Ep 9: Inside the mind of Professional Soccer Player Kasey Keller - How to Supercharge your sales career!

In this episode of the Best Sellers Podcast, host Doug Dvorak engages in an enriching conversation with Casey Keller, a former professional soccer player and U.S. national team goalkeeper. Drawing from his extensive experience in major soccer leagues in the U.S. and Europe, Keller reveals the striking parallels between mental preparation in sports and sales. The episode delves into themes of discipline, mental resilience, and the holistic approach needed for success in high-stakes environments. Keller discusses strategies for managing pressure, balancing personal and professional life, and visualizing outcomes to maintain focus. Additionally, the conversation explores the importance of humility, handling setbacks, and leveraging experiences for continuous improvement. Keller provides actionable advice on mental visualization, disciplined habits, and the necessity of mental preparedness for achieving excellence in both sports and professional careers.

00:20 Discipline and Accountability in Professional Sports
00:52 Insights from Casey Keller's Athletic Career
02:35 Mental Preparation for Success
05:06 Balancing Personal and Professional Life
12:20 Handling Pressure and Stress
18:45 Continuous Improvement and Skill Development
19:37 Continuous Improvement: Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses
22:18 Handling Setbacks: Lessons from Professional Sports
26:01 The Importance of Discipline in Sports and Sales
30:22 The Ruthless Nature of Professional Sports
34:30 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts
37:50 Closing Remarks and Podcast Outro

Links:

Connect with Doug Dvorak:
https://salescoach.us/podcast/
https://dougdvorak.com/
linkedin.com/in/doug-dvorak

Transcript

0:00

It's that whole process of figuring out what is best for you to be ready for that big sales pitch. Is it a case of then asking senior guys, asking people, Hey, how did you figure out what would best got you in the best mental mindset to go into that room to give yourself the best opportunity to close that deal? Discipline isn't when to getting yourself out. To do whatever you're supposed to do when you feel good. Discipline is when you don't want to do it and you still make yourself go do what you need to do. As a pro athlete, you're treated really like a 10 year old. Be here when I tell you to be here. Eat when I tell you to eat. Work out when I tell you to work out. Leave when I tell you to leave. Be here again when I tell you to be here. You have no, basically, personal accountability in anything. Everything is organized for when you need to be there. What's the most important lesson you've learned from your athletic career that you think would be valuable for our listeners and sales professionals? I think we touched a lot of points. You are listening to the best sellers podcast presented by Doug Dvorak, where the focus is elevating your sales boom, the best sellers podcast, your ultimate destination for winning sales strategies. Hi, this is Doug Dvorak, founder and managing principal of the sales coaching Institute and your host on the best seller podcast. It's a high honor and privilege to introduce a friend, but also an incredible human being. And an incredible athlete, Casey Keller. Hi, Casey. How are you Doug? Thanks for having me. My pleasure. Casey is going to be our guest today, where we're going to be talking about a mindset from a professional athlete and how we can take some of those. Secrets and strategies and tactics and incorporate them into our sales day because we truly are sales athletes. Casey's an American former professional soccer player who played in the U. S. and in Europe. Had a storied career as the Starting goaltender for the U S national team. He's a four time FIFA world cup participant and was the first American goalkeeper to become a regular in the German Bundesliga, the English premier league and the Spanish La Liga. I know you had an incredible youth career. You had an incredible collegiate career at the university of Portland, Olympic athlete, world cup. It's an honor to be here, Casey. Thanks for your time. Casey, how do you think mental preparation for a big game or competition compares to preparing for an important sales presentation or sales meeting? Well, I think a lot of people look at professional athletes and they think that it's 99% Gifts from God physically and then somehow you figure it out after that. And, you know, truly the world is full with, with great athletes and what takes you to that professional level, what takes you not only to the professional level, but then to succeed for a long career in the professional level. So much of that is the mental aspect of how you deal with the multiple different facets that come into the mental approach for the game. And, you know, Look, number one, it starts with discipline. Number two, it starts with, it then proceeds into the way you process all the difficulties that come. You go from a, you know, a normal kind of working environment where you're in that interaction with the people around you, the kind of the people that then your, your job puts you in touch with, you know, with the athlete, you look at, you look at multiple sides of that. You look at, first of all, The players and the coaches and the staff that you're dealing with on that side of how you approach things. But then you also have to understand that when you're playing, it's the 50, 000 plus people in the stands. But then it's also potentially the 100 million plus watching on television and then everything that comes with that. So