Franklin: [00:00:00] Right now, the world needs great men who will stand up and lead with honor, serve with purpose and courageously fulfill their God given roles as husbands, fathers, leaders, and men. I'm your host, Franklin Swan, bringing you practical tools and powerful conversations you can use every day to build yourself into the man God is calling you to be.
This is the world needs men. Let's go.
All right. Welcome back to the world needs men podcast. I'm very excited about my guest today, Mr. Derek Price. He's a former pro football player, played for the Detroit Lions, husband, father. He's been a chiropractor. He's run nine figure companies as a CEO, as a coach. And on a mission right now to, uh, help improve people's lives.
[00:01:00] And we crossed paths years ago. And as I started this project, he was one of the men that I wanted to have on as a, as a, I began this, this journey. So pleasure to have you on today, man. I appreciate your time and, uh, let's just get into it, dude. Let's go, man. And thanks
Derek: for reaching out to me. And you know, there's always that dichotomy when we do a crucible as difficult as Kokoro.
People either leave when they leave and they make it through and they graduate, which is not the common mode. But when people actually make it through, it's like. Yeah, I wonder if that guy would invite me over for dinner or wants to take me in the backyard and beat the crap out of me. I had an impact on it one way or the other.
So, so frankly, it's good to hear that you're more of a let's go to dinner type of guy now. Yeah, absolutely. Must have done something.
Franklin: Right. And we'll get into the whole Kokoro story, but why don't you just start off, like, you've got a great story. Take as much time as you want to tell it, because I think setting that, uh, that foundation of kind of, you know, Everything you've been through is really important.
So please just share kind of where you've been and how you got to where you are now.
Derek: Yeah, man, I would love to. And you know, once I get rolling, I'm like [00:02:00] a boulder downhill. So just so dive in and hit stop and hit swerve and hit go. But, but to, to understand where I'm going for, I guess, for your listeners and just for the sake of conversation to understand where I, where I arrived at.
It always starts at the beginning. Like, where'd you start? Right? Like, where'd you start? How'd you get there? So that's what people want to know. It's the journey more than the actual destination. So I'm going to run it way back and I'll fast, I'll move fast. So when I was seven, my father passed away and it was one of those scenarios that there's really not a lot of good sentences that come after.
Hey, I'm the oldest boy in the house. I'm a single mom and you know, we're fatherless over here in this house and, you know, poverty and all that other kind of stuff. So we'll get to the end of how that ended up being, you know, something that at least I could observe in the positive light. But so it all started without having a father and without having a lot of money.
I used a lot of sports, or at least my mother did as our babysitter, oldest kid, kind of latchkey kid. And so it would not be uncommon for me growing up to get outta school from basically the second grade on. [00:03:00] first grade, second grade and have baseball practice that I rode my bike to. And then when that was over soccer practice that I rode my bike to, and now it's like seven 30, eight o'clock at night, I ride my bike home and my mom's there.
Right? So my babysitter were just series and series and countless amounts of different male figures and men that really shaped me into who I am. Coaches from the time I was like, Like I said, second grade was when I really got serious in sports, which is crazy to say second grade, but this habit became my lifestyle.
And all the way through junior high, I remember in junior high being on three baseball leagues at the same time, a YMCA league, a parks and rec league, a Tempe South little league league. that transitioned to an all star team. And I would just go from one practice to the next practice to the next, and it just became the normal.
So it didn't ever hop off on the scale as being like, wow, this is so much. You know, it was just my normal volume of doing. And when I got to high school, I didn't, first of all, I played in the [00:04:00] NFL. I didn't even play football basically until I was a junior in high school. I was all track soccer, baseball. I was very thin, very, very small.
As a matter of fact, I was so small my freshman year that if I wanted to have played football, they wouldn't have allowed it because I was under 110 pounds, which is great. Right. So I ended up at the NFL. Like to seeing you now, like that's wild. Yeah, it's wild. Right. So, so for those of you dads out there that got kids, you're like, I need to pack meat on them.
Like just stand by the body. I'll take the weight where it's ready. Like it doesn't matter what you throw out. It's just, it's not going to do your thing. So anyway, coming out of high school, I find, I started finding more athletic success. accolades, pats on the backs, awards, team captains, all city, all, you know, states, all stuff like that.
And I had a conversation with my mom about like, what does college look like? Hey mom, like what's the college fund? Like all these other kids that hang out with their parents save money. And like, what's my college fund look like? And it was like, well, we don't, we don't have that, right? Like you had Christmas presents.
It's like, it's fun. Like, okay, cool. So if you want to go, you got to find a way. And I actually had yet again, male influenced coaches. [00:05:00] Understand my situation and say, well, hey, let's, let's work to try and get you a scholarship. And uh, they did. Right. And so coming out of high school, I had some offers to run, you know, big time track at division one schools, but I really didn't want to run track.
I was kind of into the football thing and quite honestly, it was more ego because more people show up to watch the football game than they do a track match or track meet. And so my first, my first opportunity to go to college out of high school was going to junior college. And I went there and excelled pretty much immediately.
And after my very first year of junior college, and this is where life pivots start coming in, which is going to factor in my goal was to get a four year scholarship, right? I think everybody, yeah, four year football scholarship, get my degree, get my bachelor's, move on. After my first season of junior college scholarships were afforded to me at four year schools.
Smaller schools, like not, not the big schools you think about that you see on Saturdays, but small schools you never heard of. And I had a particular, a new coach came in and sat me down and said, Hey man, you can go take that. And I know that that was your original [00:06:00] goal is you want to get a scholarship and you have them and they're there here and all you have to do is sign that paper and they'll pay for you to get to graduate and play football out there like Western New Mexico or something like that.
He said, but if you stay and you do what I tell you to do, I will build you into something that I will be able to sell to every school in the country. And so I wrestled with the idea and I went home and I talked to my mom, who is my, my best, my team coach of all things in life. Right. I said, Hey mom, here's a situation.
Like I have these full rides and she's like, take those full rides. Like I'm the parent. That's an education. Football is whatever. Take the education. Because if you get hurt going back to junior college, you play another year at junior college and you get hurt again. Like they're asking you to do, there's these contracts go away, right?
There's no go for it. You blow a knee like it's over. And so honestly, I've rolled the dice and, uh, I bought into the mentorship of the coach saying like, if you were going to build this particular football team around you. We're going to do X, Y, Z. And if you do this training, I'm pretty much assuring you that we'll get you [00:07:00] that season goes by.
And by about the fourth game of the season, we had letters from every school in the country. I was doing very, very well. I ended up being like blue chip, all American and all that, those awards player, the conference, offense player, the conference, all kinds of great accolades, but ultimately it opened it up to where I got to pick and choose Ohio state, Florida state, Nebraska, Iowa, Stanford, any of those schools.
And I ultimately settled on Iowa. And again, so I go to university of Iowa and now I'm playing ball. And there was another great tight end that was already there. I was a tight end, same Scott Slutsker. He was my roommate. It's amazing athlete. And he's just, he was better than he's better than me. So like, I wouldn't say, Hey, put me on the field, but you know, I'm a realist.
