From NFL Grit to Life’s Redefinition - Taylor Symmank is RightOffTrack

Anya Smith:
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a story of resilience, determination, and the unwavering spirit of a true champion. Today, I'm absolutely thrilled to introduce you to Taylor Symmank, a name that resonates with triumph over adversity. Taylor's journey isn't just about the glory days on the football field or the spotlight of major media outlets. It's a testament to the human spirit's ability to overcome challenging setbacks and redefine oneself when the odds seem unsurmountable. Picture this. Taylor, a promising NFL athlete, had his path radically altered by a career-ending injury that cut his time in the NFL short. But instead of succumbing to despair, Taylor rose from the ashes like a phoenix, rewriting the narrative of his life with an unwavering determination that nothing short, that's, ah, with an unwavering determination that's nothing short of inspiring. The hurdles he faced didn't deter him. They fueled his fire to succeed. Even further, Taylor's journey from NFL stadiums to the realm of personal growth and success showcases the resilience that resides within each of us. He took those setbacks and transformed them into the stepping stones towards his new path, one that sparked a mentorship, coaching, speaking engagements, and a profound understanding of business strategy. Taylor's story reminds us that setbacks are not the end of our journey. They are opportunities for rebirth and reinvention. With his unique blend of experience as a former New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings punter, Texas Tech record holder and alum, Taylor brings a wealth of wisdom to the table. He's more than a retired athlete. He's a beacon of hope for everyone facing challenges that threaten to redefine them. So whether you are at a crossroads or seeking to rise above your own setbacks, Taylor's journey is a testament to the power of human spirit and the limpless potential that lies within. His story, isn't just about redefining himself, it's about redefining what's possible. Get ready to be inspired, uplifted, and empowered as we welcome Taylor to the RightOffTrack adventure. Welcome, Taylor.

Taylor:
Hey, how's it going? Thank you so much. It's an honor. I really appreciate it. Let me be on here.

Anya Smith:
Thank you to you and thank you to Nicole Fay for

Taylor:
Absolutely.

Anya Smith:
introducing us. Kindly. She was on the podcast earlier, so if you missed her episode, please check it out. It was so much fun and so insightful. And when I asked her who would be a good person for the podcast, she's like, oh, I'm a little bit biased probably,

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
but Taylor comes to mind.

Taylor:
I love it, I love it,

Anya Smith:
So

Taylor:
it's

Anya Smith:
I

Taylor:
awesome.

Anya Smith:
appreciate you. I appreciate you coming on here.

Taylor:
Yeah, absolutely. I love this kind of stuff, so I'm excited.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, and what an incredible journey, as I described. I'm obviously sitting far on the sidelines from everything you have experienced, but it always fascinates me just to imagine what it might be like to come over such adversity where we can only imagine when we have our own setbacks. That might be fine, maybe a career change, that's OK. But I can imagine that you build a lot of time to focus on this major goal of getting to an FL. So. Could we just start there if you don't mind sharing, like what did it really take to get to that first place in your career where you've made this remarkable achievement of being on these professional leagues?

Taylor:
Yeah, absolutely. I'll try to keep it as short as possible because I could talk forever about this because

Anya Smith:
Oh, please do, please do.

Taylor:
the journey was so long and a lot of different ups and downs and changes. So kind of to put it all together, what 30,000 foot view is ever since I was 12 years old, I still have a piece of paper where I wrote down when my goal was to play in the NFL. And I put, I'll get into what I put in a second, my goal was to player receiver, like that was my end goal. I wanted to play in the NFL. My grandfather had coached with the Cowboys, had won Super Bowls, it's in the family. Like it was a lot of cool, just legacy type stuff. And so it was always on my mind. It was like, man, like no one really got to play, like got to be on the field, that kind of thing. As a player, as a coach, absolutely. He's in the Hall of Fame for coaching. He got his extent too in the league as well. But it was awesome. So like for me it was... Being around that all the time created probably that at 12 years old, like, hey, that's what I want to do. So that's what I did. Wrote it down on a piece of paper. I was like, I want to play receiver and if I have to, I'll kick, which is, that will make more sense in a second. But it is, I said it because I always did it. I played soccer growing up. This is what we did. But it wasn't something I was, I wouldn't be passionate about it. I just did it because I had to or kind of could. But that journey from where I started. getting into high school, getting ready for college. I had to go through this journey of, okay, my vision was the NFL. I said what I wanted to do, but at the high school level going into college, I was 150 and obviously I'm white. I wasn't fast at the time. I was short, slow, not recruitable for a receiver, let's just say, especially at the high school level. You need to be 6'2", 6'3", which I am now. You need to run like a four, five, which four, that's which I ran in college. And like all the things

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
I needed, I was about two or three years late on recruiting status.

Anya Smith:
Done.

Taylor:
But I could kick. That didn't require anything from those other externals. I made it through the post, I had a good punning, like all of that, that's what they needed as a result. So I was like, man, okay, my goal is to go to the NFL. So I have to adapt, just a little bit. All the things I learned

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
allowed me to be an athlete, not just to be a kicker. helped me so much as I transitioned. So that spot moved me to college, which I got to, I started punting. I learned how to punt over the summer with my grandfather. Actually, there's a really cool story

Anya Smith:
Aww.

Taylor:
on all that is awesome actually. It was a great

Anya Smith:
Would you

Taylor:
time.

Anya Smith:
mind sharing?

Taylor:
Yeah, so he passed away about two, I think it's two, three years ago now. And it's one of the moments I look back on the season of my life that I had, because it was It was like the time I had, it was just me and him, like a lot, we had to hang out. So when I graduated high school, going into college, the first school that I went to was a D2 school that said, hey, you can come play receiver, which is why I went there, and you can kick also. But the only stipulation was we don't have anybody else that can do any kicking, so you're gonna be doing all of them. At the time, I didn't punt, so I just did field goals and kickoffs. And so they're like, well, we need you to learn how to punt. And I'm like, well, I don't know how to do that. Which is funny because I ended up doing that in the NFL later. Like it's just a small world, how that works. But that summer,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
my great brother had trained with punters. He had punted a little bit himself back in the day and he was very sport science minded. So we'd like slow mo video, like analyze the body, how it moves, how to make the perfect kick. Like that's what we did. He actually, he's the one that taught me how to watch film and how to understand it, be able to sit there and dissect one play for like 30 minutes. Like. That whole aspect of things, I didn't know how to do, but I learned that over that time. And so, but we, I spent the entire summer learning how to punt, getting ready to go to college because every time in college, every film that you have, everything that you have there is resume. So if I look terrible on film because I'm not prepared, it just looks bad for me. Because my goal going into school, just to preface this, was to always go Division I. Like that was my goal. That's what

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
I wanted to do because I knew that would help me get to the NFL easier, as well as quicker, just all that. So I knew that every game I had, D2 had to be really good because no D1 school would be like, I don't know. Like they had to be like, OK, cool, like let's bring him in.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
So I had to make sure I was good at it, not just be like, oh, I'm trying it out. So that

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
summer, I spent with him five days a week. I worked as well. and then went to school and a little bit of off time kind of deal. But five days a week I'd go in the morning, I'd wake up. He was big and like I said, he was a strength coach and did sports science. So protein shakes, the whole meal plans,

Anya Smith:
I'm sorry.

