Collin Henderson emphasizes that mental performance coaching is essential for unlocking potential, not just in sports but across various fields. He discusses the importance of creating a culture of vulnerability, authenticity, and high performance, highlighting how common fears and excuses often hold us back. Throughout the conversation, Collin shares his journey from being overwhelmed and anxious to becoming a sought-after mental performance coach, working with high-profile organizations and athletes. He provides insights into the mental skills needed for success, including self-awareness, self-talk, and the power of visualization. By normalizing mindset training and integrating it into everyday practices, Collin aims to transform lives and foster a supportive environment where individuals can thrive.

Collin Henderson is a fortune 500 speaker, author, mental performance coach and the host of his own podcast, Master Your Mindset where he talks about the power of the mind, leadership, championship culture, winning habits, and more.

He is also the director of mental conditioning for the UCLA women's basketball team and works with Russell Wilson's company, Limitless Minds to help teach the principles of great culture beyond the locker room into board rooms.

Collin has worked with huge companies such as Amazon, Nike, Microsoft, Sales Force, Lululemon, Alaska Airlines, and more. As a former two-sport D1 athlete at WSU who achieved a Pac-12 championship, captain, and academic all-American he has maintained relationships with other colleges across the country such as Miami University, Tulane, UW, WSU, Northern Arizona, and more where he consults on mental performance.

At WSU he obtained a Bachelor's in sports management and minor in business as well as a master's in education. He has written 7 books and creates content nationally for schools to help with social and emotional learning. In this interview we talk about how he got into mental performance, his journey, the concepts he teaches, and he even gives me advice on how to forge my own path.

Please enjoy and give Collin a follow!

The dialogue with Colin Henderson offers a profound exploration into the realm of mental performance and the significance of cultivating a robust mindset. Henderson shares his own journey, detailing the struggles he faced with anxiety and self-doubt. He illustrates how these challenges were pivotal in leading him to discover the transformative power of mental conditioning. Through captivating storytelling, he emphasizes that awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings is the first step towards achieving emotional and mental mastery. His insights highlight the critical connection between mindset and performance, particularly in high-stakes environments like sports and business.

Henderson delves into the mechanisms of mindset training, advocating for an intentional approach to self-talk and visualization as methods to foster confidence and resilience. He articulates that mental training should be viewed as equally important as physical training, drawing parallels between the two. The conversation sheds light on the necessity of creating a culture that embraces vulnerability, where individuals can openly share their fears and experiences. This cultural shift is vital for fostering collaboration and innovation within teams, as it encourages a collective growth mindset.

Listeners are encouraged to take actionable steps towards enhancing their mental performance, with Henderson providing practical tools and strategies that can be easily integrated into daily routines. His mission to normalize mindset training resonates throughout the discussion, inspiring individuals to recognize their potential and strive for continuous improvement. The episode serves as a compelling reminder that, while the body may have its limits, the mind holds the key to unlocking extraordinary possibilities.

Takeaways:

• Mental conditioning is increasingly recognized as essential for high performance in sports and business.
• Self-awareness and self-talk are crucial components of effective mental performance training.
• Creating a common language around vulnerability and authentic leadership can transform organizational culture.
• The mind has no limits, and developing a growth mindset is essential for success.
• Building community support is vital; no one should go through challenges alone.
• Daily practices and routines are necessary to maintain mental fitness and resilience.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Amazon
• Nike
• Microsoft
• Zillow
• Salesforce
• Lululemon
• Nissan
• Alaska Airlines
• UCLA

When I'm speaking in front of a thousand people, we're not doing a group session on therapy.

It's like, how can we create a common language of high performance training, vulnerability training, being authentic training, how to design habits that you can duplicate, how to look at?

What are some common fears or common language that we're using collectively that's really pulling us back.

I think there's a culture of just like focusing on what we can't do and a culture of making excuses.

Cass is evolving potential, and I was sitting watching another speaker, and I'm like, I'm like, at 30% of my ability, I know as we're in me, I'm just so like stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed.

I'm not performing what I know I can do, but I'm just stuck.

You're going to find similar themes that we're all teaching, which is, are you self aware?

How do you train confidence, things like self talk?

How do you practice mindless?

How do you visualize the power of self image?

How do you navigate fear, failure, pressure?

The body has limits, but the mind is limitless.

First of all, thanks for tuning in, you know, to the evolving potential podcast.

Welcome to the evolving potential podcast.

This is episode number 19.

I'm here today with Colin Henderson.

Colin is a Fortune 500 speaker, author, mental performance coach, hosts his own podcast titled Master your Mindset, where he talks about the power of the mind, leadership, championship culture, winning habits, and much more.

He's also the director of mental conditioning for the UCLA women's basketball team.

He works with Russell Wilson's company Limitless Minds, where they help take great culture from the locker room into boardrooms.

Colin's been able to work with Amazon, Nike, Microsoft, Zillow, Salesforce, Lululemon, Nissan, Alaska Airlines, and many more.

And as a former D one athlete in two sports, PaC twelve champion, captain, academic All American.

He's also been able to stay connected with many universities across the country, from Miami University, UW, WSU, Northern Arizona, Tulane, and many more.

He's got his bachelor's in sports management and minored in business, master's degree in education from WSU, which is my home state, which I didn't mention from Washington.

So hell yeah, go cougs.

As well as multiple mental skills certifications, he's written five books, two journals, and creates content for schools nationally to help with social and emotional learning.

He's now the founder of Master your mindset, where he's a consultant and a sought after virtual performance coach.

So thank you for being here, man.

Todd, where are you from in Washington.

I am from Tacoma, Washington.

Tacktown repping the 253.

I'm from Puyallup, just across the way.

No way.

Yeah, I still got people there.

That's really cool.

No, it's honor.

I appreciate, I do respect and the effort of putting some of those thoughts together and sharing that for the intro.

I know doing intros is kind of hard.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

It's.

But it's something I like to do.

Like, helps me get into the mindset and, you know, learn what you've done.

And many of the people that come on the show, it's like their time sells.

Their time sells for a lot, you know, for you to get paid 45 minutes to do a keynote and, like, something, you know, that I don't even want to guess.

So for anybody to come on the show, they deserve the justice of people knowing who you are, who was the context, you know, why should I listen?

Well, yeah, it's.

I respected and honor and have so much gratitude just for the invitation.

And this fulfills my personal mission, which is to transform lives and normalize mindset training.

So the fact that we're having a conversation on podcasts that can reach people across the globe is awesome.

Yeah.

And that's so funny that you would go straight into that right at the beginning because that was going to be the very first thing I wanted to know.

It's like, you know, obviously this is my show, and I want to help, you know, do the same thing.

I want to help create the.

The awareness around the fact that mental performance coaching is pretty normal nowadays.

And I want to create the awareness around what.

What are the principles and how they could apply to anybody in their life, you know, but it's like, for you, what is your mission?

Why would you come on the show?

What are you hoping to spread?

What do you hope people take away from this?

Yeah, I just try to recreate the experience I had when I was in my early thirties.

My blood pressure high, 150s, stressed out, was in sales, selling the doctors.

And, you know, being a college student athlete, sales is a direct correlation to.

There's a result, and your self worth is usually tied to that result.

Wins and losses and rankings.

And I was so overwhelmed and stressed, and I switched companies, and I had a mindset teacher that just really changed my life and just gave me tools.

And I don't think he even knew what mental conditioning was, but he was talking beyond just business concepts, and I just saw such huge transformation.

So all I want to do is just recreate what I felt.

And so back then, being super stressed out, did you seek out a mindset teacher or just, just.

I was seriously, like so much anxiety.

I used to stutter, I couldn't sleep.

I felt stuck.

I would escape the work day by going, watching movies.

Wasn't happy, was thinking to myself, I mean, the very title of your podcast is evolving potential.

And I was sitting watching another speaker, and I'm like, I'm like, at 30% of my ability, I know as we're in me, I'm just so stressed, anxious and overwhelmed.

