Learning Life Lessons from Sports, with Dan Rioux

Welcome to the Athletics of Business podcast. This is episode 35.

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now, your host, Ed Molitor.

Welcome to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. And I am your host and CEO of the Molitor Group and Ed Molitor. I am really excited today to be joined by my good friend, Dan Ru. Dan is a managing partner at Synergy Partners Wealth Strategies, and he absolutely oozes the Athletics of Business brand. He was a pitcher at Texas State University. He also hosts a podcast, the now what Podcast. The grit and the grind of the transition from elite sports to the rest of your life. Here's what's really cool. Dan also founded Impacts 6, which is a firm focused on transitioning elite athletes from their sport to their next business or career.

Both the podcast and that firm are a direct result of his interviews he did for the book he started writing in 2016 as he observed his kids coming up through sports. Dan, thank you so much for being with us today. I am humbled and I am fired up and I am really ready to go. I am jacked to have you here. How you doing today?

I'm great. I am too as well, Ed. You know, thanks for having me on and appreciate it. Let's get going.

Let's do that. So, you know, we met a few months ago via the phone. You reached out to me with regards to being a guest on your podcast. But really, I think we connected because of all the things we have in common. Our journeys, our thought process, the things that we stand for, our values. And we've had a unique opportunity to sit down and have coffee together with your bride. And speaking of which, of all the things we have common, I think the one strongest common denominator we have is we are both married to women that are strong, are much better looking than us, and are the best athletes in our family.

I agree with that. I say that all the time. I definitely married up and she is the best athlete family. In case she is listening. And she still beats me to this day in tennis, but I told her I'm gonna be her this, this summer. She actually, she actually.

Christy actually told me that when you got up to pick up our coffee at Starbucks that day in College Station, she said, oh, by the way, in case he doesn't tell you this, let me fill you in on something. Okay? So I didn't tell you that. Because I didn't want to, you know, I don't want to hurt any feelings, but. No, it's, it is. It's pretty awesome. And let's talk about. So in alignment with our brand, the Athletics of Business and the Athletics of Business podcast, you know, we both feel and believe wholeheartedly that the athletics teaches you so much about life and about, you know, the skills, traits, behaviors that align with the business world and what make you successful.

So I think it'd be great to kind of take a look at your playing career in baseball starting back in college and what your journey was and what were some of the hard lessons you learned? What were some of the valuable lessons to you learned? What were some of the lessons you learned with regards to performance that still provide the competitive advantage for you in your industry?

Yeah, so. Well, I think it goes back even before college. I mean, I think college obviously was great, but I think the reason I got to college was probably all the life lessons I learned up until then. I was fortunate to have a lot of fun growing up and allowed to have a lot of fun and find my way and play sports and baseball became, you know, my sport. But it didn't, it wasn't without adversity and I had, you know, I was probably, I was cut from four teams. I just loved the game so much that just wouldn't go away. So like the number one thing it taught me was persistence. My parents would always instill in me and encourage me.

They would never really get involved and they would say, you want to be on the team, you got to give them a reason why you should be on the team. And it's usually work ethic. And so being persistent, never giving up. There was tons of guys that should have played over me. I had no business playing Division 1 baseball. I got lucky in some aspects. And I think sometimes performance is that it's your hard work with good timing and being around the right people really never giving up. And so I think the one thing it did teach me is persistence. You know, being cut was very challenging and having great coaches. You know, my, I ended up going to a junior college because I got cut from the first team. I tried to walk on at Northeastern University.

And so I was able to go to a junior college. And there we had Gary Rourke was coach and he's my favorite, best all time coach. And he tried to cut me a fourth time by saying, hey, you're no longer going to be a pitcher and if you don't like it, you can effing pack your bags? And I said no. He said, you'll no longer be a shortstop if you don't like Ekanf and pack your bags. You're going to be a pitcher now. And I said, well, I don't want to pack my bags. I love the game. I'm willing to, you know, I'll do whatever. So I love the game more than I love the position.

And I just wanted to be on the field and you know, later on what it really taught me is that, you know, to surround yourself with people you trusted. And he really had my best interest in mind. He said, there's probably no way you're going to play Division 1 or go at any higher level being a shortstop. And so, you know, that's one thing. Don't give up. You know, there's going to be tough times. They never last, but tough people do and you know, have people around you that can see maybe some strengths that you can't see yourself, you know.

How did you, how did you have the wherewithal to, I mean that comment you made, I love the game more than I love the position. That's, that's huge. How did you, how old were you then? Were you 19, 20 years old?

I was probably a little younger, but probably 18 because I was young college student.

Okay. That was my next guess. Yeah. So no, but how did you think about that as an 18 year old? How did you realize that, okay, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be a part of this team? I mean, it's sort of flipped of what the mentality is nowadays.

Yeah. I think, and I try to teach my kids that too. But I think here's one thing that's reality. I'm not sure I was that smart, but I was in Missouri and I'm from New Hampshire. Like, I'm not, I don't know where I'm going. Like, it wasn't like I lived down the street, so I didn't really have many other options. I'd already been cut from somewhere. So I'm like, I'm hanging onto this ledge by my fingernails and I'm like, hey, there's one more chance for me to get above this ledge here. So like part of it. And I did really love the game. I did really love baseball and I had played all the positions. My favorite one was being shortstop. Right. But. And I kind of did, I think deep down trust him. He was very hard nosed. He knew the game.

It's one of the reasons why I Went there too. And, and you know, so I think part of it was, you know, just in the moment the situation happened. I wish I could say I was the smartest guy and player on the team and I knew, you know, I was making a conscious decision. But I think part of it was, geez, I'm not gonna quit.

Yeah. Can I, Can I ask you what made you trust him? Because I think that's a huge, That's a significant point you make. And I think when we talk about leadership in the corporate world and everyone sits here and blames most millennials or blames whatever generation they want for bouncing right, and I think trust and retainment is such a big deal. What made you trust a coach in Missouri? Just say, okay, you know, he probably was trying to cut me by taking away what he thought was my position. Where did that trust come from?

