Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Insights from Coach Michael Burt on Pursuing Greatness and Activating Your Prey Drive

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

In this compelling episode of The Determined Society, coach Michael Burt shares his journey from a celebrated basketball coach to a successful entrepreneur and author. Learn how to activate your 'prey drive,' harness discipline, and achieve long-term success. We delve into the importance of 'long obedience in the same direction,' overcoming opportunity confusion, and the keys to becoming a 'Person of Interest.' Whether you're striving to elevate your career or personal life, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiring stories. Don't miss it! 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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Where you're at right now, this is massive. You've grown so much. I was like, yeah, but I've done it. Like, if I don't pursue more, I die inside. Yeah. I'm a spiritual guy too, you know, but I can't find anywhere in the Bible or it says retire. A dog has a prey drive, and that's the animal's ability to stalk capture and kill prey. Humans have this drive.

I went to a guy who had like world-class hunting dogs, and I said, tell me when the dog is most motivated. He said when he knows it gets to go hunting. Yes. Not when he captures it. The retirement was made up by the government, and they're not very good at making up concepts. Clearly. The word retire means to be taken out of use. That's what it means.

What are doing up until it's done. I mean for the entirety. I'll put it in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it. They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society determined.

What's going on, everyone? We're back with another episode of the Determined Society. Today I have with me an amazing guest, Coach Michael Bert. He's well known in the coaching industry. He's just an overall amazing entrepreneur. Great dude. In fact, back in the day, he won so many state championships as a basketball coach. And we're going to get to that today.

But really a great man, founder of the greatness factory, and bestselling author of multiple books. So I can't say enough about Michael Bert. But without further ado, man, welcome to show. Thank you. An honor to be here, man. I'm proud of you and your work ethic. Thank you. Just tell me about your work ethic.

your cadence and your rhythm and just like you chose the naming point. Yep. You stuck with it. And that's why I say long obedience in the same direction. I love that. You said that out there. I'm like, dang. That's actually a book title.

Eugene Peterson was a pastor that wrote a book called Long obedience in the same direction. Long obedience in the same direction. Yes. Discipline, man. You mentioned out there. By discipline, the root is to be a disciple of something. Yeah. Yeah.

It's so funny because like, you know, when I started everything, it was with an iPhone and a car. Yeah. And then it turned into in person, or not in person, no, in the house, in the den. And then it started to materialize. And like you said, long obedience. Yeah. Long obedience. I mean, Jeff Colvin wrote a book many years ago called Talent is overrated.

Mm-hmm. And the argument in the book, which I subscribe to, is that when you see people who are really good at something, you, the tendency is to believe they were just naturally more gifted. Mm-hmm. Okay. Of course. The truth is, the book goes into people that were great, that start. They found their voice early in life. Mozart was playing music at two.

You know, so-and-so went to work with their dad at 11. I mean, I could show you when I was in Nashville and I saw Taylor Swift at 13 years old singing to 55,000 people. Beautiful. Okay. By the time she's 33, that's 20 years of long obedience. I started coaching when I was 15. I was a head coach at 22. Right.

So it's like I'd really been coaching. So when I started at 15, by the time I retired at 31, I'd, really been in that business for 16 years. So that is a long obedience of just, and in my life, I've been coaching, really literally coaching people for 33 years. It's crazy because, you know, we look at you in all the success that you've had, right? Best selling author, what was it, seven state championships? Yep. A school went seven of nine over a cycle of time. And had previously never won one, right? On 30 years. On 30 years. So all these amazing accomplishments, very successful executive coach, right?

bestselling author, when people come across that, the first inclination is like you said, it's just like, maybe he's more talented than me or, man, that happened overnight. It didn't, right? Everything that you have going on today, I can look at you, right? Because I'm new in the space. I'm, what, four years in, I'm like, we sit out there, and I know the number. I'm not going to say the number because Michael told me, he ratted you out, bro. He ratted you out.

Like, that amount of success financially and impact. impact-wise is not going to happen in four years. Yeah. It's not going to happen in five. It may not even happen in 10. And I think the fact is that everybody wants that short aim. Yeah. They want that easy target.

And if you ain't willing to do something, suck at it for a very long time and not be recognized, then you probably shouldn't do it. Yeah. Well, the world typically rewards skill. So I always like to say, and I wrote about this in a book called eight-figure skills, stuck in six-figure vehicles. Mm. Okay, and it was because I saw so many people that were level 10 people stuck in level four opportunities.

Okay, that was me. I had a big engine. I was relatively skilled at building competitive intelligence in people, activating the prey drive in people, right? And, but I was in this vehicle where I could only make $50,000 a year or $60,000, no matter how many games I won, no matter how hard I worked. Okay. So I was a level 10 dude stuck in a level. for a vehicle. Nothing wrong with the vehicle. Wasn't like there was a problem with the vehicle, but I started going, I'm looking for a bigger table. I'm looking for a seat at a bigger table.