Taylor:
like we have a create all that stuff for me, which was so fun. We'd work out together. Mind you, he's like 70 at the time. No, 60, probably about

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
70. Yeah. Great shape though. He had a

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
six pack. He was like, he was in incredible shape.

Anya Smith:
Ooh. Woof.

Taylor:
And so

Anya Smith:
Ha

Taylor:
we would

Anya Smith:
ha.

Taylor:
actually train together. He would spot me. He would use the same weights I did, which was like wild to me, but

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
which really opened up a lot of possibilities, which I'm probably getting to at some point of like what was possible physically, because he was a model of that. But he, the summers we would spend there all day, we'd go to the field for about four or five hours, train, watch film, eat. And it was like for a whole six months, it was just like, I was living with him essentially, which I got to like. pick his brain on how he thought, what he saw in some of these Hall of Famers that he's coached and coaches, all of that aspect of things, which, I mean, you can't buy that, you really can't. And so, I got to get the insights of someone who was super successful, as well as who was around this, at the field and on the fields of where I was trying to go. So it wasn't like someone was speaking from it, like, oh, that's what it's like. It's like, no, this is what it's like at the very high level, and all the people you hear about from the past. or guys that I coached, I coached with, like any name that I would've thought of or watched. He's like, yeah, I coached them. We played against them. I met them. And I'm like,

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
that is just wild, right? So I got to pick his

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
brain on a lot of things. Him teach me a lot of things, which allowed me in those five months, or no, it's like three months, two months, two to three months, I can't remember now what it was between high school and when I had to go. And I feel like I got a PhD in a lot of different things.

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
And so that journey to get to the NFL. The same thing process happened. College worked that way. Obviously, he got to come out and had his support and all those different things, but took that to the next thing, which was college now, and ended up setting some school records and doing all those things and working my way to the NFL. But that process, thank you, that process was, it was long and lengthy. There's a lot of different things we could go into, but it was a process and it was a fun process. It was a journey because I ended up punting in the NFL primarily, which I didn't punt in high school. So like it was a skill that I developed five years prior to me being, I guess, one of the top in the world, which is weird to think about,

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
but I didn't think about it that way. It was really just like this is what they asked me to do and I had to learn it.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
So

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
that's kind of the process at a high level, if you will, of what it was

Anya Smith:
Yeah,

Taylor:
like or how it got there.

Anya Smith:
your grandpa sounds incredible. Your grandpa sounds incredible. I'm so glad you got to spend that quality time and shape that memory that will last a few, like a lifetime, and obviously,

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
takes you here, even though you've changed kind of the past, which I'm sure that resilience and that mindset has helped you. And on that topic, if you could share with me, I'm always very curious. It's one thing to say as a kid, hey, I wanna do this. You know, all kids want to be superstars and, you know, NFL players and all those amazing things. But it's a very different thing to put in the sacrifice day to day to commit to it and to stop seeing it. Well, not start seeing it as unrealistic, not to start giving up on it and being like, oh, it's a childhood dream. I got to move on. What was that like to keep that perseverance and to sacrifice all along the way?

Taylor:
Yeah, that's a great question. It was hard at times. It was not easy, I'll say that. That's for sure. Especially that transition between doing what I love, which was like wanting to play receiver. It's a totally different position. You go from playing on the field like 40,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
50 plays a game on average to maybe playing four. But the four matter just

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
as much as the 40 did. If you make one mistake, you know, one out of four, you're. your percentage of performance is scaled pretty heavily versus you can't make

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
it up on the next one. Otherwise, you missed two in a row, now you're 50% on the day, right? So, which is terrible. Like you try to finish your career in the 80s and 90s. So like it adds up quick. So you have to make sure that you're hyper-focused for those two, three seconds you're on the field essentially and make sure you perform well. So it was a different mindset. It was like shotgun approach versus like sniper, like... It was very different. I had to make sure that

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
when I did perform, it was on point, focused, intentional and all that. Um, but it was more of, it was the easiest way to kind of explain it. Probably is once I wrote it down, it was easy for me to go back to, right. And I think I talk about this a lot with, especially in the business stuff to do to do now is, is simply say it right. Goals down, right. Like it's important. Not just. for the cliche thing of saying it, it's important because

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
in life, I talk about this, I talked about this with someone just the other day, like the two most important skills in life, no matter what you do, no matter how you do it, the level you do it at, doesn't matter if you're top 1%, bottom 1%, doesn't matter. The way you'll be successful is two skills, is communicating and remembering, right? And so in this case,

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Taylor:
I'm referring to remembering, is because especially in the information age that we're in, we have sometimes the information that we have coming in, it's not that we've It's really just that we forget. We know and we'll hear ourselves say it, it's like, I know I should have done it this way. Well, if you know it and you didn't, that means you just forgot. So we

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
have to have the art of remembering in the moments that we need it, right? And so for me in that moment, when you write your goals down, you write your vision down, it helps you stay in that space of remembering so that you don't forget. And when you don't forget, you can stay at that level, the best version of yourself, let's just say. more

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
often, it can call upon it more often, which is what I needed to do. I had two seconds to call upon the best version of myself and then

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
I could relax. But it's almost like the aspect of, OK, cool. Like when you train it enough, they don't have to remember you naturally have put that as a habit. It happens. But that's also where it's most dangerous, too. It's like, OK, I got it. But if I don't put it on my wall and if I review it often enough, just like some people like Eric goes to the beginning here and I don't look up to the end because I remember the

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
first month. that we lose it like six months, six months, well, six months in, you're like, ah, like, what was that I wanted? Oh crap, I forgot, I was supposed to be writing this book. I didn't even remember, you know, like stuff like

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
that we do. And so I think writing it down helped me stay clear on it, on the vision of where I wanted to go, as well as when you have a clear vision and it helps you remember, it makes you make decisions a lot easier because it becomes your filtration

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
system. Like if I'm gonna do this, then I can't do this, and this. And it's just by default. And so now I

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
don't have to feel bad for saying no. It's just like, no, do I really want this? Absolutely. Okay, then this means that I can't do that. So it gives me an out on things I probably

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
shouldn't do if I'm clear. When we're not clear, it's really easy to be like, well, and then now you're making a decision in the moment, which is so hard to do, right? It's like, especially

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
in kicking and punting for me, I go to it's like, I can't be thinking in that moment I have to perform. I have to be relying on everything that I've done up to that point and just let my body do it. Because if I try to think, it's like what Tony Robbins says, like if you're in your head, you're dead. It's like, that's the truth. And when you're in

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
your life, it's like, if I'm in my head trying to make a decision, a decision that needs to happen in the moment for that kind of future ramifications, I'm like, I probably should have been more prepared than in the moment. Sometimes things happen, of course, and you have to make a momentary decision. But if I can

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
prepare the best I can for that, that's just gonna set me up even better, right? And so,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
doing that helped me a long way of answering that question is getting clear on what I wanted and it was actually what I wanted. And I was willing to understand what it was gonna cost me. Now I had some insight on that, probably better than most, because I was around someone who was like, hey, this is what it's like. This is what they do. This is how they train. This is how many days and hours they spend. This is what you gotta eat. This is how you gotta train. I'm like, I got that insight of what actually was required. And so, because I think that's a lot of things sometimes we forget. Maybe we don't even know. We don't know what's all required. We're saying yes to something. We don't really understand what's all involved in that. And then we

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
get involved and they're like, dang, I didn't realize it was like this, right?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
So for me, I was able to get like, oh yeah, it's gonna cost you a lot. So like at that age, I'm like, it's worth it. Let's go get it. And so that allowed me to transition throughout those seasons of my life a lot easier.

