Episode 5 — Taking Share: Lessons From Leaders

Welcome to Taking Share: Lessons from Leaders with Texas Capital. During each episode, you will hear from leaders, decision-makers and culture shapers across industries. What drives them? What tips the scales when making tough calls? How do they continue to evolve? We're here to understand the thoughts behind their actions and discover how they are taking share. 

Colt McCoy is a household name in Texas and can't be ignored in the history of Texas football. Colt was the starting quarterback for The University of Texas and became one of the most accomplished players in college football history. He went 45 and eight in his career, one of just a handful of two-time Heisman Trophy finalists and led Texas to three bowl game victories and one national championship game. He spent more than a decade in the NFL, where he learned how to navigate the challenges and pressures of adapting to new roles, new teams and new opportunities throughout his career. He is able to call Texas home once again, as he has embarked on a successful new career path in commercial real estate at HPI in Fort Worth. Colt McCoy sits down in conversation with Texas Capital's Chief Financial Officer and President of Texas Capital Bank, Matt Scurlock.

Scurlock: If you didn't play football, which sport would you have played, Colt?

McCoy: Basketball. 

Scurlock: Did you play basketball growing up? 

McCoy: Yeah, I loved basketball. I went to a really small school. I'm from a small town in West Texas called Buffalo Gap. Has anybody ever heard of Buffalo Gap?

Scurlock: I know Rob has. Definitely. Yeah. South Abilene?

McCoy: South Abilene, about 20 miles south of Abilene. There was three towns of about 400 to 600 people. So Buffalo Gap, Tuscola and Lawn. I'm giving you guys a Texas history education here. But those three schools combined and went to one school, was a consolidation called Jim Ned High School. So that's where I went to school. But because it was so small, you had to play all the sports. So I played basketball and baseball and ran track and played some tennis and played golf. So basically the ways to get out of school, that's what I, that's what I did. I'm familiar with that. Yeah. So no off seasons. But if I had to choose one, basketball was probably my first love. My grandfather was the head women's basketball coach at Abilene Christian University for about almost 30 years. And so growing up, he lived on a farm. And so I had to work the farm all the time. But my reward was getting to go play basketball at ACU and kind of be with all those guys. So I just, I just loved basketball.

Scurlock: Was UT your first choice? Did you know you wanted to be a Longhorn?

McCoy: Well, you guys want to hear that story? Yeah. Yeah, UT was definitely my first choice, was my only choice, really. When I was in eighth grade, I got offered a scholarship to play basketball at ACU. Shocking. So I thought for the longest time that's what I was going to do. Our football team was good, but I was again, like, we were, there was 25 boys in my class, and I think 23 of us played football. And we were barely, we barely had enough guys to play 11-man football, not six-man football. Thank goodness. I had won the district track meet in the high hurdles, and I got a letter in the mail from The University of Texas. Actually got two. I got one from Texas and one from that school, like 90 miles from Austin. And the Texas I grew up in, in the state of Texas. I've loved Texas my whole life. But my dad sits me down and says, hey, you know, I was I was going into my senior year. This is the spring of my junior year. I was not recruited by anybody. And my dad said, "listen, you know, if you want to go to this," it was a one-day, it was an invite to a one-day football camp at UT. And he said, "if you want to, if you want to go to this, I'll take you. But if you, you know, you won the district track meet in the hurdles, you know, it's the day of the regional track meet." Nobody else at my school had qualified for the regional track meet, so it wasn't like a team event. It was just, I hated track anyways. And so my dad was like, "I'm not going to make that decision for you. This one's on you." And so I went home and I kind of prayed about it and thought about it. And when I woke up the next day, I was just like, I just I'd hate to, like, pass up on whatever this is. I want to play football. And so I called the guy who got second, and he took my place at the regional track meet, and we woke up at like 4 a.m. and drove to Austin. It was about four hours. And when I got there, it was clear to me, like, here's the guys that were recruited that had been offered scholarships and they got to play on DKR, like the big field. Everybody else, there was probably 100 to 200 of us, we got on a bus and went to the practice fields and, you know, just kind of had a little camp. And so I was disappointed early on. But, you know, by the end of the day, you know, they had pulled me back from those fields back over to the main field. And so I was able to throw head to head with a lot of these guys. So in my class, it was Mark Sanchez and me and a guy named Ryan Perrilloux, who ended up going to LSU. And they had offered those two guys. And so I got to go head to head. I thought, I felt like I did a good job. Around 4:00, me and my dad are walking back to the truck in the parking lot. And, you know, somebody on staff kind of whistles at us like, "hey, do you guys have a few minutes? Coach Brown wants to see you guys." I was like, yeah, of course, you know. So we walked back into the facility, and I walk into Coach Brown's office and it's him and his wife, Sally. And he was like, "have a seat." You know, and he said, "what's your name?" I told him my name. He's like, introduce my dad. And he was like, "where are you guys from?" Said I'm from Buffalo Gap, Texas, and he goes, "where the hell is that?" You know, he said I've been recruiting in the state of Texas for 15 years and never heard of it. You know, and then, you know, he figured out my dad was my coach and he said he thought I threw the ball well today, and we just got to know each other. It was great. You know, coming from where I had come from, I mean, this was like a, I mean, how cool is that, right? And so we get, you know, I've got a pep in my step. We get back in the truck, I'm driving home, I turned my dad, and I'm like, hey, if I get the chance to go to Texas, I'm for sure like, no matter what, I'm going there. And he was like, "yeah, you know, you and every other little kid in the state of Texas," right? So we drive home, we wake up the next morning for church. Our family, we're kind of going out the front door, and there's a Fedex package on the front steps. And Coach Brown had written a handwritten note, offered me a scholarship to come play at UT. And that's how it happened. And so from that moment on, I called Coach Brown, and he goes, "now listen, like, you know, I'm taking a bet on you. Right? I really don't even know you. But I love who you are. You stand for the right things. You represent our university well. But I'm going to try to get Mark or Ryan. We're going to sign two quarterbacks." I said you can sign all three, I don't care. I'm coming. Right. And it ended up just being me. Mark went to USC, Ryan went to LSU. And kind of the rest is history.

