Athlete CEO #036: Separators of Success | Craig Domann
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Episode Notes
On this week's episode of Athlete CEO Podcast, Brandon and Erik Averill welcome Craig Domann, NFL Sports Attorney, Athlete & Coach Representation & Management to talk about what separates the athletes who are successful in the business world after their professional sports careers are over from the ones who are not.
Separators of Success
Guest: Craig Domann
Website: https://360sportsrep.com/about-360/
Podcast: https://www.promindsetpodcast.com/
3:00
There are seven key ingredients that someone needs to be successful:
Believe in yourself
You need passion for what your sport
There needs to be a motivational factor
Outstanding habits
Hard working
Lifestyle must be consistent with your dream
Competitive performance
6:15
What are good habits, and how does someone modify them if they do not have good ones?
11:51
How do you change your identity, and how do you go about changing the way you think about your life?
19:09
The most important thing for a player to decide when retiring is to determine what their passion is after they are done playing professional sports.
36:57
If you did not have 30/40 minutes to have a conversation with someone, say you only had a few minutes to leave an impact, what advice would you give to a young NFL player?
37:29
Craig Dowman: “Be all in. Have no regrets. This is it. Nothing is promised after this season.”
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Listen and Subscribe to the Athlete CEO podcast with Brandon and Erik Averill from AWM Capital on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts.
+ Read the Transcript
Erik Averill (00:05):
Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Athlete CEO Podcast. I am your host, Erik Averill, and I'm joined by my co-host and co-founder of AWM Capital, who happens to be my older brother as well, Brandon Averill. At AWM we're on a mission to help our clients maximize their net worth ultimately for the biggest impact on their families, communities, and world at large. One thing that we believe uniquely is that your net worth is not just your financial capital, but really believe that the biggest driver of your net worth is actually your human capital.
Erik Averill (00:45):
That's what this podcast is all about, is how do we maximize, increase and monetize your human capital? Our guest today, we are fired up to have a conversation with him because this is what he specializes in. He is yes, a sports attorney. He's negotiated over a billion dollars of NFL contracts, but what we're going to focus on is the things that he's learned over 30 years of being the closest to these elite athletes, is what is the pro mindset.
Erik Averill (01:12):
What separates those that end up accomplishing what they should, and then those that fail? With that introduction, I'd like to introduce Craig Domann to the podcast. Craig, thanks for being on.
Craig Domann (01:24):
Erik, thank you so much. I'm excited about being on your show today.
Erik Averill (01:29):
Craig, yeah, one of the things, we've had this backend conversation of being in the inner circle of some of the best athletes in the world. We get exposed to the inner workings of seeing what happens when you have certain clients and players essentially outperform what people expect them to do. Then we have the big flops of these high talented, huge draft picks that never really pan out. That's the conversation the three of us want to have today, is, can we distill down what is actually the separator that makes individuals successful?
Erik Averill (02:06):
Because whether it's football, baseball, the PGA, or in the boardroom, these skill sets transfer and these conversations do. I'd just love to hear your general thoughts as we lead into that conversation.
Craig Domann (02:19):
Outstanding. Erik, here's the thing. In representing a lot of players, having over a hundred draft picks, you start seeing patterns of behavior, patterns of thought. You start seeing guys that regardless of what the NFL teams think they might be, you have an idea that they're going to be more than that, or less than that. In doing my own podcast and interviewing over a hundred and some former athletes, GMs, coaches and those types of guys, what I've learned is that there are seven key ingredients. That if you have all seven ... You've got to have all seven.
Craig Domann (02:53):
If you've got six, the seventh one's going to trip you up at some point in time. It's just a matter of time. Those things are, you've got to believe in yourself. You've got to have passion for your sport. You got to know what your why is, you got to have your motivational factor. You've got to have outstanding habits. I'm reading the book Atomic Habits right now. It's phenomenal. It's right up my wheelhouse for what these players need. You've got to be a hard worker. You have to have a lifestyle that's consistent with your dream.
