Way of Champions Podcast

Stetson Lawrence (@StetsonLawrence) is a former professional bull rider with Chippewa Sioux Native American heritage. He was on the professional tour for over a decade and ranked in the top 25 in the world, reaching 9 PBR World Finals and being the first to ride many of the world's toughest bulls. Bull riding is both an art and a sport where mental strength and stability reign supreme, and today o...

Katie Steele (@thrivementalhealththerapy) is a licensed marriage and family therapist and cofounder of Thrive Mental Health, an outpatient mental health clinic in Bend, Oregon. She is also the founder of Athlete's Mental Health Foundation, a 501(c)(3) launched in January 2023. Competing in track and cross-country at the University of Oregon and Florida State University, Katie placed second team al...

Jeff Jones (@jonseyjeff1) has spent the past four years as the Arkansas St. Red Wolves' Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics Performance. He has 19 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, including prior stops working with football at Arkansas State, Boise State, Auburn and Appalachian State.  Jones came to Arkansas State owning previous Sun Belt Conference championships with b...

Andrew Simpson (@coachandrewsimpson), Founder of Player's Fitness & Performance (PFP), fell in love with fitness while in college. He discovered that by transforming his own energy, athleticism, and mindset, he was able to change his life for the better and knew he needed to help others do the same. In 2013, Andrew established PFP and began a lifelong mission to ignite change and raise the bar for...

Welcome to a new edition of one of our famous fireside chats, where John and Jerry discuss some of the common questions we receive. This week we are discussing our new book The Champion Sports Parent , which will be released in late summer. The book is a companion to our 2023 bestseller The Champion Teammate , and is a guide to help  parents be the best they can be for their kids. We break down so...

Jamie Mittleman (@flamebearers) is the Founder & Host of Flame Bearers. Founded while Jamie was receiving her Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Flame Bearers is the first global storytelling platform celebrating the stories of women Olympians and Paralympians. From household names to unsung heroes around the world, each featured story highlights the successes, strug...

Margaret Domka is the Executive Director for the US Center for Mental Health and Sport (@mentalhealthandsport). She is a PhD Candidate at Clemson University where her research focus is mental health and sport. Additionally, she has done work in bringing mental health and sport initiatives to Veterans, individuals with paralysis, and Paralympic athletes. She is an ACT! Mental Health Awareness Certi...

For over 20 years Graham Betchart has worked as a mental performance coach with the worlds  top athletes and companies and is now sharing his wisdom through keynote speaking and music. For the past two years he has worked with University of Connecticut Men's Basketball Players, winning back to back NCAA titles, and has also worked with the NBA's Sacramento Kings as well as a who's who of individua...

Angela Hucles Mangano is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist for US Soccer, two-time World Cup Bronze Medalist, former professional soccer player and the US Soccer Foundation's 2009 Humanitarian of the Year.  She is currently the General Manager of Los Angeles' women's professional soccer team, Angel City FC, overseeing the sporting vision of the club, and all soccer operations including coaching, th...

Pete Steinberg is a leadership and innovation expert with extensive experience consulting with top Fortune 500 professionals. He also has more than 20 years of experience as an elite rugby coach, coaching the USA Women's Rugby Team at two World Cups and the Rio Olympics. As a former U.S., international, and Olympic sports coach and commentator for major outlets such as CBS, ESPN, and Fox Sports, P...

Pete Steinberg is a leadership and innovation expert with extensive experience consulting with top Fortune 500 professionals. He also has more than 20 years of experience as an elite rugby coach, coaching the USA Women's Rugby Team at two World Cups and the Rio Olympics. As a former U.S., international, and Olympic sports coach and commentator for major outlets such as CBS, ESPN, and Fox Sports, P...

Former Navy SEAL, professional athlete, and entrepreneur Chad Metcalf (@chadmetcalf) is the author of Young Athletes' Ultimate Guide to Mental Toughness . Chad's journey began when he was a child. A self-described 'late bloomer,' he had the importance of faith, self-belief and focus instilled in him at a young age, equipping him with a strong mental toughness that he would carry forward and apply...