Scurlock: That's an incredible story. What did you, what did you feel about Coach Brown when you saw that? Like how would you describe his leadership style and early interaction with you? 

McCoy: Yeah, it's a great question. I turned around and I remember my mom just like sunk to the ground and started crying. Right. I came home that night like you wouldn't believe it. Like, I started on this field over here and I ended up on the I got to play on, like, the real field. And, you know, like Coach Brown called us. You know, I was just saying all these things, and I don't want to be, I'm totally coming from a humble place here. Please hear that. But I'm the only boy or girl from my high school that's ever gone division one in a sport in the history of our school still to this day, right? It just it doesn't happen, right? So it was almost like not reality for everyone. And so, I mean, I still pinch myself that I got picked to go do that. There's so many other people that that could have happened to. And so I was overjoyed. But speaking on Coach Brown, I would just say he's amazing, right? He's, you guys see him as big and lovable and friendly and he never forgets anybody's name. Right? I see him that way too. But I also see and I know how hard he pushed me I know, I know how you know, he took a chance on me. And I'll never, ever forget that. And, you know, one of the things he told me, which may be good for you guys is, you know, and I don't want to speak for Rob here, but one of the biggest lessons I learned was Coach Brown sitting me down, you know, and saying, hey, nothing is ever going to be given to you here. Everything's going to be earned. And I think that's been my approach to life is that, like, nobody owes us anything, right? There, you know, I say it in my office all the time. There's no entitlement here. Like, you go be great and I'm not going to hold you back. But there's a way we're going to do it. There's a standard that we're going to operate in, and nobody's going to give you anything. You got to go get it. And I think that's always been a, when I was at UT, I always felt like somebody was going to take my job just based off of where I grew up, and, there was five stars all around me. I didn't even have a star by my name. And I was just determined and committed to go figure it out. And there was a lot of people that helped me along the way. But when Coach Brown told me that, that's all that needed to be said.

Scurlock: I love that. We have a foundational principle here that we want to associate ourselves with great clients, and that to do that, you got to earn the right. It's not, you're not entitled to it. It requires effort, persistence, being willing to do more than anybody else to have that opportunity and outcome. Okay. So you leave Buffalo Gap, sounds like a fairly conservative upbringing, and you get to go down and hang out with all the wild hippies and liberals in Austin, of which I'm from Austin, so I can say that. I mean, what was that, what was that like, showing up on campus?

McCoy: Well, I checked into Jester dorm, and Jester had its own zip code, and there was more people in the dorm than there was in my hometown, so it was quite the experience, but awesome at the same time. I mean, you know, you grow up in West Texas and you grow up on a farm, and you work hard and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, I get, you know, if you graduated from my high school and wanted to go to college, you went to Tech. In fact, I'll tell you a funny story. We are. It's 2008. It's a night game. Texas Tech is, oh number two in the country, and we were number one in the country. And I can't wait for this game. Right? Again, my whole high school is there. Or the ones that went to college. And it's 4:00. The game starts at eight. It's the prime time game. The busses get us there. We all take one bus. In the stadium, the student section is completely full. It's a blackout. They're throwing stuff at us. Batteries, tortillas, you know, they have so much pride. They've already torn up their bleachers, right? And just yelling things and like, it didn't take anything for you to get amped up for this game. Like, I mean, it's 4:00. You got to go in there and, like, calm down. I remember, I remember walking out of the tunnel to, you know, to kind of go out to warm-ups and there's like three of my buddies that I played high school football with on my team. I grew up with these guys. I'm walking out of the tunnel and one of them goes, "Colt, we're gonna kick your ass." I'm like, "Peter. What are we doing?" Like, I'll never forget it. I mean, they're still my friends to this day, but it was like, something is off over there, right?

