Tracks To Success
Kraig Kann, a veteran golf broadcaster and former C-Suite sports executive turned business entrepreneur, hosts the top podcast that brings you inspiring people and their inspiring success stories. How did they find their way to the top? How can their path help you do the same? As a speaker, consultant, author and leadership workshop facilitator himself, Kraig has a high energy fun chat with other top leaders and top personalities from all walks and all professions and gives his guests the platform to share untold stories about their rise up the ranks. On "Tracks to Success" you'll hear from big time names and names ready to hit the big time in a 5-star podcast you don't want to miss.
Tracks To Success
Dave Christensen
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🎙️ Tracks To Success | Dave Christensen: Leadership, Reinvention & Knowing When to Go For It
What happens when the final whistle blows — and the career that defined you suddenly changes?
In this episode of Tracks To Success, Kraig Kann sits down with Dave Christensen, former Division I head football coach, longtime offensive coordinator, author, and leadership speaker, for a conversation about pressure, perseverance, reinvention, and what it means to keep moving forward when life presents its own fourth-down moments.
Christensen spent more than four decades in football, with coaching stops that included Missouri, Toledo, Wyoming, Utah, Texas A&M, and Arizona State. He served as head coach at Wyoming, earned Mountain West Coach of the Year honors, and built a reputation as an innovative offensive mind during a career spent developing players, staffs, and high-performing teams.
Today, Dave has taken those lessons beyond the football field. As the author of YOUR 4th Down: Why You Need to Go For It, he challenges leaders to recognize the defining moments when playing it safe may no longer be the answer — and to rely on preparation, discipline, courage, and belief when the pressure is highest.
🏈 Inside the episode:
• What four decades of coaching taught Dave about leadership and influence
• The lessons he learned working alongside some of college football’s most respected coaches
• His experience leading the University of Wyoming football program
• What pressure and failure can teach us about growth
• Why preparation and discipline matter when the stakes are highest
• Dave’s A.D.A.P.T. Game Plan for life and leadership
• How he handled the transition from coaching into his next chapter
• Why everyone eventually faces a personal or professional “4th Down”
• And how to know when it’s time to stop playing it safe — and go for it
Dave Christensen’s story is a reminder that success is not simply about what happens on the scoreboard. It’s about how you prepare, how you respond when things get difficult, and whether you have the courage to keep moving when your path suddenly changes.
🎧 Listen to Tracks To Success on all the top podcast platforms and watch the full conversation on the Kraig Kann YouTube channel.
Watch Tracks To Success on Kraig Kann's YouTube Channel!
Hi there, everybody. I'm Craig Cannon. Right now on this edition of Tracks to Success. What happens when the final whistle blows and the clock hits zero on a coaching career? Do you have belief that your greatest impact may still be ahead of you? For more than four decades, he built his career in college football, developing players, building programs, and leading teams through the pressure and expectations of high-level competition. He served as the head coach at the University of Wyoming and held prominent coaching positions at Missouri, Toledo, Utah, Texas AM, and Arizona State. But today, this successful coach is drawing up a whole new gameplay. An offer public speaking, leadership development, and helping others navigate the defining moments in their own lives. The career that shaped, the lessons he carried forward, and my retirement opened the door to an entirely new opportunity.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Tracks to Success, the podcast that introduces you to inspiring people with inspiring stories. It's your chance to hear from top leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and change makers as they share how they found their way to the top and how their journey can help you find your own. And now, here's your host, former network broadcaster, C-suite executive, best-selling author, and keynote speaker, Craig Cannes.
SPEAKER_01Well, Dave, thanks so much for joining me. I'm not gonna lie, I've been really looking forward to this one for multiple reasons. Um, you know, a professional relationship turns into a friendship, and here we go talking on a podcast. So it's great to have you. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02I'm doing great, and I really appreciate the opportunity to be on with you. I look forward to it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's gonna be fun. I've got a lot of questions. So so we're gonna consider this like sitting at the podium and a big media interview, right? But a little a little less pressure. I'm glad to have you on tracks to success. I want to start with this the here and the now. We'll dive back into your journey um in a second and get some of your lessons and what you teach and all that. But what is a day like? I mean, looking at your office here, it's amazing. You got all the jerseys, you got all the helmets, you got all that. What's the day like for a retired coach? Kind of carving out a whole new career for himself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's uh um, well, you know, the one thing you you find out when you retire is you you you better have a plan. You know, you better develop a routine, you better develop it quickly, or um you you sit around and and uh get lazy and get fat and and not very healthy. So you have to have a plan. And particularly if you have a career where you work 16 hours a day, uh seven days a week. Um, and so you know, a general day for me is uh get up about 5:30, have coffee, check uh social medias, check what's going on around the world. Then uh, you know, it could be a spin on the Peloton, which I do about four times a week, or it could be what I just finished with, a Pilates class that I do about four times a week, or it could be lifting, or it could be a sauna or hot tub. So I spend my the first part of every morning on my health. And uh, and so that's that's a few hours every day to kill some time. If there's some things that need to get done around the house, I do that. Um, you know, it's it's pretty hot here in Arizona. So this time of the year, if I'm gonna golf, it's gonna be uh 7:30, 8 o'clock in the morning. If I do that, I try to do that a couple days a week. Um, and so those are the things that fill my day uh pretty much. Um, you know, do some some errands around the house, which I don't have a ton of them. And then I I like to find a couple hours to, you know, get in my office and and just you know read things online that uh other uh coaches and leaders are are talking about, uh different experiences that have gone on. Um so yeah, it's it's pretty easy to fill my day. And then I travel quite a bit. I was just on a cruise last week. I'm leaving this afternoon to Seattle uh for four days. I get home for five days, and we leave on a 30-day road trip uh with my wife. Um, so uh yeah, I I stay I stay busy and uh and in between there try to find some opportunities to go out and and and do some speaking engagements and and talk about my book.
