 The first time I met Kobe Bryant, my life changed forever. See, back in 2007, Nike flew me out to Los Angeles to work the first ever Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. Nike brought in the top high school and college players from around the country for an intense three-day mini camp with the best player in the world. And for any of you that don't follow basketball as closely as I do, just know that in 2007, Kobe was the best player in the game. One important fact about me as basketball was my first identifiable passion, my first love. I fell in love with the game at five years old and I'm so grateful that here, four decades later, basketball is still a major pillar of my life and having grown up so closely around the game, I'd always heard this urban legend of how insanely intense Kobe's individual workouts were. Well, when I found myself on his camp staff, I figured this was my chance, this was my shot. So my earliest opportunity, I walked up to Kobe and asked if I could watch one of his private workouts. He was incredibly gracious and smiled and said, sure, man, no problem, I'm going tomorrow at four. Well, I got a little bit confused because I had just got done looking through the camp schedule and the camp schedule clearly said that the first workout with the players was the following day at 3.30. Well, Kobe recognized that confused look on my face and he quickly clarified that with, yeah, that's four AM. Well, I couldn't think of a legitimate excuse of why I couldn't be somewhere at four in the morning so I committed myself to being there and I figured if I'm gonna be there anyway, I may as well try and impress Kobe. I may as well leave my mark and show him how serious of a trainer I was. So I came up with the plan to beat him to the gym. So I set my alarm for three AM. The next morning, the alarm goes off, I jump up, I quickly get myself dressed, I hop in a cab and I head to the gym. Now, when I arrive, it's 3.30 in the morning so it is pitch black outside and yet the moment I step out of the cab, I can see the gym light is already on. From the parking lot, I can faintly hear a ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking. I walk in the side door of the gym, Kobe's already in a full sweat. So he was going through an intense warmup before his formal workout with his trainer started at four. What a professional courtesy, I didn't say anything to Kobe and I didn't say anything to his trainer. I just sat down to watch and for the first 45 minutes, I was shocked. For the first 45 minutes, I watched the best player on the planet do the most basic footwork in offensive moves. Kobe was doing stuff that I had routinely taught to middle school aged players. Now don't get it twisted, this was Kobe Bryant. So he was doing everything with unparalleled intensity and everything with surgical focus and precision but the stuff he was doing was incredibly basic. Well his workout went on for a couple more hours and when it was over, once again, I didn't say anything to him, I didn't say anything to his trainer, I just quietly left. But my curiosity kept nipping away and it eventually overwhelmed me to the point that I had to know. So later that day at camp, I went up to him again and said, Kobe, I don't understand, you're the best player in the world, why are you doing such basic drills? And he flashed that million dollar smile and he gave me a very friendly wink but he said in a serious tone, why do you think I'm the best player in the world? Because I never get bored with the basics. I never get bored with the basics. Kobe Bryant, the best player in the world and someone that has truly mastered his craft, said that his entire secret is that he never got bored with the basics. And as obvious as that may be to you all right now, that was a life-changing moment for me because it was in that moment that I realized that just because something is basic, it doesn't mean that it's easy. Those are not synonyms and yet people mistakenly use those words as if they're interchangeable. Just because it's basic, it doesn't mean it's easy. If it was easy, everyone else would be doing it. And you all know that we live in a world that unconsciously tells us it's okay to skip steps. Tells us we should always be looking for a shortcut or a hack. Tells us we should constantly be chasing what's new and what's shiny and what's flashy and what's sexy. But I'm here to tell you when you do those things, you are making a huge mistake. And that's because the basics work. They always have and they always will. And the very first step to improving performance in any area of your life, it doesn't matter if it's personal or professional, it doesn't matter if it's individual or organizational. The very first step is to admit that the basics work. But it's also having the humility to acknowledge that implementing the basics every single day is never ever easy. Now I would hope that the primary lesson and the actionable takeaway from that story is blatantly obvious. And that is next Monday, I want every single one of you to show up to work at 3 a.m. No, I'm just kidding, here's what I do want you to do. I want you to spend the next few days reflecting on what the basics are that you personally need to work on to be able to show up as the best version of yourself so that you can make a maximum contribution to the team. What are the fundamentals that each and every one of you need to work towards mastery of during the unseen hours so that you can make a maximum contribution to the rest of the team? Now my goal for being here this evening is also very basic and that is to add as much value to your lives as I can in our very short time together this evening. See if you were a part of the critical start team and family, you are a high performer by definition. You all are best in class at what you do. You are the Kobe Bryant's of what you do. And one thing I know for certain having spent my entire life around high performers is high performers are always looking to grow, looking to improve, looking to develop, looking to evolve. High performers no matter what they've accomplished in the past are always looking for that edge. And that's ultimately why I'm here this evening to help give you that edge. And I'm gonna tell you some stories and I'm gonna give you some stats. But more importantly, I'm gonna give you a handful of practical, actionable ideas, concepts and strategies that each and every one of you can implement immediately to improve your own personal influence and impact so that you can show up as the best version of yourself consistently to make that maximum contribution to everyone around you so that you can manage stress, avoid stagnation and beat burnout, and so that you all can collectively continue and continue is the key word there, continue to build a winning team in a championship caliber culture. But in order to do all of that in a very short time, I need each and every one of you to stay open-minded to improving your clarity in three specific areas. Your perspective, your core values, and your purpose. So let's unpack each of those. Your perspective, how you choose to view the world around you. Regardless of your title or tenure or position on the team, I want each and every one of you to feel encouraged and empowered to adopt the foundational mantra of transformational leadership, which is choosing to see the world through the lens of, it's not about me, it's about you. It's not about me, it's about you. You should be able to look every single member of your family in the eye, your spouses, your significant others, your children, and say it's not about me, it's about you. You absolutely need to look every single one of your peers, your colleagues, and your coworkers in the eye, and say it's not about me, it's about you. And both individually and organizationally, you have to look those that you serve in the eye and say it's not about me, it's about you. See, when you can take the focus off of what you want from people and you can shift it to what you want for people, you become the most magnetic person in any room immediately. Take your focus off of what you want from and turn it into what you want for. You become the most magnetic person in any room. And there are two fundamental truths that I know having been on this planet for 47 years. One, if you are too concerned with accumulating and