Episode 047: Micheal Burt

Full Transcript

Rock Thomas: Hey everybody, welcome to the #IAMMovement podcast and in this session you’re going to hang out with a coach. In fact,

Rock Thomas: Coach Burt believes that everybody needs a coach in life and he’s got a fascinating story where he coached from the age of 15 straight through to 31 basketball at different levels did incredibly well.

Rock Thomas: 74% winning in his career and really learned a lot about how to activate people and what he calls

Rock Thomas: The whole person theory and it comes from his study of Stephen Covey, one of the greatest books of all time. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One of my favorite books. In fact,

Rock Thomas: So we’re going to get a deep dive on someone who’s a huge student of Stephen Covey

Rock Thomas: And his insights and then how he took that and brought it into the business world and has coached many, many business people to become very successful through the same whole person theory.

Rock Thomas: Believe it or not, he has written 613 books. So certainly within there there’s going to be some books that you’re going to want to take a look at and I’m super, super jazzed

Rock Thomas: To bring on coach Burt, so let’s jump into the podcast and listen to the wisdom that coach Burt is going to share with us.

Rock Thomas:. Welcome to the podcast coach Burt I’m really, really thrilled to have you here.

Micheal Burt: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, man. I’m honored and congratulations on all the big things that you’ve done in the world that inspires me.

Rock Thomas: Thank you so much. You know, we’re trying to give people the tools and strategies so that they can be the best version of themselves, which I think you’ve made your life’s work.

Rock Thomas: And you’re a big believer that everybody should have a coach. But before we get into that, let’s talk a little bit about how you came to that conclusion and what your experiences and the experience you had in coaching basketball.

Rock Thomas: You know in your formative years. So let’s talk a little bit about your background. Yeah.

Micheal Burt: I was raised by a single mom, who had me when she was 16 years old and she was working two jobs to kind of make it work. So when I was six years old.

Micheal Burt: Really five and six years old. She’s to take me down to a local baseball field where I would stay for hours and hours while she was working her second job.

Micheal Burt: And there was one woman down there is a woman coach coaching little league baseball, which was really unusual and that woman tended to me cared for me fed me

Micheal Burt: Taught me the game and she said to me at six years old son, one of these days you’re going to be a great coach.

Micheal Burt: And I began to hear this early all my formative years my high school basketball coach called me, Professor. He said, the way you think the way you direct the way you coach. So at

Micheal Burt: I got asked to coach a junior pro basketball team. And thank goodness, I said yes. Yeah, the guy said, I don’t know anything about basketball. They’ve asked me to coach. Will you help me coach this team?

Micheal Burt: And I went down there, not I like to joke and say I dressed up in a suit and I looked like a little Pat Riley coaching junior pro basketball.

Micheal Burt: And the minute I started coaching. I was immediately turned on to coaching people

Micheal Burt: And and so for the next 15 to 31 all I would do would be as bad a basketball coach first as a boys basketball coach, then

Micheal Burt: I became the youngest head coach in the state of Tennessee at the second largest High School.

Micheal Burt: And I moved to coaching girls basketball and took me about 10 years rock. But I rebuilt a culture that had never won.

Micheal Burt: In 30 years and we turn that into a national powerhouse. And that school would go into the wind. Seven of Nine championships and and that’s really was a lot of my formal training from 20 to 30 years old and being a basketball coach well

Rock Thomas: That’s fascinating because one of the dreams that never came to be yet for me was to coach some high level team.

Rock Thomas: So let’s unpack this a little bit, because I’m a big fan of Pat. Pat Riley, I think it is, and also John Wooden who talks about the 1% rule.

Rock Thomas: Tell us some of the things that you did. And I know you talked about, you know, coaching the whole person all the aspects of the individual. What do you think were some of the keys to you getting each individual to produce at a high level.

Micheal Burt: Yeah, when I was 18 years old, I went to a coaching clinic that was free by Guy named Dan Meyer Don Meyer actually won more games than john would

Micheal Burt: He was a small and I coach in Nashville, Tennessee at a Christian college and then David Lipscomb University.

Micheal Burt: And Don Meyer would have free coaching clinics where six to 800 coaches would come and study under him, and learn under him. And so at 18 years old.

Micheal Burt: I was an elementary basketball coach while I was going to college and Don Meyer, who I respected immensely as a mentor said if you don’t read another book this year. Read the seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Micheal Burt: And while you’re there, pick up a copy of first things first. I had never been exposed to personal development. I went to a small rural High School.

