November 18, 2021 • 49 mins
Travis Thomas, Leadership and Team Dynamics Coach for the US Men's National Soccer Team talks about how he has helped shift the culture on the national team, how improvisation can boost results and build adaptability, and how to use reflection to supercharge learning.
In today's episode, you'll learn:
- How he has helped shift the culture at the US Men's National Soccer Team
- How improvisation can build adaptability and boost results
- When and how to build in reflection to supercharge learning
Visit www.kizo.ca/podcast to get extra resources or join our mailing list.
Our guest, Travis Thomas is the Leadership and Team Dynamics Coach for the US Men’s National Soccer Team. Travis is a performance coach, speaker and author of the book “3 Words for Getting Unstuck: Live Yes, And.” He uses the principles of improvisation to teach mindset, collaboration, and culture, based on his 20+ years as a performer.
Connect with Travis on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, visit his website, or buy his book.
Cultivate your Culture is a show that decodes how leaders can create environments where their teams do their best work and flourish. Our guests are pioneers in team dynamics and culture from the worlds of business, military and sport. Hear them share simple, straightforward techniques that you could use with your team to set up, evolve and measure culture.
The host, Zoran Stojkovic helps people build habits and behaviors that unleash their inner greatness so that they can contribute positively to the world. Through his company, Kizo, he equips organizations and people with culture and mindset tools to reach full engagement through powerful workshops, memorable keynotes, and transformative individual consultations.
Cultivate Your Culture is produced by Kizo, a leadership coaching organization helping teams to get the results they want so that they can positively impact the world. To learn more about the services Kizo can provide for your team, please check out our website at kizo.ca/about.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Zoran Stojkovic (00:03):
Hey, what's going on and welcome to
cultivate your culture. Thisshow, this podcast is where we
decode how leaders can createenvironments where their teams
do their best work and flourish.
Our guests are pioneers in teamdynamics and culture from the
worlds of business, military andsport. Hear them shares simple,
(00:23):
straightforward techniques thatyou could use with your team to
set up, evolve and measureculture. With over 92,000 hours
spent working. Let's focus onthe relationships and the
results will follow. I'm yourhost, Zoran Stojkovic. And I
help people build habits andbehaviors that unleash their
inner greatness so that they cancontribute positively to the
world. Now, let's get intotoday's episode.
Travis Thomas (00:51):
Yes, is acceptance, the and is the
response. So therefore live Yes.
And if all of life is animprovisation, I call living
Yes. And it's radicalcollaboration with reality.
Zoran Stojkovic (01:04):
That's Travis Thomas, performance coach,
speaker and author of the bookthree words for getting unstuck
live Yes. And Travis uses theprinciples of improvisation to
teach mindset, collaboration andculture based on his 20 plus
years as a performer. He iscurrently the leadership and
team dynamics coach for the USMen's National Soccer Team.
Today, we're going to hear fromTravis on how improvisation
(01:27):
relates to high performance andmindset, when and how to build
reflection in to superchargelearning, and how improvisation
can be used to build highperformance cultures. Something
that surprised me in thisepisode was a two on the spot
improvisation activities Travishad me do to demonstrate how
influential creativity andimprovisation are on being
present in the moment. Somethingthat surprised me in this
(01:49):
episode was the two on the spotimprovise ation activities
Travis had me do to demonstratehow influential creativity and
improvisation are on beingpresent in the moment. Leaders
in all environments can usesimilar activities to create an
innovative and collaborativeculture. And that's why I'm
excited for you guys to hearfrom Travis and that's coming up
next. Travis, tell us somethingpeople don't usually know about
(02:15):
you.
Travis Thomas (02:15):
So I'm a performance coach. So I focus on
mindset, team dynamics, andculture. What a lot of people
probably don't know about me ifthey only know me as a
performance coach. On thesurface is the whole reason I
got into performance coaching isbecause I got into improvisation
and improvisational comedy. Andso I grew up playing sports
(02:36):
sports. My passion actuallyplayed soccer in college. But I
got married right out ofcollege. My wife, we actually
just celebrated 25 years. Lastmonth. Congratulations. Thank
you. I mean, the gray hair isthere. But yeah, we moved to
Boston for jobs. And I'm a bigcomedy guy, I love comedy. We
(02:57):
went to an improv theater inBoston. And I was blown away,
right? I was just blown away athow talented these performers
were. And I wanted to, I justwant to know how they did it.
You know, it's like, you know,magic you want to know, like,
someone take me behind thecurtain. So I understand how the
magician does it. And for me,like watching these performers,
I'm like, That's magic. How doyou do that? So I called and
(03:18):
they actually had a trainingcenter. And, you know, six
levels of training, I'm like, Ijust want to take a class. So I
took up, you know, an eight weekclass and just fell in love, I
was hooked. And so like lightbulbs were going off left and
right in my head as far as thethe implication of improv into
all aspects of my life. And Ijust kind of kept advancing from
(03:40):
next level to the next level.
And by the time I wasgraduating, a year and a half
later, from the training center,they were auditioning for
another cast. And I made that.
And then over the span of thenext few years, I made my way up
to the top cast. And was doingthat. And you know, just getting
the chance to perform three orfour times in a weekend, you
(04:01):
know, sold out shows and justlike just the thrill of doing
that. And then 2003, my wife andI we moved down to Florida as we
were starting to have kids and Ifound two real talented guys in
Florida when we start in a groupback in 2004. And we could go we
can half ago we performed and wecelebrated our 17 year
(04:22):
anniversary together performingtogether which again, is making
me feel really old.
Zoran Stojkovic (04:28):
Wow. It's like the month of anniversaries. It
is
Travis Thomas (04:31):
it is. And so all of that to say during that time
about 2005 I was working for awebsite. Everyone got laid off,
myself included. And I askedthat question, what do I really
want to do with my life and Iknew that I wanted to do
meaningful work, and I lovedspeaking and I loved performing
and I love to coach you rightcoaching. I just felt you know,
(04:51):
coaching sports and all that.
And I wanted to bring it alltogether with improvisation. And
that started the journey whichhas been the last 1516 years
Getting into performancecoaching and personal
development and anorganizational and corporate
coaching and speaking andconsulting back into the world
of sports and performance. And,and so back in 2015, I left and
(05:12):
went off on my own, under underthe title Livia sand. And so
since then I've just been doingconsulting and speaking as a
keynote speaker, and thenconsulting companies, as well as
youth college and professionalsports teams, on mindset, team
dynamics and culture. And thatsort of has brought me to
(05:32):
working with the national team.
And but I also continue to workwith lots of other teams at the
same time.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:38):
So what I'm hearing is you were you had this
job, and you got laid off. Andthen in that process, in that
self reflection process, youactually found this thing that
was actually strength. And soyou developed your own skills in
that, and then started embeddingthat into coaching with
(05:59):
individuals and groups.
Travis Thomas (06:01):
Yeah, I would say it was sort of a combining of
skills. As far as you know, itwas like, I was thinking about
this earlier today. I'm like,oh, shoot, I'm doing a podcast
today. What am I gonna say? Youstart to self reflect again. And
I was like, Oh, okay. What Ifound was, you know, for me,
growing up spirituality andpersonal development was a big
part of my life. And sports werea big part of my life. And then
(06:24):
improvisation became a big partof my life, and coaching. So I
thought, like, oh, I want to dowork that really kind of
combines all of those things.
And so, as I got into sort ofthe coaching and the speaking
space, I wanted to the improvpiece was kind of that thing
that was niche, that was adifferent way of looking or
approaching these differentideas. But for me, it's been a
(06:46):
combining, combining all thethings you love into sort of a
career stew, and, and finding away to marry them and make them
all work. And, yeah, I'm really,really grateful and blessed to
be able to do the work that Ido. And but it's, it's, excuse
me, it's consultant work. And,you know, we mentioned the
(07:07):
pandemic a few minutes ago, andyou know, I'm coming out of 18
months, of really strugglingprofessionally, to work, because
my work is travel and going toplaces and I've been able to do
some some virtual work at thesame time. But it's, it's been a
lot of just having to, to modelthe ideas that I preach, which
(07:30):
is how to be resilient, and howto be adaptable, and to find a
way and, and be open to newrealities and new solutions. And
that's what the last 18 monthshas been. And as I see some some
light at the end of the tunnel,career wise, I'm grateful and
exciting. And but you know,that's, that's sort of the life
of a freelance worker.
Zoran Stojkovic (07:52):
So improvisation, what, you know
what it made me think of,there's a TED Talk by Charles
Lim, where he talks about, he'sactually a neurosurgeon who
studied creativity. And hestudied the difference between
the musician brain, he putmusicians in an MRI, he studied
(08:12):
the difference between what thebrain what parts of the brain
are activated, when they'replaying a piece of music that
was memorized, versusimprovising jazz music. And the
difference was spectacular. Andwhen I think of improvisation,
I, I actually think that itdoesn't have to happen in an
acting studio does it? It'ssomething that that's all around
(08:34):
us and might be taken adifferent route home from work,
it might be doing thingsslightly differently that we're
used to doing in a certain way.
So, Travis, how do you defineimprovisation for anybody who's
maybe not familiar with it?
Travis Thomas (08:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think exactly what yousaid is spot on. You know, the,
my organization is called Live.
Yes. And, and the Yes, sand isthe basis of all improvisation.
Right? So I didn't create thisconcept of Yes. And anyone who's
done acting or improvisation,they'll be like, oh, yeah, it's
all about Yes. And what does yesand mean. And so all
(09:11):
improvisers. If you understandthe concept of Yes, and you can
improvise. And I would say thisright, all all of life is an
improvisation. Right? And noneof us know what's going to
happen today. I don't think manyof us predicted a pandemic, some
maybe some people are saying,Yeah, I knew this was coming.
But most of us were not readyfor this. Just like most of us
(09:33):
are not ready for a traffic jam.
And we're not expecting our carto get a flat tire. And we're
not expecting to lose a lovedone. And we're not expecting to
hit the lottery, all thesedifferent things in life that
are uncertain, good or bad.
They're uncertain, and all wecan do best is we anticipate, we
(09:54):
plan and we anticipate and wepredict but at the end of the
day, you and I wake up nothingthat happens throughout that De
is guaranteed. It's all it's allan improvisation, some of the
stuff that we thought is goingto happen, will happen. And then
there's going to be a fewcurveballs mixed in. And
sometimes we wake up and ourentire day is a curveball. And
it's how do we adapt to that? Sothat's really sort of the
(10:14):
improvisers brain is, iscollaborating with what is
happening. And so the Yes, andthe end and improvisation was on
if you and I were doing well,you want you want to do some
improv. Let's do it. Awesome.
All right. So let's pretend youand I have weekend plans. And
we're talking about our weekendplans. And so I'll make a
statement to you. And you'regoing to say yes. And so you're
(10:37):
going to Yes, and you're goingto build off of whatever idea I
give you. Therefore, you'regiving me an idea back which I
will then yes and and build offof and then you'll and so we're
just building off of the nextidea. Makes sense. Makes sense.
Awesome. All right here goes on.
