A performance coach shares a five-step plan to finish strong in Q4: crystal-clear vision, daily handwritten journaling, theta-state visualization three times daily, keeping goals private, and practicing gratitude for everything. He credits mentors like Ben Newman and Selena for teaching him that visualization programs your mind to notice opportunities.
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Welcome to Breakthrough, where we are making success undeniable. Guys, before we get into it, I just have one simple ask. If you find value in this podcast, if it makes you laugh, if it changes the way you think, if it helps you, if you use the information from this podcast to help you level up, or if it's valuable to somebody else and it helps them level up, please do me a huge favor. I need you guys to please leave me a review, and I also need you guys to share it with a friend. The only way that this podcast will grow when you guys— the only way that this podcast will grow is when you share it with somebody else that can also find value in it. So I don't run ads, I don't have sponsorships, and I don't want any ads or sponsorships because I want to be able to freely express and help you guys out the best that I can. And because of that, I need you guys to help me share. Guys, today is October 6th, 2025. We have now entered the fourth quarter of the year. Now, most people, whether it's in sports or in life, by the time the fourth quarter comes up, they're looking at the scoreboard and they're thinking the game's already over, whether it's— whether they won or whether they lost. Very rarely do people ever actually fully commit and finish the game strong the whole way to the end. And anytime that does happen, it's usually because it's a fight to the finish. And the scoreboard is close. If it's a blowout, especially if it's a blowout, people really don't want to fight back all the way to the end. And so my question for you guys today is, have you— you have been winning so far this year. How are we going to keep momentum going into the— going all the way to the finish line for the year? And if you're somebody that has been struggling a little bit this year, how do we make the decision to fight back and finish strong? No matter what the scoreboard is. We always, always, always have to fight back and start gaining momentum. Even if you're behind, this is the opportunity for you to start gaining momentum going into the first quarter of the next game. And in our case, January 1st. So many people stop and then fall behind and they lose momentum. Everyone I have been working with, myself included, has already made a game plan for the next year. We have already been implementing our strategy and we have been seeing the results already. And so maybe you've made goals before, maybe you have set out to do something and it hasn't quite happened, or maybe it has. I hope that you guys have been winning. I hope that you guys have been seeing success. And if you haven't, that's okay. Because today, guys, we are going to figure out exactly what you need to do to have the highest amount of success in whatever it is that you are setting out to do, whether it's sports or business or life. It all works the same way. And so I mentioned just a minute ago that I run the same exact play. I use it for my business plan and I go through this religiously every single day and it works. Just a little backstory. I've now been doing performance coaching for athletes and for businesses now for officially in a business capacity for about 3 years. I've been doing it for people now for over half a decade without even realizing it. It just wasn't my business until about the past, past couple years. And what I didn't realize is that I had been running the same play the entire time. It wasn't until a mentor of mine kind of opened, opened my eyes a little bit. They're like, hey man, you've been doing this. And so how we got started in the business to begin with was I was in the strength and conditioning space, and I knew that one day I always wanted to work with athletes or be an athlete myself professionally, and I just didn't know what it, what it, that would look like. I didn't know how to get there. I just knew I wanted to work with athletes. And so I went to college for exercise physiology and psychology. And about 3 and a half, 4 years ago, I was working in a fitness center doing strength and conditioning. And friend of mine had called me up and they said, hey, there's a sports facility opening in a city near you and they want to talk to you. They want you to run the strength and conditioning clinic. And I was awesome. I was like, that would be sweet. I can open it, I can help operate it. And that would be fantastic. And so I got talking to the owners of this facility and they were like, hey, you're really good at this mental toughness. You're really good at the sports psychology. Why don't you do that? And I was like, that would also be sweet. Let's do it. And while I'm still helping to figure out the operational side of the strength and conditioning, like they're like, hey man, build out the sports psychology. We're going to support you. I said, That'd be awesome. And so while I, what I do is a little bit different than sports psychology, it's kind of a nice umbrella blanket term for people. I'm more of a coach. If you compare mental toughness to kind of like a sports injury, sports psychology typically sits on the physical therapy side, whereas what I do is kind of more strength and conditioning, but for the mind and for the athletes and for the coaches. And that's what I decided to do. So I set out, started doing it, and I knew very little compared to what I knew today. I just knew that I needed to continue to learn or sharpen my skills. One of my first athletes was a basketball player. He's actually my very first private client was a basketball player. And I actually ended up working on their whole entire team. