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This is a very, very special episode of My Favorite Mistake. Today, I get to share five stories from some of the personalities who are part of the highly popular Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. Dan likes to say “embrace your mistakes,” so I thought they'd be a perfect fit here…
My guests are:
- Greg Cote (columnist for the Miami Herald and weekly guest)
- Amin Elhassan (former NBA executive and frequent guest)
- Chris Cote (Producer)
- Roy Bellamy (Producer)
- Billy “Guillermo” Gil (Producer)
Each of them share a story (or stories) about their “favorite mistake(s)” from their careers. I was able to get video via the app Cameo, so I paid a nominal fee for each of them and also offered to make donations to a non-profit.
This charity was started by a weekly guest of the show, Ron Magill, a zoologist from Zoo Miami — the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment. If you enjoy this episode and if you “get the show,” please consider donating to Ron's organization and its worthy cause.
I first started listening to the show when they were on ESPN Radio, although I normally listened to them via their wildly popular podcast (it's often the #1 sports podcast in the U.S.). Dan recently left ESPN, walking away in the middle of a contract due to a number of conflicts, including being upset that Chris was laid off by “the mothership.”
Le Batard and friends have been operating as an independent podcast, but recently announced a major sponsorship deal that is reportedly (if you can trust Greg Cote's reporting) bringing in $50 million over three years, as they build a new media company called Meadowlark Media. Congratulations to Dan and “the shipping container” and everybody associated with the show and their related podcasts and projects.
If you're not a listener or you “don't get the show,” some of the stories contain show references that you might not understand. That's OK. Unlike Dan, I won't interrupt the episode to explain the jokes. I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.
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Greg Cote:
Amin Elhassan:
Chris Cote:
Roy Bellamy:
Billy Gil:
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Automated Transcript (Likely Contains Mistakes)
Mark Graban (1s):
Special bonus episode, five personalities from the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
Billy Gil (8s):
Embrace your mistakes.
Greg Cote (9s):
So I guess that was my favorite, favorite mistake.
Chris Cote (15s):
So you want me to tell you about my favorite mistake that I've made on the show?
Roy Bellamy (20s):
So, yeah, those are my favorite favorite mistakes I've done.
Mark Graban (29s):
I'm Mark Graban. This podcast is all about learning from our mistakes in the workplace. Today. We'll hear favorite mistakes stories from Greg Cote, columnist with the Miami Herald and weekly guests and host of the Greg Cote show with Greg Cote podcast, Amin Elhassan, former NBA executive and regular guest on the show. And we'll hear from three producers, Chris Cote, Roy Bellamy, and Billy “Guillermo” Gil and through Cameo, which is where I got the videos and the audio. You can find the video of this episode, if you want to watch them, by going to MarkGraban.com/LAF. Now the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
Mark Graban (1m 11s):
It's my favorite podcast to listen to. I've been listening for years. They recently left the Disney and ESPN corporate family. Was this a mistake? Well, many might have thought so, but they recently signed a $50 million three year sponsorship deal to help them keep going as an independent podcast as a thank you to my guests. I made a donation to a cause they support the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment. Ron Magill is a zoologist from Zoo Miami. Who's a frequent weekly guest on the leverage hard show. I hope you'll consider doing the same, making a donation to this great, cause you'll find a link for where you can learn more about that again markgraban.com/LAF.
Mark Graban (1m 57s):
If you listen to the Le Batard show, if you get the show, you'll enjoy this episode of my favorite mistake. If you don't get the show, I hope you'll enjoy the stories. Anyway, unlike Dan, I won't stop and interrupt things to explain the show references, but here we go. Five favorite mistakes from the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz crew. Oh, I did try reaching out to Stugotz through Cameo. He never got back to me, I guess I didn't offer him enough, but at least I tried. So first off is Greg Cote.
Greg Cote (2m 32s):
Hey, my favorite mistake, what an odd phrase, it's an oxymoron. Why would I consider a mistake to be something cherished and favorited? But I, I guess every time I miss a hard network out on the Le Batard show, it might qualify as a favorite mistake because it's sort of fun. You know, it happens. People seem to like it. Whatever of actually in my journalism career at the Miami Herald, you know, you tend to, you know, over time you're going to make mistakes. And I remember back in the, this would have been, the late seventies was covering the Fort Lauderdale strikers soccer team.
