LeCharles Bentley | Becoming the 1% Podcast | Episode 103

Hello everyone, welcome to this episode of Becoming the 1% Podcast. My guest today is LeCharles Bentley. He is one of the foremost trainers of offensive linemen in the NFL today. Uh, so much unpacked in this episode beyond just the obvious, uh, discussions of athletics performance, what guys who are going into their, you know, first couple years in the league should expect to encounter versus what does somebody in the league who is, uh, quote-unquote a veteran has experienced, the impact of mentorship, uh, just so much to unpack as far as business development, what it's like inside of the fitness, what it's like to be at the truly top 1% of your field, and especially in an industry like the NFL where you have such a competitive environment. This is an incredible episode. Uh, there's something in this for just about everybody. Hope you guys enjoy it. This episode of Becoming the 1% Podcast. We got some really big things coming.

You have to have the willingness. Is that A or trying to use it as a tool. This is phenomenal.

All details make up a person.

That's what we believe in the industry.

LeCharles, welcome, welcome to the show, buddy.

I appreciate you for having me. Thank you.

Thank you for coming, man. It's been a long time coming for this one.

I—

it's, uh, it's funny, there's, there's a, a short list of coaches that are in the industry that I've known over the years whose, whose name I don't think has really been given the recognition that I know when people ask me like, hey, I'm trying to work with so-and-so, he's trying to get more explosive off the line. I'm like, hey, well, have you ever— you ever heard of LeCharles Bentley Bentley Bentley? You ever heard of Ian? For a long time, people didn't have any idea like who you were, any of that. Starting with you, I like to kind of hand the conversation over and allow you— tell me how you got into this industry first of all, and then we'll transition to what I kind of just said a little later.

It's funny, it's funny you bring that up because A lot of what you're saying has been by design. You know, I've never really wanted to be in the industry to work with an expansive clientele. I only wanted to live in a space where I serve offensive linemen. That's it. I've expanded since then, but early on, that was all that I wanted to do was just work with, it started off with high school offensive linemen, and I'll tell you that story a little bit later, but that was my niche. And I've kind of stayed away from making myself overly visible, partly because even within that niche, there's just a certain type of person that I want to be around. I'm not looking and I never have wanted to serve and be around every single player that puts on a helmet. You know, there, there are certain types of people that, you know, I always say in terms of the type of person I want to be around, I wanna be around people that I feel good about. Hey, can you babysit my kids? And it's not that I would ever ask that question, but those are the type of people in terms of the qualities that they possess. Would I allow this person to be around my children? And as you know, in any industry and specifically within football, there are just people that are just not good people. And I don't wanna be around those types of athletes. So within that niche, that's— there's an even smaller niche that I want to serve. So, uh, the exposure aspect of it, again, some of that has been by, uh, design. Uh, but in terms of your question, you know, how did I get into this? I don't know. I don't know. Uh, I believe that I've always been qualified as a weight room guy. You know, this started back in high school. So in high school, I was fortunate enough to have had an offensive line coach that also served as the strength coach. And so I lived in both worlds early on, and my first experience with football was 9th grade year. So I was very virginal to the nuance of the game, the practices, the training, all the elements that would qualify you as a quote-unquote football player. I had no idea what it was. So I asked a lot of questions, you know, spent a lot of time with our strength coach who was again the offensive line coach, and he lived in the world of, remember bigger Faster Stronger, old BFS magazine.

Yeah.

And he had a huge stack of magazines. And if we were doing squats, why do we do squats? If we're doing deadlifts, why do we do deadlifts? And why do they call them deadlifts? There was just a constant bombardment of questions I had. And he finally just said, look, if you want to effing know, here, sit in my office and learn it yourself. And so I would just sit there like a little nerd and just read articles and kind of laid a foundation of curiosity within the whole industry, within the whole world of sports performance. I was always curious. I then left high school and got to Ohio State, and I was fortunate enough again to be around a strength coach that was from University of Nebraska. Dave Kennedy was his name. And again, this is back in '97, '98, '99, and this is when Nebraska was popping. Like they won, I believe, back-to-back national championships. He had came over from Nebraska. And so his understanding of performance relative to getting an athlete ready to take on the demands of football, it was a very simplistic approach. But looking back on it, that was another component where it spoke to me because it's something I readily understood. It's something that he didn't make it overly complicated. We did lunges, bench press, overhead press, and power cleans. Mm-hmm. That was it.

Pretty well-rounded. Yeah.

That was it.

Mm-hmm.

Everything else was optional. We had a sheet, there might have been 6 other things on the sheet that were completely optional. And so for me, I lived in that optional world with him. And again, it allowed me to explore and he was very willing to educate and, and, uh, for lack of a better term, took me under his wing and really gave me the fuller, broader understanding at a higher level from the coach, what he was able to provide me at the high school level. Now I'm at the collegiate level, it's, you know, Power Five, Ohio State University. Like now I'm really getting into the weeds on this stuff. I'm seeing guys become first round picks and you're seeing players become All-Americans. And I'm like, oh, this is the process. It's simple, but it's effective. Once again, I get to the National Football League and I had a strength coach that was a teacher. He was very, very open to allowing me to bring what I had learned from all of my years of being a quote unquote weight room guy. He didn't put me in a box. If there were things that I wanted to explore, if I wanted to do a single leg hang clean, go right ahead. Let's see what it looks like. I like it. I don't like it. If I wanted to go in and do a heavy bench press, you know, before practice, you know, Hey, let's see what it looks like. And he allowed me to explore. So going through my years of being an athlete, I was very, very lucky, or blessed, I would like to say that. I've been around people that were tremendous teachers. Not— well, everyone has a little bit of an ego, but they weren't egotistical to the point where they smothered my curiosity. They didn't allow me to explore. They didn't allow me to ask questions. They didn't welcome and invite engagement where seeing now a lot of the times with athletes, that's not the case anymore. So I grew up in an era with—

meaning that coaches are muting the input from there.

Yes, you know, and, and which is ironic considering the fact that I have my cell phone and kids have their cell phones and they have access to more information that they've ever had. And so we didn't grow up in an era where if a coach says we're going to do a box jump because of this Well, you know what? What does Google say? Right? So the kids are now able to cross-reference everything. So the fact that sometimes coaches take that path of stifling an athlete's curiosity is a little bit, you know, interesting to me. But overall, how did I get into this? I got into this because I've been very fortunate and blessed to have teachers that cultivated my curiosity.

There's a lot to unpack on that.

Sorry about that.

No, no, I love it. Working with more is better than less. When it comes to that particular topic, have you taken that same sort of methodology, the allowing your athletes to provide input or to even, I mean, dare I say, even counteract some of your teaching methodologies or press up against you, sandpaper, if you will? Is that something you've adopted as a coach?