SPEAKER_01You talked about health. We'll get into the book and the speaking in a minute. Was coaching healthy for you? If you look at the big picture of your career, was it healthy for you?
SPEAKER_02It was for me, uh, because we kept things in perspective. Um, you know, we we we worked early in the mornings we came in, but in the latter part of my career with Coach Pinkle and when I was a head coach, uh we got out of there, you know, six o'clock at night and got home, had dinner with our families, got rest. Uh, I worked out my entire career at lunchtime. I spent my lunchtime uh working out. If you don't do those things, uh it can be very unhealthy. Um, the stress level is is you know just over the top. And uh and so how I was able to deal with that is I was fortunate that when I left my office, I could shut it off. You know, I went home and I was uh you know, a husband and a father, and I just I could do that now, probably not a hundred percent completely shut off, but a lot more than a lot of guys could. And then I made sure I, you know, I did everything I could to stay in shape and and exercise regularly and uh you know, try to get you know enough sleep and and those type of things. Uh it was pretty healthy for me.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna use a quote, you just said it. Stress level was over the top. That's what you said.
SPEAKER_02What does that mean? Well, you know, my profession for 40 years, if if we didn't win enough football games, I didn't get a paycheck. And I have three kids I was raising and uh a wife to support, and uh, you know, so there's a little bit of stress uh to perform and uh you know and and to have immediate answers uh under a lot of pressure. Um and so yeah, that's just that's you know the stress of being successful. See in coaching, you can't be close. It's the close isn't good enough. And you know, 50% of the teams are gonna lose every week, right? Only 50% can win. And you better be on the winning side or they're gonna find somebody else to do it. And so that type of pressure to to you know have success and maintain your job, uh, yeah, that was that was stressful.
SPEAKER_01You recruited a lot of kids, Dave, in your career. What recruited you? Not who, what recruited you into the profession when you were young?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that that's that's an easy one. I talk about it in my book. Uh, my high school coach and and my college coach, the influence that they had on my life uh was astronomical. And I wanted to have the opportunity uh to do the same thing for other young men growing up in high school and college and try to be a great role model and a leader. And uh um, and so yeah, Tony Whitefield, my high school coach, and Don James, my college coach. Uh, and then, you know, then I was able to work for Gary Pinkle. So, you know, two Hall of Fame college coaches and a and a great high school coach that really, really gave me my first uh feeling of that, you know, I have a chance to be successful and and and what the game of football did for me from that time going forward was just astronomical.
SPEAKER_01All right. You mentioned the book, and I know we're gonna talk a lot more about it, but let's do this. Let's take our first opportunity. Why don't you hold it up so so we can we can know the name of it, okay? Um, your fourth down, why you need to go for it. Offensive strategy to help you win the game of life. All right, great book, and uh really proud of you for that. And people can obviously buy it. So we're gonna talk more about it in a minute, but I know that you're probably gonna drop some things in this conversation that that might tie to it. So I just wanted to reference it early. You you became known as an innovative offensive coach. Now, when you were building an offense, how much of the process was strategy? How much was about understanding talent, the people you were asking to execute it? How do you marry the two to become so successful as you were?
SPEAKER_02Well, my philosophy was always to make our offense fit our personnel. You know, there's there's a lot of guys that have struggled coaching because they they want to run a certain offense and and not really take into consideration who the players are running the offense. And so I've always believed that you know, we had a philosophy offensively, but we always adjusted in my entire career my offense to fit the players and didn't try to take the players and force them to fit the offense. And so um, that to me is is the key to success and being an offensive coordinator and and and you know, finding the right players to do the things you want to do, but they're not gonna be a perfect match for every single position and everything that you want to do. And so you have to lean on their strengths, which is what we did at Missouri. You know, we got to Missouri, we're running an offense that we ran at Toledo and had great success with, but we had better players in all positions at Toledo. When we got to Missouri, we didn't have that. And so uh after about four years, you know, we had to look at it and say, okay, what's going to give us a chance to compete with the the best in this league and and and have success on Saturday afternoons? And that and that's when we came up with the idea of getting into a spread offense, and then we we got the right personnel that fit that offense. And then as we got better players, we adapted to their strengths. And so, you know, the first year in the spread offense, we didn't have Chase Daniel and Jeremy Macklin, we didn't have, you know, uh Chase Kaufman, Martin Rucker. Excuse me. We had Brad Smith at quarterback, who's pretty dynamic. We had some good running backs, some some other players. But then as we started getting uh, you know, just explosive offensive players in skilled positions, then we started adapting to their strengths and making sure that we spread the ball around. So um I think the answer to your question is is you know, make your offense fit your personnel. Don't make your personnel fit your offense.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I want to talk about the word belief because you just talked about, you know, maybe in one league, we use Toledo as an example. You had players that were at a higher level. You go to another league when you were at Missouri at the very beginning. Maybe those players couldn't compete, but you still had to get them to believe, right? How do you get talent to believe? And what's the difference between having talent and developing talent, right? I mean, getting them to buy in and and reach a level that that maybe they don't even know they can get to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, we made a career out of recruiting three-star players, and a number of those players went on to play in the NFL. I I think the the thing that that we took great pride in is our evaluation and players' uh potential, you know, where they're at now and what their potential is, and then taking them players and then developing them and and showing them their progress along the way because that's what builds belief. When when you say you're gonna do something and they're gonna get this result, and then you go and you do it, and they get the result, that creates belief. And so we brought them in and said, okay, we're gonna make you bigger, faster, stronger. And so we had to test them so that we could show them that we're doing that. And so every year, Coach Pinkle would take those tests and show them where they were and where they're at. Okay, and showed them the progress that they were making. And so that's how you get them to believe is that when you know, you you can make promises, but if you can't show results to those promises, they're not gonna have much belief in you. And we were able to do that and develop these players. Now, granted, you know, Jeremy Macklin was a five-star player. We signed one of those in my entire career at Missouri. And so the majority of our players were three guy, three star guys that we developed into four and five-star guys. So um, you know, it's it's you know, talk about it in my book, where you start, then have to determine where you finish. Yeah, and uh thank God uh a lot of those players finished as NFL draft picks.
