Jayson DiManche entered the NFL in 2013 as an undrafted free agent out of Southern Illinois and walked into one of the most stacked linebacker rooms in football, on camera, during a season of Hard Knocks. He was the eighth or ninth man on the depth chart. He was supposed to be a camp body. He played seven years across the Bengals, Chiefs, Browns, Lions and 49ers.

In this conversation he breaks down exactly how he did it, and none of it sounds like what you expect. He calls himself lazy. He says the undrafted label was a gift. He explains why a linebacker who got manhandled on national television decided that was the best thing that could have happened to him in Week 1.

We also get into the part of his story most people never hear. Growing up in Trenton, New Jersey, going back to Haiti as a kid and seeing what he actually had. Being bullied, then becoming a bully, and the exact moment he realized he was aiming his energy in the wrong direction. His parents divorcing while he was fifteen hours from home at Southern Illinois. The film session after his first NFL start where the entire defensive staff took him apart for forty five minutes, and why he now says that was the first time he was ever truly coached.

And then there is the John Muir Trail. Fourteen days on the trail in 2020 with two former college teammates, a group of men over sixty who would not stop passing them, and three words from a stranger that Jayson says he would tattoo on his forehead if he could.

Jayson now works as a private football and mental performance coach in Dallas, training athletes on the mental side of the game that most people leave to chance. If you are an athlete trying to make a roster, a parent trying to help your kid handle pressure, or anyone who has ever been told you were not the guy, this one is for you.

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Kyle Arrington went undrafted out of Hofstra, got cut by two teams, and still became a Super Bowl champion and the NFL's co-leader in interceptions in 2011. In this episode of the Intangible Podcast, Kyle sits down with Chris Spencer to break down the mindset that took him from practice squad to starting cornerback for Bill Belichick's Patriots, including the story of intercepting Tom Brady in his very first practice with Randy Moss lined up across from him. Kyle gets real about growing up with almost no self-confidence, the imposter syndrome he felt sitting in a room full of Hall of Famers as a rookie, and why going to therapy every week has been one of the biggest factors in his success on and off the field. He also talks about building his nonprofit the Ball Foundation, writing his children's book Piece It Together, and the intangibles that carried him through eight seasons in the league. If you are an athlete chasing a dream that feels far away, a parent trying to help your kid build real confidence, or someone who wants to understand what actually separates the players who make it from the ones who do not, this conversation is for you. Subscribe to the Intangible Podcast for more conversations with elite athletes and coaches about the mental side of competing at the highest level.

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Jeff Byers was the best high school football player in America. Then he had hip surgery at 19, back surgery at 20, and a doctor told him he'd never play again. He came back, became a two-time captain at USC under Pete Carroll, played in the NFL with the Seahawks, Broncos and Panthers, and today he's the co-founder and CEO of Momentous, the performance nutrition company that supplies every NFL team.

In this episode of the Intangible Podcast, former NFL center Chris Spencer sits down with his former teammate to break down the intangibles that carried Jeff from the locker room to the boardroom. They get into why discipline creates momentum and momentum creates motivation, not the other way around. Why the most consistent person in the building becomes the leader, not the most talented. What Pete Carroll did every single day that made him impossible to misread. Why the single most underrated performance tool for a young athlete isn't a supplement or a training program, it's sleep. And why the day football gets taken from you is the day you find out whether the game defined you or you defined the game.

If you're an athlete trying to figure out what separates good from great, a parent trying to give your kid an edge that isn't another travel team, or someone building something outside of sport with the intangibles you earned inside of it, this conversation is for you.

Jeff's line on the habit that separates good from great: the ball always gets snapped. Time waits for no one. You have to be ready, you have to have a short memory, and it's coming again whether you're ready or not.

Subscribe for new conversations with elite athletes and coaches on the intangible traits that got them there, and drop a comment telling us which intangible you're working on right now.

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Maurice Hampton Jr. walked away from one of the greatest runs in Tennessee prep history — Mr. Football, Mr. Baseball, drafted by the San Diego Padres, and an LSU national championship ring — and still had to figure out who he was when it all stopped. In this episode, Chris Spencer sits down with J. Maurice Hampton, one of the rarest multi-sport athletes in SEC history, to pull back the curtain on what it really takes to compete at the highest level, what nobody tells you about the transfer portal, and why the intangibles nobody talks about are the ones that determine how far you go.

Maurice gets real about losing his identity after COVID and injuries derailed what was shaping up to be a legendary career, the moment he entered the portal with no safety net and no offers, and why he is now building Momentum Sports to protect young athletes from the predatory contracts and bad advice that almost nobody warned him about. He breaks down why the best baseball players in the world fail seven out of ten times and why that is the most important mental model any competitor can carry, what the 2019 LSU national championship team was really like in practice, and the one promise he made to his grandmother that he refused to break no matter what.

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Javon Patterson was a 7th round pick out of Ole Miss who started over 40 consecutive games in the SEC, tore his ACL two weeks into his NFL career, and still squeezed out four years in the league before walking away on his own terms. Now he is back at Ole Miss pouring into the next generation through financial literacy, life skills, and the kind of mentorship that nobody talks about on SportsCenter.

In this episode we get into the foundation his single mother built, what it really takes to earn trust as the center in the middle of an offensive line, how Devin Funchess three words mind like water helped him survive his darkest moment in the league, what young athletes in the transfer portal era are getting wrong about competition and development, and why his definition of success now is watching a young man set up his first LLC.

This one hits different. Real talk from a guy who played the game the right way and then figured out what comes next.

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Marc Trachtenberg is the founder, chairman, president and CEO of Silk Title Co, leading organizations of over 1,000 employees across real estate and financial services. On this episode of Intangible he sits down to talk about the intangibles that actually built his career, and none of it is the version people assume when they see the success from the outside.

