Leadership Reboot: From NFL Wedge Buster to CEO

Hey everybody, Toby Potter here, the Unshakeable Investor, and I have the distinct honor, privilege to have Mr. Santos Stevens here on the podcast today. Santos, how are you, my friend?

I'm doing great, Toby. Good to see you, uh, and I'm really excited to be with you next week, uh, in Allen, Texas, not necessarily Dallas, uh, but, uh, Alan, uh, want to be able to get there with you guys and talk leadership and do a bunch of great things. Uh, but I wanted to share with you that, uh, Life's Work 53, which is my company, um, we spend a lot of time really, uh, going into what businesses do, where they are currently, how they can develop. Um, years ago, uh, we talked about there being, um, tomorrow's leaders. uh, in helping to get those guys up to speed and to where they say they really like to be. But one of the things that I've noticed over the years is tomorrow's leaders are in most cases today's leaders that need to reboot.

I like it. I love it.

And so when we think about that, what type of resilience does it take for a guy or a girl that's actually in that business, a leader that wants to take their business to the next level, but they haven't had all of the information that they need in order to be successful in doing that.

Yeah.

Um, and it takes somebody that's most times outside of the business to take an analysis of what's actually going on and to assist them to be able to get there. Um, I think a lot of times when we see folks that are successful right away, what do we do? Oh man, they came out of nowhere.

That's right.

Yeah. So, I mean, they came out of nowhere. Well, you weren't there when, um, they went bankrupt the first time and they had to reassess the business. You weren't there when, as a couple, they stopped and prayed and said, you know what, we have to take everything in a different direction. We may keep the name, but the actual emphasis of the company is something else now. And so they had to go and refocus, recharge restart. It takes a lot to be able to do that.

It does. And, you know, um, the best thing that I understood early in life was that every overnight success takes about 10 years to achieve. Um, and so it's amazing that, you know, we as the, the general public And we're going to talk about you here in a minute because that is personified in your life. But the general public all of a sudden sees Amazon as the king of online acquisitions.

Right.

And we think that it happened in a short period of time. But you talk to Jeff Bezos, he'll tell you, you know, we were $80 million in debt, $100 million in debt, we were $120 million in debt. And he never got nervous because he knew where he was going to be when it all panned out. I want to talk about Santos real quick. I want to talk about your claim to fame in the NFL, how you took what you're teaching now, how that resonated in your life on a celebrity status platform.

Yeah. So, you know, a lot of times what people don't understand is if you look at the sports analogy, You know, nobody starts off as a pro, right?

Right.

You go through Little League. Little League takes you maybe to travel ball. Travel ball takes you to high school. High school takes you to college. And from college, if you're lucky, you get a shot at the possibility of playing in, uh, a minor league and then in the majors.

Yeah.

Or in my case, from college to the NFL. Well, I mean, during that time, nobody saw me when I was on just the travel team, right? Nobody saw when I actually made the team. They said, well, you know, you're gonna be a scout team player for probably about, you know, the better part of the first year of your existence here, you know, uh, or, uh, you had to make the team as, uh— and they don't even have this position anymore— a wedge buster, right? That's the guy who pretty much goes down and he knows that his job is to go down and find 2 or 3 people, put them on the ground. He's probably going to be on the ground after it's over too. But you can't waste the timeout. You get your behind up and get off to the sideline because the Pro Bowler made the tackle, right?

Right.

But you had to get out of the way. You did your job, you got on out of the way. Uh, and so, you know, when I look at all of those things and I look at the way business is built, it's in layers, you know. There's levels to all right? And so if we're not willing to go through those pieces, we can't necessarily want to reap the rewards if we haven't put in that work, right? Um, and so with me playing pro football at that, that period of time, after it's over with— because, you know, the NFL, a lot of people don't know this, stands for Not For Long. So you're not gonna be there that long, you know. I don't care even if your career is a wonderful 10 years or better, that's still just a fraction of your entire life.

That's correct.

Think about this. You have to restart.

Mm-hmm.

