Creating a Great Team with Coach Josh Pastner

Foreign. This podcast is brought to you by the Wire Buzz team. Now, if that name sounds familiar, it's because I've spent the past decade growing Wirebuzz into a digital marketing powerhouse designed to maximize clarity in complex sales processes so we can help accelerate revenue. And we do this in three phases. Phase one, we transform your website to function like your best salesperson and then also incorporate persuasive on demand sales videos. Now, your entire team is aligned on messaging and they're injecting massive clarity into your prospect's head. So your site looks great, but it also has engaging content that helps your team sell on demand 24. 7 the next phase phase two, we train your sales and marketing teams to sell remotely or in person to expand the impact of your sales team. And the third phase is we develop and run targeted ads to your prospects. Scale those ads to help you achieve more business results. Sign up for the Wirebuzz Company newsletter to learn more about effective and simple ways to improve your company messaging, attract more digital attention and ultimately make more sales. Let's get down to it. I'm joined right now by a member of the 1997 Men's Championship Basketball team at the University of Arizona. He's oh, just so happens to also be the head coach at Georgia Tech. Before that he was the head coach at Memphis. Coach Passner, thanks for joining me on the Todcast.

Todd, thanks for having me, man. I appreciate and love your energy, your enthusiasm, your zest for life. So happy to be on, happy to join you.

It's so cool to me because, you know, we go back, so we were both on campus at the same time and I'm a Josh Passner fan. I am a supporter and back in the day Josh would smuggle me in. Back in the day when I was working for the Jim Rome show is as Jim's head of digital marketing, Josh would smuggle me into U of A practices when we come to la. And Josh, one of the things that I know about you that I think a lot of people look, a lot of people when they listen to this show, what they're looking for is how do they get next level in their life. And as a fan of your career, I've watched you like seize golden moments of opportunity and, and then step into big shoes and fill them. So like, what happens when you see an opportunity? Do you like, when you see that something could be happening for you in your life, how do you start preparing yourself for the magic moment when that opportunity actually becomes yours?

Well, Todd, a couple of things and it seems like yesterday you were at our practices and great reminder, what is that? You know, 20 years later or something like that. You know how one, how short life is and how precious and how fast time goes. That's why you literally just, you enjoy every day, every breath, every heartbeat. A real gift when you think about how fast things go. But look, you know, with life, what I would tell you is in life, things happen when you least expect it. But you know, how many times do people get disappointed when they're expecting something and nothing comes about of it? And I always tell people it's those doors that open or the windows that open asking you to step through when you're not expecting it. Meaning that you have to be prepared and ready for that moment when that door swings open and you just kind of know it and it happens to all of us that there's all of a sudden you catch a break, you get a, you know, a little avenue to go through, and then you've got to make the most of it. It's on you as the individual to really take full advantage of it. And so being prepared to the best of your ability, if you're expecting something to happen, it usually doesn't happen. You've got to work every day and as hard as you can with the right intent, with the right motive, with the right integrity, right in character. But one of the great sayings, and as simple and as kindergarten ish as it is, one day at a time. And if you kind of have that mentality, doesn't mean you can't prepare for two weeks down the road or two months down the road. But having being ready, meaning what you can control, controlling the controllables, and that's in today. One day at a time. No one can predict what will happen tomorrow. No one's going to know what's going to happen two weeks from now. You can prepare and plan, but you don't know when that opportunity arises. And that could be tomorrow, it could be three years from now. But when that does, you've got to be ready to walk through that door.

Absolutely. As you're saying this, I realize, you know, today I'm preparing, I'm preparing every day. And this week I'm on stage again for Tony Robbins in front of 5,000 people. And if he called right now and said, I need you right now, I would be prepared because that's how I do it. But like, when I think about you, I always think about somebody who's like really driven, a commitment to passion. Like you're all Passion, bro. But I also notice that you're like stuck in Can I constant and never ending improvement. Am I, am I seeing this right? Like, you have to have a willingness to outwork people, out hustle others. Where does this come from? Josh?

