(upbeat music) - Hello, my name's Kamal Grant and this is You Don't Know What You Don't Know, the latest podcast on the Hope Cast Network, where I, Kamal Grant, go talk to leaders in the consumer package goods world because I need to know more things. I'm trying to launch a new brand called Magic Middle. And I want to get it on all the grocery store shelves. So I'm talking to leaders in the industry so I can learn from them so I can learn and let the world know. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - This is the Hope Cast Network. Stories and shows you actually want to listen to. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Why hello there? My name is Brad and this is work advice for me. Oh my gosh guys, I am so excited for this episode because this is a good one. And I know I say that a lot but we are on our journey to meet successful people who do interesting things that I personally find cool. And today is no different. We are traveling in the old work advice for me, van all the way out to Colorado because we're going to spend a little bit of time with retired NFL quarterback, Jake Plummer. And let me tell you, he is a fascinating guy. He's going to talk about growing up in Idaho. He's going to talk about what age should you put your kids in pads. And if he had gone to a small school, would he have gotten noticed? He's going to tell us what his first play was like in college and what his first play was like in the NFL. But he's also going to talk about his mushroom farm. And if you're listening, you can go to his website, getumbo.com and type in the code W-A-F-M-10 and you'll get a 10% discount on your purchase. So, hey, work advice for me, W-A-F-M-10. And you can buy something from his website. But before we get to Jake, I want to say, we got those pesky, pesky, pesky algorithms. We want you to listen to our show, but we also are asking, leave us a positive review. Say something nice about our show, the more you say, the more reviews we get on Spotify and iTunes, the more people will get to notice our podcast and the more listeners that we will get. We will go from a million listeners to two million listeners, right? So, I want to encourage you to keep leaving reviews. They mean a lot and they help us with those pesky algorithms. Also, you can follow our show, Work Advice For Me on Instagram and you can email the show. If you have a question for me, work advice for me at gmail.com. I would love to answer it, but without further ado, I know you've probably been throwing the football or watching football because it's happening right now. Paul's the football game, sit back and enjoy our conversation about football and mushrooms with Jake Plummer. Okay, so, what was your childhood like? - It was really good, you know? I grew up in Boise, Idaho. My parents were very good people, loving people. My grandma and grandpa were on both sides were involved. I saw them a lot, so that was always really good. Close with my mom's side of the family and yeah, I got to go up into the mountains about a little past age three, 44, five, six years old. I lived up in the Sawtooth Mountains with my family, which was really a nice break from the typical. Getting into being a kid at that age in the city, I was cut free to go play in the creeks and climb trees and find little critters and just have fun out in the woods. So, that was really nice. But other than that, man, I was young with two brothers, so, you know, I was pushing pretty hard a lot, throwing stuff, throwing at, you know, just having to all the brothers constantly challenging me and being able to live up to be like them, you know, was a good thing for me. - Do you think that's where you found a lot of your drive? - Yeah, imagine so, you know, like just having a couple of brothers that I really looked up to, you know, they were good. They were good, always kind of pushing themselves and competing and trying their best. And so, you know, I don't know where my drive came from. I think just the, you know, the one to be a professional athlete was really with what drove me. And I don't know what it was that made me up so much about that. I think it was just the fact that that's what my life was. We watched a lot of sports. We collected sports cards. We read sports, they're still traded. My brothers were really instrumental in that as they were super huge sports fans. So, some of that drive, I don't think it was to go be a professional player. Some of my brothers could see me and be proud of me. It was more just, yo, that looks like fun. Why not try to be one of the best and go for it? And I went after it and so enough it worked out. - What age do you think is a good age to put pads on your child? - I think around, you know, as later as you can, the better. I don't know if there's a correct age that is absolutely appropriate, that hopefully people are studying it and understanding, you know, the course of the last 30 years and when kids started getting into helmets, then I would be a case study myself because I started playing in helmets, you know, 11 years old. So, as this group has gone from, you know, 19, whatever that would have been, 1985, '84, '85, when I first put on a helmet, no, it's been a long time and now we would be able to see the effects of that if it had an adverse effect, if it was detrimental to these players, you know, long-term mental health or their brain health or physical health. But I believe the later, the better. I learned