Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Former Baseball Star Jake Peavy

I recently interviewed former baseball star Jake Peavy on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: Our guest today was a three-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion, and a Cy Young Award winner. Jake Peavy was a Major League Baseball star and is currently an analyst for MLB Network. Jake, thank you for joining us.

Jake: Adam, it's great to be here, my friend. Great to have you on. Yeah, it's a privilege to be here. I told you when we were just getting to know each other a bit, It's a bit overwhelming. Some of the guests that you have, I have the utmost respect for. I felt like in this, I should be asking as many questions as answering.

Adam: Hey, man, I'm fired up to have you on here and excited to dive in. You grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and as a high school pitcher, you dominated going 44-1, and winning a state championship. As a kid, you played a ton of different sports, and you spent a lot of time with your grandfather who not only helped you as an athlete, helped you with your mechanics as a pitcher, but was a key mentor in your life. Can you take listeners back to your early days? What early experiences and lessons shaped your worldview and shaped the trajectory of your success?

Jake: I love that you asked that question because it does start, if you want to know Jake Peavy, at his core, Blanche Peavy, my grandfather, Danny Peavy, my father, play enormous roles in that. But Blanche was the father figure of Thorman Drive. My earliest memories are of my grandparents living right next door. And then my dad's sister and his family, my cousin lived on the other side, on just some little land there off Thorman Drive. right on the outskirts of Mobile, Alabama. At this point in time, in 1981, we were country, country folks. You still can't convince me otherwise, although Mobile has now grown up. Blanche was an intimidating figure, an old Southern gentleman, the essence of gentlemen. but firm, the essence of accountability. And from the earliest of ages, getting my first bicycle, for instance, we didn't go buy a brand new bike. We went and bought parts for a bike, brought it home, and put it together. And he showed me how to put it together. Didn't do it for me. You certainly don't know any kind of lesson that you're being taught at that point in time. But when you go buy it in pieces and put it together, A, the knowledge of just doing it, how it works, but then the value of it, what it means, taking care of it. And so stuff like that was instilled at the earliest of ages. Our spirituality Blanche believed in quiet time, believed in his prayer, his spirituality. And so tying into that is a key piece of my life and my guidance. I think the last thing I'll say about Blanche is the ability to focus. From the earliest of ages, we would work in the backyard at baseball or whatever it may be, basketball, or football, and he would give me these instructions. He loved baseball. He played fast-pitch softball until his older ages, then slow-pitch, but he loved baseball. And we would work in the backyard, then it would become time for the game. And I can just remember it at six, seven years old, and I've tried to do it to my kids. He would come over to the fence, not ever being my coach, would come over and go, I want you to focus. When you get in that batter's box, focus on that ball and away. that you've never focused on. Have fun and be free, but focus and look, the essence of being a major league pitcher is to be in the middle of Dodger Stadium when it going crazy in the eighth inning and you being able to focus enough on the task at hand to execute a pitch to. In my case was Eric Karos at times. In today's age, you have to get Shohei and Mookie and some of these guys out so that ability to focus was key in my life. But Blanche Peavy, what a man.

Adam: Those are some great lessons and just zeroing in on that last one you shared. The importance of focus, critical if you want to pitch in the majors, critical if you want to be an all-star pitcher, if you want to be a Cy Young Award winner, if you want to make it through the middle of the Dodgers order, but really critical if you want to do anything of any kind of consequence in life.

Jake: Right. I mean, when you talk about doing anything, and we talked about some of the business ventures, you have to spend time and really focus on it. The best in the world focus and intently focus and work through every bit of the equation in a way that maybe others can't. So intense concentration and focus. And even today, when we talk about our attention spans and what we've been fed with our phone devices and some of the stuff that we struggle with, attention span is being one of them. the ability to start a major league game at seven o'clock. And in my day and age, we were trying to finish that thing. My most prized possession starts were ones that I was out there in the night, 10 o'clock long before hours and hours before you were prepping and mentally getting ready, but then a three-hour grind of focus and concentration.

