High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 180: The Great Ones with Don Yaeger, New York Times Bestselling Author, Award-winning Certified Speaking Professional & Executive Coach

Episode Date: May 14, 2018

Don Yaeger is a nationally acclaimed inspirational speaker, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated, and author of over 30 books, eleven of which have become New York Times Best-sellers. Don left Sports Illustrated in 2008 to pursue a public speaking career that has allowed him to share stories learned from the greatest winners of our generation with audiences as diverse as Fortune 10 companies to cancer survivor groups, where he shares his personal story. More than a quarter-million people have heard his talks on “What Makes the Great Ones Great.” He is an award-winning Certified Speaking Professional, an executive coach and team culture expert. In this interview, Don and Cindra talk about: Characteristics of the great ones How the great ones respond in moments of adversity Habits of high performing teams What separates the great teams from others How successful teams use meetings You can find a full description of the Podcast and contact information for Don at cindrakamphoff.com/don.

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Sindra Kampoff, and thank you so much for joining me here today for the interview with Don Yeager. Now, the goal of these interviews is to learn from the world's best leaders, athletes, coaches, and consultants all about the topic of mindset to help us reach our potential or be high performers in our field or our sport. Now today, I had the amazing privilege of interviewing Don

Yeager. Now Don is a nationally acclaimed inspirational speaker, a longtime associate editor of Sports Illustrated, the author of over 30 books, 11 of which have become New York Times bestsellers. Now, Don left Sports Illustrated in 2008 to pursue a public speaking career that has allowed him to share stories, learn from the greatest winners of our generation, with audiences as diverse as Fortune 10 companies to cancer survivor groups, where he shares his personal story. Now, more than a quarter of a million people have heard his talks on what makes the great ones great.

He also recently came out with a book called Great Teams, which I've read and the reason that I wanted to have him on the show. He is an award-winning certified speaking professional, an executive coach, and team culture expert. Now, in this interview, Don and I talk about the characteristics of the Great Ones, how the Great Ones respond in the moments of adversity. We also talk about his book Great Teams and the habits of high-performing teams and what separates the Great Teams from others. Now two of my favorite quotes from this interview are this. Don said, how do you respond in moments of adversity? The ability you have to change the narrative

is the piece of the puzzle that most of us are missing. And then he said, the great ones see adversity as the moment to stand out, not to give up. Now, I know you'll enjoy today's interview. You can head over to Twitter and let Don and I know what you thought about the podcast. What stood out to you or what quote of his stood out to you? And you can tag myself at mentally underscore strong. And then Don is at Don Yeager. You can also head over to iTunes and leave a rating and review. This one, for example, is from Cloris Kyle, who said, create the life you've always wanted. Dr. Cinder's show is so full of energy and inspiration.

What you need to become empowered to create the kind of life you've always wanted. Five stars. So thank you so much, Cloris Kyle. Super appreciate the rating and review. Now, one thing before I head over to the interview with Don, I was having a storm here in Minnesota during Don's interview. So a few of the spots kind of go in and out because of our internet connection. But I know that you're going to love this interview regardless. So thank you so much for listening. And without further ado, here's Don Yeager. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I am excited today to introduce you to Don Yeager. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I am excited today to introduce you to Don Yeager. So Don, thank you so much for joining us here today on the podcast.

So glad to be here. I'm looking forward to talking with you more about your work. And I think a lot of our work overlaps. So I know that the people on the podcast listeners are going to thoroughly enjoy your interview. So tell us a little bit about just your insight and your passion and what you do right now, Don. Sure. Now, I was a longtime sports writer at several newspapers and then at Sports Illustrated magazine and retired from there a number of years ago and took an early retirement package with the opportunity to go out, continue writing, mostly in the book space, and to begin speaking. So like you said, I began a speaking career, and it has been a really incredible journey to kind of go out to figure out how to grow, how to grow this, this world and learn how to tell stories in a different way.