how you approach yourself mentally to prepare for that. It's a process. It's where you start. You mentioned kind of my youth career and then how you prepare yourself to play in a match where, hey, maybe if I don't play well here, I don't get selected to this team. I then don't get that opportunity to go higher. And then on each step, it continues to grow and grow and grow. Sometimes dealing with the mental side of stuff is. How do I deal with the mental side of being successful? How do I deal with the mental side of not being successful? How do I deal with all these other external elements that come into play? And it's then how you're able to compartmentalize to put yourself in better situations, either off the field, on the field, uh, in the locker room with family, the dynamic with that. It's such a massive approach to how you're doing things now. Maybe it's more in a fishbowl being a pro athlete, but it's the similar principles that you have to do in your normal work life as well. How are you preparing for a huge sales pitch that you have to make, but then your wife is telling you that you got to get the kids to school, and then external pressures. Friends are saying, Hey, we got this big party. You got to come out the night before. Well, no, you can't come out the night before because you have this big sales pitch. And how do you find a way to balance all that? That is the mental side. Of being a pro athlete, which also translates into the mental side of being a great salesperson because it, it's not just, Hey, I had a good meal before the night. I went to the gym during the week or whatever. No, it's the total approach to it. And I think that's the mental side of. professional athletes, but it also where it translates into the mental side of just your person in the workforce. That's a great set of principles and wisdom. I want to just add on to that first question. 24 hours in advance, can you, or eight hours or 12 hours, can you just walk us through, you know, sort of your mental. Did it involve or mental preparation that involved visualization, like you said, taking care of yourself, good meal, getting to bed early, any top three things that you did in the 24 hours between a huge game. For me, the, the mental preparation for the game started. Well, there's a lot of books, there's a lot of different things that how it's, there is no 24 hours before it's a 365 day approach to, to each game, but we'll, we'll break it down into where my mental approach started, you know, specifically for the next game was when training was over the day before. And that was when I started to prep for the match mentally, you know, so much of it starts with kind of where you are in your, in your off the field life. So depending on what I did, I need, did I need a little bit of treatment? Was I dealing with a little bit of an injury that I needed to get some specific work for after training? You know, then obviously there's the. You know, the team meal, there's the meeting before and then you're kind of going home and it's, you know, I can't be on my feet. I can't be doing a bunch of different things because I also in the mental side of it. You're also preparing for the physical side. So I can't be. Running around doing a bunch of things because I still have to have that 100 percent physical preparation for the match because look, Doug, so much of what I have to do to get ready for a match is everything that I do during the week in training, but I'm not judged on what I do in that week in training. I'm judged on that 90 minutes on the, on the pitch where 100 million people are watching. Not on, on, Hey, look, I made this great save in training. Okay. No, that great save in training is then getting me in a good mental place to know that when that 90 minutes comes and the ref blows the whistle, I am in the perfect position to be able to perform. Now, we all know it's impossible to perform a hundred percent, but if you don't give yourself that preparation, at least from me, where it went. from day one. Now, one thing I did, which some of my bosses at ESPN told me later that they, uh, they didn't appreciate is I didn't talk to the press. The day before a match to me, that was a distraction for getting ready to play. I have all week. I'll do whatever you want. I'll do it after the game. I'll do it two days before I'll do whatever. I didn't want to be dealing with interviews. Somebody telling me I'm great. Somebody telling me I'm not in good form. I'm not in whatever at that stage. I wanted to say, I'm want to focus on tomorrow first. And foremost, and then, and that was also part of my preparation was, was understanding it. Then of course it's going home, having understanding, you know, family environment to know that there's certain things that maybe I would normally do during the week, but maybe that day before the match, I wouldn't because I'm, I'm getting in that frame of mind to be able to perform it at my optimal ability on, on the match where. It's so visual. It's so everybody can see what I did and you know, and then the highlights are going all week after that. So if I did have a good game or I did make mistakes, it wasn't over when the ref blew the whistle for the end of the match because that was being replayed until the next round of games came. And then if it was. Exceptional, maybe it had a little more life and it was an exceptionally bad. It had a life of its own as well. So those are factors. And then it comes down to over your career, you, you figure out what is the best preparation for you. And that alters as you get older or whatever else. So for me, it was then if the kids weren't sleeping