The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 074: Tim Kight – The Secret Weapon Behind Ohio State's Success

Episode Date: November 23, 2015

Episode 074: Tim Kight – The Secret Weapon Behind Ohio State’s Success Tim Kight is an incredibly dynamic speaker. He is a great combination of extremely high intelligence mixed in with great experience around some of the best leaders in the world, including legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden.  I absolutely loved this conversation with Tim. Companies across the United States are recognizing speaker Tim Kight as a powerful voice on the performance of people and organizations. With a contagious energy, Tim provides insight into the “physics of performance.” Tim’s ability to connect with and inspire individuals, teams, and leaders has yielded exceptional reviews from organizations throughout the country.  A dynamic speaker, Tim combines a unique background of research and practical experience to bring compelling insights to the real-world challenges of leading, managing, and winning in today’s competitive marketplace. After briefly attending Ohio State University, Tim Kight received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and graduate degree from Princeton.  He has 25+ years of experience consulting in healthcare, banking, professional services, manufacturing, and athletics. He now lives in Columbus, OH. Episode 074: Tim Kight – The Secret Weapon Behind Ohio State’s Success Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio “Leaders create the culture that drives the behavior that produces results.” The Learning Leader Show Some Questions I Ask: What are the common characteristics of successful leaders? What was it about John Wooden that made him so effective? Why did you start Focus 3? What does your company focus on? What is your process for coaching and leading others? How did you develop such a great working relationship with Urban Meyer How do you implement and execute on the plan once it is established? What is the 30 Day Above The Line Challenge? What does it mean to be “Above The Line or Below The Line?” What is the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase learning leader?   In This Episode, You Will Learn: The importance being intentional and purposeful Firsthand knowledge on what it was like to be around John Wooden when he coaches his teams “Whole part whole” and “Zoom in Zoom out” Urban Meyer and what specifically makes him world class Why your response is what you should focus on (as opposed to the event that precedes it) The importance of self-talk and attitude “All behavior is driven by attitude and mindset” How Ohio State handled the JT Barrett OVI situation and why their structure helped them be better prepared for the adversity The importance of humility and how it leads to success “Event + Response = Outcome” – Tim Kight Continue Learning: Go To Tim’s website: Focus 3 Read Urban Meyer’s new best-selling book: Above The Line - Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Season Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimothyKight You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 034: Jimmy Hatch – Shot While Searching For Bowe Bergdahl And Sky Diving With Gabby Giffords Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion Episode 010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts Did you enjoy the podcast? This was a jam packed episode full of great content.  Tim Kight is a leader who leads an incredibly interesting life. Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio From Focus 3 Companies across the United States are recognizing speaker Tim Kight as a powerful voice on the performance of people and organizations. With a contagious energy, Tim provides insight into the “physics of performance.” Tim’s ability to connect with and inspire individuals, teams, and leaders has yielded exceptional reviews from organizations throughout the country.  A dynamic speaker, Tim combines a unique background of research and practical experience to bring compelling insights to the real-world challenges of leading, managing, and winning in today’s competitive marketplace. After briefly attending Ohio State University, Tim Kight received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and graduate degree from Princeton.  He has 25+ years of experience consulting in healthcare, banking, professional services, manufacturing, and athletics. He now lives in Columbus, OH.

If those three things, leadership culture behavior are mediocre, you will get mediocre results. If those three things are exceptional, you'll get exceptional results. And I've certainly seen over the years a great strategy cannot overcome mediocre leadership culture behavior. It's just not possible. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.

You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey guys, before we get to this great conversation, I want to let you know that this episode was brought to you by Mizan and Maine. You'll probably remember from episode 64, I spoke with a CEO of Mizna and Maine, Kevin Lavelle, and we promised to continue that dialogue as we both progressed on our journeys. And we certainly have, and we formed a partnership. and Kevin and his great companies and support and people that he works with have agreed to sponsor my podcast. But for me, I'm very picky when it comes to this.

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Hey, and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, and I am absolutely thrilled with tonight's featured leader. It's Tim Kite. Tim is the founder and president of Focus 3. Some have called Tim the secret weapon to the success of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. Tim and his son Brian focus on a process for creating a culture that drives a specific behavior to produce results. During our really interesting conversation tonight, we discussed a number of topics. Just a few of them are E plus R equals O.

That's event plus response equals outcome. And we will unpack that one for you during our conversation tonight. I know you'll find that useful. And then Urban Meyer and the relationship that Tim has developed and built with him over the last few years and the role that Tim has played in both the success of Urban as a leader as well as the Ohio State football team. And then daily disciplines we can all implement right now that will improve our lives to produce great results. Some of these, we talk about above the line and below the line behavior.

And I think you'll find this part really interesting. You'll see that you could implement some of these things and they will help you immediately if you're willing to do the work. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Tim Kite. All right, Tim, I'm extremely excited to have this conversation with you. I've been looking forward to this one. And I love studying sustained excellence, people who have achieved. achieved big things, successful people, some might say. And this is what you do.