Adam: You talk about the grind, not only a three-hour grind, but The whole Major League Baseball season, 162-game season, talk about a grind. Your career, in many ways, could be described as a grind. You were a grinder. You experienced the highs of highs, winning the Cy Young. You were the best pitcher in baseball at a moment of time in your career. You also experienced some very significant lows. What are the keys to navigating the highs and lows, not only of baseball, not only as a pitcher but professionally and in life?

Jake: For me, as I've grown older and really, if I could went back and really changed one thing or grabbed a hold of one thing, I'm an emotional guy. I do everything I do with passion and emotion. If I'm into it or doing it, especially at this age, I've got a reason for doing it. I want to be there, hopefully doing it to the best of my ability. And that's the way I go after things. What that can lead to is an emotional state at times while doing whatever that is, baseball. we keep falling back into because it's certainly what I know. If I would have been able to stay a little more emotionally calm, and I'm not meaning some of the yelling and stuff, because you would be frustrated with a pitch and you would maybe let out a yell and you let that go and you refocus, but Being calm in the biggest moments later in my career and watching what it took to be a part of a World Series championship and thinking about Buster Posey and his, great as he was of a baseball player, his body language, his calmness under pressure in the most pressure packed situations, he would come to the mound and talk to me with such a calmness. and clear, rational thought in a moment where a lot of people truly would be worked up to where they're not processing a lot. And so I think that's been the key for me in navigating the rest of my life, the off the field stuff, true as ever, that plays of just not reacting and overreacting to any situation, staying emotionally in control of your emotion to be able to rationally respond in the proper manner.

Adam: I love that and I love the example you shared of Buster Posey and we can go through so many examples across every sport, baseball, basketball, and football. The most successful athletes and the most successful people are passionate. You have to be passionate to be successful. You're not going to make it. In life, you're not going to make it in whatever profession you're in unless you are deeply passionate about what you're pursuing. Look at the people who have made it to the top. They're passionate people and they're passionate about what they're going after. But that passion doesn't have to and shouldn't conflict with being calm. maintaining calmness under pressure. When you're feeling the heat, instead of giving into the heat, taking a step back and being a calming presence for those around you.

Jake: Those are the leadership moments, the leadership moments when leaders are born even. And then the best ones you think about, you don't think when things are going well, you think who are they in the midst of the storm and the calmness that you're talking about. Most all of them that I know who are great had that quality.

Adam: Who are the best leaders who you've been around and what did you learn from them?

Jake: Bruce Bochy is certainly one of them. And I started my major league career and talked about my grandfather just as a leader in life of your family, of a business. He starts with him. Andy Robbins, my high school baseball coach, tremendous leader in ways. And so I had some great role models there, but then put me in the major leagues just after 20 years old, united with Bruce Bochy for the first time. For the first seven years of baseball, I played and really valued everything that he did about the game, and then ended my career the last three years with Boach. So Boach had 10 years of my 15-year kind of playing career that he influenced me and led the charge. So I'm certainly a huge bias there. But this man won three world titles in San Francisco, and he didn't do it with a likely cast of characters. Then not too long ago, with Texas Rangers just shortly out of retirement, General Manager Chris Young, who was a former player of Bochy, knew what he brought to the table leadership-wise. went and got him off his couch and he delivered a championship there to Texas. So four championships and counting for Bruce Bochy and he's the best true leader. And I know I didn't get into his qualities, but that calmness under pressure leads the charge. You see some frustration from here to there, but then immediately it's over that directed right at the task at hand to make things better. Boch to me was an incredible communicator. And that starts there. If you're going to lead the troops, you've got to be able to communicate with each and every one of them. And everybody's different. You're talking about a 25-man roster that he was dealing with and 26 and more now today's world. But if you're going to lead and put all of those guys in around a baseball game, you certainly better know who you're leading. It's not an easy task to get to know and spend a little bit of time with each one of those guys in conversation and then deploy your staff out to do that for you as well. Boach and not anybody I played for was even close to communicating with the troops the way Bruce did. Bruce knew about what was going on personally. He would ask you about your kids and your family and those conversations. So it wasn't all work-related, but it was work-related because he was checking your pulse and where your temperature was at off the field and if things were good and what kind of mental state, you know, it all translated to. So in being an excellent communicator, he seemingly always had the guys in the right position at the right time because he knew what they were ready for and if they, and when they were ready. He did that to the utmost. And then the leader has to talk about where you're going and then get you some bit of a roadmap of that. Then he's got to inspire you to do it. He's got to bring you together as a group. Boach has all of those qualities. When it's time to talk to the team, nobody can talk to the team and motivate the way Boach could and bring us together in the way we need to be to go out and execute. Look, we won Game 7 on the road. No team had done it in 50 years in Kansas City against all odds after Game 6. Just 10-1 whooping. Nobody in Kansas City and there was a few in our clubhouse who didn't even think we could do it. He brought us together in that Game 7 speech and Bumgarner. Just unlikely characters of Michael Morse hitting a game-winning hit. That's who Bruce Bochy was and got out of all of us.