You got to start all over again. Whatever business you decide to do, if you decide to coach, if you decide to go on and open a business, if you start a nonprofit, whatever it is, you got to start over because you got to learn the skills that it's going to take in order for you to be able to open that business and to be a viable part of the marketplace. Marketplace, right? And so 20, 30 years ago, I knew that that was something that I was gonna have to do. And so while I was playing, I started to learn those pieces. But at the same time, getting into the marketplace, you've got to be humble enough to know that you don't know everything. And when you do get into that place, you learn from some of the best people that are already there. But For me, leadership, and leadership in its totality, is all relational. Yes. Now, and that's from the top down and from the bottom up. If in fact I'm going to create a team that's successful, I've got to then be open enough to be able to share what my desires are, but quiet enough to listen to what everybody else wants to do as well. One of the best conversations I have almost every single time I take over a new leadership post As I sit across the table from all of my young leaders and I ask them, where do you want to be in the next 5 or 10 years? And more importantly, what is my role in assisting you to get there?

Yeah, that's powerful.

That builds some of the greatest teams that you'll ever have, primarily because now they know that there's no huge bubble around you. You're approachable.

No, that's powerful, Santos. Um, what would you say, going through the NFL year after year, season after season, what would you say was the one thing that drove you the hardest to be as, as amazing as you were, uh, during that era?

Well, I think the biggest thing, uh, and it's always been with me, to to want to make the people around me proud, right? Um, one of the stories I tell all the time is I remember being a kid at the park, and I remember, uh, my dad asked me, he says, well, what do you want to be? You know, pretty much like, when you grow up, what do you want to be?

Right, right.

A lot of times, you know, you always ask your kids that, or the kids around you, you ask that question. Uh, and I told him, I said, listen, I got two things that I want to do. I want to play in the league and I want to be the DJ on the Quiet Storm. And everybody laughs at that part, right? But I love it, you know. And so he had never played, uh, professionally, but in his mind that was a reasonable goal for his son. And so I never heard, oh, it's gonna be tough, or I never heard, oh, it's an impossibility from where we are. 'When you get there.' Those 4 words changed everything for me.

Wow.

Because earlier we would always have that conversation and he would go, you know, 'When you get there, here's what you're gonna have to do. When you get there, here's what me and your mom gonna be looking for.' You know, and so that type of conversation is the conversations that, that I always wanted, uh, him to know that I value. Right? Well, uh, and that he and my mom had placed me in a position to be successful.

Yeah.

And so I always wanted to honor them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mentally, always mentally first.

Yeah, they are still in your mind that you already have achieved that success. It's just a matter of paying the dues to get there.

Exactly, exactly. And, and, and, and to ask the question, well, what are you willing to do? Yeah, right. Are you willing to, at this stage in your life, get the grades that you need? Are you willing to go and run when nobody else wants to run, right? When the temperatures are like they are now, are you willing to go and work out? Are you willing to do all of the things that you know it's going to take for you to be successful? But even more importantly, are you willing to run the track that actually is there? So at that time, of course, I don't even know if I was playing organized football just yet. I was still a little kid. I mean, we were in the park just playing, right? Are you willing to play Little League? Like I said before, go Little League, high school, middle school, whatever it is, and then on to have good enough grades to get into college, right? And then when you're in college, all of the things that you have to do in order to stay there, to be able to get, you know, what you need to get, or to get that shot. One of the greatest stories, um, that, uh, that, that I remember is walking out in the neighborhood and, uh, you know, you always think like, man, what am I— what's my family gonna do with me being gone? And my parents, they looked me dead in the face and said, look, there's nothing you can do for us here until you get what's there.

Yeah.

So when they sent me to college, it was like, look, You get that degree, you can help us out here. Don't worry about us, we got this, right? You get going and get that part of— get your— that part of your life started. So yeah, those are the types of things. And so when I talk about relationships and I talk about things being relational, those are the types of things I'm talking about. Can you begin your life? Can you begin this business? Can you actually have all of the things that you say you want? Um, I believe, yes, you can, but you have to put the work in and you have to have a team of folks that believe in you.

