EP44: JJ Birden - From Oregon (Long Jump) to Montana (Joe) - Jumping, Catching and Speaking!

When you think of an NFL player, it's 6’5” and 240 lbs or more. Imagine being barely 5’10”, not even 160 lbs, and playing a 9-year career! My guest on today’s #MakeYourMark podcast, JJ Birden, discusses his unexpected rise into the NFL, lessons learned from Joe Montana, and his successful sales and speaking businesses. Throw in a house full of kids, and you have quite the episode!

I was always thinking about life after football, I was always thinking about the transition, planning ahead. I graduated from Oregon, and I always thought the NFL was providing me an amazing opportunity, but also what about the network, what about the opportunities afterwards, and quite frankly I never thought I would play for 9 years. When I got to year 2, year 3, I was like let’s see if we can make it to year 4, year 5, so by the time I got to my ninth year I was thinking, here I am 5’10’ and 157, one of the smallest players in the NFL, I am relatively healthy, I can stop now and be able to live a life physically well.  At the same time I created some really nice relationships in the business world that made me ready to make the transition.

What stands out about JJ is his passion to teach his audience about the critical importance of seizing opportunities when presented, of taking the leap and going for your dreams. We’ve all heard of those who we wonder “How did that person get there, that makes no sense?!”...JJ teaches us how to become that person!

I was not the kid who was raised thinking I wanted to be an NFL football player, it never really crossed my mind, and when I got drafted by Cleveland, even then I was still thinking about getting ready for the Olympic trials. It wasn’t something I expected, I did not believe I could play for the NFL at that point.

We had a superb conversation, and JJ is one of the truly nice guys who wants the best for whoever he interacts with! You’ll get plenty of advice from both of us in this episode, happy listening!

This is probably the biggest thing I tell people about speaking: I want you to take your laptop and just start writing all of the different things that have happened in your life, the memories, the stories, because we all have content.  You have to take time to think what happened throughout your life, what were the experiences, and collect all those moments so when you figure out your messages and what your audience is, then you can start building what that signature keynote is going to be.

Not everyone is going to agree with your path, your choices and every thing that you do, it is not for them to understand your mission, your direction, your goals, it’s for you to understand it and to believe it. That’s what I’ve always focus on in different stages in my life.

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 02:05
• Born and raised in Portland - 4:15
• The Buzzing Program - 5:35
• Let’s try The Long Jump! 7:25
• Embracing the opportunity - 10:35
• Proving them wrong - 12:13
• Getting injured - 17:30
• Meeting Joe Montana - 20:05
• Life After Football - 22:27
• Being an Entrepreneur  - 24:49
• Running my Own Business - 26:45
• Building the Signature Key Note- 29:20
• You’ll Do Whatever it Takes! - 32:00
• Believing in your Mission and Journey - 35:20
• Speaking from the Heart - 37:59
• Getting to Know People - 44:05
• A Family of Eight! - 46:13
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 52:05

How to get involved

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