Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, it's Ricky Chavez, Battle ready. The process of reinventing yourself, you know, in everybody's lives, no matter what you've done, where you've been, whether you're, you know, coming up in education or you actually out in the corporate world, or even professional athletes, there's a lot of things that you're faced with constantly and challenges. And it's not what happens to you, it's just kind of how you react and what you do with it, you know? Today I have the honor of introducing a guest. Man, he's got what an amazing life that this guy's had. You know, he played professional football, now he's big into finances and helping athletes getting their stuff together so that they aren't statistic. Right? So I'd like to introduce Tony the Tycoon Hill. I used to play with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has a Super bowl ring, and I always love to say that. Hey, Tony, welcome.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Hey, hey, hey, man. Appreciate you, Ricky. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: No worries, no worries. And listen, I know we've been having a few conversations, and I can remember, man, it was about five, six years ago, maybe seven years ago, where we initially met down here in Houston.
You're still trying to figure out, okay, now what I'm going to do, what direction are we going? But, you know, one of the stories that, that you talked to me about was your senior year of high school. It was in the semifinals, where you had that accident, you know, where you weren't sure where your football career was going to go after that. You want to talk about that a little bit?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. You know, starting. Well, first and foremost, thank you for having me on the show, man. And always, you know, I always say, man, thank you for your service. Know, I think people need to know that about you, man.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Oh, thank you, man.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: You are a living legend in your own right, sir. So I want to make sure that I say that. But, man, 2003, that. That was a roller coaster ride, right? I was the number one tight end in the state of Texas. I was the number five player in the entire country.
Everything was looking up, having a great season. Our team was moving in the right direction. We really felt like that year was the year that it all came together. We had been building up to that point. And so we get to. We beat all our rivals. If anybody knows anything about high school ball, back in the early 2000, Eisenhower, Katie and North Shore, those were the teams. If you wanted to go, you had to get through those teams, and we did in one season We. We knocked them all off. And so we had built up that confidence. We get to the semifinal game, and that day was just kind of weird, right? Right.
I didn't get much sleep because I had to travel to a. Some small country town, I forgot the name of it, to take a SAT so that I could get into college. University of Texas, which is behind me now. So I had. I did that and then hopped on the bus and rolled with the team there. And so I had a. A shoulder injury prior to.
And it was bothering me a little bit, so I. I ended up taking some medicine, and the medicine made me a little woozy. But, you know, of course you're not going to tell the coaches you're not feeling good when you got a. You're a game away from state. You know what I mean? Like, you're not. You're not going to do anything that not allows you to play in that game. And so we get there, it's going good, we're winning, we're up.
And then in the second quarter, man, I catch a routine pass. I'll never forget to play to this day.
236 Tiger, right? I shake the linebacker, come across the middle. I'm open, catch the ball. A linebacker comes from the back side, jumps on me, kind of cowboy rolls my leg, wraps his leg around mine. And then the corner from the boundary closest to the sideline comes, and he hits me right in my knee.
And so I go down. I'm in pain. I'm hollering, I'm screaming, trying to figure out what's going on. The trainers come out, they work on me. They're like, well, look, man, you're not going to be able to go back out there, and we probably need to get you to the hospital so we can get MRIs.
And at that time, you know, I've always been this way. I felt like by me doing that, I would be leaving my teammates behind, and I just wasn't going to do it. So I told them, I'm not leaving until the game is over. And so that's what I did. And then when we got there, Rick, I got some of the most devastating news in my life.
They told me that I tore every hell in my body. LCL, PCL, MCL, ElementOp. If it had an L in it, it was gone.
Yeah. And so. But from there, that I. I got what was called droplet. It was where the perennial nerve wasn't firing, so my foot would just hang like this, and I couldn't elevate it. And Move it up and down. And so that began the process of me being disabled for about six months.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Man. I know that was pretty emotional. What was going through your head at that time? I know you're young, 18 year old, you know, you're, your dreams are right there on the, on the, on the edge. What, what's the thoughts, man?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: You know, I'm not gonna lie, man, I was in a little bit of a depression.
You know, you go from being this, you know, being invincible, you know, everybody telling you how great you are. You have scholarships from all over the country and once that injury happened and people perceived that I wouldn't play ball anymore, a lot of my scholarships started being pulled, you know. So you have that happening.
Yeah, you don't know what your future is going to look like, but. And I had a praying mother and I rode her faith until I became, you know, strong in my faith and you know, through the glory of God and some great, you know, doctors, man, I was able to come back. But to answer that question, you know, concisely, fear, you know, uncertainty, doubt, indecision about my life, like it was a whole bunch of things that's happening. And I'm 18, you know, this is, I mean there's adults that don't even have to deal with something like this. So how does the 18 year old deal with that? I, I, after, you know, so long, I just decided I was going to fight my way through it and put my faith in God. So that's how we got through it.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: But it was some dark times I can only imagine. And, and you know what, and this is going to segue to, you know, like you said, a young 18 year old. And, and I'm going to assume, and you said somewhere else you were, you felt invincible. I mean, how young people, they feel invincible, right? Take on the world. But I guess the question is, what was your, did you have an idea of what would happen if you couldn't play ball?
