Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - Brandon Marshall on The Longest Two Weeks in Football | The Game Inside The Games, Ep. 4

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

For two weeks, players are surrounded by relentless media, soaring expectations, and the weight of a lifetime of preparation. Some rise under the pressure. Others crumble.In this episode of The Game Inside the Games, Dr. Michael Gervais and Brandon Marshall unpack what makes the Super Bowl build-up so uniquely intense—and how the best athletes train their minds to handle the noise. From managing anxiety to creating a mental bubble, they reveal what it takes to stay locked in when the whole world is watching.Brandon shares his own experiences from the NFL, opening up about mental health, confidence, and the hidden psychological battles of high-performance sports. Because at the highest level, winning isn’t just about talent—it’s about mastering the mind.Whether you’re an athlete, a leader, or just someone looking to perform at your best under pressure, this episode is packed with powerful insights on mental resilience, confidence, and the mindset needed to thrive when everything is on the line.Subscribe now and follow along with Finding Mastery all week as we unlock the mindset of high-performance athletes on the world’s biggest stage. Get The Game Inside The Games on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.…This episode is brought to you by…Microsoft CopilotTry Copilot for yourself → https://rb.gy/u8xr9z Find the right Microsoft Partner for your organization → https://rb.gy/xb3kgt Mack WeldonGet 20% off orders $100+ with code FINDINGMASTERY → https://rb.gy/8gsani_________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

. Welcome to the game inside the games presented by Microsoft Co-Pilot. I am Sport and Performance Psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais. And I'm Brandon Marshall, 13 year NFL veteran, and we're breaking down the psychology of the pivotal moments in the Super Bowl that can make or break a Super Bowl dream. In the two weeks between the championship game and the Super Bowl, teams have what seems like a rare gift in football. Extra time to recover, to reset, to prepare. But instead of a break, oftentimes the opposite takes over. The Super Bowl becomes everything. There is so much noise. The analysis, the expectations, both physically and

mentally, it is flat out on. The game is everywhere in every conversation, every news segment, every commercial. There's doubters, there's cynics, there are supporters. And the players, they've got to create this bubble to manage it well. And for those who are unskilled with the mental part of the game, the moments meant for rest and recovery can be a breeding ground for anxiety. And here's the thing. Stress isn't just a performance issue. It's a mental health issue. If you already deal with anxiety, depression, or pressure-triggered struggles, the Super Bowl magnifies everything. Today, we're breaking down what happens when there's no off switch for two weeks,

why some players thrive in the pressure, and why some get crushed by it. Okay, Brandon, give us a play when your number was called. So you're in the huddle. You know that the ball's coming to you. And walk us through what that's like in two ways. When you're on your game, when you know when you're running out to get lined up, it's like, all right, here we go. And give us the take on when you're like, oh, man, I'm not quite feeling right right now.

Like, walk us through that experience. Well, first, it's before the moment, right? It's the situation. In football, the wins and losses really are, you know created in this in situational football right so 2010 is my contract year it's important information um you know there's a lot on the line for me personally so there's a lot of pressure there we're talking about you know my entire life right waiting for this, working for this moment of creating generational wealth for my family and being always okay. Because as a football player, you're one injury

away from the game being taken away from you. That's right. So it's contract year, 2010, playing for the Denver Broncos. The Dallas Cowboys are in Denver. Josh McDaniel's first year as the head coach. We start off 6-0. This is a defining moment for our team. Dallas Cowboys are here. We're in the fourth quarter. Situational football, okay? Two-minute offense. It was my time to actually sit because Coach McDaniel's incorporated something that was really challenging for me as a starter, as of the best wide receivers in the game his first year in Denver he said you know what we're going to rotate our wide receivers this is unheard of yeah in the National Football League no Brandon Marshall should start right you want you want to you want to go to your guy you want to go to your guy yeah and so I ran to the sideline I said coach uh it's two minute drive

and coach Adam Gase is saying that I'm supposed to be out of the game. He said, don't worry about it, Brandon. It doesn't matter. We're actually going three wide. I said, okay, no problem. So I say that because the moment, it wasn't about the moment in that time. It was about the situation. And I'm like, Coach, I need to be in this situation to create the moment. And what ended up happening was the Dallas Cowboys at the time played man-to-man. And so I ran there and I said, Coach, okay, I'm in. Now we need to play – we need to call Hitch. If we call Hitch, this is a route.