Adam: You mentioned a couple of the teammates who you played with who helped you win that World Series. Who are your favorite teammates that you played with over the years and what makes a great teammate?

Jake: Oh my goodness. It's going to be many of them all here that go peeve. I'm right here. You didn't say my name. What makes a great teammate is caring about the team. is dropping your ego at the door. Certainly coming with your confidence and your swag, but dying to the ultimate cause of what the team needs that particular day and really pulling the rope. It just sounds so cliche to pull the same side of the rope or whatever that is, but it's just caring about the guy to your left and to your right and playing for and with them. That's what being a good teammate is. And if you do those things, You're going to be a good teammate, even though some guys might have had a bad attitude along the way when they struck out or whatever it may be. When things would go wrong with the championship teams is when somebody would get out of line and be worried about a selfish outcome. And no matter what that may be, your actions and your words showed that that was the case. The teams that I was on had that kind of stuff in check. So being a good teammate is just caring about the ultimate cause and not individuality. That's the beautiful thing about team sports and what they teach, in my opinion. Dustin Pedroia, and Hunter Pence, gotta name some teammates. I can't not give you some names. Dustin Pedroia, when I think about what he did for the rest of the room, the on-timeliness, the first guy there every day ready to go, the first guy dressed for the game, making everybody get their work in and just truly talking about 10, 11 other guys with him on the ride. And then the accountability that we played with, what we stood for as a team, Was vocal about it if he needed to be, was the ultimate example of every bit of that. The championship team with the Giants, I'll just give you two favorites on these two teams. Hunter Pence was every bit of that guy. Rallying the troops, ready to work, ready to take everybody with him again. They have a little bit different of personalities. Hunter is a little more positivity and, hey, we can do this. And Dustin's a little more dogged persistence of ain't nobody standing in my way and this is ours and we're about to go take it. Come on. Anybody who thinks we aren't, get off right now. But two great teammates who got the best. And like I said, there was 25 guys trying to pull something off. It was all you could do to maybe influence one or two other guys while doing your job the way you had to do it. Or you could maybe influence the starting staff if you were one of the five. Dustin Pedroia and Hunter Pence brought the whole position player along with them.

Adam: I love those examples, and one of the reasons why I especially love those two examples is because you shared examples of two very different players, two very different types of people. And a big takeaway is be yourself. Don't try to be anyone else. If you're Dustin Pedroia and you're trying to be Hunter Pence or you're Hunter Pence and you're trying to be Dustin Pedroia, you're not going to be the best teammate you can be. You're not going to be the best leader you could be. You're not going to be as impactful, as effective as you can be. The only way you're going to be as effective as you can be is by being yourself.