This is your profession. You're one of those guys. Your son, Brian's one of those guys. You spent a lot of time around world-class performers, people who have achieved big levels of success. And I'm curious, what are some of the common characteristics that those people all seem to share? Yeah, Ryan, that's an awesome question.

And I've spent my adult life studying that. So I've got three decades and more of observation research on that topic. And we'll talk more about it, I'm sure, on this podcast. But here's the core thing. Here's what I've seen. People who consistently perform at the upper levels of their potential and beyond are people who are intentional, purposeful, and they're constantly building skill. And they simply act and think with more intention, purpose, and skill than other people.

That would be the heartbeat of it from my experience. I love it, man. Are there a few people that come to mind instantly when you think of world-class performers, success, high achievers? Yeah. And there's one person that stands out, I think, because of where he was in my arc of my journey. and that's John Wooden. Just a little real quick about my background. I grew up in Columbus, ran track, played football in a high school in Central Ohio,

went to Ohio State my freshman year in a track and field scholarship, and I'd been fortunate enough to be national champion in my track event, my senior year. But then when I got to Ohio State, it way back then, they just didn't have quite the same commitment to track and field that they do today. So I transferred, and I transferred to UCLA. And that was the track and field center of the universe. Our locker room at UCLA back then was in Polly Pavilion, which is where the basketball team was. And I had the great fortune to observe John Wooden as he coached his ninth and tenth national championships in basketball.

And as I watched him do what he did, I was fascinated. I was intrigued by how does this guy do this? You know, they dubbed him by that time, the Wizard of Westwood. And it wasn't wizardry, it was skill. He was just really, really effective at leading, building culture, motivating, and teaching. That's his number one thing as is a teacher. And I, that was the genesis. That was the trigger.

That was the starting point for what I do today. And he would stand out as the real catalyst, I think, Ryan, for peak performance as an individual and as a leader, which I think significant. What an incredible place to be. So let me ask you, so he had had, obviously, a mention amount of success. You said you were there for his ninth and 10th championship. When you saw him in action, I mean, this is John Wooden we're talking about. I mean, it's just an absolute legend. When you saw him in action, could you just feel the difference between him and really

every other leader you've been around? I mean, what was it? Were there specific things if you had to pull out of him that you're like, wow, this guy just has an incredible sense of being a coach, a teacher, a leader, all of those skills? What was it? Well, there are books and books written about his methodology, but here's what I observed right away and what I picked up on.

And as I look back and reflect on it, since I coach coaches today, a couple things. Number one, he was intense and he never got angry. Really? Never got angry. Try that one on for size. To be, in fact, more intense than just about any coach that had ever been around, but he never got angry. Huh.

So what I mean. You mean by the angry? Okay, go ahead. You were going to answer. Yeah, yeah. His intensity, he brought energy. He brought intensity. He brought fire.

He brought a level of commitment, a want, if you will, for his team, for the individuals and for himself, that it was tangible. And like you said, you could feel it and see it. But it wasn't fueled by anger. So that allowed that intensity to be absorbed by the athletes. Because what happens is if you're intense and angry, what athletes do is your anger becomes an impediment to the athlete learning, an impediment of the athlete absorbing the positive energy and intensity. So Coach Wooden was extremely intense, but he just never got mad. And so that intensity was a motivator.

That intensity was an accelerator of the learning and skill-building and competitive process. That's number one. Number two, he was a master at something called whole part whole. He would teach you the whole play. He would break it down into its parts, and then he would show you how those parts fit back into the hole and he taught that way. So here's the big picture. Here's the detail of what you want to do. It's called chunking today. Didn't know that then. We know it now. So here's the chunks. Here's the pieces, the parts. Now let's practice this part. Now let's put it back into the

hole again. And that whole part, whole approach meant that the athlete, I call it zoom in, zoom out. And that's what great people do. They see the big picture. They break it down into those components parts. And then they master the pieces, then put the pieces back into the hole again. And then look at the hold and they say, okay, what pieces do I not have mastery of? Then they go back into the big picture. They look at the pieces that are there. They identify the gap in their skill. And then they, and that's what he did. Third thing was start slow, speed up to failure, reflect on why you failed and go back and do it again, which is a part of whole, part whole. So he would look at the big picture, teach the piece and then go now, let's do it perfectly, slowly. And you'd watch them

on the floor. They would walk through a play, a basketball play. And I don't know basketball. So I couldn't, you know, I don't ask me any details about that. But I watched them. They'd go, they'd do it perfectly slowly. Then he'd speed them up, speed them up, speed them up until they made a mistake. Then he'd stop and say, let's understand why. And say, this, not that, but this, go again, perfectly slowly, speed it up until they failed, and then do it again and again and again to the point where, this is really interesting,

talk to any former UCLA player basketball, they'll tell you this, practice that they performed at a speed in practice that exceeded anything they experienced in a game. Wow. These stores are awesome, Tim, already. Let's get to today in what you're doing. So I'll let you explain it now. I've been fortunate to already have good conversations with you about the great things you're doing, whether it's with Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

And now I know it's many others as well, both in the corporate world as well, in the athletic world, whether it's the NFL, Ohio State, or other colleges. So I'd love to hear, one, how you got started with your business and then what you guys are all about and how it's going as of right now. Yeah, I started the company in San Diego and many, many years ago, and the company is called Focus Three. And the reason why is because we focus our clients on three things, leadership, culture, and behavior. And those are the three elements that we help our clients focus on and master and connect.

