High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 21: Strengthening Your Relationship with Failure with Mental Performance & Leadership Coach, Justin Su'a

Episode Date: December 11, 2015

Justin Su'a is a Mental Performance and Leadership Coach who is currently a Mental Skills Coordinator for the Boston Red Sox. In this interview, Justin talks about how elite athletes and high performers have a unique relationship with failure. He talks extensively about that in this interview as well as other insights he has had working as the Former Head of Mental Conditioning at the IMG Academy and with the US Army. Justin is the author of two books: Parent Pep Talks and Mentally Tough Teens. He has his own daily podcast called "Increase Your Impact Podcast" which is also available on Itunes.

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 today, I am jazzed to provide an interview with Justin Sua. Justin is a mental performance and leadership coach, as well as a mental skills coordinator for the Boston Red Sox. He's the former head of mental conditioning for IMG Academy. So today you are listening to an interview with one of the best of the best

in performance psychology. His students perform in the NFL, MLB, So You Think You Can Dance, U.S. Army, and universities around the world. He's the author of two books, The Parent Pep Talks and Mentally Tough Teens. He also has a podcast you should check out called the Increase Your Impact Podcast. What I love about Justin Sewell, and today, you know, specifically in this conversation, is I love Justin's passion and energy for what he does. And I've gotten to know Justin through our work at the Association for Applied Sports Psychology. Every conversation I have with Justin, I love, I love because he brings himself, he brings his energy, and he brings his passion. In this interview today,

he talks about how he is a first-class noticer, reminder, and suggester when he's working with elite athletes and high performers. And I love our conversation about failure. He talks about how elite athletes and high performers connect failure to their why. And their why is very strong. They keep it front and center. And that failure actually motivates them. But the problem is, is one of the reasons why people don't perform up to their potential is because they are seeing failure as an obstacle. So make sure you're listening for that. Towards the end, he talks about why we should reconnect to our why and why we do what we do and how we should really strengthen our relationship with failure, dance with it,

and love it. So I know that you will love this conversation please email me if you have any recommendations of people you'd like for me to bring on to this podcast would love to hear what you think as well as any suggestions you have for topics on the high performance mindset podcast or questions that you would like answered would love to hear from you at cindra at cindracampoff.com so without further ado let's bring on justin We'd love to hear from you at cindracampoff.com. So without further ado, let's bring on Justin. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Cindra Campoff, and I am so excited today to provide an interview with Justin Sua.

I know that you're going to get so much out of this interview because every time I listen to him, I learn more about mental training and high performance. So, Justin, welcome to the podcast. I really appreciate it, Sindhra. Thanks for having me. I'm excited that you're here with us. So, Justin, just tell us to start off. Tell us a little bit about your passion and what you do.

Yeah, well, my passion is helping people perform at their absolute best in whatever they do. If you were to give a title, it would be mental performance and leadership coach. And we're all performers. It doesn't matter. I work primarily with athletes, primarily elite athletes, but I mean, I've worked with parents and coaches and business professionals and soldiers in the military. And so one thing I've come to understand is that we're all performers and my job is to help people get out of their own way and perform at their best. Awesome. And you've been able to work with just some really incredible, successful high performers in the NFL, MLB, So You Can Dance, in the Army. So tell us what you think, what's one or two things that really separates those

people that are extremely elite from those that aren't. Yeah, it's really interesting. There's that fine line, a separator that goes between good and great. There are a lot of good performers out there. But the thing that fascinates me is why are people great? Why are they just head and shoulders above the rest? And yes, competence has something to do with it. Yes, God-given talent has something to do with it. But one thing that's been really interesting in particular that I've really noticed where I've been just exclusively with the high-level athletes is the relationship with failure. It is so fascinating to see that those who are the best of the best, they have a really

good relationship with failure in that it is not fatal. It's something they learn from. It's not something they're afraid of necessarily. Although, although I will say that some of them say the reason they're successful is because they're afraid of failure. But it's not the fear in that it paralyzes them. It's the fear in which it kind of failure that fuels them, that drives them to action. With the average person where failure will paralyze them. And you probably, I know you've experienced this, sat down with people, and that's one of the big things that I've been fascinated with as of late, just seeing their relationship with failure.

