From Undrafted to Super Bowl Champion: Ben Utecht on Identity, Servant Leadership, and Culture by Design

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:05] Charles Eide: When did you go to the Super Bowl? My third year in Indianapolis. 

What did that feel like? 

As you can imagine, I get asked that all the time. What was it like to play in a Super Bowl? Right? But to even have had the opportunity to play in the NFL should have never happened. My senior year, I was ranked one of the top 10 ends in the country, and I was projected anywhere from 15 to 32nd pick in the first round.

[00:00:24] The Injury That Changed Everything

[00:00:24] Ben Utecht: About two thirds of the way through the year, we play our biggest rival Wisconsin. I get called to run what’s called a corner route. I release, I get to 12 yards. I plant my foot, I turn, all of a sudden I hear and feel Pop, pop, pop. Pop. I ended up tearing my abs from the pubic bone on both sides. 

Oh my gosh.

It completely destroyed the rest of the season. And a month later when the NFL draft happened, name after name is called except mine, and I was just holding back tears thinking it’s over. Here’s the miracle. Fast forward two months undrafted. About five minutes after the free agent market opens the phone in the middle of my agent’s desk rings.

[00:01:03] Tony Dungy’s Promise

[00:01:03] Ben Utecht: And who do you think it was? Head coach Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts. No way. He saw the value in me that 31 other teams passed because of their concern over an injury. 

[00:01:13] Charles Eide: Dude, you’re giving me goosebumps. 

[00:01:14] Ben Utecht: Tony was the first to win a Super Bowl built on what’s called servant leadership.

Understanding that the most important asset that any organization has is its people. His belief was that if you build better men, you get better football players. That very first team meeting, we sat down. Tony comes in, and the very first thing he says to us is. What? And I just remember thinking, I have never heard anything like that.

[00:01:40] Charles Eide: I wanna start at the beginning. Let’s go because you have a fascinating story. Take me from like the very beginning, all the way through winning the Super Bowl, 

[00:01:51] Growing Up in Minnesota

[00:01:51] Ben Utecht: man. Um, it’s really hard to put into words as you can imagine. I get asked that all the time. What was it like to play in a Super Bowl? Right? But it, it didn’t start in Indianapolis.

It started in Rochester, Minnesota where I was born. You know, I grew up in a, um, I grew up in a, a pastor’s family. So my dad’s, you know, preached in the Methodist church for, for 45 years. And, you know, when you’re in the Methodist church, you get moved around to a lot of different locations. It’s like being a military, it’s like being a little bit of a military family.

Like every five to seven years you, you move. And so we started at, started in Rochester and. You know, I go back to those days, Charles, and, and it was like being in the backyard with my dad and just remembering him, getting on his knees and letting me run into him with everything I had, you know, and just pretending to get blown up and falling back on the grass.

And, and that was really where the seed was planted for my passion for athletics. 

Yeah. 

And then starting football, uh, in Lindstrom, Minnesota, the Chisago Lakes area where my dad was pastoring at the time. And then obviously that moving into Hastings. Uh, but I just, I, I grew up in this state, uh, you know, playing multiple sports that I, that I absolutely love, that were all a part of, shaping that journey, you know?

Uh, and I never thought that I would’ve gone from a, a small Rivertown Hastings football field to playing in front of a hundred, 1 million people. 

[00:03:25] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[00:03:25] Ben Utecht: Around the world watching. The Indianapolis Colts versus the Chicago Bears. So it’s, you know, it’s hard to encapsulate that into just one word. Yeah. 

[00:03:33] Charles Eide: Yeah.

So when you, um, obviously you played through high school, then you went and played college ball at the U of M, right? Yeah. And when, at what point did you think to yourself, I think I might wanna be a, a professional football player? I know, like, like how does that happen? Yeah. Like was it like, was there a moment or was it conversations?

[00:03:56] The Path to Division One Football

[00:03:56] Charles Eide: Yes. Yes. 

[00:03:56] Ben Utecht: There, there, there were moments at every stage and there were miracles that happened at every stage. Hmm. When, when you look at, when you look at my life in the teams that I played for, um, you know, to, to even have had the opportunity to play division one football and then play in the NFL should have never happened.

And that was what was so cool, uh, when I started to really progress. My junior, senior year in CO or in high school. Um, it were, it was these moments where plays would happen on a field that, that were, um, just at a higher level than what you would typically see, where people would kind of go, wow, there’s something special here.

And my journey to play at the University of Minnesota was one of these miraculous moments where, uh, you know, I came outta my junior year, 16 years old. I was always young. My birthday is June 30th, so I was always a young, uh, I was always a young player, uh, for the year of school that I was in. And, uh, I signed up for the Minnesota Gopher football camp.

And you have to understand, like Hastings ran what’s called the option offense, and that’s a highly running offense. I may be caught 12 passes as a wide receiver, you know, my, my junior year. Hmm, okay. So I was not. Being heavily recruited across the country 

[00:05:24] Charles Eide: to go play college ball, to go play college 

[00:05:26] Ben Utecht: ball.

Hmm. So my dad and my uncle created a highlight film on VHS cassette, remember v remember, you know, the VCRs of, of old, and we sent it around to, to a bunch of schools and the University of Minnesota invited me to their camp. Hmm. And it was at that camp that I just completely balled out 

[00:05:48] Charles Eide: that. So that first time you went to that camp, you were like, this is awesome.

Oh 

[00:05:54] Ben Utecht: man. Like, you can’t even, you know, I ran a 4 4 4 5 40, which is really fast for a six foot six guy at the time. Um, I caught balls over everybody. There was one moment where we’re. You know, I was being double teamed and they threw a ball 40 yards down the field and I, I went up and jumped over everybody caught the ball, you know, and took it in for a score.

And the wide receiver coach just came, sprinting like 50 yards, screaming down the field. So the next day I get invited back, uh, for my dad and, and, and I had to meet with head coach Glen Mason. And within five minutes, you know, he said, uh, we think that you could play right now. And on the U of MT, we, we would love to have you be a Minnesota gopher.

And how old were you? 16 years old. And he was like, we want you now. He offered me a, a a, a full ride scholarship at 16. Right? Shouldn’t have happened. Shouldn’t have happened. That is a miracle. I mean, top receivers in the state are catching. 70, 80 balls. I caught 12. But it was that, it, it was those moments, you know, those 12 catches were all 

[00:07:05] Draft Day Devastation

[00:07:05] Ben Utecht: highlights.

And so those moments gave me an opportunity to perform at a division one football camp, which led to a full ride opportunity. Uh, and then similar with how I got into the NFL, you know, it was total Tony Dungy miracle story. Tell me Oh yeah, well, my senior year I was ranked one of the top two, three tight ends in the country, preseason all American up for the John Mackey Award, which is the nation’s top tight end award.

And so there was a, a, there was a lot of expectation around, around my season. Hmm. About two thirds of the way through the year, we play our biggest rival Wisconsin, uh, the oldest rivalry in college football and. I get called to run what’s called a corner route, 12 yards, straight up the field, 45 degree angle to the, to the corner.

I release, I get to 12 yards. I plant my foot, I turn to look for the ball, and all of a sudden I hear and feel popping all across my lower abdomen, pop, pop, pop, pop. And my legs stopped working and I crumbled to the turf. But I caught the ball. 

[00:08:15] Charles Eide: Oh my, 

[00:08:16] Ben Utecht: I still, I still caught the ball. So what ha what happened?

Well, what, what ended up happening is I ended up, I ended up tearing my abs from the pubic bone on both sides. Oh my gosh. And it, it completely destroyed the rest of of the season. And so I went that, that must have hurt. Oh, it was, it was horrible. It was horrible. Did 

[00:08:34] Charles Eide: you have to have surgery to fix it?

