Jeremy Weisz
you’re gonna say you asked that second.
Don Yaeger
I wish I had been that person or that. I wish I’d had that level of chutzpah but I did not. And so it was a month later when I finally did, and he his response was, I just wonder what took you so long? So at that stage, we began, which was awesome.
Jeremy Weisz
Talk about what you observed in that mentoring session with Shaq and John Wooden.
Don Yaeger
Well, I think the biggest piece was that it wasn’t about basketball, very little of it was by basketball. Much of it was about being a better father. Being a better teammate being coachable. Leading others how do you be? How can I become a great captain? You know, so it was it wasn’t necessarily basketball. what it was, was the ability to, to translate the skill sets. He was learning there into the life that he wanted to live. And so that became quite impactful.
Jeremy Weisz
What did he say about being a better father, you remember?
Don Yaeger
Oh, yeah, I mean that the key to being a better father was to be present. Right? And to not allow what it was that that you did for a quote unquote, living right to affect the way you came home at night and we all do that right? Coach Wooden worked diligently on that affect his daughter, Nan, is one of my favorite people in the whole world not doing well, physically right now, bam. But Nan, Nan used to say that, or has always said that when he would come home and pop what would come home, we wouldn’t know if he won or lost or if you had a good practice or a bad practice or, you know, he that was not the conversation that we that he came home to have. So really important.
Jeremy Weisz
And from doing the book, what do you remember as maybe a favorite interaction or story as you’re researching over 12 years? I mean, or maybe your relationship over 12 years but researching the book.
Don Yaeger
Well, I maybe one of my favorites came toward the end, you know, Every time I would leave his, he had this little condo right that he lived in. And he he lived in the second storey and then he parked underneath and and so I would park in a parking space and I would come up to his condo we do our thing. And it would go for hours right he was like he could lock in and be present with you for hours and we would go together for a long time. And then and then i would i would pull out of the garage and when I would I’d look up and they’re standing on his back patio was Coach Wooden who would have come out of the the condo or the little you know, his place of living and his condo sounds far more luxurious and it was and and he would stand there to make sure that I got a wave before he left, right. And so one day kind of close to the end. I actually said, I said, coach, gosh, you know, have to say, every time I leave here I feel like I’m a better man than when I arrived. Right? And in a you say something like that to you or me, and we might, you know, gosh, it’s such a nice, what kind words really appreciate it. Thank you. Coach wouldn’t just looked at me and he said, I hope you make that your standard. Hmm. And I was like, excuse me. And he goes, Yeah, that when people leave you, they will be better for the experience. And instead of instead of just doing the humble brag Oh, thank you. He jujitsu that
Jeremy Weisz
he uses at a teaching moment he
Don Yaeger
taught me Are you going to meet? Are you going going to be that? when people walk away from time with you? I thought wow, it’s a little pressure.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah.
Don Yaeger
So yeah, so we we, we talk and think about that a lot. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
Thank you for sharing that. It’s amazing actually and you know, your book and Wooden favorite books of all time and I always his his sayings always are in my head like, be quick, but don’t hurry and when everyone says, you know, complaining about doing fundamentals, I think John Wooden basically teaching these pro athletes or future pro athletes tying their shoes in putting their socks on. I mean, that’s what I think of. Anytime someone says that what do you some favorite John Wooden quotes that ruminating your brain
Don Yaeger
on a weekly oh yeah my favorite quote of all time is one he taught when he shared with me which was make each day your masterpiece right? And the reason that that quote is so impactful to me is because it It sounds so easy right? It just sounds like make you stay difficult that right I mean let’s be honest right it’s actually really hard. What is the masterpiece day me into a well prepared? You delivered on every commitment you made you were you were better than you delivered more than you promised you. It all of these six doesn’t mean you won at anything. Right? But you had a masterpiece day. Yeah. And if And it’s hard but if you do it and you string a couple of them or several of them together, you get a masterpiece week right? It’s pretty good week.
