Mindset May NHL Agent Ronnie Salcer How His Parents Survived The Holocaust!

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome to another episode. Today my guest is my really good friend, Ronnie Salzer. Ronnie was my former agent. He was an agent in the National Hockey League for some of the top players in the world. But we're gonna do something a little bit different today as we're gonna have Ronnie share some mindset work with us. Like, we're gonna talk about his family, we're gonna talk about a little bit about how he became an agent. And I'm so excited to have Ronnie. Ronnie, great to have you here today.

Well, thanks, Mike. It's a pleasure getting to be on your show.

Well, we're going to get right into it. Tell us your story, how you became an agent, and let's start with that.

Sure. Well, as far as becoming an agent, I think it's something that doesn't really happen very much anymore. Today, it's a whole different world than the agents. When I started was back after I graduated college from Boston University in 1975, I moved out to Los Angeles into the Oakwood Apartments in Marina Del Rey, where the first guys I met were playing hockey for the LA Kings and being a 21 year old. These guys took me under their wing. Dave Hutchison, Burt Wilson, Gary Sargent, Bob Nevin. And they said, you come with us, kid. And for the next five years, I got a real education on how incredible hockey players are as character people and. And heard all the horror stories, how they were disenchanted with agents, financially insecure, emotionally really unstable, coming to the twilight of their career. And it was hard for me becoming close to them and hearing all that. And then one player in particular named Dave Taylor, who was a great player, and I became good friends. And he approached me and said, you know, Ronnie, I know you. I trust you. Why don't you be my agent? And something I never thought about, but it intrigued me based on everything I had experienced with the players. And I was so fortunate to have an incredible character player like Dave and to spend a year with Dr. Jerry Buss, who owned the Lakers. The Kings of the Forum was quite an education. And players back then were fighting to make $50,000 a year. 75,000 maybe. And it's a long story. Maybe For a different day. But after almost a year, Dave became the highest paid player in hockey, where he got a seven year contract for $6 million. And I could have done it without the incredible loyalty he showed me. And as a result of that, I had almost another 10 players from the Kings, including Jay Wells, Jimmy Foxx, Mark Hardy, Gary Galley, later on, Luke Robitaille, Rob Blake, Brian McClellan. It just grew by word of mouth. And those players as they move on to other teams that get traded. My career, my business grew continuously by word of mouth. And over 40 years later, incredibly, I'm still fortunate to be involved and have players. You know, I've really reduced my role doing other things in my life, but still involved with hockey. And my, you know, one of my top clients would be Brett Burns from the Sharks. And very fortunate to still be doing that. And that's where I'm at today.

Wow. So you had a fantastic career. I mean, I wasn't even born when all those other players were. I'm just kidding. But I remember Gary Sargen. Cause my father used to bring home the old books of it, had the programs of all the players. And the Kings were in it from like the late 70s and amazing going back. So you built up an amazing career. You did well. And all I can remember, we're gonna fast forward it because like I said, we're gonna separate this into like a mindset session. Because the mindset's gonna come in, we're gonna talk. The second part of the show is gonna be about. About. About your parents and the amazing story. And we're going to get to that. But how did you. I mean, you were selling sunglasses, Ronnie. Am I getting that right? In la?

Yeah. So when I graduated college, I got. I came out to travel to 10 Western states in Canada. And I was the optical industry. I sold eyeglass frames and lenses. And I had connection with sunglasses, which is something that you're referring to. And that's kind of the purpose that I came out for. Interestingly enough, you know, I started representing Dave in 1980. And I remember my dad always telling me, don't give up your sales job. And I actually was doing both until 1987. So for those seven years, I was growing my hockey business. But I wasn't giving up my traveling sales business because I was concerned what may happen with hockey.

Wow. Wow. So all I can remember is, so I had an agent when I was playing. I had Gus Be Dali, very nice guy, but he had Wayne Gretzky, he had Mario Lemieux, the late Dale Howard, Chuck, you know, he meant so much of my heart. Passed away this past year and I. And he had some great players and I was doing okay. And I know Buffalo was a lower market team and they were offering me something like good bonuses, like I think maybe 300,000 a year after my third contract with, with bonuses. And I, I was going to sign it. And we were sitting around the table and I was sitting with Jay Wells, who you were talking about Dean Kennedy. And they said, you deserve so much more than that. You need to go with Ronnie Salcer. And I said, I don't know if I know him. He goes, oh, he's amazing. You could trust him. He's a family guy and I want to introduce you. And I couldn't fire anybody, and it was hard for me to do it. Next thing I know, I call you, we have a great conversation. And I had to tell my other agent because it was the last year of my contract and I'm moving on from him and. Great guy, like I said before, but the best decision I ever made, not only for you helping me financially, but also for the friendship that you and I have had along the way.

