The Playbook with Colin Jonov

Rance Mulliniks looks back on a long career and says the championship mattered because it made the picture feel complete.

On The Playbook with Colin Jonov, Dr.

Jay Bilas tells host Colin Jonov that 'unsustainable' is applied only to athlete compensation, while LSU's $70 million in coach buyouts and ballooning staffs go unquestioned.

Tim Cortazzo explains how he interviewed roughly "a hundred manufacturers" before launching the supplement company Dilemma, after a private-equity buyout changed the formulas of a brand his gym resold.

Dr.

Jim Malone, a former college football strength coach who entered baseball in 1997 and later took a job with the Mets, tells Colin Jonov his proudest career achievement is his relationships with players.

Jordan Colbert, an undrafted free agent who went from Columbia to Rhode Island to the NFL, says the shift from college to the pros was mostly about the speed of the game and the expectation that you learn the playbook right away.

Jeff Schaefer, who played 14.5 years of pro baseball including five in the majors, tells Colin Jonov that 'it's easy to get there, it's hard to stay.' He describes accepting a utility role behind Edgar Martinez in Seattle and taking 50 ground balls each at short, second and third before every game.

Colin Jonov opens The Playbook with lesson one, that "identity beats motivation every single time" because identity rests on actions rather than affirmations.

Michael "The Fort" McKenry and host Colin Jonov argue that identity is whether your actions match who you say you are, and that 'clinical' framing of identity problems puts 'money in front of it' and 'a checkbox.' They cite Dr.

Trent Mongero, a high school baseball coach with 35 years of experience, uses his childhood friend Dave Matthews's 30-plus years of touring, including playing sick with steroid shots in his vocal cords, to illustrate his "law of 33." He tells host Colin Jonov that "rocks" make up about 3% of the population, but athletes who aren't rocks can evolve into them through process and intent.

Brian Kight, author of the Daily Discipline newsletter (2,088 issues since 2018), says many people are 'principle collectors, not principle users,' because content volume has exploded while execution has stayed flat.

Steve Springer, who spent 11 years in Triple-A and eight as Toronto Blue Jays mental coach, tells host Colin Jonov to play "like it's opening day" in "I don't give a crap mode" about personal stats.

Matt Farago, who has called over 400 Harlem Globetrotters games in 24 countries, tells Colin Jonov that 'the noise that is negative' gets louder than the positive in young people and that the fix is to make your own voice the loudest.

Colin Jonov and coach AJ Shavell open with the claim that "identity always outruns motivation," and Shavell cites Lanny Bassum's book With Winning in Mind for the idea that you can't outrun your self-image.

Dr.

Dr.

Nick Raquet says he approaches pitching with "a little bit of both" calm and fire, and that he wants to shift toward the "dumb side" because overthinking makes him mechanical.

Evan Burke, a former SMU and NFL coach, describes how he sent 450 handwritten letters in 2009 after SMU told him his replacement was already hired.

Yogi Roth tells Colin Jonov that the best leaders "chase what matters," and uses Pete Carroll's "it's all about the ball" as his example.

Hannah Mears recalls working "eight jobs at once" for roughly five years, funded by waitressing and substitute teaching while sports reporting paid about "a tank of gas." She describes a rotation of Penguins, KDKA and Steelers high school football work that had her editing video until 4 a.m.

Jessica Rose Hood, a Washington DC content creator, photographer, real estate agent and race organizer, tells host Colin Jonov that her 100K race near Shenandoah took 'more mental strength than physical.' She describes raising weekly mileage from 20 to about 50 and, after the New York City Marathon, taking a month off with a half marathon already on the calendar.

AJ Shavell tells Colin Jonov that the big goals of confidence, mental toughness and leadership depend on six sub-skills: ownership, self-awareness, presence, character, intention and growth.

Colin talks with Dr.

Tim Cortazzo, a strength coach who has coached since 2012, tells host Colin Jonov that parents who shout "get off the couch" leave kids "looking to you to kind of figure out their problems." He defines toughness as "confidence in doing something" and distinguishes it from belief, using LeBron James and Tony Hawk to show how seeing a feat done lets others believe they can do it.

Luke Falk walks through chapter three of his book, a three-step exercise that traces an inner critic thought such as "I'm not a clutch player" to a person, a comparison or an event.

Dave Kline, a leadership trainer who has worked with 1,200+ companies, tells Colin Jonov that anyone can lead if they "want to," pointing to the self-identified introverts running the FANG companies.