No, no, no, I haven't. You know, I think Uh, I believe what I believe and I know what I know. Uh, and I would oftentimes challenge an athlete, uh, in today's day and age, I believe there's a lot of cognitive bias. And this isn't to say that I didn't grow up with it, but I would more so say that the age of development that I grew up in as I mentioned, there was less ego involved. It wasn't a do-as-I-say type of environment. Coaches were very interactive with athletes and would allow you to explore, allow you to grow, uh, not necessarily challenge them, but most certainly be curious. That was, that was encouraged. Today I don't see that as often, and so an athlete in my opinion, oftentimes is merely looking for answers that coincides with what they want to believe. So for example, you know, I'm really big in dealing with that demographic of athlete, the importance of shifting your relationship with food. And you know, a guy may say, well, uh, my coach said I need carbs. Who told you that? Well, the team nutritionist told me that I need to have carbs. Uh, what type of carbs are they referring to? Well, you know, I wake up in the morning, I have a bowl of granola, a bowl of oatmeal, and a smoothie. No, no, no, no, no, bro. No, no. What you want to do is have your cake and eat it too. So as it relates to the, the sandpaper aspect, yeah, there are components where a player has earned the right to have a dialogue with me. For example, there's a player here, matter of fact, here in Arizona, plays for the Cardinals, Kelvin Beachum. He's going into year 13 of his career. Yeah, that's 13 years of relationship. He knows his body more intimately than I do. But I also know Kelvin and I understand he's a very curious person. He's a very, very educated young man. Well, he's an old man now, but the moral of the story is there's conversations he can have with me that he's earned. But if you're a rookie, there is no conversation. It is do as I tell you to do. And that may seem a bit contradictory compared to how I was developed as a player, but it kind of goes back to the world and time that we live in. I am not gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe just because your nutritionist at such and such university told you to drink 2 smoothies a day. I'm not allowing that. And although that may taste good, it may make you feel good, my job in serving into your life and into your career is to get you to shift away from what you want to do that makes you happy and start leaning into the things that may or may not feel good in the moment, but there's going to be a return on that investment. And as you matriculate through your career, hey, you know what, LB, there's something I was thinking. There's something— hey, I was watching the Becoming 1% podcast and they had this guest on. He said this. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that in year 4, year 5, year 6, when you've got some skins on the wall. But when you're coming into this game and you have no freaking idea what it takes, you don't know what 3rd and 15 feels like against Warren Sapp or against an All-Pro. Don't talk to me about the fact that you want freaking smoothies for breakfast. So if I tell you no smoothies, it's no smoothies. Yeah, but if Kelvin Beecham comes to me and says, I'm in year 13, I've made more money than God at this point in my career, I've accomplished some, some key milestones that makes me feel good about my legacy and what I've accomplished in this league, and he tells me he wants a smoothie for breakfast, have two, my friend. You've now earned that right. But I don't get into the weeds with, um, some of these younger guys, uh, simply because again, I don't believe that the foundation in which their, their understanding is really as solid as many players in my— you know, I almost sound like the old man, but in my era and prior, I don't believe their foundation is as solid as ours was.

Well, that is, that is a fascinating subject right there. The difference between your start in the league and versus somebody who starts in the league right now. Why do you think that is? Why is there this level of perhaps extra green on the rookies that are coming in in 2023, '24, as opposed to— when did you start in the league? When was your first year?

Was in— 2002 was my first year.

Okay.

Uh, that's a tremendous question, and the, the simple answer is this: the, the value of maturity in terms of your roster isn't what it used to When I came into the league, my center, uh, well, I should say I was his guard, uh, he was in year 13. Oh, uh, there is a right tackle that was in year 8. The left tackle was in year 11. The left guard was in year 6. Uh, we had backups that were double-digit years. And many of those backups, at least one specific, uh, backup, I literally grew up in high school watching him play for the Browns before the Browns moved to Baltimore. And so here I am now sitting in a locker literally next to someone that from a physical standpoint I said, if he can do it, I can do it. If he can play in the NFL, I can play in the NFL. And here I am now in a locker next to him. So that, that understanding of that value of maturity, the veteran presence, it's not the same anymore. The league is as young as it's ever been. So you're coming into the league where, you know, a veteran is 3 years.

Mm-hmm.

What the hell do you know? Like, you know, so having that 13-year guy, it's so rare now. That guy that's in year 10, 11, 12 in the locker room that has, again, skins on the wall. There's something to be said about mentorship. And so without that mentorship, I think it's very difficult for young athletes to oftentimes get out of their own way. And what I've built over the years is really a third-party mentorship department because I knew where the league was going. I knew years ago when I sat in a meeting out in Hawaii, I used to be a member of the NFLPA. I was a rep for our club and I sat in a meeting and I heard— I'm not going to say his name, but I heard a veteran stand up and, and whine about the fact that young rookies were making so much money. And a couple of years later, you know, we end up with the rookie rate scale. And so now all of a sudden the thought process with that veteran was, well, if we pay rookies less, then us veterans are going to make more. Bullshit. What ended up happening was you became more of a premium. So we're going to get rid of you and get more and more rookies in because they're cheaper. So with that being said, we screwed ourselves. Ourselves. We screwed ourselves. We completely dismantled the value of a veteran from an economic standpoint. It costs too much to have you in the room now. So we're going to get rid of you and get 2 of him.

Yeah.

Simple mathematics. It's simple business economics at that point. Everyone, you know, you run a business. You understand when you look at your P&Ls, well, this is costing too much. I'm going to get rid of that. And it may be of value to you, but man, if I can get 2 more of these and 1 less of that and save a couple dollars here and there, you start making those type of moves. And what has happened is it's created a culture shift, uh, in many NFL locker rooms where they're just younger and younger and younger. And when you— with youth, we know what comes with youth.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's super interesting. So basically they're sacrificing experience, um, at the behest of budgets or whatever. So yeah, um, in, in your experience, how does parenting um, teachers, those type of roles play into the development of these young athletes? I think it's pivotal. Uh, there was a point in my business where, uh, you know, we recruit players. You have to go out and you got to find the guys that you want to work with and be a part of what you do. And I have found that, you know, certain demographics of households were a little bit more challenging to work with. You know, when it's just mom at home, it could be you're dealing with a different type of athlete. Uh, there's a kid, young man, a young man right now that, uh, we took this year, uh, out of Maryland by the name of Cory Bullock. And on film, he was not a good football player. There's a system that I go through in evaluating players, and he missed the mark in terms of the potential of having an NFL career. There are some prerequisites you have to have. There's some pillars you have to have in place. So with that said, You turn the film on, some of those blocks are missing. However, the kid reached out to me directly, and he reached out to other members of the staff. And I said, okay, there's a level of desire there. Maybe there's some awareness there that he knows that, hey, I need to get better. Well, we speak to mom and dad. Dad's a former Marine, mom's Coast Guard. So here's what I now know: I don't have to raise this young man. I can now bring this kid in and now focus on the big blocks, the things that matter. I can hit the ground running on the developmental side. I'm not having a conversation with him about being 5 minutes late. I'm saying, Big Dog, you 40 minutes early. Give me some time, you know? So all of a sudden you're able to get more out of the player because you're moving in a vertical direction. I'm not having conversations again about, you know, hitting the clubs and I'm not having conversations about, well, you're 30 minutes late and the importance of being punctual in the National Football League and you're not having those conversations. Now what you're pouring into that player are the things that he really needs to put together an NFL career. And lo and behold, I truly believe the kid's going to have an unbelievable NFL career. Wow. We're now about a week— oh, shit, 4 days. I want to age this conversation, but, you know, we're a few days away from the draft and the kid already has a job.

That's outstanding.

Already has a job.

I am noticing a very strong recurring theme going back to one of the first things you said at the episode, which was that you hand-select your players not just based on skill but based on character.

Yes.

And this coming up again, you know, the kid has two solid parents who have already built up his character.

Correct.

Do you think that's missing with a lot of other coaches? Do they not take the time to look into that? Character is not really something that HighLevel Sports seems to value as much as raw talent what happens on the 40, on the film.

Yeah.

Why is that?

Well, I don't know fully why that is, and I'm not sure if that's a universal sentiment with everyone. You know, if you look at the collegiate level, well, it's a little different now because it's becoming more professionalized. Yeah. There's a bit of a quotient. Uh, talent tolerance. There's a scale. You got talent and tolerance. You know, you're— the higher your talent quotient, the higher the tolerance. So it's just— it's what—

any names coming to mind right now, right?

It is what it is, you know. Uh, and I don't believe that that's a National Football League deal or sport deal in general.