[00:08:36] Ben Utecht: Well, what, what it, what ended up being the problem was the, the, the tears were. So close to the bone that on an MRI, you couldn’t actually see the tears. So people didn’t really know what was going on. And I went to the NFL combine and met with all the team physicians that were interested in me and basically discovered that all of the NFL physicians red flagged me as too much of a health risk.

Oh 

[00:09:01] Charles Eide: no. 

[00:09:02] Ben Utecht: So a month later, 

[00:09:03] Charles Eide: what did I mean, that must have been devastating. 

[00:09:05] Ben Utecht: Oh, well, it, it, it was when I found out what the outcome was gonna be, and a month later when the NFL draft happened, and I had Minnesota media at the house, because remember, I was one of the top tight ends in the country, and I was projected anywhere from 15th to 32nd pick in the first round.

No kidding. 

And across the two days of the NFL draft, name after name is called, except mine. 

[00:09:33] Charles Eide: So, hold on. Where are you when this is happening? 

[00:09:35] Ben Utecht: I’m, I’m literally, I’m at, I’m at my, the, the, the draft party was at my aunt’s house, uh, in Apple Valley, and all of our family was there. And so you’re sitting there, I’m sitting front of the TV in front of the TV media’s behind me, and first round goes, second round goes, nothing.

Third round goes, hang on. The 

[00:09:53] Charles Eide: clock is ticking. And you hear all these names, 

[00:09:55] Ben Utecht: nothing. What, what are 

[00:09:55] Charles Eide: you 

[00:09:56] Ben Utecht: feeling? I mean, I’m devastated. Were you 

[00:09:58] Charles Eide: like on the brink of tears? 

[00:10:00] Ben Utecht: Devastated. Embarrassed. Really embarrassed, you know, because you know, this, this was supposed to be like the. The moment, story, the moment, and uh, and then it just disappeared.

And the second day rolled around and the same thing. And I remember, 

[00:10:16] Charles Eide: so wait, so you sat through watching this live mm-hmm. Waiting for the next name to be your name, every single name, and it wasn’t your name. Yeah. And then you’re like, the evening is over and now the next day is coming in. You must have been like, this isn’t even happening.

[00:10:34] Ben Utecht: You know, it, it’s, it’s hard to explain what it feels like, um, when you just see tight end after tight end, after tight end going, um, that you were ranked above and that you, that your career, you know, was much more significant then. Right. So that was two of the most challenging days of, of my life. And I do remember after those two days were over, uh, driving up to my agent’s office with my dad.

It was a rainy, gloomy Minnesota day, and I was just. Holding back tears, just looking out the window thinking it’s over, you know, because I’m still injured, like we haven’t figured out even what this is. And, you know, I had gotten my degree, but I put all my eggs in the football basket. And so it, it was like having an entire identity ripped away from you outside of your control.

[00:11:34] The Miracle Phone Call

[00:11:34] Ben Utecht: And we get to my agent’s office and, and start to exit the car. But here’s the miracle. Two months before that moment, I had a chance to speak at a huge alumni event at the University of Minnesota in front of about 700 people. And I get to open for Tony Dungy. So I’m the opening speaker for head coach Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts.

[00:12:01] Charles Eide: And this is two months before the, two 

[00:12:02] Ben Utecht: months before, two months before. Yeah, this mo, this, this moment where the draft has just been, been completed. So two months before I get up and I open as a speaker for, for Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts former Gopher, uh, quarterback. And I get up in front of about 700 alumni and I say, Hey, coach, if you really care about the University of Minnesota, you know, if you really care about being a gopher, you’re gonna draft me in the upcoming draft.

And everybody got a kick out of it. And he was gracious enough to respond. So he’s at the podium and he says, you know, Ben, we, man, we’d love to have, you know how talented you are, but we drafted a tight end last year in the first round, so we’re not gonna be looking at tight ends this year. And then he stepped away from the podium, he put his hand on his chin as if he was being downloaded something from above.

And he comes back to the podium. In front of 700 people and he says, you know what, I’m gonna make a promise to you in front of all these people. 

Oh my gosh. If 

for some reason you slip through the cracks, if for some reason you don’t get drafted, I promise you I’ll be the first person to call. 

[00:13:12] Charles Eide: Stop it.

[00:13:13] Ben Utecht: Yeah. And everybody, everybody love did it one, one in one year out the other for me, because you know, the chances of that happening were slim to none and there were still a number of teams interested. So fast forward two months undrafted, walking into my agent’s office. The only option left for me is the free agent market, right?

These are the leftover players. These are the guys that teams bring in to give veterans a break. And rarely do they ever make a team. And about five minutes after the free agent market opens the phone in the middle of my agent’s desk rings, and I pick it up and who do you think it was? 

[00:13:50] Charles Eide: No way. 

[00:13:51] Ben Utecht: Tony Dungy, 

[00:13:53] Charles Eide: kid Ody.

[00:13:54] Ben Utecht: Tony Dungy was the first person to call. And not just Tony Dungy, our Hall of Fame general manager, bill Poon was on the phone. So head coaches and G GMs are not calling, are not calling free agents. But they called me and they said, Ben, we didn’t think this was gonna happen. We followed you through the draft.

We understand that you were red flagged for your injury, but this is an injury that we’ve had experience with and we want you to be a cult. So here’s what we’re gonna do, 

[00:14:23] Charles Eide: stop it. 

[00:14:23] Ben Utecht: We’re gonna send you to the top surgeon in the country to get you better. And we don’t even want you to think about playing the first year.

We just want you to rest. And on top of that, we’ll pay you as though you’re a plain rookie. Stop. And dude, you’re giving me goosebumps. And here’s a, here’s a, here’s a signing bonus. Just so that you know we care and we’re serious. I mean, what? This is the NFL. This is what have you done for me lately?

Nothing. I had done nothing for the Indianapolis Colts. And the miracle in that, Charles, is that the next year I’m fully recovered. Dallas Clark, the first round, tight end they brought in the year before me, goes down with an injury in the last preseason game. So I get to start stop on Sunday night kickoff against Ray Lewis in the Baltimore Ravens.

[00:15:19] First NFL Game Against Ray Lewis

[00:15:19] Charles Eide: Oh my dude, I’ve known you for 10 years and I didn’t know this. Yeah, 

[00:15:23] Ben Utecht: it’s a crazy story. And the third quarter rolls around against the Ravens National Television. The safety at the time messes up the coverage, leaves me wide open on the backside seam. Peyton sees it right, makes the adjustment, throws the ball touchdown in my very first NFL game and I caught the ball and that safety had regained his composure and.

I had one choice and it was, I gotta run through this guy. So I barrel through this safety into the end zone, and as I’m getting up off the ground, I realize it’s Dion Sanders, arguably the greatest defensive player in NFL history. So my very first game, I catch a pass from a future hall of fame quarterback and run through a hall of fame defensive specialist.

And I get the, I get the game ball because of how well I played over the course of that, uh, of that game. And ever since then, we started two tight ends. For as long as that I was in Indianapolis. And none of that happens without one man practicing a chosen culture built on a belief system to develop purpose.

His players and it, it, it, it forever changed the trajectory of my, the only only reason I was in the NFL for, for the time that I was on those two different teams is because of, of Tony Dungy and his commitment and his follow through on a, on a promise. 

[00:17:02] Charles Eide: When you caught that ball, I’m sure you talked to Tony in the locker room afterwards.

What did he say? 

[00:17:12] Ben Utecht: Oh, there’s this epic picture that I have at home of me running off the sideline and, you know, it catches, it catches us just before we’re about to high five each other. Right. So there was this special bond that I had with him, you know, not only because we were both Minnesota Gophers, um.

But we had, we, we had a, almost a paternal connection. I mean, he, he saw the value in me that at the time I didn’t see in myself, he saw the value in me that 31 other teams passed because of their concern over an injury. And it resulted in becoming a starter on a Super Bowl championship team, which led to a, a great contract in Cincinnati.

