Welcome to Your Brand Amplified, the podcast where we interview marketers, publicists, and brands

to learn their stories, what makes them tick, and tips and tricks that make a difference.

I'm so thrilled to have Andy Nere of Complete Game Consulting on the show today. Andy, you are multi-talented, you're a former pro-athlete, you are a current podcaster, you've written a book, you work with insurance professionals to help them figure out how to get the right mindset and invoke the right appointments and handle everything in between starting and getting your clients in the door, right?

So first of all, thank you for being here.

Yeah, thank you. I'm looking forward to this.

Me too.

And I'd love for you to talk about that because I noticed on your LinkedIn,

you talk about being a failed professional athlete, and so I want you to talk just a little bit about what does that mean to you?

And how did that help your current trajectory?

That's a really good question because I don't share this story all that much except when I'm on stage so I was a chunky kid

And growing up as a chunky kid you don't like attention very much and looks a lot of people pick on you and you know and so I think as a kid I was somebody always shied away from attention and just wanted to fit in because I didn't feel like I ever fit in and I bring that up because there was one place I always

felt comfortable getting attention and standing out and that was on the pitcher's mound and eventually

you know I grew out of my childhood chubbiness and had a really good high school

baseball career which led to pitching at the

for the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee here in Wisconsin and then ultimately I earned the

opportunity to sign a free agent contract with the Milwaukee Burst, my hometown team.

And a lot of people hear that and they go, oh man, that must have been awesome.

And it was, right?

It was great, but if I'm being honest, like I realize I did not live up to my full potential playing pro-base ball because I lived in fear.

And it tying it back to my childhood, when I got to pro ball, I didn't feel like I fit in. I was playing with guys who were

drafted a lot higher than me, signed for a lot more money than me, and in many ways a lot more

talented than me. And so all I try to do is fit in and that's why it was easy to

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