I am so pumped about the ticketsyou have for us this weekend.
Zoran Stojkovic (10:59):
Yes. And the tickets the basketball game are
actually going to be quite cool,because we get to see the next
play against the Celtics.
Travis Thomas (11:06):
Yes. And I'm so excited that the NBA planned
this NBA game in Victoria.
Zoran Stojkovic (11:13):
Yes, me too. I never thought would happen in a
million years. But it did thearena, the tickets completely
sold out. And then after that,we're going to go to that place.
Travis Thomas (11:22):
Yes. And we are going to that private party
after the game where we're goingto hang out with the Celtics and
the nets. That's awesome. So youand I are just creating a story.
One Yes. And at a time, right.
So what is yes and yes, isacceptance. Right, whatever you
say to me, I accept it asreality. I accept it as truth.
There's no reason for me to sayno to it. Right? We're making it
(11:45):
up on the spot. So a no is justwe would call that a negation.
In improvisation. There's noreason to negate my idea,
because we're making it up onthe spot. So I know you're going
to say yes to my idea. So I cansay, so on your hair's on fire.
And I know you're gonna have tosay yes. And it's the newest
fashion, right? So whatever itis,
Zoran Stojkovic (12:09):
thank you for their compliment. By the way. I
appreciate it. Welcome.
Travis Thomas (12:12):
It actually, it's fire emoji. So the yes is
acceptance. I'm going to acceptwhatever is being given to me
the and is the collaboration theand is actually building off of
the new information. So everyimprov improvised scene, it's
just yes, and yes, and yes, andyes. And so now that the scene
(12:34):
can go in so many creativedirections, because we're
constantly advancing it forward.
Alright, so So take that conceptnow and apply it to your life.
You're driving to work in themorning, you get it, you get a
flat tire? Yes, I have a flattire. Do you have to like having
a flat tire? No. Can you arguewith having a flat tire? Sure.
Is it productive? No. So thefact is, you have a flat tire?
(12:55):
Yes, I have a flat tire. And nowhow am I going to respond to it?
Am I going to bitch am I goingto moan and we're going to
complain, I'm going to be avictim or I'm going to go and
I'm going to call RoadsideService and answer some emails
while I wait for the tow truckor and I'm going to call my
grandmother because I haven'tspoken to her in two weeks. And
I'm going to call my wife andsay this is all your fault. I
can't believe you gave me a carwith a bad tack. So the end? Is
(13:16):
your response. Yes. Isacceptance. The and is the
response. So therefore live?
Yes. And if all of life is animprovisation, I call living
Yes. And it's radicalcollaboration with reality. A
pandemic is dropped in our lap.
Yes, we're in a pandemic. Idon't have to like it. But the
(13:36):
sooner I say yes, the thequicker I can move to an and
solution mindset.
Zoran Stojkovic (13:45):
So we're talking about training our mind
to accept the current situationquickly, and plan the next
course of action.
Travis Thomas (13:54):
Yeah, that's it.
That's the next course ofaction, not controlling the
outcome. It's the next course ofaction with an emphasis on
action. So you know, I'm workingwith athletes. I'm working with
the National Team. I'm workingwith athletes at all levels, you
know, the game is is highlymental. What does that mean? It
means well, you just made a badplay. Yes. You just turn the
ball over. You just gave up agoal, whatever. Yes. We've all
(14:16):
seen we've experienced where wesee an athlete make a bad play,
and then they make a series ofbad plays. Why are they making a
series of bad plays? Becausethey're stuck in the original
bad play now they are stuck in afunk what what have they not
done? They haven't movedforward. The the acceptance is
hey, we just got scored on didwe get scored on? Yes. We just
(14:36):
got scored on we're losing oneto nothing. Yeah, that's the
reality and to go back to yourwork, what action what's our
next action? We need to tightenup our defense we need to be
more aggressive. We need to winthe next ball we need to it's
the end is and what is the nextthing that we have to do? I use
mindfulness. I use improvisationas a tool for mindfulness right
(14:57):
yesterday. And is all aboutbeing mindful and staying in the
present moment. Good or bad.
Whatever just happened is in thepast, right? What is going to
happen is in the future, andwhat is happening right now is
the only thing that mattersbecause it's happening right
now. Life is happening in thepresent moment, the game is
being played in the presentmoment your life is being lived
(15:19):
this moment. Yes. And and thenthis moment, yes. And then this
moment. So we want to avoid thatthen or when thinking, which is
past, which is past and future,which is why do we make
mistakes? Because we weren'tpresent? Right? Why do we, you
know, why do I, I'm thinkingabout the mistake that I made,
or I'm afraid of what mighthappen, when when I'm fully
(15:39):
engaged in the present moment,it's actually hard to be afraid
when you're in the presentmoment, because you're simply
focused on the action instead ofthe outcome.
Zoran Stojkovic (15:48):
So what I'm hearing is when uncertainty
happens when things happen, thatare out of our control, having
the psychological flexibility toaccept those things, and move on
to that next thing. So it'sthis, it's this interplay
between the inner world and theouter world.
Travis Thomas (16:05):
Yeah, well, and just to reiterate what you just
said, right, is the uncertainty.
All of it is uncertain, everysingle bit of it is uncertain, I
can't control 100% of whathappens to me, I can make all
the right decisions in life, Ican do everything correctly. And
I still can't control a pandemicbeing dropped in my lap. Right,
(16:26):
we really don't control anythingthat happens to us. That said, I
have tremendous influence overthe things that show up in my
life, but I can't control whathappens to me. And I get to
control 100% of how I respond toit. Now, response is not
control. I don't control anoutcome, I control my response.
(16:49):
So I get to choose I always theend is where we get to choose.
Zoran Stojkovic (16:56):
And that that thinking is 1000s of years old,
is one of the Greek philosophers
Travis Thomas (17:01):
and stoicism and yes, and right. I'm a big I'm a
big fan of stoicism of RyanHoliday of all this books. I
mean, if you look at obviously,I said, I'm a deep love of
spirituality, right? If you lookat most sacred spiritual, you
know, beliefs, right? Whetherit's Christianity, Judaism,
Buddhism, all these differentthings, when you get to the
(17:23):
essence of the practice of thesespiritual teachings, it really
is about how am I showing up inthis present moment? How am I
judging? What is happening? Andtherefore, how am I responding?
How am I responding to it?
Zoran Stojkovic (17:38):
In what ways does improvisation relate to
performance and mindset overall,for people? Well,
Travis Thomas (17:45):
you know, if you noticed, you know, while you and
I were doing that improvisedscene going, right, so think
about what was going on there.
Were you controlling the story?
Yes. Were you controlling it? Ihad part of it as well,
Zoran Stojkovic (17:57):
because you had part of it, but I controlled
where I went from that part ofit. So it's like you drew a line
to here. And then I drew thenext line, and you do the next
line,
Travis Thomas (18:06):
we were in collaboration with one another.
Right? So we were collaborating.
So we were both we both hadinfluence in it. But I could I
could take one of your ideas andsay something that took the
story in a whole new direction.
And you're like, oh, shoot,that's not where I wanted the
story to go. And there's nothingI can there's nothing I can do
about it. Right? So there's thisthis idea of okay, like, we only
(18:26):
ever have influence we neverhave control. Right. So. So
again, there's that there's thatpiece. Second piece is, as you
and I are telling that story,how engaged were you in the
present moment?
Zoran Stojkovic (18:37):
Oh, fully, because you can't process
anything else besides what thisworld that you're creating with
the other person? That's it.
That's it.
Travis Thomas (18:45):
So all you're doing is you're responding to
the new information, which isthe present moment and you're
choosing how to respond to thepresent moment, you're not
thinking about, you know, whatyou did before the podcast,
you're not thinking about whatyou're going to do after the
podcast, you're fully engaged inthe present moment. What is
mindfulness, right? Wemindfulness is such a, you know,
a popular and catchy idea rightnow as it should be, because
it's super important.
Mindfulness is our ability tobring our full attention to the
(19:07):
present moment. To be fullyengaged in the present moment,
high performing athletes areable to perform at a high level,
because they're engaged in thepresent moment. They're not
thinking about lots of things.
They're focused on one, two orthree key ideas, which allow
them to be successful at thatmoment, and then the next
(19:28):
moment, and then the nextmoment. Well, it's no different
for you and I, whether we'regoing grocery shopping, or
calling a client or having aconversation with one of our
kids are driving the car. If wewant to do any of those things
really well. The more that wecan be engaged in the present
moment. If I'm washing the dish,wash the dish, if I'm making a
phone call, make the phone call.
If I'm having a face to faceconversation with a co worker,
(19:50):
be fully present with them. Thatmeans I'm going to show up at my
best
Zoran Stojkovic (19:56):
and the assumption in that is that
you've picked the right presentmoment. because in the field of
life, there's a lot going on atany given moment. And we can be
paying attention on the wrongthing.
Travis Thomas (20:09):
Well, that's exactly it. And so it's not
choosing the correct presentmoment. It's it's noticing what
I'm focusing on in the presentmoment. Right? The present
moment is you and I could be inthe exact same present moment.
But you're noticing, you'renoticing the, the factory
smokestack that's in the way ofthe sunset. And all I am is
(20:33):
noticing the beauty of thesunset, right? So you're focused
on one idea, I'm focused onanother idea, right? So again,
working with athletes, it'sokay, you've got to come take a
penalty shot in an extra time.
Are you focused on the crowd?
Are you focused on the TVaudience? Are you focused on the
fact that you missed one earlierin the game? Are you thinking
(20:55):
about what's going to happen? Ifyou make it? Are you thinking
about what's going to happen ifyou miss it? Or are you focused
on just what is required actionwise in order to be successful?
So yes, we've got an infinitenumber of things that we can
focus on in the present moment.
I like to say when you combineskill and expertise, with the
(21:16):
ability to focus is whathighperformance is, right? And
so if I'm, if I'm a professionalsoccer player, I have a life
time of experience that hastaught me here's what I should
be focusing on. And now it's myjob to bring that attention to
it. But yeah, so it's it's, butit's, it's training the brain,
(21:38):
right? This is all muscle. It'sall, you know, the ability to
live Yes, and is a muscle. Andthe more I exercise that muscle
and get used to accepting andresponding, accepting and
responding, the easier it'sgoing to be when life throws me
a major, major curveball.
Zoran Stojkovic (21:58):
Is there a time to say no, but
Travis Thomas (22:00):
only if you want to be stuck? I mean, that's
okay. We, you know, like, my,and I'll throw, I'll throw
myself in there, right? My kidswill come to me and tell me
something that happened, or Iwill experience something that
in every possible way is unfair.
It's not right. shouldn't havehappened. Right? I can say no,
but that wasn't fair. I can sayno, but I should have gotten the
(22:22):
job. I shouldn't say no. But Ican't believe that was handled
so poorly. We should be out ofthe pandemic, by now. You have
the right to say no, but, but itjust means you're stuck. And so
I'll I'll tell my kids a lot ofthe time like, hey, that sucks.
I'm sorry, that sucks. And Itotally understand if you want
to take a pity lap right now.