Craig Domann (03:26):
Then after you have those six, the most important thing that everyone sees is how you perform. What is your competitive performance? Can you do it in the clutch? Can you do it on Sunday afternoons? Can you do it on Monday nights, whenever your games are? Because the guys that have all seven play for as long as their bodies will last. The guys that don't have all seven, don't.
Brandon Averill (03:51):
Yeah. I think that ... I mean, we'll dig into all seven of those because I think there's so much gold there. I wish you could have seen Erik's fist pump when you mentioned Atomic Habits. It's a pretty much required reading around our parts. We couldn't agree with you more on that. I'd love to maybe just start there. Habits. As we think about athletes and who's successful, or we even move it over into the business world, who's successful, I think it is the development of those habits. A lot of times as athletes, those habits are created for us but I think the true separator is that self-starter.
Brandon Averill (04:32):
We see this with people that come to work for us. The people that are really successful are the people that know how to set those habits for themselves and those habits aren't set by other people. I'd love to just hear you dig into that. What's been your experience as you've seen successful athletes or other people? Do you agree with that? Do you disagree with it? I'd love to hear your insight.
Craig Domann (04:55):
Okay. Brandon, here's how I look at it with an NFL guy. There's different seasons in a professional athlete's year, and he's got to have different routines for each season. I would say there's four primary seasons. The first one is getting ramped up before training camp or spring training in baseball. The second one is actually training camp or the spring training. Third one is the regular season and the fourth one is your downtime, but you just can't walk away from your sport. You got to have good habits during that time as well.
Craig Domann (05:32):
One of the things that Atomic Habits talks about is that you can't change your habits without changing your identity. Well, in my pro mindset, part of belief, it has two parts. Your identity. How do you see yourself? The second part of it is the confidence that you have in the skills that you have. Both of those are different, but they both manifest into your belief, which also reflects in your body language, in how you talk, how you act, how you interface with people. Getting back to the habits though, the key question is, what are good habits?
Craig Domann (06:17):
Then, how do you modify them if you don't have good ones? I'm going to hit on those real quick. Great habits are always taking care of the number one asset you have, which is your body. For NFL guys, that's having a pit crew, having a massage therapist, having a stretch guy, having a mental coach. All these things. Having an MAT, having an ARP, having a chiropractor, having anybody and everybody that can help you be at your primetime level on game days. Then the second part of that question was, how do you modify them?
Craig Domann (07:00):
Well, in the NFL, there's two ways to do it. One is to find a veteran that's played for more than 12 years. Any dude that's in the locker room that's played for more than 12 years has figured it out. They know what it takes to take care of your body. They know the routines you need to have week in, week out to make sure not only your body's right, your mind's right. You're prepared for your opponent. That's one way to do it. The second way is, change who you are, change how you think of yourself.
Craig Domann (07:34):
If you're always getting to team meetings early in the morning, right on time, you got to change how you think, what your identity is about being on time. Because if you don't, it doesn't matter if it's year five or year eight or year 12, you're going to struggle getting there on time. You've got to modify that so you can actually be 15 minutes early.
Brandon Averill (07:56):
I think that's great advice. I mean, the whole theme of this I think is just screaming human capital. How do we maximize that human capital? We talk a lot about that with our clients. It's the greatest driver of net worth. If you're focusing on those things, creating those habits, I think that's just such great advice. I'd like to even expand a little bit further on finding a mentor, finding the guy that survived 12 years because I think most of us ... And I've never been in an NFL locker room, but talking to Zach, who now works with us, you survived 12 years.
Brandon Averill (08:34):
You've certainly survived and you've had that game plan for it. In any walk of life, I think we learn so much from those that have come before us, how to go about our business. What would you advise somebody beyond just the guy that's been there for a long time? What would you say somebody should look for in a mentor? Then maybe even more importantly, in your mind, what's it look like to be a good mentee? Because I think people forget about that side of the equation, is you got to give something back in that process as well.
Craig Domann (09:09):
Great question. One of the things that your clients should do is get on the phone with Zach Miller and find out what he did, find out what he didn't do that he wished he would've did. Sometimes the most prophetic voices are the guys that are done. They've hung up their cleats. Do you know how often Zach's gone to bed at night second guessing himself on what he could have done or what he should have done that might've prevented the injuries that he had? Because there are guys that were in his draft class in 2007 that are still playing today.
