“WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN?” HIS ANSWER CHANGED EVERYTHING

Episode Kickoff And A Surprise Guest

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show. Hi then hey, thanks for coming. Yeah, we just start rolling, man. We just go. Yeah, just no. I don't need no official. No, I don't do that. I just we just we just roll. I love it. Yeah, because I'm excited about this interview with you because of the way it came about, right? The way like I stumbled onto you. Yeah. Right. Like I go to I go to this restaurant. We go here all the time. Yeah. Right. So I don't know when it happened, but because the uh the reason that one of the reasons you're here is because I went into your restaurant with my son's, my son's was a favorite cookie place. And uh there are all these books at every table, they're lined up all around all these books. And I'm I grab a book, I'm looking at it, and I went up to the woman that was buying the counter, go, what's with these books? She goes, That's my dad. That's my dad. He he uh you know he played Major League Baseball, and now he writes he's what you say, motivational speakers like that. I go, I'm like, what? I go, she goes, yeah, and he owes this restaurant. I'm like, what? I go, this is great. I have a podcast that's about this kind of stuff. This is

Books On Every Table

SPEAKER_01 1:20

so interesting. So here you are. Yeah, awesome. Right? So, what first, what's the story with the book?

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I'm gonna jump around all over. Yeah, no, no, it's all good. So uh the book that were we actually get out in the store is my second book. The first book I wrote uh was actually called Relentless Success.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

And that that book really, the start of writing books was it's really the backstory of my father. And

A Father’s Fight And A Vision

SPEAKER_02 1:45

he was in the middle of battling multiple myeloma, blood cancer. Uh, he fought it for 20 years, passed in 2019. But I was making all of these emergency trips in his last three or four years from here up to Seattle. My mom and dad lived in Seattle, uh, just outside of Seattle. My mom would always like, you got to get here now. And many times, uh, well, this one particular time, I was actually going up the 101, traveling north. My mom calls and says, You need to get here now. I literally got off the exit, did a U-turn, went to the airport. On my way to the airport, I called my wife. I said, Find me a flight to Seattle. Dad's in trouble. I literally get to the airport, I'm like, what do you got? And I'm getting on some flight and whatever, two hours or whatever it was, whatever the time was. I get on the plane, I get in the air, and I start thinking. I'm like, I don't even know if he's gonna be alive on the land. And and land, go straight to the hospital. He's in ICU and battered for his life. And three days later, um, he goes from ICU to a regular room to three days later to out of the hospital. And they go to put him in a wheelchair and he refused. He's like, I'm walking out of this hospital. And he had a cane, so like if you got in front of him, he's gonna whack you, right? And and uh, so, anyways, we we get to his house and he looks at me and he says, You want to go take a drive in the mountains? I said, I'm in. So I drive his pickup truck, he gets in the passenger's seat, we go up through Sammamish and waterfalls, mountains, and there's beautiful old homes, just me and him. He just wanted to go. And he says on that drive, he says, you know, one of these days I might buy a house up here. And I'm thinking, just got out of IC. And he's in this battle. I mean, he's a warrior, he's battling for his life. And I'm thinking to myself, I just want you to get through today. And but yet he had he had enough tenacity to say, someday I'm gonna buy a house up here, maybe for me and mom, up around. And I'm thinking, how could this guy possibly have a vision for his future in the middle of his current circumstances, just fighting for his life? And that night I couldn't sleep. And I thought, man, I grew up at Yankee Stadium with him, right? He was a legendary pitcher with the Yankees. Yankee Stadium was my playground. Uh, he had great teammates, Man O'Maris Ford, Yogi Bear was his first manager. We inherited all his teammates as friends, family friends forever. But here I am thinking, and that was inspirational. If I reflect back on it, I was like, it set me up for what I wanted to do in my life. But there's something bigger happening, and I'm watching him like fight for his life, but yet just this um that just see his warrior mindset. And I was just like, how could you possibly be in this tough a circumstance with that big a vision at the same time? Like hope, right? Right. And I was like, and it's three in the morning, and I can't sleep. And I'm like, what in the hell? And then I think to myself, man, my father has poured into my life. He's always been a huge fan. He's been my mentor, my coach, my best friend, my dad when he had to be dad, he was everything. And he's just poured into my life for me. And then I started thinking, I was like, man, think about all the people who have poured into me for me to excel and achieve at the highest level. And I started thinking, I've never done that for anyone. And I thought, I'm gonna write a book, and I'm gonna write a book on all the lessons that I acquired from all these great people when I was in a tough spot that helped me get out. And I thought, this'll be awesome. So I the next morning I go downstairs, my dad's sitting in his chair, and I said, Dan, I'm gonna write a book. He says, You should. And I'm like, I I go, what do you mean I should? I'm like, how I mean, I can't, how could he say you should? I've never written a book in my life. And and I was like, Well, don't you want me to tell you what I'm gonna write it on? He's like, What? I go, I want to write it on all the lessons from all the people that I acquired when I was in a tough situation of how I got out got out of it. In case there's the reader is in some sort of trip, you know, situation like that, that they can take these lessons and apply into their life. So I feel like, because I felt like I was the dead seat, everything coming in, nothing going out. So that was the beginning. It was so funny. I called my wife. I said, I'm gonna write a book. And so she was back home. I was up there with them, and I said, Honey, I'm gonna write a book. And she's like, You're gonna what? I said, I'm gonna write a book. And she goes, This is unbelievable. People pay you to come speak, and now you're gonna write, and you don't even know her English. And we laughed about it because she'll go, You'll be on stage and you'll say words wrong, right? You'll use it in the wrong connotation, whatever, or you'll make up words, or you'll say things, and everyone's kind of like, What in the world? And she goes, and it's like, and it and it's almost a crack up. And I was like, Well, why not? So you were lost when you wrote the book. So it was 2018. Okay, so my whole goal was to finish the book so my dad could read it. Right. And then he passed in 2019. Like he read, he got a chance to read it. And what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, he loved it. Yeah. So what are like who are some of the people that taught you lessons that are in this book?