First, it was just speaking. I'm going to get out and speak because I'm a coach and I can coach people. And that led to big companies saying, well, you coach our people. And that led to this. And then I generated enough profit in the coaching business that I started buying real estate. And I started going, what if I could coach at the real estate that I own? So I bought a big lodge in Tennessee. I built a, you know, $8 million building in downtown Nashville called the Greatness Factory. Yep. And I call that intentional congruance. So I love coaching.

I love activating the prey driving people. I love building competitive intelligence and teams. Also love cool real estate. Yeah. How do I combine it? And so we started taking the money from the coaching business and buying real estate. And that's really what jumped our net worth up. But it's because we're kind of feeding.

Everything feeds everything. There's an intentional congruence to that. I love it, man. You know, it's a funny, funny story here. Like I heard of the greatness factory, and I don't mean this as a dig, I knew the greatness factory years ago before I knew who you were.

Yeah, that's great job. Yeah, it's branding, baby. That's brandy, man. It's amazing. It's funny, I don't know how long you were here for my part of the sales training. They thought you were coming through the front door. Yeah.

But then I remember, I'm like, yeah, I gave him the trick. You're going to come through this other one. I forgot to tell him. Yeah. But I was stuck in the exact same vehicle you were. Yep.

I was a baseball coach and a school teacher. Yep. And when I had my first child, my son, Bobby, I was like, I can't provide what I want to provide. Right. Like this. I need more. I want the bigger table.

Yep. So it's funny. Like, we never met, you know, until this week, this week, we've been connected off. We did, you know, some IG stuff together. But like, two people on two opposite side, you know, you know, never met each other. Same. Same story. and only hope I'm on that same path.

But how many people, how many people are out there that feel like they're level 10 people? Yeah. That have the skill set. And that's really where I was going with that last answer, is that the world reward skills,

the people who are the most skill, make the most money. Okay. But the skill has to be packaged. It has to be marketed. Then it is monetized. And I think somewhere in that cycle of finding the X factor,

packaging the X factor, marketing the X factor, monetization of the X-Factors where people struggle. Yeah, and I don't think, too, it's funny because, like, it was that way in teaching, and then I went into sales,

and I started at paychecks. Okay. Crushed it there, top 20 in the company. Then I went to, then I went to the medical device industry, did very, very well there. Yeah.

But I still felt I was in the wrong vehicle. Yeah. Right. And it wasn't until I started this where I felt like, okay, I'm home. Yeah. You know, I'm just going to take some time.

We made some great moves and we've done, we've made some mistakes, and, you know, but I finally feel like, okay, I'm fulfilling that 10 level right now. It's like, I could do this forever, I feel.

Yeah. You know? In fact, when it's funny, my biggest fear is like, oh my God, like, how long do I get to do this? You know, like, am I still going to be doing a show when I'm 70? I hope so. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.

Like, I don't want like 10 more years. Yeah. Well, I think, I think when you're looking at these things, it's like, what do you love doing? What could you be the best in the world at doing? Mm-hmm. where is the economic engine? And one of my skill sets is monetization of concepts, right? Creating concepts that can be monetized.

The greatness factory, I always tell people it's like a, you know, right now it's a $10 million idea. They could be $100 million idea. So it's like it all started in the brain. You go there in the mind before you go there in the body. And so it's like in the end, what is my conscience telling me I should be doing? You know, and when you kind of combine all of that, you're like, this is really what I'm supposed to be doing. So good, dude. You told a funny story in there, I want you to tell on here on the show.

For years, for 30 years, you know, no state championship. Yeah. You had never won one either. Yep. And you thought this was going to be this big elaborate thing. You tell yourself the story, right? You win a state championship. Why don't you walk through your celebratory routine with, with the audience?

Well, it's like you, in your mind, you think you're going to win a championship, and thousands of people are going to be celebrating with you. And, you know, there's about 10,000 people at the game. And that was cool when we won that championship. But then you do interviews and then you see your family and then you do all these things. And so by the time we got finished that night, it's like it's midnight. Yeah. It's on a Saturday night.

I got this big goal basketball. I'm like, let's go celebrate, right? And then I'm like, where are we going to go? There's nothing that's open. Yeah. So I ended up, I was starving. I mean, literally because the game was like at four. And then by the time I do all that stuff.

And so by the time I got to the end of the night, man, there was nothing to do. I was starving. At those days, I wasn't married in those days. You were by yourself. I was a single dude. Okay. And I didn't have any. So, like, one of my buddies went with me.

