[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_140":-5,"_141":-5,"_142":143,"_144":145,"_146":147},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/3463/trying-to-be-the-hero-usually-backfires","id",3463,"title","Trying to be the hero usually backfires","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.420\nAnd I do think you can get into that hero complex\n\n2\n00:00:04.420 --> 00:00:07.380\nin a moment like that and really try to be the hero.\n\n3\n00:00:07.380 --> 00:00:09.260\nAnd when you try to do that,\n\n4\n00:00:09.260 --> 00:00:13.060\nit usually doesn't really work out super well, right?\n\n5\n00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:16.460\nBecause you really just need to be yourself\n\n6\n00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:17.820\nand be authentic.\n\n7\n00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:20.620\nAnd for me, that was, look,\n\n8\n00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:22.420\nnot trying to hit a three-run home run\n\n9\n00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.360\nin the last inning of the World Series, right?\n\n10\n00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:29.300\nIt was, for me, what would have been my strength\n\n11\n00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:31.540\nin that moment would have been to pull the ball\n\n12\n00:00:31.540 --> 00:00:33.980\nto the right side of the field for anybody\n\n13\n00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:34.820\nthat saw that clip.\n\n14\n00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:38.180\nBut what I ended up doing is I slapped a ball\n\n15\n00:00:38.180 --> 00:00:39.340\nto the left side of the field.\n\n16\n00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:41.020\nIt got through the infield.\n\n17\n00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:46.020\nAnd the history of that is I probably could count\n\n18\n00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:48.820\nthe number of times I hit the ball left-handed\n\n19\n00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:50.660\nto that location.\n\n20\n00:00:50.660 --> 00:00:53.300\nLike, it's probably on two hands in my entire career\n\n21\n00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:55.020\nof 12 years, right?\n\n22\n00:00:55.020 --> 00:00:58.700\nAnd so I had to lean into a weakness\n\n23\n00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.440\nand lean into something that was not my strength\n\n24\n00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:03.740\nbecause I knew the opposition in the moment\n\n25\n00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:06.300\nwas going to expose that.\n\n26\n00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:09.020\nLike, my strength was not going to work in that moment.\n\n27\n00:01:09.020 --> 00:01:10.900\nSo I had to lean into the weakness\n\n28\n00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:14.100\nand just do what the bare minimum was\n\n29\n00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:16.300\nto get us to the next pitch.\n\n30\n00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:18.940\nAnd here's the thing, thankfully,\n\n31\n00:01:18.940 --> 00:01:21.100\nthat's all I needed to do, right?\n\n32\n00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:22.980\nBut if I had tried to do more than that,\n\n33\n00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:25.380\nI may not have even been able to do that, right?\n\n34\n00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:27.980\nSo I think that's one of the key principles\n\n35\n00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:30.380\nthat I talk about in the book is really about\n\n36\n00:01:30.380 --> 00:01:31.900\nlearning to stay present,\n\n37\n00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:34.420\nlearning to focus on the details instead of the flash\n\n38\n00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.340\nbecause the flashes are all around,\n\n39\n00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:38.100\nespecially in those big moments,\n\n40\n00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:40.140\nfor you to be like, hey, go ahead, go be the leader,\n\n41\n00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.300\ngo be the hero, go be the MVP,\n\n42\n00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:44.380\ngo do the thing that that's what MVPs do.\n\n43\n00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:47.140\nAnd it's like, look, if I'd have been trying to be that\n\n44\n00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:50.340\nin that moment, I probably wouldn't have even been able\n\n45\n00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:51.260\nto do what I did.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",289159,"end_time",400219,"keywords","Hero, hero complex, performance, authenticity, World Series, stay present","slug","trying-to-be-the-hero-usually-backfires","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","WQiR02Y02W2bGOeju01BZfKOIHvKXbhRBCfr01VvJ7g01oxQ","mux_asset_id","01xIcyZbRuG8owoRX58YHIgUUjF5uYXmrAm9D00Kc01HsY","leader_id",298,"episode_id",447,"updated_at","2026-09-18T15:28:20.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/3463/trying-to-be-the-hero-usually-backfires","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_104":105,"_106":107,"_108":109,"_25":-5,"_110":111,"_61":112,"_58":112,"_113":114,"_68":115,"_39":116,"_117":118,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_119":120,"_91":121,"_44":122,"_123":124,"_125":126,"_46":-5,"_127":128,"_129":130,"_95":131,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":-5,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":76,"_43":-5,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":82,"_83":84,"_85":-5,"_86":-5,"_87":88,"_89":90,"_91":-5,"_46":-5,"_92":93,"_94":-5,"_95":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Prepare for pressure","prepare-for-pressure","How you deal with pressure can make or break your career – not to mention your sense of well being. Here’s how to develop the habits and awareness you need to be ready and regulated.","summary","

Game 7 of the 2016 World Series had gone to extra innings. The Cubs were trying to break a 108-year championship drought that some called a curse.

If you’re a baseball fan, you already know what happened next: With two runners on base, Ben Zobrist stepped up to the plate. Despite being 0-4 in the game so far, he pinged a double to left field that brought in the winning run and made him a Chicago legend.

So yeah, Ben Zobrist knows about pressure.

And you do, too: pressure is a part of every leader’s reality. How you understand it, prepare for it, and handle it in the moment can make or break your career – not to mention your overall sense of well-being.

This conversation is a candid look at how to navigate all the pressure you face – from success, from failure, from life in general – plus the habits and routines that keep you ready and regulated when you’re feeling it.

This episode is for you if:

You struggle to deal with pressure, especially after a big success
You’re trying to find better self-care habits and routines
You want to get better at understanding and managing your emotions
You’re a coach or parent of a child athlete
You just love all things baseball

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320\nHello and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Novak.\n\n2\n00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:07.680\nToday's guest is Ben Zobrist. He's a three-time All-Star,\n\n3\n00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:12.960\ntwo-time World Series champion, World Series MVP, and arguably one of the\n\n4\n00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:13.840\ngreatest utility\n\n5\n00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:18.000\nplayers in baseball. And the timing for this conversation could not be better\n\n6\n00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:18.880\nas baseball heads\n\n7\n00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:23.260\ninto the postseason were coming up on the 10-year anniversary of one of the\n\n8\n00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:24.480\nmost iconic moments in\n\n9\n00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:29.130\nbaseball history. It was game seven of the 2016 World Series and the Cubs hadn\n\n10\n00:00:29.130 --> 00:00:30.480\n't won a championship\n\n11\n00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:35.770\nin 108 years. Ben comes to the plate and extra innings and delivered the go-\n\n12\n00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:36.880\nahead hit that helped\n\n13\n00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:42.860\nmake him World Series MVP and a legend in Chicago. As you'll hear today, though\n\n14\n00:00:42.860 --> 00:00:44.000\n, the greatest pressure\n\n15\n00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.980\nin Ben's life actually came after he achieved his biggest dream. In today's\n\n16\n00:00:48.980 --> 00:00:49.760\nepisode, you're\n\n17\n00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:53.810\ngoing to learn how to prepare for the moments in your life when everything is\n\n18\n00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:55.040\non the line and why\n\n19\n00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:59.580\nleaders everywhere need to prepare themselves for success just as seriously as\n\n20\n00:00:59.580 --> 00:01:00.160\nthey prepare\n\n21\n00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:04.480\nthemselves for failure. Enjoy today's conversation with David and Ben and I\n\n22\n00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:05.520\nwill see you at the end\n\n23\n00:01:05.520 --> 00:01:07.360\nof the episode for the debrief.\n\n24\n00:01:07.360 --> 00:01:17.140\nYou know, as I understand it, your manager for the Cubs, Joe Madden, had a\n\n25\n00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:17.760\ndress code.\n\n26\n00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:24.480\nAnd he said that if you think you look hot, wear it. What's the best outfit you\n\n27\n00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:25.200\never showed up to\n\n28\n00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:32.400\nthe ballpark in? Oh man, there were some rough ones there occasionally. But\n\n29\n00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:33.600\nyeah, he had lots\n\n30\n00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:39.190\nof different themed trips. I think that the one that sticks out is the pajama\n\n31\n00:01:39.190 --> 00:01:40.160\ntrip just because\n\n32\n00:01:40.160 --> 00:01:45.070\nyou get to be comfortable. Real comfortable if we had a long trip from one side\n\n33\n00:01:45.070 --> 00:01:45.680\nof the country\n\n34\n00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.840\nto the other, it's like, hey, let's just lounge around and treat it like you're\n\n35\n00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:50.720\nat home on the couch,\n\n36\n00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:54.530\nwhich was, you know, that was really a welcome relief when you're traveling as\n\n37\n00:01:54.530 --> 00:01:55.280\nmuch as we were.\n\n38\n00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:01.440\nYou know, it's the 10 year anniversary of your World Series win with the Cubs,\n\n39\n00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:02.160\nwhich broke as\n\n40\n00:02:02.160 --> 00:02:09.600\nbroke that 108 year curse of the Cubs. Now, 10 years later, looking back, what\n\n41\n00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:10.400\ndo you appreciate\n\n42\n00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:14.340\nabout that accomplishment, that accomplishment today that maybe you couldn't\n\n43\n00:02:14.340 --> 00:02:15.440\nappreciate back then?\n\n44\n00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:21.600\nYeah, well, I think when you're going through it, your focus is so much on\n\n45\n00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:22.720\nexactly what you have\n\n46\n00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:26.670\nto do to be successful, right? And once we get, we've gotten away from it for\n\n47\n00:02:26.670 --> 00:02:27.600\n10 years now,\n\n48\n00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:33.520\nand I'm away from the game. I've been retired for a number of years. You really\n\n49\n00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:34.320\ncan start to look\n\n50\n00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:37.840\nat it and try to appreciate and celebrate some of it a little bit more. And\n\n51\n00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:38.720\nthen I've also been\n\n52\n00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:42.860\nable to see the impact that it had on fans, the impact that it's had on my own\n\n53\n00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:43.680\nlife, but\n\n54\n00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.820\nfans and a lot of people that I've connected with over the years, right? So,\n\n55\n00:02:48.820 --> 00:02:49.360\nyou know, it's really\n\n56\n00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.790\nthe reason why I get a chance to speak, probably the reason why I had a chance\n\n57\n00:02:52.790 --> 00:02:53.840\nto write a book here\n\n58\n00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:57.280\nbecause of what we accomplished on the field. But when you're going through it,\n\n59\n00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:01.850\nyou've got to really focus on the details of accomplishing the mission at hand,\n\n60\n00:03:01.850 --> 00:03:02.080\nright?\n\n61\n00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:05.840\nSo now I get a chance to really reap the rewards of that.\n\n62\n00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:11.440\nAnd you were the hero of that World Series, and so let's go back to Game 7.\n\n63\n00:03:11.440 --> 00:03:14.880\nYou know, I hate to do this to you because I know you told the story a zillion\n\n64\n00:03:14.880 --> 00:03:15.360\ntimes,\n\n65\n00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.400\nbut I'm going to do it anyway. You come to the plate, next year innings, there\n\n66\n00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:20.080\n's two runners on.\n\n67\n00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:50.720\nYou make the big hit. What's the part of the story, though, that that leaders\n\n68\n00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:51.440\nreally need to\n\n69\n00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:55.980\nunderstand? You know, when you think about leadership, you know, what do you\n\n70\n00:03:55.980 --> 00:03:56.640\nthink is the\n\n71\n00:03:56.640 --> 00:04:01.280\ninsight there in terms of what happened? Here's the thing, you know, you said\n\n72\n00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:02.240\nthat I was one of\n\n73\n00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:06.380\nthe heroes of that World Series. And, you know, when you're in the company of\n\n74\n00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:06.960\npeople that are\n\n75\n00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:12.480\ngreat, it's hard not to focus on trying to be great. But the really great thing\n\n76\n00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:13.040\nabout that is\n\n77\n00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:17.570\nwhen you trust the people around you, all you really have to focus on is what\n\n78\n00:04:17.570 --> 00:04:18.640\nyou have to do,\n\n79\n00:04:18.640 --> 00:04:24.000\nright? So the nice thing about being a part of that team was I didn't feel like\n\n80\n00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:24.560\nI had to\n\n81\n00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.410\ncarry the weight. I didn't feel like I needed to do anything special or be a\n\n82\n00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:30.400\nleader, you know.\n\n83\n00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:35.780\nAnd so really, I think leadership in that moment for me was how am I leading\n\n84\n00:04:35.780 --> 00:04:36.640\nmyself?