March 9, 2026

The Power of One: Why Impact Beats Attention (And How Relationships Change Everything)

The Power of One: Why Impact Beats Attention (And How Relationships Change Everything)

He walked away from the dream people spend their whole lives chasing. And it led him straight to the life he was actually meant to live.

In this deeply emotional and wildly honest episode of Quick Before You Forget, host Ty Schmidt learns from Jason Fitz, a Juilliard-trained violinist, former touring musician with platinum records, and now one of the most respected voices in sports media, to talk about what it really takes to build a life that feels like yours.

This is a conversation about betting on yourself before you have proof, following curiosity when the path makes no sense, choosing purpose over applause, and learning that the people who change your life are often the ones who simply make you feel seen.

Jason shares the nonlinear story of going from classical violin and country music stages to ESPN and Yahoo Sports, but this episode is about so much more than career reinvention. It’s about self-belief, identity, gratitude, grief, presence, emotional honesty, and the kind of impact that lasts longer than fame ever could.

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to pivot, whether your path makes sense, whether your struggle has shaped you for something greater, or whether relationships still matter in a world obsessed with overnight success, this one is for you.

In this episode, we talk about:

How Jason Fitz went from Juilliard to national sports media
Why the most powerful career moves rarely look logical at first
The truth about self-belief when nobody else understands your vision
Why your why has to be stronger than your fear
How real relationships create the “benefit of the doubt” that changes everything
What gratitude can do in your darkest moments
The power of being emotional, honest, and fully human
Why presence matters more than chasing the next thing
How to stop living for one version of yourself and embrace the fullness of who you are

This episode is for the dreamers, the feelers, the builders, the pivoters, the people with a complicated story, and the ones trying to remember who they are while becoming who they’re meant to be.

00:00 Why relationships still matter more than virality

01:21 Meet Jason Fitz

03:39 From child violin prodigy to Juilliard

08:19 How music became his first career

10:39 The moment success stopped feeling fulfilling

11:54 Starting a sports podcast before it was cool

13:01 “I don’t need 40,000 listeners. I need one.”

13:35 The DM that changed his life

15:34 How ESPN finally noticed him

17:54 Quitting the band and betting on himself

20:18 Belief, fear, and the courage to keep going

22:38 Why your why has to be your drug

29:48 The mentor who changed everything

34:32 Benefit of the doubt changes everything

36:58 The power of being seen

39:18 Don’t just look for help — become it

41:38 Getting cut by ESPN and responding with gratitude

45:57 Perspective can be power or prison

48:13 Gratitude in the middle of real life

50:32 Family pain, healing, and honesty

52:50 How to stay grounded in the present

55:12 Stop chasing the next thing

57:33 The songs that bring him back to himself

58:20 What Turn the Page really meant to him

01:00:25 The magic of building something new

01:00:58 Why he’ll never let go of his emotions

01:02:40 You are allowed to be more than one thing

01:03:35 What matters most right now

01:05:03 Jason’s final message to the world

01:06:14 Where to find Jason Fitz

01:06:54 Outro Quick before you forget: You do not need a straight line.

You need courage, clarity, and the willingness to trust what keeps calling you.

Follow Jason Fitz: @jasonfitz Watch and listen via Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports Radio, and Yahoo Sports TV.

WEBVTT

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If you spend a year getting coffee with somebody and

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really getting to know somebody, and every time you get

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coffee with them, you're like, yeah, I'm just in the

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studio working on some new songs.

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Eventually they'll say, hey, I.

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Want to hear what you work on, and then you

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show it to them what you've accomplished in that process,

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it may not even been your tent is benefit of

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the doubt, and benefit of the doubt is the most beautiful.

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Thing in the world.

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If someone consumes your work while giving you benefit of

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the doubt, they see every single second of it differently.

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I think we live in too much of a society

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that wants TikTok to make us famous overnight without actually

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establishing the foundations a benefit of the doubt to come

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with relationships. And that's why you know, certainly people have

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gotten richer and more famous in the amount of time

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than I have, and they have built things far bigger

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than I could ever imagine in the amount of time

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I've been working on this. But the thing that will

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feed me when I'm seventy is that I can still

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text John.

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McLain and tell them I love him, and that matters

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to me.

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Hello, and welcome to Quick Before You Forget, a personal

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growth and development podcast aimed at empowering people to build

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their unreal life from the ground up, using tools like music, mindset,

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and movement to remember who they are while they build

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who they become. And today I am so excited to

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have Jason fits with me. He is someone who's built

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a life following curiosity instead of a straight line. Jason

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started as a classically trained violinist studying at Juilliard, went

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on to tour the world as a working musician with

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gold and platinum records, and somehow follow that thread all

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the way to national sports media, most recently with Yahoo Sports.

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At his core, though, is a connector between music and sports,

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fans and stories and who we were with who we

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are meant to be. Jason, Welcome to Quick Before You Forget.

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Look that intro gave me goosebumps. I really appreciate that.

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It's kind and thanks. I'm glad we get to hang

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out and get to talk a little bit. And it's

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really cool that you're doing something like this because I

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think so many people, so many people get lost in

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the process and get lost in where they want to be,

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and it's just it's such a hard world to figure

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out how to find joy and.

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All of it. So I'm excited to hang out and

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talk to you.

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Thank you. That means the world to me. I really

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appreciate it. But also that really grounds me because it

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all comes from gratitude for me and the first group

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of guests that I'm fortunate and blessed enough to have,

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Like yourself, I think of his friends and people who

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have in some way influenced my life for the better.

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So this, this, this conversation, this podcast is a thank

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you note to you and to anybody listening for being

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here and being part of my story. So I'm just

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I'm just so grateful. Honestly, it's incredible.

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It's kind of you to say.

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I mean every word, so I you know, I think

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about a lot. It's it's it's interesting to me your story,

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like your story is one of the most interesting and fascinating,

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not straight line careers that I've ever gotten the opportunity

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to hear. And I want you to walk us through

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as best you can and take take your time, take

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a couple of minutes and walk us through kind of

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like past, present and future, Jason, Like, how did you

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get to be now the you know, commentator for Yahoo Sports,

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but like, how did you get there?

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So it's it's crazy because my life.

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If you'd asked me twenty years ago, I don't think

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I would know how to describe where I am today.

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I started playing the violin when I was four, and

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that was because my mom, my mom, wanted.

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To take piano lessons.

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We lived in Vegas as a kid, and we lived

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next door to a piano player that had played.

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For Elvis back in the day.

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So my mom got a piano and he came over

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to the house to teach her. And my parents have

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no They love music, but they have no musical inclination

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at all. They're essentially toe death. And so my mom

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would try and play the piano and was awful at it.

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And after he left for the lessons in the house,

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I would crawl up on the bench and just by

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ear I would play like I saw it, I heard it,

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I recognized it. So they took me, as a really

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little kid, four years old, to UNLV to.

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See if they adny piano teachers, and they didn't.

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They only had violin teachers available, so they said, hey,

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let's start them on violin.

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Suzuki.

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Let's start him for six months and then when we

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have a teacher, we can move him over to a piano.

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That was the whole plan, right, But I was a

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stubborn kid, even as a four year old. Amazingly, so

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I got the Suzuki book. And this is I think.

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I tell this story because it's indicative of who I am.

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I got the book and you're supposed to go through

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it in six months. We were a year and a

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half in book one. Like I was the worst little

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violinist you've ever seen in your life. My teachers were

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begging me, please, God, let's god to piano. But I

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was like, no, I want to figure this out, Like

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this is a puzzle, and I'm going to figure this

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puzzle lot. So it took me a year and a

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half to get to book one, and then I got

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through books two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight

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in the next six months. Once it clicked, it clicked

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for me and it became life. So by the time

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I was eight years old, there was a retired teacher

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that had taught at the Royal Conservatory Music.

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He taught in Las Vegas.

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He didn't really teach, he was just retired but through

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one of the Suzuki teachers, I got the connection.

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He started teaching me. I was practicing eight hours a

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day by the time I was eight.

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While I went to public school, I got up early

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enough that I practiced for hours beforehand. I went to school,

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I came home, I watched Transformers for thirty minutes. Then

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I did my homework, and then I practiced until I

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got my aid in And that was that was life

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for me in third, fourth, fifth grade.

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So you play.

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Cardio hall when I was ten, got into Juliar Prep

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when I was ten, Like that was all like there

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was this massive trajectory for me all of a sudden

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where I was.

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I mean, it's all I did. All I did was

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play the violin.

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But the weird side story to this is that my dad,

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a big Raiders fan. On Sunday's dad loved to watch football,

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so on Sundays he didn't want to listen to a

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cat dies what he said when I was little, so

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he'd go get a dozen donuts and we would split

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a dozen donuts. We just sit on the couch, me

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and Dad watching football, and that connective sort of relaxation

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for me is something that was a common threat.

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For my whole life.

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Sports were my disconnect. I didn't have to worry about

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anything when I was accomplishing. And there's a very famous

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violinist It's our promo that I, you know, we all

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looked up to is arguably the.

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Greatest of his lifetime and promo. And I saw something

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or read something as a kid where he talked about

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how he loved to mute sports and practice because if

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he could watch something while he was practic sing fundamentals,

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it would make them better. So I started doing that.

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So sports were always sort of ingrained in my life.

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I was just a violin nerd doing it the whole time.

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So you know, the funny thing is I didn't grow

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up around country music. Like my family didn't like country music.

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I didn't like country music.

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But you flashed forward to later in life. I, you know,

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in high school, I sang with some buddies. We got

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signed to a record deal. We're gonna be the White

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Boys to men like in DC. Like everybody thought we

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were gonna do this pop R and B project. We

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got dropped almost immediately, but at that point we were

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all listening to like Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw.

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It was the mid nineties. We were all right in that.

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So we moved to Nashville. Right. I was a year

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out of high school, so I was a year into college.

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We moved to Nashville. We all dropped out. We moved

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to Nashville. Didn't know a soul.

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The four of us just moved to Nashville, started singing

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on voice males for people. We just tried to sing

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in front of anyone. We sang a cappella. We kept

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getting record deals and kept losing record deals. I played

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in the symphony, I played in studio orchestras while I

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was trying to make a little bit of money. But like,

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I had no idea I was gonna end up a

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fiddle player. It wasn't until that band was going to

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hire a fiddle player that I was like, well, we

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can't afford to pay another musician on stage.

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I'll just play fiddle. Fiddle and violin are the same instrument.

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It's just the approach. But I'd spent my whole life

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playing by ear.

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And so even though I obviously I could read music,

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I would get recordings of classical pieces as a kid,

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and I would go to sleep with them.

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I listened to like everything for me was oral, So

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I listened over and over and over again. And so

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for me, the.

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Concept of ripping things apart and approaching it from a

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fiddle standpoint was actually pretty easy. So you flash forward,

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that changed that most violinists, because this is you know

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link all the way up to the two thousands, musicians

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were very stuck on I'm not a fiddle player, I'm

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a violinist, like that was real for me as a kid,

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I didn't care. I just wanted to be able to

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support myself right, So I just started playing fiddle and

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playing fiddle with the band I was in. That led

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me to playing fiddle for other people. That led me

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to the Bean Perry, which is where I had my

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most notable success. I became the fiddle player and band

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leader musical director for the band Perry.

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Ride as If I Die Young came out right as

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it became the number one song in the world.

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And you know, when I joined the band, there were

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we had twelve feet of stage in front of Luca

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Brian and Tim McGraw on tour, nobody knew the song.

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Within a year, we were playing Dick Clark's New Year's

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Eve and we were playing Hyde Park in London for

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one hundred thousand people, like we toured the world. And

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so I worked my whole life to finally make it

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in music. And then there was this moment for me

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where I made it. And I think what I thought

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was by making it, even if I wasn't getting rich,

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I was on TV, I was doing okay, I was

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keeping my lights on.

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I'm on massive records, I've got.

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I'm really blessed in my life to have ten or

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so of these plaques that hang up around my house

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that are all for different projects. I played on Tim mcgrawn,

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Matchbox twenty, Michael W. Smith, all sorts of you know,

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massive projects. I was making it and it just didn't

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feed my soul. And so the transformative moment in my

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life was when I sat down with you know, somebody

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that had helped me, have been an entertainment attorney for

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me for years, it helped me know me forever, and

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I said, man.

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I don't love what I do.

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Like I'm thankful for what I do, and like I

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can't believe I get to play in front of twenty

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thousand people every night, but it doesn't move my soul.

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Like I text everybody, you know time to make the

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donuts before a show, like I just didn't have this

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rush from performing. And he said, if I asked a

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hundred of your friends which you really care about, what

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would the answer be? And I said sports. He's like, right,

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figure out how to talk about sports. And this is

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the thing that I think everybody should hear from somebody

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in their life. I'm lucky I heard it. I said, well,

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nobody's gonna take me seriously.

