Mike Tirico

Host Kraig Kann sits down with NBC Sports host Mike Tirico for a candid talk about his path to the network, his humble beginning, how he got his break and how he tries to make a difference with the platform he's been given.  His advice on finding your way to a dream is a can't miss listen.

Watch Tracks To Success on Kraig Kann's YouTube Channel!

Transcript

1 (5s):
Welcome to tracks to success brought to you by presentation partners. This is the podcast that brings you inspiring people, and they're inspiring stories. How do they find their way to the top and how can their path help you do the same? Here's your host, former network broadcaster and C suite executive Craig can

2 (31s):
Right now on the debut edition of tracks to success, you'll hear from one of the most recognized voices and personalities in sports television today. He's one of the lead hosts at NBC sports. His assignments include the Olympics, the NFL major championship golf coverage horse. Racing's triple crown, the Indianapolis 500, the NHL Stanley cup playoffs, and Notre Dame football. Before that it was a 25 year journey at ESPN and ABC that included a 10 year role as host of Monday night football.

2 (1m 12s):
Who's also been the lead on coverage of Wimbledon, the Daytona 500, the final four, and yes, the super bowl too. He's well-respected well-traveled and he's very well versed. His name is Mike Terico is inspiring story. And this debut edition of tracks to success starts now,

3 (1m 44s):
Mike, thanks so much. This is really cool to have you on this thing. It's good to see you again, Craig been a, been a long time and a lot of different places. Good to cross paths in this new, new spot for you. Yeah, it's going to be fun. I am gonna start with an opportunity for you to take us inside your head. Okay. Danger, danger. People say he's one of the best in the business. Now some people say he is the best in the business. I know that's flattering. You love that. I know you do, but what would you say that you're most proud about? In other words, what's gotten you to where you are in your mind? Sure. Well, I'll start with, I, I don't like hearing that. And if people do say that I'm incredibly humbled, flattered, appreciative, but I don't let that go past my ears.

3 (2m 31s):
I believe in all of us staying hungry and what we do and that you're only as good as good as your next show. Your next deal in business, your next shot in golf, your next game as a coach, all of those things, I try not to look for the, the mantle of the moment that somebody decides to, to place on you. I would say professionally, if I'm proudest of anything, it would be probably too easy to work. Try to make it for not just our execs and producers, but also the fellow announcers production crew make what I do easy on their jobs.

3 (3m 13s):
And then I'd say the other thing is the versatility to be able to do anything from football to golf or tennis, to hosting a broadcaster, call them play by play. I've always fancied the ability to do any job that the moment calls for as an important part of what I do. And that comes from the people I looked up to in Jim McKay and Bob Costas and Marv Albert, especially growing up in the Northeast and in the New York area. I just think it's a really important thing for all of us to be versatile Kenya. Can you hit all 14 clubs in your bags? Use our, from our friendship, our, the, the golf, the golf lingo of it.

3 (3m 55s):
Yeah. At the same time, we both know this in this business. You've got to have some degree of ego to succeed. So how do you have that? Right. And be hungry as you say, but be humble as well. Yeah. I, I try to put the ego thing aside. I, I think I'm much better as part of a team and an ensemble. I I've always believed nobody watches a broadcast because of the announcers. It may help your enjoyment of the game of the sporting event. It may keep you watching a bad game longer, but if you and I showed up on the super bowl next week, next month, next year, people would watch it.

3 (4m 40s):
They watch the big events for the big events. If they said, Hey, Mike and Craig, it's going to be you. And the two of you in the 18th tower at Augusta national and a couple of years, not Jim Nancy, Nick foul though. People still watch the masters. Now the comfort factor of having those guys for so many years, it would be one thing. Or maybe they'd say they enjoy something that this person brings, but they'd still watch because the masters. So nobody comes to a sporting event because of the announcer. Now individuals like a former coworker of both of our Scott van pelt, what he does and ESPN, Steven, a Smith at ESPN, those personalities who do a show that is driven by their personality, their views of the world.

3 (5m 21s):
Those guys are different. I think people do come to watch for them. Tony Kornheiser, Mike Wilbon, pardon the interruption. You know, they talk about the same thing that the guys talk about on the three shows before them. You look at that on ESPN, you look at the show topics on the side, the topics are basically the same topics. It's just their take on them has become interesting, right? So I think that, I think in that world, there is because people come for you perhaps more room for ego. I think for what we do, there is no room for ego. And I try really not to make it about me in conversations like this actually me uncomfortable because I hate talking about me personally, show up, do a job, do the best.

3 (6m 3s):
You can make your teammates better. Help the viewer at home with access, go back, watch it and get better. The next day when I was seven, I had a microphone and a tape recorder in my room in Chicago. I knew what I wanted to do. Yeah. Is that your story? I had to be AGB by about five or six years, had a little spoon in my hand, running around pretending I was announced when I was a little kid. This is what I thought I wanted to be. This is really the job I was born to do. And now as I go through with friends, adolescents, teenagers, college kids who don't know what they want to do, I feel bad for them because I was really blessed to know this is exactly what I want to do.

