Chris Manderino | The Art of Preparation: How to Excel in High-Pressure Situations

Chris Manderino

Srini Rao

Chris, welcome to the Unmistakable Creative. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.

Chris Manderino

Absolutely, it's my pleasure to be here.

Srini Rao

Yeah, so I actually learned about you by way of somebody who had reached out to me and they had mentioned that you had been a football player at my alma mater or mutual alma mater as well as spent some time in the NFL and then went on to start a company. So naturally I was immediately intrigued by all of that. But before we get into that, I wanted to start by asking you what did your parents do for work and how did that end up shaping what you ended up doing with your life and your career?

Chris Manderino

So my dad owned a small business. He was a contractor, owned a painting company. You know, there's a lot of ups and downs with that. You know, even though the business was based in Southern California, I remember anytime there'd be a heavy rainy season, you can't really do much painting outdoors and so that really came with a lot of ups and downs in terms of financials.

and saw some of the challenges and struggles he had with small business, but also at the same time, the ability to kind of build a business that provided for the family was important. I also got to know, I guess, hard labor firsthand. I would go to job sites with him, moving ladders up and down, the dog days of summer, essentially. I really think that taught me the value of...

hard work and also that that's not a path that I wanted to pursue later in life in terms of like more labor intensive work. My mom was a teacher. She had taken time off to raise the family while my dad was busy with the business. But as we got a little bit older, she was a physical education teacher. And so I think both my parents had an athletic background. They met at Michigan State. I think they're

background in athletics really shaped, inspired me to chase that dream as a young kid. And then I just think, I saw how hard they both worked and that really instilled the value of hard work in me. And I also got to see how my dad treated his employees. And even when money was tight, he would ensure that they always got paid first and oftentimes he would pay them much better than.

what the going rate was, even if that meant, you know, we would have to sacrifice as a family. And so he always led with a lot of integrity. And that was really important to me and just instilled really strong values in me as I kind of faced my dreams and goals and really tried to, you know, mirror some of those things that they both taught me.

Srini Rao

Yeah. Well, I wonder, one, what was the narrative about education around your household, particularly with your mother being a teacher? And was there a question of sort of balancing these athletic dreams with the importance of education? Because you went to Cal and you and I both know that is not an easy place to go to school.

Chris Manderino

Yes, so from very early on, my dad always emphasized education above athletics. Obviously, both were very important, but he said, you know, if I go try to get grades that allows me to pick and choose where I can go to school, right? So if I get grades that will get me into a Cal or Stanford or Harvard or something like that, I can go anywhere I want.

my ability to get there. So that was always a big deal. My dad would reward us for our grades actually. I think there's like 20 bucks or something for every A that we got, 10 bucks for a B and then we'd have to pay him if we got anything less than that. And so there was always a system in place to reward but also risk if we weren't doing well.

My dad ran a type ship. He was kind of rolled with an iron fist. He disciplined us and anytime we stepped out of line, especially in the classroom, and we weren't getting the results that he knew we were capable of, there was some form of punishment as a result, whether that was

Chris Manderino

not allowing us to do the things that we want to do because we weren't keeping up with our end of the bargain. And I say we, I was one of five. I grew up with four sisters. So, and I was the second oldest in the chain, only boy. And so, you know, there was a lot of, I guess, pressure on me to really carry forward the family name and, you know, achieve, you know, great things. And

Srini Rao

up. Okay.

Chris Manderino

being, doing what I needed to do academically was always a big part of that and really the core emphasis above athletics. And I remember there was a time when my sister had let her, my younger sister, her grades slip a little bit and he actually pulled her out of water polo because, you know, and that was really hard for him to do, but that was the deal. You know, you weren't allowed to play sports if you were.

didn't have your grades in line.

Srini Rao

Yeah, well, one, I appreciate that. It's funny when you said $20 for every day, I'm like, after the Indian kids who try to negotiate that with their parents, get told you're full of shit and basically you get a meal over your head. But the fact that your dad complimented with fines, I was like, OK, cool. Now I appreciate the story. I'm like the fact that you got, you know, you got fined for not getting good grades. I think we kind of like balances out. One thing I wonder, you know, as the only boy in a family of five, four sisters, like I've always wondered about big families and sort of the social dynamics.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

Thanks for watching!

Srini Rao

What did that teach you about human behavior, navigating social relationships, particularly being the only boy with four sisters? Cause like one thing I have found with friends who've grown up with older sisters, and I always think, man, I wish I had been the second instead of the first is like, they're all very good with women. They all seem to have like this inherent understanding and they always credit their older sisters for that.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

Yes, so my older sister, I think being the first of five, she probably had it the hardest. I think my parents were the most strict with her. She really kind of set the tone for everybody else. Like she got straight A's, she just was an overachiever, both sports and academically. And so I kind of saw what she had done, kind of mirrored a lot of that, but also

tried to push the boundaries a little bit and see what I could get away with and try to get a little bit, my parents to loosen up a little bit on me and they did. And I think my middle sister, she saw some of that, maybe she tried to push the boundaries a little bit too far and then kind of suffered some of the repercussions of that. But I think, our four sisters, each one has a different personality, they're different and similar in many ways. But I think just like that.

dynamic personality, you know, teaches you to be very sensitive and listen and understanding because there's always, you know, something, especially for right, when one can be having a great day and then somebody else is, you know, having a complete meltdown. So just, you know, trying to stay, you know, even-keeled and not kind of get too emotionally charged up or reacting to, you know, their emotions is just like, you know.

