Check out the latest episode below. Mr.Biz Radio provides business owners with the knowledge and insights needed to drive their companies forward.

Mr. Biz Radio: Success is for Suckers! It's All About the Win!

Unedited transcription of the show is included below:

(00:05):

Welcome to Mr. Biz radio, Biz. Talk for Biz owners. If you're ready to stop faking the funk and take your business onward and upward, this show is for you. And now here's Mr. Biz, Ken Wentworth.

(00:18):

All right. Welcome to another episode of Mr. Biz Radio with me, Mr. Biz, Ken Wentworth. And we're gonna talk about a topic this week that everyone, everyone listening, I don't care what walk of life you're from. I don't care what you do for a living business owner, entrepreneur non-business owner, corporate person, artist. Doesn't matter. We're gonna talk about winning, winning, winning, winning. As a matter of fact, our guest this week for those are not viewing and they're listening. I have a quote from our guest this week and he says, success is for suckers. It's all about the win. He is a former NFL player. He's a business owner himself. He's an author of two books, "The Culture of Winologist" and "The Winning Edge". He's a keynote speaker and he is the number one Winologist in all the world. None other than Mr. Shawn Harper, Shawn. Welcome to Mr. Biz radio.

(01:13):

Oh man. I love that introduction. Hey, thanks for having me. Let's go. Let's win.

(01:18):

Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love it. So, so I guess tell us about your entrepreneurial journey. Now, obviously you, you went through school ended up playing in the NFL and all that stuff. How'd you, you know, evolve from all of that, into what you do now.

(01:30):

So basically I retired from, from the NFL after 2000 and right before I retired, I had lent my brother some money, you know, just to, just to invest in his security firm and you know, that was going well. Once I retired, I came on to the firm full time, well, to make a long, long, long story short, 2004, I acquired the entire company 100% owner. And I remember sitting in my new office the first day, not knowing nothing, nothing about business, no business training, nothing. And I was able to graft in the pool. Some of the tech techniques, methodologies and strategies. I learned playing professional football and infusing it into the corporate workplace. And long behold, it's 2022. We're still here. We're doing very well. And my new mantra is if life is a game you play to win. So that's basically what happened, which led up to that. And I'm still moving full speed.

(02:35):

I love it. I love it. So I guess delving into that a little bit. What are some of those, I don't know, maybe two or three key things that you did learn from playing in the NFL that you, you went ahead and applied in the business world.

(02:46):

Wow. So one of, one of the first things that, that really just took me by surprise is that corporate leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, they don't do a lot of research in their industry. Like when I played football, when I was going up against maybe the Steelers or new England or Tampa, I knew everything about that organization, everything about the guy I was going up against, I probably knew what he had for dinner. Last night, I knew his family's name. I researched his tendencies, his techniques, his strategies, every single, if he were to scratch his behind in that was a signal for something. And it was an indicator. What blows me away, as I just mentioned is that we just jump into business and we're like, Hey, we're gonna be successful. We're gonna win. And you know what, if you don't know the playground that you're playing in, especially, especially for entrepreneurs, if you don't understand the ocean that you're in and your competitors, your former competitors, your up and coming competitors, and you're losing that edge, you're outta business, or you're gonna be, or you're gonna have a lackluster career. You have to understand competition. You have to understand your ever changing ever involving environment and how to position yourself to win in it.

(04:04):

I love it. Yeah. I, I, I used that stuff. I used to compete in power lifting. Yeah. And I knew all of the competitors at the world level that were going up against me and I, I was trying to keep track of what they were doing, what they did in their last competition as much information as I could get about them. And I would use that stuff. I, I, I, I chased this, this Russian guy, his name was Vaseline for man that took me four or five years to finally catching surpassed this guy. But I used that during my training. Right. You know, I get up Sean and I'm having a bad day and I'm like, man, I gotta go to the gym and put two hours in. I don't want to do it. I bet you vastly he's training. Yep. I bet you he's training.

