High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - Build Mentally Strong Athletes by Coaching Confidence First with Melissa Hager and Brock Thompson

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Today’s episode features a powerful conversation with two standout leaders in sport and performance—Melissa Hager and Brock Thompson. Melissa is one of the only women in Minnesota coaching boys high school basketball and brings a wealth of insight on leadership, resilience, and building trust with athletes. Brock is the Head Women’s Soccer Coach at South Dakota State University and a seasoned leader with over 25 years in college athletics. Both are certified Mentally Strong Coaches and bring real-world perspective on what it takes to develop confident athletes and teams. Together, we discuss: Why confidence is the most fragile and most essential performance skill How to help athletes recover after a setback or tough feedback The different ways confidence shows up in male and female athletes What mentally strong coaching really looks like—and how to model it Why relationships are foundational to performance and growth We’ll also share a sneak peek into our upcoming free webinar on June 10—Building Confidence for Athletes and Coaches—and the exciting launch of the Mentally Strong Academy for Athletic Coaches, starting June 19. To register for the webinar or learn more about both opportunities, visit mentallystronginstitute.com. If you're listening after June 10, head to confidenceforathletes.com to catch the replay. REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COACHES ACADEMY

Welcome back to the High Performance Mindset podcast, the show where we explore the mental strategies to help you perform at your best. I'm Dr. Cindra Kamboff and today I'm joined by two of our mentally strong coaches, Melissa Hager, who is one of the only female coaches to lead a boys basketball team in Minnesota, and Brock Thompson, the head women's soccer coach at South Dakota State University. And both are mentally strong coaches with our company, the Mentally Strong Institute, and went through our Mentally Strong Coach certification. So I'm so excited to be with Melissa and Brock today. And in this episode, we are going to be diving into the best coaching practices to build confident mentally strong athletes and how

coaches can develop these same qualities within themselves, whether you're on the sidelines, in the locker room, or leading from the front desk and office. This conversation will fuel your leadership and your coaching approach. We're also going to share a sneak peek into our upcoming free webinar on June 10th about building confidence in athletes and coaches and the exciting launch of the Mentally Strong Academy for athletic coaches starting June 19th. You can find out more and more information over at mentallystronginstitute.com. So let's jump in today to talk about leadership mindset and what it means to truly coach

With confidence and build confidence in your athletes. So Brock and Melissa. Thank you so much for joining us here today Melissa, let's start with you. Why do you think people should keep listening to our conversation about building confidence in athletes? Yeah, thanks for having us today, Syndra. I think people should listen because confidence is something that not just athletes struggle with, it's something that everybody struggles with. So if we can build confidence in athletes and then they can take those skills and then build on them as they continue into the world

and in the life, like it's invaluable skills. Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. And Brock, why do you think people should keep listening to our conversation today about building confidence? Yeah, thanks, Cinder. I think at the end of having coached college athletics for 25 years, I think it's maybe the number one skill that will lead to high performance for athletes.

And I think that, you know, working with athletes specifically, I think it, you know, working with athletes specifically, I think it's the one skill that most of them crave or know that if they gain skills in that area will lead to high performance. Yeah, absolutely. And what I have found working within mental performance coaching and executive coaching for the last 20 years, I have found that confidence is very fragile. And there are times where your confidence can be really high and then maybe you've had a game that you didn't meet your expectations or tough feedback and that confidence can

be really fragile. And I found that no matter if you're a professional athlete or you're an athletic coach or you're a coach like us, mentally strong coach or you know, no matter what level you are, it's like that confidence can be a really fragile thing. So we got to keep building it and growing it. So Melissa, let's start with you. You are one of the only female coaches to lead a boys basketball team in Minnesota. Tell us about that experience and what did it teach you about leadership in general? Yeah I

absolutely loved it and I'm still back on the boys side coaching. I just coach the freshmen and then I help out with the upper levels which I love. I miss the girls too though but I would say some of the biggest things that I've learned comes back to confidence. Both males and females struggle with confidence. It just kind of shows up in some different ways sometimes. I've also learned that relationship is key no matter what, and that helps to build confidence and it helps to challenge players. confidence and it helps to challenge players. But I also feel like relationships can be, it's different between males and females. So one of the biggest takeaways that I've had would be, and I got this also from a book, Every

