Jonathan Walls (0:07) Hey, and welcome back to money and mindset with Bright and Brian. I'm Jonathan, theproducer and editor for this podcast. This is the second part, a continuation of our episode,think like an athlete to boost your financial and mental well-being.
Thank you for listening and let's jump right in.
Brian Ford (0:29) Jed, as you were talking about inches and you were talking about stealing inches and just going that extra. If you ask people... A lot of people argue, who's the greatest NFL player of all time. Very few people will not put Jerry Rice in their top five. The dude's amazing and so many good stories about him. I remember Steve Young talking about he would catch a five yard pass and he would run all the way to the end zone in practice. And his teammates are like, "Seriously man? That took a while. We got to keep going." And he's like, "That's my mindset. I'm scoring on every play." And he's the greatest.
He is the Michael Jordan probably of the NFL, so I love that story. I really like this correlation between success on the field or the court and success in real life, and I think we can all relate to the importance of this mindset because we can see how it translates, and it actually works through the actions of people that we all admire, that we watch in sports. So Jed, what are some good habits and strategies that we can take from sports and apply to our own personal finances?
Jedidiah Collins (1:33)
Endless, endless, endless. There's two daughters now playing sports. I tell them all the time, "My goal is not for you to be a professional athlete. My goal is for you to see what sports is, and it is a microcosm of the world of life. What are you learning in this game that is more important than if you won or you lost, or you had a good game or a bad game?" So again, that's where Rookie to Veteran was really clear for me, is sports is awesome, I got to play a lot longer than most. But what I tell people is money is an amazing thing to take away from sports if you get to a place. And now with NIL, a lot of people are trying to capture the financial side. But regardless of the money, sports is going to teach you and prepare you for life, and that is where we really need to start seeing the translations and seeing where we want to take out of these games.
Three of the concepts, and I'm not going to go too deep into them, I know we got a time limit eventually, but as we look at it, three concepts that I really love to share, the first being most over now. It's such a simple phrase, it's such a simple term, but as you walk into an NFL building, as you walk into a company or an organization, what is that company's most? What is the purpose that we are all trying to do? As we look at that most, we have set our goal. We're never going to sacrifice again. We're not going to look at something in the moment and say, "I don't get to do this because..." We're going to say, "I am not going to do this because..." When we are able to have a most, have a, in football terms, a Superbowl guide us, we can really look at our lives and prioritize. Financially, having your most is probably one of the biggest mistakes most people do not set, and they do get lost along the way.
I've also seen, as you look at setting your goals, team over me. That idea of I want to value the team over myself is the same concept as valuing what I want most over what I want right now. And if we can continue to make our choices based on what we want most, we're know we're headed in the right direction.
Brian Ford (3:51)
Yeah, delayed gratification,
Jedidiah Collins:
Absolutely. And I wouldn't even call it delayed anymore, Brian. I would push back and say, prioritized gratification.
Brian Ford:
I like it.
Jedidiah Collins (4:00)
That's a term. Delayed gratification gives me a negative tone. I don't get to enjoy now. No, no, no, no. You're going to get to enjoy, but you're prioritizing what and when you want to enjoy it. And that's a big message we try to do in Money Vehicle is everybody... You talk to a 17 or a 27-year-old, "I don't really care about retirement. It's so far off." Well, if you don't care about that person, who does? If we can get them to prioritize that behavior, now we're going to get them to want to continue down that path.
And so if I look at most over now, the second one would be a theme called mow your grass. And I saw this each and every day in the locker room. People get hounded by reporters. "How are you going to play? What's coach telling you? How's your new competition? Did you know they just traded for that guy? Where are you going to fit in?" And I remember watching actually another fullback I was competing with throw his hands up and just say, "Hey listen, I'm here to mow my grass." And I loved that concept. At the time, I was young and naive and I said, "Ha, I'll mow his grass, my grass and anybody else's yard who needs to get on this team?" But what he said was so prophetic because it was so neat for him to say, "I don't control what Jed does. I don't control what the coach does. I'm going to focus on what I can control."
