256. Harnessing the Power of Advocacy: Inspiring Stories of Impact and Transformation with Kristoffer Doura

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Kristoffer Doura, it is such an honor and a privilege to be speaking with you today. Thank you so much. And again, I love your backdrop.

00:02:10
Thank you for taking the time. I'm going to come pick you up for lunch. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. We had such a nice conversation before I hit record.

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And I want to go over this again because you had such a remarkable career in the NFL playing for the Miami Dolphins. And I love when you see professional athletes transition into another field and now know motivational speaker. You work with nonprofits and you're in the financial services industry and you've really made an amazing transition because sometimes that can be really hard and I want to touch on that. But first, can you tell me how you got to where you are today and what was that driving force behind you that led you to play football and then take it to the next level at the professional level? Sure.

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Well, I'm a God fearing man and I have to give all my praise to the Almighty. I never in my life thought I was going to end up pro as a professional sports player, NFL at that. My parents 40 years ago left the West Caribbean Islands and decided we want to offer our children education to have an opportunity. We and my siblings were all born in Queens, flush in New York, and we spent a few years there but realized that it wasn't a good climate for the eldest sibling because she had asthma. So we had to transition.

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We came to Miami, Florida, and it was a great place to be. And growing up here, you see a lot of different perspectives because the weather, obviously, the taxes, and obviously different reasons why it's know, year round tropical climate for you to go to the beach. There's never a time in Miami where you can't go to the beach, whether it's December through February. I love Miami, and for me, being in the DC metro area, it's like a two hour flight, two and a half hour flight, and you're there. So it's glorious.

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Growing up here, it's very much sports basketball, football, soccer, and many other sports. But when you develop in high school and you have every coach talking to you about, hey, come join this sport, that sport. For me, it wasn't something that I did all my life, and it was new to me, organized sports. You play in the neighborhood and you have fun. But when I really felt like it was a calling for me was my senior year in high school.

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Okay? One of the head coaches said, hey, son, you look wide. And I said, well, what does that mean? He's like, well, you like, you could bring some value to the team playing football and have some fun. Well, for me, when growing up in the household, my mother always pressed education, and education was what they couldn't take away from me.

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And I said that earlier in my life, that if I have an education, it can probably open up some doors I probably never get an opportunity to walk through if I'm not educated. So already when the coach reached out to me, I thought, College. I said, you know what? My parents are not going to stroke a check. For me to go to a private university, I need to kind of figure this out, and if not, I need to transition and go to the military or do something different.

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I just didn't want to stay where I was at. After high school, I tried out my spring year, junior year football, and liked it because I built Camaraderie. I built friendship. Well, in your size, too, right? I was six foot, 5285 pounds in high school.

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You can already imagine I had the specimen size to go to college. I started off playing football, really my senior year, and I had one really great highlight, which opened up a lot of doors for me. I had a sack playing defensive tackle. Wow. Play was amazing because it was the most rush I got ever playing a game.

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And I saw everybody chanting, everybody was excited. I'm like, wow, this is what you get if you do well. So it inspired me to say, I want to play this and keep playing this. Come to find out, I had a lot of opportunities to go to college after that one game. So I said, well, but this is about grace to God.

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I played one year high school sports and now I got all these offers to go to college. I thought about it and reflected university of Charleston in West Virginia. They offered me a full ride and wow, so amazing to know that one. I didn't know where West Virginia was, and then it was a scenario where it was cold, it was going back to the Northeast. Right when I realized the options in front of me, I was like, we don't get this twice in life.

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I took the deal. I decided to transition out of Florida and go to University of Charleston. Sandy, I spent five years there. Charleston's amazing. Yeah, it was brother my younger brother lives in Charleston.

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I love it. It's gorgeous there. Yeah. Charleston, West Virginia was a little different from Miami. And being that it's more rural, the University of Charleston had about 1200 students the year I attended.

00:07:23
Oh, you're talking Charleston, West Virginia. West Virginia. I'm thinking Charleston, South Carolina. Okay. That's what everybody thinks.

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Yeah. Okay. Charleston. Yes. And I live near I mean, West Virginia is only 20 miles from me from where I live.

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And it's funny because there are a couple of different Charlestons. There's South Carolina, north Carolina, and then little West Virginia. West Virginia. That's right. I was there for five years, red shirted, and spent the rest of my years focusing on business because I knew that I wanted to be a business professional, a CEO.