It's a five-yard route where I turn around. If he's off, then we'll just have a five-yard completion and I can make a move and maybe make something happen. But if he presses me, I convert, I convert that hitch. It turns into a goal, potentially a touchdown. He calls the play. He listens to me. Well, first he makes sure I'm in the game.

Then he calls the play. He listens to me. Wait, hold on. You're directing this whole thing. I was asking about your mindset and you're kind of sitting above the whole thing, right? The situational awareness. And you're like really hyper aware contextually of everything that's going on right so you're you're kind of pulling the pieces together like look coach i know what we agreed on but like now's the moment like let's get me

and he's like don't worry about it we got you you're good that's right and now you're also designing the play 100 because now you're talking about the moment and the reason why this is important because i believe there's some players, especially Ben Howard in the Super Bowl, where you know ball. And there's this collaboration between player and coach. And so for me, I understand the scheme of this defense and I understand my skill set, my teammates' skill set. And so, yes, I wanted this particular play because I felt like I had a great opportunity

of beating this guy. He listened to me. He called the play. It was one of my most magical moments in ball over the 13 years I played. They end up playing press. Terrence Newman, I converted it. I caught the ball, cut back, scored a touchdown. We won the game. And after that, what happened was I no longer rotated. Stayed in the game at the two-minute mark. No. Moving forward, I no longer rotated. Remember, he was in this process of rotating all receivers. And so I had to manage that mentally, right,

the mind games that teams may play. And so after that play play I ran to the sideline I said coach I'm not rotating anymore right and then uh I went on to have one of my best years I signed the biggest contract at the wide receiver position in history the NFL after that so that play did so much for me wow oh my god so when bring us into like now the intimacy where it's just you and you're looking against your defense uh the defense and it's just you and your own self what are you saying to yourself what is that like in that moment where are you in like a staggered stance like what what does your lineup look like on that unique play so in that particular play yeah uh so i actually was split out to the right left foot up and uh what i'm paying attention to

in those moments is it's actually not really uh what's happening there you know i i'm just validating the work in the film that i watch going in. Are you saying that to yourself? Like, you put in the work, let's go? No. No. It's all about process now. Okay. It's now, all right, 70% of the time in this moment, two-minute drill.

Game is on the line. They play one press. He now plays inside a little bit or head up. And so now this move that I said I wanted to run against this look in this moment. He's showing it. Is it good to go? Yeah. Well, it's good to go, right?

Because I've already prepared for this moment. So now I'm just validating what I already watched on film and the week of work, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So, you know, we got out there. I saw, great to go, good to go. And I went to my move. You also, I've seen you over the years and up close and personal, like you'll take a breath.

Like you'll do something to kind of center yourself in. Can you walk through what you're doing there as a way to adjust to all the noise, all the intensity, all of the analysis that you naturally are gifted at doing. What do you do to settle into your process? Once you've read the cues, you got the keys, and then you're like, okay, ball's coming to me. I'm good. How do you get to that place? Yeah, we have to understand, right? Sport is a microcosm of the world society and you know in these high-pressure

situations we can learn a lot from athletes right the Tom Brady's of the world the Russell Wilson's of the world the Pete Carroll's of the world like how do you manage stress how do you manage and cope with these high-pressure situations when you win or lose can you bring yourself back there on the baseline so in this particular moment I didn't have the skills and tools yet to self-regulate, right? So there was some challenge. That was at the start of this thing for me about performance and going from mental health, which may be impairment, to now tapping into performance. So that was your big struggle at that point?