And I'm like, man, we got to go eat. And we ended up going to steak and shake. Oh, my God. Because there's the only thing that was open. Right. And I'm like, I'll just walk in with the gold basketball, sit it down. Because you can imagine what these people are thinking at steak and shake. And they're like, I'm like, I'm really hungry.

I like a double steak burger. And that was my, that was my celebration. I took it back, took it home with me, took it back on Monday morning to my boss, who hired me when I was 22 years old as a young assistant to be a head coach. And I said, put it in the trophy case, man. And I said, what's next? I love that. And that's how big time people celebrate. The prey drive is not activated by capturing something.

If you study animals, like when I wrote the book Flip the Switch, it was kind of based on these two words, pray drive. And I trademark those two words in humans, okay? Because it's an animal. A dog has a prey drive, and that's the animal's ability to stalt, capture, and kill prey. All right. And I go, I think humans have this drive, but it's not to stalt capture and kill. It's to see something with the eyes, optically, or in the mind. Because I've spoken to blind business owners before they couldn't see it with the eyes, but they saw it in their mind.

Okay. And then to pursue it. And when I was studying the animal, I missed something the first time, but then I went back and researched it. The dog is most motivated not by capturing the prey, but by the mere pursuit, by its ability. And I went to a guy who had like world class hunting dogs. And I said, tell me when the dog is most motivated. He said when he knows it gets to go hunting. Yes.

Not when he captures it. So when you capture something, a championship, you make a million dollars. You buy a nice car. Whatever it is that you do. You give away money to charity. like that's that's may have a fleeting moment of exactly a celebration like this is good it's like when i'm flying on you know on my plane i bought a plane in 2017 because i was away from my kids all the time and and everybody tells you how expensive owning a private jet is and it is

expensive uh and it's only got more expensive but but but people who tell you have never bought one yeah and they don't know what they're talking about you can you can partner on them it's like real estate so i rent rent mine when i'm not using it's like real estate so i rent mine when i'm not using it. But if you're on that plane by yourself with just you and the pilots, it's like a moment of like, now, this is cool. Yeah. Like I worked hard to do this, right? And you want more of that. Sure. But it's a fleeting. It's a fleeting thing, man. You know, it's crazy because like a lot of people will ask me questions like, why do you do so much? Yep. Why do you keep doing? Like, where you're at right now, this is massive. You've grown so much. I was like, yeah, but I've done it. Yeah.

Like, if I don't pursue more, I die inside. Yeah. Like, this is not the, this is not the end game. You know, and again, I'm a spiritual guy too, you know, but I can't find anywhere in the Bible where it says retire. Yeah. Well, the word, the retirement was made up by the government. Okay. And they're not very good at making up concepts.

Clearly. So, not that they're bad people, but the word retire, if you notice when I speak, I really break down words. Like, I take a word, I go, what is it? The word retire means to be taken out of use. Who? That's what it means. Come on. It's your retire.

You're taking something out of use. Okay. My grandfather was an entrepreneur and I loved him and I would go see my granddad and he was so skilled. He could build houses. He could build cabinets. He had a farm. You know, he's like a Tennessee country boy. That was just like a blue collar millionaire.

You know, it worked hard and figured out how to make money. And I used to go see him and he would say, you know, it's out there, son. You just got to reach for it. Or if you got to want to, you can find a how to. He would give me all these little things. Well, he got up and worked every day. Worked to farm, worked this.

You come home at lunch. My grandmother would make him lunch. Then he'd go back out to work. Yep. Okay. And he was vibrant. And then he retired. And my mother, who's a nurse, said to me one day,

it's almost as if everything in your grandfather's life went downhill when he retired. His mind went downhill. His body went downhill. And so when you really think about this, you retire. This is what the government tells you, or people tell you, work your whole life so you can retire. You can be taken out of use. But there's no purpose.

Yeah. What you really run out of is purpose. Joe Paterno, when they fired him at Penn State, he was 82. He was dead in less than six months. Yeah. Okay. What happened? He ran out of purpose.

They took away his passion, his purpose. So, Pre-Drive is like, I need to get up and pursue. something so my talk tomorrow is going to be all based around one verse and and i was sitting in a in church last week and uh martin luther king junior's niece was that was the guest okay now listen to this her uncle was killed martin luther king junior her uh his brother her father was killed someone walked into a church and killed his, his, her mom when she was singing, church. And she, her ability to forgive was so powerful.

And she was tell these stories like my granddad taught me this. And one of the things her granddad taught her was to write it down and make it plain. And that's a verse in the Bible. And so I started studying that verse and different interpretations of that verse. And it's like, write it down, make it plain. And then it says run toward it. Well, I thought it meant so you could run fast toward it. But it actually means make it clear so other people can take it and run with it.

