Episode 98: Canon, Foles, and Super Bowls!

And hello everyone. Welcome to episode 98 of the weekly Yes! And podcast. Episode 98, we're 2 away from the big 100, which is kind of a fun milestone. And this is the first podcast post-Super Bowl, post-Super Bowl 52. Arguably one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever played from the standpoint of the quality of both teams. There was one punt the entire game. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that today. But before we get into that, again, this is episode 98 coming to you not from the Toyota Prius sound station, today from the Honda Odyssey sound room. That's right. Recording this, you probably just heard Can you hear this? Yeah, that's the seat belts clanging against the door here in the Honda Odyssey sound room. The kids are in a tennis class. Well, at least two of them are, and then Hollister and Holland are in the park on a run. And we're all kind of eagerly awaiting to see if SpaceX makes their launch today, which is pretty exciting. And so we will keep an eye out for that, which is supposed to be happening here in about an hour. But welcome everyone. This is Travis. I'm the creator of Live Yes And, which you can follow me @LiveYesAnd or liveyesand.com, and the host of the weekly Yes And podcast. Really excited to be here and talk about today's topic, which is Kodak, foals, and Super Bowls. But before we get into that, a couple of quick shameless plugs. The next Get Unstuck in 10 Days The next one is happening at the end of February. Shoot, I don't have the exact dates in front of me, which looks really unprofessional. If you go to my website, liveyesand.com, click on events, the next Get Unstuck in 10 Days is coming up towards the end of February. 10 days to get unstuck in conjunction with my book, 3 Words for Getting Unstuck: Live Yes, And. Check that out. It's a great 10-day program to help you get unstuck in one aspect of your life. Awesome. And also, shameless plug for the next Jove Improv show is coming up Saturday, February 21st at the— February 21st, or February 24th at the Performing Arts Academy of Jupiter here in lovely Jupiter, Florida. And that one is Jesse and I, and it will be called The Greatest Jovemen. That's right. You like that little play on words? The Greatest Showman. The greatest Joveman. Yeah, that's how we're doing things. Come out for a laugh. We'd love to have you there. All right, let's jump into this. Kodak Foles and Super Bowls. So, I heard a story recently that just epitomizes what it means to have a yes and mindset. To have a yes and culture and to have a yes and mindset. When we think about yes and mindset, it is an individual thing. And when you have a group of people who have a yes and mindset, you create a yes and culture. I was listening to this gentleman interviewed and he was talking about how back in the early 2000s or at the end of the '90s, Kodak and Canon were the 2 leaders in film, photo paper film. They were the 2 global leaders. They were huge. Everyone my age or older knows that Kodak, it was all about Kodak and Canon. This is pre-iPhones. This is pre-digital cameras. This is obviously pre-digital photography, or we're just kind of getting into that world. And so technology is changing. The internet is kind of changing things. So Kodak and Canon can kind of see possibly what the future looks like or where they're heading. From the way I understand it, Kodak, instead of embracing and running toward the change, Or as I would say, yes anding the sort of the pivot or yes anding the new technology decides to kind of put their their heels dig their heels in and I don't know if they put their fingers in their ears and started going la la la la la la la this isn't happening. Canon on the other hand uses an opportunity to kind of go yes and all right how do we jump in this game and turn this into an opportunity? How do we take what what is essentially could be the end of our business as we know it, which is selling film and photography and all that. And how do we go and yes-and this into a bigger opportunity? So they go one way, Kodak kind of moves forward in resistance, in denial, and we see the fork in the road. Kodak goes one way, Canon goes all in on the other, and digital photography almost Essentially killed Kodak, and then Canon went on to become the leader in the industry. So to use that analogy from a yes and perspective, which we know improvisationally, right? You can't control what is happening. You can always control 100% of the time how you choose to respond to what is happening, to the new information. That's having a yes and mindset. You don't have to like Canon didn't have to like that the industry was changing, but they accepted it and yes, and they turned it into an opportunity, right? That's what that yes, and mindset is all about. And obviously I can't go behind closed doors at Kodak and Canon and know what was really going on in those conversations, but we see how one embraced and the other one was sort of late to the game and how those two companies sort of the trajectory changed the fate of those 2 companies. I love that. Which brings us to the last 2 football games that have meant the most in our country. We're going back to the College Football Championship and we're going back to Super Bowl 52. College Football Championship, Georgia is winning at halftime over Alabama. Obviously I've done some work with Georgia. I'm cheering for Georgia. I'm pumped. Alabama is getting dominated. Their quarterback's doing nothing. But this is their quarterback who a year before was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, nearly won them a national championship the year before, is one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He gets benched at halftime and Nick Saban goes with a freshman quarterback who had not played, a true freshman quarterback who had not played. And this kid ends up being the hero of the game, brings them back. Throws that amazing pass, which shouldn't