Looking Back: The Mental Advantage Podcast's Greatest Hits Part 2 - Episode 35 w/ Coach Bryn

There's this saying in the world of sports that says— in the world of life, right? That says now, right? With everything, with the MeToo movement that says, believe women. So I want to also start a movement that says believe athletes, but really just believe people. When people say that they are struggling with something, we don't need them to show us their scars, their wounds for it to be validated. I'm excited for you to see this week's episode, but before we get to that, I have a message for you. If you're a parent of an elite athlete or a coach of a high-performing team and you want— you're looking for some help or assistance with making them more mentally resilient, perform with more confidence, be more consistent, anything like that, then this is for you. I have an 8-week program all designed to address exactly that, to help your athlete be at their best on a more consistent basis and not get tripped up by those little voices in their head and getting down on themselves for mistakes performing like we know they can. So what I want you to do is don't delay, schedule a— just grab a time on my calendar through this link and let's set up a time to talk about your specific situation and how what I'm offering in my 8-week program can help. Okay, so it's brindresher.com/freeconsultation. So click this link, grab a time on my calendar. I look forward to talking to you. And now on to this week's episode. Welcome back to another episode of The Mental Advantage. So if you have been paying attention and following week by week, we have been doing a recap of our 2021, sort of all of our episodes. I'm going to do these from time to time, but obviously do it in segments because to summarize 34 episodes is a lot, but I want to give you the best and the brightest, and I encourage you to go back and watch these episodes if you missed any. If any of these things that I'm sharing is sort of my biggest takeaways from this journey as a podcaster interviewing all these amazing people, etc., if you find something and you're like, oh, that's good, I missed that, go back and watch that episode. Okay, do that for yourself because of course I can give you sort of my takeaway, but without really the context of the whole interview, you may walk away with something completely different. So I'm going to encourage you, of course, to make sure that you are checking out the full episode and getting the most out of each one. So without further ado, in the last solo episode that I did, we summarized the first 10 episodes— well, first 9, actually. And this one, we're going to go from 10 to 20. Okay, we're on episode 34 as a podcast. Actually, this will— this is actually episode 35. So we've done 35 episodes. So definitely we've got about one more week or so of these recaps. But in the between time, I'm still bringing you great episodes. Uh, next week we have the fabulous Khalil Anthony, who was an Olympian in the Tokyo Olympics, who gave us, uh, his first of all, rundown of the world of fencing, which I've never even, you know, known much about fencing other than what I've seen in movies and TV. So that was fun. And, uh, we're bringing you part 2 of his episode next week, so definitely stay tuned. And if you're not already subscribed, why not? Let's take this relationship to the next level. Let's make it official. Okay, so without further ado, let's get to these recaps. Like I said, I'm doing 10 through 20. Episode 10. 10. Okay, I'm gonna stop doing the hands thing because it's gonna become more complicated as we get up in number because I only have 10 fingers. But, uh, in episode 10, uh, James Williams, okay, the fourth, I believe he is a scout for the NBA, so an independent scout. So fun thing about James was how he sort of fell into scouting while he was doing his own love of having his own podcast, sharing his own takeaways, and then going to the NBA Summer League and sort of falling into it, uh, by a coach sort of asking him his opinion. He was sharing it with no real expectation of it turning into a thing, and then the coach was like, hey, uh, what if I hired you to do that? And then he's built this into an amazing whole company and been able to contract with several of the teams because as a scout, it allows him to be an intermediary between, uh, the what the coaches can't do because of like NCAA regulations, etc., and what he can do because he can go anywhere, talk to anyone should he desire. But he prefers to stay in the background and sort of observe the person and get a kind of a good feel for them and not really, you know, uh, influence what he's seeing. But my major takeaways from James's episode was, uh, a couple things. One, he said, is this a guy that you give $10 million to?. So in the first round of the NBA draft, if you're a rookie drafted, you get a contract of $40 million. $40 million. So given the current state of affairs prior to the name, image, and likeness, a college athlete earns $0 for their journey through college. And most college athletes do all 4 years. Okay. Given there's always exceptions. So you go from $0 to a $40 million error, right? But $10 million a year for a rookie contract of 4 years. That's where the $40 million comes from. So when he's asking himself questions, he's like, is this a guy I would give $40 million to? So my recommendation, if you are an athlete listening to this and you're someone who's coming up through the ranks, you want to ask yourself, are you being the type of