Craig Domann (09:47):
I'll bet you, if you gave Zach an opportunity to go make $10 million playing in the NFL today and going to practice today or come into the office, he would rather be in the NFL today. Those guys have invaluable perspective and expertise, so you seek out people that have been there. Then the second thing is, you're not looking for the guy in the locker room that's got the biggest paycheck. You're really looking for the guy that's got the longevity because he does everything right.
Craig Domann (10:24):
Everybody knows he doesn't have the most athleticism, but he's still there. That's the guy you want to gravitate towards, because he wouldn't be there but for the fact that he does everything right.
Erik Averill (10:38):
Yeah. I really love that feedback. Something that resonates with me is talking about the ownership of your career. I think one thing, both Brandon and I are former professional athletes and whether these were mistakes we made or we saw our teammates make is, so many individuals just show up. It's, "Hey, I've made the team or I've been drafted." It's more of a reactive day as opposed to hearing conversations, talking to Zach, talking to ... On a previous episode, we had Dana Cavalea who was with the New York Yankees and watched Derek Jeter work and watched a lot of these and saying who were the pros?
Erik Averill (11:20):
It was not that they were always necessarily the first one to show up and the last ones to leave, but they knew what they were doing. They had an effective game plan. There wasn't a lot of wasted minutes. There was a lot of intentionality and understanding the professionalism and the opportunity and taking advantage. You said this on a previous podcast. You have to take advantage of the biggest opportunity during the biggest opportunity, because it doesn't matter once the doors are shut.
Erik Averill (11:49):
One thing I want you to expand on is, how do you actually go about changing the way you think about yourself? How do you change your identity? The thing that James Clear references and Atomic Habits.
Craig Domann (12:04):
Man, I would own an entire country if I had the answer to that question.
Erik Averill (12:13):
So good.
Craig Domann (12:14):
Right there? I mean, okay. Here's where I really think it starts. I think it starts with your identity and your creator. It's a faith element. If you don't change or understand where you are with respect to your faith and why you're here in 2020 and you got the parents you got, and you got the wife you got and the kids you got, whatever the situation may be, it's hard to really change your identity without understanding what that is. I'm not here to say what it should be, but you got to figure it out, okay?
Craig Domann (12:46):
Once you have your faith component figured out, then it's easier to go, "Hey, if I think of myself as this, I'm going to bring this into my world. I'm going to attract." It's the law of attraction. If I change my identity through the law of attraction, I'm going to attract different things. I do want to attract different things. I think it's being ... You used the word intentional earlier. That's one of the most important words in the English language. Are you just going with the wind? You got to make your own way.
Craig Domann (13:26):
I think for professional athletes, because their careers are so short, every single thing they do, even when they decide to go on a vacation in the off season, it should be intentional. Everything they do should be intentional. If they're going to take a break for a couple of weeks, give their bodies a break, it should be intentional. They shouldn't just wake up one day and go, "I think I'm going to take off for a couple of weeks."
Craig Domann (13:49):
I think they have to treat themselves almost like a corporation that's got a limited shelf life and the revenue is going to end from that sport at the end of their career. What do they want to accomplish between today point A and point B when their career is over?
Erik Averill (14:08):
Yeah. That's great. That translates to all of us, right? I think waking up every day of having the intentionality of understanding that this life is a gift, right? We all know this. We're not promised tomorrow. 2020 has reminded all of us we have far less control than we think that we do. Having that intentionality, having that understanding. I think another book that that comes to mind is a High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. He parks on the importance of clarity.
Erik Averill (14:41):
I think one thing listening in to conversations you've had on your podcast ... And for the audience, just a reminder, Pro Mindset is Craig's. You guys have to check it out. Of course, we're going to put all this in the show notes if you guys go over to athleteceo.com, because I know you guys are probably scribbling notes. If you're in the car and you can't, all of that's going to be accessible on the website. This clarity of understanding, defining what it is that you want to accomplish.