SPEAKER_01Tracks to Success is proud to be sponsored by Ahead, a company that's been shaking things up for more than 30 years. From premium golf headwear to standout apparel and accessories, Ahead has built its reputation on quality, creativity, fast delivery, and taking care of its customers. They've never been content to follow trends, they've built a brand by steadying them. If you're looking for gear that helps you look your best on and off the golf course, visit AheadUSAShop.com and don't forget to use the code TTS30. That's TTS30 to receive 30% off your personal order. Ahead, premium headwear, apparel, and accessories, and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast. Talking with Dave Christensen, former successful college coach, head coach, head coach at Wyoming. I want to I want to get into that because you talked a lot about credit to other coaches in your your climb, if you will. You remember that pinch me moment when somebody offered you to be a head coach in college football? What was that like?
SPEAKER_02Well, it didn't happen right away. It took like five opportunities and interviews before it finally happened, but uh I I yeah, I definitely remember it. I I was uh in my eighth year at uh Missouri and and uh I'd been following some teams that had looked like they would probably go and and find a new head coach. I uh had an agent at the time, and so we were at the end of the season getting ready to go play Kansas in Arrowhead Stadium uh in 2008, and I got a call or that that week uh the athlete director and the president of the university flew into Columbia and after practice, I went and had an interview with them. And so that Friday, uh, we're getting ready to go to Kansas City to play. And right before I go get on the bus, I get a call and they offer me the job uh as the head coach at uh Wyoming. Then I just let my agent take over. By the time I got to my hotel room, because we couldn't be on our cell phones on the bus or you know, have them on. By the time I got to my hotel room in Kansas City, I had a voice message from the AD that they're gonna go a different direction. They weren't gonna be able to get it worked out with me. Oh. So now I'm like, you know, I I had already interviewed five other times for head coaching jobs, and I'm like, oh my God, they they my agent lost the job. So I call back and I leave a message on the AD's phone that I don't know what the conversation was, but I want to be your head football coach. I'll work it out, but I want to be your head coach, and then I had to shut my phone off again. Go down to a team dinner, go to meetings, you know, all these things going on, and and and this job is juggling back and forth. I come back upstairs, there's another message. Uh, okay, Dave, you know, we're gonna hire you. So then I get the job again. So I got the job, lost the job, got the job all on a Friday. Uh by the way, I'm I'm I'm trying to stay focused and and and you know, get my team, my offense, ready to play a big game the next night. So yeah, it was quite an experience. And then we go, we play Kansas. As soon as that game's over and we we lose at the end, and I, you know, it was one of those deals. I knew we scored too early. They drove down square at the end. And we get done, I shower, I go in the parking lot. I don't remember if I had my car there or what. We drive to a small airport in can't downtown Kansas City, get on a private plane, fly to Wyoming, walk around in the dark at Wyoming, get on a plane the next morning, fly back to Missouri because we have our banquet. And then, you know, we still, and then the next, and then that week we played in the championship game uh against Oklahoma. So I had to prepare for that after I'd got the job. Then after that, we got our bowl game in the Alamo Bowl. And then I was up to Wyoming, and then I was recruiting there for the short period of time that we had and preparing for the bowl game. So after I got the job, I still coached two more games at Missouri. Um it was it was quite a whirlwind, quite a whirlwind.
SPEAKER_01Unbelievable. So let's talk about the head coaching thing. It's so different than being a coordinator, not that I would know, but but that's my perception. Um, every result, every problem, now it's on your desk. Um, what did the head coach's chair potentially teach you about leadership that you couldn't have learned in any other way?