So it's exceptional leadership, exceptional culture, and exceptional behavior. And the reason why those three things is that's a system of leadership culture behavior that determines how well anything happens in a business or on a team. So strategy is executed through leadership, culture, and behavior. Processes are improved through leadership culture behavior. Employees as such as are engaged and effective because of leadership culture behavior. If those three things, leadership culture behavior are mediocre, you will get mediocre results. If those three things are exceptional, you'll get exceptional results. And I've certainly seen over the years a great strategy cannot overcome mediocre leadership culture behavior. It's just not possible. So that's what we do. That's what we're about.

everything that we do with our clients revolves around helping them build exceptional skill in those three areas. We work with all kinds of companies. I mean, you name the industry. We're in it. And three plus years ago, I was in a fundraiser here in Dublin, Ohio, at Urban Myers home. And my wife and I attended. And he and I met within just a few minutes of actually being in the house. I've told this story before I had a Diet Coke in one hand and hors d'oeuvs in the other. And he walked by and asked, me what I did for living and I told him and he said you teach leadership I said yes he said you help organizations build culture I said yeah a culture performance environment he goes I believe in all those things from the bottom of my heart he goes how do you do that and and so we sat down started talking and there was instant connection that he and I saw the world exactly the same way and what he didn't

have was a systematic approach for building those things so he invited me to come down to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, share more detail about our approach to he and Coach Marotti and David Trichelle. Brian, my son came along. We outlined the system and Urban said, let's go. And I said, well, I mean, do you understand this is a long-term process? I'm ready for multiple years of this, which tells you about how he views the world. And we did it. So we launched. So we've been teaching leadership, culture, behavior at Ohio State football. Now we're in our third year. And a lot of people have written about this, have talked about it's been on TV everywhere when Urban goes. And he said there's the, I know I've seen the E plus R equals O, the event plus response

equals outcome wristbands at these guys where you've worked personally one-on-one with, I know many of the players as well as the coaches. A lot of people would say this, what you've done for urban in Ohio State has been one of the key catalyst for their, their immense success, national championship last year having a great deal of success this year, obviously. Can you talk a little bit about what you saw initially when you got there to how the guys currently are today now that it's been a couple years? Yeah, you mentioned E plus R equals O. That's our cornerstone toolbox. That's our cornerstone resource. And that stands for event plus response equals outcome. or an E plus R equals O for short.

And it teaches a very simple but powerful truth about how life and athletics and business work. And it's that you don't control the events of life. And you actually don't even directly control the outcomes, but you always have control over how you choose to respond, the R in that equation, which is why we call it the R factor. And so the best outcomes always are produced by the best responses, irrespective of circumstances. And in fact, you can go further.

Success in life is not determined by the events or situations that you experience, but success is always determined by how you choose to manage the R. And so whatever you're doing academically as an athlete, socially as an athlete, you know, football or whatever sport is an athlete, how you manage the R is your greatest asset. And we speak about two different ways to manage the R, above the line or below the line. And above the line is when you manage the R with intention, purpose, and skill. And below the line is when you manage the R, it's reactionary, you're impulsive, you're on autopilot, and you're resistant to building skill. And all the best stuff in life is found above the line.

The problem is this, Ryan, here's the challenge. Above the line isn't natural and it's not easy. In fact, most of the time it's uncomfortable. And below the line is easy, it is natural, and most of the time it is comfortable. And so that's the fight. We talk about every day as a battle as a fight for above the line behavior. and that's the R factor is a toolbox in order to fight and win that above the line battle. And if you train above the line and then you compete above the line, you're going to get fantastic results, great outcomes.

But if you drift below, if you go with what's comfortable, you go with what's familiar, you go with what's easy, then you're going to achieve at best mediocrity, at best. So we talk about it all the time. Below the line is comfort, but you get mediocrity. Above the line is discomfort, but you get greatness. And so you've got a choice to make. Do you want to have comfort in mediocrity or you want to have discomfort and greatness? People go, yeah, and I said, well, that's the deal.

That discomfort is the gateway to greatness. So therein lies the, what unlocks this is the willingness to consistently embrace productive discomfort. So the one thing I have when it comes to training, and I know we've talked about this a little bit before, but a lot of us and a lot of listeners here, people who invest time listening to a podcast typically are, are higher performers because they're trying to get better. They're trying to improve. So the people that are listening are in that space of wanting to improve on a daily basis. With that said, we all go to trainings. We all go to workshops. We all have had great speakers give us, give us talks, and we take great notes, and we look at it. I'm like, wow, this guy was great. But the problem

then comes for most people is that then the execution and implement, of what was learned during the initial talk or talks is tough because life gets in the way. Other things happen. So I know you guys are pretty famous for doing that part extremely well. So not only the initial stage, which is great, you know, the keynotes, the initial meetings, but then the follow-up and the follow-through to make sure that the implementation is great. Can you share how you guys do that? Yeah, that's a really good question.