Yeah, and he probably, maybe a lot of the players he's done that with in the past probably did quit, and maybe today they would quit, you know, screw that, you know, But I think part of it is how I got there. My summer league coach is the one who endorsed me. And he had played with, played for him, you know, a good eight years before him. So part of it was that endorsement. His, his reputation preceded himself. He was a guy that was very hard nosed, knew the game, cared about his players. So part of it was, you know, trust is earned a lot of times, but for me, I probably extend it more times than I should. And I trust people and then I'm burnt later on and I just like living that way.

I'd rather trust somebody versus live in fear and skepticism all the time. So I'm probably more of a trusting person by default. And, you know, it worked out with him.

So after juco. All right, where'd you go from there?

So I was fortunate to get a scholarship to Texas State, and I was lucky to do that. And that's where I met my wife and that I couldn't have retraced all that, all those decisions of being cut and, you know, and that's where we reside now.

But.

And she was the star athlete of the family. She's in the hall of Fame at Texas State, which is great, but we have a very athlet family because of that. And so Texas State played two years there and did moderately well. And you know, I thought I might have a chance to be drafted, although probably nobody else thought that maybe I was the only one thinking that or even signed as a free agent. I Remember telling a scout, like, I'll pay to play. Like, I'll just. You don't have to. I'll get myself there. Get me maybe a peanut butter jelly sandwich. I mean, I want to play, like. And so I didn't get chance to sign, so I ended up playing some independent pro ball, which was an awesome experience at Cell, too.

So when it was finally all done. All right, when you finally realized, okay, it is. It is time to move on now, what was that like for you, Ed?

It was horrible. Like, I, you know, I finally got upset and angry, and this is like, I've tried to talk people out of being in the exact scenario that I was in. Like, you know, I had quit. I quit, Ed. My best year was my last year, and I quit. I got frustrated with the politics. I got frustrated the system. I got frustrated with people lying to me, oh, we're gonna sign you. We don't. And I. After two years, I just said, I'm moving on with my life. I got a degree. I want to get married, you know, move on. And I quit. And I think because of that, maybe. Maybe it's my personality. I'm not really sure. But I went through a couple really tough years mentally. I was angry at the game.

I was depressed, you know, and that, to me, kind of goes hand in hand. And it showed up a couple times in my life. And I was sad. I kind of lacked a little bit of hope. It's like, baseball was my life, my identity. I was, you know, people liked me, I thought, because I was a baseball player. And when I quit on it, I was like, how could the future be any better? I just left everything I've ever loved, everything I've ever worked for 23 years, and now what? And so Christy, my wife, didn't know about this until just a couple years ago. My parents never knew until probably six months ago that I went through that because, you know, I had a degree, I was married, had a house.

I would put on a pretty good facade that things were great and I'm a happy guy. But, you know, one night, about 2:00am, I'm sitting in front of my TV. I think the year was 1998, and I was crying, watching ESPN. And I'm. I don't tell many people that, but.

Right.

Because I'm not proud. It's like a shameful thing.

What made you cry watching espn, though? I mean, even if you knew you were never going to get there, like, you would never have been on SportsCenter. You never been on baseball Tonight. But yet you sat there. What, what did it hit? What nerve did it? Was it. Was it shame? Was it curiosity, which you could have become? Was it anger? What was it?

I think it was that, what's the future like? I gave up. I. The whole reason I got to as high as I did, which for some people is not even that high, but was because I never gave up. That was my mantra. Persistence. And I find. And I gave up. And it was like, I never know if I could have been that guy on TV because I gave up. It wasn't that I had an injury, it wasn't that I got cut again. It wasn't that I kept trying and finally people said, go away. You know, that might have been better for mentally, but I think because I gave up when it was my mantra never to. I think that's really what hit me.

And, you know, and maybe the couple years of pent up, you know, anger and a little bit of sadness that I'm never gonna be that guy. And that's what I always wanted to be. And it just, I think, hit me at that moment.

How long did that last for you? I mean, not the crying, but how long did that feeling last? I mean, for me, one of the keynotes, I talk about how many years was out of alignment with my. My behavior and my values. And it just, it was bizarre when he said, many start, like, adding up the hours and the minutes and the seconds, and you're like, what in the world was I thinking? But how long did it take you to kind of, I want to say, snap out of it, but to evolve out of it, to grow out of it or grow through it?

You know, I would want to say it was two years of focus, time, but I, you know, there's. Sometimes I'm like, I'm not sure I'm ever out of it. Like, I found other outlets to try to have that same passion and that pursuit of that same passion. I was just talking to somebody. I'm like, you know, I work hard in my business, but I'm, you know, I'm not sure I've still worked as hard as I did those last couple of years trying to make it and having the clarity of what I had to do every single moment, every day, and working really hard. And sometimes it does resurface, but I try to put my focuses in other things because I, you know, and I want to teach my kids.

I mean, part of the book was because I think that rekindled a little bit of that because I Had forgotten about it. And then I'm watching my kids go through this, and I'm like, geez, I don't want my kids to end up like that. I want them to build a different type of identity. It's not that I don't want them to put everything that they have into a goal that's not exact. That's not what I'm. I want them to do that. But I also want them to know that they're a great person despite whether they went on the field, that they're doing this because of intention. They're doing it because they want to do it. There are consequences. Like, hey, you might put everything that you got into something and doesn't work out. You might be heartbroken. That's okay.

I think that's okay that we deal with that kind of stuff and then we learn to move on from those things. But being aware of it. So, like, I don't teach. Geez, just because there's a less than 1% chance of you being in the pros, you shouldn't try. I'm not about that. Like, why couldn't it be you? But do it intentionally, right? Do it intentionally.

Well, look who you became through that whole process. I mean, look at what you. The success you've had in your career is directly attributed to the things you learned and more importantly, the behavior skills that you developed over that course of time. When you talk about persistence and it's funny though, you said that you remember those last two years of clarity you had of what you needed to do, and then you went, did it. Do you ever find yourself now, like, you have clarity of what you need to do, and then you go, try to do it, but it just doesn't turn out the same way as it did when you were a player.

Sure, yeah. I think it's much more controllable now. Like, and I think we can own, you know, our activity and the things. I think what's different is, you know, there's so many more options to be flexible. Right. I mean, when you're a pitcher or player, I mean, it's just another sport, like business. Like, the playing field's huge.

Right.