chasing and achieving, you will never have enough. If you shift your focus to giving and serving, you will never run out. And most importantly, and this is crucial for you all to continue to elevate the amazing culture that you already have, is knowing that a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. We should all be in the business of lighting other people's candles, both those on the team and those that you serve. And anytime you do something that lights another person's candle, it doesn't make your light any dimmer, it only makes it shine brighter. So you need to shift your focus off of what you want from people, put it on what you want for people, and we can only do that with the mindset of it's not about me, it's about you. The second area that we need to heighten clarity are in our core values. And I'm talking now about your personal core values. Your organizational core values are some of the coolest core values I think I've ever heard. Do what's right for each other, do what's right for those you serve and don't do things that suck. I think I've summarized that fairly well. Absolutely love that. And I would hope that the reason you love being a part of this team is because your personal code of conduct and your personal core values are in alignment with that. But you have to make sure you're crystal clear on what those are. What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What are the non-negotiables that you use to make the most important decisions in your life? See, when you can get crystal clear on your personal core values, it makes decision making so much easier. Now this doesn't mean you won't still have really hard decisions to make, it simply means now you have a framework to make that more fluid. Because every single important decision you make in your life you simply run it through the filter of is this in alignment with my core values or not? And if the answer is yes, then you do it without hesitation. If the answer is no, I hope that you'll at least take a beat, take a pause and reflect on whether or not you want to proceed. When you learn as sales professionals and as leaders, when you learn to make decisions based on your personal core values and your standards of excellence, instead of the roller coaster of emotions and feelings, then you become the most consistent person in any room. And when it comes to leadership and it comes to sales and it comes to building a world class culture, consistency matters and it matters a lot. Each and every one of you has to show up consistently as your best self as consistently as possible in order for this team to continue to thrive. And from a personal core value standpoint, don't ever forget this team can't become something that you're not. And you can't lead this team somewhere you're not going. So your core values have to be the filter in which you use to make decisions. You'll become the most consistent person in the room. And the third area that we need to heighten our clarity is on our purpose. The why behind what it is that you all do. The why behind why critical start is in existence. And I want to make sure you stay connected to the deeper purpose. See, don't confuse function with purpose. The function of that chair you're sitting in is to provide somewhere for you to sit. The purpose of that chair is to provide you comfort. One is a much deeper meaning. And when you look at what it is that you all actually do, the purpose behind that is security, is peace of mind. You allow people to sleep better at night. And I don't know that you can put a price tag on that. So stay connected to your purpose. Organizationally, one of the best groups that I've ever seen do this at scale is DHL. The International Shipping and Logistics Goliath. DHL, make sure they're a massive team. And keep in mind DHL has a presence in every single country in the world and has hundreds of thousands of team members. And they make sure that every single one of those team members, regardless of title or tenure or where they live stays connected to their purpose. And their purpose is we don't deliver brown boxes. We deliver promises. We don't deliver brown boxes. We deliver promises. They make sure that the person working the overnight graveyard shift in the warehouse, in a remote town, in a remote country, knows that they're not putting brown box after brown box onto truck after truck. They're putting a little kid's birthday gift on a truck. They're putting a future bride's wedding dress on a truck. They're putting somebody's medicine on a truck. They're not delivering brown boxes. They're delivering promises. And because they go to great lengths to make sure every single member of the team stays connected to purpose, their team members show up with a better attitude, more focus, and a higher level of effort consistently. And you guys have a really meaningful purpose, so we have to stay connected to that. And when it comes to those three areas that we're trying to heighten clarity, our perspective and our core values and our purpose, I don't know that anyone has lived those out any better than my good friend and mentor, J. Billis of ESPN. J was kind enough to write the forward to my book, which you all will be getting a copy of tomorrow, and has been a very influential person in my life. And if you don't watch a lot of college basketball, just know J is the face of ESPN College Game Day. He is Mr. College Basketball. And back in December of 2010, there was a very highly anticipated game that pitted Duke versus Butler. And the reason this game was so highly anticipated were those were the two teams that met nine months previously in the national championship game where Duke narrowly escaped with a two point win. And it's very rare in college basketball that the two teams that meet on the biggest stage meet again in early December. So as I said, there was a lot of anticipation around this game. Well, part of J's responsibility with ESPN is he goes and he watches both teams practice the day before the game. He wants to learn their strategies, their keys, the victory. He wants to learn everything he can about their personnel so he's armed with plenty of fodder for the next day on air. Well, J, being a Duke alum, decided that he would go watch Duke practice first. And Duke was at the time led by recently retired Hall of Fame coach Coach K, the all time winningest coach in the history of college basketball. And J walked into the Duke practice and saw Coach K talking to the Duke Blue Devils with tremendous confidence, clarity, and conviction and said, guys, if you do what we do well, you stick to our game plan and play to our strengths, we'll be more than fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. We are bigger, stronger, and more powerful than they are. We'll pound the ball down low and get easy layups and dunks. We'll out rebound them and we'll put a hand up on every shot. If you stick to our strengths, you stick to our game plan, you do what we do well, we'll be more than fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. And J left that practice and was thinking, this could be an absolute massacre tomorrow. Coach K, one of the best to ever hold a clipboard or blow a whistle, just told his team definitively why they have a clear competitive advantage. But he needed to do his due diligence so he went to watch the Butler Bulldogs practice who at the time were led by head coach Brad Stevens. Two years ago, Brad Stevens was promoted from head coach to president of basketball operation with the Boston Celtics in the NBA. And to J's surprise, coach Stevens was talking to the Butler Bulldogs with the exact same level of confidence, clarity and conviction. And said, guys, if you play to our strengths and you stick to our game plan and you do what we do well, we're gonna be more than fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. We're smaller, quicker and faster than they are. If you do what we do well and you stick to our game plan, I'm telling you we're gonna be fine. We're gonna get dunks and layups in transition. We're gonna put on a smothering full court press and there is no way their big guys can get out to our corner shooters. If you do what we do well and you stick to our game plan and you play to our strengths, we'll be more than fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. And Jay left that practice and