Matthew Mitchell | From Basketball to Business: Sustaining Success Through Preparation
In this episode of The Last 10%, host Dallas Burnett engages in an incredible conversation with Matthew Mitchell, the winningest head coach in University of Kentucky women's basketball history and a three-time SEC Coach of the Year. Coach Mitchell shares his insights on leadership, coaching, and life beyond the court. They delve into topics like the importance of consistency, the power of honesty, hard work, and discipline, and how to sustain success through preparation. Coach Mitchell also discusses his experiences with legendary coach Pat Summit, the challenges of building a team culture, and his new book, 'Ready to Win'. This episode is filled with valuable advice for leaders, coaches, and anyone looking to elevate their game in life and work.
Buy Coach Mitchell's latest book "Ready to Win."
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Transcript
dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Hey, everybody.
Speaker:We're talking to Matthew Mitchell today.
Speaker:What an amazing guy.
Speaker:He is the winningest head coach in the history of University of
Speaker:Kentucky women's basketball program.
Speaker:A three time SEC coach of the year has some incredible stories about leadership,
Speaker:coaching and life beyond the court.
Speaker:He's a great new friend of mine.
Speaker:You don't want to miss this.
Speaker:This incredible conversation.
Speaker:Welcome to the last 10%.
Speaker:Your host, Dallas Burnett into incredible conversations that will inspire you to
Speaker:finish well finish strong, listen as guests share their journeys and valuable
Speaker:advice on living in the last 10%.
Speaker:are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to level
Speaker:up, you are in the right place.
Speaker:Remember, you can give 90 percent effort and make it a long way, but it's
Speaker:finding out how to unlock the last 10%.
Speaker:makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, your work.
Speaker:here's Dallas.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:I am Dallas Burnett sitting in my 1905 Koch brothers barber chair Thrive Studios,
Speaker:but more importantly, we have a great guest today, He is the winningest head
Speaker:coach in the history of the university, Kentucky women's basketball program.
Speaker:Three time sec coach of the year.
Speaker:Now he's a leadership coach, a mentor and a speaker.
Speaker:He's also the author of a new book.
Speaker:You're definitely gonna want to get called ready to win.
Speaker:I think it's already made today's list.
Speaker:It's coming out big time.
Speaker:So welcome to the show, coach Mitchell.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah.
Speaker:Hey, thanks Dallas.
Speaker:It's great to be with you.
Speaker:Appreciate the opportunity to have a great conversation today.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Yeah, man.
Speaker:So I have just always interested in people's stories.
Speaker:So tell the listeners, what drew you to the idea of coaching?
Speaker:Did you always know you wanted to be a head basketball coach
Speaker:or what got you into the sport?
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Well, it started as an
Speaker:athlete in rural Mississippi.
Speaker:I grew up great parents and youngest of four boys and lived out
Speaker:literally in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker:Dallas hard to get to where I grew up and we were just outside
Speaker:all the time playing sports.
Speaker:No matter what the season was, We played it and, baseball in the summer and
Speaker:football in the fall and, basketball in the wintertime and just, eating up with
Speaker:the love for athletics and which led me to, thinking about how much I loved it
Speaker:as a young person and thinking about how I could extend my participation because
Speaker:it doesn't matter if you're Michael Jordan or Matthew Mitchell, being an
Speaker:athlete is a temporary time in your life.
Speaker:It is not A lifelong thing where you can have value as an athlete, Michael Jordan,
Speaker:there's big debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James, who's the greatest.
Speaker:I loved Michael Jordan, watching him play, but still he, is very productive in life,
Speaker:but he can't play in the NBA anymore.
Speaker:And so that was, The first time as a young person really started thinking about
Speaker:coaching and then, as I'm sure is true in a lot of people's journey, the one person,
Speaker:really encouraged me and it was my high school basketball coach said, I always
Speaker:thought you would be a really good coach.
Speaker:and I was, Struggling with what I wanted to do in life in my early twenties,
Speaker:and I tried some different things in business and tried a couple of jobs
Speaker:that I thought might be successful financially and was floundering.
Speaker:And so that led my discussion with my basketball coach, 1 night.
Speaker:And so he invited me to join his staff that season and assist him.
Speaker:And that's what kicked off my career.
Speaker:started out as a high school teacher and coach and coached everything,
Speaker:Dallas coach football, coach basketball, put the baseball uniform on, I don't
Speaker:know how much coaching I was done.
Speaker:I was driving the bus and turn it into lineup cards, but, just loved
Speaker:it, loved coaching, loved teaching.
Speaker:And so in the summertime, I would work different camps trying to gain
Speaker:knowledge and become a better coach at whatever sport I was participating in.
Speaker:and Got an opportunity to get into college basketball and that's
Speaker:what sort of changed my life.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Oh, wow.
Speaker:And you had one coach that really gave you that invitation to
Speaker:say, Hey, come in and do this
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:That kicked it off.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:now then you get into coaching in ultimately rise into college ranks.
Speaker:did you ever in your mind say, I really want to be a head coach or were you
Speaker:like, I'm just like glad to be a part of the whole deal, or did you say, no,
Speaker:I'm absolutely going to be a head coach.
Speaker:That's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: well, my original plan Dallas, which
Speaker:was a little bit wild so I had no credentials, but my dream was I was
Speaker:going to coach the Lakers one day.
Speaker:That's what I said.
Speaker:I was going to be.
Speaker:I was going to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker:and so then I get into high school teaching and coaching and I'm quickly
Speaker:think, I hope I can just keep this job.
Speaker:I hope I can just, I hope they don't fire me because I did
Speaker:not know what I was doing.
Speaker:but I enjoyed, being a head coach and so who changed my career trajectory
Speaker:was the great Pat summit at Tennessee.
Speaker:I worked for her during the summertime and those camps that I've
Speaker:just talked about going to learn.
Speaker:And she was in the mid nineties.
Speaker:They were on a run of three straight national championships.
Speaker:96, was an undefeated season for the first time anybody had ever done that.
Speaker:And I was working these camps and so she saw something in me, hired me as
Speaker:her graduate assistant, could have hired 10, 000 people to do the job,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Oh
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: but that was the point where it
Speaker:opened up college basketball and being around her, working for her.
Speaker:I eventually went on to work for three other, hall of fame coaches
Speaker:before I became a head coach.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:working for Pat Summit and seeing how she operated and the impact she could
Speaker:make on people's lives definitely, created a desire in my heart to be
Speaker:a head coach and to lead a program and, and so I never made it to the
Speaker:Lakers, but making it to University of Kentucky and being able to coach
Speaker:college basketball in Kentucky, I can't think of a better place in the world.
Speaker:People love basketball in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Speaker:There's no pro sports or anything that you're competing with.
Speaker:And so the University of Kentucky is really the biggest thing in the state.
Speaker:And ended up at a remarkable place, had a remarkable career, and just all
Speaker:because, people that contributed to it and helped me develop as a coach.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: That's incredible that you
Speaker:worked with Pat summit, man.
Speaker:That's just, hall of fame.
Speaker:My eyes, I could totally understand how that would inspire you to be a head coach.
Speaker:after, You think back to that time when she invited you again to the college
Speaker:level and, and that whole new league, what do you feel like is one thing that when
Speaker:you saw her and you saw how she inspired other people, what's one thing you took
Speaker:away from her and said, I'm taking that.
Speaker:I'm putting that in my leadership tool belt, coaching tool belt.
Speaker:I'm going to take that to the next,
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah.
Speaker:So fortunate to.
Speaker:work and learn from one of the greatest of all time.
Speaker:and she, she left as far too soon from early onset dementia.
Speaker:and I really believe she would have, she'd have been 73 this coming summer.
Speaker:And I think she'd still be coaching.
Speaker:and she won a thousand games, over a thousand games.
Speaker:I think she'd have won 2, 000.
