Coaching Culture

Zach Brandon spent years inside one of the most pressure-filled environments in professional sports. The biggest thing he took away was not about performance. It was about connection.

In this first conversation with Zach, JP sits down with the former Head of Mental Performance and Coach Development for the Arizona Diamondbacks, on staff during their 2023 World Series run, to explore what he learned about servant leadership, building genuine relationships across a roster, and the principle most leaders quietly overlook: go see the work. Zach and JP also get honest about the cost of diluted focus and why an overused strength can quietly become your biggest limitation.

This one is for any coach who has felt spread too thin, wondered whether athletes really trust them, or needed a reminder that the most powerful question you can ask is: what do you need from me today?

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to this episode's most actionable ideas.

"I got a lot better as a leader when I showed up every day from a space of like, hey, how can I serve you?"
— Zach Brandon

"Diluted focus produces diluted results."
— Zach Brandon

"Letting each person you come into contact with be the expert on themselves — and allowing them to share their expertise."
— Zach Brandon

Q1: If you rated your relationship with every athlete on your roster from 1 to 5, where are the gaps — and what is one move you could make this week to close the most important one?

Q2: When is the last time you asked one of your athletes for advice? How might doing that more intentionally change the dynamic in your program?

Win More, Live Better — podcast by Zach Brandon
One of JP's handful of go-to podcast subscriptions. The episode featuring former Washington football coach Chris Peterson is the one that first caught JP's attention. Find it and all of Zach's work at zachbrandoncoaching.com.
Visit zachbrandoncoaching.com

• Servant leadership is a daily choice, not a personality trait
• You cannot build deep connection without a system
• Asking for advice builds more trust than giving it
• Diluted focus produces diluted results
• Go see the work
• An overused strength becomes a limitation

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Every coach says they want more leaders. But most are picturing the wrong level entirely.

JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson unpack Level 3 leadership, the one-to-one relational work that has to exist before Level 4 (leading the whole team) ever works, including the Joey Votto story of a star player who took up Spanish and improv classes just to become a better teammate.

Whether you've got a team full of quiet glue players or you're still waiting for someone to step up, this conversation will change how you look for leadership on your roster.

Chapters(00:00) Intro

(02:35) Level 3 vs Level 4, defined

(08:33) Leading a team vs leading people

(10:42) The glue player nobody calls a leader

(15:19) When leadership feels inauthentic

(20:15) The soup metaphor

(23:26) Skip the template, find the belief

(32:18) What coaches get wrong on calling out

(36:49) Walk your own talk first

(39:58) The six parts of Level 3

(42:29) Reframing fear before hard talks

(45:54) Four beliefs that block feedback

TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"The problem with hard conversations isn't not knowing the template. The problem is the belief system that gets in the way of actually changing the behavior."
- J.P. Nerbun

"One group calls it 'called out.' The other group calls the exact same thing, a coach stopping practice to single out an athlete, 'called up.' It depends on the relationship."
- Betsy Butterick

"Rizzo said he got called out by Ross more than a few times, and every single time he walked away feeling like the guy loved him."
- Nate Sanderson

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you calling out a teammate when they're below the standard? What belief is keeping you from a 10?

Q2: Think of one teammate you'd call out without hesitation, and one you wouldn't. What's actually different about those two relationships?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Culture Captain by JP Nerbun
The book behind this episode's framework, breaking down the four levels of leadership from knowing yourself to leading the whole team.
Visit tocculture.com here

Key Takeaways

• Level three is the leadership skill coaches actually need, not level four
• Being a great teammate makes you a better performer, not a distraction from it
• Don't let "that's just who I am" become the end of the conversation
• Calling out and calling up are often the exact same behavior
• Most athletes aren't missing a script, they're stuck on a belief
• The best challengers spend the other fifty-one weeks building connections

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Dr. Jody Carrington says the most vulnerable emotion on the planet is not fear or grief. It is joy.

In part two of her conversation with JP, Dr. Jody Carrington gets specific about what it means to regulate yourself before you can lead anyone else, why joy requires every defense to be down, and why she collects information before she directs a hard conversation.

This one is for any coach who has ever felt calm on paper but tight in the jaw, and who wants tools that work in the middle of practice, not just in theory.