That was a big challenge for me at that time, right? Because it wasn't until the following year where I actually went to McLean Hospital and I spent three months in an outpatient program. I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, which was beautiful about that. It showed me my purpose, right? So one, I thought I was born to play football. When I was on the campus of McLean Hospital,

I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but I was also in play football. When I was on the campus of McLean Hospital, I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but I was also in mentalization therapy. I was in self-assessment therapy. I was in dialectical behavior therapy. I did one-on-one with the great Dr. Gunderson. I did a clinical evaluation, neurological evaluation. So that journey started there from impairment, but then it led me to performance.

So 2010, it was just football player the year after that 2011 when i was at mclean after that i went on this journey of performance so what i grew to was almost like resetting after every single play so i can stay in the moment right because before i was just trying to manage my emotions and the stress of playing the game. So hold on, hold on, hold on. Because for folks that don't understand borderline personality, they won't understand what you and I are talking about in this, the intensity of emotional dysregulation. So the best way to describe borderline personality disorder is this way. Well, one, it presents itself in over 260 different ways in people. So what it looks like in me is different than what it looks like in Ricky Williams.

That's right. Or even, you know, at-home mom or weekend warrior or at-home dad. And so the best way to describe it is an emotional disorder. Can you self-regulate? Do you have the skills naturally to bring yourself back down to baseline, to cope and deal with the stressors, the regular stressors of life that we all deal with? It may be normal for you, but for me, I had to take dialectical behavior therapy to pick up these schools and go through radical acceptance.

I had to take mentalization therapy because someone dealing with borderline and not having that under control, they may think in black and white. That's right. Well, no, you can't. Sometimes you've got to be in the gray. You've got to be able to navigate the gray. Well, I know he said that, but that can mean 10 different things.

Yeah, that's right. Right? And so for you, this is the most exciting part of knowing you and having a friendship with you is that you have, if you can do it, so many of us also can. You give great hope to being able to work within your emotional self to be able to regulate. Because is it fair to say somebody has ADD or ADHD, for them, in some cases, it's much harder to focus.

That's 100%. Right? And then is it also fair to say for somebody who has an emotional dysregulation challenge, that it would be harder for you to regulate your emotions and to kind of settle into this moment with a equanimity, with a poise? 100%. Yeah. And so you're a great teacher for this now. So, okay. The beautiful thing about this, right, and I'll answer your question. I'll get to that. The beautiful thing about this is, you know, what I discovered was this is good for everybody, like dialectical behavior therapy.

Yeah. We're talking about entrepreneurs, CEOs, the stress of being a mother, the stress of being a father, the stress of just what happens every single day in relationships, having the skills and tools to be able to self-regulate. Now we're talking about performance. I want the most out of my mind. I want the most out of my body, right? So you have to put in the work, and that's what I discovered there. And so if you're someone out there and you want to just be better, you want to unlock your full potential, you know, sports psychology, you know, bringing in a coach or listening to podcasts like this will actually help you.

So for me, being on that campus, it took me on this journey and that led to performance. Right. I use higher performance, higher performance. That's all it's about. Right. Like, you know, my diagnosis doesn't make me, it doesn't define me. I'm not my diagnosis, right? It was a huge blessing for me because it got to a place where now in those moments in games, I start resetting. It wasn't about the moment. It wasn't about the situation. It was about the process.

I now understand how to keep myself right here in peak shape, peak performance. Because you're committing to the process. Oh, wait, hold on. I want to go back to what you just said. Because you've done a deep self-discovery work. There you go. Okay. If every viewer could just take that from you right now, which is like, whoa, he did the deep internal work

to know himself, and then he found a process to just stay in the pocket where you feel like you're at your best? Because here's the thing, we're all dealing with something. For me, it's borderline. All dealing, yeah. We're all going through something.

