Teamwork - A Better Way

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Intentional-Edge-Reps-Mental-Toughness-ebook/dp/B0GV1XK9S9

Book: The Intentional Edge

coachjeffjones.com

Instagram: coach_jeffjones

Christian Napier
00:13 - 00:25
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Teamwork, A Better Way. I'm Christian Napier, and I am joined, as always, by my dear friend and co-host extraordinaire, Spencer Horn. Spencer, how you doing?

Spencer Horn
00:25 - 00:32
Good to be with you again. We just missed each other over the weekend. I saw you on Friday. Did you have a good weekend?

Christian Napier
00:33 - 00:39
Yeah, we did have a good weekend. Just spent a little bit of time with family, had a busy Saturday. How about you?

Spencer Horn
00:40 - 00:54
Well, what did I do? Yes, worked, mountain biked when, you know, I was out there mountain biking and I was getting passed up by a lot of folks, but I noticed most of them had e-assistance, so I didn't feel so bad after that.

Christian Napier
00:55 - 01:12
Hey, that's a great lesson to learn, right? Don't necessarily need to compare yourself to other people, especially when it's apples and oranges. So I am really curious. This is a very clumsy way to segue to our guest, right?

Christian Napier
01:12 - 01:35
Because I think it's perfect. The name of your company, the company that you had, you're the CEO of Altium Leadership and also Team Coaching International. But yeah, Altium, that's an interesting name, and it reminds me of the, kind of the Olympic slogan, Osidius Altius Fortius, right? Like faster, higher, stronger, right?

Christian Napier
01:35 - 01:51
So that's what we're trying to do with Altium, right? You're trying to get people to that top level, to get to a higher level, to get teams to perform at a higher level. And I can't think of anybody better to have on. to talk about getting to a higher level than our next guest.

Christian Napier
01:51 - 01:54
So Spencer, why don't you go ahead and introduce him?

Spencer Horn
01:54 - 02:26
Absolutely. Today, we have Jeff Jones, who is a respected performance coach who specializes in building mental toughness, Christian, and elite team culture through his signature 10 rep framework, which is a practical system designed to really develop mindset, focus, habits, discipline, and confidence in high performers. And those who really want to perform at their best. And so I can't wait to hear about how that applies to the professional world as well.

Spencer Horn
02:26 - 02:56
And he's got 20 years of coaching experience, coaching at the collegiate level. He's been a part of championship teams like Arkansas State, Boise State, Auburn, Appalachian State. You know, and across his many stops, his teams have earned conference championships in the Sun Belt, SEC, and WAC. He's had 11 bold appearances and a trip to the 2013 BCS National Championship with Boise State.

Spencer Horn
02:57 - 02:58
I think that's right, Jeff. Is that right?

Jeff Jones
02:59 - 03:01
Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Spencer Horn
03:01 - 03:27
And then he works with athletes, coaches, high-achieving organizations who want more than motivational speeches. They want a repeatable system that forge mental toughness and who you become through those daily reps. And he holds a bachelor's degree in exercise science, health promotion, and a master's degree in curriculum instruction. And his mission, Christian, is super simple.

Spencer Horn
03:27 - 03:37
Train your mind. With intention, through daily reps, that's your edge. Welcome, Jeff. We're so glad to have you.

Jeff Jones
03:38 - 03:44
Yes. Well, thanks for the great intro. I appreciate that. Honored and humbled to be on here with you guys.

Spencer Horn
03:44 - 03:55
Well, several questions, but I'd just love to hear a little background. What got you into this field? I mean, what got you into coaching? How did you get to where you are today?

Jeff Jones
03:56 - 04:07
Yeah, so growing up, I'm a huge sports fan. I love athletics, I've loved football. I loved training. So back then, it wasn't performance training, it's lifting weights.

Jeff Jones
04:07 - 04:31
And I remember sixth, seventh grade, lifting weights with my buddies, and I fell in love with it. I remember reading way back in the seventh, eighth grade just about training, and I didn't know anything then. And I went to college at Central College, and I wanted to do exercise science. even at that time though I didn't realize I could be you could be a performance coach.

Jeff Jones
04:31 - 04:55
I didn't really realize you know there's strength and condition coaches and all that stuff and I had a strength coach that came in my junior year And he just really changed the trajectory of my life. And he let me know, hey, you can be a strength coach. This is what you can do for the rest of your life. And I found that deep passion for strength and conditioning, or I call athletic performance.

Jeff Jones
04:55 - 05:16
And, you know, I was not a high academic achieving student and, but this athletic performance I loved and I became obsessed. And since then, you know, I'm 42 years young. I've been coaching for 20 years and each year I feel I'm having more fun. There's more joy.

Jeff Jones
05:16 - 05:22
And then there's just so much more fulfillment even then when I started year one.

Spencer Horn
05:22 - 05:33
I love that. I love that you're excited and have energy in what you do. That makes life so much easier. You know, there's always challenges, even if you're doing something that you love.

Spencer Horn
05:33 - 05:53
That just makes it easier. My first question for you, Jeff, is, you know, you have been studying high performance for this past 20 years that you've been coaching. And I think one of the things that you've been doing is that you've been looking at people who have mental toughness. And that's what positive psychology does, right?

Spencer Horn
05:53 - 06:19
It looks at positive outcomes and says, how do we replicate those positive outcomes? But I'm going to challenge, just for a second, I'm going to go to the negative side. We live in a world right now where, in my opinion, resilience, the current culture seems to be enabling fragility. I don't know if you see that.

Spencer Horn
06:20 - 06:45
We have this comparison culture, right, with social media. I know that adolescent suicide rates have gone down since 2020, but still they are so much higher than they need to be. But we have this culture that I fear enables fragility. And so my question is, I mean, you're working in this sports field where athletes are probably comparing themselves against each other.

Spencer Horn
06:45 - 06:58
They're comparing themselves against themselves. They're comparing their team against the other team. What are the rankings and what are the ratings? And so there must be so much pressure for people to get to the next level.

Spencer Horn
06:58 - 07:10
How do you manage that and not become fragile or become sucked into that culture that exists today? I don't know if that's a great place to start, but that was just my question.