3 (6m 43s):
And really still wake up enjoying my job every single day. And that's, it's something I really count as a blessing. I think I'm very fortunate to have found what I want to do and still be able to get the thrill and joy out of it that I had hoped when I was young enough to put these thoughts together that, Hey, maybe I'd like to be a sports Castro someday. Yeah, no question. I got beat by a few years on that. That's good. Congratulations. I didn't use the spoon. That's right. That's a better idea. Actually. I probably use something. I have no idea. People don't like to talk about themselves. You just said that. I think we all feel that way, but yet at the same time, we need to know our story and nobody knows it better than we do. Sure. So take us back to your childhood.

3 (7m 25s):
And now I know about the spoon. Okay. What else do I need to get to know? Where did you grow up and what was the family life? I grew up in Queens, New York, not too far from Shea stadium. So I grew up a Mets and a jets fan back in, back in that era when they weren't great teams was a great fun to be a part of rooting for them. You grew up in a family that were a bunch of big sports fans, only child. My mom was a single mom before that was as acceptable as it has become generationally. She did an unbelievable job, sacrificing a lot to raise me and I'm forever indebted to her. She's a hero of mine, hard worker, really a great success story and great inspiration to me not having a dad around as I was growing up, my, her brothers, my uncle uncles were big influences in my life to take me to sporting events and to games.

3 (8m 14s):
And that's how I got started. I tried to try to play every sport. Wasn't very good at any of them to be fully candid. Did didn't, didn't see the light to being a high school baseball star. When early on in those fall tryouts, they wanted me to be the defensive replacement, the pinch runner, like, okay, you can't, you can't hit the curve ball at 14. You ain't going to hit it at 16, 18 or 20. So I immediately turned my attention to journalism as something that I always had an interest in and wrote for the school newspaper and was the editor of the high school yearbook. And I, my path was I wanted to be in TV, radio, or newspaper and the big and sports casting in New York at that time in the seventies and early eighties was Marv.

3 (9m 0s):
Albert Marv was the voice of the Knicks and the Rangers on radio. He did the six and 11 o'clock news on the NBC affiliate w NBC in New York TV and would do NBC stuff on the weekend, whether it was boxing at Rahway, state prison in New Jersey or the NFL with Paul McGuire on weekends, host the baseball pregame show on NBC Marv would do all that stuff. And I said, okay, fine. That's pretty cool. Marv wrote a book. Yes. On yes. Marv Albert on sports casting. And in that book, I think he went to Syracuse in that book. He points out that Marty Glickman was his idol, a great New York sports star.

3 (9m 42s):
I'll give you a sidebar Marty in a minute. And that Mark went to Syracuse because Marty went to Syracuse and I found out Bob Costas went to Syracuse and Len Berman who worked in local TV in Boston, New York, went to Syracuse. And I found that they had a really great journalism program for many years. That's where I wanted to go with a limited financial means and a lot of student loans and a lot of support from family and friends. I was able to get in, get there. And it's been the greatest chapter of my life with school there met my wife, they're married and I'm still a proud Syracuse alum, three decades later. Alright. So I got to go back to the school thing. You weren't that great at any of the sports.

3 (10m 22s):
All right. So did you have a Letterman jacket? I mean, nothing, nothing, nothing. Nothing. Not, not great at sports. And also, you know, so it's a time where there's, we're in a New York city public high school. So w w we have Mike the black top where you play softball. You didn't even have a baseball diamond or a softball field at our school. So you're playing on a hard top at a black top on a, a rim with no net and a metal back board. We're playing basketball. So we play sports before school, but you know, it wasn't very tall or anything. It was was, was somewhat quick for my age and fast and played some little league baseball, but we didn't have organized sports. We didn't have the wherewithal to do those kinds of things.

3 (11m 2s):
So never really other than playing some, no backyard sports with some friends, didn't really have the Avenue to get coaching or teaching or any of that stuff. So still had a love for the games. Wish I could have played them at a higher level and better, but didn't, and maybe I'm glad I did because it turned my attention quickly to the journalism part of this and allowed me to get truly started in my career, covering sports for our high school newspaper and covered basketball and softball and every everything that was in our sports sections in high school, I got to cover and I wrote up all the writeups for the yearbooks for a couple of years for our high school. When I was really felt like I was a sports journalist at 16 and 17, man.

3 (11m 42s):
That's cool. Now you talked about it's cool. It's cool. In some ways, it's also lame that I wasn't a good enough athlete, but you got to put, it makes your story better because a lot of people, aren't the great athlete and they, they want to be in sports so bad. They love sports. They're just, they're just not good enough. You go to a big school and you're not good enough to make teams that's me and that's and that's okay. And you, it kind of figured I'd mentioned I was gonna do a sidebar, Marty Glickman real quick. It was just fascinating. It was an HBO documentary on Marty Glickman, which was just amazing. Marty Glickman. In addition to being one of the premier New York sports Castro's basketball, football, especially New York giants, New York Knicks, and then Marv Albert replaced Marty when Marty had some conflicts that Mark got his footing as a Nixon announcer in the sixties, Marty was a terrific athlete at Syracuse was a track athlete.

