Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 2: Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3: We got to get.
Speaker 1: Down down.
Speaker 3: All right, everybody.
Speaker 4: Yep, we are working so hard, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4: Here at the Huel.
Speaker 3: Look at everybody's looking at me like, wait, you are working.
Speaker 2: Look to be fair, to be fair that I think
Speaker 2: they do this on purpose. They put us somewhere where
Speaker 2: we can't actually watch any tennis from here, I know,
Speaker 2: so we don't get distracted. What I can see is
Speaker 2: there are probably some really good matches going on because
Speaker 2: there are a lot of people court side.
Speaker 4: That's one of the stadium courts, right No, that is
Speaker 4: oh no, that's a field court.
Speaker 2: That is just a it's a practice court. No, it's
Speaker 2: not a practice court. Practice courts are right there. Okay,
Speaker 2: there's a match going on right there. But you bring
Speaker 2: up a really good point about what's unique at the
Speaker 2: US Open because you can go go watch I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, two years ago when we were sitting here,
Speaker 2: I left because okay, you stayed the first night to
Speaker 2: watch Serena and her what her thought could have been
Speaker 2: her final.
Speaker 4: Match, right exactly, I went over there and watched her practice,
Speaker 4: which is really cool. I did the same thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or maybe it was the night before. I can't remember.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It's pretty amazing. But it's cool, like.
Speaker 4: The boards are over there and an idea of who's
Speaker 4: on some of these side courts, and you can just
Speaker 4: go and watch and it's just fascinating to see.
Speaker 2: The other part of this is the athletes just walking
Speaker 2: by you. So you know pro tennis players typically they're
Speaker 2: above average and height.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're pretty tall dudes.
Speaker 2: They're carrying around or women carrying around bags of like
Speaker 2: a dozen tennis rackets. You can kind of tell they carry.
Speaker 3: That's what they do. They carry their on a court.
Speaker 2: The walk that they walk amongst us.
Speaker 3: They do.
Speaker 4: And someone who really knows about this world. She's an athlete.
Speaker 4: She's represented athletes and negotiating deals. You'll know some of
Speaker 4: the names she has represented. She's now helping others, including
Speaker 4: non athletes, really performed him at their best.
Speaker 2: Let's get to our guest, Molli Fletcher. She's the founder
Speaker 2: and CEO of the talent development company Game Changer Performance Group.
Speaker 3: She's got a new book out.
Speaker 2: It's called Dynamic Drive, the purpose Fueled Formula for Sustainable Success.
Speaker 2: It's coming out this week.
Speaker 4: It is coming out this week, and she joins us
Speaker 4: from Atlanta, and her notes remind us she was a
Speaker 4: walk on tennis star at Michigan State. She and her
Speaker 4: mom actually won enough US qualifying matches to play doubles
Speaker 4: at the US in nineteen ninety one. I can imagine
Speaker 4: what a great memory that is. Mollie, Welcome to Bloomberg
Speaker 4: Business Week. Great to have you.
Speaker 3: How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm doing awesome. I'm jealous. You guys have golly.
Speaker 3: I want to be where you are, so soak it
Speaker 3: all in for me. Listen, I got we will, I
Speaker 3: wish we wish you were here.
Speaker 4: It's really kind of perfect today. The weather has settled down,
Speaker 4: it's not too hot. There's something about top notch athletes
Speaker 4: that can teach us so much about yourself, how to
Speaker 4: do things, how to approach things. I feel like we
Speaker 4: talked to coaches athletes.
Speaker 1: We learned so much.
Speaker 4: What have you learned being an athlete and representing them?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? You know, for almost twenty years I was a
Speaker 1: sports agent, and so I had an opportunity to see
Speaker 1: so early in my career. I mean, it was sort
Speaker 1: of a front row seat to peak performance. And what
Speaker 1: I saw is that at the end of their careers
Speaker 1: the things that gave them the most satisfaction was actually
Speaker 1: not the trophies, right, It wasn't the rings on their fingers,
Speaker 1: but it was at some level the knowledge that they
Speaker 1: left it all out there for where you are. They
Speaker 1: left it all out on the court. They gave it
Speaker 1: everything they had. And so yeah, the book that I
Speaker 1: have coming out next week, Dynamic Drive, it is all
Speaker 1: about how do we align our pursuits and our outcomes
Speaker 1: at some level in service of who are we becoming
Speaker 1: in the pursuit? Who are we becoming in the journey?