And I really took that to heart and I looked at things that I could control. Every day, I can control my attitude. Every day, I can control my preparation. Every day, I can control my effort. And if I can control those things, those are qualities and traits that the game of sport teaches you, that when I show up for my job, my attitude, my preparation, and my effort, that's within my control. That's in my own grass. But mow your grass, control the controllables. And the last one is, and it's a simple idea. We all look, again, money as the destination. What is our goal? You have to set your most. And everybody thinks, when get there, I'll get to achieve or enjoy or do all the things. What I came to realize about the greats, the goods show up and be a pro. They show up, they're confident, they build trust, they add value every day. The greats, they learn to enjoy the hunt.
And I've heard... We have some military guys who say enjoy the suck. I look at that and I say, if you are on a hunt, you know where you're going, you know what you want, but you got to wake up at 4 AM, you got to go sit out in the middle of nowhere, you got to go through the hard. You enjoy that side of the process. It's not fun. If it was fun, everybody would do it. I know firsthand, if you want to achieve anything great, you're going to have to go through a lot of times to question yourself, and if you're crazy and if you're going down the right path. But if you can learn to enjoy the hunt, that is what will separate you from the next, and that is what will give you the courage and the energy to continue. And so you prioritize your most, you focus on what you can control and mow your grass. And then every time you can, enjoy the hunt, enjoy the process, and understand if you get that inch, your day today was valuable and accomplished.
Bright Dickson (7:25)
Oh Jed, so much, so much good stuff in there. I'm going to be appropriating that attitude preparation effort thing because I think that's part of exactly what we talk about here on Money and Mindset, but those three little words just really nail it down. And as you know, we are also huge fans of metaphor here on the show, and we talk a lot about how our relationship with money and how our mindset drives success or failure, or all of the various shades of gray in between, right? But sometimes measurability when we're in the moment can be tough. So to use another sports metaphor, from your perspective, how do you measure success in finance if there's not a scoreboard. If you don't have somebody else keeping score, how do you know you're doing well or not?
Jedidiah Collins (8:14)
A lot of people think I don't have an opponent necessarily, so there is no score. And I would go back to that most comment, is if you define what you want out of money, you do have a competition, you do have a scoreboard. In personal finance, we call that scoreboard your net worth statement. Where are you today in a snapshot, not everything else going on? And so again, what I love to do is be able to stand in front of rooms and connect these dots of where I've been in the football world to what I'm doing today in the financial world. And I do use this reference. I say, hey, what is our first objective of being an offensive player? You want to get yards. Well, gaining yards is your cash management. You got to start there. You can't score, you can't win, you can't do anything else if you're not gaining yards and controlling the controllables of cash management.
And so as you look at your net worth statement, you say, oh, I want this number to go up. Where do I begin? I begin by just going and getting a first down. I got to go get yards and move the ball down the field. Then as we do look up at the scoreboard, well, are we adding points? And those points can be determined as assets. Do we have money working for us? Are we adding value, adding points to our side, or is the other side of the scoreboard starting to fill up with those terms liabilities? Is money starting to work against us? Now, I will call out. I grew up on Ramsey. I don't agree with everything he preaches. There are good and there are bad ways to use debt. That is one of the biggest misconceptions I find in NFL players is, I have cash, I don't want any debt. And then it's paused. There's a credit game being played here that we need to utilize. But as we look at the scoreboard now I'm gaining yards, I am scoring points, I'm gaining assets.
Where people mistaken, well, there is no scoreboard, there's no measurement is because they've never defined their most. They've never explored what they want from money. Money is a vehicle. Where is it taking you? If you can identify where your most is, when you go get those yards, get those points, you even start stacking wins, you'll see your Super Bowl come to clarity. And once you know where your Super Bowl is, where your most is, now we can start to have that scoreboard and we can start to measure things in our favor. So as those wins get to stacking up, I'm making the right choices, I'm going the right place. But if I don't know where I'm going, very similar at Alice in Wonderland when she asked the Cheshire cat, "Hey, which road should I take?" Depends on where you're going. She said, "It doesn't really matter where." He said, "It doesn't matter what road you take, you need to have clarity on what your most is, and then you can set up your scoreboard."
So I really do see that net worth statement as our scoreboard today. Not that money is everything. Again, money is that vehicle. Where does it take you?