He was better at football than I was, but I played a lot because we, you know, the system we ran, whatever. And, uh, come NFL scouting time, our senior year, the cook, the scouts would come through and, and all the seniors would go run for him. And I never did. I was like, man, my goal was to get a degree. I can see my degree.
I'm going to end my football season in December. I graduate in [00:08:00] December, like, and then I'm going to go out to the working world and do whatever it is there to do. So I don't run for any of the pros of the, I don't fill out the forms to be eligible for the draft. I don't have an agent, any, any of that kind of stuff.
And I graduated in December after our bowl game. And I go, I go home, right? And all the other guys that are trying to go to the NFL or stayed in Iowa city and working out and do all that kind of stuff. And I'm at home looking for jobs and trying to sort my life out. And another life pivot happens named Chuck long, who the name might ring a bell to you.
He was a second Heisman runner up against Bo Jackson and his quarterback, just a really super awesome guy calls me at my house and says, Hey, Derek, I know that you have a plan. You graduated and go try and get X, Y, Z corporate job. But if you follow what I'm telling you right now, there may be another path forward for you.
And I think If you don't do it, you'll regret it. I was, what's that coach. He said, I want you to spend the money to fly back to Iowa, live here for two months, work out for these guys and just see what happens with your NFL dream. [00:09:00] Now respect to you as a man. And, uh, you have done more than I have. And I've learned in my life to follow coaches and mentors.
So I said, okay, scrape together money and, uh, got back out there and. And live with like five guys in one bedroom, like we're all broke, man. There was no NIO money back then. And, um, low and behold, like, you know, draft comes around, boom, I'm Detroit lion and life changes, right? I go to Detroit doing my best to try and make the team, which is a whole nother story where I was hiding from him on the last day of cuts.
I'm like, they're going to cut me. They're going to find me. I was at the mall. We didn't have cell phones back then. This is like 96. So. We couldn't track my iPhone. People couldn't find me. So I ended up making the team and playing pretty much every game. And, uh, special teams and a tight end. And having a great rookie season.
You know, just being a rookie on the field is a big deal in the NFL. And about four games left to go, I'm running down on kickoff and I smash somebody with my face, and my head goes left and my body goes right, and my arm goes numb. Like, really, really numb. Not [00:10:00] like, ah, this is painful, but like, there's a difference between being hurt and being injured.
Always hurt. That's an injury. You hear the bone crack, like that's an injury. Some hurts that's, that's just, that's just pain. But I was in a position where I was playing. I was on the field. I was earning, earning my stripes. I was getting some, some notoriety. The things were looking good. I had a one year contract and I wanted to get a follow on extension and multi year contract.
And I knew at that point in time, if I went to the trainers and made an issue of it and told them I had an injury, That I would be replaced, you know, faster than old clothes. Because that's just, that's just how it was, man. Like I wasn't Barry Sanders or any of those guys. Like I was like the last dude hanging on to the, like, I'm barely hanging out of the league here.
And like, if I tell them I have a dent in the frame or a chink in the armor, man, like this game's over for me. So I don't say anything in my last games against the 49ers. And I'm playing tight end and they moved me into like some full back positions and I'm lead blocking and hitting [00:11:00] people with my face.
And every time I do it, like my whole arm goes numb. I almost pass out. I can, you see it on film where I'm like trying to like catch my breath because if you've had a bad next dinner where electric pain shoots through your body, it's it's spinal injury is just terrible. It's just, yeah, but I get through it and get on the plane, we're flying home and basically they say, um, Hey, do you have anything wrong with you?
Or are you good to be cleared? And I said, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. So I go home. I'm good. I get my multi year contract. I sign it. I come back and when I go back into camp, I'm 200 and about 65 pounds. And, uh, my right arm is about, you know, 19 inches around. And my left arm was like 12 inches around all the nerves that were going into my shoulder and my left arm and tricep just were crushed.
They just weren't sending innovation anymore. The muscles weren't getting nutrients and just. It just,
Franklin: it
Derek: was like being in a cast and
Franklin: just where, where in your spine was that injury?
Derek: Yeah. So the surgery is right here, this all open. So that'd be what's called like C6, C7, sorry, C5, C6. So I got straight through right here.
And um, [00:12:00] Basically, like what had happened was, you know, when I walked in, they knew, and they noticed something was wrong back in Detroit during my OTA, which is an optional training camp that you come back for. And I'd already signed the contract and they said, Hey, we see something wrong. We need to go get checked out by the doctors.
And they sent me to Los Angeles where yet another life pivot happens. Right. And I didn't, this one, this one's pretty cool. So I'm in a waiting room with, with Shaquille O'Neal and Lottie Divack. I didn't know that there was such thing as a VIP hospital levels, but there are, I made it there once and, uh, they.
Disappears like Costanza and the model party from Seinfeld. Like, I'm like, I've seen it. There were sushi trays. There was pro athletes. And I was there. And then when I'm not a pro athlete, it's like, it just disappears. And then I'm in with the spinal surgeon. And, um, he's showing me like, Hey, here's what's going on.
Here's your injury. Here's what this is. And he shows me a picture of my neck from the side. When you're looking at a neck from the side, it should have a curve, like a bow, like a bow and arrow. And when, when you, and when you push down on it, it flexes, right? And that, and he had me hold my, I remember I held [00:13:00] my, my hand up to the X-ray and he goes, I want you to make your hand the exact shape of the X-ray.
And, and it was straight, my neck was totally straight. And he goes, now pushed down. Okay, that's what you're doing. Pushed down on a normal neck. Okay. See how it bends. He goes, now does it make sense that you have a crush injury, like you impacted nowhere for the force to go, just smashed the bones and blew out the discs and, and just, it's all sitting on top of the nerve right now, et cetera.
So it makes, it makes perfect sense. Let's go fix it. And he's like, yeah, too bad. You didn't go to a chiropractor. He could, they could have fixed this for you beforehand. And I made a flippant comment of chiropractor. What are you talking about? What do you mean by chicken blood in my ear and maybe put a crystal on my forehead.
What are you talking about? Like that's so, that's so goofy, right? Like which doctors and dude, I can tell you the cologne the guy was wearing. I can tell you the smell of his coffee on his breath. I can tell you what he was wearing. I can tell you what, where we were in the room, where he was standing. He looked me dead in the [00:14:00] eyes and said, this is a very naive statement.
And I just walked out of the room and I was like, I think I just offended the guy that's going to cut me open. That's coming from the surgeon, from the surgeon, from the surgeon that is at the level of like Shaquille O'Neal and everybody else is like in the waiting room to see this
Franklin: man. So he's telling you chiropractic was, and I just offended him.
Important. Yeah.
Derek: Yeah. And then. We never had a discussion, him and I again about that last next time I saw him, I was out cold and in surgery and in some post op stuff. So I had the surgery, they put a bunch of bolts and screws and they use cadaver grafts and rebuild the shattered bone or whatever. I go back to Detroit and, uh, you know, I'm trying to get cleared and trying to rehab and, you know, which just the coaches called me and Lloyd's of London, which ensures players called me in and said, like, you'll never play this game again.