SPEAKER_02Well, just you know, when I was the offensive coordinator at Missouri, I was responsible for the offense. When I'm sitting in that chair, I'm responsible for everything that goes in that program. And so you just, you know, you you think, you know, that you've had the pressure and and and had to delegate and do certain things to organize a high-level offense at the highest level college football. Um, and that's just part of the deal. When you're in charge, you're setting everything up for the entire program, which I had prepared for. And I and again, I talk about this in the book is you know, I wasn't waiting until I got a head coaching job to prepare to be a head coach. I had prepared to be a head coach for seven, eight years. You know, I had a notebook. So when I interviewed for the head coaching job, I had a program laid out. Every phase of my program was laid out. That's why I got the job. When I went to my interview, it was it was simple. I had an answer for every single thing that was going to go on in my program. And that's what the head coach is responsible for you know, developing every single phase of the program and then not only developing every single phase of the program, but holding every single person in that organization accountable to do their part for each of those phases of the program. And so that's what I found was the most difficult thing as a head football coach and as any leader of a business is that your responsibility is to hold every single individual in the organization accountable on a daily basis. It's simple to let things slide. Ah, that's not that big a deal, or yeah, we'll just let that go. You can't do that and be successful in my eyes. And so, you know, we we would have a staff meeting every single morning at eight o'clock so that I could go through anything that came up the day before in our organization. No matter, you know, if it was an you know, it was uh an internal thing, whether it was a facilities schedule, uh an itinerary, uh, it could have been something in the weight room, uh, how a meeting went, um, just you know, everything. We could, I critiqued everything every single day and held every single person accountable every day. And that's what I felt was probably the most difficult thing as a head coach. And you see where there's failures along the way, it's because they don't want to take it the time to go through that because it's monotonous. It's it's every single day. My philosophy was this when you walked in the door star facility, you were gonna be uncomfortable. My goal was to make sure that you were uncomfortable every single day you walked through those doors. And your job was to learn to be comfortable when you're uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, you had pretty quick success, Dave. I mean, first year right out of the shoot, you know, bowl victory a couple years later. Um, you win what, eight games, Mountain West Coach of the Year. I don't know if you needed validation after all those interviews of not getting a head coaching job, but did that give you validation that you belonged?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. I mean, uh, you know, it was a difficult, difficult place to coach and to have success and and be consistent every single year because you know, it's just where it's where it's located. And going in there and going to two bowls our first three years, um, you know, I I knew what I was gonna do was the right way to do things. You know, I'd worked for Don James, Gary Pinkle. They were both super successful. I I mimicked their programs. I, you know, I had a little of my own flair, but I mean, I mimicked those programs because they were successful and they did things the right way. And so, yeah, I I felt that, you know, going in, you know, there's no question that, you know, we got let go after the fifth year. We had some injury issues, some things that happened. Um, I had opportunities to leave after year three and gone to two bowls. And I and in hindsight, I probably should have. But at the end of the day, I, you know, I left that program. We did everything right by the players in the university. And so, you know, we we we held our players accountable. We had the highest graduation rate in school history. We took them to two bowls in three years, won a bowl in my first year, never been done by the head coach at Wyoming in his first year. So, you know, we did a lot of great things, had a lot of players go to the NFL. Uh, you know, we didn't have off-field issues. Um, so you know, and in in football, you know, one or two plays can change the outcome of a of a career. And and so, um, but yeah, there's no question I I That we were doing the right things and that we were doing a good job there.
SPEAKER_01Success is so public. Failure is maybe more public, especially in the world we live in now with social media. People want to jump on people, people want to cancel people, all that. How does a coach, how does anybody, Dave, how did you learn to handle criticism, the second guessing that comes with leading the program? And how how do you, you know, how do you take that, however you handled it, and pass that on to youngsters who maybe haven't had a ton of failure in their life because they were the best of the best when they got to college?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's a great question. Um, you know, earlier in my career, uh, well, you know, first of all, I'm a little bit older, so social media wasn't a big deal for the uh, you know, the majority of my career. But uh, you know, my thing was always just you know to turn off the noise, because you know, the there's only a few experts in my field, right? And and and when I became a head football coach, there's only 127 of those jobs in the entire world. So uh there weren't a lot of experts out there that that knew what they're talking about, you know, and so you had to learn just to turn off the noise, don't listen to the things on the outside. I didn't read social media. I I did, you know, my wife would read the newspaper if a player said the wrong things, then I would bring them in and talk to them. I tried to talk to the players about, you know, don't don't read the press, don't, don't look at social media, don't, don't fall into that game. We control our destiny, not them. And so um, you know, I just I just you know, after you know, at Missouri was, you know, I had a computer at Missouri, and so this thing called email was kind of a big deal at the time. So I would get a couple emails, you know, and people would blast me if we didn't, you know, play well on offense. Um, and I would, you know, I would get upset and I'd want to answer. But then, you know, finally I'm matured. I'm going, wait a minute, well, I'm gonna sit here and get upset about somebody who's never coached a down of football, making I mean, they're and and Coach Penko was great. He said, Dave, because they're buying the tickets, they have a voice. Okay, you're right, they do. I don't have to listen to the voice, but they have a voice. And so um, you know, as long as people are paying, they're gonna they're gonna have a voice. And now, you know, they can get behind a computer and shoot, they can they can be Godzilla behind that computer, right? Um, so yeah, I would answer an email, uh, I would read an email. As soon as I saw a negative word, I'd hit delete. If I didn't see a negative word, I'd give them a response. And uh then I just eventually turned that over to the secretary because again, I didn't need to you know worry about those things. So and that's what you know how we tried to do it with the players as well.