Anya Smith:
Hannah, you're so wise. You're so young, relatively,

Taylor:
I think it's

Anya Smith:
but

Taylor:
a great

Anya Smith:
I love,

Taylor:
detail.

Anya Smith:
I wrote it like the art of remembering and like the filter analogy was so powerful that when you're clear on what really matters to you, it makes it easier to filter out the things that, sure you want, maybe you wanna go out, you know, get drinks or whatever that could be, you know, spend time relaxing, but you know what your priority is and that makes it easier to say no to other things. And I feel like that reminds me like why you're around these very successful people is because... I can imagine that's what they do really, really well because they have even more opportunities that are constantly good, but there's that better amongst the good that

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
you have to be very intentional about filtering that.

Taylor:
Yeah, goods,

Anya Smith:
And

Taylor:
we always

Anya Smith:
I'm

Taylor:
say,

Anya Smith:
curious,

Taylor:
oh

Anya Smith:
you talked about, go ahead, go

Taylor:
yeah,

Anya Smith:
ahead.

Taylor:
I was just saying, on what you said, we always used to say, goods the robber of great. And so

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
it's the same, it's that aspect of what you just said, but yeah.

Anya Smith:
That's amazing. Can I ask just one last thing and we'll

Taylor:
Yeah!

Anya Smith:
dive into the next part, but the hyper focus, how, I see people on TV, right, or in the field, and I can't imagine being surrounded by all the shouting individuals, your team looking at you on the sidelines, like you have, like you said, a certain amount of plays to make it, right, to add to your score. How do you develop that hyper focus to where you're clear on what you need to be doing Is it a repetition element? Is it really that mind stillness development? Could you just unveil a little bit of your secrets around that?

Taylor:
Yeah, for sure. It was something I had to learn. I did not have that at the beginning. I can tell you that right now. And I wish I would have, because it took me like a little bit to catch. But the aspect really for me is, especially in the sports world, but I think it applies to every way. And when I say sports, I mean like physically, because our bodies, once we prepare it, like obviously first step is preparing. So your body actually knows what to do. Now it's just about calling upon it more often. And so when it's that space of things, which it was there and... what you're asking, how to stay focused in that moment, it was understanding that I had to put the preparation in, and if I had to, so like, let's just check that box, say I did, then I get in that moment, it's like, okay, cool, my body already knows how to do it, so does my mind, I've done this a thousand times. So for me, it was like, just breathe, relax, you already know how to do it. For example, I mean, it's like simple things, maybe for speaking, right, like speaking on stages and stuff like that can be scary, and it's scary for me a lot of times. But if I remember, I'm like, oh, I'm talking to you is the same way. I don't, I'm not speaking a different way. I'm still speaking. So it's like,

Anya Smith:
right.

Taylor:
but my mind makes it out to be this thing that it may not be. Yeah, exactly. But we all know how to speak for the most part, right? It's just that we put people there and we put an experience there and we put whatever else on the outside and then we think we can't speak. And it's just like, it's a thing that once we like, kind of, it clicks in our heads, like it's really no different. Someone's just. You're just someone's watching, but you don't have to see them watching, right? And so I think for me, the hyper focus comes down to just like getting out of your head, I think. That's why it goes back to, if you're in your head,

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Taylor:
you're dead. Because your head thinks about,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
okay, how do I protect myself? How do I make sure I'm okay? How do I, like all, yeah, all the craziness. But your body already knows how to respond. Most of the time, if you prepare it right. So it's just getting out of your way and just saying, okay, cool. Now that I've done those two things, the last thing now. is to focus on what I can control. For kicking and punting, I can't control the wind. I wish I could, because it sucks sometimes, right? But yeah, exactly. But it's, okay, I can control my drop. I can control the way I swing through this ball. I can control my first step. I can control my follow through. I can control where my head's at. I can control those things. And so if I just focus on the things that I can control one at a time, not all of them, because that's not how you do anything. It's step by step. So for me, it's okay, cool. Once I've got the preparation done, I moved into the space of that understanding, then it's okay, cool. Step by step, what can I control? That's what all I can do, right? Same thing if you speak on stage, I can control my first point, I control them speaking to helping somebody, and that's all I can do. At the end of

Anya Smith:
All

Taylor:
it,

Anya Smith:
right.

Taylor:
the effect is, you know, whatever comes after that. So for focus, I think that's the number one thing. Also, the caveat to that, which I propped about, I think we miss how much preparation goes into focus. Because

Anya Smith:
right.

Taylor:
if we are prepared, it's a lot easier to focus because we don't have to distract ourselves from different things. Because some of it, I would say, majority of it is not on autopilot, but you could almost do it. Like you hear about telling Michael Jordan's sick game, right, you hear about all these things in sports, like his body just naturally performed that way, even though he wasn't cognitively feeling that way. And so

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
his body just knew like, hey, this is what we do, this is how it works, it's what we do. And so it's the same thing. It's like when you've trained, you've prepared yourself well, or you go on a stage, you've prepared, you've practiced a lot, practiced a lot, you could be out of your head thinking about all these different things, but your mouth's coming out with the words you remembered and what you know. And it's just like, how did

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
I, I don't even remember myself saying that. But it was because

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
you've prepared yourself to where your body just did it. And that's the best place. That's when you're in flow. And that's ultimately where focus, your best focus is when you're in flow. Truly just being yourself without any limitation. Because

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
now you're more resourceful. You can call upon everything inside of you. You're like, you know You don't see very many sprinters that are super tight. They have to be loose. They have to flow, right? You know, they

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
may be they may be ripped and they may look like their muscles are flexing but inside they're like their face is still It doesn't move it's because they're letting their muscles do what they do best,

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
but they try they slow down, right? And so it's

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
just that's how life works, too We try to muscle our way or try to I'm gonna focus like relax Do your thing, dial

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
in, you're prepared, you did this. Now let yourself actually perform. Don't try to perform, let yourself perform. And that's where flow comes from.

Anya Smith:
Hey there, I can just listen to you all day. So,

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
but we'll cut it short, I promise. Now, so beautiful and I just, as I'm hearing this, I'm thinking all of that, if it works at your level, at the professional level, it can work for anybody in whatever you do. And we tend to think that sports at that peak level is all about the physical, but it's inspiring and to me rewarding to hear just how much the mental preparation plays a factor in it. And just a reminder that anything we want to do well, like those things could be picked up from like professionals in different fields because it's not that it just applies and NFL or in one area of your life. It really, I believe will transcend that one space and help you get, you know, prepare for it. Like you said, it's public speaking, other events, a big goal that you really want to zone in and perform well on. Like, so I appreciate you sharing because it inspires me to think about the impact that same approach can have in different fields for all of our listeners.

Taylor:
Yeah, absolutely. I love it, I love it.

Anya Smith:
Well, I so appreciate you giving us this kind of NFL world and the little glimpse behind it. And if you don't mind, I want to pivot a little bit towards what happened that kind of derailed that career. If you don't

Taylor:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
mind sharing, however brief or long you want to go into it, like what was that real experience like? Because we see it again on the field and we're all just terrified and thinking like, oh, my gosh, I pray that this person is OK. But we don't know what it's like on the other end.