Yeah, Todd. I think, you know, one of my sayings that we have with our team is, is three of our words. We talk about motor. When I say about motor being 100% effort 100% of the time, like I always tell people, and I know when what motor looks like, what, what is motor like? I definition 100% effort, 100% of time. But it's like having that pep in your step. It's sort of like the Jerry Maguire movie where that agent, Dickie Fox gets up and he says, every day you wake up, you clap your hands and say, this is gonna be a great day. It's having that motor. We talk about discipline, knowing your job and doing your job, knowing your job and doing your job, that's part of the discipline. And then the third thing, and my favorite word of them all, is driven. And with driven, being driven, having that drive is all about what I call is being internally self motivated, the best of the best. And I don't care what profession it is, it doesn't have nothing to do with athletics. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do. The best of the best are wired in a way that are driven internally to be self motivated. They don't need always somebody to, to get them going all the time, or to wake them up at time or to have them have the passion and enthusiasm and the best of the best, that doesn't mean about a monetary figure, some of the best. When I talk about some of the best of life that have this greatest spirit about them, that has a outlook on life, that has a pure enjoyment and love for just living. And a lot of that has to do with that internal drive. And you know, look, everybody needs some motivation. There's nothing wrong with motivation. But I always tell people motivation is sort of like going to the doctor's office or the hospital and it's like being flatlined. You know, there's only so many times you can charge your heart where it's going to get the beat again. Eventually the machine doesn't work. And they say, okay, there's no more beats where we're just, it's done with. That's the same thing in motivation. Someone can motivate you and get you going for a good two, three weeks, but eventually you're going to have to Take that on your own and be motivated to say, hey, I got to get up earlier. I got to do this. I got to be locked in. I've got to make this extra work. I've got to do the extra sacrifice that's part of the drive of the everyday. Instead of someone forcing you to do it, usually the ones that you got forced to it might not always sustain, but being able to sustain something comes from internal motivation and the internal drive. So I'm a big believer in that.

Time when you talk and you're meeting and you're starting to recruit a kid, are you looking for motor discipline and drive?

First thing I look at is, is. And, you know, when we're looking at a young recruit, we're looking at motor. Like, I'm constantly looking at motor, and I know what it looks like. How hard do you play now? In my line of work, you're also then got to factor in, you know, can they score the ball, how is their talent level, those other things. But the baseline, just the baseline, before we even get to the next part of can they play in the ACC is, do they have that motor to compete? Like, are you a competitor? Do you have a competitive excellence? Are you willing to. You know, you can have the greatest strategy in the world, but if you're not a competitor, strategy doesn't matter. You know, I mean, competing is what it's about. And that's about motor. And I, again, I know what that looks like. So that's the baseline. That is the first thing. If you don't have a motor. What I've learned, if you don't have that drive, that motor, it's very, very few times do you ever get it four or five years later on one out of every ten times someone finally captures it. But the reality of it is you don't capture it at some point in your life when you've gotten to that point. Because I think the hardest thing for a human being to do, Todd, is to change. I think that's the hardest thing for a human being to do, is to change. And so when someone's a certain way for 18, 19, 20, 21 years of your life, and then you have them for a short time frame to think that they're all of a sudden going to change. It's just not always reality. So you're looking at that in that recruiting process, that baseline, do they have that motor discipline, drive?

All right, I love this. Now, for those of you that are listening, you may think we're talking about college basketball, but the Truth is, we're talking about being successful in life, and it starts with motor, your discipline, and how driven you are. So as you're listening to Coach Pastner, what I want you to do is I want you to be thinking about yourself. And because excellence starts with you. If you want to get next level in your life, like, use what Coach Pastner is saying, like, lift that up like a blueprint, a translucent one, and lay it down in your life. Like, are you arriving at work and on your projects with motor? What does that mean? It's like massive, determined action with every step, all the way till the buzzer rings at the end of the workday. Boom. Do you have the discipline to keep doing that? Are you Dr. When, if you're in sales, are you driven to get to the point where, yeah, you might have hit your quota that month, but you're driven to obliterate the quota because you know that you deserve next level results? Like, that's how I want you looking. Because when I learned like Josh, I learned from people like you, bro. Like, I study excellence. If you called Josh's phone back in, I don't know, 1999 or 2002, he would have something. And I don't know if you still have this because nobody leaves voicemails anymore. You do.

