June 8, 2025 • 11 mins
Mekka Don speaks with Mindy and Mikaela about his new book: Buckle Up: The Playbook: 5 Winning Plays for Go-Getters!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's not quite football season yet, but you can
always talk Ohio State buck guys anytime of the year
and the build up for it, and everybody's already complaining
about the new kickoff against Texas, so it's never too
soon to start talking about buck Eye football. And when
you talk about Ohio State football, almost in the same
sentence comes Megadon. If you've been in the stadium, if
(00:22):
you've ever seen anything with music and the Buckeyes, mecadon
is associated with it from top to bottom, Mikayla.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And he's worn many.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Different hats over the years since then, and luckily for us,
he's put some lessons together in a new book, Buckle
Up the Playbook Five Winning Plays for go Getters.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Meccadon is now joining us in the middle of watching
his kids. So I'm glad you were able to pick
up the phone there, buddy. All right, lay it on us.
What is this book all about and why did you
write it?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Wow? Well, first of all, thank you for that introduction.
I need to hire you guys to do my pr
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We're hired. What do you accept?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you? So, yeah, you know, for a long time
I think that i've you know, just you know, I've
experienced so many different things and people ask me a different questions.
You know, I'm in schools a lot, talking to young
kids and mentoring, and there are a lot of lessons
that I've learned over the years, a lot of ups
and downs, right, failures that are not really truly failures,
(01:20):
but a lessons, things that really helped me kind of
as I kind of continued along in my life in
my career, and so I thought it was important to
kind of write those things down and share them with
the world to see if they could they could help somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You're such a confident guy, You've done so much. It
was interesting to read that this really focuses on self
doubt and overcoming that. That's pretty raw and transparent. How
is it to write about that and to share how
you came out the other side with some tactics.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, I think, you know, I think that's one of
the things that that's frustrating about kind of this new
age media, social media, is that a lot of times,
you know, and this is part of the reason why
I think, you know, you have some problems with with
the youth and social media is because they're seeing everybody's
acting as this everything is great all the time, and
everybody's winning all the time and its success and abundance
(02:10):
and all this stuff that's just not true. And even
the people that I've talked to, some of the most
successful people that I'm around, all deal with kind of
self doubt and some some subway shape or form. Even
Steph Curry was literally just talking about this last week
that he himself as imposter syndrome. Imagine that, right, important? Yeah,
Steph Curry, Right. So, you know, I thought it was
(02:32):
important to be vulnerable and to be honest, because I
think that's really how you reach people. And I think
that you know, when people see that people who they
you know, appear to be successful or you know, kind
of check those boxes objectively, I think it's important to
tell the truth, right and then also not just talk
about it, but also tell people how you dealt with it,
(02:53):
give actionable tiss to kind of get through it. I
think that was really really important for me for this
book as well.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So a couple of questions for you, Mecca. We're talking
to Mecca don right now, and who just wrote a
new book which goes on sale tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Right, Yeah, Amazon, tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Okay, So how long did it take you to write
it and what was the most challenging part about writing this?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It took me. I would say it took me a
few months to write it. But the concepts are things
that I've been thinking about and kind of been jotting
down for a while for years, right, and things that
I've actually used in my life. So it wasn't it
wasn't so hard from that perspective. But I think the
hardest part was probably kind of narrowing it down to
(03:40):
just quote unquote five plays. Theoretically, there are you know,
many more that I could have concluded, but you know,
I don't want to, I think for this kind of
buff I didn't want it to be too long that
I didn't want it to be two ver both. I
kind of wanted to get to the point kind of
the main thing. So that was kind of the challenge,
(04:01):
is how do I narrow it down, how do I
make sure that I'm you know, you know, not you know,
clogging up space right and get getting to the real
crucial things. That really really helped me.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I saw an interview you did with Dayton Weekly Online
on the book, and it made me wonder if you
have a favorite chapter that you might be willing to
give us a sneak peek of what the tip is
for that chapter.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Sure, so so, just so I know that we've talked
a lot about self doubt. The book isn't just about that.
It's it's literally, like I said, five plays that I
think are five kind of tips. I call it plays
that have helped me. I think the one that is
probably the most, the one that defines me the most,
and one that's kind of closest to my heart is
(04:50):
define success for yourself, which is actually play number two.