Taylor:
Yeah, for sure. So for me, it was it was like a lingering issue. I actually messed it up the first time in college, my senior year, which is a whole story in itself, going into the draft and doing all that, having to miss a lot of my senior year and then coming back and actually setting the record in the last game. But it was a process, right. And going into the draft

Anya Smith:
right.

Taylor:
and having to go later in the draft because I was basically hurt all season, hurting the draft stuff, like all of that. But then as it gets into the pros. kind of lingering thing, it sets you behind a little bit. And so you're kind of fighting the uphill battle of that injury, which in my position, it's a little bit different than most because there's only one position. You don't have like four receivers or five corners on the team, you just have one. So there's only 32 of people in the world at what I do. So if you're not one of the 32, then you're not on that team, right? And so you're at home waiting for a call type deal. So

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
for that, when you're behind the eight ball being hurt and all that kind of stuff, it sets you back. You have to deal with all of those different things. You have all the, you know, you got to stay healthy. You have, you know, 16, 17 games a year. You have obviously practices, you're hitting thousands and thousands of balls every single day, or not every day, but over this course of the season and kind of keeping yourself in the right line. So for me, that transition obviously once a keen time day, I got to figure out if I'm going to keep, you know, at this point late, about four years in now, like bouncing around, trying to go team to team. Do I wanna keep doing that because I'm kind of on that health recovery journey or is it time to transition? And that was a hard decision, right? Cause it's like, man, I love what I'm doing. I love getting paid to train basically and do being around the environment, the culture, locker room, all of that. And then that transition to what was, I didn't know what was fully outside of that next. I knew it was some sort of business

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
and whatnot. But yeah, dealing with those moments and then which I can get into as far as like That year of transitioning was probably one of the hardest years for

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
me because your mindset completely shifts. I've been training for 26 years of one

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
way of doing something and then you get out and you're like, yeah, it's a little bit different out here. There's some overlap and there's some things that can set you up and help you get to the top faster if you continue to do the same things and habits, but the way of doing it's completely different. You don't get paid to go to the gym anymore. You know what I mean? Like at first it was like, why don't I even work out? Because

Anya Smith:
All right.

Taylor:
I don't get paid to do this anymore. And now I'm taking away from making money. So like my mind was backwards, right?

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
It flipped as I got into it. I was like, okay, there's important lifting and all this kind of stuff. But at first I was like, I'm just gonna go to work all day. Just like I did with sports. I would just spend my time at the locker room. I'd spend my time on the field.

Anya Smith:
Bye.

Taylor:
Spend my time in the, in, you know, watching film. And so like that transition, it was like, okay, how do I? How do I piece all the knowledge that I have to a different title now, or a different job description of what I have to do now, was completely different. I was on the field all day, I was outside, I was running around, I was working out. Now, behind a computer, sitting down, maybe talking, completely different. But the

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
mindset was similar. I just needed to take them and connect them now. You know, you have a brain wave over here and then over here, like, okay, well. How do I make these connect? It took me a year or so, I'd be like, okay, that's how they connect. That's how it actually works together. Not like I gotta wash all out of it and learn anything. Because that's not never true. Everything that we do in life, there is obviously a connection of how we can use it in the next season of our life, whether it's a job change, whether it's whatever change. Whereas I have all these resources of what I did learn. It's not all for waste. All hard work that we put in is all being used and can be used. It's just about now seeing it that way. because nothing's ever lost, right? And that's the part

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
I had to walk through, was like, man, I didn't lose 26 years of my life, did I? Now I'm starting over ground zero with people that have been doing a profession or whatever for at least from college, like four or five years longer than I have. And I'm coming out, man, starting at their level one, like, man, I'm the same age, but I'm five years behind these people, right? And it was a mess with my

Anya Smith:
Bye.

Taylor:
mind. And so I was like, well, I need to figure out how to fast track this. because I don't want to be behind forever, five years behind everybody because of this. So it was just, it was that whole thing and figuring that out. But yeah.

Anya Smith:
Absolutely. I appreciate you being transparent. I can just imagine. You describe it very positively now, but I can imagine in the moment, it's a lot

Taylor:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
from just taking that routine you know so well that worked really well to do, like coming out to this new jungle, basically with a different environment. And like you said, there's other people who are swinging already on the vine, so to speak, and you're just learning to climb the tree.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
But could you share, like, what were maybe the biggest maybe doubts or limitations that you had in that transition and what helped you overcome them?

Taylor:
Yeah, for sure. So that's the doubts and limits for me became. So there's two things. First, it helped for me, and this was what kinda kept me going, to be honest, is because I had a win before. I set out from 12 years old that I could do this, and if you look at the statistics, it's dang near impossible to do, right? It's like the 0.001%

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
of people make it to that level. Then I didn't make it to my mind of where I wanted like 10 years of a career, blah, blah. So from my mind, I thought I failed. But when I took back and looked at a second, I was like, dang, I actually achieved the impossible. Right. And so like I, it took me a while to get to that perspective. I didn't have it overnight. But when I got to that and understanding it, I was OK, cool. Like I was able to achieve the impossible. And I'm going into another impossible territory of something I don't know. I've done it once. I don't know how I'm going to do it here, which, like I said, I didn't know how I was going to do before. So it gave me a glimpse of like the light in the tunnel. Like it's I've done it once. I can do it again. I just got to figure out how to do it. And so for me, that added some hope to it. But for that period of time, those doubts and limits was, I had to deal with like, is it possible to have, you know, a super another, I mean, super successful career being a top 1% in something else? You know, like I did it in one and sometimes people have like their big thing that they do once in their life. And it's like, they kind of continue to stay there. They may not get back. And I was like, man, can I ever get back to that place? Like that was a question I had to deal with, right? Of like, is it possible? Like, is it possible? I don't. There's athletes that do it, but there's not very many. You know, like at that, if you look at the percentages that continue to get even, that do even better than they did before, some maintain it, right? And so I was like, okay, is that possible? One. Two, I had to deal with the fact of like, am I too late in the game? Like I said, I felt like I was five years behind everybody else. And I already felt from as a kid, my body was already two years behind everybody else anyway. That's why I didn't get recruited. So I was like, I'm just behind. I can never catch up. So I

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
had to deal with this thing of, am I always gonna be behind? Am I always gonna have to fight for this thing? And I have to fight through that stuff every day still, but that's where I had, in that moment, I was like, man, what is going on? And so that's for some of those beliefs, other limiting beliefs was like, I didn't, some of the same, this different, well, this mindset's the same, but some of the skillsets are different. and let's just call it the real world. Am I right? And so like having to speak up in front of everybody, being in stage, like running meetings, doing all these different things, I didn't have to do that before. I didn't really have to develop that skillset. I didn't have to, you know, be in part of deals and make negotiations. I didn't have to do any of that. I didn't have to sit behind a computer and write

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
really well or make content. Like I didn't, all those things I had to start doing in business, I didn't know how to do. Like I did, but not to the level I was like, I wanna be number one in the world, like top 1%, like I didn't know how to do it that way.