Jeff Jones
07:10 - 07:19
Yeah, that's a good question. And Spencer, the way I look at it is, Okay. Society's changed. The phones have changed the game.

Jeff Jones
07:20 - 07:29
People talk about athletes these days. They're so much more different. I'm not going to play that game. Well, let's be aware of what's going on out there.

Jeff Jones
07:29 - 07:53
Yeah, they are a little bit different. But one thing I think about too, Spencer and Christian, is I think kids these days, whatever you want to say, I think they're tough, I think they're resilient. Can you imagine us growing up with how our youth are growing up right now, or even our college kids? Can you guys imagine going to college with the distractions, with the phones, with all that stuff going on?

Jeff Jones
07:53 - 08:06
To me, I couldn't. So I am going to be understanding of what's going on. And I'm not going to compare them from a different, what I'm going to do is I'm going to focus on what I can control. Okay.

Jeff Jones
08:06 - 08:40
So everybody can say people are fragile out there, blah, blah, blah. Everything's changing so much comparison. What I'm going to do is I'm gonna study elite performers, I'm gonna study ways to elevate, to improve our athletes daily, to improve myself, and then I'm gonna focus relentlessly on what I can control. And what I can control is my mindset, how I train my mind, how I grow, how I develop, my attitude, my approach, my mindset, how I see the world, the discipline I have, and then the effort I have.

Jeff Jones
08:41 - 08:55
So those are things I can control. So I'm not gonna get caught up in all the craziness and everything out there. I'm gonna reset every day, I'm gonna attack today, and I'm gonna go relentlessly all in on those things that I can control first.

Spencer Horn
08:56 - 09:14
I just wanna say amen to that because so often we hear, I mean, in professional circles, we gotta learn about how to address the different generations. I'm like, That's crazy. I mean, these kids, there's no way that I could have dealt with the distractions that they deal. So I think they're actually tougher than we were.

Spencer Horn
09:14 - 09:16
So I agree with you. I think that's the right approach.

Jeff Jones
09:17 - 09:21
But nobody wants to say that, though. And I shouldn't say nobody, but a lot of people.

Spencer Horn
09:21 - 09:27
Too many are saying, oh, you know, we have to deal with them. How do we deal with them? Kid gloves. And I'm like, stop it.

Christian Napier
09:28 - 09:30
Anyway, go ahead.

Jeff Jones
09:30 - 09:32
No, I mean, yeah. I mean, I'm with you on that.

Christian Napier
09:33 - 09:55
So you mentioned several points that are part of your kind of 10 reps framework, right? And so I'm curious if you could just maybe break it down for our viewers and listeners, how you came up with this framework? Like, how did this thing evolve? Because I think the framework is really, really interesting.

Christian Napier
09:55 - 10:04
And so maybe you could just kind of give us a little bit of a very high level explanation of what the framework is and then how you ended up coming up with this framework.

Jeff Jones
10:04 - 10:24
Yeah, so this is how it all started. 20 years I've been coaching. First 10 years, purely strength, power, speed, build resilience in the athlete's body. How can I come up with the best training program to maximize our athlete's genetic potential?

Jeff Jones
10:24 - 10:58
And then through those 10 years, you read, you study, and what I figured out was that was becoming pretty empty if it was all about just the physical performance side. And then I also saw a lot of things where athletes, you know, you get frustrated where some athletes just aren't reaching their potential. There's just so much more for them to give, there's so much more meat on the bone, and they're just not coming close to being that best version of themselves. So as a coach, you see, okay, how can we help improve this?

Jeff Jones
10:59 - 11:27
How can I become a better coach so we don't have some of these issues? And really what it came down to was a lot of it's mental. When you think of most athletes not becoming the best version of themselves, most of it's mental. I'll also say, when you think of business leaders, when you think of teachers, when you think of doctors, lawyers, when you think of whatever you are, you reaching your potential, becoming that best version of you, it's mostly going to be the mental.

Jeff Jones
11:29 - 11:41
So when I think about that, it's like, okay, so we have mental limitations. How can we train it? How can we improve it? And then over the last 10 years, I became obsessed with positive psychology.

Jeff Jones
11:41 - 11:53
I love that you said that, Spencer. I studied that a bunch. Performance psychology, sports psychology. I've been reading all different great coaches, great leaders, thought leaders.

Jeff Jones
11:53 - 12:13
I'm just reading everything I can. And there's a lot out there. And then I took some courses, I took some certifications, and I started teaching it more intentionally. So I started with some workbooks, and I started some small groups with our players, and I started teaching our performance staff.

Jeff Jones
12:13 - 12:35
And what it really came down to was mental toughness, it comes down to reps. Every single day, we are putting in reps. My question is, are those reps intentional? And the more intentional we can be with our daily reps, what's gonna happen is the better we're gonna become.

Jeff Jones
12:35 - 12:55
Because I talk to our athletes all the time about reps aren't gonna get you better in here today. Intentional reps are what's gonna get you better. And that goes the same for a daily life. So then I put together this 10 rep framework that is built off of 10 different skills.

Jeff Jones
12:57 - 13:09
Skills that you can drill, skills that you can improve. And so I wanna keep this stuff very simple. I don't wanna be complex. I don't wanna use these big words.

Jeff Jones
13:09 - 13:43
I don't wanna try to sound really smart because when we get complex and we try to use these big words and we wanna show off how smart we are, what happens is I think that gets in the way of execution. So I wanted to create a framework that is simple, not saying it's easy, but I want it to be simple to understand And then we need to do drills that go with each rep because these drills are gonna improve skills. And these skills are mental skills we're training. So we're gonna be doing mental drills.

Jeff Jones
13:44 - 14:00
And then I wanted to put this framework together that is easy to teach and no matter where you're at on your journey, we all can get better at it. I feel pretty good about it. But you know what? I need to get so much better at these reps.

Jeff Jones
14:01 - 14:12
These reps have changed my life, they have elevated my life, and I've gotten so much feedback from other athletes and performers too, how they've helped change their life. But guess what? There's more work to do. We're a work in progress.

Jeff Jones
14:13 - 14:25
You think I'm perfect at all 10 reps. You think just because I know the title of a rep, that means you execute it intentionally in your life. No. So let's, let's stop thinking about, Oh, I know that word.