Srini Rao

I can imagine.

Chris Manderino

listen and be there to support. And yeah, it wasn't always that way. I mean, there's certainly times where we're at one another's throats, but, you know, I think going through that really taught me a lot.

Srini Rao

Well, you know, the one thing, other thing I wonder about, were you treated like a prince or did your sisters just keep you in line? As the only boy, I feel like it could go either way.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, just ask my sisters about that one, I guess. But they will say, they will definitely say that I was spoiled and I got special treatment and all that stuff. And maybe that's true. I think maybe it is to an extent. But I think definitely my older sister tried to keep me in check. And then, you know, there was there was there was a balance. But yeah, I think it was a little bit different being an older, older boy.

Srini Rao

Hahaha

Srini Rao

Well, talk to me about the life of both a high school athlete who is good enough to actually play in college and we'll get into the college piece a bit because I had Brett Lockett who also played in the NFL here and I want to kind of ask you some questions about that. But the reason I'm so curious about this is because I think that we get a certain impression of what this life is like from the things that we see on TV, right? It's like the high school football star gets to date the cheerleader, go to prom with her. Life is pretty much just everybody handing him.

scholarships after another. But I mean, I've seen the reality of it because I've gotten to talk to a few people who were college football players. And I'm curious, what do we from the outside, for those of us who are not living this life, let's start with high school, what are we not seeing day to day? Because what it looks like is nothing but life in the spotlight and glory and glamour, which I know is like a very small percentage of.

Chris Manderino

And I think that's a great way to start a business. Thank you.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, so my, my journey was very different than the majority of people that make it to the NFL, I think, you know, the vast majority, you know, their blue star athletes coming out of college and then, you know, first round, you know, draft picks. Not not first round necessarily, but drafted into the NFL. In high school, I well going back to eighth grade, like, or even, you know, early childhood memories, I

how to dream to play in the NFL like a lot of kids do. In eighth grade, I knew that kind of building my body and strength would be a key part of my ability to perform on high level in high school. So in eighth grade, I started after school, walking over to the high school to start to learn, weight training and just get hands on and started training with some of the high school kids at that point in time. I was probably one of two or three kids that started doing that.

Then by the time I'd gotten to high school, I kind of had a leg up, but crazy enough as it is, going into my freshman year, I had filled something out at like a Tower Records, just like record store when those things still existed. And I get a call out of the blue and somebody's like, hey, you want a trip to Europe? And I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me. I was like, come on, get out of here.

You know, turns out it was all legit, but I wasn't 18. So I had to designate a guardian to go over. So the trip happened to be right in the middle of training camp. So I was going back and forth. Here I am, you know, just preparing to go to high school and, you know, and the coach is like, well, you know, you're, I wanted to be the starting quarterback and he's like, there's no way I'm allowing the quarterback to take off and miss.

summer camp. That's the most important part of the season. It's not set in a good example for the other players. And so there was a lot of, you know, debate as to whether I should go on the trip or not. And ultimately, you know, after discussing it with my parents, I said, Look, you've got the rest of, you know, your time in high school, and hopefully thereafter to play football, we don't know when you're gonna have another opportunity like this to get a free trip to Europe. And so I chose to go on a trip. So when I came back, I wasn't, you know, the quarterback, I ended up playing

Chris Manderino

tailback and played both sides of the ball. The coach didn't want to play me at all, just out of pure principle, but then realized he can entirely keep me off the field as a pretty good player. So Dallas freshman year, freshman football, not a huge deal, right? You're just, you're kind of, as my coach in high school would say, flushing out the turds.

essentially, so figuring out what kids are meant to be out there playing football and which kids aren't and the other kids go on and do something else that's better suited for them. But it was really my sophomore year where I then had a chance to play quarterback for the junior varsity team and I was one of the, I think maybe one of three players who was also able to suit up for varsity at the same time.

Varsity, you know, I did a little bit of special teams work not didn't have like a prominent role You know in terms of like a starting position and got some like garbage time safety and some other positions However, the JV team we went undefeated You know with me as a quarterback and that started to carry over then into my junior year and then junior year Obviously a very important year because that's when college scouts start taking notice and really looking at who

they might be thinking of bringing in over the next year or so. Uh, junior year, I was the starting quarterback for the varsity team. It was kind of an interesting dynamic because I was, I was a good player, both offensive and defensively. And part, my, my coach kind of wanted to protect me as a quarterback, right? Risk of injury, lose a starting quarterback. It could, it could mean the season, but at the same time.

didn't feel he could keep me off the field defensively because I could play both sides of the ball. So I was actually starting linebacker and a starting quarterback, which you don't see every day, and did really well on both sides of the ball. We ended up winning CIF that year. And then finally, my senior year, I was going into the season.