You know, it's such a, it is a, it's a different skillset, a different talent and something I've had to learn how to work at and develop. So loving every minute. Oh,

love it. Love it. So just tell us a little bit about, you know, where you got to where you are now. So, you know, you started as a writer, then were at Sports Illustrated until 2008 when you began your speaking career. So just fill in the blanks a little bit so we can get to know you a little bit more, Don. I just had this history of writing, of storytelling, right? I mean, in my own right, that's what I always considered myself. And I just grew to really appreciate the opportunity to go out and help other people tell their stories, just be engaged in asking questions of people, learning about others and what made them tick. And when I graduated from college, my father, I was, I remember as if it were yesterday, I was standing in the driveway of our family home in

Indianapolis and I was headed to my first job in San Antonio, Texas. And my car was packed and my father looked at me and he said, you know, son, just because of the profession you've chosen, this concept that you're going to be a journalist, you're going to end up in the presence of some extraordinary people. You will get a chance to be with people who have achieved great things. And no matter what you're asking them, you should always carve out a little piece of every one of those conversations to ask something you can learn, something you can use. And I thought, wow, pretty interesting piece of wisdom. And I had a long drive to Texas. course of the next few weeks, I really kind of settled in on the idea that I would ask all these extraordinary winners if they could name one habit, one thing that they believed was key to their success, something that they did that allowed them to separate themselves from their competitors. And again, a lot of my interviews were going to be with high performers,

especially athletes. And so I figured that there was going to be something about a training method or something related to their fitness or their diet or whatever it might have been. And 25 years later, after doing more than 2,500 interviews and keeping the answers that these people were giving me in a set of notebooks, I sat down after a time from SI, and I sat down to ask just to try to figure out what answers come up most frequently

when the great winners answer that question. And what was fascinating to me is that, and this really plays into your space, is that none of the major, none of those that I would consider I was most impressed with credited their physical gifts. They all talked about mental, emotional, spiritual disciplines that they were building in their lives that made them special. And I loved it because that was very encouraging to me. I'll never have their physical gifts, but I can work to do it all with their mental, emotional, spiritual disciplines, right?

Absolutely. It was very affirming to me in its own way. And so is that where your list of 16 characteristics of greatness came from? Just those in those 2,500 interviews? It is. So ultimately I settled in and just kind of picked the 16 that came up most frequently and how they played into the development of these great winners. Excellent. So I think we should dive into some of those characteristics. There were about four of them that caught my attention because I think they're unique. But I'd like to ask you first on that list of 16 characteristics of what makes the great ones great.

Which one or two do you think is the most surprising for people? So the one that was probably most surprising to me is listed as number two on the list. And it was there because John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, made a point of making sure I understood that in his opinion, and again, you're a fool if you don't listen to John Wooden's opinion, but in a second most important characteristic of any great winner was that they understood the value or the power of their associations. They knew they were not going to outperform their inner circle. Really key element as I was growing and understanding this was that I needed to

surround myself with people that were headed where I wanted to go, right? Did not need to be spending time with people who were finding ways to emotionally and mentally drag me down. And we all have those people in our lives, right? And so I had to learn how to be more judicious in my time, giving you my time. And so that was interesting to me because Coach Wooden, I would have thought it would have been about practice or training or whatever. But again, it was about who you surround yourself with. And that one really stood out to me. So Don, what changes did you make in your life after hearing that in terms of, you know, who you should surround yourself with and why that's important?

So one of the things that happened when I was there working with Coach Wooden, and he exposed me to this concept, this idea about your inner circle, was a coach actually took, we were at breakfast, and he actually took a sheet of paper, a blank sheet of paper, and he drew two lines in it down the middle of it. And so then there were three columns on the page. And he said, Don, I want you to take this paper and I want you, the first column is your personal life. Who do you spend the most time with? That's your inner circle. Who do you spend your time with in your personal life? Then your middle column is your work life, like who are the people that you engage with,

that you're standing next to each other at the water cooler, that you go to lunch to when given a chance. That's your work life inner circle. And the third column, he he said was like your church life or some other social organization. He said, once you identify who those 15 people are that play those roles in your three aspects of your life, he said, I want you to sit down and I want you to look at each name and ask yourself that question.

