Order of Man - DARREN WOODSON ｜ If You Want It, Earn It

00:00:00.000 I think most of us would agree that society is increasingly moving towards the quote-unquote

00:00:05.300 entitlement mentality. Everywhere we turn, people are griping about what they want and

00:00:10.540 why they're entitled to it and why life isn't fair. My guest today takes exception with that

00:00:16.420 mentality and has proven throughout his life that despite his challenges, is willing to pursue and

00:00:22.380 earn what he desires. His name is Darren Woodson. He's a former NFL football player, ESPN analyst,

00:00:28.780 and successful real estate investor. Today, Darren and I talk about establishing a healthy identity,

00:00:36.020 reinventing yourself, resisting the victimhood mentality, also the joy of giving, hubris and

00:00:43.080 humility, and a whole lot more. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your

00:00:48.140 fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time,

00:00:53.740 every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is

00:01:00.340 your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all

00:01:06.020 is said and done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is

00:01:11.480 Ryan Michler. I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement, and I'm glad that

00:01:17.100 you're joining us. This podcast is dedicated to reclaiming, restoring masculinity. We are continually

00:01:24.400 moving away from masculine, bold, strong, confident, courageous, virtuous men in culture,

00:01:31.880 and much of the world's problems that we see, whether it's poor leadership at the local, state,

00:01:37.280 and federal level, and then the natural outcome, which is inflation, and gender ideology, 0.98

00:01:43.940 and woke nonsense, and skirmishes, and wars. That all can be solved if more men across the planet

00:01:51.620 would step up, be responsible, lead their families, lead their businesses, lead their communities,

00:01:57.360 and lead themselves well. To that end, we have interviews with some of the most successful men,

00:02:02.140 and we're trying to extract some of their knowledge and wisdom so that we can be better fathers,

00:02:07.880 husbands, business owners, community leaders, just men in general. So, I've got a good one lined up for

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00:03:16.660 originusa.com, originusa.com and use the code ORDER, O-R-D-E-R at checkout for your discount. So again,

00:03:25.000 originusa.com, use the code ORDER. All right, guys, let me introduce you to Darren. He is a, as I said

00:03:31.840 earlier, former NFL football player with three Super Bowl championships, five Pro Bowl selections.

00:03:37.260 He's an ESPN analyst. He's also a very extremely successful real estate broker and investor. And

00:03:43.420 he's taken his decades of experience in sports and applied those lessons learned into becoming

00:03:49.440 successful on all fronts of his life, not just the field. And with his success has made it his

00:03:56.300 mission to serve those who are less fortunate than others through the nonprofit C5 Texas. Guys, Darren,

00:04:01.720 is admittedly one of the most genuine people that I know. I always really enjoy my conversations with

00:04:07.140 him. I think you will too. Darren, what's up, man? It's so good to see you again. I, uh, man,

00:04:13.300 it's been years since I came on your podcast and, and we were, we were going to make this happen.

00:04:18.360 I think last year, life's wild. Like I, I just, I was looking at that message you sent me on Instagram

00:04:24.960 and, and you had reached out because we, we have some similar thoughts and viewpoints around

00:04:30.520 raising children, right? Yes. And then I was looking at the previous message and it was like

00:04:36.280 a year ago. I'm like, wait, where did that, where did that 12 months go? Yeah. Hey, and you've gone

00:04:41.720 through some things, huh? Physically, you just got, went through some things as well, haven't you?

00:04:45.700 But yeah, yeah. I, I look, I gotta tell you, man, I went to the convenience store, uh, this morning

00:04:52.900 and I picked, I went to Duncan and I picked up an everything bagel with cream cheese. That's my vice.

00:04:58.360 So I went to Duncan, I picked that up and I felt so dumb, like with this sling, I'm like, man, 0.75

00:05:05.420 are these people judging me? Like, cause I held the donut or the bagel in my hand with the sling on it.

00:05:11.520 I'm like, do they like, do they think I'm faking or I'm virtue signaling or I'm trying to get some,

00:05:16.320 like some victim points here? I feel so dumb. I'm sure you've gone through injuries with your 0.98

00:05:21.200 career. I've had 12, actually 11 and I'm supposed to have a 11 surgeries and I'm supposed to have one

00:05:27.860 on my left shoulder labrum rotator. And I'm like, I'm holding off. I'm not trying to have an, I will

00:05:34.380 not go on the scalpel right now. Not happening. Why, why, why not right now? And what would change

00:05:40.880 to make that, make that happen? You know what, if I just physically cannot just deal with the pain,

00:05:48.640 like I've gotten to a point, even my, my surgeon who's done 10 of my surgeries on my shoulders and

00:05:54.420 fingers and hands, he's, he's, he's along the lines of the same thing. Hey man, if you can deal with the

00:05:59.860 pain, don't do it. And that's how that's the game plan, man. Cause I've, there's been so many years,

00:06:05.100 especially in my pro the NFL career where I'm walking around just like you for four months,

00:06:09.400 three months, you know, season ends. I know I need the surgery week six or seven, but we're going

00:06:15.240 to play this out for 16 weeks. And then the season ends next day. I'm under the scalpel having surgery

00:06:21.440 and my whole off season is spent rehabbing. And I just, you know, for me, it just, it's the fatigue

00:06:28.280 of being, you know, one arm for, for a long time. It's fatigue of, and I got my co-host, Tyler,

00:06:34.820 Tyler Klutz over here who just walked in. Get out of here. What's he doing? It looks like he's

00:06:38.640 making fun of you. That's what it looks like. Ryan, you remember Ty? I do. What's up, man? Good

00:06:45.340 to see you. How you doing, man? I'm good to see it, man. Barging in. Yeah. I'm just, that's what I do

00:06:50.200 is I disrupt. I'm a disruptor. Get out, man. Here we go. But yeah, I just, I just don't want to go

00:06:58.800 through that process right now. I think I can handle it. I can deal with the pain. It was, it was

00:07:03.380 interesting. I was in the, in the waiting room prior to going into, in, into the operating room.

00:07:10.140 And, and she said, what's your, what's your pain on a scale from zero to 10 or whatever. And I'm

00:07:14.760 like, it was zero. I don't feel any pain, but it was just mechanically. It was just not firing

00:07:21.500 correctly. And, you know, I'm 41 years old. I feel like I'm still fairly young. I'm like, man,

00:07:26.100 I'm going to be active. I'm going to be engaged. Like just get the damn thing fixed. I'll be out for

00:07:30.420 three to four months. Actually, my biggest concern is stopping with jujitsu specifically,

00:07:37.920 and then not going back, even though I love it. That's my biggest concern because even though I

00:07:43.940 love it, it's still hard to actually go even after a week of vacation, let alone being out of the game

00:07:50.080 for three to four months. Now you got an excuse. Now mentally, you're going to have, you're going to

00:07:53.300 be mentally charged to have an excuse because your shoulder is not, your chest is not feeling well.

00:07:58.340 Yeah. Yeah. I get it, man. And that's the hardest thing, man, is getting back on,

00:08:02.580 getting back on schedule. You know, once you're off, brother, you know, getting back on is tough.

00:08:08.460 And that's, that, that applies to life. I want every damn thing we do. 0.92

00:08:12.520 Yeah, it's true. It's really true. You were mentioning before we hit record and I stopped 0.99

00:08:16.660 you. I feel bad for, for interrupting because you were sharing some things about your life and how

00:08:22.040 you got involved with sports and, you know, obviously the NFL and then ESPN, you were talking about

00:08:27.820 being a workaholic. I am as well. And then you have kids. So managing a family, I interrupted you

00:08:34.320 because I wanted to make sure the guys heard this about your story of, you know, you said coming

00:08:40.940 from the projects growing up in, in, in a, in a broken home. I'm not going to put words in your

00:08:45.600 mouth. Do you have a word for it? Yeah. I would love to hear that story. Yeah. So, you know, started

00:08:50.600 off, you know, as a young kid, I grew up in Henson projects and then moved over to the West side of

00:08:55.400 Phoenix, Arizona, moved to the West side, which is those that live in that area called it's called

00:08:59.980 the Maryville area, ended up going to junior high and high school there and was raised in a single

00:09:07.100 family household. My mother, who is absolutely my freaking hero from top to bottom, raised four

00:09:14.840 kids, worked two jobs. One job, Ryan, at Maricopa County as a clerk, worked 38 years for Maricopa