Uh, we can't insure you like with. You're, you're a wedge buster on kickoff. You don't get to do the same. And so Bobby Ross, which was the head coach at the time, which is a new head coach. I played for [00:15:00] Wayne Fonse and then he left after my first year and Bobby Ross came in. Bobby calls me and he said, Hey man, I don't know you too well, but I found out about you and everybody and you're a good dude.
And we offered you that contract and we're going to honor it. And uh, here's what I'm going to offer you. I will never, I'm going to tell you right now, I will never put you on the field ever again. You will never, ever play as a short line as long as I'm a coach. One we can't insure you, but two, even if we could, I would never play.
Because if something happened to you and you went paralyzed, like the juice isn't worth the squeeze. And, uh, he said, but, so here's your choice. Life pivot right here. You can hang out for the next three years and travel around on the buses and the airplanes and the hotels and be part of the entourage and live this NFL life that you've been working for your whole life.
And we'll put you on injured reserve. You're still going to get paid, wear Detroit gear, et cetera. But you're never going to play. You don't practice. You just hang out on the sidelines. Or when you shake hands, you can go do whatever the hell you And it took me a grand total of about five seconds to say, like, I don't do entourage.
I appreciate the offer. [00:16:00] Thanks for everything, coach. And, uh, got on an airplane and flew back to Phoenix. Sat around for like a week, literally a week going like, what job do I do now? What's next? Where am I going? This was an unforeseen future. I had assumed I would recover from this injury and continue to play NFL for the next 15 years.
Right. And then it was just like, Nope, that's not happening. Big, big life shift. Like imagine to all your listeners, like whatever job you're in right now, if somebody came along and said, not only are you fired, but you can never be in this industry. Not only are we firing you from whatever job you have, but you can't go to the competitor.
You can never play in this industry ever again. And it's an industry you actually love. It's an industry that you love. Like you're like, man, I worked my whole life to get here. So, so dude, I walked down the, about a week after I get back, I'd go, it's just sitting in my head. Like, what is this chiropractor thing?
That doctor was so serious about it. Like, I have no idea what the heck he's talking about. So I just literally drove to the closest chiropractor I could find and just walked in his office and said, Can I talk to the doctor? Like, what do you guys do? Like, what is this all about? What do you [00:17:00] do? Buh, buh, And I witnessed an office that was filled with like gym equipment and physical therapists and really healthy people.
They're talking about nutrition and stretching and exercise and active lifestyle and things that just really resonated with me. And I was like, Oh, this looks really cool. You're basically like a personal trainer that has a doctor in front of them and gets to do all this cool stuff. I want to do that.
That's what I want to do. And so the doctor that I just met is like, all right, well call this school and boom, and, uh, fast forward. I call the school within a week after that, my wife and I, I'm married at the time, load up our tiny little black Nissan four cylinder truck. If you remember those things.
Right back to Iowa because the school was in Iowa. I had to do a year of prerequisites cause I got a BA and you needed more of a BS to get into, into med school. So I finished all those O chems and physics and all those things and decide instead of staying at Palmer university in Iowa, I'm going to go down to life universities.
It's sunnier. I go down there, spend four years in school, graduate, and then [00:18:00] came out. And that's how I became a chiropractor. And I went back to the guy that sent me and said, Hey, I want to come work for you because you got me into this. And he ended up mentoring me and teaching me the business so much so that within five years.
I took out a million dollar SBA loan and bought his practice and took it over. And that's where I really began like my vertical integration into the business side. I'll fast forward through this. Cause I'm, I'm hogging up your microphone, but I bring in pretty much everything you can think of. Like as I'm learning the ropes, you know, I brought in physical therapy and then massage and then I brought in orthopedic doctors and pain management doctors and family practice and started opening up more clinics and more clinics.
And. ultimately ended with orthopedic clinics with spine surgeons and orthosurgeons and total joint, the anesthesia groups, DME, everything, everything on the musculoskeletal side of the house. I owned it, ran it, had some involvement in it, and it was part of my life. And it got to a point where I said, Hey man, I spent, it was about [00:19:00] 20, 20, 20, 18, 2019.
And I graduated just, you know, like I've been in this industry like 2001. So I had a good run in it. And I was like, Hey man, I've kind of seen everything there is to see. I don't feel challenged anymore. This is when I met you. I was finding challenges through Ironman, through seal fit, through Kokoro, through Jiu Jitsu, through all these other things.
But my, but my industry wasn't challenging me anymore. Yeah. Hard paws. I'm sure I could have went out and made a lot more money and be standard more. And there's no, and I didn't find passion in it anymore because I had had two shoulder surgeries that pulled me away from patients and I became more of an administrator.
So it was more like running business. And so I decided I wanted to be back in front of the patients, but everything, you know, I don't really want to start seeing patients again because I can't been doing that for forever. What, what, what does that look like? And that steered me towards consulting coaching.
And the very first consulting job that I did was for American addiction centers. And I sat down with their owner who said, Hey, I [00:20:00] love what you're doing. And I was going to use you as a consultant, but I would rather just have you as my leader. We'd be the CEO. And I was like, never lived in this space. I don't know anything about, you know, This is a mental health and addiction hospital and hospital system.
I said, I don't know anything about that side of the house. I know you, you hurt your back, hurt your knee. You got a headache, like you got a shoulder issue. I can solve for that. Tell me you got depression, anxiety, or an alcoholic. I have no idea what that even means, right? Like it's not part of my life.
It's not part of my wheelhouse. I don't struggle from addiction, like all completely foreign to me. And the guys that came in the products might be foreign, but you're the right delivery vehicle to, to bring that. I'll teach you the products. You just do the leadership side. I got a hospital in Las Vegas and the doctors won't talk to the nurses and the nurses hate the social workers and the social workers don't like case managers and basically very siloed, you know, very large hospital, very siloed.
Employees are pointing at each other. It was publicly traded [00:21:00] company stocks going down. Vendors aren't getting paid. What a talk, what happens on a toxic tailspin of a business. But yet there's still like hundreds of patients that live there residentially day in and day out. And so I say, Hey man, it sounds like a heck of a challenge to go to my wife.
Like, and I say, Hey, how about I go do this thing in Vegas? I'm gonna fly up every Monday. I'll fly back every Thursday. We'll see if it works. I'm going to go be the CEO of this big hospital. So I haven't done, sounds like a challenge. Let's go. She's like, do it. So I do, man, the first day I walk in the door, like it's so toxic and the hospital is so disjointed, but I walked in the door, suit, tie, briefcase, CEO, doctor, corporate guy, gold watch.
And I walk up to the front desk and they were like, who are you? And how can we help you? And I was like, well, I think I'm the CEO here now. And they're like, never heard. Like, just let me grab somebody from HR. I don't, I don't know what to tell you. So HR comes down and goes, Oh yeah, we were expecting you.
Like. I got an email about this. Like, that's how far removed everything was. I guess this is your [00:22:00] office because that was the CEO's office that walked out, you know, a week ago or two weeks ago or whatever it was. Oh, wow. But we haven't taken his computer out. So like, we'll have to get it in here to just, like, just whatever, right.