Are they going where I'm going? Do they want for me what I want for me? And he said, if they're not, he said, you'll know it. And you need to scratch them from the list and replace them with someone who is. You need to find a new five. And it became this really fascinating journey for me to sit down and make that list and really try to, because he was saying, it's not who you aspire to spend time with. It's who you really do spend time with, right? It's not who you want to hang out with. It's who you do hang out with. That's your inner circle. And he

said, you will never outperform your inner circle. If you want to be better, improve your circle. And so it was a really big moment for me to sit down and do that. And yes, there were in fact a couple of people who I had to make very intellectual, very intentional choices around the amount of time I was going to give them. And that became very difficult. Absolutely. And you just ended up spending less time with them or do you, did they just end up dropping out of your list, your top five? No, I mean, one of them, I'll be candid with you. One of them was a member of my family who, you know, who I just realized my conversations were always negative when,

when I was in the conversation with her and I realized, you know what, I need to, I need to just find, so I began creating less and less opportunity for those conversations to exist. And in that situation, it gave me more time and more opportunity to replace those moments with people who were going the direction I wanted to go. And I like the two questions that he asked you to consider, you know, are they going where I'm going? And do they want from me what I want from me? I thought that second one was incredibly powerful because, you know, do they see maybe the same strengths that you see? And are they supporting you along the way? Correct. And that's a really big deal. You know, Don, one of the other things in your 16 characteristics of what makes

great people great, you have inner fire. They use adversity as fuel. Can you tell us a little about that one? Sure. Yeah. They, you know, there are truly great ones in my opinion. You know, there are moments that in all of our lives when something happens that is knee buckling, that sends you to the couch or could make you want to curl up in the fetal position, the truly great ones get up from those moments and they do something special. And it's not necessarily something heroic. It's often just playing something special. And it's not necessarily something heroic. It's often just plain something special. How do you respond in those moments?

And the ability you have to kind of change the narrative around what's happening in your life, just by how you choose to respond to those knee buckling moments is a, is a piece of the puzzle that most of us are missing. And so that's, what's so fascinating to me is, you know, what I was trying to work on and do here was learn from these great winners

about how do they construct their puzzle. And can you give us a story or two or maybe a story from what you see them do or from your own personal life? Well, sure. So a story that I often share when I speak about this specific subject is about a football player named Warwick Dunn. He was a high schooler in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he was one of the best high school football players in the country, even though he's tiny. He's only 5'8 and weighs 178 pounds. But he was so good, every major college football coach in the country essentially made their way, or their lead assistant made their way to his home and to his mother's couch to ask if he'd play college football at their university. Well, his mother was a police officer, and she was the single mom of six.

He was the oldest of six he was the oldest of six and on Christmas Day of a senior year he makes the decision with his mom that he's gonna go play at Florida State University for Bobby Bowden and and and just two weeks later he gets a phone call and it's the police department calling to tell him that his mother had been shot and killed in a robbery at a bank. Wow. So he's the oldest of six, and he now is the man of the house. He has all kinds of responsibilities that he wasn't ready for.

Bobby Bowden calls him and offers to release him from this commitment if he wanted to stay and play football in Louisiana. And he said, no, my mom and I made that commitment together. Yes. And I will never dishonor her by changing course. I will be there. So he comes to Florida State, and over the course of his four years, he leads them to their first ever national championship,

graduates with a degree in business, and finishes as the university's all-time leading rusher. Wow. But in the process, helps his younger brothers and sisters graduate from elementary and middle school, right? It's pretty cool. And goes to the NFL, and he's selected by Tony Dungy and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tony Dungy, a good Minneapolis guy. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with theungy, a good Minneapolis guy. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 12th pick of the first round of the draft. Wow. He's only five, eight, 178 pounds, right? All these writers are saying, why are you drafting a guy that small? They get, they get, they get killed in the NFL. Right. And Dungy said, you know what? You measure your athletes by their height and their weight,

and I measure them by their heart. And this guy belongs. With that measurement, he belongs in the NFL. And so Warwick goes to the NFL, and he ultimately plays 11 years. He finishes with 13 – excuse me, plays 13 years, finishes with 11,000 yards rushing and 5,000 yards receiving. And

he actually retired about five years ago, five years ago now, to become the first African-American part owner of the Atlanta Falcons. So it's pretty incredible. The guy totally belongs. But along to become the first African-American part owner of the Atlanta Falcons. So it's pretty incredible, right? The guy totally belongs.