And there's a lot of support and the scoreboard is never. And you never really run out of time unless you retire or you die. Right. So, like, you, we're always playing the game. So, like, if you say I failed, well, the game's not over yet. I just, you know, whatever I just did failed. Maybe that was one inning, that was one pitch or whatever. That I had. So, like, go do again tomorrow.

Right, right. Let's go back, if we can. Right. Before I ask that question, you talked about the book and let's, you know, and what the motivation behind the book was because you sort of gave us a peek into it. What the motivation behind the book was and what's all in the book. Because I'm really excited about this. I am. I cannot wait to get my hands on that. I'm going to take my nicely autographed copy of it. I'm going to read it. I need two copies, so I need one to mark up and highlight. And then the other one I'm going to put on a shelf for my kids when they're old enough to understand what's in there. So tell us about the book.

So the book, the inspiration behind it was just. That was when I started watching my kids and I coached my son into baseball starting at 4 years old. And that just to me is like, wow, that's ridiculous. And then my daughter was a gym rat. My other daughter's been a gym rat because my wife Christy coaches club volleyball and has, you know, for 20 years since she stopped playing. And so, you know, we're all into sports and we love sports, but then we, you know, the select part, it was just way different for us growing up. Like most of my sports and I, I talk about this in the book, especially with the interviews we did, you know, in elementary and junior high, 80% plus of the sports that I played were not organized, they were not supervised.

I did not have a uniform on. There was not a clock running right. It was outside in my backyard, it was in the street, it was on the pond playing hockey. It was at the neighbor's house playing, you know, basketball. That was, that was, that Pickup sports allowed us to develop, you know, I think some creativity, some fun. It gave us some social skills. I think we're missing some of those things that just go play doesn't provide anymore, like the organization of today's sports. There's great things about it, but I think there's some things that I look back and as I was, as we're going through this as a family, we're like, wow, what is going on? Like, this is crazy. Like just that one comment. Like, this is crazy. 1.

The expense, the commitment, the year round, the singleness of sports, kids getting injured. And then no wonder my son wants to stop playing baseball at age 10. I mean, he'd already played more games at age 10 than I had probably played all the Way through high school. And so like, I don't blame him. And so the inspiration was kind of like, geez, I want to share with how sports used to be and what it did for me at that age. And not like that I'm anything special, but where are we getting that? And then let's be intentional. Like the whole key and the focus of the book is intentional. There's my quote. It's probably like, be intentional. So like, so I want parents and I look around and I see firefighters and teachers on our team.

And I know we're paying five grand to be on this team. And I'm like, are they spending their last dollar to be on this select sports team? And like, what are their expectations? Have they been promised that their kids going to get a scholarship? And I've had comment or conversations with parents that I've said, you know, some of them are family members where I've said like, hey, it's just you and me talking, like, what. What is the interest here? Like, what do you ultimately want out of this? And she's like, honestly, and I can want a scholarship. And I'm like, you are not alone. I think that's everybody. And part of it is the business of Sport. It's a 15 billion plus business of youth sports and select sports. And so they need revenue all year round, just like all of us.

So their business, they need to keep their customers satisfied, which is, hey, if you're going to be doing baseball in the spring, we need to do it in summer, you need to do it in fall. We need to do lessons. And then Johnny, you know, Johnny's parents are like getting him lessons. Oh, we need to do lessons too. We got to keep up. I don't want to, you know, keep anything away from my kids. I want to give them the best opportunity. So we get into this rabbit hole and go down this track where one, we feel like we're being left behind if we're not doing it. And you know, keeping up with the Joneses, but the costs and the commitment, I don't. And part of the book has also got some tools in there to say, jeez, is everybody on the same page?

Like, does mom and dad have the same objectives? And what about your kids? What if they don't want to play anymore? You mentioned that earlier. It's like were talking. It's like there's kids and I'm seeing this just this weekend were talking in volleyball. We were at a club volleyball tournament. And I think the majority of our 17 year olds, they don't want to play in college. And I'm wondering why. It's very, I'm very interested in that. It's very curious to think, geez, probably five, ten years ago all these girls wanted to play. I'm like, I wonder if they had. Here's my theory. I'm wondering if it became such a commitment early that they didn't develop a deep like love for the game like I did. To go through all the crap that you're going to go through all the adversity, you know?

Like, I love baseball so much that when something happened, I was like, alright, I'll be a pitcher, something, I'll be a catcher. What do you want me to do? I'll carry the water bottles. But so maybe because they were commitment, this is just a theory. Like maybe the commitment was so young and so early that it became a job early for them. That's superficial. They don't really love it. They're doing it because they've always done it. They're doing it because mom and dad likes them do. It's their social outlet. So I'm kind of curious, maybe that's the next book. I don't know.

Well, it'd be a great book and it'd probably be about a 700 page book. But I think there's a lot of layers to it, man, I really do. And it's sad, it's hard because I think kids, I think parents, excuse me, live vicariously through their kids. You know, they see Bobby on this AAU team, even though my kid's not good enough, my kid needs to be on that AAU team. So his feelings aren't hurt? No, it's not about his feelings. About your feelings. Mom and dad. Okay. And I think that at some point there's gotta be reality checking. Like you said, it's a $15 billion industry and it might be a little bit more than that now. But there's. You hate to see kids get burnt out. They play so many games, I think they lose their sense of purpose every game.

It's like, okay, let's go lose four games. We sneak by the fifth game on a team that has nowhere near the talent we have. Let's go have ice cream afterwards. It's all good, right? So I'm that whole, like, I hated losing and I can remember and you'll relate to this. When your baseball game ended on Saturday afternoon, you didn't go home if you were the last game. You hung around and played pickup baseball on the field. You know, you might have guys that had to share mitts on the team or you know, for our baseball teams we had like three bats for the whole team. Okay. These kids show up with three of their own bats, okay, in hundred dollar bags.

And it's hard because I think when these kids lose the love of the game, they lose a lot of valuable experiences they can have in college, regardless of what level they go to, you know, and forget take the scholarship out of the equation. Yeah. So what else? Tell us some more about the book.

