December 17, 2024 • 23 mins
If you want to achieve peak performance, you can probably benefit from creating a Performance Bubble. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Craig Domann.
Craig is a veteran NFL agent who has negotiated more than half a billion dollars’ worth of contracts for more than 300 NFL athletes, coaches and now high school and college athletes for their NIL. His journey as a sports attorney has shown him that having a Pro Mindset is key to a successful pro-athlete career. Craig released a book, Pro Mindset: Be Your Best In Your Biggest Moments, and he has a podcast Pro Mindset Podcast where he discusses with guests on his show, the mental ingredients that are common for elite performers and then he transfers that knowledge in insightful stories and daily applications.
Your Performance Bubble Explained
The Performance Bubble is like a secret weapon that the best of the best utilize to create a mental space so that they can be “in the zone”. The Performance Bubble is applicable to all areas of life, whether you’re in business and you have a big-time sales call or if you’re an athlete and you have a big game. What it does is creates this safe zone where you block out all the things that work against you; fear, doubt, what happened the last time, what somebody told you, etc. When you’re in your Performance Bubble those types of things don’t throw you off your game.
Everyone has been in those situations where they had their act together, they had their game plan, they show up for whatever they need to show up for and their bubble got burst by some curveball, some unexpected comment, objection, whatever it may have been. The Performance Bubble creates a safe zone, a safe mental space where you can be your best in your biggest moments.
What Does a Performance Bubble Do for You?
Number one is the awareness that you have one. If you don’t have one you might be awesome for a short time because you’ve prepared for it, you strategized, you might have visualized it, you think you’re all set. Until they throw you that curve ball and then it blows up in your face. Or you have that pocket voice which is talking to you at the same time you’re doing the presentation that says “Hey man, remember the last time that you were in this situation? It didn’t work out so well.” And that negative thought comes in and now you’re operating on that negative thought.
The Performance Bubble is boundaries and anchors. The boundaries block out the noise, past failures, and so on. In business, if you’re counting your commission check before the sales meeting is over, most of the time you don’t get the check because you’re so attached to the results and the outcome.
When you can embody why you’re there and what you’re doing and let the results take care of themselves, the scoreboard usually tilts in the right direction. Your bank account looks pretty good. And so, the bubble is going back to the boundaries and anchors, it’s blocking out the things that don’t serve you and everything that does serve you gets to come in.
Craig always talks about how you step into that bubble on game day, you step into that bubble when you walk into the board room and the only things that come with you are belief in who you are, confidence in what you’re going to do, all the preparation you did, gets to come in. All the practice you did gets to come in. You visualized yourself on the drive to the meeting or the bus ride to the stadium. You visualized it maybe for the whole week. That gets to manifest itself in the Performance Bubble.
In this episode we also dive into topics such as:
Two ways to lower the volume of the negative voices in your head.
How to create a regulator for your mental state.
How to turn up the volume for the positive voices in your head.
The three parts of the pro mindset.
How an entrepreneur can find good council to shorten their learning curve.
What to do create a Performance Bubble for success before a networking e...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the idea climbing podcast.
If you want to achieve peak performance, you
can probably benefit by creating a performance bubble.
I discuss how to do that with my
guest, Craig Dohman. Craig is a veteran NFL
agent who has negotiated more than half a
$1,000,000,000
worth of contracts for more than 300 NFL
athletes, coaches, and now high school and college
(00:20):
athletes.
His journey as a sports attorney has shown
him that having a pro mindset is key
to a successful pro athlete career. Craig released
a book, Pro Mindset, Be Your Best in
Your Biggest Moments, and he has a podcast,
Pro Mindset Podcast, where he discusses with guests
on his show the mental ingredients that are
common for elite performers,
and then he transfers that knowledge in insightful
(00:42):
stories and daily applications.
We dive into topics such as how to
turn up the volume on the positive voices
in your head, how an entrepreneur can find
good counsel to shorten their learning curve, 4
ways to maintain the performance bubble once you're
in it, and other golden nuggets of advice.
You're gonna love this show.
(01:04):
Thank you for joining the idea climbing podcast
today, Craig. I appreciate you making the time.
Absolutely, Mark. I'm excited about it.
And I'd love to jump in. We're gonna
talk about performance bubble, which in a short
conversation before I hit record, just sounds absolutely
awesome. Before we get into some of the
strategies and the details of it,
how did you discover the performance bubble? What's
(01:26):
your story with that?
Well, the performance bubble is like a secret
weapon that,
the best of the best utilize
to create a mental space
so that they can be in the zone.
Michael Jordan was amazing at this.
Okay? And so
Patrick Mahomes does this. It doesn't matter how
many receivers he has go down, you know,
what kind of adversity he's dealing with. It's
(01:48):
only 13 seconds on the clock, and it's
a AFC championship game against the Bills. It
doesn't matter. He goes in this zone, in
this perform and in this performance bubble.
It's effective whether you're in business and you
got a big time sales call,
whether you're an athlete and you've got a
big game.
