The Highest Level Podcast with Evan Burk

Marc Stcherbina is a leadership consultant and sports broadcaster, and previously played professional rugby and represented Australia on the national team during a 12-year professional career.

In this conversation, Evan Burk talks to Marc about the great teams he played for during his professional career, the importance of fair and honest communication from leaders, and how he uses the principles learned from his playing career in his work as a consultant and coach today.

Get Evan's book, Finding Intangibles, to learn about how high-performing teams are built and the hidden character traits that drive all elite performers and organizations.

To stay up to date with Evan and The Highest Level podcast, sign up for Evan's leadership newsletter.

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Topics Discussed:

2:00 | The start to his professional rugby career

10:30 | Developing the ability to fit into any team

15:30 | The progression of his professional career

22:00 | Experiencing teams with family atmospheres and great cultures

29:00 | Are team cultures on rugby teams driven by coaches or players?

33:45 | The leaders that had the lasting impact on Marc

40:00 | The value of honest feedback

45:00 | Marc's transition into life after rugby

49:00 | "The same principles apply from rugby to any business"

53:30 | Working with the Major League Rugby

Chris Canetti is professional soccer team executive who is currently serving as the President of the Houston 2026 World Cup Bid Committee. Canetti has previously served as a team executive in pro soccer and baseball for over 20 years, including 8 seasons as team president for the Houston Dynamo's, and 3 seasons as GM with the Rockies minor league team, New Haven Ravens.

In this conversation, Evan Burk talks to Chris about going from clubhouse manager to the GM role of a minor league baseball team in only 3 years, Learning to be a team executive at an uncommonly young age, and how he influenced team culture from the role of team president.

2:00 | Starting out working in minor league baseball

8:00 | Learning Team Management as an Executive at a young age

11:30| Leaving baseball for Soccer

18:30 | How do you influence the team culture from the role of team executive

21:45 | Traits they looked for in the people

25:00 | What does it take to compete for a championship in the MLS?

28:00 | Experiences that stood out in Houston

31:45| Leading the World Cup bid for Houston 2026

Ben Rosenberg and Bret Levine are behavioral psychologists who study how people and teams interact with themselves, and also host "Head Games", a light-hearted podcast focused on using the psychology of human behavior to help explain current events in professional sports.

In this conversation, Evan Burk talks with Ben and Bret on the differences of situational and internal motivation, the methods to measure and increase team cohesion, and the importance of accepting roles in creating great team chemistry.

• 2:00 | Head Games: Ben + Bret backgrounds and how they first met

• 7:30 | The challenge of finding teams will to experiment

• 12:30 | Unseen traits of grit + persistence continually coming up on their podcast

• 17:00 | Situations + environments effecting players success or failure

• 19:45 | Team Chemistry and how to define it

• 24:30 | How do you measure team chemistry?

• 32:30 | How much effect one player can have on team cohesion

• 36:00 | Ways to increase team cohesion and the importance of accepting roles

• 40:30 | Teams that stand out in terms of teams chemistry

• 44:30 | What they've learned on their podcast over the past year?

Robert Yip is a sport psychologist and strength and conditioning coach that has worked with individual athletes and team-based sports from soccer, rugby, volleyball and Gaelic games. He currently works as a performance coach for professional esports organizations, focused on helping players, coaches, and teams reach their peak performance.

In this conversation, Evan Burk talks with Robert on his transition from traditional sports to working with professional esports organizations, the consistency in players that drives team success in all sports, and how stability in people is needed for team to build a winning culture.

1:45 | Robert's sports psychology background and his early work in Esports

7:45 | What did your work in Esports teach you about working with players?

10:15 | Challenges in developing soft skills with players and teams

16:30 | Importance of Relationships

20:15 | Creating buy-in and establishing accountability

22:15 | Culture vs. Skill: "Culture is everything"

27:15 | The great players want to be coached hard and held accountable

35:00 | "Your best player has to be representative of the culture you are trying to build"

37:20 | Team Building: Know what you want for your culture + in your players

38:30 | The people that drive culture are the consistent players

41:00 | Golden State Warriors + Having players be a model for your core values

43:15 | What has Esports gotten right about building culture? And what have they gotten wrong?

45:00 | Developing esports coaches: "There is no Bill Belichick in Esports"

Victor Cruz began his career in scouting and player development with the Boston Red Sox, worked with agent Scott Boras in player representation for over a decade, and currently represents esports athletes through his firm, Brandy Ro Gaming.

In this conversation, Evan Burk speaks with Victor on how major league baseball teams scout players on and off the field, the lessons he learned on how the Boston Red Sox Built a championship team from their 1st title run in 2004, and how ambition is the force that drives all great players.

1:45 | Interning with the Boston Red Sox while in college

4:45 | Working in scouting + player development with the Boston Red Sox

10:15 | Getting insight on how players were off-the-field

12:00 | "Focusing on whats going on around the game when they are not playing"

13:30 | Understanding players culturally + providing guidance to young players

15:40 | Building a championship team in Boston

20:45 | Understanding the human aspect of baseball scouting + building relationships

27:00 | How ambition drives the development of most players

32:00 | Transitioning to working with Scott Boras + player representation

37:45 | Getting into Gaming + Esports athlete representation

44:30 | Podcasting on MMA with his son

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Find "The Guillotine MMA Podcast" on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Soundcloud, and follow on twitter: @guillotine_mma and on instagram: @theguillotinemma.

Paul Svagdis is entering his 19th season as the Head Baseball Coach for Azusa Pacific University. Before arriving at Azusa, he spent 6 seasons as the head coach at Pomona-Pitzer, and in 25 years as a college head coach holds over 600 wins and has been named PacWest coach of the year each of the last 3 seasons.