Greg Cote (3m 20s):
And I did a story. It was like during the Argentina, Falkland Islands, British war, whenever that was, and I was interviewing one of the strikers players, a defender named Ken Fogarty. And he was telling me a great, you know, human interest story about how his sister was in the British Navy, you know, headed to the Falkland islands to fight this war. And so I write that story and it's sort of, you know, it's whatever, it's a funny, it's not a funny story. It's sort of like, I thought it was a pretty neat story and it turns out he made the whole thing up because Ken was like a court jester, just making shit up.
Greg Cote (4m 4s):
So the next day, you know, the Miami News, the competing paper wrote a story about how I've been duped. And it was sort of embarrassing at the time, but it sort of taught me a lesson. And that's why it's sort of my favorite mistake. It taught me a lesson that you can take nothing at face value. Like if you're interviewing somebody who tells you their name is Tom Smith, I ask, is that Tom S M I T H. You know, because, Hey, I used to know a guy named Tom with an H T H O M. So you can never take anything for granted. You always double-check everything. So I guess that was my favorite. My favorite mistake.
Greg Cote (4m 46s):
See ya.
Mark Graban (4m 48s):
Next is Amin Elhassan.
Amine Elhassan (4m 51s):
My favorite mistake. Well, this is a good one, Mark. Good question. This one's kind of recent. So I'm, this is when I'm at ESPN. They tell me, Hey, is this reporter, does this guys is writing a story about the Dan Le Batard show? Can you talk to him? And that's a trip, to put me in contact with the guys say, Hey, how's it going? Nice to meet you a big fan of the show. What are you? What's your schedule availability and say, Hey, I'm available pretty much anytime after this time.
Amine Elhassan (5m 32s):
Cool. I'll do it during my lunch break. So I'm like, all right, cool. So then he calls me and we have like a great conversation. I'm thinking like he's got some college kid or whatever, you know, probably working another job. And he's just trying to get his information together. So I call the guy we talked for about an hour. It's a great conversation. And I'm kind of getting a little tips and hints and stuff. And I think God, you know, young kid getting a, my album out. So everything was cool. I don't think it was condescending, but I definitely there's a level of kind of paternalistic or uncle advice or whatever.
Amine Elhassan (6m 13s):
So fast forward, like a month later or whatever I was with Pablo Torre, Pablo says to me, “Hey man, Did you talk to Mike Schur?” I said, “Who the hell is Mike Schur?” So, you know, Mike Schur, the guy who invented Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and was a producer on The Office. And I said, wow, no, no, I don't. Why would he talk to me since he's writing something about limits on our show? And I said, Oh Jesus. I thought that a guy, like he was a child, like 22, it said college, most successful producers in the history of American television.
Amine Elhassan (6m 56s):
Really, really, really embarrassing. I guess the mistake I made was thinking I'm hot shit. And the learning experience is like, well, you don't know who you're talking to. Do not pretend to be hot shit. Hope that works.
Mark Graban (7m 10s):
And now Chris Cote, yes, he is Greg Cote's son.
Chris Cote (7m 15s):
What's up Mark. Hey, so you want me to tell you about my favorite mistake that I've made on the show? It's interesting. I've given this some thought and I think my favorite mistake is when it's, it's, it's probably one of my earliest mistakes. It was one I would still get really scared before talking on air. And it was during funniest thing from the sports weekend. We've we've replayed the sound before. We've also, I think, believe it's a rejoined back when we did rejoins it was Tyron Smith Tyrod Taylor. Okay. So the situation was, we were going around the room and saying funniest thing from the sports weekend.
Chris Cote (7m 55s):
And my funny funniest thing was the Cowboys that we had played on NBC Sunday Night Football. And there was just the graphic of Tyron Smith at one point, the left tackle for the Cowboys. And it was just the graphic of like showing how large he was. And he had a football in his hands kind of the way I'm holding, like he was and the way his hands squashed, the football looked so small in his hands. And it was just an amazingly funny picture because of how large his hands were. And the way I just said that to you is what I was kind of trying to go for on air. But I was new to speaking on air. This was back in the day when I would only kind of speak during funniest thing from the sports weekend.