Brian Ford (11:15)
Oh man, Bright is like... I guarantee Bright's just smiling right now because she knows I'm so stoked on this conversation. She knows I nerd out on net worth all the time as like the scoreboard. But it's not just the end all be all. It's what can money do for you? Money is just a means to an end, a much more important end, but I love that. All right. Man, Jed, you got to come on again. I can tell we could go deeper on a few concepts.
Jedidiah Collins:
Sin duda.
Brian Ford (11:37)
We're on the home stretch. I just have a couple more questions for you. I really like how you use sports examples to help us better understand financial topics. And I would think those concepts resonate perfectly with professional athletes that you work with. So okay, two part question. One, what's one of the most important words of financial wisdom you offer to pros? And then two, what's something they're most interested in learning about in regard to their personal finances?
Jedidiah Collins (12:14)
Man, I said at the onset, I'm living my dream. I'm about to fly out tonight to go work with the Titans, and I don't even call it work anymore because truly I find my purpose in front of these men. I challenged myself, what could I be the best in the world at again? And I would argue speaking about this language to that audience, that's exactly where Jedidiah is supposed to be. I love the high school program, I want to go empower a million students, but times stands still. When I get to deliver that full impact. I will say, and I've got to, again, deliver to 400 NFL players this off season, the one message, the one theme... And again, control the controllables. I've started to look at what is that thing? If I get to talk to all these guys, what do I want them to know and hear and repeat, most importantly?
And it's this simple thought, your NFL dream is going to be measured in decades, not days, decades, not days. And if I can start to get them to understand that they can be the king for a day today, they can buy literally whatever you want today, you can support whoever you want to support today, but that doesn't help you when you're 35, that doesn't help you when you're 55, let alone when you're 75. If we can start to see this game of football and look at what we want to take from it, we want to see how much we can take over the time horizon of decades, not just days. We were so accustomed and told. Our dream was show me everything you have today. And what we're changing and shifting... NIL being a part of this because it is introducing them how to be a business earlier, not a businessman, a business earlier. As we look at it, we start to identify their most starts to change, their focus starts to change, and everything can change with that simple introduction.
And what I love is that's a phrase and a term that guys have now said back to me on my feedback forms. They write, "One thing I learned is my dream is in decades, not days." And so if I can talk to 2000 NFL players, a thousand WNBA players, doesn't matter what professional athletes you are, your dream is measured in decades, not days. And I will be sincere in saying if you don't capture the financial part of your game, your dream becomes a nightmare. You will start to look back at your game, at your journey for everything it took and not what it gave you. So I love to start and preface, it doesn't matter if you're a rookie or a six-year veteran, your dream is decades, not days.
But then I also looked at it and I said, all right, Jed, financial education fails if application doesn't occur. So what is one action? I would tell every NFL player, side note, pretty much every person to start to take? And it's a psychological action, as well as a cash management action. I challenge them, do not get your paycheck delivered to your bank account. Put your paycheck directly into a brokerage account. Why is because A, some of these guys make enough money to go over that FDI insurance of 250, sure. But mostly it's because, it doesn't matter who you are, if you logged into your bank account and saw $376,000 sitting in it, you're more likely to go spend some money. So if we deposit it into our brokerage account, and then on the first of each month our portfolio pays us like an employee, a burn rate number that we chose and we decide. And some guys it's 8,000, 10,000.
Some guys it's 25,000. But each month, you start by controlling what you are going to spend that month. You don't need to obsess over budget. You've already set the expectations, set the standard, and are going to go live your life through that. It opens up the door to, well, what is a brokerage account? Obviously. Well, what about if I want an emergency fund? Okay, we can pivot to a high yield savings, CD, money market, but it really allows them to start to see, how do I control the game with this simplistic plan? You use the technology today. You use automation. I didn't have even direct deposit. Now we have direct deposit, we have automatic payments. How do we use these tools? As a professional athlete, not being a financial expert? We use a portfolio paycheck, deposit it into that brokerage account first of every month. You have your plan set in front of you.
Bright Dickson (16:49)
We've covered a lot of important topics about mindset and financial success. I'm wondering, when you were starting out as a pro athlete, what do you wish someone had told you? Right? If you could go back in time and have a fairyGod football player come in and say, "Hey Jed, you need to know this," what do you wish you would known then?
