Don Yaeger - Forbes Senior Contributor, Team Builder, Executive Coach, NY Times Best-selling Author, and Host of Corporate Competitor Podcast

 Well, hopefully no one will ever write a book about me. My job is to write about others.
 He was the greatest football player ever in my opinion and a better man than that.
 But I didn't wear my Jordans today. I'm still just jealous of all the time that you've
 spent with MJ. Your curiosity allows you to pull from people really great content.
 I think people with a high CQ are the most interesting people in the world. To me,
 find a question that you can ask every great interview you're going to do that will make you better.
 But if you drive action, you're an enabler as a speaker and that is the best and most
 powerful kind of speaker. Wow. By the way, I just wrote that down. Trust me, you'll see it in my
 marketing before. Hopefully you won't charge me for it. No, that's a free one, Don.
 The first one's always free. You're listening to the radcast. If it's radical, we cover it.
 Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Hey, guys. What's up? Welcome to the least edition of the radcast.
 We're staying radical like we always do here. Fist radical. We cover it.
 And Don Yeager is radical. What's up, brother? Welcome to the show.
 Hey, thanks, right? I'm glad to be both with you today and feeling radical with you.
 That's great. We joked beforehand. Everybody's got a lot of titles and you've done a lot of
 really great things and I'm excited to get to it. Your Forbes contributor now,
 team builder, executive coach, New York Times best selling author. Hey, and you know what?
 After talking with you more, I'm just going to say one hell of a great guy.
 Thank you. I'd rather lead with that. That's good.
 No, man. I've enjoyed learning more about you as I've read. I enjoyed. I know we've shared
 shared places here on each other's podcasts and stuff and so I'm excited to further the
 relationship. But I'm excited to kind of tell some of your story today and make sure our listeners
 you know, learn from a lot of your experience and I mean, you know, I'm still I didn't
 wear my Jordans today. I'm still just jealous of all the times you've spent with MJ.
 He's right back there on the wall. It's all good.
 Cool. Well done. Let's start down the path and I will let you lead us. I know you've done a lot.
 You've written a lot. You've, you know, spoke a lot. But let's give everyone, you know,
 your version of kind of your life story or your professional story and then we'll kind of get
 down to some specifics. Sure. Well, you know, for me, a lot of it really came from growing up. I was
 a the son of a preacher. My father was a Methodist preacher and born and raised in Hawaii, lived in
 Japan for a couple of years, then ended up in Indiana and when I when I showed up in Indiana for
 high school, the night before school was to start. I got a phone call from the from this the
 school counselor. I had signed up for ROTC. I was pretty sure I was going to be in the military
 because that was what I'd grown up around a lot of military families and they they let me know
 that there weren't enough kids that signed up for ROTC. So they were canceling the program.
 But she was putting me on the student newspaper, right? There was a there was a slot there and
 so they were throwing me into that role and I'd never thought about writing or that as a potential
 as anything that I might want to do. And it did not take me long to find out how much I enjoyed
 the art of chasing curiosity, which is what journalism is, right? I'm in I'm intrigued by things.
 So I want to go learn about them and then I want to learn how to tell them to other people so that
 they can satiate their intrigue as well. And so literally by by complete accident, I found
 as a freshman in high school, I found what would ultimately be my career, which is I think a
 reasonable rarity. Most people don't have any sense that that's something that they would enjoy
 that much. I did and it turned into now 33 books and a long time career at Sports Illustrated and
 several long newspaper gigs and travel all over the world. Hey man, they say bloom where you're
 planted. I think you you did more than bloom my friend. Well, and it was it was an accidental
 planning. And so I think that's the other really good lesson there is it's sometimes we want to
 be we want to like we want to script it out. And sometimes life doesn't lie you to script it out,
 right? You have to just you have to go where where where where things allow you to go sometimes.
 It's crazy having the irony of you saying that, but like, you know, being the talented writer that
 you've been and are, you know, literally scripting, you know, like, you know, your life's work both
 living it and scrim. You know, I find I'm one that lives in ironies and, you know, being in a creative
 space, you know, finding those insights, but it's probably the path I would go if I was writing my
 a book about you. You know, like, well, hopefully no one will ever write a book about me. My job
 is to write about others. I know what is that? I will say, is that hard? I mean, you know, right?
 Do you you've written for others and been awarded for writing for others and had the, you know,
 the amazing ability to write about it. I want to get more into that, you know, everyone you've
 written about. But is that is it? Do you find it hard to write about yourself? Yeah, I don't
 I've actually never written about myself, but I've written, I mean, again, for me, I consider kind of
 my, my sweet spot is helping identify the really great stories that exist within other people
 and then helping them figure out how to make those great stories tellable to the public at large.