Jeff Jones
14:25 - 14:30
I know what gratitude and wellbeing is. I don't have to train it. No, no, no, no. We know what gratitude and wellbeing is.

Jeff Jones
14:31 - 14:37
We need to train that intentionally every single day. If you want to reap the benefits and the power of gratitude and wellbeing.

Spencer Horn
14:41 - 14:57
I love that mental toughness is not something that you have or don't have. It just comes down to reps. I was telling Christian in our opening discussion, I mountain bike. I'm 61, and I'm 300 pounds.

Spencer Horn
14:57 - 15:40
So dragging my carcass up the top of the hill is no small task. I've broken a few bikes and gears just because of the pressure I put on it. You know, what I notice is that there's this trend that when I regularly get up and exercise, whether it's going to the gym or going for a ride, It's a habit that keeps me going. If I allow myself, if I justify not getting up, because I'm old, I'm tired, I deserve a break, it's very easy to get into that rut where I'm just, OK, I'm OK.

Spencer Horn
15:40 - 15:52
But if I keep pushing, it's easy to continue to grow. And then I see myself, OK, hey, I did this time last time. Let's see if I can beat it this time. I don't know if that's what you're talking about.

Spencer Horn
15:52 - 16:10
I don't compare myself to everybody else, because I do get annoyed when people pass me a lot. Because I'm like, all right, they're not my age. And I'm like, all right, I'm happy. But I want to hear more about this idea of reps and those 10 steps.

Spencer Horn
16:10 - 16:34
But before I do, we've got a couple of comments on social media. Our good friend, listener Kevin Martin says, Lifelong learning to improve is the spark that renews the mind, restores the soul, and fuels the passion to stay curious. You're as old as you allow your mind to believe. For me, it's your own vision, values, and velocities.

Spencer Horn
16:34 - 16:47
You'll go further based on those three elements. What say you? And thank you, Kevin. What do you think about that?

Spencer Horn
16:48 - 16:53
You're only as old as you allow your mind to believe.

Jeff Jones
16:53 - 16:58
And I don't know if you caught it there in the intro, I said I'm 42 years young.

Spencer Horn
16:59 - 16:59
Yes.

Jeff Jones
17:00 - 17:16
I feel as good at 42 as I did 22. And a lot of it's a mindset too. And it's a mindset because you're gonna, when you believe that, you're also gonna take more action in taking care of yourself. And I give our players crap all the time.

Jeff Jones
17:16 - 17:23
Like I never, you know, it's kind of funny. We have a seventh year senior on our football team. Or even fifth year seniors.

Spencer Horn
17:23 - 17:27
They wanna act like they're old. Oh, I'm old now. I'm 22, 23. They don't know.

Jeff Jones
17:28 - 17:46
I don't ever wanna hear you're old. I don't wanna hear that because, hey, you go to the NFL, you're now the youngest guy in the roster. And you think complaining about you being old is gonna do anything for you to enhance any type of performance or mindset that you're trying to build? So like the age thing, man, I, and it's kind of funny too, like I'm 42.

Jeff Jones
17:46 - 17:58
I probably have the most energy now than I did ever in coaching. I'm on year 20. I have more joy. I have more love for what I'm doing.

Jeff Jones
17:58 - 18:01
more than I ever have, you know? So, I love that part of the age.

Spencer Horn
18:02 - 18:15
Keep that going and and Zena, thank you for uh thank you for listening all the way from Montreal. I'm I'm glad to see you uh you joining us. Thank you. Hey, it's fun.

Spencer Horn
18:15 - 18:18
We got a couple of uh

Christian Napier
18:20 - 18:43
Yeah, so this is really, really cool. It brings to mind a lot of questions. But one of the questions that I have, which may be a little bit weird, is, you've given yourself the latitude to go explore this, right? Sometimes, like, we're in an organization, you may not be the head of the whole thing, right?

Christian Napier
18:43 - 19:22
You've got a head coach and you've got offensive and defensive coordinators and special teams coordinators and strength and conditioning folks. There may be a desire Or depending on the team cultures, there may be a, hey, stay in your lane kind of a thing. But you kind of said, all right, well, I'm helping on the physical things, but I see a need here on the mental side, and I'm going to go explore that thing. And I'm curious, the teams that you've worked with, how they reacted to, say, you with this desire to go and expand your horizon.

Christian Napier
19:22 - 20:12
Because sometimes in organizations, we just think, OK, well, that person's responsibility is X, and that other person's responsibility is Y. And if this person wants to do something outside of X, well, then he's stepping on other people's toes, or he's doing this, that, or the other. So I'm just curious to hear from your experience how you, I would say insatiable desire to grow your knowledge, how the teams reacted to this desire to kind of go beyond the traditional strength and conditioning and go more on, you know, include the mental stuff. How was that received?

Jeff Jones
20:13 - 20:34
Yeah, I don't think that's a weird question at all, Christian. I think that's a great question. And I'm just gonna talk to you about my last five years is because, you know, over the 10 years, I've really gotten into it, but I felt I've taught it better the last five years, and I've been more intentional with it. But also each year, I felt that I've grown in how I teach it and how we present it and the impact it's made.

Jeff Jones
20:35 - 21:07
So what I'll tell you is, it's different. Not, you know, you could say, oh, all strength, you know, strength coaches are known for the physical performance side. But what I think about is, and I got this from a longtime Hall of Fame coach in Iowa, is what he said is, if all I ever do is teach our athletes how to block and tackle, and that's it, I failed them as a coach. And that came from Ed Thomas, who is a Iowa high school football coach.

Jeff Jones
21:08 - 21:38
And what he meant by that is, how I take that is, if all I do is get people faster, stronger, more explosive, I failed them. Because life and football is so much more than being faster, being stronger, and more explosive. So then, how I would teach the mental game, is, you know, I'm not setting guys down and turn the lights off and making them breathe and do visualization. What I talk to them about is what it's going to do for their game and their life.

Jeff Jones
21:39 - 22:02
So I'm really passionate about this, but I also understand if I'm not selling it and letting them know how this will make them a better football player, a better performer, how it will give them an edge and advantage in their football life, And then I also equate it to when football's done, it's gonna give you an advantage and edge after that. So I'm really big with, number one, I gotta sell this stuff. I can't just talk about it.