Erik Averill (15:12):
Can you talk about over the 30 years you've worked with these young kids coming out of college, how do you help them start to provide clarity beyond like, "Oh, I just want to be a football player." Is it more of a refinement? Can you just talk about the process of how you mentor so many of these players through that situation?
Craig Domann (15:32):
Well, it's really a Stephen Covey approach from the standpoint of begin with the end in mind. I ask the guys, when you look in the rear view mirror and your career is behind you, what do you want? What impact do you want to make? What kind of bank account ... I break it up into four things. Everybody wants to have a fat bank account. Money, okay. Everybody wants to be able to play with their kids. Health. This life is about relationships. Without relationships, we wouldn't even want to do business. That's what COVID has shown us.
Craig Domann (16:10):
We need to have interaction and we need to have relationships. No one on the planet understands what you guys have gone through as professional athletes, no matter how long you played, no matter what level you played, than other guys that have done the same thing. Wouldn't it make sense to maintain longer-term relationships with those people that you were on bus rides with, you were in the trenches with? Then the fourth thing you want to have, is you want to have opportunities. The platform of a professional athlete is very revered by the general public.
Craig Domann (16:47):
CEO's will go to dinner and lunch with you now when you're in the NFL or if you're in professional sports. The day after you're gone, the day after you get waived, fired, terminated, whatever the case may be, they might make time for you. How much can you capitalize on the opportunity as a professional athlete during that time so that you have genuine friendships and relationships with CEOs and different people of influence in your community so that when you're done, you've got places to go?
Brandon Averill (17:22):
Yeah. I love that summary of looking with the end in mind. I think it also brings me back to something I read the other day and it's really the illusion of choice, right? If you start with the end in mind and you decide that these are your priorities and you have a clear articulation of what you want, then all of your choices to get there are already made for you. I think that's just a powerful process to go through. What a great summary, those four points. I mean, each of them, we could certainly riff on.
Brandon Averill (18:00):
I mean, with the health, another big podcast or big person out there, Peter Attia talks about the centenarian Olympics. Keeping your body ready. I mean, for athletes, we already have such a head start, right? Then you retire, don't let it go. That's equally a challenge, but the opportunities, let's go there for a little bit because this is something we preach quite a bit as well. I mean, we talk about the winter meetings for baseball with our baseball guys. It's a sad sight.
Brandon Averill (18:32):
Every year we see multiple ex-players roaming around looking for jobs and it was clear, right? They either didn't do the things the right way and so people don't want to talk to them at that point. More likely they just didn't take the time and the opportunity that sat in front of them throughout their careers. As you've advised the clients you've worked with to seek out those opportunities, how have they gone about that? Who comes to mind and maybe not naming that person, but what was their process for maximizing on those opportunities?
Craig Domann (19:08):
I think the first thing is for the players to determine what their passion is after their sport's over, once they are done. They already know what it is. It may be hunting and fishing, could be golf, could be the sport they're in. They want to stay in touch with the sport they're in as a scout, as a coach, some maybe in administration. Then after they identify and recognize what they want their career to look like when they're done, then go set up ... I think the best thing to do is to reach out and set up lunches.
Craig Domann (19:46):
Today that's difficult with COVID, but set up phone calls, because they learn things they didn't expect to learn. They find out the impact that they could have, that they're not even fulfilling all the potential impact they could make. They may be sitting down with a 43-year-old man, who's a CEO of a company that's in an industry they'd love to be in. Next thing you know they get hired away when their career is over by that company, by that guy.
Craig Domann (20:17):
The players that I've had that have done a great job, they just knew what they wanted to do and then they had the courage to reach out to people, because everybody's reachable with social media, LinkedIn, whatever it is. We could get to Trump and Biden tonight if we wanted to. I mean, it's not like it used to be 20/30 years ago where there were untouchable people. Everybody's touchable today, so there's no excuse.
Brandon Averill (20:49):
Yeah. No, I think that's great. Erik, you can jump in here, but I would just say for those that are listening, look at the resources you have around you as well. If you've got an agent like Craig, or you've got a team like ours, we can help with that process. We often do with many of our clients, so reach out cold. Absolutely. Then also we always remind people, be intellectually curious throughout your career. As you're investigating those ways to help improve your process, there's oftentimes that a product or a person is attached to that.
