August 15, 2024 • 60 mins
Celebrate an awe-inspiring milestone with us as we welcome Mike, a former NFL star turned motivational powerhouse, on this special episode of the Conscious Investor Podcast. Mike's journey from a childhood defined by cystic fibrosis to an 11-year career in professional football is nothing short of extraordinary. Hear how a seemingly simple moment at six years old, watching Wonder Woman, sparked a resilient spirit within him and set him on a path of continuous personal growth. His story reminds us that our early struggles don't have to define our lives; instead, they can fuel our determination to achieve greatness.
From redefining his identity through sports to transitioning into a successful post-football career, Mike's tale is a testament to the power of perseverance and adaptability. Discover how he navigated the world of professional athletics despite the odds, eventually producing an outdoor TV show and writing a deeply personal book that connects with readers on an authentic level. Mike’s insights on the importance of personal connection and the impactful role of parental guidance provide valuable lessons for anyone seeking to overcome adversity and achieve their goals.
But Mike's journey doesn't end with his athletic and professional successes. He opens up about his battles with PTSD, anxiety, and severe physical injuries resulting from his football career. Learn about his philosophy of living "Everyday Great" and how intentionality and purpose can transform lives. This episode is not just about celebrating a podcast milestone; it's a call to support one another and share stories that inspire and uplift. Join us in amplifying the power of our community and let Mike's story be a beacon of hope and resilience. Cheers to your health, mindset, and wealth!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello Conscious Investor and welcome back.
I'm your host, julie Hawley.
For over four years, I'vepaired my background in real
estate, investing, education andcoaching to create powerful
content for you each week.
This podcast is where we take aholistic approach to investing
by focusing on three ingredientsto a life of personal freedom
health, mindset and wealth.
(00:23):
We'll talk about everythingfrom passive investing through
syndication and how to use yourretirement accounts to boost
your investing, to mineralbalancing and gut brain health,
and into topics that cultivateyour inner strength and
resilience so you can thriveregardless of any of life's
current events.
And yes, those are all episodescurrently available and linked
(00:44):
in the show notes below.
Join me each Monday for amindset episode and later in the
week for an interview withexpert investors and health
professionals, so that you canexperience your greatest health,
strongest mindset and build thewisest wealth.
Mike, I am absolutely thrilledto have you here on the
Conscious Investor Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
First off, let me start by saying 500 episodes Are
you kidding me?
That is massive.
So congratulations to you.
That's fantastic, it's huge,and so I love that.
I love the fact that I can comeon because I love your message
and I know, having talked to youoffline, I know how much you
(01:25):
care about your audience, I knowhow much you care about people
and about giving back, and so Ijust appreciate the fact that
you feel that I'm worthy toshare with your audience, and so
thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh my gosh.
Your message is a message thatwhen we connected up and had
lunch at book camp, I knew inthat moment like, oh my gosh,
conscious, investor, you aregoing to deeply value and
appreciate Mike's message andyou're going to go down to the
show notes and you're going tosee Mike has this like a massive
(01:55):
pedigree behind him that you'rejust blown away by.
And what I love so much, mike,is that when we met, sometimes
you meet people and that's whatthey lead with.
They lead with well, I was arockstar quarterback and I still
hold records at Cal andsometimes people who have
(02:19):
achieved such great success asyou have.
They lead with that and it'salmost a protective mechanism
for them, for their life, fortheir and that's their identity.
And one of the things thatreally resonated with me was
just how you know grounded, howhuman you are and how your
message.
It's not limited, it is anunlimited message and your life
(02:44):
has been braided together.
And while I have a normal firstquestion, I actually would like
to ask a different question and, knowing you've had such a
variety of experiences, butsomething that really struck me
as we had lunch was yourexperience started when you were
really young, like you havebeen I think achiever isn't what
(03:08):
the word I would say anovercomer who became an achiever
.
Like you started with oddsstacked against you and, a lot
of times, conscious Investor.
We can feel that way atdifferent points in our life.
We could feel that our marriageis not headed the direction we
want it to go, or our careerisn't, maybe our kids aren't, or
(03:29):
maybe we don't have thosethings and it's other parts of
our life and we feel stuck andwe feel we have to overcome.
You faced that really early onand I'm curious if you'd be
willing to share that experiencewith us.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Thank you for the question, um,because people look at you,
know your professional footballplayer.
Like you said, people identifyyou by your occupation or by
your past successes andobviously I have, you know, my
football jersey in thebackground for anybody watching
on video and I've got myfootball stuff in my room.
But that's not who I am.
(04:02):
That's not my identity.
I am always a work in progress.
I have been from day one.
I'm still a work in progressright now.
I don't have all the answers,but I found some of them that
really helped and it stems backto when I was a kid you
mentioned it.
I was actually born with cysticfibrosis, which is a severe
(04:22):
form of lung disease and you getmore mucus.
It makes it really hard tobreathe and in the time that I
was growing up in the 70s, itwas, prognosis for somebody born
with cystic fibrosis was reallybad.
Life expectancies were shortand kids were.
They were held back and theywere held in.
I was in an incubator rightafter birth and so I was kind of
(04:48):
struggling to breathe.
The thing that most people takefor granted in that you know
you can breathe and breath islife.
I had to fight like hell for myentire life.
And so from that moment through13 years old, I was in the
hospital every single year withlung disease.
(05:09):
There was one time in particularI talk about it in my book
where I was seven years old orsix years old, sitting in front
of the TV watching Wonder Woman.
It was brand new.
It was out Linda Carter'splaying Wonder Woman.
It was one of the first big DCcomic book comics after Batman,
(05:30):
and I just had to watch it.
But I had been sick all weeklong.
I had what they diagnosed lateras the croup or whooping cough
and I'm sitting in the lazy boychair because I get to, because
I'm sick.
Right, I get away with murderand I'm watching Wonder Woman,
(05:51):
and every week she gets introuble.
She somehow gets fooled by thebad guys and they trap her
somehow.
Well, in this one she getstrapped inside a cave and it has
this plexiglass thing thatcomes down.
And I'm sitting there watchingthe show and I'm coughing.
Occasionally I sound like abarking seal as I'm coughing.
But as I'm watching this, right, the plexiglass comes down, the
lava is coming down the sidesand I'm watching it and all of a
sudden I realized that my chestis tightening and I can feel it
(06:11):
literally like she's beingsuffocated by this lava inside
the box.
I'm I'm being suffocated bywhat's going on in my lungs and
it was so traumatic and sopowerful for me that I'm sitting
there and I'm thinking I can'tbreathe and I literally couldn't
breathe.
I literally couldn't draw air,and it's one of those things
(06:34):
that we just take so for granted.
I just felt, if you've everseen a fish when it flops out of
the bowl, I felt like that fishsitting there trying to draw
breath, and my parents snatchedme up.
They saw me I was turning blueand rushed me down the emergency
room again, you know, for theseventh year in a row.
And the doctors that night toldmy parents, if he makes it
(06:56):
through the night, he'llprobably be okay.
Now.
My mom was a World War IIsurvivor from Germany.
Her father was a medic in theGerman army.
My dad was a member of the 82ndAirborne Military.
They met on base and my dad wastough but incredibly loving.
(07:16):
My mom was a survivor.
She survived the war.
She lived in seven differentcountries.
She speaks a bunch of differentlanguages.
She was a refugee during thewar.
She lived in seven differentcountries.
She speaks a bunch of differentlanguages.
She was a refugee during thewar and so they decided they
were going to do something aboutit.
And the doctors told them whileI was in there that sports might
be a good thing for me becauseit would help strengthen my lung
(07:37):
.
Now they had done the saltsweat test, which is what you
test for cystic fibrosis, but itwas inconclusive.
They didn't know what you testfor cystic fibrosis, but it was
inconclusive.
They didn't know, they didn'thave a certain diagnosis, that
it was cystic fibrosis.
Doc was like well, we're notsure, but maybe sports will make
his lungs stronger.
And so they put me into sportsand it started with, you know,
(07:58):
soccer and baseball and swimmingand everything that they could
put me into swimming andeverything that they could put
me into.
And as a kid I started to learnthat you could push through and
you could fight pain.
That pain didn't necessarilylimit what you did, because I
(08:20):
wasn't necessarily thinking thatI wanted to strengthen my lungs
.
I was thinking I wanted to staythe hell out of that hospital
bed because it was scary.
When they put me in that bed, Iwas sitting inside an oxygen
tent.
I was separated from my parents.
I was separated from the world,and I was.
So I was in a place of what theycall dorsal, vagal shutdown or
freeze, where you have fight,flight or freeze.
(08:42):
It was in freeze where I wouldliterally disassociate inside
that tent and try to removemyself from the picture, and I
wanted to avoid that at allcosts.
And I knew that.
And so I drove myself in sportsand when it would hurt I would
push through the next line and Iwould just make that
(09:02):
negotiation myself Okay, I'mgoing to do this next thing, I'm
just going to run this sprint,this time hard.
I get to the end of that andI'd be like, okay, and then I'd
say, okay, I can run the nextone, one more, let's do that.
And I literally kind of gotthrough the initial pieces of
training my lungs, of improvingby doing one more over and over
and over and over, and soinitially I had to learn how to
(09:26):
breathe just to breathe, as akid, but in sports I was
learning how to breathe hard,which became a metaphor for me
in terms of being able to pushthrough things, because so much
you know the human experience.
As you know, julie, we getscared of things, we get worried
about things and we start toshut down.
You know, julie, we get scaredof things, we get worried about
things and we start to shut down.
(09:47):
And so at an early age Ilearned that I could push
through things with sports, andso that love of getting better,
of pushing through, ofovercoming was ingrained in me
early.
I was, I tell people now I wasreally fortunate that I was born
with cystic fibrosis, becauseit gave me that strength, it
gave me that experience to pushthrough things, and I think
(10:11):
that's one of the messages thatI teach people that I talk about
in my book is that if you canlook at these experiences as
opportunities, as a benefit, itchanges everything about them.
They suck, for sure, butthere's a benefit to it and if
you can find that benefit, it'sa superpower and it's a
wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Gosh it's.
You know when we were talkingremember we're, like you know,
building our lunch at the, youknow, at this event and you said
something about CF and I'm,like you know you shouldn't have
lived past teenage, earlytwenties at best at that point,
(10:58):
with where medicine was, with CF.
I remember as a child watchinga um, a video like a one of
those wasn't a Hallmark movie,but it was something along those
lines and it was about thisgirl, alexis, and she had CF and
I just so I remember theawareness of it was even coming
on.
What's standing out to me rightnow that's really fascinating,
mike is that not only did youlearn to work through and push
(11:21):
your own limits, and that youand I talk a lot about life is,
you know, driven from the insideout If you develop that
internal resilience so early on.
But now I'm realizing, as wewere talking about identity and
how you don't have your identityas I'm a, you know, amazing,
(11:42):
you know, football player.
I'm sorry, I'm thinking aboutall the awards that you've won
and accomplishments.
You've have just clouded mymind for a moment.
I'm like gosh, how do you evenlike qualify Like it's?
You're so amazing, so all thatto say you didn't find it.
You don't find your identity asa you know.
Oh well, I'm a rockstarquarterback.
I wonder if that has a tappedroot in.
(12:06):
Well, my identity isn't thatI'm a CF overcomer.
Some people can find theiridentity in different facets.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well.
So your identity comes fromevery aspect of your life, and
it's when you get into a fixedidentity that you start to come.
You find problems right thereyou go.
I am a football playereliminates all the other things
that you can be, and so, for me,part of my identity was I was
(12:36):
that sick kid in the bed insidethe tent that was running from
my disease for sure.
Right, I had a demon chasing me, and that was part of it.
Part of it was that I alsowanted to be an achiever.
I wanted to not have to worryabout these things anymore.
I had a conversation with mydad Everywhere I've played, and
(13:00):
I hate talking about myself inhuge part, but I realize that
this is what podcasts are about,right, yeah, this is what this
is about.
Lessons are in the stories, andso when I was eight years old, I
had just won my firstchampionship.
I played on the member of theRacers, the Yorba and the Little
League T-ball and I was theteam's leading home run hitter
(13:20):
that year.
