This transcript is auto-generated and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.
Tyler Jorgenson (00:01.202)
Welcome out to Biz Ninja Entrepreneur Radio. I am your host, Tyler Jorgensen. And today we have somebody who is an absolute legend, whose name is synonymous with innovation, both on the football field and in the world of entrepreneurship. The first time I’ve had a pro football Hall of Famer on the show and who is renowned for his dynamic quarterback style during his 18 year NFL career.
But beyond the gridiron, our guest, Fran Tarkenton, has also channeled his relentless drive into entrepreneurship. He’s founded over 20 successful companies, becoming a passionate advocate for small business development. Welcome out to the show, Fran Tarkenton.
Fran Tarkenton (00:37.974)
companies.
Fran Tarkenton (00:44.642)
Doug, glad to be here.
Tyler Jorgenson (00:46.71)
So I love to dive right, we’re gonna go backwards and forwards through this interview a little bit, but I wanna go early on in your life. When was that first moment that you realized you were an entrepreneur?
Fran Tarkenton (00:51.182)
Good.
Fran Tarkenton (00:59.596)
When I was five years old, I lived in Washington, D.C. And I, on Saturday mornings, I took a little wagon to the Safeway grocery store. And everybody, that’s how they shop for groceries back there. They didn’t drive a mile or half a mile. They took, they walked to the grocery store. And I had a little wagon on Saturdays.
Tyler Jorgenson (01:05.922)
Okay?
Fran Tarkenton (01:28.928)
and I would put the ladies packages in my wagon, go a block or two and they’d give me maybe 10 cents. I don’t think they gave me as much as a quarter. But that’s where it started. Then I had a paper route and then I moved to Washington DC and then I moved to Athens, Georgia and I worked on chicken farms in the summertime.
And I had jobs in all the off seasons. At 18 years old, going to the University of Georgia, playing for the Bulldogs, I became the number one salesperson of insurance in the state of Georgia for a big, large insurance company based in Boston. Went to pro football, made $12,500 my first year in football. I was a star, right?
Tyler Jorgenson (02:26.741)
Yeah.
Fran Tarkenton (02:27.086)
And I worked in the off season because I didn’t make any money in the season. And I worked for a company, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I knocked on the doors of shipping clerks and I want them to their goods from the Dakotas to Minnesota to Chicago and back. They paid me $600 a month. And so my life started early, as you can see, being an entrepreneur. And I’ve always worked. My first salary in football was $12,500.
Tyler Jorgenson (02:48.375)
Yep.
Fran Tarkenton (02:55.662)
So I worked in the off season. So I’ve worked all my life. What’s interesting in that era, nobody made me money in football, but I’m the only one that works in the off season. And it was healthy and good because the reason people can get into pro football, pro basketball, pro baseball, is they start young. And I think business same way.
Not many athletes of my generation worked in the offseason. Not many athletes of this generation works in the offseason. Now, they do television, right? The Peyton boys do television. It’s all related to what they did in sport. My whole thing, here I am 85 years old. I just had an hour and half meeting with one of my top guys. It’s the most exciting time I’ve ever lived in.
Tyler Jorgenson (03:37.356)
Sure.
Fran Tarkenton (03:52.6)
We can do more business-wise than ever, ever, And we use technology, AI, all the marketing. How do you get people to look at your product or service? it’s fun. We do it well, and that’s kind of my history.
Tyler Jorgenson (04:10.369)
Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (04:15.404)
Fran, I think that we might be related because I also started when I was five years old by selling things to the old ladies in the neighborhood. I also had a paper route and my dad grew up on a chicken ranch. So I feel like we’re long lost brothers. Yeah. I love how you worked in the off season. You worked while you were a college athlete. It’s so different today. And I think that
Fran Tarkenton (04:30.008)
Yeah, we got there,
Tyler Jorgenson (04:45.054)
Although business has changed a lot, how has your leadership style evolved while resources and business have also changed?
