Dan Mullen

More than a coach, he’s a CEO of a powerhouse brand who puts mentorship ahead of making it to bowl games.

Dan Mullen’s ride through the ranks as a young assistant to a first time head coach to the head man of the Florida Gators gives you stories about small towns, small career steps and lessons about what’s really important in life.  

His candid chat with host Kraig Kann includes a telling tale about the importance of your second grade teacher and the value he puts on other people who have molded him into a relevant and respected leader in college football. 

What does leadership mean?  What defines success to Dan?  What is the importance of “relentless effort?”

This interview will leave you a better parent and a more driven person... and you just might root for the Gators too - provided they aren’t playing your team on a fall Saturday.

Kraig Kann with Gators head coach Dan Mullen right here on Tracks To Success!

Transcript

1 (4s):
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 did they find their way to the top and how can their path help you do the same? Here's your host network, broadcaster, executive and entrepreneur. Craig can

0 (25s):
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2 (29s):
Right now on this edition of tracks to success, you'll hear from one of the top college football coaches in America. The man who hails from New Hampshire has gone from the Northeast to the Midwest, to the mountain West, to the deep South. And now he's found a home in the sunshine state. He was once a small private high school state champion for the pioneers. He was an all conference selection as a small college tight end for the bears, and then his trail to big time, big conference, bright lights, college football began a quarterback coach and an offensive coordinator.

2 (1m 10s):
And then a head coach who quickly became a sought after head coach and is now on the short list of top college football CEOs and the doorstep of a trip to the college football playoff yet with all the pressure and all the media attention to know him is to see him as a husband and father first leader and motivator of young men, second and coach most likely third. So how does a college coach really balanced life and young children? And just how much does he live? The relentless effort message he preaches every day to his team.

2 (1m 52s):
His name is Dan Mullin head coach of the Florida Gators, his inspiring story. And this addition of tracks to success starts

0 (2m 3s):
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2 (2m 8s):
Well, Dan Mullen officially the first college football coach on the tracks to success pod.

3 (2m 13s):
Yes, Dan, truly appreciate you spending some time with me. How you doing? Alright. We're doing great. We're doing great here. Just trying to, trying to, trying to get by and keep ourselves busy. Well, I appreciate it. Let's start with the question. You probably didn't think was common. It's a question about being a dad, but this is not the question. Do you think I'm throwing at you because it's not about your two kids, but the role of a father figure responsible for 80 plush plus student athlete football players, right? How much do you personally treasure that opportunity? Well was great. You know, I mean, one of the great things to me in life that you get to do is make positive impact on people's lives. That's the benefit about being a coach?

3 (2m 54s):
One of the huge benefits I happen in the coaching profession is, you know, you people ask, why do you do what you do?

4 (3m 1s):
You know, and trust me, I love winning. I love competing. I love all of the things around the game and game day and everything that goes on with it, but it really gets into the positive impact you can make on young people's minds. And you know, and so that is one of the biggest rewards. You know, as a coach, you get to look back and say, Hey, you know, I helped this guy and give him a foundation of success. Now he has his own financial company. Now he started this series of gyms or these special forces he's gone on to become a surgeon or they've gone on to become great NFL players, but the opportunity to make positive impact in young people's lives special. And you know, and so that's where a lot of the father figure comes in to being a head coach, you know, and it is, I mean, it's one thing that you're coaching and that you're out there and you're teaching.

4 (3m 49s):
I don't run a route out for a ball, how to run this, play, how we're using this protection, teaching them a game plan and a strategy on what it is and how we're going to win a game each week. But more importantly, you're teaching life lessons and you're teaching life lessons that can carry on for these guys throughout the rest of their lives. And that's something I take pride in. You know, I was, you know, I coached a guy named Tim Tebow and Tim's a great young man and obviously is a really influential person around the world, you know, and one of the things, and it wasn't exactly from him or, or defined by him, but you know, one of the things is being with him. You learn that why you coach is you self reflect on what it is you do is something I think a lot of people should do when you you'll find your job.

4 (4m 34s):
Your career a lot more reporting is if you sit back and you reflect on why do I do what I do and what you know, where you get the most joy out of and you know, the wins and losses, you know, there are highs and lows. They come and go very rapidly and you know, from one game to the next and you're onto the next gate, but the opportunity to make a positive impact on young people's lives is something that is completely different. That's something that sticks. If you look at a guy, like I mentioned at 10, you know, I was able to make a positive impact on his life and help coach him to win two national championships in Heisman trophy.

4 (5m 14s):
And, you know, at 10 then goes on to, you know, be one of the most influential people in the world that goes out and makes impact on people's lives. And you know, it was one of those that you just learned. And so through the years I've learned recently you get to coach. The reason I love coaching is that opportunity to make a positive impact on young people's lives. And that's where the father finger comes in. So a lot of other people probably define Dan Mullin or other top coaches by wins and losses. I mean, they put it right there in black and white. What you're saying, it sounds like is at the end of a year, in an off season time, reflecting five years later, you're thinking about the legacy, the mentorship, the impact that had on those people.

3 (5m 58s):
And that's probably more meaningful.

4 (6m 1s):
That's the rewarding part of it. The wins and losses come and go, and we are judged. Trust me, that's not on college phone. There's no cultural call coach. It's keeping his job just as make a great impact on people's lives. You keep your job. I went to football games, but to me, what do I find the rewarding part? And that's the most important thing, because you know, if it is only about the purely about the wins and losses, I think you're missing out on something that is that's really special. It just makes every, but everything just kind of a commodity. And that's not what this is about. We're in the development profession, we're helping young people succeed in life.

4 (6m 41s):
And so I think, you know what, whatever anybody's looking, whatever job they're in, whatever profession they're in, I think it's, it's when you sit back and you reflect, why do I do what I do? And that's not, that's not the whole part part of the job. I mean, my job, my job is about coaching. Developing young people become their best and hopefully winning a lot football games, but the reward of it, a lot of people on the outside look at the reward must be winning. The reward must be national championships. The reward must be something that's superficial when it really isn't. The reward is something that you look back and you reflect all the positive things and impact you've made on people.

4 (7m 24s):
That's the one that sticks with you. I can't tell you, you know, I, I couldn't tell you what my career win loss record, you know, I mean, if I sat down and really, I sometimes I'd have to, if you tell me, okay, Hey, what was your record in 2016? You know, I mean, I could maybe reflect on it and get into the wins and losses and I'm not even have to look it up. I'm like Wikipedia or something. And the, you know, so to me, that is such a huge, you know, something that, like I said, that's not what it's about. When you go to sleep at night, you think and say, Hey, have I done made a positive impact on people's lives?

