Jon McGraw — Unlocking the Performance Mindset to Make Even Mundane Jobs More Enjoyable with Vision Pursue
The Game PlanShow Notes
A walk-on at Kansas State who was taken in the second round of the 2002 NFL draft by the New York Jets, Jon McGraw went on to play 10 pro seasons in the NFL, making stops with the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs along the way. For all his success, including winning the prestigious Ed Block Courage Award in 2011, the process of playing football wasn’t always a great experience for the hard-nosed safety. The daily grind took its toll and he felt his focus was suffering.
Toward the end of his career, McGraw stumbled across the concept of Process-Oriented Psychology. Instead of focusing on the end result, he learned to find purpose in the day-to-day aspects of the job and found joy in the sport again.
This ultimately led McGraw to pursue an entrepreneurial path after football, sharing what he’d learned with other pro athletes and corporate executives working in high-stress environments. He co-founded Vision Pursue alongside his business partner, Russ Rausch, a former hedge fund operator. Today, Vision Pursue works with high-profile clients in sports and business, including the Miami Heat, the San Francisco 49ers, and FedEx.
About The Game Plan:
The Game Plan is a weekly SportTechie podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show features professional athletes and their business interests beyond sports.
You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Subscribe to the Game Plan on Youtube for lots more content as well.
Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]
More from The Game Plan
Human beings have been collecting non-utilitarian items for millennia. It just so happens that with the advent of the digital age, we're now able to collect items from around the world and display them digitally for fellow collectors all over the world to admire as well. Add to this Digital Collectibles, like NFTs, and you've got a space ripe for tech innovation.
If you listen to this show regularly, you know that the shifting interest of athletes from endorsement to ownership is something we talk about a lot. Well, it turns out that in the last few years, athletes aren’t the only ones that are thinking about how to get ownership in the brands, companies and financial institutions they help build as early adopters, micro-influencers, or simply as customers.
In many ways, Bennie Fowler's story is the epitome of resilience and exactly the kind of journey we love sharing onThe Game Plan every week. Bennie had tremendous success in college at Michigan State and like many of his fellow players, expected to hear his name called during the NFL Draft. Unfortunately, that announcement never came.
Podcasting and social audio as a viable business has seen explosive growth in the past decade, the last few years especially. With Spotify having spent over $1Bn to acquire both tech and talent, apps like Clubhouse raising at multi-billion valuations, and even platforms like Twitter launching their own social audio Spaces, we felt this topic deserved a deeper dive.
In this week's episode of The Game Plan, we venture into the wild, wild west of the internet: Digital collectibles, NFTs and Web3. What does it mean for athletes, how is it changing how athletes think about their personal brands and ability to monetize their work on and off the field, and who the key stakeholders in this new tokenized world are and will be.