The Grind-Cast “Special Guest Steve Dell”

Count money, man.

Money that grits is fine.

So I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but...

What's up, gang?

Welcome to the Grindcast.

I'm an area here.

Get ready to do the new day.

What's up, gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready as a new day.

We have Steve Dell with us today.

So what I want to do is open up and tell you, Steve is one of our top leaders in the

business in our main business that we run, the insurance industry.

I met Steve.

I just say it was the grace of God.

I met Steve at a local restaurant upstairs for those you Pittsburgh folks.

I met Steve in the coal at the top of Monterey Bay, overlooking the city of Pittsburgh.

And we'll explain a little bit more about that later.

Steve was a former Division I football player at the University of Pittsburgh.

Also was a former Division I football coach, director of player personnel, things that

at nature.

So the majority of his life has been either sports, coaching sports, or now playing in business

which we like to call business athletes.

In a short period of time, in less than 14 months, he started from the bottom now he's

here, and dominating all over the country.

So what I wanted to do is get a chance to introduce some of you guys to the wisdom of Steve

Dell.

How he's been able to do what he's done.

But I just want to start off first with Steve some of this, I may not even know.

But maybe walk us through where you're from.

When you start playing sports as a kid, a little bit of your upbringing and give us the whole

background.

Bring us up to the Monterey Bay.

Come on, I'll tell you what, thank you for having me on the grind.

The grind cash.

This is a great opportunity, but just happy to be here, be able to explain my story, but

be able to be able to move in a direction which you are at the same pace and keep going

and keep on moving.

You know what I'm saying?

Just a little help, it's a little story about me.

Grouping for a lot of the Florida.

My dad was a professional boxer.

He was an Air Force kind of moved into the special services.

And so trying to travel a little bit, but landed ourselves in pulpit of beach Florida where

all my family was from and started all around all my brothers.

I'm the youngest out there.

That's Miami, right?

How far?

It's about probably about 30 minutes from actual Miami Beach.

You know what I'm saying?

We said Pittsburgh, but we're north of Pittsburgh.

Exactly.

Exactly.

We're 30 minutes out.

Correct, correct.

On that borderline in Brawl County, Florida, Brawl County stand up.

But the fact is, is that, you know, the youngest out of eight brothers, you know, and it was

always a fight at the table.

Eight brothers.

It was a fight at the table.

It was that last chicken wing, that last, that last, but I think that's where a lot

of what I've been able to do, whether it was in football, whether it was in culture,

wherever I am at that point in time, they helped me so much to become a man.

But not only that, to be able to just be able to be resilient and be a fighter and everything

that we've been able to do.

So growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Brawl County, yeah, you know, I started playing

football at the age of, I want to say, as soon as I could hold the chicken wing, I think

I could hold a football.

Because all my brothers played, you know, they were all athletes.

My brothers, my dad, my mom, even the shoes of track star in high school at Fort Lauderdale

High.

And so I think that kind of was able to propel me to just walk right into the door of it.

And so, you know, I started off playing high school.

I wasn't, what did you play in high school?

High school was everything.

It was, you know, down in, down in, in Florida, it was never just, you know, football basketball,

you know, the sports kept on going all day long because we had to be doing something.

So I think that's kind of the bigger deal.

You know, football was something that I just kind of pinpointed, you know, because that

was kind of the big deal down in Florida, you know, you know, up from the basketball.

Yeah, right.

Young town is like you have to, in boxing, but you got to play football almost.

Oh, nice.

I forced myself.

That's right.

I didn't even have a football body.

I made myself.

I'm like, oh, we got to play football.

Correct.

So I get it.

Yeah.

What position did you play in high school?

So in high school, man, in high school, I really just, I was a receiver, safety, out

of the way.

I was a whatever they wanted me to play.

DeLine, it was just about being relentless, just being able to do whatever the coach wanted

me to do.

And I think I was that type of player.

And so let off to where my, to enter my sophomore year, I started getting recruited a lot, you

know, just by, by a lot of different smaller schools.

And then once, you know, you know, my grades were always something that was very important

to my mom and my dad.

And that was something that was always important to me because I always wanted to not just be

an athlete.

I wanted to be some, you know, somebody who was important in the community.

And I wanted to just use my, my, my feet, my legs to get me there.

Yeah.

Because we didn't have, we didn't have a lot of money to basically say, hey, here goes

40,000 miles ago to school.

So that was kind of, you're right.

Not for it.

Not for it.

Yeah.

160.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So I was just able to use that to kind of just push me forward and then be able to, you

know, be seen.

But, but, but also understand these schools.

I was, I was actually recruited by Stanford.

That was one of my first scholarships until I took my SAT and my SAT.

No, I'm just, but, but, but, but that was one of my offers.

You know, the Stanford School, you know, so I took, I took a lot of pride in that.

And so, great.

Great.

And, and from there, it was just, you know, being able to get, you know, 11th in my

senior year, they kind of, coaches kind of pushed me in the right direction where they

thought I would best play.

And how did, how did you end up at, at pit?

Man.

The story is, is that Coach Dave wants that, if you guys know, he was, he was a, he was

an actual head football coach in the NFL.

He big name, you know, on Fox Sports now, but he was, he was the head coach for the Miami

Dolphins at that point in time.

But at that point in time, he had, you know, gotten let go.

So he was coming, his alma mater back to Pittsburgh.

I was actually committed to the University of Florida where Ron, you see how this stuff

plays out, right?