And what it does is it it creates
(02:08):
this
safe zone
where you block out
all the things that work against you. Fear,
doubt, what happened the last time, what somebody
told you,
What hey. You know, it's like a basketball
player going show high school kid showing up
at a basketball game, and the coach says,
you're you're gonna guard number 17.
Okay, coach. I got it. He looks over
(02:30):
there, number 17, you know, 6 inches taller
and doing 3 60 jams.
And all of a sudden, he's like, oh,
shit. What am I gonna do now?
When you're in that performance bubble, those types
of things don't throw you off your game.
And everybody that's listening has been in one
of those situations where they had their act
together. They had their game plan. They show
up for whatever they need to show up
(02:52):
for, and their bubble got bursted by some
curveball, some unexpected
comment,
objection, whatever it may have been. So the
performance bubble
creates a safe zone safe mental space where
you can be your best in your biggest
moments.
So where does it start? How do you
get started with creating a performance bubble?
Number 1 is the awareness that you have
(03:13):
1. And that if you don't have 1,
you're going to be great until you're not.
If you don't have 1, you're gonna be
awesome because you prepared for it. You strategize.
You might have visualized about it. Until they
throw you that curve ball, then it then
it blows up in your face. Okay?
Or you have that your pocket voice, which
is talking to you at the same time
(03:34):
that you're doing the presentation
says, hey, man. Remember the last time you
were in this situation? Didn't work out so
well.
And that thought comes in, and now you're
operating on that negative thought.
So the performance bubble is a bound it's
boundaries and anchors.
The boundaries
block out
the noise,
(03:54):
past failures,
all those, you know, the hey. The the
the results think about sports or think about
business. If you're counting your check,
your commission check
before
the meeting's over,
you might most of the time, you don't
get the check because
(04:15):
you're so attached to the results and the
outcome.
When you can just fully embody why you're
there, what you're doing,
and let the results take care of itself,
the scoreboard usually tilts in the right direction.
Your bank account looks pretty good. And so
the the bubble is, going back to the
boundaries and anchors,
it's blocking out the things that don't serve
(04:36):
you,
And everything that does serve you gets to
come in.
And so I always talk talk about you
step into that bubble on game day. You
step into that bubble when you walk in
the boardroom.
And the only thing that just come with
you are
belief in who you are, confidence in what
you're going to do.
(04:57):
So all the all the preparation you did
gets to come in.
All the practice you did gets to come
in.
You visualizing yourself on the drive to the
meeting or the the bus ride to the
stadium. You visualized it. You visualized it maybe
for the whole week. That gets to manifest
itself in the performance bubble.
So this is a this is a big
(05:18):
one. How the heck do you stop the
negative voices? Because I would imagine in sports
and I know for a fact in business,
especially if someone gives presentations,
those voices can just decimate someone's mental state.
How do you block them out or at
least quiet them?
Okay.
Great question.
Mark, here's the deal. The volume
(05:40):
on the negativity
gets turned up the highest
when the moment is the biggest.
When you really want the deal, when you
really wanna you know, you're a high jumper,
and this is for the this is to
win the the event,
to win the gold in the Olympics. That's
when the volume gets turned up the most.
So your question is, how do you how
do you how do you lower the volume?
(06:01):
Yeah. 2 ways.
In advance, you have to work on your
story. You have to work on your identity.
Because if you don't modify your identity, the
same person keeps showing up.
So you gotta backtrack and look at
why do you believe that about yourself?
Why do you have stage fright?
Why do you why do you why do
you not wanna take the shot when the
(06:22):
game's on the line?
That's that's that's something that's done
before the the event.
But once you're in the event, you have
a you have an escape hatch in the
performance bubble
that allows you to regulate your mental state
so that if something pop I mean, we're
all human.
We're gonna have those thoughts.
(06:44):
And that you you can have the best
crafted plan, and then all of a sudden,
you know, it could be I mean, the
guy gets a phone call
that interrupts the whole mojo of the meeting.
You know, the the the in sports, there's
always the ball doesn't bounce your way. The
official throws a flag or whatever the case
may be.
When those things happen, you have to have
(07:04):
a regulator
of your mental state,
which is,
on the simplest terms,
hey. Nice try.
You have a conversation with with yourself. Nice
try. Not today, baby.
Not today.
This is not gonna mess with me today.
Maybe the last
time, but not this time. And you basically
(07:25):
take the power away from that inner voice,
your pocket voice,
because you knew it might happen. You were
ready for it, and when it when it
showed up,
you send it out the escape hatch.
So you protect
the sacredness of your performance bubble.
So that's turning down the bad stuff. How
do you turn up all the good stuff
(07:46):
you just mentioned?
That's through elevating your standards. In ProMindset, there's
3 parts. Rewriting your story, elevating your standards,
and showing up showing up on, stage with
your performance bubble so you can be your
best.