Moment Matters, but it's females need to bond in order to compete and males need to compete in order to bond. And as I kind of have learned that and carried that through, it's definitely had a huge impact on my coaching males or females. You think it's impacted you? So when I jumped back to the girls side and I've really been intentional about the girls building relationships beforehand and getting to know each other and that they're well supported before they compete against each other. I feel like their performance has improved and they are more willing to challenge each other. And just understanding that it's okay to say, hey guys, let's go, we're going to go compete and then we can talk about it after has been a big impact as well. Melissa, I'm thinking about some of the research that I read about why girls participate in sport,

and they tend to participate in sport. The number one reason is because they want to be with their friends, and the number one reason boys tend to participate in sport, especially at the high school level, is for the competition, right? I know we don't want to generalize to all girls and all boys or all women and all men because there's differences, but it's good to recognize that because you

might emphasize different things as you're coaching. Okay, Brock, you know, you've led South Dakota State's women's soccer team to consistent success over many years. What do you believe is the most critical traits of really being a high impact coach today and building confidence in yourself and others? Yeah, that's a great question, Cinder. I think if you boil it down, I think competence and confidence are probably the two things. Incompetence can be a lot of things, but obviously like here at South Dakota State, it takes the team for us to have consistent success.

And so, really empowering people, leading people, whether those are our coaching staff, our support staff, or really the leadership group within the team is really important. I think curiosity and having to grow with mindset is really important because we're in really an ever-changing kind of world, whether it's the specific sport or just from a leadership standpoint in general. And so I think to have consistent success, you have to know what you're trying to build and you also have to know kind of how you want to do it because there's a lot of ways to kind of create a team and a culture that way and it doesn't necessarily mean one's right or one's

wrong but one is right for you. Yeah absolutely and that takes a lot of self-awareness you know as a coach. When you just said brought competence versus confidence we did this amazing study we just published, and we'll be talking about it on our June 10th webinar. But we did this study, mentally strong sponsored, our company Mentally Strong Institute sponsored this 2025 national research on confidence. And one of the things we found, Brock, I don't even think I've told you this, but that people perceive confidence as more important than competence.

And what that means is like confidence is our belief in ourself, but competence is our ability to do the skills, right? And obviously you need to do the skills to be able to be a great athlete and be a great coach. But we also found that people perceive that you're confident within less than two minutes. So we're really noticing body language, we're noticing eye contact, we're noticing how people

might talk and the things they might say. So quickly we can notice if someone's confident or not. And I could imagine both of you as athletic coaches, but also as mentally strong coaches can see that in people. Can you can you both talk about a time where like a moment where confidence or maybe a lack of it made the difference in a performance of your athlete or maybe a team that you coached? Melissa, let's go to you first. Sure.

This year, I think, would be a great example of the team that I worked with. I'm going to say it comes to preparation. So they had confidence. So in games where they were down, they had the confidence that they put the time and the preparation and their controllables. And it allowed them to be able to not be rattled and to continue to follow their rules and responsibilities

and they came out on top because they also believed in each other. Awesome. And how did you notice their belief in each other? They stayed calm and collected and like they picked each other up. They weren't at each other or negative. Cool. And is there anything that you would give in terms of recommendations for coaches on what they could do to help their coaches or their athletes believe in each other? Since you said that was so important.

