Bennie Fowler is a current NFL veteran of eight years, Super Bowl champion, executive coach, and best-selling author of Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success.
Bennie began his career as an undrafted free agent signed by the Denver Broncos after graduating from Michigan State University. He then won the Super Bowl 50 with the Denver Broncos. People may most notably remember him for hauling in the final pass of Hall of Famer Peyton Manning from that game.
At Michigan State, he was a member of the 2014 100th Rose Bowl Championship Team, ending a twenty-six-year Big Ten and Rose Bowl appearance drought for the Spartans. As such, Bennie has the award of having played in — and won — both the 100th Rose Bowl and 50th Super Bowl. He has played with Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady. Bennie currently plays for the San Francisco 49’ers.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Bennie Fowler recalls the rollercoaster of emotions he felt when catching the pass that won his team the Super Bowl
- Why do you need coaches in every area of your business?
- Some leadership lessons Bennie learned from his dad, coaches, and colleagues
- Who is Bennie’s favorite Detroit basketball player?
- How Bennie got into football — even though his first love is basketball
- Perseverance lessons Bennie learned from his brother who tore his ACL early in life (and two more times after that)
- Why Bennie titled his book “Silver Spoon”
- What Bennie learned from Draymond Green
- Why Drew Brees recommended Bennie to be signed
- Bennie’s 360 assessment process to help leaders and organizations become better
- Who’s an excellent fit for Bennie’s executive coaching?
- Bennie recommends his favorite books
In this episode…
What does it take to lead a company or team where everyone puts in the extra work without being asked? According to executive coach and Super Bowl winner Bennie Fowler, effective leadership requires poise: purpose, optimism, intention, strategy, and effectiveness. What does all of that mean to you as a leader, and why should you care?
Bennie explains what poise means through his own experiences and those of the many leaders and coaches he’s worked with. He takes us on a journey through the preparation and strategies of winning a big break — like the Super Bowl — and the many lessons he learned along the way. Are you ready to dig in and find out more?
Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, featuring Bennie Fowler, NFL veteran and executive leadership coach. They discuss the winning mindset, why everyone needs a coach in different areas of life, leadership lessons, and why every leader needs to have poise. Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Special Mentions:
- Dan Kuschell on LinkedIn
- Growth to Freedom podcast
- Dr. Ruchir Sehra on LinkedIn
- The Performance Enhancer Podcast
- Draymond Green on LinkedIn
- Eli Manning on LinkedIn
Books Mentioned:
- Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success by Bennie Fowler
- The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny by Robin Sharma
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
Related Episode(s):
- “Orlando Magic Cofounder: Starting an NBA Franchise -with Pat Williams [Big Lessons in Leadership]”
- “P90X: Earning Food & Rent Money as a Mime to over $500 million in Sales- with Tony Horton [Business Inspiration]”
- “A Super Bowl Champion’s Guide to Success in Business and Life”
- “Mindset and Winning | Bennie Fowler | 323”
Sponsor for this episode
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The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:19
Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders Today’s episode is none other than Bennie Fowler. I’m gonna introduce formally in a second but before I do, Bennie I always like to point out what other episodes people just check out on the podcast. One of my favorites is Pat Williams. If y’all don’t know Pat William i’s, he brought the Orlando Magic to Orlando and what’s interesting about him is he went door to door Bennie selling season ticket pre selling season tickets before they even brought the franchise to Orlando to prove that they should bring them so he went door to door selling season ticket pre selling season tickets even have a team and went back and go listen, I sold out. I don’t remember if he sold it out but he sold a lot of season tickets. He’s like we should we already proven they want a team here and he was famous for drafting Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Check him out. Check out that episode with Pat Williams. It’s he’s amazing individual. I also like to tell stories that are you know, Bennie’s book is Silver Spoon, which I’ll mention in a second. But I like to tell stories to Bennie that are the challenges not just like the high points. And so some of these people we’ve heard of like the founder of P90x Tony Horton. You know, we know what he’s done with p90x, but what people sometimes don’t know Is he drove cross country and he made his food and rent money by putting his head on the street and being a street mime. Like that’s how he actually paid for his food and run. So these are just stories of people, you know, just grinding and making it happen whatever way possible. I love hearing and so check out that many more on InspiredInsider.com and this episode is