IDL54 Season 2: Tough Transitions: Learning to Enjoy The Ride, with Eric Wood

How can leaders use the power of recognition to boost team and employee confidence? What are the benefits of emulating the people that you admire? Are you present in the moment while working for the future?

Today, Tyler has the pleasure of interviewing Eric Wood, a NFL alumni, retired athlete, and the current color commentator for the Buffalo Bills. They discuss Eric’s experiences in leadership; as, in the space of a day, he went from playing at the highest professional level to being told, “you’re done”. Eric has overcome a difficult transition, and ultimately made a success of it - which he and Tyler reflect on across the podcast.

Meet Eric Wood

Eric Wood is a former center for the Buffalo Bills and two-time nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

Eric played nine years for the Bills, until a dangerous neck injury forced him to withdraw from professional football. He has since approached his post-football career transition with enthusiasm, bringing his years of experience on the field to broadcast media and public speaking. He currently engages with fans as a color commentator for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network. For an up close and personal perspective into his career transition, listen to Eric’s podcast, What’s Next With Eric Wood.

Eric also formed the Eric Wood Fund, which helps provide chronically ill children and their families with care, support, resources, and encouragement.

Visit Eric Wood’s website and connect with him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

•       Emulate someone you admire (4:55)

•       Remember to enjoy the ride (6:00)

•       In business, sports, and life, adversity is a given (9:40)

•       Use the power of recognition (27:04)

Emulate someone you admire

In both professional sports and business, you can elevate and improve your strategy and ability by finding someone that you admire and dedicate time to learning from them.

- How do they structure their routines?

- What are their hobbies?

- How do they improve themselves and their position in the team or business?

By following and learning from those that you admire, you can learn both from their successes and their mistakes.

Remember to enjoy the ride

While you develop and push yourself to flourish and excel in your career, whether in professional sports or business, remember to be in the moment.

Keeping the future in mind is important for your development and progression but simultaneously be present in your actions. Take pride in your daily life and achievements while you work towards future goals.

In business, sports, and life, adversity is a given

Adversity is a given in life. To be successful and peaceful in life is not about never experiencing adversity and difficulty, but to learn how to move past it and learn from it when it passes you.

Learning to be adaptable, flexible, and disciplined are some of the most valuable skillsets you can develop to be at peace and successful throughout a tumultuous and unpredictable life and business experience.

Use the power of recognition

As a leader, you can make a tremendous impact on your employees and teammates by giving them recognition.

Show them that you see their efforts, successes, hard work, and attempts to repair when they make a mistake.

It can go a long way to boost their confidence and deepen your relationship and trust with them.

Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:

Visit Eric Wood’s website and listen to his podcast

Connect with him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn

The Impact Driven Leader YouTube Channel

Join the Impact Driven Leader Community

Connect with Tyler on Instagram and LinkedIn

Email Tyler: tyler@tylerdickerhoof.com

About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast

The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.

Rate, review and subscribe here on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Stitcher and Spotify.

There’s a lot of power in surrounding yourself with the right type of people because you are eventually going to become [like] those types of people.