\n\n85\n00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:41.780\nHow am I paying attention to the things that I know are challenges for me\n\n86\n00:04:41.780 --> 00:04:43.200\npersonally? And that\n\n87\n00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:48.220\ncould trip me up and keep me distracted from the focus that I needed to focus\n\n88\n00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:49.680\non. And I do think\n\n89\n00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:55.840\nyou can get into that hero complex in a moment like that and really try to be\n\n90\n00:04:55.840 --> 00:04:56.720\nthe hero. And when\n\n91\n00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:02.100\nyou try to do that, it usually doesn't really work out super well, right?\n\n92\n00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:03.680\nBecause you really\n\n93\n00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:09.450\njust need to be yourself and be authentic. And for me, that was, look, not\n\n94\n00:05:09.450 --> 00:05:10.800\ntrying to hit a three-run\n\n95\n00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:17.380\nhome run in the last inning of the World Series, right? For me, what would have\n\n96\n00:05:17.380 --> 00:05:18.320\nbeen my strength\n\n97\n00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:21.650\nin that moment would have been to pull the ball to the right side of the field\n\n98\n00:05:21.650 --> 00:05:23.120\nfor anybody that\n\n99\n00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:27.840\nsaw that clip. But what I ended up doing is I slapped the ball to the left side\n\n100\n00:05:27.840 --> 00:05:28.320\nof the field,\n\n101\n00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:35.200\nit got through the infield. And the history of that is I probably could count\n\n102\n00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:36.320\nthe number of times\n\n103\n00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:41.200\nI hit the ball left-handed to that location. Like, it's probably on two hands\n\n104\n00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:42.000\nin my entire\n\n105\n00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:47.930\ncareer of 12 years, right? And so I had to lean into a weakness and lean into\n\n106\n00:05:47.930 --> 00:05:49.760\nsomething that was\n\n107\n00:05:49.760 --> 00:05:54.680\nnot my strength because I knew the opposition in the moment was going to expose\n\n108\n00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:55.520\nthat. Like,\n\n109\n00:05:55.520 --> 00:05:59.330\nmy strength was not going to work in that moment. So I had to lean into the\n\n110\n00:05:59.330 --> 00:05:59.920\nweakness\n\n111\n00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:05.720\nand just do what the bare minimum was to get us to the next pitch. And here's\n\n112\n00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:06.320\nthe thing,\n\n113\n00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:11.460\nthankfully, that's all I needed to do, right? But if I had tried to do more\n\n114\n00:06:11.460 --> 00:06:12.000\nthan that,\n\n115\n00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.600\nI may not have even been able to do that, right? And so that I think that's\n\n116\n00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.800\nsome of the key principles that I talk about in the book is really about\n\n117\n00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:20.880\nlearning to stay present,\n\n118\n00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:24.480\nlearning to focus on the details instead of the flash because the flashes are\n\n119\n00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:25.360\nall around,\n\n120\n00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:28.880\nespecially in those big moments, for you to be like, \"Hey, go ahead, go be the\n\n121\n00:06:28.880 --> 00:06:29.200\nleader,\n\n122\n00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:33.500\ngo be the hero, go be the MVP, go do the thing that that's what MVPs do.\" And\n\n123\n00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:33.840\nit's like,\n\n124\n00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:38.720\nlike, if I'd have been trying to be that in that moment, I probably wouldn't\n\n125\n00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:39.360\nhave even been able\n\n126\n00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:43.030\nto do what I did. Yeah, sometimes, you know, in those big moments, you have to\n\n127\n00:06:43.030 --> 00:06:44.400\nuntry almost.\n\n128\n00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:49.120\nYes, yeah. There's a lot to be said, and Joe Madden talked to us about this,\n\n129\n00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:55.200\nand just stay present and do what that moment calls for because it's not about\n\n130\n00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:55.920\nthat moment\n\n131\n00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:00.490\nstacked on this and this and this and this. You can't think about all that.\n\n132\n00:07:00.490 --> 00:07:01.120\nThose are all in the\n\n133\n00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.160\nfuture, right? So let's focus on stacking the first moment. And if you do that,\n\n134\n00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:06.800\nthen you can start\n\n135\n00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.910\nthinking about the next one. But if you stay that uber-present, you have a shot\n\n136\n00:07:09.910 --> 00:07:10.160\n.\n\n137\n00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:16.880\nAnd when you came to bat, I think you were 0 for 4 at that point, so you'd add\n\n138\n00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:17.120\n4.\n\n139\n00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.680\nWell, it wasn't my best day. It was not your best day, 4 past\n\n140\n00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:28.880\nbats that didn't work out. How do you keep those mishaps or those failures that\n\n141\n00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:29.200\nmay be\n\n142\n00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:33.770\ntoo strong a word? But how do you keep those from really getting in your head\n\n143\n00:07:33.770 --> 00:07:37.040\nand affecting your\n\n144\n00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:42.950\nmindset? Well, obviously, when you fail, and I had plenty of failures up to\n\n145\n00:07:42.950 --> 00:07:43.520\nthat point,\n\n146\n00:07:43.520 --> 00:07:49.280\nyou kind of learn what is the resilient side of you? What part of you needs to\n\n147\n00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:50.320\ncome out when you\n\n148\n00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:55.040\nfailed and failed and failed again? And by that time, I had had a pretty good\n\n149\n00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:56.160\nseries, so I wasn't\n\n150\n00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:59.760\nthinking, \"Oh, gosh, you really need to pull your weight.\" I had already pulled\n\n151\n00:07:59.760 --> 00:08:00.560\na lot of my weight\n\n152\n00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:05.940\nat my part of the lineup, but none of that really mattered because it's game 7\n\n153\n00:08:05.940 --> 00:08:06.640\nand you're kind of\n\n154\n00:08:06.640 --> 00:08:11.780\n0-0 and now you're in extra innings, and it's kind of like tied there. Well,\n\n155\n00:08:11.780 --> 00:08:14.160\nfor me, I really\n\n156\n00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:20.580\nhad to stay somewhat, think of it like a blank slate, right? None of what\n\n157\n00:08:20.580 --> 00:08:22.240\nhappened prior to that\n\n158\n00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:27.910\nmoment really did all that matter, and it wasn't going to win me anything. None\n\n159\n00:08:27.910 --> 00:08:28.640\nof the failures,\n\n160\n00:08:28.640 --> 00:08:31.570\nnone of the successes prior to that moment, weren't going to help us in the\n\n161\n00:08:31.570 --> 00:08:32.400\nmoment. So,\n\n162\n00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:36.930\nhaving a short memory is something a lot of great athletes talk about, and that\n\n163\n00:08:36.930 --> 00:08:37.040\nwas\n\n164\n00:08:37.040 --> 00:08:42.840\none thing I do think I was blessed with. I could forget about the losses, I\n\n165\n00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:43.840\ncould forget about the\n\n166\n00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:52.080\nfailures, and the thing that I love the most was what is the next idea I have,\n\n167\n00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.600\nthe next thing we\n\n168\n00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:57.740\ncan throw up against the whiteboard, throw up against the wall, and try and see\n\n169\n00:08:57.740 --> 00:08:58.640\nif it works out,\n\n170\n00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:02.340\nright? Because it might be a bad idea, whatever you come up with that next at\n\n171\n00:09:02.340 --> 00:09:03.280\nbat, but at least\n\n172\n00:09:03.280 --> 00:09:06.950\nit's a different idea than you took in previously that didn't work for you,\n\n173\n00:09:06.950 --> 00:09:08.880\nright? And I had had\n\n174\n00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:13.550\nvery little success off of the picture that was coming into the game, and I\n\n175\n00:09:13.550 --> 00:09:14.720\nwasn't feeling great\n\n176\n00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:19.290\nin the entire game itself. So, it wasn't like I was carrying recent confidence\n\n177\n00:09:19.290 --> 00:09:20.080\nin with me into\n\n178\n00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:24.650\nthose decisions. It was more about learning to kind of slow it down and be like\n\n179\n00:09:24.650 --> 00:09:25.280\n, \"Okay,\n\n180\n00:09:25.280 --> 00:09:30.240\nwhat do I want to try? What is the thing that's going to give me the best shot\n\n181\n00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:31.120\nof just doing\n\n182\n00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:34.540\nsomething beneficial for the team and helping move the ball in a specific\n\n183\n00:09:34.540 --> 00:09:35.120\ndirection?\"\n\n184\n00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:40.400\nAnd it ended up doing more than that for us. What advice can you give a leader\n\n185\n00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:41.440\nthat can help them\n\n186\n00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.840\nbuild that kind of confidence when results may not be going your way?\n\n187\n00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:50.380\nWell, I think you have to build confidence. I'm a big believer in building\n\n188\n00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:51.120\nconfidence in your\n\n189\n00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.710\ncompetitive readiness routines. That's like the mental skill that we would talk\n\n190\n00:09:54.710 --> 00:09:56.080\nabout as an athlete.\n\n191\n00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:00.650\nHow do you be competitively ready for the moment at hand? And you build that\n\n192\n00:10:00.650 --> 00:10:01.920\nthrough a series of\n\n193\n00:10:01.920 --> 00:10:08.800\nroutines and preparation and repetitions that you know, get your body and your\n\n194\n00:10:08.800 --> 00:10:10.160\nmind in the right\n\n195\n00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:15.200\nframe to be able to just make the proper adjustment at the moment. It doesn't\n\n196\n00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:15.920\nmean that you're going\n\n197\n00:10:15.920 --> 00:10:19.410\nto make the right decision. It doesn't mean that you're going to have success\n\n198\n00:10:19.410 --> 00:10:20.560\nnecessarily. But what\n\n199\n00:10:20.560 --> 00:10:23.990\nit does mean is you don't have to look back and second guess whether or not you\n\n200\n00:10:23.990 --> 00:10:24.560\nwere ready\n\n201\n00:10:24.560 --> 00:10:29.100\nfor the moment when it came to you. Why? Because you had the routine that you\n\n202\n00:10:29.100 --> 00:10:30.480\nknow dials you in\n\n203\n00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:35.050\nto be ready for the ups and the downs of the moment. What decision is going to\n\n204\n00:10:35.050 --> 00:10:36.080\nneed to be made\n\n205\n00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:39.920\nas a leader when something is thrown at you that you don't expect because there\n\n206\n00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:40.320\nwill be\n\n207\n00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:45.920\nthings like that that happen. And you've got to be ready and knowing that, hey,\n\n208\n00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:46.720\neven if I'm not\n\n209\n00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:51.290\nconfident in the last decision I made, I know I'm staying confident that I'm\n\n210\n00:10:51.290 --> 00:10:52.400\nprepared. I'm as\n\n211\n00:10:52.400 --> 00:10:56.970\nprepared as I can be for this moment to make a good decision. It doesn't mean I\n\n212\n00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:57.520\n'm going to make\n\n213\n00:10:57.520 --> 00:11:01.160\nthe right decision. But I'm prepared and ready to make a decision because I\n\n214\n00:11:01.160 --> 00:11:02.400\nhave all the information\n\n215\n00:11:02.400 --> 00:11:06.930\nthat I need because I've prepared my body. I've prepared my mind. I've done\n\n216\n00:11:06.930 --> 00:11:07.600\neverything prior to\n\n217\n00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:12.140\nthis moment. And then there's a letting go. There's like, okay, now I've got to\n\n218\n00:11:12.140 --> 00:11:12.720\nactually make the\n\n219\n00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:18.100\ndecision. You can't freeze in that moment and not do something. You have to\n\n220\n00:11:18.100 --> 00:11:19.440\nmake a decision. And\n\n221\n00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:24.090\nsometimes it's like, man, I could do this, this or this. Which one do I want to\n\n222\n00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:25.200\ntry first, right?\n\n223\n00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.240\nBecause they all seem like they're viable options. And so sometimes there's a\n\n224\n00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:30.880\nlittle bit of luck\n\n225\n00:11:30.880 --> 00:11:37.460\ninvolved. But if you have chosen the right three things to guess, the right\n\n226\n00:11:37.460 --> 00:11:38.480\nthree things to maybe\n\n227\n00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:42.400\nstrategize and you pick one of them, you have a much, much better shot. As\n\n228\n00:11:42.400 --> 00:11:44.000\nopposed to if you like,\n\n229\n00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.140\ndidn't do your preparation and you have three of the wrong choices, all of them\n\n230\n00:11:48.140 --> 00:11:48.560\nare going to be\n\n231\n00:11:48.560 --> 00:11:53.280\nwrong no matter what you choose. Yeah, you know, and I've heard you say that if\n\n232\n00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:54.240\nyou only raise\n\n233\n00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.770\nyour intensity when the lights are brightest, you haven't really prepared for\n\n234\n00:11:58.770 --> 00:11:59.600\nthe pressure.\n\n235\n00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:05.460\nYou know, say more. Some of why you're in the position you're in is because you\n\n236\n00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:06.080\nlove what you\n\n237\n00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.330\ndo. Or at some point, maybe you don't love it right at this very moment, but\n\n238\n00:12:09.330 --> 00:12:10.080\nyou loved it\n\n239\n00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:15.220\nenough to put yourself in that situation. And you loved the pressure, you know,\n\n240\n00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:16.560\nto a certain degree.