Brian Dawkins - How To Dominate Your Day Like A Hall-of-Famer

Hello, blessed people. Hello, blessed people. This is Brian Dawkins, and man, we got down into some real deep conversations about some things that's going to bless the heck out of you. When you learn to look at the situation differently. When you learn that you can look at the situation differently. Matter of fact, when you learn that the situation being different comes from the next thought that you're going to have about the situation, you're going to have success going forward in.

This is an intro and intro, intro, intro.

Hustle and Float, Shark with your boy, my boy, Matt Wolf and Joe Fear. Hey, yo. So you've heard us talk a lot about Ahrefs in past episodes, and to this day, it's still our favorite number one SEO tool. We still use it ourselves. We love it. But now they're sponsoring this podcast again because they've got a free version for you.

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For free at ahrefs.com awt all right, Brian, we're rolling. Finally.

Finally.

Dude, we had a trek, huh? Spinning wheels.

Yes, we did. Yes, we did.

Well, it's good to get to know you a little bit over the cell phone and, you know, tech help a little bit. But you're. We're all good here and we got you. And it's an honor, man. Like we were saying, I wanted to kick this off by basically saying, you know, sports legends in sports, they've always been my heroes growing up and yours too. And, you know, San Diego boys looking at junior SEO for football LT a little later on. And I know you have a story, you know, you had some history there, swiping a ball.

We saw a video of you with LT and I don't think LT is too happy with that video.

No, it made me sad, but at the same time happy.

Yeah, it happened. He was a rookie. That was his rookie year. Just me introducing him to the NFL, you know, that type of thing.

Little love.

You had to show what he was in for.

That's awesome. Yeah, man. I mean, it's the sports heroes that like, that's what got me thinking bigger, you know, through. Through just how, how, you know, the best of the best. Like Junior, you said he played with his heart. He was a kamikaze. And he's someone that I think you said you even looked up to. Right? Yeah.

I mean, it just is different guys that played with a. A different energy.

Right.

Is some of the people that I paid attention to. I'm not saying that I didn't watch other guys because I did. But this, you know, when you see someone like that plays with that kamikaze type style, letting himself just absolutely be engulfed, energy wise into the game. Love that.

Right.

You know, he was one of those guys. Once again, I did look at, you know, I did not necessarily look up to, but I did, you know, look at the way he played the game. And once again, for me, it was okay. Yeah, I can, I can act a fool and it's okay. I can act a fool and it's okay. Yeah. So thank you, Junior.

Rest in peace. Yeah, I mean, he's. Yeah, man. And there's all these other characteristics. You know, it's leadership on the field, it's just determined. It's all the stuff your book embodies, blessed by the best. And so many people look up to folks like yourself for exactly that. And then that carries on in the world in whichever way. So thank you for that.

No, it's my pleasure. And I think the other thing for me is one of the reasons I looked up to the guys that I looked up to is really the discipline that it takes. And people don't understand the discipline that it takes to not just be a professional, but to be, I'll say, extremely successful professional. Right. The discipline that goes in that the hours that are spent behind off camera, out of out of sight, preparing yourself to do that thing that you do for that short period of time.

Right.

And that's obviously business as well. Right. So so much time you spend doing things behind closed doors and then you get in front of the camera for that 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever the case may be, and then the proof is proven during that downtime of how you go out and, like I say, show out. Do you go out and show out in front of that camera? And that's what I was trying my best to do in the same time as leading my teammates and doing my best to help us win games.

Yeah.

What's the average lifespan of an NFL player? Not literal lifespan, but how long does a normal player stay in the NFL?

I believe the last thing that I heard was like, around. Right around three years.

Three years.

About average, average life of an NFL player playing the game of football. Not life, life.

Right.

You know, football life. Three years, you know, a little less, but right around that. So for myself to be blessed, you know, junior guy, another guy, blessed to play that long again. There's a lot of things, once again, that people just think that things happen for us on Sunday the way that it happens Sunday, Monday, whenever we play. But there's so many things, so much discipline that goes, like I. Like I said, into allowing yourself to physically be. Yes, to dominate. But from a mental part, some of the things that we did, a lot of us do, from a mental aspect, in order for us to go out ahead of time and have success even before the game starts, knowing we're going to have that success when the game starts.

We've actually studied a lot. Cause you see it in sports probably over most, you know, is that preparation before the game. You know, it's all the pre game stuff. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we obviously don't see from the outside. But, you know, we've even looked at bands, you know, like the Foo Fighters, for instance. There's a documentary. It's like they don't go on stage until they're all laughing and having fun. You know, they're pumping themselves up and we actually have stickers in our office everywhere that says, this is gonna be fun. And we get ourselves just pumped up, you know, play some music, jump around, high five, got to have that energy. And I know that's what you brought.

And so that's the thing about it, knowing what I know now, because I've done research on these things back then, I just did them. I did them and they worked. So when I go out on the field, I've already played the game at least, you know, one time in my mind, and I've already had some success. Matter of fact, there was times that I would already know the conversation I was going to have after the game after we win. So I've already gone through some of the questions that they're probably going to ask, and I've already given away a lot of the credit instead of taking the credit for myself. So I've. I would play those games in my mind. But to your point about visualization, so visualizing that success and having that beforehand is called priming. So that's one of the words they use for that, priming yourself. So getting your, your body in a state of excitement and a joyous and loose at the same time. So you're not tense and hype, but you're loose and hype when you're loose. When I know when I'm loose and I'm height now, you will, you, you'll be absolutely be able to see all of my athleticism. You'll be able to see everything that I can do because in that looseness, every part of me can be displayed on the field. If I'm tight, if I'm tense. Same thing with tracks. I've studied track, I've studied boxing. You know, if they're tight, if you're running track and you're rigid and all, you're going to lose a lot of speed. But when you're fluent and you're being able to move your hand, same thing with boxers, they don't clench their fists when they punch. They're loose so that they can pop. So there's speed, there's power in that speed. So taking some of those examples and then applying them to me that I knew when I touched the field, I needed to be loose, height, and ready to roll, right? But again, that's that priming and some, you know, even from a professional standpoint. Now I've listened to, you know, authors like Brian Tracy talk about, you know, what you say to yourself. As far as I like myself, he would always talk about that I like myself, I like myself. That goes to self talk, right? And for me, that's one of the most powerful things that I had in my repertoire. The things that I said to myself about me, you know, being the best, one of, one of my favorite superheroes, you guys probably know. And that's that dude right there, Wolverine, right? And you see him right there in the back, Wolverine. And one of his quotes was, I'm the best at what I do, but what I do ain't nice.

So that's again, that's one of the things that I would say to myself as I'm preparing to go play. I'm the best at what I do. But what I do ain't very nice. So now I'm getting into that mold. I'm getting. I'm about to flip the switch to go into another mindset. I go from Brian Dawkins to what I call idiot man. So idiot man is about to take the field and idiot man is about to let loose on somebody. So I'll just say it like that.

So Wolverine, I know that was what, you had a bunch of figurines in your locker room, right? Or in your locker room.

Yeah. So it wasn't just that I had an extra locker. So I had two lockers. I had one locker for Brian Dawkins and I had one locker for Wolverine or Weapon X. Excuse me? For Weapon X. Yeah.

He said, what was the idiot man you said taking the field? So what's like, what was the difference there? Why. Why that and not Wolverine?