Colleen Munson concluded her 19th season at the helm of Western Michigan volleyball in 2023. During her tenure at WMU, Munson has posted 10 20-win seasons, including a program-record eight in a row from 2005-12. She has taken the Broncos to the NCAA Tournament in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2023, including a berth in the Sweet 16 in 2008.  Taking over a program in 2005 that had finished better than third...

Steve Tashjian is the Founder of Elevation Project , which collaborates with elite organizations, communities, and institutions to build high-performance teams and systems. Steve is an expert physical therapist, sports scientist, movement specialist, and director of high performance. He was the High Performance Director of the Columbus Crew of MLS before becoming the first full-time American perfo...

Becky Carlson (@tfcoachcarlson) is in her 13th year at the helm of the Quinnipiac Women's Rugby team, where she led the transition from a new varsity program into a three-time national champion. As the original head coach of the Quinnipiac women's rugby team added in 2011, Carlson boasts an all-time record of 81–33-1 including back-to-back-to-back Division I NIRA national championship titles in 20...

Eric Potterat, PhD, is a clinical and performance psychologist and a leading expert in individual and organizational performance optimization. Eric retired as a commander from the US Navy after twenty years of service, during which he helped create the mental toughness curriculum used during Navy SEALs BUD/S training. Eric spent several years as the director of specialized performance for the Los...

Mark Johnson ( www.ironstring.com ) is a sportswriter and sports photographer. He has covered cycling and endurance sports since the 1980s. His work often focuses on the business of pro cycling—a topic that frequently intersects with the sport's long history of doping. Along with U.S. publications like VeloNews, his work is published in Cycling Weekly in the UK, Velo in France, Ride Cycling Review...

Ian Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of iSport360, a youth sports technology company that is changing the culture in youth sports for over 4M people.   Ian's career started at the White House where he worked for the economic advisors to two US Presidents and then spent more than half of his career in digital product management and sales for early-stage technology companies.  Outside of his role lea...

Dr. Mitchell Greene (@greenepsych) is a nationally recognized licensed clinical and sport psychologist, whose success over the past 15-plus years is his ability to tailor personalized solutions to his client's problems. Dr. Greene works primarily with athletes pursuing high performance goals, or coaches and athletic departments looking to educate their student-athletes on mental health and perform...

Dr. Mitchell Greene (@greenepsych) is a nationally recognized licensed clinical and sport psychologist, whose success over the past 15-plus years is his ability to tailor personalized solutions to his client's problems. Dr. Greene works primarily with athletes pursuing high performance goals, or coaches and athletic departments looking to educate their student-athletes on mental health and perform...

Wells Thompson is a former Major League Soccer Player and the Founder of Soccer Resilience, an mazing resource for players and teams to build inner strength and help athletes think better so they can perform better. Wells was an all ACC player at Wake Forest and the 5th pick in the 2007 MLS Super Draft. he played for the New England Revolution, Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire, winning the 2007 US...

This week we are joined by The Performance Doctors, three leaders dedicated to creating the optimal environment for your athletes to thrive. They are Dr Michael Mantell, Dr, Darin Davidson, and Dr. Brendan Meany.  For nearly 50 years Dr. Michael Mantell has focused on how improving mindset climate positively influences optimal performance, helps people disturb themselves less , and creates lasting...

Stephen Rollnick provides consultancy, mentorship and training on the subjects of motivation, change, teamwork and Motivational Interviewing. Stephen is also a clinical psychologist with many years of experience in service provision and in the training of practitioners. This work, much of it on motivational interviewing (MI), has taken him into diverse cultures and settings. He has now retired to...

Stephen Rollnick provides consultancy, mentorship and training on the subjects of motivation, change, teamwork and Motivational Interviewing. Stephen is also a clinical psychologist with many years of experience in service provision and in the training of practitioners. This work, much of it on motivational interviewing (MI), has taken him into diverse cultures and settings. He has now retired to...

Congratulations to our friend Tara VanDerveer, the Head Coach of the Stanford Women's Basketball team, who recently became the all-time winningest coach for men and women in NCAA basketball history, surpassing former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Coach VanDerveer is a 3-Time national champion coach, a 5 time national coach of the year, has been to 14 Final Fours, coached the 1996 US National Team at...