Brian Sexton mixed
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[00:00:00] In 1994, the Jacksonville Jaguars were awarded an NFL expansion team, and one of their very first moves was to hire the youngest ever NFL Play-by-Play announcer Brian Sexton. We're talking one of 32 positions currently in the NFL Brian's called more than 400 professional football games. He's hosted more than a. Thousand coaches, radios and television shows. But Brian's not just a radio voice. Brian's story today, you're gonna see is about finding your frequency, your clarity, and your vision. When things change in your life, when that dream job is taken away from you, and you have to put yourself back together and figure out what you're gonna do and who you're gonna be.
Welcome back to the What More podcast. I'm your host, Quinton Harris. Today I'm joined by a very special guest, Mr. Brian Sexton, voice, former voice of the Jacksonville Jaguars. To me, you'll always be the voice of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh, thank you. But I'm very excited to have you on the show today.
Well, I'm excited to be here. Um, no one's ever called me a special guest, so I'm feeling pretty good right outta the gate. Quinton, thanks for having me. Yeah, [00:01:00] welcome. Thanks for being here. And you know, there's a couple things about this. I wanna establish this route. The gate, we're talking one of 32. Yeah.
Like this is really, you know, I had a former coach on here and one of three, two, when you let that sit in for a minute, I just want the audience take that in as we get started. This is, this is not your everyday job that we're about to talk about? No. Or career that we're about to talk about? No, no, and I, and, and to, to underline that.
I got it. At age 25, I. And I got it with an eight man high school football tape where I was the play-by-play announcer and the analyst. And I read my own commercials that I had sold earlier in the week, live in the rain in southeastern Kansas. The thought when I turned that tape over to Mr. Weaver when he asked for one that that would ultimately lead me to an NFL job.
Well, it was beyond comprehension that it did, so it's just. If you work hard and you take advantage of every opportunity. 'cause that night I was climbing the water tower in Erie, Kansas to hang my antenna, to stand in a crow's nest and call two eight man high school football teams. I never thought that would get me the [00:02:00] job.
I hope that the, the learning experience would, but I didn't know that that tape would directly get me there. So it was one of 32 and it was, to me, the most interesting of circumstances and I've. I've been blessed. I've really enjoyed the experience. Yeah, I can tell how much, how much it's meant to you. You know, I've heard you talk before and that's why I'm excited to kind of get into this, but something that I think is interesting for our audience, because we talking eight on eight, like in Florida, we think like that's spring football, you know, pop, this is high school football, eight on eight in, in in Kansas, and you had to, I mean, talk about the depths of what you had to do.
Climb water, tower in the rain, do your own commercials, you know, that just kinda speaks to. Start, you know, and, and what, and a lot of times I always joke with people that are, that are new or getting hired, it's like, you know, if you wanna be the chairman of an organization, you can't just be hired in and then a year later, you know, you're the chairman or you're the president of the organization.
It takes time to build up. And I know from your past, you were, you were doing this for quite some time. Free. Oh, 100%. Listen, listen you, when I was in college, I drove my parents crazy because I was going to Topeka or to [00:03:00] Kansas City and Lawrence for people who were geographically, uh, unfamiliar with the, the middle part of the country.
Lawrence was right in between. Mm-hmm. And I, I mean, I was just putting money into my car and buying my own dinner, but I wouldn't, I wanted to intern at. Two stations at the same time, because I figured if I was willing to do twice as much as the average intern, as the average college student, someone would see that, right?
Well, it, it led me to a little 3000 watt daytime radio station in Chino, Kansas. So clearly nobody saw it, but I walked away with the experience and with the knowledge that if I was gonna make it. In broadcasting, I was going to have to be the reason why. It wasn't just gonna be talent. It wasn't going to be somebody making me.
It was going to be me taking my talent, crafting it, figuring out what I did wrong, refiguring it, and going. Yeah. And you know what's interesting about this next portion? You don't have to be a Jaguar fan to appreciate what we're about to talk about. Yeah. Maybe you're an NFL fan. Maybe you're just a sports fan, enthusiast in general.
Maybe you love radio, but this part right here, [00:04:00] I love this part. So Jacksonville gets announced, an expansion team. Yes. And this was in 1990. Well, they were awarded the the, the Jaguars, November 30th, 1993. 93, which I have to just quick aside. That was the day that I had a non-compete from one station to another in Wichita, Kansas.