how to play football without pads at recess and I jumped on a trampoline a lot and I was constantly falling over and learning how to survive that. My worry is when you put kids in pads early on, like real early on, all of a sudden they don't have the ability to learn how to fall safely without a protective layer around them. But to me, that's just the number one cardinal sin is these eight, nine-year-olds in pads. It's a joke, they don't even know how to fall down without having protection. So, if you can't teach them or you can't learn how to fall down, your pads are just gonna be there to save you and then when you actually do fall down, you know, you don't have a clue what you're doing. So, 14, 15 would probably be a good age as you've gone through a little bit of a growth spurt most kids have and maybe they're ready to get into that. But even then, the further you can wait, the longer you can wait, the better. - I'm glad you answered that. My wife and I go back and forth on it and I'm just learning from an expert. So, you know, with our-- - Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know if you're calling me that expert. I'm not really an expert on it. I just believe that playing all sports is important. If you play football and that's all you do and that's what you wanna do, then good luck. I wish you well and when you're 17 and you're mentally burned out and you're physically burned out spiritually, you're wondering what the hell you just did to last, you know, eight years of your life, nine years of your life to try to do what? Be on a starter on varsity. You know, it's a recipe for disaster if you're not diversifying and playing multiple sports. And even if you don't make this basketball team, go and find a gym when they play basketball. Oh, I didn't make the baseball team. Well, go and hit some balls in a cage. Go and, you know, throw a ball off a wall and get your glove out and pick that ball up. I mean, there's so many great aspects of all sports that can carry over to each sport individually that, you know, I never trained, I never trained to be a quarterback. It wasn't like I'm gonna train to be a quarterback. I was an athlete and I played quarterback. And then once I got the ability to opportunity to train and get coached to be a quarterback when I got to ASU, then that's when things started to blossom, things started to happen. So young kids should diversify. They should play ping pong, hacky sack, ride their bikes, get on a tight rope, climb the trees, you know, learn a different sport. Hamball was a great sport for me 'cause I was able to go play Hamball and that worked both sides of my body, lateral movement, you know, spatial awareness, mental toughness, all of that that you need when you have a fourth and five and you know you gotta get down and go get it, you know, these things all carry over. - You know, I'm glad you brought that up. When did you know you had it? Because you had to know you had, was it ASU when you realized I'm good at this? Or did you know in high school? Like, I can do this. - You know, my brain didn't work that way. It wasn't like, oh, I'm good, I've got this. I was always just kind of playing. I loved to play football. I loved it. You know, my mom let me play tackle football in the optimist in Boise, Idaho. You know, when I was going into the fifth grade and it was 11, almost 12. And the reason she let me is 'cause I told her, you know, I play at recess, mom. I'm always playing, I'm getting tackled on the hard ground, attacking kids. This is safer if you let me wear pads. And she said, okay, go for it. But it never really dawned on me. I mean, I looked back at my childhood and growing up. I remember being first, second captain, you know, at recess, we'd pick our team. And I remember one time when I realized not that I had it as far as like Gil set wise and so on the ball and all that, but I had like a leadership quality that was infectious and was able to carry over to other kids. And I was a quarterback now on an optimist team. The guys at school didn't like it because I took my friend Katie's job and he was a little upset about that 'cause he wanted to be the quarterback. And so they were kind of being punked to me at recess. And so usually I was first or second captain or was the first pick or second pick on whatever team. This time they picked everybody and they picked me last. They made a point to like not pick Jake. I was like, okay, that's cool. So the next time I was captain, I started my draft from not the first player I would have wanted, but the last player that was usually taken. And I picked him and then I picked the next lowest person available. Like not the good kid, the other kid. And I got those kids together and said, let's do this. Let's take it to these guys. They're no better than us. Come on. And we ended up like competing. And I can't remember if we won or not, but we competed and these kids believed. And I realized then, I didn't realize it then, but when I looked back and remember that moment, I realized like the effect I could have by just having a positive outlook, a positive process of like, hey, we can do this. If we all band together, let's all think about this going well. I think we can do this. And I think that was when I really realized I had an influence on people by just my attitude, my beliefs, my optimism, the feeling of hey, we're never out of it. When it clicked that I had the ability to play and really do it, I can't