Scurlock: Was that the most hostile environment you played in?

McCoy: It was one of the, it was one of the hardest environments. I mean, I tell people all the time, I know I didn't play in the SEC. We played in the Big 12, but there was eight of the top 15 teams in the country my last two years in college, that were in the top 15 in, in all of college football. So the environment, and they always played us at night on the road, obviously. And you know, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas Tech, like everybody was, A&M. Everybody was really good. It could beat you at any, Oklahoma, right? And so you had to be ready to play week to week. But that night in Lubbock was certainly rowdy. I mean that's the only thing y'all have to stand on at this point. Like

Scurlock: it was fairly memorable. I will admit. 

McCoy: It was really fun. I mean, let me just defend myself for a little bit. I played terrible the first half. I was so amped up, you know, first play of the game, we get backed up on the one yard line and they get a safety. I mean, they practically tackled me by the time I get the snap. You know, I think my right guard had his eyes closed and was like. Dear God, don't let me... Yeah. We get we get a safety. So I knew it was going to be a dogfight. You know, I threw a tipped pick to, you know, I think I threw two picks in the first half. One of them was returned for a touchdown. Like we walk in the locker room at halftime. We're down by like 15, I think maybe more than that, 17. And, you know, nobody's talking. It's, it's tough. And you give them the momentum like that with the crowd behind them. It's brutal. And we flipped it in the second half and, and may have played one of my best halves all of college. And we get the ball back with about a minute and a half. And we go 80 yards and score to take the lead. And it was like, that was all from an offensive standpoint, like really our, our turning point. It was awesome to do that. And then, you know, I come off to the sidelines and I remember vividly looking up at the scoreboard and there was like 58 seconds left or something like that, a minute left. And I'm like, I think we might have given them too much time. And, and, you know, we certainly had the chance to make some plays on defense. But, whatever happened happened. But that was the only game we lost in two years. Before we got to the Alabama game my senior year.

Scurlock: So I can't even, like, fathom dealing with the expectations associated with playing quarterback at Texas. And I have a leader that I really admire that one time asked him, what's it like to be in that role? And he said, I feel really grateful for the opportunity, and I feel responsible to lead the right way. So, what was it like? I mean, when you've got the whole state, the whole nation, expectations of your friends, family, just describe that.

McCoy: Yeah. I think I learned so much about playing quarterback at UT. The pressures, the expectations, the standard. You're the representation of your football team. You know, you're the face in the media. You know, you take all the blame and you get probably more credit than you deserve. I mean, it's a really amazing thing to do, but it's also really hard. And so, I have a lot of sympathy for quarterbacks that go to UT because most of them are the number one recruits in the world. Right. The Arch Mannings, the Vince Youngs, the Quinn Ewers, the you name them. My story is a little bit different. Like I came in and nobody knew who I was, right. So I was, I red shirted, I worked behind the scenes, you know, I had to put on a bunch of weight. I ended up growing a couple inches when I got there, I was kind of a late bloomer. And all of a sudden I get to, I get, you know, it's like, who is that? You know, filling the shoes of a guy who won a national championship is not an easy thing. And I think one of the things I realized, and maybe this will be helpful for you guys, one of the things I realized is I don't have the same build, the same strengths, the same athletic ability as number 10, who played in front of me. If I ever want to do this, like I'm going to have to find an edge somewhere and it ain't going to be the running zone read 15 times a game and just making it work like, that's not my game. I can do some of that. But and so it was really like a year of me figuring out like, okay, what are my strengths? Like, what do I bring to the table that maybe the guy next to me, I don't have those strengths, but here's my skillset. And, you know, for me it was like, it was all X's and O's and it was all, you know, figuring out where my advantage was on matchups, on protection calls and adjustments and recognizing coverages and defenses and getting out of those into the right place so everybody else can be good. Like, that was that was my edge and I could control that. And so I really did my best to not be somebody that I wasn't. I just wanted to go out there and maximize the gifts that God gave me and work really hard at that and be me. And it worked. And so I think, you know, one of the biggest lessons I learned is that, is that like, hey, like we're all going to have things that separate us from the other person and the moment we start, you know, comparing ourselves to somebody else and trying to be them, it may not be the best move, right? Be who you are. Use your strengths and your talents and grow those to be the best version of yourself. And I think in football that became really apparent to me my first couple years. And then, you know, as far as the pressure and the expectations and it's like I played my first year and everybody was like, oh, who's the little white guy from Buffalo Gap, you know? And then then all of a sudden it was like, okay, this is real. Like by the time I got to my junior and senior year, I mean, you know, the expectations placed on me now were the same as everyone else. I just kind of got to fly under the radar a little bit, you know, before then, you know, I mean, think about Arch Manning. I mean, he came in as the as the savior of the world, right? And that's not, you know, that's just impossible, right? There's so many ways you have to grow up and figure it out.