\n\n241\n00:12:16.560 --> 00:12:21.600\nBut you had to prepare yourself in the shadows, you had to love it when nobody\n\n242\n00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:22.400\nwas watching when\n\n243\n00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:26.170\nnobody cared the decision that was being made, right? And if you love it that\n\n244\n00:12:26.170 --> 00:12:26.960\nmuch and you're that\n\n245\n00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.730\npassionate about it, then you've got to prepare yourself before the lights\n\n246\n00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:33.360\nshine, right? Like,\n\n247\n00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.930\nwhat do I need to know ahead of time? Well, personally, for me, as a ballplayer\n\n248\n00:12:37.930 --> 00:12:38.720\n, that was like,\n\n249\n00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:43.520\nam I looking at enough video? Am I watching what this guy does? Am I watching\n\n250\n00:12:43.520 --> 00:12:44.240\nwhat they've been\n\n251\n00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:49.760\ndoing to me as a whole? Like the opposition to you succeeding always shows\n\n252\n00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:51.520\ntheir cards at some level\n\n253\n00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:55.350\nprior to that moment, but you have to be paying close attention. And if you're\n\n254\n00:12:55.350 --> 00:12:56.240\nonly paying close\n\n255\n00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:00.810\nattention when the pressure is at its height, you got to pay attention when\n\n256\n00:13:00.810 --> 00:13:01.920\nthere's not as much\n\n257\n00:13:01.920 --> 00:13:05.550\npressure because that, if you know that you can do that then and you're paying\n\n258\n00:13:05.550 --> 00:13:06.240\nthat close of\n\n259\n00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:09.800\nattention on the details when nobody's watching, then when everybody's watching\n\n260\n00:13:09.800 --> 00:13:10.720\n, that's not going to\n\n261\n00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:15.290\nchange. Even the adrenaline isn't going to change how how you make that\n\n262\n00:13:15.290 --> 00:13:16.240\ndecision because you're\n\n263\n00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:20.810\ngoing to be like, Hey, I've done all the prep. I know I've got these options. I\n\n264\n00:13:20.810 --> 00:13:21.440\n'm going to make\n\n265\n00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:24.770\nthis decision and I'm going to be confident in it. And I'm going to sell out to\n\n266\n00:13:24.770 --> 00:13:25.680\nthis decision I'm\n\n267\n00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:30.830\nmaking in this moment because there's something behind it. I've practiced. I\n\n268\n00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:32.400\nknow that this this\n\n269\n00:13:32.400 --> 00:13:36.720\nis, you know, the right decision at the right time. Yeah, well, you go on, you\n\n270\n00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:37.360\nhit the double,\n\n271\n00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:42.500\nthe Cubs went to World Series, you're named MVP. And suddenly you're you are\n\n272\n00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:43.920\nthe icon of the city. I\n\n273\n00:13:43.920 --> 00:13:48.810\nmean, you know, talk a little bit about what that's like when you when all of a\n\n274\n00:13:48.810 --> 00:13:50.400\nsudden you're catapulted\n\n275\n00:13:50.400 --> 00:13:54.940\ninto the limelight that because your performance and you have this iconic\n\n276\n00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:57.520\nreputation in a city like\n\n277\n00:13:57.520 --> 00:14:02.900\nChicago. You know, one thing that I have loved doing since I retired is hiking.\n\n278\n00:14:02.900 --> 00:14:03.440\nAnd I want I'm\n\n279\n00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:08.010\ngoing to use an analogy for for those that are mountain climbers. I'm not a\n\n280\n00:14:08.010 --> 00:14:09.200\nmountain climber.\n\n281\n00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:12.880\nDon't don't get me wrong. I just like, you know, peaceful hikes. But think of\n\n282\n00:14:12.880 --> 00:14:13.760\nthe mountain climbers\n\n283\n00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:19.540\nthat climb Mount Everest, right? And let's say from an athletic standpoint, we\n\n284\n00:14:19.540 --> 00:14:21.520\nwere climbing Everest,\n\n285\n00:14:21.520 --> 00:14:26.300\nlike this is a place where very few people have made it to the top of this. And\n\n286\n00:14:26.300 --> 00:14:27.280\nfor the Chicago\n\n287\n00:14:27.280 --> 00:14:31.820\nCubs, it had been 108 years making it to this level. And so the world has\n\n288\n00:14:31.820 --> 00:14:32.960\nchanged quite a bit\n\n289\n00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:39.950\nin 108 years between 1908 and 2016 at the time. And so we had no idea what we\n\n290\n00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:40.960\nwere up against.\n\n291\n00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:45.920\nWe also had no idea when we would reach the top what it would be like, right?\n\n292\n00:14:45.920 --> 00:14:47.040\nSo when you get to\n\n293\n00:14:47.040 --> 00:14:51.610\nthe top of Mount Everest, you know, a lot of people say, you know, it's the\n\n294\n00:14:51.610 --> 00:14:52.880\nclimb that kills you, but\n\n295\n00:14:52.880 --> 00:14:56.000\nit's really not. It's the descent that's a lot more difficult for people to\n\n296\n00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:56.880\nmake than it is the\n\n297\n00:14:56.880 --> 00:15:01.410\nactual climb itself, right? And so once you're up there, you can't really\n\n298\n00:15:01.410 --> 00:15:02.480\nbreathe like you need to\n\n299\n00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:08.080\nget back down to a manageable place where humans can exist. And, you know,\n\n300\n00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:08.880\nathletically,\n\n301\n00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:13.840\nwe could not stay up on that mountaintop for too long. And what I found for\n\n302\n00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:14.720\nmyself personally,\n\n303\n00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:20.960\ngrowing up in a small town, living up there for even a couple months was really\n\n304\n00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:21.680\n, really\n\n305\n00:15:21.680 --> 00:15:26.560\ndifficult for my system to be able to handle. It only took a few weeks before I\n\n306\n00:15:26.560 --> 00:15:27.520\nstarted feeling\n\n307\n00:15:27.520 --> 00:15:32.460\nlike I was kind of spiraling downward just because, man, I couldn't breathe and\n\n308\n00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:33.440\nI could feel like\n\n309\n00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.030\nsocially, it was way too much for me. I was more than I was used to, especially\n\n310\n00:15:37.030 --> 00:15:38.880\n. I was glad to be\n\n311\n00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:44.650\na role guy. And it was the first time I kind of had that real large sense of\n\n312\n00:15:44.650 --> 00:15:46.480\nimposter syndrome,\n\n313\n00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:52.080\nwhich is like, do I really? Why am I the guy that got to do this? Why am I in\n\n314\n00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:52.800\nthe center of this?\n\n315\n00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:57.370\nLike Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'Brien, Disney World on a private jet, like getting\n\n316\n00:15:57.370 --> 00:15:58.160\nasked to go\n\n317\n00:15:58.160 --> 00:16:02.730\nall over the place and do all these interviews and kind of like thrust into the\n\n318\n00:16:02.730 --> 00:16:04.480\nrealm of stardom\n\n319\n00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:09.100\nfor a moment. And it was just not what I expected. It was not what I had ever\n\n320\n00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:10.640\nexperienced before.\n\n321\n00:16:10.640 --> 00:16:15.920\nAnd so I think what's interesting for anybody that is, let's say an\n\n322\n00:16:15.920 --> 00:16:17.920\nentrepreneur, or you've,\n\n323\n00:16:17.920 --> 00:16:21.730\nyou know, been in a small business and then you get a new position and all of a\n\n324\n00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:22.320\nsudden,\n\n325\n00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:27.110\nyou're not managing 20 people or 30 people, you're managing 2000, right?\n\n326\n00:16:27.110 --> 00:16:27.920\nSomething crazy\n\n327\n00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:31.960\nwhere all of a sudden you have so many things being thrown at you all at the\n\n328\n00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:32.880\nsame time and you've\n\n329\n00:16:32.880 --> 00:16:37.450\ngot to manage and put it in its right category. And look, it can be\n\n330\n00:16:37.450 --> 00:16:39.440\noverwhelming, overwhelming.\n\n331\n00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:44.370\nEven when you're at the height of your game, right? This is the height of my\n\n332\n00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:46.240\ngame. I knew what I was\n\n333\n00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.810\ndoing, but there was a lot more that came with it than I realized. You know, it\n\n334\n00:16:50.810 --> 00:16:51.520\nwasn't just about\n\n335\n00:16:51.520 --> 00:16:55.560\nwhat I did on a ball field at that point. It was how am I representing the\n\n336\n00:16:55.560 --> 00:16:56.800\nChicago Cubs when I go\n\n337\n00:16:56.800 --> 00:17:02.240\nout and about and being quote, being quote, the World Series MVP. And that was\n\n338\n00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:03.280\njust a little too\n\n339\n00:17:03.280 --> 00:17:07.100\nmuch for me. And it really led me into some, some difficult anxiety and\n\n340\n00:17:07.100 --> 00:17:08.480\ndepression that I had to\n\n341\n00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:12.200\nreally, really work through. Yeah, what was there a moment been where when you\n\n342\n00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:13.680\nrealized, you know,\n\n343\n00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:18.640\nsomething just isn't right here. I mean, did you have that kind of aha moment?\n\n344\n00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:24.020\nWell, for sure, you know, I think for the first week or two, it was like\n\n345\n00:17:24.020 --> 00:17:25.520\neverything was so exciting\n\n346\n00:17:25.520 --> 00:17:30.240\nand you're, you're still up there and you're just kind of living that high. But\n\n347\n00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:30.800\nI remember\n\n348\n00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:37.610\ngetting in my car at home at 6 a.m. after not sleeping a couple, a couple weeks\n\n349\n00:17:37.610 --> 00:17:38.240\nin a row,\n\n350\n00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:42.400\nmy sleep was messed up because we had gotten a few, a few of those series\n\n351\n00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:43.200\nduring the playoffs.\n\n352\n00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.920\nWe got home at like 7 or 8 a.m. and then had to sleep until 4 p.m. And it's\n\n353\n00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:48.560\njust kind of throws\n\n354\n00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:51.960\nyour whole schedule out of whack, right? Well, I was still trying to come back\n\n355\n00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:52.400\nfrom that.\n\n356\n00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:56.300\nAnd now I'm getting up at 6 a.m. getting a one year old and a five year old in\n\n357\n00:17:56.300 --> 00:17:57.200\nthe car with me,\n\n358\n00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:01.770\ntaking the seven year old to school. I'm in the car line sitting there. And it\n\n359\n00:18:01.770 --> 00:18:02.560\n's just like hitting\n\n360\n00:18:02.560 --> 00:18:07.940\nme like, Oh, this is real life. Like real life is actually sitting here and\n\n361\n00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:09.600\ndealing with like\n\n362\n00:18:09.600 --> 00:18:14.170\nkids having ear infections and making sure that, you know, your seven year old\n\n363\n00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:14.960\ngets dropped off at\n\n364\n00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:20.340\nschool on time and going home and then cleaning up the dishes and like all the\n\n365\n00:18:20.340 --> 00:18:21.600\nthings that like\n\n366\n00:18:21.600 --> 00:18:25.440\nyou would think household chores and things like that are not that difficult.\n\n367\n00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:26.640\nBut really,\n\n368\n00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:31.180\nthere's pressure involved in that too. And so I tell people whether you're a\n\n369\n00:18:31.180 --> 00:18:32.400\nCEO of a company,\n\n370\n00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.440\nwhether you're an athletic star in the major leagues or whether you're a parent\n\n371\n00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:37.120\n, a single\n\n372\n00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:43.540\nparent at home, trying to take care of kids, the pressure is not what everybody\n\n373\n00:18:43.540 --> 00:18:44.720\nelse thinks it is\n\n374\n00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:50.230\non you. The pressure that you're feeling is the pressure that is is internally\n\n375\n00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:51.520\non your system\n\n376\n00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:56.660\nand how you are experiencing that. So even though at that moment, I didn't have\n\n377\n00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:57.840\nall the external\n\n378\n00:18:57.840 --> 00:19:03.220\npressure, there was so much external pressure prior to that that when I got\n\n379\n00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:04.640\nhome and I had just\n\n380\n00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:10.080\nsmaller little pressures on me, it was still overwhelming to my system, right?\n\n381\n00:19:10.080 --> 00:19:11.280\nAnd so I think\n\n382\n00:19:11.280 --> 00:19:16.900\nwhat leaders need to realize is there is a cumulative effect to the pressure\n\n383\n00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:17.360\nthat you're\n\n384\n00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:21.260\nfeeling. And so if you're not paying attention, not only to the pressure at\n\n385\n00:19:21.260 --> 00:19:22.240\nwork and learning how\n\n386\n00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:29.040\nto manage that, regulate yourself there and transition to being a human at home\n\n387\n00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:30.080\nand realizing\n\n388\n00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:35.840\nyou're not a hero, you need to just go home and be dad and husband in whatever\n\n389\n00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:36.640\nother roles you are\n\n390\n00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:42.160\nin the community. Those roles and those transitions and paying attention to the\n\n391\n00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:43.200\nrest you need as a\n\n392\n00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:47.810\nhuman being is very important for you being able to like come down off of that,\n\n393\n00:19:47.810 --> 00:19:49.120\nthat mountaintop\n\n394\n00:19:49.120 --> 00:19:54.260\nexperience and get back to a regulatory human experience. In fact, in your book\n\n395\n00:19:54.260 --> 00:19:54.720\n, which is\n\n396\n00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:00.000\nprepare for the pressure you said you need to recognize breaks before you break\n\n397\n00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:00.960\ndown, recognize\n\n398\n00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.810\nyou need breaks before you break down. Say more about that, I think you talked\n\n399\n00:20:04.810 --> 00:20:05.600\na little bit about\n\n400\n00:20:05.600 --> 00:20:10.390\nit, but how do you know? By the way, before you answer that question, I want to\n\n401\n00:20:10.390 --> 00:20:10.960\ngo back,\n\n402\n00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:15.490\nwere people on the outside? Did they see that in you? Or were you just carrying\n\n403\n00:20:15.490 --> 00:20:16.240\nit inside\n\n404\n00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:20.640\nand it was turmoil that you had inside, but nobody really saw it?