Chris Manderino

going to be the starting quarterback again. I was battling it out. Well, junior year I battled it out, won the job essentially. I had a kid who transferred in and that was a lot of competition, really stressful. I wasn't really sure if it was going to be my job or not. But there's I think some of that goes on behind the scenes and all the work that you put in and just all the training that people don't always understand or appreciate. It's a full load. And to be able to just go to school.

Srini Rao

down.

Chris Manderino

and study, you know, athletes have to do that plus all the physical side of things, you know, prepare your body. So think about just being a student, you know, there's certainly times where you're exhausted, you don't want to study, you know, you just can't focus and those types of things and put all, you know, the physical aspects on top of that, you're sore, you're tired, you're beat up, your head hurts, you know, all this stuff, it just makes it really, really challenging. And so I think that's where, you know,

Srini Rao

Thanks for watching!

Chris Manderino

I guess the average person doesn't see or doesn't really understand all of that because you haven't physically been through that type of rigor and having to kind to perform at a high level both aspects. And then especially in high school, there's the social and familial aspect as well, which is so strong, right? I think that's the unique thing about high school is you're trying to figure out kind of your own unique identity.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Srini Rao

Totally.

Chris Manderino

with me, I was actually raised in a Mormon household. So there was like this, religious dogma and kind of person I was supposed to be on that front. And then trying to figure out, me the athlete and then kind of where all that stuff fits together. And it's something I think every kid goes through but I think it's all that, just trying to figure it out. And just, the expectations that you put upon yourself and also as you have.

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

success, the additional external expectations that come alongside that, you know, so here we are, you know, CIF champions, you know, we're top of the world, I'm in the paper every single day, you know, it's great. Now, it's time to do it all over again, right? That's the expectation, we got to go win it again. And so, and then there's also the kind of future aspect that's starting to come into play, okay.

What is my destiny? Where am I going to go to college? You know, I'm not, I'm getting letters, but you know, not really sure. You know, if that's going to materialize into something, uh, you just don't, don't really know. And all you can really do is keep your head down and keep crying, keep putting in the work and then hope that, you know, the, what you put out there yields the results that, that you're hoping for, but, um, two or three games in to my senior season.

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

And we had practiced this and toyed around with it in off season. I had a good ability to scramble as a quarterback and run the ball. So I was, you know, playing starting quarterback also started to, uh, put me in running back and I was still playing, um, linebacker at safety was all over the place. And then, you know, about three games in to senior season coach decides to make the move and we weren't having much success running the football, um, and just the offense wasn't.

totally clicking, we can 100% rely on, you know, the passing game and that's it because we're really a run first offense by design. So coach made the switch, moved me to running back, put in a younger kid at quarterback and that really got things rolling. And I was just, I just steamrolled people as a running back. I ended up.

leading the county in, I think, rushing yards and touchdowns despite having only missed two, two and a half games basically. They set a school record for touchdowns and had a stellar season on defense as well. We got all the way back to the CIF Championship and unfortunately lost to the team we had beat the year before. So for high school, put together just a great...

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

overall career, you know, all the athletes, one of the best players in county. And yet there were guys that I played with and against that were getting scholarship offers to all the big time universities. And there was just nothing coming my way. You know, I was just, you know, I was very, very disappointed. Um, and I just wasn't sure, you know, if there was, uh, a future for me in football, I was really challenged with having to make a tough decision. There's a, um,

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

something one of my position coaches at the time came out to me and said, well, you got to make a decision. You got to decide whether you want to be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond. And I was like, well, I want to be a big fish in a big pond. How about that? You didn't give me that option. So, you know, I was debating whether to go to a junior college for a year. Maybe most junior college coaches want you to be there for at least two before moving on. And I didn't really want to be there.

Srini Rao

No.

Chris Manderino

do that. Or maybe, you know, kind of having football become secondary and going East Coast, Ivy League or Georgetown or something like that, and just focus on education. Or third option was potentially walking on to a major university. And I was kind of being recruited by a few of the California schools, Cal, Stanford, USC, and UCLA. Some express casual interest, others like SC were like, well,

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Chris Manderino

could walk on here, but you'll never play. He's like, well, what's the point in that? Whereas Cal, their approach was, look, we love for you to come here. We don't have any more scholarships, but we can help you get into school. You've got good enough grades and all that. And if you do well, you might be able to get on the field, earn a scholarship and we'll see. And so...

You have to weigh in all the options. That's the choice I ultimately decided to make and walked onto Cal. And then it was starting all over again from scratch. And there's a whole story and challenge just in the college sphere that I went through as well.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Srini Rao

Well, before we get into that, I want to ask you about high school in particular. Like I'm one of these weirdos who's like very fascinated by athletes, even though I knew I would never be one. Cause if you're an Indian kid in a Texas town, in Texas, seventh graders are the size of grown men. So like I remember when you did those defense defensive tackling drills, like you're like a dumb ass. I volunteered, you know, I'm a scrawny Indian kid and the coach complimented some other kid for volunteering to play center.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

And because of my fragile ego, I was like, he's like, I need a guard. And I raised my hand. And so we're doing these tackling drills. This big kid just pushed me back like 20 yards, the whole team left. And that was kind of the end of my football career. So I was one of those turds you were talking about, but I got, you know, I figured that out by seventh grade. But look, I've always been fascinated by sports. Like I played Madden religiously. And so the quarterback position is one of those that always intrigues me.

