Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to another episode of Comeback Stories. Here
Speaker 1: with my man, Donnie has always blessed to be here
Speaker 1: with you, Bro. I'm really excited about the guests we
Speaker 1: have today. It's a man I've been able to see
Speaker 1: up close and personal two times a year, being the
Speaker 1: same division, him being with the Chargers, me being with
Speaker 1: the Raiders at the time, someone who's really submitting himself
Speaker 1: as one of the most diverse running backs in the game.
Speaker 1: You know, I grew up seeing Marshall Falk guys like
Speaker 1: that really being great two way players, and he's becoming
Speaker 1: historically one of the best. Quietly and excited to get
Speaker 1: to know him in his story A little deeper for you, guys,
Speaker 1: please welcome Austin Eckler to the show. Austin, what's going on? Man? Hey,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Man? I appreciate you having me brother.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yes, sir, Man. Grateful to get people to
Speaker 1: see a different side of you today. We love to
Speaker 1: dive right in and we want to know what was
Speaker 1: life like growing up for you as a kid. Oh
Speaker 1: all right, We're straight to it, man, straight to it. Um.
Speaker 1: I love it life growing up as a kid. Um.
Speaker 1: I like to say I learned how to work hard
Speaker 1: and I learned what hard work was. And that came
Speaker 1: to me in multiple different you know facets where it
Speaker 1: was my mother she was a single teacher. Um, she
Speaker 1: was a single single mother with two kids. Um. And
Speaker 1: then married and so I had a step dad. Uh,
Speaker 1: and this guy had his own fencing company. And this
Speaker 1: is when I was really young, and and so between
Speaker 1: sports watching her kind of grind to keep food on
Speaker 1: our table. And then also you know, being with my
Speaker 1: with my stepdad at the time, who I despised. I
Speaker 1: did not like this guy being with him and building
Speaker 1: fence when there was no excuses and you get it
Speaker 1: done at a high level, um and fast and efficient,
Speaker 1: you don't run, and you don't say anything about it
Speaker 1: or else. Um. That was kind of what was ingrained
Speaker 1: in my head. Um. Just going through that growing up
Speaker 1: pretty much instilled this mindset that I have today that
Speaker 1: has continued to push me and just continue to help
Speaker 1: me overcome any obstacle in front of me. That's a
Speaker 1: great insight that the fact that you were able to
Speaker 1: learn some of those lessons and those principles early on
Speaker 1: on comeback stories. We love to dive in deep and
Speaker 1: seem like, were there instances of pain growing up when
Speaker 1: we were younger? Like for me, mine was I was
Speaker 1: never black enough. Like that was like the narrative from
Speaker 1: kids and people around me, like things that really just
Speaker 1: ate at me, and that I believe that's truth. That
Speaker 1: were negative thoughts towards myself. Was there anything about, you know,
Speaker 1: growing up in that environment with your stepdad working so hard,
Speaker 1: or just anything in your childhood that you could look
Speaker 1: back on and see as like a painful experience that
Speaker 1: may have affected you in a way. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I can even relate to that one, you know, just
Speaker 1: a short story with that. Like I grew up in Colorado.
Speaker 1: There was like three black kids. I'm light skinned, right,
Speaker 1: but I was to them. I was black like dark
Speaker 1: as night up there, because it was three of us
Speaker 1: in the entire school, right, probably in the entire damn town.
Speaker 1: And so I grew up around, you know, not as
Speaker 1: a diverse of a culture that you get actually out
Speaker 1: in la Um. You're right. And even then I went
Speaker 1: to college in a in a mountain town and so
Speaker 1: you know a lot of white people in the mountain town.
Speaker 1: Um shows just what it was. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I had that same that same connection there was like
Speaker 1: you know, you're never wide enough, right, never black enough
Speaker 1: when it comes to how your you know, your mannerisms
Speaker 1: are your culture. You know how you speak, talk, you
Speaker 1: know things you'd like, and so you're stuck in this limbo. Um.
Speaker 1: So I definitely can relate to that one. But as
Speaker 1: far as just difficult things overcoming, um, definitely just being
Speaker 1: in the household. Um. Yeah, with with my stepdad was
Speaker 1: was tough. Um. And it was tough because you're right,
Speaker 1: we I grew up out in the out in the country,
Speaker 1: Like we had animals, and guess who was taking care
Speaker 1: of those? It was me. He was gone building the fence.
Speaker 1: I'm taking care of his animals. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: nothing to do with these. And we're in Colorado talking
Speaker 1: breaking ice in the winters, um and right, pitching pitching
Speaker 1: hay in the mornings every day before going to school,
Speaker 1: coming home, doing the same, um, keeping these these things alive.
Speaker 1: And then also you know, just during the summers, man
Speaker 1: is when you really felt the manual labor, where like
Speaker 1: this man he had a good, good company, like they
Speaker 1: were reputable. They would get like twenty six miles of
Speaker 1: barbed wire fence along highways along railroads to keep cattle
Speaker 1: off of them. And so these aren't small jobs. And
Speaker 1: so during the summer it's football camps. And when we're
Speaker 1: done with football camps, right, might hit up the lake
Speaker 1: for a weekend. But then guess what we're going to
Speaker 1: We're going to build fence. And like I said, me
Speaker 1: and this guy who didn't have the closest relationship, and
Speaker 1: so for me, I think for him it was like
Speaker 1: I was just there to help work, right, I was
Speaker 1: just part of the work, right, just work, And I
Speaker 1: hated it, but I found I found value in it
Speaker 1: as I've gotten older, because now I see and I
Speaker 1: look at my mindset, and I look at how far
Speaker 1: I've been able to come, and really I've just always
Speaker 1: put my head down and kept grinding. Like I'm a
Speaker 1: five eight guy right from Colorado, one stoplight town. Who's
Speaker 1: you know, leading that the NFL and all these categories
Speaker 1: touchdowns for the past two years, breaking record for the Chargers,
Speaker 1: And it's like, why is it that? Why is that?
Speaker 1: Why is that? Because it's not like I'm this huge powerhouse,
Speaker 1: went to this huge college, but it's because I tapped
Speaker 1: in mentally, and how I am wired mentally is guess what,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what's in front of me. You're gonna
Speaker 1: work all the way through it. You're not gonna complain.
