In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Andy Neary, a former professional baseball pitcher and bestselling author. Andy shares a pivotal story from his minor‑league career in Missoula, Montana, where crowd chants about his height sparked a realization that mindset, not external attributes, determines performance. He extends this lesson to business, explaining that many decision‑makers mistakenly focus on insurance as the root cause of high healthcare costs; instead, he argues the real issue is how employees access care—a supply‑chain problem that can be solved with better access and incentives. Andy offers broader business advice, emphasizing the need to purge "mind‑shit," adopt a growth mindset, and take imperfect action. He defines happiness as doing work you love so much you can’t wait to start the next day, and recommends two books: The Alchemist for purpose and The One Thing for focused productivity. His favorite quote, "rising tides raise all boats," underscores the importance of surrounding yourself with a supportive tribe. The episode concludes with Andy’s contact details (website, LinkedIn, Instagram).
Chapters
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Andy Neary with us. He is a best-selling author and former professional athlete who helps individuals and businesses make money by reducing the cost The Time and the Effort It Takes to Achieve Greatness. So welcome to the show.
Thanks, Tyler Wagner. Appreciate to be on here. Glad to have you.
Appreciate you coming on as well. So, Andy, the first one I got for you today is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I call this story the Missoula, Montana story. So I was fortunate to spend a couple years pitching in professional baseball in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. And if you can't see me on the podcast, but I stand 5 foot 5'9", I weigh 165 pounds, so I don't look like your prototypical pitcher in professional baseball. But back in 2000, while I was playing in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, I remember pitching in Missoula, Montana. I was pitching for the Helena Brewers in Helena, Montana at the time. And that night, I remember taking the mound as a relief pitcher. And as I was warming up for my inning, for my inning to begin, The crowd started chanting, and I'll never forget this because I had been called in to relieve our starting pitcher who was having a terrible game. And I believe it was the top of the third inning or bottom of the third inning, excuse me, coming in, and the first batter I was going to face was a guy named Andrés Torres who was actually the number one prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization at the time. I can remember warming up to get ready to face him, and as I was warming up, the crowd in Missoula started chanting. Now, if you don't know much about Missoula, it's a college town. The University of Montana is there, so the stadium was filled. There were about 5,000 people in the stands, filled with a lot of college students that probably were drinking a little too much. I remember warming up, and as they started chanting, The chanting got louder and louder, and by probably the third or fourth warm-up pitch, I could actually hear what they're chanting. And Tyler, what they were chanting was, "How can you pitch when you're 5'6"?" That's what they were chanting? Yeah, and though I'm 5'9", I remember hearing that chanting.
Yeah.
And it was interesting. In that moment, one of two things could have happened, and unfortunately my mind went down the wrong path. I should have been jacked up, right? I should have gotten excited. Here I am about to face one of the top prospects in the Diamondbacks organization in the minor leagues, but I let my mind listen to the crowd and I let my mind say, yeah, who am I? I mean, I'm 5'9", I'm 165 pounds, I'm about to face one of the top prospects. I wasn't a top draft pick, I was a free agent. What right do I have to stand on this mound and face this guy because I am just average? And that message for me, Tyler, was the most valuable because my baseball career only lasted a couple years, and it was because of my mindset. Mm-hmm. And what I've learned is when you fail, you can try to change all of your external factors, but if you don't solve the real problem, which is your mindset, it will carry with you wherever you go. So the message was mindset is all that matters. And that's actually the message I now take in my business today to help individuals and businesses achieve success, because I firmly believe everybody is one mindset shift away from greatness.
Absolutely, man. And I can't even believe that they— that seems like a long chance, you know? Like, that's why when you said that, I like laughed. I'm like, dude, that's like a full sentence. Like, normally chance, I feel like, are like I don't know. Hit them high, hit them low.
You know, it's funny because when I give keynote talks, I'll put that quote or that chant up on the screen and I'll have the audience chant it with me to get them engaged. And it's funny how they get into it. And I always say, you know what, guys, thank you. You're bringing back some really bad memories.
That would be a great opener. Yeah, I love that. Well, dude, thank you for sharing that with us, man.
