Joe Reitz - Building Your Foundation Through Mentorship

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Right?

And I think it's so true. And so all these other people, these mentors of art, they've been through it. They made all the mistakes. Why wouldn't I seek this out? Oh, okay. So I can talk to you, build a relationship with you. And you're gonna help me avoid potholes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. Yeah, sure, gladly do that.

Yet attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively create better relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it? Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Gap, the Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap. Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become. And bridging the gap from where you are to where you want to be. My name is Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the ABCs of Attitude. I've helped tens of thousands of people Get Attitude. Attitude is the secret formula to success in your business and in your life. And this podcast, it's going to help you get yours. So let's get some. I want to welcome everybody. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review. We ask that you share this podcast with somebody you know, that needs to get attitude. And today we are with the one and only former offensive tackle for the Indianapolis Colts, Joe Wright.

Can't beat this fall.

Indiana.

Afternoon. Gotta go now.

O. Let's go.

Everything we've tried to do is, you know, help Indianapolis and, you know, the great state of Indiana, and that's how our whole locker room is. And that's a credit to Mr. Ursay and coach Pagano for kind of that culture that they built.

All right, all right. Remember those days, Joe?

I do. I remember that game well. We, the Saints came in and took it to us in Lucas Oil. Now, we were down about 28, nothing. Had two bombs to ty and rallied back. But that was pretty cool. I was miked up for the game and gave my wife and now my kids who are a little bit older, who, you know, weren't born yet, they get the chance to kind of watch that and see daddy in action. So I. You remember the losses more so than the wins, unfortunately. I think that's just how it goes.

So that beautiful day did not turn into a beautiful day.

It did not. No. It was a beautiful day. And that you got the chance to go out and play the game you love and got out of there healthy and play in front of 70,000 fans and Lucas Oil and millions more Colts nation watching on tv. But unfortunately we lost to the Saints. That one.

There we go. Well, Joe is here to talk to us about our attitude booster number five. Have a mentor and copy him or her. I'm sure you have more than just men in your life that are mentors to you. Talk to me really quick about some of the favorite women mentors in your life.

Well, I mean the first I think is my wife, my lovely wife Jill. And we've been married now almost 10 years and have five beautiful children. I thought playing football was hard, right? You're in training camp 2A days, it's 90 degrees outside, you got to put on 20 pounds of equipment. I retired and for about a year was getting my MBA online but was home most of the day. And I really saw what life is like with three kids. The craziness. Like I said, we have five now. My wife running around doing everything, it gave me such an appreciation for her and what she does on a daily basis and the sacrifice she, she makes. And so for her and every mom I know, my mom was a stay at home mom, she was the same way. And you know, my mother in law, you know, she raised two children and worked full time. Right. And so my mom would always say a man's work is son to son, but a woman's work is never done. And amen to that because that's the truth. And so there's been a lot of very impactful women in my life. And obviously the one that you know, speaks to me the most on a day to day basis and makes me the man that I want to be is my lovely wife Jill.

That's cool. Well, Jill, here's to you. I hope that you're listening to this. Jill doesn't get to call timeouts.

No, she's. If she's listening to this, there's three kids crying right now in the background. But that's just how life goes.

She doesn't get to leave the field when the defense is on, no question.

It's nonstop 24 when it's 3 in the morning and a kid throws up in bed. Guess what? They want mom, not dad, which is good for me. I can go back to sleep. But you know, man, my wife, she. She does a whole lot and so very thankful for her. And like I said, all the other women that continue to serve their families day after day after day and maybe don't get the credit, you know, that we do.

Yeah, they never do. Was that a love at first sight thing with her or.

It took a little bit for me to realize how good she was. I was in college and 21 when we met and, you know, kind of full of myself and slowly but surely realized like, man, you know, if I don't ask her out on a date, she's not going to like me anymore and I'm going to lose this great opportunity. But we met in college at Western Michigan. She ran track there. I played basketball. We continued a two year long distance relationship when I was in Baltimore, start my NFL career with the Ravens, and then got married here in Indianapolis, July 10, 2010. That's easy. Easy to remember. You never forget. Seven, 10. 10.

Right.

So coming up on 10 years now. But she's awesome. She's the love of my life. And she really, you know, so many times, you know, as NFL players, we get praised. We get praised by the community and, oh, look at this guy. And he's doing this and he's going out and serving the community. Well, I got a wife at home with four kids that's doing all the work and I'm getting the praise. It's not right. Right. She should get that. So I think we view it that we're in this together and that whatever, you know, adulation I'm getting, it's half hers. And whatever, you know, work I'm doing, we're in this thing, you know, two. We really are one. One body living together.

Yeah, that's cool. Not to mention the paycheck doesn't say your wife's name on it.

No, exactly. So you getting all the money. Exactly. And then, you know, Joe writes and this and that. It's really Joe and Jill. And I've tried to positively remind people in the community that, you know, throughout my time playing with the Colts.

That's good. That's good stuff. So, Joe, we talked a little bit offline about what this podcast is about. Our gappers out there, we call our listeners gappers who follow us. And they're people that are, you know, at different stages of their life. They're at different emotional components. Someday they're. When they're listening here they're, they're up and they're striving. Some days when they're listening here, they're down and they're not thriving. Sometimes they're insecure, sometimes they're full of confidence. Attitude is the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think. And what I'd love to hear from you is, what's your definition of attitude? What does attitude mean to you? And when people talk about Joe Wright's attitude, what does that look like? What does that sound like for audience? So they know what's going on?