I still have. So I change my voicemail up every month, and people call it all the time, and it's a real positive message. And people call it all the time. So I'm still the same guy Todd from even 20 years ago. And people text me, coach, I need to pick me up. Please don't answer. And so. Because they just want to listen to voicemail. So I get many, many calls from people just, you know, just asking to. Just asking to be able to.

So you have the motor.

It's pretty cool.

You have the discipline. I know you're driven. I once heard a tall tale about you. Tell me if it's true. Like, is it true that you were this little kid sitting in front of your TV creating scouting reports for NBA teams and you would send them scouting reports and they'd try to send you money? Is that accurate?

Well, actually, what it was was I was. At 13 years of age, I started the Josh Pastner Scouting service. And it was actually of high school kids. And I sent it to colleges all across the country. And colleges wanted to order the service because I was giving them these kids, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16 year olds. I was watching the future really good players. And eventually my dad had to actually tell them and they would send, like, how do I order the service? Like, hey, he's only 13. There's no money. You know, he's just doing it for. So, yeah, no, I was, I was, I was. I was that. You know, when you talk about opportunity, Todd, I wrote a letter to every single Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, and NAIA schools in America. Over a thousand personal handwritten letters. Coming out of high school, I knew I wanted a coach. And one of the very few schools that only responded to me was Lou Olson in Arizona. That's how I got my opportunity on that. And again, I've always said this. You can't just sit there and let it just happen. I mean, you've got to go for it. And you might be told no 999 times and that a thousandth time you're told yes, but that's how it works. I mean, there is no quick fix or all of a sudden, you know, it happens, it takes. And that's where you just don't know on that opportunity. And you made a great point about what you were just saying about the blue blueprint on stuff about life and about are you showing up to work with that motor? I mean, you know, passion is passion and enthusiasm. I love those words.

Having.

Being enthusiastic about what you're doing, having passion about what you're doing just goes a long way. And, you know, just loving the word love. I mean, having that insight, that love, that joy, that just excitement that, you know, it's not just a chore to go to work or it's a chore to go home and see the kid. You're enthused. And again, that's part of that self talk inside of that drive and. Yeah, do we all have tough days? Is there stressors in life? Is there a lot of things? You know, life's not all rosy. It's not easy. And it's easy just to say, go do this, this, this. But that's where it goes to Todd, is the discipline. You've got to be disciplined to stay with it when it's not going, especially.

When it hasn't even gotten started. Because if you don't have discipline and you're writing handwritten letters and nobody's getting back to you, eventually you're going to quit. But you have to knock on doors because that's where opportunities come and you have to be persistent, like Josh. I can't tell you how many times Tony Robbins has said no to me about speaking on his stage. When I knocked on the door a zillion times. And I can't tell you how many times I was devastated to the point where I didn't think I could get the wind in my lung to try again. And each time, my wife said to me, dude, are you. Did he say no or not yet? And I said, well, it felt like no. And she goes, no, no, I didn't. I didn't ask what it felt like. I said, did he say no or not yet? And I said, I think he said, not yet. And she goes, well, you should get certain about it because they're different. And I said, okay. Well, I'm certain. He said, not yet. And she goes, well, can you up your game? Like, are you at your highest peak level? Because if you can up your game? And I said, no, I think I can up my game. She goes, well, then why don't you start adding so much value that he can't ignore you? And so I started adding so much value. And then she said to me, don't quit before the miracle. And this happened on many occasions. And I stayed in the game because I knew that I had a vision and I belonged there, but maybe I wasn't ready and my material wasn't ready. And he waited and was patient. Now, one of the things that I've discovered is you have had a front row seat to three of the greatest coaches of all time. Lou Olson at Arizona, John Calipari, and of course, your dad. Your dad's influence being, you know, one of the top high school basketball coaches in, in that era, club coach, you know, for a long time. What do you get from, like, what is it that those three guys do that somebody who wants greatness in their life should be looking for, you know, what do they want to kind of not only emulate, but start to adapt into their life?

