Brian Ford (00:10)
Welcome to Money and Mindset with Bright and Brian, a podcast that blends personal finance with positive psychology to help you feel more confident about your money. I'm Brian Ford. I'm the head of financial wellness at Truist, and I've made a career out of helping people hit their money goals. I'm here with my friend and fellow Truist teammate Bright Dickson, who's an expert in positive psychology. How you doing, Bright?
Bright Dickson (00:33)
Hey, Brian. I'm doing really well, and I am really excited about today's show. It's all about the qualities and attributes that top athletes have, things like determination, tenacity, growth, mindset, and how we can apply those to our mental and financial well-being. We are going to be joined by NFL veteran Jedidiah Collins, who is truly a study in determination and reinvention. We are going to talk about his career as a professional athlete and how that led him to the world of finance. And even if you know nothing about football or sports in general like me, you'll be inspired by Jed's story and his success, and you'll see all the ways that you can apply his lessons to your life.
Brian Ford (01:10)
Yes, I'm so pumped for this episode. My son is a huge NFL fan. He knows who Jedidiah is. This is so cool. Normally I drink water through these podcasts, but I've got my Gatorade right next to me. Bright, I'm like a huge sports fan, and the summer games in Paris are in full swing. I love this idea of applying the qualities of athletes to our money. I can't wait to get this conversation started.
Bright Dickson (01:55)
It's time to introduce our guest. Jed Collins spent seven years as a fullback in the NFL and was cut 13 times after football. He moved to the world of finance and became a certified financial planner, national speaker, professor, and bestselling author of Your Money Vehicle. He created a high school financial literacy curriculum also called Money Vehicle, and founded a program called Rookie to Veteran, which teaches people the importance of embracing failures and turning those strategies into success.
Brian Ford (02:26)
You've been busy for sure, Jed. We are excited. Welcome to the show.
Jedidiah Collins (02:30):
Oh, when I see the two words money in mindset in the same sentence, it is something that I automatically tune into. So Bright, Brian, thank you so much for the opportunity to share it, the Money Vehicle message, and to just continue to expand my horizons of where this real cool network of financial empowerment is born over the nation as we speak.
Brian Ford (02:55)
Yeah, man. I love hearing about the work you're doing to help the next generation become financially savvy, which isn't always top of mind for young people. I've got four little crumb snatchers, and so I know a thing or two about the mind of young ones. But Jed, how did your career as a professional athlete lead you to a career in financial education?
Jedidiah Collins (03:15)
As a father of two girls, they're definitely interested in getting money. That is not a concern. It's what happens next. And truly, that is kind of a great introduction of where my world began. As you mentioned in the intro, I got to play in the National Football League. I got to chase that dream. But what I really began to realize as I walked into the NFL was how unprepared I was for the financial opportunity. I go compete, train, do everything you can to go make it to a Super Bowl, extend your career. Sure, that's on Jed, but the other side of the coin was really never considered. It was never one that anybody said, "Hey, you should probably read this book or take this class," or "When you do get this paycheck, these are the things you should go do." And my journey really began with one of my first big paychecks from the NFL.
I had just been activated by the Cleveland Browns, and I remember this was back before automatic deposit, which was also an interesting strategy by NFL teams. If you don't automatically deposit... A lot of these guys are not putting it directly into their bank account, and we all learn interest can accrue, even if a day or a week goes by, on hundreds of thousands of dollars. That wasn't my paycheck, but my first paycheck came, and I remember opening the envelope and seeing the paycheck and saying, oh my goodness, this is the most amount of money I've ever had, but in my heart, knowing I'd already spent pretty much every dime of that paycheck. Now, before anybody jumps on me or gets angry, it was the greatest investment of my life. It was an engagement ring, and 15 years later, my wife is still here. I mentioned the two girls. So again, great investment.
Brian Ford:
Yes.