Speaker 1: You're gonna see what the results are at the end. Right.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of been my mindset and what
Speaker 1: I've taken from that as far as value from going
Speaker 1: through those tough times and actually having a positive out
Speaker 1: of it. That's such a powerful perspective because I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of people were, like you talked about you,
Speaker 1: you hate you hated your stepdad, you hated the environment,
Speaker 1: all things that you had to do. But being able
Speaker 1: to take positivity and meaning and purpose from those experiences
Speaker 1: that didn't really feel great. I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people struggle with being able to allow those two
Speaker 1: to coexist, to not really particularly love the environment, love
Speaker 1: what was happening at the moment, but you're able to
Speaker 1: look back on it and be grateful for it. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's so powerful for people to hear UM.
Speaker 1: Something I thought was interesting when I was researching you
Speaker 1: was your mom put you in sports and UM and
Speaker 1: you said. One thing you said was you didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: like love or passion about football, the way other kids were,
Speaker 1: but you saw it as an opportunity to leave. Could
Speaker 1: you explain like more into that and then like what
Speaker 1: it was like to leave and go to where you
Speaker 1: went to college? Yeah, man, Like for me, growing up,
Speaker 1: like sports wasn't like a huge part of our just
Speaker 1: our living. Like we weren't watching professional sports. We watched
Speaker 1: a little bit of Nebraska play because I had like
Speaker 1: a cousin that coached on their football team, so we
Speaker 1: watched them every once in a while, but never really
Speaker 1: watched anything in the professional realm and so never like
Speaker 1: looked for up to like the Broncos and in Colorado,
Speaker 1: Like never had any of that. So never had any
Speaker 1: aspirations to go play professional or anything. But what I
Speaker 1: did have aspirations to do would just kind of be
Speaker 1: the best um in the environment that I was in.
Speaker 1: And that was just kind of you know ingrained in
Speaker 1: meat from you know, just being that in that type
Speaker 1: of household. Um. You just you just go and you
Speaker 1: go as hard as you can. You don't you don't complain,
Speaker 1: you just do it. And so that gave me this perspective. Okay,
Speaker 1: well I don't like this, but guess what I can
Speaker 1: try to use the skills that I've been building on
Speaker 1: and my education to give me my next opportunity. Right.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what that was going to be, but
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, you know what seems to be
Speaker 1: something that's out there is use football to pay for school, right,
Speaker 1: And so I'm thinking, I got to get a good
Speaker 1: education somewhere so I can start right getting more opportunities
Speaker 1: to make some money to get a career going. And
Speaker 1: so that was my mindset. And so I didn't have
Speaker 1: any big schools come to me. No one really wanted
Speaker 1: to touch me. It was just people around the around
Speaker 1: Colorado Division two schools that were like, hey, come on
Speaker 1: and be an athlete, Come on and play corner. They
Speaker 1: wanted to switch my position. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to play running back. That's what I know, That's
Speaker 1: what I've done, That's what I went to all these
Speaker 1: camps for. That is what I want to do. I
Speaker 1: want to bet on myself to just go play running back.
Speaker 1: So I had won school Western Colorado that came to
Speaker 1: me and they were like, hey, we got a spot
Speaker 1: for you. Want to come play running back? And so
Speaker 1: use that opportunity right to get into what was coming
Speaker 1: next for me up in the college level and get
Speaker 1: my education started. So that's kind of my story of transitioning. Still,
Speaker 1: NFL was never ever in the picture. So coming from
Speaker 1: a small town, being a small player, I mean, were
Speaker 1: these the objections you were getting as you were looking
Speaker 1: like looking to play at the next level? What were
Speaker 1: the critics? What was everybody saying about you as to
Speaker 1: maybe why you couldn't play at that level? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: it was. It was kind of wild because for me,
Speaker 1: you know, my senior year, I had like forty three touchdowns,
Speaker 1: ran for like two thousand and three hundred yards, like
Speaker 1: ten yards to carry, just absolutely destroyed everybody in the conference.
Speaker 1: And so it's like, look, we went to a small school.
Speaker 1: So what do you gotta do if you go to
Speaker 1: a small school, you gotta absolutely dominate right to get noticed.
Speaker 1: Well that's exactly what I did. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I was so confused. Might it might have been because
Speaker 1: you know, we were just at a small school, a
Speaker 1: small town, one stop like town out in Colorado, one
Speaker 1: of those towns you just kind of drive right through
Speaker 1: and you're like, who live here? That's where Austin Eckler was.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I was like, okay, well, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm limited to my surroundings, and so I was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was only the thing was I was
Speaker 1: only one hundred and eighty six pounds five eight, and
Speaker 1: so you know, as far as running backs go, the
Speaker 1: typical running back, that's that's pretty small. It was funny,
Speaker 1: actually a quick story. I asked my running back coach
Speaker 1: now for the Chargers because he coached to Iowa. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, look, I ran like an eleven eleven
Speaker 1: point three hundred yard dash was five eight and one
Speaker 1: hundred eighty six pounds. Would you have recruited me even
Speaker 1: with my stats? He's like, probably not. I was like, see, see,
Speaker 1: everyone was a doubt with me. But guess what put
Speaker 1: me aside from all these other guys. It was the intangibles,
Speaker 1: the thing you couldn't measure. You couldn't measure my heart
Speaker 1: and my desire to go and build upon whatever my
Speaker 1: opportunity was next. And you still can't measure that. And
Speaker 1: that's why I still get overlooked because you can't measure that.
Speaker 1: But that's so much of what Austin Ekeler is right.
Speaker 1: I'm still that that five eight guy. I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit heavier, a little bit you know, stronger now. But
Speaker 1: guess what, I'm still that tiny guy with an undesirable
Speaker 1: or this undeniable desire to continue to grow. That's how
Speaker 1: it continue to have success. And so that's what has
Speaker 1: set me apart and got me into Colorado. But it's
Speaker 1: there was. I don't blame them when you're when you're
Speaker 1: looking at all the things that you can compare, Like
Speaker 1: you compare me on paper to someone else, You're probably
Speaker 1: gonna go with someone else because I don't have all
Speaker 1: the paper attributes that you're looking for. Darren and I
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the Four Agreements. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever read the book, but in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the book he talks about domestication where we agree
Speaker 1: upon certain things like people, people tell us certain things.
