Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 378: Meet Anthony Alibro – A New Voice on The Growth Project

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Episode 378: Meet Anthony Alibro – A New Voice on The Growth Project · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  What impact do you hope to have, in this new role?
• 0:04
  the easiest answer is just at its core, help people thrive in high demand environments. I think that's the the tagline that I keep coming back to, the tagline that keeps guiding my work, it keeps guiding my decisions and my own evolution as a worker.
• 0:21
  Welcome back everyone to
• 0:23
  The Growth Project, a podcast put out by AMP Los. We're really excited to be here today to bring you another episode.
• 0:31
  I'm really excited to introduce all of our listeners to,
• 0:36
  a new hire we're having. Join our analyst team, a new team member.
• 0:39
  we'll be introducing Anthony today
• 0:43
  talking about the addition he's going to bring to our team.
• 0:46
  on that note, welcome, Anthony.
• 0:48
  Thanks, Gabby. Happy to be here.
• 0:50
  just so I let our listeners know this, your full name is. And if I blow through it, let me know. But Anthony, a Libra.
• 0:56
  That is correct. Okay, so I got it.
• 0:59
  And you and I actually kind of go go way back.
• 1:02
  Quite a few years. We did our masters together at Florida State, and,
• 1:08
  that's one was that. Remember the years? I do, yeah. So we got to Florida State in 2020 and then graduated in 22. Okay. So yeah, I think two years ago we met.
• 1:20
  been a while and for years since I've seen you.
• 1:23
  I guess the first time I saw you again was when we brought you to Greenville for,
• 1:27
  your in-person interview.
• 1:29
  Yeah. A little bit of a different dynamic than how we used to hang. Yeah, just a slightly different,
• 1:34
  Well, just so we kind of frame this up for our listeners.
• 1:39
  You know, I mentioned that we brought to you in person for an interview, and so that kind of hits on the target that you're not actually located in, in Greenville.
• 1:47
  You will be joining our and I guess by the time this has been put out, you will have officially joined,
• 1:53
  our amplify team, the Elliot Davis office in Nashville.
• 1:57
  Yeah. Super stoked. I'm only, like, 15, 20 minutes right outside the heart of Nashville. So. Perfect fit, perfect location. Excited to get started. Yeah, I know, we're excited to have you on board.
• 2:08
  Excited to be expanding into the Nashville market, which we'll have some more conversation about here in a moment.
• 2:14
  I'd love to give the listeners a little bit of backstory on, you know, your journey,
• 2:19
  how you got to where you're at today. So,
• 2:21
  tell us a little bit about your background professionally and personally. Of course.
• 2:25
  Yeah. Yeah. So I grew up in, Sarasota, Florida, which is about an hour south of Tampa, known for the beaches. So do miss that. Now, being in Nashville.
• 2:34
  Sports were everything in my life. My my dad and my grandfather were really big on baseball. I was not as big on baseball. I, you know, is the sport that I went farthest with.
• 2:43
  So I played a lot of baseball. I played football and basketball as well.
• 2:47
  ultimately just carried that passion all the way through high school until I got to college. And I got an academic scholarship going to the University of South Florida and to be completely honest, I had no idea that the field of sport psychology existed at that point.
• 3:02
  When I got into college, I was like, I'm going to be a physical therapist. And then I ran to general chemistry. I was like, I'm not going to be a physical therapist, actually. So I got into psychology and I knew I wanted to be within the field of psychology. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And, about my junior year, I got into a class called Physiological Psychology, and it's basically the brain's contribution to psych.
• 3:30
  And I fell in love with that. I thought it was the most pure science within psychology, and it actually led me to two years of neuroscience research. After I graduated at the National Senior Mental Health out in Bethesda, Maryland. And here I was in my lab coat working with animal models for two years, and I thought that was the path I was going to go down.
• 3:47
  My Pi at the time was really excited for me. And, you know, about a year and a half into the position, I kind of had like a 23 year old life crisis, I guess probably be the best way to put that. I was like, oh boy, I want to I really want to do this. I really want to spend the rest of my life in a lab working with animals and trying to put the puzzle pieces together, so to speak, of what is neuroscience?
