Well, welcome to the show. I’m Carol Carpenter, and this is my charming, witty, and sarcastic Travis Johnson.

Hello, thank you.

And we have a special guest today. Reggie is an ex-NFL linebacker for the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals. He is also the author of the book game within the game, and since his retirement he has become a successful entrepreneur, launching top athlete life to help others achieve the best versions of themselves, both professionally and in their lives. Reggie is a mental, physical, and sexual abuse survivor. Welcome, Reggie! advocate, TEDx speaker, consultant, connector, and problem solver for individuals and businesses.

Hello, great intro. It’s a lot.

Yeah, yeah, well, you know, we only hang out with underachievers, right?

Yeah, imagine.

Are you one of those people who thinks, “Man, that guy sounds incredible? “I, like, forget it’s me when people read my bio. I’m like, “Oh, we got this. This is me after I forgot. I don’t even know.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I look at it and then I’m just like, “Whoa, man, that’s cool. Oh, that is also me. Also, uh, and I’m not feeling any of it. And is it?

You don’t identify with all of it because you’re just you write and when you hear it, it’s like **** did I do all that stuff and you look back and you’re like, “*** **** I did. That’s pretty cool.

Yeah, I think that every time. Yeah, I think that every time. Time goes by and I’m like, whoa, **** uh, that’s cool, and then I just like, move on with my life.

Ever so humble, Reggie. So, it’s very much who wants to know. I know you want to ask the question.

Do what Travis does.

I look. I love asking questions. It’s just how we find out more about our amazing friends like Reggie. I got to know Reggie. I know you fairly well, but I don’t know if our audience knows who you are. What makes you a titan?

Right.

I would say what makes me a Titan is a fact that I know I will never stop. I have never stopped. I’ve never quit. I’ve never been broken like I’ve been shattered. But as far as it’s like to the point where I’ve never just kept going. Like it’s never happened, I’ve never freaking stopped. I’ve never quit on myself.

It’s never happened. It will never happen. And I think with some of the stuff I’ve done, it’ll kind of show.

Right. And that’s without a doubt. I know you’re also humble, encouraging, and just willing to be a decent human being, which is far and above what a lot of people are doing. So many people are drained every day because all they do is walk around wearing these masks of whom they’re supposed to be or who they, you know, feel they need to be in a situation and never relate to themselves or to all the times I’ve chatted with you. Yeah, you just are. You are who you are all the time, and it’s so refreshing.

Yeah, I try. Well, I would say I will try.

You don’t have to try; you are just you 

I just go with whatever is happening and then, whatever happens, I just go with it. I’m done with whatever is going on. And then when it comes down to just my things, my agendas, and whatever I would want to get out of a situation, I think I managed to get that, but at the end of the day, I think When I sit here and say to myself, “I’ll never stop, I’ll never quit. It’s not just for myself, it’s also for other people. Because as far as my goals in life are concerned, the only thing I do feel is that I do get this reality that we are here to serve others, and when it comes to serving others, I know that I’ll never stop, that I’ll never quit, that I’ll never stop thinking of things. I’ll never stop letting those creative juices flow, sometimes just to help as many people as I possibly cared before, you know.

Yeah, I know. I’m sure many don’t. You know your story, and we talked about it when I first met you, and it was pretty incredible. There were a lot of adversities, you know, in your childhood, growing up, becoming a player. All of that kind of led to you being the person you are today. Do you know what I mean?

It takes a bit of breaking you down to build you back up even better, even stronger. And maybe you could share it? You know, some of those experiences, because I think a lot of times people forget, like for us, we are where we are and they think it’s a natural progression, but they don’t understand, you know, all these adversities that you have to overcome, and that’s also part of the learning process of becoming you.

This is all true. And that’s what I’ve had to understand with everything that happened. Well, growing up and growing up as a military guy, a military brat, I mean, I lived all over the country, lived in all these different places, places where you had money, but many places where we did it. At the age of four, I began to be molested.

And just kind of growing up, you know, dealing with a lot of mental and physical as well as sexual abuse, and a lot of that energy, that turmoil, I focused on turning that wrong route into a right by basically going into sports. I focused a lot of energy on getting into sports as well as other people and helping them out, as well as my studies, and then I excelled.

I ended up becoming a bigger recruit coming out of high school and went to Kent State. It was up and down in college. It was one of those things where I learned a lot of lessons from a lot of things by basically dealing with the coach going into my second, third, and fourth years. What’s the best way to phrase this?

Whatever you want to say, let me say, whatever you need to say, that’s the best way to put it.

Oh, Jesus, OK.

I was the brunt of the jokes. I was the person that, you know, everything was my fault. Don’t follow this guy. And then it led to me never really starting more than half a season in college, but I still got a chance to go to the NFL. and made the team. I worked my way up from an undrafted free agent until my third year. I became an A-Team cap. I played as long as I wanted on a football field, did everything I wanted to do, left the game on my terms, and then, in my retirement, one of the things that stuck out to me was the fact that you know, I did what I wanted to do. I managed to accomplish all these things, but when I looked around, I saw that there were just so few people who got a chance to do the same.

So, what I wanted to do was to create a way in which others who were choosing to go down this path of being an athlete could just like, you know, not survive it, or like thrive during it and get the most out of it. But the other part of it, too, was that I realized that man, a lot of things that I’m just trying to teach people is this, uh, is this personal development, like how to develop yourself going into this situation? I just started writing. I woke up. I mean, I wouldn’t say that I had a couple of beers, and I was up at 3:00 AM one night, literally just trying to figure out, like, how am I going to do this? Like, how am I going to serve others? How am I going to help these people?

I like to avoid a lot of the same stuff that I’ve seen. See another scene? And I just saw a YouTube video that said, “Hey, if you got an idea…” Start writing. And then I wrote for three straight years. I started writing one day, woke up the next day, and just kept writing and writing and writing. I wrote a book and then wrote a course.

It was like a program. It was a program at first, but I ended up writing so much that it was three separate programs. Then I had this thing where I was just like, OK, so I created this thing, but I don’t know what to do with it. I have no business knowledge. I have no knowledge of like-selling or even anything like that.