Brandon Averill (21:28):
Don't just make that quick decision and implement. Think about it, meet the person behind it, et cetera. Erik, I know you were itching to jump in there.
Erik Averill (21:39):
Yeah. It was just piggy backing off of what you guys are talking about, is I think of a previous podcast that we did with Kobi Fuller, a general partner over at Upfront Ventures talking about your network really is your net worth. We see a really cool example up in the venture capital community of seeing NFL players that have taken advantage of exactly what we're talking about. Ryan Nece played seven years in the NFL and really building off maybe the shoulders of his dad, Ronnie Lott, but the relationships that they've built up in the Valley are incredible. This is where I would tip my cap to so many of the NFL players, is we've been up there.
Erik Averill (22:20):
There's these educational days that because of your NFL career, your MLB career or your PGA career, you get to go hang out with David Krane from Google Ventures or you get to get access to some of these startup companies that none of us could just walk through the doors. I think the opportunity is absolutely huge. One of the things I'd love to hear your thoughts on, Craig, is being someone who's been in the inner circle over the years, and something that struck us over a conversation we were just having offline was, one of the downsides of been doing this for 30 years, as you made the comment, you can tell very quickly who's going to survive and who's going to thrive.
Erik Averill (23:07):
Can you talk about I think why you can identify that? What are some of those characteristics? Then some taboo stuff. One of the things we see just in life in general is in the athlete community, there's not a lot of people that are speaking truthfully with them, that are what I would say truly there for their best interests that they're willing to risk the relationship speaking truthfully with these young athletes. I'd just love to hear your thoughts and rift on picking up that conversation of why you can identify so quickly who's got the ingredients.
Craig Domann (23:44):
I would say you can tell from two things. One is their time horizon. It's no different than handling somebody's wealth. If their time horizon is 40 years and there's consistency in their spending habits with that 40 years, you've got a winner. If their time horizon is 40 years, but they're spending their money like it's four years, we've got a problem. Where that comes in into play in the NFL is, when a guy all he can think about is getting drafted. He sees that as the finish line. I joke in my head that way back in the day when I graduated from high school, I gave the commencement address for my class and I learned what the word commencement meant.
Craig Domann (24:35):
I thought it meant you accomplished something. You guys obviously know, it means the beginning. That is the draft. It's your entry point. It's not your end. It's not going to be the badge on your shoulder that says you've been successful because you are a first, second, third, whatever rounder you are. It's, can you build a career once you get there? When I talk to young prospects and all they can think about is the draft, I mean, that's it. It's like that's the end, their career's going to be very short-lived, unless they change their perspective, change their identity.
Craig Domann (25:18):
The other thing that you can notice is their goals. If their goal is to buy their mama a house, that is an admirable goal, but now what? You bought your mother a house, is there something else? I see there's two types of goals. There's finite goals and there's infinite goals. The guys that have finite goals have finite careers. The guys that have infinite goals like, "Hey, I want to make an impact. I want to win championships. I want to create generational wealth for my family." You never get there.
Craig Domann (25:58):
They're always moving targets. Those are the guys that play for as long as their body will take it and they generally have very successful careers. Makes sense?
Erik Averill (26:13):
Yeah. Makes tremendous sense. I mean, especially for us at AWM Capital, the multi-generational wealth thing really hits. I think one of the things that we talk about is ... and this is Atomic Habits. It's more of a mindset and a lifestyle that if you have two concrete finite goals, you're not happy, right? You're not happy until you make enough money to buy mom a house, but once you buy mom's house, it's done if that's all that's driving you. It's really about, how do I have this mindset of what am I chasing? What are my values? What do I stand for? What's the impact?
Erik Averill (26:56):
I think that that's really the conversation that we get excited about when we're working with our clients is, what's the impact you want to make? Whether it's what's the impact on the league that you're playing in, the family that you're a part of, the community you're a part of? Or maybe there is some injustice in the world that you want to join that fight and tackle together is what we found, whether it's the business owner, the athlete, exactly what you're saying, Craig, is, if you have an impact above and beyond yourself or some material possession, those are the ones that thrive. That's super helpful.
