Train Your Mind, Change Your Life with Collin Henderson

In this episode of Pro Mindset® Podcast, host Craig Domann sits down with Performance Coach, Collin Henderson, to explore how elite performers handle pressure by strengthening the mental side of the game. Craig and Colin dive into the idea that true clutch performance comes from identity, preparation, and process—not from trying to be someone different when the stakes are high. Collin explains how self-talk, visualization, and self-awareness can reduce internal interference, and shows why confidence is built through consistent training of the mind just like the body.

Collin Henderson is the founder of Master Your Mindset, LLC, and one of today’s leading voices in mental conditioning and influence. A former two-sport Division I athlete and top-ranked medical sales leader, he left corporate success to coach elite performers full-time. Acclaimed broadcaster Jim Rome calls him “an authority on what matters most—an elite mindset.”

Collin is the author of eight books, including his newest release, The Oz Method: The Psychology of Influence for Sales, Leadership, and Life (July 2026). He hosts the Master Your Mindset podcast and has trained #1 NBA Draft picks, Heisman finalists, professional athletes, and leaders across Fortune 500 companies. His work has been utilized by organizations including Nike, Microsoft, Salesforce, LA Dodgers, Amazon, and Johnson & Johnson.

Episode Takeaways:

💡 Identity — Stay true to who you are

💡 Mindset — Train breathwork, self-talk, and focus

💡 Process — Trust routines over outcomes 

📲Connect with Collin:

🌐Website: https://www.thecollinhenderson.com/home 

📸Instagram: @collinhenderson

👋LinkedIn: @Collin Henderson, MEd

🎧Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/master-your-mindset-tools-to-win-the-inner-game/id1384571565 

📕Book: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=collin+henderson&ref=nb_sb_noss 

🚀 Ready to Build a Mindset That Powers You Through Anything?
If Collin’s insights on identity and mindset inspire you, the Pro Mindset® Coaching Program can help you align your potential with purpose and adaptability.
 👉 Learn more or apply at www.ProMindsetPodcast.com/coaching or reach out directly to Craig at Craig.ProMindset@gmail.com.

#ProMindset #Mindset #CraigDomann #ProMindsetPodcast #Transformation #Belief #Subsconscious #CollinHenderson #Performance #Coaching #Mind #MasterYourMindset #TheOzMethod #Competition #Mental #Success #Process #Body #Confidence #UCLA #MasterYourMindset #Podcast #Author

Transcript

Collin Henderson (00: 0:00

00.11) third one.

PRO MINDSET (00: 0:01

01.445) Third one is how you show up on your stage.

Collin Henderson (00: 0:02

04.206) Show up on your stage.

PRO MINDSET (00: 0:03

05.475) So you've got a story, you've got standards, and you've got a stage. So what happens is if I really wanted to get to know you really quick. I would do something with you that really means something to you. Whether it's going a double date with you and your wife, if you're married and you have a great marriage, if you're really into business, I would go along with you. I'd go play golf with you. I would see how you respond in the biggest moments. Because our true identity, our story.

Collin Henderson (00: 0:05

32.494) Thanks

PRO MINDSET (00: 0:06

46.969) Reveals itself on your stage when it matters the most. So let's take baseball, bottom of the ninth. Two out, bases loaded, down two or three. You're at the you're in the batter's box. Guys choke. They can't get the they can't get the wood off their shoulder. They sit a a pitch comes, a fastball comes right down the middle and they can swing. And all you do is get the bat on the ball, and somebody we might have tied the game, might have hit a grand slam. That's when people reveal their true character is in those big moments. And so what I've created is this concept called a performance bubble that you've got to step into when you're on stage so that you can bring what it does, it manifests flow, confidence, belief in yourself, peace, just that knowingness that you're gonna do it. But when you're when you're when you Don't have a performance bubble. And I'm talking about a mental performance bubble. And baseball, when I talk to baseball guys, I talk about a mental box. It's like a batter's box. You step across the white line to step in the batter's box, and you don't have a different, you don't have a a protection of boundaries and anchors. Some some drunk guy in the stands could yell at you. And you're gonna let it corrupt your mojo. Your manager's gonna yell at you. Your third base coach is gonna give you a sign that you're like, he wants you to bunt. And you're like, what? He's gonna take the bat out of my hand? He gives you the take sign and you're ready to swing and hit it out of park. You cannot let other stimuli infiltrate your performance bubble. And when it does, you use the thing that God gave us that allows us to stay alive every single second of the day. And when we don't do this anymore is when we're not here anymore, and that's breathing.

PRO MINDSET (03: 0:11

01.507) And why do why do basketball guys take a deep breath or two before a free throw? Why do baseball guys just instinctively, when they're feeling a little, hey, it's 0-2? I guarantee if we just watch their chest, they're taking a breath. They just they do it already. So why wouldn't you have a customized breath work program that you implement every time your performance bubble gets corrupted so you can reset and get back on frame? What do most guys do? They step out of the batteries box, but now because in the bigs they want to keep things going, they don't even want you stepping out anymore.

Collin Henderson (03: 0:13

39.63) So do you still have clients in the professional ranks that you're working with? Or have you transitioned into more coaching, executive coaching, keynotes, workshops?

PRO MINDSET (03: 0:14

45.433) I have 53.271) Okay. You you know what good good is the enemy of great? I'm the good. I'm the good. I grew up on a farm, man. Every every every season, every week, we did something different. I do lots of things, but my passion is what we're talking about right now.

Collin Henderson (04: 0:16

02.445) Yeah. 15.266) Yeah, that's really cool. No, I agree. I love your story standard stage. think that's, I believe in all of it. I believe, I think sequence is important. I like how you sequence that too.