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
And so for me, it was like, man, like, am I going to be able to, like I spent 26 years getting to this 1% over here. Is it going to take me 26 years to get over here in this percent? I'm going to be almost 50 years old by the time I get to this position again. Right? And it was like daunting.

Anya Smith:
Look at

Taylor:
I was

Anya Smith:
it.

Taylor:
like, God, I'm never going to, it's going to be, I'm going to get gray

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
hair, I'm going to be bald. Like, that's going to be too much time. Is it even worth it? And

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
so like that was my mind, is it worth it? Is it even worth it to go again and try? Like, do I just, you know, I don't know. That was a hard thing for me to figure out. And so

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
those were some of those like emotions and doubts. And obviously you question your worth now because everybody valued you up here. And then

Anya Smith:
Mmm.

Taylor:
now your title, your description, your income, everything changes. You know, like you have a hundred thousand people watching every day to you have your community. You know, maybe a couple of

Anya Smith:
So

Taylor:
thousand.

Anya Smith:
your mom's like, I still love you.

Taylor:
Yeah, exactly, right? And so it's like, thanks, mom. You know, it's great. You still love me over here too, right? But it's like completely different. And so for us as humans, we're like, I'm probably way more valuable over here, at least it seemed that way, than

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
I am here, which makes you question like yourself. But the reality is you're the same person. There's just more people seeing you. So like your value didn't decrease, but your perception of your value decreased. And that's now you don't exert yourself the same either though. If my value decreases, I don't exert myself as if I have value. So then how am I expecting people to receive me as someone of value? And so now it's understanding, okay cool, now it's easier said than done. It's a process of getting there. I did not do that overnight. I wish I would have 100%. But getting to that place of like, man I am valuable, I have something to offer. There's always going to be. They always say like new levels, new devils. It's like there's new levels to that event, right? New levels of like, man, I have more to give because I've learned more this year. But that means I'm gonna be stepping into different levels or different environments or different rooms than I did last year, which will be a stretch for me, which is a good thing. But it's gonna be a stretch, which means there's gonna be a possibility of me not feeling like I'm worth it, not feeling

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Taylor:
like I'm worth even being in that room. So that same. feeling is going to happen again and again, especially if you're chasing that 1% of yourself, it's constantly more because you're becoming more. And so that, if you don't deal with that thought process or that way of thinking, it's always going to be that way. It's never going to leave. It's just how you handle it. It's like

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
we're always going to have something we're going to be afraid of. We're going to fear. There's a book by, I forget who wrote it, but Feel Fear and Do It Anyway. It's by a doctor. And it was a really good book. It talks about like If you're going to continue to keep growing, which we're in constant growth method and mindset, which I like to think, and I try to approach that way, then I'm always going to have fear. Like it's just always going to be there because I'm going to be going against things that's unknown, doing things I've never done before, because that's the new level, right? And so

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
if that's always going to be there, then I need to change my relationship with fear. Because if I'm always afraid and it makes me avoid, then I'm going to constantly avoid my entire life. No. So I need to figure out, okay, how do I get to a place where I can hold the hand of fear, let's just picture it as a person, and hold the hand of fear, say, hey, we're gonna walk through this together.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
Because you're not going anywhere, so I might as well embrace you and let's go. And so that's where we have to get to, and it's easier said than done, once again, one of those things, but that's the space we have to continue to keep evolving in, because it's part of it. And so, long story, bringing it back to the point of, those are some of those doubts and limits I had in my mind man, like I had to walk through all that at a time and place where I didn't have quote unquote the value to deal with it too, right? Like I was at the low, I was at the bottom and what I thought was the very, very bottom. And so now I'm dealing with at the bottom then dealing with those things at the top. It's a different way of thinking because you're already beating yourself up because your external circumstances already look bad. And then now you're dealing with the internal bad. So it's like everywhere I look,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
it's bad. You know what I mean? It's like, there's not like, I'm dealing with something internally and it's bad. Outside, like, I'm still good. But when the outside's bad and the inside's bad, you're like, I got nothing, you know? And that's a different

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
place. And that's where I was, where it felt. And so there was dark times. There was times I didn't wanna wake up. There was times where I was like, I'm just gonna sleep all day. Like, I don't even wanna, I'm just gonna train, watch TV because I wanna be my own mind. Like, it was dark, dark.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
But that also is what makes me who I am today. Like... because I know that I can't go any lower than that. Like I was at the lowest, like I was at the very, very

Anya Smith:
Bye.

Taylor:
bottom and so like I survived. So if the lowest ever comes again, I'm like, I did it. I'm good. Like I don't have to go, you know, I don't have to like worry about what the bottom was. I was there and I made it out. So like it helped create something in me that I would have never asked for, to be honest. I don't think anybody would, right?

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
But

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
it was one of those things where it was like, man, you know what, like, it's a blessing looking back. What I want to go through it again. I mean, for the result of it maybe, but if you were to ask me, I'd probably be like, ah, let me think about it. You know what I mean? So one of those deals, having to deal with those

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
things, whether it be limits or doubts and stuff like that, was some of the things I had to walk through for sure.

Anya Smith:
I was like, wow, so much. And I think that's the beauty of these conversations is that oftentimes we don't see this. People kind of go away and we don't know what happens behind the scenes and the challenges aren't something we typically display. And I understand that, right? It's very vulnerable to talk about things that we're not doing well where we have self doubts when we are struggling to redefine ourselves. And I like the point that you made, well, a lot of points, I liked a lot of points and I was writing them down, but. the powerful element I noted as a reframing, right? Where you said, hey, I can look at this as being a failure in my career that I worked so hard for, or the powerful reframing of, actually I achieved something impossible, right? Quite impossible statistically, and that's something to feel proud of. And as I'm just starting as an entrepreneur, I also have to remind myself, not maybe that I'm doing quite impossible, but. the things that I am achieving as opposed to like, oh, this could be a little bit better right here, and this could be a little bit better. And I have so much of them, but also to celebrate things we have come, especially as I was working for a top tech company at Meta for like seven years, and that was who I was, right? And then I got laid off and I was like, well, who am I now, right? Not only am I not wearing my Meta swag and had to redefine my whole wardrobe, but I had to figure out like, who am I now that I don't have this prestigious title and this company behind me? And can I do that? Can I be somebody who doesn't depend on all of that to define Anya? Because again, as you know, society is like, well, what's your title? How much money do you make? And that is vulnerable. And obviously I don't think my situation was quite as extreme, but overcoming that, well, what do I still like about, what are those superpowers that I have just because of who I am as a human being? And where can I take that? And to your point, it's not a journey maybe you'd want to have. I don't recommend to get laid off or fired on purpose. But when you go through it and you get through the shit and you know, your own process, like don't give yourself a hard time about being in a low place because that's normal, that's natural, like honor that there's a lot of things that we're recovering, there's trauma through those situations and it's natural to have healing time, right? You don't need to jump back tomorrow and think I'm perfect. That's weird. That's probably, that's probably not healthy. But you get through that, wow, look at the journey I have come through, and I found more about myself and learned more about myself. That's what I heard through your story too, so it's interesting.