So in there you mentioned parents. We have a chapter on parents. It's, it's unique, you know, it's one of the interviews that I have and been become business partners is sports psychologist Dr. Cawthon here in Austin in the book. And I can't recite them because it's in the book, but there's she identifies six parent types and one of them is the vicarious parent. You know, I'll remember a couple. One of them is keeping up with the Joneses, one of them is vicarious parent, you know, things like that. And they're the six parent types of youth sports. So that's in there. It talks about the past, it talks about. There's also one in there about the future. Like what if the trend keeps going? Right? I love like project, like, what if we keep going? Are we going to start paying college athletes? Right?

That's already on the table, starting to do that. Does that mean we're going to start paying select players in high school? Does that mean. I mean, that's kind of already happening, Ed?

Yeah, that's happening.

Yeah, it's happening from the standpoint at select level because here's how like all the select players, they have, all the select organizations, they have these teams and then they have a top team. And typically the top team doesn't pay for anything. But all the other teams and their enrollments and tuitions, they all support the top team. So I mean you could take that as hey, they're being paid to play. So I don't know about how the future of this plays out and I just feel like there's got to be some changes. And I think there is. And again, I love youth sports. We just want to be very intentional about why we're doing it. I think of it's another classroom. I talk about that in the book. This is another classroom that it's just pe, right? What are we learning in here?

We're learning adversity, we're learning camaraderie, being A good teammate. Right. Your parents aren't always going to be there to rescue you. One of the things that you get on the playground is you've got to work it out, otherwise the game's over. When you get in a conflict, which will always happen in a pickup game, you get an argument. In a conflict, the game is either over or you figure out how to compromise and work with your fellow opponents on how to figure out the rules. Was it fair or foul? Is that a foul or not? Whatever that is, you work it out. Otherwise they're going to take their ball and they're going to go home and you need that person to play the game. Those simple things are part of it. Then the great thing coming out of it.

And we're trying to gamify this, we're trying to add some technology to it. It's in the appendix, but we want to gamify it. It's called Tools of Intention, where a parent takes a little quiz and answers some questions, each one of them separately. Mom, dad or whoever, guardians. And then the child. And they see how they resonate and they cross together. Are they all on the same page or not? And it creates really good dialogue and open discussion for giving a child that may be a little bit fearful of having this conversation with mom or dad about, I'm not sure I want to play. Why not? What are the reasons you want to play? What are the reasons you like your kids playing? So if you're all on the same page and it's a thousand miles an hour, great.

At least everybody's on the same page. But what we see is there's not. And the reasons don't seem pure.

If you were, if you were to take a step back and someone asked you, and I'm sure this happens with the teams that you're a part of, asked you for advice. Okay, My kid seems to be falling out of love with coming around or playing the games or like, where do you start? Where do you start that whole search?

Just ask them. Just ask them, hey, how's it going? Do you like it? Do you love it? Let's try something different, you know, take it away. Even the things we love, Ed, if you do them too much, you got. You get mad at it. Like, I remember a time coming in the dugout, I just probably had an awesome inning. Not really. Right. And going, I hate this game. And it's the game I love. Right? This is love, hate relationship. When you love something so much and it, you know, and you don't Perform well in it. You get mad and you get angry because you want to win and you want to do really well. Like so, like, sometimes you need a break and you just step away. Like, go play lacrosse, let's go try something new.

But I think us as parents sometimes, like, well, geez, I, we've been playing club soccer or we've been playing select baseball for five years. Like we're going to do all that for nothing because of the investment per se that they have in their kids in the sport. You'd be like, why do we do all that? Then we got to stay committed. But if we're thinking long term health of our kids, then that's not really the answer that we go to. So thinking really long term, like, where do we want our kids to. What do we want them to learn from sports and being very aware of that and allowing them to learn it. You said feelings earlier, right? We protect our kids.

We go rescue them when they're sitting on the bench, we go talk to the coach and we say they should be having more playoff playing time. You know, I would love for my kids to sit on the bench, but it's happened. It's like the best thing ever. It's when I learned the most. What are you going to do? Even if it's not justified, what are you going to do about it? You can only do one thing. You can have the right attitude and you can display the right effort and you can do something about it. Control the controllables and own that. And complaining about it is not the right attitude. So like, let's learn about it because this is going to repeat itself in life. You're going to be passed up for a job, you're going to not get the promotion.

You're going to create a great sales pitch and they're going to say no, you know, whatever it is, you know, there's going to be adversity in your life. Let's let them deal with it in a controlled environment that sports allows. So it's like, let's not rescue our kids anymore from those moments, right?

So let's talk about the transition then. Let's, regardless of the age, let's go to the older kids and let's talk about Impact 6 and helping transitioning athletes. So you, these kids, I don't want to say stick it out. They enjoy a wonderful athletic career, they have a lot of fun, they have the heartaches, they have the whole nine yards. And now it's time to, you know, the ball stopped Bouncing, so to speak. Right. And now it's time to really get on with things. Whether they're going to college, whether it's after college, regardless of what level of college. You know, now there's that big void. And you and I have talked about this. A lot of them identify who they are with what they did in the sense that I'm important because I was an athlete, because everybody made me feel important.

But the truth is you felt really good about yourself because you were working towards something and you were working towards something every day that you enjoyed and had a passion about. And now that's gone. So what happens? What do we do here?

Yeah, I think for some people, and I know I'm going off my own experiences too, and some of the people that I've interviewed, but for me, just for a moment, you have a little bit of doubt and you're like, well geez, I'm a baseball player, like what do I do now? Like I had a degree and I still was like, well what do I have to offer? I have no experience. And the reality is we know on the other side is that we want all those guys and gals because of the fact that they were athletes. But in that moment they don't know how to deal with the mental side of coming out of a sport.

So like it's often said, athletes especially at elite level die to deaths the death of their sport and they have to sometimes grieve it and everybody grieves differently and then the real death. Right. So we want to impact six is there to help elite athletes transition and coach them out of their sport and then build a business toolbox which is really reidentifying with the fact that all the traits, everything they are because of sport and everything else they've learned in life, those all traits are in this business toolbox as well. And they apply to everything else out there. So we have three phases of coaching the business coaching and then the marketing and placement of people into the right whether they start a business, get in a non profit, become speakers, you know, corporate America, whatever the right fit is for them.