PRO MINDSET (04: 0:18

28.207) Well, what is your story, your identity? You know, your your standards is how you do what you do. And your stage is when you show everybody what who you are. And most people are great at preparation. They practice hard. They don't really think about their pet crew, but they do have one. They do 90% of this stuff right. All professional athletes do at least 95% of the stuff right. But the five percent. Get you a second contract of fifty million a year or send you home 'cause you get cut at the end of training camp.

Collin Henderson (05: 0:21

06.966) Yeah, so I call it internal interference. The equation I think is interesting to examine is talent plus skill minus internal interference equals execution probability. When the stage is high, there's usually more noise, there's more threat, there's more risk. So who's in the stands? What's at stake? What are the standings? Is this a contract year? Who's the match up with? All that's just noise where the top performers who look at the word clutch. I define clutch as doing what you normally can do when it matters most. And your sequence of story standard stage, we don't rise to the stage, we fall to our identity, we fall to our systems. So I think some people feel comfortable as moments because they're, trying to compete and they don't let the external interference infiltrate. Kind of like the analogy boats don't sink from water outside the boat boats. single water gets inside. So your internal interference is noisy, it's loud, it's cluttered, it's anxiety, it's self-worth tied to performance, it's a lack of safety, you're not comfortable. So I think you can train physically all you want, but if you haven't trained the psychological skills of breath work, being the present moment, self-talk, how to visualize your routine, your competitive routines to get into a flow state. And it's really the idea of Bad thoughts are bad, good thoughts are good, but no thought is best. it's, how would you train no thought? It takes work.

PRO MINDSET (06: 0:25

44.645) Well, my algebraic equation is very simple. You got your God-given talent. That's the guy that wakes up one day and he's 6'5, and he can run a 4'4. He didn't do anything to get to be 6'5, or 6'10, or 7'6. Then you add in your hard work. And that's where coaches in middle school, youth coaches, dads, High school coaches all the way up through high school emphasize you get get out of it what you put into it. You know, you gotta all those cliches that are true that help you develop and train to become the athlete you wanna become. That's where 99.9% of people stop. And then they get the results. Where pro mindset is you add in your mindset, add in a pro mindset to your talent plus your hard work, which is training, then you get your best results, not just results. And if you look at like Scotty Scheffler, I don't know him. I know he's got a pro mindset. Just the way he shows up, he knows who he is. Even, even outside the this golf circles, he knows who he is. He's a man of faith first. That gives him power that a lot of guys don't have. And he's not, he's not falling for some of the get rich quick, hey, get a, you know, look at how many golfers. Go out and get a new driver. Every week.

PRO MINDSET (08: 0:30

37.827) McElroy's getting testing a new driver like every tournament this season. Why? He's doing external work instead of internal work. And I don't know Roy either. But look at how he is so talented, but he struggles to win when he could do what Tiger did and win by 10 strokes if he just if he was locked in up here.

Collin Henderson (09: 0:31

04.48) Yeah, it's easy in theory, be mentally tough, be focused. But yeah, the execution of that. I go back to, learned from Dr. Michael Gervais, you can train three things, body, craft, And body would be hydration, sleep, rest, recovery, lifting, endurance, explosion, physical training. The craft is your technical skills, whatever, know, dribbling. shooting, pitching, fielding, swinging, fencing, whatever your technical skill training is. But the mental game is usually is the separator because the higher levels we get, like you mentioned, most people have some form of talent, bigger, stronger, faster. then a separator is your commitment to your develop your skills. So when I say talent plus skill, we're saying the same thing. Talent's God given skill is earned in practice. So yeah, I think that the mental game is the biggest variable.

PRO MINDSET (10: 0:34

00.004) It's this, I mean, that's I I was I lived in Chicago in the nineties. And Michael Jordan was just like everybody else until the fourth quarter. And in the biggest games, he always wanted the ball. And I watch, like in CAA March Madness, a team's down, minute to go, they got the ball. Nobody wants to shoot. Not only do they not want to shoot, they don't even look at the basket. They dribble around the arc and hand it off to somebody else. And next thing you know, they're down to six seconds, and somebody's got to throw up a Hail Mary. Nobody is trained to be the winner. And that's what Michael had. That's what Michael, that's who Michael was. And it was so amazing to see. And then after you saw it a bunch of times, you just waited for it. I mean, you knew it was coming. And he would like sometimes have friction with with Pippen and some of those guys because they wanted to like get the shine. And he would go, no, this is my game. This is my time. He was so strong in his identity. Phil Jackson could keep changing the cast of characters around him. And it didn't matter. Because Michael was Michael. We don't have very many athletes like that.

Collin Henderson (11: 0:38

28.227) Well, if I can yes and that thought, would say Michael stayed Michael in the fourth quarter. He didn't deviate his approach, his how he competed. He stayed the same. And I think that's what I want people to think about clutch, you know. go beyond your capability and go beyond what you normally can do. You look at, you mentioned Tiger Woods, his run of 10 years of dominance from, was it 1997, 98 to 2007, 2008. If he was within a few strokes or had a lead on Sunday, he would always win. But when they looked at his rounds during that time of dominance, his score didn't improve on Sunday. It stayed the same on Sunday, as Saturday, Friday, Thursday, where people in his group got worse on Sunday. Tiger stayed true to his approach. I want to redefine what people think clutch is. It's not going beyond what you normally can do. People tend, the moment gets too big and they hide from the moment. They put extra pressure or stress on the moment where great clutch performers. Derek Jeter has the most postseason hits of anybody in MLB history. His batting average when looked at his career was the same postseason, regular season as spring training. He kept the same process, the same system. He wasn't changing his driver. He used the same piece, P72 bat, high tops, the same glove his whole career. And that's not superstition. It's trusting his process.