And I think that has been so important for me
in my life. As you guys know, my life has
been very unconventional. You know, I'm a lawyer, graduated from
law school, worked with a big firm still start in
New York, left that firm after about a year and
went to pursue my passions and music and entertainment. And
there's a lot of ridicule. There's a lot of you know,
(05:14):
nay fayers, and a lot of people that were just
questioning whether I was even vain to be honest, and
a lot of times, when you know we're moving through life,
you know, we're doing things and sometimes we don't know
why we're doing that, but the real reason why we're
doing is because, you know, society told us that's what
we should do. You know, maybe our family kind of
guided us that way, and that's how we kind of
determine what success is or happiness is. And I think,
(05:36):
you know, for me, I've I've fought against that pretty
much since I was younger and wanted to defining what
success meant for me. And once I was able to
kind of do that and kind of, you know, block
out some of the noise, it made my life so
much better and so much easier. I'm happier. You know.
I don't compare myself to other people what other people
are doing. I try to compare myself based on my
(05:56):
own to my own definition and whether I'm measuring up
to that. That's been a huge thing for me and
helping me and kind of not just be happy, but
also accept my success.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Do you know how much better off people would be
if they didn't compare their lives to other people around them,
if you just do your own personal best. It's one
thing to say it. It's so hard though, to kind
of live that way. So you have an event coming
up this Thursday, Chrighteve, I believe Maria Durant is helping
you kick that off. Tell us a little bit about that,
and we do wish you such success with this endeavor, Meka.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Thank you so much. So this actually leads into another
big project that I'm releasing on June sixteenth, which is
the Buckle Up documentary, Right, Buckle Up the soundtrack and
Champions then, so Buckle Up. Obviously, as people know the
song that the buck Guys ran out to this year
that I wrote every game and before the season started,
(06:51):
we decided that we were going to kind of document
kind of what that movement was like. You know, the
song got released last summer. It really started to blow
up before the season even started, you know it then
obviously it went national. I mean I ended up performing
in our Fox Big Moon kickoff. It turned into a
PSA with sheriffs across the state or were played in
all kinds of different venues. So it became a kind
(07:13):
of this amazing thing. So I thought that documenting that
and throughout the season would be amazing. But there was
also a parallel road to that, which was documenting the
twenty twenty four season as the Buckeye simultaneously, and I
thought that, you know, if we were to go on
and win the national championship, which we did, that this
now certas and not just a documentary about myself and
(07:34):
Buffle Up, but also about the team and the season.
So there are two kind of parallel tracks. And so
I was able to shoot that documentary. We have put
it from the whole season. We're going to get some
players from the team in there. Laython Ransom and Denzel
Birke did interviews for the documentary. Curtis Grant for the
twenty fourteen team, the captain. He did interview Shelley Meyer.
In fact, I'll tell you something pretty interesting. The way
(07:57):
the documentary starts, it literally Dellie Meyer. Two days before
the season starts, Shelly Meyer comes on the screen and
she said, hey, guys, Shelly Meyer here, I've just got
Dune seen mecan Don performed his new anthem, Buckle Up,
and that's a that's a great song. And trust neither
high expectations for the season. I understand how that is,
but this song is going to be the one that
(08:18):
carries us all the way to the South again. All
that I do say it right. That's awesome. So I've
been working with Ohio State and you know, getting all
the clearances and footage, and we put together our forty
eight minute documentary that we're going to be putting out
next Monday. And there is a private event that we're
(08:38):
doing this Thursday, private screening as well to kind of
kick off the documentary and the books together. So sorry
for the long answer, but just want to make sure
House I was complete.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, we only have about two minutes left, but I
wanted to get your opinion. You've you've been part of
the buck Eys, you were a walk on, played football,
You've followed so many different teams and work so closely