Right, and I was in that leagueat that age.
Right, the little guy in themound is the one who kind of
controls everything, cause youget most of the ground balls you
handle.
I saw I was the pitcher, but,um, we had just won and my dad
had me in his car.
He had this boxy blue Toyota SRfive stick shift right, he was
always a stick shift guy.
And we're sitting there andwe're going to pioneer chicken
(13:41):
because I wanted fried chicken.
That was my jam.
We won, I got to choose.
We're going to Pioneer Chicken.
And so he said so what do youwant to be when you grow up?
And I told him, I said, oh, I'mjust gonna be a pro baseball
player, like that was just goingto happen.
That's what I was going to do.
And my dad, being wonderful,looks at me and goes, okay, well
(14:05):
, cool, if that doesn't happen,what do you want to be?
And I'd literally just seen afishing show that morning.
It was Orlando Wilson, one ofthe great all-time fishing hosts
bass guy who was hammering,hammering huge bass down on Lake
Okeechobee, throwing theseshiners that you know, which is
a bait fish the size of my hand,and he, they were just catching
these monster large mouth bassand and one of the things that
(14:27):
that my dad and I always didtogether was fish.
I'm like, oh, I'll just host afishing show.
And he's like, okay, that'sneat that you want to do those
things, but, super, let's justgo get chicken Right.
So we go and get chicken.
(14:50):
Well, fast forward, and I playfootball, baseball, basketball,
all the sports.
But I sent her up in highschool on football and baseball.
I was the top rated catcher forthe Royals coming out of high
school in Orange County comingout.
They sent out the wholescouting thing.
They had me to try out.
But I wanted to play footballand so I got a scholarship to
cal and they bring me on, uh, asa quarterback I learned the
game.
I was pretty bad when I gotthere.
(15:10):
I gotta be honest with you, Iwasn't.
I wasn't great.
I came from a wingtie offensethat didn't teach me the finer
points of playing.
I love my high school footballcoach, john turrick.
Fantastic dude, taught me a tonof life lessons.
But the football was antiquatedand so when I got to the
college level I had to learn howto play football all over again
, and so I did that.
But then I started to excel andI started to see this is really
(15:33):
the sport that I love.
I love football, the combat,the.
It gave me that gladiator'sarmor.
I felt like you know know, Iwent from being scared of
getting sick and having lungdisease to throwing on pads and
saying, oh yeah, watch thiscystic fibrosis Right, watch
this pneumonia.
You can't I'm going to go outthere and throw my body in the
(15:56):
fray Like I was maybeovercompensating with sports.
But it was a passion for me.
I loved it and the entire time,because of my history as a sick
kid, I was really interoceptive.
I understood my internal, whatwas going on, I could feel it, I
could sense it and I could.
(16:16):
I had a sense of how toregulate myself a little bit,
and so I learned that.
But but I went and playedfootball to kind of finish off
the story I started with wentand played football, got drafted
in the NFL, played 11 years ofpro football and then, as soon
as I got done playing football,I started producing my own
(16:39):
outdoor TV show because while Iwas playing football I knew that
I wanted to go be an outdoorproducer.
So I started learning how to beon camera, how to do radio, how
to speak in front of a camera,how to speak in front of a mic,
how to edit, how to producesegments of television.
And I started doing it insports because that was a
(17:00):
natural in for me Our broadcast.
Who's a broadcasting legend JoeStarkey, one of my favorite
people of all time asked me tocome back and be a sideline
reporter for the Cal gamesbecause the arena league was in
the spring and college footballwas in the fall.
So I came back and starteddoing that.
I started at the lowest rung ofthe ladder and worked my way up
and I knew it.
I had to go over and pick up myown mic for games and I had to
(17:23):
make all the connections andthey didn't travel me to away
games the first year.
There's a whole bunch of slingsand arrows that I had to get
through, but I knew what Iwanted to be.
I knew what I wanted to do andso I learned the business and
then, as soon as I got doneplaying football, I called up
Outdoor Channel and said youneed me, I'm on camera, I'm an
(17:43):
ex-pro, I'm a producer.
I was a guide in the off seasonwhile I was playing football, so
I would guide fly fishing inNorthern California.
I'm like I'm a perfect fit foryou.
And so they said, well, let'sdo a joint venture.
And we did.
And the first show wasphenomenal Caught eight
steelhead on the Klamath River,had one of them wrap me around
the anchor line.
I'm passing my rod underneaththe boat and doing all kinds of
(18:05):
funky stuff.
I talked about the hatchery,talked about the history, talked
about the biology Like we gotit all in in 22 and a half
minutes, and so it was a reallygood show.
They got the tape that same day.
They signed me to a contractfor a year's worth of production
, which led to 20 years worth ofproduction.
And and I was sitting with mydad my son was just born.
(18:27):
I'm carrying him around brandnew baby boy, 11 days old, and
my dad looks at me.
He goes holy crap, you did it.
I'm like huh.
And he said well, you told mein the car, remember that day
after you won the championship,that you wanted to be a pro
baseball player and you wantedto host your own TV show, your
own fly fishing or your ownfishing show.
(18:47):
You remember that?
I go yeah, I do kind ofremember that story.
He goes you freaking, did it?
Like that pride from my dad,like that connection which is
another part that I reallylearned along the way, but part
of the leadership piece, it's soimportant that connection from
my dad was so powerful for me,like it was.
(19:08):
It meant so much to me to seemy dad beam and to have that
that pride from him and thatacceptance and for him to be in
that moment with me, completelycontent and proud and like that.
That made that just meant somuch to me.
Right, and that's why I loveteam sports, because you get
that connection as well.
(19:28):
But but coming from this iswhat I'm going to do when I'm
eight to closing the loop andfinishing it off was was a huge
piece and it was justunderstanding myself and and
being driven to do somethingwithout being denied along the
way, driven to do somethingwithout being denied along the
way.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It's.
It's, it's just so powerful andI love that.
You are even transcending, likeyou're going into a whole
another venue, right.
So here you are, overcoming,you know, as a child, cystic
fibrosis.
You manifest, becoming aprofessional athlete and
professional athlete and havingyour own show.
(20:08):
And now here you are coming outwith this amazing book,
everyday Great and so much morewith that.
What's interesting to me isthat when someone is choosing to
write a book and you havechosen to write it, there's no
shame.
Some people choose to hire aghost and you're you have chosen
to write it.
It's.
There's no shame.
Some people choose to hire aghostwriter and have somebody
(20:29):
else do the work, but there'sinternal work that takes place
when we choose to engage thewriting on our own, and it's
painful.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Amen, Holy crap.
Is that the truth for anybodywho has not written a book?
There is so much that, oh, it'sall that.
You, but that was that boy.
You just struck me right in alimbic system.
Right there, you absolutely gothrough personal work while
you're writing.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It is an internal work and to me that's an
extension of the arc, one of themany arcs in your life, of
overcoming and to say I'm goingto become that, put on that
gladiator suit of sorts, youknow, and I am going to go
through the internal worknecessary to produce and create
(21:15):
this book so that I can, youknow, impact and support people
very deliberately, and I'm soexcited about that book.
I, um, I am curious, so I'mgoing to ask a couple questions,
because I know you can handlethis.
I could ask 20 at once andyou'd be fine.
but I'm curious I could handle acouple questions that go with
(21:37):
this.
Why did you choose to writethis on your own instead of?
You're equipped you.
You could find a really greatghostwriter, but you've chosen
to write this on your own, andwhat is it you really want to?
What's the outcome you reallywant for people from everyday?
Great.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Those are both fantastic questions, by the way.
So the reason I chose to writeit on my own is the exact point
that you were talking about, inthat these are my stories and I
have learned my entire life thatin order to really suck the
(22:15):
marrow out of what you're doing,you need to fully immerse in
what you are doing.
I am a reverse engineer guyfrom the nuts and bolts.
I love being able to take aproblem to grab it, to be able
to dismantle it, kind of rethinkit, reframe it and then
reassemble it into a positionthat makes sense and works for
(22:38):
people, and I have always beenthat guy.
I love that.
I am a coach by nature my dad,so I don't give my mom enough
credit.
Let me say this my mom was themost loving, devoted, like mama
bear ever.
I love that lady to death.
She's amazing, but I alwaystalk about my dad and it's
because my dad.
(22:58):
They both gave me acceptance,but my dad gave me the
acceptance and the push at thesame time and he was a
phenomenal coach.
Like he was an amazing coach, hegot voted citizen of the year
in our town twice.
Most people are lucky to get itonce and we weren't.
(23:22):
It wasn't like.
It was a podunk town.
I grew up in Yorba Linda, whichis the hometown of Richard
Nixon in Orange County and soit's big.
His library's there.
It's a pretty big town and mydad got voted citizen of the
year twice.
That's what kind of good dudemy dad was, and so I was really
(23:43):
fortunate to have that type ofrole model and he taught me that
you do the work right, you getthrough, you engage and you
connect, and I told the story mydad.
Connecting with my father wasso powerful and that's why being
in teams is so powerful for me.
I wanted to connect and so tocome full circle on question
(24:05):
number one why not a ghostwriter?
Because I wanted to connectwith my reader.
I wanted to connect with people.
These are my stories.
Yeah, they're my stories,lessons, they're my experiences
and I wanted that to comethrough.
And as much as you can love aghostwriter, I've read a bunch
(24:27):
and I've got buddies who do it.
I know a guy who's really,really good at the sports field.
He's a friend, but I wanted towrite this book myself.
Will I do it again?
Maybe, maybe not, I don't know.
But this one I wanted it to befor me because I want to be a
coach, I want to connect withpeople and I want them to feel
these lessons.
We all know when you pick upthat book, that the author, you
(24:49):
can feel their intent comingthrough the written word,
through the page, and that'swhat I wanted to happen with
this book, because it's powerful, right.
These are the lessons.
I reverse, engineer the humanexperience for people.
I am outside of being anathlete.
I went to Cal too, so I alwaysjoke like there's athletes and
(25:11):
then there's guys who reallystudy, who really do the work,
who get it.
And to survive at Cal, you haveto have some ability in terms
of cognitive skills and so.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'll say it You're smart Mike.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You're really trying to humble brag here, so it's but
, but you have to get through it, and so I love breaking it down
and I want to bring that topeople.
That's.
That's the answer Number one.
I want them to feel that I haveI've literally with my system.
I connect at the level of yournervous system.
If people get these lessons, ifthey get the clues, and once
(25:50):
you understand that, once youget that raw base feeling and
base understanding of what'sgoing on inside your body, it
changes your entire dynamic andyour ability to overcome things
in your life become easy.
That's what God put me here for.
That's what God gave me cysticfibrosis for.
(26:11):
That's what God gave me myparents for and gave me
professional football andgetting cut five times playing
professional football and allthose lessons were so that I
could bring it to people in thisbook, and so that's why I'm
writing it myself, because Iwant it to come from me to them
(26:31):
as a coach.
That's what I do.
Secondly, I want people to beable to take this information
and then use it in their livesto transform the way that they
see, to transform perception ofwhat's going on in the world.
We get so locked up in thefeelings of the moment.
(26:51):
They're called somatic senses,the things that you feel.
Stephen Porges calls itneuroception.
It's about your nervous systemalways monitoring, always
deciding what's a threat andwhat isn't a threat.
And so nowadays we're notfacing daily threats, we're not
(27:12):
in the midst of predation, wedon't have things going on where
a test is not a T-Rex right, abad boss is not a bear.
We're not facing that.
But our nervous system doesn'tknow the difference.
And when we feel threatened,our nervous system reacts and
(27:33):
the limbic system kicks in andwe start getting all these
feelings, all these somaticsenses, and your body's trying
to get to what's calledhomeostasis.
It's trying to get to a placewhere you can thrive and it also
wants to protect you fromdanger.
So if you feel something isdanger, then you react with your
nervous system.
Well, there's so much stimulusto us now.
Even Instagram and TikTok andFacebook and all these other
(27:56):
things can become threats to ourlimbic system, can become
threats to our limbic system,and so what we have to do is
learn how to regulate that, andthe first and foremost piece of
it is to understand what it isright.