Jedidiah Collins (05:00)
But what it really opened my eyes to was my relationship with money. I made money, I spent money. That was really all I understood. Very similar to a ten-year-old today, I want to buy something, get money, spend money. And so it really showed me, despite being a business major and having an accounting degree, there wasn't a personal finance section at our business school. There wasn't a personal finance section in many business schools. So I went to the next greatest place at the time was Barnes and Noble, and I walked in and looked around. I found the personal finance section, I saw the Ramsyes, the Suze Ormans, the Rich Dad, Poor Dads, and it really changed my life because it changed my mindset. And from that day, I became a student of my own. How does Jed empower his financial future? To the point where I had a mentor challenge me to become a certified financial planner, and I went from student to an expert as I became a CFP.
And once I became an expert, I really began to realize how much I enjoyed the teaching atmosphere. And so I went out and started to teach high school, college students, companies until I was confident enough to start my own business. But I am proudest to say, because I'm a big fan of journaling, and this might be and probably won't be the last time you're going to hear me say journal on this podcast, I wrote in my journal back in June of 2008, during my rookie off season going into my first year, if I could do anything, it would be come back and explain this language, explain how do people capture this dream of the NFL or of really any dream you're chasing financially. And what I'm most proud of today is 15 years later, I walk and work with about half of the NFL. I get to teach four to 500 NFL players this off season, speaking this language of monitoring and trying to help them capture that dream.
Bright Dickson (06:49)
Jed, that's so cool. And Brian and I talk all the time, and it's a bit of our reason for doing what we're doing too, is that education piece and how our educations were both different but also insufficient growing up. And I think it's so important that you're going out and teaching people at that point where they're just really having to deal with it and taking advantage of that moment. So Jed, once you became an entrepreneur and you started this next phase of your career, what led to the Money Vehicle and the rookie to veteran programs? What were you really thinking with both of those?
Jedidiah Collins (07:25)
Thinking I had to be kind of crazy to try. But Bright, as you mentioned, your educations are different and still were lacking this language. The light bulb in my head went off was my brother's very highly educated. One was getting a master's at Berkeley, the other was at Harvard Law School. And when they started asking the big dumb jock brother about money, I really drove in and like, Harvard Law School doesn't prepare you financially? And it's like, no, absolutely not. So, so many people are embarrassed or intimidated that they didn't have this, and it's the reality. It's been a concept that we have overlooked. So what drove me to making this, my life's passion was to really start seeing the vast amount of students, people who need to better speak this language of money. And so Money Vehicle in and of itself is an analogy to see money differently. Don't see money as the destination.
Money is just a vehicle and a tool to help you get somewhere. And so where I really wanted to start was what I do best is I make silly analogies, silly stories. I'm not afraid to act a fool and to try to entertain while I'm teaching. And so as I was actually riding the bus at my first job in wealth management at Brighton Jones, I was riding the bus to and from Seattle from my home. And on that bus, I started to really try to think creatively. Well, how do I explain compound interest to somebody who doesn't know anything about money, taxes? That's a boring subject. How do you spice up the language of taxes? And so Money Vehicle began to be this series of analogies, stories that I would go out and deliver in the workshops. And as you could imagine, some stuck, and some people would raise their hand and go, "I have no idea what you meant by that one."
Hey, we're going to mess up. We're going to fail. That's part of this message too, is you got to go out and just keep swinging. And so Money Vehicle organically began to develop as I was going into this teaching mindset. The rookie to veteran was because of the NFL, because of the captivating culture that the NFL is, everybody would ask me questions. What was the biggest difference between college and the NFL? Who was the best player? What did they do? How did you do this? And so I started to, again, go back to my journals and find these stories of moments in my career, again, cut 13 times over seven years. I look back at it now as a great part of my journey was how many coaches, players, organizations I got to go experience. Most guys want to get drafted by one team, retire with that team.