well or whatever, maybe I went into a guest bedroom. You know, there were certain times when we had friends over and it was busy. So then in England, you slept at home the night before a home match. In Spain and Germany, you were in a hotel anyway, so it didn't really matter. But let's say we had friends over and whatever, and things weren't great. I didn't have a guest bedroom to go into. If I felt that I needed to be away from things a little bit, then, then maybe I would call the club and say, Hey, can you put me in the, in the team hotel? You know, the night before the match. So it's all that recognition of what you need to do to be ready to go. for when the referee blows the whistle to start the match and everybody's different. I was also a person that to me, I slept in the morning of a match and was very lazy. Other people, they had to get up. They had to go for walks. They had to do things to keep either either to keep themselves active. So it's that whole process of figuring out what is best for you. To be ready for that big sales pitch, that big, whatever. And is it a case of then asking senior guys, asking people, Hey, what do you do? How do you, how did you figure out what was best? Got you in the best mental mindset to go into that room, to give yourself the best opportunity to close that deal. And, and again, it's sometimes it's a little trial and error. Sometimes it's, Hey, that worked well. Let's continue doing that. I'm not a superstitious guy. I always felt that superstitions were for people that were ill prepared. And so they needed some lucky charm to get them through something because they weren't actually ready to, to, and they were hoping that some mystical power was going to get them over the top because they weren't ready to do it themselves. But don't confuse figuring out what is comfortable. And what is worked and what is going on with superstition, putting your left shoe on before your right shoe wasn't going to make me win a win a match, but making sure that my boots were properly taken care of my gloves were in the right situation to best prepare to catch a game. That was to catch a ball so that I made the save and I didn't give up a rebound to concede a goal. That was what was important and that was all part of that process. Awesome. That mental process because, you're right, it's, physical is one thing, but the mental process is probably the totality of everything you're doing to get prepared. Great. Thank you for those pearls of wisdom. Casey, in sports, you often have to perform under pressure, immense pressure. How do you manage stress and maintain focus? And how might this apply to high stake sales situations? Well, I referred to some of the previously of the pressure that comes with being a pro athlete. It's not you have a tough day at the office and a couple people know about it. I have a tough day at the office and potentially a hundred million people know about it. You know, it's the, what is the pressure of If I don't close this deal, I can't pay my mortgage. I can't put the kids in school. I can't, you know, I, I can't put food on the table. So the pressure is relative to the situation that you're in. You know, I'm pressured. And so I didn't start, I didn't play my first match in front of a hundred million people. You build up to it. And then, you know, when you figure out that, Oh, maybe things aren't particularly going as well as I would like, or I'm not handling this as well as maybe I would like to. Look into different things that you need to do. I went to a sports psychologist at one stage because I wasn't enjoying what I was doing. Most people know if you're not enjoying what you're doing, you're not going to perform at the level you're going to perform at. So I went to somebody to kind of help me through some of these situations. Um, but I, I think dealing with pressure again is preparation. And I think if you're 100 percent prepared, if you're going into a meeting and you know, you've, you've put the work in, you're well versed on product you're trying to sell, you know enough about your competition's products to be able to answer any questions that the person you're trying to sell to is. Is going to ask you, you, you then if, if you've, you've got a good night's sleep, you're not hungover because your friend's bachelor party the night before and you didn't have the discipline to say, Hey, I'll go for an hour and be supportive and have one drink and then go home and get a good night's sleep. Well, if you haven't put yourself into that position, then the pressure is going to become great because you know. internally that you're not really prepared for the, for the situation at hand. I also love a little bit of nervous energy. I don't think you can perform at your best if you're so overconfident that you're thinking, Oh yeah, I got this. I'm coming into this meeting. Yeah, I'm the, I'm the smartest man in the room. I know exactly everything that you're going to throw to me now. That's. You're in trouble in that situation as well. Understand the ramifications at hand. Understand that you've put yourself in the best possible position to perform. It's interesting then how the pressure seems to go away to a degree. I think you, like I said, you still have to have that little bit of nervous energy. You have to have that, that little bit in the back of your mind that I got to get this right. I did things sometimes to, to help alleviate pressure, which a lot of sports psychologists disagreed with. But then when I explained it to them, they, they understood what I was doing. I liked to have an image of failure in my head. I like to tell myself, Hey, if