Micheal Burt: So we didn’t talk about personal development and reading and things like that. And so I went to the bookstore and I picked up a copy of the seven habits and I didn’t understand it. You know, I was 18 years old. That’s a deep booked on standing

Micheal Burt: Joke and say, I thought a paradigm was a pair of stigma and, you know, I’m just reading this book. And in that book Covey Dr Covey introduces the whole person theory.

Micheal Burt: And he says, People are made up of four parts: a body of mind, a heart and a spirit; each of those parts produce different needs, different intelligences, different capacities, different dimensions.

Micheal Burt: And I began to think, okay, I’m going to really learn this. I’m going to dig into this philosophy of the whole person because we can’t really have a conversation about potential if we don’t talk about the whole person.

Micheal Burt: You can’t really actualize your potential if you’re if you’re not reaching your potential in the body and the mind and the heart and spirit. You’re out of alignment in one part of your nature.

Micheal Burt: So I began teaching my players. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and I began using the whole person theory.

Micheal Burt: To activate the hope of a person when. So how did I do that I was growing their knowledge I was growing their skill I was growing their desire I was growing their confidence.

Micheal Burt: And before long, we begin to build what I call the competitive intelligence my players were simply smarter than other people’s players, they were more connected than other people’s players they

Micheal Burt: They had more unity. They bought into me more well that produces winning. And the more we begin to win, the more people begin to ask me, What are you doing with these kids?”

Micheal Burt: And because of that so many people were asking us, that I don’t have time to explain it. And I’m just gonna write it in books. So I literally started writing one of 16 books.

Micheal Burt: And I began to just write books about this is what I’m doing. This is how you build this competitive intelligence. And that’s really what started my speaking career.

Micheal Burt: People would call me to say we can speak to my team. We came to speak at my company and one became two and three became for and then it became a business really an unintentional business and it became a lot more lucrative obviously then my high school coaching.

Micheal Burt: Though at some point. I’m like, all right, man. I love these kids, but I’m out of here. I gotta go. You know, I’m a level, Tim, dude. And I need to. I need to find my level 10 opportunity.

Rock Thomas: What about going to college or pro is the coach. Did you have any desire for that.

Micheal Burt: Absolutely, and my whole desire in life rock was to build a championship program.

Micheal Burt: And then go on and be a division one college basketball coach no different than Geno AURIEMMA at UConn or pat summitt at Tennessee, you know, that was my life stream. And that was really the path. I was on

Micheal Burt: But what happened is when I started to speak at 25 years old and write books and go out and speak out my, you know, I really enjoy this.

Micheal Burt: I enjoyed coaching adults. I didn’t know what I didn’t. And so I really had a big decision to make. Do I go to college? Start over.

Micheal Burt: Meaning start as an assistant decrease my salary go through the whole thing take 10 or 15 years then become a head coach or do I become an entrepreneur, a business owner, take my message to the world. And that’s what I felt called to do. Okay.

Rock Thomas: And how about dropping in as a motivational person that would speak to some form of an athletic Tony Robbins works with the Golden State Warriors. Have you ever considered doing that?

Micheal Burt: When I first left athletic coaching, because I was known for activating, you know, in essence, the prey drive in a person through the whole person theory.

Micheal Burt: Certain universities did begin to hire me. Vanderbilt University hired me to work with their women’s basketball team for two years.

Micheal Burt: Ole Miss University hired me to work with their basketball team. So, I did come in and do that. The challenge I had was, was I was introducing concepts to those people who were very hard wired a certain way.

Micheal Burt: You know, even I took the coach at Vanderbilt, who I really liked. She had a certain toughness about her and I was introducing a new way.

Micheal Burt: And it was hard to win her over to if you will use this methodology, you’ll win more games.

Micheal Burt: And I just couldn’t, I could I sold her strength and conditioning coach I sold some of our assistant coaches, but couldn’t sell her

Micheal Burt: And she would say, well, they can do that a strength coach can do that or my assistant coaches can do it. And I would say, you know, it’s not going to work. If you don’t do it. I mean, you’re the head coach.

Micheal Burt: So, she didn’t buy into that but also found that it wasn’t as lucrative as corporate America was for me. I enjoyed some of it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought it would. Yeah.

Rock Thomas: So when you say you taught the seven habits to them, give us some examples or give us a couple of the habits that you feel are really important in life.

Micheal Burt: Well, when you think about sports most coaches focus on one dimension of a person’s nature. Okay, the body.

Micheal Burt: So they practice more they lift more they work their players harder. This is no different than a company that focuses just on sales tactics and when you don’t focus on the whole person, you’re, you’re, you’re really

Micheal Burt: You’re really not growing the whole person. So this morning in my team meeting.