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I'm a fiddle player. Who he wants to listen to

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a fiddle player? It's five nine.

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They can't even Paul mcgirls basketball like, like I got

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tie the baby hands. I'm not an athlete. Nobody's gonna

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want to listen to my takes. And he said, I'll

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never forget this when you've been wildly successful. It's something

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in the perception. In perception, like when people look at

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it and think you've been wildly successful, you will get

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the benefit of the doubt on the next thing you do,

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no matter what it was. So pick pick wisely, give

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your all to it, and you'll be fine because everybody

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will look at it and say, well, God, if he's

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given up this music thing, he must be great at

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this and Hi, God, he was one hundred percent right.

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Like I started a podcast before there were podcasts. It

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was late twenty twelve. I did my first ever podcast.

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These didn't exist. I sat in my car because I

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felt like an idiot with a microphone in front of me,

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and I did ten minutes that I put on Facebook

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at the time where I just ranted, and I got

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a handful of comments that were like, oh my god,

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this is like sitting next to you on the bus.

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It's all you ever talk about. It's really good for me.

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That was the rush that I can get from twenty

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thousand screaming fans. I think it was because it was

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later in my life. I was accomplishing this on my own.

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It was a new thing. It just fed my soul.

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So I ripped it apart. I listened to every sports

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talk programming thing I could listen to differently.

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I charted it. What do people do, how do they

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do it?

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What are their breaks? Like, how are performances done? I

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charted it like it was a piece of music. And

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I figured out that, you know, the first break is

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twelve minutes into every sports talk radio show you listened to.

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I figured out, you know, the interview is always the

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third block. I figured all of these things out because

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I just listened to a bunch of it. And then

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I launched a real official podcast again. This is probably

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twenty thirteen. I launched a podcast, and I'm telling you

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the craziest thing is, like I remember, I got to

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one point where I have forty five I had forty

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thousand listens in one episode because I had Sting the

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pro wrestler on to an episode, and then I had

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like Chefty, Fallout Boy, and Charlie Daniels all in this.

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I was everywhere we were going on tour. I was

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carrying a little thing with me and I would make friends.

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And my whole thing wasn't I don't want you to

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come on my podcast because you want to come on

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my podcast. I just want to be friends with you.

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And then eventually what I found is like people to

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be friends and they'd say, hey, I see you tweet

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about your podcast, like you want me to come on.

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I never asked anybody. They volunteered. That's how I always

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did it. So I had this episode forty thousand listens.

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We were in Europe somewhere on tour. I screamed into

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my mic The next week, I didn't do any interviews

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because I was like, I got forty thousand listens, They're

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all gonna to stick with me. That next week I

295
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had twelve listens, not twelve thy twelve. And the funniest

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thing to me is everybody I was on the road

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with made fun of me. Everybody I was on the

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road with told me I was an idiot. They're like,

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why I had emotional what's happen ah belief? Everybody kept

300
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saying why what h Why do you waste the time?

301
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And to this day I remember so distinctly saying I

302
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don't need forty thousand listens, I need one.

303
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Sorry, sorry, Ty, this is not a moment to apologize.

304
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I've told this story a million times, never got an

305
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emotional anyway one. I need one listen.

306
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And that's crazy thing kept saying, I don't need forty

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thousand listens, I need one listen. I need one person.

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They can they can change my life to hear this.

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And that's honestly what happened. So the funny thing is

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as I pulled myself together and grabbed my composure, like

311
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I've never told this story. God, the funny thing is

312
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through Twitter at the time, you could talk to anybody,

313
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and I did that. I talked to everybody. I helped

314
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anybody I could. And there was a musician that had

315
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hit me up and said, hey, I want advice on

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00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:17.679
how to make it. I gave him some advice because

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we're a village, we all help each other. And it

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turns out he had a cousin that introduced himself to

319
00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.440
me on Twitter and he said, Man, I work at ESPN.

320
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I'd be happy to listen to your pod. So I

321
00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:31.240
was like, oh my god, yes, listen. Please sent me.

322
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Three pages, three type pages of notes of here are all

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the things they're not doing right. I was like, okay,

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hunger down in the lab with the work.

325
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So a week later I DM and I said, hey, man,

326
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can I email you this week's pod?

327
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And he said sure.

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He called me right after and he said, I've never

329
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had anybody take every note. I sat there, I pieced

330
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together the show with that. You know, I'm a musician.

331
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You tell me what to do, I do it like

332
00:14:58.240 --> 00:14:59.840
the Juilliard in me. He's like, you tell me how

333
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to do something, I do it right. So I think

334
00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:05.759
for me it was this charging moment. And he came

335
00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:07.960
back and he said, look, I think you're really good

336
00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:09.679
at this. I think you'd have a future at this.

337
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So the number of people along the way once I

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00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.840
started building something, the number of people that weren't in music,

339
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that were in sports or in broadcasting that kept saying, wait,

340
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you're really good at this.

341
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I think you could do this was empowering to me.

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So I just kept going and going, and my goal

343
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was never to get listens.

344
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My goal was to get better. Every single show you get,

345
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you get one percent better. Every day, you get one

346
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percent better. Eventually I look at it like and say, hey,

347
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I got the best friends in the world out of this.

348
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I met people in cool walks of life. I got

349
00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:40.919
better at this, and I'm proud of the work that

350
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I did as long as I can say that, I

351
00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:44.159
don't really give a damn.

352
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About the rest.

353
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And so what's crazy is that, you know, then all

354
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of a sudden, every time we would come up to

355
00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:50.519
the East Coast with the band, I'd fly out a

356
00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:52.919
couple days early on my dime, and I just happen

357
00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.799
to be around ESPN and I go meet with people,

358
00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:58.240
and so that you know, that's the way that people

359
00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:02.080
started to hear my voice And you know the funny

360
00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.080
part about that is one day I was walking through

361
00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:06.360
the cafeteria at ESPN before I ever worked there, and

362
00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:08.279
there's Adam Schefter, who'd been on my pot a couple

363
00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:10.759
of times and we became texting buddies. He's sitting with

364
00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.360
one of the bosses. He immediately knows me and says,

365
00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:14.759
oh my god, what are you doing here? So I

366
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:16.399
tell them, Hey, you know, I'm just taking a couple

367
00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:18.399
of meetings trying to get people to care. You know,

368
00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:21.559
all of the bricks that you stack when you're building,

369
00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:23.799
if you build it the right way, if you build

370
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with relationships in mind instead of the end goal, if

371
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you build with the process in mind, then I think

372
00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:32.360
the house comes together. So for me, that all happened

373
00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:35.240
twenty sixteen. I got a random call and it was

374
00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:39.519
from a small division of ESPN ESPNU in Charlotte doesn't

375
00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:42.120
even really exist anymore, and they said, how are you

376
00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:44.679
on college football? I said I'm great, you know, and

377
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.200
they said, can you fly to Charlotte tomorrow? I had

378
00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:48.759
a day off of the band I did. I met

379
00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.279
with everybody. Before you know it, they offered me one

380
00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:53.480
day a week on what's called a usage deal in

381
00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:56.000
the entertainment business, which means you can get fired after

382
00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.639
one show if you suck. They offered me a usage

383
00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:01.080
deal for a thousand dollars a show, and I tell

384
00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.080
everybody the number on this because I think it's important.

385
00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:04.920
It was one thousand dollars to show. The max I

386
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:06.599
was gonna make was ten thousand dollars.

387
00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:07.039
That was it.

388
00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:09.480
And so I went to the band and said, hey,

389
00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:12.279
I need Mondays off and they said yes, And two

390
00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:14.839
weeks before the first show, they changed their mind. They

391
00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:17.640
just weren't comfortable with me not being available in case

392
00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:18.920
there were shows or whatever else.

393
00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:22.240
They changed their mind. So I quit with no idea.

394
00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:24.240
The max I was gonna make was twelve grand. But

395
00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:27.240
you're like, I mean, my whole thing is if ESPN

396
00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:29.319
offers you a show with no camera tests, like I

397
00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:30.680
didn't do any of the normal things.

398
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.039
If I say no, they're never gonna call me again.

399
00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:35.160
They're just gonna say, Okay, you thought you wanted to

400
00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.359
make the jump. So I made the jump, and amazingly,

401
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.359
a week after I made the jump, after I told

402
00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:43.039
people I was making the jump, a small station in

403
00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:48.440
ESPN Radio in Nashville, a small broadcast station. Their tiny

404
00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:51.839
station had a morning show that was gonna have a

405
00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.279
co host opening, and I knew the co host, so

406
00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:55.720
they asked if I could come in and do an

407
00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:58.000
hour of mock radio with them, and I did. They

408
00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:00.720
offered me the job for twenty four thousand dollars a

409
00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.559
year to do four hours of radio every single morning,

410
00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:05.279
and I had to go to every pred's game at night,

411
00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:07.400
and I had to do public appearances in the meantime.

412
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:10.759
So I started from that point on. I left the

413
00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.519
band late August of twenty sixteen. My last show was

414
00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.519
the Alaska State Fair and two days later I made

415
00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:19.079
my debut on ESPN. Had never been on TV before

416
00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:22.519
as a broadcaster, and that same week I made my

417
00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.279
radio debut. Had never done four hours of radio, and

418
00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:28.079
I just I looked at all of it and said.

419
00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:30.079
I'll figure out how to keep my lights on.

420
00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:31.720
I'll take a second job if I have to at

421
00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:35.960
Starbucks while nobody's looking, and I did. I made the

422
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:37.920
leap with no idea if I was going to keep

423
00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:41.480
my lights on, and thank god ESPN loved me, and

424
00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:43.640
so before you know it, I was doing fill in

425
00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:46.240
radio for ESPN at night, sleeping on a couch in

426
00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:48.079
the studio because it was too far from my house,

427
00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.720
then doing the four hours of morning radio, then going

428
00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:52.519
home for the day to try and recalibrate before I

429
00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:54.160
had to go back for Pred's practice and prends.

430
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:55.160
It's the hardest I've.

431
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.519
Ever worked in my life for no money, essentially, while

432
00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.880
I just hoped ESPN would give me me, you know,

433
00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:04.400
a shot for more. And by January twenty eighteen, ESPN

434
00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:06.759
moved me to Connecticut and gave me full time shows.

435
00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:08.640
I helped large sports center on Snapchat.

436
00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:11.880
I had a daily radio show on ESPN for several years.

437
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:13.400
I hosted college.

438
00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:16.000
Football Live every day for the company. I got to

439
00:19:16.039 --> 00:19:17.640
do Game Day, I got to do Mike and Mike.

440
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:20.599
I got to every major brand in sports at ESPN.

441
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.519
I debated on first take, I did all of it,

442
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:25.079
and they changed my life. ESPN took the risk, they

443
00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:26.839
took the chance on me. They changed my life, and

444
00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:30.119
you know that eventually, I was one of the cuts

445
00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:33.039
at ESPN a couple of years ago. But to that end,

446
00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:35.720
the worst day you could imagine wasn't for me to add.

447
00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:37.119
And I looked at it and said, my god, I

448
00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:39.680
got to work at ESPN, and an hour after The

449
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.480
New York Times put my name in the paper that

450
00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:44.319
I'd been cut, Yahoo Sports called and said, if you

451
00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:45.799
want to work, we want you to work for me.

452
00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:48.079
You know, so I've been at Yahoo. It's just been

453
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:49.960
the most transcendent thing of my life. This is a

454
00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:52.920
very long story to tell everybody that a you got

455
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.559
to bet on yourself, be recklessly bet on yourself.

456
00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:57.119
I believe that.

457
00:19:57.160 --> 00:19:59.759
And see they say in sports all the time any music,

458
00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:01.680
don't fall in love with the result, fall in love

459
00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:05.000
with the process. That is what has fed my entire journey.

460
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.519
So it's been the wildest life ever. I've worked my

461
00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:10.000
ass off for pennies for most of it, but I

462
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.599
wouldn't change any of that because I got what I wanted,

463
00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:14.559
which was the chance to make an impact. That's all

464
00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:15.160
I ever wanted.

465
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.640
So I'm very blessed for and sorry I got so emotional.

466
00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:19.759
I don't know why I hit me today.