Jeff Jones
22:03 - 22:31
I gotta really get them locked in on how this can make them better. And then I give it to them in bite-sized increments. I'm not over-speaking, I'm not doing these huge presentations, I'm not over-talking, because I want them to stay locked in and I understand not everybody is gonna grab onto it, not everybody's gonna take this resource and use it to elevate their life. So what I do is I don't keep score, because I know not everybody's into it.

Jeff Jones
22:32 - 23:00
But also what I know is usually it's our higher performing athletes, our higher achievers, they wanna find ways to get better. So what they do is they take that stuff. And I've gotten so much feedback from our high performers, from other guys that are seeking, trying to find ways to get better, how it's changed their life. And they are so appreciative.

Jeff Jones
23:00 - 23:18
And I've gotten a lot of feedback, even from transfers would come in, and they would be like, oh my gosh, you guys do mental performance here? Man, this is different, this is awesome. And they would love that. but also there's people that don't come close to their potential and they just don't see the value in it.

Jeff Jones
23:19 - 23:40
and that they're not locked into it, and they're not taking advantage of the resource. And that is what it is. But I'm not gonna let that affect me and how I show up. Maybe I can talk to them more and find some better ways to teach and to get to them, but I'm not gonna let that get me down because you're rarely gonna go 100 for 100 and be 100% into stuff.

Jeff Jones
23:40 - 23:45
But you just gotta keep showing up, keep teaching, keep believing, and keep attacking that way.

Spencer Horn
23:57 - 24:19
So a little while ago, you were talking about intentional reps. And we want to, you know, we want to make a jump to, you know, the professional world. And when we talk about leaders, we're not talking about, you know, necessarily a leader of the organization. But leaders are those people that are taking the opportunity that you're giving them and applying them to their life and be an example to others, in our opinion.

Spencer Horn
24:19 - 24:42
But how does a leader know the difference between going through the motions and intentionally doing the reps that you talk about? And I mean, how do I know what I'm actually doing when I'm out there pushing myself? How do I know I'm being intentional and activating the mental game or part of this as you're talking about?

Jeff Jones
24:43 - 25:00
Yeah, so here's how I'd say about that, Spencer, is number one, are you being intentional with how you shut it down the night before? Because everybody talks about AM routines, how important morning routines are. Absolutely, they are. We talk about how important today is.

Jeff Jones
25:01 - 25:21
Rep four is called attack today. Today is the most important day of your life. If every day you can wake up, put two feet on the ground and attack today and truly believe and execute, with today being the most important day of your life, imagine that version of you a year from now, or even six months from now, or even a month from now.

Jeff Jones
25:22 - 25:37
But what I'm saying about intentional reps is, PM routine. Today started last night. So, number one, how'd you shut it down? Most high performers understand the value of sleep and being well rested and recharged.

Jeff Jones
25:38 - 25:45
So what's your p.m. routine look like? Are you on your phone till 11 p.m.? Are you scrolling for three hours?

Jeff Jones
25:45 - 26:00
Are you getting that blue light into your brain so it disrupts your sleep patterns so now you can't get your deep sleep so now you're affected when you wake up? Are you watching Netflix? Are you doing other things? How are you shutting it down and are you intentional with shutting it down?

Jeff Jones
26:00 - 26:07
Because today started last night. Then we talk about aim routine. How do you start your day? Do you wake up?

Jeff Jones
26:07 - 26:17
Do you hit snooze? Do you keep hitting snooze? Do you put both feet on the ground and you just listen to how tired you are? All the negative thoughts about all the stuff you gotta do.

Jeff Jones
26:17 - 26:33
I don't wanna do this or I didn't wanna have this meeting. And are you looking through your lens, your day of a lens of I have to do those things? Well to me that's being, Lackadaisical, that's being very casual. You're not really purposeful or intentional with how you start your day.

Jeff Jones
26:34 - 26:46
So we're talking about being intentional. We're just gonna stick with PM and AM routine. An intentional PM routine is, hey, I have a 9.30 bedtime that the lights are off and I do a shutdown complete. I'm not on my phone.

Jeff Jones
26:46 - 27:31
30 minutes before that, I have a series of prayer or meditation or you have something that you do and it's very consistent and you shut it down at this time, you get your sleep, you wake up, two feet on the floor, you wake up when your alarm says it's going off, not when, you know, you don't keep hitting snooze, and then you talk to yourself. Because if you're not talking to yourself, you're listening to how tired you are, all the things you have to do, so you start talking to yourself about what you get to do, about how you're grateful, about how you're gonna attack this day, about how you're gonna dominate this, about how, you know, you just keep putting in your mind all these things that you're really grateful for, and all these things you get to do today, and then how you're going to navigate that.

Spencer Horn
27:31 - 27:39
That is great advice. I have two questions online, Christian, so let me throw them up. First is Kevin. This is for you, Jeff.

Spencer Horn
27:40 - 27:46
How does the resilience of one or two people with discipline and consistency impact the culture of a team?

Jeff Jones
27:50 - 28:12
Yeah. For sure it can, and I've seen it time and time again. When you got high performers and high achieving leaders, it's gonna affect others. But also, Kevin, in my experience too, and there's this study out there where close proximity to a low performer, they're going to drag you down 30%.

Spencer Horn
28:12 - 28:24
That's his second question. You see that. That's exactly his second question. Can a small group impact the negative energy of a large team and change the success trajectory?

Spencer Horn
28:25 - 28:28
Or is it individual sport? So yes, keep going.

Jeff Jones
28:29 - 28:52
There's no question. And then if you're around a high performer, what the study says is it only elevates 15%. So it shows the power of negativity and having your inner circle, being more lower performers or people not on the same path as you or have the same goals or values or mission as you.

Spencer Horn
28:53 - 29:03
So it sounds like that's why you're not getting after those people that are not really getting the mental part. You're just focused on the ones that are accepting it. So you're not adding to the negativity.

Jeff Jones
29:04 - 29:16
Yeah. And you know, I want to care for them and I'm there for them and I want to coach them still. I'm not going to forget about them, but I'm not going to let it ruin my day or affect how I coach others.