Micheal Burt: What I’m trying to do is is activate the drive in my team, not just teach sales tactics. So we talked about alignment of core value. We talked about the six levels of commitment.

Micheal Burt: We talked about things to get them inspired right and as a coach I understood that for every four hours of physical training. We also needed mental training.

Micheal Burt: We needed an hour of emotional training, we needed an hour, you know, we couldn’t go into deep spiritual training obviously in public high school, but that didn’t mean that we could go into confidence training.

Micheal Burt: So I implemented leadership boot camp success academies life after basketball programs.

Micheal Burt: And I would know every Thursday we had Dr. Phil Thursday, you know, because Dr. Phil used to do this thing for kids and my kids loved it. We would break down concepts for kids.

Micheal Burt: And so I would teach these habits. When you come in every player learns each habit, you know, be proactive, begin with the end in mind, think, first things first.

Micheal Burt: You know, seek first to understand and I would embed these into the fabric of our program. And this is very unusual for 14 to 18 year olds to learn these habits.

Micheal Burt: Especially at such a high level. And so what I was really doing was using life.

Micheal Burt: Illusion sport to teach life and the better I felt connected to the players, the more games we won. And the more they love playing with me and playing with me. So when you think about it, there’s no difference here.

Micheal Burt: In a company you can build a greatness factory within your corporation.

Micheal Burt: You can grow the whole person with your people. Right. You don’t have to just teach sales skills. That’s what really separates me from a lot of sales trainers out there in the world is I have a deep understanding of how to activate all four parts of a person’s nature.

Rock Thomas: So when you work with people today they’re adults that maybe are coming with some, some, you know, baggage, some experiences.

Rock Thomas: preconceived beliefs and notions or, you know, perceptions. What do you find are some of the biggest things you have to do, maybe dismantle before you can install some new behaviors and habits?

Micheal Burt: Well, what I believe is the reason. Everybody needs a coach in their life because we can’t see the picture when we’re inside the frame.

Micheal Burt: You know, I’ve been going back and talking to Marshall Goldsmith specifically about his book. What got you here won’t get you there.

Micheal Burt: Man, we’re discussing doing an event together later this year. And, you know, as I’m rereading that book.

Micheal Burt: You know, it’s really for successful people who who are limiting their own ability to go to the next level because of these bad habits that they have

Micheal Burt: The excessive need to be right. You know that when you say, but no or however every time people ask you the, I mean, there’s all these things, adding too much value. There’s all these habits that he saw that successful executives, we’re doing

Micheal Burt: That we’re actually prohibiting them from going to another level. And it has reminded me. Why don’t we all need a coach in our life to see the blind spots.

Micheal Burt: So a lot of the people that I coach are trying to get to a higher frequency, they may or may not know what that frequency is many times they have missing structures that they don’t even know they have

Micheal Burt: That could be either at the personal level or the organizational level and what I’ve tried to do is, is create a structure that brings clarity to those structures.

Micheal Burt: So I believe a coach is a person that engages a person in a set of systematic behaviors that allows them to do something tomorrow, they cannot do today.

Micheal Burt: I don’t personally believe based on my coaching background that coaching is asking a person what they think they should be doing.

Micheal Burt: I believe that they don’t know what they should be doing. And if they did, they would

Micheal Burt: They would need to coach. Right. So to me, what I do is I have a different style of coaching, which is engaging you in a set of behaviors. I bring a structure to you that structure will expose the weakness.

Micheal Burt: Through that structure, you’ll come to your own realizations, you’ll say, oh, I need to be doing this, or I’m not doing this or I need to be doing this.

Micheal Burt: And that’s a lot to do with my background as an athletic coach. We didn’t walk in and ask the players what they wanted to do that day.

Micheal Burt: We brought the structure to them and they perform within that structure. Now, I know there’s different philosophies on what coaching is

Micheal Burt: But to me, this coach has a structure. They’re bringing that structure to you; they’re engaging you instead of behaviors that allow you to do something tomorrow you can’t do today.

Rock Thomas: I love it. I think it’s great. A lot of certainty. So let’s shift gears here for a second. We are currently and this will be released not immediately, but we are currently in the middle of this pandemic, we have

Rock Thomas: All kinds of fear running rampant. We have things shutting down, you know, what do you lean on in your inner conversation in order to keep leading your team. Keep your household positive and safe. What are some of the things that you rely on in times like this.

Micheal Burt: You know, I think.

Micheal Burt: In life doubt comes in when we have a double vision. And what I mean by that is, we’ve got a vision of going producing manifesting imagination applied imagination. Okay, that’s one vision.