And that's the first thing that jumps to mind when you ask that question. So they don't necessarily want to experience it, and not experiencing it motivates them, but they can bounce back, they can deal with it, and they can learn from failure. Yeah, and to go along with that, you bring up a good point. They know that it's inevitable. It's part of life. It's part of their journey. Michael Jordan, one of my favorite quotes, he says,

I've failed over and over and over again, and that is why I succeed. Failure is why you succeed. That's just something that paradox there is just so fascinating to me, and that's something that a lot of young athletes, a lot of parents, a lot of people who are just getting going and whatever they do, it's hard for them to understand. They want the success now. But the best of the best understand that, hey, you're going to fail on your way to success. And that is part of the journey. Justin, I couldn't agree with you more. So tell us a little bit about how you might help an athlete deal with that. Let's say you're working with even a high level athlete, elite

athlete who doesn't necessarily have a good relationship with failure. What's your strategy? What's your go to? You know, how do you help them really take this mindset? Right. I believe it will depend on the person. It'll depend on the person. Some people, it's a matter of asking the right question and getting them to remember their purpose. A lot of times, the reason they're so good at failing is because their purpose or their why is so strong. That is something that is huge. And if I were to give you one strategy in particular, failure is when they start focusing on their obstacles more than on their purpose. That's when it starts to paralyze them. That's when it really paralyzes. But the elite performers, they have their purpose or

their why on the forefront of their hearts, on the forefront of their mind, that that's what really drives them. And so when someone is paralyzed a little bit, when someone is afraid to get back on the horse and ride again, I always get back to their purpose. Why do you do what you do? And to revisit why is and continue to dig a little bit deeper with that, because that's what I see with a lot of amateur performers in whatever it may be. The reason they they're so devastated by failure is because they have forgotten their why. Now, going along with that, there are people who do remember their why they are devastated by their failure and, and they're afraid to,

they're afraid to go out and continue to try something different. If you, the thing about elite performers is once they fail over and over again, they make adjustments. They don't go back out there and try to do the same thing again. They say, okay, what can I do to adjust?

And that's another thing that we try to do is say, okay, how can we make this better? What can we do difference? What was the good? What can we do differently? And so it's just a number of series of questions with elite performers in particular. And you know this yourself working with so many high performers.

I'm more of a – I always say I try to be a first-class noticer, reminder, and suggestioner. I'm not going to – you're not going to teach an elite performer anything new. They're not going to leave our conversation and say, wow, Justin's teaching me something earth shattering. No, it's reminding them of the simple principles. I'm noticing, hey, I noticed you did this. I noticed you said this. Another thing I'll remind them, hey, remember when in the beginning of the season you told me this? It seems like you forgot that. Oh, that's right, Justin. And then the next thing is suggestion. I won't tell an elite performer, this is what you need to do. I'll lay it on the table and say, hey, here's an option or here's an option or here's an option. What works best for you? And so I think that's my job as a practitioner, as a coach, is to notice,

remind, and suggest. Notice, remind, and suggest. I like that, Justin. I also liked what you said about when your purpose and your why is so strong, that helps you get over the failure and see failure as a learning opportunity. So good stuff. So since we're talking about why, tell us what your why is because we believe here as well as you do at the High Performance Mindset that you have to keep that front and center and that can be a powerful motivator. So why do you do what you do? My why is very simple, to be the absolute best husband and father I could possibly be. That is literally my why.

That is why I do what I do. That is what fuels me. That is what drives me in every aspect of my life. I love to involve my family in what I do. I love to ask their opinions. My kids are 9, eight, and seven. And I just love to incorporate them in everything I do. And kind of a corollary why to that is to use what I know to help people get better. I'm driven to help people and to teach. I love teaching and I love to help people get

better. And so that's why I do what I do. Excellent. How does keeping your why front and center in terms of your family, how does that help you in your work with high performers? Yeah. Even though this is a passion of what we do, even though we love this and I pinch myself and say, I can't believe I do this for a living. This is what I do. There are moments where I don't want to record a podcast. There are moments where I don't want to write a blog. There are moments where I'd rather just hang out and relax or not read a book. There are times where I just want to sleep in. But by remembering my why, that drives me to do things that I know I should do, even though I don't want to do it. And that's the same principle with coaches and elite performers. I mean, with elite athletes, yeah, sometimes they

