A life growing up in the NFL with Gerry Sandusky [MAJOR LEAGUE MINDSET EPISODE 8]

Welcome back to Major League Mindset. I can't tell you how excited I am for this interview, folks. Not only do I get to interview somebody who is a great human being, but this man is also my speaking coach as well as quite frankly, a mentor of mine. Jerry Sandusky. Jerry, welcome.

Good to be with you, buddy.

I got a reference for anybody who is a sports junkie. This is Jerry with a G, not the Jerry Sandusky from Penn State. We need to make sure that you have clear. So, Jerry, welcome to Major League Mindset. Let's level set here. You have a very interesting upbringing, both as the son of a former NFL player, the former coach in the NFL as well as now you are involved with the NFL. Why don't you, for the audience who doesn't know who you are, fill us in a little bit about your background and what you do today.

Sure. So I'm the play by play voice of the Baltimore Ravens. I do the preseason TV broadcast and the regular season radio broadcast. And I was literally born into the NFL when I was born. My father was the offensive line coach for the Baltimore Colts way before Indy, when they were here in Baltimore. And I was the last of five kids. So I grew up in the NFL. My father coached until I was in my 30s, and by that time I had already started my broadcasting career. So literally every fall of my life has revolved around the NFL and specifically at football in general and the, you know, the rhythm of Sunday to Sunday and the idea of you winning and the idea of being a part of a team and all of those life lessons that are integral. I was a freshman in Towson University in Baltimore. I was there to play basketball and eventually football as well. And I'll never forget, Andy, the first Sunday in September, the football games were on and halftime I kind of walked to the lobby of the dorm and I looked out the window and I saw all these people milling around on the quad. And it was the first time in my life the thought ever crossed my mind that there were people whose lives didn't revolve around the NFL.

Stephen Covey has that great expression, fish discover water. Last, I was the fish who discovered the water line.

So let me, let me take a step back. For the folks who aren't, who aren't aware of Jerry, I forgot to mention this is, this is a man of many talents. Not only is he the play by play announcer for the Baltimore Ravens, but he's also the owner of a Sandusky group which is in the media and marketing space. You are the co founder of Trigger, which is a human resource, call it human resource platform developed specifically for the human resource professionals as well as the sports anchor at WBAL in Baltimore. So you have a lot of going on and a little time to donate. So again, I'm very grateful for this. So, Jerry, take us back to your childhood being the kid of a father, son of a father, John, who played for the, I believe it was the Cleveland Browns and the Green Bay Packers.

Correct.

What was it like growing up the son of a father in the NFL?

So, you know, you grow up, you're very proud of your father. And again, I didn't even have the full appreciation for it until many, many years later. But you know, the idea that there, you know, Sundays, there's your father on the sideline, or once you begin to be like 12 years old or so, you're a training camp with your father, that was one of the most powerful experiences that I had growing up was I got to be with my father in his workspace. So few people do that. And then later when I started my broadcasting career, I was covering the Miami Dolphins and he was coaching for the Dolphins. So I got to be with my father in his workspace when we were both adults. And that was just pure magic to share that perspective, to understand your father from a man's perspective, a boy's perspective, as well as from his perspective. And most of us never get the chance to do that. And that was just one of the great blessings of my life, which is.

Pretty cool because if I'm correct, now you get to share that same experience with your son and Trigger.

Right, Right. My son Zach works for us in sales development and Trigger, which as you mentioned, is an employee evaluation and talent development tool. And so I probably would not even have gone down that avenue if I hadn't experienced it myself and known how powerful it's been on my entire adult life. So when I had the opportunity bring my son into the company, I very much went out of the way to make that happen.

That's awesome. That's awesome. So dad's in the NFL. Dad went on to be an NFL coach. In fact, he was the head coach with the for the Baltimore Colts at one time. Right?

Yeah. In 1972, he was the interim head coach for about a nine game run. Now. That was cool. I gotta tell you, when you are, you know, like in middle school and your father's the head coach of an NFL team, I gotta believe I enjoyed those nine weeks a lot more than my father did.

