BONUS Episode: Former Texas Longhorn National Champion Talks Mindset, Texas Football, and the NFL w/ Michael Griffin

Barton and Michael dive into how a championship mindset survives real life: raising kids, navigating marriage, earning roles others overlook, and building a business that fits the neighborhood, not the myth. Michael Griffin shares how pressure shaped him from Bowie to Texas to the NFL.

• fatherhood lessons from a pro athlete mind
• why tone beats content in family talks
• early Austin discipline and first jobs
• high school setback, recovery, and hunger
• finding the role with no backup at UT
• practice design that makes pressure fun
• hurt vs injured and NFL availability
• daily ownership, humility, asking for help
• business learning at Gigi’s Cupcakes
• culture fit over one-size-fits-all formulas

Mitch and Bart will return with new Episodes in January 2026

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage With Michael Griffin
• 1:46 Fatherhood Versus Athlete Mindset
• 6:00 Communication, Therapy, And Marriage
• 10:58 Social Media Illusions And Comparison
• 11:10 Growing Up In Austin And Early Discipline
• 17:20 Work Ethic, Asking For Help, Learning Fast
• 23:59 High School Adversity And Breakthrough
• 33:34 Earning A Role At Texas
• 41:40 National Title Mindset And Big Plays
• 45:02 NFL Durability And No-Excuse Culture
• 54:14 Life Philosophy And Daily Ownership

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You are listening to the Mindset Forge podcast, where athletes and performing artists discuss their biggest moments and mindset shifts that made them so successful. High-level athletes and performing artists understand how to show up to the big moments, how to be present and on point when everything counts. That's what I want to find out about, and that's what I want to help understand so that we can take some of those amazing nuggets and implement them in our own lives. I'm your host, Barton Bryan, and I'm an athlete. I'm a fitness coach, I'm a former actor and singer, and I love helping people discover their fullest potential. In this episode, I sit down with retired NFL safety Michael Griffin. We talk fatherhood, we talked cupcakes, pickleball, and all of his experiences growing up playing football, his drive to be the best high school football player he could be in the Austin, Texas area, going to the University of Texas and earning his spot as a freshman on the team and eventually getting to the Tennessee Titans and establishing a career for himself for 10 years as a professional athlete. Maybe you have a son or daughter who's an aspiring athlete, but let's be honest, kids don't listen to their parents the way they would listen to a professional athlete like Mike. So let Michael Griffin tell the story. Let Michael Griffin explain why they need to get up early and do the work in the gym and be determined to be the best on their team. Before we kick off this episode, I wanted to highlight an Apple Podcast review I got recently. Quote, Barton gets right down to business asking important questions for the listener to get powerful nuggets of wisdom right from the start. You will get more from his podcast than 20 others combined. That was Nadine's mom, which is her handle. And I appreciate you saying that. Let's get going with this podcast, y'all. Buckle up. Here we go with the great Michael Griffin. Alright, Griff, thanks for being here. Wanted to ask you first and foremost, just the most important role is being a dad. You've got three amazing kids. Talk about all the things you understand about life and sports and all that. What are the things that you're trying to instill in your kids right now to help shape their minds? You know what?

SPEAKER_02: 2:03

Being a dad is a life-learned lesson that you got to continue to develop each and every day. I say that to say because my mindset as an athlete, you're kind of like in this cult. You're kind of like in this bubble. You've kind of been uh programmed to not deal with emotions and to always just do, do, do, do, do. You have a job you got to do by all means. You have to accomplish whatever the goal is. But as a father, and I'm learning, this is almost five years removed, still learning, especially with the kids playing sports and things in that nature that sometimes the kids just won't. Dad. They go to school and the dad comes, picks their daughter up, or picks their son up. Dad picks him up and tosses him around and gives him a kiss on the cheek or whatever it may be. But for me, I'm still trying to understand that. Example, last night I'm watching my daughter play soccer and it's a scrimmage. And all I can focus on is like a coach and a mindset is that you're not giving 110% at all times. So from a good place, I'm like, hey, let's go get a couple of extra sprints in after practice. But my daughter doesn't like that because her coaching say it. My dad is saying it. So for her, it's like a punishment. Not realizing it's coming from a good place. So it literally goes into a whole disarray and chaos in the house. And I'm just feel like at this moment, it's like everything's raining down on me. And it's like, okay, you go to back to pro athlete mode. How do you get out of this? How do we get out of this? You know, your back is against the goal line and it's fourth and one, and you gotta stop somebody like Derek Henry. What am I gonna do if I'm mono and mono? So now at this moment, I'm like, what do I do? So now it's like, you know what, walk away, take a breath, go outside, or whatever. But the wife still wants to have the conversation. Like, let's talk about our daughter, let's have this conversation right now. And I'm trying to find that I know where I am mentally that I'm gonna say something that I probably don't mean, but it's me being the aggressor, me being the athlete, me being Mr. Macho, that I can't show no signs of weakness when it comes to be the man of the house. So it became one of those things where I had to sit back. And then next thing you know, I'm sending text messages to everybody in my family apologizing and saying that I gotta sometimes take a back seat and allow somebody else to do whatever it may do to help the kids out. And I just need to be dad and just be supportive. And so it's a lesson each and every day because when I had my first two, I was still playing football. Did I see their first steps? No. Did I hear the first words for the first time? No. But I was still dad, but I was still a professional athlete that I realized that, you know, playing an NFL was not for long. So it was like your mindset is I'm so focused here because I gotta make sure that I'm always on my A game here. And this right here, I can always come back to this. But now it's trying to learn this is not as easy as it was learning the game of football because you're blessed with a lot of talent. But being a father, being a parent, no kids are the same. And everybody responds differently. And even having three kids, they're all different, they all need different things from dad.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

I listened to an interview of you talking about just after football, reading and really keeping your mind active. I think there's nothing better to keep your mind active than trying to learn to be a dad. True. Right. Very true. You make so many mistakes. I make so many mistakes every single day. And uh, you know, with football or any sport, you talked about it earlier. It's almost like a set of rules that everybody's following, and it's all about the goal. True. And within that context, somebody, your coach, can come talk to you in a very specific, maybe edged way and not be worried about hurting your feelings or pissing you off because the goal is the same.