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One day of my own being that I continued growing and basically became to be six foot, 785 inch wingspan, 300 pound offensive tackle that had really good hands and feet, I had the opportunity to go to the next level and come to find out we didn't have the ESPN highlights. We didn't have the huge 30,000 student body. And it wasn't a program that got a lot of exposure. However, we had some diamonds in the rough, including myself. Right when I had my certifications and I had my paperwork, I completed my master's in Business Administration and Leadership and knew know, if something doesn't work out for sports, I can fall back into business.

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My graduate school had relationships in Shanghai and they were sending the students to do an internship there. And then you get right into the private sector. When I completed that program, I had two options in front of me. I could continue and do the internship or now I had the NFL that found and by the grace of God, I prayed on it because I said, well, this has been always an opportunity for me as a stepping stone. It wasn't something I dreamed about.

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Oh, I want to go to the league. When I was a kid, I watched a movie with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy called Trading Places and all time favorite movie, the comedy, the plot. When you see which, you know, Eddie Murphy plays that role, switches from being homeless and now becomes a Wall Street person. Dan Ackroyd went from Wall Street to homeless. You see how Eddie Murphy evolved as he was around success and finance investments.

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Really took my attention. Said, you know, I want to be that one day. I want to be successful in Wall Street. So I bring you back to say, well, after completing my master's degree, and I had two options in front of me. I said, I can go to corporate, or I can actually go pro, but if I go pro, I got one shot, and if I don't do it, I'll never find out.

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Right. That was inspiration right there. That made me realize that if it doesn't work out, I can fall back and be a businessman, but I'm going to pursue. I decided to not go to Shanghai and to come back to Florida and walk on to the Miami Dolphins. In 2010.

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Tony Sparano was our head coach who had the Big Tuna still hanging out in the locker room. Jake Long was, you know, the lineman at the time. Chad Henney was our quarterback. It was a great cast, and for me, it was the entry. You know, believe it or not, I did really good.

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I did really good and had an opportunity with the Dolphins at first, built some of my resume. I actually had about a three year career in pro football. That's incredible. And come to find out, when I got with Pittsburgh, that's when everything changed for me. Yeah.

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And it was one of the scariest moments where I had some severe trauma, which basically ended up being a near death experience. Oh, my gosh. By the grace of God. When I realized that football was getting better for me and I was becoming more of a student of the game, developing my skill set, I will never forget that. I was in training camp with Pittsburgh and giving it all I had.

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And for what it was, I literally blacked out on the field and collapsed. And I kid you not. Were you hit? Well, it was basically just pushing my body to the extremity. Okay.

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So it wasn't like a tackle gone bad. It was a collision. It was in a collision. It was dehydration. That really took me out of the game.

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I was really competing at that high level because everybody's good in the league, and everybody is bringing some type of value, but you have to compete. And when I pushed myself to the extremity, my body shut down. I collapsed on that field, Sandy, and didn't know what was going on outside of them picking me up, putting me in an ambulance, and rushing me over to the UPMC Hospital in Pittsburgh. Now, mind you, this is a major talking. You know, there's helipads flying and bringing people in that have went through some serious trauma, and this was something that I've never seen before.

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I'm scared. I'm in fear because now I'm in this hospital, I'm being diagnosed by how many physicians? I don't never seen them before. And they're telling me, Chris, it doesn't look good. I'm 22 years old in this hospital in fear now.

00:12:42
Well, they're also looking at you like you're a professional football player. Not that they would look at you any.

00:12:52
Liability. That's right. They don't want to make the news. Right. So what happened?

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As the story develops, they have now mentioned to me that, Chris, here's the thing. You dehydrated severely and it know came down in your body. But there's actually something else that we're worried about. And I'm at the moment like, well, what are you talking about? Speak English.

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What does this mean? They're like, well, here's the thing. You got a blood clot in your leg and it doesn't look good. And we're going to have to either cut your leg off and amputate it because there's not enough flow pumping from your leg to your heart. We don't make a decision.

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This window is shutting down. We're going to have to take action. What exactly what? Sandy all I can do was pray to and in my prayer I asked God, please let this not be the last time that I open my eyes in this place. I don't have any family here.

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I don't have anybody that I know. And I'm in fear. Please let me get through this. After that prayer. Sandy they roll me into the operating room and we had to go immediately into surgery because I said, I'm not walking out of here with one leg.

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I'm 22 years. I got so much that's right. As they're performing this surgery, they're going in. They're removing this blood clot. They're going in to release this tension.