So before the camera crew came in and saw all of the figurines that I had up during the playoff run, he was idiot man.

So.

So I was idiot man that whole time, right? Until that happened. And then all of a sudden, you know, because they saw the Wolverines. Oh, you. You turn into Weapon X. Sure, yeah, I turn into Weapon X. Yes, yes. We can rename him to Weapon X. I'm cool with that. I'm fine. Because I love Weapon X. But that was literally AKA Idiot man in my mind. So anytime you say Weapon X or Wolverine in my mind, that's Idiot man you're talking about. Idiot man.

Yeah.

And so that's who I became on the field. And the real story, quick story about that, the reason why I came up with that is really because one of my teammates, he was like, man, you. You turn into an idiot man. And I was like, man, I like that.

Idiot Man.

I'm a roll with that. And that's how that came into existence. Idiot Man.

It kind of like, it gives a feeling of like, you know what? I'm just going out there and I'm just giving it, you know, like, there's no. I'm not going to think about the consequences in the dirt, you know, while I'm playing or doing this thing. Obviously, you've thought it all through already, but then you primed yourself into this other alter ego state and you freaking took the field and charged through it.

And see, that's the thing about it. The mindset that I'm talking about is not just something that works on game day in the NFL, is a game day life, right? So when you go into your office, you go into a meeting. I do the same thing when I was an executive. When I step into that environment, there's no time that you go and give a presentation that you should, that you think you're going to have success. If you're tight, if you're wound up, bound up, and you're worried about saying the right thing, you're not going to flow. Your personality is not going to show. You're going to be like a robot, real rigid. And then what you're going to do is you're going to become, I call it. You're going to become too much of an adult. You're not going to be playful, you're not going to tell any jokes. So your personality is not going to show through. So that tightness is something that you cannot go into any. Anything and have a lot of success. That's just my humble opinion anyway. So I knew if I go, if I'm going on the field and if I have anything from that week of preparation, matter of fact, one of my prayers was to ask the Lord to take away any and all things that would hinder me. Take any heartache or bad things or things that I've said or done, take all of that stuff that I might be worrying about and take it away from me so that I can go out in the field and perform my very absolute best. Because when you're on the field of play, you're able to be more flexible in that moment to respond to things better, right? So if something happens in the gray, because that's what life happens, life does not. Life is not black and white. Life, a lot of times happen in the gray. So you don't never necessarily prepare for some of the questions that may be asked in a meeting or something like that. But when you're loose, you're able to tap into your creative side of your brain, right? Because you're not. You're not in a fight, flight or freeze response, right? And so you're not bound up, you're not rigid, but not so you're loose. And you're. Now, because of that looseness or staying in that state of mind, you're able to be more creative in a playful way. And I talk about that as being the child in you.

So since you've been in the NFL, some of these lessons that you learned, you know, the idiot man and the getting yourself pumped up before and the alter egos and this kind of stuff, how has that. How have you leveraged some of that wisdom in, you know, promoting your book and, you know, doing the Stuff that you've done off the field since you've been out of the NFL.

And see, that's the thing about it. One of the blessings for me playing the game of football was I was blessed to gather a lot of wisdom, a lot of knowledge of how to prepare, how to form strong, positive neural pathways by constantly saying specific things over and over to yourself. I was doing that stuff then. I didn't know what I was doing, but I did it even to the point of tapping. Tapping is a big thing now.

Right.

So I was doing. I was actually doing tapping about some of the things that I do when I, for instance, when I make a mistake on the football field. One of the things that I would do. I love video games, so I love video games. And one of the things that you can do when you make a mistake in video games to get extra men, what can you do? Push reset. Yes. Just like I was dealing with computer, right? You reset or restart. So in that instance on the field, if I needed to, I didn't need it to all. All the time, but especially as I was trying to come out of my depression and some of those things, some of the negative thoughts conquering some of those negative thoughts that were coming, I would literally do this in my hand. Reset.

Middle of the palm.

Middle of the palm.

Okay.

Like, so to me, I'm pushing reset on the video game and I'm. I'm about to get fresh men in order to go have success again. Right. So, again, so that's the mindset. So what this has allowed me to do, though, is it has allowed me. The book first of all, has allowed me now to let people see how my, How I operate a little bit, how my. Some of the people that have blessed me, that's why it's blessed by the best, My vertical relationship. Ultimately, God has blessed me in a lot of ways, but there's a. A different way that I look at life in a playful way, in a very playful way of how I've programmed myself. And I know from studying now that that's one of the ways. One of the great ways that you can program yourself is emotion, especially positive emotions combined with information. And then you put it into action. Yes, that's more than likely going to stick. It's going to be a strong neural pathway because you combined it with emotion, especially positive. Now, obviously, negative emotion is the same way. If you have a neg. Negative emotion and it's information on top of that, then that's going to be programmed into you. But I have a Choice. We all have a choice of what we decide to concentrate on the majority of the time, not all of the time, because we can't help what thoughts come into our heads. But what we can do is I make room for that thought. I don't necessarily just try to just stuff it away like I used to, which was very toxic for me to do. I don't. I don't do that anymore. What I do is I make room for that thought. Yes. But I don't let the thought take over the room. I make room for it. So that's a thought. Do I want it? No, I don't want it. So what I'm gonna do in this instance, I can replace that thought with this gratitude that I have in this. I call it my gratitude box. I can dive into my gratitude box and bring some of those good things, things that people. My wife, my children, how blessed I am. I can. Because we know that two thoughts can't occupy in the brain at the same time, right? So the one that has the more emotion attached to it, whether good or bad, right. Positive or negative, that's the thought that the brain is going to then lean towards. So if I can have those powerful emotions to replace that thought, it'll drift off. Now, it's not going to be instantaneously, but it's going to drift off into the atmosphere, if you will. Right. But here's the thing. For me, I know now that if it's something that is constantly coming to me, that thought is negative, constantly coming to me. Me, I know that that's something I need to unpack. So I make time in the day for me to spend time with me so that I can unpack those thoughts. So why am I having that thought? Why is it that this thing is so hard for me to get over? Like, what is going on there? That's that time that I use for that. But if I don't have time to do that, that's when I do the gratitude thing.

Well, I also feel like professional athletes, and I've never been a professional athlete, so you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like professional athletes have a completely different relationship with failure. Right? So if. If you lose a football game, you got to get your head back into the game by the next game. If. I mean, if you blow a tackle, you got to get your head back into the game on the next play. So I feel like that that sort of relationship with failure would be a very valuable asset outside of the NFL as well, because now you can. You can go into projects, and if it, if the project's a failure, you're probably pretty good at just getting out of it and going to the next thing. But I'm curious to hear your thoughts around that.

