[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Today’s conversation is with someone I would call a master storyteller. Just incredible. Friends, meet Don Yeager. Oh, you guys, this was so much fun. We talked a lot about sports during this conversation with Don since he worked at Sports Illustrated for several years. However, don’t be afraid because even if you’re not a sports fan, you’re going to love this conversation. Yes, you will. For example, wait until you hear the story about the wedding gift that Don gave to Walter Payton’s daughter. Amazing. I don’t want to spoil it, but that’s all I’m going to say. And how the legendary basketball coach John Wooden helped Don become a better husband, and how Kevin now needs to start doing the exact same thing. Yes, and the story of Don getting called out at an adult basketball camp to play Michael Jordan one-on-one. In case you’re wondering, his story is about having to play that Michael Jordan. Oh, you guys, we can’t wait to hear this extraordinary conversation with Don Yeager.

[1:00] I’m Kevin. And I’m Steph. And during our marriage, we’ve dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us the children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed, completely restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us A Good Story.

[1:27] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple Podcasts or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. All right, Steph. Oh, we are excited. We are so excited about this one. We cannot wait to just start talking to our next guest. Hurry up. Let’s do this. And Steph, your father would have absolutely loved our next guest. You just gave our guest away. I did. I was so excited, though. Well, friends, our next guest is an award-winning leadership speaker, executive coach, and New York Times bestselling author. John Maxwell describes this man as the best storyteller that he knows. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Don Yeager. Don Yeager!

[2:32] Thank you all. Appreciate it. I cannot wait. Just, you know, anytime you do these things, it’s awesome when the host brings so much energy. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as much energy as exists between the two of you. Oh, thank you. And Don, here’s the thing. This is caffeine-free stuff. Caffeine-free? Yes. Don’t go near it. I don’t know how anybody does that. Don’t go near it, Dawn. Dawn, she typically scares guests. We had Willie Robertson on a few weeks ago, and he was like- I love me some Willie. He was like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re not drinking coffee right now. This is too much. Bless him. It’s good. We didn’t scare you. That’s good. No, we’re good. Okay. I want to talk- Go ahead. You start. Go ahead. Okay. You have written about some of the most amazing athletes in our country. Yes. So you have a relationship, maybe a relationship, but you have written about one of my favorite all-time coaches. And I wanted to know if you have any stories about Coach K. Coach K, yeah, I will tell you kind of a funny story.

[3:29] Coach K and I have known each other for a long time, but he hosts an old man basketball camp. Yes, yes. That’s right. So you might see above me a jersey up there and a Duke locker.

[3:43] So I play in his old man basketball camp. So the very first year I’m playing in his camp, right? And it’s cool because it’s 100 guys playing, actually guys and some women actually. Actually are amazing and great basketball players. So we have these great teams of 10 of each of us. And it’s his former players who come back to coach us. Oh, really? I’ve had Jay Billis, Jay Williams, Christian Leitner’s been there. Just so many of the players come back to coach us old guys playing basketball for five days on Cameron Indoor Stadium. But the coolest part is while you’re playing, Coach K is sitting right there on the sidelines and he’s watching you. Like he was making notes and stuff, right? So my first game, first year, I’m there and there’s a free throw and I’m on the inside position. So I’m supposed to be blocking out the guy to my left and I don’t do a good job. Free throws missed. The guy to my left gets around me, gets a rebound, scores the basket. And my coach calls timeout. So I’m like slugging over and I know it’s going to be a bad timeout, right? This is going to stink. But as I’m standing there listening to the coach talk about the importance of fundamentals, I get this tug on the back of my jersey. And I turn around, and it’s Coach K. Oh, no.

[5:04] And he says, Jaeger, come with me. And he walks me over to where I was standing.

[5:09] And he says, look, let’s talk about what you did and what you didn’t do. And he says, by the way, he says, you have a butt that covers two zip codes. He says so that anybody got around you is is is on you right he said and here’s what happened when the shot went up you pivoted your right foot this way if you’d have gone this way the guy doesn’t get around you and i’m going this is pretty cool i’m getting coached by coach k right so i’m saying yes sir coach i got it coach, And I still have eligibility left if you need a player in this next upcoming season. He goes, no, I’m sorry. I get it. You can enjoy thinking about this game right here because you’ll never play any game anywhere else. But I thought, wow, Coach K pulled me aside to talk to me, first off, about the size of my butt. But secondly, about the way that if I had pivoted my foot in a better place, I wouldn’t have allowed the guy to get around me. But you know what? It’s crazy about that, Don.