Um, long story, but that was the day my non-compete ended, and I could go back on the air in Wichita. So it's a meaningful day for me. Right. So it's a, you're making a decision of which way you're gonna go. You bet. Jacksonville's announced this, you come in now, when you tell this story, you are such, it's such ground level.
You are a part with the owners, with Mr. Weaver. Right. With the family, with the NFL out of a trailer. Trailers. Trailers were hitched together, and when you got inside, you know, you could go seamlessly between the trailers and it felt like you were in an office. But you know, I walked outta the trailer every day thinking this is an interesting place to go to work.
Right? What I like to tell people, Quinton, is I watched a stadium, a team, and a city. Grow together in that 1994 to early [00:05:00] 1995 window. Because when I got there, I think there were 18 or 19 employees. There were a couple of coaches, there were a couple people in marketing. Mr. And Mrs. Weaver were around there.
Um, but there were no players. Right, right. I mean, there was, there was no players. Uh, and it very had a skeletal coaching staff that Tom Coughlin had gotten there. Mm-hmm. So I watched that grow and, and obviously players were added shortly afterwards. The stadium was under construction. When I first arrived here, it was the Upper West Deck, and that was it.
It was a mud pile. And so literally, I kind of know where everything is in that studio because I watched it go up and I walked it every day. Right. Well, I mean, you could tell that you are attached to this team from the ground level. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And, and I mean, if you can't hear that by now in this episode, you know, rewind it and play it back because you absolutely are the, you know, you are part of the Jacksonville Jaguars at this point, and you're watching it grow.
Yeah. And then you have the opportunity to, I wouldn't say audition, but basically audition to be the voice of the Jaguars by turning in that tape that you were describing earlier, to find out who was gonna be the voice. Well, [00:06:00] so. When I came here, it was against the wishes of my parents. My dad said to me that, that broadcasting is a job for people with talent, Brian.
So I was, listen, I wasn't willing to, to take my teeth off that bone and Okay. And, and my dad is one of my best friends. Uh, and, and we laugh about it to this day. And I, and I, I don't think he was trying to motivate me. I think he was trying to scare me right into finding another career. He wanted me to go somewhere where I could sell something and raise a family.
And at the time that. And man, listen, I'm in my early twenties. That sounded boring to me, right? Mm-hmm. What sounded exciting to me was crafting a broadcasting career and building something. So I came down here and they said, Hey, what would you think about doing our sports show in the afternoon? Done right?
Hey, what would you think about doing the Tom Coughlin show in the fall of 1994? Done. I didn't ask what time the show was. I didn't ask how much I was going to be paid, which by the way, it was zero, right? Um, I just asked. When do we start? Right? And I was [00:07:00] so, desperate's the wrong word, uh, determined, driven.
But there was some desperation there. And I think I. In professional football, that hunger, that desperation is what makes a person great. Mm-hmm. You have to have that. And I had it. And so they asked me for a tape what, but my opportunity, Quinton was getting in front of Tom Kauflin every Thursday night and doing my best to do a show that he felt was worthy of his time.
Because if you know anything about Tom Coughlin, um, and he's a terrific human being, a wonderful man. Um. Tom put a premium on every second counting. Hmm. So when you were gonna do a radio show with Tom, you better be prepared. Right? We would meet for an hour on Wednesday to talk about what we were gonna talk about for 55 minutes.
On Thursday night. Now that was before we had players and he had time to make to talk about those things. But I came out every Thursday night ready to go and it was [00:08:00] that moment right where the Jaguar said, Hey, this is a young guy, has a little vocal talent. Um, maybe we should investigate him being the play-by-play guy.
I had no reason to think they would ever ask me. They had a hundred tapes from guys who had called USC and the University of Cincinnati and the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, they had. Big time broadcasters because it was the 30th NFL franchise. It was in North Florida, which is very appealing. But there's at the time, one of 30.
So a lot of people wanted it. There's no way I expected to get the opportunity, but it did. It came. It came and it happened. You know, I did. And the thing that I want our audience to take away here, and this is a topic that we get all the time on our YouTube channel all the time on our socials, is this ideology that I do all the work, but you know, the executives yield all the return.
And why would I work harder? I. Why would I put in more energy and effort if I'm not getting paid for that extra energy and effort? And I love this story because it's the exact answer that each person should [00:09:00] listen to. It's equity, right? It's equity. I, I may have been an employee of the Jaguars, but I was really an employee of Brian Sexton Inc.