(22:45):
Take a pity lap, take two, takethree. And when you're finally
ready to move on and makeprogress, let's think about
let's think about how we want toapproach this. We're humans. And
so we all we all are all goingto breed and deal with setbacks
in different ways. And a lot ofthat will be what I call the
victim mindset, which is blamingcomplaining or making excuses.
(23:07):
And so it's very natural for allof us to do that. And to
experience that that's all fine.
But we will never make anyprogress. As long as we're in
that mindset saying no, butRight. One of my little phrases
is you cannot progress until yousay yes. Love that. Love that.
Thank you. It's a good littlebumper sticker. So think about
(23:27):
any any difficult experiencethat you've gone through and
came out on the other side.
Zoran Stojkovic (23:34):
That sounds it sounds like a TED last. So
title. So
Travis Thomas (23:39):
I think, yeah, you know, I think the last one
would like the head coach beard,hey, you're not progressing to
say Yes, right. Yes, is justaccepting that. Yeah, this is
happening. I can't change it. Iwould love to change it. But I
can't. Right. You know, we cansay like, I can't believe I got
stuck with this professor, thisprofessors steaks, right.
(24:01):
Stinks. I'm with you. Right. Iwill. I will empathize. And I
will stand beside people allday, who are going through
something difficult and agreewith them that yeah, this is not
right. I wish it's not rightthat you're going through this.
But you are right. And so thequicker we get to yes. And then
from the yes, we get to the end,the end is where we have power.
(24:23):
Right? The Yes, the yes is justacceptance. The end is where we
have power, because there's anunlimited ways for us to respond
to whatever is happening to us.
And in that end is a lot ofpower. You know, Viktor Frankl,
Man's Search for Meaning has thegreat quote about there's a
space between stimulus andresponse. Right? It's in that
space, where you have the powerto choose. And that's what we're
(24:45):
talking about here. The end. Theend is that space where we
choose how we're going torespond in the world of sports
and just like the world of life,the more quickly we can accept
what is happening and then moveinto a proactive response that I
say is authentic and connectedto our purpose, the more quickly
we are going to put ourselves ina position, that is the best
(25:09):
possible position in thatmoment. And that's the best we
can. And then because guesswhat? There's the next Yes. And
is a moment away?
Zoran Stojkovic (25:20):
My observation is that the default mode is not
yes. And so in what ways do youuse improvisation to help train
athletes and coaches, especiallywith the US? National Team?
Travis Thomas (25:35):
Yeah. And so, you know, I'm blessed with the
national team is that, you know,the head coach, Gregg Berhalter,
and then the entire coachingstaff is we have, you know, we
have a very specific mindsetthat we are constantly preaching
and reinforcing and modelingwith our players, which is very
much a no excuses type mindset.
And I don't mean that in aheartless, cold way. I mean, it
(25:56):
from the standpoint of we're notgoing to spend any time
complaining about what hashappened, or what should have
happened. And so without itbeing an explicit, you know,
yes. And yes, and it's probablynot a term that we use a lot.
But it is the approach to how werespond to everything, in fact
(26:17):
that that idea, those two wordswe respond, is one of the
phrases that we go to all thetime, hey, no matter what
happens, we respond, we were atour last game against Costa
Rica, you know, we just had comeoff a loss, and we're looking to
see how we were going to respondin the next game. Well, what
happens in the first minute ofthe game, we make a mistake, and
we're down one to zero, in thefirst minute of the game, the
(26:39):
wheels could come cut fallingoff, you know, at that point,
mentally. But again, we have,we're conditioning the mindset
of this team, to how do werespond to every situation. And
instead of losing our cooling,losing our composure, the guys
rebounded, they adjusted, and weended up excuse me, we ended up
(27:01):
winning two to one. And so it'sa you have to model it, right,
you have to model that behaviorfrom a staff and from you know,
or as a parent, or as a teacher,or as a coach, you have to model
the behavior that you want yourteam or your kids or your, your
co workers to, to also exhibit.
(27:23):
But so yeah, so a lot of what wedo is just how we talk about it,
and how we model that behaviorfrom an improvisational
standpoint. You know, I do, youknow, improvisational activities
and games with, with players, Ido them, you know, with, with,
with youth players and thingsthat I work with on a regular
basis, we do these activitiesall the time, again, to exercise
(27:45):
that muscle, to be present to befully I'm never more mindful
than when I'm improvising. Andto get into that mindset of I
just have to, I've got to acceptit and respond, accept it and
respond. And, and again, when Iwork with athletes, and I work
with players, you know, so muchof what I do is, is getting them
(28:06):
to, to think and notice and beaware of when they noticed
themselves distracted, is howquickly can they notice it, and
then bring their attention backto the present moment. And so
that's the thing, it's not aboutbeing perfect, it's not about
not getting distracted. It'sabout how quickly can we notice
(28:28):
our thoughts when we aredistracted, so that we can bring
them back to the present moment,and respond to the present
moment, which is always the bestpossible place we can be. So
what
Zoran Stojkovic (28:39):
I'm hearing is paying attention to language, we
respond, we're not we're notvictims of a situation and where
we let the past go and figureout what to do in the moment
like you give gave that exampleabout getting scored on in the
first minute by the Jamaicanteam. And then what I heard as
well, is this paying attentionto where our attention is? And
(29:01):
that awareness. So the recurringtheme for me so far, Travis has
been mindfulness is that thread,and mindfulness and
improvisation and the interplayof those two, because to me, it
provides ation is really play.
You're, you're playing with yourenvironment you're playing with,
and play is fun. When you workwith the the guys in the
(29:21):
coaches, how do you get them tobuy into that, like you must get
some pushback from from someplayers who haven't really
experienced that before?
Travis Thomas (29:30):
Yeah, I wouldn't say push back and not
necessarily push back, you know,that, you know, there's, there's
always gonna be players that,you know, maybe they're like,
Yeah, whatever. Yeah, I don'tknow, you know, and others who
really engage with it. But Iwouldn't say pushback, per se
and I think, you know, what I'mdoing is that I'm not presenting
anything that goes against, youknow, what they what they
(29:51):
inherently know, when it comesto performance, you know, and
I'm not a sports psychologist,but I've been teaching mental
skills for you know, 1015 yearsand So the improvisation for me
is I've, I've usedimprovisational tools,
principles and games toreinforce mental skills and
positive psychology or sportspsychology. And so I'm not
(30:14):
reinventing any wheels, I'musing a different skill set and
a different tool set to teach toteach these, these psychological
ideas and tools in a fun andengaging way. We're playing
games, right? And so, again, Ithink instead of me being a
talking head, lecturing to abunch of professional athletes,
(30:36):
here's what you need to thinkabout in order to be successful.
Who am I? But if I get them upon their feet, and we play a
game, and we do an activity, andthey're like, oh, shoot, I had a
hard time because I couldn'tfocus. Yeah, right. Okay, you
can focus. So how does thatrelate to being on the field?
How does that relate to? And so,you know, I want people to feel
(31:02):
these concepts I don't want themto think about I want them to
feel it, because when I feel it,then I can translate it to, to
what's practical in my day today life.
Zoran Stojkovic (31:10):
So it sounds like you also buy into this
experiential learning model.
Absolutely. have of you do theactivity, you conceptualize, you
reflect you do the activityagain? So it's that cycle of do
reflect, do reflect?
Travis Thomas (31:23):
Absolutely, absolutely. And so, you know,
even when I work with, you know,I work with some Academy, soccer
players every couple of weeks,and we'll do activities. We'll
focus on breathing, we'll focuson mindfulness, we'll do games,
we'll, but I always bring itback to Okay, Hayden, last few
weeks, since you've seen melast? Give me some examples in
(31:44):
the last few weeks, when younotice yourself distracted in a
training or in a match? And andhow did you? How did you get
that funk? How do you bring yourattention back. And so this
whole thing about awareness andnoticing if we can teach and
reinforce for young people,students, athletes, or just any
(32:05):
of us, in general, if we canreinforce this idea of having it
be a normal part of ourreflection, you know, when I
when I have a training, I workedat IMG Academy for three years,
which is like a sports school.
It's a Hogwarts Academy forathletes. So, you know, I would,
I would have, you know, and itwas all different athletes. You
(32:27):
know, what I would have a groupof tennis players come into my
room, they just been on thecords for two hours. And they'd
have their rackets and theycrash on the couches in my
office. And I would say, hey,awesome. Would you? Would you
learn the last two hours? Andthey look at me, like, What are
you talking about? I'm like,What do you notice? You just
(32:47):
trained your butt off for like,two hours? What did you notice
out there? And they're like, Idon't know. Like, I just, I'm
just practicing. Like, huh,okay, like, you know, you just
worked so hard for two hours.
Take a moment right now, andjust reflect on the last two
hours and say, Hmm, notice howyou were feeling today. Notice
(33:12):
how your focus was today, noticewhat was working, what wasn't
working? And now just reflect onthat? Why do you think that
wasn't working? Why do you thinkthat was working? Notice your
effort. Notice your attitude,notice your mindset. So, you
know, we can go through ourentire days on never having to
ever be present, and reflect onanything that we've just done,
(33:33):
we can just constantly move onto the next thing. And if I
don't want to sit with mythoughts, I just pull my phone
out. And I can be fullydisconnected. You know, while I
wait in line at Starbucks. Andso again, yes, and is a muscle.
Reflection is a muscle. All ofthese things are muscles that if
we don't, if we don't exercise,the observer, the noticer in us,
(33:57):
then we can go through ourentire day life totally
unconscious. Right? What doesunconscious really mean? It's
just I'm not conscious of thethoughts of the feelings that
are coming in, compared to beingconscious of them, where I'm
noticing them, I'm observingthem. And now I get to choose
(34:17):
whether I listen to them, or Ijust let them pass and choose
something else.
Zoran Stojkovic (34:23):
It sounds like ways to accelerate learning and
to accelerate growth andprogress. That's that's what I
that's the way I use reflectionand learning anyways. Yeah. What
went well, what's worth living?
That's, that's the two basic forme. That's the two basic
questions. You can ask yourselfthose two questions, take a
minute to write it down. Or eventhink about it mentally do a
(34:44):
voice note whatever it is, thatwill accelerate learning.
Travis Thomas (34:49):
Yeah, let me I'll give you a cool example of that.
Sorry. Alright, so I'm going togive you like 10 seconds, so
I'll just count my head. 10seconds. I want you to say as
many words that come in the topof your head in the next 10
seconds go. Brick
Zoran Stojkovic (35:07):
glass wood lamp, microphone, coach, watch
mouse, keyboard improvise.
Travis Thomas (35:16):
Time. Pretty good. All right, we'll do it
again. Next 10 seconds is I wantyou to do the same activity, but
this time I want to, they allhave to be animals. So the names
of animals go.
Zoran Stojkovic (35:27):
Dog, Cat, fish.
Snake, rabbit, turtle. Seal.
Travis Thomas (35:37):
Yeah. Good job.
Zoran Stojkovic (35:40):
That was tough.
