Refusing to Quit - with World Series Champ Ryan Lavarnway

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Well, thinking big, let's welcome Ryan to the show.

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Ryan, welcome so much for being on the show.

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Thank you, Sean.

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Good to see you.

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It's been too long since we hung out, bud.

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Yeah, it's been, yeah, the last time we were together, was actually putting on your World
Series ring.

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That sucker was massive, by the way.

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Yeah, it's something that you can't wear every day or else you'd end up with scoliosis
because it's heavy and end up leaning in one direction.

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And if you punch someone in the forehead, would for sure leave some white socks imprint on
their forehead.

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Cause that sucker is, I mean, that thing is big.

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That is, that is, that is absolutely huge.

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Yeah, what was the movie Ace Ventura where one of the Super Bowl rings was missing a
diamond so he got punched in the forehead to see if that was the one.

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I always think about that when people say that.

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And it was great.

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So we met up when we were doing a program called heroic public speaking, you know, we're
both trying to, or we're both, you know, speaking, we're both doing these things.

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And it's, you know, one of those places to help us learn our craft and to get better at
speaking and performing.

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And that's where, where we met and it was such a great place to, to go through and do.

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thought, I think that program is fantastic by the way.

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was, it was a lot of fun.

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Yeah, so that was really my answer to the scariest question that anybody asked me for 15
years of what do you want to do when you're done playing baseball?

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And I gave baseball everything I had, all of my focus.

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That was the reason I got up in the morning.

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There's a reason I made choices when I was eating and working out and going to sleep and
not drinking too much, not trying other things.

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So for me, I didn't have a plan B.

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retiring from baseball, having a daughter and wanting to allow her to sleep in her own bed
every night instead of moving all around the country, which was what it required for me to

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chase that dream.

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Heroic public speaking, it helped me answer that question, well, what are you going to do
now?

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And we're going to, we're going to get into that because I think that's a very important
thing that you've done.

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and I think it's critical for, for a lot of reasons.

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One, not only if you're retiring from, let's say sports, but if you're, you know, I've got
a lot of people that follow that are career people that are wanting to do a second stage

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of life.

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They're wanting to go do a passion thing or they're wanting to go do something after their
big league, their minor league, stuff, you know, their career.

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And so I think it's huge what you've done.

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And I remember one of the things that we were in a call, God, this was early on.

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This was before we did like in person.

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stuff.

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So this is when we were on calls and we were building out, you know, scripts and we were
kind of developing stories and stuff.

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And you had mentioned, I can't remember what it is exactly, but you basically said, what
we think our responsible goals are just limiting beliefs.

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And you said something and I can't remember exactly what that was, but it was like that
hit me.

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like, man, that is, that is so dead on that, you know, what we, you know, these things
that we think are our goals.

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It's like, man, those are really just limiting things that we think we can do.

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Yeah, so there's a quote in the book, The 5AM Club, that said, limiting beliefs are things
that too many good people have agreed to.

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And it's this version of something that one of my favorite majorly coaches told me, is he
said that being a realistic self-evaluator doesn't serve you a lot of times.

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The name of your podcast, for goodness sake, is Thinking Big.

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If we stick to what's realistic, if we stick to the outcomes that we can see and we can
see the path to, then we're leaving a lot on the table.

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And that coach, Terry Francona, he said to me, he was sending me down to the minor leagues
and it was the 24th time I had been sent down or something.

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I recently learned that I broke the record for most times being taken off of a major
league roster.

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But that means you've also got the record of most times coming back on.

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Probably yes.

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I don't know.

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I don't know that version of it.

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it's definitely a like Refused to quit mentality that I have but he was sending me down
and I had done it before so I was a pro I'm not gonna beg for my job.

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I'm not gonna argue.

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I'm not gonna complain.

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I take it like a pro I just say you know what I get it.

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I'm gonna go down.

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I'm gonna do my thing and he says Don't be too realistic, right?

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Like if everybody was realistic, nobody would think they deserve to play in the big
leagues

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because these are the best players in the entire world.

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Everybody probably played Little League, everybody maybe played sports in high school,
like you don't just have to be the best in your neighborhood or your high school or your

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state, you gotta be the best in the entire world.

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And if anybody was realistic, like nobody would think they deserve that.

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But somebody is gonna be that good.

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Somebody is gonna be the best in the world.

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And then what I say in my speech and what I ask the audience is honestly,

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Why not you?

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Yeah, why not you?

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it's, yeah, I think we have to really ask ourselves.

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And I've looked at that a lot in, you know, coming up to doing what I'm doing.

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It's like, I think one of the benefits I had is I was never really programmed of what I
can't do.

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So when I see someone do something, it's like, I, it's like, why, why not me?

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Why, if they did it, why can't I do it?

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And it's like, I was never programmed at, you, you're not supposed to do it that way.

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You can't do it that way.

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So that is, that is a huge thing.

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And

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I want to go back into like baseball a little bit before we get into too much of the deep
stuff because we're right now we're in the middle of some big games going on and the

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Astros got Detroit took my Astros out.

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I know you're not an Astros fan but go Astros.

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You're not an Astros fan.

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No.

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Al Thube come on you got to love Al Thube.

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He is a little.

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playing for Boston when he got his first like 40 something million dollar extension.

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And you know, he's five foot nothing.

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And some of our veteran players, I was still a rookie at the time.

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So I was still like anybody that got paid, I was like, yeah, good for that guy.

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I want to get paid too.

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Like I fully support it.

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But some of the veteran guys that had been around and like over the course of time
contracts grow.

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It's just the natural progression of the world.