Chris Manderino

I know.

Srini Rao

particularly because I feel like it's a very cognitively demanding position. So talk to me about sort of like how in the world does somebody memorize an entire playbook? You have to pretty much be the sharpest person on the field. Don't you? If you're the quarterback, like you literally have to know everything that's going on.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, absolutely. So your job as a quarterback is to understand what everybody, what every position is supposed to be doing, where they're supposed to be lined up and getting into the proper formation. And that's just, you know, the start, you also have to know the defense, look at where the

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

intellectual aspect of the game on the quarterback position is extremely rigorous, takes a ton of time and effort looking at film, studying defenses, understanding all the potential route combinations depending on, you know, what happens as the plays develop. And there's also the leadership qualities, right? You've got to be kind of, you know, the general out there. People are really looking

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Chris Manderino

at you to guide them. And you know, that's, it's a lot of responsibility at that position. And so you really got to put in a lot of work.

Srini Rao

So I got to ask how in the world, how the yeah. So I get us, how in the hell do you memorize a playbook? Also knowing that every situation in that playbook is dynamic and could change in like a snap, you know, second like the moment the ball snaps, whatever you were thinking has to change. Cause I remember reading, I think it was a Jonah Lehrer's book about decisions and how like quarterbacks have to make really quick decisions in like under seconds while they're about to get killed.

Chris Manderino

I think it comes down to just repetitions, right? You're doing something over and over and over and over and over again. And so that's where, when you're out practicing, it's not like you're just running around, you're drilling this stuff, you're going through all these scenarios, you're seeing different looks and then being able to respond to that in real time. And then...

looking at that after every practice, looking at those decisions, understanding where you may have made a poor decision. And then next time you're in that situation, you're more prepared to make the right decision. So it's really just, you know, it's like the mastery, essentially, right? You spend so many hours, 10,000 hours, whatever it is, doing something, eventually, you some of these things become second nature. And you see that at the highest level.

guys like elite level quarterbacks in the NFL, they're just on a different, they're playing a different game than everybody else, right? They know what the defense is doing before the defense even knows what they're doing. Oftentimes, they know within inches where to put the ball based off where the defender's going to go. So it's just sheer amount of hours invested. Obviously, you've got to have the physical talent as well.

but that can also be improved and refined over time. So it's really just the willingness to do the things that other people aren't willing to do. That can be a major separator. And oftentimes it is, you know, the extra hour to in the weight room, extra hour to studying film, the extra hour to studying the playbook, you know, that all adds up and, you know, creates a competitive advantage over time.

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

I'm guessing you've seen it. There's a documentary called The Year of the Quarterback, which is the year that Tom Brady was drafted, where I think he was like the 199th pick, if I remember correctly. From your perspective, what is it that enables somebody like a Tom Brady to become like a Tom Brady, to go from being one of the latest picks in the draft to arguably the best quarterback in the history of the NFL? And then also there's a sort of

Chris Manderino

Mm-hmm.

Chris Manderino

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

swagger that I remember the thing that stood out to me most in that entire documentary was interview with Bob Kraft when he says that Tom Brady walks up to him as the fourth string quarterback on the first day of practice and says, Mr. Kraft, my name is Tom Brady. And he says, I know who you are. And he said, I'm going to be the best decision you've ever made.

Chris Manderino

I love that. Yeah, I think it's a couple of things. First it's the opportunity. You can be the best in the room and sometimes never get the opportunity. Brady got his opportunity when Bledsoe, Hall of Fame quarterback, got hurt.

right, and his next man up. And he was able to make the most of that. You see that happening now with Brock Purdy in San Francisco, right, last pick of the draft. And he's outperforming pretty much every quarterback in the NFL right now, you know? But he had an opera, he was third string on the depth chart. Two guys go down, okay, you're the next man up. Time to shine, right? And you either rise the occasion or you don't.

And those opportunities are few and far between, especially in NFL. You know, you get one chance, maybe if you're lucky and if you don't perform. That's it. So, I mean, if you're a high draft pick, you get a lot more opportunity versus if you're a guy who is a late draft pick, you know, you're just there, you know, riding the bench or.

insurance policy, basically, if something happens to the guy that they've invested a bunch of money in. So that's a big part of it. But it's also, you know, the preparation, knowing and confidence knowing that, hey, when given the opportunity, you're prepared to do it. And, you know, just season it.

Srini Rao

Well, I think the other thing that struck me most about that documentary was how all the other quarterbacks that were drafted that year, like most of them got shaken out of the NFL pretty quickly. Just simply because the game is so much faster than the people are so much bigger, like it's such a contrast, they say even from college, even if you're a superstar in college, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you'll do well in the NFL.