Speaker:But she, there's so many things that I could, but so many things
Speaker:that I did learn from her.
Speaker:But the one thing that I tried to do, And I talk about this
Speaker:in the book, and ready to win.
Speaker:when you are around great people, sometimes, We look at them and
Speaker:we overvalue how great they are.
Speaker:And we think, and it becomes demotivating because you're thinking,
Speaker:how could I ever be Pat Summit?
Speaker:And the answer is, you can't be Pat Summit, you can't be Nick Saban.
Speaker:You can't be, Phil Jackson, whoever, bill Belichick, all these people
Speaker:who have won the most championships.
Speaker:You, you can't be those people.
Speaker:But what you can do is you can be the best.
Speaker:Version of yourself.
Speaker:And instead of overvaluing greatness, you should really
Speaker:look and see what can I emulate?
Speaker:What can I be inspired to do?
Speaker:What can I aspire to emulate in this great person?
Speaker:And for coach summit, the one thing that I narrowed it down to that
Speaker:was so Powerful and so productive in my career was consistency.
Speaker:She showed up every single day.
Speaker:And at the time when I worked for her Dallas, back when magazines were a thing,
Speaker:she was on the cover of time magazine, sports illustrated, she was on interviews
Speaker:with 60 minutes ESPN, she was everywhere.
Speaker:She was a major figure, not only in women's sports, but just in Sports in
Speaker:general, and so she had a million things pulling her in a million different way of
Speaker:directions But when she showed up every day for the lady of alls on that practice
Speaker:court She was totally focused and her energy her focus her enthusiasm Her effort
Speaker:that was so consistent day in and day out.
Speaker:She knew exactly how she wanted to win basketball games It was rebounding.
Speaker:It was defense You It was effort and grit.
Speaker:That's what she wanted to do.
Speaker:It was not any fancy, elaborate, offensive schemes or anything.
Speaker:It was every single day she showed up with that tremendous focus.
Speaker:And, there were a bunch of things I couldn't do that she did.
Speaker:But I said to myself, if I ever get a chance, I am going to.
Speaker:Be consistent and I'm going to give the players my very best every single day.
Speaker:And, I really thought that drove results for her.
Speaker:And then that, that allowed us to lift Kentucky women's basketball.
Speaker:You think about Kentucky basketball and you think about the over a hundred years
Speaker:of great success, the men's program had, we had not enjoyed that kind of
Speaker:history in a women's basketball program.
Speaker:In fact, We were closer to the bottom than the top, but that consistency
Speaker:and that one thing that I was able to learn from coach summit helped us lift
Speaker:Kentucky women's basketball into a championship level for over a decade.
Speaker:And, I give so much credit.
Speaker:To being around coach summit and seeing that example and experiencing
Speaker:that example each and every day.
Speaker:And that was the one thing that I really got from her.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Oh, that's so good.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:And I know that resonates with so many people.
Speaker:I think, if you're leading people, if you're coaching people, if you're
Speaker:leading an organization, I think that's a great challenge and a great question.
Speaker:Number one, I love what you said about essentially finding how you can emulate
Speaker:greatness without, don't try to be like the other person, lead with yourself and
Speaker:how you've been created, but then take what you can and aspire certain attributes
Speaker:that you can pull in and put together.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And the other thing that I think is very challenging is that are we asking
Speaker:ourselves, are we showing up for The people that we lead, the people that we
Speaker:serve, our organizations on a consistent basis, are we being consistent in our
Speaker:leadership, in our communication, in our expectations, the standards that
Speaker:we set and the standards that we keep all these things that, that we are, I
Speaker:think the consistency is incredible.
Speaker:So I love that you point that out.
Speaker:I'd love to talk a little bit about the book.
Speaker:and you start this book off, which by the way, I've got a copy.
Speaker:It's very, it's just awesome.
Speaker:It's a great book,
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Thank you.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: off and you tell the story about Michael
Speaker:Jordan and the commercial, and you talk about how he's taking all these shots
Speaker:and everybody knows it's an iconic ad. But you mentioned something that's very
Speaker:interesting and you just, you discern between winning a win and then something
Speaker:like called sustained success, share a little bit about what you mean in, in
Speaker:the book and how you captured that idea.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: I think when we all start out on
Speaker:our leadership journey, at least when I did, I was so focused on.
Speaker:and I felt if I could drive results, then my career was going to grow.
Speaker:And I wanted to get there really fast.
Speaker:I wanted to get there quickly.
Speaker:And I, was so fortunate to be around great leaders that drilled into my development.
Speaker:This idea of just build a strong foundation, know what you're about, and
Speaker:then try to do it over and over and learn along the way the methods can change
Speaker:the world changes, technology changes, all these things change our methods can
Speaker:change, but your principles stay the same and you just show up every single day.
Speaker:No one.
Speaker:What you're about, who you are, and that's going to lead you through all
Speaker:the challenges that come with success.
Speaker:There's so many challenges that come your way.
Speaker:There's so many roadblocks.
Speaker:There's so many obstacles that are in your way to get there.
Speaker:There's so many traps set for you.
Speaker:Once you get there to stay there, there's all of these challenges that
Speaker:we're constantly having to face.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:When you can think in a principled way, when you can have principle based
Speaker:thinking, that's going to lead to principle based action, that's going
Speaker:to lead you to being able to repeat.
Speaker:And sustain success.
Speaker:And so the book really is about the things that we can have the most
Speaker:control over our attitude, the energy that we bring every day and the effort
Speaker:that we give to the task at hand.
Speaker:Those are things that we can control.
Speaker:What the book really is about is pairing.
Speaker:Is something that we can all do and preparing well and learning
Speaker:how to be a level 5 preparer.
Speaker:That's we talk about 5 levels of preparation in the book when we
Speaker:can live in level 4 and 11 level 5, something that we can aspire to level
Speaker:4 is something that everybody can do.
Speaker:And that preparation allows us to set ourselves up.
Speaker:To get great results.
Speaker:Now, do we win every time I coached at Kentucky for 13 years?
Speaker:We did not win every game, unfortunately, Dallas, but we did
Speaker:win seven out every 10, seven, 70 percent of the time we won our game.
Speaker:And so what we were able to do is over a decade, I coached there for 13 years.
Speaker:And once we really got it figured out after our second year, we
Speaker:had over a decade of success.
Speaker:And so we didn't have one good season.
Speaker:We didn't have one year where we had a chance to, get into the NCAA
Speaker:tournament and play at a championship level we had over a decade of that, and
Speaker:that's what we want to try to develop.
Speaker:That's what in the book where we show you that preparation will
Speaker:powerfully position you to win.
Speaker:You still have to go out and get it done.
Speaker:But one thing that I've learned that's been so helpful for me Dallas is that.
Speaker:I just consider everything victory because if I reach, if we were up one
Speaker:point on the scoreboard at the end of the game and we won the game, that
Speaker:was a great victory and successful.
Speaker:But if we were down one point at the end of the game, I eventually matured
Speaker:into a spot where I could learn that was a victory as well because there were
Speaker:lessons to be learned from the defeat.
Speaker:And There was so much valuable.
Speaker:Sometimes you learn more out of losing a game by one point, then
Speaker:you learn by winning by one point.
Speaker:I had a great one of my great mentors that encouraged me early in my coaching career.
Speaker:Less triplet.
Speaker:He's a Hall of Fame high school coach in the state of Mississippi.
Speaker:One night, we, beat Tennessee at the buzzer.
Speaker:Great Coach Summit, and here I am.
Speaker:I've gone from being a graduate assistant to actually,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: gosh.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: winning the game, and we won it, at the buzzer.
Speaker:And the next day, everybody was so excited.
Speaker:It was on the front page of the newspaper here in Lexington.
Speaker:It was national news.
Speaker:It was on SportsCenter.
Speaker:it was a big deal, and it really was the deciding game that allowed us
Speaker:to win the SEC Championship in 2012.