PRO MINDSET (13: 0:42

02.712) Okay, so I'm going to take what you what you said, which I totally agree with. Because if you try to be more than you are, you usually fail. If you try to hit a driver, you know, 350 and you normally hit it 250, you're probably gonna duck hook it OB. So it it's like you gotta stay within yourself. But because most athletes pay attention to the the outcome, the potential Results, what they already time travel. They go to after the game, after the match, after the round, what's it gonna be like putting on the green jacket? What's it gonna be like doing this post-game interview? Man, my boys were gonna party tonight. They're they're time traveling. And so, because they're not fully present in the moment, they choke. And so when they choke, if somebody doesn't choke and they just stay stay the same. They look like they're clutch in comparison to everyone else.

Collin Henderson (14: 0:45

07.501) Yeah, it's the idea. Do you change who you are for where you are? And top performers able to stay true to their values, their system, their approach, their belief. And one thing you look at story of is your first step is I've had the privilege to be a mental skills consultant with UCLA, the women's basketball team, coach Corey Close, just won the national championship. A few core themes of the program, call it the mind jam. The first kind of pillar really is around

PRO MINDSET (14: 0:46

31.164) Mm-hmm.

Collin Henderson (14: 0:47

37.691) your identity, you never outperform yourself image. So if someone is drawn to these external validations of being famous or being interviewed or putting on a green jacket, you're not playing for the intrinsic drive. Michael Jordan says, I am a competition junkie, like competing, winning for the sake of competing and winning. Why do you play the game? Why do you sell a product? But yeah, so it's kind of a combination of do you have that intrinsic joy? You can't be excellent unless you are obsessed and you love something like you love it for the joy of competition. mentioned flow earlier flow part of flow is the activity is the reward, not the outcome. If you're what my good friend, Chris colon calls an outcome junkie, you're not present. You're not focused. And you're playing, you're kind of extrinsic or fear-based, you know, and you play not to lose or do play to win? I know there's a lot of ways, but the identity, I think a lot of programs, a lot of athletes, even in business, they underperform because they don't feel comfortable being in that environment that they put pressure on themselves. put. expectation that's unhealthy on themselves. it's called cognitive dissonance. They're not in alignment with their story. They're not in alignment with what they're comfortable with. It's called the self-image comfort zone. Use baseball as an example earlier. If you see yourself as a 275 hitter and you start the season, you're hitting 215.

PRO MINDSET (15: 0:51

53.232) For us.

Collin Henderson (16: 0:52

16.207) you're uncomfortable, you're gonna work your ass off to get your skills and focus back to 275. But what happens if you start the year and you're batting 375? You start to look at stats and you start to count hits in your head and you're uncomfortable and you unconsciously sabotage to get back to where you normally see yourself.

PRO MINDSET (16: 0:53

36.6) It is your comfort zone. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna go back to UCLA in a minute, but I'm gonna I'm gonna run with this for a second, Colin. When someone's batting 400 in baseball, let's say a month into the season, there's so much national media coverage about could this be the year that eventually the baseball player goes back to batten 315 or whatever their average is. And they will bat 280 or whatever it takes to get there because they don't change their identity. If they could change the if if a if a if a batter could think and believe deep to the core, I was born for this, I was created for this, I've worked for this, I've trained for this, I deserve it. All those words that kind of change your identity. To be a 400 hitter. That's the only way you're ever gonna hit 400. And you gotta have the ability to do it, but the difference between batting 300 and 400. What? One hit every hundred bat at bats? How many hits is that? Or ten.

Collin Henderson (17: 0:57

52.592) Yeah, if you look at if if you look at baseball, major league, the difference between a 300 to one hitter over 500 passes was one hit a week.

PRO MINDSET (17: 0:58

55.507) One out of

Collin Henderson (18: 0:59

02.864) Well, bet it goes back to that internal interference. That's why during no hitter, we're all trained never tell the pitcher, hey, you have no hitter, you don't talk about it because that creates expectation and pressure. think that the challenge to completely disrupt

PRO MINDSET (18: 1:00

02.917) Not a lot.

Collin Henderson (18: 1:01

20.106) Norms and of production is not listening to the noise, not allowing that to infiltrate, having systems of focus and going back to your to your process. But it's also playing for the love of the game. think I just want to see how good I can be, you know, and I want the best competition because that brings out my best. It's just looking at it. That's what this work parents ruin it. The child's conditioning. This is where I think some coach leaders ruin it because they're not focusing on the right things.

PRO MINDSET (18: 1:02

51.398) Something that is a very difficult question to answer for many athletes is would you rather perform your best and lose? Or win but not play your best? And it's a conundrum 'cause you really want to play your best, but you really want to win. But you only get to pick one. And what do you say to that?

Collin Henderson (19: 1:04

19.864) Well, I would just go back to looking at the same question framed differently. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were asked the exact same question about their best years in a rod. 2003, one AVP in this year. This may home runs. I was really feeling an average here. So he was rallying off in individual stats. Jeter like my best year that was easy every year we won a World Series. had nothing to do with individual stats, but just the intangible presence that you cannot always look at statistics to measure success, energy, attitude, being encouraging, setting the standard in the training, locker room, habits. Yeah, I think but in professional sports, if we don't produce, you don't have a job. So I think there's just different ways. If I'm working with a baseball player, we usually look at quality at bats versus what's your average because you can't control. There's nine people on defense. You can absolutely laser a ball and gets caught or you can get jammed out of your mind and have a base hit and dribble a base hit. So there has to be other ways that you evaluate that.