4 (8m 4s):
You have such a greater reward for what you're doing and the ability to help people. That's something that really sticks with you.

3 (8m 13s):
Well, I think I'm pretty safe in saying there's a few fans and some media folks that could tell you what the record is in case you didn't know it off the top here. But anyway, we're going to talk about the Gators and the sec and all that stuff in just a little bit, but I want to go back. I want to go back to the Dan Mullen kid time. All right. Without the whistle growing up in your neighborhood, a New Hampshire home. Tell me about a home. And if I talk to a couple of your friends back in the grade school days, what would they say about you grey school? I don't know. I went to, I wanted to say

4 (8m 50s):
So Quantis. I went to Catholic school, my whole life up in New Hampshire. So I was born in Philadelphia, but, but grew up up in New Hampshire. You know, I, I think I was always somebody that, you know, love sports. I was always going to be around sports. You know, one of the things I, that guy was really blessed with though, early on in life, if you look at my parents, you know, my mom teaches classical ballet and you know, my dad was in listen in, in sales and running a college preparation company and the, which doesn't even exist cause of computers anymore. But you know that back in those days, you know, I was really fortunate.

4 (9m 33s):
I was blessed. I think I was exposed to a lot and to find what you love. And I think as a parent, my mom Dilaudid and my dad taught, but to expose you to a lot of things. So when I was young, you know, I did, I took ballet tap and jazz classes. I took piano lessons, classes. I played soccer. I played, you know, travel soccer. I played football, basketball, baseball, you know, I was, I was on a, I was on a swim team and I couldn't like eighth grade, seventh or eighth grade. I won like a 200 state meters freestyle championship for the state of New Hampshire.

4 (10m 15s):
But they exposed me to a lot of things. Then you find out what you love. And that's one of the things I feel really blessed in life to have done was, you know, it was that and you know, to go in a house where you're my, mom's a British citizen, classical ballet, my dad never even played high school football. And you know, here I am in my whole life revolves around football. And I, I think I was really blessed that they exposed me to all the different things until I was able to find what I love.

3 (10m 47s):
Okay. So small, private Catholic high school, right. The pioneers. And you want to state championship now with all the big time college games that you've coached, been on the sideline for, you know, right in the middle of it. Do you remember that day, the high school state championship? Like it was yesterday, maybe even more than some of that other stuff.

4 (11m 7s):
Oh yeah. I would now that's, that's probably one of the biggest wins of my life right there. That one. So planet Trinity high school were really, you know, we were the, it was really funny back then. We were the smallest school in the state, in the state athletic association, but we petitioned up the play in the biggest school division. So, you know, we were kind of these, this, this small Catholic school and I guess they let us do it. And I think a lot of people say, Oh, did they recruit all the players? And not really? I mean the school thing. And if you looked at, you looked at our roster, you wouldn't bingo, that's a team that's loaded up recruiting all the top players in the state to come play, but we petitioned a place on it. You know, I had about, you know, about 140, 150 in my graduating class, you know, and we're playing steam schools with 3000 kids.

4 (11m 54s):
And, you know, the, the group of guys though, that team, that what you built and what you work together, it was my junior year in high school to go in and win that state championship. You know, I always remember the coach saying, Hey, that's something I'll never be taken away from. You know? And when you think that when you get the opportunity to go in that championship, you won a championship in high school that you're on the seat that came together was a special season. And we came together and found a way to win a state championship. I mean, I remember the state championship game and you know, and everything about how crazy it was. We went 10 to nine over Concord, high school and one on a fourth quarter field.

4 (12m 37s):
Well, and it, it was something that was something that you just carry with you forever. As the coach told me, I said, Hey, you know, no matter all the good things that happened to you in life, all the bad things, no matter what you're going through. And like, you can always reflect back house champion. You know, I was a state champion and, you know, we set a goal, we achieved that goal. We did it as a group. We did it as a team and, and you know, all the group of guys that guys, I went to high school, they were still a special group. You know what I mean? They all still come. We all get together. They, everybody comes down to one football game here a year in the swamp. Everybody comes down to, we do a golf outing in the spring time.

4 (13m 19s):
You know, we, we do trips together with all of us and our wives, you know, I mean, it's, and as, as my wife will tell me, you know, you'd think that we're all like 18 years old. Again, every time we get together, that's not close to the guys yet. But I think that comes from winning a championship comes from being on a specialty. Okay. Senior class leaders, senior class clowns, senior class troublemaker, you know, what kind of kid were you? Yeah. All of the above. Yeah. I could have been, you know, I could have been classified. I don't know if I got one or the other of all of those, you know, I think I was the guy that was the, the quarterback on the football team, captain and the basketball team, that type of person, you know, but, you know, I was somebody that had had a good time.

4 (14m 7s):
And I think if you talk to everybody and this was really a unique deal is I think in high school, you see, and I, and I always, I was think I was so fortunate that you see a lot of different cliques and the groups and there were, and you know, one of the one things that I tried to do was cross that over into all the different groups. You know, I had my, my guys that are really good friends with the guys, some of that, you know, that most of them played football. And we really, you know, our group of friends when you talk to people or four high schools in the city, and, you know, we, we have great friends at every one of those four high schools. If we kind of brought a lot of different people together because we didn't really buy in that, you know, we had our group that was so close, but we felt that we could hang out and we enjoyed hanging out with everybody.

4 (14m 57s):
And if, you know, so I mean, we really work kind of very clicky back then. We haven't, you know, we're kind of our own, we were our own group and our own family that enjoy just having fun and being around people. So we kinda, we crossed over a lot of different groups back in those days,

3 (15m 12s):
Small high school, small college football in Pennsylvania, tight end, right. All conference senior year. But when you were lining up Dan, at that time, I want to kind of forward ahead in life. Were you a guy who was thinking about the X's and the O's where you like an analytical type player who was thinking, look, I'm not going to go to the NFL. I'm not going to do this. I, I think I could be a coach someday.

4 (15m 38s):
Yeah. You know, I don't think you always know what you want to do. I just know I love football. I love sports and especially football. And I watch, you know, all the way back to high school, you know, I was far back, but if you got walked in the huddle with me, I can tell you what all 11 guys did on every play. So any, I wanted to make sure anybody that ever walked in that huddle, if there was any doubt or question what they're doing, I knew what everybody was going to do. And then I knew a good, you know, I guess I was always a schematic person and very much into the X's and O's and scheme to begin with football goes back to when I was in high school. Funny story is, you know, we're, we're in a, in a S in the, in a big game.

