Welcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I break down the key learnings of the by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Well, my guest today is the one and only D.ON Sanders, coach prime. The man hardly needs an introduction, but let's see. He's an NFL Hall of Famer with two Super Bowl rings and the only athlete in history to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. In these days, he's making waves as the head football coach at the University of Colorado. He's also just written a fantastic book called Elevate and Dominate, which basically gives you great insights that will help you lead on and off the field, straight from coach prime himself. But before we go too much further, I need to give you a little context of where I'm at my life right now. On February 24, the love of my life, Wendy, passed away at the age of 71 and after 49 years of just an incredible marriage. Needless to say, it's been a really tough couple of weeks for me and my daughter Ashley and our entire family. And I'll be honest, I thought about rescheduling this interview in the wake of Wendy's passing, but I decided to show up and do it. And let me tell you, I am so glad I did. There couldn't have been a better conversation for me to have. I didn't even know how much I needed to hear what Deon Sanders had to say. He has a way of inspiring people and connecting with them. And let me tell you, you're going to get lots of life in leadership wisdom in a way that only Deon Sanders can say it. I'm so grateful I had this conversation and I'm so grateful for the advice he gave Ashley and me on how to cope with the greatest loss in our life. And I'm really grateful that you're here to listen to it. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Deon Sanders. Deon, it's such an honor to have you on this show. Thank you. I'm glad to be here, my man. I really am. I always have loved you and admired you, but I really loved you when you did, you and your family did those KFC commercials. What was that like? It was fun because the agency that KFC retained got it right. They watched the entire family and our different social media platforms and they just allowed us to be us pretty much. They turned the cameras on and say, you guys are like you normally act, but involved KFC's products. I love it. Let's do it. So it was a home run. I think we got so much content, even off camera there that was phenomenal, but we're always up on the camera because one of my sons, he's the one that does all our social media as well. So it was enlightening and it was fun to do. I'm praying that we get a second season with them so we could do it again. Well, I think that'd be great. And I want to talk about how you lead specifically, what your philosophy is and how you get after it. But first, I want to take you back. What's a story from your childhood that's really shaped the kind of leader that you are today? Honestly, story from my childhood. My mother never saw me play football, baseball or basketball in high school because she was working. So all that propelled me to go and be dominant so that she would never have to work another day of her life. So that's probably the leadership story. But even from early childhood, I was always a leader. And I don't quantify leadership by just being in the front or being in the best athlete or being the guy. It was the guy or the woman that can provoke thought, can provoke inspiration that can provoke people to just want better for themselves. I think that quantifies and that's my definition of leadership. And even in college football and pros, I never was a raw, raw guy. I never gave the raw, raw speeches in the locker rooms. I just worked my butt off in practice. I just dominated during the game. That propelled me to say, hey, let's go ahead and kick the bus. And we did it. So it wasn't no raw, raw, I don't want to know this or that. I wasn't that type of a BOCO leader early on in my career. That's incredible because I want to ask you then about the transformation. I've watched a lot of your motivational speeches and I don't think I've ever seen anybody any better at it than you. I mean, you'll take the nails out of your toes and come in and make a speech. You'll bring your mother in. See, everything is timing. Life is about timing. You got to catch the rhythm. You got to catch the timing. And all those things were timely. I was just getting the pins pulled out of my toes and the gentleman posing coach had just said something derogatory about my mother. So the Bible says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. And I never forgot the scripture. So I use foolish things that the world would think is foolish to confound the wise. Oh, I loved it. You know, you didn't confound me. I knew exactly what you were trying to say, which is a sign of a great commun icator. Now some people say that Dion is different than prime. What do you say about that? I say that's the God's honest truth, but most of those people don't know me. They won't even care to know me. They want to know what sales, what fuels me, what motivates me to go be that God. They don't care about the entities. You know, everybody has two entities in them. They just don't claim them. I claim both entities. You know, they trying to write this one off on their taxes, but they don't want to claim. Everybody has that other person that they just wish they could be or they don't want to be. I like that. And both of these individuals that comprise who I am, I love it. You know, one is really more provocative, brutally honest, and the other one is much subtle, much more subdued, much more really reluctant, really recluse. You go to Florida State and you play three sports, football, baseball, and track. You then become a professional in two of them, and you're the only player in sports history to play in both the Super Bowl and the World Series. I got to ask you, what you learned by playing on those championship teams? That everything matters. That all things matters. You can't minimize the minimal, and you can't really glorify the glorious. You got to rock steady. You got to rock steady because the Bible also says in this world, you're going to have tribulations. You're going to have trials and tribulations, but you can't be flustered by that. You know, in baseball, man, I can strike out seven times and get three hits, and I'm hit 300, and I'm a superstar. I'm getting paid millions and millions of dollars. Football, you can't do that. You can't drop seven out of 10 punts. You can't not complete, you know, seven passes out of 10. You're nobody. You're nothing so different