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TV contracts are bigger for the teams, the market can support it, ticket sales are higher.

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So the reason that I got paid more than Babe Ruth, who's in my background right now, is
not because I was a better player than Babe Ruth, it's because of inflation and what the

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market can support.

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But anyway, one of the players, veteran players, saw Al Tuve sign for 40 something
million.

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And I'll never forget, he said, if that little guy is worth 40 million, I must be worth a
billion.

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Yes, and it's a, so the team, so I know you played for the Red Sox, you played for
Cleveland.

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So I gotta ask you this, the Cleveland Guardians, what's, come on.

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So I was actually, when I played for Cleveland, I was the last year of the Indians before
they changed the name.

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And we knew they were going to change the name.

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I don't think we knew what it was going to be yet.

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But I think what they went with is there's a few bridges around downtown Cleveland and
there's statues built on the sides of the bridges that are called the Guardians.

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And a lot of their logos, a lot of the film, the highlight reel before the game, the like
pump up video has to do with those statues.

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so I think they tried to go with like something relevant to the city.

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One of the other options was the Cleveland spiders.

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And I think the guardians is better than that.

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Even the guardians is better than that.

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So that is great.

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But it's like you see that and it's like, I don't know your thoughts on that, but it's
like, it's just not the same without the Cleveland Indians.

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if people were upset with the name, I personally didn't offend me, but you try to support
other people that had a problem.

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Yeah, it's a, but yeah, so they're in the running.

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I hope it's not a New York, New York, cause it's, it could be a New York, it could be a
New York, New York world series, right?

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It could be, as of today, Dodgers are up and I don't know what the Yankees...

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Last night the Cleveland game was insane.

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You see that game?

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Yeah, and I think Cleveland won didn't they?

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Yeah

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% win probability for the Yankees.

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The Cleveland came back and won.

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That's awesome.

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So I've got, I've got a good friend that lives in New York.

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That's a huge Yankees band.

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And I had one of his friends sneak in and put Astro's gear in his place.

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Pissed him off.

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good stuff.

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Good stuff.

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Yeah.

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And it's so, you know, one of the things that you've done, I think very well, and I think
that there's way more to come as you've been able to

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I know transition from major league baseball into pursuing something that is much
different than that.

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And it's a huge, that is a huge shift to go out and do something like that.

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What is some of the most challenging things that you've seen to make that transition from
major league to going and doing speaking and coaching and the stuff that you're doing to

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help people?

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Yeah, well first of all, thank you, because making the transition did not feel easy at
all.

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I think anybody that makes a major life transition will tell you it's a total mind-blowing
experience, because there's as much as you say, baseball is what I do, or sales, or

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whatever your job is, as much as you say this is what I do, not who I am, there's a part
of whatever you do, you tell people that's what you do.

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You see yourself reflected back in how they respond to you.

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There's something about the self-definition of this is what I'm doing.

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There is identity tied to it.

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And it's a big piece of how you spend your time, how you make your living, how you pay
your bills, and how you see yourself in the world.

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And it was full midlife crisis mode for me last year as I was going through HPS.

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how am gonna pay my mortgage?

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You know, I had a runway from baseball, which it was nice to have the freedom to explore.

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But man, it's hard.

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And anybody out there making a transition, thinking about a transition, know that it's not
easy.

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And anybody that makes it look easy, it's only on the outside.

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On the inside, we're struggling with some identity crisis, with some how am I gonna pay my
mortgage crisis, and

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lean on your network, lean on your network, really dive deep into who you are, what it is
you like to do.

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And if I could recommend anything that really helped me, it was the book Work Identity.

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That helped me and it helped me feel seen and helped me feel understood and it helped me
take the next step.

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And it really helped me understand that it's okay if this takes a while.

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And the only way that it's actually gonna work is if I try new things.

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See what it feels like to do it to see myself reflected back in the world this way But
sitting down and writing a prose consulist It definitely didn't work for me and and as

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that book helped me understand is that's not really something that works for anybody
really

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And it's got to be, mean, so I think anybody that gets good at something, you know,
they've spent their life developing that craft of what they're doing, whether it's in

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business, whether it's in sports, whether it's in, you know, whatever it is, whether it's
in cooking, if you're a Michelin star chef, I mean, that's kind of who you become.

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I mean, you are a baseball player.

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I mean, you've done it your entire life.

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And I think sports probably more than.

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even other things because that is something even as a kid you you dream of playing sports.

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It's like so it's embedded in in most of it's like so the mindset shift to go from that's
that's what I do and not who I am.

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I think for you and for like sports like that is it's probably even greater than than what
anybody else will go through because it is it really is it becomes a part of who you are

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in a way.

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how do you transition that mindset?

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It's like from

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And I've seen people and I've talked to people who don't make that transition.

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They can't get out of that.

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You you see them, they're 75 years old, they're still talking about, know, this is, you as
they're still playing sports or they're still doing that thing.

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And it's like, I just don't see, how did you get out of that?

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From a mindset standpoint, I know physically, you know, you're doing this, but it's like
from a mindset standpoint to be able to allow yourself to do that.

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Yeah, I was talking to Theo Epstein, who is a baseball legend.

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He'll be a Hall of Famer as a executive in baseball.

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And I was talking to him about, should I coach?

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Should I get out of the game completely?

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Should I go into the front office side and try to run a team like you do?

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And one of the things he said to me over the course of giving me great advice and offering
his time to me, which was very generous, he said, you've spent your entire life, 30 years

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at this point, becoming a

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triple PhD level expert at playing the game of baseball, at managing the game on the
field, at helping pitchers, all of your skill sets.