 And so, you know, it's, it's funny. I've read some statistic once it said like 81% of the
 population believe they have a book in them. They, you know, they believe there's a book inside of
 me. And obviously, you know, a tiny percentage of that number will ever write one. But, but for those
 who do have a book inside of them, having someone guide them through the process, which is what I do,
 um, asking the right questions, listening appropriately, doing the follow up questions as you and I
 were talking, right? It's, it's not just about having a script. It's about knowing when to go off
 script. Yeah. And when you can do that well, you find that there's, there will always be work for
 you if you can do it well. So, you know, I don't want to gloss over, you know, and I think there'll
 be intrigue, you know, with our listeners and, and viewers, um, with some of the who's who of,
 you know, who you've written about, you know, I guess we can talk for the sports illustrated side,
 the sports side. Um, can you kind of share a little bit more of the highlights of some of the,
 the past writings and everyone you've been both fortunate. And I like to think you create your
 own fortune with the success that you've had, you know, but some of the, the greats you've written
 about. Well, um, you know, probably right at the beginning, one of the, one of the biggest breaks
 in my career occurred when a pretty decent NFL running back named Walter Payton, a guy who had
 a mediocre career. Um, anyway, uh, actually probably the greatest of all time, I think. Sweetness,
 yes. Exactly. Um, I had known Walter through my work in writing, um, and then suddenly, uh,
 uh, Walter, at age 46, um, encountered a rare form of cancer that was going to kill him.
 And he knew he was going to die. He had received the diagnosis. He had, the world did not know it
 at the time. And Walter, uh, decided it was time for him to try to tell his life story, which
 is funny to me. I mean, he's the greatest of all time. He's 46 years old. I mean, we have like,
 you know, 13 year old gymnasts who are writing their life story today, um, in books and I'm thinking,
 you haven't even lived the life like what, what life story are you going to live? But Walter Payton
 hadn't yet written his book and he decided it was time. And, um, and my good fortune was,
 as he was searching for a writer, um, I happened to be on Oprah Winfrey show one particular day.
 Walter was watching it, realized that I would be, I could be the guy that would be the right
 writer for him. And he invited me into his life. And I lived the last 10 weeks of Walter's life
 with him and to write his autobiography, never, never die easy. And, um, and for me,
 that was the game changer, right? And up until then, I was a solid journalist and made my career
 was good. But now someone like Walter Payton reached over and said, I trust you,
 because that's what writing, that's what giving someone, you know, your life story,
 especially if like Walter, he was going to be, he was going to be, he passed away by the time
 the book came out. So he fully had to trust that I, that I was going to treat him as he deserved
 to be treated. And when Walter Payton said, I trust you, basically, there wasn't another athlete
 on the planet that wouldn't say, if Walter trusted you, I trust you too. So it changed my career.
 What a testament to, I don't know, just the integrity and the belief that someone has in you
 when Walter paid in the greatest of all time. And, you know, in his last moments,
 turns to you to tell that story. I mean, that's just so moving. Like, what was that? What was that
 like? I mean, it had to be, both the opportunity and embracing it, you know, like there's the
 excitement of that opportunity. And then the subject matter and knowing that you were, you know,
 the man is dying. I mean, what, what up? I don't know. That would just be, that had to be
 a struggle of struggles. Every bit of every bit of it. I mean, you know, I, he was my hero,
 right? I mean, I grew up worshiping like Walter Payton. I, I wanted to be Walter Payton. Everybody
 did, right? You know, if I could high step like that, if I could, you know, I would, I would give
 anything. And, but the challenge was that when he offered the invitation to me, I did not know that
 his condition was terminal. And then he, you know, when, when he invited me into his house to tell
 me, he wanted me to be the writer, he let me know that that was what I was up against was an
 uncertain amount of time. The, and yes, so there's high emotion, because you're constantly,
 every day, you're wondering, well, I get another question in, right? Will tomorrow be the last day?
 Will today be the, I mean, you didn't know. And, and because he was in pain, there was, you know,
 there were periods of each day where morphine and other things that we're having to be used to
 control his pain would make our time together unusable. You know, so you, you valued every,
 every question, every answer and every interaction. And it was really powerful.
 How was he in that time? I mean, once he knew, you know, like, this is more just a curiosity question,
 I mean, was how was that, that had to put a toil on you. I would think just watching that struggle.
