Tom brady: Greatest of all time
EPISODE 115
Tom Brady is without a doubt an incredible athlete and one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all-time.
He’s an inspirational reminder of the power of the journey and how healthy habits lead to big results. He has arguably achieved the full circle of all the Moonshots moments we’ve explored throughout our shows. Whether you're a Brady fan or even a sports fan. We can all learn from Tom Brady.
“The biggest challenges end up being the best things that happen in your life”, Tom Brady.
SHOW OUTLINE
INTRO
The Draft, retold by Tom Brady and Tom Brady Senior
It’s important to Care Deeply (2m05)
[note: when it goes quiet, that’s Brady being emotional]
The relationship between leader and team is key
Leonard Fournette on Tom Brady Being the GOAT (36s)
WORK HARD
Coping with disappointment makes you stronger
Every obstacle is an opportunity (1m46)
DIET & FITNESS
Graham Flanagan tries and discusses TB12 fitness
Tom Brady's Diet And Workout Plan Changed My Life (3m31)
TRY THE SHOWCASE
MINDSET
How to keep yourself inspired and on the right track
Make sure to focus every single day (37s)
How to be your authentic self
Live in the present (36s)
How to stay at the top
We all need to evolve through experience (51s)
OUTRO
Zac Shomler from Strong Opinion Sports; Everyone can learn a lesson from Tom Brady
If Tom Brady can get better, so can we (1m46)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai
Tom Brady
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Moonshots podcast. It's episode 115. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as all A's I'm joined by the quarterback himself. Mr. Mark Freeland. Good morning, Mark. Good morning, Mike. If I'm the quarterback, I'm not sure who is the greatest of all time. The go, I know it seems so appropriate that we should talk about mountain animals after we've just done a whole series on stoicism makes a perfect, perfect connection between the two of them.
Doesn't it. Coming off, coming off a four part series on the author, thinker and stoic. Mr. Ron Hadaway and jumping into a mountain animals. It is a bit peculiar, but I'm glad that we're dynamic enough to do that. Well, listen, we're not very good at [00:01:00] spelling, but for us goat really translates into. Leaders, and this is going to be something brand new.
Isn't it Mark? Yeah, I'm really, really excited by this series. You know, we've spent a lot of time digging into our own. Self-awareness learning from these two, 3000 year old, uh, you know, leaders and greatest thinkers in ancient Rome and Greece. You know, for example, Marcus or alias, arguably at one point.
One of the most powerful leaders of all time, but gradually through that Ron holiday series, we got exposed to other forms of leaders. Didn't we make other forms of innovators, inventors, uh, leaders, and countries and so on. And each of them had something that inspired us to make a little bit of a change in our lives.
A little bit of a. Uh, perhaps you could say pivot, or perhaps you just say, Oh, I I've been inspired by a small grain or a grant today to be that better version of myself and what we're launching into today, Mike, [00:02:00] from episode one, one five is a new leadership series. And boy, do we have some impressive kids?
We, we really do. And, uh, we're going to start somewhere rather timely, only. Yeah, this is a leader, our listeners just pulling your legs about being goats. And so on today, we are getting into one of the greatest sports individuals of all time. Mr. Tom. Brady. I inarguably an undisputed, the greatest NFL player of all time.
I mean, boy, he not only can teach us a lot on the field, but more importantly, Mike Egan inspire us and show us how to be the best version of ourselves off the pitch as well. He really can. And, um, before those of you. Who are not football fans or NFL fans think, Oh, this isn't for me. Hold that pause button, ladies and gentlemen, because I would like, [00:03:00] I would really like to pitch to you that in Tom Brady, we have the opportunity to learn so much.
We really, really do. And he is somebody who has taken. This idea of continuous improvement to really the highest level. I think we've ever witnessed in the modern age, because when he started out, he was needed the best athlete. He was not, it was most certainly not the number one draft. Right. He wasn't like, you know, Jordan was like, I think second or third in the draft, as we're getting to discover, he was way down the list.
So we can all take lots of practical tips from Tom Brady, even if you're not a lover of football and American football. But there's something bigger here. This is going to be one hour of us learning how [00:04:00] to become the best version of ourselves and how many of us don't even realize our potential because in Tom Brady's story, nobody.
Nobody when he was 20, nobody was saying, this is the goat, but yet it is undisputed. Some 20 years later, nobody even losers were challenges to the title of the greatest NFL player in history. Even those people, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice have all said, Tom is the greatest yet. Nobody knew 20 years ago. But Tom worked on it.
So we're going to learn how he worked on it. Mind, body, spirit. This is such a juicy topic. There is so much for us to learn and I promise you for those who are thinking, Hmm, a football player. Just give us the chance because this is going to be so damn good. Isn't it, Mark? [00:05:00] Yeah, it really, really is going to be juicy and good.
And I think it's the perfect, this first clip is going to set us up perfectly Mike, because it's a great connector between the Ron huddle day stoic thinking series, as well as launching into this new series of leadership and today with Mr. Tom Brady, because. You've got to cast your mind back for a second.
Mike, we now a lot of us know Tom Brady as the man who has his incredible records, a very, very longer than usual career in the NFL. And he's still performing at the peak, maybe even better than he ever has, uh, in the, in the sport. But as you mentioned, like beginnings always happen somewhere. So I want yourself.