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see in the picture behind me, there's a gold medal and a championship ring sitting there along with a signed picture. It was that team. And I started working with those guys and I knew a little bit about what I was doing, but not nearly as much as I do today. Long story short, I was learning from some of my mentors. I was taking courses for grad school and I was reading books. I'm just trying to get every little bit of information I could. And I found a guy on social media by the name of Ben Newman. If you have never heard of Ben Newman, Ben Newman is one of the top 5 high performance coaches in the world according to USA Today. He's one of the top 50 speakers in the entire world. He's worked with programs like Alabama football and Nick Saban. He's worked with the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles. He's worked with Michael Chandler from the UFC and a variety of sports, and he's even worked with Google and Microsoft on the business side. So never in a million years did I ever think that I would be in a position to work with Ben. And after the boys won the championship, Ben Newman had sent me a message on, on Instagram. I had been messaging him back and forth just sporadically just responding to stories and commenting on posts, just trying to learn as much as I can from him, from what I saw on social media. And Ben is like, hey, if that's what you can do with just a little bit of social media, you can help bring a program their first state championship in not just school history but in county history at that level. He's like, I want to coach you. I want to take you up under my wing. What I didn't realize at the time is that I knew that I needed to learn from these guys. I used to think about it all the time, like what it would be like to learn from somebody as skilled as Ben. But I didn't realize what I was actually doing. I was creating my own destiny, destiny, by visualizing it and manifesting it in my mind. Fast forward to, to today, a couple years later, I knew that I wanted to start working with more professional athletes. And at this point, I had already been working with one professional track athlete in Europe, and I wanted to, to get into it more. I was like, I don't know where the professional athletes train. I'm outside of their own sports training facilities at their stadiums. Like, I don't know where these guys go. I could not figure it out for the life of me. And the city that I live in is a couple hours from Philadelphia, a couple hours from Washington, a couple hours from Pittsburgh. There's a couple minor league teams here. There's a minor league hockey team here. There's a couple minor league baseball teams here, and That's pretty much it. And those minor league teams, they, they kind of train in their own facilities. So I was like, where do these guys go? How can I get in the, in the room? And without even realizing it, I just started continuing to work and work at it and, and slowly chip away. Turns out that there was a training facility for athletes of all levels, starting in high school, but specifically for starting to get more into the pro space themselves. Less than 5 minutes from my home. I have driven past this facility probably 100 times. Never knew it existed. Barely saw— now that I've gone there, I see a sign outside, but never in a million years would have guessed that it's actually there. And I walk in the facility after learning about it, and it turns out that I actually know through a friend one of the guys operating the facility. It was the weirdest thing in the entire world. And I had no idea it was there. I had just heard about it through conversation with my wife one day, and I walk into the facility and I start talking to these guys, and there's some major league players there, professional players, and I start talking to those guys. And now I'm, I'm very, I'm start— very blessed to be able to say that I'm starting to work with some of them, which is the coolest thing in the entire world. I had no idea where to talk to these people, but because I was chipping away at it every single day and I could see it vividly in my mind that I want to work with these people, it's starting to come true and it's the coolest thing in the entire world. So fast forward even more, continuing to work with other coaches and people that are further into the game than I am. Again, not having any idea how to reach out to these people. I'm, I've already been working with Ben for some time and he's got a very vast network that I'm very blessed to be able to say I've met tons of friends, people who have given TED Talks and worked with some of the largest businesses in the entire world, and I'm very blessed to be in that network. I'm like, I got to continue to level up. I got to continue to learn and grow. And about a month and a half, 2 months ago, maybe, I got a DM on Instagram from a girl by the name of Selena. And I was, we did not follow each other. I don't personally know her. I do now. And it turns out that she is actually one of the leadership positions for a very respectable coach. She DM'd me and she's like, hey, I want you to be on my podcast. I'd love to interview you. And I had no idea who this was, thought it was too good to be true. Turns out she's just an amazing person and I was able to be on her podcast. Very blessed to say that. And they also sent me all kinds of resources that they use internally within their own coaches. And I'm very blessed to be able to say that, you know, one day, we haven't figured it out logistically wise yet, but I'm going to end up flying out to their headquarters and I'm going to sit down. I'm going to talk to all those guys and learn even more from them in person. This is a coaching group that in a, again, in a million years, I never thought I would be in the same room or have a conversation with them. And now I've become friends with some of their leaders, which is the coolest thing in the entire world. And funny enough, they sent me back in the mail a book that I actually don't have with me because I literally just passed it on to a friend here in my office. That way they could check it out. But the book is called It Works and it has the entire magic trick of how to achieve any goal that you set out to. And the entire time I had been running the play without even realizing it. It's the funniest thing in the entire world. So here's what it is. Okay. I have it down in my business plan. I journal about it every single day. Step number 1, you have to figure out what you actually want in life, whether that's personal or business, it doesn't matter. You have to know exactly what you want. You have to be able to see it clearly in your mind, almost like you're watching a movie. So if you told me that you wanted to become a professional athlete, you need to be able to see in your mind clear as day, what uniform are you wearing? What position do you play? What court or field are you on? Where's the crowd? Is your family there? Are your friends there? What is your team like? What are the emotions that you feel? It's almost like if you were to put on one of those VR headsets and it actually looks and feels like you're really there. I don't know if you've ever used a VR headset. If you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, it's kind of almost like a dream. So if you've ever woken up in the middle of the night