4 (16m 18s):
And it was my senior year. So senior year, they combined a lot of the divisions, the other have supervision. So it was two defendant, state champs. We were at a big school, a state champ defendant. And it was actually, I went to the Catholic school, but the hometown I lived in was that town's high school, public school. So I knew a lot of the guys in their team and it was at their place. And it was kind of a wild scene for a big, big game. And I, we drove down and, and I think we got, we scored to go within, within one, instead of kicking the extra point, we went for two for the win and coach camp. We take the time out and coach comes into auto calls to play. Coach leaves the huddle. I said, boy, you know, it was kind of like a naked boot, like for me to just keep all by myself, to try to walk into the end zone.

4 (16m 60s):
I said, well, as you said, I wasn't a big division one recruit. And I was pretty smart and a good decision maker. So I said, well, if I don't like the way that looks, as soon as coach, I said, everybody, you pay attention a line of scrimmage because we get a chance I'm going to change this place to call it something else. And so I got up there. I don't like a little bit of play. I call it like a rollout pass or had a couple different options. I completed it to, you know, I got a ticket got on Toby culutre at the end. So, and he made the catch. We'd go on with the game. I come around off the field goes to like, boy, you know, you're lucky that work, you know, are you in a plate anymore? I said, well, you know, I wouldn't have called it if I didn't know what it worked. And it was probably a better place when you call the a and then even in college, I used to do that.

4 (17m 46s):
You know, I, I went to college as quarterback ended up moving play a lot of tight in, you know, I had the opportunity to get on the field early and I just want to play. So I played fullback, played some tight end and just to get on the field and I I've lined up a tight head and I'd be yelling at our quarterback. I'm like, this is, we need to change it to this play. You know, I'd always try to yell that stuff and study the game of football that way. I just always loved the game, loved the X's and O's, and the strategy

3 (18m 17s):
Before I get to the kind of the track, if you will, towards your success as a, as a coach, and I'm going to run through that fairly quickly, but you were an education major, and then you got a master's degree. Now you can, you can tell me and our listeners that you love teaching, or you like teaching, or you can say maybe I got shoved into that for my degree, because it was a path I could manage or whatever, but at the core, from what I've seen from what I've read from what I've heard, from what I've watched, you look like an educator, is that a fair assessment of Dan Mullen?

4 (18m 52s):
Well, thanks. You know, I was hoping, you'd say I look like a movie star or something, or one of those we can get to that later. The, well, I, I think this, I think, you know, I went to college and honestly I went and I was going to go premed and started down a free med path. And then, you know, but realized I really love sport. And so I kinda was going to go physical therapy then went into exercise and sports science and athletic training, you know, the medical side of sports, you know, whether you're going to go try to get into almost being an orthopedic surgeon or, you know, sports medicine, athletic training, that, that type of field, and, you know, cause you just don't know what it is that you're going to want to be.

4 (19m 37s):
So I kind of went down that I ended up going sports medicine and then, you know, as I'm getting ready to graduate a really funny story, you know it, and you just think of the connections you make in life. Now, importantly, our show growing up at Manchester, New Hampshire, I wanted to, you know, at the end of my senior year, there are guys like, Hey, we'd love to get into coaching. And from a small school at our science college, it's funny that I went on to become the head coach at the university of Florida. And the guy lived across the hall from me. And then I called down through the defense coordinator for the Oakland Raider now Las Vegas Raiders, you know, and we're, we're living right across from each other in college at a little small school, but you know, some guys wanted to get into coaching and I'm like, alright, I don't even know how to do that.

4 (20m 24s):
You know what I mean? Let's look at what we want to do and what the paths are. And I didn't play big time football, not an NFL guy. I'm not a big name person. So I needed to, you know, figure down that path. So there was a guy called, there was a guy in my hometown that was coaching. And, you know, we played against me. It was actually that season, my senior year, he was the D coordinator at Johns Hopkins and he was years older than me. So I knew who he was, but he was kinda like, he was in a general, a guy, I don't know, generation, but kind of that, that group ahead of me. So you knew and mantras, you know, all the different lot of the different sports figures. So you knew of him, even though he wasn't around while you were while we were playing.

4 (21m 4s):
And so I said, why don't you call him? And, and you know, so I called them and talk about coach. And he's like, I'm going back coaching university in Hampshire, let me make some calls to find some entry level jobs for you. And he did. And he got an interview at Wagner college and I ended up getting grad assistant job at Wagner college, you know, and that guy, you know, people might know him and coaching it's chip Kelly. So, you know, chip was a guy that for Manchester, New Hampshire grew up right up the street for me, that you knew of that, you know, had been around me, talked to my eye. A lot of my friends are like, hi, you know, chip, you know, it's not this big college and NFL head coach. He was, he did a student teaching as our junior high gym teach.

4 (21m 44s):
And, but you have that quite close knit community of where we grew up and, you know, it gets into make sure you make connections with people, you know, and take advantage of those. Because, you know, I, I was the offensive coordinator several years later at the university of Florida and, you know, chip calls and, you know, he said, Hey, I got this real, this young coach that is finishing up in a GA, he, you know, he really wants to get into coaching. He's GA's done with us, but, you know, do you have, do you have a GA spot? Would you be interested in hiring him? And he told me his name. And I said, yeah, I remember he was kind of like the five or six years behind me, that group, that I knew the name from going back, but never played against. I've never really hung out with him.

4 (22m 26s):
And so he called us, I got this guy named Ryan Day and you need to hire him. And then Ryan came, it was a grad assistant for me of Florida. And now he's the head coach at Ohio state. And so it's kind of crazy how you utilize those connections and take advantage of those things to get into the coaching world. And, you know, being the head coach of Florida, probably a long way for being a, you know, an athletic training sports medicine, orthopedic surgeon that I originally started down that path.

2 (22m 51s):
Well, you mentioned Wagner college and then people don't know you found your way to Columbia than Syracuse than Notre Dame, bowling green, Utah. They probably remember Utah. A lot of people, you know, common fan doesn't doesn't know about the bowling green deal. We'll save the Gators for a little bit, but people see a resume and they talk about a coaching tree and connections that you've made along the way that you just described what they don't see are the stories that you're sharing about the journey, right? The journey to get there. Would you say it's more exhausting or it's more thrilling

4 (23m 27s):
Talking about the climb? I don't know either. I think it's, I think in any part of life, I think the journey is the most important part. It's not about a destination, you know, I guess your, you know, I, I saw this great quote, one time, my life has no finish line, you know of, you know, I'm not sitting there and saying, okay, you know, if you want a championship, I want to win a second one to him. You know, I, you, don't just, you haven't, you've never arrived. You're always, you're always trying to get better, but I think it is while you're on the journey, if you want to be successful while you're on the journey, you better learn everything about being on the journey, learn how you got, where you got to. I think people try to take shortcuts in life and all of a sudden where you're at you realize I'm struggling.