Well, obviously, what you just described, I'm so grateful for, because that's kind of how I built my business up, by guys like Jay Wells and Dean Kennedy and Gary Galley and all these other players and Rob Blake promoting me based on what they knew and trusting me. And that's kind of how my whole business started. It was based on trust. And, you know, I try to be the players without the emotion and fighting on their behalf. And that's what the reputation that I developed. And that's why I got the players, as I did, through word of mouth. And, you know, so fortunate, I guess, when you're around something long enough. I have seven players now that have made it to the Hockey hall of Fame, and that's something I'm very proud of.

Oh, wow. And everybody talked about you in a way back then where they said, listen, doesn't matter who you are. I know you had Pavel Burry, who was one of the best players on the planet at that time. And then you have a guy like me who was the second best player on the planet. I'm kidding, Ronnie. That's kind of a joke, right? No, but the funny thing was it didn't matter who you had. The word is that you treated everybody like, equally and it didn't matter. And if a team back in those days would say, well, Ronnie, we have other guys that you represent, the rumor Was that you said, we're not going to talk about anybody else, we're talking about player X right now. And you fought for everybody and that's the reputation you had.

Yes. You know, I think it all goes back to when I told you I was a 21 year old kid hanging around these veterans that were warriors. And they instilled in me so much of what I learned about them as character and people and what their road was to where they got. And so, you know, part of my heart was in that. And you know, when you go in and you fight for players like I did, it was built in me from the education I had, five years of just being good friends with the guys. And I also felt that hockey players weren't really getting what they were supposed to get. Unfortunately, hockey players weren't getting compensated anywhere near, I felt where they were supposed to based on the fact that I would see hockey players signing long term contracts for minimal amounts while the value of hockey teams was going up tremendously. So I pursued Allen Eagleson and you know, that's a long story in history about what happened. And that I think changed the face of hockey as far as the compensation because the pendulum swung the other way after Allen Eagleson got indicted, I believe on 37 counts of fraud and a sad time in hockey. But I think things got went for the better after that.

Yeah. And I'll share this quick thing that I want to get into your parents. I remember it was, I got traded to the Winnipeg jets, it was during the Gulf War. And you got me an unbelievable four year contract with four years of deferred money. And back then, I mean, it's not like it was today. It was like 400,000 a year American for four years plus four years of deferred money. So an eight year contract with $50,000 each year. So when I retired and you told me not to sign it and I called my father and I said, hey, I just was offered this like 8 year contract, but really a 4 year, then my deferred money back, plus bonuses, which would been about five or six, five, whatever. So then my father said, did you sign it? I go, no. He goes, what? We're in the middle of a Gulf war and you didn't sign that kind of money? I said, no, I have Ronnie Salzer, I got the best age hit in the world. He hung up, which was funny, but it ended up working after that. I ended up going and playing out those years anyways. And you always looked after everybody. And I'll never forget that story. And I said to my dad, I got Ronnie Salcer. I'm fine. But that was funny.

Well, I really appreciate that. You know, it's quite a compliment you're paying me and I'm grateful to you for that. I was going to say that, you know, you try to be creative because the collective bargaining back then has changed so much that today there's almost no flexibility to do anything. Everything's black and white. It was gray areas there. So I remember that I used to do bonuses and revisions because, you know, I didn't want to sign a player to a long term deal. And then a year later, two years later, he's by far outperforming his contract. So I was able to negotiate those types of things early on that were new to hockey with the bonus revisions and additionally the deferred money, which I thought was really important for players to have money after they were done playing hockey. So they're putting money away. And so that was something. But neither one of those things you're able to do today with the new cba, Right.

So they used to post your salary, but that wasn't really what you got. I mean, I made more with the Rangers and bonuses and I didn't even play. Like every time Mike Richter got a shutout, we had team bonuses. And it was, every time he got a shutout, I got paid and I was sitting out and it was what, what you did was, was so creative and well, that made you. Like I said, now we're going to get in because that' the person you know, I know you're this amazing person. I don't just say that. I love you from the bottom of my heart. You've helped so many people. We talk about you all the time. And I talk to Eddie Oldchuck and different guys. Your name always comes up. Alan May can't speak enough about you. And this is where we're gonna, you know, segue into where I want to go. So I'm sitting with Alan May. He comes down here holiday time and he said, you know what? Have you read Ronnie's parents book? I said, no, but I talked to Ronnie every now and then, every six months, I'll call to check in to see how he's doing. He said, there's a book, it's called no Past Tense about his family in the Holocaust. I said, well, I knew his, his parents were in the Holocaust, but I didn't know much about it. He said, I was crying and I had to read it again. And then. And here we are today. So I want to talk about Katie and Will Salcer. Can we do that, Ronnie?