So would you say, what would you say? What were the one or two lessons your dad may have taught you in his time in the NFL or watching him on the sidelines as a coach?

One of the big ones was that.

Life'S biggest lessons.

Don'T really need that many words. The body of your work will be the great teacher for everyone who follows you. They will see where you are coming from. They will see your heart. They will see your intention, because time makes it impossible to mask any of that stuff. And so when men teach boys to become men, when men teach other men as an example, there are really very few words that are necessary to. To teach the big lessons. The lessons of truth, integrity, honor, hard work, the lesson of honoring your word. Those are the lessons that when you grow up on the sideline of the NFL, you can't fake that stuff. You can't shortcut any of that stuff. And that's what really sticks with you.

Isn't it ironic? Your dad was a coach, yet those are the principles. You really can't coach in anybody, but.

You can demonstrate them. Yes, and that's how we learn them. You know, I don't know that we're born understanding what integrity is until you see another person who has integrity. I don't know that we're. We fully understand what it means to have a great sense of humor until you're around somebody with a great sense of humor who can laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. I don't know that we fully understand what loyalty is until you're with someone who's loyal to what he or she believes in during trying times. That's how we learn. That's how we get the example from people who come before us.

So your athletic career came to an end at Towson State.

What made you want to stick to the sport and get into the broadcasting side of the business, where now you're not playing against the competition, you're actually communicating about what's going on on the field.

So, Eddie, there's an old expression in the world of pro sports. Those who can do, those who can't coach, and those who can't coach, broadcast.

But because I had grown up around that and I had some college athletic experience, and I want to phrase this very accurately. When I was at Towson, I played two sports, and in both basketball and football, I redefined the word mediocre. I took average to a new level at a consistency that has been unequaled ever since. I mean, I was completely ordinary, and I was actually in over my head. And you learn a lot when you're in over your head athletically, because, again, you can't fake it. There are certain things in life you can talk your way through. You can't talk your way through not being quick enough to cover the fastest guard on the court. You can't talk your way through not being able to outrun somebody who's running next to you. That's all authentic, it's all real, and it's all fundamental. And so as I reached the end of my athletic career, I knew I wanted to be involved in sports. I knew I wasn't athletically strong enough to make a living in pro sports. And I'd seen the challenges my father had faced as a coach, and I didn't really want that life either. So I'd been around broadcasting with my dad during interviews he had done and some broadcasts he had been a part of. And I'd always thought that was a pretty interesting world to be a part of. It always struck me as really engaging and interesting, and people had to be really sharp mentally. And so that was the path that I chose to follow.

That's awesome. You know, it's. It's funny. You talk about you can't fake it till you make it. And especially when it comes to playing one on one, somebody you know, in sports, whatever that is, that's a phrase often used in the sales profession, is just fake it till you make it. But unfortunately, in many ways, you get exposed. And so it's a life lesson, both in sports and business, that faking it till you make it doesn't always work.

And so, yeah, it's not about. And I hate the phrase fake it till you make it. Now, that said, we all have to kind of grow. And the way we grow is to push ourselves beyond our capabilities at the moment. And that just takes courage. The better phrase that I've heard over the years, and it's not my phrase, but it's one I heard years ago, is you have to have the pluck to suck. You have to be willing to be less than spectacular at something in order to grow. You have to be willing to go out there and say, look, I'm not very good at this yet. I'm probably going to get humbled. But from that humility, I will learn a skill. I will grow, I will improve. And sports teaches you, if you stick with things over time and if you practice things correctly, you will improve and you will develop the skill set you need. You can't just show up and fake it, but if you have the courage to show up and be less than spectacular on day one. You can grow in the right direction.

Yeah. It's interesting you say that because what at the end of the day it's about is getting yourself uncomfortable and taking imperfect action every day and being okay with losing.

Yes.