SPEAKER_02: 6:11

The goal is the same. You listen to the message, and each and every day, even talking to a therapist, and he was like, It's not what you're saying. What you're saying is 100% right, but it's the way that you're saying it. And I'm like, Well, if you heard the message, what's the problem? And it's just it's the way you say it. Why are you so focused on the way I said it? Like, is it because I'm just too direct? Well, maybe if you say it this way. So now you're just constantly trying to figure out, okay, what is the best way to say it that I don't ruffle your feathers any type of way? I don't know how to show the emotion side of it. If this is the problem, let's talk about the problem. Let's not go on the emotions and you know, I I, you know, you're not sure, you're not showing the comfort and everything else. I'm trying to address the problem.

SPEAKER_00: 7:01

You're dealing with the universal challenge of being married, being with a you know, I I get it, but it's I mean, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 7:08

It's just the mindset is just you're so used to just if this is the issue. Hey, they like to run cover four beaters, cool. We need to go to cover three. That's the solution. It ain't nothing else. We just go to the solution. It's not a how do you do it? Well, let's do it this way, because I'm just not used to that. And I'm still working and trying to manage to hold back the I guess just the way my delivery is and and and hold back, like listen, think about it before you say it, because your message may not ever get heard because the way you said or whatever, the focus is on so much other things outside of what the issue really is. And so I'm I'm still learning this process.

SPEAKER_00: 7:54

Some things translate your work ethic, but I think what you're saying here, what I'm hearing you say, is that like a lot of that stuff that you understood as being easy in sports is very different outside of that kind of football field and the communication. And so you have to you're having to learn a lot of this stuff, you know, differently.

SPEAKER_02: 8:13

Naturally as a team, no matter what sport it is, or even if you're individual. And I think I kind of think that being an individual, when you play sports, whether it's you know, golf or whether you do individual events and swim or whatever it may be, you're not used to working very well with other people because you are the athlete by yourself. And whether you win or lose, you can only look at yourself. But as a team, collectively, we just have a goal. And whatever that goal is, is to win. And so it doesn't matter. And to go back to what you're saying is learning how to deal, the question is, even in a marriage or whatever, the question is, what is the goal? And a lot of times, you know, everybody look at the goal is, you know, to live happily ever after. But is that really something real, you know? And how do you make each other happy? Because I feel like I had to learn that, you know, there's and I had to explain some, I had to literally say this. We went to counseling, and the question was, you know, and I told the counselor, like, I'm really okay, like there's things that I have issues with, but I don't, I I value, like, is it really that important and does it really bother me? It's hard because I'm so used to like being on a team where we all got a goal and like it's just get the job done by all means, by all costs, whatever it is, let's get the job done. But when you got people who I guess are not used to being in that atmosphere and and feel like, I mean, what is the goal in the marriage? To raise your kids, and then after the kids is gone, what's what is the goal? Because sometimes, you know, I see when you especially with reality TV shows, I think that shapes different things in different manners, and people see those things and think that's the ideal of a great relationship.

SPEAKER_00: 9:49

Even Instagram, like social media, we're we're constantly comparing ourselves, whether it's how fit are they, how wealthy are they, how cool is their life, what vacation are they on?

SPEAKER_02: 9:58

Man, a hundred percent. But you really don't know because I know a lot of people on social media looks great, but in reality, live at home with mom and dad has a child, father's nowhere to be found, constantly taking trips, but guy, I know people that are like this, but if you look at them on social media, you think they have everything going for them. And despite even if you have like former teammates that things look great, but you go in the locker room and we knew it was a guy code. You ain't gonna go back and tell what you just heard, but your significant other is like, oh my god, he just bought her this and he just bought her this. Only if you knew what else they was going, or why he bought her that, you would know why. But we ain't gonna talk about that. But you had the guy code. So I tell people all the time, and that's my biggest thing, is you can't look at what the next person wants or what the next person has because at the end of the day, you never know what that person's really going through, if that person's really even happy, or if that relationship is really what it is behind closed doors, really appear what it looks like in broad daylights. I want to go back to your childhood.

SPEAKER_00: 11:12

You grew up in Austin, right? Austin, yep. I mean, you're in Austin.

SPEAKER_02: 11:15

Not too far from here, to be honest with you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:17

Like you moved back here after retiring. What is it about Austin that really drew you back and made you want to raise your kids here?

SPEAKER_02: 11:23

You know, it was home. And I remember uh because both my parents was in it was in the military, and all the way till the fifth grade, uh, both my parents got stationed in San Antonio. And at that time, they just felt like San Antonio wasn't a place that they wanted to raise. Me and my twin brother, and because they felt like there was just too many outside influences. And so they wanted to keep us here in Austin because it was a great city. Uh, it was growing, but we always had our little theme of keep Austin weird. So it was kind of weird. There was some things that we used to still some weird things here that you don't see anywhere else. It was a city where um, you know, my mom, she was really okay with us being here and her traveling to and from San Antonio each and every day, her and my father. They leave the house about 5 a.m. in the morning and uh probably wouldn't get back till about 6:30, 7 o'clock each night. But uh, I mean, it was me and my twin brother, and they just instilled so many values in us. And I just the city was just a great city, and it was growing, and even now, just looking back, how much has grown since I mean, once I got drafted, I still bought a home here that I actually still live in right now. And uh just the the schools and everything else, very good education. You see a lot of people that, especially from me being in high school, people I graduated with, very, very successful, young men and women. So unfortunately they're all moving on the outskirts of Austin and other people moving in, but I still run into them all the time. This is a great family atmosphere that I love about the city of Austin.

SPEAKER_00: 12:51

So, fifth or sixth grade, about the age that your daughter is now. About your twin brother, and you were basically had a handling your business while your parents were gone most of the day, which I think they had immense trust in your values as a leader and who you were and who you were.

SPEAKER_02: 13:07

Oh, they told us they said we messed up one time and move into San Antonio. Like you mess up one time. Oh, really? One time. I got one strike, and we never, ever, ever, ever got that strike. I mean, so you knew.

SPEAKER_00: 13:21

We knew like you could blow this.