Writing Relentless Success Without A Plan

SPEAKER_02 7:19

So Dave Stewart, Dave Duncan, Tony LaRussa, Ceto Gaston. I mean, I can go on and on. So you're like, uh, I haven't read the book. So is the book available on Amazon? It's everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called Relentlessly Successful. Relentless Success. Relentless success. What happened was I wrote the book, I told the stories, and at the end the publisher goes, You got a nine-point system. I was like, What are you talking about? Like, I didn't write it as a sit. Right. And he goes, Each one of these chapters represents a piece of a system to achieve more and be relentless in your life. I was like, wow, that is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

It didn't happen just now. So you would like chapter one, I'm going through this, and this is what Tony Larusso said to me. Yeah. And you'd be like, they helped me through this. Yeah. And so when you put it together, are you sitting there like at a laptop? And you're just like, Yeah, you just type. Yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

It's weird because uh my brain, how I operate is I come up with my best ideas at night. So a lot of times I'll be in bed and then starts things start flowing, right? And so literally I wrote the book, I would jump out of bed, go into my office, and I would write the book sometimes 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m. and just start freaking writing. Let's just having all these memories of it. Yeah, just it was it was easy. That book was easy because it was just a reflection of my life. That was that was not hard.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Like when I talk to artists that write hit songs or people that write movies, I always ask them because I'm always fascinated. Are you like with a yellow pad and a pencil? Or are you open up a laptop or you and your phone do yeah? Like, how many doing it? Laptop, but you know, right.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Okay, that's what I'm saying. Right. Right, right. It's like hey, you're just like oh shit, where's that? Right. There it is. Okay, it's taking me forever, right? Right to write this book. And then you said you found a publisher. Like, how does that so um I mean you're in the you you're in the world, right? So you just know somebody that knows somebody. So yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna write a book. I have no publisher. I don't know any, I don't know anything about writing a book. And and a friend of mine, Chris Widener, um, he'd written a lot of books, uh, bestseller, you know, leadership expert. And I said, Hey, and he says, Well, I used to be a part of this company and made for success. And and it's it's between self-publish and the full you know, thread. And and he goes, but they put a writing plan. So I actually nailed with a guy, gave me a writing plan. We went through two days, crafted the stories, this and that, plugged it all in. So now I gotta do is go in and follow my script and write the stories and write the reflection and write all the pieces. Right. And it was it was fun. It was uh yeah, it was fun, it was awesome.

The Observer And Awareness Training

SPEAKER_02 9:52

But then they wanted me to write another book, and I wanted to write another book because now I wanted to write all about how your mind and heart are connected and how we need to be the observer of those thoughts and emotions in order to change them. So awareness becomes the X factor. So I wrote the book, you know, The Observer. That's right, that's that's the one that's in the deal. But they said the publisher came to me and says, We want you to do this different. I was like, all right, well, it was the first one was different for me because I'm not a writer, right? Right? They said, Well, we want you to write like a fable. I said, Well, what's that? Right? They go, story, and I'm like, okay. And they go, we want you to tell story. I was like, okay, and they said, no, with characters. I'm like, uh I'm like, I don't have that. Right. I don't have that. I'm not a author. Right. I mean, I'm working on another book. Right now, it's it's almost laughable. Right. What are you working on right now? I'm gonna work now, I'm working on another, a third book. Okay, but this the second book writing stories, so I didn't have one editor, I had to have two. I had to have an editor edit the editor that edited me. That's how tough it was. The second book, I had to write each chapter nine times. Jeez, there's a chapter in the book I couldn't get right, I finally just got fed up and said, post it. So is it not fun then at this point? That wasn't that book, it's no fun for me at all. Because it's not my skill set. But first, what is like look, you put someone into a position and it's not their thing, how much fun are they gonna have? Right. They're gonna hate it. Right. I hated it. Right. But I was like, well, my problem is I can't start something and not finish. Right. I did trust me, I wanted to quit and say, screw this. So bad. But the other part of me was like, bro, you don't, you don't just don't do that. You don't quit, you're elastic. That's not part of the like it's almost like you know, hee ha, right, hey, dumbass, you don't quit. So finish the race. Right. But I got to a point where I was like so fed up with it. So the next book I get to write back in no characters, motivation, nonfiction. It's gonna be, it's all the inside game. So it's really about our identity. So I look at identity as our identity represents our belief system, right? And what attacks our belief system is pressure, attacks belief systems. And it's like, what if we could overcome the pressure by growing our identity and growing our belief system? See, the problem with most people is they don't think things are possible. And it's not that they're impossible because others maybe have achieved something. They just don't realize it's possible for them. And I always say, Do you have a desire? Do you have in your heart? Would you like, would you like that? Would you love to do that? Is that something that would sound cool to you? And they were like, Yeah, I'll cut off my arms and be able to do that. I said, Well, you have the desire. So now it's possible. But in order for it to become possible, we make we're gonna have to grow your identity, change your belief system in order for it to prove to you that it is possible.

Rage On The Mound

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Is this like the biggest stinct is instinct for you? Would you go learn this somewhere?

SPEAKER_02 13:04

So, yeah, so I was in the middle of my baseball career, fed up, sick and tired of being sick and tired. And just got to a point where mentally and emotionally, I was like exhausted. Because I found myself that when things didn't go right on the field and off the field, um, I found myself trying to control the uncontrollables, and it made me mentally and emotionally crazy to the point where I would just explode. And in my younger days, it's like like I would almost hope things wouldn't go right so I could fight someone. It was stupid. Like fight fight, yeah, or do you fight? Yeah, no, no, fight. Oh wow. Like I wanted to throw down. Oh, right. Because I I had so much in me because it was 93 World Series. We just won back-to-back World Championships, 28 years old. I grew up in Yankee Stadium with a legend. I had incredible, he had incredible teammates. I had a dream. I'm now living my dream. If you look at me from the outside world, you're like, this freaking guy's got it all, got it all. I mean, he grew up in Yankee Stadium where his dad is Mel Stoidelmeyer, he's a three-time, his dad was a three-time 20-game winner, five-time All-Star, he's a five-time world champion. And it's like, now this guy's winning world champions. Like, good for him, right? Right? Right. Problem was, I looked in the mirror, I couldn't stand the guy looking back at me. I was living when it looked like I had all the success in the world, um, worldly success, I was living the most miserable, hateful, guilt, guiltful, shameful life. But what's that mean? Does that mean after practice you come home and drink yourself silly?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Like go.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

I'm lucky that I didn't, I didn't do that I didn't use substances. I've never done a drug in my life, I've never smoked a cigarette. Of course I've drank, you know, have some drinks, but socially, but I never turned, I it was I turned to one fight. That was it. Like I had rage. And and and uh and it was crazy because um 12 years prior to that moment of being sick and tired of being sick and tired, where I reached out to a guy that was like everything to me. He wrote the mental game of baseball, Harvey Dorfman, who really took psychology and mindset to the sport. He was a pioneer, and he had worked with Hall of Famers and I knew of him, but I'd so but the problem was is that 12 years prior to that moment, I gave my little brother a bone