But along the way, when he's a rookie, he signs a contract, and he decides to start a charity. And the charity is he wants to start buying homes for women like his mom. Just a few weeks ago, Warwick bought the 155th home for a single mom that he has managed to purchase in the last 16 years. 155 homes.

He's got 430 children living in a home today that they get to call their own because Warwick done made it happen. The guy's extraordinary. I mean, at every level, he's like the greatest I've ever worked with. Absolutely. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Well, Don, what I'm thinking is he definitely uses adversity as fuel. So how do you see the greatest athletes or leaders, how do they see the adversity? How do know athletes or leaders how do they see the you know the the diversity how do they see it how do they view it and how do they use it as fuel can you tell us a bit more about that sure what they see is um instead of being uh moments to curl up they seem as moments to stand out and so they look at adversity they begin the process of of adversity in a different place than most of us right they begin by believing that that this is an opportunity for them to stand out and so

yeah what are most of us doing when something bad happens we're right or hiding or we're in a woe is me moment. Exactly. And they, on the other hand, are saying an opportunity has just been given me. What am I going to do with it? Yeah. And you said that you see most people sort of missing that component. Tell us about your perspective on that.

Well, I mean, certainly we've all failed i've i had more than my share i've uh i was very early in my career as a writer i actually just written my first book and i was i was working for a newspaper and here in florida and um and i was so busy promoting my book and being that guy that was doing something cool, because to write a book is cool, right? That I was not doing my job very well. And ultimately, after a warning and my arrogance getting in the way, an editor at that newspaper chose to fire me. And I was crushed. Like I was big time, right? I'd written a book. How do you fire me? Yeah.

And I went into a funk for a bit before I realized, you know, I have to live the things I believe I've been taught and begin looking for what's that next thing going to look like. But it took a – I didn't enter the opportunity with the mindset I should have. Sure. Exited it like I should have, which was I went out and found new opportunities to write more books and ultimately got offered the job.

But by then I'd already made a decision that it was time for my life to move in a different direction. And so it was, you know, it was one of the great things that could ever happen to me. For sure. Yeah, those moments of failure, they define you, right? And you can decide to rise above or hide, you know, so what would you say is the, you know, lesson that you learned from that? And you kind of mentioned that you didn't enter the opportunity with the right set of mindset. So tell us what you wish you would have done differently in terms of entering the opportunity. Well, again, I mean, there's, there's two pieces to, to how we come out of failure. The first is with that mindset that what we've just been presented,

if we reframe it, right, and I'm a big believer in, you know, much of the way we react to things comes down to how we frame them. If we reframe them, we are beginning with the understanding that what we've got is a new opportunity, right? Now, the second piece of it is, I'm also a big believer in, from a military perspective, they call them after action reports, right? Okay.

Which is, what do you, how do you break down and take a lesson from the moments of success or failure in your life and most of us will sometimes will often break down and say you know in failure here's what i should have done differently here's what i would have been better if i had known here's what i learned as a result not many of us. Not many of us have those same conversations around successes. But in the military model, you have an after action report after every action. So if you've gone off on a mission, whether it's gone well or poorly, the members of the mission team sit down and talk about what they should have done differently. And so that, while there's part of it that says I have to look at it as a positive and an opportunity, and I need to move away from the negative aspect of what just happened to me,