don't want to train. Sometimes they don't want to go to the field. You're playing day after day after day. So yeah, they'd rather take a break. But because they're an elite performer, they know, hey, this is what I do. I'm not going to the field because I want to. I'm doing it because I'm a pro and remembering my family. That's why I do what I do. That's how it fuels me. Excellent. Excellent, Justin. So we've been talking a lot about failure and how the best learn from failure. So tell us about a time that didn't go so well for you and what you learned from it because that would help the audience learn too. I have so many. I have been rejected from numerous grad schools. I've had people stop working with me because I wasn't communicating as well.

I've been disorganized. I can give you a whole list. This podcast isn't long enough for all the failures that I've had. But at the same time, I'd probably say my most visible failure happened a couple of years ago. Can I share your story? Can I tell you the story? I would love to hear the story. I know everyone listening wants to hear it too. So in 2011, I'm working with the American Samoan Olympic Committee. So there's an Olympic qualifier in New Caledonia. It's an island in the Pacific Ocean. And the Olympic qualifier, I'm there with all of our teams for the South Pacific Games.

So I show up. This is my first year, 2011, just fresh out of grad school, fresh out of grad school. So they fly me in. And the reason they fly me in, I'm the only Samoan that I know of, Polynesian sports psychology consultant out there right now. I'm sure if you're out there, please contact me. I want to connect. And so they fly me down. I'm about to address the American Samoan soccer team. They, at the time, are the worst team in the country, literally the worst. Their biggest loss was they lost to Australia 32 to nothing. This is soccer I'm

talking about. And so I'm about to address the team and there's a man standing in the back and he has a camera and he goes, two gentlemen. And they say, do you mind if we record what you're about to say? I said, yeah, no problem. I didn't ask who they were. I didn't ask what they were doing. I just said, yeah, of course. Watch me spit fire, so to speak. And so I go and I'm about to and I'm speaking and I give my talk and I give my give my do my session and it's over. I felt it went really, really well. Fast forward three years later, I'm in my office at the IMG Academy as the head of the head of the department there. And I get a text message from a buddy of mine. He goes, man, you're inspiring. I'm like, thank you. I appreciate it. And he sends me a tweet and he goes, I said, that's awesome. Thank you. Appreciate it. He goes, that was awesome that you're in a movie. I said, I'm in a movie. What do you mean I'm in a movie? He goes, yeah, I just saw your speech that you gave to the American Samoa soccer team. That was three years ago. He goes, yeah, you got to watch it. And so I go to Oh, my goodness. on the movie and I'm in the opening scene and here I am inspiring the American Samoa team and I'm like this is my moment this is awesome I made a movie and they had me telling the story that I

used to always tell about the blind a blind man climbing climbing Mount Everest and I tell the story I hit the punch line it was great and I said I said and this, and that's how he climbed Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in North America. And I'm watching it and my jaw dropping. And my wife says, did you just say that? And I put my hand, my face in my hands. I said, oh no, this is not going to be pretty. I look on Twitter and I just get destroyed by people. You're an idiot. Mixing a map. You don't know what you're talking about. This is why they cut. I just get just destroyed. And I knew it was going to come once I thought I was like, I'm done.

I am done. And so it comes. I try to respond to everybody just saying, you know what? You're right. I should have had more respect for the country. It's in Nepal, by the way, if anyone's wondering. It's in Nepal. I ended up Googling it.