Ron Zook ended up being the head coach, but before that urban Meyer was the one who was

coming in with Ten Tebow.

We had no idea who Urban Meyer was and Ten Tebow and I decommitted.

All right.

Right?

From a, from a two national championship team.

Right?

Yeah, good answer, really, right?

But at the end of the day, Dave from Miami, I'm from Miami area.

Okay.

And he said, you know, he came to my house and slapped his five, his five championship rings

on my mom's table.

And basically he said, hey, you want to go to the NFL?

Well, let me show you how to do it.

And that really just, that really just, you know, pushed me and told me that, hey, you

know, I think this is the right guy and I ended up coming to Pittsburgh and the story.

So let's stop there for a minute.

A couple of things that stick out to me about that is, you know, so much of business is

recruiting.

Yes.

And, you know, no matter what it is, I don't care what you're doing.

The people with the best players end up winning.

You least got to have capable players.

And so a lot of business and sports is attracting top talent.

And so it sounds like you bought into the individual and his vision and what he could do before

you really bought into the university.

And it was the same way for me, you know, for my introduction into American income, I

bought Marcus Smith.

I didn't buy American income.

I bought Marcus Smith.

And I was appreciative of what American income would do for me from that point forward as

a vehicle.

But I bought into Marcus Smith.

You bought into Dave Wantsat.

Yes, I did.

What things would you say coming transitioning into the university of Pittsburgh?

Did you learn from coach Wantsat?

Right, right.

Okay.

So I think I think one of the biggest things is that we already hit on it.

It was about being a professional.

And every day that he came in, he wanted to make sure that we understood that this was

a business trip.

This was a business meeting.

This was a business activity.

And I could remember Friday nights right before our meeting at the hotel.

And if you even looked like you had that inclination of, you know, the, not that we didn't

have fun, but the slightest inclination that we was just here just to be here.

I focused.

I focused.

Yeah.

He hit the button real quick.

And it was more like, this is a business trip.

And so I brought that to make sure that every single day that I was on that facility, every

single day that I was on that field.

This was a business transaction in order for me to make sure that I was producing, doing

the things that he was asking us to do, but making sure that I caught his attention because

he had his favorites.

And his favorites were the LaShan McCoys who ran for 2,000 yards.

Jonathan Baldwin, who caught for 1,500 yards.

Great job, Bob.

Yes.

So, in my interaction so far with Jonathan Baldwin.

Yes.

Good do, man.

Good do.

Awesome.

Well spoken.

I had a chance to speak with him this weekend at the grand opening of a premier boxing

in, I think it's outside of Al Aquipa where he went to school, high school.

And I had the chance to hear him speak.

And probably much like me, you know, I don't look, you know, I don't think I look the part.

I start talking, you see him and you know he's big and he's an athlete very well spoken

man.

And knew what he was talking about on habits of success and stuff like that.

Yes.

But anyway.

Yeah.

And.

The coach had his favorites.

Yeah.

And were the people that produced?

That's it, that's it.

And he wasn't shy about talking about it.

He wasn't shy about telling people how to get to that position.

And I think that really was the grace of him just making sure that people understood

like when I recruited you, I told your parents that I was going to be the best coach for

you.

And the only way he could do that was being transparent.

The only way he could do that was not beating around the bush.

And the only way he could do that was making sure that by the time you walked out of there,

you had used every ounce of your potential in order to be successful.

What is on the field?

How would he pull every ounce of your potential?

Well, the first thing I would actually say is that he wouldn't lie to you.

I think there's a lot of times.

He's been a real witch.

Yeah, I think a lot of times in business we have sugar coated and people want to be

coddled.

And he didn't do that.

He knew exactly how to treat his players.

But he didn't hold back from his players and he treated them just as that.

And in order to go to the next level, in order to be the top edge of the lot with the best

people, he was preparing us for that.

Just for people out there that are listening, that are transitioning.

A lot of people have played sports at least in the high school level.

And what I could tell you, just some small things coming out of the top of my mind is, don't

lose that what you learned in sports and not transition it into after sports.

Because the life after sports, if you use what you learned in sports, then you should

be able to be just fine.

Like for me, transitioning out of college, playing college football and going to school,

if you start adding up the hours, which I've never been an add up the hours.

I don't know how many hours I work.

I don't know how many I just got to get the job done.

I don't care how many hours I work.

I care about what the result is.

But what I know is it wasn't a 40-hour week.

I wasn't able to do the things that other classmates were able to do with their summers

and with their evenings and with their weekends.

And I just was always busy.

I was always doing stuff, whether it's in season or out of season, we were doing stuff

with football.

Coming out at air, I'm thinking people don't want to work weekends.

People don't want to work nights, 70 hours a week.

I was already working 70 hours a week for free.

They were paying for me to go to school, but I wasn't making no money.

And so, if you can use that same mindset coming out of sports as far as work ethic, you

know what that takes, I think.

And then also being able to be coached.

I remember, I mean, you can't play a sport.

I mean, I'm watching volleyball now.

My daughter's playing.

I've watched some soccer games.

I mean, it ain't really a sport out there that you ain't going to have a coach saying,

get your shit together.

You ain't running fast enough.

You ain't playing hard enough.

What are you doing?

And raising their voice and getting you excited.

And I watch high school kids take it.

I watch great school kids take it.

College players take it.

And then they get into the business and you can't, their feelings get hurt.

The same ones that play sports.

And so, I think that they just, you can't turn it off.

The best advice I can give you from transitioning as an athlete is keep being an athlete.