Travis Thomas (35:41):
Good job. So it was it was tough. But now Now
tell me from a mentalstandpoint, the first time or
the second time? Did you have agreater sense of clarity?
Zoran Stojkovic (35:51):
greater sense of clarity? The second time the
first time I was more likesearching my environment?
Travis Thomas (35:56):
It could be it could be anything. Right? Right.
It wasn't. So it was so openended, it could be anything. As
soon as we give ourselves alittle bit of a focus or a
little bit of an intention. Itgives us you know, a little more
of a laser sharp focus toactually focus on. So to your
point, that idea when we reflectwhen we reflect back on what
(36:16):
went well, and what didn't, whatdidn't go, Well, the next time I
do it, I can be more intentionalabout what I'm trying to
accomplish. Right. So if I'm aplayer, I could just tell about,
hey, you just go out there anddo your best have fun. And they
go out and they go out there andthey do something right. They
great. Maybe they do great.
Maybe Yeah. But then I tellthem, Okay, like what went well,
what didn't go well, if I'mtalking to maybe a soccer
(36:37):
player, maybe a centermidfielder. And I say, Okay, go
out there. And what I want youto focus on is winning as many
tackles as possible. Right, sonow they go out there, now they
have a very clear intention ofan action that they're trying to
accomplish over and over again.
So now, like a laser type focus,they're like, you know, when the
(37:00):
ball when the ball when the ballwhen the ball like a shark,
right when a tackle women tacklewhen a tackle, tackle. So when
we reflection, again gives usthe ability to next time is to
be more intentional, right? Ifwe are intentional, more
intentional about everythingthat we do, we're more
effective, our performance ishigher, you know, so if I, you
know, I have a personal intentintention of every time I have
(37:24):
an interaction with somebody, Iwant them to, I want them to
feel seen and valued. Right?
That's not easy to do. Yet, itgives me it gives me a purpose
every time I have an interactionwith somebody. So it gives it
allows me to be focused and andmuch more effective about who I
(37:44):
who I want to be as a person. Sowhen we're intentional, again,
intention is just a greatersense of focus, what do I really
want to accomplish here, and I'mgoing to be specific and
intentional about it. And again,what we're trying to do is we're
not we're not eliminatingdistractions, we can eliminate
distractions, we can be moreintentional about what we want
(38:05):
to focus on. Therefore, thedistractions are still there.
We're just deciding to put ourattention, we're resting our
attention on and on ideas oractions that are going to
produce effective results.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:27):
And I would even argue that writing that
down before performing makesthat that much more likely.
Travis Thomas (38:35):
Yeah, I know, the research is there, the research
is there as far as writingthings down as far as goal
setting. That is, I'm I'm a big,I'm still a big, you know, pen
and paper note taker. There'ssomething about pen to paper
writing that note, which I thinkallows it to stick more. And
again, when you like to yourpoint when writing something
down makes it more intentional.
It does when you're writing itdown. Because I think at first,
(38:59):
we think we can think so muchmore quickly than we can write.
And so when we're forced towrite something, it it, I think
it makes us more present in thatmoment about what we're actually
thinking about or intending orsetting a goal for.
Zoran Stojkovic (39:17):
Travis, you talk about building these high
performance cultures that you'vebeen parts of at img at the US
Men's National Soccer Team. Howis improvisation used to build
high performance cultures insport and business and in other
contexts?
Travis Thomas (39:33):
Yeah, so the short answer to that would be so
this idea of we've talked abouthow yes and is effective on a
personal level, from aperformance standpoint. The
other aspect of the yes and froma from a cultural standpoint, or
collaborative standpoint, whichis in order for you and I to
collaborate and telecine is thatwe're yes and each other. So
(39:55):
now, you and I are creatingrelationships that's based on
trust, respect, and value. Nowwhen I create sport team
environments where essentiallythe team and the staff are
trying to Yes, and each other,and when I create in corporate
worlds or any relationship inyour life, where you are in
collaboration with that personwe have a mantra in
(40:16):
improvisation is every time Istep on stage, I'm trying to
make my partner look brilliant.
And what are they trying to do?
They're trying to make me lookbrilliant, right? So when we
talk about mindset, a yes. Andmindset is about how can I make
the people around me look andfeel brilliant, and they're
trying to do the same thing tome and everybody else. So when
you create teams, andrelationships and environments,
(40:37):
which are, you know, service, myservice minded, servant
leadership, helping out andgetting outside of myself taking
care of each other, trying tomake each other look good? Well,
you can see how that becomes areally, really healthy and
thriving environment to work in,in performance, right? And so
that the term psychologicalsafety, you know, the highest
(40:59):
performing teams have thehighest levels of psychological
safety, trust, respect andvalue. What does improv
improvisation do? Why areimprovisational groups and
troops able to do what they do?
They have high levels ofpsychological safety, I know
that no matter what I do, youhave my back. And whatever you
do, I have your back. And whenyou can translate that into the
(41:20):
workplace, or into sportsenvironments, or just into your
marriage, or your friendships,etc. That's what high
performing, you know,relationships and cultures look
like.
Zoran Stojkovic (41:31):
Last question for you here. So it's a listener
question. It comes from Amirselenia, who is the host of
football talks TV, it's a it's aTV show on football transfers
and stuff like that. So um,you're asked both in the USA and
Canada, there are a lot ofplayers that are playing
overseas right now, and lessless are playing in US colleges
(41:53):
than before? How are youincorporating these values that
some of these players arebringing in from their overseas
pro clubs and to the US Men'sNational Team?
Travis Thomas (42:04):
Yeah, so thanks for the question, Amir. So, you
know, yeah, we're blessed US andCanada to have so many players
who are playing abroad, youknow, in in top European
leagues, right. And so they'replaying at a high level, they're
playing for teams that havetheir own values and their own
principles. And when they comeback into our environment, the
good news is, is that there'snot going to be a huge
(42:24):
discrepancy between the valuesthat that are in the clubs that
allow them to play the highlevel and the values that are
within our clubs. So what we tryto do is we have, you know,
we've got some core anchors,some core values within the
national team, that we try toincorporate into everything, you
know, that idea of, we want itto be, you know, threads that
(42:45):
are woven into everything thatwe do, and so it's less about
the values that they're comingfrom is more, it's just
reinforcing the values of who weare and what they're about. And
knowing that it's, they'rereally not in conflict with with
the teams that they're playingfor. It's more about just again,
going back to being veryintentional, about what our core
(43:05):
values are, and making sure thatwe're reinforcing it and
incorporating it into what sortof makes us authentic, you know,
sort of as, as the US team, andpresumably,
Zoran Stojkovic (43:16):
the people that get recruited to fit those
values. And it's not just theskills, it's not just based on
skill.
Travis Thomas (43:22):
Absolutely, absolutely. Obviously, it's all
of it, right? It's the skill,it's the attitude, it's the
values, it's, it's all of thatand being a good fit, and, you
know, us, you know, appreciatingthem and then feeling you know,
appreciated by us, it's itreally is a, you know, a player
center, a player centeredculture, and, and there's just a
(43:44):
really, really great sense of,you know, putting the player
first and making the the playersfeel valued when they come in.
Zoran Stojkovic (43:51):
That's awesome.
You talked a little bit aboutlive. Yes. And can you tell me a
little bit more about that? Andthen where people can connect
with you, Travis?
Travis Thomas (43:59):
Yeah, that's great. Thanks for asking that. I
mean, I do have a book. It'scalled three words, three words
for getting unstuck. Those threewords are live. Yes. And and you
and I obviously spoke about sortof kind of what that means, you
know, the whole can I say no,but yeah, you can say no, but
you're just going to be stuck.
And and so the book really kindof dives into sort of more of
these principles of how, youknow, some from improvisation,
(44:20):
some from personal development.
So it's it is in that book, it'savailable, it's available on
Amazon, and then my websitesLivia sand.com, social media,
everything's pretty much live.
Yes. And, and yeah, I would loveto talk more to people. I'm
really accessible when peoplereach out and I'm always happy
to have conversations and helppeople any way I can. And, you
know, we talk and talk aboutmodeling these ideas. I really
(44:44):
truly feel my my journey hasbeen, you know, pretty
interesting. It's been aninteresting journey going back
to about 25th 22,005 to now andthis path and I knew when I
started my own company, it hadto have yes and and it's you I
didn't know what the real titlewas going to be. And after
sitting with it for a while, thewhole live piece popped in
(45:05):
because I'm like, wait a second,like, what have I been doing?
The last, you know, 1012 yearsat the time, like I've been,
I've been really trying to livethese ideas. I'm like, That's
it, right? Like, it's just livethese ideas live this Yes. And,
and, you know, my wife, youknow, God bless her, has been
right there with me the wholetime, you know, supporting me
and supporting each other. And,you know, there's an African
(45:28):
proverb leap, and the net willappear. And that's a huge Yes.
And, and we've been trying tolive live that mantra of
leaping, the net will appear,because there's not, there's not
a real clear path for animproviser who wants to get into
performance coaching. So there'sbeen a lot of Joseph Campbell,
creating your own path. Andthat's scary. It's really scary.
(45:49):
And it's really exhilarating atthe same time. But it's a whole
lot of, wow, we're going to takeanother leap. And we don't know
that uncertainty, we don't knowwhat the outcomes are going to
look like. But we know we'regoing to be okay. And so
therefore, the Livia sand is, istaking steps and trust and
(46:10):
faith, not controlling theoutcome, but knowing that you'll
be able to respond to whetherwhatever the next outcome is,
Zoran Stojkovic (46:19):
that's amazing.
Any parting thoughts at all?
Travis Thomas (46:22):
You know, I mean, I know I'm speaking to everyone
in the time where we're still ina pandemic, you know, it's,
it's, it's still very real, andwe're still going through it,
you know, I would, I wouldchallenge everyone to, to look
at from the beginning of thepandemic, to now. And think
about all the different ways youhave changed how you've been
forced to change and how you'vewillingly changed in these past
(46:43):
18 months. And we've all lostloved ones. And we've gone
through very difficult times.
And yet, you're still here,right? You're still here. And
you have had to Yes, andnumerous challenges and
adversity along this path. Andso I would just say, pause,
again, reflect on that, andappreciate appreciate the growth
that has happened in that timeperiod. I mean, there's not a
(47:05):
single person listening to thiswho have not who has not gone
through tremendous growth inthat time period. And so, you
know, appreciate that we can bein the middle of, we can be in
the middle of struggle, andstill appreciate the growth that
has happened. And I think we canall we should all give ourselves
that that appreciation rightnow.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:27):
I learned a ton from the conversation with
Travis. But if there's one thingI want you to take away, it's
this life is happening in thepresent moment. The game you're
meeting, the conversation arehappening right now in front of
you. So be where your feet are.
That's what mindfulness is theability to bring your mind to
the present moment withoutjudgment, to be fully engaged in
what's in front of you. You'reprocessing the information
(47:49):
you're getting in the presentmoment and responding to it. So
avoid them or when thinkingwhich can keep you stuck as it
takes you back to the past orprojects you into the future.