Speaker 1: It starts with our parents, and then it becomes teachers
Speaker 1: and our coaches, and it might be scouts or you know,
Speaker 1: prospective coaches that are looking at you and they're telling
Speaker 1: you certain things, and we just agree because we think
Speaker 1: those people that are in a position of power, whether
Speaker 1: it's our parents or somebody else, they know what they're
Speaker 1: talking about. So what would you say, because I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of people get this. Maybe it's the
Speaker 1: kid coming up who is getting that same thing told
Speaker 1: to them, that you're too small, you're not fast enough.
Speaker 1: I mean, what would you say to that person, To
Speaker 1: the people that are that are talking down on people,
Speaker 1: or the people that are getting talked about the people
Speaker 1: that are getting talked down too. Wow, shoot, I see.
Speaker 1: For me, I had this huge mental toughness that I
Speaker 1: had to build up just to be in my household.
Speaker 1: So I was able to kind of take that criticism
Speaker 1: push it to the side, and so that helped me.
Speaker 1: And so if if if you don't have the mental
Speaker 1: capacity to understand that, okay, what everyone tells you, you
Speaker 1: might not have to listen to them, or it might
Speaker 1: not actually be the truth what is seen as a
Speaker 1: truth or the right way. Really, it comes down to
Speaker 1: practicing mental toughness and practicing understanding knowing what you as
Speaker 1: an individual want to achieve. Because for me, you know,
Speaker 1: the real value in life that you can add to
Speaker 1: yourself comes down to your experiences, to your network, to
Speaker 1: your education, like those three things, right, and you can
Speaker 1: continue to build those yourself. It doesn't matter who anyone's
Speaker 1: talking to you can't do that as long as you
Speaker 1: can continue to build those and stay focused on what
Speaker 1: those mean to you. Whether you know you want to become,
Speaker 1: you know, an educator, whether you want to become a
Speaker 1: professional or an expert at X YC, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: If you can give yourself a lane and continue to
Speaker 1: push down a path of this lane, then for me,
Speaker 1: that helps you stay mentally strong because if someone's talking
Speaker 1: down to it doesn't matter because their aspirations, what they
Speaker 1: think about what you're trying to do, doesn't matter because
Speaker 1: you're staying in your lane. You have your own vision,
Speaker 1: You're living your own life, not theirs. And it's tough,
Speaker 1: especially when you have the youth, because you're so influenced
Speaker 1: when you're young. And so I think that's that's definitely
Speaker 1: I think shown across the entire if you look at
Speaker 1: the US right as far as people that can are
Speaker 1: able to actually continue to stay mentally tough, right, continue
Speaker 1: to push forward, continue to innovate and grow themselves. It's
Speaker 1: limited because we have this this system of school where
Speaker 1: it kind of just put you in this cookie cutter
Speaker 1: do this, go work your nine to five, have a
Speaker 1: little family, teach your kids to go to school, work
Speaker 1: a nine to five. You're a little fit like and
Speaker 1: it's just it's locked. People are so locked in and
Speaker 1: it's it's right here, right, Like, you got to break out?
Speaker 1: How do you break out? Will you continue to gain
Speaker 1: value for yourself if you do this cookie cutter job forever?
Speaker 1: Guess what, You're not adding new experiences, new education, new
Speaker 1: value to yourself. So you have to stay in the lane.
Speaker 1: You get stuck in one lane. And sorry, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of going on a tangent here going as far as
Speaker 1: people getting out and getting motivated and finding some type
Speaker 1: of fulfillment. You got to break out of that cookie
Speaker 1: cutter and how do you How do you do that? Well?
Speaker 1: You got to make sure that you're always continuing to
Speaker 1: add value and it's not all at once. It's like
Speaker 1: I said, those things your experiences, What are you doing
Speaker 1: to give you, you know, skills, your education? What are
Speaker 1: you learning about? How you growing yourself? How you grow
Speaker 1: in your mind? How are you practicing mental toughness? Right?
Speaker 1: And then your network? Who do you know? Who do
Speaker 1: you know? Because who you know is going to give
Speaker 1: you a lot more opportunities than any type of money will, right,
Speaker 1: because who you know, different people have different access to
Speaker 1: different resources, different networks, like all these different things that
Speaker 1: are not even money. It just comes down to effort
Speaker 1: and putting your effort into growing yourself that can get
Speaker 1: you through these negative talks and all this bs. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm going through right now with the chargers, right, and
Speaker 1: I'll end it with this one. Right, I'm going through
Speaker 1: with the chargers. They're like, hey, I want to get extended.
Speaker 1: Let's go. I've been peeking. I'm going I'm going in
Speaker 1: this direction. And they're they're they're like the first people
Speaker 1: that have given me all this doubt, like they don't
Speaker 1: want to extend me. All all of extensions have talked,
Speaker 1: they stopped. They're like, now we don't want to do
Speaker 1: this anymore. Like what do you mean? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: It's like you're doubting me, Like after all this I've
Speaker 1: done for you for the past two to six years
Speaker 1: of growth, Like look at my trajectory, Look what I've done,
Speaker 1: look at my leadership in the locker room. Everything is
Speaker 1: continuing to get better, and you don't want me around
Speaker 1: the locker room for the next three years, Like what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? And so guess what staying in
Speaker 1: the vision. Got to stay the path, right, stay the path.
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't want me, but guess what, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm bringing so much value to myself someone else is
Speaker 1: gonna want me for the next few years, even if
Speaker 1: I had to play this last year right and be
Speaker 1: a free agent. And so you know, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: those aspects in your life all over the place, right,
Speaker 1: And it's how do you stay how do you stay
Speaker 1: the course? It's those three things you keep adding that
Speaker 1: self value, right, your experience you're at, your education, and
Speaker 1: your networking. You keep doing that. You build yourself up.