Eric Wood

Podcast Transcription

[TYLER DICKERHOOF] Welcome back to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. This is your, host Tyler Dickerhoof. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Thank you for joining in. Thank you for participating by subscribing or at least listening to this. I'm excited today to share with you the conversation I had with Eric Wood. Eric is an NFL alumni, retired athlete and he currently is the color commentary host for the Buffalo Bills, one of the most amazing franchises in all the sports for what their community, their players do for the world around them. I'm excited to share this conversation with Eric because we talk about his experiences in leadership, going from playing one day at a high, high level, being a pro bowler, the pinnacle of his position in the NFL to being told you're done. That launched his podcast, What's Next. I'm excited to discuss with him the lessons he learned playing at a high level in the NFL, but also then how he dealt with that transition and really finding out how he could be of impact in the world. I'm excited to share this conversation. I'm excited for the relationship building with Eric, and I hope you get tremendous value out of it today. Before we get to the interview, the conversation, I'd love to ask you this, if you could, by the end of this episode, just give me a review. Let me know how we're doing. That's how more people can find these episodes and through my heart and desire become healthier leaders. I had to do that and I'm hoping to help other people do the same. Thank you for being a part of the community. I'll see you guys at the end. [TYLER] All right, Eric. Thanks for joining me on podcast. Appreciate having you here. Appreciate making another connection from mutual friends Jordan Montgomery and David Nurse. You had a good friend, Colin Henderson on your podcast, another guy that I got connected through this fun little fraternity per se, if you want to call it. But for those guests, obviously they heard about you in the intro that I shared but as well would love to just share about Eric Wood and what's really your passion about your heart in regards to what you're doing now and how you got there. [ERIC WOOD] After a nine year NFL career, now in broadcasting, I've been with Fox, ESPN, CBS, and I've settled on the Buffalo Bills radio gig for now. I do the color for their game. It's a lot of fun. The Bills are pretty good right now. Super bowl hopes, we'll see where that ends up being at the end of the season, but it's been a lot of fun to still be around that organization. I played my entire career in Buffalo. I have a podcast now called What's Next with Eric Wood, and it's been fun to go on this what's next journey for me, finding out what's next for me in life over these last few years, since being out of the NFL and learning from a lot of people similar to yourself and how you make that transition and make your what's next in life, your best yet. So for me, I'm all about serving others, passing along that wisdom, trying to make a positive of impact on people. I love the Jackie Robinson quote, and it's actually on my stationary that I got next to me because I have a thank you card to write a little bit, but it says essentially a life's not porn except in the impact it has on others. That's what I like to live by, but probably most importantly, I'm a husband to Leslie and dad to Grace and Garrett who are six and three. [TYLER] So let's talk a little bit about, you talk about this transition. This podcast, the Impact Driven Leader podcast is a leadership podcast and it's a lot of filling in, being that bridge between generations. I know there's going to be a lot of elements that pop out. You're now an alumni player. I'm not going to say you're past that, but you're still a part of the Bills organization. You're part of the team, obviously as part of the Bills, radio network. One of the questions I really wanted to say is like, okay, Eric, a couple years removed, an injury, we can get into all those things; but if you were to go back and say, I got a couple more weeks in me, I got another year in me, why would you want to go back and impress upon those young offensive linemen to say, "Hey dude, when I was 22 and I was coming out of Louisville, I thought I had it all figured out. Dude, I was just dead wrong." What would be that thing that you would go and then just impress upon those guys? [ERIC] Man, there's so much I could get into from a development standpoint. I've had so many guys come onto my podcast and I would say the same thing. When you get into an organization, figure out someone in a position with the team and your organization that you want to get to. It doesn't even have to be necessarily at your same position, but go find that person and learn from them, study their daily process, figure out the way they eat, the way they prepare for games, the way they watch film and study all of that and emulate it. Because I always feel like if someone's already got to figure it out in life, watch, try and reinvent the wheel. Those people that got it all figured out are usually similar to us, ready to give that information away, to serve others with that. Maybe you avoid a landmine or two that they might have stepped on along the way. I think that applies to anything, Tyler. I think that's any organization. When you get there, learn from others. People that are in the speaking field. Go figure out what they did along the way to make themselves successful the podcast world. Whatever that may be for you, go figure out who those individuals are and then try to align yourselves with them and try and learn from them. So I would tell those people that. Now I also would say, enjoy the ride. The NFL is so