Yes. And that's a learned behavior, right? That's literally a learned behavior that you have to teach yourself that, that time you get better at it, the more that you practice it and the more that you have good people in your corner to help you see things that you can't see. So that's accountability. Like, that's huge, huge in life, and it's obviously huge as an athlete. But when I fail, excuse me, when I, When I made that mistake on the field, if I'm thinking on that mistake, and if I don't push reset, if I don't say my quotes, that I say to myself, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, 2nd Timothy 1:7, for the Lord did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. That's one of my scriptures. That's my favorite scripture, to be honest with you. So when I say that to myself, what it does is it takes me off of my heels and put me back on my toes. As long as I'm on my heels, I'm reacting. So I'm not anticipating nothing. I'm just letting stuff happen in front of me and I'm just going to make a tackle. But when I'm on my toes, I'm anticipating. I'm saying, okay, that motion happened. This is the formation. It's third and three. Oh, man, it's going to be a quick pass. I'm going to jump this route. So now I'm anticipating because of my film study. So now again, I can go back to my. My preparation that I've been studying film and I can utilize that. But when I'm on my heels, guess what I'm in. I'm in my fight, flight and freeze response. So it's about. It's about survival. It's not about taking chances. I'm just trying to survive. And so that is when you have to learn that. It's. You do have to have a short memory, but you still need to remember the mistake that you made so you won't make it later on in the game. Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna learn from this. I'm gonna learn from it, but I need to put it in a good part of my brain, if you will, to remember. Not enough bad negative don trot, put Me on my heels type of response. You know, this is something good information for me that if something happens later on in the game to the same effect, I'm going to respond or. Yeah, respond this way instead of react from a. From a nervous place, from a scared place, from a tentative place. Yeah, that makes.

Yeah, yeah. So you see it more as like a lesson that I can make adjustments based on the lesson as opposed to I screwed that up, I'm a screw up. And then you just go down the dark place.

Yeah.

And that's the thing about it. In life, many people do that to the. To ourselves. I won't just say they. But that's what we do to ourselves. That we literally see the failure as us. No, we failed at that thing. I'm not a failure. I just fail at that opportunity to do that thing at that moment. But once again, it's that thing at that moment is where I fail. So the failure that I had is there is not here. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it's like minimalizing everything.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So that now. And it's one of the blessings that I was blessed to have an understanding with in the National Football League is football was who was what I did. It wasn't who I was. You've probably had people say that to you before, but I really, really knew that. I knew that I was not a failure when I made mistakes in the game. Yes, I'm hard on myself because I hate to lose and I never want to be a liability to my teammates. I never wanted to let them down. I've said this before. I had a healthy dose of fear of. I did not want to let my teammates and coaches down. I did not want to. So I was going to do everything preparation wise to make sure that I'm in the best positions so that I can have success, so I can be an asset at all times. 20 is an asset. 20 is an asset. You always see number 20 and that was me. If you didn't know that number 20, he's an asset, he's not a liability.

Right.

But I had to believe that. I had to take ownership of that and I had to know that when I walk into a place, walk into a building, into meetings or whatever, that they didn't just see Brian Dawkins, they didn't see number 20, what they saw was asset. Does that make sense?

Oh, yeah, man. Assets are the most valuable thing walking around or, you know, that you can invest in. Obviously it grows. Yeah, man. When you put your head in that kind of space, you're unstoppable.

And that's the thing about it. That's the thing about it. That. And again, that's not something that I started my career off with. That is because of individuals. And here's another lesson for those who are watching this.

Sometimes you have to believe in somebody else's vision of you until you can own the vision that they see of you. Because sometimes somebody will see something way more than what you're. What you're doing at that moment. Some. I've heard it said like this that it's hard to see outside of the picture frame when you're in the picture, right? So when you're in the frame, it's hard for you to see out of the picture. But you have other people that you, you know, that care about you, that you know, that want the best for you. They may have a vision for you of you that you just can't see yet. And that was Emmett Thomas for me, my coach, he had a vision. He saw me as someone that can be in hall of Famer. I didn't see that. I was just trying to make the dog on team, right? But what I did was I believed in his vision of me until I can take ownership of the vision for myself. And it took. It took maybe a couple of years to take the ownership of that. But until then, I was believing in his vision of me. And I was going out to be the thing that the person, excuse me, the player that he said that he saw. So what actually what happened was I took a vision from someone else and I believed it for myself, which became what my vision for me.

I think you referred to Emma Thomas as E.T. right? Or Uncle E. Uncle E, yeah. Was he. So are you talking around? Was this like a rookie year right around then?

Yes. Okay, so I had Emmett my first three years in the league. So he. It was because of him. Mr. John Wooten and Ray Rose and that crew is the reason why Philly drafted me. Because they saw something in me. They saw the determination, the leadership that I had, and they saw me as Emmett called me a little baby juggernaut, right? If we can get his emotions under control, we might have us something. So they saw that in me. I didn't see that listening to him being directed and seeing Mr. Wooten around the building. He would talk to me frequently. Ray would talk to me frequently. And the visions that they had for me, again, I couldn't truly see for myself, but I believed them. Yeah, I believed them. And by that third year, I knew what I could do. And so when Jim Johnson, a new coach came in, when Ray left, Jim Johnson and Andy Reid, but especially Jim Johnson and my new defensive coordinator, who's past the late great J. Jim Johnson, he saw, he saw what Ray Emmett and Mr. Wooten brought out. He, he got that, they got that dude and that dude was ready. Yeah, that dude was ready to be used. However, Jim wanted me to be used because I was blessed with so much ability that he can use me as a weapon. And so that's why Weapon X is so apropos for me to be called Weapon X because I was literally a weapon on the field the way Jim used me.

Because I relate to what you're saying here and I mean I'm sure everyone can relate in some way. But what got you to. Because I think it's the hardest thing to see when you're inside the frame to see yourself as you truly are or how others see you. And was there a moment that allowed you to see that? I know you have the person you have, Emmett, but was there a time in your life? I know those were dark days in the rookie year and I want to talk about mental health there because that's a big passion of yours and mine. Ours. I got stories there too. But like what was the thing that got you to believe and actually be open to that, that feedback?

For me it was literally the fact that I had three gentlemen that looked like me coaching me. And what I mean by that, three African American gentlemen. So that took me back to my neighborhood, that took me back to my uncles, that took me back to my coaches, that took me back to people that I knew cared about me, right when they were extremely harsh on me. And Emmett was a lot of times because he wouldn't let me settle for good, he was always pushing me and making me look for great. A past breakup wasn't good enough. You should have gotten the interceptions, you should have caused a fumble, that should have been a tackle for a loss instead of a two yard gain, those type of things, right? So. And I was hearing that from a place of love because of that, because that nourishing. And they call me also baby boy. So I was a baby boy my rookie year. Everybody called me baby boy, right? And so because of that love, because of that caring, because of that, the pouring into me from these gentlemen and that, that, that, that, that truly blessed me to just put myself out there. Like if they seeing this in me and I, I know these dudes care about me, I'm gonna pour it out I'm just gonna pour it out and see what happens. I'm pouring out and see what happens.

Yeah. Because I think that's the thing that happens the most. You need to surround yourself with people that love you, that truly see you for you, and not going to talk some bs. They're not going to just give you lip service. Oh, yeah, no, they're actually giving you what you need. Because I had a moment, honestly, earlier this year, kind of seeing aspects of that, and I was open to it. And then finally I'm like. It clicked. Just little things here and there. But we're all. There might be a fog that a lot of us have in whatever aspect of our lives.

And then some of that stuff is just. Success brings confidence, right? As you're having more success, incremental successes, then you're building that confidence. You're building more confidence. You're building more confidence and you're getting to the point where, yeah, not only do I belong, I can do this thing at a high level.

Right?

So now that's the. And so now when you step on the field, you step into the office, you step into the building, you expect more out of you. Like I expect me to do more.

Yeah.

I don't expect to be average, because I'm not.