PRO MINDSET (20: 1:07

36.164) Okay. So let's go back to UCLA. If I'm not mistaken, at a bunch of transfers, transfer Porto girls, in the national championship game. What was different? Was the freaking line maybe a foot shorter, fourteen feet? Was the basket like nine and a half feet instead of ten? Was the was the court ninety three instead of ninety-four feet? I mean what was the basket circumference of the ball what was different?

Collin Henderson (21: 1:09

07.139) I think the difference was is coach close and the staff had the best recruiting class where Akiki Rice, Gabby and them were freshmen. And then Lauren Betts transferred from Stanford because of that class. And then maybe two other transfers, but at the core, that initial freshmen recruiting class set the standard of we want to win a national championship. And it took several years of belief. It went from. going to a sweet 16 twice and then going to a final four losing and then going to the championship. I just think it took some years of belief. took some time to change the self image, to change the story, to have the standards aligned with that self image. But yeah, and I will say, know, coach Tasha Brown, who helped when I was early and then continued going to, we did a thing called the mind gym every week. where we are working on skills of self-talk, how to visualize. And the pillars of the mind gym was self-identity, self-awareness, and self-talk. And I think a lot of times coaches will bring in a sports psychologist or a motivational speaker to do like one 30 minute talk, but coach close from day one. especially several years ago since when I came on board in 2021 is every single week, every single day doing some mental skills training.

PRO MINDSET (22: 1:13

37.796) Okay, so the difference is being entertained and maybe learning something you're gonna forget, you know, within minutes to actually buying into a program that that can that can result in real change.

Collin Henderson (22: 1:14

55.343) Well, but it is believing as a, you know, you're, you're coaching 18 to 22 year olds. And at that level in the big 10, you're going to get some of the best athletes, but the difference is, are they committed to the work? And then mentally can they transfer a practice into competition, competition, into game time, game time, into crunch time and be able to transfer that. So it just takes. daily work over several years to rewire thought patterns, rewire self-image patterns, train what we call next play speed, get to the next play fast, be like a goldfish, short memory. Things like affirmations and how to visualize, like we would do I will statements and I wouldn't say manifest, but you mentioned faith several times, Mark 11, 24, ask and pray, believe in your heart and it'll be given to you. I have Romans 12, two on my right forearm. which is don't conform to the patterns of this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Having a new set of mental skills is like learning a new language, learning to play piano. takes a lot of repetitions to where it becomes second nature and it takes practice.

PRO MINDSET (24: 1:17

06.276) One thousand percent agree. Okay, so here's the thing that's ironic about sports. Those girls at UCLA, well they they average twelve points a game, eighteen points a game, were the sixth the girl that was six six man, so to speak. They're all national champions. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now. They will all be connected because of the success they had as a group. And nobody's gonna care who scored the most, rebound the most, whatever the case may be. I think the thing that's interesting about sports is statistics are very important for losing teams because you gotta keep score somehow. And I think they do matter when it comes to negotiations for your contract. But in the context of winning, every athlete were worth his salt or worth her soul would trade. The stats of the trophies any day of the week.

PRO MINDSET (25: 1:20

12.016) Hey you you your mic went off somehow. Now you're back. Now you're gone. 24.518) Can't can't hear ya.

Collin Henderson (25: 1:23

27.706) Can you me now? Okay, cool. I don't know if you can is you edit this, but

PRO MINDSET (25: 1:24

28.994) Gotcha, brother. Okay. And then every now and then just to give you a heads up, I know you're in your brother's room. it's all good, but I love your animation, I love your like non-verbal cues, but every now and then you're making noise and it's picking it up. The mic's picking it up. So I don't know if you're shuffling your feet or whatever. So just just an idea. I might be doing the same thing because I'm in I'm in my office, I'm usually in my podcast room. but just giving you a heads up on that. Okay, let's start talking.

Collin Henderson (25: 1:26

58.606) Got it. Well, and I was and I was gonna just add one more thing, and that is a a line from Coach Close is is talent is the floor, but character is our ceiling. So having philosophies of coaching, collaboration, teamwork, and coaching and celebrating unselfishness and toughness and being together, like those are the intangibles that win that win games.

PRO MINDSET (26: 1:27

27.696) But one of the things that I see, and I watched a lot of the women's basketball this year. And that's is from Denver. So I was just kind of paying attention to how she was doing. they just they just had great mojo, great, great chemistry, a lot of unselfishness on the court. It was like, it wasn't me ball, it was wee ball. And they're all talented. And it's like the girl, I can't remember the girl's name, it's got the older brother that plays in the NBA.

Collin Henderson (26: 1:28

56.495) Yeah, yeah, Gabby.

PRO MINDSET (26: 1:29

58.074) Gabby, she was very inspirational in the final four, you know, just because you could just tell she wanted it so bad. And it's like not picking on her and saying she was special, but that's that's my girl. That's if I'm a coach, she's my she's my number one pick. It isn't based on height and all the other things. I want the girl that's like that has the passion. I want the player that has that intangible. You can't coach it. Very few people have it. But if you got if you find somebody that has it, that's what helps you win championships. Don't get me wrong, six five is really nice. There's a lot of positive things. But without that glue, generally you don't win. Not the

Collin Henderson (27: 1:31

43.726) And at the pro level her her game is really transferred too, but she can do everything. She can defend, she can dribble, she can rebound, she c she can shoot.

PRO MINDSET (27: 1:32

52.826) Yeah. Okay, let's get this be look, we're gonna start over just so that we can kind of have this organized. Hey, welcome everyone to Pro Mindset Podcast. Today we have a gentleman. His name is Colin Henderson. Colin is a performance coach. He's an author. He's written like seven or eight books. He coaches athletes, he coaches teams, he coaches execs. Colin, thank you for joining us today.