special. It could be taken from you at any time. I feel like, especially towards the end of my career, I finally started to truly enjoy it but I would say for the first five or six years, I put so much pressure on myself to perform as a former first round pick that I don't know that I always truly enjoyed the moment. So I would go back and tell anyone that yes, you want to have as great of a career as you can? Use the gifts that God has given you to their fullest. Don't waste a second of that time, but also enjoy the ride. [TYLER] As you say that, I think that that attribute of, I almost didn't realize what I was going through when I was going through it that first five to six years, I think back about myself professionally, I think else is, you have blighters thought. Oh, you think it's like this, but the reality is it's not like that at all. I think if we look at whatever field career that is, you are going to find people in that place. And a lot of times they can end up pushing people away, they can end up ostracizing themselves, they can end up being an antagonist to an organization. I think that's just a reality. So if you were to go back and you see that same guy, he's maybe at the end of his rookie contract, he's a first rounder as well and you see that where it's all about him trying to get to that next contract. The same thing can happen in sales is what do you pull him aside and say, "Hey dude, let me give you a piece of wisdom. I know that you're trying to do with this all, but," what is that thing that you tell him? [ERIC] Well, I'll say this, a lot of times the big contracts come team success. A lot of times the big accolades come with team success. I remember in college, I was an all American, my freshman and sophomore year. Now I was a much better player my junior and senior year, but our team wasn't nearly as good. So a lot of accolades come with, like I said, team success. So what are you doing to lead those around you to pour into those around you so that the team is better because that is going to then create these bigger accolades, these bigger contracts? Now, luckily the Bills rewarded me twice with contract extensions, even though we were in the longest playoff drought in all professional sports. That doesn't always apply but I will say at times we had some success. You could've cherry picked some numbers and say, we did have some success during that time. They weren't just extending a guy that was creating a losing culture. I feel like I was trying to contribute as much as I possibly could to create a winning culture in Buffalo. [TYLER] I'll just throw this out. I mean, I'm a Browns fan, man, but I'm a Buckeye as well. I'm from Ohio, I'm a Browns fan. You're from south. I'm guessing you were a Bangals fan growing up. I'm just guessing. So being a Browns fan, the only other team to have as big of playoff drought is the Bills who surpassed the Browns. I don't know how, but that idea of being the lovable losers, I get that, I understand that and going to school in upstate New York, there's a lot of people listening this podcast that are part of the Bill's mafia. I got to experience that in New York and it's, I think that culture that's so supportive and so endearing that in either one of those fan bases, we'll put up with a lot. Where do you see that showing up in the world that you live in now, as you're trying to run your own businesses, or as you're trying to get out and speak, to be able to say, this may not be going well right now, but just stick with it. Trust the process. Support those around you. [ERIC] Well, adversity's going to come across everybody in life. The sooner you realize that the better. I've heard it, that you're either in a storm in life, coming out of a storm or heading into one. So don't be surprised when those storms in life come. There's much more severe things in life that are likely going to happen to you than your team losing, but to show allegiance through those times and to stick with the Buffalo Bills, for instance, through those 17 years has produced fruit now that you had that allegiance, and now you can truly appreciate these really good times that the Bills are having now. And had you not experienced all those times that the Bills were on the verge of the playoffs and then boom injuries, whatever else caused this slide at the end of the season, now you can truly appreciate it more because you understand the opposite end of the spectrum. Then also with enough resiliency, you will always get out of those bad times and you have to understand that. [TYLER] So looking over and preparing for this, you've had some, let's say tough times in your per personal life. You've had some tough times in your professional career. There's one that just stuck out to me and I thought it was pretty interesting, one that we share. When we were 14, we had a brother that died. As I read that story I wanted to ask about it again from my own point, because as I've shared on this podcast, to me, my brother's death had an impact much, much later on me in life in a positive way. I want to hear about your brother and hear about the impact that he's made on you as a person, but that how that affected you professionally and through your family too. [ERIC] Well, first off, I want to say, sorry about your loss. I was unaware of that, Tyler. That is something and we share in common, unfortunately, that we share that in common. My brother Evan passed away at the age of 11. He was born with severe cerebral palsy so he never walked or talked or breathed on his own. Well, when we would have conditioning sessions in college and they were just grueling, I would think to myself in those moments, like, how am I going to complain in this moment about running something I'm blessed to be able