Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Better Everyday w/ Trevor Anderson

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

In this episode Shawn French sits down with Trevor Anderson but his friends call him T.A. So…that is what I call him! Trevor Anderson, CSCS (T.A.) is the Owner and Founder of Better Every Day®. He is a renowned Performance Educator, Speaker, and a Multi-Sport Performance Expert. T.A. coaches and mentors the youth, and educates other teachers and trainers. He has trained Super Bowl Champions, Heisman Trophy winners, NBA All-Stars and Hall of Famers, MLB All-Stars, Gold Glovers, World Series Champions, and Hall of Famers, World #1 Golfers and Major Champions on the PGA and LPGA Tours, World Long Drive Champions, Olympic Gold Medalists, Tennis Grand Slam Champions, and many of the best athletes in the world. In addition to training, T.A. writes new training curriculum, conducts educational certifications, and delivers functional movement and performance presentations for Under Armour, TPI, IDEA, Vertimax, and , among others. He also co-founded “The Comeback Team”, an organization of some of the world’s top medical and performance professionals created to help people start their comeback from any adversity that they may have faced, and find their best self forward. T.A. is an Under Armour Master Trainer, creator of GOLFleticism®, and is trusted by golf professionals worldwide, as a consultant and Golf Performance expert. He has also been featured countless times on the Golf Channel, had regular monthly fitness articles in Golfweek Magazine, and appears regularly in Golf Digest Magazine, having been named multiple times as one of the Top 50 Golf Fitness Coaches in America. You can connect with T.A the following ways: IG- @ta2claps Twitter- @TA2claps www.bettereverydayorlando.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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but doesn't quite get there? I think it's pretty obvious to know that the best players in the world are not satisfied with the successes that they've had. They don't win a World Series, but I'm cool now, like, you know, I'm chilling. But what's not so obvious? And what I actually think is a secret ingredient

to high performers, especially in athletic world and beyond, is that what's going on, guys? Welcome back. This is Sean French, your founder and host of the podcast of Determined Society. Guys today have with me a very special guest. He's a new friend of mine.

His name is Trevor Anderson. He is the owner and founder of Better Every Day, located in Orlando, Florida. He is a renowned performance educator, speaker, and multi-sport performance expert. TA coaches and mentors the youth and educates other teachers and trainers. He has trained Super Bowl champions, Heisman trophy winners, NBA All-Stars and Hall-of-Famers, MLB All-Stars, Gold Glovers, World Series champions, and Hall of Famers, world number one golfers and major champions on the PGA and LPGA tours. Guys, the list goes on and on and on.

TA is an amazing individual, and I'm super blessed to have them on the show today, and I think you guys are going to get a whole lot out of them. Before we get to the show, please, if you are listening to the show, you know the deal. Please share it out to your friends, your social medias. and TA in the stories. And, well, I'll definitely share back with my audience as well. Anything that you guys can do to continue to spread the word of the determined society

and the mission that we have going on here, it's really appreciated. So without further ado, TA, welcome to show, brother. Hey, thanks so much for having me, Sean. It's a blessing and honor to be here. And listen, man, I love when I see somebody that has the same kind of energy that I gravitate towards. And ever since I've met you and knowing you through some mutual friends, I've seen and felt that energy in every single post, every single thing that you do, man.

So, you know, I love, I love following people who have that positive energy, man. So let's get to it. That means a lot to me, brother. It truly does. And I can say the same for you. The thing that I love most about you is not only just what you're posting about and the things that you're doing in Orlando, you know, with your, with your center, I can feel the passion from you. I can feel the love and everything that you do. And I think the world needs it, society needs it, especially here in America right now.

No doubt. But you know, it's, we have some mutual friends, too, from back of the day. Yeah, man, we do. We do. Indeed. Yeah, our boy, J.D., I talked to him the other day. He said you were the man that he said he's like, hey, man, tell him I love him. Yeah, man.

Yeah, I love Jeff Dillman. He's a good friend and an amazing person, first and foremost, an unbelievable coach. Yeah. And somebody who's inspired me through the years as well. So, yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad when I found out that you knew him, it all made sense. It all made sense, Sean. So here we are.

I can tell you, being in the wait room with him back in the day in 2002 and 2003 at LSU, it was a scary situation. Dude, that, that staff was loaded. We had Tommy Moffat, who's a legend, obviously. We had Scotty Cochran, right? You know, screaming, yeah, yeah, yeah, way back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had Dilman.

Yeah, big balleria. Vic? Yeah, man. I mean, bro, it is. That staff is lit. You know. And that's just from the strength staff. And then you had, you had Jimbo Fisher. You had bus champ. You know, you had all these amazing coaches and coordinators from all in one place. And then obviously, Coach Saven, who was the head football coach. So not just baseball, which is what you played. But football, like all of the sports across the board were just loaded, man, from the coaches to the players, to the, to the staff, to the strength staff. It was Yeah, Saban was a coach when I was there, and he had all those dudes.

It was just, if you look back at it, it's just, it's nuts to see like how many amazing professionals were on that, on that football field, you know, and it was a special time in my life, but yeah, man, Jeff Dillman's great, great dude. So listen, man, let me ask you a quick question. I like to have a little fun first, right, before we get into nitty gritty. But, hey, man, you know, what is one thing that people may not know about you that's so special that you want to talk about. I'm a nerd.

I'm a nerd, man. Explain. No, I just, like, I love learning about learning. I love learning. Like, I think one of the best ways, one of the processes, the most deliberate processes of learning is teaching. So my entire life, you know, not only was I, am I forever a student, but I always had this, like, burning desire to teach.