person that someone would want to give $40 million to? This is not just about your on-court performance. Obviously, the best of the best are getting recruited, but it also goes into your attitude, your leadership, so much more than that that these scouts are looking at. Because obviously you're going to be a part of a multi-billion dollar organization, and so you must be trusted with not just the on-court job but the off-court, you know, responsibilities that come with that. So something to ask yourself. The other thing I remember James saying, and he spoke about this a lot, was his big thing was adversity. How can— how are these athletes dealing with adversity? If you're the cream of the crop, the top of the top, you're probably not experiencing an extreme amount of adversity when you're always the best. So He said that if there's something that the teams or the adults around these athletes, and by teams he means like everybody that's in their camp, so to speak, could do is to help these athletes learn about adversity in some way, shape, or form. For example, I was watching the series about Sierra Canyon and Bronnie's teammates, the current situation, and I was actually kind of happy they lost. Not that I was rooting for them, but it's like you have to experience some loss, some encounter with adversity to learn that most careers have ups and downs, not just ups. And so if you don't deal with a lot of downs or you don't deal with a lot of like loss, or in sport, I mean, then it's going to be harder for you to know how to navigate that as it goes on, because yes, it's a lot of pressure to win all the time, but it's a lot also to learn how to recover from those losses and still have that zeal and love for the sport through those moments of adversity. So that was James's big, thing that he was talking about all athletes need. So definitely check out James's episode and all of that. And he also talked about the one-and-dones in college, but I'll let you kind of watch that and what he feels about why a lot of athletes struggle that go through the one year in college compared to the ones that go through four years. Although he's not necessarily advocating for a change in that policy. Then the next episode, funny enough, is Marvin Bagley. Marvin Bagley plays for the Sacramento Kings. He's in the NBA. He is an actual one and done, an actual one and done. 11, by the way, is my favorite number. So I'm glad that Marvin did my episode. He's my first current NBA star on my podcast. He was kind enough to do it for me. We know each other through a mutual relationship. Actually, episode 16, Earl, the basketball trainer that we'll get to, introduced us. But Marvin, What struck me about Marvin is Marvin was being recruited for basketball since he was in 5th grade. I mean, he received his first recruiting letter or interest from a coach in 5th grade. I can't even imagine being only 10 or 11 years old and someone already saying, look, we're looking for you to be one of our next biggest and brightest. And that was basically true throughout his career. And he talked about how the social media age, it wasn't like he had to brag. All his friends already knew who was interested in him and all those things. So just going through your life, kind of being the christened next greatest or whatever, what that is like. But one thing about Marv that I really love is that he's not an egotistical guy. He's not, not to say he doesn't have an ego, 'cause you gotta have some kind of bravado or, you know, that confidence to get through, you know, what he's gone through to become a professional athlete. But it was more about his determination, his hard work. Like he graduated high school a year early. Did what was necessary to be able to kind of stay on track with his dream. And so I really love that about Marv. Marv is, uh, just a really great guy, and he really spoke and drove home this idea of basketball is not who he is. And for someone who is as good at basketball and has had the career arc that he has had, to say that, I think is so valuable for so many of you athletes that might be listening, is that you need to really separate that identity with that with what you do and making sure that you're not getting only your value from your sport. And Marv talked a lot about how the, you can't get too high off of like every next week, everybody loves you, the next week everybody hates you. And so you can't live and die off of the feedback that you're getting from other people. So I love that about Marv. And I remember him sharing the story about Coach K and like his first year and how he was so nervous because he had all this pressure on him of like having to perform well, being in that Duke uniform and how just a few words from Coach K just saying, just play basketball, like do what you know how to do really helps. And I think that's so important for so many athletes is that when they go to these new levels, they feel like they have to be different, but it's like, if he just does what he's always done, which is work hard, play basketball, he's going to be successful. And so thank you Marv for those lessons. And just really check out Marvin's episode because he had a lot of good stuff to say. He talked about the media, he talked about a lot of things. And so, I really encourage you to check out Marv. And Marv also does music, so the diversifying of identity and not just making only basketball your— or your sport— your sole focus. So definitely a great lesson from Marv. Then we went to episode 12, and this is a big pivotal