Fran Tarkenton (04:53.646)
That’s a really good question. I, as a quarterback, playing four years in the high school and we won the state championship. I played four years at the University of Georgia, we won the SEC championship. I played 18 years in the National Football League and I was totally involved in putting in our offense. Not only back in our day, nobody sent the plays in.
quarterbacks called the place. I did better than that after my third or fourth year of calling plays. I put the passing game in and so that just evolved and during that time I never chewed out a receiver who dropped the ball. I never chewed out anybody in the line that missed a block and
Deacon Jones or Merlin Olson, since you’re in LA, would hit on me. it was, it just, that wasn’t leadership to me. I spent all my time with my teammates. I spent more time with my offensive linemen than anybody else because if they couldn’t protect me, I couldn’t throw it. And so leadership was…
important to me there and I didn’t want to be, you know, the quarterback who makes the most money. Even back then we make the most money. But I, I, I’m a team guy. I, I, I, I, I, I lived and died with my teammates linemen, defensive players. That was my entire life during the football season. And we built that camaraderie that you’ve got to have and trust that you’ve got to have. But I found out as
as I move in business, you’ve got to have that in business. You’ve got to have great leadership in business and you’ve got to talk to people and you’ve got to listen to people. And so I’ve always done that and it makes me smarter and it makes me more effective and I’m more open to new ideas. So.
Fran Tarkenton (07:17.678)
If I’ve got a way to do business today and tomorrow, I find this a better way, I’m there. I’m not stuck here.
Tyler Jorgenson (07:26.038)
That’s a really powerful leadership style. One that I try to do my best with as well is really staying connected to people, building that camaraderie, living in rapport. And I’m also not hypercritical, right? I don’t wanna attack people, break them down. They’re probably already aware of the mistake they made. Did you have a mentor or somebody who guided you into this? Where did you learn leadership?
Fran Tarkenton (07:51.694)
I learned it from a lot of people. Let’s start with quarterback play. When I got in, I was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1961. The great quarterbacks of that era and the era before were Otto Graham for the Cleveland Browns. The great coaches were Lombardi and Tom Landry and Don Schula and later on my own guy, but Grant. When I got…
you know, into pro football at age 21, I went to see Sid Luckman, a Hall of Fame quarterback from the Chicago Bears. I spent two days with him. Tell me what you do and how you do it. In the 40s and 50s, there’s a guy named Otto Graham. he was the Patrick Mahomes of today. And I spent hours and days with him to ask him the question, tell me how to play. Tell me how you do it.
What’s your secret? I’ve never had an original thought. It’s all come from somebody else. And I look at the coaches I played for in pro football, the Landrys and Pro Bowl and Vince Lombardi and Don Schula. These guys were all different. None of them were the same. They were tremendous coaches.
And now the coaches today that are great coaches that I’ve gotten to know, they’re all different. They have a different approach. Oh, they teach blocking and tackling and passing and how you do all that stuff, but they were totally different. Nick Saban is a great friend of mine, pretty good coach. He’s one of the greatest coaches ever been, six or seven.
NCAA championships. And just about maybe two months ago, he got placed down Jupiter, Florida. My wife and I go down to Palm Beach and quarterbacks always pick up check, so I pick up his check. But I said to him, what I’ve just said to you, all these great coaches, including him, are all different.
Fran Tarkenton (10:15.478)
And I said, what’s that mean to you? He says, I understand that because we are all different, but we are authentic. We don’t try to be somebody else. Nick Saban doesn’t try to be Lombardi. Tom Landry doesn’t try to be. Authenticity is what leadership really means, right? You gotta be who you are and not try to be somebody else because if you try to be somebody else.
You’re not going to be authentic. And Saban understood that. And every coach that I’ve ever been around to ask that question, they all came with that type of answer. It’s their own style. If you try to be somebody that you’re not, you’re a phony. And these guys aren’t phony. They’re the real.
Tyler Jorgenson (10:46.978)
Hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (11:07.104)
Yeah. As you transitioned from your career in football into business, and you’ve had an illustrious career now in entrepreneurship, what is a major challenge or failure that you faced and how did you overcome it?
Fran Tarkenton (11:25.01)
I wasn’t a real good loser.