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Did you?
[00:06:30] Speaker A: I mean, I'm sure there was doctors saying, you know, some positive and some, some reality stuff you were lucky enough to take you to take a positive way. But what would you tell the athlete today, the young, young 18 year old, Anthony? Amen. What other things should you be thinking about?
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, well, what I would tell him at that time, just, you know, hindsight is to keep the faith because just because you believe your story is one way doesn't mean that that's the way that God has written. Right? So this is a, this is a, this is an adverse Situation, in this situation is to strengthen you, not to break you. So just keep moving forward, you know, do the things that you can do and control the things that you can control and let God do the rest. And that's literally what I would tell them.
Now, to answer the question about what would I do after?
It's, it's interesting because at that particular age, you know, you don't know. You got an idea? Just. I'm a ball player. Right, right.
But I'm appreciative of all that I went through then because it's led me to what I do now. And those experiences are the reason why I do what I do now. So I, I think that I would end up here in the, in the finance space. And I know we'll get into that a little later, but sure, sure.
I think that that's what I would do. And I still had a scholarship from Texas. Shout out to Matt Brown. I gotta always give him credo, man, because he told me this and, and he showed it. He said, look, Tony, we don't know what's going to happen with you with the injury, but what I do know is we didn't just recruit you because of the athlete you are, we recruited you because the man that you are. So if you want to come to the University of Texas, we have a full scholarship waiting for you. So I was going to go there regardless. And that's, you know, a shout out to him and him being a man of his word and his commitment to me, so. So I would have ended up there regardless. But I'm glad it went the way that it did.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: No, me too. You know. You know, I'm real proud of the things you accomplished, not only in college, because I'll be brutally honest, man, you know, I didn't know much about Texas, but I have a guy on my team, Garrett. I think his blood's orange. I don't even think it's red. He's just all about University of Texas. And when I told him that I was meeting with you today, I mean, I can't even tell you that, you know, how proud he is of you and your accomplishments at ut, but bringing us back, right?
And, you know, today there's a lot of kids graduating from, from high school every day, trying to figure out what, what they want to do, what would, what would be some resources that they would look for, you know, to get their mind maybe to kind of soft path it to a, to a successful life.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I would tell young kids today to, to try everything because the thing that you have to gain is experience.
And then once you have an idea of what you believe you want to do, dive into it, be curious about everything and learn every day.
And so when you talk about resources, for me, the number one resources are always going to be the good book and not from a religious standpoint. It literally has the answers to the test of life in there, right? So whether it's about business, whether it's about spirituality or faith, whether it's about how you deal with friendships, whether it's about how you deal with, you know, the way that you feel internally, right?
It has the answers to the test. So, so, so dive into that and then dive into other aspects of life, man. Find different curiosities that you, you, you, you know, you have. I think one of the things that happens, Rick, is we lose that curiosity over time because we believe the things that the world is telling us. But when we were kids, man, we wanted to go to the moon and ride dinosaurs, like, have that same creativity, have that same curiosity about life. And then once you start to develop skill sets and master skill sets, figure out what you're proficient at, and then the thing that's always inside of you, that's like, man, I gotta do this thing. Like, I would do it even if it wasn't any money involved. That thing is called a calling. And at the intersection of proficiency and calling is purpose. And once you identify that and dive.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Into it, you know, I, I totally agree with that. I think that you have to do what you love, because when you do what you love, you really never work, right?
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: And. And so I, I'm really, I'm really glad that you brought those things up because, you know, as a host, I can make conversation and talk about things that my thoughts are, but hearing from an individual like yourself, you know, is proven you've done real well. You had some forks in the road and you chose the right ones, but during that path, have you ever maybe chose a fork and then had to double back and go the other way?
I see you laughing about that, huh?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, man.
You know, because that's a part of the human life experience, right?
You believe that you should be walking in a particular space. You walk that road, and then you find out it's not. It's not for you. And I think, you know, I give a lot of credit to individuals that feel. Figure that out early, because what happens a lot of times when you talk to people that have lived life for a while, they wait to the end, right? 50, 55, years old to where they start making a change and doing something that they're truly passionate about.
And a lot of that is out of fear because maybe we have a family. We have to take care of the responsibilities, and this particular thing takes care of that. So you give the most important thing that you have time, right. To an entity that you don't even truly care about because it takes care of a particular need. When in actuality, if you would have the faith within yourself that going after that thing that you truly desire to have would be worth the hardship, the heartache and the uncertainty. Right. If you would have faith in that, then you would still accomplish the same goal, but you'd be much happier. So for people that can identify early that this isn't for me, and they can turn around and go really find that thing that they've been designed by God to purpose to do, man, that that's the key to life to me.