Speaker 1: You start building up your floor and guess what, when
Speaker 1: you fall down, your floor is already up here. So
Speaker 1: you have already all these opportunities that you can go
Speaker 1: and take advantage of. And so I'll digress there. But
Speaker 1: uh yeah, sorry, that's hot topping for me. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's powerful, man, And I feel like it's
Speaker 1: serving you right now because throughout your whole life, I
Speaker 1: feel like you've had to find a way to become
Speaker 1: your biggest fan and your biggest supporter. With all the
Speaker 1: people that have questions, your ability, questions, your size questioned,
Speaker 1: your durability, whatever it may have been. You've had to
Speaker 1: show up and believe in yourself when maybe very few
Speaker 1: people have. And I feel like that's a lesson that
Speaker 1: everyone needs to have because things aren't always gonna go
Speaker 1: your way. The results aren't always gonna be the way
Speaker 1: that you'd want them to. Look, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I was. I was. I was six string on the
Speaker 1: depth chart. Man, Like, coming into the charger, I'm six six,
Speaker 1: There's five people in front of me. I got I
Speaker 1: got no names school, I'm coming in and guess what
Speaker 1: did I care about any of that? No? What did
Speaker 1: I care about? Let me try to make the best
Speaker 1: out of this opportunity that I have. Let me just
Speaker 1: try to do the best. I'm putting in so much
Speaker 1: extra time, learning, talking to my coaches, like, I'm so stressed.
Speaker 1: But I was. I was so dedicated to what I
Speaker 1: had in front of me that it allowed me to
Speaker 1: take advantage of it. I didn't crush it coming out,
Speaker 1: but I did enough to get noticed to show that
Speaker 1: I was going to be consistent. I could be relied
Speaker 1: on right. And those three things right there are huge
Speaker 1: and anything that you were, anything you're doing right that
Speaker 1: you're consistent, right, you could be relied on and you
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. Right, those three things are gonna
Speaker 1: get you an opportunity, gonna get you in the door.
Speaker 1: And then guess what, Then you do this, Then you
Speaker 1: do it again, right, then you take advantage of what
Speaker 1: you have. Now do those three things again. All right,
Speaker 1: Hey Austin, now you know you do well on special teams.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're gonna put you on an offense. Let's
Speaker 1: see if you can do something there. Oh, I started
Speaker 1: scoreing touchdown right, and then there's this build up and
Speaker 1: so bro like it comes down like I said, stay
Speaker 1: in your lane and guess what if you hit a wall,
Speaker 1: guess what, you can use that same energy, those same
Speaker 1: the lessons like I did right going through you know,
Speaker 1: growing up, you know in my environment. Okay, what did
Speaker 1: I learn from that? How can I turn that into
Speaker 1: something that I can use to learn from and put
Speaker 1: myself on it on the next path? Right, But it
Speaker 1: comes down to effort to doing it, because if you
Speaker 1: don't have effort to do it, you're gonna be stuck.
Speaker 1: And most of America, I'm gonna say, is definitely stuck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you didn't know much about our podcast coming in,
Speaker 1: but I'm telling you, man, you are. You are right
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to be. You're speaking our language, and
Speaker 1: you keep saying and whether you're not, if you're not
Speaker 1: watching this and you're just listening, I see you keep saying,
Speaker 1: like staying your lane and making this kind of hand gesture.
Speaker 1: And I love this quote. Race horses where blinders for
Speaker 1: a reason, and that's really what it is. It's perspective
Speaker 1: and controlling the controllables. And as you're explaining all this
Speaker 1: and saying it all with such fire, I go back
Speaker 1: to the four agreements, which if you're not familiar with them,
Speaker 1: first of all, you're like embodying all four of them,
Speaker 1: which one is don't take things personally, which you could
Speaker 1: have done that many times throughout your career, and maybe
Speaker 1: you are in a way where you're turning into a
Speaker 1: healthy chip. Be impeccable with your word, don't make assumptions,
Speaker 1: and always do your best. And you know, some days
Speaker 1: like the all you always do your best thing comes
Speaker 1: into play with people that have that kind of not
Speaker 1: enough story, which Darren's talked about, that which is rooted
Speaker 1: in his not Black Enough story, but you know, if
Speaker 1: we know we're doing our best, even if we're at
Speaker 1: eighty percent that day, then then we know we've done enough.
Speaker 1: But I just think, man, the few minutes that you
Speaker 1: just dropped prior to me jumping in here was like
Speaker 1: you were embodying and explaining those four agreements and you're
Speaker 1: living it man, and it's it's the perfect um example
Speaker 1: that's shaped your perspective and why you're able to do
Speaker 1: what you do today. Yeah, and I'll add onto that man,
Speaker 1: Like there's there's depth to those four things you're talking about, right,
Speaker 1: because we do all have different perspectives, right, You don't
Speaker 1: you don't have to be this you know, hyper motivated
Speaker 1: guy like like myself, I'm trying to go to the
Speaker 1: top and do all stuff, right, but you have you
Speaker 1: know what you want to do. You know what what's
Speaker 1: gonna fill your cup, what's gonna make you fulfilled. But
Speaker 1: the things, the things that we can relate on is
Speaker 1: the principles of how you get to those steps, right,
Speaker 1: those principles of that self growth. Right, Like, regardless of
Speaker 1: what you're gonna try to do, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: have some value that you build for yourself and So
Speaker 1: that's when I'm saying stay in your lane, right, don't
Speaker 1: look at what as someone else's built over here and
Speaker 1: be like, dang, I'm never gonna be able to get that. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like that person has done so much more that
Speaker 1: you didn't see before then, Right, So it's like, look,
Speaker 1: you can build there, you can take nuggets from here
Speaker 1: and there, but it's your perspective, it's your life. You
Speaker 1: get to control. You said you're doing your best. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? Because when I if I look at
Speaker 1: you and I see you're saying you're doing your best,
Speaker 1: and I might look at and be like that's ten
Speaker 1: percent of what you should be doing, but for you
Speaker 1: it might be fulfilling. So I don't want people to
Speaker 1: get discouraged and be like, oh, I'm never going to
Speaker 1: be able to right, be that that focused or that
Speaker 1: excited about anything where it's like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: You get to set your own parameters, which is a
Speaker 1: good and a bad thing, because you might let yourself
Speaker 1: slack right or you might even go beyond what you
Speaker 1: thought you could do right. And so it's so crucial
Speaker 1: to have right, like I say, these things where you
Speaker 1: practice your mental toughness. You continue just to push down
Speaker 1: your lane and continue to push, and then you'll learn
Speaker 1: about yourself along the way. And so perspective is is
Speaker 1: a huge part of that. And not getting mixed up
Speaker 1: with other people and knowing what you want is so crucial,
Speaker 1: so crucial. Well, I think going back to the impeccable
Speaker 1: with your word. When I first heard that agreement from
Speaker 1: the four Agreements, I thought it was like, do the
Speaker 1: things you say you're going to do for other people,
Speaker 1: But it's so much deeper than that. It's do the
Speaker 1: things you say you're going to do for yourself. Because
Speaker 1: the most self confident people in the world are the
Speaker 1: ones that keep the promises they make to themselves. So
Speaker 1: when you say you're going to do something, you follow
Speaker 1: through on it, and when you don't do it, you
Speaker 1: feel like shit, right, and then your self confidence and
Speaker 1: your self esteem is lower, and then you're so much
Speaker 1: more vulnerable, not only to the internal noise but all
Speaker 1: that external noise and you start believing it. But if
Speaker 1: you stay true and do the things you say you're
Speaker 1: going to do, I mean, you really become unshakable no
Speaker 1: matter what's going on around you. Yeah, I mean you're
Speaker 1: you're saying these words, but you know how it is,
Speaker 1: Like it's hard, it's hard to follow through. It's hard
Speaker 1: to keep yourself accountable because you're yourself that you can
Speaker 1: easily let yourself slip. I'm gonna start, i'mna start going
Speaker 1: to bed earlier, I'm gonna start eating healthier, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start working out more. I'm gonna start learning about this
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna read this book. Like are you like
Speaker 1: all right? Like what what's gonna change internally for you
Speaker 1: to actually make that change? Um? And so that's why
Speaker 1: I always go back to this man practicing mental toughness.