• 4:11
  What is the human brain? So I had applied to a couple neuroscience PhD, and then I also applied to the sport psychology master's program at Florida State. And I told myself, well, I'll go through these processes, go through the application process, and I'll make the decision when I get there. So I ultimately got accepted to one neuroscience PhD and one for state master's in sports psychology program.
• 4:33
  Spoiler alert I did end up choosing the master's program in sports psychology. That's how Gabby and I know each other. But, you know, at the end of the day, I really wanted to help people. I wanted to work face to face with people with with performers of various domains, whether that be athletic, whether that be military, which I can go into later or whether that be more in the corporate executive domain as well.
• 4:54
  And just seeing the fruits of my labor, seeing those interactions with people and being able to help them realize their fullest potential was something that I was really passionate about. So that's what led me to, Florida State and led me to my degree in sports psychology.
• 5:07
  Wow. That's, I think I even learn some some new things there about your your past.
• 5:13
  let's start with early childhood.
• 5:16
  You talked a little bit about your sport experience.
• 5:19
  What were some of the biggest lessons you learned?
• 5:22
  Now, reflecting back,
• 5:23
  from your time as an athlete,
• 5:26
  especially looking back on it now and having, like, the theory, the knowledge, the, the all the things that come with a degree and experience, like looking back at my own experience as an athlete as I was a head case, for lack of a better term.
• 5:41
  I mean, the, the realest example sample comes from when I played baseball.
• 5:45
  I was a third baseman. I was a much, much better fielder than I was a hitter. So I have vivid memories of me going to the batter's box and like, it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest, and I was just telling myself, don't strike out.
• 5:56
  Don't strike out, don't get caught looking. And, naturally, when you tell yourself that that more avoidance language, that's exactly what happened was I would strike out, I'd be in my own head, and I wasn't really I wasn't in the game. My mind wasn't there. And I wish there was like, a story I could say, like, well, like.
• 6:13
  And then, you know, I met a final performance consultant. It all turned around, and, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. So I, you know, there were things that I tripped on to, tripped up on and, like, basically learned implicitly. So there was like a routine that I would implement where I would bat my bad against my cleats, take a deep breath, take like a little practice swing in my warm up before I approach the plate.
• 6:32
  That helped a little bit, but I could never pinpoint like, oh, that's why this helped. Like it helped me to settle and it helped me to gain some familiarity, gained some of that calmness needed to execute at a high level. So yeah, I would say especially in my athletic career, I was very much in my head very much, a sufferer of performance anxiety.
• 6:53
  Yeah. I think that's something, you know, a lot of us can relate to. And I love that you said there about, you know, self-talk and how it can almost be like this self. We talk about the self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Where you know what you tell yourself to do or not to do, whether it's positive or negative increases the likelihood of that happening.
• 7:17
  So if you're thinking about, hey, don't strike out, don't strike out, doesn't matter. What is your brain hearing? Strike out. And what do you end up doing most of the time striking out. So it's, you know, it's a very common principle we talk about within sport and performance psychology. And, you know, I loved hearing how that came to life in your own experiences.
• 7:38
  Now, you talked about, you know, you're on this neuroscience path, which is so fascinating.
• 7:43
  been a couple of years in that lab environment.
• 7:46
  And I know you said you did something I like and that I relate to, and, you were like, well, I'm just going to apply these options and see where life takes me.
• 7:58
  Make the decision at a later point.
• 8:00
  And it's, it's like this mentality of trusting the process, but I always say, in order to trust the process, you have to have a process.
• 8:08
  I'd be curious to hear a little bit about that decision making process for you. So when you were accepted to both,
• 8:14
  talk to us a little bit more about what was that defining moment that led you to the, Florida State program?
• 8:22
  That's an excellent question. It takes me on a road trip down memory lane. That's right. Yeah.
• 8:26
  You know, when I, when I was doing neuroscience research, I was really, really fortunate to to be surrounded by just absolutely brilliant people, like the the people at the top of their field within the neuroscience community. And, we can talk about imposter syndrome in another podcast episode.
• 8:41
  That's a whole nother story. But, when I thought about my day to day doing neuroscience research, a lot of it was conducting experiments. A lot of it was in the nitty gritty, in the weeds, a little bit more. But what I really loved about neuroscience was trying to put the puzzle pieces together. I was trying to say that, okay, like, here's what my experiment produced.