And so I go into the science ofit, because I studied, I got the
equivalent of a PhD or master'sdegree in this stuff.
(28:18):
I have a phenomenal friend, drCio Hernandez, who, uh, we
haven't even gotten into theanxiety piece of this thing yet,
but the which was really thecue, the cue for me, um, but she
, she is brilliant to theumpteenth degree, um, and she
has taught, she, she has helpedme to really find the threads to
(28:42):
pull on that I can relate mylessons as an athlete, as a
producer, as an on-camera talent, as a human being, back to
people at home.
And so I want the outcome forthem to understand what it is
that they're feeling, to havethe perception that they can
control all of that, that theyare in control and that they can
make the decisions and thechanges in their life that they
(29:04):
need to thrive, whatever thatlooks like for them, because I
can't tell anybody what theiridea of thriving is, but I can
tell them that they have thepotential and the power to
thrive.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Gosh, mike, conscious investor.
I'm sure you can see exactlywhy I invited Mike on the show,
because this is something wetalk about so often and I know
you can talk about it in so muchmore depth because of your
research, you know, and the timeyou've poured in to learn about
it.
But it's like that knee-jerkreaction that we have to the
(29:35):
world around us.
It's so unnecessary and I lovelike we talk about this so
unnecessary and I love like wetalk about this like a bad boss
is not a bear, like we don'thave the same issues ancestrally
speaking, and I love going intocultural anthropology.
It's like these are not thesame issues.
But, yes, like just to you know, double tap on that point of
(29:58):
yeah, we're responding to thatangry person over on social
media who you know postswhatever with that same level of
intensity and it's so just asuch a disservice to our lives.
I'm curious if you can sharewith us you know what one of the
elements of overcoming, ofworking through that is if we
(30:22):
can give that conscious investorsome support to say, and this
is conscious investor, you'regoing to need to buy the book,
you have to go pick up a copy ofthe book so that you can get
the full scope and sequence here.
I mean, I'm asking Mike a veryhigh level question and
basically it's jumping the gunon a lot of information that
(30:43):
will be in the book.
So you're going to want to goand make sure you get the book.
But what do we do?
Let's just say we have thatbecause this is such a common
thing for people.
Some people choose to get off ofsocial media and instead of
learning how to regulate, it'slike oh, I'm just going to
eliminate XYZ for my life.
We're going to pick on socialmedia because it's like oh well,
I'm just going to eliminate X,y, z for my life.
(31:03):
We're going to pick on socialmedia because that's a common
one.
Well, I'm just not going to beon social media because when I'm
on it I get triggered.
That's a common phrase peopleuse.
It triggers me, and really whatthey're saying is I see
something on that social mediaplatform and it aggravates my
somatic system and I have thisvisceral response and I don't
(31:26):
like that.
I don't want that in my life.
But how can we actually?
What are some of the high level?
How can we regulate that sothat we can be present?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Right.
So the A.
I love the question.
It shows how deep andthoughtful you are about the
topic Right.
So the A.
I love the question.
It shows how deep andthoughtful you are about the
topic right, and this is what Italk about when I talk about how
much you care about youraudience and how much you give
back, like you can just hear itin the way that you frame the
question, the things that youthink about for them, and so
it's such a powerful gift togive to them and I appreciate
you for that.
The in answer.
(32:01):
Let me give you a long answerCause, as you know, that's what
I do.
We've heard it right.
So I played football.
I played professional footballfor 11 years.
This is the, this is the like.
It's what I did.
It's part of who I am, it'spart of my identity, and I
learned how to regulate myselfin that regard.
Players always feel fear in thetunnel, always feel fear in the
tunnel.
You can't play at that leveland not feel the stress response
(32:25):
, and so you learn to deal withit.
You learn to push through it.
When I was a junior, going intomy junior year at Cal, there was
a team psychologist named DrBill Koish and I love Bill
Fantastic dude, but he's thismousy little dude who's out of
New York and he gets a New Yorkexit and he talks like this and
(32:47):
he's really fast and he does youknow the whole New York thing.
And they brought us in andsports psychology wasn't even a
thing at the time and he hadthree of us in there and we were
all like what are we doing here?
Like I don't really, I don'twant to be here, looking at our
watches, kind of thinking aboutthe time.
And we talked through it and itwas like a group therapy
(33:10):
session.
And back then, you know, crazypeople went to therapy, that's
what it was.
And you know, like I thoughtadults were supposed to have all
the answers and here he wasasking all the questions and so
I'm like, well, I, you know,whatever I I'm, I'm about done
with this and just kind oftuning out.
And at the end of theconversation I get more depth in
this in the book.
But but he says uh, so, uh,anybody have any questions?
(33:31):
And I look at him and I'm like,okay, well, I'm here, let's try
not to make it a complete waste.
And I look at him, I said lookat him I said I yawn before
games.
It drives me crazy, like itmakes me feel soft, like I'm not
ready, and it and it and it.
It frustrates the hell out ofme.
How do I stop yawning, right?
(33:53):
So here I'm asking thisquestion to him and he goes oh,
that's your, uh, that's yourfight or flight response.
I'm like what he goes.
Yeah, you know your fight orflight response.
I'm like what he goes yeah,your fight or flight response.
You see a T-Rex and all of asudden, you need to run, so your
body needs more oxygen.
What you're doing is you'reyawning, you're getting air in,
you're getting oxygen.
(34:14):
It's totally natural.
I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.
The fact that I'm yawning isnatural.
He goes oh, yeah, it means yourbody's getting ready.
It's like you're getting moreadrenaline, You're getting more
of this stuff.
It's all coming in and yourbody's getting ready to do well,
to do exactly what you're aboutto do.
You're going to go playfootball.
It's getting you ready to playfootball.
(34:38):
I'm like, holy crap, mind blown.
It just changed my entireperspective, like I call them,
my creepy feelies.
When you start to get thatstress response and you feel the
creepy feelies that come withit right, your, your skin gets
the prickles on it and thebreath gets shallow and you feel
the heartbeat in your ears andyour face gets flushed and your
palms get sweaty and all thosethings that happen.
That's a stress response inyour body, your acute stress
(34:59):
response, and what's happeningis hormones are going into your
body.
You're getting adrenaline, orknown as epinephrine.
In your brain, you're gettingcortisol, so the cortisol is
pumping glucose into your bloodso that you have more energy.
Right, the adrenaline isdilating your veins so that you
can respond better, so that youhave more energy.
All of this is geared to makeyou more responsive.
(35:25):
It is literally performanceenhancing drugs and your body is
juicing you with it in themoment and I'm like holy crap.
And so now I don't have to benervous.
Well, come 20 years later, drAllie Crum she's a Stanford
psychologist comes up and givesa TEDx talk about the stress is
(35:48):
enhancing mindset.
And when you understand thatstress enhances you, enhances
performance, enhances cognition,if you can get through the
somatic senses, it changes yourphysiology so that you can
perform.
And so when we feel that stressresponse this is what I talk
(36:08):
about I like to come undereverything.
What is the base?
Where is the beginning of this?
How do I change this at thesource to affect my nervous
system, and when I understandthat stress enhances me, that
stress is enhancing mindset,helps me change my physiology to
(36:28):
be better?
In the end, that's my goal.
I want people to be better.
I want to be better, I want tobe able to affect people better,
and so in my book I go into theways to use your acute stress
response, or the ways to usephysical things, doing the work,
making a decision, all thethings that you have to do in
(36:51):
your life in order to modulatethat stress response, to
optimize performance, so thatyou can become the best version
of yourself.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I love this so much, mike, and what's interesting is
that, although we have a lot ofexperience in Conscious Investor
, you and I have a lot ofstressful experiences in our
lives.
There's another level ofstressful experience when you're
on the line and this is goingto be me trying to make a really
(37:23):
, really good football analogyhere but you have a stadium
packed with, you know, thousandsof people, you've got millions
of viewers online.
You have all of this pressurelike and you did this not just I
mean, you played professionallyfor 11 years, but you were at
Cal.
You had it's, it's decades longof engaging on on that level,
with that pressure, but then inso many other parts of life, and
(37:46):
so I can't think of somebodymore qualified to be able to say
I've lived with this, I'velearned how to work with this,
I've learned how to leverage it,and now I know the science
behind it and now I can supportyou in really making every day
great.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, and that's the point.
So to get to that point andhere's what tied it all together
for me and I appreciate thefact that you asked the question
in that way, because this isreally this is the life-changing
moment for me Not that they allaren't, every moment in your
life is life-changing but when Igot done playing football right
(38:25):
, so I'd won the worldchampionships, I've got the ring
, I had great teams around me.
There's a great story in thebook.
At one point in my career Ifinally realized that I wasn't
playing for the ring.
Right, you always drive.
You think you're playing forthe championship.
You think you're playing forthat.
I realized I wasn't playing forthe ring and it was amazing.
(38:48):
But you're going to have to buythe book for that one.
But that said, the injuries fromfootball, the kind of repeated
trauma to my body, meant I had29 surgeries or procedures
injections in my spine, fullspinal surgeries, I have four
(39:10):
replacement discs in my neck,I've got knee replacements, all
this thing and I say that Iwould do it all again in a
second.
So I have zero regrets aboutplaying, but it took its toll on
my body and at the time, withhealth insurance, uh,
preexisting injuries were adisqualifier Couldn't get health
(39:30):
insurance which from a businessstandpoint I totally understand
.
That Right, and I had no morehealth insurance because I
wasn't playing anymore and so Icouldn't get health insurance.
The doctors, uh, and I was.
You know, I was paying for myown stuff out of pocket as it
went.
But the doctors wereprescribing me meds in the form
(39:51):
of anti-inflammatories and painmeds for my injuries and
although I hated the pain medswhen stuff was bad, I had to
take them.
Well, it gave me diverticulitis.
The combination of the two gaveme diverticulitis, a severe
infection in your intestine.
It was really bad and it got tothe point where it was ongoing
for two years and they kepttrying to hammer me with
antibiotics so they're killingall my gut bacteria and then it
(40:15):
would stop it for the durationof the antibiotic and then it
would come back, and then itwould stop it again and it would
come back.
It probably went on 10 cyclesof antibiotics during that
period of time and the doctorswouldn't do a surgery to fix it
because the insurance companywouldn't cover it and workers'
comp said they weren't going tocover it and I couldn't get
health insurance.
It was horrible and so it gotso bad to the point and my
(40:39):
doctor, who was my doctor forthe diverticulitis side, said
this is clearly related to themeds that you're taking for
football.
This is clearly a workers' compthing, right, but they could
deny everything here and justput you in court forever.
So I literally had to threatenthem to go to court that I would
do a documentary.
And I rounded up 20 footballplayers who were all being
(41:02):
denied by the same insurancecompany and I said I'm going to
do a documentary with all theseguys who are being denied by you
and if I die, it becomes morepowerful, because that's how
close I was.
The doctor told me I was reallyclose, I was septic, my body
was bad, it was horrible.
So finally that I sent it, Igot it to their board of
directors and, miraculously, thesurgery was approved.
(41:24):
Well, I got the surgeryrecovered from that and, as
post-traumatic stress does, itaffected me.
And as soon as I recovered inthat healing phase, the PTSD
(41:49):
kicked in for me and I got theworst anxiety, to the point
where I literally thought I washaving a stroke sitting down
editing one of my documentariesand I had a panic attack which
led to other panic attacks whichled to anxiety, because the
inability to overcome that forso long put me in that same
position that I was in as a kidin the hospital bed, in the
oxygen tent, where I was in thatdorsal vagal shutdown, and so I
(42:13):
froze.
And that's really what anxietyand depression are about are
about, and it's themisregulation or dysregulation
of your nervous system in thatyou go into that edge of that
fight or flight but you reallyget into freeze.
It's what Marty Seligman calledlearned helplessness.
And so you get to that placewhere you feel like you have
(42:37):
zero control and so my anxietywas bad.
And here's a guy who won worldchampionships.
Here's a guy who couldbroadcast.
I worked for NBC, I worked forFox, I worked on national
broadcasts.