You know, you look at the generations today. 8th place trophies didn't exist in our time. Right. And so you have to be okay with losing and growing from that loss to become better the next time.

I get news for you. The eighth place trophy, all of that is more about the parents than the kids. Yes. I've never met a third grader in any generation who craved a trophy just for the sake of showing up. That's all about the parents. Well, nothing to do with the kids.

And Jerry, I go back to the business side, the sales profession. When you're in a finalist meeting and you're one of three finalists, there's no trophy for saying, congratulations, you came in third.

It's called no paycheck.

You don't get a bonus check for showing up. Exactly. You get a bonus check for results. And look, it's important to be encouraging to young people, to young salespeople, the young professionals. Encouragement is really important. But I think it's equally important to share with people that the mindset that sports will teach you, if you allow it, is let failure be your teacher, not your judge.

You're going to fail, something you and I have worked on a lot.

And so you're going to fall down. We all do. You're going to have mistakes. You know, I made a mistake in the broadcast yesterday. I called a touchdown and the guy didn't secure the ball. The ball bounced loose and it was an incompletion. We all are going to make mistakes and it's not okay. List your mistakes, flog yourself for it and feel terrible. That's the wrong path. It's list your mistakes, look for the lesson, learn the lesson and improve.

You bring up a really good point I want to hit upon and I want to ask you this question as a play by play announcer. You're live in front of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. And whatever's coming out of your mouth has to be accurate. Right.

Or.

Or you're trying to be. So when you're on the spot and you're announcing a game, what's going through your head as you're announcing that game? Because it's moving fast. Just like somebody in a sales presentation, things might be moving fast. How do you put yourself in the Right mindset. So you can just easily communicate what is going on on the field.

So you have to tune out a lot of it. And what gets most people tangled in a presentation or in a broadcast or in a game is they have their attention too many places at the same time. What I most love about doing play by play is, for me, it's actually a Zen like experience. I'm completely present in the moment and my attention is at the tip of the football.

It's not, you know, in between plays. I might look at the sideline, I might look at the stands, I might talk about the weather, I might talk about the standings, I might talk about the stick. But from snap to whistle, my attention is exactly where the ball is and I have to follow the ball and take the listener or the viewer with me so he or she understands what that means to the impact of the greater story. But in that space of time, I'm nowhere else. I'm not thinking about my mortgage. I'm not thinking about an argument I may have had with a colleague. I'm not worried about whether my wife has certain plans for the upcoming weekend. I'm not going to be able to meet them. I'm not thinking about, did I get the laundry done on Tuesday? None of that is in my mind. I'm totally present. And there's something very liberating with being untethered from your to do list for three hours and only being present in one space. And so I share this with presenters all the time. When you're in front of the room. Yeah, there's, you know, there's, there's servers in the back of the room coming in and out, people opening, closing doors. There's lights turn on and off. There's people rustling paper. There's a million places you can put your attention and none of those will serve your audience.

That's such a good lesson because I can raise my hand in my own guilt that I've been in presentations before where I'm trying to earn somebody's trust in their business. And I have my mind thinking and going in two or three different directions or what's next? What's that next step? You have to be present in the moment. That's so powerful.

And then take the audience with you through the moment.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And Andy, this is one of the great lessons that sports can teach us, and that is what separates performers is the ability to be in the moment and to love the moment. What so many people from the outside would look at in sports as pressure people from the inside who have the talent to be there, they've done the preparation work, they've earned the right to be there. But what separates the good from the great is the great live for the moment.

You just kind of hit my next question on the head. I was going to ask you, you know, you talked about being a mediocre athlete at Towson and here you are now broadcasting for the best in the business. Would you say that one mindset.

Key mindset difference between good NFL athletes and great NFL athletes is the ability to be in the moment?