Just, it's like showing up at your neighbor's house and they're like, we didn't know you're coming over. And so I'm sitting in the desk the first day and I'm like, I can't do anything from this side of the desk because I don't even know what to do. Honestly. I don't know the business. I don't know any of the players.
I don't know how the business works in mental health. I don't know how to run a residential hospital. I didn't know anything. Honest to goodness. I didn't know a dang thing, but here's what I did notice. When I walked around and toured the hospital on the day I got there, cause I didn't have anything to do.
I'd just walk around and talk to myself. Nobody said hi. Everybody's, Oh, he's a suit. Must be from corporate. Like he's, he's part of our problem. Cause I was like, in my mind, I was like, man, this place is really dirty. Cigarette butts, wrappers everywhere. It's gross. Like if I, if I had to bring my friends up and say, this is the hospital I'm running, I would be embarrassed.
So I asked a couple of people like, Hey, I noticed there's a lot of trash on the ground. [00:23:00] Oh yeah. You know, we haven't paid the vendors, like we haven't paid the trash vendors, whatever. And that's part of the problem here. And so too bad. Okay. It's the awesome. Hey man, I noticed there's a lot of cigarette butts over in the smoking area.
Like, yeah, the patients just throw them on the ground. You know, we, we tell them, but they don't care. So I understand the reason, the rationale, but there's no, there's no go for it. So the next day I come in, I'm in my suit and tie. I'm expecting like, there's gonna be this big boardroom meeting and an introduction or something, you know, like whatever your mind would tell you, like, if you're on board, it has.
CEO of a hundred million dollar hospital. What should feel like I walk into my office, dude, nothing. Computer still reads the other guy's name. Can't log in. Can't do anything with it. So I walked over to the janitor and I go, Hey man, will you show me the janitor closet? And he does, and I just grab a pair of gloves and I grab a bag and I take that bag and I take that gloves and I walk outside and I start picking up cigarette butts because I was like, Nobody's telling me what to do because I'm the boss, right?
I don't know what to do because I'm the boss of a new industry and I don't know where we are. I don't know [00:24:00] where I'm going. I don't know what the goal is. I don't know what the battle rhythm is. I don't know what the meeting schedules are, et cetera. But I can sit in my room and sit on my hands or can at least do something.
And I observed an issue. I'm just going to go tackle the issue. I don't even know who to talk about or who to ask or tell or whatever. So I'm just, I'm gonna go do, so do this probably like the best leadership message that's ever come to me. Cause I go outside and I'm picking up cigarette butts by the front gate and remember my new, I'm wearing like trying to impress you three piece suit, right?
I had suits tailored, you know, I'm a doctor, CEO at a hospital. Like this is what I think they look like, you know, and it's, it's a Vegas. So it's hot and I'm sweating and I'm picking up cigarettes with rubber gloves and trash bags, putting cigarette butts in there. And the former CEO drives by, pulls out his camera, takes a video and takes a bunch of pictures.
I don't see this happen. And texts it to everybody in the facility. You guys suck. This is why I left. Look at your new boss. Your [00:25:00] CEO is picking up trash. You guys have fallen so far. You guys are all going to go out of business. You're going to need a job. Blah, blah, blah. But call me when you need a job.
This place sucks. Your boss is picking up trash. That's how far you've fallen. I didn't know anything about this. The next day, walk back in, walk to my office. There's about 20 people standing in my office door. I'm like, Oh, okay. Maybe there's a meeting and I pay, I get to get introduced. I don't know what, you know, I don't know what's going on.
And as I walk up, they stand in a line and shake my hand. Okay. They start saying, Hey man, I saw what you were doing. I can get behind you. Okay. I don't know what you saw. I'll take it. I'll take your mind. And then somebody finally says like, yo, it was so obvious to me, Derek, when I got the pictures of you picking up other people's trash, that the issue wasn't, was.
wasn't that the patients were dropping it on the ground. The issue wasn't the vendors weren't getting paid that should be doing the job. The issue is we're not taking stock of our own responsibilities and our own impact. [00:26:00] And I can get behind you. And that one attempt to defame and derogatory text picture that went out to the whole staff.
Probably turned into the greatest marketing campaign of my leadership attributes of all time. The whole team said we can get behind it. Like you went out there and start picking up trash and doing the job that nobody wants to do. We already know right now, without you telling me. That there's no job that you'll ever ask us to do without having done yourself.
Cause you did the crappiest job outside of cleaning the toilets. You do the second lowest job.
Franklin: And that was not even intentional. Like you were out there just trying to fill your time. Cause that's the best it's like, what, what can I do?
Derek: It's like, I don't know what to do.
Franklin: Yeah. It's not like that was a strategic way to, to kind of elevate your, your status in the, in the company.
And most people wouldn't even dream of doing that if they were trying to, you know, prove their authority or, you know, their competence or anything. And so. You know, just that humility for a leader to show the team that it's doing the lowest level job [00:27:00] without any desire for recognition or like you're trying to get kudos for it.
Derek: No, I mean, it was, there was no, if this, then that other than I don't know where to go, I don't know where to start, nobody's coming to save me, but yet I'm in charge. How can I be of value to them? There's trash. I'm going to go pick it up. And sometimes that's where the start is. Right. It ended up where I was doing a hundred million dollar ledgers.
But the first day my impact was just picking up trash. Just pick up trash. What size
Franklin: company was that
Derek: just for context? It was a 900 million to a billion dollar publicly traded, uh, market cap company,
Franklin: a billion dollar company. And you're picking up the trash as a CEO. Yeah, very much. Okay. That's an important, like just quantifying this, you know, it's not like you were just,
Derek: but it just tells you how far some of the leadership had devolved that this was a thing, right?
So over the next couple of years, I got, I [00:28:00] have their buyer and I make all the mistakes. This I'm not infallible. I make all kinds of business mistakes and I do good. I do bad, but. Another company I decided eventually after a couple of years, wanted to move back to Arizona. Like, Hey, the commute was just too much.
I was always at home for my first two kids made them breakfast every morning and dinner every night. And then my third kid. What's like, Hey dad, so like, well, I kind of inhaled heavy for breakfast and I just get you on the weekends now. And that's where I was like, but hard stop, not doing the same. So I go and resign at that company.
And lo and behold, a headhunter hits me up and says, Hey, we've got a really big hospital. Like, you know, one of the biggest, most prestigious in the country. We've heard about you, your name has come to us a few times. Like, are you interested in the discussions? And it turns into. Yes. And so I take over another hospital called Sierra Tucson, uh, which is part of the Acadia family, which is a 7 billion publicly traded Acadia healthcare systems company.
And I take on their, what they call crown jewel, which is Sierra Tucson, real large behavioral health specialty addiction hospital. We'll go down there. [00:29:00] I'm doing it. And life, life is going well and things are getting easy. And in the corporate space, if you're in a corporate position in a healthcare system, if you just, you know, keep your head down and don't make waves, you can have that job until the day you decide to walk away to retire.