Speaker 1: And there's different ways to do it, um, you know,
Speaker 1: with with calendars, with working now, with um accountability buddies,
Speaker 1: like all these different aspects to help you. Because all
Speaker 1: these changes we're talking about and basically, this this vision
Speaker 1: of going towards some type of fulfilled life, it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen overnight like like it's it's a whole lifestyle. It's
Speaker 1: literally have to change your entire lifestyle and it takes
Speaker 1: a lifetime. Like that's for me, that's where I find fulfillment.
Speaker 1: I'm working towards a completed a version of Austin Neckler,
Speaker 1: which that's the fulfilling part of life is at the
Speaker 1: very end whenever I die, right, I feel like I
Speaker 1: have I've been doing that right, I'm always continuing to
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm growing myself and so I feel fulfilled.
Speaker 1: And I think in life that's what it's about. If
Speaker 1: you ask me, do you feel like your life was fulfilling?
Speaker 1: And for other people it's perspective right that that means
Speaker 1: so many different things to so many different people. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: that helps help us, helps us have this right, this
Speaker 1: mental capacity to continue to go um. If you have
Speaker 1: that fulfilling feeling, No, man, I hear all this wisdom
Speaker 1: just oozing out of you right now, and it's it's
Speaker 1: powerful stuff. I want to ask you, was there ever,
Speaker 1: like a like a rock bottom moment or a moment
Speaker 1: where you didn't necessarily believe the life that you were
Speaker 1: living today is possible. Was there like a low moment
Speaker 1: or a low period or a low season in your
Speaker 1: life where you can think back on to where you
Speaker 1: have these principles in your head that you want to live,
Speaker 1: but maybe you didn't believe them because I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of people people have those moments or maybe
Speaker 1: stuck in that season right now. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you could speak to them in that. I guess as
Speaker 1: far as rock Bottom, like there was no way out,
Speaker 1: felt like I'm stuck. I don't have anywhere to go.
Speaker 1: I can't relate to that. I can't. I just I
Speaker 1: just can't relate to that. As far as I've had
Speaker 1: moments where it's like why am I doing what I'm
Speaker 1: doing type of thing, like why don't why am I
Speaker 1: pushing putting all this effort into doing like I just
Speaker 1: launched a NAP, I have a foundation, I have a
Speaker 1: real estate you know fund, like I played football, I
Speaker 1: have a podcast, Like if you dive into my entire ecosystem,
Speaker 1: it's insane. And so I feel like I've become so
Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to grow things that sometimes or a
Speaker 1: lot of times, I live in a space where I'm
Speaker 1: so stressed all the time. But that's kind of just
Speaker 1: where it's kind of demented. But that's kind of where
Speaker 1: I like to be, Like, I like to be stressed,
Speaker 1: and I like to feel like things may not work out,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna try anyway type of type of feeling.
Speaker 1: And so as far as hitting a rock bottom and
Speaker 1: running into a wall, I've been fortunate enough to continue
Speaker 1: to push through um and not have that scenario in
Speaker 1: my life that I can really speak on. I guess clearly, no,
Speaker 1: I can. I can relate to the way you talk
Speaker 1: about staying so busy. A friend of mine put it
Speaker 1: in a way, he said, blessings that stacked so high
Speaker 1: they start to look like problems, and it's like, um,
Speaker 1: where you know, there's there's not this place we arrived
Speaker 1: to to where you know life should be easy or
Speaker 1: life should be a breeze. That's why I'm wrapping my
Speaker 1: mind around now, like if I have a great purpose
Speaker 1: in my life, if they're if I have a great
Speaker 1: calling and a lot of I'm carrying a heavy load.
Speaker 1: That's what it's My life was meant for me to
Speaker 1: be for, Like I'm meant to carry this load to
Speaker 1: show other people they could do the same thing. They
Speaker 1: could push boundaries, they could have a great ecosystem like
Speaker 1: you're saying, they don't have to be limited to one
Speaker 1: field or limited to some way of living like that.