Jeremy Weisz
I’ll start with an hour Don master hour and I go
Don Yaeger
Yeah, but it’s but so but that was coach Wooden’s. One of his favorite quotes in fact is his great granddaughter Corey who one of my favorites you know her her brother one day wanted to make was as all brothers try to do get get her in trouble and and so he he made sure that coach knew that Corey had gotten a tattoo in the previous week and she was in high school and and Coach Wooden was just so disappointed in you know, my great granddaughter a tattoo Honestly, you know, like, those are things that you cannot undo and be careful and blah, blah, blah. And he asked to see it and she rolled her wrist over and it said make each day your masterpiece. Hmm. And it was just this really wonderful. Very, you know, which coach was like, Okay, I think I think I’ll be okay with you right now on this. You know, like what she
Jeremy Weisz
the only thing she could have put they gave her a pass Don.
Don Yaeger
The only thing right? Yeah, it was. It was wonderful. But it was one of those things for you. Yeah, very cool.
Jeremy Weisz
So Don, at this point, how many books have you written? Because I have an idea for your next one. Not that you haven’t written enough of them. Like I’d love to see a book of each of the people have a page like Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, John Wooden and your favorite quotes from them. I would love to Have a book of that. Just, that would be really cool. So how many books have you written to this point?
Don Yaeger
Gosh, well, so published and publicly available I have 31 Yeah. And then you know, there have been some folks who have kind of commissioned me to, to do work for them that that they chose to keep doing ghost writing situation. Well, but now they they chose to keep the book even though it’s got my name on it. Like the children of Stephen Covey, right. hired me to work with Dr. Covey and all nine children to write a book that will likely never get published. But it was a powerful take a legacy book. Yeah, it’s a legacy book was 200 200 copies of it printed and they will keep it within their families. For many, many years to come, that’s really um, and I’m honored to have been the chosen one to do that so.
Jeremy Weisz
What are the other if you can mention one of the legacy books that no one will ever read, but maybe we should
Don Yaeger
buy? part of you know, my commitment is I don’t really talk about those people because they their their their their reasons why each one of them slotted chose it, got it. I’m good to honor them.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, totally. Um, so John Wooden and leads to Coach K. Talk about the relationship with Coach K and some of your your favorite leadership, you know, lessons from him.
Don Yaeger
I think with Coach K. He is, you know, wouldn’t ask in many ways is values based leadership model but not would ask in the way me he’ll get in your grill right he will he will he’s he’s confrontational Irie then coach would even though you know in the in the pantheon of coaches today he he wouldn’t look particularly fiery compared to some he is is far more fiery than John Wooded was but he is a yeah he’s very Wooden like in leadership in that he believes that that you you have to it’s about communication and your willingness to require a man I love the way Coach K he requires every player that he’s engaged with to look them in the eye when they’re talking right say that’s a key element is the look me in the eye. Because that’s when I know the two of us are locked. Right when when you’re all over the place or paying attention to other things. I not sure you completely work completely communicating. You know, it’s interesting. I love the way he leads that way.
Jeremy Weisz
Um, and then favorite coach case story from again, the years of of knowing em or chatting with them.
Don Yaeger
So probably one of my favorites would occur would be so I love still to play the game of basketball. I live in Florida. I have a full basketball court in my backyard, right with lights and, you know, in a typical non pen Ben, we’re gonna play horses. One
Jeremy Weisz
day down.
Don Yaeger
Typical non pandemic world. I’ve got guys who play there several nights a week. And I love to go out back and just shoot, play and run the court all for a couple hours. But Coach K hosts an old man basketball camp every year that I have, that I’ve attended for seven straight years. And, and so just watching, you know, the way he very thoughtfully uses it, you know, he brings together 100 guys who are in their fields pretty exceptional to play basketball on Cameron Indoor Stadium, which is pretty awesome. But then he brings back all of his old players, to coaches. And, but the reunion aspect of it is huge and the genius In a, there’s the charitable model which he which he uses, but, you know, he uses the money to fund a charity. But there’s the second piece, which is the constant interaction of his players and former players and business leaders, you know, the people that may one day have impact in the job market that they might be going to work in.