And me and all listeners to close our eyes and imagine a world before the world and popular culture knew Tom Brady. You're a child, you're a kid you've been playing American football with your colleagues and your teammates for a long, long time. And you're all working [00:06:00] towards this one moment. And that's called the draft.
You've got the biggest teams in NFL history, the landscape or the greatest teams in America are all picking that teammates. And new team members from college. So you've got people like Tom Brady and his family and all of those around him, 20 odd years ago, listening in and waiting for their name to be cooled.
Now here's where the stoic lessons come in because as we know sometimes experiences don't go the way that we dreamed them. Maybe we don't get called first. Maybe we don't even get called second as we're going to hear from this first clip with Tom Brady, as well as his father, Tom Brady, senior. Well, those sometimes experiences don't go the way that we dreamed.
The important thing is you've really, really got to care deeply. We were led to believe that he's going to be drafted possibly second round, probably third round. They kept calling quarterback names. [00:07:00] We kept being stunned. You see, you know, so-and-so get picked and then there's nine more picks gone until one team that you think was interested.
You know, that's pretty anxious. We're very distraught with each name that was becoming worse and worse. So I remember being downstairs. Just for like the fourth round. And I came and gone and the fifth round was coming and going and all these other guys were getting paid beginning of the sixth round. He says, I gotta get outta here.
So he gets up, comes downstairs and grabs the baseball bat and starts walking up the street. You know, I don't want to sit around and, and my hopes get up or I'd rather just take it my mind off it. And finally comes back into the house. And it's about the 22nd pickup. For the sixth round. And he says, I, I gotta get outta here.
Poor guy, the tension in the house. This is [00:08:00] just really rough. And it was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block.
It was just a tough day, you know? I just remember being there with my mom and dad,
sorry about that. You know, they just were so supportive of me and, uh, and they take it as emotional as I do. And, uh, you know, finally when the Patriots call it, I was so excited, you know, I was like, I don't have to be an insurance salesman, you know? So, uh, my family was there. We were all excited. And thank God I got, I got picked here.
He got drafted and we were jubilant. [00:09:00] Oh my gosh. Can you imagine, so Tom Brady, according to all the experts, when they made a list of the top 300 players coming out of college, going into the pro. He was ranked 199th. And Mark, this is some of the things that the, the draft report of Brady said. So I want you to realize we are actually talking about the greatest ever player in history.
Undisputed. But 23 years ago, this is what they said. Poor build skinny lacks, physical stature and strength, likes mobility, and ability to wait the rush Lexus strong up can't drive down the field and it doesn't even throw at a tight spot. Terrible. And it goes on, Oh my gosh. How crazy would that have been to have been sitting there?
To have been [00:10:00] sitting there and every time it's not your name that gets called someone else. Yeah. It's, it's, it's such in my mind, a stoic approach that Brady talks about in that reflection clip, you know, he, he could have quit, he couldn't quit football and, and, you know, maybe even though he was selected at 199, even then he may still have called time and said, you know what, if I'm not in the top a hundred.
He's still maintain. This is don't give up attitude. He means, well, he w he was grateful. Did you hear it? He was just grateful. He was just grateful. He wasn't angry at anyone, but it started this journey of self-improvement not only in terms of his athleticism, um, not only in terms of his study of the game.
Um, but he evolved to become someone who. Adopted an [00:11:00] amazing health regime. We're going to talk about that, but to give him the appropriate context, Mark, I think it's really important to understand that he had been at the union Newing and Patrick, all his career. And this season, he went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And not only did he go. But he actually recruited personally a number of key players that contributed not only during the season, but made key plays and touchdowns in the super bowl final. And they were recruited by him. And this gives you a sense of the impact that he actually has on the people around him.
So we have these great clips. It's really short, but this is one of the running backs and receivers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, uh, Leonard Fournette. He had a great game and a great season and he was there at Tampa because Tom was there. [00:12:00] It was really important before he came to the team, this Susan, it was because of Tom and I think we have something remarkable when we listened to a guy who also played very well in the super bowl.
This is a teammate of Tom Brady. Let's listen now. And just how he talks about Tom. What does it say about his belief in you guys and not just that, but you guys, his connection, your relationship with him that enabled you guys to come through today? Yeah. Um, yeah. He has a certain app for those players who, who he knows.
No, he, he he's bad against me. He's bad against, uh, a B2. So he just knows what we bring to the game and how can we, then we can help him at the long run. That's what we did. You know, he kept faith in us throughout the whole season. Uh, you know, I'm just blessed to be a B next to this man. You know, he's the goat.
He is the greatest football player ever play, you know, and I can tell my kids, I play with that, man. I'm just blessed, blessed to play with him. [00:13:00] I can tell my kids. That I played with him. I mean, we talk about a great legacy. Is there anything more important? Not only from creating a business or product that can stand the test of time when you actually have this emotional connection.
And I think this is going to be a real thread through the series of, of, of Tom Bray, today's episode on Tom Brady, this human element that he brings to the game. And those around him, I think is really, really palpable. You know, he does inspire this energy, this drive, this passion. Within the game and those around him.
Yeah. And, and, and please keep in mind what Leonard Fournette was touching upon was they actually didn't have such a great season, particularly at the first half. They were really, um, are really a bit discombobulated because, um, they didn't really have a pre-season then COVID here. So it was really, really tough for them.
