In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews former All‑American Division I football player, actor, and author Joe Crochet. Crochet shares a formative second‑grade experience where an NFL player’s “Why not me?” speech sparked his belief in self‑confidence, which he credits for his ten‑year NFL career and later successes. He emphasizes that networking—"it's who you know"—has been more valuable than knowledge across his work in television, sales, marketing, and publishing. His core business advice is to be a good human being, give more than you take, and stay genuine. For his younger self he advises starting early, not fearing failure, and following dreams. He defines happiness as doing what you love with the people you love. Crochet recommends Gary Keller’s The One Thing, highlighting the power of focusing on a single priority and improving it 1% daily. His favorite quote is Muhammad Ali’s “Don’t count the days, make the days count,” a mantra from his time at The Citadel. He closes by directing listeners to his website (JoeCrochet.com) and social media (Instagram, Twitter, IMDb). The episode is sponsored by Flipboard.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner, and today's sponsor is Flipboard. Flipboard curates the world's stories so you can be smarter in your work, life, and play. Choose from thousands of topics to personalize Flipboard and get the latest stories from the best publishers and experts delivered to you 24/7. So You can get started now at flipboard.com. And now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Joe Crochet with us. He is a former All-American Division I football player, SAG-AFTRA actor, and most recently a published author of the book My Winning Season. So welcome to the show, man.
Tyler, thanks for having me.
Of course. Pumped to have you here. So the first question I got for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah. So, and this kind of dates back all the way from the very beginning. When I was in second grade, I had the privilege of having an NFL player come and speak to my class at St. Thomas More Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia. The theme and the message that he delivered was, "Why not me?" There's always going to be people out there that are going to say that you're not strong enough, you're not big enough, you're not fast enough, you're not smart enough to accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish. But he is one living experience and living example that was able to say, I was told that my whole life, but I believed in myself. And I ended up playing in the NFL for 10 years and went on to accomplish so many other different things. So that one speech, that still resonates to me at this time. And it's kind of been through me with any battle that I face with adversity or anything like that.
And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, so I'm in a lot of industries, television, sales, sales and marketing, and now the book industry. But I would say the best advice I would give or the valuable piece of information would be it's not what you know, but it's who you know. So with everything that I've done in my life, I've been very privileged and fortunate to meet great people that have helped me along the way. It's never been something that I've self-made or been it just through a sole experience. I've always had somebody else kind of help me out, and likewise, I've been helping out others. So it kind of goes back to the thing my defensive coordinator at the Citadel used to say, is, you know, as you're climbing the ladder to success, you need to always be lifting. So surround your people that have that same mentality, and it's amazing what you can accomplish.
And then it could tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice and not necessarily industry-specific?
Yeah, so I mean, and this is just be a good human being, give more than you'd take and be genuine is what I'd say.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say start earlier. Don't be afraid to fail. And always just follow your dreams.
And then in your opinion, kind of going down a different path, in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
So I kind of believe, you know, doing what you love with the people you love is— that's happiness, you know. And I think if you can do that, you'll achieve that nirvana.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So I've read a couple of books just this past year, and if I was to sum it up, I'd say the book The One Thing written by Gary Keller. And basically the premise of the book is that no matter what you're doing, there's always one thing that is important to you. And no matter what things are going on in your life, Every day, if you just attack it 1% a day, trying to get better toward that one goal, you ultimately achieve it. So.
Yeah, man, that's one of my top books as well. And then what is your favorite quote and why?
So I'm going with Muhammad Ali, "Don't count the days, make the days count." It's actually inscribed in my Citadel class ring. It's kind of one of those things that got me through the Citadel, which is a pretty tough environment if you're not familiar with it. But it's just also just kind of puts things into perspective of living in the now and, and do the best you can with the ability God gave you and let God do the rest kind of thing.
Yeah. Well, thanks so much for coming on, man. The last one I got for you before we let you go is where can our listeners find you online? Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm on website JoeCrochet.com, as well as I'm on Instagram and Twitter. At Joe Crochet 5 and IMBD as well.