Keep the athletes mindset.

You've been able to do that.

You know, a lot of people, you know, they come in and they're pre-modernous.

You know, and you have been not only getting results, not only super talented, not only

able to bring energy.

You know, I've been waiting for somebody to bring energy with me to people like that and

elevate a locker room.

But what's very rare is that you're able to take hard coaching.

I don't ever have to worry about your feelings getting hurt or I can't shoot you straight.

If anything, you're like, come on, give it to me.

Give it to me.

And I think if more people would be that way, more people would have the results like

you're getting.

And I think one of the biggest things that, you know, I've learned from being an athlete

and being able to bring it across the bridge into business is they see a lot of the, or

the rare, they see a lot of the people around you wanting to be successful.

But what they forgot was is that it was a process.

And, you know, I go back to, you know, when I first walked in the college as a student

athlete, I was a freshman.

There were seniors and there were juniors and there were sophomores.

And part of that was is that my mindset was saying, it's just time to go.

for me to pass them up.

But I know I have a process.

I know I still got to learn the plays in order to basically make the play.

And I think coming in the business, one of the biggest things was.

Learn the plays before you can make the play.

Learn the plays, but some people will quit before they even learn the plays.

And I think that was one of the things that stuck with me when I first walked in that

you told me was just last.

Well, brother, I just lasted in college.

I just lasted out of college.

I just lasted as a GA to become, you know, at the University of Miami.

I lasted.

And when I lasted, all I did was win.

And so I think part of the process is just have the notion to have the realization that

you know, if you're not a freshman that walks in the door like a LaShaw McCord or a Jonathan

Baldwin where you can still be a Steve Bill.

You can still win.

You can still be an HB, but you can still be a player who obviously in their last, how

many players in the league, all right, played in their junior and senior year and are still

in the NFL right now.

Your journey is just different than the one who just walked in the door.

Don't worry about what everybody else is doing, but just worry about you learning your

plays.

You're going through your process and then you becoming successful in that, you know, that

your way of trying to figure out what's best for you.

You know, when I look at another analogy in sports, you know, if you don't start playing

to your junior, you got a red shirt freshman year, you got a freshman year, you got a sophomore

year, you went three years of putting in the work without the reward.

And so when you break on the scene on your plan, you're starting, man, that's great, he's

a starter.

What you don't see is the sacrifices that took three years to get there.

And you work in harder, I mean, at least more humility.

You know, I know as a senior, as a captain, as a fourth, four year starter, by the time

I was a senior, if there, there was some times where if we were running down on special

teams, coach would make me be the gunner.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

I didn't have to be the person on punt return anymore, you know, for certain things.

I didn't have to pick up the straggling equipment, you know what I mean?

But in the beginning, I was doing the weights, I'm doing the film, I'm learning the plays,

I'm running, and cleaning up the water bottles as a freshman, but I'm not nowhere near getting

on the field that year.

But if you quit during that process, you never see the field.

And when you see the field, people forget the process.

That's right.

And I think business is the exact same way.

You know, people see, you know, some of the fruit coming from your labor now, but what

they don't see is the sacrifices that have happened up over the last 14 months.

People see the fruits of some of my labor, I'm 14 years in the game.

And you know how I work?

I've been working like this for 14 years, you know what I mean?

This is a grind that's been happening.

And so, so much of business in life and work in sports is grind your ass off with no

upfront payback, massage you yourself knowing that you're growing, getting better, you're

one step closer, but on the surface, nobody can see it.

And then all of a sudden, you get that reward of maybe it's playin' time, maybe it's a promotion,

maybe it's a, maybe it's more money, whatever it is.

You gotta be able to put in that freshman year, that red shirt freshman year, that sophomore

year.

We're not only you learn the plays, but you gotta be willing to practice those plays,

maybe not get an upfront result immediately.

You know so many people I've watched come in the door with talent, they can't make it

through a red shirt year.

Instant gratification.

Six months.

That's right.

You know what I mean?

But you can't turn it around in a month.

I'm transferring, I'm going to this school so I can play right away, you know, or whatever

it is.

So, what other things have you, what have helped you, you know, as an athlete, turning

into an entrepreneur in business, what would you say has helped you in that transition,

because this is somebody that is, I mean, just from sales to leadership, you've gotten

an A at everything that you've done so far.

So, here goes the bigger deal.

You know, you say what has helped me in that part.

When I was an athlete, I was never bigger, faster, or stronger than everybody else.

But what I did use was this, and what that basically meant was, is that, okay, there has

been people before me who has done it better, who has done it faster, and who are doing it

now.

So, what I did was, I just leaned on my leadership.

And my leadership basically, every, just you talking about the transition from coaching,

transition for coaching means that when you walk in the door, you got a position coach.

You got a, you got a, you got a coordinator, and then you got your head coach.

So, so how I looked at it when I walked in the door was, okay.

So I got a position coach.

Well, let me go to my position coach first.

So that means that let me go to Tommy Vena, or, or, you know what, let me go to my James

key first, my Jason Brattens, my, my, my Maddie's, my Britons, okay.

And let me lean on them, all right.

And, and, and they all can, they all can say that I called them 20 times a week when I first

started.

When I first started, I wanted to, those were the people who I just jumped right on into.

Okay, those were my position coaches.

And then after that, I, I went to my coordinators, my, my, my, my, my Justin, my Justin

Adams, my, my Tommy Vena's, you know, the Maddie's once again.