Yeah, I think it's pointing out the things that they're doing well and right, and really speaking life into their potential. And then, I mean, in practice situations, putting them in some of those situations so that they feel prepared when they get down to end of game or down or any of those situations that can come up. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Brock, tell us a story where, you know, can you think of a moment where confidence or the lack of it made a really big difference for your athletes, for your teams? And sure, I think one of our biggest success stories

here at South Dakota State is we were replacing maybe the best goalkeeper we've had of all time and then we had three goalkeepers on our team to try to figure out who was gonna do that and to make this story a little bit shorter, we decided to split time with the top two. Okay. Well, our third goalkeeper, obviously that's not an easy situation to be in, but what she

did in that moment was she just dedicated herself to, she met regularly with our mental skills coach at that time. This was her redshirt freshman year, and I didn't even really know this was happening. This was kind of on her, like the step that she made. And the following fall, she ended up really replacing both of them as the number one goalkeeper and went on to be two times summer league goalkeeper of the year. And strictly, her physical performance maybe changed a little bit, but the biggest difference was confidence.

And she would say that. And to the point when she left our program, the one thing that she said is like, we've always kind of left meeting with a mental performance coach up to the individual. She said her advice was, I would make everybody do it once just so they know what it's like. And so she did, you know, just having help building her confidence, you know,

from a mental performance coach really changed the trajectory of her career. talk That's amazing. Thank you so much for saying that. Because I think that also shows you the importance of both of you incorporating mental performance within your athletic teams, right? And having that available to your student athletes. What did you see Brock in terms of like her confidence grow? Like how did you notice that? And what did she do differently before or after

working with a mental performance coach? I mean just her presence on the field changed. Just the really the tone in her communication as a goalkeeper which is fairly important changed. Her really self-assurance just with kind of who she is and the relationship she has on and off the field changed that way. It was almost like even on the field, and she would call that like, you know, like she took on a little bit of a nickname, which the team kind of called her Juice, and she came out dry, like wouldn't say the freshmen to, as she gained confidence, it just kind of poured out of her.

Yeah, cool. I love that, you know, it makes me think of this concept of alter ego. And there's a great book on alter ego, but also people finding kind of their zone of optimal functioning. That's what we might say in sports psychology. And that name juice is really cool because I could imagine that helped her like bring

the energy and bring the intensity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I just, you know, our relationship has grown so much since this moment, but I just remembered that I both worked with your teams many years ago as a mental performance coach, but that's how I think we all got in each other's world. And so kind of cool how it's like full circle,

now here we are together on this call. So today what we've been talking about is confidence, right? And the way that I define confidence is four components. I think it's a feeling, that feeling of confidence can come and go. And many times it's easy to overthink that feeling of confidence. That is also not very stable. Those feelings of confidence can come and go. And I think that's really important to help you realize that you're not alone. And it's very normal and natural,

particularly when you're pushing yourself and trying new things that you don't always feel 100% confident. Number two, it's also a decision. It's a decision that you can make in the moment to show up confidently. And I love the example, Brack, of the goalkeeper who decided she wanted to grow her confidence, right? And so you worked with a mental performance coach.

Number three, it's a skill. So meaning you're not born with confidence, but it's something that you can keep growing. And it's a belief in yourself. And that belief is more stable than the feeling. And on June 10th, when we have that webinar, and by the way, if anyone's listening to this podcast, you're like, oh, June 10th already went by, but you can listen to our recording of the webinar if you go to confidenceforathletes.com. Okay, so confidenceforathletes.com. And, you know, we're going to be diving into like specific practices to build confidence and seven of them. I'll share one of these as we get going, my favorite, but I first want to

turn it back to Brock or Melissa. And let's go with Melissa. Tell me how you intentionally build confidence in your athletes and what do you do as an athletic coach? Sure. There's a couple of things. When I'm building confidence or working to in my athletes, and especially as we're introducing something new, I really try to catch them doing right. And so I do focus on the positive. It doesn't mean that I don't stop and correct when they're doing things incorrectly to change it, but I really put the focus on when they're getting it so that they build the confidence and like, okay, I do understand this. I think another piece is being able to speak into the potential that you see in them. So it's building their own belief up. And I think another piece is language. Like, hey, next time. And putting the focus on what they can do in the future instead of what happened in the past. That's so true because the past is done. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, the last piece is building relationships besides just in athletics, like getting to know your athletes as a human.