Micheal Burt: The other vision is. I can’t be an insecure external threat. It won’t work and really to do something big. You got to kind of start that doubt.

Micheal Burt: And you starve the doubt by eliminating that second vision. Now, I’ve been thinking a lot about this rock so I’m glad you asked me.

Micheal Burt: My mindset has always been to play offense vs defense and that goes all the way back to that single mother.

Micheal Burt: teaching me, my mother would not let me miss a day of school for 12 years she taught me we dress up we show up we grow up. We deliver. We don’t want to use a john WOODEN THING WE DON’T WANT. We don’t complain. We don’t make excuses.

Micheal Burt: Like, that’s that was so deeply psychologically and environmentally scripted into me.

Micheal Burt: That when I am in periods of uncertainty, no matter what that is, whether it be the current virus or an external threat my standard Mo is to expand.

Micheal Burt: My standard mo was to attack my standard Mo is to push out not not contract and retreat, because the number one thing I see people do when they get scared for any reason is to contract.

Micheal Burt: Okay, and what I’m trying to coach people on is although our economy can take a hit. Let’s look at the other side of this there will be many companies during this period that will prosper. More than ever.

Micheal Burt: trucking companies will prosper, because they’re transporting things, hospitals will be flooded because of the toilet paper companies will make more money than they’ve ever made.

Micheal Burt: I mean, so when you look at it, I came up with 10 things that I was going to do in my company during this period. And guess what, there were 10 things I should have been doing rock.

Micheal Burt: And and it’s just, it’s interesting because of this stimulus, right, because I’m a cubby disciple. Everything was between stimulus and response is a space. And in that space allows your ability to choose your response.

Micheal Burt: And so I’m trying to teach my team every day that during these periods of uncertainty.

Micheal Burt: We have to push and exert and expand so I’m doing more webinars. I’m doing a live webinar today with one of the one of the adopters of one of the famous doctors in the country.

Micheal Burt: That’s my personal doctor about what we can do to protect our health and our wealth. So I’m exerting more force. I’m planning more events for the fall. We’re promotion, we’re promoting harder than we’ve ever promoting

Micheal Burt: So there’s all kinds of things people can be doing during this period if they will just not think in terms of contraction.

Rock Thomas: Yeah, I love it, and you’re you’ve been conditioned like that, and therefore you experience growth. How important is it for people who want to live a fulfilled life to have this plan for progress.

Micheal Burt: You know, I go back to the whole person if you follow me around for a day, you would see how I feed the whole person I start every day off with a sermon.

Micheal Burt: Watching a sermon every morning to get into spiritual peace and then go to the gym. I’ve got a full time trainer.

Micheal Burt: That I hired on my staff meaning he’s not a part time person at the gym. He works on my payroll that works me out every morning very aggressively for an hour to hour 15 minutes then watches something on business for the mind.

Micheal Burt: I’ve been coming in and meeting with my team. And if you follow me every day. I’m feeding all four parts of my nature.

Micheal Burt: That I’m making an appropriate time for my wife, my seven year old daughter, you know, and so what I’m doing is I’m trying to

Micheal Burt: actualize I’m trying to take this potential. I’ve been given and exert the energy to actually do it. So it’s very important to me when it comes to fulfillment.

Micheal Burt: To, to be able to to pursue and some people can’t pursue their dreams because they’re not healthy enough

Micheal Burt: Some people can’t pursue their dreams because they don’t have the right knowledge, some don’t have the right skill, some don’t have the right desire, some don’t have the right confidence.

Micheal Burt: So when you start working on all four parts of your nature to me you’re operating what I just call a high frequency. And when you’re at a half frequency that’s very attractive to the market.

Micheal Burt: You’re not one dimensional, you’re multidimensional, you’re in demand.

Micheal Burt: People want to be a part of what you’re doing right, it’s just like your movement right. People want to be part of something that’s dynamic. I don’t want to be part of something that’s static or entropic

Micheal Burt: So that’s kind of my mindset on fulfillment is get up and pursue right, I think we’re happiest when we are in pursuit of something

Micheal Burt: And I think we’re unhappy when we feel stuck or static in our lives. I think we’re hardwired to take dominion to pursue to move, I do not think we’re hardwired to

Micheal Burt: To stay and that’s my concern with locking everybody up in their houses is, you know, because they’re stuck.

Micheal Burt: There static right I actually believe work is a distribution channel for talent. So when you take away work from people right then, then I know in my life when I’ve gotten the most trouble is when I was bored.

Rock Thomas: Yeah.

Micheal Burt: When I went to Raleigh right when I was isolated from people. So, you know that that’s the only thing that’s a concern to me.