Plus, I’ve been in a cave for three years trying to write this thing. I am super weird around people, like really awkward. Like, it ‘s just awkward. It’s like it would be better. I said, like, oddly, too little to the point where people. I was like, whoa, or I was like, I’m going to tell you everything, you’re going to get everything, and it’s just going to come out. There’s no in-between.

So, you know, I’m trying to figure out how to sell my thing and try to get back around people again. And then I tried to jump out and do it. The business stuff I did myself failed miserably because it was just too hard to do by myself with no knowledge of real business or anything like that.

So, then I’d let it sit for three years, and then, let’s say for three years, I was just like, you know what? I’m going to try and figure out how to sell it. I also needed to understand how to get around people again, so I took all of the BS sales jobs I could get. I just took all of them. I took all of them and like I was,

Give us a couple of examples.

I sold Medicare and Medicare Insurance. I sell health insurance. I sold final expense burial insurance, which is like the insurance you get when you die. So, if you can, you know, get a cremation or funeral covered, please do that. By the way, for anyone who is listening because of those horror stories,

I also sell makeup. Sold makeup.

Hey, you know?

Who’s going to tell you?

I wanted you to tell that story so badly because I remember you telling me this, and I’m like, I wouldn’t ******* buy makeup from you. You are exactly the wrong person to be talking to me about makeup, and I’m sitting here going, “If you can ******* sell makeup, dude to a woman. 

Dude, it was It was as if I was attempting to gain ground. I like to try and figure out how to sell, so I could understand how to sell my stuff. Then I’m a hands-on person, so I was just like, I got to just personally do it. Plus, I need to learn how to talk to people again. So, I was like, “I’m, I’m killing two birds with one stone. So, I’m looking at these jobs, going to do these different interviews, and then I go into one, and then it’s the one that you’re supposed to. They’re saying to say that you’re going to sell like Kansas, like Royals tickets, because I’m in Kansas City and I go to an interview, and then the guy who’s the owner tells me, like, bro, it’s not that like, period, I’m just going to tell you straight up He showed me by pulling out a pink bag. It’s like you’re going to go business to business and you’re going to sell this mega packet, like this packet of like 140 dollars worth of makeup for 20 bucks, and you’re going to go business to business doing this.

And this is what the job is. And I was like, “What, bro? And then he was like, “What? He said, “But the thing that he did that got me though, was when he was fully honest, which was up until that point, a lot of the big salespeople weren’t honest. Then the second thing was, he was just like, “Yes, this, this is going to be ridiculous.”

I get it, but for everything that you want, I can promise you that I will teach you how to sell, and I’ll get you to open up to people again, and you’ll be able to sell. Anything on this planet after this and I’ll just like it.

The best story ever told.

Right So the best part about it, though, was that it was probably one of the single best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. And I will say that Cameron Cassada, every time I get a chance to shout him out, I do. Cameron Cassada is the best salesman I’ve ever met in my life so that I could sell water to an ocean like it is. We would go to places like towns in Kansas and then, like, go down main streets and then, like, sell to people who are working in stores. It’s a lot in terms of, say, anxiety.

Why did I miss this guy when I could have been doing so many other things? I was like, then I got make-up, how did I get him? Like, how did he get me into this? But I will tell you this: when I started setting up, I started selling out like I would sell out makeup to people. I would be like, “Oh my God, I like the feeling.” Because I was just like, “I’m the last person I would buy makeup from if anybody on the street saw me and was trying to make my makeup from someone like me.”

Dumb, like, don’t do that, but apparently, I was very good at doing it and, uh, it was because I was genuine, I was honest, and I understood, like, you know, how to read people and stuff like that and get their attention and things like that, like the basics of sales. But what Cam taught me is how to be myself and sell. Like, just really the biggest thing. He told me, amid all that selling knowledge and all that, really how to be myself, like being out in the world and getting in, like conveying a message to someone. And understand that, at the end of the day, some people are going to buy it and some people aren’t.

Like you’re just here for your buyers, here for your bowels. Yet, like some people here say, you’re here for your tribe, you’re here for you. And he, like, helped me break that anxiety bear that I had been hiding in. He helped me understand too, when it came to my stuff, like what I’m going to do with that, like purpose and stuff. I’ve realized a lot of stuff with that random makeup job.

Listen, it’s strange that it’s like something so obscure that you end up learning the biggest lessons from like it’s not just the mainstream stuff that you know, you sell insurance, or you sell, you know, things that people. Isn’t this spring used every day, right? But to be a big black man, that’s walking into a business Selling a bag of makeup, right?

It would fill your ask, sell your ask, and we would get you to buy the hair dryer and everything else, just like I like the lip balm. You’re getting that too.

The lesson that was learned from that is so elegant because, in innocence, you took what it took. Getting over those little limitations, you know, beliefs that you put on yourself, and if you can get over all those things that you put limitations on yourself,

It comes with it.

The world’s freaking open to you.

It is, but the thing about it is that you have to be You have to put forth an effort to make sure you’re making yourself uncomfortable constantly. And that was the thing that got me because it was his sales pitch that got me. He was just so honest and blunt about it, and he was telling me exactly what to do. I wanted to hear and needed to hear from someone, but I knew that if I did this job, it was going to break everything down It was like that voice saying, “You got to do this, bro It sucks.

This would be ridiculous, but please do it as is, and you must always listen to that voice.

And by the way, that’s where the biggest growth lies, is being comfortable in the uncomfortable and making that kind of your route like if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not working hard enough.

Yeah, you’re not there or not and I don’t see and that was one of those things too, like after that, after doing that, you imagine if your 6-foot, £50 black dude with dreads and tattoos in the middle of nowhere is with pink makeup bags like this is telling people like, hey, what’s up, like make 20 dollars, you know? What’s that? Do you have a dish? Have you got an answer?