Yeah. Well, two of them, John Calipari and Lud Olson, both are in the Basketball hall of Fame. And I'll. And I'll touch on that in a second. First, talking to my father. You know, it's real interesting. My dad's my best friend. I have an incredible relationship with him. He's 71, and I don't know, you know, I don't know how my life will be. And I know there's going to be a time where unfortunately he's, you know, he's going to pass away. I mean, and he's in great shape. So I'm hoping that's 30 years down the road. But, you know, my relationship with him, I mean, he's my best friend. And I say all that to say this, and he's really positive. His upbeatness, man, I can't tell you how important the father is to kids, to children to make an impact. And I say that all the time. And I see it even in people who maybe who've had some struggles, maybe the father wasn't around or whatever it may be, but they've obviously been able to have still a great success. But I always tell fathers, when your kid's born, man, I'm just telling you the impact you can make. And of course, mothers are everything. They're angels from heaven, but there's nothing like the father. I mean, just that impact they can make on a child is so powerful. So that is so important. And then when you're talking about, when you're talking about like John Calipari and Lud Olson, two elite coaches who are in the hall of Fame, and it's amazing. Both guys are so different in their ways of going about how to get to the end game. But they are both so similar in so many ways. And one thing that I realized from both of them, yes, did they have really good players and this and that, and they were good coaches. But you know what they were excellent at? They were excellent at keeping things simple. They didn't over complicate things. They kept it simple and they believed in executing their plan. And in my philosophy, from learning from them, learning from my father, you know, I've kind of taken the approach of, okay, we want to be real, we want to. We want to be transparent, we want to keep things simple. Then we want to execute the plan and trying to get over complicated, as we all do. And I do this myself where I sometimes think, man, I see this is a great idea, this idea or that idea, like, wait a second, there's all these great things and there's just too much. And let me just narrow it down and going back to taking it one day at a time and trying to keep it as simple as possible. Because if you can, perfect simplicity and almost like there's like being boring in a sense. I mean, I know that sounds, you know, that you're just, you're being simple allows you to keep in line of what you're trying to accomplish. And I think that's what I really learned from those two coaches. But real interesting with, like I said, with my father, he's my best friend. And I can't tell you the impact fathers can make on, on. On their children and. Or others too. I mean, I think that's just. But the impact for fathers is Just.

Yeah, I get it. My dad's 80. He's my best friend. I talk to him throughout the week, and he. We blow up each other's phones in the middle of the day. It doesn't matter what it is. And we will chat it up. Josh, I know that, like, you're. You're a different breed. I mean this in a good way. I think you're focused on success, and you also motivate and inspire yourself. But one of the things I remember you telling me, you don't cuss. Is that still true or do you? Right.

No, I haven't.

I remember Lou Olson didn't cuss. And that's correct.

He didn't.

Right. So I would. When your practices would be going on, I would be either sitting on the floor before practice would start, and I'd take photos of the team playing. I've got all these cool black and whites back from the day, but I also noticed I'd sit in the stands and do homework because Lutes practices were open and air conditioning in McHale center was full free and not full free in my apartment. And so I would watch a Hall of Famer run his business on a daily basis. And there's a lot that business people can learn from watching hall of Famers execute. He ran a very tight practice. It seemed like every day. The practice kind of had a very similar structure to it. How does. How do you get yourself ready to go out there and lead men? Like I'm leading a team full of people, and I'm not always in the right place to be the best version of myself, but they're sponges. Your team will pick that up. How do you get Coach Passner in Coach Passner mode so you can inspire men to go and do the impossible.

Yeah. And, and you're right. I. There's great lesson about, you know, how successful Coach Olson was as a coach. One of the greatest ever to do it. And never use curse words. I do not curse myself. Now, there's plenty of coaches who have used foul language or very successful. But my point is, is you can still be a very successful coach without using any profanity. And in fact, I tell people, you can come in my huddle or come to our practice and it's G rated. You know, you don't need to put ear muffs on or anything like that. Any, Any, any child or woman can come to our practice and know it's going to be okay. We're intense. We have a lot of energy. But. But there are no personal attacks Everything's.

But that's a level of holding yourself to a certain standard that most people can't arise to. And it's also a level of professionalism that most don't ever adhere to. Why? Why is that important for you?