00:09:21.800 County. Dang. Second job, she worked 32 years. Whoa. Yeah. She, she was just, you know, moving

00:09:30.760 all the time. She used to always say, my mom was of the church, man, serious, strong, faithful

00:09:35.060 Christian woman. You know, the black, you know, the black mama that's in the church, that was my mom 0.99

00:09:39.660 catch the Holy ghost every other Sunday, not every Sunday, but every third Sunday of the month, 0.82

00:09:44.320 she's going to catch the Holy ghost somewhere in there. But anyway, my mom, man, was that one 0.73

00:09:48.820 that just was relentless. And she used to always say, Hey, man, did he, you know, the devil don't

00:09:54.960 like it when you get up and put them feet on the ground. Devil don't like it. When you put them 0.97

00:09:58.300 feet on the ground, you got to put them, you got to keep moving, keep moving. So, you know, I was

00:10:02.280 always the kid that at 13 years old, I'm laying carpet with my uncles at, you know, I ended up going

00:10:09.360 to high school, going to college. My, my, I'm being the youngest, everybody else is out of high

00:10:13.400 school, but my brothers have gone on to the military or whatnot. I'm the guy that I go to

00:10:18.600 Arizona state, play football, get done there. And for that three and a half, four years. And then I

00:10:23.820 go to the NFL and I'm every day I'm grinding it out. I don't know any different. I'm getting there

00:10:29.240 early in the morning. I'm watching guys like Troy Aikman and Daryl Johnson and Michael Irvin.

00:10:34.260 I'm getting up 13 years in the NFL, man. The day I retired from the NFL, the next day I was at ESPN,

00:10:44.500 the very next day. So I hadn't had any lapses, man. It's just one after the other, one transition

00:10:51.100 after the next 13 years at ESPN. And while I was at ESPN, I started working, you know, I became a

00:10:58.200 partner in a real estate firm and had to cut my teeth there and got my ass kicked all the time. 0.98

00:11:04.260 I'm trying to understand the real estate game. Didn't understand a damn thing about it, but 0.99

00:11:08.300 was relentless in trying to figure it out. And now I'm on to, you know, our company, 0.61

00:11:14.620 just real estate company just got acquired. I have a software company. I'm doing affordable housing.

00:11:19.860 I am a junkie, man. I can't help myself, but getting involved. And I always hear people,

00:11:25.940 yeah, you need balance. You need this, that fuck balance, man. Like I want to go. There's so much 1.00

00:11:31.520 more of this life that I just want. And so many people that, you know, they always say,

00:11:36.080 and Ron, you're exactly the same person. I watch you. I follow you all the time.

00:11:39.820 The joy doesn't come from what you're doing. The joy comes from what you're giving.

00:11:43.080 Like when you see other people that are happy by what you've put in or what you poured in,

00:11:49.720 you see the results of maybe lifting them out of poverty or giving them an experience, man,

00:11:56.460 that is the complete joy. And I just feel like I just, I got so much more to give, man.

00:12:03.160 So much more to get it. And I'll say, you know, I think a lot of that, and I know I'm rambling all

00:12:07.700 man, but I'm just in this, I'm just in this, in this zone in my life right now, man, where,

00:12:13.460 you know, God is like showing me the way, man. It's like the light bulbs are just,

00:12:18.780 are flashing right now. And I got this little six, I got a little six-year-old son. I started all

00:12:23.660 over again. So I got a 27 year old boy, 24 year old daughter, 21 year old boy. And now I got,

00:12:28.860 I got a six-year-old. And the six-year-old is the one man. He's the one that he's, I'm looking at

00:12:35.880 him going, damn, I'm 53 years old right now. He's six. I'm doing the math in my head. You're 53 years 0.96

00:12:43.280 old. I'm 53, man. So good. You look good. My shoulder don't feel good, but anyway,

00:12:49.740 but I was sitting there with him just the other day and, and we get out of a pool. I was swimming

00:12:56.040 with him. We got a pool, jump in the shower. And I'm, and this is where life really, the perspective

00:13:00.780 really comes into play is that I'm sitting there and I look at this dude, man. His name is Judea.

00:13:05.880 I'm looking at Judea and I'm like, he's six. I'm 53. I'm doing the math in my head. And I'm like,

00:13:12.320 dude, I don't like, if realistically, I look at this, I don't have that much time with him.

00:13:20.480 Like I really don't. If you really look, I mean, people don't want to go down that road,

00:13:24.240 but I need to, I take my, I have to take myself there because I want to max it out, man.

00:13:30.100 I want to max it out. And that's a different perspective that I've ever, never really had,

00:13:35.320 but I just feel like there's so much that life has in store for me that I just got to get it.

00:13:40.120 I got to go. So there ain't no balance. It's it's I agree with that. I think people are trying

00:13:47.080 to find this like perfect homeostasis, you know, area where it's equal distribution towards work

00:13:53.680 and family and this and that. And with your, your six-year-old boy right now, you know,

00:13:58.340 you're probably pouring more into that than you would seven, eight years ago. Cause you were in

00:14:03.240 a different spot eight years ago. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was a totally different spot eight

00:14:08.300 years ago. I'm curious about your transition from the NFL to ESPN. You said the day you retire

00:14:14.960 from the NFL, you transferred over to ESPN. There's a lot of guys who struggle with transitions

00:14:20.380 from different aspects of life. I see this a lot actually in the military where guys will put 20

00:14:26.160 years, for example, in the military, and then they're lost. They're so confused and they're lost.

00:14:30.960 And I hate to see it, but you see a lot of suicide from these guys who have lost their battle,

00:14:36.380 lost their mission. What, what did that transition look like for you? And why do you think that lined

00:14:42.180 up so well that you didn't skip a beat when you retired from something that was deeply meaningful

00:14:46.920 for you for decades? Yeah. Well, look, I, you know, I'll say this, man, it was the hardest transition

00:14:55.940 for me was going from the playing, playing football, being in the locker room, having that Sunday or

00:15:04.000 Monday challenge every week that got you all fired up and ramped up. Like those things were gone.

00:15:08.740 Once you're, once I ended up having a back surgery, L4, L5, uh, the sect of me and then nerve damage

00:15:16.500 and the whole day, that's what retired me my 13th year. Right. So once I, you know, they always say in

00:15:22.400 the NFL, you never leave the NFL, the NFL leaves you. They're going to either walk your ass out the 0.97

00:15:27.260 door or they're going to, something's going to happen to you. Yeah. Major injury. Then you're 0.99

00:15:32.000 going to imagine that throughout the game. Right. It's just the reality of it. You know, it's at some

00:15:36.400 point it's going to happen, but I wasn't mentally, I wasn't prepared for that because the injury

00:15:42.280 happened and it was a surprise injury. And in, in, in, I wasn't, you know, I was, I figured I'd play

00:15:48.020 another three more years in the NFL at least. Uh, but my time was up, man. And when I walked out

00:15:53.740 the door, ESPN was already trying to, you know, recruit me in my, in my playing years, the last

00:15:59.880 couple of years of playing. Why was that? What was that? Why was that? Why were they, why were

00:16:05.280 they? Cause look, there's what hundreds, if not thousands of players, why were they recruiting you?

00:16:10.560 You know, it's crazy. Cause I did an interview with Stuart Scott, my 11th year in the league.

00:16:15.180 And I, it was a little talk back, just like this. We're doing a talk back. He's in Bristol,

00:16:20.720 Connecticut. I'm here. I'm here in Dallas right after practice. And I'm doing this interview with

00:16:26.080 him. He's right. When he gets, before we get off, he says, Hey, stay on, stay on the line. I want to

00:16:30.760 talk to you. This is live now. Stay on the line. I want to talk to you. All right. All right, cool.

00:16:34.160 Fine. So we get done with the interview. He goes, Hey man, anytime when you're done, you're going to do TV.

00:16:39.780 And I was like, yeah, okay. Yeah. Right. Had no thought process of doing TV.

00:16:45.480 Bill Parcells was my coach at the time. Bill Parcells said, Hey, you need to do TV when you're

00:16:50.520 done. And I was like, yeah, but you know, I've never been, I didn't go to school for, you know,

00:16:56.320 for, for TV. I'd had no background in it. And I was like, yeah, whatever happened. But they recruited

00:17:00.920 me hard the last couple of years of my career. So I figured, you know, and Bill Parcells held my hand

00:17:05.080 through the process, knew I was retiring, made the introduction to ESPN and bam, there I went. I was

00:17:10.700 gone. Basically he sent me on my way. Like, this is what you're going to do now.