I know I can do more. Matter of fact, I'm supposed to do more. So I expected more out of me. I'm serious. I expected more out of me. And when that happened, if I did not do more good was not good enough. I'm supposed to do more than good. That was my mindset.

Right.

And when you have that as a mindset, your body believes it, and then your brain helps you go out to make that real, to find opportunities to make that be the case. Because your brain wants to make you. Right. Right. So that's that reticular activating system. Right? So you. You train certain parts of your brain to go out to find that thing that you have made important. And to me at that time, being better than good, being dominant, being a game changer, yeah, that's who I am. That's not what I do. That's. That's literally who I am. Right. And that's how I approached it. That's how I took the field. And I believe that when I walked into the building, my leadership, I didn't. I didn't talk a whole lot. I really did not. I'm really. I'm. To be honest with you, I'm very introverted in. In most ways, most cases, but as far as My effort is concerned as far as me pushing you by how I do what I do. And if I see you slacking a little bit, I'm going to help you along, not yell at you to come along with me. I want to, you know, invite you. But a lot of times they would follow my example, not my words. I didn't have to say anything. They would just follow my example. So I was leading loudly that way. So I say it like this. I wanted my actions to speak so loud that you couldn't hear the words that I was saying. You didn't need to hear me say any words. Does that make sense?

Yeah. You spoke pretty loud when you needed to, too, man. Yeah.

I don't know if it's. If we're able to capture some of that sometime during the course of this. I'm like, man, that is like some, you know, you can't replicate it.

The hall of Fame speech that you gave, we watched it on YouTube and Joe and I were getting, you know, watery eyes and goosebumps while watching it. It's just an amazing, amazing speech. So. So anybody listening to this podcast episode, we'll link to the YouTube video so people could watch it, because it's amazing. Yeah, there's some fire there, man.

I was so ready for that. Like, I had prayed up. I was prayed up. I knew what. I knew what I was going to talk about from my heart and the whole thing. And this is obviously in the book as well. After I was on stage, after the jacket, I literally lost my voice. I could not talk. I spoke. Woke up that next morning, and nothing came out. I was like, oh, right. And I have to, you know, have the speech later on this evening that. That evening. Excuse me. And that's why my voice sounds so raspy, like. Right. But. But I knew that I had to get out and deliver that. In which I believe that the Lord had me to give to someone. I don't know who was going to be, but someone needed to hear that message.

Someone.

And someone needed to hear that their hero, the person that they looked up to, went through or grew through those times and got to the point where he's standing on stage right now, sharing it with millions of millions of people. Right? So that means it's possible. It's possible. It's possible for me to get up from where I am, where I find myself in the pit that I maybe is my fault that I'm in that pit. A lot of. A lot of the stuff was my fault that I was in the pit that I was in because I would not talk to anyone. So it was my pit that I dug, that I was. That I was down in.

Right?

But you don't have to stay there. You can get up. And there's so much. When you're climbing your way up, guess what you're building as you're climbing. Strength. Every step, that's more strength. Just like just today, we worked out, we did some lunges. No walking lunges. Yeah. Every time you do that walking lunge out of that pit, your quad getting a little bit stronger, right? You get that hip flexor just a little bit stronger as you're getting that step, taking that step. And then what you're doing is you're building. You're building. So when you get out of that thing, you can look back and like, wow, look at my legs. Look how strong I am where I am, right? And now when somebody else you see is in that same pitch, you're like, hey, listen, this is what I did. This is what's possible for you. Not the way that I did it. You don't have to do it my way, but I'm just telling you it's possible. Right? So that's that motivation, motivating factor for some individuals, and some people needed to hear that. So that's why that speech was so important for me to come up and be as explicit and raw and actually straightforward as I was on that stage.

I want to go back to, like, the preparation for that, too. You know, that wasn't a game day. That was a speech, you know? So, like, it was. How was the preparation for that? Because I know you talked about being loose and everything. Was it different or. I know you crawled on stage. Yeah.

So that's. So if you know anything about me, that was one of my interest.

Introduction is defenses. A lot of times I would come out in my. I call it bear crawl, right? So they call it Wolverine. Call whatever you want to call it. But it's just. I'm a predator. So that was my mindset, like when. The first time that I did it, like, I was. I love Animal Planet, you know? So I was like, man, I was. I'm feeling like, man, I'm about to eat. So I came out in the bear crawl, right? So I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm about to go eat, right? And so that's why I came out into the. The hall of Fame speech now the week preparation to that. I. I literally did the same thing that I did as a player, right? You study, you prepare, you know, the game plan. Inside and out. Prayed up. I'm prayed up. And so when I get to the venue, like, I have so much energy that I gotta get out. Like, I'm about to, like, lose it. Like, I feel like I'm about to lose. Oh, my goodness. I got so much energy because I'm excited about what I'm about to do in the football field. I'm about to do something to somebody. Like, it's. And it's not going to be pleasant, right? But in that situation, yes, I'm still about to do something to somebody, but it's now from a word standpoint, it's from a emotional standpoint. Yeah, I'm about to. Ooh, we about to have us a good time on this dog on stage, right? And so that's how I took the stage. I took. And so it was literally game time for me. Like, I was pacing back and forth like I did before I go out to play on the field. And again, when I came out and Troy, he was smiling. Cause I knew. He knew. Like, I literally flipped into game mode. It was game time for me, and I stepped on that stage. It was game time. So literally, you heard how I communicate on game days. That's how I communicate. Because that's a different time. It's different. It's fourth and short, and I need that. Like, I need. I need that. I. I need you. I need. In this moment. Like, I need everything that you got in this moment right now. I need that. I need. I'm gonna give you everything that I got, right? So that's that. That's that flip. You flip that switch and you in that moment and you in that time, the tone, the fluctuations, the body. I don't want you to hear my words. I want you to feel them. Because if you feel them, we gonna both move and have success, right? Yeah. So that's. That was. That was. That was game day. It was literally game day.

I love it. We got a little bit of you right there, the pop up. Oh, man, that. That makes me so happy. Thank you for sharing that, man. I want to go to mental health. And not to just flip over, but I want to go there. Because, I mean, I'll just give you. I've talked about it. I lost my dad to suicide two years ago.

Oh, wow.

So it's been like two years of me. You know, I'm 36, so I'm not like a kid dealing with it. But still, it's like, man, I can. I see the patterns and a lot of you Know, through your book and other research, I could see similarities. I know you've been through similar types of things and. And your Impact, or Brian Dawkins Impact foundation, that's a big pillar of yours, is supporting mental health for kids and youth. I don't know the exact question, but other than, like, man, I know how it can derail your life and the fact that you were a rookie going through suicidal thoughts, not to let the cat out of the bag, but, like, you were going through some really hard times on the main stage right there. So I don't know. I guess tell me a little bit about that because, like, that was a big shift. Obviously, we talked about, like, other people telling you, Emmett telling you about who you could be and are.

Yeah, yeah.

Because the play thing, that was something I lost. I'll just tell my experience last two years. I've noticed the play went down, and luckily for my wife, you, Matt, and others around me were able to boost that back up because that's my true character. But I saw I lost it. So how'd that show up in your life? Because I know you had some anger and all that stuff, too, man.

Absolutely. And so for me, and sorry for your loss, first of all, the totality of everything came down on me. Like, me being a new father, newlywed, colicky son.

