Finding Purpose After the Dream

[Upbeat Guitar Music]

Mike: Welcome, everybody. This is Avoiding the Addiction Affliction brought to you by Westwords Consulting and the Kenosha County Substance Use Disorder Coalition. I'm Mike McGowan.

Mike: We dream, we work, we hopefully achieve. Then one day, we need a change in direction. What happens when the dream ends? Where do we find purpose?

Mike: Well, that's the message my guest today shares when he speaks to groups all across the country. Bradie Ewing is a National Account Coordinator for Kelly Supply Incorporated. He is also a motivational speaker, sales professional, and former college and professional football player who played with the University of Wisconsin before moving into the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Atlanta Falcons.

Mike: Welcome today, Bradie.

Bradie: Thanks, Mike. I appreciate you having me.

Mike: I love that you're doing this and we'll get to the, how we know each other in a little while, but a lot of young people, Brady, have a dream of being a pro athlete. I did, tons of us did. And I got to ask you, maybe this didn't happen, but when you were young, there had to be people to get, go for it, Brady, support your dream.

Mike: But there have to also be people that wanted to rain on your parade and think they were doing you a favor by telling you how the odds were stacked against you. Right?

Bradie: I can remember one instance in particular where in grade school you have that exercise of writing what you want to do or some dreams that you have, things you want to accomplish when you're grown.

Bradie: And one of the things like it sounds like you as well, I wanted to be a professional athlete. I don't recall if I put basketball player or football player, but I could remember that specific teacher doing what you said, kind of squashing the dreams and minimizing it. And wanting me to think beyond sports, which in hindsight, I can respect that.

Bradie: But at the same time, I think so many great things can come from our dreams. I think dreams give us a vision of what we want to accomplish, but then can motivate us in the day to day too. And so I guess that's my message to people is dreams are awesome. I love dreams. I dreamt as a young athlete, a young student, and finding ways to pursue that dream on a daily basis, that's going to help you in all aspects of life, whether you end up achieving that dream, making its professional, it's really the journey in the process along the way. That's going to make you into a better person and hopefully help you find your purpose as you go on pursuing whatever it is and hopefully accomplishing that dream.

Bradie: But really, it's the process. Trying to get there.

Mike: Give me an example of somebody who supported... how did they support your dream because you had to have a ton of people that also supported and drove you.

Bradie: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for circling back for that. Yeah, I think my family first and foremost. My parents the way the opportunities they gave our family and us kids, a lot of it was around athletics.

Bradie: So being able to play basketball and go to these football camps and they didn't push me to work as a middle school, high school. I did towards the end of my high school career, but they allowed me to use summers as a chance to try to work on my body and the weight room and eating and.

Bradie: I'm just so grateful for that and they didn't have to do that, but they wanted to give us opportunities that they didn't necessarily have when they were younger.

Mike: You're younger than I am, obviously. You have kids, right? How many, who do you have?

Bradie: Yeah, I got four boys. My wife and I, my wife's from Richland Center as well.

Bradie: And so we started dating when we were both in high school and yeah, just super grateful to have four boys healthy from 10 years old down to four years old now.

Mike: Okay, so you're in the middle of it now. I'm what you just said made me smile because when my kids got involved in that and every weekend was somewhere, right?

Bradie: Oh, yeah.

Mike: A tournament here, a tournament there, going here. There's one weekend, Bradie, where all three of my kids were involved in something and there was like 12 events. I made 11 of them in three different cities.

Bradie: Oh my goodness, wow!

Mike: But I had a blast. I know there's parents that complain about, that's why I bring it up. I can't believe we're doing this.

Mike: It sounds like your parents were like, yeah, this is great. Let's go for it

Bradie: Oh, they they dove all in and i'm the third of four kids and so a lot of my younger years were Before I got involved were chasing my older brother and my older sister being being a gym rat, just, you know, going to their basketball tournaments and wrestling tournaments and all, soccer tournaments, whatever they were involved in.

Bradie: I was just chasing them trying to keep up, but my parents were definitely the family that hit that in stride and try to give us every opportunity if they needed to divide and conquer. They did it. To your point, it sounds like you made it a priority as a dad to be at everything you possibly could, which is awesome.

Bradie: I can remember in middle school and as I got older, my dad traveled for work and he found a way to get to every single event and even through my college career. And as a young athlete or just a young person in general, I always remember looking in the stands if he wasn't coaching, he coached a lot of our stuff, but looking in the stands.

