February 4, 2025 • 27 mins
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Ep #81 - What can we learn from Tom Brady, a rich white guy with 7 Super Bowl rings, aka the GOAT of football?
First of all, despite what you may have heard, he's not perfect. Surprisingly, he's been underestimated and he probably also suffers from imposter syndrome, especially right now as he's currently the WHOA: Worst Host of All-time.
Watching Tom Brady struggle through his new gig proves that just because you’re incredible at one thing doesn’t mean you’ll automatically crush something else. But there’s freedom in being bad at things, as long as you’re willing to actually get in the arena.
Are you?
This episode breaks down 7 unexpected lessons from Brady's career—one for each of his Super Bowl rings—including his on-air fumbles: from why coaching isn’t just for rookies to and how sometimes, you just gotta jump in that pool. Plus, what if you approached new challenges as if you had nothing left to lose?
To get the full show notes, and an episode transcript, go to PauletteErato.com/shownotes. This is episode 81.
Episode art photo by Barcex 25th Laureus World Sports Awards - Red Carpet - Tom Brady - 240422 191334 (cropped).jpg on Wikipedia. Available on WikiCommons.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Buen dia, mi gente, and welcometo La Vida Más Chévere, de
Childfree Latinas, the onlySpanglish podcast for childfree
Latinas y Latines, helping usliberate ourselves from the
toxic cultural brainwashing weall grew up with so that we can
design our best lives instead.
I'm your host andresident childfree
Latina, Paulette Erato.
(00:24):
With the Super Bowl comingup this weekend and me liking
football and everything,let's talk about one of
football's biggest darlings.
Whether or not you knowanything about football,
there's probably a name you'veheard before, Tom Brady.
You might also have heardthat he is the greatest
quarterback to have ever lived.
(00:45):
If you don't know anythingabout football, the quarterback
is the guy throwing the ball.
He's kind of the de factoleader of the team, if you will.
I'm not going to go intodeconstructing Brady's
career here, just knowthat he's very, very good.
He's won more games than anyoneelse, including seven Super
Bowls, like this weekend's game.
And it could have been 10,but we'll get back to that.
(01:06):
So why am I talking abouta rich white guy today?
Because there's a lotwe can learn from this
celebrity about ourselves.
I know it's weird.
I usually don't do this,but trust the process.
There are seven different waysTom Brady can teach the rest of
us mere mortals a thing or two.
One for each of his Super Bowlrings, which again could be 10.
(01:30):
And I can already hearyou resisting this.
But he's a rich white guy withall the opportunities life
has to offer rich white guys.
I'm not a rich whiteguy, so what does this
have to do with me?
Whew! Look, Brady, despiteeverything you may have
heard, isn't perfect.
Despite his current accolades,20 years ago, no one gave
(01:51):
a single shit about him.
Don't believe me?
You hear a lot about players whoare drafted in the first round
to go play in the NFL, right?
Brady wasn't.
He was drafted last inthe sixth of seven rounds
in 2000, there were 198men picked ahead of him.
All of them considered betterchoices than the skinny
(02:14):
kid who played at Michigan.
198! If he was a realvillain, that would be the
beginning of his origin story.
That's where it would start.
Yes, Brady has more Super Bowlwins than any other quarterback.
Like I said, seven.
But he didn't win every singleSuper Bowl he played in.
In fact, in 2008, when histeam had an otherwise perfect
(02:38):
season, going 18-0 into thatbig game, they did not win.
My team, the NewYork Giants, did.
And then Brady and company lostto that same team again in 2012.
And then in 2018, Tom Bradyonce again lost to another NFC
East team, who coincidentallyis also playing in the
(02:59):
Super Bowl this weekend.
Go Eagles! Ugh.
Anyway.
He retired once andthen decided, nah, I'm
gonna go back and play.
Despite his wife threateninghim with a divorce, he
decided football was moreimportant than his family.
A dubious choice, since healready had a guaranteed
job commentating.
(03:20):
And then that final seasondidn't even get close to
winning another Super Bowl.
Instead, his team lost in thewild card game, which is kind
of like the last chance gameto make it into the playoffs.
And then they lost thatgame to a team who hasn't
even won a Super Bowlsince the last century.
When I was in high school,that's how long ago that was.
(03:44):
So, to recap all of that, notonly did Tom Brady fail to win
all the games he played, he alsoapparently sucks at marriage.
Who knew?
Maybe his wife did.
Now that he's truly retiredfrom playing football, we're
subjected to him every Sundaythat there's a game on Fox.
(04:05):
And this is where thetitle of this episode comes
from, because y'all, heis not good at that job.
You know, the one that wasready and waiting for him when
he retired the first time?
He's so bad at it.
Tom Brady sucks at his job.
The problem is he has zerocharisma and he looks really
awkward on television.
(04:26):
There's something about acomplete lack of body fat that
makes people appear much olderthan they are, especially in 4k.
I have a richabundance of body fat.
If BMI mattered in any wayand fat was currency, I'd
be a goddamn billionaire.
So I would gladly donate topoor Brady's GoFundMe so he
can stop looking like Skeletor.
(04:47):
Now look, I don't thinkharping on a person's
appearance is kind.
So that's all I'm goingto say about that.
But he does show up on my TV andhe makes me uncomfortable with
how he looks and how he sounds.
So, now that we recognize thatTom Brady isn't perfect, despite
all the accolades he's amassed,what is there to learn from him?
(05:09):
Here we go.
Number one, be carefulwho you underestimate.
Let's start back at thebeginning of Brady's NFL career.
I already told you theyunderestimated him and
let him linger till nearlythe end of that draft.
Now, was he guaranteedto be drafted?
Probably.
Maybe.
According to Reddit, whichis never wrong, he'd probably
(05:31):
still go in the same spot today.
And yet, at this point,we all know that he was a
secret weapon all along.