I'm not performing what I know I can do, but I'm just stuck.

So I looked up online, I was like, well, maybe I'll find a therapist.

And I was too nervous to even call to schedule an appointment.

I had to email because I couldn't speak.

I had so much anxiety.

And I wrote in the subject line, confidence coach.

And she responded like, what is a confidence coach?

I do counseling and therapy, like not knowing that there's a whole other domain of mental performance, mental conditioning that really looks at the mindset skills differently.

So therapy and counseling, which is so critical, important and very helpful, that's like the training room.

If you're an athlete, when there's an injury physically, you have a licensed, trained professional to help heal injury.

Where the weight room is prehab proactive work, agility, speed, explosion to like, really help prevent injury.

I mean, you're going to get, I play college football.

If you're not dinged up, you're not playing.

So you're going to play through something.

But the weight room helps, you know, the, like soft tissue and the muscles and, you know, deal with just getting beat up.

Well, mental conditioning is like that.

And I didn't know that there's a whole nother skill set that I could be using.

That's crazy.

That's such a great metaphor because I think that's the stigma is the fact that if you're going to see somebody, if you're going to talk somebody, it's because there's something wrong.

And so it drives me crazy where it's like anybody and everybody.

And that's why I like to preach the universality of all these principles in daily life, just to have a better life as a parent, as a employee, as anything.

And so I love that.

Well, I think it's been defined as self help.

Self help has been around for 100 years.

There's a million books and barnes and noble.

There's a whole wing like a self help wing.

But I think mental conditioning is more of a domain and a specialty that is just like a strength coach would have.

Certain muscle groups, like core, back, traps, legs, glutes.

You know, you want to really work on certain core muscle groups and there's different lifts to develop those strengths.

Well, in the mental performance space, I think if you talk to anybody who's been trained or their master's degree or pursued or certified or just has some training in there, you're going to find similar themes that we're all teaching, which is, are you self aware?

How do you train confidence?

Things like self talk?

How do you practice mindblows?

How do you visualize the power of self image?

How do you navigate fear, failure, pressure?

How do you have habits and routines to scale your success?

And then you can throw in leadership and culture, all that type of stuff.

But there's just certain things that a lot of us teach that I think more people need access to.

And I think where I found success in this industry is sometimes like the mental wellness space.

Sometimes it's kind of either esoteric and academic, and it just doesn't feel like really tangible.

I think my fascination is how do I make something super academic and make it accessible, make it real world.

Give great story a great example.

Here's a great evidence based tool.

Here's a simple framework to adopt.

It's not reactive.

We're going to proactively do it.

Or if you notice your inner critic or worry or self doubt, fear, here's a tool you can use now, see.

And that's so perfect because I'm sitting here considering moving into my PhD and with the realization of, okay, well, what is actually working in the real world and what should I actually do to get out there and get some experience?

Because it is very academic as opposed to very practical.

And it's nice to have these conversations with people who are actually out in the real world utilizing these things.

It can be like, okay, yeah, you know, but here's really the groupings of things that I'm actually doing in the real world with people.

And I mean, like four classes in, and I want to just downplay.

I think, you know, there's a lot of great master's programs and a lot of great curriculum that are designed to help, but four classes in, I'm like, okay, I've already been doing this for several years.

Nothing I've learned I would ever use.

It's pretty.

Here's some studies or here's some theory.

Here are some things.

But I felt like the curriculum was designed by someone who's never actually been in a locker room.

Agreed.

Never been in a boardroom.

I've been in both of those, and I'm literally.

I can't take anything through this program.

I would, you know, there's maybe a few little things, but I learned right away.

So, again, I'm not downplaying that.

I think I love education, but just find a program.

Find faculty who been in the trenches, who've been in battle.

No, it bodes the question, would you follow the warrior or the student who studied the warrior?

Exactly.

Exactly.

I want to follow the warrior who's also a student.

So I just think there should be a framework.

It should be evidence based.

But let's not get it twisted.

When I go into groups, I'm not a therapist.

That's a different skill set.

That takes oversight and hours of work where you're being, you know, guided through a program.

So, like.

But we're talking about, how do you.

You know, there's some overlap, but, you know, when I'm speaking in front a thousand people, we're not doing a group session on therapy.

It's like, how can we create a common language of high performance training, vulnerability training, you know, being authentic training, how to design habits that you can duplicate, you know, how to look at, what are some common fears or common language that we're using collectively that's really holding us back and just reinvigorate.

I love tupac.

He says, you want sad?

Rest in peace.

I might not change the world, but I guarantee I'm a spark of brain that does change the world.

So I just want to create an energy shift where I think, you know, talking about culture.

I think there's a culture of just, like, focusing on what we can't do and a culture of making excuses.

Well, let's create a culture of.

Let's not find an excuse.

Let's find a way.

What can we do?

How can we catch others doing it right?

How can we create an environment where there's love and service and vulnerability, and we celebrate failing forward, and we create an environment where we encourage people to try new things.

I mean, I think I can help organizations train those things.

Dave, that's.

That's exactly why I moved from performance psychology from my bachelor's into sociology.

Cause I'm like, there's a larger.

There's a much larger mission here that if we just put these things in place at the higher levels, everything would kind of trickle down in that way and creating those environments.

And so, like, that's 100%.

Something I love to focus on is how.

How are you going out in the world and able to help these people to create this environment when they believe in their own things, their own productivity?

It's building a team.

It's building a team.

You know, if I were to say everybody needs four things, a community, a counselor.

So a community is do life with others.

Nobody should worry or win alone.

The strength is the pack.

I think a big fear I have for people is they try to isolate, shouldn't isolate.

Have a counselor, have someone who's trained on the deep stuff, you know, who can navigate trauma, which we all have, you know, some deeper issues like anxiety and depression, like that have more classically trained skills.

The third, then everyone needs a coach.

Okay?

We can go back and heal our inner child and go back to, like, reparent ourselves and do parts work, that type of stuff.

I also think having, you know, either a small group or a coach, that we're going to really work on holding you accountable, helping you create a game, plan forward, helping you navigate who you are and pinpoint your goals and some habits to get to your goals and surround yourself with people that help you get there.

But the fourth one is have a church.

Now, I'm a person of faith, but your church could be something just bigger than yourself, something larger, some purpose or legacy that you're serving, bigger than yourself, that it's not just about you.

And so what would you say is your church at the moment that keeps you going on this mission?

To come on my podcast and to.

Continue helping my church is just normalizing belief, faith and service.

Like Christ was the ultimate servant leader.

And I don't need with my faith.

I don't leave with it.

Again, I speak to schools and I speak to corporations, so, but it's all rooted in, you know, gratitude and it's rooted in service, it's rooted in grace.

And if someone wants to have a conversation with me, you know, outside of a stage and ask me, you know, what, how, how are you navigating all the stresses and failures and adversities of life?

I was like, well, you know, I.

I believe in Jesus and I pray, but I also know, you know, that there's good scripture in the Bible, but there's also great brain science that, you know, just faith alone.

Like, there's some skills of some daily drills that we can do in the moment, you know, in a group, in teaching and being of service, I mentioned in my.

In the opening, my mission is to transform lives.

I really don't care how I do it, and everyone's on a different walk, and I don't think.

I mean, faith is the only tool we have.

I think it's one of many tools that we can have.

But, yeah.

Again, I think a lot of times you get people in these platforms who have an audience, and they're really seduced by breath versus depth.

I want to work on depth.

Like, am I being a really good dad?

Really present with my kids?

Am I really listening to the people I care about?

I like seeing them, knowing them.

Am I fully engaged with what I'm doing?

If I'm having coffee with someone, am I fully locked in with that person and not get seduced by followers on Instagram and selfies and how many logos you can put on a website?

Yeah.

How do you balance that?

Because I feel like, you know, author of five books, working with this company, have your own company, keynote speaker, all these different things, you know?

And I.

I know that you have a few kids, don't you?

I have, like, four or five.