And, and then I knew I always had a head coach that was had an open door, open door rule,

an open door where I can come and speak to him.

And I think, I think the part that, you know, not everybody can be talked to, not everybody

can be, you know, there's only so much time in the day, but find, find your position

coach.

And, and I think that, you know, everybody kind of sometimes want to do what they want

to do, you know, when this, how, what you tell me all the time and hard times, people

who want to get, you know, into their, their solid there when, when it should be reaching

out to the people who, who you need and, and, and it's going to be able to help you.

So, so, so, been there.

And so that, I think that right there was the biggest deal when I first wanted to go

out.

What you're talking about is you're asking for advice and coaching from people that are

taking coaching.

But taking coaching.

Where you will be, where you want to be, accepting the coaching, being coachable, being

a student.

Yes.

Yes.

But you're not asking questions to people that you wouldn't want to even get advice

from.

And this is like in sports.

I remember coming in and, you know, my, my guy I was looking at was still coaching professionally

today.

His name was Rob Keith.

He was the guy.

Yeah.

Depends about Captain Loudy like us.

And, and I'm asking him questions.

I'm trying to hang around him.

Right.

Screw the, the, the, the, I'm too proud.

You know, anything.

Right.

I was proud enough that before I started my career at Mercyhurst University, I got in

a blowout fistfight in the gym with a senior.

Playing basketball.

Try to, try to, try to, try to put me in.

It looks like you.

It, but, but, but at the same token, no pride comes into play.

I got to follow around the best players.

I want to learn from, I want to learn from somebody that has the spirit like you have.

But I wasn't asking questions.

I wasn't asking questions to nobody that was not playing or not starting or not making.

It makes no sense to me as a, as a, as a sophomore starter.

Right.

Right.

Why I would be asking questions or hanging around a bunch of cats that are not putting

into work, not learning the plays.

Don't have any been played.

I should be asking questions to the seniors, the juniors, all conference guys.

What are, what are those people doing?

In business, you just explain that's what you did.

That's exactly what I did.

In sports, this is what you needed.

But, but, but, but the, the next part, that was eight.

And B was, B was making sure that while I was actually getting all that information, that

I wasn't just practicing in the class.

That I was practicing after class.

The best players don't practice during practice.

They're practicing after practice.

I was, I was not like the quotes.

They like the Ray Lewis quotes and the Jerry Rice quotes and a, come look up what Jerry

was doing.

You know what I mean?

Look, look, look, look with, look with Ray Lewis was doing.

Look what these people were doing.

Outside of the hours of practice.

That's right.

And if you're only practicing during the hours of practice, it was not, you're done.

You're done.

You're done.

That's just the rules of the NCAA.

That's just, this is when you're nine to five.

This is when you're supposed to be here.

It don't even count until everybody starts falling off.

Right.

What extra?

That's right.

Are you down to doing that?

That's right.

And that's what, that's what I was doing.

I was taking those, that extra time I was, and you know, you can tell, you know, everybody

would know from you is that that's one of the things that I needed to learn.

And how to do was just be able to use my time more effectively.

And so I've learned to do that now, but before it was just trying to make sure that what

I was getting from them, I was able to do after and gain those extra inches.

All right.

And be the world class thinker and be in, try to make sure that I was doing all those

things outside of practice.

But then the next part was is that, you know, I had a leader in James Keeper who made

me implement it and made me do it.

And that was one of the biggest things is that I wasn't scared to just jump off and

just get out there.

You know, sometimes people are too hell-backed because they don't feel like they're ready.

Well, you know, out here in our business and what we do is you get ready when you are

there.

All right.

When you are out there, all right.

That's the best way to be ready is being able to have a lot of reps.

A lot of reps.

That was practice.

Reps.

Reps.

All right.

So that's the best way to be ready to do it.

And then from practice field to practice field, we're going to put it in the game field.

Well, how could you obviously, you know, some players are not, you know, just being able

to see they need to be able to do.

And so one of the things that I was able to do is I was able to just get as many reps as

I can until the fact was that, oh, I feel good.

You've also, you know, I think some of what sticks out to me is you're a good teammate.

You know, a lot of people are, me and Maurice, we're talking about this on this past week

on the podcast about, you know, it's difficult at times coming up playing football because,

you know, you love your brothers playing linebacker.

But, but, you know, if they make some good plays, you got to fight that spirit of man.

If he keeps making plays, I may not get on the field, you know what I mean?

But I don't really want to root for him to lose either.

But I need, you know, I need an opportunity.

Right.

And in business, there is no mentality of scarcity.

Right.

So matter whose team I feel like you've been a team player.

I feel like you've been somebody that roots for other people.

I feel like you're somebody that lifts up other people's spirit, coaches, people that are

not on your team and, and make the whole team better, not just your team, you know, better.

Well, that's part of the environment and the culture that we're in.

I mean, I think it's all about being competitive, but at a certain point when we're not

letting each other tie us, I think that when we came in the door, you know, there's a lot

of people, you know, and this is, this is toward you is we, you know, we're not scared

to say we are the Alabama of American income.

And every day we walk in this building, there's another person fighting to take your position.

But at the end of the day, in order for us to be successful, we can't be at each other's

throws.

We can't be trying to withhold back information.

Because nobody, when I first walked in the door, nobody withheld information from

me.

So why would I want to do that?

And these people are successful.

So if I'm trying to learn, okay, how to be successful, all right, and I see what they're

doing is being able to give off that information and show me, you know, what's the next step

of how to be where they are?