And I don’t think any of us are. And if I missed a pass or I threw an interception, I thought I let my team down. It was preparation, preparation, preparation, preparation. And I found out early on, the more preparation you have, the less mistakes you’ll make. And that is true. But I also understand,
that you can’t live on your morals. Just because you were good yesterday and you threw touchdown passes yesterday or you had success with your business yesterday, if you’re not pushing the envelope to get better, to get more efficient, to get smarter, then you die. And now we’re going faster than we’ve ever gone in the history of life, right?
whether it be politics, whether it be business, now we got AIs come in. And all of a sudden, AIs changed in the world, right before our eyes. And it’s what it is. I watched the people went up outer space, come back to Florida yesterday. Unbelievable, how does this happen? They stayed up there, what, for nine months? Supposed to stay for nine days?
Tyler Jorgenson (12:38.453)
yeah.
Fran Tarkenton (12:58.968)
Who builds the little thing that takes them up and brings them back to earth? And the world is working and going so fast and we’re learning so fast and we got technology to drive it. And we’ve got to never be satisfied with what we know today or how good we think we are today. Because if you do and you don’t keep going forward, you’ll get slapped right in the head.
Tyler Jorgenson (13:27.33)
I always like when somebody who’s 85 can talk to us about staying future proof, right? And I think it speaks to your longevity of both your health and your success in that you don’t rest on your laurels. And you’re a living example of this concept because it’s especially in the age of AI, if you rest for a month, it’s like you rested for 10 years.
Fran Tarkenton (13:36.39)
Ha
Tyler Jorgenson (13:55.998)
There’s a lot happening right now. What are you most excited about in the, I mean, you mentioned how this is the most exciting part of business for you right now. What are you most excited about?
Fran Tarkenton (14:06.04)
Yeah, I’m excited that the opportunity to have success today in business and in life is better than it’s ever been. You know, one of my great mentors was Sam Walton who started Walmart. And I did so much business with him and he didn’t have the technology that they have today. He was in a business that
was dominated by Sears Roebuck and all the great stores that are out there. And he had the idea for Walmart and nobody else would give him any money. And he started in Bentonville, Arkansas. And he started when he was 51 years old. He died when he was 72 years old without any technology. He had the biggest company in the world. He hired more people than anybody in the world.
a different way for a store like Penny’s or J’s to me and he was one of my mentors. Now, when I say mentor, he just sat down and let me give you how to do things. I went to maybe 50 store openings with him. I helped him bring products in and out of Walmart. I went to him in all kinds of meetings with his employees and with customers.
just watched him and I listened to him and we’d get back in the car and drive to the next store and I’d pump him with questions. And he was a simple man, but a brilliant man, but he didn’t think of himself as a brilliant man. And he built the biggest company in the history of the world that’s still growing and prospering way after his death. He did it in 20 years, 20 years, 51.
Tyler Jorgenson (15:57.529)
yeah.
Fran Tarkenton (16:04.622)
to 71 and then he died in 71.
Tyler Jorgenson (16:09.036)
Wow. I think there’s a lot of lessons in that. you know, for some people, if maybe they haven’t hit the levels of success they want to have yet, no matter what stage of life they are, it’s that you can do a lot with the days in front of you more than you can do with the days behind you. How do you navigate the tension between staying innovative, but also holding true to your traditional values?
Fran Tarkenton (16:36.13)
I don’t have any problem with that. My traditional values are my traditional values. And my traditional values include one thing, treat people with respect of all. I don’t get into arguments. I don’t try to talk anybody into anything. And people say, well, you’re the greatest salesperson ever was. I don’t sell. I partner with people. My partners have been IBM,
when IBM was the Fang stocks in one. And so I just want to be better. I don’t have all the answers. I’m not the smartest guy in the world. How can I be better? Whenever I think I’ve got all the answers, get knocked right in the head. And today is a tough day.
But we have the opportunity, if we’re not born into wealth, and we’re not second or third to generate, I’ve got opportunity to say that a person’s never had before. The opportunity to go out and build your own business or go work for a big company and do well is more available today than ever before. And you don’t have to be a Harvard graduate to get that job or have that success. In fact, I might say,
That might be a hold back for me. I just believe you’ve got to be in the action and you’ve got to be able to take a punch and you’ve got to be able to get along with people and you’ve got to be the right kind of person and the right kind of leader and you’ve got to listen. just yesterday I was talking to one of the guys here, 42 years old, brilliant guy. was talking, I nah, I don’t.
