Mentality Monsters

We're back! Kyle and I had to take a pause because Q1 of 2022 was a roller coaster for both of us. 

Maintaining an awareness of and appreciation for all the things you do well is critical to creating fulfillment and building confidence. Reflecting on your wins helps you be more effective now and in the future. In this episode, we recount our biggest wins in the first quarter of the year and look ahead to what's next. 

Note - If you're not into the NFL, skip to 14:30 to skip the football talk at the beginning of the episode

Aaron Bio

Aaron Jannetti is a husband, father, teacher, business owner, and life long student. Co-owner of Endeavor Defense and Fitness, author of How to Survive and Active Killer, and creator of the Active Shooter Response and Knife Control Concepts programs. He has been training and teaching various forms of martial arts and defensive tactics for fourteen years. He has ranked and trained in Krav Maga, BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing, Kickboxing, Firearms, and more. Over his career he has had the pleasure of teaching in more than thirty states and 3 countries. To this day he continues to train and evolve as a leader, teacher, and practitioner.

Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/jannettiaaron/

https://twitter.com/jannettiaaron/

Websites

https://aaronjannetti.wordpress.com/

www.endeavordcf.com

Unfortunately, our prediction was wrong. Cincinnati did not win the Super Bowl. Here's to hoping they bounce back next year! 

Speaking of which, how do teams bounce back from such crushing losses? In this episode, we discuss the best ways to overcome major setbacks. We talk about ways we personally overcome the loser mentality in our lives and also talk about the advice Joe Burrow received from another star QB who has some experiencing losing in the big game (no, I'm not talking about Tom Brady).

Today we speak with Pascale Atallah. 

Pascale came into the personal development and mindset space during her time as a powerlifting competitor. That’s when she realized that this work translates to every area of life. She transferred her personal development and mindset work into her male dominated STEM field. She helped develop diversity equity and inclusion training, and has been hosting workshops for women to help them connect mind, body, spirit and to connect with what it is they truly want.

Pascale is an amazing individual. Our conversation was enlightening and fun. We hope you enjoy! 

Tom Brady finally hung up his cleats. Nick Wright and Max Kellerman are in shambles - they can no longer rely on "Brady is finally done!" takes fueling their late fall content. 

Today Kyle and I discuss what made Brady so special. We also touch on how he fundamentally changed football and the NFL - from being the reason the NFL moved away from shirtless pictures at the combine to setting a bar so high that QBs now have to win 4 or 5 Super Bowls to be considered the second greatest of all time. 

If you enjoy what we do, please like, subscribe, leave us a rating and a comment, and share with a friend. 

Kyle does a lot of venting in this episode. The USMNT didn't have a great showing in it's last three games. The players look uninspired and like they don't know what to do. The US Soccer federation is making cowardly decisions. And Gregg with two gs might not be the guy. Very different tone than last week's USMNT discussion. Enjoy! 

P.S. - We both still believe that we will win

We discuss the AFC and NFC championship games, why the Bengals have been so successful in the playoffs (hint - it has a lot to do with Joe Burrow's mentality and approach), and why we believe the Bengals will win the Super Bowl. 

Enjoy! 

The US Men's National Team is gearing up for another round of World Cup qualifying this week. They play El Salvador on Thursday January 27th, a huge game at Canada on Sunday January 30th, and wrap up their trio of matches with a home game against Honduras on Wednesday February 2nd.

In this episode we talk about what makes this USMNT so special, the future prospects of the national team as a whole, as well as the future prospects of the outstanding young players on the team. We also continue out discussion about great coaches with an assessment of Gregg Berhalter's performance thus far, and a prediction for what we can expect from him in 2022. 

Enjoy!   

In this episode, we discuss last week's amazing NFL games. We focus on the games themselves AND the coaches that participated in them. 

The great coaches embody 4 foundational pillars of coaching. These pillars enable them to build and maintain generational teams that reach the pinnacles of sport. We can take what these coaches do and translate it into our own lives, so that we too may climb the mountains of our personal and professional lives. 