Guilt After A Bone Marrow Loss

SPEAKER_02 15:39

marrow transplant. He was fighting, he was, I was 15, he was 11, he was fighting for his life. It was his third bowel leukemia, and the doctor said his only chance for survival is a bone marrow transplant. They checked all the family's blood, mine matched his perfectly. I gave him the bone marrow transplant. Everything seemed like it was working. He was literally two days from being released from the hospital after being weeks there, went into a coma, didn't come out of it, passed, and uh and moved on. I stood after he had taken his last breath and passed, I stood over his bed, and the sadness was you can imagine. And you know, my mom and dad had to bury their 11-year-old son, and I know you have listeners that have a similar story, and and it's like, but I had something more than sadness, I was mad. I uh like I hated the world for my little brother being gone, but I also had guilt. I was like, it's my fault. Oh, jeez. So I couldn't even look at my parents because I was like, man, it was my meryl that put him into a coma that took his life. And it didn't matter, doctors were like, hey Todd, you did everything you could. My parents, you know, everyone was coming to my rescue and and because they could see what I was kind of going through, but at the same time, it didn't matter what someone said. I was a 15-year-old boy, I had a mind of my own. Right. So what I had done was I replayed being the killer over and over and over with deep emotion to that thought that then drove that into my subconscious, which means I ultimately became that person. Now, did I know it then? I didn't have a clue. I mean, I I'm I'm 12 years past that event, still hating, still in rage, still sick and tired, being sick and tired, still mentally and emotionally, that every time I couldn't control something, so I meet with Holy. And Hoggie says to me, Would you do it again? And I said, Do what? This is in the first 15, 30 minutes of our conversation. He goes, Would you do that bone marrow transplant again? He broke me. I went to my knees, cried like a baby. And I was thinking to myself, how dare he asked that, right? And he looks at me and he says, Didn't you already do it? I said, Yeah. He said, You do everything you could. I said, Hari, I think so. I believe that. And he says, Well, why are you holding yourself prisoner to that? He says, You're not God, you didn't kill him, and you were not capable to also help him live. And it's time for you to forgive and let it go. In that moment, it was like this elephant was off the back of my shoulders. Now, was I cured? No, it was 12 years of me wiring that story into my mind to become that person. It was gonna take years. It was this was by the way, this was third, that meeting happened 34 years ago coming this February. Oh wow. So it's kind of like I track it like it's a birthday, right? Right. Why? Because I'm still working on my mind, I'm still working on how I think, how I respond, how I react, what my heart is telling me emotionally, what I'm feeling, and then the actions I'm taking. But did that rage help you become the great ball player that you are? It helped me get there. It helped me fight through every obstacle. The rage, no question, served a purpose. And it helped me get there and it helped me battle. When I got sent back down, I was like, screw you, I'm coming back. You know, all those things. So there's no question it played a role in me getting to that point. But it was also playing a role in me not being the best I could be, right? Because it was blocking me from it. By the way, you are the first guy to ever ask that question. Did it ever serve you? And the qu the answer is yeah, the rage did serve me, but it it served me to get to a place, but then it began to be the thing that also detoured me. But then when Harvey opens you up, do you change immediately? Yeah, so what's crazy? The last 30 minutes, by the way, I booked a two-hour meeting, like 12 hours at last. Wow. We never left the hotel. We cried, we laughed, we all kinds of things. So, and remember, I reached out to him because I wanted help. Right. So let me say that. And and and because it's so important. Some people are going through crap today and they need help, they just won't admit that they need help and reach out for it. I was at a place I just fed up. Um, I'm a 500 pitcher on world championship team. I had too much potential, too much talent, too much this. I was like, how can how can I like what's the problem with me? Right. So at the end of the day, but uh Harvey, we're in that last hour and last 30 minutes, and he says, and it's the off season now. We just we literally the the World Series parade was a week ago, right? Right. Uh and then I booked a meeting, then I see him in the spring. So um, but it's the off season, and we're we're preparing now for spring training.

Harvey Dorfman And Seven Day Journal

SPEAKER_02 21:03

He says, We do a seven-day challenge with you. I said, I'm in, I'll do anything. I just want to be better. And he says, All right, he says, for the next seven days, you're not allowed to compete at anything. I'm like, whoa, I could have got golf games, right? Right, right, right. Bro, um, let me tell you something. You break out a game, we're born to row war. Right, right. I mean, we just that's just the way it is. I mean, growing up, if I played basketball with my little brother in the backyard, it was a fist fight. We never got to the end of one game, right? We fought every, you know, we're good, fought, we're competing. I have three boys every day. Yeah, so you know the game. So, anyways, I but I said, I'm all in. So he said, All right, so for the next seven days, he goes, here's the deal. Every time mentally you start to go south, you don't like your thoughts. And I'm not talking about because we got like 80,000 thoughts going through our mind a day, right? It's the thoughts we carry, it's like it's the one we meditate on, it's the ones we keep. ones we keep over replaying, right? Whether they're negative or positive. Yeah, it doesn't matter what it is. Those are the ones, right? And and he goes, but I also want you to when you start the that little fuzzy guy on the inside of you starts to want to explode and this and that. I want you to journal. You're not allowed to compete against it. I just want you to journal how you feel, what's the situation, where's it coming from, right? I want you to start observing, becoming the observer of yourself. Okay. This is where I got the book, The Observe. Right, right, right. And I'm like, I'm in. At the end of seven days, we went through my journal. And here's what we found out. Every time my mind went south and my emotions started to get the best of me, I was only focused on one thing. Every time, by the way. Not some of the times, every time. I was always focused on something I couldn't control in the moment. I was like, and he was like, he was so excited. I was like, why didn't why are you so happy? Right? He goes, because this is gonna change your game. And I was like, I I wanted I was there for my life as much as my game. And by the way, Harvey's gone now, rest in peace, but I'm not sure I'd be here without him because of the rage and the the stuff.

One Pitch At A Time

SPEAKER_02 23:15

But and and in any case, it was like he was so happy because everything around my game then became the next pitch. And he used to tell me, he says, they can take your body, and part of your body is that baseball. They can do whatever they want with it. They can't take your mind unless you give it to them. So if you don't show your emotion, no one knows what you're feeling or what you're thinking. So my problem was I was showing it all the time. You know, I mean I bumped umpires, got thrown out of games, headbutt on, fought. I showed uh you were gonna see my emotions. So there's a good probably a lot of good YouTube videos if you go nice shots. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Unfortunately. And there was no internet back then, but they still got that shit. I spent them to get it. I was like, where did you hit that? You know, right. So, anyways, it was it's become now my life mission, and it's it's so have you got help after Merving from anybody else? No, he stayed with me. He stayed with you. So do you also did he ever acknowledge you said what what was his book? He wrote The Middle Game of Baseball, he wrote the middle game of pitching, he wrote the middle game of hitting. He was the guru from Major League Baseball for Mindset.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Because I read a book called Mind Gym. You ever read Mind Gym? No, I haven't. And it was it was written in the early 2000s, but it was about and and there's a guy here that worked with a lot of spread training because he I got three boys, so I went through, I looked through I think psychology and sports together is unbelievable. As a matter of fact, I'm watching right now the documentary on Nick Saban. It's the best. Have you seen the documentary? No, but Cam has seen it.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

She's like, I just finished the first episode, so you're gonna love this.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yes, I was told, I told my wife on the way here. I go, When we get home after this podcast, I said, I want you to watch something with me because I want to rewatch it. When he get up getting goosebumps, when he connects with the sports psychologists.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

No, it's just you think about like his driver, because I remember him talking about Michigan, right? Yeah. All he cared about was the outcome winning. All he cared about was the outcome, right? He was mean and weak. Yeah. But we're all that way. Right. At the end of the day, if you think about it, it's like we're so outcome driven that we forget to be in this moment and do everything we can in this moment. That's called process, right? Because we're so outcome driven. Matter of fact, a lot think about this. A lot of people will make up a story in their mind of something bad that's gonna happen the next day because of whatever situation they're in. And then they get to the next day and it never happened. Sometimes it happened, but most of the time, most of the time it never happens. But you think, but with the last 24, 48 hours, like I'm worn out. And I'm worn out because all I've prepared for is this negative outcome that actually never happened. And then the ones that actually do happen, the negative outcomes, the ones we dread and lose so much sleep over, when we get through those outcomes, if we don't quit and we don't give up and we learn to process, we get out there somewhere and look back and go, thank God that happened.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

So everything we freaking worry about is a waste of time. So how do you stop worrying about it?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

How do you stop worrying and start living?