with a bad dream or a nightmare, or maybe a good dream, hopefully, and you woke up and you're like, man, it feels like that really happened, feels like I was really there— that's kind of what a VR headset looks like. Regardless of whether it's a dream or a nightmare or a VR headset, you need to be able to picture it that clearly in your mind, and you need to be able to feel the same exact emotions that person would feel in that position. And the same thing goes for business and for personal life too, not just sports. So whatever that looks like, if it's a certain car you would drive, what color is the car? What is the trim? How fast are you going? Uh, what does the interior look like? What kind of lights are there? How does it feel to be driving this car? Right? So the first thing you have to do is vividly see that in your mind. The second thing that you have to do is you have to handwrite this down every single day in a journal or a notebook. Now it can be tweaked slightly over time, but as you are writing it, you need to write it as if it is already true. So for example, if we're taking the car, if you want, if your dream car is a Ferrari, you would write down, I am driving a red Ferrari with a specific trim and the package and everything else that you want, whether it's fully blacked out windows or whatever, whatever the deal may be. Okay. Then you need to write a definitive end date. And so for business plans, right, for me, I write my business plan year to year. My definitive end date is December 31st, 2026. Again, pick whatever definitive end date it is for you. It doesn't have to be December 31st, 2026. It can be whatever you choose as long as it is a definitive end end date. It is slightly aggressive, not unreasonably aggressive, right? I'm not saying I'm getting the Ferrari tomorrow, but reasonably aggressive where it's like, hey, if I really put my head down and buckle, buckle up, it could happen. Might be a little bit of a stretch, but it could happen, right? Once you have it written down in a book with the definitive end date, we're going to visualize it in our mind 3 times a day. Now, when we do visualization, it's works extra well if you can get it into a point where your brain is in what we call a theta state. So a theta state is similar to like a car radio where there's different frequencies. Your brain has frequencies as well. The theta state is kind of that, that place where like, as soon as you, you're laying down in bed, you're not quite asleep yet, but you can feel yourself starting to drift off and your body is nice and relaxed. That's a theta state. It happens naturally right before you go to bed and first thing when you wake up in the morning. And you can also put yourself in a theta state by just doing a little bit of meditation. So sitting up nice and straight, taking some slow, deep breaths with your eyes closed, doing some box breathing and just feeling your body relax. That will also put you into a theta state. So as you're visualizing this for a few minutes at a time in the theta state, if you can, if you've learned that skill, what's going to happen is it's going to start to program your mind to look for the opportunities associated with that thing. And so if it's to get that Ferrari and you know you need to hit a certain sales goal, your brain is automatically going to start to look for opportunities for you to be able to hit that sales goal. You're going to start being more aware of all of the people that you could be helping to hit that goal. You could be making more sales calls to those people and naturally you're going to start to see little instances where it's picking up the pace a little bit. So for example, with my example I shared with you earlier, with the athletes. It was just a natural conversation that I was having with my wife. And then she said, hey, I've heard of this place. I don't know too much about it. Why don't you go check it out? And it turned out to be one of the best things I ever did. That conversation never would have happened if I didn't become aware of it. And the only reason I could become aware of it is because I programmed my mind to look for those opportunities. So after we write it down and we're doing visualization 3 times a day, every single day without fail, we're not going to tell anybody our goals. We just have to keep our head down and keep moving forward. So step 1, know what you want. Step 2, write it down with a definitive end date. Step 3, visualize it in your mind 3 times a day, every single day. Step 4, keep your head down. Don't tell anybody. Step 5, and this is the most important part, expressing gratitude, not just when good things happen, but also when bad things happen. And that's the hardest part. See, what happens is if we go into it, with the mindset of jealousy that somebody else has a nicer car than us, if we go into it with the mentality that it's never going to happen, or if, you know, maybe somebody cuts us off in traffic and now all of a sudden in our mind, we're like, "Fuck you, you're a jerk, you're rude," whatever the case may be, it tells the world that we're not ready to receive everything that we're working for. So anytime something negative happens, especially if it's something negative, it's something positive as well. We have to take a moment to say, hey, what a privilege it is. So for example, if someone cuts you off in traffic, hey, what a privilege it is to be able to have a car to get to my dream job, to be able to help the people that I do, to be able to work with the people that I do. What a privilege it is to be able to go home to my beautiful wife. That way I can— what a privilege it is to go home and have a hot meal. What a privilege it is to have a roof over my head. What a privilege it is that I even have a flat tire. When you start to think and are grateful for those things that are more than that surface level, level that everybody just kind of says they're thankful for Thanksgiving just to pass it on to the next person because they don't want to talk. When you're actually grateful for something deep down in your soul, it tells the world like, hey, I'm ready. It changes the frequency in your brain to continue to look for those opportunities as well, which is the coolest thing in the entire world. And when you're visualizing that in your mind every single day and you are grateful for the opportunities, No matter what the circumstances are, good things will come. It works. Guys, if you have comments, questions, or concerns, leave a comment or shoot me a message on Instagram. I hope this helps you guys. Please share it with a friend and leave a review. And the best is yet to come. Guys, go win your day.