Speaker 1: As much as the achievements, the trophies, the out right,
Speaker 1: when we think about the guy or the gall that's
Speaker 1: about to hoist a trophy over their head after winning
Speaker 1: the Open, I think when you see those tiers of joy,
Speaker 1: it's anchored more in the pursuit than in fact the
Speaker 1: achievement itself.
Speaker 2: How do you then so interesting that you say that.
Speaker 2: I think about that with amateur athletes too, who you know,
Speaker 2: might work a full time job, but they're also have
Speaker 2: athletic goals. And maybe those athletic goals that they have
Speaker 2: they don't achieve. But what they did was they trained
Speaker 2: for that marathon, They trained for that one hundred mile
Speaker 2: bike race. They might not have finished it in the
Speaker 2: time that they wanted to, but maybe it was the
Speaker 2: training leading up to that, that experience that actually is fulfilling.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. I mean, I think sometimes when we
Speaker 1: think about you know, drive is such an amazing thing, right,
Speaker 1: like the driver run on marathon, the drive to achieve something,
Speaker 1: it's such an awesome thing, and it's amazing. But to me,
Speaker 1: so much of why I'm so passionate about dynamic drive
Speaker 1: as I define it, is because our lives are so transformative.
Speaker 1: They're so dynamic right at some level. In other words,
Speaker 1: it's not about reaching the summit or finishing or running
Speaker 1: that marathon per Sae to your point, and you know,
Speaker 1: because at some level, the interesting thing is what do
Speaker 1: you do when you're when you're done? Right, Like you
Speaker 1: guys probably see it and have seen it, and I
Speaker 1: know I saw it as a sports agent. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you when you finish the marathon, when you win
Speaker 1: the US Open, when you win, uh, you know, a
Speaker 1: world championship, what do you do next? And if you're
Speaker 1: in the pursuit of better every day, if you are
Speaker 1: working on your mindset, if you're working inside of discipline
Speaker 1: and resilience, and you're anchoring all of it in something bigger, right,
Speaker 1: a bigger why at some level to me it makes
Speaker 1: the journey worth the time. And it's what I saw
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 3: So what do you do, Molly? So what do you do?
Speaker 4: Like, how do you work with someone or how do
Speaker 4: you train someone?
Speaker 3: I think you and I the know as they'll feel
Speaker 3: like we'll come off of something and it's like so
Speaker 3: great and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you got to remember that there's the
Speaker 2: flip side of that too. We come up with something,
Speaker 2: we come off with something and you're like, you know what,
Speaker 2: it could have been a lot better and here's why, right,
Speaker 2: So how do you like, we're pretty harsh critics of ourselves.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, so how do you get your mindset to be like, okay,
Speaker 4: you know, all right, maybe that was a bad one,
Speaker 4: or so how do we make it better or how
Speaker 4: do we not let that kind of throw us off?
Speaker 1: Course? Well and and and you hit on it right
Speaker 1: there with that word mindset, because it's everything right and
Speaker 1: you guys see it out there on the courts right there.
Speaker 1: I mean the difference between the guys and gals that
Speaker 1: are that are that are competing and continuing to make
Speaker 1: progress so often, right, it's their it's their mindset. It's
Speaker 1: not talent. It is at some level that gets them there,
Speaker 1: but it's the discipline and the resilience and the mindset
Speaker 1: that keeps them winning. And so to your question, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you know we have like something like seventy
Speaker 1: thousand thoughts a day, which is kind of insane when
Speaker 1: you think about it, right, And so if we aren't
Speaker 1: intentional about reframing our thoughts, right, like really intentional about saying,
Speaker 1: am I telling myself something right now that is taking
Speaker 1: me where I want to go? Or am I telling
Speaker 1: myself something that it isn't right? And so I teach
Speaker 1: something in dynamic Drive called a total mindset reset, which is,
Speaker 1: how do we recognize when we're telling ourselves something that
Speaker 1: isn't going to take us where we want to go
Speaker 1: or give us the outcome or the make us show
Speaker 1: up as the best version of ourselves? How can I
Speaker 1: recognize that? How can I then replace it with something
Speaker 1: different and better that in fact is driving toward the
Speaker 1: outcome that we want? And how do I reinforce it? Right?
Speaker 1: You know, you see athletes. I've certainly got the open
Speaker 1: yd right. You see athletes looking at notebooks right and
Speaker 1: cards and they're getting their mind right and reinforce the
Speaker 1: kind of self talk they need when they're out on
Speaker 1: the court.