Breathing To Break Worry Loops

SPEAKER_02 26:27

No, that's a great that's a great question. So my favorite answer to that is is we're human. We're flawed, we're human. Of course, we're gonna have negative thought, this and that. But it's once again, but if I can create this awareness that says, wow, I'm not in a good spot right now, right? Mentally or emotionally, I can call time out on myself and I can focus on my breathing. And I and I and I'll like I'll I'll breathe in through a four count, hold it for a four count, out through a six count. If you do that, it's like, where'd that thought go? I gotta go back to get it now. If I go back to get it, it becomes a choice. So once I've cleared my mind, now here's my favorite question is what can I do now that I'm in control of?

SPEAKER_00 27:16

John Jay is getting an MRI total body longevity scan, middle scan from basically his head all the way down to mid-thigh.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

My father died at the age of 66 of a massive heart attack. My mother died at the age of 66 with uh glioblastoma. Here I am, a dad of three young boys, very really young. So I've been obsessed with my health pretty much ever since. So I'm really excited about the full body scan. I'm excited about the heart scan, but I'm also excited about the full body scan to make sure there's no nothing up here. It'd be great to be tumor-free. So I'm really excited to get those results. I feel pretty good about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

The whole process takes about an hour from start to finish. It's a very easy, painless procedure. You just have to lay there quietly and try to be as still as possible.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And I always feel at ease when I come to Simon Med. It's like family here. Wait, so when you do the forecast, the breathing, how long is that? Is that 30 seconds? Is that a minute? How many times do you do it? So sometimes once is enough until it just goes away.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Sometimes the problem is so big it doesn't work. And I was like, what do I gotta do next? I gotta go to my tool chest.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

But the problem's something you made up anyway. Yeah, it's fake. Right. So you it's like fear, fake, so but made up stories.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Ultimately, it's all fake. Right. Yeah, but uh, but I but I feel it. I'm thinking it and I'm feeling it emotionally, so it's like I gotta go, I gotta release it. Right. And we can we can sit here today and say, well, that's fake. And someone says, Yeah, but I'm feeling it doesn't matter what you say. Right. It's kind of like the doctor said, You did everything you could. Doesn't matter what you say, doc. Mom Meryl killed my little brother. See, it's the meaning and the story of the individual. Now they got to fight it. That's why you got to clear your mind. If you can clear your mind and you can get to a if you have the awareness to clear your mind, then you clear your mind, then you can ask yourself what I call the million-dollar question. What can I do now that I'm in control of and go take the action towards that?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

When you said you called your wife when you're gonna go to the hospital to see your dad, your wife said, Oh, you're oh, we said you're gonna write a book. She was playing you speak, and now you're gonna write a book. When she said you speak, what would were you speaking on this stuff? Were you on tour? Were you uh speaking at some point?

SPEAKER_02 29:25

So it's evolved.

Regret As A Wake Up Call

SPEAKER_02 29:26

So it has been evolving. Like, you know, it's funny we're here today and and we're in a place where, you know, I I it's funny, I would get so busy with life and kids and companies, and and we would be I would speak, and I wrote the books. You know, most people write a book because they want to go get on stages. I wrote a book because I felt like the Dead Sea. I just wanted off. I didn't have a strategy. And here we are today, and it's like uh I talk about regret a lot, and man, because I watched my father, actually, I had my left hand on his heart, my right hand on his head when he took his last breath. I spent the last seven days with my father in that hospital. And I felt, I felt with my hand, I felt the last breath. And when I felt that last breath, I had the most, I was sad as hell. My mentor, my hero was moving on. I had so much freaking gratitude that that guy was my father and and all of that. It was the weirdest, it was a complete opposite of the feeling I had when my little brother passed. Right. It was so different. Um why did I bring that up? Well, how does that make you feel? Oh, you asked why I'm you know, so today I I talk about the regret, right? Right, and I'm like, and I remember thinking, my father had no regrets. He did everything he wanted. There was no place he wanted to go. Right. There was nothing else he wanted to go. All he wanted to do was go f I want to go fish. Right. Right? Like all he wanted to do was go fishing one more day. So, you know, and I'm and I and I'm sitting there and I'm looking at him as an example for my life, going, man, I want that. And just recently I was like, well, if I go, if today was my last day and I knew I was aware of it, and they said, Okay, this is it, Todd. Any regrets? I'm like, Yeah. Yeah, I didn't go all in on serving others through my speaking and writing books and coaching and everything else. I didn't go all in on all the lessons that I've achieved in my life that can go pour into other people. But you're doing it now. We're going all in right now. Right now, just like literally, like in the last we've been preparing for this launch. It's crazy that me and you are on this thing right now. There was no plan, by the way, when we were gonna do this, there was no plan. Hey, let me go promote. No, no, no. I walk into your restaurant, yeah. No, I walk in. I'm gonna talk about Koivito Pokey right, right?

The Inside Game Coaching Program

SPEAKER_02 31:58

But it's like now here we are, and I mean, I'm launching a class in January called the Inside Game. Oh, you are? 12-month coaching class.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Oh, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

And it's gonna be two virtuals a month, and I'm gonna teach on one of them. And the second virtual month is a mastermind. They take the lessons from two weeks ago that we taught. How are we applying them? Are they working? Right. How do the people sign up? Whatever. So you can go online right now, tautofficial.com. It's right there. It's uh the inside game. We're gonna we're literally going to teach the class of the inside game of the book I'm gonna write. Oh, wow. But I'm gonna teach the class in front of the book. Oh, in front of the book coming, are you gonna tell the Harvey story and all that?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, because that's powerful. Everything. They're gonna get it all. So you were so it'll be awesome. But like after baseball,

Life After Baseball And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 32:44

right? When did that end for you in baseball? Oh, two. So, but you wrote the book in 2018. Yeah, took a while again. What happened in between there? And also, what was that like? Because you know, I got I got I just signed up. I I'm on uh one year of a five-year deal. I got four years left, right? And I and I and and my wife wants me to retire. And I keep thinking about what's the first day gonna be like when I'm no longer a radio personality. So, what was it like for you the first day you woke up and you weren't a baseball player anymore?