And what I didn't realize at the time was that it's because I had some good teachers, you know, along the way that inspired me to be a teacher. I ended up teaching school for three years. I taught middle school. You know, everybody always says, God bless you. You know. Middle school is crazy, man. It's crazy. But the interesting thing about those kids is that they're old enough to understand what you're saying, but they're young enough to still be not too set in their ways where they're impressionable, you know, where you can really make an impact. And so I love to, I love teaching middle school. But what you realize is that by teaching, you actually are reinforcing the learning that you're doing. So for me, you know, having that constant like teacher, student, teacher, student mentality, like that cyclical process for me has been something that has driven me. And it's never let me settle to be comfortable, not only with my own clients, but with myself. You know, so I'm a nerd. I like, I like, I like biomechanics.

I like science. I like neuroscience. I like understanding the why, the real reason. You know, when I learned how to drive a stick shift many years ago, you know, I had one friend that just said, hey, you just, this foot goes up and this foot goes down. and then you moved the stick. Like, that didn't make sense to me. As soon as I understood what was happening in the engine,

then it made sense for me. Immediately I could drive a stick. So I'm the guy who needs to, I go from like kind of parts to the hole. You know, a lot of people go from the hole to break it down to the parts. But if I understand the parts, it's easier for me to concoct the hole. So, yeah, I just, I love just nerding out on stuff. You know, I'm not a voracious reader, if you will, but I will read things that are, like, if I think about an idea or I say,

I want to know more about that. I'll dig into it deep. you know, and I'll go after it. And so I'm constantly trying to just be the person that's on, not just the cutting edge to do something different. But sometimes I like bringing and digging back. What were they doing 50 years ago that was so successful that's still around today? I want to know those things just as much as the new stuff too.

So I think books have been around for years and years and years. And, you know, it's so digital these days that we kind of don't turn the pages anymore. I love picking up something and turning the pages and just getting smarter and better at what I do. There's something to be said about just turning the page, you know, because you can write notes and the margin, you know, you can always go back to it. And you are actively engaged in the reading process when you're doing that. Whereas digital, too many things can go on.

If you're on a digital iPad, you're on your iPad, you're on your iPad, you're flipping through. And then if it's connected to your I message, Sean French text, you're like, to you, what's up? And then like all of a sudden you're off, right? You're not on there reading it. Yes, exactly. You know, it's funny because you brought this up.

And I love the fact that you brought up, the fact that, you know, being a nerd or, you know, you always love teaching because it reinforces the learning that you're doing. You and I had an interesting conversation on the phone about a week ago. And it was really impactful for me because you spoke about a situation to where you weren't always such a great ball handler, right? And you went into a story to where you were doing some instruction and you were tasked to give that.

Can you tell the listeners a little bit about that story? Because I think there's some serious power in that because I think there's some serious power in that. because I think all too often, we sit there if we don't know something, who am I to teach it? They go through this imposter stuff. It really just kind of tweaks the mind a little bit. So I love what you did with the mindset shift there.

So please talk about that. Sure. So I used to, starting in 2000, I started, had the opportunity to work with Vince Carter, you know, legendary NBA star. And if, you know, people didn't know Vince Carter. You know, just all you have to do is turn on YouTube. and type his name in and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

But Vince and I are the same age. I'll just jump up to the other gym. And just a freak athlete and just a great player, cerebral player. And just had a long, wonderful. He played in four different decades. You know, not very many people have done that anything for four decades. And he played basketball in four different decades. But Vince Carter was somebody I had an opportunity back in 2000 to help assist with his

basketball camps. He was a young player in the NBA. And he was just starting his basketball camps. I got kind of accepted by the Daytona Beach mainland family to come in and kind of be one of the coaches that helped assist. Well, you know, a couple of years in a row, I was able to just be there as a coach. I ultimately would go on to be able to be the floor director and run Vince Carter's basketball camps wherever he was in New Jersey or Toronto or Daytona Beach or wherever we were. Anyway, before I became into the position of running those camps, I was, you know, I would be given a certain task at the camps.

we'd have 20 different coaches and everybody teaching, you're teaching shooting, you're teaching defense, you're teaching, you know, ball handling, you're teaching this, you're teaching that. And, you know, Coach Charles Brinkerhoff, who was a mentor of mine to this day, who was Vince's high school coach and ran all the camps. And he said, you know, T.A., you know, I would love for you to do ball handling this week. You know, and anybody that knows me said, they know I might have been able to jump out of the gym, but, you know, nobody ever said, wow, he has these amazing ball handling skills. And, you know, it made me nervous.

It made me nervous to be conducting something, not feeling like I was a good ball hammer. And he said, don't worry about it. Just focus on the fundamentals and the basics. I said, cool, I'll do that. You know, so, you know, I just trusted Coach Brink in his process. And he said, you know, just stick with what you know. I said, all right, cool. So I started teaching the kids who I know.

I started by patting the ball, pat in the ball, and then doing figure eight through my legs going around my head, around my chest, from my waist. And then before you knew it, by Wednesday of the week, the camp was Monday through Friday. By Wednesday, man, I was going left. I was going right. I was crossing over quick. I was like, man, because we would play basketball at the end of every day, you know,

with all the NBA guys and the camp guys. And man, next thing, you know, my ball handling was improving dramatically in just a couple of days. And I just realized it wasn't just a basketball moment for me. It was such a teachable moment. Like, man, anything that you lean into, anything that you look at, you say, man, I am not very good at this. or I can afford to be better at this,

just spend some dedicated time leaning into it and take the most simply, simple, fundamentally ridiculous aspects of it and just pound them. And next thing you know, you have a much higher competency, whether there's a physical competency, mental competency, or what have you.

You have a better ability at the end of a very short period of time and you actually start to increase. And the fact that you haven't been focused on it and then you spent some particular focus on it means whether it's neurologically or what have you, you're going to have that immediate pop, that immediate increase. And so I started using that same idea with other aspects of my life.

You know, maybe it was writing or maybe it was reading or maybe it was other different activities that I was doing. And I used that same dedicated focus on the fundamentals for a short period of time. And I had dramatic results across the board. So, you know, thank you for asking me about that story. Because to me, I didn't realize how impactful was when we had the conversation. But, you know, for me, that's a big deal. What if we could do that on a day to day basis, right, just lean into it.