All the time I was doing progames, college games.
I have zero fear of getting onthe air and talking.
I have zero fear of standing upin front of a crowd and talking
(42:57):
.
I was scared to leave my housetalking.
I was scared to leave my house.
I got agoraphobic because myanxiety was so bad and I went
through this off and on for 10years.
It would get a little bitbetter and then it would get
worse, but it was always thatspecter in the back of my mind.
I could always feel thatdysregulation in my nervous
system and so move forward.
(43:19):
It's feeling pretty good forabout 10 years.
Uh, I got a divorce, my dad died, so there's a bunch of stuff
that kind of fell on top of itinside of that that created that
anxiety.
Um, but I'm remarried, have anamazing, amazing wife now and
it's got, you know, have myhouse, career set, everything is
(43:40):
good.
I coach quarterbacks that'spart of what I do because I love
giving back, I love teachingthe game to young players and
watching their confidence grow,teaching them lessons, and it's
a bluebird day.
I have one of my favoritequarterbacks and my anxiety is
through the roof.
I don't have bills that aren'tpaid, I don't have obligations
(44:01):
that I can't fulfill.
I don't have anything totrigger this and my anxiety is
so bad I'm white knuckling itthrough a quarterback session.
And so I called my friend, drCEO, who I talked about a little
bit and I and we've known eachother since college.
She was 19 when I met her andwe have been really good friends
(44:23):
.
She's best friends with my wife.
She's amazing.
And I said, co, you have to fixme, I am broken.
My guess is I am broken.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I know that you can handle this.
I can't do this with all guests, but I want to know what that
felt like in that moment, to beat such a point where you
understood and recognized I'm atthis point in reaching out for
help, like, how did that feelreaching out to this lifelong
(44:58):
friend?
Speaker 2 (45:00):
like rock bottom lifelong friend, like rock
bottom, yeah.
So I was so frustrated becauseI got to the point where I
thought I would have it handled.
Okay, it's good enough, right,which I think is a place that we
tend to stick ourselvesoftentimes.
It's good enough, it's goodenough, I can get by, I can
(45:20):
manage this, right.
And so we think of managingthings all the time.
And it was pardon the language afuck it moment where I was like
I am over this crap, I don'twant to do this anymore.
And so it was really kind of afork in the road for me.
(45:43):
It was, it was I had had.
I was never going to commitsuicide, but with this thing I
had had suicidal ideation Likeit.
It flashed in my mind.
Not that, and that's in thebook too.
You can't control your thoughts, right?
Shit happens, it flashes outthere.
You'd look for escape, you lookfor a way out.
So I was.
(46:03):
It was never going to.
I was going to white knuckle itthrough the rest of my life.
I had to, but I wanted it tochange, like I needed it to
change, and so I finally said Ihave tried everything else, and
I've I've always been a guy whotries everything.
I know that there is always ananswer, there is always a
(46:23):
solution somewhere.
You cannot let circumstancestalk you out of finding it.
And so I didn't cross that linewith Sio, because she is a
friend, she is a dear friend andI didn't want to put on her.
In terms of her professionalcapacity, she is amazing.
She is so generous and sogiving that.
(46:47):
I knew that she would do it ina second, but so, that said, I
called her up and I said youneed to fix me, I'm broken.
And she said come in right now.
So as soon as I got done withthat lesson, I literally ran
down to her office and I toldher what was going on.
I told her how long I'd beengoing on and this has been 10
(47:08):
years at this point of thisstuff and she said all right,
well, let's do this.
I'm like okay, let's do this.
So she sits me down on hercouch and she puts me through a
session of EMDR.
Now she's one of theinstructors for EMDR on a
national level.
She's a brilliant, brilliant Umand her, her understanding of
(47:30):
that, combined with herfamiliarity with me right, we'd
known each other for a long time, so she knew a lot of my
stories.
She was able to literally walkme down the rabbit hole.
She was able to literally walkme down the rabbit hole step by
(48:03):
step by step, all the way backto that point.
And EMDR is eye movement,desensitization and reappraisal,
I think is what it is.
So the eye movement left andright inhibits the amygdala
which fires your nervous system,the desensitization.
You go back to the trauma,whatever that trauma is.
And then reappraisal you changethe way you look at it.
(48:25):
And when she did that, I had,you know, my little baby self in
my arms right.
She's like tell that baby, youknow it's, it's going to be okay
.
I'm like and not only is itgoing to be okay, look what we
did, like it's not just going tobe okay.
You became a quarterback and agladiator and world champion and
TV Like, look at what you, it'snot just going to be okay,
(48:49):
there's nothing to be scared of.
But look at what youaccomplished.
And then, along the way, wepicked up my dad, because losing
him I never dealt with it, Inever addressed it, I never
dealt with that stress and hewas my dude, like he was my guy.
And so having those two thingsand putting them both together,
(49:11):
it almost makes me want to cryright now.
I've got to be honest with youso I can feel it.
But having those two thingstogether just changed me in an
instant and anxiety was gone andI could feel joy again and I
could feel which I hadn't feltin 10 years.
And in that moment, right there, I knew it's the nervous system
(49:39):
, it is the freaking nervoussystem.
That's what is making thishappen, and I just I had to
bring it, I had to understand it, I had to study it, I had to
find it, and that is what I wantto bring to people.
Is that understanding is thatwe can change things in an
instant.
You don't have to suffer any ofthis stuff.
(50:01):
You don't have to suffer any ofthis stuff.
You don't have to feel the fearand the stress and all of that,
because it's within the nervoussystem.
And so my book gives them thetools to be able to affect their
limbic system, to take controlover their emotions, to control
their homeostasis, to decidewhat thriving is, and that's the
(50:24):
power that I want to givepeople.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Mike, I just I love and I'm a firm believer in it
doesn't take years of therapyand years and decades of doing a
lot of internal work to createchange Like I I'm a living
example of my own of creatinglike oh nope, I understand, boom
, done, let's move on.
Like life is so beautiful andif when you have that level of
(50:51):
experience, it's it's a gamechanger.
And and so I love that yourbook everyday great is going to
really support people and beingable to access that so
themselves in the comfort oftheir homes, you know in their
earbuds as they are walkingabout, you know just like living
their best life and reallystepping into thriving.
(51:12):
Not just I'm with you and Inever, never settle for good,
ever Good is not great and weonly do great Like.
I just don't believe insettling in life Like we were
not intended to settle.
We were created and hardwiredwith our own unique DNA to do
something extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, that's our, that's our human nature and I
don't.
I don't mean to cut you off,but that's the point of it and
that's really the point of thetitle.
Everyday Great is a doubleentendre.
I love double entendres.
It's crazy.
I have a whole system in there.
My system is a double entendre.
But it's everyday great meansI'm living everyday great, I'm
doing the right things everyday,because my system, part of what
(51:54):
I teach, is that literallywhatever you do in life, you are
training, you are constantlytraining yourself.
You're training your nervoussystem how to respond, how to
perceive, how to accept and howto proceed in life.
And so every day there has tobe intentionality about living
(52:15):
great, living your best life notin a hip hop, tick, tock,
woohoo.
Live your best life way, in aintentionality about the things
that we do and the understandingof what that does to our
nervous system.
But it's also about being aneveryday great because you now
become.
Every day is great for youbecause of the intentionality
(52:37):
you put into the little thingsin your life.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I just I love this, I appreciate, I, I'm, I'm so
deeply grateful that you havewalked, that you've walked the
path of your life and and evenwhen you were talking about all
of the surgeries and I know youshowed me a picture of you know,
the arthritis in your neck andI'm like, golly, like, do you
even have a spine in there?
(53:02):
Is this, this, all arthritis,like what's going on here?
Like you've, you've earned,you've earned the right to be
able to speak and talk on this,and that's because of living
everyday great, even through adecade of struggle and hardship,
through anxiety, because youwere willing to walk through and
(53:25):
to, as you put it, you can'tlet circumstances talk you out
of solutions and your commitmentto say I'm finding the solution
.
I'm going to do that, but notonly am I going to find the
solution for me, I'm going tofind the solution for you, just
like you were working with youknow what insurance company.
If you're not going to pay forthis, I'm going to support
(53:46):
myself and these other players.
Like this isn't, and I deeplyappreciate how your life is not
just singular, it's.
I'm going to win this for me,but when I win, everybody around
me is going to win.
That's such a powerful way tolive and lead and I'm deeply
grateful for that, thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
That's one of the most powerful things.
The final chapter of my book isthe power of connection, and so
I appreciate the fact that youpoint that out, because, for me,
helping you win right, helpingmy teammate win, having shared
purpose with people isquintessentially human.
It's what we do when we are atour best is helping each other
(54:32):
thrive, because that brings usto a point of safety, right?
My amazing wife does that forme.
I try to do that for her.
Dr CEO did that for me.
I try to do that for her.
Dr CEO did that for me.
I try to do that for her.
I'm supporting her.
She's got an incredible appthat's coming out, that's out,
that is helping peopleeverywhere.
She's amazing.
(54:52):
Call the got this app.
She's incredible.
But being able to supportsomebody and watch their
fulfillment, watching themthrive, empowers you in such a
way, and that's why I love teamsports, that's why I love
football.
But I appreciate that youmentioned that because it really
is a powerful lesson.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
It's so powerful.
Mike, I know like I appreciateyou and your time.
I could speak with you and Ihave so many more questions just
because I love humans andconnecting and stories that we
are gifted with throughout ourjourneys, but I know that we do
(55:30):
need to wrap things up.
I'm curious what is the bestway?
I know, conscious Investor, youare drawn in, just as I'm drawn
in, and you're like I don'twant this to end, so one you
definitely want to go pick upEveryday.
Great, that's a thing, right,definitely go do that now.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
It'll be October and it's coming out during football
season, of course.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
So we're going to do that.
Okay, you can, we'll send you.
Where can they?
Is there a landing page thatthey can make sure they're on it
?
Where can we send the consciousinvestors so that they can stay
connected with you andeverything you're up to and stay
up to date with?
I'm ordering everyday greattoday.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
You can find me on LinkedIn, so find me there.
You will get a lot of mymessages, a lot of my content.
If you're not on LinkedIn,which some people aren't you can
find me on Facebook those twoplaces.
There will be a landing pagehere shortly.
I'm not a great tech guy, I'm acreative, so it will be here
shortly For the book.
They can go pre-order all thatstuff.
(56:33):
But right now, find me onLinkedIn or Facebook and you'll
get a lot of what I'm doing interms of content, in terms of
training, pieces of the book,podcast stuff for me as well,
and you can find me there.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
I love it.
And, conscious Investor, makesure you go and connect on those
platforms.
If you're on both of them,connect everywhere.
That's a way of supporting,it's a way of saying wow, I
gained so much from listening toyour story and I want to
support you and I want tocontinue to learn more and stay
engaged, because this isn't youcan see, mike, isn't just a one
(57:08):
one.
Oh, here's the moment in time.
This has been a lifetime, whichmeans that we still have years
to come of just learning andgrowing together and having that
connection and community.
Mike, thank you so much foreverything that you've created
throughout your life and forwriting this book and for
sharing your time with myselfand the Conscious Investor.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Thank you so much for having me on.
I knew it was going to be greatgoing in just for the moment
that we shared back in Dallas,but seeing how much you care
about your audience really andyour success and what you do for
people, there's just suchsynergy there and I appreciate
that.
I can feel that from you.
I know your audience feels itfrom you, and so the fact that
(57:52):
you would share me with youraudience.
Again.
It's an honor to me to be here,so I appreciate you having me
on.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Oh, it's such a privilege.
Now, conscious Investor,remember there is a way that you
can support the showorganically, and that is the
best way for anything in life togrow.
And so, if you have gained fromthis episode in any capacity,
please take a moment it takes,you know, 30 seconds and share
(58:19):
this with a friend.
There's so much content in herethat is going to support you and
I know that you and I knowfriends and friends, of friends
who are struggling, who aredealing with anxiety, who are
feeling overwhelmed, who aredysregulated, and this
conversation is one of thoselinchpins.
That is a free way of providingsupport to someone and that's a
(58:43):
way of connecting right.