[6:14] He’s on the benches. He’s in the stands watching, but he saw that little foot movement. When all the other people were there posting up, too, getting ready for the rebound. Isn’t that crazy?

[6:25] But he also took time to teach me something. For sure. You know what I mean? Because, again, in a lot of these events where a superstar like Coach K is hosting people, I mean, it’s a fundraising event for his charity. Right that’s why you go there you you go there you’re you’re contributing to his charity and so he could have easily welcomed everybody disappeared right to his office right but instead he he he sits in a position right there where he’s paying attention to those of us who are you know acting like we still have something left in our bodies and by the way i have never opened my foot up the exact same I bet the wrong way since that moment I bet how old were you uh so that was I was that was my 50th birthday that was for my 50th oh that’s awesome to me as uh that was my birthday gift was to go play at coach case camp well and then I went on to I played uh basically for the last 10 years oh that’s awesome yeah yeah that’s awesome I still play I have a full court at my house so I mean I love the game of basketball well and thank god the nickname two zip codes didn’t stick i thought that’s what you’re gonna say exactly right that could have been that could have been bad hey zip right yeah exactly yeah okay so speaking of that then if i’m in your shoes.

[7:44] The preparation step up to the camp yes like what are you doing i guess basketball door wise practicing are you doing suicide they send you no they send you an entire workout program oh they do airport which is again really kind of funny so uh another story coach um the very first day my wife kept referring to it as a fantasy camp okay right yes and i’m like baby you watch how I’m working. You watch how hard I’m playing. There is no fantasy here. This is real.

[8:16] So this was the entire run up to the whole thing. My wife was like going, yeah, I’m going with Don to the fantasy camp up at Durham, right? It’s not a fantasy camp. Quit calling it that. So we get there. Coach sees me at the opening night event and he walks over and he goes, Don, thanks so much for coming to my fantasy camp. I was like, coach, you can’t call it that. like that is not and my wife was like i told you right there like even coach k says you’re just living a fantasy i went no you have no idea how hard i work coach to get ready to be here you’re like i was telling my wife this was the olympic tryouts coach right well but but there are 10 players on your team and ultimately you play five days you ultimately play 11 games to win the championship right oh wow 11 games in five five days and ultimately over the years of playing there what i know is it’s the team that still has five people standing that are not hurt if there’s still five that haven’t torn an achilles pulled a hamstring you know destroyed a groin whatever it is if you’ve got five standing you win the championship so uh that’s the goal is it like two halves or four quarters it’s it’s two it’s full court two halves two halves and referees they actually have announcers they broadcast it oh my gosh on the duke internet network yeah it’s So your family can watch it back home. It’s real. I love that. Not a fantasy camp. Right. Right.

[9:42] All right, friends. We want to hear from you. Every fifth episode has been us telling our own stories. But now we want to share some of your stories. That’s right, you guys. If you have a fun story you would like to share, please send it to us. You could email us, DM us, or even leave us a voicemail. And I will share our contact information, including a phone number in the show notes. If you call us, just leave us a voicemail and I will transcribe it and read it on one of our upcoming episodes And don’t worry if you’re not a master storyteller. That’s okay Yes, we want to share your stories and then you will hear us comment on them I promise you this will be so much fun. Oh my gosh, you guys so much fun You guys thank you for listening to tell us a good story.

[10:24] Okay, you’ve got I would say stick with basketball your next name. Okay. I want to hear about john wooden Oh, my gosh. Coach Wooden. So I was at Sports Illustrated, and I’d heard a story about That the coach, Wooden, who at the time was 88 years old, was entertaining once a month this hip-hop basketball star from the L.A. Lakers named Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq was going out once a month to spend an afternoon with John Wood.

[10:52] And Shaq’s college coach, Dale Brown, and I, he was best man at my wedding. He’s one of our best friends. So I called Dale. I was like, hey, is it true that Shaq is going to hang out with Coach Wooden? And he said, oh, yeah, you should go see one of these. their mentoring sessions. And I went, what could John Wooden and Shaq have in common other than basketball? Shaq was making bad movies like Kazan at the time. Coach Wooden was just the ultimate man of dignity. And so I asked and they gave me permission to come sit with them. And I sit through almost three hours of the two of them together in coach’s living room. And they never once talked about basketball. They talked about how to be a better father, how to be a better husband, and how to be a better leader on your team. It was all about you pulling the very best from you, right? So I got up at the end and I looked at Coach Wooden, who I knew a little bit, but not very much. And I said, Coach, you know, this was extraordinary. How does someone get mentored by someone like you? And he looked at me and he said, you ask.