You know, pressures from work. They're expecting me to be something right away as soon as possible. Like they were pushing me from a place of love, but they were, yet they were still pushing me. Right. So. And I'm getting pulled from family members, you know, they're needing things back in Jacksonville. I don't necessarily have what they think that I have. So. So it was like. It was like a lot of things pulling. And I didn't. I didn't talk. I didn't talk about things. So I was. It was just stuff that was. More stuff was just being stuffed under the rug. Pains from the past that have hurt people have hurt me. I just stuffed it in because I thought, you grow up where I grew up. Suck it up. Deal with it. You're a man, especially African American in my. Where I grew up, suck it up. Don't never let people see your emotion. You deal with it. Suck it up.

Right.

And there are some things you can do that way.

Right.

But internal hurts, you can't. You need to have someone to speak to about those things. And it's okay to do that. Not with everybody. Now, this is not for everybody's ears, but it's for a select group of people that you know, care about you, love, love you. And for me, people that I know are going to pray for me. And with me, these are the people that I. That I talk to. I have four people in my life now, four to five people, I call them my blessed pack that I can call at any given moment. And we will have that conversation if need be. Matter of fact, a month ago, I was going through some things. I call it. I'll just call it spiritual warfare. And I need. I need a prayer. And I just text each one of them and say, hey, just. Just lift your boy up. I didn't give him any specifics. I didn't give him any detail. I just said, lift your boy up. Lift me up. And they did. I know they did. They sent me back verses and scriptures and what they was feeling in the moment to help me where I was. And that's an empowering thing. Right, Right. And so, so going back to my rookie year, I was doing none of those things. It was me trying to deal with something that I had no answers for. And that pressure was just mounting and building and building. And I also had anger issues. So now some of those problems that I had been stuffing down, they would leak into a small conversation with, for instance, my wife. And the argument is a huge argument over something real small because I'm not. I'm no arguing just about the thing. I'm arguing with about the thing that includes all some of these other things that have been put into it as well.

Well said. Yeah.

You feel me?

Oh, yeah, 100%.

And so that's the thing that I began to understand that I literally, and I say it like this now, I was not very emotionally available for my family in the early parts of my career, and it got better as I got older, but I was not very emotionally available for them when it comes to talking, being open about things.

No.

So it.

That took some time, and it's taking some time for me to be that way. Right. That is the. Those are some of the things that took me to that place. That, that. It was a dark, dark, dark voice that continued to tell me that you might as well just. I won't. I won't say that, but it's just a dark voice that was talking to me for sure, that, That I could have listened to, but I didn't. I chose to listen to another voice. And so what. What the. What the. What my wife and Emmett helped me do was go get help. And what the counselor did was help me come down off of those emotions, begin to Talk about those things I had not talked about to get them from up under the COVID or out of that pot that was being pressurized. So now we can let these. Let some of that steam out, Let all of that steam out. So I no longer have that as something that can be combustible on someone at some point. But also I begin to take medicine just a little while. And what it did is it, once again, it brought me down off my emotions. And what happened for me, I can't speak for anybody else, but happened for me. My emotions got turned down. And then my spiritual life began to get turned up. I began to hear on a vertical level some of the things I needed to stop doing and some of the things I needed to start doing. And so that came into now what I do. I call it the blueprint challenge. You can go on Brian Dawkins.com and check it out. But this is what I literally developed for myself to help me stay winning, as I call it, from a mental health standpoint. I pray, read, meditate, and journal every morning. Every morning. And again, that came from growing through that time period. There's other things that you can. Like I said, you can go read it for yourself. I don't want to go get into all of it, but these are things that I literally do every day. That first part, I pray, read, meditate every morning. Attitude of gratitude. Writing down specific couple of gratitudes per morning. Or I'll just say them in my head as I'm breathing. Different breathing exercises. Yes. Every morning, preparing to dominate the day. And whatever fashion dominate means for me at this time, I'm going to dominate this day. Sometimes dominating the day means that I've helped. I've held the door open for 10 people.

Right.

That's. I dominated the heck out of that day from a. From a helping standpoint. Right.

Yeah.

And then, you know, I wear this. We wear Blessed by the best. And this is usually my. What I tell people when they say, how are you? I said, I'm blessed by the best. Right. And when I say that, oftentimes this happens, you know what? I'm blessed, too.

Wow.

So whatever they may be going through in that moment now, they've put gratitude back at the top of the list. So whatever they were going to, it gets knocked down out of number one into number two. And so hopefully that'll help their day go a better way. Right.

Create a ripple effect.

So again, absolutely tremendous ripple effect. But again, I know these things now, and that's where the book comes in. I know What I did now to do what I did. And now I'm sharing those things to as many people as possible. And then if you want to go to a deeper dive with me, you know, they're going to be some options to be coached by me coming up here.

Oh, sweet, man. I was hoping for that, man, because just the way you carry yourself and talk, I mean, I've seen the speeches and we had the book, but to hear you like this, I mean, there's a lot of. There's a lot of ripples that you'll be able to send out into the world and in the way. It's just kind of doing this kind of thing here, man. The whole talking, you know, communication, I know, is huge, you know, when you're in your. That spiral. And I don't know if men even lend more because, you know, men probably bottle up more stuff. We don't go to doctors unless we're bleeding out, you know, stuff like that. So a lot of the tools you mentioned, that's exactly what I've done. But I've just kind of found things, you know, and there's a. There's a book. I just. I say it all the time. It's called Nonviolent Communication. Have you heard of that one?

I have not.

Let me. All right.

Marshall Rosenberg, you will love it, because it's all about pulling out the emotions from yourself, identifying them, actually labeling them, but then it being able to relate empathically with someone else, you know?

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's powerful, man. It's just words, but, you know, it's also putting emotions to words and then figuring out how to help each other through it all.

And that's the thing about it. That's the thing about when I was talking about climbing up out of that hill, out of that hole, and you're building those muscles, right? It's the looking back part that I'm talking about, not looking back into the situation. This is, you know, that it. This. This hurt me. It continues to hurt me, and it will continue to hurt you as long as you continue to look back at your past that way. But when you reframe it, you said the word reframe it. And you look at, man, look at how thick my thighs are. Look how big my calves are. The strength that I have from digging myself and climbing up my muscles that I climbed up out of that. And so once, now, now when I see someone or I hear someone who are going through something similar, I do. I live. I have a. A different. A deeper empathy for them. Right. Like, again, I don't know what you're going through, but I know what my version felt like, and it was not pleasant, not even a little bit. And I wouldn't worship. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Right. And so now I have tools because I've also done some studying up on things, on trauma and. And different ways that you can help individuals taking courses and whatnot. So now I can help by offering those things. And to your point, one of the first. One of the things that I offer individuals is, yes, that blueprint challenge, but like journaling, the different variations, the different ways that you can journal. Yes. You can just journal thoughts, you can journal gratitude, you can prayer journal. The likes of different. What's a whole bunch of different ways that you can use the power of the pen and the paper, not necessarily the computer, but the power of writing. And what that. And all of the connections that happen when you write. Like, there's just a different. For me anyway, again, I can only speak for myself. It's just a different feeling that I get when I write, when I literally write things down. It's just a different connection that I get when I do that.

Yeah, I think that goes. That's been said a lot. So I'm sure it's shared among, you know, many, man, there's probably some science behind it, but. Yeah, man, it is. You've done the research. Yeah, man, I've read it.