Well, if you elevate your standards, for example,
in business, it's like
you can't expect
to be your best when you didn't prepare
(08:07):
your best, when you didn't practice,
when you didn't get wise counsel from people
in your office or on your team or
whatever the case may be. As an athlete,
you can't expect to be your best if
you didn't look at the playbook or the
game plan for that week.
K? So all those things have to be
there. And I tell my clients in the
NFL, your standard has to be higher than
your coach's standard. If he wants you to
(08:28):
be there 15 minutes early, you gotta be
there 20. If you're running late, you're there
16 minutes early, you're still ahead of his
standard.
You have to raise your standards so your
standards are higher. If you're an entrepreneur,
you don't do what your competition does. You
have to raise your standard above your competition.
Otherwise, you can't expect the results.
(08:51):
Where can an entrepreneur find good counsel? I
mean, I I would imagine that's paramount to
have to have, whether it's a mentor or
someone like that, how does an entrepreneur go
about finding good counsel?
That's a great question.
Find somebody that's 10 years ahead of you,
That's that's successful
and honestly reach out to them
(09:12):
and
don't be their enemy. One of the things
that's really interesting when I was in the
full scale agent business,
We would go to the,
NFL PA agent seminar in Indianapolis during the
combine
every year. It was mandatory meeting, so everybody
showed up. It didn't matter if you represented
Peyton Manning, if you represented somebody nobody knew.
You showed up at that event,
(09:34):
and people wouldn't talk to each other.
People don't talk to each other. They don't
make eye contact.
They're not friendly. They're like enemies.
You go to a dental
or pharmaceutical
convention in Vegas,
Those dudes are playing golf together.
They're hanging out together. They're sharing funny stories
together,
best practices,
(09:55):
best vendors.
So what happens is you can either be
like an NFL agency. Everybody in your business
is an enemy,
or you can be like a mainstream
professional
that goes, you know what? I can't spend
all the money in this industry, so I
don't need to make it all. You just
wanna double or triple in size. That's great.
But these people that are in your business
or in your industry are not enemies.
(10:18):
You can turn them into allies.
So what do you do? This is great.
What in a sense of, conference that most
business is entrepreneurs because they're salespeople too.
What do you do before you get into
a networking event to have a performance bubble
for success?
That's a great question.
Give me a little bit more texture,
(10:38):
and I'll because I can give you a
general answer. But if you give me a
little bit more texture, I'll give you a
more specific answer. You're going to an event.
The end result is in some way to
increase your business, but you don't want to
be that slick salesperson that is like oh
God,
here comes Mark. He's going to pitch me
again. But at the same time you do
have to get new clients. So you got
(10:58):
to it's a balancing act I think between
just going in to make friends and have
fun and collect 20 business cards or actually
grow your business. What can you do before
you walk into an event like that at
a conference or a business networking event where
people are there to network?
It's not a cocktail party. It's a networking
event. What can you do before you walk
(11:19):
in the room?
Okay. That's a great question.
I think the the tactic that I would
wanna accomplish
would be to understand that everybody there
already has somebody that does what you do.
They don't need
you. Because if they if they needed you,
they would already have you,
but they've got somebody else. So you're not
(11:40):
gonna come in and be that slick salesman
that's gonna convince them that you're better than
everybody else in the world, and they should
switch whatever their whatever that service is that
you provide and use you.
So the best way you could go, and
from my perspective is,
I just wanna know I just wanna get
your information, find out if you're happy, and
offer to give them a second opinion in
(12:00):
a later time. So I'm set I'm I'm
getting contacts. I'm getting information,
and I'm setting up a discovery call for
a week or two down the road with
as many people as I can. And the
the
the genre of the conversation is, hey, Mark.
We met at the conference down in Orlando.
You were so kind to give me your
your information. Hey. How many how many minutes
(12:21):
you got today? Because I don't wanna take
up too much of your time. You got
15. Okay. Let's take 15. At the end
of 15, if if for some reason you
gotta go, I'm gonna understand. But if if
what we're talking about is really working for
you, let's I I've I've left I've left
an hour of time that we could keep
going.
So I do x, y, and z. You've
obviously got somebody that does x, y, and
z. You might have multiple people that do
(12:43):
x, y, and z.
What is the
what's the best thing that the people do
that you work with? That your makes makes
your business jam, gives you less stress, higher
profit margins, less time issues, whatever the case
may be. Let them let them tell you.
Oh, that's awesome.
Okay? What's the what's the what's the headache?
(13:04):
What's the headache that you constantly have to
deal with with people that do what I
do? Oh,
they're never on time. They overpromise.
You know, they always call me and say,
hey, man. Not my bad, but you know
what? It's gonna show up a week later.
You know? Not saying I could. Not saying
I could, Mark,
but I have people that I have influence
(13:24):
over that work with me that are in
my
in my vertical line that help me deliver
my promises on a timely basis.
Did you tell me that was important to
you? Oh, yeah. How much does that cost
you?
How much does that cost you? Well, look,
you know, it cost you time because now
you gotta call your people and tell them
you're running late.
(13:45):
And so if I I'm not saying I
could, but I I do it for my
other people.