Well, I'm going to do it.

I was just, and this is exactly what I did in football.

I was just dumb enough to do exactly what I was told to do.

And so at this point, I'm just dumb enough to do exactly what it is in order to be successful.

And I think I take that into all the things that I do on a daily basis.

No doubt.

But we're, we're some of the places that you were coaching.

Oh, man, we talked about the process, brother.

Well, you know, in coaching, I think that was, you know, everybody could say they saw me

at Miami or saw me on the TV, you know, in different places, but it was a role.

I got to catch you with the George Washington.

Yeah.

That's a funny picture.

I saved that.

That's a funny picture.

You know, I got your big black butt with the picture.

This old white man, George Washington up there.

I said, oh, that's a save, I'm sad to funny one.

Like, oh, no, the sign.

I saw you on the sidelines.

The biggest thing was is that it was a process.

I was at, I started off at College of DuPage in Naperville, Glen Ellen, Chicago.

And this was a, this was an actual Juco that didn't give out any scholarships.

You want to talk about recruiting?

You want to know how I started recruiting?

I started recruiting with all these other schools that we had in our conference had scholarships

and I didn't.

So I had to learn how to be a recruiter without any of the tools that they had.

No leaves.

No leaves.

Right.

And so this is what, this is where you was talking about, well, some of the tools that

you needed in order to be successful, well, I already had it when I walked in the door.

I figured I knew I had to make sure that people was going to believe in me instead of believing

in what the College of DuPage, okay?

And what we could do for them.

So then I went to our head coach ended up getting the head coach at Dodge City, Kansas,

which is, which is an actual historical school in Kansas.

Two of them from Chicago?

Two Kansas.

Yes.

I wanted to Chicago from Kansas.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Two of them.

Okay.

And this, this school was pretty historical as far as, you know, the Juco rankings.

And so I was there for about less than a year.

Okay.

So I'm going to play in the recruiting guy but also at FAU with Carl Polini, a youngstown

guy.

Yeah.

So Carl Polini and the boys, okay?

Basically, yeah.

The most brother.

Yeah.

Yeah, Bo's brother.

They gave me a call because I had brought in 15 players from South Florida and we had won

the National Championship from recruiting all 15 of them went to a division once.

At the Juco?

Right.

The Juco.

Come on.

Come on man that was about them.

It was about them.

It was about them.

But it's so, you know, Coach always used to say

when the team wins the national championship,

you got a whole bunch of all Americans.

You don't have to worry about the individual.

You don't have to worry about the individual awards.

Okay, because when the team wins the national championship,

a rising tide raises all ships.

That's right. That's right. And so as soon as that happened, everybody wanted to know how did I do that?

Yeah. What was I doing? Yeah. And you know, Mr. Sims came in and brought me in from, brought me from

college to do page and brought me back home to Boca Raton Florida at Atlantic. Yeah.

Florida Atlantic University, where I was able to end up having what it was called the on-field

recruiting coordinator, and then moving on to the next year, which was then ended up being with the

Nichols and the outside backers a year and a half, almost two years later. Once again,

boom, we had another great recruiting class, but then also my Nichols and outside backers were

doing pretty good, and two of them one actually just got drafted right now. This just this past

draft class and then another one you know was drafted a year before that, but the fact was

that Miami came calling. They wanted, you know, I was a hometown Florida dude. I knew a lot of

high school coaches, and then next thing, you know, I was the recruiting coordinator in 2015 and

2017. Wow. So yeah. Come on. So we went to, you know, I guess we could transition into how you and I met.

Yeah. We could transition into how you and I met. That's right. So, you know, Steven I met, I was

we were I was actually taking some of our team on, you know, we do the incentive. That's right.

We did a dinner at the top of Mount Washington, overlooking the city, and I see Jay-Z and

Beyonce the better. It was Steve and Nicole at the bar and they look so sharp, so classy,

good looking, both of them. And you know, so they everybody, they stick out like two sore thumbs.

And so I'm looking at them and I'm thinking, well, you know, everybody, well, I wonder what they

do. I mean, you stick out the way you dress. And then I look and you jacked with a tattoo on your neck.

Something could be an attorney, but I don't think he's an attorney. So, you know, either way, I'm going

to relate to him. No matter what it was, I was going to relate. So I said, I'm going to go, I'm going

to go up there and introduce myself and see what's going on. And you and I would hit it off. We

exchange information. And maybe within a year, I get a phone call from you to meet up with you,

and we were going to talk about maybe doing some things for RISE, which was this why I say, I think

it was God's plan. If I wasn't there that night, you weren't there that night. If I didn't open up

my mouth and you know, and then we meet and we start talking about RISE. And you guys know, I'm always

grinded. Everybody. So RISE and grinded. So RISE was his nonprofit that he was passionate about and

to help kids and help others just like me. And so we start talking about that and we end up

getting into a conversation of doing business together. And so I start to be Dave Wantson.

I start trying to attract what I think is the version of what you would say would be a McCoy.