And, and none of that happens without, you know, without his commitment to, to, uh, practicing what he believes. 

[00:18:08] The Road to the Super Bowl

[00:18:08] Charles Eide: Okay. I want to get into Tony and, and culture Yeah. That minute. But did you go to the Super Bowl that first year? When, when did you go to the Super Bowl? 

[00:18:17] Ben Utecht: The Super Bowl was, was my third year. It was your third year on the Colts.

Yeah. Third year in Indianapolis. Okay. Uh, 2006 season. The game was in February of 2007. 

[00:18:27] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[00:18:27] Ben Utecht: Yeah. 

[00:18:28] Charles Eide: So, so what was it like when you. Won the championship that brought you to the Super Bowl. I mean, oh man. It was that moment like, bro, like we’re gonna go to the Super Bowl. 

[00:18:38] Ben Utecht: Yeah. That, that game was filled with, uh, with so many just incredible ex powerful experiences.

I’ll never forget I was in the tunnel and the ref was holding back the colts. Finally, he got the, he got the signal that it was time to let us go. So he dropped his hands and he released the Colts and we went thundering out of that, outta that tunnel. I plant my foot on that, you know, freshly cut Miami, Bermuda grass, and all of a sudden I hear this familiar voice behind me, Ben Ben, and I turn, and there’s my dad.

No way. 

My dad had fought his way halfway around the stadium to be in this specific spot for this specific moment, and he was in the craziest. Downward dog yoga position, reaching over the railing with his handout. And Charles, wouldn’t you believe in that moment? I put my hand up and I shooed my dad away.

’cause I was like, dad, this is not the time. You’re embarrassing me, dad. You’re embarrassing me. This is not the time. Like I’m going to perform in the Super Bowl. I gotta work. And I took one more step and it was like the fist of God just sucker punched me. I honestly, I, I physically stopped and I heard this inner voice say to me, go back to your father.

[00:20:08] A Moment with Dad Before the Game

[00:20:08] Ben Utecht: Go back to where this all started. 

[00:20:12] Charles Eide: He started you. 

[00:20:13] Ben Utecht: But what was so powerful about that is there was this spiritual lesson in it for me too, where, what is the priority of your life? What does your identity reflect in you as a. Is materialism is a trophy, is money the most important thing or is it found in the foundation of who you are and where you come from?

And I, I literally, I had this spiritual experience. I turned, my dad had already started to walk back up the stairs. I went sprinting back into the tunnel crying out 

Dad, dad. 

And he, he heard my voice and he came back, got into that same crazy position, put his hand down, and I locked hands with him. And I just looked up at my dad and I said, I love you.

And it all started with you. And it did, man, it did. It started with my dad in the backyard. Like I told you when he’d let me just run into him. And it really was this slow motion cinematic experience where I was like, whisp back into time, you know? And seeing these moments. You know, that all started with my dad and I’m so glad that I, you know, that I responded to that reaction the way that I did because it set the tone for what that game was really all about, you know?

And, you know, we went on to win 29 to 17. Um, Devin Hester, the most deadly return man in the history of football on the very first play, catches the ball kicked by Adam Venet. Terry runs it all the way back. It’s the first time it’s ever happened in Super Bowl history. And so you’re just sitting there going, what is going on?

Just had this epic moment with my dad. Now we experience this play that is possibly foreshadowing the performance of the rest of the game, but I look to my right, there’s Tony Dungy paying no attention. To what happened on the play. He’s talking to the coaches in the headset, getting ready for our offense to take the field.

I look to my left and there’s p Manning talking to offensive coordinator, Tom Moore, giving no credence to the celebration in the Chicago Bearers end zone. Just locked in, going over the, the first three to five scripted plays in battle, going over those first, uh, three, three to five scripted plays, uh, that we always had to know exactly how we were gonna start each game.

And I was just kind of enraptured back into this culture of the cult’s way and, and at peace, you know, and, and we just, we went out and it, and it took about two to three quarters before we just, the momentum just completely went in our favor and we hammered them. So one of only two Super Bowls in the history of football to reign.

Prince played the halftime show. He did. Prince sang Purple Rain in the Rain. It was absolutely insane. They tried to keep him from bringing his electric guitar out because you know, it’s raining, it’s dangerous. And he was like, hell no. And it’s one of the greatest halftime shows you’ve ever seen. It’s just epic.

Just an epic experience, man. 

[00:23:37] Charles Eide: So when you guys realized that you won, what did that feel like? Like 

[00:23:47] Ben Utecht: what did you, what was going through your mind? I, I remember, I remember looking back ’cause my, my parents and my wife and you know, some of our dear friends were all sitting, you know, to my right behind. I remember just kind of looking back and just seeing the utmost joy on their faces and the confetti is coming down everywhere.

You know, and the stages being set for the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy, you know? And yeah, it’s this magical moment. You know that any young kid who loves sports visualizes since elementary school coming to fruition, how do you, how do you explain, how do you explain what that feels like? It was, it was magical.

[00:24:42] Winning the Super Bowl

[00:24:42] Ben Utecht: It was truly magical. So you’re 26? Yeah. Basically this would’ve been, yeah, 25. 25, yeah. 

[00:24:54] Charles Eide: And you’ve now won a Super Bowl. Yeah. And I mean, at 25. Yeah. Right. And after all the confetti settles. You know, and after you move on to play on other teams and do the things you did mm-hmm. How do you not like go into a deep depression?

’cause you were on this mountaintop. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you’re like, I’m just a normal guy now. I mean, obviously people introduce you as a Super Bowl champ. Right? Right. That’s pretty sweet. Yeah. But I mean, is there, is there some mental battles that go on when that happens? 

[00:25:38] Ben Utecht: Yeah. You know, over the course of my career I’ve been able to listen to a lot of the players transitional stories.

And even guys like Tom Brady have talked about the same thing after winning that first Super Bowl kind of feeling like this or, or at least having this big question around, okay, well what, you know, what’s next? Like, what’s next? What’s the purpose? What, what is, what is driving me forward? All I can tell you in my life is that probably one of the greatest things that my parents ever gave me was a foundation of faith.

Mm. 

Because it, it allowed me to be challenged around, um, around what my identity truly was, right. The question was always in my family was always, are you a football player or are you a man of faith that has a bigger purpose? And football is part of the equation. And so for me, for me, Charles, it was, it was, um, the transition was easier because I knew who I was and I knew that my purpose and my value was so much bigger than, than being an athlete.

And I praise God for that because if I didn’t have that foundation, that transition would’ve been very lonely. Right. And it, and it would’ve, it would’ve been, you know, filled with more depression now. Not, not that I didn’t have, you know, periods in my life where I have experienced, you know, depression mm-hmm.

Exiting the NFL, right? It wasn’t so much the Super Bowl experience, it was that career, career ending concussion in Cincinnati and now it’s completely over. And how do you rebuild your life, you know, even when you know what your passions are, music and speaking, and, but how do you, how do you, um, create something new that’s provisional for your family, that’s sustainable, that’s scalable and that, as you know, ’cause we’ve had a lot of conversations in our friendship, and you’ve mentored me a lot in this area.

Um, that, that’s been, that’s been a huge challenge, you know, for me. And, and that’s, that’s where you’re confronted almost daily, um, on Okay. What is most important, your vocational identity, you know, or your spiritual identity? Hmm. 

[00:28:15] Charles Eide: I feel like so many times we wrap our identity and what we do for our work.

[00:28:21] Identity Beyond Football

[00:28:21] Charles Eide: Right. I mean, I know that a big piece of my identity is tied in with ID com and mm-hmm. The business, but I just can’t, I can’t envision having something end. So like, like your NFL career ended a abruptly mm-hmm. And all of a sudden you’re like, I was a pro athlete who won the Super Bowl and now I’m not.