I don’t buy into that Today about two hours ago. I Was back at it asked me more questions. I said I got it Forget what I said yesterday this makes sense
Fran Tarkenton (18:47.822)
It’s pretty cool for me to be able to do that. It’s not hard for me to say I was wrong. Help me out. How can we be more efficient in getting product to the market? So now what we do, I have a company that I bought a year ago that’s been around for a few years that is the best digital marketing company I’ve ever seen. They have done, and I’ve used them a lot.
And we’re doing without marketing. You don’t have a business. And back when I was growing up, the salesman knocked on the door of every little house, right? Or the used car salesman was on the lot telling you how great his car was. Today, that’s archaic. I’ve got to have a more efficient way to tell my story to possible prospects and become customers that I’ve ever done before. And technology allows me
to do that and put out to the world, here’s who we are, here’s what we do. If you have an interest, come talk to us. And I think that we’re seeing a whole revolution of marketing. We have a better understanding of marketing. It’s just not like a sales guy knocking on the door and he’s gonna give you the sales pitch of the lifetime that’s gonna convince you, you should buy his product. And he really doesn’t care whether you do or not.
but he just wants to get your money.
We’re a more savvy than that today. And so the opportunity to go out and most people can’t afford to advertise on television or have billboards out in the streets. But we have technology now that allows you to take your message and your story out to people that would be interested in hearing what you do to get you a prospect that turns into a customer better than ever before.
Tyler Jorgenson (20:44.978)
If you had to start over, let’s say you woke up tomorrow and your entire portfolio was inaccessible and you were gonna launch a new business, what do think you’d do?
Fran Tarkenton (20:56.782)
thought about it. don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Because the things that I have done, you know, I had my insurance license at 18. I didn’t know anything about insurance. was going to college and I and so I somebody said you ought to be in the insurance business.
Tyler Jorgenson (20:57.77)
Hahaha!
Fran Tarkenton (21:23.17)
made sense. So I I studied and got my, passed my test and made sense to me. It was good business. And I started and I became Franklin Life Insurance Company’s best producer in the state of Georgia when I was 18, 19, 20 years old. And back then I had a guy named Walker Ward who worked for Franklin Life Insurance Company based in Boston and he was a regional manager.
said, Mr. Word, what in the world do I do to get a customer? He said, go to your warm market, son, your friends and family. So I went with my friends and family. And then I went from there. Thank God today we have better ways, more efficient ways, more civilized ways to go to market. But the one thing I have never done, I’ve never sold anybody anything. Here’s what we do, here’s how we work.
Can I answer any of questions? Does it make sense to you? No, it doesn’t make sense to me. I said, God bless you, and then I can’t help you. If it does make sense to you, we work. I don’t believe in selling. I don’t believe in selling. I don’t believe in trying to get into someone’s arms. I believe in tell what we do, what our products are, does it interest you or not? You like to go and see, and if they say yes, we go. If they say no, I say, God bless you.
Tyler Jorgenson (22:35.766)
Just making that invitation.
Tyler Jorgenson (22:50.038)
Yeah. I, I agree. think that’s, that’s the right way to sell is, I’m not, I don’t like the, the hard type of closing people and, those, the entire mindset behind that it’s if, you know, a good salesperson’s job is to help somebody make the decision they wanted to make and just, which is just empower them with the right answers and the path forward, help them illuminate that next step. What,
You know, you’ve worked a lot in marketing and finance and you work a lot with small businesses. What is one of the most common stumbling blocks for a small business owner that you’ve seen throughout generations?
Fran Tarkenton (23:23.97)
Yes.
Fran Tarkenton (23:33.006)
that they can do it all by themselves. They’re hardworking people and I can do it all by myself. I found out really quickly that if you’re gonna scale your business, you better have bigger partners. And so I bought a technology out of New York City 100 years ago, it seems, and they couldn’t make it. But the guy was really smart.