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"The most important people you work for are the ones you go home to."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

"The most vulnerable emotion on the planet is joy."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

"Collect and then direct. It's not if I'm going to give that feedback, it's when."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

Q1: Where in your day is your jaw locked and your shoulders up before you ever set foot in front of your team, and what would it look like to drop them on purpose before you walk in?

Q2: Which two players are you not building a real relationship with right now, and what is one specific thing you could learn about them this week?

Dr. Jody Carrington
Free videos, articles, and tools built around the same ideas she unpacked in this episode: regulation, connection, and showing up as your best self before you lead anyone else.
Visit drjodycarrington.com here

• Regulate Yourself Before You Coach Anyone Else
• The People You Work For Are the Ones You Go Home To
• Ask What Happened, Not What's Wrong
• Joy Is the Most Vulnerable Emotion on a Team
• Collect Before You Direct
• Relationships With Parents Cut the Battle in Half

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

If the big people aren't okay, the little people don't stand a chance. That is the idea psychologist Dr. Jody Carrington has built her career on, and it flips the entire athlete development conversation on its head.

In part one of this two part conversation, JP sits down with Dr. Jody Carrington, a clinical psychologist and founder of Carrington and Company who has spent decades studying emotional regulation in high pressure environments, from a locked psychiatric unit to elite sports organizations. She unpacks why the coach's own nervous system sets the ceiling for the team's, and why the answer to a dysregulated athlete is never more yelling.

Whether you coach with intensity or with quiet steadiness, this episode will change how you think about the person running the room, not just the players in it.

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"If the big people aren't okay, the little people don't stand a chance."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

"You don't lose your ability to be great. You don't lose the best golf swing you've ever taken in your life. You lose access to it."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

"We have to collect before we direct."
- Dr. Jody Carrington

Q1: Where in your program are you investing in athlete performance but not in your own emotional regulation as a coach?

Q2: Think of the last time you corrected an athlete in the moment. Had you collected enough relationship first for that correction to land?

Dr. Jody Carrington's Books, Podcast, and Resources
Her ongoing work on emotional regulation, connection, and leadership under pressure goes deeper into everything covered in this episode.
Visit drjodycarrington.com here

• Coach Regulation Is the Missing Variable in Athlete Development
• You Cannot Learn With Your Lid Flipped
• Collect Before You Direct
• Intensity Isn't the Problem, Timing Is
• Your Nervous System Gets Hijacked Before You Even Get Out of Bed
• Coaching Is Development Work, Not Just Performance Work

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Is your best leader always your best teammate? JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson are not so sure, and the answer says a lot about how you build culture this season.

This episode continues an ongoing conversation around JP's new book, The Culture Captain, with the group digging into Level Two: leading yourself before you ever try to lead anyone else. They unpack why the chapter on effort was the hardest one JP wrote, what separates a Steph Curry from a Caitlin Clark on the leader versus teammate question, and why so many athletes hold back effort out of fear of being labeled a tryhard.

Whether you are coaching the most obsessed competitor on your roster or the kid who just wants to enjoy the sport, this conversation will change how you think about effort, identity, and what it actually takes to lead yourself first.

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"Two things can be true. I can uphold the standard and it increases the value or the connection with my teammate."
- Betsy Butterick

"My performance does not determine my worth or value in this world."
- Nate Sanderson

"It's not any single leadership behavior that unlocks leading yourself. It's putting in the work on ourselves, knowing that this is a lifelong journey."
- JP Nerbun

Q1: When you rate your own effort this season, are you rating it the way your teammates and coaches would, or the way you wish they would?

Q2: Is there a part of this season where you are telling yourself a victim story? What is one choice you actually have right now?

The Culture Captain by JP Nerbun
JP's newly launched book breaks leadership into three levels: knowing yourself, leading yourself, and leading others. This episode digs into Level Two, covering responsibility, effort, authenticity, compete, mental fitness, and selflessness.
Visit tocculture.com here

• Leading yourself is not a formula. It is a personal journey.
• A great leader is not always a great teammate.
• Curiosity beats correction when a leader cannot reserve judgment.
• The fear of being a tryhard is quietly shutting down effort.
• Moving an athlete from victim to creator starts with naming a choice.
• The hardest part of leading yourself is the moment you let yourself down.

