Bennie Fowler III: Life is a Team Sport

[00:00:01] Hello and welcome to My Biggest Lesson, the show that brings you the key learnings from

[00:00:06] the most influential founders, executives, and investors in the Colorado tech community.

[00:00:10] My name is Adam Burrows.

[00:00:12] And I'm Chris Erickson. Together, we are the co-founders of Range Ventures, an early stage

[00:00:17] venture firm based in Denver. You can find out more about what we're up to at range.vc.

[00:00:25] Our guest this week is Benny Fowler. Benny is a former NFL player who played in the league

[00:00:30] between 2014 and 2021. He spent time with our Denver Broncos, with whom he won Super Bowl

[00:00:36] 50. Since retiring, he's made an interesting segue into financial planning and wealth management

[00:00:41] for family offices, having worked at Michael Best and now at Caprock. He's become really

[00:00:45] active in the Denver community and we're lucky to have him on the show.

[00:01:00] Benny, thanks so much for joining us today.

[00:01:03] Adam, man. I really appreciate you having me on, man. This is going to be fun.

[00:01:06] Great. Well, a lot of our listeners may recognize your name or know you from when you played for

[00:01:12] the Broncos and won some Super Bowls for us here. But you've been doing a lot of really

[00:01:17] cool stuff since then. So I'd love to maybe catch people up on what brought you to Denver

[00:01:20] in the first place and why you decided to stay and what you're doing now.

[00:01:24] Yeah. Well, that's a great way to open up the conversation. What brought me to Denver

[00:01:28] was the Denver Broncos. So coming out of Michigan State, it always been my dream to be a professional

[00:01:34] athlete. I wouldn't say it was always my dream to be an NFL player, but always my dream to

[00:01:38] be a professional athlete. And because of my mom, she helped steer me in the right direction.

[00:01:44] It went along with my dad and a couple of other friends like, hey, you know, football might

[00:01:47] be a better path for you, even though I wanted to be a basketball player. Went to Michigan

[00:01:51] State, had some success there, wanted to be drafted. Didn't get drafted. And, you know,

[00:01:56] after the draft, you know, you're going through a tough moment. Like, okay, my dream hasn't been

[00:02:00] realized. And my dad told me in real time, right then and there, you can either look at the teams

[00:02:04] that didn't draft you, or you could look at the 16 teams that want to have you as a preferred free

[00:02:12] agent. So Denver was at the top of that list. The Lions offered me the most money, but they aren't

[00:02:17] the Lions who we know today. They were the Lions of the past. So I chose to come to Denver.

[00:02:21] And if I could play with Peyton Manning, I could play in the NSL. And that turned out to be true.

[00:02:26] So that's the reason why I came. And the reason why I stayed is because, you know, I would say

[00:02:32] 60% of people who play for the Broncos after three years or three or four years, they end up coming

[00:02:39] back here or staying here because of the quality of life, the type of people, the business ecosystem,

[00:02:44] and things that can be done here. I mean, the incredible seasons that you have here, the people,

[00:02:50] the city is growing, you know, entrepreneurial ecosystem is growing. So I just think there's

[00:02:55] so many incredible opportunities. And I met my incredible wife out here. And then also when I

[00:03:00] saw Peyton retire, anybody, he can live anywhere in the world and decides to stay in Colorado.

[00:03:06] It piqued my interest and made me pay attention to the city more. And I don't think there's a better

[00:03:10] place to live. That's great. We agree. After retiring, what have you been up to and how'd you make

[00:03:16] the transition away from football? Yeah. So transition is, I think is always tough. And

[00:03:20] I would say that I'm still in a transition. I don't think transition is just a year or two years.

[00:03:24] I think it's a multiple year process and it's no different than Adam, as you know, as an entrepreneur,

[00:03:30] when you leave a business, when you exit a business, there is a transition period. When you exit the NFL,

[00:03:36] there is a transition period. There's a, okay, I was the CEO at such and such company, or Hey,

[00:03:42] I was always a professional athlete or I played for the Broncos. So I always talk about the LOL syndrome.

[00:03:47] It's the loss of logo. And I think that's one of the hardest things that athletes go through

[00:03:52] is that everywhere I walked and sometimes where I, you know, I still get recognized as a former

[00:03:57] Bronco, but when I, you know, I was currently playing and it's like, Oh no, he played, he plays in the NFL.