was thinking, I have no idea who's gonna win this game. Both of these Hall of Fame caliber coaches had the self-awareness and the team awareness to know what it is that they do well, to know where their strengths lie and to know the game plan required for them to be successful. And here's the thing, they both were 100% correct. It's a matter of perspective, it's a matter of vantage point. And I tell that story because you all need to continue to heighten clarity on what gives you the competitive advantage. Jennifer said it earlier when she had the slide up with my all-time favorite actor sliced alone in arguably one of my favorite movies over the top when she was talking about the arm wrestling. He had to play to his strengths and he had to play to what gave him a competitive advantage. And it's the exact same thing that you all need to do. You need to continue to double down and invest in what makes you best in class. Any investment that you make that separates you from your competition is a very worthy investment. Now my goal is to share with you the three pillars of self-awareness and the three pillars of team awareness that I'm confident if each and every one of you take to heart and begin to implement, that will be part of your competitive advantage. So let's do that now. Let's unpack the three areas of self-awareness. And the reason that we start with self-awareness is the very first step to improving the team is improving yourself. Do you realize if each and every one of you comes back better this year than you did last year, the team will get better by default. Nothing else is even possible. And that's the commitment that each and every one of us needs to make. Can we make slightly better decisions this year than we did last year? Can we have slightly better habits this year than we did last year? Can we have slightly better cohesion and teamwork this year than we did last year? If you guys are interested and committed to making systematic, incremental, sustainable progress, then you'll continue to be best in class. So let's take a look at the three areas of self-awareness that each and every one of us needs to work towards to heighten our own personal performance so we can make a maximum contribution to the team. The first will be our habits. Second is mindset. And third is focus. So let's take a look at habits. The things we do unconsciously and the things we do consistently. There was a Duke University study that found that 42% of everything we do during our waking hours is habitual. Think about that for a second. Almost half of everything we do from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed is on autopilot. Each and every one of us have grooved a series of predictable, repeatable behaviors that we now derive comfort from. So now I wanna ask you a very important rhetorical question. I've already established that every single person in this room is a high performer. You all are the Kobe Bryant's of what you do. But are you a high performer because of your habits? Or are you a high performer in spite of your habits? If you were to write down the things that you do every single day of your life, what percentage of those things are taking you closer to the person you're trying to become and what percentage of those things are hindering you and dragging you down? If you were to literally write down what you do every single day of your life, what percentage of those things are helping you and what percentage of those things are hindering you? And I say that with a smile because I don't want anyone worried about perfection. Life is not a perfect game. Business is not a perfect game. Instead, I want you motivated and inspired by progress. Goes back to what I said a couple of moments ago. Can you have slightly better habits this year than you did last year? Systematic, incremental, sustainable progress. Here's an actionable takeaway that I would love for you all to sit with this coming weekend. I'm gonna explain how you do it right now. We don't have time to do it now. But sometime over the weekend, I want you to take out a piece of paper and I want you to draw a vertical line down the middle. On the left side of the paper, I want you to come up with an exhaustive list of the things that fill your bucket. Mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if that's appropriate to you. I want you to come up with a list of the things that charge you up, that light you up, that make you smile, that you enjoy doing, that adds to your confidence, that adds to your optimism. Make a list of the things that fill your bucket. These can be things for your physical well-being. Taking a yoga class, hopping on your Peloton bike, taking your dog for a walk. These can be things for your mental well-being, reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching a documentary. These can be things for your mental or your spiritual well-being, meditation or prayer or conversation and coffee with a loved one. But come up with a list of the things that fill your bucket. And you'll know it fills your bucket because as you're writing the list, you'll unconsciously start to smile. Then on the right side of the line, on the right side of the paper, I want you to write down how you've been spending the bookends of your day, your morning and your evening routine. How have you been spending the first 60 minutes after you wake up and the last 60 minutes before you go to bed? Now I don't want you to write down what you know you should be doing. I don't want you to write down what other people on Facebook are doing. I don't want you to write down what you think I'd wanna hear that you're doing. I want you to be honest with yourself. And if you're willing to have the courage to lean in with some honesty and some vulnerability and write down what you've actually been doing, and then you compare that to the set of things that you know you should be doing, there's a good chance you're gonna uncover a term Chris brought up early today when he made his opening remarks which is called a performance gap. Doing this exercise almost guarantees if you do it with some honesty and some vulnerability, you're gonna start to uncover a performance gap which is the gap between what we know we should do to be our best selves and what we actually do on a regular basis. And the key to improving your individual performance and your ability to make a contribution to this team is to slowly start narrowing that gap. Slowly start taking things from the left side of the paper and working them in and integrating them in and executing them into the right side of the paper. Start adding those things to your morning and your evening routine. Doing so, you will immediately increase your performance, your productivity, your efficiency, your effectiveness, and your sense of fulfillment. See, when you sign up to be a part of something bigger than yourself, when you decide to be a part of a team, you're signing an unwritten agreement that you will do everything in your power to show up as your best self as consistently as possible and folks, you can't do that if it's haphazard. You can only do that with intentionality which means we have to take control of our habits and we have to take control of our morning and evening routine. And like I said, do not worry about perfection. Don't worry about where you are right now at the moment. Focus more on the direction at where you're going. Don't worry about where you are right now in this moment. Just make sure your arrow is pointed forward or slightly pointed up. And those will be our habits. And I'm telling you, it's almost like a magic trick. If you start taking some of the things from the left side of the paper and you care enough about yourself to put them on the right side, you will see your productivity, you'll see your efficiency, your effectiveness, your performance and your fulfillment start to skyrocket immediately. So those are our habits. Now let's take a look at our mindset which I believe is the biggest separator when it comes to personal performance. And I wanna encourage and empower each and every one of you to develop what I call the winner's mindset. And the winner's mindset is making a daily commitment to doing the best you can with what you have wherever you are. Full stop, that's it. Do the best you can with what you have wherever you are. Now the reason I love that as