November 22, 2023 • 24 mins
Today's special guest is NFL great and businessman Brandon Siler. He joins Host Ramses Ja to his new book "Definition of a Leader" and his new Netflix documentary "Swamp Kings".
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
NFL star Brandon Siler has been busy since his days
of playing football. He released a new book called Definition
of a Leader, as well as his recent Netflix documentary
series Swamp Kings. Brandon has made an amazing transition to
bring sports fans, business leaders, and America's youth together by
creating a wave of platforms for people all over the world.
(00:22):
On top of all this, he is constantly speaking to
audiences about his personal testimony and success, plus actively managing
eleven different businesses. Here to share more about his exciting story,
we have the one and only Brandon Seiler. This is
the Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host,
ramses Jah. All right, mister Brandon Siler, the one and only,
(00:45):
the man, the myth, the legend. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
How you doing today, man, Man, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thank you having.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Absolutely man, it is a pleasure. So you are a
man who needs no introduction but standard practice on this show,
we start all of our stories at the getting for
folks who may not know you know the backstory, give
us a little bit about you, know, your background, how
you grew up, and effectively what led you to this
conversation today.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Basically, I'm a kid from Pine Hills Projects in Orlando,
went on and played football, played sports all my life,
made straight a's most of my life right.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
So went to University of Florida. There I played three.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Years, was the captain of the national championship team at Florida,
went to the draft, played six years in the NFL,
four for the Chargers, two for the Chiefs. In twenty thirteen,
I retired from the NFL kind of walked out and
left after one of my teammates tragically shot himself in
(01:49):
the head and killed himself in front of me, led
me to try to find something else after the game.
I ran a fortune five hundred company for about two
and a half years before a few of my players
came to me with the problem and an issue about
getting them disabilities when they was done playing football.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I went and started.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Researching things for them and and figuring it out, and
ultimately I ended up getetting those six guys that was
frustrated about not getting disabilities. I ended up getting it
for them. UH, and I said, we needed an advocate.
We needed somebody that could do that for us on
a regular basis. So I created our company, Legacy Pro Sports,
and UH now five years later, we represent over five
(02:33):
thousand NFL players.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That is that is fantastic. I wanted to ask you
about your path going from the NFL to you know,
creating you know all these platforms, having eleven businesses, and
you know, I know that the businesses benefited disabled NFL players.
I know that you have an initiative to impact mental
health awareness. And then there are endeavors that you have
(02:58):
with respect to entrepreneurship and business initiatives. Talk a little
bit more about these various businesses and the impacts that
you're creating with them.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, Legacy Pro Sports is where it all started, right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I wanted to get guys disabilities that couldn't get them.
But then I started seeing issues with the guys. Right,
rather it be mental health issues anxiety depression BTSD, they
had neurocog issues and I wanted to do something about that.
So I ended up acquiring a rehab facility that now
(03:35):
all athletes. It's invited for athletes to come in, and
we usually have professional athletes being basketball, football, baseball, but
we've had collegiate athletes as well.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
They go to my center and they.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
See psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuropsyches. They get brain mapping done
TMS done on their brain, but they.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Also have like a private chelf that's cooking them through
to day.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's it's like Glant rehab, right, because these guys are
used to hire in type things.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But we get a lot of work done.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We saved a lot of lives, and it's it's big
when you have the wives that come back and like, oh,
you saved our marriage, you saved our relationship, his relationship
with our kids. Uh, you saved his life. Right, So
we get that a lot, and I think that's God's work.
So that's why, you know what I do is.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Big to me. It's like, this is what God put
me here for, is to help people. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Sure, so let's let's switch gears here a bit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Let's talk a little bit about swamp Kings and why
you decided to put that documentary out on Netflix, So
for our listeners that may not be familiar, let's let's
talk about that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
So ultimately, swamp Kings actually Netflix actually came to came
to me, right, and a bunch of us players got
together and we had to we had to decide rather
we were really gonna do this because there was some
negative stuff out there about us, right, There was the
Ornande's thing. There was a couple of bar fights and
(05:09):
all that kind of stuff that was out there, and
we had to take take all of that into consideration.