Speaker:And so we're elated.
Speaker:Of course, we're so excited.
Speaker:But the next day, the phone call that was so pivotal, powerful,
Speaker:it still resonates with me.
Speaker:He said, think about how you would coach the team today if
Speaker:that basket had not gone in.
Speaker:And instead of winning 72 71, Tennessee at 171 70.
Speaker:It's only two points difference.
Speaker:There's not a huge amount of difference.
Speaker:So you need to think about how would you have coached the team?
Speaker:What would you have learned if it had been 71 70 instead of 72 71 in our favor?
Speaker:And that was like an absolute just hit me between the eyes.
Speaker:And that's how we need to think about our performance.
Speaker:We need to have a clear mind when we evaluate what we're doing.
Speaker:And we can't let the emotions of 72 71 blind us from what we need to learn.
Speaker:and then the emotions of 71 70 cloud our vision and think that everything's
Speaker:going wrong and you don't look at it.
Speaker:The perspective needs to be that you look at your performance.
Speaker:With a clear mind, you go back and evaluate.
Speaker:So we show you how to do all of this in ready to win in the book, how to
Speaker:prepare on the front end, how to work your way through the execution phase
Speaker:and how you evaluate it, which allows you to prepare well the next time.
Speaker:sustained success is something I'm so passionate about.
Speaker:That's what we go into companies now and try to help not just the leader,
Speaker:not just the CEO or the person who's in charge, but it's really that team effort.
Speaker:How you go in and you coach the team to perform well, to perform together,
Speaker:which leads them to greater productivity.
Speaker:And when you can repeat that Dallas, now you are into the realm of not having one
Speaker:good quarter or one good year of business.
Speaker:You can have it over time and.
Speaker:And that's what we're trying to drive people towards sustained success.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: man, I love that.
Speaker:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:And the perspective shift is incredible.
Speaker:But because it's so easy and I could see the drift, you're so elated, you get
Speaker:lost in the wind and you're celebrating, and then you're going in the next week
Speaker:and your confidence is an all time high.
Speaker:You've just come off of this great victory at last second shot.
Speaker:if you don't have that perspective, look, we're two points away.
Speaker:We're one basket away from losing and maybe we would have picked it apart
Speaker:and say, how could we have gotten an extra, whatever we, our free throw
Speaker:percentage or, this or that, or we were taking, rent a play different.
Speaker:I just think that's really, that's a great perspective shift.
Speaker:And it's a great way to approach victory.
Speaker:I think that because you're not over inflating the victory
Speaker:and you're not downplaying it.
Speaker:Like you did win, you got the 72 to 71.
Speaker:if you treat it like a 71 70, then you're not over inflating
Speaker:it beyond what it actually is.
Speaker:And you're saying, we can still improve.
Speaker:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker:That's how you've led or that's one example of how you led through A
Speaker:victory, you said the first two seasons, you were trying to figure it out.
Speaker:You're trying to, we get it all worked out.
Speaker:What was it like leading in those seasons that you could offer, to
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah, the great, thing to discuss here, my
Speaker:first college head coaching opportunity came, 10 years into my overall.
Speaker:coaching career, so I started out that season, then I told you at my high
Speaker:school coach Farrell Rigby 10 years later, I, got a division 1 head coaching
Speaker:job at Morehead State University.
Speaker:And so it was, I don't know.
Speaker:How people, view their career, but 10 years in a lot of ways is a long time.
Speaker:But in many ways, especially in coaching, 10 years is not all that long of a time.
Speaker:And so I was not, You know, just incredibly seasoned or experienced, but
Speaker:what I had learned is that we needed to be about something at Moorhead State.
Speaker:And so that's what, Coach Summit had what she called the definite dozen.
Speaker:Dallas, that's 12, 12 things that, that Tennessee basketball is going
Speaker:to be about on and off the court.
Speaker:That was too many things for me to keep up with, to be honest with you.
Speaker:I couldn't keep up with 12 things.
Speaker:It was hard to do.
Speaker:and so I came up with three things that I had learned.
Speaker:I was in a meeting I worked at Tennessee for 1 year.
Speaker:I worked for her for 5 years, 4 years in the summer, and
Speaker:then 1 year fully on the staff.
Speaker:And from there, I went to the University of Florida.
Speaker:As an assistant coach, that was my first, full time assistant coaching job.
Speaker:And what an incredible place that was because they were so
Speaker:successful in all athletics.
Speaker:Everything was just awesome at Florida.
Speaker:And they were really on the.
Speaker:Cutting edge of developing a comprehensive basketball division, 1 athletic program
Speaker:where all sports mattered and it wasn't just football or men's basketball,
Speaker:everything they did with excellence.
Speaker:So that was a great place for me to be.
Speaker:and 1 year, I was in my 3rd year there, we were having a hard time.
Speaker:We had a young, talented team, but we were having a hard time winning
Speaker:games and so we were in a meeting.
Speaker:And, our head coach was Carolyn Peck.
Speaker:She's in the women's basketball hall of fame.
Speaker:First, African American woman to win a national championship at Purdue, a
Speaker:championship coach and, youngest coach ever to win a national championship.
Speaker:And so we were in there and she, we were trying to, turn over every
Speaker:stone and somebody said, if we could eliminate complaints, excuses, and
Speaker:laziness from our team, we would be.
Speaker:it would really be good and that I filed away.
Speaker:I said, I don't know exactly how I'm going to use that, but that's really powerful.
Speaker:when I get this opportunity to lead a program, I said, listen,
Speaker:I want to eliminate complaints, excuses and laziness, but I did
Speaker:not want to come in and say, this is what we're not going to do.
Speaker:I wanted to come in and say what we were going to do.
Speaker:so eliminating excuses, the best way to do that.
Speaker:Is honesty.
Speaker:If I don't allow myself to make an excuse, now I have to look at
Speaker:the situation with total honesty and engage in an honest manner.
Speaker:So honesty became the first thing we're going to be about.
Speaker:If I want to eliminate laziness, that's real, real easy to do.
Speaker:You just want you, you convert that to hard work and you learn how to put
Speaker:forth effort and you learn work ethic.
Speaker:And I credit my parents, for teaching me that.
Speaker:I was as lazy as there's ever been when it came to stuff that
Speaker:I didn't want to do, Dallas.
Speaker:and there's so many things in basketball to get prepared that you don't want to do.
Speaker:You don't want to, you don't want to lift weights.
Speaker:You don't want to run up hills.
Speaker:You don't want to run stadium steps.
Speaker:You don't want to run line drills.
Speaker:All these things, there's so much you don't want to do that you have to
Speaker:learn how to put your effort in there.
Speaker:So hard work.
Speaker:Was the antidote to laziness and then anytime I've been
Speaker:around people that complain.
Speaker:So the way I explain complaints are like a funnel cloud of energy of negative energy.
Speaker:It's just spinning and it's and it's.
Speaker:You never know where that funnel cloud is going to go.
Speaker:So it's not really going anywhere that doesn't have a destination.
Speaker:It doesn't have a solution to it, but it's just going and it's creating
Speaker:so much negative energy and when that thing sets down and it makes
Speaker:contact with the earth and it's a tornado, it is bad stuff happening.
Speaker:It is destructive.
Speaker:And that's what complaints do.
Speaker:If you get a bunch of people, cool.
Speaker:That are on a team and in a locker room, especially that are complaining
Speaker:that is negative energy headed nowhere.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Instead of complaining, have the discipline to move toward a
Speaker:destination that you want to go.
Speaker:Have the discipline to get a plan, stick to the plan, do
Speaker:the actions that are necessary.
Speaker:So that became our blueprint, the winning tools, honesty, hard work, discipline.
Speaker:So that's how we were leading the program.
Speaker:So I created it more at stake.
Speaker:now back to the first two years at Kentucky, Those were words
Speaker:that I was using and I was telling the team that we were about,
Speaker:but I was not really about that.