Instead, accept the currentsituation by saying yes, and
then quickly make a move. Thatmakes sense given the situation
you're in.
(48:16):
Hey, thanks for listening tocultivate your culture. I hope
you enjoyed our deep dive intohow to level up the
relationships and environment tocultivate your team's culture.
If you enjoyed this episode,share it with someone in your
life, leave a rating andsubscribe. Visit K
zero.ca/podcast to get extraresources and join our email
list. A huge shout out toteriyaki from earbuds from
(48:39):
producing the music for thisshow. And to Kate Lovett and
Silvio Canalla parola forhelping produce and promote the
show. Cultivate your culturesproduced by Keizo, a leadership
coaching organization helpingteams to get the results they
want so that they can positivelyimpact the world. To learn more
about the services Keizer canprovide for your team, please
check out our website atkizo.ca/team. See you again next
(49:01):
week.
Hey, what's going on and welcome to
cultivate your culture. Thisshow, this podcast is where we
decode how leaders can createenvironments where their teams
do their best work and flourish.
Our guests are pioneers in teamdynamics and culture from the
worlds of business, military andsport. Hear them shares simple,
(00:23):
straightforward techniques thatyou could use with your team to
set up, evolve and measureculture. With over 92,000 hours
spent working. Let's focus onthe relationships and the
results will follow. I'm yourhost, Zoran Stojkovic. And I
help people build habits andbehaviors that unleash their
inner greatness so that they cancontribute positively to the
world. Now, let's get intotoday's episode.
Travis Thomas (00:51):
Yes, is acceptance, the and is the
response. So therefore live Yes.
And if all of life is animprovisation, I call living
Yes. And it's radicalcollaboration with reality.
Zoran Stojkovic (01:04):
That's Travis Thomas, performance coach,
speaker and author of the bookthree words for getting unstuck
live Yes. And Travis uses theprinciples of improvisation to
teach mindset, collaboration andculture based on his 20 plus
years as a performer. He iscurrently the leadership and
team dynamics coach for the USMen's National Soccer Team.
Today, we're going to hear fromTravis on how improvisation
(01:27):
relates to high performance andmindset, when and how to build
reflection in to superchargelearning, and how improvisation
can be used to build highperformance cultures. Something
that surprised me in thisepisode was a two on the spot
improvisation activities Travishad me do to demonstrate how
influential creativity andimprovisation are on being
present in the moment. Somethingthat surprised me in this
(01:49):
episode was the two on the spotimprovise ation activities
Travis had me do to demonstratehow influential creativity and
improvisation are on beingpresent in the moment. Leaders
in all environments can usesimilar activities to create an
innovative and collaborativeculture. And that's why I'm
excited for you guys to hearfrom Travis and that's coming up
next. Travis, tell us somethingpeople don't usually know about
(02:15):
you.
Travis Thomas (02:15):
So I'm a performance coach. So I focus on
mindset, team dynamics, andculture. What a lot of people
probably don't know about me ifthey only know me as a
performance coach. On thesurface is the whole reason I
got into performance coaching isbecause I got into improvisation
and improvisational comedy. Andso I grew up playing sports
(02:36):
sports. My passion actuallyplayed soccer in college. But I
got married right out ofcollege. My wife, we actually
just celebrated 25 years. Lastmonth. Congratulations. Thank
you. I mean, the gray hair isthere. But yeah, we moved to
Boston for jobs. And I'm a bigcomedy guy, I love comedy. We
(02:57):
went to an improv theater inBoston. And I was blown away,
right? I was just blown away athow talented these performers
were. And I wanted to, I justwant to know how they did it.
You know, it's like, you know,magic you want to know, like,
someone take me behind thecurtain. So I understand how the
magician does it. And for me,like watching these performers,
I'm like, That's magic. How doyou do that? So I called and
(03:18):
they actually had a trainingcenter. And, you know, six
levels of training, I'm like, Ijust want to take a class. So I
took up, you know, an eight weekclass and just fell in love, I
was hooked. And so like lightbulbs were going off left and
right in my head as far as thethe implication of improv into
all aspects of my life. And Ijust kind of kept advancing from
(03:40):
next level to the next level.
And by the time I wasgraduating, a year and a half
later, from the training center,they were auditioning for
another cast. And I made that.
And then over the span of thenext few years, I made my way up
to the top cast. And was doingthat. And you know, just getting
the chance to perform three orfour times in a weekend, you
(04:01):
know, sold out shows and justlike just the thrill of doing
that. And then 2003, my wife andI we moved down to Florida as we
were starting to have kids and Ifound two real talented guys in
Florida when we start in a groupback in 2004. And we could go we
can half ago we performed and wecelebrated our 17 year
(04:22):
anniversary together performingtogether which again, is making
me feel really old.
Zoran Stojkovic (04:28):
Wow. It's like the month of anniversaries. It
is
Travis Thomas (04:31):
it is. And so all of that to say during that time
about 2005 I was working for awebsite. Everyone got laid off,
myself included. And I askedthat question, what do I really
want to do with my life and Iknew that I wanted to do
meaningful work, and I lovedspeaking and I loved performing
and I love to coach you rightcoaching. I just felt you know,
(04:51):
coaching sports and all that.
And I wanted to bring it alltogether with improvisation. And
that started the journey whichhas been the last 1516 years
Getting into performancecoaching and personal
development and anorganizational and corporate
coaching and speaking andconsulting back into the world
of sports and performance. And,and so back in 2015, I left and
(05:12):
went off on my own, under underthe title Livia sand. And so
since then I've just been doingconsulting and speaking as a
keynote speaker, and thenconsulting companies, as well as
youth college and professionalsports teams, on mindset, team
dynamics and culture. And thatsort of has brought me to
(05:32):
working with the national team.
And but I also continue to workwith lots of other teams at the
same time.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:38):
So what I'm hearing is you were you had this
job, and you got laid off. Andthen in that process, in that
self reflection process, youactually found this thing that
was actually strength. And soyou developed your own skills in
that, and then started embeddingthat into coaching with
(05:59):
individuals and groups.
Travis Thomas (06:01):
Yeah, I would say it was sort of a combining of
skills. As far as you know, itwas like, I was thinking about
this earlier today. I'm like,oh, shoot, I'm doing a podcast
today. What am I gonna say? Youstart to self reflect again. And
I was like, Oh, okay. What Ifound was, you know, for me,
growing up spirituality andpersonal development was a big
part of my life. And sports werea big part of my life. And then
(06:24):
improvisation became a big partof my life, and coaching. So I
thought, like, oh, I want to dowork that really kind of
combines all of those things.
And so, as I got into sort ofthe coaching and the speaking
space, I wanted to the improvpiece was kind of that thing
that was niche, that was adifferent way of looking or
approaching these differentideas. But for me, it's been a
(06:46):
combining, combining all thethings you love into sort of a
career stew, and, and finding away to marry them and make them
all work. And, yeah, I'm really,really grateful and blessed to
be able to do the work that Ido. And but it's, it's, excuse
me, it's consultant work. And,you know, we mentioned the
(07:07):
pandemic a few minutes ago, andyou know, I'm coming out of 18
months, of really strugglingprofessionally, to work, because
my work is travel and going toplaces and I've been able to do
some some virtual work at thesame time. But it's, it's been a
lot of just having to, to modelthe ideas that I preach, which
(07:30):
is how to be resilient, and howto be adaptable, and to find a
way and, and be open to newrealities and new solutions. And
that's what the last 18 monthshas been. And as I see some some
light at the end of the tunnel,career wise, I'm grateful and
exciting. And but you know,that's, that's sort of the life
of a freelance worker.
Zoran Stojkovic (07:52):
So improvisation, what, you know
what it made me think of,there's a TED Talk by Charles
Lim, where he talks about, he'sactually a neurosurgeon who
studied creativity. And hestudied the difference between
the musician brain, he putmusicians in an MRI, he studied
(08:12):
the difference between what thebrain what parts of the brain
are activated, when they'replaying a piece of music that
was memorized, versusimprovising jazz music. And the
difference was spectacular. Andwhen I think of improvisation,
I, I actually think that itdoesn't have to happen in an
acting studio does it? It'ssomething that that's all around
(08:34):
us and might be taken adifferent route home from work,
it might be doing thingsslightly differently that we're
used to doing in a certain way.
So, Travis, how do you defineimprovisation for anybody who's
maybe not familiar with it?
Travis Thomas (08:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think exactly what yousaid is spot on. You know, the,
my organization is called Live.
Yes. And, and the Yes, sand isthe basis of all improvisation.
Right? So I didn't create thisconcept of Yes. And anyone who's
done acting or improvisation,they'll be like, oh, yeah, it's
all about Yes. And what does yesand mean. And so all
(09:11):
improvisers. If you understandthe concept of Yes, and you can
improvise. And I would say thisright, all all of life is an
improvisation. Right? And noneof us know what's going to
happen today. I don't think manyof us predicted a pandemic, some
maybe some people are saying,Yeah, I knew this was coming.
But most of us were not readyfor this. Just like most of us
(09:33):
are not ready for a traffic jam.
And we're not expecting our carto get a flat tire. And we're
not expecting to lose a lovedone. And we're not expecting to
hit the lottery, all thesedifferent things in life that
are uncertain, good or bad.
They're uncertain, and all wecan do best is we anticipate, we
(09:54):
plan and we anticipate and wepredict but at the end of the
day, you and I wake up nothingthat happens throughout that De
is guaranteed. It's all it's allan improvisation, some of the
stuff that we thought is goingto happen, will happen. And then
there's going to be a fewcurveballs mixed in. And
sometimes we wake up and ourentire day is a curveball. And
it's how do we adapt to that? Sothat's really sort of the
(10:14):
improvisers brain is, iscollaborating with what is
happening. And so the Yes, andthe end and improvisation was on
if you and I were doing well,you want you want to do some
improv. Let's do it. Awesome.
All right. So let's pretend youand I have weekend plans. And
we're talking about our weekendplans. And so I'll make a
statement to you. And you'regoing to say yes. And so you're
(10:37):
going to Yes, and you're goingto build off of whatever idea I
give you. Therefore, you'regiving me an idea back which I
will then yes and and build offof and then you'll and so we're
just building off of the nextidea. Makes sense. Makes sense.
Awesome. All right here goes on.
I am so pumped about the ticketsyou have for us this weekend.
Zoran Stojkovic (10:59):
Yes. And the tickets the basketball game are
actually going to be quite cool,because we get to see the next
play against the Celtics.
Travis Thomas (11:06):
Yes. And I'm so excited that the NBA planned
this NBA game in Victoria.
Zoran Stojkovic (11:13):
Yes, me too. I never thought would happen in a
million years. But it did thearena, the tickets completely
sold out. And then after that,we're going to go to that place.
Travis Thomas (11:22):
Yes. And we are going to that private party
after the game where we're goingto hang out with the Celtics and
the nets. That's awesome. So youand I are just creating a story.
One Yes. And at a time, right.
So what is yes and yes, isacceptance. Right, whatever you
say to me, I accept it asreality. I accept it as truth.