Scurlock: So there's a lot of people that are in the room or on the call that are relatively early in their career and are trying to build a brand. They're trying to define what they stand for, ultimately get people to follow them, build trust amongst their colleagues, clients, maybe talk about that. Like, as quarterback, you come into the room, you start to establish yourself as someone who could deliver on the field. But how do you end up building trust in relationship with the team to ultimately be the leader that you wanted to be?

McCoy: Yeah. Great question. I love stories. Let me put this into a story. It's late in my career. I sign as a free agent to the Arizona Cardinals. My free agent class was James Conner, A.J. Green, J.J. Watt, and me. Okay, so, I come in with guys who have who have been in pro bowls, won Super Bowls, that are elite. In the first day I walk out to practice and I see A.J. Green and we're just in shorts and t-shirts and helmets, and when I tell you everything he did was full speed, was perfect, was aligned exactly where he was supposed to be aligned, blocked when he was supposed to block, never dropped the ball, just did everything as professional as you could possibly do it. Like I walked up to him after practice and I was like, you know, we had known, we played against each other for a long time. I'm going into my, you know, my, my 11th year in the NFL, I played 14 years, I played my last three in Arizona. And A.J. is one of my best friends. But he was like, hey man, it don't matter. It don't matter who's calling the plays, it don't matter who's playing quarterback, it don't matter what team we're playing against, you're going to get my best every single time. You can count on that, right? And we're talking about like a Hall of Fame-caliber guy on the first day of OTAs practice. Right. Learn something from that. Secondly, James Conner may be my favorite teammate of all time. You know, to be six foot one and 230 pounds and played 10-plus years in the NFL as a running back? Like that's an amazing accomplishment by itself. But James Conner was one of my most favorite teammates because he was the greatest encourager I've ever been around. At all times he was encouraging somebody. I might miss a block, and he's like, it's all right, buddy. You got the next one, man. I got the rock. I'm just give me, give me somewhere to go. Right, in the locker room and in the cafeteria. Right. It didn't matter. He was a light, like his light and presence amongst everybody as an encourager, as a teammate was amazing. So two things would be one, is like, nobody's holding you back from being your best. You can bring that to the table every day. And number two, one thing that I just picked up on throughout my career is like, I'll be honest with you, I'm not a great cheerleader. I'm not a great encourager. Right? I have to work at that. But as a leader, like you're constantly adding skills to your game, and so be a great teammate. Be a great encourager. Right. Like that's no sweat off your back. Right. That's what engulfs a great team that Matt and Rob are trying to build here. Right? Like guys who give their absolute best effort and find ways to figure it out. And they can depend on when the play. You know, when you're when the ball is thrown your way, you're going to make the catch. Right. And then be a great teammate. Like be an encourager. Be a helper. Like, be the same person when you show up every day, you know, that everybody knows they can count on. Right? And like to me, using those two guys as an analogy, like they made a difference on me. They were great teammates and they had amazing skillsets. But there was more than that. Like, you can be the smartest person in the room, and the smartest person with analytics and numbers and data and crunching this and that. And that's a skillset. But like you're more than that, right?

Scurlock: So it sounds like you're proactive in trying to identify ways to improve your effectiveness as a leader. Is that fair? Are there some other examples you could give on like what comes naturally to you? And then you said encouragement isn't something that's as natural to you. Is there anything else that you would call out that you've had to work on?

McCoy: I have a lot of deficiencies, to be honest.

Scurlock: That's not very clear up here on the stage. You seem like you're doing just fine.

McCoy: I would say, you know. There's a lot of responsibility. You know, one of the biggest lessons I've learned since leaving the NFL is like, you know, if I threw touchdowns, I'm going to get paid. That's how the world works in the NFL, right? When you leave the game and you start a business and you build a team and you state your goals and you, you know who you want to be and who you want to represent and the people that you want to serve and come alongside. Like it takes time to do that. You know, we have analysts in our office too. Right. I wasn't afforded the opportunity to be an analyst. I went straight from that to go start a business and hire analysts to, like, be great at what we're trying to accomplish. But I think, for me, I'm constantly reminded of I'm never going to cheat the process, right? Like, I know who I want to be and I know what my highest and best use is, and I'm going to do that. But I'm also not going to cheat my growth or, you know, it's like I'm starting back over in seventh grade football. I'm like learning how to put my pads in my pants. And you know what belt loops my belt's supposed to go in and like, don't call the play yet because I don't have my chin strap strapped. You know, it's like so. So I'm not cheating myself to get somewhere I want to go because ultimately I wouldn't be the same. And so I've hired teammates and guys around me that are great executors, that are way smarter than me, but that are also bringing me along. You know, my favorite part of what I've done since I left the NFL is build a team. I know what a good team looks like. I know one bad apple can bring the whole thing down and so like your ability to be a good teammate, your ability to bring your strengths to the table and perform, like those all matter. And, you know, I feel comfortable in that world. But at the same time, like, you know, I tell my analysts all the time, I'm like, this is a process. Like, I want you to be an amazing performer for us someday. You can't get here if you don't do everything you're supposed to be doing right now to teach yourself the skills that you're going to need someday. It's really hard to go be great in the business world. There is competition everywhere, right? And, you know, I don't know if there's anybody that loves competition more than me, but you got to know what you're doing, right? And so I think for me, it would be like every day I wake up, you know, I kind of skip to work because I love what I get to do, but I'm not cheating the process.