So it's a placement agency on the and we have not found another agency that does all three of those. And we're excited about it because you know, there's three of us, we're all athletes and you know, we have sports psychologists myself as business and then we have marketing and executive recruiting and placement there and really the target was going to be elite professional athletes from all the different professional organizations. But we've had recently Things I can't talk about yet. We've had some opportunities exist in the NCAA that we may be getting a little bit of traction on, and so we'll see how that plays out. But originally, focus and vision was to really create an exit strategy to help the branding of professional sports, usoc, and help these. These professional athletes get on to the next part of their life.

I think people think also that. And this is also a small minority, that if you're a professional athlete, you're loaded and you're rich and you're set for life. That's a small amount. Right. Most of them have to go back to work. And by the way, even if they've got a huge bank account, they probably do want to go back to work. They probably do want to do something and be productive. I mean. I mean, I'm 45. I mean, I couldn't play golf all day long. I couldn't go fishing all the time. Like, I got to do something, like, to be productive and utilize my skills. And we have a lot to offer, so that person should be encouraged to go offer that. And financial matters being set aside, whether they have to or not.

But I think the myth is that financially they don't have to do anything. And I think there's some of us that our ego gets in the way, too, and not us here, because I didn't have a healthy bank account coming out of sports. But I think there's some of them that they believe, geez, I just. I made $1.8 million, and I need to find a job where I'm going to make 1.8 million. I don't know that exists coming right out of sports. Maybe it does some places, but, you know, maybe they should open a business or maybe they should go be in sales and be willing to, you know, pay their dues again, just like they were. And so part of the transition is to help them deal with that ego balance and being able to pay their own dues.

And the fact that, hey, you're a great person. Great. You'd be a great addition to any organization, any business that you're involved in. And let's measure ourselves from where we start.

Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. And we talk about that all the time, about the feedback loop. And what happens is people, you know, say it's like you're climbing a mountain. People stare at the top of the mountain, right? And they could have the most productive two weeks possible, but they still got a ways to go, and that's what they look at. And they get down, they get, they get depressed, they get frustrated, they get angry. Instead of, like you said, let's look at where we started. Let's, let's look backwards for a second here and look at the progress that we made. And you know, you talk about when pro athletes get done, I want to find a job where I'm making 1.8. Well, how about this? How about we find a job where you utilize your same strengths. Okay.

And your same behavior skills that made you a successful athlete that earned 1.8. And let's, we'll get to that 1.8. But right now let's focus on building you inside of your career.

Yep, that's exactly right. We do assessments that do focus on their strengths and their styles and we do interviews with them and interviews with the people that are around them that probably know them the best and trying to get that good perspective and build that business toolbox, if you will. Absolutely.

What assessments do you use?

So right now we're using strengths finders. We're going to use, we've looked at Myers Briggs, we've looked at disc. Dr. Cawthon's got a couple others that we look at. But those are the known ones I've used. And, and I think with just my experience and some of the tools that I've used with some of my coaches. Bob Teichert was a coach of mine and he's written a book called Motivator, Teacher Shrink. And I use that to coach a lot of sales professionals. But it applies to a lot of different things. And so just in my experience of interviewing people and finding out what makes them tick and having goal setting long term goals, having short term activities, controlling the controllables and things like that are all in alignment with what they should be doing and really where they fit in the world.

And part of it too is exploratory. Like on the backside, it's, hey, you know, we think these eight things could be good for you. Let's, let's set up a shadowing. One of the NCAA programs that we're talking to involves a lot of mentorship. So like, what if the alumni of this university was working with one of their exiting players or former professional players and they offer this resource to them and there's eight different organizations or jobs or businesses that maybe, or roles that they should be involved in. So hey, we found eight of your alumni that are involved in these roles and they'd be willing to shadow you. They'd be willing to show you what the day in the life Looks like, go spend a week with them and let's see which one of those appeals to you. You know what?

Here's the reality, too. It's like they're probably not going to get it right the first time, and that's okay. It's like, just because you start there doesn't mean you're going to be there for the next 30 years. It just means maybe you should be there right now and see where that takes you and work hard and put everything you got into it, and you never know what can happen out of that.

Right. I love that. And that's great work. And you talk about strengths, right? You talk about figuring out what they're really good at. Can you talk about in the business world for you and for the people that you recruit and for who you surround yourself with? You and I came up in an age where it was work on our weaknesses. Work on your weaknesses. You know, for me in basketball is, hey, man, your left hand. You got to work on that. But we find, and we talked about this, it's about leveraging the strengths and putting yourself in position to succeed. How important is that to success in business?

Well, I agree with you, Ed. I think were all taught, you know, hey, you don't. You're not fielding the ball well, you're hitting.600. But let's work on your fielding, you know, and, you know, fastball is great. Curveballs a little flat. Let's forget about the fastballs. Let's work on the curveballs, right? So. But getting into business, I'm an avid reader and, you know, reading about strengths and reading about focusing on those. And just the thing that sticks in my mind about if we work only our weaknesses now, they become great, just like everybody else is, and mediocre. And then our strengths come down to our. Wherever those are. And now we're just like everybody else. So we really want to focus on our strengths, make our weaknesses obsolete.

And in our business sometimes, you know, and I think with most businesses, we help financial advisors come into the business, and so they're kind of everything all at once. But down the road, they have a choice to delegate the things that they are not great at, and they should be doing that as soon as possible. So we teach them how to be good business owners and how to capitalize on their strengths. Now, if the vitals of their business to be successful are not in alignment with their strengths, they should get out of that business, you know, but if they're spending too much time, you know, on things that don't make them great in the business. And they really want to spend most of their time on what they enjoy and what they're really good at. What brings cash register.

Well, they got to figure out how to delegate the rest. And so we do focus on that all the time, you know, and we're not really talking about weaknesses.

So with Synergy partners. Well, strategies. Let's talk about the type of people you look to bring in that you look to bring into your organization.

Well, first, I love athletes and so that the, you know, I don't discriminate for athletes only, but they do catch my eye. I'm involved a lot with our alumni. I want to be introduced to former athletes. I've hired athletes that don't do very well in our business either. So it's not like, hey, you're an athlete, you're going to be successful, guaranteed. Just come in here and kick your feet up. No, it's probably everything that athletics taught you, kind of what were just talking about. But I look for people who have drive. I mean plain and simple. Are they ambitious? And I don't know what their motivations are. I find that they're motivated by maybe money, maybe by making a significant impact or maybe by solving problems. Those are the three that I've identified. But they're driven and that's the point.