\n\n405\n00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:24.780\nThe people closest to me could see that I wasn't right, that I was struggling,\n\n406\n00:20:24.780 --> 00:20:25.520\nthat I was\n\n407\n00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:30.910\nstruggling sleeping, my family, best friends, people like that understood that\n\n408\n00:20:30.910 --> 00:20:31.840\nI was trying to\n\n409\n00:20:31.840 --> 00:20:36.720\nfigure out how to come back to earth from all that. But I think from an\n\n410\n00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:38.400\nexternal standpoint,\n\n411\n00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:43.440\nwhat was difficult is I was still being expected to play the World Series MVP\n\n412\n00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.960\nand PR situation going\n\n413\n00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:51.530\nout and about, look, the Cubs weren't making me do that, but I felt it. I felt\n\n414\n00:20:51.530 --> 00:20:51.920\nlike I've got\n\n415\n00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:55.970\nto represent fans, I've got to represent this fan base and our team and go out\n\n416\n00:20:55.970 --> 00:20:56.800\nand do all these\n\n417\n00:20:56.800 --> 00:21:01.540\nthings. And I had to have people just say, look, you don't have to do that. I\n\n418\n00:21:01.540 --> 00:21:02.640\nwas feeling that I\n\n419\n00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:09.410\ndid have to do it. And so that was a big piece of me realizing like, you can't\n\n420\n00:21:09.410 --> 00:21:11.040\njust jump from one\n\n421\n00:21:11.040 --> 00:21:15.210\nrole to the next without breaks. And what I really probably would have needed\n\n422\n00:21:15.210 --> 00:21:16.480\nDavid back at the time\n\n423\n00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:22.100\nis I probably would have needed a week by myself to go get in the woods and\n\n424\n00:21:22.100 --> 00:21:24.320\njust stare at\n\n425\n00:21:24.320 --> 00:21:30.180\nsome trees for a little bit. That probably would have helped bring me down from\n\n426\n00:21:30.180 --> 00:21:30.960\nthose highs a little\n\n427\n00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:35.600\nbit. And now that's something I regularly do. I have to go hiking or go out on\n\n428\n00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:36.640\na mountain or go\n\n429\n00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:41.530\nout in the woods and just try to decompress. I'm not hunting, I'm not accompl\n\n430\n00:21:41.530 --> 00:21:42.880\nishing anything. I'm\n\n431\n00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:47.450\nliterally just sitting out there walking out there, just like enjoying being\n\n432\n00:21:47.450 --> 00:21:49.280\noutside. And\n\n433\n00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:54.160\nthat's been a big part of me breaking for balance is what I say in the book.\n\n434\n00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:56.560\nLook, in our culture,\n\n435\n00:21:56.560 --> 00:22:01.130\nwe are not balanced. Let's just admit, we're not a balanced culture. We love\n\n436\n00:22:01.130 --> 00:22:02.640\nour jobs and our\n\n437\n00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:07.360\nentertainment. And we go from one thing to the next. And we very rarely sit\n\n438\n00:22:07.360 --> 00:22:08.480\nback and take time\n\n439\n00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:12.250\nfor solitude, take time for breaks, and really taking time to take care of\n\n440\n00:22:12.250 --> 00:22:13.440\nourselves. And so\n\n441\n00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:19.300\nnot just sleep. Sleep is not the only way you do that. You have to do that by\n\n442\n00:22:19.300 --> 00:22:20.160\ndoing activities\n\n443\n00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:26.080\nwhere you're not trying to reach for something and grab for something and be\n\n444\n00:22:26.080 --> 00:22:27.040\nmore than you are in\n\n445\n00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:31.610\nthis moment. And so that is something that I think, especially business people\n\n446\n00:22:31.610 --> 00:22:32.080\nleaders,\n\n447\n00:22:32.080 --> 00:22:37.760\nhave got to do a better job of is knowing what is it that allows you to break\n\n448\n00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:40.080\nand take a balanced\n\n449\n00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:45.220\nbreak. And I'm even even away from all the roles of being a hero dad or a hero\n\n450\n00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:46.640\nhusband or a hero\n\n451\n00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:50.540\ncommunity member. You even have to come back from that. And when is it okay\n\n452\n00:22:50.540 --> 00:22:51.600\njust to be Ben\n\n453\n00:22:51.600 --> 00:22:57.070\nand just chill out and enjoy being yourself without needing to go accomplish\n\n454\n00:22:57.070 --> 00:22:58.320\nsomething. And\n\n455\n00:22:58.320 --> 00:23:02.010\nthat's that's a difficult thing to do for all of us. Yeah, what are the warning\n\n456\n00:23:02.010 --> 00:23:02.880\nsigns that\n\n457\n00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:09.130\nleaders need to look for, you know, to help them understand whether pressure is\n\n458\n00:23:09.130 --> 00:23:09.760\nreally getting the\n\n459\n00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:14.330\nbest best of them. If you have gotten to the point where you're having panic\n\n460\n00:23:14.330 --> 00:23:14.720\nattacks,\n\n461\n00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:21.570\nyou've gone past the point of recognizing small things. That's a bigger thing.\n\n462\n00:23:21.570 --> 00:23:22.400\nAlso,\n\n463\n00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:28.320\nwhen you are debilitated physically, if your body is reacting in some way and\n\n464\n00:23:28.320 --> 00:23:29.280\nyou're not really sure\n\n465\n00:23:29.280 --> 00:23:33.850\nwhat's going on, why doctors don't have answers, there's a really good chance\n\n466\n00:23:33.850 --> 00:23:34.880\nthere's stress behind\n\n467\n00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:40.310\nit. A lot of these sicknesses and things that come on oftentimes are called by\n\n468\n00:23:40.310 --> 00:23:41.280\nover caused by\n\n469\n00:23:41.280 --> 00:23:46.480\noverworking. We don't really realize it. But a more simple way to realize when\n\n470\n00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:47.280\nit's starting to get\n\n471\n00:23:47.280 --> 00:23:52.160\nat you is you have to pay close attention to your emotional reactions,\n\n472\n00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.640\nparticularly if you don't\n\n473\n00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:00.040\nhave a way to check in with your emotions, with anybody in your life. And this\n\n474\n00:24:00.040 --> 00:24:01.200\nis probably not\n\n475\n00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:04.060\nnecessarily family members, you can do it with family members, but you probably\n\n476\n00:24:04.060 --> 00:24:05.920\nneed a safe place\n\n477\n00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:10.540\nwhere you can say how you feel. And it's not going to impact that other person\n\n478\n00:24:10.540 --> 00:24:11.680\n's day in any way,\n\n479\n00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:17.600\nright? So generally, within your family, you are somewhat codependent with the\n\n480\n00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:18.160\npeople in your\n\n481\n00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.740\nfamily. So that means if I'm having an emotional challenge and I share that\n\n482\n00:24:22.740 --> 00:24:23.680\nwith you and you're\n\n483\n00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:26.930\nin my family, there's a good chance you might have some fear or some worry or\n\n484\n00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:27.840\nit might cause you to\n\n485\n00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:30.920\nhave feelings about it too, right? So sometimes you have to be able to share\n\n486\n00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:32.080\nthat with somebody who\n\n487\n00:24:32.080 --> 00:24:36.960\nis not going to their day isn't going to be up or down based on hearing that.\n\n488\n00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:37.680\nSo that would be a\n\n489\n00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:42.250\nnon-judgmental party that you can share exactly what you're feeling. Now, if\n\n490\n00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:43.040\nyou don't check in\n\n491\n00:24:43.040 --> 00:24:47.180\nregularly, that's not a surprise. A lot of high achievers do not do that. But\n\n492\n00:24:47.180 --> 00:24:48.560\nif you don't do it,\n\n493\n00:24:48.560 --> 00:24:53.100\nwhat you'll start to realize is some smaller things at work will start to\n\n494\n00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:53.920\nbother you more.\n\n495\n00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:58.490\nLike little things, all of a sudden you'll get a big reaction, could be a road\n\n496\n00:24:58.490 --> 00:24:59.280\nrage, could be\n\n497\n00:24:59.280 --> 00:25:04.680\nsomething small that you normally can handle the up and down and not it doesn't\n\n498\n00:24:59.703 --> 00:25:05.063\nsmall that you normally can handle you know the up and down and not it doesn't\n\n499\n00:25:05.063 --> 00:25:08.903\naffect you that much if it's starting to affect you more there's a really good\n\n500\n00:25:08.903 --> 00:25:12.743\nchance there's some stuff bottled up and you need to you need to just start\n\n501\n00:25:12.743 --> 00:25:17.463\nsharing it out loud and there is scientific evidence that if you share\n\n502\n00:25:17.463 --> 00:25:22.703\nit out loud in a place of trust that person I was talking about or a group\n\n503\n00:25:22.703 --> 00:25:26.783\nthat I was talking about if you're able to do that it takes a little bit of the\n\n504\n00:25:26.783 --> 00:25:31.263\nedge off and if you do that regularly you'll you'll start to realize it's a\n\n505\n00:25:31.263 --> 00:25:36.263\nregular it's a way that you can prepare put it into your routine and make\n\n506\n00:25:36.263 --> 00:25:40.203\nyourself more ready to deal with pressure whether the pressure is coming\n\n507\n00:25:40.203 --> 00:25:43.543\nbig or small if you're doing something like that you have a better shot of\n\n508\n00:25:43.543 --> 00:25:48.423\nmanaging it hello friends I hope you're loving this conversation be sure to\n\n509\n00:25:48.423 --> 00:25:52.183\nstay tuned to the very end of the episode as always David and I are going to\n\n510\n00:25:52.183 --> 00:25:56.023\ndebrief some of the concepts that he talks about with this week's guests so\n\n511\n00:25:56.023 --> 00:26:00.903\nstay tuned to the very end and I will see you soon and you know Ben you've\n\n512\n00:26:00.903 --> 00:26:01.183\ntalked\n\n513\n00:26:01.183 --> 00:26:07.743\nabout already the the importance of being present the importance of going\n\n514\n00:26:07.743 --> 00:26:12.263\nout in the woods being by and yourself and and having that quiet time you know\n\n515\n00:26:12.263 --> 00:26:17.703\nyou know those are almost like you know everybody's reading you know be here\n\n516\n00:26:17.703 --> 00:26:24.463\nnow Eckert Tolle stuff you know all the spiritual you know spiritual learnings\n\n517\n00:26:24.463 --> 00:26:29.143\nthat people are going through how do you think about all that stuff well the\n\n518\n00:26:29.143 --> 00:26:33.623\nway I think about it I mean my my faith is something I have to lean into\n\n519\n00:26:33.623 --> 00:26:33.903\nbecause\n\n520\n00:26:33.903 --> 00:26:38.583\nlike even right now I'm I'm in the midst of I like to do fast occasionally to\n\n521\n00:26:38.583 --> 00:26:43.623\ntry to deny myself you know just simple things so that I can be a little bit\n\n522\n00:26:43.623 --> 00:26:49.023\nmore disciplined to start the week like so today and I really want to have a\n\n523\n00:26:49.023 --> 00:26:53.703\nsnack and I'm not doing it at this very moment and why am I doing that right\n\n524\n00:26:53.703 --> 00:26:58.383\nit's like it's like the point of doing that is to try to deny the simple things\n\n525\n00:26:58.383 --> 00:27:05.223\nso that I'm challenging myself to grow in ways where my capacity to handle not\n\n526\n00:27:05.223 --> 00:27:09.983\nhaving food is not very great right so it only takes a few hours before I'm\n\n527\n00:27:09.983 --> 00:27:13.383\nlike starting to get a little hangry right everybody talks about getting\n\n528\n00:27:13.383 --> 00:27:20.183\nhangry well you have to build capacity to deal with that challenge and so for\n\n529\n00:27:20.183 --> 00:27:26.343\nme building capacity and expanding my my internal state my ability to handle\n\n530\n00:27:26.343 --> 00:27:32.703\ndiscomfort it I have to lean into my faith because look Ben I don't have enough\n\n531\n00:27:32.703 --> 00:27:37.063\ndiscipline right now or or accountability or pressure coming at me from the\n\n532\n00:27:37.063 --> 00:27:41.143\noutside like I did in baseball when you have 40,000 people watching you every\n\n533\n00:27:41.143 --> 00:27:45.183\nnight you have pretty good accountability on whether or not you're gonna\n\n534\n00:27:45.183 --> 00:27:49.023\nstick with your routines but when nobody's watching you and my kids aren't\n\n535\n00:27:49.023 --> 00:27:53.743\naround like I can have a snack and nobody's gonna say a word about it right but\n\n536\n00:27:53.743 --> 00:27:58.743\nit's that internal discipline how do I discipline myself to be a better version\n\n537\n00:27:58.743 --> 00:28:04.063\nof myself well I have to lean into faith in God and recognize like if I think\n\n538\n00:28:04.063 --> 00:28:08.103\nhe really wants me to do this then I need to stick with it and be accountable\n\n539\n00:28:08.103 --> 00:28:13.303\nnot only to him but also to to my own myself when I look in the mirror and I\n\n540\n00:28:13.303 --> 00:28:17.383\nthink a lot of times you know we we might be really hard on ourselves\n\n541\n00:28:17.383 --> 00:28:22.543\nespecially when it impacts other people at work but then when it comes to like\n\n542\n00:28:22.543 --> 00:28:27.743\nsomething we want for ourselves we give up on ourselves easily right and and\n\n543\n00:28:27.743 --> 00:28:33.143\nthat's where I want to be more consistent with the better version of myself the\n\n544\n00:28:33.143 --> 00:28:37.143\nparts of me that we still need to grow and the part the part of me that really\n\n545\n00:28:37.143 --> 00:28:42.063\nwants to grow it's like I gotta put those together I gotta be more have more\n\n546\n00:28:42.063 --> 00:28:46.583\nintegrity to myself for these moments that I want to challenge myself to be\n\n547\n00:28:46.583 --> 00:28:51.623\nbetter so I'm gonna help you build your capacity okay help me here see these\n\n548\n00:28:51.623 --> 00:28:55.903\nalmonds right here I might eat one right in front of you I'm gonna put some\n\n549\n00:28:55.903 --> 00:29:00.743\npressure on your big guy you know what I can handle it but it does sound good\n\n550\n00:29:00.743 --> 00:29:04.223\nright now oh boy even just some almond sound good you're you talking about a\n\n551\n00:29:04.223 --> 00:29:07.903\nsnack made me what one didn't that the way out works let me let me give you a\n\n552\n00:29:07.903 --> 00:29:12.023\ntrick on if you like soda and you can't drink soda because it's got calories in\n\n553\n00:29:12.023 --> 00:29:19.743\nit Zevia okay so I Zevia is a stevia Lee it's a it's a healthy sweetener no\n\n554\n00:29:19.743 --> 00:29:25.343\ncalories and it tastes it eventually starts tasting like soda okay you might\n\n555\n00:29:25.343 --> 00:29:29.143\nthink differently but I love it and it helps me like get through these fast\n\n556\n00:29:29.143 --> 00:29:34.303\nwere you know coffee and Zevia and water and I'm pretty