In this interview, Evan Burk speaks with Paul on how he uses his football mentality in his approach to coaching baseball, finding leadership potential in the recruiting process, and how having a player that sets the standard is a crucial element on all his great teams.

Get Evan's book, Finding Intangibles, to learn about how high-performing teams are built and the hidden character traits that drive all elite performers and organizations.

To stay up to date with Evan and The Highest Level podcast, sign up for Evan's leadership newsletter.

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Topics Discussed:

1:40 | What has impressed you most about your players over the past year since the canceled 2020 season?

4:10 | Teaching baseball over zoom + keeping players engaged in a virtual world

8:30 | Bringing the football mentality to his baseball coaching

12:30 | The adaptation + difference in how he led early in his coaching career to now

16:45 | Recruiting: Worrying less about results and more about how they handled the results

20:40 | Building the team mindset + culture - Does resiliency come from recruiting, or from the coaching staff?

22:30 | Shifting the Culture at Azusa - What stood out to you as the things that really helped flip that culture?

28:20 | Having a Player that sets the standard

33:15 | Being purposeful in his approach to recruiting + asking the right questions

38:45 | What are you looking for when looking at a potential prospect?

42:15 | Are there exceptions that you make in your evaluation? Or pretty rigid in your evaluation process?

44:50 | NFL Team Building: Putting guys in the right system

49:15 | Reflecting on the ability to take teams from good to great

55:20 | What goes into a good baseball nickname?

Clif Carroll is in his first season as the Head Coach for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Men's basketball team, after having previously served as the head coach at McMurry University and Sul Ross University, and had the privilege to spend his early career working under two Hall of Fame coaches, Steve Green at South Plains College and Bobby Knight at Texas Tech.

In this interview, Evan Burk speaks with Clif on how Bobby Knight's 3x5 index card influenced his approach to coaching, the way his recruiting philosophy changed after having kids, and the lessons of Texas BBQ restaurants he uses to lead his team.

Get Evan's book, Finding Intangibles, to learn about how high-performing teams are built and the hidden character traits that drive all elite performers and organizations.

To stay up to date with Evan and The Highest Level podcast, sign up for Evan's leadership newsletter.

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Topics Discussed:

2:00 | Learning from working under Coach Bobby Knight at Texas Tech

4:30 | What stood out about Coach Knight's leadership?

5:45 | What Clif learned from Bobby Knight - The simplicity of a 3x5 Index Card

8:30 | Coach Leach at Texas Tech and Learning the Air Raid Offense

9:45 | Other sources of inspiration like country music + BBQ restaurants

11:30 | "Great coaches can coach anything"

13:20 | Chris Beard as a young assistant at Texas

16:30 | Using Authenticity in his coaching

20:15 | "Part of being authentic is knowing your weaknesses"

24:10 | Social Media + The "Generation of Celebrity" changing how coaches deal with players

27:00 | Coaches now have to really coach up Loyalty, Community, interaction between the kids

29:30 | Finding intangible traits in the players in recruiting

32:15 | "Circling up the Player" + gathering information

34:30 | How having kids changed his coaching and view of recruiting

35:45 | "I have been really looking for players that are high achievers"

36:45 | Sul Ross and his mentality taking that job.

44:15 | Mentality taking over the UMHB Program

49:30 | The Early Success putting his culture in place at UMHB

52:30 | Expanding his player's horizons with Country Music

Dr. Alex Auerbach joined the Toronto Raptors as the Director of Wellness and Development in May 2020, after spending the previous two years serving as the Director of Clinical and Sport Psychology for the University of Arizona.

Alex is a former football coach-turned-sports psychologist who specializes in sport and performance psychology, and has worked with elite athletes at every level of competition including NCAA Division 1 colleges, multiple professional sports organizations, and Olympic athletes over the past decade.

In this interview, Evan Burk speaks with Alex about how leaders can maximize their leadership potential and feel more comfortable in their roles.

Get Evan's book, Finding Intangibles, to learn about how high-performing teams are built and the hidden character traits that drive all elite performers and organizations.

To stay up to date with Evan and The Highest Level podcast, sign up for Evan's leadership newsletter.

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Topics Discussed:

2:15 | Alex's leadership evolution over his career

4:45 | How organizations and leaders can develop relationships with their people

7:00 | Trusting your instincts as a young leader

9:00 | Real leadership = doing what you need to do for somebody else to be the best

14:00 | Building trust through consistency

17:30 | The importance of honesty and integrity with your team

19:00 | People wanting honesty from their leaders

21:30 | Developing a Self-Reflection practice to improve your leadership

22:15 | Where Alex sees coaches can make improvements

27:00 | Differences in leadership from players vs. coaches

31:00 | The value of radical transparency in people that surround coaches

34:30 | "Not everyone has earned a right to have a voice in the culture"

37:30 | Alex's decision-making process and how he makes tough decisions

Connect with Alex: Twitter

Steve Stigall played college football at the University of Texas, worked as a member of the football coaching staffs at UT and SMU, and currently serves as a Pastor at the Eastside Community Church in Dallas, Texas.

In our conversation, we dive into what led to the rise of UT football under Mack Brown and his leadership, the culture change he experienced first-hand during his time with SMU football, and the moment he knew it was time for a career transition.

Get Evan's book, Finding Intangibles, to learn about how high-performing teams are built and the hidden character traits that drive all elite performers and organizations.

To stay up to date with Evan and The Highest Level podcast, sign up for Evan's leadership newsletter.