Bradie: And seeing him and my mom. And again, it just gave me a sense of peace of, okay, they're here now. Let's go have some fun. Let's go out and perform. So I try to do the same thing as a dad now and coach a lot of my kids stuff, and it's just absolutely love it. It's a little crazy as more of them get involved, but it's fun. I love it.

Mike: Well, it's a blast. My philosophy was as long as I got to be at these tournaments, I might as well coach them. Because sitting in the stands with complaining parents wasn't going to be my gig.

Bradie: No doubt.

Mike: When you played at Madison, for those of you that don't know, it's one of the stadiums in the United States that always has the most amount of attendance on average.

Mike: I think it's 80,000, something like that, right? Could you pick them out even when you're on the sideline there? Did you know where they were sitting? So could you glance up and even see them in the stands in an 80,000 seat stadium?

Bradie: I would. So that was one of the first things, whether it was my now wife, my parents, my siblings would come to a lot of games.

Bradie: Depending on the home stadium. Absolutely. You knew the general area they were going to be sitting. And away games, typically you could tell by the colors in the stadium. There was one little section with red and white, the Iowa colors or Michigan colors. And so, yeah, I would always make a point to point them out.

Bradie: I usually would just raise my fist to them and, and recognize that we saw each other and then hit the ground running, going into the game.

Mike: Oh, that's awesome.

Bradie: It's cool that those are just some little things I experienced, but each player kind of has those little rituals or traditions that they do as well.

Bradie: So it's neat to see some of those as you get exposed to different guys.

Mike: I'm going to circle back to your college experience in a minute, but you had to have been, I mean, I can't even fathom, this never came close to me. You had to be pumped to have been drafted in the NFL. And then what happened in August?

Bradie: (chuckle) Yeah, it was a roller coaster. We talked about, I had always dreamed about being a professional athlete and let alone a college athlete at your home state school. And so to go be a Badger. Live that experience as a walk on turn scholarship, team captain, and then to be able to do senior bowl, NFL combine, which is going on right now.

Mike: Yeah.

Bradie: Drafted, sitting in my living room, received that call on the third day, drafted in the fifth rounds to the Falcons and received that call and be there with my family, my grandparents, my wife. Was just a special experience and kind of a culmination of all the journey that was college athletics and just, even going back to when I was younger.

Bradie: So it was pretty cool, but it wasn't a destination. It was kind of like the beginning kicking off the pro career. And then that led into O. T. A.'s with the team down in Atlanta, led into preseason training camp. And then yeah, like you said, that first preseason game in August at the Georgia Dome and ended up facing some adversity that kind of rocked my world a little bit.

Bradie: And I ended up tearing my ACL, I think, on my fifth or sixth play of that first preseason game of my NFL career. And led to a ton of emotions, not really knowing what was next. I didn't really understand the NFL and how injury worked and how injured reserve worked at the time. And ended up learning a lot through that process.

Bradie: I take a step back. I don't know how, how far we're going to dive into this.

Mike: That's what I wanted to ask you is, all right, that happens, right? So that's a ton of adversity. You're going from super high to, Oh my God, what's going to happen to me? How do you maintain your motivation through that adversity?

Mike: I mean, how do you get yourself out of the surgery back into the weight room with optimism? That you can come back from that because you were a fullback, right?

Bradie: Yep, played fullback in special teams. This injury actually happened on special teams. And so how do you do that? I would say there's a lot of different ways that I had to do.

Bradie: And that, and I didn't do it great all the time. I'd say there was a low point where, you start questioning things. There's a lot of emotions. There's a lot of concern about what the future looks like. But what I learned through that, it's like just getting back on the horse and taking daily action helped me a ton.

Bradie: And so that's what I talk about a lot now. What else helped? I mean, my wife, my family, the support network that, whether it's my immediate family, friends, all of that, but also the community back home at Richland Center. Just the amount of people that would reach out, touch base, and encourage me.

Bradie: At that point, other than some of the lows there initially after surgery, it was like, let's go, I was jumping back in the boat. There was another gentleman that was injured. Croy Beerman, he tore his achilles that same game. And so to be able to walk through rehab, kind of totally different injuries, but walk through rehab side by side with him and for us to motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable to the process of the journey of getting back to be healthy and be out competing again. That helps.

Bradie: So really, it's not only some of those external factors of the people around you to help keep you motivated, but it was a reflection on myself. I think that was really the first time from a football perspective where I started to realize that my life is bigger than the game of football.