4 (24m 14s):
What if you know, you're going to climb the mountain and you slip and fall off the mountain? Well, if you know, if you took a shortcut to get there, you don't know the path, this back to success. And I think that's really important. So I think, you know, when you're on the journey to success in life, when you're on your journey or your path in life, you need to enjoy it. You need to embrace it. You need to understand it. And you need to remember what it took to get where you were. If you don't and you ever slip off, you never know how to get back and you never know how to get back on that path to success. So, you know, I've enjoyed the journey. I love what I do. I love coaching.

4 (24m 54s):
I love being the head coach of the Florida Gators, but, you know, I mean, I love being making $3,000 a year, you know, coaching at Wagner college or sleeping, you know, five guys in a one bedroom apartment in Harlem, in Columbia. And I slept at university and I slept on the couch, you know? And you're, you know, you're really, didn't matter to, you didn't have any money. You didn't have any time to spend your money. Cause you were working all the time then, you know, in just trying to, to learn and earn and, and, and fight your way up the top. I think that's what it is. And I think that's such a critical part of the journey of, of, I think if the other part of it is, if you're always worried, I've never worried about the destination.

4 (25m 38s):
I just worried about the journey and, and was I, was I being the best that I could be. And you know, I do want to say, Hey, is your goal to be the head coach at the university of Florida? When I started coaching at Wagner college or Columbia university, I don't know that every to be able to, to grasp that, I knew my goal was to become the best that I could be. And if I worked hard every day at it, people saw the work that you put in, great things would, would happen for you. And, and that's, that's kind of how I've lived my life.

3 (26m 9s):
You know, there's that saying about ship captains? They don't gain their best experience from calm seas, right? They have to deal with things that happen along the way. And you mentioned the sleeping on couches and all that. I've got a question for you. I'm gonna flip the script a little bit, because I know you coached at Utah quarterback, a mentor to Alex Smith and amazing youth team people talk so often about Teebo and you've already mentioned Tim Tebow stole a question from me for later. That's fine. Good job out of you, but how much people think a guy like Smith learns from you, but what do you as a top

4 (26m 44s):
Coach in your journey, learn from a guy like Smith and a guy like TiVo and a guy like leek. You know, you have to take something from the people you coach don't, you, you do you while you're always learning from each other and you know, and spending the time. I mean, the, the one thing is, you know, when you're coaching these guys, you spend so much time together that, that you grow and you grow together and you learn together. And, you know, I learned from one of my players, I learned a, you know, as a young coach, sometimes you're hot headed and you're kind of so competitive. You want to get after it. I had a young guy named Josh Harris played for me at bowling green, a really successful quarterback. He threw an interception, came off and I was like yelling at him.

4 (27m 27s):
And he looked at me and he said, Hey, you know, he goes, why don't you just shut up? He goes, you know, I want to win just as bad as you want to win. So if you don't have anything productive to say to help us win this game and get me better, then just shut up. I don't think somebody yelling, he told you to shut up. Absolutely. But that's the relationship you kind of have with God that you know what they're competitive and I'm competitive and you, you kinda can butt heads and you get fiery sometimes, but you know what, that the relationship you're so close that you learn from some houses. I was a young coach. One, you know, I've learned a lot from Alex Smith and, you know, just as a person, as a man, how, how he did things and you start getting that relationship and like, Hey, try this.

4 (28m 13s):
You know, I tell our guys all the time with the quarterbacks. And if I ask question and what we're watching film, and I said, you know, what, what did you do here? Why did you do that in a lot of them? You know, one of the funny questions that's like, okay, coach, what should I have done? And I said, well, what I think is completely irrelevant right now, because I'm not the one on the field that has about 1.2 seconds until some 300 pound guy hits me in the face. So how I'm processing information standing on the sidelines is not as important to me is how you're processing information. I need to think more like you so that we can get on the same page. And then at once I start thinking like you, then I can get knowledge to you and help you make better decisions for you to start thinking like me, but I just can't let your at you and expect you to think like me, I need to think like you first.

4 (29m 2s):
And so I think you learn so much about each guys and you learn all these different things throughout your life. And I think you have such, when you have such open and close relationships with people, when you, when you do that with people you work with, you can take a lot of constructive criticism, you know, because you know that everyone is trying to, you know, when you're around people, one of the things, when I became a head coach, it was so huge. I was trusting the fact that if you hire good people that they want to do well and succeed too. And she, you don't have to micromanage every single part of your program. Well, that's, that's a, that's a hard lesson for first time CEOs, you know, and when you're running a program or you're running a company, you don't cause you're like, this is my opportunity to be in charge and you start wearing yourself out and you have to start understanding that, Hey, you, you surround yourself with good people, listen to what they have to say, understand that they want to be successful, whether it's your players that have good ideas, yea, or your players and other people that have thoughts, you know, if you just lecture people on, this is how everything has to be done.

4 (30m 9s):
They never bring new ideas to the table. And you're really never learning to grow and, and learn how they learn and learn how to think like them and learn how to have a successful organization. So did you study coaches growing up? Like, is there anybody that you said, Oh, I'd like to be like that guy, maybe an NFL guy Lombardi or, or Chuck? No, for example, or a Ditco or where their college coaches, you know, Woody Hayes or a Bo Schembechler or somebody that used like, you know, man, I want to be like them. Did you study and analyze, you know, eat forever, lots of books, you know, I mean, you read books, you know, I mean, from, from, you know, from John wooden and Mike Shashefski to Bella check and Walsh and you know, all the great ones too, you know, successful Rudy Giuliana that had a great book on leadership.

4 (30m 58s):
I've always really loved, you know, how he dealt with with nine 11 as the mayor of New York. And, you know, I mean reading books, but, you know, but by George Bush were in all kinds of different successful business people, but I think you read and you study a lot of those different things. But to me, the biggest one is learn from the people that you're with and learn from situations. I always kept a folder from when I started coaching. And it's just know when I, when I started a, I guess you'd call it like your, you know, your, your coaching file and things that we would do. And things that would happen at things that I thought were good at things that I thought were bad and different ideas and thoughts that I have and learning from different people.

4 (31m 38s):
And, you know, I'll be honest with you, the, the people that you deal with the most, my influential, most influential coaches were probably my high school and college coaches that I played for. And then, you know, all cam line and Wagner college, you know, and, and you get on, you go go to, you know, Paul <inaudible> was so huge in my coaching development at Syracuse, Kevin Rogers, who I was his grad assistant for, for a long time, urban Meyer, who has an assistant coach for a long time. All those different people have a great influence on you, but they do. If you're paying attention to, you know, how you can be better as a coach, how things that they do.