And that's just not my style. I do it different, but it was actually, this is another big pivot point is, and I Kokoro coach, a gentleman named David Powell, who went through the core and then came back and coached a few times. Uh, who runs a, ran a program called Southern Lineman Training Facility or Senate out of, uh, Georgia had an exit and did, did well and, uh, called me up and just said, Hey man, like things are going great.
And then a couple of months later called me up and said, Hey man, feel like I'm out of balance because I don't have purpose, like not finding my purpose. So we go and we meet up and we, uh, we're in Florida and we had these great conversations and we, we do some mindset shifting and, you know, like, You know, you can make all the money in the world, but if there's no reason for you to have to get out of bed every day, like it kind of pulls on your, like, if I'm [00:30:00] here or not here, if I sleep or don't sleep, if I show up or don't, like, it's irrelevant.
Like I'm not, I'm getting the, it's like, it's like being a pro athlete that sits at home and gets paid the contract. You're like, but I'm not on the field. I'm not, I'm not doing anything like this. It's a racehorse out to pasture. So we go down there and my wife goes and his wife goes and we all talk. And on the way home, or before I left, I told him like, Hey, there's four rules.
I want you to follow whatever you do forward from here. It has to be a passion drip, right? Has to be passionate because you don't have to do things you don't want to do anymore. You've done well enough financially. It has to be passionate. Number two, you have to deal with people that you love, like surround yourself with people that you like and love, line it up with something that you're passionate about.
And number three, you're a Christian man of faith. You have to do something that moves the needle, like that you're proud of, something to impact the world. Like how are you going to leave the world a better place? And if you take those three things, you're in a position where you can line those up, it gives you a heck of a targeting reticle, right?
It really starts to bring like, do I love it? Is it with the people I love and [00:31:00] doesn't make the world a better place? And I said, the fourth thing is if it makes you money great. And guess what? If it doesn't, who cares, because it's not going to change your situation from where you're at. It is mind shifts from half empty glass to half full glass.
To I have no purpose to the world is my oyster.
Franklin: And
Derek: these two are flying home. I'm sitting next to my wife, David, his wife go back there their way. We're flying home. And my wife, I, at this point in time, I had been coaching seal fin. I coach a lot of different groups, soft prep academy, turning steel, Spartan seven.
Like I've done the coaching thing quite a bit. I'm sure we'll get into that. And the professional and business coaching and all that other stuff. I coached my teams while at the hospitals, et cetera, and she's like, I never really get to see you coach, because that's always your work side. But like, it was really fun to watch that.
Very impactful. So I got a question for you. Like you asked David, like, you know, his, his, where are you at with [00:32:00] your passion, with what he is doing? And uh, I'm gonna ask you that. Where are you at with your passion? And I was like, trying not to hear it. Like, ah, okay. Well, but I couldn't unhear the question that I had asked a thousand times to other people asked back to me.
And I realized I wasn't following passion. I was following comfort. I was following a hefty paycheck, a hefty bonus structure, all the perks that go along with it. Travel, big stages, spotlight, notoriety, podcasts, a little bit of like industry fame, et cetera. It was very, very comfortable. Right? Like, I was just kind of, I was in like numb floating lands, right?
And I couldn't shake the fact off that I wasn't chasing passion, I was chasing comfort. And uh, so I asked myself, well, I've hit the holy grail of healthcare. Like I'm a CEO, like a massive hospital, like what is it that I don't like about this? And I realized that my health career started with me as a chiropractor, knee to knee with somebody across from [00:33:00] me, having no drug or surgery to offer them and saying, I really have to listen to what's going on with you.
So I can give you my best advice or recommendations of stuff that you're going to do here, do at home. Lifestyle changes. Thought process changes, et cetera. And I had it derived at a point at the end of my healthcare career, where I was making money just for shareholders and stockholders, and it was about stock value, it was about EBITDA, it was about ledger lines.
It was just about finances. And you start to look at the fact that to make more money in healthcare means to reduce your costs all the time, which is every business,
Franklin: but
Derek: when you're reducing costs against patients, sometimes like you're like, we were doing a 12 per day, average lunch. So can we get a contract for what is 11 a day lunch look like?
Cause it saves me a dollar. Yeah. Like, well, the bread is this quality. It goes to this quality. You're like, it's going to raise the share prices. Yeah, we make more. Okay, let's, let's do that. And so I just realized I got too far away from it, man. And, um, so I sat down very amicable and, and, and publicly, like, they're a great company searching.
So it's amazing staff, great [00:34:00] people, Acadia healthcare, like love them. Great company. I'd refer my family to them, but we just decided I was like, Hey, it's just, this isn't me anymore. And I'm just not doing this. And so when they understood and I left, and, um, basically this is where yet again, another like life pivot with, with men in my life and mentors, as I'm driving away from the hospital, I pick up the phone and call like four different guys.
And funny enough, all of these guys have been through Kukoro, either they're a coach from the teams or there's somebody that has been through it because there's just a certain bond that you, you do a crucible that hard. You just know who somebody is, or you just know who they are. Like if I, if we go suffer together for 50 hours.
We probably have more, we know more about each other than what, you know, about your neighbor to live next to you for the next, for the last 10 years. Yeah. Just different, different relationships. So it's that locker room mentality. So I call these guys and say, Hey man, I just jumped out of the airplane. No parachute.
Here's what I'm doing. And they're like, good to a man. None of them were like, [00:35:00] Oh my gosh, you need to go back and get your paycheck. You're crazy. How are you going to pay your bills? They're like, what are you going to do? I was like, I don't know. They're like, well, whatever it is good. And so I sat down and I'm getting ready to be done monologuing 40 minutes into your podcast.
So apologize for that. Maybe this is my secret hack to say you'd have to bring me back.
Franklin: That's right. No, no, this
Derek: is
Franklin: great.
Derek: But so where, what I do there is I sit down and say, well, what's my passion? My passion is to work with people. My passion is to move the needle. My passion is to see people the satiety that I get when they increase, when they get better.
And it doesn't even matter, like get better at sweeping the floor, get better at being a husband, get better at being a father, get, make more money, grow in your faith, you know, whatever it is. So I sat down and said, okay, I want to go move the needle for humans again. I don't want to be super far removed. I want to be like the impact source.
Like I love that. I said, okay, well, how do I, how do I do it? Because when I'm in healthcare, like it's very insurance driven and they're telling me how to do it. I really don't want to do that again. I want to do it [00:36:00] on my terms the way that I want to do it. So I said, okay, I'm gonna go into coaching. And so I, well, there's no shortage coaches.
A lot of dudes are selling a bunch of smoke in place of substance. So if you're going to coach, make sure that it's, it's within your wheelhouse. Don't overextend yourself. So I came up with the four pillars. That makes sense to me. Like my, my coaching pillars are faith, you know, because I believe that everything has to have a moral compass and my faith is my faith.
And frankly, your faith is your faith. But what I ask of people is just subscribe to a faith and lean in on, right? And if it's, if the shoe fits you with where you're at in the world and your family and everything else, man, that's awesome. I'd love to share with what makes me tick. I'm out here to tell you what you have to.