complexities of the height and the structure of these games. But what I learned through it all, you got to rock steady. I got to be that same guy day in and day out to my teammates, to my coaches, to administration, and even to the people that are custodians and people that help us along the way that we respect so much. The title might not be as effective, but nevertheless, I respected the heck out of it. Well, you're already a fantastic coach. In 2023, you're named Sports from the Year by Sports Illustrated. So congratulations on that. That's quite a mark that you've really made. And I'm sure you've had a lot of people molds you. When you think about the world of sports, who's the best coach you ever played for and what made them such a great leader? It wasn't one. It was a multiplicity of men. My youth coach at the age of probably six through 12, a guy named by the name of Dave Caple, who came over to the inner city and saw me playing in a youth football league that was barely able to survive and took me-- gave me an opportunity to go to the other side of town and to play for his team, called the Fort Myers Rebels, which was unbelievable, which we traveled at that time. You got to understand Greyhound and Trailways, but travel was phenomenal for young men. We even flew my first flight on a plane to North Carolina playing a bowl game at the conclusion of the season. But everything was great. Everything was structured. Everything was on time. The GPAs were monitored. The structure of this was undeniable, unbelievable, which I later formed the organization called Truth that modeled it the same way in Texas. His impact on me was phenomenal. I went on to my high school coach, Ron Hoover, was such a disciplinarian, such a tough, heart nose guy who we had team rules and structure in which I violated one of the team rules, which I didn't even know. I was trying to break up an altercation in the library, and I was getting everybody back on each side and stopping to fight, and the teacher said that I was insub ordinate. Since I was in the library, I had to look that word up because I didn't even know what it meant. And I was suspended from school, and I didn't even do anything. But being suspended kicked you off the team simultaneously. And I was the starting quarterback my junior year, but that taught me a lot about leadership and understanding the responsibility of leadership. So I came back, worked my butt off, and won the team back over my senior year, but that man to have audacity, he's passed away now, but I loved him every minute for it . He later on went to hide all my basketball requests for scholarships as well because he wanted me to stick with baseball or football. So he did a phenomenal job. Mickey Andrews, Bobby Bowden, I could go on and on, but all these men shaped me and molded me to what you see today, good or bad. Tell me the story of how you became known as prime time. That's basketball, man. I was one of my dearest friends, Richard Fain, to this day, he's probably considered my best friend. We grew up together from seven years old when I played all that sports together . And had a phenomenal basketball game that night. We was on a yellow bus riding back to the school, and he was like, man, you're prime time. I think I hit like 35, 36, and I had a couple riveting dunks to get the crowd going. And he gave me that moniker. And I said, yeah, you're right, and it stuck with me from there. But you got to understand something about a nickname giving in the city. You got to earn it. You can't proclaim yourself prime time. You got to earn it. So somebody gave it to you, but then you had to live up to it. You couldn't just say, I'm this, I'm that. I knew he gave me that name, but you don't come through with it. So anytime the game's on the line, anytime somebody needs a big play, a momentum changer, you got to be that guy and body that nickname that you were given. So that's how that came about. So you got prime time, you better beat prime time. That's right. No question. You know, and you really talk a lot about earning the privilege of leadership, just earning the right to be on a team. Tell us about your belief in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. My mama was a real one and my stepfather was a worker. My biological father was a roller stone. Papa was a roller stone. They made that song at the end. You got to understand, but we were so honest at the crib. And once I became a father, I inherited that honesty that my mother gave me. What no tooth fairy, I wasn't going to lie to my kids. They ain't no tooth fairy. That's me. Okay. Ain't no Santa. That's me. I work my butt off all gear to get you these gifts, get you these presents. I want my credit. I give me mine. All right. That ain't no two. Remember my daughter called me, putting money up under the pillow and she ain't daddy. I said, look at baby girl, it is what it is. It is what it is. All right. It is what it is. Then later on, after she knew the tooth fairy was the tooth fairy, which was me . She said, daddy, the tooth fairy only brought me a $50 bill. You see, I get a hundred. I say it was a rough year for the tooth fairy because of your mom. Okay. Mom, I got the tooth fairy in court. I have been in court with the tooth fairy, been in court. The tooth fairy is trying to cut back in the bed. I've always been brutally honest and I sometimes it gets me in trouble, but it is what it is. Your teammates describe you as being the hardest worker on the team. I mean, you set the standard for the whole work ethic and when you think about coaching and you also think about business and you're building your team, how does that carry over into your coaching and leadership today? It is tough. You got to understand, I've always worked my butt off because that's what I've seen. We comprise ourselves of accumulation of things that we've seen, things that we desire, things that we want, things that we missed out on. That comprises who we are. I've always worked my butt off because I see my mama work her butt off and I was sitting there and watching. I was a very inquisitive young man. I was the one that raised his hand and asked questions from the teacher. Probably the kind of questions that they didn't want me to ask and the kind of questions that they didn't have the answers for because I was very inquisitive. You can just tell me something and I was going to believe it. I wanted to know why. Why? Why? Tell me. Why? I'm sorry. There ain't any black people on the Flintstones. You call this happy days and I see fun, see and all these people, but all of a sudden black folks, I'll get everybody to be