Heads 'N Tales Podcast - Talking Sports Injury Rehab, Prevention, Perseverance, Concussions & Athlete Transition

Mike Wahle is a retired 11 year NFL Veteran. He played 7 Years for the Green Bay Packers, 3 with the Carolina Panthers and 1 season with the Seattle Seahawks before being medically retired after a shoulder injury. More recently, Mike is the founder of Unrivaled Systems and Process2Perform where he serves as the host of the Process2Perform podcast.

I had so much fun recording and preparing for this interview. I grew up a Green Bay Packers fan and proudly wore the number 30 in my Pop Warner days just like my favorite player at the time, Ahman Green, running back for the Packers. Mike was responsible for clearing huge holes for Ahman to run through on his way to becoming the franchise leader for rushing yards. My 10-year old self would be so jealous of me right now, and to be honest, I genuinely felt like a kid again while talking to Mike.

In this interview, Mike tells us stories about injuries he suffered throughout his football career, concussions, losing 50 lbs and his retirement from football all through the lens of the 3 Dials (Mindset, Technical Mastery, and Lifestyle (Making ownership decisions )) that he teaches to his athletes and clients today. Listeners of this episode will learn about the toolset Mike relied on to be elite in football and elite in his field today.

Topics covered:

Achieving your goals on or off the field will always go back to your Mindset, Technical Mastery, and Lifestyle (3 Dials).

You can still be elite and not have your full identity associated with your sport or craft.

The importance of automating decision making.

Why athletes are always making business decisions on and off the field and how the recently added player safety rules impact these decisions.

Why athletes need goals and routines post-career.

The corporate world might not be the right fit for athletes post retirement.

What is is like playing in an Army-Navy Game.

Mike’s decision to become a Hall of Fame Behavioral Health ambassador.

Jonathan Katz is the founder of Blendi, which brought the first portable, rechargeable and battery powered blender to the market. Jonathan is a competitive body builder, which is where the inspiration behind Blendi came from. Jonathan took the initiative to solve his own problem of having to drink clumpy protein shakes at the gym. Jonathan is also another active participant in the Dulye Leadership Experience.

In this interview Jonathan takes us through his weight loss journey that cost him a spot on his high school football team, but ultimately lead him to body building and entrepreneurship. If you are an athlete who desires to run your own company one day, you are in luck. Jonathan gives us the roadmap that transformed Blendi from an idea, into a tangible product. In addition, Jonathan talks about valuable experiences he’s had in both sales and sports that have made a positive influence on growing his company. To this day his company has been self funded by his own hustle.

Didn’t plan for life after sports? Don’t worry, its never too late as long as you are willing to take ownership of your career!

Linda Dulye is the President & Founder, Dulye & Co. and the mastermind behind the Dulye Leadership Experience (DLE), which provides expansive learning programs, networking opportunities and delivers premiere professional development for individuals who are passionate about their career and their community.

The DLE was established in partnership with Syracuse University as visionary, immersive training to prepare undergraduates to successfully transition into the workplace. Entirely funded and managed by Linda Dulye, a dedicated Syracuse alumna, this pioneering program has helped hundreds launch careers in diverse industries, locations and positions.

Becoming a member of the community is completely free of charge and open to all, regardless of geographic location, industry, job title or experience. The DLE offers a welcoming, supportive community and a sincere commitment to inspire it’s members to be their best and do their best—thereby benefiting not only themselves and their careers but also their organizations, their communities and each other.

After witnessing one of her Syracuse classmates struggle with life after a career ending football injury, Linda wanted medically disqualified Syracuse athletes to apply for the DLE as well to aid in their transition to life after sports. Marcus Coleman, was one of those selected applicants and in this episode he discusses the role the DLE played in his transformation to life after football.

Marcus is a Former Syracuse University Football Player, Registered Client Service Associate at Park Square Financial Advisors of Raymond James. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the DLE and is the former roommate of one of our former guests, Terrel Hunt.

In this episode, both Linda and Marcus provide tips on how you can turn your transition into a transformation and it all starts with taking ownership.

Where can you connect with Linda?

LINKEDIN

Where can you connect with Marcus?