But I do believe everybody should have a faith or else, like, what's the point? Right? That's just my view. But my faith provides my moral compass and my lane lines and steers my life and directions. So I lead with that. The second thing is family because it provides my foundation. Family's your why. Like, why am I doing this?
Because of that mouth and that wife and that kid and, you know, these people that love me and I love them and I protect and [00:37:00] serve. I'm their provider. That's my why. It's my foundation. So family comes. You know, right behind faith to me and then fitness. I go fitness. And because I oftentimes pray that God puts me in a position to be impactful.
And what if that position is to help somebody get their car jacked up on the side of the road? What if that, what if that is help this person from drowning? Cause they're half a mile out in the lake. And these are, these are all things that have actually happened to me where I was put in that position. I was actually able to Swim out, you know, three quarters of a mile and pull some infants that were on a paddleboard.
One of the scariest things I've ever been a part of back to shore and things of that nature, but imagine If I wasn't there, A, what would happen? And imagine if I didn't have the physical readiness to do that. So, so I believe that physical fitness isn't just about how you look in your t shirt. It's about being like the most, you know, well, well oiled version and most impactful, resourceful version of self.
So that when called upon, I can react to [00:38:00] my full capabilities. A mental health, obviously mental health was, I didn't know about anxiety, depression. I didn't know about any of that stuff. It was, it was diseased by choice back then. So it was addiction. Like, Hey, don't be an addict. Stop drinking, like make an easy choice.
I understand what it is now. So I put time into mental health hygiene, like, Hey, I don't want those issues. So just like you brush clean teeth before it gets a cavity, I just flush it out every day. And then last but certainly important is the fuel. A lot of that is your finance. Like you don't have money.
It's very hard to do all the things I just talked about, right? So you have to balance it. Much like, uh, like, like four guys in the boat with oars. You have to have all four of those pillars moving and growing at the same effort at the same time on the same cage with the same power where you're going to find yourself if you're finance, if you're all money.
You're gonna start spinning in circles and going nowhere yet, man, that finance paddle is cranking, but your family paddles totally got nothing brewing. Your faith doesn't even have his paddle or in the water. And you're like, why are we not going forward? Why am I stuck in the mud? Why are things are not working out for me?
Like Luke, did I make all this money? [00:39:00] Why am I not happy? That's your answer right there. Cause all four of them. Like four dudes in a rubber boat have to paddle the same direction at the same time if you want to go straight and get you.
Franklin: How do you see, you know, when you talk about purpose and pursuing that, when you have all four of those in line, what do you see when you coach people in terms of their ability to, to better pursue their passion in life or go or find their mission?
Derek: So that's a, that's a great question. And, uh, I think that's kind of like, that's, That's the unique mechanism I think I bring to the table because I've worn different hats. I've done pro athlete. I've done doctor. I've done business entrepreneur. I've done public CEO. I've done father. I've done, I've been married almost 30 years.
I got three daughters. You know, our family is still together. Everybody loves each other, et cetera, and I've done well financially. So what I did is when I went back and built plan playbook coaching team, which is the infrastructure to this, but to your point specifically is for, for people that find themselves like, man, I'm putting in effort, but I feel like I'm [00:40:00] running uphill, I feel like I'm running in the mud, some things I crush at and other things you've just not existed is I think everything starts with an assessment.
Imagine when you go into a doctor's office. You don't see the doctor until you write down everything that you think might be the issue and then they do a bunch of blood tests and x rays and MRIs and they gather data from you on paper, from you in conversation, from what they've pulled from all of their studies, and then from you from objective diagnostics.
And we, because we have to determine where you're at. So let's think about overlay Google maps, right? We all use Google maps. What does Google maps do? It goes, where are you? Where are you trying to get? And once I have those two things, I can build a map. But if you don't tell me where you're coming from, I can't tell you how to get where you want to go.
And if you, if you don't know the answer to where you're trying to go, I can't tell you how to get there. So I have to define where you are first. So in my program at Faction, I kind of take that medical approach and do a very deep [00:41:00] dive on the front end to determine in each one of those pillars, objectively, not just conversation, but we have a, an algorithm that runs numbers.
Like what score do you get on each one of those? Right? And then from that, my coaches, myself get on the phone and say, okay, well, here's where you're at. Each pillar. What is your, what is your end goal? Look like? What is, if you max this out and did everything you want, what is, what is a year, five years, 10 years look like for you?
Okay. And they do that on each one. What's, what's the end goal that you think that you want right now? And then let's find like, what's our 90 day goal because I believe in like 90 day run ups. What's your 90 day goal. Here's where you are. Here's where you want to get to. What does 90 days look like?
Sometimes 90 days all the way here. Sometimes. Like if you're trying to drive to, from California to New York, span the country, that first 90 days might just get you to Nevada, right? Everybody's starting from a different place. But if you're starting from Connecticut to New York, again, your assessment, you're starting for somewhere different.
It may be a very short trip. Hey, I just flipped the switch. I'm there. And so that's kind of [00:42:00] how, how we lay it out. Like to build a roadmap for somebody, you have to clearly define where exactly you are. Franklin at SealFit, we did that with what? The PST. The PST. Right. You remember doing like, great. Let's do your pushups.
Let's do two minutes to squash. And, and, and what happened and you saw it, what happened to the gentleman that didn't make that? Okay. Thanks. Bye. Yeah. Like on that program, not prepared. You weren't prepared. So you're not going to pull the group down. You're up. But had we not done that test at the beginning, those people that, that couldn't keep up with the group that I believe the standard then was like a nine minute mile or something like that in boots guys running a 15 minute mile.
How can you imagine? Like. That, that person is at a different starting point. So, so the camp like Kokoro, everybody sends us these applications and says, here's where I'm at and here's where I want to do this. And we go, okay, do these tests and you should be able to pass these. And I said, yeah, yeah. So we're trying to take a big swath of humans and bring it down into a [00:43:00] similar iron iron sharpens iron type of scenario.
And then once you show up, we do it again, but we do it in person. Okay. Let's see you do this pushups, squats, pull ups. You know, in the running and we whittle it down. So now we're like, okay, everybody in this grouping has the physical readiness to accomplish everything that's coming in front of them. So now we know physical removed anybody that quits from here is that either an injury or mentally has decided like.
I'm just going to quit
Franklin: and explain, just to give a real quick, uh, just listeners real quick, what is Kokoro camp? Most people probably hadn't heard of it.
Derek: So Kokoro is, uh, comes from commander Mark Devine, who is a former Navy SEAL. And he created a program called SEAL fit still exists today. And at SEAL fit, he set up some scenarios and it's kind of changed in the focus of the evolution.
Originally it was. Uh, we're going to bring people in, we're going to bring up instructors [00:44:00] from BUDS, we're going to bring on other former Navy SEALs, and this program is made for if you want to go be a Navy SEAL, let's put you through the first 50 hours of Hell Week. To see if this is really what you want to do because and I'm not a seal and I'm not military But it's pretty sexy to play the video games and be like man Look at what these seals do and read the books and you read about all the sexy missions and jumping out of airplanes and shooting cool guns and Jumping on boats and stuff like that But the reality is and I know a lot of these guys i've been with them for a long time 99 percent of the time it sucks.