SPEAKER_02: 13:23

I mean, if you go back, like it's a lot of crazy. Even when I talk to my kids and I talk to people, like I had my first job when I was probably in the fourth or fifth grade, and I used to referee soccer games. So like that's why I have a uh my daughter play soccer, but as she was growing up, and you see those young kids that are in the middle of the field calling games, and those parents are like yelling at them. I remember like that was me. That was me. I remember parents just yelling at me because I might have made a bad call or something they didn't think was right or whatever. So that was me at nine, 10 years old. I remember having to go into a classroom and learn all the rules of soccer because I played soccer at the same time, but learn all the rules, had my little yellow little polo shirt with my shorts, with my little Adita socks, with my little Adita flat shoes, and I'm running up and down chasing these little kids that were younger than me. And then I graduated to doing the big fields and doing the line judge, and remember all the little soccer tournaments. I would go out there and ref all day and make my little money. I literally worked since I was nine years old, and even through college, I was still working. I worked the finish line at Barton Creek Mall. So by the time I graduated college, I mean, I had like$40,000 in my bank account when I got drafted. And people, when I remember going to the Tennessee Titans, they made us rookies take them out to eat. And they was like, Yeah, call your agent because we're gonna make y'all. I'm like, I don't gotta call them agent. I got money in my account. What you mean you got money in your account? You're a rookie, like you ain't signed your contract yet. And I'm like, what you mean? Like, I got money. And they were like, prove it. So I showed them, like, I had my$40,000 in my account. They're like, What were you doing? I was like, I work. Y'all didn't work. And they're like, no. But like that was the values and the culture that my mom and my dad harped on me and my brother about. And so fifth grade, yeah. I mean, we worked, bus stops right across the street in Oak Hill, and get on that bus, go to school, come back home. They had to clean up. So it was me and my brother. We washed mom's dad's our clothes. We washed all our clothes. We cleaned the entire house, mop, vacuum, dust all the wood furniture with pledge. I remember that smell of that lemon smell, the Windex, all the glass furniture and mirrors and everything, mowed the lawn. Like we knew that we had to take care of all of these things prior to us doing whatever we were going to do. Whether it was on the weekends, you know, you got soccer, you know, you got football, baseball, basketball, whatever. First thing you do is jump up, clean the backyard with the dog, and then you got to go mow the whole yard. That we knew we had to get that done. Yeah. So at 6:30, 7 o'clock, if you were our neighbor, you're probably very upset because we were waking you up on the weekend because we wanted to go out and hang out with our friends. But we just knew, like, don't let the street light beat you on. Don't get too far from the house that if my dad whistles and you can't hear it, you're in trouble. So it was look at that street light. And as soon as you seen that little buzz, that little buzz sound on that street light, you knew you better go run home. And those were the rules and things that we were, we were raised upon. You know, I don't, I really, really do appreciate them for that because it didn't store a lot of core values when it comes to me growing up, maturing, going through middle school. A's and B's, made sure we always have to make honest society. It wasn't any questions, it's funny, because we had this whole conversation last night, and my daughter was like, You don't never congratulate me for making all A's. And I was like, That's what you're supposed to do. I don't, I don't, I don't, what do you what do you mean do? Like, you act like what you did I've never done before. I'm not asking you to do something that I've never done before. Right. I think that would be very hypocritical if I asked you. But everything that I asked or I expect of you is what I did already. And so I think that's what we definitely have a missed, a disconnect right there.

SPEAKER_00: 17:11

And that may be the new generation of positive reinforcement, lots of validation. I'm amazed by your story of growing up like that. I mean, I did not have that kind of discipline that early on. I mean, I had a paper route and a few jobs and this and that, but but you know, for you and your and your twin brother to be so you know focused on coming home, doing the chores, pledge, windex, and the whole bit, like daily, weekly to keep your situation the way it's each and every day.

SPEAKER_02: 17:38

We knew Monday you do this, Tuesday you do this, Wednesday, and we knew each and every day because we had to do it prior to soccer practice or football practice, wherever it was. So we had to make sure that we had all these things done before we went to practice and have your and have your schoolwork done because we knew after practice you're gonna get home late, but you gotta go to bed. And so we just got to still so many things, but I was also at the same time, it was like we were blessed because all the shoes you can think of, whether it was Jordan's, whether it was the gold chains, my mom made sure we had all these things. But it was like our way of repaying her was to make sure that she never had to worry about anything. When she got home, she had nothing to worry about. Like she could just trust that her nine and 10-year-old kids will do exactly what they're supposed to do. And that was the one thing that, but we knew New Jordas was coming out, she's gonna go get them for us. Clothes, whatever it is, at the time it was Jabo's and you know, lacos came back out, but we had those things growing up polo, we had all those things growing up. So it wasn't like we had to do any of these things because we didn't have, we had it, but it was just something that my mom made us realize. She didn't make allow us to be like spoil kids. Yeah, we had to work for it. And then as we got to middle school, the money that you made referee in soccer games, that was your lunch money. Yeah. So, but we also knew, hey, listen, save money. She taught us, she opened up us a bank account, and we she taught us how to save money. So she just taught us so many different things of like financial literacy and things in those natures at such a young age that it just helped us propel us to where we're at today.

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

Yeah. You know, just thinking about your parents and from an outside perspective, I feel like they figured out how to create a team with you guys. Because I think what what I see a lot with parents is kids are the most important thing. The parents are driving around town all day, like getting them to all their events, but the kids have no responsibility at home but to go to school and play sports and make the parents proud. And so the power in the relationship is off.

SPEAKER_02: 19:49

Yes. And I think you you hit the nail on the coffin because when you do all that, your life, it's like you're living your life through your kids. And that's why I think where me and my daughter and me, like my son is crazy because it feels like he just got it and like he just hit him. He says he wants to play football. And I just say, you know what? You want to play football? That's cool. Figure it out. What do you mean? Figure it out. What do you mean? You figure it out. Because my dad didn't play football. My mom didn't play football. But I loved the game so much that I was willing to do whatever it took to be successful. So while everybody sleep or whatever, I get out, go run, go do drills, whatever it may be. We had a little hill on the side of the house, I ran those hills. But I did everything I had to do to get better. I had the confidence level that and the mindset, and it may sound kind of crazy, so please respect me when I say this. It was like, by all means, like it was a kill mentality. Finish them. If you were my friend, we'd be friends later, but I was going to embarrass you. And if you beat me, you was gonna have to play me over and over and over until I got a win. Literally. It's funny because yesterday I was at Lifetime yesterday, and me and my good friend Kobla, he showed me last week the game pickleball. I ain't never played pickleball before. And he beat me. But I was like, okay. So I text him, meet me at the gym. What you mean? Meet me at the gym. So we played yesterday, finally won one game. So he beat me four, I won one. He told another young gentleman, I'm gonna tell you right now, what's weird is Griff is getting better. Last night, he probably don't even know this. I'm literally on social media watching pickleball. Because I'm gonna pick it up. Like, I'm gonna find the way to beat you. Like, that's my mindset. Like, I don't know if it's an ego, I don't know that competitive nature in me, but that's me. Like, we can be friends, but when we get out there, you're gonna see, like, I stayed out there for an hour and a half, like, I'm gonna beat you. And then I beat you once. So now you gave me more confidence that I know once in a little bit I'm gonna pick this up.

