Run Your Business With the Focus and Dedication of an All-Star Athlete: A Conversation With Pete Carroll and Dr. Michael Gervais

Michael Rivo: Welcome back to another episode of Blazing Trails. I'm your host, Michael Rivo from Salesforce Studios. Could the training philosophies of high performing athletes also be a game changer for business leaders? That question inspired Seattle Seahawks' head coach, Pete Carroll, and performance psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais, to co- found Compete to Create, an innovative coaching and training platform designed to turn your mind into a high performance machine. On today's episode, Pete and Michael join Lynne Zaledonis, Salesforce SVP of Product Marketing, to discuss how we can apply high performance psychology to improve our work and daily lives. A quick word about work. com before we get to our interview. Reopening our communities and businesses will take careful planning, but it can be as seamless as possible with work. com. Work. com is an all new suite of apps and resources that businesses and community leaders around the world can use to reopen, re- skill employees and respond efficiently to the COVID- 19 pandemic. Reopening will be a journey, but work. com is your guide. To learn more, go to work. com.

Lynne Zaledonis: When people feel isolated, scared, and stress, we're giving people an opportunity to learn; learn how you can overcome this adversity and actually grow. We're really lucky today to have two guests who know this well, people we can learn from about leadership, about performance, about overcoming adversity and living your authentic life. I'm really excited to welcome Seahawks' head coach, Pete Carroll, and psychiatrist specializing in performance, Dr. Michael Gervais. Welcome, both of you all.

Pete Carroll: Well, thanks for having us. Appreciate being here.

Dr. Michael Gervais: Thank you.

Lynne Zaledonis: Absolutely. Let's start with you, Pete. You have quite the successful coach career. All the way back from USC to your time with Seahawks now, quite a lot of success. So there's got to be work philosophy, I'm guessing, that helps you in your coaching. I'd love for you to start this by sharing that with us.

Pete Carroll: Okay. I appreciate that. Thanks for having us. We're grateful to be part of your program. These times, as we continue to connect to, there's so much going on and we are so challenged that there's never been a time where it's more important to know where you're coming from and where your center is and how you can handle all of the challenges that we're all facing. There's nothing more important than really knowing where you are, and that's where philosophy [inaudible 00:02: 24 ]. I've always thought that philosophy is really the series of things that you believe, the beliefs that you have. You add them all up and kind of stack them up, they start to tell a story about who you are, what you're all about. If you're in the world where we are, we have to share philosophy and we have to make it really clear to the people around us. We have to be really succinct about it. So there's a self- discovery process that gets us to the point of getting to that philosophy. For me, I thought I had it all together. I thought I knew what I was doing and then I got fired this time, and then I got fired that time. I got knocked around and kicked to the street a little bit and realized that I needed to really get clear on where I'm coming from and who I am and how I could best define myself and be able to share that with the people around me, so they could act in accordance with it. I didn't have a whole lot of chances left. So I needed to get my act together and I really do a real discipline, deep dive of self- discovery, went through and figured out how to best describe myself and I figured out that I was a competitor. I spent my whole life competing. I thought, if that's really who I am, then I needed to build a philosophy very connected to that. My philosophy is always compete. Competing, to me, is striving. It's doing the best you can and everything that you get a chance to be challenged by it. So that thought is really, it is a combination of all the stuff that makes me be Pete. But to go along with that, just to mention, I don't think philosophy can be left aside without talking about purpose. Purpose is all part of that as well, and why do we do what we do? Philosophy is kind of how we do it. Purpose is where we focus and direct it. So I've spent really, my career working at helping people find their best and trying to figure out how they can uncover and untap the unique, extraordinary qualities that make them them, and champion it and celebrate it and bring that to life. So that's kind of how we've operated in our program over the years and it's worked out pretty well for us.

Lynne Zaledonis: I like that. Thank you so much for sharing those vulnerable moments. I think that's really important for people to hear, and it's certainly inspiring. I love seeing the passion in how you talk about finding your purpose. So you brought that to your team to help you find success within the team. It sounds like that's applicable to everyone. When did you sort of make that understanding that this isn't just something that helps you personally, helps your team, but could be applicable to everybody?

Pete Carroll: Well, first you kind of got to get your act together, so you feel confident about what you're talking about and so that you can share it with others. It was really important that I could share with my coaches, so that the coaches could act in accordance with our approach and they could share with their players. We have always worked at trying to uncover the philosophy of the people around us as well. We ask our players to try to come to grips with what they're all about and find out what's important to them and all that. That has been part of our work forever. So it's always been connected to not just the game playing football, but it's been connected to helping them develop their own lives, knowing that the more focused and centered they are, the better they can bring themselves to the opportunities that to play in the game that they play and they'll perform it at a higher level. So it's just kind of always applied to all aspects. We really direct our focus at the entire being of a person and try to help them find their best through all aspects and it helps them in their football.

