🔥BEST MAN from MY WEDDING! & Head Coach Washington Huskies!🔥BREAKTHROUGH in your Career! 🏈 W/ JEDD FISCH | Ep. 489

0:01Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for the Do This Not That podcast, and this is it. This is the most special episode. We've done over 600 episodes, and easily, this is the most special episode that we've done. I'm going to tell you who we have here, but it's not about his background or his resume. It's about something else entirely. So let me first tell you who we got. So we got Jed Fish, Coach Jed Fish.

0:39He is the head coach of the Washington Huskies. It is one of the most high-profile programs in the entire country, and he's been part of this massive transition into the Big Ten. He's coming off of a great year. The program did awesome. They went 9-4. They beat Boise State in the L.A. Bowl. And before that, though, he engineered one of the most dramatic turnarounds in recent college football history, taking the Arizona Wildcats from 111 to a 10-win season, top 25 national ranking. and his football resume is, it's ridiculous. He's coached under Steve Spurrier, Mike Shanahan, Pete Carroll, Sean McVay, Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick, everybody.

1:21But that's not why he's important. Maybe he thinks he's important because of that, but that's not it. Here's the real reason this is the most special episode. Jed and I, Jed has been one of my best friends on the planet for over 30 years. I met this dude when I was 18 years old. He was the best man at my wedding. We've been through every ridiculous nonsense thing together. So I'm excited to have him on here. We're going to talk about adversity and life and all the things. This is really weird to say, but Jed, welcome to the show. Thank you. What an introduction, Jay. That was awesome. And it is special.

2:02It's special for me too, though. I will say I have been trying to get on this show for a while now, starting on episode 17. I've made it at 601. It sounds like there's been 600 prior. And it is great to be on here with you and be able to share some cool stories. Oh, my God. This is so strange. For anybody out there who's like, you know, it's a super tight friend, and then you bring them into your work world, it's really weird. It's not a normal experience. But, okay, I want to take everybody back for a second. We're going to talk about adversity. And it's not just like, oh, Jed lost the game, and he came back at halftime, and he won a game.

2:37This dude has been through stuff that honestly, literally would have killed most people, but also would have killed almost every career. So I want to take us back to something that happened super early on in your career. And you had the ultimate health scare disaster. Take everybody through what happened. And then I want to layer in some things that I saw happen. Sure. Sure. So I think you're referring to the health scare of an aortic aneurysm that I had in 2003, not the broken hand I had in a swim meet back in 87. Yeah. So in 2003, I was 26 years old. Yeah, 26. And Amber and I, who was my girlfriend at the time, wife now, were out jogging in Houston.

3:28And I felt like this massive knife went right in the middle of my back. And I couldn't understand what it was. I wound up kind of going down, getting back up, and thought that my back just went into really bad spasm. And that was on a Saturday morning run. And throughout that day, the back never felt any better. And, you know, I went into a hot tub, which wasn't very smart. I found out later. Sunday, I was waiting all day and just thought I was getting – watching the final or a great aid or whatever it was watch the gators play and then uh monday at about 5 p.m i realized like i was having a hard time breathing so the back spasm was a little more significant than i thought and um i called a buddy of mine in houston and i said hey i need to i need you to bring me the emergency room um i was on the phone with our team doctor and without being in the nfl at that time i was dead there's no question about it because you don't have the type of concierge medicine back then as we have now more people get it but um he was he was following it all the way throughout and he said jed you need to come in and about six hours later um it was like 12 30 one o 'clock in the morning they allowed me to stay in the hospital they didn't want me to and i uh i called my girl i called up amber and i said hey um i think i'm having a heart attack but don't call my mom okay that was the big one um by the way remember that you called you called me at 5 30 in the morning yeah and you said tell all the boys i love them yeah well yeah i think it was uh it got a little scary at that point between like the 1 a.m to 5 a.m shift 2 a.m where they brought in a a surgeon came in and um you know this you know my mom you know my dad very well my mom asked for a second opinion not the move to make when you're having emergency surgery right so uh they said no this is this is the only opinion and we're going in to get operated on and i think the operation started probably probably 10 minutes after i called you um and um you know it wasn't a very safe operation it wasn't one in which you know my aorta dissected all the way really throughout by my heart and then all the way straight down that I had to do.