happy. It was good times. You call the show good times, but James, everything ain't never having a good time. It's always a trial and treatment. I wanted to know why with these things and I just asked questions, but I saw my mother working her butt off day and night for ends to meet, although they never met. She did the best that she could. So I developed my work ethic from her that I was going to get it. I know she made sacrifice, so I couldn't get mad at my momma for not coming to my games when she was working. Why would I get mad? Oh, she was making sure I was best dressed at school. She was making sure I had the ins and outs and the newest fashions and the things that was popping in the street that everybody thought was it. She made sure I had those things, but that work ethic and that thirst to be the best that came from what I saw every during the day. Speaking of work ethic, in your fifties in terms of age, you go back to school to get your business administration degree at Talladega College. I've got a book coming out myself in June, which is called How Leaders Learn. It's all about how you master the most successful traits of the most successful people, which is basically learning. You've got this curiosity you just talked about and you've got this always learning mindset. How do you sharpen your acts? What do you do to make sure you're getting better every single day? Because I never think I'm there. I never think I'm at this place that we all want to arrive at. We all want to arrive at this place called there. But where is there? Where is it? Where is it located? What's the address? What's the zip code? What is it? I've had 15, 20, 35,000 square foot homes, houses, I'm sorry, but never filled at home. I've had nine and 10 cars in the driveway at one time, but one going nowhere. I've had hundreds and hundreds of suits and couldn't come up the pain. I've had a multiplicity of shoes to match every suit, but I couldn't take a step in the right direction. I've had people clap and cheering and rooting and giving me all the adulation I would desire, but they didn't even know my middle name. So where is this place called there? Because after the assessment of the accumulation of things that God has granted me and graciously given me, I never felt there. And that's the difference because I'm always hungry for more. I always want to lean and to learn and to dissect and always want more. It's not that it's a sense of unsatisfaction because I'm truly satisfied by the gifts of God. But I want it all. There's a difference. Some people want some. Some people content with what they're, I want it all. I didn't just want to be great. I didn't just want to go to Pro Bowl or the Super Bowls. I wanted to be the best ever. It's a different type of logic, different type of thinking. And just because I'm at another position, another plateau in my life, my thinking don't change. I still want to be the best ever and whatever I do. If I'm shooting a commercial, we're going to get this take right. We're going to get this thing right that everybody's on the same page. We're going to keep doing it until we get it. Like that's just the way I think. That's the way I move. Hey, everyone, it's Kula, co-host of Three More Questions. And I have some exciting news to share with you. We just launched a breakthrough app that will help you become a better leader in less than two minutes a day. It's called How Leaders Lead. As you know on the podcast, David spends about an hour each week interviewing some of the top leaders in the world. People like Tom Brady, Condoleeza Rice, and Jamie Diamond. But we know that leaders like yourself are pressed for time. So we've taken the very best clips from these conversations and put them into an easy to use mobile app that you can learn from in less than two minutes a day. If you want to become a better leader, start a daily leadership habit with the How Leaders Lead app. It's available now for free in the App Store. Download it today. What are you working on right now? Is there something specifically you're working on to get better? Everything. You got to understand, as a head coach, man, you got 125, 120 kids that are in your locker room that you want to build relationships. You want to build friendships. You want to build everything that ends with the ship. You just want everybody going in the right direction. You want to get to know these young men because the trials and tribulations that they feature at their age are unbelievable. But the reason I could relate, because I'm a proud father of five, and my kids, two of them play on the team. The third one does all our social media. My daughter plays basketball at the school. And my other daughter's in Atlanta that comes up to every game as well, that I 'm trying to get her here. You might as well join the whole clan. So I can have everybody. I can tell my babies. But just trying to get everybody to think simultaneously, to want to win, but not only want to win. Like, what is your why? Once we get everybody on the same page, you're understanding what their why is, then how to go get their why. And that starts with leadership and it trinkles down. We're going to be okay. I want to get into a lot of things that you're doing at Colorado in a minute. But I want to talk first about just the prime brand that you're building, the business you lead today. What do you have going on outside of football? Because it's considerable. And how do you lead it? I can't even remember. I can't even recollect everything that we have going on. What the thing that's in front right now is this handsome gentleman on the front and back of his book. You know, that's the now. Now I'm trying to think of ways that how do we maximize this moment? Because this is a tremendous moment. How do we maximize it? Make sure my audio of the book is just booming like you could feel it. You could touch it like every word you're like, "Tarn it. I can't wait to get to the next chapter." Making sure that is straight and sports energy drinks. Red Kong, shoot Nike. I should just drop. What else is it? Blenders, you know, with the shades. I could just look around and just print on it. So many things that we're doing right now that we even haven't even launched yet. That's phenomenal. Everything we do is not only to help but to enhance the next person. I don't do meaningless products or meaningless things in life. I don't happen to be anywhere. If I'm there, I'm there for a purpose. You know, when you were approached by Colorado with this opportunity, you know, you come off to undefeated regular seasons at a roll at Jackson State. I mean, you