Even as a backup player,he never quit on himself.
They called him slow,said that he can't throw,
that he sucks this way,that way, and the next.
And yet, here he is, calledthe greatest football player
of all time, the GOAT.
(05:51):
Who knew?
So what about you?
Who are you underestimating?
How are you lettingpeople underestimate you?
Who are you able to prove wrong?
A lot of us aremotivated by spite.
Even our ancestors were,which is probably the only
reason some of our bloodlineshave survived this long.
Maybe Brady was alsomotivated by spite.
(06:13):
¿Quién sabe?
What I do know is thatunderestimating me has
never gone well for anyone.
And I hope that thesame is true for you.
Look at what's happening inthe tech world right now.
The American tech bros, whobragged about their zillion
dollar funding, and the idiotwho thinks robust companies
need "more masculine energy,"are getting their asses handed
(06:37):
to them by China, who justcut them off at the knees.
China's Deep Seek is going tosuffer from a ton of negative
jingoistic and xenophobicpropaganda in our media.
But they basically built an AImodel that's better, uses fewer
resources, and is open source,so it's available to anyone,
(06:57):
without paying the exorbitant$200 a month that ChatGPT and
OpenAI wants you to pay them.
And our tech boys are pissed,because they were too busy
comparing their dick sizesto actually be innovative.
When they say Americans arefucking lazy, the tech bros
are the prime example of this.
They grew fat and lazy, gothigh on their own supply,
(07:20):
and then failed to lead.
So someone elsefilled the space.
To quote Pretty Woman,underestimating China
was a big mistake.
Big! Huge!Okay, I've said all that and
I'm very aware that we areunderestimating Tom Brady
as a commentator right now.
I got that.
The second thing we can learnfrom Tom Brady sucking at
(07:42):
his job is to embrace thefreedom to be bad at things.
Brady wasn't a greatfootball player when he
left college for the NFL.
We've already established thatall the teams agreed there
were 198 other players whowere more valuable to their
respective organizations.
All 32 teams said,nah, we're good.
(08:05):
198 times.
Obviously, in hindsight,they were wrong.
But do you think that in anyway dissuaded our Tomcat here?
You might be thinking, Paulette.
He's an elite athlete and I gettired putting on mis pantuflas.
What does thathave to do with me?
Mi amor, do you thinkhe just woke up being an
elite athlete one day?
(08:27):
No, he worked at that.
He wasn't great at that jobwhen he started that either.
Tom Brady has sucked, or beenunderestimated, at multiple
jobs here, but he had enoughdetermination and grit and maybe
even a little bit of spite,maybe a lot of spite, to prove
everyone around him wrong.
(08:47):
Even now, he's not goodat the commentating.
He's really bad at it.
There's zero rizz there.
If there's anyone whose jobshould be in danger of being
given over to AI, it's this one.
But has any of this, thefact that he is regularly
irritating football fans withhis lackluster delivery, his
dumb jokes, last week theywere making fun of him for
(09:07):
constantly saying the word stud,has any of that made him quit?
Hell no!He's taking all kinds of
media training classes,hitting up his old buddies
like Tony Romo for advice.
He really doesn't wantto suck at the job,
but he does every week.
He's getting incrementallybetter each time, but it's like
(09:28):
watching a baby deer learningto walk and he's doing it all
very publicly every single week.
If he's able to do that, well,everybody's watching, why
are we, the regular degularfolks, afraid of failing?
Why don't we all insteadembrace this freedom
to be bad at things?
(09:49):
I did an episode about thisalready, and I think I'll do
another one in the future.
But it's a real privilege tobe new at something and embrace
not knowing how to do it.
Because as adults, we feel,we've been brainwashed
to believe that weshould know everything.
That we should begood at everything.
That saying, I don't know,is the highest crime.
(10:11):
But come on, why don'twe embrace being new?
Even being bad andbecoming a student again.
The thing you have that Bradydoesn't count your lucky stars
is that your public domain, yourfootprint, is so much smaller.
Sure, you might be learningsomething new within a group,
but you're not doing it in frontof 18 million people every week.
(10:34):
Our struggles aremuch more private.
And don't most of usprefer it that way anyway?
So, get used to being bad atthings in your private world.
Give yourself permissionto suck at stuff, too.
And if you don't already,you should follow Bernadette
Joy Cruz Maulion on Threads.
And watch as she's learninghow to swim in her 40s.
(10:57):
I love that she isunapologetic about not
knowing this thing that mostof us learned as children.
And she's just enjoying herself.
As she should.
I'll put a link to her latestpost about it in the show notes.
And we'll get backto swimming in a bit.
So let's move onto number three.
This one's gonnainclude a little math.
Did you know that math usedto be my favorite subject
(11:19):
right up until I hit college?
That's when statisticsjust made my brain say,
Nope, this is where I quit.
Anyway, the next lesson on ourjourney with Tom Brady and how
much he sucks at his job is justbecause you're good at X doesn't
mean you'll be good at Y.
No matter how closelythey are related.
(11:39):
So the math equation is Xdoesn't equal Y. And going
back to our last lesson.
That's okay.
Just because Tom was goodat playing football never
meant he was going to begreat at talking about it.
Because he's not.
Say it with me.
Tom Brady sucks at his job.
But the people at Fox certainlyhoped he would be good at it.
(12:01):
They invested in himto be good at it.
They know that a shrewd studentof the game, a guy like Brady,
who stubbornly studies game tapeto improve his own game, would
likely rise to the occasion.
Heh heh heh!But remember, the real quote
is "under pressure, we don'trise to the occasion, we fall
to our level of training."Brady just doesn't have
(12:25):
enough training yet,so he's struggling.
He's had decades worth oftraining for football, but
he's only been at this newthing that's football-adjacent
for one season because onfield skills are not the same
ones needed in front of thecamera for an entire game.
I am a better speakerthan Tom Brady.