And I just try to just try to just be humble and say, yeah, I didn't know that. I should have done my homework. I should have known. And so the lesson I learned from it is, number one, make sure you do your – you never know who's watching. Number one, you never know who's watching. And number two is get your facts straight. You can't just stand up and just throw out statistics. You can't just stand up and throw out makeup research. If you're

going to be good at what you do, make sure you're honest. Make sure you do your homework. From that moment on, that really taught me to really do my homework before I do what I do. It's out there every time you see it. There it is. There's one of my big failures on the silver screen. Where can we go watch it if we want to just itunes yeah it's itunes and just search your name yeah itunes next goal wins it's a great movie it's a great documentary i'd highly recommend you watch it just you can see one of my biggest failures uh on on the movie yeah yeah i really appreciate you saying that justin just telling us that story you know i love how you tell stories it really you do really good job painting a picture. So I could just like, I was, I was in your story with you. So tell us about a

great moment in your career. What, what was your, you know, your best moment and why was it so awesome? There were a lot, there were a lot of great moments. And a lot of the great moments happens when, when you teach somebody and then they go and apply it for themselves and your, your people are successful. I think those are the greatest moments. As a coach, to see your team succeed. As a parent, to see your child succeed. I think one of the greatest moments is when a parent came up to me and I wrote a couple of books. I wrote a book called Parent Pep Talks and another one called

Merely to Have Teens, as you mentioned. And a parent came up to me and she said, in person, she goes, she had my book in hand and she says, I just want to thank you for the book you wrote. And any time you write a book, it's really it's the scary thing in that you're putting your words. This is my heart. And you're open. You're being open to get criticized. I mean, it's out there. And she comes up to me. She goes, this has helped me become a better parent, better mother, not just for my student to be my child to be an athlete, but just to be a better mom. And that really touched me. And that really touched me because as I said, in my purpose,

I truly believe family is the most important thing. That's one of my key core values. The things that matter most are the things that last the longest. And to know that I played a little tiny role in helping her be a better mom and win at home. I was talking about that in the book, win at home. That just meant the world to me. And it was really neat and I really appreciated that. So that was one thing that really resonated with me. That's excellent. Well, and it's really cool to see how when you do put yourself out there and write something like a book that it makes an impact and that people really resonate with it. Absolutely.

Yeah. Awesome. Justin, tell us about an aha moment that you've had in your career and how it could help us learn something. Yeah. Aha moment. I would say, so I graduated in 2011 with a master's in sport and performance psychology. And there was a lot of people. I remember graduating and thinking, okay, here's this passion of mine. What do I do with it? Where do I go? Because it's not like your average job where you're a lawyer or a doctor.

I had to create my own just kind of path. And that was one of my aha moments was I can decide where I want to go with this. I'm going to choose myself instead of waiting for someone else to choose me. I think so many people, oh, I hope that team chooses me. I hope that school chooses me. I hope that academy chooses me. And my aha moment was like, no, I'm going to choose me. And I started in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It's not the mecca of sport performance.

It's just a little city in Utah. And I thought, you know what? Let's use the internet. Let's use the internet to write blog posts. Let's use the internet to get my voice out there. I just wanted to help people. And so let me just put it out there. And so I started to do it over and over and was trying to be – and I was very consistent with it.

And I just ended up realizing opportunities were starting to open up. People were asking me to speak. People were asking me to write. People were asking me to train and to work with them. Now, and another thing I think that separated an aha moment for me was I always said yes to those moments that I wasn't, opportunities I wasn't ready for. I wasn't ready for a lot of them, but I took them. And I knew that I was going to fail along the way. And if I would have said yes to things that I was only ready for, we would not be having this conversation. I wouldn't be, have achieved or have done the things. And not to say that boastfully necessarily,

but I'm just to say that, wow, a lot of great opportunities to come because I wasn't ready for them and I learned along the way. And that was, those were some of my aha moments. Justin, tell us a little bit about where, how you've gotten to where you are. So 2011, you finished with your master's and then you worked for the army for a while and then IMG and now the Red Sox. So can you tell us about that journey? It's a really cool, I love it. It's fun. It's fun to talk to people and just kind of go back. So I appreciate the question. Thanks a lot, Sindhra. And so yeah, in 2011, I remember from my first class at the University of Utah, first class, I was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I am going to open up my own consulting practice. I come from entrepreneurial parents, and that's just, it's in my blood. I love to create. I love to build. I love to provide value. And so I came into it right when it was over. I had three or four other jobs.