Yeah, I think for me, attitude is who do you want to be at your core day in and day out? And it's the level of consistency, I think similar to playing football. It's easy to have a great game. It's hard to have 16 great games in a row, right? But to have 16 games in a row, you have to have six months of great preparation. You have to have years of honing your craft. And so I think for your attitude to have a great attitude, to be at your very best, to be the type of person you want to be personally, professionally, you have to do it day in and day out. Some days are easy, right? It's Friday afternoon, the sun's shining, it's three o'. Clock. It's easy to have a great attitude. Monday morning you got four hours of sleep, your kids were up all night, you got crisis going on at work, it's snowing outside, it takes you longer to get to work. Those are the hard days. That's when you make your money. You make your money on days that are hard, when you push through, when you grind. And you still have that positive attitude because everybody can do it. Like I said, when the sun shining, the birds are singing. When it's hard. That's what separates people that have the great attitudes and the people that's attitudes fluctuate day to day. And one day they're up, one day they're down. So push through when the time gets hard. More important, recognize when I'm going through some struggle, when I'm going through some crisis in my life, that's when I got to focus some extra mental energy to make sure that I'm still going to push through and I'm still going to have that good attitude.

That's awesome. And boy, I mean, it's a lesson that if you're walking on the beach or sitting in the car, as I always say, you know, that never, that just never stops. And it's in the hard times and it's in the fourth quarter, which is in the ABCs of attitude. But you got to be your strongest. You know, when you're in the fourth, when the times are tough, that's when the. Well, when the going gets tough, the tough. Or when the tough gets going. What is that, Jason? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. You almost had it. You almost had it.

You were right there, buddy.

We can edit that.

Yeah.

So, Joe, our topic is have a mentor and copy them. I'd love to hear about where you came from, what growing up was like, and possibly the first mentor of your life, which I believe was your father. We'd love to hear about that story and what he meant to you and the lessons that he taught you that stick with you today.

Yeah, I would say, you know, the first mentor in my life was, and it's both mom and dad. But, you know, from being a young boy, you know, figuring out how to grow into a man. It's my dad, Dave. He's been married to my mom, Jane, for 37 years, have four kids, worked at Eli Lilly. 37 years. I mean, every day, you know, eight to five, you know, doing it. But he always was home with us. He would get home from work. And now being in the working world, now I get it, you have long days, 10, 12 hours, you want to get home and just be tired and sit in a La Z boy and put on Sports Center. He was always outside playing with us. He always was coaching us. He always was around us. He always was good to my mom. He showed us, a lot of times without words, the way to be a good husband, loving father. And for that I'm grateful because that's helped me in my personal life now being married with kids. And I think he showed me that, you know, your work is your work. We used to say in football, football is what I do. It's not who I am.

Right.

Jeff? Saturday was great. A mentor of mine would always say, football is what I do. It's not who I am. I want to be a man of God. First. I want to be a husband. Second, I want to be a father. Third. And I want to be a great football player. Fourth. My dad did that in a different way and always showed us that there's more important things than just work and how much money you're making and your success at work. It's about, you know, the real big picture things in life and how you're living your life to impact people in a positive way. So my dad, Dave, was the first mentor in my life. And I think a lot of the stuff I'm doing now, you know, it wasn't necessarily something that he said, you know, or some big speech he gave us or, you know, some, you know, Cliff Notes version of, hey, here's how to be a good parent. He just lived it out day after day, kind of like we're talking about with your attitude. You stack days of great attitude. One becomes 10, 10 becomes 100, 100 becomes a thousand. Eventually, that's you. You're having a great attitude every day because you put in the work those days before.

Now, you know, a lot of us, we always love to ask the questions, whose love did you crave more? Your mothers or your fathers? I'm not going to ask you that. But what I am going to ask you, because I had a great father who was a coach, too. You know, sometimes it's not all rosy, and sometimes your father had to teach you some lessons, no question. And sometimes that wasn't necessarily verbal.

Yeah, that's very true. There's some hard lessons and times when I deserved it.

Yeah.

And I think it's one of those things that when things get hard and somebody yells at you and somebody disciplines you, it's not because they're trying to be mean and because they don't like. It's because they love you. It's because they're trying to form you into the best person you can do. And it's that tough love. But it all comes out of love. And I know that's how it was for dad, but, you know, there's like, everybody. I had my own struggles and in life and adversity, but we really grow in times of adversity. You grow when times are tough. If you never stress yourself, if you never change, you can't get any better. Right.

You've already hit number one. Be nice. Number eight, love, adversity. Well done. This happens with all of our attitude podcasts. Yeah. What I'm looking for is give us maybe if you can, and we can edit it out if you say, I don't want to do this, but when you were a kid, when your dad did discipline your witnesses. What. What. What was going on? What did you do? What was. Did you, you know, start crying in the middle of thing? Did you yell at a coach? I mean, I know we all think we're perfect. What I'm looking for, Joe, is, is there a memory where you did something you went, I shouldn't have done it.

Yeah. I was not the best big brother. I have two Younger sisters love them dearly, Betsy and Katie. But I was always stirring the pot. I was always teasing them. I was always bothering them just because it was fun, right? You get bored at home and you want to mess with it. Fun for you. Yeah. Not for them. And I've apologized since year after year to him. But I'll never forget. We were.

They won't let you forget, I'm sure.

We were at a family vacation at Yellowstone National Park. We took two weeks, we drove out west. It was awesome. Stop by the Rocky Mountains and visit Mount Rushmore. But we're in Yellowstone, we're at some park. And I'm messing. I'm in eighth grade. My sister Betsy's in sixth, and I'm messing with her. I'm doing that thing where you fake punch somebody.

Oh, yeah.