I have way morecharisma than he does.
(12:48):
But if an organization waslooking for a heavy hitter
to pump up their audienceand leave them with a great
message, you know if theoptions were between me and him,
the mere name recognition isgoing to beat out this little
indie podcaster every singletime and twice on Sundays.
Except for those whocan't afford him.
So, if you have less than halfa million dollars in your budget
(13:10):
for a speaker, know that Ican deliver the same style of
presentation to your audiencefor a fraction of that cost.
You can reach out to me throughthe links in the show notes.
So, what's the lesson here?
That just because you'regood at a lot of things,
it doesn't mean you haveto be good at everything.
You will be bad at some stuff,as noted in the first lesson.
(13:30):
And just because you're goodat one thing, if you try a
related thing, the skills maynot transfer over perfectly.
So, you may not be goodat that other thing.
X doesn't equal Y. Thesooner you embrace it, the
sooner you recognize, weall had a day one at new
things, at this thing thatyou're trying to accomplish.
This is your day one!Then, the happier you'll
be at the level thatyou're starting at.
(13:52):
Just enjoy it.
Number four is about swimming.
What about swimming, Paulette?
First, you started talking aboutfootball and then Tom Brady
and how he sucks at his job,and now we're talking about
a completely different sport?
Hang in there, my friend.
Remember, trust the process.
Continuing on in the same veinas being new and embracing
(14:13):
that not all our skills willtransfer over when we're
new, let's chat about doing.
In the last few episodes,we've covered how to use
your voice for resistance.
And if that's too muchright now, then that
being in community isalso a form of rebellion.
How doing something oftenkeeps us from feeling helpless.
(14:35):
There's a joke that sayssomething like a tourist is in
New York and they're lookingto get to Carnegie Hall.
So they stop someone and say,"sir, how do I get to Carnegie
Hall?" And the answer ispractice, practice, practice.
Why is that?
Because the only way tomake it in this world,
is to do the thing youwant to become good at.
(14:55):
Just like Tom Brady continuessucking at his job every
single week in front of 18million people at a time,
every single week is anotheropportunity to do, to practice
his new craft, the onethat he sucks at right now.
But he sucks slightly lessevery week, and is better
than when he started at thebeginning of the season.
(15:17):
Because the truth is that youcan't learn to swim without
actually jumping in the water.
See, here's where theswimming comes in.
You can read all thebooks, watch all the
YouTube videos about it.
You can even startdreaming about it.
But until you are actually inthe water, learning to float,
learning to breathe, learningto kick, and learning to move
from point A to point B withoutdrowning, you aren't going to
(15:40):
actually learn how to swim.
Much less become a swimmer.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Even if you're bad at athing, you have to try.
And you have to keep tryingand trying and trying and
eventually you'll becomea little less bad at it.
You'll become alittle better at it.
That's how it goes.
You gotta practice,practice, practice.
(16:02):
And that leads usto our next one.
There's no shame in seeking outmentors to help you practice.
Meaning, number five.
Everyone needs a coach.
There's no shame in having one.
Tom Brady couldn't have led allof his teams to all of those
Super Bowls without a coach.
(16:23):
Multiple coaches.
He even hired himself ahealth coach with whom he
developed his crazy TB12program where you can't eat
tomatoes or have any joy,but you can get shredded like
Skeletor if that's your goal.
My point, mija, is youdon't have to do shit alone.
Ever.
But also, be careful whoyou seek advice from.
(16:44):
Tom didn't know the firstthing about commentating.
Well, maybe he did.
Who knows?
It doesn't appear like he did.
And there's scores of articlesout there about how he sought
out a lot of media training.
From who?
Media training coaches.
This is also why Tom Bradyreached out to the other
guys who used to playfootball and now have jobs
(17:05):
commentating as second careers.
Because the quote, you "don'ttake advice from people who
have never been in the arena,"has never been so fitting.
A stadium is a literal arena.
We've gone from watchinggladiator fights
to football games.
How many guys know whatthe transition is like from
leading a team to sittingin front of a monitor coming
(17:27):
up with constructive orcolorful comments to give
the audience while we'reall watching football?
Only a few of them havebeen in that arena.
And those few guys who doknow probably had tons of
advice for Tommy Boy, becauseeveryone needs a coach.
Whoever brainwashed you intobelieving that you have to
stand on your own, all alone,and learn how to do things
(17:49):
all on your own, all alone,really robbed you of the
belief, the fact, that notonly can you be bad at things,
not only should you have asupport network to cheer you
on while you're learning newthings, when you're stumbling,
but that you deserve to beable to ask questions, to get
advice from someone who knowsbetter than you, how to do the
(18:12):
thing you're trying to learn.
Get a mentor, get a coach.
Remember my guest, RenaMartine, she talked about
the same thing in ourinterview back in episode 40.
How you don't take advice frompeople who haven't gone through
what you're going through.
And oh, you know what?
She's an intimacy coach.
That episode wasall about shame.
(18:33):
It's like I have atheme here on this show.
Dismantle shame.
Divorce yourself from shame.
Everyone needs help.
That's why we get in community.
Speaking of which, number six.
This one's gonna be a littleheavier because number six
is We have to say what thefuck to impostor syndrome.
(18:56):
Tom Brady is friends withthe Felon in Chief, the
Felon of the United States,or FOTUS, if you will.
A literal felon is president!And Tom Brady, the guy who
cheated his way throughgames with deflated
balls, is his friend.
And if not his bestiefriend, they definitely
run in the same circles.
In fact, Brady's making aplay at becoming a billionaire
(19:17):
by buying into the Raidersfranchise right now.
What does this tellyou if not birds of a
feather flock together?
In other words, they all havea community they belong to.
Of course, they don'tcall it that because
it's not manly, probably.
I don't know.
They probably call it whateverwhite supremacist word they
can come up for it, like theold boys club or a fraternity.
