[Athlete Entrepreneur Series] Overcoming Setbacks to Win in Business and Sports With Ryan Lavarnway

Ryan Lavarnway is a former Major League Baseball catcher who played for eight MLB teams across 10 years, winning a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013. A Yale University graduate, he set NCAA records in batting and later represented Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. Beyond baseball, Ryan is a leadership coach, keynote speaker, and author focusing on mindset, resilience, and teamwork. Through his company Turn Left, he inspires others by sharing lessons from his journey in sports and personal growth.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [04:14] Ryan Lavarnway discusses the unexpected call to the Cincinnati Reds and his record-breaking debut
• [09:15] The mindset shift from failure to success in professional baseball
• [11:46] How to overcome self-doubt and develop a winning mentality
• [17:23] Leadership lessons from the Boston Red Sox World Series team
• [25:21] The impact of the Boston Marathon bombing on the Red Sox and their championship run
• [28:01] Ryan shares Team Israel’s underdog journey in the World Baseball Classic
• [31:19] The transition from baseball to business and overcoming career changes
• [34:59] Lessons from top MLB managers
• [39:51] The shift into leadership coaching, speaking, and mentoring
• [42:06] Ryan’s children’s book Baseball and Belonging and its deeper message

In this episode…

Mindset and resilience are crucial in navigating the unpredictable world of professional sports. Adaptability, preparation, and maintaining confidence through setbacks are key elements of a good sportsman. So, how can professionals and business owners apply these lessons to overcome challenges and thrive?

As a World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox, Ryan Lavarnway experienced firsthand how strong leadership and a winning team culture drive success. He recalls how veteran players set the tone for the team’s resilience, especially after the Boston Marathon bombing. He also reflects on his time with Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics, where an underdog mindset and team unity helped them defy expectations. These experiences reinforced his belief in the power of teamwork, accountability, and a shared vision.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Ryan Lavarnway, a former Major League Baseball catcher, about his journey from the MLB to leadership coaching and speaking. Ryan explores the mindset shifts that helped him excel, leadership lessons from his time in the big leagues, and how businesses can apply these principles to improve teamwork and adaptability.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Ryan Lavarnway on LinkedIn | Website | Instagram
• Baseball and Belonging by Ryan Lavarnway
• Finding The Way with Ryan Lavarnway

Special Mention(s):

• Terry Francona
• Buck Showalter on Instagram
• Fredi González

Related episode(s):

• “[Athlete Entrepreneur Series] Poise: What it Takes to Lead and Win with Executive Coach and Super Bowl Champion, Bennie Fowler” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Athlete Entrepreneur Series] Life After the NFL: Pressure and Facing Your Demons with Brent Novoselsky, Gemara Williams, and Wendell Davis” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Athlete Entrepreneur Series] Becoming an Athlete in Business with Tracy Deforge, Shawn Springs, and Donte Whitner” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moment(s)

• “Yesterday, I thought my career was over. Today, I’m having the best game of my life. Baseball teaches you resilience every day.”
• “Leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room — it’s about setting the standard and pulling others up with you.”
• “Sometimes, you have to be just dumb enough to believe you’re better than you are — then work hard enough to prove it.”
• “We weren’t the best team on paper, but we believed in each other. That belief is what won us a championship.”
• “Success happens when preparation meets opportunity. I didn’t know when my chance would come, but I made sure I was ready.”

Action Steps:

1. Adopt a “why not you?” mindset: Challenge self-limiting beliefs and embrace the possibility that you can be the game-changer in your field.
2. Prepare for opportunities before they arrive: Success is about readiness — stay disciplined, work hard, and develop skills so you can seize the moment when it comes.
3. Lead through actions, not just words: The best leaders set the tone through work ethic, accountability, and a commitment to team success over personal gain.
4. Embrace change and adapt quickly: Whether in sports or business, being flexible and adjusting to new situations can open doors to unexpected opportunities.
5. Build a strong team culture: Surround yourself with people who share a winning mindset and create an environment where everyone is committed to a shared goal.

Ryan Lavarnway’s 3 Hit, 6 RBI Game (2 Home Runs) vs Cardinals | July 19, 2019 | 2019 MLB Season

 

WBC: Ryan Lavarnway Home Run: 3/6/17

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:00

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Ryan Lavarnway. You can check him out at ryanlavarnway.com.