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My heart and my heart flatlined. Oh my God. Right there on the operating table. And I died. Second chance at life.

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And I had that out of body experience. Did you? It was two things. Sandy it was on one side. Chris, we'll go ahead and receive you if you're ready to come on over the other side.

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It was, chris, there's so much you haven't completed yet on your yeah. The impact you can make for yourself, your family, your community, and that's what I held on to. And I knew for a fact that I wasn't done and I wanted to check back in. By the power of the Almighty, the doctors resuscitated my heart. They shocked me back to life.

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I wake up the next morning, I don't know what's going on, but I'm sedated. I'm in a position where I'm drowsy, didn't know what was going on. I have huge bandages on my leg and I don't understand what happened yet. But you still had your leg. I still have my leg, right.

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Oh, my gosh. The little things, right? The little things that count, right. When I woke up, the first group of humans that I saw were my family members and they got on the next flight moving from Florida to Pittsburgh. And when I woke up, they were there.

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Now I saw them and being the leader of my family, I realized that, whoa, what's going on here? I'm down and they're looking at me in this situation. And I broke down. I couldn't hold it to bear. And I went burst into tears looking at them and just not understanding what had happened.

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They loved me. They hugged me. They said it was going to be okay. At that very moment in time, I decided I was hanging up the cleats. I got no regrets.

00:16:02
Yeah. When you don't play this game all your life. I was born at ten pounds 7oz, like a bowling ball. The doctors at my burp told my parents, this guy's going to be a football player. And believe it or not, my parents didn't tell me this until I had really started playing the game.

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No kidding. When I realized that football was a great opportunity, was a platform, it wasn't my end game. Right. And that's when I realized at that very moment that I need to hang up the cleats. Because if I do go back into playing this game with the competitive nature that I've built over the journey, I'm going to go into a relapse and there's no telling that you're going to have a third chance at life.

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That's right. That experience low made me realize that it was time for me to transition. And because I had an education, I knew that I was going to be a person in some capacity, but I didn't know I was going to end up being a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. I didn't know I was going to be an investment advisor that helps family offices, business owners and professional athletes with their business succession planning. I had no idea that this was ahead, but I knew I never quit.

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And I take a moment to share that. You never know how to prepare for the next stage in your life, but you know, if you stay focused and you just have a game plan, you can always learn how to transition. Yeah, for sure. So that brings me to the big part of the discussion that I really wanted to talk about today, which is mindset with athletes. And it's interesting because you didn't have those years of training in football, which most professional players have.

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They probably start playing football at five, six, seven, whatever age you're allowed to start playing. And you work on that mindset and that determination and that grit and that resilience that is so necessary. So what was it for you when you realized that you had what it took to make it to the pros? How did your mind in that mindset drive you? Because a lot of people, they end up with limiting beliefs or who am I?

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Can I really do this? They start doubting themselves and and all the athletes that I work with as their mindset coach, most of the times, it's their confidence. It's the confidence that you really have to work on and build. It's like a muscle that I got to help them build that confidence muscle so they believe in themselves. What was it for you that kept that belief going strong to take you into the professional sports?

00:18:38
My mom that believed in me from day one and said, education is what's key. And for me, I had a different mindset. I didn't have the mindset that I had to make it as a professional football player to be able to identify who I was in life. The mindset that I had was this was a stepping stone from day one. This was an opportunity to open some doors, to at least put myself on a platform.

00:19:04
That when I'm recognized. Absolutely. You get recognized for being a sports player first. But at the end of the day, I wanted to be recognized for the value that I could bring in my conversation and how I can overall just articulate how I felt. And that was the reason why I knew from day one that mindset was so important to know the bigger abundance that God has set for me.

00:19:35
And the confidence was built over time. The confidence was built in training camp. The confidence was built in the weight room. The confidence was built in my eating habits. That's where I built confidence because it allowed me to play at my best.

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It allowed me to have the best performance. So when you trick your mind in doing the preparation, the stage becomes easy. Right. You shine on stage because you put in so much effort into preparing, and that's the difference right there. You have athletes who have the gift of gab.

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They can eat whatever they want, sleep as many hours of rest as they need, and they'll still perform. But do they have a long game? That's right. When you take the athlete who does it the right way, has the discipline, has the focus, they may have a shorter career, but the mindset after that career is abundance, because now your life really starts after the game. Because when you realize as an athlete, while you're in it, you think that's the only thing you're going to ever do in the world.