(19:39):
Take your pick.
But it exists nonetheless.
Community.
That's what the last episodewas about and I explained
why it's so important.
Go check it out.
As a community, theseguys can protect each
other from anything,like imposter syndrome.
They have each other to bolsterand cheer for each other.
Again, they probably don'trecognize it that way,
(20:01):
but that's what it is.
When you feel supportedby your clique, by your
community, by your circleof billionaires, where does
your imposter syndrome go?
Out the goddamn window.
It defenestrates itself.
What better way to get overyour own imposter syndrome than
having your own cheering squad?
Again, it comesback to community.
(20:24):
You know what else thislittle bromance between
Brady and the Felon shows us?
Maybe cheaters do win after all.
You cannot convinceme they didn't cheat
in this last election.
And we know that Brady cheatedwith his deflated balls.
It was called Deflategate andhe was suspended for four games.
So even the greatest ofall time doesn't believe
he can win on his own meritall the time either, huh?
(20:47):
Hmm.
I wonder what they call that.
Is it imposter syndrome?
But also, there's aliteral felon as president!
He is a waste of the diapers hesits in and still was able to
convince people to vote him intothe highest office in the land.
A guy with no real skills aswe already saw in the first
term, a dude who doesn'teven realize that his little
(21:09):
executive order tantrums don'ttrump constitutional amendments
and are illegal on their own.
He doesn't even understand howgovernment works because it's
not a business, it's a service.
That guy has a job, thehardest job in the world, and
you're over here wrestlingwith imposter syndrome?
Are you fucking kidding me?
(21:30):
By the way, I don't curseon stage if a clean speaker
is what you're looking for,but I do on this podcast
because it's my show.
Mi amor, what the hell are wedoing letting our inner voices
make us feel like less thanwhen men with less talent,
less charisma, less knowledge,and even less curiosity than
you are running this place?
There's literal clowns in theWhite House making a mockery
(21:52):
of our country every single dayand we, you and I, are worried
that we aren't good enough?
What is that about?
That's brainwashing.
And we need to deconditionourselves from it because
it does immeasurable harm toboth us and our communities.
Here's a little side tipabout strengthening community.
(22:14):
Speak the names of yourmembers in rooms you have
access to that they don't.
Give them access to places youhave the privilege of occupying.
Just like Tom's name wasbatted around the football
shows before he even retired.
Just like people assumedhe would be the next great
commentator, and maybe he will.
Like I said, we'reunderestimating him too.
(22:35):
Speak those names inyour groups as well.
Give your community a leg up inthe spaces you get to occupy.
Helping others getover their own imposter
syndrome, it's a great wayto help yours disappear.
Push it out that window.
Defenestrate! And that brings usto the last thing.
The final lesson we can pickup from Tom Brady, who sucks at
(22:57):
his job, is if literal clownswith bad makeup are running this
country, If a robot can tellyou what's happening during a
football game without a singleshred of personality to him,
if these menaces aim to stripall of our rights, to punish us
with fear, to keep us too angryor upset, or fighting with each
other to notice what's reallygoing on, the real problems?
(23:18):
Then the question, mi amor, is,what do we have left to lose?
Nothing.
If it's all gonna go downthe shitter anyway, what
mark would you want toleave with your life?
What would you want to beremembered for, or better
yet, what would you do foryourself, for your community,
for your spirit, if youhad nothing left to lose?
(23:41):
How would your life bedifferent if you weren't
afraid of failure?
What choices would youmake if you knew you
were going to succeed?
If you were Tom Brady at 44,who was underestimated at the
beginning of his professionalcareer, only to come out as the
best player to have ever lived,what would you do differently?
(24:04):
And then my follow upquestion to that is, why
aren't you doing that?
I think I know.
And next episode, I'll cover it.
So let's recap.
I'm underestimatingTom Brady right now.
I recognize he'sgonna get better.
Or he won't, but they'llstill keep paying him a
bajillion dollars anyway.
Like I said, the SuperBowl is this weekend.
(24:25):
Tom will be there!You can assess his commentary
skills to see what I'm talkingabout, even if you just
watch it for the commercials.
But I would love for theEagles, a team that I am primed
to hate both as a New YorkGiants fan and a disgruntled
former resident of the city ofPhiladelphia, I would love for
the Eagles to disrupt KansasCity's three-peat attempt.
(24:46):
Not because I'm callousor mean spirited.
Again, I'm supposedto hate the Eagles.
But just like in 2008 and in2012, I do love me a good upset.
So, whoever wins this weekend,Tom Brady will probably
still suck at his job.
Anyway, the seven Super Bowlrings of lessons that we
can take away from Tom Bradysucking at his job are, 1.
(25:10):
Be careful whoyou underestimate,
including yourself.
2. Embrace the freedomof being bad at things.
3. Just because you can do X,doesn't mean you'll be good at
Y, because X doesn't equal Y. 4.
Like swimming, you can'tlearn to do something
without actually doing it.
(25:31):
5. Everyone needs a coachonce in a while, even
the greatest of all time.
6. Say what the fuck toimposter syndrome, please.
And 7.
What if you acted like youhad nothing left to lose?
Looking back, it seems obviousthat Tom Brady would become
the GOAT and end up on TVlike his bestie, Gronk,
(25:53):
even on the same station.
But do you think heknew that way back when?
Do you think he knew he wasgoing to have to sacrifice
his intimate relationship,his marriage, his kids for it?
Would he have doneanything differently?
Would you?
You know what's funny?
I usually craft theseepisodes from the end back.
I have a conclusion I want usto work towards, so I reverse
(26:14):
engineer the path to that topic.
I work as if I already knowthat future, and I bring it to
my present, which is the actualtopic of the next episode.
So stay tuned.
All the episodes mentioned inthis one will be in the extended
show notes on PauletteErato.
com, so go check those out.