Jake: That's right. And when you talk about leadership qualities, If you're not yourself and your true authentic self, and we're always learning, nobody's got it all perfect. We certainly can be overconfident at times as athletes. We come with a lot of ego at times, but you're exactly right. If you're going to lead, it starts there.

Adam: You made reference a couple of times to key leadership moments that potentially made the difference between your team making a run. maybe even winning the World Series and getting knocked out. What are some of those key leadership moments that stand out to you that were most impactful to you?

Jake: Yeah, you're getting me in the weeds and I love it, Adam. Let me just think about what it took to pull off 13. And I think it'll play off exactly what we talked about of being yourself and who you are. In David Ortiz, we now or one to one, we go back to St. Louis, it's two games to one, St. Louis. After game three, I pitched game three, and it was a dogfight. It ended on an obstruction call, home plate. We threw a guy out of the home plate, and it ended. The guy was out. And they went back, reviewed the call, deemed him safe, game over. And look, I had to get behind after this. I was devastated. The game ended. The players, in my opinion, deciding it, that an obstruction call certainly didn't affect the outcome. It was a call. So it was a devastating Game 3 loss. Now we go down two games to one. And now we've got to play Game 4 and Game 5. Game 4 is a must-win game. You go down three games to one. With Game 5 still left, the series is over. In this game, I'm not sure what inning it was. Go back and have to check me on this. But David Ortiz got our team together. David Ortiz, first off, had not played all season long in the field. He's a DH, but we're in St. Louis. This is the National League, and he's on the field having to play first base. No fear. I can do this. I'm a baseball player. I know I hadn't been out here all season long, but I can do this. He's on the field with us and really locked in. And like I told you, Dustin Pedroia was probably every bit of our, he was our team, but David Ortiz was just this fictional character who had that ability to focus on what we talked about. His IQ for the game was off the charts, but we were losing this game at some point in time. And David Ortiz in a half-inning called our whole team together. Watch this one happen. in the post-seasons that you watch, let alone the regular season. He called the team together in the dugout. We all get there together. And basically his message was, guys, we're not playing like we've played. We now understand our backs up against the wall. We're playing a little tight. Remember who you are. Remember how we play and who we are. Let's go get this. Absolutely just needed that reminder without the recognition of what was going on. And David's just so cerebral and baseball IQ. And then the knowledge of his team and what he had been a part of all year. Incredible leadership moment that I don't know. We turn the tide, come back, we win that game. Johnny goes, it's an incredible three-run homer late. We win there, Lester goes on to win five and Blackie closes it out. I'll think about 2014 for a second leadership moment along that journey. It was Bruce Bochy refocusing the troops in the locker room before game seven. Like I told you, we had been beaten badly in game six. Place going crazy. Kansas City's a wonderful sports town. Fans are loud. Kauffman Stadium was rocking. Game six, they beat us, I want to say, by 10 runs. Not anybody in the world. There hadn't been a team when game seven on the road in 50 years. Now you have to answer all your postgame media and talk about it. You know, did you guys let your opportunity get away? No team's done this and so on and so on. Then you go home and you watch SportsCenter