SPEAKER_00: 21:52

And I think what often people don't understand is you when you take it down a new sport like pickleball, you're taking 36 years of learning how to master something and then putting that into the new activity. So you not only, you know, you obviously have skills and athleticism and stuff like that, but you also have an understanding of how to approach what to focus on. A lot of people spend a lot of time in the gym or playing a sport, shooting hoops out front, whatever. They never get that much better. They're not focused on the things that actually move them.

SPEAKER_02: 22:24

And it comes to humbling yourself. And what I mean by that is it's okay to ask questions. It's really okay to ask questions. If you don't know, ask. What's the worst thing can come from a question? Because the word no, that's the worst thing. No. Can I borrow your car? No. Well, what happens if that person says yes? Hey, can you help me out? No. Whatever that person says, all right, what do you need help on? Meet me here and let's work on this. You trying to max out in the gym. What's the worst thing can happen? Can you spot me real quick? If you don't ask, you're not gonna go for that max. So the worst thing that can happen is someone say, No, is that gonna kill you? Just go ask somebody else.

SPEAKER_00: 23:04

Yeah. I'm a trainer myself, but I will talk to every trainer in the gym and ask them for a thought and advice. Everyone's got an opportunity or an idea that you may have never thought about.

SPEAKER_02: 23:14

Exactly. It's the same thing I said about being a father. You can also always learn from somebody else. Somebody else's mistakes or something they may have learned, or whatever, you can always learn.

SPEAKER_00: 23:23

I always feel like there's this duality with athletes that are already kind of have a high level in their mindset and how they perform. What I'm hearing from you is like from an early age, you were outworking people, you were super competitive, so you were just you're gonna win at all costs. And you bring that into the high school football at Buoy High School. Talk about that, just maybe a story about that time. And I think obviously a team and a coach can be beneficial to your mindset, but I think on the other side, your presence and your intensity probably shaped the team as much as the team shaped you. Talk about Bowie and that time.

SPEAKER_02: 23:58

Oh man. Buoy was rough. Buoy was rough because I went to O'Henry Middle School before small middle school and all the other middle schools that fed into Bowie. So I lived in Oakill, small wasn't there. So we used to bust from Oakill Elementary all the way to O'Henry. So I went to O'Henry Middle School. The coaches already knew about a lot of the kids who played the pop warner and everything that was feeding into O'Henry. So I really didn't play in middle school in football. It was like I was playing nose tackle in all these random positions. You mean you like you weren't really given a chance because they wasn't given the chance? They already had their guys. It was Will Fowler, Nathan Cruz, uh, Nick Davison. I can name all these guys that were like their primary guys. Right. Like these were their guys.

SPEAKER_00: 24:41

They had already written up their guys.

SPEAKER_02: 24:44

Literally, these guys was already their guys. So we go to Henry Middle School, and then I remember we did a game one day. It was like, who's all going to boo? Who's all going to Austin High? We did a scrimmage and we beat them. And I told them, I finally got my opportunity to play running back. And I said, listen, I'm gonna tell y'all right now. We're in eighth grade right now. So by the time we're juniors and seniors, y'all are gonna see me in high school. And I promise you, I'm going to embarrass y'all. And they were like, You didn't even play here. I'm like, that's cool. Mark my words. I'm going to embarrass y'all. Fast forward to get the buoy. Take a bit off more than I could shoot. So Bailey and Covington fed in the buoy. So Justin Grady, starting running back. He ended up, he's starting quarterback. And so I'm literally like, not even playing. I'm playing like tight end. I'm most undersized tight end. But I remember the play that we ran all the time. Caught the ball every time. But literally, it was terrible. Sophomore year comes. I get to finally I get a little bit of a shot, but they already have Anthony Marshall. And he was a running back. He was a sophomore that was on varsity already. I was a freshman, he was a sophomore in varsity. Another guy Ty Brain, who's now the offensive coordinator, still, he was the quarterback, starting quarterback as a sophomore. Hunter Fair is the starting wide receiver. They already had these young guys that all went to Bayley that were like on varsity, sophomore. The sophomore year, I get there, and it's like, okay, you're going to be on JV. I'm like, no, why don't get an opportunity to play on varsity? Like, I know I'm better than every one of those guys. They're like, no. So I get a little bit of playing time and scrimmages and do great. But they're like, hey, we already got our guys, and so you're going to have to be on JV. So first game of the season, rest in peace. Still wear it right here. Bernard, Jesse Davis. He's like, hey, we've known each other since the second grade. He says, hey, I'm going to run the guy off. It's fourth and like 12. And we like need to get a first down. Coach is like, Griff, you've been running the ball great all day. We're going to give you the ball on this play. We need you to get a first down. Bernard's supposed to block the guy. I'm going to run him off. Think in the back of my mind, Bernard, rest peace. Love you to death. But we ain't threw the ball to you ever. So I don't know why you thought that we were going to really this, the corner's just going to run with you. Bernard runs off. The guy's there, make a miss. I'm running. He comes back, horse collars me, break my ankle. At this moment, I'm like, I'm done. Like, I knew the game of football, any given play, can be taken away from you. And so break my ankle. I remember waking up in the hospital the next day after the surgery or whatever. And they're like, hey, you broke the growth plate. You broke this. You gotta be very careful because if it doesn't heal right, you know, we may have to let everything heal. But as you get your full height, we're gonna have to break your ankle again, put a metal rod in there to even your height out, and you know, your career just be over. So I'm a sophomore, 15 years old, thinking my career is over with. Devastated. And so uh everything heals pretty good. I end up coming out, it was crazy. I used to hop around on one leg. I wasn't one of those people like, oh, can you do this? I used to just hop on one leg in my house all day. My mom was like, What are you doing? Sit your tail down somewhere. I'm like, I'm hungry. So I hop on one leg to the kitchen, get what I need to do. Like I was just hopping everywhere. I get the cast off, and like two weeks later, I like start dunking off one leg. It was weird. So I'm dunking off one leg because I jumped on one leg for so long. Then I started playing basketball. They're like, dude, how are you playing? I started running track, I make varsity on track. And I remember going to Victoria, Texas, and it's my sophomore year, and we're on the bus. Crazy story, true story. Anthony Marshall and uh Hunter Ferris were on the bus coming back. And I tell them, listen, I'm gonna tell y'all right now. Y'all suck on varsity. Y'all went like two and eight this year. Next year, when I'm on varsity, Anthony, I know you're supposed to be the starting running back, but you're gonna be my fullback. Make sure you put on some weight and you start getting ready to block. And I said, Hunter, don't even worry about it. Ty ain't gotta throw you the ball ever again. Just hand me the ball, and everything's gonna be great. They're like, BS, da da da. We argued all the way back home. Next year, finally Meg varsity. We beat Round Rock. I scored three touchdowns, 112 yards. Then we play McNeil. I had 12 carries, 226 yards, didn't play the fourth quarter, had three touchdowns, and we just started winning. And then like everything just started going like great for me or whatever. And it was just like a blessing. Like it was just, it was just that mindset. Like I knew my back was against the wall, and there was nowhere else for me to go. I just remember just playing like it was like by all means, it was like no friends, no nothing. Like I'm going out there just to just embarrass whoever it was. And then the funny story is I finally get that opportunity to play uh Austin High. That is the game is funny because my dad was actually a teacher at Austin High at the time. And at the time, it was A O L. Anybody knows that long time ago. So you was able to get on this like high school message board and you can like talk crap, like whatever. And again, 16, 15, 16, no, 16, about to be 17. Don't know no better. Obvious who it is. Bowie Bulldog 42, because that's my number. So I said, whatever I said, Austin players Austin, I got upset. They wrote whatever they wrote. So we're going back and forth. So I gotta write a public apology to their whole school. And at the end, I was like, I'm gonna be really sorry for embarrassing y'all this Friday.