(04:40):

You know what I mean? Like yep. Gotta get after it. You gotta get after it. And I love the whole ologist aspect of it because I get grief. I'm, I'm a competitive person. I always have been, I always have been involved athletically. And you know, that phrase that the second place is the first loser. I take grief from people. <Laugh>, you know, my wife's like, oh my gosh, like, just relax. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. But I don't, I don't mean that in a mean way. Right. But it's like, you, I love what you, your stance on that, you know, like you said, if, if life is a game, why are you not playing the win?

(05:14):

Well, and, and, and, and it goes to what you're saying. It goes to that level, but for the people out there, that's listening, because I hear you, I hear you. You're like, well, you know what? I'm not the competitive type. I'm not the person that's gonna just, you know, dig deep and wanna out, you know, do and outperform the people around me. And you don't because the greatest competitor is you, you are fighting, you you're going up against you. I remember playing with the Colts and there was a particular receiver. I'm not gonna mention his name. You know, he had a okay game, a couple drop passes, but we won the game and we were all jumping around. We were excited, but I noticed his hands was folded. He was mumbling to himself. He was. So he was just as angry as if we lost the game.

(06:01):

And when we got back to the stadium, instead of going into his car, he went back into the training and he started working out training again. And it's like, what are you doing? I asked him, he said, he said, listen, I'm not gonna let people's approval. I'm not gonna let people's opinion of the game or me become my identity. I know I could have done better. I know I should have done better. I shouldn't have dropped those passes. Art was my nickname harp. And from there, I was like, aha, real winners, world champions. They have the inside game. So it doesn't matter. What's going on out here. The inside game says, you know, you could have done better. You know, you should have done better. You know, you can do better. Everyone's applauding you. Everyone is praising you. But inside, you know, you're a better person, a better competitor, a better business man, or woman than that. And once you are able to get to the inside game, if you do your best leave unto the Lord, the rest, it doesn't matter. Win or lose. That is a winner.

(07:00):

It's funny you say that. I competed at the world championships one year, Shawn Uhhuh and I was training to break a world record. Right? Got, got to the world. Championships, won the world championships. I think it was at the time, like maybe my third or fourth, but I was unsuccessful in achieving a world record, which I knew I was expecting to do. And I was capable of doing, I had the same exact reaction. I came home. Everyone's like, oh my gosh, you won again. Blah, blah, blah. And I was mad, man. I was mad. Cause I said, I did not live up to my full potential. I, in my mind I didn't win. Right, right. I might have a gold medal to show for it, but it wasn't a win for me because I knew I had let myself down. I, I didn't win and, and perform after my capabilities. And that was just super disappointing to me. And I, so I, I did all kinds of stuff to motivate myself, to make sure that didn't happen again.

(07:50):

Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and now let's take that same story and let's flip it. You're in a competition or you're in the workplace or you are a, you are a seasoned business owner. COVID happen. Things happen. And guess what? You can't do your best or UN unforeseen circumstances happen. And yet, and you have to go outta business or you lose market share. It's okay. If you've done your best,

(08:15):

Right? Yeah, no, I love that. I love that guys this week. Again, we're talking with Mr. Shawn Harper, former NFL player, business owner, author of two great books, "The Culture of Winologists" and "The Winning Edge". You hear a theme here, guys. We're talking about winning this week, man. We're talking about winning. It's not always a win that most people think of. Like Shawn's talking about here. You can follow Shawn on social media Facebook, you have the Facebook proof on Instagram. You can also go out to shawnharper.org. That's shawnharper.org to learn more information about different things he's got going on. Upcoming speaking events, et cetera. We're gonna hit a break here, gonna come back. We'll get the Mr. Biz tip of the week. And we're gonna talk to Sean more about winning

(08:54):

If you would like to reach hundreds of thousands of business owners every week, Mr. Biz Radio can help. Our show airs globally seven days a week from more than 25 hours across several internet radio stations, plus 20 plus podcast platforms. Also, video exposure on the new exclusive Mr. Biz Network streaming channel, which gets blasted to 100 plus streaming platforms and the Mr. Biz YouTube channel and our 350,000 social media followers multiple times every week. Join Mr. Biz Nation as an advertiser by emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

(09:41):

Are you ready to automate your business? Automation is the key to scaling a business and building wealth. It's also one of the most difficult things for a small business owner to do on their own. If you're looking for help with automation, Pulse Technology CRM can help. We have an exclusive offer for Mr. Biz nation. We will build everything for free, even if it's a sophisticated funnel, visit thepulsespot.com/MrBiz. For this exclusive offer.