4 (32m 21s):
And then if there's things that are going on in the program that you'd like, make notes about it, that you don't like make notes about it and say, if I'm the head coach, this is how I would do something different that, that file's now called my head coaching. Because I knew that with now I've learned that have lead you down a path to become a head coach one day. And I, but it's something I still go back and review, you know, once a year you go back and you bust through the head coaching file and just look at some different notes and thoughts and how you can do things better. And, you know, when you continually add to it as well,

3 (32m 51s):
Yeah. You were a part of two BCS national title teams with urban in Oh six Oh eight. And I know coaching's a year round deal. And, and a lot of people say, okay, he's from the urban Meyer tree. Right. Kind of like what you talked about, about progression and you work for this coach or that coach, I'm going to put you on a, on a play clock. If you will put you under the gun here a little bit, who is Dan Mullin as a head coach?

4 (33m 18s):
Well, you know what I mean for me, I'm sorry. You are your own head coach. I will let me share this with you first. Don't ever try to imitate somebody else. You have to be yourself as a leader, you know, shall I run now? It doesn't mean I'm not going to take ideas and an outlines and other thoughts of how other people have run programs to implement, but how you run the program. It has to be done on your own personality. So, you know what? I, I'm a guy that in our program at music coach, I want to, I want to get young men into our program. They have great work ethic and character because those are the type of young men that are going to continue in PR to improve why you coach.

4 (34m 1s):
I want to put a, we want to, you know, music coach. I want to put them in a program that focuses on developing that we want to develop young men. So, you know, someone that comes in to my program, I say, that's the before picture. And what we're trying to do is create the after picture. And, you know, if what that is as a young man, and we're going to help develop you in every aspect of your life and your, your athletic life, your social life, your academic life, your spiritual life in everything that you do, we're going to help you grow and develop, have a foundation to be successful for you, for you, for the rest of your life. You know, so that's me and who I am as coach. Now, I'm also a coach that loves the game, loves the strategy of the game, loves the X's and O's, and the schematics of the gate, and always wants to be on kind of the cutting edge of where football is that I'm not afraid as it comes to the, you know, the actual game itself to think outside the box and try to be an innovator.

3 (34m 59s):
Want to talk about Florida in a second, but I can't get to Florida without talking about Mississippi and the impact that you made there at Mississippi state, the people, the passion, but I need to start with a story as it goes on your first day, when you're in front of all the players and all the administrators and those involved with the program, when you were basically walking in there to talk to them, a story, something about wishers and wanters, can you tell that story?

4 (35m 25s):
Absolutely. So, you know, my first team meeting, I, I was really fortunate. I got hired at Mississippi state in mid December and school had already finished the semester. So the team had gone home, so you didn't have the whole team. And so the team was gone and I went back and coached through BCS national championship game. And for Florida, you know, I kinda got my staff hired, got things in place, got recruiting up and running and got everything going met. Some of the players talked to all of them on the phone, but didn't have a big team. My first team meeting, wasn't gonna be until January. And so w we go on, we win the national championship at Florida. Most exhausted an offense coordinator wants to be a head coach at another.

4 (36m 8s):
And you know, so we win the championship. I got on a plane early the next morning, fly back to Mississippi, had my first team meeting that afternoon, you know, and it was, I guess it was great. Cause they had, the whole team was excited. They just saw it won the national championship the night before. So one of the first things I said, I said to everybody, I said, who in this room wants to win a championship? And everybody raised their hand. And I said, we got a problem. And I said, you're all lying to either me or yourself one or the other. Cause if everybody wanted to win a championship, you want to have a new head coach standing in here. Everybody wishes they could win a change, right? Everybody looks and says that confetti falling your head. That looks really neat. You know? And I wish I could do that.

4 (36m 50s):
But if you wanted to win a championship, you would've made sure every single morning you woke up in the morning and didn't go to sleep until your, until you had put yourself in position to try to accomplish. And you know, a team that had, I don't know, I think that one, maybe two games a year before taking them away, won two games a year before wouldn't be a team that wants anything except you know, they were, they weren't locked. They were wishing. They were like, you know, and I think, I think in life I did that my first team getting a floor, you know? And I said, Hey, you know, Oh, Alicia is somebody that's going to sit there and say, you know, they, they might tell you, they want it. I want to win a championship. I want to do this. I want to graduate college. Right. I want a great graduate college.

4 (37m 30s):
Great. Why, why have you missed class? Why are you missing tutor require that you spend an extra four hours studying last night? No. Okay. Then don't tell me you want to do it right. I think it was a software Coke quote from Gary player to get into golf. And somebody said, Hey, you know the, I love your swing. You know, I want to have a swing like yours. I've been working. I want to have a swing on the kitchen. You grab a Sandy, suddenly your hands don't have listers all over those. You kind of wish you had a swing like line. If you want to swing like mine, you're going to get up and go start swinging the golf club every single morning. So your hand starts pleading. Then you tape it up. And then you still a thousand swinging a thousand more times.

4 (38m 12s):
But don't tell me that. If you want to say, Hey, I want to have a successful business. Well, what are you doing to make that happen? Are you doing everything possible to accomplish your goal? Or are you just lying in bed? Wishing about, you know, you know, the wishers are lying in bed, thinking about what they're wishing for, why the water spin up for two hours, making it happen. Dan Mullin is our guest on this edition of tracks

3 (38m 36s):
To success. Tracks to success is brought to you by presentation partners, visual storytellers, passionate about connecting presenters with their audience. You can never control when opportunities come. You can, you can work hard to make them happen. You were just a few wins, shy of being the Bulldogs, Mississippi state, all time winningest coach, by the way, you talked about the two wind season, then it was like five, the next year with the toughest schedule in the country. So you had, you had Mississippi state to number one, Dan coach of the year, all that stuff, huge success at Mississippi state. Ultimately you leave for Florida. My question is about how you handle the public rumor Ville that swirls around coaches like you, who have success and you become sought after how in the world did you deal with that and stay focused?

4 (39m 30s):
Well, I think one of the things, the key is, is stayed focused and you know, you control, you control what's going on. And you know, I always laugh. And every year they said, yeah, the same quote, which is in the coaching profession, there's always rumors about here. There's either a room or you're getting fired or a room or you're going somewhere else. And if you need a rumor is you're getting fired. It's cause you're not winning and rumors you're going somewhere else. You know, especially when it's always take the second one that, you know, you're always rumored to be going on to the next job. But when you know, we live in a world where everybody, Hey, you know, what's the net, what's the best thing. Let's, let's move on. What's next? What you know for you. And to me, you know, in our time, you know, we got a lot of calls.