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But even coaching, even running a team, like your expertise in the field of baseball is so
deep in one area.

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But you don't know what it's like to develop prospects, you don't know what it's like to
scout, you don't know what it's like to coach, you don't know what it's like to make a

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trade or to draft.

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And when he said that,

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I thought to myself, I am a PhD level expert at this one thing.

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How can I transfer some of those skills or help share some of those skills with other
people?

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And even though think he was letting me know I still had a lot to learn, the way that I
heard it, I kind of reframed it in my mind of I am such an expert at this one thing and

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what transfers from that skill set.

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Yeah.

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And that's true.

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It's like what they do, what coaches do.

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It's like, you, have probably some of the best coaches that don't play or probably never.

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I'm sure they all played in a way, but never at a, at a high level.

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It's like, you know, you look at golf coaches, like they can't sure they can go out and
hit the ball and they can do stuff, but they're not tiger woods.

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They're not, know, they're not the best.

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They're the coaches.

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They've spent their time not developing their actual skill of doing it.

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They've built their time, you know, building the ability to show other people how to,
know, how to do that.

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And you said something about, you know, what can you transfer over to other things?

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You know, how can you use the skills that you developed to do, you know, to get to that
level and to be at that level?

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And to me, one of the biggest one is applying the discipline of success in sports and what
you did to really to business, to anything that you want to do.

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I mean, talk about the discipline that you had to have going up to get where you were.

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to not only that, but to come back up to the majors, go get knocked back down, come back
up, get knocked back down, come back up.

201
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How hard is that to do?

202
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What's the discipline needed to do that?

203
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Well, there's discipline and there's a refusal to accept mediocracy.

204
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There's a refusal to accept failure, right?

205
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I found that in my, you know, budding speaking career, right?

206
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I've been speaking for a little over a year now.

207
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I really resonate with sales teams.

208
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I really resonate with anybody that faces adversity, that's in a crowded market, that
hears no a lot.

209
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Because...

210
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you're gonna fail more than you succeed at a lot of things, sports in particular.

211
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And I think sports is such a beautiful place to learn how to fail and not make that
failure a part of your identity.

212
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Because you're failing in public, you're failing in front of your teammates and your
opponents.

213
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Just like sales teams, like you hear no from your potential clients all the time or you
lose out to your competition.

214
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And how are you gonna overcome that?

215
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For me,

216
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First step, have to give yourself permission to be the person that makes the difference.

217
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If you're gonna sell someone a solution, you're gonna sell someone something that they
need and maybe they don't know they want it yet, you have to give yourself permission to

218
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be like, I can help them, I can make the difference.

219
00:16:22,585 --> 00:16:31,170
And from there, learn how to frame the conversation in a way that I'm not selling you a
service or a product, I'm selling you solution.

220
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Solution selling is a big part of it.

221
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And then it's understanding

222
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How do you create momentum in the conversation?

223
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For me it was how do I create momentum in getting my batting average back up or hitting
for power or catching, throwing runners out.

224
00:16:44,897 --> 00:16:49,020
But creating momentum in the sales process is you gotta get someone on the phone first.

225
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You gotta start the conversation.

226
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You gotta keep them on the phone.

227
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You gotta get an email response.

228
00:16:53,925 --> 00:17:02,983
gotta, whatever the first next step is, once you create some momentum, it's so much harder
to stop a moving object than to get something started.

229
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There's a book that, that I read maybe two or three years ago, called go for no.

230
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And it's like going for no, as many times as you can.

231
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like, I can, if I can get a hundred nos, that's awesome.

232
00:17:14,712 --> 00:17:17,423
It's like, it's kind of a thing on going for no.

233
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It's like the more nos you get, the more successful you are.

234
00:17:20,535 --> 00:17:23,315
And that tied into kind of what you were saying on there.

235
00:17:23,456 --> 00:17:31,688
Now, from a standpoint of, like the discipline, how many times did you want to just say,
you know, F this crap I'm done.

236
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I'm going to give up.

237
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It's like, it's, I'm done.

238
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I'm finished.

239
00:17:34,826 --> 00:17:41,884
It's like, and we all go through that, you know, we all go through these points where, if
you're trying to do anything big, you're going to come to a point where you just want to

240
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say, this, I'm done.

241
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I, I've had enough.

242
00:17:44,598 --> 00:17:45,719
I don't want to do more.

243
00:17:45,719 --> 00:17:49,302
How did you get through those times going in baseball?

244
00:17:49,752 --> 00:17:54,865
Honestly, there was one year where I fell out of love with the game completely.

245
00:17:54,886 --> 00:17:56,687
And that was hard.

246
00:17:56,687 --> 00:17:57,608
That was hard for me.

247
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It was the off season of 2016 going into 2017.

248
00:18:00,389 --> 00:18:05,653
It was really hard for me because I lost my love, I lost my passion for the game.

249
00:18:05,672 --> 00:18:08,815
And I felt like I acted out.

250
00:18:09,035 --> 00:18:10,594
I smoked a little weed that year.

251
00:18:10,594 --> 00:18:13,138
I went skiing for the first time.

252
00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:18,734
Which I don't think either one of those feel like acting out at this point in the world
where like,

253
00:18:18,734 --> 00:18:20,274
Weed is now legal.

254
00:18:20,274 --> 00:18:23,574
I was in my late 20s at the time.

255
00:18:23,834 --> 00:18:26,134
Skiing is something people do, right?

256
00:18:26,134 --> 00:18:31,764
But I had never done it because from the time I was in sixth grade, one of my teammates
broke the risk skiing.