tell you when that was, but getting to college, even before that, going to the Stanford quarterback receiver camp and getting a lot of recruiting letters after that and kind of standing out there, or at least standing level with all these other blue-chip quarterbacks, that gave me the confidence. Bruce Snyder, when he recruited me and I went to ASU, was a huge confidence boost. So those confidence boosts were more important than, ooh, I can throw this ball real accurately. I'm good at this. It was more like the confidence given to me by my coaches, the respect and belief that my teammates had in me. That's when I started to believe, like, okay, I could take this away, but I really didn't care about being a fellow. All I wanted to do was win an actual title at ASU and I figured if I could take care of that and do that, everything else down the road packed, you know, the best college would take care of itself. - I recently watched a movie called Johnny Be Good. Have you ever seen that movie from the '80s? - God, it's been a long time, yeah. - I watched it. What was your recruiting process like? It couldn't have been as crazy as in this movie, of course. - No, you know, I was playing hoop for Capitol High School and that was my favorite season. I loved basketball. I, you know, would go straight from football and just hopefully have no injuries, which usually that never happened. So I was pretty lucky and I'd go straight into basketball season, which was my favorite. So I was getting all these recruiting trip offers. I was slated to go to Colorado, Iowa, Washington, ASU, and Washington State. So ASU was my first trip. It went really well and it wasn't wild. I went to a couple of parties where the guys would, you know, clear out of the way and let me go, you know, get a beer at a keg or I remember what we did go to an establishment that I'm not proud of saying I did and what a, you know, you might see a woman or two dancing on the stage and that was, you know, for me it from Boise was exciting, but that didn't sway me. It wasn't like, ooh, I'm gonna go to ASU 'cause this is what happens. I went because I believed in the coaches. They told me I was, you know, Bruce Snyder said I was the quarterback they needed, the puzzle piece to fit into what he was building with the National Championship caliber team. The only coach to tell me that. So that really, that had a lot of weight for me. That had a lot of relevance in why I decided to go to ASU. I made one more trip to Washington State kind of last minute, but those two trips I made, I missed three, maybe four basketball games and I couldn't stand it. I was like, damn it, I wanted to be on the basketball court with my boys playing hoops 'cause that's what I love to do. So I made my decision. Went to ASU, cut out the rest of the trips and got focused on basketball from my senior year. - Do you think that, and this is purely hypothetical and you're in, had you gone to a really small school? You know, a school kind of like what Josh Allen went to or do you think you would have still gotten noticed? Back then. - Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was able to come in and make a difference for some reason, you know, and I got to ASU, I got the backup job, I went in and my first throw of my first time I ever threw a ball on a college football field, it went for a 78-yard touchdown. - Wow. - So it was a bad throw, under throwing, rolling in my left, whatever, but it happened. And so something about how I approached things and was really in the moment of playing, it all came back and showed itself as a success. Usually it came out to be a success. And so that year, you know, we were struggling as a team, we went to Cal and I was starting by then and playing. And I remember after the game against Cal, everybody was just kind of ho-hum. They didn't seem like it mattered much. And so I stood up as a freshman, 18-year-old, two freshmen, after coach, Snyder, after anybody had anything to say. And I just said, I think we're a better team than this. And it sucks to see guys that don't seem like they give a shit about losing. And they just are laughing on the plane, wanting to play cards, and what are we doing afterwards? And I said, we're better team than this. And I think our seniors deserve a chance to go to a ball game, it's been a long time, and let's send these guys out and style them. I wasn't coached to do that, no one told me to say that. I was just kind of, I was pissed off, if we lost, if we should've beat Cal, they were not good at all, we lost. And right when I said that, the seniors all just, wow, okay, this is our guide, they got behind me. And we went on a little tear, we almost made it to a ball game. And so, for me, it was just always being able to lead and be able to be in the moment, be true to who I was and be a competitor, whether that was in the game or practice. I was going, it wasn't easy for me in practice. It wasn't like I was a lolligag of pre-practice. It was just as hard as a game, 'cause football was a reactionary sport for me. So, the way I went about it, the way I did it was able to rub off on guys and affect them positively. And it's carried me on through life, just being able to be positive and have a positive outlook and know that if we all band together, anything's possible. - I would think, I mean, I love your outlook, and it would be tough to be in your huddle if you're a negative person, right? I mean, if I'm a wide receiver