Jeremy Weisz
Ah, gotcha. Oh,
Don Yaeger
yeah. Using that you get to meet Ellis. Right. And, and they, the players are getting to meet people who are coming from a wide variety of industries. And if you’ve got questions like, Hey, I’m considering going into this business. There’s somebody there from that business is, you know, one of the great winemakers In America, there’s the owner of the Boston Celtics, right there’s a there’s some unbelievable real estate tycoons. You could learn anything you want to learn it over those few days if you set up to want to do that, and coach pushes his former players to set out to do that, like, just don’t go hang with each other. Go hang as a community and when you do it in Durham, North Carolina. You know, is that a lot else to do? So it works out really well.
Jeremy Weisz
There’s a maturity about that. Do the players even realize that that’s happening or are they too focused on the present of like, I’m trying to make the NBA.
Don Yaeger
So coach, Coach K makes it a point like he does not this is not a hidden agenda. Bam. Right? This is In a, you know, you open a fortune cookie and see what it says this is, I’m telling you, right? That even if you do make the NBA, most NBA careers last this long, you know, you’re gonna live this long are you what are you going to do with, you know, that remainder and in that remainder, I encourage you to make sure that you’re building relationships. I, I got a, I got a text message from one of those former players. Just Just yesterday, you know, whose I was just checking on me and my family and it’s like, really in it to do that. But, but he does because we’re, you know, we’re in relationship and that’s great.
Jeremy Weisz
Don, there’s a picture I saw of Michael Jordan, and you’re sitting in the picture With a basketball jersey yeah what was paint the picture for me what was the scene there?
Don Yaeger
Jordan also does or did an old man basketball camp for a number of years and an invitation only basketball camp for guys you love the game. But that all kind of came from same thing and did in Vegas that he did his in Vegas where there’s a lot of opportunity for you not to be engaged with each other where you could go do all kinds of other random things. But and so that was a picture from one of Yeah, from the opportunity to go there and play. And the highlight of those four days for me was that I get to go one on one with Michael. One on one with Michael, which is A story I tell often in speeches that I give to corporations because the, the victor at the end of the competition was not who you thought might think it was. What do you mean? You’re looking at the competition between Michael Jordan and the and and and if you watched any of the Jordan series and you saw the deep competitiveness of Michael Jordan the last dance the last dance Yeah, you would appreciate that he’s
Unknown Speaker
not gonna let you with
Don Yaeger
still to this day asked me for a rematch. Yeah, really? Yeah. To which I will always refuse I had we had we had our we had our game and I Won
Unknown Speaker
to go out on top?
Don Yaeger
I’m wanting to know, against the greatest player of all time. Yeah. And I will and I will stay there.
Jeremy Weisz
What have you learned from Michael Jordan from talking?
Don Yaeger
Well, you know, I think what you learn it’s funny because I do some leadership coaching and one of my coaching clients was somebody I was on with this morning and and he has been riveted by the last dance as well and was asking me about it and, and he would, he aspires to lead. Well, he’s a great leader already. This is coaching client of mine, of an incredible company, but in that world. He, he admires, like what he learned about Michael Jordan, but he worries that he’s not anything like that as a leader. And and I’m so I said by the way, there’s your lesson you want to learn. The deal is that John Wooden, Michael Jordan far different leadership styles, but both very successful right? There is no single leadership style that you should emulate, but you should study them all. And so Jordan, Jordan had such an intensity about him. Such a desire to win and to push others past their personal limits. That it like my children have watched the last watch the last dance with me. And, and they’re young when they’re 11 and 10. So they know they did not know Michael Jordan as Michael Jordan and The player. And so they’re like, Oh my gosh, wow. Man, that guy seems mean. It’s like, No, I mean, I mean, maybe might be your way of looking at it. But oh, by the way, you know, that was how he pushed others. And, you know, and there are others around who all have different leadership styles, you know, and all of us need to make sure we’re listening for and learning from each and every one of those styles. And lets none of us try to go out and be the second rate version of Michael Jordan, right. We’ve all heard that phrase. Our job was to go out and do the first rate version of us where we might have learned something from Michael Jordan, which is awesome.
Jeremy Weisz
So That should be like, the headline of your site. I beat Michael Jordan one on one. I don’t see that anywhere on your site. I mean, that should be no, that should be front center. But you know what the best part
Don Yaeger
is? I have told this story so many times in corporate in speaking environments, you know, I and I tell the exact story about how the how the game went and have, you know, and our interaction show pictures of Jordan and I and all this whole thing. But I’ve told it so many times that a few months ago, obviously at this stage a few months ago, but my wife and I were flying through the Atlanta airport and some lady ran up and said, You’re the guy that dunked on Michael Jordan. And I was like, You know what, man? I’m gonna just take that.
