've already tried to FaceTime you and then it won't go through. So then I'll call, but your, your willingness to just be transparent with me and honest too. You're like, Steve, I don't think you're doing it right. You know? And you're not arrogant with it. You're not, um, boastful. You know what I mean? Did you, you've you've built something um that that's impressive on a multitude of levels but you've remained incredibly humble and and willing to like you want to rise the tide you know you you want it to rise not to just bring your boat, but all of the boats that are in your vicinity, you want them to come with you.

And that's, it's very rare. You know, you don't belong in Los Angeles, man. You know what I mean? I think you're like an evangelist out here for how people should live their life. I appreciate that. You belong in Ohio, man. Thank you. You belong in the Midwest.

I appreciate that. I'm from there, man. That's why. So to finish your question, it's question, because you said most recently. Now, if you would have said, what are you most thankful for? Real easy to say my wife and kids because they're going to be with me for the rest of my life. And they were my life goal. And they're my life purpose.

But most recently, you and my partner, Michael Martucci. He's a very good balance for me. He's actually very similar to my wife um he's very very good at what i'm not good at and dude he's 21 year old kid amazing but he's a hard worker and uh and he's receptive um he gets a little grumpy at times he's sitting here smiling at me right now but i'm very thankful for him because he is helping me fulfill my dream, and I couldn't do what I'm doing right now without his help. And it's kind of weird, but, I mean, he's giving me guidance too

because a lot of the knowledge that I need is in books. Guess what? You're not reading them. I don't get along with books dude unless it's on an audiobook or a podcast while i'm running i'm not going to garner that knowledge so uh most recently that's what i'm thankful for appreciate that thank you i love you man appreciate it okay this is the uh three truths question so what are you i didn't prepare for this i don't even need to queue this up so no so let's get three truths steve weatherford you're a super bowl champion you've got four kids you've been on

countless fitness magazine covers but they're all gone exactly so what are three things what are three truths yep that you want to share with the world that you know to be true before you die you got is that it that's it That's it. You got it. This is episode 356, and you're here with Steve. Three truths. You're going to die. But it's not that that's going to happen. It's like, what are you going to do in between the moment that you realize that that is going to happen and now,

you know, I mean, it's, it's a heavy thing to think about that, you know, as hard as you're, you're working hard as I'm working when we die, we can't take that with us,

you know, but like, what are you going to do in between now? And when you die, that's going to impact people. Cause that's, that's why I'm retiring from the National Football League, is I want to have a legacy. I want to have an impact.

You know, it's, like, cool to have a Super Bowl record, but, dude, in 10 years, nobody's going to care. Nobody will probably even remember my name. You know, but they'll remember if I impact their life, you know. I don't want to be remembered for entertaining somebody. Although I felt very blessed to do that. It was so much fun. But I didn't feel like I was making an impact anymore.

So that's one of them. You're going to die. The second one is you're always going to get out of life what you put in because even if you don't get the tangible return, knowing that your investment was the best that you could make, your return is knowing, knowing that you did your best. So that's one thing that helped me, uh, mentally with like performance anxiety before games. Like you're going, Oh, I'm playing in the Superbowl tomorrow. There's going to be 79 million people watching. If you make a mistake, guess what? They're all going to see it. Yeah. But one thing that helped me to be able to get that negativity out of my mind is I knew I did everything up until that point to prepare myself for that moment to be my best. All I needed to do was go out there and let that be shown, play for the audience of one because I knew that I was ready.

If I do my best and I fail, I'm okay with that. And it took me a while to be able to kind of embrace. But just giving your best in life, you're going to get that in return. If you don't get it in the return of your goal or a Super Bowl trophy or a million dollars, you're going to get that in a return of the fulfilling feeling of knowing I gave it everything that I had. What is my third truth? I should have written these down because every time that I listen to this show, I always ask myself, like, what would my third truth be? You get the chance now.

Man, what would the third truth be? I mean, to me, I feel like when I, when I asked myself that question, it, the one thing that always, I think in my mind is that you just, you have one, one life to live and grow, you know, grow because every mistake that you make, uh, every failure that you have, like to me, my mindset is I'm going to win or I'm going to learn. So when I live my life, I don't, I don't spend any time thinking about, uh, when I fail because I, that's an opportunity for me to grow. And that's also another, another thing that as an athlete, um, was athletics taught me that athletics taught me that, you know, you are going to win and lose on

a scoreboard, but in order to evolve as a person and then, you know, on a smaller scale, in order to evolve as an athlete, you need to learn from those mistakes. And so I just encourage people that I guess to sum that, that truth up is you're never going to lose. You're never going to fail. You're going to win or you're going to learn. So don't let the fear of failure paralyze you from trying. Because when I was 14 years old, I'd never touched a football in my life. And the high school football coach comes over to the soccer coach and he's like, hey, we don't have a kicker or a punter. Do you have anybody that you think think would be that has a strong leg that could do it and i was 108 pounds and the soccer coach points over he goes that kid over there

he might not look like much but he's got a good leg you know and he's a he's a cocky little wiry bastard you know right and um and so the coach walks up to me and is like, do you want to be our kicker? And I had never touched a football in my life. And I'm so thankful that I had the courage and the bravery to try something new and not try something new and not try to fail. Try something new and give it everything you have. Don't be afraid to fail because you're either going to be really good at it or you're going to learn.