Collin Henderson (28: 1:33

20.196) Craig, it's it's an honor to be on the show.

PRO MINDSET (28: 1:34

22.7) Awesome. Okay. So why don't you share with us your story as it relates to being an athlete, some of your highs and lows and what you learned from from sports and how that transcended and transferred to business and then why you're back to being into sports and and mindset coaching.

Collin Henderson (28: 1:35

45.464) Well, thank you for the question. Yeah. the origin story is important. People don't just buy into the message, but the messenger first. So I think that's a good question to ask anybody. I played football and baseball at Washington State University. I knew early in my life I was just faster than other kids and my my handout coordination was was really good. Played football, basketball, baseball up until college, played two sports in college. And I think starting into like middle school, high school. I just would recognize this kind of nerves popping up where you're not present, where your body responds differently, heart rate elevates, you're you're not focused, you're not present. I still was able to to perform and get accolades and all these awards and getting a scholarship and playing as a true freshman in football. I just was not, I thought I was gonna red shirt. Played, I started week five and started as a print returner, slot receiver the whole year. And As you advance your your career, I guess again, yeah as you get older, you recognize different things that happened and you have more knowledge. But I remember that sophomore year, you may have heard of the sophomore slump. That's because freshman year there were no expectations. It was a clean slate. I didn't know what to expect. I was just there. No one expects anything. If I drop a ball, no one cares. I mean, it's just but then you put that pressure and then so I wasn't present. I was performing to live up to an expectation. Or now that I have This history, I have to go beyond it. So I think I just kind of struggled. still started and still, still was part of the team and still did decently well. But I think where my story begins in the performance and mindset space was that junior year, I was like, well, I'm gonna work really hard. I didn't have a the year I wanted to my sophomore year. I'm gonna lift weights and I'm gonna catch 100 balls a day. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna go all in on my preparation to get ready for my junior. I'm now an upperclassman. And I did that, lifted more weights, extra time in weight room, extra time running routes with the quarterbacks, catching extra balls, had a great spring, great summer. But two hours before our first game that year was against Idaho, it was on national television. I had this like panic attack because I trained physically, but I didn't train mentally. And I dropped a ball that game. Still started, still produced, but wasn't at the level I was capable of. And I think as I've gotten older,

Collin Henderson (31: 1:40

11.192) In my business career, I had similar experiences of a lot of success, but a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. When I changed companies one year, I had a sales trainer that exposed me to mindset work. But he explained it in a way that was simpler. Self-talk, how you visualize self-image. He gave me 30 books on the power of the mind. And I realized in my preparation and my process as an athlete and as a professional in business. I was not training my mindset. It was not a part of my daily habits, systems. It wasn't even available. So everything changed when I connected the dots. All right. There's an inner game that influences the outer game. There's skills and drills that you can develop. Like the gym, physically, you can go to the mind gym, things like gratitude, journaling, prayer, self-worth, values, training skills, how to respond. You'd mentioned breath work. Mindfulness, how to be the present moment. Just I can actually train those. So when I'm in these moments, stay ready so you have to get ready. My my nervous system and my psychological makeup is prepared for this. And not only did was I healthier, happier, I started setting sales records. Started just doing things our coming never seen in the Northwest. And I started teaching these as a national sales translator. Then I started blogging about, I started writing books. And here we are.

PRO MINDSET (32: 1:44

42.404) Okay, so let's go back to that panic attack. 49.658) Not knowing your full story, but just listening to you. That was the best blessing you ever had. Because you put all this intentionality into your football skills and your preparation and your practice and your training. But your mind was not capable. It was not on the same level as your physical training. And I think that that is very true. For 90, maybe 99% of athletes, they are taught to do the training, the physical training, the sport training, the skills training, but no mental training, except be tougher. Yay, it doesn't hurt, you're not hurt, bro. It's just a bruise. Those kind of things, which are all masking agents, that make it even worse. So when you talk about mind gym. Go into a little bit more detail. Let's say there's someone listening and they, they're, they're, they have a panic attack before they go into a sales presentation. They got something coming up this week, big opportunity, they could double triple their income. Or some athlete that might be listening that, hey, their big game is coming down the pipe.

PRO MINDSET (34: 1:48

14.542) Let's go back and build a let's let's put the equipment in the mind gym. You mentioned some of them, but people don't understand breath work. People don't understand gratitude. Go into detail on two or three of those things.

Collin Henderson (34: 1:49

30.916) Yeah, I think that's a good question. I do want to take, I think a miss in sports psychology is making it maybe more business or sorry, more sport focused or more esoteric academic and not here's the applied part of how to go to the mind gym. I think in anyone that wants to improve, the foundation of change is self awareness. So usually the first thing I work with any athlete or business professional is. What is causing you to feel stressed? What are the environments? What are the triggers? What are the thoughts? What are the past traumas that you've experienced that your nervous system is holding on to? And if you can name it, you can tame it. I think what can you change if you're not aware of like where's the source? What's the story? It's following your own sequence. What's the story? Is it I like to challenge people, is that thought true, said by who? And just having self-awareness on. Thoughts become things, energy flows where focus goes. It begins before it begins. So just recognizing patterns that are limiting you. Recognizing moments that are you're you're having struggles with. And then from there we can, okay, let's actually challenge some of those thinking. We can, you have just as many examples of success as failure, but your brain is remembering all the failures. So you're creating this, you're anticipating you're living in this state of shame and a state of fear. And it's that noise is hard for you to. Be quiet and clear. So I think there'll be a level of let's just name the emotion, name the fear, name the experience. And I love this lesson from Ali Love on the Peloton. Your first thought will be negative, but your second, third, fourth thought doesn't have to be. So self-awareness is step one. Step two is what I teach is self-talk and what you're visualizing. So the the number one driver of confidence, according to Dr. Andrew Lane at the BBC Live, 44,000 participants. Is your inner dialogue is using words as tools to create energy. So the brain thinks in four dimensions. A word creates a picture the brain sees, an emotion the body feels, a belief that the bot that the subconscious holds. And the brain doesn't care what is true or false, it cares what is repeated. So a lot of performers who struggle have an unconscious pattern loop of negative self-talk.