(10:10):

Got a question for Mr. Biz. You want answered on air, email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Now once again, here's Mr. Biz.

(10:21):

All right. Welcome back to the show's time for the Mr. Biz tip of the week. And this week's tip. I promise you, I say this all the time. It's, it's funny how the universe works. And these tips, we, we put these tips out for the whole year in December, right? We, we create the calendar and everything, and then, you know, whatever that tip tip for the week is we share it on the show and we share it on social media. And so often it ends up aligning with the message we're talking about with our guests that week. And this one is, is is very similar and will apply to a lot that what Sean's talking about the tip this week is to control your success, take responsibility for things around you. Super simple seems obvious, but too often we rely, we, we try to rely on other people or we make excuses, well, this didn't happen or that didn't happen.

(11:05):

Or, you know I don't, I'm, I'm not skinny enough. I'm not old enough. I'm too young. I'm a bunch of excuses control your controllable. As I like to say, those things that are around you, that you can control, take control of those things to create your own success. That is a Mr. Biz tip of the week. All right, Shawn. So let's get back into this. So you, you leave the NFL, you're retired from the NFL. You make an investment in your brother's business. Next thing you know, you're running the thing, you're running the whole show. How do you, how does that evolve into you becoming a, a speaker and an author?

(11:37):

So I was always a speaker. I had the, you know, aspect of being, being an author in me. Let me back up, let me digress. You know, so when I played football on the off season, you, you know, they would ask, you know players current and former to speak on the behalf of the organization, fundraisers, charity events. I'm like, I'm all over that, you know, a couple extra grand. And I, I just love speaking. I love to invest in the world's greatest resource, which is people. And when I retired the invitations, they kept coming and they just kept coming and it kind of mushroomed from there. I joined several, you know, organizations to, you know, speak on like bill glass, prison ministry, and, you know, just, just any, any way and anyhow, any, not say anyhow, but basically any, any way I can get my message out there of encouraging and motivating.

(12:31):

I was just all over it. The author part was a little different. And I don't know if you know much about my actual story, but, you know, I was documented with four to five learning disabilities. I studied my entire life kicked out of a couple schools, but I know I always had a challenges with writing and spelling my entire life. So although I had books in me I was basically too scared to even try to put, you know, a pin to a sheet of paper, you know, cuz I've always heard the voices. You'll never make it in education. You know, leaving high school at the 1.6, two and a nine on your, a CT, you know, it kind of carries. And then I found, you know, social media platforms where I could find individuals from all over the world that love writing.

(13:14):

And so I said, you know what, I'm going to connect with these individuals that went to, you know, major networking platforms. I found a couple writers, I got two books finished and I have two more finished, actually I'm up about four to five books right now. And I'm just, I just tell 'em what to say. This is my heart. They write it down, make a few course corrections and the rest is history. It's it's no one very few people are disabled. You are uniquely enabled. You just have to find the pieces and put 'em together and you can win with it.

(13:47):

I love the story. So I, I did know some your you're back and I didn't know, background story, and I didn't know, I didn't want to, you know, let the cow of the bag and share something you wouldn't didn't want maybe shared or whatever, but

(13:56):

Oh, that's fine. Yeah.

(13:57):

Yeah. That, that's why I wanted to ask that because I knew you had had some of those challenges and so that, but it, I was, I was hoping you were gonna share that because I think it's a perfect example. Another example, frankly, of winning. Yes. I, instead of getting bumped up against that, like you said in your head and saying, man, I can't do this. I, I mean, I got books, but I, how, what do I do? It's like one of the things, you know, I talk about in my most recent book is the M model expert behavior. You're like, man, I don't know if I could personally write a book, but I can get someone who knows how to write a book really well, to help me write a book. Right. Right. I mean, it's perfect.

