Welcome to Howl 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 learning so that 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, the Stanley Cup Finals just wrapped up, which makes this the perfect time to talk to Brad Richards. He's a two-time winner of the Stanley Cup and the MVP of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. And I got to tell you, in the world of hockey, he is Mr. Klutch. He has a perfect 8-0 record in game 7 play, which is something no other hockey player has ever done in the history of the game. And get this, he set a record for the most game-winning goals in a single playoff season, scoring seven of them. Brad consistently knows how to perform in Klutch situations, which is the quality every leader needs, whether you're on the ice or in the office. And when you listen to this conversation, you're going to see why. Brad's an even-killed guy, and he knows how to put his head down and work hard. And all that effort and preparation gives him the confidence that he's ready to step up and deliver in the big moments. Now look, you may not be skating out on the ice with the Stanley Cup on the line, but I can guarantee you, if you lead, you're going to face high-pressure situations where you got to come to the game and give it your best. Listen to this conversation and learn how to walk into situations like this with confidence, because you know how to trust the hard work that you've put in. So here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Brad Richards. Brad, it's great to have you on the show. It's a pleasure being here. Tell us something about playing in the Stanley Cup. You would only know if you played in it. Obviously, it's a dream when you get there. You don't realize, I think the first time you don't realize how big it is for the media, the media day, all the other stuff you have to do for the national TV, all the little photo shoots. You just want to play hockey, but obviously you're at the mercy of the league and TV, and there's like a day and a half, somewhat like the Super Bowl, obviously ours isn't as big as the Super Bowl, the media day and all that stuff, which I never dreamed of as a kid. I thought, okay, we're here, when do we get to play? But you have to wait two or three days to do all that stuff. By the end of it, you're like a cage dog trying to get out there, and I just want to play the game. I think that was the biggest eye-opener. It's bigger than just you wanting to go out and skate. So there's a lot of fun to adjust to that, and as you get older, you learn to deal with it and it rolls off the back. So you say you're like a caged animal when you're ready to get into those finals, and I can see you being that way. Tell us a story from your first experience in HL Finals in 2004 that you love to tell. Our final that year, we lost the first game, it's a best of seven, and we just kept sharing games. Basically, we knew we had to win two in a row or we weren't going to win, and we lost on home ice and overtime in game five, and our coach had a great command, and it was really a tough loss because we had to fly six hours to Calgary and play them two nights later, and they're going to have all of Canada waiting for them to win the cup and back against the wall, and we were pretty down after that game. He had a great speech. He basically said, we're going out there, we're going to have our family's going to come, we're coming back here, we're going to get everybody set up, we're going to have hotels for our family back here in game seven, and you just started talking like we are coming back for game seven, and there was no what-ifs, and by the end of the meeting, we were all like, okay, we better call our families and get them booked for game seven, but we haven't even played game six yet. It was a great speech, kind of get our minds off the tough loss, and looking at what a great opportunity we have to win game six and come back and home ice, and we ended up doing that and double overtime and come back and home ice and warn it in front of our family and friends. I love that. Get your families and friends ready. We're coming back, booked the tickets. I love that. You know, Brad, you know, my research, I've learned, and I knew a lot about you before, but you know, I didn't know this stat, but you may be the greatest clutch player in the playoffs going an incredible eight no in game sevens. Nobody has ever done that in the history of hockey. How did you get up for the big games? I mean, I know it's a team sport, but you were a part of all of them, and you were, you know, you were a leader on the team. Well, the first two are very nerve-wracking. I was just turned 24. And at that point, you think you'll be in a thousand of them and no big deal. You're not really, you know, you want to win them, but you're young and dumb and too stupid to realize the gravity of everything that's going on that day. And as you got older, the record kept being mentioned in the media. So there was more pressure to keep that undefeated record, but you got older and you knew that there's not many of these opportunities anymore. So those were a lot harder to get your rest. It was tough to sleep the night before, really tough to sleep during the day. You always have a nap during the day, eight o'clock games in the playoffs and try to have a little nap, but you couldn't do that. You'd be tossed in turning. And I think the biggest thing was trying to get a routine. And eventually I found a routine that kept me going a little bit. I'd read a little bit. I'd watch, believe it or not, I'd watch this comedy show called The Office, The British Version back then. It kind of made me laugh, Ricky Gervais, and kind of get my mind off it. And I kind of kept the same, I'd even keep the same episodes if we won. But that kept me kind of in a routine and it kept me from thinking too far ahead about all the failures or bad things that could happen. It kept me in a good frame of mind. And I just kind of learned to get a routine like that. Whether you're on the ice or in the boardroom, Brad, we all have to show up and perform when the pressure really is on. What advice do you have for leaders on how they can better prepare for those big moments? You mentioned routine, it's one of the things you did. But is there any other advice you'd give to somebody to say, "Okay, you got the big game, the big event, the big presentation? Okay, here's how you get ready for it." Yeah, I think obviously if you're in those situations, you've probably put in the work. I would imagine I would hope so. You've put in the work and that's one good thing to lean on if you've done your , you know, in boardroom, whatever you would call it, your practices or your training . And you do all that. And once that's done, you got to try to, it's hard to say, hard to do, but you just got to try to relax and believe that you put in the work and preparation. You know, in the locker room, you trust your teammates, they're doing the same thing. And you can help if you are a leader or you're one of the captains of the team, you can help if you're seeing some guys that aren't