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Making athletes work harder is one thing. Making athletes better is something else entirely — and Rustin Dodd draws that line clearly in this episode.

In part two of JP Nerbun's conversation with Rustin Dodd and Elise Devlin of The Athletic's Peak section, the discussion moves from habits and rituals into the heart of transformational coaching. Elise covers Dan Quinn's player PowerPoint presentations, Lisa Bluder's deep-dive into understanding Caitlin Clark, and what Tara Vanderveer's lasting player relationships reveal about the longevity of great coaching. Rustin breaks down the energy cost of being a coach and why the coaches who last build support systems around themselves. The episode closes with John Harbaugh's accountability frame and why "shoot the ball" might be the most important thing a coach can say.

For coaches who want to understand what separates the ones athletes call ten years later from the ones they just remember.

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"Being a coach that can get your players to work harder is easier than being a coach that can make them better. At the most basic level, it's giving people confidence."
— Rustin Dodd

"When you are losing a lot of energy and you have not a lot left, take what you do have left and give it to other people and it'll come back to you multiplied."
— Elise Devlin

"There's no better feeling than when your coach yells shoot it. I think about that as a metaphor — it's some level of trust, putting confidence in the person."
— Rustin Dodd

Q1: Think about a player you know well enough to coach hard — and one you don't. What would it take to close that gap this week?

Q2: When did you last own a bad day in front of your team? What did that cost you — and what did it build?

The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
The origin text for the entire executive coaching industry — referenced in this episode as foundational reading for understanding the inner life of an athlete. Jared McCain reads it. Steve Kerr coaches from it.
Available on Amazon

• Making Athletes Better Is Different from Making Them Work Harder
• The Deeper You Know Your Athletes, the Better You Can Lead Them
• Tough Conversations Only Land When the Relationship Is Real
• Coaches Need a Support System Too
• Ownership Is a Leadership Skill
• Curiosity Is a Long-Term Coaching Practice

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Most coaches spend their careers shaping athletes. Rustin Dodd and Elise Devlin spend theirs learning from them — and what they've found might change how you coach.

Rustin and Elise write NY Times feature, The Peak for The Athletic, a section devoted to the mental side of elite sports. In this episode with JP Nerbun, they unpack what a year of "I Tried" journalism has taught them: Kobe's silence practice, Michael Phelps' freestyle journaling, Buzz Williams writing four to five letters a day, an Olympian who approaches every failure with childlike curiosity, and a reminder from David Ortiz about what it actually means to bounce back. The thread running through all of it: curiosity.

For coaches who want to understand what's going on inside their athletes — and maybe inside themselves — before it becomes a problem.

Chapters

(00:00) Intro: JP on The Athletic's Peak(02:39) Ted Lasso's Real-Life Inspiration(07:41) Elise: D1 Swimmer to Peak Journalist(11:48) The Performance Info Gap(13:01) How The Peak Section Was Born(16:18) What The Peak Is Not(19:20) I Tried: Living Athletes' Habits(21:31) Silence, Emotions, and Journaling(23:13) How Athletes Find Their Rituals(25:41) Curiosity: The #1 Athlete Trait(26:41) Buzz Williams Letter-Writing(28:38) Gratitude and Failure With Curiosity(30:53) The Power of Saying Yes(35:59) The Pat Riley Conditioning Test(36:31) 17s Story: Hardship as Confidence

TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"That feeling of somebody saying yes to me is so powerful. And I oftentimes try to think about: how do I do a version of that? How do I say yes to people?"
— Rustin Dodd

"I thought about it and I was like — I guess I don't have silence."
— Elise Devlin

"I view all my failures with childlike curiosity."
— Olympian Olivia Smoliga, cited by Elise Devlin

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: When something goes wrong in practice or a game, is your first instinct to fix it, blame it, or get curious about it? Which of those responses is actually coachable?

