Thrive After Sports w/ Taj Dashaun

By Bridget Case: What good is an athletic mindset if you're not applying it to something that you actually care about?  These wise words from today's guest, Taj Dashaun.  Taj is a former college football player at Stony Brook University who now helps fellow athletes "Thrive After Sports".  A Coach, speaker, and podcast host, Taj ignites the inner athlete within us all to leave our own unique legac...

Former Mount Union basketball player Kyle Scelza is a prime example of transferring the athletic mindset into everyday life. When Kyle and I first connected, I could tell he was a go-getter. But like many former athletes, he didn’t have a clear picture of the life he wanted to build for himself post-sports. In this interview, Kyle and I discuss our time working together, and how he’s been able to...

I woke up out of my sleep at 3am last night to record this episode. My mind was still running from the calls I had yesterday with former athletes who feel like they’re “running out of time” to “figure out their life.” I’ll share the same message with you, that I shared with them: It’s completely normal to feel lost sometimes. We've all had chapters in our lives when we had absolutely no idea what...

Like many former athletes, Antoine resented the way his football career ended. Long after his playing days were over, he found himself struggling to bring the passion he had at wide receiver, into everyday life. In the full interview, Antoine and I dive into our time working together, and what he’s started building to uplift and empower others. His advice to former athletes is to be intentional ab...

When did networking become a game of trying to strategize and “leverage” people rather than building genuine relationships? I know I’m not the only one who has an inbox full of impersonal, self-serving, copied and pasted messages. It seems that many of us have forgotten that networking works best when it’s built on genuine, human connections. I made this episode to share some networking tips for r...

Being “too proud” to ask for help is something that hindered my progress for years. I was caught in a vicious cycle of reaching out to people, only to blow them off or tell them “I’m fine” when they’d ask how I was doing. I was so afraid to look weak, that I burned bridges with the people who genuinely wanted to help me. Eventually I came to realize that my way of being wasn’t just impacting me, i...

If you get any value from this episode, please leave a rating/review of the podcast and share with a friend. Thanks for listening! Connect with me at https://www.tajdashaun.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tajdashaun/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachtajdashaun YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdQgi_hDXaP5-6OtX_Nyf4A

Let’s face it… Creating a better life is hard. This is why we all know people who have big dreams, but don’t put the work in to make those dreams become reality. One of the saddest things in the world is hearing the stories of people who gave up just before the miracle was about to happen. They’re forever left wondering “What if?” People who get results understand that there’s a huge difference be...

If you’re reading this right now, this is a reminder that you have absolutely nothing to prove to anyone. While I think it’s important to have humility and take advice/feedback from others, I also know how important it is to take everyone’s opinion with a grain of salt. Something that’s been extremely impactful for me in recent years is acknowledging the fact that my time here on earth is limited....

While the stakes are dramatically different, there’s no denying the similarities between the life of a soldier, and the life of an elite athlete. I’d like to thank Paul Edwards for inviting me on his show, and more importantly, for being vulnerable enough to share his experience transitioning out of the military after serving two tours in Iraq. We had a great conversation that I’m hoping will enab...

I’d like to share something for all my guys out there who may be struggling with women. I’m not a dating coach, but as a career coach for former athletes, I feel responsible for helping people improve every single area of their lives, including relationships. Single guys often tell me that they have trouble attracting women once they’re no longer playing sports at an elite level. Guys in relations...

Do you cheer for yourself the same way you cheer for your favorite teams? A few years ago, I realized that whenever I watched sports, I was showing up with a level of excitement and enthusiasm that I wasn’t bringing to my own life. Whether the teams I cheered for won or lost, it ultimately had zero impact on my future. Although I work with transitioning/retired athletes, there’s never been a time...

I consumed more alcohol in my first 2 years after college than I did during my entire 4 years on campus. I drank (and smoked, and isolated myself) because I felt like a failure. Not only was I ashamed of the way my football career turned out, I was also struggling to figure out what I was going to do next. As time went by, it became clear to me that I was going to have to stop trying to escape my...

Former University of Richmond linebacker Justin Rubin came to me with a clear vision for his life after football. All he needed was a foot in the door. My time working with Justin wasn’t about teaching him anything new, it was about reminding him what he’s truly capable of off the field. In this interview, Justin touches on an important topic. It’s a message that I work very hard to get across to...

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6am, Matt Mounier hosts “Unlocking Your Athlete Mindset” calls to help former athletes leverage our athletic mindset long after our playing days are over. A few weeks ago, Matt invited me on as a guest speaker to talk about having confidence in life after sports. One of my favorite things that Matt and I discussed was how confidence must be self-generated whe...

One of the many things I appreciate about Joi is that when it comes to helping former athletes, she’s always ready to talk solutions. On this episode, we took a deep dive into what it takes to effectively transition out of sports, and into the rest of our lives. Most of us have been conditioned to blindly chase money, and chasing money gets pretty old after a while. Sometimes we have to look at th...

Former Boise State tight end Connor Peters felt like a failure when he didn’t make it to the NFL. Like many elite athletes, Connor didn’t have a clear vision for his life after sports. Having no outlet to express the intense drive that he developed as an athlete, Connor found himself deeply unfulfilled in his first job after college.  He thought to himself: “It doesn’t really matter what I do for...

6 years ago, around this same time of year, I had a hard time watching football on TV. Just the sound of the whistle reminded me that I would never play the game I love again.  I talk to dozens of former athletes every week who still have a hard time watching their sport.  Some of them stopped playing nearly a decade ago. If you’ve had a similar experience, I want you to know that just because you...

Former MSU-Denver volleyball player Stephanie Laraway felt like she had lost a part of herself when her college career ended. She eventually grew tired of just “coping” with these feelings, and started being intentional about defining who she was outside of the jersey. Steph realized that if she wanted to help others, she had to heal herself first. In this interview, Stephanie and I discuss our ti...

If you could create a future version of yourself 10 years, 20 years, or even 30 years into the future, what would this person be like? What would people say about you? What would you be known for? I’ve created a future version of myself named “T-40”. It stands for “40 year old Taj”. Everything I do today is geared towards bringing the vision that I have for my 40 year old self to fruition. No matt...

When I worked in a corporate environment, people typically came in on Mondays complaining about being back at work. I was one of them. It always bothered me that I was spending so much time and energy in a place where people were just as uninspired as I was. I was only there for a paycheck.  I was only there because I was unclear about what I really wanted in life. Eventually, I stopped complainin...

Looking back at my 22 year old self, I see a completely lost, frustrated ex-football player struggling with his identity. The truth is: I couldn’t find the answers I needed because I was asking the wrong questions. Everything started to shift once I realized that the questions I ask myself have a direct impact on the outcomes I produce. “Who am I without football?” became “Who do I have the opport...

Race isn’t something I talk about often. From the very beginning, my focus has been on helping guide former athletes of all races, from any sport. However, I’ve noticed a pattern among athletes of color that I can’t help but address: In my experience, black athletes (including me) have a harder time opening up, being vulnerable, and asking for help. I believe this is especially true in the case of...

I’d like to thank former Southern Connecticut / retired pro football player Andre Privott for being vulnerable enough to share the internal struggles he overcame during these past few months. I’ve really enjoyed working with this guy and couldn’t be more proud of how far he’s come in such a short period of time. He went from letting the fear of failure hold him back, to landing his first 2 clients...

This might be the most important topic I’ve covered in a while. What do you do when you feel like you’re not passionate about anything? What if you can’t find your “purpose”? I made this episode for those of you who feel stuck.  You know you want more out of life, but you don’t know how to get it. I want you to have the freedom of knowing that there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re in the pro...