quite what you think doing the right things to be ready for the big game. And then you got to go out and it's execution in the end, you know, it's, again , it's hard to do, but your mind has to shut off and you just got to get in the zone and execute. And there's all different techniques of that. Some people like to meditate in game days. Like I said, I like to try to get my mind into something, some comedy or something to loosen me up so I'm not uptight. But finding little ways that you're not just focused on it 24/7 because that can, you know, sometimes too much is a detriment. So, you know, that's basically what we would do and try to help the young guys and the team try to get them to relax. You were MVP in 2004 of the Stanley Cup Finals and then you're in the likes, you know, other people who've done it, Wayne Gresty, Mark Messier, Sidney Crosby, Mario Lamont, you, Bobby Orr, I mean, describe what it's like to be in a fraternity like that. I mean, that's an amazing group of players. And there you are, you're right there with them. When you say it like that, it's very flattering. Now that my career is over, it's something I look back on and it's pretty crazy . When I first get the trophy, you win as a team and you don't really think much of the MVP. It's great, but you can't wait to get with your team and celebrate the Stanley Cup. It's like the day or two later, I was sitting with my family, we had breakfast next morning and we had the, they let you bring the cons to my home with you or whatever trophy wins. So it was home with us next morning and all my family was there and we were looking at the names and just so happens that the way the names go on the trophy, the way mine worked out is under, it went Bobby Orr, Gresty and then me all in a row coming down. And my dad was, you know, he couldn't, he couldn't fathom it either. He was, he was out of his mind and that's when it kind of hit me. But when you're playing, you know, you never, no one thinks of trying to win an MVP or trying to win the Stanley Cup. So it took a few days to kind of really grasp and as I get older when people see you and they say you won the cons to my, I'm like, wow, yeah, I guess, you know, I guess that was a pretty big thing. Yeah, I would say so. And you were born and raised in Canada and I understand your father was a third generation lobster man. Did you ever think you'd follow in his footsteps and go into that line of business? Early on, he, I had to help out, you know, when, when I was young and especially on weekends when there's no school, but getting the 345 AM wake up call in the North Atlantic and early May, sometimes there's snow flurries, big, big waves. It just never was for me. And to be honest, my dad was very, very helpful in trying to get me out of that . He knew that sports or hockey was maybe an opportunity to go get some schooling or get some college paid for. He really helped me and sacrificed a lot financially to get me out of there. And I was able to go to Western Canada and kind of go to a private school that gave me an opportunity to further my education because of hockey. But it was never, never something I loved, it was something I had to do. And I knew I would do it if that's what the family needed. But I was lucky enough to have a father that really supported me doing something else. You know, I don't think people in the United States fully understand what hockey means to Canadians. So paint the picture for me. What does hockey mean to a Canadian? Well, you know, there's long winters and, you know, there'd be people in Northern Minnesota and Northern Michigan, places like that would understand that. But there's not a lot of other activities and hockey was a community thing. Every little town has a rink. So families get together. It's dark at four o'clock. They get their hot chocolate. The kids are all playing. The moms and dads get to meet for the evening. You get to go on weekends. You get to go on road trips, the tournaments and the families are together. It really gets you through these long winters, frozen ponds. On Saturdays and Sundays we'd wake up and if it got dark, a father would pull the car up and put the lights on the pond so we could play longer. It's just a fabric of how we grew up. And when you have those long winters, Scandinavia, there's lots of great players in there in Russia. It's kind of, it's an eight month thing and it brings the community together. And we always, you know, all your best buddies are doing that all day long. Yeah, the long winters. That's a great rationale for it. I never really thought about it that way. And you left home when you were 14 years old for a boarding school in Saskatchewan that had a renowned hockey program. Walk us through that decision. I had to be a big decision to leave that close knit family and go to this boarding school. It was a crazy, crazy time. It was August school started in September and we got a call from a gentleman that kind of ran hockey schools in our home area and he said, "I got a call from the coach at Notre Dame and they'd be wondering if you would be interested in going out there. We had four weeks to decide." And I think that helped me because it was so quick. I didn't get time to think. And my dad said, "If you want to come home, I'll fly home at any time. If it's not going to be for you." So off I went, I had $40 Canadian. Never been on a plane before. No cell phones. I was in 1994 and I landed in southern Saskatchewan. I got a taxi and told them where I'm going. I ended up at this school. I had no idea. And met my best friend and a teammate for 14 years, Vincent McAvoy there. We want to stand like up together, played in the Olympics together, did everything together. We happened to be bunk mates and played on the same team for 14 straight years after that. I don't know why we met so quick and so early, but we did and we kind of lat ched on. Next thing you know, hockey started and once hockey started, both of us were only 14. We made the team with older players and we both kind of just fell at home once we got on the ice. We were comfortable and we weren't homesick anymore. This is where we belong and we were able to make the team and do well on the team. So I'm not sure how it would have went if we didn't make the team or if we weren't a key part of the team. But it just seemed like everything felt normal after that. Hockey was our happy place and that place really made us grow up mature. And like I said, my whole goal was to try to get a US NCAA scholarship. That would have been a dream and things just kind of happened from there. You know, your boarding school was pretty intense as I understand it from what I've heard. You know, no janitors or kitchen staff, the students did it all. What kind of impact did that have on you in your formative years? It's amazing when I look back, you know, as any 14, 15 year old would be your miserable when you're doing it. So one week here on garbage duty, which is 6 a.m. tractor that goes around the school, getting old garbage. One week here on kitchen duty, one week here on janitor duty and the 400 students shared the jobs. And