a mental toughness mantra is it eliminates a trilogy of behaviors that will undermine your performance, your productivity, your effectiveness, your efficiency and your fulfillment. And that is blaming, complaining and making excuses. I use absolutes very sparingly, but you will never, ever improve your life or make your situation better by blaming, complaining or making excuses. Unfortunately it's become the default for the average person walking the earth, but it doesn't have to be. Blaming, complaining and making excuses are always a choice. And if you've gotten to a point where it has become an unconscious default, you're able to change that. And that's the mindset that we need to have. Ultimately what I would love for you all to be on the path, because it's the path that I'm on, and this is really hard by the way, and let me make this disclaimer. Every single thing I share on stage and every single thing I share on page, I'm not coming from a place of mastery. I haven't figured all this stuff out any more than you have. But what I'm very proud of is the path that I'm on and the progress that I've made. I have better habits and I make better decisions consistently today than I did a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. So my arrow is pointed up. It's at a very slight grade, but it's pointed up. And that's ultimately what I want all of you to be on that path. So what I'm asking you to do from a mindset standpoint is not let the outer world dictate your inner world. Don't let circumstances and events and what people say and what people do dictate your attitude, your perspective, your mindset and how you show up. See when we do that we give all of our power away and I want to make sure that we keep the power. Now remember the real lesson to the Kobe Bryant story just because something is basic doesn't mean that it's easy. I know that what I just shared with you is very basic and principle. I know that. I didn't see anybody's head explode. I didn't see anybody kill over. This is very basic stuff. But none of this stuff is easy. There is nothing easy about not letting circumstances and events and what's going on in the world around us dictate our inner world. But when you can do that, when you have the mental toughness to do that you become emotionally agile. And do you know what you are if you're not emotionally agile? You're emotionally fragile. And if you're emotionally fragile you simply can't create collectively the high performing culture and the winning team that you are are creating. So that's our mindset. And the third area that we need to be able to heighten our self-awareness is our focus. Or what I'll actually call our ability to refocus. I don't know that it's a realistic expectation in today's world to have long periods of uninterrupted sustained focus. We just have too many things vying for our attention. Most of which are on those devices we tend to be tethered to 24 seven. What we need to develop is the ability to refocus the lids. But in order to do that we have to have an awareness of when we're unfocused. An awareness is always the first step to improvement. You will never fix something you're unaware of. You will never improve something you're oblivious to. Anytime you can bring to the awareness something that needs to be improved that is a huge first step and it's something that needs to be celebrated. So the only way we can improve our ability to be focused in the moment is to have an awareness of when we're unfocused. When we're distracted. When our mind wanders. When we're not present. And being able to identify that is what will allow us to get back to the present moment. So what is it that I want you to be focused on? There's an acronym I heard a decade ago and I first heard this from Lou Holtz the former Hall of Fame football coach from Notre Dame. And he used the acronym WIN. W-I-N, WIN. And it stands for What's Important Now. At any given moment of any given day you should be able to take a beat take a deep breath and ask yourself am I choosing to place my attention in what I believe is most deserving of it in this moment. Any given moment of any given day you should be able to take a breath and ask yourself am I intentionally choosing to place my attention in what I believe is most deserving of it in this moment. And this doesn't matter if you're meeting with a prospect they should have your full undivided attention. But I'm also a huge believer at the end of the day if you're having dinner with your family they should have your full undivided attention. We need to get all of our faculties in alignment. You need to decide in that moment what's most important and where do you choose to place your attention. Which is the most valuable currency you have. And we have to make sure we're taking control of where we choose to place that attention. So ultimately what I'm saying we need to do is learn how to be in the present moment. Now there is absolute power from learning from the past and we have to be able to prepare for the future but we don't wanna live in either one of those places. We want to spend as much time as possible in the present moment. Now the short definition of the present moment I heard this also about a decade ago and I heard this from Oprah Winfrey and I heard this from Nick Saban the head football coach at Alabama and I figured if both of those people are saying it it has to be true. And that is learn how to be where your feet are. Be where your feet are. Wherever your feet are make sure that's where your head and your heart are as well. And if you're thinking well how could you be anywhere else? How many of you have ever been with someone? You haven't been with someone. You might have been standing in the room with them but your head and your heart weren't present. In order to perform at the highest level possible we need to make sure that we have all of our faculties in alignment and we can be where our feet are. Now a more expanded definition of being in the present moment has three components. We have to refocus the lens on the next play, refocus the lens on what we have control over and refocus the lens on the process. So let's take a look at next play. When I was in the basketball training space in addition to helping players improve their on-court athleticism, their movement, their explosiveness, their strength and their power my number one job was to get players to play present, to be dialed into the present moment. And a cornerstone of that was getting them to quickly focus on the next play. Why would I want my players focused on the next play? There's nothing they can do about the play that just happened. You just turn the ball over, it's all right, next play. You just missed the wide open layup, it's all right, next play. The referee missed a call, it happens sometimes in the game of basketball, next play. Why do I want my players focused on the next play? There's absolutely nothing they can do about that turnover, that missed layup or that referee's inability to make a call. It's over, it's in the past, it's in the rear view mirror and it is unchangeable. And any physical, mental or emotional currency they choose to put into something that is now in the rear view mirror means they don't have to invest it in the present moment which means by definition they cannot be at their best. So if this gentleman chooses, choose being the key word after a turnover to be in his feelings and to pout and to hang his head and to slowly trot back on defense, do you know what happens in the game of elite level basketball? The guy he's supposed to be guarding now just scored two points on this end with an easy layup or dunk. He just turned a two point mistake into a four point mistake because he chose not to move to the next play. Mistakes are going to happen. Every single one of us will make a myriad of mistakes almost every day of our lives but we cannot be in the business of compounding them. We cannot be in the business of repeating them. And the way we do that is we quickly move to the next play. You have to have what's called a whiteboard memory. No matter what just happened, you wipe the whiteboard clean and you move to the next play. The second component of being in the present moment is what we call control the controllables. Learn to take control of and focus on the only two things in this world. We have 100% control over 100% of