Speaker 1: I said, we've been domesticated too so just I can
Speaker 1: definitely relate to where you are right now with you know,
Speaker 1: I love making music, I got this podcast, I got
Speaker 1: my foundation, and I love giving back to community of
Speaker 1: mental health in addiction. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: it's like, I wouldn't have it be any other way.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I sit down, i'm driving or I'm sitting by myself,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, my schedule is like my Google
Speaker 1: calendar looks like a rainbow of all this stuff that's
Speaker 1: in it. But I wouldn't have it be any other
Speaker 1: way because if I was just sitting around not doing anything,
Speaker 1: my mind would be sputtering out of control. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just don't feel like i'd be growing. Like you
Speaker 1: said to the person, I want to be right and
Speaker 1: then if I like to take it back just speaking
Speaker 1: on this stuff and then even taking it back further
Speaker 1: even before the NFL, just because I think people can
Speaker 1: relate more. I mean, obviously most of listeners are not
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Like I remember back in college, man,
Speaker 1: for like whatever reason, I used to post. I used
Speaker 1: to put like these posts out on like Instagram about
Speaker 1: just like mindset, and I used to listen to so
Speaker 1: many different mindset people like as far as workout people,
Speaker 1: as far as entrepreneurs. And I used to put out
Speaker 1: like my own little quotes about like, you know, getting
Speaker 1: your ass going and don't settle and all these types
Speaker 1: of things. And that was back when I was like
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen years old, and so that was that was
Speaker 1: the mindset then, And it was just I was I
Speaker 1: was being around that, that was the content that I
Speaker 1: was taking in. Those are the types of things that
Speaker 1: I was Those are the types of people I was
Speaker 1: around for my teammates. And so I created an ecosystem
Speaker 1: around myself where it was like, this is the type
Speaker 1: these are the types of people I want. This is
Speaker 1: the type of content I want to be around. And
Speaker 1: it literally just became me right, And so I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's similar with us. Right football just gives us that. Right,
Speaker 1: football just gives us this vessel of Hey, you have
Speaker 1: to do this. You have to work hard, that's the standard.
Speaker 1: You have to work as a team. You have to
Speaker 1: push yourself. Right. But if you take yourself out of that,
Speaker 1: you can still continue to apply those same principles, but
Speaker 1: it just comes down to you. Now you have to
Speaker 1: put that team around yourself when that team there's not
Speaker 1: always people. It could be content, right, it can be
Speaker 1: the things you're reading, it could be you know, the
Speaker 1: things you're learning about. And so I think it's just
Speaker 1: so important just to be able to relate on a
Speaker 1: basic level. That's what it comes down to, what you're
Speaker 1: surrounding yourself around. I feel like just listening to both
Speaker 1: you guys and seeing how much more you are than
Speaker 1: just the athlete, than the football player. And Darren I
Speaker 1: have talked and worked around, worked a lot around this
Speaker 1: of just figuring out who you are beyond the sport,
Speaker 1: because one day it's going to end for you and
Speaker 1: you better know who you are. I mean, that's kind
Speaker 1: of my story in a cliff notes version. I've told
Speaker 1: it on the podcast, but for you Austin, I was
Speaker 1: a college baseball player at Arizona State and had a
Speaker 1: traumatic d surgery knee injury, and it ended the sport
Speaker 1: for me, and it sent me down this really dark
Speaker 1: road of addiction. I got addicted to pain pills. I
Speaker 1: was doing a lot of other drugs, but really that
Speaker 1: had the grip on me. And it wasn't until years
Speaker 1: later when I ended up in rehab and I was
Speaker 1: starting to look at my life like, what the fuck
Speaker 1: happened to my life? I was this baseball player, that
Speaker 1: was my identity, this star, and now I'm a drug addict.
Speaker 1: And after getting therapy for the first time and actually
Speaker 1: diving into this whole world of personal development and understanding
Speaker 1: and connecting the dots, it was that I didn't want
Speaker 1: to I didn't want to feel the emotional pain of
Speaker 1: the loss of this identity of a baseball player. But
Speaker 1: because that's all I ever knew, so it almost killed me.
Speaker 1: So it's inspiring for me to see you tube men
Speaker 1: that have so much more going on than just the sport.
Speaker 1: And even though it adds a lot to your plate.
Speaker 1: You know, I know God will never give us more
Speaker 1: than we can handle. And I also know that, like
Speaker 1: too much that's given, comes great responsibility. And you guys
Speaker 1: have been given a platform, but not only a platform,
Speaker 1: an open mind willingness to actually like share this stuff, right,
Speaker 1: And so I just see you, see the both of
Speaker 1: you like doing so much more than just what you're
Speaker 1: doing on the field, and it's it's a beautiful thing
Speaker 1: to witness and hear you guys conversate, and it's it's
Speaker 1: so important what things you're talking about. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, you know, if if you don't mind me
Speaker 1: asking as far as when that addiction started. Was it
Speaker 1: when you retired or as you were going through like
Speaker 1: rehab with your and stuff like that, or what great question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is what we talk about all day long,
Speaker 1: so you can ask me anything. But yeah, so it was.
Speaker 1: I had a cadaver transplant of my meniscus. I was
Speaker 1: the first person in Arizona to ever have this procedure.
Speaker 1: The procedure was a disaster. I was prescribed to eighty
Speaker 1: percus set a week for a month straight, and then
Speaker 1: the doctor cut me off cold turkey. So I had
Speaker 1: every reason to blame it on the doctor over prescribing,
Speaker 1: but I still wasn't even getting reprieve from the pain.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was bedridden for over a month and
Speaker 1: a half and it was like turned the corner pain wise.
Speaker 1: But then as I it was like the perfect storm
Speaker 1: losing baseball, went through a breakup, had to drop out
Speaker 1: of my classes, and so I'm kind of thrust back
Speaker 1: into this world with like no identity and no purpose.
Speaker 1: And so I went into the world of just partying
Speaker 1: and it was like, you know, I thought I was
Speaker 1: having fun in the beginning, but then you know, when
Speaker 1: Monday would come around and everybody else was done partying,
Speaker 1: I couldn't even step foot outside my door because I
Speaker 1: was so riddled in anxiety and fear. So I would
Speaker 1: take pills. And I wasn't taking pills to get fucked up.
Speaker 1: I was taking pills to feel normal. And then it
Speaker 1: was just a constant cycle of that for for years
Speaker 1: until I, like by the grace of God, found myself
Speaker 1: in rehab and and was able to figure it out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the reason I'm asking because I feel like I
Speaker 1: see it play out time and time again, especially in
Speaker 1: the NFL, where it's like, you know, from a younger age,
Speaker 1: especially in sports, in school and being under you know,
Speaker 1: at the authority of your parents, you have your handheld, right,
Speaker 1: like you have someone guiding the way for you, right,
Speaker 1: And we continue to go down, especially in football, like
Speaker 1: we continue to go down this line of you know,
Speaker 1: you go to high school, you go into college, and
Speaker 1: guess what, when you go into pros, you ain't getting
Speaker 1: your hel to handheld anymore. College you got to work
Speaker 1: out of this time. You got to go to class
Speaker 1: here's the schedule, here's meetings, here's what you got to do.