I thought wasn't it amazing that. When Leonard Fournette was saying, look, he's the [00:14:00] greatest, this is a teammate of Tom Brady's. What does he mention? Does he mention the throws that Tom made to him? No. What he says are he kept faith in us during the season, which we all know wasn't was a bit rough at the start.
He kept the faith in us. I mean, is there any more, uh, When, when somebody puts that faith in you that trust, is there anything more inspiring than that? You know, when you've got a mentor or a leader or a teammate on your day-to-day life, or maybe a family member who, you know, trusts, you we've talked about trust a lot on shots or cost, actually, Mike haven't, we, when an individual passes trust to somebody else, In fact it was the Patrick Lencioni series.
Okay. Yeah. It was the underlying foundation of his five dysfunctions of a team. Like if a team's, [00:15:00] um, not producing, then you will go to the core. And that is that they do not trust each other. And how. Can a team to win a Superbowl function without trust. I mean, they just can't. And that's what I think is so lovely as, as an individual like myself, who knows Tom Brady through a culture, perhaps more than the, you know, the NFL, um, runnings and seasons and so on.
I can see that his effect as a, as an individual. Is in numerous. I can see his personal contribution being present throughout the whole, uh, experience of all these different teams and team members that he interacts with. That's why I think he seems like such a great leader because he inspires people and he drives them to go and be the best version of themselves.
So what we've got coming up, uh, for the show is we've got three big chunky. [00:16:00] Very very tasty buckets, one around hardware. And there's a little bit of stoic thinking in there. So we've got lots to learn there. It's important to understand that Tom Brady just so happens to be winning the super bowl at age 43, which is a record among all records.
I mean, this is a high contact sport and he's still playing at 43. So the second bucket is going to be about diet and fitness and the third bucket. And very moonshot, shotty bucket is the mindset bucket. And there's a lot to learn from Tom and how he does it. So there is so much ahead of us. Um, Mark, I'm dying.
I am dying to jump into the hard work bucket, lead the way for us. Like you say, there is a real stoic thread within this. And again, we're going to hear this a couple of times in today's episode, Tom Brady. Referencing traits and behaviors that we saw in the rom [00:17:00] holiday series. And this first one does not disappoint this first bucket that we're going to talk about is working hard and similar to the first clip where we heard this passion and this desire to care deep in what you do come through by Tom Brady is what is his father?
This next clip is taking it a step further and directly discussing how we should see every obstacle as an opportunity. But we all have experiences that we dream about and that we look forward to. And when we get them, they don't always go our way. I learned that as a freshman on the football field, just outside of this gym.
And again, I learned it as second year player who finally got a chance to play in college. Unfortunately, I learned it three weeks ago and are lost to the giants and Superbowl 46. We've always been blessed with the support of my family and friends, and also with coaches that committed their best to me.
And with each opportunity came and understanding of the things that it takes to be successful. And often this happens through trial and [00:18:00] error and sometimes through outright failure, because Lord knows I've made plenty of mistakes. So whether I was learning through watching as I did my freshman year at Sarah or playing and making mistakes over the course of my career, I've continued to learn, to embrace every hardship and to seize every opportunity on and off the field.
The owner of my current team, Robert Kraft has told me time and time. Again, every bump is a bounce. So when I learned very quickly as a professional was this, your job is always on the line. I'm in a, what have you done for me lately type business. Is an all businesses. There are disclosures in investments.
It says past performance doesn't guarantee, future results. Well, that pretty much sums up the NFL and they're always going to be younger and hunger athletes competing. Take your spot. I got my opportunity when it come, it started drew Bledsoe got injured my second year and all of the practices and meetings and time spent on these fields [00:19:00] and in this gym.
And in those classrooms prepared me to take advantage of the opportunity. And 10 years later after great success in my career, I wouldn't change it in my life. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Just realize that clip that we, uh, that we have dug up in the, uh, the depths of our research team. What's really interesting about that is he's a couple of weeks, uh, at that time he had just lost a super bowl and.
What clarity of thought and he's just like, yep. It was, uh, it was tough. It didn't go right. But here I am and you can already hear he's working on himself. It just takes it in his stride and he is not prepared to kind of go into the Valley of darkness with disappointment. I mean, he just gets over it and, and he really frames it as.
This is a chance to make me stronger and better. This will [00:20:00] encourage me, but also this might teach me some things that I need to improve and, you know, to jump, this is totally Zahara. Her did the great architect. She constantly refer to challenge, made her stronger. Every, every problem she encountered made her stronger.
And you could. Incompletely say that about Tom Brady, but here's the thing, Mark. How do we, when we're facing a moment, which in which things didn't work out, how do we turn problems into opportunities? We heard Jaco Willink and we studied how he did it. Right now, Mark, if you were doing counter something that just didn't work out and you were disappointed, how are you going to make that?
Like, how do we think in that moment to go and then, you know, pivot and not allow ourselves into the depth of despair? The thing that I'm really working on off the back of the Ron holiday series is recognition. So I want to train [00:21:00] myself to recognize when I'm behaving in that way. So for example, let's say I've just lost the super bowl.
It would be very, very easy and, you know, maybe that'll be an occasion that I experienced at some point in my career. I'm not sure, but let's say, let's say I had bad news with a project to something instead of my almost habitual behavior being to, uh, shut down, look for, uh, to point a finger or maybe just to, you know, flight to fly away instead what I'm trying to train myself to do.