I was a teacher. I was a baseball coach. I was an MLM marketer. I was a waiter. I had all of these different jobs. My passion was sports psychology and serving people. And so I was willing to have four jobs. My wife was at home with her children. And so I opened up my own job, my own consulting practice. The first one was called Sua Sports Psychology. And it had my logo. I had everything going out. I said goodbye to all the other jobs to go all in with my sports psychology. For seven months, I struggled. As an entrepreneur providing for my wife and three

kids, you eat what you kill. Daddy wasn't killing a lot. I was struggling a lot and got to the point where I was struggling. I could honestly say that I was failing miserably in my job, but I was trying my best. And so I thought, you know what, let me, I wish there was an opportunity to do what I love, but to, to be employed because there's nothing like to learn a little bit more. So that's when I did the military at Fort Sam Houston. I was there, learned so much, but at the same time, I have this entrepreneurial spirit in me. I loved it to be creative. I love to build my own things. And so I wrote a book and a publisher accepted it. And I wasn't ready to write a book about

parenting. My kids were little, but I wanted to share this book, teach parents mental skill strategies. I saw an opportunity, a void where in the market, I thought, hey, let me try to fill the void with my two cents, and then it started to grow. I started to go and started to create some impact along San Antonio, and then was grateful to receive a call from the IMG Academy. I'd never heard of the IMG Academy. Didn't even know they existed. I had the chance to go be there to lead an amazing team at the Academy, be part of something great. They do big things at the Academy and they brought me in to be the head of the department. I wasn't ready for that. I had only been in the field for a couple of years. I believe I was the youngest in age on the staff. Oh, that's awesome.

And to be here, okay, Justin, you're the head of the department. I was terrified. I was like, what am I doing? Why me? But I went and I tried to do the best I could. I tried to lean into that uncertainty and into that fear. And I fell in love with the team. I fell in love with the people. And I just wanted to work really hard. I dug in.

And as I was doing that, then just worked as hard as I possibly could. And then was grateful and blessed to receive an opportunity to sign with the Boston Red Sox. And now I'm a mental skills coordinator for the Boston Red Sox. And it's been really neat from 2011, about five years ago. If you were to ask me, okay, in five years, you're going to have these opportunities, I would have been like, I never planned on it, never planned, but I just wanted to work as hard as I could and just constantly find new opportunities. And so, yes, that's a little bit of my journey now. I have a podcast now. And so it's been fun. I don't know what the future holds, but I know I'm going to continue to evolve. That's awesome. I love your story. And

I love what you're saying, Justin, about just taking those opportunities, even though you didn't feel like that you were ready for them. And that's when you really grew because you really leaned into that discomfort or that uncertainty. You didn't let it hold you back. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, we believe here at the High Performance Mindset that if your dreams aren't a little scary, they aren't big enough. So tell us about a big dream that you have. You know, that's a really good question. My dream is to, again, I'm not just saying this to be cheesy or fluffy, but my dream is to set my kids up for success. What can I do? Am I doing the right thing in the home to help them be the best they can possibly be? So that's really where the scary part is. As far as fear in the

business, I can honestly say I'm not really afraid to put it out there to the world. I'm not really to start a podcast, to write a book. I'm not really afraid of what people think. I have a lot of things that would be cool to do. I think writing a third book would be fun. I think winning a World Series championship would be fun. Hosting, having a TV show would always be, that would be fun. There's all these little things where that would be cool. I don't necessarily

think they are make or break for me. It's not like I'm necessarily working for them, but I have this kind of thing where, hey, that would be cool. That'd be a fun opportunity. And the reason I'm hesitant, I'm kind of dancing around this question, is because even five years ago, I never had intended to write a book. I never had intended to be, to have the IMG opportunity, never would have thought, Hey, let me work with a Boston Red Sox. And so I like to leave it open. I like to leave those, those opportunities open, but I scary in terms of, I want to continue to evolve myself and continue to develop high performance habits for myself to, to, so that my skillset and my ability will be ready for, not completely ready, but will I be capable to be successful in those opportunities that come my way.