Collin Henderson (36: 1:54

56.133) This is too difficult. I've failed before. Or their their self-talk is like code in a computer. They're coding the wrong words, pictures, images, and you are sabotaging your ability to execute. So I would have them write down some things, some affirming anchor statements, some affirming things of their past success, of their preparation, of their anchor statements, what they want to execute. And just use words as tools, use language as an anchor to guide. feeling to to guide focus. Then the third thing I would have anybody look at is your self-image. Where do you get your self-worth?

This is coming from a recovering perfectionist who gets self-worth tied to performance. Where do you get your self-worth to a result or to the effort process and your ability to, you know, I I would coach anybody on look, what are some process identity statements that we can focus on? My three are: 1:56

I am authentic, I am present, I am courageous. There's nothing tied to an outcome there.

And I would have any performer master these five things. I'm not defined by this. These five words have changed my life, they'll change your life. I'm not defined by this. Why are you letting a presentation define your self-worth to the world? What if you're self-worth tied? Did I was I prepared? Was I of service? Was I authentically myself? Did I honor myself? And I I love this thought from Rick Rubin: 1:57

the best art is made for the artist.

PRO MINDSET (38: 1:58

11.066) Yeah.

Collin Henderson (38: 1:59

32.002) Is this an authentic representation of your truest self? And the fourth thing is just to have courage. You you you don't have to feel confident in order to execute. And what does the warrior and the coward have in common? They both feel fear. The coward runs away, the warrior runs into battle. So you could agree at with the pro mindset, resilience, grit, navigating fear, self-doubt, like navigating a setback. How do you get back? How do you show up anyway? How do you respond with the same go back to your identity, like your values, your what your your commitments? But showing up afraid is is a mental skill that can be trained. And you don't have to feel great in order to execute. I love this thought from sports psych pioneer Dr. Ken Revisa. Are you so bad that you need your A game to win? You know, or sometimes you have to have a good shitty day. If you only have 70%, give 100% of that 70%. So just how to navigate uncertainty and new environments with with courage. And you can't feel courage without having fear present. But the last one is just being process focused. Why would you change your execution for the moment? Like so would you agree, Craig, that sometimes people's driving range game doesn't correlate to the opening T-Box with their with their buddies if there's money on the line? Like you could perform you can perform on the T bo on the the practice round or the driving range. So it's just being process focused is do you have routines that you can lean on? Do you have breath work or a warm-up or a mantra or a a pre-execution routine or

PRO MINDSET (39: 2:04

56.837) Never does.

Collin Henderson (40: 2:05

15.012) You've practiced in a safe environment, in a more challenging environment, and a similar environment, you don't have to change who you are for where are. You fall to your process. And it's kind of like, man, I my my confidence is reliant to a result. That that's unfortunate because you may have think of times when you played basketball, you could not make a shot in warm-ups, but you were good in games or in batting practice. You couldn't hit the ball during BP very well. But in games you could, or you you had a great BP, but you couldn't hit her in the game. So I think there needs to be some not outcome based way to create confidence, but your routine creates creates calm. It creates like a a a home base for you. So I would work on on those on those five.

PRO MINDSET (41: 2:07

01.18) Okay, so I had a a bunch of thoughts, Colin, when you were talking. One of them was the picture of a one-year-old kid learning how to walk. And the fact they'd never done it before, they've seen people do it, and they had to have the courage to try. And the parents' forgiveness and grace of, hey, try again, let's go. There is no judgment, there's no scoreboard. We're not putting on social media. The third time my son tried to walk, he walked. Nobody gives a dang. It's just the idea of progress, development, improvement, you know, competency, all those things. But here's the here's the the good and the bad. The good is we keep score. The good is you win championships. There is elimination in the World Cup eventually. Okay? There's there's there's elimination in March Madness. There's trophies at the end. There's recognition. There's rewards. And there's money. And there's opportunities. And it's when you can detach from that, is when you can grow and develop the most. And that's what babies do. They're not keeping score. They don't even know there is a scoreboard. Thoughts on that?

Collin Henderson (42: 2:11

31.929) No, I I agree. I but how do you teach a professional who's on a contract year to not worry about results? You know. But so what I would say is y you just have to again, that's the psychological discipline of focusing on what is in my control. A lot of people major in minor things that they can't control. Where a one year old is just a oblivious. They're just getting up, getting down. They don't know socially that it's not o getting up, getting down is normal. I think what we found, the Human Performance Institute that was based out of Florida that got acquired by Johnson Johnson found research. What separated the number one tennis players from everybody else is their ability to recover quickly from failure. They had a different set of so self-talk or systems to forget the mistake to remember the lesson. And Jordan has that famous quote where I missed these many shots.

PRO MINDSET (43: 2:13

18.534) Short memory.