Yeah. So don't let the fear of failure paralyze you. I like that one. Don't let the fear of failure stop you from achieving your greatness. Boom. Boom. This has been Steve Weatherford on episode 356, The School of Greatness. I like it.

Okay. Before we close, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Steve. I want to acknowledge you for your incredible realness and your ability to visualize any dream and spend years going after it and make it come true. I also want to acknowledge you for your huge heart. You're a big guy, but you've got an even bigger heart, and you give more than you give yourself credit for. You give constantly to your friends, to people you don't even know. You're constantly giving to your following, showing up consistently every day

in such a loving, huge way. showing up consistently every day in such a loving, huge way. And you do something that you say that you make seem so easy and so simple, but for a lot of people, it's almost impossible. And that is being positive every single moment. I don't know if I've ever seen you in a negative state, like Mike said. And that's a gift that you have to inspire positivity in other people. Like you said, it's the thing that most people don't do. It's the thing we need the most, and you are leading the world with positivity. So I want to acknowledge you for your incredible inspiration, your incredible – It's my favorite compliment ever.

Your incredible example. You lead by example constantly. You may not – you say you may not be the smartest guy in the world, but you lead by example of your actions with your integrity, with your hard work, and those are a couple of qualities that you can't fake. I'll always have you on my team, man. I appreciate you, and I acknowledge you for your gifts. Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

You've already said the definition of greatness. I want to ask you one final question, before we do where can we follow and connect with the legendary steve weatherford so i am on snapchat um every single minute of every single day um and in addition what is it what is it it's at weatherford five which is also my instagram which is also my twitter and i'm on facebook as well. And that's Steve Weatherford, but I monitor all of them pretty much all day every day because that is the most direct way for me to kind of like bridge my gap in between myself and the people who are supporting me.

I'll never call them followers because to me, I don't, a follower is behind you. I want them right are supporting me. I'll never call them followers because to me, a follower is behind you. I want them right next to me. I want to push them along as I go along. When I grow and I learn, I want them to get that same experience. I feel like I try to do my best and also sharing my failures because I'm not losing when I fail. I'm learning, as we talked about earlier. I'll share the Super Bowl stories and all that, but I try my best to share the shortcomings and the failures in my life and how I'm learning from those.

I love social media. So I love social media. I don't think you'll probably have somebody on the show that's more active on those platforms than I am because that had with you because you came into my life at a time where i needed that guidance you know i'm transitioning from from one career into another and i don't want to say i was lost because i knew where i wanted to go but you need somebody in your life to show you the roadmap to get there. So, you know, you've been, you've been incredibly helpful and generous and thoughtful and, uh, and transparent with, with everything that you've learned from, from the people that you've had in your life that have mentored yourself. Yeah.

Muchos gracias, man. Of course, man. Of course. And you also have a book coming out, right? I do. So, and it's called Armageddon. Is that right? It is.

So if you guys want to learn how to get in shape like this guy, like Superman over here, you're coming out with your first e-book on how to get bigger arms, essentially. Yeah. Is there a website for this that's going to be coming out? The story of it is, to me, what makes it most exciting. I'm going to give you a 90 second condensed version of how I kind of like stumbled upon this journey. My whole life I've been into fitness,

you know, at 14 years old, I had to change my body in order to pursue my dream. And one thing that had always bothered me, you know, I be on these different fitness magazine covers, but one thing that always bothered me is I always had small arms by comparison, the rest of my body. And so once I decided that, you know, my football career was going to, going to be over January 1st, I wrote down my new year's resolutions

and the first three or four of them were, you know, I want to be a better communicator with my wife. I want to, you know, be more present with my family and, you know, put my phone away when I get home and, and be, be more in the moment. And the last goal that I, that I wrote down for 2016 is within 90 days, I want to have 19 inch arms. And the day that I wrote those down, it was 16.75 inches. it took me 104 days but i went from 16.75 to 19 inches which is that's hard to do 2.25 inches and i'm not taking some of the vitamins that other people do to be able to make that growth so it's something i'm super proud of because as much time as I had spent in the gym, that was one thing that had eluded me for the past 19 years in the gym. I'm 33 now, 19 years in the gym. And I wrote this program down. I was never planning on turning it into an ebook, but I wrote that my news resolutions down. I put

them on Instagram because to me, if I make those resolutions and I share them with everybody on Instagram, they're going to keep me honest. So if I knew I put it to a timeline of 90 days and 90 days went by and I didn't have 19 inch arms, the people that support me on, on Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat, they're going to be like, what are you doing? Your arms look the same.