And I think Brady's, uh, Accomplishing that in this clip is recognize that behavior that I have and think. Okay, well let's, let's take a pause. Let's take a beat. You've heard some bad news. You want to run? Okay. That's okay. That's natural. The let's take a moment. Let's instead think about how this bump could be a bounce.
Let's think about how [00:22:00] we can rectify it. Change it. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, let's just tear that apart and dig in and, and, and, and decode that a bit. I think what you touched on there was really good, which is when bad things happen, I think you have, have to go through a process of excepting that fate. It just is what it is.
It sucks. Yes. I feel it. I hear it. Write it out, cry, jump, whatever you need to do to accept. And then I think the important thing is just let it go find, find a ritual of just letting go. Right. And write about how bad it is until you can't write no more. Right. And just get it out of your system, purge, you know, pop the pimple and get it out because [00:23:00] then you can start the regeneration, the refresh, the regrowth, and, um, Yeah.
I think the active, the purge, like, yeah, it really sucks. And it sucks for all these reasons. Okay. Now I'm done now it's out. Right. And then I think that gives you the chance to, to move forward. I think sometimes like we're embarrassed. We don't want to tell anyone. Right. Yeah. Yeah. When you don't want to share, or even admit to yourself that this is a bit of a challenge.
Yeah. We, we take it insanely personally like, Oh, I am so, so bad. Like I'm so crap at this. What am I doing? I should go hide in a cabin in the app somewhere. I mean, I don't deserve to be here. But isn't it, isn't it funny that we all go through those sorts of emotions? Well, I'm sure a lot of us go through those sort of emotions.
[00:24:00] And you know, when, when you're thrust into the spotlight light, Brady is here. And in fact, I think this clip was 10 years ago. So he referenced being in the career only for 10 years. And he's been around since early 2000 or 1999. You know, he was already incredibly insanely, let's say well-known and he's still talking about this, this obstacle or this failure.
He could have turned around and said, you know what? I've just lost the super bowl. Am I good enough to be here? Maybe not. All right, guys, it's been fun. See you later. Well, well, just on that note, we see a lot of players in sports who get to a certain moment. Yeah, tennis being one of them where they got to like the grand slam final, but then they lost and they sort of break after that because they just can't handle the disappointment.
So I thinking, being very deliberate in how he handled disappointment and be ready to be totally Yucca, willing like [00:25:00] yes. Problems or opportunities. Yes, I can grow. And I think if you have that frame, you can allow yourself to accept the feeling. And then move the hell on, right? Yep. That's exactly it. Move the hell on.
Now, talking about moving now. You know, Tom Brady, he he's kind of a tall lanky guy. He's wouldn't you wouldn't look at him and say signature, like elite athlete. Um, particularly, um, his teammates thought it was so funny that they have a photo of him from the, uh, the draft and they printed it on t-shirts.
And actually wore it at the super bowl party after it saying greatest of all time. And he's kind of like a skinny, 19 year old, 20 year old. Um, it doesn't look like, you know, the next elite, uh, contact sport, you know, smash and bash kind of a guy. Um, but actually there's a lot to learn. Uh, about [00:26:00] how we think about our bodies in particular diet and fitness.
I think there is so much that we can take from Tom. He has, uh, the TB 12 fitness program. He wrote the book, he's got gyms, all of that's nice, but actually there's some really interesting techniques inside of the program to take care of yourself, be it, uh, the way you treat your body and what you eat. So.
Here's the interesting thing, rather than have Tom talking about it because actually the TB 12 fitness program is completely designed for Tom. And if you need proof, Tom is 43 and playing a contact sport and he is playing like a legend. Okay. He's playing like a 23 year old, not like a 43 year old. He can still throw the ball really, really, really far.
And he's 43. And so it comes down to this program. [00:27:00] So what we were able to do is we were actually able to find a gentleman called Graham Flanagan, who actually tried the diet and workout program. TB 12 fitness of Tom Brady, built for Tom Brady now available to us all. And he shares his reflections on what happens.
And what I want everybody to do is to really listen and tune into this because I think it's an opportunity to understand that if we want to be successful with our teammates on the playing field, if we want to have the right mindset, a body is essential. So let's have a listen to Graham Flanagan discussing his experience, taking TB 12 fitness.
for a week. I tried the Tom Brady, TB 12 fitness and diet plan. So Tom, Brady's got this new book called the TB 12 method. We get that. What a beautiful man in the book he [00:28:00] outlines in detail. The fitness regimens, he undertakes and diet as well. So there's lots of aspects of my life. Dealing with nutrition and fitness improve.
I work out like three or four times a week, but it's pretty basic. I'm mainly lifting weights. The workouts that Tom Brady pushes in his book are all focused on playability and Tom Brady defines pliability as targeted deep force muscle work that LinkedIns and softens muscles he's focused on making your muscles more flexible.
And we do this by using bands orders that have bands on Amazon for about 30 bucks. I just looked up exercises that in the book were recommended then also other ones on YouTube. I bought like a door anchor as well. So you can like set. The bands up high and do some like chest presses and, you know, work the pecks a little bit, Tom, Brady's a big believer in these loop bands, which you can do lots of different types of workouts with there's lots of things you can do with this.
And, uh, I love the bands you can write. I definitely [00:29:00] feel a difference between doing a workout with these bands and then like doing your typical weight room workout where you kind of feel destroyed after you do a lot of reps. With this like 60 reps over the course of like three sets, you're going to feel it.