Jeremy Weisz
It’s an urban legend. You’re an urban legend.
Don Yaeger
I am. I am. I’m not going too I’m not going to interrupt your thought right now. But I want to insert Yeah, the best part is at this stage I don’t even have to be the one to improve the story. Right? story is taking on its own level. I love it and approve it. I love it.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah I mean growing up in Chicago I saw that firsthand the last dance and and the championships and it was amazing to experience and then now see the watch it and see the behind the scenes is pretty tremendous. How do you decide to write a book down I could see myself if I were you be like, Oh my god, there’s a book there. This person would be great to do a book about this company. Like the John Wooden. How did you decide? The John Small to Dick Portilla? How do you decide I’m going to do a book
Don Yaeger
so it sounds super arrogant, and I hope that by the time your listeners are done listening to me, they will Get the start intended to be. But I think I have a pretty good internal feeling about what would interest other people, right. And if I think a subject would interest others, it’s not just a subject. It’s interesting to itself, right? Right there a lot of people I meet you’re like, Man, I’m an incredible book, you can’t wait you, you and then you spend more time with them. And you can you know, they’re not even a good obituary, riht? Let alone 60,000 wods. So I have to imagine that who’s going to want to read the book when they want to buy the book? I have to imagine listening to them after a few hours. Whether their stories will translate, because there are a lot of people who have great stories, but they will never, they won’t resonate or translate to other people. And a good book is a book where in your experience, I learned, right. And so that’s how I do it. I mean, it’s it’s never a, I mean, there are a few people, john wooden, right, it’s an automatic, but there are many others who are. I mean, you mentioned one, Dick Portillo, right. And that was privately commissioned initially and then he and then a publisher read it and said, Man, we want to publish t
Jeremy Weisz
That’s why I asked even though you can’t share him like I’m sure all of those would be nice. Maybe not all of them but a lot of them would be amazing for anyone to read, you know? Y
Don Yaeger
And and should they choose one day to go Yeah, they’ll they’ll be available but, but like Portillo I knew very little about him other than I liked, you know, his hot dogs whenever I was in Chicago, and then he reached you know, his assistant reached out, I flew to Chicago and we met and after several hours, I was like, Yeah, I this would be like, I would enjoy this this. What was it about t
Jeremy Weisz
at? Why did you What was your react
Don Yaeger
on? I think it as. It was combination of things. One was the American success story, right? I mean, I think that’s always you know, there’s a reason why he was inducted into the Horatio Alger society, but the other is so particular interaction with him That was pretty fascinating was we’re kind of talking About this together, and I’m a Starbucks guy like generally, and not today, but I have always been, and I have a particular drink a particular way that I liked it. And and so it is one of those things where if you have that, and you’re used to that standard and that’s the best part about Starbucks To me, it’s like several other really great organizations, consistency of product. An
Unknown Speaker
so I
Don Yaeger
you know, I come by Mr. Portillo’s place and I had my Starbucks with me and, and, and as we’re wrapping up, he goes, you know, tomorrow you coming back? Yes. He goes, Hey, I go to Starbucks in the morning to done I got your coffee for you tomorrow and I will not miss Portillo. Appreciate it, but I’m good. I got good. And he was no, no, I got it. I got it. And I’ll see you tomorrow. And so I, you know, I’m sitting there going. It’s nice that a guy that just sold his company for a billion dollars is buying me a cup of coffee, right? I like it. But now I know what I want and I’m good. So the next morning, I go by Starbucks and I buy my coffee. And I show up at his place and he scowls at me. And he’s like, done, you know, I mean, you know, why would you do that? I told you, I was going to buy your cup of coffee today, and I promised you I’d have it here for you. I’ve been keeping it warm in the mic, you know, I mean, to keep it warm for you, since I got home at 6am this morning, got back to the house. And he says, in fact, when you pull up I mean I made sure to warm it up again. And I said, Yeah, I get it Mr. Portillo, but but I like a specific cup of coffee or something. And I just regular Starbucks