and the quarterback thinks we have no shot, how can that even, why would I even care? And I wonder if that happens today in huddles. - Oh yeah, you can feel it. You can see it in their eyes. I've had many coaches, I worked with Coach Newheisel at the Pac-12 network and always loved him, would have loved to have played for Coach. He was, I think, at Washington when I was getting recruited and he wanted me to come up there. But what a great coach. And I remember him talking about few of his times that one of his schools he was at. He was just like, we got down to our quarterback. I'm looking in his eyes. We're playing a tough team. And as soon as I call a play and I'm looking in his eyes and he runs off, I'm like, this is gonna be horrible. And this kid has no chance. You could see the fear, he could see the fear and the lack of confidence in this kid's face of having to actually step out onto this field and fund the 70,000 people and do it. And so having that ability to block all that out and remember, like, what I always did was remember, this is just a game, you know? Like, yeah, there's X's and O's and execution and timing and snap counts and defensive adjustments and audibles. But really when the ball snapped, this is playing. This is football. So tap into that and I was always able to, you know, make a play or not, you know? But I'd get back up and come back and try again the next time you bet your ass. It didn't matter. I was gonna come back hard and do it the next time, like nothing else had ever happened. If I see five straight interceptions, I'm gonna come back out, pull the trigger again, just like I had not thrown five interceptions. And that was my, that was the way I rolled. That was the way I was always playing. And it was infection because it helped guys believe in themselves, it helped guys, you know, no, I saw a man, if our top guy, our quarterback is not getting down, then we can't get down either. We gotta be able to do this and it always worked out in the end. - So you get drafted by the Cardinals and you get to stay in the same stadium. How cool was that? - At first, I didn't like it at all. I wanted to get the hell out of there. I wanted to go see another, I wanted to go somewhere else. Like I'd been in Arizona and I knew Arizona was like, I kind of followed the Cardinals. They were struggling all the time. I was like, let me see if I go to a big city. You know, go back east, go play Chicago or New York or somewhere where I'd never really lived and was intrigued to see the city life and understand what that would be like from going up in Boise, Idaho to go to do something like that. But it was good in the long run afterwards. I realized how nice it was. I didn't have to move. I didn't have to find a whole new trust system and people in place. Like I had a community there. I had a great community from ASU that was still there. So I could go see them. They were there to support me and the town loved me after my ASU days. So they gave me a lot of leeway. You know, my first start, I threw, I think, three picks and they, maybe four picks. They cheered me on after everyone's coming out on the field and that wouldn't happen in New York. They would've been so and stuff at me. So a lot of it, in the long run, it paid off. It was nice. And I got to try to change the, the, you know, the feeling of that organization changed, changed that organization's trajectory in a way with them not being a very good team. For years and years, struggling to get a winning season, never making a playoff or making them, you know, a long time back and not winning a playoff game for a long time. And so it was a chance for me to come in and change the culture, which I love. 'Cause, you know, that part of the fun was going to ASU. It was like, I've never heard much about ASU. When I leave, my ego wanted to have people remember ASU or talk about ASU. And sure enough, they still do. So I kind of wanted to do the same thing. You got that opportunity with the Cardinals. - So, so you played in Arizona. Now you end up, you signed with the Broncos. What, what kind of change was that? And before you answer that, I want to ask you this quick question. What's the learning curve like for a rookie in the NFL because yesterday, I'm a Panther fan. My buddies were on a text stream going, oh my gosh, Bryce, Bryce Young is playing terrible. I thought he played pretty good, considering it's his first game ever. - Yeah, there's a, there's a big learning curve and it all depends 'cause a lot of it has to do with, not just the player himself, but, you know, the guys around him, the rhythm that he's established so far and the relationships with. - Okay, I know I just interrupted a great conversation, but my name is Brad and you may be listening to me or any of the other talent we have on this network at HopeCast. We want to thank you for listening, but also we want you to like and subscribe to the show you're listening to. So, when you're done listening, go on the iTunes or the Spotify and leave a great review if you like it and follow the show on Instagram and any other platforms that it's on. I think we're on TikTok, so follow us on TikTok. But make sure you leave us a review. We love good reviews here at the HopeCast Network. Now, I guess I'll let you get back to your show. (upbeat music) - I hate to interrupt what you're doing now, but something very important I need to let you know about. When you purchase serious coffee beans, we want you to try to enjoy each brew for two reasons. Number one, because you're a part of something bigger, making a positive impact around the world. And number two, 'cause we did not compromise on the quality of coffee, you're drinking some of the best coffee in the world. 