Oh, wow. And I didn't know that until I was like, okay, because if you look at all the interpretations. So the talk I'm going to give tomorrow, because I wrote a book called from A to B. Simple. The most simple book I've ever written. Yeah. It's 15 questions. But guess what problem it solves.

What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What is your big opportunity? and it's 15 questions it forces you to get clear. Okay, because it's opportunity confusion. So I'm going to give that talk tomorrow. And I was inspired to give it because I was sitting in church. I'm like, I know what I'm talking about in my conference, determine your destiny.

Yeah. Write it down. Make it plain. Make it clear so that you and other people can take it and go. I love it. That's what I'm going to talk about. I love it, man. And it's so funny because, like, as you go and you were talking about A to B, so many people get stuck.

because they don't know what they want to do. That's right. So audience, you're sitting there watching and listening, and if that hit you really hard, then you need to go find that book and you need to read Michael B and A to B. Because if you can answer those questions

and you get clear on what you want to do, and I think that's a practical thing, right? So practical. Because if you would have done the same thing, if you would have sat here with me five years ago, Sean, what do you want to do? It would have been like, yo, I don't know.

Yeah. But if you would have given me those questions, I would have been like, okay, let's answer this one, then that one builds on the next one, the next one, the next one, the next one. Right? Because for me, I always knew I wanted to be a speaker of some sort. I wanted to do something. I wanted to inspire people, right? I have a very big love for the human race.

And then I heard, you know, one day someone told me about Andy Fricela. Yep. And from the MFCEO project. Yep. And I was an OG. I listened to every one of those episodes. Wow. And I just remember like,

yeah, that's what I want to do. Yeah. But, but, but, but, but, but, but I can. I don't, I don't. I don't have. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. And so for years, I sat on it until one day, I thought, I said, you know what?

Yep. I've already made the decision, but I haven't taken action. That's right. So then I did. And so it comes, it comes in different waves, but I just think that's so helpful, man. By the book.

Yeah, by the book. And you can get that. I think the only place you can get that is my website, coachburnt.com, and you can get all my books there. And then we know who bought the books. And I actually call almost every person that buys my books. Oh, way. Yep. It's just something I like doing. That's cool. Because they're indicating interest. I do not think the book changes your life. I think the book opens your mind. I think being coached and mentored by me would change your life. Absolutely. So, you know, the words I wrote in that book is called opportunity confusion. opportunity confusion affects very talented people because they could do so many things.

So you had these skills from being a baseball coach and really knowing how to do that. It's like you could do a lot of things and you could go be a great salesperson. You could do this. You could do this. There's no shortage of opportunity. But seeing it and going, that's what I want to do. And that happened to me early. I can't remember when I first started speaking.

I wrote my first book at 25 years old because I was starting to win games. names, people are always asking me what I was doing. They'd be like, what are you doing these kids, man? Yeah. They're so disciplined. They have such chemistry. They play so hard for you. And I was really going over to the business world, studying business.

I was deconstructing it and bring it to my players. And I would tell people that. They're like, I don't understand. Like, how do you do it? And I finally said, forget it. I'm going to write a book. The book is called Changing Lives Through Coaching. And because I think a good coach can change your life.

Oh, 1,000%. And I wrote that book. And people said, I'm like, well, I got to go do something with it. Like, where am I going to do something with it? Like, what am I going to do? And so I was like getting it out to people and people said, well, come speak. And I remember, like, I enjoyed the preparation. Yeah.

What am I going to talk about? I enjoyed going and doing it. Okay. So I speak at this banquet, elementary basketball banquet, right? They paid me to $250. And there was a little dude, like, a little dude, like five foot. And he came to me and he goes, you could go on the circuit. And I didn't know what he was talking about.

And what's a circuit? I go, what, what circuit? He's like, you know, go around the world and speak. And then he said something that was game changing for me. He said, like Lou Holtz. And Lou Holtz at that time was the head coach at Notre Dame. So I go home and I'm like, Google, Lou Holtz. And he was writing books.

And he was coaching Notre Dame and he was speaking. And down the corner, it said speaking fee, $100,000 for one hour. Back then. And I go, I could do this. I'm in. But see, this is to your point, though. I didn't go, well, I'm not Lou Holtz. Yeah.

I'm a high school basketball coach. Here's what I want the listener take away. I go, if he's writing books, I need to be writing books. Yes. If he's speaking, I need to be speaking. If he's doing this, I can do it. And so one turned into two and two turn into three and three turn into four. But my point is a lot of people live in mental creation.

So when I draw it up, it's A's here and B's here. And I'm trying to get to B. But most people couldn't even tell me what B is. Right, right, of course. Then they live over here. They think and stall. They think and stall. They think and stall.