It's a free way to say I seeyou and I want to support you
and I just love that we have somany resources available that
don't cost us anything but it'sour care, of attention and time
to follow through 30 seconds atmost to share an episode and if
you'd like to just support alittle bit further, take a
(59:05):
moment, a little extra momentover on Apple Podcasts, scroll
on down to the bottom and thoselittle purple words say write a
review.
If you'd leave a review andjust let Mike and I know what
stood out to you.
How did this support you?
And that's a powerful way ofencouraging us as well as
helping the podcast spread andgrow.
I appreciate you.
Conscious Investor, thank youfor taking time to listen and
(59:28):
remember cheers to your health,your mindset and your wealth.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Thank you.
Hello Conscious Investor and welcome back.
I'm your host, julie Hawley.
For over four years, I'vepaired my background in real
estate, investing, education andcoaching to create powerful
content for you each week.
This podcast is where we take aholistic approach to investing
by focusing on three ingredientsto a life of personal freedom
health, mindset and wealth.
(00:23):
We'll talk about everythingfrom passive investing through
syndication and how to use yourretirement accounts to boost
your investing, to mineralbalancing and gut brain health,
and into topics that cultivateyour inner strength and
resilience so you can thriveregardless of any of life's
current events.
And yes, those are all episodescurrently available and linked
(00:44):
in the show notes below.
Join me each Monday for amindset episode and later in the
week for an interview withexpert investors and health
professionals, so that you canexperience your greatest health,
strongest mindset and build thewisest wealth.
Mike, I am absolutely thrilledto have you here on the
Conscious Investor Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
First off, let me start by saying 500 episodes Are
you kidding me?
That is massive.
So congratulations to you.
That's fantastic, it's huge,and so I love that.
I love the fact that I can comeon because I love your message
and I know, having talked to youoffline, I know how much you
(01:25):
care about your audience, I knowhow much you care about people
and about giving back, and so Ijust appreciate the fact that
you feel that I'm worthy toshare with your audience, and so
thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh my gosh.
Your message is a message thatwhen we connected up and had
lunch at book camp, I knew inthat moment like, oh my gosh,
conscious, investor, you aregoing to deeply value and
appreciate Mike's message andyou're going to go down to the
show notes and you're going tosee Mike has this like a massive
(01:55):
pedigree behind him that you'rejust blown away by.
And what I love so much, mike,is that when we met, sometimes
you meet people and that's whatthey lead with.
They lead with well, I was arockstar quarterback and I still
hold records at Cal andsometimes people who have
(02:19):
achieved such great success asyou have.
They lead with that and it'salmost a protective mechanism
for them, for their life, fortheir and that's their identity.
And one of the things thatreally resonated with me was
just how you know grounded, howhuman you are and how your
message.
It's not limited, it is anunlimited message and your life
(02:44):
has been braided together.
And while I have a normal firstquestion, I actually would like
to ask a different question and, knowing you've had such a
variety of experiences, butsomething that really struck me
as we had lunch was yourexperience started when you were
really young, like you havebeen I think achiever isn't what
(03:08):
the word I would say anovercomer who became an achiever
.
Like you started with oddsstacked against you and, a lot
of times, conscious Investor.
We can feel that way atdifferent points in our life.
We could feel that our marriageis not headed the direction we
want it to go, or our careerisn't, maybe our kids aren't, or
(03:29):
maybe we don't have thosethings and it's other parts of
our life and we feel stuck andwe feel we have to overcome.
You faced that really early onand I'm curious if you'd be
willing to share that experiencewith us.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Thank you for the question, um,because people look at you,
know your professional footballplayer.
Like you said, people identifyyou by your occupation or by
your past successes andobviously I have, you know, my
football jersey in thebackground for anybody watching
on video and I've got myfootball stuff in my room.
But that's not who I am.
(04:02):
That's not my identity.
I am always a work in progress.
I have been from day one.
I'm still a work in progressright now.
I don't have all the answers,but I found some of them that
really helped and it stems backto when I was a kid you
mentioned it.
I was actually born with cysticfibrosis, which is a severe
(04:22):
form of lung disease and you getmore mucus.
It makes it really hard tobreathe and in the time that I
was growing up in the 70s, itwas, prognosis for somebody born
with cystic fibrosis was reallybad.
Life expectancies were shortand kids were.
They were held back and theywere held in.
I was in an incubator rightafter birth and so I was kind of
(04:48):
struggling to breathe.
The thing that most people takefor granted in that you know
you can breathe and breath islife.
I had to fight like hell for myentire life.
And so from that moment through13 years old, I was in the
hospital every single year withlung disease.
(05:09):
There was one time in particularI talk about it in my book
where I was seven years old orsix years old, sitting in front
of the TV watching Wonder Woman.
It was brand new.
It was out Linda Carter'splaying Wonder Woman.
It was one of the first big DCcomic book comics after Batman,
(05:30):
and I just had to watch it.
But I had been sick all weeklong.
I had what they diagnosed lateras the croup or whooping cough
and I'm sitting in the lazy boychair because I get to, because
I'm sick.
Right, I get away with murderand I'm watching Wonder Woman,
(05:51):
and every week she gets introuble.
She somehow gets fooled by thebad guys and they trap her
somehow.
Well, in this one she getstrapped inside a cave and it has
this plexiglass thing thatcomes down.
And I'm sitting there watchingthe show and I'm coughing.
Occasionally I sound like abarking seal as I'm coughing.
But as I'm watching this, right, the plexiglass comes down, the
lava is coming down the sidesand I'm watching it and all of a
sudden I realized that my chestis tightening and I can feel it
(06:11):
literally like she's beingsuffocated by this lava inside
the box.
I'm I'm being suffocated bywhat's going on in my lungs and
it was so traumatic and sopowerful for me that I'm sitting
there and I'm thinking I can'tbreathe and I literally couldn't
breathe.
I literally couldn't draw air,and it's one of those things
(06:34):
that we just take so for granted.
I just felt, if you've everseen a fish when it flops out of
the bowl, I felt like that fishsitting there trying to draw
breath, and my parents snatchedme up.
They saw me I was turning blueand rushed me down the emergency
room again, you know, for theseventh year in a row.
And the doctors that night toldmy parents, if he makes it
(06:56):
through the night, he'llprobably be okay.
Now.
My mom was a World War IIsurvivor from Germany.
Her father was a medic in theGerman army.
My dad was a member of the 82ndAirborne Military.
They met on base and my dad wastough but incredibly loving.
(07:16):
My mom was a survivor.
She survived the war.
She lived in seven differentcountries.
She speaks a bunch of differentlanguages.
She was a refugee during thewar.
She lived in seven differentcountries.
She speaks a bunch of differentlanguages.
She was a refugee during thewar and so they decided they
were going to do something aboutit.
And the doctors told them whileI was in there that sports might
be a good thing for me becauseit would help strengthen my lung
(07:37):
.
Now they had done the saltsweat test, which is what you
test for cystic fibrosis, but itwas inconclusive.
They didn't know what you testfor cystic fibrosis, but it was
inconclusive.
They didn't know, they didn'thave a certain diagnosis, that
it was cystic fibrosis.
Doc was like well, we're notsure, but maybe sports will make
his lungs stronger.
And so they put me into sportsand it started with, you know,
(07:58):
soccer and baseball and swimmingand everything that they could
put me into swimming andeverything that they could put
me into.
And as a kid I started to learnthat you could push through and
you could fight pain.
That pain didn't necessarilylimit what you did, because I
(08:20):
wasn't necessarily thinking thatI wanted to strengthen my lungs
.
I was thinking I wanted to staythe hell out of that hospital
bed because it was scary.
When they put me in that bed, Iwas sitting inside an oxygen
tent.
I was separated from my parents.
I was separated from the world,and I was.
So I was in a place of what theycall dorsal, vagal shutdown or
freeze, where you have fight,flight or freeze.
(08:42):
It was in freeze where I wouldliterally disassociate inside
that tent and try to removemyself from the picture, and I
wanted to avoid that at allcosts.
And I knew that.
And so I drove myself in sportsand when it would hurt I would
push through the next line and Iwould just make that
(09:02):
negotiation myself Okay, I'mgoing to do this next thing, I'm
just going to run this sprint,this time hard.
I get to the end of that andI'd be like, okay, and then I'd
say, okay, I can run the nextone, one more, let's do that.
And I literally kind of gotthrough the initial pieces of
training my lungs, of improvingby doing one more over and over
and over and over, and soinitially I had to learn how to
(09:26):
breathe just to breathe, as akid, but in sports I was
learning how to breathe hard,which became a metaphor for me
in terms of being able to pushthrough things, because so much
you know the human experience.
As you know, julie, we getscared of things, we get worried
about things and we start toshut down.
You know, julie, we get scaredof things, we get worried about
things and we start to shut down.
(09:47):
And so at an early age Ilearned that I could push
through things with sports, andso that love of getting better,
of pushing through, ofovercoming was ingrained in me
early.
I was, I tell people now I wasreally fortunate that I was born
with cystic fibrosis, becauseit gave me that strength, it
gave me that experience to pushthrough things, and I think
(10:11):
that's one of the messages thatI teach people that I talk about
in my book is that if you canlook at these experiences as
opportunities, as a benefit, itchanges everything about them.
They suck, for sure, butthere's a benefit to it and if
you can find that benefit, it'sa superpower and it's a
wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Gosh it's.
You know when we were talkingremember we're, like you know,
building our lunch at the, youknow, at this event and you said
something about CF and I'm,like you know you shouldn't have
lived past teenage, earlytwenties at best at that point,
(10:58):
with where medicine was, with CF.
I remember as a child watchinga um, a video like a one of
those wasn't a Hallmark movie,but it was something along those
lines and it was about thisgirl, alexis, and she had CF and
I just so I remember theawareness of it was even coming
on.
What's standing out to me rightnow that's really fascinating,
mike is that not only did youlearn to work through and push
(11:21):
your own limits, and that youand I talk a lot about life is,
you know, driven from the insideout If you develop that
internal resilience so early on.
But now I'm realizing, as wewere talking about identity and
how you don't have your identityas I'm a, you know, amazing,
(11:42):
you know, football player.
I'm sorry, I'm thinking aboutall the awards that you've won
and accomplishments.
You've have just clouded mymind for a moment.
I'm like gosh, how do you evenlike qualify Like it's?
You're so amazing, so all thatto say you didn't find it.
You don't find your identity asa you know.
Oh well, I'm a rockstarquarterback.
I wonder if that has a tappedroot in.
(12:06):
Well, my identity isn't thatI'm a CF overcomer.
Some people can find theiridentity in different facets.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well.
So your identity comes fromevery aspect of your life, and
it's when you get into a fixedidentity that you start to come.
You find problems right thereyou go.
I am a football playereliminates all the other things
that you can be, and so, for me,part of my identity was I was
(12:36):
that sick kid in the bed insidethe tent that was running from
my disease for sure.
Right, I had a demon chasing me, and that was part of it.
Part of it was that I alsowanted to be an achiever.
I wanted to not have to worryabout these things anymore.
I had a conversation with mydad Everywhere I've played, and
(13:00):
I hate talking about myself inhuge part, but I realize that
this is what podcasts are about,right, yeah, this is what this
is about.
Lessons are in the stories, andso when I was eight years old, I
had just won my firstchampionship.
I played on the member of theRacers, the Yorba and the Little
League T-ball and I was theteam's leading home run hitter
(13:20):
that year.
Right, and I was in that leagueat that age.
Right, the little guy in themound is the one who kind of
controls everything, cause youget most of the ground balls you
handle.
I saw I was the pitcher, but,um, we had just won and my dad
had me in his car.
He had this boxy blue Toyota SRfive stick shift right, he was
always a stick shift guy.
And we're sitting there andwe're going to pioneer chicken
(13:41):
because I wanted fried chicken.
That was my jam.
We won, I got to choose.
We're going to Pioneer Chicken.
And so he said so what do youwant to be when you grow up?
And I told him, I said, oh, I'mjust gonna be a pro baseball
player, like that was just goingto happen.
That's what I was going to do.