I knew that I was talking to somebody that could rush for 2,000 yards. I knew I was talking to

somebody that would be one of the best receivers in the game at the time. And so for me, I just,

you know, my approach and my perspective with people like this over time has just been, this is

why I believe so heavily in your spirit being right. You know, my body spirit because it's never an

attack for me of not being able to be patient because I just try to trust in what God has and let

God lead that. And if I was supposed to be in your life for a different reason, I wanted him to

allow to use me as a steward for that. I was just supposed to be involved with RISE, whatever,

then I'm okay with that. But I was hoping that he had something else planned. And I think

any did. And so we start eventually talking business. We get together and in a short period of time

within a year of that conversation, you move from Florida to Pittsburgh. We get you rocking in

Pittsburgh. And I would say everything that I promised you. And I try not to promise

anything more than what I could deliver on. And, you know, so if I'm a head coach, I don't know

if I will be saying I'm going to promise you you're going to start your first year, but you have

an opportunity to. And I'm going to give you all the tools to. And your talent says that you

should and you will. And I think that there's a very good chance that you'll start as a freshman.

But I wasn't promising a ton. So I said I promise what I think I can promise is you're going to

make six figures your first year. And I think you'll do X, Y, Z your second year. And I think this

has been a situation of under promise over deliver. I think everything that was promised to you has been

double or triple that. You know, before we stepped on the jet last week, private plane, I'm saying

if I would have told you day one, your text is going to be next this week. And we're going to be on

a private jet. You would have thought I was full of crap. No doubt. But most of it is you.

You've been under promise over deliver or you've just delivered. Period. And that's the majority

of it. You know, the players make coaches look a whole lot better than they are and the best coaches

just end up getting the best player. So if I could take any credit for anything, it would be to

trusting God's plan and to see the gift that you had and to bring that gift into the business.

But from there, it was just hand the ball off and keep watching you run and call the right

place. And so why don't you talk a little bit about how you transition into the business,

what that's look like for you in business because your whole life was sports and coaching.

Right. And so you come here and it really ends up being coaching and very similar.

But for people that are transitioning into our business or other businesses outside of sports,

what advice would you have on how to do that successfully?

Because you're crushing. I mean, I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to throw it out there

in everybody's face. But I mean, if I told you, he got a check on this. Okay. And that's his thing.

Dog, dog check. But this is a real check. And you know, I'm not going to, we're not going to go

there. Yeah, yeah. I got it. You're doing very well for yourself. You know, league minimum is

X in the NFL. And I think we could say you're there. So how can you transition in the business

from somebody like that? I thought, you know, what I thought was the other day and I, you know,

coming from athletic background and you say transitioning from sports to business.

One of my messages was the other day was is that, you know, once you left that arena of

playing field, well, your life wasn't over. You know, a lot of times we get into a

position of depression. We get into a, this is real. People die. They die. Yeah, you talk about

female. This is real for, and you know that sports, sports depression. And this is something that

we need to bring awareness to. Yes, yes. I've lost lives over the years. And I posted something about

two or three days ago before the draft because I have a lot of those friends. I could say I was in

that position for a second, but had to pop out of it real quick because I knew that the next step was

either wait four or five years or don't do anything. And being a position where I'm 35 or 30 years old

and haven't even started my life yet. And so I wanted to make sure that I always used that brain.

That, you know, I knew that I had my good legs and my good arms. But I wanted to make

sure that I was in position to set myself up for life. So the transition for me was the turnaround.

In sports, it was like, okay, if you do an exception, as a quarterback, you had to

switch it right back off and go right back out there. That's right. That's right. And so my

turnaround was just quicker than everybody else. And if I could ever help and coach people,

it was to the point where is that I needed to find you. I needed to find something that was going

to be able to start my engine again. And I think I did that once I came out of football. And then

the next thing that just happened was us, the spark, the magic, you have to be able to find and

kind of see what may be next. And you may not know that, but you have to go out and try to find it.

Because it's not just going to just come to you all the time. And so I was just ready to find

what was going to be next and what was going to be able to propel me to the next place. And I think

that's one of the things that I was able to do. That's what we've tried to create here. We've

tried to create a sports atmosphere. For me, all I did was do sports my whole life. And my first

job was with this company, which has created multiple opportunities. So all I knew was that. So

I created that. I created a sports environment. We got older people. We got younger people.

But a lot of them either have played sports in the past, currently playing or just got done plan

or they at least have the mentality of somebody that would have been good in sports if they didn't

play. And we've created that family locker room environment, the same feeling that you get.

You win or you lose. You keep score. You compete. You compete together. But then we go out and

compete as a team once we've got competing against each other. We go out and compete as a unit.

I put Trussell on the spot recently. Me and Coach Trussell, we're going to do a consistent podcast

coming out where I'm just basically opening up to the world what I've been getting. And that's

wisdom in mentoring from Coach Trussell for years. So he has a book out called The Winners Manual

to New York Times Best Seller. He has two books out. He let me have it that I mentioned.

He has two books out. That's right. The first book, the winners manual, we call it The Winners

Manual 2.0 is what it is. It's going to come out consistently with Coach Trussell. Coach Trussell.

And I put him on the spot. And I asked him, after 10 years of coaching at the University of Ohio State,

or at the Ohio State University, he got fired. I think athletes know, but not a lot of people do.

And there was a lot of controversy about it. And I think more people were rooting for him than

against him. And it is what it is. But he had a lot of success there. Three national championships,

big 10 titles, beaten Michigan, and bowl game after bowl game. And I asked him, how did you handle

what happened to you? And so he didn't shy away from it. So I'm going to throw you on the spot.

The people probably tracking the history to someone. What the hell happened? It was my

family next to me. That's right. You got fired. For an off the field decision, it was not drug-related.