you don't concentrate on this little ball, this shot that isn't difficult. And it goes through your hands and it goes through your legs. What does that feel like? Does that sharpen the focus to make sure that I do take every little thing. I don't take it for granted that I concentrate wholly on, on a thing. So if I was going to translate it into a Salesforce. What happens when I go into a room and I don't have the answer that the guy's looking for and why do I not have the answer that he's looking for? Did I not do the work that I needed to do to prep for this match? And put in your head what does that feel like? What does that feel like to not be prepared? To not have the answer to the question. So that before I go in, I checked all the boxes that I needed to check. So I understood what that felt like and I wasn't going to have to deal with that feeling because I was that little bit more prepared than I thought I was. That's really interesting because I have a variety of business leaders, athletes like yourself, high performing individuals that are in a high stress, high stakes environment and 90 to 95 percent Do not say what you just did relative to mental checklist and visualization. It's 95 percent of the time getting the gold medal winning. I love, yeah, maybe visualize that. Think about that, but what is the outcome? If I'm not successful to your point, I think that's more powerful. Well, I think it resharpens because like I said, there's a problem with overconfidence. And I think we've all seen that in athletes in particular, because it's what you see on TV. You don't see the CEO go into the meeting and act like an arrogant ass because it's just not public information, but you've seen plenty of athletes look like arrogant asses. And then when it bounces off his hands and he loses the touchdown catch or goes through the goalkeeper's legs or the striker doesn't score the goal that he should have scored. And you've seen him prancing around. like a complete idiot for months, then you're like, then that's when they come down on you. I think if you have that humility to say to yourself, yes, look, I know I have to have a level of hubris to perform at the level that I performed at to get to where I've got to, but also I think have a level of humility to be able to say, you know what? I'm not going to perform every time at the peak and that, but, but how can I visualize to make sure That I understand that, that I understand that I'm not superhuman. I'm not something that is unobtainable. That, have that humility, show that, at least in your own head, and then refocus yourself. Why have you seen that with boxers so often? They do great, great, great, then they get knocked out, and they're done. Because they put themselves in this mind frame that I am invincible. Well, no, you're not invincible. And if you do make a mistake, And you do get caught, you can recover from it. And I think sometimes when you put yourself in this level of invincibility, it's just a fallacy that that's unobtainable and you will be found out. And then you have to start over again. Interesting. Casey, athletes constantly work on improving their skills. How do you approach continuous improvement and how can sales people adopt a similar mindset? So the, the old cliche for professional athletes is you play to your strengths, but you work on your weaknesses. Look, everybody knows. I mean, you look at every, it doesn't matter. Pick a sport. Every pro athlete has that one thing that is why they're in the team. Now, can they do two or three other things that keep them in the team? But there always has to be that one thing that, okay, this is what you are. And you're really good at this sets you apart from everybody else. And these are the other things. And then you think, well, maybe he's not quite as good at this. Okay. I'm going to work on that. But then I'm not going to forget what my strength is. That is my strength. And I think so what you're always trying to do is you're always trying to get that little bit better. Those little percentages, but you still have to rely. On what got you there in the first place. And I think sometimes people forget that they get told something and they say, well, I wish you were better at this. So then I focus a hundred percent on that. And I forget what I'm actually really good at, which got me here in the first place. So always kind of look for those little tools that you think you can improve on. And you know, is it communication? Is it, is it reliability? Is it, you know, what are those things that is kind of held you back from getting to that next level? Continue to be the person that got you there in the first place, but then always saying, okay, where can I go here? What can I do there? And then as you become more and more experienced, your strengths become that much more stronger and then your weaknesses become that little bit less. But don't think you're going to become something that you weren't from the beginning. Cause look, every pro athlete has to start with one thing, and that's a genetic ability to be really good at the specific task at hand for that job. in that pro sport. You look at some of the greatest quarterbacks ever. They don't have the physical attributes that the wide receiver has, that the linebacker has at this. So you, so he can't say, well, I know I only ran a five, three 40, but I'm going to show you on the best scrambling quarterback there ever was. Well, no, you probably needed to run a four, four 40 to be able to do that. So. Improve on the little pieces. Yes. Can I scramble a little better than maybe I could because I'm that much better at recognizing