More of a human—

that's life, you know. You know, they got You speak about just relationships, and you know, you're in a relationship and, you know, your significant other, there's some things that they provide to you that, you know, you haven't experienced before. So there's some tolerance that you're gonna have with them that you may not have with another person that you might have dated prior, because you know what, they don't bring to the table the talents that this person brings to the table. So your, your tolerance level starts to come down. Why do you breathe so loud? How do you talk so much? Why do you chew so loud? All of a sudden it's little things that set you off. But maybe he or she, you're like, you know what, they just make me so happy, but they do snore. But that's okay. You start to tolerate different things. And it's the same thing I feel that oftentimes happen in sport. Uh, but for me, where, as they say, where the rubber meets the road, it's how do you, you build a sustainable business. I'm not an NFL club. I'm not, uh, many of these mega, uh, performance centers that's backed by significant dollars. You know, I have to be always mindful of brand. What comes out of your building? What represents, uh, what we do? And does it represent who we are, the ethos of who we are? You know, The name of my company is AMDG Sports. Ad majorem Dei gloriam is Latin, to the greater glory of God. Well, you know what that means? I have to honor and I have to respond and I have to respect a much higher calling than a kid is going to be just a first round pick or how much money a player is going to make. I don't answer that. I don't— I'm not beholden to that. There's a much significant calling that I have to honor and I have to respect and I have to answer to. That's my board. Those are my key stakeholders, or that's my stakeholder. That's who I have to answer to. And I go back to what I said earlier, I want to be around people that I will allow to babysit my kids and be around my kids. And at the end of the day, you know, some people value that. And when you're a business like the National Football League or the NBA, uh, you know, certain storylines still makes your business successful. It feels good. People are engaged. It actually can be good for business. Controversy sometimes can be a little bit, a little bit healthy. Oh yeah, I want to go overboard, but some controversy is a little bit healthy. And I think as long as a guy, you know, you're going to run a 4.2 and you're going to catch a lot of passes, you know what, he was 15 minutes late to practice, it was one DUI.

I mean, it was like, it's okay, we can look past it.

Well, you know, he's got to put his cleats on, like, well, so did everybody else. So you start finding ways to excuse behavior. Uh, it also said that there's productive, it's okay.

It sets an unhealthy precedent as well, which is, I mean, it was a complaint even when I was a child, even prior to high school. I remember conversations that my dad, my uncles would have where they would say that we're allowing these athletes to do these things and behave this way. They are setting an example for people who aren't at where they're at, whether they want to or not. It's not healthy for us to be allowing this because they can do X, Y, and Z. And I, I resonate so much with what you are saying. The people that leave your care, whether or not you want them to or not, they are going to represent you. And especially with the demographic that you're with, because you're not gen pop, you're working— you are working with young men that will be in front of the camera, hopefully, for the next decade.

Yes.

And in front of the camera more than most human beings will ever experience in their life.

Correct.

That is huge. And taking a value in that, I— it resonates with me because I too do. Very private. Everything for us is intimate. It's one-on-one. I want to know that the people I'm with are going to represent me well when they leave.

Yes. There's a responsibility that I believe if you're going to be around, if you're going to serve in people's lives, be it through the training, be it therapy, whatever it may be that you do, if you're going to serve into people's lives, there's a responsibility that comes along with that. And for some in the industry, uh, that responsibility can go to the wayside, or the desire to make money, the desire to up your following, the desire for more, you know, clicks on the content, whatever it may be, that usurps that responsibility. And for some, that's okay, uh, and I believe that it makes it a bit more challenging, uh, for people like yourself or myself and others in the industry that have a genuine desire to do the right thing. I'm not the Red Cross, you know, I'll be honest with you. I'm in business to, to make money. That's what I'm in business to do. But at the end of the day, there's a way to do it. Like my father used to always say, you know, all money ain't good money, you know. So with that being said, I kind of live by that, that, you know, we turned down a kid that was going to be a first round pick. Good. We don't connect. That's okay. And we just have to sometimes play the long game, and that's just kind of how I built the business. And that's what, in my opinion, makes anything worth having sustainable. Anything worth having, it makes it truly sustainable at that point, uh, because anybody can go out and, you know, you can be a one-hit wonder. Well, you know, not anybody, but, you know, the, the sun, the moon, the stars, all the lines, you know, again, if You know, sometimes, you know, a blind squirrel's gonna find a nut sometimes. You know what they say, a broke clock is right twice a day. You know, so all of those things are all accurate in every industry, but you're still a broken clock. Yeah, you're still a blind squirrel. That's not to be like, you know, you know, I don't want to, you know, have to be PC. I don't want the Squirrel Coalition coming after me or something. But you're still a fly squirrel.

Yeah. Speaking, speaking to the rookies, speaking to the first-year guys, because you have had the unique opportunity to work with veterans, first years, and everybody in between. And on the topic of longevity, because this is a very important, um, this is very important whether you're in or out of the league. How exactly do you get the rookie to to understand what it takes to become the veteran. What does, what does that transition look like?

Oh, that is, man, that's good. Ah, it's ugly. It's ugly. And there's a bend, don't break reality that you have to embrace where that early phase, and I say early phase, meaning January, February, March, April leading up to the draft that you're really pouring into these guys. And there's so many cylinders or pillars that you have to focus on. You got the combine side of it. So the guys are worried about running a 40 and verticals and, and all those things you have to honor. You know, I may say to a kid, don't worry about the 40, don't worry about it, don't worry about your vertical. It's easy for me to say that, but I have to respect the fact that that this is important to them. So you got that vertical. You're still dealing with the uncertainty aspect of it. Uh, you know, am I going to get drafted? Am I not going to get drafted? Who likes me? Who doesn't like me? You know, you're dealing with the, the training component of it. It's a new way of training and this could be, it can be a bit challenging. It's a new location. There's new foods. There are many different areas that you're trying to serve into. So with all that said, You're just trying to build a stable enough foundation that when the player gets into the league, you have to get your ass kicked.

You have to.

I have to get that call from someone and have them say, you told me this was gonna happen. Happen. And now it validates everything that you're trying to do. You have to have that real-time, real-world experience where I say to you, you know what, man, you're going to get in business and someday you're going to get your teeth kicked in. No, no, no, no, no, no, my business plan is foolproof. It says this, this— no, no, right, right here in paragraph 4, look right here, 1A and 1B, it says it's never gonna fail. I'm gonna be in business 20 years. And I look at it and say, okay, all I'm telling you is prepare for that day where your business plan, you're gonna have to deviate from it. And going into business, no one can convince you otherwise until the day you look up and you're like, holy shit, this is not working out the way that I thought it was. Now you just learned the lesson. Now you understand the value of mentorship. Now you can say, maybe LeCharles Bentley is right. Maybe what he was telling me, I need to listen to. So now that early phases is, it's all about validating the things that you're trying to pour into the athlete. So you want them to bend, but you don't want them to break. And the breaking process is a little delicate for some. You know, you understand that some players have a broader bandwidth than others. And that they can manage a lot and some can manage very little. So that's a delicate balance.

Both physically and mentally.

And emotionally.

And emotionally. Right.

There's that component where you look at some of these guys, you think that, you know, on a scale out of 1 to 10, that every, every box is a 10. You know, some of the most insecure people that I've been around have been professional athletes. Isn't that the irony of that?

Yeah.

Some of the most insecure people I've ever been around are professional athletes. Some of the people that have the biggest struggles with their body image, professional athletes. Some of the biggest ones that have struggles with just their general confidence in having a conversation, a little bit socially awkward, professional athletes. And this, and I'm not speaking and saying I'm on the outside looking in. No, I'm speaking from experience and especially within this demographic of offensive linemen. Oh, you talk about childhood trauma. Uh, we're talking about a group that your entire life, for the most part, you haven't been the cool kid.

It's interesting.

Let's think about this for a second. Your entire life you've been the big kid that had the big feet. You couldn't get the cool shoes. You didn't get the girls in high school. Like, how many girls, young girls, are like, oh, I want the 330-pound fat guy? You're not, you're not typically going to be the prom king. You're not going to be in that demographic. It's the quarterback, it's the wide receiver, it's all these other positions. You're the cool guys. You're not the one that's in that demographic. So you grow up with a little bit of, um, uh, an identity crisis. You don't really know who you are. You just know that you're bigger, stronger than the other people around you, right? But the core of who you are, there's no confidence in that. There's no confidence in being the kid with a size 17 shoe. There's no confidence being built. Yeah, you, you may, you feel good about yourself, Jimmy, and all that type of bull, but when you're looking around and the kid that wears a size 10 and has a 40-inch vertical and is the prom king, that's what we all aspire to be for the most part, right? Especially at this age, right?