Yeah, that's so important. I think about, you know, I have a sophomore and a senior in high school and I notice the coaches that really build their confidence and it's usually coaches who have this invested interest in them and care about them as people and aren't just there helping them perform, you know, but they connect with them on a personal level. And then I see them thrive in those sports because they're coach, they perceive their coach really cares about them. Yeah. All right.

Thank you, Melissa. Brock, how would you answer this question? What have you done to intentionally build confidence in your athletes? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things, but I think the one thing that happens right away is when players come into our program and for the first kind of month of the season or preseason, all of our players do what's called the What Went Well journal. And so what they write down, the way we structure that is over the course of a practice, they have to write down 15 specific plays that went well, right?

One or two things they want to work on and then two or three coaching points. And it's really interesting because it's hard for people to do that at the beginning. Most people when they walk off a field or court, they remember one or two like spectacular moments and like 12 to 15 of the mistakes, right? And so it's trying to rewire that and it's really trying to get them to understand that the simple, like doing the simple well can build confidence. It doesn't have to be a highlight video reel that is spectacular. Like doing the simple consistently can build confidence that way.

And so, but we require it to be specific. Like, doing this simple consistently can build confidence that way. But we require it to be specific. Each play has to have a name, has to be like if they reread it a week later, they would remember that ball went on the field. It can't be something like, you know, like my shooting went well today. Like it has to be the specific shot. Who did you get the ball from? Like, you know, just language to make it more vivid

where it starts to really kind of like, etch in their mind of like that play, like, you know, and even if it's simple, right? And so to get to 15, sometimes they have to use really simple things that, the one just as they're supposed to do and we can still celebrate those. I love that because I think that it also helps people

see the small successes and you know our brain has this negativity bias to look for what's wrong or what's missing and so just your athletes are naturally going to be thinking about the mistakes or the plays that didn't go well instead of the what went well journal and then do you have them do that how often Brock and what do you see the impact of that journal being? So we require it every practice for the, really throughout preseason. And then it becomes kind of optional, right?

And that's kind of like, I'm always a big piece of, I think compliance is not necessarily the best form of commitment, right? But it's like show them the value it can be and then if they want to take it from there, they certainly can. And we have a handful of people that continue it and then we have some that they check that box and they're kind of done with it. But it's really hard over a course of an hour and a half training session to remember 15

things that come well, but it's amazing how their thought process changes as they're playing and training They start to think oh, I'm gonna write that one down and they start to like cool Like it's in it may be something that that before they started to have that activity. They wouldn't even think twice about Yeah, so true and I love love like imprints of like that, when you're noticing that great moment, it's like the imprint that it's making in your mind. And obviously one of the best sources of confidence, and I'm thinking about Albert Bandura's work,

is this idea of past performances. So if you can remind yourself of these great moments, it's also imprinting that you can be successful in the future. What do you both think does not build confidence? And let's go Brock and then Melissa, what do you think, when you think about watching your athletes,

maybe even times that, gosh, maybe you made a mistake. And I'm kind of putting that in air quotes because I don't really know what a mistake is, you know, because it's a learning moment. But maybe a time that you didn't build an athlete's confidence. You know, I'd love to hear more about what you don't think builds confidence. Yeah, I think that's a really good question. I think, you know, I think obviously correction and criticism has a place in coaching if it's done correctly.

I think it's there. I think doing it incorrectly doesn't build confidence. I loved what Melissa had to say about, you know, about relationships. I've always said that the depth of the relationship has to bear the weight of the conversation. And so, being able, some of the most impactful people I've coached, the depth of that relationship has been able to really bear a lot of weight, you know, and a lot of honesty in performance and a lot of honesty in kind of growth that way. But the same part of that, if I tried to coach people that way before

the relationship was built, it would strip confidence away, you know, that way. And then the last thing I would say is comparison is really like, you know, like it steals confidence at the end of the day. And I think that that's something that a lot of athletes, or the young athletes kind of struggle with is they try to be something they're not or that they focus on their weaknesses instead of their strengths. Yeah, absolutely.