00:17:13.980 Is that common for, for a head coach to do something like that? Doesn't that make sense

00:17:18.780 common? No, he's different. He's a different breed, man. He's by far the most knowledgeable

00:17:24.480 head coach or football man that I've ever been around. And not only in football, but in life

00:17:30.700 in general, he just, he gets it. He absolutely gets any pours, he pours into you. It's just

00:17:38.100 football, man. It's life, uh, being a better, better, better man, being a better football player,

00:17:42.660 being a better father. That's that's Parcells, man. He doesn't get enough credit for spending

00:17:46.640 time. He's always a hard ass. He's like Belichick in a lot of ways, which Belichick learned 1.00

00:17:50.720 from Parcells, but Parcells was, he just, he gets it. So, you know, I always thought, okay,

00:17:58.160 this will be an easy transition. So I get over to ESPN and I suck, dude. I mean, when your mom 0.99

00:18:03.000 tells you, well, my mom and my brother called me the second day I'm on air, man, first day went,

00:18:08.620 okay. They asked me a couple questions. I went ahead and asked the questions. Second day on air,

00:18:14.460 Trey Wingo was asking me, you know, for long-witted questions. And I, man, I don't know what camera to

00:18:19.660 look at. My eyes are all over the place. My mom tells me, I promise you, Ryan, if I'm dying,

00:18:25.980 I'm lying. If I'm lying, I'm dying. So my mom tells me after one of the shows, she says,

00:18:32.100 baby, you sound like he got marbles in your mouth. And I was like, damn it, dude. It was hard, man. 0.99

00:18:37.700 I mean, the hardest thing, the hardest transition I've ever made was going from the football field

00:18:42.420 to the TV. And the only way I survived is because a guy named Mark Slareth took me up under his wing.

00:18:49.280 Trey Wingo took me up under his wing. Man, there were so many other guys that within ESPN who just

00:18:57.460 said, hey, man, you got to work. Same work you put in, in football, you got to spend that time in

00:19:03.740 front of the camera, spend that time in front of the mirror, practice, watch yourself. And I ended up

00:19:10.140 hiring a coach here in Dallas. And that's the only thing that really saved me, man, because I'm telling

00:19:14.740 me for our first two, three years, man, I was, I was embarrassed sometimes to get on TV. I had like

00:19:20.760 anxiety to get on TV because I was so bad, but I just had to work through it, man. And a lot of it

00:19:25.880 is just humility. It's getting your ass kicked, getting back up, doing the things you don't really 0.99

00:19:30.700 want to do as far as watching yourself and getting back. You got to do the little things, man. And I 0.99

00:19:35.060 finally started to feel a little comfortable as time went on. But one of the toughest transitions,

00:19:40.540 hands down of my, of my life. I'm trying to get to, to, to the root of why that is. Cause I'm

00:19:46.560 seeing a common theme here. You have Bill Parcells, you have ESPN, you have personalities,

00:19:50.660 the ESPN, you've got guys taking you under their wing. When I think a lot of these people and

00:19:55.620 individuals would write others off, but for some reason they saw something in you. Do you know what

00:19:59.940 that was? Do you know why they would give you a shot or what they saw in you, even if it was just

00:20:05.240 potential? I think resilient. They just, I think that's the one thing that I've, I will always say

00:20:11.140 that, look, I've gotten my, you know, I always tell people you ain't gotten to, you haven't really 1.00

00:20:15.380 gotten to a fight till you got your ass kicked. You get your ass kicked. You know, I've been in a 1.00

00:20:19.920 fight and it can't be one of those ones. You're like, when your buddies tell you, you got into a

00:20:23.580 fight and you're in high school and you get into this fight and the guy, and you look at your buddies

00:20:27.880 and they don't lie to you. And they're like, Hey dude, that was close, but he, you may not have won that.

00:20:34.480 That's when, you know, okay, I've been in some damn fights. And I, and I think the part of me is, 0.97

00:20:39.540 you know, there's been a lot of times in my life that I've had to overcome things. And I, and I,

00:20:44.860 and I, again, I tell you, my mom is my hero because she would never let us play that victim role,

00:20:49.640 that victim roles. Fuck that. That's out. That's gone. We ain't getting no handouts. You want it. 1.00

00:20:55.420 You go get it. You go earn it. And, and, you know, as a, as a black kid in, in an inner city,

00:21:02.880 man, there's no fucking excuses. Yeah. I got opportunities. I still got opportunities, 0.99

00:21:08.100 man, where there's disruption, there's opportunities. And if I get my, keep my head

00:21:11.800 straight and do the right fucking thing, excuse my language, man, but you know, anything is possible, 0.96

00:21:18.080 anything, man. And, and, and that's, that's why I attribute, you know, so much love to my mother and 0.96

00:21:23.720 how she raised us is that, you know, she always said there are no gimmies in this life, man. If you

00:21:29.980 want it, go get it. And I don't have a problem going to get it. I don't have a problem waking

00:21:33.340 up and going, going to work, man. That's not a problem for me. So I think that's the thing that

00:21:38.360 everyone has seen in me is that, yeah, you got, he's gotten knocked down, but here he comes. He'll

00:21:42.760 show up tomorrow. He's going to show up. He's going to continuously try to do things to get better.

00:21:48.220 And, and, and, uh, you know, that just goes back to, to how I was raised.

00:21:52.360 You talk about being a young black man in the inner city and, you know, you're 53 years old now,

00:21:58.260 and you're looking back when you were young, 18, 19, 20, maybe younger. Did you recognize that

00:22:04.140 there was some cards stacked against you? Did you feel like the world was against you? Did you

00:22:10.040 experience any pushback that anybody else like myself, for example, maybe, maybe didn't experience?

00:22:16.440 I'm very curious about that. And these are the real conversations we need to have.

00:22:20.260 Honestly. Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, I, Ryan, I didn't until I got into college.

00:22:24.360 Hmm. I really did not understand because when I came out of college, I kind of came out of high

00:22:29.700 school. I was what they called a prop 48, meaning my grades weren't good enough to play the first,

00:22:34.700 my first year I had to sit out at Arizona state and grades because of my grades and of all the kids

00:22:41.520 in my family, mom, you know, my two brothers and my older sister always really good in school.

00:22:46.120 What is prop 48? What is that? Prop 48 means that my SAT scores weren't high enough to pull my grades

00:22:54.380 up. So basically my grades in high school were so freaking bad going into my junior, senior year

00:23:01.040 that even though I tested okay on the ACT test, it wasn't high enough to pull my grades up. And I was

00:23:07.620 warned, trust me, let me tell you this. They warned me, University of Washington warned me that,

00:23:13.160 Hey, my sophomore, junior year, you need to get your grades, right? Uh, USC. Hey,

00:23:18.060 you need to get your grades, right? Arizona state, Don Bakke, uh, recruiting coordinator for Arizona

00:23:23.400 state. You need to get your grades, right? Or you're going to be a prop 48. So when I came out

00:23:28.180 of college myself and one of my best friends names, Felipe Sparks, you might know Joe Jordan

00:23:33.260 Sparks, the singer. Oh yeah. Her dad, Felipe for the New York giants. He and I went to high school

00:23:39.920 together. Uh, we were both prop 48. And it wasn't until I, I arrived at Arizona state that I look at

00:23:48.260 it and go, huh, I'm looking at all these kids that are, I mean, they're not struggling in school.

00:23:54.860 They're in biology class and they figured out how to study. And I, and I actually had a group of people

00:24:00.040 that I work with. And this is, this is the thing that, you know, again, I got, there's been so many

00:24:03.680 people in my life that have showed me the way Lovie Smith, who's the head coach of the unit, uh,

00:24:08.440 at, uh, with the, uh, the Texans now was my position coach at Arizona state.