Yeah, you know, in fact, I've had a lot of people that have worked for me have actually thanked me afterwards because I don't, you know, not only do I not cuss, I don't allow our staff to use any curse words or our players. And a lot of times when I'm hiring someone, they come in and they're used to cursing because that's what they've been around, especially in athletics. And so they actually leave when they have other opportunities, be it a head coach or other opportunities. And they say, coach, man, I really appreciate me learning not to curse, you know what I mean? And it's been really good for me. So I actually appreciate that when they tell me that. But, you know, I just think it's important. There's a few things for people in there in business, because this can go in anything. Life, business, family, sports. People get in trouble when they use foul language. How many times have you seen people when they're angry, they say something and it just backfires on them. Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction. And it's the old adage. And when you're talking about Tony Robbins, you know, of course, I read all his books, and I'm very familiar with Tony Robbins, but, you know, like, even they do on the firewalk, you know, back in the day, they used to, you know. But if you ever took one of those hot stones. Yeah, you.

So I did.

So if you ever took one of those, you did it. So if you took one of those hot stones. And it's the old adage is. Is, you know, when the person who gets burned, if you're holding on that hot stone when you're angry is you, it's not the other person. And so being able to, like when. If somebody upsets you or something, for you to fire back at them, it's like pouring gasoline on it, and it's just on a fire. So being able to be disciplined and controlled with your language, I think it's so important. One, it takes away opportunities to have regrets because you end up saying something in the heat of the moment that ends up biting in the rear later on. Two, you keep it professional and not personal. You're dealing with the performance, not the person, in a sense. And so that's. You got to keep that separate, especially in today's age, you've got to make sure that you got to keep performance different than the person as a personal attack. And three, I don't think, you know, and I tell this in recruiting, hey, if you need to be, you know, cursed at to get motivated, I'm not a good coach for you. Like, then you shouldn't come here. Like, if you need to be yelled and screamed, I'm not a good fit. You got to go play for somewhere else. And I, and so I don't know if, if that's the best way to motivate through just fear of using foul language. Is that really getting the best out of someone when it's all said? Because you're not empowering them, you're not empowering them, you're. It's not a positive culture. It's a, you know, again, people have done it different ways, but that's just my.

I think you're spot on. As you were talking, I realized that, you know, I played baseball all the way through high school. I was a leadoff batter and a starting middle infielder. But the year, my senior year, I decided not to play because I wasn't inspired by the coach and he didn't build me up, he tore me down and there was no reason for me to perform for him. So I get that. And you know, something dawned on me. Dude, few people in this world get to win a national championship and then go and coach after. And that, that's rare. Like, I remember the off season before the 1997 team. So that must have been in 1996. And I remember you guys working out in the off season on fundamentals and getting yourselves prepared. I remember our starters shooting 1000 shots a day or something stupid like that, something ridiculous. And I remember a member of the team giving coaching guidance on. Am I right about this? Is this an accurate memory?

You know? Yes. In fact, the first I remember, you know, when my first, our first practice or the first night together in August as a team in that 96, 97 year in August it was a nighttime in the gym and I, here I am, I look back, I was like, what was I thinking? Here I'm 18 year old freshman. I mean I, you know, like, who am I? Who is this guy I grabbed? I said, hey guys, we're going to win the national championship this year. We're going to be the hardest working team, you know, And I mean, I'm like gathering, trying to talk to him like that. And I'm thinking to myself, when I look back like, what was I thinking? You know, I'm lucky I didn't get like, like thrown out the gym and punched me. But because we had such good guys, you know, they, you know, they, they allowed me to be me on that. But those guys spent a lot of extra time in the gym and all those good things. But, you know, it was interesting. My. I really thought we were going to win the national championship, not only the.

First year, but every single year.

Every. I mean, even the next year, we were by far the best team in the country. And I remember after we won it in 1997, I told my father, I said, man, this is awesome. We're going to do this every year. And I remember my dad saying, savior this, son. I mean, this is. You know, you're rare. And as. The longer you go in the profession, as you mentioned, me being a head coach, going to my 14th year as a head coach, the longer you go in, you just realize how rarefied error is to be part of a team that won the national championship. And so it's a, It's a special thing. And anytime you can reach the pinnacle of your profession, of your, you know, choice of what you're, you know, going for, it's, it's, it's very, very hard to do.