Yeah. Like, what was that like,

[00:28:51] Ben Utecht: man, it was like, it was like the tearing off of a bandaid. But on your entire body. Oh, I don’t even know how to, yeah. You know, because I, you know, I remember, um, after, after, um, after my career ended in Cincinnati due to concussion, uh, there were a couple of teams that were really interested and I had some opportunities to get back into the NFL after I recovered.

And I’ll never forget, you know, my agent calling and saying, Hey, we have an opportunity for you to go and, and, um, and try out with this team. And so I kind of, I, I, I put together a family meeting and parents came over and I presented this option, and my dad right away said, if you choose to play in the NFL again, I will never watch you.

What? 

Yeah. 

Why did he say that? 

I think because at that point. This is the dawn of the concussion crisis. This is the flooding in of information about the long-term effects of repeated, you know, traumatic brain injury. And I think he was being a voice of clarity for me to really challenge that identity.

Okay. You’ve, you’ve, you’ve played twice as long as, as most you’ve been on a Super Bowl championship team, we don’t want to see you put the future of your life at risk. Hmm. And like a good time and honestly, yeah. Honestly, I needed to hear that. I needed, I needed, I needed that confrontation. 

Yeah. 

And that’s a great thing for business by the way.

That’s a great thing for business confrontation is so important, but. Content and purpose and delivery of that is what is the key, right? That’s the culture of communication. What are you saying? Why are you saying it and how are you saying it? Right? And because my dad was coming at me through love and through empathy, through grace, but also bold.

Were you mad at him 

[00:31:05] Charles Eide: when he said that? I 

[00:31:06] Ben Utecht: think I, I, I remember reacting defensively at first, but, but pretty quickly kind of that, that spirit of clarity took over and, you know, it, it, it made me realize, um, what was most important. You know, we, we had, had aor our, our first daughter and so life was totally changing into something new and something that required, um, me to be whole and to be healthy and to be well.

[00:31:42] Charles Eide: And I know there was, I mean there was so much around the concussion traumatic brain injury thing. You carried it into a music career. Yeah. So how did you get it going into music? I know, I know. You’ve always been passionate about music. Yeah. And then that’s kind of how we met. Right. 

[00:32:01] Music Career and Real Life Glee

[00:32:01] Ben Utecht: Listen, uh, you know, it’s funny ’cause when the television show Glee was out, if you remember, you know, how successful that show was for a number of years?

I, I was, I was being called like the, the Real Life Glee guy. ’cause that really was my life. Like I was in five choirs in high school show choir competing. Um. My dad was a vocal music major before becoming a pastor. Yeah. So I grew up with training, like singing was actually a real thing for me. And, uh, who’d 

[00:32:30] Charles Eide: have thought an absolute monster on the football field I know would get off the field and sing you a tune.

I know, right? 

[00:32:38] Ben Utecht: It was a great way to deceive the defense. I would often sing to, to players. No, no. Can you imagine, can you imagine? You’re like, who is singing right now? But, um, but it did create some, it, it, it, it, it created some unbelievable experiences. You know, I started singing professionally in college, um, doing all of the national anthem events.

I got asked to sing national anthems for both President Bush, senior President Bush Jr. Uh, at different, um, at different political races. Um, and then, believe it or not, I’m the only NFL player in history to do this. But the very first preseason game. In my career in Indianapolis, I got asked to sing the national anthem against the Buffalo Bills.

So I go out in front of a packed stadium, the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, and I sing the national anthem before I ever took a snap. So, no, so the Indianapolis marketplace experienced me first as a singer. 

[00:33:42] Charles Eide: There’s like, there’s no way this guy’s gonna beat us 

[00:33:45] Ben Utecht: and not a tight end. And just, it was awesome. I crushed it.

And you know, the whole team, nobody knew. And so it was kind of this, it was kind of this awesome surprise. Um, and that led to some just amazing experiences. I signed a record deal. I was playing in Indianapolis. Um, I toured with some of the top symphonies in the world. Uh, yeah. Yeah. And 

[00:34:06] Charles Eide: that’s how we met.

That’s how we met. You ended up. We met through some, uh, somebody in the music business. Yeah. And this person came to me and said, I want you to direct this music video for this guy. Right. And this is back when I was doing video production. Yeah. Film. Yeah. And when we met, I was like, oh, this guy’s so cool.

Like, this could be really neat. And then you, you played me the song. Yeah. Uh, I You’ll always be my girls. Yeah. It’s about your wife and your kids. Yes. And it was so moving. I was like, oh my gosh, I can see this video unfolding. Right. But there was a story behind it. Well, it was 

[00:34:41] Ben Utecht: connected to, you know, to concussion at the time.

You know, the, the drama was around the, uh, connection between concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Uh, that’s a mouthful with this brain, this brain dam, this brain disease called CTE and. I had just been asked by the American Academy of Neurology, uh, to be their national spokesperson on concussion, and they’re the most prestigious neurology association in the world.

And, um, so we, we, we were kind of in this situation where I had a message to tell, right? It was a pro, pro brain, pro game message, right? I found the balance between celebrating what the NFL gave me, but then also talking about the importance of our brains connected to our identity. And we needed something, we needed something to crystallize that message.

[00:35:38] The Music Video That Went Viral

[00:35:38] Ben Utecht: And that’s where the song came from. And then you became the conduit, you know, to bring a story to the world that, that did that. And man, if you remember, like we, I testified at a congressional hearing, talked about writing this song and this music video, and immediately after that hearing, it was like Washington DC was like.

We gotta see the video. We dropped it and we dropped it and like within, it blew up, it blew up like within two or three days, all of a sudden, like jumped into the, you know, mid hundred thousands and then it was onto the millions within the first two, three weeks. And so, and it’s, it’s 

[00:36:15] Charles Eide: on YouTube still.

It’s 

[00:36:16] Ben Utecht: on YouTube still. 

[00:36:17] Charles Eide: We’ll put a link in the description so people can go watch it. Yeah, 

[00:36:20] Ben Utecht: you gotta 

[00:36:20] Charles Eide: watch it. It’s great. 

[00:36:22] Ben Utecht: And this was back in like, what? 2014? 2014, man? We were, and, and, and you were, you know, you were so good by the way. I mean, when you think about it, like not only did our friendship grow through that experience, but, and, and this has been evident in your, in your career.

I think your ability to, um, operationalize a story. I mean, whether you walked through the halls of your HQ and you just see the story being told, like you have this ability to take the creative and combine it with the operational, that’s a rare quality in business. Usually you have the operationalist and then you have the creatives.

Yeah. And you’re the combination of the two, which is deadly. Yeah. In business, it’s really good. Right. But you brought that to that production. That to me is what, what made that film so special. 

[00:37:11] Charles Eide: Yeah. That was so special. I mean, it was amazing. And your wife, Karin, did such a great job. She played your wife.

Yeah, which I was against initially. Yeah. I was like, I don’t think your wife should, I know she’s not an actress. Right, dude. 

[00:37:25] Ben Utecht: But I, but I knew because of, I knew because of the emotion that had been in the house through that injury, uh, and the, the, the visceral personal experiences she had with me in those last three concussions when I was diagnosed with amnesia and a number of these, she was the only one to live through those.

And I just, I just believed that if we put her into a, into specific situations. You would see her make that emotional connection, which she did, man. 

[00:37:55] Charles Eide: I mean, I, she brought me to tears. Yeah. Watching her perform. Yep. In the music video. I was blown away. I was like, this is insane. She should be a Hollywood actress.

She’s so incredible. And she’s a mom of your children. Yeah. Four girls now. You four girls. It’s amazing. Uh, so help me understand, when you look back at all of this, ’cause you’re doing something very, very much tied to your career Yeah. In football, right. The lessons you learned. But when you think back on it and those lessons you’ve learned and brought with you, sounds like a lot of it came from Tony Dungy.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tell me what are the things that you looking back really have taken home your life? There’s so much there. 