Mm-hmm. And I try to tell, especially high school kids. You will always work for yourself. Hundred percent. Even if the revenue stream comes from someone else, right? Right. You will always be your own employee, and when you look at it that way, you are building something every day. You have equity in the product, which you and you will go forward.
And create more opportunities beyond just the job that you have. If your mindset is, it's about me being the best version of me. Now, it sounds selfish to some people in today's day and age, but when I say it's about me, good or bad, right? Positive or negative, um, equity or man, I got, I gotta pay somebody this month, right?
I own it. I own what works, I own what doesn't. I own what people like and I own what people don't like. Mm-hmm. That's always been my mindset. Yeah. I love that. And I, I, again, just, I hope the audience really kind of hones in on that, that that [00:10:00] tidbit right there, because that's real important. In today's world, we don't see a lot of that anymore.
Yeah. And you know, some people argue about this in entitlement generation that may be out there, or they may say, Hey, I'm not entitled. I just think people want me to do more and pay me less. And there's a big. There's a big push pull there. We see it all the time on our channels. People arguing about this and kind of stating their claim.
But you know, I love this because this isn't a story, uh, a fairy tale. This is a story of hard work effort that got and yielded a result. I just want to serve the audience to understand that, because I think that's really important. Let me add something to it. Um, when I was a senior at ku. I went to St.
Louis, which is where my family's from, and spent a couple of days on spring break. Mm-hmm. With family and friends, and was talking to an aunt of mine about my dreams and aspirations. She knew that my dad was no big proponent of me being a broadcaster, and she and my dad were just antagonizing each other enough that she said, you know what, Bob Costas lives around the corner and his son Keith is in Kelly, my cousin's kindergarten class.
Let's go knock on his door. Right, [00:11:00] so Bob Costas looked at my resume and he called my dad. He didn't mean to call my dad. He was meaning to call me, but I was in Lawrence and I had my parents' address and phone number, and he called my dad and said, I think your son has an opportunity. Um, tell him I called my dad, asked him a few questions back and forth.
You have to be willing to knock on doors where you think no one will answer you in order to give you that opportunity to either be told no or yes. Bob told me I don't have a job for you. Right? I've got some advice that I can help lead you. Don't be scared to go into radio and as opposed to tv. Um. And, and, and along the way what I learned was that the best of the best, Bob Costas, who went to KMOX radio from Syracuse University almost overnight.
Right? Right. Um, when people said to him, gosh, you're young. How did you get here? You didn't pay your dues. He said, nobody ever asked me. To pay my dues. Nobody ever said I had to pay dues to take my [00:12:00] talent and put it to work, and that was the way I approached it as well, when people would say, you're young, you haven't paid your dues, you don't deserve this job.
I looked at them and said, I have the job because I was willing to pay dues that you don't know anything about. I'm willing to go to Hannu, Kansas, right. And Wichita, Kansas, and leave one job for another, which involved me working in a chicken restaurant to pay my bills. Right. When my twin brother's in law school, no one sees that and No, no.
And my mom and dad are saying, why don't you go back to school? Go to school? Like your brother. Right. Your brother's married. I had two girlfriends. Right. I mean, I just wasn't. I was not all put together, but because I was so focused on what I wanted, I was willing to look forward and look past where I was to get to where I wanted to be.
And that's the lesson for young people. Knock on doors, ask questions. Don't worry about what other people say, but if you have a vision for yourself, and you and I talked about this when we met a couple of weeks ago, if you have a very clear vision for who you are, where you wanna go, and how you intend to get there.
You can get there, it's gonna [00:13:00] change. Mm-hmm. It always does. Yeah. Life intervenes. But I set out on that path with a very clear vision of what I wanted, and that's why I'm here today. Yeah. Well, I took two things away from that, and there's a lot to unpack right there, but the two things I took, if you're listening, number one, I.
Advice is just as good as an opportunity. Are you willing to listen to the advice? Yeah. And then number two is it doesn't matter what your age is, it matters Are you willing to put in to get what you want out of it? And I love, I love that right there. Yeah. I love it. Well, the age thing has gone away in recent years because of all the young tech billionaires.
Sure. Who had good ideas. I mean, Steve Jobs had not. Had not reached the level of success with Apple by the time I graduated from college in 1991. But now, dues, time, age, none of that matters. Do you have a good idea? Do you have a dream? And do you have the drive to go and do it? Yeah. Do you have the work ethic that, so back to that dream, you become, you become the voice of the jaguars, you know, and you're.