Just in America, and I know this podcast will reach people globally, but we're just talking about America right now. There's give or take a few million. There's 320 million Americans and over 100 million deal with something, have a diagnosis. So that means that for everyone that's living with something, we touch five to six people. So it really touches everybody. Right.

So this is something that we all can learn from and it's if you know yourself you know what you deal with whether it's borderline personality disorder anxiety depression now you can self-regulate now you put in the right things it's like working out it's fitness right i call it mental fitness as an athlete i know that in march february march and April, I'm probably going to be around 11%, 12%, maybe even 13% because I'm not training the way I usually train in season or right before the season. So I'm not in peak performance. Right. But I know how to get in peak performance.

I know come the end of March, I need to start working out four times a week. I know I need to do upper body. I know I need to do cardio. I know I need to do agility. I have certain things in place. So I went through a process to learn that. I had coaches and teachers that taught me that process. So I got to a place where I was able to master that. Now, how do you create a process and master that for your mind, right? So for me, I had to go to McLean Hospital. But then after that, what I said is in season, I'll talk to a mental health clinician once a week, my therapist once a week. Out of season, it's bi-weekly because I'm not in a high stress situation. I'm also meditating. I'm also

doing yoga. I'm also going to continue to work out, which is what I do now in retirement. I don't have to work out. But do you understand what happens to the mind and the brain when you do work out? So, yes, you have to master that process, but now getting to that moment or moments and situations, what happens is I stick to the process. So before every single play, I took a deep breath. I squeezed my hands. I'm here.

I'm here. I feel it. I'm present, right? And that breath just said it. The crowd. I didn't hear the crowd anymore. I wasn't thinking about the play. I wasn't thinking about my alignment.

I'm just here. Go make the play. Would that be the last finishing touch, that self-talk, which is like, go make the play? There was not even no self-talk. So it's just fully settle in. As musicians, musicians call it being in the pocket. So it's that settling in. And I think...

Because you know why? Because what we're talking about is how do you make the play? Some people make the play and some people don't make the play. The reason why we don't make the play is we're in our mind that's right we're thinking that's right for me i got to a place when i took that deep breath yes it was the last thing but it got to a place where i wasn't self-talking it was just part of my process where i took that deep breath and all it was about now was the play it wasn wasn't about the fans. It wasn't about my ankle hurt. It wasn't about the crowd.

It was just the play. And so with all of the noise around the Super Bowl, with all the noise that people are dealing with in their lives, the Super Bowl is this great emblem for managing distractions and managing emotions. Like, it's a great emblem for it. How would you want the viewer or listener to understand how to deal with the distractions and the noises around so that they can be a little bit closer to their very best?

Playing 13 years in the National Football League and being around some amazing leaders, men like yourself, men and women like yourself. Thank you. Coach Pete Carroll, who I think is a dynamic, one of the best leaders in the world, not just sports but in business. What a high compliment. Yeah.

Because you've been coached by some really good coaches. You know, I was fortunate to work with him for nine seasons. And for you to say that, that's a really high compliment. He's dynamic. He is dynamic. You know this. Even like, and during that time, there wasn't too many head coaches bringing in guys like you. I know. To think about the innovation and how forward thinking he is. He was ahead of it.

And when you came in the building, I don't know if you, I don't really remember the exact moment, but I was like, oh, yeah, we're getting a real one in. That's right. There you go. Yeah, we're getting a real one. that's right there you go yeah we're getting a real we're here right yeah so uh 13 years in the national football league which you which you realize it's about the process it's about the consistency in the process it's about the fundamentals failure and success distractions are all the same. Approaching the same. So failure success are all distractions. The noise distraction, good or bad, it's all distractions

to what? Stick to your process. Distractions to the process? So what you're talking, what you just asked me was, you know, we're out here at the Super Bowl, overcoming distractions, all of these things. It's a process. Are you going to do the same thing this week that you did week one, week two, week three that got you here? Now, obviously, there's, as a player, they're asking to do different things, right? You got to fly in on Sunday, a week before, do this press conference, but are you going to stay the same throughout that? Are you still going to wake up at the same time? Are you going to eat the same thing, right, that you usually eat?

