There are two versions of John Rocker. The one you think you know from the headlines, and the one who sat down for this conversation.

In Part 2, John takes us back to a cheap hotel room off I-295 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was demoted, pitching scared, and counting ERA percentages in his head mid-inning just to cope. Most people would want to forget a moment like that. John built his whole career on top of it.

Not because a coach pulled him aside. Not because he discovered some magic pitch. But because he made a conscious decision to stop being afraid.

What followed was a run that still doesn't get talked about enough. From a 4.5 ERA to 2.1 over 270 innings. From mop-up guy to one of the most electric closers in the game. From Double-A Jacksonville to the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

John also opens up about what it really feels like to close a game, the adrenaline, the pacing in the bullpen like a bull in a gate, how you bounce back from a blown save, and why the mentality of a closer is something you either have or you develop the hard way.

And yeah, the media stuff comes up too. John explains what it was like to have words pulled from a 10-hour conversation and turned into a national headline, and why he stopped doing print media entirely.

This is a conversation about adversity, self-belief, and what happens when a person finally bets on themselves. Whether the listener is in sports, business, or anything in between, there is something real and useful in this one.

Available on all major audio platforms.

Subscribe and leave a comment if this one resonated with you.

One of baseball's most dominant closers sits down with Craig Harvey for a real, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to win.

John Rocker, the fireballing lefty who terrorized lineups with a 100 mph fastball and a filthy slider, opens up about the preparation, obsession, and mental battles that defined his career with the Atlanta Braves. From growing up in Gwinnett County and turning down the University of Georgia to go pro, to going toe to toe with Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell, and Manny Ramirez, Rocker breaks down the chess match closers play every single time they take the mound.

But this conversation goes way beyond baseball.

Craig and John dig into the parallels between pitching and business. How the O-2 count mindset applies to anyone on a hot streak. Why falling behind 2-0 demands real strategic thinking over emotion. And how the mental shift from pitching NOT to fail versus pitching TO WIN can change everything about where you end up.

John gets honest about years of grinding in the minors, calculating his ERA mid-delivery on the mound, secretly hoping the 1994 strike would give him an excuse to quit, and the one night in Jacksonville, Florida that completely rewired how he competed. That night led him to the big leagues, the World Series, and 91 career saves.

This episode is about accountability, preparation, grit, and what closing really means in baseball and in life.

In this episode you'll hear about how John got drafted in the 17th round despite elite talent and why he let it happen, what the O-2 count teaches us about attacking when things are going your way, the danger of playing it safe when you should be pressing, why Andrew Jones barely made the Hall of Fame despite having once in a generation ability, how Rocker studied hitters and sequenced pitches in real time, the minor league low point that eventually led to his breakthrough, how NLP and reframing failure changed his entire career, and why your best years might still be ahead of you even when it doesn't feel like it.

Subscribe for Part 2 where Craig and John go even deeper into mental mechanics, visualization, and what elite performers do differently when the stakes are highest.

In this episode of The Drive, Craig Harvey and Evan Proach use the Three Little Pigs as a framework for something most people don't expect from a children's book: a real conversation about what it takes to build a business that survives when things go sideways. Evan reads it to his daughter and makes sure she understands that bacon and bits are lazy, Wilbur does the work, and the wolf always shows up eventually. The question is whether what you built can take the hit.

The bulk of the conversation is Craig and Evan unpacking what "brick" actually means in business: Belief, Resilience, Innovation, Character, and Knowledge. It's honest, a little rough around the edges, and grounded in real experience, including delivered death benefit checks, passed-on shortcuts that cost millions, and the kind of hard-earned perspective that only comes from staying in one lane long enough to actually master it.