Speaker:My mind was all on the results of making Kentucky's.
Speaker:I was headed to the Lakers, but I ended up at Kentucky and I said, man, we're
Speaker:going to win national championships.
Speaker:We're going to take over the world.
Speaker:It's going to be great.
Speaker:halfway into my second season, we were going nowhere.
Speaker:Dallas.
Speaker:Right before Christmas, we got beat at home.
Speaker:By team, we had paid to come play us East Tennessee state, and it was not good.
Speaker:We had no momentum.
Speaker:We were not moving anywhere good.
Speaker:And so I started at the Christmas break, I said, I'm going to
Speaker:commit to the winning tools.
Speaker:I'm going to be honest.
Speaker:I'm going to figure this out.
Speaker:I'm going to put forth the effort and I'm going to have the discipline that I need.
Speaker:And through that, I had some encouragement in that.
Speaker:first part of 2009 was the conference season.
Speaker:We only went five and nine, but toward the end of the season,
Speaker:we beat, we upset Tennessee.
Speaker:So I tell everybody that's proof of God because that's a miracle right there.
Speaker:You lose to East Tennessee in one step in one season, you beat Tennessee.
Speaker:That was a miracle.
Speaker:So that gave me a little bit of, encouragement going into the off season.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Yeah.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: but what I found out in my honest evaluation.
Speaker:Is that I was trying to win how the whole industry was trying to win.
Speaker:I was trying to be real traditional with my approach.
Speaker:I was trying to beat Pat summit at the game.
Speaker:She had perfected the best players, a big, strong center,
Speaker:all the talent she was collecting, and we just didn't have access.
Speaker:We had no tradition.
Speaker:We had no, momentum going.
Speaker:And so what I had to commit to, I had to think honestly, how can we compete?
Speaker:Which led me to outside of the box, outside of the industry standard.
Speaker:And so we couldn't get, we couldn't match you toe to toe in a traditional way.
Speaker:So what my criteria started to be was if you want to have a great experience,
Speaker:if you want to come to Kentucky and learn how to become a great player, but
Speaker:also a great student and great person, I don't care what position you play.
Speaker:the number one criteria, were you athletic enough to play any position?
Speaker:And did you want to come to Kentucky?
Speaker:And I got so focused on that and we built a small in stature, but fast athletic,
Speaker:aggressive team, and I've used the winning tools to change our style of play.
Speaker:And we became the fastest, most up tempo team in college
Speaker:basketball, men's or women.
Speaker:And, we pressed 40 minutes for the game.
Speaker:We ran the fast break, 40 minutes a game.
Speaker:And we just became this incredible brand of basketball that just started
Speaker:to spread all throughout that people all throughout the country, coaches
Speaker:started calling to asking us about it.
Speaker:I even had people from around the world that got so interested in it.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:What I learned there is that I doubted myself when I was thinking in this
Speaker:traditional way and when I was trying to compare myself and trying to be
Speaker:like everybody else and when I finally committed to what I said I was about,
Speaker:when I finally became about honesty, hard work, and discipline, I was able to
Speaker:figure out how to change the trajectory.
Speaker:And we went from 33 and 32, those first.
Speaker:2 years picked next to last in the conference and going into
Speaker:my 3rd year to, we finished 2nd in the conference that year.
Speaker:We went to the elite 8 and then national in the NCA tournament.
Speaker:And that just catapulted us toward that decade of sustained success.
Speaker:When we became sec champions, we went to three elite eights.
Speaker:We, went to five sweet 16s.
Speaker:We went to the NCAA tournament year after year.
Speaker:And Instead of, talking about a philosophy, I really became and started
Speaker:to embody the things as a leader.
Speaker:I think there's so many times we can talk.
Speaker:Talk about things, but we're not actually doing it when we are the people driving,
Speaker:the culture and we're living what we say that we're going to be, that's when
Speaker:you really start to see the results.
Speaker:And that's where, you become, focused and powerful in your direction.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: that's awesome.
Speaker:That's so true.
Speaker:And I think it's almost like you're applying that same consistency, that you
Speaker:were talking about with coach summit to your own methodology, you're saying, all
Speaker:right, now I've got to get consistent.
Speaker:And how am I going to be honest with myself?
Speaker:About where we are and I also love how, because in the beginning you
Speaker:were talking about in and leading with your own strengths and looking
Speaker:at, you don't have to emulate.
Speaker:And I think that's true because if you had tried, there's a book called,
Speaker:it's, I guess it's a little older now called blue ocean strategy.
Speaker:was somebody written at Harvard or something, and they talked about
Speaker:how there's, red oceans where all the ships and the competitors are in
Speaker:it, killing each other to, to win.
Speaker:And there's a lot of blood in the water and it's all very red.
Speaker:And then you've got this blue ocean and it's like, when you sell your boat
Speaker:somewhere where there's nobody else at.
Speaker:Then you're not competing.
Speaker:And so we're all individuals.
Speaker:We all have our own unique gifts and unique strengths and
Speaker:unique ways we see the world.
Speaker:So when you can lead with that, like you said, what do I have here?
Speaker:And how can I compete?
Speaker:It's not how they compete.
Speaker:It's almost like he's we have this great.
Speaker:atmosphere.
Speaker:This is amazing.
Speaker:division one school where there's no professional teams compete with.
Speaker:Everybody's focused on this so we can generate, amazing energy
Speaker:and I can get athletes and then we could have, we can run fast.
Speaker:You want to be an athlete?
Speaker:You can come here.
Speaker:So it's so cool to see how you process that.
Speaker:So you said, what do we have?
Speaker:And I'm leaning on our strengths.
Speaker:Versus trying to lean on something we didn't have access to.
Speaker:If you can't recruit the tallest girls down low, that some of the
Speaker:other schools have already gotten, because of their program history,
Speaker:then you've got to do something.
Speaker:Cause if you just keep trying to do that, you just have less than success,
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: yeah.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: love all that.
Speaker:I love how you thought through that and the strategy that you use,
Speaker:cause it pulled you out and you said, I'm okay being different.
Speaker:In fact, we're not going to just be okay being different.
Speaker:We're going to lead the way into this new area.
Speaker:We're going to be the first ones there.
Speaker:And then everybody's going to ask us.
Speaker:So that's just really, it was really cool.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah, I just add one more thing on that is, is
Speaker:I learned from my dad, I really have to credit my parents,, my parents always
Speaker:encouraged us to be unafraid of risk.
Speaker:Don't be risky, but accept that there's going to be some risk when you have to
Speaker:make a change, but have the courage.
Speaker:To take the risk to change because, and my dad was so great with things like this.
Speaker:He would say, the tree, the trunk is so solid and stable, but the fruit
Speaker:is out on the branches and you've got to, you've got to get out there.
Speaker:You've got to leave the trunk.
Speaker:You've got to be brave enough to go out.
Speaker:And if the branch breaks.
Speaker:And you're going to fall and it's going to hurt and you're going to hit the
Speaker:ground hard, but just get back up there, but never be afraid to go out there for
Speaker:the, because the fruits out there and just that simple, concept as a young
Speaker:person, resonated at a very important part, a critical juncture, because if
Speaker:I'd gone down the road, if I'd stayed the course of trying to be traditional,
Speaker:and do what everybody else is doing.
Speaker:I would not have become the winningest coach in the history
Speaker:of Kentucky women's basketball.
Speaker:I would have been, searching for a job somewhere else.
Speaker:And, so I just wanted to share that with the listeners is, great
Speaker:lesson to learn from my dad.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Such a, that's a rich man analogy.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love fruit is on the branches.
Speaker:That is so true you've got to put yourself out there.
Speaker:Love what you said about having courage.
Speaker:You've got to have enough courage.
Speaker:It's not necessarily saying that you're being risky, but you have to take risks.
Speaker:You have to be out there willing to go for it.