[00:04:01] He is the 1% of the 1%. It's only 1500 guys. And you, you miss that as, as, as you transition and,

[00:04:10] and it becomes tough because everything had been done for you. I think you and I were talking,

[00:04:16] you know, a few weeks back or a week back and you know, I didn't make my first, I don't know if I

[00:04:21] share this with you, but I didn't make my first doctor's appointment. Like me actually personally

[00:04:24] calling a doctor's office until I was 30 years old. You know, your parents do it for you for a while.

[00:04:31] I went to college. The training staff does it for you. When you go to the pros, you don't have to

[00:04:35] do anything. You just, Oh, I'm sick. You call the trainer and then they, or whatever it may be,

[00:04:40] they call the doctors or the doctors are actually in the office. So, you know, a transition is tough

[00:04:46] for athletes. You literally have to reinvent yourself. And you're like, if you do get to the

[00:04:50] professional athlete level, everything's been done for you since you were 14 or 15, because you've

[00:04:54] been that good. So definitely transition is tough. What I'm up to now, I work at Caprock.

[00:05:00] We are a multifamily office and it's an exciting opportunity for me to help people that I know in

[00:05:07] terms of the investment landscape, how we can, how we can help serve families in terms of them

[00:05:13] exiting their companies or taking their family to the next level, passing on the values, not just

[00:05:19] their wealth. So incredible opportunity. And I got to that opportunity by just trying to show up and

[00:05:25] got an executive and leadership coaching first year out of sports. And then I was at Michael Best,

[00:05:30] who you may or may not know, incredible law firm here, Sean Stigler, M&A law firm. And I was on the

[00:05:36] consulting side, co-leading the family office practice with him. And everything's come full

[00:05:40] circle now to where I can serve people at the highest level with the life coaching expertise,

[00:05:45] the leadership coaching expertise in the strategy piece.

[00:05:49] Why did the family office world and the investment world have particular interest to you?

[00:05:56] They're long-term games. So when you think about the game of life, when it comes to family offices,

[00:06:02] entrepreneurs, investing, it's a long-term play. And when I look back at my professional career

[00:06:08] in the NFL, you, you think it's just eight years. We never talk about the 22 years of life that it took

[00:06:15] to get there. And that was a lot of investments from my parents standpoint, in terms of investing into

[00:06:21] my siblings and myself, from education number one, to resources and trainers and tutors,

[00:06:30] to, you know, other coaches outside of the sport. So when you think about that, you know, life is a

[00:06:35] long-term game. And I think the private investment world is definitely like that, as you, as you know,

[00:06:41] you know, when you think about venture funds and companies, you know, it's a 10-year life cycle

[00:06:45] on a venture fund. Or, you know, when we were talking, you know, it takes a while to build your

[00:06:51] exit success, but not the sleepless nights, or how do I put this deal together, reading the sub docs,

[00:06:57] whatever it may be. So I think that, and then when you, when you think about exiting the company,

[00:07:02] and then you think about these families, now they have come into sudden wealth. Now, what does it

[00:07:07] really look like? And you think as an athlete, you know, those are the most popular people that,

[00:07:14] you know, you see this light on, but how do you answer these questions? Like, what does money mean?

[00:07:20] Or where do I want to take my family, the legacy piece? How do I want to pass the money on to my

[00:07:27] kids? How do I want to pass the values on to my kids? What does it really mean? Am I better than

[00:07:32] other people just because I've made this type of money? There are the questions that you have to

[00:07:35] answer as an entrepreneur, but also as an athlete. You make it to the 1%, then you do it at 21,

[00:07:41] 22 years old, and you got $80 million. What does this all mean? And then how do you figure it out

[00:07:46] from there? And how do you help people navigate life? Because wealth is complicated and life is

[00:07:51] complicated. Absolutely. Do you think that this is still, you know, the financial literacy aspect

[00:07:57] and some of these basic questions that are, that are really hard to, you know, easy to ask and hard

[00:08:01] to answer, right? What is the purpose of money for you? What does this mean? Did you, have you seen that

[00:08:06] change in the pro athlete world? Is that something you were aware of when you were on that side of the

[00:08:10] equation of, as you said, a 22 year old coming into a bunch of money, were they equipped for it?

