The Iowa Way

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I want to introduce you to On the Job and host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories

Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're speaking with Pete McMahon over in the ames Iowa Express office, who for the past two years has been working alongside his wife Katie. If you were to walk into the Express office in ames, Iowa, I'd find yourself thinking, geez, that's a big guy over there, and that's the same thing that the football coaches at the University of Iowa thought when Pete McMahon walked onto their field back in two thousand as an incoming freshman.

Guy was six seven, two hundred and ninety pounds as a senior in high school, and back then that was pretty big. So that was attraction from the Iowa program.

As a born and raised Iowan, it had always been Pete McMahon's dream to play for the Hawkeys. But even as big as he was, that dream wasn't going to come easy.

For those that don't know what is being a walk on mean? You can join the team, We'll give you a uniform, you can hold this tackling dummy. And that was me. So I was not a scholarship kid. I wasn't even a recruited walk on. I was a first what they would call first day walk on.

And while I can't get over the injustice of that, Pete didn't seem to mind. If anything in motivated him to work that much harder in the weight room and hit that much harder on the field.

I grew up in a blue collar family and if you didn't have something, you went out and you worked for it. You got it.

Pete McMahon came into his own as a Hawk guy and went on to have an impressive college career.

It was a team captain and you know, two Big Ten Championship rings. We finished in the top ten three years in a row.

So when it came time for graduation, there was no question in Pete's mind what was next.

You're gonna play at the next level.

By the end of the first day of drafts, Pete still is unsigned. And then finally, in the sixth round of the two thousand and five NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders select Pete McMahon for their offensive line. Do they still get the sixth rounds that comically giant check.

I didn't get the big check. No, they didn't do that for me, but I would have liked that.

And very quickly Pete learns what it's really like in the pro league.

Two days later they cut me.

Fortunately, soon after getting released from Oakland, Pete manages to get on with the Cleveland Browns and spends the season with them.

In that offseason that summer, I had gotten married.

So Pete and his wife arrived back in Ilewa, and the very next day he gets a call from the New York Jets saying pack your bags.

I look like a really good husband. Just took my law's daughter out of their house, brought her back a week later. Oh ya, And in that time we bought a new puppy.

So then Pete goes to New York in Buffalo, and Miami and Jacksonville and New England and Hamburg, Germany, of all places, and then back to Jacksonville. You played for a lot of teams in the NFL, Yes, I did.

People ask me what teams do you play for? I'm like, I don't know you name one. I probably was with them.

But eventually Pete decided that as much of a dream as it was to play in the NFL, enough is enough. His wife, Katie had gotten involved with Express Employment Professionals by buying an office in Ames, Iowa.

We dove in. Never been in the staffing industry before, knew nothing about it.

Did you have any reservations about working with your wife?

You know? Lots of people ask me that. Honestly, no, we work really well together. We always have.

And of course Pete McMahon knows firsthand what it's like to have little to show for yourself besides unwavering dedication. You're that football recruiter. Now you're on the other side of it, and you're seeing potential in people I had.

You know, coaches in the past say hey, we want folks that are going to work hard and want to be there, need teaching the rest. We're all about giving people, you know, another chance to be successful.

What Pete McMahon does it Express is look for people like himself, fellow walk Ons, just waiting for an opportunity to prove themselves for on the job. I'm Avery Thompson.

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