I don't know how to do it. And the brain says you don't know how to do it. Therefore, you must not be able to do it. Yeah. Versus go, who can help me do this? Keeping you safe, man. Yeah. So it's like, so then it's like a mental, I've got mental creation.

I want to do this. I want to travel around the world and speak. I'm going to write that selling books. I'm going to build a greatness factor, whatever. The next thing for me to do is what's the next logical action that I could take? Absolutely. I want a greatness factory in Virginia Beach. I go to Virginia Beach.

I tell Mike Little, go find me, go find me a space that could do this, right? Come to my greatness factory and see it and go to Fort Myers and see what's a good place for Greatness Factor. Go physically, get into action. Yeah. That starts the manifestation. Talk about it. Speak it into existence and move toward it.

I think, I mean, like, look, man, like this is all. We have so many similar principles, right? Of course, articulated differently, right? But it's, we're saying the same things. It's like when you see something with your mind, you have to take action on it because if you don't, you stall. And when you stall, what happens? That's called stagnation. Yep.

Well, dude, that's when you start to go down that rabbit hole. Yeah. If you talked about, we, we've all gone through moments of depression in our life. You know, most recently when I was just sitting there not moving my body. Yep. I was starting to fall into that. So, you know, after long times of how do I go from A to B, I was stuck there stalling. Yep.

You know, we're out of that now. Yep. But, dude, like, most people are stuck in A, man, and they just don't understand that they don't have to have all the answers. The in-between stuff, that's going to, that's figure outable, right? It's all going to be figured out in there. And the most important thing, like you said, is, like, go into the movement. Yep.

You know, go into the movement. Go to Virginia. That's right. You should come to Fort Myers. Yeah, absolutely. I think we built it in Naples, though. Yeah, I'm open. I'm open, anything closed off to nothing.

Dude, it's, yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. Well, you mentioned it's like, I'm doing work now with a guy named Price Pritchett, Dr. Price Pritchett. He's 82-year-old psychologist. He wrote U-squared, quantum leap strategy, sold 14 million copies of that book. Oh. No funnels, no landing pages, no real marketing. Think about that, just by people buying it, telling people.

And he wrote a book called the quantum. He wrote a book called U-squared. And in U-squared, it's how do you experience a quantum leap, okay, which is a significant jump. Massive. with ease. There's no real rhyme or reason on how it happens. And one of the chapters of that book is focus on the ends versus the means. To experience a quantumly, you can't map it out because you've never done it before. Okay. So it's like when I say I'm going to have 100 greatness factories, people go crazy, you know, he's got one. No, you don't get to 100.

you don't know how you're going to do it. Now, I could raise capital and give up a percentage of the concept like we worked did. I could strategically partner. I could go to the bank and say, would you guys be my partner? I could raise private funds, right? I could license it. I could say, hey, if you want it in Naples, you're my guy in Naples. Okay.

And so my point is, we don't need to get caught up in all that. What we need to get caught up in is let's move toward that. Mm-hmm. We may, we're going to fail our way to a quantum leap. Yep. Okay. And the analytical person really struggles with this because they want it to be seen. So when I say write it down and make it plain, it's like, I'm at A, I got one greatness factory.

I want 100. Okay. Now in the middle is just who can help me do this. Is it someone who's in charge of acquisition? Is it one guy to raise money? Just by me talking about that and saying that to you, I've got a guy who could raise the capital. Yeah. See, and then I go straight.

so I go straight to my notes, and I would go call Justin F, okay, and then I go raise X capital, build three greatness factories. Everybody see that? Now, what I'm really doing, you're seeing me in a live time. Yeah, three greatness factories. Because the truth is, this is why Who Not How was such a good book by Sullivan, because I was coached through strategic coach, and he was a genius with ideas, and who not how. It's like who can help me do it. Okay, I got a guy who loves raising capital. I go to him and I say, look, raise $10 million and let's build three of these.

Yeah. That's how fast it could happen. Yeah. Okay. For the person out there watching it, I'm going for mental creation. That's a physical action. Absolutely. Calling him is a physical action.

The note is a physical action. So don't get caught up in. I don't know how to do something. Get caught up in. See it? Write it down. Programming in the subconscious might move. Boom, boom, boom.

You know, I think a lot of people get caught on the right move, right? And there is none. It's, it could be messy. It's right. But you just have to make that call, right? Like when I first started, I used to have a tagline, make the call. Yeah, yeah. Because, like, dude, you just don't know.

I know. Like, that's how we're all here right now. Yeah. You know, Mike, I met Mike, you know, when we were meeting up with ET. We had a great time. We vibed well. Yep. I noticed that they were tagging me in a lot of stories.