So you fake punch her and you hit your chest and it makes a noise. Well, sure enough, I'm doing it with her and she's off, you know, looking around. She turns around and. And her lip turned right into my fist, or vice versa. And I popped her. Her lip bleeds. Well, this is right when we were getting her ready to do another, like, four hour stretch in the car. So my dad had some choice words with me and he said, and I'll just sum it up in layman's terms, you better not make a peep for the next four hours. And I sat there like a church mouse for four hours in the van. And it was high stress. A lot of tense moments then. But now it's a great family memory. We laugh about it. And I still to this day think that my sister Betsy knew what she was doing. She leaned into my fist a little bit on the fake so that I'd have four hours of misery.

Now, do you ever just do that to her now?

Oh, yeah. It's a good family joke. Now that you're doing that, we mess with.

I love it. So, you know, the bottom line is we never get to choose our teammates. We don't really get to choose our family. And sometimes those people who test your attitude, right, there are antagonizers in your life.

I was one. You were one? Yeah.

And my guess is those two sisters were mentors to you in a little bit of a way too, I guess. You know what do you think the best lesson your sisters taught you was?

I think the best is that eventually they got smart enough where they knew that if they ignored me, I'd go away. You know, like I would try to bother them and bother them.

That's good advice.

They slowly but surely realize that like if they just ignore me, I'm going to tire out of my antics after five, 10 minutes. So I think that's a good one in terms of avoid the negativity, right? The stuff that's bad, the stuff that's feeding you that's going to impact you in a negative way. Just block it out, Block out the trash and focus on what you want to do, who you want to become and the type of person that eventually you're trying to build towards. Yeah.

And I mean that, that boy, that works in life, that works in business. Oftentimes your biggest antagonizer is very lonely, has a poor self esteem and the only way they can get attention is to antagonize you or, or everybody around you.

Misery loves company.

Misery loves company, bro. So that's a great lesson for our gappers. So if you have somebody in your life that just is antagonizing you, that pisses you off, disassociate, right? Three solutions to the power of influence. We always talk about the power of influence. There's subtle influence and there's major influences. And it's the subtle influence. It's the antagonizers. And the great Jim Rohn always said, ask yourself three questions. Number one, who am I hanging around? Number two, what do they have me being? What do they have me doing? What do they have me reading? What do they have me listening to? Who do they have me becoming? And number three, is that okay? And we're not here to judge or say, but you know, sometimes you got to question who you're hanging around.

Yeah. I had a teammate, Matt Hasselbeck, played in the NFL 20 years. He's on ESPN now. He would always say, and I love this quote, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I think that's so true. If you're around five great people, high achievers, you're naturally going to be lifted to that level. If you're around five people that just aren't doing much to positively impact society, they're going to naturally lower you to that level.

That's great. And then the answer to that is, once you answer that question, is it okay, then your three solutions are either to decrease the association, you can limit the association, maybe not hang around them so much, or eliminate it. You know, when it's all said but increasing and I said decreasing but increasing the association with those five people, that's something to do and I hope that's something that our gappers think about, you know, who am I hanging around and who do I need to increase association with, who do I need to limit it with? And there's probably people we need to disassociate from, so. Great lesson from your sisters. That was a good one. We got into a riff on the sisters. That's always good. All right, so when we talk about having a mentor, look at you were Peyton Manning's left tackle, correct? You protected him or were you right tackle?

Right tackle, Yeah. I didn't really play with Peyton, though.

Oh, I thought you.

Well, I was on the team, but I wasn't playing. You could. You probably. Andrew Luck would be more accurate.

So you were protecting Andrew.

Exactly.

Okay, well, that's good.

But you.

But you knew Peyton, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, I played with Peyton for two years and it was just great to just learn by osmosis from him, who obviously is one of the best of all time.

Yeah. And have you, have you had any communication with Andrew since the big news?

And, you know, we, we've texted back and forth a little bit and I think it's. It's a decision that's best for him. And so you're super happy for him, you know, the, the Colts fan. And you still is a little sad because you wish he was out there playing because he's a top five NFL quarterback. But obviously we had five great years playing together and he was a great, you know, mentor for me and, you know, taught me a lot about life and just how to be a better person and just how to be just the ultimate competitor on the field, which I think he was. So he was obviously a joy to play with, and I feel blessed that I had that opportunity.

Yeah. And I mean, there's, you know, hey, stats speak for themselves. I mean, the guy was ultra productive and. But to get to know a game changer and a person of that talent, I think had to be great. Talk to me about when you looked at the mentor as a player. Give us a story. Tell us who you really credit with being some of your top mentors when you became a pro ballplayer.

Yeah, I think the biggest one was a guy named Matt Burke when I was with the Baltimore Ravens. You know, Matt's a 15 year NFL vet, six time Pro Bowler, won the super bowl at the Ravens in 2012 and walked off and retired. But Matt at that time in Baltimore, he had played his first 12 years with the Vikings. He comes to Baltimore, he moves his family. He had five kids at the time. And, you know, he shared with me, he goes it would have been easy to stay in Minnesota, but we needed a new challenge. We needed to grow. And he came to Baltimore at that time. I'm 23, I'm on the practice squad, barely hanging on. I mean, I'm. If there's 53 guys in the roster and eight on the practice squad, kind of like the JV team. So 61 told. I'm 61 to 61. So I'm worried every Tuesday afternoon I'm going to get a phone call saying I'm cut.

And I had a wife and a kid at this point.

We were engaged at the time, but I would literally wait until. Till 4 o'. Clock, 4 o' clock Tuesday. If you're on the roster, you're good for another week. And by 4 o', clock, I would breathe another sigh of relief and say, the good Lord's bless me with another week. So I'm just really struggling in a lot of aspects professionally with football, the opposing defense. So when you're on the practice squad, on the offensive line, you run the scout team, plays against the defense. Yes. So look across and close your eyes and there's Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Haloti Nada, Terrell Suggs, Trevor Price. I mean, hall of Famer, Bart Scott, hall of Famer after hall of Famer.