• 9:02
  Here's what, here's how it lines up with other research. Here's what we are able to realize in terms of these neural circuits and how they promote or facilitate X, y, z behavior or when they're interrupted. Maybe this can lead us to some insights in terms of like how this mental disorder operates, or maybe how this woman can be cured.
• 9:23
  But if I did a calendar on it, how much of my days were actually doing that? And really, it turned out to be about 5 to 10% of my time, maybe even less than that on most days, where I was thinking big picture, where I was interacting with people and collaborating on a day to day basis, was was more limited in nature.
• 9:42
  So I think ultimately when I got the acceptance letters, I think I had about a week to make that decision, and I talked about it with, my then girlfriend, which is not my my wife and I talked about it with a couple of supervisors there, and I was like, I was like, what? What do I enjoy? Like, what do I actually enjoy in my day to day?
• 10:02
  And it was to work with people. It was to, to help people and to get those light bulb moments, so to speak. And I knew that the field of sport and performance psychology was going to allow me to realize that much more frequently than a career in neuroscience. So I would say at the end of the day, it took a lot of reflection.
• 10:21
  And it was not an easy decision because as we know, you have to it isn't as though you get a scholarship for the master's program at Florida State, but for the neuroscience PhD, I would have had a stipend that would have been paid for it. So going back to my family and being like, hey, I got this decision.
• 10:35
  My grandfather's like, well, don't be stupid. The neuroscience route. And I was like, thanks for that. I appreciate that. But, you know, I followed my gut ultimately. And then, you know, then I think it all worked out, but I couldn't be more happy with the decision I made and the experience of I've had up to this point within the field of supporting performance psychology.
• 10:54
  So, yeah, just helping people thrive in high demand environments has been incredibly fulfilling.
• 11:00
  You kind of segway this perfectly into where I wanted to go next was about your experiences. Post graduate school and some of the career path that you've been on.
• 11:11
  share a little bit about where what your journey looked like after graduating with your master's.
• 11:18
  yeah. So about three months after I got my, my master's degree, I had applied to the master resilience trainer,
• 11:27
  on track with the United States Army. For the listener who doesn't know what that is, essentially the main goal of that contract is to practice sport and performance psychology with tactical populations. And depending on what base you're at, that can look a lot of different ways.
• 11:41
  So I've spent the last three and a half years prior to this new position, obviously at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 101st Airborne Division. Better known as the Extreme and Eagles. If you for the listener who knows, a little bit about the military law there. And really what the role has been is to integrate with these populations with our with our service members and their families and find ways to increase lethality and increase resilience.
• 12:07
  If I go into every single one of the experiences, this podcast episode will be about four hours. But I'll go into the highlight reel. So one of the most fulfilling things that I got to do is we collaborated with the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion. And basically when you think about the career of Special operations, this was the initial step to get in.
• 12:28
  This was the, the door essentially to get into this path. And these soldiers, men and women would prepare for a three week course, Special Forces Assessment and selection for shorthand as. And you want to talk about mental toughness. You want to talk about mental performance. The entire intent of the course is to get you to quit like the it was a three week course that is meant to drain you physically and mentally and get you to question everything.
• 12:54
  And what we did was we devised a preparation process both at a team level, but also we work with these soldiers on individual level and talk through the mental skills necessary and what that what would give them ultimately an edge over their fellow candidates to stand out. It is an evaluating course. It is very heavily performance based, but as much of that is there's a lot of downtime there, and especially day in and day out when you're pushing yourself to your physical and psychological limits, what you tend to see are many women get into their own heads.
• 13:25
  They start to think about their families back home. Oh well, my wife's pregnant at home. I shouldn't be here doing this. Oh, I'm sure Bitcoin's falling off a cliff right now, and I have to tend to my finances, so I shouldn't be here by now. Or, you know, if I'm in this course with Gabby and I see Gabby absolutely killing it, I'm like, there's no way Kadri are going to pick me up to to continue to go on to this course.
• 13:45
  Like I should just cut my losses now, save myself from injury and so much of that self-talk that we're talking about, the beginning of the episode plays such a crucial factor within that. And that's been that was incredibly rewarding. Is to be able to work with those individuals and to tailor the mental skills that we teach, that we preach and be able to find ways to integrate them within that three week course.