And that's a burrito.
(26:36):
Hey, mira, if thisepisode made you feel
some kind of way, dígame.
DM me on Instagram,or send me a text.
You can do that rightfrom your phone.
If you want to be a guest onthe show and put your story
out there too, check out theguest form on my website at
PauletteErato com slash guest.
Yep, just my name,PauletteErato.
(26:58):
com slash guest.
Y no se te olvide quehay más perks when you
join the newsletter.
Todos estos links estánen los show notes.
Muchísimas gracias foryour support, y hasta la
próxima vez, cuídate bien.
Buen dia, mi gente, and welcometo La Vida Más Chévere, de
Childfree Latinas, the onlySpanglish podcast for childfree
Latinas y Latines, helping usliberate ourselves from the
toxic cultural brainwashing weall grew up with so that we can
design our best lives instead.
I'm your host andresident childfree
Latina, Paulette Erato.
(00:24):
With the Super Bowl comingup this weekend and me liking
football and everything,let's talk about one of
football's biggest darlings.
Whether or not you knowanything about football,
there's probably a name you'veheard before, Tom Brady.
You might also have heardthat he is the greatest
quarterback to have ever lived.
(00:45):
If you don't know anythingabout football, the quarterback
is the guy throwing the ball.
He's kind of the de factoleader of the team, if you will.
I'm not going to go intodeconstructing Brady's
career here, just knowthat he's very, very good.
He's won more games than anyoneelse, including seven Super
Bowls, like this weekend's game.
And it could have been 10,but we'll get back to that.
(01:06):
So why am I talking abouta rich white guy today?
Because there's a lotwe can learn from this
celebrity about ourselves.
I know it's weird.
I usually don't do this,but trust the process.
There are seven different waysTom Brady can teach the rest of
us mere mortals a thing or two.
One for each of his Super Bowlrings, which again could be 10.
(01:30):
And I can already hearyou resisting this.
But he's a rich white guy withall the opportunities life
has to offer rich white guys.
I'm not a rich whiteguy, so what does this
have to do with me?
Whew! Look, Brady, despiteeverything you may have
heard, isn't perfect.
Despite his current accolades,20 years ago, no one gave
(01:51):
a single shit about him.
Don't believe me?
You hear a lot about players whoare drafted in the first round
to go play in the NFL, right?
Brady wasn't.
He was drafted last inthe sixth of seven rounds
in 2000, there were 198men picked ahead of him.
All of them considered betterchoices than the skinny
(02:14):
kid who played at Michigan.
198! If he was a realvillain, that would be the
beginning of his origin story.
That's where it would start.
Yes, Brady has more Super Bowlwins than any other quarterback.
Like I said, seven.
But he didn't win every singleSuper Bowl he played in.
In fact, in 2008, when histeam had an otherwise perfect
(02:38):
season, going 18-0 into thatbig game, they did not win.
My team, the NewYork Giants, did.
And then Brady and company lostto that same team again in 2012.
And then in 2018, Tom Bradyonce again lost to another NFC
East team, who coincidentallyis also playing in the
(02:59):
Super Bowl this weekend.
Go Eagles! Ugh.
Anyway.
He retired once andthen decided, nah, I'm
gonna go back and play.
Despite his wife threateninghim with a divorce, he
decided football was moreimportant than his family.
A dubious choice, since healready had a guaranteed
job commentating.
(03:20):
And then that final seasondidn't even get close to
winning another Super Bowl.
Instead, his team lost in thewild card game, which is kind
of like the last chance gameto make it into the playoffs.
And then they lost thatgame to a team who hasn't
even won a Super Bowlsince the last century.
When I was in high school,that's how long ago that was.
(03:44):
So, to recap all of that, notonly did Tom Brady fail to win
all the games he played, he alsoapparently sucks at marriage.
Who knew?
Maybe his wife did.
Now that he's truly retiredfrom playing football, we're
subjected to him every Sundaythat there's a game on Fox.
(04:05):
And this is where thetitle of this episode comes
from, because y'all, heis not good at that job.
You know, the one that wasready and waiting for him when
he retired the first time?
He's so bad at it.
Tom Brady sucks at his job.
The problem is he has zerocharisma and he looks really
awkward on television.
(04:26):
There's something about acomplete lack of body fat that
makes people appear much olderthan they are, especially in 4k.
I have a richabundance of body fat.
If BMI mattered in any wayand fat was currency, I'd
be a goddamn billionaire.
So I would gladly donate topoor Brady's GoFundMe so he
can stop looking like Skeletor.
(04:47):
Now look, I don't thinkharping on a person's
appearance is kind.
So that's all I'm goingto say about that.
But he does show up on my TV andhe makes me uncomfortable with
how he looks and how he sounds.
So, now that we recognize thatTom Brady isn't perfect, despite
all the accolades he's amassed,what is there to learn from him?
(05:09):
Here we go.
Number one, be carefulwho you underestimate.
Let's start back at thebeginning of Brady's NFL career.
I already told you theyunderestimated him and
let him linger till nearlythe end of that draft.
Now, was he guaranteedto be drafted?
Probably.
Maybe.
According to Reddit, whichis never wrong, he'd probably
(05:31):
still go in the same spot today.
And yet, at this point,we all know that he was a
secret weapon all along.
Even as a backup player,he never quit on himself.
They called him slow,said that he can't throw,
that he sucks this way,that way, and the next.
And yet, here he is, calledthe greatest football player
of all time, the GOAT.
(05:51):
Who knew?
So what about you?
Who are you underestimating?
How are you lettingpeople underestimate you?
Who are you able to prove wrong?
A lot of us aremotivated by spite.
Even our ancestors were,which is probably the only
reason some of our bloodlineshave survived this long.
Maybe Brady was alsomotivated by spite.
(06:13):
¿Quién sabe?
What I do know is thatunderestimating me has
never gone well for anyone.