Spencer Horn
29:16 - 29:38
That is, that's so important. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have this problem, Jeff. I speak all over the world, and I'm much better now, but it used to be that I wanted to get everybody. And I would focus in on the one person that I could tell that I wasn't getting or reaching, and I would focus on them.

Spencer Horn
29:38 - 29:46
And it's such a bad idea, because then you lose everybody else. That's my natural tendency.

Jeff Jones
29:47 - 30:14
And that takes training though. It takes training because same with me, I would let the actions of a few affect the many. And as you grow and mature, you understand, okay, when I'm focusing on this few, I'm not able to coach and affect these other guys who are excited to be here, who are attacking, who want to be coached, who want to be better. And it's just, you know, and believe me, it still happens.

Spencer Horn
30:14 - 30:41
You got to be intentional about not reacting. So here's here's here's Xena, who has a doctorate in psychology and is an executive Coach, PCC, very impressive. What I hear you talking about, Jeff, is the psychology of performance. It is about self-awareness, which is so important, as well it is about growth mindset and understanding grit.

Jeff Jones
30:43 - 30:52
Yeah, for sure. I love what you said. A couple of things there is the self-awareness. So rep eight is awareness.

Jeff Jones
30:52 - 31:26
For me, rep eight, it's the hardest rep. I love all the reps, all of them have impacted my life, and then when I teach these reps, so if I'm just teaching rep one, mindset, and then rep five, habits. When I prepare to teach it, I'm going over everything, I'm reading everything, and it's like setting in my mind, this rep has changed my life this way. So every time I teach these reps, I'm like, yeah, this is my favorite rep, and this is why, and I actually mean it, because it's putting in all the ways that it's affected you in a positive way.

Jeff Jones
31:27 - 31:39
Rep eight, though, is not my favorite rep. because it's a really hard rep. It's really hard to have that awareness. It's really hard to look at your weaknesses.

Jeff Jones
31:39 - 32:13
It's hard to get feedback from people you care about and you're close to, how do I need to grow and how do I need to improve? And then the awareness rep also is about life is supposed to be hard. And if you think it's supposed to be easy, that might be your biggest obstacle for you leveling up because you think things are supposed to be easy. So when you also have an awareness of life is going to be hard and you just know that's how it is, you're going to have a better response to attack those hard things when they come at you compared to the person where life's supposed to be easy.

Jeff Jones
32:13 - 32:18
And when it's hard, I get shaken and it throws me off my game. So there's a lot of things that go in awareness.

Spencer Horn
32:26 - 32:27
Sorry, man, there it happened.

Christian Napier
32:27 - 32:45
Yeah, I love it. OK, so this conversation is awesome, and it's really fascinating. One of the questions I have for you, we talk a lot about, hey, and people, we hear this in the workplace, right? You've got to work harder, right?

Christian Napier
32:45 - 33:12
OK. But I'm guessing, and I'm not an expert on these things, but looking at it from a lay perspective, I look at this and say, okay, success could be a combination of effort and technique, right? And we may sell the technique short. You know, the 10 reps are basically techniques, you know, dimensions.

Christian Napier
33:12 - 33:53
And so I'm curious in your experience, you know, is the, for the people who don't make it work, are they lacking effort or are they not applying the technique correctly? Sometimes people try something, it doesn't seem to work out, they get bummed out because they don't see results right away. I gave it a shot, I tried. And maybe some of that is just a lack of patience.

Christian Napier
33:54 - 34:12
But sometimes I wonder if, you know, in today's workplace, for example, sometimes we go about trying to do things and, you know, we hit a wall and maybe we're not using the right technique. You know, I'm just curious what your, what your thoughts are about effort and technique.

Jeff Jones
34:13 - 34:20
Yeah. And are you kind of asking just of how it compares to the lower achievers that I work with, or is that where you're going there?

Christian Napier
34:22 - 34:50
Yeah, because sometimes, OK, I get up, I do the thing, I'm trying. But maybe with lifting weights or something like this, technique can have a big impact on the results. Maybe I'm doing the thing incorrectly. And so I'm curious, when it comes to the mental stuff, you know, where technique has a role.

Christian Napier
34:50 - 35:06
Because I, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm trying really hard and I'm exhausted at the end of the day. And I'm not really seeing the results that I'm looking for. And maybe it's not because of lack of effort. Maybe my technique is poor, you know.

Jeff Jones
35:07 - 35:22
Yeah. OK. Christian, I got you here. The way I would look at that is I would say that the mental game, It's hard to measure because you can't see a lot of the things.

Jeff Jones
35:23 - 35:39
Whereas in strength and conditioning, you do a thousand squats, you're gonna see that. That makes sense, I'm gonna get stronger, right? We know that. In the mental game, if I do a thousand gratitude reps, We don't necessarily, it's invisible.

Jeff Jones
35:39 - 35:59
Like we know it, we're in our head. And if we don't see impacts maybe in that moment or with habits, we get very impatient with habits. And if we don't see those reps, I think it's hard for people to see the compound effect over a period of time, how that could impact them. because sometimes we just want results right now.

Jeff Jones
35:59 - 36:31
I did this this moment, I did this rep, I did this habit, I'm not getting a return in this moment, so maybe it's not working or it's not effective. So I think impatience is one thing. I think it's hard to see, you know, but I'm telling you, stacking these reps, stacking these days with being intentional over a period of time, you will see the difference. But I think sometimes people try to implement new things or try to do something they haven't done before.

Jeff Jones
36:31 - 36:36
And then within a couple of days, they don't see a difference. They don't think it works, and they're done. I have seen that happen.

Spencer Horn
36:39 - 36:51
So you've been part of these championship teams, you know, Boise State, Auburn, Appalachian State. So what did the coaches of these championship teams maybe do that was different than the competition?

Jeff Jones
36:53 - 36:54
Well.

Spencer Horn
36:55 - 36:59
And how they're leading the people and how they're guiding the teams.

Jeff Jones
36:59 - 37:14
What I would say is I think... I mean, that's a great question because I think there's a lot of good stuff going on out there right now. I think there's a lot of really good coaches. Even when we were winning those championships, I think the teams we were competing with had great coaches, great cultures.