467
00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:22.680
Never apologize for that. That is very welcome. This is

468
00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:25.119
a safe space, and I am actually very grateful that

469
00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:29.599
you let it out, because truly it's important for people

470
00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:36.039
to know the breaking point there was belief, and that

471
00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.440
is that is a scary thing for people. That is

472
00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:43.319
where people get where fear can take over. And you know,

473
00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:46.160
I know because of research that I've done that chemically,

474
00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:49.400
fear and excitement is the same chemical in your brain

475
00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:53.119
and it's how we process that that chemical that determines

476
00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:56.160
what happens next. So you know, the fact that you

477
00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:01.160
had that feeling and emotion around belief in yourself and

478
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:04.480
knowing and trusting and having that curiosity kind of lead

479
00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.920
the way this whole time. And you said something else

480
00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:09.680
that that was really powerful about, you know, just having

481
00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:14.200
one listen, just having one person listen, and I was

482
00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:17.000
listening and I was leaning in, and you were you

483
00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:20.119
were preaching to my soul. So never ever apologize for

484
00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.400
having emotions, especially especially here, but especially in the world,

485
00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:28.680
because people need to know how how real and this

486
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:33.039
was and how visceral that experience is, and choosing to

487
00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:35.880
believe in yourself is not an easy thing at all.

488
00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:39.240
So you know, you you you had a lot a

489
00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:42.160
lot there too unpack, and I'm so grateful for the

490
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:45.319
like the takeaways there at the end. But one of

491
00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:47.200
the things that came into my mind when I was

492
00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:49.160
thinking about, like what am I curious about in this

493
00:21:49.319 --> 00:21:53.680
story was. It sounds like you had to double down

494
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.680
on believing in yourself and I want to know how

495
00:21:56.839 --> 00:21:59.799
you worked through that, like how you listened to that calling,

496
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:02.279
because a lot of people have it, right, Like a

497
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:05.000
lot of people have that feeling, but they don't know

498
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:07.079
what to do that, like what do they do next?

499
00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:09.000
Or how do they follow it? And how do they

500
00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.359
work through that fear and that and that find that

501
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:12.160
self belief.

502
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.400
I think the funniest thing is that people forget their why.

503
00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:18.839
And for me, you know, I get asked a lot

504
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:21.759
about how to make it in the music business, you know.

505
00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:23.559
And I used to talk to when I when I

506
00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:25.519
toured with Game Day, for I say toured when I

507
00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:27.799
traveled with Game Day at ESPN, I talked to all

508
00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:29.680
the music schools along the way, and everybody had the

509
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:31.440
same question, like how do I make it? How do

510
00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:33.319
I get a record deal? How do I get famous?

511
00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:37.839
I think the lie most people tell themselves is the why.

512
00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.759
And by that I mean like whatever your why is.

513
00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:43.160
When I talk to kids that want to make it

514
00:22:43.240 --> 00:22:45.319
music and tell them it's got to be your drug,

515
00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:48.480
the why is got to be your drug, because the

516
00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.119
difficulty in the path will knock you out every single way,

517
00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:53.519
like you will lose the discipline every single day.

518
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:54.559
I had an.

519
00:22:54.440 --> 00:23:00.119
Agent that I really genuinely trusted as a person, and

520
00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.240
about six months before I made it at ESPN, that

521
00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:05.759
literally on the phone with me said why would anybody

522
00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:08.680
hire you to talk about sports when there are a

523
00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:10.640
thousand people out there that have been doing it their

524
00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:13.880
whole lives, grinding to get there. I understand that logic,

525
00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:16.039
and for me, I hung up the phone and I

526
00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:18.359
was like, you know, all I learned. I learned that

527
00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:21.240
that person was not my camp, and that's okay. Like

528
00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:24.759
there are people whose music I don't particularly enjoy, but

529
00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:28.079
they're wildly successful, and that doesn't mean that they're wrong

530
00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:30.160
or that I'm wrong. It just means that, like, you

531
00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:32.880
got to find your why and your camp and people

532
00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:36.000
that believe in your why. My why was always.

533
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:39.079
Consistent, no matter music or sports. My why was to

534
00:23:39.160 --> 00:23:40.039
be part of a moment.

535
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.599
Like I remember the first time I was in the

536
00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:46.160
car and I heard Guns n' Roses November ring, very

537
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:49.400
weird reference, but I remember looking at my mom saying,

538
00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:50.440
that's awesome.

539
00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:51.200
I want to do that.

540
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:53.039
I want to play on a song like that. And

541
00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:55.400
my mom at the time, I was a juliar kid.

542
00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:57.000
My mom was like, that's so far beneath you. You're

543
00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.640
going to be a classical soloist. The tours, the world's

544
00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:01.319
are going to the next it talk about like my

545
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.000
mom thought that was all beneath me. She want Like

546
00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:06.920
funny thing is I think in her mind she wanted

547
00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:09.839
fame for me, and I never cared about it, Like

548
00:24:09.880 --> 00:24:12.240
I don't care if anybody knows who I am. I

549
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:16.519
wanted somebody to have a visceral feeling when they heard something.

550
00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:19.160
And that's why, you know, weirdly, like you know, for

551
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:21.880
everything that the Van Perry did, Like there's a Tim

552
00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:24.359
McGraw song called if you're reading this that I was

553
00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:27.480
the violinist on that was recorded live at the ACM Awards.

554
00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:30.160
It became a massive number one for Tim. That meant

555
00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:32.799
something to me because it meant something to Tim and

556
00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:36.480
to everybody that heard that, right, like Matchbox twenty, the

557
00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:38.880
Mad Season record I'm in the Orchestra on that It's

558
00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:42.680
somewhere in this room. Is the platinums for that? Like

559
00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:45.119
for me that I got the platinum record for that

560
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:47.680
because that was my November rain moment. Like there's a

561
00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:49.599
bunch of people that don't even know that I'm on it.

562
00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:51.920
But when it comes on on the radio and I

563
00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.920
hear a song, I pried for it because I was

564
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.440
part of a moment. And you know, playing If I

565
00:24:57.519 --> 00:24:59.960
Die Young every night was there were the number of

566
00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:02.240
I didn't want to go out on stage because you're tired.

567
00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:05.200
Our busiest year, we were gone three hundred days to

568
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:08.279
play two hundred and twenty five shows, like I was exhausted,

569
00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.640
And I always remembered my first concert, which was bon

570
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:14.319
Jovi skid Ro and I remember Richie Samboro blowing up

571
00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:15.759
on stage and what I now know is called a

572
00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:18.039
toaster and he lands and there's smoke everywhere and he

573
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.279
plays his ass off. And I was this little kid

574
00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:23.160
on my dad's shoulder. I thought my dad was smoking

575
00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:25.880
really funny, he's smelling cigarettes. I'm old enough to know

576
00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:28.079
now what it was, and I'm watching this concert.

577
00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.319
It was so cool. It made a moment in my life.

578
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:33.359
And so for me when I didn't want to play

579
00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:35.640
a fight got young, which was more often than any

580
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:38.119
touring musician wants to admit, I would think, man, there's

581
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:40.279
some ten year old kid out here. That this is

582
00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:43.119
his first concert, her first concert, Like, that's what it's

583
00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.720
really about. Even going into sports. I remember sitting up

584
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:49.680
late to try and watch the George Michael Sports Machine

585
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.920
because I wanted to see Raiders highlights and they were

586
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.640
hard to find when I was a kid. Or Chris Berman,

587
00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.480
you know, and listening to him talk about the way

588
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:00.279
he says that radiar, Like there's this whole phenomenon for

589
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:03.720
me where so much of my joy and fandom was

590
00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:07.799
celebrated with particular personalities. I didn't get into sports because

591
00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:10.240
I want to be famous. I got into sports because

592
00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:13.559
I wanted to share fandom with fans all over the world.

593
00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:17.279
So my why has always been impact. And when you

594
00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:20.640
know your why without question, no matter what, when your

595
00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:24.119
mission statement in life, when your why is easily defined,

596
00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:27.160
it's so much easier to fight through the doubt because

597
00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:30.440
if it is not clearly defined, if it's not your drug,

598
00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:34.240
if your why doesn't define everything that you do, then

599
00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:36.119
the minute you hit a brick wall, you'll find an

600
00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:39.519
easier path. And I you know, sorry, I'm so long winded,

601
00:26:39.559 --> 00:26:42.240
but I will tell everybody when I was as broke

602
00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:45.000
as I've ever been so broken. Music that I couldn't

603
00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:48.680
literally needed help buying dog food right I had no money.

604
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:51.640
I got offered a gig playing for Dirk S Bentley,

605
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:54.720
who's a huge country music superstar. But Dirk's wanted a

606
00:26:54.759 --> 00:26:57.839
bluegrass fiddle player that could do bluegrass acoustic.

607
00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:00.359
I cannot. I'm not a bluegrass player. It's not what

608
00:27:00.440 --> 00:27:02.440
I'm good at. And I turned it down.

609
00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:05.480
And I remember everybody looked at me at the time

610
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:08.240
and said, why it's a salary gig and you can't

611
00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:10.279
eat right now. Why would you turn it down? And

612
00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:12.000
I said, because I know I won't be the best

613
00:27:12.119 --> 00:27:14.880
version of myself if I take it, so I'll make money,

614
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:17.799
but will I be the best version of myself that

615
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:20.440
helps the rest of my Why will it? Will it

616
00:27:20.519 --> 00:27:21.799
help me get where I want to be? Does it

617
00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:24.559
stick to my business plan? The answer to that is no.

618
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:28.039
And ironically to me, the person that took that gig

619
00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:31.200
created an opening on another gig that introduced I took

620
00:27:31.319 --> 00:27:34.359
that the gig that he was coming from, which no

621
00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:36.599
one had any way of knowing, and that's where I

622
00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:38.799
reconnected with the drummer of the Vamp Perry, who I'd

623
00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:41.480
known for fifteen years. I never would have gotten to

624
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:45.079
the VAMPERI if I hadn't turned down the very gig

625
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:47.599
that I needed because I needed the money, but the

626
00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:50.279
money wasn't my why. And if the money it's okay

627
00:27:50.359 --> 00:27:52.440
to admit that, if the money is your why, didn't

628
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:54.039
let it be your why and embrace it. Don't let

629
00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:55.680
anybody call you out for that.

630
00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:57.079
But for me, it wasn't.

631
00:27:57.240 --> 00:27:59.839
So it's funny to me that's sticking to my why

632
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:02.000
is the thing that led that got me to the

633
00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:04.319
main PAIRRI, which got me the platform to then have

634
00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:06.599
a podcast, which allowed me to meet the people. Like

635
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.440
everything in my life changed because I didn't do the

636
00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:11.119
thing everybody else told me I should do.

637
00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:14.400
I listened to my whye you listen to your heart

638
00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:18.519
like it sounds, and honestly, that is powerful and it

639
00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:22.400
can be it's still scary for people because you know,

640
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:24.400
when you can't keep the lights on and you can't

641
00:28:24.440 --> 00:28:26.400
feed your dog, those are those those are very real

642
00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:29.920
problems to have, but it means something to have listened

643
00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:33.480
to your to your heart. And I just have so

644
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:36.160
much respect for that because it's hard out there to

645
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.680
try to to forge your own way and to follow

646
00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:43.359
you know, you're a naturally curious human. So it's it's

647
00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:46.960
I feel like that could work very hardly against you

648
00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:50.160
if you're not careful. But you've been careful because you've

649
00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:53.720
been grounded in that why So that's so powerful and

650
00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:56.039
I just need to shelt that out because goodness gracious,

651
00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:56.759
we could allay use.

652
00:28:56.680 --> 00:28:57.000
More of that.

653
00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.039
One of the things that you talked through in and

654
00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:02.480
a lot of the story that you've shared so far,

655
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:07.039
it involves a lot of people and connection to people,

656
00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:10.359
and that that is something that's very strong in my

657
00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:12.839
heart because I feel like every single human I meet

658
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:16.519
there's a reason. And I'm wondering, because you've had such

659
00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:22.720
unique journey with so many interesting people, what one relationship

660
00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:27.799
really transformed your life and made you better man?

661
00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:30.799
That's that's a brilliant question, because there's there's a bunch

662
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:32.640
of them, and it's hard for me to credit anyone.

663
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:37.359
I will say to your point, and I never cared

664
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:40.519
about needing anything from anyone. I don't care about needing

665
00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:44.079
anything from anyone. I connect with people because I hope

666
00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:46.880
to connect people to other people. And that's always been

667
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:49.559
even now, and the number of times that I'll have

668
00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:51.799
somebody hit me up for they want something in sports,

669
00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:54.400
but they're a music guy. Well you know, yes, I'm

670
00:29:55.079 --> 00:29:57.559
Dan Orlovsky loves going to concerts. The number of times

671
00:29:57.640 --> 00:29:58.839
Dan has hit me up and said, hey, do you

672
00:29:58.920 --> 00:29:59.880
know anybody in this camp?

673
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:00.720
Yes, I do, Dan.

674
00:30:00.920 --> 00:30:03.079
And the reason I'm going to introduce everybody is not

675
00:30:03.160 --> 00:30:05.680
because I want something. It's because I realized that by

676
00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:07.519
Dan getting what he wants out of this and this

677
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.440
person who loves Dani Rolovski on ESPN getting what they want,

678
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.920
they're all served. And that to me is like, that's

679
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:15.799
that's more powerful.