And I hope that thesame is true for you.
Look at what's happening inthe tech world right now.
The American tech bros, whobragged about their zillion
dollar funding, and the idiotwho thinks robust companies
need "more masculine energy,"are getting their asses handed
(06:37):
to them by China, who justcut them off at the knees.
China's Deep Seek is going tosuffer from a ton of negative
jingoistic and xenophobicpropaganda in our media.
But they basically built an AImodel that's better, uses fewer
resources, and is open source,so it's available to anyone,
(06:57):
without paying the exorbitant$200 a month that ChatGPT and
OpenAI wants you to pay them.
And our tech boys are pissed,because they were too busy
comparing their dick sizesto actually be innovative.
When they say Americans arefucking lazy, the tech bros
are the prime example of this.
They grew fat and lazy, gothigh on their own supply,
(07:20):
and then failed to lead.
So someone elsefilled the space.
To quote Pretty Woman,underestimating China
was a big mistake.
Big! Huge!Okay, I've said all that and
I'm very aware that we areunderestimating Tom Brady
as a commentator right now.
I got that.
The second thing we can learnfrom Tom Brady sucking at
(07:42):
his job is to embrace thefreedom to be bad at things.
Brady wasn't a greatfootball player when he
left college for the NFL.
We've already established thatall the teams agreed there
were 198 other players whowere more valuable to their
respective organizations.
All 32 teams said,nah, we're good.
(08:05):
198 times.
Obviously, in hindsight,they were wrong.
But do you think that in anyway dissuaded our Tomcat here?
You might be thinking, Paulette.
He's an elite athlete and I gettired putting on mis pantuflas.
What does thathave to do with me?
Mi amor, do you thinkhe just woke up being an
elite athlete one day?
(08:27):
No, he worked at that.
He wasn't great at that jobwhen he started that either.
Tom Brady has sucked, or beenunderestimated, at multiple
jobs here, but he had enoughdetermination and grit and maybe
even a little bit of spite,maybe a lot of spite, to prove
everyone around him wrong.
(08:47):
Even now, he's not goodat the commentating.
He's really bad at it.
There's zero rizz there.
If there's anyone whose jobshould be in danger of being
given over to AI, it's this one.
But has any of this, thefact that he is regularly
irritating football fans withhis lackluster delivery, his
dumb jokes, last week theywere making fun of him for
(09:07):
constantly saying the word stud,has any of that made him quit?
Hell no!He's taking all kinds of
media training classes,hitting up his old buddies
like Tony Romo for advice.
He really doesn't wantto suck at the job,
but he does every week.
He's getting incrementallybetter each time, but it's like
(09:28):
watching a baby deer learningto walk and he's doing it all
very publicly every single week.
If he's able to do that, well,everybody's watching, why
are we, the regular degularfolks, afraid of failing?
Why don't we all insteadembrace this freedom
to be bad at things?
(09:49):
I did an episode about thisalready, and I think I'll do
another one in the future.
But it's a real privilege tobe new at something and embrace
not knowing how to do it.
Because as adults, we feel,we've been brainwashed
to believe that weshould know everything.
That we should begood at everything.
That saying, I don't know,is the highest crime.
(10:11):
But come on, why don'twe embrace being new?
Even being bad andbecoming a student again.
The thing you have that Bradydoesn't count your lucky stars
is that your public domain, yourfootprint, is so much smaller.
Sure, you might be learningsomething new within a group,
but you're not doing it in frontof 18 million people every week.
(10:34):
Our struggles aremuch more private.
And don't most of usprefer it that way anyway?
So, get used to being bad atthings in your private world.
Give yourself permissionto suck at stuff, too.
And if you don't already,you should follow Bernadette
Joy Cruz Maulion on Threads.
And watch as she's learninghow to swim in her 40s.
(10:57):
I love that she isunapologetic about not
knowing this thing that mostof us learned as children.
And she's just enjoying herself.
As she should.
I'll put a link to her latestpost about it in the show notes.
And we'll get backto swimming in a bit.
So let's move onto number three.
This one's gonnainclude a little math.
Did you know that math usedto be my favorite subject
(11:19):
right up until I hit college?
That's when statisticsjust made my brain say,
Nope, this is where I quit.
Anyway, the next lesson on ourjourney with Tom Brady and how
much he sucks at his job is justbecause you're good at X doesn't
mean you'll be good at Y.
No matter how closelythey are related.
(11:39):
So the math equation is Xdoesn't equal Y. And going
back to our last lesson.
That's okay.
Just because Tom was goodat playing football never
meant he was going to begreat at talking about it.
Because he's not.
Say it with me.
Tom Brady sucks at his job.
But the people at Fox certainlyhoped he would be good at it.
(12:01):
They invested in himto be good at it.
They know that a shrewd studentof the game, a guy like Brady,
who stubbornly studies game tapeto improve his own game, would
likely rise to the occasion.
Heh heh heh!But remember, the real quote
is "under pressure, we don'trise to the occasion, we fall
to our level of training."Brady just doesn't have
(12:25):
enough training yet,so he's struggling.
He's had decades worth oftraining for football, but
he's only been at this newthing that's football-adjacent
for one season because onfield skills are not the same
ones needed in front of thecamera for an entire game.
I am a better speakerthan Tom Brady.
I have way morecharisma than he does.
(12:48):
But if an organization waslooking for a heavy hitter
to pump up their audienceand leave them with a great
message, you know if theoptions were between me and him,
the mere name recognition isgoing to beat out this little
indie podcaster every singletime and twice on Sundays.
Except for those whocan't afford him.
So, if you have less than halfa million dollars in your budget
(13:10):
for a speaker, know that Ican deliver the same style of
presentation to your audiencefor a fraction of that cost.
You can reach out to me throughthe links in the show notes.
So, what's the lesson here?