Maybe the hardest thing is having the right chemistry, the right dynamic amongst the team. Right? The, the, the chemistry might be like. As business leaders. If you're listening to this podcast right now, please remember this is all about you and your career and what Josh went through in 97. On a magical run, they beat three number one seeds. It'll never happen again. It never happened before. And they went on to win the national championship. I think you guys had nine losses that year. But somehow the chemistry and the belief that what happened at the end of the season was the most important. How does a team that's. That doesn't know it's destined for greatness, stay supporting each other? This is for business, too. I mean, how do people support each other, build each other up so you guys can execute? Even if you had nine losses, how do you keep believing?

Yeah, you know what, Todd? I really believe this. I really believe in that year as well. We won the national championship. Yes. We had great players. Yes. To be successful in business, you got to have talent of, you know, of dealing with people. But in the end, the star of our team at that year, when we won the national championship, the best star of them all was the team was the team. The star of the team was the team. And that can Be put into business. You know, it's the star of your company has got to be the company. And it's sort of the old adage is, no one's bigger than the program, no one's bigger than the company. And now you've got to, if you say that, you've got to live by that. And I really think in business.

And.

Orange Sports, it's all the same thing. I think using your words correctly, meaning that if you're going to say something, if you're going to put a sign up, if you're going to be who you are, you've got to live by that. You've got to. That's got to be the. Not even the word expectation. That's got to be the standard. Like, that is the standard. Like I always tell our staff, let's not use the word. Hey, we expect this. No, these are our standards. There's just. We're not lowering our standards. And so this is what it's got to be. And we're not lowering our standards. It's, it's everyone, it's their responsibility. Okay, here's my standard. Everyone's got to meet me at my standard. And, and, and I think. And, and we. And so you've got to be a believer in that. And so sometimes you could have a lot of sayings, you could have a lot of things you want to charge or say, you got to do that. And that's what goes back to the simplicity part, keeping things simple. What's important to your company, to your business, to your. To your team. And if you can find that and then really get it simplified, then you can start holding everyone accountable. And that was Coach Olson's big thing, especially for that season, was, okay, we were a team. And the reason we had the success we had, especially later in the year, is the star of the team was the team. And I. Look, the following year, you know, we, There are some. We were. The following year, we were the best team in the country, but we had a couple losses along the way here and there. And even at the last game, we had a couple where maybe the, the team wasn't the star anymore because we had such great individual players. And, and so it's going back to what you said, Todd. The dynamics of chemistry, cohesiveness. Only through the unity of the team can the individual flourish. It's not the individual flourishing. And then the unity of the team. Only through the unity of the team can then an individual flourish. It's not the other way around. And I think that's really important in anything you do, including business.

It's so cool because as you're talking about this, I just remembered that the, that was a team that had to solve problems like on the fly because the lead scorer went into a shooting slump through March Madness and other people, including the whole team, had to step up and absorb those additional points. So, you know, the people that we celebrate and we, and we have their names in the rafters are not even the ones that were the stars going into March Madness, which is bananas. Bananas to me that you guys held it all together in your program is the basic expectation, motor discipline and being driven.

Yes. I mean that's, that's our standard. Like that's a baseline of the standard and we talk about it all the time and I think everything correlates. Todd, you know, we, we, you know, look, we're, we're in a high level academic school, Georgia Tech's very, very high level academics. And yes, again, you've got to have really good talent. You've got to have good, good players. You, you got to have high level skill set and understanding of the game. But, but I do know what's important to me. And, and I do know our vision, how to be successful. And you know, it's, it's a little thing. It's like, like I like to be able to walk into the locker room after practice and the locker room being as, as tidy as can be. I mean it's absolutely everything in place. Nothing's on the floor, the chairs are lined up. Like to me that, I think that goes a long way. You might think, well, what does that have to do with winning? Because you know what? More people go to the hospital for mosquito bites than they do for getting stomped on by an elephant. Meaning that the little things are. End up biting you in the rear, not the big things. And I really believe that in business and life. So a little thing, like to me, the locker room being in clean and the guys taking care of the locker room, if it's sloppy. And I just think that when we have a sloppy locker room, I can tell you how many times we go out and play. Sloppy. Yeah, It's a direct correlation. And you, and you might not think, does it really matter? But all those little things, it's not all this big things up here. It's those littlest, the tiniest details make the biggest part of being successful in anything that you're trying to get to. You know what, Todd, you know this. If you're running a business or what, when you're in charge. Yeah, it takes a lot of. It's, it can be, it's, it's a lot of energy because you've got to stay on those. If you allow slippage in those details, you're going to, you're, it's going to bite you in the rear. It always does. And then you're like, man, why was it worth it? It was sort of like when you're having your own children, just do it right the first time.