After hall of Famer and Super bowl champs.

No question.

Right. I mean, but were they then or were. Were you going to the Super Bowl?

They won the Super bowl in 2012. I was. I was an Indy at that point.

Okay, okay.

But so I'm, you know, I have an offensive line coach who was an old school, tough love guy and, you know, getting, you know, beaten down by him, beaten down by Ray Lewis and the Ravens defense every single day. I don't know what Matt saw in me, but he had five kids. He took time out of his busy schedule to, hey, Joe, let's go grab a slice of pizza. Take me out, you know, talk to me, encourage me. Not necessarily give me any sort of just great advice, but just be there, be a resource, be a sounding board. And I can't tell you how valuable he was at that moment in my career as somebody who was really struggling with football and needed somebody. Sure, it was him, and it was my wife, Jill. I'd call my wife Jill every night and we'd have long talks and she'd build me back up and encourage me and we'd pray together. And that's really when our relationship got strong and got strong with God and. And I knew 100% that she was the wife, that was for me. But those two people really helped me through some of those tough times in Baltimore. And so indebted to Matt and grateful for him, the type of man he was. I think he showed me more than anybody else that you can be a really good person. You can be a good husband, you can be a good father, and you can be a great football player. They're not mutually exclusive. You don't have to dedicate your entire life, 247 of football. You can be a great, well rounded person and still go kick butt on the field.

Yeah.

And so he was that for me in my career. And so I always felt like. And every year I try to seek out when I became a veteran.

Right.

You know, the NFL, you go from a young guy to an old guy really quick.

Right.

At 28, you're considered an old guy, and at 30, you're really old. But I would always seek out those younger guys who I knew really had great attitudes, who worked hard and try to sow back into them and give them maybe a little bit of the advice and life lessons that Matt gave to me.

And you talked about the three levels of mentorship. So just run that down. You had mentioned that to me. I think that's for sure.

Yeah. To put it in, you know, football or coaching terms, I think everybody needs three people in their life. You need a coach, you need a mentor that's a little bit older, a little bit more seasoned. You know, that's been there and done that. You need a teammate, you need that peer mentorship, somebody that, you know, if we're sitting here talking, you know me and I know you, and I'm not afraid to hold you accountable when you're not doing the things you should do. I'm also not afraid. And I know you well enough to know when you need some love, when you need some compassion, when you just need me to come over and hang with you at your house and give you a hug and that's it. And then I think the third. Everybody needs to be coaching somebody. We need to be sewn into younger people and kind of that idea of reverse mentorship.

Sure.

Because I tell you what, I think we can learn so much more from people that are younger because they're living life at a different stage. And you know how life is right now in 2019 is a lot different than when I grew up in 1999.

No question.

And so me having some reverse mentoring ships where I'm mentoring some kids in high school, now they're helping me out because my daughter's 8 and I know she's going to go down this road of high school and social media and Snapchat and all that stuff I have no idea about. And so I'm learning from them. They might think they're learning from me. I'm really learning from them.

Glenn, it's scary when you think about, you know, how old's your oldest? Eight. Oh my gosh, you got five under eight and you're sane. Look how good he looks, Jason. It's amazing. So I love that thought and I just want to give our gappers some time to think about that. Like, who is your mentor? And then so many people don't think about who's my peer mentor.

Yeah. Who's your teammate? Who's there that are walking through life. And for me, you know, my wife's my teammate, she's my best teammate. But I have some other really good teammates, some other men that might be in similar stages in life that know the challenges we're all facing kind of walking through life together. And I know that if I need something, I text one of them and they're calling me back. More importantly, I'm constantly checking on them. Hey, haven't talked to you in a couple weeks. How you doing? How's life? How's business? You doing okay? Your kids doing okay? Those little small check ins.

Yeah.

Or that little text message that you send at 9:30 on a Friday night. Hey, man, just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you. I love you. Hope to see you soon.

Sure.

Sometimes that is so much more needed in life than we even think.

My guess is Andrew Luck probably appreciated that.

No question.

You know, I mean, that's cool. And then, you know, I want our listeners to be thinking about, you know, who am I mentoring, who am I, who am I picking up? Who am I associating with people younger than me and am I getting in their life and am I learning from the youth of the people in our life? I mean, it's so important if you're not, you know, the call to action of this podcast is let's go identify gappers. Go identify. If you have one, great. If you have two, great. But if you don't have all three, what a great accomplishment would it be just for everybody that's listening to this that you talk about being an instantaneous change of life from a podcast if people said, I'm going to dedicate in the next 24 hours to find those, those three people. So that's pretty awesome. Yeah, let Me ask you this. You played basketball, you were really a college basketball player? Correct. Who was the toughest coach you ever had or. And who was the most memorable coach you ever had? And who was the best coach you ever had? And what did they all teach you?

You know, I think I played for so many great coaches, high school, college, pro. The one thing, two things I think stuck out. The best coaches were truly authentic to themselves. You know, in the NFL, I played for John Harbaugh, Jim Caldwell, Chuck Pagan, Bruce Arians, all vastly different people who have a different message and a different approach about it. Some are yellers and screamers and fiery. Some, like Jim Caldwell, rarely raise their voice, similar to Tony Dungy. But they all were true to themselves. Number one, you have to be authentic to yourself in life because other people see right through it.

Right.