On campus per se. Yeah. You're in, you're involved in the day-to-day, so as you're, as you're doing this inaugural year kicks off, you're going and, and you're [00:14:00] there for 20 plus years after that. You know, I've heard a lot of the stories. I've heard of a lot of the things. Obviously I think you are very, very, uh, near and dear to Tom Coughlin.
You guys have a wonderful relationship. I'm grateful for that. How about you and the players? What was the relationship like with you and the players throughout the years? That's a great question. It's an interesting one because when we first got started. Um, I was just about the same age as Tony Belli.
Okay. Who was the first ever draft pick And I can remember, I. I went in on Sunday morning. The draft back then was Saturday and Sunday, and I went in on Sunday morning and somebody said, Hey, you know, Bally's already here. Grab the camera and the microphone. We gotta go interview him. And I'm like, where's the weight room again?
Right. I mean, we, we hadn't even moved into the stadium fully, right? We were still in the trailers partway. And I remember running and, and dodging, you know, equipment and boxes and, oh, we're here at the weight room and I walked in and here's. Tony Belli, who is now Hall of Famer, you know, six foot seven, and Angie, who was a Miss California candidate, you know, flowing blonde locks.
Just a, a gorgeous woman. And the two of [00:15:00] them are standing and I'm just a little bit older than them, but here they are at the top of the world and I'm thinking, I'm never getting anything in common with these guys, right? They're never gonna have to worry about paying a bill. Mm-hmm. Uh, they're never have to worry about whether they've got enough money for groceries that month.
You know? I didn't think that they would be very relatable. Now, you know, fast forward 30 years, Tony's a dear friend and very relatable because he's had his share of successes and failures and they've helped shape who he, who he is. So over the years I looked at them, first of all, as a peer, 'cause I was the same age.
Mm-hmm. And then as I got older and they got younger, all of a sudden, well I had some more wisdom to offer these guys. Right. Um, and now I'm 55 and the average player's 25. Right, right. Um, the relatability. Kind of goes away because they're young and they're on social media and, and they're even, you know, the lowest, uh, undrafted, rookie free agent makes a half a million dollars Mm.
You know, walking right in the door. So there's a lot of money on the [00:16:00] table, and, and I don't leave the same lifestyle. So. It went from a lot of these guys who were very close friends and those guys who were very close friends, still are close friends today. You know, James Stewart has Studio 33 right around the corner from here.
He was the other first round pick in that inaugural season. Little man running back from Tennessee. Absolutely. Uh, you know, Tom McManus is, is doing this media thing, this podcasting thing with team Tommy Mack. Mm-hmm. And, and we were out one night and he had a. Bunch of former players there, and I just said, you know, getting old isn't that bad.
That's, yeah, because it's the opportunity to share memories and stories and laughter and relive some of those moments. So, pardon me, I went way off course with your question, but the relationship with the player started as. Peers, friends and has grown into, then there are some guys that that will say, Hey, what do you think about this?
Did you see that story? What's your perspective on it? Because they know that I have seen every game, the Jaguars they've ever played, and I've been in the league for 30 years and in that locker room for 30 years, know every player, know every coach, know every equipment guy and [00:17:00] trainer and strength and conditioning guy who's ever been through there.
So there's a, a, a, a. Pardon, if this sounds braggadocio, there's a font of knowledge mm-hmm. And a fair bit of wisdom that I can offer them. Sure. Um, and it's interesting for me to look back at where I was and where I am so Well, you have a lay of the land that most people don't have. Right. And you understand everything you just described.
And, you know, the relatability is, I think was clutch. And as the years went on, let me ask you this, how did media change? I mean, obviously it's, it's, we all know how it changed. Yeah. But I mean, you used to be, and your position used to be how players were introduced. Outside of tv. Yeah. Now with social media, the introduction starts from the day they're announced at the podium or if they're traded or how they're brought into the organization.
Did did radio start to become further down that line? It did, and it start to become, now, I don't like the word irrelevant. That's not the word I wanna use, but did become not as popular because the players felt they could take stuff into their own hands. Listen, I'm a radio guy. Mm-hmm. Okay. I grew up listening to KMOX 1120 on your AM dial.