Lynne Zaledonis: That's great. Thank you. I'm curious where Mike comes into the picture here. So Mike, I'm going to welcome you and introduce you because I'm wondering how you two came together to share this philosophy. So you have a background in mindset training. You've trained everyone from individuals that are Olympic athletes to members of the military. When did you meet Pete? And how did this all come together?

Dr. Michael Gervais: About a decade ago, a mutual friend of ours put us together, just assumed that we knew each other. When they realized that we didn't, we sat down, we had a fantastic conversation over dinner and essentially, what that conversation was about was the applied science of psychology and what he was doing and what I was trying to sort out and my purpose and his purpose. At the end of the dinner, it was pretty clear that our philosophies were aligned, our interests were similar, and he said," Hey, why don't you to come up and see what I'm doing up at the Seahawks," and it was beautiful. So I came up and what was beautiful about it is in the hallways, the conversations... This is my first day, if you will, just seeing what he was doing. The conversations with the coaches were, to amalgamate them, would say something like," It's just different here. I can just be myself." So he created an environment where people can do their very best work, they are celebrated for the unique strengths and the vision was very clear. Then on top of all of that, there was an energy where people were actually working at a high clip, high effort toward that shared vision. So about a year and a half into our work together, it was a wonderful day. It was a normal kind of day at the training center and Pete comes out of his office and he says, he goes," Can you feel it?" I said," Yeah." So what he was talking about was what it felt like to have a hundred and some alpha competitors pointing their noses in the same direction toward the same shared vision. He said, it was a quick passing and he says," Hey, what do you think that... Do you think anyone else outside of here would be interested in what we're doing?" And what that," it," is, is his ability and his shared ecosystem to create a culture where people can do their very best work. Then my application inside of that was to help people that wanted to be their very best to train their mind. So that was it. We wrote it on the back of a napkin. We shared it with a few companies. We started to incubate it and work it and understand the differences between sports and business. From that, we've trained organizations where they've invested over 300000 hours in just one company, 300000 hours of human capital towards training their minds because we understand and the best in the world reflect this is that there's three things that you can train as humans: you can train your craft, you can train your body and you can train your mind. Not one of those is left to chance for those that want to truly commit towards their potential.

Lynne Zaledonis: And that's Compete to Create that you guys founded together. I love that idea that you take these people who are our competitors, fierce competitors, and probably A- type players, but really get them moving in the right direction. I think that's something business can really relate to. Pete, I'm going to ask you to sort of build upon that. So this philosophy is really inspiring and I love the feeling that everyone said," No, we're different here at the Seahawks." That philosophy had to be tested at times. Can you share some examples where you really had to put that to test and maybe make that relatable to something that we, in business, can also understand?

Pete Carroll: Yeah, if your philosophy is always compete, then you're either competing or you're not at all times. Everything a challenge for us. We find ourselves... We're in a relentless pursuit of finding the competitive edge in everything we're doing. So if that's your mentality, then you're always up against it because you never quite get it right and you always keep endeavoring and figure it out. I have found out that through successes and failures, that the successes are just as difficult in terms of being challenged as the defeats are because the whole purpose that we have is to focus on what we're doing and be present and to be where we want to be. The effect of a win can affect you in a way that can distract you and keep you from being in the focus that you want to be in just as a defeat can. So whether it was a Super Bowl victory or a Super Bowl loss, which were both extraordinary events and very extraordinarily impacting, you're still challenged regularly to come back to the center of your focus and where you need to be, to be at your best. So it doesn't matter whether it was one big loss or a big win, we have to learn how to discipline ourselves to come back to where we want to be so that we can be at our very best. You would think that it is all about the winning and the losing. It's really about the performance. It's really about consistently being at your best, so that you can be available for the wins, be available for the successes and not get yourself distracted where you come up short and can't get there. So we have done that and we have found our way back to the center of when things are tough because we come back to the truth. We come back to telling the truth on Monday, talking about it, making sure that everybody is clear what took place. We give everybody a chance to be accountable and say that," I could have done this better. I wish I would have done this more so. I liked the way this happened," so that we can get really clear to take the next step we take together all on the same page in the same mindset. That's what allows us to come back. It's getting to the truth of what happened, understanding where you fit into it, and then what are you going to do about it? And then take that next step forward, tuned in to the very next thing that's coming and we know that something good is just about to happen. So when you focus like that, then we can bounce back from whatever the problems are. So people that have followed us closely, they've seen the Super Bowls and they've seen the championships, but every day is a challenge. Every day is a challenge for us to stay on track and to be focused and develop the discipline that it takes to really be at your best consistently. That's our challenge on a day- to- day basis.