[00:38:44] Tony Dungy’s Leadership Philosophy

[00:38:44] Ben Utecht: Tony was the first to win a Super Bowl built on what’s called servant leadership. His belief was that if you build better men, you get better football players. How cool is that? If you build better men, you get better football players.

Hmm. 

Understanding that the most important asset that any organization has is its people. I agree with that. Right. So standing in the face of a transactional culture to inspire the power found in a relational 

[00:39:16] Charles Eide: culture. I mean, especially with something as transactional as the NFL where it’s all performance, performance, performance.

[00:39:23] Ben Utecht: It’s a metric based, performance based, um, industry. And so the belief that if, if we’re gonna build a culture of integrity and courage and excellence and execution, right? We can’t just. Put these as value principles on a wall or a website and not have built a system of belief to practice the development of those principles.

Right. He’s the one that taught me that culture doesn’t have to be subjective. It doesn’t have to be this ethereal thing that every company talks about, but it can be an objective system that you can practice in order to develop the best qualities within the human condition that are possible. Because when you do that, you pour purpose into people.

You pour significance into people. You give people value that they’ve never had before, and when you do that, they will give you everything they’ve got. 

Hmm. 

It’s not just for a paycheck. They’re not just, it’s because they love value and respect you as a leader. Right. And it’s that whole idea that. You know, like the acronym for family and football is, forget About Me.

I love you.

Isn’t that cool? Forget about me. I love you. The power of selflessness. What happens when you bring 53 of the most egotistical, masculine, powerful men on the planet together through selflessness? You build a team that nobody can dismantle. 

[00:41:03] Charles Eide: So it’s no wonder Tony Dungy is one of the most famous coaches in the world because of the 

[00:41:09] Ben Utecht: impact that he had on people.

[00:41:11] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[00:41:12] Ben Utecht: Not because of the wins. Yeah. He’s built, the winds. Were just a result. He’s built legacy relationships with his players, and I would argue that one of the most common things I hear from founders, owners, CEOs of companies is this intrinsic desire for legacy. Well, legacy is a story. What do you want people to read when they read your story?

How is the impact of your legacy going to be presented to the world? That very first team meeting, we sat down. Uh, I remember just being nervous. You know, I’m in an NFL team meeting room. Peyton Manning is sitting to my left. There’s five Hall of Famers on, on that team that are sitting in that room.

Dwight Freeney, ed and James, you know, the Marvin Harrison. I mean, the list goes on. Bill Poon, our general manager, Tony Dungy, our head coach. It’s like a room of legends. It’s a room of legends, man. It’s a room of legends and legacy. And Tony comes in and the very first thing he says to us, Charles, is, if you are sitting in this room and your entire identity is wrapped up in a sport, you’ve totally missed the purpose of your life.

Woo. 

[00:42:33] Charles Eide: He said that 

[00:42:34] Ben Utecht: you wanna talk about sucking the oxygen outta the room. If you’re sitting in this room and your entire identity is wrapped up in a sport, you’ve totally missed the purpose of your life. And I just remember thinking, I have never heard anything like that that’s pretty come out of a head coach.

And I’m looking around the room and people are just locked in. Like they’re just nodding. I mean, it’s, it’s just, it’s, it’s a belief system that everybody has bought into. And that’s what I experienced over those four years. And so when I retired and began building my speaking business, what was my first question was, well, what is my story?

And I couldn’t get past this powerful, uh, culture that Tony Dungy created, right? Because he, he also taught me that you will always have a culture by designer default. You will always have a culture by designer default. Culture comes out of the beliefs, assumptions, and artifacts of every community. 

[00:43:36] Charles Eide: Hang on, I wanna slow down what you said.

You’ll always have a culture either by design Yeah. Or by default. Correct. Meaning culture’s there, whether you design it or it just happens on its own. 

[00:43:48] Ben Utecht: Yeah. It’s there. The, the godfather of culture, Dr. Edgar Sheen, this is a man that countries would hire to come in and do culture audits on the entire country, on the community, on the government, describes culture as this.

[00:44:05] Culture by Design vs Default

[00:44:05] Ben Utecht: Every culture in the world comes out of the espoused beliefs, assumptions, and artifacts of the community. In other words, what you believe, why do you believe it? The assumptions, what are your assumptions? What are your perceptions? What are your opinions? Some of those can even be subconscious until they become understood as reality.

And then the artifacts are the symbols. They’re the, they’re the representation of. The foundational and espoused beliefs. So every community in the world, it doesn’t matter whether it’s corporate, whether it’s, you know, um, whether it’s a high school, I mean e every community in the world, because culture comes out of human belief, right?

Means we’re gonna have one. 

[00:44:52] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[00:44:52] Ben Utecht: So if we’re gonna have one, why not design it? 

[00:44:55] Charles Eide: So how do you do, how do you design culture when, so when you think about any company or team, these are people who have a variety of backgrounds, upbringings, belief systems Yeah. Ideas that are definitely not the same, right? So how do you take a a an NFL team or a company and, and create common belief systems?

[00:45:21] Ben Utecht: You have to take the same approach to the human condition that you take to business strategy. And I know you do this really well. You create a one year, three year, five year plan, you have everything mapped out. How many, how many CEOs, how many business owners do that for the human condition? Do you have a one year, do you have a three year?

Do you have a five year plan for the outcomes you want to reach for the development of your people? 

[00:45:51] Charles Eide: No. I don’t understand how that means, and that, okay, that’s where it starts, right? So what does that, but what does that mean? Okay. 

[00:45:58] Ben Utecht: Here’s the greatest case study in the history of the world, has nothing to do with religion.

I want you to look at this through a business lens. So one of my mentors was an elite, uh, business lawyer. He was also the founder of Health Store, uh, which is was the world’s first franchise. Built out of a nonprofit model. So be Health Store. Health Store, right? Health store.org. So he built, um, African nurse owned and operated pharmacies that he franchised through a nonprofit model, and he won an award for this.

He won the International Franchise of the Year award, and when he won that award, he was invited into the upper echelon of the franchise community. So he’s sitting at a table like this with some of the biggest leaders in franchise, the DeLucas of Subway, and the list goes on and he’s telling me this story and he says, Ben, I couldn’t believe this.

But the question was brought up at this table. Who’s the greatest franchise? CEO in history? And every one of them agreed it was Jesus. But listen, this is not, I’m not talking about church here. I’m saying that these founders of the most successful franchises in the world were looking at. Jesus through a business lens.

Okay? One man took an objective belief system, taught, coached, and developed 12, and said, go replicate this. And today, 2.6 billion people on the planet identify Christianity as their faith. It’s the greatest evidence for a scalable belief system that the world’s ever seen, and it’s unstoppable. So what do you do with that?

[00:47:47] The Jesus Franchise Model

[00:47:47] Ben Utecht: Yeah, what do you do with that? You start by realizing that culture is not subjective. You start by realizing that through developing objective beliefs, inspiring your team to be in alignment towards those beliefs and the value principles that are the artifacts that reflect those beliefs. And then spending time.

As a leadership team saying, okay, if we’ve identified these four value principles, we need to articulate deeply what we believe, why we believe, and how we believe they should be practiced. And we need to create a system of practice that we can integrate into our business strategy. So not only are we developing ourselves transactionally to reach our KPIs and to reach our, our business goals, but we’re, we’re also have created culture KPIs where we’re set out to reach human development goals and standards.

So that over the course of the growth of the company and the success of the company in parallel, is the growth and development and the success of the people that you’re working with. 

[00:48:55] Charles Eide: So when, what first comes to mind for me is you’ve got all these people that have different backgrounds, upbringings, beliefs, religions ideas.