257
00:18:31,764 --> 00:18:33,934
And I said, I can't risk my baseball career.

258
00:18:33,934 --> 00:18:41,614
So I felt like I had these restrictions on me and things holding me back because I needed
to do everything perfect for baseball.

259
00:18:41,914 --> 00:18:48,374
And in allowing myself the freedom to go do these things, I ended up finding my way back
to the passion and

260
00:18:48,374 --> 00:18:49,835
Luckily with baseball, there's an off season.

261
00:18:49,835 --> 00:18:53,196
So there's built in four months a year where you get to get away from it.

262
00:18:53,817 --> 00:19:02,842
Other than that one season, most of the times I was sent down, most of the times I was
told no or told to go back to the minors.

263
00:19:02,842 --> 00:19:04,253
I hadn't lost my passion.

264
00:19:04,253 --> 00:19:06,764
was more of a, that door closed.

265
00:19:06,764 --> 00:19:08,945
How do I break open another door?

266
00:19:08,945 --> 00:19:12,554
How do I bust through another wall or go through the window or find the back door?

267
00:19:12,554 --> 00:19:13,030
Right.

268
00:19:13,030 --> 00:19:15,729
It's a refusal to accept that failure.

269
00:19:15,729 --> 00:19:18,178
And how can I find a little bit of momentum?

270
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How can I find something in my control to get back to where I want to be?

271
00:19:23,624 --> 00:19:24,939
And I think that is so huge.

272
00:19:24,939 --> 00:19:29,144
And if you look at anybody that is successful in any aspect of life.

273
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it's been the refusal to give up.

274
00:19:31,665 --> 00:19:34,706
It's like giving up is not an option.

275
00:19:34,706 --> 00:19:38,318
It's like, it doesn't, it's like, and if you don't do that, you will give up.

276
00:19:38,318 --> 00:19:46,601
mean, it's, you know, it comes a time and again, whether it's in relationships, whether
it's in a marriage, whether it's in your career, whether it's in sports, it's like, we've

277
00:19:46,601 --> 00:19:50,853
got to, shit's going to hit the fan sometimes and it's not going to be always great.

278
00:19:50,853 --> 00:19:55,435
And it's like, we have to be able to just refuse to give up.

279
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It's like, I'm looking, if I look back at, know, when I built my first company,

280
00:19:59,450 --> 00:20:07,700
It's like, I literally, there was nothing in my mind that ever even showed, this is not
going to work or this might not work.

281
00:20:07,700 --> 00:20:10,080
like, it never even crossed my mind.

282
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,170
It's like, that was not even a part of the equation.

283
00:20:12,170 --> 00:20:20,990
And it's like, I look back at that I was like, man, I need to, know, that is truly, you
know, one of the laws of success is you've got to have that mentality of just never, ever

284
00:20:20,990 --> 00:20:24,050
giving up, not even, nope, delete, gone, out of your mind.

285
00:20:24,050 --> 00:20:24,870
And you just keep going.

286
00:20:24,870 --> 00:20:27,232
And I really liked what you said is,

287
00:20:28,018 --> 00:20:31,290
how can I find a way to do that?

288
00:20:31,551 --> 00:20:35,854
So when you refuse to quit and someone sets you back, it's like, OK, now what?

289
00:20:35,854 --> 00:20:37,095
How can I get around that?

290
00:20:37,095 --> 00:20:38,105
How can I go over that?

291
00:20:38,105 --> 00:20:39,796
How can I bust through that?

292
00:20:40,297 --> 00:20:42,559
Whatever it takes, I'm going back to that other side.

293
00:20:42,559 --> 00:20:45,201
And that is such a huge mindset.

294
00:20:45,201 --> 00:20:54,607
I think, so do you think from a sports standpoint, that is more embedded into you from
sports, that you don't give up, that you don't?

295
00:20:56,462 --> 00:21:05,962
Yeah, so there's a poster of Babe Ruth behind me and this this particular poster says
never let the fear of failure stop you from playing the game.

296
00:21:05,962 --> 00:21:11,922
But there's another Babe Ruth quote that I think about all the time is every strikeout
brings me closer to my next home run.

297
00:21:11,962 --> 00:21:13,832
And that's similar to what you were saying, right?

298
00:21:13,832 --> 00:21:21,922
Hunt for no, because after 97 nos, you're going to get three yeses or whatever the
standard failure rate in whatever industry you are, right?

299
00:21:21,922 --> 00:21:26,442
If you you embrace the failures, you also can embrace the successes.

300
00:21:26,446 --> 00:21:31,626
And I take that one step farther, if you can take ownership of your failures.

301
00:21:31,786 --> 00:21:41,326
That was something that I learned to do was, there was a couple times I got sent down from
the major leagues early in my career where I was hitting over 300.

302
00:21:41,746 --> 00:21:48,146
There was a couple times in my career where I got sent down where I had a higher OPS than
the guy that won the MVP that year.

303
00:21:48,486 --> 00:21:54,726
And in those times, it was hard to own the failure, but I had to find something that I
could keep working on.

304
00:21:55,232 --> 00:21:57,165
It's because my defense wasn't great.

305
00:21:57,165 --> 00:22:00,589
It's because I didn't build a good enough relationship with the pitching staff.

306
00:22:00,589 --> 00:22:03,252
It's because something.

307
00:22:03,252 --> 00:22:12,062
If I could find something to take ownership in the failure, then I could take ownership in
that next step and I could take ownership in getting myself back to success.

308
00:22:12,968 --> 00:22:16,908
And for those of that are on listening with us right now, I'm just telling you that is
gold.