But at the end of the day, I made a
decision to do it because I said, you know, our
story is gonna be told, so who better to tell
it than us?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Right? We wanted to be a part of that story.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And you know, it was a time where we will
winning and it seemed like we were gonna win every
game that we played, and we wanted to be the
ones that was telling that story. So ultimately Netflix came
came to me, but I knew that I had.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
To do it. I knew I had to tell our
story the right way.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
What is the reception been to the to the documentary series.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
It's been awesome, man.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I mean, everybody that has watched it and seen it,
they've said nothing but positive things. The only thing that
they would possibly say that was bad about it was that.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That we didn't show a lot of.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
The negative stuff, right, you know, drama, right, and we
wasn't going to give it to them.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Ultimately, the reason that they made a Netflix documentary about
us is because we was winning and we were great.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And that's what needed to be highlighted.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
In that Netflix documentary, you get a lot of the
behind the scenes things, and that's.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
What people love. You know.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
They loved the story of my mom going and confronting
herban Maya, and they loved the stories of you know,
me grabbing Tim Tebow and putting them on the back
of my scooter.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So it was all of these different behind the scene
looks that you got where somebody like yourself that doesn't
necessarily know anything about sports, if you watched it, when
you were done watching it, it's still going to make
you feel like, oh goodness.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I want to get up do something. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I want to go achieve something because that was how
we worked, and we worked in and ultimately achieved the
highest honor we could achieve in college football.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So that's actually what I was going to ask you,
What for a person who maybe isn't they don't follow
sports as closely as you know most people do, what
they would take away from it? And it sounds like
you gave me a really solid answer. I appreciate that,
But how about this What is something that a person
who might not be familiar with in terms of the story.
(07:25):
What is something that a person might learn by watching
the film some insight into what happened or you know,
what was it then motivated you all to be so successful?
What would a person learn about, you know, your time
as a college player.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
See, I think ultimately what a person that you know
is not even in the sports, just watching it. I
think what they ultimately would learn is the way that
leadership kind of feels and is a necessity. So when
you're trying to achieve something that high, right, you're gonna
(08:00):
look at the chain of command and how I led
the team when we first started, but how gods like
Tim Tebow, how gods like Brandon Spikes, the guys that
came after me, how they learned from some of the
things that I did and took that and took it
to a.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Whole nother level and used a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That stuff in those next few years to continue basically
the winning and the dynasty that we had during that
period of time. You know, So I think somebody that's
exactly what they would get out of it is how
that leadership, how that leadership impacts not just a football team,
but organizations, teams that you might have, workplace efficiency, all
(08:47):
of that sort of thing. You know, leadership has to
be right in order for you to do it at
the highest level.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So how about this, What are some of the potential
pitfalls that people would be surprised to learn about that
same story you mentioned, you know, some of the the
more rowdy type of individuals or at least behaviors that
have stemmed from that. Is there any connective tissue between
(09:13):
that time and maybe that leadership style and some people
maybe you know, losing their way or you know, anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, I think I think ultimately the pitfalls would be
in the years before right, the years leading up to
when we when we became what we became right. Ultimately,
you see that nobody stepped up and was that leader.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
We didn't have anybody that was brave enough to step
out and say, look, we got to do this thing
in the right way.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So, if you have a bunch of little subgroups that
everybody's complaining about how much we have to work and
how hard it is and how hot it is outside, right,
if everybody in the these subgroups are having these different
complaints and nobody steps up and says, look, we gotta
do what we gotta do. If this is what it takes,
(10:07):
I want to win, and if all y'all want to
win with me, y'all need to jump on board. I
think that is what you will see in those years
up until we become great.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Sure. Sure.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
One of the things that I was noticing too, is
that the way, at least in that part of the country,
the way that people rally around college sports, college football
in particular, is it's amazing. And so I could definitely see,
(10:37):
you know, having someone step up as a leader and
you know, help define what what goals that you're going
to have as a team and then put together a
plan and get everyone across that finish line. How people
would definitely get on board with that because of indeed
how important college football is in that part of the country. So,
(10:58):
you know, that's at least what I got from you know,
the press materials that I was checking out. It's almost
bigger than you know, the Super Bowl, how it looks
out there.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
So I mean, I mean SEC football is bigger than
pro football. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of
fond memories of football, and my fondest memories are in college.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Right. I played six years in the NFL. I played
in some great stadiums.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
But when you have that college football atmosphere and you're
in places like the Swamp, right, or some of our competitors,
when you go play at LSU and bat Rouge, or
when you go play in Tennessee and.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You have ninety six.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Thousand people screaming at the top of the laws like
every single word matters. That is college football, and that's
the type of that you're in. You know, it's crazy.