So I took over the company, he stayed with the company. after two years, we weren’t doing very well. We did about $100,000 a year and we weren’t making any money. And I was funding the whole thing. And finally, what my chief technical officer, who was my only technical officer, said, I said, we need a partner. We need someone to help us get to market. He said, IBM would be the greatest partner ever. I said, is like, IBM is before all the…
technology companies today or that IBM was everything. And so I called the chairman of IBM named John Akers back in 1979 I think it was. And I said, you know, I got this guy here. He tells me that we got something that IBM would really like and need and da da da da da. And I said, I think he’s stupid. That how could that be? I’m doing $100,000 a year and
in revenue and you’re going to zillion dollars. And but with that humility, I got he set me up with his people. They came down here to see me here and we built a company and we formed a partnership and we went from 100,000 a year and two years later, we’re 120 million a year. But we had IBM who was the
Tyler Jorgenson (25:23.372)
Holy moly.
Fran Tarkenton (25:28.746)
And today, you gotta have partners. I don’t care where you are, how far, you need to have partners that you can bring some value to that can help you go to market more efficiently.
Tyler Jorgenson (25:42.976)
Yeah, I agree. I think a lot of business owners think they can do it alone and they think that it’s a badge of honor that they’re wearing every hat in the business where it’s the actual thing holding them back.
Fran Tarkenton (25:57.24)
Yeah, and that’s true, that’s unfortunate. And everyone I talked to, they talked to me, I said, I cannot do it alone. I cannot win football games alone. I had great coaches, great players, and we got to work together. And now we’ve got what we haven’t had before, technology that allows us to be able to be more efficient and going to market.
Tyler Jorgenson (26:05.92)
Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (26:24.138)
Now, Fran, on this show, I talk about entrepreneurship, but I also talk about how it should fuel the life that we want to have. And I know that you and your wife love to travel and do things. What is something on your personal, not your business, but your personal bucket list you’re going to do in the next 12 months?
Fran Tarkenton (26:40.61)
Well, we’ve got a pretty good, I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do. We just came, in February we go to St. Barts for two weeks. We go down to Palm Beach. I’m in Atlanta, Georgia. So we can get down there in an hour and 20 minutes. My wife is very wealthy. She’s got me a Gulfstream jet. So I can go down there an hour and 40 minutes. We go stay at the Breakers. It’s like another family. We stay down there four times a year.
week, 10 days each time. go out to your world in California. I go out to Napa Valley every year for two weeks. I go to Pebble Beach for two weeks. I had a hole in one when I was 83 years old at Pebble Beach. And so, and so we travel a lot and I can connect to my business when I travel, just like I can talk to you in California and I’m in Atlanta, Georgia. I can get on Zooms and booms and this and do it.
And I do because I like to do this. And so I’m not, I’m not tardy or away from my, my workplace, which is my fun place. Because if I, if I took all that time out and I didn’t stay in touch, I’d be lost.
Tyler Jorgenson (27:49.162)
Yeah. Sure.
Tyler Jorgenson (27:55.744)
Yeah. What about somewhere new? Is there anywhere that you’ve never been that you still want to check out?
Fran Tarkenton (28:01.816)
There’s a place my wife is checking out in LA. As I was mentioning to you. And it’s a five-star resort there. I used to be all over LA. It’s a little bit north of LA. And so I think we’re gonna do that maybe in August of this year and go out there and see. And I haven’t been to LA in years and years and years. So she, my wife is half Italian, greatest cook in the world.
and she is, she can decorate and do everything and she does, she puts the trips together and off we go.
Tyler Jorgenson (28:39.564)
Well, I know that you said the quarterback always picks up the check, but next time you’re in California, dinner’s on me.
Fran Tarkenton (28:43.394)
Yes.
I would never let you pick up my check on you. Sam Walton, who I had a zillion lunches and dinners, I would never let him pick up the check. And I said, and the reason I’m not is I can brag to everybody else that I never, I picked up every check I had with you.
Tyler Jorgenson (29:04.544)
That is true. The fact that you, yeah, that’s fantastic. I absolutely loving all of that. I’m so grateful that you took the time to come on the show. I resonate with so much of what you’ve shared. I’m grateful that you so openly share your experience and your wisdom. And, you know, just thank you so much. I’m grateful for it. And to all my business, just wherever you’re listening, watching or tuning in, it’s your turn to go out and do something.