309
00:22:16,908 --> 00:22:25,098
That is there's so much to unpack and what you said, because that truly is one of the, one
of the main things of success that truly is.

310
00:22:25,098 --> 00:22:30,168
if you're listening, go back and listen to that section again, because that is, that is
such a big section.

311
00:22:30,168 --> 00:22:32,488
I've got to ask you a kind of a fun question.

312
00:22:32,488 --> 00:22:37,228
So you were catching, did you ever have an ump behind you?

313
00:22:37,228 --> 00:22:38,548
See, this is what I would do.

314
00:22:38,548 --> 00:22:40,548
This is the smart ass things that Sean would do.

315
00:22:40,548 --> 00:22:42,617
I would purposely duck.

316
00:22:42,692 --> 00:22:47,715
miss something and let him hit him in the nuts, whatever it is.

317
00:22:47,715 --> 00:22:54,029
Did you ever like purposefully like, I missed that ball and just knocked the guy in the
chest or the head?

318
00:22:54,467 --> 00:22:58,419
no, can't because there's only so many umpires, right?

319
00:22:58,419 --> 00:23:00,131
And they all talk, they all know who you are.

320
00:23:00,131 --> 00:23:01,591
You work with them multiple times.

321
00:23:01,591 --> 00:23:03,463
Like that guy's gonna get you back.

322
00:23:03,463 --> 00:23:04,246
You can't do that.

323
00:23:04,246 --> 00:23:05,384
Come on, Sean.

324
00:23:05,839 --> 00:23:09,280
But see that's why I would never make it there.

325
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,246
First game they're like, you're out of here, get out.

326
00:23:12,246 --> 00:23:15,668
You know what, I never got thrown out of a game either in 16 years.

327
00:23:16,269 --> 00:23:18,230
Sometimes I feel like I missed my chance.

328
00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:19,971
I probably should have.

329
00:23:19,971 --> 00:23:24,204
There were some umpires that deserved it, but no, never once.

330
00:23:25,328 --> 00:23:27,009
And you were right at the action the whole time.

331
00:23:27,009 --> 00:23:34,934
It's like you know smartass comments saying are you blind like did you ever start humming
three blind mice or anything anything like that?

332
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:41,494
No, there's a couple times I dropped some f-bombs, but it was it was always like you're
effing me not f you

333
00:23:41,828 --> 00:23:43,229
Okay, so.

334
00:23:43,991 --> 00:23:45,250
I guess it's how you say it.

335
00:23:45,250 --> 00:23:51,482
See, this is why I would not make it in stuff like that, because I just, I'm very
sarcastic, I'm a smart ass.

336
00:23:51,482 --> 00:23:52,247
So.

337
00:23:52,247 --> 00:23:53,928
getting into some of the things that you're doing now.

338
00:23:53,928 --> 00:24:03,814
So you're transitioning, you're going into speaking, you're speaking to big audiences and
you're doing great on that speaking side on really kind of mentoring other people.

339
00:24:03,834 --> 00:24:12,799
So a lot of your coaching or a lot of your speaking is talk little bit about like what
you're speaking about, what you're doing, because I think it's such a it's a great

340
00:24:12,799 --> 00:24:19,363
transition to what you've done and how you kind of push that and use what you learned into
what you're doing now.

341
00:24:19,566 --> 00:24:26,393
Yeah, I mean, want to circle back to something you said a little earlier of that you don't
have to have done the thing to be able to coach it.

342
00:24:26,674 --> 00:24:27,075
Right?

343
00:24:27,075 --> 00:24:33,842
Like there's there's great coaches in professional baseball that never played
professionally themselves, but they know the skill set.

344
00:24:35,384 --> 00:24:47,759
However, when you've done it yourself also and can teach it, because teaching and doing
are two separate skill sets, but when you have both, there's such a visceral understanding

345
00:24:48,159 --> 00:24:55,102
and there's a connection that's made between the person that's doing it now and the person
that's done it before that's helping them do it their best.

346
00:24:55,102 --> 00:25:03,966
So what I'm doing with my speaking is I'm helping people leverage the best mindset to get
to their peak performance.

347
00:25:04,866 --> 00:25:08,689
So I speak on mindset, because I believe mindset changes everything.

348
00:25:08,689 --> 00:25:12,532
So it's how do you give yourself permission to be the game changer?

349
00:25:12,532 --> 00:25:17,575
How do you set bigger goals so that when you actually accomplish it, you're really proud
of what you did?

350
00:25:17,575 --> 00:25:19,496
You didn't leave anything on the table?

351
00:25:20,137 --> 00:25:24,901
How do you surround yourself with a team that's going to support you and help you get to
your goals?

352
00:25:24,901 --> 00:25:30,024
And rather than just thinking about it, how do you start taking action today?

353
00:25:30,465 --> 00:25:32,396
So it's about the mindset.

354
00:25:32,396 --> 00:25:40,168
And then I also do some speaking about leadership and how can you as the leader of your
team foster that mindset on your team with your people.

355
00:25:41,241 --> 00:25:48,276
Yeah, and that kind of goes into, you when you're talking about to me, that is the
difference between just a coach and a true mentor.

356
00:25:48,276 --> 00:25:56,843
a mentor, so for me, a mentor is someone who's been there, done that, and they're kind of
leading you along and where coach is kind of the tactical, like you do this, you do that.

357
00:25:56,843 --> 00:26:05,549
And you being able to go in and mentor when you're doing your speaking and the stuff that
you speak, the stuff that you speak about, I know you speak to like salespeople, sales

358
00:26:05,549 --> 00:26:08,571
teams and, but that can really go towards

359
00:26:08,968 --> 00:26:09,458
anything.