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Yeah, so I was probably luckier than most because I knew I couldn't perform any longer. Oh, okay. Okay, so you might go through the struggle that a lot of guys go through where you can still perform four years from now. Right. And then it's gonna be. Oh, so you thought you were injured? You were injured. I was I couldn't, I couldn't do it. I was physically, I literally left every pitch on the field. Like I didn't save any of them. Right. That's good. And it was cool. Right. That was a my mom used to always say, like, how long are you gonna do this? I said, Until I can't. And I got to that point.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

So how old were you when you were tired? I was 37. Oh, yeah. Because I watched that Nolan Ryan documentary, and that dude like did the best he did after 37. Yeah. Like when he was 40. I pitched against him, he was 44. That's crazy. Like the dude was throwing no hitters. Right. I was like, wow. So you were injured, so it wasn't like one day you're retired, the next day is like, oh my God, what am I? I'm not supposed to go to the baseball diamond today.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Yeah. So I was, I was, I'll say that I was ready, but then spring training came, my first spring training. And all my buddies are coming back to town. And I mean to tell you, I couldn't take it. That's what I mean. I said to my wife, I said, book a trip to Hawaii. She goes, when? I said, tomorrow. I need to go tomorrow. I need to get, I need to get away from spring training. And I was, you know, early on, you know, they come to town, I go to dinner with them, and it's like, and I'm like, man, I'm I'm not a part of this. Right. And I was like, I gotta get the hell out of here. And then and then the season came and I didn't watch one game on TV. I never went to any games. Uh, and then the second year came and spring training, I was fine. I was like, I was like, I'm good. Right. Right. And and uh and now like I think I watch every playoff game. Like, I love to watch the game now, you know. I don't like to go in person, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:07

But I love to watch it on TV. You know, when

Parenting With Tough Love

SPEAKER_01 35:10

you talk a lot about your dad and how close you were, how has that shaped you as a dad? Did that make you like are do you think you're extra close with your kids? Do you try to get are you too involved, less involved? What in what life lessons you teach them?

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Yeah, you know, it's awesome. That's a great question. Um so my father he had this saying, like, he would let us like go far enough till we hang ourselves and then he'd yank us back on the rope. Um like I'm really close with my five kids. And and uh but I let them fall. Isn't that hard? So I've got to tell you a story about our chief operating officer who is my daughter. I think that's when I met? Yeah, okay. So she started when she was 16 working at Gainey at the store. And uh she used to clean the walls and you know, she did all she she did everything. So she calls me, and uh after her sophomore year in high school, she's gone or college, she's going to University of Arizona. She goes, Okay, dad, I've had enough here. I don't need any more of this. I already know what I want to do. I said, Well, what do you want to do? She goes, I want to work with you and build companies. We're gonna build Coibido and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that. And I'm like, are we? And uh so, and she was coming home for the summer, and I'm thinking to myself, man, all right, you know, and I was like, I gotta let the kid dream. Like, I can't steal something from her, right? So she has something inside of her, but I had a different alternative. I'm like, I'm gonna work her to death so she wants to go back to school. So I told her, I said, come home. She wasn't gonna go, she wasn't gonna go back her junior year. She was like, I'm ready. Okay, she goes, I I don't need any more parties, I don't need I don't need any more of that stuff down here. Like, I'm all in, like, let's go. I'm like, oh, okay, great talk, you know. And and so I mentioned to her mother, my wife, and I was, she says, Yeah, she called me. I told her to call you. I'm like, thanks for the warning, right? So, anyways, I said, Well, no problem. So I told her, I said, when you come home, we'll go 60-day trial. If you want to go to school after the end of 60 days, go. If you want to stay, stay. So my method to my madness was work her to death. So she'll want to go back to school. So store opens at 11, but you don't start work at 11. You're gonna start working at like 7, 8 in the morning. Store closes at 9. You're not done working, champ. You get done working about 10, 11 o'clock at night. So I was working her like 80 hours a week. I was like, let me crush her, right? Right. This is my mentality, right? Is she your oldest? And no, uh, second oldest. Okay. So, anyways, so she comes home and she had taken over a Gainey, and she did such a great job. We're like, geez, it was awesome. Like she just turned the staff around and the store around. She did like, yeah. So we're like, we'll take the next one. We'll take them all, right? Just oversee them all. So there was one store that when she showed up, they would like make fun of her. Here's this young kid, right? And it's like now she's like in charge all of a sudden, right? So they were calling her daddy's little princess and making fun of her, and they wouldn't listen to her. And she comes home, it's about 10 o'clock at night, she comes in the door and she's bawling, right? And I'm like, what's going on? And then and me and Erica are sitting there, and I'm sitting in my chair, and she sits down, and I go, she's telling me the story about they're making fun of her, they don't listen, they're calling me daddy's little princess, and then she's crying, and she's going on and on. And I'm sitting there, and Erica looks at me and she's like, You gonna do something? I go, I am, hon. I am doing something, I'm listening. And then when she was done, she finally took a breath and she went like on and on and on, and I was like, Oh man. And when she was done, I said, Well, you got two choices, cham. You can be daddy's little princess, or you can be boss, pick one. She got up from the chair, walked out of the room, slammed the door. And I looked at her mother, her mother. Her mother was like, Wow, way to go. Great advice, right? Right, and I'm like, Well, I guess she's gonna be going back to school. Three days later, she calls me and she's like, Hey dad, I'm like, what's up? Right? And I'm thinking she's gonna tell me she's going back to school. And she goes, I'm over at Arcadia. And I said, Yeah, how's it going? She goes, Well, I fired everyone. I'm like, You did what? She goes, I fired everyone. She goes, I'm gonna rebuild my team, and I'll work every hour until I rebuild them. She goes, I'm gonna be the boss. And I hung up with the phone and I was like, dear God, what have I created? Wow, it was awesome. We have a saying, right? Anytime someone starts to complain about we're warriors. No complaining. It's warrior over victim. I don't want to hear the excuses and blames and this, and it's too hard, and I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do either. So if you don't know what to do, go do something, and if it's wrong, fix it. I'm gonna let them fly. I'm gonna let them hang themselves. And if they get too far out there, I'll pull them back.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

But she didn't hang herself.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

So no.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

So how long ago was that?

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Because she's is she's running the So she was uh what was she then? She was 19, 20 years old. She's 25 today. She's the chief operating officer. Her and Camden, they're in charge of every franchisee that we have, operations systems. We got 12 stores now. Here? So no, no, no. We got one that's gonna open in Florida, one in Mississippi, four in the Midwest, four here, fifth on the way, one in one in Vegas. Yes, crazy. So you you have franchised them out. We franchised, yeah. So how many do you guys own that are yours? Arcadia and Ganey. Two. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Because the Arcadia ones, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Arcadia is the one, it's kind of the one we got stuck with when we bought these things out. Right. Right? So uh that lease is up next year, so we're kind of trying to figure out what we're move. Yeah, we're not gonna stay there.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

How come it's Arcadia?