to do? I had a brother that never walked. How am I going to complain about running? So there was multiple times in my life where I would think about Evan in the struggles that he had throughout his life, and maybe not feel as sorry for myself and use that power to get through tough times or tough workouts or tough situations, whatever it may be. So moving forward throughout my career that allowed me, as I got into the NFL and had some money to be able to give back to a community, to those in need, to have a serious heart for those in Western New York, especially that had sick children. So financially we would give them assistance. We provided great experience, bring them out to Bills' games, and a suite from a hospital where for some of these families, that's the only time they left the hospital, was to come to this, especially this disinfected suite for the games. That allowed me to be able to pour back into the community and truly be able to talk to these families and come from a place of knowledge and understanding of what they're going through. So recently I renamed my foundation up there, which was the Eric Wood Foundation. Now it's the Evan Wood Foundation because I wanted to honor him because people will always remember in Buffalo because I played football. I'll have a legacy up there and now I think it's special that my brother will also have a legacy in Western New York. [TYLER] What do you think if you, again, as a 14-year-old and relating to that, and I think it's important because sometimes the, Colin talks about this, it's drama, trauma, daddy and mama, it's the mindset. You talked about your mindset. It's how could I sit here and be frustrated about going through this where my brother couldn't walk and he suffered this and part of the disease really affected everything in his life and what led to him dying? If you look at that, how do I need to block that out, and especially as a leader? I think what's important there is, here's where I want to make a connection is how did those teammates that you had either in high school or college and they said, oh, we're looking at Eric. We see Eric pushing through, we see Eric winning the Jersey for the guy that's out here working the hardest. How did that motivate them as far as you knew, or did it almost push you apart? [ERIC] I think it would definitely be motivational or you're just leading by example and those that would push you apart, those aren't people that I want to be aligned with anyways. I want teammates. I want people in the fight with me. I want the people that I'm looking at and say, how can I catch them in the sprints? How can I work as hard as them? Those are the people I want to be surrounded with in life in general. Everybody's got, I think God gives some people, so God wires some people, wires them just a certain way to where they might be wired, just a little tighter. They push a little bit harder and that's fine, but I want to be surrounded by those types of people, because those people inspire me. So maybe at times that was inspiring to others. Maybe at times I could be an example for maybe a coach to a point to and say, "Hey, you need to work as hard as Eric." But that wasn't always the case. A lot of times it was others, but I wanted to be surrounded by those guys. I wanted those guys on my team. [TYLER] Where did that show up as well in the NFL and I guess even, let me retract that, how has that showed up after the NFL? Because you had these years of conditioning for football, and all of a sudden you get told you're not going to play anymore dude. It gets ripped away from you and you're like what now? [ERIC] It's that, how does everything happen for you and not to you and switching your perspective and being able to get up off the mat in life and attack the next thing. So, for me, I'll generally say I don't do anything halfway. So as I approach this next chapter of life, I'm not just going to sit around on the couch now. Yes, I get to be present a lot more than I did when I was playing at home but yes, I could be more present, but I still want to make an impact. God gave me gifts and I don't want to sit there at the end of my life and feel like I wasted those gifts that God gave me. So if I can communicate well, then what am I doing to pass along so many of these gifts that I feel like God's given me through lessons, whether that's through other people, whether that's from sports, the game of life, whatever may be? How can I pass along those lessons to others? So how do I attack that now? Well, it's a podcast. It's podcast appearances like this, it's speaking engagements, it's pouring into younger generations. I loved how you said bridging the gap between generations. I've never said it exactly like that. I'll use that now, but I'll often tell college guys when I'm speaking to a team or a group of rookies in the NFL, "Hey, all I'm doing is speaking from a place of, here's what I wish I knew when I was in your shoes. Take it if you want, but you're most powerfully suited to serve those who are in a position you once were at. I'm just trying to pass along what I wish I knew when I was in your shoes." [TYLER] So what is that like? What's that one thing that you're like, man, if I can impart upon any person, just that as it's been to me, Roy Vaden has this. It's like, what problem do you solve? So what problem does Eric solve? [ERIC] Wow, that's a great question. I wish I could say three things. I'll say this, and there's a lot that goes into this, but being prepared in all moments, leads to confidence in my world. Confidence is the number one indicator for success, no matter where you're at. So if you're going to play football, the better you can be prepared for a game, a practice, a workout, whether that's nutritionally, whether