360
00:26:09,458 --> 00:26:18,268
It's like, you know, I've listened to your, you know, your speeches and it's like, that
can really be applied to many different things, not just sales teams, not just, I mean,

361
00:26:18,268 --> 00:26:19,148
any executive team.

362
00:26:19,148 --> 00:26:22,928
It's like, is a true, again, everyone goes through crap.

363
00:26:22,928 --> 00:26:23,998
Everybody hits that.

364
00:26:23,998 --> 00:26:27,028
like, so how do, from a mindset standpoint, how can we get past that?

365
00:26:27,028 --> 00:26:31,478
And having a mentor that's able to, that has been there, done that at the highest level.

366
00:26:31,478 --> 00:26:34,868
mean, Major League Baseball, it's like, again, it's like pro football.

367
00:26:34,868 --> 00:26:36,648
It's like, you're, you're the best of the best.

368
00:26:36,648 --> 00:26:38,299
There's, you know, you, you,

369
00:26:38,299 --> 00:26:39,754
Can't get much better than that.

370
00:26:40,046 --> 00:26:42,368
I've spoken across industries this year alone.

371
00:26:42,368 --> 00:26:51,875
It's been hospitality management, hospital systems, a paper company, a car dealership,
insurance, tech sales.

372
00:26:52,316 --> 00:26:54,618
And I get a lot of what you're saying.

373
00:26:54,618 --> 00:26:57,561
I get a lot of, I want my kid to hear this.

374
00:26:57,561 --> 00:27:02,835
I was taking notes, so I want to tell my son because you're not talking about baseball.

375
00:27:02,835 --> 00:27:03,706
You're not talking about life.

376
00:27:03,706 --> 00:27:04,727
You're not talking about sales.

377
00:27:04,727 --> 00:27:08,760
You're talking about the messiness of being human, right?

378
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,032
How can I be my best self?

379
00:27:11,032 --> 00:27:14,655
And there's people in every crowd that are dealing with something.

380
00:27:14,655 --> 00:27:16,597
Maybe somebody's going through a divorce.

381
00:27:16,597 --> 00:27:20,099
Maybe somebody is dealing with alcoholism.

382
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,284
Maybe somebody's having a hard time at work or with their family or they lost a loved one.

383
00:27:24,284 --> 00:27:32,030
And my hope is that this new mindset that I'm coaching you on, that I'm bringing to you,
will help you overcome any obstacle that you

384
00:27:33,795 --> 00:27:42,383
Yeah, and it's and again, I think it goes for anything and it's and I think what's what's
great about how you do it is a lot of people can relate to it.

385
00:27:42,383 --> 00:27:52,571
So especially the guys, I don't want to be, you know, male female, but especially the
guys, you know, can relate to that story and how and they they can make the connections in

386
00:27:52,571 --> 00:27:56,755
their mind of, OK, I see what he's saying because I understand sports.

387
00:27:56,847 --> 00:28:05,603
I can see what he's saying and how that mindset shifts over and how you can do that and
how I can relate that to what I'm doing just because everybody knows sports to some level.

388
00:28:05,603 --> 00:28:05,814
Right.

389
00:28:05,814 --> 00:28:13,449
And it's like, so I think that's, if I was to go in and talk about, building my company
and talk about the mindset, most people would like, they don't, they can't correlate the

390
00:28:13,449 --> 00:28:13,689
two.

391
00:28:13,689 --> 00:28:20,054
So I think what you do on tying it back to the sports and some of the stories that you
have in your, in your speech are just hilarious by the way.

392
00:28:20,054 --> 00:28:23,506
It's like, so let me ask you this.

393
00:28:23,787 --> 00:28:24,787
What do you,

394
00:28:24,837 --> 00:28:35,588
Out of a list of the top three things that you miss most out of being on a team, being on
a team, is the camaraderie, that friendship, that building, the things that you do in the

395
00:28:35,588 --> 00:28:44,410
locker room, that like, to me that would be one of the things that I missed more than
anything, is just that close knit bunch of rowdiness.

396
00:28:44,410 --> 00:28:47,770
I miss the boys, I miss the guys.

397
00:28:47,790 --> 00:28:54,890
I'd say the number one thing I miss is knowing what the most important thing is every
single day.

398
00:28:54,890 --> 00:29:00,070
When you wake up in the morning, we're playing to win the game as a team.

399
00:29:00,070 --> 00:29:02,570
I could fail, the team can win.

400
00:29:02,570 --> 00:29:04,950
And if I do great and the team loses, doesn't matter.

401
00:29:04,950 --> 00:29:08,030
Because we're all in this together, we're pulling on the same rope.

402
00:29:08,030 --> 00:29:11,494
So it's such a thing in life that...

403
00:29:11,970 --> 00:29:15,112
There's multiple right choices, right?

404
00:29:15,432 --> 00:29:18,485
I feel like I've learned recently, because I made my choice when I was five, right?

405
00:29:18,485 --> 00:29:20,096
I'm playing professional baseball.

406
00:29:20,096 --> 00:29:25,459
I'm going to do everything I can to be the best player I can be, win the World Series, go
to the Olympics, whatever.

407
00:29:25,980 --> 00:29:29,302
In life, there's no right answer, and there's no wrong answer.

408
00:29:29,702 --> 00:29:31,273
You can decide to do whatever you want.

409
00:29:31,273 --> 00:29:32,214
You can find success.

410
00:29:32,214 --> 00:29:34,586
You can redefine success in your own way.