680
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:16.759
Than anything you can get.

681
00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:20.319
So, like I say, humbly, I think my biggest strength

682
00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:23.960
in my life is my phone book. And that's something

683
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:26.960
that I treat with a ton of honor. And there's

684
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:30.319
a there's so there's a couple of big answers, but

685
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:33.200
I'll go to one person, particularly John McClain, who so

686
00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:35.319
many many people have never heard of, but he's a

687
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:38.920
sports writer in Houston, a legendary sports writer, pro Football

688
00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:39.680
Hall of Fame voter.

689
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:41.519
He's just a great human being.

690
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:44.440
And it was John that when we played the Houston

691
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:47.240
Rodeo years ago, he was in Houston and I'd listened

692
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:49.079
to him on the radio all the time in Nashville.

693
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:51.960
He did a weekly hit in Nashville where he talked

694
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:55.400
about all teams, not just you know Nashville sports. So

695
00:30:55.559 --> 00:30:57.599
I used to sit in my car, even if I

696
00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:59.400
was in the driveway, just to listen to John do

697
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:01.880
his radio because it was so interesting and I was

698
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:03.839
a massive fan. So when we played the Houston Rodeo,

699
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:06.200
I found his email and I emailed him and said, look,

700
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:07.200
I just want to say thank.

701
00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:09.119
You for being amazing for all these years.

702
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:11.640
I'm leaving you two tickets to the Houston Rodeo. If

703
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:14.240
you happen to like country music, I would love for

704
00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:15.680
you to come out to the show as my guest.

705
00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:19.079
John responded to my shock and said, I don't like

706
00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:21.759
country music at all, and I'm busy today, but this

707
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:24.000
means a lot to me, so we should connect sometimes.

708
00:31:24.039 --> 00:31:25.960
So I kept in touch with John and we exchanged

709
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:27.839
information well over the course of a.

710
00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:28.519
Couple of years.

711
00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:31.640
It was John he goes out every year for the

712
00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:34.319
Final Four with his wife out to Vegas, And that's

713
00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:36.000
right around the time used to be around the time

714
00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:38.559
the ACM Awards were in Vegas. Academy Country Music Awards.

715
00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:41.000
So every year I found myself out there. Every year

716
00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:43.440
John and I would get lunch. We became incredible friends,

717
00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:45.720
and so we'd known each other for a minute and

718
00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:48.319
John was the first person that ever We were sitting

719
00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:51.599
at lunch and he said, hey, you hurt my feelings

720
00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:52.519
a little bit as a friend.

721
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:54.559
And I was like, okay, I take that very seriously.

722
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:56.599
So what did I do? And he said, you know, I.

723
00:31:56.640 --> 00:31:59.720
See you talk all the time on social about your podcast,

724
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:02.680
but you've never asked me to be on. And I said, John,

725
00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:05.160
I didn't ask you because I don't want you to

726
00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:07.079
think that the reason that I reached out is because

727
00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:09.200
I want something. And he said, well, I'd love to

728
00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:11.880
come on on your podcast anytime, so you know, peek

729
00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:14.200
behind the curtain. What I always did was create my

730
00:32:14.279 --> 00:32:16.480
own playlist. So I would do interviews whenever I could

731
00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:18.119
during the week, and I would just pop them into

732
00:32:18.119 --> 00:32:19.759
a playlist, and when I needed to put I put

733
00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.119
shows up every week no matter where we were for

734
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.519
several years, and so I would then just be able

735
00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:26.480
to do a quick monologue and you know, drag and drop.

736
00:32:26.599 --> 00:32:29.400
So I was in some random arena and I had

737
00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:32.559
all the everything set up. I prepped for a day

738
00:32:32.839 --> 00:32:35.720
to talk to John mcclan because he's a legend in football.

739
00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.359
We did the interview, he hung up and he called

740
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:40.359
me back five minutes later and he said, Hey, you're

741
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:43.039
really talented, and so I want to help you.

742
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:46.440
So my phone book is your phone book? So again,

743
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:52.960
weird your mum. Soa money transcend the moment because John

744
00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:56.119
John has changed a lot of lives. I don't think

745
00:32:56.279 --> 00:32:58.680
he even realizes he changed mine.

746
00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:01.559
But what he did is he gave me four or

747
00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:03.799
five phone numbers and he did the introduction and we're

748
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:07.519
talking Adam Schefter, Peter Kane, legends in sports and so

749
00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:10.640
like if I had called Adam Schefter out of the

750
00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:13.160
blue and said, Schefty, come on my show, not a

751
00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:15.559
chance in hell, Especially because back then people didn't even

752
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:17.440
know what podcasts were. I had to explain, no, it's

753
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:19.880
not a radio show, it's a podcast I could tape

754
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:20.480
at any time.

755
00:33:20.599 --> 00:33:24.039
They had no idea. So John doing that was the

756
00:33:24.799 --> 00:33:28.640
opening for me to change my life. And so to

757
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:31.880
think that someone who gets hit up all the time

758
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:34.920
to be a mentor and someone that truly does like

759
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:36.759
he gave me so much advice when I got a

760
00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:39.680
radio a full time to think that somebody that has

761
00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:43.000
had that level of success and as that many people

762
00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:46.759
that just constantly want little bites of his apple. He

763
00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:50.039
took the time to make three or four introductions that

764
00:33:50.599 --> 00:33:53.440
quite literally just they changed my entire trajectory.

765
00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:56.880
People would never have taken me seriously in this jump

766
00:33:57.039 --> 00:33:59.720
back then if it wasn't for John McLean. So I

767
00:33:59.799 --> 00:34:05.279
think John's belief is incredible. John's friendship is even more incredible.

768
00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:08.719
So you know, like, I just think to your point

769
00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:11.920
in how you build everything, if you build things the

770
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:14.239
right way, the number of people that will want to

771
00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:17.119
help you, Like, that's the biggest thing that I think

772
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:21.320
people forget. Always tell people like if you walk up

773
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:23.400
to someone back when they had CDs, if you walked

774
00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:25.840
up to someone and said, here's my CD, I want

775
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:27.360
you to listen to my music. Let me tell you

776
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:30.400
as someone that has gotten that CD, the first thought

777
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:32.400
is you suck. Like there's just no way that people

778
00:34:32.519 --> 00:34:34.599
think that you're going to be good at this. If

779
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:38.840
you spend a year getting coffee with somebody and really

780
00:34:39.079 --> 00:34:41.360
getting to know somebody, and every time you get coffee

781
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:42.880
with them, you're like, yeah, I'm just in the studio

782
00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:46.000
working on some new songs. Eventually they'll say, hey, I

783
00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:47.840
want to hear what you work on, and then you

784
00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:50.599
show it to them. What you've accomplished in that process,

785
00:34:51.159 --> 00:34:53.599
it may not even been your tent is benefit of

786
00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:55.840
the doubt, and benefit of the doubt is the most

787
00:34:55.880 --> 00:34:59.079
beautiful thing in the world. If someone consumes your work

788
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:01.480
while get I think you benefit of the doubt. They

789
00:35:01.559 --> 00:35:05.199
see every single second of it. Differently, I think we

790
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:07.519
live in too much of a society that wants TikTok

791
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:11.599
to make us famous overnight without actually establishing the foundations.

792
00:35:11.639 --> 00:35:14.320
A benefit of the doubt to come with relationships. And

793
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:17.440
that's why, you know, certainly people have gotten richer and

794
00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:19.719
more famous in the amount of time than I have,

795
00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:22.639
and they have built things far bigger than I could

796
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:24.400
ever imagine in the amount of time I've been working

797
00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:26.639
on this. But the thing that will feed me when

798
00:35:26.679 --> 00:35:29.239
I'm seventy is that I can still text John McLain

799
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:30.320
and tell them I love him.

800
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:32.760
And that matters to me, you know what.

801
00:35:32.760 --> 00:35:35.960
It reminds me of a story. Actually, I have this

802
00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:37.360
book and I don't know if I can grab it

803
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:39.599
without wrecking my headphones all that. So I have this

804
00:35:39.719 --> 00:35:43.079
book by Bobby Herrera, and the very first story in

805
00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:46.000
this book is and I'm fortunate enough to have a

806
00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:48.960
signed copy, But the very first story in this book

807
00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:51.079
is a story about the Boss and when he and

808
00:35:51.199 --> 00:35:54.719
his brother Ed were seventeen years old, how they were

809
00:35:54.800 --> 00:35:57.559
on a team, a basketball team in high school, and

810
00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:03.159
their mom pack them a bake lunch because they didn't

811
00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:06.119
have the money to go to have like the celebratory

812
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:09.519
basketball team dinner. So the team would get off the

813
00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:12.199
bus after the game and go have the dinner, and

814
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:15.400
the these two boys would stay in and eat their

815
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:18.000
burritos that they're not unpacked for them. Well, one time

816
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:22.199
mister Tigue, his his coach, came back on the bus

817
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:25.239
and he and I get this, this makes me emotional.

818
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:28.599
So we're just an emotional group here. So he gets back,

819
00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:31.400
I gets back on the bus and says, you know,

820
00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:33.880
it would make me so would make me so happy

821
00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:38.400
to get you guys dinner tonight. And the thing that

822
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.599
really mattered to Bobby in that moment was that he

823
00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:46.320
felt seen. Somebody made him feel seen when he felt invisible,

824
00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:49.079
and that that right there is the power of story,

825
00:36:49.159 --> 00:36:51.760
and that right there is what happened with you and

826
00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:56.360
you know mister McLain, because it's it's he made you

827
00:36:56.440 --> 00:36:59.840
feel seen, and he gave you a chance when you

828
00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:02.400
didn't even really know that you were looking for it,

829
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:05.079
and what a gift that is. And I you know,

830
00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:08.199
I would encourage anybody that's had I really hope that

831
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:11.559
as you listen to Jason's story, as you hear Bobby's story,

832
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.760
I hope that you maybe have somebody in mind that

833
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:18.360
has been a transition figure in your own life at

834
00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:22.159
this level, give them a call, shoot them a thank

835
00:37:22.199 --> 00:37:24.800
you know, let them know the impact that they've had

836
00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:27.880
on you. Because I think that the most beautiful thing

837
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:31.639
about what Jason shared was, you know, he's so grateful

838
00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:35.239
for mister McLain and and everything that the changes and

839
00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:39.000
everything that happened after that, that whole chance that he

840
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:41.599
was given. And we all have people like that in

841
00:37:41.679 --> 00:37:44.400
our lives, and a lot of times we don't think

842
00:37:44.519 --> 00:37:47.840
to tell them. So it's it's it's cool when you

843
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:50.280
I had to share that story because you said you

844
00:37:50.360 --> 00:37:52.760
can still call him and say that that you care

845
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:54.480
about him and that you appreciate him, And what a

846
00:37:54.559 --> 00:37:57.039
gift that is because you know, I think he may.

847
00:37:57.159 --> 00:37:58.960
He may appreciate it more than you know.

848
00:37:59.719 --> 00:38:04.000
So there's also an element of to your point, and

849
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:07.920
it's beautifully made by you. But remembering that for every

850
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.159
person that's out there that's helped you, you can also

851
00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:14.079
be that for somebody else. And I think we forget that,

852
00:38:14.239 --> 00:38:18.039
like rich is a relative term. And I remind people

853
00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:20.280
of this all the time because constantly it feels like

854
00:38:20.440 --> 00:38:24.159
as a society, we're looking for somebody with more to

855
00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:27.440
help us as the way we're wired. But as I've

856
00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:30.480
said to people all the time, you know, my busiest

857
00:38:30.559 --> 00:38:33.960
time at ESPN, I was averaging seventy to eighty hours

858
00:38:33.960 --> 00:38:36.239
a week on campus. I mean, I worked a grind.

859
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:38.440
And the number of times people would say, oh my god,

860
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:40.400
think how many out like you're you're here all the time,

861
00:38:40.679 --> 00:38:42.960
You're being overworked. And my answer to that was, there's

862
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:46.519
somebody right now that's working an overnight janitorial job and

863
00:38:46.599 --> 00:38:48.840
then a morning bus service job, and then waiting tables

864
00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:51.440
in the afternoon and then going and doing a janitorial day.

865
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:54.519
They're working four hour, four different jobs a day just

866
00:38:54.639 --> 00:38:56.639
to make ends meet. I think to me, we all

867
00:38:56.719 --> 00:39:00.280
have to remember that wherever we are in life, there's

868
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:02.760
somebody that's scratching and cloning to get to the spot

869
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:05.920
that we're at. And so there is this moment of

870
00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:09.599
instead of always looking for help, which is I think

871
00:39:09.719 --> 00:39:12.719
the nature of the beast of society right now, also

872
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:15.880
remember that you need to look to help, and that's

873
00:39:16.519 --> 00:39:18.760
just it only takes responding.