100% of profits are donated to nonprofits that are fighting injustice facing humans around the world, Wallace. That's powerful. Generous is best known for especially coffee, but the heartbeat of generous is their hope to use for profit business for good. In 2024, generous is hoping to provide coffee to churches around the US to spread a message within congregations that churches care about people even down to the coffee they are serving and the people they enjoy. I apologize for that extremely long run on sentence. If you have interest in hearing more about generous coffee, please reach out to their founder, Ben Higgins, at binhagans@generancemovement.com. Thank you and back to our scheduled podcast. - Those players on the field and the coach, knowing his nuances and how he flows through a game. I mean, there's a lot more than just, oh, this guy checks all the boxes. He's going to be an all star. Like, yeah, I mean, a lot has to do with it. You may have a receiver that isn't very knowledgeable that you've got to help out also. And if you're rookie and you're trying to just think through the play, you've got to help someone else on the field. There's just, that's a lot of weight on the guy. So it all depends. All situations are different. You know, it took me a while as a rookie. I was able to be a third string for part of the year, my rookie year with the Cardinals. And then halfway through the year, I got thrown in. And by then I at least knew enough about the different defenses that these NFL teams were throwing at you now. 'Cause college was pretty easy. That wasn't a lot of complex looks. Where now you're, you've got a guy blitzing over here. And then you're like, wait, where'd you guys go? But they were blitzing from the right. They're on the left, looking like they're coming. And then your, there are tensions over there. And then bam, you're getting smashed by them on the right side. So it took a while to adjust. You know, but then again, it also, if these kids come in, a lot of them are already way more knowledgeable than I was coming out of college. They've been prepped and primed and taught and schooled on this by their gurus quote unquote gurus. Try to be able to identify every defense and every single scheme and all this stuff. So put aside all the X's and O's. You should know that stuff by now. You should be able to pick it up quickly if you're coming out of college. And you've been engrained in this football culture for a long time. Now it's just a matter of, do your guy see that light on you? You know, do they see you go in there with a little trepidation or do they see you come in with a confidence and the ability to make a difference? And that's not being cocky, that's just being confident in the game. So it sometimes takes a while. Plus the speed is a lot more intense and defenses love coming after a rookie quarterback. They love to get in his head. 'Cause once that happens and now they're like, they're like a pack of wolves coming at you. But my rookie year, I got in in Philadelphia. That's in stadium on the two yard lines going the other way. My words to that huddle were, all right you guys, you wanna take this, you know what? Let's take this MF saying 98 yards, let's do this. Who's with me? And they perked up 'cause they hadn't felt that energy in a long time. I was excited, I was in Philly. It was my first time being in the NFL on an NFL field like, oh my goodness, this is happening. So that was huge and that team responded. We took the ball 98 yards and scored. So I had a couple pretty amazing opportunities presented to myself as a freshman in ASU to fill my first pass for a touchdown. And then to come in as a rookie on the two yard line of Philly and take 'em 98. So, you know, I still had a lot of struggles though. Like the next week when I started, I threw four picks. But we showed signs of improvement. We showed signs of guys believing and really caring after that. And maybe it was just because of me because I really wanted to do this. I'm here, what are we doing? Why are you gonna go 80% in practice or in the weight room or not go watch extra film? You're in the NFL, let's go. We're here for one thing and one thing only and that's the win of Super Bowl. And it takes complete dedication from talk to bottom, complete belief from talk to bottom. And that was what eventually got hard with the Cardinals was the belief there. Just people didn't believe we could win. And even after 98 going to the playoffs, beating the Cowboys, that culture was hard to shift. And even still now you see the Cardinals struggling for whatever reason. But there was a time there where we got really hot, we had some fun and, you know, yeah, rookies are gonna take it. They're gonna take it for a little bit. Some guys come into the right system with the right coach, the right players around them and they can shine right away. And that makes it hard for guys that's gonna take a couple of years to develop into a quality quarterback and hopefully they give the young man some time. - So you end up in Denver. You're now not a young player. You're probably looked at as we're bringing you in here 'cause we wanna win a Super Bowl. And that's a whole