Scurlock: Describe a time where you had a setback, and then some best practices or advice on how to deal with that. 

McCoy: Yeah. I mean injuries, injuries are the worst. You know, the way the way football works is, you know, nobody stops when you get hurt. You know, they got to call the next play and the next man's up. And sometimes, you know, when you're on a team and you preach team and that's what matters. And we're all going to go to the same place. Like if you get hurt and you know, the train keeps going, you're kind of off on your own. And you know, my NFL career was marred with injuries. I just could not stay healthy. You know, I played pretty good most of my career. And I think that's why I lasted for as long as I did. But I could never put one or two seasons together. And so my setbacks were really around injuries and kind of overcoming them and, you know, trying to add value when I couldn't really have the ball in my hands. Like, how am I still going to add value in the locker room or in the meetings or when we travel or on the sidelines? And so just, you know, when you have setbacks like, use those as a boost to, you know, figure out how to get back out there and figure out how to encourage someone else or whatever that is. I don't know if that's a good analogy, but for me, you know, I recognize the growth that I had from the setbacks that I experienced. And as hard as it was, I now, you know, played 14 years. When I look back, you know, I didn't accomplish all my goals and dreams that I set out to do. Right? There's a bunch left out there. But I do look back and I think of the man I was when I first came into the league and the man that I was when I left. And, you know, through all of that, I mean, I just, I choose gratitude because it was really hard. The journey was tough. But I'm so thankful for all that and kind of, you know what it's made me now.

Scurlock: Tell us about that transition out of football and into commercial real estate. How do you make the decision? What are some transferable skills? What are some things that have been harder than you thought?

McCoy: It's all been hard. I think the thing that is hard to articulate would be you walk like leaving the game. You know, my dad was a coach. I was kind of a, I was a water boy on the sideline since I was three years old. That's all I've been around. So from three years old to I retired when I was 37. And it's, you know, that I had several opportunities to go be a coach in the NFL or to take a front office role because, you know, the relationships that I have with the owners that I played for or in other markets or just the position that I played that was afforded a lot of cool opportunities to stay in the game. And, you know, I think for me going, you know, pretty fresh on my mind of why I left and wanted to do what I do now is I didn't really know that this was what I was going to do. I just knew that I had four little kids and I had moved them around a bunch, and they would have signed up for whatever I choose to do, but I wanted to buy some time back with them, really. And, you know, if that was really the case and kind of God was working on my heart that way, then I was going to have to sacrifice something. And so, you know, I knew I always wanted to get back to Texas. It's the greatest state in the Union. It's the greatest place in the world. It's where I grew up. And, you know, I felt like if I can get back to Texas, then, then I'll just be real diligent on what I want to do next. And, you know, kind of one thing led to another. Randomly, after my second year in the NFL, I went back home for the offseason. I go back to Austin. I've had a place in Austin for years and don't anymore. But throughout my time, I would come back to Austin to train in the off seasons. Nobody wants to stay in Cleveland. And so. I would, you know, you play 16 games, you play four preseason games, you have an entire offseason training program, an entire training camp. Like you are whipped from football. You're beat up. You know, you're just doing some physical therapy. And I just didn't want to do the football thing, you know, for at least a couple of months. It was good for my mental state to just kind of remove myself from that. And so I started cold calling CEOs and executives in Austin. And so for 12 years, my last 12 years of the NFL, I would come back to Texas and I'd go sit in for six to eight weeks with somebody who was very successful at what they did. You know, if I lived in Dallas, I'd come and sat with Rob, but I was in Austin, and so I, you know, I learned a lot of things in the oil and gas world, right? The energy space, for probably five or six of those years. I sat in on some multifamily office kind of private equity structured groups in Austin. I did several years of real estate. And so when I was looking back on, all right, if I'm really going to leave these incredible opportunities and being a head coach in the NFL over the next couple of years, like, what am I going to do? And I ended up calling all those guys and asked them, what do you guys think I should do? Here's where I'm at. Here's why I think I'm not going to feel like I'm not called to go do that right now. And I respect those guys so much. But not one of them said, oh, you need to go do this or you need to go do this, or you'd be really good at this. They all said you need to go start your own business. And so for me, I was like, all right, what did I enjoy the most? Like what did I, what did I and for me, like, I really enjoyed the real estate game. I really enjoyed the complexity of it. I enjoyed the competitive side of it. I enjoyed the people that I actually worked with when I was kind of getting started, which are now some of my partners. And I just kind of sat in that for, for about a year, maybe a year and a half before I really dove into that and got recruited by some of the big public firms to have amazing jobs. And, you know, I loved all those people I met in the groups that I was with. But ultimately I ended up, you know, moving to Fort Worth and, and felt like there was a great opportunity there to go build a real estate firm and company and had this big vision. And now we're about 18 months, 19 months in and built an amazing team. And I said earlier, they're all smarter than me and they truly are. They've all been, they were all really successful where they where they were and kind of saw what I wanted to go do and, and kind of came on board and, and so we're right in the mix of that. And that's kind of how that all happened.