874
00:39:18.840 --> 00:39:18.960
You know.

875
00:39:19.159 --> 00:39:20.840
I can't tell you how many times I would send

876
00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:23.960
an email or a demo or a song or my

877
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:27.199
real in sports to somebody and I would say, oh, man,

878
00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:28.960
I hope you give it a listen, And then you know,

879
00:39:29.039 --> 00:39:32.239
three months later, it's like, hey, just circling back. Just

880
00:39:32.760 --> 00:39:35.199
a reminder that there's somebody that's waiting for us to

881
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:36.440
circle back and help them too.

882
00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:39.320
I just I believe in the power of that spider web.

883
00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:42.480
I do too, and I think it's really it's really

884
00:39:42.519 --> 00:39:44.800
powerful when you see it that way. You know, one

885
00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:48.199
of my guests had a thing where he gave marbles

886
00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:50.920
to people, and it was like a little token of

887
00:39:51.159 --> 00:39:53.920
he wanted to give them something. And the way that that,

888
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:57.760
you know, the kini weeny little thing could make somebody smile,

889
00:39:58.360 --> 00:40:01.320
it just goes to show how how hungry I think

890
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:04.440
our whole society is for any level of that connection.

891
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:07.880
And you know, the olive branch doesn't have to be huge,

892
00:40:08.039 --> 00:40:09.880
it doesn't have to be life changing. It can be

893
00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:13.519
a very small thing. So, as we've talked, Jason, I

894
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:18.519
really think that something that seems very unrelatable for people

895
00:40:18.840 --> 00:40:22.639
is how unreal life maybe feels and has been for you.

896
00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:25.320
And obviously we've just talked through like you worked hard,

897
00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:28.639
like this is not something that came easy, but for

898
00:40:28.760 --> 00:40:32.440
good or bad. I'm curious, what is an unreal moment

899
00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:35.480
that you've encountered that has shaped who you've become.

900
00:40:36.360 --> 00:40:39.480
And I think, God, that's a great question, and I

901
00:40:39.559 --> 00:40:43.239
will go to I think the most recent you know,

902
00:40:43.400 --> 00:40:47.000
hardship for me, I hadn't taken a vacation in years.

903
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:50.599
I was six months removed from signing a brand new

904
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:54.159
contract ed ESPN. Contraction in ed ESPN for anyone that

905
00:40:54.920 --> 00:40:58.199
follows and watches these things, they're fully guaranteed. So once

906
00:40:58.280 --> 00:41:00.440
you sign a contract, you're paid to the end of

907
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:04.760
that contract, no matter what. And so the ESPN layoffs

908
00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:07.360
that happened a couple of years ago were less than

909
00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:09.719
six months after I'd signed a new two year contract.

910
00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:12.719
I was on a flight headed to Denver to a

911
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:15.280
comic con where I was gonna meet Chevy Chase, my

912
00:41:15.400 --> 00:41:19.159
first vacation i'd taken in at least four years, my

913
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:23.960
first time getting away, and we were leaving. We were

914
00:41:24.039 --> 00:41:27.280
on the jet like the plane was departing when my

915
00:41:27.400 --> 00:41:30.639
boss called from radio and I sent her to voicemail

916
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:32.320
and she sent me a text and said you have

917
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.480
to call me right now. And so as the plane

918
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:38.480
was leaving the runway, I called and she said, I'm

919
00:41:38.519 --> 00:41:41.119
sorry I and she was in tears. She said, I'm

920
00:41:41.119 --> 00:41:43.840
sorry I have to tell you this, but you've been cut.

921
00:41:44.079 --> 00:41:47.519
So you know, I know you're leaving town for the weekend,

922
00:41:47.559 --> 00:41:50.079
fourth of July weekend. I know you're leaving town, but

923
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:51.840
as soon as you get back, you're gonna need to

924
00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:55.760
clear everything away from your desk area, and you know

925
00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:59.800
your services aren't gonna be needed now. ESPN did give

926
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:02.519
me the option, so I went to work right away.

927
00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:05.000
Like I said earlier, you know, you're never prepared for

928
00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:07.079
the New York Post putting your name in the paper

929
00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:10.599
saying hey he just got fired from ESPN. But you know,

930
00:42:10.679 --> 00:42:13.039
the beautiful thing is that the CEO of Yahoo Sports

931
00:42:13.079 --> 00:42:15.639
is somebody that had brought me on to ESPN when

932
00:42:15.719 --> 00:42:17.880
I first got there. He loved me and he sent

933
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:19.599
me a text. It was less than an hour in

934
00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:21.719
and I knew I was going to get to keep working.

935
00:42:21.800 --> 00:42:24.559
I had to choose some legal ees to get out

936
00:42:24.599 --> 00:42:26.760
of the contract and be able to continue working. But

937
00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:30.480
the funny thing is, to me, everybody, everybody kept talking

938
00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:34.239
about how angry all of us should be, and I

939
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:36.360
put up a social media post. I waited a couple

940
00:42:36.360 --> 00:42:38.039
of days. I put up a social media post a

941
00:42:38.079 --> 00:42:41.639
couple of days later, and I just like, honestly, I

942
00:42:41.679 --> 00:42:43.320
didn't even think that much about it, ty, I just

943
00:42:43.400 --> 00:42:45.639
put up a post and I was I was honest

944
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:47.440
with the world, and I said, look, everybody keeps talking

945
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:49.760
for me, and for everybody, I just want to say,

946
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:52.880
you're wrong. Like I'm so thankful ESPN changed my life.

947
00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:55.599
Like I never would have gotten to eat to Yahoo

948
00:42:55.920 --> 00:42:59.159
if I didn't have the ESPN name on my resume,

949
00:42:59.400 --> 00:43:01.920
Like I'm able to walk into rooms now in sports,

950
00:43:01.960 --> 00:43:04.519
I never would have been able to because ESPN gave

951
00:43:04.599 --> 00:43:07.239
me platform over and over and over again. I got

952
00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:09.599
to host Sports Center on Snapchat for three and a

953
00:43:09.639 --> 00:43:13.119
half million kids all the time like that. That's like

954
00:43:13.280 --> 00:43:15.599
I still can be out in the streets and people

955
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.159
will say, hey, I missed you on Snapchat. Like it's

956
00:43:18.320 --> 00:43:21.239
crazy to me the amount of impact that ESPN allowed

957
00:43:21.280 --> 00:43:23.519
me to have. So I went in with a total

958
00:43:23.599 --> 00:43:26.960
servants heart and just wanted to be honest about Grace

959
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:30.480
and thanks, because to me, no matter what happens, like

960
00:43:30.960 --> 00:43:33.360
nothing changes the chapter I just had. And the funny

961
00:43:33.400 --> 00:43:36.960
thing is that that tweet, I mean, it was probably

962
00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.360
the most viral thing I've ever posted, well over a

963
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:40.119
million views.

964
00:43:40.199 --> 00:43:41.719
All of the media outlets picked it up.

965
00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:44.719
And it's funny because I didn't yell and I didn't scream,

966
00:43:44.800 --> 00:43:47.559
and to this day, anyone that's consumed the work that

967
00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:49.679
I've done from then, like the number of times I

968
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:51.559
do interviews and people want to bait me on saying

969
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:55.119
something about terrible about ESPN, and it's just it's not

970
00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:57.840
my nature. They changed my life, Like people want to

971
00:43:58.360 --> 00:44:00.519
find terrible things for me to say about the band

972
00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:02.320
Perry because we you know, we parted ways.

973
00:44:02.400 --> 00:44:04.400
I never like they changed my life.

974
00:44:04.639 --> 00:44:08.639
So it's just funny to me that by being myself

975
00:44:08.920 --> 00:44:12.519
in my darkest moment, I think that's just the one thing.

976
00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:16.599
Like I just lean on gratitude somehow, some way, and

977
00:44:16.760 --> 00:44:19.480
like my life has been hard for a lot of it,

978
00:44:19.719 --> 00:44:22.239
and I've always looked at that and said, you know what,

979
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:24.400
for as hard as my family life might have been

980
00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:26.760
growing up, as hard as my childhood was, for as

981
00:44:26.800 --> 00:44:29.320
hard as my family life is now, in many ways,

982
00:44:29.880 --> 00:44:31.880
it doesn't matter because I get this. I like I

983
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:34.639
have the glory, Like I've been fans supported my entire

984
00:44:34.719 --> 00:44:37.960
adult life. Fans have chosen to consume my work. And

985
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:40.400
if I can't find gratitude in that, man, what am

986
00:44:40.440 --> 00:44:41.039
I doing it for?

987
00:44:41.320 --> 00:44:42.840
So I don't know.

988
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:45.880
I think my parents always went to the darkest, the

989
00:44:46.039 --> 00:44:50.760
darkest path in any any sort of catastrophe. They always

990
00:44:50.760 --> 00:44:53.599
took the darkest side. I'm just natured to do the opposite.

991
00:44:53.679 --> 00:44:55.800
So to your point, in what should have been the

992
00:44:55.880 --> 00:44:58.719
darkest moment of my adult life, I think it turned

993
00:44:58.719 --> 00:45:01.760
into the most beautiful blessing. I've never been happier at Yahoo.

994
00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:04.039
I've never been treated better than I am at Yahoo.

995
00:45:04.039 --> 00:45:06.239
And it's just a reminder that, like you know, no,

996
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:08.400
the platform is not as big, and I have to

997
00:45:08.519 --> 00:45:10.360
explain to people, yes, I work at Yahoo. You can

998
00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:12.239
find it out here. Like I get that it's different,

999
00:45:12.639 --> 00:45:15.920
but man, again, I didn't care about being famous. I

1000
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:18.519
care about getting to work and having people like my

1001
00:45:18.679 --> 00:45:21.119
work and having people care about my work. And I

1002
00:45:21.159 --> 00:45:23.880
have that better than ever now. So through darkness comes light.

1003
00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:28.039
It is so powerful and it's such a study in

1004
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:32.360
something that Trent Shelton says about perspective being your power

1005
00:45:32.599 --> 00:45:35.840
or your prison. And you know when you talk through

1006
00:45:36.280 --> 00:45:41.519
that story, I hear that you gratitude. The lens of

1007
00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:46.440
gratitude changes your perspective and makes things be a power

1008
00:45:46.559 --> 00:45:49.320
instead of a prison, and help you realize in real

1009
00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:54.559
time how something terrible on the outside was actually happening

1010
00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:58.239
for you, not to you. And that is a whole

1011
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:01.000
mindset shift that I think, Like I say, it's it's

1012
00:46:01.639 --> 00:46:06.039
grounded in gratitude. So that is a that is a

1013
00:46:06.079 --> 00:46:07.920
concept that's very near and dear to my heart. I

1014
00:46:08.199 --> 00:46:10.719
believe in finding things to be grateful for in our

1015
00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:14.239
darkest moments because that is it's very special to me.

1016
00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:17.519
And I'll share a story briefly as briefly as I

1017
00:46:17.599 --> 00:46:20.480
can because I had a parenting moment the other day

1018
00:46:20.559 --> 00:46:24.800
that's worth sharing. So I seek to find joy wherever

1019
00:46:24.920 --> 00:46:27.480
I go, and I do a little series on TikTok

1020
00:46:27.519 --> 00:46:29.199
where I do like joy from the ground up, I

1021
00:46:29.320 --> 00:46:31.159
call it and I usually put my phone on the

1022
00:46:31.159 --> 00:46:33.719
ground and pick it up and then I ask like, hello, you,

1023
00:46:33.960 --> 00:46:36.519
what do you stop right now and tell me something

1024
00:46:36.559 --> 00:46:39.360
you're grateful for because that changes, that shifts where you're

1025
00:46:39.400 --> 00:46:41.880
at in your head. That day, well, my my family

1026
00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:43.960
was having a very hard day. We've been working through

1027
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:46.800
a very hard season in my family right now, and

1028
00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:50.960
my my husband was just dark and it was it

1029
00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:54.559
was he had a challenging conversation with his parents on Tuesday,

1030
00:46:55.119 --> 00:46:58.039
and you know, parents getting older is hard for everybody,

1031
00:46:58.119 --> 00:46:59.760
and that was kind of what was going on. And

1032
00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:02.400
I had my own kind of hard day and my

1033
00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:05.320
my dear twelve year old son, Now I'm going to

1034
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:08.119
get emotional, but my dear twelve year old son stops

1035
00:47:08.199 --> 00:47:12.159
the conversation. He's like, guys, guys, guys, what are we

1036
00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:13.159
grateful for today?