Well, and you know, this is what I think is so powerful and why we're so excited to have you here in Allen, Texas, on our stage sharing this message, because you said it. I couldn't have said it better or as near as clear, but you knew that you had to pay the dues to have the success that you were already mentally prepared for as a business owner. We all go into business for ourselves because of the, the, the good that we see in it, the freedom, the financial wealth, the unlimited destiny, all these things. We all go into business. Every business owner goes into because of all the good that they see that it can provide. Then the number one question is, now that you see the rewards, are you willing to go through the fires, through the pain, through the grueling nights to achieve it? And this is where, as you know, how many people try to go from college into the NFL that don't make it because they weren't willing to pay the dues? Same thing in businesses. You and I coach businesses every day. And they're at that stage that if they don't understand paying their dues, they're going to be washed out. They're going to be burnt out. And it's so important.

Yeah. And I mean, those types of things happen. You know, you look at entry into the league, there's, there's so many guys, man. I mean, there's millions of guys that start off and that's what they want. That's what their dream is. And in large part, it wasn't that they weren't good enough. It's just that the, the criteria is so selective, so high, you know. Uh, and I mean, you know, of course I'm looking at your shoulder and I'm thinking, yeah, injury, that plays a part in it. There's a number of different things that happens, you know. But when we talk about businesses, almost, almost the exact same way. Are you willing to do some of the things that everybody else isn't willing to do? Are you willing to—

yeah, life's gonna throw stuff at you that you have no control over. And you got to be able to persevere through it and not throw in the towel. You're right.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Because I mean, you know, when we think about what business looked like 10, 15, 20 years ago, it's different now. It's not the exact same business. Are you willing to go back and stop and say, you know what, I need to take a class or I need to, to, to learn something different technology-wise. I need to hire some folks that actually can help me with some of those pieces, right? Right. Because some of those things, I don't care how smart you are, you're not going to learn them as quickly as a kid that actually came up through the ranks and he already knows it. He may be able to help you with that part.

It's the one thing that we see the most, Santos, is, is business owners. In fact, I was on a call right before I came in here. That's why I was a little bit late. The business owner is like, well, I'm learning AI. I'm learning marketing, I'm learning all this. I said, you got to stop. You're the CEO. You're not an AI guru. And you're my age, so it's not going to be quick and simple and easy. You got to stop. Let me implement an infrastructure for you that does all this so that you can continue being the CEO. And this is that crossroads that business owners come to and they have to make a decision. Do I listen and excel or do I keep trying to do it myself and fail?

Right. Because you only have so much time in the day.

That's right.

Let's face the fact, your time is worth money, right? And the fact that you've been holding on to some of this money so tight, wouldn't it be great if you just spent a couple hundred dollars for somebody else to do that part and then you can continue on with all the leadership pieces that you need to continue on with.

Absolutely.

I think sometimes we, you know, uh, you, you, you're so tight with the finances and there's nothing wrong with that. You've been tight with them for so long because you have to be. Right. But you have to be smart about it too.

Uh, there comes a time when you have to turn it loose and grow.

Yeah. You have to turn it loose and, and you have to get to a place where you understand that, um, your time, the ability for you to create and to do all the things that are necessary shouldn't be tied up with you making corrections on your website.

That's right.

Let somebody else do that.

That's right. That's right. Santos, I'm going to let you go, buddy. Hey, I'm so excited. We are going to have you in our presence in less than a week. And I'm telling you what, everybody, if you have not gotten your tickets for this event coming up February 12th, 9 to 4 in Allen, Texas, click the link below. Get and reserve your seat before we fill up. Because there's Santos and so many people just like him bringing so much information on how you can become better at your personal, your business, and your future. Thank you so much, Santos. Uh, I will see you in less than a week, buddy.

I'll see you soon. SantosStevens.com. Have them reach out to me and let me know what they need.

All right, my man.

Happy to help.

See you, bud. See