moment for this podcast. This was my first solo episode. So 12 episodes in, I've been— you know, someone had encouraged me like, hey Brynn, like You're talking about all this stuff and these guests, but when do you highlight you and your take on certain things? So I started my first solo episode in episode 12, and I talked about mental health in athletes because I wanted to address what was going on at the time. This is around the time that Naomi Osaka sits out the French Open and is basically fined for not doing press. I'm sorry, she didn't sit out the French Open. She wanted to sit out press for the French Open, and she was fined by the French Open. And then there was all this conversation. And commentary around should athletes have to talk to the media? Like that's a part of their sport. And, you know, people also kind of speculating on what she was dealing with in the press release that she put out around it because she felt like she had to explain more. And then we had the Olympics not too long after that with Simone Biles and the twisties and actually not competing in the group competition, which caused a lot of a stir and a controversy in itself, but yet ultimately really highlighted mental health by both of these women. So I really wanted to speak to this because I think it's, mental health is often called the invisible injury. If you go all the way back to episode 3 of the podcast with Val, she was the first person to sort of like hit me to that term is that it's an invisible injury. Obviously, if you hurt your arm, you hurt your leg, if Simone Biles had actually hurt herself, physically in a competition, then she wouldn't have had to justify it. But because she said, yo, I cannot compete, and she was physically able as far as the body ability concerned, then everybody was like, what's, what's up? You're not this, you're not that. Or Naomi Osaka doesn't appear to be having trouble, so this. So there's this saying in the world of sports that says, in the world of life, right, that says now, right, with everything with the Me Too movement, that says believe women. So I want to also start a movement that says believe athletes, but really just believe people. When people say that they are struggling with something, we don't need them to show us their scars, their wounds for it to be validated, for it to be— make sense in our minds, because everyone's mental health or mental struggles looks different. So this episode was really just to address how we need to understand that mental health is a huge part of the pressure of professional athletics. High-level sports puts a lot of pressure on the person. There's a lot of confusion between identity and results. So there's a lot there to unpack. So definitely check out that episode. And also just want to let you know that it's so amazing that these two women came forth to speak about what was going on in their sport. But more importantly, I think it's really valuable to understand is that each Black women or Black women female athletes experience higher rates of racism and sexism, obviously, in their sport. So they're also dealing with that added layer, you know, going on with what they're already encountering as the pressure of being a high-level athlete. And sometimes in the case of like Naomi Osaka being the only person that is taking on that as far as in your team or camp because you're not on a team sport. So definitely check out that episode. That was the mental health episode, the first of my solo episodes at, you know, so definitely check that out. Okay, so the next episode, I was super excited. I was, um, I really got into Clubhouse in 2021, and in the beginning of 2021 I actually kind of fell off as everything sort of started to resume back. And I'm actually looking to get back into Clubhouse, um, more. So if you have any rooms or you're moderating anything about sports, I'm open to that. But Scott Goldman, I met through Michael Gervais, who I did finally have the pleasure of having on my podcast as well. But they had a joint room on Clubhouse, and I was like, I have to talk to this man, you know, in Scott Goldman. So he is a psychologist, and he developed something called the AIQ, and he has a whole company which evaluates athletes on a number of data points and scales to kind of help teams make informed decisions in their recruiting and coaching of these athletes. Which I think is phenomenal. And one of the things I loved about Scott is I wanted to challenge him because I've often said that I don't know if you can measure a man, like measure a person, not really, you know, just the measure of people. Like, how can we pull out any kind of ruler or scale to truly know what's inside an individual? And he was like, you know, the thing about my AIQ is that it's not meant to be predictive, because if that was the case, we should go to Vegas if we knew about, you know, human behavior. He's like, it was meant to be descriptive, to know how to better employ or deploy these athletes' abilities or skills, which I loved because for me it was like, okay. And he gave this example of like, um, they, they sort of look at how does this athlete— what's their spatial awareness? So if they do a catch with their back to the end zone, some players are going to do a better job of being able to actually gain extra yardage because of what they've been able to determine about that particular player spatial awareness or reorientation, right, versus another athlete that they discover has difficulty with that. So rather than say, hey, how do we work on