3 (12m 32s):
And it was very much part of his story, his heritage. He was a Jewish man and competed in the Berlin Olympics on the same team with Jesse Owens. And HBO did a documentary on Marty. And it's a fabulous documentary. If you could ever find it on YouTube or online somewhere. And Marty, Marty was an inspiration to many of us who got to meet him. And of all of us who have come through Syracuse of sports, Castro's a modern generation, including Sean McDonough, Dave Pash, I an Eagle, it's now iron son, Noah Eagle. It was just a whole mess of us. Who've come through there. Really the patriarch of that, if you will, is Marty Glickman. Wow. Yeah. And a great individual us story of perseverance, going back to the 1930s, be it career or in personal life, people shape us.

3 (13m 21s):
They mold us. They help create us. You talked about your mom, your family tree, and in looking back is, is a bit unsettled. And it, it almost makes it as though you had some serious uncertainties growing up and had to focus. How tough was that for you and not knowing what really the family was all about? Yeah. You know, it didn't grow up in a, in a family where you've got your dad and your mom and your dad's side of the family, your mom's side of the family of, of mixed race background. And my mom was white. So I grew up in their whole family and my whole family and never knew the other, other side of my family. And I think in a simpler time, it wasn't as big a deal. I think, you know, in the, in the more open recognizable generational family tree time, there's a little more import put on it.

3 (14m 12s):
I never had to deal with any issues that were hurdles for me directly regarding that I had a loving family who supported me, took care of me, gave me the best chance to succeed as an only child, put me in positions where I could mature and grow and take on responsibilities. And for that, I'm thankful. And I don't, I didn't spend a lot of time going back to try to dig up anything. Nah, not really. And we'll at some point and have you have kids have a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. I have kids. And you know, that that's stuff that I definitely look at, talk about with them, but I've always been of the opinion. You know, we don't have to share everything publicly.

3 (14m 54s):
If there are things that you don't want to get into or discuss publicly, there's no reason you have to, whether it's for your own personal background or for your family, you don't have to be an open book all the time. And I think we're in a generation where a lot of people feel like they have to be great and that's okay if they're comfortable with it. And I have respect for that. I think you should have equal respect for people who don't feel as necessarily willing to share everything and tell everyone's story, because then they'll take it and shape it the way they see fit. And sometimes not having full knowledge shared with everyone. It's okay, it's allowable, it's our lives. And that's the way that I've chosen to go about it. But for my family, you know, my family knows, knows what they need to know.

3 (15m 37s):
And that's good enough for me. Syracuse, you talked about the great history of people that had come before you, and I'm assuming that's why you went there. I went to Missouri, I know the competitive nature of journalism schools in the country. How competitive share with people, what that race is really like at a school like Syracuse? Well, the good news for me was I knew exactly what I wanted to do and figured I go to Syracuse. The problem was there were about 10 other people who did the same exact thing, right? The great news. The great, great news is all of them are still friends. As a matter of fact, as we have this conversation, I'm going to a week or so removed from my college roommate, who was one of those people who this is what they always wanted to do.

3 (16m 19s):
He always wanted to do. He whereas worked for a long time in local radio, down in Texas. And he'd got married for the first time. A couple of weeks ago, we had about four or five of us together. And one of the gentlemen who was a part of the group is a longtime executive with the Seattle Mariners. One of them is Todd. Cow's the TV voice of the Houston Astros. Todd was a college roommate of mine. My other college roommate, Paul Peck is the radio voice of the university of Buffalo boat bulls. And he's been in the Buffalo market for about 30 years, doing media and TV. Sean McDonough was right before me and we know Sean's Greek career. Tony Caridi graduated the year that I was a freshman.

3 (16m 60s):
He's the voice of the West Virginia mountaineers for 25 years. Dan hoard is the first guy who taught me how to put audio on something called a cart, which is a technical term for people of a certain age in our business, right? Dan's the T the radio voice for the Cincinnati bear, cats, football and basketball, and the Cincinnati Bengals. Jim Jackson TV voice for the Philadelphia flyers was right in our group. Our, for our four year group, bill Roth, who a quarter century voice of the Virginia tech Hokies and still does national stuff for ESPN. And I'm, I'm missing like four or five other guys. Guy's name, whose name is now Michael Cole, WWE T V. Announcer was with us. Doug Sherman is a TV announcer.

