Dre Baldwin is an overseas professional basketball player having played through eight different countries in the course of nine years. After graduating from Penn State University, Dre has written books and has done a few TED Talks. He has created programs designed for both athletes and non-athletes and does coaching/ consulting and professional speaking.
From a 6’4″ student who had no innate basketball skills whatsoever, Dre figured he had to put in extra hard work and discipline he needed to be successful and now he’s sharing the resources which he never had.
Now it’s your turn. No more excuses.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Dre:
How Dre developed his skills to be adequate on the court:
- Doing different than what others are doing (Dre practiced even at a time no one was practicing)
- Showing up every single day to work on his game not thinking he would be discovered by any recruiter
Strategies to develop your passion and be better:
- Force yourself to be that motivation.
Use other people’s stories to motivate you and which you can use for your own purposes. Listen to their interviews. Read magazines on them. And just take any piece you can use for your own motivation and inspiration.
- Find out the one thing that makes you get up each day.
The success in life is basic. There are no secrets. It’s something you already know. Just figure out what you’re willing to do and throw yourself into it. Something that really motivates you and inspires you to get up and do even if there was no money attached to it when you achieve it.
[Tweet “Just figure out what you’re willing to do and throw yourself into it”@DreAllDay ]
- Stop saying lies to yourself.
A couple of common lies people tell themselves are:
I can’t do this because ________.
I need more information.
- Put in the hard work and discipline over and over again.
Success is not a matter of what you’ve done or what you’re doing today but what you continuously do over and over and over again. It’s not an object but a habit. It’s a discipline.
- Take action and stop talking your way out of action.
Stop second-guessing yourself and going back to gathering information. If information was all that any of us needed to be successful, then all of us would have been successful by now. Internet is free and widespread. You’ve got access to any information. So it’s not the key to getting anywhere. The is key is taking action. Unfortunately, people talk their way out of action.
[Tweet “If information was all that any of us needed to be successful, then all of us would have been successful by now”@DreAllDay]
How Dre’s pro-career started:
In 2005, Dre joined an exposure camp, which is like a job fair for athletes. You play your sport with other people to prove that you can play professionally to an audience of coaches, agents, scout managers who are brokers in the sport.
Dre took a video of the exposure camp but he had to market the video by sending a VHS copy of his video to an agent. Dre landed an agent who negotiated his first playing situation in Lithuania in 2005.
Dre took the video from a VHS tape to be put on a CD and then on YouTube, being his first YouTube video.
Strategies for your social media approach:
- Serve the under-served.
When Dre saw people who watched his video were asking more questions and pieces of advice, he decided to film everything he does and put it on YouTube so anybody can make use out of it. There were no athletes posting training content on the internet before Dre started doing it in 2006.
- Share value and don’t just do it for the money.
Dre was already posting hundreds of videos before any Facebook ads even existed. People see through you. Be who you are because people can tell. There will be people who go against you but that’s okay since you’re sharing something important enough for people to pick their side.
Dre’s Major Takeaway:
Each one of you has one competitive advantage and one one competitive advantage that can never be duplicated or taken away from you – your individuality as a person. Be who you are and if you can do that and be able to share your life and what’s going on with you, the more people understand who you are about. Get clear on who you are as a person and then start sharing yourself with the audience you want, which you won’t know until you start being yourself. People can choose until they see the real you.
Episode Resources:
Get to know more about Dre on his website DreAllDay.com or connect with him on Snapchat and Instagram @drebaldwin and Twitter @DreAllDay.
Watch Dre’s YouTube channel and TED Talks
Check out The Trailblazers Podcast by Stephen Hart
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