And I want to get to the leaning into the thing. But like having the ability or the courage to just lean into something like that and practice it and practice it and be vulnerable enough to like feel like, okay, I don't know everything, but I'm going to do this, this, I'm going to apply this information. I'm going to go step by step, right? Because at that point, we can grow. And all too often right now is when when people get, oh, that's out of my comfort zone. I'm going to run from it, right?

It's like that growth. Right. Right. And, you know, I think at one point in life, we all go through those moments. But it's super important just like when you're working out. You know, your goal is to put your body under so much stress that it goes into failure the last two to three reps. It's uncomfortable, but there's growth. Right.

And to your point, when you lean into something like that. When you lean into something like that, you are telling yourself that you are going to move forward in attacking something that you don't feel very comfortable doing. And when you're able to do that, your threshold goes a little bit higher. Right. So now you try things like no doubt. No doubt about it. I'm still not going to skydive. Don't get me wrong.

Like I'm not going to do anything crazy like that. I'm not jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. But like you feel like you can start taking on more risks and more things because you're like, well, if I. that, then I can do. You know? Have you, have you noticed since you get up? I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, no. I was just going to say, it's ironic. You talk about a skydiving because I have a 21-year-old son. And last week, last Friday, it was one of his things where he said, man, I'm not afraid of very many things. But that makes me afraid. I'm going to go do it.

And he jumped out of a plane from like 13 or 14,000. thousand feet. I'm like, I couldn't believe he did it. And now the ironic thing about it is, and he's a football player, college football player, plays defensive back at Columbia. And he's already not afraid of anything, but he jumped out of this plane. He said right before he got out of there, he just, he watched people jumping out like, oh my gosh, whatever I got myself into. But once he, as soon as he got into the air, after about five, 10 seconds, it was like, I've conquered it, you know. And then now he wants to go back next week and go to the highest. He must to go up six or seven thousand feet higher and do it again. So yeah, a lot of things are on the other

side of that of that fear, that nervousness. But the best part about it is it actually is like a, like a master key that unlocks, you know, the next opportunity or the next big nugget or the next big hurdle for you. You know, we have a, if you have a, you think you have this systematic approach of how you're going to conquer and accomplish everything, but you just got to do it scared. You know, you got to get uncomfortable and you got to do things that make you nervous that maybe you're outside of your character even and get it done. And so to your point, yeah, I'm not going to jump out of one either. But my, but my obstacles and my hurdles are different ones. You know, there's different things that I jump out of, you know what I mean? That helped get me to the next level.

I think it's important too, because what your son did at that very, very moment, and, you know, maybe he realizes it. Maybe the listeners don't realize it, or maybe your son doesn't, is the fact that he just, he's going to have a better season because of that. There's no doubt. I mean, like, No doubt. There's no fear. If he literally conquered his only fear, then there's nothing left to fear. Yes. So true.

It's super cool. So true. That's super cool. Man, I love hearing stories like that. You have another kid that's a really good athlete too. Baseball player, right? Yeah, my 12-year-old. He's playing his all-star season right now.

They won the districts, one of the hardest districts in Florida. They won that. And this weekend, they're playing for the sectionals. They get through that sectionals. the next week they're playing for state. And then after that, it's regionals. And, you know, they really have the team that has a really good shot to get to the Little League World Series, which was always a dream of mine. You know, I know you as a baseball player probably had the same dream as I had to be watching on TV.

And I mean, every day, he's watching YouTube. He's watching every game of Little League World Series he can find. He's putting himself in a position, in a mindset right now. And he's thinking, here's how I would hit off of this guy if I was facing him. And here's what I would do. I would have fielded that ball differently in center field. than that gentleman did when he went to field that ball. So it's, you know, what I love about it, without him realizing,

he's immersing himself in the mindset to be successful when he gets there. So when he sees it, the lights aren't going to be too bright, and the stage is not going to be too big because he experiences it every single day. So he's already set the stage for himself. Now they've got to do their job between then and now, and hopefully they get there. So it's an exciting path. You know, those are the young athletes that turn in to be phenomenal and great athletes.

because that gift right there or the discipline, because I think it's a discipline, right, to sit down and watch YouTube and actually study games is few and far between at that age, man. I mean, there's Division I one baseball athletes and football athletes that aren't doing that consistently enough. So, you know, there's no question. You know, you and your wife have led to a point where, you know,

they have seen your habits. And I always say this, you know, your children are going to see you and they're going to they're going to follow you wherever you go. You just better hope you don't lead them into hell. Right. No doubt about that. This is an awesome, this is an awesome conversation by the way. And the cool thing is guys, you know,

role modeling is a huge thing in the household. You know, and that is something that you and your wife created. I mean, you guys have an amazing, amazing business. And, you know, what you guys do, making people better every single day in your community. Please tell the listeners, I have a lot of local listeners that we probably love this information. Come check you out. Well, yeah, so better every day is the whole idea is the relentless pursuit for excellence.

You know, what we're trying to achieve, we know we can't get it all today. You know, I got this from my dad. My dad passed away in 2009 for cancer. You know, yes, cancer does suck. You know, but what he left me was so substantial of, a few nuggets of information, statements, and principles that I really lived by. And one of them was better every day. And I remember as being 10 years old and, well, me being 10 years old, and being in the

backyard, my dad and, you know, wanting to put more weight on the cement, you know, weights that are, you know, resting in the backyard. And he said, listen, son, you don't have to lift the whole world to get better. You just need to get a little bit better every day. He said, if it's light, moving fast. I'd never forget that. And, you know, he was a very, very fit guy, six to, two, two hundred, pounds just, I mean, fit, ripped, even, you know, to the last days. And he said, you know,

you don't have to do it all today. You just have to get a little better every day. And you have to relentlessly pursue excellence. And so that's the type of mentality that we try to get across, not just to our athletes, who are professionals, but we have a, you know, a whole lot of general everyday folks that come because they want a higher level of health and wellness, you know, whether there's mental health and wellness, physical, obviously, but also emotional, spiritual. You know, we have our pastors trained with us. You know, we, we have a great environment, a great family environment where everybody gets better and, you know, have a new project that we're building a new facility. We're working with a baseball facility right now, which you would love to have a look at.