Number two, the coaches that held me to the highest level of accountability are the ones that I love the most. Okay. They're the ones that it may not be easy every day to practice. Right. And it might be tough, and they might, you know, give you some truth and that you don't want to sit there and look at and stare down in the face, but it's the truth and you need to hear it. And so I think that level of accountability, that's a coach's job. A coach's job is to take you to a level you can't get on your own. And so all my favorite coaches now are the ones that were the toughest. On me. Yeah.

That's cool. And without mentioning names, did you ever have any bad coaches?

I had a few, yeah.

And there's lessons to be learned from a bad coach.

No question. I think the idea that some coaches are transactional, some are transformational. Okay. The transactional coach is, hey, how can you help me win games? It's all about me. It's about my record. It's about what I want to do. The transformational coaches, how can I make you into a better overall person? And you can help me as well. And, oh, by the way, that's going to help you win at a higher level in the long term.

Yeah, that's big time. Good, man. That's big time. Good. Talk to me about when we talked about Matt, right, your mentor, what was the best lesson you learned from him?

Consistency.

Yeah.

Consistency on the football field and consistency in life. He taught me how to be a pro and that you show up every day. You show up and you get to the weight room early. You work out before the team meeting, even if you don't have to until later. You get yourself on a good schedule and you're that way consistently with your craft, but also in your life. And I know he was that way as a husband and a father. And now with five kids of my own, I know I have to have that consistency. I can't go and, you know, stay up till one in the morning watching TV and watching Monday Night Football, even though if I want to, because my kids are gonna get up at 6am and they're counting on me to make breakfast, to take them to school, to do all those other things. So I just think the consistency with the way he lived his life is, like I said, it's easy to do when it's Friday afternoon and sunshine and rainbows. It's hard to do when it's Monday morning and it's raining and you're tired and you're beat up and you're sore. But he did it at a high level day in and day out for 15 years in the NFL, which, I mean, 15 years. And I played nine years in the NFL and I was done. I could not go anymore. He had six more years. I mean, it's just amazing to think what he did.

So how long have you been out?

So I've been retired about two and a half years now.

And any challenges to your attitude? You know, that's a big change. Sundays are different. Life changes.

Yeah.

And you're in the financial planning business now and you're helping families grow their net worth. What is it about the financial planning business that you like so much and why did you gravitate to that?

I just think it's the value you get in helping people. It's the intrinsic value you get in meeting somebody and sitting down and helping them make hopefully some positive changes in their life that, you know, are going to reflect for them. 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the road. And I just think, you know, life is about people. Right. At the end of the day, it's about people. We're relationship, you know, driven creatures, you know, and we need to be around other people and going out and just helping people in a positive way. Whatever you can do. I mean, you know, it's whether it's your work, whether it's going to the grocery store and smiling at somebody when you're checking out.

Sure.

You know, whether it's somebody cut you off on the road and instead of honking the horn like it's our reaction and yelling some sort of bad word, you know, that we shouldn't say, it's maybe I'll just pause. You know what, I don't know what's going on in their life. You know, maybe they just had something crazy happen with their family and they didn't mean to cut me off. So why don't I just pause and pump the brakes? It's the whole. I'm kind of getting on a tangent here, but the whole adage that don't judge a man till you walk a mile in his shoes.

Sure.

And I think that's what I've tried to remind people positively about Andrew Luck. And there's been a lot of criticism, you know, from different people about Andrew and this decision. Who are you to say and judge him, having not known him and walked a mile in his shoes?

They have no idea.

Exactly.

They have absolutely no idea what. So when, when you did make the transition and you know, people come to this podcast because they're at a transition in their life right then I'm sure it can be scary.

Yep.

I'm sure there's a lot of self doubt. Tell me, I'd like to just know your story. Like, did it feel different when you had to get out of the NFL? What were the challenges you had? And maybe because you've obviously done very well for yourself, what are some of the biggest issues that players you've seen around the league you've been around. And there's some people that transition from the NFL great. There's some people that transition from the NFL not so great. So what are the lessons there and the successes and the failures of those people, including yourself?

Yeah, no question. You know, it was tough to transition out as I think it is for everybody. But I will say that I had a relatively smooth transition overall, I think, for a couple reasons. One, I shared with you that quote that a mentor of mine, Jeff Saturday, said, football is what I do. It's not who I am. So when I retired, my identity wasn't in football. Football was a part of it, but my identity was in my relationship with God, with being a husband to Jill, with being a father to my five kids. So when I got out, I knew that at the end of the day, I'm serving them first and football is work. And whatever I do professionally after that, that will be work. But that priority is not going to supersede those other ones. So I think that's the first one is knowing what's your identity, you know, what's your purpose in life, who do you really want to be about? And I think the second one is knowing who or what Is your rock. When times get tough, when there's challenge, when there's struggle, when there's adversity, who is your rock? And for me, it's two people. It's, you know, my relationship with Christ, and it's my wife, Jill. And those have always been my rock going back, like I said, to when it was really forged in those tough times in Baltimore. And so I know when something's happening, when I'm struggling, I need to take time, and I either need to reflect and pray or I need to have a conversation with my wife. And those people will bring me back to the level that I want to be at. But I think what a lot of people, if you haven't identified what or who your rock is before the storms come, then you're just scrambling, Then you're just. You're just swimming like crazy to try to get to shore versus saying, you know what? I know that it's life, right? Life. There's going to be challenges, there's going to be adversity, there's going to be suffering. But I know, one, what my identity is, who I want to be, and two, who's my rock that I'm going to go to when things get tough?

How do you coach? What do you do? There's people that are going, great, Joe, I have no identity. I have no rock. What can we tell them? What action can they take right now that could help them find an identity or search for a rock?