had great success there. How did you vet that opportunity? I'd like to get in the minds of how people think. You know, how did you vet that opportunity? What made it a good fit for you? That's a great question. First of all, I was really attracted to the AD here. Rick George, who sent probably 10 people that I knew that I have an ultimate respect for to call me and tell me, "Hey, man, this guy's trying to get in touch with you from the University of Colorado. You got to understand I'm a Florida boy who lives in Texas. So I have southern roots, so to speak." The thing about Colorado was never on my map. It wasn't on my roadmap, but you know, just talking to this gentleman and I could sense the sincerity. I could sense the honesty, but most of all, I could sense the need, like the need. Like, God always sends me places where there's a need. There's a light there of. There's more than the gain to be done and to be realized and to be recognized and to lifting, then uphold. And we just kept conversating. And I remember telling my right hand, man, I said, "Look, this is what's going to happen. We're going to agree upon this, but it's going to be several other schools that come with an astronomical number that can blur our vision, and we can't allow that. So this is where we're going. Don't even tell me about the other request that comes because they're going to come as soon as I make this decision and I just did." I'd be darned. He's like, "Man, you don't even want to know. You don't even want to know." I said, "We don't tell him. We good because my word is my word." And I remember talking to Rick George and I called him and he thought the call was going to be to decline them. And I said, "Prayed about it. We coming." That's how the whole moniker, we coming. That's how that started. He said, "Excuse me?" I said, "We coming." That's all I got to say. I said, "I'm coming. Get ready." And that was the decision. It was because God always chooses His strongest soldiers to do the unthinkable, the unfathomable. I mean, to come out here from the south, all the way to Boulder, Colorado, where I'm a guy from Florida. I had really never seen too much snow in my life. I had never really walked too much in snow in my life. I'd rather live in an environment that it's cold at some point, but this is where God called me to come. Just like Jackson, the one would have ever expected me to choose Jackson state. And it wasn't there because I was a lack there of schools that would take us. No, no, no. We had a multiple amount of schools that would take us before we even chose Jackson. But no, no, this is the place. This is where God desired us to be. And now, truly, not only I understood then, but I truly understand now being here. You decide to go to Colorado. You really get committed to that. And I also want to get into your mind now a little bit more. You're preparing for your first team meeting. Every leader has to do that when they go into that new situation. How'd you get ready for that? I don't. I don't prepare for speaking engagements. I don't prepare for meetings. I just go. Like, I read, I have thoughts every morning, because I put out a morning word Monday through Friday. And it comes down kind of like it's in a teleprompter. Like I could see it. Like I could see it. That's why I don't play dysfunction or ignorance or adolescence in my life, because I'm a thinker. You know, I barely write stuff down. Like, ain't nothing on my desk is written. You know, I may text myself something every once in a while, but everything is here. So I got to be clear headed and clear minded. So I didn't. I just went not with a prepared speech or prepared anything to say and just look upon everything was there and God just gives it to me. So, you know, when I'm saying stuff like that, we coming, you know, and I'm bringing my Louis, I'm looking at there at some tremendously undersized men. I'm looking at there at no balance in the ethnicities. And I can see there's no hunger or thirst or or that thing that you want to see in their eyes as a coach. I didn't see any, any of that whatsoever. So I'd be like, you know what, we coming and I'm bringing my Louis, which means I'm bringing in some dogs. That's what they mean. I don't sugarcoat. And this is who I am. This is how I get down. This is it. You can get with it or you can get out, either one you want, because they didn 't bring me here to continue what was going on. They brought me here to change. And how can you change the atmosphere? How can you change what's taking place if you don't change people? They won't change, but they're not willing to change and they're not willing to go change it. You know, how important do you think it is, Dion, as a leader to really shock the system and let people know that it's going to be different? Now this comes to you naturally. I mean, you're seeing it. You're feeling it. Okay. But you literally shocked the system and said there's a new sheriff in town. Is that something you advice you give to everybody? No, you don't have to do that. I mean, the system was shocked when they made the announcement, but they wanted to see how authentic the system was. You got to understand I'm a fisherman, so I have several lakes on property. So every year to make sure my fish is growing well and in there, the level and the ratio is appropriate from bass to blue gill to crappie and everything, I have my lake shocked. So they get in this boat with the rods in the water and everything in the radius in an area that's have scales, it floats up to the top once it's shocked. And then you could take accountability of what's there. I was just taking accountability of what was there. I wasn't really trying to just shock this. I needed to take accountability. What was there? But it wasn't just the players. It was the administration. It was some people amongst the whole thing. People get misconstrued to think when a football team loses, they just think the football team loses. The coaches lose, the administrators lose, the dieticians lose, the trainers lose, everybody in the building loses. It's not just one loss. Now you got to come in dissect and shock everything and say, let me see what floats up. Let me see what I got. Let me see what I got because what I have should respond. It does not respond. That mean the name for me. The success of any business or any team always has traced back to the culture that the leader really creates. In most cases, what's the most important thing you're driving at Colorado? Want. These young men that we claim and acquire, not only do they have to want it, but they got to want better and want more for