Yeah, we.

We got five.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And so it's like how.

I mean, obviously, you probably have a good partner, so I hope.

I hope that you have a good partner.

And besides that, how are you able to.

To manage all this?

Well, I think having a mission is good.

If I'm doing any leadership training, I walk them through the MVP's mission values purpose slogan.

So I mentioned the mission.

So my values, I have it tatted on my right.

On my right wrist, which is being a g, which is.

I'm trying to be g d from the feed up, trying to be a g every day.

And that's, you know, to really put my faith in God.

But it's gratitude, giving, growing, and having grace.

Nice.

So everything filters through.

Through that.

Through that lens.

That's amazing.

That's perfect.

And so now you're out in the world, and you're doing.

Are you having to travel a lot doing this?

Yeah, I do.

I do.

I mean, last week I was in Philly, Boston, Jersey, and Austin, Texas.

And then I'm flying to DC, taking a train back to Philly, then fly to Orlando, and then fly to Nashville, and I drive to Atlanta.

So I'm, you know, I try to, you know, be really present as a dad, be really.

You know, I try not to be gone more than, like, one or two nights a week, but it's just like, I'm just trying to stack them so I can get back, you know?

And the last two days, I was at our kids school, having lunch with the kids, going to the library, helping the librarian, which has a club called vision board club.

So helping curriculum for kids to cast.

Cast vision.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Dude, you're working so hard.

That's great.

That's crazy.

But I honestly, man, this is.

This is the beauty.

I'm so blessed.

It took me so I'm 44 now.

I left corporate America when I was 39.

I've been doing this for five years, like, full time, like, with betting on herself.

And I promise you, Todd, I don't work.

I feel weird saying that, but I don't count hours.

I don't know if it's Monday or if it's Saturday or it's Wednesday.

I really don't know what day it is half the time.

And I love the people I get to work with.

I love to learn about them and build really close connections.

So I think what I've found is some businesses, it's transactional for me, it's like, it's relational.

I really love people, and I learn so much from people.

I really don't have all the answers.

I don't.

Groups I work with, they know way more than I do.

But I just create a vehicle and a platform where we can ask some questions, take time to reflect, really shift our thinking, challenge ourselves to not waste days.

We have one life to live, and really just backward design a question.

Love to ask people.

What do you want the most?

A part of the brain I've been really looking at is kind of a newer, some new research on the default mode network in your brain.

And it's these circuits where.

It's where your brain goes in times of idleness, when you're not tied to a task, when you're not working on a project at work or playing tennis or dancing or doing karaoke, you have time to just be with yourself.

A question to reflect if people are listening.

First of all, thanks for tuning in.

So the evolving potential podcast.

But how do you experience yourself?

Is that a good place to be when you're with yourself?

Like, are you kind to yourself?

Do you support yourself?

Do you have, do you have, do you forgive yourself?

Do you encourage yourself?

Do you love yourself?

No.

And these default mode network is like, where does your brain go?

Does it go to shame?

Are you going back in time and beating yourself up something that you did?

Are you worried about the future?

Are you projecting what could go wrong?

Or have you trained yourself to notice and have empathy and compassion and come back to the present moment and ask yourself, what's important now?

I posted on my Instagram Stories today.

Imagine if you were asked this question, when is your favorite moment?

And imagine if your answer is now.

My favorite moment is now because I'm right here.

So I'm going to make the most of this time with you, Todd, and just have a conversation.

So, yeah, listeners, what do you want the most?

How many days do you waste?

How many moments do you waste?

This was from Zig Ziglar.

He once said, don't be a wandering generality.

Be a meaningful specific.

One of my favorite mentors I learned from is Justin Sua.

He says, do things with purpose, on purpose.

So it's not just randomly based off of your calendar to do list, email who's president, interest rates or inflation.

This is a free country, man.

We can.

We have a lot of freedoms that we can.

You know, obviously some, some groups would say there are more hard hardships than other, which is true.

But I do believe that we all have the power of free will and if we can figure out what we want, why we want it, and be disciplined.

Stack daily small wins.

One of my favorite mentors I've worked with is Brian Cain.

He says, a little.

A lot.

Not a lot.

With a little.

A lot.

Not a lot.

A little.

Yeah, a little.

A lot.

So these daily, just little habits, these atomic habits.

I love James clear, too.

Just stack these little wins every single day.

I think we try to.

We think that greatness is these big moments.

They're not.

There's these small.

Just being consistent, doing simple, better, and just loving that journey versus.

I think we are outcome junkies.

I think that's the biggest problem.

Yeah, we want instant gratification.

Yeah.

And then we may tie in our self worth, that outcome.

I'm guilty of that for sure.

And so how did you start becoming aware of that?

Or was it through this mentor that we talked about that the guy?

Yeah, yeah.

I gotta give shout out to Chi Town's finest, Frankie Pretzel and I.

The company I was working for was bard Medical, selling urology devices.

And yeah, I was in Chicago for a week.

He was my field sales trainer.

He had this Rolodex of cds and he popped one in.

It was an audio program on how to visualize.

What is this?

What is this stuff?

I made a really cool mixed cd, a burnt cd of, like, Kanye and 50 cent and usher.

You know, I'm not doing this.

And he's like, yeah, man, I'm in.

I'm in this, like, mastermind.

And we have, like, this collection of, like, these audible teachings.

And I think this would be great for you.

Like, we have a lot of time in the car.

Dang.

And then he gave me a list of 30 books on the power of the mind.

Dang.

What a happenstance thing.

There's no coincidences.

Well, I know.

I mean, so part of, I think people aren't willing to change unless they've, I wouldn't say hit rock bottom, but there's this cognitive dissidence that's intense enough where they're, like, willing to want to get better.

One of my early books I read is the brain that changed itself.

And the first rule of learning is you have to want to learn.

Most people aren't really in a place where they want to learn.

The brain is like a parachute.

It only works if it's open.

And because I was struggling and unhappy and I'm really unhealthy, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

So I think because I was in a state of.

I want to get out of this funk I'm in.

A teacher entered, and once I kind of had a good grasp on some of these concepts, I read that, though.

So we're going to tie this together with our pre conversation before we record it.

After reading this stuff and listening to these audiobooks and watching these great thinkers on YouTube, I just, again, was consuming, like, a ton of content.

And one of my other mentors who was a basketball coach and teacher, he was like, you know, I usually try to bring, you know, a few guest speakers in every year.

Colin, you're doing well in business and college, student athlete, you know, can you come talk to my class?

You talk about anything you want.

I was like, okay.

So that was the first time I put together, like, a 45 minutes.

Just, what do I believe?

Like, how can I give you value as a high school student on, like, what I didn't have?

And the title of my.

Of my talk was the power of thought.

And, like, listeners, do you think about your thoughts?

Are they organized or is it random?

So I just kind of put together, I think, my philosophy of how to change your thinking, how to set goals, how to, you know, gratitude and self talk things I never knew existed before.

And after my little session, he called me.

He's like, all right, that was pretty cool, man.

I need you to do one thing.

I need you to look up the name Trevor Moad.

I'm like, trevor Moad?

Yeah.

He's like, yeah.

He's a mental conditioning coach for Russell Wilson, for Alabama, Nick Saban, Florida State.

Jimbo Fisher.

I mean, he's one of the best in the world.

He was at our school this fall because he's from Washington.

Yeah, he.

This is where he grew up.

And he came and, like, your guys are saying the same thing, but it's just a little different.

Like, he's like, you can do this for a living.

I'm like, mental conditioning?

What is that?

But I knew Russ because Charlie Martin played for the Seahawks.

He's the godfather.

His wife, according to our oldest child, Baylor.

I just never met Trevor.

I knew of him.

I just.

I don't think I knew he knew what him and Russ were doing.

So I looked him up, and I was like, mental conditioning.

Oh, wow.

His video is really cool.

He's a great storyteller, great speaker.

He's saying things that are just super powerful.