different perspective, right? On your end, what was it like now arriving as we want you to bring us a Super Bowl? It's a lot of new pressure, right? - Yeah, you know, it was really exciting to come to Denver, a team that has won some Super Bowls. They had the recipe, they knew how to do it. Ownership was fully in on whatever the players needed and whatever we desired, it was taken care of so we could focus on one thing only. And that's what you need to do to get to be your job, to contribute to the Super Bowl team that we're gonna create. So it was really exciting, I went there for less money because I had a chance to go to Chicago also. Ironically, they made it to the Super Bowl a couple years later, but we got real close. If you champion game in '05, but going in was a lot of fun. I didn't feel like it was any extra expectations or pressure, you know, what am I gonna do? Come win four Super Bowls and play for 20 years and outdo John Elway? No way in hell am I doing that, and that wasn't my goal. My goal was to get there and win one Super Bowl. And then a lot of people didn't know this, but then I wanted to piece out and be done with the game and get on with the rest of my life. So yeah, it was a lot of fun, but what was great was that it wasn't just all this expectations heaped upon me. They were building a team around me. I had leaders established like Rob Smith, Al Wilson, Tommy Nailand, these guys that were ingrained and knew how to get it done, they just needed a little spark and I was that spark come in and just add whatever juice I could to the mix, not being the sole proprietary focus on the team amongst the team, but outside the team, yes, you're the focus. The quarterback was, I was the focus for four years here from all the media and everything. But my teammates knew that they had to do their part too to help me shine and that was the beauty of being there is that the guys around me were really solid and ownership was doing whatever it could. - And Coach Shanahan and Tubiak were really good together. It put me in a position to succeed. - Now, I love the way you retired first off. I respect that. You were like, I'm done and that's it, right? What was it like, you know, if you just look, I read a, it was a crazy story on the Wikipedia and it couldn't be, it made me fake, but football has changed so much. It even said in there, J Cutler suffered a concussion. You came in and then he came back in the second half, which that would never happen today, right? - Yeah. - That would never happen today. What was it like first, what was it like getting told you're going to the bench? Cause by then you're probably like, well, I'm going to retire anyway. - Yeah, I wanted to retire the year before, you know, when it went today, if you championship, I was hoping to go to the big game, win it and be done. But I came back and was ready to have another role at it. And we had basically the same team. We got to the quarterback when what we really needed was some other strength at some other positions that we drafted a quarterback. And I was a little bit like, well, okay, that's weird. We didn't improve our team much because I'm able to do this. I can do this job. This is what I'm doing and I'm doing it well. Went in a lot of games here. So that was a hard little adjustment at first, but then it didn't really bother me. Went about my business. And then when I got pulled for J, it was really hard because, you know, a lot of what was happening was out of my control. Of course, I could be playing better. And, you know, in the industry of the NFL, you can always play better. There's no one that's like, yep, I'm doing it. I'm good. I'm playing as good as I possibly can and everybody's happy. No, because you make some throws that aren't good and people are going to focus on those five throws you didn't make and tell you you could be better. So, you know, it's a hard culture after a while, like physically and spiritually, it wore me down. That's why when I got benched, it was like, really? Okay, you're going to take the team from me and I was not a very good teammate for about a week. And then kind of pulled out of that and became a leader from the sideline and did whatever I could to help the team, you know, try to hopefully make the playoffs again. I just want to, you know, these guys to get a chance 'cause you don't know how long you're going to play in the league and to get to the playoffs gives you that fresh start and opportunity to see if you might be able to make it to the big game and get that ring on your finger and stamp yourself as one of the ones that got to get there and win it. And that there's not a lot of them. And so I wasn't great, but then I kind of flipped it around and became a big support for Jay and the rest of the team and did whatever I could to help guys try to get better. And yeah, that really was the end, although I knew then after that, like I'm going to retire this year, I'm done. And it gave me a chance to roll as the backup with a lot less stress. I was able to get to the stadiums early and just walk around the stadium and really soak it in and go, man, I've been doing this for almost 10 years. This time, I'm going to soak this in and really enjoy these moments instead of being in my book and stressing and trying to like get taped in time and get out onto the field and perform for everybody. And it was really a nice way to kind of coast out of the league. And when I retired, I was fully ready