Chris Cote (8m 34s):
So like the whole day before the show, I would be thinking, okay, we got funniest thing today. I got to talk on air and that's a big deal and I'm nervous about it. What am I going to do? Let me pick something that's really quick to say. Cause I would generally avoid, even if I thought something was funnier, that was a really long, detailed sentence. I would be like, Nope, too much pressure. I'm just going to go. I would always look for the simplest funniest thing to say. And I thought tie rod Smith, he was holding a ball and it looked. And so basically what happened was I got, I started talking and I, and someone said something to me right before air. So I got rattled and I like lost my train of thought. So I ended up calling him Tyrod Smith Tyrod Taylor.
Chris Cote (9m 16s):
And I like, I just fumbled on his name three or four times. And then I would just like lost all confidence. And I was like the ball in it. It looks so small. And it's, it's a really funny clip to hear back. It makes me cringe. It makes me realize how far I've come as far as just like, I don't generally get scared. Now when I am going to talk on air, sometimes I lose my train of thought. Cause I'll be like wanting to say something and then I'll hear someone say something and then Dan will go to me and I'm like, Oh wait, what was I going to say? Just before that? So that's still happens sometimes, but it's never a fear, but that's a funny thing to think about how far and how long ago that was and how embarrassing that was. Because, but you know, like our show, it was an embarrassing thing, but we ended up turning it into a wind and we've replayed it a bunch.
Chris Cote (9m 60s):
It was a rejoin. So look at me even when I'm bad, I'm good. That's the beauty of the show, but I hope that's what you wanted. It's a little wordy. I know. I hope your podcasts, you know, you can tighten me up a little bit, make me sound better than I actually am. But Mark, I appreciate the support. I feel like you've already, I mean, it is a better cause to do a hundred dollars to run than to this, but I was going to say, you don't have to do that. You know, this is enough, but if you'd like to donate to Ron, that'd be nice too. Maybe I'll make a little donation to Ron. Cause now you made me feel bad. I'm just kidding. It's a great cause he's got a huge endowment – baybay! Anyways, Mark, appreciate the support.
Chris Cote (10m 41s):
Have a good day.
Mark Graban (10m 42s):
Oh, Roy Bellamy, AKA King Roy. And make sure you listen for an appearance by his daughter, AKA Princess, Claire…
Roy Bellamy (10m 52s):
Okay. More of my favorite mistakes that I've done over the course of my career is I used to be the Marlins producer for games. So I had ordered food because I was hungry and in the middle of an inning, I had gone outside and I picked up the food. And then when I got back, apparently the third hour was made. So about 30 seconds had passed by before, went to break for promotional. So luckily the announcers did not make a sound because I frankly didn't know that they went the break.
Roy Bellamy (11m 38s):
So yeah, another time I, again, food situation again. Well this one was for the heat. I was the Heat producer and I again, locked out a studio. Luckily cleaners were there to help clean up the, so I knocked on the door and after about, I would say 35 seconds, the door opened, I was able to get back into the studio and get lucky there. So yeah, those are my favorite. If you can see favorite mistakes that I've done or nav happened over the course of my career.
Mark Graban (12m 16s):
And finally Billy Gil also known as Guillermo and I want to give a special thanks to Billy. He was the first one to accept my offer, to share his favorite mistakes story. It turned out to be stories. If you listen to the show, I think you're really you'll. You'll enjoy and appreciate the next, I don't know, six minutes or so of peak Billy Gil.
Billy Gil (12m 41s):
Hey Mark. It's Billy. Hey, my favorite mistake listeners. It's Billy. How are you? I've come up with three mistakes that I've made to share with you today that I guess turned into a learning opportunity. For me, here's a mistake, not included in the three bonus mistake. I don't know if you get a bonus before you get the actual, like meat and potatoes, as they say, here's a bonus mistake. I keep coming outside to do these videos at the same time, ish, more or less thinking how many neighbors could possibly be left to cut their grass.
Billy Gil (13m 28s):
I don't. I have to assume that you can hear what's going on. I think it's a leaf blower. I think it's getting closer. It's like everyday I'm out here recording these things and every day there's still grass being cut. I don't understand how many lawns there are in this area that needs to be cut. But is that a mistake that doesn't count because you could argue, I haven't learned from that mistake because I keep making the mistake over and over again. So that one probably doesn't count. Here's a mistake, Bald Eagles. I didn't know.