Like I always said, like the craziest feeling for me
in my life is being able to do this at
(12:01):
ninety six thousand people scream at the top.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Of the long like. You don't ever, you don't ever
replicate that feeling, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
What I'm saying, Like it never, it never, It never
gets any better than that.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So that's the type of feeling, and that's the type
of football that you play. When you're playing down the.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, You've you've certainly turned it into to something substantial.
You know, I commend you for that. So let's get
back to the things that you're working on. So let's
talk a little bit about the BT Silar Leadership Academy
and what the purpose of that is.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
So, a lot of my players, and not even just
my players, a lot of people in the community, they
ask all the time, like they don't get to see
that grind behind the scenes, right.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
All they see is the glitz and glamour.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Right, they see the big leads and that sort of thing,
and they think, well, shoot, how do we how do
I do that?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Right?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
So I wanted to give them a little bit of
me and let them know, like there's different things that
you could do at different places in your life that
ultimately you can use to make you be a better
leader and to make you move up as an entrepreneur
in the world. My book Definition of a Leader gives
(13:16):
you insights to basically what happened to me in my life,
What were the things that happened to me in my life,
and how did I use even the negative things to
spin and use them as positive things later on in
my life and turn them into things that has projected
me to be a success.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So in that book you get basically.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
My background and then how I implemented those things going forward.
And then in the Leadership Academy, which comes out about
a month we're still making sure that it's perfect, but
and be solid. Leadership Academy, you're going to be able
to work on yourself, not just listen to somebody they
(14:00):
talk about, Oh, you know what it is to be
a leader, step a, this, that, and that.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
That is the traditional way, and we do have that
in the Leadership Academy. But also you're going to get
deep diving stories where you can actually do work and
actually turn in work and get it graded back. You
can also look at real experiences and ways that you
can utilize this in your life going forward. So it's
(14:28):
a different way of looking at leadership. You know, I
don't look at it as you know, you how to
find somebody that is exactly like you want to be
or what you want. I look at it as you
can see the ultimate person that you want to be.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Rottel is the best possible meat that I can be right,
and that's the person that you look up to. And
when you look up to that person and you see
that person in the end, now you can work back
quiz to tell you what you need to be doing
every day in order to become that person.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We are here today with Brandon Siler, the author of
the new book Definition of a Leader, as well as
the man behind the Netflix documentary series Swamp Kings. Okay,
so you mentioned your book Definition of a Leader, and
obviously we've kind of mentioned it in our conversation so far.
(15:31):
I kind of want to ask you a question, who
did you have in mind as the reader of this
book when you were writing this, when you were putting
the book together. Who would be the ideal reader. Who's
the person that will gain the most from that work.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
I wrote it really with the attention that it goes
over over a wide range of people, right, But I
think ultimately young adults that want to get more out
of their cells, wants to get more out of whatever
their position is and their occupation, want to want to
(16:13):
elevate their seals and their business. Rather they're entrepreneur, rather
they're at a job that they want to move up in.
I think that is ultimately the person that's right for
reading this book, right, because it's a book that's going
to make you want to get up and do something right.
It's going to make you want to get up and
do something about the position that you're in. Even if
(16:35):
you're in a good position, it's going to make you
want to get to a great position. If you're in
a bad position, it's going to make you want to
get in to a good position. But ultimately, anybody that
wants to feel a little bit of motivation to do
more and to get more out of themselves, so that
that expands over a wide range of people. So anybody
(16:55):
that picks it up will get something out of it.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Sure, So while we're here, let's that's let people know
where they can get that book where they can.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
So you could go on bsolid dot com and get
my book.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You can purchase the book.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You can also go on and pre purchase for be
Solid Leadership Academy, or you can go on Instagram. There's
a link there Brandon Solid forty on Instagram, same thing
on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
But those are the different ways that you can get
ahold of my book.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Sure, And before we let you go, I know that
you have, like I mentioned, eleven businesses. That's impressive. I
know you're probably or maybe you're not stretched. Then maybe
you're doing exactly what you want to do and putting
the right amount of energy into the world and still
keeping yourself centered. But I can't imagine that you're not busy.