that's how you warmed up and stretched, whether that's how much film you watched, how well you know the playbook, that's going to give you so much more confidence and allow you to play with confidence, which, like I said, in Jason's self, in my world, like the best of the performance coaches on the scientific side, he would say that that's the number one indicator for success. So how prepared can you be heading into a game practice, whatever it may be. Then you can relate that so easily to the business world. When you look at football, 97% of our week, I think I heard Dan Sweeney say 97% of the week is spent on preparation and 3% is what you see on TV. What is judged on film? So all of that preparation, how serious are you taking it? What you're putting into that time is so important. So when you're thinking about yourself out there and you're in sales, let's say, how much preparation time are you truly putting into knowing what you're selling, who you're trying to sell to? Communication styles, sales techniques how much time are you putting into that preparation? If you truly got it right, you should go in extremely confident in those situations. [TYLER] So can I, you said you had three, right? Because that's prepared as one. So I want to make sure I put a time out here because, let's hold onto those, but I want to talk to Eric, the captain, Eric, the center, Eric, the guy making the calls to say in your preparation, what are you doing to make those other four guys and the other lineman? What are you doing to make sure they're successful and prepared either by example or what you're reading, how you're doing? Walk me through that experience that Eric learned over the years as a nine-year NFL pro bowl lineman. [ERIC] That's an excellent question, Tyler. As an offensive lineman, when you step into that center role, you're generally the leader. You're the one that's communicating. So are you bringing people in to watch extra film, to show them what you see, show these young guys how to actually study film, study an opponent, to understand how they're going to try to attack you during a game? Then as far as game day goes your preparation for the game, your process leading into the game to play your best, then a lot of times on game day, it's how well you can communicate to your tackles and guards. Then are you putting people in a position to be successful because a lot of times I can dictate the blocking scheme. If I was selfish, I could say, I'm going to take this guard and give myself a little bit of help on every play. But that might not be the best for the group. Now there might be times that the play dictates that, but not always. So I think for those listening out there, it's taking those on your team, your group and how you pour into them the most? Can you communicate to them in those high stress moments to allow everybody to succeed? Because I know personally that if I'm the center of the Buffalo Bills offensive line and we give up five sax, the whole offensive line gave up five sax. It doesn't matter who gave them up. Really all anybody knows is that the Bill's offensive line stinks. Well as part of your team, it's likely the same one. [TYLER] Well, I mean it's, I won't go there. I mean, as a Browns fan, we sent plenty of records for sax and the offensive line was much aligned. What was that dude? [ERIC] Everyone knows who Joe Thomas is. Joe Thomas didn't give him up. [TYLER] He didn't give him up. And Alex Mack who got picked ahead of you, we don't know how many he gave up, but all the other guys gave up a lot and actually they were good. Then it was the years later. But let's talk about this though. Okay, so you talk about that preparation. I'm going to get them into the film room with me. I'm going to make sure that they are aware, but how much did you really, and maybe this is thinking their stuff you didn't think about, but how much did you work to connect with them to make sure that when you were speaking into them that they actually believed you as opposed to dude, here's just another guy. I'm the top guy in college. I've been an all American, whatever it may be. How much did you have to connect with them in order to say, "Hey, we have one job together. Let's do this together." [ERIC] That's another great question. So I learned about halfway through my NFL career that this generation now, especially this likes culture of social media that aren't used to a lot of criticism, they are used to getting treated like we did in college. I always go back to this generation coming out of college now and into college now. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. You need to build a relationship with these guys. I had a group of three rookies that we were counting on to play, and I believe it was 2013, 2014. I'm a captain on the team. We needed these guys to play. They're all three draft picks. Well, by the end of the season, they hated me. I love these guys, but I had rode them so hard because that was my leadership style, was, come on, bring it along, bring it along with that NFL season so long. They finally got tired of it. They weren't used to how long that NFL season is. They despised me by the end of the year. So I had to learn at that point that I need to build relationships with these guys. These were guys that were at my house for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that wasn't enough. It was that daily encouragement that they needed. So for those out there, I mean, I would always say now you need to build a relationship before you're ever going to give criticism nowadays. I'm not picking on a younger generation. I'm only 35 years old, but it's different nowadays. These guys grew up with social media and people telling them how good they were for so long