I can't quote it, but I read it.

That's all. That's enough.

So this is kind of the final question that I wanted to ask, but in 2018, that was a good year for you. How did you celebrate after your world Championship?

Wow. To my. After crying ugly cry snot. After that celebration, when I found out, first of all, I made the hall of Fame and then we won the Super Bowl. And the crazy thing about it was, and people don't know this, I was an executive with the Eagles at that time. Soon after that super bowl happened, my heart began to change. So the passion, the drive, the determination that I had to help build a culture there in Philadelphia with the behind, behind the scene, you know, where the coaches build the building, in the building, they begin to change. Not saying that I didn't want to help those guys, because I still do. I still would if they. If they give me a call. But I had that same drive and desire now to reach others. And I couldn't reach others if I'm doing things in that building because I'm an employee of A team, Right. And you can't. There's only so many things that you can do outside of what's in your contract. Right? So I knew that that's not something that I can continue to do if I wanted to reach more people. And that's what was on my heart. Reaching more people with the hope, with the instrument, with the things that they don't even know that's inside of them that I can potentially help them see and then hold them accountable to the vision that they come up with to strengthen them. And so once again, that's what the program is going to be. That's where the coaching is going to be. The first introduction is called the the Beast program. It's the Beast program. The Beast is an acronym, stands for the best energy, attitude, self. Today that's the. The four quarter to be four quarters. And so that's my introduction into helping you again bring out the beast in any field that you're in does not necessarily have to be a physical thing. It's not a physical thing. Before I was a physical beast, I was a mental beast. Does that make sense? Before I was a physical beast, I was a mental beast. Because it happens here first before it happens out here.

Right.

And so helping people once again develop your version of that. I don't want you to have my version. I'll show you and teach you my version. But no, you come up with yours, what's authentically yours. Because if it's authentically yours, you're going to go with it and go to it harder. Right? Because it's yours and you take ownership of it. Right. And so that's what happened during that time. And so that's why, you know, I had to get out of that. And here's the other thing about that. And this is also in the book. This is the first time that I have been from up under the Big Brother football. So when I was at Clemson, I was reigns High school football was. Yeah, Clemson football, Big Brother football. When I was with the Eagles. Big brother football. Right. Denver Big Brother football. And even when I retired I did ESPN analyst at Big Brother football. When I, when they didn't want me back is when I stepped into the executive role, which is Big brother football. So this was the first time that I stepped out and said, you know what, I'm stepping out from up under the football so called umbrella and I'm doing things outside of that. So that's to me that screams entrepreneur. Right. So you're stepping out, taking some risk, taking some chances on Some things and believing in self. So I'm believing in the things that I've been blessed to know. Yes. But the things that I'm yet still learning and that, that combination and me forever learning, because I will be a forever learner, is going to be a great combination to bless as many people as possible.

Yeah. Everyone needs to go and check out the impact foundation@briandawkins.com because that's what you're covering. Mental health is a big pillar. You have family assistance, family just well being there and then also financial literacy. All of those, I mean, make up for just an amazing life, a better life for everybody. I want to, I want to support this thing like crazy because now I'm like, you know, because of my story, I'm on this mission. I've been put on this mission now. Just mental health in general, but, you know, just the pressures of entrepreneurs. Since that's our crew primarily, a lot of us are in our bubbles. You know, we're kind of just. Or maybe with one other, but we're not able to really communicate deeply. We're not around a team with coaches everywhere. You know, reach out. Go check out impact foundation@briandawkins.com and I don't, I want to do some more with this outside of this. I'm going to figure out a way.

See, that's the thing. That's the thing about it. Like when you leave up out of the locker room, I will never, ever have an atmosphere like that ever again. When you leave up out of that locker room and you're around those guys like every day, pretty much, you're around them more than you're around your family a lot of times because of the way things work out sometimes. And so, like, there's a bond, there's a connection, there's a something again, something that if you talk to players who have played the games, different game, different sports, that, that's the, that's what they miss the most. The competition on the field. Yes. The, the money. Yes. But really it's the connection with the guys, the hanging out with the guys, the conversations, the camaraderie that is what is, is missed. And in those circles, a lot of times you have people that will call you out, like, yeah, no, that's wrong. Like, it's not, it's not people that's just going to tell you what you want to hear. It's gonna, they're gonna tell you what you need to hear because, you know, especially in film settings. And that's something that maybe you Guys will probably never see because they. I don't think they really show that on some of the Hard Knocks. Maybe they do show it on Hard Knocks.

Maybe.

But when you're in a film session, sometimes, yeah, you get called out, Jack. Like, you get called. I see. We can't have that on film. You see this. This is not the effort we're looking for. You know how embarrassing that is, right? When you get called out like that? That's that accountability I'm talking about. And so when you have people in that in your life that you've given authority to and permission, and I'll say it like this, when you've given someone authority and permission to hold you to the standard that you've told them you want to have for yourself, that's powerful. That's powerful because that person is free to literally tell you when you walk in, when you walk in foul, when you walk in foul of the vision that you told me. This is what you told me you said you wanted to do. I'm not telling you what I just think now. I'm telling you this is what you said you wanted to do. And what you're doing right now is not that that brings you back down off your horse, whatever that horse is in your life, to get you refocused on the vision that you have. So that means, first of all, I got to have a vision.

I literally. I literally get excited about this. I really, really do. Because I. I know what this mindset has blessed me with. And I know I didn't start with this mindset in Jacksonville, Florida. This is not something that I had at Raines High School. But there are certain things that I learned early in my life that has been a pillar for the success that I've had all the way up to this point. And it's. Again, that's in that book.

Get the book.

So sometimes it's the thing a lot of times for, and this is from a negative and a positive standpoint. Some of the things that you learn when you were growing up, people call them paradigms. Now everybody's talking about paradigms, right? So those paradigms and things are things that you've learned from zero to seven years old. You know, some people say zero to seven, some people zero to five, whatever that time period is. Like, you've learned some things during that time that can either help you or hurt you going forward. If you continue to practice that. Practice that and not check it. So because I learned some things, not necessarily seven, but when I was like 10, 13, 14, years old. Certain disciplines that my. My parents taught me and how my grandma carried herself. Like, there's specific things that I. That became entrenched in me of how to handle life and do life. And so that has really been the pillar that helped me. Even during that time that I was going through that dark space that I knew that I needed to do something different than what I was doing. And I knew that my vertical connection, my vertical relationship was the key to it all. I knew that. I knew that I just didn't do it right away. It took me a long time. Sometimes we have to fall into the pit and hit rock bottom before we begin to look up, right? Sometimes some of us. I raised my hand. I literally had to hit rock bottom before I finally looked up for the help that I needed and then spoke and asked for help. For the men who are watching this, our silence. Our silence is literally hurting us. I'm gonna use that word instead of the other word I was about to use. Our silence is literally hurting us because we won't talk. We won't talk to somebody, not everybody, but somebody that needs to again, at least be one person that you have to talk to. We're not supposed to do this thing on our own. I still work out to this day. It's another example I give. This is the last one I'll give, and it's the last one.

Hey. I was going to give you props on. I'm like, you look more jacked outside of football than you, and I am.