LINKEDIN

Apply to the DLE (HERE)

Download Episode 166 : iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

Patrick McQuown serves as the executive director of entrepreneurship at Towson University. After listening to my interview with Desiree Melfi Bozzo, Patrick connected me with Former Syracuse Quarterback, Terrel Hunt and he invited me down to TU to record this interview on why athletes make great entrepreneurs and meet the fellows in his StarTUp Accelerator.

The StarTUp Accelerator, an intensive eight-week, cohort-based fellowship where selected fellows take residency and work in a collaborative space to accelerate their ventures. Terrel Hunt is participating in this program while working on his Good Choice Productions venture highlighted in episode 163.

Patrick launched his first company Proteus in 1996, working out of his dorm room at George Washington University. He started Proteus with $1,000 and no outside funding. Proteus grew into a mobile media industry leader and was first in the world to create an application that allowed users to send short text messages from a Web site to a handset. Proteus is also responsible for creating the text-polling for the reality television show American Idol. His second startup, SinglePoint, raised $50M in venture capital and deployed two of the largest-ever messaging campaigns—one for the 2008 Summer Olympics and one for Obama for America.

Christian Lezzer is a former Boston College and University of Central Florida football player. Most recently Christian was named Berkshire Hathaway’s “Top New Agent,” was inducted into the company’s Honor Society and founded the Lezzer Realty Group. Christian was formally on the podcast in November of 2015 (Episode 9) to talk about his decision to retire from the sport of football after suffering from multiple concussions. A lot has changed since 2015 (luckily for my podcast quality too) and Christian gives us the update on what he has been up to for the last 6 years and gives us some insight into what has made him a successful Real Estate agent.

Terrel Hunt is a former Syracuse University Quarterback and Team Captain. He ranks in the top 10 in school history for passing yards, completion percentage, completions and rushing touchdowns despite suffering 2 season ending injuries including a broken leg in his junior season and an Achilles injury that he suffered midway through the first quarter of the first game in his senior season. Most recently, I met up with Terrel and his Co-Founder Jeremiah Kobena (like your favorite basketball player) down at Towson University in Patrick McQuown’s StarTUp accelerator program where they are working on their latest entrepreneurial endeavor of Good Choice Productions. We talk about Good Choice Productions at length in this interview and how they are striving to share the stories of the 98% of retired athletes. The 2% are the Michael Strahan’s, Tony Hawk’s and Michael Jordan’s of the world. Most retired athletes have a hard time relating to those successful transformations to life after sports and that is where Good Choice Productions comes in to play.

Dr. Phil Wagner is the CEO and Founder of Sparta Science. Sparta Science is the industry’s gold standard for Force Plate Machine Learning that predicts, improves, and validates individual and team availability. With a simple, self-serviceable two minute scan per person, athletes can increase fitness levels, prevent injuries, and accurately predict readiness using the world’s largest machine learning force plate database. Dr. Wagner is also a physician and strength coach whose own athletic career as a football and rugby player was cut short by a series of avoidable training injuries. Sparta Science was born out of Dr. Wagners desire to prevent athletes career’s from being prematurely cut short due to preventable injuries like his was. In this episode, Dr. Wagner discusses why one’s ability to move should be considered a vital key health indicator, if not THE #1 predictor of health.

 

Below you will find more talking points of this interview:

What is Sparta Science and what inspired the creation of the technology?

Dr. Wagner’s athletic background and injuries suffered. (Muscle strains, fractures, concussions)

Origins of becoming a movement doctor.

Explanation of tests on Sparta Science force plate (Balance, plank, jump)

Why these movements?

How do they translate across all sports and athletes?

Why should movement be considered a key health indicator?

How the data collected is used to predict future injury?

How do team’s strength, medical staffs and athletes use the technology?

What is muscle overload?

Once a potential vulnerable spot is identified, what is the treatment/training plan for the athlete to combat this deficit/imbalance?

Mitch Haniger Case Study.

 

How is Sparta Science being used at the NFL Combine.

Why GM’s might actually prefer a lower scorer on the Sparta Science Assessment.

How Sparta Science Technology is used in injury recovery/rehabilitation.