Are you going to still do your yoga? Think the same way. Because the way that we organize our thoughts, if they get, if our thought patterns are over-indexed by the world around us, we're just getting whipped around. But if our thoughts and thoughts patterns can stay consistent, this is part of the thinking process so that I know how to speak to myself to be my very best in any moment. I feel like the environment can be whatever it needs to be, whatever it is or she is. I am just now tuning in even deeper because it's like I have something to bounce off of like right let me take

my breath and those are just the skills right like when you really understand the fundamentals that I was just talking about is like your breath you know uh mindfulness your self-talk your mind self-talk all of those things but if you want to take it to another level and you want to get to peak performance you want to get to that elite elite level right now, you start to create that lifestyle, that routine. And that's outside of your mind, right? It's like, what time am I waking up? How many hours of sleep am I getting? What am I putting in my body? Because all of that matters. Yeah, right. Right. So the environment you can't control like especially if you're you know if you're an athlete or if you uh you work in corporate america and you have to travel it's like well how do i do

this how do i travel on track there's still things that you can put in place to keep the thing the thing right like eli manning was masterful at this he would say oh i gotta i can't i gotta stay in i gotta stay in routine. Meaning that when I traveled to Detroit and everybody's going out to eat and they want to hang out with family, he said, no, no, we got a game tomorrow. I got to stay in routine. So he had a routine when he traveled. Now it looked a little different when he was home and we was in East Rutherford in Jersey.

Yeah, right. But when he traveled, he had a routine. What is your routine? You got to think through these things because once you can get yourself in a position where you can predict some things, then it's easier on your mind. So like a morning routine or end of the day routine or a pre-meeting routine. That's right. Or I have a routine before I go into my home, my sanctuary. So I'm out in the world doing my thing.

I need to know that I'm going to be the greatest parent, the greatest partner when I walk into my sanctuary. So I've got a little routine I do there. And then I just want to add, um, no one showed me how to do that, right? Like you got to make it up yourself in some respects because you care about something. When you care about something, you'll do whatever it takes to be your very best. 100%. And then the last part of the routine is sometimes you got to break the routine. Sometimes like the routine can't be rigid. That's right. That's right.

Can't be rigid. Can't be rigid. So we do need to be flexible with our routines. So last question here. All right. Now it's time for the Confidence Playbook, a special segment presented by Mack Weldon, where we explore the critical role of confidence in high consequence environments. Talk to us about confidence. How do you think

about confidence? How do you generate confidence? What are some of the ways that you do that for yourself? 2012, I was traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Chicago Bears. And I played with Hall of Famers. At the time, they weren't Hall of Famers. Great, great players. Brian Urlacher. Yeah, right. Devin Hester. Julius Peppers.

Just for the record, I've never seen anyone move like Devin Hester. Like, he is remarkable. He was at the Seahawks for a little bit. And like, him and Percy Harvin, I know these are two of your peers, but oh my God. Different. Now, I'm glad that you, out of the three that I just mentioned, I'm glad that you mentioned him.

Which one, Percy? Or Devin? Devin. Devin, yeah. So, Devin Hester, as great as he is and was, taught me about confidence. This is Devin Hester. We knew during that time, this may have been year eight for him, he was a Hall of Famer, best in history.

And one day, I get on a bus, we're going to a game, and he's sitting there watching his high school film because he was in a rut. He hasn't scored a return touchdown in like a year or whatever it was. And so I saw Devin Hester fighting for his confidence. And that was the first time I realized that, oh, it's a process. It's a thing that you have to continually invest in. So when you asked me that question about confidence, that's the first thing that comes to mind. Because I didn't experience that in my career up until that moment, right, where I had to really fight for my confidence.