So it's always a challenge. There's no question. But I think the first reason why the system that we use has so much success is the clarity and simplicity of E plus R equals O and above the line below the line. So you first hear it, whether it's in a workshop or even a podcast like this, or you read it in a book or something or an article. And you think, okay, above the line below the line. And all of a sudden you start thinking about things in your life that you do below the line. and there's an immediate awareness of, yeah, I do that. And I'm driven by impulse, so I do it because it's familiar and comfortable.

And if I'm going to be honest with myself, it doesn't work. So the structure, the template of above the line, below the line is a tremendous awareness tool. And then you add to that the simplicity and clarity of E plus R equals O. There is no situation in your life or mine or anybody listening. into this podcast, to which E plus R equals O doesn't apply. There's no situation. Driving your car, having a conversation with a friend, interacting with your significant other, raising your children if you've got kids, doing your job, no matter what it is,

leading, teaming, process improvement, etc. It applies to literally everything. But there's only three components to it. There's an event you're experiencing. There's an outcome that you want, and there's options for what you're going to do. and that structure, and technically, by the way, the scientific term for that, it's a heuristic, which means a simple structure for decision-making. Now, everybody has heuristics.

Sometimes the heuristics are poor, but E plus R equals O is an intentional purposeful heuristic. That allows you to take a complex situation and break it down, chunk it into those three pieces. And you can ask yourself some very pointed questions. What is the E that I've got? Let me be honest about that. What's the outcome I want to produce? and be clear about that. And what are the options for above the line action that I can take,

even though they may be uncomfortable? Those three questions will change your life. So even in a brief workshop or even in an article, people can be exposed to above the line, below the line, and recognize that I want to be up, not down, I want to be above, not below, and self-acknowledge where I'm below, or even get feedback from others,

and then take E plus R equals O and then use it and say, all right, if I engage in a below-the-line response, I'm going to get a below the line outcome. And I deserve it if I do that. But if I engage in it above the line response, I'm going to get above the line outcome. Okay, great.

I am now oriented towards excellence. And it gives me a structure to be more intentional, purposeful, and skillful about how I choose my responses. Then there's skill building following that. But the point would be, in answer to your question again, that simple, clear structure orientes the mind and the heart towards excellence, which gets us going. Are there practical tips?

Like you give people who say, you know, Tim, I love this stuff, man. This is good. It's juicing me up here. And I really am thinking above the line and I'm not going to be impulsive or on autopilot or resistant to any of these things. I really want to be intentional and on purpose and developing my skills, you know, whether it's journaling or constantly listening to a certain podcast or even like Tony Robin stuff, some people do.

Are there certain tips that are practical that you said you should do maybe the I talk about morning routines a lot with people like you should do these certain things every day to stay on point with E plus R equals O. Yeah. Great. Again, you're asking fantastic questions. So first, yeah, first is put E plus R equals O the actual equation someplace prominent where you can see it frequently. We have wristbands that we give out. We have clients who will print out E plus R equals O. on their computer and put it in their

cubicle at work. We've got moms and dads today and put an E plus R equals on the refrigerator in the kitchens of homes, which I don't know if you know this or not, but the internet is not the central communication hub for at least in North America, but the refrigerator is. I mean, the internet's important,

but the refrigerator is the number one. I'm joking, obviously, but the refrigerator is, you know, communication central for so many families. It is, though. There's a merit there. No question. So put it someplace prominent so you begin to make that a permanent churistic or permanent framework through which a lens through which you see the world.

Someone said to us one time they put E plus R equals O wristband on the gear shift of their car. So every time they look down, they see event plus response equals outcome. So that would be the first tip that we would really encourage people to do. And then secondly, there are these six disciplines. They call them the R factor disciplines. And that's the mechanics of managing the R above the line. And it's not one above the line to R. It's consistent above the line response that produces great outcomes.

And the six disciplines are press pause, get your mind right, step up, adjust and adapt, make a difference, and build skill. And you study them. Can you repeat that, Tim? Sure, sure. Absolutely. I am too. It's press pause is number one. And that simply means slow down and give yourself time to think through event response outcome.

Clarify the E and the O and then given the E that you've gotten the O that you want, what's the most above the line action you can take right now? So press pause and use the system. You think about it, when are you and I most likely to make it below the line decision? Is when we act too quickly on the basis of impulse or habit? Right? I mean, I do that and I teach this stuff, but I'm not perfect at it. I work at it all the time and better today than it was yesterday, but I'm subject to. I'm not exempt from below the line impulse. So when I don't press pause and I don't use the system, I make myself very susceptible to impulse and autopilot. So press pause is the first discipline and then use the system. What's the E that I've got? What's the O that I want? And what's the most above the line action I can do right now. Here's the triggering question. And I love this tip. Here's the trigger question I use and teach to put me into the system using press pause. The question is this, what does this situation require of me?