Lynne Zaledonis: You really touched on something I'd wanted to ask you about anyway. So I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that and that is, how do you perform through these adversities? We talked about losses when you're up against some moments where you're really tested or they can be painful, how do you persevere, and you give us some great advice there. I've been thinking about this a lot is how you can be your best self, but I heard a lot of element of team in there. Can you just go a little bit deeper on when you face these setbacks, what do you do as a person and what do you do as a team? Because I think that's something in business we can really relate to.

Pete Carroll: One of the things that we're always stressing is what it is to be a great teammate. To be a great teammate, it basically comes down to being in service of others and putting yourself out for those around you. So the focus is for us is to always help each other. Where that comes from is once you appreciate the fact that you are part of something bigger than yourself and you've given yourself to that challenge, it's how much can you demonstrate how much you care about what's at hand and the people around you? So that has been such an important part of it, of all of our work, to really be willing to care for the people around us, teaching people that if you give your best to those around you, you're going to receive so much in return. We found that when we do that consistently, we're really hard to beat. When we're really tuned in, when we're really focused and we really do work in accordance with those around us, then all the good stuff happens. It empowers us. It allows us to trust in one another, to believe in each other, to remain positive, remain optimistic, that's a big part of us, and to keep us taking that next step forward together to make that in a way that we can really cash in and kick butt. That's really how we go about it.

Lynne Zaledonis: That's really great advice for anybody who's a leader, anybody who's part of the team. So I guess that takes me back to you, Mike, so I'm understanding how you take this philosophy that Pete's been talking about and put it into a training. Like many people probably who are viewers, we've been through many corporate trainings. I've been blessed to work for companies that have invested in me. So I have been to several leadership trainings. What are you doing that is different? Or how would you shape this to be unique?

Dr. Michael Gervais: The principles that we've come to understand are there's an intersection between the two of us. As a train psychologist, we're squarely sitting on the science of high performance psychology, and those are the methodologies and practices that help people become the very best. At the same time, we move out of the laboratory and the two of us are in the amphitheater of performance. So some of the stuff that works in the laboratory doesn't work necessarily in high stakes, high pressured environments. So we found this really sweet science meets application. So we're simply just sharing what has worked for us and what's also worked for good science. That's the intersection that we stand and work from. So there's the iteration that happens on the frontier. We're going to share those. We pull back the curtain and share those iterations and also share the science that it stands on. The idea that you can only train three things; your craft, your body and your mind, is that we're double- clicking into how to actually train one's mind. It's one thing to have beautiful words on the walls that say," Confidence," or whatever they might be, the aspirational words, but confidence is a skill and just like any skill, we can train it. So you can literally do sets and reps to train confidence. When those mechanical parts of becoming your very best by training your mind work inside and in tandem with a culture that supports people on the shared vision, the shared purpose for people to do their very best work, it's like one- on- one equals something very different than two. So the last component, I think, that is unique about our approach is that we're making sure that we're hitting the science and the art of recovery, and that might seem unfamiliar to many people. We talk about the value of sleep, we talk about the importance of hydration, but people on the world stage inside of sport are uncommonly committed and fundamentally organizing their life towards their purpose. We don't talk about working hard. 99% of the people are working hard. We're talking more than you might imagine on the science and art of recovery, so that we can wake up with zest and zeal on a consistent basis to work towards the upper reaches of our potential because if we're fatigued or irritated, we're tired, it's really hard to have the right way about yourself to live in the present moment essentially. So those are a couple of ways that I think I found to be exciting and thrilling and unique to our approach.

Lynne Zaledonis: It's really interesting to hear you both use different words that go back and forth between sports and business and personal. It's interesting how they really do all flow together and the parallels between them. You've built a business around this, Mike, quite a successful one. You've doubled your team over the last 10 years. So congratulations, and thank you also for being a Salesforce customer. You use us for Salesforce for both sales and marketing to run your business. I think a lot of people who are viewing would be interested in understanding, as an entrepreneur and a business owner, how you've used technology to help your business grow, and maybe some advice on what you're investing in and how you're leaning in to be successful in these times.