 It was, and to watch him dwindle to remember, he was physically like the beast, right? I mean,
 a 210 pound beast. And by the time I got there, he was 155 pounds. So he'd already whittled away,
 and he continued to lose more weight as, as I was there. So you're looking at this person that was
 as physically dominant as anyone in, in, in history in that sport. And yet, you know, you can't,
 I mean, it reminds you what cancer is, right? And so pretty powerful. But, you know, the one thing
 about it was he had accepted his fate. And he actually was careful to always lighten the room,
 because he wanted people not to be worried and talking about what he was up against, but instead
 to be talking about, about good memories, right? As it happened one day. So his best friend,
 I'm sorry, I'm telling these, all these long stories. No, this is what, darn, I love it, man. This
 is like, this is what engages everyone. His best friend was his fullback, a guy by the name of Matt
 Sui, who played at Penn State, and was the fullback for the Bears. And Matt, Matt is a, you know,
 a big white guy and Walter, obviously a black guy. And, and so we're sitting there one morning
 in Walter's basement or one, you know, like late morning and Walter's basement flipping through
 channels. And up comes the movie Brian's song, right? Which you might remember was about Brian
 Piccolo and Gail Sayers. And Brian Piccolo was the, was the player who, who was dying in that movie.
 And in that case, Brian was white and, and Gail Sayers was black. And so the movie comes up and,
 and, and, and Matt, and everybody froze like, oh no, you know, this is essentially like Walter
 and Matt Sui. And, and so Walter says, hey, let's watch a little Brian's song and Matt was like,
 and he jokingly said, you know, Walter, it's kind of like our story.
 And Walter looked at him and said, yeah, but in, in our story, the black guy gets it in the end,
 right? And just to make the moment light and funny, he could, he could make it humorous in that,
 which relieved the tension and allowed us to laugh and allowed us to, to engage in good stories.
 And that's really what, what made the book really special for me.
 When you think about his legacy and how great he was at everything, you know, hearing that,
 just like further cements, like him is a person. And like, I mean, look, you all, we all hope
 we're gracious and death and everything, you know? But the reality is not everyone is and not,
 and I don't know, hearing that and knowing, you know, what you read and, you know,
 from storytellers like yourself and, you know, you, you want to, I don't know, hope for that.
 But to hear it firsthand from you is, I don't know, I think, just so special. And, you know,
 for how special the person he truly was. He was not just, I mean, he was the greatest football player
 ever, in my opinion, and, and a better man than that. And I think those are, those are two seldom
 used, you know, they don't sell them, they, they sell them go together. Yeah. I know, what other
 highlights, I mean, you know, you've written, how many total books is it now? 30. So my most recent book,
 which was with the golfer Bubba Watson, was book number 33, which is crazy. And then
 have been lucky enough that 11 of them have become New York Times bestsellers, which is kind of a
 crazy number. I would, if you'd have told me years ago, I would ever have one New York Times
 bestseller. I would have been ecstatic and to have experienced it 11 times is really incredible.
 What obviously Walter stands out and, you know, it's obvious why. But maybe, I mean, with 33 and
 11 bestsellers, I mean, is maybe one that you don't talk about as much, but, you know, you'd
 want to put on the radar of people, you know, that are always, we're always at least curious creatures,
 like you and I, you know, looking for the next read and things like that. What would be another
 standout or even for maybe a different reason that kind of, you think would be good to highlight.
 You know, it's, it's, it's, it didn't get all the attention that some of the other ones have gotten,
 but I had an opportunity, just a random, crazy opportunity that came up a few months ago where
 publisher reached out. They had just secured the rights to do a book with a young man named
 Chris Nickich. Chris is the only athlete with Down syndrome to have completed an Ironman triathlon.
 Wow. And I didn't, I didn't know enough about Down syndrome at the beginning to understand why
 the, that particular reflection would make the ability to do an Ironman so impossible.