Rock Thomas: Yeah. Hundred percent. So you’ve written 16 books. Yes.

Rock Thomas: Choose one or two of them and tell us a little bit about them, which ones you think maybe some of our listeners might want to grab

Micheal Burt: You know my life philosophy. When I was 25 years old, I wrote a little book called changing lives to coaching. Now, we don’t even sell that book today because it’s not very good. Okay. And I tell people, sometimes your first book is gonna suck and which is why I had to write 16

Micheal Burt: But, but here’s the interesting part is 15 years later, I came back and wrote everybody needs a coach in life.

Micheal Burt: Which is really my seminal work, right. Like, that’s what I was saying at 25 I just didn’t have enough experience yet.

Micheal Burt: To say it so fast forward 10 or 15 years and I’m right. Everybody needs a coach in life, and it is my philosophy on activating the whole potential. It’s my version of the seven habits.

Micheal Burt: It’s it’s it’s it’s my life’s experiences of coaching people. So I tell people that books can become your coach.

Micheal Burt: You know, because it shows you every structure I coach people on my philosophy on the whole person.

Micheal Burt: How you know and so I think that’s a book that I think I would recommend for people. And then my new book is called single digit millionaire.

Micheal Burt: And it’s really the subtitle is from high school, high school basketball coach to millionaire.

Micheal Burt: And it’s kind of a play on words, people ask, why would you only want to be a single digit millionaire and the point is you can’t be a double digit artist until you first become a single digit millionaire.

Micheal Burt: And it’s really not about the money as much as it is about the transition from you being a level 10 person may be stuck in a level two opportunity or level for opportunity.

Micheal Burt: And I was a high school basketball coach, no matter how many hours I work no matter how many games that one.

Micheal Burt: I never made more than $60,000 a year. And when you’re only making 60,000 a year you don’t have any excess cash but you don’t have any excess cash, you can buy real estate and invest

Micheal Burt: Can grow your future. So I found a vehicle that I could literally earn millions of dollars, and I could take my excess cash and I could put it into things. I intentionally ruined it.

Micheal Burt: Real Estate properties that I own that we do retreats that real estate properties that my wife can be involved in

Micheal Burt: So the book is about transition. And how do you go from here to here? And how do you build something where you have some enough money that you can then go and reinvest in something that you love right so that’s that’s that’s the newest book I have that single digit meter.

Rock Thomas: I love it. So you and I share that in common is assisting people to get out of the rat race and help them see that

Rock Thomas: Passive Income vehicles are an opportunity for them to have time freedom and to really do the things that matter. And it could be the work they’re doing or it might give them time to work on themselves.

Rock Thomas: And heal some of those childhood wounds or it might be to do a great cause or something like that. What, what do you think with the current educational system.

Rock Thomas: Is the reason that so many people and today is a great example as we are in this pandemic is

Rock Thomas: I, you know, my, my net worth may get affected in the coming months, but my cash flow is a concern because I built my life in a way that I could do without income for probably three or four years right and do totally fine.

Rock Thomas: But most people can barely go a paycheck without

Rock Thomas: Experiencing substantial stress and the government’s going to come and help them out and all that sort of thing. But why do you think we keep on with Google having all the information out there?

Rock Thomas: There doesn’t seem to be that much of a move movement on the needle as to people really finding that freedom. What do you think is the culprit there?

Micheal Burt: Well, I think, you know, when I was a high school coach you know I was teaching all of these things. And I went up to the economics department, one day, and I said, Hey, what are you teaching these kids about money?

Micheal Burt: Right. Like, like they need to know something about money and they said well we teach them how to balance a checkbook.

Micheal Burt: And I said, Well, they’re not gonna have anything to balance if they don’t know how to produce money right like I’m having conversations with my seven year old daughter.

Micheal Burt: About where are you going to produce money from her so I’m going to do chores. You know, I’m going to exchange work.

Micheal Burt: For money, right, like what she wants to buy a horse. I’m like, Let’s go online and see how much it costs to have a horse. Oh, this source is expensive where we got to find the money for that.

Micheal Burt: Right. And it’s like, oh, I’m going to do this, this, this, this and this.

Micheal Burt: And it’s interesting because my daughter is out of school right now, you know, they’ve shut all the schools down. And so my daughter plans her schedule. She wrote a PR schedule, she’s going to get up at this time.

Micheal Burt: She’s going to do our homeschool this time she’s going to do chores. Now what’s interesting is, she put three recesses in her schedule.

Micheal Burt: And I said, so we’d art. Do you have three recess at school do you say, well, no daddy. But you know, I mean, I need to work and then I need to play a little bit that I need to work in the play.