good you've started\n\n557\n00:29:34.303 --> 00:29:40.183\nthis nonprofit called champion forward tell us about it well champion forward\n\n558\n00:29:40.183 --> 00:29:46.663\nis my effort to go back into the sports world my experience was that we had\n\n559\n00:29:46.663 --> 00:29:52.083\naccess to all the best coaches all the best training all the best physical\n\n560\n00:29:52.083 --> 00:29:58.323\ntherapy the best doctors even mental skills on the field and one thing that\n\n561\n00:29:58.323 --> 00:30:04.803\nI did see a gap in I never experienced it was what I just mentioned some\n\n562\n00:30:04.803 --> 00:30:09.603\nemotional intelligence training it's really checking in emotionally and\n\n563\n00:30:09.603 --> 00:30:14.603\nhelping an athlete really manage that side of their game when I realized I\n\n564\n00:30:14.603 --> 00:30:19.043\nwanted to take that back into the sports world I considered well do I go back\n\n565\n00:30:19.043 --> 00:30:23.383\nto school do I go get my psychology degree and be a sports psychologist or or\n\n566\n00:30:23.383 --> 00:30:24.063\ndo\n\n567\n00:30:24.063 --> 00:30:29.863\nI create a program that gets access to this to the young athletes to the\n\n568\n00:30:29.863 --> 00:30:34.743\nparents and the coaches and I realized like the youth sports world really\n\n569\n00:30:34.743 --> 00:30:39.303\nstruggles with this you know emotional side of what's happening and it's it's\n\n570\n00:30:39.303 --> 00:30:42.583\nreally challenging everything that people are going through with the NIL\n\n571\n00:30:42.583 --> 00:30:47.783\nfiltering down to all high school and youth sports it's really challenging to\n\n572\n00:30:47.783 --> 00:30:52.063\nbe a parent a coach and even a kid in this day and age to succeed and kind of\n\n573\n00:30:52.063 --> 00:30:56.103\nkeep going up the ladder without dealing with emotional challenges and a lot of\n\n574\n00:30:56.103 --> 00:31:00.263\nstudies that are coming out are saying that athletes used to be benefited by\n\n575\n00:31:00.263 --> 00:31:04.883\nbeing an athlete in college and now it's it's it's it's more difficult to be an\n\n576\n00:31:04.883 --> 00:31:09.303\nathlete in college than it used to be and the reason is because they're having\n\n577\n00:31:09.303 --> 00:31:14.723\nto make major decisions every year and so I wanted to help develop something\n\n578\n00:31:14.723 --> 00:31:15.143\nthat\n\n579\n00:31:15.143 --> 00:31:20.543\nwill give them an added tool to start practicing that you don't have to be a\n\n580\n00:31:20.543 --> 00:31:23.963\ntherapist to do you don't have to go to counseling to do or anything you can\n\n581\n00:31:23.963 --> 00:31:28.583\nstart doing it yourself and it's simple and it's not therapeutic we're not\n\n582\n00:31:28.583 --> 00:31:28.823\ntrying\n\n583\n00:31:28.823 --> 00:31:33.743\nto be mental health therapist or step in somebody's lane that we in a place we\n\n584\n00:31:33.743 --> 00:31:37.783\ndon't belong but it is a program that you can start to have these conversations\n\n585\n00:31:37.783 --> 00:31:42.063\nnot only as a team but as a parent with your kid in the car ride home on the\n\n586\n00:31:42.063 --> 00:31:47.143\ndinner table wherever is appropriate for you and when we give them these tools\n\n587\n00:31:47.143 --> 00:31:53.023\nand they start doing this we're seeing benefits we're seeing their ability to\n\n588\n00:31:53.023 --> 00:31:57.703\nregulate go up without even doing counseling or therapy and so we do\n\n589\n00:31:57.703 --> 00:32:02.063\nsuggest people that are struggling go do counseling go do therapy even\n\n590\n00:32:02.063 --> 00:32:06.663\npreemptively before you're struggling but if you don't have time to do that and\n\n591\n00:32:06.663 --> 00:32:10.783\nyou're not doing that yet this is another tool for young athletes parents and\n\n592\n00:32:10.783 --> 00:32:15.463\ncoaches to start putting into their sports ecosystem and and really\n\n593\n00:32:15.463 --> 00:32:18.503\nstarting to learn some of the cues that I wish I would have known as a young\n\n594\n00:32:18.503 --> 00:32:22.543\nperson like what do you wish you would have known let's just give us give one\n\n595\n00:32:22.543 --> 00:32:26.143\nexample you wish you would have known so what I wish I would have known is\n\n596\n00:32:26.143 --> 00:32:34.543\nprior to doing my competition if I had had a safe space to say hey I want I'm\n\n597\n00:32:34.543 --> 00:32:37.503\ngonna check in from the whole rest of the day whatever's gone on yesterday\n\n598\n00:32:37.503 --> 00:32:37.783\ntoday\n\n599\n00:32:37.783 --> 00:32:42.943\nup to this point if I check in and say well I'm feeling we've got a list of 10\n\n600\n00:32:42.943 --> 00:32:47.343\nemotions I've got it card down there and if I say I'm feeling hurt I'm feeling\n\n601\n00:32:47.343 --> 00:32:52.583\nangry I'm feeling sad I'm feeling excited just by checking in and saying\n\n602\n00:32:52.583 --> 00:32:56.743\nthose things out loud there's evidence that it it takes a little bit of the\n\n603\n00:32:56.743 --> 00:33:00.303\npressure that you're feeling internally away before you enter the competition\n\n604\n00:33:00.303 --> 00:33:04.983\nand so what we say is in our in our organization is if you learn to do\n\n605\n00:33:04.983 --> 00:33:10.423\nfeelings well feel well then you will do a better job of failing well which is\n\n606\n00:33:10.423 --> 00:33:10.503\na\n\n607\n00:33:10.503 --> 00:33:14.583\nreally important part of being a young athlete failing well is learning how to\n\n608\n00:33:14.583 --> 00:33:20.063\nyou know fail and turn around and go back and do it again and be okay if you do\n\n609\n00:33:20.063 --> 00:33:23.743\nfeelings well you're gonna fail well and ultimately you're gonna play free\n\n610\n00:33:23.743 --> 00:33:29.103\nand that's always the goal can we play free why because a free player is a fast\n\n611\n00:33:29.103 --> 00:33:33.723\nplayer David so if you want to be great you want to be fast if you learn to\n\n612\n00:33:33.723 --> 00:33:33.903\ncheck\n\n613\n00:33:33.903 --> 00:33:38.023\nin and clear the deck a little bit emotionally going in you're gonna be\n\n614\n00:33:38.023 --> 00:33:42.423\nable to make faster decisions and be less emotionally up and down based on\n\n615\n00:33:42.423 --> 00:33:45.863\nwhat the game throws at you right and so I wish I would have known that that\n\n616\n00:33:45.863 --> 00:33:50.023\nprobably would have helped me be even more free and then afterwards when you\n\n617\n00:33:50.023 --> 00:33:54.343\nhave a bad game you have a good game you know exactly what to do you go back\n\n618\n00:33:54.343 --> 00:33:58.983\nyou go back and you check in again and you clear the deck and you go hey now I\n\n619\n00:33:58.983 --> 00:33:59.263\n'm\n\n620\n00:33:59.263 --> 00:34:03.303\ntransitioning from being a hero out on the field for my team I can be a human\n\n621\n00:34:03.303 --> 00:34:08.063\nagain because I know that whatever I experienced out there on the field I'm\n\n622\n00:34:08.063 --> 00:34:14.343\ngonna be okay I evened it back out and I can enter the rest of my world back\n\n623\n00:34:14.343 --> 00:34:19.143\nyou know in a more free way what do you think well intentioned parents and\n\n624\n00:34:19.143 --> 00:34:24.143\ncoaches are doing that can actually make pressure harder for young athletes\n\n625\n00:34:24.143 --> 00:34:29.663\nwell I think they see what a young athlete is capable of and they want to\n\n626\n00:34:29.663 --> 00:34:34.823\npush right and and they want to push push push and here's the thing coaches\n\n627\n00:34:34.823 --> 00:34:39.103\nhave a tougher job than parents even in regard to this because it is their job\n\n628\n00:34:39.103 --> 00:34:42.823\nto push but they also have to recognize when they're pushing the player too\n\n629\n00:34:42.823 --> 00:34:46.783\nhard and they have to give them a break or they have to say hey this this\n\n630\n00:34:46.783 --> 00:34:49.823\nparticular player needs some encouragement they don't need to be pushed\n\n631\n00:34:49.823 --> 00:34:53.543\nright now they need to be lifted up they need to be given a little bit of a\n\n632\n00:34:53.543 --> 00:34:58.423\nbreak you know mentally and emotionally so they have a really difficult job\n\n633\n00:34:58.423 --> 00:35:02.943\nthere to learn when to push and when to pull and and look when and they're the\n\n634\n00:35:02.943 --> 00:35:06.343\nbest person to understand where the entire team is they can feel where the\n\n635\n00:35:06.343 --> 00:35:10.823\nwhole team is right and whether the team needs a push but a coach needs this\n\n636\n00:35:10.823 --> 00:35:14.503\nbecause a coach needs to be able to recognize when one particular player\n\n637\n00:35:14.503 --> 00:35:18.223\nlike maybe the whole team needs to be pushed but that particular player needs\n\n638\n00:35:18.223 --> 00:35:22.143\na different talking to and they need to be checked on mentally where they're\n\n639\n00:35:22.143 --> 00:35:26.423\nat how they're doing it's great for coaches in regard to that for parents I\n\n640\n00:35:26.423 --> 00:35:30.423\nthink parents don't realize how much that they are stepping into a coach's\n\n641\n00:35:30.423 --> 00:35:35.303\nshoes when their job is actually support so when you're a parent your job is\n\n642\n00:35:35.303 --> 00:35:40.023\nliterally especially when your kid is playing a sport to say hey I love\n\n643\n00:35:40.023 --> 00:35:40.503\nwatching\n\n644\n00:35:40.503 --> 00:35:48.503\nyou this is really enjoyable for me and what else can I do to help just give\n\n645\n00:35:48.503 --> 00:35:52.663\nyou everything you need to go out there and succeed and so the parents that\n\n646\n00:35:52.663 --> 00:35:57.143\ndon't step in the place of a coach but instead they're in the place of the\n\n647\n00:35:57.143 --> 00:36:01.343\nresource partner for that young athlete they're in the place of what kind of\n\n648\n00:36:01.343 --> 00:36:06.223\nfood do you need to be more dialed in what kind of sleep pattern can I help\n\n649\n00:36:06.223 --> 00:36:10.503\nyou to be more dialed in you know what what kind of schedule can I help you\n\n650\n00:36:10.503 --> 00:36:13.983\nwith you know that that will help you feel like when you're going out there\n\n651\n00:36:13.983 --> 00:36:16.863\nand playing you're not feeling the pressure of school and you're feeling\n\n652\n00:36:16.863 --> 00:36:20.863\nthe pressure of everything else and then you as a parent help hold the athlete\n\n653\n00:36:20.863 --> 00:36:25.343\naccountable to what the athlete says they want to be held accountable to right\n\n654\n00:36:25.343 --> 00:36:29.823\nand a coach holds the team accountable to what the team says they want to be\n\n655\n00:36:29.823 --> 00:36:34.423\nheld accountable to the problem is oftentimes as a parent or a coach you're\n\n656\n00:36:34.423 --> 00:36:37.543\nholding an athlete accountable to something or a team accountable to\n\n657\n00:36:37.543 --> 00:36:41.663\nsomething they've not even agreed to be held accountable to and so then they\n\n658\n00:36:41.663 --> 00:36:46.783\ncomplain and whine and they don't want to be pushed well they never told you\n\n659\n00:36:46.783 --> 00:36:50.023\nwhat they want to be pushed that hard but you believe they're capable so you\n\n660\n00:36:50.023 --> 00:36:55.023\nkeep pushing them that's where there has to be an agreement a great book for\n\n661\n00:36:55.023 --> 00:36:55.223\nany\n\n662\n00:36:55.223 --> 00:37:00.703\nof those coaches parents that find themselves doing that is the book\n\n663\n00:37:00.703 --> 00:37:06.183\ncalled 10 to 25 and this book basically says here's how we can help this\n\n664\n00:37:06.183 --> 00:37:11.063\nparticular younger generation right now versus previous ones they don't listen\n\n665\n00:37:11.063 --> 00:37:14.983\nthe same way we did right so we've got to learn to coach them and teach them a\n\n666\n00:37:14.983 --> 00:37:19.983\nlittle bit different because of the way that they've grown up and so yeah we\n\n667\n00:37:19.983 --> 00:37:23.823\nas parents and coaches guess what we got a check-in to we got a model it we got\n\n668\n00:37:23.823 --> 00:37:27.783\nto actually challenge ourselves to get better and to grow in the way that we\n\n669\n00:37:27.783 --> 00:37:32.063\ncoach in the way that we parent we're never stopped we never stopped growing\n\n670\n00:37:32.063 --> 00:37:35.383\nhow can a leader tell whether they're really helping people helping their\n\n671\n00:37:35.383 --> 00:37:38.943\nkids or their coach you know their team handle pressure or they're actually\n\n672\n00:37:38.943 --> 00:37:45.183\nadding more pressure to the to the equation follow the energy makers not\n\n673\n00:37:45.183 --> 00:37:49.963\nthe energy takers okay and what I mean by that is there are people on your\n\n674\n00:37:49.963 --> 00:37:54.503\nteam there are people in your business you might be one of them who are energy\n\n675\n00:37:54.503 --> 00:38:01.143\ntakers okay energy takers they they they motivate by complaining they\n\n676\n00:38:01.143 --> 00:38:04.983\nmotivate by being negative they motivate by saying we got to do better\n\n677\n00:38:04.983 --> 00:38:09.903\nwe we're stinking at this and this and that okay look that's gonna take energy\n\n678\n00:38:09.903 --> 00:38:14.803\nfrom people look there is a time to to look at the numbers and go up on the\n\n679\n00:38:14.803 --> 00:38:19.463\nwhiteboard and say hey guys we're more than we're capable of more than this\n\n680\n00:38:19.463 --> 00:38:25.303\nokay and challenge them for more but then to do it in a way that is creating\n\n681\n00:38:25.303 --> 00:38:30.963\nenergy building energy if you follow the energy makers on the team and they\n\n682\n00:38:30.963 --> 00:38:37.723\nare excited they are motivated and they have ideas for more and you have ideas\n\n683\n00:38:37.723 --> 00:38:44.203\nfor more and and the energy makers as a whole are making they're they're\n\n684\n00:38:44.203 --> 00:38:48.803\novertaking the takers right that's when you know you're headed in a right\n\n685\n00:38:48.803 --> 00:38:53.663\ndirection I believe but like there were times where I was on a few different\n\n686\n00:38:53.663 --> 00:38:57.643\nteams in the major leagues where look Joe is an energy maker Joe is not a guy\n\n687\n00:38:57.643 --> 00:39:02.583\nthat is gonna try to take it away from you he's not gonna be negative right but\n\n688\n00:39:02.583 --> 00:39:06.703\nyou have to have guys on the team that are gonna police things because Joe was\n\n689\n00:39:06.703 --> 00:39:10.903\nnever gonna be a police type of guy well we had to have guys that were you\n\n690\n00:39:10.903 --> 00:39:16.743\nknow rah rah glue guys encouraging building up you got this man like like\n\n691\n00:39:16.743 --> 00:39:21.363\nencouraging us if we had a bunch of those guys and then the other guys to be\n\n692\n00:39:21.363 --> 00:39:21.483\nthe\n\n693\n00:39:21.483 --> 00:39:25.563\npolice guys to to challenge guys that are kind of dropping the ball here and\n\n694\n00:39:25.563 --> 00:39:30.603\nthere then that was a great mix but we had if we had too many guys that were\n\n695\n00:39:30.603 --> 00:39:34.323\nlike hey we got to be better we're not good enough we're not good enough we\n\n696\n00:39:34.323 --> 00:39:38.083\ngot to be better and there wasn't enough guys lifting everybody up then that\n\n697\n00:39:38.083 --> 00:39:42.043\nwould it didn't matter how much they wanted it because there was too many\n\n698\n00:39:42.043 --> 00:39:45.683\nenergy takers so that's what I'm saying energy makers those are the ones\n\n699\n00:39:45.683 --> 00:39:48.763\nyou got to pay attention to the energy do you have enough of that if you got\n\n700\n00:39:48.763 --> 00:39:53.283\nenough of that then you can let the you know the guys at the at the backside\n\n701\n00:39:53.283 --> 00:39:57.083\nchallenge and say hey we got to be better come on you know and I think from\n\n702\n00:39:57.083 --> 00:40:00.763\nthe teams I was on you had to have a mix of both you can't just have all these\n\n703\n00:40:00.763 --> 00:40:05.703\nrah rah people you got to have some people that are like hey you know we can\n\n704\n00:40:05.703 --> 00:40:11.083\ndo better so you have to have a mix I love I love that energy makers energy\n\n705\n00:40:11.083 --> 00:40:14.883\ntakers love it you know always say that positive energy lifts you up negative\n\n706\n00:40:14.883 --> 00:40:19.243\nenergy brings you down and that's your well and let's be honest there are\n\n707\n00:40:19.243 --> 00:40:23.683\ntimes where you need to have a sober-minded approach somebody that's gonna\n\n708\n00:40:23.683 --> 