00:24:16.860 My freshman year, I walk in, I can't play, but Lovie Smith takes me under his wing. And he says,

00:24:23.420 Hey, I want you to get with this group. They're going to show you how to do a, B, C, and D. So I

00:24:28.160 didn't know how to study, man. It wasn't that I didn't know how to read and I didn't know how to do

00:24:32.260 math. I just didn't know how to freaking prepare and, and, and not only go to class, but then

00:24:37.780 rewrite your notes and do all these little things. So I wasn't like, I mean, I just didn't know who I

00:24:42.160 was because I figured out that I'm a kid that has to work extra hard to get things done. Meaning I

00:24:49.660 had to figure out a process of you, you went to class, rewrite your notes right after class. It's

00:24:56.480 still fresh in your mind. Right. And then a couple hours later, read through your notes again. That's

00:25:00.880 I learned that process, but I didn't learn it. I had to learn it through a group that Lovie put me

00:25:05.440 with that were kids that were my age that just had this understanding of how to study. They just

00:25:12.460 knew how to study. So I looked at that and thought, okay, these kids gone to good schools and most of

00:25:17.860 them predominantly were white kids. And I, and I thought, okay, they know how to prepare, but they've 0.80

00:25:22.640 been taught how to prepare in my situation. And this is no, no shot at my high school or grade school or

00:25:30.020 not. But we were in circumstances where, you know, we weren't prepared. We were ill prepared

00:25:37.120 to get to that next level. Cause we didn't, no one ever taught me how to study. So that was,

00:25:41.740 it wasn't like I was lacking mentally. I just didn't know how to do it. So that's the only time

00:25:46.340 that I thought, okay, well, the deck is kind of stacked against a lot of the kids that I'm looking

00:25:51.880 back at going, oh man, he's going to have some, he's going to have some troubles when he gets to this

00:25:56.400 level or he may try to avoid college altogether because he's struggling and, or he or she is

00:26:01.840 struggling in high school so bad academically. They don't want to go to college because they

00:26:05.980 don't want to go through that process. Like if that can start when they're in third grade or fourth

00:26:11.240 grade, there you go. That's where into the field starts to level out a little bit, just through,

00:26:16.480 you know, ways education can help these kids, younger kids out that were like me. That's the only

00:26:22.620 time I really thought about it, but there was no excuse. Cause once I got there, it was on me.

00:26:28.700 Hey, it was, I mean, once I got there and figured that out and it didn't take that much to figure out

00:26:32.860 once I figured it out, I thought, man, I got just as much right or just as much opportunity

00:26:38.080 as anybody else to be successful in whatever the hell I want to do.

00:26:42.740 Hmm. Was there any, uh, when, when you went to college, was there any hubris, you know, just,

00:26:49.740 just arrogance and pride of like, Hey, I'm a football player. I'm talented. I'm athletic.

00:26:55.960 Uh, I, I know what I'm doing and here you come and you got to tell me, I got to worry about these

00:26:59.720 things yet. I just want to go perform on the field. And if there was, did that hinder you at all?

00:27:05.120 No, I'll tell you what it did though, man. There was a lot of humility in the fact that

00:27:08.720 for the first time in my life, since I was seven years old, I had never missed the football seven.

00:27:12.840 So, you know, pop Warner all the way up to high school, never missed a football game. And it was my

00:27:18.100 academics that stopped me from playing. So you knew that. Oh, absolutely. My academics almost

00:27:26.000 because academically, I didn't give it all I had and have, have a better foundation almost cost me

00:27:32.280 my entire football career. Hmm. And there was a shit mode of humility in the fact of, I got to figure

00:27:40.020 this out. Like I'm just saying same way, you know, I talked about going to ESPN. I had to figure it 0.98

00:27:46.740 out because the ultimate goal for me. Yeah. I wanted to get my education and my mom was pushing

00:27:51.900 me and my family was pushing to get my education. But for me, the light at the end of the tunnel was

00:27:56.280 I needed to get back on that damn football field. Right. Like that's where it was, man. That's what 1.00

00:28:02.000 I wanted to taste. I wanted to play in front of 75,000 screaming fans. Uh, I didn't like just being a

00:28:08.300 student that first year on walking around. I just, I didn't feel right. And, and, you know,

00:28:12.720 part of me, man, is, you know, I hear a lot of different people and how they talk about identity

00:28:17.240 and who you are. Dude, when I was at age, I needed that identity. I needed to be that dog walking down

00:28:23.180 the tunnel. I needed that fight, man. If I didn't have that fight, then I would be on the street

00:28:27.120 or I'd be doing something that I shouldn't be doing. Right. So I needed to figure out a way to get

00:28:32.740 back on the field, keep me busy and allow me to compete at the highest level, whether I win or

00:28:38.940 lose, I needed to compete at the highest level. And, uh, so it drove me to get my grades, right.

00:28:44.240 I like you were talking about identity and that's, that's a term that I think can go either way,

00:28:49.160 positive or negative, but you're talking about deliberately choosing a healthy identity, which

00:28:54.320 is I'm athletic. I'm capable. Um, I I'm going to work hard and that drove you towards making good

00:29:01.700 decisions. There's a lot of identities out there that operate in the victimhood culture and we get

00:29:07.140 wrapped up in that. I don't think identity in and of itself is wrong or even team or even to a degree

00:29:12.660 tribalism to a degree, right. It can be taken to the extreme, but so many people talk about it in

00:29:18.120 the negative light. You're talking about it in the positive light. Yeah, man. I mean, I just felt like

00:29:22.300 I just knew who I was at that time and I knew what I needed to accomplish. I knew what I needed to,

00:29:27.080 where I needed to get to, to stay off the streets. My best friend, Ryan did 27 years in prison.

00:29:34.300 Best friend since I was a kindergartner named Keith Tucker did 27 years. Like if I didn't have

00:29:41.760 football, if I didn't have the people that were surrounding me, I mean, it's that close. I could

00:29:48.020 very easily could have been gone down that path, man. I could have easily, but football basic,

00:29:52.560 my family and football saved my life, man. That's what it is. How about your family? I know you

00:29:58.100 obviously are speaking highly of your, your mother, uh, and, and you said you had siblings,

00:30:03.080 right? As well. Yeah. My sister, seven years older than me, Monica, my brother, Randy, who just passed

00:30:08.840 away, uh, three and a half years ago, uh, was six years older than I, but I have a brother, Todd,

00:30:14.960 that's two years older than me. So they were instrumental, uh, in my life, man. I'm talking my,

00:30:21.080 while my mom was working, my sister was raising me. There's a reason why I was a Pittsburgh Steelers

00:30:26.320 fan instead of a cow. Like I'm looking at the Cowboys star behind me. When I was a kid, I was

00:30:29.620 the biggest Steelers fan ever. Cause my sister, seven years older me used to kick my ass and make 1.00

00:30:35.200 me watch the Steelers play. Like she raised, she absolutely raised me, man. So my family and my 0.99

00:30:42.120 family always told me the truth. Like, you know, I could have Ryan, I could have 15, I could have 15

00:30:48.480 tackles, two interceptions in a game, that one missed tackle. My brothers are calling me up like,

00:30:54.080 God, I can't believe you missed that damn time. You know, that's, that's what I grew up. I didn't 0.99

00:30:58.860 have an entourage. I had people that were just blatantly honest with me, which I think is,

00:31:05.620 I think it's the best man. When people are just critical of you and, and, and, and your friends,

00:31:10.220 you know, just. Yeah. I mean that the way I look at it is look, you could have critical people.

00:31:16.600 And if they're not your ally, that's a problem. But if you have critical people and you know,

00:31:20.760 they're on your side, that's actually what we need more of. Yeah. Yeah. Like a buddy Tyler who

00:31:25.840 just walked in the, I mean, my shit stinks all the time, like hands down. Like I go right back at 1.00

00:31:33.860 Tyler and Ben and all my other buddies, like it's, it's fair games, that locker room feel, man. If you

00:31:39.780 don't have thick skin, you've been around. If you ain't got thick skin, brother, they'll run your ass out 1.00

00:31:44.580 of there. So. Oh yeah. It's all good. Yeah. And then when you don't have thick skin and you show 1.00

00:31:49.080 just a little bit of weakness, that's what they exploit, man. They go all in on that. We're going

00:31:53.920 to shore that weakness up or we're going to break you. One of the two things is going to happen.

00:31:58.180 Yeah. But you can not show once you show like, Oh, you blink and they're like, Oh, got them.

00:32:03.280 Got them. Yeah. Now they're going, they're doing a deep dive on you.

00:32:06.620 All right, guys, let's hit the timeout button real quick on the conversation. I want to share

00:32:12.920 with you that I've been talking about the iron coat council, which is our exclusive brotherhood.

00:32:17.840 It is closed. We closed it up last week, but I've got a lot of questions about how to get signed up.