Ryan, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out, since this is part of the top Athlete Entrepreneur series we had on Bennie Fowler, who Ryan also knows had on his podcast. That was a great episode. I had a panel of football players Brent Novoselsky, Gemara Williams and Wendell Davis and some other really good ones was Tracy Deforge, Shawn Springs, and Donte Whitner. Which was part of the player’s impact, which is kind of a platform where players can invest in companies. So those are some great episodes to check out.

That and many more on inspiredinsider.com. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. The Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast, or an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability, and the full execution. So, Ryan, we call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the host so they can create amazing relationships, amazing content, and most importantly, focus on running their business. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to how to give to my best relationships, and I found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the planet what they’re working on.

So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should. Ryan actually has a podcast, which we’ll go into. You can email us at support arise 25. Com or check us out at rise 25.com to learn more. I’m excited to introduce Ryan Lavarnway and as I introduce him there is a video piece to this. I’m going to share my screen here because he has some amazing highlights to take a look at. And so as I’m introducing you, Ryan, I figured it’d be appropriate to, you know, just one of my favorite highlight clips on online here. Okay. So this is Ryan Lavarnway, his three-hit, six RBI game, two home runs in here. So I’m going to play this and we’ll talk about it’s an interesting story of how you got to this place.

Actually I guess I would assume maybe a couple days before or whatever amount of time you had no idea or thought that you were even going to be in the big leagues. So we’ll talk about that as well. But just so people can watch a video here. But Ryan Lavarnway is a former Major League Baseball catcher, World Series champion, Olympic Olympian and Ironman. Ryan actually played for eight MLB teams over his ten-year career, winning a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013.

He participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with Team Israel. Ryan was actually the third-ever MLB draft pick out of Yale University, where he led the NCAA in batting average and slugging percentage. Now he does leadership coaching. He’s a keynote speaker on topics such as leadership potential, winning mindset, change management, thriving through change. And high performance.

And he’s spoken at Harvard, Yale Law School, Kent State, and many, many more. As we’re looking at this video here, I love the shrug. Like you’re like, yeah, I got this type of thing. So Well, first, thanks for joining me.

Ryan Lavarnway 03:58

Yeah, thanks for having me, Jeremy.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 04:00

So I want to start off with, you know, we’re watching this video, but talk about what happened before because. With the Yankees and leading up to this. Because you would never thought that this would have happened.

Ryan Lavarnway 04:14

Yeah. I really had never put a lot of thought into the Cincinnati Reds until 24 hours before this game. I was playing for the Yankees in Triple-A and coming off an oblique injury. I was playing terribly. I was playing very poorly for the Yankees, and I actually got released from triple-A, and then I got a flat tire in the parking lot before I could leave the stadium.

So it was really a low of all lows for me. I’m on the phone with my agent, like, what am I going to do? Can I get another job? And he was saying, well, it’s the middle of the season. All the teams already have their catchers. Nobody needs you right now. And how do they release you?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 04:51

Talk about that for one second. Like, do they bring you in? Do they give you a call? What was releasing you look like?

Ryan Lavarnway 04:58

Yeah. So we had played a day game in Scranton. And after the game it was maybe 4:00. Manager calls me into his office and just says, we’re going to give you your release. And, you know, there’s not a lot of playing time for you here anymore.

The organization decided to make a change. So we’re going to go ahead and release you. You know, it’s not a question. It’s not a conversation. They’re telling you this is happening.

So I say thank you very much. I pack up my locker and I start thinking about all the things that I need to do now. Right? Like, I have a lease on an apartment in Scranton and furniture and internet and water power contracts. And not to mention my income just got cut off.

So there’s a lot of logistics. There’s a lot of organization that needs to happen. Not to mention I get on the phone with my agent. What am I going to do now? Can you get me another job?

And like I said, my agent said, well, it’s the middle of summer. Everybody already has their catchers. But what happened in the next two hours, since it was a 4:00 release, since we had played a day game in Scranton that evening, the Cincinnati Reds had two injuries to their catchers, and they needed an able body. So I was available.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 06:14

How did they find you?

