Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - How Athletic Mindsets Drive Entrepreneurial Growth | Dre Baldwin - Entrepreneur & Former Pro-Basketball Player

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Lessons - How Athletic Mindsets Drive Entrepreneurial Growth | Dre Baldwin - Entrepreneur & Former Pro-Basketball Player · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this lessons episode, learn the essential principles that bridge the world of professional
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  sports and entrepreneurship, including discipline, confidence, and mental resilience.
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  Through real-world examples, gain insight into how high performance habits can transform
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  not only athletic success but also business growth and personal development.
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  It was a good story because it teased up exactly how you got to where you are today and
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  you know, even looking at you now, I just like looking at your bio, I see so many reasons why
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  somebody who has been a high-performance athlete would have so many lessons to teach somebody who
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  is trying to build a business or what, but it's something that you know, sometimes you follow
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  like the football coaches or whatever and you get like the other business tips from them,
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  but I don't see people that actively pivot an entire career and then understand how the lessons
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  they've learned operating at such a high level can be so applicable to an entrepreneur or somebody
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  starting out from the ground up. I think that's what's it's incredible how your story evolved
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  in like all these different inflection points in your story just led to you being able to have
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  the experience and the platform because that's also very important to be able to do this.
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  So as you pivoted from Pro Ball and then you started like down the thought leadership pathway,
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  walk me through some of the things that you realized were applicable for a high performing
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  professional athlete that are also applicable to an entrepreneur because that's what you
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  speak about and that's what you do. Ted talks on that's what you write books about. I think that's
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  also a lot of your content on Instagram what not. A lot of these certain mindset things and not
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  just mindset, but actual application of certain things can be super applicable to entrepreneurs.
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  So what are those things that you discovered? Sure, so really it kind of went back to what the
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  athletes were asking me because really the foundation of it was me just answering questions to the
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  athletes and they would just say, well, you know, why come to the gym every day and practice? Why
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  come to the gym every day and work out and then put these videos out? And honestly, I thought it
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  was a normal thing. I thought this was what every athlete did because I'm figuring out I play basketball,
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  I want to play pro or I'm already playing pro or I need to get ready for my next job opportunity.
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  I just go to the gym every day practice so that my game is sharp. So when that call comes in,
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  I'm ready to go. I thought that's what any athlete would do, but what I realized very quickly was that
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  not every athlete did this because when I showed myself doing it, people were looking at it like
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  they couldn't, they were surprised. And I might isn't this what anybody would do? You have a job,
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  you show up ready for your job or at least ready for the job that you want. You prepare for the job
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  that you want before you even had the job. I thought that was normal behavior, a normal mindset.
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  So that was where the discipline came from showing up every single day to do the work.
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  So that was the number one principle and it's still to this day. That is the foundational point.
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  I think for any professional and anything, because if you look up the dictionary definition of
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  a professional as a person who gets paid to do something as a main occupation, but my definition
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  of a professional as a person who shows up every day and delivers regardless of how they feel.
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  Because some days we're sick, sometimes you're tired, sometimes you don't feel like
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  turning a mic on. You don't feel like writing another page for your book. You don't feel like being in
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  the gym, but you're getting paid for it is your job. You got to show up and do the work. It's just like
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  you think of your favorite, who's your favorite athlete?
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  Well, who's my favorite athlete? Let's take it back like Muhammad Ali, like someone like
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  like Burak, like he, yeah, go for it, go for it, go for it. I'm sure now during the matches
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  that everybody was watching, Muhammad Ali was all keyed up and ready to go as many because
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  boxing is not like your boxing 80 times a year or 160 games a year like baseball. But I'm sure
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  there were days Muhammad Ali did not feel like training. No boxes do road work and they run
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  the miles and they got to hit the bag and they got to do the jump rope. I'm pretty sure,
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  and Scott, did you tell him if you disagreed? There were days Muhammad Ali did not feel like training,
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  but he understood right because of his position and because of the next person he was fighting
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  and because fighting him was like the grand prize of anybody's career, he knew he had to show up and
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  do that training so that he would be ready to deliver every time so that no somebody couldn't make
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  they couldn't make their whole career based off of beating him, you know, so he had to be ready to
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  show up every day or you think of a LeBron James. Does he feel like playing every single time 82 times
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  a year knowing that he's getting the best shot of every player he plays against because every player
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  wants to be able to say, hey, I dumped on LeBron James or I stole the ball from LeBron or I scored
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  on LeBron twice in one game 12 years ago, you know, everybody's trying to get their highlight
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  off of him. So he has to be that mentally on point every single day and that's much more of a
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  mental decision than it is a physical skill and a lot of people don't really understand it
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  until they constantly think about it. So that first principle is discipline. The next one was
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  going to say I was going to say just one thing. No, I just wanted to point out something. The only
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  reason why I picked Muhammad Ali is because I love boxing as a solo sport and I find that
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  and maybe just comment on this if you think there's something to it, like you think there's a
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  certain mental toughness that can be pulled from a solo sport versus a team sport, not to say
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  obviously like at a team level, like mental fortitude and this psychology to show up every day
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  is not important because it obviously is, but like there's no team holding you accountable when
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  you're on your own. I thought that was something that's super impressive when I look at boxers.
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  It's probably some of the most notorious like solo sport you're just showing up on your own with
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  your coach. Absolutely. And it was funny because since I stopped playing ball in 2015, a lot of
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  people always ask me, Joy, do you play pick up? You're playing any leagues or anything? I play
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  zero basketball cold turkey because to me, I'm always on a mentality of I can't be at my best
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  or whatever my best potential is at that moment. I want to play at all because I don't want to be
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  like the old guy with some young guy who isn't half of what I was at his age. No beating me just
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  because I'm not in shape anymore. So I don't play ball at all. But I do have a boxing trainer as a
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  matter of fact, I had a boxing workout this morning and you're 100% correct because in a solo sport,
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  not only do you not have a teammate holding your accountable also in the matches and the games,
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  the performances is just you out there. You can't pass the ball to somebody else like in basketball.