SPEAKER_00: 30:34

That was the end of your apology?

SPEAKER_02: 30:36

This was my, yeah, end of my apology.

SPEAKER_00: 30:38

I apologize for what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02: 30:39

I apologize for everything I said, but by the way, I just want you to know I'm gonna really be apologetic for what I do to y'all come Friday. So this game is packed. We go out there and we beat the breaks off Austin High. And really the game was circled because everybody that I went to middle school was on the team. The guys I never got to play over. So played them, we beat them, and then the senior year we played each other again. And I remember they put Will Fowler on me, and I was just like, I caught one ball, and I remember running to the end zone. I looked at him and I just waved at him. And then he was like so upset. I don't think we ever spoke ever since. But I just remember just in in high school, it was like it started out with some adversity, but my biggest thing was when you give me that small window of opportunity. When that door cracks open, I'm gonna bust it down and I'm gonna take everything I had. And then from there, it was like at all costs. It was just my my high school career was this is what I really want to do, and I want to play football. And I never allowed anything. I mean, even one of my best friends, we literally best friends, as in our birthdays was one day apart. Um, January 4th, he was January 5th. But he started getting involved with alcohol and things in that nature. And so I knew what I wanted to do in my path. I knew where I wanted to go. And so I was like, I'm not gonna allow anything to derail me off that path. Even the girlfriend that I had, it was weird. I told her, like, hey, listen, I love you to death, whatever high school puppy love is. But this summer I'm going to go visit schools. I don't have time for you. I was willing to give up things to accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish. And the one thing I always live by model, I always live by is that there's always this, it's lonely on the top. Because normally you're by yourself. Yeah. And it may be selfish, but to get there, you're gonna have to shed some weight. When you look at the podium, it's first place is on top, second, and third. But number one is always on top by itself. And so that mindset is I was never gonna allow anything to derail me off where I was trying to get to. Yeah. So that was my mindset going through high school.

SPEAKER_00: 32:49

We always hear about incredible athletes or people who've achieved a high level, and we only know them as that person. We don't know the story often of breaking your ankle and not making the varsity team and still not getting the position that you thought you would you deserved, and just fighting and fighting and fighting so that when you got your moment, junior year or senior year, to go against Austin High, like there is so much fuel behind you and so much just intensity behind that moment. And then everyone goes, Oh my gosh, look at Michael Griffin, this guy's incredible, right? Everyone takes notice. Definitely. But the adversity that you had to go through to get there is such a part of why you got there. True, very true. So talk about UT. You're talking about Mac Brown years, uh, a lot of fun times.

SPEAKER_02: 33:33

Yeah. But uh, you know what? The thing I tell people this all the time, the thing that you don't realize is, and I tell these kids all the time, you sign that letter of intent, I got that scholarship offer, but it was like I got to Texas, and you go in that room and you look around and you're like, wait a minute, they didn't tell we had all these people here. And so I got there as an athlete, and they were like, all right, you know, running back wise wasn't gonna happen. There was a kid by the name of Eric Hardeman. If they don't know, please look him up. He was the number one running back in the state. And if he would have had the opportunity and not make some mistakes, there probably would have never been Jamal Charles or anybody else that came after that for a long period of time. I mean, if you talk about the closest thing to Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson, he was that guy. You can ask a lot of people about him. Derrick Johnson, you can ask him. They will tell you that guy was, but running back was out the question because we both, he went to Flugerville High School. I remember that was a big game when we played Flugerville, me and him going up against each other, and we came out victorious, but uh but couldn't run the ball. We had to do a lot of passing, so I come out the backfield and do things. But um, he was a very, very good player. Uh Lyman Sweet, who came in, drafted second round, Billy Pittman, who was a top quarterback. We're possibly gonna go to TCU together because they ran the option at the time, and I was gonna be running back, he was gonna be quarterback, but we both decided to go to Texas. It was just so many great players that were there that came in with myself. But um And you're coming in as a as a true freshman. True freshman. But all these guys are freshmen too. So yeah, it was, you know, Tony Hills, Tim Crowder, Aaron Ross, all these guys got drafted. So we all came in together. And uh, my brother also, he was a preferred walk on, earned a scholarship. So we all got there and it was just crazy because it was just crazy talent. When I tell you, it was just like, I mean, guys were so much faster than what I've ever remember ever seen anybody able to run. I mean, Brandon Foster and Ryan Palmer, Dorian McCullough, those might have been the fastest guys I ever seen. Watching Cedric Benson, how he worked every day in practice. It was one of those things that you got there and you just say, you know what? My back is back against the wall because guys like Rufus Harris was there, who was a number one safety coming out, who never had an opportunity because he kept getting beat out. And the one thing that Coach Keenan has always expressed was that I don't care if freshman, sophomore, I don't care. The best four players are going to play. I'm number one, number two best cover guys are gonna be my starting corners. My number three guys are gonna be my strong safety, and number four is gonna be free safety. So my freshman year, learning a new position, playing safety. Dakari Pearson was our starting free safety. Michael Huff was our starting strong safety. Nathan Vasher was one starting corner, and Cedric Griffin was the other starting corner. Philip Giger will come in at nickel, who was the backup safety for both safeties. And so Michael Huff was actually the backup corner for both corners. So we can move Philip Giger back to safety, Huff will go to corner. Whereas I'm doing the calculations, I'm like, hold on. Everybody has a backup but Philip Giger, who was our starting nickel. So as I'm learning the playbook, I'm like, okay, learn my position as a safety, but I'm gonna start learning the nickel position because he didn't have a backup. And he played all special teams like me, but you know, you can get hurt on special teams. So Dakari Pearson gets hurt versus Oklahoma. Gigger has to go in at safety, and Pearson comes back versus Iowa State the next week. So in the middle of the Iowa State game, the car gets hurt again. So Philip Gigger goes back to safety. Well, I remember Coach Akina telling Coach Reese, we don't have a nickel. We got to run baseball game. I said, Coach, I know nickel. And he looks at me, I'm a freshman. Coach, anybody knows Coach Akina the way he talks. He just gotta listen to the message. Not how he says it, message. So he says what he says to me. Reese goes, Are you sure? Coach Akina tells me again, you gotta listen to the message. Pretty much, if you mess this up, I swear it's over with. So I'm like, I know it. So we're playing Seneca Wallace for Iowa State. If anybody don't know him, very mobile quarterback, play for the um Cleetham Browns for a little bit. I go in the game. Marcus Tubbs, former first rounder from Seattle, grabs me. Biggest dude, 300-something pounds, grab him like 175, and tells me, you're not a freshman no more if you mess this up. He pretty much says the same thing Coach Keenan says. He just says it his own way.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