Ryan Lavarnway 06:16

Physically able? I think when someone’s released, I think there’s an email to all the other GMs and it’s made known who’s available, and they basically called and said, how fast can you get here? We need a warm body to fill up a uniform and catch our game tomorrow. You’re going to start in the big leagues tomorrow if you can get here by the game. So I packed up my apartment.

The guy that was taking my spot on the roster in Scranton. I had him sublet my apartment really quick overnight. My wife ended up driving from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Cincinnati. I got on the 6 a.m. flight because I needed to take a physical. I needed to get my uniform, I needed to.

I ordered catcher’s gear overnight. That was red to match batting gloves, cleats, all the stuff. I started watching video on the pitcher I was going to catch, and went out and had the best game of my life and my Cincinnati Reds debut.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 07:07

That was some type of record, wasn’t it?

Ryan Lavarnway 07:10

Yeah, it was most RBIs in a Reds debut.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 07:14

Wow. And then how do you, from a business side, do they have you sign some kind of contract at that point? I mean everything they need you there quickly. So like some of that stuff. I mean, I’m thinking as a player, you just figure it out.

But what do they do? I mean, there’s a lot of logistics. I didn’t even think. They don’t even have equipment for you fitting your body in your size too. So how do they do the business side of things for that?

Ryan Lavarnway 07:38

The business side is pretty commonplace at this point. You sign a contract that’s prorated for the season, But you get paid per day based on what level you’re at. So I was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, making $23,000 a month with the Yankees, and then I’m in the big leagues making slightly over league minimum, which at the time was maybe $650k. You get paid 183 days a year, so you can do the math. It was maybe about $4,000 a day.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 08:07

That’s pretty amazing. So after that first game, what are you thinking now with your big league career?

Ryan Lavarnway 08:13

So I remember exactly what I was thinking after the game. There’s cameras in my face. They’re thinking, what an amazing game. You haven’t hit a homer in years. And I’m thinking to myself, I hit a homer last week in Triple-A.

It’s still baseball, right? But the story was you haven’t hit a homer in the major leagues in over two years. And it really is a different level. It’s a different threshold of competition. What I was thinking at the time, and I said this to the media, I said, I feel like a cat with nine lives because yesterday I felt like my career was dead.

And. And today, I’m here having the best game of my life. This is going to be a highlight of my career. After the lowest of lows yesterday. So I was thinking, this is going to you know, I feel like a cat with nine lives.

And then the next day I remember I wasn’t in the lineup. And as I walked into the dugout before the game, our manager looks at me and says, hey, I know you had a pretty good game yesterday, but it’s the other guy’s turn.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 09:15

I’m not going to say ask, is that bad managing? Because that is kind of odd, right? It’s like you give someone who has the hot hand the playing time, right? But I’m sure there’s other things at play there. I do want to get into mindset because I think, in my opinion, from the sport of baseball, there’s no better person or sport to talk about failure, right?

Because even if you look at Hall of Famers, you know, if you, you know, get out seven out of ten times you’re a Hall of Famer right. So there’s a lot of failure in baseball. But where did you start your MLB career. What team.

Ryan Lavarnway 09:59

I started in the big leagues with Boston in 2011.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 10:03

Got it. So let’s talk about mindset. And I know you talk about mindset in your talks a bit. So we could start off with one of the things I know you talk about is why not you.

Ryan Lavarnway 10:17

Yeah. For me, I think the first thing anybody needs to do when they start to think about mindset for peak performance is give yourself permission to be the game changer, right? At the end of the day, we are all just people. And a lot of us may believe I know, I believe this is who am I to be the excellent guy? Who am I to be the superstar or the one that people cheer for.

Who am I to be the best player on the team? And that mindset needed to change before I could actually become the best player that I could be. And it started in high school for me. My family moved into the district for the best high school baseball team in Southern California, El Camino Real High School. I was a 2005 high school graduate, but going into high school, I was kind of a pipsqueak.

I was young for my grade, and I was a late bloomer. And, you know, in high school, you know, I don’t know if you were maybe one of these people. I certainly was where I go into high school, I’m 14 years old and I’m small. And you’re playing against grown men, right? 19-year-old freshman year.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 11:21

I was 6’2”, 150.