coffee doesn’t do it for me. I have a I have a drink. And he goes, Oh, I now and I went What do you mean? He goes, I fished your cup out of the trashcan last night, so that I could take the sticker with me to order your coffee this morning. And make sure I got you what you want. And I thought here’s a guy, it’s a billionaire, right? Who fished a cup out of a trash can to make sure that I was served. What I desired Not just that, not just a cup of coffee, and you wonder why the guy’s worth a billion dollars. Right? That’s amazing. Um, and and for me Like when I look at reasons that someone would be attractive to me as a as a partner in a project. It’s a mindset like that, that I’ve learned to love to learn from and understand where’s that come from? Right? That’s not natural for everyone. In fact, it’s natural for few. And where does that where would where does that? And I like to unravel. And as I do that, then books become apparent to
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, you’re spending, you’re spending a ton of time, energy and effort on this. So you need to be totally enthralled and wrapped in to the person and the topic and everything about
Don Yaeger
Yeah, I don’t work. I mean,
Again, sounds really arrogant. I just don’t want to work with people who bore me because it It gets old fast. And so that to do a book you you’re truly invested in each other for for a significant period of t
Jeremy Weisz
So do you take breaks like right now? Are you working on a b
Don Yaeger
ok? Right now I’m working on a whole bunch of actually right now because I can’t where I would normally be on the road speaking, right? Because this is we’re in the middle of, of lockdown. I might pivot like in week two of of this was to say I’m going to most of my speaking engagements where I it’s just what I’ve done for the last few years are going to be virtual become virtual and and will require less travel and other things. I want to fill my days productively and so I started I could flip the screen and show you but started reaching back to all these people who’ve talked to me about books over the years, and just said, is now the time and, and a number of them said yes. So I am. I’m actually engaged with a handful of folks who I love. So most of my days are spent in conversation with people who are enlightening and enthralling
Jeremy Weisz
Who are the some of the ones that you can talk about that we should be on the lookout
Don Yaeger
or? Well, one is a professional golfer who I’m a huge fan of who just you know, it didn’t have the right time. In our previous five years, we’ve been talking about it. Bubba Watson, who I just, he’s one of my favorite people on the planet. And the opportunity to work with him and to write his book is, is really, really incredible. And so very excited. buy that. Another one is with Jack Nicklaus, his son, Jackie, the second and Jack. It’s a father-son book. It’s pretty awesome. Yeah, there’s just you know
Jeremy Weisz
Um, Joe Namath, you’re at a book show Nina all the way talked about that
Don Yaeger
Um, you know, Joe was coming up on the 15th anniversary of the Super Bowl. And so there was an opportunity to work with Joe and he’s an intriguing figure to me. So I love getting a chance. I did not know him before working on the book. So he is one that where the opportunity to get it was both an opportunity to learn from someone and really get to know someone but Yeah, I’m certainly a fan of Joe’s that’s for s
Jeremy Weisz
Um, why David Ross
Don Yaeger
David and I had a friendship that extended back we we live in the same city. We live in the same little town, Tallahassee, Florida. And so I’ve kind of gotten to know him community wise over the years while he’s bounced around the majors. And so yeah, it just became this fun conversation around the idea that what made him special was his ability to be a great teammate. And so, and I wanted to understand that like, how do you and ultimately became this book that I think is done Far, far better than I think any of us could have imagined, but it was around the idea that you could become in valuable without ever being most valuable. Hmm. And in that process you if you were committed, it’s it’s a book. You know, in other leadership spaces you would call it about servant leadership, right? in baseball, it’s about being a great teammate. And but it’s his journey to learn how to become a great teammate. He what he wasn’t always that and so that that innate piece of it is what makes it so. So fast, man. Y
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, being a longtime Cubs fan and watching the World Series and seeing him he’s got a special place in my heart. And everyone knows who’s seen that game knows what I’m talking ab
Unknown Speaker
Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
Um, who do you want to write a book about
Don Yaeger
yet well, From an athletic standpoint I mean the one that I have said for a few years would really intrigued me. I don’t know how I ever get there but is would be with Roger Federer Roger Federer intrigues me largely because you know, there’s a guy who amazing as an athlete ven extended far beyond I mean you could have retired many years ago and just taken his cash and played dad and you know, been a commentator done whatever you wanted to do, but he still remains competitively juiced and i like that i i’m i’m so anyway, Federer intrigues me, Derek Jeter intrigues me. numbers will never probably make sense for either one of them to do a book It’s not financially and
Jeremy Weisz
the best sometimes people do them for different reas
Don Yaeger
Right? Yeah, to do a book The to do a good book, you have to dig deep inside of yourself and answer questions about yourself that aren’t always the easiest questions to answer. And I’m not saying that either one of them. Don’t have that within them
Jeremy Weisz
mean it. They may not be in the roadmap. Yeah, who else? Roger Federer, Derek Jeter. I’m curious, because then, you know, you’ve studied and talk with so many people I’m curious of who intrigues you for different reasons
Don Yaeger
So yeah, so who else? Another would be Tiger Woods, but I want the tiger today. Not the tiger that I knew back when I was at Sports Illustrated. I mean, I went to Tiger who is figuring it out. out and who. But, but again, gotta dig deep right? You know, that becomes the hard part in that conversation is are you? How deep Do you want to get? Are you willing to kind of sit there and and pull the reach deep in your chest and pull it
Jeremy Weisz
You know, and you did one, which if anyone’s seen the blindside right, called IBT
Unknown Speaker
How did that come ab
Don Yaeger
So most people don’t know that, that Michael Or the player who was featured in The Blind Side, actually had almost nothing to do with the book written by Michael Lewis, who I have enormous respect for as an author, but you know, Michael wasn’t the actual featured story in the book, The Blind Side, right. It was a book about The left tackle position. It just happened that Michael Lewis knew the family that Michael Or ended up living with. And, but when the book and the movie came out and all that kind of became famous. Yeah, the deal was negotiated with the family. And so they did quite well financially as a result. None of that was shared with Michael. And so there was so Michael didn’t even go wasn’t even at the premiere of the movie.
Don Yaeger
To see the movie about his own life, essentially, he had to pay 950 bucks. And wow, the back of a theater and, but out of all that came an opportunity for him to tell his story and he chose me to write I fell in love with him and I still and we’re still close today and he’s actually another name that’s on that board over there books that I may be working on one of these days because there’s a I think there’s a second level book in him that will be really g
Jeremy Weisz
eat out of your books, have you considered any of them turning them into mo
Don Yaeger
ies there have been several they have been purchased as movies including David Ross. screenplays have been written. It’s not my skill set. I you know, I’m I participate in the business deal of it but not in an I would. It’s just really hard to get a movie made, which is amazing to have heard that and then regularly look at the board and really There’s a lot of garbage out there I would go wacth So it’s it. You know, I think there are a number there there are a number that could be movies one day. As I said several have the the rights to them have been purchased in the past. It would be it’d be the book that I did with work done. The running back. Who amazing young man but better than that he you know, when he was 18 years old, he just turned 18. He was the oldest of six children. His mother was a police officer in Baton Rouge and she was shot and killed in a robbery at a bank. He became essentially the father He was the Father Who is the man of house right. raised his younger brothers and sisters while playing college football. becomes a first round draft pick. Oh begins a program starting to buy homes for women like his mom just recently bought the 170 seventh home. Wow. That he is purchased for single moms. That’s amazing. 477 kids live in a house today. purchased by Wharton. And but to finish his b
Jeremy Weisz
If you were to pitch one of them to you’re in front of the producers, like, out of all the books I’ve written, this is the one you need to make this into a movie. What’s that one that you would choose?