At a young age, yes.

We're all aspiring to be the cool kid. The offensive lineman, you're not the cool kid. So with that being said, you spend a lot of time as an offensive lineman fighting insecurities, fighting the lack that you don't have a lot of true confidence. Even when you get down to just the physiology of Many offensive linemen, they lean more to being more physiologically based, more like a woman than you are a man. Just from the testosterone aspect of it, you don't have a lot of like high testosterone guys. Your body type, that's not what you are. So you don't wake up in the world and put on your Iron Man suit. You don't see yourself as Wolverine. You're just the big guy, the, the she-dog. You're the protector. Wow. And that's the, that's the mindset you, you, you, you, you live your life with. So with all that said, understanding there's so much nuance in the player development side within this demographic. If you're talking about a wide receiver, some of those guys you got to rein back in. Yeah, some of the guys you got to rein them back.

Every one of them fancies themselves as Iron Man.

Yeah, right, everyone. Oh yeah, you gotta rein them back I'll get in a little bit, but this demographic, even the ones that, you know, that they put on the front like they're the alpha, many just don't have that in them, and that's okay. But it's the capacity to develop it, but having the humility to acknowledge, I'm not him, as the kids say, I'm not him, but I want to be him. So now there's a process to that, and often with, with the whole rookie development aspect of You don't want to see a kid get broken. You don't want to see an offensive line coach beat a dude up. You don't want to see the locker room beat a guy up. You want to see a guy be able to come in, take his lumps because you have to. You have to take your lumps. You got to get bull rushed to sleep. You got to give up a sack or 2 or 3. You got to go through that process. So now you can take a step back and say, I need mentorship. I need someone that can pour into me and provide those things and those tools and skills that I don't have right now. And that's sort of the, the lane that I live in.

Yes.

And on top of everything you just said, you've got these, these young athletes, these certain type of athletes, offensive linemen now walking into an environment where they have all the money they could ever wish for, women getting thrown at them, attention.

So I'm assuming you have to also balance that into the equation as well.

Distraction.

So, yeah.

You know, if you go into many, I will say mostly all, uh, NFL locker rooms, the offensive linemen have the best looking wives. Hmm. Huh.

Interesting. Interesting. Yeah.

It's not because they got the Tom Brady haircut. It's not because they got the washboard abs. It's because many, many times they're making up for lost time. Uh-huh. You're trying to make up for lost time. Now you're the man. Now you got the nice car. Now you got the cool clothes. Now you got the cool shoes. Now you have all these things that validate you.

Yeah.

Now you feel good about yourself and now you got the nice eye candy. You got all these things that make you feel like you've made it because for so long you've been a second-class citizen in the athletic realm. You've been a second-class citizen, you know. And so now all of a sudden you get into this space where I'm the man. And this is where in this demographic especially, you mess up because now you're trying to make up for lost time. And to your point, you get distracted. It's not about the women, it's not about the car, it's not about this. There's a time and a place for all of that stuff, but when you're trying to cobble together a career, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's about becoming a dog. That's what it's about. Hey, you know what? You are insecure. Let's own that. You don't have the confidence you need to play at this level. Let's own that. Now let's take ownership of that and start asking the right questions. How do I get it? I was talking to a kid yesterday, and man, you know, they don't know me. They, they, they— I'm like, I'm this, you don't know where I'm from. And I'm just sitting there saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know how many times I've heard this? They don't know who I am. That's when everyone that goes to prison— I'm the— I'm him, and then you're braiding hair the next week.

That's the greatest analogy I've ever heard.

You're braiding hair the next week. You know, you got the little shea butter on your hands.

Holding on to some pockets.

The whole thing. But you go in and you believe that you're going to be him. But at the end of the day, you're a hair braider. So with that being said, you hear this kid talking about, oh, I'm this, I'm that, I'm this and that. I said, man, you are going to get your teeth kicked in, and deservedly so. But it's how we respond to that, and that's just that bravado. You don't even believe what you're saying. You don't believe what you're saying. Now, you might fool some, but you're not fooling me. No, because again, leadership, veteran, I've been there. Yeah, I know what it feels like. My rookie season, I'm on the sideline, we're playing Tampa Bay. I didn't want to go into the game. I didn't want to go into the game. I looked across the sideline and I see Warren Sapp and I'm like, you know what? I think I'm okay. Maybe I'll try this again next week. I had my signing bonus check in my book bag. In my book bag in the locker room. Hadn't deposited yet. And I said to myself, self, I went to a good school. You know, I'm smart, I can have a good life, I don't need this stress in my life at this point, I can give this money back.

Warren Sapp was an animal, right?

And I'm sitting here watching the clock kick down and I'm like, you know, this is about to get real. And this is, you know, meaning this, I'm speaking to myself in third person because I always— the old me, he's a dead person, he doesn't really exist anymore. Um, But that older version of myself, or the younger version of myself, he would talk just like this kid was talking.

They don't know me. They don't know what I'm about to do.

My story, you don't know what I'm about. On that sideline, I was the hair braider. I was ready to braid Warren Sapp's hair if he asked me nicely enough. If he asked me nicely enough, I'm like, well, you know, it's all right, that long, it ain't gonna take me that long to do it. Right. So, so with that being said, but I go through that process, I go through that process, I have that experience and my mentors at that time, I was able to come to the sideline and I was able to come to them after the games in the following weeks and really lean into their knowledge. Now all of a sudden it's okay, guys, this is what this feels like. Now I need, I need you. Now I can lean on them. And that's what we try to provide to players. Yeah, I think that every player, you know, just forget football for a second. We all need that in life. Absolutely. Business, most certainly we need it.

Oh, most certainly.

We all need it.

Everything in our culture today seems to have shifted away from the value of humility, especially humility in the face of new trials or adversity. Everything seems to be geared toward you either know nothing, or all of a sudden, magically, you're, you know, everything and everything you see, because again, that's, and I think a lot of it is social media. I think this is one particular area that social media does not help the striving entrepreneur, the rookie in his first season. You see the guy who just made the incredible play, he's, his highlight reel, that's all you see on his Instagram is highlight reel after highlight reel, and everything it took to get from his first game, braiding hair on the sidelines, to that highlight reel 2 and a half years later, 3 and a half years later. That's all left up to interpretation. And so it's— I just think it's so important that coaches, that guys like you are bringing these guys and, and leveling with them. Like, look, you need to understand, you're not getting your highlight reel this year. You're not— you're not there yet, right? What you need to have is humility.

There's an appreciation for the process, and that's what's lost.

Absolutely.

Appreciation for process, and that's gone a bit, uh, to the wayside because to your point, you know, your life is a highlight reel on social media.

I know, I know.

It's a freaking highlight reel. You know, I'm gonna probably post some video of me being here, like, oh my God, this is amazing, this is so cool, right? But I'm not gonna post the fact that when I left the, the Phoenix airport, uh, the hotel I was staying at— there's two of them in this area and I went to the wrong one and I spent $80 on an Uber going to the wrong freaking hotel. I'm not posting that on my story, right?

Right.

Yeah, yeah, complete idiot. When all I had to do was open my email and say, oh, that's it. But the sad part about it was I remember sitting in the Uber saying to myself, maybe I should check my email. Nah, I got it, I'm right. You're right. I was wrong as two left shoes. And again, I'm not gonna post that, but I'm going to post all the highlights, uh, of the day. And that's what people tend to gravitate towards, are the things that make them feel good. And I just— I'm— I've always been— I think as I've gotten older, I believe in more and more, um, not to, you know, sound like David Goggins or anybody. I, I don't want to go—

oh, you know, we love Goggins.