That just because you'regood at a lot of things,
it doesn't mean you haveto be good at everything.
You will be bad at some stuff,as noted in the first lesson.
(13:30):
And just because you're goodat one thing, if you try a
related thing, the skills maynot transfer over perfectly.
So, you may not be goodat that other thing.
X doesn't equal Y. Thesooner you embrace it, the
sooner you recognize, weall had a day one at new
things, at this thing thatyou're trying to accomplish.
This is your day one!Then, the happier you'll
be at the level thatyou're starting at.
(13:52):
Just enjoy it.
Number four is about swimming.
What about swimming, Paulette?
First, you started talking aboutfootball and then Tom Brady
and how he sucks at his job,and now we're talking about
a completely different sport?
Hang in there, my friend.
Remember, trust the process.
Continuing on in the same veinas being new and embracing
(14:13):
that not all our skills willtransfer over when we're
new, let's chat about doing.
In the last few episodes,we've covered how to use
your voice for resistance.
And if that's too muchright now, then that
being in community isalso a form of rebellion.
How doing something oftenkeeps us from feeling helpless.
(14:35):
There's a joke that sayssomething like a tourist is in
New York and they're lookingto get to Carnegie Hall.
So they stop someone and say,"sir, how do I get to Carnegie
Hall?" And the answer ispractice, practice, practice.
Why is that?
Because the only way tomake it in this world,
is to do the thing youwant to become good at.
(14:55):
Just like Tom Brady continuessucking at his job every
single week in front of 18million people at a time,
every single week is anotheropportunity to do, to practice
his new craft, the onethat he sucks at right now.
But he sucks slightly lessevery week, and is better
than when he started at thebeginning of the season.
(15:17):
Because the truth is that youcan't learn to swim without
actually jumping in the water.
See, here's where theswimming comes in.
You can read all thebooks, watch all the
YouTube videos about it.
You can even startdreaming about it.
But until you are actually inthe water, learning to float,
learning to breathe, learningto kick, and learning to move
from point A to point B withoutdrowning, you aren't going to
(15:40):
actually learn how to swim.
Much less become a swimmer.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Even if you're bad at athing, you have to try.
And you have to keep tryingand trying and trying and
eventually you'll becomea little less bad at it.
You'll become alittle better at it.
That's how it goes.
You gotta practice,practice, practice.
(16:02):
And that leads usto our next one.
There's no shame in seeking outmentors to help you practice.
Meaning, number five.
Everyone needs a coach.
There's no shame in having one.
Tom Brady couldn't have led allof his teams to all of those
Super Bowls without a coach.
(16:23):
Multiple coaches.
He even hired himself ahealth coach with whom he
developed his crazy TB12program where you can't eat
tomatoes or have any joy,but you can get shredded like
Skeletor if that's your goal.
My point, mija, is youdon't have to do shit alone.
Ever.
But also, be careful whoyou seek advice from.
(16:44):
Tom didn't know the firstthing about commentating.
Well, maybe he did.
Who knows?
It doesn't appear like he did.
And there's scores of articlesout there about how he sought
out a lot of media training.
From who?
Media training coaches.
This is also why Tom Bradyreached out to the other
guys who used to playfootball and now have jobs
(17:05):
commentating as second careers.
Because the quote, you "don'ttake advice from people who
have never been in the arena,"has never been so fitting.
A stadium is a literal arena.
We've gone from watchinggladiator fights
to football games.
How many guys know whatthe transition is like from
leading a team to sittingin front of a monitor coming
(17:27):
up with constructive orcolorful comments to give
the audience while we'reall watching football?
Only a few of them havebeen in that arena.
And those few guys who doknow probably had tons of
advice for Tommy Boy, becauseeveryone needs a coach.
Whoever brainwashed you intobelieving that you have to
stand on your own, all alone,and learn how to do things
(17:49):
all on your own, all alone,really robbed you of the
belief, the fact, that notonly can you be bad at things,
not only should you have asupport network to cheer you
on while you're learning newthings, when you're stumbling,
but that you deserve to beable to ask questions, to get
advice from someone who knowsbetter than you, how to do the
(18:12):
thing you're trying to learn.
Get a mentor, get a coach.
Remember my guest, RenaMartine, she talked about
the same thing in ourinterview back in episode 40.
How you don't take advice frompeople who haven't gone through
what you're going through.
And oh, you know what?
She's an intimacy coach.
That episode wasall about shame.
(18:33):
It's like I have atheme here on this show.
Dismantle shame.
Divorce yourself from shame.
Everyone needs help.
That's why we get in community.
Speaking of which, number six.
This one's gonna be a littleheavier because number six
is We have to say what thefuck to impostor syndrome.
(18:56):
Tom Brady is friends withthe Felon in Chief, the
Felon of the United States,or FOTUS, if you will.
A literal felon is president!And Tom Brady, the guy who
cheated his way throughgames with deflated
balls, is his friend.
And if not his bestiefriend, they definitely
run in the same circles.
In fact, Brady's making aplay at becoming a billionaire
(19:17):
by buying into the Raidersfranchise right now.
What does this tellyou if not birds of a
feather flock together?
In other words, they all havea community they belong to.
Of course, they don'tcall it that because
it's not manly, probably.
I don't know.
They probably call it whateverwhite supremacist word they
can come up for it, like theold boys club or a fraternity.
(19:39):
Take your pick.
But it exists nonetheless.
Community.
That's what the last episodewas about and I explained
why it's so important.
Go check it out.
As a community, theseguys can protect each
other from anything,like imposter syndrome.
They have each other to bolsterand cheer for each other.
Again, they probably don'trecognize it that way,
(20:01):
but that's what it is.
When you feel supportedby your clique, by your
community, by your circleof billionaires, where does
your imposter syndrome go?
Out the goddamn window.
It defenestrates itself.
What better way to get overyour own imposter syndrome than
having your own cheering squad?