1037
00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:15.599
Dad?

1038
00:47:16.199 --> 00:47:20.000
What's something good that happened to you today? And my

1039
00:47:20.239 --> 00:47:24.000
heart just like overflowed because it was the coolest moment

1040
00:47:24.039 --> 00:47:28.039
where it can change and it can shift that energy

1041
00:47:28.159 --> 00:47:31.800
from being so heavy. It just like lightens the load

1042
00:47:32.039 --> 00:47:34.199
on and we all need that right now, like in

1043
00:47:34.360 --> 00:47:36.760
what we you know, I think of this this image

1044
00:47:36.800 --> 00:47:39.880
that I keep seeing. It's various, different creators keep sharing

1045
00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:42.280
it of these people walking on a street and they

1046
00:47:42.320 --> 00:47:45.119
all have like words above their head like lost their job,

1047
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:47.880
or their parent died or whatever. And it's just so

1048
00:47:48.039 --> 00:47:52.079
powerful because we all have something going on, like everybody

1049
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:57.079
has something, and we benefit by sharing grace and feeling

1050
00:47:57.320 --> 00:48:01.360
gratitude even when, especially when things are so hard, because

1051
00:48:01.400 --> 00:48:04.639
that light then shares with others and brightens the world

1052
00:48:04.679 --> 00:48:05.119
around us.

1053
00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:05.840
It's just so cool.

1054
00:48:05.920 --> 00:48:09.760
So seeing how that's come to life for you is beautiful,

1055
00:48:09.840 --> 00:48:13.440
and I'm grateful for you sharing honestly the importance and

1056
00:48:13.639 --> 00:48:17.360
the very real way that gratitude can shape and transform

1057
00:48:18.039 --> 00:48:20.320
your day but also your life well.

1058
00:48:20.599 --> 00:48:24.639
And to stack on as you say that, it's one.

1059
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:27.800
Really I've always been really transparent on air because I

1060
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:30.119
think when you're on air, one of the powerful things

1061
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:32.280
that you get is the ability to connect with people

1062
00:48:32.320 --> 00:48:34.320
in a very real way. I've never hitten the fact

1063
00:48:34.360 --> 00:48:36.800
that I have no relationship with my family anymore, my

1064
00:48:36.920 --> 00:48:39.199
brother or my parents. I just I don't have any

1065
00:48:39.239 --> 00:48:42.559
family essentially, and that was a choice. That's something I

1066
00:48:42.599 --> 00:48:44.119
went through a lot of therapy. I worked really hard

1067
00:48:44.159 --> 00:48:45.719
to get to the point that I was able to

1068
00:48:45.800 --> 00:48:47.920
separate from them. I'm really proud of that. But the

1069
00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:51.199
funny thing is so many people would look at that

1070
00:48:51.320 --> 00:48:54.079
as a darkness that they can't talk about. I've talked

1071
00:48:54.079 --> 00:48:56.119
about it openly, and the number of times that I've

1072
00:48:56.119 --> 00:48:59.480
talked about it openly on national radio shows and afterwards

1073
00:48:59.519 --> 00:49:02.039
gotten dms and comments from people They're like, oh my god,

1074
00:49:02.119 --> 00:49:04.239
how did you do it? This is incredible? Thank you

1075
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:06.280
for saying this. I've felt like such a pariah. I've

1076
00:49:06.280 --> 00:49:08.760
felt like such an outlier. I've dealt with all of

1077
00:49:08.840 --> 00:49:10.719
these things, and I can't find a way to separate

1078
00:49:10.840 --> 00:49:14.119
all of these And it's funny how even embracing some

1079
00:49:14.360 --> 00:49:17.760
of the things that just feel mucky and being honest

1080
00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:20.920
about it and real about it has created real.

1081
00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:21.880
Benefit for people.

1082
00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:25.320
So again, even I'm not saying that I have gratitude

1083
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:27.199
that I have no relationship with my parents, but I

1084
00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:30.519
have gratitude that I worked really hard to do it

1085
00:49:30.599 --> 00:49:32.480
the right way in a way that I'm comfortable talking

1086
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:35.920
about it because it has genuinely helped people that have

1087
00:49:36.159 --> 00:49:38.159
taken the time to reach out to me, and so

1088
00:49:38.679 --> 00:49:42.159
it's been crazy cool for many Like weirdly like the

1089
00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:44.280
number of times I posted on Mother's Day or Father's

1090
00:49:44.360 --> 00:49:46.880
Day things like that, Hey, just shout out to everybody

1091
00:49:46.960 --> 00:49:48.920
that doesn't have a relationship with their mom or their

1092
00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:51.400
dad today and it's really tough, and everybody's telling you

1093
00:49:51.519 --> 00:49:53.480
you should reconcile. I just want you to know you're

1094
00:49:53.519 --> 00:49:57.119
not alone. And being able to embrace sort of even

1095
00:49:57.199 --> 00:49:59.920
my own darkness. It's not something I'd wish on anybody,

1096
00:50:00.400 --> 00:50:03.679
but it's brought other people tremendous comfort. So I just

1097
00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:06.440
I say that because y, there's so much just power

1098
00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:09.199
in embracing all of who we are and doing it

1099
00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:12.440
from the right I don't know, doing it from a

1100
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:14.760
perspective of love and growth just makes a difference.

1101
00:50:15.039 --> 00:50:17.920
What is something that you do to stay grounded and

1102
00:50:18.079 --> 00:50:23.960
present in the moment? Because with how how not again

1103
00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:25.880
nonlinear is the word that keeps coming into my head,

1104
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:29.079
But with how nonlinear your journey has been, you know

1105
00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:33.840
there's you've paid attention and that has helped lead you

1106
00:50:33.960 --> 00:50:36.199
and guide you. So that the first thing is what

1107
00:50:36.320 --> 00:50:38.400
do you do to stay grounded, but then beyond that,

1108
00:50:38.599 --> 00:50:41.840
Like if you had a megaphone to tell something to

1109
00:50:41.960 --> 00:50:45.000
the world right now on how to be present and

1110
00:50:45.159 --> 00:50:47.480
to be still, what would you say?

1111
00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:52.199
I think for me, I can look back at my

1112
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:54.519
music career and say that the biggest fault and the

1113
00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:56.719
reason that I fell out of love with the music

1114
00:50:56.800 --> 00:50:59.400
I made is I was so worried about what was

1115
00:50:59.480 --> 00:51:02.679
coming next that I stopped appreciating where we were. And

1116
00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:05.679
you know, I remember getting off the plane and having

1117
00:51:05.719 --> 00:51:07.880
to rush to Hyde Park in London. I remember that

1118
00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:10.920
show specifically because it was one hundred and ten thousand people,

1119
00:51:11.400 --> 00:51:13.400
and as I jumped off the stage at the end

1120
00:51:13.480 --> 00:51:15.760
to get back in the van, I remember looking at

1121
00:51:15.800 --> 00:51:17.639
somebody and saying, like, where are we going next? And

1122
00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:21.840
it was just everything. The year that we won Vocal

1123
00:51:21.880 --> 00:51:24.239
Group of the Year for the ACM Awards, at the

1124
00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:28.000
dinner afterwards, I remember standing up and saying, all right,

1125
00:51:28.079 --> 00:51:30.119
how we went in it next year? And everything became

1126
00:51:30.280 --> 00:51:32.960
so much about how are we running this back? That

1127
00:51:33.079 --> 00:51:35.320
I never appreciated it. So when I got into sports,

1128
00:51:35.400 --> 00:51:37.079
my one rule was that I was not going to

1129
00:51:37.159 --> 00:51:41.960
let the chase eliminate the joy, and for me, that

1130
00:51:42.159 --> 00:51:45.400
means every time I'm somewhere and it doesn't matter. I've

1131
00:51:45.440 --> 00:51:47.320
been lucky enough to stand on the field for several

1132
00:51:47.440 --> 00:51:49.679
national championship games. And every time I do that in

1133
00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:52.159
college football, I stop and I grab a couple of

1134
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.639
blades of grass and I just press paws on everything

1135
00:51:54.800 --> 00:51:57.039
and I soak it in and I take a picture

1136
00:51:57.159 --> 00:51:59.239
because I hate taking pictures, so I take a picture

1137
00:51:59.519 --> 00:52:02.079
so that I can force myself to look back on it. Right, Like,

1138
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:04.760
you know the number of times that I have found

1139
00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:07.960
myself at sporting events in the last especially the last

1140
00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:10.440
few years with Yahoo, where they've sent me to the

1141
00:52:10.559 --> 00:52:12.840
Natty and to the final four into super Bowls, and like,

1142
00:52:12.920 --> 00:52:15.239
we'll be at the super Bowl in San Francisco next

1143
00:52:15.320 --> 00:52:18.280
week for a week, and so often my mindset has been,

1144
00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:19.320
all right, let's dial in.

1145
00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:20.239
We're here for work.

1146
00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:22.960
And one thing I just forced myself to do when

1147
00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:26.320
I'm in a position everybody else would absolutely give anything

1148
00:52:26.360 --> 00:52:28.679
to be at, I take a minute. And I just

1149
00:52:28.760 --> 00:52:31.079
force myself every day to take a minute and to

1150
00:52:31.199 --> 00:52:32.920
pause and to soak it in. And it doesn't have

1151
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:36.280
to be anything deep. You just have to be thankful

1152
00:52:36.360 --> 00:52:38.599
for where you are because if you get so consumed

1153
00:52:38.679 --> 00:52:41.000
with the chase of where you're going, then none of

1154
00:52:41.039 --> 00:52:43.480
it was worth it. And I think that's the big

1155
00:52:43.599 --> 00:52:49.079
megaphone is every single person watching this can relate to

1156
00:52:49.159 --> 00:52:51.519
the fact that in high school all you wanted to

1157
00:52:51.559 --> 00:52:52.639
do was get out of high school.

1158
00:52:52.639 --> 00:52:54.119
And then you got to college and you were like, oh, man,

1159
00:52:54.119 --> 00:52:55.519
I wish I was back in high school. I got

1160
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:57.559
missed that. And then you get out of college and like, oh,

1161
00:52:57.639 --> 00:52:58.800
I wish I was back in college.

1162
00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:00.320
And then you get your first job or you're not

1163
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:02.679
really making any money, but you're having a blast, and

1164
00:53:02.880 --> 00:53:04.880
like it lasts for a few minutes, and then years

1165
00:53:04.960 --> 00:53:06.719
later you're looking back saying, I wish I was back

1166
00:53:06.760 --> 00:53:09.599
to that moment when life was simpler. We constantly look

1167
00:53:09.679 --> 00:53:12.400
back at the chapters we were in, even the way

1168
00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:14.400
we look at ourselves in the mirror physically, the number

1169
00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:16.440
of times it's like, oh, I was in better shape

1170
00:53:16.480 --> 00:53:18.599
two years ago, but two years ago, you thought you

1171
00:53:18.679 --> 00:53:19.760
were in better shape.

1172
00:53:19.559 --> 00:53:20.280
Two years ago.

1173
00:53:20.440 --> 00:53:25.280
So like we're constantly looking the wrong way, And to me, like,

1174
00:53:25.679 --> 00:53:29.800
if we're constantly looking back with envy, I feel like

1175
00:53:29.920 --> 00:53:31.679
at some point you have to look back with grace.

1176
00:53:31.719 --> 00:53:34.400
And gratitude, and then you have to stay where you are.

1177
00:53:34.599 --> 00:53:37.599
I genuinely no longer in my life worry about where

1178
00:53:37.599 --> 00:53:40.800
I'm going. And I would yell to everybody like when

1179
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:43.400
the first time we got any sort of an inkling

1180
00:53:43.480 --> 00:53:46.880
that I might get an ESPN contract, I remember somebody said, well,

1181
00:53:46.920 --> 00:53:49.199
would you move to Connecticut? You've lived in Nashville for

1182
00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:51.960
twenty years, would you move to Connecticut? And my answer was,

1183
00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:54.800
I'm not thinking about that, Like I'm not gonna worry

1184
00:53:54.880 --> 00:53:57.679
today about whether or not this contract has me in

1185
00:53:57.800 --> 00:54:01.199
Nashville or Connecticut. And guess what that contract turned out

1186
00:54:01.199 --> 00:54:02.559
and said, by the way, you have to move to

1187
00:54:02.559 --> 00:54:04.639
Connecticut and you have thirty days to make it happen.

1188
00:54:04.880 --> 00:54:06.920
That was a nightmare. But the thing of it is,

1189
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:10.000
you're gonna live through the nightmare scenario either way if

1190
00:54:10.039 --> 00:54:12.800
that's what's coming. Worrying about it in advance ain't gonna help.

1191
00:54:13.119 --> 00:54:15.320
So to me, what I've really focused on, what I

1192
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:18.519
tell everybody is like, look back with grace, learn your

1193
00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:19.639
lessons from the past.