So would it make sense to do a
one off, and let's do an experiment to
see if my people can actually deliver on
time?
And that's gonna save you hassle. It's gonna
save you money.
And if by chance that goes well,
instead of just doing one off, maybe we
(14:06):
talk about an agreement
where I become one of your people.
So you're not gonna accomplish it in Orlando
at the conference. You're not gonna come up
with they they everybody's got their guard up.
Everybody's in protection mode. Everybody's giving you the
stiff arm. Like, hey, bro. I'm just here
to meet people. I don't wanna you know,
I I don't want all this change going
(14:27):
on in my business or my life right
now.
But once they get away from that environment
and you set up the the follow-up call,
they're gonna be more open minded.
And then if you just don't try to
beat up the guys they got,
but you try to solve the problem they
have,
you might get a chance.
(14:49):
So once you get into the right frame
of mind backing up just a little bit,
when you actually get on the field, get
on the stage, get into the event,
How do you maintain the performance bubble and
not let it pop once you're in there?
That's wonderful.
Let let let's take a scenario where let's
just use sports. Everybody can identify with sports
at some level.
(15:10):
Let's say you're, you know, NFL quarterback.
You know,
the week leading up to the game, you're
gonna do self scouting on what you did
and did well and didn't do well the
previous week because the defensive coordinator is gonna
be looking at the same thing. So he's
gonna try try to take away what you
did well and put you in a situation
where you're gonna do more and more of
what you don't do well.
(15:32):
Number 2 is you're gonna understand the game
plan that your coaches have outlined for you
against the defense that you're gonna play this
next week.
And you're gonna know your playbook inside and
out. You're gonna have a great relationship with
your offensive linemen on the on the blitz
protection calls. You can have a great timing
with your receivers.
They're all gonna think you're trying to look
for them on every single play because they
(15:52):
wanna feel some love in addition to getting
the ball. So you don't want that guy
coming back to the hell of going, bro,
man. I was open. I'm I'm 711, baby.
I was open 247. You never looked at
me. You know what? There's only one ball
and there's 5 eligible receivers in every play.
So you can't and sometimes you're not even
gonna get to throw the ball. So you're
gonna have a wonderful relationship with your receivers.
(16:13):
And then you're gonna visualize what
you see happening in the game before the
game. You're gonna do it every night, 5
minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it takes,
because you can visualize so fast and you're
gonna visualize the most important plays of the
game.
3rd and long red zone,
you know, 4th and gotta get it. K.
(16:35):
Into the game situations.
And then what you're gonna do is remember
who you are.
God creates everybody perfectly imperfect. He created you
for a purpose. He created me for a
different purpose. He created this quarterback for a
purpose. At the end of the day, he's
in the NFL for a reason.
So getting reconnected with why you're there.
(16:56):
And then
think about all the times that you spent
in the off season training,
training camp work, extra work with your receivers.
Maybe you take 15 minutes after Wednesday's practice
and work out with 1 of your rookie
receivers
to get on the same page because he's
his head's still spinning
so that when you show up
and you're aware that, hey. You know what?
(17:18):
I got a crazy crazy girlfriend. I got
a crazy wife. K? So the reason why
she's crazy is because I don't return my
her text. I don't call her when I
tell her I'm gonna call her. I end
up staying late and don't tell her, so
she's got dinner for me and, it's cold
when I get home.
No. I'm going to be I'm gonna be
more honest with my partner
so that there's no friction with my partner.
(17:40):
I'm gonna have a conversation with her that,
hey. Once I leave
on Saturday to go to the team hotel,
I'm gone.
So I'm not gonna respond to your text.
If you wanna send me a love text,
that's great, but I'm not responding. I'm not
even looking at my phone.
So you have an upfront agreement with your
partner of how you're gonna operate pregame.
Then you're gonna get together with your offensive
(18:01):
coordinator, and you're gonna go, hey, coach. I
don't really feel comfortable with this play. You're
gonna have the list of plays you don't
feel comfortable with and the ones that you
fall in love with, and you're gonna tell
him, communicate with him honestly on Saturday night.
Because on Sunday, you can't get pissed off
in the middle of game. When he calls
the play, you don't want him to call
because you didn't tell him. You didn't want
him to call.
You should know what the OC is gonna
(18:22):
call
in a big moment
before he calls it
because you've already talked about it, and you've
already told him what you think.
Then when you get in the game and,
you know, hey. Let's say you've got TJ
Watt across the line, and he just sacks
he he sacks you for a 10 year
loss. You gonna hop up and pat him
on the ass and say, man, that was
awesome. You ain't gonna get no you you're
(18:44):
not causing you're no smack talk with the
guys who are trying to kill you.
Okay? And when the official calls a, you
know, calls a holding call on a 78
yard touchdown pass,
when you'd like to tell him to go
fly a kite and, you know, stick it
stick it where the sun doesn't shine, you
go, hey. You know what? You just you
you you're humble.
You're composed.