Speaker 1: Guess what in the pros during the season, Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: come work out, But guess what you can You could
Speaker 1: do whatever type of workout you want to do, right,
Speaker 1: it's on you, right. And studying, you can study whenever
Speaker 1: you want to study. Right offseason, you do whatever you
Speaker 1: want to do. Right. Your hand is not held anymore. Right,
Speaker 1: so the true colors of who you are start to
Speaker 1: show because now you don't have that authoritative figure or
Speaker 1: that that structure that's set into your life. Right. And
Speaker 1: so for some guys, a lot of guys when they're young,
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, I gotta figure this out, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm hoping right, this is why I've talked about this
Speaker 1: stuff all the time. It's like, guess what, You're not
Speaker 1: getting your hand held anymore. So how can you start
Speaker 1: to build yourself up so that you can put your
Speaker 1: structure into your life like you did coming out of rehab.
Speaker 1: You got the structure put back into your life where
Speaker 1: it seems like, right, you had all this stuff happen
Speaker 1: at one time, right, You had that was like your crutch.
Speaker 1: You kind of just fell off of the structure and
Speaker 1: then you're like, okay, let me, let me start doing this,
Speaker 1: and you found out the hard way that that's not
Speaker 1: what you wanted to do. And so it's like, as
Speaker 1: a young from all my young guys that come in,
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, start learning, start meeting people, right, That's
Speaker 1: that's all you gotta do. You don't have to be
Speaker 1: building stuff, doing all these foundations all that stuff. Just
Speaker 1: learn and meet people. Right, So you can give yourself
Speaker 1: options to have some type of structure moving forward in
Speaker 1: your life, because if you don't do that, you're going
Speaker 1: to be lost right when you're when you get out
Speaker 1: of this, whenever you're whenever you're handhelding time ends a
Speaker 1: lot of people after high school, right after you graduate,
Speaker 1: if you don't have any structure for yourself going forward,
Speaker 1: you are going to be so lost. And that's that
Speaker 1: can be okay if you have a good right, a
Speaker 1: good network around you, it's a good support system. But
Speaker 1: as you get further away from that, and as you
Speaker 1: get older, you'll start to realize that you're gonna be
Speaker 1: depending less and less on them, so you'll be to
Speaker 1: any more on yourself. Right, So you got to give
Speaker 1: yourself options right, give yourself options and shoot your scenario.
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't even choices that you made, right,
Speaker 1: it was just things that happen to you, right, And
Speaker 1: so it's it's preventative too. It's preventative, right, having these
Speaker 1: things right, just can always continuing to build around yourself
Speaker 1: because you don't know. Life could come. I could I
Speaker 1: could lose my career, lose everything. Right, Well, guess what,
Speaker 1: I still would have options because I've been building around myself, right,
Speaker 1: And so it's so important. It's so important because you
Speaker 1: don't know, you don't know. You didn't know all this
Speaker 1: stuff was going to happen to you, right, So, but
Speaker 1: you were probably so focused on baseball, right, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, right everything changed. It was like, okay,
Speaker 1: what do I have to fall back on? And it
Speaker 1: seemed like it was drugs at the time, and was
Speaker 1: there nothing else? Was like was it? Where's the family support?
Speaker 1: I'm curious now, I'm asking where was the family support?
Speaker 1: Where was your network or anyone around you? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: mean they were, they were there, they were trying, but
Speaker 1: there they didn't have the tools to deal with um
Speaker 1: an addict, right, they didn't They weren't going to alan
Speaker 1: on before this all happened. And you know, my mom
Speaker 1: is so blinded by love that she was enabling. Oftentimes
Speaker 1: she thought she was helping, but she was actually getting
Speaker 1: in the way and taking me in and rescuing and
Speaker 1: and and and digging my bottom deeper. But that's all
Speaker 1: she knew. She was scared out of her mind that
Speaker 1: if she didn't take me in and I was living
Speaker 1: on the street, that I would die. But maybe that's
Speaker 1: what I needed to actually get to my bottom quicker.
Speaker 1: So it really changed for me, and I think Darren
Speaker 1: could We've talked about this often, like it. Everything changed
Speaker 1: when I just took ownership and I stopped blaming the
Speaker 1: doctors and I stopped playing the victim and I just
Speaker 1: owned my shit. I looked at my part in the
Speaker 1: whole thing and got honest. And that's when everything changed,
Speaker 1: not only from a sobriety standpoint, for just in my life,
Speaker 1: just like taking ownership, stop playing the victims. It was
Speaker 1: on me and today it's become the greatest It's become
Speaker 1: my greatest asset. We used to bury me in guilt
Speaker 1: and shame of this, Like addict who made a lot
Speaker 1: of bad decisions today, it's by far like the greatest gift.
Speaker 1: It's why Darren and I are are connected and best
Speaker 1: friends and have this connection. It's why we're sitting here
Speaker 1: talking to you right now, which is wild sometimes to
Speaker 1: think about the decisions that I made have led to
Speaker 1: this moment. Yeah, I mean, the hard times right give
Speaker 1: you the biggest struggles but the biggest glories in your life.
Speaker 1: Right if you if you make it out of any
Speaker 1: especially your guys's time, if you guys make it out
Speaker 1: of your time, the glory of that and the power
Speaker 1: that that brings to your life of like, look what
Speaker 1: I did, I did that ship like that that strength
Speaker 1: that that gives you right to actually go out there
Speaker 1: and if you can articulate that to other people even
Speaker 1: powerful but just as it and internally for yourself, if
Speaker 1: you can make it through that shit, That's why I
Speaker 1: invite hard times. They suck, absolutely, they're terrible, right, Like
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want them, but like when they're here,
Speaker 1: it's like all right, like I'm going through this, like
Speaker 1: let's get through this um. And you know I have
Speaker 1: people in my in my corner like that are going
Speaker 1: through some some like health problems right, Um, you know
Speaker 1: they didn't control that. But it's like I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: like just no, like I'm I got you, I got
Speaker 1: your back. I'm here mentally for you. But guess what
Speaker 1: when you push through this, I cannot wait to be
Speaker 1: there here in your story about Hey, this is Look
Speaker 1: look what I pulled through, right, because it's it's all
Speaker 1: like it just gives you, like like you a whole
Speaker 1: new life to go forward, and you feel like you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can take on, like look what I just did right,
Speaker 1: going to work, trying to find a job, getting on
Speaker 1: my feet. That's easy because I just went through that. Right.