• 14:09
  And, you know, when they come back from that course, we'd have basically a debrief and like, hey, like what happened? How did it go? And they would talk about like, yes, it was physically grueling. My I lost like 20 pounds. Everything hurts still to this day. But the way that they acknowledged the mental component like it was, they could feel their self-talk change.
• 14:29
  They could find ways to plug in imagery and visualization. Everything that we talked about in terms of team cohesion and team efficacy ultimately plays a factor in their success as a team, but ultimately as an individual, too. So that's the one that stands out the most to me, and the one that I take the most pride in in terms of my experiences with the US military, US Army specifically.
• 14:50
  Yeah, it's such a unique experience. And, we talk all the time about how the field of board and performance psychology, there are so many different pathways people take, whether that be focusing in on the sports realm or the organizational realm or now we just discuss the military as well.
• 15:10
  and we always say, like the skills that we're teaching and, promoting our life skills, they're applicable to all domains.
• 15:17
  So it's finding, I think the best practitioners are the ones who are able to find,
• 15:24
  the best ways to translate those skills to these different populations.
• 15:29
  I'd be curious to hear, you know, you came from a sport background, then you went into military. What were some of the I guess, biggest challenges shifting from that domain to this one?
• 15:44
  Yeah, yeah. So it's funny you mention that because I was at Florida State, one of the things I wanted to really do was to push myself out of my comfort zone. So I was like, okay, I have this list of teams in sports that I can work with. So I ultimately chose a cheerleading squad, which I knew nothing about.
• 15:58
  And I also chose a rowing team, rowing crew, which I also knew nothing about. But I knew it was going to ultimately lead me to be a better consultant, because I would have fresh eyes and I would have the approach of a mental performance consultant. So the military is an incredibly unique beast. Is it would be the lightest way to say that there's there's a lot of language that you do.
• 16:21
  There's an acronym for everything too, and there's so many acronyms that I'll use with my wife. Sometimes she's like, what are you talking about? Like what? Who are you talking to right now? And I don't even realize that I'm using it still. So I'm like, oh, like, it means x, y, or Z. But I think the biggest thing is, you know, when people typically think of the Army, usually it's just like everybody's within the infantry, right?
• 16:42
  Like they see all the, the movies, the band of brothers, so to speak. But the army's massive. There's there's dentists in the army, and their main role is to serve as dentists for service members. There are people that specialize in infantry. There are people that specialize in air defense artillery, which is, you know, missile defense ultimately. And, you know, getting into each unique team and unit and organization and just learning it on the fly, learning what their day to day looks like, learning what performance challenges they have.
• 17:10
  Because obviously, how I approach someone trying to go to Special Forces, it's going to look quite a bit different versus, what does it look like to approach this veterinarian and this team of veterans and how to increase team culture and cohesion? So there's a lot of curiosity needed. There's a lot of patience needed. And I think the biggest thing challenge wise is just not to get too ahead of yourself.
• 17:32
  Like you really have to learn and appreciate what these men and women are doing on a day to day basis. In order for the mental performance consultant to be successful, to be a true value, add within that. So, as you know, my patience is, not one of my stronger suits. So it was a lot of just like, okay, wait, Anthony, wait, like, don't jump in yet.
• 17:53
  Like, you still don't know all you need to know in order to truly be an asset. So I would say, yeah, the learning curve of just learning the army, but also the the patience and almost, willpower to hold back would be the biggest challenges. I hear a lot in there that resonate with, you know, some of our core values and another reason why we think you're such a great addition to the team is that that humility and that curiosity.
• 18:22
  We always say that that's what leads to growth is the ability to be humble, but stay curious and to know just what you said. And, hey, I didn't know everything.
• 18:33
  But I was open to the to learning and the growth.
• 18:35
  And I think you and I kind of have that similarity in that we came from an environment.
• 18:41
  I think I talked about this on my intro episode as well, that we were encouraged to pick sports to consult with, that we had no familiarity with,
• 18:51
  probably helped that when you came in and chose tier, you had, you know, the best, mentor leading you. Right?