By the way, your back's against the wall. Back is against the wall. This is my opportunity. Like, this is my opportunity. But that's not foreign to you. Because in that you've been there before.

SPEAKER_02: 38:06

You've been there before, but it's a little bit of different platforms because now I am not the man on the team. Yeah. Now I'm a guy trying to be a part of this great team. Nothing's been given. So except the opportunity. He calls a nickel blitz. I line up on the slot receiver, and I remember the outside receiver motions in. And I'm supposed to come underneath the defensive end. And I'm like, this is perfect. They set me up perfect. So I'm standing there and I hear Coach Keen on the right side of my air screaming, you dummy. I'm like, dude, I'm trying to disguise it. You just want me to go show it. And as soon as the guy motions in, I come in, sack fumble, we get the ball. I come running to the thing. Tubbs hits me on my chest, fall down. I'm still running to the sideline. Here comes the coach Aquina. He called me, you stupid, dumb, whole bunch of other stuff, and says, You do know nickel. I'm like, how is that stupid, dumb? Okay, listen to the message. You do know nickel. So from that standpoint on, I then, because the car was hurt and Philip Giger had to finish the season at safety, I was the starting nickel. And then we started becoming that our nickel package was stronger than our base package. So Coach Reese would just call nickel versus bass. And from there, it just propelled myself into just becoming who I was at the University of Texas, getting more and more opportunities. And then my junior year, Philip Giger graduated, and I was I got to start. And so from there, it was like, all right, here's my time. And I remember playing my junior year, the national championship year. It was like I knew Michael Hupp was up for the Thorpe Award. And my mindset was everybody is watching him. But when they're watching him, I want them to say, who is that other guy? And so I played every game with you got to be the best safety on the field. It doesn't matter you're watching him. You got to realize and try to figure out who that other guy was. And so every game, I remember I used to just like throw my body around, just do all the crazy stuff. And then me and Huff became very, very close. He's my kid's godfather. And we got so close that we like, hey, listen, this is moving together. So we're on the same page all the time. And we ended up staying together, his senior year, my junior year, and we just managed to develop a relationship. The way we played, we just worked off one another. Like it was a team effort. It was like, hey, if we know it's a high pass, you go cover, you're in the middle of the field, because I know you can judge. But if it's a high run, you get in the box because I know you're about that action. You about hitting anything moving. And we just work so well together. That trust within it. That trust. And then it's just something that we just did, and it just worked out tremendously. And even now, we always joke with the players now. Like, yo, do y'all like, do y'all live with each other? Like, do y'all, like, how much do y'all really like this game? Like, how much do y'all want to win this game? How much time do y'all spend with each other? And there's to me, it's like weird because so much individualism when it comes to this. Rather than like, hey, we were like, like, how did y'all we live together? Like, we will be watching film and walk into the other room. Hey, how do you see this play? Yeah. When they run this, how do you see this? All right, but listen, I'm gonna tell you right now. If they get in this formation, I'm gonna tell this person this. So you wanna have to do this. All right, cool. And then Coach King asks us, we gonna we talked about it, we on the same page, and that's how we used to play.

SPEAKER_00: 41:30

Talking about the team and your commitment, you and your roommate, and just everything that you guys did that was probably a huge part of that culture that allowed you guys to go all the way. True. Yeah, 2005, you're in the college football championship game. Talk about that moment for just a second. Like you're in the locker room, you're sitting there with your team, and you're kind of getting right. What are you thinking about? What's the magic in that moment thinking back now that you kind of remember that made you guys so successful? Man, I was 21 years old that day and I could drink alcohol. You were that was literally the birthday.