Because you're gonna you know, you're gonna get
(19:05):
another shot and you don't want the guy
looking
harder for that flag because he's trying to
get back at you for something you said.
So I could go on and on. It's
it's all of that.
It's all of that. So what happens is
when you show up, and let's say you
guys
start the game out for a series, and
you're trotting out on the field for the
(19:26):
first play of the game,
all the noise is blocked out.
All the potential
conflict with your coaches,
your teammates, the officials, and the opponents.
You've got that in an orderly fashion.
You remember who you are. You're a badass.
You were, you were born to do this.
Nobody on the planet has worked harder
(19:48):
to be in this position than you have,
and you can make every throw
in your sleep
that the coach could ask you to throw.
So what do you got to lose?
Yeah.
So do you is a performance level something
that gets whether it's the field, the boardroom,
or somewhere in between,
do you recreate it every time you go
(20:09):
into a situation or does it does it
at one point just start to maintain it
itself or is it a constant evolution and
recreation?
I think it's a constant evolution.
It's,
it's one of those things where it's like,
it's like an Apple phone.
You know, we're an Apple, you know, we're
an iPhone 16. It's not even close to,
you know, the first edition.
(20:30):
They don't make as many,
adjustments or enhancements as we move forward. So
the longer you
create and utilize a performance bubble,
the more micro the adjustments are gonna be
later on. But in the beginning, they're gonna
be major. When you fail, that's a red
flag. You've got a you've got a corruption
(20:51):
in your performance bubble.
Failure is good. Every time you fail, it's
like, it's a it's a way
to self correct,
update, and adjust your performance bubble because you
shouldn't I mean, the NFL, you get caught
if you start making the same mistake twice.
They don't care if you make a mistake.
Just don't make the same mistake twice.
Well, in business,
(21:12):
you don't wanna make the same mistake twice.
You want to make new mistakes.
Makes life more fun. And when you show
up, the mistakes start start getting smaller.
That is awesome. We have covered such a
lot of ground in such a short period
of time.
Someone's listening or watching, I think I knew
I get this. There was a lot of
(21:32):
good stuff in there. If you were to
say, you know, with the performance bubble,
above all else, if you're if you're gonna
do something, at least do this one thing,
what would you tell them to do?
Get out a piece of paper
and draw a bubble. And everything that serves
you, put in that bubble
for this next game, this next event, this
(21:52):
next meeting, this next sales call.
Everything that serves you, put in the bubble.
Just write it in there, what it is.
And everything that doesn't, everything that screws you
up, you know, whether it's a it doesn't
matter if it's business or nonbusiness,
interference,
noise.
Doesn't matter what happened the last time you
called on this doc or this this this
company.
(22:13):
Doesn't get to come you actually write it
down on a piece of paper,
and now you've got this mental picture. It's
like one d. I mean, it's like for
this is kindergarten level,
but at least it's a start.
That is awesome. Thank you. And if people
wanna find you online, what's the best place
or places to go?
My website is, craigdoman. C you can see
(22:35):
it in the show notes, craigdoman.com.
I do coaching. I have a book called
pro mindset that talks about the performance bubble.
I do speaking, so you can go to
my website and also
inquire about speaking.
And then you can also go to Amazon.
You can buy my book on my website.
You can buy it on Amazon.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. This
(22:56):
has been great, Craig.
Thank you very much, Mark. Appreciate it.
And scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the idea climbing podcast and
rate us on Itunes.
Visitideaclimbing.com
to learn more about idea climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
(23:16):
marketing, and big ideas.
Welcome to the idea climbing podcast.
If you want to achieve peak performance, you
can probably benefit by creating a performance bubble.
I discuss how to do that with my
guest, Craig Dohman. Craig is a veteran NFL
agent who has negotiated more than half a
$1,000,000,000
worth of contracts for more than 300 NFL
athletes, coaches, and now high school and college
(00:20):
athletes.
His journey as a sports attorney has shown
him that having a pro mindset is key
to a successful pro athlete career. Craig released
a book, Pro Mindset, Be Your Best in
Your Biggest Moments, and he has a podcast,
Pro Mindset Podcast, where he discusses with guests
on his show the mental ingredients that are
common for elite performers,
and then he transfers that knowledge in insightful
(00:42):
stories and daily applications.
We dive into topics such as how to
turn up the volume on the positive voices
in your head, how an entrepreneur can find
good counsel to shorten their learning curve, 4
ways to maintain the performance bubble once you're
in it, and other golden nuggets of advice.
You're gonna love this show.
(01:04):
Thank you for joining the idea climbing podcast
today, Craig. I appreciate you making the time.
Absolutely, Mark. I'm excited about it.
And I'd love to jump in. We're gonna
talk about performance bubble, which in a short
conversation before I hit record, just sounds absolutely
awesome. Before we get into some of the
strategies and the details of it,
how did you discover the performance bubble? What's
(01:26):
your story with that?
Well, the performance bubble is like a secret
weapon that,
the best of the best utilize
to create a mental space
so that they can be in the zone.