So then I was like, well, shoot, I'm gonna start teaching this stuff more, you know, and I had also.

I had so much fun doing it, so I started blogging, I wrote a book, and I met Trevor a few years later.

And, you know, Trevor passed away three years ago.

It was like, the anniversary is her anniversary.

So it's just interesting how, like, when you really.

When you find a.

What you're curious about, instead of trying to find your purpose, and I'm trying to find goals, just like, what am I curious?

What do I research?

What do I think about?

What do I talk about?

That's your superpower.

And then things just start happening, you know?

Yeah, 100%.

That's exactly what led me down this path as well.

Like, studying everything.

I have a nine year old son with autism, and I was dealing with my own spiritual awakenings around no guilt or forgiveness or patience or resilience or any of those things, and started researching, researching, researching, and came over.

It's like, dude, this stuff is absolutely amazing.

It's life changing to know that these principles, like I said, it can help with daily life, but it also can help with athletes at the highest level or people in the boardroom.

And it's all the same stuff.

And it's like, you can read 100 different books and kind of pull out those principles once you have done that.

And so that's kind of cool that you're able to not only do that, but then share it, which is definitely another level, because I haven't gotten to that point yet myself, where you're just, like, out there in the world sharing it, speaking about it, was that something that was terrifying for you, or you just kind of were like, let's go.

It was scary.

There's something very, very vulnerable to share with others what you believe.

Yeah, that's super vulnerable.

And I think for a lot of people who are used to kind of having someone give orders and just follow the line of kind of what you've always done, but, like, to really think and reflect.

What do I believe based off of what I've experienced, the mentors I've had, either the training I've had, you know, whether it's high school, college, postgraduate, whether it's masterminds, people who have really done it, done.

They've been in the trenches, and they can teach you what what they've done.

But I think the best way to learn is to teach.

There's no better way to learn.

And I feel like I've been so blessed to always be in practice.

I mean, I have a coach, a lot of people, one on one, small group, live training.

I have a coach, I have a small group.

I lead a small group.

So we're just having these conversations, and I.

Dude, I'm so committed to learning, so I'm really committed to listening to podcasts and reading articles and research and just figuring out ways to make the complex really simple.

But I would say for you, Todd, the best thing you can do, I'm gonna get.

I'm gonna give you a three step process.

Okay?

Yeah.

Book bill, then build.

Just book it.

Get the meeting, get the client, sell the big idea.

You don't even have to have it all flushed out.

Just kind of have an idea.

Hey, I'm a student of mindset.

Have a podcast.

I'm super well read in terms of concepts that have affected me.

Here's how I struggle.

This is what I've learned.

But you kind of.

I really think, you know, no one wants to be sold, but they love to buy, and people buy pain over gain.

Best way to influence someone is just to get curious and love them and ask questions.

I love it.

How.

How are you?

How's your team doing?

How's your group doing?

What are they struggling to?

What's working?

What's not working?

Then the money question is, once you've uncovered where they're frustrated, is, what are you doing for that?

Oh, you're not doing anything.

Well, it sounds like, you know, what you're looking for is what I.

What I'm fascinated by and what I'm studying and what I do.

I'd love to come in and let's just schedule a 30 minutes little workshop or 30 minutes virtual.

Let me get in with your team.

I'm gonna walk you through, you know, some, some concepts that really helped me.

And if you just title it, mindset, train, just give it a title, the general idea.

And then when you book it, now you have a date.

So, I mean, you, you have to do something.

So you have to put something together in terms of, like, well, what do I believe?

What, what does help me?

What's, you know, I have different models to help you with that, but, and maybe you don't build quite yet.

I would usually always tell anybody, like, you need at least ten events for free.

Don't charge anyone.

Just get out there and get reps.

Repetition is the mother of mastery, but that gives you an opportunity to practice your flow, practice your concepts, and give yourself time to adapt, change, adjust, and you get feedback, but you get to practice, you know, and I don't think you should charge anybody unless you put in reps.

And do you feel like you dealt with some imposter syndrome from switching into this, from switching out of sports or out of sales and teaching something that is kind of small, kind of not unknown.

Imposter syndrome?

Well, I guess maybe in a deeper layer is part of my anxiety is I used to stutter because of anxiety.

And the phrasing I use to describe what I'm working through currently is I'm a recovering perfectionist people pleaser who's codependent, whose self worth is tied to performance.

So part of my fluency, which was not consistent, was so consumed of what Doctor Michael Dravet calls the biggest epidemic in performance, which is faux po fear of other people, people's opinions.

I was so worried about looking smart, looking intelligent, just worried about what people think.

And then what you focus on expands.

When you say, don't stutter, you're commanding your nervous system and your subconscious to stutter.

Because I had a bad experience when I was in 6th grade of reading out loud, and it wasn't bad.

And so what you don't use, you lose.

I stopped putting myself in those environments of reading out loud and speaking the public.

So my fluency got worse and it became a massive anxiety point for me.

So, yeah, man, early on I had to, like, practice getting over that, but that's part of the, where that growth happens.

One of my favorite quotes is from Joseph Campbell.

He once said, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.

Yep.

So, I did speech therapy when I was 27.

I did toast masters for three years, but I never really took it outside of that to go out to audiences and put myself out there.

But, yeah, of course, every time I did it, man, I was sweating through my shirt and thinking through, over and over again, overanalyzing, but every time I did it, I just got a little bit better.

And you just keep showing up.

I tell people, show up afraid.

Let's go.

And so, what are some of the tips that you feel like you've gained along the way for if someone was going to do public speaking to, say, confidence, I know you.

You talk very well about confidence, and so I'd love to touch on that.

Yeah, yeah.

I define confidence as belief beyond.

Do you need to see to believe, or do you believe and then see?

Confidence isn't, I know I'll have success.

Confidence is I can figure it out.

It might take ten tries or might take 100, but I'm gonna get there.

To me, that's supreme confidence, where I don't need to see a result.

I don't need validation.

I'm in it because I'm committed to it, I believe in it.

And basically, it's having a growth mindset, it's having grit.

I'm just gonna keep showing up.

But I would say if I'm teaching anybody about public speaking is just to have the awareness that it's arguably, universally one of the number one fears that most people have.

So just normalize that speaking in public is just.

It's not just as simple as riding a bike.

Like, it's.

It's takes practice.

So it's.

It's a trained practice skill.

Just like learning a new language, learning to play the piano, learning coding.

Like it is, it's a skill that takes practice, learning how to cook like you, you have to practice at it to be confident.

I don't think people realize that.

They think they should just be not nervous and masters of a thing.

That's a trainable skill, you know, so just give yourself some grace.

That would be step one.

And then step two is to have the understanding that it is normal to be super nervous in that area.

But number two is, if you really want to get better at anything, get your reps in, put yourself in environments where you're practicing public speaking.

There's a lot of clubs.

I did toastmasters early on.

I would call a lot of my friends who were teachers, principals, coaches, and say, can I talk to your team?

I knew that was something I wanted to get better at.

So I literally put myself in those situations to practice.

How can you be good at what you don't practice?

And then I think that what any speaker, leader, someone that shares ideas with people, root your presentations in story.

Facts tell.

Stories sell.

Stories are really sticky.

Jesus spoke in parables.

Is that a coincidence?

No.

So Trevor Moad was the best storyteller I'd ever seen because he.

His master's degree is in education.

He was a teacher for four years.

But his dad, Bob Moag, who founded the Edge Institute, was what I call an edutainer.

Yeah.

So he'd play the piano.

He, like, sing, he would tell jokes.

And I think where the academic field kind of misses people is they get super.

They get academic, and it's super.

I don't know, ivory tower just like academic and just loses people.

People.

You know, we're.

We got cell phones we got to compete with, and it's boring.

Boring will put you out of business.

So story is just.

Kate, do you know the art of story?

Can you.

Setting scene, a challenge, a fall, a loss, and then there's this growth journey.

There's a mentor, there's some rise and falls, but then the ending.