00:32:24.080 You can't right now cause it's closed. But the best thing that you can do is to sign up for our free

00:32:30.160 battle ready program. And the battle ready program is a series of emails that you're going to get

00:32:37.080 over 30 days that are going to teach you the same tools, the same principle, the same philosophy,

00:32:42.240 the same procedures that we use in the iron council to produce maximum results. The only

00:32:47.520 thing you're missing out on is the camaraderie and brotherhood and accountability and some of the

00:32:51.860 features inside the iron council. But we are going to open back up in the fall and the battle ready

00:32:56.000 program is going to get you ramped up and up to speed as quickly as possible so that when we open

00:33:00.900 up in the fall for the iron council, you're not going to miss a stride. So when you sign up, you can

00:33:06.020 go to order of man.com slash battle ready. You're going to get again, a series of emails. It's going to

00:33:11.720 give you the formula for success on any and all fronts. And you're going to learn my exact system

00:33:16.160 for accomplishing more in the next 90 days than maybe you have in the last nine months. So you can sign

00:33:24.960 up at order of man.com slash battle ready again, order of man.com slash battle ready. All right,

00:33:32.100 guys, for now, I'll get back to it with Darren. So NFL career ESPN, obviously you've got your

00:33:40.300 podcast and the things that you're doing now with real estate and some of these other things.

00:33:43.700 What does that transition begin to look like outside of the world of sports, which is so instrumental in

00:33:49.760 your life to now, not so much that just using those lessons from the field and transitioning

00:33:55.240 them into, into everyday life. Yeah. I just think I caught, I cut my teeth and understanding how,

00:34:00.800 what it felt like to work in playing sports, uh, whether it be in the NFL or, you know,

00:34:08.280 basketball, pick up basketball, whatever. I just, you know, I know what it feels like to have,

00:34:13.540 you know, first of all, I know it feels like to get your ass kicked and have to wake up on Monday 0.99

00:34:16.800 morning. It's like, it is the worst thing in the world. Right. Um, but you got to keep moving. 0.99

00:34:23.920 You got to take that next step. And it's the same thing in business. There's so many times when I got

00:34:29.020 into the real estate world that I was losing, we were losing, uh, RFPs. We were, you know, going up

00:34:38.820 against people I know I could win the business against and we lost it. Um, but you know, the one

00:34:44.540 thing about it is, man, you just got to take ownership in, Hey, maybe I'm not good enough.

00:34:48.860 Maybe they're not seeing, you know, seeing a side of me that, that allows them to build trust. So

00:34:53.680 what do I need to do? How do I need to educate myself? How do I need to build a team around me

00:34:58.940 that can lift me up, man? And, and, and that's what I've done, man. I've taken my losses and all

00:35:03.820 the negatives that have gone on and even the wins that I've taken place in my, my NFL career.

00:35:08.180 And I just applied them to, to, to, to the business world, man. And just understand that

00:35:12.980 you ain't gonna win them all, man. You're not, but there's some opportunities, man, where when

00:35:18.360 you do win them, there's some, you got to ring the bell, brother, you got to win. We got to ring

00:35:22.320 the bell and enjoy those wins. And, uh, you got to build a, uh, you know, great team. And I think

00:35:26.800 that's a great thing about playing NFL is taught me how to be a leader. And it's taught me how to build

00:35:33.020 a team. Cause I'm not, I can tell you right now with this, my real estate group, I am not the

00:35:39.480 smartest dude in the room, but I got smart people around me, man, that, uh, that hold my ass to the 0.98

00:35:44.860 fire. So, and I'm doing the same to them. Is that primarily what you do now? Is it, is it, 0.96

00:35:49.500 is it real estate? And did that transition directly from ESPN? And if not, like what,

00:35:54.180 what did that transition look like? Were there, were there other jobs? Were there other pursuits that

00:35:58.620 you're like, Oh man, this, this was good. This wasn't it. I hated that. And then you finally

00:36:03.380 landed on real estate or was it just as much as anything else? We always talk about people. I

00:36:08.300 think everything I've said today has always been someone who's been instrumental in my life,

00:36:12.820 right? And he's guided me in the right direction. Well, for me, it was my, my football agent. His

00:36:17.400 name is George Bass. He was the CF, but he was my agent, but he was a CFO for a, a retail real

00:36:24.580 estate firm here, commercial real estate firm here in Dallas. Roger Staubach used to come back.

00:36:30.980 12 used to come back into the locker room and talk to guys like myself and Emmett and everyone

00:36:36.340 else about life after football. And I just listened, man. I had the open ear to saying, okay, well,

00:36:42.660 you know, how does this work? And in this, in this Texas and specifically in Texas and specifically,

00:36:47.200 more specifically in Dallas, the commercial real estate game is strong. It's really strong. It's

00:36:52.640 competitive field. And, you know, I got a little taste of it while I was playing and trying to

00:36:58.080 understand what was going on. And once I got there, I said, okay, I'm going to go ahead and I'm

00:37:03.620 retiring. I'm going to ESPN, but I'm also going to get into, cause I had time in the off season to get

00:37:08.460 into real estate and really learn, uh, learn the game and surround myself with good people. So we

00:37:14.200 started, the firm started nine years before, or four years before I joined the firm, but there were

00:37:20.420 five partners who I knew in the area. Uh, I knew they had, they, they had, uh, you know, cut their

00:37:26.200 teeth for, for a number of years and I trusted them and I got involved and that's, and that was

00:37:31.960 our firm. So we started ESRP. This firm was called ESRP. We just got acquired and merged with a group

00:37:38.420 called Cressa. And we do office. If you're looking for office space, I'm your guy. You're looking for

00:37:43.760 industrial space. I'm your guy. That's what our team does.

00:37:46.820 Very cool, man. Yeah. I love those transition stories. I just know so many guys who are

00:37:52.400 either dissatisfied or even for whatever reason, can't, can no longer work in their current

00:37:58.520 profession. I go back to veterans, you know, maybe they're at that retirement age or they have some

00:38:03.860 sort of medical disqualification. And so they have to leave that profession and go do something else.

00:38:09.100 Yeah, man. I'm just telling you, I know. And you know, too, these transitions are just hard.

00:38:13.580 You know what, Ryan, I'm telling you, man, one of the hardest things,

00:38:16.420 and I, and I, and having some of my brothers who, who were, who served the country or country and

00:38:21.680 so many friends that, uh, that I have, look, I'm not, I will never compare sports to the military.

00:38:29.040 Just can't do it. I'm sorry, man. We look, I played a game. Like it was a game, but the similarity is

00:38:35.880 for all those years, I've been told when to show up, what to wear, how long you're going to be in the

00:38:44.160 building, what time to arrive at the stadium. Uh, I mean, from what color your socks are,

00:38:52.320 everything I've been told, and I've been on this is a work chart of, Hey, this is what you do.

00:38:58.660 This is who you are. They measure you in certain ways. They're always got video on you. They're

00:39:04.260 always, you know, critical of you. Not only are your coaches critical of you, the fans are critical

00:39:08.500 and you're used to being in this world. And then when it's done, you don't know where the hell to

00:39:16.000 go because now you don't there, you wake up in the morning and there's no one to tell you where to be.

00:39:20.500 Do I need to work out today? I mean, you mean, what do you mean? I don't have a guy over me. Yeah. I mean,

00:39:26.260 doing all my measurements of what now, Oh, I don't have my nutritionist is no longer a part of it.

00:39:32.540 You know, like you just don't have those things. So now it's like, okay, how do I reinvent myself

00:39:36.900 to, to set, you know, these, you know, either have an accountability partner or,

00:39:42.800 you know, set the next phase of my life. And you, you gotta find some structure in there, man. You

00:39:48.740 gotta grab, get ahold of people that, that are going to hold you to the fire. You got to figure

00:39:54.820 out who you are as a person. There's just so much that goes into that. And that's what,

00:39:58.320 that sucks about the transition is that, you know, you're alone for the first time in your life.

00:40:03.500 And that's, that can be scary. Yeah. That's a hard thing. I mean, you're at the, you're at the

00:40:09.100 local Kroger and you're number 10 out of the NFL. They don't know what the hell you are anymore.