Scurlock: I had no idea. That's incredible. I mean, how did you get the idea or what prompted you to begin reaching out to all these CEOs in the offseason?

McCoy: Great question. I was sitting at my locker. It was in my second year at the Browns, and we sucked. Just throw it out there. And we were a constant revolving door of like, I had a locker right in the heart of the locker room. And in my second year, the guy on my right and my left changed about four times each. And I remember it's kind of towards the end of the year, my right guard, who I was really good friends with, he was 30 at the time, married, had a couple kids. I'm just a rookie. No, I'm a second-year player, but I'm on my second head coach. The team had just sold to Jimmy Haslam. Then there was a new GM. I mean, it was just like looking back like, nobody would have been successful in that and how that was operated. And the general manager walks down to my friend and just says, hey, man, I need you to clean up your stuff and come meet me in the office. And it's like, what? Like he's the starter, you know, and what happened is he gets cut. I don't, I mean I talked to him on the phone, but I don't see him again. And, I realized in that moment that, like, this could be over for me today, too. Like, the GM could walk down and tap me on the shoulder and say, come see me in the office. And like it, it would be, it would be over. And like, I don't even know what I, what would I do? And so I think for me, that spurred me on to just say, I just want to I love football, I'm gonna give it all I have. But like, I'm going to take some time every offseason to just, like, learn something else and not waste my time. And I had a front row seat to that same guy that was my teammate, you know, for the next two, three, four or five years, which, his life spiraled out of control because he didn't have anything, like he had he was married with kids and it just all came crumbling down because he didn't have a plan. And everybody's plan in the NFL is football, right. And so was mine. But I just wanted to like, put some tools in my toolkit to like, maybe someday, who knows, I don't know what I would do. I've done football my whole life. Probably I'll just be a coach. But let me go learn some things. And that's how I remember that all happening.

Scurlock: That, that intentionality, I think, is something that we preach all the time to people starting out their careers. Also regularly say people are probably going to be more willing to help you than you think they are. It sounds like that was your experience as well. I mean, people were eager to engage with you, give you their time. Their advice, is that accurate?

McCoy: Yeah, absolutely. You know, you come at your job and your work with a respectful attitude, with a humble, you know, approach that's like that we can read and we can see like people are going to talk to you, give you advice, give you help, you know. And the other thing is don't be afraid to ask for that. You know, like, I tell people all the time, you're not going to get anything if you don't ask for it. But it needs to come from a place of sincerity, from a genuine place. I mean, I ask questions every day. I'll go to my industrial guys and be like, what does this mean? Like, help me understand this. You know, I'm 39 years old and I'm his boss, but like, I need to know, I want to learn. Right? And so don't ever feel like, you know, things are, you know, not open for you if you're if you carry yourself the right way.

Scurlock: So I'm going to ask one more question then open it up to the audience. So being curious, being humble, being intentional, you've given us so many things to think about. What other what other words of wisdom would you have for the group before we open it up?

McCoy: Oh man. I would just say like for you guys majority, not everybody, but majority of people who are fresh out of college and analysts and associates and, you know, kind of filling those chairs to learn and to grow. You know, this is this may be the most important time in your careers, right? First of all, the seats you're sitting in and where you get to be like, that's a privilege in itself. This is world class, where you're at. Don't ever feel like that's not a big deal. And then just learn, like, you know, I love to bow hunt, right. I'll use this analogy, like, keep putting arrows in your quiver every single day. Like keep learning, keep growing, keep improving. Comparison is the thief of joy, right? Don't compare yourself to everybody else. You can't cheat yourself to get to where you want to go if you're not doing the things that you need to be doing right now, and you're in a place that is like such a gift and a blessing, like go work hard, use your talents, ask questions, be humble and just let those things play out like they're supposed to. I guess that would be my advice.

Scurlock: It's great. Open it up. What questions do you guys have?

Audience Member: I'm just wondering from that speech obviously seems in today you're an expert in dealing with pressure. So I want to know, in times when you're in a stadium like the Red River game or at Texas Tech and loudest crowds in the world, how do you walk in and just turn off that pressure or the stadium and really go for the gold and be great?