You know what?
[00:13:06] Speaker A: I feel like you said something to me right there. Exactly.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: You.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: So. And you threw out that number 55, right? Because.
And we've talked before. So, you know, I was in the army for 20 years. I retired at 39. I went to corporate America, and I finally found my calling, so to speak, at 55 out here in the real estate industry. Right. Something that I love, you know, helping people. And I think that was right. Right when we met, right around that same time. So it's funny that you just threw that number out. I'm like, I felt like, dang, that just got me, you know, that was. That was me. And had I always tell everybody, had I known back then, like when I retired, even at 39, but I know now, I mean, I'm not sure what I would be doing. I might not even be doing anything, to be brutally honest, but I'd be doing that well, at least. Right.
I know we're getting close to time now.
Tony, it's been a pleasure talking to you. I know we're going to keep moving on through this. I know we're getting ready to go into a commercial break. But listen, I really appreciate you coming on show and spending some of your valuable time with us and. And your insight. And we're going to continue, you know, going into your mind finding out what's going on. It was taking Tony the Tycoon to writing the book that he wrote. All right, I appreciate you.
All right, guys, thanks a lot for joining us today at Battle Ready. We're getting ready to go into a commercial right here. We'll be back right in the next few. And we'll be back with Tony Tycoon talk to you.
Hi, everybody, it's Ricky Chavez with Battle Ready. It's the process of reinventing yourself in everyday life. Things happen to us. You know, situations come about and it's how you react and handle those situations which makes the difference. Not necessarily the situation itself, but the action and the results of those actions. You know, Once again, I have Tony that tycoon on, on the show with us. The gentleman wrote a book about what to do when you're done. It's a book for athletes that are in the, in the pro ranks and that once they leave, what do they do and you know, how to navigate it. Tony will talk about that in one of our shows coming up. But Tony, welcome to the show.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Hey, Rick, thanks for having me, brother.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Hey, and, and earlier in our show, one of our other shows, we talked about the, the trials and tribulations you went through as a young high school athlete getting hurt and, and the faith you put into getting back on track and the luck that you had that the University of Texas kept their word, took you in, kept you going. You know, you told me you, that you gray shirted the first year. Right. But then he became a force to be reckoned with. Right.
You know, moving on through the ranks. And we were also talking about some of the things that, that you do now, you know, that throughout your years that you've learned. And as far as network, let's talk a little bit about networking, you know, to get you where you're at now. Talk about that in the group you have.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I believe it was Napoleon Hill that said you are where you are and what you are because of your, your deeds, your thoughts, your actions. Right. And so what I understand is that, and we've had this conversation before, Rick, is that, you know, it's not about money, it's about people. People are your currency. And a lot of times, you know, you've heard the whole, the old proverb, you know, your network is your net worth. Right. But I think it's more than that. I think especially for us, if we're talking about men, we are the sum of the men that we have around us, right? Because we take a little bit, we take some of something from all of them. Right. And it creates our beliefs and our thought processes. And so networking is, is extremely important.
And that's where the Origin Network, the company that I co founded with my partner Bob, that's where that came from. Just that understanding of being able to Deal with people of. With high value, influence, more high moral character. We get to pick who we want in our lives, and that particular entity allows us to do that at a high level.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: You know, I know we talked about this before also, and the thing about networking, a lot of people don't find value in networking. And I love that it's coming from you, an individual that's been successful. And I try to tell my team this all the time. You know, everybody looks for that instant gratification. Right. But the reality is, networking is to meet people that might know people that need to know you, but all the while connecting people with others for their own benefits. You talked about that book the Go Giver, right?
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. That's what it's about, man. And if people have not read that book, they should, because it starts out with a young man that's working at a particular. Particular call center. And, you know, he's wanted to close this big deal. And so the guy.
Yeah, he takes him on this journey and he comes to find out how. I mean, I'm getting goosebumps about this book. How all the people that he meet is interconnected some way somehow. And it all starts with the individual that he's trying to close. And so now when he gets his opportunity to either be selfish like he started out at the beginning, or to be able to do something from someone, for someone else, he decides to do something from someone else. And then that reciprocity is shown in. The deal is closed. And so that's. That's life, man. Like the good book says, the greatest among you will be your servant. Right? And so we were put on this earth to. To please God and serve people and serve your people, the people that he's designed for you and purpose for you to be able to. To help. And so if we come with that mentality in all things, eventually everything that we want, we're going to get because God knows he can trust us with it. And so that's a great book. And that's the way that I, you know, that I'm pursuing to live my life. We're. We're humans, Rick. We have selfish tendencies.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Identify when we're moving in that space and backtrack from it and stay in the space of giving and service. You know, we'll get to where we want to go.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: No, I. I totally agree. I think that it's funny. My wife, she tells me all the time, I feel like. She says, you feel like you always gonna try. You're trying to take over. You're trying to help the world, you know, And I'm like, I was lucky in my life, things that I did, places I went, you know, decisions that may not been the greatest at the time that I move forward with, but I was lucky to have people in my life that helped pick me up and do and guide me.