this athlete's awareness or spatial awareness, we say, okay, well, it's still good, still able to gain plenty of yards. So maybe we don't have— we draw up plays for that individual where they don't have their back to the end zone. Maybe they're 3/4 of the way rotated, or we're doing an over-the-head catch where he's facing the end zone. In the, in the case of football, obviously, but just more how do I employ, um, what I know about this athlete in the way that I draw up the plans for him so that I'm not deciding whether he or she is going to be good or not, but how do I use what they already are gifted at or what they're already limited by, this information, to better execute that athlete in my game plan. So I think that's brilliant, and I'm so glad that he's out there. And I think also he, he knows that it's not an end-all be-all. You know, he's not always going to be right and he's not always going to be wrong. But the key is to know, like, he's open to that and would love for that athlete to prove him wrong or, you know, in some cases even prove him right. So I think that was a fantastic thing. And the other thing that I remember about Scott Goldman's episode was I asked him about labeling of people because I know people live with diagnosis saying that they're something for their whole life. And I think sometimes that limits them. And he said that outside of these two things, he talked about the reason to, like, know like more like how to put a label on a bunch of symptoms, sort of like, oh, they have this, they have this, they have this, oh, that's probably paranoid schizophrenia. So to know then how to treat that person. And I forget the second reason, um, you'll have to go back and watch the episode. But basically he said outside of those two labels, I don't— he doesn't think that it's necessary to talk about it in that context. So in other words, I don't have to walk around for the rest of my life using a label to describe or to confuse my identity. And we talk about a lot about that in sports with athletes calling themselves basketball players or football players or whatever, but then when they're not that anymore, what happens? So I think it's the same thing, is that labels can limit, and, uh, and we're looking to expose and to see more about them. And so really, really love, uh, that about Scott's episode. I recommend it, especially if you liked Michael Gervais's episode and you happen to be watching this and you been with us for a while, then definitely check back with Scott's episode because I thought he's really great. And so check him out, follow him, etc. So then, uh, we went on to, uh, chapter 14, and this was a big deal because, um, I got to interview someone who won the Isabelle Cup. So what's the Isabelle Cup, you may be asking? It is the sister to the Stanley Cup. It is women's pro hockey. It's a thing, everybody. Women's pro hockey is out here. There's a draft, there's a whole process. Yes, it's not exactly akin to the, um, the NHL, which is the crème de la crème of hockey because it's men, right? But women are getting in there and doing women's pro hockey. And Mallory Soliotis was our guest, who I also met on Clubhouse, and she— her team had so much adversity. Her journey through the pursuit of professional hockey had a lot of delays due to the pandemic. And so She was talking a lot about that and sharing how you kind of deal with that. But more than anything, it was really interesting, uh, Mallory's story. And I found this with a lot of my athletes. Her mom went in to sign her up as an ice skater. Her brother was already relegated to play ice hockey. She grew up in a cold environment on the East Coast, and so she was already sort of like, you know, gonna be funneled into those sports. But the coach was very rude, uh, to the mother, and the mom said, well, that's it, you know, I'm gonna sign her up for hockey. So Really, it's interesting how so many of my athletes kind of felt like they were going to go one direction and how that pivot happened for so many people. I remember that with Taiba Henife Park, thought she was going to be a track star, and she did experience a lot of success in the junior track, you know, circuit. But ultimately how people pivoted to the sport that they ultimately chose that took them all the way to their greatest level of competition and notoriety, it's not always the first sport that they picked up. And that was the same with Mallory. She was supposed to be an an ice skater. I say supposed to in quotes, of course, because you're not supposed to be anything other than what you become, but I found it very interesting. And she talked about she was in a rigorous academic environment, always going to the best private schools and competing in her sport, and actually how her high school experience was actually more stressful than her Ivy League experience. And so very interesting with that. How do you balance that when you're in those? And we talked about that also with the Mackenzie episode because both of them went Ivy League and balancing their sports. In, in both instances, it was hockey. Um, so very interesting stuff, and want you to check out Mallory's episode because if you don't know anything about the world of pro hockey and all that goes into it— and my favorite lesson was at the end, Mallory said, your— everyone's journey doesn't look the same, but if you stay dedicated, consistent, and focused, you'll get there. You'll get to your own destination. And I thought that was really a great message. So definitely check out Mallory's