It was an altercation. He got into a physical altercation with somebody. Nothing good happens

after midnight. After midnight, he ends up in an argument, in alcohol, and foam. And the next thing,

I think it was Coach Chris, sent you packing. Talk to me about the transition. What you learned from

that, what we can teach from that. But from there, the transition was, okay, we're going to bounce

back. That was a passion. I'm watching the passion flow here. But not everything can be tied to

salary or income. There's more to life than that. But I know that you've more than replaced and

doubled and tripled what the income was going to be. I think I'm seeing the same type of passion

and love transition here. So you've gotten a lot of what you lost back. And even more. So how did

you handle that transition? And what did you learn from that transition? And kind of talking about that?

It changed my life from how hard I worked to get there to find out. And a moment.

And a moment, it being gone. And I think that's one of the biggest things that we can teach

our young people who walk in the door in our business with anything, with ethical behavior,

with anything that goes on in business. It could be taken away that quick. And so one of the things

that I learned is that in business, there's a certain line in place that you can

teeter with a lot of different things. Whether it's people that you work with, whether it's the

after hours, all of those different types of things that could put you in a bad situation.

I saw it happen. And I saw it happen right in front of me because my dream at that point in time

was to always be in football. My dream at that point in time was to be with the University of Miami

a place that I grew up watching and coaching and and then all of a sudden not being able to be

there anymore. And so that depression was set in right after that. And once again, like you said,

having to hear it on a wide scale because this wasn't you know, a college of due page anymore.

This was the University of Miami. Everybody knows when you're there. And having to go through that

process was so it was I felt like I had disappointed my family. I felt like I had disappointed myself.

I felt like I had disappointed the university. And I never wanted that feeling ever again.

So how did that help me when I walked here? It's because when I came into it, I understood that

this ain't about Steve Dull anymore. Not only that, this wasn't even about the business.

This was about my kids. This was about my relationship with you. This was about my last name.

And so I took that into consideration when I made my decision on what I wanted to do.

And like you said, God has been great. I've been able to take that into even coaching my young

men who are here today. The business that we are right now, there are a lot of young women.

And women. You got to tell her, oh my gosh. Some beasts. Oh my gosh. Yes.

And I can name them out and they are awesome. But here goes the thing is I'm able to use that in.

coach them now.

Because remember, you talk about having that type of money at a young age.

Just imagine a 20 year old walking out of here with a 2000 or whatever the case may ex-pay

check every single week.

Because it happens every single week and just being able to help them and guide them because

of my story.

Because of, you know, I was 20.

Back to coach.

I was 20.

I was 26 years old.

Coach in 21 years.

And so it was very important for me to understand that hey, you need to grow up quick.

But you also need to make sure that, you know, the people who are under you can see you

doing the right thing.

And so right now, that's what I'm going through.

I got a lot of young players in headhunches on my team who have the elf alphabetality,

where there's female or male.

But then being able to step back for a second and say, hey, look.

Just like you told me, you can't always control the elf, but you just have to make sure

that they understand.

You got to get permission.

You got to get permission.

You got to get permission.

Yes.

But, you know, so I got two more things I want to point out before we leave today.

First thing is I would talk about the amount of humility, you know, it takes in the transition

of something to start over again.

I'm not worried about the time at all.

I just want to let this flow.

The amount of humility that you had in the transition, you also came here with children.

You were 30 years old starting.

So, you know, people started 20 with no kids as different starting at 30 with children.

And people make excuses.

I got kids and you know, you found a way to stay motivated because you have kids.

Right.

You've got to have excuses.

I'm in my 30s.

You found a way to use it, you know, to an advantage.

What things, you know, stick out to you?

How are you able to do it with kids transitioning in with humility?

And then I'll close on something else, some advice for some of the people.

Yeah.

Well, I think you touched on it.

You know, I didn't think that, you know, I thought I was behind.

I needed to make up ground, like this ain't enough time.

Right.

You know, but more importantly, I got to take care of my family.

I got to take care of my kids and just being able to transition was is that, you know,

part of the thing that I have that we're working on with me and my family is, is, you know,

people that are not on your back but have your back.

And the person who is, you know, my significant other, my fiance has been able to help me

in that process.

You know, this isn't easy when you have three, four, you know, kids and then you got a,

fiance at home who takes care of all that and so she has been so supportive.

She has kind of been the person that holds it down while I'm out, you know, coming from

St. Louis for a whole week and then being able to come home and still she doesn't have

us sick face on.

And you know, just like coaching.

That's right.

You might, you might play, you might be coaching at Miami and then you got to go play

in a bowl game or you got to go try and do the same thing.

And, and it gets how she transitioned.

She was doing that.

She was already used to it.

It's the, I could tell you outside of what most people think, you know, of what a person

would need to be successful here.

I'm telling you underestimated severely as the support system.

Yes.

It's very hard to do this deal when your spouse or significant other is hounding you and

on your back because it's already a tough game.

It's already just like coaching sports.

That ain't an easy game breaking down film.

I mean, people think they want to, everybody think they want to be a coach, okay?

You go ahead and work for free for a year as a GA.

Then you go move to Kansas and work for $25,000 a year and live in a dorm and go over here.

And then finally you can start making a little bit of money.

It's the same in business.

You have to be able to put in, you're never get, you always got to put in the work up front

then you get paid.

That's right.

You get paid a little bit later.

And the support that you've had and the support that I could see from the people at the top,

they all have somebody that's supporting them behind the scenes.

And I learned this from a coach.

I'm going to ask for a permission to say who it was.

But a very, very good coach out there told me, when I talk about the, as a coach, you

win a game on Saturday, you already got a break down the film on Sunday.