Terry Grossetti recalls dribbling in his basement in 1996 at age 10 and says today's parents "outsource all athletic development" to trainers instead of practicing at home.

Justin Su'a opens with his written passage on the 'curse of competence,' where talented athletes treat winning as the minimum and feel empty even when dominating.

Cal Adomitis, an NFL long snapper, tells Colin Jonov that being cut was not "totally unexpected" once his team signed another snapper to compete with him.

Sahil Bloom tells Colin Jonov that the most successful people are 'simultaneously delusional and self-aware,' with delusion powering their main arena and self-awareness steering them away from losing ones.

Eric Jorgenson tells Colin Jonov he built the Naval book by assembling Naval's own words, like "a giant jigsaw puzzle," and checked in with Naval quarterly over roughly two years.

Max Murin, a two-time All-American at Iowa, describes cutting from 160-plus pounds to 141 for three years and then switching to a 149-pound class after learning better nutrition and sleep habits.

Cooper Neimand, a former college basketball coach who now coaches coaches, argues that the mental game is harder for coaches than for players because coaches carry an entire roster, boosters and an athletic department with "no support." He lays out four pillars (inner game, locker room, CEO leadership, game day) and calls the inner game the most important because "if you don't have it together yourself, your team will not have it together." He and host Colin Jonov compare definitions of self-love, with Cooper describing "grace and acceptance and perspective" and Colin preferring "self-honesty." Cooper also describes leaving college on medical leave after panic attacks, and says he tried therapy while coaching but spent the first 30 minutes explaining what a recruiting period is.

Bhrett McCabe and Brady Howe open with Rory McIlroy's late two-stroke lead slipping away to Bryson DeChambeau and LeBron James's first Finals loss in Miami, then ask how elite athletes recover.

Alex Marinelli, a four-time Big Ten champion at Iowa, says the pressure of wrestling for a program with 24 national team titles is "completely made up" and "self-inflicted." He credits his faith, which grew after he met his wife in 2011, and the "Jesus trained" shirt he wears before matches for his confidence.

Dr.

Terry Grossetti and host Colin Jonov open with Jordan Peterson, whom they say has never publicly admitted being a Christian, and a country singer's podcast challenge that reportedly left Peterson in tears.

Michael Krauza tells host Colin Jonov how he went from being cut in eighth grade and again as a freshman at Franklin Regional to pitching in the Mets organization at Double-A.

The episode talks about stress.

Host Colin Jonov re-releases his most-downloaded Athletic Fortitude Show interview with performance coach Dr.

Charlie Ruiz tells Colin Jonov how a 9-mile run on December 23rd, two years earlier, became a 26.2-mile "identity marathon" through his old apartment complex, high school, middle school and junior college.

Colin Jonov and Steve Vensel explain the rebrand of The Athletic Fortitude Show to The Playbook with Colin Jonov, which widens guests beyond athletes to entrepreneurs and doctors while keeping athletic mindset and performance topics.

Yogi Roth tells Colin Jonov he balances work and family with "chase what matters," a three-part test of clarity, confidence, and discipline he built with speaking coach Chris West.

Kansas basketball assistant Fred "Coach Q" Quartlebaum tells host Colin Jonov that his positivity comes partly from his mother, an 81-year-old breast cancer survivor who still bowls twice a week.

Clint Hurdle tells host Colin Jonov that he wrote every word of his book himself, mostly on flights from Tampa, and credits self-discipline and a prioritized calendar.

Italian-born Habakkuk Baldonado says youth soccer in Italy sorts players by 14 or 15, which led him to American football, a sport he first tried at 11 or 12 and quit after about a month.

Colin Jonov answers listener questions on The Playbook, starting with his 'house' model of identity, in which being an athlete is one room and not 'the entire house.' He says about 95% of performance anxiety comes from lack of preparation and offers a three-tier confidence system: 'doing the work, reflecting on the work and verbalizing the work.' He calls the equation of physical toughness with mental toughness 'silly,' naming up-downs and bear crawls as drills that do not prepare an athlete for fourth-quarter pressure.

Erick Hallett says reaching the NFL did not end his ambition: "I've always dreamt about being in the position I'm in now, and now that I'm in it, I just want to be somewhere else." Colin Jonov names this the hedonic treadmill, and Hallett answers it with consistency, a bedside "billboard" to-do list, and finding satisfaction in tasks like folding clothes for half an hour.