like I said, you're in it together. Everybody's miserable. But you do it with your buddies or your classmates or your roommates. And all of a sudden the year goes by and you just want to get back and be with everybody and you go through those things together, it really makes you grow and you create relationships that still last. I just think it's where your determination, hard work, perseverance, it all starts at young age and to go through those experiences were pretty unique and really helped me in the future. When was it Brad when you knew that you had the talent to be a professional hockey player? When did you actually say to yourself, you know what? I think maybe I can do this. When I was 17, I was picked for the under 18 national team for Team Canada, which is a big deal obviously in Canada when you picked for any national team. That was going into my draft year and that kind of like perked me up and said, okay, if I'm, if they're watching me for this team, I must be doing something okay, I must be in the mix. And we went over to Europe and we won the UN under 18 championships over there. It was a great experience to realize I can play with anybody around the world. It kind of gave you a little bit of a confidence obviously leaving there. And then the next year as a draft year, you got drafted. I didn't get drafted as high as I would have liked. I was still pretty small at that time. Kind of started growing a little bit around there. But it was still an unbelievable feeling to get drafted, but you knew there was still more work. But at least you knew you had a chance. You still had to put in the work and show them that you needed to be signed and signed a contract and make the team. But yeah, I think that first national team for Team Canada really gave me the belief that I could play with these guys. You know, you turned pro then when you were 18 years old and what advice can you give to the other leaders who are thrown on, onto the ice or whatever it looks like in their profession with people who have a lot more experience and skill than they do. I mean, you're 18 years old and you're going into this world where there's all kinds of wildly veterans. I mean, how do you survive and thrive in a new situation like that? You got to realize there's going to be a lot of bumps and a lot of bad days. And they're not bad. I was still living a dream, but not everything's going to go right. And you got to get up the next day. And I think, you know, for especially in sports, being, you know, try to be the first guy at the rink, try to be the last guy off the ice, first guy in the gym. You got to show your veterans that you're willing to put in the work that they 've put in their whole career. And then they take you under the wing. I was so lucky when I was 19, 28. Our captain was 40 years old. He's a Hall of Famer. He had been through everything. He had never been to a Stanley Cup final. And he finally won with us. But I watched him and he was 40 years old. He was at the rink an hour before everybody even thought about being there. He was on the ice ahead of everybody. He's coming off the ice after. And I'm looking at him like, OK, I'm 19, 20. I better be doing this too. He's 40. I got way more energy than him. So I got to get out here and show him. And he ended up being a great mentor to me. He'd take me golfing all the time, had me over to the house for dinners. And without his leadership and mentorship, there's no way I would have felt comfortable in those situations in a locker room. If something did go bad, he was like a big brother. I'd look at him and he'd grab me and maybe go for a beer after and say, hey, listen, calm down. You got a whole career ahead of you. And he'd really put things into perspective for me and give me some of his experiences. And without him, who knows where the path would have went. Yeah, we all need somebody to take us under their wings and help us learn how to get things done in any industry. What was his name by the way, Brad? Dave Andrichech's his name. He had over 600 goals and over 1,600 games played in the league, played for 22 years. We finally won a Stanley Cup for him when he was 42 years old. So that was an amazing time. What was that like when you two got together right after winning that Cup? I mean, here's this guy. He's been your mentor and you obviously helped him get to where he wanted to go . We looked at him during that whole finals and we kept thinking he had never been to a Stanley Cup final 22 years. And there's a bunch of us there at 23, 24 years old. We were young team and we're looking at each other like, God, this must be a lot harder than we're making it look because this guy is like, like he can hardly breathe over there. He's so nervous. He knows this is probably it. He's never been in the final. So to win it, see him lift the cup and then, you know, in the locker room, we kicked everybody out at one point and he was just the coaches and the players and we all kind of tackled him and jumped on him. And it was the first time he acted like a little kid and he could let his guard down and not be that leader. And it was so cool to see. Because you're listening to this, I can tell you're the kind of person who wants to learn how to lead well. But there's a lot of companies out there who want to take that desire and charge you $500 or $1,000 or heck, even $20,000 to try and show you how to lead. That's just not right. If you want to be a better leader, I believe you deserve to have access to something that will truly help you and it shouldn't cost a fortune. So I want you to go to howleaderslead.com and start my leadership class. It's really and truly free. And after you take this class, you're going to feel more confident in your role and you'll be on your way to getting big things done with your team. Go check it out at howleaderslead.com. Brad, I have to tell you, you know, you without a doubt are one of the most competitive, you know, head of the persons I've ever met in my life. You know, we've had the great privilege to play golf against each other with each other, but you are, you are competitive. You know, has there ever been a time when you had to tone it down to play your best? Definitely when you want to get out and play your best, even keel, even keel is so much a better way to go. And the ups and downs sometimes when I was younger, could get to you and turn a two game streak of losing or something going bad, you turn it into a five, six game because you just couldn't control your emotions. Same thing the other way, you can't get too high. You turn a great five game winning streak and it would end because you get cock y or you lose focus. So I think, you know, learning how to, yeah, calm that, I think in the biggest part, hockey you could go out and throw some emotion around with a head or some people fight or you could kind of get that out. But learning to do that in golf, the hardest thing is how to calm down and not take everything so serious because it can ruin around. But for sure in hockey, that was something you had to learn at a young age that you can't do everything in one