We love you, baby. Yeah, I don't want to go into that, that lane. But, uh, to get where you want to go, sometimes you got to go and you got to do the hard things. And you have to be willing to embrace the hard things, uh, in life. And what social media oftentimes shows us is the outcome. You know, it's, it's this, or you're, you're— I like You know, I like to watch cooking things on social media and they're baking a cake and it's, oh, just 6 simple ingredients and then voilà, look what you got.

And it's done.

Yeah, it's done in seconds.

Yeah.

They're like, man, my kitchen's going to be a mess. I got to wash up these dishes. There's going to be flour all over the dog and myself and things are going to get messy. They don't show you that. And it's, you know, go back to the old days when you watch cooking shows on TV. The prep process. They already got the bowl of salt, the bowl of garlic, the bowl of pepper, just swish, swish, swish, swish, and it just all goes, right? They don't show you the aftermath of it. And oftentimes, again, where you just, you gotta go through the hard things. And I just think there's, there's value in that. And oh yeah, when you get good at it and you start to embrace it a little bit, you know, it's like anything else You know, you love ice cream, you eat it enough, you get addicted to it, right? And anything else. And you kind of go through this hard part of embracing and accepting this is not going to be easy, but it's going to be worthwhile. And over a period of time, as you really commit yourself to it, you look forward to it. Absolutely. I think that's the challenge.

LeCharles Bentley, I have a quick question. Do you advise any of your athletes on how to deal with social media? Because your era never had to deal with that. And I feel like social media is basically crippling the potential dogs out there to make something of themselves?

Oh, you preaching, man. I see you, uh, Silent Assassin over there.

That's a great, great question.

I like what you said there about the impact. It's crippling some of the dogs out there, and I totally agree with you. Do I advise my athletes? Nope, because, uh Again, here's what I found. You don't want to be the old guy in a club, you know.

Yeah.

And what I've tried to do myself is become more efficient at managing it on my own. And it's new to me, right? And I didn't grow up with it, to your point. So the impact— I have a different baseline. I can feel myself moving away some— away from some of my own foundational principles and beliefs, because now it's like the social media world has taken over your mind, and it's like, oh, this isn't supposed to— think you're supposed to feel this way.

That's not reality.

It's not reality. And you kind of get back to where you're supposed to be. Well, young athletes and young folks in general, because you grew up with it, you only know one thing.

That is the normal.

That is the normal.

It's abnormal to not have social media.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

With With that, with that, uh, in mind, I try to advise on what to avoid. And when you start to feel this, here's where you need to be mindful. When you start to think this about yourself, here's where you need to be mindful. And often, I often just tell some of the guys to delete it, uh, especially this time of year when you're kind of going through that draft process.

Oh, for sure.

And, you know, it blows my mind how many, uh, players take credence in it. They really— there's a different relationship they have with it. There's a valuation point. So you got all these people on social— let's just use Twitter, for example, or X, whatever you want to call it, uh, that are scouts or analysis experts or some sort offensive line guru or sports guru, and they grade players and they tell a player, oh, great block right here by Jimmy. And then Jimmy responds to it, oh, thank you, dot dot dash dash 2341 account. And it's like, man, you just validated that dude. You don't know who he is, you don't understand what his credentials are, you just made him real. And so now when he comes back 2 weeks later and he says, horrible job by you, now you don't want to respond? Mm-hmm. No, no, no, what he just said to you now, 2 weeks ago it was real, but now that he's dogging you it's not real anymore? No, it's real to the fact that he just picked up 100 followers because you validated him 2 weeks ago. Now because he's dogging you, now you don't want to pay attention? Oh, now you want to get quiet? Too late at that point. And so that aspect of it, you try to get players to understand it doesn't exist. Mm-hmm. Your good performance, your bad performance, it doesn't exist. There's a room that you have to go in with your mentors, leadership, your team, your coaches. That's the only room that matters. But when you lend your value to social media and the voices on social media, you are done. You're done. Because now your performance does this the same way the algorithm does this. It's up, it's down, it's up, it's down. Oh yeah, you're good this week, you're horrible this week. Good play, good job on this play, bad job on this play. And these kids lean into that stuff. And again, I just kind of go back to the point of what's fascinating to me is you guys remember you used to have— it used to, used to have to have credentials. There had to be something about you that made your voice worth listening to. Yep. You just need a social media account now.

Yeah. Oh yeah, you know, it's a nightmare, really.

Draft Guru.

Yeah.

Okay, well, how many years have you been a, a scout? And what teams you scout for? Oh no, I've never been on a club. I know. You've been a GM? No, never been a GM. You ever been in a draft meeting? No, I've never been to draft Yeah, you played fantasy football. But I got a fantasy football team, you know, I won 2 championships in that. And they sit here and they grade players, they evaluate them, they assess them, and then these players come along and it's, oh, it's @DraftGuru, he said something good about me, let me repost it, let me believe it. And I think that that's something that, to your point again, you know, you are, uh, You're removing the value of what it used to be to mean to get at this level of your profession. To become, you know, the CEO of Apple, there's some shit you gotta deal with. There's some things you gotta go through. You're not gonna be on social media listening to some clown say, well, he's not good at this, he's not good at that. What company have you managed before? They don't listen to that stuff. But we do, which is just mind-blowing considering, again, these guys, you see them in person and they look like demigods and you say, man, this guy's got it all figured out. And oftentimes they don't. No, that's okay.

And it expands so much further than just high-level athletics, so much more than football. Social media has truly impacted every single industry that we operate as human beings. It's everywhere. And it's inside of— I can speak very objectively about this because we're in fitness. I mean, inside of just fitness in general, you have, you have now a culture of people that are editing their photos. They are, they are photoshopping their pictures. They are giving advice they are not qualified to give. They are scamming people. We had, we had, we had a podcast a few weeks ago with Paige Ballerbusters. And they basically They're awesome because they go around the internet and they find these people that are scamming people and they expose them. There are so many of them out there. It's really disturbing. Since— truly, since that episode, I've looked at the internet differently. Like, I have— yes, I have a very, very— I wouldn't use the word pessimistic, but a very, very realistic approach to just about everything that everyone posts now. It's— you just realize how much smoke and mirrors is involved in this and how very, very few real people there are out there in every industry. But fitness is a really, really bad one. Fitness has been attacked by this, by social media. And to your point, I mean, even, even less than people who don't even say things, half these people— and I'm not going to make this about this— but half these girls just got a fat ass. And so that's it. They got 6 million followers. They can get a sponsorship from Gymshark. They can make 10, $10,000 a week.

It's—

and that is not— I just don't, I don't see how that helps with the rest of the world because what it's doing is creating a culture, or shall we say, a subculture of disappointment. Everyone looks at that, the— and a lot of the young ladies, they look at that and they don't realize, like we know, oh, she probably photoshopped that. She's gonna probably end up on Baller Busters here in the next 6 weeks. I guarantee it. They see that and they go, man, she's got— I mean, she's making— she's a Gymshark athlete. She's definitely making 5 grand a week. There's no way I could look like her, train like her, make money like her, nothing. And as a result, everyone becomes that insecure offensive lineman.

100%. In a strange way, that kind of excites me.

Does it?

Yeah, it sort of excites me because for someone like yourself and myself and others and many others in the industry, um, there's always a place for us.

Yes, there is.