Like, I feel it right now. And it's awesome in terms of the food that I ate during the week, or staying away from, from sugars and dairies and refined carbohydrates, et cetera. It's a lot of vegetables, lean white meats. We had ground Turkey burgers over lots of greens, peppers, carrots. We also had a grilled chicken breasts.
Some Brussels sprouts and then keenwah then during the day I would eat an Apple. I would eat almonds. Tom Brady is all about the hydration and constantly drinking water. It's recommended that you take your total body weight, cut that in half and then drink the corresponding amount of ounces of water.
That's half your body weight. Every day I would drink. Approximately 90 ounces of water, three big Poland spring bottles of water. In terms of caffeine. [00:30:00] I usually drink like four cups of coffee a day on average, which is a lot. And it's too much, Tom Brady. He does not drink caffeine, but he recommended a maximum amount of 200 milligrams of caffeine a day.
And that equals two cups of coffee. In terms of alcohol, Tom Brady in the book says that he does occasionally have a cocktail, but he says that if you're going to drink alcohol, you need to match the ounce amount of alcohol that you drank with water. So if you have a 12 ounce beer, you need to drink a 12 ounce glass of water.
One of the dishes that I tried was the avocado ice cream, which Tom Brady's been famous for making before. Can you guys. Uh, wasn't a fan of you. Yeah. Cado ice cream. Sorry, Tom. Overall, the Tom Brady TB 12 experience was a big improvement over my regular routine throughout this entire process. From day one to day two, day three, I woke up feeling great.
I was excited about my workout. I was excited about [00:31:00] eating healthy and I would look forward to my meals. I just want to be able to be active, healthy, be able to exercise and work out and look good and feel good. And I think that the principles in the Tom Brady book are going to help me to do that.
I mean gray review and dive in into TV 12. I Graham Flanagan. Thank you very much, Graham, for the kind, uh, walk through that you've done and good luck with the goals. I think there's a, there's a few things in that Mike that are perhaps, you know, a little bit consistent with what we've heard for when it comes to fitness and taking care of yourself as well as a few new additions that are really sparking my interest and intrigue particularly.
Brady's you know, um, adherence and, and use of bands is great to hear something as simple as bands being used. Yeah, big fan of those. So what, what you're talking about is resistance bands. So generally that will be like, imagine a huge rubber band [00:32:00] kind of, uh, experience. So the, the reason these works so well is that the resistance is even on both on both the pool and the pool of, of the, the given exercise.
And, uh, it's not the jerky, uh, nature of like a dumbbell. Uh, and I would add, uh, for, for you and all our listeners, Mark, they are insanely good because they are very small. So you can throw them in a bag and travel with them. Yeah. That is so handy. Isn't it? Check it in and carry it around. So it's very, very light, but also very, very, um, good for your pliability of muscles.
That for me is a really good takeout. You know, we've got a lot of, uh, sports individuals on the show, Mike, you know, Goggins. I know he was a real. Ultra endurance runner. We've we've learned about the benefits of, of rolling. We've talked about that a lot, you know, flexibility with the muscles, but really hearing that being caught out for me is, is, is a great tip.
[00:33:00] And I think I'm going to get personally again, find it. Um, my question for you, avocado ice cream. Um, you know, I love avocado and being here in sunny Sydney, Australia, we are blessed with like amazing food and avocado. I got to say, it's not jumping out at me. Um, As a go-to, but I think we were going to have to do this experiment just for the benefit of our listeners.
So let's make sure that you and I do some avocado, maybe we'll have the avocado ice cream and we'll, um, we'll share it on our YouTube channel. What do you reckon? We'll we'll we'll we'll do the experiment live on. Yeah, let's do that. We'll we'll build it and yeah. I eat it and then share it and let's see what our, what our listeners think.
I, I think Mike, the TB 12 program, uh, it's, it's really interesting just to hear from somebody who's so well known, hearing their secrets for [00:34:00] success, you know, am I right hearing Tom Brady's approach to keeping himself flexible as you've called out at the age of 43, he's still winning super bowls. I mean, this seems like good case study that it works right.
Um, yeah, I mean, do you need any more proof that, um, this kind of works? If he can be 43, when a Superbowl he's one, wait for it. Seven super bowl. You realize that there is no team in the NFL, in the history of the sport that has actually won seven super bowls, but he comes along and does it isn't that. Tell me about it.
So, so I think like what we have to realize here is we're going to hear in a second about, um, about mindset, but we also have accessible to us, the diet and fitness program [00:35:00] that the greatest all time NFL player who is 43 years of age looks 23 plays like he's 23. The only thing between us and realizing that so of health state is picking up the book and doing the technique.
I mean, that's why this is such a special show because we can see stoicism coming back, a huge theme of moonshots. I can see, you know, active body active mind. So we're seeing like your body is the temple really, uh, Unparalleled attention to the healthiness and guess what? He can still run around the football field like crazy.
I mean, there's just so much here and he's made the program available, so you can just go get the TB 12 book and it outlines the entire process hit YouTube has got lots of clips, shows you how to use the roller, et cetera. It's all there for us. And I think this is what's so [00:36:00] exciting about Tom is we're really able to decode to unpack how he did it.