Taylor:
Yeah, it's cool. I mean, the similarities in that too, right? It's very, very much the same thing. It's like having to almost reinvent yourself, which is a cool, it's a cool moment. It doesn't feel like in the moment, no question, does not feel that way. But as you do it, you're going like, man, like, I get to re, you're reinventing yourself multiple times over your lifetime too, right?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
So like, even as, if you'd be super successful in getting them all in one sentence, like, there's more. So I have to reinvent myself again and again and again. And so it's the cool part of life and realizing there's layers and steps to it. So yeah, absolutely. It's cool.

Anya Smith:
Yeah. Can I hear something bold? Just that's in my head authentically. Well, I'm not 26, not even close. I'm gonna be 33 in a couple of weeks. But I honestly love getting older just because I feel like you become more confident in who you are. You know, the things that used to stress you more about like your gray hairs, stretch marks, whatever, your makeup looking perfect. You're like, you know what? mom, I have three kids, like who am I really trying to impress and feel good about? I feel good about everything.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
But that whole process and getting older also changes my perspective of how much I need to accomplish and where I need to be at a certain age. Just getting into my own groove, I've changed the perspective of how far I need to go to more like how do I want to live day to day. I want that success journey not to be just about an end goal, but... to me authentically having a life where I get to do something I'm passionate about, where I'm learning, I'm connecting with amazing people, and I get to spend time with the things that matter. Like you said earlier, find what is your real purpose that drives you, and be very clear on that so you can filter it. And my filter is not always the best, but I am getting there, and there's really purposes. And the other bold thing, just to wrap that up, I don't feel like anything is quite impossible. And maybe it's because I've gone through so many changes. Like, I, on my first maternity leave, I would go on my MBA and now I just finished up my second master's and I don't say that because you need to go get a degree. But when you start learning things that are very different and challenge yourself, you stop framing things as a failure and more just, well, if I can't really fail, like if I keep trying and

Taylor:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
learning and doing, like how can I really fail? So I have this maybe pompous sense of like, well, that's, I can't really fail. I'm just going to keep learning and doing and just, and then enjoying that process along the way.

Taylor:
100%. You can't fail until you quit. Really. And it's all that

Anya Smith:
Exactly.

Taylor:
aspect. It's so true.

Anya Smith:
Okay, I've given you some time to re-catch your breath.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
And now let's dive into your now like this amazing journey you have built after the NFL. Could you share a little bit more like how did you redefine your purpose, kind of your ambitions now and what steps maybe helped you get to where you are at this day and age?

Taylor:
Yeah, for sure. I think number one is environment. So one of the biggest things I had to learn, and it took me some time to learn, is so in sports you have coaches, staff, trainers, equipment managers, all those things around you to help you. Trainers, everything. When you get out to the real world, you don't have those. You have to create that. And so that was one thing I had to learn. I was like, because I sat back and I was looking like, what made me successful? Like what made me, you know, top 1% on what I did? Like how was I able to actually achieve that? And I was like looking at the framework and the

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
systems of how it was possible. And I was like, well, I always had a coach. I always had someone around me. I always had someone to keep me accountable. I had someone that would train me, would keep me making sure I show up to the gym, make sure I was eating right. I had all these things in place and maybe I didn't want them there, maybe I didn't like that they were there, but they were there. And

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
it allowed me to perform at a different level than I would have without them. And so in that space of things, I was like, I got to recreate this whole thing. I've got to recreate my team. I got to recreate, as we would say, board of advisors in business world. Like I didn't create my board of advisors. Who's going to be on not even a staff that I pay them, but who's gonna be on my council? Who am I gonna go to? Who's gonna keep me accountable?

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
Who's gonna make sure I'm good financially? Who's gonna make sure I'm good relationally? Who's gonna make sure I stay on point with my physical body? Who's gonna keep challenging me to think different and think better? And who's gonna coach me personally to

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
keep making sure I don't stay the same? Right, and so I had to create that around me and I still have to constantly do that because as I evolve, those people should evolve as well. And if they don't, then I need to replace them with somebody else. Because I'm not trying to stay the same, nor do I want them. Right? And so the goal with that is now to create that, right? And so constantly evolving that piece of it. So for me, it was implementing that. It's like getting in the right environment. I understood and I studied like the environment of things and how the world works, right? Even plants themselves. If you put them in a pot, they're limited to their growth. You take them out and you put them in the ground, they can be completely different.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
And so it's the same thing with our life. If I put myself in a pot. then I realize it's a pot. I'm like, I gotta remove myself in this environment or expand it with the people that stretch that I'm not a pot, you know, that I'm actually someone that can actually grow an actual tree with roots. That's how it works. It's actually, I heard this and I can't take the credit for it. From this past Sunday, I was at church, he gave us an analogy and I didn't realize, he looked into the study of how redwoods actually, like how they work basically. And I never realized

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
that obviously redwoods, we all understand where they are. They're super tall. They're strong. The freaking, what do you call them? The trunks of the tree are massive. Like cars can go through and like they're huge. But what people don't know, which I didn't know is the root system that they have. So their root system can go a mile in length, like a distance.

Anya Smith:
Wow,

Taylor:
So that's

Anya Smith:
wow.

Taylor:
a long ways, right? But obviously the tree is hundreds, I mean, it can be a hundred feet high. And so, But you go into a forest and another cool part about them going a mile is that when they're surrounded by other trees, they survive. So why they survive is because, let's say there's a forest of them, let's say there's a hundred of them, because their roots go a mile long, they're stretching and they're connecting with all these other trees. So what it looks like under the ground is not just one tree a hundred times, it looks like one tree a hundred different trunks. Because the roots intertangle,

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
they actually. In the seasons, they all hold each other up. So when there's strong winds, they all hold themselves in place. Also, when one of them is lacking nutrition or water, they can actually, because they're so intertangled, they can feed the other trees. And so now,

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Taylor:
it's a community that's feeding each other, making sure they all stay strong. And that's why they're so strong. They last so long despite the storms, despite whatever. but that's how life is,

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
right? And so it's like, you've got to go create your redwood environment of your people that you can interlock with, that you can learn from, that you can grow with, you can get nutrients from, you can get information from, so that you, when tough times come, are not withered by a storm. In fact, you're strong, and it's not even just because you have it, but people are feeding you, and you have those coaches, you have those people to speak into when you doubt yourself. Where at the beginning, when I didn't have that and I first got out, it took longer. because I was doing it by myself. And you can't get out of a way of thinking if that way of thinking got you there, right? We think it, we

Anya Smith:
Right,

Taylor:
can, we're like,

Anya Smith:
right.

Taylor:
oh, you know what? I'll figure it out. I'm like, well, if I got myself here, then obviously my way of thinking probably got me here. So if I continue to keep thinking that

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
way, I'm probably gonna stay here. So I needed something else to help shift that. And that's where obviously getting connected and people to help you is so important. And I realized that looking back at the sports side of things, You know what, that's actually one of the things that made me successful. So one of the points

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
and something that I did, lesson I learned was understanding the power of environment and creating your team. You don't have to be on like a salary or it's payroll. But I was like, if you have a relationship with someone it's like, hey, I want you in my life. Like you're good for me.

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Taylor:
And hopefully you're returning the favor, you're good for them. And so like I

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
need and I want you in my life. And I surround myself with those types of people. actually this morning had breakfast with a buddy and I told him and that was the first time getting to actually hang out with him. I was like, and after getting to know his story, I was like, bro, I need you in my life. We need more people. We find those people,

Anya Smith:
Ugh.