So, something you don’t know, Reggie, is that every guest comes on the show, and they eventually tell a story that leads us to grant them a call sign. And it’s never pleasant, and it’s never what you would ask for, but I think your calls That’s got to be cover, girl. I love it 

I’m just saying Easy breezy, beautiful cover girl right here, Reggie Walker. I just think of those like Troy Polamalu. like in his crazy big hair commercials for Head and Shoulders. Oh, my goodness. I mean, every time had me rolling. I was like, “Is that Troy Polamalu? **** promoting like head and shoulders.” Come on, like he’s got this crazy amount of hair. It’s wonderful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and I think too, what you’re doing is great because it’s like for athletes. Their main focus, their whole lives, is to become professional athletes. But when it ends, you know, and eventually it does end because your body gives out, you know, you have an injury, whatever you know. You never know, you might never get to play. So, having no life skills, such as being an entrepreneur and having the ability to do something outside of what you’ve been doing your whole life, becomes your identity. You end up failing. Immediately, something goes

You need to humble yourself. That’s a big thing too, because coming out of the NFL, like, yeah, Deborah, how did you go? I had an ego coming out like, “You have to have you go, you got. 

to have the ego to do it. Period. You’re on national television, and everyone is telling you you’re either amazing or suck. There’s no in-between. You know you’re under a microscope. You have no privacy. You’re competing every single day against the best of the best. You know you need to carry a big stick with you. You have to have this mentality. I could do anything. I can accomplish anything.

I’m invincible.

Above, you must have it, just like anything else that fits into a category. But when it comes to growing yourself into different territories that you don’t even know, you haven’t even bought it.

You must thoroughly dissect that. Like, fully break that ego down. That’s why when he said that that voice popped up. There it is. There it is. Right there.

You have got to sell makeup You look like an idiot. You’re going to talk to a bunch of people. Are you going to break this hose of ego crap that you’ve been carrying around with you? Strange stuff you’ve been doing, like saying weird things in conversations you can’t even or just awkwardly standing in corners like you’re going to break all that down, buddy, and that’s what happened.

We had to develop a persona to be able to compete at that level, right? And then when you don’t have that persona anymore, I mean like you’re sitting there,

And then when it gets to the point, that’s why that breaking down, that whole process of breaking that down is like

Who the hell am I?

You need to like this pier point in the real world. You just need to try not to give up, period. Point blank, like you’ve got to get to yourself, to a point where it’s like, I don’t know, I’m going to go say this to this person who cares, like I’m going to say the best way I possibly can do is you’re going to like it or not Like, I don’t get it?

I had to tell them whatever they needed to hear. It’s not going to be a good ****** like they said it’s going to be.

Did it come at the end of the day? From the heart, right? If you’re doing it to help them, that’s one thing. If you’re doing it out of spite, that’s completely different.

Yes, they’re two different. This is to say that two different things are but when you’re out in the real world like I’m out in the world, I would refuse to. Oh yeah, especially when you’re upholding a brand. You have to do that **** when you’re playing in a league or college, and oh yeah, especially when you’re upholding a brand. But when you’re alone and out in the world, like, dude, don’t give a second of that away, don’t be yourself. So, you need to get used to just not giving a ****, like, man, these people are going to like me They’re going to like me or not. Whether I like it or not, they’re going to **** with me. They’re either going to vibe with me or not. Either way, I’m still going to be me and it’s going to be this. You’re going to get it all the time. And sometimes you don’t like it, sometimes you’re not, but then, today, I know I can rest easy. And if I was to die right here, now I’m going to be content. So, I did. I don’t. I will never allow myself to feel as if I have to have that or do that. That’s why I was like getting broken down and making up and then even asking David to be my business partner with this stuff. That was humbling as well because I knew I didn’t know the business side of things David does. I knew I was just like, “Yeah, I wrote. This stuff, yeah.

That’s what makes them the perfect partners, though.

He knows all this stuff.

You know, you need a visionary, and then you also need the other individual, which is the logistician.

Yeah, Captain 

He was logistical.

Like, that’s the same thing. That’s why it’s worked so well; to David, then oh God, I’m the yes guy.

In your division,

I’m good. I have a group chat that I branded creepily.

I can only imagine David going quiet. **** There’s no way.

Hey, David is a perfect partner because there aren’t a lot of people that come to sit here and be like, “Man, shut up, bro. You sit up. I’m just sitting out now, though. Absolutely, yeah, because he’ll sit there.

Look at me Sometimes he’s just like, he’s just like, take the phone. Like, take the photos. Like, hey, no, that’s not happening. No, no. I like it. It’s great. It’s great to have that because I will probably forget. I will give everything to everybody. Is it liked by anyone else? When I die, I’ll make sure that everybody has everything. I can’t take this **** to the grave with me anyway. Like neighbors Like, no, you better take some.

Mash it with you, bro, like, FCK on it.

Hello, I love you. You should have somebody looking out for you too though, because everything he’s doing and saying no to is, you know, for your best interests as well. And he knows that because you are that giving person, and you would do exactly that too.

Oh yeah, I know, and take my pants off.

You can even get his shirt off your own back.

I like that.

Now we’re getting personal. So, fun fact, I was in Saint Louis with Reggie and David. And it was a straight 2 days of pants off, dance off, with no one wearing bottoms. OK, that’s not true at all as far as the statute of limitations is concerned.

Well, hang on, it’s only true if you have proof.

That’s not when. Yeah, you have proof? Then why? Do you mean yes? Ready, you said something. We were talking about your background, where you kind of go through the valley. I know you talked to me before about a couple of these coaches at K State, and you struggled in college dealing with them. As you put it, the dictator, what was going on, how did they look, and what was that realization that finally got you to move forward?

Every day up until I had a situation happen in camp. I bumped knees with someone. I tried to do this drill, but then I couldn’t bend my knee, and then I just stopped the drills.

I can’t like, hey, you got to get someone I can’t run for, and then the coach took it as I’m quitting on the team. I was like, “Dude, I literally can’t run. I didn’t realize I was hurt. I just want to make sure to get the drill going. All right, it’s like, no, take your ******* *** over to the bench on that quitters’ bench, because you’re a ******* quitter, you ***** Punk ***** ** **** And I was just like, “Whoa, nope, I stood right there. No, I’m not going to like it. Like, no, bro. Like, no, I’m not doing that Like, it’s like I got hurt. I did what you told us to do as far as, if you get hurt, say something about it. It will take care of it. And not all this quitting. All this other stuff? No, bro.

So, this is motivational intimidation?