Jedidiah Collins (17:10)
Gosh, that's a great question. And this is one that has something to do with football, but mostly my life in general. Nobody's really watching you. Nobody really cares. I meet so many people who are afraid to do something because what their friends might think. I'll say the first time I started posting on social media, the people who were making fun of me were my brothers, the people who knew me the best. And you look at social, and it's like you are three seconds and a thumb flick away from being forgotten. I wish somebody would've told me early on to stop looking around so much and comparing and competing against external and to really just look at young Jedidiah at 22 and asking him, well, where are you going to be at 27? Where are you going to be at 42? If I could stop and block all the external noise and stop stressing about things outside of my control, I would've had a much more enjoyable ride.
And I just wish somebody would've told me early on like, "Hey, it's not about them. It's not about theirs. It's not about where they want to go. Just continue to look internally. You walk into a room and you think, oh, people are whispering and looking. Nobody's whispering and looking, unless you're like Drew Brees, and then yeah, everybody is whispering and looking. But for the vast majority, 99% of humans, stop thinking about what others think of you and start really obsessing over what you think of you." And if you're proud of who that person's becoming, I think that would've been the greatest bit of advice early age.
Brian Ford (18:47)
Jed, it was just so good to have you on. We appreciate you. Thank you. I feel like we could have talked forever.
Jedidiah Collins (18:55)
Always enjoyable to meet, I don't want to call us nerds or geeks, but just people who are absolutely impassioned with this idea of helping others get the confidence to control their financial future. So Money and Mindset I think is the most perfect connection, collaboration. Bright and Brian, I think what the message you are putting out is just nailing on the head, so thank you for the opportunity.
Brian Ford (19:21)
Yeah, man, we appreciate that. And look, if people want to learn more about you and what you're doing with your Money Vehicle with Rookie to Veteran, where can we go?
Jedidiah Collins (19:30)
I would welcome people into the Money Vehicle movement. Over the last three years, we have seen 30 plus states require financial literacy to graduate high school.
Brian Ford:
Comencemos.
Jedidiah Collins (19:42)
Let's go. That is a class that Money Vehicle serves. So if you find or know of a high school that is looking to introduce or has or improve their financial literacy curriculum, Money Vehicle's a semester long class, English and Spanish, that can be addressed and entertain the students and empower the educators. Those educators need our support because not all of them are financial experts. So Money Vehicle would be a great place to begin there at yourmoneyvehicle.com. If you heard the Rookie to Veteran message and find it interesting, I have a speaker's website, jedidiahcollins.com. I welcome opportunities, as you can imagine, to share this message. If you have students, young students, old, anyone looking to embody what it takes to go from a rookie who is experiencing failures to a veteran who's embodying success, you let me know, and go ahead and reach out. Anybody on social media, LinkedIn, Jedidiah Collins, or social I am the fullbackoffinance, fullbackoffinance. So I look forward to connecting with you in the future.
Bright Dickson (20:55)
That's it for this month's episode of Money and Mindset with Bright and Brian. Thanks so much to our guest, Jed Collins. For more information on Jed and the work he does, visit yourmoneyvehicle.com. If you've got questions for Jed, you can also send us a quick email at askbrightandbrian@truist.com and we'll get it over to him. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you as well, Brian.
Brian Ford (21:17)
Yeah, thanks, Bright. And Jed, oh my gosh, thank you so much for your humility, your wisdom and inspiration. I feel like I'm talking to a dude who's like 60 years old, just wise. I mean that in just a great compliment. Just can't wait to chat with you again. If you want to hear more, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also support us by leaving us a rating or a review, or share this podcast. If you're a sports fan, I know the Olympics are going on, share this with a friend or a family member. And every rating makes a major difference and helps us with our purpose of inspiring people to take more control and feel better about their personal finances.
Bright Dickson (21:56)
As always, you can find past episodes and a ton of additional resources from blogs to calculators to budgeting tools at truist.com.money-mindset, or just Google Search Truist Money Mindset. We'll be back soon with another great topic on ways you can boost your financial confidence. Hasta la próxima.
Brian Ford (22:26)
Este episodio de Money and Mindset With Bright and Brian es presentado por Truist.
