Episode 5 - Mind Gym by Gary Mack

In this episode, we dive into Mind Gym by Gary Mack—a classic in the world of mental performance that’s just as relevant for entrepreneurs and business leaders as it is for elite athletes.

Mack’s core premise is simple but powerful: your mindset is the ultimate competitive advantage. Talent and skill can only take you so far—how you think, how you handle pressure, and how you respond to setbacks are what truly separate top performers from everyone else.

We break down the key lessons from the book, including how to build mental toughness, stay focused in high-stakes situations, and reframe challenges into opportunities. More importantly, we explore how these principles apply outside of sports—into business, leadership, and everyday decision-making.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, second-guessed yourself, or struggled to stay consistent when things get tough, this conversation will give you practical ways to strengthen your mental game and perform at a higher level.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Welcome to Stacks and Strategies where we go through stacks of books and pull out the strategies for business owners to apply. We're three business owners and advisors that work with small and medium-sized businesses on a regular basis. We've come together to share our passion for learning and in particular business learning. Knowing that business owners are very busy, their time to read is sometimes limited, and the volume of books makes it difficult to know what to read and what not to read. We still recommend reading for all business owners. If we can accelerate the process or reduce some of the effort, then we know our local businesses will improve. Our goal is to highlight the quality of the content and help the reader know if it applies to them. In short, our purpose is to cut through that uncertainty so the listener can choose to apply as we have shared, choose to learn more or move on to some other topic so that they can improve their business in their lives. I'm John Davis, a business coach with action coach, and I know the businesses grow to the level of the owner. By learning, we improve. So I want to support that growth through learning. I work with owners to provide clarity on their destination, how they're going to get there, what they need to learn to be successful and achieve their goals. So, Wendy, would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Okay, my name is Wendy Pace with Pace Setting Media, where marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. We're here to help businesses meet their potential clients and clients that they have online on the social media platforms that they utilize.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Hi, I'm Jess Viegas, principal at Acuity Business Consulting. Acuity demystifies the challenge of translating talent and resources into exceptional and sustainable organizational performance by surfacing actionable clarity and providing execution expertise in the areas of strategic design, financial management, operational excellence, and leadership development so that leadership can confidently navigate their organizations towards next level performance.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Alrighty. So here we go. Next book, book number seven, was my choice. So I'm gonna lead this discussion. And it was Mind Gym, M-I-N-D, Gym by Gary Mack. Uh it was recommended to me by a uh a fellow softball coach. It's really written for athletes. And I've always been intrigued in the concept of competitive sports and how that can develop us as individuals and what we can learn and how we can apply that to business, because there are a lot of parallels. So I thought, well, I'm gonna go out on a limb and we're gonna take something that's not really a business book and say, okay, how can it fit for businesses? So I took a leap here and I said, let's go with this book and let's give it a shot. And you know, for me, again, I coach softball, so I thought it was interesting. I wanted to read it anyway, so let's try it. So with that instead, I I'll just give a highlight just of what the book is. It was probably written, I I should have looked at the date. I'm gonna speculate late 90s, early 2000s, based upon the dates of uh the anecdotes were shared. Basically, there's a lot of lessons shared by Gary Mack, who's a sports psychologist who's worked with the Arizona Cardinals and a lot of other uh baseball teams, a lot of baseball, football, but a lot of other references, a lot of golf and tennis references in there. And there's a lot of quotes, there's a lot of anecdotes, there's a lot of stories, but in there he created several messages, probably 20 plus different little themes and messages that were reinforced by his work and his experience with these athletes. So that's the premise of the book. It's important to note the date, again, the the time frame of when it was written, particularly with some of his examples. So rather than me hug all the time up front, I'm gonna ask the first question I'm gonna ask everybody is what was your favorite part of this book? And I'm gonna pick on Wendy first because I know that's gonna be hard for.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Um okay. I did not like the book.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Let's get that out of there.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Yeah, let's let's let's just put that out there. I didn't like the book. It was a struggle for me. And part of the struggle is I'm not into sports. So all of the sports references, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get through it. Give me the meat.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

But we're here, we're we're talking about your favorite part.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

All right, so my favorite part. That's that's the hard part. I would say the overall message of the book is what I will say I liked.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

The spirit of it.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

The spirit of the book is what I liked. Can I understand how having the sports mentality of it and business, how they coincide? Yes, I get it. I got hit over the head with it, but I get it. So we'll say that the mindset that the book is trying to put you in and the way that athletes need to come into the game is the same way you need to come into business. So that's what I'll say. I like.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Well, thank you. I know it was a stretch for you.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