3 (17m 41s):
Syracuse R for ESPN, doing college hoops was in our class at Syracuse. There are like 20 people who I was in school who have spent a quarter of a century in the business. I didn't even mention I and Eagle wind turned from me. He was two years younger than me intern for me. And I is obviously one of the great network announces of our generation. All of us were in school

4 (18m 2s):
At the same time. So you know the deal and you probably live the, Hey, did you send your tape to Yuma Arizona? Yeah. Oh, me too. Hey, did you send the tape to Montgomery, Alabama? Yeah, they have an opening. Yeah, me too. Hey, what about Tucson? Yeah. I sent mine there too. And it goes on and on and you're competing against all these other people and it really doesn't matter what line of work you're in Mike. Somehow you got to find a way to stand out. So how did you stand out? What's the, it's a great question, Craig. And I mean, even the answer to that in a minute,

3 (18m 28s):
It was funded unique to this business and others, but I was trying to tell students when we have conversations or I speak at Syracuse or at any other school or speak to a student that there's no path to your job. I'll ask 10 of us sports casters, how we got our first opportunity and you'll get 10 different stories. You ask a doctor, doctor went to college, doctor went to med school. Doctors did their residency. You go through a path lawyers, a distinct path there. Sure. There are many industries. There's not a distinct path. This is one of them. Most of the people you hear broadcasting games have varying degrees, communications, journalism, TV, radio.

3 (19m 14s):
Chris Berman was an, a, a history major at Brown and went on to have one of the great careers of all time in our business. There's not one direct path. So it's an opportunity making mode. I think for this, for me, I happened to be interning at a local TV station while I was doing college radio in Syracuse. It was my junior year and they went through two weekend sports and about six weeks. And I think the edict was hire somebody young and cheap. And I was both what had done the job for nothing. I did it for nothing plus a few bucks, but I got a six week tryout on the air. And I passed that tryout the worst weekend of my sports fandom, which was when, as a student Syracuse lost to Indiana.

3 (20m 1s):
And the 1987 final four was the greatest weekend of my career because when we took a plane from, we drove to drove from Syracuse to Newark, New Jersey flew from Newark to Houston, took a train from Houston to new Orleans because we were students trying to get to our school with the final four. And I got to the train station in Houston and went to a payphone and called Kathy Creaney the general manager, WTV HTV and Syracuse. And she said, you gotta, you got the tryout. We'll have you for the next four to six weeks. And if you do well, well we'll hire you. And so I found out that weekend, I was going to get higher than I saw Syracuse lose the national championship. Two nights later went back. That seems exact path.

3 (20m 41s):
And four days later got my first time on, on the air, on TV in April of 1987. And I've been on TV ever since. So I never had that. I'm sending out tapes, I'm sending out tapes. So one point of all that is I'm sorry for the long winded story with the point is there is no path you have to be present and in places to succeed. And when the Mike opens or the door opens, you are ready to talk into it or walk through it and can do it with confidence. And with some humility that hopefully people around you will see, Hey, decent at this like to give a shot at doing more of it, take what's given to you, give people back something better than they expected when they gave you the opportunity.

3 (21m 22s):
Hope so we, we don't do the broadcast for us. We do the broadcast for the viewers. If I'm working for the viewer, the listener, then I'm doing what I should be doing. This is not for me to have my face on camera for X number of minutes or seconds. That's, it's such a transparent plastic life. I think what's real is we're on for three hours. When you were, when you were covering golf on a regular basis, you have access to some of the best golfers in the world. What can I do with that access? Plus my knowledge and the experts I'm sitting with to help you at home, understand and appreciate the event. You're watching a little bit more than maybe if somebody else had that same access, if you can do that for them, that I think you're doing the right thing.

3 (22m 8s):
So your big break is not necessarily something that happened. You know, maybe when you were at ESPN or ABC or getting something, there you go all the way back to that one golden opportunity that gave you maybe the confidence or the, the opportunity to continue on doing this journey. Sean McDonald, who I talked about before, who was a Syracuse alum has gone on to, you know, the youngest guy to call the world series. I think Joe Buck may have been a year younger at some point when Joe got in there, but Sean was calling the world series in his twenties and the late nineties. Who's great call Joe Carter's home run in the blue Jays world series. Sean's dad will McDonough. Some folks might not know, but was a terrific journalist at the Boston globe and kind of define the insider slash expert role that people have on TV broadcast and sports writers.

3 (22m 57s):
Cetera. Sean said something great. You know, your last name, your way you went to school, the people, you know, might open a door for you. It's up to you to keep that door open and walk through it because nobody's going to interest a million, 10 million, a hundred million, whatever the rights fees are, who is going to interest that kind of investment to somebody's kid or somebody's friend or an alum of a school that you have a good feeling for. They're gonna trusted somebody who can do the job. So my opportunities and breaks came as I was interning. And as an intern, I got a chance to show the people in that department that I was a conscientious, hard worker, loyal and dedicated to when I was asked to come in, come in on days that I wasn't asked to come in.

3 (23m 43s):
And then when an opportunity came up, they knew that I was doing local radio at the college station and the new, the news anchor legend and news anchor in that market gentleman, by the name of Ron Curtis, who's no longer with us, told our GM said, you know, I've listened to Mike, do games. He's really good. I think he's got a chance to be really good at this going forward. And that helped them give me the opportunity to try on air. And that was my quote, big break. But then you put yourself in positions for all the next ones at the end. You don't know timing. If I don't get, if I don't get the golf opportunity to ABC in 1997, I don't know if I break from being a studio cable sports center, a news anchor to being a network play by play guy.