SPEAKER_01Well, I guess I'm glad now I never sent you anything, Dave.
SPEAKER_02Uh I never, I never probably wouldn't have run it anyhow, Craig. I I go, who's this guy? Golf channel's gonna tell me how to run a play.
SPEAKER_01Awesome, awesome. Okay, um, I I want to see, I'm gonna challenge you here real quick because um it's a big thing for you. I know that it's in your book. I've heard you talk about it. Adapt, okay? Your adapt game plan. And I want you to take everybody through uh we're gonna sell a few books maybe along the way here, but give them the very quick A D A P T, what it means, see if you can do it in a couple of minutes time.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so my adapt. So I came up with adapt because I needed a way to help me navigate uh through college and my career. Okay. I wasn't the smartest, I wasn't the, you know, the greatest athlete. Um, but I knew that I had some principles that could give me a chance to be successful. So the first one, the first day is attitude, okay? And attitude is something we get to decide on every single day. I wake up every single day with a great attitude. My my feet hit the floor, and I'm like, I am Peter positive, my cup is always running over. Um, no matter what you know, what's going on in my life, how I'm feeling. If somebody sees me, ask me how I'm doing, I'm gonna tell them I'm doing great. So I I choose my attitude every single day, and I choose to have a great attitude. And we wanted our players to be that way every single day. And then the D is for discipline. And I have never seen any successful company, team, or person that doesn't have some type of discipline in their life. And and so early on in my career, even as a young athlete, but and then into coaching, um, I knew that I I could be more disciplined than most of the people in my profession. And and really, it's just, you know, discipline to me is is is the ability to get up, shut up, show up, and work your ass off. And if you can do those things, you're gonna surpass most people because they they're gonna fail in one of those areas. And so that's the the second D. The next day is attention to detail and your preparation. And so always having a plan. And so I talked about that a little bit earlier. Like I didn't interview to be a head coach, get the head coaching job, and decided I'd put a plan together. You know, I tell young coaches, listen, if you want, if if you're a position coach, you want to be a coordinator, start preparing now. You're too late if you're preparing when the opportunity comes. And that's in any business, right? You want to advance in in your career, start preparing before that opportunity comes. So always be prepared, always have an answer. And that was the one thing as a head football coach. My responsibility was to have answers to everything. And so uh attention to detail, and that's why our players played so well, is because we prepared them and they were ready each and every week because of the attention to detail and their preparation. And then the the P is for perseverance, and this is a big one. Everybody is gonna fail. Everybody's gonna fail. Nobody's gonna go through life and not fail. And so to understand that failure is is a part of life and that you need to perse, you know, you're gonna have to persevere, the ability to do that, to turn your setbacks into comebacks, uh, and persevere because you're gonna fail at some point in time in your life. And if you live by those four principles, then you get to the T, which is scoring touchdowns in life, and that's your successes you have along the way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great stuff. Great stuff.
SPEAKER_00In addition to hosting this podcast, Craig leads the Cannes Advisory Group, empowering companies and individuals to elevate communication and build brand awareness with bold ideas, lasting impact, and his signature green to style. From company consulting and team workshops to one-on-one continues and transformation working programs. Can advisory guides people to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and empathy. So whether you're a leader looking to give your team a game-changing one-day experience or an individual who wants to become a speaker and presenter people, visit canadvisory.com. And when you connect, mention the Tracks to Success podcast to receive a special discount on Canadvisory Services. That's CanAdvisory.com. Now, back to the interview.
SPEAKER_01And obviously, your book's a part of that. We'll get to it here in a second. Um, coaching was not simply, Dave, what you did. It was a large part of who you were. That's fair, right? Is that fair?
SPEAKER_02It is. It didn't define me, but um it was a it it was huge. Our family lived that lifestyle for 38 years.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Coach is always people probably still call you coach all the time anyway, but absolutely when when that title, if you will, is not next to your name, all right, officially on a card, on on your desk, etc., do you have to rediscover your identity? Did you struggle with rediscovering an identity?