That was not the Jed Collins journey. So the rookie to veteran was the behaviors, the principles and the mindset, but really the behaviors of the best in the world. How were they acting? What did they do that they were still in the building that I was not doing that I was obviously packing up my locker and getting on a plane ride home. What were those qualities? And so I meditated, journaled, and really focused on what was going to translate. When football was done with me, what was I going to be able to stand on and say, despite not going and having a helmet on, these behaviors are still going to help me find success at my next venture and my next journey. What is so poetically just today is how much I see these two passions of mine, this money and this mindset...
Brian Ford (10:40)
There you go. Got it in there. Nice job.
Jedidiah Collins (10:45)
... this money and this mindset connecting and collaborating because I have heard and am understanding financial literacy does fail. Speaking the language will fail unless you start to take actions. And so where I look at Money Vehicle being the language, I look at rookie to veteran and being those actions, being the behaviors. And so how can we intertwine those two concepts? And that's what I got so excited about when I was introduced to the two of you. This is a two passions that you very much understand and obviously embody.
Brian Ford (11:15)
I like that. And I want to get more into the behaviors in just a minute, but I do want to take a moment to talk about failure. You mentioned that. You talk about getting cut 13 times, almost like a badge of honor
And look, good athletes, they experience failure all the time. It might be drop in a pass when you're wide open, missing the game winning shot when all eyes are on you. Maybe in your case, Jed, it's getting tackled before the goal line. Well, I don't know, you played fullback, right? So maybe even having the ball.
Jedidiah Collins (11:45)
I didn't get the ball.
Brian Ford (11:47)
Yeah, you're stoked to have the ball and get tackled before the goal. Maybe it's like missing the big block-
Jedidiah Collins:
There you go.
Brian Ford (11:52)
... before the tailback runs in and everyone celebrates him and not the amazing block that Jed made to get him there. But look, failure's a part of sports, it's inevitable, but it's important to find ways to recover from failures and turn them into a greater good. So Jed, you talk about the importance of overcoming the fear of failure. Can you explain what that means and how you've overcome that in your life?
Jedidiah Collins (12:14)
Absolutely, and I think that is such a great call out and such a good theme for everybody to hear today. We are so afraid of this boogeyman of failure, and again, being around the best in the world in football, but now having transitioned into the corporate space, being an entrepreneur and just venturing out into a lot more atmospheres, you realize if you want to achieve anything, great. Failure is part of the journey. And I've really focused myself on this mindset of embracing failure to embody success. Part of success is the failures that built you to get there. There is no way you would become great without realizing the aspects of yourself you need to work on. And those only come through failure. This mindset was kind of bestowed upon me as a child. I'm one of five children and my dad invented a game for the middle three brothers, we were all one year apart, so we were very close in age, called King For A Day, and we'd go play basketball in the backyard. Shocking, my family is all basketball. I was the only odd duck that played football.
But as we played this king For A Day, it was one-on, one-on-one basketball. And at the end of each day, a king would be crowned who could boss the other brothers around. "Go get me my dinner. I'm thirsty. Go clean out the garage, go clean up the dog poop." They got to boss you around, and they had the authority of dad behind him. And I remember losing King For A Day hundreds of times, playing this game and knowing I was going to lose. I actually also vividly remembered the two days that I walked off king. Again, having older brothers, they were better than me As you grow up, they had started going through puberty and things like that. I looked at this and I started to change my frame. Going against my older brothers, going and playing King For A Day, I probably was not going to win. And I will say this as a side note, if you are going to win King For A Day and know you will not be king tomorrow, be a gracious king, be a very gracious king.
But as I walked out onto that court knowing I was going to lose, my measurement had to shift from, "Am I going to be king?" to "Did Jed get better today?" And that was a humbling realization and failure. Yes, I might fail today and not be king, but if I improved, wouldn't that be success? Wouldn't that failure today losing against better opponent lead to me ultimately becoming better? And it did. And it hardened me to a point, but it prepared me. When I got to the NFL, getting cut 13 times, I go back to that king for a day mindset and I continued to say, all right, I'm not king, but how did I improve leaving this place? Which is what the origin of Rookie to Veteran was. What was I stealing from that locker room, from that coaching staff, from that organization? I look at my certification of financial planning. Did I pass every test on the first take? Absolutely not.