episode. So at some point, even though, as you could see, I did my first solo episode, episode 12, then I did 2 back-to-back interviews, I decided, you know what, it would be really good if I did every other week solo episodes. So from now on in our recaps, every other week is going to be a solo episode. As far as, like, you know, so the next episode was, you know, when I first decided to do this, um, schedule, which was the confidence Formula. I did this episode because I, you know, you— it would seem to make sense that the people that struggle with confidence the most would be the least experienced in their sport. But in my time as a, you know, working with athletes, doing the work that I do, the mental performance coaching, you find that every athlete regardless of level struggles with some, some version of confidence, you know, a battle with their confidence. Now Some it is like an ongoing process, some it's after some sort of event that kind of shook their confidence, right? Maybe a big loss either on the court or off the court, on the field, off the field, etc. So it happens for everybody at different intervals, but it seems to be consistent across the board whether you're a professional athlete or you're all the way down to, you know, peewee league of whatever sport you're in. Confidence is a battle. And so to really summarize that episode up in a really easy way, I just want to say that for the— I did the confidence formula, you know, like E equals MC squared, so to speak. And the big thing is, for me, my definition of confidence is repeated action over time. And then I talked about resilience. Repetition and resilience would be the big thing. So you repeating something and then bouncing back quickly, your bounce back is so important in the confidence formula. Definitely listen to that episode. But if you are someone that at any point in your sport is struggling with confidence, struggling with am I good enough or having imposter syndrome, because as you go to the next level, you realize that you, you know, you're a king, and then you go to a, a level where you're amongst kings and queens, and then, uh, you definitely need to know that confidence is something that comes from within, not from without. Other people can't give it to you. It's something that has to develop in you, and you have to believe that you have what it takes. And so there's a lot to it, but definitely check out The Confidence Formula. Episode, and I think that'll help you remember that, hey, I used to suck at this and I am going to get better. And that's for anything. And I always use the example of walking. You used to suck at walking and now you're a great walker. Why? Because you kept getting up, you kept bouncing up, you kept getting in there. And so by repeating it and believing in yourself and having the determination, the will, the strong resolve, right? So yeah, I would say it's resiliency, resolve, and repetition. Those are the 3 things for confidence. So definitely check that out. So then in episode 16, I mentioned earlier that the reason I got Marvin Bagley on my podcast is because of my friend Earl. Earl and I developed a friendship prior to me knowing him as a basketball trainer, but through that I found out that he trains all sorts of people. And but what I didn't know was Earl's whole story. And so I knew Earl had brothers, I knew certain aspects of it, but this episode gave me an opportunity to introduce his story to the rest of the world. So Earl is a trainer of basketball basketball players, both men and women, on high level. He's trained several of the top people that you know in, you know, in basketball, as far as especially if they come through the state of California. He's trained quite a few of them. He's even had some time with the Ball brothers, etc. So the really interesting thing about Earl was that he was a great basketball player, but he didn't really get a chance to play basketball at a high level because he was taking care of, you know, he was taking care of his brothers. His parents weren't doing, you know, were dealing with their own challenges in life. And so Earl kind of stepped up and had to leave school and not go to basketball practice to make sure his brothers had what they needed to take care of the household. And so I really give him credit for that because, you know, a lot of times it could have just been me for me, but Earl's always been a guy that kind of wraps his arms around people and says, I'm taking you with me. So And what's really cool is his story about helping his brother. So when he was out, he would love basketball, was his, his escape, his way of, you know, even if he wasn't able to play it organized, he was always going to the court to make himself better. And his younger brother would come and want to play with him, and he wouldn't leave him alone. So he finally said, okay, well, I'm gonna put him through the workout I'm putting myself through, etc. And then another kid came who was kind of a friend of his brother Deverell's. And from there, he was able to really improve them so significantly that he saw he had something there. And this brought him several clients, and, you know, sort of compounded snowball effect to getting even better and better clientele as far as higher and higher level. So really interesting story about Earl. And what I think my biggest takeaway from Earl's thing is that you never know how you're gonna get to where you want to go, or even that your journey is going to turn the way it did, because obviously I'm sure if you asked a