That's a great question. I think a couple things that may be positive to think about. One, stop and think. In our society in 2019, it is so busy. The. There is so much noise from getting in your car and the radio to music, to everybody's got a smartphone and everybody's on social media and how easy it is to get there and get on Twitter or Facebook and scroll through, and you've wasted 30, 45 minutes. How many times do we sit and intentionally sit and just think and just think with a pen and a paper, and I'm just going to write whatever's going on in my mind right now, you know, and I'm just going to write things down. This is what I want to do. This is what's going on at work. This. And then just sit back and kind of look and, you know, some people would call it journaling. I would call it just intentional thinking.

Cool.

I think reflection, meditation, prayer, you know, whatever. That time when you're in silence and however you use that time in silence. But I think rarely do we put ourselves In a position where we're quiet and we can think. And I get it, life's busy, work's busy, family's busy. But I'll tell you this, if you're not mindful. Excuse me, if you're not mindful and have mindfulness, your life's going to control you, not the other way around. So I think that's one big thing, is just taking time to stop and think and also write things down. We do so much stuff electronically and there's no studies out there that are going to say, joe, this is accurate, but I do think we type emails all the time. How often do we sit down and write things pen to paper? I think there's no substitute for visualizing yourself writing something down pen to paper. To me, that's got a lot higher impact than typing something on a keyboard. Again, that's not been scientifically studied. So don't, don't take that to the bank and say, well, you know, Joe Wright's told me this, but I will say that's given me value in my own life.

Yeah, I think you, I think you've seen my 50 yellow pads.

There's a lot of them.

I mean, it's all, I'm yellow pad, yellow pad.

And you know, writing on a yellow pad versus a white sheet of paper, you're 30% more likely to remember it. Is that somebody told me that. Again, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's why they're yellow, because the different color. Something in your brain. Again, I don't know.

That is so cool. Well, Joe, I think you're missing.

I'd be fact checking as we 82% of all statistics are made up. Up. Right, exactly. Disclaimer.

So I think that's important for our gappers to think about. And I had a guy, Kyle, boy, I forget his name. Last name was Cunningham. He spoke to us once and he said, how many of you schedule thinking time in your daytime? He's like, nobody schedules time to just sit and think. And I started scheduling 30 minute and I've made it 60 minute thinking time where I literally just think for 60 minutes.

That's all. I just, I started doing that a few months ago, put an hour on my calendar a week where it's think and there's no distraction and you're just thinking. I can't tell you how much that's helped me, you know, with my work, with my life. Overall.

That's good. Well, Joe, I can tell you your stories of mentorship, of the people that have come into your life, who have taught you some lessons, you've given our gappers some great tools, what they can do to find mentors, become a mentor. And I love the idea of saying, you know, who is my friend? Who am I hanging around? Who is my peer mentor? And I think when we talk about identity, when we talk about your rocks, these are all things that can make. Make our lives better, that can help our attitude. You know, the people you hang around affect your attitude. You've said it. This was an incredible, incredible intro to the podcast.

And I share one more thing.

Oh, heck, yeah.

Well, I think that the thing I love about mentorship and coaching is I heard this quote and I stole it. And you'll hear why we steal them all. You hear why I said stolen? It goes something like this, that all wisdom is stolen, only foolishness is original.

Right?

And I think it's so true. And so all these other people, these mentors of our, they've been through it. They made all the mistakes. Why wouldn't I seek this out? Oh, okay. So I can talk to you, build a relationship with you. And you're going to help me avoid potholes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. Yeah, sure. Gladly do that.

Yeah. All day long. And then if you're a fool, you don't listen.

Exactly.

Or if you're a fool, you don't seek. I always love seeking. You will find. Right. The secret to success is there is no secret love that the answers are there. We are here with former right tackle for the Indianapolis Colts, Joe Wright. This is Glenn Bill, getting ready to finish off this podcast on have a mentor and copy him or her. Joe, we always like to finish our podcast with this fun little thing we called Knowledge through the Decades.

All right, I like it.

So this is a little bit. You know, we can edit this.

Okay.

It's a little bit on the spot.

I like it.

And, you know, truth. We believe that sometimes the truth is best off the top of the head.

Love it.

So. So this thing, Knowledge through the Decades, we want you to walk through your life and talk about the best attitude lesson you got at each decade of your life. And now that is gonna start with childbirth. And a lot of people go, glenn, how in the hell am I supposed to remember what the lesson was at childbirth? So I realize you may not have a recollection, but what I want, I.

Got five young kids. I think I can answer this one. You can answer that one.

So, Joe, we're gonna go ahead and start Knowledge through the decades with Joe writes Joe, let's talk about what the infant, what the newborn Joe writes or his offspring. What's the attitude lesson?

Boom. Three things. This is the easiest question I'll ever get. Three things. Have a clean diaper, have a full tummy and get enough sleep.

Alright?

If you do that, your baby's gonna be happy. Probably a good lesson for us in terms of the basic needs in life and self care and giving yourself time to take care of yourself at the proper way and get enough sleep, hydrate, eat right, all that stuff. There's a reason why the babies cry when they have a wet diaper, when they're tired and when they're hungry.

I love it.

Fill those three things. Life is good.

Attitude booster number nine. Eat right and exercise.

Boom. Now, you didn't miss babies give us lessons in that. Yeah.

And you know, I have some friends, after a long night of drinking, whatever it might be, their diaper may not be clean, their belly may not be full. And what was the third one?

Get enough sleep and get your sleep.

Yeah, they definitely need that. So that's good advice.

We all need that, even for like.

Our parents who are 80.

No question.