Michael Jordan was amazing at this.
Okay? And so
Patrick Mahomes does this. It doesn't matter how
many receivers he has go down, you know,
what kind of adversity he's dealing with. It's
(01:48):
only 13 seconds on the clock, and it's
a AFC championship game against the Bills. It
doesn't matter. He goes in this zone, in
this perform and in this performance bubble.
It's effective whether you're in business and you
got a big time sales call,
whether you're an athlete and you've got a
big game.
And what it does is it it creates
(02:08):
this
safe zone
where you block out
all the things that work against you. Fear,
doubt, what happened the last time, what somebody
told you,
What hey. You know, it's like a basketball
player going show high school kid showing up
at a basketball game, and the coach says,
you're you're gonna guard number 17.
Okay, coach. I got it. He looks over
(02:30):
there, number 17, you know, 6 inches taller
and doing 3 60 jams.
And all of a sudden, he's like, oh,
shit. What am I gonna do now?
When you're in that performance bubble, those types
of things don't throw you off your game.
And everybody that's listening has been in one
of those situations where they had their act
together. They had their game plan. They show
up for whatever they need to show up
(02:52):
for, and their bubble got bursted by some
curveball, some unexpected
comment,
objection, whatever it may have been. So the
performance bubble
creates a safe zone safe mental space where
you can be your best in your biggest
moments.
So where does it start? How do you
get started with creating a performance bubble?
Number 1 is the awareness that you have
(03:13):
1. And that if you don't have 1,
you're going to be great until you're not.
If you don't have 1, you're gonna be
awesome because you prepared for it. You strategize.
You might have visualized about it. Until they
throw you that curve ball, then it then
it blows up in your face. Okay?
Or you have that your pocket voice, which
is talking to you at the same time
(03:34):
that you're doing the presentation
says, hey, man. Remember the last time you
were in this situation? Didn't work out so
well.
And that thought comes in, and now you're
operating on that negative thought.
So the performance bubble is a bound it's
boundaries and anchors.
The boundaries
block out
the noise,
(03:54):
past failures,
all those, you know, the hey. The the
the results think about sports or think about
business. If you're counting your check,
your commission check
before
the meeting's over,
you might most of the time, you don't
get the check because
(04:15):
you're so attached to the results and the
outcome.
When you can just fully embody why you're
there, what you're doing,
and let the results take care of itself,
the scoreboard usually tilts in the right direction.
Your bank account looks pretty good. And so
the the bubble is, going back to the
boundaries and anchors,
it's blocking out the things that don't serve
(04:36):
you,
And everything that does serve you gets to
come in.
And so I always talk talk about you
step into that bubble on game day. You
step into that bubble when you walk in
the boardroom.
And the only thing that just come with
you are
belief in who you are, confidence in what
you're going to do.
(04:57):
So all the all the preparation you did
gets to come in.
All the practice you did gets to come
in.
You visualizing yourself on the drive to the
meeting or the the bus ride to the
stadium. You visualized it. You visualized it maybe
for the whole week. That gets to manifest
itself in the performance bubble.
So this is a this is a big
(05:18):
one. How the heck do you stop the
negative voices? Because I would imagine in sports
and I know for a fact in business,
especially if someone gives presentations,
those voices can just decimate someone's mental state.
How do you block them out or at
least quiet them?
Okay.
Great question.
Mark, here's the deal. The volume
(05:40):
on the negativity
gets turned up the highest
when the moment is the biggest.
When you really want the deal, when you
really wanna you know, you're a high jumper,
and this is for the this is to
win the the event,
to win the gold in the Olympics. That's
when the volume gets turned up the most.
So your question is, how do you how
do you how do you lower the volume?
(06:01):
Yeah. 2 ways.
In advance, you have to work on your
story. You have to work on your identity.
Because if you don't modify your identity, the
same person keeps showing up.
So you gotta backtrack and look at
why do you believe that about yourself?
Why do you have stage fright?
Why do you why do you why do
you not wanna take the shot when the
(06:22):
game's on the line?
That's that's that's something that's done
before the the event.
But once you're in the event, you have
a you have an escape hatch in the
performance bubble
that allows you to regulate your mental state
so that if something pop I mean, we're
all human.
We're gonna have those thoughts.
(06:44):
And that you you can have the best
crafted plan, and then all of a sudden,
you know, it could be I mean, the
guy gets a phone call
that interrupts the whole mojo of the meeting.
You know, the the the in sports, there's
always the ball doesn't bounce your way. The
official throws a flag or whatever the case
may be.
When those things happen, you have to have
(07:04):
a regulator
of your mental state,
which is,
on the simplest terms,
hey. Nice try.
You have a conversation with with yourself. Nice
try. Not today, baby.
Not today.
This is not gonna mess with me today.
Maybe the last
time, but not this time. And you basically
(07:25):
take the power away from that inner voice,
your pocket voice,
because you knew it might happen. You were
ready for it, and when it when it
showed up,
you send it out the escape hatch.