00:40:26.923\nbring you down to earth because you're up in the clouds and you're like yeah\n\n709\n00:40:26.923 --> 00:40:31.923\nwe're great we're gonna be so amazing we got this yeah but you aren't executing\n\n710\n00:40:31.923 --> 00:40:36.443\nso whenever we had too much of that up in the clouds and you don't have\n\n711\n00:40:36.443 --> 00:40:36.803\nsomebody\n\n712\n00:40:36.803 --> 00:40:41.883\nsaying hey come back to earth we got to execute this next moment it would never\n\n713\n00:40:41.883 --> 00:40:46.683\nwork out right we would fall flat eventually and you know that was that\n\n714\n00:40:46.683 --> 00:40:50.963\nwas where the balance was off too much in in regard to head in the clouds well\n\n715\n00:40:50.963 --> 00:40:53.723\nthere's a big difference don't you think they've been between a truth teller\n\n716\n00:40:53.723 --> 00:40:58.723\nwhich is what I think you're saying everybody needs to have okay and and a\n\n717\n00:40:58.723 --> 00:41:04.123\ncynic oh yeah one one hundred percent so you can yeah but if you're a truth\n\n718\n00:41:04.123 --> 00:41:08.843\nteller it could be easy to turn into a cynic right at the wrong time and and\n\n719\n00:41:08.843 --> 00:41:14.723\nI've been that before where I could get down to myself and critical and and it\n\n720\n00:41:14.723 --> 00:41:14.723\n's\n\n721\n00:41:14.723 --> 00:41:18.243\nnot a good place to be and it doesn't really help anybody right so at some\n\n722\n00:41:18.243 --> 00:41:22.763\nlevel you got to find the balance there and saying hey that there is a truth\n\n723\n00:41:22.763 --> 00:41:27.963\nthat leads you to what you're capable of and more more potential and there's a\n\n724\n00:41:27.963 --> 00:41:32.163\ntruth that is just literally telling you that you're you're not good right\n\n725\n00:41:32.163 --> 00:41:37.603\nnow you know then this has been a lot of fun I mean I want to I want to take\n\n726\n00:41:37.603 --> 00:41:37.763\nyou\n\n727\n00:41:37.763 --> 00:41:43.043\nback and you know way back although you're you're a very young guy still what's\n\n728\n00:41:43.043 --> 00:41:46.933\nthe story from your childhood that that really shaped the kind of leader you\n\n729\n00:41:46.933 --> 00:41:47.003\nare\n\n730\n00:41:47.003 --> 00:41:52.363\ntoday well I like us one of the stories that I share in the book that I like\n\n731\n00:41:52.363 --> 00:41:53.123\nfrom\n\n732\n00:41:53.123 --> 00:41:58.003\nmy childhood is is um you know I had a couple different coaches that were\n\n733\n00:41:58.003 --> 00:41:58.203\nreally\n\n734\n00:41:58.203 --> 00:42:03.843\nimportant in my life and coach Curtis was my junior high baseball basketball\n\n735\n00:42:03.843 --> 00:42:07.923\ntrack coach he was everything coach for me as a as a young seventh and eighth\n\n736\n00:42:07.923 --> 00:42:15.043\ngrader and coach kept it fun he he had structure to everything he did but he\n\n737\n00:42:15.043 --> 00:42:19.563\nalways kept it fun right and we didn't realize what he was doing and how he\n\n738\n00:42:19.563 --> 00:42:23.763\nwas doing it but but it was the combo of his ability to keep it keep things\n\n739\n00:42:23.763 --> 00:42:30.083\nstructured and then also make sure that like we succeeded enough to keep it\n\n740\n00:42:30.083 --> 00:42:34.763\nfun right and so you know even scheduling the way he scheduled the teams\n\n741\n00:42:34.763 --> 00:42:38.083\nwe played if we to schedule the whole bunch of hard teams would have been as\n\n742\n00:42:38.083 --> 00:42:42.363\nfun because we wouldn't want as much right so there's even like a coach really\n\n743\n00:42:42.363 --> 00:42:49.683\nhas a chance a leader has a chance to structure like basically you know frame\n\n744\n00:42:49.683 --> 00:42:55.643\nup the season or frame up the goals in a way that either make it like this is\n\n745\n00:42:55.643 --> 00:42:59.883\nfun because we are succeeding and and we're just on the edge of being better\n\n746\n00:42:59.883 --> 00:43:06.483\nversus man we stink we can't win a game right and so coach Curtis taught me\n\n747\n00:43:06.483 --> 00:43:11.043\nthat but I think the second thing that I would say about that is coach gold and\n\n748\n00:43:11.043 --> 00:43:14.723\nhe's got a great last name but he was my high school baseball coach and he was\n\n749\n00:43:14.723 --> 00:43:18.883\nmy math teacher he was our FCA sponsor so he's kind of a he was a man of God a\n\n750\n00:43:18.883 --> 00:43:23.003\nyoung guy at the time you know just 10 years older than us in high school you\n\n751\n00:43:23.003 --> 00:43:28.443\nknow like 25 26 and I looked up to him and got and went man this guy he really\n\n752\n00:43:28.443 --> 00:43:34.123\nreally I just really respected the way he went about things well he was the guy\n\n753\n00:43:34.123 --> 00:43:37.923\nthat when I graduated high school I didn't have any scholarships to go play\n\n754\n00:43:37.923 --> 00:43:43.723\nsports in college and he was a guy that said hey I think there is more for you\n\n755\n00:43:43.723 --> 00:43:46.643\npotentially and there's a scout day happening over here and you have to pay\n\n756\n00:43:46.643 --> 00:43:47.727\n$50 of your own\n\n757\n00:43:47.727 --> 00:43:48.687\nmoney. But here's the\n\n758\n00:43:48.687 --> 00:43:53.447\nthing he had built. I wouldn't have done that scout day, which ultimately\n\n759\n00:43:53.447 --> 00:43:55.007\nlanded me a scholarship.\n\n760\n00:43:56.127 --> 00:44:02.407\nI would never have done that scout day if I didn't first have a relationship\n\n761\n00:44:02.407 --> 00:44:04.207\nwith him. Like he was\n\n762\n00:44:04.207 --> 00:44:08.607\nwhat I would call a foggy weather friend in that moment where like when you're\n\n763\n00:44:08.607 --> 00:44:09.487\na high school kid,\n\n764\n00:44:09.487 --> 00:44:13.967\nwhat do you know? You don't even know what you don't know. Right. And so I'm\n\n765\n00:44:13.967 --> 00:44:15.247\nlike in the fog,\n\n766\n00:44:15.247 --> 00:44:20.287\ndon't know what my next move is. And he was saying, Hey, I know there's more\n\n767\n00:44:20.287 --> 00:44:21.327\nfor you. Here's an\n\n768\n00:44:21.327 --> 00:44:25.157\nopportunity. I think you should go do this. Maybe give it a shot, right? Just\n\n769\n00:44:25.157 --> 00:44:26.607\ntake a risk and go out\n\n770\n00:44:26.607 --> 00:44:31.057\nthere and do it. And, um, you know, he believed in me. He wasn't just, you know\n\n771\n00:44:31.057 --> 00:44:31.967\n, it's one thing\n\n772\n00:44:31.967 --> 00:44:35.527\nfor someone that's older than you that, you know, you're, you're getting all\n\n773\n00:44:35.527 --> 00:44:36.447\nthese scholarships\n\n774\n00:44:36.447 --> 00:44:41.327\noffers and they want to come after school and say, Hey, let me help you. Uh,\n\n775\n00:44:41.327 --> 00:44:42.207\nyou know, right? Like\n\n776\n00:44:42.207 --> 00:44:47.167\nthat's a kid that's our, that's a fair weather fan in your life. And it's easy\n\n777\n00:44:47.167 --> 00:44:47.967\nto be that person\n\n778\n00:44:47.967 --> 00:44:52.687\nthat sees somebody succeeding and maybe going onto it and let me help you make\n\n779\n00:44:52.687 --> 00:44:53.487\nthe right decision\n\n780\n00:44:53.487 --> 00:44:57.277\nout there because you're really going to do something. But what about the kid\n\n781\n00:44:57.277 --> 00:44:58.127\nlike me who had\n\n782\n00:44:58.127 --> 00:45:03.507\nno opportunities? And he was literally saying, look, this might be a benefit to\n\n783\n00:45:03.507 --> 00:45:04.607\nyou. And I think\n\n784\n00:45:04.607 --> 00:45:09.277\nyou should go do it. So I, after my season picked up my uniform, went to this\n\n785\n00:45:09.277 --> 00:45:09.967\nscout day,\n\n786\n00:45:09.967 --> 00:45:15.167\nmet a guy named Elliot Johnson, another guy that believed in me. And, um, you\n\n787\n00:45:15.167 --> 00:45:15.807\nknow, it's these,\n\n788\n00:45:15.807 --> 00:45:21.277\nit's these types of people that I really think, um, you know, I call it\n\n789\n00:45:21.277 --> 00:45:23.087\nborrowed belief. Sometimes\n\n790\n00:45:23.087 --> 00:45:26.777\nyou don't believe in yourself and you need somebody else that believes in you\n\n791\n00:45:26.777 --> 00:45:27.807\nto, you need to borrow\n\n792\n00:45:27.807 --> 00:45:31.487\ntheir belief. And then that gets you, that's the bridge for a time to get you\n\n793\n00:45:31.487 --> 00:45:32.207\nto where your\n\n794\n00:45:32.207 --> 00:45:36.917\nconfidence, um, grows. You know, you, you're arguably the greatest utility\n\n795\n00:45:36.917 --> 00:45:37.967\nbaseball player\n\n796\n00:45:37.967 --> 00:45:42.737\nthat ever, ever played the game. You know, where did you get the, this, you\n\n797\n00:45:42.737 --> 00:45:44.527\nknow, desire, ability\n\n798\n00:45:44.527 --> 00:45:49.467\nto basically play wherever the team really needed you? You know, I remember,\n\n799\n00:45:49.467 --> 00:45:50.207\nyou know,\n\n800\n00:45:50.207 --> 00:45:53.347\nplayed a lot of sports, man. I got to be a third baseman. I got to be a\n\n801\n00:45:53.347 --> 00:45:54.527\nshortstop. If I don't get\n\n802\n00:45:54.527 --> 00:45:57.667\nthat, you know, if I don't get to play there, I'm going to be pouting for the\n\n803\n00:45:57.667 --> 00:45:58.367\nrest of my life.\n\n804\n00:45:58.367 --> 00:46:02.527\nAnd where did you learn how to do what the team needs? Well, that, that started\n\n805\n00:46:02.527 --> 00:46:03.487\nwith my dad,\n\n806\n00:46:03.487 --> 00:46:09.647\nfirst and foremost, my parents, um, you know, they are still the, uh, my dad's\n\n807\n00:46:09.647 --> 00:46:10.607\nthe pastor of a small\n\n808\n00:46:10.607 --> 00:46:15.337\nchurch, um, in Eureka where I grew up. And, and at that church, you know, there\n\n809\n00:46:15.337 --> 00:46:16.447\n's, there's not that\n\n810\n00:46:16.447 --> 00:46:21.017\nmany people, right? And it's a small town. So there, you know, many, many hands\n\n811\n00:46:21.017 --> 00:46:22.127\nmake light work, but\n\n812\n00:46:22.127 --> 00:46:26.607\nalso there are times in a church where there's not that many hands. And there's\n\n813\n00:46:26.607 --> 00:46:27.247\na lot of work,\n\n814\n00:46:27.247 --> 00:46:31.247\na lot more work than there are hands. And so, you know, part of what I learned\n\n815\n00:46:31.247 --> 00:46:32.287\nas a young person is,\n\n816\n00:46:32.287 --> 00:46:36.647\nlook, you got to be adaptable and you got to be willing to help wherever help\n\n817\n00:46:36.647 --> 00:46:38.047\nis needed. And so,\n\n818\n00:46:38.047 --> 00:46:42.527\nwhether I was playing sports or whether I was serving in, in the church, the\n\n819\n00:46:42.527 --> 00:46:42.927\ngoal was\n\n820\n00:46:42.927 --> 00:46:48.117\nto, to do your best and to step into the role that it's needed at the time. And\n\n821\n00:46:48.117 --> 00:46:48.447\nso,\n\n822\n00:46:48.447 --> 00:46:53.827\nI remember as a kid, we had a puppet team, you know, if you'd asked me if, if I\n\n823\n00:46:53.827 --> 00:46:54.607\nwanted to grow up\n\n824\n00:46:54.607 --> 00:46:59.487\nto be a puppeteer, uh, when I was a kid, as an athlete, I'd have been like, no,\n\n825\n00:46:59.487 --> 00:46:59.967\nthat's not the\n\n826\n00:46:59.967 --> 00:47:04.867\nthing I want to do. But because we had this puppeteer team and, you know, we\n\n827\n00:47:04.867 --> 00:47:05.967\nneeded people to do it,\n\n828\n00:47:05.967 --> 00:47:10.937\nlike, I learned how to be a puppeteer, right? And so, things like that where it\n\n829\n00:47:10.937 --> 00:47:11.967\n's like, man,\n\n830\n00:47:11.967 --> 00:47:16.607\nI did some really interesting things. Look, when I got to Major League Baseball\n\n831\n00:47:16.607 --> 00:47:17.247\nand the goal was\n\n832\n00:47:17.247 --> 00:47:21.357\nwinning the game, so, so I wasn't a left fielder. Does that mean I can't play a\n\n833\n00:47:21.357 --> 00:47:22.527\nleft field? No,\n\n834\n00:47:22.527 --> 00:47:25.907\nheck no, I'll, I'll go out there and take balls in left field out. Tell me\n\n835\n00:47:25.907 --> 00:47:27.087\nwhere you want me to go.\n\n836\n00:47:27.087 --> 00:47:31.117\nI'll give it a shot. Like, if that's what the team needs, and for me, that was\n\n837\n00:47:31.117 --> 00:47:31.327\njust\n\n838\n00:47:31.327 --> 00:47:36.847\nthe obvious thing you do to, if you want everybody to win. Where'd you learn\n\n839\n00:47:36.847 --> 00:47:38.127\nthe most about how to win?\n\n840\n00:47:38.127 --> 00:47:43.307\nI mean, my dad and mom were, that was the competitiveness came from them, for\n\n841\n00:47:43.307 --> 00:47:44.367\nsure. They were,\n\n842\n00:47:44.367 --> 00:47:47.507\nthey, they, they're, they're, they're, there's a competitive streak in our\n\n843\n00:47:47.507 --> 00:47:49.967\nfamily. But beyond the\n\n844\n00:47:49.967 --> 00:47:56.437\ncompetition, actually learning the strategy, strategic side of winning, I would\n\n845\n00:47:56.437 --> 00:47:57.087\nsay there were,\n\n846\n00:47:57.087 --> 00:48:01.557\nthere were people I came across. Dan Heafner, who's the head baseball coach at\n\n847\n00:48:01.557 --> 00:48:01.967\nDallas Baptist\n\n848\n00:48:01.967 --> 00:48:08.847\nUniversity as a guy, came across that. Dan is one of the best minds, you know,\n\n849\n00:48:08.847 --> 00:48:09.807\nI've been around\n\n850\n00:48:09.807 --> 00:48:14.897\nin regards to hitting. Also, John Mayley, Derek Shelton, some of my other\n\n851\n00:48:14.897 --> 00:48:16.207\nhitting coaches that I\n\n852\n00:48:16.207 --> 00:48:20.647\nwas around, these guys were great strategists and helped me realize like, you\n\n853\n00:48:20.647 --> 00:48:21.567\nknow, you can have,\n\n854\n00:48:21.567 --> 00:48:28.447\nyou know, only really one thought that you have to stick with. And then you,\n\n855\n00:48:28.447 --> 00:48:29.487\nyou have to switch it.\n\n856\n00:48:29.487 --> 00:48:33.547\nSometimes you switch it in the middle of even a bat. But if you're not prepared\n\n857\n00:48:33.547 --> 00:48:34.527\nwith all the other\n\n858\n00:48:34.527 --> 00:48:38.837\nstrategies and you, you know, your options, then you're not going to know what\n\n859\n00:48:38.837 --> 00:48:39.647\nto switch it to,\n\n860\n00:48:39.647 --> 00:48:45.957\nright? And so, you know, Joe, Joe was a, Joe was a genius that I, I had to, I\n\n861\n00:48:45.957 --> 00:48:46.847\nhad to not try to\n\n862\n00:48:46.847 --> 00:48:50.097\nfigure out how and why he was doing what he was doing. Because that would have\n\n863\n00:48:50.097 --> 00:48:50.927\nmade my head spin.\n\n864\n00:48:50.927 --> 00:48:56.767\nYou know, you talk so much about strategy and decision-making. I mean, you know\n\n865\n00:48:56.767 --> 00:48:57.887\n, take us through\n\n866\n00:48:57.887 --> 00:49:01.647\na typical and bat. I mean, that, that, because that's like, I don't think\n\n867\n00:49:01.647 --> 00:49:02.447\npeople really think\n\n868\n00:49:02.447 --> 00:49:05.827\nthat way when they think about baseball. I mean, I think they, they think you\n\n869\n00:49:05.827 --> 00:49:06.447\njust go up there,\n\n870\n00:49:06.447 --> 00:49:10.437\nyou're looking for the pitch to hit it, you know, strategy, decision-making.\n\n871\n00:49:10.437 --> 00:49:11.247\nThat's, that's\n\n872\n00:49:11.247 --> 00:49:15.807\nlittle new terminology for baseball. Well, when you're, when you're, let's just\n\n873\n00:49:15.807 --> 00:49:16.927\nsay you're a player\n\n874\n00:49:16.927 --> 00:49:21.827\nand you have a great manager and you around that manager a lot, you start to\n\n875\n00:49:21.827 --> 00:49:23.327\nanticipate his moves,\n\n876\n00:49:23.327 --> 00:49:28.757\nright? So you'll see a part of the game develop and start to go, Oh, I bet Joe\n\n877\n00:49:28.757 --> 00:49:29.807\nis going to probably\n\n878\n00:49:29.807 --> 00:49:34.927\ndo this. So let's say there was men on first and third and I'm batting right-\n\n879\n00:49:34.927 --> 00:49:35.807\nhanded. There's a\n\n880\n00:49:35.807 --> 00:49:39.007\nleft-handed pitcher on the mound. Let's say there's one out. Okay.\n\n881\n00:49:39.007 --> 00:49:45.967\nI can almost guarantee you early in my career, Joe would have called for what's\n\n882\n00:49:45.967 --> 00:49:46.767\ncalled a safety\n\n883\n00:49:46.767 --> 00:49:51.137\nsqueeze, a safety squeeze. I could have seen the situation, read it. And before\n\n884\n00:49:51.137 --> 00:49:51.807\nI looked down at\n\n885\n00:49:51.807 --> 00:49:55.867\nthe third base coach, I wouldn't have even had to look. I basically knew he was\n\n886\n00:49:55.867 --> 00:49:56.767\ngoing to put on a\n\n887\n00:49:56.767 --> 00:50:01.247\nsafety squeeze. So what that means is no matter what the pitch, the pitcher\n\n888\n00:50:01.247 --> 00:50:02.207\nthrows, I'm trying to\n\n889\n00:50:02.207 --> 00:50:06.797\nhit a perfect bunt to the right side to make the first baseman field it because\n\n890\n00:50:06.797 --> 00:50:07.407\nhe's holding the\n\n891\n00:50:07.407 --> 00:50:11.887\nrunner on. He's got to go in and field that. That's an easy run at third. And\n\n892\n00:50:11.887 --> 00:50:12.847\nthen it gets a runner\n\n893\n00:50:12.847 --> 00:50:16.227\nto second. You're giving yourself up, but you get a run and now you have\n\n894\n00:50:16.227 --> 00:50:17.327\nanother runner in scoring\n\n895\n00:50:17.327 --> 00:50:21.287\nposition, right? So you make, you're giving up and out, but it's a, it's a\n\n896\n00:50:21.287 --> 00:50:23.407\ngreat RBI sacrifice.