Um. [00:18:00] Uh, it's one of the, the most powerful stations in America. Okay. Uh, it's a 50,000 watt clear channel station. I'm, I'm saying this guy used to listen to the Blues Games and Jack Buck and Dan Kelly call, uh, that was Cardinal Games. Dan Kelly called the Blues Games. Um, I grew up as a radio guy. I, I tell you that so that you understand when I say that radio is.
Almost irrelevant. Um, it is, yeah. We live in an on demand world, right? Mm-hmm. It started on a box on your television where you could go watch things that you recorded, and now it's all about podcasts like this, right? Right. Even the radio broadcasters, I. Who have radio shows every day, turn it into a podcast.
Absolutely Put it on social media, and that's where most people listen. We've gone away from the appointment, right? I'm gonna go listen to this show at four o'clock in the afternoon to, I'll listen to that show when I leave the office at six 30 on my way home. I plug my phone into my car, I hit podcast, and away we go.
So it pains me as somebody who, when I first moved to Jacksonville. Rigged up in antenna in my [00:19:00] garage in Atlantic Beach so that I could listen to ca OX in the summer. Right. Wow. Because it gave me that flavor from home that I missed. Sure. And I could pick it up. That's how powerful it is. Wow. Uh, but it's not, it's not the same business anymore.
Um, so that's, that's the first thing that stands out to me. The second is, you mentioned players. It used to be a player would show up and they were football player. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, that's not the case anymore. They show up and they're almost already a multimedia. Superstar's not the right word, but personality.
And personality, right. There are players that have shown up in Jacksonville in recent years with their own production team, right? Who will, I believe it chronicle them? The Jaguars. It was, it was the rookie season of Trevor Lawrence. This is 2021. And the Jaguars had signed Marvin Jones, the wide receiver, who, uh, came outta Syracuse and played for the Bengals and the Lions, and Marvin called a couple of the other receivers, and they all went up to a lake.
In Carolina where Trevor hosted them and they got to know each other. It was a bonding experience. Okay. People can find it if they [00:20:00] Google, you know, Trevor Lawrence, you know, rookie season Lakehouse, and it was a bonding experience. Well, that's the kind of thing that the Jaguars would've sent, you know, five cameras to.
And, and spent a lot of time and effort to chronicle it so that we would have the story to tell mm-hmm. In all of our shows across every platform. But we didn't get invited. Why? And, and I'm not bitter about this, by the way. Sure. 'cause Marvin Jones has his own production company. So Marvin brought his own cameras up and they used it to their advantage on their social media channels to promote each other.
They didn't need me or the Jaguar's cameras to tell their story. They were gonna do it their own way. That's how media's changed, because now you have a microphone and a venue for yourself to be able to tell your story. You gotta go build an audience, which you've done right? But you can do that through social media.
When I first came outta college, I had to go work for a radio station or a TV station, or a newspaper somewhere that had a printing press or a transmitter and a license. Now [00:21:00] 'cause of my phone, right? Because of of podcasting, I can become a multimedia. You know, millionaire overnight if I have a good idea and I know how to monetize it.
And players have figured that out. So that's how media has really changed. What I see is this personality persona is worth more than the actual player on the field. Yeah.
And you know, what I also hear is that you had a career. You've had a career. Well, it changed on you. You know, we had some pivots in there and you had to adapt. And a lot of people, they get really, really set in their ways. They're having success, they don't wanna change. Right. But the environment around them is changing.
Yeah. And when you fail to change with that environment or pivot or move or adapt, it's gonna pass you by. Well, I didn't do a very good job of it at first. Um, you know, you mentioned I had 20 years as the voice of the Jaguars, and in 2014, if I can take my own narrative for a minute. Mm-hmm. Uh, the Jaguars had a new owner.
And they had a new radio station and they made a change. Now they found a way to include me. They didn't want me to [00:22:00] go anywhere. They appreciated my historical attachment to the franchise, the presence that I had built in the market, and the historical significance that I could bring having seen every game.
Um, and I still, you know, I do a couple of radio shows a week. They're actually, now I should know that I do the preseason, telecast. I do a lot of different things, but I, I didn't. It, it took, I struggled, you know, mentally, I, I had put my identity into the voice of the Jaguars, um, and it was removed and I, I, I didn't intend for it to be, um, it was not my intention for that to ever change.