with the coaches and the players. I kind of just
want your opinion on the nc DOUBLEA now passing this
rule that they can individually pay players. Now each school
(09:09):
has the authority to pay individual players. What do you
think of that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
It's so hard to answer that question without giving some
historical context. I think conceptually, I've always believed that players
deserved a piece of the pie. I think my biggest
issue is just kind of how this thing has been
rolled out from nil to now. It just seems so
reactive in nature man and a lot of ways. I
feel like the NC double A, and not just them,
(09:35):
but all these member institutions could have got ahead of
this a long time ago and could have created a
model that was clear understood, you know, not wild wild
West issues, right, I agree with you. So now, yeah,
and so that's the problem is conceptually I agree. I
think that they deserve a piece of the pie. This
has always been a billion dollar you know, recently at
(09:56):
least billion dollar industry. It's capitalists in nature. I feel
like they deserve a piece of pie. But it's going
to be interesting to see how this thing is rolled out,
and I think there's going to be a lot of lawsuits,
anti trust law students also with Title nine, it's going
to be a mess. So I'm just frustrated with the
adults in the room. I feel like they could have
done a lot better job for Gianna. I don't blame
the kids want it or anything that happens with this,
(10:18):
But we'll see how it stands out and hopefully eventually
they get it together.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Sometimes with big concepts like this, I think about AI
their stuff like that, we don't think intentionally enough about
rollout right, like because we react so quickly to what
needs to be done. So good points there, Macadon. We're
so grateful that you called in that we were able
to talk to you. I'm going to share this interview
with my fifteen year old son because I think he
needs to hear the first part of this interview.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And real quickly.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
How can people get more information on your new book
in the documentary, Yes the.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Buff fill up the playbook five winning Place for go
Getters with the forward by the legendary Jeene Smith. By
the way, thanks love Jean Smith. That'll Yes, That'll be
available tomorrow Monday, June ninth, on Amazon the paperback and
ebook version. And then my documentary Buckle Up. The soundtrack
The Champions will be available on my YouTube starting on
June sixteenth, which is the Monday from one week from tomorrow,
(11:10):
and that's on my YouTube dot com splash Mecca don Music,
So yeah, and then on social media, I'm at meccadon music.
Hit me up, love to talk to my buck guys
and fellow Ohio and so thank you guys too much
for having me.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Really you are welcome. We are out of time, but
apparently we have a caller when we come back. Who
has a comment for you and me?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
MICHAELA interesting okay, thanks macadon this is what matters on
six' TEN wtv
Well, it's not quite football season yet, but you can
always talk Ohio State buck guys anytime of the year
and the build up for it, and everybody's already complaining
about the new kickoff against Texas, so it's never too
soon to start talking about buck Eye football. And when
you talk about Ohio State football, almost in the same
sentence comes Megadon. If you've been in the stadium, if
(00:22):
you've ever seen anything with music and the Buckeyes, mecadon
is associated with it from top to bottom, Mikayla.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And he's worn many.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Different hats over the years since then, and luckily for us,
he's put some lessons together in a new book, Buckle
Up the Playbook Five Winning Plays for go Getters.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Meccadon is now joining us in the middle of watching
his kids. So I'm glad you were able to pick
up the phone there, buddy. All right, lay it on us.
What is this book all about and why did you
write it?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Wow? Well, first of all, thank you for that introduction.
I need to hire you guys to do my pr
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We're hired. What do you accept?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you? So, yeah, you know, for a long time
I think that i've you know, just you know, I've
experienced so many different things and people ask me a different questions.