There's no reason for me to sayno to it. Right? We're making it
(11:45):
up on the spot. So a no is justwe would call that a negation.
In improvisation. There's noreason to negate my idea,
because we're making it up onthe spot. So I know you're going
to say yes to my idea. So I cansay, so on your hair's on fire.
And I know you're gonna have tosay yes. And it's the newest
fashion, right? So whatever itis,
Zoran Stojkovic (12:09):
thank you for their compliment. By the way. I
appreciate it. Welcome.
Travis Thomas (12:12):
It actually, it's fire emoji. So the yes is
acceptance. I'm going to acceptwhatever is being given to me
the and is the collaboration theand is actually building off of
the new information. So everyimprov improvised scene, it's
just yes, and yes, and yes, andyes. And so now that the scene
(12:34):
can go in so many creativedirections, because we're
constantly advancing it forward.
Alright, so So take that conceptnow and apply it to your life.
You're driving to work in themorning, you get it, you get a
flat tire? Yes, I have a flattire. Do you have to like having
a flat tire? No. Can you arguewith having a flat tire? Sure.
Is it productive? No. So thefact is, you have a flat tire?
(12:55):
Yes, I have a flat tire. And nowhow am I going to respond to it?
Am I going to bitch am I goingto moan and we're going to
complain, I'm going to be avictim or I'm going to go and
I'm going to call RoadsideService and answer some emails
while I wait for the tow truckor and I'm going to call my
grandmother because I haven'tspoken to her in two weeks. And
I'm going to call my wife andsay this is all your fault. I
can't believe you gave me a carwith a bad tack. So the end? Is
(13:16):
your response. Yes. Isacceptance. The and is the
response. So therefore live?
Yes. And if all of life is animprovisation, I call living
Yes. And it's radicalcollaboration with reality. A
pandemic is dropped in our lap.
Yes, we're in a pandemic. Idon't have to like it. But the
(13:36):
sooner I say yes, the thequicker I can move to an and
solution mindset.
Zoran Stojkovic (13:45):
So we're talking about training our mind
to accept the current situationquickly, and plan the next
course of action.
Travis Thomas (13:54):
Yeah, that's it.
That's the next course ofaction, not controlling the
outcome. It's the next course ofaction with an emphasis on
action. So you know, I'm workingwith athletes. I'm working with
the National Team. I'm workingwith athletes at all levels, you
know, the game is is highlymental. What does that mean? It
means well, you just made a badplay. Yes. You just turn the
ball over. You just gave up agoal, whatever. Yes. We've all
(14:16):
seen we've experienced where wesee an athlete make a bad play,
and then they make a series ofbad plays. Why are they making a
series of bad plays? Becausethey're stuck in the original
bad play now they are stuck in afunk what what have they not
done? They haven't movedforward. The the acceptance is
hey, we just got scored on didwe get scored on? Yes. We just
(14:36):
got scored on we're losing oneto nothing. Yeah, that's the
reality and to go back to yourwork, what action what's our
next action? We need to tightenup our defense we need to be
more aggressive. We need to winthe next ball we need to it's
the end is and what is the nextthing that we have to do? I use
mindfulness. I use improvisationas a tool for mindfulness right
(14:57):
yesterday. And is all aboutbeing mindful and staying in the
present moment. Good or bad.
Whatever just happened is in thepast, right? What is going to
happen is in the future, andwhat is happening right now is
the only thing that mattersbecause it's happening right
now. Life is happening in thepresent moment, the game is
being played in the presentmoment your life is being lived
(15:19):
this moment. Yes. And and thenthis moment, yes. And then this
moment. So we want to avoid thatthen or when thinking, which is
past, which is past and future,which is why do we make
mistakes? Because we weren'tpresent? Right? Why do we, you
know, why do I, I'm thinkingabout the mistake that I made,
or I'm afraid of what mighthappen, when when I'm fully
(15:39):
engaged in the present moment,it's actually hard to be afraid
when you're in the presentmoment, because you're simply
focused on the action instead ofthe outcome.
Zoran Stojkovic (15:48):
So what I'm hearing is when uncertainty
happens when things happen, thatare out of our control, having
the psychological flexibility toaccept those things, and move on
to that next thing. So it'sthis, it's this interplay
between the inner world and theouter world.
Travis Thomas (16:05):
Yeah, well, and just to reiterate what you just
said, right, is the uncertainty.
All of it is uncertain, everysingle bit of it is uncertain, I
can't control 100% of whathappens to me, I can make all
the right decisions in life, Ican do everything correctly. And
I still can't control a pandemicbeing dropped in my lap. Right,
(16:26):
we really don't control anythingthat happens to us. That said, I
have tremendous influence overthe things that show up in my
life, but I can't control whathappens to me. And I get to
control 100% of how I respond toit. Now, response is not
control. I don't control anoutcome, I control my response.
(16:49):
So I get to choose I always theend is where we get to choose.
Zoran Stojkovic (16:56):
And that that thinking is 1000s of years old,
is one of the Greek philosophers
Travis Thomas (17:01):
and stoicism and yes, and right. I'm a big I'm a
big fan of stoicism of RyanHoliday of all this books. I
mean, if you look at obviously,I said, I'm a deep love of
spirituality, right? If you lookat most sacred spiritual, you
know, beliefs, right? Whetherit's Christianity, Judaism,
Buddhism, all these differentthings, when you get to the
(17:23):
essence of the practice of thesespiritual teachings, it really
is about how am I showing up inthis present moment? How am I
judging? What is happening? Andtherefore, how am I responding?
How am I responding to it?
Zoran Stojkovic (17:38):
In what ways does improvisation relate to
performance and mindset overall,for people? Well,
Travis Thomas (17:45):
you know, if you noticed, you know, while you and
I were doing that improvisedscene going, right, so think
about what was going on there.
Were you controlling the story?
Yes. Were you controlling it? Ihad part of it as well,
Zoran Stojkovic (17:57):
because you had part of it, but I controlled
where I went from that part ofit. So it's like you drew a line
to here. And then I drew thenext line, and you do the next
line,
Travis Thomas (18:06):
we were in collaboration with one another.
Right? So we were collaborating.
So we were both we both hadinfluence in it. But I could I
could take one of your ideas andsay something that took the
story in a whole new direction.
And you're like, oh, shoot,that's not where I wanted the
story to go. And there's nothingI can there's nothing I can do
about it. Right? So there's thisthis idea of okay, like, we only
(18:26):
ever have influence we neverhave control. Right. So. So
again, there's that there's thatpiece. Second piece is, as you
and I are telling that story,how engaged were you in the
present moment?
Zoran Stojkovic (18:37):
Oh, fully, because you can't process
anything else besides what thisworld that you're creating with
the other person? That's it.
That's it.
Travis Thomas (18:45):
So all you're doing is you're responding to
the new information, which isthe present moment and you're
choosing how to respond to thepresent moment, you're not
thinking about, you know, whatyou did before the podcast,
you're not thinking about whatyou're going to do after the
podcast, you're fully engaged inthe present moment. What is
mindfulness, right? Wemindfulness is such a, you know,
a popular and catchy idea rightnow as it should be, because
it's super important.
Mindfulness is our ability tobring our full attention to the
(19:07):
present moment. To be fullyengaged in the present moment,
high performing athletes areable to perform at a high level,
because they're engaged in thepresent moment. They're not
thinking about lots of things.
They're focused on one, two orthree key ideas, which allow
them to be successful at thatmoment, and then the next
(19:28):
moment, and then the nextmoment. Well, it's no different
for you and I, whether we'regoing grocery shopping, or
calling a client or having aconversation with one of our
kids are driving the car. If wewant to do any of those things
really well. The more that wecan be engaged in the present
moment. If I'm washing the dish,wash the dish, if I'm making a
phone call, make the phone call.
If I'm having a face to faceconversation with a co worker,
(19:50):
be fully present with them. Thatmeans I'm going to show up at my
best
Zoran Stojkovic (19:56):
and the assumption in that is that
you've picked the right presentmoment. because in the field of
life, there's a lot going on atany given moment. And we can be
paying attention on the wrongthing.
Travis Thomas (20:09):
Well, that's exactly it. And so it's not
choosing the correct presentmoment. It's it's noticing what
I'm focusing on in the presentmoment. Right? The present
moment is you and I could be inthe exact same present moment.
But you're noticing, you'renoticing the, the factory
smokestack that's in the way ofthe sunset. And all I am is
(20:33):
noticing the beauty of thesunset, right? So you're focused
on one idea, I'm focused onanother idea, right? So again,
working with athletes, it'sokay, you've got to come take a
penalty shot in an extra time.
Are you focused on the crowd?
Are you focused on the TVaudience? Are you focused on the
fact that you missed one earlierin the game? Are you thinking
(20:55):
about what's going to happen? Ifyou make it? Are you thinking
about what's going to happen ifyou miss it? Or are you focused
on just what is required actionwise in order to be successful?
So yes, we've got an infinitenumber of things that we can
focus on in the present moment.
I like to say when you combineskill and expertise, with the
(21:16):
ability to focus is whathighperformance is, right? And
so if I'm, if I'm a professionalsoccer player, I have a life
time of experience that hastaught me here's what I should
be focusing on. And now it's myjob to bring that attention to
it. But yeah, so it's it's, butit's, it's training the brain,
(21:38):
right? This is all muscle. It'sall, you know, the ability to
live Yes, and is a muscle. Andthe more I exercise that muscle
and get used to accepting andresponding, accepting and
responding, the easier it'sgoing to be when life throws me
a major, major curveball.
Zoran Stojkovic (21:58):
Is there a time to say no, but
Travis Thomas (22:00):
only if you want to be stuck? I mean, that's
okay. We, you know, like, my,and I'll throw, I'll throw
myself in there, right? My kidswill come to me and tell me
something that happened, or Iwill experience something that
in every possible way is unfair.
It's not right. shouldn't havehappened. Right? I can say no,
but that wasn't fair. I can sayno, but I should have gotten the
(22:22):
job. I shouldn't say no. But Ican't believe that was handled
so poorly. We should be out ofthe pandemic, by now. You have
the right to say no, but, but itjust means you're stuck. And so
I'll I'll tell my kids a lot ofthe time like, hey, that sucks.
I'm sorry, that sucks. And Itotally understand if you want
to take a pity lap right now.
(22:45):
Take a pity lap, take two, takethree. And when you're finally
ready to move on and makeprogress, let's think about
let's think about how we want toapproach this. We're humans. And
so we all we all are all goingto breed and deal with setbacks
in different ways. And a lot ofthat will be what I call the
victim mindset, which is blamingcomplaining or making excuses.
(23:07):
And so it's very natural for allof us to do that. And to
experience that that's all fine.
But we will never make anyprogress. As long as we're in
that mindset saying no, butRight. One of my little phrases
is you cannot progress until yousay yes. Love that. Love that.
Thank you. It's a good littlebumper sticker. So think about
(23:27):
any any difficult experiencethat you've gone through and
came out on the other side.