Micheal Burt: And I’m like, look, I got to teach you about money. And that’s really the problem. See, I didn’t have anybody teaching me rock about money.

Micheal Burt: My single mom was a nurse, she didn’t she didn’t know how to grow my financial IQ. She didn’t know how to tell me about investing

Micheal Burt: And literally, I was 31 years old when I retired from athletic coaching and I did not know the difference between an asset and liability.

Micheal Burt: Went down to the bookstore and I bought Robert Kiyosaki his book called grow your financial IQ.

Micheal Burt: Okay. And I went home and I read that book and then about the cashflow quadrant. And then I began to buy these different books and I’ll begin to educate myself on what a profit and loss was on what asset, it will I built to us what a balance sheet was

Micheal Burt: And how do we produce money, how do I create assets, how do I create value. And so it’s interesting because I’m now doing advanced with Sharon Lecter

Micheal Burt: And, you know, she co wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad and and and those are the books I was buying when I was 31 years old. And so to me that’s the missing structure.

Micheal Burt: If we have people who are not entrepreneurs teaching kids, they don’t know how to produce any more money and how can you expect them to be their teachers there. They’re not taught, they’re not. They don’t know how to produce any more money, just like I didn’t as a basketball coach.

Micheal Burt: Right so that’s really the problem. That’s one reason I built a kids Academy. And so I have a greatness factor for kids.

Micheal Burt: And that’s an online Academy that we’re going to push really hard during this

Micheal Burt: Period, because my theory is when moms and dads and kids are locked up with each other for hours. They’re going to be looking for something

Micheal Burt: To do right and we got this kids Academy that has all these lessons in griot bounce back toughness confidence I do talk about money, how to produce money, how to sail, how to lead.

Micheal Burt: There’s certain school systems that are using my kids Academy private schools might mainly to teach their kids some of these things, but it’s not in the curriculum and because it’s not in the curriculum and you got unqualified people teaching it just didn’t get tall.

Rock Thomas: So nature versus nurture you grew up in what we would call probably a difficult environment with a single mom, I grew up on a farm.

Rock Thomas: With parents that were often absent working hard trying to make ends meet, etc. And through that you responded to your environment by becoming resourceful and determined and seeking ways to attack and grow.

Rock Thomas: But how much of that do you think is nature versus nurture, how much of it. It was a response, you were able to cultivate versus a given set point.

Micheal Burt: Yeah, that’s a great question. And probably the best questions anybody’s ever asked me.

Micheal Burt: This is a tough one for me because I do believe some people have something that you can’t put in them and you just can’t take it out of okay and and you know I look at my

Micheal Burt: Genetic psychological environmental scripting that I had early in my life. My father wasn’t involved in my life. Early I really didn’t feel like it was known by my own father

Micheal Burt: But, but I had grit and toughness. So would that, you know, would that caused me to go in and write the book person of interest, you know, and I know you’re, you know, you’ve, you’ve done work with

Micheal Burt: Tony Robbins, and how did his mother treat him should, you know, and my and his point is, Should I go back and should I be mad at my dad, or should I go back and thank you.

Micheal Burt: Because I probably wouldn’t be the man I am today if he had been the dad I needed him to be so I believe in a lot of these things.

Micheal Burt: But, but here’s, here’s the alternative point to that my wife.

Micheal Burt: Did drugs every single day from 21 to 24 years old.

Micheal Burt: She grew up in a Christian family, but they never pushed her. She was not involved in sports, they never talked to her about potential. She was in Dead end jobs hanging around shady people doing shady things from 20 to 30 years old.

Micheal Burt: Her company Verizon. She was selling cell phones. They paid for her to come to one of my workshops for 50 bucks.

Micheal Burt: And she came to a workshop on a book I wrote called this I know practice life which is about seven big decisions. I think you got to make something big and I watched her in the back corner.

Micheal Burt: Just take notes like crazy. She’s taking notes and she’s looking at me. She’s taking notes and she came up to me afterwards and she’s like, you know, can I meet with you.

Micheal Burt: And I joke and say what she was really pretty. So I said, sure. I’m available.

Micheal Burt: I’m available right now if you want to meet

Micheal Burt: And and but she said, No, I want to come back two weeks from today to talk about some of these things. So she came back and she said, look, nobody has ever talked to me about these things.

Micheal Burt: Nobody’s ever told me I have potential, nobody’s ever shown me decisions I need to make. I’ve never had a coach in my life.

Micheal Burt: And she really at that point it activated the prey drive in her rock and over the next nine or 10 years. Obviously, we were going to get married, have a daughter and a son on the way.