[11:58] And I said, how many people ask? And he said, not as many as you might think. Most people immediately take themselves out of the conversation because they believe you’ll never say yes. So I go back, write a little story about this unbelievable mentoring session, call coach a couple weeks later, asked him what he thought of the story. He was very polite. And I said, Coach Wooden, as I was leaving there, I felt like I was supposed to ask. And he said, Don, what took you so long? Oh. And for the next 12 years, every other month, I would fly to California to spend a full day learning from John Wooden. He gave me almost 500 hours of conversation. Wow.

[12:41] And we ended up in this powerful, beautiful relationship where I got a chance to call John Wooden my mentor. And ultimately, a number of years in, we’re talking about mentorship. And he says, you know, Don, we should write a book on this. And so, we wrote the book that came out on his 99th birthday, the last book that came out in his life called The Game Plan for Life about the power of mentoring. And it was just a life-changing experience to have John Wooden pour into me as he did. Okay. So, as a husband, this next story I know is going to make me look bad. But to follow up with what you just said, can you share the story of what Coach Wooden would do with writing letters to his wife? Mm-hmm. I can, and I’ll actually take it one step further, which I don’t talk about very often, but I’ll share with you.

[13:34] Coach Wooden, his wife passed away 25 years ahead of him on the 21st day of the month.

[13:41] And for the last 25 years of his life, on the 21st day of every month, he sat down to write his wife a love letter. And a number of times, I would have been there on the 21st. So, I arrive and my job is to sit until coach finishes writing this letter to his wife. And they’re beautiful. I mean, perfect penmanship, beautiful. He folds the letter, puts it in an envelope. He goes and he puts it on her side of the bed where she slept, takes last month’s letter and puts it in a box. And there are boxes of these letters in his house. So one day and i can tell you about how long ago it was because and i’ll tell you why one day i’m there with him and i said a coach is there anything you put in these letters that you wish you had said to her when she was alive and he said all of it he said unfortunately very few of us ever take the time to say the things we should say when people are right there in your presence and we miss them so badly and we say them too late.

[14:51] That conversation was in a November timeframe. And so I returned home and I had just been married a couple of years. And I decided that I wanted to start writing love letters to my wife. And so that year for Christmas, I gave her a box with 52 letters in it. The reason I know how long ago it was, was because today she opened letter number 784. What?

[15:17] And because John Wooden kind of taught me this lesson about the idea that you should say these things to people while they’re alive. That year, I gave her this box of 52 letters. And of all the things I gave her, and, you know, every woman wants a box of Tiffany something over every Christmas. And so there’s a little blue box in every Christmas tree. But of everything you gave, I gave her, that was the one thing she cherished. And so the next year, I did it again. And the next year, again. And now it’s a Christmas tradition and I keep a running Excel spreadsheet of all the letters I’ve written so that I know not to duplicate a topic. And I’m on letter number 784 of things I love about my wife. Oh, okay. It looks like I’m going to start writing letters. Yes, you are. Here we go.

[16:06] Dawn, I knew about the John Wooden one and I’m like, this can make me look bad as a husband. And then you just took it to another level. Another level. Oh, man. i will say i have shared that in like a small group in our church and some other things and i’ve had other men walk up and go hey can you sell me some of those lessons could i just like wide out can i just wide out a little bit of like what you wrote and like you know and so uh yeah i mean um yeah i’m probably missing a marketing opportunity hey don where when when coach wouldn’t passed away, like who took those letters that he put in a box his grandchildren and it’s crazy because i’ve talked to them about it and they’ve said to me that they’ve opened a few okay but they almost they almost feel disrespectful yeah you know yeah and so they opened a few and then you kind of say you know what this is just awesome let’s just keep them as they are yeah because it is it’s very personal that would be right yes very much one more basketball whatever you want okay i’m I’m going to do one more basketball. Michael Jordan.

[17:13] You know, I’m a huge Jordan guy. I talk about basketball camps. Jordan also does one or did one for a long time. And a number of years ago, he invited me to come be at his camp. And again, same thing, 100 guys. But he brings in Coach K. He brings in Tom Izzo. Wow.