6:02They called it type one dissection. The doctor, Dr. Caselli, was world-renowned heart surgeon. He used the example that if it was hanging on by a string, the string was as thin as dental floss to be able to survive the surgery. And I had to have two of those as you know six days later had to go back in for the second one and i think you i don't know if you did you make it into houston right after the second one right after it yeah and um but it was wild it was a the first five days i was in icu so it wasn't worth coming in and um but uh very grateful uh i do remember lying in bed and asking dom capers um if i still had a job and i I think he said, we'll worry about that later.

6:50Let's just survive this moment. And for everybody out there, imagine you're starting your career, because this was really Jed starting his career. He had just finished being a grad assistant with the football program at the University of Florida, really the lowest level you could possibly be in a football program. I mean, he was barely in the program. And then he gets his first opportunity with the Houston Texans, which was a new franchise. I mean, it was literally, there was no team, really. right and so and jed within the houston texans was the lowest man on the totem pole like people probably didn't even know he worked there at the time and then this all happens and now imagine you're in your career and this is happening to you it would take almost everybody else off course i mean jen almost literally like died like he died multiple times on on that table but coming out of it the thing that always struck me was first of all i came to see you you were a disaster i mean the guy was like in rigor mortis.

7:47He looked like a mummy. He was walking around like a cane. It wasn't the guy that I knew from college that, you know, we could crush a few beers together. Right. But you, you maintain like a positive mindset. You maintain like, I want to get back to work. You like, do you just read like, you know, Tony Robbins stuff every minute you wake up? How did you not let yourself go down a slippery slope? Yeah. I'd say the biggest thing, Jay, was the people around me like you know i actually uh did a podcast with david carr last week and we were talking about this and he like he was the first player to come visit me and you know you're 26 and my you know we'll get into it a little bit about how i even got involved in coaching but like you feel like you're hanging on for dear life anyway right and now you're like oh my god this is like a real problem like if i can't make it back or if i'm not 100 i have no chance but david and kylie wong and dom capers and those guys that were like visiting it made you feel like you did matter even though you knew you were on the bottom of the bottom you were recognized and you were known and the players cared and um that was probably the inspiration was how much people cared about you.

9:04And I think anybody, you know, you don't realize it until you go through something traumatic about how many people are willing to check on you and see how you're doing. And that was my biggest inspiration that like, wow, if these guys actually do know who I am and do care how I'm doing, then I have to get back and I have to do a great job. It is really amazing. I don't think people realize it enough. I'm learning it more. I wish I realized it more early in my career. people are willing to help you. If you ask for help, you know, people, people will help you in your career. And so just to finish up that story, one piece of it, which I also always took something away from was that, so maybe like a month or two after the surgery, I was getting married.

9:45Okay. And long before Jed had his medical disaster, I'd asked Jed to be the best man in my wedding. and I was like, well, Jed's not coming to my wedding. I was in Florida. He was in Texas. And I didn't expect him to because that would be ridiculous. The guy literally couldn't stand up and get to his couch. And so I remember I called Jeff. I'm like, Jed, don't worry about it. You're my guy, but don't even think about coming. He goes, no, I'll be there. I'm like, what do you mean you're going to be there? You can't be anywhere. You're not physically able to be anywhere. and the and it's about showing up for your friends it's about being there for each other it was a lesson that i learned that stuck with me the rest of my life is that you know when you have friends like that that will show up and he so he got his ass on a plane whatever was left of his ass he got his ass on a plane and he showed up and he gave just about the best best man speech anybody ever gave because everyone's like i'm listening to the guy who's half dead i gotta pay attention so so thank you for showing up yeah well yeah thank you for not cutting me out and then making and giving somebody else the job.