00:20:43
You think that's the best way, that people are only going to recognize you. And I go back to the school systems that they didn't teach us about life outside of the game. Most coaches or most sports teach you about how to be present, how to give it your all. But they're not talking to you about well, if you know for a fact what you're doing is setting up the stage for your future, you may have a great opportunity to keep playing the game at the professional level, at the Olympian level, or even levels beyond that. And that's the blessing by God.

00:21:19
Nobody knows that they're going to last more than one year or five or ten years. There's not too many Bret Farves or Tom Brady's that 20 plus year run. No. But those who had the ability to get there can say that they performed well enough to get on stage. And that's the difference where when you're kind of the underdog.

00:21:42
When you didn't get drafted, you didn't have the great big agent, you didn't have the platform, you didn't have the film, you got to work way harder than the person who had those opportunities because now you got to really prove yourself. And I've always come from the bottom. That's all I know. I don't know anything about having all these opportunities or resources that got me to the game. I had to put my hand in the dirt and as they say, get the butter from the duck.

00:22:12
I love it. My mindset really was to make sure that I did the small things. It's the little things that really get you to gear up for the stage. And I believe that that's what allowed me to transition even after sports, to become the person I am as a professional financial services advisor. So when I think about mindset, it follows you everywhere you go, how you wake up in the morning and prepare your bed, how you make the coffee, how you shower, how you dress, how you prepare for success.

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Those are things that never leave an athlete. So I believe that mindset is something that is instilled in us from the day one, how our parents treat us to how we spend time with people, how we learn about our communities. It is you seeing yourself evolve even if sometimes you can't see past your nose. But it's more of how do you surround yourself with others that can help lift you and that mindset of abundance, allowing God to lead you is really what allows you to make an impact. Oh yeah, for sure.

00:23:26
So last question, how has your mindset in terms of making it to the NFL and now you're in the corporate sector and you've created for yourself a really amazing career. However, life happens when we're busy making other plans, right? So when you do have those struggles, are you able to or what is it about making it to the NFL that you can pull from to help you get through? Because just as an yeah, my skating, I was very accomplished and all of that. However, the one thing that I always refer back to was I ran and completed the Marine Corps Marathon in 2006 and that was one of the most difficult things I'd ever done because it took me just under 5 hours to complete and I'm like, who the heck runs for 5 hours?

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Right? So for me, when I'm tackling something that's really difficult I'm like, oh my gosh, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. If I can do that. I got this. So what do you drive from when you're in those moments to help you recognize, I can do this.

00:24:44
Of course I can do this, because there's so often our mindset plays tricks on us. We've got that ego mind. It tries to protect us because it doesn't want us to fail. It doesn't want us to hurt. So sometimes you've got that.

00:24:56
Sometimes people call it Freddie effer or whatever on your shoulder, and that's telling you, whatever. How do you make that shift? And what is it that you draw from to help you get through it? Negative 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Waking up to snow and cold, five years straight.

00:25:19
College is what really built who I was as a man, adversity that I went through the challenges that I faced. And when I really go and reflect on what I went through, that's really what allows me to have a strong mindset when I'm getting ready to quit and say, no, I just can't take it no more. I go back to the years that I trained, that I prepared myself to go through those two, three a days at times, to go through the trainings that I went through, and pushing myself to the maximum, even when I had no more left in me, I found a way to reach for that one more breath. Those are the days that when you go through struggle, it really creates your character. And even today, with what I'm doing as an investment advisor, how I'm performing and helping my clients, helping businesses, I always go back to the fundamentals, how I train, how I eat, how I perform.

00:26:21
But I go back to knowing that the work ethic that I built through sports allows me to continuously apply that even in the corporate sector. Today, waking up the same early time that I woke up when I was a player, making sure that I get enough fluids, hydration, I'm eating the right stuff. But even when I'm facing challenges in the corporate world, I go back to say, well, this is something I can't handle if I was presented this challenge, god knows what you can handle, right? And God puts you through certain things to test you, to make sure that if you don't go through that, you'll never know how to be proactive about the challenge or how to react in such a way that is compelling enough for you to have poise. And I believe that all the trials and tribulations that I faced when I got injured, when I got hurt, when I had to rebuild my strength, when you're seeing your number two, your number three in the scrimmage or in the game and you're seeing on the sidelines, instead of you pouting, you're rooting that person on because you're like, I'm going through this process because it's teaching me how to be humble, how to have humility, how to know that sometimes you got to take a step back so you can take that leap forward.