younger Earl at some point, his vision was about him going that far, but now he's about helping other people get there. And through the love, the sport that he loves so much. And if you meet Earl, he eats, sleeps, and breathes basketball in a lot of ways. So it's not that he doesn't love the sport, cause he does. It's just the fact that, you know, it just didn't pan out for him to be on that level, but he's gotten to that level through his helping of others. So I love that about his story. So definitely check that out. And there's another book that I would recommend if you like Earl's episode. It's called The Hoops Whisperer, and it's about a guy who did the same thing. His name is Idan Ravin, and he wanted— he's a Jewish guy that wanted to play professional basketball. Not a very common arc for Jewish people, particularly I think he may have come from an Orthodox environment. So I don't want to say that there's no Jewish people in the league or anything like that, But ultimately his journey to loving basketball so much, pursuing it on his own, having the pitfalls of what comes with pursuing basketball at a high level. I believe he took it all the way to college and then how he kind of fell into training people around him and even end up training the best, like the LeBron James, the, what's his name? Carmelo Anthony, Steph Curry, you name the basketball players, some of them have had some encounter with him. With this guy. So definitely check him out, check out that book. You kind of get to hear his story. So the next episode I went into was another solo episode, because remember we're doing one every other week, was The Gratitude Effect. And this is where I talked about how much gratitude can play into the pursuit of your dreams. Obviously, if you have a dream of being a professional athlete on, you know, in any sport, it's going to be important that you really employ the mental aspect. Obviously, this called The Mental Advantage. So gratitude is such a huge part because it can be easy with all the adversity, going back to what James talked about, of pursuing a career in professional or high-level athletics, to kind of focus on the negatives, the deck stacked against you, so to speak. There's plenty of people speaking the cautionary tale of, hey, everybody doesn't make it, right? So we need to find a way to help athletes beat the drama of there's a lot of good out here, there's a lot of good happening, there's a lot of everyday occurrences that are almost miraculous. And so I think The Gratitude Effect is how to put— excuse me— how to use gratitude to really kind of refocus your lens to, there's a lot of good around me, and that I'm— a lot of good has happened in my life, and a lot of, you know, things have been surmountable because of my will and my determination, and I'm giving gratitude for that. So definitely want you to check out The Gratitude Effect. All right, we're almost done. We've only got 3 more episodes to go over. But, um, and I also talked about the gratitude ladder and how you can climb yourself out of a bad mood. Doesn't mean you're going to go from 0 to 60, but how to go from 0 to 10 and then 10 to 20 and so on and so forth. So definitely check out that episode. So the next episode was, um, speaking of positive energy, was Jonathan Flowers. I met Jonathan Flowers from being on a different podcast, and he was recommended to be on my podcast And I knew after listening to him, I had this, it was funny how we met, but I spoke on a podcast about, you know, everybody thinks it's the power of the pep talk. Like you don't need a big pep talk. And this is how Jonathan actually kind of has a claim to fame. Now he has actually played all the way up to professional football. So he's got his own claim to fame, you know, his own credentials, so to speak, in the world of sports. But he's best known for this amazing pep talk that he gave as a high school football coach. And he— it's called I Am a Champion. This thing went viral. So he gave a talk in a locker room to a bunch of high school guys as they're going out for the second half or maybe the beginning of the game. I don't remember the specifics of this game, of this, you know, moment. But he gave this talk because I Am a Champion, and you can find it on YouTube. You can look it up. But the big takeaway from Jonathan's episode is the power of a pep talk, but more of the power of the effect on him, because it was recorded by one of the people in the locker room, and that's who put it on YouTube. It wasn't something that Jonathan made go viral. And I think it's really important to recognize that some of the greatest moments that happen to us are not moments that we could have planned, architected, or put together if we were, you know, if that was our intention. So I think that's a big lesson from Jonathan, is to know that And what sparked this pep talk came from the fact that he had gone through loss of his father and was just, you know, he just, it just came to him. He just wrote it all down and then he gave the talk and, you know, bam, it's affected so many athletes. People come up to him from all over the place and tell him how that pep talk really, they listen to it on repeat. You'll find it has millions of views on YouTube. And I think it's just so important that you never know when your own moment of adversity can spark something so great and it can affect and has a ripple effect that goes beyond what you could ever imagine. And like I already said, Jonathan didn't plan for that. And the other thing we talked about is just