Absolutely. Since we're talking about high performance and mindset, of those top 10 traits of high performers, which one would you say that you exhibit the most, Justin? Those are really good. First of all, that's cool, Cindra, that you made this. I think this is I totally agree with this. I love it. And you know, people who are listening can get it on my website,

cindracampoff.com. So thanks for saying that, Justin. Cindra's not paying me to say this, but I would say I'd print this out if I were you, listening to this, and then put it up on your wall because it's just good reminders. And I love the language that you put. So I would say the thing that I believe that I bring every day is that I am self-compassionate. I would say that.

I know I am not perfect. And talking about this failure, I'm willing willing to ship things I'm willing to mess up I'm not afraid to be bad at something because I know if I'm constantly bad at something if I stay with it I'm going to eventually get pretty good at it and I am in order to do it you've got to be compassionate you've got to be able to forgive yourself I've written I've looked back to see some of my blog posts I've looked back to see my videos I made. I'm like, wow, that was horrible. But I learned I was willing to put it out there. And that's something that I feel that I'm, I do show self kindness. I acknowledge that everyone goes through difficulty, including

myself. And I think that's one of my, one of the things I try to, I don't think I do it on purpose. I just think that's something that that really resonated with me I think that's the reason why you have been so successful quickly in your career because you are self-compassionate in the way that you just described that you weren't necessarily felt like you were ready for the IMG job or the Red Sox job but you just jumped in you know and so many times that fear of failure can hold people back and then they don't jump in because they are beating themselves up for mistakes that they still made five years ago. Oh, my goodness. I totally agree, Sandra.

Totally agree. I think if you have young practitioners listening to this or people who are afraid to try something, that's my recommendation. My recommendation is to just chip it. Just try it out. Just put it out there because you'll never learn. You'll never learn if you don't. I think a lot of great ideas, a lot of dreams die because they're afraid to just take that jump. I've seen athletes not try out for a team, not go to a showcase because they're already reading the mind of the coaches. Oh, they're not going to like me. They're not

going to think this about me. It's like, no, just go. Just go do it. Let them tell you no. Let them tell you that you're not good. You don't block yourself. And I think that I totally agree with what you said. I love how you said that. So, you know, we all are a work in progress. So which one of those top 10 traits, gosh, do you see yourself kind of still working on?

I would say number 10. They dominate the moment. High performers stay present, moment focused. They recognize that they can't control the past or the future, but are empowered to reach their highest potential. I think what happens to me when you are a creative like myself, I can't help. Sometimes I think about the future so much. OK, I try to play chess so much.

I try to be three, four or five steps down the road in terms of tactically in my business and what I do that I will lose track of the present. Like, oh, okay, bring it back, Justin. Bring it back, Justin. And so I think I have so much big ideas and this, this, this. I go too far. I got to bring it back. And so that's something that I'm constantly working on.

Hey, stay here, Justin. Stay here? Is that what you say to yourself to bring you back? Just like stay here, Justin. Stay here? Is that what you say to yourself to bring you back? Just like stay here? I'll either say stay here or I'll say bring it back. I don't know exactly. I don't have necessarily a mantra necessarily, but I'll just catch myself. I'll be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hey, wait, right. Bring it back here. Stay focused. Yeah. Yeah, that's your entrepreneur spirit. Exactly. Exactly. Always thinking one step ahead.

You know, it's like, yeah, you're being an entrepreneur yourself. I do. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. So we are going to go ahead? You know, it was like, yeah, you're being an entrepreneur yourself. I do. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. So we are going to go to the speed round, Justin. Okay. And what I want you to do is just the first thing that comes to your mind, just give us the answer.

So if you had to recommend a book or maybe somebody to follow, what would you recommend and why would you recommend it? Nancy Duarte, the book is called Resonate. I would highly recommend that because I believe what I do, what my job is, I've seen something really interesting. Sorry, I know this is a lightning round, but I want to pause really quick. That's cool. Yeah, go ahead. Whether you're a parent, a coach, a teacher, a leader, it doesn't matter what you are.

We teach. We have the job to communicate. It doesn't matter how smart you are it doesn't matter your experience if you can't adequately communicate your message to those who are trying to connect with work and help it doesn't matter it doesn't matter or nancy duarte teaches you how to do is how to resonate she teaches you how to tell stories she teaches you how to take what's in your mind and to adequately deliver it in a way that's understandable. Teaching for understanding is huge in what I do. And I think coaches and parents, once they learn how to do that better,

they're going to see better results with those they work with. Excellent. Justin, what's one word that people describe you as? I think positive. I can see that description loud and clear. And what's the best advice that you've ever received? The best advice I've ever received is be yourself. Be yourself.