Absolutely.
The next one I got for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, I'll give you one specific. So I'll go back to what I said just previously, that I truly believe everybody is one mindset shift away from greatness, and that includes decision makers in business. So one of the areas I've spent a lot of time in, in my career, is healthcare, and it's helping businesses improve the type of healthcare they give to their employees for less money. So it's building better health plans for less money. And that's an area where I have seen over time the healthcare, the health insurance industries teach businesses how to buy better insurance because the industry profits off of insurance. So what that has led to is the mindset of the decision maker, whether you are a CEO, a CFO, an HR director, is you think the problem is insurance, so that every year you try to go out, go about solving the insurance problem, when that's not the problem at all. The biggest problem that we have in healthcare is how people, individuals, employees of businesses are accessing healthcare, and the price and quality of which they're purchasing the healthcare. So the mindset that I— the mindset shift I help businesses with is say, listen, if you do have a desire to reduce the cost of your health insurance, by giving your employees a better plan. It starts with us focusing on how your employees are accessing the healthcare system. And we're gonna find ways to get them, to give them better access at lower price. And then we'll reward them by making that access free. So that's the mindset shift is it's not an insurance problem. It's actually a supply chain, a healthcare supply chain problem.
Got it, okay. And then the next one is, what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Are we allowed to curse on the podcast?
Absolutely, man, go for it.
The phrase I use all the time is, if you truly want to shift your mindset, you have to get rid of the mind shit. So a true mind shift, a true mindset shift requires a change in the mind shit.
Because that's what it is.
At the end of the day, our minds, everybody's minds, is, you know, can be our worst enemy, right? And it's the hurdle that typically has us accepting average results instead of expecting success.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
So if I could go back to that pitcher, that 22-year-old pitcher standing on the mound in Missoula, Montana, I would tell them, don't care, don't listen to what other people say about you, take a lot more risk, strive for imperfect action, and take very few opinions. Mm-hmm.
And then, so kind of going a little bit down a different path here, and actually could tie in, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, good question. I've quite frankly, Tyler, struggled with this a lot in the past. You know, I'm going to steal a quote. I wish I could call this my own, but I can't. And I love the quote. It's actually from— you ever see the movie The Pursuit of Happiness? Yep. Yeah, yeah, about Chris Gardner, you know, the homeless man that became a millionaire stockbroker. I love the phrase he— the quote he has saying, happiness is doing something you love so much that when you go to bed, you can't wait for the sun to come up to do it all over again. And so to me, happiness to me is having a life and a business in my life that intermingle with each other in a way that every night when I go to bed, I cannot wait for the sun to come up to do it all over again.
Absolutely. And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I'm actually going to break the mold here. I'm going to give you two books. There's one on mindset that I love and then one on taking action, because you can have the right mindset, but if you don't take action, Tyler, as you know, you don't— you're not going to get your results. So the book on mindset that I absolutely love is The Alchemist. Mm-hmm.
I love the Alchemist.
You know, everything happens for a reason. Everything in the universe happens for a reason. You have to trust what the universe is telling you and just keep keep taking the right action. And then the other book I love on productivity is The One Thing by Gary Keller. And by Gary Keller, he's the president of, I believe, Keller Williams, a real estate company. But it talks about what's the one thing you can do that makes everything else easy or unnecessary.
I love it. I'm a big fan of both of those books. And what is your favorite quote and why? I have—
so the quote I'm focused on right now, I write quotes down all the time, and I think the one that I'm focused on the most right now is, um, the tide— a good tide rises all boats. I'm really focused on right now who's in my tribe, who's on my team, and surrounding yourself with the right people. You know, if you're going to achieve success, you got to get around the people who are going to lift you up. People who are going to give you the right opinions. And so to me right now, that favorite quote is definitely, uh, rising tides raise all boats.
Love it, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you is, where can our audience best find you online?
Yeah, absolutely. Um, my website is andyneary.com. I will admit it's going through a bit of an upgrade right now, so I'm excited that we'll be launching the new website probably come mid-February. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Andy Neary. And then my Instagram is @andyneary333.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on, man.
Awesome, Tyler. Appreciate it.
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