brought to you by Rise25 at Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships. We do that by helping you run your podcast and for me, Bennie I know from observing you and studying some of the stuff that you’ve put out, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking for a way to give to my relationships, profile that people companies that I admire, and shout out to the universe on what they’re working on. And so, I have been podcasting for over a decade. And so if someone has questions about podcasting, they’re thinking about starting a podcast, you should bet he has a podcast Quiet Time, you should check it out. He has some great episodes there. If you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email me personally, there. A shout out to Dan Kuschell of Growth to Freedom. He was also Bennie was also a guest on his podcast and Dr. Ruchir Sehra of Resonea, The Performance Enhancer podcast. Everyone should check out both of those and, you know, Bennie, it’s funny when I observe you and I’ve, I’ve watched Yeah, I don’t know dozens of videos of you talking and in your thought leadership. Um, you know, you seem to be just a humble class act like that’s how I define you as in case in point. I asked you for a Bio. Okay, so I can read. This is what Bennie sent me okay. Bennie Fowler is a current NFL Veteran of eight years Super Bowl Champion, Best-selling Author, Author of Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success. He is also an Executive Coach. Okay. Bennie that doesn’t do justice. Okay at all to what you’re about and what you have accomplished. What you do. My intro for you is Bennie began his career as an undrafted free agent signed by the Denver Broncos after graduating from Michigan State which did you in one Roseville to rose bowls what now just one Rose Bowl champion, big 10 champion okay because I see the rings on your website. I got it. He won a Super Bowl the Denver Broncos that Super Bowl 50. From that game he was notably remembered for catching the final pass of Hall of Famer Peyton Manning he’s played with Eli Manning, Peyton Manning Drew Brees Tom Brady. He’s currently with the 409er’s and you know he is spoken to organizations like REMAX, YPO, EO and and help some of those organizations to so Bennie thanks for joining me.
Bennie Fowler 4:53
Hey, Jeremy, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. You know, like to toot my own horn But I do appreciate that intro and it’s great to be on your show.
Jeremy Weisz 5:04
Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s what you know, I get to toot your horn, right. But I forgot one of my one of my mentors and I know who came up with this quote Brian Kurtz says, it’s not bragging if it’s true, I guess I don’t know. So that’s, that’s, that’s what he says. So it’s all of that is just factual statements about you and your accomplishments. I was, I was wondering where to start this interview off because there’s so many directions we could take this and I wanted to start off with you know, that you to paint the picture, what happened? Super Bowl 50? You know, you are, you know, that, that pass and the you’re in the huddle, you’re everything what’s going on around you? So before that, because this kind of goes into the executive leadership, all that is built up with decades of you training for this moment, right. And so walk me through what your your all the senses that are going through before you line up to catch us? Yeah,
Bennie Fowler 6:07
yeah, it’s just a little bit under three minutes to go out and say in the game, you know, we just scored a touchdown. So we’re up 12 points right now. Now we have a chance to go for one and kick a field goal and go up 13 or go for to go up 14 put the game completely out of reach. So we decided to go to go for two. You know, Peyton calls the play and there’s actually on NFL films him telling me in the huddle like hey, just give me some time. Let me get the latest I’m throwing it to you because of the Yeah, because of the look, we knew we’re gonna get down there as all man man. So you can actually see in the play on the clip that he was supposed to actually motion Emmanuel Sanders down. Emmanuel Sanders is waving his hands so he can motion down, pain doesn’t even motion them down. Balls hiked, I take some steps toward a defender, I act like I’m going right, and I break left and then I see the ball in the air. And it’s as if, as if an infant baby’s being thrown towards me. And I sure as hell better catch this thing. So I catch this ball. I catch it, I cradle it, hold on for dear life. And, you know, that’s where my, my dreams, you know, all the possibilities in my life became a reality. Like you said, all those that all that dedication, those decades of work, to come to that point all came true. But you know, that was one of the most surreal moments in my career. And my dad and my stepmom and my two sisters were actually sitting in that endzone. You know, I think about 10 rows up. So it was awesome. I get up I do my Billy white shoes Johnson dance, which is an old school dance. You know, I had my hands in the air. So it was just an incredible moment. It’s like, you know, I really caught a pass in the Super Bowl. Then the only pass caught that day for points, and it ended up being the last pass. And final pass of now, Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.