Zoran Stojkovic (23:34):
That sounds it sounds like a TED last. So
title. So
Travis Thomas (23:39):
I think, yeah, you know, I think the last one
would like the head coach beard,hey, you're not progressing to
say Yes, right. Yes, is justaccepting that. Yeah, this is
happening. I can't change it. Iwould love to change it. But I
can't. Right. You know, we cansay like, I can't believe I got
stuck with this professor, thisprofessors steaks, right.
(24:01):
Stinks. I'm with you. Right. Iwill. I will empathize. And I
will stand beside people allday, who are going through
something difficult and agreewith them that yeah, this is not
right. I wish it's not rightthat you're going through this.
But you are right. And so thequicker we get to yes. And then
from the yes, we get to the end,the end is where we have power.
(24:23):
Right? The Yes, the yes is justacceptance. The end is where we
have power, because there's anunlimited ways for us to respond
to whatever is happening to us.
And in that end is a lot ofpower. You know, Viktor Frankl,
Man's Search for Meaning has thegreat quote about there's a
space between stimulus andresponse. Right? It's in that
space, where you have the powerto choose. And that's what we're
(24:45):
talking about here. The end. Theend is that space where we
choose how we're going torespond in the world of sports
and just like the world of life,the more quickly we can accept
what is happening and then moveinto a proactive response that I
say is authentic and connectedto our purpose, the more quickly
we are going to put ourselves ina position, that is the best
(25:09):
possible position in thatmoment. And that's the best we
can. And then because guesswhat? There's the next Yes. And
is a moment away?
Zoran Stojkovic (25:20):
My observation is that the default mode is not
yes. And so in what ways do youuse improvisation to help train
athletes and coaches, especiallywith the US? National Team?
Travis Thomas (25:35):
Yeah. And so, you know, I'm blessed with the
national team is that, you know,the head coach, Gregg Berhalter,
and then the entire coachingstaff is we have, you know, we
have a very specific mindsetthat we are constantly preaching
and reinforcing and modelingwith our players, which is very
much a no excuses type mindset.
And I don't mean that in aheartless, cold way. I mean, it
(25:56):
from the standpoint of we're notgoing to spend any time
complaining about what hashappened, or what should have
happened. And so without itbeing an explicit, you know,
yes. And yes, and it's probablynot a term that we use a lot.
But it is the approach to how werespond to everything, in fact
(26:17):
that that idea, those two wordswe respond, is one of the
phrases that we go to all thetime, hey, no matter what
happens, we respond, we were atour last game against Costa
Rica, you know, we just had comeoff a loss, and we're looking to
see how we were going to respondin the next game. Well, what
happens in the first minute ofthe game, we make a mistake, and
we're down one to zero, in thefirst minute of the game, the
(26:39):
wheels could come cut fallingoff, you know, at that point,
mentally. But again, we have,we're conditioning the mindset
of this team, to how do werespond to every situation. And
instead of losing our cooling,losing our composure, the guys
rebounded, they adjusted, and weended up excuse me, we ended up
(27:01):
winning two to one. And so it'sa you have to model it, right,
you have to model that behaviorfrom a staff and from you know,
or as a parent, or as a teacher,or as a coach, you have to model
the behavior that you want yourteam or your kids or your, your
co workers to, to also exhibit.
(27:23):
But so yeah, so a lot of what wedo is just how we talk about it,
and how we model that behaviorfrom an improvisational
standpoint. You know, I do, youknow, improvisational activities
and games with, with players, Ido them, you know, with, with,
with youth players and thingsthat I work with on a regular
basis, we do these activitiesall the time, again, to exercise
(27:45):
that muscle, to be present to befully I'm never more mindful
than when I'm improvising. Andto get into that mindset of I
just have to, I've got to acceptit and respond, accept it and
respond. And, and again, when Iwork with athletes, and I work
with players, you know, so muchof what I do is, is getting them
(28:06):
to, to think and notice and beaware of when they noticed
themselves distracted, is howquickly can they notice it, and
then bring their attention backto the present moment. And so
that's the thing, it's not aboutbeing perfect, it's not about
not getting distracted. It'sabout how quickly can we notice
(28:28):
our thoughts when we aredistracted, so that we can bring
them back to the present moment,and respond to the present
moment, which is always the bestpossible place we can be. So
what
Zoran Stojkovic (28:39):
I'm hearing is paying attention to language, we
respond, we're not we're notvictims of a situation and where
we let the past go and figureout what to do in the moment
like you give gave that exampleabout getting scored on in the
first minute by the Jamaicanteam. And then what I heard as
well, is this paying attentionto where our attention is? And
(29:01):
that awareness. So the recurringtheme for me so far, Travis has
been mindfulness is that thread,and mindfulness and
improvisation and the interplayof those two, because to me, it
provides ation is really play.
You're, you're playing with yourenvironment you're playing with,
and play is fun. When you workwith the the guys in the
(29:21):
coaches, how do you get them tobuy into that, like you must get
some pushback from from someplayers who haven't really
experienced that before?
Travis Thomas (29:30):
Yeah, I wouldn't say push back and not
necessarily push back, you know,that, you know, there's, there's
always gonna be players that,you know, maybe they're like,
Yeah, whatever. Yeah, I don'tknow, you know, and others who
really engage with it. But Iwouldn't say pushback, per se
and I think, you know, what I'mdoing is that I'm not presenting
anything that goes against, youknow, what they what they
(29:51):
inherently know, when it comesto performance, you know, and
I'm not a sports psychologist,but I've been teaching mental
skills for you know, 1015 yearsand So the improvisation for me
is I've, I've usedimprovisational tools,
principles and games toreinforce mental skills and
positive psychology or sportspsychology. And so I'm not
(30:14):
reinventing any wheels, I'musing a different skill set and
a different tool set to teach toteach these, these psychological
ideas and tools in a fun andengaging way. We're playing
games, right? And so, again, Ithink instead of me being a
talking head, lecturing to abunch of professional athletes,
(30:36):
here's what you need to thinkabout in order to be successful.
Who am I? But if I get them upon their feet, and we play a
game, and we do an activity, andthey're like, oh, shoot, I had a
hard time because I couldn'tfocus. Yeah, right. Okay, you
can focus. So how does thatrelate to being on the field?
How does that relate to? And so,you know, I want people to feel
(31:02):
these concepts I don't want themto think about I want them to
feel it, because when I feel it,then I can translate it to, to
what's practical in my day today life.
Zoran Stojkovic (31:10):
So it sounds like you also buy into this
experiential learning model.
Absolutely. have of you do theactivity, you conceptualize, you
reflect you do the activityagain? So it's that cycle of do
reflect, do reflect?
Travis Thomas (31:23):
Absolutely, absolutely. And so, you know,
even when I work with, you know,I work with some Academy, soccer
players every couple of weeks,and we'll do activities. We'll
focus on breathing, we'll focuson mindfulness, we'll do games,
we'll, but I always bring itback to Okay, Hayden, last few
weeks, since you've seen melast? Give me some examples in
(31:44):
the last few weeks, when younotice yourself distracted in a
training or in a match? And andhow did you? How did you get
that funk? How do you bring yourattention back. And so this
whole thing about awareness andnoticing if we can teach and
reinforce for young people,students, athletes, or just any
(32:05):
of us, in general, if we canreinforce this idea of having it
be a normal part of ourreflection, you know, when I
when I have a training, I workedat IMG Academy for three years,
which is like a sports school.
It's a Hogwarts Academy forathletes. So, you know, I would,
I would have, you know, and itwas all different athletes. You
(32:27):
know, what I would have a groupof tennis players come into my
room, they just been on thecords for two hours. And they'd
have their rackets and theycrash on the couches in my
office. And I would say, hey,awesome. Would you? Would you
learn the last two hours? Andthey look at me, like, What are
you talking about? I'm like,What do you notice? You just
(32:47):
trained your butt off for like,two hours? What did you notice
out there? And they're like, Idon't know. Like, I just, I'm
just practicing. Like, huh,okay, like, you know, you just
worked so hard for two hours.
Take a moment right now, andjust reflect on the last two
hours and say, Hmm, notice howyou were feeling today. Notice
(33:12):
how your focus was today, noticewhat was working, what wasn't
working? And now just reflect onthat? Why do you think that
wasn't working? Why do you thinkthat was working? Notice your
effort. Notice your attitude,notice your mindset. So, you
know, we can go through ourentire days on never having to
ever be present, and reflect onanything that we've just done,
(33:33):
we can just constantly move onto the next thing. And if I
don't want to sit with mythoughts, I just pull my phone
out. And I can be fullydisconnected. You know, while I
wait in line at Starbucks. Andso again, yes, and is a muscle.
Reflection is a muscle. All ofthese things are muscles that if
we don't, if we don't exercise,the observer, the noticer in us,
(33:57):
then we can go through ourentire day life totally
unconscious. Right? What doesunconscious really mean? It's
just I'm not conscious of thethoughts of the feelings that
are coming in, compared to beingconscious of them, where I'm
noticing them, I'm observingthem. And now I get to choose
(34:17):
whether I listen to them, or Ijust let them pass and choose
something else.
Zoran Stojkovic (34:23):
It sounds like ways to accelerate learning and
to accelerate growth andprogress. That's that's what I
that's the way I use reflectionand learning anyways. Yeah. What
went well, what's worth living?
That's, that's the two basic forme. That's the two basic
questions. You can ask yourselfthose two questions, take a
minute to write it down. Or eventhink about it mentally do a
(34:44):
voice note whatever it is, thatwill accelerate learning.
Travis Thomas (34:49):
Yeah, let me I'll give you a cool example of that.
Sorry. Alright, so I'm going togive you like 10 seconds, so
I'll just count my head. 10seconds. I want you to say as
many words that come in the topof your head in the next 10
seconds go. Brick
Zoran Stojkovic (35:07):
glass wood lamp, microphone, coach, watch
mouse, keyboard improvise.
Travis Thomas (35:16):
Time. Pretty good. All right, we'll do it
again. Next 10 seconds is I wantyou to do the same activity, but
this time I want to, they allhave to be animals. So the names
of animals go.
Zoran Stojkovic (35:27):
Dog, Cat, fish.
Snake, rabbit, turtle. Seal.
Travis Thomas (35:37):
Yeah. Good job.
Zoran Stojkovic (35:40):
That was tough.
Travis Thomas (35:41):
Good job. So it was it was tough. But now Now
tell me from a mentalstandpoint, the first time or
the second time? Did you have agreater sense of clarity?
Zoran Stojkovic (35:51):
greater sense of clarity? The second time the
first time I was more likesearching my environment?
Travis Thomas (35:56):
It could be it could be anything. Right? Right.
It wasn't. So it was so openended, it could be anything. As
soon as we give ourselves alittle bit of a focus or a
little bit of an intention. Itgives us you know, a little more
of a laser sharp focus toactually focus on. So to your
point, that idea when we reflectwhen we reflect back on what
(36:16):
went well, and what didn't, whatdidn't go, Well, the next time I
do it, I can be more intentionalabout what I'm trying to
accomplish. Right. So if I'm aplayer, I could just tell about,
hey, you just go out there anddo your best have fun. And they
go out and they go out there andthey do something right. They
great. Maybe they do great.