Bradie: Like I was at the level competing I wanted to be at, got hurt. It was just a roadblock and there was more to my life than football. So while I was still going all in, chasing that dream, chasing to be a part of it, chasing to help the team, I was also reflecting that there's more to life than football too.

Bradie: Whether that be my faith, whether that be my family, family that was about to grow and just getting perspective around some of that as well.

Mike: It would be nice if it was like, yeah, that was the only injury, but (laugh) no, no, it's a violent game, right so.

Bradie: It is, yeah, it's a violent game. So each of my years, I ended up being in the NFL for three years, which is right around the average NFL career.

Mike: Right. Right.

Bradie: And each of my years I ended up on injured reserve at some point. So I battled back from the ACL injury surgery, had a sports hernia surgery that off season as I was rehabbing and starting to do more.

Bradie: And I had had some issues with that back in college. And then was able to get back to full strength, made the team my second year. Got through the preseason regulars, started the regular season in my second regular season game. I caught a pass from Matt Ryan in the flats. I was running, went to stiff arm, a guy from the Rams.

Bradie: And ended up dislocating a shoulder I had already had surgery on and kind of retore all the fixes that the doctor had done. And it was something that was going to need immediate surgery. And so again, another low point, another chance of adversity that it's like, okay, just went through this.

Bradie: Now, how do I approach this? So again, falling back on those same things you talked about and battling back to try to get to a hundred percent and continue to pursue the dream.

Mike: That's hard though.

Mike: I mean, because you came back, you're enthused again. And then it's like there has to be a, Oh, why me?

Bradie: There was. Yeah. I mean, there was definitely moments of questioning things. It's like, okay, I was doing everything in my control. I was working, I was seeing a massage therapist. I was seeing chiropractors. I purchased a hyperbaric chamber to help with my recovery, both from surgery and from training.

Bradie: You do all this stuff, the hot tub, the cold tub, the activation, the rolling. It's like, okay, I'm gonna do everything in my control and then I'm going to leave the rest in the powers that be. And for me, I believe that is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so it's like, okay, I'm gonna work like it's all up to me.

Bradie: Pray like it's all up to him and see where the chips fall and enjoy the journey along the way. So kind of started that process after my first year, but really after the second year, another surgery, another ending season started to reshape my mindset and continue to pursue it. But also I doubled down on the fact that my life's bigger than football.

Bradie: We'll see how long this can last, but I felt like I was starting to be pushed into a different direction long term. So after that year, I rehabbed. I got healthy. I got released by the Falcons and then I was claimed by the Jacksonville Jaguars off of waivers. The general manager down there was the director. A player personnel when I got drafted to the Falcons. And so he knew me, he wanted me kind of as a locker room guy. At the time, the Jaguars were one of the youngest teams in the NFL, hadn't had a lot of success. And so my wife and I packed up, headed down to Jacksonville. And as I started to reshape my mindset around football and just life in general and kind of try to lose some of the football identity that I had. I had been so wrapped up through college and trying to pursue that dream that some of my identity got lost in that. I became just a football player versus Bradie that happened to be a football player, happened to be a husband.

Bradie: So at that point I was having so much fun playing football. It's like I started to lose some of the worry, that going into that second year, I was so worried. It's like, okay, I got to stay healthy. I got to do everything I can. It's like, Hey, I'm just going to go have fun. I'm going to pursue this.

Bradie: I'm going to do what I can. In that third year was so fun. It was a fun locker room, a fun organization. And probably the best I've felt since maybe sophomore, junior year of college, it felt like I was getting my body back underneath me and just excited for what that next year could bring.

Mike: That's great.

Mike: You weren't a fullback going into college.

Bradie: Correct. I was running back.

Mike: So accepting your role.

Bradie: Yeah.

Mike: And having other people see you differently than you see yourself. Now we're talking sports here, but this is relatable to a workplace and doing it with enthusiasm is not as easy as it sounds.

Mike: Some people see you differently than you see yourself. How do you accept your role when people come to you and say, yeah, you know that running back thing, you're going to be blocking for him this time.

Bradie: (laugh) Yeah. It was a change in mindset. I think, for me, I think it depends where, you know, we're talking a lot about purpose, but where your purpose lies, like, for me, it was about helping the team and about being a part of the Wisconsin program.

Bradie: So when they asked me to make that change, it was.... Tactically, it was tough, but mentally it was like, Hey, if this is my opportunity to play and to help the team, I'm all in. Now the transition of taking the skill set I had learned and harnessed as a running back and being able to transition to that to fullback.