That's a power question. And notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, what do I feel like doing? Doesn't say what's familiar. Doesn't say what's comfortable. Doesn't say what's popular. Doesn't say what do I want to do. It says, what does this situation require of me?

And when you ask that question with any degree of authenticity, encourage. What's going to happen is the what we call it the necessary are will pretty much become evident. And now you've got a decision to make. Am I going to do the uncomfortable but necessary or am I going to do the comfortable and convenient but ineffective? Choice is yours, but there it is. And now you know. And we've thousands and thousands of people around the world today are using that question to trigger the use of E plus R equals O. It's extremely effective. the second discipline get your mind right and that is the ability to put yourself into a productive emotional state mental toughness emotional intelligence whatever you want to call it but it's the

ability to manage your mindset and probably too much to get into in this podcast but we teach that the process of managing your mind it's interesting your external response is driven by three internal mental steps that your response is actually internal first and external second. All behavior is driven by attitude and mindset. So when you begin digging into E plus R equals O, you begin digging into how to respond to things, you can't just behave the way that you want. You have to think above the line in order to behave above the line. And that's why we say that the quality of your inner work is what drives the quality of your outer work, that the R factor is an inside out process. And so get your mind right is the disciplines

and skills and competencies of managing your mindset, managing your attitude, managing your emotional state. For example, one of the techniques we teach is self-talk, how to talk to yourself in an above-the-line fashion. Think about this. You've got two different voices guiding your life, an above-the-line voice or below-the-line voice. And your below-the-line voice is at best, mediocre and sometimes downright negative. And if you listen to that voice, you will feel below the line emotions and you'll do below the line things.

But you also have available to you that you've got to choose an above the line voice. It's positive, it's visionary, it's productive, it's skillful, it's clear, it's disciplined, it does tough things, it talks to you in above the line fashion. And if you engage that above the line voice, you'll feel above the line emotion and you'll do above the line things.

So once you've pressed pause and gain clarity about the E that you got and the O that you want and what above the line are is available to you, you come face to face with emotion. And I know what I want to do, but man, I don't feel like doing it. There you go. So get your mind right. Yeah. Get yourself into a mindset to do the necessary but uncomfortable thing. And you'd better have above the line self-top going on or you'll drift back down below the line. Is that clear?

Is that helpful right there? Extremely. Extremely helpful. Yeah. So the third is step up. That's the third R factor skill. And step up simply means when confronted with those situations, do what's called for. And we love this statement.

For every situation you face, there's an above the line response available to you. Your job is to find it and do it. Yeah. And the key there is, you'll love this. You'll love this. It's step up now. Not tomorrow because it's not here yet. And that's called procrastinating.

Not yesterday because it's gone. Actually, the universe only gives you right now. This is the only time available. So step up now. We call it win the moment. Yeah. And then when you've won that moment, what do you do? Then you win the next one.

And then you win the next one until you're starting to develop a habit above the line, a discipline approach to things. And we don't ask people to win the year. Don't win the, you know, win the month. No, win the moment. And that's what the art factor happens in the moment. And so people can do that. And if you lose a moment, if you go below the line, reflect, understand, shift.

Fail, fail forward. Then learn from the moment you went below the line and win the next one. So that's very helpful. And then do it daily. Step up daily, every day. It's daily action over time that produces great outcomes. So there's a journey. And we say this, if you want success, do what is necessary, when it's necessary for as long as necessary.

Yeah, it's like building a house. There's like brick by brick, the compound effect by Darren Hardy's a great book to talk about that too. But to go over to say it's these disciplined actions day by day by day doing it. That's why I think there is power in some sort of morning routines or other things that you're going to consistently think about and be, as you say, intentional with your behavior on a daily basis. because if not, it is very easy to go below the line. Yep. So in that, that's what we're all said, by the way. And so in that step-up discipline,

we have people to do what we call the 30-day above-the-line challenge. We're tapping into what you just said, and that is every morning, identify an area of your life that you want to improve, just one. And in the morning, you write down, today my intention is to become a better listener, let's say. And then the purpose for that is, and you write, I want to connect better with my family and my colleagues at work.

And then throughout that day, you press pause, get your mind right and step up to become a better listener. The end of the day, you reflect on it. And then the next day, you do the exact same thing. You write down in the morning, today my intention is be a better listener. And the purpose for that is to connect better with my family and my colleagues at work. And then you execute that throughout the day. You win the listening moments throughout the day, then reflect back on it. Have you heard of the five-minute journal, Tim?