 And you, and you look at where he started, right? I mean, a kid on a couch playing video games
 and his father created a plan with him to just be one percent better every day, right? If you can
 do one push up today, let's, let's do our best, you know, to try to do, you know, to work a few days
 and then do two push ups. And then, you know, and, and, and so he was able to build out a plan
 very well-defined whiteboards all over his bedroom, marking out every day how he was just going
 to get a little bit better, just a little bit better, and it allowed him to break every bear here
 and to tell everybody, don't tell me I can't because I'm afflicted, sit back and watch because I'm
 going to prove something to you. And you, you realize, man, I mean, hey, does it make the rest of us
 feel like slackers, right? We've got a million reasons not to do things. And here's this guy,
 so the book is called 1% better, right? And it's, it is literally, it's, it's the story of,
 of Chris and his family and how he worked. It came out just a few months, a couple of months ago,
 but it's, it was intended to come out in time for this year's Ironman and Hawaii,
 which got canceled. And so, you know, it kind of ruined the launch for him, but he was in the SB
 Awards last year on ESPN as the most inspirational athlete of the year. He's just, I, I marvel at,
 and he just, he taught me so much, right? For sure. I mean, I watched a special, I, you know,
 I'm always the sucker for the, uh, the game day specials. They do, like college game day,
 they do the, the guy, and I, I don't remember his name, but he had Down syndrome and he was a
 kicker. Yeah. Yeah. And I, he's wanting to be a high estate kicker. And I mean, they were telling
 the story about how he played football and all these things. And I have a couple down the line,
 not, not, I think it's like third cousin or something. It had Down syndrome that I, you know,
 grew up with and watched and knew and like, so I was around it enough to know how limited they were,
 you know, I'm sure there's variations, but still that, you know, because watching that kicker story,
 I was like unbelievable. Now, I'd not heard of Chris, um, and the triath, I mean, unbelievable.
 I mean, think about it, right? To do a triathlon, you're swimming in an open ocean, right?
 2.4 miles. Then you're, then you're, you're, you're 112 miles on a bike. Then you're, you know,
 running a full marathon. I mean, to do, and to do it all in less than 17 hours. And you know,
 he comes in at like 1650 or whatever it is. But for 16 hours and 50 minutes, this young man,
 you know, was, was driving towards something and, you know, 11 minutes later, he doesn't qualify,
 he doesn't finish. But he, you know, the bicycle crashed into an ant pile. All these things that
 could happen. And yet, you know, from what he had, from where he had started, none of that mattered
 to him because he was just tougher than his circumstances. And it reminded me, boy, you know,
 I got zero to complain about, baby. Nothing. We have nothing to complain about. And the 1%
 of what an aptly tied on. I mean, you know, 1% less than 1% of all perfectly healthy men can even
 do. Right. I mean, I have to think it's less than 1%. Absolutely. Much less with Down syndrome. I
 mean, wow. I mean, I'm going to read that. I, I, I feel motivated and blessed sitting here,
 even hearing that. So I appreciate it. I know our listeners will as well. Don, I know you've,
 you've co-authored some, some books. And I do want to get into a little bit of your process. You
 know, like, is that, is it co-authoring easier or harder? I think it's, it's harder because
 obviously, you know, anytime you're, you're committing to collaboration, you're, you've also,
 you know, it, my opinion of everything isn't necessarily the way it has to go. I have to,
 I have to be aware. I have to try to read my partner, whatever it is. And under, and by read,
 I mean, understand them. Yeah. So that I know, am I pushing too hard in one direction? Am I going,
 is this the right mix of, of, of, of, you know, the storytelling and the lesson teaching?
 Because again, I don't think any book should just be a story. I think every book should be a lesson.
 And, and so that's where I, I try to make sure those two things are always blended properly.
 So yeah, it's, it's, it's more difficult. I would think so. I love that story versus lesson,
 though, because I was here and you say that. And I was like, well, it doesn't, don't all story,
 no, all stories are not lessons there. They, you can be entertaining, but not have a lesson.
 It's funny. I told this exact, almost this exact thing at a, I, I was invited to speak
 to a bunch of athletes who wanted to learn to become speakers, right? And so there's some,
 some superstar athletes. And there was this long time, all pro from the Denver Broncos,
 and it comes up to me afterward. And he said, man, that was really enlightening. And I said,
 what caught your attention? He goes, my stories, like they have to have a point.
 Yeah, they, they, they do, you know, and he said, wow, you know, I've, I've been telling all
 these stories and I've been thinking everybody's just really enjoying them. And I said,
 when they probably do enjoy them, but boy, how much more impactful is your story if it includes
 a lesson, if it has a point? And he was like, oh, man, awesome. And you realize that this guy
 for 10 years had been out telling stories to groups and audiences. And it never once thought
 that the story needed to come in for a landing, you know? You know, it makes me think of it this
 time of year, with John Candy and Steve Martin and Plain Strange novel. Here's a, here's a,
 here's a great idea. Matt, your stories have a point. It makes it show us more interesting for
 the listener. I need to go ahead and even thought about that line, but that is so there you go,
 Steve Martin. You need to have that on your, that's going to be part of your social media,
 like a meme or something. That'd be perfect. And he's like, I like to meet for my friend. He has
 a lot of interesting anecdotes. Here's a good, you'll take me later. Oh, man, you're like,
 you're quoting Plain's trains and automobiles in the podcast. It's us. Oh, no, or maybe think of that.