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  If I'm not making my shots that night, I can pass to one of my teammates that he's making all the
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  shots. We can still win the game. But in boxing or tennis, if my serve is off or something's
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  wrong, my ankle and I'm not moving it right way, I can't hide. I can't pass the ball to anybody
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  and still win the game. You're going to take that loss and everybody sees you. So absolutely in
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  a solo sport, it's a completely different approach because you have to kind of have to be your own
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  accountability. Even though no boxers have trainers and no tennis players have whatever swimmers,
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  any solo sport they have trainers and coaches exactly, but in the performance, there's no one to
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  pass it off to during that performance. And when you lose, you can't point at anybody and when you win,
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  all the glory goes to you. So 100% agree. Anyways, you lost, right? I didn't mean to interrupt you.
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  That was interesting because that's that's sort of like the, you know, I always equate sports to
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  start up and like as an entrepreneur, like you don't have a team day one. You're you're 100%
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  sales day one. Yeah. Right. So discipline is the first principle that the working on your games
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  based on the second one is confidence. And this is the one that usually if someone comes to me
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  and they're asking for anything mindset wise, usually they're asking for confidence. If they don't
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  know anything about me, they're using Sandra. I want to be more confident. I want to have more
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  self esteem. I want to believe in myself more. And why is that? If you ask somebody, why did they
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  want more confidence? They'll usually say something like I perform at a higher level. I'll be more
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  consistent. I'll have more and I'll be able better able to sell my product startup conversations with
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  people, no clothes, people on my products and offerings, whatever it is. Everybody wants confidence.
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  What many people don't understand is that discipline creates confidence. That number one, number one,
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  main source of confidence is discipline. Because if you think about it, Scott, the most confident
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  people you know are usually very disciplined individuals and very disciplined people are usually
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  very confident. And why is that is because those disciplined people, because they're showing up
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  and they're doing the work and they know that they are following their principles on a day to day
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  basis, they have earned the right to be confident. So confidence is defined as your your belief in
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  your ability to do something. So where do you get that belief from from actually doing it? Now if
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  you haven't done the thing before, let's say you practiced a lot, let's say as a boxer or a
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  business person, you're trying to sell something, you've done all the practice, you listen to all the
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  tapes you're ready, but you haven't done the actual performance yet. Where do you get that confidence
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  from? Now some people had this concept of faking it until you make it. I actually don't believe in
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  that concept. I don't believe in fake until you make it. I think it's a a misnomer oxymoron. The
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  reason is because the subconscious mind, again, doesn't know the difference between imagination and
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  reality, but the same time it takes everything literally. So when you tell yourself that you're
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  faking it until you make it, it's kind of like the Cinderella, you know, Cinderella, as she puts
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  on that glass slipper, she has on this beautiful ball gown, but at some point their clock starts
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  midnight, as she goes back to wearing the racks. That's what happens to people when they fake it
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  so they make it is that eventually you're going to tell yourself to stop faking it. And all that
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  confidence that you had, you go back from the beautiful ball gowns to the racks. So what I
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  suggest that people do instead is become it because you don't have to fake it. You can just
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  become that person. And I give an example. One of my TED talks I talked about this basketball player.
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  He was in practice in a coach told him that day I want you to pretend to be the best player on the
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  team. And this guy was this player that he was talking to was marginal player, maybe the 10th best
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  player on the 12 person roster. But that day when he's pretending to be the best player on the team,
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  he's doing all kinds of crazy moves. He's making all kinds of miraculous shots that he never does.
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  And all his teammates are looking at him crazy. Like, where is this coming from? We didn't know
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  you had this ability. And what he had done is he has stepped into this principle that I call
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  the super you, which is you still being yourself not faking it, but as you at your highest possible
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  level of confidence. And what you're doing that moment is you borrow that confidence from another
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  person. So to give an example, you take a let's say somebody who's a boxer and they are them
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  whoever they are. Now, before they go into that mess, they're looking for that confidence.
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  I would tell them, listen, I want you to think about somebody like Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or
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  Floyd Mayweather or whoever your favorite boxer is. And I don't want you to try to be them in the ring
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  because you don't have their same wiring or skill set. But I want you to look at think about
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  their mentality, think about how they would walk into the ring, think about how they would approach
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  the fight. How would they feel about themselves going into the ring? How would their confidence be?
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  How would they, how would they picture their performance leading up to the game for basketball player?
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  I say picture of Michael Jordan or Kobe or Steph Curry. What is their confidence? How do they feel
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  about themselves? How do you look at themselves in a mirror before the game? Now, I want you to think
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  about yourself the same way they would think about themselves. So you're basically mirroring
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  their mentality, not necessarily their actions. And that way, you can step into a level of
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  confidence that maybe that person has never had before because as humans, we have these things
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  called mirror neurons. It's like you can watch somebody else do something and just by watching them
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  do it, you have a better understanding how to do it, even though you haven't done it before. And
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  that works for confidence. It works for no hammering in a nail. It works for repairing a car. It
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  works for anything. But people have to understand the principles behind it and understanding you're not
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  trying to be somebody else. You're still being yourself. You don't want to be faking it because
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  eventually like I said, faking it is going to end. You don't want to tell your brain and your
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  pretending to be anything. So the second principle is confidence. Thanks for tuning in. If you found
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  this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you
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  want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the
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  full episode. See you in the next one.