I've not, no. I'll send you a link on it, but the five-minute journal, I've talked about it before, but it's similar to that where you write in it for five minutes every morning and every night and it's about you know you answer a few questions what what three things would make today a victory would make today a win and then three things that you are grateful for and then three positive affirmations about yourself you write those down every morning as soon as you wake up and then at night before you go to bed you you'll write down okay was today a success now what you your goals need to be measurable so you can't just say have a great day you have to say you know um

I mean, pick measurable, specific goals that you can say, I've accomplished those things. And then the writing down the positive affirmations over time, I think you know this psychology better than anyone. This is the self-talk you've mentioned before. It works. It actually works, even though some people say it's weird, but I've heard all types of this self-talk. And it seems to be another thing that a common characteristic amongst people who have sustained

excellence and have achieved big things is that they do. these types of behaviors every single day. You know, a couple of things come to mind as I'm listening to you there. One is that what we found is, and again, I'm going to look up that five-minute journal. It's really interesting. Yeah. The one thing I've noticed about doing this for 30 years with myself and with other people is the notion of a singular idea throughout the day for 30 straight days is a laser

beam focused that we have found accelerates behavioral change. Yeah. The mind doesn't deal well with a lot of things. So we're really big on that. And we tell people for the 30-day above-the-line challenge, if you skip a day, you've got to go back and redo the whole 30. That's self-discipline. So no one's monitoring you,

or unless you have accountability partner, you could. But that singular idea for 30 straight days is enormously powerful. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the second thing, and back to self-talk again, it's interesting. it's a scientific fact that you talk to yourself more than you talk to any other person in the world. Yeah. Period. The question is, what are you saying and what impact is it having?

Because we know that mental state affects physical performance. We know that. Again, that's science. That's physics. Mental condition, mental state affects physical performance. The mind is constantly sending messages to the body and the body listens and responds. period. The only question is what message are you sending to yourself and what effect and impacts it having on your biochemical, physical, you know, mental state? So people who think

self-talk is weird, it's interesting. That in and of self-talk is a self-talk. Yeah, that's a good point. Right? So self-talk is, yeah, you mean like what you're doing right now? Well, I'm not doing self-talk. Yeah, you are actually. Well, no, I'm not. I'm just trying to be real positive. No, you're being critical and negative is what you are. And you actually are below the line about being above the line. And that's not a good place to be. So the reality is, and I'll do this in a workshop, I say, just to test this real quick, everybody for the next five seconds, no one, no one engage in any self-talk.

And all of a sudden there's giggling. I said, what did you do? I told myself not to self-talk. Or as soon as they tell you that you talk to yourself, someone says to themselves, no, I don't. Yeah. So you get my point. So the reality is it's real. And I'll give you a quick little thing about the getting your mind right thing.

Four step process. First the brain visualizes, then the brain verbalizes, then the brain emotionalizes, then the brain behavioralizes. And left to itself, it does it less than a second. Visualize, verbalize, emotionalized, behavioralize. It's what the brain does. That's the brain body dynamic. And either that's working for you or against you. Either you're managing that process or that process is managing you.

So those who don't think that the internal verbalization, the internal narrative, the script, the story, whatever you want to call it, they don't think they think it's weird. They are missing out on a huge element of human performance. Yeah, this is great. So press pause. Get your mind right. Step up now. Yeah. Or step up.

And then there's now and today and et cetera. Also, by the way, under step up. step up to adversity. That's a piece of it as well because you're going to get difficulty. You're going to get challenge. You're going to get discomfort. Things are going to happen that are tragic even. And so your R's most important when the E is most difficult. And what we tell people is this. You're going to experience adversity. Everybody gets it. Nobody wants it. Everybody gets it. The question is, are you prepared when it hits? Because under pressure, you do not rise to the occasion. You revert to learn behavior.

Speaking of adversity, you know, obviously, you know, you work with Ohio State and they've had some of this recently and one of their elected captains, J.T. Bear, is arrested for an OVI, I believe, and suspended for a game and Urban's had to, you know, had to handle this and deal with it. What, I'm not going to certainly ask you about your personal conversations with J.T. or even urban when it comes to this, but from a mindset perspective and above the line behaviors, how, you know, How do you, how does the team handle what has just happened with, with their leader being suspended for a game and he's back now?

But, but just the initial, you know, bad press, the negativity, people even criticize Urban a little bit for suspending them one game instead of potentially more. So how does, that's adversity right in the middle of a national championship chase. How do you, how are they prepared to handle that? Well, having installed the R factor and having installed a culture blueprint for or help them clarify the culture that they wanted because it wasn't building or changing the culture is enhancing it is what gives them these tools to navigate through this stuff now obviously it would be awesome if prior to whatever party or whatever thing jt did

then i'd be great if he would have looked down on his wristband and said you know what probably best if i don't have any of these beers or whatever it was press pause and it'd be that'd be great but that didn't happen. But now we call upon these tools that have been installed. And I think the team and I think Coach Meyer and J.T. have done a great job of learning from the mistake, of stepping back, looking at it, it's okay, what happened? Now what do we do? And what's the above the line thing to do, given the fact that a mistake was made?