the time and that is our effort and our attitude. Now I don't want this to be a game of verbal semantics. Yes, you can take effort and attitude, mix them together and you have preparation. You're absolutely in control of how prepared you are. You can take some effort and some attitude, mix them together, you have enthusiasm. You're absolutely in control of how enthusiastic you choose to be. But those are really spokes off of the same wheel. In essence, we're just talking about effort and attitude. So let's take a look at effort. I'm willing to bet that if I sat down individually with each and every one of you and asked you if working hard was a choice, that anytime you gave your best effort in any area of your life was that a choice, you would nod in affirmation. You would say yes, working hard is a choice and I agree with you completely, working hard is a choice. But there has to be another side of that coin. If working hard is a choice, then not working hard, that's also a choice. It happens to be one that most people don't own. And when you hold the average person accountable, and again, you all are not averaged by any stretch of the imagination. But when you hold the average person accountable to not giving their best effort, they immediately resort to that trilogy of behaviors I mentioned previously. They blame, they complain, and they make an excuse. When you hold the average person accountable for not giving the best effort that they're capable of, they will blame someone or something else, they will make an excuse on why they didn't give their best effort, and I promise you as soon as you walk away, they will complain to anyone with an earshot for the fact that you had the audacity to hold them accountable to something that they're 100% control of. So effort is always a choice. And in order for you to make a maximum contribution to the team, and in order for you all to collectively continue to explode and grow, each and every one of you has to give the best effort that you're capable of as consistently as possible. And in order to be a great teammate, if you notice the person next to you is not giving the best effort that they're capable of. One, we're gonna hold them accountable, and I'll talk about that in a few moments. But two, we have to be ready to pick up the slack. Because no one gives 100, 100% of the time where human beings were fallible, were flawed, but the goal is to do it as consistently as we can. And that is our effort. The second half of control that controllables is our attitude. And for the most part, I covered that when I was talking about mindset. Attitude is the acknowledgement that I don't control the events, but I do control my response. And I'm going to be much less concerned with the events and the circumstances, and I'm gonna be much more thoughtful and intentional with my responses. I'm gonna worry less about what's happening in the world around me, and I'm gonna focus more on how I choose to respond to that. And just so you guys don't think I live in a fantasy land or that I've lost my marbles, I have preferences. I have very distinct preferences in how I'd like to see almost any scenario in the world unfold. But I came to a conclusion, sadly, just a few years ago. This took me four and a half decades to figure this rather obvious statement out. But whoever's in charge of this universe, it's not their job to meet all of my preferences. Whoever's running this whole show, it is not their job to make sure Alan Stein Jr. gets everything he wants every moment of every day. The world's gonna do what the world's gonna do. It's my job to have the grit and the flexibility and to be adaptive enough to have thoughtful responses to whatever the world throws at me. And see, when you can have that type of outlook, then you take the power back. You keep the keys to the car. Trust me, I have preferences. But whether or not my preferences are met is irrelevant because I'm going to choose a response that will still move me forward. I live just outside of Washington, DC. We're one of a few metropolitan areas in the United States that is known for awful traffic. It is my preference when I'm driving somewhere that there are not other cars in my way. But unless it's midnight on Christmas Eve, I very rarely get my preference in the DC area. But if I'm sitting in traffic and I'm choosing to honk the horn, to white-knuckle it, maybe even to make a hand gesture of some sorts, does that improve my situation? Not in the least. The other cars don't even know that I exist. They have no idea they're even in my way. It changes absolutely nothing. All it does is invite stress into my life. One of the most powerful realizations I ever came to a few years ago was from a gentleman named Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart Tolle, for lack of a better term, is a modern-day philosopher. Eckhart Tolle said that stress is the desire for things to be different than they are in the present moment. That's it. Stress is rampant in our society today. And you all have very stressful jobs. I would never say otherwise. But stress, to some degree, is self-imposed because it's our desire for things to be different than they are in the present moment. There is nothing inherently stressful about cars in my way when I'm trying to get somewhere. The stress comes from me wishing those cars were not in my way. I'm inviting the stress into my life. So when you can learn to have a certain level of acceptance, when you can have a certain level of surrender, and be willing to acknowledge that I don't control the cars that are in my way, but I absolutely control my response, then you take your power back and you lower your stress immediately. Very easy for me to say. Very, very, very hard for me to do. But that's how we need to approach from an attitude standpoint. And then the third pillar of playing present or living present is learning to focus on the process. It is fantastic to have goals. I encourage you to have goals because they provide direction. But once you've come up with a goal, whether it's a quarterly quota or a goal for the end of the year, you don't have to obsess over the goal. What you need to do is shift your focus onto the process. What are the micro steps, the decisions, the daily behaviors, the habits that we need to do to inch towards that goal? The best analogy that I can think of is if you were ever tasked with building a brick wall, don't worry so much about the wall. Put all of your focus into laying each and every brick with care and precision. Because if you can lay each and every brick with care and precision, guess what, the wall will take care of itself. The juice and the power is in the reps. The juice and the power is in the bricks. It's in the process. The best group that I've ever seen do this is the Men's Basketball Program at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. They have one of the top division two Men's Basketball Programs in the United States. And at the division two level, they regularly come in the top 10 and they turn out professional level players, which doesn't happen very often. And their head coach Bart Lundy had figured out through watching a decade's worth of film that there are four key stats that heavily increase whether or not Queens wins the basketball game. And just as a quick disclaimer, I realized that there's a difference between basketball and business. As Simon Sinek says, basketball is a finite game. Has a definitive start, a definitive stop, and we have globally acknowledged that the team with the most points on the scoreboard when the final buzzer goes off is the winner. There's nothing arbitrary about it. Business, on the other hand, is what's called an infinite game. It's a little more esoteric. It's a little more evergreen. We have some really, really, really bright business minds in this room right now. But I can promise you, if I asked everyone right now to take out an index card and write down the definition of winning in business and hand them all in, I know I would see some overlap. Because like I said, we've got some really bright business minds. But I promise you, I would not see 100 identical index cards. Because winning in business means something slightly different to everyone. But despite the difference between the finite and the infinite, this still applies. So Coach Lundy and his staff have figured