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Yep. No, we'll stay in Arcadia.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Just not at that location. Yeah, trying to find a better location. Yeah, we gotta brighten things up a little, boss. I know where you need to go. You need to go. We only need like 900 to 1200 feet. You need to go where that freaking next to that jamba juice used to be that jamba juice of by Kava. There's this Korean, I don't know what the hell that was. Oh, really? Bip mop, whatever that place called. I know it's not there anymore. Is there something else there? Oh, damn it. But you need to stay in that yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

There's good business. It's good. I mean, for our location there, it's crazy, but you know, they do they do great business there.

Building Koibito Pokey Nationwide

SPEAKER_01 41:55

By the way, how do you go from being a World Series winner to owning a Pokeball place?

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Yeah. Accidents. Accident? So a friend of mine calls me, he says, Hey, let's go look at this restaurant. I go, No, I'm out. The only thing I knew about restaurants is any former athlete that got involved with a restaurant, it went under. Yeah. It's the only thing I know about the restaurant business. I know other than I like to eat at restaurants. So I know nothing, right? Uh, but he talks to me in the gone, tells me it's a pokey place, and I'm like, my favorite food, so I'm gonna go. So we get there, and and uh the guy is looking for capital. He wants to expand in Arizona. It's the original uh Koi Pokey location.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

It was Koi, that's what it was. Koi pokey, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

So great people. Um they want to expand in Arizona, but we listen to the meeting, the whole thing, and so we come out out, we we're done eating and done with the meeting, come outside, and my partner says, What do you think? I said, Oh, I'm gonna take this to the nation. He's like, What? He goes, That's not even on the table. I'm like, Well, why not? He goes, he only wants to expand in Arizona. I'm like, all right, whatever. So we ended up becoming partners, and then it just after about a year or so, it just made sense for us to split. They're great people, fine people. We we support them to this day, you know. They we let them, they in the deal, they kept their original store. We're still happy for them. Oh, so they still have one. They kept their original store. Oh, and then we rebranded everything else from Koi to Koibido.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Is Koibido a thing? Is that a name? Is that a real thing?

SPEAKER_02 43:30

It's love. It's the it's like um it's from a noun, it's like the new lovers, uh, right? So we want you to come eat Koibeto pokey, even if you don't like raw fish, we're gonna introduce you to your new lover. Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Because you're gonna love Koi Beetle Pokey. And then you have, and I didn't notice till your daughter pointed out you've got a patch of grass. Yeah, right. Is that in every store? Yeah. She said, because my dad's a baseball player.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah. Well, I let her think the way she wants to think.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

So, you know, I I I I find that that it's not my space, right? As far as operations and and uh I probably want to fire people every day. So you know, matter of fact, when I took over, um, I brought in a guy that had a lot of experience in franchising. He actually built Samurai Sam's, um, it exploded all over the valley. They sold it to a public company. I didn't know anything about the about the industry. I say sport. I didn't know med, I don't, I don't understand what what are the metrics that even mean anything. So I I got into it not knowing anything. So which was it made it easier that when my daughter came along, it's like that's why I said, if you got an idea, just do it. And if it's wrong, just fix it. Right. I said, this is the only way we're gonna learn and become something, right? So um, anyways, so I I like So you don't go in every day. You don't you probably never know. But just to eat and then get out of there. Really? But I'm I'm everyone's friend now. Right. I'm like, hey, I need the thing. You're like, hey, what's up? Yeah, yeah. I just want to be their friend because if I'm not their friend and I want to hold them accountable, then it's like we got So you don't look at numbers monthly or you do. So right now I assume doing the So I look um look at me as I'm the guy that's always trying to work on the business but never in it. Okay. So I'm always looking at numbers.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Yeah, it's so smart. You know, and my wife and I bought two pizza places and they failed miserably.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Well, I mean, that's easy though.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

It's easy. That's uh Well, we couldn't find people to run it.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yeah, but we know. We got you. Yeah, we know, we get it. Yeah, it was we understand it all. It was during COVID, it's stupid. Yeah, COVID was hard.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

When did you when did you first open the first one?

SPEAKER_02 45:30

What year? So 2018. But I we bought them out and separated our and and divided our partnership in December 2019.

COVID Lessons And Catering Growth

SPEAKER_02 45:39

Uh wait, so now you have that many of them. So I was and then March 2020, COVID hits three months later. Right. I was like, oh my god, what are we gonna do now? You know what we did? What I pulled everyone together, and I just said, guys, I said, if you're willing to come to work and get better, then you can stay. And we'll stay. But you have to want to get better, you have to want to help us get better as a company. And literally, you know, we started doing things we'd never done, like delivery. Um, today we're hyper focused on catering, like hyper focused.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yeah, I went to a party, you guys catered, it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

You know what? I was like, what who did this? Yeah, you know, but you know what? It's kind of like think about catering is like when you think about raw fish, yeah, and you have to overcome all the obstacles. What are the obstacles? People are thinking, like, well, it's raw fish. Is it gonna stink? Is it this? Is it that? They got all these obstacles in their brain why they can't cater. So what we did is let's overcome the obstacles. So we take anybody that caters. So if you're listening and you're in Arizona and you cater, uh we want you to contact us. We're gonna bring you at no cost to you a sample pack for 10 people in your office to try our food. So, and then you know what we found out? Well, everyone that does a sample pack eventually orders catering because you overcome all the obstacles.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Well, do you have uh East Valley locations? We do. You do, because if you do an event, because I was thinking we're doing this huge event, just on the case.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Yeah, but we can cater anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Okay, so the fish travels well.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

What the fish travels better than 99.9% of all other foods. That's awesome. People just don't they don't, but you're parking. You know what's crazy is me saying that. They're like, yeah, yeah, but you're the pokey guy. Right, right. I said, no, no, no, no, no. We're gonna show you. We're happy to drive 30 minutes away. And when we get there, we're gonna temp all the fish. It's all gonna be on ice, everything is gonna be at the temperature it's supposed to be, right? It was all prepped by the time we got there. We're gonna lay it all out. It's gonna be on ice. You can let it set for three hours and go eat, and it'll be just as fresh as if you walked in our store. That's great because the fish is kept at temp. Where do you guys get your fish?

SPEAKER_01 47:55

So we don't tell everything. Oh, oh, that's a secret. You don't wait. Did you ever do spring training in Tucson? Yeah. Yeah. Did you ever go to Mr. Anz? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Mr. He's a friend of mine. I remember that guy. Yeah, he would tell me how he would go to the market and smell the fish, go into the fish, and pick the fish out every night. Well, I mean, that was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Yeah. You know, it's unbelievable how much we test different. Um, so like I'll give you an example. Salmon. Uh-huh. Right? There are so many different kinds of salmon. But then there are the same species and speck of salmon that's in different waters around the world. Right. And the colder the temperature, the more the fat line. It would make sense because the fish needs more fat and colder water, right? It's also the best tasting fish. So we try to go to the coldest water we can to get our salmon, and we got the speck down. So we're traveling overseas to get our salmon and our tuna, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

You know what parallel I like here in hearing your story? Is you said your dad all he wanted to do was go fish. He'd done it all. And that's what you're doing. Yeah, I'm fishing. You're fishing. You see what I'm saying? That's crazy. There is this kind of interesting parallel that your dad's involved still, you know. Yeah. Let me ask you this.