4 (40m 10s):
There are a lot of opportunities through the year, sleet, Mississippi state, but Megan and I both loved living there. We love the people of Starkville. We loved the community. We love the state of Mississippi. Both, both my kids were born there and you know, and, and most importantly, I love the place. You know, I love the players that we had in the program that we built to be around those guys. So, you know, we weren't, despite all the rumors that would always be swirling, you know, it wasn't like we were looking to move on or just take the next best opportunity or anything to come along. It would have to be something special.

3 (40m 47s):
You know? So after the,

4 (40m 51s):
Well, a couple of years ago, whenever she said that with us, as I said, I don't know. I got, I always think of what year that was the 2017 season, I guess you've been in Florida two years. So after the 2017 season, there were some opportunities for us to go places, you know? And, and we had sat down and we said, Hey, you know, if we put nine years in, we gave everything in that nine years, I gave everything that I had at Mississippi state and helped make it successful to build a successful program to when we'd gone to eight consecutive bowl games, they've never done. As you said, we went to, we took the team to number one in the country, you know, an unprecedented success of players and of those guys going on, have success, you know, later on down the road.

4 (41m 37s):
And you know, what the opportunity to come to the university of Florida was just something that was so special for us, that it was an opportunity that, you know, at that time we looked and said, okay, maybe we're ready for the next challenge. You know, given everything we have over nine years to Mississippi state and we're ready for that next challenge. And, but it would have to be something special for me to give you that in the university of Florida obviously is something special. And you know, and just, you know, what, the, the history, the, the success I had here as an assistant coach, the history and the program, being a Florida, being the only school in the United States that each of the last two seasons been not only a top 10 football team, but there's also a top 10 public university.

4 (42m 23s):
We're the only school in America that has both of those two. And, you know, to come to such a premiere place in the summer, an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

3 (42m 30s):
Yeah. And there's so much tied to recruiting, not just in Mississippi, but, but in the state of Florida as well. So I got a recruiting question for you, but it's a little different, you talk about passion in, in sports and all that. And the greatest passion. And to me, you know, I've kind of seen it hurted passion of family for you. So let's talk recruiting a little bit, right? Your wife, who I know, because I was her co-anchor, she's going to like me saying that I was her co-anchor on golf channel. You talk a lot as a football coach about relentless effort. Is that what it took to get the TV sportscaster woman to be your wife? I made, did you have to recruit hard or were you kind of a big deal?

3 (43m 13s):
And it was all, all the cards just fell your way.

4 (43m 16s):
Yeah. As you said now, for our kids, she, she loves them. She says, you know, Hey, I was the one that was on TV. It's not really your bad. I was the one that was the main TV personality in the family. And no, you know what? We had such a unique story. I was, I was coaching at bowling green in, in Ohio. And I was watching the news one night. It's pretty blonde girls. Aren't doing the sports and say, do you have any comments? You can email Megan. And so I, you know, I, I flipped up my computer and I like typed up an email, said, Hey, comment, I'd love to take you out some time. You know, obviously the TV station, she must get a lot of stalkers.

4 (43m 56s):
Cause I never heard anything back about a week, goes by. And I see it again. I'm like, you know, she never responded. So I, I I'm like, Hey, I'm not a soccer. I coached the quarterback's folding green and you come, you cover our games on around just, you know, I just want to take you out sometime. And you know, they got rude not to respond to my emails. The courtesy respond to my email. And I guess the TV stations like, Hey, you know, you do use the quarterback, coach laundry. And he got engaged just to at least respond to his email maybe for lunch or something like that. And so the, the TV station kinda made her go out with me and, you know, we went out and she try to call it, say, she tells the story much better than I do. She's like, all right, let's go lunch. I'm like, well, I'm going to have a job.

4 (44m 37s):
I don't have time for lunch. I'll meet you for dinner. You know? So we went out to dinner and you know what, we started dating they're a little bit off and on. And then, you know, life gets crazy. You know, I got hired at, you know, six, eight months later to go to the university of Utah and what was really crazy. And I mean, people at TV would get, this is about three weeks after I got hired at the university of Utah. She got offered main sports anchor at salt Lake city, which is, you know, I mean, I've taught 25 Mark. You know what I mean? That's a huge jump. And you know, so we both ended up getting hired in salt Lake city at the same time and kind of started to continue dating seriously from there and got engaged and got married right after I got hired, left Utah to come to Florida.

4 (45m 25s):
We got, you know, we got engaged at about six to four weeks after we got engaged. I got hired to come to Florida

3 (45m 31s):
To this day that she drove from Gainesville to Orlando to work with clowns like me and other people at that place is you had talked about relentless effort.

4 (45m 42s):
She gives, yeah. She goes, the relentless era. She'll always laugh. She says, boy, you know, I was not a TV person. You know, like the TV was, it was a crazy lifestyle until I've had a coach. He goes, cause you know, I've leave. So go to work in the morning, she'd get up. She would drive Orlando, do her TV shows and drive home. And she'd still beat me home. I wish she was here when I left. And she was here when I got back, including her commute to Orlando.

3 (46m 7s):
So Dan, how do you balance that? How, how do you get away from football and spend time? I mean, he got two great kids, cannon and Braelin and a wife who's completely dedicated to your program and, and you, how much of a balance is that, that we don't see one person this

4 (46m 28s):
Job and you have a responsibility of, of, you know, I mean, I guess, you know, I mean, I'm the head coach at university of Florida, but really you're the CEO of the Florida football program. You know, anybody that runs business or anybody that has, you know, in their career, it puts a lot into their career. The key is you gotta have great balance for me as a coach. I think one, your family's gotta be a hundred percent on because it is something that you spend a lot of time away from home. You know, we have to have a wife that understands you're not going to be there all the time. That is willing to kinda pick up and pick up a lot of the Slack of things that you're missing and not be upset about it, but also is, you know, gonna work to bring the kids over, to see us, you know, bring the kids to practice all the time.

4 (47m 12s):
So at the end of practice, you get to go play catch for 10 minutes before you head back into meetings at night, or that comes over and has dinner with you every once in a while or a stop by to have a quick lunch with you. So you get to spend that quality time together. I think that's critical. And then I think, you know, also, and I've learned this now being a head coach for, for a long time and doing this is you gotta find your balance in life and your balance is going to be different for everybody. You know, I'm not going to give you the recipe of saying, okay, Hey, make sure you spend major, you do this two week vacation, or you do that here, or you take your kids to do this. There, there is no exact thing for everybody, but to me it is making sure I understand the balance in my life and that I make sure that I'm there for my kids that I want to go to kids' sporting events.