It's, you know, called TNXL. And we are, we're sharing space with them for the moment as we're building our new one, which is 8,000 square foot space, which is pretty amazing. So we're going to have the opportunity to continue to affect our community positively. I work with Under Armour. I've been with Under Armour since 2009. And not only do I work with Under Armour by just wearing the clothes and being a quote-unquote ambassador, but I'm on the field for doing all the on-field performance for the Under Armour All-America football, some of the other ones.

And Amber and I, my wife, we have the Under the Lights Flag Football League, where we have thousands of kids, you know, throughout the course of a year, that, you know, we have them playing from kindergarten to eighth grade, playing a very high level of a flag football, you know, where there's no just participation trophy. Like, it's competitive, you know. You get a trophy if you win. You get a medal if you win.

And but what we're doing is we're working with Under Armour in the community, not just from the apparel perspective, but, you know, doing events at the Boys and Girls Club, doing events at the Brand House for Mother's Day, things of that nature. And we're trying our best to make sure we're visible in our community, not just with what we wear, but with the actions that we take. So not only is that an extension of our gym of what we have going on at better every day,

but it's something, it's we're called to serve, you know, so we want to make sure that we're doing our part to maintain that service-based mindset in our own community and just help share some of that love, you know, because we can't keep it all for ourselves. We might as well share it. You know, that's awesome, man. You know, I just kind of want to, I just want to acknowledge you before I go any further. Just saying, you know, I've talked to a lot of successful people on this show. And I love where your mind's at. You know, I love the things that you're doing. Appreciate it.

You know, it's one thing to be an ambassador for Under Armour and work with Under Armour and, you know, but the fact that you guys are actually out there in the community partnering with Under Armour, you know, hand in hand and providing such a safe and competitive environment for the use. Yes. Yes. There's not enough of that. I mean, and having that mission with such a big brand is huge, man. What are some of the things that you've learned most along that journey?

in providing the community with things like this. Well, I think one of the things that you learn the most is that the community is hungry for, you know, and it's almost like if not me, then who. So on the opposite side of that imposter syndrome that we all, even high performers and successful people tend to have like, you know, who am I, you know, to teach this? So who am I to lead that? You start to realize that there are opportunities in our community that people are hungry before that no one's taking the initiative to just bring together.

You know, so what I found to answer your question indirectly is that there are things in our community that are necessary that are needed that people really need if they're going to be able to reach their own goals, but they don't have a systematic approach or they don't have a process or they don't have a roadmap to get there. Being able to have leagues like this, not only does it create an athletic outlet and activity-based outlet for young people. But it also brings parents together in a very positive environment because, you know, the state of view sports right now is getting a little bit crazy. It's getting more and more competitive all the time. It's like, you know, with the travel ball and all this. And even even youth

football, tackle football, these kids are already playing tournaments, tackle tournaments and stuff like that. I'm not trying to, I'm not, I'm not here to bash that. I'm just saying that the, the, the expectations of young athletes and the ratings and the rankings and the rankings and the stars and all this. It's like there are not very many safe places for them to go where they can just go have fun with their friends. And that's what our league provides. It provides the opportunity to do that and some of the other

activities that we do. We want to take the pressure off. We want them to be able to just go. Really, like you remember what's like growing up and you know, I would, I would, and growing up in Sarasota, you know, I could get a bucket of balls with my friend and, uh, and jump the fence at Little League and play home run derby. Or we would go

to the, you know, football field and or play football in the street and like there was no scoreboard, no referee, no stars, the rating, the rankings. And we played. And I think the organic like athleticism and creativity and all that stuff that comes out in those environments are the key. So we're trying to provide a structured aspect of that, a structured aspect of play where yes, we do want to win, you know, but, you know, because there's lessons in losing, just like there's lessons in winning. But if nobody wins and nobody loses, then we miss all those opportunities. So we're just trying to provide a platform for people to

do that. You know, and it seems like for right now, the biggest, the biggest benefit that we found from it is not financial. It's not even getting people to come to the gym. It's that thank you so much, Amber, thank you so much, Trevor, for providing this outlet, you know, because otherwise, our kids wouldn't have this positive environment. We play all these leagues. We do all these tournaments, but this is where we love playing the most. This is what they get eager and excited for is coming to play in your league. So that means the most of us. You know, I think it's super important. You know, I'm not here to bash youth sports, although I may have a few months ago. I don't take back what I said, because here's the thing.

I just feel like there is way too much pressure on these young kids right now to perform at such a high level. And they are tying their self-worth to their performance. They're human beings, not human doings. I had a very good guest on my show, Seth Pepper. I think you know him. We had a conversation probably about. two, three months ago.

And, you know, it's gotten out of control. And it's getting to a point where, you know, parents, you know, their kids are eight years old and they're playing, their kids are playing 64 baseball games in a summer. And it's like, guys, what are we doing? And then the atmosphere at these games. It's like parents are trying to fight umpires. Coaches, I don't know if you saw this. This is really interesting to me.

And it came out at the time that I released that podcast. in a couple, um, couple reels, uh, on, on, on youth sports.

There was a coach that did not agree with a call in a, in, in, I think it was a 10-U game, baseball game. Yeah. Yeah. He literally took the umpires face and shoved them to the ground.