out that there are four stats that heavily increase the chance that they'll have more points on the scoreboard at the end of the game. If you follow basketball, these will be blatantly obvious. If you don't, I'll do my best to make sure that I drop the breadcrumbs and make it obvious. The first is turnover differential. If we can have more possessions than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. Second is offensive rebound differential. If we can take more shots than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. Third is free throws attempted. The free throw in the game of college basketball is the highest percentage shot per possession. And if we can take more of those than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. And four is three pointers attempted. The three pointer in college basketball is a massive weapon. And if we can take more clean looks from three than our opponent, it gives us a better chance to win. When Queens University comes out on top in those four statistical categories, they win 97% of their games. I'm gonna say that again because I don't think y'all think that's as cool as I do. When they come out on top in those four statistical categories, they win 97% of their games, which means statistically and mathematically, they are almost unbeatable when they do those four things. So now I'm gonna ask you lovely folks a series of rhetorical questions. What do you think coach Lundy and his staff talk about, reinforce, and emphasize before every workout, before every, hold on, I'm gonna get to it. I love where you're going. What do you think they talk about before every workout, every practice, every film breakdown in every game? What do you think coach Lundy and his staff use to design every practice plan, every workout plan, every film breakdown, and every game plan? Coach Lundy and his staff never talk about winning. They never talk about championships, they never talk about banners, and they never talk about trophies. They only talk about those four things, you know why? If they do those four things, the winning, the banners, the championships, and the trophies all take care of themselves. They focus on the process. Every single thing they do as a basketball program is designed on executing those four things because if they execute those four things, the scoreboard will take care of itself. And the exact same thing is true with you all in your business. You have to get crystal clear on what the measurable stats are that will greatly increase the chance that you will hit the North Star and the goals that you set. And then collectively, every single person in this room, within your role on the team, needs to show up consistently as your best self prepared to make a maximum contribution to help inch closer to that North Star. And if every single person in this room can make that commitment, it is not a matter of if you will hit that goal. My only question is when? And that's what happens when you focus on the process. When we talk about those three areas, habits and mindset and focus, no one lived those better than my all-time favorite player, Steve Nash. Back in the early 2000s, Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP titles as a point guard, which puts him in very rare company in the NBA. And in the first season that Steve Nash won the MVP, he only led the league in two statistical categories. The first was assists. He liked to share the sugar, he liked to pass the pill, he liked to get other people involved. Certainly the sign of a great leader and a great teammate. But the other statistic that Steve Nash led the NBA in were touches, physical touches. I'm actually talking about high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside. How could I possibly know that Steve Nash led the NBA in high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside? Well, it just so happens there was a research team from UC Berkeley who was conducting an official research study to measure if showing signs of physical enthusiasm actually led to more wins on the court. So they hired a team of researchers to watch every minute of every NBA game and make a tally mark every time a player gave a high five, a fist bump or a pat on the backside. Well, Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns who Steve Nash played for at the time, they were so enamored with this study that they hired a full-time intern to count just for Steve Nash. Just by show of hands, how many of you have ever had a crappy entry-level job before? Yeah, can you imagine if that was your first job? Yeah, you see this guy right here? Every time he touches one of these big, tall, sweaty guys if you could make a tally mark. In the first game that the intern counted for Steve Nash, he delivered 239 high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside. In one regulation NBA game, he was a furnace of human connection. Now in the game of basketball, where physicality is appropriate, it has been physiologically proven that you can transfer energy to another's human being through physical touch. You can actually raise someone's game with a well-placed high five, fist bump or pat on the backside. Just to make sure I'm clear and both CDC and HR compliant. I'm not telling you that when my keynote's over, you should go patting each other on the backside as you guys head over to the bar. Here is what I am telling you to do. Here is what I am telling you to do. Think of innovative and creative ways that you can make the same emotional deposit to the two professional groups that should mean the most to you, those on your team and those that you serve. How can you go out of your way to make emotional deposits that would give the equivalent of a physical high five fist bump or pat on the backside to the two professional groups that should mean the most to you, those on your team and those that you serve. Here's a challenge for y'all. And I've done this exercise with sports teams and I've done it with Fortune 100 companies and it is a game changer when it comes to improving cohesion and culture, which certainly is something you all do already at a world-class level. But it's called Ten Assist. Here's how it works. Every single morning when you wake up, I want you to put 10 rubber bands on your left wrist. And every single time you give an assist to either someone on the team or someone that you serve, you take one rubber band off of your left wrist and you put it on your right wrist. And an assist is anything you do that goes above and beyond what you are expected to do that adds unparalleled value to one of those two groups. This is not part of your job description. This is extra. Anything you do that goes above and beyond what you were expected to do that adds value to someone on your team or someone that you serve, it's an assist. You take one rubber band off of your left wrist and you put it on your right wrist. And here's the rub. You can't go home for the night until all 10 rubber bands are on your right wrist. Until you know for a fact that you personally have done nothing short of 10 tangible things to add unexpected value to the two professional groups that should mean the most to you. Think about that and start doing the math. If every single one of you can make a commitment to dishing out 10 extra assists every single day, you'll see collective and organizational performance continue to skyrocket. Now I'm gonna shift gears and talk quickly about the three components to team awareness and then I'll put a bow tie on it with a couple of ending stories. I'll take a bow and you all will have a lovely rest of your evening. Right now I wanna talk about team awareness and keep in mind, you all are playing the ultimate team sport and I've really enjoyed sitting in on every session today and I think one of the things that you all do almost to an unparalleled level was your ability to acknowledge and praise other folks in the room. Giving praise to not only your team or your division but to the other teams and the other divisions and I hope that's not something that's only done annually at the sales kickoff. That needs to be something that is done every single day. So here are the three components we're gonna unpack right now. First is role clarity. Second is accountability and third is communication. First let's take a look at role clarity. Every single person in this room right now you need to know your role, you need to embrace your role and you need to do everything in your power to star in your role to the best of your ability. Everybody else, which is what I just said you guys did a great job of, everybody else needs to value, respect and appreciate everybody else's role. See you all are playing the ultimate team sport. You can't have sales without marketing and you can't have marketing without the engineers. You can't have all of these different divisions without the executive team, all with the customer success team. Each and every one of you on your individual teams are a piece to the mosaic. But we have to go out of our way to make sure that we are constantly praising folks in the other divisions and on the other teams. There was a study by a gentleman named Gary Chapman. Gary Chapman wrote the book, The Five Love Languages. Anybody read the book The Five Love Languages? Yeah, I didn't read it till after I got divorced. So close. Gary Chapman did a massive research study in the United States and he found that 70% of US employees feel underappreciated. Think about that for a second. 