And my dad, being wonderful,looks at me and goes, okay, well
(14:05):
, cool, if that doesn't happen,what do you want to be?
And I'd literally just seen afishing show that morning.
It was Orlando Wilson, one ofthe great all-time fishing hosts
bass guy who was hammering,hammering huge bass down on Lake
Okeechobee, throwing theseshiners that you know, which is
a bait fish the size of my hand,and he, they were just catching
these monster large mouth bassand and one of the things that
(14:27):
that my dad and I always didtogether was fish.
I'm like, oh, I'll just host afishing show.
And he's like, okay, that'sneat that you want to do those
things, but, super, let's justgo get chicken Right.
So we go and get chicken.
(14:50):
Well, fast forward, and I playfootball, baseball, basketball,
all the sports.
But I sent her up in highschool on football and baseball.
I was the top rated catcher forthe Royals coming out of high
school in Orange County comingout.
They sent out the wholescouting thing.
They had me to try out.
But I wanted to play footballand so I got a scholarship to
cal and they bring me on, uh, asa quarterback I learned the
game.
I was pretty bad when I gotthere.
(15:10):
I gotta be honest with you, Iwasn't.
I wasn't great.
I came from a wingtie offensethat didn't teach me the finer
points of playing.
I love my high school footballcoach, john turrick.
Fantastic dude, taught me a tonof life lessons.
But the football was antiquatedand so when I got to the
college level I had to learn howto play football all over again
, and so I did that.
But then I started to excel andI started to see this is really
(15:33):
the sport that I love.
I love football, the combat,the.
It gave me that gladiator'sarmor.
I felt like you know know, Iwent from being scared of
getting sick and having lungdisease to throwing on pads and
saying, oh yeah, watch thiscystic fibrosis Right, watch
this pneumonia.
You can't I'm going to go outthere and throw my body in the
(15:56):
fray Like I was maybeovercompensating with sports.
But it was a passion for me.
I loved it and the entire time,because of my history as a sick
kid, I was really interoceptive.
I understood my internal, whatwas going on, I could feel it, I
could sense it and I could.
(16:16):
I had a sense of how toregulate myself a little bit,
and so I learned that.
But but I went and playedfootball to kind of finish off
the story I started with wentand played football, got drafted
in the NFL, played 11 years ofpro football and then, as soon
as I got done playing football,I started producing my own
(16:39):
outdoor TV show because while Iwas playing football I knew that
I wanted to go be an outdoorproducer.
So I started learning how to beon camera, how to do radio, how
to speak in front of a camera,how to speak in front of a mic,
how to edit, how to producesegments of television.
And I started doing it insports because that was a
(17:00):
natural in for me Our broadcast.
Who's a broadcasting legend JoeStarkey, one of my favorite
people of all time asked me tocome back and be a sideline
reporter for the Cal gamesbecause the arena league was in
the spring and college footballwas in the fall.
So I came back and starteddoing that.
I started at the lowest rung ofthe ladder and worked my way up
and I knew it.
I had to go over and pick up myown mic for games and I had to
(17:23):
make all the connections andthey didn't travel me to away
games the first year.
There's a whole bunch of slingsand arrows that I had to get
through, but I knew what Iwanted to be.
I knew what I wanted to do andso I learned the business and
then, as soon as I got doneplaying football, I called up
Outdoor Channel and said youneed me, I'm on camera, I'm an
(17:43):
ex-pro, I'm a producer.
I was a guide in the off seasonwhile I was playing football, so
I would guide fly fishing inNorthern California.
I'm like I'm a perfect fit foryou.
And so they said, well, let'sdo a joint venture.
And we did.
And the first show wasphenomenal Caught eight
steelhead on the Klamath River,had one of them wrap me around
the anchor line.
I'm passing my rod underneaththe boat and doing all kinds of
(18:05):
funky stuff.
I talked about the hatchery,talked about the history, talked
about the biology Like we gotit all in in 22 and a half
minutes, and so it was a reallygood show.
They got the tape that same day.
They signed me to a contractfor a year's worth of production
, which led to 20 years worth ofproduction.
And and I was sitting with mydad my son was just born.
(18:27):
I'm carrying him around brandnew baby boy, 11 days old, and
my dad looks at me.
He goes holy crap, you did it.
I'm like huh.
And he said well, you told mein the car, remember that day
after you won the championship,that you wanted to be a pro
baseball player and you wantedto host your own TV show, your
own fly fishing or your ownfishing show.
(18:47):
You remember that?
I go yeah, I do kind ofremember that story.
He goes you freaking, did it?
Like that pride from my dad,like that connection which is
another part that I reallylearned along the way, but part
of the leadership piece, it's soimportant that connection from
my dad was so powerful for me,like it was.
(19:08):
It meant so much to me to seemy dad beam and to have that
that pride from him and thatacceptance and for him to be in
that moment with me, completelycontent and proud and like that.
That made that just meant somuch to me.
Right, and that's why I loveteam sports, because you get
that connection as well.
(19:28):
But but coming from this iswhat I'm going to do when I'm
eight to closing the loop andfinishing it off was was a huge
piece and it was justunderstanding myself and and
being driven to do somethingwithout being denied along the
way, driven to do somethingwithout being denied along the
way.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It's.
It's, it's just so powerful andI love that.
You are even transcending, likeyou're going into a whole
another venue, right.
So here you are, overcoming,you know, as a child, cystic
fibrosis.
You manifest, becoming aprofessional athlete and
professional athlete and havingyour own show.
(20:08):
And now here you are coming outwith this amazing book,
everyday Great and so much morewith that.
What's interesting to me isthat when someone is choosing to
write a book and you havechosen to write it, there's no
shame.
Some people choose to hire aghost and you're you have chosen
to write it.
It's.
There's no shame.
Some people choose to hire aghostwriter and have somebody
(20:29):
else do the work, but there'sinternal work that takes place
when we choose to engage thewriting on our own, and it's
painful.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Amen, Holy crap.
Is that the truth for anybodywho has not written a book?
There is so much that, oh, it'sall that.
You, but that was that boy.
You just struck me right in alimbic system.
Right there, you absolutely gothrough personal work while
you're writing.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It is an internal work and to me that's an
extension of the arc, one of themany arcs in your life, of
overcoming and to say I'm goingto become that, put on that
gladiator suit of sorts, youknow, and I am going to go
through the internal worknecessary to produce and create
(21:15):
this book so that I can, youknow, impact and support people
very deliberately, and I'm soexcited about that book.
I, um, I am curious, so I'mgoing to ask a couple questions,
because I know you can handlethis.
I could ask 20 at once andyou'd be fine.
but I'm curious I could handle acouple questions that go with
(21:37):
this.
Why did you choose to writethis on your own instead of?
You're equipped you.
You could find a really greatghostwriter, but you've chosen
to write this on your own, andwhat is it you really want to?
What's the outcome you reallywant for people from everyday?
Great.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Those are both fantastic questions, by the way.
So the reason I chose to writeit on my own is the exact point
that you were talking about, inthat these are my stories and I
have learned my entire life thatin order to really suck the
(22:15):
marrow out of what you're doing,you need to fully immerse in
what you are doing.
I am a reverse engineer guyfrom the nuts and bolts.
I love being able to take aproblem to grab it, to be able
to dismantle it, kind of rethinkit, reframe it and then
reassemble it into a positionthat makes sense and works for
(22:38):
people, and I have always beenthat guy.
I love that.
I am a coach by nature my dad,so I don't give my mom enough
credit.
Let me say this my mom was themost loving, devoted, like mama
bear ever.
I love that lady to death.
She's amazing, but I alwaystalk about my dad and it's
because my dad.
(22:58):
They both gave me acceptance,but my dad gave me the
acceptance and the push at thesame time and he was a
phenomenal coach.
Like he was an amazing coach, hegot voted citizen of the year
in our town twice.
Most people are lucky to get itonce and we weren't.
(23:22):
It wasn't like.
It was a podunk town.
I grew up in Yorba Linda, whichis the hometown of Richard
Nixon in Orange County and soit's big.
His library's there.
It's a pretty big town and mydad got voted citizen of the
year twice.
That's what kind of good dudemy dad was, and so I was really
(23:43):
fortunate to have that type ofrole model and he taught me that
you do the work right, you getthrough, you engage and you
connect, and I told the story mydad.
Connecting with my father wasso powerful and that's why being
in teams is so powerful for me.
I wanted to connect and so tocome full circle on question
(24:05):
number one why not a ghostwriter?
Because I wanted to connectwith my reader.
I wanted to connect with people.
These are my stories.
Yeah, they're my stories,lessons, they're my experiences
and I wanted that to comethrough.
And as much as you can love aghostwriter, I've read a bunch
(24:27):
and I've got buddies who do it.
I know a guy who's really,really good at the sports field.
He's a friend, but I wanted towrite this book myself.
Will I do it again?
Maybe, maybe not, I don't know.
But this one I wanted it to befor me because I want to be a
coach, I want to connect withpeople and I want them to feel
these lessons.
We all know when you pick upthat book, that the author, you
(24:49):
can feel their intent comingthrough the written word,
through the page, and that'swhat I wanted to happen with
this book, because it's powerful, right.
These are the lessons.
I reverse, engineer the humanexperience for people.
I am outside of being anathlete.
I went to Cal too, so I alwaysjoke like there's athletes and
(25:11):
then there's guys who reallystudy, who really do the work,
who get it.
And to survive at Cal, you haveto have some ability in terms
of cognitive skills and so.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'll say it You're smart Mike.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You're really trying to humble brag here, so it's but
, but you have to get through it, and so I love breaking it down
and I want to bring that topeople.
That's.
That's the answer Number one.
I want them to feel that I haveI've literally with my system.
I connect at the level of yournervous system.
If people get these lessons, ifthey get the clues, and once
(25:50):
you understand that, once youget that raw base feeling and
base understanding of what'sgoing on inside your body, it
changes your entire dynamic andyour ability to overcome things
in your life become easy.
That's what God put me here for.
That's what God gave me cysticfibrosis for.
(26:11):
That's what God gave me myparents for and gave me
professional football andgetting cut five times playing
professional football and allthose lessons were so that I
could bring it to people in thisbook, and so that's why I'm
writing it myself, because Iwant it to come from me to them
(26:31):
as a coach.
That's what I do.
Secondly, I want people to beable to take this information
and then use it in their livesto transform the way that they
see, to transform perception ofwhat's going on in the world.
We get so locked up in thefeelings of the moment.
(26:51):
They're called somatic senses,the things that you feel.
Stephen Porges calls itneuroception.
It's about your nervous systemalways monitoring, always
deciding what's a threat andwhat isn't a threat.
And so nowadays we're notfacing daily threats, we're not
(27:12):
in the midst of predation, wedon't have things going on where
a test is not a T-Rex right, abad boss is not a bear.
We're not facing that.
But our nervous system doesn'tknow the difference.
And when we feel threatened,our nervous system reacts and
(27:33):
the limbic system kicks in andwe start getting all these
feelings, all these somaticsenses, and your body's trying
to get to what's calledhomeostasis.
It's trying to get to a placewhere you can thrive and it also
wants to protect you fromdanger.
So if you feel something isdanger, then you react with your
nervous system.
Well, there's so much stimulusto us now.
Even Instagram and TikTok andFacebook and all these other
(27:56):
things can become threats to ourlimbic system, can become
threats to our limbic system,and so what we have to do is
learn how to regulate that, andthe first and foremost piece of
it is to understand what it isright.
And so I go into the science ofit, because I studied, I got the
equivalent of a PhD or master'sdegree in this stuff.
(28:18):
I have a phenomenal friend, drCio Hernandez, who, uh, we
haven't even gotten into theanxiety piece of this thing yet,
but the which was really thecue, the cue for me, um, but she
, she is brilliant to theumpteenth degree, um, and she
has taught, she, she has helpedme to really find the threads to
(28:42):
pull on that I can relate mylessons as an athlete, as a
producer, as an on-camera talent, as a human being, back to
people at home.