[00:08:16] The resources at their disposal, or were, you know, some of these horror stories that we've seen on

[00:08:20] ESPN, right? Of these athletes that have made all kinds of, Antoine Walker, whoever else,

[00:08:24] ended up broke. You know, what was your experience like that when you were playing?

[00:08:29] You know, I had really good experience. I think the NFL has done a good job of putting resources

[00:08:33] around it. I think players, you're starting to see more educated decisions in terms of the

[00:08:39] investment landscape or the advisor that they're picking or how they're thinking about, okay, this money

[00:08:44] will help me make even more money. You're starting to see that go and trend in a positive direction.

[00:08:52] I think some of the times when you hear athletes going broke, a majority of that percentage of

[00:08:58] athlete will play two years or less, but they are still considered a professional athlete, but they

[00:09:03] didn't make much money. They made a lot of money to help them get started. But if I just talked about

[00:09:09] my first two years in the NFL in terms of what I took home after taxes was $250K, like, yeah,

[00:09:18] that's incredible. But that's not going to last me a lifetime. And if I were to go broke, like,

[00:09:24] I would be a part of that statistic. So I think we have to pay attention to that. Now, the Antoine

[00:09:29] Walkers of the world who have made hundreds of millions of dollars, that is a very sad case.

[00:09:33] And sometimes I think, yes, that is a case of picking the right wrong person and making bad

[00:09:40] investment decisions, but also the emotional control and keeping up with the Joneses. Yes,

[00:09:48] but more so the emotional control of I've done all this work to make this money. Now you're going to

[00:09:53] tell me what to do with it. And you're chasing after something. You're constantly chasing after

[00:09:59] something because now you don't have that sport or that release that you used to have.

[00:10:03] And I think it's more of an emotional control because I think guys really understand that,

[00:10:07] hey, I need to save more than I'm spending. But, you know, you're sitting next to somebody who's

[00:10:12] spending a couple hundred thousand and you technically can spend a couple hundred thousand,

[00:10:16] but he's made better decisions and he will continue to make better decisions in life. And then

[00:10:21] your bad decisions will catch up with you. So, you know, it's a very loaded,

[00:10:25] loaded answer, but, you know, it's a very loaded question in terms of, you hate to see it, but

[00:10:30] I think some of those percentages are skewed because, you know, you have a guy that made 500K

[00:10:37] over six years and people are like, oh, well, how did he go broke? It's like, well, 500K,

[00:10:42] he can't make it last for the rest of his life.

[00:10:44] Makes a ton of sense. Makes a ton of sense. You know, one of the things that I was struck by when you

[00:10:49] and I were chatting a week or so ago was just the parallels between your experience operating at the

[00:10:55] highest levels of sport and the same psychology, right? That those athletes have with people at

[00:11:01] the highest level of business and entrepreneurship. And so that'd be really, really interesting to hear

[00:11:05] from your experience and all the work you've done. What's the biggest lesson that you've learned that

[00:11:11] you'd want to share?

[00:11:12] You know, that's, it's a really good question. And I have a couple of lessons that, that I would share.

[00:11:20] I think the biggest lesson that I would share just in terms of my career and then where I'm at now is

[00:11:26] nobody has it all figured out. I think that's one thing that I have. I've had, I had imposter

[00:11:33] syndrome when I got to the NFL. And then when you start playing, it's like, okay, like we're pretty

[00:11:38] much all on the same page in terms of athletic ability. I mean, you're going to have your freaks

[00:11:43] of nature. Like the guys I play with, like a Demaryius Thomas, the late great Demaryius Thomas,

[00:11:47] or a Odell Beckham or Saquon Barkley. Like, you know, those are just guys that, but everybody else

[00:11:53] is pretty much on the same playing field and everybody else is trying to figure it out.

[00:11:58] But even those players ask questions or would ask me things about how I would go about my business.

[00:12:05] So no one has it figured out. Nobody has all the answers. That would be one of the biggest

[00:12:10] lessons I learned. I think another lesson that really sticks out to me is the life is a team

[00:12:16] sport. Life is a team sport. I don't, I hate the saying that people are self-made. That's impossible.

[00:12:23] I think in venture capital, I think in private equity, I think in sports, it's all a team sport.