But he’s big. The thing was mind games. Oh, he was like Oh, he was like one of the worst people when it comes to gaslighting. Like, just, oh, just one of the worst, which was the biggest damage that this guy did. because it wasn’t just me. He did. There were lots of guys. We had a couple of people in it going to psych wards while I was in school. It was really bad. So, like, but we’re standing there and he’s like, he’s screaming as she screamed that stuff to me. I said, “No, I’m not moving.” Then he gets, then he stops the whole practice, and he’s like, “Hey no bro, you. He’s like, “Go sit your quitting, ask because if you quit on this team, you’re going to put on everybody else.” Everything else, go sit on our bench where you’re quitting us, and I was just like, “I will not sell my bench, I will never sit on a bench. I didn’t quit all this, Dave.

And then, so then we kind of started going at it after a while and then some people, certain people, were just like, “Bro, just chill out because how he was doing things was, you know, he’s saying things, but he doesn’t want you to answer. He’s just like, go do what the hell did I tell you? Dude, shut up.

And so, when he got to the beach, I just couldn’t see what, so eventually, some teammates got me on the bench. I mean, they got me to walk over to the bench, but I just couldn’t sit down. I couldn’t sit on this for you. He was convinced he couldn’t do it, so he stopped practicing again. You know, you ask why they sit out on the pitch. They sat down right now, and I was like, “I can’t.” I hovered above the bench. I just couldn’t, like, mentally, I just couldn’t get my boat on that bench. Then eventually they were just like, “Bro, we’re going to punish everybody else. If you don’t sit on this bench, sit on the bench.” And then everybody on our team was like, “Bro, you’ve gone too far, like just selling bits,” so ever since that moment, he hated me  

I had three years left with this guy.

But you called us trash. Right in the middle of everything, you stood your ground. You’ve forced who you are as a person. You set your boundaries. We lose this as people and toddlers.

Well, your challenge isn’t horrible.

Try to take a toy from a toddler Now it’s mine. Or you take something from me like it’s they enforce their boundaries, and then somewhere in the middle, we’re told that our boundaries don’t matter. We’re taught that the things that we love that we care about, whatever, we’re told to sit down, shut up, and go somewhere else. And you took that moment to reinforce your boundaries, even though all the eyes were on you, and even though the coach was in your grill, and even though we all know that he knew that he was wrong about you.

Yeah, but what was not

Still, stand your ground. That’s commendable.

But they did not feel that way in the next three years.

Of course, it doesn’t feel like that. You’re not going to feel great, but you still made it.

Well, yeah, but it was.

To the NFL

One of those things So every day after that moment, for the next three years, he made my life a living hell. And he did everything in his power to break me. UN quotation wanted me to quit. I wouldn’t quit. He wanted me to stop. I wouldn’t stop. He did. He was so petty. As far as I would go into the game and get a sack or like a pick or do it, make it like a splash play, and then if you see my film, I wouldn’t be out there the next play. So yeah, he went far He went far to try to make sure that I wouldn’t succeed. He did everything in his power, even to the point where it came to the NFL scouts, he lied to them about it. He was just like, “This guy is injury prone. 

And he can’t pick up a playbook I have never missed a game ever, and I haven’t missed a game ever just in case. They were on picket. I was tearing up the playbook. The only person on the entire defense who knew the entire defense was

I was the only one.

But you were a threat to him, and so he had to, yeah, discredit you.

Yeah, and then I’m and then I’m still a kid at this point, and then I don’t have power. He even went as far as to get me to investigate the heat. I sat down in one of the meeting rooms, he said. He set me and five other guys down and was like, “We’re getting you guys investigated by the FBI for point shaving.” And then he was just like, “Get the hell out of here. Show me. What did I do? What did I do? I’m a linebacker, right?

Right. So as a linebacker, you’re supposed to disguise a lot of things. So, uh, one plays like a gap. I had, I had, I had the B gap, which is a gap between the garden and the tackle. I’m faking in a gap, which is the gap between the center and a guard, and they snap to play. I jump into the gap, the guy gets all game, and then he says, “See this play right here. You weren’t coached to do that. I think someone has you in their ear. That’s why you’re going to get investigated by the FBI, which is like, you’re kidding. It’s like you’re joking. Like, if it’s like anybody knows, like football, like, dude, you’re.

for two yards of play.

I faked it. One gap has the potential to enter my act gap. And they got a two-hour play and then we went to halftime. Nothing happened. This was the reason.

You could give up two yards every time you play.

Yeah, like that was a win.

And it would be 3 a.m.

Hey, what?

every time and so on.

So, wait, there’s a huge one, yeah?

I look around this meeting and I look at all the captains. I look at all the coaches. So, I dealt with that. All the supporting cast in terabytes are looking down because they’re like, “No, like this guy is on his way to Ireland.” So, I dealt with that. And yes, I did manage to put out a great film and still understand that it sucked. Would that happen? But it also helped me understand the political side of things because I still had to figure out a way to play.

The head coach didn’t like me, but everyone else I was cool with. So, it was like one of those things I understood at the end of each day. There’s going to be a lot of people fighting at the end of the day to get their people onto the field. I needed to make sure that they were fighting for me, so it wasn’t a manipulation tactic. I understood how to form bridge relationships. With the people, it will be built on common ground, not on fakeness. You know, sucking up kissing as any other crap like, no, I feel I’ve built actual relations with people, so when it came down to them fighting, I knew that they were fine for me and I knew they were trying to get me out of there.

So, I kept getting my chance, and then I produced a great film, so even though they were hating on me, I still got a chance to pick out of five teams. Even being undrafted, I created the situation I wanted to go into, and then I went to Arizona. I worked my way up there and it was great that that situation in college happened because the league was way worse than that.

No, the lesson for you to learn was to learn it back then so that you would be prepared.

There’s something I did that could help. I could still be playing now if only because I learned the game of the business side of sports in college, and when I went to the NFL when I would see certain things that happened, other guys on teams, on their teams, would be like, “This is crazy. Well, I can’t believe they would do this. ” I was like, “No, this is exactly what it is like.” I knew this from college, like, this is the business side, like, hey, if I’m going to make this team better, I’d better make sure all the coaches are. I’ll just be good on this and then people are going to like, “No way.” If you’re an offense, you need to make sure the defensive coach is not you. If you’re deciding to make sure the offensive coaches know, you need to make sure everybody knows.

You like it. You have a bridge with them that you’ve formed on common ground, not kissing *** because nobody likes that, but just like, “man, what are we? What do we like or agree with?