themselves. If you just anonymous person and you don't want nothing, you're not for me. You're not going to be able to click because I want it all. I want to be dominant. We have nothing in common and you got to have that want, man. You got to wake up without a long clock because you know it's time. You got to get in the car. I don't care if it has no gas. Get your butt out and run. Getting the best talent is essential for any great team. You talked about the importance of having the right people. What's the best practice that you could share on the recruiting front that leaders outside of football could take advantage of? Outside of football, you got to have deal breakers. You got to have a consistency of who you are and what you want to see. I tell my young men all the time, if you want to know what we want, just ask your linebacker coach who he is. If you want to know what we want in that position, actually, even to back coach who he is. Okay? He was tough. He was gritty. He was an overachiever. He was a guy that worked his butt off. He's a guy to study and prepare. That's what he wants. Whatever we're teaching, whatever we're articulating, that's what we want. But we also want you to be smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character. Those are the essentials. Smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character. You obviously believe in public. You know, when you go public, it's hard to go back on it because you know, people hear what you have to say and they're not going to let you off the hook on that. And you've gone public with, "We're coming." I loved it when you said, "Hey, you better get us now." You better give me now. I'm not lying. That's the truth. What do you think it does for you and your team when you speak up like that? I'm not doing that for a purpose to send shockwaves. I'm just being mean. So when I say something, that God gave it to me right on the spot, I didn't have all this plan. I didn't walk into a press conference with papers. Only papers I walk into a press conference with are the statistics of what just transpired because I want to see and I want to understand why we didn't get but this many first downs or why we only held the ball for this many minutes. Like, those are the only the keys that I understand and I have. This means that Tim's run versus pass and we can stop the run on this. Those are the things I'm looking at. But when I say something, I always feel what I say and I say what I feel and I don't mix words. I'm not stumbling of reaching for anything. Like I really mean every darn thing I say. And you wear it. You not only mean it, you wear it. You wear it. I believe it. It's hard to find. It's personal. You know, on any given week, you really are. Whether you plan it or not, you're a world-class communicator. You know, if you were coaching me as a leader, what would you say to me that could potentially help me get my message across like you do? First of all, I need to find out your why. I need to find out why do you have that mic in front of you? Why do you have the headset on? Why do you get up in the morning like you do? Why are you consistent as you are? Why do you want this? I mean, you've accumulated a lot. You've done a lot. You've successful in a lot of areas in your life. What makes you tick and keep going? What is your why? So when I find out that why, then that's connectivity. Then I reach for the connectivity that we have to establish that sort of relationship. Even when I'm speaking in auditoriums and in places, I'm connecting. That's a connectivity that I've earned within the first 10 to 5 minutes of being transparent into this audience because I want them to take the mask, scare off so that I could get to them and I could touch them and I could work with them and I could understand, where are you? Soon and later, if you listen to me for 10 to 15 minutes, I'm going to locate you. I'm going to find you. I have a tremendous navigational system. I'm going to find you and I'm going to get you to where you want to go. That's all on you. See, I'm a great listener, man. I'm a great listener. So if you talk enough, you're going to identify where you are and I'm going to find you. And now it's time to pick you up and lift you up and take you where we want to go together. We can't do this thing unless we're together, unless we're connected. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Dion Sanders in just a moment. You know, Dion isn't the only NFL legend who believes in the power of leading by example. Larry Fitzgerald had 17 incredible seasons as the wide receiver of the Arizona Cardinals. And in our conversation, you'll hear how Larry sets an example of hard work and discipline that others want to follow. The thing I think is the biggest difference between corporate and athletics is sports as a meritocracy. The leader doesn't need to be spoken about, doesn't need to be anointed. People will follow who they feel should be followed. And guys have always gravitated to me because, you know, the way I work, the way I carry myself, the how I go about my business, I never had to give the wrong Ross Beach or I asked to be voted for a captain. Naturally, you know, when you're out there working and you see, well, that guy 's working a little bit harder than everybody else. He's doing this a little bit different. He's going extra mile here, man. He really focuses. He takes notes in there. They don't ever have to be spoken about, never talked about. You just start seeing guys doing the things that you're doing and eating the things that you're eating and dressing the way you're dressing. It's just, I've noticed that in sports and, you know, it's something that is unique in our game in athletics because, you know, a lot of it is never even spoken about . If you want to lead, even if you're not the one in charge, go listen to the full episode with Larry Fitzgerald. All the way back to episode two here on Howl Eaters Lead. I'm not sure there's been a higher expectation on a coach or a team that I can remember that, you know, when I think about Colorado and I know how do you prepare your young men to navigate that pressure? I'm at your use to it. You've been prime time, you know, you know, you have to perform, but how do you get these guys to understand this? Well, I let them understand what pressure is and what pressure ain't and who they are and who they ain't. Like, pressure is that single mother that's working a nine to five and they ain 't meeting. Their father ain't coming back. They ain't don't even care about it during kids. Pressure is that person sitting in the hospital who they