1194
00:54:19.800 --> 00:54:22.880
For sure, honor the past. I think it's important to

1195
00:54:22.960 --> 00:54:24.960
do all of those things. But you can't get so

1196
00:54:25.159 --> 00:54:27.800
consumed with where you've been or where you're going, that

1197
00:54:27.880 --> 00:54:30.920
you forget where you are right now. And as simple

1198
00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:33.920
as that sounds, it's the hardest thing in the world

1199
00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:35.679
to do. It is the hardest thing in the world

1200
00:54:35.719 --> 00:54:38.800
to shut off everything in your mind because our minds

1201
00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:41.119
want to take us to well what's that mean for

1202
00:54:41.199 --> 00:54:41.639
next year?

1203
00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:42.360
And what you know?

1204
00:54:43.239 --> 00:54:45.679
For you with kids, like how do you appreciate the

1205
00:54:45.800 --> 00:54:48.440
moment now instead of worrying, well, what about college? Like

1206
00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:50.800
how and then how we're gonna figure these things out?

1207
00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:54.760
It's just then and then what happens? Like we've seen

1208
00:54:54.920 --> 00:54:57.119
just so much darkness in the world in the last

1209
00:54:57.199 --> 00:54:59.480
five ten years. If there's anything we should learn is

1210
00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:00.320
that we don't know.

1211
00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:03.239
Where we're going. And I think covid that's where the

1212
00:55:03.320 --> 00:55:06.199
COVID era really changed everything for me, because I realized

1213
00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:08.480
that we don't control anything.

1214
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:12.000
So if you don't control anything, then worry about what

1215
00:55:12.119 --> 00:55:14.119
you can control, which is the right now, how do

1216
00:55:14.159 --> 00:55:16.880
you make it through today and make today the best

1217
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:18.760
day that you could possibly make it?

1218
00:55:18.920 --> 00:55:19.079
You know?

1219
00:55:19.159 --> 00:55:21.480
I just I think there's truth to that, And it's

1220
00:55:21.719 --> 00:55:24.480
hard to do, and it takes discipline to do, but man,

1221
00:55:24.559 --> 00:55:25.440
I work at it every day.

1222
00:55:25.440 --> 00:55:29.639
I'm not always successful, but I really try every day something.

1223
00:55:29.400 --> 00:55:32.199
That might help, and it may be something you do anyway.

1224
00:55:32.480 --> 00:55:35.880
But when you talked about how to stay grounded and pause,

1225
00:55:36.039 --> 00:55:38.119
it made me think about, like, do you have a

1226
00:55:38.239 --> 00:55:42.079
song or an album that helps bring you back to

1227
00:55:42.199 --> 00:55:42.920
the present moment.

1228
00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:47.239
So it's so interesting peak behind the curtain. I knew

1229
00:55:47.239 --> 00:55:48.679
you were going to ask me this, and I am

1230
00:55:48.719 --> 00:55:51.000
a musician and I want to peek behind the curtain because,

1231
00:55:51.519 --> 00:55:53.239
like you'll think, this is the craziest thing you've ever

1232
00:55:53.280 --> 00:55:53.800
heard in your life.

1233
00:55:53.840 --> 00:55:55.400
I go to the gym every day right now. I'm

1234
00:55:55.440 --> 00:55:56.679
on this fitness journey.

1235
00:55:56.719 --> 00:55:58.800
It's something I'm really committed to making sure that when

1236
00:55:58.840 --> 00:56:02.000
I'm seventy, I'm as mobile and as dynamic as I

1237
00:56:02.039 --> 00:56:05.000
can be. So I'm committing today to the gym every day.

1238
00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:06.480
Can I sign my name to it? It's a big

1239
00:56:06.519 --> 00:56:10.079
deal for me. My trainer, yeah, I know it sounds

1240
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:11.880
terrible and to say he's on an app. Okay, so

1241
00:56:11.920 --> 00:56:13.760
he's not with me every day. But my trainer said,

1242
00:56:13.880 --> 00:56:17.440
you got to put together a playlist. Music distracts me

1243
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:21.639
from so much because I'm so invested in it that

1244
00:56:21.960 --> 00:56:23.880
I when I work out every day I'm in the

1245
00:56:23.960 --> 00:56:26.519
gym between cardio and lifting about an hour and a

1246
00:56:26.519 --> 00:56:29.480
half two hours a day. Every day I listen to

1247
00:56:29.559 --> 00:56:31.760
old episodes of Law and Order that I've seen a

1248
00:56:31.840 --> 00:56:33.960
million times because I don't want to get too low

1249
00:56:34.079 --> 00:56:36.960
or too high. When I was a kid, the songs

1250
00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:39.960
that touched my soul even then were songs like Turn

1251
00:56:40.039 --> 00:56:43.880
the Page and Homework Down, Simon and Garfunkle Like. I

1252
00:56:44.119 --> 00:56:47.159
always loved angsty on the road songs, which is weird

1253
00:56:47.280 --> 00:56:51.119
considering that later became my life. There are songs I

1254
00:56:51.239 --> 00:56:55.360
connect to. There are songs that I think that sort

1255
00:56:55.400 --> 00:56:58.079
of always make me feel. Dream On Aerosmith. Dream On

1256
00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:00.480
always makes me feel and it always makes me It

1257
00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:02.079
ties me back to the first time I ever heard

1258
00:57:02.119 --> 00:57:02.519
that song.

1259
00:57:02.880 --> 00:57:05.079
It was on MTV. It was a live performance with

1260
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:07.199
an orchestra, and it was right in that same chapter

1261
00:57:07.239 --> 00:57:08.559
where I was like, God, that's.

1262
00:57:08.639 --> 00:57:11.480
The coolest thing I've ever ever seen. But to me,

1263
00:57:11.880 --> 00:57:14.639
like the music I listened to the most is sad

1264
00:57:14.679 --> 00:57:19.000
boy pop. It's a sad singer songwriter, angsty stuff. I

1265
00:57:19.639 --> 00:57:22.519
want to make sure that music helps me emote things.

1266
00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:24.960
And I think because when I was a kid playing

1267
00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:26.440
the violin was an escape.

1268
00:57:26.199 --> 00:57:29.199
From a very violent household. So for me, like I

1269
00:57:29.320 --> 00:57:31.519
took my aggression and my anger. Like I was a

1270
00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:35.639
great aggressive classical music violinist, I was a great aggressive

1271
00:57:35.679 --> 00:57:38.159
fiddle player. I was not a great dainty anything with

1272
00:57:38.239 --> 00:57:40.920
the violin. Like, I'm not working through joy with it. No,

1273
00:57:41.079 --> 00:57:44.679
I'm out there hammering how much can I press into it?

1274
00:57:44.840 --> 00:57:49.400
So I think for me, the music that keeps me grounded,

1275
00:57:49.960 --> 00:57:52.360
weirdly is the music that allows me the freedom to

1276
00:57:52.519 --> 00:57:54.639
just be sad and get it out, and have a

1277
00:57:54.800 --> 00:57:56.239
bad day and get.

1278
00:57:56.159 --> 00:57:59.320
It out because I think sometimes just working through that

1279
00:58:00.199 --> 00:58:02.519
me better the next day. So it's not that it

1280
00:58:02.559 --> 00:58:04.719
pumps me up, or it's not that it brings me

1281
00:58:04.840 --> 00:58:07.360
back to center. It's that sometimes I need to listen

1282
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:10.719
to a James Arthur British singer songwriter album full of

1283
00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:13.079
sad songs and just get my feels for a night,

1284
00:58:13.119 --> 00:58:15.440
and the next day I'm recharged and I'm back to

1285
00:58:15.519 --> 00:58:16.519
the best version of myself.

1286
00:58:19.079 --> 00:58:21.880
Wow, I don't know where to go with that, because

1287
00:58:21.960 --> 00:58:25.840
the turn the page you're talking is that Bob Seeker,

1288
00:58:26.679 --> 00:58:27.480
Bob Singer.

1289
00:58:27.400 --> 00:58:30.280
All about being alone on the road, and nobody understands

1290
00:58:30.320 --> 00:58:32.559
you as a ten year old kid, I love to

1291
00:58:32.639 --> 00:58:36.760
be another I think again, nobody in my family was musical, right.

1292
00:58:36.880 --> 00:58:39.760
My parents and my brother were very like it was

1293
00:58:39.840 --> 00:58:42.480
a very violent household. That's not who I am.

1294
00:58:42.840 --> 00:58:44.719
So I think songs about being on the road were

1295
00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:47.599
really about songs about feeling lost and disconnected to any

1296
00:58:47.639 --> 00:58:51.280
connectivity of reality, and that was that was me, you know,

1297
00:58:51.400 --> 00:58:54.239
like Simon and Garfunk call Homeward Bound, you know, is

1298
00:58:54.519 --> 00:58:57.880
about longing for some place where you can call home

1299
00:58:57.920 --> 00:59:00.840
and you can belong. And even as a as a

1300
00:59:01.039 --> 00:59:03.480
kid it's ten eleven years old, that's the stuff I

1301
00:59:03.559 --> 00:59:07.400
resonated with because I didn't really feel connected to anything,

1302
00:59:07.719 --> 00:59:10.880
as weird as that sounds, so music was my connection.

1303
00:59:11.079 --> 00:59:13.880
So yeah, it's it's it's very ethereal, I guess, I

1304
00:59:13.920 --> 00:59:15.159
don't know, it's very it's very heavy.

1305
00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:18.320
Well, a lot of the things that you've said speak

1306
00:59:18.400 --> 00:59:21.480
to my soul. And Turn the Page was my dad's

1307
00:59:21.519 --> 00:59:25.079
favorite song, and my dad passed away when I was

1308
00:59:25.119 --> 00:59:30.880
twenty three, and that song has the most special place

1309
00:59:30.920 --> 00:59:32.719
in my heart. So the fact that you threw that

1310
00:59:32.800 --> 00:59:35.719
out there right away was just like a moment where

1311
00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:39.239
you know, I'm just feeling very grateful because I feel like,

1312
00:59:39.960 --> 00:59:43.760
you know, Dad's here with us, and how cool is that? Like,

1313
00:59:43.840 --> 00:59:46.599
I just feel very grateful for that, So thank you

1314
00:59:46.719 --> 00:59:49.679
for that particular song and that moment. And I don't

1315
00:59:49.679 --> 00:59:52.719
even care about all of the crying that's happening here today,

1316
00:59:52.760 --> 00:59:55.039
because there's all there's so much good. There's so much

1317
00:59:55.159 --> 00:59:59.000
good happening along with it. So I am so grateful.

1318
00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:00.840
I feel like I could talk to you for hours, like,

1319
01:00:00.960 --> 01:00:03.199
for hours and hours and hours. I don't know if

1320
01:00:03.239 --> 01:00:05.800
we can keep everybody with us for hours, but I'd

1321
01:00:05.840 --> 01:00:07.320
love to talk to you for hours. But I have

1322
01:00:07.519 --> 01:00:09.039
a few more questions that are more of like a

1323
01:00:09.119 --> 01:00:12.559
quick hitting, you know, a sentence or two kind of questions.

1324
01:00:12.599 --> 01:00:17.360
If you're ready for that, let's go. Indeed, So, what

1325
01:00:17.639 --> 01:00:20.320
is something about this season of your life that you

1326
01:00:20.440 --> 01:00:21.199
don't want to forget?

1327
01:00:24.719 --> 01:00:26.639
I think that's a great question.

1328
01:00:27.199 --> 01:00:29.599
I don't want to forget the magic of launching something

1329
01:00:29.679 --> 01:00:32.000
new like y'ahoo Sports Daily is my daily show with

1330
01:00:32.079 --> 01:00:35.159
y'ahoo nine to eleven AM. It was launched in August

1331
01:00:35.239 --> 01:00:37.239
with me and my co host Caroline Fenton as a

1332
01:00:37.360 --> 01:00:40.599
brand new undertaking nobody's ever done anything quite like what

1333
01:00:40.719 --> 01:00:41.159
we're doing.

1334
01:00:41.960 --> 01:00:43.840
It's a TV show that's on the internet.

1335
01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:45.880
It's all of these different things, and it's a whole

1336
01:00:45.960 --> 01:00:48.519
cast of people that I'm so lucky to get to

1337
01:00:48.599 --> 01:00:50.880
work with. It's rare in life that you can write

1338
01:00:50.920 --> 01:00:54.280
brand new chapters. So for me, embracing what it means

1339
01:00:54.400 --> 01:00:58.320
to just be writing a book from scratch is a beautiful,

1340
01:00:58.360 --> 01:00:59.000
beautiful thing.

1341
01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:00.480
Thank you for that.