Chris Manderino

Mm-hmm.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, absolutely. And it's system too. You know, you've got to have the right quarterback and the right system to get that to work. I think Brady being in Belichick in New England, you know, they like a true pocket passer, you know, Brady trying to scramble around and do some of the other things that quarterbacks are doing now, that's not his game. So either the willingness for the offensive coordinator to adapt to the quarterback or, you know, seeing what those strengths are.

kind of putting the right pieces around them is really important as well. You can be extremely talented and just in the wrong system and that's not going to play out well. And that's the unique thing about football. Yes, it takes really strong individuals, but it's a team sport at the end of the day. It takes every single person doing their job and doing it at a very high level to have success as a team. And I think...

That's a big part of his success is he had a great team. I think the Patriot way, guys just bought into that system. And on paper, Brady's definitely not out of that year, definitely not the most talented, but he was arguably the hardest worker. And then he was in the right system with the right guys, the right coaching and all that really does matter.

Srini Rao

So, Symbol is like, if Brady had gone to another team, he may not be Tom.

Chris Manderino

For sure. Absolutely.

Srini Rao

So one thing, before we get into college, the other thing I wonder about, as a quarterback, I mean, in any position, part of why I was like, this is definitely not for me, I was like, wow, this is scary when you get hit. And I had a roommate who had played high school football and I think he was a linebacker. He's like, of course it's scary when you get hit, doesn't matter how big you are. So I'm curious how you sort of maintain your nerves, knowing that there's a 200 pound linebacker about to clobber you potentially. Of course you've got your,

you know, offensive line, hopefully doing their job, but I'm guessing you've been sacked more than a handful of times, no matter how good you are. Talk to me about that, like managing that, like, is it as scary as it looks? Like is there fear involved?

Chris Manderino

There is, but I think that kind of gets subdued. I think you flip a switch once you walk on the field, right? It's, you can't play fearful. You have to play confident and trust in your ability and also trust in the guys around you because it's their job to protect you and, you know, keep you from getting those, you know, just monster shots. Does it happen? Of course it happens. Injury is just part of the game.

but you just can't, you can't play timid. You've got to play aggressive. You've got to have that fire. You've got to understand that you're well equipped and capable of, you know, overcoming, you know, the guy across from you. And you've, you're, you're mentally stronger. You're physically stronger. And you know, that's going to play your favor, but yeah, it's, it sucks. You know, it takes, it definitely, you take a beating, the physical demand.

and the violence of the sport are no joke. But when you strap up, you've got to let fear just go away. You can't play fearful. It just, I feel like there's a much higher risk of getting injured if you're playing fearful as opposed to just taking command and knowing that and trusting in your ability to be out there and dominating.

Srini Rao

Well, to discuss or just sort of talk about your experience with college, I want to bring back a clip from an interview with Brett Lockett, who had described the experience of college football player to me. Take a listen.

Chris Manderino

Thank you.

Srini Rao

So I think that the thing that struck me most about that clip when he told me that was sort of the reality of life for so many of these athletes who are superstars in high school, go on to college and from there, they're kind of stuck in this position and many of them, post NFL, don't have anything to fall back on. So talk to me about sort of your journey from playing college football at Cal to NFL to starting a business and as a

Chris Manderino

I'm going to be a little bit more serious about this.

Srini Rao

relates to what you just heard there.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, so I would say from probably most institutions, that's true. I think Cal is different. And my experience was very different. So I walked on. So I didn't have access to a lot of the same things that scholarship athletes had access to.

I didn't have a training table in my first year. So I had to jam back to the dorms, oftentimes without dinner, after practice, after long days. And so that was very different. It's not like everything was catered to. Things have changed, I think, significantly since my time playing in today. Athletes definitely, you just go back to Cal now and look at the facilities and everything that these guys have. It's a lot easier.

in terms of just access to things. We would have to walk from the stadium all the way down to like Sproul Plaza after practice, after you've already had a full day of classes to put in the work. And it was extremely demanding, and people weren't writing those papers for you. People weren't taking the exams for you. There was, and honestly,

a lot of professors at Cal don't give a shit about football. They really don't. So, you know, that's just the truth. Yeah.

Srini Rao

I know all too well. I mean, yeah, I know. I mean, you know this like Cal, you go there like I was a straight A student in high school. And I remember when I went to Pepperdine for graduate school, my friend says, you know, he'd been to Cal as an undergrad too. And you know, Cal kicks your ass as an undergrad. And I remember we got to Pepperdine. He's like, you feel like a genius, don't you? He's like, you're not you're surrounded by people who aren't as smart as you are. Whereas at Cal, you go there. And every single person who's there is like their high school valedictorian or it's so crazy to experience because

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Srini Rao

I had this young kid who I'm mentoring and he's a straight A student in high school, had patents to his name and he's getting B's for the first time in his life and he's freaking out and I'm like, yeah, welcome to Cal, dude.