just receive word that you ain't got for two weeks to live, you know, you have no insurance or families doing this at barely anybody coming to visit you, but that's still not negated. You got two weeks left to live. Pressure is that young mother that just been impregnated by this dude that she thinks that loves her and he does it. And once he found out that she's pregnant, he's not coming back. Now, that's pressure. This is a game, man. This is a game. This is a childish game that you win or lose. Your life ain't changing what it'll also win. This is a game. So how can we take this game and make it personal? That's why I come in because I'm going to find some intangible to take this game and make you realize that this game, this game, this game could change your life. This game could lift your whole family. This game can empower, you know, you and your homies. This game could change your whole thought process about why are you taking that next breath? That's how valuable and how vital this game is. And this is the course that God chose for you, baby. Shoot, you better wake up and listen and understand as only a short amount of time for you to maximize your moments in this game. You got off the blockbuster start last year, you know, you have that big win against TCU and you finish 4 and 8 for the season. I mean, you're not used to losing. It's something that just doesn't happen. How do you look at that season and how are you using that as fuel? I'm not used to losing, but I won in every area but the scoreboard. That's what you don't get. We won in attendance. We won in ratings to watch us. We won in selling apparel to the fans and on-comers. The city of Boulder made over $100 million on what's six home games. We won in the highest GPA in the spring. After everyone elaborated on how crazy that was to get rid of all these young men, still we focused on grades and academics and education, had our highest GPA ever achieved at this university and the football team. We won. We won everywhere on the scoreboard. So that means to tell me we could win in all those places and we only got our butts kicked twice, twice that the scoreboard was unfriendly to us. The rest of the games we were within seven, within 10 points and we had an opportunity to win. So we won in every aspect but the scoreboard. Now, you mean to tell me we won in those areas and so all I got to do now is go get some more pieces of offense, a lot of defensive line, a couple corners, a few more receivers and a line back and we could win, win? You mean the difference? That's what I got to say. Okay, I could go do that and you got to understand the way God works to me, man . Everybody know I'm a God, man. Everybody knows that. So I need to be seen as we lost so when God does what he does, you could understand it wasn't me. It had to be him because they got their butts kicked last year but now they're being dominant. Now they have several guys getting ready to go into the trap. Now they got to hire GPA once again now, the stadium is still sold out even in the spring. Like, see what you're obsessed as a loss. I don't. Don't put that on me. Don't put that on me. I know. That's true. I want to find how you think. Okay. And now I see how you think about it and I agree with you. What I thought was four and eight. Okay. You're four and eight. You go in there. You turn the whole program around. I've gone in and turned business around. It doesn't happen in one year or a lot. Sometimes it takes some time, okay? But you got to find those wins and let people know them and you just told me what your wins were. It makes a hell of a lot of sense to be. Yeah. But the thing about it, four and eight came from one and eleven. So you're improving. You're improving. You're improving and then really having a Dasty to be in games and not getting your butt kicked butt twice that we really disappointed our fan base and our players and the friends of families. I'm good, man. Because I'm a football guy. I know what we got to do. I know what we got to go get. So we went and got it. So I'm good. I'm betting on you, big guy. There's no question about that. Please do. And you know, recently, I know you've had, you know, some really tough health challenges. What's that adversity taught you? Talk me how to really enjoy life, giving love and appreciation and communication to the things that I know that love me. And that's the family, friends, some relatives that really have blessed me tremendously because I see how quick it can come and it can go because I'm sitting up there for during a month on my back looking up, you know, never saying, God, why me? I know why me because I'm built for this. I can handle this. I can bounce back from this. I know why me. But what do you want out of this, God? What do you want me to learn? Okay. I want you to appreciate life more. I want you. I'm getting ready to elevate you. I'm getting ready to take you to places you couldn't fathom. So I'm trying to prepare you. And that's what it was, man. It was preparation. If I could handle it, I could handle anything. You think I'm sitting on my back in the hospital and not knowing if I'm going to live, you know, for a month during a month and you think a darn game going by other me, please. Because I could fix that. I could fix that. Dion, I mentioned before we even went on the show that I just lost my wife just last Saturday. Yes. And you're obviously a man of faith. You know, I follow you on on X. You already mentioned God several times on this conversation that we're having. I'd like to get some coaching from you for myself and my daughter on how we should handle the loss of the person we love more than anything. Man, you know what? That's a great, great authentic question. And I love it. First and foremost, I would treasure the moments. I would articulate the moments back and forth. I lost my pastor a few years back. I just called his wife a few days ago and just say, you remember the time? So we regurgitate these moments and we savor these moments. We don't put them aside. I mean, we get all the tears out whenever we want to. Ain't nothing wrong with a grown man or a grown woman crying. Ain't nothing wrong with that at all. We get out those emotions and then we're thankful for the time. Because you never know that God could have taken them much earlier. It could have taken them for something else. But it was this time because he felt like you were prepared that you were strong enough that she was vital enough that she could handle it and you could handle it. But he gave you so many moments that you would have never garnered in life if you would have had those days and those moments. So think of those things. I'm always thinking positive, man. I don't have a bad day ever in life. I may have a bad moment or bad men or bad hours, but never a bad day. And think about all those wonderful moments that he gave you and treasure those . That's beautiful. And I can't wait for my daughter to hear those words. It's been so much fun. I want to have some more with what I call my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? Yes, sir. Okay. What three words best describe you? Real, now and ready. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be? Red Fox. Why? He seemed like he just enjoyed every bit of life or Richard Pryor. What one of them do? As a coach, what's your biggest pet peeve? The like there up of effort or work. The best way to squash a net. What's the last you have? What's the word or phrase to describe having two of your sons on your team at Colorado? Blessed. In which situation of these situations are you feeling more nerves before the opening drive of a Super Bowl or the first pitch of a World Series? I don't feel nerves. I put pressure on my peers. My peers don't put pressure on me. I'm not nervous about nothing. Favorite Saturday Night Live memory when you hosted? I did this skit with Chris Farley and Dennis. What's Dennis's last name? Is it Quaid? Yeah, it could be. Yeah, it probably was. Yeah. Did this skit? And it was hilarious because you know on that everything is live. So if you mess up, you got to keep going and they just messing up and they can start laughing and it was just hilarious. You're biggest accomplishment in the NFL. Being able to retire my mother for the rest of her life. How about Major League Baseball? After all the ridicule and the ignorance and the hatred by an announcer as well as my GM, I still got the opportunity to play and I dominated. How about coaching? Biggest accomplishment and coaching? Just being able to take my sons through this journey and not just the two that play for me, just all three of them. That's my biggest accomplishment. I feel like as a fucker because I tied into being a father. If I turned on the radio in your car, Dion, what would I hear? Some old school, probably you're going to hit key sweat. Yeah. You're most unusual assignment you ever had. God, this is good. My most unusual assignment. I went trying to get a summer job and I went and picked watermelons in the summer and I got sick and lost 10 pounds. I would never blast that and wish that upon nobody. That's like doing fair time or prison time. What's something about you few people would know besides that? I believe we can do it. Whatever it is for us to do, we can do it. What was your last, I can't believe it's happening to me moment. Oh, this is easy. We were playing Colorado State and that was the big hoopla with the coaches talking junk. He said some things and my mama got up on stage and said, "Kick, his, you know what?" Then the game was going south and I looked up at the scoreboard. That's the first time I ever said, "We can actually lose this game." Wait, how do, oh my God, what is this idiot going to say in the press conference when we lose this game? I went and looked at it and said, "Come on, son, let's do this." We went into overtime and I remember Shallow, my son that starts to safety on defense. He's like, "Dad, we're going to get the ball. Are we going to give it to them in overtime?" I say, "His brother is getting the ball and he's going to go down the score and we're going to win this game." That's what's going to happen. That's what happened. That was great. Thanks for that. That was a great light to you around. Now you have this new book coming out, "Elevate and Dominate." There's really good looking guys on the cover. The subheads, 21 ways to win on and off the field. What was something that really drove you to write this book in the first place? Everybody to me needs a coach. Professional athletes have a coach and some of our most profound prolific people that we look up to, that we admire in this country, they've grown up with a coach. Why don't we have a coach in everyday life? The boss man is not your coach. Your CEO is not your coach. He just makes more money and he runs things. He's not your coach. I think everyone should have athletic coach, a life coach or somebody that's giving you direction, correction as well as protection. I want people to win, man. This is a book I'm writing out of necessity and need for wealth. I don't need that popularity. I want to give people a guide that they can have to win in moments. You got to understand some of the chapters, just a title of them. Chapter one, even if you broke, keep moving. Everybody's broken in some type of way. You just elaborated on what just transpired, which your beautiful wife, even last week, but you got to keep moving. Just because you broke, that don't mean you can't keep moving. I'm not a hunter. I can't shoot and kill because that's not who I am. But I talk to a lot of people who hunt because I'm a property owner and I let them come and they want to shoot hogs or whatever. I don't let them touch my deer and all that. Hogs are a problem in Texas, so that's the only reason that. But I learned by talking to them because I'm very inquisitive type of person. I'm like, "So when you're hunting, what do you look for?" He said, "I just need them to be still so I can get a shot." I said, "So you're better at getting a shot if they're still." He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, you got to keep moving. We got to keep moving." The only time that we're still is when we're eating or when we're consuming something or when we're distraught or confused and we're still. You got to keep moving. Set your own thermostat. Like every morning, man, I shoot. I got to set my own thermostat. I can't let you. You can't control my emotions. I don't walk into the office and you have that appropriate propensity to say something and get me all out of character. No, no, no, I'm going to set my own thermostat. You're not going to control me. Are you a leader or a dog? See, I don't have captains on my kids' shirts that play with us here in Colorado. I got an L leader or D a dog. Every leader ain't a dog and every dog ain't a leader. But I need you to be who you are. The leader don't have to be the dog. The dog don't have to be the leader. Be who you are unapologetically. I like that. Master the three W's. You got to want it. You got to work it and you got to win. If you want it and you work it, that's going to put you in the position to win. These are some of the chapters. Everybody needs to get these kind of