Oh, well, of course. You know, that's pretty close to my heart, my mother and father, because, you know, I don't know that two more amazing people, you know, existed in my life and what they endured, what they went through. But their courage and their love was something I thought really unique. So both my mother and father were born in Czechoslovakia and were in school. My mother was 16 and actually they were going to school in Hungary at the time. And my father 19 when they were taken away. My mother was taken to Auschwitz with her mother, her brother and her grandmother. And they walked right, they came in with the train. Joseph Mengele said to her mother, brother, grandmother, one way. My mother, a 16 year old girl, went the other way. Never, never saw them again. And actually I went back there right before this book was released. I had never been in Auschwitz. I walked the exact steps. It was exactly the way my mother described it when I went there. And both my parents ended up after they got out of concentration camp. The only reason they survived was they were went in later, but they were skin and bones when they got out. And then at that time they went to Israel with an underground organization called the Haganah. And then two years they were in a work camp in Israel. And my dad was a really smart guy. And at 50, in 1958, when he was about 24, 8 years old, he was known the leader of the industrial revolution. They decided to move to the United States. I was born in Israel. I was almost seven. My parents were in their mid-30s and my mother had to learn her sixth language. My father had to learn his fifth language. And it skipped a generation. I didn't quite get the smarts, my father did, but somehow he had to start all over again in his life. And he had 17. He made 17 different patents over his career. And the amazing part about it is when they came to this country, for three years we lived in a small little apartment. I lost everyone I never met. A grandparent, an uncle, a cousin, you know, everyone was gone except my mom and dad and my aunt, my father's sister. And that was pretty much all we were. And somehow in my first night in New York City, ironically, my father took me to the old Madison Square garden. This is 1960, the original six. I saw the Blackhawks play the Rangers. And the reason he wanted to go was because Stan Makita was a check and he wanted to see him play. My dad played hockey. He loved to see it so that was my first night in New York City, and ironically, it ended up becoming my career.

Well, I mean, there's not enough words that. That can describe, or I like, I'm lost for words. And people say, really, Mike Hartman, you're lost for words? It's because when people talk about the shows a lot, about mindset stories and champions, and this is the Mindset May program we have, and people would say, I have athletes on. I'm not taking anything away from these great athletes and friends that I'm bringing on. But your parents were teens when they were facing this, the mindset to face the tear at that young age. Did you ever ask them, like, how did they do it? They were teenagers, and that's when they met.

Well, that's a great question. And that's the whole surprise of this whole thing. And so my parents, when they came to this country, they never talked about it. I did not know. I knew that my parents obviously had heavy accents and they were from other country, and they told me that they survived the Holocaust, but that was all I ever heard. They never discussed it. And I don't know how they went to sleep every night knowing that you lost your mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. I mean, we have a hard time sleeping today, you know, because our phone is down for a couple of days. You know, they. They went to sleep with terror and never discussed it. They didn't want me to feel any guilt. I never heard a word about it. They somehow. I don't know how you compartmentalize it, but that's exactly what they did. And to be able to move on in your life and never act like victims. They didn't come to this country and say, what do we get? You know, we suffered so much. They just closed that chapter and worked so hard. And all the hard work that my father did and, you know, obviously the success he met was just done by putting his nose to the grindstone and never complaining and never asking for anything. And that's what I think makes it so incredible, because the story is not about how horrific their life was. It's a love story and a story of courage, of no matter how horrific your life is, you still can pick up the pieces and have children, grandchildren, actually, great grandchildren. My parents are no longer around, but obviously their spirit lives in me, and I'm proud I was able to get this book published and come out. One important thing to know about it is that my parents, because they never talked about it, I didn't know anything until I was in my 40s. Yeah. Well my parents always tried to protect me and never wanted me to feel any guilt. So they never talked about it. It wasn't until I was in my 40s that I went to see Schindler's List against my parents wishes and that really affected me. And after I saw that, I heard that the Shoah foundation was started by Steven Spielberg, which was archiving.

Survivors of the Holocaust.

So when I contacted them, they told.

Me, if you can get your parents to speak, we're videoing survivors.

So I approached my mother and father.