And I appreciate that confidence, comparison steals confidence. And in my book that's going to be published by Simon Schuster in 2026, you'll get a little preview of this book on June 10th when you come to our webinar. But I did talk about these inner limits, like the things that impact and get in the way of confidence. And one of them is comparison. And it's, you know, in this confidence study we just did, this is probably the most shocking finding in my opinion. We found is like one in two Gen Zers. And so Gen Z is defined as ages 18 to 29 consistently or frequently feel like they're not enough.

And one in two consistently or constantly compare themselves to others. So this is really important because if you're coaching a Gen Z-er, and to be honest, I don't think, you know, many of you are coaching Gen Z-ers. Like I think what we have to do is really be intentional about building confidence and

knowing that it's even more important to build their confidence because they have these feelings of not being enough. And to be honest, I think the way I make sense of this data is social media. The average Gen Z-er spends six and a half hours on their phone. So they're not at practice, they're on their phone. So we have to be really intentional about building confidence. Melissa, let's go to you. What do you not think builds confidence? When I first started coaching I started out as a head coach right out of college and I would say it was my

focus was different. My focus has changed. It was very outcome focused, you know, coming out of college, playing college ball. And that definitely does not build confidence. That is where pressure comes from. And I'm sure I'm not I'm sure I know there's one or two kids that I really did not do justice and I hurt their confidence. So as I've grown older and a little wiser, being able to focus more on the process and like who I want my athletes to become and the tools and strategies I want them to have that ultimately can lead to really good outcomes, but more on the process piece. And I think another piece is making sure that I'm balancing the critiques and the positives. And then taking the time when I do critique, not to just tell them what was wrong, but

what I'm looking for or to ask them some questions to get them to kind of think through things. But then also not calling out like, oh my gosh that was a horrible pass, what were you thinking? Like if they made the mistake they already know it was a bad pass. Ruthie True. Bekkah So again that kind of just comes under that language of like, hey next time here's what we're looking for. Or I'm glad you saw that, would you do differently next time? Ruthie Yeah, I appreciate that so much. And I appreciate the vulnerability that you just shared.

It's so easy, I think, for coaches to become very outcome-focused because many times your job relies on the outcome and relies on winning. But it does tend to focus and create more pressure and anxiety for your athletes than focusing on the small steps. And even I, you know, full disclosure, you know, I try my best not to focus on the outcome

even with my kids, but sometimes I do. I think it's because our natural tendency when we turn on Sports Center, what do we see? We see who won Center, what do we see? We see who won, who lost, we see the stats, you know, and it's just like part of our culture to be focused on the outcome. Yeah. Okay. Let's keep it rolling here.

You know, Brock, I want to ask you a question about just mental skills and mindset training since you've worked with a mental performance coach for many years. What role do you think mental skills and mindset training plays just in your program and in your approach in general? It plays a huge role. And I think that the easiest way I can kind of sum it up is, you know, we've always viewed sport like a table and there's four legs to it, right? The technical aspect of sport, the physical aspect being stronger, faster, more powerful,

the tactical like the strategy and then really the mental. And so at the end of the day, if you only have a three-legged table, it's going to crumble when it matters most, right? And so, being able to build all four of those legs I think is really vital from that. And as a coach, just recognizing that there are people that can pour into our athletes and our program, with that, it matters a lot. And it's been something that's been a game changer It's a reason I think that you know that we've been as consistent as we have

that way Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Well Melissa What's one thing you wish more coaches knew about building athletes mental strength? It takes intention and it is a daily effort It takes intention and it is a daily effort. It's not just something to do at the beginning of the year and then to not circle back to. It's intentionally tying it in. So like when I work with a team, I'll set up some boundaries or some tools and strategies and we create language around it and we reinforce that language