Bradie: That was tough. But the fact for me, the buying of switch and trying to help the team. That was that was the easy part. Then it was how do I transition the physicality of a running back to the physicality of a fullback and kind of harness that mindset that, snap to whistle mindset. I always tried to pride myself on of just doing the dirty work and doing it to the best of my ability from snap to whistle.

Bradie: But yeah, I think oftentimes people, we might have a vision of ourselves on what we think our role is or outcome. But sometimes people can provide perspective to that too. Sports is one example, but just in life people... Not that we need to take everybody's opinion and guidance as gold standard because there's probably only a few people in life that can really speak to that for you that are really close to you.

Bradie: But oftentimes people have a vision into our lives on what strengths we have, what makes us unique that we can't really see ourselves that time or are kind of blinded to I think.

Mike: What was your 40 at the combine?

Bradie: Four seven six.

Mike: (laugh) That's the full back in you right?

Bradie: That's right. Yeah, not a 4 4. That's for sure. (laugh)

Mike: In one of your videos on social media, and by the way, I will post the link to Bradie's social media presence for those of you listening. You talk about goal setting and developing achievable daily habits. That's so important to getting things done.

Bradie: It is. Yeah, I think it's easy to set goals, whether it's make it to the NFL or I want to be all conference.

Bradie: I want to be the starter here and there, but it's like, okay, what are you actually going to do with this? How are you actually going to accomplish that? So, you know, a lot of people have heard of the smart goal framework of making specific measurable attainable, results driven goals. I mean, that's really the gist of it, but what can you do today that you can... I call it habit stacking.

Bradie: I don't know if that's like a, I think I'd mentioned that on one of my social media.

Mike: Yeah, you did.

Bradie: It's like, just do one thing, find one thing that you can do today that's going to create momentum. Create momentum and then once you master that and that becomes a true habit, go ahead and add something different. But I think there's power in feeling like you're making progress and that creates momentum and that creates consistency that's going to actually drive the end result. So I love that. I think the football programs I was a part of, especially at Wisconsin was so disciplined oriented and just a lot of cultural things that related to that. And that really helped me have success is just that daily attack of the details that's going to ultimately drive the end result that you want.

Mike: Our line of work is different, right? But habit stacking, I love that term because it's so applicable to mental health and recovery from substance use disorders. Get to a meeting, get to a meeting tomorrow until like you would say you feel comfortable in that. You're now successful in that part of it.

Bradie: Right.

Mike: Now add something else and I think that's the way people get better all the way around no matter what it is in their life.

Bradie: Yeah. When I go speak to schools and you do a lot in that realm to it's... I speak from the place of athletics because that's my experience.

Bradie: And you know, people see that. They watch the NFL, they watch college athletics. So I speak from those experiences. But to your point, I think these mentalities and these frameworks apply to all aspects of life, whether it's school, whether it's your job, whether it's as a parent, as a husband.

Bradie: As a potential addict, it's like there's these frameworks and these consistent processes that can help us in all aspects of our life. And I try to draw that correlation from my athletics experience to wherever these student athletes or business people I get the chance to interact with might be in their life.

Mike: Bradie, I was thinking about you every time, well, it's hard to read the news nowadays, right? For me because it's so fractured. I mean, I do this a lot and there's people that don't even talk to their own family members because of differences of opinion. And I was thinking about you. You're part of a team.

Mike: How many guys were on the team at Madison? What do they carry?

Bradie: At the time, it was like 120 or 125.

Mike: Yeah! And then the roster in the NFL is, is it 53?

Bradie: 53 active and then there's some practice squad guys and all that.

Mike: Okay, so here's my question. Everybody, you're part of a hundred person organization plus the coaches.

Mike: 53 in the NFL. Everybody's got a divergent opinion on a bunch of different stuff. How do you come together for an achievable goal?

Bradie: I love that. I mean, yeah, you're right. You come together with people from different parts of the country, different parts of the world, different upbringings, family background, cultures, religions. And it's really cool. So how do you come together to pursue 1 goal?

Bradie: It's natural in the athletic realm because you already are all chasing 1 goal. And that doesn't mean that it's perfect. Like there's Clicks within the team, you know, whether that be position groups, guys tend to gravitate to people that have similar backgrounds and experiences. But what it does, at least college athletics is changing, but at least college athletics back in Wisconsin, when I was there, it was very much, you were committed for four to five years and Wisconsin was a developmental program where most guys didn't come in their first year or two and start. You knew you were going to be there 1, 2, 3 years developing, getting better, sitting behind a starter and then going into play and have your chance, your junior, senior year. And so I think that framework that we had established and that vision to chase one goal to have success and uphold the success that had happened before us.