Wow. Like, what are we doing? What do we teach in our children? It just, it just doesn't even surprise me, you know what I mean, because I've seen so much craziness and,

but here's what I think, though, Sean, I think that, look, I can't control, these parents. I can't control the umpire. There's umpires out there

they're out there for their own glory as well. So don't make no mistake. So I can't control them. But what I can do is I can have the conversations in my house with my son, right? And manage my own environment the best way possible and say, listen, son,

I know like his, he's it's almost like a meteoric rise this kid's having with baseball. And he's going like this. And now after this All-Stars is over with, I'm shutting that down. And it's football time. Good for you.

We're not in his throat every day. And we're not going to hit every day. You're 12. You're going to be fine. I remember when I was 12, as soon the season was over? Guess what? It was football time.

And so, you know, we can't be, we can't go along to get along. You know what I mean? We can't be out there doing exactly what the industry said. I get an email every single day from perfect game. Oh, watch out. It's almost too late for you to sign up for this tournament, bro.

I mean, like at some point, you know, we have to be able to, it's the early specialization that's getting kids hurt, is getting them burnt out. And I don't need to get into the science of all that. It's just really a lot more common sense to science. But having a comprehensive movement foundation that is a multi-sport movement-based foundation, I think it doesn't hurt anybody for any sport to have that multi-sport. You're not going to miss out.

If you take a few months off of throwing, you're going to be fine, especially at 12. My goal is to make sure that we create, and especially through our gym environment, whatnot, that we create a comprehensive, like, movement-based athlete that has a high level of physical literacy so that they can compete in whatever activity they do, right? Because we don't climb trees and dig holes in the woods and jumping with our bikes, stuff like that like we used to. But that doesn't mean that we can't expose them to a multi-faceted movement-based protocol with the activities that we put them in.

and it's okay if they don't want to do those things, right? They still got to do it because we're the parents. Yeah. You know, so I don't want to just be subject. I don't want to be subject to the monster of youth sports and keep everything, you know, kind of as versus, kind of as many variables as possible. At some point you're going to have to specialize. I realize that.

But right now when they're in that age, when their bodies are just trying to develop everything, it almost is a disservice in most cases to keep them on one track because they're going to miss out on the other aspects that can make that one track, you know, as good as it could possibly be. You know, it's funny you say that. I don't preach to the choir. I don't preach to the choir. No, I want to say that because, no, I'm glad you're saying this because, you know, it hurt me.

By the time I got to LSU, I wasn't athletic enough. I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't dynamic enough. And then bad mindset, victim mentality, all drove me down a road that I didn't want to go down. And I never turned out to be that high-level performer at my dream school. And, you know, I won't say all of it is because I specialize too soon, but, man, I'm going to tell you a lot of it was. I wasn't strong enough. I didn't have enough tools in the belt, you know? And what I found is, you know, you can hide it in junior call. Oh, yeah. But once you get to the SEC, bro, you can't hide that. And, you know, you've got a catcher that you're competing against for some playing time. And he was an he was an all American in baseball.

in all state and football. That dude's tough. It tough to beat. You know, one of the things I want to touch, I want to take the opportunity because you and I also had another amazing conversation in the same conversation we had. We touched on stories with the youth.

And what you said about, you know, sitting your son down and having a conversation with them, really triggered that story about, you know, the generation like us preparing our youth to lead from the front right. now. And we talked a little bit about the, the Indian culture, the American Indian culture. And I want you to touch on that for the listeners, because I think it was a very interesting perspective. And

quite honestly, it blew me away. So fire away, dog. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I had the honor to listen to a Native American gentleman. He's about 40 years old from Navajo tribe. And, you know, Everybody knows about COVID and COVID happened and all that type of stuff. But if you understand the Native American culture, you know, the way that they continue to survive generation after generation after generation is they, the culture is to tell stories, right?

Whether it's a gather around a campfire or a dinner table or what have you. And they have, you know, the grandfather and a great grandfather and maybe the great-grandfather. And they continue to tell these stories. And the culture is to get together, tell stories, break bread, And I guess it never occurred to me, but hearing the story a couple months ago, the biggest challenge that the Native American were having on the reservation was that what COVID was doing was it was hitting those communities harder than any community in the country. And all of the elders, the majority of the elders are starting to die and starting to succumb from this terrible disease, right? And not only was the physical person dying,

but the stories that they tell around that campfire were also dying with them. And what happens is middle age, whether you call 40, 40s middle age, 40s and 50-year-olds, you know, they weren't the ones that had to lead from the front in the storytelling because they always had their parents and their grandparents. And you know, you're 70 and 80 and 90-year-olds

still telling her stories. But who is going to tell the stories when the elders begin to, unexpectedly die off. And now you're the oldest member of the family now. And now you are the ones sitting in the driver's seat to tell all the stories. Right. I think the biggest challenge that we're having in America right now and beyond is that we're sitting back and waiting to be the storyteller. We have significant experiences in our life to this point. I'm 45 years old. Man, I was just thinking about it the other day. Like, man, I've seen some things. I've been through some things. I've struggled through some things. I've had some successes. Like, there are things,

the reason why we're having this conversation right now is because we have stories to share. We have lessons to share. We have moments to share successes and failures to share. But we can't wait until we're 70 or 80 years old to start sharing them, right? I think if anything that I learned through that conversation, just listening to the passion of the gentleman speak, was it's an indication that right now is the time. Right now is the time to share information. God did not bless us with this information and these experiences just so that we can keep it to ourselves. These experience have got to not only help ourselves, but help the next generation. And we need to start telling those stories now.

As a matter of fact, you know, dear stories that we've learned because of how society has changed, that we can share with our parents if we're fortunate enough to still have one or both of our parents around or even share with our grandparents because they don't understand what's happening in society today. The same way that our kids who were learning, I learned a lot from my 12-year-old. I learned a lot for my 21-year-old. And being able to sit in that driver's seat and say, okay, you know, buckle up. It's time to tell this story. Because, listen, you know, at one, at some point or another, we're not going to be around

to tell that story anymore, you know? And, you know, if we take it to the ground with us, you know, then that's an opportunity loss for everybody around us that we care about. That's a really great point. And again, you know, I mean, there's so many great nuggets in that story. The big one is if we take things to the ground with us, like you said, we don't just take the stories. we take the culture with us.