Yep. And I made the call. That's right. Hey, man. What's up? That's right. What's going on? Like, I'm seeing some synergy here.

You're tagging me in some things. I don't want to ignore some of the things that are going out there, but I don't know what they mean. Right. And he goes, oh, I'd really like to do something with you. I'm like, bet, let's do this, right? So we started talking. It's like, I like to go on your show.

I'm like, yeah, you can come on the show, but it's kind of plain small. Right, right. Let's do something. Right. And so I said, hey, why don't you and Tim to get together and write out? what you want to do with me. Yep.

And then send over in 40 hours. Yep. And then they sent back like three or four pages. I'm like, wow. Well, let's move you on that road, right? Mental manifestations. Taking action, making the call, and then we moved. That's right.

And it wasn't easy, especially for Tim and Michael put in all the day. And they've done such a great job. Absolutely. Wow. The reception you and I just had out here in our sales talk. Like it was just on a Friday? Yeah. And it's like,

You don't, I always say you don't need more money. You need more people. Yep. The people have the money. Yep. So, you know, when people say, can you come do this or can you come do that? Yeah, man, I can do that? What else would I do?

I mean, what's the alternative? I said at the hotel and I call people. Yeah. Versus getting from 100 people, right? And what's going to happen because of that is who knows what's going to happen? You don't know. Who knows? Yeah.

But so I always have all these sayings when I wrote Flip the Switch. It's like, well, how do you think? When in doubt, I take an action. When I don't know what to do, I do something. Something, man. Right? I go to bed tired and I wake up hungry. It all goes to zero midnight.

See, these are deep, right? We go where we feel celebrated, not tolerated. It's like just move. And that's why the word motivate means to move. So if you're out there, it's like so many people, you mentioned stagnation earlier. And stagnation is the opposite of expansion. Right.

Inertia. So if you feel stagnated and you're watching this and there's periods of our life we all stagnate, you first have to have a realization that I have stagnated. I am getting incremental results, and I'm sick of incremental results. I'm getting 7% year over year. I'm growing, but it's not at a rapid pace. I'm not experiencing a quantum leap.

I'm working hard. So the realization is I've stagnated. Energy is dynamic, static, or entropic. Three states of energy, right? When I bought that plane, Reggie Jackson's pilot was my pilot. And he flew great baseball player, Reggie Jackson around. I said, tell me about the cockpit. He said, man, what you would like, coaches,

there's something up there called the attitude indicator. And the attitude indicator tells you is the plane ascending, plateaued, or descending. Okay? And that attitude indicator, you always want it. You never want it going down, never. But so the attitude indicator, and I thought now, that's a great analogy.

In life, people are ascending. They have stagnated or they're descending. Yeah, and you know what? And the attitude indicator tells me, right? I'm walking my two kids in church on Sunday. Mama stayed home because she just flew in from California. I got my two-year-old. I'm a four-year-old son.

And I'm like, get your head up. Right? Everybody get your head up. My two-year-old girl's like, I'm like, no. I mean, get your head up. And you got to show her. That's what it means to get your head up. Make eye contact with people and say, good morning, people.

And my little girl's like, good morning, people. Good morning. You know, as we're walking into church, because so many people. Yeah. Head down. Attitude indicator says I'm static. Mm-hmm. Get your head up. Smile and meet and greet people. It's amazing, dude. Yeah. What a great lesson for your kids, right? Yeah. And we always say, look, look people in the eye. Yeah. Nice to meet you shake their hands. That's right. Right. We're not going to walk,

you're not going to walk in a room and not acknowledge somebody. Right. You know what I mean? And if people could just get that. I know. That bad attitudes made for hard lives. Number one, but, but the attitude indicator says I'm open for business, man. Yeah. I'm here to help you. Yeah. And by me, talking about follow-up today. I'm really saying I'm interested in you man I'm following up with you I'm interested let's do something absolutely yeah it's all energy too right people want to work with people and and do life with people that have a high level of enthusiasm right to a degree and they really just embody that energy of like hey we can grow this together yes you know we've been talking I've been

I think this is what my fifth show in the last 12 hours yep and it's crazy right it's so much I do one and I'm like, man, I don't know if I'm geeking out. I'm sitting there thinking, I don't know if I could do five in a day, man. That's impressive. So, yeah, I think we have six today, two. Yes, so it's six today and then one tomorrow. But, you know, the thing that we were talking about, that I always believe in we live in a co-creative environment.

Like competition, okay, the only person you should be competing with yourself. Is it competing with yourself? Yeah. Like, where was I last year? Where was I six months ago? Am I further along? Well, if I'm not, then I need to check myself. But I can't be looking at you.