Um, so you had an identity change? Yeah, I did. And I, I struggled with it. And I, I told you that when I moved to Florida, I brought a very specific vision. And when I was 25 years old, I could tell you exactly who I was, where I was going, and how I was gonna get there. That was 25. Mm-hmm. At 45 when the Jaguars made the change in the broadcasts.
Uh, production. I didn't all of a sudden know who I was. I wasn't sure where I was [00:23:00] going. Mm. And if I don't know where I'm going, how in the hell am I gonna get there? I wasn't sure of any of that. So I, you could call that a, an identity crisis. I, I called it a lack of vision because what happened over those 20 years is I got comfortable, ah, I love the home there.
It's the job and the city and, and everything. I loved everything about being the voice of the Jaguars I didn't want anything more. I wanted kids, and I have three, you know, almost grown sons, 18, 19, and 22. I have a beautiful wife. I'm from Kansas. I live in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Right? You can kinda understand why I might be comfortable, right?
I had an NFL job. What happened was my vision stopped growing or my original vision wasn't quite big enough, and so I was really satisfied with where I was at and when the world changed on me. I. Whoa. Okay, hold on. I found a way to rationalize in my own mind. Well, my wife is a very successful realtor. Her business took off coincidentally in 2014.
Mm-hmm. When the Jaguars made the change, [00:24:00] um, I was able to be the scoutmaster, which I wasn't when I was traveling, uh, and, and doing radio shows every evening. I was able to be the football coach a couple of nights a week. And I have boys, and I really think it's important for fathers to be on the ground, hands-on with sons.
I agree. You have a son. Mm-hmm. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Absolutely. Fathers and sons need to look each other in the eye and I was able to do that. Meanwhile, my wife's business is raging and I am learning all kinds of new things. All of a sudden I was in a locker room post game, which I had never been.
'cause I was always in the booth. I was on the sidelines during the game and that was something that was new to me. 'cause I'd always been upstairs in the booth. I was trying new things and doing new things and I just. I tried to do my best, but I did struggle with the fact that why am I not in the booth?
Yeah. Why do they have someone else instead of me? And did you feel like, did you feel like that was, I I don't wanna say like, say it. Okay. So I, I used to be at a big time lender. Yeah. And then I had to resign because they were asking me to do things I didn't wanna do. Yeah. Not illegally. Just move. Right.
Uproot my family. [00:25:00] And then I got outta this really large position. I found myself in a room. With me and about eight of the people smaller than the room we're in right now. And it was a very humbling moment for me to sit there and recognize that. Did you kind of feel that way as well? Did I feel sorry for myself?
Yeah. Yeah. That's kind. There go. No, I did. Yeah. Listen, you'll know I'm transparent. Yeah. Ask anything. I'll, I'll, I'll give you an answer whether you want it or not. Uh, yeah, no, there were times where I did Now I didn't want anyone to see that. Right. Yeah. I'm sure they did. When I, when they put me on an airplane right across the aisle from Frank who replaced me, it was hard for me.
Yeah. But, but I wanted the connection 'cause I knew it was still good for me. It was still part of who I was. And I, I deluded myself at times into thinking there, eventually they're gonna understand that I belong in that booth, but it hasn't happened so clearly I was wrong about that and I had to grow.
Mm-hmm. Through those situations, yes. There were moments where I'm like, why am I holding a microphone? On the sideline, right? I was field producing jags wired, or behind the scenes look. Mm-hmm. But here I am, I'm, I'm used to being up in the booth and I'm holding a microphone, you know, like a tech [00:26:00] guy.
Mm-hmm. Um, I'm listening to what they're saying and it, it helps me do my job to write the show that I hosted. And when I looked at it, you know, you know, globally like that, I could justify it. But on game day when I would walk by and people would say, Hey Brian, and I'd think, gosh, this is embarrassing. The people see me on the sideline holding a microphone and not being up in the booth.
Um, so yes, there, that was a very humbling. Opportunity for me. But a good friend of mine, coach named Mark Collins, who was our linebacker's coach here for a few years ago, recently shared with me a formula for success that he gives to every player he ever coaches. And now he coaches NFL officials, okay?
And he gives them the exact same formula. He's called H2O, right? And he came up with that because water is essential for life, right? He believes that humility and hunger. Plus outworking everybody. H two two O is the formula. And love that. And I, I [00:27:00] said to him, I said, why didn't you give this to me years ago?