Dr. Michael Gervais: Great. First, it's been an absolute joy to do this work with coach Carroll. We built, on our shared philosophy, the company called Compete to Create, and essentially that business model is using the frameworks that we found to be successful in sport and sharing them with individuals and enterprise organizations. Yes, technology is right at the center of how we're able to share those approaches and insights and the application of good psychology, and Salesforce has been great for us because it automates our ability to be more creative, to be more connected, to live in the present moment more often. So we're using Sales Cloud and par dots and marketing cloud. We're using those to help our team and help our customers for us to be more connected. So it really gives us a 360 view of what's happening with our customers, so that we can support them at a more immediate, more creative, more purposeful way. It's been a great resource for us, that's for sure.

Lynne Zaledonis: Great. Using technology, so you can focus on what's most important and what your skills actually are. That's great. So let's get a couple of final words from you both. Pete, I'd love to start with you. As we started this call, these are challenging times through COVID and racial injustice. There's a lot of stress and anxiety people are feeling these days. How can they use your philosophy to build strength and to persevere through these difficult times?

Pete Carroll: Well, first off, I appreciate the opportunity to be with you guys today and to talk about some good stuff. I think that there's nothing more important than understanding how important it is to relate to the people around us and to work to get that it's your best, so that you can function and interact and support those that you have a chance to support on your team. We do it through care, loving, empathy, consideration, support. We're going to operate that way at all times, which isn't really typical for the world that we come from in the NFL. You might be surprised, but we have found that that's the way that we can best serve one another and best help us make it through the difficult challenges. We're facing so many things for the first time. The fact that being grounded and being centered is really valuable too, so we can be at peace. Somebody mentioned earlier on about how... We had mentioned about how we operate so often thinking about what other people want us to be, and how we should be, and how we're supposed to look and act and all. That is such a challenge. You only have a chance to be your best self. If you're going to be a combination of other people, you're going to fail and you're going to... I've been through it myself. So coming back to our ability to be really clear about who we are, where we come from, self- discovery process, understanding the uncompromising principles that you stand for is what will help you stay strong and work your way through these challenging times. Also, it's going to be awhile. We have to be able to hang in there and hang tough. So a good optimistic outlook is hugely important. We operate thinking that something good is just about to happen. That keeps us in a good frame of mind, it keeps her attitude right. Attitude is so important right now, and our ability to support others attitudes and make them feel strong and feel good about where they are, where they're coming from really, I think, is really key and crucial and gives us a chance to be successful and help one another.

Lynne Zaledonis: I appreciate that. Thank you for those words. Mike, do you want to build upon that? I can't imagine a more important time to have the right mindset and to use psychology to get through this new normal. What is your guidance?

Dr. Michael Gervais: We're built on the premise that change begins with each individual and that change, square tier zero for that change is mindfulness. So we walked through the science and the art of mindfulness; becoming more aware, being able to sustain that awareness, so that we are more aware of our thoughts, our words, and our actions and how those thoughts and words and actions align with helping others be their very best and to support them and celebrate them towards their mission in life as well. So yeah, the revolution that begins with change begins with thought. So that's the place that we're talking about helping people is become more aware of their thinking, both their non- conscious biases, as well as their awareness of their thoughts that they're aware of. So, yeah, it's right at the ground zero, and we're honored to be celebrating the importance of psychology right now and sharing that with folks that are interested.

Lynne Zaledonis: That's great. Thank you. I know I'm not the only one with some questions for you. Leah, do you want to come back and- crosstalk

Leah: ...any notes? Pete took us to church on his closing words. That was everything. So thank you for that. I love the being at your best and having to give your space for time to recover to be there because I think a lot of times, and I'm sure Lynne, you can attest to being a mom too, we often work from my half empty cup and we're just trying to serve others, but you really got to kind of do that recovery part to be able to serve others better. We do have questions. So the first one, Brent on the live stream asks a question for both Pete and Dr. Gervais." When other people are creating their own narratives for you, your work and who you are, how do you stay true to your core and who you are and let that define your personal success?"

Pete Carroll: Well, I don't think there's anything more challenging than when people are starting to question. That's been my whole career. I think the essence of it is being really clear about the work that you've done to know yourself and to be really in touch with your identity and your truth. There's nothing that can really knock you off of that when you know who you are. So that's why we always begin all of our work with self- discovery and take people through that process to get you clear, so that you really come to peace with what you stand for and that you're ready to take on the world and whatever the challenges are, and whoever comes after you, or whatever they want to question, you have your way to feel centered and grounded. It's hugely valuable. So that's why we think it's everything. It's where we begin all of our work right there.