\n\n897\n00:50:23.407 --> 00:50:28.917\nAnd that, let's say Joe didn't put it on though. And I'm facing this lefty. I\n\n898\n00:50:28.917 --> 00:50:31.327\nknow now I've got\n\n899\n00:50:31.327 --> 00:50:36.527\nthe right side of the infield open. So if this pitcher on the mound, I've got\n\n900\n00:50:36.527 --> 00:50:37.327\nto pay attention\n\n901\n00:50:37.327 --> 00:50:40.787\nto what kind of a pitcher is he? How is he pitching? Is he going to try to\n\n902\n00:50:40.787 --> 00:50:42.527\nthrow me hard in? Is he\n\n903\n00:50:42.527 --> 00:50:45.667\ngoing to try to sink the ball down in a way up in a way? What's he going to try\n\n904\n00:50:45.667 --> 00:50:47.167\nto do? Go big hook?\n\n905\n00:50:47.167 --> 00:50:51.007\nHe's got all this repertoire. No matter who it is, I've got to make a decision\n\n906\n00:50:51.007 --> 00:50:51.647\non what he's doing.\n\n907\n00:50:51.647 --> 00:50:56.147\nSo let's say it's a guy like Chris Sale, who's a lefty I faced in my career. He\n\n908\n00:50:56.147 --> 00:50:56.687\nthrows\n\n909\n00:50:56.687 --> 00:51:02.967\nupper nineties, hard fastball, nasty slider. He's going to try to throw me in,\n\n910\n00:51:02.967 --> 00:51:05.327\nup, or his slider\n\n911\n00:51:05.327 --> 00:51:09.867\ndown below my barrel. Okay. So what does that mean? If he's going to, he's\n\n912\n00:51:09.867 --> 00:51:10.687\ngoing to try to throw\n\n913\n00:51:10.687 --> 00:51:15.167\nat the top of the zone, I need to stay above the ball with my bat. So I'm going\n\n914\n00:51:15.167 --> 00:51:16.047\nin looking for the\n\n915\n00:51:16.047 --> 00:51:19.607\nfastball up over the plate. I don't want to look for it in. I want to look for\n\n916\n00:51:19.607 --> 00:51:20.287\nit out over the\n\n917\n00:51:20.287 --> 00:51:24.007\nplate because then that keeps me on a slider if he starts to slider up in that\n\n918\n00:51:24.007 --> 00:51:24.927\nsame location.\n\n919\n00:51:24.927 --> 00:51:30.207\nAnd so I got to stay above it so that it's got giddy up on it. So he's trying\n\n920\n00:51:30.207 --> 00:51:30.767\nto get it to the\n\n921\n00:51:30.767 --> 00:51:34.787\ntop of zone. It's likely that if you swing at that pitch, you're going to hit a\n\n922\n00:51:34.787 --> 00:51:35.567\nfly ball.\n\n923\n00:51:35.567 --> 00:51:39.717\nWell, I don't want to pop up a fly ball might be okay, but it's not really what\n\n924\n00:51:39.717 --> 00:51:40.447\nI'm trying to aim\n\n925\n00:51:40.447 --> 00:51:44.107\nto do. So if I want to get a line drive base hit or hit a hard ball through\n\n926\n00:51:44.107 --> 00:51:45.487\nthat right side\n\n927\n00:51:45.487 --> 00:51:49.967\nso that I can advance both runners, I got to stay above the ball, let it get a\n\n928\n00:51:49.967 --> 00:51:50.847\nlittle deep.\n\n929\n00:51:50.847 --> 00:51:55.327\nAnd if I get that fastball in that location, I'm taking a particular type of\n\n930\n00:51:55.327 --> 00:51:56.367\nswing and hopefully\n\n931\n00:51:56.367 --> 00:52:00.437\nhit a hard line drive through that right side. And that way I advance the\n\n932\n00:52:00.437 --> 00:52:01.407\nrunner from first to\n\n933\n00:52:01.407 --> 00:52:07.687\nsecond, maybe even third, get the runner in from third base. But if I miss it,\n\n934\n00:52:07.687 --> 00:52:08.367\nit's likely going\n\n935\n00:52:08.367 --> 00:52:13.067\nto be a fly ball and a sack fly anyways, right? If I take that approach, but if\n\n936\n00:52:13.067 --> 00:52:13.807\nI take a different\n\n937\n00:52:13.807 --> 00:52:18.287\napproach and I don't think about all that, I'll just swing and miss or hit a\n\n938\n00:52:18.287 --> 00:52:19.167\nfoul ball back at\n\n939\n00:52:19.167 --> 00:52:23.087\nthe screen. And then he gets me to two strikes. He goes to his nasty slider and\n\n940\n00:52:23.087 --> 00:52:23.727\nI'm struck out.\n\n941\n00:52:23.727 --> 00:52:29.577\nThat's next level stuff. I love that. Yeah. When you think about all the great\n\n942\n00:52:29.577 --> 00:52:30.127\ncoaches and\n\n943\n00:52:30.127 --> 00:52:33.987\nplayers that you've been around, who was the best you've ever been around to\n\n944\n00:52:33.987 --> 00:52:34.847\nhandle pressure?\n\n945\n00:52:34.847 --> 00:52:39.887\nWell, Evan Lengore was really good in Tampa Bay, very good at kind of calming\n\n946\n00:52:39.887 --> 00:52:40.527\nhimself and being\n\n947\n00:52:40.527 --> 00:52:44.087\nready for the moment. And as a young player, he came up and he was nails in\n\n948\n00:52:44.087 --> 00:52:46.367\nthat first year 2008\n\n949\n00:52:46.367 --> 00:52:50.367\nfor us as a rookie and ends up helping us get to the World Series and being one\n\n950\n00:52:50.367 --> 00:52:50.607\nof the best\n\n951\n00:52:50.607 --> 00:52:56.287\nplayers in the league. So he was phenomenal as a young rookie. Watching kind of\n\n952\n00:52:56.287 --> 00:52:57.647\nJohn Lester,\n\n953\n00:52:57.647 --> 00:53:03.927\nJohn Lester as a pitcher was phenomenal. Rizzo with two strikes. One of my\n\n954\n00:53:03.927 --> 00:53:04.287\nfavorite things to\n\n955\n00:53:04.287 --> 00:53:09.567\nwatch was him with two strikes. These are guys who just are so professional\n\n956\n00:53:09.567 --> 00:53:11.167\nthat it didn't matter\n\n957\n00:53:11.167 --> 00:53:15.647\nhow it looked. It didn't matter how, you know, they were so locked into what\n\n958\n00:53:15.647 --> 00:53:16.447\ntheir goal was and\n\n959\n00:53:16.447 --> 00:53:19.827\nhow they were, they were, they were, they were focused that it just seemed like\n\n960\n00:53:19.827 --> 00:53:20.447\nwhatever happened\n\n961\n00:53:20.447 --> 00:53:24.407\non the outside didn't matter. They were going to do their thing. You know, then\n\n962\n00:53:24.407 --> 00:53:25.087\nthis has been so\n\n963\n00:53:25.087 --> 00:53:28.047\nmuch fun. And I want to have some more with my lightning round of questions. So\n\n964\n00:53:28.047 --> 00:53:28.687\nare you ready for\n\n965\n00:53:28.687 --> 00:53:33.487\nthis? Okay. Yeah. Let's do it. The three words that best describe you serious.\n\n966\n00:53:33.487 --> 00:53:34.287\nOh, no, let's say\n\n967\n00:53:34.287 --> 00:53:42.367\nlet's use the words intense, goofy and cheap. If you could be one person for a\n\n968\n00:53:42.367 --> 00:53:43.407\nday beside yourself,\n\n969\n00:53:43.407 --> 00:53:48.127\nwho would it be? Oh, one person for a day. Right now I would be Pete Crow\n\n970\n00:53:48.127 --> 00:53:50.047\nArmstrong. He is just on\n\n971\n00:53:50.047 --> 00:53:54.527\nanother planet with the way you swing in the bat. Your biggest pet peeve. Slow\n\n972\n00:53:54.527 --> 00:53:56.127\ntraffic. Who would\n\n973\n00:53:56.127 --> 00:54:02.737\nplay you in a movie? Dax Shepard. One player that everyone should study as a\n\n974\n00:54:02.737 --> 00:54:05.647\nleader. Jason Hayward.\n\n975\n00:54:05.647 --> 00:54:10.927\nHardest position you ever had to play. Hardest position. First base. The\n\n976\n00:54:10.927 --> 00:54:12.687\neasiest person to strike\n\n977\n00:54:12.687 --> 00:54:18.977\nout. Well, I only struck one out. So I got to say yada or Molina struck him out\n\n978\n00:54:18.977 --> 00:54:20.367\n. What's\n\n979\n00:54:20.367 --> 00:54:23.927\nsomething you've been curious about lately that has absolutely nothing to do\n\n980\n00:54:23.927 --> 00:54:24.607\nwith baseball.\n\n981\n00:54:25.247 --> 00:54:32.927\nPut a pressure washer at my house that I just put together. The mix, the right\n\n982\n00:54:32.927 --> 00:54:33.647\nmix of a pressure\n\n983\n00:54:33.647 --> 00:54:41.497\nwasher soap. The one thing you do just for you. Go to the mountains. Besides\n\n984\n00:54:41.497 --> 00:54:42.527\nyour family and friends,\n\n985\n00:54:42.527 --> 00:54:47.647\nwhat's your most prized possession? My dog, Evie count. Yeah, we'll let it let\n\n986\n00:54:47.647 --> 00:54:48.287\nEvie count.\n\n987\n00:54:48.287 --> 00:54:53.887\nIf I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear? Probably worship music\n\n988\n00:54:53.887 --> 00:54:53.887\n.\n\n989\n00:54:54.527 --> 00:54:58.127\nWhat's something about you that few people wouldn't know? I am\n\n990\n00:54:58.127 --> 00:55:04.527\nmore of a creative than people realize. I hear Evie in the background. I love\n\n991\n00:55:04.527 --> 00:55:04.687\nit.\n\n992\n00:55:04.687 --> 00:55:08.367\nYou hear? She's barking about something. What's one of your daily rituals?\n\n993\n00:55:08.367 --> 00:55:09.407\nSomething that you never\n\n994\n00:55:09.407 --> 00:55:13.887\nmiss? Coffee in the morning. That's great. We're out of the lightning round.\n\n995\n00:55:13.887 --> 00:55:14.447\nGreat job.\n\n996\n00:55:14.447 --> 00:55:19.247\nAnd I got just a few more questions. I'll let you go here. You know, you've got\n\n997\n00:55:19.247 --> 00:55:20.367\nthree young kids.\n\n998\n00:55:20.367 --> 00:55:28.217\nHow do you think about leading at home, Ben? I try to lead by example more than\n\n999\n00:55:28.217 --> 00:55:29.727\nI have to\n\n1000\n00:55:29.727 --> 00:55:35.407\ntalk and talking to the kids and saying the right things is hard, is difficult.\n\n1001\n00:55:35.407 --> 00:55:35.647\nBut\n\n1002\n00:55:35.647 --> 00:55:40.767\nI'm trying to be an example in the way that I go about like what I'm doing, not\n\n1003\n00:55:40.767 --> 00:55:41.167\njust what I'm\n\n1004\n00:55:41.167 --> 00:55:44.307\nsaying, but what I'm doing. What's something that your kids have taught you\n\n1005\n00:55:44.307 --> 00:55:45.487\nthat baseball never could?\n\n1006\n00:55:46.127 --> 00:55:54.247\nIt is parenting is you have to have a lot of grace for yourself, far more than\n\n1007\n00:55:54.247 --> 00:55:55.087\nin sports.\n\n1008\n00:55:55.087 --> 00:55:59.887\nWhen you look at your life and where you want to go, what do you see as your\n\n1009\n00:55:59.887 --> 00:56:01.087\nunfinished business?\n\n1010\n00:56:01.087 --> 00:56:08.287\nProbably developing my farm. Last question. What's one piece of advice you'd\n\n1011\n00:56:08.287 --> 00:56:09.967\nwant to give to anyone\n\n1012\n00:56:09.967 --> 00:56:15.167\nwho wants to be a better leader? My one piece of advice for anybody that wants\n\n1013\n00:56:15.167 --> 00:56:15.727\nto be a better\n\n1014\n00:56:15.727 --> 00:56:23.847\nleader is you need to pay more attention to your emotional state on a regular\n\n1015\n00:56:23.847 --> 00:56:24.767\nbasis.\n\n1016\n00:56:24.767 --> 00:56:29.457\nWell, I think if they read your book, they'll probably get some good tips on\n\n1017\n00:56:29.457 --> 00:56:30.287\nhow to do that.\n\n1018\n00:56:30.287 --> 00:56:34.367\nAnd Ben, it's been awesome. It really has. You're a hell of a good guy.\n\n1019\n00:56:34.367 --> 00:56:35.327\nYeah. Thanks, David.\n\n1020\n00:56:35.327 --> 00:56:40.927\nI'm glad you're giving back to people in such a powerful way and keep up the\n\n1021\n00:56:40.927 --> 00:56:41.887\ngreat work.\n\n1022\n00:56:41.887 --> 00:56:45.247\nAppreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for interviewing me. Appreciate that.\n\n1023\n00:56:45.247 --> 00:56:55.567\nDavid, I feel pretty ready to be in pressure-packed moments after that\n\n1024\n00:56:55.567 --> 00:56:57.087\nconversation with Ben's over.\n\n1025\n00:56:57.087 --> 00:57:03.967\nYou're very good at handling pressure, cool. I hope I don't put too much on you\n\n1026\n00:57:03.967 --> 00:57:04.287\n.\n\n1027\n00:57:04.287 --> 00:57:09.087\nWell, you're David Novak, so you love to put pressure on everybody. But I think\n\n1028\n00:57:09.087 --> 00:57:09.487\nI've learned\n\n1029\n00:57:09.487 --> 00:57:13.087\na lot of that from you. And of course, I learned a lot about how to handle\n\n1030\n00:57:13.087 --> 00:57:13.807\npressure and sort of\n\n1031\n00:57:13.807 --> 00:57:18.287\nthe emotional capacity you have to build up in order to really perform at your\n\n1032\n00:57:18.287 --> 00:57:18.847\nbest when all\n\n1033\n00:57:18.847 --> 00:57:23.647\nthe spotlights are on you. And David, like we do at the end of every episode,\n\n1034\n00:57:23.647 --> 00:57:27.487\nI want to debrief some of these main sort of takeaways that I pulled from this\n\n1035\n00:57:27.487 --> 00:57:28.127\nconversation\n\n1036\n00:57:28.127 --> 00:57:32.127\nwith Ben. I mean, there are so much in here. And when we went into this\n\n1037\n00:57:32.127 --> 00:57:32.767\nconversation,\n\n1038\n00:57:32.767 --> 00:57:36.297\nI was just expecting great stories about baseball. But Ben is such an\n\n1039\n00:57:36.297 --> 00:57:37.167\ninteresting\n\n1040\n00:57:37.167 --> 00:57:41.647\nthinker. I mean, the way that he thinks about preparing for these spotlight\n\n1041\n00:57:41.647 --> 00:57:42.047\nmoments and\n\n1042\n00:57:42.047 --> 00:57:45.887\neverything that you have to do physically, emotionally, mentally to get ready.\n\n1043\n00:57:45.887 --> 00:57:46.447\nIt was so\n\n1044\n00:57:46.447 --> 00:57:51.387\nfascinating. And I really love David when he talked about how he actually\n\n1045\n00:57:51.387 --> 00:57:53.087\nprepares for those\n\n1046\n00:57:53.087 --> 00:57:58.367\nspotlight moments. And he really talks about how you have to do it before that\n\n1047\n00:57:58.367 --> 00:57:59.727\nspotlight moment\n\n1048\n00:57:59.727 --> 00:58:04.207\narrives. Talk a little bit about his take on that and what business leaders can\n\n1049\n00:58:04.207 --> 00:58:04.927\nlearn from it.\n\n1050\n00:58:04.927 --> 00:58:08.677\nYeah, I think what he really described is what I think every great business\n\n1051\n00:58:08.677 --> 00:58:11.487\nleader does in their\n\n1052\n00:58:11.487 --> 00:58:15.167\nbusiness, which is they put process and discipline around what really matters.\n\n1053\n00:58:15.167 --> 00:58:17.327\nAnd so Ben was very\n\n1054\n00:58:17.327 --> 00:58:21.807\nfocused on watching film, you know, thinking through the strategies and\n\n1055\n00:58:21.807 --> 00:58:23.727\ndecisions that you might make\n\n1056\n00:58:23.727 --> 00:58:30.007\nbehind every bat. He gave a lot of credit to his coaches that helped him, you\n\n1057\n00:58:30.007 --> 00:58:30.287\nknow,\n\n1058\n00:58:30.287 --> 00:58:34.767\nget prepared to really, you know, make each and bad be the best it could\n\n1059\n00:58:34.767 --> 00:58:37.087\npossibly be. And, you know,\n\n1060\n00:58:37.087 --> 00:58:40.307\nI don't know about you, but I love that when he described what it was like when\n\n1061\n00:58:40.307 --> 00:58:41.567\nhe had an at-bat\n\n1062\n00:58:41.567 --> 00:58:46.947\nin the major leagues and, you know, just the detail that he talked about, you\n\n1063\n00:58:46.947 --> 00:58:47.327\nknow,\n\n1064\n00:58:47.327 --> 00:58:52.707\nwhat if the pitch is coming high or as a slider and, you know, different ways\n\n1065\n00:58:52.707 --> 00:58:53.727\nthat he could approach\n\n1066\n00:58:53.727 --> 00:58:59.377\nthe bat, but he really talked about strategy and making decisions. But, you\n\n1067\n00:58:59.377 --> 00:59:00.927\nknow, this guy\n\n1068\n00:59:00.927 --> 00:59:06.897\nreally, really knows his job. And by doing all the hard work, you know, putting\n\n1069\n00:59:06.897 --> 00:59:07.727\nall that hard\n\n1070\n00:59:07.727 --> 00:59:13.017\npractice in, when you get there and you have that moment where you need to\n\n1071\n00:59:13.017 --> 00:59:14.687\nperform, your odds of\n\n1072\n00:59:14.687 --> 00:59:19.657\nperforming are going to be so much better than if you just show up. And I think\n\n1073\n00:59:19.657 --> 00:59:20.527\nthat's true in\n\n1074\n00:59:20.527 --> 00:59:25.007\nbaseball, I think that's true in business. He also talks about doing that\n\n1075\n00:59:25.007 --> 00:59:26.767\nreally detailed work in\n\n1076\n00:59:26.767 --> 00:59:31.247\nthe shadows when no one is watching. And I just think that that's such a great\n\n1077\n00:59:31.247 --> 00:59:32.047\ntakeaway for leaders\n\n1078\n00:59:32.047 --> 00:59:35.917\neverywhere because you have to do the work when no one's watching or else you\n\n1079\n00:59:35.917 --> 00:59:36.767\n're not going to ever\n\n1080\n00:59:36.767 --> 00:59:41.247\nperform when the pressure is on. Yeah, that's right. It's like all the reading\n\n1081\n00:59:41.247 --> 00:59:42.287\nthat you might do as a\n\n1082\n00:59:42.287 --> 00:59:47.747\nleader, all the homework that you do on particular situations, all the work you\n\n1083\n00:59:47.747 --> 00:59:48.607\ndo looking at what\n\n1084\n00:59:48.607 --> 00:59:52.517\nother business leaders are doing and saying, \"How could I do this in my\n\n1085\n00:59:52.517 --> 00:59:53.967\nbusiness?