I am literally. This is what I saw when I looked into the mirror, even though I was £200. But this is what I saw. I saw this figure. I saw this musk being this muscular, and I was strong. I am stronger in a lot of ways than I was then, so I'm actually stronger now. But the point is, I didn't get this by myself. There's no way that I can increase weight on my bar to get stronger, because, first of all, you can't get stronger by lifting the same weight. Your muscles are too smart. They'll get used to pushing that same weight, and you'll begin to actually lose. Not necessarily. You lose muscle, but you won't gain any strength. You won't gain any muscle by staying pushing the same weight over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It just won't. You'll get your. Your heart rate up a little bit, but even. Even your heart will get used to your nervous system.

Your. Your.

It'll get used to doing the same thing over and over and over again. So in order for me to get stronger, I have to put more weight on the bar. And if it's too much weight, guess what? I asked for a spotter. Because the spotter and a good spotter does this. A good spotter, when you're up under and you're trying to push some weight, a good spotter will let you struggle with it for a little while until you can't get it and they see you can't get it and then they'll help you. And as they're helping you, the weight becomes almost like a feather when they are helping you. That's what speaking to someone does for me when I speak to somebody about my problems. I'm no longer bearing the weight by myself. We are both bearing that weight together. And the reason why I say that we're going to pray together because neither one of us need to necessarily hold on to that weight. We need to give it away. So we then pray about the thing that I just told them about so that we can get the weight off of us onto our heavenly Father and then we can go on and trusting that he's got control of it. And now I can go and be my authentic, happy, free flowing self for my family, for my children, for the people that I'll be coaching, you know, going down, just go on down the list. I'll be more available, emotionally available to then bless other people if I'm not clung down with all of that weight trying to push it by myself and then I'm done. That's it.

That's a perfect way to wrap this puppy up. Right? All right. So everyone get blessed by the best. My journey. It's actually Brian's journey by journey to Canton and beyond. Go grab that at Brian. Well, where's the best place to grab it? I'm sure it's everywhere.

Brian dawkins.com and we're having a. And I'll let you on the secret. We're having a. We're having a good problem though. Like we're. People are buying the books and so we have to. We're having to order some more books. And so they'll be in there. They're in now we have them. But though that supply is kind of dwindling a little bit. And so we're waiting for this next run to come out. But now, seriously, it's been an absolute blessing to have the book, to write the book. I've heard so many people talk about it with me already about some of the things that they're gaining from it and how it's really helping them. So, once again, it's not a football book. There is football in it, but this is literally a lifebook. This is literally a lifebook.

It's tools and it's experience, and it's all given away. Yeah, you opened it up, man. So thank you for doing that for everyone. And I'm sure it was cathartic for yourself, too. You know, you probably learned so much, man, so.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. That's for another journal session later. You probably already covered that, but yeah, and also Impact Foundation. Go check it out. We'll link it all up in the show notes. Brian, appreciate you, my man. Thank you so much.

No, I appreciate you guys having.

Man.

Appreciate your patience, too, man. That was.

It's all good. It's tech.

That was 30. That was about 30 minutes of me trying to peck around and push button.

We were on tech support for a little bit. I was playing Apple.

Right.

Thank you, man.

All right. Y' all be blessed, man. Thank you again.

Can't even describe how cool that was. Like, just such a cool. Damn. So cool. Go ahead.

So, yeah, like, a little behind the scenes of. Of what just happened with this podcast is. So we were supposed to interview Brian at, what, it was noon, right? So we had him on the calendar to interview at noon, and he was having some tech issues getting into Riverside, where we recorded. And so he actually called you up on your phone, and we were on speakerphone here with him, trying to help with tech support, help him get his computer working. We finally got the Riverside up and working, but it was cool because we got to basically chat with him for, like, 20 plus minutes before we ever started the interview. So we had already kind of broke the ice, built rapport, and we're ready to just kind of, like, jump in. And then after we did the interview, he hung out with us for another 30 minutes and was giving us, like, more advice and more, like, just bits of wisdom from his career. And we about talked football with him.

And talk chargers.

We talked chargers and Eagles. And, like. Like, we spent about two hours with Brian Dawkins today.

I mean, that's like. It's. I even told him. I was like, I can't even, like, say how cool this was, like, and how impactful it was, too, because he was speaking directly to us after. After the call, like, so, you know, that was definitely off recording, so we're not going to repeat anything, but the fact is that Brian is such a cool guy, like, and cool doesn't even. I gotta have better words for this for Brian. Like, he deserves way more than that amazing guy.

He's wise, he's deep.

Yeah.

And he's brilliant. I mean, I guess wise and brilliant are similar.

We gotta work on our acronyms.

No, our adjectives.

Adjectives.

We gotta work on our adjectives a little bit better.

This is what happens when I'm good. I'm still thinking about the kind of thing Ryan Goud. No, he's great. He's better than great. Dang it.

So his book, Blessed by the Best. Go grab that. Because that's him in a book. But he goes way deeper. And I mean, like, even said he learned so much just by writing that. And so go. Go get it from briandawkins.com D A W K I N S and go check out his Impact foundation as well. And that's over on the way. On the website. I know he mentioned the challenge as well.

Yeah, the blueprint challenge, which you can find@briandawkins.com it's the second link we just said.

Bu.

I think.

Yeah. Bu. When you go on the website, go to. The menu should be like the second one from to the right. But yeah, Impact foundation, his foundation, he's out there supporting mental wellness, financial literacy, family assistance programs. I mean, all three of those are. It's everything. It's like the glue of just kind of a stable, happy person that can provide, and not just by money or all that, but, like, provide as. As humans, as a man, as a woman. And yeah, I love what he's doing because I know you and I have chatted about a bigger piece, you know, a bigger thing that we can give back. And we've always come back to mental health being a big piece. And we both shared, you know, different stories, of course, but we share, you know, we're. We're in the blessed. The blessed crew. Or I forget what he called, you know, his text chain. But, like, the fact that, you know, you are a person that I can go to there. I have a few others as well, and I'm sure you do as well. And then we have family and. But, like, there's not a lot of folks that have that, especially kids. You know, we go back to like, hey, let's support kids and youth so they have the tools and they're not, you know, like, I talked about breaking the chain. Well, you know, we all got something. Some patterns. So I love the fact that he's. He's doing it in a big way with the Impact foundation and. Yeah, so go check that out. And I want to keep supporting that because he's doing the right thing to the right people and 50% and yeah, I meant to say this, actually. 50% of the proceeds of all the books that are sold are going to that foundation. So make sure, just know 50% of anything you're putting out there for Blessed by the Best, which highly recommend. Go get that book. 50% of going back to that foundation. So it's going to a good thing. Very cool. And obviously he's, he's walking the walk. There's no doubt. So.

Brian, I've said enough walking.

Yep, he is, he's probably crushing and he's doing lunges and whatever.

Oh yeah, if you're not watching the video, go check out the video too. Because he's a beast. I mean, like.

Yeah, I mean, I'm like. Well, I wanted to say. I'm like, you're more jacked now than I was. Like, I am?

Yeah. And he's cut too. He's.

Yeah, yeah, he's.

Anyway, I'll stop crushing on him now.

What'd you take away? Yeah, how many?