SPEAKER_02No, because you know, uh what a coach does is try to bring the best down in people. And so whether I have the title or not, you know, when I have an opportunity to, you know, I have a lot of young guys that uh coach for me that have had great success. I I'm still in communication with them all the time, you know, trying to help them make good decisions and and and advance their careers. And I do that with people that aren't even in coaching anymore. And so, you know, it's it's the same thing. But you know, when you've coached, as long as I coach, very few people call me anything other than coach. You know, in our country club, everybody's, you know, nobody calls me Dave, they all call me coach. Um, and so you know, that that just is it's just never gone away. But, you know, no, my identity, you know, that coaching is what I did. It's not what I was. Like, you know, I coached and I loved it, and and I knew I was doing it is to help young people. But, you know, I I I've never looked at myself as you know, my success was built on wins and losses from my coaching. My success was built on wins and losses in young people's lives. That's where my I I put my identity.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I wanna I want to be very clear here. This is not set up to be a commercial for what I do on a regular basis or for anything like that. But I do want to take people through the story because I think it's unique. And and I start with the question that perhaps was in your mind of okay, what am I going to do now to fill my time? Now, somebody reached out to you or something happened, and you reached out to me, and you and I ended up working together and spending time together. I knew who you were, you knew perhaps who I was, and you had clear goals. I remember that very much. We spent what, a couple of days together defining the next. Tell me how that happened in your mind. How did we get there?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, no, it's a it's a great story. So after I'd finished college coaching and retired, I took two years and then I went over to Europe and I coached in Poland. And I was a head coach over there in the European League of Football. And in my last year, I'm like, you know, I'd given a couple speaking engagements. And so when I was over there, I'm like, you know, I don't really want to be in Europe. I'd rather be in the United States. But I, you know, I enjoy helping people, giving back and those type of things. And so I'm like, yeah, I really like going out and talking to businesses, teams, those type of things. And so when I came back, I started working on a speaking business. But then I'm like, well, in order to do that, you you know, I have a story. I, you know, I want to tell my story, but I I don't really know exactly how to get that done. And so I researched, talked to some different people, um, young man in uh Columbia, Missouri, who I know uh is in the business, gave me your name. And so I researched you, um, got on a call with you. We we started visiting, brought you out, and uh and and then, you know, voila. I mean, we we sat down, we went through my story, you helped me put it together, uh, how to present it. And then after you and I met, I went and started writing the book. And four months later, five months later, I published a book on that entire story. And and it would have been difficult to write that book had I not had the direction and the roadmap um on how to do it. And so, you know, and so now I have a book that that tells the story. Uh, I have an opportunity to go out and speak in front of, you know, different corporations, businesses, teams, and and talk about the stuff, you know, talk about my story. And you know, like they say, everybody's got a story. And and my thing is if if if one young person could look at my story and say, hey, if if he can do that, I can do that, then it makes it worthwhile. So that's kind of how we got to that.
SPEAKER_01It was really fun sitting there, and and I I have learned in my life the value and the importance of listening. Um and you just simply talk, you talk about being comfortable with uncomfortable. You were a little uncomfortable. That was my goal. Make you a little bit uncomfortable. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Let's let's figure out where this could possibly go. And public speaking puts you in a very different position as a coach. You're just talking to players, they have to listen to you. Now you're trying to win people over. Yeah, you win, you need to win your players over, but but you're the guy. What have you learned about earning people's attention as a speaker, leader, etc., in this new world?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, I was fortunate. I I had the ability to be in front of people. I enjoyed it. You know, I spoke at hundreds of football clinics. Now there are coaches out there, right? Now I go out and they're from all different realms. But you, you know, the interesting thing is these are principles that apply to everybody, not just athletes. You know, they're principles that anybody can use in life. And so we're we're really all the same, right? We all want to be successful. Um, I don't think it's uh, I think it's a pretty simple um formula to get there if you just follow some simple principles in life, right? And so that's all I'm trying to do is present, hey, you know, this is what worked for me, this is what gave me a chance. And and and you know, it's interesting. It it probably wouldn't be great if I went and spoke somewhere and not one person in the room liked athletics. They would probably not be excited about it. But what I've found is, you know, I I've spoke to corporate things, you know, some some big ones, and and you know, there's there's sports fans everywhere, and they love to hear the stories. And again, you know, I talk about adapt, but I, you know, I've got a lot of great stories that that you know came throughout my career of of players that have you know achieved in these areas. And I, you know, I share those and and and people have interest in and what's you know, young people's lives and how they've you know fought through different, you know, adversity and those type of things. So um yeah, it's I'm comfortable doing it, you know, like they say that it's it's most people fear that more than death, um, speaking in front of uh public speaking over debt. Um yeah, it's you know, you have to get comfortable to it. But you know, I I had a a gig uh with with you know Troon Corporation of 500, 600 people out there and uh a few months ago and on a big stage. And it it was awesome to be out there to see them engaged, to talk to them afterwards. And so, you know, it's just it's it's it's sharing the story, telling your story.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so let's let's get to the story real quick, see if you can tell this thing for everybody. The book is called, and you held it up once, you can feel free to hold it up again while I while I say this. But your book is called Your Fourth Down, Why You Need to Go For It. All right, obviously, you're a football coach. Um, talk about the genesis of the title of the book, the specific game, play, career decision, whatever that might be, that inspired the book. It was it one play.