And I think that our conversation earlier, you know, when you were, you know, hurt, laid up, and the doctors were talking to you, but you talked about that coach that still told you, regardless, you had a place with him, and that was at University of Texas. And those are just very uplifting, you know, opportunities. I think that it's very important that people don't know their own value, you know, and the thing about that is there's somebody out there that needs your insight, your help. And it's. I think it's our responsibility to help everybody that we can, no matter what it's with or what it's for.
How do you feel about that?
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of a story where dad gave his daughter, like, a 1967 Chevy Seville. And, well, it might have been a Cadillac, one of the two, but either way, the car doesn't matter. It's the point of the story. He told her to go out and sell it, and so she went to her friends. Her friends didn't want to buy it. He told her. He told her, all right, cool. Well, go to. Go to the man around the corner who runs the grocery store, see if he wants to buy it.
He went over there, he asked for, like, 1200. He paid 1200 for it? Said, he gave me 1200. He said, all right, I'll tell you what, take it to this other guy. He runs a car show. He went over there and said, well, what? So she came back and she was excited. He said, what did he say? He said, he'll buy it for $15,000. And he told her, he said, listen, your value is not determined. Your value is determined by the area of where you are, right. Not by what people say about you. And that makes sense. Right? Basically, what he's saying is you have to be in spaces to where people can see and identify how valuable you are and vice versa. And then you'll move in spaces together and do great things. If you're in places to where people don't value you, right, Then it's going to be hard to get things done because they're never going to be able to see the light that's inside you. So I. I definitely believe, not only identifying your own value, but Identifying where your value is appreciated are key components to moving forward in life.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: I totally agree with that. And I think one of the things that I've noticed and as long as we've known each other, anytime you call me, I pick up the phone. Anytime I call you, you pick up the phone. And sometimes it's just say, what's going on? How you doing? And doing just a check.
And I think people have gotten away from that. You know, they, it's all about timing. You don't never know what's going on in somebody's life. And, and those check ins, I mean, they've always been important to me. There's, they, you know, I've caught people in my life that I just out of the blue hit them on that day and they're like, man, I needed that call. Have you ever experienced that?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, all the time.
You know, life can be tough sometimes and, and you know, that's the reason why we're not supposed to go through this world alone. And so back to that go giver standpoint. What I've come to realize, and I learned a lot of this, believe it or not, through sales, right, is when I wasn't getting the type of sales that I wanted, I started helping other people around me.
And all of a sudden sales started coming. And so what I realized is that, that when you start looking and thinking outside of yourself, then the problems that you perceive to be massive, you start to realize they're, they're not as massive as you thought. Right. So I'll give you an example. You got somebody that might not be able to pay the light bill, right. That could be very strenuous on their mentality. But then that particular individual goes to a cancer war and sees five and six year olds fighting for their lives. In the grand scheme of things, it's not as crucial as you thought it was. So what I'm talking about here, Rick, is perspective. Sure. And when you're, when you're helping other people and you see what other people are going through, you appreciate the things that you're going through and understand that you have the capability and the ability to get through anything. So let's focus on helping other people. Because you never know by helping those individuals how they help you in the end.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: No, I totally agree on that. I know that I've had conversations with some of the people in my career field now and I go to events sometimes where other salespeople that do the same thing I do, other realtors are at, and I get asked sometimes why do you go there? Why don't you just go there to meet people, you know, let them know me, I know them. Because we never know when we together will combine our partners, partner on helping our buyers and sellers, you know, navigate the real estate market and sell their home or buy a home and the, the better relationships you have with the others, it's just beneficial to everybody else.
I will say my biggest deal ever was from a. Another realtor and, and it was a newer realtor. And she said, hey, Ricky, man, I, I just, I trust you. I see how you do business and man, why don't you help this guy and help work with me? And I was blown away at that. So I know that when you right now and the things you do right now, you just give a lot, and that's amazing. So I know we're coming down to the last minute. Let me ask you one more question before we go to into break.
What is the biggest struggle that you've had and how did you handle it?
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Oh, man.
Well, jumping into personal. I love to be transparent. The biggest struggle that I've ever had is seeing my son in the hospital tied up to tubes. He suffers from sickle cell. Oh, wow. And so that was the biggest struggle, but it taught me the most valuable lesson.
And it's a lesson that I needed to learn. And I'll give you a quick rundown on why I needed to learn that. Like, you come out of the injury, you go to Texas, everything goes well, you're winning championships, you become a starter, you're an all American, you're. You're a Walter Kemp finalist, you're Outland trophy finalist, you're getting drafted, you're playing the league. All of this type of stuff is happening, right? And you just feel like, man, I'm really doing it right? I'm doing this. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm right. I got the power to do whatever I want.