And obviously based on everything they were so reluctant to do, they go, no, we never spoke about it, we're not going to relive it now. And I remember so vividly looking at my parents and saying, I had two little daughters. If you don't talk about it, those girls will never know about what their grandparents went through. And like my parents always are, I could just saw a decision right there. They go, okay, we'll do it. And so there's a two hour video of my mother and a two hour video of my dad that appears in all the Holocaust museums. And I was in my mid-40s when it was sent to me from New York. I was sitting in Los Angeles at my home when I put the video on. And to see your mother talking about something you've never seen her talk on a video, talking about being a 16 year old girl and what it was like to walk into, to be brought in by a trainer to Auschwitz and to see her mother and brother, her grandmother, go one way and my mother goes the other way. Never to see them again and lose everyone in their family was so.

Ronnie, all they really wanted you to do is live your best life. And that's probably why they didn't want you to, to know or watch Schindler's List. That's really the only thing I could really think of. They wanted to move forward. They didn't want to keep going in the past.

Correct, they didn't want to go in the past. But the fact that I was pursuing it and I wanted my kids, their grandkids, to know what happened in their lives was really important. And so they agreed to do it. Which you know, obviously the most interesting part about that though is, is I hired a woman after I saw the videos of their whole scenario, what happened in the Holocaust. And she wrote, I wanted her to do a book on my parents life and we did a manuscript. So she spent over 100 hours writing this story. It was written in the mid-90s, but it was only done because I wanted to have it for my children. It was over 20 years later that the writer who did it, the author shared it with a friend of hers who was a notable writer. And that woman said, you need to publish this book. This is a classic novel.

Yeah, she wrote a book proposal, and next thing I knew, we had four publishers that said they wanted to do the book. And I chose the publisher that did.

The book, the Diary of Anne Frank.

And so over 20 years after I.

Had the manuscript written for my family.

This book was published. And I'm so humbled by the reviews.

That have come in.

This was never my intention, but so many people are reading it and book clubs are reading it, and I'm actually.

I'll go out and I do speaking.

Events because people have been so amazed by the book. Mainly because it's not a book about how horrific your life could be. It's a book about no matter what.

Happens to you in your life, no.

Matter how horrific it is, you can put up the. Pick up the pieces and your spirit and still have amazing lives with success with children, grandchildren and great grandchildren like.

My parents have had.

Actually, this book has even been picked up by a university, which is required reading at lmu. And I've spoken at the university to.

The students there on a few occasions. So I'm very proud and humbled by.

The way this book has been received.

Wow. It's so inspiring. I don't even know if that's the correct word because this does not fit the mindset category. It fits. It fits well beyond that, Ronnie. And I mean, I've had so, like I said, so many people came to me and said, you have to. You have to read Ronnie's book. And I'm sure today your parents would have been so very proud of you. I know they were proud of you back then. I know they passed away some time ago. Both your parents, your father before your mom, as I was, learned more and even reading the book. And I'm sure they're proud of you, the father, you are the family man. You are the husband you are, and you have a lot to be proud of.

Thank you, Mike. No, I'm very proud. I mean, my parents, just by the way they raised me, set the bar real high. And that's a generation like they talk about, the greatest generation. I mean, how they could have suffered so much. But there wasn't one day in my life as a kid growing up that I had my mother or my father look at me and say, you don't know how much we suffered. You don't know what we lost. They never, I know, guilt. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. And like I said, it wasn't until my 40s that I found out about what really happened when I got them to share the story. And now, you know, was able to get this out into a, into a book which, you know, I'm so grateful that so many people seem to be immersed in it and it's inspired many people, as you said.

So where can we get the book, Ronnie? Is it on Amazon?

You can go to Amazon or. I actually created a website. The name of the book is no Past Tense and The website is nopasttense.com and when you go in there, you could read all the reviews. Actually, there's a blurb right on top of the book that I'm sure your listeners all know about, Tony Robbins. And so his blurb appears on the COVID of my parents book. And obviously he's quite a motivational guru in the world today. And you go to that website and you'll be able to read all the amazing press reviews that we've gotten. And I also added an edited video about the. That my parents did for the Shoah Foundation. I edited out to 30 minutes where you could actually see my parents speak. And I think when you read the book and actually get to see my parents, it's something that I feel really drives home how incredible their lives were.

Ronnie, one last time, share the website with us.

Nopast tense.com all one word, all lowercase, no past tense dot com.

Well, Ronnie, thank you so much for doing this. It was great having you here and sharing the beginning. You know, we talked a little bit about the story of being an agent. We have a lot of sport fans out there, but even more importantly, the story of your parents are. It's just amazing.

Yeah, no, I'm very fortunate to be able to have the life that I had thanks to the courage and the love of my parents. So I thank you, Mike, for getting me on your podcast. Obviously, there's nothing I can enjoy more than talking about hockey and my parents. So thank you for giving me that opportunity.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.