I can't be looking at, you know, other people doing the same thing I'm doing, right? Right. I think what we really need to do in the world is understand that we can get so much further if we create together. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's just, to me, it's just the way. Well, we're so trained to think win, lose, you know, and starts very early in life, survival mechanisms. And the truth is, that's why I'm saying when it's like, I don't know what to do, I'll do something, I strategically partner. with somebody.

Because if you really study quantum leaps, when I started doing this work with Pritchett, I'm like, okay, when did I experience a quantum leap? How did it happen? It happened because I was introduced to someone who brought a new paradigm to me, changed my way of thinking. Or someone introduced me to a whole network of people. Yeah. And that's when my business jumped.

So the strategic partnership was when the business showed a significant jump. I learned something new. I met somebody new. And that showed a significant quantum leap. Absolutely. You could go so much further with people. Yeah. Right.

Like, you can't see everything. That's right. You know, like, if we ever did something together, you're so highly intelligent, but there might be things that you're like. 100%. Wait, Sean, I've never thought of that. That's right. Well, this is all I think about that.

Yeah. And when you bring that together in partnerships and, you know, collaborations, that's how big things happen, man, like really big things. Yeah. Then you think of what's next. Well, and you know, you do in the podcast, it gives me thinking, I should, I mean, I do, I do a podcast, but I've never taken it as serious as I should. It's like I interview successful people. It's good.

You know what I mean? But I've never really dug in and said like, I'm doing it. Yeah. I'm committed to it, right? It's like, you know, so it's like when you're around other people that it activates the prey drive. Okay. So think of prey drive in phases. It must be activated.

For a lot of people, it's latent and undeveloped. Then there must be a persistence to the prey drive. That's that long obedience. Then there needs to be an intensity to the prey drive. It's like, I'm locked in. I was watching Maverick on the plane over here, you know, go back and watching Tom Cruise and that. Wow.

And it was just... That's a great movie, dude. Well, every time I watch it, it gets me thinking, that's the kind of people I want to work with. Oh, yeah. The best people who have a desire. to be top gun, man. It's like, they're out there. And like gravitate toward like. Mm-hmm. Association breeds assimilation. Absolutely. So it's like, okay, let's, let's go there.

Let's go work with these people who are here, who want to go there. Yep. And, and, uh, the prey drive may be activated, but just because the prey drive is activated, it doesn't mean you can't lose it. No. At 31 years old, I was completely burned out. Yeah. I'd, I'd coached for 16 straight years. I'd worked 80 hours a week. I coached all through college. So when most people were in college, I was coaching yeah and i didn't have a life i didn't have any friends i wouldn't married i didn't have any kids i was totally married to winning yep and um which i don't regret at all of course you shouldn't um but at 31 i'm like i'm done yeah i'm ready for the next move good and i and i knew so so energy is rejuvenated alive vibrant it is mechanical or it is burned out which is lost of all joy

your passion for something. And I lost all joy or passion for it. Now, I go back to a game every now and the end and they want me to sit down on the court side and I go, man, that's something about it. I do love. But I don't want to go back and do it. So I kind of played around with coaching again. Okay.

You know, about that. A few years ago, maybe four years ago, it was right when I was built, started building my brand. Yep. It was the year, the baseball season after COVID, so 2021. Okay. And I went back and I coached. And wife's like, hey, we got a young family.

Yep. Can you just do one day a week? I'm like, yeah, that's not going to be a problem. I got back on the baseball field. No, I'm itching, right? Okay. So, you know, I did the one day a week, and then it was fine, and it was hard for me because I wanted more,

wanted more and more and more. I wanted to be there again. And that's what I was really good at. Yep. And then the next season, I didn't go out at all because this started growing. And then the next year, like, even bigger. And then this past year, I went out. maybe five times, but mostly towards the postseason.

And what I learned is, is exactly that. I like the idea of being out there in coaching again, but what I really want to do is this. And I want to coach my son. And I do coach my son. So my prey drive is wide open when I'm out there on the field of my kid. Yep. Like it is, it's ferocious.

But I don't have any drive. I didn't even thought twice about it. Like high school trials were like this week, I heard. Last week, I'm like, oh, yeah. Like, I, it was a good season. Mm-hmm. And that's what I was saying earlier in the interview is that how many people, you know, have dreams of something bigger. Mm-hmm.

But they're so afraid. I was scared to death to leave high school coaching. I bet I've done it. Like, I remember, like, what am I going to do? It's like, this is all I've ever known. This is my way of life. This is, right. And so, so when I did it, I'm like, okay.

Then I just moved on to the next play. What's the next play in your life that you need to move to her? What's the seat at a bigger table? And don't judge it. And don't, yeah, absolutely. Don't, like, just be fluid. Yeah. Be open to it.