Speaker:I think that's fantastic.
Speaker:So you've talked about discipline and as one of the core values
Speaker:as it relates to complaints, but also that's going to create some.
Speaker:team accountability accountability.
Speaker:And especially I think in the business world is something that we talk
Speaker:about, but sometimes employees will shirk at, because I think in the
Speaker:past, command and control style type bosses or whatever accountability
Speaker:can be seen as almost negative.
Speaker:Oh, it's big brother.
Speaker:He's just coming in here to press on me.
Speaker:This is not good.
Speaker:rigid micromanagement, but That's not the culture that you created.
Speaker:At Kentucky, how do you see discipline being used in a way
Speaker:that we do have accountability, but it's seen as a positive.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: I think the big thing for a leader is teaching people
Speaker:The art of discipline and if we all said, Hey, listen, in our business, do we need
Speaker:to have discipline everybody or maybe not everybody Dallas, but anybody that's
Speaker:trying to go anywhere is going to rate.
Speaker:Yes, we should be.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We agree with discipline.
Speaker:. My daughter's in fifth grade and I'm coaching her team at
Speaker:her school couple days a week.
Speaker:it's open to anybody that wants to play.
Speaker:It's not varsity, it's more like a physical education activity, but
Speaker:we're teaching them basketball.
Speaker:And if I tell them.
Speaker:Listen, we're going to dribble.
Speaker:We're going to dribble over here to the goal.
Speaker:And I want you to shoot a layup.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I, I tell them that's accurate of what I tell them what I want them to do,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: right.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: what I have to do with that age, but it's a great
Speaker:lesson for me now as a leader in business, I have to teach them how to do that.
Speaker:I have to first teach them how to dribble the ball.
Speaker:I have to teach them the mechanics and the technique of a layup.
Speaker:And so that sentence is easy to, it's easy to tell someone, but do I
Speaker:have the discipline to teach someone?
Speaker:And so one of the ways that I try to share with leaders, that's a
Speaker:good technique in teaching is the cycle of teaching is three E's we
Speaker:equip, we encourage, and we evaluate.
Speaker:And so on the front end, I need to make sure that my people who we
Speaker:are all trying to win, we are all trying to get to this objective.
Speaker:I have, they are equipped with the resources, the skills, the expectations.
Speaker:They know where we're headed.
Speaker:They need all that information and that's for me to equip them.
Speaker:So if I say, Hey, this quarter, we want to get a 5 percent increase in sales.
Speaker:I can say that, but now do they really understand that they have all
Speaker:the resources they need to do that.
Speaker:Then along the way, when I'm in the midst of trying to execute, I am encouraging
Speaker:and encouragement means I am just going to use the winning tool of honesty, to
Speaker:let them know you're on the right track.
Speaker:You're not on the right track.
Speaker:I think you could do this differently.
Speaker:What are you seeing out there?
Speaker:I believe you have the ability to do it, whatever that may be, but I'm
Speaker:communicating through an encouraging way.
Speaker:I'm not trying to motivate with fear, which is so short term.
Speaker:I am trying to motivate them.
Speaker:And encourage them along the way and now we get to the 3rd, 1 evaluation.
Speaker:I can evaluate in real time.
Speaker:I can evaluate.
Speaker:Hey, this is effective or this is not effective.
Speaker:And then at the end.
Speaker:we certainly can see what the result was, and we can evaluate
Speaker:that and that needs to be done.
Speaker:with honesty.
Speaker:And so I think when you have these principles with your team and everybody
Speaker:understands we're going to deal, we're going to be honest brokers here.
Speaker:I'm not going to tell you're doing great.
Speaker:And everything's going to be okay.
Speaker:If you're not producing, if you're not executing at the level
Speaker:required, I'm not going to tell you everything's going to be okay.
Speaker:I'm not going to tell you're the worst person in the world, but I'm going to say,
Speaker:hey, things need to be done differently.
Speaker:And as a leader, we have to have the ability and we have
Speaker:to find the strength to forego.
Speaker:popularity in the moment
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Yeah.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: for, long lasting and success in the long term.
Speaker:And so delivering constructive criticism.
Speaker:I think you just say that on the front end.
Speaker:I think you that's in that equip stage.
Speaker:You need to let them know.
Speaker:We're going to, we're going to encourage you, but.
Speaker:But you have to develop the ability to take constructive criticism
Speaker:because we're all not going to be 100 percent right all the time.
Speaker:And so the leader has to be able to do that.
Speaker:And so I think, that's a formula that you can implement as you're trying to be a
Speaker:discipline team, that's all moving in the same direction to accomplish the goal.
Speaker:and we talk about that in the book.
Speaker:And all of us that are trying to play at a high level, and that's the people
Speaker:that I'm coaching now, and the companies that I've had the privilege of being
Speaker:involved with, these are high achieving people that have great big goals,
Speaker:strong objectives, a mission to be.
Speaker:A winning organization, and it doesn't matter if it's pharmaceuticals, or if
Speaker:it's finance, or if it's engineering hotels, I've coached a lot of different.
Speaker:Industries, the people.
Speaker:Portion of that in high performance situations, you have to have the
Speaker:team functioning at a high level and the discipline it takes to
Speaker:equip, encourage and evaluate is something that I really believe
Speaker:you can teach in your organization.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: I love that.
Speaker:I love it because it's simple and also love it because of
Speaker:the order that you've got.
Speaker:Does a lot of things that's already working in your favor as a coach.
Speaker:Number one, when you're spending time equipping, you're not only,
Speaker:teaching them the skill, but that's showing them that you care enough to
Speaker:make sure they have the tools they need to do the job successfully.
Speaker:Because there's so many times that people get.
Speaker:trial by fire, right?
Speaker:And in a role you just get put out there.
Speaker:And a lot of times you feel like you're on an island because
Speaker:you don't have the preparation.
Speaker:You don't have the communication there.
Speaker:That's really brought you in and you feel like I've got now, this confidence
Speaker:that I can do this job because the person that knows how it's supposed to
Speaker:be done is taking the time to show me that I think this next thing is that
Speaker:you don't move from that to evaluation.
Speaker:You move that.
Speaker:From that to encouragement.
Speaker:And I think that encouraging level going to produce this
Speaker:kind of almost trust response
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: yes.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: you are, as a coach, you are for me.
Speaker:So now you have showed me what to do.
Speaker:Now you're encouraging me to do that towards this mission, vision, value,
Speaker:whatever that we're setting it with the role responsibility that we're doing.
Speaker:So now I feel like , I'm in this environment with someone who cares enough
Speaker:to spend time with me and who is for me.
Speaker:And for me doing this successfully.
Speaker:So then when you come back and you say, Hey, when you take time out and evaluate,
Speaker:all right, we're not where we need to be.
Speaker:We're moving in the right direction.
Speaker:When you make some changes, that's feels so much different than someone who gets
Speaker:thrown in trial by fire, doesn't get the feedback, doesn't get the communication,
Speaker:doesn't get the encouragement.
Speaker:And then the boss comes back in and is what are you
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: is
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: I think I love it.
Speaker:I love all three of those, especially in that order.
Speaker:I want to talk a little bit about how people build confidence,
Speaker:especially on their teams, right?
Speaker:Cause this has a lot to do with that.
Speaker:And you talked about it relating to preparation.
Speaker:I think a lot of leaders, especially in growing companies, I was thinking
Speaker:one in particular have these.
Speaker:They want to pull up into the next level and give more responsibility
Speaker:out, but there might be a confidence issue either with the team that they
Speaker:can perform the tasks that they need to do, or with an individual, how
Speaker:do you build confidence in your team?
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: it's a great thing to discuss because
Speaker:when you think about athletics, it's a scoreboard environment.
Speaker:you have 1 more point or you don't, you win or you lose.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: that's right
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: And there are things when you're preparing for a game
Speaker:that you have to instruct the team on.