Don't you think? Yup. The pack, everything from mind, body, and soul. Again, my, these are things that we were learning with Ron holiday. He is really aligned with that. Yeah. Now we did mention YouTube this something else on YouTube that our listeners should totally check out Mark. Yes, starting last week with episode one, one, four, our final series of the Ron holiday.
Alright series. We have going to continue our process of creating and releasing what we're calling the moonshots showcase for YouTube. So until now, listeners, you will be hearing our show or hearing these audio clips, but you got in touch with us. You left us feedback. You have inspired us to try and improve our show.
And deliver what you guys want to see. So we are now providing [00:37:00] a separate video on YouTube for the menstrual showcase for each episode, during which we will. Reveal and include the video versions of the clips that you can hear us learning out loud from within the episodes we might throw in the occasional extra clip as well, ones that inspire us, but maybe we didn't have time to get into and I'll show, but we think this is going to be fantastic.
We think it's going to be vivid, dynamic, and also providing you our listeners. Another opportunity to learn from these innovators yourselves. Now, if they want to, um, go to one place in the universe, Mark, where they can jump off to our Instagram, or as you said to YouTube, what is that destination on the worldwide?
And there's a destination and a hub called www.moonshots.io. Navigate over to our homepage, our hub, our. Uh, headquarters as it were, you can not only find our latest episodes, such as show 115 [00:38:00] Tom Brady, Graceville time. You can find out all of our previous series, Ron holiday, we've mentioned Soho Haddad, and a number of others.
You can dig into our mantras, all of our show docs, transcriptions. You can even sign up for our newsletter and you can get in touch with us by the feedback section. And let us know what are you liking and what you'd like us to do next www.shots.io. All right. So we've really kind of checked into hard work diet and fitness with found out that, uh, Tom started.
Rank 199 fed his year of college graduates coming into the NFL. He was the fourth string quarterback at the new England Patriots when he started. But somehow some way he won a record seven super bowls. He's still playing and we'll [00:39:00] return for another season at age 44. There's some hard work. There's obviously great diet and fitness as we've discussed, but now it is time to you enjoy some mindset thinking this is where we are fifth gear in moonshots.
It's about mindset and boy, do we have a lot to do? I mean, it is like without saying it, he is one of the greatest students of stoicism. We've done the Ryan holiday series. Now we get to see it. In action. And this is going to be a real joy. So let's talk about what it takes, what you need to do every single day.
According to Tom Brady. A decade into his career. The man taken with pick one 99 is achieved in all, but still fees. He has plenty to prove it's not really a chip on my shoulder. It's just that feeling that men, maybe nobody wants you. When I watch myself play at times, I still don't think [00:40:00] I'm very good, man.
You're still very fast. You know, you got a decent arm, you know, maybe some pretty bad reads on that day. That's what gets me up and motivates me. I always want to feel like I'm the best quarterback for this team. I want to earn it every single day. You got to earn it every single day. Focus on achieving that.
I quite like this clip because it'd be quite easy for somebody like Tom Brady, undisputed goat. I had to think, Oh, you know what? I can rest. I can rest on my laurels job, done job done, but he doesn't. He doesn't. He goes out every single day and he behaves in the way that the team deserves. He behaves as the greatest quarterback that that team has.
And that's a great call to us, Mike, you know, to remind us, okay, today's a new day, we're going to wake up and we can go and be the best version of ourselves for our families, for our [00:41:00] teammates and colleagues and for our partners and customers. That's a real good call to action. Yeah, the, this idea of continuous improvement, um, this is really fundamental to how we did it.
So Mark, for you for our listeners. What I cannot, stress is the thing that we can all learn from what Tom is talking about is every single day he's working to make himself a better athlete, a healthier body. He is not allowing any obstacle to kind of send him into a spiral of despair. He is making sure that every single day he's bringing the best he can continually looking to improve.
And I think if you look at it, What's so fascinating. It's if you look at where he is right now at such a remarkable high level, and in the context of [00:42:00] seven Superbowls in the context of his age, this shows you what we call the compound interest that happened. For 43 years, every single year he has worked on himself.
This is where we can all get to this guy was 199th in the draft yet he's greatest of all time. So this is not about. He's just naturally gifted. This is not about, Oh man, he was born with an arm. He can just throw that ball. No, what he was born with is the ability to improve himself every single day. And this is why this story is so inspiring.
And for all of the raw rawr and being at the pinnacle of your career, we've got another thought. That really puts Tom into context and gives us [00:43:00] another thing to learn this next idea that we're going to hear from Tom Brady. The greatest NFL player of all time is what we need to do when we think about how we want to live.
I'm playing football. I appreciate it. I'm nowhere else I'm in the present. It's probably the best part about. Best part about my life is that to be in the present. And you talk about how do you enjoy your life? How do you find balance? Right? It's live in the present. You plan to live like a kid. Like why do kids have so much fun because they just care about what they're doing.
And if we thought about what we were doing all the time and you do that when you're on the football field, it's probably the only place that I can really do that when I really, truly am my authentic self. I mean, a lot of people see it, my close, close friends do. But when I'm on the football field, there's no, it's just raw.
I love that. Be immersed in the task at hand. He's nowhere else. He's nowhere else. His mind is right here right now. His body is right here right now. His soul is right [00:44:00] here right now. That's very stoic. Again, this idea of committing in the present. Don't worry about yesterday and don't fear tomorrow. Just be here right here right now.