70% of US employees feel underappreciated. 64% of them leave because of it. You all have amassed a tremendously talented team. And I know at present you have very low attrition. And I can tell you the reason you have low attrition is because you guys do a phenomenal job of acknowledging and praising and valuing and respecting what everyone else does. Please make sure you continue to do that. I got to see it firsthand today. Just make sure this isn't a one day thing or a once a year thing. Make sure you go out of your way to do this regularly because that which gets praised gets repeated. If you want to hold on to top talent, you praise, acknowledge, value, and respect top talent. So that comes down to our role clarity. Now let's talk about accountability, which I think is the biggest separator when it comes to organizational performance. And it's really important that every one of you realizes that holding someone accountable is something you do for them. It's not something you do to them. Holding someone accountable is the best gift that you can give a teammate. Because in essence, when you hold someone accountable, you're saying, I know you're better than what you're showing me right now. And I care so much about you and I care so much about us that I'm not gonna let you slide doing less than your best. Holding someone to a high standard of excellence and holding someone accountable is the best gift you can give them. But before you can hold someone accountable, you have to be crystal clear in what you're holding them accountable to and the standard of excellence that you expect. So I mentioned that I'm amicably divorced. It's not evil like you said that it was in your life, but I'm very amicably divorced. My ex-wife and I make, I didn't mean to rub it in, but my ex-wife and I make great co-parents. So I have my kids half of the time. And a few months ago, I had my kids over for dinner and I had 12 year old twin sons and I have a 10 year old daughter. And at the end of dinner, I asked my 12 year old son, Luke, to please clean the table. So after he rolled his eyes at me, he grabbed the plates and the utensils and the glasses and he went over to the sink, threw them in the sink and he went to his room to play Fortnite. And I found myself momentarily frustrated because that is not how I define cleaning the table. See, I define cleaning the table is taking the plates and the utensils and the glasses and going over to the sink and using the pot scrubber to rinse them off, line them up neatly in the dishwasher, take a Clorox wipe, wipe the table down and if you knock any crumbs on the ground, you sweep them up. That's how I define cleaning the table. But before I could get upset at Luke, I started to laugh because in that moment, I realized the failure was 100% mine. See, I did not clearly define or clearly articulate what I meant when I said clean the table. I left it completely ambiguous. I left it vague. I left it up to Luke. So Luke defined it the way and I don't know if any of you have 12 year old sons, but if you'll do, you'll probably agree. Luke defined it the way a 12 year old sees the world. He thought he did exactly what I asked him to do. Understandably, he would have been shocked if I got upset at him. I didn't clearly define or articulate my definition or standard of excellence when it comes to cleaning the table. So because of the type of parent I am, I went and gathered all three kids up. I brought them into the kitchen and I proceeded to give them a master class on what I mean when I say clean the table. And you know what? It's never been a problem since. It's never been a problem since because my kids know now definitively what I mean when I say clean the table and they know that I care enough to hold them accountable that if they don't do it to that level of excellence, they're going to stop playing Fortnite. They're gonna come out and they're going to do it again. It has never been a problem since. So we have to make sure that before we hold anyone accountable, we are crystal clear in defining what we're holding them accountable to and the level of excellence that we expect. Now the third component of our team awareness is communication. And just know that you were always communicating something. And I'm not just talking about your nonverbals. Certainly, you know, every single one of you has been communicating a message to me since I took the stage. Based on your eye contact, your facial expressions, your body language, your posture. I'm not even talking about that, although that is important. I'm talking about the unconscious messages that underpin everything that we say and everything that we do. And we have to take control of those unconscious messages. Here's an example. You delegate something of importance to someone on your team. And I know that you guys have some, I mean, just amazing teams and there's a lot of delegation going on from what I gathered today and that's fantastic. You delegate something of importance to someone on your team. You in essence ask for their help. What's the unconscious message you send when you ask for help on something of importance? I trust you, I believe in you. I know you're good enough to help me with this, that's why I'm asking for your help. That type of unconscious message will strengthen your connection with that person. What happens if you delegate something of importance and then you micromanage them? You either literally or figuratively stand over their shoulder, breathing down their neck to make sure they cross every T and dot every I. What's the unconscious message you send then? Yeah, it's the exact opposite. I don't trust you, I don't believe in you and I don't think you're good enough to get this done if I'm not standing here. Now I know that's not what you mean. I know that is not your intention, but you have to realize something I learned very early in my coaching career and that is it's not what you say, it's what they hear. And those two things are not always the same. No matter what you say, what that person hears is Allen doesn't trust me, Allen doesn't believe in me, Allen doesn't think I'm good enough to get this done. And that will erode your connection with that person. It's like pulling the thread out of a sweater. So we have to make sure we are owning an intentional and in control of all of these unconscious messages. Because when it comes to role clarity and it comes to accountability and it comes to communication, little things make a huge difference. Back in 2008, I was working as the performance coach at Montrose Christian, a very small private high school just north of Washington DC. It's where Kevin Durant graduated from. He is our most famous alum. And I was down in the locker room getting dressed for what I thought was going to be a normal day of practice. And I walked through our gym doors and to my surprise, I'm standing 10 feet away from my idol. I thought this was gonna be a normal day of practice and I walked through the gym doors and I'm standing three arms length away from the one person in the world I wanted to meet more than anyone. I mentioned him earlier, Coach K, the former basketball coach at Duke, someone I've idolized my entire coaching career. And Coach K was kind enough and