They get up for some reason that is important in our business. And that's the one major thing. If they had that they can get through everything else. And if they have persistency and I like athletes because there's probably. They probably failed, they probably lost a game, they probably struggled through some things and they know it's not going to be smooth sailing. And there's a toughness about them, there's a grit about them that you know and I speak that language all the time. So there's a good culture in our office about athletics. So even if you're not an athlete and you work with us, you're probably pretty competitive. You probably seem like an athlete. You probably have all those same traits. You might have been the first chair in band.

You have those same traits of being involved and being competitive that you brought to school and to that band every single day. And those are the types of people we look for. And it's fun, it's energetic and it's goal aspiring and that's kind of what we look for. So the number one trait is ambition. Number two though is because of our environment, what we offer, it's coachability. And that really resonates with athletes, too, if they were on a team, is. I think if you ever coached, you loved kids that were coachable, that seemed hungry for what you wanted to teach them. And the kids that knew it all and wouldn't listen to anything, even if they're great athletes, they kind of bothered you a little bit. At least they did for me. So we always love the coachable pieces.

So I know that if they've got the drive, I can teach them how to be successful in our business. But if they've got the drive and they're not willing to listen, they're probably going to struggle. They might be successful long term, but they probably won't be successful in our office and they kind of will probably hurt our culture.

So you spoke into a lot of things, right, that are pretty powerful. I want to. How do you decide in the recruiting process, in the interviewing process? What. What are some of the tells, if you will, that they're coachable?

Well, I give them assignments. I give them assignments and they do them on time and they follow direction. So a couple simple things make them jump through some hoops. You know, I make them do some things, and if they're not willing, it kind of tells me a couple of signs. Everything's a piece of the puzzle. They're factors, so they're red flags for me in my experience, and I pay attention to them all. And they've come back and bit me when I've hired people despite those things. And so given assignments is coachable, Asking them, you know, about their history, asking them, hey, tell me about your favorite coach. If they were an athlete, tell me about your favorite coach. Why did you like them? Tell me about your last boss. Why did you like them? What went wrong?

If they're blaming, you know, their coach or their boss and they're the reasons why they weren't successful, I'm probably going to be the next guy that they'll blame their lack of success for, and they're probably not coachable. So it's a big piece for me, but I look for a history of success and it's. Do they have mentors? Like, who's made the most amount of impact in your life? It's been a coach for me. It's panhead, you know, at my junior college. And so, like, he's made the most amount of impact for me. So, like, who is it? Has it been a mentor or is it all you, like, nobody's made impact. I'm the one who's been the reason why I've been successful. In the whole, if that's the answer, then probably not coachable.

They probably could be successful in their career, but not probably at our firm. Then I call references. You know, I'm asking them. So it's. The last check is, tell me about Johnny or Susie. You know, were they coachable? Why did you. Why were they coachable? Tell me about a story when you know, that tells me that they're coachable. And then what's their most developmental need? Like, if I bring them in, they're not perfect. What do I got to work on with them? And I asked the kid that too. I asked. I say kid. I mean, I'm probably not hiring many kids, but I asked the candidate, I say, like, all right, you're not perfect. What are your greatest strengths? All right, well, like, if you need help, what are your greatest development areas?

What's probably the first thing I'm going to be working on with you? And if they can't think of something, they're not vulnerable. And being vulnerable, I think, is the first step of coaching. It's realizing I need help. And it's not me who's the answer. It's, I'm going to go to a coach. It's the reason why you coach business leaders, right, Ed? They first have to recognize I've got a flaw. I need this flaw filled. And I need somebody else with different set of eyes and perspective or skill sets to help me. Okay, shore this up or level up, as you say,

And you have a flaw. Or, Ian, you know what? I just don't have the answer to this. This just is out of my wheelhouse. Can you help me with this? I mean, that's huge. And you talked about culture, right, and coachability. If they're not coachable, they're going to be a threat to your culture. And I always like to talk about building a culture that's worth fighting for, and that comes from our athletic days. Right? Like, you're not going to invade our culture. Have you seen, has it ever happened to you where you fell into that trap of, okay, this one can make it rain. This is a big time producer here. Maybe there's a few things that are a little bit questionable. You know, there's a red flag. I don't know how high that red flag's flying.

Will take a chance, and then all of a sudden it comes back to bite you. And that level of trust with your people kind of goes down a little bit, and you got to kind of put that equity back into your culture. Have you had that happen to you?

I have. I've had it work out on both sides, as a matter of fact, and I think I probably had it bite me first and then learn how to deal with it. And let me tell you, what I'm talking about is, you know, in our business, producers is the word that you hear, right? So they're producer. They. They're this rainmaker. They bring in a lot of business. But if they're not a culture, right, they're helping us grow our culture. And their culture, cancer. You gotta contain them, you gotta quarantine them. And there's an ability to do that in our business, right? In my business, they're not gonna be in the leadership team. I'm not gonna bring them in to speak, you know, so. And that's if they're not breaking the rules. But if they're a producer, some of the greatest producers are islands.

They are this person that is. They're not really a team player. They're the ones that can go out there and they can just produce for their clients. They have their best interests in mind, and they're gonna get it done. But it doesn't mean that they're gonna talk great about me and what we're trying to do in the office. And I understand that. Therefore, I'm gonna contain that, and I'm gonna understand that. But where it typically happens is maybe when that person's not a producer, you have somebody you hired, and they're in the time frame where, man, if they could just get to this point, they're not successful yet, but you think they can be, and you're hoping they can be, but, you know, maybe without you even knowing, they're talking bad behind you, and you don't know what's going on in the hallways.

And so, you know, we try to build an open conversation, and we try to build a culture. I don't know. I can't dictate culture. We try to create an environment. We try to speak about it. But really, if you want to know what culture is, you got to ask the people that work in our office. But we want to build a culture that's safe. We say, you reap what you sow, and that's an acronym. So safety, Education, and encouragement. This office is safe. We're on your side. We have unconditional love for you. You come in here with your problems. You come in here saying, I didn't get that client. Or I said this. We're on your side. We want you to be successful. So safety and that goes to coaching.