Speaker:And there are things that have to happen.
Speaker:the ball's got to go in the basket.
Speaker:The defense has to keep the ball from going in the basket.
Speaker:The, you have to guard legally.
Speaker:So you're not on the bench in foul trouble.
Speaker:There's, there, there's, a thousand things that have to happen.
Speaker:And so as a basketball coach, you learn, to Use your principles
Speaker:to get your players in position to win and in your preparation.
Speaker:And the other thing that happens in athletics is you get so many opportunities
Speaker:to learn how to do this because players.
Speaker:We'll come to you constantly and say, I don't have confidence.
Speaker:Ball's not going to the basket.
Speaker:I can't stay in front of it.
Speaker:I can't get a stop.
Speaker:I can't get a rebound.
Speaker:I have no confidence.
Speaker:I need you to give me some confidence, coach.
Speaker:You don't give me, you, I don't think you're confident in me.
Speaker:I need you to give me some confidence.
Speaker:And, what I, as a young coach, I was like, let me give her some confidence.
Speaker:I'd love to give that some confidence.
Speaker:So what you figure out now.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: do a good job,
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah, what you figure out is you
Speaker:can't give anybody confidence.
Speaker:You cannot give
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: that's right
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Through meeting the objective.
Speaker:that's how you build confidence.
Speaker:So now how do I help someone achieve?
Speaker:So then they have confidence because I can't manufacture confidence artificially.
Speaker:It has to be earned.
Speaker:So that's where I use the winning tools.
Speaker:Honesty.
Speaker:The first one, honesty, what is going on here?
Speaker:What is happening?
Speaker:what do you not feel confident?
Speaker:I can't make a shot.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So let's look at your technique.
Speaker:Let's look at.
Speaker:Your shot selection.
Speaker:Are you shooting it in your range?
Speaker:Let's talk about the time that you're taking.
Speaker:So let's honestly evaluate what's going on.
Speaker:what is preventing you from getting to confidence?
Speaker:So then the second tool is hard work.
Speaker:That's where you dig into a plan.
Speaker:That's where you develop a plan.
Speaker:You give the effort to say, Hey, I'm not making enough shots.
Speaker:So here's the plan.
Speaker:We're going to come in before class for 15 minutes, and we're
Speaker:going to work on your form.
Speaker:We're going to come in before practice and, and work on your layups.
Speaker:And then after practice, we're going to stay and work on your three point shot.
Speaker:Whatever that is.
Speaker:We're going to take the time.
Speaker:We're going to work hard, hard work and develop a plan.
Speaker:And then the discipline, the 3rd winning tool, we're going to have
Speaker:the discipline to stick with the plan for an extended period of time.
Speaker:We're not going to, we're not going to work the plan for a day and then think
Speaker:confidence is going to be created.
Speaker:We're going to have belief that if we stick to this and.
Speaker:And over time, that's where we'll build the confidence and listen, you
Speaker:can do some, you can do some temporary tricks that, yeah, remember we had
Speaker:a great shooter, Keela Snowden.
Speaker:She was the sec six, Player of the year, she came off the bench.
Speaker:She was unbelievable player.
Speaker:She was an all conference level player and we were just a deep
Speaker:team, but she was such a spark plug that would come into the game.
Speaker:And so she was in a bit of a slump And she was such a great shooter and
Speaker:that it had gotten mental for her.
Speaker:But I told her I got on a ladder and I took two basketballs and I said, did
Speaker:you know that two of these basketballs will fit in the goal at one time?
Speaker:And I dropped the two and it's crazy.
Speaker:Two basketballs can actually go through the hoop at one time.
Speaker:And so that, little mental technique, we were at Vanderbilt playing that day and
Speaker:she, that, that kind of got her maybe unstuck a little bit, And was a fun
Speaker:little technique that maybe helped her, but she had put in the time was really
Speaker:the time working the plan over time.
Speaker:wasn't that 1 little magic trick that we did.
Speaker:And so I think that using that honesty, hard work, discipline can allow you.
Speaker:To build confidence and that's so important.
Speaker:but you see there as a leader, I couldn't just say, Hey, it's going to be okay,
Speaker:Keela, everything's going to be fine.
Speaker:You're just going to work out for you.
Speaker:That's artificial.
Speaker:It may not work out for you if you don't do the work.
Speaker:And then also on the other side of that Dallas, I think I
Speaker:just want to make this point.
Speaker:as leaders, if we let our own fear of failure take us over and
Speaker:we're worried like, but next shoes about to drop, it's going great
Speaker:now, but it might not go great.
Speaker:And you're brow beating your team and saying, I know it's good right
Speaker:now, but you're going to, it's going to, the bottom is going to fall out.
Speaker:The market's going to change and you try to motivate out of that's
Speaker:not an honest broker either.
Speaker:You're not being an honest leader there.
Speaker:you can do the same thing when things are going well and say,
Speaker:this is how we're succeeding.
Speaker:We need to keep going.
Speaker:To, we need to constantly be working on our plan and our preparation.
Speaker:And then we need the discipline to work the plan.
Speaker:So it works on both ends of the confidence, spectrum.
Speaker:And, I just think the key to that is working through it.
Speaker:and having those solid principles and you can choose whatever principles
Speaker:you want to have, I've made a living and a life of success and coaching off
Speaker:of honesty, hard work and discipline,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Right.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: but whatever you're committed
Speaker:to, just be committed to that.
Speaker:And that's how you lead your people to confidence.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: That's it.
Speaker:Ah, that's fantastic.
Speaker:so many things come to mind when you're talking about that and
Speaker:bringing in confidence, it's almost like you're describing, cause you
Speaker:said one's artificial, there's an artificial side of confidence.
Speaker:I think that's the, Sometimes I feel like you can have artificial confidence.
Speaker:If you're just ignorant, you don't know what you're about to do.
Speaker:And you just go
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: and you're like, Oh, we're
Speaker:confident we just got steamrolled.
Speaker:And the other side is what you're talking about resonates with me, because
Speaker:it's like, it's an earned confidence.
Speaker:It's this grounded earned confidence.
Speaker:And then I think when you were talking about the little trick where you
Speaker:put the two basketballs together.
Speaker:I think it's almost like you're cutting through the things that would cloud their
Speaker:vision to that earned confidence, right?
Speaker:She's earned that she's earned that ability to throw it.
Speaker:she is a great shooter.
Speaker:She's put in the time extra effort, but there's something, there's some fear
Speaker:or uncertainty that's clouding that.
Speaker:and I love the two balls through the hoop.
Speaker:It reminds me.
Speaker:So my girls, my three daughters.
Speaker:And they've gotten into, tennis.
Speaker:I was not a tennis player.
Speaker:I couldn't tell you how to keep scoring tennis up until just a few years ago.
Speaker:Whatever reason a cousin of ours got him involved.
Speaker:Now they're, full tilt, we're all in on tennis.
Speaker:And so I'm loving it just because it's athletics and we're going to
Speaker:have these great conversations.
Speaker:and so one of the things we're doing is we're showing them all these movies that
Speaker:they've never seen Rudy and miracle.
Speaker:And so last night, funny enough, we watched Hoosiers.
Speaker:And
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Oh, wow.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: when you remember when he goes to
Speaker:the state championship and these guys walk in this massive arena and
Speaker:they're like, Oh my gosh, he gets up there and he's take a tape measure and
Speaker:measure from here to the free throw up.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Take a tape measure and measure from the, I was still 10 feet.
Speaker:It's exactly the same measurements as back home.
Speaker:And it's exactly like what you were doing.
Speaker:You're shifting that perspective.
Speaker:Hey, you know what?
Speaker:This basketball goal, if it's two balls, you're going to put
Speaker:one in this thing fits two.
Speaker:And it's Oh, it's not any different.