SPEAKER_02: 42:03

That's January 4th was my birthday. It was crazy because it was like initially the mindset was hey, we're here in LA. You know, we're pretty much playing a away game. But when we got out there, it was a home game. And uh we knew they had Reggie Bush, Lyndell White, Matt Leiner, Steve Smith, Dominic Bird, you name them, we knew they had them. But at the end of the day, we knew we had Vince Young, we knew we had Ramon's Taylor, Jamal Charles, myself, Tim Crowder. I mean, we knew we had all of us. So we seen it. I mean, you think about it, it was like just just a year ago from that day. We was out there playing against Michigan. In the locker room, you know, Vince, he was always joking and laughing and giggling and whatever. And, you know, we was just like, just relax. It was just, it was just another game for us. We weren't scared of Reggie. Somebody lied to us about Lindell White's weight. They said he was 225, he was really like 250. So that was a big lie. If you watch the game, we had a hard time trying to get him down. The speed of the game and everything, I mean, it just didn't really phase us. I don't think at one moment we thought that we were gonna lose that game. He came down to that one play, the fourth and short, and we knew, like, hey, stop. We knew we knew who was getting the ball. We ain't stopped them all game. We knew, but at this moment in time, hey, you're back against the wall again. You gotta protect every blade of grass. And we end up making a big stop, and then from there, we have Vince. We knew anything can happen with Vince. So, I mean, we've been in those situations before. Because we was there before. We played AM early in this season before we played in the Big 12 championship game. And it came down to a block punt for us to get the lead. And so we've been in those situations where you gotta make a play. And we made a play. I end up, I told Coach, I remember that game because I told Coach Aquina, listen, I know you want me to do this, but I'm about to do this. Well, we we're doing a return, I'm going to block it. So I got on the outside, timed the snap up, blocked the punt, Cedric Griffin recovers it for a touchdown, and we get the lead. But it's like, you gotta make a play. And that was a game, like, you gotta make a play. Like at all costs, you gotta make a play. And at that moment of time, we knew Vince was just gonna make a play. Like, we've been there before. Yeah, and that's just the way we practice was like a game every day. So when it came to games, it was just fun for us because we've been in those situations each and every day in practice. Like it was a competition every day in practice. Who won offense or defense? Every day. That was our mindset. Like we were so we held each other so much accountable. And when there was a moment where you needed to make a big play, you made the play. We made a play. We knew somebody was gonna make a play. Even go back early in the season, Lima Sweet making the great catch versus Ohio State. Like, we knew when you needed a play, somebody will make a play because we all knew at any given moment in time you gotta make a play. And that's what we did.

SPEAKER_00: 45:02

So Tennessee Titans, you go into the NFL 103 games without missing a game. Like you actually, for the Titans, you missed three games total.

SPEAKER_02: 45:14

I fought, I fought my coach for the games I missed. I was supposed to play, and he was like, We don't need you this week. I was upset.

SPEAKER_00: 45:21

Well, and there's a lot of those games where you're very healthy, but there's some games with an MCL shoulder twice. Yeah, talk about the I mean, just overall the durability and how you were able to handle the physical aspects of football and keeping yourself kind of primed to be able to play all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 45:38

Well, NFL, your back is always against the wall. And I say that to say because each and every Tuesday, they brought in other players to get a look at different players to see who can we bring in to, you know, replace people. And each and every year in the draft, you're always looking to say, who can we draft to replace somebody? It's a business. We cut salaries and we pay people less to do the same amount of work that you're doing. And so for me, my mindset was, hey, listen, because how I ended up getting my job starting was Calvin Lowry gave me that window. We played the Houston, Texans, he gave up three D balls. Coach is like Griff, you're up. You gave me the window. So for me, my mindset was never, ever, ever give anybody that window of opportunity. Never if you hurt. There's a difference between you hurt and you're injured. Everybody's hurt. Everybody. You can go out right now in training camp right now. They done probably been out there for three weeks. Something they hurt. They hurt. Each and every week you get up, it's a mindset of saying I'm gonna go out there and hit these pads every single day and get up and do it again tomorrow, and get up and do it again tomorrow, and get up until you're hurt. Injured mean you can't play. Injured means at absolutely no possible way I can play. That's being injured. That's why it's called IR, injured reserve. That means you're injured. So I remember I learned that from one of our coaches because he asked one of our players one day, are you hurt or you injured? And I said, What does that mean? And the coach says, hurt means you're hurt. Like wrap it up, tape it up, whatever. Injured means I'm about to go upstairs and tell them I'm gonna put you on IR. You're done for the season. So which one are you? And I seen a lot of people on the training room table jump right on up and went right out to practice. I say, Oh, wow. Yeah. He was like, Everybody's hurt. Yeah. So the durability was just based on I knew if I got hurt, I can play. There was a way. Like they got arm brace, they got every possible thing for you. So when my shoulder came dislocated, I popped them back in, just put a brace back on. Yeah. Coach is like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, what? Just put a brace on. Give me a tort off shot, whatever it is, I'm gonna go. Sprang my MCL, played through it. Next day it swelled up, couldn't walk. Within the following week, I literally shaved my knee down to just bare skin and took the tape and just taped the tape right on my knee. And was like, hey, listen, I can only go straight. Tore my quad. I was like, hey, listen, injected or whatever, I'm not having surgery, I can play. Like, literally, I can play. And it was just a mindset because I knew at any given moment, if I gave somebody that window of opportunity, it might be it. So it's a mindset. I mean, unless you just, you know, Odell Beckham or Julio Jones or whatever. But if you give somebody that window of opportunity, they're gonna take it. There's somebody that's sitting there waiting, waiting.

SPEAKER_00: 48:24

Someone just like you.

SPEAKER_02: 48:25

Somebody's waiting for that.

SPEAKER_00: 48:27

Studying your studying your position.

SPEAKER_02: 48:29

Waiting for that window of opportunity. Waiting. That's how it works. It's that window of opportunity. If you give them that little bit of ounce of opportunity, gone. If I would have said, oh, shoulder got knocked out, I'm out for the season. All I said was, cool, strap this side up. I got to use the right side the whole time. I'm gonna hit like that. That's all I can do. I gotta hit with my right all day. If I get to the left, I'm gonna try everything I can, but but that's what I had to have to work with it. When I tore my quad, hey, Denver Cersei, you gotta stay in the middle of the field. I can't run like I want like I want to. I gotta stay in the box. I can get here and get here and get there, but I can't go to the back of the field. So I just learned to adapt very quickly because I knew if I got off the field, and somebody goes out there and shows a little bit of that, he's just as good if not better. So you always had that in the back of your mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 49:26

One of the things you keep saying is like, man, my back was against the wall in high school. My back was against the wall freshman year. My back was against the wall in the NFL because of these young guys coming up every Tuesday. Like you created a dialogue with your like you know, if you ever look felt it.

