Yahoo Finance Presents: Patrick Mahomes

NFL All-Pro Patrick Mahomes sat down with Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi to discuss his new steps into fatherhood, his thoughts around business and investment, and how he’s handling training for the new NFL season.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRIAN SOZZI: Super Bowl champion and Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes continues to build his business empire off the field. From a minority stake in the Kansas City Royals to dabbling in NFTs, Mahomes has been pretty busy of late in the field of number crunching. Patrick Mahomes joins Yahoo Finance now. Patrick, good to see you today. You know, in addition to building your business empire, you're also a new father. Congratulations. How has that been for you?

PATRICK MAHOMES: It's been awesome. First of all, thanks. But it's been amazing. Luckily enough, Brittany's been a bit of a champ. I mean, she's helped me-- helped a ton of just taking care of most of it. And I just try to be supportive as possible. So I do what I can, but at the same time, she pretty much handles everything. And I'm just kind of a cheerleader on the sideline.

BRIAN SOZZI: How has dad life changed your day-to-day?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Other than just a little bit less sleep, I mean, I'm still able to get in and get the workouts and stuff done in the morning. And then I come home and a lot of just holding her and trying to figure out which way she isn't crying. And I try to keep her in that position.

BRIAN SOZZI: Can you believe you're a dad? I mean, you're still-- I mean, you're a young-- what, 25? A young guy.

PATRICK MAHOMES: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's still crazy. It's still surreal. But my dad was 25 as well. So it's cool that we-- kind of the same age as my dad was when I was born. And I'm able to take care of a beautiful baby girl.

BRIAN SOZZI: Great to hear. All right, so let's switch gears here. I briefly mentioned you are, in addition to the career you're building on the field, in many respects, a potential Hall of Fame career, even though you're only 25 years old. But you're also building a business empire. You are working with Airshare. You have stakes in-- you have a stake in wearable company called Whoop. High Price we were talking about before we came on air, a minority stake in the Kansas City Royals. Let's take a step back here. Do you think-- do you see it as you're building a business empire?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I'm trying to build an empire off the field in every way. And I feel like business is a huge part. If you've watched a lot of the great athletes that have came before me, they found ways to build their empire and to build themselves up off the field. And so, I'm trying to do that as much as possible. I'm learning more and more about health and wellness, which is important to me. And I'm able to utilize my connections with these companies to help become great partners with them and then really build myself up, not only on the field, but off of it as well.

BRIAN SOZZI: Who do you look up to in the world of business? And you say, you know what? I want to build my business life like they did, or they are doing right now.

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people. I mean, as far as athletes go, I mean, you look at, like, Michael Jordan. You look at LeBron James. You look at Alex Rodriguez. And then I look at guys like Mark Cuban and some other businessmen as well. I mean, you try to take away from what they have done, what they've done successfully, what they've done that hasn't worked out, and try to make it your own. And I've been able to do that so far of just learning and learning more and more at a young age. And obviously, I don't make every decision right, but if I do have a failure, I try to learn from that and then be better the next time.

BRIAN SOZZI: What have you learned from some of your early failures?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I think it's to me, the biggest thing is do stuff that you love, that you have a passion for. Because if you do that, you usually figure out a way to make it work. That's been big to me, is not just invest in everything, but invest in stuff that you truly believe in. And that's what I feel like I've kind of narrowed my focus down to. And now I have a passion for and want to make sure it has success not only for me, but for others as well.

BRIAN SOZZI: You've taken-- you've had a lot of different business ventures. And I definitely I talk about the NFTs because that one caught me off guard when that announcement was made. But any dabbling in stocks at all? Have you gone that route yet?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I do a little bit. But I usually-- I have a financial advisor that that kind of steers me in the right direction that way. And I'm pretty conservative, I would say so myself. But as I learn more and more, I try to do a little bit more and more. But I kind of let him handle that for the most part.

BRIAN SOZZI: How do you spot a good business opportunity? I imagine there are so many people putting pitches to you right now. Patrick, work with me, work with me. I'll give you this. How do you say, you know what? I'm not going to do that, or I am going to do this.

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, kind of back to my earlier point, I think at first, it was-- everything sounded amazing. And I was kind of ready to do anything with everybody because everybody's pitch sounded great. But now I focus on what would I utilize, what would I do. And I think when I have a passion for it and stuff that I believe truly helps me out on a day-to-day, that's when I really know that it's something that I want to put my time and effort towards.

BRIAN SOZZI: How did you get involved with Airshare? Airshare is going head to head with NetJets, which is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett. That's a pretty big battle.

PATRICK MAHOMES: Oh, yeah, I know. But obviously, Airshare is Kansas City based. And then I met the people and just amazing people, amazing people that want to grow together, not only have success for themselves, but they want me to have success as well. And so, they've done a great job in not only helping me get to where I need to be at, be at all these business meetings, be able to train every single day and then get to where I need to be at after that.

But they help my family out. I mean, they bring my family up to every single game in Kansas City and make sure my mom and dad can get back to work the next day. And so, to me, it was all about the people and how much pride they had of not only having success for themselves, but having success for me and my family as well.

BRIAN SOZZI: Let's touch upon NFTs. What was the outcome of your NFT auctions?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a success. I was able to not only venture into this new space of NFTs that I find extremely interesting of another way of, for me, another way of memorabilia and these museums and these artwork that I'm able to go out and have my own kind of taste, my own spice with. But I was able to give back to my charity a lot, and I was able to really help finish off the Martin Luther King Park that I've been working on for a long time now. And so I thought it was a kind of a win-win where I was able to kind of be in something new that a lot of people are getting into, but also help out something that I had been working on for a long time.