SPEAKER_02So it was. Um your fourth down, the the the genesis of the book is you know, we're uh we are ranked number four in the country. We're gonna play our tribal Kansas, they're ranked number two in the country. It's the last game of the regular season. Um, the winner is gonna be number one in the country because the number one team had lost. And so um a huge game. Um, just you know, it was an Arrowhead Stadium at the time, the largest crowd to uh ever be in there. It was the most watched football game in history up to that point in time. Uh the game had been changed from a day game to a night game. Uh on e uh it was on, you know, college game day was there, it was on the national stage, primetime game. So it was a huge game. The magnitude of the game was just tremendous. Um, we are going back and forth with Kansas in the first quarter, and we drive down to the one yard line with about 30 seconds to go in the first quarter, and it's fourth and two on the two-yard line. And then at that point in time, Coach Pinkle says to me, What do you want to do? And without hesitation, I said, Go for it. And uh, so we we we called a play, we executed the play, we scored the touchdown, and and that you know, touchdown, you know, springboarded us in that game, got us on the scoreboard, you know, at the end of the game, had we not scored there in that fourth down, we may not have won the game. But you know, the reason that we won the game is is and and the reason you know that fourth down was so big is that you know it gave me an opportunity to to get a head coaching job. It gave us an opportunity to be number one team in the country at that time. Um, but the the adapt game, the adapt part of that is you know, the attitude of our players was unbelievable. I mean, uh these players had the greatest attitude ever. They're they were extremely disciplined and we held them accountable every minute of every single day. And then the attention to detail and preparation, these guys were in the film room. You know, that fourth down call wasn't something I'm like, yeah, let's go for it. Okay, now what do we want to run? We decided that we're gonna do that play. If we got the fourth down called. He never questioned you, he never questioned you. All he goes is is that our best play? And I'm like, Well, sure as hell ain't saving it. But you know, we we we'd come up with that play. We'd watched every play, you know, every play that they had had on defense at on the two-yard line, right? One to two-yard line, and and we knew on Wednesday or Tuesday this is our play we would run if we got to fourth and two. So it wasn't like I had to figure out what play to run. I dialed the, you know, it says on the sheet, fourth and two, run this play. And so we, you know, it, but we had great confidence in our players because they prepared so well. And so, you know, that that that was that's where the book gets started. But then it starts, then it goes and starts, you know, in my early childhood. And, you know, I grew up uh, you know, in a house that was a block down from the housing projects, a block up from the train tracks. Uh, I was the first of my family to to go to college. My you know my dad worked in a mill. Um, I didn't have a lot growing up. And uh, you know, and then I struggled in school. Uh and then I lost my brother when I was 14 years old. Uh, he passed away. And so I had some adversity in my life at a young age. And uh, but what I learned is that, you know, the first thing is, you know, your attitude, you you determine it every single day. And I just said that, you know, I made a decision at an early time in my life that I was going to have a positive attitude and a great attitude on a daily basis. Um, you know, I didn't excel in very, very many things, but I did learn early in life that I could have great discipline. You know, I could get my butt out of bed, I could be where I needed to be, I could work harder than most people would work. And so, you know, I did that and then I always kind of had a plan. I, you know, I was big on writing down goals and you know what I wanted to achieve, where I wanted to go, what I wanted to accomplish. And so even though I lacked some things, you know, academically, I probably wasn't a scholar. I went on to get a college degree, a master's degree, write a thesis. I've written four books now. Um, you know, and and so the whole gist of the book is listen, you you're gonna you're gonna have fourth downs in life. And you know, I talked about the fourth down football, but you know, certainly having my brother pass away when I was 14. That was a fourth down in life. You know, when I when I got fired, I've been fired three times in my coaching career. I was always fortunate to have another job, but um, those are fourth downs, and we all face fourth downs in life. And so, you know, what are you gonna do when that fourth down comes in life? Well, you know, I my attitude is I'm gonna go for it. Doesn't always mean I'm gonna, you know, execute and get the fourth down, but my attitude is I'm gonna have a plan, I'm gonna have a great attitude, I'm gonna be disciplined, and I'm gonna go for it. And uh, you know, and then there's gonna be some failures along the way, no problem. I'm gonna persevere because I understand that failures are part of life. And then uh, you know, well, and I found out by doing these things and living my life that way, I I've I've scored numerous touchdowns in life. So that that's pretty much the gist of what the book's all about.
SPEAKER_00Looking for a guest speaker for your next event or annual conference, Craig brings an inspiring and empowering message your audience won't soon forget. Visit Craigcanspeak.com to learn more and hear what audiences are saying about the green chew experience making an impact at events across the country. That's Craigcanspeak.com. And when you connect, mention the tracks to successive audience to receive a special discount on your event with Craig. Now, back to the show.
SPEAKER_01Dave Christensen is my guest on Tracks to Success. Winding it down, Dave. Um fabulous storytelling. The fourth down moment is big. Um I think people often wait to feel completely ready, right? Before taking a big step. Um, there's hesitation, you know. You already said you had your fourth and two players. Written down. Good play call, by the way. I watched the game. But after a lifetime of preparing, you know, teams for pressure, do you believe we, corporate leaders, people on the outside, the non-coaching world, do we do we ever really truly feel ready for our most important moments?
