On this episode of the Massimo Show

Rod sits down with author, thought leader, and sought-after speaker who teaches people, leaders, and teams to infuse their lives and businesses with authenticity and appreciation: Mike Robbins. As a leadership expert, Mike partners with some of the top organizations in the world helping enhance culture,  performance, trust, and belonging.

Early Retirement x2 

As a teen living in Oakland, CA Mike’s biggest passion was baseball. Turns out he was very good, good enough to be drafted by the Yankees. But, with his future in mind, he turned down the contract in favor of playing college ball at Stanford, which was only about an hour from where he grew up. He was actually drafted again, after his junior year, by the Kansas City Royals in 1995. As he worked his way up through the minor leagues he experienced every player’s worst fear: an injury “I went out to pitch one night, I threw one pitch, I tore ligaments in my elbow, blew my arm out when I was 23. After starting baseball when I was seven…two years, three surgeries later, I was forced to retire from baseball at the age of 25.” Mike explains to Rod. 

Like many kids with pro athlete dreams aside from going to college, Mike hadn’t really put a lot of thought into a true plan B. He spent time in the late 90s working with internet companies, startups and was in sales and business development learning but not really all that interested and passionate about his work. Along came another type of injury: the .dom bubble burst. 

“So now I’m, you know, 26 and out of work and don’t really know what the heck, but had had this secret sort of fantasy that I barely even talked about out loud, that I wanted to speak and I wanted to write and I wanted to coach and I wanted to inspire people” Mike explains. 

As of January 1st, 2021 Mike has been doing just that for 20 years. “…a lot of good fortune, a lot of support, a lot of help, a lot of determination, a lot of trial and error, lots of error. And I’ve been able to…do this work that I absolutely love,” says Mike. 

Finding Freedom in Entrepreneurship 

With no job prospects in his field, Mike was feeling absolutely lost. Despite having the dream of being an author and a coach, knowing the path to get there felt impossible. As fate would have it, about two months later Mike met a woman, Michelle, “that ended up being probably the most extraordinary thing that happened in my life” Mike tells Rod. Not only had Mike met his future wife but he also met the first person who ever encouraged him to start a business. 

Finding Wings on the Way Down 

Early on someone told Mike to deliver 100 free speeches to rotary clubs and high schools and maybe after 100 times he would be getting paid. Well, it only took 12 times. With a well-connected wife and a friend who was the assistant baseball coach at the high school, Mike has plenty of opportunities to speak and hand out his card. “ I met a woman at a workshop that I took and I had my little business cards,” Mike recalls. They said ‘Mike Robbins Motivational Speaker’ and she worked for a company called Sutter Health…she called me like two weeks after the workshop and was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m so glad I got you on the phone. Our CEO from one of our hospitals in Sacramento just called. He’s all stressed out because he has a big meeting with all of his managers next week, and their speaker just canceled, but I told him, don’t worry, I got a great guy” After that phone call Mike was hired to give a 90-minute presentation on the keys to creating a championship team to 200 managers. After that, he was hooked. He distinctly remembers 3 big takeaways that he still relies on today: 

• Be yourself. 
• Connect with the audience, human to human.
• Talk about the stuff that you know

But Mike’s main message: Be willing to try. Say yes and find your wings on the way down. 

Being Present 

At this point, Mike was still only 28 years old and speaking to lots of companies. More importantly, he was finding his niche. He noticed that GenXers were interacting with BAbyBoomers and that creating cultures where people who are different can work together to be successful was important to these companies. Being young himself but having come from a strong team mentality upbringing of baseball he offered a unique perspective. 

His time with those younger crowds and junior executives served him well. Despite the social media and TED talks and podcasts Mike still garners a substantial amount of his engagements from good old-fashioned business relationships.  “At the end of the day depending on the business that you have, but especially a service-based business like mine, it’s about people, it’s about relationships, I could have the fanciest video in the world, I could do the best Facebook marketing campaign you’ve ever seen, I could, you know, whatever. And at the end of the day, it’s like, they got to trust me and know me and know that I can come in and actually provide value for them.” Mike tells Rod. 

“I would say for what it’s worth, my training as an athlete really helped me in that the game is the game, whether you’re playing in Little League, or in front of five people, or you’re playing in the College World Series in 1995 on national TV as I did. I’d never pitched in front of 25,000 people, I’d never been on national TV, but you know, and I was scared and I couldn’t catch my breath. And the first four pitches I threw almost went over the catcher’s head because I was so nervous. But once I calmed down, I realized, you know what, 

it’s still 60 feet six inches from the mound to the plate, it’s still 90 feet with the bases, it’s still the same game I’ve been playing since I was a kid, I just have to deal with my emotions about being on this stage. 

And I think the same is true when I’m speaking on the stage, literally in front of I haven’t been on a stage in months, of course, but in front of 1000s of people, it’s noticeably different than when I’m speaking in a room of 20 people just energetically but it’s still the same. I’m still communicating a message to a group of people and wanting to engage them. It’s just the stakes sometimes change or the size changes but  the story in our head that is more intimidating than the actuality of what we’re doing.” 

Rod and Mike close out the show by talking about his Coaches, Mentors, and the value of being vulnerable.

Visit https://mike-robbins.com/ to learn more about Mike, his books, his podcast, and how to bring him to a zoom screen near you!