10:52I know there was a few of our buddies were probably trying to lobby for that spot. We're idiots. Yes, but it was, yeah, I guess I got out of the ICU April 22nd or 23rd. And I believe that your wedding was in June, right? Yeah, that's right. So yeah, it was a little tight turnaround. We'll call it a tight turnaround. Yeah. But you know, you do everything you can, man. You do for the people that you know, do everything they can for you. and I remember you know just a business from the you know in the hospital and I can't imagine like some of the crazy videos people say and like I mean you know sometimes you didn't want to laugh because it hurts so bad you know like you're all like wired and you're laughing and you shouldn't be laughing but the best thing about our friendship our friends our friend group I mean everyone makes everyone laugh whether they make fun of people or make funny things happen at least I would tell you the joy is what kept me going.

11:50Yeah, and it's so great because also a lot of times, you know, Jed will be on TV coaching the game, and we'll just make a screenshot of Jed, and we'll text it to each other like, look at what he's wearing. He looks like an idiot right now. You know, it's like no matter what, it doesn't matter what everybody gets in life. We're all still the same doofuses, which is amazing. All right, but I want to go back a little bit, though, for everybody that maybe feels imposter syndrome because a lot of people right now, they're not in the football world, they're not in the sports world or any of that stuff, but in their careers they're like well I want to break in I want to be the head of social media over here I want to I want to start this business over here but I don't know how to do that I don't know anybody in that field I know my parents weren't in that business I don't know how to do that so so your crazy wild other story is that Jed's now the head coach of this major big 10 college football program he's one of the biggest programs in the country the dude never played football he's not like some former linebacker that did whatever okay and he didn't have it wasn't like he had a mom or dad that was a on the ring of honor at some football stadium zero burger so how do you break in how do you feel the confidence to break in how did you break in to the world of football yeah um it's just what i wanted to do i i don't even know if there's a better way to describe it it's like i had this mission and i was like i'm going to florida my dad's a lawyer right you know that um my dad said to me well if you're gonna go to florida like what do you want to do for a living i said i want to coach football he said that is a weird answer

13:35but i said that's what i want to do and he goes okay well where do you want to do it at and I said, I don't know, the best place where they have the best football coach. And he suggested, he goes, well, who do you think that is? And I said, Steve Spurrier in Florida. And I'm from New Jersey and applied to Florida. And he's like, okay. And I tried to get every job, equipment manager, you know, a student assistant, worked in the training room. I tried every job that they let me do. I got none of them. I got turned down for every single job at Florida, as you know. I still went to school there. I said, all right, I'll try the fraternity route where we met.

14:18But at that point, I'm not going to quit. I'm going to figure out a way. I didn't come to Florida to just being a frat and just whatever, you know, go to law school or whatever it might have been. So I started leaving notes on Coach Spurrier's windshield. Day in and day out. And I just kept saying, you know what? There's got to be a way. I went and I asked for a meeting. They said no meeting. I went and asked for another meeting. They said no meeting. I said, all right, I'll just keep leaving notes until there's a meeting. And I would show up there and I would leave something ridiculous and I do a lot of work and I leave like an idea.

14:54And then I would send a note saying this is how I think I could help. And finally, man, you live you lived it. I mean, it was like a year and a half later. You know, I was coaching at P.K. Young High School. I took a high school coaching job. I ran into Dwayne Dixon and Buddy Tevens and Coach Dixon's like, well, you can come and like work in my office when no one's there. And you could like, you know, find and take a TV game of a football game and then take another VCR tape and you could put a play on a tape and then a play on a tape. And that's what I did. And then I became like the turn the lights off coach.

15:35then I became you know the make a photocopy coach and then coach Spurrier I think he got my name right last year uh I think so you know I mean I was Jebi I was Jebi I was you name it um but it just I'm like this is what I'm gonna do and I'm not gonna quit until I get a chance you see I love that attitude and that's what everybody needs to realize you don't you just have to keep pushing you and things will happen it may not even be exactly what you want or who knows but it will happen and the funniest part about coach spurrier you know jed had to break in coach spurrier wouldn't give him the time of day whatever then you fast forward i'm at jed's wedding okay years later and jed goes i i need you to uh um will you drive coach spurrier to the wedding from the hotel i'm like great i want to hang out with coach spurrier so i drive the wedding and then I'm at the wedding and it's like the cocktail party or whatever I'm at one end of like the cocktail party all of a sudden I hear this voice going Jay Jay come over hang out over here I look over I'm like that is coach Spurrier yelling for me to come on over and hang out and it went from Jed leaving notes on this guy's car he probably thought he was a psycho to Spurrier like wanting to do like the Macarena at the wedding I mean it's amazing it was amazing You know what's amazing now is like you could never get away with it.