Speaker:okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then you, it's almost like you revert back to that grounded confidence, but
Speaker:you got to earn that, because anything else that it doesn't matter the tricks
Speaker:that you do, because you've either earned that confidence or you haven't.
Speaker:So you can't
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: yeah.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: You can't trick your way.
Speaker:Cause then you can just trick your way into artificial, right?
Speaker:You can still
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Right.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: but, But anyway, I just love your analogy
Speaker:there and everything about confidence.
Speaker:That's really good stuff.
Speaker:this is a fun question for you.
Speaker:If you could go back and give, the rookie coach Mitchell a piece of advice.
Speaker:what would be one thing you would give as advice to the younger coach Mitchell?
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah, that is a great question.
Speaker:And I spent so much time with negative self talk and using fear
Speaker:as a motivating factor for me as a place of motivation of worry.
Speaker:Stress fear that we're not going to get it done.
Speaker:I had two voices in my head all the time, in one hand, I
Speaker:knew that I had what it took.
Speaker:I believed I would end up in a successful spot.
Speaker:Didn't always know how that was going to happen, but I had this belief inside
Speaker:of me that my parents had instilled that other coaches, however, I acquired
Speaker:that Dallas, I had that voice in me.
Speaker:That I could do it.
Speaker:But who I listened to more was the voice that was saying, who are you?
Speaker:What are you thinking?
Speaker:This is crazy.
Speaker:How do you think you're going to beat Tennessee?
Speaker:There's no way you can do that.
Speaker:You know, it's that inner critic that I finally.
Speaker:After many, many years and after, looking into it and finally found some people
Speaker:that invested in trying to help me grow in my emotions and in my mindset.
Speaker:And so I finally was able to identify that, I mean, years and
Speaker:years into my coaching career.
Speaker:And so I'm grateful for the journey.
Speaker:I'm grateful that I learned this.
Speaker:I now can coach people through that.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I would go back and coach and say, listen, the inner critic in all of us
Speaker:is just trying to, however, we acquired that is trying to protect us from risk
Speaker:is trying to protect us from failure.
Speaker:And so it seems like a negative voice, but what I learned to do
Speaker:is to make peace with it and say, thank you for looking out for me.
Speaker:Thank you for that.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Ha
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: time, I would just try to
Speaker:eliminate it and act like that.
Speaker:It wasn't there.
Speaker:And so now what I do is when that comes up in me.
Speaker:So right now, I'm trying to play at a very high level in the corporate
Speaker:coaching world, and I'm trying to coach the very best, companies.
Speaker:And that's it's exactly what I was, working toward as a college basketball
Speaker:coach at the highest level, compete at the highest level, win at the highest level.
Speaker:And so even today, me.
Speaker:As a very successful coach with a 30 year track record, that voice will come
Speaker:in and say, what are you doing, man?
Speaker:What are you thinking about here?
Speaker:this is too big.
Speaker:You're trying to play at a too big of a level.
Speaker:And so now I just thank that inner critic and say, thanks very much.
Speaker:I know you're looking out for me, but you're going to have to
Speaker:go sit in the stands for a while and just watch what we do here.
Speaker:And so that is what I would go back and coach the young coach Mitchell on.
Speaker:I spent so many nights Dallas thinking about.
Speaker:What are all the ways that we're going to lose?
Speaker:And it's great to, we all need to assess, what the difficulties are.
Speaker:We all need to face the challenges.
Speaker:I'm not saying that you live in a fantasy world, but what I'm saying is that there
Speaker:is a, Shelf life on fear, motivating you when you get to a certain level.
Speaker:Now it's a disservice to you when you're at the level that you're coaching and
Speaker:I'm coaching and the people that are playing the game where we're coaching
Speaker:them, they're at a level now where you need to just think that voice Tells you,
Speaker:you can't because it's not helping you.
Speaker:It's only slowing you down.
Speaker:And that's what I'd go back and coach the young coach Mitchell on, and tell
Speaker:him to invest more time and what the facts are and handle those negative
Speaker:emotions in a more healthy way is what I would go back and coach him on.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: So it's such good advice.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:so good.
Speaker:I know for a fact, a lot of leaders struggle with that same thing in,
Speaker:whether it's in posture syndrome or
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: just like this negative voices,
Speaker:failure, you're not gonna make it.
Speaker:So I think that's, I think it's so awesome.
Speaker:And I'm glad that you're able now to help others and coach others through that.
Speaker:I think it's so valuable, such a valuable tool.
Speaker:have one last little topic I want to jump on real quick and then we'll round
Speaker:it out, but I really want to know this because anytime I'm talking to a coach
Speaker:specifically, a coach of your caliber, I want, I'm always interested in culture.
Speaker:we spend a lot of time unpacking what culture means and how
Speaker:important culture is to create.
Speaker:When you talked about building your team, you were saying, I
Speaker:wanted someone who wanted to be at Kentucky and was an athlete.
Speaker:how did you find and grow and build and bring in people that were culture fits?
Speaker:How did you have a certain way that you assess that?
Speaker:Because I think a lot of leaders want to create vibrant culture on their team,
Speaker:but they may just be missing some of the pieces that really helped them do that.
Speaker:So I'd love to hear what your opinion is on that.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah, there's three things that I think
Speaker:are so important for culture.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Okay.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: You have to identify, is the
Speaker:person gifted enough to move you?
Speaker:To success.
Speaker:So is where I think people get in trouble sometimes with culture is that they fail
Speaker:to understand, the correct balance on talent, either they overvalue the talent.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:and I've just got to, if I just get the talented people around
Speaker:me, everything's going to be okay.
Speaker:Or they undervalue talent because they overvalue fit.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's the second thing is, does that person fit?
Speaker:And so they just want people that fit because they don't want to deal with
Speaker:the third thing that is so important in culture, and that is teaching it.
Speaker:over and over again, Dallas culture.
Speaker:This is what I get.
Speaker:so it's talent, it's fit, it's teaching.
Speaker:You have to have those three things.
Speaker:For culture.
Speaker:So talent, if I just get a bunch of talented people that don't fit honesty,
Speaker:hard work, discipline, if I got a bunch of talented players that didn't
Speaker:care about what kind of people they were going to be, what kind of student
Speaker:they want to be, because we wanted to use our basketball program and at the
Speaker:time you could do this, I think it's a little bit different now, just with
Speaker:the way college athletics has changed.
Speaker:But we wanted a person to come in and really gain an experience that was
Speaker:going to impact them in the present.
Speaker:I wanted them to have a great experience playing college
Speaker:basketball, but simultaneously we wanted that impacting them for life.
Speaker:We wanted them to learn things from the game and from
Speaker:their experience at Kentucky.
Speaker:We want it to be wide and deep, their experience.
Speaker:We wanted them to be.
Speaker:Great on the basketball court, of course, but we wanted them to be scholars.
Speaker:We wanted them to do their very best and learn and get a great education.
Speaker:And then we wanted them to learn how to be great teammates and people and
Speaker:citizens, how to just be a great person.
Speaker:, if they weren't interested in going to class and.
Speaker:presenting themselves as a great ambassador to the of the university
Speaker:to the community to the state.
Speaker:We were the most visible group of young women in the state of Kentucky.
Speaker:we were the most visible people.
Speaker:So we felt that we had a responsibility to represent the,
Speaker:the university in a positive manner.
Speaker:If those things didn't interest you, you weren't a fit.
Speaker:Now, what if you were a great fit and you had all those three things,
Speaker:but you didn't have enough talent.
Speaker:we had a walk on, on our team one time.
Speaker:Who she got the most out of her ability.
Speaker:She was a great person in our program.
Speaker:She was about every single thing and she contributed greatly to us.
Speaker:But if I had signed everybody that was at her talent level, we wouldn't.
Speaker:We wouldn't have the talent to be what Kentucky basketball could be.
Speaker:So there's a balance there of talent that you have to meet the baseline of talent.
Speaker:you cannot go compete at the highest level if you don't have talented
Speaker:people, but that it can't be all talent.