Erik Averill (27:33):
Can you talk a little bit more about just what is a real relationship between an advisor and a client? I mean, from an agent to a player that we can talk of course, contracts and marketing and X, Y, Z. But if you're building your board of advisors, if you're a young person walking into this complex life, what should they be looking for in the team that they place around themselves?
Craig Domann (28:03):
That is a great question. I'm going to tie that in with the second part of my answer to the previous question. It's your circle of influence, depending on a player or a prospect's circle of influence will determine how far he goes. Now let's go to your question. Your question is, how do you build a team? What are you looking for? What are the attributes? What are the pros and cons? All those types of things. The answer is, the people that make you feel uncomfortable because they're telling you the right thing. The people that are not yes men, because typically the posse and the circle of influence are the yes men.
Craig Domann (28:47):
They don't get to go fly on vacation, they don't get to stay at the resort for free, unless they say yes. They don't get to stay in your circle unless they say yes. The players that are the smartest find a panel of advisors that don't always tell them yes. Tell them no and tell them maybe. The maybe is, depends on how long you want to play, depends on how much financial impact you want to make. It's not yes all the time.
Brandon Averill (29:25):
Yeah. I think that's, I mean, obviously fantastic insight for a young player as he starts to build around. I think can't emphasize the point enough that circling all the way back, if you've done that, if you're looking at the end of your life and you've found that you want to have some significance in your profession, if you want to have some significance or impact within your family, your community, et cetera, having that support team is just a nonnegotiable.
Brandon Averill (29:58):
Going through that process to select those people and really understanding how are they going to hold your feet to the fire and put your interests ahead of theirs a lot of times. I think that's where the yes and no certainly comes in. We see that far too often, but what an important point. Circling back on just goals and having that vision for the future, it reminds me of in business, a lot of us know this, but the OKR process, John Doerr, and originally Andy Grove at Intel, but it's what Google's been built upon. It's what Facebook implemented, a lot of the highest growth companies in the world.
Brandon Averill (30:44):
I think it also could apply to the athlete. I'd love to have you just expand again. We've hit on habits. What are those daily things? What are those routines that are going to make us successful in each season? How would you advise somebody that's looking and said, "Okay. I did the exercise. I know what I want in the end. I know the habits that I need to be successful in this realm. What about the in between, the goals? Am I picking just numbers and statistics? Am I picking process?" How would you help somebody go through that process?
Craig Domann (31:20):
First and foremost, especially since you guys are in the financial world, I would sit down with the young man and ask him to write himself a check that he gets to cash when he retires and tell him to dream big. Let's say he writes a $50 million check. You have him actually write out a $50 million check from his account to him and put it in his wallet. When his career's over, let's see if he can cash it. Okay? Because it will totally impact how he behaves, how he spends, how he thinks, how he performs. If in fact he ... And you remind him, "Dude, are you going to be able to cash a $50 million check?"
Craig Domann (32:07):
He wants to go buy his 17th car. He wants to buy a house for his third cousin. Is that going to help you cash that $50 million check? The answer is obviously no.
Brandon Averill (32:21):
Yeah.
Craig Domann (32:22):
Okay. Let's go back to the question, which was, how do you help a young man in the goal process, in the visioning process and the dreaming process? Well, candidly, that conversation is a lot of fun and it's easy because everybody likes to dream. Everybody wants to be their eight-year-old self. The hard part is when you ask them, how are you going to get there? Okay. If I asked you a simple question like, "Hey, where's your dream vacation?" Where would you say? Just pick a place.
Erik Averill (33:04):
I've got to go France. I mean, I'm a big wine drinker so I'd love to go to the mothership France. How am I going to get there?
Craig Domann (33:15):
Okay. Teddy and I lived in Paris for six weeks during the World Cup and it was real-
Erik Averill (33:18):
Oh, come on.