Exactly right. And that's the thing. Like we don't want the culture to die. And it's so funny because like when you, you know, the first thing I thought when we got off the phone that day and you're talking about that story about the, the gentleman from the Navajo tribe that you spoke to was like, man, that's really, you know, it's a really good point.

You know, Native Americans, they tell some great stories. And it's really unfortunate that the elders are passing away from, whether it's COVID or whatever it is, it's really upsetting because that culture is going to suffer for generations if the younger generation is not prepared and ready to tell us stories right now. And it reminded me of some of the most enjoyable times of my childhood was sitting at my great grandparents, place for family reunions every Labor Day in clearly California. we'd all go there their home was located

right on a creek at night time all the adults would sit around you know in chairs and they would have their beers and listen to Randy Travis on the the great bird of the hawks

he was you know he was the man back there right we were jammed out of it we're playing croquet badminton and the one thing that I all will always remember is wanting to be sitting in that circle

at night the fire listening to stories and even in my family now there's I mean my my home we tell stories we talk at the dinner table every night TV's off

no electronics we do you know we we do our what we're grateful for every person goes around and tells the three things that we're grateful for amazing three things that we could have done better today we failed that

right I got my three-year-old doing it. My wife's incredible, by the way. That's not all me. My wife is fixated on making sure that our children have enough tools to get through adversity and to be able to properly handle successes. And that's awesome. And that's not going on right now in society.

You know, we're not, as a whole, we're not having these conversations at dinner. You go to a, go to a restaurant. I go to a restaurant with your beautiful wife and your, two handsome boys and you're sitting down and, you know, you look around. If they're on their own tablet, they're on the tablet that's provided to them at the restaurant and they're playing game. Right. Yeah, exactly.

And that's the thing that I loved about that story because that is a true way to connect is through telling stories, you know? For sure. I think you learned a lot about people that way. Hell, I've learned a lot about you, just that one conversation. You told me two stories. Awesome. Yeah. You know, so.

Yeah. It's one of those things where, you know, you start to really. it. And I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's just the age that I'm that I'm at right now. And I was just thinking, man, like, I'm watching my son practice at 12 years old. And I'm, I remember being 12 on the field and all stars. And I remember every single player. I remember we were doing. I remember the specific practices. I mean, and I don't have a bunch of video because it wasn't social media. I have a few pictures and stuff like that. But it's like, man, I remember it vividly. And man, that was. 35 years ago. You know what I'm saying? Almost 35 years. So it's like, man, like this thing happens fast. Dude, so quick.

So if not now, then when? If not now, when? I'm not, listen, I'm not sitting up here and trying to tell this entire podcast that I'm Mr. Go get it like every single time. Every mission. Like, come on, man. We all battle that, right? If we don't set up ourselves with a systematic approach to kind of attack these things,

we won't. But we're not always going to feel like, we're not going to always love it every single day. We're not always going to want to get up and attack our process every single day, but we know it's required. If we can, as non-negotiable as we can make it, we have to. But sometimes we do fall short. We do. And the Bible says we all fall short of the glory of God, right? So we're all going to fall short in one way, shape, or form. But what do you do next? You know, what do you do next? And if you know that storytelling is something that's going to help your family, you know, then or your society or your community, look, you have a decision. You have an opportunity

right now. Let's start telling those stories authentically. That's been the shift in my career. I mean, I've been coaching for a long time. Over 27 years, I've been coaching, you know, athletes. But now it's, you know, I've been done my own sports as a professional athlete. But now it's like, okay, it's not enough just to be coaching one or two or a group of people. Now it's time to start telling these authentic stories and sharing these, these opportunities for success and also sharing your failures so that other people can learn from your mistakes, not just you.

Yeah, exactly. And you mentioned a very important phrase that a mutual contact of ours talks about all the time, Ben Newman, attacking the process and, you know, process over feelings. And, you know, that's a certain mindset that a lot of times, you know, I catch a lot of flack for, you know, and I'm sure, you know, but most people don't understand it what it really means. Doesn't mean we're perfect. It just means that we know that if there's something to be done and it's a part of our daily process to not let our feelings get in the way of that work getting done.

Because when that happens, we negotiate with ourselves, then we start to let our dreams go. There's no doubt. We decay. And then our children see that. Right? It's super important. That mindset right there is something that I think it's invaluable.

You know, to do. No, yeah, just the process of feelings. I mean, it has to be. And that's something I really learned from Ben, spending my time that I've been spending with Ben, especially over the last several months. You know, you have to be able to have that process in place. I mean, you can say process or the feelings, but if you don't have a process, then what are you putting in front of your feelings, you know? Yeah. You know, it's about doing the unrequired work, Ben talks about, you know,

there's, there's a workout that you're going to do three days a week or whatever, but then there's unrequired work that is like brushing your teeth every day. And I always say it like this, like, it's like brushing your teeth, right? Brushing your teeth. You don't, you don't, you don't your teeth to make your teeth better. You're really actually brushing them so that they don't get worse, right? So we don't want our teeth to get worse. That's why we're brushing them, right? So it's not like every time I brush,

I put another layer of beautiful enamel over the top and it's just going to just continue to, you know, it's so that they don't get worse. And we've got to realize that. And there's something that Jeff Dillman. When Jeff Dillman was at South Carolina, he said, we went in there one day. I went in there with my son.

It was when my son was on a recruiting, recruiting process. And Dillman said, he said, ATA, you know what I tell them? I said, I tell them, forget your feelings. Forget your feelings because your feelings get you beat and me fired. Bottom line, I mean, and that's really what it's about. Like, your feelings can get in the way and they can interfere.