Marc opens up about going bankrupt in his first business, the exact moment he realized the failure was his own fault, and how he rebuilt his mindset from the ground up. He breaks down what he calls the Degree of Suck, why hiring people smarter than you is the smartest move a leader can make, and why most entrepreneurs underestimate how many mistakes it actually takes to scale a company. He also gets personal about dropping from 345 pounds to 167 pounds while running his business, what pressure really feels like as a founder, and why he shows up for the athlete community trying to figure out life after the game.

This conversation connects directly to what every competitor and every athlete in transition needs to hear: your second act does not care about your first act's resume, discipline is not one size fits all, and the hardest work happens when nobody is watching.

If you are an athlete, a coach, or anyone trying to build the mental game behind the physical one, this episode is for you.

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Annie Bailey is a former Division I lacrosse player at the University of Colorado, a boarding school graduate from Culver Academies, and now a CEO and Equity Partner at Rise Sports Advisory — a firm built to help elite athletes build generational wealth, not just a paycheck.
In this episode, Annie breaks down exactly why 75 percent of NFL players end up broke or divorced within five years of retiring, what the average two-year NFL career actually means for long-term financial planning, and why the identity crisis that hits athletes when the sport ends is just as dangerous as the financial one. She also pulls back the curtain on how Rise works with NIL athletes in college all the way through retirement — using a slow, steady approach to financial education that builds real discipline before the big checks ever arrive.
We also get into the mental health side of this, including why Annie believes asking for help is still one of the hardest things for athletes to do, why trust and someone who makes you feel good are two completely different things, and why the most important word she chose to lead by in 2026 is nurture.
If you are a young athlete, a parent of an athlete, or anyone trying to understand what financial success actually looks like after sports, this conversation is for you.
Rise Sports Advisory: risesportsadvisory.com
Follow Annie on Instagram: @anniemorschesbailey
If this episode hit for you, share it with an athlete or a parent who needs to hear this. Subscribe, leave a review, and we will see you on the next one.

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Six years grinding overseas. Multiple country jumps. Undrafted in 2006. Chris Copeland could have walked away from basketball more times than he can count, but instead he became Belgian league MVP, signed with the New York Knicks in 2012, and earned the nickname The X-Factor over 171 plus NBA games with the Knicks, Pacers, and Bucks.

In this episode of Intangible Podcast, Chris sits down with former NFL center and host Chris Spencer to break down the mindset that took him from undrafted free agent to the NBA stage at Madison Square Garden. They get into the psychology degree that taught him people matter more than basketball, the mom who installed a no excuse mentality before he even knew what one was, and the night he proved to himself, not the world, that he belonged.

Chris also opens up about where real confidence comes from, what most people get wrong about perseverance, why he is grateful for every setback he calls divine timing, and the wisdom he wants to pass on to the next generation of athletes who think success means never losing.

If you are an athlete chasing a dream that feels far away, a parent raising a competitor, or anyone trying to build the mental resilience it takes to compete at a high level, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe to Intangible Podcast for more conversations with elite athletes and coaches about the traits that actually got them to the top, the ones nobody sees on the stat sheet.

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What does it actually take to build generational wealth as a professional athlete? In this episode of the Intangible Podcast, Chris Spencer sits down with Michael Ledo, CEO and founder of Rise Family Office, for the unfiltered conversation most athletes never get to have until it is already too late.

Michael is the nephew of Eugene Parker, the first major Black sports agent in America. He is a two-time Division II All-American running back whose ankle injury became the turning point that led him to build three athletic training facilities, develop over 100 Division I athletes and 15 NFL players, and eventually create one of the most distinctive wealth management platforms for professional athletes in the country.

In this conversation, Michael and Chris break down why a shockingly small percentage of athletes are prepared for life after the game, what it really means to learn the language of money, and the dangerous difference between a financial advisor who preserves your wealth and a family office that grows it. Michael shares real client success stories from Jalen Smith and Jesse Bates and reveals the mindset shifts that separated them from the 78 percent of athletes who go broke within five years of leaving the game, even while 56 percent of those same athletes had financial advisors the entire time.

This episode gets personal. Chris opens up about his own struggle with dyslexia and what it felt like to hide behind the helmet for years. Michael explains why most athletes are hiding too, why the helmet has to come off before real wealth can be built, and how vulnerability is the first step toward operating like a true entrepreneur. From the Five Whys method for finding your real motivation to the off-season calendar that Rise Family Office builds for every client, this is a masterclass in the intangibles of financial performance.

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Most athletes say they're coachable. Beno Udrih has a question that will change the way you see yourself.

In this episode of the Intangible Podcast, two-time NBA champion, 13-year NBA veteran, and current G League head coach Beno Udrih sits down with host Chris Spencer to unpack the intangibles that took him from a small village in Slovenia all the way to back-to-back championships with the San Antonio Spurs.

Beno gets honest about what it actually means to be coachable — not just with the coach who talks your language, but with every coaching style you'll ever face. He opens up about the Spurs' culture, what it was like watching Pop go at Tim Duncan as a rookie, and why fundamentals are the single most underrated intangible in any sport. He also shares the exact player development system that helped make San Antonio a dynasty, what he looks for in players beyond talent when scouting, and the question he asks every player on his G League roster at the start of training camp.

From scrolling through a mock draft and not seeing his name, to winning two titles, to now chasing his goal of becoming the first European-born ex-NBA player to be an NBA head coach — Beno's story is about consistency, self-awareness, and what it really takes to stick at the highest level for over a decade.

If you've ever questioned whether you belong, struggled to adapt to a coaching style that isn't your preference, or wondered what separates players who last from those who don't — this episode is exactly what you need.

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