Former MLB Brandon Averill: The Coconut Mindset is More Important than Talent

Brandon is a former professional baseball player in the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners organizations. Brandon played baseball collegiately for UCLA. He grew up in Southern California, his dad played college baseball at the University of Redlands and his brother Erik played college baseball at Arizona State. Naturally, baseball was in his family’s blood. On their family vacations growing up they would visit different professional ballparks. He had the opportunity to go to UCLA, play baseball and he was a captain.
When host Craig Domann asked Brandon to share his valley or gutter experience, Brandon shared that in his second year of pro ball towards the end of spring training, he “didn’t want to play anymore” and went to his manager and told him so. He was hitting third in the lineup and was a starter but his heart was doubting his future. He actually went home that night and knew in his gut that it didn’t feel right and that he couldn’t end his career that way. The next day he went back and fortunately the manager let him return.

Brandon continues that he couldn’t imagine if he didn't play that year, how different his life would have turned out. One of the most powerful life lessons for him was he stuck it out, played it out and gave it one last shot.

Brandon shares with Pro Mindset host Craig Domann the fun moments of batting against his brother Erik twice when ASU & UCLA played each other. His brother hit him in his first at-bat and his brother threw a 0-0 count (first pitch) changeup on the second at-bat. The brotherly love and competitiveness is obvious when Brandon talks about his relationship with his younger brother.
Brandon Averill is Managing Partner of Athlete Wealth Management, aka AWM Capital. Brandon is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professional and holds the Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM®) from the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFA).
Brandon and his younger brother, Erik, had a vision and a passion for providing financial advice to professional athletes. While most would consider the prospect of working with professional athletes as an exciting clientele, it was their experience as former professional athletes and their personal exposure to bad financial advice that fueled their desire to start AWM. Check-them-out at www.athletewealth.com or www.awmcap.com .
Brandon resides in Glendale, CA with his wife Anne who is a Chartered Financial Analyst and two beautiful children, Luke Joshua & Charlotte Grace. Brandon is passionate about wine, cycling and loves being behind the camera in his free time.