And people do make mistakes. And people do act in error. And everyone is subjected to or subject to those below the line. impulses. And so I think because these tools exist, well, I know because these tools exist, they're used and they're applied. And if you listen to Taylor Decker's comments about JT, is interesting because we've done a great deal of trust, consulting, trust teaching. It's called Brotherhood of Trust at Ohio State. And one of the things we teach is that trust as a result of repeated experience over time, that you trust somebody because of repeated

experience, repeated experience of above-the-line behavior. Well, Taylor made a comment. to the media, he said, I know JT really well. And he's literally said, I've had enough repeated experience with JT that I know who he is. Now, am I ticked off by what he did? Absolutely. Was it dumb to do? Is it hurt our team? I'm mad at him? Yes, it was dumb, and yes, I'm mad at him. But I know who he is because I've experienced him repeatedly over time. And I believe he'll deal with this, move forward, and this will not happen again. So that's built into the culture. That's built into the relationships. That's built into the

mindset of Ohio State football. And I think what Taylor said to the media on that topic was extremely on target for how they're using these tools to navigate through this situation. And you know, you can't control what other people say. I mean, unfortunately, media and social media and all that is just a, it's a platform for people to say extremely critical, uninformed things. And everybody wants to, you know, take pot shots and you can't control that. So we just ignore it. It doesn't matter. It's not about what other people say.

Is that the, yeah, I was going to say, is that the behavior there? Because it's hard. Because if you watch ESPN, if you go on Twitter, if you basically live outside of trying to hold yourself in the film room, which I'm sure Urban does that too. How do you handle like? Because it's hard not to hear, like a lot of athletes say, I don't read that stuff or I don't hear that stuff. But most of them that I've found who say that are actually lying. So how do you handle these situations where there's a lot of noise? and in some cases it's negative.

And in other cases, it's very positive. And that has a whole other effect where you could potentially, you know, get a big head or not work as hard because people are hyping you up. So it's kind of both ends of the spectrum that Urban has had to deal with over the last year. Yeah, it's apply the system. Noise from the outside is an E. Yeah. And you either respond to it above the line or below the line. And the noise from the outside, for the most part, is literally that.

So you tune it out. Yeah. You don't listen to it. If, you know, if there's input from the outside that's helpful, by all means, embrace it, use it. But for the most part, media type stuff and even some family members, you know, and friends in our circle, they don't know what it takes to be a player at Ohio State or any other school. And they mean well, but they really don't know. And so just because they give an impassioned phone call to their son or nephew or neighbor who plays for Ohio State doesn't mean,

that that player should listen to that. So it's a filtering system. And again, we'll go back to your original question. One of the great characteristics of exceptional performers is the ability to tune out what doesn't matter. Yeah. And if you don't have that skill, if you've not developed the mental capacity to only focus on those things over which you have control and you start listening to things that really don't matter, you're going to get yourself into trouble. You know, interesting story about Urban Meyer. So when I was in high school, I was, I was played quarterback in Urban at the time was the receivers coach at the University of Notre Dame. And his recruiting territory was he had Southwestern Ohio, which is where I grew up and went to

Centralville High School. And so Urban, I was being semi-lightly recruited by Notre Dame, and he would write handwritten letters to me once a week, which differentiated himself from other schools because a lot of them just kind of put the canned letter and write your name at the top of it. Urban would write out a note to me and talk about some of my performances. And so over the summer, though, I went to Notre Dame's camp to try to, you know, obviously impress them and earn a scholarship offer. And I remember vividly because, you know, I talked to Urban a lot during the time.

And he pulled me aside after camp was over. And he's the only guy that did this at all the camps. And I went to probably five or six camps that summer. And he said, hey, I just want to let you know that I'm really impressed. I love what you've done, but we are not going to offer you a scholarship. And I said, wow, I'm hurt, but I really appreciate the honesty. And he said some good things, but he was up front and just let me know. And he said, he was excited to see what I was going to do, but he was not going to offer me a scholarship.

And it's interesting that he then went on to become the head coach at Bowling Green. And I played against him, and he took a team that was terrible, one of the worst than the Mac, Bowling Green, and turned him around in literally one year. And then obviously did the same thing at Utah, the same thing at Florida. And now he's doing at Ohio State. I've noticed that he's always had this intensity about him that I'm fascinated by. I think people are just attracted to that type of energy in the way he works. And so for you to be able to work with him on a regular basis has to be, you know,

you're obviously helping him, but seeing the way he handles it, it has to be inspiring to you too. Yeah, no question. He's very candid and he's very intense and he's very competitive. and he cares deeply about the players and the team and the university. And, you know, those attributes combined to create what you've seen in all those places, you know, Bowling Green and Utah and Florida and Ohio State. So absolutely. He is interesting working with him because his intensity and his competitiveness and his candor,

some people don't take to that real well. You know, it feels it's difficult for people. But we live in a world of spin, and he doesn't spin. I mean, he's very straightforward. And you know where you stand with Coach Meyer. There's pretty much like your point, right? You go to the camp and he told you where you stood. I mean, that's Coach Meyer.

That's how he functions. Yeah. And, you know, the book is out that he wrote called Above the Line, and it really is the case study of most of the book is the case study of how this system was applied at Ohio State. And I would encourage the listeners to this podcast. Have you had a chance to read the book yet? I have not. Not yet.

No. Go pick it up. I mean, it's really, it's a great, great, there's a lot of football on it, but it's really a leadership, culture book is really what it's about. And when you read it, you'll pick up that, you know, Urban is an honest and competitive, intense guy who cares deeply for these players, this team, the university, and he's, very hungry to learn and grow.