I think, yeah, be yourself. And that's something that I've really tried to do is just be authentic to myself. You can't be somebody else. It's impossible, right? So true. And do you have a success quote or anything that you think about quite often? I do. There's a quote I always think about is, more is not better, better is better.

More is not better, better is better. Tell us about that. We live in a world that gets so complicated. We want to reinvent the wheel. We want to do this. We want to change our mechanics. We want this. We want that. And I think the best of the best are We want to do this. We want to change our mechanics. We want this. We want that.

And I think the best of the best are efficient. They're clean. They're efficient with how they think. They're efficient with how they eat. They're efficient with how they perform. And instead of trying to think about what can I do more, identify what are your key essential habits, thoughts, and just do that better. So last big question for you, Justin, what advice do you have for those high performers who are listening? If you are a high performer and you're listening or you want to be a high performer, I would go back to two things. Number one, reconnect to why you do what you do. I would highly, highly recommend that. That needs to be in the forefront of what you do. And number two, I would say really strengthen your relationship with failure.

Really become acquainted with it, dance with it, love it, grow from it, and know that it is not fatal. It is not something that's going to destroy you, but it's something that can help lead you to success. Excellent, Justin. I love that we've talked a lot about failure because I think it's something that people really struggle with. I would say just from my own work with high performers, maybe the top three things people struggle with for sure, just how to get over mistakes and failure. Justin, you provided us so much value today. Thank you. I want to make sure that people know how to follow you.

I want to repeat your book so people can check those out on Amazon, Parent Pep Talks, and Mentally Tough Teens. And then Justin also has a podcast that I've listened to several times, Justin, so I really love it. I'd recommend those listeners to go check it out called Increase Your Impact Podcast. Tell us about kind of your motivation to start the podcast and how that's going. You know, it's been wonderful. It's been so much fun. The inspiration behind it was, is that we're all leaders. We're all leaders. And I think some people, in order to lead others, you've got to be able to lead yourself. And anyone, whether you're an athlete, a student, a coach, you want to increase your impact. And so I talk about mental performance strategies.

I talk about leadership. I talk about relationships. And I always say there, I keep it short and I give my two cents. I'll give certain principles and then you go and decide whether you want to use it or not. And so I try to share my experiences and what I'm doing with other performers to help you get on your way to be to get out of your way and perform at your best. And what I love most about them is they're short, you know, five or six minutes. And I love your energy. I love your presence with them. I usually listen to podcasts in my car, so I get out of my car and I'm just like jazzed

because of Justin Sua. Thanks a lot, Ginger. I really appreciate that. That means a lot coming from you. All right, excellent. What are other ways we might be able to follow you or connect with you? Let's just go Twitter. I'm always there.

I'm everywhere, but let's just keep it simple. It's at Justin Sua, and you can. I'm always there. There's a lot. I'm everywhere, but let's just keep it simple. It's at Justin Sua. And we can, we can, you can find everything else from there. Excellent, Justin. You know,

one of my favorite parts about this interview today was just our conversation about failure, how high performers aren't afraid to fail. They go after some big dreams and you gave some really great examples in your own life of just going after, you know, positions or maybe you weren't necessarily going after them, but you but you took them and you, even though you didn't feel a hundred percent ready and, um, and then you grew in those positions. So that was my favorite part. I really appreciate that you were here joining us today. I know that those high performers out there got a ton of value from this interview. So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart right here.

Thank you, Sandra. Really appreciate it. Of all the people you can invite to interview. Thanks for, I'm honored to be on this podcast. You have a wonderful one as well. Oh,

thank you, Justin. Have an awesome day. Thank you so much. You too. Thank you for listening to high performance mindset. Are you signed up for Sandra's weekly email with free mental tools and strategies for high performance?

Why the heck not? Text MENTALLYSTRONG, all one word, to 22828. Or visit SindraKampoff.com.