Micheal Burt: And my wife is now writing her own books.

Micheal Burt: She’s now highly motivated. She’s now getting up at 515 in the Morning, Studying successful women, she’s now speaking at our own conferences. She’s now. So, so, to your point, I believe every person has a prey drive inside of them PR

Micheal Burt: That prey drive is an instinctive ability to see something and go get it. But, it has to be activated.

Micheal Burt: And there has to be there has to be an activation of the drive, there has to be a persistence to that driver has to be an intensity to that drive

Micheal Burt: And if you study every motivational theory in the world. They roughly say the same thing we move toward things we want

Micheal Burt: When we’re hungry, we move toward food when we want companionship, we move to our people. Well, what I find is that without a coach. Many times people don’t know how to activate that drive

Micheal Burt: If you’ve never read a self help book or self development book. You don’t even know that it exists, like when we know better. We do better.

Micheal Burt: So to your nurture nature question. That would be my answer is, for some people it’s like it’s in them. Right, it’s in, like, man, they’ve been successful their whole life, or they have a drive their whole life. But for some people, that switch has to be flipped much later in life.

Rock Thomas: Well, that’s one of the best answers. I’ve had that question. So thank you.

Rock Thomas: Let’s layer that in with the whole coaching and activating the prey drive. I have a theory that if you’re going to bring the most out in people. You need to oscillate between three elements.

Rock Thomas: Encouragement and challenge.

Rock Thomas: And you as a coach, I’d be fascinated. If you were to think back and reflect on how you treated different players. Sometimes it was a player that needed support.

Rock Thomas: Maybe he was having a tough time at home. Maybe it was because he was in trouble, his grades were hooked and he needed some support, he needs to be told, it’s okay. You can get some tutoring, whatever.

Rock Thomas: Another child child. Maybe he’s trying really hard trying really hard and is getting discouraged and needs some encouragement, you’ve got this. I believe in you. Yes, you can keep at it.

Rock Thomas: And then some of them need to lead or they get complacent and they need to be challenged to step up to reach to the next level.

Rock Thomas: How do you see those three elements in your coaching career and would you say that that’s accurate, possibly, you know, is there anything missing in that frame.

Micheal Burt: No, I believe that is accurate. I believe that, you know, the one of the best players that I ever coached had the toughness of her father, but had the emotions of her mother.

Micheal Burt: Her mother was very emotional. Her dad was very tough. So she was in internal conflict.

Micheal Burt: So I noticed very early. When I pushed her hard she contracted, and she would cry and she would break down and she wouldn’t perform

Micheal Burt: And when I, when I had positive affirmation statements to her.

Micheal Burt: Like you’re the best player I’ve ever coached you’re going to be a miss basketball. I’m going to help you, you know, get to 4000 points in your career. She will play hard for me. She would run through the wall for me to rock.

Micheal Burt: And then she went to college and her coach used one tactic only Dieter up part owner pusher Kosor out yell at her and she wouldn’t perform. She literally will not perform. Yeah.

Micheal Burt: And he called me one day and said, What is wrong with your player, you know, like she won’t play so hard for you. And I said, Man, the way you’re trying to motivate her

Micheal Burt: will not work. She has these two elements in her. She is tough, but she is emotional and you need to positively affirm her. So, I believe, to your point.

Micheal Burt: For many years, I did not believe in personality profiling and that was a mistake on my part. And because I because, you know, I was a high school coach.

Micheal Burt: And I’m motivated people and I’ll use the hope for. And it worked. We won games and we won championships. Well then I started coaching adults. Guess what I found out they didn’t yield to authority at the site with those kids did

Micheal Burt: So then I started studying these personalities, I became certified at the desk.

Micheal Burt: And and and I went through it, and I’m like, oh, this tells me exactly what will activate the drive and this person, it shows me what would

Micheal Burt: motivate them. We’re actually working on a prey drive assessment with Tony Alexandria and and where

Micheal Burt: It’s, it’s my phrasing throughout his framework. So a company can look at how much prey drive a person has water motivators are activator prey drive water deactivate or prey drive so

Micheal Burt: My stance is a good coach will have conversations with you, that you may or may not want to have that doesn’t mean they’re negative

Micheal Burt: They will challenge you, they will push you to do some things you may or may not want to do, but a good coach will take you to a place that you didn’t even know you wanted to go to

Micheal Burt: Okay, and which is what you’re saying, but there are different tactics and methodologies to get people to produce at a very high frequency and a good coach understands that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to maximizing performance.