since he was a coach and he still is, how he deals, like how coaches motivate their players. And obviously since we're talking about pep talks, pep talks are kind of a continuity event in his life. But ultimately, a big part of this episode was finding out about what you think about how coaches motivate and whether there could be some shifts in that. So definitely check out Jonathan's episode, Jonathan Flowers, episode 18. All right, so we've only got 2 more to go. I know that this is long, and please stick with me, but mental indigestion, that's what I'm calling this recap. Okay, I actually called it What are you digesting? But this was a solo episode and we're talking about athletes are always focused on, if they are focused on this at all, right? Because some athletes have amazing metabolism and, you know, as young people, we typically don't focus on our health until it's a problem, right? So we're like, hey, yeah, you know, but most athletes do still pay attention to their nutrition because they want better performance. They want better muscles, you know, all the things that go into better performances. So they're very focused on the physical aspect of their training by trainers and, you know, all the people around them kind of letting them know, like, protein intake and things like that. What we're not so focused on in our pursuit of athletics is our mental intake, right? What we're taking in, what we're digesting. And so I talked a lot about that in this particular episode, so if you missed it, go back and watch it. But what are you digesting that's causing mental indigestion, which is if you're watching a lot of violent television programming— this includes the news, this includes documentaries— things that make you sad, things that bring you down, things that like you're like, well, I need to be informed. But if the weight or the cost of that information is, you know, bringing down your mood, then that's going to affect your output, right? Garbage in, garbage out. So you really need to pay attention to the different things that you're listening to, that you're watching, that you're reading, um, you know, all those different things that you want to kind of like, what am I actually taking in? And then of course, most importantly, the environment that you're in. Who are you around? What are they generally radiating as far as an energy? And know that that has an effect on you. So that was the mental indigestion episode. Definitely check it out, how important it is to not just focus on what you're eating but focus on what you're taking in and all the different ways because it is having an effect on you and can negatively impact your sport performance and your life. And last, episode 20, we're talking about Chris McSwain. Chris McSwain is a high school girls and boys basketball coach. And we talked a lot about— with Chris, he talked a lot about relationship. Obviously, a coach's job is to get the— is to win. Okay. And especially when you're talking about in the professional level and the college level, it really becomes so important You know, high school coaches, unless you're at a performance high school, probably don't lose their job as much. But definitely in the college and the professional, you are definitely judged on your wins. You're judged on your ability to produce the W's, right? And that comes with its own level of stress for a coach, comes with its own level of, uh, you know, uh, behaviors, etc. And so when we're talking to Chris, we were talking about you know, how he used to coach versus how he coaches now. And I think what was the best is his own transition to understanding that coaching really is about relationship. You cannot coach every player the exact same. You've got to think about how you're coaching these players. And so really, really, really loved that conversation. And I think it's important to understand that there's always an evolution for a coach because as they get to know themselves better and they kind of do their own work on themselves, the better of a coach they can become. And then, interestingly enough, the better they can tap the potential and the output and the performances of their athletes. So definitely recommend that you check out Chris McSwain's episode. We had great conversation. He introduced me to a book by Trevor Moab about, um, uh, the power of— I can't remember the name of the book right now, but it's basically about the power of going neutral. And that has definitely been a game changer now that I continue to work knowing that. And the way someone put it, and I think it was in the Inner Game of Tennis, but in order for a car to go from forward to backward, it has to go through neutral. So make— taking everything, kind of taking the charge out of things and taking it to neutral can be so powerful. So thank you, Chris, for that. So listen, that's 20 episodes that we've now recapped Tell me below if you got this far, what was your biggest takeaway? What was your favorite episode thus far out of the 20 that I've recapped? And let me know what episode you would like to know more about, or if there's other people you want me to have on the podcast or topics you would like me to address. And remember, subscribe so you don't miss any of these episodes. We got some powerhouse people coming up for you. Um, we have more people and we want to make sure to continue to bring you the best and brightest from the of sports and their stories. Thank you for watching this recap. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you in the next episode.