Again, it comesback to community.
(20:24):
You know what else thislittle bromance between
Brady and the Felon shows us?
Maybe cheaters do win after all.
You cannot convinceme they didn't cheat
in this last election.
And we know that Brady cheatedwith his deflated balls.
It was called Deflategate andhe was suspended for four games.
So even the greatest ofall time doesn't believe
he can win on his own meritall the time either, huh?
(20:47):
Hmm.
I wonder what they call that.
Is it imposter syndrome?
But also, there's aliteral felon as president!
He is a waste of the diapers hesits in and still was able to
convince people to vote him intothe highest office in the land.
A guy with no real skills aswe already saw in the first
term, a dude who doesn'teven realize that his little
(21:09):
executive order tantrums don'ttrump constitutional amendments
and are illegal on their own.
He doesn't even understand howgovernment works because it's
not a business, it's a service.
That guy has a job, thehardest job in the world, and
you're over here wrestlingwith imposter syndrome?
Are you fucking kidding me?
(21:30):
By the way, I don't curseon stage if a clean speaker
is what you're looking for,but I do on this podcast
because it's my show.
Mi amor, what the hell are wedoing letting our inner voices
make us feel like less thanwhen men with less talent,
less charisma, less knowledge,and even less curiosity than
you are running this place?
There's literal clowns in theWhite House making a mockery
(21:52):
of our country every single dayand we, you and I, are worried
that we aren't good enough?
What is that about?
That's brainwashing.
And we need to deconditionourselves from it because
it does immeasurable harm toboth us and our communities.
Here's a little side tipabout strengthening community.
(22:14):
Speak the names of yourmembers in rooms you have
access to that they don't.
Give them access to places youhave the privilege of occupying.
Just like Tom's name wasbatted around the football
shows before he even retired.
Just like people assumedhe would be the next great
commentator, and maybe he will.
Like I said, we'reunderestimating him too.
(22:35):
Speak those names inyour groups as well.
Give your community a leg up inthe spaces you get to occupy.
Helping others getover their own imposter
syndrome, it's a great wayto help yours disappear.
Push it out that window.
Defenestrate! And that brings usto the last thing.
The final lesson we can pickup from Tom Brady, who sucks at
(22:57):
his job, is if literal clownswith bad makeup are running this
country, If a robot can tellyou what's happening during a
football game without a singleshred of personality to him,
if these menaces aim to stripall of our rights, to punish us
with fear, to keep us too angryor upset, or fighting with each
other to notice what's reallygoing on, the real problems?
(23:18):
Then the question, mi amor, is,what do we have left to lose?
Nothing.
If it's all gonna go downthe shitter anyway, what
mark would you want toleave with your life?
What would you want to beremembered for, or better
yet, what would you do foryourself, for your community,
for your spirit, if youhad nothing left to lose?
(23:41):
How would your life bedifferent if you weren't
afraid of failure?
What choices would youmake if you knew you
were going to succeed?
If you were Tom Brady at 44,who was underestimated at the
beginning of his professionalcareer, only to come out as the
best player to have ever lived,what would you do differently?
(24:04):
And then my follow upquestion to that is, why
aren't you doing that?
I think I know.
And next episode, I'll cover it.
So let's recap.
I'm underestimatingTom Brady right now.
I recognize he'sgonna get better.
Or he won't, but they'llstill keep paying him a
bajillion dollars anyway.
Like I said, the SuperBowl is this weekend.
(24:25):
Tom will be there!You can assess his commentary
skills to see what I'm talkingabout, even if you just
watch it for the commercials.
But I would love for theEagles, a team that I am primed
to hate both as a New YorkGiants fan and a disgruntled
former resident of the city ofPhiladelphia, I would love for
the Eagles to disrupt KansasCity's three-peat attempt.
(24:46):
Not because I'm callousor mean spirited.
Again, I'm supposedto hate the Eagles.
But just like in 2008 and in2012, I do love me a good upset.
So, whoever wins this weekend,Tom Brady will probably
still suck at his job.
Anyway, the seven Super Bowlrings of lessons that we
can take away from Tom Bradysucking at his job are, 1.
(25:10):
Be careful whoyou underestimate,
including yourself.
2. Embrace the freedomof being bad at things.
3. Just because you can do X,doesn't mean you'll be good at
Y, because X doesn't equal Y. 4.
Like swimming, you can'tlearn to do something
without actually doing it.
(25:31):
5. Everyone needs a coachonce in a while, even
the greatest of all time.
6. Say what the fuck toimposter syndrome, please.
And 7.
What if you acted like youhad nothing left to lose?
Looking back, it seems obviousthat Tom Brady would become
the GOAT and end up on TVlike his bestie, Gronk,
(25:53):
even on the same station.
But do you think heknew that way back when?
Do you think he knew he wasgoing to have to sacrifice
his intimate relationship,his marriage, his kids for it?
Would he have doneanything differently?
Would you?
You know what's funny?
I usually craft theseepisodes from the end back.
I have a conclusion I want usto work towards, so I reverse
(26:14):
engineer the path to that topic.
I work as if I already knowthat future, and I bring it to
my present, which is the actualtopic of the next episode.
So stay tuned.
All the episodes mentioned inthis one will be in the extended
show notes on PauletteErato.
com, so go check those out.
And that's a burrito.
(26:36):
Hey, mira, if thisepisode made you feel
some kind of way, dígame.
DM me on Instagram,or send me a text.
You can do that rightfrom your phone.
If you want to be a guest onthe show and put your story
out there too, check out theguest form on my website at
PauletteErato com slash guest.
Yep, just my name,PauletteErato.
(26:58):
com slash guest.
Y no se te olvide quehay más perks when you
join the newsletter.
Todos estos links estánen los show notes.
Muchísimas gracias foryour support, y hasta la
próxima vez, cuídate bien.
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