We've got to create an environment that's safe so that they feel vulnerable and they don't feel like they're attacked so that we can coach them. And then education, encouragement, like, you can do it. Like, we are their biggest advocate. We see in people a greater potential than they probably see. But we also are accountable in winning. But we're accountable differently. Like, first, accountability is you gotta be accountable to yourself. If you're not accountable to yourself, then you're not going to be accountable to me. I just care about you. Then I'm going to ask you about your business and you told me you're going to do something, and therefore, because I care, you probably care too. So now we're accountable together. And then we all want to win.

And then what is winning for each so different in our business is like, I don't dictate what winning is. They tell me what winning is. So we go through a long process of goal setting, and it's usually annual. And it changes because some people reach goals and then it can be easily that they can make enough money and be content, work the right amount of hours. But what's the next level? Do they want to grow? Do they want to get to that next level? And sometimes the answer is no, momentarily. But sometimes there's a new season for them and I help them go through some exercise. One exercise that I went through myself through a postgraduate course called the business professionals course, was called Financial Ambition. See, I'm not a money motivated guy and not everybody is.

But like, what it helped me do is it helped me describe a lifestyle that I wanted and opportunities that I wanted to provide that only money could provide. That then I calculated backwards what I had to do income to get to that point. So for some people, like, money is the easy thing. Like, for me it's not because I'm not primarily money motivated.

Right, right. But I love that whole process because then you're figuring out, you know, you put a, you basically put a dollar amount on each activity and how many hours do I need to spend doing this activity? The end result, you can be pretty close to that dollar amount you're seeking. So you could do those things that you want to do.

Absolutely controllable too.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I mean, you have said so many great things. But I cannot end this without talking about your phenomenal podcast. Tell us about your podcast.

Well, I had such a blast interviewing people for the book. You know, when I wrote the book, it started out, I started writing, you know, every Sunday morning before church, you know, when people got up. And pretty soon I had something, you know, and I was like, maybe this is just going to be a memo or an article. I just had to dump my thoughts. I felt compelled to do so. And then I got some encouragement for some people. Hey, you should, you know, finish that thing. And that was my problem as I told a couple people about it. And then I became accountable.

Oh, yeah, big time.

And hey, when's that book coming out? You know? And so part of the last part of the book was interviewing people because I was like, well, maybe I'm an island. Let me get some ideas about what are other people thinking, because they're not on the sidelines, they're not standing behind home plate, they're not talking about this stuff. So I wanted to interview coaches, I wanted to interview other parents. I wanted to interview my former players and what they're dealing with their kids and everybody that they know. Hey, who should I interview on this and what are they going through? And then I wanted to interview sports psychologists, orthopedic surgeons, people agents. I've interviewed sports agents at a high level. Professional athletes currently that are playing and what their perspectives are. I had a blast doing it.

One, it was kind of therapeutic for me and two, I found it being therapeutic for them. And we really started just talking about the transition. The book talks about youth sports, but it was really inspired because of my pain in the transition, you know, and leading up to that and being intentional about youth sports and being aware that there's this cliff coming. You can either fall off the cliff and be in the ravine and have to climb up the other side, or, you know, you might pave a bridge across that ravine. It's up to you. So I had a blast doing that. I'm like, somebody encouraged me, you should do a podcast. I'm like, I don't know. How do you do that? So, you know, were 17 episodes in and, you know, it's where I'm meeting awesome people like yourself.

And you've had some great guests.

I mean, you have had some. Tell us about some of your guests.

Well, I've had a couple of Super Bowl. I've had two eight time NFL players. One of them was a two year super bowl player. A lot of, fortunately here in Austin we have a lot of local people. I've had. So Dan Neal played for the Denver Broncos. He's a 8 year NFL guy from the University of Texas and Was on the Denver Broncos, has two super bowl rings. Mike Rosenthal was another NFL guy. Jeff Novak, another NFL guy. I've had a couple major leaguers. Scott Linebrink, another local guy. He's actually a Texas State alum. You know, 15 years in the major leagues, and I've got some minor leaguers in there. One of the guys I work on out with at the gym, I could just tell he's a baseball player. You know, you see him just the way he walks and, like.

So I befriended him and comes to find out he spent a lot of time in Triple A, 51 days in the major leagues. His name's Brad Glenn. He was. He's a great guy. And the cool thing about it, with all these. And then I had Dave, who's a sports agent, which was, well, the most.

The most powerful guy at the super bowl. Right? I mean, he is. You get a hold of Dave?

Yeah. I mean, that's awesome. Like, I was just like, how did I get this guy to give me some time? And, you know, and he gave a different perspective as well, because of his observation, you know, but he also, you know, was a Division III football player, and he loved sports as well, and we had some commonality with that as well. And so that was cool to come out with that. So it's just been really great because hearing the perspective, I think is great. There's some guys that made such great transitions, and I'm so curious. I'm, like, so interested. Like, how did you do that? It was like, no big deal. I have this. I still am very interested about the almost paradox of preparing for your exit while still giving it your all and trying to make it.

Like, to me, I don't understand that if I'm going to be successful, you got to be all in. And if you're planning on your future, that means you're kind of halfway out. That's my thought. But for some of these guys, they're like, no, I was getting my degree because I was thinking, you know, I might be done next year. Like, that doesn't. I love hearing the different perspectives of all these guys. And I've had a couple interviews that, I mean, it's apparent. I think they're still in the transition. I think they've never got out of it. They're in. I have this metaphor in my mind that it is that ravine and that bridge, you know, and I felt like I went off the ravine and I was in there, and I clawed my way up to the other side and.

And I share that Metaphor with a lot of people. And like Mike says, he goes, man, some days I'm like, I'm on the bridge and I jump off the bridge and I'm back on the bridge again. And then I'm like, so he's kind of funny from that aspect, but it's just so interesting to really, when you get guys and gals, and I've had a professional tennis player on here as well, that they're just a different perspective and how they got to that and what they're thinking, what they do now and how they trust their success to athletics. I love it. I just. I'm interested, man.