(17:51):
But I have to ask what's next for you? I'll
be saying ambitious. People tend to stay ambitious, So what's
next on your read?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I think that we can reach a lot of people
with our rehab facilities. I think that we're doing a
lot of work. But what bothers me is, you know,
the amount of people that I've lost, the amount of
teammates that I've lost due to mental health is what
is that bothers.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Me every day?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Two days ago, I had a teammate that I had
in Kansas City my last year there, that died at
the age of thirty five. Right so, no matter how
many lives we saving right now, and how many relationships
with spouses that were saving, we're trying to do everything
that we can to get is many of these rehab
(18:40):
facilities up so that we can save as many lives
as we can. We also have two foundations, Legacy Pro
Sports Foundation and they're also Healthy Minds, where we raise
money to put these athletes in places where they can
go and be vulnerable and get better with their mental health.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Because you know, it's hard.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Like you are Barbarian, you're a warrior, right, and it's
hard for a lot of these guys to get their
head around needing mental health work and meet and needing
put theirself in a place where they could be vulnerable,
tell people that this is what's going on with them,
and then work on themselves. That's an initiative that we're
trying to push and we're gonna keep on pushing it.
(19:27):
And I guess that that's what's next for me, man,
just continuing the fight to help people as much as
I can.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I'm gonna add something here that you know, I feel
like that's that's a very special initiative that you're undertaking.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Recently, this might have been last week.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I was in New York at the iHeart headquarters and
Charlemagne and I did a fireside chat. Charlemagne and God,
he's a radio personality if you're not familiar, but he
and I did a fireside chat for the benefit of
the ad Council and just a bunch of advertisers in
New York and the chat, the focal point of the
(20:12):
chat was mental health awareness, specifically for black men. And
I work in a space. You know, a lot of
the programming that I do on the radio and on
the podcast for iHeart is based around social justice, right,
so not in the same way, but you know, as
black men were born having to fight for even our humanity,
(20:36):
and I'd imagine that that's turned up to eleven for
an athlete, where it's kind of ingrained in even your
physical movements to be physically stronger and to fight with
your body and sofa and always be in a constant
state of readiness. Believe it or not, I actually did
play football when I was in high school. I just
got into music and you know that took over. But
that conversation was very special because I saw just how
(21:00):
little the impacts of mental health are communicated to the masses,
and how little people know how conversations, just conversations can
be helpful. You know, what do people do to not
just be aware of their place, you know, and their
status in terms of their mental health, but also best
(21:22):
practices to improve that? Right, And again coming from a
place where on the radio I talk about really graphic,
really traumatic events harm done to black and brown bodies,
I have to experience that trauma like mentally and then
process it mentally and then re articulated for my listeners.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And so.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
While I have been a mental health advocate for many years.
Recently I've made a lot more connections and tapped in
with a lot more people who even feel as strongly
as you do. And so when I say that I'm
really proud of you, I really mean that. That's it's
very necessary. And you know, obviously you've experienced losing people
(22:07):
to you know, their own you know, mental health challenges,
and so I know that you have your own reasons
for doing this, but we need more people like you.
So I want to make sure that I said that
to you. Absolutely I appreciate that, my brother.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, so one more time, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Let's make sure that we plug that book and we
plug your social media before we let you go, just
so that people who are existing fans and new fans
can tap in with you and support you best they can.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
So you can find my book at bsolid dot com.
That's definition of a Leader. You also can pre purchase
the leadership Academy be Sola Leadership Academy. Also, you can
catch me and take the journey with me on my
Instagram at Brandon Sola forty. Also it's the same thing
(23:00):
on Facebook. But yeah, tap in, follow and take the
journey with me. Also, if you want to follow our company,
Legacy Pro Sports and the wins that we have with
our players, you can follow us on Instagram at Legacy
pro Sports.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
All right, well, let me say this.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'd like to thank you very much for coming on
and sharing your insights and your successes, and I want
to thank you again for sharing those successes with the
rest of us so that we can benefit from lessons
that you've learned and best practices that you've developed. You
are an inspiration once again. Today's guest is Brandon Siler,
(23:41):
the author of the new book Definition of the Leader,
as well as the man behind the Netflix documentary series
Swamp Kings. This has been a production of the Black
Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have
some thoughts you'd like to share, use the red microphone
talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit suscribe and download all of our episodes.