 But it is true that there's not a, every story doesn't have a lesson. Not even a point.
 You might have a point, but it doesn't have a lesson. No, I love it. I love it. What about like
 on the sports illustrated side? Talk about some of your writing there. I mean, what would,
 what would be familiar to people or maybe some of the athletes you covered or some of the specifics
 behind what you've done with sports illustrated? So in my time there, I mean, there's at the senior
 writer kind of associate editor level, which is where I was. There are only 30 of those writers
 in the entire world at any given time at sports illustrated, at least in the window in which I
 worked there, the 12 years I was there. And the one thing that, and so several of the key writers
 had important beats, right? Peter King covered the NFL, you know, Tom Verducci in baseball.
 I was one of those who was, you know, I was a, I was a utility infielder. I'm ready to,
 one week I could be in China covering a story about counterfeit golf clubs. And the next week I
 could be at the Kentucky Derby, right? So you had no idea where you, but it was an extraordinary
 experience because you, unlike a beat writer where you're really fully invested in a subject
 like the NFL. And you know, everybody, and I would have to jump from, you know, one topic to
 the next and immerse myself pretty quickly to get to a place that I could become
 conversant with people that were far greater experts, right? Whether it was, you know,
 how to avoid getting caught taking steroids by, you know, by working with chemists and scientists
 in Europe who were showing me how, you know, the testing was run so that they could then,
 once they knew how to, the tests were being done, then they could know how to, how to alter
 a sample to help, you know, beat the test. Again, far more detailed content than I would ever have
 wanted to have learned, except that was the beauty of it. It was, you know, every time I would
 take on an assignment, it would often be into a space that I had no previous knowledge.
 But Matt had to make you well-rounded if nothing else.
 It did. I mean, you know, but that's what we, I mean, again, remember why I told you I got into
 this was because I have a high curiosity quotient, right? I have a high CQ and I think that that's
 what makes anybody like yourself successful is, I mean, why did you start a podcast like this when
 you and I talked about it? I mean, you were on episode 73 of my podcast, right? And the reason that
 I had you on was because the more I listened to what you're doing here, your curiosity allows you
 to pull from people really great content. It allows you to pull from your team really great ideas.
 It allows you to build, I think people with a high CQ are most interesting people in the world to
 me, but they're also the people that can do more varied things. And that's what that's what
 Sports Illustrator allowed me to do. Yeah, and that's, you know, we talked about it. And I think
 there's, I've come up with like my top three like variables of successful people. One is
 curi- natural curiosity. Two is like tolerance for risk. And three, I'm still determining. It's
 some amount of craziness and something else. I'm not sure. Probably discipline maybe, you know,
 but you know, well, to be determined, I guess when I write that book, you know, I maybe I'll have
 you write it. It's, you know, it's funny because if I could give you a third one, it's in part of
 the work that you did prepping for our conversation today and some of the things that you suggested
 we might discuss. And one of them was like, what do you tell younger people, you know, who are kind
 of aspiring into your profession? And for me, the key to everything is being over-prepared.
 It's people, the person that you're in front of will always be impressed if you're over-prepared.
 And if they're impressed, they're going to open up in more ways to you. If you, you know, the
 better prepared you are, the better any conversation is going to go, and the better the conversation goes,
 the better the answers will be, the better the answers to be, the better your follow-up questions
 are, you know, but it all begins with this really solid foundation of being well prepared. And I
 think that's, if I had to give somebody like a nugget there, it's, that is your, you control that,
 you control how well prepared you are, and your commitment to preparation will show
 in everything you do from there on. I love it, Don. Talk about Don, Yeager, best-selling author,
 and one hell of a great guy. So, Don, I do, you know, what's interesting about yourself that I've
 I've been born in, I don't even have any outline, but I was like thinking about it.
 Natural, you know, writer, you come up, you know, written 33 books, 11 best-sellers.
 And, but you've translated this into an ability to speak. So, you're not only a great writer,
 a great communicator, which I know every all our listeners are, I think they're checking that box
 every moment we continue. But, talk about what you felt like has been your ability to translate
 the beautiful writing and storytelling and lesson telling into speaking.