So you protect
the sacredness of your performance bubble.
So that's turning down the bad stuff. How
do you turn up all the good stuff
(07:46):
you just mentioned?
That's through elevating your standards. In ProMindset, there's
3 parts. Rewriting your story, elevating your standards,
and showing up showing up on, stage with
your performance bubble so you can be your
best.
Well, if you elevate your standards, for example,
in business, it's like
you can't expect
to be your best when you didn't prepare
(08:07):
your best, when you didn't practice,
when you didn't get wise counsel from people
in your office or on your team or
whatever the case may be. As an athlete,
you can't expect to be your best if
you didn't look at the playbook or the
game plan for that week.
K? So all those things have to be
there. And I tell my clients in the
NFL, your standard has to be higher than
your coach's standard. If he wants you to
(08:28):
be there 15 minutes early, you gotta be
there 20. If you're running late, you're there
16 minutes early, you're still ahead of his
standard.
You have to raise your standards so your
standards are higher. If you're an entrepreneur,
you don't do what your competition does. You
have to raise your standard above your competition.
Otherwise, you can't expect the results.
(08:51):
Where can an entrepreneur find good counsel? I
mean, I I would imagine that's paramount to
have to have, whether it's a mentor or
someone like that, how does an entrepreneur go
about finding good counsel?
That's a great question.
Find somebody that's 10 years ahead of you,
That's that's successful
and honestly reach out to them
(09:12):
and
don't be their enemy. One of the things
that's really interesting when I was in the
full scale agent business,
We would go to the,
NFL PA agent seminar in Indianapolis during the
combine
every year. It was mandatory meeting, so everybody
showed up. It didn't matter if you represented
Peyton Manning, if you represented somebody nobody knew.
You showed up at that event,
(09:34):
and people wouldn't talk to each other.
People don't talk to each other. They don't
make eye contact.
They're not friendly. They're like enemies.
You go to a dental
or pharmaceutical
convention in Vegas,
Those dudes are playing golf together.
They're hanging out together. They're sharing funny stories
together,
best practices,
(09:55):
best vendors.
So what happens is you can either be
like an NFL agency. Everybody in your business
is an enemy,
or you can be like a mainstream
professional
that goes, you know what? I can't spend
all the money in this industry, so I
don't need to make it all. You just
wanna double or triple in size. That's great.
But these people that are in your business
or in your industry are not enemies.
(10:18):
You can turn them into allies.
So what do you do? This is great.
What in a sense of, conference that most
business is entrepreneurs because they're salespeople too.
What do you do before you get into
a networking event to have a performance bubble
for success?
That's a great question.
Give me a little bit more texture,
(10:38):
and I'll because I can give you a
general answer. But if you give me a
little bit more texture, I'll give you a
more specific answer. You're going to an event.
The end result is in some way to
increase your business, but you don't want to
be that slick salesperson that is like oh
God,
here comes Mark. He's going to pitch me
again. But at the same time you do
have to get new clients. So you got
(10:58):
to it's a balancing act I think between
just going in to make friends and have
fun and collect 20 business cards or actually
grow your business. What can you do before
you walk into an event like that at
a conference or a business networking event where
people are there to network?
It's not a cocktail party. It's a networking
event. What can you do before you walk
(11:19):
in the room?
Okay. That's a great question.
I think the the tactic that I would
wanna accomplish
would be to understand that everybody there
already has somebody that does what you do.
They don't need
you. Because if they if they needed you,
they would already have you,
but they've got somebody else. So you're not
(11:40):
gonna come in and be that slick salesman
that's gonna convince them that you're better than
everybody else in the world, and they should
switch whatever their whatever that service is that
you provide and use you.
So the best way you could go, and
from my perspective is,
I just wanna know I just wanna get
your information, find out if you're happy, and
offer to give them a second opinion in
(12:00):
a later time. So I'm set I'm I'm
getting contacts. I'm getting information,
and I'm setting up a discovery call for
a week or two down the road with
as many people as I can. And the
the
the genre of the conversation is, hey, Mark.
We met at the conference down in Orlando.
You were so kind to give me your
your information. Hey. How many how many minutes
(12:21):
you got today? Because I don't wanna take
up too much of your time. You got
15. Okay. Let's take 15. At the end
of 15, if if for some reason you
gotta go, I'm gonna understand. But if if
what we're talking about is really working for
you, let's I I've I've left I've left
an hour of time that we could keep
going.
So I do x, y, and z. You've
obviously got somebody that does x, y, and
z. You might have multiple people that do
(12:43):
x, y, and z.
What is the
what's the best thing that the people do
that you work with? That your makes makes
your business jam, gives you less stress, higher
profit margins, less time issues, whatever the case
may be. Let them let them tell you.
Oh, that's awesome.
Okay? What's the what's the what's the headache?
(13:04):
What's the headache that you constantly have to
deal with with people that do what I
do? Oh,
they're never on time. They overpromise.