There either is a tragedy or a triumph that you can learn from and then involve the audience.

Ask questions, make it about them.

Do an activity.

This is from Mary Kay.

She once said, people support what they help build.

So don't be a sage on the stage.

Be a guide on the side.

Think about, okay, what questions can I involve the audience?

What activities can I bring them in to where it's not me being a tennis ball machine, just like talking at, never give a speech, have a conversation.

So tie in story with questions for them to reflect and think.

Do an activity.

But I also think to be a great presenter, speaker, root that story in science or data.

Give us some evidence.

And then if you're a really good teacher, you have a structure, you have a framework, you have a model.

You can teach off of that story and then give them a clear call to action.

That was dope.

That was really good.

That was really good because even starting from where you started at the beginning, where you said that, you're telling people what you believe, to me, that already was different than my mindset that I've had currently, which is sharing the evidence, sharing what works, sharing what is being utilized at the highest level.

That's why it's cool to talk to people who are working with, like, professional athletes and stuff.

It's like, what's actually being used at the highest level?

But ultimately, I can be like, hey, this a, b, and c is being used at the highest level.

And, like, that's not.

That's not really a story.

That's not really giving anybody any incentive to really put those things into life.

It's not talking about the benefits, not talking about the pain of talking about any of this stuff.

And so it's really cool to be able to, like, understand and flip it backwards where it's like, evidence is small, belief is shared in there, and a story or stories.

And so that.

Yeah, so the model I teach is QSC.

So if you all taking notes, we're in the mind gym now.

We don't just think that.

We ink it.

So fold a piece of paper.

So QSC would be, I guess, for you, Todd, if you want to get in this, you want to be like a coach, a speaker, a trainer that goes into locker rooms, it goes into classrooms, boardrooms.

Here's a simple structure.

The first thing is, you know, what is your big idea?

I call this the spouse test.

When you're done speaking in 8 hours or 5 hours have gone by and they go home, could they articulate to their spouse what they learned?

And I think people get to try to get too clever, and I try to get fancy.

Just, okay, what's your big idea?

What's the problem?

You want to really address?

But then I go into a model called QSC.

So Q is open your message with a quote.

The reason why we do that is because it helps guide the learner.

We're talking about this.

And as we've seen with the advent of Instagram and I and Twitter.

Next.

Like, people love a short quote that's well thought out.

That's either a metaphor.

It's just, it gives an insight that kind of guides us.

Like, we're in this room.

What do we talk about?

That quote goes, vroom.

And I have my favorite quote on my arm, which is romans twelve two.

Don't conform to the patterns of this world.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Quote.

And then question.

Then ask a question to the audience.

Really?

They're the hero.

You're not the hero.

They're the hero.

It's about them because they're in real time thinking, what's in it for me?

Why should I listen to this joker up on here that's got GCU's got a Batman talent?

Who is this guy?

Right?

No, it's no it's really not about me, really.

This.

I'm here for you and I.

I'm going to ask a question, because a question creates awareness, and awareness precedes behavior change.

Why would I listen to you if I don't think this is, like, important to me or I'm engaged?

Ask a question.

And then once you kind of made it about them and they're reflecting, and usually I like to ask questions where I know that they're lacking there because there's this tension, you know, and they're like, I guess I'm short there, maybe I should.

So a simple question that would do from like, okay, let's just all do real time.

I'll do it how I would do it.

All right.

And maybe it'd be a different quote, you know, maybe it'd be a quote from Trevor or it could be a quote from anybody.

I don't know.

Just give something that we're gonna talk about the mind.

And then my question would be, how important is your mental fitness to really have a great life?

Or if you're a lawyer or a doctor, or you're in the tech industry, if you're in healthcare, if you're in education, how important is your mental fitness, your mindset?

Like ten out.

Let's go from zero to ten.

So ten.

Right.

Question two.

From a time perspective, what are you doing to develop your mental fitness?

Hmm.

Well, let's talk about what are you doing?

And that's there's all over the board.

They don't have like, a framework at all.

They have no, like, you would go to a gym.

There's a squat rack and bench press dumbbells.

And, you know, all these different machines.

Like, you have clear lifts to do the mind gym.

There's no universal mind.

You can go to where there's certain mental, emotional lifts so we can start training facts.

Yeah.

So what are you doing?

Raise your hand if you feel stressed.

Raise your hand if you feel pressure.

Raise your hand if you overwhelmed.

Raise your hand if you ever felt like, I cannot do this, I'm afraid.

What are you doing for that?

Just ask them a question and get them to think about themselves.

Now, moving into the s.

All right, let's just tell a story to, like, here's an example.

Now just drop a story on him.

Where there's like a character, there's a character, there's the same sequence, there's scene setting, character, a challenge, a loss, a setback, adversity, what do they do, you know, and what it's either going to end and they, there's a tragedy or triumph.

We can learn from either.

And they failed.

Misery because they didn't do boom.

Or they won because they did.

Now, the other part of the s is I'm going to teach a system on how to overcome self doubt.

Like, again, what's your big idea?

And self doubt is, actually, it could be good.

There's good self doubt and there's bad self doubt sometimes.

Good self doubt is I'm not prepared, so I need to do some more live events.

Great.

But give them a model that's rooted in science.

So I think.

So story, system, science.

Can you back up your story or your philosophy or your system with some data?

Because this is from the Greeks.

The laws of influence are pathos, ethos, logos, which in real time, the learner is thinking, is this person credible?

Is there emotion tied to this?

And does this logically make sense?

So story gets the emotion to be credible would be, you know, if you can tie in, you know, one of the easiest ways to get people to change behavior is social proof, whether it's you or people you work with or people you've learned from.

But that science, is that like logic, you know, so we're kind of mixing all that in, into that s, you know, and then once we've, you know, gave them a quote to think about.

I really like philosophy.

I have a lot of questions of philosophy, everyone.

We can have a whole podcast run philosophy.

That's what, that's what, that's what that quote is like.

I'm gonna drop a quote, I want you to think about it, and then I'm gonna ask a question like, well, what do you believe?

Or how have you experienced that?

Well, what are you doing for this?

And then, well, here's a, here's an example.

Here's a story.

And then what we learned from the story is this.

Well, here's a system to not be like that person or to duplicate what they did.

When you're some science to back why this is helpful, here's.

You'll be in the healthcare sales industry, man.

If you did not have a research trial that was powered a certain way, that had enough people in it, that was proven, then you could not present that to a physician.

So I just feel like if we're prescribing success systems, we should have some data behind it.

Try it, because I said so.

I mean, maybe if you're balling and you can tell a personal example where you've duplicated a bunch of times, but I don't know, I just want.

I'm very with a master's in education.

I believe in evidence based stuff.

As it should be.

And that's why this can be such a challenge for some people, because it's.

Well, then to do your homework.

Yep, do your homework.

How many books have you read?

How many lectures have you been to?

I mean, or what?

I mean, I'm less about degrees because education is not knowledge.

How so?

You can have degrees, but did you learn anything that is actually useful knowledge?

I think, but I mean, then are you using that knowledge and applying it?

I think that the application is really more important, but then the c would be in this process of learning.

So work.

I'm a coach, so I'm going to give you a forward path.

I'm going to help you play offense in your life, not defense.

What's a call to action?

So what's a drill they can do to create reflection, ownership, self awareness, application that they can hold themselves, accountability to that we've all, as a team, we create a common language of awareness system, a path forward.

And then I think really good teachers close that idea going back to the beginning.

With the big idea.

Yeah.

Any.

Any great article opens with something, and there's a lot of stuff in the middle, and it goes back to the start.

That was great.

That was the perfect framework, honestly.

And you can use QSC.

I like things in three.

So you can.

Well, I'll give you my framework how I.

How I design trainings or like keynote or three hour workshop.

I have.

I.

I'll give it to you right now.

So, you ready?

So QSC is a part of it.

You can do QSc once, you can do QSc three times.

Makes sense.

Psycho.

Yeah.