And so I want the outcome forthem to understand what it is
that they're feeling, to havethe perception that they can
control all of that, that theyare in control and that they can
make the decisions and thechanges in their life that they
(29:04):
need to thrive, whatever thatlooks like for them, because I
can't tell anybody what theiridea of thriving is, but I can
tell them that they have thepotential and the power to
thrive.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Gosh, mike, conscious investor.
I'm sure you can see exactlywhy I invited Mike on the show,
because this is something wetalk about so often and I know
you can talk about it in so muchmore depth because of your
research, you know, and the timeyou've poured in to learn about
it.
But it's like that knee-jerkreaction that we have to the
(29:35):
world around us.
It's so unnecessary and I lovelike we talk about this so
unnecessary and I love like wetalk about this like a bad boss
is not a bear, like we don'thave the same issues ancestrally
speaking, and I love going intocultural anthropology.
It's like these are not thesame issues.
But, yes, like just to you know, double tap on that point of
(29:58):
yeah, we're responding to thatangry person over on social
media who you know postswhatever with that same level of
intensity and it's so just asuch a disservice to our lives.
I'm curious if you can sharewith us you know what one of the
elements of overcoming, ofworking through that is if we
(30:22):
can give that conscious investorsome support to say, and this
is conscious investor, you'regoing to need to buy the book,
you have to go pick up a copy ofthe book so that you can get
the full scope and sequence here.
I mean, I'm asking Mike a veryhigh level question and
basically it's jumping the gunon a lot of information that
(30:43):
will be in the book.
So you're going to want to goand make sure you get the book.
But what do we do?
Let's just say we have thatbecause this is such a common
thing for people.
Some people choose to get off ofsocial media and instead of
learning how to regulate, it'slike oh, I'm just going to
eliminate XYZ for my life.
We're going to pick on socialmedia because it's like oh well,
I'm just going to eliminate X,y, z for my life.
(31:03):
We're going to pick on socialmedia because that's a common
one.
Well, I'm just not going to beon social media because when I'm
on it I get triggered.
That's a common phrase peopleuse.
It triggers me, and really whatthey're saying is I see
something on that social mediaplatform and it aggravates my
somatic system and I have thisvisceral response and I don't
(31:26):
like that.
I don't want that in my life.
But how can we actually?
What are some of the high level?
How can we regulate that sothat we can be present?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Right.
So the A.
I love the question.
It shows how deep andthoughtful you are about the
topic Right.
So the A.
I love the question.
It shows how deep andthoughtful you are about the
topic right, and this is what Italk about when I talk about how
much you care about youraudience and how much you give
back, like you can just hear itin the way that you frame the
question, the things that youthink about for them, and so
it's such a powerful gift togive to them and I appreciate
you for that.
The in answer.
(32:01):
Let me give you a long answerCause, as you know, that's what
I do.
We've heard it right.
So I played football.
I played professional footballfor 11 years.
This is the, this is the like.
It's what I did.
It's part of who I am, it'spart of my identity, and I
learned how to regulate myselfin that regard.
Players always feel fear in thetunnel, always feel fear in the
tunnel.
You can't play at that leveland not feel the stress response
(32:25):
, and so you learn to deal withit.
You learn to push through it.
When I was a junior, going intomy junior year at Cal, there was
a team psychologist named DrBill Koish and I love Bill
Fantastic dude, but he's thismousy little dude who's out of
New York and he gets a New Yorkexit and he talks like this and
(32:47):
he's really fast and he does youknow the whole New York thing.
And they brought us in andsports psychology wasn't even a
thing at the time and he hadthree of us in there and we were
all like what are we doing here?
Like I don't really, I don'twant to be here, looking at our
watches, kind of thinking aboutthe time.
And we talked through it and itwas like a group therapy
(33:10):
session.
And back then, you know, crazypeople went to therapy, that's
what it was.
And you know, like I thoughtadults were supposed to have all
the answers and here he wasasking all the questions and so
I'm like, well, I, you know,whatever I I'm, I'm about done
with this and just kind oftuning out.
And at the end of theconversation I get more depth in
this in the book.
But but he says uh, so, uh,anybody have any questions?
(33:31):
And I look at him and I'm like,okay, well, I'm here, let's try
not to make it a complete waste.
And I look at him, I said lookat him I said I yawn before
games.
It drives me crazy, like itmakes me feel soft, like I'm not
ready, and it and it and it.
It frustrates the hell out ofme.
How do I stop yawning, right?
(33:53):
So here I'm asking thisquestion to him and he goes oh,
that's your, uh, that's yourfight or flight response.
I'm like what he goes.
Yeah, you know your fight orflight response.
I'm like what he goes yeah,your fight or flight response.
You see a T-Rex and all of asudden, you need to run, so your
body needs more oxygen.
What you're doing is you'reyawning, you're getting air in,
you're getting oxygen.
(34:14):
It's totally natural.
I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.
The fact that I'm yawning isnatural.
He goes oh, yeah, it means yourbody's getting ready.
It's like you're getting moreadrenaline, You're getting more
of this stuff.
It's all coming in and yourbody's getting ready to do well,
to do exactly what you're aboutto do.
You're going to go playfootball.
It's getting you ready to playfootball.
(34:38):
I'm like, holy crap, mind blown.
It just changed my entireperspective, like I call them,
my creepy feelies.
When you start to get thatstress response and you feel the
creepy feelies that come withit right, your, your skin gets
the prickles on it and thebreath gets shallow and you feel
the heartbeat in your ears andyour face gets flushed and your
palms get sweaty and all thosethings that happen.
That's a stress response inyour body, your acute stress
(34:59):
response, and what's happeningis hormones are going into your
body.
You're getting adrenaline, orknown as epinephrine.
In your brain, you're gettingcortisol, so the cortisol is
pumping glucose into your bloodso that you have more energy.
Right, the adrenaline isdilating your veins so that you
can respond better, so that youhave more energy.
All of this is geared to makeyou more responsive.
(35:25):
It is literally performanceenhancing drugs and your body is
juicing you with it in themoment and I'm like holy crap.
And so now I don't have to benervous.
Well, come 20 years later, drAllie Crum she's a Stanford
psychologist comes up and givesa TEDx talk about the stress is
(35:48):
enhancing mindset.
And when you understand thatstress enhances you, enhances
performance, enhances cognition,if you can get through the
somatic senses, it changes yourphysiology so that you can
perform.
And so when we feel that stressresponse this is what I talk
(36:08):
about I like to come undereverything.
What is the base?
Where is the beginning of this?
How do I change this at thesource to affect my nervous
system, and when I understandthat stress enhances me, that
stress is enhancing mindset,helps me change my physiology to
(36:28):
be better?
In the end, that's my goal.
I want people to be better.
I want to be better, I want tobe able to affect people better,
and so in my book I go into theways to use your acute stress
response, or the ways to usephysical things, doing the work,
making a decision, all thethings that you have to do in
(36:51):
your life in order to modulatethat stress response, to
optimize performance, so thatyou can become the best version
of yourself.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I love this so much, mike, and what's interesting is
that, although we have a lot ofexperience in Conscious Investor
, you and I have a lot ofstressful experiences in our
lives.
There's another level ofstressful experience when you're
on the line and this is goingto be me trying to make a really
(37:23):
, really good football analogyhere but you have a stadium
packed with, you know, thousandsof people, you've got millions
of viewers online.
You have all of this pressurelike and you did this not just I
mean, you played professionallyfor 11 years, but you were at
Cal.
You had it's, it's decades longof engaging on on that level,
with that pressure, but then inso many other parts of life, and
(37:46):
so I can't think of somebodymore qualified to be able to say
I've lived with this, I'velearned how to work with this,
I've learned how to leverage it,and now I know the science
behind it and now I can supportyou in really making every day
great.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, and that's the point.
So to get to that point andhere's what tied it all together
for me and I appreciate thefact that you asked the question
in that way, because this isreally this is the life-changing
moment for me Not that they allaren't, every moment in your
life is life-changing but when Igot done playing football right
(38:25):
, so I'd won the worldchampionships, I've got the ring
, I had great teams around me.
There's a great story in thebook.
At one point in my career Ifinally realized that I wasn't
playing for the ring.
Right, you always drive.
You think you're playing forthe championship.
You think you're playing forthat.
I realized I wasn't playing forthe ring and it was amazing.
(38:48):
But you're going to have to buythe book for that one.
But that said, the injuries fromfootball, the kind of repeated
trauma to my body, meant I had29 surgeries or procedures
injections in my spine, fullspinal surgeries, I have four
(39:10):
replacement discs in my neck,I've got knee replacements, all
this thing and I say that Iwould do it all again in a
second.
So I have zero regrets aboutplaying, but it took its toll on
my body and at the time, withhealth insurance, uh,
preexisting injuries were adisqualifier Couldn't get health
(39:30):
insurance which from a businessstandpoint I totally understand
.
That Right, and I had no morehealth insurance because I
wasn't playing anymore and so Icouldn't get health insurance.
The doctors, uh, and I was.
You know, I was paying for myown stuff out of pocket as it
went.
But the doctors wereprescribing me meds in the form
(39:51):
of anti-inflammatories and painmeds for my injuries and
although I hated the pain medswhen stuff was bad, I had to
take them.
Well, it gave me diverticulitis.
The combination of the two gaveme diverticulitis, a severe
infection in your intestine.
It was really bad and it got tothe point where it was ongoing
for two years and they kepttrying to hammer me with
antibiotics so they're killingall my gut bacteria and then it
(40:15):
would stop it for the durationof the antibiotic and then it
would come back, and then itwould stop it again and it would
come back.
It probably went on 10 cyclesof antibiotics during that
period of time and the doctorswouldn't do a surgery to fix it
because the insurance companywouldn't cover it and workers'
comp said they weren't going tocover it and I couldn't get
health insurance.
It was horrible and so it gotso bad to the point and my
(40:39):
doctor, who was my doctor forthe diverticulitis side, said
this is clearly related to themeds that you're taking for
football.
This is clearly a workers' compthing, right, but they could
deny everything here and justput you in court forever.
So I literally had to threatenthem to go to court that I would
do a documentary.
And I rounded up 20 footballplayers who were all being
(41:02):
denied by the same insurancecompany and I said I'm going to
do a documentary with all theseguys who are being denied by you
and if I die, it becomes morepowerful, because that's how
close I was.
The doctor told me I was reallyclose, I was septic, my body
was bad, it was horrible.
So finally that I sent it, Igot it to their board of
directors and, miraculously, thesurgery was approved.
(41:24):
Well, I got the surgeryrecovered from that and, as
post-traumatic stress does, itaffected me.
And as soon as I recovered inthat healing phase, the PTSD
(41:49):
kicked in for me and I got theworst anxiety, to the point
where I literally thought I washaving a stroke sitting down
editing one of my documentariesand I had a panic attack which
led to other panic attacks whichled to anxiety, because the
inability to overcome that forso long put me in that same
position that I was in as a kidin the hospital bed, in the
oxygen tent, where I was in thatdorsal vagal shutdown, and so I
(42:13):
froze.
And that's really what anxietyand depression are about are
about, and it's themisregulation or dysregulation
of your nervous system in thatyou go into that edge of that
fight or flight but you reallyget into freeze.
It's what Marty Seligman calledlearned helplessness.
And so you get to that placewhere you feel like you have
(42:37):
zero control and so my anxietywas bad.
And here's a guy who won worldchampionships.
Here's a guy who couldbroadcast.
I worked for NBC, I worked forFox, I worked on national
broadcasts.
All the time I was doing progames, college games.
I have zero fear of getting onthe air and talking.
I have zero fear of standing upin front of a crowd and talking
(42:57):
.
I was scared to leave my housetalking.
I was scared to leave my house.
I got agoraphobic because myanxiety was so bad and I went
through this off and on for 10years.
It would get a little bitbetter and then it would get
worse, but it was always thatspecter in the back of my mind.
I could always feel thatdysregulation in my nervous
system and so move forward.
(43:19):
It's feeling pretty good forabout 10 years.
Uh, I got a divorce, my dad died, so there's a bunch of stuff
that kind of fell on top of itinside of that that created that
anxiety.