But after that, I did. Even when we were in Seattle, that's that was a process for me but confidence if you don't have confidence what I say in sport when I'm talking to athletes or I'm like if you lose your confidence you die you die confidence is everything it is the cornerstone confidence is everything yeah I know and it's a skill it's this is not magical. I didn't know that. I know. Where are you early in my career? Well, you were learning, you were learning from Devin, right? But let's go back to Devin for a minute because here's some of the calculus of confidence. Okay. So it's a skill. It's based on what you say to yourself, but there's some math that's

taking place and it's happening all the time. Confidence is, is specifically to the environment. So it's not this thing that you always walk around. There's this math that's taking place. And the math is you're assessing the external conditions and then you're quickly mapping that up against your internal skills. Wow. So if you're, if you're very clear that you're a learner, you're a good, you adapt really well, you've got great hands, whatever it might be. Those are the types of statements and math that allows you to go into other environments and kind of open up the aperture to get loose. But if you're constantly like, man, that looks too, man, I don't know. And the math is not right, then we tighten up

and we don't feel great. Mack Weldon is on a mission to help men feel more confident through their collection of high quality apparel that blend timeless style, modern comfort, and substance over image. For 20% off your first order over $100, shop now at MackWeldon.com and use the code FINDINGMASTERY at checkout. See, hearing you speak like that uh it reminds me of uh like my experience outside of high performance culture and being in the world most people don't know their gifts i know they don't sit down back to self-discovery back to you knowing you there you go that's right there you go that's and I think that's important for people like the self-discovery work it's a process

and a lot of times it's not easy it's actually hard but it's really rewarding if you look yourself in the mirror say for the first time something like oh I'm not this but you're this right sometimes you have to give up some of those beliefs that belief system that you built up for years, the lies that you may have told yourself. You know, I was telling myself for a long time, I'm 6'4", 265, I run a 4'3", and then like, I'm handsome like you, but it just all fell apart one day when I looked in the real mirror. It's like, damn, I'm not very fast.

I don't have Brandon Marshall's body. Yeah, man. But then you turned yourself into one of the greatest teachers of the mind in the world. See, but you had to realize that. Right. I'm not going to the NFL. That did not happen. I can still go to the NFL.

That's right. There's lots of ways there. But that's the beautiful thing about that. I know we're joking about that, but think about it. You know, you're just like, that's not my thing. But there's a lot of people that think that you know this is my thing and they we just fight it and we chase it for a long time right at the top you said something really powerful is that once I went and did the deep dive of self-discovery then

I knew my purpose so your purpose was before was to be a great ballplayer yeah that's probably never going to be big enough. It's too much about the me and not about the we. It's just too small. And I say that with all humility and respect. Okay. So can you articulate what it feels like your purpose is? Oh, I know my purpose. My purpose is to help bridge the gap in the mental health community. And now it's mental fitness, right? Like, I just love this performance culture that is, you know, growing every single day.

Like, people now, it's past mental health. Like, you know, there's a world there. Like, when we first started in 2010, you know, I used to go out there and I'd say, hey, where we're at today is where the cancer community was 20, 30 years ago. And it's going to take all this work for us to get here. And now, boom, pandemic hit. And now it's the biggest conversation.

We are aware. So we're here now. And there's a lot of people leaning into mental health. But there's this big community that's saying, no, I just want to be a better father. I want to be a better mother. I want to be a better CEO. I want to be a better this. I want to be a better that.

And that's performance. Yeah, you got it. So I'm excited about that. And so I say that because that's my purpose is to help bridge the gap in the mental health community. So there's still work to do, some awareness that needs to be raised. There's resources that need to be raised. It costs me $30-something thousand a month to get the help I needed. But I was blessed to have an NFL contract.