4 (48m 3s):
I, you know, I was, you know, as you know, my son can play some golf and it was, it was like two years ago. I think my first season of Florida on our bi-week on that Sunday. So we had a Sunday on Sunday off from the coaches and you know, that was your, your one maker and CC you head off. And I went tattoo for him. Somebody like, Hey, are you damn? I'm like, yeah, you know what I mean? I'm just a caddy today. But you, you, when you do have those opportunities that you make the most, but you do find the bounce and I try to do it for all of our coaches. You know, I try to give them schedules to make sure that they see one of the things, you know, that was crazy. I was remembered as a kid is, is my dad taken me trick or treating and you know, in the football world for Halloween and the football world, a lot of times you're, you're busy on holidays.

4 (48m 53s):
And so, you know, we try not to I'm on Halloween night, you know, as soon as Fraxel, we're all close to home, so you can take your kids trick or treat it on Thanksgiving. We practice early in the morning, I sit changed the schedule. Thanks here week. So everybody can go home. And at a Thanksgiving dinner at home with their family, you know, we've had to do it. We did a couple years where, you know, we have Christmas at a hotel at bowl game. So everyone has Christmas at a hotel. And you know, one of the things that says, okay, until two a football starts at two o'clock on Christmas day. But before then we have, we make sure we have trees and we have coaches, you know, we have a shank coach dress up, Santa Claus, you know, Nick Savage cost and you know, but, and we hand out presents to players and the kids' families.

4 (49m 40s):
And we just try as much as we can do, make sure that you do find a great balance in life to be a husband and a father, as well as running your program and your organization. But it does take an understanding of family that keeps family buying in and believing. And instead of complaining about certain things, it's enjoying it. Like my son, I mean, he comes to all the road games. He does Friday night bed check with me, you know, that's our great quality time together. I mean, it's something that he embraces them. He loves them, but I've been able to incorporate corporate them into our program and other coaches and they have their families or kids.

4 (50m 23s):
Now, coaches, kids are her sideline and they've been able to incorporate family into the program. I think that is how you find your path.

3 (50m 30s):
A lot of audibles, there have to be a lot of audibles with the young kids in the in house. I mean, you blow the whistle at practice. I'm guessing it's Megan that blows it in the house who wears the, who wears the pants? Is it your daughter? Or is it,

4 (50m 44s):
She gets a lot more done than me. I mean, you would be shocked. You would be shocked to think that I could get a hundred football players to do what we get them to do it. You know, I mean, you see him at home sometimes that the, you know, she runs it every once in a while. I'll come in and try to lay down the hammer.

0 (51m 3s):
<inaudible>

1 (51m 7s):
In addition to hosting this podcast, Craig leads the Cannes advisory group focused on elevating communication for companies and individuals, company consulting and powering team and individual workshops, mind altering webinars. And Craig's inspiring keynotes for your conference or company meeting. They're all on the menu of services. Can advisory helps companies clarify their message, helps professionals build and showcase their brand and helps everyone present their best selves. So if you're the leader of a team or company looking to give your employees a game changing one day experience or an individual who wants to become a speaker and presenter that gets other people talking visit tan advisory.com.

1 (51m 57s):
And when you do connect, make sure to mention the tracks to success podcast, to receive a special discount on any of the can advisory services. That's can advisory.com. Now back to the interview,

3 (52m 13s):
Couple of things, before we put a wrap on this, I want to talk about charity. We're talking with Dan Mullen, the head coach of the Florida Gators. You have a foundation. Now, some might say, you know what, that's something that coaches just kind of do. It's an obligation, you know, big name coaches and, and so forth. And it looks good. But for you, for you, there seems to be an emotional bond to it. There there's a, there's a tie in and a give back. Is that a fair assessment?

4 (52m 41s):
It is. It's something, you know, when we started it. And you know, like you said, I mean, I don't disagree. A lot of coaches, you start a foundation and you just say, we have it to happen, but ours is, we always want to make sure what are we doing to give back, what are we doing, help people and, and be productive in the month 36 foundation. We started in Mississippi. We did a lot. We, we helped a lot of different, you know, I don't think we had the focus on the exact direction of every part of our foundation. At the time we knew we wanted to do things to help. And it was the best way was to start a foundation. So we, we took 36 different children's charities around the state of Mississippi, did a lot, you know, helping build a boys and girls call center help build afterschool centers in towns that United lost some accreditation helping children's hospitals, you know, and, and kids that are going through people that are going through tough times in life and giving them opportunities to go help themselves.

4 (53m 34s):
You know, and now coming to Florida, we've, we've really kind of focused in, on, on something that has been we've we've gotten a little bit more passionate about, which is early childhood reading. And, you know, I, I think when you look at, and when you look at some young children that have reading disabilities, you know, one of four children have a reading disability out there and the schools aren't prepared to handle it. And you know, a lot of parents don't even recognize and, and, you know, because they, you know, there there's some, I think people recognize the dramatic ones, but not the smaller ones that, you know, very easily could be fixed with a little help and assistance.

4 (54m 16s):
And so that's something that we've really focused our foundation on is finding ways of getting, trying to get straining done and seeing, you know, screening done for all first and second graders and to see where their level of reading Adam, what little assistance things they can have to help them, because I'll tell you what, you know, I mean, if you think about it, of how scary it must be to be a first or second grader, and you're that 25%, it doesn't read on the level of everybody else in the class. You know, whether it is a mild form of dyslexia and you see the words differently, or you group the words differently, or you don't see what everybody else is seeing. And you know, nothing scary than, Hey, have the teacher read the book to you and you are just in such a mental grind of trying to memorize every word so that you can read it back to them.

4 (55m 5s):
Not because you read it because you've memorized it because you don't want to be embarrassed when you know all it is. There's a, if it's identified early enough, there's little steps that you can take that will help those students become regular readers. You get caught up with everybody very quickly before it gets too long. So that's something that we've really kind of focused our foundation on

3 (55m 26s):
Three quick hit things before we're done. And then a last question a minute on each of these leadership leadership, how do you define it for everybody out there?

4 (55m 39s):
A simple definition, a leader, sexist standard that makes sure everybody lives up to that standard. That is that's the definition of a leader is we're. If, if, if, if, if whatever bar, if you're the leader, wherever you set the bar, don't expect anybody to go over and always expect everybody underneath it. And your responsibility is try to bring everybody up to the bar that you set. So wherever you want to set the bar as a leader, you set it and then make sure you live up to it. And then your try your responsibility to try to pull everybody up to that level as well.

3 (56m 9s):
You mentioned Tim Tebow, here we go. Why is he not coaching? I know he's an athlete still plan, you know, baseball and doing whatever, but leading people, you want to talk about great leaders. He's still plan he's on TV. Why is he not coaching? Or is he going to just run for political office someday?