• 18:59
  For our listeners who don't know. And Anthony doing the master's program and started with the tier team, he just spoke about, I was the lead consultant there, and he came in as,
• 19:08
  one of my apprentices.
• 19:10
  So we go way back. And when it comes to consulting. That's right. That's right. Under her wing, so to speak. Under my wing, so to speak. And, here we are again.
• 19:21
  Know that. That's great. And, you know, I love hearing about your military experiences, but I also know you have a wide range of experiences that you've been pursuing, outside of the, the military.
• 19:33
  So,
• 19:34
  you know, if you could tell me a little bit more about some of those experiences that you pursued outside of military work?
• 19:41
  it was inspired by some of the military work. So, we taught a course that was basically leadership development, and it was oriented towards leaders of units, and they would talk about things like how to lead authentically and lead with character, how to increase and enhance motivational climates, how to optimize feedback and development processes.
• 20:01
  And, you know, it maps so beautifully to what the average American especially deals with and even and more internationally in a common workplace. So, you know, again, it might require some reflection and some talking with my wife. And, you know, we had these conversations like, okay, like, what do I want to be with the military forever? And should I start to at least dip my toes into different waters a bit?
• 20:28
  So I always had this interest in more of the corporate and executive, coaching, as well as some of the leadership coaching that went with the military experience. So I found a contract position with a company called Behavioral Essentials. And they've been nothing but great to me, and I owe a lot to them for my own development and things like that.
• 20:48
  But what they really specialize in is how do we enhance self-awareness at the executive level. And the idea being that that self-awareness and that clarity can trickle down to the rest of the organization and lead to more informed decisions and lead to healthier motivational climates and ultimately lead to better, more productive, more successful organizations. And when we put our heads together, and especially me coming from a mental performance background, I was like, well, we really have the opportunity here to be force multipliers.
• 21:21
  So I've been incredibly grateful to have experiences over the last year to work with executives of, I mean, very prominent organizations, and to work with them and talk about, hey, like, what are the behaviors that are allowing you to be successful and what are the behaviors that you see that might be hindering you? Okay. Like how do we tune into them?
• 21:38
  How do we continue to build self-awareness to set the foundation for self-regulation? So that way you and your organization can see the growth that you're chasing after. Yeah. So it's definitely been a little bit of a different hat where, you know, prepping soldiers for special forces and then going into the, well, let's talk about, you know, team dynamics and strategic planning.
• 21:58
  This definitely requires some code switching there. So very fruitful nonetheless. And obviously, what inspired me to go after the position with Elliot Davis and AMP was ultimately
• 22:07
  Yeah. I mean, you're hitting on some very relevant experience for the role that you're coming into as a performance consultant within, you know, AMP plus powered by Elliot Davis. And you're going to be doing a lot of that corporate organizational work, a lot of that executive coaching.
• 22:24
  And it sounds like you're past experience really echoes some of the things that we prioritize, which are really accelerating people growth, to that organizational level. And the way that you do that is through raising awareness, investing in your people and, investing in your leaders so that you do get those, like you said, a trickle down effect.
• 22:46
  So,
• 22:47
  it's cool to hear, that you've been doing some of that work and that you'll continue to do some of that,
• 22:52
  with us now we're talking about AMP, we're talking about Lee Davis. Tell us a little bit about what stood out to you when it came to joining AMP loss.
• 23:04
  So a couple months prior one doctor got really caveat is also got in a position with the input.
• 23:09
  So I think I texted her I was like, oh, like, tell me a little bit more about this because I, I seen them through like LinkedIn and a little bit on Instagram. And obviously Jerry's work with Georgia and Milt's work with Clemson. We're obviously the big,
• 23:21
  almost quote unquote billboards that are like, oh, like, these are like very prominent people within the field.
• 23:25
  So, you know, when I, when I saw the position opened, and obviously I had had a lot of the experiences with the executive and corporate world at this point. And in December now I was like, I was like, I should probably text Gabby about this and be like, hey, like, would would you think I'd be a good fit for this?
• 23:42
  So I, you know, I got to doing some research and I saw the position was especially marketed towards individuals that want to work with executives. I wanted to work with organizations that wanted to ultimately make the investment in human capital and realize the potential of human capital. And I was like, I was like, this seems like a perfect fit in my head.