thoughtful enough to talk to me for 10 minutes before practice. And as epiphanal as that conversation was, I don't remember a single word that either one of us said. Not a single word, but I will never forget how Coach K made me feel. He made me feel like I was the most important person in that gym. I wasn't. The kid he was recruiting was the most important, but he made me feel like I was. He had great eye contact and a warm smile. He had positive open body language and he showed an authentic, genuine interest in me and a curiosity. He kept asking me question after question about my training philosophy and my work with the team and my past. He made me feel like I was the most important person in the gym. Now I was raised very old school. I was raised that when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for you, you hand write them a thank you note. So I went home that night and I hand wrote him a thank you note, said something to the effect of Coach K, you have no idea how amazing it was to finally meet. You thank you so much for your time, always rooting for you and Duke. I put a stamp on it and I sent it off to Durham, North Carolina. And I figured that would be that. Well, three weeks later, I go to my mailbox and I get a letter back from Coach K. I know those of you in the cheap seats can't see this, but three sentences in his iconic handwriting on the front of his stationery that in essence says the same thing. No, Alan, it was so nice to meet you. You're doing a terrific job. Keep up your great work. How long do you think it took him to write this? Even if he writes slow? Maybe 60 seconds? Can we agree that over the course of our entire life, 60 seconds is a little thing? Well, this little thing had a profound impact on my life. This little thing is the reason I wake up every single day with an attitude of gratitude to tell as many people as I possibly can, thank you. I appreciate you. Job well done. This little thing is the reason I am personally relentless about returning emails, voicemails, and text messages. Because I believe if one of the winningest, most successful and most decorated coaches in the history of all of team sports can make the time to hand write me a note back, you better believe I can return your email. You better believe I can call or text you back. Just remember that little things make a huge difference. And just so you guys know, I only carry this around when I speak. I don't like keep this in my gym shorts when I'm at the grocery store. Sure. Now, if I could get you guys to put the second slide up pretty please. And can I give you, can I get you all to give this amazing AV team a huge round of applause? I mean a huge round of applause. A couple of things. I do events all over the world and this group is absolutely best in class. But I want you to think about something. Do you know the only time when you're at an event like this, the only time you notice the AV team is when something goes wrong. Think about that. I say this with a smile. The litmus test for how well they do is that no one even knows they're here. Think about how hard that is for a job. What they do and they allow me to do what I do so I'll never forget it. But they spend the vast majority of their time intentionally in the unseen hours. And it's the same thing with groups on this team. There are folks on this team and I would imagine a good portion of it are the engineers that are doing work during the unseen hours. And we have to go out of our way to make sure we show appreciation and thanks for the groups that do the work behind the scenes that allow, and I'm speaking specifically to those in sales, that allow you to do what you do when you're customer facing. Now, my actual title is Keynote Speaker and Author. But the moniker I most resonate with is Coach. And as a coach, it is my job to help people, support people, encourage people, empower people to get to a level of performance that they don't believe they can get to on their own. And the reason I say that, if I did my job today, I planted a few seeds. If I did my job today, I reminded you of a few things that I know you already know. I'm positive that every single thing I shared with you today, you already knew it intuitively and intellectually, but you might not be doing it. And that's the gap that we need to close. So if you're interested in some free resources to kind of help supplement the seeds I planted, if you wanna use that QR code or you wanna text that number, it'll give you access to a landing page that has a series of videos, a series of blogs, and a series of reinforcement tools that you can take the stuff that was shared today and take the stuff that's been shared during the rest of this event and put it into action. Because knowing is not enough. When I was growing up, and I know a lot of people here appeared to be roughly in my age bracket, I was always told that knowledge is power. That's not quite true, or at least it's incomplete. See, there's nothing powerful about knowledge. The power comes in the application, in the execution, in the doing. Knowing without doing is completely useless. So I'm hoping some of these resources can help reinforce and supplement the stuff that I shared with you. I started my presentation by talking about the Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. What I didn't mention was, there was a college counselor there. There was something special about this kid. We didn't recognize it at first because he didn't have the physical stature and he didn't have the resume of the other college counselors. But there was something really special about this kid. The most impressive of these traits was at the end of the first workout, he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "'Coach, will you rebound for me? "'Cause I don't leave the gym until I swish "'five free throws in a row.'" Swish five free throws in a row. For any of you that have never shot a basketball before, let me just tell you that is a really, really high standard. A swish, by definition, is a perfect shot. It doesn't touch the rim, it doesn't touch the backboard, it gets its name from the sound it makes by going nothing but net. And this young man was not gonna leave the gym until he swished five in a row. Which means he could have swished four in a row, he could have hit just a little bit of the rim on the fifth one, it still would go in, he'd still be five for five, he'd still be mathematically perfect, but that wasn't good enough for him, he'd start over. And if memory serves, it never took him longer than 15 minutes to swish five in a row. That young man was Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors who will go down in history as the greatest shooter the NBA has ever seen. And it's not by accident, it's not by luck, it's not even because his dad played in the NBA. It's because he's willing to hold himself to an unparalleled standard. And that's the thought that I wanna leave you all with right now, the standards that you set today, personally and professionally. The standards you set today, individually and organizationally, the standards you set today will determine who and where you'll be tomorrow. Now before I take my final bow, I'm gonna ask you guys to do one thing for me. Set down your drinks, set down anything you have in your hands, I just need your hands ready for a moment. I'm gonna put my left palm up. I'm gonna give you very basic instructions for a very basic task right now. I'm gonna put my left hand up. When my right hand crosses over my left hand, I want you guys to clap. But here's the thing, I don't wanna hear 102 separate claps. I wanna hear one clap, one voice, one team. And then this is it, and then you all can go on for the rest of your evening. All right, you guys ready? Basic instructions for a basic task. I'll go nice and slow just in case some of you are a little slow. Okay, hang on, basic instructions, basic task. Now there's no way I would come here from Washington, DC, spend an entire day with you and then let you end on that note. I trust you, I believe in you, and I know you're good enough to do this. All right, you ready? You got this. This is the last thing we're doing for the night. As you can see, as you can see, you guys still have some work to do, so do it. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate you, thank you. You guys are great, thanks.