I also have to then, within a short period of time, conduct that evaluation what should I have learned from the moment huh you know Michael Jordan once said to me in a conversation a loss is not a failure until you've made an excuse so if you only making excuses when you fail when you lose then then you're failing, right? If you're taking losses and learning, you're okay. You're going to be okay. Nice. And all that relates to your first characteristic of inner fire, use adversity as fuel. So one of the other characteristics I wanted to ask you a little bit about, Don, was this

one about ice in the veins. They are thoughtful risk takers and don't fear making a mistake so how do you see the great ones approach risk and mistakes well so um and the reason I inserted the word the very first time I did this list and trying to build it I didn't have the word thoughtful in that sentence. Right? Ah, sure. I just talked about being, they were okay with risk taking. And then it was pointed out to me

by a couple of the folks that I've done a lot of work with over the years, that if that's mistaken for reckless behavior, right, if that's just, you know, if you're gonna go jump from a plane without a parachute and expect to be able to land, you know, then that's not risk-taking. That's idiocy, right? But if you're thoughtful, if you said, okay, I'm going to go learn how to parachute or I'm going to jump with somebody who does, I'm going to, you know, then the risk is not it is not in fact the risk

is affirming I mean again I use that word a lot because I think it's important to to have yourself reminded of your what it feels like to be excellent right to what it feels like to be free and part of what it feels like to be excellent, right? To what it feels like to be free. And part of what it feels like to be excellent is to believe that you can achieve things that most people would look at and say that's not possible. Risk-taking is a part of that decision-making piece of your life where you're saying,

I'm willing to try that. I know you might not think, but I've got, I think I understand my risks versus my rewards and I think I've I've the equation is one I'm willing to go I'm willing to go bet on so can you give us an example or you know somebody maybe you've interviewed who he thinks a thoughtful risk taker and doesn't fear making a mistake uh sure well i mean in my personal life it's just you know um making the decision uh 10 years ago i mean sports illustrated was the model was changing they were

looking for writers uh who were working on the staff at the time who would be willing to take a buyout, right, an early retirement type package. And I was only 45 years old. So it's kind of a crazy early time in your life to sit and say, I'm going to, quote, unquote, retire or whatever it might be, right? Right, from Sports Illustrated. From one of the great jobs of all time, right? Yeah, for sure.

A spot to do what I love to do. Sports Illustrated is as good a place to do it as ever. And, but I also, I mean, you know, I realized that there were other things I wanted to try to achieve. I wanted to learn how to speak. I wanted to experience what it meant to tell stories in a different form. And so I studied speaking.

I studied what it meant to be part of the community of people that do this professionally. I hired coaches. I did all of those things so that I could get strong enough that I felt I was ready to take that leap. And then I did. I took the leap and it could have looked like craziness, as you said. I mean, you're leaving one of the great jobs on the planet for the unknown, but it really, it might've looked unknown to everybody else. I felt like I felt like I had a little bit of known in me, you know? Absolutely. Yeah. You knew, you knew it was a thoughtful risk take,

you know, a risk that you knew that you'd be successful in. I felt comfortable that I would be, I don't think I would have guessed that things would be as good as they are today, but you know, but that's cool too, right? You get rewarded for your risk. So 11 time New York Times bestselling author, that's phenomenal. Probably wouldn't have happened if you would have still been at Sports Illustrated. So, you know, one of the books, Don, I wanted to ask you a little bit about is your 2016 book, Great Teams, 16 Things High-Performing Organizations Do Differently. So tell us,

you know, why you decided to write that book in particular. Sure. So when I left Sports Illustrated, I began the process of, I had one speech, right, which is, I think that's always one of those lessons that I had to learn very early too, because I thought, man, I'm going to speak for everybody and I'm going to tell them anything they want to know, I'll give them everything. And ultimately I had to be coached into realizing you need to have one speech that you can do really well and do it so well that they'll keep hiring you to do it again, right? Yeah, yep. And so I had one speech, and that speech was about the habits of high performance, individual high performance. And then six years ago, an executive at Microsoft who was hiring me pretty regularly actually challenged me. He said, you know, we love this concept, but we want to know why some teams can do what others can't.