(24:02):
I'm your host Ramsey's Jaw on all social media and
join us tomorrow as we share our news with our
voice from our perspective right here on the Black Information
Network Daily Podcast.
NFL star Brandon Siler has been busy since his days
of playing football. He released a new book called Definition
of a Leader, as well as his recent Netflix documentary
series Swamp Kings. Brandon has made an amazing transition to
bring sports fans, business leaders, and America's youth together by
creating a wave of platforms for people all over the world.
(00:22):
On top of all this, he is constantly speaking to
audiences about his personal testimony and success, plus actively managing
eleven different businesses. Here to share more about his exciting story,
we have the one and only Brandon Seiler. This is
the Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host,
ramses Jah. All right, mister Brandon Siler, the one and only,
(00:45):
the man, the myth, the legend. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
How you doing today, man, Man, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thank you having.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Absolutely man, it is a pleasure. So you are a
man who needs no introduction but standard practice on this show,
we start all of our stories at the getting for
folks who may not know you know the backstory, give
us a little bit about you, know, your background, how
you grew up, and effectively what led you to this
conversation today.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Basically, I'm a kid from Pine Hills Projects in Orlando,
went on and played football, played sports all my life,
made straight a's most of my life right.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
So went to University of Florida. There I played three.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Years, was the captain of the national championship team at Florida,
went to the draft, played six years in the NFL,
four for the Chargers, two for the Chiefs. In twenty thirteen,
I retired from the NFL kind of walked out and
left after one of my teammates tragically shot himself in
(01:49):
the head and killed himself in front of me, led
me to try to find something else after the game.
I ran a fortune five hundred company for about two
and a half years before a few of my players
came to me with the problem and an issue about
getting them disabilities when they was done playing football.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I went and started.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Researching things for them and and figuring it out, and
ultimately I ended up getetting those six guys that was
frustrated about not getting disabilities. I ended up getting it
for them. UH, and I said, we needed an advocate.
We needed somebody that could do that for us on
a regular basis. So I created our company, Legacy Pro Sports,
and UH now five years later, we represent over five
(02:33):
thousand NFL players.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That is that is fantastic. I wanted to ask you
about your path going from the NFL to you know,
creating you know all these platforms, having eleven businesses, and
you know, I know that the businesses benefited disabled NFL players.
I know that you have an initiative to impact mental
health awareness. And then there are endeavors that you have
(02:58):
with respect to entrepreneurship and business initiatives. Talk a little
bit more about these various businesses and the impacts that
you're creating with them.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, Legacy Pro Sports is where it all started, right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I wanted to get guys disabilities that couldn't get them.
But then I started seeing issues with the guys. Right,
rather it be mental health issues anxiety depression BTSD, they
had neurocog issues and I wanted to do something about that.
So I ended up acquiring a rehab facility that now
(03:35):
all athletes. It's invited for athletes to come in, and
we usually have professional athletes being basketball, football, baseball, but
we've had collegiate athletes as well.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
They go to my center and they.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
See psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuropsyches. They get brain mapping done
TMS done on their brain, but they.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Also have like a private chelf that's cooking them through
to day.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's it's like Glant rehab, right, because these guys are
used to hire in type things.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But we get a lot of work done.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We saved a lot of lives, and it's it's big
when you have the wives that come back and like, oh,
you saved our marriage, you saved our relationship, his relationship
with our kids. Uh, you saved his life. Right, So
we get that a lot, and I think that's God's work.
So that's why, you know what I do is.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Big to me. It's like, this is what God put
me here for, is to help people. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Sure, so let's let's switch gears here a bit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Let's talk a little bit about swamp Kings and why
you decided to put that documentary out on Netflix, So
for our listeners that may not be familiar, let's let's
talk about that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
So ultimately, swamp Kings actually Netflix actually came to came
to me, right, and a bunch of us players got
together and we had to we had to decide rather
we were really gonna do this because there was some
negative stuff out there about us, right, There was the
Ornande's thing. There was a couple of bar fights and
(05:09):
all that kind of stuff that was out there, and
we had to take take all of that into consideration.