The 4 pillars are:

1. Recognition of a player’s ability with respect to results
2. Mutual recognition of the team’s mood
3. Mutuality of purpose 
4. Mutuality of values

This episode’s Mentality Monster is Erika Lalwer, member of the 2010 US Women’s National Hockey Team. We speak with her about growing up and reaching the pinnacle of her sport, what an Olympic hockey team locker room looks and feels like, and how she stays motivated now that her Olympic career is behind her.

Enjoy!

We're back! Kyle and I both took a break over Christmas and leading into the new year. We get together to catch up and ramble about what we learned, sports, and where we see things going in 2022. 

Today, we have a winding conversation with Mark England about identity and how the language we use in the stories we tell ourselves can shape our lives for better or, if we're not careful, for worse. 

Mark England has professionally coached thousands of clients worldwide using the power of words and stories for over a  decade. He holds an BA in business and a Master's in Education. Mark is  the co-founder of Procabulary and is a lifelong personal development  enthusiast.

Enlifted Coaching Program and Community - https://coaches.enlifted.me/

Core Language Upgrade - https://courses.procabulary.org/p/core-language-upgrade

Mark's TEDx Talk - Identity vs. Process: Reinterpreting Failure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-6as-5dxSs

Today we touch on Wanting vs. Needing.

When you're doing the things you want, you're free of all pressure and expectations. You're internally motivated.

When you're doing things you need to do, you're setting yourself up for failure.

Adjusting our thinking to prioritize wants over needs is a small change that leads to major results.

Sports teams that focus on playing the game how they want to play it instead of being forced to play it how they need to are amongst the most successful in their respective sports.

Timestamps

(0:00) Intro

(0:45) Liking Minus Wanting Compared to Wanting vs. Needing

(2:10) Gluttony Hinders Self Mastery

(3:20) Nick Saban is a Master of Focusing on the Next Step

(4:45) Wants Based Outcomes Lead to Satisfaction and Purpose

(7:20) The Importance of Accuracy - Never Leave it to the Judges

(9:10) Wanting vs. Needing in Sports

(10:00) 20 Passes Before You Shot (Want) vs. The Buzzer Beater (Need)

(15:15) Peyton Manning Couldn't Win in the Playoffs Because of a Needs Based Approach

(17:30) Belichick's Secret - Take Away Needs

(19:10) Doplhins "Need" a Quarterback

(19:45) Great Coaches Create and Protect Wants Based Cultures

(20:20) Selling is Underrated

(22:00) Pep Guardiola's Mastery Over Want vs. Need

(24:30) The Coach and Player In Your Own Mind

(25:30) Discipline = Freedom

(27:15) Evaluate Your Day by Simplified Wants

(30:00) Guardiola's Team is The World's Most Expensive Watch

(33:00) Conclusion

In this episode, we focus on the impact that our coaches had on our lives. Which coaches taught us lessons that still impact us today - 15+ years later? More importantly, why do their lessons stick with us? 

We also talk about the power of swimming as a form of meditation. Something we didn't realize until we reflected deeply on our swimming careers.

Kyle also tells some funny stories about rooting against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving and turning one of the swimmers he coached into a courier that kept him appraised of the scores in critical 2012 Giants playoff games. 

Enjoy! 

Timestamps

(0:00) Intro

(3:25) Kyle's Artsy Thanksgiving

(6:30) Kyle's Creative Solution to Following Giants Games without Twitter

(12:50) Reflections on Our Swimming Careers and Coaches

(18:30) Swimming as a form of Meditation

(24:15) You vs. You

(28:50) Tom Coughlin's "Love" Speech

Welcome to Mentality Monster shorts! 

These episodes are rapid fire examples of current sports events that align with and reinforce the ideas and concepts we dig deep into in our standard episodes. 

Today we're discussing powerful displays of identity - the "who we are" - of two top athletes: Von Miller and Carli Lloyd. 

In this episode, we discuss why we stepped away for a few weeks. 

For a little over two weeks, we took a moment of pause to reflect on who we are as a podcast, our core beliefs, and what we want to accomplish with this show. 