What do we get along with? What can we talk about? Like, how can I understand you? Can you understand me?

It’s just relatability. You want to be able to relate to them as an individual, right?

There is always something, and if you can find that thing, you can form that bridge of communication. That’s just so much needed in an environment built off of relationships. Because of that, you know, I worked my way up there. Even though I was undrafted, in my second year, I should have I went to the frequent pro bowl, and I got jipped because it’s a political event. It’s very political. Oh, freaking fans. It’s not just saying. It’s very clean. I was the best player in the NFL on special teams. In my second year in the NFL, I watched the film. What was no one doing? I was doing something like knocking. I was dialing the number for the guys.

I mean, you’ve got a guy running full speed at you while you’re backpedaling, and I would hit the dude. And I would flip guys on kickoff returns. Like literally, I hit you right here around this area and the next thing that hits the ground is the back of your head.

Like I was deflating guys like, do you guys like defense, alignment, all these guys like making people quit?

So, I’m just picturing the game film you put together for college like you’re putting together a highlight reel for the fans for the Pro Bowl.

Like, check this out. I was smart. I should have done that. I was thinking, man, even though I was talented, I understood that you could be talented but not play. You’ve got to understand where the openings are going to be and then you’ve got to make sure that you’re hitting that **** full of freaking thoughts there. Throttle, which is what I saw when they were hurting some outside guys. I went down and did the team stuff.

Hey, let me get some reps in it, just rushing and passing her, and then when I’d rush, I’d ask for the tackles. They had to win against the first and second-team guys. What could I have done better?

And I just worked on it and then the first week, I did that second. Week, uh, Muggi goes down for the third week. I’m playing like they don’t hire; they don’t sign anyone else.

I’m playing on defense. Then I get this whole moniker of, like, basically being like a switchblade because or like a Swiss army knife because I can play all the different linebacker positions. I could do everything and produce and succeed, and then I’d do the special teams’ stuff too, so now I’ve built a resume. And I was just like if I could have just solely been like, “Oh my talent, my talent, my talent. I probably would have just played one year in the NFL, probably just one, and I would have gotten cut after that.”

But I don’t think most athletes think like you either, so, you know, they had a very short career because of it. I mean, you. You capitalized on the fact that you were good at building relationships and making sure that even in this toxic environment, you could thrive. You know, not everybody has the wherewithal to do that.

I always look at things as if you’re building your ladder to heaven, right? It is like heaven; it is whatever you deem as your ultimate vision of things. It is that big thing, and you’re building your ladder to heaven with the materials that you have around you, and then the thing is, we’re all in that game. That’s how I see it with everyone. We’re all playing this game, but you know, when it comes to the materials, it’s not just being able to use the materials that are around you, it’s how effectively can you use what you have. Because there are people that are, you know, have, you know, they might come from really great backgrounds, and they have all these great materials but don’t know how to use them. People come from really ****** backgrounds, have a great mindset, and are resourceful, but these have shooting materials. It’s like life has a funny way of leveling itself out.

Oh yeah, you’re MacGyver ING. That’s what you’re doing.

You’ve got 3 toothpicks, some chewing gum wrappers, and a little bit of lime. What plan do you have?

I’m going to build a helicopter. Here we go.

Yeah, and that is. The situation that you get dropped into is like a little soul poop. Now you’ve got to go out here and be MacGyver to get to where you’re trying to be, get right back to heaven or wherever you’re trying to get to. You’ve got to MacGyver this.

And I think that’s what it is with, like, the book and the course. That’s really what I wanted to teach people. It’s got to be like MacGyver. In their own lives, like how to understand how to be your source, because you know. What did people tell you growing up? Like in life, to succeed, you need to have a plan. You need to be. You need to be resourceful. You need to think. I would think. You need to be focused. They tell you these really broad things, like you need to have a plan, right? But you’re not. It’s going to teach me how to plan.

You need to have a focus. Right, but you don’t teach me how to focus. How do I? Concentrate or be resourceful. How do I be resourceful and then break it down for myself? This is what resourceful is. This is how. You could.

Well, let’s just be real. They probably don’t know themselves. They heard it from somebody they probably don’t know themselves. They heard it from somebody else, and they figured, hey, that sounds good. Allow me to ******* tell you how to understand how to live your life.

Of doing the game within the game, the book, the course, and then doing the tap of lights.

That is the whole point. Because to just convey that understanding to someone else. That’s why I said it’s all teachable. It’s just that I had to figure it out by falling on my face 1000 times and dying. I’d much rather other people not do that and still be able to get the results because I feel like I went through all that ******** so you guys don’t have to go through it.

Although they still have to go through their ******** and the truth is that because they were skeptics, they were all ******* skeptics. In the end, we’re like, “Yeah, that was your journey, right? And then what happens? You still fall on your face. You learn the same lessons in, you know, in your situation, and then you’re like, so I built this path for people so they could. You know, an easier take. They still chose the road. to take the more difficult path.

I think it’s a good point. It’s like, it’s not necessarily a path. It’s just like a way of doing things, like a way of just viewing things, like having a certain perspective to have on things, because the fact of the matter is you’re right, no matter what the hell I tell them with how many examples, it’s just like what you learn from like sales. There’s like 10% of people who’re going to buy everything that you freaking tell them to buy. They’re not going to buy anything you do, no matter how great a pitch you do. And then 80%, you know, that’s when the sales techniques and all this other stuff come into play.

I just give them a system, like, look at it this way. I know that if they try and look at it this way, they’re going to see the same things that I’m going to say. It’s very obvious, very simple. It’s like you can go that way. Fine, go that way. And now you’re going to bring your US right back here. I told you, bro, I told you, just black and white. It’s black and white.

For every bit of good, there’s a bit of bad, and for every bit of bad, there’s a bit of good. It’s like, that’s what it is, bro. It’s like you get the whole picture. I’m trying to get you to get the whole picture. Or like thinking with your focus in mind at the end of the day, like how to do that, how to think with my focus in mind. How do I approach every day’s thinking with my primary focus? How do I even find that? You know, because?