because of the experience of having 50, 60, 100 professional games where then I can move in different areas. But I can't do what this other guy does and vice versa. If that guy's always relied on his physical ability to get himself out of tricky circumstances, he then can't say, okay, I'm going to be a five step quarterback and be able to throw from the pocket because that's not who I am. Can I get better at throwing in the pocket? Can I get better at scrambling if that's not my main thing? But I still have to rely on what my strength is. And so you're always trying to find it. Now, does it mean you seek to find the person that can help you? Is it self recognition? Is it whatever it is that needs to improve your weaknesses? Fantastic. But then continue to rely on your strength. Excellent. Casey, how do you handle setbacks or how did you handle setbacks or losses in professional soccer? And what advice would you give to salespeople dealing with rejection or lost deals? Because there are a lot of deals that go south that they don't win. You put time, energy, focus. So how did you deal with that rejection? And what advice would you give to salespeople dealing with rejection or lost deals? You know why a lot of universities and employers like people that played team sports is because they had to deal with loss. Because they had to understand that nobody's ever played a sport and and have never lost. You always have to deal with loss. That's why I call it winning and losing. It's not just winning. Nobody ever just wins. And so when you're in a work environment and you're in a situation where You've had to deal with that. It's much easier than the person that, Oh, I've only always got A's. I've only always done this. I've never had to deal with setbacks. If you're in sports, you're always dealing with setbacks. That's just part of the way it is. And you have to recognize. You know, kind of how you prepare for that. So I think first and foremost, what you look at, and this is what, you know, I think most players look at within a team environment is, okay, did I do what I was asked within the team environment? Did I do everything that I could to help us win a game, get a draw? for a successful outcome. And I think that's, if you take that into a sales environment and you say, again, we talked about the mental side, the physical side, the stuff like that. If I have prepared myself to give myself the best opportunities to close this deal. Circumstances come about. Maybe it wasn't the right time for that company. Maybe it just wasn't quite the right product that they were looking for. There's a whole bunch of things, but did I do everything I possibly could to put myself in that position to close that deal? And then it's being able to get feedback as well and finding out, okay, if I didn't, then what were the circumstances that I could have improved on? To possibly make sure that this doesn't happen again. Look, we have everything now. We have a ton of data analytics. We have obviously replays. We have, you know, you go back, you watch the tape, you do everything and you sit back and you go back and you go. Okay, did I put myself, was my angle right, was my footwork right, or in the end, was the case where another world class athlete did something that was better than what I could have possibly physically been able to do. In goalkeeping, we talk about the different situations when we concede a goal. And we call it, could I have saved it, should I have saved it, and no chance was I ever going to save it. And so you kind of analyze that, and you look and you say, Okay, yeah, maybe I could have been a little bit here or yeah, I didn't quite get the strong enough step on that to give myself an opportunity to make the save. Was my hand position wrong? Whatever. And then, oh yeah, that was a mistake. I should have saved that. I completely messed up on that goal. And then it was, everything was right. I did everything I could have done. And it was just, it was just a great shot. And I think if you analyze kind of situations based on that, when you go into a meeting that was either successful or unsuccessful, you will, you kind of look at it and say, okay, what could I have done better? What should I have done better? And then, you know what, I put a really good presentation together here and it just wasn't right for the timing of the company that I went to and, and, and a bunch of different external situations that just, that just didn't align at that time. Great. A couple more questions and we'll wrap this up. Casey, how do you think the discipline required in professional sports compares to the self discipline needed to succeed in sales? Again, we've touched on this a little bit throughout, you know, the, the different questions. But discipline is extremely, extremely important to success in, in anything you're doing in a marriage, in school, in, in, in whatever else, look, we all have a talent, whatever that talent is. I think, I think every person has something that if they recognize and they cultivate that they have a, an opportunity of being successful at whatever level. makes sense for whatever occupation you decide to go into. But if you don't have discipline, they say discipline isn't when to getting yourself out to do whatever you're supposed to do when you feel good. Discipline is when you don't want to do it and you still make yourself go do what you need to do. As a pro athlete, you're treated really like a 10 year old. Really? Unpack that for me. I wouldn't have think that. Be here when I tell you to be here. Eat when I tell you to eat. Work out when I tell you to work out. Leave when I tell you