There's always a home. Authentic. Authentic. And authentic never goes out of style. Amen. You know, that's the one thing that I feel that people like yourself and again others in the industry that are authentic, you know, uh, you think about someone like Louis Simmons Yeah, God rest his soul. Um, but it's genuine, it's authentic, and here we are still talking about Louie. We're still, uh, practicing what he has, his methodology of believing in it, and it just, it is what it is. It never goes out of style. Uh, but these people, yeah, there's a windfall of cash that comes along with it for a little bit, but at some point you always sink back to the basement of irrelevancy, and it's just a matter of time. Yeah, I think everything happens on a continuum, you know, there's— it's a cycle. And so the cycle is high for the others. Yeah, it's a high tide, uh, but that tide is going to come back down. And people like ourselves, there's a home, there's a place, there will always be a home base for us. And this is why you'll look up and You know, when I walk around here, I see investment. I see skin in the game. Say the word again. Skin in the game. Whereas the influencer, you have no skin in the game. You go to Planet Fitness, you set your little camera up, you do your videos, you pay your little $10 a month and you get your $10 grand a week, whatever it might be. There's no skin in the game. Yeah, I look here, I see money spent, I see time which you can never get back. You can always get back your money, you can't get back your time. Amen. This thing behind me just told me that this thing— well, I call it a thing, it's a Wolverine. I don't know what the hell this is, right? But I see this and I see artistry, number one. Then I also see a master at a craft, number two. And that never goes out of style. And I see time. You took time to do this. This deal over here, the Iron Man— there's just excellence all around me.

Thank you.

All the paintings, and there's excellence. Excellence never gets old. And the thing again, where I go back to, is when you got skin in the game, people at some point in time— the tide being high right now People may not look at this and really understand the level of investment this takes on a personal economic— there's this investment here. You can run this show out of, you know, Planet Fitness or whatever you go. You can find somewhere to do this. But this setup itself, this is time. This is investment.

Yes, it is.

You're not going anywhere.

No, no. You live here.

Yeah.

Oh, I can never sell this house.

So, so you're invested in this thing. You're in it for the long haul.

Yes.

And the right people will see that.

And that's an area where I think social media is awesome. Interconnecting. This conversation is the result of social media. And that's why it's very tricky and very important to distinguish between both the positive— you know, it's a two-sided sword, the yin and the yang. You've got the potential to scam people, to hurt people, to create a false reputation, to ride that high tide as long as you can, make all the money you can, and then who cares about everybody who came along the way? Or you can use it to network. You can use it to build your brand in an organic and healthy way. You can make these type of relations. We, we always say that podcasting is free mentorship. Podcasting is the ability to meet and learn and conversate and dialogue with people. Who are so far ahead of where you're at.

That's a great point.

And that to me is invaluable. This is how I learn. I've never been a huge reader. I learn from people who speak into my life, who talk with me. This to me is how I flex that muscle. And social media allows us to propel that. So there is certainly value to even to players in having that, in, in saying, look, you know, wherever I go, I may, I may change teams 6 times in my career. I can always use my social media as an informal resume. People can see what I'm doing and they can see that I've got skin in the game. You know, I got a video of me tearing my ACL and they'll ask you like, I am vested in this craft. So there's both sides. And I do see that on the topic of mentorship though, and specifically your mentorship, because this is something I wanted to make sure I got out in this podcast. Who have you been inspired by? Who is— who are the people? Let's just pick one or two that have shown you the way the most throughout your career.

If you look at it from a football standpoint or a performance standpoint, which one?

Good distinction. Let's do one from each.

Okay. If I go from— I'll work backwards. So if I go from performance and in this world specifically. Oh boy, you know, I have to go with, uh, Ian Danning, who in my home—

can you pull up PEP, buddy?

Yeah. In my humble opinion, Ian is— yeah, man, it just is what it is. I, I believe he is the most brilliant performance coach, uh, outside of Dan Path. He's another— I'll get to him in a second. But from the performance side and just his holistic understanding of the body and, and, uh, the chemistry of what's happening inside of you and inside of the game inside of sport and his ability to bring it all together, I don't believe there's anyone better. No, I just don't. Now, with that said, I may not like Ian as a person, and let me just be clear here, I think that oftentimes in this space we have to be combative, you know. I don't like that guy, so anything that he says is irrelevant to me. You're an idiot. Uh-huh. If you believe that. Oh yeah, I don't believe that the industry has to be siloed to the point where you're not able to recognize the greatness of an individual. Now, whether or not you honor that person as a person is something different, and I don't think that that has to be controversial. Uh, Ian Danny And I will say it again, he is, in my humble opinion, the foremost authority when it comes down to athletic development. I've learned so much from that man. And I would go a step further, there are things that he's done, we've done together that, you know, going through my knee injury and things that I experienced, you know, he opened my eyes to a whole new realm of of performance development. And I would make the, uh, the assertion easily, it's not even an argument, that without his influence on my health, that, uh, I wouldn't be where I'm at today in terms of my just physical ability to get around and play with my kids and just be a normal human being, a functional human being.

Yeah.

Uh, so I'm forever indebted to Ian in that regard. Period. Now there are other components that I won't get into that I may not always jive with him on a personal level.

Yes.

But it does not negate what that man's influence is in the industry, period. Now outside of them, uh, Dan Paff is another one that—

how do you spell his name? He's one I'm not familiar with. Dan, D-A-N-P-A-F-F. Let's take a look at See if I recognize him.

P— there you go, right there.

First one?

Yep, first one.

Okay, so he's a private.

He's a private.

Gotcha, gotcha.

He's gonna be a part of Altus. Uh, okay, they were out here in Arizona for a while, and I believe they're down in Arizona right now. He's part of the whole Stuart McMillan crew and whatnot. But Dan Paff is another one that, uh, I've connected to on a very personal level, and a significant mentor in just understanding the biomechanics of how the body works. Uh, outside of myself and my inherent desire to get my own physical health back, as I kind of began to transition and realize that I'm probably never going to play football again, at least I don't have the desire to play football again. Now I just want to just— how can I develop athletes? Dan's influence and his mentorship and his willingness to always pick up the, answer the phone and have a conversation, you know, again, second to none. Obviously, you know, through Ian again, you know, meeting and having conversations with people like Charles Poliquin, being at Ohio State, you know, and the Westside Barbell and everything that they represent, having an opportunity to train and be under Louis' mentorship prior to his passing. You know, so many times you sit out in Columbus and you go to Bob Evans with him. I can't stand Bob Evans. Uh, that's the restaurant, local restaurant in Ohio, breakfast spot. It's, uh, that was like his de facto meeting room. Yeah, bring people in and, you know, have conversations and teach. He was a teacher. Uh, so in terms of that, you know, I've had a tremendous— outside of the people I mentioned from high school through college, I've had a tremendous foundation of some very high-level thinkers in the game. Another was Derek Wutzke. Derek is another guy that again, you know, transitioning and his manual therapy that he provided for me for a while, his training, his mentorship, you know, just the wisdom of understanding how to open a business, start a business, kind of get it going. Even just the ability to stay adaptable incredible. Someone like Derek himself, you know, I met him when I was with the Cleveland Browns. Uh, he was one of the assistant coaches with the Browns, and now I believe he's a Canadian Mountie.

Get out of here, really?

That's awesome.

That's great. He looks like he'd be a Canadian Mountie.

Look at him. So, uh, so, and his—

and you say his part, his contribution to your journey was also business mindset related? Business mindset. And that is something That is definitely something to touch on as well, because the uniqueness of your situation and how you've decided to fashion your business and your branding is, is based on you, is based on your private soul. As your own CEO, as your own company, you have to wear a lot of different hats. And that's what's very interesting. And I find a lot of coaches fall short of as well. They don't recognize— if they do, in fact, want to— I mean, most trainers would say, yeah, I want to open a gym. Yeah, okay, great. Do you have any idea what it's going to actually take to pull that off? No, most of them really don't, right? And they're going to need to understand, you're going to have to find mentors that are outside of your exercise physiologists. You need somebody who's going to understand how to run a business.

And I feel that at times it's the, the inverse. People get so caught again, social media you get caught up in the branding and it looks easy. Um, no, it's not. Uh, I was fortunate that I was in a high-level master's class with some very high-level influential thinkers and thought leaders that, uh, were in— initially were sent into my life to help me based on what I thought they were helping me do, which was to get healthy and go back and play football. That's what I thought that they were sent to do. But no, they were there to teach me, to prepare me for what was coming up next. So I was able to kind of go through this, this, this backwards process, which I think is the, the right process. You have to learn first. You can pretend to know something on social media.

Yeah.