411
00:29:34,586 --> 00:29:36,097
But in sports, it's defined.

412
00:29:36,097 --> 00:29:38,468
You win or you lose, and you know.

413
00:29:38,489 --> 00:29:41,110
So that's the thing that I miss about it the most.

414
00:29:41,445 --> 00:29:43,888
there's a definite, definite of it.

415
00:29:43,888 --> 00:29:45,619
It's like, there's no in between, there's no gray.

416
00:29:45,619 --> 00:29:47,511
It's like, yeah, you either go or you don't.

417
00:29:47,511 --> 00:29:50,584
So what was, what was more fulfilling to you?

418
00:29:50,584 --> 00:29:53,918
it like the world series or was it going to the Olympics?

419
00:29:53,918 --> 00:29:59,173
I wanted to ask you that because like both are, both are extremely like passion things.

420
00:29:59,173 --> 00:30:05,149
It's like, which one, which one was bigger for you, the Olympics or

421
00:30:05,604 --> 00:30:12,884
So for me, the Olympics is the peak of athletic performance for so many sports.

422
00:30:13,244 --> 00:30:16,964
And the best athletes in the world were there.

423
00:30:17,284 --> 00:30:21,084
Except breakdancing, we'll talk about that off camera.

424
00:30:21,844 --> 00:30:25,014
But baseball, the Olympics is not the pinnacle of the sport.

425
00:30:25,014 --> 00:30:27,504
The pinnacle of the sport is the World Series.

426
00:30:27,784 --> 00:30:32,924
And now it's turning into the World Baseball Classic, which I've had the opportunity to
play in twice.

427
00:30:32,944 --> 00:30:34,020
So for me,

428
00:30:34,020 --> 00:30:38,780
As far as career fulfillment, was definitely the World Series being a part of that team.

429
00:30:38,780 --> 00:30:41,300
But the Olympics, mean, come on, it's a dream.

430
00:30:41,300 --> 00:30:45,568
I didn't even think about dreaming because baseball wasn't in the Olympics for 13 years.

431
00:30:45,691 --> 00:30:47,272
Yeah, that's true.

432
00:30:47,272 --> 00:30:48,601
Yeah.

433
00:30:48,601 --> 00:30:54,835
And that's, yeah, so that, world series must've been just, I bet it goes by quick in your
mind.

434
00:30:54,835 --> 00:31:00,377
Like it was just a blink of an eye, but it is such a big, big part of something you've
accomplished.

435
00:31:00,377 --> 00:31:11,032
And it's something that to celebrate it's like that, that was a long road of a lot of, you
know, a lot of mental toughness and all of the things that you had to do to, get there.

436
00:31:11,032 --> 00:31:12,473
So congratulations on that.

437
00:31:12,473 --> 00:31:13,313
And,

438
00:31:13,871 --> 00:31:21,927
Again, I think a lot of the stuff that you were talking about on the mental toughness on
making the transition from one thing to another is such a huge thing.

439
00:31:21,927 --> 00:31:24,039
So I want to thank you so much for being on here.

440
00:31:24,039 --> 00:31:28,413
So what are the best ways for our listeners right now to get ahold of you?

441
00:31:28,413 --> 00:31:38,701
Like if they want to have you speak at their event or they want you to come and speak for
their company, what are the best ways for them to get in touch with you?

442
00:31:38,798 --> 00:31:40,490
Yeah, I'd love that.

443
00:31:40,490 --> 00:31:45,694
Please reach out to me on LinkedIn or Instagram.

444
00:31:45,694 --> 00:31:47,075
I am very easy to find.

445
00:31:47,075 --> 00:31:49,397
Not a lot of Ryan LeVarnway's out there.

446
00:31:49,397 --> 00:31:54,622
You could check out my website, ryanlevarnway.com, to keep up with everything that I'm
doing.

447
00:31:54,622 --> 00:31:57,604
I'm pretty active on social and I answer all my messages.

448
00:31:57,684 --> 00:32:02,668
I'm a regular person just like you, so I'd love to connect with any of your listeners.

449
00:32:02,819 --> 00:32:03,649
Yeah.

450
00:32:03,649 --> 00:32:06,471
And those listening, all this will be in the show notes as well.

451
00:32:06,471 --> 00:32:07,492
So visit the show notes.

452
00:32:07,492 --> 00:32:09,403
We will have the links actually in there.

453
00:32:09,403 --> 00:32:11,155
So you can just click on them as well.

454
00:32:11,155 --> 00:32:13,856
But Ryan, thank you so much for being on.

455
00:32:13,856 --> 00:32:17,319
Now I gotta ask, who do you want to win the World Series?

456
00:32:17,319 --> 00:32:20,311
I know who the answer is probably gonna be, but I might be surprised.

457
00:32:20,311 --> 00:32:22,052
Who do you want to actually win this year?

458
00:32:22,052 --> 00:32:28,238
Wow man, it's tough because I played for so many teams and I know so many players.

459
00:32:28,238 --> 00:32:35,224
like Monday I flew to LA to see the Dodgers-Mets game and I knew a third of the players
from playing with them in different places.

460
00:32:35,224 --> 00:32:39,708
So it's hard for me to take a pick but I grew up a Dodger fan.

461
00:32:39,708 --> 00:32:41,930
The Dodgers are the Avengers right now.

462
00:32:41,930 --> 00:32:42,951
They're insanely good.

463
00:32:42,951 --> 00:32:45,063
They spent a billion dollars last year on players.

464
00:32:45,063 --> 00:32:48,556
So I guess if I had to choose, I'd probably go Dodgers.