Collin Henderson (43: 2:14

28.325) They've counted me to hit the game with shot on this. I've, you know, had this many turnovers, but I think Michael Jordan's superpower was just staying very present. A reporter asked him, What do you think about during a a a timeout? Michael Jordan said, chewing gum. He'd say, Why would I think about missing a shot I haven't even taken yet? Where the amateurs who who don't perform at high level, they're thinking about they're very future based, what can go wrong, what can go right, or they're dwelling on the last play. So I think, you know, part of Performances, you're not going to grow unless you fail. But it's just what do you use that failure? I love this thought from Nelson Mandela. I never lose, I either win or I learn. So it's just having a different way that you associate, the way you narrate what has just happened, what is happening and what will happen, having that belief. But there's a a legendary football coach where I grew up in in Tacoma, Washington, Pacific Lutheran Frosty Westering. He says it's not the road to success. It's the success road. So really enjoying the journey as much as the result. So again, are you an outcome junkie where you need to see result to be happy? Let's compete our ass off and love the process and the winning habits, behaviors that get the result. What I teach any performer, I have bracelets that say process over outcome. We cannot control outcomes, but we can control our process. And if your happiness day to day is only tied to a result, you're gonna struggle. But I think we should step standard. We want to win a championship, but we want to have a championship process and how we prepare, how we compete, but teach the whole framework of competition. It begins before it begins. The irony, Craig, about let's just use football for an example. The average play is around six seconds. So think of weight room, think of practice, think of film. It's only tied to that six seconds where there's a 30, 40 second play clock. So the time in between each play, if you're not running a no-huddle, a normal huddle system, you have probably 20 to 40 seconds between whistles. No one teaches football players how to win the time in between plays. When in a three-hour football game, there's only 11 minutes of competition. There's two hours and 40 minutes where you can think yourself into failure or success.

Collin Henderson (45: 2:19

53.957) This is the biggest growth edge of any organization is how to win the moments between the moments.

PRO MINDSET (46: 2:20

02.958) I agree with that. And I think that quarterbacks especially. 10.352) Have negative self-talk when their defense is out on the field and they're replaying what they should have done, what they did compared to what they should have done. And then when they threw a pick to end the series and they came off the sidelines, the coaches MF and them on the sidelines, like, hey, bro, what the hell were you thinking? You threw it in double coverage. You didn't even look at your first read, all those kind of conversations. And then they leave the player to go sit on the bench by himself. And the only people that go over there are like, hey, bro, shake it off. Nothing nothing meaningful, just well intentioned, you know, well-intended comments, but that young man is left to himself and his mind to think about whatever he's gonna think about. And then he's gonna show when he goes out there the next time that it's an RPO and he's gonna give it when he should have passed it because he didn't want to throw another pick, two plays in a row, and you just it just snowballs for the young man. And so I think that training. the athlete's mind for the gaps is critical. Golf, you pick it. Baseball, in between pitches, in between the bats, you pick it.

Collin Henderson (47: 2:24

22.243) Yeah. No, I I when I work with the athletes I work with is we design our our mental install on what we're gonna say to ourself, you know, the night before, the morning of, what we're gonna visualize. We're gonna have we're gonna write a script, some key words, phrases in between plays. We're gonna have what are called anchor statements or what are like execution keys, whether it's balance, whether it's eyes down the field or whether it's breath, like we're gonna literally design or or mental execution, just like all right, if it's cover two, we're gonna find the mic, we're gonna read this, and we're gonna just like you would install execution plays, we're gonna install our own thinking. And if this is the biggest difference between superstars and average and someone on practice squad, it's not physical, it's the mental, I'm still dumbfounded why more organizations don't have more of a of of a of a huge focus on this. I think the big thing is is a lot of sport and performance psychology, they don't teach it in a way that connects to the athlete. It's either, hey, positive thinking, which doesn't work, or in like an academic way, or it has to be, you have to have some swag, you have to make it, you have to speak in in their in their language, but then it needs to be a clear application. But one of my mentors, one of one of the best Mental skills coaches I've seen was Trevor Moad, Rest in Peace. Trevor was a great storyteller. He would give examples of whether it's Apollo 13 or Michael Johnson winning the gold, the gold medal, and what he would say. He would give like interesting examples and stories and connect it with an application.

PRO MINDSET (49: 2:28

12.902) Well, one of the things that I see is that confidence is a big separator. And you talked a little bit about confidence building in terms of self-talk. confidence busters. I see three that are pre very prevalent in sport. Being a perfectionist, you're comparing yourself to what you did one time. You're thinking you got to do that every time. Second thing is comparison, which is comparing your performance to everybody else's. And what kind of feedback the fans are giving the other players, what kind of feedback the coaches are giving the your teammates or your opponents. And the third third confidence buster is scoreboard watching. You know, you're playing your butt off, you look up and you're down 10, you know, or whatever the case may be, and then you're frustrated because you're responding to the scoreboard. Go into depth on confidence building, because if If you don't hear anything we say, and you can help your son or daughter, you're an athlete yourself, or you're a salesperson or something of that nature, and you can ramp up your confidence, your results are going to improve. Give us a recipe for improving. What are confidence builders?

Collin Henderson (50: 2:31

28.783) Yeah, I would have everybody take out a note card and I have them fill out what I call your confidence card. And it would it'd be a drill, it'd be a tool you can go to. And when I ask audiences and business and sport, you know, where does confidence come from? People are like, Well, how you practice or your past success. Then I'll counter have you ever practiced hard and had past success and you sucked in the moment and you had imposter thoughts and self doubt and you couldn't execute? Like, yes. Okay, so. That is true, but there needs to be a better way to activate that. So a confidence card would be is going to truth. Again, this is not Pollyanna positive. This is rooted in facts. Have write down when you've had moments of success in similar challenges. That's true. The brand keeps a scoreboard of all your mistakes. It tends to go to risk, failure, loss first. The second thing is have you prepared? Give me some examples. Is your confidence credible? Have you prepared similar speed, similar terrain, similar environments? Let's look at evidence mentally, emotionally, in that, okay, check. The third one I think is very often forgotten is who are people who love you and believe in you regardless? I think we first think of the scout or the coach or the GM or the reporter or a negative teammate. To infiltrate our belief in ourselves. And then another one could be your anchor statements, like what do you want to execute? Michael Johnson referenced, Trevor would tell the story. His self-talk before winning the gold in 96 was head down, pump my arms, explode, I'm a bullet. That's called thought substitution. Negative thoughts can't come in because you're occupying your headspace with something neutral that's tied to process-driven things. And I think. What is your identity?