night. It's a long season. There's a process to things. You know, you've represented your country on five different occasions, not only at the World Cup, but also at the Olympics playing for Team Canada. What did you learn playing on the international scene? The Olympics was such a cool experience, not just for hockey, but to see all the other athletes. You know, you watch the Olympics like a fan like you would and you see these people from all over the world. I had no, I just didn't study it, but I had no idea when I got the Olympic Village how young some of these kids are. There's 14 year olds, 15 year olds, ski jumpers, figure skaters, people in all the world and that's their pinnacle. And to see them and see the looks on their faces and us as pro athletes, it's a different thing. It's two weeks, it's a great feeling, but it's two weeks you're getting pulled from kind of a brotherhood where you're growing a team for maybe six, seven years and your team's back here and you get thrown in for two weeks. You know, you want to win and of course it's big, but to see the looks on these athletes' faces where they've put in their whole life for one event and it could be just one jump and that makes their whole career to sit and talk with some of those athletes from around the world and the villages. That was the coolest thing for me to see all those athletes. Do you recall a story that really stands out when you think about being in the Olympics? The biggest thing in Canada was, I'll give you a, which was shocking, we played Italy was the host so we had to play Italy first and they get a team. But most of Italy were Canadian kids with dual passports that never could make it in HL and it wasn't much of a game, but during the game, all the parents of the Italian kids are basic Canadian kids. We're sitting with our parents asking if we'd all take pictures with them and maybe get one of our hockey sticks after the game and stuff like that. So to kind of go there as a pro athlete and play against a team, they were just happy to be on the same ice and play against Canada, but they're basic Canadians. But they were more excited that, could we hang out with you guys after? Could we go in your locker room and get some pictures, stuff like that? So that's where the professional athlete part of the Olympics gets, you know, it's a little different than the amateur side. But the, like I said, talking to some of those athletes, there was a figure sk ater that was like 14 years old from, I forget which country, but I mean, she looked like she was eight and she won a medal and she was just as proud as you could be and to realize that's like, that's probably the end of her career almost. She'd probably do it two or three more times and that was it. It was pretty amazing to see. Yeah, and you get to keep on going. That's funny. There was no miracle on ice when Italy played Canada. No. No. You know, Brad, at what point in your career did you transition from being an individual contributor and a heck of a good one, by the way, obviously, you know, to be being identified as a leader on your team? Early on when we won in Tampa, you know, I kind of thought I'd be back and I'll get five, six, seven more chances at this. And ten years went by before I got to another final. That's when I was in New York and we had traded our captain that year, Ryan Cal ahan, went to Tampa and we brought in Marty St. Louis. He was a good friend of mine and teammate of mine when we won in Tampa. So it was cool to get an old friend back in the lineup, but we lost our captain . I was one of the assistant captains. So that year I kind of was the de facto captain in the run and it was a whole different feeling than being the 24-year-old. But looking up to a leader, I tried to remember what Dave Andrew-Check was doing for us and what he was helping us with and teaching us in that run with the young guys. We faced some crazy adversity. We were down 3-1 to Pittsburgh and Marty had lost his mom to a heart attack right before a game and we came back and won that series and Marty had the winning goal. Really galvanized our locker room and we went to the final and we had a lot of young kids that gained a lot of experience. New York was magical trying to win a Stanley Cup in New York. Just amazing. We ran into a really good team and we lost, but that's the first time I really had to take leadership on my own shoulders and I'll be honest, it was a lot tougher than just going out and playing because you had to play but you had to kind of monitor the room all the time and make sure there's a lot of different personalities, 23 different personalities, there's a lot of little things that go into it. So it was an eye-opener for me to realize how hard and I have a lot of respect for people that did it over a whole career to be able to do both play your individual game and also take care of that locker room. Do you recall your biggest leadership challenge? I think any challenge the first time you do it is getting up and trying to talk to the room in a different way. Not your "Hey guys, let's get a dinner tonight." It's kind of a stern way or we got to wake up kind of way or after a really tough loss like in the playoffs we're down 3-1 we lost, we have boot off home ice. Coming up and trying to find what to say in the moment that you know your teammates are going to feel is real, not just someone talking for the sake of talking. I think that's the biggest challenge and that was the hardest thing is I got to make this sound genuine. I got to try to galvanize these guys and we got to go to Pittsburgh and regroup and how do you make this sound genuine and get these guys to buy in. That's probably the biggest challenge. That's a confidence thing also but you have to get over that hurdle. What gave you the most satisfaction making the assist or scoring the goal? I was always more of an assist guy. I love setting up my teammates. I mean goals are great too. Don't get me wrong but I think if anybody that knew me and played with me they 'd always said probably last second rather pass it than put it in the net and sometimes my coaches I drove them nuts doing that but it was just an instinct that I love to do and it worked out more than it didn't. Anytime you can help a teammate I just think it's a great feeling to see their look on their face when they point at you after you set them up it was a great feeling. So one of the challenges you had was monitoring your desire to pass the ball. You drove the coaches crazy. Yes. I always had my first coach always like you got to be more selfish. You got to take the puck yourself and it just was never in me but I did learn to do a better job of that. It also helped you be a better passer because if you're always passing the defense knew that so it took a while to get that in my head. I remember talking to Magic Johnson and he loved making the assist too but he was still the same guy that could take over a playoff game and score 48 points in play center if Jabbar was out of the game. But you were a great scorer as well. And speaking of scoring goals almost 20 years ago you set a record for the