Coach Michael Burt, a former championship basketball coach and author of 13 books, built a 36-year career on mentorship and coaching others through uncomfortable conversations. He argues confidence is the single most critical factor for big ambitions and warns against short-term efforts. Burt defines happiness as progress and creation, citing Stephen Covey's work as his biggest influence.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner, and today's sponsor is Flipboard. Flipboard curates the world's stories so you can be smarter in your work, life, and play. Choose from thousands of topics to personalize Flipboard and get the latest stories from the best publishers and experts delivered to you 24/7. So You can get started now at flipboard.com. And now let's jump into the episode. All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today I have Coach Michael Burt with us. He's a former championship women's basketball coach. Author of 13 books, and the founder of the Munster Producer Coaching Program, which consists of a tribe of over 700 committed individuals to their Munster growth. He is also the founder of the Greatness Factory, a unique destination where people go to manufacture their greatness, and the Greatness Factory for Kids, an online learning academy. So welcome to the show, man.
Absolutely. That's great, man. Thanks for having me.
Of course. I'm very grateful to have you here. So the first question we ask on this show is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
6 years old. I was raised by a single mother who had me when she was 16 years old, and I remember watching her kind of scratch and claw for everything she had. I remember her working 2 and 3 jobs, and at 6, as early as 4, 5, and 6, I was down at a local baseball field and the coaches tended to me. One particular coach named Mickey Benson really kind of watched after me, cared for me. And it was then that I had my first big revelation, Tyler, that a good coach can change a person's life. And because of that revelation, by 15, I was coaching, athletic coaching. By 19, I was at the second largest high school in Tennessee. By 22, I was the youngest head coach in Tennessee. And so I've really devoted the last, you know, call it 36 years of my life to being a coach to other people. But that big underlying story started as early as 6 years old, seeing that woman coach everybody and how she tended to people.
That is awesome. And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I think you can't see the picture when you're inside the frame. I believe everybody needs a good coach in their life who will have conversations with them they don't want to have, make them do things they don't want to do, help them become something they didn't think they could become. And so over the last, you know, X number of years that I've I've been coaching people professionally, we all have big missing structures. We have missing structures in how we explain our services and how we work a prospecting or selling system and how we follow up and how we extract referrals and ultimately how we become people of interest. This is why people need a coach coaching them through these structures.
And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
The amount of confidence is the one thing that affects everything. And to go out and do something big in the world, the bigger the ambition, the more patience and confidence required to reach that ambition. So too many people start and they don't have a long obedience in the same direction. They're cotton candy. Like, it tastes good for a second, but it goes away because they will not commit to long-term mastery.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Be an ambassador versus a loner. I've spent a good percentage of my life from 20 to 30 being selfish, pushing my own agenda at the expense of building advocates and fans. And if I had to go back and tell myself, man, you know, make it about everybody, not just about you.
And then kind of going a little bit down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Progress, creation, aligning your business to serve your life versus run your life, active usage and distribution of talents. That's happiness to me.
And then what is the best book that you've ever read? And what was the number one thing you learned from it?
The book that impacted my life, it may not have been the best book that I've ever read. But the book that impacted my life the most was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen Covey, followed up by The Eighth Habit. And that really shaped and molded me into really the leader I am today.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
Hmm, I was thinking about this today. Everyone chooses one of two roads in life. The old and the young, the rich and the poor, men and women alike. One is the broad, well-traveled road to mediocrity. The other road is the road to greatness and meaning. And that's a Covey quote.
Yes, I love it. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you before we let you go is where can our audience best find you online?
Coachburt.com or search Coach Michael Burt and you'll find, you'll find everything you need, all of the social, every, all the books, all the everything that you need. But coachburt.com is the home base website.