Jeff Jones
37:14 - 37:35
So I'll just speak on what I thought some of the coaches I worked with did really well. And when I talk about the time at Boise State is we had Chris Peterson, and he's a Hall of Fame college football coach. In my mind, he's the best college football coach in the last 20 plus years. What he did so well is he was super detailed.

Jeff Jones
37:36 - 37:49
He had super high standards, but he also had a lot of support for everybody in the organization and on the team. He cared for people. He was down to earth. He didn't think he was above people and he cared for them.

Jeff Jones
37:49 - 38:03
And he had this, you know, he had a growth mindset. He's always trying to find ways to get better. And he was very intentional about creating a culture. He was very intentional about creating connection and building bonds on that team.

Jeff Jones
38:03 - 38:30
And that's what I believe a lot of these coaches, these championship coaches do better, is I think they're all kind of trying to do that. I think they all understand that culture matters, connection matters, how you care for your people matters. But if you can't do that consistently, I, it doesn't matter. And what Coach Peterson did, is he did that so consistently.

Jeff Jones
38:30 - 38:59
Because same thing, everybody knows culture, connection, high standards, details, they know those things matter. But can you show up day after day, can you believe in those things, can you keep reinforcing the standard, and when the standard's not met, you address it, but then just the daily, brutal consistency of being exactly who you are, and living out those values, showing up at your best, And then you stack those. I was at Boise State six years.

Jeff Jones
38:59 - 39:02
You stack those. Yeah, you can have multiple championships.

Spencer Horn
39:02 - 39:13
Can you give an example of how Coach Peterson and you create those moments of connections? I mean, you have an example. You don't have to give names. But how would that happen?

Spencer Horn
39:13 - 39:25
Because you're a busy head coach and taking time to connect with each of your players, this is a really, really important concept. But I want to hear if there's a story that you could share of how that was done.

Jeff Jones
39:26 - 39:37
Well, even just for my sake, I'm a 22-year-old graduate assistant, 23 years old at Boise. I was at Division III. I'm going to Boise. I mean, I know nothing.

Jeff Jones
39:37 - 39:59
I think I know something, but I don't know anything now looking back. And for the head football coach to know your name, to ask about you, where you're from, and then to speak to you and just be respectful for you shows you who Chris Peterson was. And some people might say, what's that? Say like, that's who he is.

Jeff Jones
40:01 - 40:17
So the way he made me feel as a 23-year-old GA, imagine every player on our team, he knows them. He knows their family. But not only does he know them and know their family, he genuinely cares about you. He cares about you as a person.

Jeff Jones
40:18 - 40:36
just as much as your production on the field. And I would say probably more about you as a person. And then when people know that, what that can do for your mindset, for your belief, for how you show up. It's just so powerful and it sounds very simple.

Jeff Jones
40:37 - 40:42
But believe me, that's not how every head coach is.

Spencer Horn
40:44 - 41:06
So the number one reason why people leave an organization comes down to four words. People do not matter. If you turn that around, what's interesting is, how many times have we talked about the two things that cause people to love Christian? Their job, the work.

Spencer Horn
41:06 - 41:32
The number one thing is that they know that they matter, they know that they're making a contribution, and they are valued for that contribution. What's the best way that you can do that? It's just what you're talking about. It's for the leader to not be above anyone, but to care for, to know who you are, the contributions that you make, and letting you know that you do that.

Spencer Horn
41:33 - 41:46
How does that make you feel when that coach says, hey, really appreciate that extra mile that you're taking, Jeff, and notices when you do that? What does that do to you?

Jeff Jones
41:47 - 41:55
Yeah, I mean, Spencer, think about that. How long did that interaction just take there for you to appreciate me and let me know that? Took 10 seconds.

Spencer Horn
41:55 - 41:56
30 seconds, yeah.

Jeff Jones
41:56 - 42:13
Yeah, right? I mean, you could do it for 30 seconds, you could do it for 15 seconds. But just showing genuine care, using somebody's name, highlighting something positive that they did in the process, right? Fostering that growth mindset.

Jeff Jones
42:15 - 42:24
I call it free fuel. And this is from Lee Cockrell, who used to work at Disney. He calls it free fuel. The fuel that drives human performance.

Jeff Jones
42:24 - 42:41
Appreciation, recognition, and encouragement. And if you can just be more intentional with appreciation, recognition, encouragement, you're fueling people to a higher performance.

Spencer Horn
42:41 - 42:58
It's coming. Wait, wait, wait. I pressed it in time, Christian. You just didn't respond, man.

Christian Napier
42:58 - 43:12
Come on. I was going to say, Spencer, we've got a few more comments. You might want to queue them up and questions. But while that's going on, one of the questions that I've got is, and again, this is coming from a lay person's perspective.

Christian Napier
43:12 - 43:19
So I could be completely wrong, right? Because fans usually are on most things. We don't know what's happening in the locker room. We don't know what's going on in the program.

Christian Napier
43:20 - 43:49
You just see results on the field, and then you start making all kinds of assumptions. So one of the things that's been kind of controversial around here with a couple of local universities over the past few years, maybe not as much, but teams that go through a lot of injuries, right? They're like, wow, a lot of people are blowing out knees or, you know, injuring shoulders or whatever it is. And so the fingers start getting pointed, like, well, what's going on?

Christian Napier
43:49 - 44:29
And oftentimes they get pointed to the strength and conditioning program. Like, hey, you know, who cares if my quarterback can squat 600 pounds or whatever it is, you know? It doesn't matter because he's, he's out with an injury and so all that work for nothing and maybe our strength and conditioning folks should have focused more on pliability and stuff like this to limit the injuries. When it comes to the mental aspect of things here and the 10 reps, you know, One of the questions that I just have in my mind is, how do we ensure that we are clear about the outcomes that we're trying to achieve, right?

Christian Napier
44:29 - 44:45
Like, okay, we're trying to achieve performance on the field. We're not trying to get our football players entered into bodybuilding competitions, right? Like, we're really focused on the performance. And so, you know, this may sound kind of silly, right?