That was even with transitioning out of this stuff, like going into a bunch of different things like, “Dude, I wrote a college-accredited course, and I didn’t even have any idea how to even write a freaking course. I have never written anything in my life. “

Tell people how long it all took. I mean, we’ve talked in the past about, like, not just the book, but this course and how long it all took. And remember when I was writing mine? You even said to me, “It’s like Carole Slip didn’t have 10 years.”

Yes, to get it college accredited. I got it college-accredited last October, I think. But up until that point, I took about four months of just, you know, screwing it off when I retired, and then that’s when I watched the video. And then that’s when I started writing. And then it took me 3 years to finish it. Then I let it sit on the shelf for another three years because I had to figure out how to sell it and do all this other stuff. Plus, I need to get myself together then to even get it to the college-accredited part. That took about another two and a half years, and then a lot of that was finding the right person and doing all this networking, going from this person to this person to this person.

This person was going here, failing here, going there, failing, having to readjust things back to normal. It sucked. It was terror. I like it. But to finally just get that accreditation and know that, like, dude man, I have a Ph.D., look at my ****, like my shoes. Legit, bro. Like straight up. I get like, or like in an egotistical type of way, but really in like, no, it’s been checked out by Ph.D.’s like to get. To even get a college accredited, you’ve got to understand what’s in there and how to even get to that point.

And like how hard it was to just get to that point, to make sure that you’re putting something out there that’s safe It’s the knowledge inside that is great. It’s going to help people. It’s like, “Dude, man. That’s when it sucked. Hell yeah, it sucked. It was awful, like, I like It was like not even thinking about it.

But you had a good team helping you write the course, put it together, and get accredited.

Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did.

You had a good team helping you.

And I think that’s important too. I mean, you have all this knowledge. You had this curriculum, you had everything. What the f*** were you going to do without the right people seeing it and finally getting around to helping you and guiding you through that process? I think that tremendously cut down the amount of time and had you started with those people, I’m sure.

Yeah, yeah, but also two things kind of happen the way they should, because I.

It would have been done before now.

Yeah, because I think so too. If I had known all these people before, I would have failed again.

I probably would have blown it up. I had to go through it. I had to go to the mega thing, and that’s why I said I had to go to the mega thing, and I had to break my whole go down. I had to do it. I had to get to that point where I was just like, OK, now I fully understand that I am not perfect. I’m just like, who? I am what I’m not. I had to get that. And so then, when I got around to it, you know, David agreed to be my Dan, and Chase was then introduced to me. And then they help there, like advice them with their business dealings, and then they can just listen to what they have to say because Dan and Chase are there. Even with David, some of the stuff that they’ve taught me, it’s just. This is straightforward, especially when it comes to Dan and Chase. I don’t know if I should be saying this, but I don’t think they’ve been I don’t think they’ve changed their mind. One of the things that always baffled me, that intrigued me, and I’m telling you, I see When I saw this, I went back and thought about this same thing for literally months. And I still think about it, even though, you know, money and stuff, they’re well off. Like you can buy whatever like they’re good. They go out of their way to get a deal and do not use their own money. From the environments that I’ve been in, I was just like, “Why wouldn’t you do that?”

It’s because there are other ways other than money to get things done And I was like, what? It felt like one of those “Oh, there are other types of cars” moments. Yeah, other than this money.

There were other methods for skinning a cat.

That was the thing I did that I could do that with, like, life and understanding because I was like, I’m the guy, I’m MacGyver, like **** out here when it comes to the banks But when it comes to just that part of what I did, I can honestly say I hadn’t given it much thought until three or three years ago when I saw it firsthand, and I was just. Like wow. Like, this is something amazing. I’ve asked, like, this is freaking amazing. Like, huh? How could they possibly? I like it and all. I think all I think about is how to get things done with no money. That’s all I’m thinking about. How can I get this?

And that’s how entrepreneurs do it, successful ones, and that’s what’s so crazy is they’ll tell you, like, “No, do it this way You’re like, “I don’t even know how this is going to work,” but when they finally show you and it works, it completely shatters your once limited beliefs in what you think is right. And that was, like, for me, that was mind-blowing, right? And I didn’t understand it either, but they have been invaluable to my growth in my transformation to, I mean, incredible people. And it’s not that they just go out of their way. They don’t need to make more money, to be honest, but they’re so outwardly focused. They’re like freaking Saints when it comes to building people up.

That’s the part I worked on.

Oh yeah, and they’re going to make you do it yourself, too.

Oh, hell yeah, they’re not.

Let me know.

It’s your lesson, darling.

Like, if I can help you out with this or this little thing, like, yeah, I’ll do that, but like, you’re going to personally go do these things. This is very different from a football situation where you could pay someone to go do all of this **** for you, or you could pay someone to go do this, or you could pay someone to do that, or you could just volunteer to redo that.

They want you to be accountable. Right. And that and that, I think, is what we miss in this day and age: accountability.

I’m going there and trying to pitch something. And I was like, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa like some connections I’ve had with some people. I was just like; I couldn’t wait to get off the photo. I’m never getting off the phone. I remember looking out the window, wondering, “Is this person going to show up on My doorstep” is like, “Don’t ever call me again. 

Don’t ever call me. There are some huge lessons there: learning stuff on your own and learning from other people. There are a lot of people that I know that seem to get the opportunity to learn this same lesson over and over and over again, and they’re not sure what’s happening.

Raising your hand right now. People are listening to you guys in the studio like you know, someone that’s been just through a train of ****** relationship. Everyone knows that person, right? I don’t understand why it keeps happening. I don’t understand what’s going on. Well, they gave you a lesson, right? You got through the relationship lessons. Did you learn the lesson? I’m so excited I can’t wait. We’re going to get married in June. Other relationships are over, I don’t get it. Did you learn a lesson? All right, bring in the next city. Until you learn the lesson.

Till you learn it and implement it, you’re going to keep getting the opportunity to learn the same stupid lesson. It’s always brutal. It’s brutal.

It’s hilarious because

Well, wait a second It’s only hilarious after the fact.

Damn, I did this 10 times. Like wow. Oh, it says every time, like wow, like, yeah, like yeah, like yeah, like yeah, life. So, when you consider

Yeah, oh, they’re getting their best laughs out of all of us dumb shifts. That’s for sure.