Chris Manderino

Right. Yeah. So I think that academic rigor, you know, what Cal puts you through is tough. And then everything that we're doing as athletes is obviously tough. You know, guys, there's definitely that narrative of like, hey, you know, this is kind of this would probably be the easier path is choosing one of those majors I got talked out of, like, you know,

chasing a major minor because the my counselor said, you know, there's no way in hell that you're gonna have time to both major in business and minor architecture. Yeah, it's not even feasible, you're gonna have to choose a path here. But I think if you really pursue the academic side of things, and there is you are able to kind of make that work in a way that's going to carry forward.

into life after football, at least at Cal. I think you just have to push back as a student athlete and say, no, this is what I really want to do. Let's find a way to make this happen. And not just take, you know, whatever the counselor or, you know, coach is saying at face value. And I think that's, you know, a different caliber of student athlete that's going to a Cal versus college UCLA or somewhere else.

And the UCI obviously has very high academic standards as well. But yes, I think people can look at that and say, oh, well, you've got all these tutors and you've got all these things and you've got all these other things that regular students don't have. Yes, but we're also spending an extra six hours a day just on our sport, at least. So that just makes it a little bit more manageable.

there's definitely not, it's not just, you know, handed to you. And I would I would say, because of that, because of what, you know, how much Cal challenged me academically, because of what I had to do to go from walk on to scholarship athlete to four year starter, prepare me better prepare me for

Srini Rao

Hahaha.

Chris Manderino

both the NFL and then life after the NFL because it was the work ethic. It was that, you know, high intellectual demand. It was my ability to pick up and understand the offense, not just what I was supposed to do, but what every other position was doing. So even though I didn't play quarterback at Cal, you know, I started to understand the game through the lens of the quarterback and reading the defense in the same way that I did, you know, in high school.

And so I think, you know, as a football player, that's a really important thing that's not always well understood. It's the elimination or at least minimization of mental errors. That's what, you know, makes you lose your job. You know, you know what you're supposed to do, you know, you got to go out and execute, you can't have mental errors, you know, physical, you know.

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Chris Manderino

things happen, right? You can get beat on a play, you know, physical stuff, there's physical letdowns all the time, you know, that just happens. There's freak athletes out there, but mental errors are just like, you know, that's what's gonna get you taken off the field essentially. So that's where I think, again, the coaches that I had, Akal, and both like the academic side of things really prepared me for the NFL in there.

Srini Rao

Mm-hmm.

Srini Rao

No.

Chris Manderino

what I'm doing now in business.

Srini Rao

Well, there's a thread, a theme that I've noticed throughout your entire story and it's one of despite being highly qualified, not getting picked or what Seth Godin says, the tyranny of being picked. You end up not getting a scholarship, you are a walk on and from what I've read about you, you were also undrafted to the NFL, but somehow you've managed to, despite all that, not let the tyranny of being picked determine how you're going to, where you're going to end up.

Chris Manderino

Mm.

Chris Manderino

Yeah.

Srini Rao

And the funny thing is I see this with creative people. It's like, oh, I can't write a book until a publisher says, you know, I'm worthy of writing a book, like, et cetera, et cetera. Like one example after another. But you, despite not getting picked, somehow have made your way into the situations where other people hadn't chosen you. Talk to me about that. Like, what is it that enables that? You know, give me a sort of brief tour of the time in the NFL and that sort of undrafted experience and then how that leads to life after the NFL and what you're doing.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, so I think in some regard, you know, there's some truth in that, right? Statistically speaking, you know, walk-ons don't make it, you know, just it doesn't really happen very often, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible. And so seeing that, knowing that kind of somebody has walked the path before you, I think, you know, builds a lot of confidence and then, you know, looking yourself in the mirror and saying, okay, how bad do I do?

Do I really want this? Am I willing to put in the work? Am I willing to work harder than the guy next to me to chase this dream? If you can answer yes truthfully, then go for it. But you know, it's not an easy road. I mean, when my first year at Cal as a redshirt walk on Turlock, California, I was planning my escape plan back to Newport Beach because all my friends were partying and having fun in summer before going off to college. And I was getting my ass kicked by, you know, future NFL Hall of Famers.

And it was just miserable. I hated it every single moment, but something inside of me said, you know, just told me not to quit, just keep going. And you just keep waking up and you keep, you know, just going. And, you know, eventually that opportunity comes and, you know, it's your chance to shine and, you know, that's really, you know, the path.

that I've taken is like the, it's all that work that you put in continuously day after day, that eventually, you know, comes to fruition. And I think people often quit too soon, or, you know, let the naysayers or, you know, statistics, get the better of them and just the daunting aspect of that.

book that I love is The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. And just like we're always faced with obstacles, we're always faced with challenges. It's how we respond to them and you know our just tenacity and determination and creativity to find our way through or around those obstacles that end up leading to the success that we're ultimately able to achieve. But yeah

Chris Manderino

an easy path. I think, you know, even by the time I got into the NFL, you kind of, at least for me, because I was undrafted, you know, it's such a surreal opportunity, but you're never quite sure if you're going to wake up the next morning and be fired. You know, it was just always that sense of unease because there wasn't, you know, the business dynamic, you know, there wasn't like...