Daily and it takes a lot of effort me as a coach to be consistent with that Yeah, you have to be really intentional right? Yeah and really Make it a daily consistent effort and obviously confidence and training confidence is part of the mental game Excellent Brock. I appreciate what you said about, you know, like it's the just building mental performance into your culture has helped you be more consistent. How would you answer this question? What's one thing you wish more coaches knew about building athletes mental strength? Well, you talked about this at the beginning when you when you started to define confidence or introduce it, but I wish more coaches just knew it was a skill

that can be developed. I think sometimes there's a stigma that keeps it as just a belief or feeling from that. And so I just, I wish more people knew that it was a skill that can be developed just like any other skill that you develop in sport. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's so important because, you know,

sometimes I think like as somebody who's been working in mental performance for 20 years, like it just becomes something I assume people know, you know, that the uh, the importance of the mental game and we know more and more people are talking about more and more pro athletes are talking about mental performance and working with a mental performance coach, but it's, it's, it's like so, um, so normal and natural to me that I forget that maybe some coaches don't know that you can build mental

strength and their mental tools that you can do that, know that you can build mental strength and there are mental tools that you can do that or that you can build confidence and there are skills you can use to do that in tools. So I appreciate you just pointing out the obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Melissa, how would you answer that question? What advice would you give to younger or newer coaches who want to develop more confident teams?

I think it would be very important for new and younger coaches or anybody who wants to build the confidence to create team language. So like, Syndra, your mental recovery method, your learn, burn, and return. When you put that in with that first original team that you worked with, I will never forget the moment when they finally started using it and how it just, like everybody could hear them like take a deep breath. Yeah. And they felt like, okay, if I make a mistake, it's okay.

My teammates aren't upset. Like it's not going to be the end of the world. So I really do think creating team language to make it a safe place to fail, because that's how we learn, that's how we grow. And I think being able to also provide those opportunities as learning and growing experiences is going to help build the confidence. And then failing when they take risks, or not failing, I'm sorry, praising when they take risks.

Sorry. Great. That's alright. Yeah and so so that they continue to take those risks yeah. Yeah can you give an example of maybe how you might praise when they take risks. Sure one of the biggest things I feel like in basketball specific is a lot of times people are afraid to pass inside because they're afraid it's gonna get stolen or picked off. And so when they look to make the right decision, or we talk about decisions and reads anyway, when they make the right read by trying to get it inside, hey, I'm glad you saw it, but next time

I'm glad you saw it, but next time this kind of a pass or give them some kind of feedback. But I love to just encourage when they make a great, they see something and then it's like, okay, I did see it. Now I can keep looking for those. talk about. Yeah, I love that. Right? Because if you're saying great job, that continues to help people to take those risks. They're not going to keep growing if they're not taking risks. Yeah. Love it. Okay. Brock, do you have any thoughts on advice you'd give to younger, newer coaches that want to develop more confident teams? I think be consistent. I think sometimes we think a mental, like a building conference

with a team, it takes a 45-minute session in a classroom. I think you can microdose it. I think like Melissa alluded to, it's how you say things, it's how you praise things, it's that. And so, consistency I think matters. And I think, you know, it shouldn't be a one time like workshop, it should be really like a coaching objective that you have for your team over the course of a season that just like they get better at the sport that they're playing, they become a more confident team in that growth process too.

I love it. I love it. Okay, perfect. And I said newer coaches, but I think no matter how long you've been coaching, it's important to continue to build confidence in your teams. We know it's one of the most important psychological attributes that you can keep developing. That's why Brock and I and Melissa are putting together a free webinar that you can, we're going to dive even deeper into today about the title of our webinar is Building Confidence for Athletes and Coaches. So I'm so excited about it. Again, it's coming up June 10th. And if you're listening to this after June 10th, you can head over to confidenceforathletes.com,

confidenceforathletes.com, confidenceforathletes.com, and that's where we're gonna put the replay. But let's just talk a little bit about this. Melissa, what can coaches expect to walk away with after attending the webinar? Sure, we'll go through the four pillars of confidence and kind of understanding how we can grow

and develop confidence in athletes and our teams. Syndra is becoming the guru here on confidence, especially with her research. So Syndra will be sharing some of her research as we go and then looking into 10 decisions that can increase confidence. Awesome. And one of the ones we're going to be talking about is a strategy called Learn, Burn, Return that Melissa mentioned earlier. And it's basically how to help athletes. I use it every day. So it's not just for athletes, but how you can use it as a coach to move on more quickly.