(14:29):

Yeah. It it's it's, you can be the best running back in the world, but if you don't have an offensive line, you ain't <laugh>, you're going nowhere. One of the things that, well, another thing that I learned also is, was just absolutely amazing is how to build, encourage and motivate teams because everyone has a strength. Everyone has a weakness. The secret sauce is to partner your weakness with someone's strength, come together in agreement, which is a very powerful methodology. It's a very powerful concept, which is agreement come together in agreement and work towards the win. So whether it's sports, whether it's in business, if you look at some of the greatest or the most influential people in the world, they always had teams, you know, Martin Luther King, he had a team Bill Gates had Paul Allen. Mick Jagger music, Keith Richards. I mean, think about this for a second. You know, you see these great people, Warren Buffet and his partner, Charlie, it is, there's always a team. When you put two people in agreement together in business entrepreneurs who are used to doing it on their own, when you put 'em together in business or in society, or to tackle any task, as long as this, as long as that cohesiveness is tight, they're unstoppable.

(15:50):

I love you mention that because I've talked about it several times on the show, I've talked about it in the book. People don't succeed on their own.

(15:56):

No,

(15:57):

You know, the examples you gave were perfect. You know, people will, you know, most people know who Warren Buffet is. A lot of people don't know about Charlie Munger. Yeah. But without Charlie Munger, there might not be a Warren buffet,

(16:08):

Right.

(16:09):

Without, you know, without Steve Wosniak, there might not be a Steve jobs. Perfect

(16:14):

Example,

(16:16):

Everyone needs that. They gotta have a team. You gotta have that, that yin and the yang, you gotta have people to help you. The running back example you gave, you could be the greatest. You could be Barry Sanders. You're Barry Sanders with a crappy old line. You're not going anywhere. <Laugh>

(16:30):

<Laugh>

(16:31):

Even Barry Sanders. You,

(16:32):

It takes though, you know what that takes, that takes, that takes vulnerability. And it takes humility to be able to partner with an individual. It takes, you have to become vulnerable and business owners. We don't like that word and we have to become pliable and we have to be humble enough to say, Hey, I don't have all the pieces. And I honor, and I value your skillset and what you bring to the table. And together in agreement, like I mentioned earlier, let's conquer the world.

(17:05):

So now that you're, you're doing all these different things, what, what, what would you say? How much time do you spend running your company versus working on speaking engagements, working on new books and things like that. I mean, obviously you, you got all these, these books going on, you got a couple in, you got a couple ready to come out. Is that taking more and more of your time now? Yes.

(17:25):

Yes. And this is, this is a mistake that I made thinking that I could be proficient in both and not have someone run one of the entities. There are people who actually do both, but there's somebody there's that general manager, someone who can basically run the organization by him or herself. And so I just hired an individual. And your job is basically is to run the full operations of the security company. My phone better not ring. So I can spend time, you know, coming in, you know, looking at the numbers, releasing that and focus on investing in people through speeches, through books, through courses, through coaching. That's where I'm going full time. Because time is short and being able to invest. You see, we're not running a race. We're not just a race. We're running a relay and sooner or later, I'm gonna have to hand this off and I'm gonna be accountable for what's in me. Did you hand off the Baton to the next generation or to the next people effectively? Or did they have to pick it up off the ground? Too many people are picking it up off the ground and are culture suffering because we're not handing it because we're too selfish and myopic and we're focused on ourself and I'll be narcissistic versus saying, Hey, it's time for me to hand off it's time for me to prep. It's time for me to prepare the next generation. And that's where I feel that I'm at in that season.

(18:58):

Yeah. I love it. I love it. It's definitely part of the evolution guys. We're gonna hit a break here. We're gonna come back. We're gonna talk to Shawn about the keys to winning in life.

(19:07):

Good.

(19:10):

How would you like to have direct access to Mr. Biz to help you run your business more profitably and more efficiently at mrbizsolutions.com you get live access to not only Mr. Biz, but also several of his handpicked and trusted business experts. Each with 20 plus years of experience to help you optimally manage and grow your business. That's just the start of where Mr. Biz solutions begins. Learn more at mrbizsolutions.com. That's mrbizsolutions.com.