I was studying for it while I was playing in the NFL. But as I would fail a subject, it would only re-immersed me. It would re-challenge me and say, this is what you need to do. I transferred into wealth management. My first client fired us because of a mistake Jed made. I was a new kid on the block. I may have messed up and it was an immediate fail. And then you look at becoming an entrepreneur, and if you are not comfortable and friendly with the word failure as an entrepreneur, I highly recommend not going down that path. But it all stemmed down to this idea of failure. I now today get to use acronyms and little quotes and sayings to really practice my mantras and my mindsets every day. Fail, F-A-I-L, has really adopted a new meaning to me.
It means F, first, A, attempt, I, in, L, learning. F-A-I-L, first attempt in learning. And if we can really just start to harness that energy, not be afraid of failing, but by really dissecting it and saying, "Awesome, I failed. That's a bummer, but tomorrow I am better because..." And as you look at money, so many people don't even want to get started in money because they're afraid of failing. I don't know so much. If you look at your mindset, so many people don't want to challenge themselves to grow because they're afraid of what might happen. But as long as we really look at the first attempt in learning, as long as we really look at every setback making us stronger and better, we know that greatness is built off people finding their weaknesses through failure and challenging themselves to get better. So that mindset continues. Embrace failure to embody success.
And it has truly allowed me to chase a dream that, believe me, 10 years ago when people said, "Jed, financial literacy, you are destined to fail," I simply said, "All right, but I'm going to get better every day." And that has allowed me the confidence to continue down this path.
Bright Dickson (17:40)
Yeah, Jed. I love all of that. I think so much of that is so important. And really learning how to fail, it's a skill in and of itself. And I think when we teach young people that they will fail and that in so many ways they must fail in order to learn, that helps us develop the skills and develop that mindset that will eventually lead to success. Even though so many times, I feel like it's not the success sometimes we thought we were going to get when we started, those failures change the way we look at those things and change the way that we actually view the end state of success, right? And that mindset is what shapes our reality. You use the term pro mindset. Can you take a little time to explain what a pro mindset is and how that idea really originated from your days as a professional football player? And then how does that apply to finances? What's a pro mindset and finances?
Jedidiah Collins (18:25)
I love that. So be a pro. Those are three words... Again, I truly do look at getting cut 13 times now as a blessing. I got to walk into so many different buildings. Be a pro is three words that are written on pretty much every building in the NFL, and I would argue that it expands beyond football into really all sport. And it's not so much a pro as an athlete. It's just a professional human. So be a pro became this mantra. It was an expectation. There was no excuse. The expectation was for you to be a pro. And as I started to really understand bouncing from team to team, what was that pro mindset? What were the qualities, the skills? What were the first things it took to become an NFL player? That was a question I got a lot. How were you able to become an NFL player?
Well, you adopt this be a pro mindset. And the three traits of be a pro is confidence, trust, and value. And you look in question and you say, what does a professional need to do each and every day? We have already started talking about failure and the word that comes up and where everything begins is confidence. I have to have confidence in myself. I have to have confidence that I deserve to be here. Now, confidence and cockiness are very different things. Cockiness is an external voice. Cockiness is the new rookie class walking in telling you how good they are. Confidence is the voice in between your ears, the one that's speaking when no one else is around. Confidence is a belief within yourself that you do deserve to be here, and that is where everything will begin. I had a great coach continue to tell me, "If you don't believe you're supposed to be here, why would I? Nobody else will believe you deserve to be here until you do."
