Building Excellence

#90: "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." - James Clear

I hope everyone had Merry Christmas & has Happy New Years. In this episode we talk about beginning with the end in mind and creating systems that enable you to achieve your goals. 

#89: For 25 years Sherri Coale served as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Oklahoma where she is the winningest coach in OU history. She lead her program to three Final Fours, won six Big12 Regular season Championships, and four Big12 Tournament Championships, had nineteen straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and made nine Sweet 16 appearances. She also served as a coach for USA Basketball. In 2016 Coale was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. 

She is a master motivator, an engaging speaking, a gifted writer, and a keen observer of everyday life, and most importantly her faith drives everything she does. 

On the show she shares everything from her story growing up, following your curiosity, doing your job with excellence, being willing to ask, showing up, failure, daily diligence, and what makes your heart sing. 

She also just realized a new book called Rooted to Rise, which is the redwood legacies of life-anchoring people. It is a great read and a perfect Christmas gift for anyone as we get closer to Christmas. 

This is a great conversation with one of the all time greatest coaches, so be sure and take notes. 

Enjoy the show! 

#88: Nick Graham is the founder of Nick Graham Player Development. He is regarded as one of the top player development specialists in the country working with thousands of players, many of whom have gone on to play at the college and professional levels. Nick has worked with NBA stars Chauncey Billups, Trae Young, Jimmer Fredette, and many others.

Through a partnership with Spalding, the official basketball of the NBA, Nick created and starred in instructional training videos, along with co- hosting elite camps with Chris Paul and DeMar DeRozan that were featured in Slam magazine. 

Nick played college basketball at Washington State University under his father and recently coached college basketball at Iowa State University.

He is the author of GodxBasketball, which is an athletes handbook to navigating life with God’s word, and hosts a podcast called Underdog. 

Nick continues to leverage his basketball platform to use God’s Word to encourage and empower athletes and coaches all over the world.

Enjoy the show!

#87: Sam Littlefield is President & CEO at Littlefield Agency. They specialize in digital marketing for B2B companies—reimagining all things marketing and working with companies like Southwest Airlines, Loves, Rib Crib, BOK, Ditch Witch, & more.

After completing his undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego, Sam was hired as an Account Manager at one of the world’s largest digital advertising agencies, Mirum, where he worked on the CBRE, Johnson & Johnson & Cobra Puma Golf accounts.

Sam is currently a Director on the MAGNET (Marketing & Advertising Global Network) Board— a network of member agencies across five different continents, providing agency owners and executive-level leaders the opportunity to learn, share and grow best practices in a confidential and non-competitive environment.

On the show he shares his story, choosing freedom over money, getting people in the right seats on the bus, effective communication, focus, and a lot more! 

#86: David Mason is the Founder of Elev8Hoops. He has helped train NBA players like Joel Embiid, Jason Tatum, Tyler Herro, & many others.

David started his basketball career at Jenks Public Schools. In his senior year, he assisted his 6A nationally ranked (#1 in the State) team to a 27-1 record and finished as a state runner-up. He then went on to play college basketball at Oral Roberts University. While there, he set a single-game ORU assist record for that season. No one has surpassed that record since he graduated. 

After his playing days came to an end, he stayed on staff at Oral Roberts as a Graduate Assistant Coach while seeking his MBA degree. One of his duties as a Graduate Assistant Coach included helping the team with skill development for the marquee players. Through this process, Mason found his love for developing players. For the next three years, he went on to become a full-time skills trainer. To date he has trained 45+ Division One players, 9 Professional Players, 3 NBA G-League players, and 300+ 2nd-12th graders.

Mason has two main passions in life; basketball and helping others succeed. To him, there is no better way to fulfill those callings than through skill development. That is the reason why he created Elev8Hoops.

#85: Brad Lomenick is a leadership consultant, speaker, and the founder of BLINC Consulting. He is also the author of The Catalyst Leader: Eight Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker, as well as his most recent leadership book, H3 Leadership: Be Humble, Stay Hungry, Always Hustle.

He writes about leadership, the next generation, creativity, innovation, social media, teamwork, and personal growth.

For more than ten years, Brad served as president of Catalyst, one of America’s largest and most influential conference movements of young leaders across the United States.

On the show he dives into the difference between identify calling and assignment, H3 Leadership, saying yes, making decisions and just start moving.

Enjoy the show!

#84: Eric Maddox is a public speaker, author, and former special operations soldier. He was member of a Delta Force Special Operations team that was part of the Joint Special Operations Command responsible for tracking down the most wanted men in Iraq. During his six month tour with this Delta Force team, Eric conducted over 300 interrogations and collected intelligence which directly led to the capture of Saddam Hussein.

As a result, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Director’s Award, and the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. During his time working with the Department of Defense he conducted over 2,700 interrogations while deploying eight times in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

Eric currently helps corporations, sports teams, universities, and CEOs master the art of empathy based listening, leading from behind, and negotiating. Eric is also the author of “Mission: Black List #1: The Inside Story of the Search for Saddam Hussein.” 

On the show Eric dives into how he was able to gather the intel that led to the location and capture of Saddam Hussein, his story, developing empathy based listening, confidence, faith, and a lot more. 

Enjoy the show!

#83: Chris Hart is the Founder of the Brave Group Coaching. He works with business executives, athletes, coaches, teams, and organizations with the focus of helping them move forward both personally and professionally. 

Chris is an entrepreneur and was on staff at Guts Church for 15 years. He is the Chaplin for the Oral Roberts University Athletic Department and also worked with World Compassion both domestically and internationally. 

On the show Chris dives into his own story, taking the next step, competitive spirit, creating win/win opportunities, breaking down your day into phases, accountability, the 6 F’s, alignment, & choosing hard. There is a lot of ground that is covered in the show so be sure to take notes and apply what Chris shares into your life, leadership, and legacy. 

Enjoy the show! 

#82: Todd Gongwer is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and former 3 time national champion college basketball coach. He is the author of the best-selling book, “Lead … for God’s Sake!”

His expertise in the area of leadership and team dynamics comes from more than 25 years of a wide range of experiences spanning the world of business and athletics. He’s held senior positions in companies ranging from entrepreneurial start-up to public entity, while also serving as an assistant college basketball coach for one of the winningest small college programs in the country during the 1990s. Todd’s message has been featured in numerous publications, such as ESPN the Magazine, ESPN.com, YahooSports and Grantland. In addition, his powerful messages are impacting leaders from Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, major universities, professional sports teams, school districts, and churches throughout the country. 

On the show he dives into his own story, leadership, peace of mind, pace, comparison, why he wrote the book, and the lessons he shares to teams like Clemson football and Virginia basketball to businesses like the Home Depot and YPO. 

Enjoy the show! 

#81: Lars Gwartney is a Financial Advisor with Northwestern Mutual. 

Through his work at Northwestern Mutual he helps his clients improve their quality of life and relationships by helping them articulate what their goals and dreams are and then helping to develop a plan to protect and achieve them.

As you will see in his story, it is one of persistence, belief, and clarity. All three of those qualities are what he has used to achieve a high level of success throughout his career and what he currently uses to help his clients succeed. 

On the show he touches on his story, identity, overcoming obstacles, persistence, the power of belief, leadership, building not just financial wealth, but true wealth, and a lot more. 

Enjoy the show!