Obviously not everything’s gonna resonate with everybody. So how do you create a culture and knowing that you’re, you’re, you’re working with a, a group of humans, whether it’s two or 2000 or 200,000, that all have different ideas on the world. 

[00:49:23] Ben Utecht: Yeah. So remember when we’re looking, when we’re looking at culture through a corporate lens, we’re not, we’re not pulling in, you know, we’re not pulling in, uh, individual political beliefs or individual religious beliefs, you know, that can be so personal to individuals.

We’re talking about corporate value principles. 

[00:49:41] Defining Core Values

[00:49:41] Charles Eide: So like, for example, we have core values, right? Our core values at Icom are positive, creative, effective team player, correct? So we train on those, right? Every week. So beyond that, beyond those four words and teaching people about them, how can I make a better culture?

[00:50:00] Ben Utecht: Well, the one question I would have for you is how much in alignment does your team really understand those value principles? Number one, if I were to, if I were to go ask all your employees, can you recite the four? Could they all do it? Yes. Good. That’s rare, right? We train on it every week, but it’s because, okay, so perfect example of you by default, understanding the powerful undertow of alignment.

Mm-hmm. You’re already practicing it. Yeah. Right. If I were to go around and ask all of your employees to define with total clarity what they believe, why they believe, and how they believe those values should be practiced, that’s where it falls apart. That’s where it falls apart. Yeah. Because what happens is, is oftentimes as, as humans, we communicate through assumption.

So E, even in your E, even in your training, you are bringing your perspective that comes from your foundational beliefs about your four value principles. Mm-hmm. And you’re assuming that the words you’re using to describe. Or to explain or to educate are being received exactly the way that you want them to be received.

But there’s no way for you to absolutely know that. Right. And so, so that’s where, that’s where the, this gap, that, that’s where this gap is. But that’s where there’s this powerful opportunity to take the value principles and go deeper into the belief structure of those. And once you can establish those, it gives you a template that now you can build practicable solutions that are in total alignment.

And that’s where you then hire towards those beliefs. You develop towards those beliefs, and you learn from your employees. 

[00:51:48] Charles Eide: So how do you scale that? Like if, if, if, if you were to give advice to somebody like me who wants to scale that idea? Yeah. So properly, 

[00:51:57] Ben Utecht: right? It’s a, 

[00:51:58] Charles Eide: without screwing it up. Yeah. How 

[00:51:59] Ben Utecht: do you go from one to 12 to 2.6 billion?

Right. Okay. Well, you have what’s called a Bible, you. You have an objective book. It’s a manual, it’s a training manual. And this isn’t like your employee 

[00:52:12] Charles Eide: handbook. No. This is different. 

[00:52:14] Ben Utecht: Well, this, this becomes its own manual, right? So it’s like the culture manual. If you, yeah, if you recall like the very first product that I developed is called the, called Creed.

Yeah. Creed is defined as a set of beliefs that guide the behaviors and actions of people. So in my very first company as a chief culture officer, which was a large private equity company, right? 28 companies across nine different industries. The first thing that I did as I took the eight core value principles of that company, and I surveyed executive leadership, understanding deeply what they believed about integrity, why they believed integrity mattered, and how they believed integrity should be practiced.

And right, we took that, we took those survey results, those objective non-negotiable beliefs, right? And that then turned into a 32 page culture onboarding. An educational training manual really, that was used in the interview process, used in the onboarding process with curriculum, and then also used in the continuous development of people, especially your managers.

Hmm. Right. And so there is an example of taking what is typically subjective and ethereal and turning it into an objective strategy that fits within and should be guiding the business strategy of the organization. 

[00:53:35] Netflix’s Culture Marketing Deck

[00:53:35] Charles Eide: I like how you said it’s used in the interviews because it, I guess it would prevent you from making hires of people who don’t resonate with those ideas.

Yeah. Which is like a huge disaster, by the way. Well, listen, 

[00:53:47] Ben Utecht: the CHRO of Netflix became famous when the Netflix culture marketing deck got leaked to the public. Say that one more time. The CHRO of Netflix. Mm-hmm. She became famous when their culture marketing deck got leaked into the public. So now she is being called into all these interviews to explain, you know, this culture marketing deck.

And what we discovered was a company that looks at culture through the lens of black and white, there’s no gray area. And the first thing that she presented was that whenever an applicant is chosen to come in for an interview, they send them the culture marketing deck, 

[00:54:36] Charles Eide: click beforehand, and 

[00:54:37] Ben Utecht: they tell them to study it because it will be a part of the interview process.

Then the first question they ask the applicant in the interview process, did you study the the culture deck? 

[00:54:51] Charles Eide: That’s awesome. 

[00:54:52] Ben Utecht: And then this is what she said on the podcast. If they say no, we say goodbye. Whoa. That’s it. And she got a lot, she’s got within the HR community, she got quite a bit of backlash for her black and white response.

But that is it. 

[00:55:09] Charles Eide: If you didn’t, how far in advance do they send it? Do you know? They, I mean, enough time to read it. A 

[00:55:14] Ben Utecht: hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and we’re talking about a PowerPoint slide deck of, you know, 10, 15, 20 slides. Yeah. It’s not like a book that are, that are digestible and I, you don’t have to have it memorized, but it sets the tone for understanding the applicant and it also creates a stronger foundation for an interview to include the non-negotiable belief and value system of the company.

Okay. And here’s the thing, when, because obviously, you know, like DEI has been a, has been a huge topic, uh, within, within, uh, the corporate marketplace for the, for the three years. When you bring in. Exclusivity. Meaning when you bring in a chosen belief and value system that’s been developed and can be practiced, it actually makes the opportunity for an applicant more equitable for sure.

Because what you’ve just done is given them more of an opportunity. You’ve empowered them to make a better decision for their life, and on the backend, you’ve protected the organization from making a decision that might not put the right person in the right seat. And so you’ve created an a more equitable hiring experience for both the individual and for both the company because you have objectively defined 

[00:56:42] Charles Eide: Yeah.

And you’ve prepared them. 

[00:56:43] Ben Utecht: Right? Subjectivism is when we create our own truths. And if as your organization grows, you know, especially when you, when you think about yourself as a small to mid cap. Successful business leader, would you rather have a community of team members that are relatively in alignment towards the company’s belief and values?

Or would you rather have, uh, an ecosystem that is left to truth being whatever they choose truth to be about the beliefs and values of the company? 

[00:57:20] Charles Eide: Yeah. I mean, that would be horrible to have that. ’cause you would, there’s, you have no common ground. It, 

[00:57:25] Ben Utecht: it creates culture, cognitive dissonance. Yeah. Right.

And so we, we wanna bring as much clarity to that. Right. So to def, so most companies struggle to define their culture. Mm-hmm. Most companies struggle to decide how to hire towards their culture. Most companies struggle with how to develop towards their culture. And then the last platform is most companies struggle to direct how to improve their culture.

[00:57:51] Culture as a Pebble Game

[00:57:51] Ben Utecht: And that is the key is understanding. What your employees believe about the culture you’ve created. Because if you give them the opportunity, they’ll tell you where improvements need to be made. And if an executive leadership team is willing to listen and to learn right, and to execute, you’ll instantly create trust.

[00:58:15] Charles Eide: I think before this conversation, if you’d have said, Charles, what are you doing in your company to create better culture? I think I would have gone right to the idea that, you know, we do a, uh, an awards dinner and we do kickball, and we do this, you know, we do a barbecue, we’ll do a chili cookoff. You know, you’re like struggling to come up with things and activities, but really that’s not the heart of it.

The ideas are the heart of it. 

[00:58:42] Ben Utecht: Well, let me first just affirm you in that. When you come across companies like the one that I, that I have spent a lot of time with in private equity where the leadership is healthy, then a lot of times you find a default culture foundation in the company that is, that is relatively healthy, healthy, but it, but it oftentimes remains surface level found in activities, you know, found in, you know, um, the kind of these momentary opportunities, um, that create an ecosystem that is more enjoyable to be in, but doesn’t really get at the heart of, of the development of the human condition.