You know, I had, my, my folks died and, and when they stop eating, that's when you know, that's when you know you're in trouble. So you know, project yourself 50 years from now and go, I remember that podcast. What are people going to be doing 50 years from now instead of a podcast? Well, we thank you. So Joe, now you're there with. You have a brother too, or just.

Older brother and two younger sisters.

So it's you four guys hanging out. You're number one out of the four.

I'm second. I'm a middle child. Explains a lot probably.

Yeah, we call it second kid syndrome.

There you go. Whatever it is, I got it.

That's what my Anthony was. And so, boy, I can't imagine, I can't imagine you're 10 years old. Think about the best lesson you learned, the best attitude lesson. What would the, what would the 10 year old Joe Wright's public speaker be talking about?

Don't tease your sisters.

I love it. I think that's very good.

I think because, you know, I'd spent a lot of time teasing my sisters, being mean to them. Now I wish that I hadn't done it. I could have been a lot more productive and doing good things at that time and studying, studying for a test, practicing sports. But it was fun for me to tease my sisters why I don't know I got, you know, some sort of enjoyment out of it and I was bored. But I would say don't tease your sisters. That's good.

Well, that's attitude booster number one. Be nice.

There you go.

Right, so there, there we are on that. So if you like what Joe has had to say today, you should know that Joe is one of our speakers on the University of Attitude Bureau of Speakers. Just go to universityofattitude.com there's a bio of him, there's his one sheet. And if you feel like his message is something that your company or corporation or, or association or group could use, all you got to do is head to the university of attitude.com and contact us and we can bring Joe in as your keynote speaker. We've seen him speak, there's video of him and I know he would be good. So 10 year old Joe, nice job. Now you're at Western Michigan all on your own, not around your family, no question. What does 20 year old Joe Wright have to say? What was the attitude lesson from Western Michigan?

I would say probably two things. Can I give two?

You can.

The first one being when I was 20, I realized how much my parents loved me, how good they were, how much they cared about me and all the silly things and the discipline that they gave me and times that they were tough me. I realized why they did it and I realized how awesome it was and important that I had two loving parents who loved me and were sewing into me.

Cool.

I think the other one at 20, it's the things you learn after you know, it all that matter.

Right?

I was a hard charging 18, 19 year old kid, I knew everything, self righteous, all this stuff. And you get to college and you realize there's a lot of people from a lot of different places around the country that think about life and view life through a different prism than you. And they helped me change my kind of outlook on life and the empathy you have towards people. And like I said, I thought I knew it all, knew it all at 20 and realized at 20 I really didn't know anything and started learning some more and more.

That's cool. So that ongoing learning, which is a major theme from everybody we interview, you know, it's that quest, that thirst to learn, it's that reality, you know, do I have what I call purposeful learning going on in my life? And you know what, if you're listening to the Gap right now, you're one of those learners, you know, you're out there, you're saying there is More information for me to get. And we hope we are the number one provider of attitude advice, attitude information, attitude discovery, attitude awareness. If you are working on your at your attitude, this is the place to be, the gap. There's no better place, the university of attitude. No better place to learn about your attitude. Why you do what you do, why you think the way you think. We got all kinds of tools. So now, man, you hit Western Michigan. Did you get drafted in the NFL.

Or were you undrafted?

Undrafted free agent, Yeah. I mean, gosh, that's just amazing. Did you expect to get drafted? No.

Not coming from college basketball, I never thought there was a low percentage chance, but I was an undrafted.

So you literally played no college football.

Not a down.

Unbelievable. And then somebody saw you and said, hey, we should make this.

Raven scout saw me play. Long story short, saw that I was big, moved my feet well, had a big backside and could probably put on 50 or 60 pounds and become a lineman. And took me a few years to do it and a lot of struggles along the way. But fast forward. I started my first game in Houston September 11, 2011. I'll never forget it. 10 year anniversary. They had this, you know, beautiful 10 minute tribute, you know, on the screen. You know, tears are streaming down my face and you know, it's kind of one of those things where life, the last three, three and a half years of struggle and adversity flooded back through my mind and I was just so grateful that I finally had the chance to play and start in an NFL game and was fortunate to last six more years after that.

That's an amazing story. So one year after nine, 11 or.

No, 10 years after, 10 years after. So September 11, 2011, 10 year anniversary.

Oh my gosh.

So the NFL had a live tribute stadium that streamed and they had, you know, they were cameras, you know, flashing from different stadiums and it was, it was pretty amazing.

Just like many of our other attitude interviewees. He hits number eight. Love, adversity, Right. Boy, what a lesson. You never know what God's going to.

Do with you, no question.

You know, I mean, you had to be going, how am I standing in an NFL stadium when I never played? Yeah.

And I'm a big believer that the good Lord's got a plan for all of us and a lot of times it's better than our own plan. And I can remember day after day when I was in Baltimore, praying, you know, good, you know, God, give me a shot. You know, I put in all this work, I want a chance to play the show That I can do it. Well, instead of giving me that shot in Baltimore, you know, my road went through Miami and came back to Indianapolis, my hometown, where I could play in front of friends and family and was so blessed to play in Indianapolis for seven years.

And then he brings you to the Get Attitude podcast. I mean, God love.

Amen.

Amen. Okay, so now we're 30. Okay, you're finishing your career. You are an old 30.

I am. You're an old 30 years old.

And so what's, what's your lesson? You're. Did, were you retired at 30 or did you play at 30?

I was still playing at 30.

Okay, but then you retired, what? 30, 30, 31, 31, 32.

So are we gonna go to 40 or no?

Well, no, because you're not 40, but if you come back in seven years.

I can do that. Let's make a date. I'll be back.

All right. I love it. So go ahead.

