For three former TCU football players, life on the field helped to shape their goals and ambitions off the field.

Tim and Terrence Maiden and Cedric James joined senior Horned Frogs Kellton Hollins and David Bolisomi to talk about how their time at TCU made an impact on their lives.

Monday’s conversation was part of a live airing of the podcast Key-Squared for Global Entrepreneurship Week.

James, who played for the New England Patriots when they won the Super Bowl in 2005, is the associate director of TCU’s IdeaFactory. He said the camaraderie of playing football helped him realize he was born to help others.

He also said that working for the IdeaFactory helps him show others how to do meaningful work.

The Maidens founded the nonprofit Two Wins to educate young people in that area and give them an opportunity for a better life after being surrounded by poverty, gang activity and murder in their hometown of Oak Cliff, Texas.

Tim said football helped him with entrepreneurship because it taught him the importance of being able to make adjustments.

The foundation focuses on making a difference, according to the Two Wins website.

When it comes to business, Terrence Maiden said football taught him to trust the process, focus on what you can control, and fall forward.

Tim reflected on his first season at TCU and the hardships the team faced when their record was 1-10. This experience taught him perseverance and determination.

The former players also talked about what football didn’t prepare them for.

“What I didn’t get early enough was the importance of networking,” Tim said.

He said he had to learn how to speak on a professional level because locker room talk is not accepted in the business world.

Terrence said he had to learn the skill of continuously evolving because in college– when the season ends –they get a break, but the real world doesn’t stop.

The brains behind the podcast

During this past summer, Hollins and Bolisomi started the podcast Key-Squared after noticing they were having conversations in the locker room that no one wanted to talk about, Hollins said.

Bolisomi, who is also a combined science major, said their podcast is relevant to the TCU community because the topics they tackle affect everyone.

“I think it’s relevant because we are apart of that community, so that’s one of the aspects of it,” Bolisomi said. “The other thing is there are things that affects all of us as humans on a daily basis. What we talk about are subjects that occur in the news or pop culture and different things of that nature that we see occurring. Things that we feel we should talk about because what’s the point of us living if we’re not gonna be able to talk about it.”

While they have been producing the podcast since the summer, they were approached about the possibility of a live event by Jessica Hazard, the associate athletic director for student-athlete development, and Hollins and Bolisomi agreed.

Hazard said the event was a partnership with UNT because they are the main catalysts of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

She said she is avid follower of the Key-Squared podcast and when the opportunity was brought to her office, she thought Hollins and Bolisomi would be a great addition to the event.

“Everybody knows our student-athletes for what they do on their field or court, so with student-athlete development, one of our things is like ‘Who are they without that and what’s their other identities,'” Hazard said. “These were really opportunities for them to showcase this other part of who they are and this whole other identity that they have that has nothing to do with being on the field on Saturdays.”

Production of the podcast has slowed down since the season has started, but Hollins said with the season coming to an end, they look forward to picking it back up.

The Key-Squared podcast can be found on Soundcloud and Spotify by searching one of their names.