I mean, there's, there was a lot of takeaways. I think for me that the thing that I find most impressive about professional athletes, and I brought this up on the show, the thing that I find the most impressive is their ability to, I mean, I said fail and he reworded it to make it, made a mistake, right? But the, the, the, the ability to, to fail and then have to turn it off and then just go to the next thing, right? Like you miss a tackle, you still got to get back in that lineup and you still got to try to make the next tackle you win. You lose a game on Sunday, you got to, you know, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go try to win the game next weekend, right? You've got like in baseball, right, Like a pitcher, like every day a pitcher might walk somebody and load the bases up and they have to get out of their head to get back on the mound and throw more pitches and try not to throw a grand slam or you know, walk another run in or, or whatever, right? And that ability to make a mistake in, in the field that you're in and then flip it off and have a short term memory for that stuff, you know, remember it later when you're watching the film. But in the game you gotta turn it off and get right back into it. And I think when it comes to professional athletes, that trait is the thing that I Just go, holy crap. Like. Like, that is just amazing me. Like, that is a superpower.

Yeah. And it's practiced. Yeah. It's mental starts. Mental first. Yeah.

You flat out said that's a learned skill. Yeah, you just gotta practice. You gotta practice getting up and, you know, being proactive. I think he said that he, you know, he jumps back up into the line, and then he has to just jump back into awareness mode. He just gets into that mode of like, all right, what's going on? What's the situation? Let's assess. Let's, let's. And he. And he becomes alert instead of staying in his head about what just happened.

Yeah. Yeah. And there's. There's something that he. He actually didn't mention it on here. It was one of the things we wanted. I'd even look at my notes.

We were chatting.

Like, that's when we have, like, someone immediately.

That seems to be what most of our episodes do. We have our notes just in case, but we almost never peer down at them.

They're already up here, though. But he. There's something he said in other places. It's in the book as well. And he told us after, you know, after recording. But, you know, when he walks into a room, he looks at himself as a thermometer, not the thermostat.

Other way around. He's the thermostat.

He is the thermostat. Geez. I'm sorry, Brian. He is the thermostat.

A thermometer checks the temperature of a room. A thermostat creates the temperature of the room.

Cut that out. Yes, he's that thermostat. Because he can gauge the room. He knows what energy to bring. He's not just gonna fit in line. He's not that guy. And that's what he always brought onto the field and he brings out throughout life. And that just kind of goes back to just how you can kind of reset the mind. It's like, you are incredible control if you allow yourself to be in control, for sure. So, yeah, that whole stuff.

I'm trying not to cuss because he confided in us that he doesn't cuss.

He didn't say passing it on to others.

No, he did say he doesn't judge other people. But it is something you and I have actively talked about as well. Like, let's try to tone down the swearing because we want people to be able to listen with their families in the car.

It's all good. I love it. Yeah, man. I mean, there's. We can go on forever. But you know, we'll be thinking about this at episode for a very long time. I know I will be. There's. There's like prompts he even was giving us kind of afterwards that I'm definitely gonna be thinking about. Yeah, get the book again. Like it goes deep on all this stuff you've heard us talk about. Like even just mental techniques, tools and all that stuff. We get a story. But he's also giving you the tools and all these things that made him the best in his profession. Like there is no one better in, you know, as him being a safety in the NFL football Hall of Fame. You're like, dude, so something to learn there from the best. So blessed by the best is his book. Go grab that Brian.

Doc, check out, check that out. And a couple little announcements. We might have made it some of these announcements in the last episode as well, but might as well make them because I don't know where some of these episodes are gonna fall. So the evergreen prophets letter is getting phased out.

Phasing that puppy out. It's had a long run.

It's had a good long run.

Five plus years or something. Something like that.

Maybe had a little gap. 16. So 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25 years.

Yeah, there you go.

So we ran that newsletter for five years. Happy with that, we are officially phasing that newsletter out and along with it the action guides to these episodes.

So sorry if you're gonna miss them. We'll.

There's two ways to consume this content. You've got the audio podcast and you've got the YouTube channel now. And they aren't gonna be the same. There's gonna be different episodes on the audio channel that you get on the YouTube channel. You will see Brian Dawkins over on the audio podcast and over on YouTube.

Hustleflowchart TV by the way.

Yep, exactly. But they are gonna be different cuts of the episode. So the YouTube episode might be a little bit shorter where the audio episode is a little bit longer with a little bit more in depth stories and stuff like that. So there is going to be a little bit of a difference between the two. But you now have those two ways to consume it. And the action guides are gonna actually phase out now.

It's a better thing. We're gonna be flowing more. You're gonna get even more on the YouTube channel, Hustleflowchart TV. We'll be going deeper on certain topics too that are lighting us up that you know. So it's not only gonna be the Snackable, you know, those Tuesday episodes. But we'll go deeper on YouTube as well. So you wanna be subscribed, go smash that button, whatever you're supposed to do.

There's probably an explosion right there.

Right there.

Should have been editing.

Our editor took care of it. So. Yeah, so go check it out. Make sure you're subscribed, obviously, to the podcast. Leave your review rating. That's just gonna help more people see Brian and other stuff that we're. We're doing here. So go help us out. Help other folks out and tell us what you think too. Go comment somewhere.

Yeah. See it and, and check out the Discord. We're actually starting to build a community inside of Discord. We've been coming less and less of fans of the Face as Facebook and the Facebook groups, most people have. And we've personally migrated over to Discord. A lot of the communities we interact in are over on Discord. We really like the flow. We really like the, the sort of active engagement that you could create over in Discord. We're able to share a lot of resources, let you know when new episodes go live much easier. So we're really loving the community over there. So if you go to hustle and flowchart.com discord that's probably the best place to go and interact with us and other people that are listening to the show. And we're going to try to pull guests in and there is going to be a premium component to the Discord, but that's down the road a bit, so we're not going to get into that. So just jump into the Discord and say hi to us. I mean, we're in there chatting with people inside the group.

So you're going to make it a party. And if you haven't used Discord, don't be scared or, like, feel like it's going to be overwhelming. It's something different, but it's like slack in a way. But it has some other cool features that we're excited to share with you that will make it feel like a party. We're going to do some, like, exclusive events in there, get some channels around different topics so you can kind of find your own lane there. It's going to be fun. And that thing is just tapping it into where we're taking Hustle and Flowchart as a company, podcast media company, tech company. We're doing all sorts of fun stuff. So come along with us. Hustleandfluidchart.com Discord and Easy webinar Give them a shout out, huh? Yeah.

So this episode is supported by Easy Webinar. And we love Easy Webinar because it does live webinars, hybrid webinars, automated webinars, live streams, builds landing pages, manages your tracking and stats for you, integrates with all the various autoresponders that you might use.

It's kind of the hub, right?

If you need webinar stuff, this does webinar stuff.

It's got it covered for it easily. It lives up to the name. They're pretty good at that. So they're hooking you up with a fat discount just by you being a watcher or a listener. So go to EasyWebinar.com hustle. You'll get a big percentage off@easywebinar.com hustle.

Go check it out.

Yeah. So thank you very much. Go listen back to this thing. And you know, if you're on YouTube, go leave a comment. I want to hear what a big takeaway was for you.

And we're gonna start doing live streams as well. So people who leave comments on our YouTube videos, we're gonna be giving them gift cards and swag and all sorts of cool stuff. So make sure you're commenting on our YouTube channel. Cause we're giving some freebies away for people who are hanging out with us over there.

Thank you. Peace, love. See you.

Sam.

It.