16:59Like if someone was leaving notes day in and day out, you'd be like full on stalker. Full on, you know, you got police department everywhere. You know, back then it was just like partial stalker, but no one knew what the word stalker meant. So it was like, oh, this is just a weird guy, you know, versus full on stalker. So like when people ask me, how do I break in? I'm like, not my way. Do not do it my way. Chances are not in your favor. Find a different route. But in the end, the number one route is don't quit. I don't care what the route is. Just don't quit. Well, speaking of quitting, I'm curious about a totally different route here.

17:41So before you were at Husky, right, you were the head coach at the University of Arizona. And I could say this. You can't. It was a hot mess when you got there. all right one in 11 situation and you turn that thing around i mean turn around to a top 15 program in the country win the alamo bowl the whole thing but for everybody else that's out there also they may walk into a business situation where a company's not doing well a department's not doing well and now they have to convince everybody this new plan that they got is gonna be the thing that really gets us going so you're walking into this room with this group of guys they're 1 11.

18:19you guys are you know nobody thinks you guys can do anything how do you get everybody on the same page buying into a plan when historically whatever plan they've been doing was just not working at arizona how did you get that turnaround to happen so fast yeah um that was an interesting one the the thing that i thought was the best part about it so we go in there the last game they played before they hired me they lost 70 to 7 to arizona state right and i got a call the next day got offered a job a week or two later i was coaching in new england um i went there and i kind of took this philosophy of like you can't tell me what you were doing was working so we're going to try something brand new we're going to have a different approach we're going to the messaging on the walls are going to be completely different the everything's going to look and feel new we're going to have to we're not going to we're going to change the first thing we're gonna do is gonna change the offices because we are not gonna sit in offices that didn't have a winning record we're not gonna sit in offices that just went at a 12 game losing streak we're just not doing it and then we go one in 11 so now the program is one in 23 over a two and a half year span and they're looking at me and they're like you came in here and changed everything and you got one win you know and i said no i changed everything for the future you know we're just working through it right now and you we just didn't change our philosophy we just stuck to it we stuck to it and we had 20 so kids that just bought into what we were saying and that recruiting class tmack who's the number eight overall pick noah fafita uh jonah coleman you know you just start naming them right anthony war isaiah war you start naming all these guys and PriceSock and Dakario Davis, they all bought in and they all just said, you know what, we believe in what your mission is.

20:19And I told our staff, we are not going to sell anything because we have nothing to sell. We're just going to tell them what we're going to do for them. And we're going to build a relationship and we're going to make it totally transformational and not transactional at all. And we went five and seven that year. And then we went 10 and three and finished 11th in the country um the next year and uh it was all about just relationships and belief were there were there things along the way though that like you had to motivate yourself because you're always motivating other people like how do you wake up in the morning and be like i'm assuming not every day you wake up and like yeah every hooray another amazing day how do you self-motivate especially when you hit like a bump in the road you lose a big game you lose a player you lose a recruit you how do you self-motivate yeah the hardest challenge for sure was you know showing up thinking you're going to flip a program and going 111 right like and staying positive and trying to make sure and realize that it's not if like whatever i come in with you know when you're the boss whatever your personality of the day is or mood of the day is the it it filters through the whole building, right?

21:36Your whole office, your whole company. Well, same with us. Like if I came in down, we had no chance because then everybody would be down. And if I came in ultra positive, we had a chance. So I just got into my car every day and I just told myself like, the only chance I have to live my dream is to make every, bring everybody along with me until I could start serving them one day. But right now, I got to just bring them with me. I got to just bring them with me and just continuing to make everybody feel like, hey, this is going to happen. And when it does happen, I used to say there's going to be a 30 for 30 written about this one.