Rock Thomas: Yeah, and I was a bit like you. I grew up in an environment with a lot of challenges. So what I did was I challenged, everybody. And I thought that was the way to coach them.

Rock Thomas: Until I started to realize like you did a little bit later that somebody without my history.

Rock Thomas: Would not respond in the same way. In fact, I was golfing with a buddy of mine who knew that sometimes I respond better when I’m told, I can’t do it.

Rock Thomas: Yeah, then all the income. Oh, you’re good, you’re the best Rakuten really good that will actually D motivate me because I was used to so much adversity.

Rock Thomas: And I, and I became wire to overcome adversity. When the odds were against me. I found a part of me that stepped up.

Rock Thomas: We’re playing partners in golf. I was in a sand trap in a bad impossible shot and my partner walked up to me in front of the competition. And he says, you’ll never make that up and down. There’s no way

Rock Thomas: Zero in locked focus. Boom. Make the pot and the other guys they’re going, How come you just beat your partner up. He goes, cuz I know how he’s wired.

Rock Thomas: Yeah, so, so for all the people that are coaches out there. Something to think about that you know that coach Burt really kind of laid out really well for you. Or let’s go to a couple of rapid fire questions, you can have dinner with anybody dead or alive.

Micheal Burt: I mean, that’s my mentor Stephen Kelly. Alright.

Rock Thomas: Cool, other than his series of books. Who else has stood out for you as a great author

Micheal Burt: Man, there’s so many good ones like I’m reading I’m going back and rereading a book called The Encyclopedia of wealth right now which compiles all of the grace books about, you know, well, thinking grow rich as a man, think of

Micheal Burt: The science of getting rich by Wallace wattles like I’m going back and reread those classics. Yeah, it’s just the class like the like the basics like that’s what I

Micheal Burt: Will need to understand right now is get back to the basics of doing what we’ve got to do every day.

Rock Thomas: Speaking of basics. What’s one thing that you do in the evening everybody talks about morning rituals. What’s an evening ritual that you have

Micheal Burt: I’ve got to wind down by watching the West Wing, which was one of my favorite shows for 10 or 15 years and I always map out my date. My next day at the end of every day on what I need to do to be in an offensive posture. Excellent.

Rock Thomas: And if people want to get hold of you get in touch with you follow you. How do they do that coach Burt

Micheal Burt: They can go to coach Burt calm, you know, I’m on Instagram coach Michael Burke, my mother did spell my name differently than most Michael she spelled it in my CH e Al and I don’t think she knew at 16 back in 76 that websites, we’re going to, you know, I had to buy. I was gonna have to buy

Micheal Burt: Coach Michael for every way you can imagine.

Micheal Burt: When she spelled my name that way, but it is Al versus at okay

Rock Thomas: That’s amazing. And for you know our audience is listening, a lot to how to transform their identity, how to go from what they were labeled in the programming, they got to a higher best version of themselves.

Rock Thomas: And what would be some, you know, final comments that you would have for people that are going through that process.

Micheal Burt: One of the greatest activators is a prey drive and transition in my opinion is exposure to bigger thinkers exposure to people operating at a high frequency. And that’s really been

Micheal Burt: My whole life is when I was exposed to something that I didn’t know

Micheal Burt: When I saw something you know at 18 I was exposed to Kofi right at 25 I was exposed to this, it’s right at certain ages. I was exposed to something like oh

Micheal Burt: There’s a whole world out there like growing up. I didn’t get to go to big cities. I didn’t

Micheal Burt: I didn’t see New York City. I didn’t see Phoenix, Arizona. I didn’t see Miami, Florida. I didn’t see Chicago. I didn’t see la

Micheal Burt: So I started going to those places. I was like, oh my goodness there’s there’s so much possibility here.

Micheal Burt: And so now I have a condo in Nashville, Tennessee on the 38th floor. For that reason, because it overlooks the city and the energy that’s exposed. So I took my daughter down there.

Micheal Burt: And I said, I want you to see she just sat there in a window and looked out at the whole like

Micheal Burt: She’s like, Daddy. This is awesome, right, and she’s getting exposed to it at seven verses 27 so that’s the point. People need is they need to place themselves in positions and in environments where they can get exposed to bigger think

Rock Thomas: I love it and I want to remind the listeners that there was a really good point that you made about the two visions that we have the vision for possibility and the vision of doubt and fear and worry and

Rock Thomas: We need to starve that second vision, we need to feed the other one.

Rock Thomas: So I encourage all of you to heed coach Burt’s wise words and remember that words create your world. So choose them wisely. Have a great inner narrative as you go forward and I like to thank you so much for joining us on this episode of The #IAMMovement podcast.