465
00:32:49,093 --> 00:32:50,990
over Cleveland, even though you played.

466
00:32:50,990 --> 00:32:52,556
So you played for Cleveland, right?

467
00:32:52,556 --> 00:32:53,154
mean, it's like.

468
00:32:53,154 --> 00:32:54,166
I played for Cleveland.

469
00:32:54,166 --> 00:32:58,632
The Dodgers actually owned my contract for three days, but I didn't actually play for
them.

470
00:32:58,883 --> 00:33:00,288
Okay, they did.

471
00:33:00,288 --> 00:33:03,513
And I play for the Yankees in AAA, not in the big leagues.

472
00:33:03,956 --> 00:33:06,620
Mets are the only one that never owned my contract.

473
00:33:07,195 --> 00:33:07,845
Wow.

474
00:33:07,845 --> 00:33:10,396
from a sports fan standpoint.

475
00:33:10,396 --> 00:33:15,659
It's like, we grow up in these areas and we become these fans of these, of these teams.

476
00:33:15,659 --> 00:33:17,049
Like me, it was the Broncos.

477
00:33:17,049 --> 00:33:17,785
I grew up in Denver.

478
00:33:17,785 --> 00:33:22,472
It's like, I'm a diehard Denver Broncos fan from a, football standpoint.

479
00:33:23,102 --> 00:33:28,357
But the players, yes, they have an interest in the team, but this is a, this is your
career.

480
00:33:28,357 --> 00:33:29,899
This is a job for you.

481
00:33:29,899 --> 00:33:32,641
And it's like, fans get so mad.

482
00:33:32,641 --> 00:33:34,423
It's like, Ryan, how could you do this?

483
00:33:34,423 --> 00:33:35,644
And you go to another team.

484
00:33:35,644 --> 00:33:36,438
How could you ever do that?

485
00:33:36,438 --> 00:33:41,269
And it's like, we don't understand as fans a lot of times that this is a career.

486
00:33:41,269 --> 00:33:42,020
This is your job.

487
00:33:42,020 --> 00:33:44,192
It's like, it's like me going to another company.

488
00:33:44,192 --> 00:33:46,474
It's like, that's just the way it is.

489
00:33:46,474 --> 00:33:48,155
You know, that's, and.

490
00:33:48,311 --> 00:34:00,511
when I was in fifth grade or five years old or whatever and envisioning my life, right, I
pictured that I would sign with one team, play there for 20 years, live in the city

491
00:34:00,511 --> 00:34:07,911
forever, find a local wife, and live the rest of my life in that city happily ever after.

492
00:34:07,911 --> 00:34:10,131
That's not how it works, right?

493
00:34:10,131 --> 00:34:15,003
Eight days after I got called up for the first time to the Boston Red Sox, I'm 305.

494
00:34:15,003 --> 00:34:16,984
David Ortiz is healthy and he's a Hall of Famer.

495
00:34:16,984 --> 00:34:19,106
So go back to the miners, right?

496
00:34:19,106 --> 00:34:24,509
So I was up and down with Boston 11 times over the course of four years.

497
00:34:24,750 --> 00:34:35,677
And then they wanted to send me down again the next year and there's some contract
specifics with MLB where they weren't allowed to send me down, but they wanted to keep me.

498
00:34:35,738 --> 00:34:43,589
They had to offer my contract to other teams and I got picked up by the Dodgers and then
traded to the Cubs and then traded to the Orioles.

499
00:34:43,589 --> 00:34:46,622
all within 14 days in the month of December.

500
00:34:47,083 --> 00:34:49,435
So it's not like it was my choice to leave.

501
00:34:49,435 --> 00:34:51,057
I would have played for Boston forever.

502
00:34:51,057 --> 00:34:51,828
I love that city.

503
00:34:51,828 --> 00:34:54,010
I love that team, that fan base.

504
00:34:54,531 --> 00:34:58,695
I played for 13 major league organizations.

505
00:34:58,695 --> 00:35:03,520
If you count the minor league teams along the way, I played for 28 different cities in
this country.

506
00:35:03,961 --> 00:35:06,273
Only one time was the choice my own.

507
00:35:08,052 --> 00:35:08,852
Yeah.

508
00:35:09,194 --> 00:35:10,737
And that's the thing.

509
00:35:10,737 --> 00:35:14,694
I guess at some point you might be able to have somewhat of a choice in where you go.

510
00:35:14,694 --> 00:35:15,386
Maybe not.

511
00:35:15,386 --> 00:35:20,930
You might not ever, no matter how big you get, but it's like, yeah, you're at the mercy of
them.

512
00:35:20,930 --> 00:35:26,286
Only the best of the best players earn free agency and earn the right to really make a
choice.

513
00:35:26,752 --> 00:35:29,152
Yeah, and that you're at their whim.

514
00:35:29,152 --> 00:35:38,492
it's like, know, us as fans, we've got to understand that our players, our favorite
players like are for me, El Tuve, it's like he's an Astro, but he's a player and he could

515
00:35:38,492 --> 00:35:41,612
be in, he could be a Dodger next year.

516
00:35:41,612 --> 00:35:43,822
could be, literally they could go anywhere.

517
00:35:43,822 --> 00:35:48,392
So it's like, yeah, that's, it's a much different way to think about it from a fan
standpoint.

518
00:35:48,392 --> 00:35:52,592
I'm sure growing up, you probably had fans are like, how could he go to another team?

519
00:35:53,092 --> 00:35:55,688
Yeah, you just have to realize that that's just the way.

520
00:35:55,688 --> 00:35:56,996
It's a business, that's the way it is.