• 24:05
  And I was like, I, I almost did it. So first of it advertised, I was like, what's wrong with this? So I was like, what's going on here? I was like, why is this like, like, what are the red flags do to look for? So I didn't find any, obviously, or else I wouldn't be here in this podcast today.
• 24:18
  But you know, the the idea really comes from a like I think AMP is a perfect fit for my own continual growth. And being able to learn from you again, Andrew and Mill and as implosion and ultimately Lee Davis begins to grow and and thinking of the the impacts we're capable of as we get into new markets is really, really exciting.
• 24:39
  But on a more personal level, we I think one of the big reasons I got into this field was to help people and equip people with the tools to be not only successful, but to be satisfied, to be fulfilled. And when we think of the American work experience, a lot of the numbers are pretty alarming. We look at burnout rates, you look at turnover, you look at job dissatisfaction not only from an organizational success standpoint, but just from like a personal satisfaction fulfillment standpoint.
• 25:10
  And we're able to, as mental performance consultants, take what we learned from athletics from military context, like myself, and be able to plug this into the average working environment and to be able to help these executives and leaders at all levels build these climates to be more supportive and conducive to everyday people. And I, you know, when I, when I, when I thought about that opportunity to really be a force multiplier on this kind of level, it was a shoe.
• 25:40
  It obviously had to go, you know, to Greenville and perform well because, you know, there's an interview process. But I think that was really the two major motivators for me to want to join and be a part of what y'all are building. And, and that's one reason we're so excited to, to bring you on board is, you know, it's so obvious that your, your values and your passion within this field are very in line with ours.
• 26:05
  And our mission, which is, like you said, to, to help people and to ultimately pursue better,
• 26:11
  that's, you know, what we always say is we want to help everyone pursue better in their in their lives, in their professions, with their families. You know, it's it's really this holistic sense of just constantly striving for better,
• 26:25
  and to your point that leads to increased satisfaction, decreased burnout.
• 26:30
  And so being able to,
• 26:33
  impact that level within organizations, within, you know, leadership positions like it is such,
• 26:40
  a unique position to be in within our field. So I think that we're we're really excited to have you joining. And you mentioned the expansion of of our division and how we're going to be growing our human capital team.
• 26:53
  Over, you know, the next few months, next couple of years, we're going to hopefully experience and rapid growth. And,
• 26:59
  a part of that is you being in Nashville and, being our first employee to actually be and a different location than the rest of the team,
• 27:09
  really focused on growing that Nashville market. And,
• 27:13
  creating that expansion.
• 27:14
  So what are you most excited about? When it comes to to that
• 27:20
  I mean, I think the thing I'd be most excited about would just be to, hey, lean into some of the curiosity that goes into this. So I think that's one of the biggest, the more new things that for me is to talk about growing the business and to talk about what it looks like to actually sit down with decision makers and talk about the value add and utility of what we provide.
• 27:43
  And, you know, that includes from like, a very specific a very, you know, base level idea of like, we can help increase profits and help increase productivity, but reaching even deeper than that, like, we can increase satisfaction. We can really make your or get help to make your organization that much more appealing to this ever competitive job market to.
• 28:05
  So I think that's one of the big, exciting pieces. And obviously my wife and I recently bought a house in Nashville, so we we really enjoyed the area. We've seen it over the last three years. And I know people who've been here way longer than I have, and they've seen just how much it's changed and continue to evolve.
• 28:20
  And, you know, to be with a company like Elliott Davis that has roots here and, you know, has an office here and obviously has collaborating and supporting other businesses within these markets to be able to to wear the hat of enhancing human capital within that too, just adds another layer, just adds another, adds another value point to what we do and what we're capable of driving home.
• 28:45
  So I mean, there's so many things, but I would say those would be the most exciting parts of what it means to stay here in Nashville and to really focus in on this market that is ever evolving.
• 28:56
  it really is. I can and I think the last time I was in Nashville was,
• 29:02
  almost two years ago and, I'm sure it's grown immensely since then and continues to grow just like here in Greenville.
• 29:10
  But to your point like that, that creates such an opportunity for,
• 29:15
  what you're hitting on are these value conversations where you can go out into the community, something we're very passionate about and something that Elliott Davis is very passionate about, which is getting involved in the community and showing how our services can add that value.