You know, I'm in schools a lot, talking to young
kids and mentoring, and there are a lot of lessons
that I've learned over the years, a lot of ups
and downs, right, failures that are not really truly failures,
(01:20):
but a lessons, things that really helped me kind of
as I kind of continued along in my life in
my career, and so I thought it was important to
kind of write those things down and share them with
the world to see if they could they could help somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You're such a confident guy, You've done so much. It
was interesting to read that this really focuses on self
doubt and overcoming that. That's pretty raw and transparent. How
is it to write about that and to share how
you came out the other side with some tactics.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, I think, you know, I think that's one of
the things that that's frustrating about kind of this new
age media, social media, is that a lot of times,
you know, and this is part of the reason why
I think, you know, you have some problems with with
the youth and social media is because they're seeing everybody's
acting as this everything is great all the time, and
everybody's winning all the time and its success and abundance
(02:10):
and all this stuff that's just not true. And even
the people that I've talked to, some of the most
successful people that I'm around, all deal with kind of
self doubt and some some subway shape or form. Even
Steph Curry was literally just talking about this last week
that he himself as imposter syndrome. Imagine that, right, important? Yeah,
Steph Curry, Right. So, you know, I thought it was
(02:32):
important to be vulnerable and to be honest, because I
think that's really how you reach people. And I think
that you know, when people see that people who they
you know, appear to be successful or you know, kind
of check those boxes objectively, I think it's important to
tell the truth, right and then also not just talk
about it, but also tell people how you dealt with it,
(02:53):
give actionable tiss to kind of get through it. I
think that was really really important for me for this
book as well.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So a couple of questions for you, Mecca. We're talking
to Mecca don right now, and who just wrote a
new book which goes on sale tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Right, Yeah, Amazon, tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Okay, So how long did it take you to write
it and what was the most challenging part about writing this?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It took me. I would say it took me a
few months to write it. But the concepts are things
that I've been thinking about and kind of been jotting
down for a while for years, right, and things that
I've actually used in my life. So it wasn't it
wasn't so hard from that perspective. But I think the
hardest part was probably kind of narrowing it down to
(03:40):
just quote unquote five plays. Theoretically, there are you know,
many more that I could have concluded, but you know,
I don't want to, I think for this kind of
buff I didn't want it to be too long that
I didn't want it to be two ver both. I
kind of wanted to get to the point kind of
the main thing. So that was kind of the challenge,
(04:01):
is how do I narrow it down, how do I
make sure that I'm you know, you know, not you know,
clogging up space right and get getting to the real
crucial things. That really really helped me.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I saw an interview you did with Dayton Weekly Online
on the book, and it made me wonder if you
have a favorite chapter that you might be willing to
give us a sneak peek of what the tip is
for that chapter.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Sure, so so, just so I know that we've talked
a lot about self doubt. The book isn't just about that.
It's it's literally, like I said, five plays that I
think are five kind of tips. I call it plays
that have helped me. I think the one that is
probably the most, the one that defines me the most,
and one that's kind of closest to my heart is
(04:50):
define success for yourself, which is actually play number two.
And I think that has been so important for me
in my life. As you guys know, my life has
been very unconventional. You know, I'm a lawyer, graduated from
law school, worked with a big firm still start in
New York, left that firm after about a year and
went to pursue my passions and music and entertainment. And
there's a lot of ridicule. There's a lot of you know,
(05:14):
nay fayers, and a lot of people that were just
questioning whether I was even vain to be honest, and
a lot of times, when you know we're moving through life,
you know, we're doing things and sometimes we don't know
why we're doing that, but the real reason why we're
doing is because, you know, society told us that's what
we should do. You know, maybe our family kind of
guided us that way, and that's how we kind of
determine what success is or happiness is. And I think,
(05:36):
you know, for me, I've I've fought against that pretty
much since I was younger and wanted to defining what
success meant for me. And once I was able to
kind of do that and kind of, you know, block
out some of the noise, it made my life so
much better and so much easier. I'm happier. You know.
I don't compare myself to other people what other people
are doing. I try to compare myself based on my
(05:56):
own to my own definition and whether I'm measuring up
to that. That's been a huge thing for me and
helping me and kind of not just be happy, but
also accept my success.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Do you know how much better off people would be
if they didn't compare their lives to other people around them,
if you just do your own personal best. It's one
thing to say it. It's so hard though, to kind
of live that way. So you have an event coming
up this Thursday, Chrighteve, I believe Maria Durant is helping
you kick that off. Tell us a little bit about that,
and we do wish you such success with this endeavor, Meka.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Thank you so much. So this actually leads into another
big project that I'm releasing on June sixteenth, which is
the Buckle Up documentary, Right, Buckle Up the soundtrack and
Champions then, so Buckle Up. Obviously, as people know the
song that the buck Guys ran out to this year
that I wrote every game and before the season started,
(06:51):
we decided that we were going to kind of document
kind of what that movement was like. You know, the
song got released last summer. It really started to blow
up before the season even started, you know it then
obviously it went national. I mean I ended up performing
in our Fox Big Moon kickoff. It turned into a
PSA with sheriffs across the state or were played in
all kinds of different venues. So it became a kind
(07:13):
of this amazing thing. So I thought that documenting that
and throughout the season would be amazing. But there was
also a parallel road to that, which was documenting the
twenty twenty four season as the Buckeye simultaneously, and I
thought that, you know, if we were to go on
and win the national championship, which we did, that this
now certas and not just a documentary about myself and
(07:34):
Buffle Up, but also about the team and the season.