SPEAKER_02You know, here's the thing, and I really I I honestly believe this. It goes to the the second A, attention to detail and preparation. If you do a great job in your preparation and you have contingency plans and all the things that you can perceive they're gonna happen, you you you should have confidence. You know, we we always felt that our players, how do you build confidence in your players by practicing right, by having answers, by you know, but by putting them in position to be successful. That's how that's how you have confidence is through your preparation. Confidence breeds, you know, preparation breeds confidence. So if you're prepared, you know, and and and guess what? Sometimes things happen, right? Um, you know, if I call a play and it didn't work, well, what you know, okay. So yeah, we we we had a failure. We know that's part of life, but you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna still keep a great attitude. Okay. I'm gonna come up with a new plan. I'm gonna first accept that, you know, I'm responsible for the failure. I'm gonna find out why I failed, I'm gonna come up with a new plan and a new you know, plan of attack, and we're gonna go after it again. And and and we're gonna do that over and over and over because you're not gonna be successful every single minute of every single day. But you know what? You can always go for it.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Self-belief, I think, is a really big thing. Uh I want to try to get some advice, a couple questions before I let you go. Um, there's there's young people that don't realize yet that they're gonna have to pivot that their career path is not a straight line. And then there are other people down the line, myself, yourself included, that now understand that pivot is a part of life, and having these fourth-down moments, it literally does happen. So, what advice do you give people about detours, pivots, failures being okay, a learning tool, and that you can't let your confidence get shaken because there might be another moment you got to prepare for here soon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, I've I've gone through that a lot with players, right? We don't win every game, they're not successful on every play. Um, they have other things that are going on in their life. The first thing, and again, I'm gonna go back to it is attitude. Like I wake up of, you know, I will go fishing for Moby Dick in a rowboat. I mean, I'm I'm confident I'm gonna catch them. Like that that's my attitude every single day, no matter what happens, right? And so you know, you go back to your attitude. Yeah, you're down, but it's it's not the end of the road. It's just it's a pivot, right? And again, I talk about setbacks. Well, you got to turn them into comebacks, right? We're we're gonna have setbacks along the way. And and young people don't realize that because they haven't had a lot, right? And they start having a few and then they get all down on themselves. No, that that's that's just that's a part of life. And the sooner you can understand that now that's not what you're striving for, you know. Your goal is to be successful, but to understand that there are setbacks and pivots um is just a part of life.
SPEAKER_01Last thing. Um, you went through my program and I asked you then, so I'm gonna ask you to share it with these folks now. What did you learn about yourself? The program's called a brand new you. It's all about elevated coaching. What did you learn about yourself and how talking about game plans? How can that help you to achieve success in this new chapter? Author, speaker, etc. What have you learned about yourself?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, the one thing we talked about a lot when you were here is you know, you you gotta have something that's sticky, that that's gonna stick with people. And and I think, you know, your fourth downs, you know, it's a pretty common phrase, you know, that people can relate to. And and uh and so that's that's you know what I found to start to to base my story. And then, you know, I I think everybody has a story, but uh putting that story together and and and you know, making it, you know, so that people can understand, you know, how they relate, because we relate to everybody's stories, right? And and so the more the more the stories you hear and the more you can relate and the successes of those people have, the better chance that you're gonna have in your future. And so the confidence to be able to stand in front of people and say, hey, here's where I started and here's where I finished. And you need to remember where you start never has to determine where you finish. And the confidence that I have now to tell this story uh is just it's it's I couldn't have written this book had we not gone through the program and learned how to tell a story.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was a pleasure for me. It's always fun chatting. Uh, you've become a friend, and uh, there's a lot more Pelotons in your future, there's a lot more Pilates in your future, there's a lot more birdies out on the golf course, and hopefully more moments for you and I. Maybe a workshop we can do together. I'd love that. Congratulations on this success uh to everybody out there. Amazing book, amazing man, and amazing message. Thanks so much for spending time, Dave.
SPEAKER_02Craig, I I really appreciate the opportunity on your show. Again, my book you can purchase on Amazon uh or you can go to coach Christensen.com and get a copy. I'll sign them and send them to you. So Coach Christensen.com or Amazon. I appreciate you having me on. It was a great morning, and uh I look forward to uh catching up again down the road.
SPEAKER_01We'll do it. One last segment I call Getting Ahead, which is focused on you and your own tracks to success. It's brought to you by Ahead, the finest in headwear and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast, available at aheadusap.com. For listeners of this show, ahead is giving one of its biggest discounts ever. Visit aheadusap.com now and use the code TTS30. That's TTS30 and receive not 20% off your purchase, but 30% ahead. They don't follow the trends for more than 30 years, they've been setting them. It's time for getting ahead. I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Dave. We all face a fourth-down moment in our lives, a moment when the pressure rises, the options narrow a bit, and the next decision feels bigger than the ones that came before it. So do we play it safe or do we step back and get nervous even more? Do we trust everything we've learned, believe in what's possible, and actually go for it? Those are the options. Dave Christensen built a career preparing teams for those moments, but his message today reaches far beyond football. Because our own fourth down may come in a career decision, a leadership challenge, a personal reinvention, or an opportunity we might be afraid to pursue. The truth of it is we don't always get perfect conditions. We may not feel completely ready. We may not know exactly how the play will unfold, just like football. But getting ahead often requires us to stop waiting for certainty and start trusting our preparation. That fourth down moment that Dave talks so much about may be uncomfortable and it can carry some risk. It may even change the direction of our life. But sometimes the greater risk is actually punting away that opportunity, and you may never get it back. Dave's book is about going for it. Guess what? I believe like Dave does. Know what you believe in. Trust what you've prepared for. My advice is this: when your moment arrives, do like Dave says. Have the courage to actually make the call because getting ahead may come down to one defining decision in your life. Will you play it safe or will you actually go for it? I say make the call, go for it. Do that might be a little uncomfortable, but your tracks to success may come a whole lot easier than you actually think. Until next time, I'm Craig Cann. Thanks for joining me.
SPEAKER_00Don't forget to subscribe for more great interviews and Craig's insights on reaching your highest personal and professional summit. Listen to Tracks to Success on all the top podcast platforms. Watch it on the Craig Cannes YouTube channel and visit CraigCanspeak.com to learn more about Craig as your next speaker.