• 29:32
  To the individuals, to the organizations and to the community.
• 29:37
  So I know we're we're excited to have you boots on the ground there.
• 29:41
  Advocating for for that.
• 29:43
  And then, you know, I always like to ask this question, which is, you know, what impact we're all about? Impact.
• 29:49
  What impact do you hope to have, in this new role?
• 29:53
  I think the the easiest answer is just at its core, help people thrive in high demand environments. I think that's the the tagline that I keep coming back to, the tagline that keeps guiding my work, it keeps guiding my decisions and my own evolution as a worker.
• 30:08
  And you know it. Like I said, the numbers are somewhat alarming, and the idea that we can even make a a minor impact on the more global scale of what those numbers mean as it relates to dissatisfaction, burnout as it relates to even productivity as it relates to supporting missions that we care about and we can genuinely stand behind.
• 30:31
  That's what it means for me to be in it. So to have an impact and not only just, you know, me having that impact, but being able to equip leaders and organizations with the tools for them to have their own impact and to be that force multiplier. So that's how I would, define my excitement for the impact I'm hoping to bring to the table.
• 30:50
  That's great. And you talk about productivity. And that just spurred a memory for me. And I don't know if you even will remember this, but I remember, I think it was close to the time you were graduating or may have been right after you graduated, but you actually had a podcast going for a stint there.
• 31:10
  And I believe one of the first episodes and one that I listened to,
• 31:13
  was about what you called, I think it was like a productivity monster.
• 31:17
  Do you remember? This is ringing a bell. Remember this? Yeah, yeah. It's stuck with me. I think I've actually mentioned that, on a previous podcast,
• 31:26
  I love that language around productivity, where we are always trying to find that harmony between performance and well-being. And sometimes when we overindex on performance, that's when we're over indexing on productivity.
• 31:39
  We're focused too much on producing and not focusing enough on our overall well-being. So I just that deferred to memory for me, so I thought I'd bring that up. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Mentally off of what a what a time it wasn't for a podcast. It was. Hey, it was great. I enjoyed it. Well, you know, I think this has been a really great intro conversation to introduce our listeners to you.
• 32:06
  think a cool way to kind of wrap this up would be if you had to give one piece of performance psychology advice to our listeners,
• 32:17
  what would that be?
• 32:19
  something that always rings true for me. Is, is your mind can be your greatest asset, or it can be one of your greatest liabilities.
• 32:26
  And you know, the at its core, building awareness to what thought patterns you have. Because if I ask you to sit there and tab all of your thoughts, you'd probably think I was insane, because that's cool. But noticing the common patterns, noticing the common strings that keep occurring, especially in the moments that matter, whether it's a massive SCC game for Jews, boys in Georgia, whether it's a massive SEC game for Milt's boys at Clemson, whether it's a board meeting, whether it's going into strategic planning, whether it's an upcoming deployment to Iran.
• 32:59
  Right. Like the the idea being you're how you perceive things, the story, the narrative that you're telling yourself has a crucial impact not only in how you perform, but to who you are and your identity of yourself. So building awareness to that and optimizing accordingly. And, you know, restructuring accordingly would be my biggest piece of, sporting performance psych, tidbit.
• 33:22
  Yeah. So that's great. I love the language around our mindsets, either being our our greatest asset or our greatest liability.
• 33:29
  it's so true. The power of mindset is undeniable. And it's something we we preach all the time.
• 33:35
  Well, thank you for that. And, you know, thank you for the conversation today. And I hope our listeners enjoyed getting to know you.
• 33:41
  A little bit more on a personal level, they can look forward to hearing you much more frequently on the podcast now as well. Like I said, by the time this goes out, you will have officially been a member of the team for,
• 33:55
  about a week. So we're,
• 33:57
  excited to kind of do some follow up podcast together and have you be a regular co-host going forward.
• 34:04
  It'll be exciting times, exciting times to look forward to. Yeah. Well, thank you to all of our listeners, please, if you, found today interesting and want to continue listening, like, subscribe, do all the things,
• 34:16
  and we look forward to seeing you on the next,
• 34:20
  Growth Project podcast episode. Thanks, everyone.