Taylor:
we know what we need. And so that's the thing that matters, I think the most is creating that environment because from the environment, the culture can breed.

Anya Smith:
That's beautiful. And can I challenge you on that? How, what if, what would you say if somebody say, well, hey, Taylor, you probably had connections that were, you know, from NFL days and that might make it easier to find that amazing mentor. What if I don't know those people around me? Would you have something to say, not to put you on the spot, people who are like, I don't have entrepreneurs, I don't have people who are like millionaires, billionaires around me to give me like, how do I find that?

Taylor:
100%. So funny enough, my story is very much in that relates to that person. So when I got done playing, I went back to where I grew up, which I didn't have those people around me anymore. I had them from a social media standpoint. I had them from, you know, maybe a phone call if I could get a hold of them type deal, but I didn't really have it. And so I had to struggle with the same question of like, man, like how do I how do I get around these people? And I didn't have all the money that they're spending because at that point I didn't have income coming in. So I wasn't

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
gonna say, I can't go to their conference, I'm not gonna talk to them. Because that was the way to get there.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
For me, I was like, I need to find another way. And that's where for me, I got into reading a lot. That's where it started. That's not where it's finished, but that's where it started. And so I started reading, I read like 30 or 40 books my first year and I was not a reader, so I'm slow. I do not read the books like that. And I

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
just devoured them. And I was like, man, I gotta figure this out. Readers are leaders, I always heard. So I was like, I gotta start there, let's go from that. And then I started to step into it and started reading. But those books connect you to another book or they connect to another person. And so in learning, what I started to realize is the first step to learning anything new is modeling.

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Taylor:
So I just needed someone to model. And if I could model them. then I could develop their habits, I could develop their consistencies, I could develop whatever result they had that I wanted. And so proximity of modeling is way better than virtual, 100%, but I'll start with virtual, I'll start

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
with something, right? And so for me, it was that, I was like, I need to find people to model, what are they doing, how are they thinking? Because obviously we're think, be, do kind of creatures. So I think I have to think it first, then I. can be that person and then obviously I'm gonna end up doing that thing. And so understanding that dynamic is like I just gotta get around the model that I want and any who means necessary. Whether it's I gotta read a book, I gotta watch a video, I gotta even at some point you kind of move to, I gotta get in person so whether it be a conference or I call them and I get in their coaching type deal or you know whatever that looks like going forward then I try to get proximity because proximity creates even more breakthrough from there.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
because it allows the accountability, I think, more so than it does the knowledge, because we'll be more accountable to somebody else than we will to ourself, right?

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
It's just true. It's

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
how most of us are wired. And so if I can put myself in environments that require me to be accountable to somebody, it allows me to perform better, even though I probably am upset sometimes they check me. Right? Like, let me be me for a second, right? Like, I know, I know, right? We go back to, I know, but obviously, right? We forgot. Well,

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
thank you for reminding me. So it's like a perspective shift. But I think that is how I would probably handle that. And that's what I did, was start where you can. And I think that's where I would say to that person that says that, because I would say to myself this, it's like, stop making an excuse for why you can't, because that's

Anya Smith:
Ooh,

Taylor:
what you're doing,

Anya Smith:
fern,

Taylor:
right?

Anya Smith:
love it.

Taylor:
You're making an excuse for why you can't do it because someone else probably could or didn't have a situation you had But if you were to switch that what we do and every time it's like we push away responsibility It's all of us do this even anything we do throughout life It's like if because if I'm responsible that means I have to take accountability now, right?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
And so when we don't want to take accountability, that's why people are important and that's why also in life when we start struggling or Things get hard we isolate naturally as human beings because we don't want the external accountability and because we know if we're out in external accountability we'll get seen, we'll get exposed. But sometimes as we know with plants and anything else, exposure to sunlight is the greatest thing that you need. Right? That's

Anya Smith:
Right?

Taylor:
actually the thing that you have to grow. Like without it you will die. Like physically plants will die without sunlight and certain things obviously you can create certain environments. But you get my point. And with that is we have to do the same things as humans. Is we need that space of it. So I would say, like I said, don't make an excuse of why you can't. And that comes down to a way of thinking, right? I'm not making an excuse of why I can't. Let me come up with an excuse of why I can,

Anya Smith:
Ooh, I

Taylor:
right?

Anya Smith:
love that.

Taylor:
So then I'm like, oh, okay. I don't, now I don't have an excuse. The only excuse I have is that I should be doing it now. And so we have to reverse engineer our thoughts sometimes because we naturally wanna stay where we are on a physical level because our bodies want to stay comfortable. It's easier to protect yourself. If we know the status quo, we know everything, we know what's coming, what's around the corner, we feel safe, we're good. Our body's like, cool, relax, you're good. But the reality is growth is never there. And so we'll be in a constant conflict if we don't push past that. The cool thing about... our bodies and who we are is that once we get to a new barrier, we figure out how to be safe at the next level. And if we get to a new barrier, then we'll figure out how to be safe. Like our body adapts like that. And so we'll always, we'll always get to that level. That's why it has to go over time. That's why overnight success, I don't think ever really exists. And if you ask the person that says that we're overnight success, they'll explain that it wasn't.

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
It's because that whole flip, if you really went overnight success like that, without having those habits in place or whatever it may be. that would have developed you to be able to stay at that level, you would have lost your mind if it really would have happened that fast because you wouldn't be capable of holding the weight that comes with that territory.

Anya Smith:
Oh my gosh, Taylor, I love this. And I'm really excited for all listeners. Just so you know, there are ways to get all this amazing kind of conversations and insights from Taylor outside of this podcast. So if you're loving this, tell us more Taylor about your podcast and then like some of the works that where people can hear you exposure to you. And could you dive into, I hear there's a book potentially.

Taylor:
Oh,

Anya Smith:
Do you wanna

Taylor:
shit.

Anya Smith:
share? Like anything you wanna share, but I want people to get more Taylor out in the world. If you haven't heard, obviously I'm sure people know about you, but if they're just finding you for the first time through this podcast, where can they find about you and what other resources do they have?

Taylor:
Yeah, absolutely. So anywhere on obviously social media, Facebook, TaylorSmanke, Instagram, TaylorSmanke, there should be verified accounts, thankfully now with both of those. And so it's easy to find, because there's a couple other ones they'll try to copy,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
but a lot of them have gotten away now, so it's easy to verify them now. So

Anya Smith:
Great.

Taylor:
any of the social media platforms, Spotify or Apple podcasts on either of those, just at TaylorSmanke Show. I have a couple other

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
ones which should filter underneath.

Anya Smith:
And what

Taylor:
Other.

Anya Smith:
is the podcast about? Just so people also understand, what do they come to for the podcast?

Taylor:
Yeah, for sure. So it's kind of, I would say lifestyle and business is probably the category it fits under. And on these ones I get, they're probably, I think if I bring a guest on, that's maybe like 30 minutes, but I'd hardly do that. But this one is probably under 10 minutes. Every one of them is like by eight to 10 minutes long. And it's straight to the point. It's like five or six minutes of like, you know, a little intro, an extra, but in the middle, it's like, Hey, here's the point I'm talking about. Here's the thing I'm driving home. And I'm just talking about one thing or two things. And so it's like bite-sized, like, hey, I'm on my way to work. I'm 15 minutes away. I just want something to help motivate me or remind me of something

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
that I forgot. Right. And I think that's where it's, it's a constant reminder, a little 10 minute thing reminding. Um, and so lifestyle business, I'll throw in there cause it's my, it's kind of my life now and business out of things

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
and mindset stuff, but, um, that's where it would be as far as podcast goes. And then, um, the book side of things, I'm in the process of writing that. Um, I'm going back through, so it's cool now because I didn't, so I wrote about probably 80% of the book when I was going through all of this stuff about

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
five years ago. And I

Anya Smith:
Wow.