Um, but I'm remarried, have anamazing, amazing wife now and
it's got, you know, have myhouse, career set, everything is
(43:40):
good.
I coach quarterbacks that'spart of what I do because I love
giving back, I love teachingthe game to young players and
watching their confidence grow,teaching them lessons, and it's
a bluebird day.
I have one of my favoritequarterbacks and my anxiety is
through the roof.
I don't have bills that aren'tpaid, I don't have obligations
(44:01):
that I can't fulfill.
I don't have anything totrigger this and my anxiety is
so bad I'm white knuckling itthrough a quarterback session.
And so I called my friend, drCEO, who I talked about a little
bit and I and we've known eachother since college.
She was 19 when I met her andwe have been really good friends
(44:23):
.
She's best friends with my wife.
She's amazing.
And I said, co, you have to fixme, I am broken.
My guess is I am broken.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I know that you can handle this.
I can't do this with all guests, but I want to know what that
felt like in that moment, to beat such a point where you
understood and recognized I'm atthis point in reaching out for
help, like, how did that feelreaching out to this lifelong
(44:58):
friend?
Speaker 2 (45:00):
like rock bottom lifelong friend, like rock
bottom, yeah.
So I was so frustrated becauseI got to the point where I
thought I would have it handled.
Okay, it's good enough, right,which I think is a place that we
tend to stick ourselvesoftentimes.
It's good enough, it's goodenough, I can get by, I can
(45:20):
manage this, right.
And so we think of managingthings all the time.
And it was pardon the language afuck it moment where I was like
I am over this crap, I don'twant to do this anymore.
And so it was really kind of afork in the road for me.
(45:43):
It was, it was I had had.
I was never going to commitsuicide, but with this thing I
had had suicidal ideation Likeit.
It flashed in my mind.
Not that, and that's in thebook too.
You can't control your thoughts, right?
Shit happens, it flashes outthere.
You'd look for escape, you lookfor a way out.
So I was.
(46:03):
It was never going to.
I was going to white knuckle itthrough the rest of my life.
I had to, but I wanted it tochange, like I needed it to
change, and so I finally said Ihave tried everything else, and
I've I've always been a guy whotries everything.
I know that there is always ananswer, there is always a
(46:23):
solution somewhere.
You cannot let circumstancestalk you out of finding it.
And so I didn't cross that linewith Sio, because she is a
friend, she is a dear friend andI didn't want to put on her.
In terms of her professionalcapacity, she is amazing.
She is so generous and sogiving that.
(46:47):
I knew that she would do it ina second, but so, that said, I
called her up and I said youneed to fix me, I'm broken.
And she said come in right now.
So as soon as I got done withthat lesson, I literally ran
down to her office and I toldher what was going on.
I told her how long I'd beengoing on and this has been 10
(47:08):
years at this point of thisstuff and she said all right,
well, let's do this.
I'm like okay, let's do this.
So she sits me down on hercouch and she puts me through a
session of EMDR.
Now she's one of theinstructors for EMDR on a
national level.
She's a brilliant, brilliant Umand her, her understanding of
(47:30):
that, combined with herfamiliarity with me right, we'd
known each other for a long time, so she knew a lot of my
stories.
She was able to literally walkme down the rabbit hole.
She was able to literally walkme down the rabbit hole step by
(48:03):
step by step, all the way backto that point.
And EMDR is eye movement,desensitization and reappraisal,
I think is what it is.
So the eye movement left andright inhibits the amygdala
which fires your nervous system,the desensitization.
You go back to the trauma,whatever that trauma is.
And then reappraisal you changethe way you look at it.
(48:25):
And when she did that, I had,you know, my little baby self in
my arms right.
She's like tell that baby, youknow it's, it's going to be okay
.
I'm like and not only is itgoing to be okay, look what we
did, like it's not just going tobe okay.
You became a quarterback and agladiator and world champion and
TV Like, look at what you, it'snot just going to be okay,
(48:49):
there's nothing to be scared of.
But look at what youaccomplished.
And then, along the way, wepicked up my dad, because losing
him I never dealt with it, Inever addressed it, I never
dealt with that stress and hewas my dude, like he was my guy.
And so having those two thingsand putting them both together,
(49:11):
it almost makes me want to cryright now.
I've got to be honest with youso I can feel it.
But having those two thingstogether just changed me in an
instant and anxiety was gone andI could feel joy again and I
could feel which I hadn't feltin 10 years.
And in that moment, right there, I knew it's the nervous system
(49:39):
, it is the freaking nervoussystem.
That's what is making thishappen, and I just I had to
bring it, I had to understand it, I had to study it, I had to
find it, and that is what I wantto bring to people.
Is that understanding is thatwe can change things in an
instant.
You don't have to suffer any ofthis stuff.
(50:01):
You don't have to suffer any ofthis stuff.
You don't have to feel the fearand the stress and all of that,
because it's within the nervoussystem.
And so my book gives them thetools to be able to affect their
limbic system, to take controlover their emotions, to control
their homeostasis, to decidewhat thriving is, and that's the
(50:24):
power that I want to givepeople.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Mike, I just I love and I'm a firm believer in it
doesn't take years of therapyand years and decades of doing a
lot of internal work to createchange Like I I'm a living
example of my own of creatinglike oh nope, I understand, boom
, done, let's move on.
Like life is so beautiful andif when you have that level of
(50:51):
experience, it's it's a gamechanger.
And and so I love that yourbook everyday great is going to
really support people and beingable to access that so
themselves in the comfort oftheir homes, you know in their
earbuds as they are walkingabout, you know just like living
their best life and reallystepping into thriving.
(51:12):
Not just I'm with you and Inever, never settle for good,
ever Good is not great and weonly do great Like.
I just don't believe insettling in life Like we were
not intended to settle.
We were created and hardwiredwith our own unique DNA to do
something extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, that's our, that's our human nature and I
don't.
I don't mean to cut you off,but that's the point of it and
that's really the point of thetitle.
Everyday Great is a doubleentendre.
I love double entendres.
It's crazy.
I have a whole system in there.
My system is a double entendre.
But it's everyday great meansI'm living everyday great, I'm
doing the right things everyday,because my system, part of what
(51:54):
I teach, is that literallywhatever you do in life, you are
training, you are constantlytraining yourself.
You're training your nervoussystem how to respond, how to
perceive, how to accept and howto proceed in life.
And so every day there has tobe intentionality about living
(52:15):
great, living your best life notin a hip hop, tick, tock,
woohoo.
Live your best life way, in aintentionality about the things
that we do and the understandingof what that does to our
nervous system.
But it's also about being aneveryday great because you now
become.
Every day is great for youbecause of the intentionality
(52:37):
you put into the little thingsin your life.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I just I love this, I appreciate, I, I'm, I'm so
deeply grateful that you havewalked, that you've walked the
path of your life and and evenwhen you were talking about all
of the surgeries and I know youshowed me a picture of you know,
the arthritis in your neck andI'm like, golly, like, do you
even have a spine in there?
(53:02):
Is this, this, all arthritis,like what's going on here?
Like you've, you've earned,you've earned the right to be
able to speak and talk on this,and that's because of living
everyday great, even through adecade of struggle and hardship,
through anxiety, because youwere willing to walk through and
(53:25):
to, as you put it, you can'tlet circumstances talk you out
of solutions and your commitmentto say I'm finding the solution
.
I'm going to do that, but notonly am I going to find the
solution for me, I'm going tofind the solution for you, just
like you were working with youknow what insurance company.
If you're not going to pay forthis, I'm going to support
(53:46):
myself and these other players.
Like this isn't, and I deeplyappreciate how your life is not
just singular, it's.
I'm going to win this for me,but when I win, everybody around
me is going to win.
That's such a powerful way tolive and lead and I'm deeply
grateful for that, thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
That's one of the most powerful things.
The final chapter of my book isthe power of connection, and so
I appreciate the fact that youpoint that out, because, for me,
helping you win right, helpingmy teammate win, having shared
purpose with people isquintessentially human.
It's what we do when we are atour best is helping each other
(54:32):
thrive, because that brings usto a point of safety, right?
My amazing wife does that forme.
I try to do that for her.
Dr CEO did that for me.
I try to do that for her.
Dr CEO did that for me.
I try to do that for her.
I'm supporting her.
She's got an incredible appthat's coming out, that's out,
that is helping peopleeverywhere.
She's amazing.
(54:52):
Call the got this app.
She's incredible.
But being able to supportsomebody and watch their
fulfillment, watching themthrive, empowers you in such a
way, and that's why I love teamsports, that's why I love
football.
But I appreciate that youmentioned that because it really
is a powerful lesson.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
It's so powerful.
Mike, I know like I appreciateyou and your time.
I could speak with you and Ihave so many more questions just
because I love humans andconnecting and stories that we
are gifted with throughout ourjourneys, but I know that we do
(55:30):
need to wrap things up.
I'm curious what is the bestway?
I know, conscious Investor, youare drawn in, just as I'm drawn
in, and you're like I don'twant this to end, so one you
definitely want to go pick upEveryday.
Great, that's a thing, right,definitely go do that now.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
It'll be October and it's coming out during football
season, of course.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
So we're going to do that.
Okay, you can, we'll send you.
Where can they?
Is there a landing page thatthey can make sure they're on it
?
Where can we send the consciousinvestors so that they can stay
connected with you andeverything you're up to and stay
up to date with?
I'm ordering everyday greattoday.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
You can find me on LinkedIn, so find me there.
You will get a lot of mymessages, a lot of my content.
If you're not on LinkedIn,which some people aren't you can
find me on Facebook those twoplaces.
There will be a landing pagehere shortly.
I'm not a great tech guy, I'm acreative, so it will be here
shortly For the book.
They can go pre-order all thatstuff.
(56:33):
But right now, find me onLinkedIn or Facebook and you'll
get a lot of what I'm doing interms of content, in terms of
training, pieces of the book,podcast stuff for me as well,
and you can find me there.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
I love it.
And, conscious Investor, makesure you go and connect on those
platforms.
If you're on both of them,connect everywhere.
That's a way of supporting,it's a way of saying wow, I
gained so much from listening toyour story and I want to
support you and I want tocontinue to learn more and stay
engaged, because this isn't youcan see, mike, isn't just a one
(57:08):
one.
Oh, here's the moment in time.
This has been a lifetime, whichmeans that we still have years
to come of just learning andgrowing together and having that
connection and community.
Mike, thank you so much foreverything that you've created
throughout your life and forwriting this book and for
sharing your time with myselfand the Conscious Investor.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Thank you so much for having me on.
I knew it was going to be greatgoing in just for the moment
that we shared back in Dallas,but seeing how much you care
about your audience really andyour success and what you do for
people, there's just suchsynergy there and I appreciate
that.
I can feel that from you.
I know your audience feels itfrom you, and so the fact that
(57:52):
you would share me with youraudience.
Again.
It's an honor to me to be here,so I appreciate you having me
on.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Oh, it's such a privilege.
Now, conscious Investor,remember there is a way that you
can support the showorganically, and that is the
best way for anything in life togrow.
And so, if you have gained fromthis episode in any capacity,
please take a moment it takes,you know, 30 seconds and share
(58:19):
this with a friend.
There's so much content in herethat is going to support you and
I know that you and I knowfriends and friends, of friends
who are struggling, who aredealing with anxiety, who are
feeling overwhelmed, who aredysregulated, and this
conversation is one of thoselinchpins.
That is a free way of providingsupport to someone and that's a
(58:43):
way of connecting right.
It's a free way to say I seeyou and I want to support you
and I just love that we have somany resources available that
don't cost us anything but it'sour care, of attention and time
to follow through 30 seconds atmost to share an episode and if
you'd like to just support alittle bit further, take a
(59:05):
moment, a little extra momentover on Apple Podcasts, scroll
on down to the bottom and thoselittle purple words say write a
review.
If you'd leave a review andjust let Mike and I know what
stood out to you.
How did this support you?
And that's a powerful way ofencouraging us as well as
helping the podcast spread andgrow.
I appreciate you.
Conscious Investor, thank youfor taking time to listen and
(59:28):
remember cheers to your health,your mindset and your wealth.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Thank you.
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