[17:33] He brings in Jim Boeheim. so the 20 coaches that he brings in to coach us 19 are in the hall of fame before before the camp even begins oh my gosh so you’re getting coached by hall of fame coaches yeah cool right it’s a lousy deal for the coaches but so i will share with you at this camp this particular one that i go to the first two days you play basketball all day long it’s awesome then you actually truth is you spend all night in the bar with all your other guys telling each other how great you used to be right right of course you know older you are greater you yes yes um but then on day three jordan walks out and he says today we’re going to start with something a little different today, i’m going to give 20 of you the opportunity to go one-on-one with the greatest player of all time was your hand up did you put your hand up no you don’t raise your hand but he walks through and he picks 20 out and i was one of the 20 really assistant steps in says yes rules are very simple, she said the the rule is very simple you’re going to play a game to one okay first guy to score wins and michael starts with the ball oh really your job is to guard michael if he doesn’t score and you get the ball michael guards you first guy to score wins okay good luck jordan steps back in And it says, while you’re thinking about this, I want you to know that I’ve done this for nine years. And in nine years, five guys have scored.

[19:01] Today, there won’t be a six. Oh, no.

[19:04] As if you need it right now, he’s in your head. Yes. So I actually show this picture. There’s a guy, two guys before me actually goes out to guard Jordan, right? He goes out, throws his elbow, but he can’t get very high. So he’s down on just below Jordan’s hip.

[19:21] Jordan knocks his arm away with the ball. One dribble, two steps, thunder dunk. Takes the ball out of the net, and he chucks it on our buddy who’s laying on the floor. Oh, no. Right? And he said, now you know what it’s like to be spanked like a bad child. He’s such a great trash talker. So two guys later come yours truly. And when I come out there, I decide the one thing I’m not going to have happen is I’m not going to let Michael Jordan dunk on me. I’m not going to let him dunk on me. So I decide to step back and keep Jordan between me and I’m going to stay between him and the basketball. no matter what he does. So Krzyzewski comes up to me afterward and he said, by the way, Don, you were so far away from him. If you’d really wanted to go out and guard him, you’d had to take a cab.

[20:10] Jordan then actually says, hey, here’s the deal. He looks at me and says, are you really going to give me this shot? And I look back at Jordan and I said, I don’t think you have it in you. Everybody starts laughing like who trash talks Michael Jordan At his own event. He goes up, takes a shot, and misses. Ball goes wide left. I got the rebound, took it back outside the three-point line, and Jordan’s stepping out to guard me. And as he’s stepping out, I look back and I said, Michael, aren’t you going to return the favor? Like I’d done him a favor by being a bad defender, right? Yeah. And he says, Don, I know you don’t have that shot at you. And as Jordan stepped up, I actually took a step back and became the sixth player to ever score. No! Don! Thank you. And so, yeah, it became one of those kind of fun things that I bring up more than once if I get a chance, right? If an opportunity comes up, I’m always, I will tell that story anytime I can.

[21:10] Hold on a second. Don, if I were you, that would be, oh, he’s got a picture right there. Yes. That’s me guarding Jordan. You did give him some distance. So you can see that when Coach K said I needed a cab to go out and guard him, yeah, that was me step back. But anyway. But Dawn, if I were you, I would be making that picture my screensaver. I would have had that as my Christmas card for the year, like my Facebook profile. That would make my life. Now, I would tell you, my wife, though, my wife, again, she keeps coming up in these stories, but she was there and she laughed. She said, if you were anywhere near as intelligent as you think you are.

[21:51] That would have been the last shot you ever take ever like you know what just like my last shot i scored on jordan yes but unfortunately i still play and guys who score on me are able to say i scored on the guy who scored on jordan right right and uh but a lot of people have scored on me as i’ve made clear i’m not that great a defender but uh i want to know what was your reaction when it went through the hoop oh yeah i lost my mind there’s actually this picture in which i’m jumping up and down trying to get him to high five me and jordan’s not jordan you see him he actually walks by me and he lowers his hand he’s like i’m not gonna high five you but you can you can slap me down here but i was looking i look like a total goofball in the pictures uh that were taken of me right after the basket was everyone else i would have oh they all lost their mind they were all like oh my nobody believed it was gonna happen so i would have lost it too friends we have been asked to speak at a few events recently in regards to sharing some of our story and it has been an absolute honor. We have a lot of personal stories to share that will hopefully inspire, encourage, and maybe even make you laugh. So if you’re hosting some type of event or need a guest speaker, we’re here to help.