Dr. Michael Gervais: A double- click on that is that once you know who you are, nothing outside of you can ever take that away from you; not another person's sharp gaze or a darting eye or a less than optimized outcome. So the work begins, to echo coach Carroll, the work begins with self- discovery and then a fundamental commitment toward both your purpose in life, as well as the principles that are going to guide your thoughts, your words, interactions. If you think about some of the most powerful people across the planet, those that have changed and shifted cultures, whether we're talking about Dr. King or we're talking about Malcolm X or Gandhi or Mother Teresa or Eleanor Roosevelt, or figure out who the inspiring folks are to you, you know exactly what they stood for because their thoughts and their words and their actions were consistent across conditions. So once you have that to self- discovery piece in place and you really swallow and embrace the true nature of who you are, that's why we then layer on mental skills, so you can be about it in those conditions that are challenging, that are emotionally charged because if you know who you are, but you don't have the confidence or the ability to become or that fundamental optimistic framework or the ability to be resilient when it doesn't go according to plan, it's really hard. So it is a hand in glove approach between self- discovery and mindset skills. In that respect, it's a bit like the Panama Canal. It's an interlocking system that allows the thing to really well. So it's self- discovery meets psychological skills.

Leah: Would you agree the self- discovery phase is an ongoing process?

Pete Carroll: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a dynamic, it's not a static process at all. You grow and you change and you adjust and you adapt. However, the true sense of what you all about, that stays basically the same. It expands and we always want to be able to expand, but there's a true sense of where you're coming from. That uncompromising stance that you can take is really, really powerful and it helps you in all ways. crosstalk

Dr. Michael Gervais: Leah, there was a part of you that was the same when you were two, that when you were 12, that when you were 22. There's that part of you that is uniquely you. As the ancients say," The water cannot wet, wind cannot blow and fire cannot burn." That place within you that is uniquely you, and it's always been there and tapping into that true nature is part of the work. That's part of the self- discovery. So it's a lifetime commitment to get to that place more often. Like coach Carroll said, once he was really clear of his philosophy, okay, that's one of the core foundational pillars to work from.

Pete Carroll: Can I say something just to add in? One of the things that we're really excited about in our work is that what we really want to do is we want to celebrate that which is the truth of a person. We want to find that uniqueness and point it out, listen, observe, support, send the love in every way that we can to make them as powerfully them as possible. That's life. That's a beautiful part of life. That is what my purpose has been about, trying to help people find that and be comfortable there and then celebrated. At a time like this, we all need to help one another. We all need to reach out. We all need just to support the extraordinary people that we live with and that we see, and we work with and love in the best way as possible. Bringing it from the heart is really the best way to get that done.

Leah: Absolutely. Now, we have one last question coming in from the live stream. Eric on the live stream has a question for Pete," How difficult was it for your team to take the CTC philosophy away from sports and apply it to folks working in the corporate environment?"

Pete Carroll: Eric, you might think that that was challenging, but it isn't because we go right back to the individual. In our football, we're coaching the individuals. We're coaching them in a relationship based organization. We care about everybody's makeup and being well. It's no different when you step into the corporate world. And if you can imagine in your work setting, if everybody was really a great teammate and you were working, you were thinking," What can I do to help them be really good??" and that's how you operate and you know that the people treat you like that and that's the environment that you're in, you can't help it, but make sense of it. It's not difficult to make the transfer. What is the challenge is, is to be willing to care, is to understand, be vulnerable to care for the people around you and give of yourself to those around you without being overly concerned about your own self and your own world. So when we share that thought and how that works, it goes to all places. It's not just corporate, it's not just ball or games. It's a family, it's personal life, it's personal relationships. It's how you deal with one another on a regular basis. When you come from that, you'll find that there's a great consistency and it's really just great power in knowing that.

Leah: Absolutely. With that, Lynne, back over to you.

Lynne Zaledonis: All right. Great. Well, thank you so much. It's really inspiring. I, personally, am looking forward to the differences I'll make for myself and for my team going forward. Thank you so much, coach Carroll. Thank you so much, Dr. Gervais for coming here today. We wish you best luck, Pete, on whatever football is in the new normal and navigating that. We're very much looking forward to that, and both of you for sharing Compete to Create, and best wishes in helping others get through this time. We appreciate you sharing that wisdom on leadership and overcoming adversity. Thanks again for joining us.

Pete Carroll: Thank you.

Dr. Michael Gervais: Thank you.

Leah: Thank you.

Michael Rivo: That was Pete Carroll and Dr. Michael Gervais discussing how through mindset, discipline and of course, practice, we can lead more authentic, personal and professional lives. For insights on this topic and others, head over to salesforce.com for resources to help guide you through today's changing economic and social environments. I'm Michael Rivo for Salesforce Studios. Thanks for joining us today.