 So, thank you for asking, because that's actually a really interesting transition for me in my life.
 I had been a writer, obviously, for many years, but while at Sports Illustrated, they actually had
 a speaker's bureau, right, where if you were an advertiser who spent a certain amount of money
 with the magazine, and you were hosting an event, like, let's say you were caterpillar and you're,
 you know, and you're deciding to host your largest sales representatives at the Masters,
 you could actually get Sports Illustrated to send over a writer for, let's say, a dinner that
 you're having to share a few stories, maybe kind of answer some questions. Most of the other writers
 hated it, right? They didn't want to do it. They didn't find it intriguing. I loved it. I
 loved the idea of learning, because I did all the prep work, right? I went to understand,
 what does it mean to be successful at caterpillar? How does success there in their business differ
 from success in the NBA, where I was writing a story at the time, or whatever it might be? You know,
 I wanted to try to compare what they were doing to what I already knew so that I could tell them
 stories that would really matter to them. And I got excited by that opportunity, and so ultimately,
 door opens, Sports Illustrated is offering early retirement opportunities for people, because
 the economy was changing. And I said, I'm going to go try speaking. I mean, I'd done these events
 for Sports Illustrated, but I had never tried to sell myself as a speaker. But I went out
 and hired coaches. I went out and I explored who would I be competing against? I went to events
 to watch my potential competition to see what they would look like. I did everything you would
 want to do if you were an athlete trying to get better, right? I watched game film of myself
 after a speech to see if I could what I was doing well and what I wasn't. And low and behold,
 a decade later, I'm doing 80 speeches a year all over the world for companies as large as
 Microsoft and Oracle and Cisco systems, all the big companies. And I learned how to do it,
 even though it hadn't been on my idea. I'd never set out to be a speaker.
 It just happened to be something I found that I enjoyed. But I hired coaches. I don't think much
 of what we do in life is completely natural. I think we have to go find people who can shorten
 our learning cycle. And that's what I want to do. It's good to hear you talk about watching
 yourself and learning and everything you took. My wife gives me a hard time because she'll hear
 me listening to our podcast. And she's like, do you not get sick of yourself and I'm like, yeah,
 I do. But I listened to every podcast because I'm trying to get better. I want to hear what I said
 and how responded to something and how I made someone feel. But you have to do it to get better.
 That's exactly right. And I think anybody that stops doing that, I mean, I watched the speech
 yesterday that I gave three weeks ago that they just sent me. And that's one of things. We say,
 sure, record anything you want, do whatever you want with it. Just make sure I get a copy of it.
 And I'm using it for my purposes, which is constant growth and training.
 What, how would you describe your style of speaking for someone that might need a corporate
 speaker or obviously they can go check out your website and we'll get to all that at the end.
 But how would you describe your speaking approach?
 So I'm a storyteller first, but it's funny because I was literally at an event a couple
 weeks ago in Pensacola and myself and several other speakers were talking about how we,
 what word we used, you know, are you motivational? Are you inspirational? And I, for the first time,
 tried, I said, you know what, I think I'm an activational speaker. Like, I want to tell you a story
 that is inspired to get you to take action. And so I don't just tell you the story and say,
 now go do it. I try to tell you the story and explain how you can go do it based upon what I've
 learned from the people I've worked with. So I kind of look at it and say, my goal, I study
 high performance. That's what I've been doing. My entire life, I look at the very best and say,
 how do they do it? And I began when I was fresh out of college, my father challenged me that every
 interview I was going to do, he said, ask them, what, what is something, you know, find a question
 that you can ask every great interview you're going to do that will make you better.
 And the question I settled on was, you know, Ryan, if you could think about the habits you've built
 into your daily routine that make the difference in your life, give me the one habit that you think
 most affects your capacity for success. What makes you great? And what I learned was, as I collected
 other people's habits, I began to understand how I could make myself better too.
 And so that constant commitment to improvement, all of those things, those are just lessons.
 And then I just put the lessons into application. And in the application, I worked on getting better
 at what I was at my craft, whatever my craft was. I listed to you say all that and I'm thinking,
 okay, and I like, I'm the marketer in me. I distill things, you know, clients tell me a thousand
 things and I distill it, you know. That's beautiful. But here's what I would call you, you're, you're an
 enabler. You enable, like, you, because sometimesspeakal speakers do things. And, but if you drive action,
 you're an enabler as a speaker. And that is the best and most powerful kind of speaker.