3 (24m 24s):
Cause then that opened up other doors. There was a whole series of circumstances that gave me my first shot in golf. And I think that changed everything for me.

4 (24m 32s):
Mike Terico is my guest on this edition of tracks to success. Tracks to success is brought to you by presentation partners, visual storytellers, passionate about connecting presenters with their audience. You just talked about the golf and then the play by play and in other sports. All right, let's talk about the rush. That's one of the reasons we do this, right? I mean the Olympics you're sitting on a studio set or this Superbowl you're covering that you've covered the big ones. Is there one rush better than another one that just like, you'll go, man. I will never forget that one. Right?

3 (25m 7s):
I would say I'll give you a specific answer in a minute in general. No. And I'll tell you a quick anecdote, how I've gotten to that answer. No, I was asked at some point I was doing a promo for a game or an event and I think it may have been a master's promo at ESPN, a masters coming up in three weeks. It was during an NBA playoff game or, or a college basketball game or something like that. Like, Oh no, no better place to be than Augusta and the masters. Right. Which is true. I feel that way. But now I'm thinking, wait a minute, somebody's sitting at home watching an NBA game and I'm just, I told him in the open what a great night it is. It's the NBA playoffs.

3 (25m 47s):
No better seat in the house or is college basketball was big tent. It was February to April. No, no better place to be here. We are a couple of top 15 teams. You know what? This is as good an atmosphere as you would want to be anywhere else. I go, wait a minute. In the same half hour, I've just told people that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I just tell them that I can't wait to get to Augusta. There's no better place. And that got me to, Oh man, somebody's going to hear that. Whether at the big 10 or Augusta national and like, okay, this is trashed our product, which they wouldn't do. But that was the first thought in my mind. And I said, you know what? Maybe I should just learn to appreciate where you are at the moment. And then that's a great event because somebody has made the conscious voluntary decision to come spend their free time on the event that you are at.

3 (26m 35s):
So they'd love to be here or they'd love to be entertained by this. So instead of saying, this is better than that at the moment, that's the best thing, because that's the thing you're presenting to people who want it. And it's almost, it's a real business mindset of serve the customer that has walked in your door and make them feel important and special in a genuine way. And try to do that. So that rush, I try not to say, okay, here's another, here's another event we're coming on the air. Try to make sure that it has a sense of urgency and importance for you and for the viewer all wrapped in one, I will say the one time that it kind of struck me a little bit differently was the first night of hosting the Olympics is the prime time host in 2018 out in Pyeongchang South Korea.

3 (27m 22s):
Because for most of my life, two people who I idolized Jim McKay and Bob Costas had done that job. There were the stretch in the nineties when CBS had the winter Olympics and Jim Nance and Greg Gumbel and others were the hosts. But essentially the Olympic hosts of my lifetime are McCain cost us. And to sit in that chair and now know that that's your job now. That was the one moment where I was like, okay, this is pretty big. And then I looked around and saw that everybody else around me was a little tight. I just kind of told the joke and said, let's go. And it worked out. Okay. You mentioned versatility. And I remember years back during my time at golf channel, I was told by a couple of executives, man, you're one of the most versatile guys.

3 (28m 3s):
You can handle anything, you can do everything, but I didn't feel like I had ownership of any one thing. And I struggled with that. I had that to anybody. I didn't know if it was as fulfilling as it could be years later. I appreciate that comment. I appreciate it much more. You talked about talking to kids and other people who are going through life and versatility. It seems like in today's world, versatility is more important than ever before, because you want to be the last one they think about if all of a sudden there's a freeze or whatever. How do you explain that? And the importance of versatility to others? Yeah. You know, I think we try to master our craft, but then Craig, you need to figure out, okay, how can I become valuable?

3 (28m 45s):
I think, you know, Mika Brzezinski, who is a on morning, Joe on MSNBC has really did a great job to help women in the equitable pay world and her book. And her speaking series is know your value. Well, I think we have to create a value and you create your value to your employer, to your company, to your industry, by versatility, don't get stuck in, this is all I do. Don't get stuck in, man. I'm really good at this. And I don't want to try anything else. I I've. I've tried to push the envelope, get out from my comfort areas every once in a while, within reason to do things that sure.

3 (29m 32s):
I know I'll be successful in, but I can try. I broadcast three hockey games in 2019 and two in 2020. I'm not particularly proficient at it. It was kind of done as a little bit of a challenge. And I said, yeah, I'll take it on. We call that a stretch assignment, big time, stretch, major strength. But it was good because I, I got uptight. I over-prepared, I studied. And I came with some skills now that I can apply to the things I do on a regular basis. So I'm a big PR, I'm a big proponent of people who no matter what their job is, strive for versatility and what the versatility does for me, it helps me understand what the other people are doing when they do their job.