It's cold. It's dark. You're alone. You're hungry. You're freezing. You're wet. You're uncomfortable. And nobody knows about it. And nobody, nobody's patting you on the back. And I think that's what they try and do in hell week is say like, Hey, when you're in this scenario, are you going to quit? Or, or can you, are you the kind of person that can get through this mentally?
And so they created this program called Kokoro to try and reduce the attrition rate, which is the dropout rate of people that actually get a contract to go to And I think that the dropout rate [00:45:00] is still something in the 87, 85 percent of people that sign up for buds and go to buds and Coronado do not become seals.
Right. So, which is crazy. Cause when I talk to people and they're like, Oh, I'm the one that does not going to quit. I'm like, well, let's test that because everybody going there says that same sentence. Like I'm not the one that's going to quit. I'm like, okay, well there's a hundred dudes and 85 of them just quit.
Like not a one of them was like, I'm probably going to quit on day two. You know? So that, that program has evolved into. More of the civilian side, because when I went through it, it was mostly Naval Academy graduates, lateral transfers in the Marine Corps. There was two Air Force guys, two PJs that were going through it, and it was very much of like a pipeline to become a SEAL.
And I go through the program and it's 50 hours of just getting beat up and uh, cold and wet and sandy and all the stuff and yelled at, which I was like, yeah, it's just like football. Like, you're just yelling at me. Like, one thing you can't control, Coach, is that I know I have a flight home Sunday at nine o'clock at night.
So no matter what you do. That flight still [00:46:00] exists. So when you're like, we're going to do this until blah, blah, blah, sir, whatever. Jesus take the wheel. Like, but Sunday night I'm flying home. So anyway, I graduate Kokoro and, um, Glenn Doherty was my coach. I actually got rest of soul. He was the seal killed in Benghazi on the roof in the movie 13 hours.
If you guys have seen that, so, uh, bubs. So there's my buddy, Sean Lake, it's a protein company called bubs. And in his memorial, and it's a college of protein. So if you need college and protein, go check out bugs. So Glenn pulls me aside and said, man, you did really good. And Mark pulls me aside. And after we graduate, I got the honor man award, which you understand what that is, Franklin.
It is, it's an award that is very, very rarely ever given out. I think that I ended up running as the head lead Proctor about 27 hell weeks or 27, a quarrel camps. And I think we gave away like four on our man awards. Uh, no. Wow. Yeah. So it was like maybe every once a year with four or five classes a year, there might, might be one.
It had to be where the seals all came together and just said unanimously. [00:47:00] And the students came together and said, unanimously, we want to give that guy an honor award. It's just different. And for me, I didn't win it because I did. I was 240 pounds. It's 30 something years old. When I went through this, I was not faster than a single person there.
But being maybe older and being a father, like when I would finish a race or whatever, I'd just turn around and go help people. Or if I finished my evolution, I just go help people. Or when food came out, I made sure like, just like my kids, I had kids make sure that everybody else eats first. That police are trash and not being vocal about it, but just doing it.
Listen, no, nobody follows the leader that that has to tell you they're the leader. Listen, if you ever have to tell somebody you're the leader, dude, you ain't a leader. So if a lion walks into a room and you see a lion walk into a room, does the lion need to hand out business cards? It goes, by the way, lion, lion over here.
I'm the lion. A lion walks into the room and you know it. An alpha walks into the room and you know it. The fake alphas, fake lions, the smoking places substance guys are going to run around and tell you what [00:48:00] they did and try and build you into that thought process of who you're talking to. But the real deal walks in with a confidence and a grace and a sophistication and a power that you don't have to ask.
Yeah, that, that, that's a real dude right there. That guy's, that guy's in charge, right? Because it's not all just about like mean bugging and let me show you how dominant I am, but like, we respect leadership when we feel that there's some humility to it. All right. I'll follow people that are humble.
They're like, Hey man, I don't know the best way forward, but let's get it on the table. And your way might be better than mine. Let's do that. I'm like, dude, I'll follow that guy. So anyway, Kokoro is 50 hours of cold, wet, and sandy that is meant to, to thin the herd, break people down. It is normal for us to have about 50 to 80 percent attrition, 50 dudes sign up for class, 12, my graduate.
You know, ballpark up and it's intentional that way. It's not, it's not easy. Like you can see behind me, I have one of my iron man things. I have a bunch of them, [00:49:00] but iron man's joke compared to like a corp, right? Like it's just, it's just a joke. Like I get fed every mile people are sharing for me. It's I have the world class gear on.
It's a joke. People are like, Ironman is the hardest thing. I'm like, that's good. Ironman is my cool down from Kokoro. Like that's how hard Kokoro was. So anyway, yeah. So that, that's where I'm at now is with all of that rolled up is I am now in a position to, um, to coach people and group coach them and hold them accountable and use the framework that I learned from the locker room, which is, you know, if you don't have a very clear plan.
If you don't have a very clear playbook, you don't have very clear leadership and coaching that has the history of being successful in each one of those areas, not just to talk or read books, but did it. And then very important is having a team. So one of the first things I did when I built my coaching business was I went out and got about 30 guys who I have certain relationships with and bring things to the table that mentors friends of mine that are of value.
I said, Hey man, I need you to be on this team because when I bring in somebody that doesn't know me, I want them to [00:50:00] see the locker room and see the types of communications that we have and how we move. And, uh, it's been really successful, man. And I invite anybody listening to this podcast, at least go check out the faction foundation.
com. I'd love to talk to him.
Franklin: You know, I think you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of coaching out there and they're also, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors and there's a lot of really good coaches. It's great. And you know, some of what I look at is, is it just a response to how little there is when we're growing up?
Like. We're not, I don't think we're given the tools and the training, even if we have great parents to really understand how you get these big buckets of life all in order, all rowing at the same time and the same cadence in the same direction in a way that allows you to step into your purpose and and just to live a better life.
And so, you know, I think these programs are just so, uh, incredibly helpful to help people just get their arms around how do I make life work?
Derek: Yeah, man. Like, [00:51:00] I, as a chiropractor, when I first opened, my ego was bigger than my ability. And whether you came in to me for a headache or toe pain, I got put it up on myself to try and solve for that.
As my maturity in medicine expanded, I realized that if you put the patient first, to put their needs first, to remove your ego and your desire to make money and build them and make your boat payment from them, it just works better. So I got to a position where like, frankly, you might walk in and have a certain shoulder, knee issue, whatever.
And I look at it and say, Hey, check it out. Thanks for coming by today. Love meeting you. But that guy across the street, that orthopedic doctor, that pain doctor, or there's a chiropractor does deaf technique. He's going to give you a better outcome. I'll call him and let you know to come and set up your visit.
You know, appreciate you stopping by, but there's a better option than it's across the street. Uh, but now I'm going to, tell you to go do. Well, I will tell you that by doing that, this is another leadership principle that I've learned very well [00:52:00] is every patient that I sent away from me became my best referral source.
I ever had people that they would send to me because they would run around and say, dude, I met this chiropractor, super honest guy. I went in there for this and that. He sent me away from his own business. That guy's not just trying to pilfer my pocketbooks and bill my insurance and make a bunch of money.