to leave. Be here again when I tell you to be here. You have no, basically, personal accountability in anything. Everything is organized for when you need to be there. Now you, okay. Now the level of discipline that comes is I'm supposed to be a training an hour and a half before training comes. I have to be on the training pitch at this particular time. So you have to have enough discipline to be able to hit all those things. Now to get to that point, and we've all seen it, we've all seen guys. It truly, truly blows me away. is you have guys that have all the ability in the world. All of it. I knew guys, Doug, that would be late for the time they needed to come to training, late for the time they needed to be on the pitch, late for the team meeting, after they were late to the team meal. Now, you have to have so much ability for them to be able to deal with that, but they can't wait for the moment that somebody's better than you are to get rid of you. And those are just little, you know, those are examples from, from pro athletes, but I'm going to go back to, you know, how I got to be a pro athlete because there is so many external influences out there trying to stop you from doing whatever you're doing. And when you're starting talking about the elite of the elite, you have to be, I think first and foremost, discipline has to be number one. I'm going to go back to high school. So everybody, you know, okay, there's a party here. There's, there's this, there's, you know, I didn't, I didn't drink. I'm not saying that, that, you know, I'm not saying that just because, because I still think having a beer with your friends or whatever else isn't a big deal, but it is the discipline to be able to say it's Friday night. I've got training on Saturday morning. And I got a match on Sunday, but I still want to be social with my friends. Can I go out? Can I go to a party? Can I be social? Can I have a bottle of water instead of five beers? Can I then go home at a reasonable hour? Can I get a good night's sleep? Can I be ready for training in the morning? Then Saturday night comes along and my friends said, Hey, there's there. Let's let's get together here. Okay, I can come out because I'm disciplined enough to know that I'm not going to drink. That I'm going to leave at the proper time, that I'm going to get home to have a good night's sleep, so I can perform at the best on the match on Sunday. Oh, heck, it's just a stupid practice on Saturday. I can have some beers and come out and I was And still be able to perform and then I can go out again and I mean, this game's not a big deal. This team's not very good. My team's great. I can do it. I was speaking at one stage with a friend of mine had become the, the manager of the U S under 20 national team. And he was trying to get some of the X players to come in at different times and, and kind of coach and speak. And, you know, and so he asked me one time after dinner, if, you know, if you could, you know, kind of talk to the, talk to the. The kids. And I remember talking to the kids and I'm saying, Hey, look, I said, you guys bar, you know, maybe five to 10 guys that are either through injury or just weren't available for this camp or whatever, you know, are the best 19, 20 year olds in the country. But understand there's not a more ruthless profession in the world than pro sports. I said, because there's guess what? Two more years. There's another group of 18, 19 year olds who are the best 18, 19 year olds. And now you're going to go from this stage to try to make it to the next level. And do you understand that enable for you to be successful and to fulfill your dreams, you have to crush his every day. You crush his dreams because the day you don't crush his dreams, he crushes yours. And if you don't give yourself the discipline to be every day at practice to be better to not let that player get one over on you, because as soon as he gets it over on you, your dreams over and it is, it's a, it's a, it's a really, really difficult mindset. And I, I, I, the thing that I struggle with Doug is, is the guys that have, and, and, and women that have. So much ability, but just can't get out of their own way. They just can't say, you know what? I don't need to that be at that party until 2am the night before practice. I can go there. I can be social. I can go home at 11. I can have a glass of wine and I can come back and I can get a good night's sleep. And I can make sure that nobody crushes my dream the next day. But much easier said than done. And it's no different from going out. If you're always fighting to, to be. In the best situation, guess what? Somebody who's put themselves in a better position is going to take your job away. Is going to take that promotion is going to take the boss is going to say, wait a minute. I don't know exactly why, but I feel like he's better. At this account that is going to make me higher commissions that is going to different things because the level of discipline to put yourself in a better position, not just on the day of the sales pitch, but in everything that leads up to it to know that you're in a better position. And, you know, I mean, when, when you get older in pro sports, a lot of times what happens is your contracts get more incentivized because basically what the club saying is, is, is, look, we can pay you a big, we can pay you a good salary, but what we don't want to do is you don't pay somebody that's injured. The whole time. So when they start incentivizing your contract for how many games you play and that you're fit and that you're doing all these things, well, at the same time, you know that because of who