Well, it's funny because you talk about you got to be all in. You have a lot of things going on and you. You're all in on all of them, which is awesome. I mean, so much great stuff. And, and before I ask you the last question, let's go ahead and where can people find out more about every single thing you do? I mean, if they want to find out about the book, well, that's coming up. If they want to find out about the podcast Syner, if they want to find out about Impact 6, go ahead and let them know. Yeah.

So a lot of, like you said, a lot of these things have spun up in the last year or two, and we're getting into it, and it's hard to be all in on several different things. I mean, I love the whole aspect of doing many things at once, and I'm usually pretty good the more I have, because the more structured I am. You use some tools. I spend a lot of time on a daily basis planning on what are the most important priorities of the day that all came out of baseball, like journaling came out of baseball. And so I think it's important. I've had people, coaches even tell me, you shouldn't be doing all those things. And I take their advice and I got to do these. These are passion projects, and they're just different for me at this moment.

I don't know that they'll last from the standpoint of I've got a strike while the iron's hot, I guess, if you will, not to add a cliche, but I've got feel just compelled to do some of these, and they've created other opportunities. And, you know, we only live once, and you got to go out there and give it our best effort. And so I'm putting everything I got into these things, and I'm real excited. We've, you know, synergy Partners is a great find. I've been in the financial business for 18 years, so synergypartners, wealthstrategies.com people can find me there. They can find me on LinkedIn. Dan Rio, I think is Dan Leo.com not the greatest from a social media standpoint, but we have links for now what podcast now what? The book and those are all being created right now.

And we're going to be creating probably specific Twitter and Instagram things specifically for the book and for the podcast and for Impact 6, which is pretty unique. And then in all of those, we're trying to solve problems. We've created a couple other entities that are really just on the cusp of design, that are going to improve infusion technology, and all those that are going to be awesome plays that you're going to. I'm going to share with you eventually, Ed. But those are some great things. We're trying to solve problems and we're trying to make a significant impact with all of these different things that we've going on. So the book should be on presale by June and be in our hands shortly thereafter. And we should be pretty public with Impact six. And the podcast is launching priority within a week.

And we've got 17 episodes already, you know, already recorded. And we should be launching those probably twice a month, you know, and having continued guests. I've got a laundry list of people that we've got scheduled, and I'm more and more excited every day about people. I just got introduced to two people this morning that want to be on the podcast. And so it's cool that people are hearing about it and they want to recommend people.

That's fantastic. That is fantastic. And we will update the show notes as things come out and get updated in your world. We'll keep updating the show notes for the podcast. So the last question, I'm letting you off the hook. Easy. Okay. Because you've given us so much value. This was great. Avid reader. We love reading three books. If someone says, I only got time to read three books this year, what are three books that are must reads?

Well, I've got, you know, it depends on the type of person. I hated reading growing up, but I've become an avid reader and I, you know, I. Some people I've heard say, oh, I don't have time to read. You know, if you took 15 minutes a day and read, you'd read 12 books in a year. And the average person reads less than one book. And I made it a goal of mine only because I read somewhere that the average CEO reads 60 books a year. 60 books a year. So in 2016, I made it a goal and I read 60 books a year. It was the first time I had ever done that. Now also with technology these days, I mean, there's no reason why we shouldn't be reading, we shouldn't be listening, doing podcasts.

Podcasts are like little mini books if you think about it. It's the words of wisdom from people that have probably gone down a path that you want to go down one day that maybe be able to help you. And so I love podcasts from that standpoint, but the three. The first one that comes to mind is Think and Grow Rich. I've read it and I've read it over and over again, and I hope this is not blasphemous. The first one should be the Bible, but that's still a book that I read all the time. And if I'm focused on even application from a business standpoint and for my family, the thing has all the answers in it. I don't know if you're supposed to write in it or highlight, but I do in mine. And so God will forgive me for that.

But yeah, certainly that. But Think and Grow Rich. One thing that I read pretty recently, which was great about from a transitional standpoint was the big leap. And it really speaks to time on that one. But the big leap is a great one. And I would be remiss if I didn't say how to Win Friends and Influence People. I think our lives are about the people. And one of the things that I probably didn't use as a resource enough or didn't make an emphasis enough when I was playing was building more relationships around me.

And one of the things that I took away from Brad Glenn in his interview, and I think of him as a success story from a transition, is the people that he had surrounded himself with were resourceful during that moment, that when he was looking to exit baseball, when he was looking to do now what? Like, what's the next thing I'm going to do in my life, he had a network of people he could reach out to. And how do you do that? We got to learn how to build relationships with people. And it doesn't come easy to everybody. But how to Win Friends and influence people has 30 Dale Carnegie principles that are over 100 years old. And I think it's probably the all time best seller. If it isn't, it's way up there and timeless because human Nature doesn't change.

There's a lot of things that do change and how we interact with people, but it's proven that human nature does not change. We got to learn to coexist and cooperate and you know, and love our fellow man, if you will.

It's. Think about the three books you gave me, okay? Bible, Think and Grow Rich. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Unbelievable books. And look at how old they are. And the thing is this, the secret. There are. There are no secrets. That's the secret. And it doesn't change. It's just a matter of applying what you learn, and everything gets repackaged and recycled. But like you said, it's just doing that one thing and just go. Going back to the basics. And, my friend, you've done a wonderful job of it. I'm looking forward to everything that the future holds for you and looking forward to seeing you soon as well.

Absolutely, Ed. I'm really looking forward to your event in College Station. Like two weeks, I think.

Yeah, two weeks. Two weeks. And I appreciate it. I appreciate you carving out some time for us today. And this has been an unbelievable episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. You can find previous episodes on itunes. We would love for you to rate and review this episode and any others that you listen to. Our podcast is also on Stitcher, Google Play, and you can always Visit the website theathleticsofbusiness.com and check out themolitorgroup.com for all the things that we have going on, all the things that we do, and please do not hesitate to reach out to us, to reach out to me directly. Ed at the Molitor Group. That's mol I t o R group dot com. Hey, I appreciate everything.

Awesome.

All right, Dan. Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you for listening to the Athletics of Business. Be sure to give us a rating and review so we know how we're doing. For more information about the show, visit theathleticsofbusiness.com now get out there, think, act and execute at the highest level to unleash your greatness.