But when you're engaging with an athlete and, you know, your product doesn't stand the test of time, it tells me you don't know what you're doing. Yeah. And that to me is the ultimate telltale sign of what type of coach you are. Not your Instagram following, not your likes, not the number of tweets and all your engagement. That means nothing. If you go to PEP's website or PEP's Twitter, it's not going to get a lot of engagement. They're going to have like— they're going to have a million followers.

He just started his— he just started less than like 6 months ago. Yes, it's—

yeah, you're not gonna have a million followers and all these things, but the knowledge and the production of what's coming out of there, yeah, yeah. And it's not gonna— none.

Yes, your name and his name are the two that I reference if the question is ever posed to me, who is somebody that I should look into that maybe I don't know from? So I tell them like, yeah, you need to look at these, these two guys. No one has any idea who these guys are. And these are two of the most brilliant minds that are in this game. Truthfully, man, you could have a whole podcast just on James Harrison alone.

Talk about psyche, mentality. There you go, right there.

That guy, Debo Tank, bro. I mean, look, I was with Ian for 4 years. And I've never seen anybody come through like that, man.

Is he different?

James Harrison is different. Different.

He's different. And what I respect about James is it's really a lifestyle for him. It doesn't stop. He never turns that off. It doesn't stop.

I remember. And it's, it's so funny how, because I never played ball. I never played. We went, I went to a little Christian school, no football program, but I loved exercise physiology. So obviously getting in with Ian, It is so funny how looking back in your life, there are times when you're like, holy shit, did I not appreciate the situation I was in, right?

At all, right?

I'm in there with Ryan Clark. Yeah, James Harrison, Tim Tebow. And at the time I'm like, yeah, I'm training some guy named James Harrison. He was like there to this day. And I remember like, like my friends be like, whoa, hold on, hold on. Yeah, James Harrison. You saw James? Yeah, yeah, saw him.

Yeah, exactly. Right, right. And so with that said, Ian, man, uh, I was able to get a, a tremendous foundation, uh, set. And so it's now what do you do with that? And I spent a lot of time just focusing on, you know what, I want to turn this knowledge into something applicable, like the application of it. And the application of it is what type of cake are you gonna bake? How do your brownies taste? Or your athletes, how are they performing? You know, what's the longevity? Like, what type of people are you producing? And that's when I kind of knew that I had something early on when I opened my business in Cleveland. Yeah. I knew I had something. And once I kind of knew that, you know, there are some things that I can lean heavily into, some cornerstone pieces that I had. Let me kind of take a step back if you don't mind. Yeah. You know, being a former athlete, athlete. I believe in this space again, there isn't a lot of respect for former athletes. You know, I think that the nerdism in this space usurps the voice of the former athlete. And when I use nerdism, everybody, you know, doctor this, PhD this, that, that, that. Everybody's so freaking smart or pretends to be so freaking smart.

You're so right.

You know I'm telling the truth, man.

Yes, yes.

It really, It really forced me into a place where I refuse to speak through a face mask. I refuse to be the former player that just spoke through a face mask because I played, therefore I know. You don't know shit. You don't know shit. And I believe that's a mistake that so many former players make. We leave the game. Yes, we have tactical knowledge. We have tactical knowledge— how to block, who to block, when to block. There's tactical knowledge. But when you start talking about the development of a person, the development of athlete, we're not teachers. And I would even say that the better the player that you are, the further you are away from being a teacher, because you assume, very similar to myself early on in this process, that this is easy. No, it's easy for you, right? It's not easy for everyone else.

Yes.

So what you have to be able to do is discern between what's easy for you and what's teachable. What can you teach? There are some things that I did as a player. I can't coach it. I can't coach it. There are things that other players were able to do. They were like a James Harrison. Here's what James Harrison can't do. He can teach you how to pass rush. He can probably help you get stronger. There are some things about the defensive side of the ball that he's gonna know schematically. Be here, be there, be here, be there. He can give you that. But what he can't teach you is that dog, that dog that makes James Harrison who he is. Yeah, he can't give you that. Either you got it or you don't. There are some pieces that he's going to be able to, to, to, to pour into you. There's some confidence he may be able to to instill. But what makes him who he is, is that dog, man.

He had fight unlike anything I've ever seen, and you can't teach that.

And what that dog does for James— his pass rush is going to be a little different, his ability to drop into coverage, his willingness to study the game is going to be a little bit different. And so with that being said, with someone like James, if he ever were to get into coaching, he has to understand that very similar to myself That thing that makes you who you are, I can't give that to you. But there are some nuances that I can teach you. There are some components, some foundational principles that I can pour into a player. And so with that, I refuse to be the player that spoke through a freaking face mask. I get tired of hearing, well, Coach so-and-so taught me this. Coach so-and-so taught me that. Did he really? Did he really, Mr. Hall of Famer? Did he really? How are you completely dismissing when the sperm met the egg, all 6, 7, 330 of you that runs a 4.9 was formed? Now someone can come along and provide you some, some tools and, and help you in that regard, but they didn't make you who you were. And so when you leave the game, there's often a willingness or an unwillingness for players to really take a step back and explore. Mm-hmm. What makes you who you are? Mm-hmm. I promise you it wasn't that coach. I promise you it wasn't just the strength coach. There's some components about you that made you who you are. And what you gotta do is get away from football. Get away from your respective sport. Get away from it. That's what I had to do. When I talk about Dan Paff, he's an Olympics, Olympic sports, that's what he, that's his world. Ian Danny, you know, he's a former bobsledder. He's an Olympian. Stu McMillan, it's all Olympic athletes. I had to get away from football because football is oftentimes limiting. It's a limiting world. For myself medically. I couldn't use just ice and stem to get better. I wouldn't have a leg if I just trusted all of my rehab to the team. Here, I'm gonna do a lot of ice, a little stem, here's the hydrocollator, heat pad, everything's gonna be okay. No, bro, this is not gonna be okay. I had to expand my knowledge base and get around some people that was the kids say again about that life.

Oh yeah.

Explore.

Yeah.

So as I kind of matriculated through, I took the face mask off because I had to. I couldn't play football, so I had no use for a face mask and really had to discern who am I? What made me who I was as a player? And now I had to be able to learn how to teach. And so as I kind of gone through, man, I did the CSCS stuff, the CISSN for sports nutrition. You know, I even enrolled into seminary, man, for Christian counseling. And there's so many components that I wanted to pull. And it's sad now that I look back on it, but it was that social media feed going through my mind. I had to validate myself. Sure. Yeah. You know, it wasn't my Pro Bowls that was going to make me. It wasn't my success. I had to validate my existence in this space. And I feel that's partly necessary because the people that are the godfathers in this space, they went through it.

Yeah.

Louie went through it when he broke his back.

Yeah.

He went through it. Ian went through it. Everyone's gone through it. You got to kiss the ring at some point and remove what it is that made you who you were. And now you have to honor the process. You have to now honor the foundational principles. And once I was able to now validate myself in this space, you know, I found myself early on, you know, you're talking like a nerd, as I call it. And I don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone that uses big words and whatnot, you know, the physiological system of the— whatever. If that makes you happy, I found myself falling into that trap.

But I tell you who it doesn't make happy is your clients. Your clients, almost certainly. Bingo!

They don't give a damn.

No, they want a 5th grade explanation on what it is they're dealing with and how you're going to fix it.

Experts simplify. Absolutely. Realize that that's the meat and potatoes of the industry. Yeah, is when you can take high-level complex material and reduce it down. I was a mentor of mine, he's the associate after the director of New Mexico State University, said this to me. He said, if you can speak to 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, you're a good speaker.

I love that.

8 to 80.

That's a brilliant way of putting it.

And so now at that point, taking high-level material, reducing it down, and not trying to prove to you, look at me, look what I know. People don't care what you know. It's how can you make them better? How can you serve and pour into their life? And that's where I try to live. And it's taken some iterations of myself.