McCoy: Yeah. Good question. Well, the honest question is sometimes I didn't handle that as well as I wish I would have. But what I would do is, you're right. Like I would I would prepare as hard as I could all week. Right. I prepared to get to Saturday night or Sunday. And by the time that all came, you know, we don't play baseball where we get to just have another crack at it every night, you know, and play 160 games. Right. You get you get a limited amount. And that matters. Right. And so that's what I love about football is like, you only get a certain amount of shots at it and you better go do it. Right. Similar to probably what you guys are in. I would walk out of the tunnel, I'd go on the 50-yard line and I would just take it all in. I'd look around, I'd see all the people that were booing me over here and people that were cheering for me over here. And, you know, sometimes the whole stadium booed me. You just never know. But I would just soak it all in and think about how grateful I was to be able to get to do what I do. And then it sounds weird, but the moment I would hear, like the click of my chin straps, it was like the switch flips and nothing else matters, right? And so that was one way that I tried to handle all, like I would just get in the get in the zone of the game and just like the clock didn't matter, the fans didn't matter. What mattered was every play. And it's a new play, every plays is its own entity. Every one of them is unique and different, and you get about 65 to 75 plays a game on average. And so how can I be my best for 75 plays today? And if I can make 70 of those work, like we got a chance, and it was hard to do when I was young. But as I got older I was really able to just train myself to do that. And most of the time it worked.

Audience Member: My question for you is I figured throughout your career you probably have experienced imposter syndrome. Maybe, like, even on the field, maybe whenever you started in real estate. So I'm curious, how do you get over that and build discipline in order to do that?

McCoy: Yeah. Great. No. Great question. I think if I asked everybody to raise their hand, if you felt a little bit of that throughout your life, you'd probably all raise your hand. Right. And I would say a couple of things. I'd say one, it's on you. Right. And I kind of hit on it earlier. But understanding who you are and what your gifts are and what your strengths are, like, the moment I started comparing myself to other people is a moment I kind of lost track of, like, what I can do to maximize myself, you know, and, you know, you leave football and you go start a business. Like, I can count on one hand the amount of guys that I know from the NFL who've left and, like, really tried to go start something from scratch and go do something, right. So for sure, I feel that at times. Absolutely, right. But I have to stay on my vision of like, I have a lot of room to grow, to learn, to improve, but also have skills that I think I can help build that out and believe in myself to go do that. And I think at the end of the day, you said the word discipline. Like, you know, discipline is maybe like a cornerstone of most of my life, right? If I didn't, you know, sacrifice some things along the way and if I wasn't committed to, you know, making sure I ate right and slept right and studied as much as I could and did all those little things that required discipline, I don't think I would have ended up where I was. And so I think the short answer is those are the ways that you fight the imposter syndrome.

Audience Member: I was curious, coming from West Texas and then going to UT and being a star quarterback playing in the NFL, you changed, you moved around a lot. What anchored you and what kept you grounded through it all?

McCoy: Yeah. Great question. You know, first and foremost would be my faith. You know, I think, you know, for me, I firmly believe that everybody has to have a foundation. And, you know, what are you going to fall back on when things are hard or you're going through, you know, injuries and setbacks and, and or when things are good, you know, it's like, you know, I learned at an early age from people in my life, my parents, my grandparents. Maybe it's a product of where I grew up, but at the end of the day, we're all going to make a choice of what we believe in and really who we are. And for me, the most important thing in my life is Jesus Christ and my faith. And, you know, that is my firm foundation. And so kind of through it all, you know, I take the approach that ultimately, and this is what I believe. But ultimately through my belief, like, I'm going to win in the end. And so how can I be the best version of myself to be as good as I can be and maximize the gifts and the talents that God has given me through the ups and the downs? Because there's certainly been more downs than there have been ups and, you know, but what is the foundation through all that is my faith and what I believe in and, you know, kind of carrying myself to that, you know, each and every day. And then it would be my family and, you know, my kids. I've got four little kids. My wife's amazing. I can't believe she's put up with me for all these years. And then, you know, and then it goes into, you know, my work and my relationships and my friends and, you know, just kind of down the list. But thank you for that question.

Audience Member: So you've been with a lot of coaches throughout the years. Similarly, as we go through our careers, we're going to have a lot of managers are going to be a part of a lot of teams. So as far as leadership style goes, you know, what's been the one, what's been the leadership style that kind of spoke to you the most throughout your career and kind of how did you identify that, like what drew you to that style or what prompted that to be, you know, I want to embody that or bring that into my own career when you started your business.