00:40:13.820 Right. You ain't getting into the restaurants anymore, dude. You better come off your freaking

00:40:17.460 high horse. You're the regular ass dude. Yeah. That's right. You know, it's an ego shot at the 1.00

00:40:24.060 same time, man, but that's life, man. Yeah. I bet. How do you take all the success that you've

00:40:29.100 had throughout life and you have, you've been very successful, but I don't, I also don't want

00:40:32.700 to diminish the things that have not gone well either. Cause that's part of your story and part

00:40:36.300 of your life. But how do you take the things that you've done? And, and one of the things that we

00:40:40.860 talked about when we were communicating on, uh, when we were messaging back and forth is now turning

00:40:46.400 this around and realizing the importance of helping the next generation, right? Helping those youth,

00:40:53.320 those young men, young women behind us, who I actually think in a lot of ways aren't a good

00:41:00.440 position, but also in a lot of ways are in a, in a, in a, a worse environment in some ways.

00:41:07.200 Yeah. How do you take what you've learned and all the things that you've done and now transition

00:41:11.600 that and turn it around to the next generation? Look, man, I can tell you, I'm going to tell you a

00:41:16.620 real quick story, man, that really stayed with me for a long time. So when I was playing ball,

00:41:22.940 I used to, my church, local church here, I used to fund a program where the kids, they would,

00:41:29.040 they would put, put three buses together. Like I'm talking three bus, uh, school buses. And from

00:41:35.540 Dallas, they would drive those kids up to Washington, DC, and they would go and tour DC,

00:41:41.500 the entire DC area. And there were about 75 people all together, kids. And then they take moms or dads

00:41:48.100 or whoever the church is, but not right. Um, and I would fund it every single year for the church.

00:41:57.040 And about five years ago, I was in the, the Kroger right down the street from my house. I'm sorry,

00:42:03.840 Tom film. That's right down the street from my house. And I'm standing, I'm sitting in there,

00:42:06.920 man. I'm walking around this young, young black kid walks up to me. He says, Mr. Woodson. And I'm like,

00:42:12.160 yeah. And he says, Hey, uh, I want to thank you. I said, for what? And he says, well, about 15 years

00:42:21.020 ago, you supported the, the, the Washington DC trip for, for the church. And, um, I just wanted to

00:42:31.360 thank you, man, for that opportunity. And I'm like, oh man, that's cool, man. I'm glad you, but then

00:42:35.720 here's the ticker, man. Here's the one. So I said, so what are you doing? He says, well,

00:42:42.100 I went to Georgetown and now I'm an attorney in Maryland. He said, so I went to school based on

00:42:50.340 the fact that when I took that trip, I told my mom that I was going to go to Georgetown. I went to

00:42:54.400 Georgetown. Now I'm an attorney. I'm a patent attorney. And I'm like, see, that's it, man.

00:43:00.740 So that's amazing. No, no. I, you think, dude, there were tears like that. That's the joy,

00:43:06.600 right? That's the joy. And I want to pour into all these kids, man. And look, I made a ton of

00:43:12.700 mistakes. They're going to make a ton of mistakes. There's so much out there for these young men and

00:43:17.060 women today, man, of all colors. I'm not just a black, white, it's all colored social media,

00:43:21.640 trying to keep up with the Joneses. I mean, you're not invited to the party and because you're watching

00:43:27.840 all your friends on social media that are, I mean, there's just so much, so many different

00:43:31.660 dynamics that I didn't have to deal with as a child. But the one thing that doesn't change

00:43:36.200 is every day, man, if you're healthy, God willing, you can put your feet on the ground and you can walk. 0.98

00:43:43.980 Take the next step, but get your ass out of bed, take the next step. And that's the one thing that,

00:43:50.780 you know, if you, if God has blessed you enough and you have the opportunity to put your feet on the

00:43:56.580 ground and walk and get things done, like that's a win, man. That's the win. However you count it,

00:44:03.380 that's the win. And I'm trying to pour, you know, I do a lot of, we do, I'm doing a lot of affordable

00:44:07.820 housing right now in the Texas area. And we do social programming within, within our multifamily

00:44:14.540 units where we provide afterschool programming, financial literacy for, for the family. So many

00:44:20.460 things within the community that, that, that, that have inspired me to just keep on pushing.

00:44:27.760 And I just want to keep pushing these kids to education, these kids for an opportunity,

00:44:33.220 have experiences in life, like get out of your bubble, be uncomfortable and have these experiences,

00:44:39.360 man. And that's, you know, that's the joy to me, man. That's, that's where it's fun because I like to

00:44:43.840 see that happen and see it unfold for moms and dads and for those kids. How do you find programs and

00:44:51.140 things you want to be involved with, but then toe the line, at least one of the concerns I have is

00:44:57.020 it seems like the more you give to people, the more they expect, um, the more it might create even

00:45:03.900 a hindrance in their growth if they're just given things. So how do you find that balance or where you

00:45:10.560 should be contributing versus where you might actually be hindering and hurting somebody by

00:45:15.260 giving them something they didn't earn? Man, look, I'm, I'm big on experiences. You know, even I

00:45:20.860 have a, my charity is called C5 Texas here in, in Dallas. And we help, we mentor kids from seventh

00:45:26.340 grade all the way up to their senior year in high school. Uh, and they're mostly kids that are,

00:45:30.860 are in challenging circumstances. We go through the schools, we talk to the tutors, um, the counselors,

00:45:37.520 and we find out who are the kids that have leadership qualities about them, but just are

00:45:42.620 in challenging circumstances. And we bring those kids onto our program and try to give them guidance.

00:45:48.080 For me, it's about the experiences. Like I don't need to, you know, even when people say, well,

00:45:53.320 how can I donate? Yeah. How about you donate your time and talk to these kids about, you know,

00:46:00.140 a lot of these kids in these areas that grew up like me, mom or grandma, or whoever's raising them

00:46:05.480 41, 42 years old. Most of the time that's grandma, right? You know, uh, they're living in some really

00:46:13.200 bad situations. They don't go, they don't eat before school. You get to their, they're scrapping

00:46:18.100 every single day of their life. They're walking over drug traps. They're walking over the gangs.

00:46:23.820 They're walking over all these situations and they don't really have the foundation to be successful.

00:46:29.600 So I'm firmly about taking them out of that situation and giving them an experience. I don't

00:46:35.720 have to give them money, give them the experience of what it feels like to meet people who are real

00:46:42.640 professionals. I don't care if it's the landscaper. I don't care if it's a doctor, it could be a real

00:46:50.180 estate person, give them experiences outside of their bubble. And that's the key to me. Yeah. We can

00:46:57.140 talk about giving money. We can do this and that, but you give them good experiences, man goes a long

00:47:03.180 way because they'll never forget those experiences. I I've changed a lot of my thinking with, with

00:47:09.140 relation to this over the past several years. I, you know, I was thinking about prison reform and,

00:47:14.680 and, you know, how, how do we keep young men primarily out of prison? You know, that, that

00:47:20.240 rightfully should be there for a lot of reasons, you know, they're committing crimes and they're doing,

00:47:25.240 doing a not so good deeds, but like, how, how do we fix the problem? And do we just throw a bunch

00:47:32.100 of money at it? Like, I don't know if that's going to be the answer. Do we just let them out

00:47:36.060 and decriminalize certain behavior? I don't know if that's the answer, but I've come to the conclusion

00:47:40.120 for right or wrong. This is where I'm going with it is that they just, they just, they need education,

00:47:45.960 man. Like they need, and you're talking about it now is like experience. They need to see

00:47:51.100 life from a different perspective. They need to be introduced to something they haven't seen

00:47:56.620 before. They don't know is available. And, and I, I, I used to not be that way. I'm like,

00:48:02.140 just change. Just, just don't do that. It's like, well, that's easy for me to say,

00:48:06.280 because of the environment I grew up in, but they need a different experience. So I really

00:48:10.160 appreciate you bringing it from that perspective. Yeah, man. And you know, look, some of the smartest

00:48:15.600 people in this world are criminals, man. They're, they're, they're in prison. They're in prison

00:48:21.120 because they couldn't channel. They figured out, okay. Uh, you know, look, I've met guys in prison

00:48:27.940 and my, look, my, my uncles spent a lot of time, uh, incarcerated. Some of the smartest guys in the

00:48:34.680 world, they read, they don't know everything about it. Like best drug dealers in the world. They can count

00:48:38.880 backwards. Right. And if you can channel that from that game to a legit game,

00:48:46.240 whatever it is, and maybe it's in finance or whatever it is, these guys, they would excel,

00:48:50.920 but they just haven't had those experiences. So what have these guys done most of their lives?