4 (56m 25s):
Well, I, you know, I think, I think with someone like Tim and you know, who knows what his future, and I don't want to speak for him, but, you know, in knowing him, knowing him really well, coaching is a way of life. And it's something that you dedicate your life to. It's not a, you know, a nine to five job and you have other hobbies a lot. It's it's 24 seven, three 65. And if you look at Tim and what his calling is and what he does, and his, you know, the Tim Tebow foundation night to shine, if you haven't seen it, you know what he does for special needs children around the world. One of the most spectacular things, if you want to get involved, we've been involved in it for several years now. But if you want to, if anybody out there wants to look up at night to shine, it it'll blow your mind.

4 (57m 8s):
But all the work that Tim does to help people around the world, that's not conducive to a coaching lifestyle. So that's probably why I don't know the coaches in the future. And that's not really his call

3 (57m 19s):
Trick question, which one do you like better game days or media days

4 (57m 26s):
As day. That's about as easy a question as you're going to get right there. A game day is, you know, game day, my Canon actually asked me that today. Like, all right, what's your favorite day of the week? I said, Saturday. And then, you know, my daughter left every Saturday or just the ones who would win. And I said, well, every Saturday I love game day. And every once in a while up Saturday. So they get to go watch you guys play, you know, on the off season every once in a while and spend time with my family. So, but not game days are special media days, or, you know, immediate days are a wake up call. They are immediate days in the middle of the summer. And it's your reminder that a summer vacation is just about over time. We get back to work and the grind and how, how important sec football is to people in the South.

3 (58m 8s):
I say that, cause you're not bad at it. Could you see yourself on TV? I mean, Mack Brown, Rick new highs, old, urban Meyers on TV marked. Rick does now on TV. We ever going to someday see Dan Mullen sitting up there, you know, spouting off about this, that and the other.

4 (58m 22s):
I think there's a possibility about that, right? It's easier to pretend we're about what they're doing wrong and have everybody else judge you. But you know, I don't know. Every time I, every time I am on TV and do any sort of media thing I do, I have, I have a really tough coach. I get home to that's, wasn't the media Coaches me up about where my eyes are, where my face looks, what my hands are doing, every aspect of what I did in the media. So I, I, if I do I'm I know I'm going to have a great coach right here.

3 (58m 52s):
Daniel won two new year's six bowl games, right? I mean, you've had amazing success. 69 games you won at Mississippi state, by the way, I'm giving you the numbers. 21. So far in two years at Florida, 10 and three 11, and two, what will define success for you from this point forward? This podcast is called tracks to success. What defines that for you?

4 (59m 18s):
I think, you know, I mean, there, there's two different that you're going to look at it. I think as a coach, a lot of times your success is going to be defined on championships. That's, that's a very simple definition of, of defining success by wins and losses. I, I don't think that's a really healthy way to go through your life. I think that the way that you gotta look at your life is did we reach our potential and on the, on the path to success, you know, is, did we reach our potential? It did each this team that we coached each individual year, did we, were we as successful as we could be with that too?

4 (1h 0m 1s):
And did we become the best that we can be? You know, I think I talked earlier about, you know, the ability to go sleep at night, making, knowing that you made a positive impact on young people's lives. That is such a huge definition of success. And here's why I share this with you of what's, you know, when you think about success and your life. Yeah. You know, as it were, as far as it takes you personally. Okay. When you were in second grade who won the world series, the one that you know, who won the national championship, I remember who won the Heisman trophy that year.

4 (1h 0m 42s):
You know, I bet you know who your second grade teacher was. So as far as it pertains to you, who was your second grade teacher, mrs. Barrington. So mrs. Farrington made such an impact on your life that you'd know that you couldn't tell it, or you had no idea of who won any sort of sports championship. And so I'm going to get, if you can get caught up in defining success the wrong way, because the mrs. Barrick had had a much bigger impact on her, your life. So the success, your success in life, ms. Farrington had a major impact more than any sports team or any record or any winning and losing my went on for that year. And, you know, so I think that is how you define it.

4 (1h 1m 23s):
How will, you know, when you look up on Wikipedia and in the history books and on charts, how are you defined? You're going to define final wins, losses and championships as a coach. How do you want to define yourself as a person and to find yourself on the impacts that you make and other people's lives and the lasting memories they have of you? I, I think that's how the best way to define success is, and you got it, make sure for anybody that's out there, make sure you just separate the two, you know, what is, trust me, I love winning. I want to win every champion. I want to win. I want to win the national championship this year when I went to every single game with like, don't think that for one second, that I don't want to do that and have the best football program in the United States of America, but I'm not going to risk my character, who I am or what I truly believe in on the inside to make that happen, because that is not the true deafness

3 (1h 2m 20s):
Of definition of success. For me as pers couldn't have said it better. Nobody on this podcast could say it better. Dan, it's been a pleasure honored to have you as the first coach on this. You've made a great impact in a lot of ways for a lot of people, and you're doing it in the state of Florida and the university of Florida. Thanks so much, really appreciate you being on track to success. Yeah, thanks for having me on Craig, go Gators.

2 (1h 2m 49s):
In our conversation, Dan shared some of the messages he preaches to his team, relentless effort and the difference between wishing for something and truly wanting it. Dan has climbed the college football mountain, like many coaches doing it his way, which leads me to my one last thing. If you want to be an influencer, don't allow yourself to get swallowed up in doing things the way others tell you it has to be done, or the way it's always been done before to reach your best personal summit, you have to be you and put your stamp on your own way of doing things and your own legacy. When it's all over small school, kids can become big time leaders and making the most of supporting cast roles can lead you to great opportunity to test yourself at a higher level of leadership.

2 (1h 3m 41s):
The point is that everyone comes from somewhere and success doesn't care where that actually is. It cares about what you've done with the gifts you bring to each and every opportunity. Dan's right. When he talks about wishers and waters, maybe you've heard the same, a goal without a plan is just a wish. It's true. So do yourself a favor and work on your game plan ASAP. I hope these thoughts and this interview with Dan helps put you on the track to success. And by the way, this is the finale of season one, and I hope you've enjoyed it.

2 (1h 4m 20s):
Please share your comments. If you have a guest, you think belongs on tracks to success, share it on our Twitter site at tracks to success. And do me a favor. Spread the news about this podcast until next time and the debut of season two. I'm Craig. Ken. Thanks for listening.

1 (1h 4m 42s):
You've been listening to tracks to success, brought to you by presentation partners, visual storytellers, passionate about connecting presenters with their audience. Don't forget to subscribe to the show for more great interviews and thoughts on reaching your highest personal and professional summit. You can follow Craig on Twitter and Instagram using the handle at Craig can and for exclusive tracks to success, content and news about our upcoming guests, you can find tracks to success on Twitter. It's at tracks to success. <inaudible>.