Why are some teams capable of being continuously relevant when others rise and fall? And so I sat down and I started making a list of the great teams I would want to study if they'd let me. And to my surprise, many of them did and would let me come learn from them about how they built an

organization that supported sustained excellence. while discussing those conversations at while having those conversations with them I agree to realize there was a really amazing book in that too so I thought it was a neat compliment to the discussion about individual high performance absolutely talk about team performance absolutely so tell us a little bit about who the teams that you studied and then a few of the things that you found.

We can just dive into some of those 16 things. Sure. I mean, it was Nick Saban in Alabama and Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. It was Greg Popovich in San Antonio and Steve Kerr at Golden State. It was Anson Dorrance, the amazing women's soccer coach at North Carolina, who's won 22 national championships, to Rush Rose, who's won 10 national titles at Penn State in women's volleyball. It was just, I was taking every sport that I could find.

I was looking for those people who created, because it didn't matter what sport you're playing. It doesn't matter if you're playing tiddlywinks, right? To win 22 national championships is pretty hard, right? Yes, yes. So I wanted to learn from the person that could win 22 championships. And the number one answer that came up when talking to all those great coaches and great leaders was that the best teams understand their why.

I mean, we've all heard Simon Sinek talk about, you know, do you know your why? That's your individual why. Do you know what your collective why is? Why does your team come together? Who does it matter to if you perform well? Does it matter to only you and your teammates? Does it matter maybe to some collective group of fans? Does it matter to those who might have worn the jersey before you, right?

Right. Who is it that you're playing for? Why does that matter? And what happens if you fail? And when you have that sense of purpose, that collective belief that you are doing something as a group that you couldn't do by yourself, bigger purpose, all that, you've heard all those phrases. When all that comes together and you don't just know it, you feel it, you feel who you're in service of, you come to work differently, play the game differently. Can you tell us a little bit about how these great teams found this why?

You know, was it an exercise? Was it a group discussion? You know, can you tell us a little bit more about that? Sure. In a lot of places it was. It was a, you know, you sit around a bit more about that sure in a lot of places it was it was a it was a you know you sit around you asked you asked your team and this is a great exercise for you to do no matter what business you're in sit down with those who work for you work with you and ask well

why why does what we do matter who does it matter to what what happens what happens if we if we just plain stink you know if we're not any good. And as you start to understand who you really matter to, then it changes the way you feel about what you do because you matter to somebody, right? Yes. And so if you can get a sense of that, and then the best teams actually, as I used the phrase earlier, they feel what those moments are like. They feel what it means to be in service of someone else.

You work differently when you believe that what you're here to do impacts others, right? That's not that inspiring. At the end of the day, really, it's not. In fact, it might almost be more fear. It might be more fear-driven because you're worried about losing the paycheck. That's all you're there for. But if you really want to do inspired work, it's about doing it for someone, not for a number. Yeah, for sure. That's really good. I know Simon Sinek's TED Talk, and I know a lot of people talk about that, but I like that you're kind of describing that we need to apply it to the teams, or at least that's what the great teams do, is they all have this collective understanding of who they serve.

Correct. So Don, what's another characteristic that you found in that, in those interviews with the great teams, or your observations with those great teams? I loved that the best teams promote mentoring culture. That to me really stood out, right? They don't have a mentoring program. They have a mentoring culture where this belief that knowledge belongs to all of us and it's our job as we have it to share it with others, right? And it doesn't matter if you're older in the business or younger, there's something I can learn from you if we exist in a mentoring culture. If you believe,