Q2: What is one mental tool or daily habit your athletes don't know about — and when did you last share it with them?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Peak by Rustin Dodd and Elise Devlin | The Athletic
The Athletic's section devoted to the mental side of elite sports. The "I Tried" series is essential reading for any coach curious about what elite performance looks like from the inside.
Visit The Athletic here

Key Takeaways

• The Best Athletes Are Obsessively Curious
• Reflection Teaches More Than Experience Alone
• Silence Is a Performance Tool
• Treat Failure Like a Scientist
• Gratitude Does Real Work
• Say Yes More Than You Think You Should

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

JP Nerbun's 10-year-old daughter said something on the walk to the bus that stopped him cold: "She's climbing the mountain of achievement without any purpose." That one line is the heart of this entire conversation.

This special episode drops on the launch day of JP's new book The Culture Captain — a field guide for athletes learning to lead from the inside out. JP sits down with longtime friend John O'Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project and co-author of Captain: The Athlete's Guide to Being an Exceptional Team Leader (with Jerry Lynch). Two books. Same subject. Written simultaneously, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. They go deep on self-awareness as the foundation of leadership, why modeling behaviors beats locker room speeches, how to have a difficult conversation before you feel ready, and what it means to lead from the bench when things aren't going your way.

Whether you coach athletes, lead a team, or are still figuring out who you are as a leader — this one is for you.

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"She's climbing the mountain of achievement without any purpose."
— JP Nerbun's daughter, age 10

"Success is the goal, but it's not the purpose. Fulfillment should be the purpose. This is what coaches need to provide."
— John O'Sullivan

"You pick up the cones and balls, you serve others. You do that and people go, man, if that's the captain doing it, I better do it too."
— John O'Sullivan

Q1: Think of an athlete who is putting in the work but seems to have lost their joy. What would it look like to help them reconnect with purpose rather than achievement?

Q2: What is it currently costing your team — in trust, momentum, or culture — to avoid a hard conversation that needs to happen?

The Culture Captain by JP Nerbun
A field guide for athletes learning to lead with purpose, values, and selflessness — told through a fable and backed by real stories from Tim Duncan, Tom Brady, Abby Wambach, and more.
Get The Culture Captain at culturecaptain.net

Captain: The Athlete's Guide to Being an Exceptional Team Leader by John O'Sullivan & Jerry Lynch
Qualities, responsibilities, and challenges for every team captain — grounded in research and real stories from high school to the pros.
Visit changingthegameproject.com

• Know Yourself Before You Lead Anyone
• Selflessness Is the Hallmark of Great Captains
• Modeling Behaviors Beats Locker Room Speeches
• Reluctant Leaders Are Still Leaders
• Fulfillment, Not Success, Is the Real Purpose
• The Difficult Conversation IS the Leadership

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

What does it mean to truly know yourself — not perform yourself, not brand yourself for public approval, but honestly know who you are at your core?

JP Nerbun, Betsy Butterick, and Nate Sanderson explore that question in this roundtable, the first in a four-part series on JP's new book, The Culture Captain. Betsy shares the story of an athlete and what she filled in her personal definition led to an eye-opening statement about being "enough". This quiet act of self-definition opens a deeper conversation about identity, enoughness, and what it costs to resist the pressure to brand yourself for the world's approval. Nate brings a hard-won insight from a facilitation with student-athletes that challenges a core assumption most coaches hold about leadership readiness. JP is honest about the gap between success and fulfillment — and about the dark side of purpose itself, how even meaningful work can become obligation when fulfillment is measured in external terms. Betsy's Championship Soup exercise from a workshop at Stanford with Tara Vanderbeer gives every coach a practical way in. This is the beginning of a longer conversation — one level at a time.

If the question "who are you?" has ever felt harder to answer than it should, this one is for you.

Chapters

(00:00) Intro(01:35) The Culture Captain Series Format(03:12) When Were You Invited to Know Yourself?(09:09) The "Child of God" Athlete and Enoughness(11:26) Do Athletes Know What Leadership Is?(12:27) Nate's Facilitation: What Athletes Revealed(16:06) Defining Leadership — No Clean Answer(20:01) Leadership as Wielded Influence(22:08) The Magnetic Personality Story(28:53) Leadership Is a Boat Anyone Can Board(30:58) Core Values — How Did You Find Yours?(35:23) The Soup Supper Exercise(37:15) Championship Soup at Stanford(40:43) Success Without Fulfillment(41:51) Division I Basketball vs. 200km Ultra(45:30) Identity Prison vs. Identity House(46:18) JP's Vulnerable Moment on Fulfillment

TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to the episode's most actionable ideas.