(19:40):

Business owners have a continually growing to-do list with little time for revenue producing activities, with Check Off Your List and their experienced team of virtual assistant. You can focus on growing your business, visit, checkoffyourlist.com to learn how Check Off Your List. Skilled team can handle your day tasks like social media, bookkeeping, calendar maintenance, and much more. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 8 8 8 2 6 2 1 2 4 9. To see how their virtual assistants can help you live to work rather than work to live

(20:11):

Check out all three of Mr. Business best-selling books at mrbizsolutions.com. Now, once again, here's Mr. Biz.

(20:20):

All right. All right. A right. Welcome back to the show again this week, guys talking to Mr. Sean Harper, former NFL player, business owner, author, keynote speaker, and a winologist baby. You can find out more at shawnharper.org thats shawnharper.org, you can follow him his Facebook group and also on Instagram. So Sean, let's talk about this. We we've talked about winning a lot. Obviously you've got two books based around winning the culture ologist and the winning edge. What are some keys for our listener viewers out there? What are some of those keys to winning in life that you've, you know, you learned in your NFL career, your, your, your, your your time as a business owner, et cetera.

(21:00):

No, you know what? This is gonna be kind of controversial. But one of the things that I've learned is that I forget the rules. I mean, there's rules out there and I will follow on them. And sometimes I might not follow 'em, but I never break laws. You never break laws. You mentioned the universe, the laws of the universe. You never break the laws. If you break the laws, the laws will break you the law of, yes, my word is my word. The laws of honor, you don't break the laws of capacity. You don't break like example. We talk about capacity, true story. Walt Disney had a capacity issue. He had a big vision, but he had Disney land and there was no more land for Disney. So he had to secretly buy 30,000 acres in Orlando to to house his huge vision.

(21:58):

Sometimes we have huge visions, but we don't have the right capacity for the vision. That is a spiritual law. The law of two 12 water is water at 211 degrees at 212 degrees. Water boils, boiling water has changed the world, but water doesn't boil on its own. You have to have an outside force, an outside mentor, an outside coach, someone to antagonize someone to push you into the two 12, and you have to live in the two 12, the law of correspondence, the law of sewing and reaping. Once you understand these laws, then you live your life by these laws. They're there for a reason. And you always make sure that you're on the right side of the law. I'm gonna share something that I've never shared. I maybe shared maybe once or twice. Okay. And this is how I learned about these laws. My father left my mom when I was three years of age and my mom cried like a baby.

(22:51):

She had raised six kids all by herself and she said, God spoke to her. And this is what was said. If you give to the poor, I will always take care of you. That's how I learned about the laws of giving the laws of sewing. And I promise you, my mom raised all six kids by herself, man, on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, she even adopted one, but we had the best of the best of Lare of Lare because my mom was a giver that is a spiritual law. Faithful over the little is a spiritual law. Find the laws that's number one or two or three or four. And the next is is that you have to have your team. You have to build a team. You have to know how to onboard a team and people are in your life for a season. And for a reason, you have to know when the off boarder team, because being in business in 2022 is not like a swimming pool. Okay. There's different rules. It's like an ocean. And you have to know the difference between a shark and a dolphin, maybe a couple hundred yards away. Don't let, 'em get up on you. That's what a effective team will do is carry the vision. That's just a couple things I just throw out there for you.

(24:02):

I love the, the, the shark and dolphin reference <laugh>. Yeah. Right. I mean that, that, that one paints a very vivid picture. Right. You, you know, you see it, you see AFIN in the water. Which one is it? Yes. Is this a friend or a foe? <Laugh>

(24:16):

Yeah, yeah,

(24:17):

Yeah. I'm just, I'm scribbling notes down here, man. I love it. I love it. What are some of those things that, you know, forget, forget the fact that you're you're maybe you're not a business owner. Maybe we got someone watching, listening. Yeah. They're not a business owner. They're in a corporate career. Maybe maybe they're an athlete. What are some of the things that they should focus on in regards to, so maybe some other different things. I mean, obviously those are both very important as well, but what are some other things that those, those kind of people might be able to focus on to say, really look at the keys, to winning in life for them.