Speaker:You have to then go into who has enough talent that also fits.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Wow.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Then the, another thing that I learned on as
Speaker:far as teaching is that I used to have long beginning of the year meetings.
Speaker:I'd have them come in five days before school started, because I'd have three
Speaker:days of meeting Dallas trying to teach.
Speaker:In a short period of time, the culture, this is what we're about.
Speaker:Honesty, hard work, discipline.
Speaker:And what I found was that just was like trying to teach people
Speaker:with a fire hose of information and they didn't retain any of it.
Speaker:They got a little bit of water in the mouth, but most of all, it just had
Speaker:them, back on their feet and confused and they had so much coming at them.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Yeah.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: I learned was teaching.
Speaker:Culture is just a constant thing that is a leader.
Speaker:You just need to embrace and enjoy and know.
Speaker:I hear people say this all the time.
Speaker:How many times do I have to tell them in order to get them to do
Speaker:what I need to get them to do?
Speaker:My wife and I are at this stage right now with a 13 year old and 11 year old,
Speaker:and she'll get so frustrated with him.
Speaker:How many times do I have to tell them to bring the clothes down on laundry day?
Speaker:How many times do I have?
Speaker:Tell him.
Speaker:And Dallas, the answer is all the time.
Speaker:You have to tell him all the time.
Speaker:You have to tell him over and over because for some reason our human
Speaker:condition is this where we just need some coaching and some teaching.
Speaker:I don't care what.
Speaker:Listen, you and I, we coach professionally and we coach at the highest level.
Speaker:I need a coach.
Speaker:I need someone, Jim Warner in Boulder, Colorado is my
Speaker:man and he keeps me on track.
Speaker:And it's just, there's something about us where we need to constantly be reminded of
Speaker:things as far as when it comes to culture, it's talent, it's fit, it's teaching.
Speaker:And if you neglect.
Speaker:Any of those three, if you don't really put in the effort to get
Speaker:those three things, a great culture is going to be elusive to you.
Speaker:And if you do those three things, you're going to be able to drive amazing culture.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: so good.
Speaker:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker:Couldn't agree more.
Speaker:That's just fantastic.
Speaker:And I tell people too, it's like when they, cause you get the question all the
Speaker:time, how many times do I have to tell?
Speaker:and I go, Hey, listen, this Ford, if you think about four trucks, it's
Speaker:like this Ford trucks come out until every 16 year old boy, you need to
Speaker:drive a Ford F one 50 pickup truck.
Speaker:And they tell them one time.
Speaker:And the rest of their life, they don't hear about it.
Speaker:No, they, you can't get away from every single Superbowl or NBA championship,
Speaker:every single basketball game.
Speaker:It's got Ford truck by Ford.
Speaker:So you tell it as many as it takes and
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: That's right.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: it takes, you tell them as many as it takes.
Speaker:I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker:And, and it's so true.
Speaker:and I think, your point about overvaluing talent.
Speaker:is a real problem because people want solutions and they see a
Speaker:talented individual and say, I'm gonna put them in this role because
Speaker:they're very talented at it.
Speaker:but if you put someone that's toxic, especially into a leadership role,
Speaker:you're going to sacrifice so much potential for the team, their talent
Speaker:is not going to ultimately, bring you this type of success that you want.
Speaker:So I love how you, Kind of balance those two things together.
Speaker:And you said, we've got to have talent.
Speaker:You got to have talent because you got to get the work done.
Speaker:You got to be performing at excellent level, but you also got to have fit.
Speaker:And ah, that's so good, man.
Speaker:I could talk to you all day.
Speaker:We could just catch them all day.
Speaker:It's so good.
Speaker:Your book is fantastic guys.
Speaker:I highly recommend coach Mitchell's book.
Speaker:So tell us more about a. How they can connect with you if they want to have,
Speaker:and reach out to you about coaching and some of the mentoring that you're doing
Speaker:now and how they can find your book.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Yeah.
Speaker:So the book is everywhere.
Speaker:Books are sold Amazon Barnes and Nobles everywhere.
Speaker:So it's ready to win how great leaders succeed through preparation.
Speaker:And we hit the USA Today bestseller list with it.
Speaker:We're getting great feedback from it.
Speaker:And I think it's a great tool to put into your leadership toolbox.
Speaker:Ready to win book is there.
Speaker:you can find us on our website, coachmatthewmitchell.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:We are speaking, we are putting on workshops, we are coaching,
Speaker:we're training and so that is coach Matthew Mitchell dot com.
Speaker:We have a great association with the book.
Speaker:We've developed a free resource, the ready to win 20 day habit builder.
Speaker:It's all about preparation and getting yourself prepared in five key areas
Speaker:of life and how we can invest in ourselves as leaders with a little
Speaker:bit of preparation is going to really.
Speaker:Drive us to some results.
Speaker:You can find that it, coach Matthew Mitchell dot com.
Speaker:the other way is our podcast.
Speaker:We had the coach Matthew Mitchell show that we, drop every Wednesday and
Speaker:where we talk leadership, talking a lot about preparation with the book.
Speaker:And, also have some great guests coming up on that.
Speaker:So that's coach Matthew Mitchell show.
Speaker:com, coach Matthew Mitchell show podcast.
Speaker:You can find that anywhere you get your podcast and, we would just love to, and
Speaker:on social coach, Matthew Mitchell on LinkedIn, on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
Speaker:X, you can find us everywhere there.
Speaker:So we are out there, Dallas.
Speaker:And we want to help people with the winning tools, honesty,
Speaker:hard work and discipline.
Speaker:We want to come into people's lives and help them perform at the level
Speaker:and step into their full potential.
Speaker:And we're passionate about that and love to do it.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: Oh, that's so good.
Speaker:Coach Mitchell, you're inspiring a lot of people right now and I'm
Speaker:excited to have you on the show.
Speaker:Definitely buy the book.
Speaker:I have a copy guys.
Speaker:You need to buy a copy of this book is awesome.
Speaker:I wouldn't tell you if it wasn't true.
Speaker:His book is legit.
Speaker:And check him out online, check out his podcast.
Speaker:And, just very thankful for you to be on the show.
Speaker:Now, the last question we always ask every guest is who would you like
Speaker:to hear as a guest on the last 10%?
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: what I think is so fascinating right now and has.
Speaker:Real leadership challenges with the landscape changing in college athletics.
Speaker:I think any division one college athletic director that you have access to, that
Speaker:you at your school, that you enjoy here at Kentucky, it's Mitch Barnhart.
Speaker:He's a incredible leader, a great leader, but any of those schools, the SEC, ACC,
Speaker:anywhere, any conference, I think that would be a fascinating, Conversation
Speaker:to have for your listeners because they are meeting the landscape even after
Speaker:the few years that I've been out of it.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:It is so different with how the players are compensated the way they're moving
Speaker:and there's major challenges that they're having in that and I think
Speaker:hearing from any leader that's this navigating that world right now would be
Speaker:fascinating for your for your listeners.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: That's awesome.
Speaker:That's a great, I've never thought about that.
Speaker:We should definitely do that.
Speaker:I think we actually will.
Speaker:We'll reach out to, we'll reach out and get some ideas.
Speaker:some ideas.
Speaker:Potentially, that'd be great.
Speaker:That'd be, that would be a great conversation.
Speaker:coach Mitchell, I am just so thankful and honored that you would be on the last 10%.
Speaker:Thank you for your time.
Speaker:Thank you for the wisdom that you shared.
Speaker:You've covered so much great material today.
Speaker:Everybody's going to buy your book and I just wish you continued success.
Speaker:matthew_1_02-05-2025_100822: Thanks Dallas.
Speaker:Appreciate you having me on.
Speaker:And it was a great conversation and enjoyed it.
Speaker:Can't wait to see you again sometime.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_29_02-05-2025_100823: All right.