But at the end of the day, I made a
decision to do it because I said, you know, our
story is gonna be told, so who better to tell
it than us?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Right? We wanted to be a part of that story.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And you know, it was a time where we will
winning and it seemed like we were gonna win every
game that we played, and we wanted to be the
ones that was telling that story. So ultimately Netflix came
came to me, but I knew that I had.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
To do it. I knew I had to tell our
story the right way.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
What is the reception been to the to the documentary series.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
It's been awesome, man.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I mean, everybody that has watched it and seen it,
they've said nothing but positive things. The only thing that
they would possibly say that was bad about it was that.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That we didn't show a lot of.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
The negative stuff, right, you know, drama, right, and we
wasn't going to give it to them.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Ultimately, the reason that they made a Netflix documentary about
us is because we was winning and we were great.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And that's what needed to be highlighted.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
In that Netflix documentary, you get a lot of the
behind the scenes things, and that's.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
What people love. You know.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
They loved the story of my mom going and confronting
herban Maya, and they loved the stories of you know,
me grabbing Tim Tebow and putting them on the back
of my scooter.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So it was all of these different behind the scene
looks that you got where somebody like yourself that doesn't
necessarily know anything about sports, if you watched it, when
you were done watching it, it's still going to make
you feel like, oh goodness.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I want to get up do something. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I want to go achieve something because that was how
we worked, and we worked in and ultimately achieved the
highest honor we could achieve in college football.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So that's actually what I was going to ask you,
What for a person who maybe isn't they don't follow
sports as closely as you know most people do, what
they would take away from it? And it sounds like
you gave me a really solid answer. I appreciate that,
But how about this What is something that a person
who might not be familiar with in terms of the story.
(07:25):
What is something that a person might learn by watching
the film some insight into what happened or you know,
what was it then motivated you all to be so successful?
What would a person learn about, you know, your time
as a college player.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
See, I think ultimately what a person that you know
is not even in the sports, just watching it. I
think what they ultimately would learn is the way that
leadership kind of feels and is a necessity. So when
you're trying to achieve something that high, right, you're gonna
(08:00):
look at the chain of command and how I led
the team when we first started, but how gods like
Tim Tebow, how gods like Brandon Spikes, the guys that
came after me, how they learned from some of the
things that I did and took that and took it
to a.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Whole nother level and used a lot of.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That stuff in those next few years to continue basically
the winning and the dynasty that we had during that
period of time. You know, So I think somebody that's
exactly what they would get out of it is how
that leadership, how that leadership impacts not just a football team,
but organizations, teams that you might have, workplace efficiency, all
(08:47):
of that sort of thing. You know, leadership has to
be right in order for you to do it at
the highest level.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So how about this, What are some of the potential
pitfalls that people would be surprised to learn about that
same story you mentioned, you know, some of the the
more rowdy type of individuals or at least behaviors that
have stemmed from that. Is there any connective tissue between
(09:13):
that time and maybe that leadership style and some people
maybe you know, losing their way or you know, anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, I think I think ultimately the pitfalls would be
in the years before right, the years leading up to
when we when we became what we became right. Ultimately,
you see that nobody stepped up and was that leader.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
We didn't have anybody that was brave enough to step
out and say, look, we got to do this thing
in the right way.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So, if you have a bunch of little subgroups that
everybody's complaining about how much we have to work and
how hard it is and how hot it is outside, right,
if everybody in the these subgroups are having these different
complaints and nobody steps up and says, look, we gotta
do what we gotta do. If this is what it takes,
(10:07):
I want to win, and if all y'all want to
win with me, y'all need to jump on board. I
think that is what you will see in those years
up until we become great.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Sure. Sure.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
One of the things that I was noticing too, is
that the way, at least in that part of the country,
the way that people rally around college sports, college football
in particular, is it's amazing. And so I could definitely see,
(10:37):
you know, having someone step up as a leader and
you know, help define what what goals that you're going
to have as a team and then put together a
plan and get everyone across that finish line. How people
would definitely get on board with that because of indeed
how important college football is in that part of the country. So,
(10:58):
you know, that's at least what I got from you know,
the press materials that I was checking out. It's almost
bigger than you know, the Super Bowl, how it looks
out there.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
So I mean, I mean SEC football is bigger than
pro football. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of
fond memories of football, and my fondest memories are in college.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Right. I played six years in the NFL. I played
in some great stadiums.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
But when you have that college football atmosphere and you're
in places like the Swamp, right, or some of our competitors,
when you go play at LSU and bat Rouge, or
when you go play in Tennessee and.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You have ninety six.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Thousand people screaming at the top of the laws like
every single word matters. That is college football, and that's
the type of that you're in. You know, it's crazy.