3 (30m 14s):
So when I'm at the Olympics and Terry Gannon, my NBC colleague or Dan Hicks are doing another event. I know what they're going through at other preparation they've gone through so I can enhance what they do when it comes to me in the studio. Or I can ask them a question or I can communicate with them, say, Hey guys, in the open of our broadcast, I'll mention this, this, this does that work. So you can get right to this. And the fact that I've sat in their seat, I know I can work with them better. And hopefully it makes you valuable to the whole company. And they know they're a little quicker. Like you were eluding to little quicker to think about kicking you out when they need more space. You know, it's, it's interesting because I think sometimes our greatest achievements come from outside of our comfort zone.

3 (30m 58s):
You know, the times when people say you can't do that, you're not going to succeed at that. Or, or you have self doubt or you over-prepared, by the way I watched you on that hockey game. And, and I think that's an important lesson for everybody is to get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable. Yes. Take you out of your familiar is a phrase that I've stolen from a couple of friends from a friend. And I love it because it does challenge you to not get stale. And you know, Fred Caudelie is the producer for NBC Sunday night football and he's won umpteen MES. He's one of the, truly the best producers of our time in the history of sports, television and Fred there's a tree of Fred's.

3 (31m 42s):
He's worked with so many different people over the years. Many of whom I've had the chance to work with. And Fred has always been a big proponent of go back and watch your work, see how it came through the TV. And that stuck with me 20 some odd years ago, 25 years ago when we first crossed paths. And even more than that, and to this day, most of the time that I'm on the air, I will go back and watch it. Not for the vanity of seeing yourself on TV, but you then put yourself in the viewer's perspective of the work you did. The only way you can get better is to self-assess. I think we are our own harshest critic at times. And if you can be your own harshest critic, then you know what criticism in this day and age of social media and a lot of criticism, you know, what criticism you should take to heart, you know, which you can be dismissive about.

3 (32m 29s):
And I think it just makes a better product when you go back and review your work. And I'm still a big believer in doing that. I was uncomfortable going back to watch the hockey game. Cause I just never, I haven't done my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours. So I don't have that, that muscle memory to rely on. And you think you were any good? I could be better. And that's good. That woke me up. They woke me up the next day. What ticked you off to you? Just be sharper. And you know, I, there were things you learn that you say, Hey, I, I see this forward here. I see the guy on this line. I see these guys. I can be quicker on some of these things you're allowed to do that. That's good.

3 (33m 9s):
So next time I do it, hopefully that'd be better. I took notes. I kept the notes and if I do any hockey games next year, I'll have my first place to go to say, okay, this is how I did this last year. And I can be better by doing that.

4 (33m 19s):
Is that the sport or event that you're most proud of, that you've called into your career? I mean, you've called them all. You've been through almost every sport. Is there anything that

3 (33m 27s):
I'm proudest that I did that at this point in my career that I'd done 30 years of TV and took on something new and it wasn't awful, you know? And I there's a lot of room to get better. There's a lot of room for all of us to get better every day. I think what wakes all of us up who do this is the perfect show. Some night you're going to do the perfect show. Now here's the reality you never do because you have 20 options per minute. If you're calling a game, but you always think you can do it better. But when you are satisfied with how something comes across, it makes you feel good that the process is right.

3 (34m 8s):
And you know, this is called tracks to success. I think tracks to success are preparation and process and passion, you know, do you love what you do yet? Do you prepare whatever it is to do it really well, hopefully. And then do you have a process, a process that you can follow that will continue to provide successful ways to repeat being the best teammate possible or leading a team as we have to do sometimes

4 (34m 35s):
Do you give students a couple of lessons on cracking the code? You know, that career is tough that this job, whatever you want to go into, and I know you probably don't just talk to sports, casters or broadcasters of how tough it really is because you make it look easy. Many do. Okay. Very few are remembered for being the greatest of their craft. But for many it is a struggle. Yeah. Yeah.

3 (35m 2s):
Craig, it's really easy to be critical of anything from the outside. Right? You can drive by somebody's lawn and go out and look very good. Does it? You can go buy a golf course, go out of their, their greens aren't any good, but you don't know the circumstance of the superintendent, the golf course where the greens don't look as pristine as Augusta national doesn't have the staff or the resources, or he's had to put out another fire on the golf course. And the greens gave him a tough time with the melt in the winter and in a Northern climate. And there's a story behind everything. Isn't perfect. Right? So I think when you're in a public light, you get criticized for your work fair or not.

3 (35m 46s):
It helps you understand that your criticism, when you have, it needs to be accurate, fair, and measured and not personal. And what I try to tell students who were involved, who asked about getting a job in this businesses become your own harshest critic. Like I said before, rip apart your own work and understand how you can get by once you are motivated to say, I can get better in this war, this part of my job. Then I think you're going to be able to take the criticism from people you respect and get better. So for me, that's one of the big lessons I try to pass along and I try to pass along that passion message. Go find something you love because this job is never going to be nine to five.