It was.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

I was thinking about you as we were reading it for sure. Jess, how about you? What was your favorite part?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah. So first I'm gonna tell you what I wanted my favorite part to be, and then I'll tell you what my favorite part was. I wanted my favorite part to be is the anecdotes. I I appreciate anecdotes because they help tie, whether it's about sports or anything else, they help tie the concept, make it easier to remember. But these were less sports anecdotes than really validations of the work that the guy was doing. And so there was no reason to bring up a particular baseball player if he didn't particularly help him. Right. Right. So I thought I was gonna get a radio version or a radio over-the-air version of several baseball books that I've read. And uh it wasn't that. So I would say that I wanted that to be your favorite part. I would say my favorite part was though, is appreciating that uh looking at the time frame for this back in the 90s. What I came to realize is a lot of the messaging seemed pretty not not tired, but a lot of rote information. And then I realized, well, back in the 90s, this is probably pretty fresh. And if you think about it, there's a million books now that talk about all this kind of stuff in so many different settings. So what you realize that it makes the book seem a little trait to me now.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

But it probably, I don't know this for a fact, it's probably a little groundbreaking in terms of you know how you sort of see what you want into existence. And now, you know, there's a lot of those types of things that are happening. So I would say my favorite type of the book is the general message, like Wendy, but also the appreciation for for how it might have opened the door for a lot of other ways to think about business.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I think context of the books, just all the books that we've talked about, right? Even you know, Think and Grow Rich or, you know, uh Richest Man in Babylon. Actually, we haven't done Think and Grow Rich. That's on my list. Richest Man in Babylon, things like that. Like context of when they came about matters. So for me, it was the the quotes from what I'm gonna call household names, right? Now we're all, you know, I'll say it, middle-aged, somebody who's in their 18, 20 years old, they're gonna be like, I don't know some of those names. But for me, it was hearing those quotes. And also what I appreciate as a sports fan is you know, we see these athletes do incredible things. Tiger Woods, you know, Mark Maguire, take the steroids thing out, right? Mark Maguire, Barry Bonds, great pitchers, athletes of all generations. Jack Nicholas, there's a lot of golf quotes in there, Jack Nicholas, and realizing when they talked about their success, how they were really talking, it was the mindset piece. Right? It wasn't their success, wasn't because they were they certainly they had physical strengths, faster, stronger, they could throw harder, they could do all those things, but they all in those quotes, obviously in the context of this book, was their mindset is what changed everything. And that's where I think it does relate, right? Because succeeding in business and having a business meeting isn't much different than going up to hitting a ball in a first T at a golf course or having that bat in a baseball or softball game. So I appreciated hearing those quotes. I guess that was helpful for me, and it stuck kind of where where Jess was. All right, when you're up. Okay, what did you really not like?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

We don't even have to go into what I really don't like. The the whole thing was just the s the sport.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