00:48:54.720 And I've seen it. I've grew up in it. They don't have, they have zero foundation. Mom and dad are in,

00:49:01.860 aren't involved. There's, uh, zero stability. They find the closest thing to them where they can be

00:49:07.740 successful. What is that? That's usually gangs, drugs. That's usually quick money. Quick money

00:49:11.860 will get your ass in trouble at a young age. It just does because it sends you down a different 0.99

00:49:16.120 path. We get you in trouble at an old age too. Exactly. Exactly. But you know, it's, that's what

00:49:23.040 happened to my, my, my best buddy got into the drug game, which entails got him into the, the,

00:49:27.420 uh, involved with the Crips. And then here he goes. He's spot and he's sharp as hell, man.

00:49:33.100 Sharp as attack, but he knew how to make money, quick money. And then eventually got him in

00:49:37.420 trouble at an early age. And I think about, I'm like, man, turn these guys into entrepreneurs

00:49:41.960 and let them lose. Yes. You know, adding value instead of taking away from other people. I just

00:49:48.000 think they'd become unstoppable at that point because there's something inside of a lot of

00:49:51.460 these guys, like you're saying, where they get it. Like the IQ, the entrepreneurial IQ is there,

00:49:57.180 you know, the, the street IQ, the not knowledge, but the wisdom of how to put this into practical

00:50:02.140 application is there. And it's like, let's just direct that towards something productive as,

00:50:06.680 as opposed to something destructive. That's right. That's right, man. That's you're,

00:50:11.120 you're right on it. You're right on it. You said your, your organization is called C5 Texas. Is that

00:50:17.300 right? Yeah. C5 Texas, man. What is C5? C5 is our five pillars. We have five pillars and we call them

00:50:23.440 C5. So C5 was actually started by Coca-Cola years ago here in Texas. And, and they let the program go and

00:50:32.540 got a guy named Marty Turco, who was the goalie for the stars took over the program for a while

00:50:38.800 because he felt like, you know, he couldn't see these kids just fail. He, he, he needed to carry

00:50:43.260 it on. So Marty gave it over to a good friend of mine and moved on to, to a different chapter in

00:50:49.420 his life. But I got involved, man. And the first thing I did when I first, my first day of going to

00:50:55.720 go see a lot of the kids was I saw myself, man. I just saw myself because I grew up sort of the same

00:51:03.860 way in which I didn't experience, like I grew up in Phoenix, West side of Phoenix. I didn't know

00:51:08.860 where Scottsdale was until I got into college, Arizona state. I never saw Scottsdale until I was

00:51:15.220 in college. So like I lived in this little bubble and, you know, and I think that was a part of it that,

00:51:21.320 that for me was, look, how do we give them, you know, their freshman year in high school,

00:51:25.840 these same kids that live in West Dallas have never been out of their community.

00:51:29.280 How do we get them on the Texas A&M campus? How do we get them on university of Texas,

00:51:34.200 Louis LSU's campus so they can stay the night in a dorm and get the college experience that they

00:51:41.220 never, ever dreamed up. Right. It's just like the light bulbs come on like, oh, I can do this.

00:51:46.360 This is possible. Yes. This is possible. You just got to put that work in and we got to show

00:51:51.820 them how to get there, how to get there. So as you're, it's interesting as you're talking about

00:51:55.700 this, when I was in, I was in eighth grade, I played pop Warner football in Anaheim and the team

00:52:04.240 that I played with, I had just started two years earlier because my mom forced me to do it. I wanted

00:52:09.400 to play football like five years earlier and she wouldn't let me. And then five years later, she's like,

00:52:13.520 no, you're going to play football. And I'm like, I don't want to play football. She's like, 0.54

00:52:16.040 you don't have a choice now. So I went and played football for this team and I'd never played

00:52:20.380 before. And this was a team that had won all conference the last five years in a row. And

00:52:25.080 these guys just absolutely destroyed me for two years before I moved to Utah. But when we won

00:52:32.760 conference, we actually ended up having the opportunity in when I was in eighth grade to go

00:52:39.420 to Scottsdale and play a team in Scottsdale. So we have like a little minor connection there.

00:52:44.780 And so as you're talking about this, you not even knowing where Scottsdale is

00:52:48.260 versus me who in Southern California has an opportunity to get this, this amazing charter

00:52:54.940 bus and all the players in the, you know, the, the cute 10 cheerleaders came and the parents came

00:53:02.160 and they put us up in a hotel. And it's just those different experiences that can completely

00:53:08.360 transform our lives. If we have those opportunities and experiences.

00:53:12.040 Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you what, giving a kid, so man, that's awesome story, man. But

00:53:15.900 it'll put the kid on a plane for the first time. Yeah. Right. I can tell you the first time I got

00:53:21.600 on a plane, I was on an actual visit. First time I ever got on a plane, I was going on my college

00:53:26.620 visit and I was 18, 17 years old. First time I ever thought about getting on a plane. Right.

00:53:33.660 Right. Right. I mean, just the smallest little experiences, man, can just be eyeopening for a

00:53:41.480 child, especially, you know, those that are in that four, 13, 14, 15 year age area, man. And you

00:53:47.300 just give them dreams, man. Like this can be you. And we bring professionals in as well and have

00:53:53.500 professionals come in and talk to them. Hairstylists, whatever it is, man, doesn't have to be the drug

00:53:59.780 dealer. Doesn't have to be a football player coming out of school. You don't have to,

00:54:04.140 everybody doesn't have to play sports. There's so many other ways that you can be happy and be

00:54:08.900 passionate about whatever the profession is. You just got to see it. You got to be introduced.

00:54:13.620 Sometimes it's good to introduce them to them at a younger age.

00:54:17.960 What do you say to the guy who maybe is hearing this? And I'm trying to speak for the people who are

00:54:23.680 listening. And sometimes I hear, you know, well, that's easy. You know, you wanted to sponsor these

00:54:29.580 75 kids to go to DC. You have the financial means to do that. That's all fine and great.

00:54:35.120 I'm not in that position. So what do I do? What can I do to help out?

00:54:39.180 Show up. Show up. Look, man, I'm telling you, there's so many charities. We talked about this

00:54:45.100 on our podcast just recently with Ben and Tyler. There are so many charities that are out there and

00:54:52.360 foundations that are out there that need help. And it's not always, I'm telling you, it's not the

00:54:57.340 money. It's your time because once you're there and you see it, the emotions will take over, man.

00:55:04.700 I mean, if you got any part of you that's just morally, like you really want to make a difference, 0.97

00:55:11.240 just show up and the kids will light your ass up, man. They'll light you up and they'll guide you in 0.91

00:55:19.560 the right direction, man. But, you know, it doesn't have to be all your resources. I was blessed to have

00:55:24.900 the resource to do so, but it was my time as well. And speaking and talking and setting things up,

00:55:31.400 organizing, setting the chairs up, doing a little thing, set the chairs up, take them on. Hey,

00:55:36.200 right. Take them on a hunting trip, take them horseback. There's so many little things that

00:55:40.200 you can make a difference with. You just, and they're right there. They're like, they're right

00:55:43.840 there. There's no excuses. There are no excuses. If you really feel like you want to make a difference,

00:55:50.220 you can't. I think where so many guys get frustrated and I get frustrated with this is,

00:55:57.060 you know, you have a large following through your career, through social media, through what you're

00:56:01.240 doing now. I have a fairly large following through what I've been doing over the past seven years.

00:56:04.920 And so when I say something, it can make a greater impact than the majority potentially of people who

00:56:10.980 would say something. Right. And, and so they think, well, you know, who am I, or what can I do if I

00:56:16.700 can only help two kids or I can only help five kids. And it's very frustrating because

00:56:21.040 five's enough, two's enough, one's enough. You don't need to impact 1000 or 10,000 or a hundred

00:56:28.440 thousand people to make a difference, man. You just help that one kid or those three kids,

00:56:33.660 or even 10 kids that you're coaching their baseball team. And, and five of them change the

00:56:39.800 trajectory of their life because you took Tuesday and Thursday evening from six to eight o'clock at night

00:56:45.640 to teach them baseball. Come on now. Like that's enough.

00:56:49.940 That's enough, man. And I'm going to tell you another thing, man. It's like, it's called collateral.