Speaker 2: What is that self talk? And how can we take
Speaker 2: what they do on the court and apply it to
Speaker 2: our own lives when it comes to either professionally or personally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I mean you know, dynamic drive has
Speaker 1: seven keys to it, right that I unpack in detail.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's all foundationally anchored in purpose. But I
Speaker 1: would say the first step fundamentally is saying where am
Speaker 1: I playing small in my life? Right? Like? Where am I?
Speaker 1: Where am I maybe not showing up in a way
Speaker 1: that aligns with the legacy that I would want to leave.
Speaker 1: And that was really what got me to this point
Speaker 1: right now, which is pulling back and saying do I
Speaker 1: want to be an agent and negotiate two billion, three billion,
Speaker 1: five billion contracts? What am I chasing? Right? So I
Speaker 1: think to answer your question, it's pulling back and saying
Speaker 1: where am I playing small? Where could I have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to level up a little bit in service of
Speaker 1: the leg See, I want to leave in service of
Speaker 1: what I want on my tombstone, right in service of
Speaker 1: me showing up both personally and professionally and living into
Speaker 1: my four values. And then I think we have to
Speaker 1: say what am I really chasing? Right? I think sometimes
Speaker 1: in life, whether you're a you know, stay at home parent,
Speaker 1: whether you're a past pastor whether you're a professional tennis player,
Speaker 1: whether you're a media talent like you, it's pulling back
Speaker 1: and saying what am I chasing? Right? Like, at some level,
Speaker 1: what is all of this for? And who am I
Speaker 1: becoming as a result of the pursuit, and and and
Speaker 1: and those kinds.
Speaker 3: Of questions are because this.
Speaker 4: Kid drive you a little crazy and you're not your
Speaker 4: best you, or maybe I feel like that I'm not
Speaker 4: my best me sometimes because it makes you a little crazy. Hey, Molly,
Speaker 4: one thing we do want to ask you and love
Speaker 4: hearing kind of your perspective on how to help people
Speaker 4: be their best if you if you will, you mentioned
Speaker 4: twenty years representing three hundred plus of the world's top NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, athletes, coaches,
Speaker 4: so Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Andrews. I could go
Speaker 4: on and on and on.
Speaker 3: What was what was the fun part of that? The
Speaker 3: good part of that?
Speaker 4: What was the maybe not so fun part of it?
Speaker 3: And why did you stop?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Awesome question? And uh, you know, I mean the
Speaker 1: fun part is being around peak performers, right, Being around
Speaker 1: people who live into and want to pursue better every day, right,
Speaker 1: that have the kind of mindset and resilience and discipline,
Speaker 1: and that that was and is so magnetic and so
Speaker 1: fulfilling and so fun. You know, in service of your.
Speaker 3: Is there anybody in particular? Is there anybody?
Speaker 4: Is there anybody though in particular that stands out that
Speaker 4: you were just like, oh my god, they're just on
Speaker 4: a different plane.
Speaker 1: You know. John Smoltz was a pitch sure for the
Speaker 1: for the Atlanta Braves. To me, he he got it
Speaker 1: from the perspective that he would step out on the
Speaker 1: mounta and give it all all he had all the time.
Speaker 1: He wasn't afraid to change. It wasn't really about him.
Speaker 1: It was about the other guys in the clubhouse more
Speaker 1: than him, right, And and I think you know Ernie
Speaker 1: Johnson Junior. You guys know EJ's name, given the work
Speaker 1: that you do. I mean just you know, we we'd
Speaker 1: go from the set where he's between Kenny and and Barkley, right,
Speaker 1: and then we'd get in a mini man and drive
Speaker 1: to go have lunch with his his sensed past son, Michael,
Speaker 1: who was severely disabled, and and and have lunch and
Speaker 1: J would rub his head and beat Michael. And you know, so,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's the it's the people that recognize
Speaker 1: the the opportunity and the uniqueness of it, but and
Speaker 1: also recognize the blessings in it, and and and at
Speaker 1: some level don't get too self absorbed in their sort
Speaker 1: of in the in the seat that that they're in.
Speaker 1: And you guys see it there right, Like it's easy
Speaker 1: to do that when everywhere you turn, everybody stands up
Speaker 1: and moves and follows you, right, and so small C
Speaker 1: E J. Doc Rivers, Tom Izzo. These are people and
Speaker 1: and the list goes on and on and on. But
Speaker 1: they're great human beings who obviously had an unbelievable had
Speaker 1: unbelievable careers too.