[22:57] That’s right. Just go to kevinandsteph.com and click on the contact button. Like Steph said, let us know if we can be of help in any way. Whether it’s our personal testimony of healing and hope or me just telling some jokes. Oh God, please you guys, please don’t ask him to do that. But seriously, just go to kevinandsteph.com to contact us. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[23:21] Okay walter payton uh just an incredible uh you know i the best football player of all time in my opinion but a better man than that i’ll share with you a story because that’s what we’re here for yes exactly tell us a good story don so walter i had met him years earlier i’d known him a little bit but not very well and then he announced that he was sick that he wasn’t doing very well. And I didn’t know very much about what was going on. But a few weeks later, I happened to be in Chicago. I was there to be on the Oprah Winfrey show. And Walter loved Oprah Winfrey show. So he watched it religiously.

[24:02] And at that time, he knew he was going to die. He knew he only had weeks left to live. And he saw me on Oprah. And he still had my number. He called. And he actually said i need to do a book and i need to do it now he says i’d really like to know would you be interested in being the guy of course are you kidding me walter like i will be on the first plane tomorrow morning to chicago and he said no why don’t you come tonight and so i flew that night was at his house the very next morning but we spent the last time i had the opportunity to spend the last 10 weeks of his life with him and write his autobiography never die easy and it was a game changer for me changed my life so a story working on the book one day i decided we’re sitting there and i said walter first ballot hall of famer super bowl champion career rushing leader in the history of the nfl everything you would have wanted to achieve you achieve, but if you could give it all up for one day in the future what would that one day be, and he didn’t blink he said i’d give it up to walk my daughter down the aisle.

[25:18] And he proceeded for the next 40 minutes to tell me the story of what that wedding day would look like in his eye which told you how much he had already spent thinking about it right Walter passes it’s time for me to write the book I cannot put that story in the book because his daughter is 13 years old and no 13 year old little girl should know right that her daddy is thinking that way yeah so I don’t put it in the book don’t even tell anybody that I have it. As it happens, 15 years later, his daughter calls me, says, we’re getting married, and I want you to be there. And I said, I have something for you.

[26:06] And I came to Chicago and we had dinner and I played her the recording. And we talked about what her father had said on the day of what he wanted to say to her on her wedding day. And we cried our eyes out. And it was a spectacular opportunity to just be engaged in one of the coolest things you could ever be engaged in. And, you know, when people allow you to help them tell their story, sometimes you find incredible moments like that. All right well you’re making us cry over here don thank you sir oh my gosh oh but you know what but a good story should make you cry every once in a while 100 i mean that was a gift that was a gift it was a gift that she got from her father for her wedding day that you provided because you said yes you know i feel like a lot of our times on this earth we just have to say yes and let god do the rest well and the thing that was kind of cool about it was again i said britney this is yours and um i’m not sharing with anybody else yeah until you decide that you want to share it and so a few years later she was on tv there in chicago and it was the anniversary of her father’s passing and she decided to tell the story on tv and she shared it she sent it to me which I got to watch her share it with her audience. So it was really cool.

[27:29] And we stay very close. And so last year, I do a lot of public speaking. I think you might know that. I do a lot of corporate events. And I was speaking for a big bank in Phoenix. And that’s where Brittany lives now. Brittany lives in Phoenix with her husband and their two children. And so I call Brittany. Hey, Brittany, I’m in town. I would love to see you guys. I’m speaking tomorrow. in fact if you want to come that’d be a lot of fun and um she’s like don i can’t make it so sorry we’re in sun valley idaho we’re skiing whatever right i’m like oh what a bummer but you know what love you look forward to seeing you next time i’m in phoenix so i get to the event the next day, and the ceo of the bank gets up and stands on the stage and says you know what i was looking forward to introducing don today but we have one of our banking clients who has a special relationship with him and he’s gonna and she’s gonna share a little bit about him and i’m standing there and i looked behind me and what walking past me is britney payton and i said you’re in sun valley and she goes i lied and she keeps walking by right and she goes to the front of the room in front of this large group of people and proceeds to tell the story, of the recording and of what her father said.

[28:46] Which stage I’m standing in the back of the room and I’m just bawling my eyes out again. Right. And then she goes, but here to inspire you is my friend Don Yeager. I’m going to walk up after that and I got to like act like I am ready to share it. It was the first five minutes. I was just a bumbling idiot in front of this room full of people.