I didn't know you needed it. Right? But, but, but the humility and the hunger returned. Um, eventually the hunger came back and I started doing the preseason telecasts and, and started to get back on my feet again. And then just recently, um, I feel like I have worked hard to get to a point where I was ready for that, that sort of next vision of life.
Yeah. Um, but for 10 years. The title of my, of my presentation is called Finding Your Frequency, right? And if you know anything about, about a radio wave, right? It's sent out by a transmitter that oscillates, um, 1 0 4 0.5 fm. And I'm, I'm saying this and I'm thinking some people are listening are like, FM m what's that?
Right? Because about radio right? Could be. Yes. So it oscillates at a frequency from the transmitter at 104 million cycles a second, right? If it's one of 4.5, which is WOKV in town, and then it's gotta be caught by a transmitter over here at the exact same frequency. So, you know. You tune in a radio? Mm-hmm.
For people who are old enough to remember that it would be static, static, static, static, and then at 1 [00:28:00] 0 4 0.3 maybe you'd start to hear the signal clearly, and then 1 0 4 0.5, boom. It was crystal clear, 1 0 4 0.7. If you go too far. Yeah, you're back to the static. Mm-hmm. I learned to dial in who I was again and where I wanted to go now, which is critical.
And then how do I get there? And I, I applied some lessons that I've learned from 30 years of being around men like Tom Kauflin and Tony Belli, right? Great coaches, great players, um, and great businessmen who've been in that building too. I don't wanna take anything away from them. I leaned into what I had learned.
And dialed in my frequency. Started to find your frequency. Yeah. I started to find it, which is is you know why I'm here today. Yeah. I dialed it in and I ended up at the Bank Theater not long ago. Impressive place, by the way. Well, thank you very much. So your move from the big bank to a room with just a few guys has turned out, I'm gonna guess, knowing you just a little bit to be a dream job.
It did. It absolutely did. [00:29:00] Absolutely. And you know the thing about finding your frequency, what I love about this is that. You doesn't have to be a radio. You know you got noise in social media today. Yeah, we got noise In the regular media, you've got noise amongst friends and family. You've gotta find your frequency, you've gotta find the clarity.
Yes. And that's what we're talking about here. Clarity of what is going to be your vision. And I love the fact that you were able to, I'm almost call what? It's, redefine yourself. Yeah. Find that clarity, find that vision. And you are so dialed in. You are locked in. And I think that, you know, no matter what age you are, what generation you're in, you're, you're either going through something right now. Yeah. You've been challenged. You either overcome it or you haven't.
Right. Most people don't. They're still dealing with it. Right. You gotta find that clarity, you gotta find that frequency. And I love this message that you have and more people need to hear it, which is why you're on here today. There's a gentleman that I had met all the years going over to London named Richard Dean. And Rich is a phenomenal sports performance coach.
Right. [00:30:00] I don't wanna just say sports psychologist. 'cause that isn't enough. He doesn't just work with the mind. He helps connect your mind to your body. Okay. Okay. He is. A gifted human being. And he said to me, you look like you could use a little help. Wow. And I said, you're very astute. So we spent hours on the side of the practice field talking about what I was trying to do.
And he said, you know, your problem is you have looked at yourself through the lens of failure. And I looked at him. I haven't thought of myself as a failure. He said, really? He said, you stayed in a place for 10 years, where every day you looked at the job that was yours at the identity that was yours at the personality that was yours, and you recognized it wasn't, and you blamed yourself.
Hmm? I said, how did you know that? He said, but you haven't been listening. Brian, you talk for a living. Shut up and listen a little bit. And that was the genesis of Finding Your Frequency. And the Jaguars franchise will always be a, a bedrock part of who I am. But I'm transitioning [00:31:00] out of that now.
Yeah. That's, that's no longer who I fundamentally am. It isn't what I do. It's just part of what I do. It's not gonna define you. No. I'm gonna redefine myself and all I had to do. Was to take the time and it does take time. Mm-hmm. To sit and think about who am I? Who am I really? What are the things that are important to me? Am I living a purposeful life as Brian Sexton?
Am I going to be who I am on purpose, as Dr. Phil likes to say? Mm-hmm. Right. Damn right. I am. Yeah. Right. And when I wrote that out and I showed it to my wife, she's like, wow, I went get to page four. Wait till you see the part about you and me and the tennis rackets. Right. I mean, it's just. It energized me and I get up every day with a sense of let's go attack the day.