Successful athletes and entrepreneurs both love to hustle, which is why I was so impressed with Michigan State University’s Entrepreneurial Training Camp initiative for their student athletes. In this episode of the podcast, I interviewed Desireé Melfi Bozzo who is the mastermind behind this MSU initiative.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo is the Student Success & Advising Manager of the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Michigan State University. She is also an instructor on the entrepreneurial mindset and an entrepreneur herself. The Entrepreneurship Training Camp was designed with three goals in mind: sharpening the Entrepreneurial Mindset, infusing business acumen and exposing student-athletes to the venture creation process. We hope this interview gives athletes the confidence to take that first step toward becoming an entrepreneur.

The tables were turned this month when I was a guest on Morris Sussex Sports as a part of their athletes and mental health series in the wake of COVID-19’s impact on sports at every level. In this recording, I share some of the knowledge I gained from interviewing my guests over the past 5+ years. Dr. Jane Esposito and Dr. Susan Lorentz from the Sparta Align Wellness Center join me in this conversation and provide tremendous clinical insights that athletes and non-athletes of all ages can adopt.

Last summer I read David Goggins’ book titled “Can’t Hurt Me” and it changed the way that I look at disappointments. Injuries, getting cut from the team and COVID-19 inevitably lead to disappointment, but as I state in the intro to every one of my podcast episodes “You can’t control what happens to you in life, but you can always control how you respond.” David Goggins states in his book, “Until you experience hardships like abuse and bullying, failures and disappointments, your mind will remain soft and exposed. Life experience, especially negative experiences, help callous the mind. But it’s up to you where that callous lines up. If you choose to see yourself as a victim of circumstance into adulthood, that callous will become resentment that protects you from the unfamiliar. It will make you too cautious and untrusting, and possibly too angry at the world. It will make you fearful of change and hard to reach, but not hard of mind.” Callousing the mind was a mindset David adopted that helped him get through 3 BUD/S hell weeks. Instead of feeling bad for himself every time he experienced a setback, and he had many, he thought about how much easier his next challenge he was faced with would seem in comparison.

I bring up this David Goggin’s quote because my hypothesis as to why so many athletes are struggling with the abundance of change and uncertainties is because they haven’t been faced with enough similar challenges throughout their lives to refer back to, which could help them navigate this new challenge life has thrown their way. I use many examples from my own life in this show, which self admittedly stunted my transition to life after sports from becoming a transformation. Two of my previous interviews that I referenced on this show were Episode 54 with Bill Anthes and Episode 153 with Vince Ruiz.

Specific topics we touch on are as follows:

A new critical take on my own story and experience over the past 13 years after my injury that I hope others can learn from.

The importance of focusing on your “How” vs. What.”

Coaches roles in building a healthy team culture.

Advice for parents of injured athletes.

My challenge to athletes to step into the unknown.

Download Episode 160 : iTunes | Spotify |

Ilayda Samilgil grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and is a graduate of Cornell University’s mechanical engineering program. She is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Organic Robotics Corporation and the mastermind behind the Award-Winning Light Lace Technology, which aims to prevent injuries in athletes and also has the potential to aid in injury rehabilitation (Demo at the bottom of the post. Leading up to this year’s Super Bowl with Tom Brady’s Buccaneers and Patrick Mahome’s Chiefs, Ilayda and her team won the NFL’s 1st and Future Competition (Full NFL Network segment of competition in link).

Organic Robotics Corporation beat out Genesis Helmets, Inc., Nix, Inc. and GO² Devices / PEEP Performance, LLC for the top spot.

Below you will find more talking points of this interview:

How can Light Lace assist in helping athletes avoid injuries.

How movement, muscle fatigue and respiration affect an athlete’s vulnerability to injury.

The role athletic trainers/team medical staff will play in using this technology.

Light Lace being used in training and competition or both.

How athletes and a team’s medical support staff can make decisions based on the information gained from Light Lace.

Opportunities for Light Lace to be used in injury recovery.

How the idea for Light Lace evolved and what is on the horizon.

Winning the NFL’s 1st and Future Competition after not being selected at all in the year prior.

Challenges in starting your own company and advice for athletes looking to start their own company or turn an idea into reality.

Where can you connect with Ilayda online?

LinkedIn | Website

Download Episode 159 : iTunes | Stitcher