[29:07] But best intro ever, though. Yeah, I know. And then she stayed around to watch the whole thing and got a chance to spend some time hugging and anyway yeah that’s fantastic all right don so for all of our guests i like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done what you’ve accomplished and keep me honest if i’m wrong on any of these please feel free to correct me but steph is not aware of any of these okay so you’re gonna see her genuine reaction yep all right steph you ready yes fun fact number one and we’re not gonna be able to get through all of these okay but like myself, Don grew up as a pastor’s kid. Did you? I am. So, two-part question here. First off, did you ever feel pressured to go into the ministry as a pastor’s kid? And two, how has your faith been a part of your career, Don, in regards to you felt like God leading you to cover a certain topic or a certain

[30:02] story that may not have been on your radar? I’m curious to hear how that’s worked so answer the first question is you were probably the good guy preacher’s kid i would i played the other role okay i was the kid who got arrested for stealing hubcaps at the right true story 16 years old and um so i was the preacher’s kid who wanted to not i was on the other end of the spectrum and it took years for me to kind of kind of work all of those issues out in my life.

[30:33] But faith is a huge piece, not just of who I am today, but what I believe I’ve been allowed to do, right? I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of, I believe God opens doors for me. I believe that it’s my job to be as present as possible to step through them, right? And then if I can help you tell your story to make other people better, there’s a win-win. But yeah, I was I was the preacher kid who kind of did the bad stuff. I was the one that all the other people in the church were like, stay away from that kid. Mr. Yeager, how did you raise that child? And there were some rough patches during teenage preacher kid years. Right, for sure. Because there’s like the joke where like pastor’s sons go one of two ways, right? They’re either like a minister themselves, you know, somebody in public, right? Or an international drug dealer, right? There’s like no in-between. That’s kind of what my mother said. Yeah. You know, you’re either, what she actually said, you’re either going to be president of the United States or the head of the mafia, right? Or the other. And I was like, mom, why can’t I do both? You know? Like, you know, I mean, really? Why are you, why are you shorting me?

[31:46] All right, Steph, next fun fact. Okay. All right, you ready for this one? Because this is crazy. Don has penned 35 books, including an incredible 12 New York Times bestsellers. Don’s books have sold now over 7 million copies, have been on the New York Times bestsellers list for over 100 weeks. Wow. Over 100 weeks. So how does this work, Don? Do people come to you and pitch themselves to you? How do you decide what you’re going to write about next? It’s a mixture. Sometimes there’s that opportunity to go chase some story that I really am intrigued by. Someone’s story that I see out there, my most recent bestseller was with Deion Sanders, the coach at Colorado. One of my favorite athletes of all time, but somebody who many people don’t understand. We’re talking about faith. right? I mean, you and I have spent a lot of time around Christians, right? Yes. John Maxwell loves to say all the time, like sometimes Christians wear me out.

[32:49] But Dion is an incredible man of faith. Almost every interview we did opened with some prayer, you know, his prayer to God asking me to ask the right questions and him to have the right answers. That’s good. So next fun fact, throughout his writing career, Don has developed a reputation as a world-class storyteller, as you can tell. He’s been invited to be a guest on every major talk show from Oprah to ABC’s Nightline to CNN to Good Morning America. So Don here has written some really cool books, but he’s also written on real life topics. Okay. So Don, you wrote an article titled Who’s Coaching Your Kid? And this article resulted in changes to actual laws around youth sports, around like even Little League. Can you share the story of kind of what you found once you started digging into youth sports? Can you give kind of the short version of that for stuff? Yeah, the story is that a friend of mine who was an FBI agent was sharing with me that they had an entire team at the FBI tracking pedophiles who were using youth sports and the opportunity to coach kids as a way to groom and take advantage of children.

[34:02] And so I spent a year, basically, with the FBI, with numbers of these members of law enforcement. I even went into prisons to interview some of these pedophiles who had done these horrible things. And what had happened was that sports so needed coaches. We needed somebody to come coach kids that we were doing no background checks. And as a result, one of the emails that I saw that was shared with me by the FBI actually was between two pedophiles, One of whom was encouraging the other one to become a youth coach because he said it was the last great candy store of opportunity, right? School bus drivers were now being background checked. They were background checks for so many other professions, but not for coaches.