Like I always said, like the craziest feeling for me
in my life is being able to do this at
(12:01):
ninety six thousand people scream at the top.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Of the long like. You don't ever, you don't ever
replicate that feeling, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
What I'm saying, Like it never, it never, It never
gets any better than that.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So that's the type of feeling, and that's the type
of football that you play. When you're playing down the.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, You've you've certainly turned it into to something substantial.
You know, I commend you for that. So let's get
back to the things that you're working on. So let's
talk a little bit about the BT Silar Leadership Academy
and what the purpose of that is.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
So, a lot of my players, and not even just
my players, a lot of people in the community, they
ask all the time, like they don't get to see
that grind behind the scenes, right.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
All they see is the glitz and glamour.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Right, they see the big leads and that sort of thing,
and they think, well, shoot, how do we how do
I do that?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Right?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
So I wanted to give them a little bit of
me and let them know, like there's different things that
you could do at different places in your life that
ultimately you can use to make you be a better
leader and to make you move up as an entrepreneur
in the world. My book Definition of a Leader gives
(13:16):
you insights to basically what happened to me in my life,
What were the things that happened to me in my life,
and how did I use even the negative things to
spin and use them as positive things later on in
my life and turn them into things that has projected
me to be a success.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So in that book you get basically.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
My background and then how I implemented those things going forward.
And then in the Leadership Academy, which comes out about
a month we're still making sure that it's perfect, but
and be solid. Leadership Academy, you're going to be able
to work on yourself, not just listen to somebody they
(14:00):
talk about, Oh, you know what it is to be
a leader, step a, this, that, and that.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
That is the traditional way, and we do have that
in the Leadership Academy. But also you're going to get
deep diving stories where you can actually do work and
actually turn in work and get it graded back. You
can also look at real experiences and ways that you
can utilize this in your life going forward. So it's
(14:28):
a different way of looking at leadership. You know, I
don't look at it as you know, you how to
find somebody that is exactly like you want to be
or what you want. I look at it as you
can see the ultimate person that you want to be.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Rottel is the best possible meat that I can be right,
and that's the person that you look up to. And
when you look up to that person and you see
that person in the end, now you can work back
quiz to tell you what you need to be doing
every day in order to become that person.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We are here today with Brandon Siler, the author of
the new book Definition of a Leader, as well as
the man behind the Netflix documentary series Swamp Kings. Okay,
so you mentioned your book Definition of a Leader, and
obviously we've kind of mentioned it in our conversation so far.
(15:31):
I kind of want to ask you a question, who
did you have in mind as the reader of this
book when you were writing this, when you were putting
the book together. Who would be the ideal reader. Who's
the person that will gain the most from that work.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
I wrote it really with the attention that it goes
over over a wide range of people, right, But I
think ultimately young adults that want to get more out
of their cells, wants to get more out of whatever
their position is and their occupation, want to want to
(16:13):
elevate their seals and their business. Rather they're entrepreneur, rather
they're at a job that they want to move up in.
I think that is ultimately the person that's right for
reading this book, right, because it's a book that's going
to make you want to get up and do something right.
It's going to make you want to get up and
do something about the position that you're in. Even if
(16:35):
you're in a good position, it's going to make you
want to get to a great position. If you're in
a bad position, it's going to make you want to
get in to a good position. But ultimately, anybody that
wants to feel a little bit of motivation to do
more and to get more out of themselves, so that
that expands over a wide range of people. So anybody
(16:55):
that picks it up will get something out of it.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Sure, So while we're here, let's that's let people know
where they can get that book where they can.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
So you could go on bsolid dot com and get
my book.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
You can purchase the book.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You can also go on and pre purchase for be
Solid Leadership Academy, or you can go on Instagram. There's
a link there Brandon Solid forty on Instagram, same thing
on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
But those are the different ways that you can get
ahold of my book.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Sure, And before we let you go, I know that
you have, like I mentioned, eleven businesses. That's impressive. I
know you're probably or maybe you're not stretched. Then maybe
you're doing exactly what you want to do and putting
the right amount of energy into the world and still
keeping yourself centered. But I can't imagine that you're not busy.