22:17And that was our messaging. And you go through ups and downs and ups and downs. And I think coaches are at their best. I think the best coaches are at their best after losses. you know, after a win, it's not that hard, right? You got to be able to stay on top and keep them getting better and better and better. But how do you handle adversity? How do you handle defeat? And how do you not let the same team beat you twice? And that was our big message always. Yeah, I think that positive attitude really is something because everyone does feed off whoever is leading that department, that company, you know, that whatever.

22:51So, all right, before we wrap up though, I am curious about something because something that I'm impressed at by you is you you're very you're still you're very accessible you have a lot going on okay you definitely have a lot going and a lot of people a lot going on but you in particular have a lot going on and you you seem to make you always make time for your friends for your family you seem to kind of be like there's like four jets he's kind of like all over the place in a good way. And is that, are you intentional about carving out time for things like that? You say, listen, I got, I got to make sure I touch base with my buddies.

23:34I got to make sure I do this, that, or whatever. Is that an intentional thing or are you just rapid fire all day? Now, you know, I saw this saying a while back that says like, you could be on a really long journey, but it comes to a very fast end and you don't never know, right? You could be going, going going going boom and it's over and what happened to me obviously in 2003 like that does still stick with you and like i would sooner and my dad might pass away at 63. my brother passed away at 53. so like you know we're 49 about to turn 50 and you realize like when they when they were this age our age they felt like we feel yeah you know they felt healthy and great and ready to take on the world and then something happens and it gets taken and then they don't have the next day and I think that I just try to feel like if I don't spend time with my buddies and then I don't get to spend time with my buddies anymore that would suck and if I don't spend time at work committing to trying to make this amazing and then we don't make it amazing that would suck and so and then of course with amber and the girls like if i'm not a great dad or a great husband then why does any of it matter right like so trying to balance it all and then i believe that the program needs to be marketed constantly i am like i believe that our only opportunity to truly take it to you know we're in the big 10 and we're new there we're far in the country right We're not close.

25:13We're not in the middle of the country. We're not in the southeast. We're far northwest. And like you got to stay relevant. You got to make people still understand what's going on. And you got to have people see you. And, you know, the W's got a flash. And, you know, I was in the Caribbean a couple of weeks ago and I'm walking down the street and I got to there's a dude in a W hat. and um it's just cool to see people constantly so you we we always are trying to be everywhere and uh you know it's probably wearing myself down sometimes but i think it's the most important thing well this was awesome um i don't want to say thank you because screw off uh but but this was uh uh we'll have to do a round two there's there's just so much more nonsense we could talk about and uh listen man you're my guy i appreciate you go huskies any party words for the uh the marketing world that's out there well i'm a little confused why you're not in costume uh some of these i've seen you've been in costume yeah i do i did have hot dogs available for a hot dog eating competition if he jumped on thank you i um but i do say this jay you have done an unreal job you know, changing the game in terms of social media, in terms of, you know, the media marketing that you do, in terms of being able to get yourself out there.

26:31The TED Talks are phenomenal. I do enjoy those. I really do. I can't wait for your book. Oh, yeah. Where is your book? Right here. I got a fresh copy. It's not out yet. April. Stupid. I know. You already know my copies. Amber's like, hey, Ali called. Jay wrote a book. so I bought three dozen. I go, what? How much does this thing cost? Thank you. So I'm fired up about all of that. You know what? Stupider people have done it. Is that the title? That's it. You nailed it. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you, man. And you guys have definitely nailed it. And I would just tell everybody, man, it's my dad wrote this in my yearbook in high school.

27:11It is better to try and fail than fail to try and suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been. And that's how we do our lives every day. Great Jeff Fish, man. A legend. A legend. And Jed is a legend. All right, my guy. Appreciate you. We'll do it again soon. Thanks, pal. See you. All right. Wait. The party is not over. Go to jayschwedelson.com because I want to do stuff with you. I want to partner with you. When you click on the button Partner with Jay, you let me know what you got going on. Work with my agency. Work with me directly. get access to all of my free resources at jschwedelson.com.

27:50And I got a book coming out this April. It's called Stupider People Have Done It. And all of the net proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Go on Amazon, buy Stupider People Have Done It. That way you can help kick cancer's butt with me. And if this podcast wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, it might have been, leave it a review, follow the show. You are awesome. Go out there and crush it.