You just think about what's best for me. He could, they could
Franklin: trust
Derek: you. Yeah. There's a, they trust, they build trust in those other offices. We'd look at it and say like, Oh, we're getting referrals from somebody. And natural universal law of reciprocation is, well, if we have somebody that could use your services, we'll do this.
So my whole world expanded. So as I turned the business away and pushed it to where it needed to go, my world expanded and I do the same thing in coaching. Listen, Frank, if you come to me and you say, Hey, Derek, you have a finance pillar, this is awesome. I'm really struggling in business. Here's my issue. I don't know how to do the tariffs and the taxes.
When I import rubber dog poop from Hong Kong, I'll be like way outside my wheelhouse, but you know, who's really good at go use that coach. Oh, you really want to scale your [00:53:00] business to that level? I've never done that level. Go to that coach. Oh, you're, you're to, you're in a family situation. You don't understand how to save your marriage.
Hey, I'm going to give you the, the, the big ticket infrastructure and the plan and a daily playbook, and I'm going to gamify it. You have to earn points towards putting intention towards it. But with what you have going on, like, I think you'd be better served if you, if you focused on that. Like, cause I, I focus on all four at the same time,
Franklin: almost like a general practitioner,
Derek: like a jump, like a CrossFit gym of coaching of the mental side, right?
Like we're going to do every, every aspect of it. But if you need a specialist, because that's where you're at, I'm gonna, I'm probably gonna send you away and go that specialist, get balanced out, get that lane working right, then come back over. And
Franklin: I think the big takeaway for men listening to this is if you're struggling in an area of life, there is someone out there who has figured out your, your particular problem.
And how to overcome it. And if you'll do the work to start seeking out the help [00:54:00] you need, you'll find it. If you, if you just put in the work to find it,
Derek: you bet you bet, man, it was simple in summary, but we are our own worst enemies. We're like a protective switch over our own decision making levers. We know we should flip that switch, but the ego gets in the way.
And we just don't do it.
Franklin: I know we're coming up on time. Quick question. I've got to ask this. So there are so many examples you gave in life. You would say, you know, life pivot, life pivot. And in each one of those, you were, you had this choice that seemed like you had no real good reason to move forward because it was more likely that you would fail taking the opportunity than if you had just stayed where you were, how did you What was it about you that allowed you to just make those pivots with such certainty, even though you may have zero experience in what it was you were stepping into?
Derek: I've been asked a lot of questions. I don't know if I've been asked that one. So I think that our current situation is the sum of everything and [00:55:00] experience that you've onboarded from your ability to recall going back as far as you can that makes you who you are, right? You're the sum total of all life experience.
And I think that I was just fortunate, blessed, whatever the right word is. So I've been around a lot of coaches that, that, that impressed upon me early. If you do this, then that take risk on yourself. Like if you invest in you, like you go do the pushups, you go throw the football, you go bounce the baseball off the ground.
You go do this, you put your time in and I'm telling you like it will lead to success. Hey, do you want to be an all state runner? Okay, well go put this time in and that's what will happen. And it just, in my life, that always seems to happen. Like I seek out a coach and say, Hey, I want to, I want to go here.
I want to go to college and a football scholarship. I want to go win state and track. I want to be all city. I want to be blah, blah, blah, whatever. And they go, okay, cool. Well, here's exactly where you are and here's where you want to go. And here's the roadmap. Are you willing to do that roadmap? [00:56:00] Because there's another roadmap that says you can take a much shorter, much easier drive and just arrive at a different destination.
Or you can take this other road that's like uphill, but Hey man, there's no safety net for you where there's great risk. There's great reward. I'm telling you. And I've just had enough of those successful events happen time over time. That I've listened to my coaches from the time, like I said, I was in T ball until NFL and from surgeons to chiropractors to business models and everywhere in between that where I trust them and I see that they've done and they've gone to where I want to go.
Like, listen, if somebody walked through a jungle to a beach and took pictures and walked back to you at your car and said, Hey man, you want me to take you to the beach? It's through this jungle. Here's pictures of the jungle. You're like, yeah, I believe you've been there. I'll follow it. Versus some dude that's like, Hey man, I've never been to that beach.
Here's the jungle. Like, follow me. I'll take you there. And you're like, you've never been there. How are you delivering me there? How do you know where the rights and lefts are like to get there? So,
Franklin: yeah, [00:57:00]
Derek: so I think it's just a series of it's always happened. And so I just grew faith and trust in myself. I also believe leaning in on more of my Christian values, that there's a plan for me.
I think that if I have God and Jesus on my side, like who should I fear? What should I fear? Right? If I pray about it, it tells me to move forward. Like, what greater coach do I need? What greater father figure do I need? My, my mortal father isn't here, but my eternal father is. And I converse with them daily.
Hey, man, should I do this? My prayer is probably a little bit different than everybody else. I just go after workouts, I go sit in the, in the sauna and just meditate. And my meditation is just conversation. Hey, here's what I'm thinking about. And the words that come back to me, I accept as some people call it your subconscious.
Some people call it Holy Spirit. So it's called whatever you want, but I take those on board. It's like, that's my direction. And I just, I move forward with confidence and listen, not everything I've done has worked out. But I look at it like when it doesn't work out, I just take him one way [00:58:00] of doing it off the table.
So my odds of it working out now are better because I'm not, that one didn't work. Throwing a lure in the water. Hey, this one didn't catch a fish. Oh, you failed. No, I learned that this lure doesn't work. Give me a different loop.
Franklin: You learn, you pivot and you keep moving. Pretty much. Well, Derek, I know we're out of time.
Just do it again, man. You didn't even get to talk, bro. I know, I know, but your story is like, there's so much to your story and so I'm glad we got into that. And I've got to ask if someone resonated with you today, if they're looking for a coach in some area of their life, how could they find you and reach out and connect?
Derek: Yeah. The two, two easiest ways are go to, and it's the faction foundation. com. See it right here. And just hit contact. Uh, number one or number two is just go to my personal Instagram DM, which is Derek, D E R E K, the letter C is my middle initial price, Derek C price. And just find me on Instagram. I put up all my content every day.
Some of my business coaches are like, don't put that up. You need to charge for it. I'm like, but isn't it just. [00:59:00] Can I just tell people some good stuff? Does everything have to be about money all the time? So, yeah, man, come find me. Not hard to find. Big, bald, old dude. Roaming around, lumbering through the world.
Franklin: Well, and I can say, and we talked about this before we hit record, I personally got to have Derek as a seal fit coach when I went through that a few years ago, through Kokoro, and the humility that you hear coming across right now, that's just amazing. I experienced that for 50 hours, you know, back in 2016 and it's real and it's just, it's very heartfelt.
And so very much appreciate your time today.
Derek: Yeah, man. Thanks for having me on, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate what you're doing and keep the message going to the world needs men, brother. The world needs outposts to stand up and do what they're supposed to do. Stop ducking from responsibility. Just own it and move.
Franklin: With that, we'll, uh, we'll wrap it up, man. Thank you.
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