and that all their pictures were liked. The recruiting process is even different for these colleges nowadays, because for so long, these guys have been told by all the recruiting sites how good they are. So it's a different animal nowadays. You truly have to build that relationship. [TYLER] I don't mean to camp out on this, but it's something I think is good that we can look at it as, okay, like you just described, a lot of these players, or we can look at organizations. It doesn't matter what field you're in. If the age of, "Hey, I'm looking for likes," one of the things that I find in talking to people and realize is that people actually care. I think you probably have seen this. You probably talked to guys that were just like, dude, Eric, you actually care. I think that's where there's like this genuineness of people have realized that coaches or employers, whatever, it's like, I'm going to get something from you. To me, it was a toxic style of leadership like, how can I get something from you? I can remember walking into my very first corporate event when I worked for a corporation and I walked out of there and I'm like, no one cares about me. They just look at how much money can they make off of me. One of the pieces that I think you're tying into and I think is the great opportunity is actually go tell people they care. They matter. They matter as a person. They matter overall. I think that's what you learned through the process. Did you learn that because someone else told you or you were like, I got to try it a different way? [ERIC] I learned because I realized I needed to try it a different way. Now I've heard it said beautifully recently from a guy who I've become friends with. That's David Nova, the former CEO of YUM! Brands who had 1.5 million employees under him and realized the power of recognition. People want to be recognized in life. David tells this power powerful story about, he had 1.5 million employees under him, but he wanted to go show the individuals working at a KFC, a Taco Bell, a Pizza Hut, whatever restaurant chain they were with. He wanted to show the employees of the month how much they meant to him and the organization. So he would personally deliver this rubber chicken. KFC was their biggest brand for a while so he was going to deliver this rubber chicken, and that was the employee of the month award. It was silly, but they made a big deal about it. It meant a lot to people and David said he got a call at his office one time and he wasn't even sure how the call necessarily got through to his actual phone, but he said he answered it. It was one of his employees wives. They said, "Hey, David, I just want to let you know that my husband, your now former employee passed away, but he wanted to be buried with that rubber chicken. That's how much that recognition you gave to him meant to him." So there is just tremendous power in recognition, and that can be, as a leader, that can be just such a powerful tool, whether it's just spotlighting an employee, whether as a spouse, spotlighting your wife or your children on something that they specifically do well., There is just tremendous power in that to bring confidence into that individual. [TYLER] As I think about that, and I think one of the great opportunities there is to spotlight, you talk about the guy that wanted to get buried with a rubber chicken and how meaningful that was. I believe every single person has one little thing that is going to impact the most. I think a great challenge as a leader is to just be curious enough to try to find that. I believe if you do that, man, that builds connection that goes beyond anything that you're collectively doing together. [ERIC] Yes, absolutely. There's just tremendous power in words, in general. So many people live with this glass ceiling above them, and it's been amazing to me over a hundred podcast guests that I've had that all have achieved high levels of success. That doesn't mean tremendous monetary success, just success in all buckets of life. They're just successful people. They're people that I look up to. It's amazing how many of them had one person at some point in their life, speak words of confidence into them. You never know when that's going to happen. You never know when you could be that individual that gives someone the confidence. I think back to, when I got into the NFL, I used to talk, or sorry, when I got to college, I used to talk to my high school buddies about if I could just be on the Bengals practice squad, I was a Bangles fan, if I could be on the Bengals practice squad, I could make $80,000 a year. I could get a job in the off season and make over a hundred grand. Well, then I make the freshman all American team and everybody on the freshman American team receives a letter. On that letter, it said that X amount of percent of these guys on this team will be first round draft picks. Whoa, I can be a first round draft pick? Now my goals changed. Now, my vision changed, now my life changed because of words that were written on a paper from someone I didn't even know. So you just never know when you could provide those words and how you can truly change someone's life. [TYLER] I appreciate you sharing that. That's awesome. I believe, as I've learned is belief is the greatest superpower. Belief in yourself as you just shared there as like, oh, I believe I can do this. I can go do amazing things. An opportunity as a leader is to find ways to pour belief into others. I believe you're doing that. I believe you're doing that through your podcast. I believe you're doing that through the people that you talk to. So I thank you for that. As we wrap up here, I just want you to again, give you the opportunity if there's something other than that one prepared, if