Mike O'Connor, four years MLB, rock star, living out of the D.C. area. Yeah.
Two kids? Two kids, yeah. Beautiful family. Five and 12. Love it. So we interviewed you before,
so I know that Richard likes the same questions. I'll ask a couple of them, and then I want to jump
into who you are. Let's start off with this. What is life about? Yeah,
that's a good question. Let's go deep right at the beginning. Yeah, hit me hard. Yeah, I just found
out I was going to do this earlier this afternoon, so it reminded me when I was a pitcher. I was a
left-handed pitcher coming out of the bullpen. The phone just rings. You just raised your right
hand, though. I got the mic in my left hand. For me, life, you know, I think it's,
you know, my why at this point in my life is my family. I mean, I got a 5- and 12-year-old just
trying to give them the best life that I can. I finished playing about 10 years ago, played 12
years professional baseball, and had to figure out another thing, and I got into the... insurance
business in 2016 and been ever been in it ever since i love it tell me about what family means to
you a little bit more like what do you do how do you spend time quality because most parents today
don't spend quality time with their kids i'm just being real yeah i think a lot of my success was
just due to my parents and how involved they were with my life and i think them being my role model
i mean you know i i could work around the clock with what i do but i try to have you know
boundaries with what i do as far as you know being at all my kids events sports you know taking
them outside after school and just trying to get them out doing things um not on not on ipads and
playing playing video games all day so yeah i think it's important you know to spend time with your
kids you know my dad always you know found time to play catch with me in the backyard um he would
catch catch my bullpens even when i was in pro ball even when he you know take ball baseballs off
his shins so i think you know i don't his example has been You know, kind of how I try my parents,
what they did for me is what I try to give to my kids. Amazing. What is the one million dollar
lesson that you could add value to this room about what made you the best in your sport?
Yeah, I think baseball is a huge mental game. A lot of people would say it's, you know, the game of
failure. I think, you know, everybody has ups and downs in their business.
And it's just, you know, trying to get better each day, be a good person, be a good teammate. I
think that's, you know, kind of how I try to live my life and why I've been able to have success
outside of sports. What have you learned through business now, taking your sports background,
mindset, belief system, attitude, perseverance, all of that into the business world? And how do you
become successful in business now? Yeah. I mean, going back to baseball, I mean, I think, you know,
there's no there was no shortcuts. Right. I had to work hard all throughout. I mean, I was a good
player in high school. was good enough to go play D1 at George Washington University as a walk-on,
you know, just worked hard while I was there, got bigger, stronger, was able to get drafted, and
went from a college walk-on to a major league player just through, I think, just dedication and
hard work. So, I mean, I think, you know, getting into the industry I'm in now, just trying to, you
know, start at the bottom and learn everything I can and just try to get better each day. What is
your goals in business now? Because obviously you achieved top of the world for sports. And now
what's your goals in business? That's a good question. Yeah, I think I'm in a good spot with my
company. I work with Gallagher. We're the third largest insurance broker in the world. We can do a
lot of different things. I work with current athletes on some of their insurance needs. I do
property and casualty insurance. And then I work with mostly real estate and tech business owners.
what we're able to do I think you know can be valuable if something goes wrong I mean hopefully
they don't need it but you know it's a service that people need and I think we we do a great job
doing that what's the most costly financial mistake or mistake you've ever made in your
professional career yeah I think when I was young just not being more involved in my finances and
not knowing more about that I mean you have an opportunity in sports to make a lot of money in a
short period of time at a young age and I think You know, NIL wasn't a thing. So college wasn't
really preparing guys for that. I mean, I was a finance major and, you know, in college and a lot
of the stuff we learned wasn't things that helped me with financial literacy. So yeah, I think guys
now have, there's a lot more out there, but there is a lot more, you know, pitfalls, things that
guys run into as well. But yeah, I think if I would have been more involved in some of that stuff
earlier and knew more, you know, maybe things would be a little different. Give one piece of advice
that you would want to for kids for parents of kids that you've learned that could make them maybe
a better parent. Sure. Yeah, I've you know, I've coached a lot of kids at one point. I did a lot of
that when I played. I think just finding what your kids like. All right. I think a lot of times,
you know, parents have their sports and things that they like and just, you know, allowing your
kids to tell you what they're really passionate about. And then, you know. allowing them to do that
i think that's huge i think a lot of times people push their kids in directions that they wanted to
go and not what the kids want to go thanks bro appreciate you thank you