San Antonio Spurs were the ultimate model for me of that as I studied it. I mean, it doesn't matter where in the world you're from. It doesn't matter how long you played the game in the NBA. There's something that they learn from each and every one of their teammates. And the team responds differently because they believe they're in this. It's a learning culture, right? Right. That one stood out to me. And, you know, one of the things that stood out to me, Don, was that they promote camaraderie and a sense of collective direction. So tell us a little bit about that one. Well, so this one was fascinating because back to back,

there's two chapters in the book. There's two sessions I do when I talk about this. One is that they desire to promote camaraderie, right? Like camaraderie isn't, it doesn't mean that we all hang out with each other on the weekends. Camaraderie at its root means I appreciate you, right? I appreciate that there's something you bring to the team that I don't have, that I couldn't do without you. And as a result, I appreciate you. That's really the root of camaraderie. And so one of the things that we challenge and try to look for are ways that we can inspire that

within our organizations. How do we create a sense where our folks, and I own three small companies, right? And I'm always worried, like, how do I build this sense of camaraderie within the organization? And we do things. We try, you know, we do things during work hours. We do things when we, when we can to try to inspire, you know. Sometimes if we're in the conference room for a meeting, we'll take five minutes out and begin with a little exercise we call, I bet you didn't know. And you go around the room and you kind of share something that you bet that the others in the room probably don't know about you, right? I grew up playing the

ukulele and I'm pretty good at it. You know, when you share things like that, then, you know, you might find the guy across the table goes, really? I played the ukulele when I was a kid too. And next thing you know, there's a sense there of this, the building blocks of an understanding that we're all bringing something unique to the, you know, this, this, this soup that is our workplace, right? This, this gumbo that is ours, you know, just it's an understanding of where, where we all fit into that recipe. Absolutely. One thing I'm hearing is, you know, I appreciate you no matter how different you might be or how, you know, the way that you might do things differently, but that you're appreciating the uniqueness of every single person within the organization.

Correct. Yeah, it's not, it has little to nothing to do with that. I mean, well, and that means I don't have to. That's not what it is. What it means is that we all, there's something that we contribute to each other that makes a difference. And the other part of that characteristic, Don, was the sense of collective direction. So tell us a little bit about that and how you see the great teams find their direction together. Well, again, once you believe that everyone on the team brings something, right? And that's the unique, that's the challenge, right? Because a lot of times we want to look around our team and go, really?

That's kind of lacking. Owen's a little, she does arrive a little late and leave a little early, right? But that needs to be addressed in those cases because if we get to a place where we are all, that we appreciate what each of us bring to the table, then collectively we need to establish what that, what the direction for us is. What are we, what are we here to do? Business, my speaking, writing business, we talk about being, we want to be world-class

storytellers at everything we do. We want to study storytelling. We want to teach storytelling. We want to be so good at it that people will look at us and go, wow, I want to, man, if I'm a great storyteller, I want to work with those guys. If I'm not a great storyteller, I want to learn from those guys. But we have this collective direction that is around a state. We know what we bring to the world that we think is important. And so that collective direction gives all of us, we know where we fit in the puzzle of creating great stories. And it's magical once you get a group of people who have that sense and that collective direction. But one of the things that I just heard you say was that they all really see value in what they offer. That they see that they're valuable in terms of what they do and who they serve.

Correct. And they believe that what they're doing has meaning, right? And so if you can manage those things, and it's fascinating because I have companies that I talk to who are like, you know, we sell software. Or, you know, we sell gas cards, right, to businesses. Oh, really? So your question is, does that job have meaning? Well, why do people buy the gas cards? Well, they buy them because they give an opportunity within their business to save money. Well, what do they do with the savings? Well,

you know what? My guess is that they're pumping their savings, if it's like most small businesses into expansion or they're pumping those those savings into the opportunity to to hire more people and if you really believe that what you're doing is serving not selling then you then you think then you think differently about what you do absolutely so is there anything else in terms of those 16 things that high-performing organizations do? One more that you'd like to share with us, Don? You know, I think if there was one, another one that really kind of caught me is extremely valuable. It was about running successful huddles, right? It's the idea that all of us are stuck in, if you're in any kind of a team or corporate environment,

you spend more of your day than you care to mention in meetings. But the best teams don't see meetings as a burden. They don't see them as a moment of drudge. They actually see meetings as an a moment of drudge. They actually see meetings as an opportunity to create competitive advantage. They run good meetings. They have it well established.

