NCAA's NIL Rule, Dad Lunch Notes, Social Media & Mental Health with Dr. Chris Yandle

My guest is HUGE in Korea! He’s also fast-becoming famous here in the US.

Dr. Chris Yandle can thank his 8th-grade daughter, Addison, for worldwide fame and adulation. If not for her letting Dad know how much she enjoyed #DadLunchNotes, he might’ve stopped writing them.

As it were, the day Chris didn’t slip a note into Addison’s lunch, she asked what was up. That let Chris know she was not only reading his notes but enjoying them.

Following appearances on The Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and more recently, People magazine, Chris’ book, Lucky Enough, is starting to sell like kimchi in Korea.

It’s an incredible story.

Let’s go back to August 2017. Chris was bummed about a job loss and thought writing an encouraging note to Addison might elevate his own mood (as well as encourage his daughter).

Something I just realized. Aside from South Korean dads, I may be the target-market for Chris’ book. Regular listeners know I’ve long been a fan of handwritten personal-notes. Together with my recently becoming a #GirlDad, it’s no wonder I bought Lucky Enough as soon I heard of it.

The book reminds me of How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (read my review and other book recommendations here), which ironically has been the most-recommended book on the podcast. Both books—Lucky Enough & “How to Win Friends”—make you want to serve others.

On this episode, we discuss high rates of anxiety & depression among teen girls. The numbers are staggering. After 2013, the percentage of adolescent girls suffering from mental health disorders jumped 250% (source: The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt). With this in mind, Chris & I discuss how parents can navigate today’s hyper-connected online environment.

Chris is a native of South Louisiana. In a past-life, he was a college athletics administrator at “The U” (University of Miami), Georgia Tech & Baylor. I ask him how common it was to see high-profile alumni on campus. Guys like Jimmy Graham, Jonathan Vilma, Michael Irvin, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Edgerin James. And whether having them hanging around the facilities helped with recruiting.

We discuss how they were able to keep student-athletes out of trouble at “The U,” and how Chris helped to prepare them for media interviews. (Chris is an award-winning public relations professional at both the K-12 and college levels.)

We also talk about NCAA’s new “name, image, and likeness” (NIL) policy. Chris believes one of the reasons he was pushed out of college athletics is because he didn’t like how student-athletes were treated. After all, coaches were making millions of dollars, while young men and women got nothing. But now, thanks to the new NIL rule, every NCAA athlete is given the opportunity to profit off their name, image, and likeness.

Chris is a strong advocate for higher education. He said he’s always believed: you’ll get somewhere in life based on your education. In fact, he recalls a pivotal moment in high school when his teacher said to him, “You’ll never amount to anything in life until jackasses learn how to fly.”

His teacher’s words left a mark. But by taking those words personally, they also inspired him. He found himself newly-motivated to get better grades. He earned a PhD.

Now 39 years old, Chris recently moved his family home to Louisiana. He said he’s enjoying re-connecting with his daughter.

And that, my friends, is the power of a personal-note! True connection. It’s clear personal-notes have enhanced and enriched Chris’ bond with his daughter. (I’ve seen a similar effect from handwritten notes in my life).

What’s cool is you can’t know the impact a personal-note will have on its recipient. But I can almost guarantee you this. In the age of email, texting and DMs, if you take the time to write someone a handwritten personal-note, there’s a very good chance they’ll keep that note forever.

When Chris began writing he didn’t know he’d improve the lives of people on the other side of the globe. How could he? But the ripple effect of taking two minutes out of his day, jotting down an encouraging note to his daughter, then dropping it in her lunchbox—that ripple effect he created has carried all the way across the Pacific Ocean.

This conversation was the highlight of my week. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Questions asked:

Were there a lot of University of Miami alumni that would hang around the facilities?
For example, when you would bring in recruits, would [alumni] be hanging around quite a bit?
How do you keep those [student-athletes] out of trouble off the field?
Are you coaching them on how to interview well?
How much money would famous guys like The Rock, Edgerrin James, Michael Irvin, Bernie Kosar have made under the new NIL policy?
What’s your take on the new NIL rule?
Would a company be throwing their money away if the [quarterback] at Alabama doesn’t start?
Did you follow Baylor’s National Championship run this year?
What are the similarities between [programs at] Baylor University & University of Miami?
Do you think it was easier to get a job at those schools [Miami & Baylor] at that time?
How much do you think social media has changed college sports?
Why are you such a strong advocate for higher education?
What are your thoughts on the astronomical cost of college & its diminishing value . . . because of how much education you can get [for] free online?
What % of a PhD program is the dissertation aspect of it?
Could dissertations be about anything [under this umbrella of higher education]?
What does “adjunct” mean?
As a part-time teacher, do you lecture?
Do you think the lockdowns of the past year-and-a-half have been harmful to kids?
The first note in your book [dated August 17, 2017], is that the first time you had ever written anything to your daughter?
In the book, you write—“As a leader, I didn’t always follow the words I spoke and yet lost my job because of it”—what happened?
What advice would you give someone who has a daughter, and wants to help develop / maintain strong mental health?
Is wisdom something you can learn at a university?
Did you need to save money [in order to write the book]?
Has the book’s success boosted your daughter’s popularity at school?
What do you think about schools requiring students to wear masks?
Do you have a favorite book?
What is your favorite coffee?
Would you like to be more famous than you are right now?
Do you have any plans to write another book?

Fun questions:

Social media – net negative or net positive for society?
If you could spend 2 weeks anywhere in the world and money were no object—where would you go?
You’re a Jeopardy contestant, and you get to choose the final category, what category are you choosing?
[Rapid Fire Question] Where did Drew Bledsoe go to school?
[Rapid Fire Question] Who were the 2 teams playing when the band came onto the field & there was a touchdown scored at the end of the game?
[Rapid Fire Question] Who was the guy, around the time of Josh Booty, who was a stud baseball/football player, who went on to play baseball after playing quarterback in college?
Same Jeopardy scenario, but as you enter Final Jeopardy, the category is NCAA Sports. And you’re tied with two other contestants [each] with $10,000. How much are you wagering?
Who would be your choice to host Jeopardy?
Let’s say you’re Athletic Director at an SEC school [and you’re given the opportunity to hire] Bill Belichick for 6 years or Nick Saban for 3 years?
If you were hosting a dinner party at your house and money were no object—are you having 4, 6 or 12 guests?
If I gave you $100,000, and forced you to invest it in Apple, Amazon, Spotify, or Airbnb, where are you putting the entire amount of money [$100,000]?
If somebody dropped $1 million in your lap tomorrow, what would you do with it?
Is not wanting something just as good as having it?