most game winning goals in a single playoff season with seven goals. Tell us about that experience and what's it like to make that game winning shot . Yeah I mean that that was the same year the Stanley the Stanley Cup and the MVP so if you want to talk we'll be in the zone it was just a two month I was in his own and it seemed like for a while every time I scored a goal it happened to be a game winner again great teammates great line mates and timely goals. Sometimes you don't know why but the puck comes to you and then when you're in a slump the puck you know bumps over your stick and goes the other way and if your mindset is not right and you're not feeling positive other things will happen and that run everything just fell into place but again you're just trying to help the team after the game you know the media is telling you you just broke a record and all that but that's I guess if there's records you want to break you want to break them for game winning goals because you're winning and doing something individual at the same time so it feels good . Absolutely you know in my research I've heard you talk a lot about playing for John Tortorello. Describe what the team culture was like before and after he showed up at Tampa Bay and his impact as a leader. He was the best coach I had by far with getting a young team that was kind of a country club atmosphere down there in Tampa. I think a lot of players would come down and kind of play out their career play some golf go to the beach and he knew right away he had to change that and the details he instilled in us from day one when he took over and I was only 20 years old when he took over but you know your meetings you were there 50 minutes ahead of time you were there for breakfast way before anything had to be done in the locker room your meetings your video your workouts everything was done and it was at a whole different level. Our training camps we came into training camp and it was I don't want to say military because I don't want to disrespect the military but he wanted that mentality we were thinking about it a month before we were scared of it so we over trained we were so ready for every training camp and he had a method to all this and our culture changed immediately and when our culture changed he always said I want to make this where I can let you guys take over the room and let you guys I can back off and let you guys be the guys that are going to do this so I don't have to be barking at you all the time and on you all the time and it was the best experience of seeing a really bad team I think we had 18 wins and all of a sudden three years later when the playoffs and then four years later we win the Stanley Cup and we were we were a well oiled machine on on on details and how to how to be professionals and it changed really quickly. Was he the coach you enjoyed playing with the most or was there somebody else? Probably not the most enjoyable coach all the time but because he was hard but you know if you're comfortable you're probably usually if you're comfortable all the time you're probably not winning or playing your best you wanted you a little uncomfortable at all times and sometimes is very uncomfortable but you know that was his his way of doing it but when you look back at the end of the season and you win or you had a good chance to win you always say like I'd rather have a chance to win and be in the fight than than not and he always had you in the fight. Yeah you seems like the best leaders always create sort of a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo. I mean you know they're always pushing you to take it the next level. You know and we all have to play on a team. What are the qualities of the teammates that you love playing with over the years and what did you really look for in a teammate? You know you don't get to be leader all of a sudden you know you have to start out as a teammate. Yeah I think I love obviously the unselfishness and any good team that I was on you know I got to win twice they were great teams and I had probably three or four other teams that I would say were really good teams had a chance to win and they all had something common. We all got along everybody had a rule you know the bad teams there's always one or two guys that weren't involved weren't invited to the team dinners or weren't invited to the golf events or you know it just seems like there was two or three people missing all the time and that never worked. The teams we won if we had a team dinner everybody showed up you didn't have to stay for three hours but everybody showed up to it. The captain treated the fourth line player the same as he treated the first line player or the superstar the goalie got treated the same as the third line. Everybody was equal and invited to the same things. We spent a lot of time in the road you know a lot of time together and the best leaders had the wives involved and parties and you know they wanted everybody to feel like this is one big family and when that was clicking those were always the best teams. You know you played at Tampa for several years you became an icon there you know and then you're sent to Dallas in a blockbuster trade right before the trade deadline and you know sports are so unique where you can wake up one day and then have to pack up and move to play for another team. How did that play into your psyche I mean tell us about that. That was tough that was the toughest day of my career. I had been in Tampa eight years drafted there and won there so when I woke up the next morning to go to the airport it was it really hit me like okay I'm done I'm not not a lightning anymore going to this new locker room which you know is it's intimidating because it's not your lock you had all your your trainers new routines I had my same seat on the bus and my I went out on the ice same time I warm up with the same I had all these things and now you're going in this new locker room you don't know what's going on so it's a huge adjustment it's also a huge adjustment not being around your best friends and teammates but hockey is a great sport and every sport be the same you get in a locker room and they're the same guys just different faces and they open open their arms to you and and you start battling with them and and you're in their respect and you show them that you 're there to win and and everything kind of starts falling in but the the initial 24 or 48 hours is rough it's not yeah if I had one bad thing I can say about my career I loved it I was lucky but that that one first trade is is a shock to the system for sure. To be fair to say it's almost like getting fired or is that too strong? Yeah probably it probably is because you realize the team that you love and battle for their trading now there's other there's there's contracts and salary caps involved in that too but I had a no trade clause so I got to control it and my agents like we can wait till the summer and my attitude was they don't want me I don't if they don't if the ownership and general managers don't want me then I don't want I can't do this and that was the way I looked