3 (36m 29s):
It's going to take you from your family on weekends and holidays. It's not going to be something where you're going to be home for every event that your family has. If you succeed at it, you're gonna miss out on some weddings and these other things. So you better love this to want to stay in last year.

2 (36m 51s):
In addition to hosting this podcast, I lead can advisory group where elevating communication for companies and individuals is the primary goal consulting team workshops, group, and individual webinars. And my keynotes for your company meeting or conference at Canon advisory, we help companies clarify their message. We help professionals build and showcase their brand. We help everyone present their best selves. So if you're the leader of a team or company looking to give your employees a one day experience that will help them for a lifetime or an individual who wants to become a speaker and presenter that gets other people talking visit can advisory.com and connect as a company or individual finding your way to a bigger you is empowering.

2 (37m 47s):
So invest in yourself today. Visit Ken advisory.com and mentioned the tracks to success podcast to receive my special discount on any of the candidate advisory services. That's can advisory.com

4 (38m 8s):
Talking with Mike Tirico. I know you probably know the voice that is for sure. A couple of things before I let you go. And you just segue to it perfectly for me, this business is tough and there are a lot of businesses where people travel today. It seems like the most successful businesses require a lot of travel on family. There's a strain. You miss things. My twins of my three kids were born on us open week. Okay. That made it a little bit difficult. Father's day was a challenge.

3 (38m 36s):
Travel, working a lot in sports takes you away from some of that. How have you balanced that? Yeah, they they've been tremendously understanding the kids know no other way. Cause you're the song jam. If I can use the golf analogy of sportscasters you're there every week, it feels like that. I think when I'm at home, they'll tell you that I don't work enough. And they like to get me back out of the house. You know, you find a great rhythm. My wife has been amazing about that and helping us succeed as best as we can raising, raising a couple of kids. But they've understood that now it gives them the opportunity to go to some events that they otherwise wouldn't have. But also by the same token, you miss out on some things. So whether it's phone calls or pictures or video streams or things like that, you try to stay as connected as possible.

3 (39m 22s):
And the one positive for us is that a Monday through Friday, we don't have to go into an office if we happen to be home that week. So when I'm home I'm home. So I can do things that some of my other friends who are dads might not be able to do like volunteer at a class when my kids were younger Tuesday at 10:00 AM, because during football season, I was always home Tuesday at 10 minute 10:00 AM. So there are just it's replacement, replacement value. I always like to tell people life's a series of trade offs and we've traded off a, a wonderful life and a great existence and some opportunities for them to see places and parts of the world. They wouldn't have otherwise at a young age for some of the things of you're not home, but my kids and my wife has been great Christmas day.

3 (40m 8s):
When I did the MBA for 11 or 12 street, Christmas mornings, we'd open up our guests by FaceTime and share that. But then we'd have Christmas with dad on the 27th or the 23rd. And we made it work. And I think that adaptive hopefully will be something that we'll all learn going forward. Hypothetical, you got five years left in your career. Sure. All right. I haven't asked you who your favorite interview guest has ever been talked to, et cetera, but I'm going to ask you if, if there's somebody that you don't have on your resume and an event that you would like to call, you could do anything. You only got five years left and you want to try to maximize it Superbowl.

3 (40m 49s):
At some point, I'd love to call a Superbowl. I hope we get the opportunity to, if I don't, I've been to about 23 or 24 of them, it's been just like an amazing connection. I was born the year of the Superbowl one. So I've been alive exactly the length of the Superbowl run minus a few weeks. So I have a special connection. I love that day and having, you know, over, I think, I think it's a 25 that I've been to eat at least the site for the week. And whilst I've been to the game, I, I still love the opening kickoff of the soup post to my favorite. So the chance to call one, if I ever get that at some point or, or be the main host for the pregame show of the Superbowl one, some involvement, that's our, that's the most watched thing in television.

3 (41m 35s):
And if you've got the opportunity to enter that club, you're in there for life. It's pretty cool. So hopefully that'll happen at some point in my life. The other question was an interview. I've been lucky enough to interview some presidents along the way in various settings. The one person who I haven't met, who I haven't interviewed, had nothing to do with sports or politics. It's Bruce Springsteen. Really. I am a huge Springsteen fan. Growing up in New York, went to about two dozen Springsteen concerts, a whole run in the eighties, loved Bruce seen most of most, at least one of most of the tourists over the last 30 years, he had an incredible way of writing songs that connected with his experiences and the experience of his experiences of his fans.

3 (42m 25s):
As he's aged, he's found a way to continue to connect to multiple generations. When he and the East street band do a show, they give you a four hours and they give it all to you and you walk out of there and you go, man, they love their job and they love the people. They work for their fans. And I've always had a great admiration for Springsteen East street radio on satellite radio is, you know, number three or four of my list after a couple of sports channels and a news channel, I listened to it all the time. It was the Springsteen music. I'd love to sit and hear a little bit of what makes him tick. I've heard so many interviews with him. He's a guy I'd love to sit and have a half hour with, to be able to pick his brain.