(17:51):
But I have to ask what's next for you? I'll
be saying ambitious. People tend to stay ambitious, So what's
next on your read?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I think that we can reach a lot of people
with our rehab facilities. I think that we're doing a
lot of work. But what bothers me is, you know,
the amount of people that I've lost, the amount of
teammates that I've lost due to mental health is what
is that bothers.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Me every day?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Two days ago, I had a teammate that I had
in Kansas City my last year there, that died at
the age of thirty five. Right so, no matter how
many lives we saving right now, and how many relationships
with spouses that were saving, we're trying to do everything
that we can to get is many of these rehab
(18:40):
facilities up so that we can save as many lives
as we can. We also have two foundations, Legacy Pro
Sports Foundation and they're also Healthy Minds, where we raise
money to put these athletes in places where they can
go and be vulnerable and get better with their mental health.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Because you know, it's hard.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Like you are Barbarian, you're a warrior, right, and it's
hard for a lot of these guys to get their
head around needing mental health work and meet and needing
put theirself in a place where they could be vulnerable,
tell people that this is what's going on with them,
and then work on themselves. That's an initiative that we're
trying to push and we're gonna keep on pushing it.
(19:27):
And I guess that that's what's next for me, man,
just continuing the fight to help people as much as
I can.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I'm gonna add something here that you know, I feel
like that's that's a very special initiative that you're undertaking.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Recently, this might have been last week.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I was in New York at the iHeart headquarters and
Charlemagne and I did a fireside chat. Charlemagne and God,
he's a radio personality if you're not familiar, but he
and I did a fireside chat for the benefit of
the ad Council and just a bunch of advertisers in
New York and the chat, the focal point of the
(20:12):
chat was mental health awareness, specifically for black men. And
I work in a space. You know, a lot of
the programming that I do on the radio and on
the podcast for iHeart is based around social justice, right,
so not in the same way, but you know, as
black men were born having to fight for even our humanity,
(20:36):
and I'd imagine that that's turned up to eleven for
an athlete, where it's kind of ingrained in even your
physical movements to be physically stronger and to fight with
your body and sofa and always be in a constant
state of readiness. Believe it or not, I actually did
play football when I was in high school. I just
got into music and you know that took over. But
that conversation was very special because I saw just how
(21:00):
little the impacts of mental health are communicated to the masses,
and how little people know how conversations, just conversations can
be helpful. You know, what do people do to not
just be aware of their place, you know, and their
status in terms of their mental health, but also best
(21:22):
practices to improve that? Right, And again coming from a
place where on the radio I talk about really graphic,
really traumatic events harm done to black and brown bodies,
I have to experience that trauma like mentally and then
process it mentally and then re articulated for my listeners.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And so.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
While I have been a mental health advocate for many years.
Recently I've made a lot more connections and tapped in
with a lot more people who even feel as strongly
as you do. And so when I say that I'm
really proud of you, I really mean that. That's it's
very necessary. And you know, obviously you've experienced losing people
(22:07):
to you know, their own you know, mental health challenges,
and so I know that you have your own reasons
for doing this, but we need more people like you.
So I want to make sure that I said that
to you. Absolutely I appreciate that, my brother.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, so one more time, let's do this.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Let's make sure that we plug that book and we
plug your social media before we let you go, just
so that people who are existing fans and new fans
can tap in with you and support you best they can.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
So you can find my book at bsolid dot com.
That's definition of a Leader. You also can pre purchase
the leadership Academy be Sola Leadership Academy. Also, you can
catch me and take the journey with me on my
Instagram at Brandon Sola forty. Also it's the same thing
(23:00):
on Facebook. But yeah, tap in, follow and take the
journey with me. Also, if you want to follow our company,
Legacy Pro Sports and the wins that we have with
our players, you can follow us on Instagram at Legacy
pro Sports.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
All right, well, let me say this.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'd like to thank you very much for coming on
and sharing your insights and your successes, and I want
to thank you again for sharing those successes with the
rest of us so that we can benefit from lessons
that you've learned and best practices that you've developed. You
are an inspiration once again. Today's guest is Brandon Siler,
(23:41):
the author of the new book Definition of the Leader,
as well as the man behind the Netflix documentary series
Swamp Kings. This has been a production of the Black
Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have
some thoughts you'd like to share, use the red microphone
talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit suscribe and download all of our episodes.
(24:02):
I'm your host Ramsey's Jaw on all social media and
join us tomorrow as we share our news with our
voice from our perspective right here on the Black Information
Network Daily Podcast.
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