McCoy: Yeah. Really good question. Everybody in this room is a leader, okay. I was standing on the sidelines of a UT football practice, probably my fourth or fifth year in the NFL. I came back to a practice. And at UT, the practice fields are named after a man named Frank Denius. You guys should go look up the history of Frank Denius. He was 17. He lied on his age, and he stormed the beaches of Normandy. He became an extremely successful lawyer and just a fantastic man. I mean, you know, the football fields are named after him. I'm standing next to Frank. He passed away a couple of years ago. But this was probably 10 or 12 years ago. And, he was such an amazing, like, his accomplishments are insane. I could sit there and listen to him tell stories all the time, but he asked me. I'm standing next to him. He said, "Colt, what's your definition of leadership?" And I was like, "you know, sacrifice and and you know, lead by example." And, you know, I gave him like this list of things. And he goes, he said, "listen, he said, I don't want you to forget this. A leader is a man who can manage his own fears." I was like, that's amazing, right? But I also haven't ever forgotten that. Before you can lead somebody else, you've got to be able to lead yourself. Lead the ability to fight imposter syndrome, lead the, you know, lead yourself to be disciplined, right, to be to be committed to be a great teammate, to be an encourager. Like all the things that we've talked about, like that's on you to figure that out, okay, then you can have the opportunity to have the ball in your hands and make the calls. And, you know, it's really easy when you're in that role to be a leader. It's really hard to be a leader when you don't have the ball in your hands. But you can, and I would say one thing that separates great leaders from other leaders is their ability to communicate, communicate what the goal is, communicate, you know, how you're doing, your performance, communicate about the team, your ability to talk and not only to the team that's underneath you, and to your peers and to your coworkers, but also how you talk on the phone to other people, what other people think about you based on your communication, like, communicating is so key. I mean, I never played for Jon Gruden, right? But I played for Jay Gruden. He was my coach for seven years in Washington. Really close with him. He's awesome. He used to have his brother, Jon, who's a great speaker, kind of a, you know, he would come in and like you know give us a fire up speech. And every time he would talk about what makes a great team. And he would start by saying communi-what? Everybody had to say, cate, communicate. Right. And like that, that's the key. To be a great team is y'all's ability to communicate to each other when things are hard, when things are good, when things are in between. Like, good leaders communicate well.

Scurlock: Got time for a couple more questions.

Audience Member: Now that we have a bit of a sample size, what's more difficult, playing NFL quarterback or commercial real estate?

McCoy: Physically, playing in the NFL, like all the other things, starting a business, 100%. You know, I'm doing the best I can and learning through it, of all the things we talked about, starting a business is hard, right? You're hiring a team, leading the team. You know, setting, like, you know, what you want to do, how you want to be, who you want to serve, your relationship. Like leading all that is really hard. And, you know, then that's not even talking about, you know, winning business and and being able to build a business because you have the, you know, have the ability to go do, like it's just it's really hard and challenging, but it's also really fun. There's days where I'll leave my office thinking, like, I was on the phone all day. I was in all these meetings and I don't know if I accomplished anything, you know, but hopefully over time, you know, it becomes something. So it's tough, physically in the NFL, it's hard. Listen, I do not take for granted that I was, you know, the less than 1% from high school that got to go to college or then the less than 1% from college that got to go to the NFL and the less than 1% they got to play more than three years, which is the average in the NFL. Like, that's really hard. I get that and I'm very grateful for it. And my goal is to take the skills that I learned and the experiences that I've made and try to go figure out how to run a business. Hopefully I can, but remains to be seen.

Audience Member: Hey, Colt, I was wondering, football is obviously a game that requires a lot of passion. And so how do you find a level of passion that's needed that translates into a career in commercial real estate? And so finding that motivation coming from a sport where you gave it your all, like maximum intensity, what do you find from that sport and taking it to your career?

McCoy: Yeah, man. You guys are asking awesome questions. Football is a very passionate thing. Like if you don't, if you don't show up to work, ready to go compete and give your best every day, you will, that'll be your last day, you know, and if I'm being honest, I miss that. I miss that edge of like, you got to be ready to go every day. And I mean, kind of the same thing for y'all. Like that's that's the approach you should have right now. Like I'm coming to work. I'm giving my best today and I better do that or this train is going to pass me up. That's what I preach to my team every day. But in business, I would say having learned those things and understanding the passion and the, you know, the stuff that it took to do that, I mean, I'm searching for that again. Like, I know it's there. I'm also driven by a lot of other things, right. Like, you know, there was a part of me that wanted to just, you know, coast and go do whatever I wanted to do and kind of hang out and just whatever. But like, at the end of the day, based on my faith being my foundation, I don't think that's using my gifts to the glory of God. Like I felt like I have gifts. I want to go use them. I'm willing to go do that, and I want to see if I can go start a business. I want to go see if I can impact many more lives than what I was able to do in football. And I feel like, you know, for me, my approach and my attitude is, you know, I may fall flat on my face, but like, I'm going to fall flat on my face giving everything I got. And, you know, I think, you know, what I'm doing now allows me to enjoy my kids and them growing up and my my wife and my family and being a place that I love to be in, which is Fort Worth and, you know, have the opportunity to steward a lot of good things that are coming there based on, you know, where they sit and their growth. And, dude, I said it earlier, but like, I'm so passionate about what I get to do. I'm so thankful for it. And, you know, I try not to count my wins and losses every day. I try to count, how do I show up, you know, what are we doing to be great? How are we treating people? And just let all the rest of the cards fall where they may?

Scurlock: Colt, I think I speak for everybody and say that was just awesome. We really appreciate you spending time with us today. And, you know, we take very seriously the clients and the partners that we choose to associate with. And we're obviously very proud to get to associate with you. So thanks a lot for coming.

McCoy: Thank you guys.

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