at it and luckily I controlled it so I got to go to a good team and a good organization but you know I just couldn't I just didn't want to be there anymore if I knew they're trying to trade me and wait until next year it didn't feel right. That's so similar to business because one of the major reasons why people leave and go to a different company and businesses they don't feel appreciated you know and it's very very similar in both Tampa and Dallas you experienced an ownership bankruptcy and you're out there to play hockey but how tuned into the business component were you as it related to the franchise you were playing for? Well it really really toned in because in Tampa we want and we want to keep our team together and it started to fall apart because ownership was changing and that affects the type of players you can go out and get trade for free agents you can sign and when you're one of the leaders of the team you know exactly what's going on in that when I went to Dallas they seem to start to happen which is a big reason why when I came to free agency I wanted to go to New York because New York was not going to go bankrupt anytime soon they're very stable stable organization so but you're very you know I think maybe if you're young as a rookie and you're just happy to be there but when you're one of the main parts of the team or you're in a contract negotiation you really realize what the stress of a bankruptcy or an ownership change is doing because you only have so many years to try to win and you know I just thought you know I'm wasting a year or two three here waiting for ownership change but we can't get the best team on the ice maybe it's time to look somewhere else. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Brad Richards in just a moment. You know I've gotten to talk to one other hockey legend here on Howl Eaters Lead the great Mark Messier and just like Brad Mark really understands team dynamics at a level that few others do. I absolutely love his insights on how great leaders stay attuned to their people. The only way in a team sport to have success is to try to maximize the performance of each and every one of the people that are around you and make them believe that their contributions are absolutely necessary for any team success and I think that's one element the other element for me would be that you got to establish relationships that go further than just the game itself in order to lead someone they have to give you their permission and that permission has to be earned and I think you earn it through developing your relationships so you can tell them the truth and they don't take it personally and so then you just start to foster those relationships and the other thing I guess what I would say is that you got to be willing to be completely open completely transparent and who you are and what you stand for and your consistency and your personality you don't wa ver in good times and bad. I mean you're completely exposed and vulnerable and you got to be doing the right things consistently but I think when you do that it gives everybody a sense of calm around you. Make sure you listen to my entire conversation with Mark. Episode 13 here on Howl Eaters Lead. You know you win your first Stanley Cup with Tampa in 2004 and your second in 2015 when you're a Chicago Black Hawk you know that's a long time that's 11 year drought of not winning a final and you know you win very early on in your career and you think this is probably going to happen all the time. How did you stay positive and optimistic when you kept falling short? Yeah like I said earlier I thought I thought I'd have six or seven tries at it. The 10th year drought in New York we went to the final and when I signed in Chicago they were one of the best teams. They had won two championships in four years before that and that getting back to the final really even though we lost it really reminded me of how fun it was. I had been to two conference finals before that in between but the final just it's just so big and it got me back into those juices and then I got lucky to I signed in Chicago and we're right back to the final and we won but sometimes I think if you're not getting there you forget how great it is you're trying but getting the final and having only about six, seven weeks off I was ready to get back to the final and I know it's a long road but it's just the bet you're on the stage you're on your sports biggest stage for two weeks and there's nothing like it for us. You know there's this viral video out you probably have seen it because I know you're on top of what's going on in sports but Janus of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks responds to a question of his most recent season and the failure that they had when they didn 't win the championship is basically the favorite. I mean everybody thought the Bucks were going to get there this year and he responded by saying there's no failure in sports just steps to success. What's your take on that? If you want to look at it as a failure you could probably mope for the off season. I had a really tough year in New York and one year and it was with my coach Tor rella and the season ended terribly but it was probably the hardest I ever worked in the summer and I ate perfect and it kind of I learned a lot about eating even better than I thought I was eating I learned a lot about training even better than I thought I was training. It's amazing what you can learn and put back into what you're doing if you do it the right way and I guess that's how I would take what he's saying right there as it's another step to get better and maybe he'll win two more championships because of this instead of one or you know or whatever it goes but there's so many things that you can always do better and sometimes those things can knock you back into that thought process. So you went to the mountaintop twice you had two finals wins but in 2014 you lost to LA when you were on the Rangers. What do you think about most? You think about the two victories or the loss? The loss still bites that's for sure I mean winning in New York would have been unbelievable and we lost three three of our four losses were an overtime which is unheard of you think one of the over times would go your way and we'd still be playing but if I didn 't get back the next year in Chicago that loss would have been a little harder but to get back in Chicago next year and then win it really you know to have two championships and I think that kind of took a little heat off but there's not a day goes by where I see a New York Ranger logo or you know where we hang out in the summer and play some golf if someone 's not talking with the Rangers not a day goes by I'm like wow that just could have pulled that one off but that's life you always want more. Yeah you'd like to have that ticker tape for eight. Yeah exactly. You know I know Mark Messier I love that one you know. Oh yeah. Now I understand that if you win the Stanley Cup you mentioned this a little bit earlier every player on the team gets a day with the trophy so you actually get to have the