to go and people couldn't believe it, but it was in my heart, my soul that it was time to roll on from the game and do other things. And our time is almost rounding up, but I was really wanting to learn a little bit about the mushrooms because I find that fascinating. I love that. And I feel bad we've talked about football, but I really want to learn about the mushrooms and the farming because I find that so fascinating. Yeah, you know, we have to spend countless hours to learn about the mushrooms. We're going to spend years and years and years as a civilization learning about these things. It's beautiful organisms. But the opportunity to come my way, it comes from really being open-minded, being raised by parents that taught me to be open-minded and not draw a hard line just because someone said so, to live experientially and understand that there are things out there that are really bad for you and you can either believe that or you can try them and understand it yourself and go, yeah, those are bad for you. Or you can hear people talk, oh, that's bad for you, but then you try it and you're like, weird, that's strange. They're saying that, you know, hemp oil was the first really step I took into natural medicine as a way to heal and everybody had their beliefs just because federally classified schedule one, just the same as heroin and crack and all of these other horrible drugs, people would just shut it down. Nope, nope, we'll do that, we're not going to do that. And that's our culture, it's really sad that there are people that propagate that kind of misinformation and then there's a whole educational process that now has to go about for years and years and we went through that and that was really my first step and really a gift that was given to me to be able to go try to share this knowledge with people about young children with serious seizure disorders that were having relief using cannabis, mainly hemp oil and hemp does not get you high, you don't have that psychotropic feeling, it's not going to do what THC does to you and both of them, if you believe in what people believe in God, whatever way you want to believe in that or however you believe this universe came or this earth came to be, there's everything on this earth is provided for us to succeed and be well. And so same thing there with this plant that was misunderstood and once that became well known and people were like, wow, this does really help me in all sorts of ways, I got an opportunity to get into mushrooms and step that up to an entire, they're themselves a fungi at their own kingdom. I call it a kingdom because I believe that, back a long time ago there was fungus on this earth, there was my chileum under the ground, there were mushroom fruiting bodies, they were here well before most of life as we know it on this planet. So getting that opportunity to step into this is very, very exciting and fun and I know that for the rest of my life I'll be pursuing knowledge and sharing this of what I've learned through the mushrooms, taking them as functional mushrooms that are fully legal, they're not illegal, there's one strain, psilocybin that is illegal and again, here we go, THC was illegal, so was hemp because it was part of that family, it was part of that plant, that genus and so we're trying to separate the functional gourmet mushrooms from the psychedelic mushrooms to show people that these things have relevant in our health and wellness, they can really help you balance out your imbalances, there's very strong adaptogens, anti-inflammatories, anti-oxidants, they're used in other cultures in Japan, China, the treat cancer to use alongside chemo and radiation, I can go on and on and on and on and on it was only just beginning to learn what these things can do and I'm just again gifted with this opportunity to be a conduit for this knowledge and share it and not only share it, but live it, live experientially through this wonderful organism that's not just, oh yeah, take these mushrooms, everything will be great, I've become aware of how I speak, how I drive, how I think, what I eat, what I drink, what I watch on TV, it just raised my awareness to understand like a lot of our disease and sickness is caused by ourselves and so taking your health back in your own hands, these mushrooms have guided me to this part right now to share this with as many people that are willing to listen and have the gift of being able to start UMBO, it was our brand that we started, you can check us out at getumbo.com, we have a lot of big things in the horizon and we're doing some fun stuff with mushroom capsules and bars and drinks that are all natural that are there to give you that boost or give you that little bit of extra nourishment for your nervous system or your neuronal pathways, or your gut health, I can really all encompassing these beautiful organisms and then with that came a chance to run Michael Love Farm and start farming mushrooms which really is a lot of fun. I'm about to go into the farm right now and do some batch work which is just getting a substrate ready to sterilize and then inoculate with whatever species of mushrooms we're growing, if it's Gannabderma, the Reishi, or lion's mane, or corniceps, whatever it is, it's a lot of fun. I found myself here without really any direction to get here but I believe that the universe and whatever you believe in, God, however it is, it's directing me on this path and since I've been here taking