It's something I speak to when I hear someone's going through a kines program or in their undergrad, anything like that. I tell them like, well, uh, don't do what I did. Don't sleep through sports psychology. Listen to what they're going to tell you in there. And, and especially if they talk about the, you know, the, the process of relating to your clients, the process of understanding that your clients have bad days and good days just like you do. They come in and you're going to have to understand how to chameleon as you go from client to client.

Yes.

Client A is going to come in, maybe he had an awesome morning. He's already got his caffeine, he's ready to go. He's jacked. He wants the cheerleader, you got to get behind him and push his ass as hard as you can. And then, and in the case of, in the case of somebody like me, where my demographic is all over the place, you know what I mean? I've got, I got women in their 60s, high school athletes. It's a challenge because it's It's up here, down here, right here in the middle, back up and down. And you have to understand that there are so many variables. Even when you learn how to teach, you have to learn to adapt your teaching based on the person you're working with.

I had a— I still do. He's one of my employees. I'm gonna come at him a little bit right here because I love him and he knows I love him. His name is CJ Davis. He's a former player and CJ is a world-class teacher. He's outstanding, and he was one of my first clients. Uh, long story short with him, he went back to school, he got a master's in kinesiology. Good friend. And he went through that process of refusing to speak through the face mask, right? And so we were talking one day, and, uh, he starts throwing these big words at me, and he was, you know, we're gonna, you know, tissue prep that. I said, tissue prep? What? I said, CJ, don't talk to me like that, man. And he's, uh, okay, okay, okay, my bad, my bad. I say, just, just let's be us, right? We can be us. Now, if we're doing a presentation, it's a seminar, maybe there's a time— I love that word chameleon. You have to know how to speak to your audience, right? Uh, if this podcast— and, you know, I didn't have Wolverine and Iron Man behind me and and what is this, uh, Hulk, right? You know, maybe the conversation will be a little bit different, and that's not to demean the platform. It's I can understand the audience is going to be a little bit different than if I were at Altice doing a presentation with that particular group. Now, I've learned and I've gotten totally comfortable with this. There are certain rooms I don't want to go in.

That's 100% true.

Yeah, there are certain people I don't want to be around, and there's certain rooms I don't want to go in, uh, because at times I found in this space, in this space, that, um, if you don't have a PhD after your name, no one cares. Yeah, no one respects who you are. No one respects your work. They'll see your value because you're not Dr. So-and-So. Oh, you didn't train 15 Olympians the way that I did. I don't give a damn. I live in my space and I've become very comfortable with what I do and how I do it. And I'm, hey, I'm not for everybody.

And you don't have to be.

I don't have to be. This isn't for everybody. No. But sure thing. Yeah. I think it's really cool.

Thanks, buddy. You have to realize that too in any business venture, but especially especially in ours, you have to realize that you're only going to probably appeal to what, 4% of your audience? I mean, if that, the, the audience is so large. This is where a lot of times you'll find the difference between a professional who has the mindset of collaboration as opposed to confrontation or polarization. Yes, exactly. And we meet people on both sides of that spectrum. The people who are polarizing and have that confrontation mindset want to use big words. Words. I'm like you. I'm like, I don't really feel the need to talk with you because I feel like you're trying to get me.

Like, you're going to try to guess.

Like, this is not a— this is not the you win, I don't need you to try to— yes, exactly. We're not on here for that. I like, like I talked about, I like learning. I like collaborating. I like being in a room with somebody who maybe I know for a fact— I know for a fact that almost every single guest that comes in here is probably smarter than me.

Probably. But I love that.

To me, I find commonality in people that are smarter with than me, because usually I know that person is going to speak to me at the level they realize they can read the room. That's a very, very misunderstood, and I think it's a quality that's lacking a lot of times, being able to read your audience.

In this space, it's an art form and it's a skill set that many people don't choose to develop. There's a hierarchy in the world that we live in.. And at times you feel that polarization or that tension, you know, for some that are coming into it to be something that you're not. You know how, and I'm gonna go back to this, how cool this is to, I don't wanna be on everyone's podcast. I get, you know, a lot of people don't wanna talk to me. I don't wanna talk to them. I don't mean it that in a disrespectful way. Sure. But when I saw this and I saw what was going on around here The thing that resonated with me was it's different and it takes courage to be different. It takes courage in a business to, to express who you are and what you believe in, your values, because there are some things that in here that might turn some people off and you have to be okay with that. So when I saw this, I said, I'll do that.

Got my Captain America t-shirt on.

I was going to wear a black Black Panther t-shirt, but I didn't want to be like all political and stuff, or think about people think I was making a political statement.

Isn't that crazy how that became that?

Like, Black Panther was my favorite character since I was 7. I—

and then it got weird.

And oh man, I didn't want to make a political statement, so I'll just go with the Captain America because it's like, hey man, these folks here, I may not know them intimately, but here's what I know based on on the resume that they put out into the, into the universe is that they are who they are. And I feel that I can speak to people to have conversations with people that own who they are. When you own that, there's a special thing that happens. And whatever happens with our relationship beyond this, it'll be organic. It'll be organic because there's something about this, there's something about me, there's something about this, uh, your audience it speaks to us. And what you're doing, I think, is very special, uh, because it shows not just from a practical standpoint but from a business standpoint that you can be who you are, be weird. How did you say it to me? You are a 34-year-old 8th grader.

Yeah, come on, that's the best description I could ever give myself, man.

That is, that's fascinating. And, and not many people are willing to wear that. They don't want to wear— I took a picture of your truck outside and I'm like, you know, this man lives this shit, right? Like, this is not a game, this is real. Uh, and I respect that. Thank you.

I really appreciate that, bro, and I appreciate you coming on. This has been so incredibly— just incredible. It's just been an incredible conversation. I, I've learned so much about you that I didn't know coming in here. I think you are an incredible person. What you've done professionally, but more so than that, just you as a person.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for sharing yourself with us today and for all the information you've given to the audience, obviously, but for, for us, me personally. Thank you. So I appreciate that. If someone wanted to work with you, if they're going into, I mean, your demographic and they feel they want to reach out just like that young man you said did, where would they go about doing that?

I believe my Twitter is @64amdg would be the best place.

That's Instagram, would you say?

Instagram.

Instagram.

I told you, man. I don't know. That's my IG.

6-4-A-M-D-G. Yep.

Outstanding. That would be the best place to, uh, reach out. And perfect, you know, there's a process we go through, but I love having conversations.

Yeah.

And I think that in this space, you know, let's have a good conversation. If somebody wants to be a part of what we do, you know, we're kind of moving into a, um, you know, I just opened another facility in Cleveland. That's going to be the second one now, and We're looking now to kind of, as you call it, gen pop, uh, maybe expanding into some gen pop, uh, performance training. Because I think performance is not just athletic, it's life. We all got to perform, right? Um, so there's some things now we're doing and moving into a new space where, uh, I got the staff to do it. As you know, we talked about it. You— I don't care who you are in business, you can't grow anything without the right people around you. No. And I got great people around me, and I'll see where that continues to take us. But my passion, my love is the game of football, and it's given me so much. It's provided so much to me. It's taken some things from me, but it's certainly given more than it's taken.

That's outstanding.

And so my calling in this phase of my life is to keep pouring into the game and keep pouring in the athletes and keep pouring into serving the game at the highest level, making sure that players are protected, making sure that the game is reducing as much unnecessary risk as possible to make sure that the game keeps expanding, make sure that, hell, you know, young girls can keep playing our game through flag football and initiatives in that space. Um, that's where I'm at. And will I stay here forever? No, I wasn't a football player forever and I'll find something else to get into and keep living, man.

Amen. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for watching that episode of Becoming the 1% Podcast. If you like the content and you want to see more of it, hit the like and subscribe, activate that notification bell as well. We really appreciate it. If you guys want to see more of it, we actually have the Becoming the 1% Instagram and the podcast is available on Spotify. For our socials, we have Strict Vision Athletics on Instagram. We have it on YouTube and we have it on TikTok.