And I quite liked his reference, you know, like a kid. I remember being a kid, Mike and I was never really concerned about what I was going to do tomorrow. I knew it'd be fun. I knew I was going to hang out with my friends or something like that, but it was really all about right here. Right now. That to me is, is such a great reminder.
It is, it is. And so, you know, the, the, if you think about, um, why we enjoy the presence of kids and animals is, you know, they're just living in the moment. They're very present and just totally natural. And I think that it's a reminder to all, to all of us, to try and create this childlike mind, to just be in.
The moment. And I love the fact that he says I'm nowhere [00:45:00] else. And in a world where it's like, we're trying to be in like 10 places at one time with all of the things competing for our attention, me nowhere else. And I think if you are really taking this on board one, the deliberate effort to be better.
And focus on every single day. Like there are no cheat days, right? You're always looking to get better and you live those days fully immersed in the here and now in the moment in the present, it sets you up for this next idea from Tom Brady, which is all about how we take experience, how we embrace the world and how it comes to us every single day and how we can use it to evolve.
Well, everyone has their different belief systems. And I think everyone has their different opinions of, um, you know, those types of things that you talked about. Certainly as an athlete, I care very much what I put into my [00:46:00] body. I think that, uh, I'm 38 years old. I'm not 21. So more so you're very sweet.
Thanks. But I, you know, those things are important and all the little things add up to be big things. So when I'm trying to accomplish things professionally that, um, you know, in a lot of ways, I'm an unchartered territory. So. I've got to do things differently. And I got to evolve over time. I've got to things that may have worked in the past.
Maybe don't work as you move forward. So the lessons that I've learned through my own trial and error, I think I'm at that point in my career, I'm very efficient with what I'm doing. So I try to eat healthy. I try to get the right amount of rest. I try to do the right types of exercise so I can be on the field and be available.
My team, I try to be as productive this time in my career, as I was earlier, this idea of reflecting on what may have worked in the past. It doesn't always work. You know, sometimes habits and rituals need to change whether it's eating exercise or other, you know, maybe mental approach and, and awareness [00:47:00] because those little things, if left for too long, you know, they do, they become big things done in my guests.
More irritation or an anxiety can often build up into, um, an element that completely blinds you to. And opportunity at hand or a potential way out of the darkness. You know, when you're, when you're really bogged down in, um, you know, eating poorly maybe, or not getting enough exercise or just obsessing over, uh, something that's really, really negative, this, this flight element then that can, you know, bring you down.
And I like where Brady's going in that clip, which is care about. What are you eating? Were you doing care about those little things, but also be aware enough to pivot, to change, to review what you're doing and think? Okay, well does waking up at 5:00 AM every day to exercise benefit me or actually am I being stripped of enough [00:48:00] sleep?
Does my working pattern makes sense is my eating regime. Well enough for what I'm doing as a professional, you know, I like this element again of self-awareness and really digging into the details of what you do each day. That that's a real good demonstration of Brady being at the top of his game, because he has that ability to be aware and notice those small things.
Yeah. I, what I heard there was adaptive, adaptive. Yep. What I heard there was someone who's like, I'm continually asking questions of myself to improve myself to better myself. Um, and so let's do a little exercise. What are some of the questions? If you're trying to be the best version of yourself, what are some of the questions that you can.
Can I ask and I'm going to throw a few out you and I, and Mark, I want you to tell me which one you [00:49:00] want to, or which one you like the most? There's what are you good at? Right? There's what do you love and what do you love to do? What does the world need and what can you be paid for? These are really powerful questions, but they get better when you try and answer them in concert together to find the alignment between those things.
Oh, that's interesting one. Yeah. So what do you think? I mean, for me, it's, it's pretty challenging. Isn't it to try and consider each of those, as you say, in concert. Because when you let's put ourselves in Tom Brady for a second and then I'll, and then I'll reflect on myself, you know, he is good and [00:50:00] loves what he does.
So he's ticked off those two things. What is he good at playing football and leading the team? What does he love? Playing football and leading the team. What does the world need? Well, they need a good leader. He's teammates, but he's ticked off that. Yeah. It's TAFE. Um, what does he get paid for? Well, again, it's all coming around here.
Isn't it? So actually when we really dig into it for Brady this yeah, he's, he's a celebrated record holder for a number of different, um, entities within NFL. For me, the real thing that we keep on hearing in today's show is this leadership quality yes. Ability to drive the team. That for me, takes off all four of your boxes for bringing.
It's really powerful. And I think so if you want to be adaptive, I think, uh, finding out some good questions to always ask of yourself, to reflect on and, but really ask yourself, I [00:51:00] mean, not like or like study that question is how weekend I'm just going to think about that question. I'm going to write about that question the whole weekend.
I mean, that's how you adapt because you're like, Hey, you know what? Maybe it's time to. Do this, or do that now, maybe I'm not really getting that right. Let's see how I can improve that, right? Yeah. What a, what a great exercise. I'm going to, I'm going to challenge myself then, like you should put this in the show notes.
It's, it's actually, uh, a Japanese practice called icky guy. Very cool. Um, and very transforming it's all around purpose. And it's sort of like, uh, if you will like, um, uh, I very, uh, traditional philosophic, uh, practice similar to what Simon Sinek talks about with asking why and purpose. So, uh, we'll put a link, uh, into the, into the show notes for everyone, but I think asking questions and reflecting and writing to the writing, the answers [00:52:00] down, you know, that's, that's how we get it back.