Srini Rao

Hmm.

Chris Manderino

huge investment that they made in me necessarily. You're seeing guys leave every single day. One day you've got your best new friend in the locker next to you, next day he's just gone. So the business side of sport was certainly tough at the NFL level, which is very different than obviously college where for the most part, the guys that start there are the guys that are going to be with you.

Chris Manderino

turnover and guys that have left because, you know, after my freshman year at Cal, we had a new coaching staff come in and really shake things up. And that was, again, part of the reason why I got the opportunity that I did. But, um, yeah, I think it's just trying to ignore, you know, just the sheer fact that the majority of people, I guess, fail on their pursuit, but understanding, like, if you have the temperament, the skillset and are willing to put in the work,

then you're probably destined to succeed if you can just do it for long enough, I guess, to kind of survive the attrition of everybody else around you.

Srini Rao

Yeah.

Srini Rao

Yeah. I remember seeing an interview or listening to an interview with Jeremy Lin and he said, the thing that you don't see one, you mentioned the fact that, you know, I think we, you know, we see the sports as our entertainment. We don't realize it's a business. And each one of these guys' job is to produce revenue for that business. And he said, basically, every time you're on the court or on the field, you're basically fighting for your life to keep.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, and that's you think about the psychological aspect of that, you know, every single play that you're in there. There's so much pressure. And this is practice even, you know, practice, because you guys, that's where decisions are getting made. So you miss a block, let's say in practice, you're

You know, just dreading that you got to, you know, psychologically, you got to shake it off and say, okay, I got to get back and, you know, um, make sure the next 10 plays aren't as terrible as that one. Right. Um, so that when the day is done, you know, that my signature on that practice, you know, what I'm like, or my report card, you know, maybe it's not an A plus, but hopefully it's not an F either. Right. So, you know, just

Being able to bounce back when you have a missed opportunity, a missed block, a missed whatever, and that resilience is super important. And psychologically, emotionally, that's where a lot of resilience and strength is required because a lot of guys, if you don't have that, it just snowballs. And then next thing you know, you've now sent in that F.

for the day and that's really gonna jeopardize your ability to stay there.

Srini Rao

Well, talk to me about the transition of leaving something you've done for so long and then going to business. Because I feel like one of the other things I see with athletes, and I remember asking Brett Lockett about this as well, is there's this part of your life that is effectively this massive part of your identity that suddenly is gone. And I've heard that transition can be tough. But talk to me about that and how it leads to everything that you're up to today.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, I would say that transition is probably one of the most challenging things for an athlete to go through. No matter, I felt that I always knew it was going to end. I kind of even went into the NFL with a three to four year timeline of being where I wanted to be with it or else moving on through my education years and pursuing a career in business. There was some programs and different things that were accessible.

to us as players, you know, being able to gain exposure into different careers and get a taste for that stuff. I think I was again, like one of two or three, you know, players that were taking advantage of that at the time, you know, so in spite having put in all this time and really trying to prepare mentally for life after football, nothing really can prepare you for that. You know, you've been chasing this dream.

for the entirety of your life. It's really how you identify as, you know, Chris, the football player. And so does everybody, right? That's how they know you. And when that just all of a sudden stops, it's really tough to redefine yourself and think about, okay, what now? What next? I was in, at a...

wellness retreat in Denver recently. It was put on by the NFLPA. And there's probably about 30 something of us in the room and the person leading it asked everybody to stand up and out of, I forget the sequence of questions, but basically how it went was if there was anybody that, yeah, if you, if your career ended before you thought it would end, you know.

take a seat, if you're, um, correndid, blah, blah. And so there's like one person that actually walked away from the game out of the room, a group of 35 on their own terms. And so that just goes to show like nobody for the vast majority of people, uh, they don't really choose when it's over. And so in those discussions and in that

Chris Manderino

know, kind of intimate set and you really learn the internal struggles that we all battle with, that most people don't understand unless they've been through it. And, you know, it takes years, sometimes decades to really get through that and transition. And, you know, I think when you

Think about why you had success as an athlete and try to harness those skills and apply that work ethic and that model to whatever's next. That's when things start to click and come together, right? So in business, okay, I've got to study, I've got to learn, I've got to know my industry, I've got to do all these things the same way that I would spend hours watching film and studying the playbook.

Now I've got to take that and apply it to just a different medium. Um, the work ethic all the time I spent in the weight room and on the field practicing and all that. Now I've got to apply that to this new craft. You know, it's not necessarily a physical demand. It's something else. Um, and I think when you do that, then you're able to kind of find your stride. Uh,

than life after football, whatever that might be.

Srini Rao

So I know that I haven't really given you a chance to talk about light fuel, but like I said, I felt that this part of the story was really where some of the most powerful lessons, like just talk to me about what you're actually doing today and like how you arrived at choosing to do this of all the businesses you could start.