You can play emotional without being in your feelings. There's a difference there. And I think that if you let your emotions guide it all, right? If you let your feelings guide it all, you're going to be playing catch up the whole time. But if you really play with a positive level of emotion that's integrated with the process, now you're creating success. It's super important. May let me ask you a quick question.

Have you ever tried the un-required workout? Oh, yeah. Oh, I've done it. I've done it. I did it with Ben two weeks ago. You know, um, I did you go to boot camp? I did. And he came to Orlando.

Um, he came to Orlando and he's like, T.A. What's up? I'm going to be in town on Friday, 6 a.m. You know, meet me at the spot. I was like, I'm there. It's awesome. So, you know, and I think what's also important, too, is that you get into somebody else's unrequired once in a while.

You know, because Ben wakes up and he's been doing this now for, you know, like 1,100 straight days. Over 1100 straight days. He's a machine. But you know what? I see what it does to his mindset. I see that he has to have it. You know what I mean?

I had a chance to train with him and his trainer, Jamie. and I mean, look, he's got to have it. It's not, it's not, it is non-negotiable. Sick, tired, it doesn't matter, right? But what it does for his mindset is it sets him on a path of accomplishment. Like we talk about stacking those wins, right? And stacking those, you know, as building blocks and really standing on top of them to achieve the next goal. You know, it's like making your bed in the morning.

I've achieved something. That unrequired work, I'm done with it. I've achieved it. I've got my process. I've written my affirmations. I've done everything I need to do. Now, I can attack the day. And if I get nothing else done today, I've already accomplished a lot.

Exactly. And, you know, full transparency, again, got to be transparent before you get better. I am not perfect at that. You know, I'm better now than I ever was, but I still have a long ways to go. And I aspire to be like people like yourself and like Ben Newman that have been able to achieve this unrequired work relentlessly for so long and so consistently. I also know that my best self is still out there, you know. And the closer I get to dominating this process and already tapping into this unrequired work on a frequent basis, I know the closer I'm going to get to achieving my best self forward.

So I'm still looking for that guy. Dude, same here. I think every day that we're striving like you, like your dad said, better every day. If you get one percent better, every single day, be a better person, better man, better husband, better father, better professional, our coach. I think it's all we're shooting for, right? And listen, I surely don't have it all figured out. There's things that I struggle with too. For instance, today, you know, there's so many people telling you like, hey, if you don't rest your body, it doesn't grow.

You know, this night, you don't, you know, lean muscle tissue doesn't repair, you know, it grows in when you rest. So this morning, I was like, man, I've lifted for like six, seven straight days. I was like, you know what? I'm going to take a day off from the gym today. Let me tell me how, let me tell you how my morning was. never again bro never again i mean like listen you know all ends up getting a workout in today right but my process is up at four i'm pulling up to the gym by 4 30 in the morning and anytime i break away from that process that anxiety starts

my coping mechanisms i have less patience with my kids in the morning they would don't want to listen or i'm trying to get them out of the house to go to camp right right all these different things happen when we break away from a process so it's a mindset you know and And for sake of time, I can sit here and talk to you all day, dude. But I got a couple more things I want to go over. Sure. Then we can debrief. But, you know, mindset.

You know, everybody talks about it. It's almost like this buzzword that everybody uses. But you have worked for some amazing professionals, you know, women professional athletes, male professional athletes, world series winners, gold glovers, Hall of Famers, All-Stars, NBA All-Stars, everything. What is the biggest difference in their mindset of somebody that has the ability but doesn't quite get there. So I mentioned this before,

and I still, the more I think about this, the more true it is. So I think it's pretty obvious to know that the best players in the world are not satisfied with the successes that they've had, right? So like, you know, they don't win a World Series but, oh, I'm cool now. Like, you know, I'm chilling.

I think they all want more. And in a very positive way they want, all right? So I think that's, you know, I think that's pretty obvious. but what's not so obvious and what I actually think is the is the is a secret ingredient to high performers especially in athletic world and beyond is that they also give themselves credit for the small victories along the way they don't hold themselves to a standard of perfect because perfect is is is if you were able to achieve whatever is perfect then where do you go from that I think that the the best players in the world through history have always kept that carrot out in front of them so that they can continue to chase and drive and strive after something. I remember Michael Jordan would say he never say he's the best because then he didn't feel like he had room to get better, right?

There's a mentor mine, an amazing dude in the fitness and performance world, and Chris Frankel. He used to work as the director of human performance with TRX, a company that I worked with for many years. And Chris Frankel used to say, and maybe he got it from somebody else, but I'll attribute it to him. He said, you know, people always say you can't let good be the enemy of great. And that makes sense. You know, you don't want to just settle. But, you know, but, but even more important is you also can't let Great be the enemy of good. And what a lot of people that achieve a certain threshold, right, they are getting very good at what they do, but they are holding them to such a standard that they get all the way close to it without fully achieving it. And they don't give

themselves credit for how far they've come because they're letting great be the enemy of good. You can still be guilty, really, really good. We all are though. But we all are, right? Yeah. And as long as we recognize that, like, dude, like, and I use this example before, like, you know, what if your goal is to get to the masters, right? You know, and you're a golfer and you want to get to the masters. Well, to win the master's, let's just say. well you get to the masters and you go you you finish t4 right at the masters now i mean has your whole career just been a disappointment now at this point because you didn't actually win and you you lost by two strokes and you missed it by two strokes like you have there has to be value and

getting taking the value out of what you have achieved to get to that point because you're in the top 1% of 1% of the world of golfers just being in that tournament in the first place yeah and the fact that you got a top five in that I mean, there has to be some ignition there that really excites you and get you going and, and propels you and kind of springboard you into the next opportunity. But if you miss that because you say, man, winning was the only goal and I achieve it and I'm a failure. I mean, we miss out. So you just can't let it agree to me of good.