Taylor:
wasn't sure about actually publishing it, so I have about 30 or 40,000 words written

Anya Smith:
Oof.

Taylor:
in that book back in 2016, or no, 2018 or 19, one of the two, 2018.

Anya Smith:
Bye.

Taylor:
And now looking back on it, I'm like, man, like there's so much more. And so like, I'm, I had to figure out like, Hey, how do I, you know, that was a different season. I was really writing that book to myself to make sure I didn't forget. Really. I didn't know that's what I was doing, but I was writing things. I was learning lessons. I was understanding and like going through and walking through for me, because it was like, I don't want to forget this because it's going to get lost in a journal somewhere if I don't put it all in one place, right.

Anya Smith:
Right.

Taylor:
And so that's what it was, but then now it's kind of evolved because I've evolved. And so I'm going back through interjecting, different things, organizing a little differently. And, um, the book is going to be called airplane mode. And the whole point of it is for me, that's what, and a lot of ways save my life, but it was like the focus. It's like, I turned airplane mode on, no one could get to me and no one could distract me and it was just my way of focusing on me and how I need to change my life because I was responsible for it. I couldn't look to everybody else to change it for me. And I needed to get the people around me. And if I was gonna let my life be, or try to make my life different, I had to go internal, where I had to go to the lab myself, as far as like, what's going on? How do I fix this? What needs to happen? I need to reprogram my mindset. And in that space, I would connect with people, because I needed the people. I probably isolated a little bit too much at the beginning, which I talk about that. on why you need people, because I did that. I walked through that phase of life where you can walk, you learn and then you get stuck, and you're like, why am I stuck?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Taylor:
And someone says something, I'm like, bro, you just, if you told me this three months ago, I would have been so pumped, because I've been dealing with this for three months, but it was just that, you know, I needed them around me. And so, like dealing with all of that is kind of what the book's talking about. Basically, if you're going through something or anything you go through, you need focus and the path to get to your flight, essentially is the whole point. Um, cause everybody, everybody is designed to fly. Like everybody's designed to flourish. Everybody's designed to achieve their dreams. But sometimes we get lost along the way. You know, our gift or our dream gets lost in baggage claim and we don't know how to find it. Right. And we're like, ah, like, ah, I had it packed, but I just lost it somehow. Cause some hit me, someone lost it, you know, environment, whatever, like to regain that and to continue to keep flying or whatever it may be is important. And so like walking through that process is kind of what it's about.

Anya Smith:
There we go. That's beautiful. I'm so excited for this book. Please keep me posted when Airplane Mode comes out because I want to read it. I want to share about it to all of our audience. I know that we need to wrap up now, so I will honor that and go to our three short bit questions. For our audience listening, please check out Taylor. As you can hear, so much wisdom and just authentic ability to share his experience in a way that no matter what challenge you're facing, I'm sure there's something. whether it's, you know, replant yourself, figure out like, what plan are you in? Is it still working for you? Right, are you making excuses that are no longer serving you? And to Taylor's point, like he had a situation where he was starting out anew and he found the system that was working for him earlier or that he found would be successful and he recreated it for himself. So no excuses there. Sorry, my little one just came in over here. Hi. Okay, just give me one moment. Okay, one moment. Sorry, Taylor.

Taylor:
You're good.

Anya Smith:
Okay. Did you leave from grandparents? I know you just snuck out huh? Okay, Sasha, can you go over there please? Can you go over there please? Sasha, I need you to go outside, okay? Thank you, Sasha. I love you. Thank you. Okay. And that and oh, we dropped it. Okay. See you in a little bit. Okay

Taylor:
Hehehehe

Anya Smith:
Bye! Okay, I'll see you in just a little bit. Okay, okay, Kai, please go home. I gotta finish up, okay? Okay, Kai, please, I need to finish up. Guys, please, please. I'll see you in just five minutes, okay? Don't mind us.

Taylor:
They're good.

Anya Smith:
Okay, what I was trying to say is uswasha, please, please go, please go over there. I need to finish up in five minutes, okay? Okay, I'll give you ice cream in just a little bit, okay? Can you go play Kai for five minutes? Please. Pardon us. Okay. Let me see if that, okay. I'm so sorry. Let's

Taylor:
That's

Anya Smith:
just

Taylor:
it.

Anya Smith:
wrap up this and I'll be respectful of the time. So to our audience, I hope that you found something very useful as I know I did and I am just inspired by your story. I'm excited for these resources. I'm so grateful that you have continuation to access to your information through the podcast, to your blog, to the speaking engagement that you do. And so, Check us out. If you're listening to this, please share what questions came to your mind. What nuggets stuck out with you? Share it on social media, tag Taylor, tag myself. We'd love to hear from you. And then to honor your time, I do want to wrap up with three short bit questions whenever you're ready. And it's just the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, you ready? Okay.

Taylor:
Yeah. Is it like a, I can answer as long as, or is it like a one word? How's it right?

Anya Smith:
Just to kind of get the first thing that comes to mind, it doesn't have to be one word, it's just what you feel comfortable. So first one, kind of very relevant, what book, movie or song has had a profound impact on your life?

Taylor:
Bible.

Anya Smith:
Beautiful. Okay. What's a personal mantra or quote that you live by?

Taylor:
First one that comes up, how you do anything is how you do everything.

Anya Smith:
So you and Nicole probably have a great quote game. I just remember she was on her quote game. So,

Taylor:
Thank

Anya Smith:
okay,

Taylor:
you.

Anya Smith:
last but not least, in the positive context, going off track is.

Taylor:
in a positive context, going off track. Could you explain that so I answer correctly?

Anya Smith:
No worries. So, Write Off Track is the name of the podcast. So, it's really to me about, you know, even if it feels like we're doing something uniquely ours and maybe isn't what society is telling us, that we can honor our unique purpose and journey around it. So,

Taylor:
Okay.

Anya Smith:
in that sense, what is, oh, in the positive context, what is Write Off, what is, in the positive context, what does off track mean to you?

Taylor:
I would say it means on track. Because

Anya Smith:
I love it.

Taylor:
honestly,

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Taylor:
that's, yeah, I would say you're on track. Because if you're going to be like everybody

Anya Smith:
Yeah,

Taylor:
else, then you're like

Anya Smith:
you

Taylor:
everybody

Anya Smith:
do.

Taylor:
else does. And so I don't think that's the right track, to be honest.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, this was so much fun. I really appreciate your time. Inter-audience, I hope you had a great time as well. Learn something new, get to uncover the insights of somebody at the peak of their game who was not only able to perform there, but also redefine himself to new success. And so takeaways, replant yourself to a place where you're going to be actually flourishing, no excuses, and just see like Taylor what the power of authenticity can lead you to. Thank you again, Taylor, and thank you to all of you for coming right off track with us. We look forward to having you next time. Take care.