Speaker 4: In terms of the stuff that maybe wasn't so fun
Speaker 4: being an agent and why you.
Speaker 1: Stop, said, I was hoping you forget that part of
Speaker 1: the question, girl, and your back with it.
Speaker 3: I said to tim I Wade, I'm like, I want
Speaker 3: to follow up.
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, yeah, I know. I was just so you know,
Speaker 1: the the I would say that not so fun is
Speaker 1: when is when you you know, the eleven o'clock call,
Speaker 1: when a player gets traded and they didn't want to.
Speaker 1: You know, the the player that just gets up to
Speaker 1: the big leagues and then they get injured, the you know,
Speaker 1: the golfer that's right there and they're about to win
Speaker 1: their first tournament and they sort of don't get it
Speaker 1: done for whatever reason on the back nine on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: You know those because the love and the connection. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are people that you're at their weddings, right, You're
Speaker 1: there when their kids are born, and so when they
Speaker 1: when when you when they're disappointed in their heartbreaks or
Speaker 1: their family's heartbreaks, Man, that hurts. You know, that hurts.
Speaker 1: And so I would say I would say that was
Speaker 1: the hardest part truly, or the or the the other
Speaker 1: component I would actually say is the ones who had
Speaker 1: just an enormous amount of talent but didn't have candidly.
Speaker 1: What I break down in dynamic drive the discipline, the resilience,
Speaker 1: the mindset. So they had all the talent, the talent
Speaker 1: isn't enough, right Like, you need talent plus resilience, talent
Speaker 1: plus discipline plus mindset. So that was always sad to
Speaker 1: see the at some of the wasted talent, knowing the
Speaker 1: gap that existed, and you know that that's that's heart.
Speaker 1: That hurts your heart too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I could see that very briefly.
Speaker 2: Because we only have about thirty seconds left with you, Molly,
Speaker 2: what would you say to somebody who's feeling a little
Speaker 2: burned out right now? I'm not talking about a pro athlete,
Speaker 2: but somebody who's feeling just like really really tired.
Speaker 4: Actually have more time, I believe. Do we leave like
Speaker 4: two minutes?
Speaker 3: So go ahead.
Speaker 1: She wants to dig into this burnout question. Man, that's
Speaker 1: what's really going on. I love it too, mad. No,
Speaker 1: here's what I would tell them. I would say, burnout
Speaker 1: is usually a result of chasing the wrong things. In
Speaker 1: other words, it's putting her energy towards the things that
Speaker 1: don't matter to you. Right. So, and and when we
Speaker 1: operate into dynamic drive, because the foundation is that we're
Speaker 1: plugged into our purpose in everything that we do. Burnout
Speaker 1: is actually at day. In other words, for somebody who's
Speaker 1: feeling burned out, what I would encourage them to do,
Speaker 1: pull back and do is ask themselves some tough questions. Right,
Speaker 1: what am I chasing? What matters most to me? What
Speaker 1: legacy do I do I want to leave? What at
Speaker 1: some level are the things, the people, the relationships, the values,
Speaker 1: the beliefs that are most important to me? And how
Speaker 1: am I living and pouring my energy into those things
Speaker 1: in service of creating alignment and in turn offsetting burnout.
Speaker 1: Because I think where people find themselves burned out is
Speaker 1: they're misaligned, right, Like, they're misaligned in other words, they're
Speaker 1: spending their time and energy. Yeah, right, totally, I'm glad
Speaker 1: to Yeah. I mean, it's spending your time and energy
Speaker 1: doing things that don't ladder up to what in fact
Speaker 1: matters most to you. And so that's why I'm so
Speaker 1: passionate about this approach to drive to life and at
Speaker 1: some level what can become really an identity in which
Speaker 1: we approach our lives because it keeps burnout at bank,
Speaker 1: It doesn't focus on the competition, it's an inside out
Speaker 1: approach to living, to living our lives in fullness without
Speaker 1: regret and leaving the legacy that we really want to leave.
Speaker 4: Now it's a deeper think and thought, as you said,
Speaker 4: mindset and just thinking about right when we all ultimately
Speaker 4: will leave this world, like how you leave it right?
Speaker 4: And do you feel kind of good on the way
Speaker 4: out to be quite owing? No, I really I think
Speaker 4: about the relation as I get older, As I get older.
Speaker 3: Molly Fletcher, thank you so much for all this time.
Speaker 4: Founder, our and chief executive officer at game Change Change
Speaker 4: her performance group, and of course her new book is
Speaker 4: called Dynamic Drive.