Craig Domann (33:19):
Yeah. It was so fun. Went to about a dozen World Cup games. Anyway, the question is, how are you going to put yourself in a position so that you can go to Paris or France or wherever in France for a month, take the wife and kids and significant others? The answer is that's an expensive vacation. Let's start looking at where you're going to make some sacrifices because you can't keep doing what you're doing and still ... Because if you could have already went, you would have. You haven't gone.
Craig Domann (33:50):
You either haven't had the money or the time. How are you going to make that happen? I think that the thing that just drives me crazy sometimes is we all get 24 hours in a day, every one of us. There's days when I get 20 hours' worth of work done in eight and there's days when I get two hours of work done in four. The question is, can you be effective and efficient? Can you be productive? Can you work on the smart things? Can you delegate? Can you get a team working with you?
Craig Domann (34:27):
As an athlete, it's the same way. Can you delegate? Do you hire a chef? What's your relationship like with your significant other? Do you have a coach that's ... Some of the pros have coaches that do advanced scouting for them to give them tips on, "Hey, what's the offense?" Let's say the player is at defensive end, what does the offensive tackle do to tip that it's actually going to be a pass play or run your side? That's over and above what the team's doing.
Craig Domann (35:04):
It's, can you do the little bit extra that makes ordinary the extraordinary? Man, it's kind of a cliché but it's so true. What little extra things can you do to put yourself in a position to get what you said you wanted?
Erik Averill (35:23):
Yeah. It's convicting, right? Whether you're an athlete or not, the time conversation is a really big one. I think of Dana Cavalea's comment, you own your schedule own your life. That's very true. Or Dr. Robert Cooper, who's one of the top neuroscientists, a really intriguing thing that's convicted us is it's something that his grandfather passed to his dad and now he tells his kids, is literally asking the question of every minute, whether he goes to a meeting or whether his kids are playing video games, X, Y, is asking that question, was that worth investing a piece of my life in? Because it's not some arbitrary thing.
Erik Averill (36:07):
It's actually our most finite resource and we wouldn't be as flippant with our money. I think that that is super convicting and extremely helpful. Craig, we've loved this conversation. I want to be sensitive to your time. This has been super valuable. I mean, for our audience, I want to remind you, go to athleteceo.com. There's been so many great resources mentioned, books here, individuals. We'll make sure that's all linked in the show notes. Make sure you sign up for that newsletter because that's how we're going to make sure you guys are getting all of these updated resources that we've talked about.
Erik Averill (36:47):
Craig, if you could leave our audience with a big takeaway, that ... One of my questions I always like to ask people is, if they didn't get a 40-minute, 30-minute conversation with them. You only get to have a two or three-minute conversation to leave an impact on a individual you're going to have, what's the advice that you would leave with a young NFL player if you were just having a two/five-minute type conversation with them?
Craig Domann (37:20):
It would be the same conversation I had a couple of nights ago with my son, who's a fifth year senior at the University of Nebraska. Be all in, have no regrets. This is it. Nothing is promised after the season. I played the bring the future to the present. The future is you're done. When you look back, if you're all in and you do everything you're capable of doing, whether it's leadership, whether it's preparation, whether it's culture with your teammates, camaraderie with your brothers, it doesn't matter what it is. Be all in. Give it everything you got and have no regrets.
Erik Averill (38:04):
Wow. We couldn't have said it better. Reminds me of Ronnie Lott's motto of exhaust the moment. There's this reminder that this is not the dress rehearsal. You get one life, you get one ride, and so love that. Craig, thank you so much for your time. Once again audience, you guys have to go check out the Pro Mindset. I think one of the things that has become very apparent, this is not just a conversation from someone who's calling themselves a life coach, right? This is a practitioner.
Erik Averill (38:38):
This is lessons and truths from in the trenches as a dad, as a husband, as a business owner, as a mentor for 30 years to some of the best professional athletes in the world. Athlete CEO audience, thank you guys for your time, your attention. Please, if you guys have any comments, we'd love to hear from you guys over at the website, or make sure you are leaving a review on iTunes for us. Until next time, stay humble, stay hungry and always be a pro. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances.
Erik Averill (39:23):
Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.
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