So my formula, and if you want to be a speaker again, I'm not gonna tell you how much I make, but people pay me to come speak to their teams, so I.

It's taken me a lot of failure.

It's taking me a ton of time, take a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of, you know, bad performances.

And I can just tell you I've seen this formula.

It just makes things easier for me to come in.

So step one is to build rapport fast.

So pay attention.

What's something that you can tie into your environment, you know, where you're at, location, someone that you met.

Just give, build a rapport, win fast, get an early win.

If I'm playing basketball, I'm a must see that the ball go in.

If I'm a quarterback, I'm gonna get a quick completion short, get that confidence.

Get an early win.

Build rapport, be present, do not be a robot.

Never give a speech.

Have a conversation.

And then the next part of that, just quick, that's like 30 seconds.

But that's like, you know, one.

I think every human should do improv training at least once or twice.

I've had another guest say that as.

Well, because improv is.

There are no mistakes in improv.

And improv is to make your partner look good.

And in improv, it's shout out to Travis Thomas.

It's yes.

And so you just keep building off of.

Off of the experience anyway.

Rapport, quick, then right into it.

Tell a story.

And then number three, this is what I call setting the table.

Right now we're setting the table rapport, story.

And then the third thing is, do an activity.

Involve the audience.

They can do it from their seat.

I'll just do something.

I'll ask them to do something.

Just do something that involves them.

One of my good friends, name is Erin.

She runs a really cool school here in Nashville that's challenging education for young people.

And she's like, when I train my teachers, my goal is to.

How do you get that information from their brain to their body?

Dang.

I know the power of that.

And that's sad.

That's not easy.

But I also, again, I don't classify myself as a keynote speaker.

I'm more of a coach on the stage.

So when I want their focus, I have ways to get their attention back.

And I'll say, where are you?

And I'll say, I'll have to say, I want you to say right here.

And that's our cue to stop talking.

But we clap and then that's when we stop talking.

So you just have to have ways, you know, I want them to think, to think, pair and share, but I need their focus back.

But you have to preemptively set the ground rules is how we're going to work this thing.

They were fun in the mind jam.

We're going to get after it.

We're going to maybe laugh, think, cry.

Who knows?

But I'm guessing you don't want me just to lecture you for an hour.

Let's get you involved.

Let's.

We have great thinkers next to you.

Let's learn from them.

So.

But once.

Once that's done, report story activity.

Then I go to.

I go to pain.

Any good movie or any good show on tv.

The first 20%, there's some type of conflict.

Would you agree?

Absolutely.

It has to be.

Yeah.

Or you.

Or there's no story.

There's not worth listening to.

Yep.

So the.

The rapport is kind of to connect with the audience to make, you know, I'm like you.

I'm with you.

We're on the same team.

Story is, you need to entertain before you educate.

And that story kind of sets the tone of, like, what we're gonna be talking about today and, like.

And why you're there.

And then part of that story.

Usually I.

Usually part of that story is like, I'll kind of tell my story.

It could be all intertwined, like, why I'm here.

That's part of the story.

And then do an activity, and then pain.

There has to be some element of.

Okay, here's where we're at.

Here's the facts, here's the data.

Here's what we're up against.

Here's what the research showing.

Here's, you know, ask them a question where they've.

People by pain versus gain.

And where do you find these activities that you put people through?

If you're a professional, do some research.

I have a million little activities, little quick games.

We can do the audience.

Again, this is.

But I'm teaching you how to be, like, a next level.

Not just roll out a lazy keynote, but you're really thinking about your audience first.

I love that.

Honestly, even the.

Have a conversation with them, not giving a speech.

Yeah, that was very powerful then.

But.

So once you've set the.

Like, the.

Like, the problem statement, then, all right, we're gonna go on a journey.

I've just set the table.

Why you should listen, why we're here.

What's the intent today?

What?

I want you to get out of it, and then you can qsc them three times.

They slip into it again.

We'll do the.

Make it longer.

I got three points.

Point one.

Boom.

Quote, question, story, system, science, call to action.

And then you would bridge your second QSC with an activity.

I see.

Take it from the brain to the body, and then do.

Your second point would be another QSC.

And then you bridge your last third point, a third QSC.

And then you would close it out by taking time to this is what we learned.

And then you'd wrap it up with a story that would connect the opening story.

That's awesome.

Have you had times where you've done.

Tried to do one of these, like, you failed?

Feel like, oh, my gosh, the beginning.

And how do you overcome.

I think this is meant to do this.

No, no, I think the biggest.

Where I, my growth edge is I have too much content, too much.

I want to shove everything in.

Less is more.

They're not going to remember 100 things.

They can remember three things.

My growth edge is I need to, like, shave it off and use and do like less.

That's been exactly what I was talking about, too.

It's like reading all the books.

I feel like our story is very similar.

I guys spent a two to three years, just almost every, all the popular books, you know, all the classics and think and go, rich and Tony Robbins books and anything, self help, self transformation, psychology, whatever.

And then it becomes like someone's like, oh, you want to come do a speech at our team?

And I'm like, what would I.

What I talk about?

I know, but Todd, but this is where you need to look within and ask yourself, well, what, what pain do I have?

How can I solve that for me?

And what do I think I need to do and start practicing to address what I'm curious about, what I'm hurt, what I'm afraid of, because I can be a certified John C.

Maxwell speaker.

I can be a certified name to speaker a Tony Robbins or Simon Sinek, you know, you know John Gordon, and there's a lot of, you know, Mel Robbins, Brene Brown.

But I think your power is, and what do you believe?

What models have helped you?

Taking in everyone's research and then condensing it into simple systems that are relevant to you.

And that's, that's exactly what I've been working on.

And then making sure that the time is, is available as well.

So that's what's.

So just book ten.

Don't call me after you've done ten.

It's book.

Oh.

I mean, I, I'll just.

Is this a pg, PG 13 podcast?

No.

Say whatever you want.

No.

Yeah, so I have a mastermind called inner Game, and I teach them.

Book that bitch.

Just book it.

Book the thing.

And then you'll learn way more than, like, trying to make the perfect speech.

Just book it and then deliver it and then do another one and build off it.

That's crazy.

And so when did you, when did you start getting some bigger opportunities?

How did this start spiraling into, from the basic speech with the college, as a college athlete and then into Amazon and all these crazy companies?

Well, I think it's also important, again, to be a professional.

It takes some time.

So I had a solid three year Runway of just experimenting, where I had a main course, which was selling catheters, was a national sales trainer, managed five states.

You know, I had that, but I had the side hustle mindset training.

I actually have now written seven books.

We gotta update the bio.

But I was just, I was like Tupac in the booth.

I think Tupac, in just a matter of like six years had performed over 700 songs.

Jeez.

So I was just, I was like writing, speaking.

Another thing I think taught me.

Good for you.

I also learned is to find partners, find organizations that have your desired audience already built.

I was playing outfield for the Cougs, and he had founded a training center for softball, baseball, football, and I saw the numbers they had and I was like, so you got like a strength training program.

You got a skills training program.

But the biggest growth potential is not physical, it's mental.

Mental skills training is the most fast paced, growing field in sport.

What are you guys doing for that?

Oh, you're doing nothing.

Oh, great.

Well, I have a whole curriculum then we can do.

Thanks.

So I shout out to that organization, Aaron.

So I was.

Got hired on.

You know, I ate what I killed.

You know, we sent emails out to everyone and started a program.

And the first Monday session, no one showed up.

But every, every time we did it, it just kept growing, growing.

I mean, it's gotta show up, man.

But if just.

If you're in your sphere of curiosity, just always stay in practice.

I mean, there are no failures.

Just keep showing up.

That's crazy.

So you started doing a program out of nowhere with a guy who was a coach, basically.

Well, he, he started as a coach, but he developed this business where he had a lot of coaches under him and they had thousands of kids.

Oh, dang.

So I think, you know, you look at being, you know, in sales, you got a big bucket you got to fill, you got sand, you got rocks, you got boulders.