(24:49):

Yeah. I, I strongly believe that your network is turning into your network now is building a positive and powerful network. I mean, I'm, I'm getting on my son, like son, I know you're in college, but where's your LinkedIn account. Okay. <Laugh> he's like, where is his friend has a LinkedIn account. He already ha he already has like a job law. I'm like, dude, this kid, like, where is, where is your network? Social scientists say that each person knows at the bare minimum, some say 2000, but I'm just gonna be conservative here. A thousand people that is basically in their network. I have seen job opportunities go, and, and this is not gonna be real popular, posted online that job's already gone. Right. Okay. I mean, that's just, just, just, that's true for the matter that job's already gone. Okay. Why it's because of the network and when listen to this, I want you to have a win-win attitude.

(25:50):

Now, when I say win-win attitude, this comes back to the spiritual laws again. Now it's not that, oh, I win and you win. It's the exact opposite. It's you win. And eventually I win is that you set yourself up, set your network up, that you always bring value. You don't wanna be the one that is always extracting you, give you, give you give, and then maybe you'll ask, you'll give, you'll give you'll give. And then maybe you'll ask you become the connected guy. You become the individual that, you know what I'm gonna introduce you to this person, give what you want. If you want, you know forgiveness, you give forgiveness. I, I, I just, I just had a situation happen three weeks ago. This person owes me a lot of money called me out. The blue called me out the blue. And I'm like, you know what? The debt is forgiven. Now. I, I looked at a particular account. My debt is forgiven, networking and giving what you want. That is what I would leave with you guys today.

(26:57):

Yeah. I, I love it. And I'm a firm believer in that as well. Your network is so important, like you said, I saw it when I was in a corporate world at JP Morgan, there would be times that, you know, maybe a colleague of mine would post a job. And it's exactly what you said. They already knew who they were gonna hire. They already knew it, but they had to go through the motions. They post the job it's already done, but it was because of the network, like you said, man, NFL, you know that, you know, there are teams that they fire their head coach that ownership already has someone in mind on who they're gonna be a quarterback, a running back, whoever might be, they already know who they want and they gotta go through the motions. They gotta post the job. And you know, I, just, to me that a lot of that stuff's like faking the funk. Like I don't, I, you know, if you know who you want,

(27:41):

You can't do it, you know,

(27:42):

Anyway, but the network being a net worth is super, super important. Yeah. I left the corporate world. Shawn you, you're not gonna like this at all. Especially the advice you gave your, your your son. I left a corporate world. I didn't even have a LinkedIn account. <Laugh> wow. Because my network, I worked at JP Morgan. My network was 260,000 people with the company. That's all I was worried about. Right. That was my network at the time. And I, when I decided I was gonna leave, I'm like, man, I better get a LinkedIn account. That's kind of important. <Laugh>

(28:10):

Yeah. Yeah. It is it, we, you know what, don't don't feel bad because I'm just, now I'm just now leveraging the NFL network of all the retired players out there. I'm just now starting to, you know, and you know what? I kind of kicked myself behind end also because, you know, I went into a very good school, you know, I went to Indiana university. Yeah. And I look on their networking board and it's like 50, 60, 70,000 people. I'm like, man, had, I just networked when I was in school just a little bit more, you know,

(28:49):

<Laugh>,

(28:50):

It would've helped out a lot, you know? So yeah.

(28:53):

Yeah. But that's a life lesson you learn. Yeah. And that's another way to win at life. So guys, this week begin, we've been talking Mr. Shawn Harper, former NFL player, business owner, author, keynote speaker winologist. He's got two books out right now, a couple more coming, "The Culture of Winologist" and "The Winning Edge". You can find out more again in his website, shawnharper.org, seanharper.org. Shawn, I really appreciate you coming on a show. Fantastic content. Great guests really appreciate it.

(29:19):

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

(29:22):

Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna hit you up for lunch cuz I'm I'm based on the north side of Columbus.

(29:26):

Are you in Columbus?

(29:27):

I'm in Columbus. I'm hit you up.

(29:30):

Call me it's on me. I know it's on me.

(29:33):

I'm serious. All guys. Thanks. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. And don't forget as always cash flow

(29:39):

Is King

(29:40):

To become part of Mr. Biz nation, follow him on all social media platforms or never miss a show by going to mrbizradio.com. If you prefer free video content, visit the Mr. Biz YouTube channel or check out his streaming channel, which is available on 100 plus streaming platforms at mrbiznetwork.com.