3 (43m 6s):
Do you need the jets to win a super bowl? Or maybe it's the lions I've outgrown all of that I'm team agnostic. At this point, I feel like covering sports at the national level. I don't have that same passion for a local team that I love to see the Detroit teams do well. Cause my kids root for them. Yeah. My friends, my neighbors, you get to know people and I know sports makes for odd bedfellows so that you get to Patrick. Ewing is now coaching Georgetown. It's really hard for a Syracuse guy to want George Kennedy. Well, but when we were in the NBA and Patrick was an assistant, it couldn't have been nicer. I always wanted to see him get an MBA opportunity. I'm hoping he get, he does. I hope he does well. And if George sent to leave, go to the NBA and then they could be bad after that. It's just, that's just our arrival.

3 (43m 47s):
But your experience in the industry, neuters a lot of your fan endorphins that just sit there. Now having said that I don't cover baseball. I'd love to see the tigers play. Well. I love going to just, I love, we still have season tickets. I love going to a game as a fan and parking and paying and going. Cause it keeps me in touch with our consumer. So I know what it's like to be a fan of the game. I love doing that still. And don't ask for special parking. I pay for our season tickets, my wife and I, we do as a family and we go, and when we can, if there's one team that I will unabashedly and without explanation, continue to report, sir, it's my mater.

3 (44m 32s):
I, I still get nervous when I watch the games. I still have to put my phone down. When I want to tweet ACC basketball officials are terrible. Once the last time in ACC basketball official called a three second violation. He says, be in the AC, we play two, three zone. It is we because I'm an alum. We play a two, three zone. And the ACC basketball officials refuse to call three-second violations. And those, those things bother me. And I love that because it reminds me of how passionately people watch, what we do. And sports has got a ridiculous loyalty that other things don't. And I love Romanian a fan for that. Mike, there's a saying that your brand is not what happens when you're in the room.

3 (45m 13s):
It's what happens when you leave the room. Yeah. Do you think your brand is something that gets talked about a lot? What is your brand to you? Right? What do you want your brand to be that others would say with all, with all respect to marketers, execs in the, in the commerce world and to the gen Xers and ahead, I think you're a brand. You're just, you're just who you are. And I understand the terms. I'm going to answer that question, but I just think I hear terms like that and like, no stop, stop that your brand is who you are. Your, I hope, I hope when I leave a room, people say that I was engaged in my time around them, that I do my job in an admirable way.

3 (45m 60s):
And that working with me or being around me or being around makes their day slash life a little bit better. I hope when they get a text from me, Hey, happy birthday. Hey, how you doing? Hey, I enjoyed watching your show. I hope they know it comes from the heart and not from a place of, of jealousy in any way I want, I want to see everybody in our business succeed. I, I, I'm more on the good news part of the world than the negative news part of the world. And I just hope that I can contribute to that successfully. And I don't, I don't care if you think that Joe Buck's better than me or Al Michaels or Jim Nance. Cause I and Eagle Shawmut, they're all friends. I want to S I want to see them do well to be included.

3 (46m 42s):
As part of that fraternity means more to me than anything else you realize you're blessed, right? Oh my God, you kidding me. Absolutely healthy kids, incredible family support beyond belief, tremendous set of friends, even better set of acquaintances. People, you don't share your personal stuff with your friends, but incredible set of acquaintances who you go to. You go to a golf tournament, you go to a tennis grand slam. You go to the final four and you see people who you've shared good times with and to do what I absolutely still love to do what I wanted to do. 50 plus years ago, it was a little kid darn right? I know I'm blessed and I'm hopeful that I can pay it forward and back, pay it back to the people who make me successful and pay it forward to the people who would like some insight in how to do this one person's version of how to do this.

3 (47m 38s):
Cause none of us are smart enough to come up with the answer, but our experiences through the prism of your life, your personality may form the way you do things. You've been a friend to me. I truly appreciate it. Nice. It's been great sitting down and I hope you keep that spoon. I hope they still have that. I wish I wish I did. I can just find some old antique spoon and sell it as here's the original Gazette. Congratulations on this. Craig's great to visit with you and all the best. Thanks

2 (48m 7s):
In our conversation. Mike talked about the journey in an industry that's as competitive as any you'll find, which leads me to my one last thing. If you want to be an influencer, learn to tell a story, make sure that you know your own story better than anybody else. Paint a picture and take people on a journey that engages others, build your brand. By making sure you take information from people along the way, and then find your own style and your own way of doing things. And if you want to be relevant, focus your energy on doing relevant things and making an impact pack that gets other people talking, do those things and your tracks to success become a whole lot easier.

2 (48m 57s):
I'm Craig Cannes until next time. Thanks for listening.

1 (49m 5s):
You've been listening to tracks to success, brought to you by presentation partners, visual storytellers, passionate about connecting presenters with their audience. Subscribe to the show for more great interviews and thoughts on reaching your highest personal and professional summit.