No, I appreciate that, man, because, you know, I'm guilty. Like I said, I yelled guilty as charged. I mean, there's not enough times where I will, you know, like I sent you a picture yesterday on the studio. Get ready, man. man i can show you a picture of this thing a year ago and you know a year ago i was like oh man that thing's terrible right and and you just see this natural progression and you don't you're so busy trying to get to that next level of whatever it is that you're doing and you don't enjoy the the moment of right right right wow this is like a level up like let's enjoy it so i have a lot

of work to doing that and you know what yeah we're my wife when my wife jack and listens to this episode she goes well if you won't listen to me maybe you listen to Trevor um because he'll tell you like dude do you ever enjoy any win i was like no i enjoy it but like yeah i want to i want to you know i want to go through the next wall now so um so let's lay on the plane here a little bit i i want everybody here to know how they can find you how they can work with you and how they can best support you right so um first off social media i mean social media is obviously where everybody's really connecting these days and on on instagram and Twitter um t a two claps t a number two claps and i'll put that in then show notes too i'll make

sure all your handles are in there right but the reason why i want to mention that is because you know it's my it's my opportunity to connect every single day um it's part of my process so i wake up i i put my verses my bible verse of the day up there you know it's a foundation it's anchor for me as well um And then I try to make sure that I am not so business oriented as it relates to my social media. I do do business on there. But listen, I'm a whole person, right? I've got kids. I've got a beautiful wife.

I love to compete. I love to play golf. Like there's all these different things. But I think people need to see real people so that they can dial in with what their process is. They want to see an example of a real person. So I just try my best to be that example, if it all possible. And, you know, some of the things that I have coming up is that in, August, what I've started doing is working with people like Ben Newman and seeing the stuff

that you're doing and so forth is, you know, I'm speaking more deliberately and more purposefully now, you know, whereas, you know, people who call me asking to do a keynote speech, I'd be like, okay, you know, and I just kind of show up and do my thing and everybody loved it and all of that, you know, through the years. And, you know, I've educated at a high level for a long time across the world and different places for different organizations. But for me, it's time for me to do exactly what we talked about earlier, which is start telling those authentic stories, right? And because there are bullet points in those stories that can really, really be valuable, not only for individual people as they're on their own personal journey, but for organizations, right? Big organizations,

small organizations, and not just gym to the fitness world, you know, major corporations, you know, there are things that I have been able to have access to through a number of years and people, high performers that I've had a chance to affiliate with and associate with, but I've learned a lot from. You know, when I go out on the golf course with players, some of my pros, you know, I'll teach them things. Now, listen, I'm a 14 handicapped. Nobody believes me when I hit the ball because they go, oh, no, come on, you're sandbagging me. But no, really, I mean, over the course of 18 holes, it all even doubt to be, you know, about a 14 handicap. But I'm able to help scratch golfers and PGA tour players and some of the best players in the world because I'm sharing

stories from some of the greats and sharing opportunities and sharing different types of events and things that have happened over a course of time in my experience. So I get a chance to take, it all evolves exponentially, right? I get a chance to take the lessons that I've learned from PGA Tour winners and champions and Super Bowl champions

and, you know, World Series champions, I get a chance to take the information that I've learned from them and share with others, not just in a direct way, but in a little more indirect way and I can apply that to people's situations. So as a performance coach, what I want to be able to do is,

I want to be able to share some of my failures, right? Be as transparent as possible. But also talk about how I was able to overcome those things and help other people overcome some of those same obstacles, not just through fitness, but also through organizing their schedules, their daily planning, and things like that to be able to be the best high performer that they can be. You know, you don't always have to look for high performers, you know,

to listen to what they're saying every day. You know, Sean, what I did one day was, I said, man, I hear all these motivational speeches and talks, and I hear people listening to everybody else's voice, like all the time. Like, why not listen to your own voice, right? So I'm committed. And what I've been doing, as I started recording a series of motivational talks, like me talking to me.

If I can go back and coach and guide myself, what would I say to me? Right. And I'm shooting a series of those, right? So now, not only am I listening to the right things, I'm listening to my own voice and I'm reinforcing my own. voice in my own head, hearing my own voice and inspiring myself. And I want to be able to encourage other people to do the same. So, you know, in the beginning of August, August 1st, is when I'm going to launch it. I want to make sure that people know that I am available,

not only for speeches and talks and key notes and training and teaching and education, but also for that performance coaching that's helping organizations and individuals get better every day as well. There's so much alignment here, bro. So much alignment. There's anything I can do to support you in that. You got to let me know. Absolutely. We can talk about some stuff. Yeah, Absolutely. Thank you. I got some stuff we can chat about offline, you know, that I think we can have some synergy with. So, dude, it's, it's been an absolute pleasure. Obviously, anything you need for me to help you, you just ask me. I've learned a ton for you from you. And I'm hoping that I can continue to learn from you and do some amazing things with you. And yeah, guys, so you've heard it here best. I want you guys, if you're listening to really,

dive into the show notes and find TA, wherever he is on social media, connect with him. See how real of a person he is. I don't think I've talked to very many solid people like TA. So connect with him, see what he's got going. Go check him out. If you're in the Orange County area, you know, see what he's got going on. Stop by and be a part of it. And with that being said, guys, thank you so much.

Appreciate you guys listening. And again, share the show with your friends. If we said something that made you happy, we said something that made you mad, share it along. If we, if we sucked, you don't have to, but I don't think we did it. I think it was an amazing conversation. So, so TA, man, a big thank you to you. And I cannot wait to see what you do.

I'm honored to be here. And I appreciate everything that you're doing. Keep inspiring and keep helping people get better every day. You know, and if you need to get fired up, just give yourself two claps, baby. Boom, two claps. You heard it. We'll drop the mic on that. one. See you soon, guys.

All right, take care. Take care.