So I shared that journey. And after about six or seven weeks, I started to get questions like, dude, your arms are getting huge. What like, what are you doing? It was about the eight-week mark.

I had another month to go, and I decided I wanted to put it into an e-book and share it because it was working so well for me. It was something that I always struggled with, so now I'm coming out with Armageddon. What's the site going to be? Do you know the link? Okay. So follow you on Instagram. I'm going to be sharing it heavily on Instagram at Weatherford five. In the next month or something, right? Yeah. I'm hoping that it's going to come out in the next four weeks. The programming is done. The story behind it is done. You know, the, the daily and weekly motivation. And, you know, I tell the story of like, Hey, it's week five. This is exactly where I was at. This I tell the story of like, hey, it's week five.

This is exactly where I was at. This is what I was thinking. It's fun because I tell the story of exactly like I went through it. Yeah. And so I'm excited to share that with people because I've never done it. I've never written a book before. You know, I'm not a New York Times bestseller. I'm a punter.

So, but you've been super helpful with me of arranging it. Now I'm kind of putting together the promo videos to put on Facebook so people can kind of see where I was, a before and after picture. It's going to be a lot of fun. So people are going to love it. So look out for Armageddon. Armageddon is coming. Follow Steve. He'll announce it soon. And the final question, let's do this. Since I already asked you what's the definition of greatness, let's do what's the question that you want to ask everyone listening to answer? So if I can ask all of the listeners, all 1.3 million that downloaded it this month, what would I ask them?

What's the call to action you want them to do in their own lives to get better? Okay, this is what I want all 1.3 million people out there to do in their own life. You know, they have the three gratitudes in the morning. I want to encourage people to look at their schedule for the day, whatever it may be, you know, picking the kids up from school. It could be a board meeting. It could be a delivery they have to make. I want them every single morning out loud, not in your head. I want you to speak out loud, whether it's while you're drinking your cup of coffee or you're having your green juice or you're in the shower. I want you to positive self-talk your way through the perfect day.

And I want you to do that every single day for 30 days. And I want you to tweet or Snapchat at Lewis House or at Lewis underscore house on Snapchat. And I want you to tell him or me or both of us how your life has made a massive change because I know that it will. Stay consistent to the routine of the positive self-talk. A perfect day. Waking up every single morning and say, today is going to be a great day and this is why. Because I have this and it's going to go like this. And then I have to go here and it's going to go like this. When you can visualize your day going perfect.

And I'm not talking about waking up and, oh, the sun will be shining. No, no, no. I'm talking about in detail how your day is going to go. I'm going to go into this board meeting today and I've got this presentation and it's going to go so well that my boss is going to come up to me in the hallway after and he's going to tell me that was the greatest presentation anybody has ever given. You completely paralyzed the entire room because they were so focused on the material that you were covering with the passion that you were delivering it. I want you to go into great detail on how not just, oh, I'm going to have this meeting. It's going to go good. Go into detail and tell me why it's going to be so great.

If you will commit yourself to a habit of doing that, you can see yourself giving a presentation like that or leading a team like that, and how you're going to lead the team, your life will change. I guarantee it. Steve Weatherford, thanks for coming on, man. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Love the team. There you have it, it guys I hope you enjoyed this episode my man Steve Weatherford in the house rocking the greatness headquarters

super blessed and grateful for this man in the world and also this man in my life he's an incredible genuine human being lots of positivity

hard working and cares deeply about people. I think that there's no greater characteristics than working hard, dedication, focused on giving back and caring towards other people. In my book, that is a winner and the definition of greatness. So super grateful he came on. Make sure to share some love and post this out to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,

at Weatherford5 and at Lewis Howes. Let us know what you thought of the interview and make sure to connect with Steve. All of his info is back at the show notes, lewishowes.com slash 356, where you can learn more about him and see the full video interview there as well. As always, guys, you have a choice. You have an opportunity every single day to make yourself better. Your thoughts will determine how you act and how you react in situations. You get to decide every day, am I going to make an action that's going to move me towards

my dream or make an action that's going to hurt me and hold me back. What choice are you going to make today? It all starts with positive mindset, positive affirmations, positive mindset, what you speak into the world you create. So continue to say and think positive things and take that step in a positive direction today. That's going to get you closer to your own greatness. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.