Don Yaeger
It would be it’d be the book that I did with work done. The running back. Who amazing young man but better than that he you know, when he was 18 years old, he just turned 18. He was the oldest of six children. His mother was a police officer in Baton Rouge and she was shot and killed in a robbery at a bank. He became essentially the father He was the Father Who is the man of house right. raised his younger brothers and sisters while playing college football. becomes a first round draft pick. Oh begins a program starting to buy homes for women like his mom just recently bought the 170 seventh home. Wow. That he is purchased for single moms. That’s amazing. 477 kids live in a house today. purchased by Wharton. And but to finish his book. He and I went to death row to beat the guy that killed his mom. Woa. At the end of the hour sitting there on death row, which was in its own right, amazing story. work done, looked at him and said I came here today to forgive you. Huh? Whoa. Yeah, good. Good. The next 20 Super Bowls and never see a moment like that. And, you know Yeah, that would be the movie. Y
Jeremy Weisz
Let’s get it done. Don. That’s amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Wow. That is what was it like walking down death row being there in that environment? It was it
Don Yaeger
was it was an intense It was not it was an hour of my life. I will did I would never be able to duplicate. Y
Jeremy Weisz
I’m Don. I want to, you know, first of all, thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Thank you for the body of work you’ve created for yourself and others. It’s truly amazing. You know, I’m an avid, you know, audible listener, I suggest anyone, you know, go to your site, go to Amazon and you just type in Don D O n Yaeger, y A e g e r or donyaeger.com And check out the books, the courses, the presentations you go into I know organizations and help them with leadership and everything. So I encourage everyone to check out your what your what you you’re doing and I figured talk a little bit about the online courses because people are Love, love consuming the stuff in an online course format. Your journey to greatness and high performing teams, maybe talk a lot about dream to greatness first and what, what people will expect or what’s in th
Don Yaeger
And no, it’s a course that was built around. The question my father asked me, you know, encouraged me when I was a young reporter my first year out of college, to always make sure that every interview that I did included a question I would want to learn From for me, right? And so I built a question which was if you could name a habit that, that you believe separated you from others what women habit be. And I get 2500 of the greatest of our generation to answer that question over the course of a 30 year career. And so this is the top 16 answers to that question and the stories and the lessons they taught me along that journey, and it’s reduced into bite sized pieces each day is less than 20 minutes of learning, but with action items and all the good things that you would expect from a course that you’d want someone to take. And so anyway, that’s the that’s the What’s that course? What’s one that st
Jeremy Weisz
cks out? That maybe included or didn’t include in there? Because you can include all of t
Don Yaeger
em? Well, I included the top 16 answers, which was the goal. I think one that really stood out was the willingness to have to think of yourself every day as a role model. I mean, again, you’d go to the last dance reference, and there was the, you know, there was that whole piece where Jordan said, if there was something I regret, it’s that I was held out as a role model, right? Because it’s so limiting in that in that, you know, now you can’t make mistakes because then, you know, all your detractors will say, See, I told you not to try to be like that guy. But the truly great ones I kind of want to be, they appreciate they understand. It’s a high bar. It’s a pain in the butt. And but it’s also it’s, it comes with it comes with the territory, responsibility. I mean, you talk about that in the john wooden book where he comments about Charles Barkley. Correct? Yeah, y
Jeremy Weisz
So that’s amazing. So people can check that out journey to greatness on your website is they can go to courses that’s on there. And what about high performing te
Don Yaeger
ms? That that course is coming, it’ll be available the next you know, by the middle part of the summer of 2020. we’ve filmed it it’s being it’s been edited. It’s been turned into what a good course requires but it’s it’s based upon a five year run of effort around the world to sit down with the builders of great teams and ask questions about how they created the culture that allowed their teams to sustain excellence. And, and then taking those habits, those organizations and turning them into lessons and the lesson plan. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
So, Don, I have one last question. And I want to tell people to go to donyaeger.com. Where else should we point people towards to check anything
Don Yaeger
I think that’s the way that I’m you know, yeah, everything is th
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. My last question is, I guess from your last question, which is what separated you What’s a habit that has separated
Don Yaeger
Um, I would say an insatiable curiosity. I am. I once had a leak. Tell me that I possess a high CQ. Right a curiosity quotient. And and so I think that that’s a valuable asset. For me it’s been it’s certainly worked Yeah, to my advantage when someone writes a book about you, john, I know your books about
Jeremy Weisz
ou, maybe they call CQ. The most important aspect to you for a lifetime of success. Okay, so that’s my working title for you. Okay. But Don, it’s been absolutely whenever it does that, I think in I think in book title, so that’s why I love your stuff. But CQ. Thank you, Dan. It’s been an absolute pleasure. I totally appreciate you.
Don Yaeger
Thanks so much, Jeremy. Appreciate