you are and what you are and what you've done and what you've become, you're going to be on a much bigger salary, probably base salary than the young kid who's trying to take your job away. So what happens if I don't come into training every day? Now, we already talked about that. I don't get judged. I don't get judged on what I do in training. I get judged on the 90 minutes of the match that I played at. But where I am judged is I'm judged by the coaches and I'm judged by my teammates every day in training. And if I'm getting beat every day in training by this young kid who's making a quarter of the salary that I'm on, And another several, you know, hundreds of thousands of more dollars based on my appearance fees and, and my performance bonuses. You don't think that club wants to get rid of me and pay this kid for the next couple of years that's making significantly less than I am? I can't give them an excuse. So, okay, everyone knows I'm not going to have a great game every time I play. So I'm still being judged by the match. And if you want to put it in sales, I'm being judged by how I close. by how I make the sale. But if every day the bosses see that this kid is looking better, the minute you don't close, they can't wait to get rid of you to put this other person in and save money. So that's why you always make sure every day you come in, you're performing and you're putting yourself in a position to perform excellent. Casey, two last questions. One, what's the most important lesson you've learned from your athletic career that you think would be valuable for our listeners and sales professionals? I think we touched a lot upon is putting yourself in a position to perform day in and day out. Don't give anybody an excuse. Because you were unprepared, because you were unprofessional, because you were more interested in something else that distracted away from the task at hand. So, put yourself in an environment that gives you the best opportunity to succeed. I said in multiple interviews, I never ever would have had the success that I had if I hadn't had the stable family life off the pitch, the more consistent you are off the pitch, the more consistent you are on the pitch, and I don't think it's any different than in a workforce, how consistent you are away from work can make it make your work life that much more consistent. If everything is all over the place in your life and you're juggling a hundred different things over here, how can you be focused over here? So find out how to be as stable as possible, because if you're completely in this crazy world, how do you think your work life isn't going to be? Excellent. Casey, one last question. As we end our podcast, you've got a dinner reservation tomorrow for four. You're one of the guests and you can invite three other guests to have dinner with the alive, past, present, dead. Who would those individuals be and why? I've had to say this a few times in different things and At one time, I think I said something, you know, like, let's bring, you know, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed and get this all thing sorted, this whole religious thing sorted out and in one dinner conversation, you know, I think what's really difficult, Doug, is if you have a very well rounded, do I want to sit down with With past soccer stars, I've sat down a lot of my life at dinners with soccer stars. I've been fortunate enough to go to state dinners at the White House. I've been fortunate enough to do crazy stuff like fly with the Blue Angels and then have them over at my house for a barbecue. I got rock star friends. I got movie star friends. I don't try to label anything. I always look at it and I look at it and go, you know what? The next three people I have dinner with are the most important three people I'm having dinner with. I'm not looking to, oh wow, I got to meet this person or I got to meet, maybe I come from environment because I've had so many of those cool situations that it doesn't, uh, I'm not like searching it out, but then at the same time. I've been in environments with heads of state with very famous people and I think, you know what, that person's really nice. I'll have dinner with them again. And if I never see this person again, the rest of my life, I could care less how famous they are because they're an ass. I don't want to spend any time with them. So I'm, I'm happy to spend time with someone famous. Someone not famous. Someone Wealthy, someone not wealthy, you know what, if it's three people I'm having a good time with, then it's three people I'm having a good time with. Well said. Casey, thanks for, for being a guest. Our guest has been Casey Keller, a superstar in the soccer slash football world, and now an ESPN commentator. Casey, thanks for your time. Great takeaways. I think for me, so much has resonated. By the way, I really liked, and I had top of mind, like And Djokovic, those sports figures that have their suspicions, but I love not implying that they have that, but suspicions are for the ill prepared, but great relating your professional soccer career to a professional sales athlete, mental preparedness, mental toughness, discipline. Thanks for your time. Bestsellers. Podcast nation, please check us out at salescoach. us forward slash podcast. Good luck, good selling and carpe diem. If you made it all the way here, thank you for listening to the best sellers podcast, your ultimate destination for winning sales strategy. We hope you love this episode. Be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and follow us on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode. See you on the next one.