It's important to reflect openly and honestly on your identity and how you want to present that identity to the world. This episode is a peak behind the curtain into our process and a declaration of who we will be moving forward. 

In this episode we interview Angelo Sisco, a mentality monster in every sense of the word. Angelo joins us to discuss his mindset, the successes and failures he's had in life, developing rituals that supercharge his day, and adding by subtracting. 

Angelo is a coach that focuses on helping men define and design the life they want to live. Find out more about him and his program by using the links below:

Website - https://www.iamalphahippie.com/

Podcast - https://www.iamalphahippie.com/podcast/

Timestamps

(0:00) Welcome & Introduction to Angelo Sisco

(1:30) Angelo's Belief System - Self Talk

(9:30) Developing the Nurturing Inner Voice

(10:55) "Road to Hell" Motivators

(16:00) Reaction to Failure

(20:50) The Success Created by Combining the Masculine and Feminine Inner Voices

(22:00) Rituals, not Routines

(24:20) Recognition Ritual

(38:30) The Alpha Hippie Program

(46:40) Weed the Weeds - Addition by Subtraction

(51:35) Wrap Up

In this episode, we overcome the echo of Kyle's mic and discuss the lessons several of our favorite past and present mentality monsters can teach us about how to be successful.

Success leaves clues, and these mentality monsters openly hand out the clues to achieving greatness.

We welcome all feedback! Please send feedback to mentality.monsters.podcast@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Timestamps

(0:00) Welcome

(2:00) Master Shi Hang Yi & The Foundation

(2:40) Ronaldo and Brady

(6:10) Success Leaves Clues

(8:35) Jarvis Landry - Commitment to the Process & Protecting the Mindset

(15:50) Connor MacGregor - The Power of Vision & The Pitfalls of Achieving It

(22:10) Roger Bannister - Changing the Reference Level, Living the Angle, & Molding Your Environment

(30:30) Deliberate Practice

(32:15) Michael Phelps - Satisfaction with the Effort & Low Time Preference

(35:55) Wrap Up

Today we discuss the podcast's namesake. Where does the term Mentality Monster come from, and how does it relate to improving our lives? 

We also discuss the power of having a strong vision to guide you. We are drawn to and inspired by compelling visions because they empower us to believe that we can achieve something that is greater than our current reality. Visions are not held back by self-limiting beliefs. They focus only on what can be.

Key Topics:

- Mentality Monsters

- Visions

- The Perfect Day Exercise

- Daily Affirmations

- Vision Boards

Summary

Mentality Monsters is for anyone interested in studying the psychology of success through the lens of sports. So many self help influencers, books, and courses tell you what you have to do to be successful. Few tell you who you have to be. We strive to uncover what it takes to build a successful identity so that you can create your own identity of success.

Today we're introducing ourselves to the world by talking about captains. In sports, the captain is the player that leads the team by setting the tone on the field and commanding the culture in the locker room. Captains are stars. Heroes. Magicians. They deserve their position because they are the ones the team calls upon when the circumstances are most dire. They are the ones whose shear talent alone can take over a game and will their team to victory.

Or are they? Are stars the best captains? Does talent alone make one a great leader, or is there something more? We think so.

Timestamps

0:00 Introductions

4:10 The Captain Class

6:40 Author's criteria for elite teams

9:10 Popularly accepted determinants of a team's success

10:40 Why we believe the coach and org dictate team's success

13:00 Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't eat custard

15:00 Yogi Berra's lack of self limiting stories

19:37 The Mastery Mindset

24:44 The 7 traits of successful captains

26:08 Trait 1 - Extreme doggedness and focus in competition

33:25 Trait 2 - Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules

36:50 Trait 3 - A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows

43:10 Trait 4 - A low key, practical, and democratic communication style

51:10 Trait 5 - Strong convictions and courage to stand apart

55:45 Traits 6 & 7 - Motivates others with passionate non-verbal displays & Ironclad emotional control

1:00:00 Our favorite traits

1:01:27 Leonidas in 300 is an elite captain

Source Material

The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams by Sam Walker