The day. Right. Love that. You are one badass. Go and be badass. Own the day. Love it. And I had never, I hadn't done that in a long time. It feels good. It's good. You could tell. I wanna grab my phone. Yeah. I wanna show you something. So, um, [00:32:00] 10 years ago. In January, 2014, I was, I'm very involved with the scouts. As I told you, I was hosting, uh, our cub scout pack at Daytona for scout days. Okay. It was loud because it was the 24 hour race. They didn't stop. Gotcha. It was cold 'cause it was January.
There was no Easter going on, and there were a bunch of first, second, and third graders going around. It was a very painful weekend. I got up on Sunday morning and it was calm. May I pack my car so fast? I mean, I had the tent down. The boys in the back, my boys were seven and nine, went under the Speedway, down Speedway Boulevard, got on I 95, started heading north, called my wife, Hey, we're gonna make, uh, mass at St.
Paul's, which Jack Beach. Mm-hmm. Which I know is a place that you're fond of. Right. That's where our family goes home. So she's talking and, and I see something coming at my car. And I said, hold on a second. She goes, what? I said, there's something coming in my car. She said, what? Well, I'm gonna show you and, and maybe we can, yeah, we'll put in, put at some, we'll put in there.
Hold on. What did I just do? Uh, that's a pair of flies. Holy cow. That came through my [00:33:00] windshield. At 85 miles an hour that can came off the back of a vehicle, apparently. Must have. Right? Holy cow. The, the, the state trooper shows up and says, that's final destination kind of stuff right there. No kidding. At which point I started doing this?
Sure. Right. I mean, fight or flight syndrome. I was ready to fight for my boys. We had a sheen of glass over us. What you can't see is that those pliers were coming through my forehead. They were held into. The windshield by about an inch of the rubber grip, but they were pointed right at my forehead. If the, if the grip doesn't catch it, I'm not here today and I have an 18 and a 19-year-old whose lives were cut short.
Right. Um, we all die 'cause I roll over the car and mm-hmm. It's a bad day. I say to people, I didn't know at the time what the message was, but I sure as heck knew who the message was from. That led me on a path of discovery, right, where I realized that what, what happened was the Jaguars thing was taken out of the center of my life and God put himself in the center of my life.
That's awesome. [00:34:00] So. When I look at where I'm at right now and why I am so excited, if I had a pair of pliers and it took the pliers to get the message through, then what I'm really trying to do is tell people, you have opportunity. You have a day in front of you. Get up and attack the day. I don't mean anxiously.
Sure. I mean with energy, with enthusiasm. Don't make God send a pair of pliers through your windshield to get your attention and say, Hey, you gotta dial things in a little bit. He's got a way of doing that. Hell, it took me 10 years to get there. Yeah, right. Got a way of that. But I finally got there and those pliers are in my car today and to this day to remind me.
Love that. You are blessed to be here. Go and take the message to others about taking back their life. Man, that's fantastic.
Don't make God send the pliers for you, right? Right. Go through my story right here. It's gonna be great. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much and if you wanna take a look at that, that'll be on our YouTube channel at Watch Your One More. Check that out. It'll be in our show notes [00:35:00] as well as the next thing we're gonna talk about.
Brian, you need to get this message out to more people. I know we, we need to get beyond Jacksonville, right? So how does a listener that's listening to this, that lives anywhere in the United States, or we have listeners in New Zealand and Australia, you won't, you want to have Brian come talk to your group?
You want to help your group find their frequency, right? How do they do it? Uh, so I'm gonna be old school with you, it's [email protected]. All righty. That's the email. And if you send me an email, I promise I will reply [email protected].
You can also find [email protected], uh, on the internet. You can go there. He has everything on that website that you need to book or to get in touch with him. It's on there. That also will be on our YouTube channel. Watch your one more. It'll be in our show notes on every platform you listen to. And I, Brian, Hey.
This, this was needed today. I appreciate you being here. I hope here, I hope our audience eats this up. I know they will. Guys, we are anticipating your feedback. Please leave some comments. Listen to this on every podcast platform you're on, five star review at leave.
Some comments on there for us as well as our, uh, social media. What's your one more until the next episode. [00:36:00] Guys, we'll see you. Brian, thank you so much for being on here. Thanks for having me. I congrats and I'm grateful for your time forward. Looking forward to hearing more and having you back once you climb that mountain.
Appreciate you. Hey, thank you.