Bradie: That common ground creates a environment where you can have conversations with guys and when you disagree on things... At the end of the day, you can value the other person's opinion because they're a valued member of your team. They're a valued member of your team. You're already pursuing that end goal together and being able to set those differences aside and respect each other's opinion, learn from the other person's perspective, and then ultimately still go out in the field, still go work your butt off next to each other, side by side to each other.

Bradie: The old cliche of blood, sweat, and tears. There's a ton of reality to that, and that work side by side tends to bond you with people and allow you to chase that dream together. And it gives you a different perspective on somebody's life to where you listen to them a little bit more, you hear what they're saying, and you're able to share and have good quality conversation.

Bradie: I remember Coach Bielema at the time, our head coach, challenged us when we would eat dinner as a team after practice to find somebody new to sit with every night. It's a big team. It'd be easy to sit at the same table with the same general guys, your position group or the click that you might be hanging out with. But he challenged us to spend time with other people.

Bradie: And he gave us a framework of questions to try to intentionally breed this collective cohesive team unit. And even going as far as during fall camp, I think it was my junior or senior year. We, at the time we didn't go do a offsite camp. We just did it at camp Randall and you'd stayed in your normal apartment. But we went for a few days throughout camp and stayed in a hotel and they paired you up with somebody with basically on the other end of the spectrum of where you might've been in life.

Bradie: And you had to actually go through a list of questions and it was a little forced, but ultimately led to good conversation where you were forced to have a great conversation with guys about things outside of football that didn't have direct correlation to football is just relating with people and having meaningful conversation with them and those relationships create a foundation to then go chase your dreams together and have mutual respect for one another along the way.

Bradie: Kind of got on a tangent there, but I'm super passionate about that.

Mike: No, that's perfect because what the converse of that is that you don't have that mutual respect or communication and you're not going anywhere as an organization, a team, or a family. Or a country.

Bradie: Exactly. And I think there's so much to be learned from athletics and not every athletic team is as good at this as others, but. In our workplace, in our communities, in our families, how can we have respectful conversations? Like people differ on opinion on all sorts of stuff, like in the grand scheme of things, that is a good thing.

Bradie: If we all believe the same thing and we're all robots marching to the same drum, like that'd be a pretty darn boring world. I think having different opinions and being open to, you don't have to believe that opinion, but have respect for that person that has a different perspective and try to understand what in their background or their life or experiences might've shaped that.

Bradie: And I think that's where I flipped my mindset in college of I might have a different opinion on this topic than this person, but I can see why they would have that opinion based on their experiences or upbringing. And it's eyeopening and also super fun too, just to hear those stories.

Bradie: And, and also yeah, just develop those relationships. Pretty cool.

Mike: You mentioned coach Bielema. You've had a lot of coaches and bosses in your lifetime. What's the difference between a good leader and a poor leader?

Bradie: I think being able to convey that, like, I look at what coach Bielema did in some of those examples that I gave you, like, although a little bit forced and a little bit cliche or cheesy at times, he understood and you know, you look at it from this perspective, it's a little twisted, but he understood that personal connections, those were going to serve us well long term as a team. So if you have this vision of where you want to go and being able to inspire and lead and do it from a place of example, I mean, coach Bielema used to bounce around dinner tables too.

Bradie: And sit with different guys. He didn't just go sit with the coaches and he encouraged everybody to lead by example on that. So I think leaders in my mind are the ones that can one, exemplify themselves and put their headspace in a place where they can lead from a place of example, I guess I've never been a huge, I talk now, you know, at some of these speaking things, but I never was a big rah rah speaker guy as far as being a team captain or a leader, but I just tried to lead by example.

Bradie: And so I always respect leadership that comes from that vein that's lead by example and have a vision for where you want to go, but yet be intentional about the daily action you want to take to try to get there.

Mike: You got to walk the walk.

Bradie: Exactly.

Mike: Yeah. A lot of players, you said the average career in the NFL, I think is 3.3 years or something like that. Right?

Bradie: Yep.

Mike: And even knowing that going in to all, people aren't prepared. There's a lot of athletes that we read about who sink into depression, malaise, they don't have a purpose, substance abuse disorders. You kind of talked about it already, but how did you find your why in order to transition into a different head space and life space.