\" The pattern\n\n1086\n00:59:53.967 --> 00:59:59.107\nthinking that that brings you, you know, it's, you know, it's that extra effort\n\n1087\n00:59:59.107 --> 00:59:59.967\nthat you put\n\n1088\n00:59:59.967 --> 01:00:04.447\ninto making sure that you're getting all the know-how you can possibly get to\n\n1089\n01:00:04.447 --> 01:00:05.567\nhelp you make the best\n\n1090\n01:00:05.567 --> 01:00:09.347\npossible decisions and grow yourself and your business. That's what makes a\n\n1091\n01:00:09.347 --> 01:00:10.767\nreal special leader.\n\n1092\n01:00:10.767 --> 01:00:13.967\nDavid, another thing that Ben said that I'll be thinking about for a long time\n\n1093\n01:00:13.967 --> 01:00:15.007\nis this idea of\n\n1094\n01:00:15.007 --> 01:00:20.607\nenergy makers and energy takers and how every team really needs a balance of\n\n1095\n01:00:20.607 --> 01:00:21.647\nboth of those types\n\n1096\n01:00:21.647 --> 01:00:26.127\nof people. Talk a little bit more about that and how leaders can apply that\n\n1097\n01:00:26.127 --> 01:00:27.407\nsame concept to their\n\n1098\n01:00:27.407 --> 01:00:32.607\nteam dynamics. I love that too. Energy makers, energy takers. And what I really\n\n1099\n01:00:32.607 --> 01:00:33.407\nlike is this\n\n1100\n01:00:33.407 --> 01:00:37.887\napproach about the importance to have the right kind of balance. You know, you\n\n1101\n01:00:37.887 --> 01:00:39.167\nwant all the positive\n\n1102\n01:00:39.167 --> 01:00:42.997\nenergy that energy makers can bring. You know, I always say positive energy\n\n1103\n01:00:42.997 --> 01:00:43.647\nlifts you up,\n\n1104\n01:00:43.647 --> 01:00:46.847\nnegative energy breaks you down. You need those people. And when you're\n\n1105\n01:00:46.847 --> 01:00:47.967\npositive and your mood\n\n1106\n01:00:47.967 --> 01:00:51.237\nelevator is really high, that's when you make your best decisions. That's when\n\n1107\n01:00:51.237 --> 01:00:51.887\nyou perform\n\n1108\n01:00:51.887 --> 01:00:55.837\nat the highest level. But he also talked about how you need people on the team\n\n1109\n01:00:55.837 --> 01:00:56.527\nwho are really\n\n1110\n01:00:56.527 --> 01:01:01.567\ntruth tellers, you know, because if you have everybody just feeling so positive\n\n1111\n01:01:01.567 --> 01:01:02.607\nand, you know,\n\n1112\n01:01:02.607 --> 01:01:07.487\nthis way and that way and everything's perfect, et cetera, you got your head\n\n1113\n01:01:07.487 --> 01:01:08.367\nand cleanse and\n\n1114\n01:01:08.367 --> 01:01:12.837\nyou're not grounded. So you need to have somebody bring you back to earth, but\n\n1115\n01:01:12.837 --> 01:01:13.567\nnot take away all\n\n1116\n01:01:13.567 --> 01:01:16.707\nthat energy that's going to get you to perform at the highest level. And that's\n\n1117\n01:01:16.707 --> 01:01:17.487\nwhy, you know,\n\n1118\n01:01:17.487 --> 01:01:22.687\nhaving a balance between these energy makers and then truth tellers is great.\n\n1119\n01:01:22.687 --> 01:01:23.167\nAnd he said,\n\n1120\n01:01:23.167 --> 01:01:28.847\nif you had a team just full of energy takers, all the people that would talk\n\n1121\n01:01:28.847 --> 01:01:29.407\nabout everything\n\n1122\n01:01:29.407 --> 01:01:34.787\nthat could potentially go wrong, man, that's a formula for disaster. And but,\n\n1123\n01:01:34.787 --> 01:01:35.087\nyou know,\n\n1124\n01:01:35.087 --> 01:01:38.037\nthat's why he said you need the balance of both. Because if you have all energy\n\n1125\n01:01:38.037 --> 01:01:38.527\nmakers,\n\n1126\n01:01:38.527 --> 01:01:44.367\nthat could be a disaster too. It's finding that right balance that makes you\n\n1127\n01:01:44.367 --> 01:01:45.167\nwhole-brained,\n\n1128\n01:01:45.167 --> 01:01:48.597\nbasically, you know, that brings it all together and makes a team perform at\n\n1129\n01:01:48.597 --> 01:01:49.887\nthe best level.\n\n1130\n01:01:49.887 --> 01:01:54.607\nI do think it was really important when you both talked about the distinction\n\n1131\n01:01:54.607 --> 01:01:55.487\nbetween an\n\n1132\n01:01:55.487 --> 01:02:00.687\nenergy taker and a cynic, because it's a fine line, but an energy taker is not\n\n1133\n01:02:00.687 --> 01:02:01.487\na cynic.\n\n1134\n01:02:01.487 --> 01:02:09.727\nNo, an energy taker is a realist that brings up the challenges that you have.\n\n1135\n01:02:09.727 --> 01:02:16.007\nAs I understand the way his definition is, whereas a cynic just thinks\n\n1136\n01:02:16.007 --> 01:02:17.087\neverything sucks.\n\n1137\n01:02:17.087 --> 01:02:26.607\nNothing's going to work. And you know, you kind of want those e-ors that always\n\n1138\n01:02:26.607 --> 01:02:27.247\nthink it's going to\n\n1139\n01:02:27.247 --> 01:02:32.197\nrain, you know, to go somewhere else, okay, and make somebody else's business\n\n1140\n01:02:32.197 --> 01:02:33.087\nmiserable,\n\n1141\n01:02:33.087 --> 01:02:36.987\nokay, or somebody else's team miserable. But, you know, I think the biggest\n\n1142\n01:02:36.987 --> 01:02:37.887\nthing he's talking\n\n1143\n01:02:37.887 --> 01:02:42.577\nabout, though, is just the importance to have balance, you know, balance in\n\n1144\n01:02:42.577 --> 01:02:43.487\nyour team so that\n\n1145\n01:02:43.487 --> 01:02:48.367\nyou can perform at the highest level. David, I also loved learning about his\n\n1146\n01:02:48.367 --> 01:02:49.487\nfoundation champion\n\n1147\n01:02:49.487 --> 01:02:54.187\nforward. And when you were asking him about how parents and coaches can do the\n\n1148\n01:02:54.187 --> 01:02:55.167\nbest they can to\n\n1149\n01:02:55.167 --> 01:02:59.967\nhelp their kids and their players succeed, I loved his process for driving\n\n1150\n01:02:59.967 --> 01:03:00.927\naccountability\n\n1151\n01:03:00.927 --> 01:03:06.527\nand the parent to athlete or coach to young athlete relationship. Can you break\n\n1152\n01:03:06.527 --> 01:03:06.927\nthat down a\n\n1153\n01:03:06.927 --> 01:03:10.647\nlittle bit for us and talk about what you would take from that and apply it to\n\n1154\n01:03:10.647 --> 01:03:12.047\na business or a team?\n\n1155\n01:03:12.047 --> 01:03:16.527\nWell, I think number one, he's saying, you know, you got to create a goal and\n\n1156\n01:03:16.527 --> 01:03:17.167\nthere needs to be\n\n1157\n01:03:17.167 --> 01:03:23.787\nbuy-in for that goal with the individual and the team. So, you know, start out\n\n1158\n01:03:23.787 --> 01:03:25.167\nwith agreeing on\n\n1159\n01:03:25.167 --> 01:03:31.447\nwhat that goal really is and get the buy-in for the goal, okay? When you have\n\n1160\n01:03:31.447 --> 01:03:31.647\nthat,\n\n1161\n01:03:31.647 --> 01:03:36.587\neverybody knows this is where we're headed. And, you know, then what I think as\n\n1162\n01:03:36.587 --> 01:03:37.807\na leader you do is,\n\n1163\n01:03:37.807 --> 01:03:42.287\nyou basically say, what is it going to take for us to be successful? How do we\n\n1164\n01:03:42.287 --> 01:03:43.087\nreach that goal?\n\n1165\n01:03:43.087 --> 01:03:46.927\nAnd, you know, I think one of the things that leaders can do is remove the\n\n1166\n01:03:46.927 --> 01:03:48.287\nbarriers that are\n\n1167\n01:03:48.287 --> 01:03:53.727\nout there. You know, our best franchisees when I was at Young Brands, you know,\n\n1168\n01:03:53.727 --> 01:03:54.767\nthey knew how\n\n1169\n01:03:54.767 --> 01:04:00.507\nto drive accountability. They would buy a store, for example, take that store\n\n1170\n01:04:00.507 --> 01:04:01.407\nover and they go\n\n1171\n01:04:01.407 --> 01:04:04.657\nand talk the team and say, okay, you know, what do you think we're capable of\n\n1172\n01:04:04.657 --> 01:04:05.567\ndoing here? They\n\n1173\n01:04:05.567 --> 01:04:10.047\nwould get buy-in, okay? Everybody agree this is possible. And then that\n\n1174\n01:04:10.047 --> 01:04:12.527\nfranchisee would take\n\n1175\n01:04:12.527 --> 01:04:17.967\nall the excuses away by basically saying, are there, is there anything I can do\n\n1176\n01:04:17.967 --> 01:04:19.007\nto help you get that\n\n1177\n01:04:19.007 --> 01:04:22.717\ndone? What needs to be done? Somebody said, well, I need a new fryer or I need\n\n1178\n01:04:22.717 --> 01:04:23.807\nto have more hours\n\n1179\n01:04:23.807 --> 01:04:30.807\nfor labor or whatever. And then the franchisee would remove those barriers and,\n\n1180\n01:04:30.807 --> 01:04:31.807\nyou know,\n\n1181\n01:04:31.807 --> 01:04:37.327\nget alignment on what they could do, what they couldn't do, but would try to\n\n1182\n01:04:37.327 --> 01:04:38.607\njust free that person\n\n1183\n01:04:38.607 --> 01:04:41.987\nup so that they could perform the best by making sure they had all the\n\n1184\n01:04:41.987 --> 01:04:43.487\nequipment that they needed\n\n1185\n01:04:43.487 --> 01:04:48.297\nand everything they needed to do to hire great people, et cetera. And then he\n\n1186\n01:04:48.297 --> 01:04:48.527\ncould\n\n1187\n01:04:48.527 --> 01:04:52.447\nhold people accountable because he took all the excuses away. And, you know,\n\n1188\n01:04:52.447 --> 01:04:54.047\nalso at the same time\n\n1189\n01:04:54.047 --> 01:04:57.887\nis in the same boat with everybody saying that you asked for it, you got it.\n\n1190\n01:04:57.887 --> 01:04:58.927\nNow let's go.\n\n1191\n01:04:58.927 --> 01:05:04.677\nHow often should a leader address the fact that they have removed the barriers\n\n1192\n01:05:04.677 --> 01:05:05.727\nand obstacles to\n\n1193\n01:05:05.727 --> 01:05:12.557\nsomeone's success? What I think a leader has to do is hold people accountable.\n\n1194\n01:05:12.557 --> 01:05:13.247\nIf you do remove\n\n1195\n01:05:13.247 --> 01:05:17.727\nthe barriers and you do give people what they need to be successful and\n\n1196\n01:05:17.727 --> 01:05:19.167\neverybody is an agreement\n\n1197\n01:05:19.167 --> 01:05:23.647\nthat they have what they need to be successful. The minute the excuses start\n\n1198\n01:05:23.647 --> 01:05:24.527\ncoming forward,\n\n1199\n01:05:24.527 --> 01:05:29.747\nyou'd say, hey, hold on a second. I've given you everything you asked for. You\n\n1200\n01:05:29.747 --> 01:05:31.647\nsaid if we did this,\n\n1201\n01:05:31.647 --> 01:05:38.447\nokay, you would do X. So it's time to do X. But I think, you know, if you don't\n\n1202\n01:05:38.447 --> 01:05:39.247\ngive people what\n\n1203\n01:05:39.247 --> 01:05:42.637\nthey need to succeed, if you don't remove the barriers, it's hard to hold\n\n1204\n01:05:42.637 --> 01:05:43.647\npeople accountable\n\n1205\n01:05:43.647 --> 01:05:48.687\nwith real legitimacy. This gives you the ability to hold people accountable\n\n1206\n01:05:48.687 --> 01:05:49.887\nwith power, the right\n\n1207\n01:05:49.887 --> 01:05:54.367\nkind of power, the power of positivity, and we can make this happen. Well,\n\n1208\n01:05:54.367 --> 01:05:55.247\nDavid, as we wrap this\n\n1209\n01:05:55.247 --> 01:05:58.637\nepisode today, what are some of the things that you want everybody listening to\n\n1210\n01:05:58.637 --> 01:05:59.567\nwalk away really\n\n1211\n01:05:59.567 --> 01:06:05.847\nthinking about? Number one, the way how to handle pressure is to do the\n\n1212\n01:06:05.847 --> 01:06:07.087\npreparation it takes to\n\n1213\n01:06:07.087 --> 01:06:11.507\nperform. And then when you're putting those pressure positions, you'll be able\n\n1214\n01:06:11.507 --> 01:06:12.047\nto do it.\n\n1215\n01:06:12.047 --> 01:06:19.077\nNumber two, there's energy makers and energy takers on teams. You need the\n\n1216\n01:06:19.077 --> 01:06:20.207\nright combination\n\n1217\n01:06:20.207 --> 01:06:25.947\nof both to have the best possible team. And if one overwhelms the other, then,\n\n1218\n01:06:25.947 --> 01:06:26.287\nyou know,\n\n1219\n01:06:26.287 --> 01:06:30.387\nyou're going to have an issue. But you got as a leader, you got to find the\n\n1220\n01:06:30.387 --> 01:06:31.327\nright balance on\n\n1221\n01:06:31.327 --> 01:06:35.247\nyour team so that you have those energy makers and you have the truth tellers.\n\n1222\n01:06:35.247 --> 01:06:37.407\nAnd number three,\n\n1223\n01:06:37.407 --> 01:06:43.387\nyou know, the best way to drive accountability is to really get a great goal,\n\n1224\n01:06:43.387 --> 01:06:44.287\nget buy in for that\n\n1225\n01:06:44.287 --> 01:06:50.127\ngoal, and then remove the barriers and obstacles that are in the way so that so\n\n1226\n01:06:50.127 --> 01:06:50.847\nthat people know\n\n1227\n01:06:50.847 --> 01:06:54.947\nthat you're on their team, you're on their side, and that you're going to help\n\n1228\n01:06:54.947 --> 01:06:55.727\nthem get\n\n1229\n01:06:55.727 --> 01:07:01.577\ndone what they'd like to get done. And I thought Ben was a terrific, terrific\n\n1230\n01:07:01.577 --> 01:07:03.087\nleader who's really\n\n1231\n01:07:03.087 --> 01:07:07.567\nthought about these things. And I think there's so much power that can be\n\n1232\n01:07:07.567 --> 01:07:08.767\nlearned by reading his\n\n1233\n01:07:08.767 --> 01:07:13.427\nbook. Absolutely, David. Well, thank you for another excellent episode of How\n\n1234\n01:07:13.427 --> 01:07:14.287\nLeaders Lead.\n\n1235\n01:07:14.287 --> 01:07:17.667\nThanks, Ben Zobrist, for being on the show and sharing your insights with our\n\n1236\n01:07:17.667 --> 01:07:18.047\nleaders.\n\n1237\n01:07:18.047 --> 01:07:22.417\nAnd thank you to our listeners for tuning in to How Leaders Lead. We will see\n\n1238\n01:07:22.417 --> 01:07:23.167\nyou next week.\n\n1239\n01:07:25.727 --> 01:07:35.727\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n","is_pinned",false,"pinned_at","is_featured","featured_at","mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL6662547958.mp3","dx_media_id",4371,"video_media_id","thumbnail_image_media_id","published_date","2026-09-17","itunes_episode_id",309,"youtube_id","vHpF2Csg0pE","2026-09-17T23:06:52.000000Z","Listen to this leadership podcast with Ben Zobrist, 2x World Series champion, and discover how to prepare for pressure – and then deal with it in a healthy, regulated way.","dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/s9qWG9BNCScYPXn93rLnVvvshWRnNcQmGoMimeGK.mp3","dx_filename","s9qWG9BNCScYPXn93rLnVvvshWRnNcQmGoMimeGK.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","4XJVRmnIDJvNNsc02PAWMRnDbi3hq4LfkxpVitWXrVa00","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/4371.json","video_url","video_mux_playback_id","duration",4053072,"thumbnail_url","https://img.youtube.com/vi/vHpF2Csg0pE/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_image_url","dx_media",{"_13":66,"_96":80,"_97":78,"_98":99,"_31":82,"_33":100,"_101":-5,"_102":84,"_87":88,"_103":-5},"video_media","thumbnail_image_media","filename","url","status","ready","y3ulEbkrQaSthTljT1oKo96tBF01Ozl3wQlb4BAJPrac","mux_upload_id","waveform_url","preview_media_id","first_name","Ben","last_name","Zobrist","job_title","2x World Series Champion","external_links","https://www.mlb.com/player/ben-zobrist-450314,https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/28536/ben-zobrist,https://www.instagram.com/benzobrist18/",0,"image_media_id",4277,4278,"2026-09-01T19:40:00.000000Z","send_push_notification_at","2026-09-21T19:00:00.000000Z","image_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/MEre9AsUB7AiNqIYB6EBqKsCKbZU0hn5DZbUsbDJ.png","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/pKO6Lo1PGEDOFemmyGS0wY0Zq9lSOOQTskDKb9Qn.png","https://www.howleaderslead.com/leaders/298/ben-zobrist","industry_id",3,"industry",{"_13":124,"_135":136,"_137":139},"industries",[134],"image_media",{"_13":114,"_96":133,"_97":120,"_98":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_101":-5,"_102":-5,"_87":-5,"_103":-5},{"_13":115,"_96":132,"_97":121,"_98":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_101":-5,"_102":-5,"_87":-5,"_103":-5},"pKO6Lo1PGEDOFemmyGS0wY0Zq9lSOOQTskDKb9Qn.png","MEre9AsUB7AiNqIYB6EBqKsCKbZU0hn5DZbUsbDJ.png",{"_13":124,"_135":136,"_137":138},"name","Sports","pivot",{"_35":36,"_123":124},{"_35":36,"_123":124},"user","token","favorites",[],"collections",[],"env",{"_148":149,"_150":151,"_152":153,"_154":155,"_156":157},"GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID","644017954836-qpllhu38r0tsrtfq85ukntcvsb0akbht.apps.googleusercontent.com","APPLE_CLIENT_ID","com.howleaderslead.webapp","APPLE_REDIRECT_URI","https://www.howleaderslead.com/auth/apple-callback","APP_URL","https://howleaderslead.com","GTM_ID",""]