Ryan Lavarnway 11:23

Shut up.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 11:24

And I was up against some people who were, you know, 250, right? So. So yeah, I could see that.

Ryan Lavarnway 11:30

You say 6’2”, 150. Yeah. My freshman year, actually, my sophomore year yearbook has me listed at 5’4”, 135 so even you were afoot.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 11:44

The making of a professional athlete right there, right?

Ryan Lavarnway 11:46

You. And if you look at me now, you’re like, how did this even happen? But I’m five foot four, 135. I had been a Little League all-star, but so what? And I’m looking at these players that are supposedly my peers.

These are giants and they’re all bigger than me. They’re all stronger. They’re all faster. They’re all better. They’ve all been on the varsity team before.

And I’m looking at my coach, who I desperately want to notice me, and just staring in the face at all of my inadequacies. And I had my identity tied to, like, I’m not good enough. I’m not big enough. I’m not strong enough. And it was not until going into my senior year when this coach who I had so much respect for, he finally noticed my growth before I did.

Not just physical growth, but ability and talent growth. And he said, Ryan, why not you? I had. He had asked, who’s gonna bat fourth for us this year? Who’s going to be the best hitter on this team?

And I knew it wasn’t me, but I was so desperate for his attention. I raised my hand and he said, why not you? And that really unlocked. Well, let’s question all of these limiting self-beliefs that I’ve been tied to for all this time. Because I have gotten a little bigger, I have gotten a little stronger and faster, and the only thing that’s holding me back is my myself.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 13:06

Right? I know hope is not a strategy, right? Because you were doing things off the field to get noticed and to get into the lineup and excel. What were you doing behind the scenes that most people didn’t see?

Ryan Lavarnway 13:20

Yeah, I was the hardest worker on the team and maybe on the planet. And you could see this book behind me right here, this big leather-bound book, if I can quote Ron Burgundy. This is a gift my wife gave me as a retirement present. And it has. You know, articles positive.

Not all the articles, but positive articles from all the way back to high school through my big league career. And when she gave it to me, I started reading articles from high school when I was laughing at the things I used to say to these reporters because I had no idea how to talk to the media yet. But one thing that was remarkable to me, and it actually made me cry and really, really proud, really more than anything else, through high school, through college and into the pros. Every coach that I had said two things. Number one, how unlikely it was that I would achieve the success that I was achieving.

And number two, that I was earning it through being the hardest worker they’d ever had. And that makes me proud, because I know that I shouldn’t have had the success I had. And it all came through mindset and hard work. And that started in high school in the fall semester. Baseball is a spring sport in the fall semester.

We had baseball for the first period of the day. School starts at eight. We would meet at the gym at six and work out as a team 6 to 7, then have the hour to grab breakfast and drive to school. Well, I got there at five, so I’m there an hour before everyone else. I get twice as much work in and that really continued throughout my career.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 14:59

Going into mindset, obviously, you know that I love that story about the Yankees, right? It’s a terrible day. It’s like, who would have thought. You get let go. You have a flat tire.

What’s another low point moment in your career that you remember back that you had to, you know, bounce back from?

Ryan Lavarnway 15:19

When I was with the Orioles 2015, it was the first time I wasn’t with the Red Sox. And I had been with the Red Sox organization for seven years, up and down and up and down for four years with the big league team. Minor league player of the year three years in a row. So the Red Sox had seen me succeed. They believed in me.

I went to the Orioles for a new opportunity. And the thing you don’t understand about going to a new team is that they’ve never seen you fail, but they’ve also never seen you succeed. So they don’t know what you’re capable of. They don’t know what you were doing right when you were really good. And all of a sudden you’ve got a new coach, a new set of eyes, new opinions.

So I actually made the opening day roster for the Orioles in 2015, which was great. And I played like poop for them. I was a bad oriole. I hit, you know, I threw and I played great defense. Don’t get me wrong, I played great defense.

I was a great teammate, but I hit maybe under 200 for them and hitting was always my calling card. So 60 days in, the Orioles released me and I knew I deserved it. And I always feel like, you know, I was called up and sent back down 26 times, maybe 20 of those times. I was playing well enough to stay. But the 6 or 7 times that I got sent down where I knew I earned it, those were tough because I had my opportunity and I blew it in those moments.

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