Here's what we're meeting for. Here's what we're going to accomplish in the window of time we have together. We're going to leave here with a collective direction, right? We keep all these themes, keep coming back together. And we're going to leave here knowing what has to happen next for each and every one of us. And if you can do that, you run more efficient meetings. And if you run more efficient meetings and your opponent is running less efficient meetings, who has the advantage? So the best teams understand that a great huddle gives them, a meeting is no longer

an opportunity for you to catch up on Facebook while other people are talking. It's an opportunity to create for yourself and your team an advantage. And that's what we look for. Excellent. Excellent. So I know, Don, before the call, you said you're working on a book with Joe Namath. So tell us a little bit about that book and when we can expect that out. It'll be out this late fall, close to Christmas, as all good books should be released close to Christmas as all good books should be released close to Christmas. And it's a book that really, it's Joe taking a deep look into the life that made him famous, the life that led him to challenges with alcohol and other things.

I mean, it's just life is an amazing roller coaster. And for Joe, it's had great highs and great lows. And his ability to be thoughtful and introspective while looking at that is magnificent. I mean, there's been few people I've enjoyed working with more. Ah, I love it. You know, and so I'm thinking that as people are listening,

they might think, gosh, I'd love to do what Don does someday. You know, speak, write, be able to learn from all of these amazing athletes and some of the world's greatest teams and athletes and leaders. What advice would you give them, Don? these amazing athletes and some of the world's greatest teams and athletes and leaders, what advice would you give them, Don?

Well, I think the key to everything is the ability to remain inquisitive. I don't think I'm a great writer. I don't think I'm a great speaker. I don't think I'm great at anything except asking questions. And I ask a lot of questions. And so, um, I think in the presence of people who, uh, who've achieved great things, I ask questions and shut up. And that's the, uh, and that, that's been a model that's worked for me. Dawn, I so appreciate your time and energy today. And I know that the listeners got a lot out of this interview.

I'd like to tell you the three things that were most important that I took down as I was listening to you. I liked that your definition of camaraderie and that it's really about appreciating everybody. And, you know, just the understanding that everybody brings greatness to the team. Second thing you talked a lot about this collective why in organizations, and that the best know it, but they feel it. And I liked the differentiation between feeling it, and it inspires them, right, so they can feel it in their body. And then the last thing that you said is, you know, how that the best respond in these moments of adversity and they have the ability and they realize they have the ability to change the narrative, which is what

most people are missing in the world. So I'm just so grateful for your time and your energy and your wisdom and your willingness to share it with thousands of people today. Well, thank you for the opportunity. And it was great to get to know you a little bit while working together on this podcast. So Don, how could we reach out to you or connect with you, perhaps hire you for a speaking engagement or learn more about the books that you've written? Sure. So the website donyeager.com is D-O-N-Y-A-E-G-E-R dot com is

kind of it's it's pretty all inclusive. It's got everything there from the pieces I've written over the years

to connections to books to you know video and so it's got everything. So if anybody is listening

and has any interest in any of that space, I welcome the contact. Thank you. Excellent. And are you on social media anywhere where we can find you? I am on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. It's a challenge.

In fact, one of the people on my team helps me manage all that because there's just, there seems to be so many opportunities where we have on a regular basis to share. So it's an honor to have people who actually care enough to listen. It's great.

Love it, Don. Well, any final advice you'd give to those listening? Well, I think we kind of hit on a little bit of it, which is, you know, be a lifelong learner. I mean, everybody says that. It sounds really easy. It's actually the hardest thing you'll ever do is to sit back and say, I need to have more questions and fewer answers.

Ah, excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time and your energy today, Don, and everything that you do. That's amazing in this world. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining me today

on the High Performance Mindset. If you'd like to learn more about the mental game in business, sport, and in life, you can pick up your own copy of the Beyond Grit book and workbook at beyondgrit.com. You know, the book and workbook covers 10 practices to help you gain the high performance edge and provides practical strategies and tools that work. Adam Thielen, a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, wrote the foreword, and you can learn his insights on how he implements the mental game. And a special offer for the listeners of the podcast, you can use the code FREESHIP, that's capital letters

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