BRIAN SOZZI: Are you going to be doing more in the space?

PATRICK MAHOMES: I've looked into doing more. It's something that you can't rush, something that you can't just kind of go back to back and keep putting out more and more NFTs. But as I kind of continue to grow and learn more about them and see other people get into it as well, I feel like I'll be able to continue to build more into that space and more NFTs and things of that standing.

BRIAN SOZZI: And you're also-- you recently also, too, got involved with a SPAC called Disruptive Acquisition Corp. How did that come about?

PATRICK MAHOMES: It actually came about-- I was talking with Mardy Fish and Justin Verlander. And we were talking about how we can utilize kind of the health and wellness that we kind of felt that we work with already and help them build and help them get better and help them grow. And they knew the perfect people, the business people that were able to help us bring this SPAC to life. With those two and Canelo and Naomi, I mean, there are so many people that-- great athletes that really truly believe in health and wellness and bring in-- and these companies like Whoop and High Price. And try to do whatever we can to bring them and give them the notoriety that they already have, but they want to continue to build and that we truly support.

BRIAN SOZZI: And I'm not sure if you're here yet. I mean, you have-- I mean, this portfolio is really starting to build out in terms of investment. Where do you see yourself as an investor 15 to 20 years from now? Are you a team owner?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean--

BRIAN SOZZI: Are you CEO? I know you're not there yet, but I mean, you have to be thinking about these things, right?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I don't know about the NFL. It's a little bit of change to be the NFL owner. But I definitely-- I always think I want to be involved in sports. I'm going to continue to build my business, my business side of me and my entrepreneurship and everything I can to continue to build that way. But I want to always be involved in sports. And that's always been the first priority to me. But as I learn more and more, it's just awesome the different opportunities that you can have with the platform that I've been given and blessed with. And so I'm excited to keep learning more and more as I continue to grow and get a little bit older and then have more knowledge.

BRIAN SOZZI: Let's chat-- let's speak about some sports here, specifically football, the NFL season now being taken up to 17 games from 16. What do you think about that?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, obviously, it'll be different. It'll be something that we'll have to adjust to. But it's something that we had talked about in the collective bargaining agreement. Whatever your beliefs are or not, you have to go out there and adjust and do whatever you can to be the best football player you can be every single day. And as of this year, it'll be trying to figure out ways to take care of your body more and more so you can adjust your body for a 17-game regular season.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, talk to us about those changes. I mean, you're a really hardcore trainer. You're constantly training your body to be at peak performance in these games. What changes do you think you're going to have to make?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, it continues in that health and wellness part. I mean, you'll have to change your diet a little bit more. You'll have to change how you train. You'll have tp change your day-to-day work ethic and work involvement, how much you're going to put on your body every single day. Because you want to be in that Super Bowl again. You want to be playing for a championship, and you want to make sure your body can take the workload of that. And adding another game is adding more to your body. So you have to make sure that you've prepared your body in the best way possible to be ready for that.

BRIAN SOZZI: Is an extra game-- I know they're taking away one of the preseason games. But there's an extra game on the regular season. What type of toll does that take on one's body? And then even aside from that, what are some of your friends in the league saying the past 48 hours since the decision?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, it definitely puts more on your body. I mean, every single game of your entire career, you're battling through something. And I think you see that in every single body at the end of the season. You're always nicked up a little bit. You always have some injuries and some bruises. And so I think the biggest thing is going to be a learning experience this next year. I mean, we got to go in with the mindset of just continue to make ourselves better and knowing that 17 games is how many were playing. And then you're going to have the postseason after that. And so I think it'll be brand new to everybody. But everybody's going to have to adjust and try to do whatever they can to prepare their body to be ready for it.

BRIAN SOZZI: What did you learn from the last Super Bowl?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I learned a lot. I mean, obviously, it didn't go the way that we wanted it to go, but you got to learn from it and get better. And I think that's the biggest thing. And I definitely have to prepare myself better next time.

BRIAN SOZZI: How will your preparations be different?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I mean, you just got to be able to prepare for more and more stuff. I mean, at the end of the day, they played better than we did. I mean, there's not much you can prepare for in that sense. You got to just make sure that you don't let the game get out of hand early. And so, I've won one and I've lost one now. And I'll try to figure out a way to win another.

BRIAN SOZZI: You've played Tom Brady a good number of times. What have you taken away from him?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I think it's just a special type of work ethic. He's prepared for every single moment. He knows what he needs to get done, and he gets it done. That's the thing at the end of the day. Obviously, super talented and he can make every throw, but he just knows how to win football games. And that's something that I strive to continue to get better at. And I've won a lot in my career so far, but I want to try to do whatever I can to win as many as he has.

BRIAN SOZZI: I read an interesting interview with you in the lead-up to this. And one of the takeaways was, you are chasing a legacy. What does that mean?

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yeah, I think it changes. I think that's the biggest thing, is I have to continue to make myself better every single day, at every single aspect-- making my body better, making my training better, making my play on the field better, and then making myself better off the field. And I'm going to try to do that every single day. And at the end of the time I have on the field, I hope I'll look back and I have no regrets because I've done whatever I can to make myself better every single day.

BRIAN SOZZI: Good luck to you in the coming season. Patrick Mahomes, good to speak with you.

PATRICK MAHOMES: Yep, thank you.