there was another problem that you're like, man, I just feel gifted or able to answer this, what is that? [ERIC] So I talked about, I would talk to that younger generation, those college guys, those rookies coming in the NFL, or maybe even those people in snails that just got hired or whatever organization you're with. I would tell them there's a lot of power in alignment in who you're surrounded by. It's always been known that you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I heard Les brown say before that you'll earn within $2,500 on average of the five people you spend the most time with. Well, for me, as a division one college athlete, as an NFL player, there was always either other great athletes or NFL players that you're surrounded by naturally. [TYLER] So those are going to be in that top five, but sometimes the best five in that organization are going to be uncomfortable to be around. [ERIC] They don't eat junk food. They work so hard that sometimes it's convicting to you. They don't go out and party as much. Well, I mean, there was times in my life I might have avoided those types of people, but there's a lot of power in surrounding yourself with the right type of people because you are eventually going to become those type of people. So that would be another one if I was given them that. And then ultimately the harder you work at something and the more you put into it, and we talked about preparation and surround yourself with, well, ultimately you put in that work, you're going to gain confidence from putting in that work by being disciplined day in and day out. I just think there's tremendous power in that, and what's going to come to your life. I would say that in the way of structuring that to bring it in, to focus would be to create just daily process goals like what are the three wins you're going to knock out daily This is if you're an athlete, a father, husband, a wife, you're working a business. What wins are you knocking out daily each and every day that will set you up for success that you're going to put in that world? Maybe it's a quick workout in the morning so that you're going to be in shape. Because as my boy, Ben Newman talks about, who works with the Alabama football team, they don't want a dude walking in the door that looks like he just ate 12 donuts. You got to look the part. Maybe it's getting a workout first thing in the morning, maybe for me personally, it's getting in the word the first thing in the morning, because I want that to produce fruit in my life. Maybe I'm going to drive my daughter to school every morning that I have time to do it, or I'm in town because I want that relationship to grow. What are those wins for you personally? In football, they were, you might come in, you might get treatment on your body, catch a workout, eat a healthy breakfast. Boom. Now you set yourself up for success for the day you win enough days. You're going to see success in your life. [TYLER] Love it, love it. Thank you so much for sharing. It's been a tremendous value and appreciate your perspective. To me, what I love is to be able to take a different perspective, a different experience and apply those same attributes because we're all people, we're all leading people. We all have experiences. I mean, I was a nutritionist for dairy cows and at the same point here I am. It's about people. So thanks for your time, man. I appreciate it. [ERIC] No, my pleasure. I appreciate the opportunity to come on. I'm just lucky enough to be able to share some of these lessons, some of these gifts that I've been given either through podcast, guests, coaches, whatever may be. I'm lucky enough to pass them along and I appreciate the opportunity time. [TYLER] Thanks man. As I was preparing, a couple things that Eric and I talked about for this conversation was just how much he put into work, his personal desire, his desire to do something maybe others weren't or couldn't. I think as a leader, our great opportunity is to help others do that. I think that's pretty amazing. As Eric and I talked about the opportunity for him to start leading and being a leader on the team, working in the NFL, that knowing that some of these guys aren't going to be there tomorrow, and there's this inherent competitiveness. But as previous guest, Thomas Williams mentioned from his experiences at USC, it's not internal competition that drives success. It's competition together towards a vision and mission. As Eric shared so much in his experience and what he's doing now, I can't help, but look back and reflect and say, when you can look at the guy beside you that might take your job and position, and you know the best thing I can do for my organization is to help them be more successful, that's practicing empathy as a leader. That's putting your arm around someone and saying, if we both work at this together and get stronger, man, we're going to be better. I think as Eric has shared, and as he did share all the routines, all the different pieces that he built into his life to be successful when that's modeled for others, when we do that as leaders, we don't even understand the impact we make. I thank you guys for joining in, listening to this episode with Eric. I thank you for being a proponent, for being a champion of this cause. My purpose is to help other leaders get healthy, too. That's done through this podcast. That's done through the Impact Driven Leader book club and community, the round table. I invite you to become a part of the book club. Thank you for being here. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for leaving a review. Thank you for making a difference. Let's go make an impact and really change the lives of other people using our purpose to serve them. Until next time, take care.