trophy for a day you've experienced that twice now what were those days like and what did you do with the trophy? So I went back home to Murray Harbour Prince there down Little Town and because it's so remote the cup flies in on commercial flights and you just go to the airport and meet the cupkeeper and you go the flights are very scarce there so I was lucky you have it for like 40 hours both times so I had two days basically so I was able to do a public day with all the town and parades and we prayed it through on my dad's fishing boat through the town and a lot of people would show up from all over the island and the cup would be there for pitchers and then we'd bring it to the hospital and we'd do some stuff like that and then the other day would be all private day we'd go in the boats and the rivers where we jump off and jet ski we put a life jacket on the on the Stanley Cup I'd take a jet skiing and I love it. Yeah and then we'd have a band that night at the rink I grew up in and we'd invite kind of like a wedding type of atmosphere you invite like 150 of your best friends and live band and you know the guy that wins it always has to go up and take over the mic and take over the show so that's that's part of the part of the deal but I wish we would have been buddies and you know playing some golf back then I would have loved to have been invited to that party that'd be awesome. Oh yeah. You know Brad this has been so much fun and I want to ask some more with my lightning round of questions are you ready for this? Yep. Alright what's one word others would use to best describe you? Probably quiet and reserved. What would you say is the one word that best describes you? I think very loyal. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself who would it be and why? Maybe Jack Nicholas in the 70s winning all those golf tournaments. What's something only Canadians know about Canada? Poutine maybe? Yeah we'll explain that to us. Poutine is French fries, gravy and melted cheese curds and sometimes a little bit of bacon bits but it's a delicacy up there. And that's not what you were eating when you were learning how to eat. No, no. What do you enjoy most about also speaking French? Well it was great to be able to learn two languages. I think the funniest thing is if you're on a plane in Canada where everybody's bilingual and someone's talking about you you can play dumb and know everything they're saying. That's a hidden treat. Ok now I want you to give me that same answer in French. I'm going to have you on Canada to give me an oat person. I'm going to have you on a plane. That's great. I've never done that on the show. That's fantastic. My French is a little broken now but you don't know that. That's pretty good though. Your wife is from Australia. What's your favorite part about visiting that country? There's lots. The country, the beaches, the people, the attitude. And as you would know I love the golf down in the sand belt. What's been the most nerve-wracking moment of your playing career? As you enter Game 7s, Game 7 days where it's do or die and one of them was to win a Stanley Cup and home ice so that was the most nerve-wracking day. Who's the best hockey player you ever played with or against? Mario Lemuth, best player I ever played with. If I turned on your radio and your car what would I hear? That's likely Pearl Jim. I thought you might say Drew Holcomb and we'd be seeing him gratitude. Well now that's coming. What's something about you a few people would know? I can't say I speak French. I'll say I've got a double eagle before a hole in one. That's the end of the lightning round. You're off the hook. You started a foundation called Richie's Rascals for children's cancer patients in Tampa. Tell us about it. Unfortunately at a very young age I had my first cousin and neighbor die of a brain tumor. He was five years old when he got diagnosed, died pretty quick after. I always, when I'd watch Hockey Night in Canada you'd see players with sick children or cancer kids or all different types of things go to the games. When I made it I always thought back to that and we created this foundation where we bought a suite and we gutted it and turned it into a playground at the rink because not every kid that you bring in is going to be a hockey fan but they're going to be excited to be there and see the people. We put a goal horn in the middle of it so when we scored they could push the button and the red light would go. We had play stations in there. We had arts and crafts and they could put pictures of their night all over the walls. We made it kind of like a really safe haven for them when they went to the games. We called it Richie's Rascals and we worked with the Children's Cancer Center in Tampa and they would help us bring families that needed a break. Sometimes it would be the siblings and parents of the sick children because the siblings weren't getting much time with their parents and we'd bring them in and I'd meet them after the games and it meant a lot to me. I'm getting goosebumps talking about it because I met so many great kids and unfortunately not all the kids have made it but some have and years later when I was playing on other teams and warm up they'd be down with their sign. I'm a Richie's Rascal and I'd recognize them and it was very cool and obviously I'm not playing anymore and now we've got a whole center back home in my hospital named after my cousin back in Prince Edward Island. For the same idea we make them comfortable when they're getting the treatments and hockey themes and all that stuff so they can not feel as intimidated when they have to go do those things. That's great. We talked about your dad earlier and I know he recently passed away from ALS. What did that experience teach you Brad? Well we all hear about ALS but until it hits you I had no idea how nasty of a disease it is. I also had no idea how unselfish my dad was until he went through that because he never complained once. He never wanted to be anything about him. He kept everything very close to his chest. He didn't want his children or grandchildren knowing what he was going through but I can only imagine what he was going through. Every day you're learning from your parents and I kept learning until the end that's for sure. What a great role model for sure. What a treat it had to be for him to see you play hockey for your entire career . Brad you retired from the NHL in 2016. How are you staying involved in the game and what are your future aspirations? If any it's coaching or becoming a GM on the horizon. I tried a little bit when I was living in New York still. I worked with the Rangers for four years in an advisory role. What I learned I think is if you're going to get into that you've got to really go all in. We moved down to Florida. I have young kids. My son's in travel hockey now. I just thought at this time I'm going to have more fun being around him and my girls for a little bit but at the same time I just turned 43. I've got to keep my mind moving a little bit and I'm always open to getting back into it in a certain capacity. But I think like