 Wow. And by the way, I just wrote that down. Trust me, you'll see it in my marketing before.
 Hopefully you won't charge me for it. But that's a free one, Don.
 The first one's always free because I don't think I could afford you.
 Oh, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I know you mentioned it and it was one of our
 questions. So I am, you know, age is not the point. Maybe it's just more where they are in their
 journey. But what are some tips and some recommendations for whether it's the youth or the, you know,
 the, you know, someone that's getting into writing or speaking, like, you know, what are some of
 those? And you've shared some, but maybe if there's other specifics and you just talked about your
 process for betterment, which is probably a lot of it. But there are other things that you'd put out
 there. The other thing that I wrote down when I, when I considered the question, because I was
 preparing, right? The question that you, that you had shared that you might ask me, was the power
 of learning to become an active listener. You know, many people think of listening as a very
 passive experience. It's really not, right? A good listener, it requires a teniveness. It requires
 a willingness not to be putting yourself into the next question, but to be present in the conversation
 right as it stands. To be a great listener is a lost art. And I think that that's one of those
 things, you know, you and I talked about it before we even got on today. What's the, what's part of your
 gift as I listen to what you do? It's that yes, you have a script, if you will, right? Something,
 but you're a great listener, which allows you to find the next great question. And that's where,
 I just, I think that most people, they've all, they've come up with their lists. And these are the
 questions I'm going to ask. And you have to listen. And then, but do it, do it with an active mindset.
 Yeah, I love that. That is, that is an art. And I don't know like, yeah, I was,
 my wife thinks I'm not the best listener, but you know what it is. You're probably not for your wife,
 but the problem is I have a bit of ADD. And when I'm in podcasts like with you,
 I mean, every other distraction in my world is off when I'm, when I have a podcast guest,
 and I'm talking with someone, I've got my headphones on. And when I, I'm one of the best listeners
 on the planet when I'm focused, you know, I'm probably one of the worst listeners when I'm not.
 And so you have to create an environment for focus. And you know, that is, I mean, it's perfect.
 But I also, my brain works in weird ways. I can, I can be talking with, uh, guests. And I can
 layer my thinking, I can be listening to absolutely everything that you're saying. But I can, I can stack
 four questions because you'll say something or a guest will say something and it will stack three
 questions down the line. And I can focus in the moment while layering the three that are coming.
 I don't know what it's, it's a, it's a blessing and a curse at the same time.
 I love that. I love that creating an environment for focus. Again, I take notes even while I,
 I mean, you know, I'm not used to being interviewed. I'm used to being the guy asking the questions.
 But, um, but I, so I can't help myself. You're saying good stuff. I'm writing it down.
 No, I love it now. Hey, we're learning from one another and, uh, and I, uh, I'm blessed to have met
 you. The, uh, and, but, you know, I'll, I'll give you another one. I call it creating space.
 Like it's, it's one of those other things like where if, if you don't create space for things to
 happen and it's a little different than focus, it's kind of like some people might say, well,
 you carve out time for things. But like we all do things that create space for other things to
 happen. Like, and I, I think that's another one that I put out there. But so, um, Don, let's talk as,
 you know, we're starting to close out a bit here. Um, you know, what's, what's the now in the future
 for you, my friend? I mean, you've done so much. You're doing so much. You've got the corporate
 competitor podcasts, which I was blessed to be on. And, you know, I, you know, but what's,
 what's the here and the now for you? Well, the podcast is one of those things. I mean, uh, you,
 you've been doing this. I'm a, I'm a little late in the, uh, in the game. Um, I started it
 during the pandemic because like everybody else in the world, I thought another podcast was necessary.
 Yes. But, but what I was looking for and, and, you know, as a, as a,
 gene marketing genius, as you are, you understand the, the key is too many people want to be
 everything to everybody. But the really successful people find their lane, right? They find their
 lane and then just dominate. And so I looked at my two worlds or sports and business, right? It's
 who I'm speaking to today are corporations. And so I wanted to know what did business executives
 who had, I read an, uh, an ESPN article that showed that Ernst and Young had done some research,
 this, that, that shared that, that 92% of the women who work on the C suite, right, who are
 C level executives of Fortune 500 companies were once athletes, 52% of them played sports in
 college. You start watching that there's a, there's an equally disproportionate number of men
 who also were athletes who are now today leaders. So I wanted to talk about what did being an
 athlete teach them as leaders? How did you become a better leader by being an athlete? And when
 you start to mix those two and the stories are fun, I mean, listening to you and you're, and,
 you know, your, your, your, your history was awesome. The idea of learning and, and for some of
 these executives, they haven't told those stories in 20 years, right? So it was fun for them,
 but for me, I get to learn the root of their, of their leadership genius today because it often
 happened in a, in a sporting environment. So the podcast has become extraordinarily important to
 me because it opens doors for me to interview, you know, people like, you know, Kate Johnson who was,
 who's a marketing leader at Google and, and was, you know, she became a goal-setting genius
 when she was on the Olympic crew team for the United States. I had Disney's CEO Bob Chapeck on.