[00:12:31] In marriage, even in, well, I don't have any kids, so I could say in raising my dogs with my wife,

[00:12:37] life's a team sport and we have to help one another. We have to be able to communicate at,

[00:12:43] at a level where we're both understanding, but to, to do incredible things, you're going to need the

[00:12:49] help of other people. And I have the helps, the help of a lot of trainers, a lot of tutors in school,

[00:12:56] a coaches, you know, just so many people, my, my family, that, that life is a life really is a team

[00:13:02] sport in all aspects of life. Who are the people that are going to help you or that can support you

[00:13:07] in those elements of your life where you're going to need to perform at the highest level or just be

[00:13:12] better or, you know, just hold the mirror up to you sometimes. And I believe in that

[00:13:18] everything can be fixed with communications. One of the things I learned from Kyle Shanahan,

[00:13:24] I am very big on that. Just communicating expectations, the standard, whatever it may be in

[00:13:31] terms of, you know, your personal life, your relationships in business with family communication,

[00:13:39] everything can be fixed with that. People who don't communicate or don't communicate their

[00:13:43] expectations. That's where, that's where poor performance comes in or, Oh, he didn't show up

[00:13:50] on time. Or, Hey, I thought we had a five minute buffer after the, you know, when the meeting started,

[00:13:55] the things like that don't work like that in the NFL. And, you know, you can get fined,

[00:13:58] some serious money, you know, you 30 seconds late, that's technically considered late. That

[00:14:02] could be upwards of $30,000 for 30s being 30 seconds. So everything can be fixed with communication.

[00:14:10] And I think that's, I mean, that that's all really well said, Benny. And I think, you know,

[00:14:16] to sum it all up, I think you're a hundred percent right. This idea that nobody hasn't all figured out,

[00:14:21] you know, you get to the highest levels of anything, you get behind the curtain and you find out

[00:14:24] everyone's just human, like everyone else and trying to figure it out as we go along and that

[00:14:28] you need that in order to, to muddle through that mess, right? You, you need that group around you

[00:14:34] that can support you and kind of fill in those gaps and, you know, you need to communicate to get

[00:14:38] through it. So I think that's fantastic. I'd love to just hear, you know, maybe if there was a moment

[00:14:42] or time or experience you had getting to the, you get on the big stage, the NFL with people that,

[00:14:48] you know, you, you, you probably even idolized growing up or watching on TV where you kind of

[00:14:53] had that realization of, you know, and they're just trying to figure it out just like the rest of us.

[00:14:59] Yeah. I would say that moment for me was the second, my second year in the NFL is the year we

[00:15:06] won the Superbowl, but Peyton had got benched. And at the time he's the most decorated quarterback

[00:15:11] of all time at that time. And yeah, he got benched middle of the year. He had a little bit of an injury,

[00:15:17] but he just wasn't playing well. And he was trying to figure out like, how do I still support

[00:15:22] the team? How do I get myself better? And you, you just saw him trying to figure it out. Cause

[00:15:29] this had never happened to him in his life. And he was number one pick in high school,

[00:15:32] number one pick coming out of college, number one pick coming into the NFL. And here he is in the

[00:15:37] last year of his career, trying to figure out something new that he, in something that had,

[00:15:42] he hadn't figured out yet. And just watching him navigate through that and still

[00:15:46] consistently saying the same person, watching him navigate through that was just like, Oh,

[00:15:52] like he's figuring this out just like everybody else. Like this is a moment where he's having

[00:15:56] this moment and he's, you know, he's got to navigate this just like life. And you know,

[00:16:00] there isn't a playbook for this one. You know, he's got to, got to figure it out.

[00:16:05] And I think you probably see this and we talked a little about this. You probably see this

[00:16:08] with your family office practice too, right? You've got these super successful entrepreneurs

[00:16:13] that everybody sees on the outside. They've got it all figured out. They've made all kinds of money

[00:16:18] and they're still, you know, they're still stressed. They're still got all kinds of,

[00:16:22] all kinds of issues they got to work through too.

[00:16:25] I think that yes. When I, when I think about the family office world, I think a lot of people do

[00:16:32] think just because these people have money, that life is easy and they don't have to worry. Yeah.