Collin Henderson (52: 2:36

25.873) What do you say to yourself about who you are? And then have a have a reset word when you find yourself deviating from that plan. What's a you know, a reset routine physically? What's a reset visual you can look at? There's an an NBA official I've worked with where he get big time jitters pregame, and I'd had him read the the banners. That just occupies his mind in a to a neutral state. But this is all planned. This is just like you have a game plan of all right, we're facing a lefty who throws a lot of change ups and curve balls. We're gonna get up in the box. Well, what's our game plan? What we're gonna think in between pitches, in between at bats. And when you're given a presentation, like what do you want to focus on the morning of? When you have time when the client is speaking, like what's your process to get prepared? You know, on, you know, worry is visualizing what you don't want. Confidence is visualizing what you do want. So it's just having some different skills there.

PRO MINDSET (53: 2:39

30.064) Here is a fun fact. 1996, my wife was working on the Olympics. I was in Atlanta. We were sitting next to Michael Johnson's parents when he had the gold shoes and he won the 400 meters and he won the gold. And we actually asked and we were like 10 rows up from the finish line. So we're right there on the finish line. And so when he came, he had the American flag, he comes up and gives his dad his shoes. I think he ran around the track with no shoes on. And we were with his parents because we escorted him down to the railing. But there's a knowingness. When I see a guy like Michael Johnson, he had a knowingness. Michael Jordan, knowingness. Patrick Mahomes, when he has these crazy comebacks, he has a knowingness that is deeper than confidence. Confidence is a hope for modality. Knowingness is a beingness modality. And I think that you could you could argue till the sun comes down that they're different or they're the same, but I think there's there's there's different depths. Because when you just know, so you have evidence, of the, you got, you've got history on your side, you got evidence of the past, small, small wins that give you confidence. And then you have visualization of you doing it. You've done you've visualized it so much your subconscious doesn't even know you haven't done it. And you got this knowingness. Very few athletes can live in the knowingness.

Collin Henderson (55: 2:43

09.659) Well, I think it's a combination of of standard trust and will. Standard Trust Will. One of my good friends, Jason Gesser, was my quarterback at Washington State. He played at St. Louis High School in Honolulu, where they have a bazillion quarterbacks from the NFL. They just produce with Tua or the kid from Oregon who won the Heisman. His Mariota, his first year starting, was a sophomore year. We lost our first game against Stanford. He's we're walking from the sideline to our

PRO MINDSET (55: 2:45

35.025) Mariota.

Collin Henderson (55: 2:46

44.047) locker in the tunnel and he's screaming at the top of his lungs, I don't lose. He was so pissed. And then that 'cause he's just uncomfortable. That off that w that summer conditioning later the next year, he's beating everybody up r r running stairs and he's talking shit to all the D Bs. You're letting a quarterback beat you, this is why we're losing. If I'm beating you, you haven't you're not doing what it takes to win. One of the old strength coaches was saying don't do that. Other one's saying do do that because we're not going to change unless we have that will and that standard of doing what it takes, but that belief. Like you don't Allow yourself to fail because you've committed to what it takes to to believe. But yeah, there is there is an identity. And one thing about the the Johnson story is Nike sent him s silver shoes. He's like, What why would I wear silver shoes if I'm going for gold? So yeah, you you never outperform your self image. But I Craig, I gotta jump in like two minutes. I'm sorry. I hope maybe you can edit edit that this part out, but yeah.

PRO MINDSET (56: 2:49

51.622) No, we can. I'll I'll get Jose to do it. Okay, one last question. You got a n you got a book coming out real soon. share with the audience the title, and what's the nexus of your book?

Collin Henderson (57: 2:50

05.369) Yeah, the book is called The Oz Method, inspired characters from the classic L. Frank Baum 1900 story, The Wizard of Oz, teaching the psychology of influence. So this is great if you're a coach, if you're a parent, if you're a leader, if you're an educator, if you're a speaker, if you're in sales. It's breaking down modern science and what research, what the current modern brain needs for behavior change with AI, with social media, with instant graphication, and the the the characters, the the scarecrow represents a brain, so mental skills, belief, but really curiosity, the core function of the brain is learning. So learning about the needs, desires of your your ideal client. The Tim Man wanted a heart, which is emotion, which is storytelling. I mentioned Trevor, a great one of the most evidence based tools to create behavior change and influence is being a great storyteller, collector and s storyteller. The lion wanna courage. So teaching skills of executive presence, handling up objections, like being uncomfortable, stepping into environments, like how to communicate with courage. And then the yellow brick road is your process, habits that you can duplicate. So the book comes out July 21st. You can pre-order, but yeah, I think it's really combining mental skills with the psychology of influence.

PRO MINDSET (58: 2:53

25.692) I love it. Colin Henderson, thank you so much for being on Pro Mindset. Where can people find you?

Collin Henderson (58: 2:55

33.073) Yeah, thank you again. Instagram and LinkedIn at Colin Henderson. website is thecolinhenderson.com. Books are on Amazon. I have books and journals. I have a of a podcast called Master Mindset Podcast. So those are some spots.

PRO MINDSET (58: 2:56

48.45) Awesome. Hang tight.