Speaker 1: For you guys, right, coming through this addiction, getting clean
Speaker 1: and then pushing forward, right, it makes it puts things
Speaker 1: in perspective for you, and it makes makes things seem
Speaker 1: not as serious, because you know what something that as
Speaker 1: actually serious really is, especially when it's talking about you know,
Speaker 1: your livelihood, which is about as serious as it gets.
Speaker 1: So yeah, props to both you men. I love I
Speaker 1: love the turn that this just took because I was
Speaker 1: going to circle back to this. I feel like the
Speaker 1: reason you're so mentally tough is because there was adverse
Speaker 1: circumstance after adverse circumstance that you stepped right into, put
Speaker 1: your face in the fire, and we're able to see
Speaker 1: aside of you, see yourself be stretched to ways and
Speaker 1: links that you never thought you could could get to.
Speaker 1: And to develop that toughness, it takes discomfort. It takes
Speaker 1: putting yourself in situations, walking through situations that do not
Speaker 1: feel good, because if you always go with something that
Speaker 1: feels good, your mind's gonna be set on comfort. Your
Speaker 1: mind's going to be set on pleasure, your mind's going
Speaker 1: to be set on Oh, I just want the results
Speaker 1: of things, as opposed to wanting the process of things
Speaker 1: and wanting the journey of things. And when we're stuck
Speaker 1: in that mindset, we're going to continue to find ourselves
Speaker 1: asking why am I here? I was the same way
Speaker 1: with Donnie with my addiction, you know, like I keep
Speaker 1: asking myself like damn, like why? Like I was told
Speaker 1: this was a way for me to feel better. I
Speaker 1: was told, like whatever dream success, that this plan, this
Speaker 1: blueprint in the world laid out in front of me,
Speaker 1: was the way I was supposed to go. But it's like, man,
Speaker 1: is this doesn't seem like it's working, but I find
Speaker 1: myself being the biggest part of the problem. At the
Speaker 1: same time, if I'm the biggest part of the problem,
Speaker 1: I can also be the biggest part of the solution
Speaker 1: as well, So when that provides a lot of power
Speaker 1: to my perspective as well. So once I start to
Speaker 1: understand those things, like every single choice I make, every
Speaker 1: single decision I make, like you said, the people I'm
Speaker 1: getting to know, the relationships that I form, Like all
Speaker 1: these little things that we think are small or cliche
Speaker 1: or aren't the big firework moments of our lives that
Speaker 1: we're trying to get to so fast. If we overlook those,
Speaker 1: and we're overlooking the real magic that lies within our
Speaker 1: story and our comeback story. Yeah, and then not just
Speaker 1: your comeback story, but your life in general. Like you
Speaker 1: just think about it. Think about it. What's giving you
Speaker 1: more opportunities in life? Right? Like money or your skills,
Speaker 1: your network, your effort, all these things that you can control. Right,
Speaker 1: Money would definitely give you opportunities, for sure, But you,
Speaker 1: you are the asset, right you. It's your story, it's
Speaker 1: it's your skills, it's your value that you can add
Speaker 1: to someone else, not your money. Money is all over
Speaker 1: the place. Right, But guess what, they don't have your mind,
Speaker 1: they don't have your experiences, they don't have your knowledge. Right,
Speaker 1: the ability to share this story is so powerful, right
Speaker 1: you like, oh, like you're you're speaking the language. Man,
Speaker 1: it's good. I'm disagreeing with you. Like it goes beyond that, right,
Speaker 1: the things that are real value in life, I think
Speaker 1: we get like you're saying, we want the short term
Speaker 1: the results. Right, Like for me, just using my example,
Speaker 1: like I was never going I was like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get to the NFL. That was never that was
Speaker 1: never even a plan for me. Like I was going
Speaker 1: to use football to get my education in business. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go to business and I wanted to start
Speaker 1: getting into some real estate. That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And so I went to Division two school and guess what,
Speaker 1: we don't get full rise of Division two schools. So
Speaker 1: guess what you gotta do. You gotta play get all American,
Speaker 1: get all conference. Then you can get your scholarship increased
Speaker 1: like a thousand bucks every every semester. And so I'm
Speaker 1: grinding my ass off to get my scholarship in created
Speaker 1: because I my mom, single mom ain't paying for college
Speaker 1: right like that ain't that ain't happening. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: not to have debt, right, and so I did. I
Speaker 1: was just focused on on just building, just building myself right, myself,
Speaker 1: my education right, my skills, things like that, and it
Speaker 1: gave me an opportunity. I didn't have any money, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it didn't come from money. It didn't come from
Speaker 1: these short term results that people are chasing the stuff.
Speaker 1: The stuff. The real opportunities in life come from building
Speaker 1: yourself up to the point where you're you're desired by
Speaker 1: other people, right, and the skills that you have and
Speaker 1: the experiences you've gone through. And so I agree, man,
Speaker 1: I agree, fire man. Yeah, so good. We know you.
Speaker 1: We'd love to keep you on here for long and
Speaker 1: I know you an active dude. Uh So we appreciate
Speaker 1: appreciate it for all the time that we could get
Speaker 1: from you. Appreciate you coming in and sharing your story,
Speaker 1: sharing your mind, sharing your heart. Man, We're grateful, bro,
Speaker 1: Thank you absolutely Hey to YouTube, man, like keep keep going, bro,
Speaker 1: Like it was like episode like fifty, We need like
Speaker 1: a thousand, right because this message right, this this stuff,
Speaker 1: I know how content creations is not easy. It's not easy,
Speaker 1: but the messages that these messages need to keep getting reiterated,
Speaker 1: right because it helps people in so many different ways.
Speaker 1: So props to you, Props to all your listeners out
Speaker 1: there that keep tuning in on the weekly. So I
Speaker 1: appreciate you boys for having me on though. Thank you man,
Speaker 1: this is so good. Appreciate you. Yeah. Absolutely,