these mushrooms daily, my body feels better, my mind is clearer, I function better, things just keep happening that I couldn't plan for them, they're just happening for me and I'm blessed. - You know, I wanna say your website is amazing. I was looking at the people that, I mean, where do you work looks so much fun? Everybody in the photo looks like they're having a blast and I think it'd be a fun place to work. I gotta have hair though, I gotta grab my hair out 'cause y'all have great hair that works there. I mean, everybody has long hair, it's really cool. - I'm mine short now. - Oh, it's short. - I think Michael cut his, I mean, yeah, I hear it the farm at least, yeah, it comes and goes, you know, man, but we do have a good time and we put a lot of intention into what we're doing here. Shane, our lead extractionist is really, really good at taking the mushroom and trying to get all of the mushroom back into a bottle so we can have whole plant, whole, not plant, whole organism, you know, whole spectrum healing from the all the compounds and all the goodness in these mushrooms. So we have a great time. I love taking them home and cooking with them. You know, I've fallen into the mushroom thing and there's been a long side that, you know, there's yoga involved, there's less imbibing with the spirits and alcohol that don't do me any good anymore, I eat to a pretty high standard, but I also eat pizza and donuts once in a while, why? Because that stuff's good, it's yummy. I don't do it every day, but man, when I have a donut, I'm gonna be in like, it's like a religious moment for me. You're like, mm, yes. And it doesn't have the effect that it does when you're eating it and you're shaming yourself for doing that. And so, yeah, man, there's more to than just the mushrooms and this whole, you know, health and wellness and taking health in your own hands. Trying to work with a lot of the alumni that have that realized, you know, we can heal. We can heal ourselves. The brain, the brain injuries we've had, there's ways to like start the process and heal that if you really want to, but it's gonna be anything like, anything at all, you're gonna have to give up some stuff that you may not want to, that may be the cause of why you feel sick and why you feel pain and why you feel it's disease and all that. - Well, I would encourage the listeners to follow your reels. I love watching your reels. - That guy's cool, but thank you. - Yeah, I love them. And you just, yeah, I know we're out of time, but the Popeye story was amazing to me. And I like how you said, I like Popeyes, but I would need it now. And that's what you're basically saying. Like it's a great thing. I can't believe the Broncos gave it to you on a Friday, but I think it seems like counter productive. You know, let's work out and then give you a easy phase. - Yeah, yeah, a phase of change. I mean, I would eat Popeyes if I was starving and that's what was offered. And I would bless it and say thank you and eat it. But it's not my top choice, you know. It's lived to a little higher standard. And I think things start getting better, but. Yeah, it's been a great talk, Brad. I appreciate you reaching out and having me on the show. And I love to share my story and let people know that, hey, if you're interested, check out GetUnbow.com. We're close to putting the tinctures that we're making out here at Michael Love into M.O. Bottles and provide them to people that are interested and open to receive, you know, the love we put into that. And also to get themselves better, get on the right track or even just, even just get up and go for a walk. Have that energy to get up and go for a walk. And then that walk can turn into more walk. And then those walks turn into a bike ride. And then that bike ride turns into you meet somebody at a place and it changes your life forever. And so we're all about changing course and cause positive things to happen to people's lives. - Well, I appreciate it. And thank you for coming on and inspiring me. And you've always been one of my favorite football players of all times, so it's an honor to get a chat with you. - W-A-F-M, W-A-F-M, 10. Let's do W-A-F-M, 10 for a 10% discount for any listeners who want to try our Unbow product. If they're interested, W-A-F-M, 10. And you can try it out for a 10% discount. And if you like it, you know, we are here to help you. That's all we're trying to do. So. - Okay, I like that. Awesome. - Yeah. - Great. - All right, Brad. Have fun on the farm, and I'll be following you. - Hey, thanks, man. You have a great day, Brad. - Yeah, too. Bye, bye. - Bye. - Well, I hope you enjoyed our chat with Jay. I learned a lot in that chat. I'm really fascinated about mushrooms. I'm actually gonna go buy some mushrooms. Remember, getUnbow.com, W-A-F-M, 10. Work advice for me, 10. W-A-F-M, M, not in, 10. And you'll get 10% off your purchase. So, I wanna encourage you to do that. Thank you for listening today. We had a great show, right? Learned a lot. You got to listen to a retired NFL quarterback. And I wanna say this podcast is brought to you by Hookcast, and also, remember about those algorithms, leave us a review, only positive ones, and you can email the show. Work advice for me at gmail.com. Follow us, work advice for me on Instagram. But until next time, I gotta go buy some stuff from getUnbow.com. I'll see you next time, and I'll catch you on the flip side. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