Collectibles Family Legacy And Pressure

SPEAKER_01 49:14

This is totally off, not off-subject, but I just learned I I just kind of went into this world with a friend of mine. A friend of mine has got completely obsessed with baseball cards and trading. And I mean, at a high level, and I mean, right, like it's big again. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. And and he, you know, pretty wealthy guy, and he like he bought a Mickey Mantle for something. Now it's worth 800,000. He got offered all this different stuff, and he told me about a guy in town uh called E-Trade Tony. Have you heard of E-Trade Tony? I haven't. He's got I went to his house with him just four days ago, and I'm not in that space, but I was like, I'm interested. And we go to this guy's house, and he's got this wall, and you he touches something, and the wall moves, and then there's a huge safe. Door opens, and it's a room three times the size of this studio. And it's I'll show you a video later. It's got every freaking comic book, it's got he's got every baseball card, he's got he's got a Playboy magazine autographed with um Marilyn Moreau on the cover that Joe DiMaggio signed. Oh, wow. And he was apparently really pissed that she was in the in Playboy, but somehow he signed it. Like there's he has all this stuff. And I was like, how does that sit with you? And and you know, do you own any of that stuff? I mean, you're you, your dad is your legend, so you must have yeah, like whenever you want more money, you just sign a card.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

So frustrating that it's so frustrating that um growing up, right, um, 60s, early 70s, and Mannel didn't retire until 69. And my dad would bring home all these cards. I can't tell you how many Mickey Mannels ended up in the spokes of my bike with the with the clothes uh hanging thing, right? Right, whatever. So that my it would go right when I spin the bike. There's I probably went through millions and millions of dollars of Mantle cards at five. And it's like, man, talk about right I always tell my kids you can't fix stupid, and I'm like, man, I can't fix stupid. But you didn't know nobody knew who would who would think like hey, I got this card, and by the way, someday it'll be worth this.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

But I would think maybe your dad, when your dad passed away, you know, up on the top shelf, there's a friggin' box with something he had from his friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

I mean, I have a lot of stuff um from my career, from my father's career, um, that is tied, you know, to us, our teams, this and that.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

And emotional. They're emotional.

SPEAKER_02 51:43

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, um, I mean, it's pretty crazy that my dad has five World Series rings, and I've got three, and as a family, eight World Championships. And if you stand back from that, you're like, geez, who else has that? Spoiled brats, right? And it's like, but we just we just found a way, both of us, you know, right time, right place, right teams, right chemistry, right, right everything to make it work. Because it's because it's so hard. I mean, look at the Dodgers, right? And they're a great example that they won back to back, right? And and and everyone talked all year, they're the team to beat, right? Right. And and it's like Milwaukee swept them. And and if you watch, you're like, you would say, man, like the Dodgers looked flat and they didn't they didn't look like that team and and all the things. But it's it's because it's so hard, you know, because you know, ultimately to win and be the last guy standing, um you gotta get you gotta be hot at the right

Are Athletes Softer Today

SPEAKER_02 52:52

time.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

Do you think the athletes nowadays are kind of soft compared to back when you played? Yeah, you do. I hear Charles Barkley talk about that all the time. Oh, you don't want to say.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Well, I'll say this. For whatever reason, they don't they don't play um not many of them. Okay, so I won't say everyone, but for the most part, you know, if they're sore, they don't play.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

Now I wasn't gonna say if they're hurt, they definitely don't play. And and I would just say, like, you know, um, and maybe because the money is so big, and maybe because careers are so short that and maybe it makes sense. I'm not here to judge them, right? Um but you know, um I mean it's just crazy, you know, and then so I don't, I don't, I don't know. I don't, you know, because I'm not in the locker room with them, so I don't really know what's going on, you know. Um I'm I'm a fan, but you know, there's times where you know you hear things and I'm like, oh, I roll my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 54:03

I'm like, oh, you can't play because of that. No, even in many different things, like my son uh goes to UV, partied his ass off one night, got so drunk two days later, his chest hurt, and mom took him to the emergency room, turned, you know, they thought he had all these diseases, and it turns out he was just pretty hungover. And I was like, back in my day, you just thugged it out. Yeah, and mom didn't take it to the emergency room. You know what I mean? So from that level all the way to pro athletes, I think it's the same thing. A lot of kids have been babied away.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

So what's funny is, you know, because I have a son now playing college baseball. Oh, who's he played for? So he's at Appalachian State, plays middle infield. He's a junior, he's he's a hell of a player. He's got major league baseball scouts following him and and the whole thing. And who knows? But you know, when he was um when he was 16, he was playing on his club team, and I was helping the coach out because he was actually a teammate of mine. And was it here?

SPEAKER_01 55:00

And here what team do you play for?

SPEAKER_02 55:02

Dingers. He played for Steven Randolph. I remember the Dingers. And you know, and and Randolph says, Hey, will you come out and help? I said, I just don't want to coach my son. I want to be a fan, I want to be dad. He goes, Well, you coach the other kids, I'll coach your son. I said, Deal. So I got to hang out, but you know, one day we're we're he'd playing in a tournament, and and my son has said, Dad, my my arm hurts. And I was like, Yeah? And and he and I could tell he was like wanting me to take him out of the game. And I said, Well, maybe you better go tell the head coach, I don't make the lineup out, champ. And I said, But before you go talk to him, you better realize there's no one else that can go play. So you're on your own. And and uh so what's funny is is, and I kind of like underneath my breath, I might have said a few things, but and and and uh so he got the message. And so he's told today he's the polar opposite. Like he literally, like, so two weeks ago he was in a game, he got spiked, had to get five stitches, um, but he didn't come out of the game. He stayed in the whole game and then got stitched up afterwards. Right, right. And then just this last weekend, he got drilled and broke his um hand uh and uh his left hand, but he stayed in the game and finished the game. And in high school, he had broken uh uh hand, got hit by a pitch, and played the rest of the game and then came back one month later. Now, if you're listening, you're probably thinking, man, dad, you need to chill out, right? But uh I'm proud of him because uh on one hand, it's like I know that if he takes himself out of a game, that he's not hurting, he's injured. Right? But um, but I gotta teach him that now. No, we said that now. Now he doesn't get there's a difference between I hurt and I'm injured.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

100%. We my my son plays basketball college, but he just finished college basketball. We had the same conversation when he was coming up. He also played against the Dingers. Do you know Dax Jones? Yeah, yeah, he he played for Dax. Yeah, yeah, yeah. X-Men back in the day. Yeah, they were all baseball was fun. Yeah. Oh man, that's stuff. That's that's the trick. What about you may ask you this about your son? So do you have to have a certain conversation with him about you know, having you as a dad and your dad as a grandpa, and there's eight World Series rings?