00:27:41
But if you don't go through challenges, if you don't go through adversity, this is the difference between somebody who has never faced adversity and never had faced a challenge that really tested them versus the person that went through challenges and had the adversity that knows how to overcome. And I believe that I would go to war with somebody who has faced adversity, who has had many challenges, and who could really kind of walk the walk and talk to talk as they were in the grit than the person that says, I'm the best. I can do it all. I don't need to practice. Because that person is who you're going to rely on at the end of the day, that went through something because you know what it took for them to last.

00:28:22
And that's the abundance and the mindset that I continuously talk to athletes about. You got to stay in the game even when it's tough. You got to keep pushing yourself because if you weren't in position to do it, god would never have put you there. That's right. And that's the mindset and the abundance that I carry with me every single day.

00:28:43
And it's a little different now. I'm not physically running into people or blocking anymore, but now how am I demonstrating my leadership skills? How am I being attentive to listening? How am I understanding how to solve problems? And it kind of is the same type of, I guess, game that I'm playing, but it's just a different approach.

00:29:04
And the mindset, even in the corporate sector, is the same thing because in corporate you still have adversity. People with competition, you have adversity, you have things that don't ever go your way all the time, but how are you going to bounce from that? And now how to face adversity and be able to say, this is just a phase, what I'm going through, I can get over, this, I can overcome. I've been through stuff that's way tougher than now. That's right.

00:29:33
For sure. Oh my gosh, Chris, this has been such an amazing conversation. Is there anything else that you want to throw in? And how can people find out more about you and also mention your website as well? In the Pandemic, I realized that the nonprofit industry was facing some very much impact with sustainability.

00:29:57
I'm a thought leader in the nonprofit space and I published a book called let's Get It. It's ten keys to building your nonprofit to maximum impact. The book was published really to help leadership team building and donors learn how to think about impacting a nonprofit and thinking about them in perpetuity. So when I wrote this book in the Pandemic, I worked with a traditional publisher who published my book. And now I'm on every major shelf you can think of from Target, Barnes and Nobles Bookstore.

00:30:29
That's incredible. That's incredible. It's a part know my legacy. To leave behind impact to help others. I believe that community and being able to be an advocate of what you believe in helping others is really how I'm leaving my legacy.

00:30:46
So by publishing this book, people can pick it up at Amazon, Target, wherever they choose to type in my name and support. It really also complements how I feel about what I've chosen as a profession, even after my transition out of the pros and now have become an investment advisor, helping people with their businesses, helping people think about succession planning, how do we get out, how do we retire, sell the company generational wealth building. I can help people really have strategies so they can exit and have really good exit. And when you're thinking about those things that complement each other, a lot of times successful business people, when they sell their companies, they don't want to pay the IRS 40% in taxes. So instead of doing that, they want to find a loophole to say, where can I make a contribution to a nonprofit?

00:31:34
So it's very strategic, the way I've positioned myself to not only be a thought leader in the nonprofit world, but also be a fiduciary in the investment world and to really help serve the community. But by making impact with what people are doing, helping them leave a legacy through their businesses, but also thinking about the organizations that support their children, their mothers, their fathers, their animals, and just overall allowing people to understand that I'm a resource. You can find me on LinkedIn, which is Chris Dora Finance, and type my name. Let's connect. I'm also on Instagram, zoethe the underscore legend.

00:32:19
Zo the legend. You can also find my website at WW dot. My name is spelled with a K and two S, not a C or the PH. So christopherdora.com and there's ways to connect with me even on my calendar. So definitely happy to help athletes, help professionals, encourage others to connect with me, have a great ecosystem, and I'm here to serve others.

00:32:46
I already lived the second chance at life. Yeah, no kidding. I got nothing to lose at this point. I got everything to give. So I feel like meeting you is an amazing way to connect with you, share a conversation.

00:32:58
I'm so delightful that I was able to be honored and be want to do this again and just continue with the progress. Maybe I'll do it after I put out my second book. There you go. For sure. We'll definitely have you back for that.

00:33:13
Absolutely. Chris, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you're very busy, so I really appreciate it and I'm so grateful for you and I'm grateful for all the listeners. So thank you, everyone. Thank you.

00:33:25
God bless. God bless.

00:33:38
I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you. And your family are healthy and safe and that your lives are filled with peace, joy and happiness. Take care.