But taking it into the context of this was a book from the nineties and just having the realization just in this moment that sports figures in the 80s and 90s were the larger than life people of our time, right? We weren't looking at tech geniuses, those that hadn't happened yet. So of course, looking at the athlete that is at the top of their game would be the best example of how to be better at anything, right? You're right, you're gonna look at the sports people who are most successful. So there were bits and pieces of the book that I I had written down and said success is more mental than anything else. And of course, in sports, and okay, there was a brief moment where I did Shah Putin. Okay. I I I had my moment in sport, and it I did have to like psych, you have to psych yourself up to go out on the field and perform. Whether it's theater, whether it's sports, whether it's business, you get in your own way. And for me, the book was basically saying you are your biggest hurdle is is where is your mindset? If you think and put yourself in that positivity, you're going to have a more positive outcome. If you come into the situation, whether it's business or sports or any other endeavor, if you come in with a shadow of negativity, you're going to have a negative outcome. So for me, the whole thing was about where is my mindset in getting my business started or get anybody getting a business started.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Yeah, that was the biggest takeaway for sure. Absolutely. No, I mean that is I I I appreciate you sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, I was gonna say, John, that I'm gonna echo some of that. It is a really about the uh the mindset. But a couple of things. What I get I think I don't know the exact quote, but it had something to do with the fact that you've got a lot of these uh really, really good athletes who all have the basic tools. It's kind of like the table stakes, right? Like what makes that person, I mean, they're all great athletes, but w what gets them to the next level? And it's it's the mindset, right? If you think about it, you relate to business less even in my own sort of little pit, business pitch. You know, I talk about strategy and leadership and uh operational excellence, and you know, those aren't things that are brand new and fresh. I mean, what's what's brand new and fresh maybe is my ability to animate those concepts with people. So the mindset message, I think, is always a way to think about how to go to the next level. But then you have to have some sort of basics to do that. So for example, changing my mindset will never make me as good a basketball player as Michael Jordan ever was. So the thing I have to appreciate is what I really have in common with any sports figure is my ability to improve my mindset. I don't have the physical gifts, but I I think I have the mental gifts to at least get myself to the next level where it is. So I think to myself, I like sports, but I'm not I'm not a great athlete. I'm a mediocre athlete. I'm thinking, if I had thought differently, would I have been a better athlete than I was? And I'm thinking, probably not. But what I do think my mindset allowed me to do is continue to keep being an athlete even if I wasn't a good one. Because I got I I got other benefits of that, whether it was fitness, whether it was camaraderie. And I was mentioning, uh John, we were talking about before before our uh podcast here, is the appreciation of of the context around what it is that you're trying to learn, you know, what's the what's the book's compelling message, and what can you take from it? And you can always take something positive through the good efforts of other people. And to write a book is difficult difficult, right? So I think it's just to really imagine and appreciating what the what their work is. But I would say um mindset is just really uh critical, and it's probably uh important to all of our work, right? Everybody gets what websites are and coaching and strategy. They all get what it is, but they don't all move ahead, right? And I think that's the key.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

Yeah, I know at the it's funny. At the end, he did start to talk about a lot of uh no-name athletes, right? I say it like there was a woman who started running at 68 years old, or a lot of people that were running triathlons, different things of that nature that were not your household names, but they did apply mindset to become better. And that was what some of the messages were towards the end were. I don't want to give away the end. But that was really the point is whatever your the the focus of the book is even if you're just an amateur golfer, you can be a better golfer by working on that mindset. But yeah, what the next piece, the obvious connection is some of the tips there he gave. There were three different sections where there were different types of lists. I'm always good, like, okay, break it down in a list of 10, a top 10 reason to this, top five reason to this. And when you read those, that's where I think as a business owner, it could really be applied. Some of the things about, you know, slowing down to be fast, right? Being loose to be stronger, right? I go through that with my daughter on the softball field, like, okay, stop trying to muscle it, just relax and you know, hit the ball farther. So I think he he did a good job of relating it to the everyday person because we can all get better. And then I think our job is that okay, how does that apply to businesses? Right? What how does that make a business professional better by reading a book about sports? So with that in mind, are there any folks that you think uh do you know anybody who's ever read this book in a professional setting with a professional goal? I do not.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

I have not.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

No, I I know some people that have read similar type books that are more updated. Uh uh one particular book comes to mind, and I can't even recall the uh I can't recall the title, but what it was, it was seven or eight stories about uh things happening in the moment, somebody, you know, hanging on the edge of a cliff and how they climbed out and how they became very, very still and present and focused and showing how the adversity was overtaken by something bigger than them. That somehow they realized that they were starting to that they were flowing. You know, things started.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

They were in the zone.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

They were in the zone. They were just kind of starting to move. And they almost said it was they almost described it as if it was external. But the point was is that they were these were tremendous physical feats, but they weren't expressed as look at how strong and great I am. It's look what I overcame, and I have no idea how it happened. Right. And I think and I think that particular that was interesting to me, and I think it but it's a similar thing. It's it's somewhere somebody's mindset has taken over, whether it's yours or some out type force coming on top of you. But that's the only other time I've I've heard of anyone reading a book about sports like this to apply it to business.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Yeah, I've I've not. And uh but at the same time when I think about things to your point about it, you know, the date it was dated, it was a little bit more leading edge probably when it came out. And that was one of my concerns with the book was I'm like, okay, I've heard this before. I feel like I've heard this before, right? It felt repetitive. But now I think that's because of books just like this that were written maybe 20-some years ago, and now those sports lessons are being applied in business. You know, those some of the the lessons that he has are things that we've learned that we've probably share, but we just don't realize that that's where it came from. Is there anyone you think in particular should read this book? Who is this book written for?