Christian Napier
44:45 - 45:22
But when it comes to the mental aspects, when it comes to leadership, it's like, you know, sometimes we go through these things and maybe we're not clear about the outcomes we're trying to achieve here. And we end up going down some weird paths, you know? And so, I'm curious in the work that you do, not just in football, but also with other organizations and leaders. How do you help them make sure that what they're trying to do is actually aligned with the outcomes they're trying to achieve and they don't get misaligned, if that makes any sense?

Jeff Jones
45:22 - 45:46
Yeah, so we'll focus on the football part. You know, you talked about all the injuries and all that stuff. Yeah, you know, as a strength and conditioning coach, that is a part of your responsibility. And I know there's a lot of factors that goes into injuries, but as a strength coach, my deal is we should never do any harm and we need to have a sound process that is gonna build protection with our athletes.

Jeff Jones
45:46 - 46:18
Okay, so that's our responsibility. And then, you know, like we're talking about Are we chasing and are we investing in the right things? So for me as a coach, just because the way it's always been done, that doesn't mean it's the right way to do it. And if you're still doing it in the 80s and 90s or even early 2000s, you're probably getting left behind and you're probably not paying attention to what the most optimal way to train somebody is.

Jeff Jones
46:18 - 46:24
So I think you gotta have a growth mindset. Are you learning? Are you growing? Are you trying to improve?

Jeff Jones
46:24 - 46:39
And then also though, too, is the awareness piece. Are you evaluating each year your program, your plan? Are you looking at ways you can make it better? And then you gotta have the awareness to evaluate and take a hard look at, can this be better?

Jeff Jones
46:39 - 46:58
But then also, are you still trying to make it better by going to different courses, by going to conventions, by doing those things. So I think that piece is really important. And then what I think too, is just keep the main thing, the main thing. And simple wins, simple's powerful.

Jeff Jones
46:59 - 47:20
And I really think if we try to get too complex and we try to put too much fluff out there, I think that's gonna get in the way of action, execution. And I would just challenge you, how can you simplify this? Can you still get the job done with simplifying it? And do we need all the complexity or the extra stuff and this and that?

Spencer Horn
47:21 - 47:48
Well, I think that really helps them integrate those habits that you're teaching them, right? If they can remember them and they're doing it every day, then it actually becomes part of their life, not just, am I being more explosive now? Am I integrating ideas that are going to impact my entire life? And we see that with a lot of people coming out of the military.

Spencer Horn
47:48 - 48:14
They've just had these habits drilled into them that you talk about in morning and evening routine are so important. I want to go back, you know, Kevin asked this question and, you know, we were talking about how even a few people can really pull down the attitude or the performance. In warfare and in business, there's this idea of the fog of war. Have you ever heard of that?

Spencer Horn
48:15 - 48:46
where you may be experiencing in your part of the offensive or defensive line a failure, but you're winning the play or you're winning the battle, but where you are, you're struggling. And so you've got this 20% of the group are creating these problems. How do you protect the entire team from a few people that have a negative attitude? Do you get rid of them?

Spencer Horn
48:46 - 49:01
I mean, how do you manage that? Because it could destroy a culture very, very quickly. I personally have experienced that in business where a few people have been the downfall of an entire organization and even my success as a leader.

Jeff Jones
49:02 - 49:26
Yeah, I can't remember where I heard this, but I'm thinking you train them or you trade them. So you train them up. And if you can't train them, you gotta trade them. And then you guys, I don't know if you've heard of the Urban Meyer 108010 principle in his book with Tim Kite, Above the Line, where they talk about high-performing teams and just teams in general.

Jeff Jones
49:26 - 49:40
You have your top 10% guys where anybody could coach, they're the highest performers, they're elite of the elite. Every day they show up, you know exactly what they're getting. Then you have 80%. and the 80% makes up most of the team.

Jeff Jones
49:41 - 50:20
You can elevate those guys, but if you can get your 80% to grow into the top 10, so now you have a top 15, top 20, top 30%, obviously you're gonna have a higher performing team. But then, it is what it is, most teams are gonna have a bottom 10%. And the bottom 10% are your lower achievers, they're the ones that drive you crazy, they're the ones that aren't getting it, they're not being coachable, they're not picking it up, they're so inconsistent, they're defiant. And what you gotta decide is, number one, can we train them up and can we coach them and affect them?

Jeff Jones
50:20 - 50:45
And there's some bottom 10%ers, maybe you can. And then there's some bottom 10%ers that that time spent coaching them would be better invested to try to get some of those 80 percenters to the top 10 because sometimes these bottom 10 percenters, they just ain't going to change. And then you got to have that, you know, that, that a decision usually has to be made if you're going to keep them, if you're gonna let them go, if how you're going to move on.

Christian Napier
50:50 - 51:00
Well, gosh, I look at the clock and 50 minutes have passed by already. Where did this time go? Yeah, we have so much more to talk about, Christian. I know.

Christian Napier
51:00 - 51:08
And Kevin asked a really important question. Is this information available in a book or a publication?

Jeff Jones
51:09 - 51:10
How can I study more?

Christian Napier
51:11 - 51:16
So we're going to tee up here, Jeff.

Jeff Jones
51:16 - 51:36
Yeah. I never intended on writing a book, and the seed was planted five years ago. I had one of my assistant coaches I was working with, and he goes, you should write a book, because I would do a lot of professional development, I would do this metal performance stuff with the staff, we would do it with the team, and he's like, you should write a book.

Christian Napier
51:37 - 51:40
And in that moment, I'm like, ah, I'm not gonna write a book.

Jeff Jones
51:40 - 51:59
So what I did though is I put together these workbooks and I was refining these 10 reps. And each year we would teach it and I would refine it and I would make it better. And I had enough people in my network that are like, Jones, you need to publish this. This is a legit, you can publish this book.

Jeff Jones
51:59 - 52:16
And then finally, somebody got me in touch with Game Changer Publishing. I called them up and they published this book. And the book is The Intentional Edge. And it's the intentional hedge, because we say this all the time, is reps don't get you better.

Jeff Jones
52:16 - 52:29
Every single day we are putting in reps. How you get better is intentional reps. And intentional reps, that is your edge. The edge against your competition, that's your edge against yourself.