Oh, completely. The ability to control your own mind, your own thoughts and direct those thoughts is very much what separates the good from the great. One of the things I learned as an athlete in college was that God will preordain a certain degree of how high you can go in sports based on your DNA. If like me, you're a tight end and you're on a 4, 9, 40, you're not going to the NFL. I mean it's not going to happen. Like you can play a Division 2 and have a lovely mediocre career and not do a whole lot, but have a lot of fun. So DNA will dictate a large degree of your potential, but once you are in that arena, it's almost entirely your mental focus that will dictate whether you win the day or not. Because everybody else in that arena is of like skillset. When people walk two NFL teams and one might be six and one, the other one might be one in six, they presume the one in six team is filled with guys who are terrible players, when in fact what separates them is just a hair's width usually of talent. But the big separator is mental discipline. And what they focus on. Everybody at that level, whether it's the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball, the NFL, they're all world class athletes. There are no bad athletes at that level. There are literally world class athletes. Some, however, are not as mentally tough, as mentally flexible or as mentally focused as others. And that translates right over into sales producers. Look, if you're in that arena long enough and you've got the basic skill set, you have the product knowledge, you understand the industry, you have your kind of the pulse of the economy, you have all the same tools that everybody else has. What are you putting your attention to? Are you coming at it from a deficit mindset of man, if I don't hit quota, I'm in trouble. Or are you coming at it from an abundance mindset of because I have all these skills and because I can see the outcome I want, I can trust things to align in such a way that it's going to work out for me.

You know, total segue. Total. Side note, I love what you just said there about the they're all world class athletes. Because I love when sports fans say oh, the Alabama Crimson Tide could beat the Miami Dolphins this year. It's like, no, you take the worst team in the NFL right now, they are going to take the best team in any or amateur sport to the woodshed. Because it is that every athlete at that level is world class.

Yeah. And in the NFL they're men.

And they're men.

28 year old. I don't mean that facetiously.

Yeah.

A lot of times guys come out of college, they're 22, 21, 23. Think of yourself at that age. You're not actually physically mature yet. Your brain hasn't reached maturity until 24. So the difference between a 22 year old great athlete and a 26 year old great athlete is light years.

Exactly. Exactly. So you talked about shifting, talking about more the business world, sales profession. You yourself do a lot of endeavors outside sports, right. You're co founder of Trigger, you're the founder and owner of the Sandusky Group. What would you say, what are some of the mindset or what is the mindset you have that you have taken from sports and working with athletes, being an athlete that you have now parlayed into the business world to have success with the Sandusky Group in Trigger.

So it's three basic principles. One is talent. You have to be aware of what your talent set is and what your limitations are. And sometimes you have to push those limitations, but you always have to be aware. Where am I in terms of the talent pool? Second is preparation. Here's one of the things I've learned from being around it for years. People see the Michael Jordans, they see the Ray Lewis's, they see the Cam Newtons, they see the Lamar Jacksons and they just presume that it's all DNA. They just presume that it's all God given ability. In fact, my consistent finding has been the very very best are always the people who work the very very most. They work and then they work more. They outwork everybody because they don't see it as work. The great ones see it as passion and joy and love. I mean think of Magic Johnson. Think of how many times you saw Magic Johnson running up and down a basketball court smiling.

Yeah.

To give you an idea how hard that is, go out of your driveway and just run up and down the driveway until you're completely exhausted. And notice how when you're exhausted, it's almost physically impossible to smile. That's how dialed in they are. They didn't see it as work. They saw it as kind of their this is who I am identity present again in the moment.

So what I hear you say is for somebody in sales, love what it is you do and love the journey. Love the process.

Do it.

Yep.

Most people make. And sales is the kingpin of this because sales has such a direct link with remuneration. So many people do sales because they think it's easy money. You'll never be great at something that you think you're doing because you think it's easy money that somebody else doing because he or she loves it.

Yep. And when you look at maker, when you look at somebody who's had massive success, it's so easy to think there's luck involved or it's DNA. No one's an overnight success. It's the work they're putting in when no one is watching that has allowed them to become the success you see today.