SPEAKER_02 14:56

For me, I think it's for the business owner that struggles to get outside of their own head, or they they want to be a business owner, they want to be an entrepreneur, but fear and self-doubt get in their way. They may have brilliant ideas, and sometimes they have too many ideas, right? We've met some of those entrepreneurs who're like, I want to do this and this and this. And it's like focus. And and that's part of this book is that it shows how these athletes focused on the skill set that they needed to be great. There had to be a focus of their mind, but also a diligence in the practice. And it's all muscle memory to say when you start your business, be focused on one thing. Like when I started paceetting media, I even made the note fear influenced my action when I first started paceetting media, and I stuck in the lane of I'm just gonna do social media management. I'm not gonna do websites, I'm not gonna do branding, even though I was qualified to do all the things. I was like, nope, this is my lane, and I'm gonna put blinders on it. I'm only gonna stay in this lane. But what that allowed me to do was hyper-focus on that service and then build from there. Okay. And that's what business owners need to do is hyper-focus, just like an athlete does to improve their skill set.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Right. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Uh yeah, so uh I've thought about this uh actually pretty deeply because uh it's an interesting book, right? I know what my issues were with it, and so I won't ever read it again, but but I do think that there's a limit endorsement. Let me let me frame it this way. I would say that it's like with most things, I'm gonna go on a limb and guess that the three of us can speak pretty extensively on mindset, but what constitutes the right mindset for an individual is a l is not a recipe. And what you're really doing is you're putting out tenets so people can say, okay, my mindset is formed because uh these are the five or six things I've learned in my life, and then they're different for other people. So the mindset doesn't have a prescription. And when you think about that's what makes it difficult for a book like this if you recommend and say, hey, this is gonna teach you how to have a better mindset. Well, it may or may not. There's definitely good material in it. So I'm thinking, okay, well, then who should read it? And I'm thinking this is a little too specific, but I think that it would be good for like young business owners who are just kind of starting. People who are going to have the m word mindset thrown in their face by high-paid consultants over the next 40 years. But what they can do now is start saying it isn't only what I do, it's how I approach what I do. And I think it's hard to give that message to older business people. But younger people who are who think everything is important, you know, may take it to heart. So I'm gonna say young business people who are just sort of starting to make their way. I think that would be a good aspect of the thing.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

I would also think people that are coachable, that came from a sports childhood and are used to being directed in that way, it frames it in a world of semantics that they're gonna be used to hearing. And so it may resonate with them more than the theater kid, than the band kid, right? The sport kid is gonna be like, yeah, this this is my wheelhouse. This is this speaks to me.

SPEAKER_04 18:11

Yeah, I think my my my view is gonna be very similar to what you guys are saying. First off, for as far as the target audience, like who it was really meant for, right? For athletes, I think it it's really good for athletes of many ages. Now, I've got a daughter who's 21 and one who's 17. I want them both to read it. Now they've read it, they're reading other athletic mindset books. I don't know that the 17-year-old will for a variety of reasons. One is the names are just names, they're not people. They like to just dated. And then also the openness in her case, the open mind to listen to those things, right? Where I think somebody, uh college-age athlete for sure, can get benefit from it. I think anybody that coaches, either athletes or business owners, should read this. Obviously, for athletes, I wish all my coaches had read this and taught me this stuff when I was younger. Because at the at the younger ages, you're probably not gonna go read the book, but it doesn't mean you can't get taught those lessons and tidbits and examples. And, you know, Steve Carlton used to do this, and this is what Nolan Ryan would do, right? That if my coach told me I was a kid, I go, okay, well, I'm gonna listen to that. So I think anyone coaches athletes would read it. And I think it's good for us as business coaches and business advisors because some of our clients are gonna be those former athletes, especially, you know, I'm I don't want to stereotype, but in some industries, I think they're more prone to having former athletes in it, right? A lot of the trades and manual labor jobs who those people become business owners and they come from with a certain background. So then to Jess's point, I do agree. I think it's better for younger owners. Uh it's going to appeal to those that I think have a sports background. And I think it can be really good for somebody who is just opening their mind to the idea that, well, maybe it's not just how well I do my job, my my function, or how well I can talk to people and sell my service, but maybe I need to start working on my mindset. If people are starting to think that that's somewhere they need to learn, I think this and they have a sports background, this is probably a good place for them to get going on that type of reading. I think that's similar to your Jess's.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

It is. I look I'd give you one more little take on maybe what I said earlier and maybe on uh Dove Taylor and what you said. If you think about it, I found the book when I read the book, and this despite all anything I thought about it, I thought to myself it made me think of my own personal athletic accomplishments such as they are.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Oh, you have some?