Jeff Jones
52:29 - 52:57
Like every day, we're trying to be better today than we were yesterday. Well, how can I be better today is I can be more intentional. I can be more intentional with how I wake up, with how I connect, with how I lead, with how I show up, with what I put in my body, with the exercise, with who I talk to, how I execute my GSD list, whatever it is, the more intentional we are and the more we can be mindful of being more intentional, the better we're going to become.

Jeff Jones
52:57 - 53:14
And I'm so sold on this. I've seen it time and time again. And the way I look at this book is it's your mental performance training center. Hey, we know if we want to become more physically fit, you have to train two to three, four times a week.

Jeff Jones
53:14 - 53:29
We know that. If I wanna increase my mental fitness, we have to train our mind. And we can't read something once, or you can't say, oh, I heard, I know what focus is. Or I know what the word ownership means.

Jeff Jones
53:30 - 53:43
Okay, you know what that means, how are you putting in your reps for ownership? And in the book, there's ways to get your reps in. There's questions, there's drills. I challenge you because I'm challenging myself.

Jeff Jones
53:43 - 53:51
I'm not perfect at this, but it's affected me. It's affected a lot of other lives in a positive way. And I'm still trying to upgrade. There's so much more room for me to grow.

Jeff Jones
53:52 - 54:07
And that's why I love this stuff is because you see that. And it's, you know, we talk, like you said, Spencer, mental toughness, it's not talked about. It's something that has to be trained. Same with the body, same with our mind.

Jeff Jones
54:07 - 54:25
So this book is something that I read daily. There's drills on there. And just because you read something once doesn't mean you remember it or doesn't mean you live it. So instead of saying, oh yeah, I know that or I heard that, ask yourself, am I living that?

Jeff Jones
54:26 - 54:31
How can I do this better in my life so I can improve, so I can grow?

Spencer Horn
54:34 - 54:53
Hold on. It's really slow today. Well, Kevin calls himself the Chief Encouragement Officer, the CEO. Yeah.

Christian Napier
54:54 - 54:57
Nice to have you with us, Zena and Kevin and whoever else is here.

Spencer Horn
54:59 - 55:06
Free fuel. Christian, where are we at in the show, man? What's that? Yeah?

Spencer Horn
55:08 - 55:12
I do have a lightning round. Are you ready for it? Let's do it. Yeah.

Spencer Horn
55:12 - 55:25
OK. So here's what's going to happen, Jeff. Just one short question, short answer, maybe one word, just a short phrase. One word that describes elite team culture.

Jeff Jones
55:28 - 55:29
Intentional.

Spencer Horn
55:29 - 55:32
Discipline or motivation, which builds more?

Jeff Jones
55:33 - 55:46
Discipline, but motivation is important because you got to know what's in your heart and what drives you. So motivation is important and understand motivation as a daily decision, and it's your job to motivate you.

Spencer Horn
55:47 - 55:49
That's what gets you moving right out of bed.

Jeff Jones
55:49 - 55:50
Absolutely.

Spencer Horn
55:50 - 55:57
Yep. The rep most leaders skip. 8, 9, and 10.

Jeff Jones
55:58 - 56:08
Yeah, I would say honestly awareness because it's the hardest one and they're, you know, they're all impactful but awareness to take a hard look at yourself and know the areas you got to improve at and then go attack that.

Spencer Horn
56:09 - 56:13
Love that. Best mental performance advice you ever received?

Jeff Jones
56:21 - 56:48
Anything above zero compounds. So you have habits, you have reps, and by you not doing those, just anything above zero, where there's some intentionality behind it, no matter how small, it's gonna compound. So you still have to go, and you still have to attack, and you still gotta put your rep in.

Spencer Horn
56:50 - 56:53
Finish the sentence, great teamwork happens when?

Jeff Jones
56:56 - 56:58
when you're highly prepared and connected?

Spencer Horn
57:01 - 57:04
Your personal daily non-negotiable rep?

Jeff Jones
57:05 - 57:06
Mindset.

Spencer Horn
57:08 - 57:11
A book every leader should read besides yours?

Jeff Jones
57:11 - 57:17
I would say Arate by Brian Johnson.

Spencer Horn
57:18 - 57:25
Arate. Pressure reveals or destroys, which do you believe?

Jeff Jones
57:27 - 57:41
Well, it reveals those who are mentally tough about, how about this? It reveals who you really are, whether you're mentally tough or whether you're fragile, it's gonna reveal it.

Spencer Horn
57:41 - 57:46
The moment that tested your mental toughness the most besides this show?

Jeff Jones
57:48 - 58:10
I would say the moment that tested my mental toughness the most would be in 2019 when I was a director at Appalachian State. And just, you know, it was one of the most winningest years I've had on the field. But internally, I wasn't being authentic to who I was. And I let other people dictate my mindset.

Jeff Jones
58:10 - 58:19
So like that was that required the most mental toughness. And I felt like I didn't, I wasn't intentional with those reps.

Spencer Horn
58:20 - 58:31
Appreciate that answer. What do you know now that you wish you had, what do you know now that you wish you had known in your first year of coaching?

Jeff Jones
58:35 - 58:53
That people matter. It's great to learn about scheme, X's and O's. It's great to learn about the technical and tactical, but what matters most is the people and how you show up for them every day.

Christian Napier
58:55 - 59:08
That's it. That was fantastic. It's been an awesome hour here. If people want to find your book, if they want to connect with you, Jeff, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Jeff Jones
59:09 - 59:26
Yeah, the book is just on Amazon. It's The Intentional Edge, 10 Reps to Mental Toughness. If you wanna reach out, I have a website, coachjeffjones.com, hit that up. And then just Instagram, I'm coach underscore Jeff Jones.

Christian Napier
59:28 - 59:37
All right, fantastic. We'll make sure to put the appropriate links in the show notes and everything. So Jeff, thank you for an incredible hour. I mean, it's been really, really fascinating.

Christian Napier
59:37 - 59:45
I personally learned a lot here. I'm going to go get this book right away. Listeners and viewers, you should do the same. Thank you, Jeff, for this hour.

Christian Napier
59:45 - 59:51
And thank you, listeners and viewers, for joining us today. We really appreciate you. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. We'll catch you again soon.