Chris Manderino

Yeah, so for me, it was in that post football transition where, you know, everything I had done outside of football was actually more financially related. You know, I had interned for Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney at a point in time, I had done some stuff in Kansas City, in the financial world when I was with the Chiefs. And so I thought that would be the path that I would take after football. But for me, I

I finished my career in 2008. So right, you know, global financial crisis essentially. I was studying for my series seven, working on kind of a business management and financial advisory group and putting that together that would provide those services to athletes essentially. And then I had a friend, former teammate from Cal call me up out of the blue and ask if I wanted to go abroad and play football in Italy.

And it's something I had talked about. Uh, if I had the opportunity to do it, I definitely would, you know, if I could use football to travel and live abroad, that sounded like a dream to me, you know, even NFL was never on the table. Uh, that's something that, you know, really, really interested me, especially having an Italian, uh, ancestry and all that. And so surprisingly I kind of debated it. I was like, ah, I don't know. Sounds kind of crazy, but eventually decided to.

to do it and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It was just such an amazing opportunity. It allowed me to really play for the sheer love of the game again. Great book actually written by John Grisham called "'Playing for Pizza' was almost identical to the experience I had during that time. And so it was just a beautiful experience overall. Really allowed me to...

leave the game on a positive note, and then kind of think more deeply and clearly about what I want to do next. And I was starting to kind of delve deeper into the world of fitness and nutrition. I had ballooned up to 240 plus pounds to play fullback in the NFL. So even though I was kind of at this elite level of athleticism.

Chris Manderino

I wasn't necessarily happy with what I looked like when I looked in the mirror. You know, I was this big, you know, I was known for being strong and a big dude, but you know, I was carrying more body fat than I was comfortable with. I had a lot of other kind of side effects in terms of like health, energy levels would be all over the place. Gut health was a disaster. Lots of heartburn after an acid reflux after eating. And you know, that just wasn't fun or pleasurable. So I really take it

took a vast interest in cleaning out my diet, started to research all these different dietary theories, read mountains of books on like bodybuilding and just, you know, all this stuff just really became a sponge to soak up as much knowledge of the space. And then when I had returned from Italy, well, actually during my time in Italy, I started to see the difference in the way people ate and lived and just kind of that different.

unique balance around that and how much cleaner the food was and all that and how much different it was to the standard American diet in our food system here in the US. And upon returning from Italy the first time, I then I volunteered to coach at a kids football camp and this guy had followed my career and had a business. He had started in the bariatric nutrition space, asked me what I was up to and said,

know I'm kind of in transition trying to figure it out and said, well, you should come in for an interview and you know, we might have some opportunities. So I did and I didn't really know too much about kind of the weight loss, surgical weight loss space at the time. It was complete opposite spectrum to obviously, what I had known as an athlete, right? Buster ass in the gym, eat clean, you know, and you're gonna look and feel the way you want.

and here's people struggling with morbid obesity and 400 plus pounds overweight. But that opportunity opened my eyes to kind of the role of nutrition and how important and how often ignored it is in our food system today. You know, we've accepted many

Chris Manderino

foods today that would be unrecognizable by our ancestors. The nutrient density of the food we eat today is far less nutrient rich than it was just a few short decades ago. And as a result, we're seeing chronic illness at the highest rates it's ever been. So that really intrigued me, made me kind of take a deeper dive and then really start to kind of look at why this is in the problem.

and all that. So, a life fuel, that's the problem we're aiming to solve is we're kind of putting back what's missing from food, looking at the natural synergy and bioavailability of real whole foods to do that. So, if you look at the vitamin supplement industry at large, 99.9% of products are synthetically made, chemically created in a lab to mimic natural vitamins and minerals. And what we're doing at Life Fuel is we are

working on harnessing just the real whole foods, which are naturally the most bioidentical and most readily absorbed in the human body. And so if we want to do that without having to take 15 different powders and pills to kind of get those baseline nutritional needs met. So I say we've created the cleanest, most complete solution to daily nutrition. And it's been a beautiful journey.

We've bootstrapped the business. It's been a lot of lessons learned and experimentation, but I've been hands on in every facet of the business, which has been incredible. It's taught me a lot. I feel very early stages to what we're going to accomplish here soon, but I feel like we're really leading the way in terms of this science-based approach to nutrition using the power of

real whole foods in their purest form.

Srini Rao

Amazing. Well, this has been fascinating. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to join us. So I have one final question, which is how we finish all of our interviews at the Unmistakable Creative. What do you think it is that makes somebody or something unmistakable?

Chris Manderino

I think it's authenticity and just being true to oneself and really writing your own unique story. I think that's the beauty of life is we're all on our own unique adventure and there's no set rule book to follow or any one path. It's really yours to create. And I like to say live life by design, not by default.

And I think that's what encapsulates that.

Srini Rao

Amazing. Well, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to join us and share your story, your wisdom and your insights with our listeners. Where can people find out more about you, your work and everything else you're up to?

Chris Manderino

So the best place is through our website. It's Lyfefuel.com.Same social handle across most social media profiles. 

Srini Rao
Amazing. And for everybody listening, we will wrap the show with that.