and the MLB network and you're watching all the analysts like myself now talk about it. And Bruce Bochy got us together right as we went and took the field. If you get to game seven of the World Series, you have been on a month-long, incredibly exhausting journey of physically, and mentally, everything you can pull together. And we're there. One game takes all, just what you dream about in the backyard. Nobody giving us a chance. And Bruce calls us together in that locker room and said, bring it in here, boys. And he just said, look, I want you to realize that even the best sometimes can start to believe what they hear. They've heard enough of it and they get to hear it and have to hear it and repeat it and talk about it. The best sometimes can even believe what they hear. He goes, but I'm here to tell you guys who you are. Just make sure that we take this field understanding who we are and what we've done. They're saying we can't win game seven on the road. What are you talking about? We've won plenty of games on the road. And he started with Brandon Crawford. We had to win a play-in game in Pittsburgh. We had already played a game seven in Pittsburgh just to get in the playoffs. We have to win. Winner takes all. It's a blackout in Pittsburgh. Baumgartner throws a shutout to get us to Washington, D.C. Nobody gave PB versus Strasburg, a chance to come out in the Giants' favor, Hudson versus Zimmerman. But he started with Randy Crawford, who hit a grand slam and that place went deathly quiet. Just, it was incredible to hear a place as an athlete that is rocking with so much hope and joy and thinking their team's going to do something. And as a player to take the air out of a place like that, it's a super special feeling. That happened when Brandon Crawford hit the home run and we all felt it. Nobody is better than Craw. He told everybody who was about to play in this game, he went back and got their moment that they shined on the road. He refocused and positioned everyone's thought process and mental capacity of who they were and what they had done on the road to help us get to this point. And then he just said, we're going to go out and do it one more time together. Talked about the togetherness that it took. When we got up on the morning of game seven, Hunter Pence and me and Buster talked a lot. Hunter calls me and tells me that Santiago Casilla, our closer, wants to speak to the team before game seven. We've got the best motivational speaker there is in Bruce Bochy. And so I said, look, we'll just talk to Boach at the field and see what he says. And we'll just let him talk before Boach. No problems. So we go to Boach and Boach says, okay, it's perfect. He goes, I'll get done speaking and I'll give him the floor. In my youth, in the moment, I said, Boach, Santiago Garcia barely speaks English. He should speak before you and maybe you kind of put a cap on it to refocus it. He goes, no. An active player and a leader and elder of the team our closer gets to have the last word. I'll give the floor to him, which I thought was an incredible leadership moment and awareness from both in respect of a player and somebody who's going to actually go on the field and do this. He gets the last word with you guys and I'll be there right for it. Incredible leadership moment, the speech. And then look, Santiago Casillas starts speaking, trying to speak to us in English. Can't get through it, really. And Angel Pagan steps up and starts translating. And it was, guys, Santiago says that he had a dream. in spring training that we were going to win the World Series. And he's translating this slowly, you know, it says. And then last night he had the same dream again. He says, guys, don't worry. God tell him we win the World Series. We came together after that and started cheering and took the field and did the unthinkable.