 They talked about how to be better prepared and, and CEO of Delta Airlines at Bastion
 came on to talk about how, you know, he, how important is to be a visible leader. Like he has a rule
 that he spends no more than 50% of his time in his office. The other 50% he's in the field meeting
 customers and employees. I mean, that's a, that's a pretty high bar for an executive who could probably
 spend 95% of his time in the office. Yeah. So I love, again, it's just, I'm, I'm satiating my own
 curiosity, but I'm getting to do it with people like you, which is awesome. I love that man. I love it.
 Um, before we get into where everybody can keep up and find you for speaking, find your books and
 all that, you got time for a little rat or fat. I give you one key word and you tell me rat or
 fatted, you know, everyone wants to add some context. So it's, it's turned into that. So you can
 add context if you want to. I'll do my best to be to, to limit and be, be a pro, be me right.
 Uh, first is online coaching, rad. Absolutely, rad. I'm a big fan. Now, like I have to ask a
 follow up though. Does it, you know, you don't strike me as the cynical type, but like
 everyone, you know, your joke about the 13 year old is writing the book. Does, do you get
 it cynical at all about everyone's kind of a coach now? It is, you know, it is funny, right?
 Especially when you start, when you realize now there are like, you know, weekend courses where
 you can go become a certified life coach or whatever it is. You know, I mean, it's like first off,
 I don't even know what a life coach is exactly, but more importantly, I think, you know, as I told
 you, I'm, I'm a big fan of coaching. I seek it all the time. So I'm willing to go learn from
 everybody. The question is sometimes what I'm learning is what not to do. And so, you know, yes,
 I think sometimes it's a, you, you know, you, you listen for a very short pretty time and you
 realize my, my takeaway here is I'm not going to learn how to do what they're suggesting.
 It's learning not what to do. Rad. It's legit, right? All right. Number two, social selling.
 Rad, I totally believe that, you know, that that's the, that's the model. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding.
 Three Facebook meta. The metaverse. That is so bad. I'm like lost on, and in the timing of it,
 could not have appeared more questionable, questionable, exactly. Like, oh, Congress is
 investigating. Let's, let's, let's change our name. I did a TikTok video where I was pretty much
 like, let's see here. I would, I would miss it. The only thing that scares me is my kids do put
 a lot of value in their digital presence. So I don't know. I'm, I'm somewhat fearful that we're
 at, you know, at least when I'm, I don't know, in the nursing home or wherever I am in 35 years
 or whatever, that it's going to be in a virtual world. Yeah, exactly. When they're changing your digital
 diapers, I don't mean, yes. Yes. I don't know. Dodd, it's been awesome, man. Tell me, let's,
 let's tell everybody where they can, you know, learn about the podcast, find you, check out your
 books and speaking and everything else. Well, first off, you know, thank you, but I, but the,
 so I would tell you our episode and some of the stories you shared in the time, you know,
 who would it up? It's great. I hope that people will go corporate competitor podcasts. It's
 on all the major platforms like yours. And, and as I said, it's episode 73. I should have given
 you a Jersey number or something like that. But, but then everything else is really at Don
 Yeager, which is D-O-N-Y-A-E-G-E-R on all social and then Donyeager.com. And for that one,
 because I would have listened to a good marketing executive like you, I own all of the misspellings
 of my last name also. Smart. So that, so that they all direct you to the right spelling at some stage.
 So you can botch my last name and you'll likely find me nonetheless.
 I love it, Don. Hey, man, I want to continue this and I want to get to to know each other even
 better down the road. I know we can help each other. And I just like you, man.
 Ditto. So great. And thanks for the time. The preparation and the hard, the work that you put
 in to making your community whole. My pleasure, man. Hey, guys, you know where to find us?
 We're at theradcast.com. You can search for all of our content. Any keyword, search for badass,
 you'll find Donyeager. Hey, guys, you know where I'm at? At Ryan Alpert on all the platforms.
 We'll see you next time.