1342
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:04.119
So what part of yourself are you grateful that you've

1343
01:01:04.239 --> 01:01:06.559
never let go of my emotions?

1344
01:01:06.960 --> 01:01:09.920
Right? I'm grateful for the fact that I'm a movie crier.

1345
01:01:09.960 --> 01:01:12.039
I'm grateful for the fact that I'm a podcast crier,

1346
01:01:12.079 --> 01:01:16.239
apparently never happened before. But I don't think. I don't

1347
01:01:16.280 --> 01:01:19.400
think you can truly connect with anybody if you're not

1348
01:01:19.559 --> 01:01:20.960
willing to connect with anybody.

1349
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:23.159
And I have been for my entire life.

1350
01:01:23.199 --> 01:01:26.320
So I think the music that I grew up around

1351
01:01:26.760 --> 01:01:29.760
has created somebody that's willing to be emotional and vulnerable.

1352
01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:32.239
And that doesn't mean you're soft, and it doesn't mean

1353
01:01:32.280 --> 01:01:36.360
any of those other things. So I'm incredibly grateful, and weirdly,

1354
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:39.920
I don't quick answer, but weirdly, I'm incredibly grateful that

1355
01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:42.440
my childhood was not easy, Like I think for me

1356
01:01:42.920 --> 01:01:45.320
being a fat kid to play the violin, got bullied,

1357
01:01:45.320 --> 01:01:47.639
a lot, violent, household, all of these things at once.

1358
01:01:48.280 --> 01:01:51.400
What it taught me is how to find like strengthen myself.

1359
01:01:51.519 --> 01:01:54.480
And it taught me, you know, how to find people

1360
01:01:54.599 --> 01:01:56.719
that I can connect with them, find connecting points with

1361
01:01:56.800 --> 01:01:58.880
people all over the place. So, you know, in a

1362
01:01:58.920 --> 01:02:03.519
world where we're constantly trying to insulate people from hardship,

1363
01:02:03.639 --> 01:02:05.760
I think the hardship of my childhood is one of

1364
01:02:05.800 --> 01:02:07.599
the most beautiful things about my adulthood.

1365
01:02:09.480 --> 01:02:11.199
I know I said quick hitting too, and I'm breaking

1366
01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:13.039
my own rule, but that goes back right back to

1367
01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:16.519
that whole gift of struggle and how struggle shapes us

1368
01:02:16.599 --> 01:02:19.840
into who we are truly. And some of the people

1369
01:02:19.960 --> 01:02:22.119
that have had the most hardship in their lives and

1370
01:02:22.159 --> 01:02:26.639
the most challenge are the most grateful humans. It's and

1371
01:02:26.719 --> 01:02:28.039
we could learn so much from them.

1372
01:02:28.199 --> 01:02:29.400
So I'm with you on that.

1373
01:02:30.239 --> 01:02:34.280
If someone listening feels pressure to choose just one version

1374
01:02:34.320 --> 01:02:37.480
of themselves and stick to it, what would you tell them?

1375
01:02:39.519 --> 01:02:44.960
Wow, I that's nobody's decision to make for you, Like

1376
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:48.719
you can't live for anybody else. And I mean I

1377
01:02:48.719 --> 01:02:50.639
think one of the most empowering things of the modern

1378
01:02:50.719 --> 01:02:53.559
generation is we've figured out that that means anybody like,

1379
01:02:53.719 --> 01:02:56.800
I'm not going to live my life for what anybody

1380
01:02:56.880 --> 01:02:59.639
else tells me to live my life. Now, I think

1381
01:03:00.079 --> 01:03:02.360
when you have love, and when you have family, and

1382
01:03:02.440 --> 01:03:05.480
when you have certain people like that should wag into

1383
01:03:05.639 --> 01:03:09.320
your decision, but it should wigh into your decision because

1384
01:03:09.320 --> 01:03:11.719
at the end of the day, like if I end up,

1385
01:03:11.920 --> 01:03:15.199
you know, an old broke dude that's just working at

1386
01:03:15.199 --> 01:03:17.719
Walmart trying to make a living, I'm okay with that

1387
01:03:17.800 --> 01:03:19.480
because I have great stories and I'm going to have

1388
01:03:19.519 --> 01:03:21.719
lived the life that I really wanted to live. You

1389
01:03:21.880 --> 01:03:24.840
have to have peace with yourself, and so much of

1390
01:03:25.239 --> 01:03:27.639
even growing with a partner is like you grow and

1391
01:03:27.719 --> 01:03:29.480
they grow, and how do you guys grow together? So

1392
01:03:29.639 --> 01:03:30.840
often you lose yourself in that.

1393
01:03:30.960 --> 01:03:33.920
That's the one thing. It's nobody else's decision for how

1394
01:03:33.960 --> 01:03:34.559
you're going to live.

1395
01:03:34.639 --> 01:03:37.920
I think when you are a good person and when

1396
01:03:37.960 --> 01:03:40.599
you have love in your heart, you factor in other

1397
01:03:40.719 --> 01:03:44.079
people's feelings to the decisions you make, But your decisions

1398
01:03:44.079 --> 01:03:46.519
are still yours to make, and it is nobody's world

1399
01:03:46.599 --> 01:03:47.480
to tell you how to make them.

1400
01:03:48.320 --> 01:03:52.639
Amen. Thank you for that quick before you forget what

1401
01:03:52.920 --> 01:03:53.840
matters most to you.

1402
01:03:54.039 --> 01:03:58.440
Right now. The two things that have always mattered most

1403
01:03:58.480 --> 01:04:01.920
of me are impact. Always in respect, and when I

1404
01:04:01.960 --> 01:04:04.320
say respect, I mean respect from people that I think

1405
01:04:04.360 --> 01:04:06.679
should know. I don't care what somebody on Twitter has

1406
01:04:06.719 --> 01:04:08.920
to say about a show I did. I don't care.

1407
01:04:09.159 --> 01:04:11.559
I never cared what a reviewer that had never played

1408
01:04:11.559 --> 01:04:13.280
a musical instrument I had to say about one of

1409
01:04:13.320 --> 01:04:16.199
my concerts. I cared about when we walked off stage,

1410
01:04:16.559 --> 01:04:18.519
you know, and we were opening for Keith Urban, and

1411
01:04:18.599 --> 01:04:20.599
Keith Urban walked up to me afterwards and said.

1412
01:04:20.440 --> 01:04:22.639
You are a badass fiddle player. That to me, that

1413
01:04:22.840 --> 01:04:26.079
that mattered because Keith knows right and you know. To me,

1414
01:04:26.280 --> 01:04:26.760
that's the thing.

1415
01:04:26.920 --> 01:04:29.719
Like when I was laid off from ESPN, the most

1416
01:04:29.760 --> 01:04:31.920
powerful thing is I got to live my funeral while

1417
01:04:31.920 --> 01:04:34.480
I was alive. The number of texts I got from

1418
01:04:34.559 --> 01:04:37.559
some of the biggest names in sports media, people I

1419
01:04:37.639 --> 01:04:39.519
didn't even realize I was that level of friend with

1420
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:42.440
that that wanted to make sure they that I knew

1421
01:04:42.519 --> 01:04:44.480
how much I meant to them and how much they

1422
01:04:44.559 --> 01:04:45.440
respect my work.

1423
01:04:46.159 --> 01:04:48.400
That's that's what matters to me. I don't.

1424
01:04:48.480 --> 01:04:51.039
I don't care about what you know the average Joschmo thinks.

1425
01:04:51.159 --> 01:04:53.599
I care about making impact to the average Joshmo. I

1426
01:04:53.679 --> 01:04:54.880
care about respect.

1427
01:04:54.559 --> 01:04:57.719
From people that I think have the knowledge to know

1428
01:04:57.880 --> 01:04:59.440
whether or not I'm good or bad at what I

1429
01:04:59.519 --> 01:05:00.639
do or or who I am.

1430
01:05:03.039 --> 01:05:05.639
I am so grateful for you. I am so grateful

1431
01:05:05.679 --> 01:05:09.159
for your stories and for your sharing your journey with

1432
01:05:09.440 --> 01:05:13.239
us today. I have no words, honestly, and I don't

1433
01:05:13.239 --> 01:05:16.639
get speechless often I am. I'm a talker. I've always

1434
01:05:16.639 --> 01:05:18.320
been told I'm too wordy, but I don't really have

1435
01:05:18.400 --> 01:05:21.800
words for how perfect this journey was. Thank you for

1436
01:05:21.920 --> 01:05:24.800
taking us on it. And I want to ask before

1437
01:05:24.840 --> 01:05:27.360
we wrap up, is there anything else that you want

1438
01:05:27.480 --> 01:05:29.239
to share that I didn't ask?

1439
01:05:31.079 --> 01:05:34.840
No, I don't, I don't. I don't think so. I'm

1440
01:05:34.880 --> 01:05:36.920
trying you. You did such a beautiful interview. It was

1441
01:05:36.960 --> 01:05:39.840
such a this was such a beautiful opportunity to talk

1442
01:05:39.880 --> 01:05:40.000
to you.

1443
01:05:40.119 --> 01:05:43.079
I would just one more time, in part to everybody

1444
01:05:43.719 --> 01:05:47.440
that you can get so bogged down with the whys

1445
01:05:47.519 --> 01:05:48.400
and the hows and.

1446
01:05:49.119 --> 01:05:52.760
The details and the minutia. Fine, whatever your whatever your

1447
01:05:52.800 --> 01:05:55.639
piece is, whatever, whatever the thing is that allows you

1448
01:05:55.719 --> 01:05:58.159
to escape for ten minutes. If it's meditation, if it's

1449
01:05:58.400 --> 01:06:00.599
going to the gym, if it's if it's sitting there

1450
01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:03.679
in a dark, silent room, I don't care. Find ten

1451
01:06:03.719 --> 01:06:06.840
minutes and shut off the noise and you might find truth,

1452
01:06:07.039 --> 01:06:10.719
because I think so often truth is clouded by everything

1453
01:06:10.800 --> 01:06:12.760
we think we need to be and everybody we think

1454
01:06:12.840 --> 01:06:15.079
we need to please, and everybody we think everything we

1455
01:06:15.239 --> 01:06:19.159
think we should be doing. When sometimes the truest.

1456
01:06:18.840 --> 01:06:20.800
Path is the clearest one, and you know it in

1457
01:06:20.880 --> 01:06:23.679
your heart of hearts, you just find obstacles to not

1458
01:06:23.840 --> 01:06:26.440
listen to it. So find a way to reduce the obstacles.

1459
01:06:26.480 --> 01:06:28.119
I think you find more clarity on where your true

1460
01:06:28.159 --> 01:06:28.760
piece comes from.

1461
01:06:30.159 --> 01:06:32.199
Where can people find you? Because they're gonna want more

1462
01:06:32.280 --> 01:06:33.639
Jason Fitz in their life after this.

1463
01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:35.599
Oh that's kind of you to say.

1464
01:06:35.960 --> 01:06:38.360
Social media at Jason Fitz is on Instagram and on

1465
01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:41.599
Twitter X and Yahoo Sports. We're there every single day,

1466
01:06:41.880 --> 01:06:42.639
Monday through Friday.

1467
01:06:42.639 --> 01:06:44.559
We're there. I'm all over Yahoo Sports. You can check

1468
01:06:44.559 --> 01:06:46.760
that out on YouTube or wherever you get your free

1469
01:06:46.840 --> 01:06:48.440
TV like Roku and two B and other thing.

1470
01:06:48.519 --> 01:06:51.480
Yahoo Sports has a channel there or Yahoo Sports dot

1471
01:06:51.559 --> 01:06:53.119
tv is the way you can watch the.

1472
01:06:53.320 --> 01:06:55.280
Shows we do. But yeah, I'm all over Yahoo there

1473
01:06:55.280 --> 01:06:57.280
and all over Fox Sports Radio beautiful.

1474
01:06:57.840 --> 01:06:59.880
Well, thank you again for your time, for your energy,

1475
01:07:00.039 --> 01:07:03.159
for your wisdom, and just for being you today. I'm

1476
01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:06.480
very very grateful and we'll see you next time on

1477
01:07:06.679 --> 01:07:07.679
Quick Before You Forget.

1478
01:07:07.960 --> 01:07:10.599
Thank you for being with me today on Quick Before

1479
01:07:10.639 --> 01:07:14.360
you Forget. Please take a second to like, share, subscribe,

1480
01:07:14.440 --> 01:07:16.440
and rate the show as it's super.

1481
01:07:16.280 --> 01:07:16.880
Helpful for me.

1482
01:07:16.960 --> 01:07:20.599
If you do, thank you, thank you, thank you, and

1483
01:07:20.679 --> 01:07:23.320
I'll see you next time on Quick Before You Forget.