And it's learning to go beyond work and to be totally in the moment and get to the. You know you're a professional, whether it's sales, basketball, it's football, it's marketing. You know you're a professional. When you don't see it just as work, you see it as an alignment of your talent, your preparation, your passion, and your sense of this is where I am supposed to be. And when I'm doing a Ravens broadcast, one of the things I enjoy most is that time disappears. Yeah. Yes. It's a one o' clock game, and I always know what time the game starts. But from the time the game starts until the time the game ends, I literally have no idea what time of day it is. I don't look at my watch. I'm not worried about the time because time disappears when you are completely present in what you are doing and you can make time disappear. You will have a competitive advantage that other people can never figure out.

That's exactly. I look at Jerry when I speak, when I'm on stage, and you've been such an asset to me in my speaking career. You have no concept of time other than how long your presentation is. But at the same time, time just disappears because you are in such a zone when you're on stage and. And talking to the audience.

And so why not bring that zone to whatever it is if you're A sales producer. Be in the zone.

Exactly, Exactly.

Enjoy being in the zone. Just the way a great athlete enjoys being in the pressure moment. Because in the pressure moment, they're visualizing a positive outcome and they want to win. But believe it or not, they're actually detached from the winning because they're so in that moment, they trust the winning will take care of itself.

Yep. That's a great way to kind of put a bow on this. Because the last question I have for you, Jerry, because I want to respect your time. If you were to give one piece of advice to somebody maybe starting their career in sales, they think they're behind because they got started late, or they don't have the resources other sales professionals might have, what would that one piece of advice be?

Learn to get into the moment and let the outcome take care of itself.

You'll have a vision for what you want the outcome to be. You'll have goals, you'll have metrics, you'll have data that you're going to use to measure yourself. That's normal, that's fine, and that's important. Just like a football team wants to win 10 or 12 games to get in the playoffs, but they don't go through all day, every day thinking of those 10 or 12 wins. They think of, which step do I take first? What is the sequence of activities on this particular play? And as a sales producer, as you're starting off, just learn to get into the magic of the moment. I'll take you back to one of the great mentors of all time, John Wooden, the famous basketball coach at ucla. First day of practice. Every year he coached. Any idea what the first thing was? He showed his team every single year how to put on their socks. And he showed them how to put on the socks so the seam was aligned correctly. Because he would teach them. If you put on your socks correctly, you won't get blisters in practice. If you don't get blisters in practice, you won't miss practice time. If you don't miss practice time, you'll be fully prepared for the game. And if you're fully prepared for the game, winning will take care of itself. Sales are no different. Whatever the steps are in your sales process, whether you're talking about working with your CRM, whether you're talking about having individual conversations, whatever you have on your to do list, get into those activities, be at one with those activities, make time disappear, and trust the outcome will take care of itself.

Jerry, I normally wrap up these interviews by summarizing what you just said, but I don't think I have to do that this time. That was beautiful. So how, if you're a human resource professional, Jerry, you're an aspiring speaker. What is the best way for people to get a hold of you?

So probably the easiest way is just to go to my website. Go to JerrySandusky.com, honor the G, please, Jerry, with a G dot com. And then on the HR front, go to trigger123 dot com.

That is awesome. That is awesome, folks. If you are somebody out there who's trying to take your speaking career to the next level, I can speak upon firsthand experience myself. This man is one of the best coaches you'll ever have, one of the best human beings you'll ever find. Jerry, you are truly a mentor to me, and I'm going to let you wrap this one up, Jerry, because when the Ravens are about to win the game, you have a specific saying you like to create when you finish. So I'm going to quickly say out there. Hope you guys found this interview outstanding. I hope you took so many notes away from this like I did. If you're out there right now struggling in sales, you don't think you have the resources. You think you're behind the times, behind the game. Let me tell you, you are always just one mindset shift away from greatness. So, Jerry, what is the last thing we need to leave with the audience with that?

The hay's in the barn.

And that's it, folks. Have a great day, and we'll see you next week.