They’re eating popcorn. You’re like, you think it’s going to give this time? I don’t know, they’re taking bets like there’s a Vegas book and I’ve been like, he’s going to get it now, I’ll take that action 30 in popcorn for you. Oh, back in another crappy relationship. Got it. It didn’t, exactly.

Do it yourself. You’re just not going to listen. I wrote it. Remember that book? And then you kept going to the same part, saying it 20 times, and he just didn’t want to listen. Uh, look. Got you.

Yeah, by the way, this is supposed to be your easy path, ******* You know, I laid it out for you and

You’re still ****** up.

I guess we’ve got to hit this deal with the bus, so he’ll pay attention.

Right.

Matt Russell. Matt Russell was dead at the scene, dead for 8 minutes before they could get his attention.

Yeah, it’s crazy.

That’s crazy. And that’s what happens sometimes That’s the unfortunate part about it You just have to get it. You’ve got to get that check. That was even when I thought about the reason. I went to the treatment center the first time because I was so. Because dealing with all that abuse, you know, I could just go and let it all out on a football field and then burn myself out and come back home and everything would be fine, but when I retired and that whole part of things was taken away, it was also significant therapy for the first time.

So, it was like a lot of wounds were just opening up and I was in this state of mind. There were three people. I was super happy. Go, lucky guy, super depressed guy, or super silent guy. I wouldn’t say anything like I just wouldn’t say anything for this period. This wouldn’t say anything because I was just. Like, way down there.

And by the way, thanks for bringing that up to… you know, the show is even somebody like you. Had you had this knowledge of yourself? I went and sought help because I think a lot of people just struggle through it. They don’t ask for help; they just don’t have the tools, you know, to make themselves better. Because you do have to break yourselves down sometimes to understand what is triggering.

You know what’s causing you to be this way and how do I change this and instead of being three people,

Right.

Why can’t I just be me?

And that is, and especially somebody. Like me, like you, or like a lot of people who are just like us. Hey, I’m so tough. I’m so strong. I can do everything on my own. I don’t need anybody’s help, like, and then the thing is, like, I had created a whole life where I could see her and say, like, damn, I did that machine myself, like. I have had very few people help me out when it comes to certain things. It was just me in a freaking Foxall, trying to figure this **** out on my own. Like nothing else. I felt like no one was coming to save me. I had to save myself.

But when you’re out of that and you’re in the real world, like, and you realize that things that helped you before are hurting you now, and you don’t have the system, the system that you’re using to do things, it’s great for, like, business and striving for success and all that other stuff.

When it comes down to dealing with your issues that you’ve put off, put off to the back burner for years, and now a pebble has become a boulder. Now you’re carrying around mountains, multiple mountains, you’re carrying around a whole mountain range and you’re trying to, like, weed this out from the earth. It helps to have help. And another way of doing things is because I needed to understand. I couldn’t at 27, like I couldn’t really, I couldn’t. I was just like, I was burnt out doing it by myself, like.

I couldn’t do it by myself anymore. And I’m glad that I went and saw their help. And it was one of those things, the thing that got me when it was the day before I went. I’d explained to my little daughter what I was doing, and I was just like, “I pulled out a cup.” And I said, “This is me.” I’m like, “This is me.” I filled up this cup with water and I poured it out like there were like 4 different cups and I said, “This is you, this is your mom, this is your sister, this is everyone else. And inside his cup, this water is like my love, and I give him some love. Some love goes to Mom, some love goes to everyone, and some love goes to her slowly. But what’s the thing that you notice at the end of the day? “It’s empty now,” she said. It’s like, and this is where I’m at. Like, this is where I’m at. I’m empty and I’m going to this place so I can fill my cup back up.

So, I can pour back into you, Mama, and everyone else, and she got it, but having to do that and then spending her birthday at the treatment center was terrible. as if I were sitting here thinking. *** As I had previously learned, these lessons can be beneficial. Stop doing it by yourself, like.

Like, Timmy isn’t working. It appealed to me.

Well, nobody in Ireland. I mean you, you need help, and that’s why. Even in business, people don’t run businesses solely for themselves, right? You can’t. You can’t do everything.

You can’t be the marketing person, the operations person, or the technical person. You can’t be. Everything you need is somebody for every position for your business to succeed.

Oh yeah, 100% delegation to succeed.

It’s the same with the NFL, right? If the Dean linemen don’t do their job, they put you in a poor position to be able to fill the gap. And it just so happens here in FL that players get this right or they can’t win. You can’t win the game by yourself as a linebacker. Eventually, the cornerbacks can toss up all over your head, and you’ve got your cornerbacks in your safety backing you up. You’ve got to have people on your team to help you get it done, whether it’s in life, in the NFL, or in business.

That’s very true. And that was the thing that had crushed me up to that point. I just went so far, doing it alone and then getting to a point where, you know, when you live in the hood, there’s hardly any mentors there, hardly any people you could look up to, like how do you learn how to do the right thing? is by seeing everyone else doing the wrong thing and doing the exact opposite. So, but showing someone that’s like an example of what to do or what to be, I realized too, at a younger age, that it’s much easier to just admire qualities that people have.

You know, instead of just admiring the person for what they are like or what they are with, you know, blinding yourself? Which is a big thing, because I do love everybody for what they are and I do understand, you know, everyone has their good things and bad things, and things that I may like but someone else may hate, like whatever. My perception of someone is very limited, but when it comes to the things that I love, like qualities that people have, like Travis Francis, I love the fact that, like how well you speak, how well you can convey yourself, and how you carry yourself for your coffee, it’s also, like, it’s a beautiful thing. And Carol, I just love how you’re just, like, such a ******* ******. I love it. Like, yeah, I don’t give a. I’m going to tell you how it is.

But by the way, don’t tell everybody that because I’m not that to everybody because I have my inner circle where I just share openly and they’re not that I’m not myself. I’m very protective about the energy I give out to people because if there is somebody that is seeking, they suck the energy out of me, so I’m very protective about making sure they don’t.

But even still, I can sit here and be like, Carol is going to be Carol, you’re going to be yourself. Be strong in yourself. same thing due to traveling. You have two or two people that are like, “I know you guys are being yourselves. Like you’re not anyone. You’re not trying to put on a show for anybody. I say I’d prefer it if people were just themselves, whatever that is.