[00:16:37] They don't have to worry about their day-to-day bills or the house or where their next meal is

[00:16:41] going to come from. But in terms of them being parents and trying to figure it out and make sure

[00:16:46] that their kids are okay and not taking the, you know, this type of life for granted or,

[00:16:51] hey, where do my investments go? Now they have huge trust issues, which a lot of athletes have as

[00:16:56] well when they come into this money and now everybody's asking them for something or they

[00:17:01] can actually do a lot more. How do you really help them navigate that? So you see it on all different

[00:17:07] types of levels, regardless of the thing, you know, success is hard when you get there. I think,

[00:17:14] yeah, that's another lesson I learned. When you win, winning again is very hard and success

[00:17:18] and staying successful is very hard. Are these some of the lessons, I mean,

[00:17:22] you talked about your family office clients now. I mean, are these some of the applicable lessons

[00:17:25] from sports that you bring to them in terms of the communication and kind of building your team

[00:17:30] around you? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's one of the fun parts about my job is that, you know,

[00:17:37] these families, they appreciate the sports element and they appreciate my background. Number one,

[00:17:43] my parents both being high-performing executives, my mom being an entrepreneur and my dad being in the

[00:17:47] C-suite at Ford for a decade plus. They appreciate that background, but then they also appreciate the

[00:17:53] background of being an NFL athlete, which is the 1% where you are trying to figure it out. You have

[00:17:58] to communicate with people. You have to communicate with people who don't look like you. You have to

[00:18:02] have the standards set. You have to have the investment policy. I mean, there's just a lot of things

[00:18:07] that you have to communicate and talk to them about. Some are very sophisticated in terms of their

[00:18:12] understanding and then some are still learning. And then how do you make sure that you respect where

[00:18:17] they are and meet them where they are? And that's no different than when you come into the NFL is

[00:18:21] that you have a level of performance and then now you have to take it up a notch and it's on the

[00:18:26] coach's job and the supporting staff to bring you up to that level of standard of performance

[00:18:32] as soon as possible. Yeah. One of the interesting things too that you mentioned, it seems like

[00:18:37] a level of, when you're understood all this is having a level of humility, right? You get to the NFL

[00:18:41] or you sell a business and admitting to yourself, I don't have all the answers. I can't do it alone,

[00:18:47] right? I've got to communicate. I got to work with others. Have you seen either entrepreneurs

[00:18:52] in your current business or athletes that you ran into in the NFL who came in and felt like,

[00:18:57] I'm the man. I've been successful. I can do this all myself and run into problems.

[00:19:03] Of course. You see it a lot and you don't always see it right away, but life, I think, always has a

[00:19:10] way of humbling you. And I ran into that myself. The successful first four years here in Denver,

[00:19:17] winning a Super Bowl, catching Peyton's last pass, and then going to free agency and then

[00:19:22] signing with a new team, thinking I had it all figured out. And then getting cut from that team

[00:19:26] before the season started. Like, oh, I got my supplements. I got my routine. I know this.

[00:19:32] Talking and then going to a new organization and talking about how we used to do it in Denver.

[00:19:37] One of the biggest mistakes that I have made. And I think people do that in companies too. Like,

[00:19:42] don't talk about what you used to do at that previous company because that's not this company

[00:19:45] and we are not those people. Huge mistake I made. And, you know, thinking you had it all figured

[00:19:50] out, life humbles you. And then you have to reset, reflect, and then try to move forward.

[00:19:55] And hopefully it works out. But I've seen it on the entrepreneurial level.

[00:20:00] And I've definitely seen it at the athlete levels.

[00:20:03] Awesome. Yeah, the parallels are striking. So,

[00:20:06] Benny, really, really appreciate it. Caprock and their family's really lucky to have you and

[00:20:11] the wealth of experience that you have and the highest levels of athletics.

[00:20:15] Where can, you know, folks that listen, follow what you're up to or get in touch with you?

[00:20:20] Yeah, I would love for people, if, you know, the listeners out here reach out to me.

[00:20:23] I'm always on LinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn messages. And then, you know, yeah, we're

[00:20:29] caprock.com if people are interested in those types of services, but try to meet people where

[00:20:33] they are. I'm always active on LinkedIn and would love to connect.

[00:20:38] Thanks, Benny. Really appreciate it.

[00:20:39] Thanks, Adam. Appreciate you.

[00:20:40] Thanks, Benny.

[00:20:41] Thanks, Benny.

[00:20:41] You