With over a decade of NFL experience, Alec is uniquely positioned to understand the mental, physical, and financial challenges faced by professional athletes. Kris, with his experience in the world of private equity real estate has a bunch to offer! In this special reflection episode of Beyond the Game, they re-examine pivotal moments from past episodes to extract the most impactful takeaways around managing money, avoiding bad investments, navigating career transitions,, and reinventing oneself throughout different stages of life.
Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:
[02:25] Understanding your burn rate
[06:22] Rethinking wealth beyond dollars and cents
[07:42] The ego of the athlete
[11:29] The power of intention
[13:46] Finding the right mentors
[18:01] Starting early for long-term success
[21:53] Believe in yourself
[31:29] Personal growth and reinvention over the next decades
Episode Highlights:
[02:25] Understanding Your Burn Rate
Properly understanding expenses is pivotal for athletes to make informed financial decisions both during and after their careers. Calculate your true "burn rate" to determine what level of returns you need to achieve financial freedom. Alec relates this to his own experience of wanting to remain debt free as a player so he didn't take on unnecessary overhead.
[06:22] A Tool for Freedom: Rethinking Wealth Beyond Dollars and Cents
While some athletes earn millions each year, Kris points out that at the end of the day, it's all just numbers - the principles of financial management are the same whether you're making 20 mil or 20 grand. The rue goal of getting your money right isn't the cash itself, but rather the freedom it can provide. If managed properly, wealth is really about gaining independence, opportunities and quality of life through smart planning today with an eye on long-term freedom.
[11:29] The Power of Intention
Athletes must be intentional about creating long-term wealth, whether that means hiring advisors, building a strong support team, or continuously educating themselves. Kris highlights how most guests, even those with financial backgrounds, were initially in the same position of having little knowledge after being drafted. But through proactively seeking guidance and information, they were able to achieve stability and fulfill their goals of financial freedom.
[21:53] Believe in Yourself
Especially in the cut-throat world of professional sports, an athlete has to maintain an extremely high level of belief in themselves at all times. Alec explains that without a rock-solid internal conviction of your own abilities, it's impossible for others to believe in you either. Coaches, teams, and fans will just expect you to fail if you don't unequivocally believe in your talent and work ethic. By always keeping confidence in your skills and work ethic at an all-time high, you give yourself the fighting chance to achieve your goals even when facing setbacks, criticism or doubts from the outside world.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.