That was the first time I was rendered pound this rookie.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Oh, man, I couldn't even imagine that the second time.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: But that time was different because I'm looking at, I'm looking at my seat, and there's nothing that I can do to help him as a father.
But what it taught me is surrender.
And so for me, I surrender things to God. Like I'm, I'm nothing without him. I. I can lift all the weights in the world. It doesn't matter. I cannot do anything without him, him and nobody around me that I truly love and care about.
I can Truly help without him. And so for me, that lesson taught me the importance of surrender, but it also showed me the strength and the power of words, because me implementing the words of. Of. Of strength to my child, he exudes that now. And he's only 12 years old. Right. And so I learned a lot from him, probably more than I learned from people, you know, twice his age, three times his age. Right. And so that's the thing that. That was the biggest challenge, but it was also the best blessing.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Well, I tell you, surrender is an amazing way for us to move into the next segment. Man, it's been great talking to you. You know, we're getting ready to go, everybody. We're getting ready to go into a commercial right past, and we'll see.
Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Battle Ready, the process of reinventing yourself. In one of our earlier segments, we talked to Tony Hill, the individual that has an amazing background. He played for the NFL, and now he's with an alliance that helps athletes.
So welcome Tony Hill back to the show. Hey, Tony, how you doing?
[00:28:13] Speaker B: Hey, Rick. How you doing, brother? Thank you for having me again.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Hey, so in our last segment, we talked a little bit about, you know, the challenges you had as at your senior year when you got hurt, a lot of your scholarships went away and you weren't really sure where you were going. And lucky for you, the coach from UT stayed ground with you and kept. Kept folks with you and. And helped you get back to ut. Is that right? Is that how it happened?
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, so I had a pretty bad injury and left me paralyzed for about six months. And during that time, I was one of the top ranked tight ends in the state of Texas. I was the number one tight end, actually, in the state of Texas, and one of the top seven players in the entire country.
And so I was recruited by every school, every B1 school that you could imagine, except the University of Houston, which I found pretty awkward because I was right there in their own backyard.
Right? Yeah. After that injury, a lot of the schools started pulling their scholarship because they had caught wind that I might not play football. And, you know, that's why they want to be there. And so everybody but Coach Brown, Coach Brown says that, hey, look, Tony, we understand the medical situation, and if you play a game, great. But we didn't recruit you just because of the athlete that you are. We recruited you because the man that you are. And if you want to come to the University of Texas, we have a scholarship waiting on you. And so, because of his commitment to his word, it gave me the opportunity and, man, the rest is history. I was able to go there and do some pretty phenomenal things and win some championships and create a legacy.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: So when you first got there, though, it wasn't business as usual. You, you were gray shirt, right?
[00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it wasn't business as usual at all. So gray shirting, for those that might not know, is I was scheduled to come in of the fall of 2003. That would have been my class, but instead, because of the injury, took six months off and I came in in the spring of 2004.
So that ended up being my class, I guess.
And so.
So, yeah, but that time that I took off, I was able to heal. I was able to get back to, you know, calibre athlete that I wanted to be. And the medical staff did an amazing job with some of the new technologies that were coming out at that particular time. So it ended up being, it ended up working out for me.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: So then, I mean, you were probably chomping at the bit, wanting to play, but you know, you were trying to get, health wise, get right. How did that help? How did that affect you, you know, emotionally in your head?
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I think once. So Mad Dog Jeff Madden was the strength coach of Texas and he said, listen, if you get 10 yards, I make you a play. And what he was talking about was me moving to offensive line from tight end. And so I told him I go 12.
And so with that, man, once I started getting feeling back in my leg, once I was able to run again and start training it, that part of it became business as usual because I've always been into working out. Sure. So now, now you're able to get back to being a little. You're starting to see flashes of the player that you work and that becomes exciting because. Right. You're looking at it from a foundational standpoint. It's like, man, here's where they said they wanted me to be. Here's where I met.
If I continue on this route, I'm gonna go fat, I'm gonna go higher than even what I expected. And so that drive pushed me to, to want to come back and to want to, you know, be out there with my guys, man. I mean, that's really what it's about too. Just want to be out there, what you guys are contributing.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Okay, so then you make it through all the way to your senior year and, and you did some phenomenal things there. Talk to me about the NFL, man. You know, the draft where you thought you were going, what was going on, you know, the emotional roller coaster of that.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, again, man, my life, as I look at it, has always been about overcoming adversity. And I don't know what it is about this left leg and senior years, but my senior year in high school, I got hurt, and then my senior in college, I broke my ankle. So, you know, you're taking these trips, you're hearing all of these particular things about teams that love you. They watch the tape, you're not worried about it, you know, your injury, you're gonna be fine.
You know, I even had a team tell me exactly where they were going to draft me, right? That didn't happen.
Oh, yeah.
But. But draft day, I was at home with my family.