So if you want to, like, serve your family, like, financially, one on one is going to be tough.

That's all you do.

Yeah.

And then you got business to consumer.

B, two C.

I found a lot of great success in my career.

B, two B.

Have a partner in the space that has an audience that you like to work with and they help you with that.

So if you hunt and gathering all by yourself.

What would be an example of that?

I just shared one with that.

Like, you know, if there's a YMCA, a boys and girls club, a training facility, a different sport training complex, a weight room crossfit.

Like, there's tons of organizations that train physically, but do it train mentally.

That's smart.

Like businesses, you know.

Yeah.

I've been definitely trying to keep my eyes open for that because I was a personal trainer in the past, and then I was moving into.

Okay, I really got into this originally because of the behavior change issues with eating people and overeating and self sabotage and all those things.

I'd give people meal plans, give people workout programs.

They wouldn't always work.

And I was starting to get into the psychology of everything, you know?

And so then eventually just realizing that that stuff was, was everything, that stuff was the most important thing.

And so I really had to just, like, focus on that entirely.

Yeah.

When I'm with college programs, I usually spend time with these strength coach, and because usually I travel.

I'm on campus all the time, and we, we carve out feel, creating timeframes when they're already lifting weights.

This is called habit stacking.

You're already in the weight room for a certain number of time.

So on Mondays, let's give them a little note card and have them write down things that are gratitude for, like, three minutes.

Now, on Tuesdays, let's write down some affirmations.

On Wednesdays, let's spend time to look at our goals and visualize them.

Thursdays, let's think of who we serve this week.

How can we be of service this week?

How can we collaborate and talk about graduate service?

You know, Friday, I just.

But you give them some things that they can easily do with them.

That's smart.

Yeah, like, yeah, like, I was going to say, I, uh.

Yeah, I didn't, I didn't want to do the one to one thing at all.

And so I was like, okay, I'm going to do the one to many.

But then I realized I feel like you've, you've been in the trenches, you've been working with people, and so you start to understand, what are those principles that work?

And so then that's something, in my opinion, that you take to the larger, to the workshops, to the seminars, to the speeches.

You're like, okay, I already know these, these frameworks are vetted.

These things are being used in the real world, not just jumping straight from education to going to speak about those things from a place of non experience.

Yeah.

So I also mean, it's like.

And I also encourage any leader that wants to do this one and done doesn't work.

If you did squats once, I'm good.

Don't got to squats the rest of the year.

Legs are good.

The mindsets, no different.

So let's, let's put together a six session program, or you.

So you kind of collaborate on, you know, what would work, make sense and not.

And here's my philosophy.

We're going to break down self awareness, and then we're talking about self talk, and then we're going to talk about mindfulness, how to visualize.

They're talking about the power of self image and identity.

They're going to work through how to train courage and resilience, fear and failure.

Then, you know, being process focused, you know, habits of excellence that we're going to create systems with how we prepare our routines or talk about cultural leadership.

I just give them drills like reps that we're going to do.

So that, that was literally the exact talking points that I'd love.

I'd love to hear you.

If you could break down five or six points.

They're like, this is, this is mental conditioning.

This is what we teach.

This is at the core of it.

This is what I'm working with people on.

And I feel like you just kind of hit it there.

And so maybe just break down each one of those just for a couple minutes.

Yeah, first.

Yeah, yeah.

The, the first ever, I think, duplicated mental conditioning program that I use with organizations that sold cars, with schools, with sales people.

Like, I just, I use the exact same framework to teach mindset training.

And it was kind of like, you know, if I love John mayer, I love t.

Swift, khalid.

Now, when they go on tour, they're not doing a different set at every city.

They did their album, and they're going on tour to play their album.

And cleveland is different than Miami.

So why would you start over from scratch, different group, but give the same message, and every time you do it, you get better at it.

So I had, like, a handout, had a front and back.

It was like you could fill it in.

It was five things that I can teach somebody in an hour to, like 2 hours based upon how much time would be more engagement based on time, maybe even 3 hours.

But over that time, I developed the, if everybody knew these five mental skills, I called it five mental skills of champions and top performers.

Just something super basic title.

Those are anything fancy.

And the first concept was self awareness.

And that is, I would teach the concept of where's your focus?

You know, past, past, present, future.

I have a little visual model called there are two.

You's their inner critic and your inner champion.

So the critic, you know, most thoughts are negative, brains geared, leaning more negative.

So can you label, can you uncover common negative thoughts like thought patterns of shame and fear and what I call trauma, drama, daddy, mama, shit that have conditioned you to believe what you believe.

And just part of it is if you can name it, you can tame it, label these thoughts and then you can transition to pre planned thoughts of compassion you already thought piece through.

You can write some things down that you want to focus on.

And then the last part of self awareness is a state called conscious competence.

There are four levels of competence.

Without saying the names.

Step one is I don't know what I don't know.

Step two is I do.

Now I know what I don't know.

Three is I'm going to train better behaviors.

And step four is I'm going to do it unconsciously because I rep them over and over again.

So it's like designing, you know, what's, what's your environment, what's your behaviors.

You want to start practicing overdose over there?

Yeah, I love that framework, by the way.

And just as a side note, because I know that this is why mental conditioning can be so valuable because a lot of people will quit at that stage.

Two, it's like, holy shit, I know what I don't know that there's so much to learn and now I'm overwhelmed and I suck compared to everybody else.

Whereas when you began it was like, oh, this is fun.

I'm enjoying this just day by day.

And then now you're like, oh my God, like I've been doing this for three years and I stuck still compared.

To also I think one of my favorite questions any, any performer I work with is, is a drill I call self scout.

When were you at your best?

Tell me about what was your focus like, your self talk, your habits, your environment?

Are you still doing those even aware what winning for you?

You can probably tell me all your failures.

Do you know, like what systems you need for yourself to rethrive?

That's self awareness.

And then the second mental skill I would teach there is any mental score, teach anybody would be the power of self talk.

And that's where I kind of get into the phenomenon of neuroplasticity of literally changing your brain.

These neural pathways, these neural circuits that are going on all the time without you being aware of it.

This is conflicted, but I'm just going to roll with this number, you know, subconsciously around 70,000 thoughts that it's just happening.

So if we can, like, you would pre plan your outfits, pre plan the thoughts of the words that the focus, what you value, what you want to, what you want to visualize, like designing.

And instead of your.

You conform to the patterns of this world, be transformed by the renewing of the mind.

Nice.

So you're gonna, you're gonna intentionally.

Was that so?

You brought.

Yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna intentionally not.

Your confidence is not gonna be conducive to what you saw on Instagram or what how you did on that last sales call.

You're gonna, you're going to renew it.

You're going to condition it.

You're going to feel it, think it, verbalize it out loud, write it.

You're going to start to condition and see it.

So would that be in your world, in your mind, like I am statements empowering?

It could be.

I am.

A great question I ask any leader is what's most important.

What are three things that are most important for this project, for this season, for this year, for this task?

Do you know they are?

Well, Trevor would call it your success checklist.

Like, what do you need to say and think about to execute that?

And we don't have time to really break down all the different models.

I teach a framework for this one that we just don't have time to do, but it'd be really super more intently aware of.

People don't realize how negative they are to themselves, so they also don't really realize what they're consuming and how impactful that is on you.

But, you know, it's the question of, you know, do you talk to yourself, raise your hand, talk to yourself.

And Hathoran doesn't raise her hand.

And I say, well, you're probably thinking to yourself, do I talk to myself?

Those in the raise our hand.

We're all talking to ourself all the time.

So it's by design, not by default.

So it's designing discipline thinking and championship thinking that's by design, not just how you feel, because you're gonna feel like crap.

We all do feel like crap all the time.

But the feelings, not the feeler.

The thought is not the thinker.

Like, design it.

Don't find yourself, create yourself.

Language is the wardrobe of our beliefs.