SPEAKER_02: 49:41

For instance, it's like having it's like the horses when you see a horse race, they got blindfolders on. Yeah. You see your goal. How are you gonna get to your goal? And that was the main thing. The question is, does your goals outweigh all the barriers and everything else? The easiest thing to say is, I did. Yeah, okay. The people that are not successful or don't succeed in something, the first thing they want to tell you is what? Whatever the negative thing was, I couldn't do it because my car wasn't running right. I couldn't do it because it was cold outside. I couldn't do it because it was raining outside. I couldn't do it because I was tired. It's easy to make every excuse possible on why you couldn't do it. But then when you make it, what do you do? You're on some, well, I owe it to this and I owe it to that, and owe it to this, and I owe it to that. But then it allows you to focus and look on like, dang, what all did I do and how did I get there? But that to me is a lot harder because the easiest thing is to get up, open your eyes, and just say, I'm gonna sit there all day. That's easy. But to say I'm gonna get up and how I'm gonna make this day a productive day and better than yesterday. Whatever I stumbled across yesterday or whatever I had issues with today, I'm gonna focus on that and I'm gonna overcome that today. I just love to be humble. I love to be respectful, I love to get knowledge and pick people's minds and ask questions and things of that nature. Because I tell people all the time, I come to realize that the most value is your family and who you are as a person and the legacy that you leave behind. And for me, it's if I was to die today, is my family okay? Can I die knowing that my son and my two daughters are gonna be successful? And I said that because I said the most scariest thing is life. It's the scariest thing because you don't know what is gonna be thrown at you. But if your mindset is so easy to have excuses for everything, you're not gonna get nowhere in life. You just, what are you gonna do? You're just gonna sit there and ride and just, but if you get out and go do it, anything can be accomplished. And I tell my kids all the time, I'm just here to support y'all and be successful. Being able to stay focused and learn something new today, like that's success. That's something that you can take along with you. You can't play the game of football for long. Everything I do right now, I can't do this forever. But I can continue to live and do the best that I can each and every day. Whether I'm in a wheelchair, whether I can't walk anymore, whether I can't throw a football anymore, whatever. I you still living. You still could be successful each and every day and figure out what am I gonna do today to be successful. Anything that happened in the past, I can learn from it, but I can't change it. People ask me, do you miss football? Nah, I don't. They're like, what do you mean you don't miss football? I don't miss it. It's a part of my life, yes. I learned a lot of different things. But do I miss it? No, because I learned that there's more to life outside of the game of football. It helped me and prepared me for life after football.

SPEAKER_00: 52:36

But I don't miss it. You and Brian started uh GG's Cup Kicks in Austin. Did you have that same mindset around starting that business as you did kind of?

SPEAKER_02: 52:46

Well, and I say this for that, because playing in the National Football League, they always say, Oh, we offer opportunities for you to be coaches, we offer opportunities for you to do broadcasting, we offer you opportunities to go back to school for business. Well, we all know, and I said this, you learn all your lessons over the years of experience. I could teach you business, but I put you in the business field, do you really understand it or are you still learning? So for us, it was a small investment, but an opportunity for us to learn business, learn from the ground up. Because I can go to any school I want to, but that's not gonna teach me how to run the business. Because every business is different. You're dealing with different people, you're dealing with different things. And so, you know, whether it's the location, all these different things play a part. And so what works for your business may not work for my business. We can be doing the same thing. You can literally be downtown location, running a cupcake shop, and you got a lot of foot traffic. And I can literally be right outside of a neighborhood, but everything pretty much shuts down at like 6:30, 7 o'clock out there. But downtown, people still walking around all times of the day and all times of the night. So all those things play a part. So I think you should do this. It doesn't necessarily mean that it works everywhere. Learning business based on like learning your store, learning your business, what works in the variables of the world. Exactly. Because playing on a football team, I was on three different ones. What worked with the University of Texas compared to where worked with the Tennessee Titans, compared to what worked with the Carolina Panthers. It wasn't the same. It's different. I mean, the philosophy was different, the coaching staff was different, everything is different. So what works over here may not work over here. And that's why we used to laugh because everybody will say it's funny because everybody says the patriot way, the patriot way, the patriots always the patriot way, the patriot way. How did the Patriots fare out last year? What did the Patriot way do? Not to mention what they look like in their first preseason game. So was it really the Patriot way, or was it just you got a really, really good quarterback? Right. So it's not the Patriot way. It's the dynamic and it's the culture. If you take away the culture, because everybody knows Tom Brady works his tail off. You take that culture out of there and you put a new type of culture in there. I played with Cam. Do I think him and Tom? They're different. They rely on two different things. Cam is very athletic. Tom Brady, he knows where to go with the ball. He knows the game. But then also Cam didn't have the wide receivers and didn't have the defense. Because understand, a lot of people opted out of last year's season. So different things happen. Tom Brady's team, nobody opted out. He actually gained some beating. So there's no way to tell which way was which, which way is better, the patriot way or Tom Brady, whatever. You still don't know. It's different variables. That's why I say back against the wall and understand like the way I live my life is be grateful each and every day of the opportunities and things that I have each and every day, because I'm very, very blessed.

SPEAKER_00: 55:42

How can people find out about your cupcakes?

SPEAKER_02: 55:44

We got Cupcake Guys on Instagram. And also, of course, we're in B Caves area, right across the street from the Hill Country Galleria. And then social media wise, it's MikeGriff33. And that's on all social media. If you want cupcakes, I truly, truly recommend Gigi's cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00: 56:02

So yeah, you're making the cupcake. And then Brian comes in, he's like a wife's.

SPEAKER_02: 56:06

He decorates, and then Lil Brian, the B and BK as we call him. If you ever see him, he is really little. Um, yeah, he's the guy that kind of runs everything, the business aspect of it. So we we work very, very well together. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 56:20

Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. See you at the gym.

SPEAKER_02: 56:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 56:24

You want to be successful, your back's gotta be against the wall. You can't have a way to back out, to make excuses. You gotta want what you want so much that you shape your life to get it. This is one of those episodes where I got so much from the interview itself, and hope you did too. Again, if you got a kid who's an aspiring athlete, you've gotta play this episode for them. Let them hear Mike talk about the lessons they need to learn as a young athlete. By the way, my family and I stopped by Gigi's cupcakes this last weekend to try some delicious cupcakes, and he was not joking. They were ridiculously good. So check him out in the show notes, all the information about where to find them on social media, that kind of thing. They're in the Lake Way BK's area and it's West Austin. So if you're in that neighborhood, go check them out. Last thing, hey, you may not realize this the entire unedited 100-minute episode with Mike Griffin is in the premium membership. So if you love this and you're like me, I would love to hear even more of what Mike talks about. Join the Premium Membership. Get a month for free and it's 8 bucks a month, which if you go to Starbucks, that's literally one venti cafe mocha. You order that and you drink it and you give yourself 400 calories, or you sign up for the premium membership and you get mass content, the unedited episodes with Mike, Brennan Hansen, and with all of my guests, and you don't pay anything until you love it, and you wanna continue. That's it, thanks again for listening to the Mindset Forge podcast.