Like how many people on that kick on that kickball team, um, are going through struggles that you don’t even know about. And they might show up and they might put a smile on their face, but they go home and they’re lost. Right. And so we, we want to tap into this. To this powerful like Tony Dungy did with us.

If you build better men, you get better football players. And oftentimes, oftentimes companies and leaders, um, they look at culture as a boulder. You just talk about it and it feels like, holy cow, this is so big. Yeah. Right? It is. And it is. It is a big thing. But, but, but culture is not a boulder game.

Culture is not about picking up this massive weight and throwing it into a pond. Culture is a pebble game. Culture is about the constant consistent throwing of pebbles into a pond and creating ripple effect after ripple effect, after ripple effect, you know, that all run into one another and continue to grow.

Culture is about moving the dial one to 3% a year. Right. And that, that is the key. It, it, it’s how do we practice? How do we practice a strategy and create a system that allows us to start to improve the human condition in ways we’ve never done before? And to do it one micro step at a time. Right? And the next thing you know, you’ve done been doing this for 3, 4, 5 years, and you have this, you have this culture now that is, that is making an impact, a transformational impact on, you know, on people’s lives.

[01:01:06] Charles Eide: So if I wanted to take one step this week or this quarter to create better culture in my company, what would one simple step be that we could, I could do? Well, you know, I, I think, 

[01:01:19] Ben Utecht: okay, I mean, there’s, there’s, uh, there’s a lot of practicality in this. And I think, again, if you look at it as a boulder, you’re gonna kind of freak out and go, okay, how do I even begin to do this?

And it’s not supposed to be that. It’s supposed to be seen through a simply profound approach. Why EOS has had so much success Because they, what did they create? They created a, as they say it system. Yes. But they call it a practical and tactical operating system. Mm-hmm. That is what culture is as well.

So when you pause and you think, what could I do differently this week? Okay. Um, how could I change my mid-level manager meetings? You know, maybe it’s taking those meetings where you’re meeting with your, with your leadership. Um, when do you meet with your leadership? Like Tuesdays you meet, okay, on Tuesdays.

What’s the agenda of that meeting and how can you shift five minutes of that meeting to talk about the human condition? 

[01:02:18] Charles Eide: And when you say you, you say human condition a lot. What do you mean? Like the, the, the people component? The, the touchy feely stuff? 

[01:02:25] The Human Condition in Business

[01:02:25] Ben Utecht: No, it’s not. I think that’s a misconception. I think I, I think, I think culture has been labeled the soft skills and what CEOs end up doing, or business owners is they end up immediately building a barrier between, between, um, you know, human development and, and revenue development.

Right? I mean, yeah. Okay. Even though it’s directly connected. Do you know, in from 2017 to 2022, US attrition costs the corporate marketplace, $220 billion just in people. And Gallup found that the number one reason for people leaving their job was culture. 

[01:03:07] Charles Eide: That ain’t a soft skill. 

[01:03:09] Ben Utecht: Let’s not. 

[01:03:10] Charles Eide: That’s a hard fact.

That’s a hard fact. Okay, so when you say human condition, talking about human, what, what do you mean? It could be as simple. Gimme some tactical. 

[01:03:21] Ben Utecht: It could be as simple as the first five meeting is, is is with your, with your leaders. Is is simply asking the question, you know, um, how are you doing? How’s life?

How’s your family? Are you going in, are you going through anything right now that I can support you in? Right. We’re gonna talk about, uh, today we’re just gonna focus five minutes on positivity or on or on collaboration. You take one of your value principles, right? And you use that five minutes to inspire them towards the value of collaboration.

[01:03:54] Charles Eide: Yeah. I I, I think that, um, you’re totally right In the e in EUS, the level 10 meeting we do the first few minutes is called segue, and that’s where you share personal and business highlights. And actually it’s probably my favorite part Yeah. Is ’cause I get to hear about what’s going on in people’s lives.

Right. 

[01:04:15] Ben Utecht: It’s those, it’s those types of glimpses or for example, you know, um, I teach a lot on the culture of the huddle. Uh, and the huddle is the epicenter of all distribution of information, uh, at the beginning of every single NFL play that is essential to being successful on the field. Um, there are industries that do this very well.

Nurses, for example, or surgical teams, right? They have what they call a huddle system. Nurses do it three times in every shift, and the huddle is only designed for them to come together to ask questions of each other about the different cases on the floor that they’re dealing with and how they can support one another.

And they’re doing it three times a shift. That’s a lot. So it must be impossibly, but if the huddle is, if the huddle is, you know, a three minute huddle. Can you spare nine minutes? Can you spare nine minutes a day to connect with your team on a meaningful level where you’re all, you know, where you’re all coming together in alignment towards supporting one another.

Right. And, and how does that change, what’s the ripple effect of that over time? Right? So, you know, you meet every Tuesdays, but is there an opportunity maybe a couple more times a week where you just huddle as a team, as a, as a leadership team 

[01:05:35] Charles Eide: for, for three minutes? Is there too big of a group to huddle?

Like how many people should be in a huddle? Like, my leadership team is five people, but on Mondays we do something called the WIN meeting at nine in the morning where everybody in the whole company meets if they’re not on a show and we all meet together. That, that, that would be way too many people to do a huddle.

Intimate Yeah. To get there. For sure, for sure. So is this like departmentally or is this, I mean, what’s the perspective? Yeah, I mean 

[01:05:58] Ben Utecht: I, I, I think, you know, I think that, you know that, that, that two to, I mean I can give you a football, you know, two to 11, something like that. But, but again, it’s, it. It’s about intentionality.

It’s gonna look different in every company, but you need to see the value in, you need to see the value, and you need to believe that if you create more purpose, value, and significance in people that they’re gonna, they’re gonna do better work. For sure. And, and why does, why is that, why is that the soft skills?

I don’t, I don’t, it, it, it’s actually frustrates me. You know, when, when you, you, you learn the character of a business owner, if they don’t believe that that matters because they’re, they’re, they’re there for one reason and it ain’t the people. And, and it’s to make money, right? Yeah. And, and so which is not, which is what we all want, 

[01:06:53] Charles Eide: right?

That’s the whole thing. But, but money’s a result of doing these great things, right? And I think if you do them better, the result is better. 

[01:07:00] Ben Utecht: A hundred percent. And that, and that ties into that legacy opportunity. So when you do culture, when, when you create a culture of purpose, not only are you gonna build a family, right?

Um, or a strong team. Some people don’t like the idea of building a family. ’cause it’s, it’s different than business. Right? Which is understandable. Not only do you, not only do you build a strong team, um, but you, but you literally transform people’s lives. Right? Um, the other acronym that was really powerful for us, uh, is that we have the only belief engraved into the side of our Super Bowl ring of any team in the NFL.

[01:07:39] Faith: Freedom to Trust and Hope

[01:07:39] Ben Utecht: We have the word faith that’s engraved into the side of the ring, had nothing to do with religion, right? The acronym I took away from it was freedom for all individuals to trust and hope. In each other. If Tony Dungy could get 53 of the most diverse men on the planet to trust and hope in one another, right?

There was nothing that we couldn’t achieve. And the reality is, according to what you believe about the impact you want to have on people and business is you can create a leg, a transformational legacy of, of improving people. And that’s what Dungy did, that’s what Dungy ultimately did in my life. He was the first person to call.

And it changed the trajectory of, of my life and has, and has been foundationally something that I lean on all the time as I’m, as I’m not just 

[01:08:32] Charles Eide: your life. All those players and their families, 

[01:08:35] Ben Utecht: right. And their colleagues. A hundred percent. Yeah. And, and you know, there are fascinating companies like you. You look at Chick-fil-A, they’ve, when you go through Chick-fil-A, when you go through the drive-through.