And, you know, you're sitting on the couch the first two rounds, you're hopeful. You're like. But, like, I look at the first round, I'm like, I'm probably not gonna sneak up in there, right? But that second round, there's a possibility third round got there, I'm sitting up, ears pointed because I'm like, okay, well, this is where, you know, the team that told me they were gonna draft me, here's where they're picking. And so you look for the pick you get. You. You. You see all other teams getting drafted. You see all the players getting drafted. You see the teams. The team that you talk to is on the clock, and you're like, all right. You just. You're holding your phone, right? Because you're like, I gotta. I'm gonna get a call. I'm gonna get a call, and the pick is in. I don't get a call, and I'm not drafted at that spot. So now I'm like, oh, snap. I don't know what's going on, right? And at that particular time, they were doing the draft days and segments.
So that was day one. You come back day two, and now you're just sitting there hearing all the names, and you don't know what's in expect. But then finally, in the fourth round, with the 130th pick traded by the New York Giants to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tony Hills, tackled out of University of Texas, is drafted.
Best thing that ever happened for a couple of reasons. One, that's where my super bowl came from, right? Two, I got to play with my. My college roommate.
We got drafted the same year on the same team. He went two rounds ahead of me. So we walked in together, we won together, and. And so we had won a national title together, and we won the Super Bowl Championship together.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: So it all worked out okay. Okay, so that's good. So now you had all these great things.
You're at your last NFL team.
You're getting ready to try to figure out, do I try another year or do I go ahead and retire now? What's going on in your head?
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I. So my last team was with the Lions, and I had kind of felt that entire year that was going into year 10. And I kind of felt that entire year, man, like I'm just going through the motions, right? They wanted. I was at that time, when they signed me, I was probably like 3:28. They wanted me to get down to like 3:10. I got down. The weight was easy because I work out. And so I came back in shape, did all the tests. I was killing the test. I was running with the line battery, man, I could run for days. I was in great shape. But mentally, I just knew that I just didn't want to do it anymore. I was checked out. And I think a lot of it had to do with my children missing out on their lives, missing out on them growing up.
You know, just the love of the game wasn't there anymore.
And so I was appreciative of the game and respectful of the game enough to say, you know what? I'm not going to go in. And, you know, part of my French, but half asset. I just can't do that. I can't do that. And it gave me so much opportunity, so I was able to walk away on my own terms, which, you know, is a big thing for an athlete because a lot of times their careers are cut abruptly and I got the tools. When I got to walk away, it.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Probably was still pretty scary. Even though you went on your own terms, what's next?
Right?
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
And it was because, you don't know, you start doing a whole bunch of things, reading about a whole bunch of things. But I will say this, Rick. Through that transition period was how I was able to gain certain experiences that allowed me to write a book to help athletes that day, what to do when it's done, Navigating life after the game. That book and those experiences I put into that book to be able to help athletes, because I. I'm using real life experiences of things that have worked for. For me from an athlete's perspective on what it takes to get to the next level here in the real world. Because we're not playing in the real world in sports, I can promise you that.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: But I'll say this. I Can only imagine, you know, even. Even in corporate America or anybody else, even the military, no matter where you are at, as it comes to an end, it's what's on the other side. You know, the, the, the lack of knowledge, the.
Like, I was in the military, I really didn't experience the civilian world very much. And then I'm not. Now I'm gonna be out in it. I mean, you're in your own aspect of the economy, your own little sports. Military, as better way to put it. And now what comes after that, that door opens.
You know, I had conversations from people that were positive, negative. I had everybody in my ears.
What about you?
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was the same thing. But I realized, I realized very quickly that my mind, my faith and my thought process moves a lot differently than most people. And what I've come to understand just by, you know, with being the trustee of the Athlete alliance found, being the CEO and founder of Stat Financial, being the founder of Origin Network, all of these different things, men's monthly meetups of we do out here in Dallas, like, there's a lot of things that I'm plugged into. I've come to understand that the learning happens in the doing. Most people fear the unknown because they want to control the outcome. But when you relinquish control and you just understand that, you know what this. I'm going on the exploration and I'm. And I have. And I'm going to set an expectation that I'm going to find something amazing. I'm going to find exactly what it is that I'm looking for and it's going to work exactly how I want it to work. Work. That's the, that's the expectation that you set. Because what's the, what is the. The counter to that? To think negatively. That doesn't help anything and it doesn't help anybody. So as long as you stay in a positive space, set the expectation of. Of success and then just know that there's going to be es and flows and ups and downs that come with it. But all of these are just learning experiences. As long as you're not scared of the learning experiences, you're going to find success. Success. And I think that the more that you do it, it's like working out a muscle. The more that you do it, the better that you get at it.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: So it's also.
In one of our shows we talked about, it's not what happens to you is how you react to that. Right?
What. What you do and what the results of that are. So I really appreciate that.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: 1.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Leave one more message. What, what you want to share?
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I think going back to what I said, man, the learning is in the doing. Don't fear the unknown. Right.