Adam: Wow. I love it. Love those stories, man. We could spend all day just diving into those stories. The first story, David Ortiz, talks about leading by example. I also love the fact that you threw in a little bit of an anecdote about John Lackey. Not every day that we talk about an angel legend, a World Series champion, who also happened to win the World Series with the Red Sox.

Jake: He's one of one. He clenched game seven with you guys as an Anaheim Angel as a kid and did it again in Boston. No other pitcher has got the win in a game-clenching title game other than John Lackey. He's got three titles because they did it again with the Cubs as well. We talk about incredible teammates. His name would be as high as they get on the list.

Adam: Diving into that for a minute, what separates those who are able to perform in the biggest moments, in the game sevens, in the bottom of the ninth, game on the line? What separates those who are able to step up to the plate and deliver in the clutch? step up on the mound and with no nerves, strike out the side, deliver the pitch exactly where they want to deliver it? What are the keys to delivering in those moments?

Jake: Well, I'll tell you this, if I could have put them into practice a little bit more, I think I'd have been a bit better. There's so much that goes into that. But in sports, there's just a lot of uncertainty around the outcome. As a pitcher, you can throw the ball, but then he swings and hits it and you just had to hope you made a good pitch and got some weak contact or no contact at all. But it still didn't guarantee success. So the uncertainty of the outcome, I think there's a lot of people who get scared of that. And so reveling in that moment or just appreciating the moment that you have before you, I think is a huge part of the success that lies in those pressure pack moments or being able to deliver, being grateful for the opportunity and go, look, we put all the hard work in for this. Let's let the chips fall where they may. I'm going to. letting my athleticism flow, but I'm also intently focused on what I'm doing. I think it starts there of you have to have no fear of the outcome and just know that you're about to deliver your best and hope that the chips fall where they may. Pitching was a thing of where I throw 110 plus pitches a night. It was my job and I narrowed it down to where It was just as easy as trying to pick the right sequencing to the batter, but then trying to execute as many of those as possible. When I would do that, the odds are in the percentages, numbers would say that I had the highest chance of defending those and having success. It certainly did not mean that. And I had nights where analytically it said I did one thing, but they didn't hit it at people. And then vice versa, where Dodgers lined out all over and I walked away with a good night. So uncertainty is something in the fear that we can all get regarding that. Not living in that in any capacity, I think is critical to the here-and-now success of anything.

Adam: And it really comes back to the advice that Bruce Bochy shared with your team. Even the best can believe what they hear. We're all going to hear negativity, whether that negativity is coming from external voices or coming from our own internal voice. The negativity is going to exist and it's on us to put that negativity aside and going back to some of the earliest advice you shared, advice that you took away from your grandfather, focus. Focus on the here and now. Don't harp on the uncertainty. Don't think about the outcome. Focus on your task at hand, whether that task is to place the ball where the catcher is setting up, or whether that task is to execute on whatever it is you're trying to do in life.

Jake: That's it. Whether it comes down to say off-the-field stuff for the business, anything that I've gotten my hand into from real estate to owner-operating service industry type stuff, restaurants and food and bev down to the broadcasting side of things in the baseball world I've known. It just takes focus and concentration on anything to take it in and learn it. But once you do that, and you care to take the time, the discipline that it takes to do that, you watch yourself grow. And that's where we find the joys. For me, I feel like in my personal life, I know that I've got to feel like in all different kinds of areas, but I've made a little bit of progress each and every day towards some goals and direction that I would like my life to go into. And that's from the family side of things through the business side of things. All of those take that focus and concentration and discipline to take a bit of my day and make that a reality.

Adam: Since your playing days, you've been involved in a number of different ventures, including broken top brands. What are the best lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Jake: I might be speaking in a bit of an old-school mentality or a dinosaur or something, call me, but I know that there's some stuff that happens and stuff blows up and the internet makes stuff crazy successful overnight. But even so, if you're an overnight success, the backbone and the foundation of what you have there to capitalize off of it is everything. And so the biggest lesson that I've learned is there are no shortcuts. There's not any magic trick, anything that I've invested in or been an entrepreneur in. It's been the people and the dedication to whatever it is that are making it go and it's successful. You're not going to find a company of any sort or an entrepreneur of any sort that hasn't been in the trenches and built and dreamed a lot, if not all of the dream up, and then put it into place. But just talking persistence, truly being successful. takes time. We don't ever stop learning. I hate the words, no, and I think it's a great motivational type deal. And just because you get told no, even a thousand times over, doesn't mean that it has to be right. It just may not have been known right now. The dogged persistence that I've seen throughout my entrepreneurial life investments have yielded the most success. Finding the work balance and life balance though has been the toughest thing I think I would say for those successful company and for those people. It takes that crazy dedication, everything sometimes to focus and make something happen, that comes with sacrifices.

Adam: In 2007, you were the unanimous Cy Young Award winner. You led the league in virtually every pitching category. What did you do that season to reach peak performance, to get to that level? And what advice do you have for anyone listening on how to reach an elite level of performance in whatever it is that they're pursuing?