That's the other thing about him that's so unique. He's never satisfied with his current level of knowledge about topics that are relevant to his profession. Yeah. So that's pretty cool. And transitioning a little bit. Since you've started working with Ohio State, there's been a lot of attention to you and your son, Brian, who are running this company.

And so that has probably helped lead to other opportunities to where now you are coaching, teaching, mentoring, helping people in both the corporate world, the NFL, and other places. I'd love to hear how that has been going over the last year or two. Yeah, I mean, anytime you work with a brand like Ohio State and a personal brand like Coach Meyer, that's going to get notoriety. I mean, Wall Street Journal did an article on us back in the National Championship run at the end of the year. Sports Illustrate has done several. gotten to know those guys. ESPN's done several, lots of local. And that's awesome and that's great.

But really from our perspective, it's about stewardship, to be honest with you. We feel deeply purpose-driven, mission-driven by what we do. And you think about what could E plus R equals O do to what value could it contribute to families, schools, businesses, the way people navigate the difficulties and challenges of life, how they get, stuff done on a day-to-day basis. We feel, Brian and I feel very purpose-driven. So the added exposure has been great because it allows us to do more of this for more organizations, which means more people get blessed, if you will, and can get on the journey of managing their response above the line. And that's really how we view it. I even say this to people. My vision is multi-generational, meaning that I will not fulfill my vision for my life and my lifetime. That there are companies and people that I want to reach, that I will not reach before I die.

But they'll probably be reached by Brian or by the next generation of folks in our family and in our business. So we take the whole mission element of this very, very seriously. And it's just, I guess part of it is I've seen the power of this simple equation. I've seen how it helps people just decide and act better. And it's a journey. And so let's get it into the hands of as many as possible. So, yeah, we've got a bunch of new clients as a result of working with Ohio State. Awesome.

Let's get more. Why? They need it. And it works. So it's pretty straightforward. And it's an ongoing process with these, whether their companies or teams or other people you're working with. It's not, hey, you go in and give an hour keynote, get paid well and get out. It's ongoing.

And that's probably one of the biggest. differentiators with you guys is that you are become almost embedded in a number of different ways and utilizing technology to make sure that this thing sticks and it's not a one-time happy meeting where you're like, wow, this guy was great and then they're back to the usual. Yeah, well, our relationship with our clients are multi-year in length. And we tell companies and organizations or teams who want to do this, we say it's an initial two-year commitment because of what you just said. And then also, as I mentioned to you before we go on the podcast, Brian is putting together a virtual training.

So the entire – we've got a great vendor for this. So very, very soon, anybody will be able to go through R-Factor training via our website on a virtual basis. And it's going to be very powerful. And then that's part of how we follow up with the client. So while the initial training takes place, there's reinforcement and ongoing support for all the associates or employees or leaders in a business or a sports take – where they can take our factor on our website through virtual training. And that's going to be a big, big innovation for us and for our clients. Phenomenal stuff, Tim.

So this has been just absolutely packed. And I got one more question for you before we get going. I know you've got a keynote coming up. And I want to, you know, talk a little bit about just for one minute here about my show and the whole purpose. So it's called a Learning Leader Show for a reason. and the fact that I absolutely am fascinated by the art and science of leadership, the fact that it can be a learned skill trait. You don't necessarily have to be born with it,

and that's why I think partially why people listen. You know, they want to learn and get better. And so I love actually what it takes to continually learn in the proper mindset, to have a growth mindset to say I can learn if I'm willing to be consistent and deliberate with my decision making. And I want to ask you, when you hear the phrase learning leader, what's the first thing that pops into your mind? It's wrong.

I think what you just said, that leadership is a learned skill. And I've always said babies are born, leaders are made or developed. I mean, you can be born with leadership aptitude. But the skill leadership is a learned thing. And then the other word that pops into my mind is intentional practice. the whole idea of if I'm going to build the skills of a leader and I get exposed to these kinds of podcasts or books or programs, and we've talked about it this whole podcast. If I don't go do something with it, if I don't intentionally practice those necessary competencies,

I'm not going to get better. So that's what pops into my head is that leadership is a learned, just like you said, a learned skill. And then secondly, learning means I intentionally practice disciplines and confidence. competencies that I have studied, but I need to embed in my behavior. And that's a learned process. Bam, perfect. Thank you so much, Tim, for being here. I mean, this has been, like I said, a packed episode with a ton of takeaways and a ton of notes. And so I loved it. And I really appreciate you're investing your time with me. Obviously, I know you and I are going to continue our talks as we have prior to this one. Where can everyone go to find you online? The website is,

focus three culture.com. It's the word focus, the number three, and then culture.com. And encouraging them to go there is going to be really cool stuff. My Twitter feed is at Timothy Kite. And that's K-I-G-H-T. You invite everybody to to follow at Twitter. So at Timothy Kite. And those are probably the two best ways to connect with me. Sounds great. Well, thanks again, Tim. I look forward to, like I said, our continued conversations as we both progress, man. Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. Yep. For having me on today. Oh, absolutely. Thanks, ma'am.

This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.