So confidence, I would argue is perhaps the biggest and hugest step because it is often the one that so many people struggle with, which you heard me reference earlier my mantras. Confidence is not something you get and it's just, oh, it's like a tattoo, it's with you forever. Uh-huh. Confidence is like showering. You need to do it every day, sometimes twice a day. It is a daily, daily process. Once I'm confident in myself, I do get to start looking externally, and I do get to start incorporating these ideas of trust within my team. Now, I got to run across Coach Andrew Reed, who's now the Kansas City Chiefs, but I was with him with the Philadelphia Eagles, and I learned this idea of trust with one simple phrase. This was the first word spoken directly to me from Coach Reed, and it was after I made a mistake. I made a mental error, I jumped false start, whistle blew, and I got replaced in that rep. And as undrafted free agent, you don't get many reps, so I had really lost that moment.
And Coach Reed walked by me and he looked at me and he said, "Son,' probably because he didn't know my name, but he said, "Son, we can't beat ourselves out there," and he walked away. And we can't beat ourselves out there was a message to me. He was saying, "Son, I need to trust you on the field. Those coaches standing over there, they need to trust you. The people watching up in the organization need to trust you, your teammates. We can't beat ourselves. We have to trust who you are and how you're showing up each and every day on that field."
And that trust within your team, once I am confident in myself, I build that trust. And Stephen Covey and Speed of Trust has an amazing analogy comparing trust to a financial concept of a trust tax or a trust dividend. And I really love the idea of looking at every relationship I have and asking, is this a tax or is this a dividend? How am I measuring and embodying that trust within my team and within those relationships? And once you have confidence you deserve be there, your team begins to trust that you can do what we all need to go get done. The thing that a professional does each and every day is walk in the building and ask themselves, where can I add value? Now, this is a concept that you really need to establish. Everything in today's world that has your name associated to it makes you the owner of.
And if you're going to be a pro, you make sure anything with your name associated to it is something that you are confident that is going to build trust and is going to add value. And so as we look at that last piece, it is a simple question of how can I add value today? Is it a project? Is it is a person? Is it a client? Is it a... What is it that I am going to put my name on today? Not this week, not this month, today to add value to the team. And those three words be a pro, confidence, trust, and value have really shown me the transition outside of sports. The transition in any lane comes back to this knowledge of, where do you get started? How would I begin? You begin by being a pro. You begin with these three intangibles and you begin by allowing yourself to see yourself in confidence, trust, and value. And that has been the first step of Rookie to Veteran. And that has absolutely helped me in any beginning of a journey.
Brian Ford (23:40)
Oh my gosh, Jed, I'm loving this. This is like a must listen for my son. Sometimes I'm like, "Guys, you should listen to the podcast," because it's like, it's happening. Such good information. I'm a huge Andy Reid fan. I actually big Stephen Covey fan, so you're speaking my language and I really like the phrase Be a pro. It says so much, just three words. And Jed, I agree. This can apply to every aspect of our life, and I think it's a formula for building character. And when I think of great athletes, you on the football field, Simone Biles in the gymnastics world, Michael Jordan on the basketball court, there are specific qualities that successful athletes have that lead to success. And it takes more than physical skill just to be a great athlete. So Jed, what other mindset skills do athletes practice that can apply to personal finance?
Jedidiah Collins (24:40)
I got to pause. Did you just compare me to Simone Biles and Michael Jordan?
Bright Dickson:
He did. He did.
Jedidiah Collins:
I am in on this. Hey.
Brian Ford:
Man, yeah. You did.
Jedidiah Collins:
I love it. I love it.
Brian Ford:
You're there. Look, confidence, man. I believe in you.
Jedidiah Collins:
That's true. That is true.
Brian Ford:
I'm just kidding.
Jedidiah Collins (24:56)
So I looked at it was a question. And people love asking this. "What was the biggest difference, Jed? Jed, you went from college." Which I played at a mid-level college at Washington State. We weren't the powerhouse Alabama, LSU teams. "How did you make that jump? What was the biggest difference between college and the NFL?" And it all came to me actually what I was passing through the Kansas City Chiefs. And in football you have three groups. You have your skilled guys, which a lot of people know their names now because of fantasy football and things like that, you have your big guys, which you probably don't know their names, but if they walked in the room, you'd know who they are, and then you have this third group, this big skill. We're kind of asked to do both of those groups, but we really don't fit into each category.