You guys got to already be practicing and ready.

If you make it far and you're in a bowl game, you're already behind the recruiting because

recruiting already started.

So as soon as that game's over, you know, Boop, Confetti comes out, Trophie, thank you.

I got to make some calls.

I got to get the recruiting going.

That's right.

And so it's a grind.

Yes.

And so I talked to this coach.

I said about man, you're working on Saturday, you're coaching football, you got to break,

you got to meeting the next day, you know, whatever.

How do you handle that with the coaches?

He gave me a couple tips that I've used here from giving some breaks to people and how

to go about it at times.

But here's the thing that sticks out to me, as he said.

You know, I tell you, I've told a guy before, either you got the wrong job or you got the

wrong wife.

And I'm not going to tell you which one it is.

It may be you have the wrong job.

You may have the right wife.

It's the right person for you.

But this job as a coach, this is what it entails.

Even if I love you, this is what it entails as a head coach or a defensive coordinator.

This is what it takes to serve these kids and you may have the wrong job.

Okay.

So you either got to, if it's an issue, you either got the wrong job or you got the wrong

wife.

But what I've seen been thankful for is the people that we have that have made it, that

have climbed the mountain.

They got the right job and they got the right wife.

They got the right husband because I got some female bosses.

That's right.

You know, Nat Dee, I think, I mean, she's 24-7.

My man, Erin Price.

Come on.

Pitgrass.

She got the right husband.

That's right, more.

She couldn't function the way she functions.

And let me be as needy as I am with her husband wasn't so supportive.

So back and forth on that, why don't we close on this?

Why don't you give some tips to some people out there and let's cross the playing field

and outside the playing field.

Let's say there's some athletes listening.

Let's say there's some people in business listening.

What advice would you give to somebody that's starting out in business or starting out as

a plan of a sport?

What three to five things can they do that would cross over?

Yeah, cross over.

That would, that would mirror that would probably put them in a position to achieve greatness.

What are three to five things they got to do?

Well, number one is, everybody who walks in the door, I tell them that it's about having

that mindset of not giving yourself an option B or C. When I first came into American income,

my Aries agencies, I didn't have an option B and C. I didn't have the opportunity of

thinking that if this didn't work out, where would I be next?

This had to work out.

I think that was one of the biggest things.

If I'm going into something, it's because this is all I got.

I'm going to give it all I got before they take me out of it.

I think that's number one.

Number two is leaning on the people who have been successful.

Don't be shy.

Don't be thinking that you're bothering people.

Find out who are the ones that have done it and done it the best and go after them.

I think I could raise my hand and I could say thank you to a lot of those people who

we work with today because they open their call lines up to me at 11 o'clock at night.

You'll find those good people.

You'll find the people who want to help you.

You need to attack it but understand that after you get that information, you need to

implement.

You need to do what you need to do.

You need to not find excuses because they didn't find one to help you.

That's the transition.

And the next thing is that the process, there is a process.

Whether you are the starter, I've seen even the best and the reason why the best stayed

the best is because they had to go through a process.

And part of it and I can talk about this because I just seen one of my guys, my dudes,

let's show them a chord.

He got hurt before.

He ended up coming to pit.

That's why he came.

He had a million different offers.

He got hurt and he ended up coming to pit and then boom, gone.

But we didn't know what his process was.

So don't always think because you didn't see the process that there was not a process.

There was one.

And I think that my process was what we talked about here was going to the University of

Miami, being fired by the University of Miami.

I promise you this, I won't let another thing like that hurt my opportunity for my family,

my kids and then my success.

And so every day I walk in this business is because I know that this is for us.

This is to make sure that we are successful down the road.

And I'm not going to put anything in front of them.

That's not going to be able to help us in order to get to where we need to go at.

And then last but not least, when you go into a business, when you transition, just like

when you went from sports to business where you better believe in the personal leadership

that you have.

And then I'm going to go into a business at the end of the day.

I'm here because of Simon Aries.

And some of my guys, they're here because of me.

And if you can't believe in the leadership or the people can't believe in you, then

they will never believe in the vision.

And the vision for what we want to do here at the areas agency is by far unbelievable.

And where we're going.

And I just want to say thank you for having me on here.

But also thank you for the opportunity for being with Aries agency.

I could talk about it.

Thank you for being a part of the process.

And one of the MVP's for us winning everything right now.

And it's ironic it's the, you know, your first full year, man.

And you have a lot to do with it.

Two things in closing, you know, that I'll say.

One is follow Steve Dell on social media on Facebook, Instagram.

Steve Dell rise factory.

Let's go.

And because he'll motivate you.

You'll see his grind.

You'll see his hustle.

You'll see what he's doing with people for people.

And then the last thing is you see I'm not even wearing the grind today.

I'm wearing inspired minds.

And this was what I always wanted to do is to go back and be able to help others with

my gifts and talents that God gave me.

And so don't forget to go back and give.

You know, I know one of your passions is rise.

Yes.

A nonprofit.

I plan on helping you with that every step of the way.

But what you see here is not only somebody or two people that are talking about money

and all this other stuff, man.

This dude goes out of his way to help people.

One of the first ones always back me and support me on helping the youth and helping others.

And that's what it's all about, man.

So keep grinding, keep rising.

Every time you get knocked down, rising, grind.

Let's go.

Let's make it happen.

Thanks for coming.

Count money, man.

Money, money, that gritches.

I'm trying to told him.

I'm a beast, but.