I, I don’t, but sure when any, okay. You better not be going through you ever. No. But have you ever, have you ever, and you say, you know, and you say Thank you. Oh 

[01:08:57] Charles Eide: yeah. 

[01:08:58] Ben Utecht: What they, no, they 

[01:08:58] Charles Eide: have the 

[01:08:58] Ben Utecht: best customer choice. But what do they say though? Uh, it’s my pleasure. Okay. You don’t even go and you know that they say, it’s my pleasure.

Yeah, but you don’t understand that that was a pebble that was thrown into a pond. Guess how many years ago? I don’t know. 35. Wow. It’s taken 35 years. And now a guy that doesn’t even go to Chick-fil-A often knows that. They say, it’s my pleasure. Yeah, it’s true. Okay. That’s like a tsunami at that point. But that’s, but that’s what I’m, that’s what I’m getting at here.

And, and, and that, that slogan came out of an intentional marketing meeting that simply said, how can we make people feel. One to 2% better when they leave the, the drive-through. And they said, well, what if we were to just say like, Hey, it’s my pleasure to serve you, and we make it all about service. Mm. So again, simply profound opportunities to provide purpose, value, and significance.

You don’t have to overthink it, but you do need to understand that when you make it by design and when you build a system that you can practice, is when you’re gonna have the most scalable impact that you can. My favorite acronym for a system is Save Yourself Time, energy, and Money. Right. That’s good. I need to write that down.

Down. It’s, it’s, and it’s a 

[01:10:24] Charles Eide: hundred percent true. Save yourself time, energy, and peace. Hundred 

[01:10:27] Ben Utecht: percent True system. Yes. And that’s what you need to, that’s how you need to approach culture. Um, you know, is that 

[01:10:35] Charles Eide: as a system, I would imagine that this book in front of me that you wrote called The Champion’s Creed.

Has a lot of this stuff in it. Deep dive. Deep dive. 

[01:10:47] Ben Utecht: Yeah. So a, a lot of times my keynotes are more about inspiring towards looking at culture through the lens of belief. Mm-hmm. Because every company does mission, vision, values. Mm-hmm. Everyone, uh, and they sit around a board table. I’m sure you did the same thing and you talked for hours about what you believe mm-hmm.

In order to identify those four. 

[01:11:10] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[01:11:10] The Champion’s Creed Book

[01:11:10] Ben Utecht: And then all of that meat, all of the fruit that comes out of the w the, the what and the why just kind of goes off into the ether. And then you get, you know, four nice things put onto a website or onto a wall. Uh, and then you just hope that, that people are going to, through osmosis, you know, be in alignment and to be developed towards those things.

Right. And that, that’s where the book, the, the book, every chapter. Spill, uh, is filled with with stories, right? Inspire, teach Coach Inspire is the story arch of every chapter, right? So every chapter you’ll be inspired, every chapter will give you teaching and coaching, um, in order to actually be able to, you know, approach culture through design.

[01:11:56] Charles Eide: So, uh, can I get it on Amazon, Amazon, Barnes and Noble? Can Is it on Audible yet? It’s on Audible. I like, did you read it? 

[01:12:05] Ben Utecht: Was I the Voice? Yeah. No, they wouldn’t let me do it. They wouldn’t let you do it? No. I was like, wait a second. You’re like, but I’m a singer. Wait. Yes. Like, I could even provide Melody to the, you could sing the book to me.

It was kind of a crazy thing because they, they said, um, the reason why we have professionals do it is because there are buyers, there are book buyers. That are fans of certain voices. 

[01:12:30] Charles Eide: Oh, like the, the, the reader, the, the voiceover guy. Has fans. Has fans. So then they’ll buy the book. Has he read it? People will 

[01:12:37] Ben Utecht: just buy it.

’cause he’s, ’cause he read it. So I thought 

[01:12:39] Charles Eide: that that was, you’re like, well if it’s more sales, then I guess twist my arm. Okay. You save me time. Uh, one thing I’d like to ask at the end is, when it’s all done, what do you want to be remembered for?

[01:13:00] What Matters Most

[01:13:00] Ben Utecht: Oh man. When my life is all done. Yeah.

I, I want to be remembered. Um, as a man of faith that behaved with authenticity and integrity. I want to be remembered as, uh, a, a man who. Unconditionally loved his wife and his family. I mean, I think that, you know, when it, when it really comes down to it, and I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but I’ve had these, these, these, these moments of like, man, what if I lost everything and all I can come back to is that as long as I have my faith and I have my family, I’m gonna be okay.

And so I, I guess, you know, not to answer, not to give you a corny answer, but that’s really ultimately all that matters to me. You know, Charles, if my four daughters meet wonderful men of integrity, who love God, who treat them well, right? Who, you know, give them an opportunity to have their own family and, and they know who they are and they’re thriving and they’re happy, like, I don’t really care about anything else.

That would be so cool. I’m not excited about the four weddings that I have to pay for. That’s why I need, that’s why I need my speaking. Get some book sales here and my book sales to get going. But, but listen, and, and, and I think you brought up a, you had a important question. Like you, you, you have to, once you understand that culture is objective, you realize that it becomes a product, right?

And that culture creed not only becomes an onboarding and educational training manual, but it also becomes a powerful business development tool. You wanna separate yourself from, from every other company that you’re in competition with. Be the first to actually hand over a manifesto. A man, a manuscript that says, this is why we’re different.

They get to look through a beautiful 12 to 15 page document that defines deeply with clarity what you believe, why you believe, and how you believe it should be practiced, right? You, you, you, you look at it through, and you taught me this. I remember we were, gosh, this is probably a year ago, and I came up here as I do often whining, you know, 

I don’t, things aren’t, man, 

things aren’t working, and how do I do this and how do I do that?

And we, and you, and you said, follow me. We walked into your boardroom. You draw a, you drew a big circle on the whiteboard, and you put a small little.in the center, and then you hit it with the marker hard. And he said, this is, this is the only thing that you need to focus on. You have struggled to mark your target and put everything you have into that one target.

Right. And, and that’s, that was a game changer for me. And that’s kind of what I’ve been doing the last two years. That book is a result of that picture on that whiteboard. 

Hmm. 

Right. And guess what? You were practicing by default human development. Yeah. Because I’m your friend. It’s easy. It’s easy when it’s with somebody that you care about.

Yeah. Right. So you took time outta your day. You and you, and you poured into me. You poured more purpose, value, and significance into my life because we knew each other. Right. So you already know how to practice these things. Yeah. And, and that has resulted in a book. It’s resulted in, you know, um, a blossoming speaking career.

It’s, it’s, it is resulted in me developing my, my own, um, culture software, SaaS product so that I can come in and help companies do this effectively and, and through scalability. Right. So it’s all there. It’s just actually. It’s actually making it the strategy and creating the systems to practice. That’s so good.

How do people find you online? What’s the best way to reach you? I’m super accessible. I love LinkedIn. I love connecting with people. Um, so please reach out on LinkedIn. Um, I’m on all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, you know, Twitter, stuff like that. But I really spend a lot of my, my business networking time on, on LinkedIn.

And check out, uh, ben utech speaks.com. All right. Yeah, we just launched a new speaker reel and it’s just, it’s un it’s unbelievable. Oh, I’m gonna go watch that. I’m so excited about 

[01:17:36] Charles Eide: it. Ben Utech. This has been incredible. It’s been a real honor and I can’t wait to see all the big things you do. Yeah. Back at you, man.

Thanks for coming. Thanks buddy. Hey, if you like this episode, make sure you subscribe, share it with somebody you like, and of course, make sure you check out my company EideCom. We produce conferences and events all over the us and if you know of a conference or an event that’s looking for the best company in the business, check out EideCom.com.