[34:46] And as a result of the story, and a number of people, Oprah and other people picked it up and did big pieces on it, 17 states changed their laws to require background checks for kids. And then other things happened as a result. Many of the other organizations began doing it because they saw that the laws were taking effect and they better get out ahead of the laws. It’s pretty amazing. I still stay in touch with a number of the young kids. They were young when I wrote about them. But today I get a chance to hang out with sometimes with them. I had one in my office not long ago who came in from Massachusetts to introduce me to the woman he was getting ready to marry.

[35:26] And he was a little boy in the story that I wrote who had been taken advantage of by a coach. And the idea that he opened up and was willing to tell me that story allowed me to tell it and change all those laws. I mean, not that I did it, but the story changed laws. Don, do you ever just, like, listen to yourself talk? Like, I talked to Oprah. I was on her show. Then I went to Walter Payton’s house and did a story. Hey, not just watch his house. And I hung out with Shaquille O’Neal. He lived with him for 10 weeks. Well, yeah. But I’m like, Don, do you just, like, this is my life. Do you just kind of sit back? It’s pretty incredible. And like, oh, my goodness, this is amazing. I try not to. Really? Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think. I don’t know. That might get weird.

[36:11] I think I’m just I just I’m trying to make sure I get through this podcast right now.

[36:18] Steph, did you know that Tell Us A Good Story has a YouTube channel? Wait, seriously? So apparently you don’t watch it. Absolutely not. That’s what I thought. But it’s because, you know, I don’t like to watch myself. That’s true. That is true. But friends, we have a YouTube channel we would love for you to check out. So if you would like to see video clips of us with prior guests. Or some entire episodes. Or videos of my wife here scaring guests with her excitement. Oh, that too. You can see all of that by going to YouTube and searching Tell Us a Good Story. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Yes. But as always, you guys, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. All right. Final fun fact. Okay. In 2020, Dawn launched the Corporate Competitor Podcast, which Podcast Magazine quickly recognized as one of the top 50 podcasts in America. Among the guests that Don has interviewed for episodes have been former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

[37:09] Founder of Savannah Bananas, Jesse Cole, and the CEOs of major companies like Chick-fil-A, Topgolf, Mayo Clinic, Netflix, Ritz Carlton. So Don will interview all these amazing people and discuss lessons they learned from playing sports. And he just dropped episode 214 of the podcast. So congratulations on that i’m already behind you though i gotta gotta gotta catch up so i got another year worth of work can you tell listeners about your podcast in any of your books that are going to be released here soon don well yeah the podcast it’s um like yours it’s the opportunity to try to help other people tell their story right yeah and and what’s so fun is you you get people like brian moynahan the ceo of bank of america right he’s got 150 000 employees or whatever it, and he starts talking about playing rugby.

[37:58] And that’s something that none of his employees have ever heard him talk about because he’s now CEO and you got to talk about financial results and next year’s goals and all these other things. And here he’s talking about what it means to be in a scrum, right? You know, to be in rugby and, you know, you sit down with the CEO of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastian, and, you know, you start to start talking about the power of running and what it does for him. And the lessons that I’ve learned from them have been really extraordinary about leadership, right? Sports is just the metaphor. You know, leadership is what we’re really targeting. And one of those interviews, as I just, I made reference, was with Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta. At the end of the interview, actually, it was interesting because he teared up in the interview during the conversation with me, telling a story. The podcast is a lot of fun. We love doing it. We have an episode every week. I love asking questions. Curiosity, I think, is probably my superpower. And then if I can ask the right questions, the best stories come from it.

[39:00] Well, listeners, for more information about Don, you can go to his social media pages. It’s on Instagram and Facebook. It’s at Don Yeager. YouTube, he has a channel at… Oh, wait, wait. Make sure it’s Don Yeager. Y-A-E-G-E-R. Yes. Most people spell it the other way. So get me right. And we will put links in our show notes and our website. So you can click on

[39:19] this and go right to the pages. Uh youtube it’s corporate competitor podcast and then his website is dawn yeager.com that’s y-a-e-g-e-r so dawn thank you thank you thank you i knew you’re gonna be amazing amazing this was fantastic so thank you so much for saying yes to us send me a note let me know if i can help you write that first letter to your wife yes dawn yes i love that yeah i need to start that You just totally need to say that. Friends, we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this, whether it’s on the Apple Podcast app, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or one of the other platforms. You guys, it’s completely free. And while you’re there, feel free to give us a rating or a nice review. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.