Maybe Yeah. But then I tellthem, Okay, like what went well,
what didn't go well, if I'mtalking to maybe a soccer
(36:37):
player, maybe a centermidfielder. And I say, Okay, go
out there. And what I want youto focus on is winning as many
tackles as possible. Right, sonow they go out there, now they
have a very clear intention ofan action that they're trying to
accomplish over and over again.
So now, like a laser type focus,they're like, you know, when the
(37:00):
ball when the ball when the ballwhen the ball like a shark,
right when a tackle women tacklewhen a tackle, tackle. So when
we reflection, again gives usthe ability to next time is to
be more intentional, right? Ifwe are intentional, more
intentional about everythingthat we do, we're more
effective, our performance ishigher, you know, so if I, you
know, I have a personal intentintention of every time I have
(37:24):
an interaction with somebody, Iwant them to, I want them to
feel seen and valued. Right?
That's not easy to do. Yet, itgives me it gives me a purpose
every time I have an interactionwith somebody. So it gives it
allows me to be focused and andmuch more effective about who I
(37:44):
who I want to be as a person. Sowhen we're intentional, again,
intention is just a greatersense of focus, what do I really
want to accomplish here, and I'mgoing to be specific and
intentional about it. And again,what we're trying to do is we're
not we're not eliminatingdistractions, we can eliminate
distractions, we can be moreintentional about what we want
(38:05):
to focus on. Therefore, thedistractions are still there.
We're just deciding to put ourattention, we're resting our
attention on and on ideas oractions that are going to
produce effective results.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:27):
And I would even argue that writing that
down before performing makesthat that much more likely.
Travis Thomas (38:35):
Yeah, I know, the research is there, the research
is there as far as writingthings down as far as goal
setting. That is, I'm I'm a big,I'm still a big, you know, pen
and paper note taker. There'ssomething about pen to paper
writing that note, which I thinkallows it to stick more. And
again, when you like to yourpoint when writing something
down makes it more intentional.
It does when you're writing itdown. Because I think at first,
(38:59):
we think we can think so muchmore quickly than we can write.
And so when we're forced towrite something, it it, I think
it makes us more present in thatmoment about what we're actually
thinking about or intending orsetting a goal for.
Zoran Stojkovic (39:17):
Travis, you talk about building these high
performance cultures that you'vebeen parts of at img at the US
Men's National Soccer Team. Howis improvisation used to build
high performance cultures insport and business and in other
contexts?
Travis Thomas (39:33):
Yeah, so the short answer to that would be so
this idea of we've talked abouthow yes and is effective on a
personal level, from aperformance standpoint. The
other aspect of the yes and froma from a cultural standpoint, or
collaborative standpoint, whichis in order for you and I to
collaborate and telecine is thatwe're yes and each other. So
(39:55):
now, you and I are creatingrelationships that's based on
trust, respect, and value. Nowwhen I create sport team
environments where essentiallythe team and the staff are
trying to Yes, and each other,and when I create in corporate
worlds or any relationship inyour life, where you are in
collaboration with that personwe have a mantra in
(40:16):
improvisation is every time Istep on stage, I'm trying to
make my partner look brilliant.
And what are they trying to do?
They're trying to make me lookbrilliant, right? So when we
talk about mindset, a yes. Andmindset is about how can I make
the people around me look andfeel brilliant, and they're
trying to do the same thing tome and everybody else. So when
you create teams, andrelationships and environments,
(40:37):
which are, you know, service, myservice minded, servant
leadership, helping out andgetting outside of myself taking
care of each other, trying tomake each other look good? Well,
you can see how that becomes areally, really healthy and
thriving environment to work in,in performance, right? And so
that the term psychologicalsafety, you know, the highest
(40:59):
performing teams have thehighest levels of psychological
safety, trust, respect andvalue. What does improv
improvisation do? Why areimprovisational groups and
troops able to do what they do?
They have high levels ofpsychological safety, I know
that no matter what I do, youhave my back. And whatever you
do, I have your back. And whenyou can translate that into the
(41:20):
workplace, or into sportsenvironments, or just into your
marriage, or your friendships,etc. That's what high
performing, you know,relationships and cultures look
like.
Zoran Stojkovic (41:31):
Last question for you here. So it's a listener
question. It comes from Amirselenia, who is the host of
football talks TV, it's a it's aTV show on football transfers
and stuff like that. So um,you're asked both in the USA and
Canada, there are a lot ofplayers that are playing
overseas right now, and lessless are playing in US colleges
(41:53):
than before? How are youincorporating these values that
some of these players arebringing in from their overseas
pro clubs and to the US Men'sNational Team?
Travis Thomas (42:04):
Yeah, so thanks for the question, Amir. So, you
know, yeah, we're blessed US andCanada to have so many players
who are playing abroad, youknow, in in top European
leagues, right. And so they'replaying at a high level, they're
playing for teams that havetheir own values and their own
principles. And when they comeback into our environment, the
good news is, is that there'snot going to be a huge
(42:24):
discrepancy between the valuesthat that are in the clubs that
allow them to play the highlevel and the values that are
within our clubs. So what we tryto do is we have, you know,
we've got some core anchors,some core values within the
national team, that we try toincorporate into everything, you
know, that idea of, we want itto be, you know, threads that
(42:45):
are woven into everything thatwe do, and so it's less about
the values that they're comingfrom is more, it's just
reinforcing the values of who weare and what they're about. And
knowing that it's, they'rereally not in conflict with with
the teams that they're playingfor. It's more about just again,
going back to being veryintentional, about what our core
(43:05):
values are, and making sure thatwe're reinforcing it and
incorporating it into what sortof makes us authentic, you know,
sort of as, as the US team, andpresumably,
Zoran Stojkovic (43:16):
the people that get recruited to fit those
values. And it's not just theskills, it's not just based on
skill.
Travis Thomas (43:22):
Absolutely, absolutely. Obviously, it's all
of it, right? It's the skill,it's the attitude, it's the
values, it's, it's all of thatand being a good fit, and, you
know, us, you know, appreciatingthem and then feeling you know,
appreciated by us, it's itreally is a, you know, a player
center, a player centeredculture, and, and there's just a
(43:44):
really, really great sense of,you know, putting the player
first and making the the playersfeel valued when they come in.
Zoran Stojkovic (43:51):
That's awesome.
You talked a little bit aboutlive. Yes. And can you tell me a
little bit more about that? Andthen where people can connect
with you, Travis?
Travis Thomas (43:59):
Yeah, that's great. Thanks for asking that. I
mean, I do have a book. It'scalled three words, three words
for getting unstuck. Those threewords are live. Yes. And and you
and I obviously spoke about sortof kind of what that means, you
know, the whole can I say no,but yeah, you can say no, but
you're just going to be stuck.
And and so the book really kindof dives into sort of more of
these principles of how, youknow, some from improvisation,
(44:20):
some from personal development.
So it's it is in that book, it'savailable, it's available on
Amazon, and then my websitesLivia sand.com, social media,
everything's pretty much live.
Yes. And, and yeah, I would loveto talk more to people. I'm
really accessible when peoplereach out and I'm always happy
to have conversations and helppeople any way I can. And, you
know, we talk and talk aboutmodeling these ideas. I really
(44:44):
truly feel my my journey hasbeen, you know, pretty
interesting. It's been aninteresting journey going back
to about 25th 22,005 to now andthis path and I knew when I
started my own company, it hadto have yes and and it's you I
didn't know what the real titlewas going to be. And after
sitting with it for a while, thewhole live piece popped in
(45:05):
because I'm like, wait a second,like, what have I been doing?
The last, you know, 1012 yearsat the time, like I've been,
I've been really trying to livethese ideas. I'm like, That's
it, right? Like, it's just livethese ideas live this Yes. And,
and, you know, my wife, youknow, God bless her, has been
right there with me the wholetime, you know, supporting me
and supporting each other. And,you know, there's an African
(45:28):
proverb leap, and the net willappear. And that's a huge Yes.
And, and we've been trying tolive live that mantra of
leaping, the net will appear,because there's not, there's not
a real clear path for animproviser who wants to get into
performance coaching. So there'sbeen a lot of Joseph Campbell,
creating your own path. Andthat's scary. It's really scary.
(45:49):
And it's really exhilarating atthe same time. But it's a whole
lot of, wow, we're going to takeanother leap. And we don't know
that uncertainty, we don't knowwhat the outcomes are going to
look like. But we know we'regoing to be okay. And so
therefore, the Livia sand is, istaking steps and trust and
(46:10):
faith, not controlling theoutcome, but knowing that you'll
be able to respond to whetherwhatever the next outcome is,
Zoran Stojkovic (46:19):
that's amazing.
Any parting thoughts at all?
Travis Thomas (46:22):
You know, I mean, I know I'm speaking to everyone
in the time where we're still ina pandemic, you know, it's,
it's, it's still very real, andwe're still going through it,
you know, I would, I wouldchallenge everyone to, to look
at from the beginning of thepandemic, to now. And think
about all the different ways youhave changed how you've been
forced to change and how you'vewillingly changed in these past
(46:43):
18 months. And we've all lostloved ones. And we've gone
through very difficult times.
And yet, you're still here,right? You're still here. And
you have had to Yes, andnumerous challenges and
adversity along this path. Andso I would just say, pause,
again, reflect on that, andappreciate appreciate the growth
that has happened in that timeperiod. I mean, there's not a
(47:05):
single person listening to thiswho have not who has not gone
through tremendous growth inthat time period. And so, you
know, appreciate that we can bein the middle of, we can be in
the middle of struggle, andstill appreciate the growth that
has happened. And I think we canall we should all give ourselves
that that appreciation rightnow.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:27):
I learned a ton from the conversation with
Travis. But if there's one thingI want you to take away, it's
this life is happening in thepresent moment. The game you're
meeting, the conversation arehappening right now in front of
you. So be where your feet are.
That's what mindfulness is theability to bring your mind to
the present moment withoutjudgment, to be fully engaged in
what's in front of you. You'reprocessing the information
(47:49):
you're getting in the presentmoment and responding to it. So
avoid them or when thinkingwhich can keep you stuck as it
takes you back to the past orprojects you into the future.
Instead, accept the currentsituation by saying yes, and
then quickly make a move. Thatmakes sense given the situation
you're in.
(48:16):
Hey, thanks for listening tocultivate your culture. I hope
you enjoyed our deep dive intohow to level up the
relationships and environment tocultivate your team's culture.
If you enjoyed this episode,share it with someone in your
life, leave a rating andsubscribe. Visit K
zero.ca/podcast to get extraresources and join our email
list. A huge shout out toteriyaki from earbuds from
(48:39):
producing the music for thisshow. And to Kate Lovett and
Silvio Canalla parola forhelping produce and promote the
show. Cultivate your culturesproduced by Keizo, a leadership
coaching organization helpingteams to get the results they
want so that they can positivelyimpact the world. To learn more
about the services Keizer canprovide for your team, please
check out our website atkizo.ca/team. See you again next
(49:01):
week.
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