Yes.

And so it's the same thing with the details. It's better just to use that energy, make sure there's no slippage of details in the little things. Because if you allowed, ah, that's okay. Allow this to slip, allow that to slip. Then all of a sudden you have slippage, you don't perform as well, you have losses, the business doesn't do as well, you're not having as good earnings. And then all of a sudden you're looking back, I should have been tighter on this, tighter on that. And then you're, you know, so being able to be really subconscious on that type of.

And self aware as the head coach, you're like the CEO of the program, right?

Absolutely.

And you are the one that holds the standards. But let's talk about when you get bit in the ass because it does happen. How do you coach yourself to not flip out, but to hold the standards and do it in a way that inspires people. Like, I know that I've got standards around my organization and often when those standards slip, I flip out. So what keeps you from doing that and how do you get your message across without feeling like you're beating people up in the process?

Yeah, no, it's, it's a real interesting dynamic and it's, it's not easy. And I think, number one, I think the, the communication part is very, very important. I think going back into, you know, what happens is you sometimes will have a meeting and you communicate in the meeting of what everyone's roles and responsibilities are and then you give it to them. But then all of a sudden, you know, you never come back to that. I think continuing to communicate or even over communicating at times, not micromanaging, but making people aware, hey, I'm in this too now. I'm in. This is this little things, this little detail is really, really important. Like you're responsible for this and you're empowering people with that. Now if somebody has slippage when you're the CEO and there's an employee under you that has slippage, the one that's going to get your, like you said, that's going to be bitten. The rear end is going to be you, the CEO. Now, you can yell and scream at that employee, but what does that do?

Right?

It's not going to do anything. So you either got to, you've got to change it. You've got to make, you've got to, you've got to course correct. You might have to change someone's responsibilities. Obviously there, you know, the dire end part of it is, you know, you might have to, you know, part ways with somebody if they're just not on your same kind of level. I used to. Here's what I would always like to the analogy. When you're running a company, you have a caravan that you're going, you're. The caravan's moving and there's no handlebars. So you can't have an employee hanging on with one hand and they're, and they're dragging two feet on the, on the pavement as a caravan, you're either all in on the caravan or you got to be out, right? And it won't work. It won't work. If you've got a couple people hanging on as a train, as a caravan's going and they're just hanging on, it doesn't work. And what happens, we all do this because sometimes the people hanging on are really talented and you're thinking, man, I want to keep them. I just, because they're so talented, I want to keep them around. But, but on the other hand, they're also break. You're better off just let get rid of the. That's why you can't have the handlebars. So they can't hang on. And you might actually perform better with lesser talent. But as you mentioned earlier, Todd, better chemistry, cohesiveness. Because only through the unity of the team can the individual flourish.

I love it. Josh, last question for you. I want to ask you about losses. Now, you're not somebody who specializes in losses. You have an elite level winning percentage amongst some of the best in college basketball. And you've been around for a long time, but losses happen. How does an elite level coach pick himself up after a loss, stay focused on the ultimate goal and proceed ahead without up here inside between your two ears beating yourself up. How do you pick yourself up and then get the best out of yourself?