I'm with you, man. Yeah. I'm with you. I want to tell a funny story. Then we'll let you go. Yep. I love this conversation. It's just great catching up with you, man.

So I did a TED talk in March. Okay. And my friend flew in from Connecticut. Okay. Melissa Chiappon. Okay. Yeah. You know, I do not there now, male.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, you know, great job. Thank you, thank you. I was, you know, I mean, I'm sure it wasn't the best. It was my first TED talk, right? Yeah, it was nerve-wracking. My heart was about the beat out of my chest when I walked on stage, and then once I got out there, it was over.

Like, I didn't feel anything. I'm just like, go. Yep. But afterwards, she was, hey, I got a great book that I want you to read. Yep. And I started reading it the other day, shamelessly, I will say. Yep, it's taken a while. Um, and she probably,

preface the conversation. It's like, I know somebody that I think you'll really vibe with. He's an amazing coach. He's very busy. I don't know if he'll connect with you or not. I'm like, okay.

Like, well, I feel good now. Like, I'm like, what, two foot tall now? Yeah, yeah. But that wasn't her intention. Yeah. And she brings me this book. It was person of interest. Yeah.

By Michael Burt. Yeah. And I went home and I put that in my bookshelf. Okay? And then when we, and I forgot about it, right? Focused on building my brand. And then when me and Michael started this off, right?

And then he said, hey, I'm going to get my coach Michael Burr. I'm like, that's great, man. Hell yeah, cool. Still didn't click, dude. Still didn't click. Yep. One day I'm sitting there after he said your name, after we started doing graphics and everything like that.

Because at the beginning it was me, you and his. Yeah, we expanded on it. Right. One of your students, Travis Wallace, who's a badass. Yeah, he is. He's been on my show.

I love him. Can't wait to see him. I go to my bookshelf. I'm like, I don't know what prompted. Maybe a text from Mel checking in on me. It's probably like, hey, I haven't heard from you.

Are you good? Like, it's been a while. Yeah, sorry, I'm just in it. I'm like, oh, what's that book? And I pull it out. It's son of a bitch. Michael Bert. Yeah.

And now I, and it was just this full circle moment. I'm like, what just happened? Wow. Right? That's awesome. So don't judge. Yeah. Don't judge.

Well, and you know, it's so crazy because person of interest is the smallest book that I've ever written. But it's been one of the most impactful books. Because I think everybody's searching for the way to. Yeah. It kind of starts with we have a desire to be known. It's like my two year old, my four year old, look at me. Mm-hmm. and if I'm looking at him and I'm not looking at her,

she's like, look at me, daddy. Yeah, exactly. It is hardwired into us to be known, to be recognized, to be somebody. And when I wrote that book, it's like, how do you become known for something? Yep. Right. And I go through the skills that kind of eight things that I think. And I was really writing it from an aspirational perspective.

At the time, I did not consider myself to be a person of interest. I consider myself to be a student of people of interest. Amazing. And I go, one day, When I grow up, I want to be like the big boys and the big girls. Yeah, man. And that's how I wrote that book. So many years later, it's crazy because I could combo the habits of the top 1% of

performers with the ingredients that I wrote about in that book. It's amazing. But that little book has sold more copies for me, person of interest. And it's really the kind of people I coach who have a desire. What Mike Little really came to me for was to be a person of interest. And I'm committed to reading it when I get back. Because it's like, you know, there was a reason I hadn't yet. Yeah.

And it's like, okay, now I feel that poll going to read it, right? But no, I just, look, man, it's a cool story. It's pretty neat. And it just shows you how the world is really connected. 100%. Right? We're all so connected. Yeah.

We're on this rock. It's spinning. That's right. But we're all closer than we think. Yeah, totally. Great, man. But look, man. So Michaelbert.com.

Coachbert.com. Coachbird.com. Yeah. Find all his books there. Yep. His programs there. I do want to preface it with something. If you are going to reach out to Jana at...

Jana at coachburnt.com if you want to speak to me. You better be serious. Yeah. Don't waste your time. Don't waste his time. Yep. He works for people that are really activating their prey drive and want to do great things in this world. So it's not a threat.

I'm just telling you. Yep. If you're serious, go see your boy. But I just appreciate you. Yeah, man. And I can't wait. Thank you, man. I mean, congratulations, impressed with this and your dedication and your long obedience.

Yes. In the same direction. Yes. You know? And you're going to keep doing bigger things and it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger and keep on, man. You've got an advocate in me. I appreciate it.

And right back at you. I can't wait to tell the stage up with you tomorrow. I love it. So listen, guys, hope you enjoyed today's show. What I want you to do is share this episode with someone you know love and trust that would receive this message and enrich their life. Again, subscribe YouTube, Spotify. Apple Podcast

until next time stay determined