Billy Gil (14m 9s):
And this is probably this shouldn't surprise you. I didn't even realize the mistake that I had made until like something else. I didn't even realize the mistake I had made until like a year or two later, listening to it as a rejoin. The question was I think the quite, what was the question? I feel like the question was to describe America in one word, right? I think that's what it was. And then I think Chris had freedom and I said all the Eagles, I didn't hear the one word portion of that question.
Billy Gil (14m 50s):
I just thought describe America in a phrase. I think that was the question, whatever it was, it was described something patriotic and of praise and at thought bald Eagles. And it was supposed to be one word. I also didn't remember that Amin was there, but listening to the rejoin, I hear mean every time. And I'm like, okay. I mean, was there for what was, you know, a horrible mistake that I made that's ended up working out because they've made bald eagle. T-shirts the bald Eagle t-shirt led to the bald eagle costume at Tim Legler's house on Halloween, the bald eagle costume at Tim Legler, his house on Halloween led to the bald Eagle appearance or radio row in Atlanta.
Billy Gil (15m 37s):
So that one mistake led to t-shirts rejoins a Halloween costume, a Super Bowl appearance. So that was one thing that ended up working out. Here's another mistake. DDP DDP was on one day that I was filling in and he got very angry at Dan and just started cursing up a storm. And my mistake was I should've probably hung up on him after the first curse. And luckily Roy was there and he caught the other curses and that all worked out smoothly. But to tie those two mistakes together because of bald Eagle and because of DDP, we had a collision course of mistakes at the Atlanta Super Bowl radio row, where DDP was there promoting DDP Yoga, or I don't remember what it was.
Billy Gil (16m 27s):
And we were trying to book them on the show and he remembered the Dan situation and did not come on the show, but said to send Dan his love or best wishes or whatever it was. And then later on, when I was dressed as a bald eagle was able to get DDP on the show and make a prediction for the game because he was more open to talking to a bald eagle than he was to join the show normally, right? Another mistake, the onion, the onion, and eating the onion also. So it seems to be a thing that people love and that has lasted a while. And that sound still haunts me and the taste still haunts me.
Billy Gil (17m 7s):
And my mistake was eating the onion because I've since learned that as you can hear, people are cutting the rest. I've since learned that apparently you just don't need to pay off any of your grid of death punishments. And there's no real consequences. So if I wouldn't have eaten that onion, I wouldn't have ended up in the hospital that day because I ended up vomiting so much that I became dehydrated. And I had had kidney stones apparently at the time of forced out one of the kidney stones and they had to admit me, it was one of the worst I suffered from kidney stones regularly, actually. And if you must know this morning, I actually had a kidney stone and I still have my urgent care bracelet on. But anyway, that was the worst incident of kidney stones I ever had.
Billy Gil (17m 49s):
It is because I was so dehydrated from all vomiting that I was admitted to the hospitals there for two days, it ended up costing me after insurance and everything like $1,500 or something, all because of that stupid onion that I had to eat for the bucket of death. And because I didn't want problems, I didn't try to like expense it with the company or anything. So yeah, my mistake there was actually honoring the grid of death and participating in that anyways, my favorite mistake, listeners, Mark, actually, you know what, now that I think about it, that grid of death, what happens to those fines?
Billy Gil (18m 31s):
Because those fines were a reward from the bucket of death and the fines have continued, but we haven't been doing it anymore. Hmm. Anyways, my favorite mistake, listeners, Mark, embrace your mistakes
Mark Graban (18m 47s):
Again, a big, huge thanks to Greg Cote, Amin Elhassan, Chris Cote, Roy Bellamy, and Billy Gil. If you enjoyed this and if you appreciate what they do, please consider making a donation to the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment. You can find a link where you can learn more and where you can click to donate by going to MarkGraban.com/LAF. And you know, for all the joking around with the Dan Le Batard show, I appreciate that they always bring a serious, important message to the conversation. I think the serious message here is about learning from our mistakes. And if you've listened this far, I hope you'll think about times when you made a mistake.
Mark Graban (19m 30s):
It is a strange phrase as Greg Cote said to think about what makes it a favorite mistake. It turned out to be a learning opportunity, or it was a mistake that opened doors to something better that you wouldn't have anticipated. That's what this podcast is all about. So I hope you'll consider following and then rate and review as Stugotz would say unfollow and then re-follow and re-rate and re-review. I don't know if that really helps, but anyway, again, thanks for listening. You can learn more about this podcast online at myfavoritemistakepodcast.com.