"Fulfillment has to be defined by you, and the meaning has to be made intentionally rather than just by what we see and what we hear."
— Nate Sanderson

"When I'm at my best, when I feel most at peace, when I feel most content, when I feel most truly myself — look back at those moments. And then ask: how do I bring that forward and offer it as a gift to my team, to the world?"
— JP Nerbun

"I believe leadership is a boat that anyone can board — if you have the desire to develop that awareness, to know yourself, to use your influence on purpose."
— Betsy Butterick

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: When was the first time someone truly invited you to define who you are — not describe yourself to others, but honestly articulate who you are at your core? How has that shaped the way you invite athletes into self-discovery?

Q2: Think of a recent coaching achievement. On a scale of 1–10, how fulfilled did it make you feel? What does that number tell you about whether you are living in your values?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

The Culture Captain by JP Nerbun
This episode explores Level 1 of JP's new book — Know Yourself. It's the foundation on which every leadership conversation is built. Get the book and episode tools at tocculture.com.

Visit tocculture.com

Key Takeaways

• You Can't Lead Others If You Don't Know Yourself
• Leadership Is Wielded Influence — Use It on Purpose
• Young Athletes Often Need a "Level Zero" Before Level One
• Self-Definition Is an Act of Resistance
• Values Are Unearthed, Not Invented
• Success Without Fulfillment Is the Warning Sign — and Success Is Often Defined for Us

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.

Most coaches think they're having conversations with their athletes. Marcia Reynolds says they're mostly just talking.

In this episode, JP Nerbun sits down with Marcia Reynolds — executive coach, neuroscience researcher, and author of Coach the Person, Not the Problem — to unpack the science of what makes a coaching conversation actually transformational. Marcia explains why telling athletes what to do almost never leads to lasting change, breaks down the critical difference between coaching and mentoring, and shares a three-step pre-conversation practice that changes how you show up before a single word is spoken.

If you coach athletes, lead a staff, or are navigating a difficult conversation at home — this one is for you.

Chapters

(02:11) Intro

(03:56) Marcia's journey to coaching

(06:26) Why telling people doesn't work

(09:41) Coaching vs. mentoring

(12:26) Coach the person, not the problem

(18:41) The worst assumption a coach can make

(21:11) Three steps before every conversation

(26:11) Building the daily practice

(29:11) Presence as the foundation

(35:41) Reflective inquiry over questions

(40:11) What coaching gives back to the coach

TOC 3-2-1

3 Quotes | 2 Questions | 1 Resource
Your fast-track to this episode's most actionable ideas.

"You have not lived their life. You can't stand in someone's shoes. That's not possible. Coach slowly. Try to see what they see through their eyes. Don't assume you know."
— Marcia Reynolds

"Information doesn't change behavior. When I work with the creative center of the brain, when I'm reflecting what they're saying, so they listen to themselves and go, I said that, I believe that... that's when insights emerge."
— Marcia Reynolds

"We make coaching way too hard. When all I'm doing is relaxing into this conversation — just having a conversation with you, listening to what you're saying, offering back what I think you said that seems most important."
— Marcia Reynolds

2 Questions for Your Team

Q1: Before your next coaching conversation with an athlete, write your true intention in one sentence. Are you going in to fix them or to genuinely understand them? What shifts when you lead with honest curiosity?

Q2: Think of a recent moment where you gave an athlete advice that didn't stick. What one question could have opened the door to their own insight instead?

1 Resource to Go Deeper

Coach the Person, Not the Problem by Marcia Reynolds
A practical guide to reflective inquiry — showing coaches how to activate real and lasting change by engaging the athlete's inner world rather than just the presenting behavior.
Visit covisioning.com to learn more

Key Takeaways

• Information Alone Does Not Change Behavior
• Coaching and Mentoring Are Not the Same Thing
• Coach the Person, Not the Problem
• Three Things to Set Before Any Coaching Conversation
• Reflective Inquiry Beats Great Questions Every Time
• Self-Awareness Is a Practice You Can Build

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Better Coaches. Better Leaders. Better Culture.