Not everybody is privileged to have those type of resources, right? Insurance doesn't cover certain things. So there's still work to do there. But then on the performance side, that's what I'm really passionate about. That's how I created House of Athlete. We have some of the top athletes in the world that come in and train at our facility and also men and women in the fit-gen population. And it's an opportunity for me to share some of the stuff that I learned from you.

Oh, thank you. Some of the books that I've read, we have those there. And it's like, no, 80% 80 of life 80 of of sport is mental and so we need to be able uh to have those conversations developed that so that's my purpose in life and that's another conversation as well when we think about wellness and we think about healthiness um you know if you don't know your purpose if you don't know your purpose or you're not on that, that journey of trying to discover that, cause it is a journey. Um, I don't know how fulfilling life is. Right. And it was for me, it was like 28 is when I realized that. Right. And I feel like around your late twenties to your

mid thirties is when you're like figuring that out. Right. That's, and there's some people that are fortunate enough to know that early on. When you study the greats, like the ones that changed history, one commonality amongst all of them is that they knew their purpose. Yes. And they lined up their thoughts,

their words, and their actions in every environment towards that purpose. And that's not available for just them. That's available for all of us. And so thank you for reminding us of self-discovery, of being or getting closer to knowing purpose, the importance of regulation, down regulation in particular, breathing and self-talk, and then committing to the process to put you into the place where you can be your very best on a more consistent basis. That's right.

And people always ask me about like, so what's it going to take for us to be better psychologically and emotionally? And I say, we need more cool kids. And I think of you. We need more cool kids that have done it. They understand it. And they create air cover for the rest of us to say, well, if it's good enough for Brandon, it should be good enough for all of us. That's right. And so, Brandon, thank you.

This is exactly the conversation that I love having with you. And I'm stoked that we get to do it here at Super Bowl Roll. And so thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Now it's time for our AI insights brought to you by Microsoft Copilot. Over the last nine years, we've recorded over 550 Finding Mastery episodes.

And thanks to our new Copilot agent, we can now quickly and easily search all of that back catalog content for key insights. It's incredible. Check this out. Copilot, go through the Finding Mastery transcripts and find five quotes of how high performers talk to themselves in challenging moments. Sure thing, Mike. Here are five quotes from elite athletes, business leaders, and other high performers in the Finding Mastery transcripts. All right, this is what it came up with. This moment is all that matters.

Focus on what I can control. I am built for this moment. This is an opportunity, not a threat. This moment is all that matters. Focus on what I can control. I am built for this moment. This is an opportunity, not a threat. One play at a time. I love that we can quickly search and get all of these kind of in one little snip here. And the one that sticks out for me,

this moment is all that matters. It is so profound in so many ways that this is the moment to be able to really understand and get to the deeper nature of whatever it is that you're doing this that insight is really profound i'll say it again so i love that we can scan for these i hope that some of these might make life just a little bit easier for you and we're doing it obviously in help of all of the transcripts and all of the conversations we've had in Finding Mastery

and Microsoft Copilot. So this is really inspiring. I love it. And thanks for tuning in. Hit the subscribe button. And seriously, it helps us way more than you think. And while you're at it,

tell your friends, because let's be real. The real game is the game inside the games. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us. Our team loves creating this podcast and sharing these conversations with you. We really appreciate you being part of this community. And if you're enjoying the show, the easiest no cost way to support is to hit the subscribe or follow button

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The door here at Finding Mastery is always open to those looking to explore the edges and the reaches of their potential so that they can help others do the same. So join our community, share your favorite episode with a friend, and let us know how we can continue to show up for you. Lastly, as a quick reminder, information in this podcast and from any material on the Finding Mastery website and social channels is for information purposes only. If you're looking for meaningful support, which we all need, one of the best things you can do is to talk to a licensed professional. So seek assistance from your health care providers.

Again, a sincere thank you for listening. Until next episode, be well, think well, keep exploring.