have happened, but that amazing pass in overtime to win the game after he had just been sacked for an unforgivable loss the play before. So there are yes-and things going on all over that game. A, Nick Saban having the courage and the fearlessness to bench your star in favor of an unproven freshman quarterback. The courage to do that and not worry about what people were gonna say, because that's what prevents us. That fear is what prevents us from being authentic so often, is because we're afraid of the criticism. We're afraid of what people are gonna say. Saban had the courage to do that. And for this young man, this young man who had the courage, the resilience to, to bring the team back, but then when it appears that he may have made the biggest mistake of the game, The very next play, he delivers and they win the game. So there was yes, and going on all over the place. You think about for him, he makes that horrible play. That could have destroyed him mentally. He could have made— he could have snowballed that into a few more worse plays and the game is over. Instead, he accepts what happened and the and response, the very next play. is to throw a game-winning touchdown. Huge. Alright, let's go back a couple days ago. Super Bowl 52. Brady versus Foles seemed like an incredible mismatch on paper. The greatest quarterback of all time versus a backup quarterback that had kind of been discarded and who he himself had been contemplating retirement just a few years previous. Had made the decision, and then in talking to his wife, who had been battling an illness, who is fine now, and talking to family members, decided, you know what, I'm going to keep going. But this is a guy, when Carson Wentz got hurt towards the end of the season and Nick Foles took over, Philly fans were devastated because they felt their season was over. They had no hope. Carson Wentz was probably going to be the league MVP. Nick Foles takes over. has a decent game and then a couple of unimpressive games and then the playoffs come and he's playing great. But going into that game, there was no one who in their right mind would have said Foles could potentially outplay Brady. And that's exactly what happened. Granted, Brady broke his own record for yards in a Super Bowl, but did so in a loss because Foles, Nick Foles, played a flawless game. flawless game at quarterback. Now if you listen to Nick Foles' postgame interview, it's all about yes and. It's all— well, he doesn't say yes and, right? We can fill in the blanks. It's all about yes and. It's all about growth mindset. And he just talked about how he has embraced failure his whole life and how failing is the key to success. And it's funny because I just gave a 5th grade presentation this morning. We talked about failing. We talked about figure skaters falling on their butts 10,000 times in order to become experts. But Nick Foles was just echoing this idea of failing is a part of the learning process. It's needed. It's necessary. And that is how we become so good is through the failing. He talks about— and then so his So the goal is always to stay in the present moment. This clip, he talked about, you know, I'm not going to talk about the future. I'm going to stay in the present moment. I'm not going to worry about what's next. I'm going to stay in the present moment. And if you look at that game, that's what he did the entire game. Even though after they led the entire time, New England came all the way back like we knew they were going to, and Foles never folded. Huh? You like that? Foles never folded. He never— Never. He never looked nervous. He never made a bad play. He responded to every situation, and it's such a testament to his mental game. It's such a testament to obviously the culture that the Eagles have created around him, where, where someone could step into that situation and, and be ready for the moment. So we talk about this yes, I am mindset, which is embracing every moment regardless of what is happening. Yes, and cultures where groups and teams embrace the reality, and then they have such a high level of trust and respect and value or psychological safety in that locker room or amongst that group where everyone feels safe enough to go out there and be courageous and to take risks and to be vulnerable. Why? Because you have created the culture. And Foles was able to step into that. Tua was able to step into that at Alabama. And I've got to give Georgia my props though, because they were so close in Kirby's second year. They're going to be there. And obviously they've got their amazing freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, who took over for an injured star and led them to an amazing season. So we see the mindset, we see the culture. That these organizations create. And it, again, it is behavior-driven cultures. It's not outcome-driven cultures. It's behavior-driven cultures that preach, right? Do the right things and the outcomes take care of themselves. Right behaviors create the right outcomes. But it's not focusing on the outcome. It's focusing on the behaviors. And I think Cannon was such a beautiful version of that. Alabama and obviously Tua did that. Philadelphia Eagles did that. And again, you've got to give respect to the New England Patriots in this as well because they played as well as a champion can play. New England just made one more play, literally one more play, a defensive stop. And it was just— It was an amazing game to watch and it just had Yes And stamped all over it. So there you have it. Kodak, foals, and Super Bowls. That's episode 98 of the weekly Yes And podcast. Make sure you check me out at Live Yes And, liveyesand.com. Remember, another Get Unstuck in 10 Days coming up at the end of February as well as the next Jove Show happening Saturday, February 24th. Great timing. Hollister is walking up to the car and Holland just finished his run. So there you have it, everybody. Have a wonderful, wonderful Yes And day. Love you, Juju. Love you, too.