Great question, Todd. I think my favorite stat, my first eight years as a head coach, first eight years as a head coach, the longest losing streak that we had was two games we never lost. Three in a row. First time I ever lost three in a row in my life was my ninth year as a head coach. I was like, so, I mean, and so I was like, man, I mean to me that was an incredible stat. And I always look back and say, and it wasn't me. I didn't have any special formula. I always felt this, I always felt the ability to bounce back. We were always good at bouncing back and responding. Now when you lose a game, you know, you lose a sale, you lose something in business, it's no fun. I mean, it's like when you're going to bed and you have that on you and you can't sleep and you wake up and you just want to put the covers over you and not get out of bed. I mean as a CEO or a manager or a leader of people, you know, that's, that's you feel it. But you can say yourself, hey look, I've got to show up the next day and I've got to be the most upbeat, energized person in the building. And it take. And that's hard to do. It's hard to do. Now you don't have to be rah rah. You don't have to be, you know, being, being, you know, out doing things that's not in with your, with your, who you are and your as a human being. But I think it's really important that you, that you come with the same type of energy and enthusiasm the next day even after a loss because the people underneath you that are working with you are looking to you for your leadership. And it's, you know, listen, it is easy when you win and things are going well. Do you come in and have a great attitude and everyone's hat's not leadership, that's easy. Anybody, my 12 year old daughter could do that. It's when things aren't going well, it's when you do encounter a losing streak. It's when you do have some setbacks and there's no greater time. When you're dealing with challenges, you're saying, man, this is a great chance, a great opportunity to really just like flip the script and to rally your group. And that's part of some of the most fun times as a leader. Yes, it's hard in the moment, but when you look back, that's the excitement, that's some of the most exciting parts of it. And so really trying to stay positive. But on the other hand, also being honest and very direct. People don't like to have mind games play with them. People like to know exactly where they stand. So if somebody's not performing, it's not screaming and yelling at them, it's being very direct and telling them what they have to do to get better. I think the number one, when I tell people what do you think is the number one most important thing that people are attracted to? And they say, oh, their looks. I says, no, no, no. When you're dealing with people, the number one thing people are attracted to is honesty. They want direct approach. They want to know where, okay, I. They might not agree with the leader. They might not always see eye to eye, but they understand that there's that where everything's coming from. And it's a very honest direct. It can be very positive but performance based approach. And even when you're going through those tough times. So as a leader, if you're in any parts of leadership, what an outstanding opportunity. When you're going through tough stretches and we're all going to go through tough stretches, how you deal with that and handle that and rally the group, the team, the organization, the company through that really set your mark as a leader.

I'm so glad you brought that up. My proudest moment as an entrepreneur is when I had to shut the office down on March 16, 2020 and have everybody work from home. But my proudest moment was really letting them all know that if we don't sell another project for the next nine months, everybody's job is safe. So let's go home and take care of our families and of course, love on our clients. And we went on to have the biggest year of our entire company and we did it during a pandemic. He's Josh Passner, an endless source of inspiration for me. He's the head coach at Georgia Tech. Coach, thank you so much for joining me. You just always fire me up. And I'm so excited to watch your season. By the way. You guys should know that when Josh Pastner is on the court and on tv, I take these stupid little photos and send it over to his cell phone. And Josh, thank you so much for joining me on the Todd cast.

And thank you, Todd. Thank you for all that you do. You are a real positive human being that have impacted so many and never lose who you are. And God bless your wife for keeping you about that because if without her, you might not have gone on the Tony Robbins. So give her a big hug for me as well too. I will.

Take care. My man. Thank you so much. Yo, that was a powerful episode. And from what we just learned, it should be obvious how you can now implement these lessons in your life to get to the next level. Now, before you bounce, I just have three quick thoughts. First, thank you for taking me on your incredible life journey. Second, if you receive some value from me and you want to pay it forward, it would mean the world to me. If you left an honest rating and review at Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, I'd be incredibly grateful. And lastly, if you share this episode, whether it be a screenshot or a photo from where you're listening, anything via Instagram stories or LinkedIn, Facebook, or any of the social media sites, just tag me and the guest. I'll repost your content and I'll reply back in the comments because I love mixing it up. In fact, I'd love to share your shout outs in my feed too. Not only are these these shout outs really good for you and for me, but they also help us book more amazing guests because they'll be able to see the reach that you're helping to cultivate. This is a way for you to help contribute to the show. So thank you again for listening and I look forward to earning a regular spot inside that ear of yours. Let's grow. Sam.