Jake: Find you a mentor. finds you the best out there that you can access that is doing whatever it is that you want to do and get as tight with that person as you can. I'm not saying you have to become that person, but we're certainly going to imitate that person in certain ways that he's finding success in. And it's going to be your own way. Greg Maddox, that year, 2007, would look at me, Adam, and go, how am I going to get him out? I would say, how am I going to get this guy out? He'd go, how am I going to get him out or how are you going to get him out? That's the way the conversation starts. In the year 2007, before that year happened, Kevin Towers, the late, great general manager, Kevin Towers, called me and told me he signed Greg Maddox. I had a dog. I grew up in the South, four hours from Atlanta. I had a dog named Maddox. I was thrilled to say the least. I'd already led the league in ERA. I'd already led the league in strikeouts. By this time, I thought I was the number one guy doing my thing. And I'd learned from everyone. But at some point in time, you think, oh, I just led the league in ERA. You're young and you're full of that, you know, overconfidence ego that we talk about. Sitting next to Greg Maddox, somebody that had won four Cy Youngs straight at one point in time. It was just a little bit later in his career and on his way down, was happy to show me everything that I wanted to learn that he knew. And it led to a unanimous Cy Young sitting next to the best, in my opinion, to ever do it. Certainly, the best that I ever was around. So my advice to anybody would be if you want to do something, you want to do it at the level that the greats do it, find you a mentor. That dogged persistence that we talk about in trying to network in get that access that you need to somebody that can take you there is tough at times. And it's not always just like I described it and being on a major league team in life, you have to find these people and sort them out. But I often find that my own life is a little bit easier because of the platform. I understand this, but that dogged persistence and that curiosity that you need to be successful will spark the entrepreneur, the successful person that you're trying to get ahold of and want a bit of their time. expertise, and especially if you catch them on the way down. When they're at the top, they're tough to find and get to deal with, but if they're on the way down, I think that would be my best advice, to find you a mentor.

Adam: What was the single best lesson that you learned from Greg Maddux?

Jake: When you're doing something for your craft, And throwing a baseball was our craft. It was my livelihood. When something is your livelihood, when it's your job, you do it with intent and purpose always. 60 feet, six inches, he would say, we make our living doing this. Nobody's going to throw the ball 60 feet, six inches more than we are. We're going to go throw off the mound. I threw off the mound three and four days, even if it was playing catch off the mound. But when I was playing catch, the distance that I would constantly be at would be at 60 feet, six inches. Trevor Hoffman, another Hall of Fame pitcher that I got to be around and learn from, even more so than Maddox in so many ways, life ways, professional ways, was also the same way. When I talked about getting a mentor and being around the best, I found this out, whether it was Trevor Hoffman, whether it was Greg Maddox, or Pedro Martinez, when I got traded to Boston, wasn't there, but he was an instructor and around. When you get around the best, it doesn't take long. You start to figure out why they were the best. They simply outwork most everybody.

Adam: Jake, what can anyone listening to this conversation do to become more successful personally and professionally?

Jake: I think it starts with a dream. I think you have to spend some quiet time and really understand yourself and what you want, not what you think you want. What do you want? And I told you at the beginning of this interview, a very spiritual person because of Blanche Peavy, my upbringing, as I've gotten older in life, I've been on some journeys to where I really value spending some private time and with your thoughts and in your own mental imagination and your space where there is no judgment. create and imagine anything and not have to put it out there as we have to do with everything else and subject it to everybody else's opinion. So I think it starts there with your dream and your vision. And like you talked about earlier, being you, that's what makes it all. Me being on TV and a broadcaster, I have to be myself and who I am to the audience if I want to have any chance of there being a connection. So I think spending time in that space, getting to know yourself and what you want will align you with your passions that will set you in line with the things that you should want to be doing. Then that discipline and the sacrifices that you have to make to achieve some of the stuff is a little bit easier. As I get older, the discipline is everything. When you don't want to do something, best in the world. show that discipline. I have such a sweet tooth, the discipline that it takes not to have my cookies after dinner, you know, that type of stuff. The right things are, a lot of times the hardest thing to do.

Adam: Jake, thank you for all the great advice, and thank you for being a part of Thirty-Minute Mentors.

Jake: Adam, look, just so I'm clear, I'm trying daily working on all this stuff and trying to practice it in my life, but what a great conversation, buddy. I appreciate you having me very much.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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