insights, which is fantastic. And here you are now. You're launching this book and you're going to your final year with your two sons that you get to coach. Don't do that to me. Don't remind me of that. Okay. Well, I won't remind you. It's got to be tough though, huh? Yeah. You know? I'm the only guy and I understand you actually rank your five kids and let them know where they stand is your favorite. Talk more about that and how you lead as a family man. First of all, lead by consistency and I lead by honesty and I lead by actions. You can talk all you want. This generation, these kids, you got to show these kids ain't playing it. I'm a coach, man. I got a hundred some kids in the locker room and a staff. You got to show it ain't about talking. And my kids, they spent a lot of time with me growing up because I wanted a custody battle and I've always fathered my kids from the front and led them and went. That's why we got Kentucky Brat Check it out. He literally used to go to KFC and buy a barrel, two barrels and say, "All right, here you go. Come on now." God bless you. I'm not getting no plate for you and all that. Here you go. Let's do this. So I'm a different type of father and I'm an honest, a genuine father and I'm true to them. The rule that we have, you don't have to be the best, but you got to give me your best because I've coached them in every sport, baby girl in basketball, flag football. She played tackle football. DeAndre, when she was in volleyball and basketball and all the boys, I've coached all their teams growing up. So I've always been a hands-on father, but I ranked him because everybody ranks the kids but they just don't say it. Like everybody got their favorites. Everybody got the ones that they know is going to put them in the nursing home. And they get old, everybody got those ones that if something go down in the house, you know exactly who did it. You don't even have to see it. You know who did it. And I'm the same way. So right now my girls are like, they're tired for fifth place right now. That's how bad they are. And I got five. They're tired of it. That's how much they're making me upset right now as a father. And my boys, they're pretty much consistent. Shallow is always challenging. I don't think he's ever been number one. Shallow's always been three, four, five. Shador jumps from one to probably three at the worst, sometimes four. And Junior is consistent. He don't ever do anything to make me mad. Like he's just a, he's really a good kid. But he's more understanding about it. I don't rank him appropriately than others. All right. Last question. I'll, I'll let you go. What's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to improve as a leader? It don't matter where you're located, why you're leading. You don't have to be the one in front to lead. You don't have to be the highest paid person in the room to lead. You don't have to have the one with the most credentials to lead. Leading is something that's innate ability that attracts people to you. It's in your actions. And it's not one thing that makes that person more attractive than the other. A leader has so many different qualities. I've seen different type of leaders that were very prominent in different times of my life. And I think I'm accumulation of all of those because politically correct, I may not be the right guy for you. And honesty, integrity, and really a want and mental and physical and that toughness. That's me. I got you. I can get you where you want to go. Coach Prime, I have to tell you, you're one hell of a guy. Man, I appreciate you. You are the real deal and you're making a difference in the world. And I wish you all the success with your book. Of course, it's going to be a home run because I know why you believe. I'm not believe. Let me tell you some of my chute, old man. This is my first time meeting you. First time getting to know you. First of all, some exhilarating, wonderful questions that challenge me to really go deep in there and grab it. But to sit on this podcast and to conduct business as you do and the level that you do and the spirit that you do, dealing with what you dealt with. Most people would have shut this down and reschedule this. Most people would have just been in bed and say important little me. Most people would have just negated the whole situation. But you stood up, man, and you handled it with all that heaviness on your heart and in your spirit, man. So you have my utmost respect. And I wished one day that I could be as strong if that were to occur in my life . So thank you because you've given me strength today and I appreciate it. Thank you very much for that. I really, really appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. And I hope we get a chance to have some Kentucky Fried Chicken one day. There you go. Or maybe we can write a book together, something just crazy. I know that. I'm looking for the next big idea. So I'm going to be thinking about that. I got the second one and third one already ready in the chamber. I got it. All right, my friend. I appreciate you. Okay. God bless you, man. You take care. Well, I don't know about you, but I am so grateful I got to learn from the one and only coach prime today and get a sense of how he thinks. I love his honesty and his belief, his authenticity and his level of commitment . And I really love how he uses all of those things to inspire others. This week, I hope you'll join me in picking up Dion's book, Elevate and Dom inate. So you can get some of his coaching for yourself. There's so much wisdom in it. I mean, take even just the title of the first chapter where Dion says to keep moving even if you're broken. We all have seasons where we feel busted up and broken. I'm writing a thick of it myself. But Dion reminds us that whatever tough situation you're in, don't stand still. Keep moving. Keep trying to learn and grow and take even a small step forward. You don't have to move fast. You don't have to move far. You just have to keep moving. You do that. I'll do that. And I know we'll make it through those tough seasons. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders keep moving even if they're broken. Coming up next on How Leaders Lead, Justin Time for March Madness is Matt Do herty, Executive Coach, Author and the Former Head Basketball Coach at the University of North Carolina. I have a little buddy. Somebody's going to show up late. Somebody's going to take a bad shot. Somebody's going to do something that isn't something you approve of. But if you let it slide, your culture is what you allow. So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]