And also you can use it in your professional life as an athlete as well. But we're going to be diving into that. The kind of short the tool is just learn, like asking yourself what would you do differently next time. And then you got to burn it, you got to let it go. And that means choosing the same phrase or action every time to strengthen that new neural pathway. And return means building yourself back up. So we'll be diving deeper into that. Brooke, why are you so passionate about the webinar that we have on June 10th? I just think it's a game changer for coaches and for teams in general. I think

as a coach that values transformation on student athletes. I think building confidence in people is one of the biggest ways for them to just transform and take a step closer to being the best version of themselves that they can be. Absolutely, for sure. And coaches play such an important role in helping people believe in themselves and supporting them in their success. And then we are also launching together the Mentally Strong Academy for Athletic Coaches that starts on June 19th. Again, if you're listening to this after June 19th,

you can head over to mentallystronginstitute.com. But Brock, what excites you about this opportunity that we're developing for coaches? Yeah, one, community is really important. I think as coaches sometimes it can be lonely, sometimes you can kind of feel like you're in a little bit of a silo, and so to be around like-minded people

with a similar vision of how they want to coach their teams, whether those are sport teams or just the team of people around them, I think is really important. I've seen firsthand what it's like to have, you know, to have community, whether that's a leadership group that I'm a part of here in my local community, whether it's an online community. That way I think having a community becomes a little bit of a safe space to express yourself, to gather

ideas, and to understand that there's other people that are probably feeling and struggling with some of the same things that you might be struggling with. Absolutely, yeah. And I'm also excited about the academy not only because of the community, which I think is gonna be incredible, but also just introducing coaches to different mental tools and skills that they might not realize. And that can have a really huge impact on their team, just like both you and Melissa shared today.

Before I ask my final question, Melissa, is there anything that I did not ask you that you'd like to share? It's never too young to start with mindset strategies. Well, disclosure, my kids were second grade and kindergarten when they saw syndrome work with my first team. And they have used, especially that mental recovery method, the Learn Burn Return, they have used it since and it's amazing how it really has paid off and helped build confidence. I love it. Cool. It's

never too early. Brock, is there anything I forgot to ask you or I didn't ask you that's on your heart or your mind? Gosh, there isn't a lot but this is what I would say is, you dive into when you dive into growing in this area I think you'll just you'll think why didn't I do this sooner? right like at the end of the day or gosh, I wish I would have done this a year ago or five years ago or You know as Melissa met you that you start to get ripped, you know reflective of man that the first couple of teams I coached, wow.

I wish I could go back and kind of redo that that way. So it's time well spent for sure. Awesome. Well, I'm gonna do my best to summarize what we talked about today. We talked about the importance of process over outcome as a way to continue to build confidence in athletes. We talked about the importance that female coaches really are in sport to bond, whereas male athletes tend to be more in the

sport for competition, Melissa mentioned. We talked about the importance of competence and competence and how confidence is slightly more important than competence, although that skill building is essential. We talked about team language related to failure. Melissa mentioned. I love the What Went Well journal, Brock, that you talked about and do the simple well to build confidence as a strategy. And then I also appreciate what we said about how comparison can steal confidence and in general how developing that relationship with your athletes is key.

And the mental skills can be developed just like confidence can be developed. So you can check out confidenceforathletes.com to find our webinar on June 10th. It'll also be down below on the show notes. And then if you're listening to this afterwards just head over to confidenceforathletes.com to listen to our replay. And if you want to learn more about the Mentally Strong Institute for Athletic Coaches you can head over to confidenceforathletes.com to listen to our replay. And if you want to learn more about the Mentally Strong Institute for Athletic Coaches, you can head over to mentallystronginstitute.com and look for the Academy at the top and just scroll down there and go to the drop down menu there.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Melissa and Brock. I so appreciate you sharing today your wisdom and your energy and just specific strategies to build confidence. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Syndra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for High high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again you can head over to Dr.Syndra.com See you next week!