Bradie: Yeah, that's a big topic in a, and a crucial one for a lot of guys. I was fortunate in that my career was a roller coaster in the NFL. And I think it may, let me slow down that roller coaster. I shared about it, but helped me make that transition gradually where I was seeing the writing on the wall coming.

Bradie: I just couldn't compete at that level and stay healthy like I needed to. There's other guys that are on the other end of the spectrum that are eating Cheetos every meal and still going out and competing at the very highest of levels and staying healthy all year. Maybe dislocating a finger here and there, but stuff that generally doesn't slow them down.

Bradie: So I was fortunate in that I started to see my identity beyond football throughout my three years. And started to see the writing on the wall to where when I flipped that switch and I went on injured reserve my last year at Jacksonville in the preseason again, and still stayed with the team that year on injured reserve.

Bradie: But I knew once I was cleared once I was probably going to get released. And for me, I knew that it was time to turn the page. And so I was fortunate and grateful that, I always talk about gratitude. It's like gratitude is a great way to deal with stress, deal with anxiety because our brains can't be in a state of gratefulness and a state of anxiety or stress at the same time.

Bradie: So how do we foster like a state of gratitude in anything we do, whether that's through an injury, through adversity, you might be dealing with your family. And so I was grateful that I had that ease of transition and kind of reestablishing my why throughout my NFL career so that. When I decided to retire I was excited to see what was next, where a lot of guys really, really struggle with that, their identities, football or athletics or work or whatever that is for people.

Bradie: And as you transition and as that's stripped away from you, because the NFL career is very short. A lot of guys deal with not having that structure anymore of workout, meetings, film, practice, dinner. Your schedule as a professional athlete is laid out for you. And you lose that identity, you get out of the spotlight a little bit, and guys revert to different, different things in their life that try to cope with that.

Bradie: And I'm thankful that I didn't, but I've seen a lot of people, a lot of teammates, a lot of friends go through that transition and try to be a resource for them and try to support them as they reestablish their identity, their why, their purpose beyond the game of football. And it is difficult. And I'm grateful that my transition was eased that way.

Bradie: And I was welcoming a young family at the time with my wife. And just my purpose really lies in that is my family, my faith, and trying to then use the experiences I've had to help others go chase their dreams and do things better than I did along the way.

Mike: Yeah, and now go to tournaments on the weekend and coach your kids, right?

Bradie: That's right, we got a basketball tournament tomorrow morning.

Mike: Yeah, see, every weekend, Bradie. I'll let you go with this. You've already sort of talked about, you and I are going to be together in a small, small school district in southwestern Wisconsin, Seneca.

Bradie: Yeah.

Mike: Who has a long standing wellness day that they've done for a long time, and you're the keynote speaker at it.

Mike: What do you hope that kids in places like Seneca, or wherever you speak, take away from your talk? You've kind of talked about it, but put it into a summary for me.

Bradie: Yeah, I think a couple things. I think first and foremost is that it's okay to dream. You know, it's, this is going to be their wellness day. I'm going to put a little bit different spin on.

Bradie: I think it's okay to dream. Your geography on where you're at, whether that's Richland Center, Wisconsin, where I grew up, Seneca, Wisconsin, or wherever, like that has no bearing on what dreams you can go accomplish and the impact that you can make in this world. So I think that's first and foremost. And then secondly, I would say if there's one other thing I want them to get out of the day is start thinking about what your purpose is now. What motivates you, what gets you up in the morning. When your back gets against the wall, who are the relationships you can lean on, what's that internal driver, not the external motivation, Mike.

Bradie: Winning championships or being the starter, but what's the internal motivation you have that's going to help motivate you and drive you to go chase your dreams, chase your goals day in and day out. I'm going to cover a ton more than that, but I'd say if they can have hope and a vision that they can make an impact themselves and they can start looking and having a purpose to what they do, whether that's athletics, whether that's chasing a future job that they want to get after.

Bradie: Or, you know, other end of the spectrum, just taking care of their family, supporting their family. I hope they have inspiration. I hope they have purpose and then daily action. I mean, those would be the top three things.

Mike: Outstanding. Bradie, I'm so glad you could take the time with us today. I look forward to seeing you there.

Bradie: Thanks mike.

Mike: I already mentioned there's links to Bradie's stuff. We appreciate you all listening and anytime you can listen, we would invite you to do so. Until we talk to you next time. Please stay safe and wherever you are. Hope you find your why.