00:56:53.920 Here's the collateral here. Take your kids, take your kids with you. Don't do it by yourself all the

00:57:03.660 time. Take your kids and watch your kids. No, I'm serious, man. Watch your kid. Watch my little

00:57:09.000 six-year-old when we're out at an event and he's around kids and he has all these, you know, he has

00:57:17.380 every book and the Nike shoes and all that. And he's watching these kids struggle or show up and they

00:57:23.880 don't have the basic little watch him. Like our kids need to experience this, man. And then we're

00:57:30.620 always like, I live in a neighborhood right now. My kids go to a private school, have gone to private

00:57:34.900 schools, but it's the experiences that they've had outside to say, Hey, I can actually make a

00:57:41.720 difference with my dad and go do this. And it's not, I don't even like, man, I didn't do a good

00:57:46.540 enough. I'll say, I'll tell you, man, I'll come straight out, right? My oldest two kids, I got a 27

00:57:52.280 year old and 25 year old. I didn't involve them enough. Now I'm a 21 year old. He was attached at the

00:58:00.480 hip. My six-year-old attached at the hip. My 21 year old right now will tell you, and he gets

00:58:06.940 involved on his own on charities because he's been there. Yeah. He gets it. It's up to us, man, to give

00:58:13.080 our kids those experiences. Yeah. They live in a bubble. Yeah. But it's up to us where their parents

00:58:17.820 take them with you and take them to meetings to business meetings. Like I had a meeting the other

00:58:23.920 day with a neighborhood. I'm not going to mention the neighborhood here locally, but it got a little

00:58:29.100 heated about the affordable housing project that I'm doing. Took my son with me. He needs to see his

00:58:34.600 dad get his ass kicked. What were some of those concerns? You're in jujitsu every day. Your son needs 1.00

00:58:40.480 to see your ass kicked. He needs to see it, you know? Speaking of that, one of my son's favorite 1.00

00:58:47.560 memories is I was training one morning. This was probably like six months ago with a good friend of

00:58:53.060 mine and he took my back in jujitsu and he choked me out and I didn't tap quick enough. And I passed

00:58:58.020 out. My son literally, he was so scared because I passed out and I was, I was shaking, you know,

00:59:04.760 and that's just what happens when you pass out. It's not, it's not a, it's not a very dangerous

00:59:08.360 situation, but I was like, my body was convulsing and he was so scared. He's intimately familiar

00:59:14.300 with seeing his dad get his ass kicked literally and figuratively, but you, you took it to another 0.99

00:59:19.580 level. Okay. Don't go. I'm suggesting you should traumatize your children. 0.99

00:59:27.840 Oh man. Yeah. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's wild. You said, uh, you were at this, this meeting

00:59:34.380 and it got a little heated. I'd love to hear more about that. What, what were some of the issues?

00:59:39.500 Cause you're trying to do a good thing and sometimes our intentions don't always align with

00:59:44.460 the results they produce, but I'm really curious about what the, what the tension was there.

00:59:50.260 Well, so I do a, you know, affordable housing here in Texas and, you know, we, we have to,

00:59:55.540 you know, go not only in front of, you know, city council, but in front of P and Z and in front of

01:00:00.940 the neighborhoods and where we're putting these residences. Right. So, uh, you know, and this is

01:00:06.480 a class A product, but the intention and what you always hear is affordable. Okay. Well, they're

01:00:11.720 going to bring the cops down in the neighborhood and there's going to be crime about BS. I mean,

01:00:16.600 it's just, is it? Oh, I mean, cause I look, I'll be honest. I, I ascribe to that a little bit. So

01:00:22.620 is that BS or is that legit? Well, look, we're, we're doing tax credit housing. We're doing

01:00:27.640 affordable housing. And in fact, uh, we're doing a class A product. It's a gated, uh, facility.

01:00:33.780 It's, you know, if you look at the housing market right now, it's ridiculous market rate

01:00:38.960 housing for a one bedroom is going to cost you 1800 to $2,000. So wild. So wild. Unbelievable.

01:00:46.140 So the same people that we're, we're giving this affordable housing at what one bedroom,

01:00:51.800 $600 a month that these are the same. They're the teachers. They're the retailers who are stocking

01:00:57.760 the shelves. There are first responders who are, who are single moms. I mean, these are a lot of,

01:01:03.760 a lot of our residents are just regular folks that are in the neighborhood. We have to do

01:01:08.300 extensive background checks, extensive background check. There's a difference between people always

01:01:15.580 say, well, section eight, affordable housing. No, no, no, man. Let's call it what it is. It's just

01:01:19.940 educating ourselves on what actually it is. And, you know, we're dealing with the problem right now.

01:01:27.480 I got to jump on this call here in a minute. I'm sorry, but I don't worry. We'll wrap it up. I,

01:01:31.480 I, this stuff's important. I want to hear it. Cause this gives me a new perspective too,

01:01:35.100 but we're in an issue right here in Frisco, Texas and prosper Texas where the city is booming and,

01:01:42.000 you know, population growth is what it is. They're having, people are having to drive up just for

01:01:46.880 retailers all the way from South Dallas, which is a 40 minute drive to come and, and, and work in

01:01:53.980 these little locations. And the, and the retailers are paying their toll tags to come up because they

01:01:58.460 don't want to put affordable housing in these areas. And these same kids are going to these schools

01:02:03.480 here in this area. Can't afford to live right here at your workforce. You're having them come 1.00

01:02:10.100 in 30, 40 minutes. That's to me, it's just like, Hey, you want to solve the issue? We have a housing

01:02:15.980 crisis right now. We need more density. Here it is. We have affordable housing right now. And let's

01:02:22.020 stop using that excuse of, well, crime and this and that, but dig into it, educate ourselves.

01:02:28.440 And we'll see that it's, you know, it's providing a great resource for, for first-time homeowners.

01:02:34.260 Darren, I appreciate you, brother. I really, I really admire you. I respect you. Um, I'm curious

01:02:39.480 about some more of these conversations. I think we could go longer and maybe we will at another

01:02:43.020 time. Let's do it. But man, just got to tell you your energy, your enthusiasm, the things that

01:02:48.160 you've created. And I, and I appreciate our friendship. So thanks for joining me. Just tell the

01:02:52.220 guys real briefly and I'll let you go where to connect with you. And then we'll sign out today.

01:02:55.460 So you can connect with me on one shot podcasts is myself, Tyler Klutz and Ben Gibbs. We do a

01:03:01.220 podcast, uh, weekly. You can find us on any platform, uh, uh, podcast platform. Uh, Darren

01:03:07.960 what's the 28 is my handle on Instagram, man. Uh, you know, I'm not one that, that, that does

01:03:12.680 a lot of, um, posting, but at the same time, man, I'd love to have a follow. And if you're

01:03:18.080 in the Dallas Fort Worth area, please reach out and come spend some time with C5, Texas.

01:03:23.080 Right on. Thank you. Appreciate you, man. We'll sync it all up for the guys to, to, uh,

01:03:27.420 connect with you. Thank you, man.

01:03:28.800 Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it, brother.

01:03:31.600 Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with Darren Woodson, as always, I hope you enjoyed

01:03:35.620 the conversation. Uh, very enlightening for me. He's just got a great attitude, a great

01:03:40.280 spirit about him. I always enjoy our conversations and, uh, he's just a positive, encouraging person

01:03:46.500 to talk with. I hope that's what you got from it. Uh, do me a favor, connect with him on Instagram

01:03:51.540 and Twitter. He's active over there. Uh, take a screenshot of the show. Let him know that

01:03:56.280 you heard him on the order of man podcast, share this with your friends, screenshot it,

01:03:59.780 tag me. I'll share it on my end that you, uh, had made a story or a post on Instagram

01:04:04.780 and we'll get the message out about Darren and about reclaiming and restoring masculinity

01:04:09.440 in this much needed environment that we find ourselves in. In the meantime, go to battle

01:04:15.200 ready, uh, for our program, order of man.com slash battle ready and check out origin USA,

01:04:20.980 their kilo hoodie, which released and dropped July 1st and use the code order O R D E R at

01:04:27.100 checkout. All right, guys, those are your marching orders. That's all I've got for you

01:04:30.660 today. We'll be back tomorrow for our, ask me anything until then go out there, take action

01:04:35.300 and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

01:04:40.660 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

01:04:44.460 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - July 05, 2022

DARREN WOODSON ｜ If You Want It, Earn It

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