SPEAKER_00 20:27

And actually, I actually think it would be anyone who just likes to play sports and it's important in their life, they would actually benefit from the book because they'll relate it to their own sports experience. Because I already said would I have done differently or how could I have been better in certain situations and things that I was doing? I used to like to play basketball. Shortest, fattest basketball player ever. Right. I like to like to hike, slowest hiker ever. You know, uh you know, I think there's ways I know I could do better. So if someone who just likes sports and plays them, even a weekend warrior, a weekend golfer, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:00

Absolutely, for sure. And there's a good there's a good reference to a basketball player who couldn't play basketball towards the end of the book. Yeah. I forget his name. It was a small Bible school.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not recalling. Oh, yeah, I remember the c I remember the story, and I can't remember who it was.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

So anyway, but um so that's that's who we think. I think we're all on the same page. I do think we all see the book the same way, even though our past is a little different. And I don't know if this really fits in the podcast. I know we're we're getting tight on time, but Wendy, you said something I thought was interesting. I don't know if we should dig into it or not. Is I worked for a boss and some would call this, you know, you couldn't do this. He said if he could hire somebody who played on the sports team, he said sports, but I'm gonna paraphrase for him and say a group activity, right? I don't think it has to be athletic. That person, in terms of a prospect, was always going to be prioritized because of the value of what being on a team of any team could be. Because what you said, Wendy, is presumably they've been coached at a young age and are used to taking feedback and having to hit performance standards and things of that nature. So I'm not exactly sure where that fits in this whole thing, but I think it it's relevant for people who that are in athletics, teaching them the mindset piece is what's going to help them 20 years from now, 30 years from now. Not whether they can dribble between their legs or behind their back or whatever they are. So I don't know. I just want to share that. All right. Stacks. How many? You got a stack of books? One to five. It's either on the bottom of the number one or five sitting right on top.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

I'm sorry, mine's off in the corner.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Last time I said the book was on the shelf. I said the last book wasn't even on my stack because I was giving it to somebody in the hand. You're throwing it in the corner. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah. So um I I think in my own uh head, if I would have stacked this thing a couple of months ago, it's I probably would have had it lower than I have it now. I think I might have put it on the bottom, but now I move it up to number two.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Two. All right.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Uh two or three. And not because it's not a good book. It it just wasn't quite the kind of book I would have sought for myself. But but you know, I I certainly think there's a lot of benefits. And you know what? If you have five books in your stand, there better be the they better be better than the other 95 in your bookshelf. So that's not bad.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Wherever you're at in the stack.

SPEAKER_04 23:13

Oh, so at least it's on the table, it's not in the bookshelf. No, Wendy. Yeah, anyway. So I'm not surprised. I thank you guys for taking the chance on it. I want to shake it up a little. Um, for me, I do think for athletes, if you're in that world, I think I I don't know. I'm sure there's tons of other books about this right now, but I've my sense is this is one of the foundational. So for athletes in that world, I would probably give it a four. For a business owner, I'm gonna be three, but only for a very specific niche of business owner, just as what we talked about earlier, right? I mean, I don't want to give you three different scores, but there's a certain level of business owner where this is a one or a zero. If you're aware of mindset and you're self-educated or you've been reading on it, you probably don't need it. But it at some others it could be very it could be a starting point to that journey. That that's my view. So all right. Well, thank you all for doing that. Let's talk about what's next. And I think it's Wendy's turn.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

It is. And I'm I was telling you before I was kind of pulling between two titles Good to Great by Jim Collins or Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish. Now you said you've already read Good to Great.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Right, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't read it again. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

I read Good to Great many, many, many years ago and have thinking I should do it again. Uh, but the other one's a a clear title.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Clearly, Shane Parrish.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

It's always a change in the new book, but uh you're in control when you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

So much power, so much power. It's going to my head.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

She's gonna give me back for the last one.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Actually, no, we're gonna go with Good to Great by Jim Collins.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

I think that's good because it's a I mean, uh I think a lot of people have heard it. I think a lot of people have read it, and I don't think we should have a podcast about business books without talking about a book like Good to Great.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Right. Plus, I'll be a better reader of it than I was the first time. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Well, that's why uh that excites me. I think it's a great choice.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Yeah. Okay, very good. Okay, well, I'm gonna wrap it up here. So uh again, stacks and strategies is a place where we go through the stacks of business books and we pull out the business strategies for owners to apply.