SPEAKER_02 57:21

Like he he's he's kind of lately over the last couple years kind of gone up against some of the noise, uh-huh, you know. Um, but he's paving his own road. You know, we were pitchers, he's a middle infielder. Um, you know, he's got more athletic ability and talent than we had, and I think it's cool what he's doing. So he knows what he's getting into that cow. He's got he's gonna have that shadow. And and uh one I was visiting him last year in in Texas and he was playing, and one of his teammates, I was I took the kid, a couple of the few of the kids to dinner, and and and his teammate is like, Man, TJ, he's like, you making it ain't enough. Like if you don't win a world champion, you're like, you're chop liver in your family. Right. And I kind of watched my son, you know, and I was like watching for his expressions and this and that. So, and then I had a chat with him afterwards. I said, listen, bro, you're gonna hear that crap all the time. I said, just go be you. And I tell him all the time, I go, man, I'm so proud of you. And I go, not because you're playing, and and not because of his work ethic, but it's unbelievable, and and not because of his base ball IQ, because it's off the charts, and and not because he cares and does and he goes the extra mile, not because of that. But and I tell him all the time, I said, listen, bro, um, whether you four for four or for four, dad's proud. Man, it's just I just love the way you attack this thing. And I said, whether you make it to the Major League Baseball or not, I'm like, I don't, I don't care, bro. I only I only want you to live out your dream and fulfill that and chase that. I go, but it's more than living it, it's pursuing it. And what you're gonna learn about yourself and who you are as a person, you don't learn by achieving, you learn by pursuing. So I go, fall in love with that pursuit and go get it, you know. So whatever happens, happens, man.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

That's a great dad stuff. You're a great dad. You're gonna love this Nick Saban documentary, man. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

He tells me he Cam's been telling me, he's like, bro, you gotta watch this.

SPEAKER_01 59:25

I mean, just something what you said earlier. You said that you're you're you're that Harvey told you, you know, hey, it's one pitch at a time, one pitch at a time. And the Nick Saban, Nick Saban, at one point, he meets with the psychology coach, and the coach is the guy's like, Look, man, it each play is six seconds. Six seconds at a time. Don't worry about the score, right? He's don't worry about the score. These six seconds is all we're gonna worry about. And then the next six seconds. Yeah, and then the next six seconds, and the dude, and they beat Ohio State, and then it was all over after that, right? That's as far as I am right now.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

So you know what's awesome is you learn that's the process of learning how to achieve.

Process Wins Small Progress Big Change

SPEAKER_02 59:58

You know, I was just I just had lunch with a guy, and I said, the problem with someone, you know, they create this big goal and it's got this big mountain. It's like, I want to, I want to do that, right? And it's it's an outcome. You're it's the scoreboard, right? The problem is, is like is is when you have that, not the problem, the challenge is when you have that, you start measuring where you are and how far away you are instead of just getting focused on the moment and win this moment. And if I can win this moment, I just need a little bit of progress. Like I make the joke all the time. I said, you know, if I go out and play golf, I shoot a hundred and I birdie 18. All I'm gonna talk about is the birdie. And I'm gonna talk about the hundred and all the bad. And I'm gonna start to believe because I birdied 18, man, maybe I can do a couple birdies next time. Right. I'm gonna start, I'm gonna sell out to I made a little bit of progress, where most people all they're gonna talk about is like, oh, shot a hundred, and it's like this and now, it's like, who cares? So, right? So it's for me, it's process, it's today, it's progress. You know, so wait, so if you can focus on the process and you can get in the moment where everywhere where you can literally block the rest of the world where the world goes silent, and you can make one little quarter of an inch progress, it's proven to you that you have the ability if you'll continue to move forward through the process.

Meditation Morning Routine And Thinking Time

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

Do you meditate at all? Yeah. I'm a different meditator, right? I don't sit a certain way or this and that. It's about me clearing my mind. Is it just a breathing? You know what I call it? Like I have a chair in my room, you laugh. It's actually my thinking chair. Like I literally have a chair where I go and I just think. And what I mean by that is I go in that chair, I lean it back, it reclines, I lay back, I close my eyes, I do my breathing exercise where there's nothing there, just opening myself up to whatever the next thoughts that come. Man, you know, think about something for a second. How many people do you think that actually intentional intentionally and consciously think? Not many. Especially now with cell phones. Man, we just rolling. Yeah. Everyone just scrolling crazy. Yeah, you gotta take time out. And it's the thoughts that we hang on to the most, tied with any kind of emotion, starts to create and grow an identity to who we become. So it's powerful, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

You gotta have, I think, time to yourself. Oh, yeah. You have to. I do that every morning, about an hour and a half, two hours just to myself.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

Before I start the day.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

Well, think about like, you know, you're you're you're gonna go out and you're gonna entertain people and you're gonna serve people. Brother, you better get you better fill the cup in the morning. Now, think about if you didn't fill the cup, by the time you get derated, what kind of attitude you got, right? And if you and if you take all the obstacles and challenges that life has been throwing to you, it's gonna show up mentally and emotionally, and then you're gonna speak that mind and those emotions. And it's different than you filling up, preparing for this day. Like I fill up every morning, I'm the same way. So I used to have like morning routine would be like 30 minutes. My morning routine is like two hours. So's mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

Mine started.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

By the way, when I'm struggling, yeah, I might go three hours, four hours. Like it's crazy. When I'm like if I'm in a bad spot, like I'll just I'll like I tell my wife all the time, I was like, I can go work on my mind. Like, I was I'll see ya.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

You gotta check out that book, Mind Gym. I got to. And I'm gonna check out Harvey's book. Yeah.

Final Takeaways And Thanks

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Um I'm so glad you came in here, man. I'm really glad you came in here. It's so funny. I thought we were gonna talk about food, but it was this was this was so next level. This was more than I anticipated. I'm so grateful. So, your your mastermind in your classes, what's the website again? Taugtofficial.com. And it's up, it's running. People can sign up now.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

You can sign up right now. It's we're gonna launch it. Uh, the first class is gonna be January 15th for a reason. Okay. You've already screwed up. Everything you said you were gonna do in the new year is gone. Right. Let's start over and let's build this year, right? And then what's cool is in December, actually, it's December 11th, it's the 12th month of the class. Everyone from wherever they come from around the country, we're gonna come together for a full day event and we're gonna do recap and QA. We're gonna dig and transform, we're gonna make m massive transformation in that day. But then what we're gonna do is we're going to the last half of the day is help them prepare and build a plan for a decade. Now it sounds crazy. Like, how could you possibly build a plan for a decade? One year at a time, broken down to one moment at a time. That's great. It's gonna be so that's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

Yeah, man. We're excited about it. Well, thank you, man. Could you you sign this so I can sell this? Hey, how many? It's worth something before I sign it. It ain't worth shit. I want to take it to a card shop. Oh man. Sushi and baseball, you know? Thanks, Todd. Thanks a lot, brother. Yeah, man, you're awesome, brother. Thanks. Thanks.

Radio Show Spinoff Tag

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show.