That’s the thing that I admire the most, and I admire that in every person that I come across because they always have that. Even when someone wears a mask, this energy just can’t be contained. Be contained, like it comes out in other ways, and I always look for that, like that’s the only thing I look for in people.

So absolutely.

It’s like, and then how did this person get themselves out? Like, how does this person bring themselves out? How does this person bring themselves out? I have a story.

When you first see him, he appears to be intimidating and imposing, but the moment he opens his mouth, everything changes. And it was the cutest thing. “The man,” he started, opening his mouth, and talking to me.

All those, like, preconceived notions went away. Like, this is the biggest teddy bear and I just, like, want to hug him to death, right? That day, he was telling me about his horror story of losing his luggage.

Do you remember that, and this is when Reggie says he goes with the flow? He just goes with the flow. They lost his luggage, so he didn’t have another shirt. And we’re like, “Dude, I’ve got like shirts, like my event shirts.  

Let me know… So, we were giving him shirts to wear, and he just gave us a Fox. I gave Fox 0 points. He just went with the flow, and that’s what I loved about him. He didn’t stress out like I would have been a mess. I would have been a freaking mess, but meanwhile, Regis, like, yeah, **** it You know, and that was It’s such a great quality to have, you know, as nothing fazes you. Yeah, nothing changes you.

Oh, you remember he was shooting too, dude?

That’s something I admire about you.

So, when the thing happened when the gun cocked back, I cut my finger. Do you know how?

That hurt, by the way. Our food is way worse than

It hurts like a **** 

But I just couldn’t do it at the gun range.

Like God So he wrapped his slide over his finger, like

That was my fault.

Is it your first time, Reggie?

First time getting hurt

I remember my first time.

OK, we’re not talking about guns anymore. We are talking about guns.

On Carol, get your mind out there with you. I and Reggie would never talk. Anything. It’s just so vile.

Yeah, so many things.

But it hurts so much if you hear you were dressed like a ****** shooter. I was just like

I’ve got to be a tough guy too. I was bleeding, and I was like, “Help me.” He got me up. And then I remember that I was looking around it. Was it a sponge Bob square pants? Band-Aid? It was pretty nice that they did it, but the thing that it patched up was my ego getting destroyed.

I was like, “Really hurt. I didn’t want to fire a gun anymore. I was like, “We have got to leave.” I was like, “We have got to leave.” I’m done. Because there’s something like, I tell people all the time, like I’m tough in a lot of areas, 100%. But after these kids, man. I am not that tough guy anymore, man. Nope, I like it. I think if I had seen Moana 10 times in pride 10 times, every time it’s a beautiful movie when she starts limping along in the wind and sees, I’m like, I feel that I get that.

Hey, guys. And that’s why we get along. Because it’s like, I always now carry tissues because, like, my kids wanted to go see, oh what? What’s the movie about? Then the blinds… oh, the blind side. Oh, that was such a thing.

The blind side. Yes, the blind side.

OK, so my kids like to go watch it, you know? And I’m like, OK, yeah, let’s go watch you guys. Nobody freaking tells me I told all my girlfriends I was going to take my kids to go watch this because they wanted to write. Nobody ever tells me I’m a ******* tearjerker, and I mean, even if something minor happens, I start crying, right? So, I came unprepared. Nothing, no Kleenex. I’m lugging my kids in there to the movie theater, and all of a sudden, I’m like, “It’s like a faucet turned off.” And I’m asking, have you ever had the napkins at a freaking movie?

Oh yeah. It’s like *******

I’m sitting there rubbing it. I’m tearing up, trying to like it. Do you know about that? Oh my God, it was horrible.

It was horrible, so yeah, I cry over everything, so shush.

Yes, or the OR story. Yeah, he’s had it. If the movie is sad enough, I will cry, as my wife knows. Like, my kids know it. And at this point, they’re just like, “Oh, dad,” or “Oh, look at Dad crying. He’s so sad, like

He’s going to be so sweet. During that, you have feelings. What the **** is that? You know, well, like, you can actually. Be moved. Only people realize that it is like that. They see things like that as a weakness. To me, it’s like, “no. I see it as a strength because I can connect with people on a very deep personal level. “

But it’s also not an awesome thing when you’re on a plane and the stewardess is playing. You’re playing bridge in Terabithia, and you’re sitting in between A6 and B6. Then there’s this 9-year-old who’s a phenom with the saxophone or something. I’m sitting in the middle of watching birds to Terabithia and I’m tearing it up like it’s wrong, it’s bad.

I was like, “Hold on, this is so sad. The stewardess then asks, “Is this, like, are you OK?” Like you and then the little girl next to me is like, “You lose. You seem so sad. And I was like, “Turbulence is turbulence.” It’s always a big trouble for little girls to think it’s OK.

Reggie Walker teaches young ladies all over the county, all over the country, empathy for the underprivileged.

Oh yeah, I should never forget that.

Yes, for the first time.

Like, that was the biggest guy I’ve ever seen crying like a baby on a plane.

They’ll start telling their friends things like, “Dude, he says, Here’s my NFL.” I don’t believe that’s true.

Just because you cry doesn’t mean you’re a big tough guy. Come on, come.

Yeah, no, I know I’m with you.

And then there are these two sides of everybody.

I cried. My wife makes fun of me. “You thought that was sad,” she says. I’m like, “Yeah, Reggie, as we get ready to wrap this up here, I want to know two things from you. One, I want to know where we can get your book within the game, and two, I want any advice, anything you want to tell the audience listening to them.

Regarding where you can look in the course, UM, you can go to the game on thegame.com. You can also check out topathletes.com. For the college credit course, you can just go through our site’s games within agame.com. Also, if you want to connect with me or connect with me on LinkedIn, just type in Reggie Walker, and I’ll connect with you. And as far as advice,

Uhm, it’s perfectly OK to just be yourself, and trust me, at the end of the day, you’ll feel much, much happier just being yourself and doing whatever you do, no matter what the **** happens. Because if you’re yourself in every situation, you literally won’t have any regrets.

The only time you ever feel regressive is if you know you weren’t yourself when you didn’t put your best foot forward. Put your best foot forward as yourself, and you’ll continue crushing it.

Great advice. Thanks so much, Reggie. And hey, everyone, thank you for joining us today.