And so as we looked at it, I began working out with these linebackers. This linebacker in core had a 15 year veteran on the team that I got to walk by and work out with, and unbeknownst to him probably, kind of became my mentor and my coach on the side because I just studied, how do you stick around this game for 15 years? I'm just trying to make a team this year. And I remember watching him. And out on the field, we would be required to run 40 yards. He'd run 45. We'd run 50, he'd run 55. We'd be in the weight room and we'd do a bench press set, set of 10 at 225. And he would encourage us. He would clap us on, "Come on, guys. Let's go." And then hey, old man had a chance to go, and he would slide two and a halves on the 225 making it 230, and he wouldn't do a set of 10, he'd do a set of 11. We'd be required, go get two game tapes, he would go get a third.
Finally, I was curious. And as you can imagine, I'm a curious guy. I sit and I think about things like that, like why was this dude running five yards further on the practice field? And finally, I asked him. I said, "Hey, is it hard for you to slow down." Five pounds on a bench press? I've never seen five pounds make any difference in a football game. Why are you doing this?" And he told me to look around. We're sitting in a weight room. He said, "look around. Every guy in here is younger than me, cheaper than me, healthier than me." And he joked and he said, "By now, most guys are probably faster than me. The only reason I am still here 15 years later is because I come in and I steal this." And he held up his fingers, and he was showing me a small distance between his thumb and his pointer finger.
And he said, "This inch, every day I walk in this building, I steal an inch. Whatever it is I am trying to gain, not a massive victory but a marginal gain." He said, "I believe an inch turns into a yard, a yard will lead to a first down, a first down to a touchdown and touchdowns get us wins. And if we're all serious about why we're here, we want wins to go to the Superbowl." And so I started to really embody and embrace this idea, this concept. I don't need to be great today. I just need to steal an inch. I need to get a little bit better.
As a fullback, my world was measured in a six inch battle. Again, it's NFL, you're not going to knock guys over. So as I went into a collision, the plus or minus would come. Did my guy move backwards six inches or did I move backwards six inches? And I looked at the days of the week, Monday through Saturday. That was six days a week. And I started to tell myself if I could steal an inch Monday through Saturday, I will have stolen six inches. So by the time I walked out onto that field on Sunday, I'd already won that six inch battle.
And again, I failed. I failed a lot, 13 times I got cut, but I became the number one rated fullback in the NFL, making me the best in the world, but it all started with an inch. What the biggest difference was between guys in college and guys in the NFL is players in the NFL trying to become the best focus on the smallest of differences. They try to steal those inches because they know the guy next to him is just as athletic, just as determined, just as hungry, just as everything. But if I can just get that little edge, that little inch on them today, perhaps that will be the difference maker. And as I look at a concept that translates to money, the beautiful eighth wonder of the world, compound interest, we translate it to our daily lives, we translate it to just, where and how can I prioritize today?
I really believe that idea of stealing inches is the greatest way to come back from a defeat, come back from a failure. You just got knocked down. I don't need you to jump up and do some jumping jacks, I just need you to take inch and get up. And tomorrow, we'll work on the next step.
Brian Ford (29:53)
Whew. I love it, Jed. In fact, I love where this conversation is going. Everybody stay with us.
Jonathan Walls (29:58) Hey there. I'm Jonathan, producer and editor for Money and Mindset with Bright and Brian.As I have been editing this episode, I've been having a heck of a time cutting anything outbecause our guest, Jed Collins, had so much great information that we didn't want you, ourlisteners, to miss out on any of this incredible conversation.
So we've decided to split it into two episodes. Part two will also be available wherever youget your podcasts. Special thanks to our guest, Jed Collins, for his time and expertise. Formore information on Jed and the work he does, visit money vehicle dot com. If you've gotquestions for Jed, you can send an email to ask Bright and Brian at truest dot com. Thankyou for listening, and be sure to tune in for part two.