Yeah. Because we're like, eh, you know what? I've just found a little disconnect. I've found something that's been bothering me. And these questions forced me to confront that. I think that's why it works. I think that's great, Mike. I think that's a good recommendation and I can see that there's a great book and framework.
Yeah. As well, icky guy, there's so much good stuff philosophically out of Japan, it's like ridiculous. Um, but that certainly is another show. This show today we've talked about working hard diet and fitness mindset so much on mindset. Thanks to Tom. But Mike, I think we have one clip. The mother of all clips, the scrum of scrums, the clip of clips.
What do you think. We've got one more clip for episode one, one, five, Tom Brady, greatest of all time. And this time we're going to hear from another content [00:53:00] creator, Mr. Zach Shalala, who creates videos, very, very popular videos on YouTube or a strong opinion sports. And he reveals what in his mind is a fantastic lesson from Brady.
So for example, today we've dug into the working hard. The body, the diet, the fitness, as well as those mindsets that we've just revealed. So in Zach's mind, what is this great lesson and how much like Tom Brady, if he can get better, how can we do the same? It's a really cool lesson. I think that everybody can learn from Tom Brady where he's a 43 year old quarterback at T year 21 of his career.
He's playing in his 10th super bowl. And he's still playing at a high level. In fact, he's doing some stuff in year 21. I don't think he would have done in years. One, two, three, four, five, maybe even six. [00:54:00] And what's most impressive to me about Tom Brady is that in order to have the sustained level of success to do what he's done for so long at such a high level, it has to take.
A ton of self evaluation, it's self evaluation and frankly brutal honesty about himself and what he's good at and what he needs to work on. And he's 21 years into his career. Who's the most accomplished quarterback of all time week. You can read that greatest of all time. What does that even mean? I don't know.
How do you define greatest? That gets really up in the air, but we know that he's won more and done more as a quarterback. He's the most accomplished quarterback of all time and medical history. And yet he still wants to be better. And the lesson there to me is that no matter what your role is, no matter what your job is or what you're doing, whether it's as a boyfriend, as a husband, as an employee, as a quarterback, as a podcast, host, no [00:55:00] matter what you're doing, you can always be better.
If Tom Brady can always be better. You certainly can be. And I certainly can be too, like, come on guys. If Tom Brady every year is still going, like, what can I do? What little tweak can I do to get better than what we did definitely can as well. Oh, ways improving. Always be better. Uh, I mean that guy, Zach really nailed it, right.
He always, always wants to be better. And I think what we are celebrating on this show, if Tom Brady can stand there and say, I can always do better. If Marcus are really, uh, the, the leader of Rome, the Roman emperor. Is always looking to improve himself. Well then Mark, what does that mean for us? I mean, we've got to be able to strive to be [00:56:00] better versions, Mike, if they can all find the time and that we've talked about methods and behaviors in the past episodes to be that better version, you know, particularly for me is self evaluation.
I think manifests itself through reflection. Through journaling through, as you say, spending a weekend thing about Ikea guy, I think these are all practical, fundamental things that we can do in order to dig in and strive to be their best version. Um, now that you're on the other side of ad Tom Brady leadership show, is there one of these clips or ideas that have got you thinking.
Yeah, I've really, really got inspired. Particularly from that opening clip is his passion and his drive at a very, very early stage of his career. He was, he was very, very [00:57:00] young. Would that, that drafting, uh, shall we say mishap? And he still had the resilience to power through knowing. From experience that he, uh, you know, has managed to get through that.
It means that he's probably a little bit stronger. It means that when he does lose a game or a Superbowl, he's that a little bit more experienced. And I love this idea that each of those obstacles like real learning from Ron Lee, as well as Tom Brady today are opportunities. Once you've gone through it, once it means in times that little bit easier for me.
That is what inspires me about Tom Brady is his clear headedness around failure and obstacles being opportunities to build from. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing that. Thank you for joining me as we did the quarterback wide receiver combination to go [00:58:00] deep into the world of Tom Brady, right?
Yeah. I really, really enjoyed Tom Brady. He didn't, like I mentioned, it's not. As sport that I am fully, fully aware of from a, you know, a detailed love like yourself, Mike, but I think like our listeners, uh, hopefully gotten from today's show, it's so clear that he is this amazing leader of people. Is this amazing reflector he's undeniably the greatest of all time and the sport because he's constantly adapting and growing and make himself better at that for me, I mean, he, he is a moonshot.
Hey is totally moonshots. My thank you to you and thank you to you. All of our listeners to join us on a journey of continuous improvement today. Yes, it was certainly about leadership and that starts with always improving yourself. Allah Mr. Tom Brady number 12 himself. And what we discovered is this whole process starts with caring for you [00:59:00] yourself, and to really care about the things you do.
But it's not only that it's about caring for your teammates, too. You got to take people on the ride with you and on that ride you again, face obstacles. And the only thing you can do. Is say welcome to that opportunity. And if you've got a healthy body, you'll have a healthy mind. So make sure your diet in your workout are just right for you because that gives you the moment, the energy, the force to focus.
On every single day and most certainly live in the present the here and the now. And as you reflect upon that, you will be able to evolve continuously through these experiences. And remember this you moonshot is if Tom Brady can get better, if he can go from 199 to the greatest of old time. So can we all right.
That's a wrap [01:00:00] of the moonshots podcast.