I said I think if you want to do it and want to get fulfilled with it you've got to really put the time in and I just wasn't prepared to go all in at that point. How are you moving into the business world? I know you're focused on your family and what's been the biggest challenges as you've had to navigate this transition because we all go through transitions. Yeah I think the biggest thing for me is the structure. There's no routine anymore. There's no schedule. I was told what to do since I was 14 years old to wake up, go to school, go to practice, whatever it was, NHL, you had to be here, the bus, the plane, everything's leaving and you're on autopilot and you just kind of woke up and you knew your day all the time. Now you're waking up and there's some days you don't have anything on the books . I try to keep as busy as possible. But that's been the biggest transition. I think I'm learning how to handle that more and I'm also, I think as you know through golf and through meeting people in retirement I am starting to see different pathways maybe in business or opportunities to go into different things other than hockey meeting great people like yourself or mutual friends we have. I've had lots of conversations and you know I'm not rushing anything but it is interesting to tick brains of some of the great leaders of the world in business and see how they did things. So yeah I'm excited what the future holds. I still want to, I still watch hockey every night and try to stay in touch with a lot of GM's and scouts and keep that open but I also love the opportunity maybe to do other things too. Yeah well you know you're very young and you've got that opportunity to pursue that career but I think I envy the fact that you can spend this time with your family and you're doing that I think that's good on you as they would say in Australia. I also know you're a minority owner in untucket and now I know why your shirts are always untucked. Just trying to be cool what's your role on that team? When I was in New York I was their spokesperson or whatever and it wasn't doing that well and Chris Ricabano who now has become very successful we got another thing called greatness wins with Derek Jeter and Wayne Gretzky also clothing line and you know it was kind of we're in the need of a push here we're not I don't know running out of money is the right way to put it but it was kind of and I said well listen don't bother paying me. Let's just run it into ownership in the company and I'll keep trying to help and do stuff and that was kind of the decision me my agent made back then and now the company's grown and it's been a lot of fun to learn and see what Chris has done with that and now I've been involved in greatness wins and trying to help them actually get into some of the golf shops and they're making a golf clothing line and so that's been fun also learning a little bit of what he's let me in learning that business but yeah it's been a lot of fun and I do have to wear the untucked shirts to try to try to sell the brand. Now this greatness wins is creating athletic wear for the modern athlete and you teamed up with Gretzky and Derek Jeter. What are these two guys like as business partners? Derek obviously I don't know him that well but his leadership and his focus and what he's going to do he doesn't do anything just for the sake of doing it and I think that's why Chris Rick Abano chose him to be the face of it because he knows he's going to go all in he just has that type of personality and obviously being a New York Yankee and multiple world championship winner world series winner doesn't hurt your brand obviously . And Wayne Gretzky the great one speaks for himself when you have a name greatness wins and you can add the great one. They're great ambassadors and they have great stories to tell and I'm just happy they let me tag along. Well you had a heck of a lot I'm sure. And last question for you Brad what's one piece of advice you've given to someone who wants to be a better leader what's the most important bit of advice? I would always say that you have to take truth and honesty you need it and you have to take it the best way possible. A lot of truth and honesty was told to me over the years and I wish when I was younger I would have handled it better as I got older I realized if you can't handle the truth or can't accept the truth and what you're doing and how you're performing you're just not going to get better because you'll find excuses you'll find ways to ignore it or oh it's not not me it's someone else or once you look yourself in the mirror and accept being told the truth all the time you'll get better all the time. You know I've done probably 150 podcasts nobody's ever provided that answer but that's a great insight for everybody to listen to. You know it's been a lot of fun having this conversation with you Brad I've always admired you in the way I you attack everything and there's a reason why you are a champion. You know I know Brad pretty well and Brad's never going to be the loudest guy in the room but you know what his strength and resilience as the leader comes through loud and clear and he walks the talk. I just love how he isn't afraid to do the hard work and face the hard truths and then trust that effort and draw on it as a source of confidence in tough moments. Now listen you don't have to be a hockey player to apply that lesson to your life. This week ask yourself where do I dig in and do the hard work. Where do I need to accept the hard truths so that I can improve. Put in that effort today that way down the road whenever you face a difficult situation or you're under lots of pressure or you just need to flat out execute you're going to have so much more confidence because you can trust you've done the hard work and you prepared for the pressure. So do you want to know how leaders lead what we learned today is the great leaders trust the hard work they put in. Coming up next on how leaders leaders are best of quarter two episode where we pull out some of the greatest wisdom from the last three months and highlight the best takeaways for you like this one from Annie Young Scribner the CEO of Wella. I think my first lesson was to really appreciate people's work and to understand that I was not going to be the smartest person in the room but what I could do is to learn best practices from each of them also find out what was important for them and then galvanize learning so that together the team could achieve because they were each acting as individual versus his team. We had a ton of fun we won every single district contest and those early lessons have imprinted me forever. and this is the end of the day. So thank you for joining me. I'm going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing and I'm going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing. I'm going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing. And it's going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing. I'm going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing. I'm going to be a little bit more confident in what you're doing.