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Sportscaster Mike Nabors teaches job ‘pivoting’ in new book

The only thing we have to fear, Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously advised his countrymen, is fear itself.
Author Mike Nabors makes a similar case for overcoming adversity in Don’t Quit, Pivot, his motivational book published this month by St. Petersburg Press.
Nabors, a veteran sportscaster with more than 30 years of before-the-camera experience (18 of those with the NFL and the New Orleans Saints), changed his career trajectory by founding a full-scale video production, digital and multimedia marketing company (Nabors Media) in 2009. The Tampa-based company also works extensively with nonprofits, helping them get their message out through documentary films, PSAs and other means.
There was more for him. “A lightbulb actually did go off over my head when I turned 50,” Nabors explained. “I loved being a sportscaster, but there were a lot of other things I wanted to do. Just to see if I would like it.”
He’d always wanted to teach at college level. So, he thought, how do I make that happen?
“I had to get a Master’s degree, something I didn’t have. So I went back, at the age of 50, got my Master’s degree.”
Florida Southern College hired him in 2021, to teach business classes, first as an adjunct, then full-time. And he has not looked back. “I’ve taught six different classes there – Management, Media, Marketing, all these different subjects,” Nabors said. “And I’ve loved it more than I could have imagined.
“So I pivoted to a different career, and I thought you know what, I can share my experiences with people who are maybe happy in their job and need a new challenge, or people who hate their jobs, or people who just need more passion.”
Nabors’ first book, The Brees Way, chronicled the career of his pal, former Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
When he pivoted away from sports, and television, and all the stuff he knew intimately, he was scared. But he persevered, fought complacency and worry and self-doubt, and made it happen.
“Because I had the confidence to do it, I wanted to give other people the confidence too,” he reflected.
“A big component of the book is, we all have skills. I don’t care if you’re 25, 35, 45, 55, we build up skills in whatever we do. And the majority of us take those skills for granted and think that the only area we can use our skills in is our current vocation. Whatever that is.”
Nabors, who’d been an announcer and pregame host for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003, and anchored a Tampa TV sportscast for two years after that, said he’d seen the media business changing over time. “I always thought, in the back of my mind, I don’t want to just do this the rest of my life. I want to do more than this.”
Today, “I love teaching more than I love television. And I love television! But teaching is more fulfilling to me, just because it’s something that I can really have a tangible impact on. TV is somewhat superficial, and the impact is harder to measure than teaching.”
One of the opening pages in Don’t Quit, Pivot says the book is “a road map a more rewarding career!” It’s a series of anecdotes, and advice, and stories of well-known people, including celebrities, who successfully navigated mid-career pivots.
Sportscasting legend Dick Vitale wrote the foreword. “Pivoting,” the basketball analyst wrote, “truly saved my life! Hopefully, this book encourages you to do something I firmly believe in: always follow your passion, but don’t be shy about pivoting to newfound happiness and rewarding challenges in your life. They are there for everyone; you must lean on your inner circle and trust your talents and instincts.”
Whether it’s an entirely new career, or a pivot within an existing one, anybody – introvert, extrovert, gregarious people person or the quiet, shy type – can make a successful change, according to Mike Nabors.
“My career dictates being a people person, in terms of teaching, in terms of developing a business, but everybody has a dream of doing something else. Some people don’t have passion for their jobs – maybe they want to do coding for video games. Or maybe they want to do projects remotely, then make a lot of money. And there’s plenty of those now, with technology.
“You don’t have to be a people person – you just have to be somebody’s who’s not satisfied in their life, who wants more. And there’s all kinds of personalities for that.”
Don’t Quit, Pivot is available from Amazon, Tombolo Books and St. Petersburg Press.