A lot of one of the things that old person told me, and I always say old person because I respect your wisdom.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Appreciate that.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: But what he said was, hey, young buck, you want to know the wealthiest place in the world? I was like, yeah, I do, actually.
I think I want to go there. He's like, no, you don't. Said it's the graveyard because that's what many people have died and never lived out, their dreams. He said, don't let that be you.
So I would tell people that don't, don't go to the graveyard with your dream not being fulfilled. At least go after it, because when that time does come, you will be able to go to the resting place knowing that you did everything that you could to obtain it. And I mean, that's all we can do in life.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Live that fulfilled life. Right? Do everything positive. Well, Tony, thanks a lot for joining us. We're getting ready to move into, into a commercial fast. We'll see you on the next show. Appreciate you always.
Hey, welcome back, everybody. This is Ricky Chavez with Battle Ready. It's the process of reinventing yourself. In a few of our other segments, we had the honor of meeting Tony the Tycoon. Tony the Tycoon Hill. This gentleman, I've known him for years. He was a professional athlete. He had 10 years in the NFL, got a Super bowl ring.
That's amazing. Tony, welcome to the, to the show again.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Hey, thank you for having me again, Rick.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: We had some amazing conversations earlier about your childhood, you know. Right, right. With what happened with your football career at high school. Then you're, we talked a little bit about Texas, talked a little bit about the Go Give. I think that's a book you and I really enjoy together.
Talk a little bit about your networking and your philosophy on networking to meet people. Let's talk about what you're doing now. You did your 10 years, so tell me about what you're doing now.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
So right now I'm in the financial space. I'm a wealth strategist with a company called Athlete Alliance. It's a private membership association.
And what we do is we help athletes to secure their wealth and transition beyond sport. And we do that in a multitude of ways. One of it is by alternative investment structure, our four tenets of wealth, that being structure, use, protection, and legacy. So we, we educate them on that. And then also we're partnered with a company called Ammunition Sports Collective, which then shows them how to leverage their brand beyond the field.
And then the last thing is the third component is mentorship. A lot of the guys that we're dealing with are high school seniors and collegiate professionals that will move to the professional space. And so just getting them to understand the importance of these things early is the true mission.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: So why. Why what? What. What made you go that way? I mean, what. Did you see what was going on?
[00:41:46] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Statistically, there was a show that came out in 2008, 2009, ESPN did a 30 for 30 call. Broke and on. There was a financial, financial advisor and a partner of us of ours, Mr. Edowski, who broke down the reasons why athletes go broke, the mentality behind it, the numbers. And so what we come to realize is the. The statistics that are out there is that 78% of athletes in NFL and 60% of athletes in the NBA are, you know, financially distressed two to 12 years after retirement.
But realistically, 90% of the athletes are financially distressed five years after retirement.
And then you look at the career spans, right? The average career span for athlete is about five or six years shorter, depending on what that sport is. But when you look at it from a collective standpoint, it's about five years. So there's a short window to earn a lot of money. And if you. If that money doesn't have a purpose and you don't have a plan for it, you find yourselves in bad situations financially. But it doesn't just hurt you there, Rick. It hurts you in your relationships. A lot of these guys get married during their time in sports. The divorce rate for athletes is higher than the average. The national average. 60 to 80 athletes are divorced. So how does that affect families? Kids lose fathers and mothers, and the household is broken. So there's a lot of things that are happening within. In that space, not just financially, and we want to be able to stop that.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: You know, can you talk about it without names? Man 1 is one of the friends of yours that maybe you saw that just, you know, made you really just push over that, that saw where they had came or where they were, where they were and now where they're at and which gave you that extra push. Do you have that story like that?
[00:43:39] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, absolutely. Y' all do. We all have people in our network that, you know, they were riding high on the horse when they were playing and, you know, wanted to keep up with the Joneses and continue that lifestyle, really didn't have a plan when they transitioned out of sport. And, and now they're, you know, working it, you know, working normal jobs, which is nothing wrong with that, but for the amount of money that they amass during that time, they shouldn't have had to do that. And the only difference was just the ignorance of not knowing how money works. Right.
I've been in, I've been on teams with individuals that would have to take advances on their, on their salary because they didn't have enough money to make it through the off season. One of the reasons why the collective bargaining agreement ended as, like it did during 2010, during the lockout, not the collective bargain agreement, but the lockout ended as abruptly as it did was because the athletes just didn't have the money to sustain anymore. And so, you know, there was a, there was a compromise from the things that we truly wanted. Right. And so, but what you come to find, Rick, is that this doesn't just happen in sports, this happens in general population as well. You know, the CEO that's making 3 to $400,000 a year but doesn't know that the company's not happy with performance and he's getting ready to get fired. His life is to change. Right? And so the end, at the end of the day, financial education and financial understanding is not about industry, it's about knowledge. And so although we cater to athletes, the knowledge that we give is for everybody.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: You know what, I, I'll tell you this.