What? At 30, I would say, what's your treasure in terms of, I think, you know, look at your time, where you spend your time, that'll lead you what your treasure is. And you might be saying, my treasure is one thing, but if your time spent doing something else or focused on something else, it's really not right. And at 30, you know, everybody's busy at 30. A lot of people are married or have young children, and there's never enough time in the day, is there? Right, but everybody's got the same 168 hours every week.

Right?

You have 168 hours. And how I choose to focus my time, if it's all on work, then I'm not serving my family. If it's all on my family, I'm not serving work, you know, and really being intentional about our time, because I think time's the most valuable commodity we have. And so if you follow your time and track what have I been doing for the last month, that's going to tell you what your treasure is. And so really understand what do I want my treasure to be? What are my non negotiables? What are the highest things of priority in my life? And then you rework your schedule to fit into those.

That's great. That's great advice. I've had similar advice. When you look at all the areas of your life, physical, spiritual, whatever, and people, what's the biggest time management lesson is there? And people go, glenn, how do you do so much?

What do you do?

And we know this for a fact, that there's fundamentals in life and there's usually five or six key things that make all the difference in the world in every area of your life. And the question and the focus that you were talking about is are you doing those five fundamentals?

Right?

Like, are you doing 20 things in your personal life you really only need to be doing 5? And spiritual and exercise and family and business. It's just the fundamentals. The best time management lesson I ever got. How about you? I think you've said it, but is there anything about time management that you try to live by or that you didn't just say? Because everybody's like, I mean, you're so right. Where do you find the time? Right?

How I can share one.

Yeah.

I think the biggest, you know, change for me transition out of the NFL is let's say I sleep about an average of seven hours a night. I think it's probably a national average close to that. Well, for a while I was going to bed at midnight and waking up at 7am which is fine. That's seven hours of sleep, that's good. But what was I doing from 10pm to midnight? I was sitting on the couch drinking a Pepsi, eating a bag of chips, watching football on tv, right? Not productive for the type of things I want to do and be about in life. So now I go to bed at 10pm, I'm up at 5am, 5am I'm incredibly productive. I work out, I get things done, I send emails, I write things down, I plan my day 5 to 7, the kids are still asleep. That's time that I have. So I'm still sleeping the same. I'm awake for 17 hours, I'm asleep for seven on average every single day. But I'm so much more productive because my two bonus hours, 5 to 7am versus 10pm to midnight. It's amazing that change.

And when you think about attitude development and the reality, right? The feeling, the emotion, sitting on your ass from 10 to 12, drinking pop and eating probably doesn't make your attitude great.

No, no question. You go to bed and you feel bad, you don't sleep well and I mean, what am I doing? It's 11:30 and I just made another frozen nacho in the fridge. You know what I'm saying? Go to sleep, Joe, you know, versus I wake up at 5 and yeah, you're probably a little tired and groggy rolling out of bed, but you go for a three mile run and work out and you've taken a shower and you're dressed for the day and it's 6am You've already worked out your mind sharp, your body sharp, you're filled up. You mentioned. But I believe in kind of the four pillars, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And having those four pillars all firing, that's going to allow you to be the best you. Yeah.

One of Joe's. One of my favorite keynotes that Joe does is the Bill of Rights. Right. You want to just give us a one minute summation of the Bill of Rights and what it means and what people might expect to hear if you are hired as a speaker.

Yeah, well, so the Bill of Rights, or you know, my last name, right.

Reit.

Nice play on words, baby. I believe that we have. Everybody has the right to reinvent things himself. There's going to be change in life, whether it's at work, you move across the country, there's change in your family, situations different. You know, maybe it's kids, divorce, whatever it is. You have the right to reinvent yourself. How do you do that? And I think really three things. You build on rocks, not sand. You make sure that you have a strong foundation so that when the storms come, you're ready. And the storms are going to come. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when. And so who or what is your rock? That's number one. Build on rocks, not sand. Number two is be ready when life calls audibles. You know, when I was in the huddle and we had a run play called, but Andrew, you know, checks out of it. Now we got a pass, and I'm mad because I wanted to run the ball and I didn't want to have to pass and block Von Miller. Well, guess what? He's snapping the ball in three seconds whether I like it or not. So be ready when life calls audibles, and be ready to move into pivot as quickly and efficiently as you can. You can't be reactive, negative, thinking. It's all about, okay, an audible has been called. I got to move forward and I got to go produce at the highest level I can in whatever area of life. And the third one is take ownership of your life. It's your life. It's not your boss's life telling you what to do. It's not a friend, it's not a family member's. It's your life. And to be the best, you, you got to take ownership of your own life. Those are three key principles from the Bill of Rights.

That's good. Well, I can tell you, Joe, you crushed it. Here on our podcast, Mentorship is incredible. We we thank you for your mentorship to our Gappers today. Everybody that is listening to this comes here to get attitude. But, boy, the message that Joe just gave us that everybody has the right to reinvent themselves is huge. If you're sitting there and you're looking for attitude, you're looking for passion. If you're lethargic, if you need a new spark, find a mentor. Understand that you do have the right to reinvent yourself. And one great way to reinvent yourself is to get attitude, which we talk about. And getting attitude is not having attitude. Getting attitude is getting an attitude and being proactive about the places in your life that you wish to be. We believe that you don't have to be stuck. We believe that we are providing information with unbelievable guests on this show that will bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be and from who you are to who you want to become. Joe, we thank you for being our mentor today. We thank you for the message of being able and having the right to change your life. And it all starts with you. It all starts with your mentor, but it all starts right here at the Gap. So, Joe, thank you so much for being with us.

I appreciate it, Glenn. And to all the listeners out there, thank you very much for tuning in.

All right, very good. See you at the next Get Attitude podcast. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.