So there are two kind of parallel tracks. And so
I was able to shoot that documentary. We have put
it from the whole season. We're going to get some
players from the team in there. Laython Ransom and Denzel
Birke did interviews for the documentary. Curtis Grant for the
twenty fourteen team, the captain. He did interview Shelley Meyer.
In fact, I'll tell you something pretty interesting. The way
(07:57):
the documentary starts, it literally Dellie Meyer. Two days before
the season starts, Shelly Meyer comes on the screen and
she said, hey, guys, Shelly Meyer here, I've just got
Dune seen mecan Don performed his new anthem, Buckle Up,
and that's a that's a great song. And trust neither
high expectations for the season. I understand how that is,
but this song is going to be the one that
(08:18):
carries us all the way to the South again. All
that I do say it right. That's awesome. So I've
been working with Ohio State and you know, getting all
the clearances and footage, and we put together our forty
eight minute documentary that we're going to be putting out
next Monday. And there is a private event that we're
(08:38):
doing this Thursday, private screening as well to kind of
kick off the documentary and the books together. So sorry
for the long answer, but just want to make sure
House I was complete.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, we only have about two minutes left, but I
wanted to get your opinion. You've you've been part of
the buck Eys, you were a walk on, played football,
You've followed so many different teams and work so closely
with the coaches and the players. I kind of just
want your opinion on the nc DOUBLEA now passing this
rule that they can individually pay players. Now each school
(09:09):
has the authority to pay individual players. What do you
think of that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
It's so hard to answer that question without giving some
historical context. I think conceptually, I've always believed that players
deserved a piece of the pie. I think my biggest
issue is just kind of how this thing has been
rolled out from nil to now. It just seems so
reactive in nature man and a lot of ways. I
feel like the NC double A, and not just them,
(09:35):
but all these member institutions could have got ahead of
this a long time ago and could have created a
model that was clear understood, you know, not wild wild
West issues, right, I agree with you. So now, yeah,
and so that's the problem is conceptually I agree. I
think that they deserve a piece of the pie. This
has always been a billion dollar you know, recently at
(09:56):
least billion dollar industry. It's capitalists in nature. I feel
like they deserve a piece of pie. But it's going
to be interesting to see how this thing is rolled out,
and I think there's going to be a lot of lawsuits,
anti trust law students also with Title nine, it's going
to be a mess. So I'm just frustrated with the
adults in the room. I feel like they could have
done a lot better job for Gianna. I don't blame
the kids want it or anything that happens with this,
(10:18):
But we'll see how it stands out and hopefully eventually
they get it together.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Sometimes with big concepts like this, I think about AI
their stuff like that, we don't think intentionally enough about
rollout right, like because we react so quickly to what
needs to be done. So good points there, Macadon. We're
so grateful that you called in that we were able
to talk to you. I'm going to share this interview
with my fifteen year old son because I think he
needs to hear the first part of this interview.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And real quickly.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
How can people get more information on your new book
in the documentary, Yes the.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Buff fill up the playbook five winning Place for go
Getters with the forward by the legendary Jeene Smith. By
the way, thanks love Jean Smith. That'll Yes, That'll be
available tomorrow Monday, June ninth, on Amazon the paperback and
ebook version. And then my documentary Buckle Up. The soundtrack
The Champions will be available on my YouTube starting on
June sixteenth, which is the Monday from one week from tomorrow,
(11:10):
and that's on my YouTube dot com splash Mecca don Music,
So yeah, and then on social media, I'm at meccadon music.
Hit me up, love to talk to my buck guys
and fellow Ohio and so thank you guys too much
for having me.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Really you are welcome. We are out of time, but
apparently we have a caller when we come back. Who
has a comment for you and me?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
MICHAELA interesting okay, thanks macadon this is what matters on
six' TEN wtv
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.