In, in my various careers, right, Going, growing up to get to where I'm at now, I was an HR manager in, in a company were, you know, oil and gas. We tried that for a while and I can remember at a point where I had to lay off a bunch of people and we were laying off probably our 400th person. And at that point we started laying off some of the, at worst of the best, which was still the best.
But I saw them cry and they didn't know what to do. And 25 year veterans didn't have a plan.
So I totally understand what you're saying and I'm glad that you are really focused on the athlete athletes now. But I know that it's really important for everybody to have a plan, right?
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. That's where Stat Financial started from. So Stat Financial is a subsidiary of Athlete alliance. And so we in this, in the Stat Financial side, we operate in the insurance, annuities and alternative investments.
Same thing that we do with athletes. We're just dealing with different numbers. Right. And so one of the things that, that I love doing is educating. Right. So in the local Dallas area, I'm. I'm looking to get into different school districts, been Talking to different ADs Assistant athletic directors to be able to implement financial literacy and financial education, not only from the athlete standpoint with the nil stuff, but then also educating the parents about financial education as well. And one of my partners actually has an entire series for kids in middle school, high school, the whole nine elementary, the whole nine he's had. He has it all covered with curriculums that teach about financial education. Things like investments, savings, banking, I mean, you, you name it, board games. I mean, this guy's done an amazing job. And so that came from speaking back on our last segment from Networking Method.
We tapped in and look at us now, getting ready to help, you know, young kids and parents. And so that's what it's about.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: So talk to me about your book you wrote.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So moving to that. When you talk about transitioning out of sport or just transitioning, period. So gear to our athlete again. But the message is general. It's about transition. And you've done one thing your entire life, whether, like, you been in the army for as long as you were, me as a professional athlete for almost a decade, like, we've done one thing our entire life, and now that thing is done, what do we do next? Right. So what to do when it's done? Navigating Life after the Game is a book that helps you to understand what are the necessary steps that you need to take in transition, how to leverage your network, how to understand the importance of your mental. Right. Mental health. Understanding where you are. Exactly. And creating a plan. Right. How do we create a plan that is purpose driven, not driven out of fear of wanting to have to, you know, pay bills and things of that nature. Because we see that a lot. So the book is just an array of different things.
There's. There's examples in the book. There's, you know, people that we know that I've been able to talk to and interview and gain insight. Insight from that have given great insight on what they did and how they were able to gain success. And so really, it's just about a book. It's just a book about transition and understanding the different steps and segments of what it takes to transition properly.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: So I think one of the things in the conversations with you that I got is you always have to move forward.
And if you don't continue to move forward, you'll. You can crush your own dreams, crush everything by just feeling sorry for yourself and worrying about things and just, you have to move forward, Go out and meet people, get people to know you, you know, maybe continue education or, or things like that. What do you, what's your thoughts on those?
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. Like, yeah, like we have to always be curious, right? We have to always be in the creative space. Man. Like, I truly believe when you, when you look at, when you look at in the book of Genesis is, it says that, that God created, right? So he shows you that he's a creator. Well, if we're made in the image of God, we're creators too. And so we'll feel our best and we'll feel the most fulfilled when we're creating either opportunities not only for ourselves, but opportunities for others. And the way that you do that is through curiosity. The way that you do that is through exploration. You figure out different things that you like and master those skill sets. And what happens is, is that when you become a master of those skill sets, then those skill sets will then take care of all of your needs. Right. I think that there's four levels of value, right? There's implementation, there's also unification, there's imagination. I mean, the communication. And then after that, you're able to take all of those things and create a system for yourself. And so when people identify themselves to, to whatever it is that they believe that they're perfect purpose to do, and they deploy themselves in that purpose, then they can go out and serve others. And by serving others, those other people within serve you.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: I totally agree with that. I know that one of the things I tell my team is, you know, don't chase money. Help people. Right? That's my, that's my, that's my big focus on everything. So getting down towards the end, what, what's the message you want to share with everybody, you know, about getting ready for their future?
[00:50:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
I would say that your purpose is defined and met at the intersection of your proficiency in your calling. So identify your purpose. Once you've done that, define it, deploy yourself in it, and then go out and leverage it to help the people that God has put you on this planet to help.
We were put on this earth to help others. That's why we were put here. And so the faster that you discover your purpose, the, the better it is for you because it's going to be able to help other people who are waiting for you. And I think that when you come at it from that perspective, it pushes you to move a little bit faster and understand that we don't have time to waste.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: Well, that's a great message. I know that I was told in one of our other shows, people are waiting for you to ask them to help them. Everybody wants to help, but most people are too scared to ask.
Once again, Tony, it's been a pleasure talking to you today. And over the last few segments, you're always amazing to have conversation with. I think that's why I'm always drawn to reaching out to you guys. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today in our segments with Tony the Tycoon Hill and his great overview of how not to get caught up. Right.
Find a purpose and don't give up.
Thanks again, guys.
This is the end of battle with ready for us today. We'll talk to you soon.
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