So back in your overwhelmed state, feeling like you had a lot of potential left in the tank and just struggling to meet at make, make ends meet, not, not financially, but, you know, accomplishing all the goals you had in life and feeling good about yourself, what were some of the things that you were saying to yourself when you were starting to improve, when you started to speak.

To yourself, I will say this.

So we're breaking down the three selves.

Self awareness, self talk.

And this is a good transition to self image.

You never outperform your self image.

So I love James clear.

He's a habit expert.

And the number one driver of behavior is your identity.

So part of moving from aware of our past traumas, our past negative thinking patterns, being aware of where's our focus, past, present, future, how do we get back to the present?

Being aware of being consciously confident, like, okay, what are some habits I want to start improving?

Habits I want to stop doing, start doing, keep doing.

Let's start designing productive, compassionate self talk.

That's really going to give me energy and life giving versus life taking.

And then how do I construct an identity self image that's gonna help me activate awareness.

So I have a lot of different, you know, tools with your identity, but it's like the values is one.

Who you, who you hang out with is one.

Where you, where you receive your self worth is one.

And just, again, having daily drills and systems of, of being clear on what you're going to place your focus.

And then the fourth mental skill is courage.

So, navigating fear and how you respond to failure at adversity, channels change.

We have some really great tools on using language, using your body, using visuals to kind of cope through, you know, nerves and uncertainty and, you know, just talking through and giving systems around that.

And then the last one to kind of put together is being process focused.

So, again, your routines of excellence, your habits, you know, again, systems of behavior, because mindset, by definition, is a condition set of beliefs that drop behaviors.

Because you may know some people who, they think very highly of themselves, but they have shitty habits, or people, you know, that have great habits but they don't believe themselves, either one of those, they're gonna, they're gonna, you know, fail.

They're gonna not sustain the performance that they're looking for.

So we, if we can package those kind of five mindset strategies and I can do that in, but that I would, I learned as I've developed my, my, my skill set, I can't do all five in an hour.

I need, I pick one of those.

Yeah.

And like you said, anyway, it's not something, because when I'm listening to this, I'm like, it's obviously not something that is just addressed in a speech alone.

It's not the one, the one session of squats and you're all good.

It's something that people would have to be willing to bring you on to really implement a plan.

But, you know, what's great for you is don't try to persuade or convince anybody to do it.

Your job is to find leaders who love their people and believe in doing this work.

Are you gonna go on Instagram and Facebook and tell someone who's a liberal to vote for Donald Trump?

Or are you gonna try to type a post to try to convince, you know, it's just politics.

Like, you're not.

You're not gonna convince somebody.

So your job is to find people who are in these modes of curiosity, in the modes of.

They're looking for more.

They're looking for something other than just body and craft.

They want something for.

For the mind, you know, cultural leadership, you know?

So just having those conversations and finding someone who really cares about people who want to grow like that or they're struggling with that.

That'S good.

That's good, because, I mean, yeah, a lot of this conversations I've had in the past with some people have been around convincing people how valuable this coaching is, you know, and so, almost, like sales, it's like, oh, cool.

Like, it'll never work unless.

They'll never work unless they buy it.

So, again, the first rule of learning is you have to want to learn.

Yay.

And so then that leads me to another question of then, how would you, with being very mission driven towards teaching this stuff on a wide scale, how would you, in your dream world, you know, think of teaching this to everybody, think of teaching it on a larger scale.

How could we implement these principles within children or values within children across the world, across the nation?

However you want to answer.

Yeah, well, and this is at least giving exposure and getting.

Getting in these.

The hands of when they're young, where they don't know they're open.

I mean, this is.

Mindset is a subject just like math, science, spelling, music.

Like, it could be taught.

But what we're seeing now is there's a.

An area in education called social emotional learning.

It's called SEO.

And so some of these concepts are trying to get in, you know, a little bit.

But going back to, what do you do when someone is a critic?

They're cynical.

All this is just, like, positive thinking and self help stuff.

Like, I'm.

I know everything.

I'm a veteran.

You know, I've been around the block.

Like, this is not new to me.

I know all this.

The irony is they.

They might know it, but they don't do it.

And a great kind of reframe of that is, you know, I know you know all this stuff.

I know you're very successful, but you probably have someone on your team that doesn't know it the way you know it or a leader who would want to connect with their team on a deeper level and give them tools and strategies again to navigate.

I know you don't have self doubt.

I know you're pretty confident person.

I'm, like, overdoing here, but you kind of get.

But you know how great.

If we all can have a common language and you can show them what you're doing and how it's your strategies of mindset and success.

No, but even though you might not need it, I promise you, you have a fellow leader or someone that y'all are leading that need this so bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like you need a teacher.

You need.

Yeah.

To bring everyone on board with you.

I know.

So basically, I just don't argue.

I agree that they know everything and.

But it'd be great if other people who don't aren't as intelligent as them can have some resources and some tools.

I guarantee this is from, from, from soccer Playdoh.

But it's the thought that be kind to everyone because everyone's dealing with their own, their own battle.

Just because you think you got it all figured out doesn't mean someone else over here just, like, is hurting.

Yeah.

So don't try to put anyone in a place.

Let's go.

Go with the flow and be understanding.

I think even, even though you.

Even though you may think I don't know, I also have learned that if you just sell mindfulness, mental wellness, people won't buy that.

But if I.

There's a lot of sales organizations or businesses, like, performance driven culture.

That's great.

The mindset work we're going to do, this is a performance enhancer.

A great question to ask leaders is, all right, when you hire people and you the best people you have in your organization, what traits do they have?

They're like passionate, resilient, curious, driven, grit.

Yeah, I agree.

Well, what do you do to coach those?

Oh, you're on your onboarding.

You don't have anything around that.

Resilience and confidence and self awareness and, like, be disciplined.

And you just told me like that what the best people have.

You don't do anything for it.

Hope they have it.

Help me make.

Help me make that makes.

Tell me how that makes any sense at all.

So then the other second benefit, the other second benefit of this type of work is it brings teams together because they start to communicate on these things and these concepts and what they're feeling, what's working for them, how we can improve, how to fail forward, how to try something difficult, how to create safety within our business unit, on how to fail and get back up.

So there's this secondary benefit where we're learning mindset principles, but our culture, our connection, our trust.

Working on being vulnerable in the gym, how we get stronger is we lift weights that hurt our muscles, and our muscles get broke down and they recover.

That's how you build muscle strength in the mind jam.

We get stronger by being vulnerable.

That's how you build emotional agility and to be emotionally and mentally flexible and how to have compassion, how to listen better, how to try new things.

Because I've learned in the business sector, man, there's a huge population.

Their number one intent is to protect their ego, their image, and their intellect.

Yeah.

That's why they don't want to try it, because they might not have the answer or they might fail.

So they would rather protect their intellect and their ego and their title instead of rolling up their sleeves and getting vulnerable and looking stupid or looking silly because they're trying something new for the first time.

That sounds familiar to myself.

So I was being a little patronizing in my little earlier one, but it's kind of like, I get frustrated.

So I was like, my friend, it's not about you.

I know you're great.

I know you're intelligent.

I know you've had a lot of success.

But, like, other people aren't as confident as you.

They could use to help.

So why do you think that mental performance is becoming so popular?

Like, what do you think that it is?

Why is it.

So, let me ask you a question, Todd.

When you say it's becoming so popular, what evidence do you have for that?

I mean, well, you had mentioned it earlier.

It was the quickest growing thing.

So, first of all, that is pretty good evidence from someone in the field.

But just more.

I mean, I guess I could be honestly, to be perfectly honest, I've even talked to my wife about this.

I could be using the recticular activation system here and noticing more clips and noticing more things, and, you know, it being talked about, more showing up, more episodes or Netflix and things like that.

And so there's, like, a show called full swing.

There's a whole episode about mental performance coaching on there, which is pretty cool.

It's golf show.

Just.

Just things like that.

That I've been noticing and seeing it talked about more.

So to me, it feels like, you know, I think that, like, every MLB team has one now.