You know, they always call me and say,
hey, man. Not my bad, but you know
what? It's gonna show up a week later.
You know? Not saying I could. Not saying
I could, Mark,
but I have people that I have influence
(13:24):
over that work with me that are in
my
in my vertical line that help me deliver
my promises on a timely basis.
Did you tell me that was important to
you? Oh, yeah. How much does that cost
you?
How much does that cost you? Well, look,
you know, it cost you time because now
you gotta call your people and tell them
you're running late.
(13:45):
And so if I I'm not saying I
could, but I I do it for my
other people.
So would it make sense to do a
one off, and let's do an experiment to
see if my people can actually deliver on
time?
And that's gonna save you hassle. It's gonna
save you money.
And if by chance that goes well,
instead of just doing one off, maybe we
(14:06):
talk about an agreement
where I become one of your people.
So you're not gonna accomplish it in Orlando
at the conference. You're not gonna come up
with they they everybody's got their guard up.
Everybody's in protection mode. Everybody's giving you the
stiff arm. Like, hey, bro. I'm just here
to meet people. I don't wanna you know,
I I don't want all this change going
(14:27):
on in my business or my life right
now.
But once they get away from that environment
and you set up the the follow-up call,
they're gonna be more open minded.
And then if you just don't try to
beat up the guys they got,
but you try to solve the problem they
have,
you might get a chance.
(14:49):
So once you get into the right frame
of mind backing up just a little bit,
when you actually get on the field, get
on the stage, get into the event,
How do you maintain the performance bubble and
not let it pop once you're in there?
That's wonderful.
Let let let's take a scenario where let's
just use sports. Everybody can identify with sports
at some level.
(15:10):
Let's say you're, you know, NFL quarterback.
You know,
the week leading up to the game, you're
gonna do self scouting on what you did
and did well and didn't do well the
previous week because the defensive coordinator is gonna
be looking at the same thing. So he's
gonna try try to take away what you
did well and put you in a situation
where you're gonna do more and more of
what you don't do well.
(15:32):
Number 2 is you're gonna understand the game
plan that your coaches have outlined for you
against the defense that you're gonna play this
next week.
And you're gonna know your playbook inside and
out. You're gonna have a great relationship with
your offensive linemen on the on the blitz
protection calls. You can have a great timing
with your receivers.
They're all gonna think you're trying to look
for them on every single play because they
(15:52):
wanna feel some love in addition to getting
the ball. So you don't want that guy
coming back to the hell of going, bro,
man. I was open. I'm I'm 711, baby.
I was open 247. You never looked at
me. You know what? There's only one ball
and there's 5 eligible receivers in every play.
So you can't and sometimes you're not even
gonna get to throw the ball. So you're
gonna have a wonderful relationship with your receivers.
(16:13):
And then you're gonna visualize what
you see happening in the game before the
game. You're gonna do it every night, 5
minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it takes,
because you can visualize so fast and you're
gonna visualize the most important plays of the
game.
3rd and long red zone,
you know, 4th and gotta get it. K.
(16:35):
Into the game situations.
And then what you're gonna do is remember
who you are.
God creates everybody perfectly imperfect. He created you
for a purpose. He created me for a
different purpose. He created this quarterback for a
purpose. At the end of the day, he's
in the NFL for a reason.
So getting reconnected with why you're there.
(16:56):
And then
think about all the times that you spent
in the off season training,
training camp work, extra work with your receivers.
Maybe you take 15 minutes after Wednesday's practice
and work out with 1 of your rookie
receivers
to get on the same page because he's
his head's still spinning
so that when you show up
and you're aware that, hey. You know what?
(17:18):
I got a crazy crazy girlfriend. I got
a crazy wife. K? So the reason why
she's crazy is because I don't return my
her text. I don't call her when I
tell her I'm gonna call her. I end
up staying late and don't tell her, so
she's got dinner for me and, it's cold
when I get home.
No. I'm going to be I'm gonna be
more honest with my partner
so that there's no friction with my partner.
(17:40):
I'm gonna have a conversation with her that,
hey. Once I leave
on Saturday to go to the team hotel,
I'm gone.
So I'm not gonna respond to your text.
If you wanna send me a love text,
that's great, but I'm not responding. I'm not
even looking at my phone.
So you have an upfront agreement with your
partner of how you're gonna operate pregame.
Then you're gonna get together with your offensive
(18:01):
coordinator, and you're gonna go, hey, coach. I
don't really feel comfortable with this play. You're
gonna have the list of plays you don't
feel comfortable with and the ones that you
fall in love with, and you're gonna tell
him, communicate with him honestly on Saturday night.
Because on Sunday, you can't get pissed off
in the middle of game. When he calls
the play, you don't want him to call
because you didn't tell him. You didn't want
him to call.
You should know what the OC is gonna
(18:22):
call
in a big moment
before he calls it
because you've already talked about it, and you've
already told him what you think.
Then when you get in the game and,
you know, hey. Let's say you've got TJ
Watt across the line, and he just sacks
he he sacks you for a 10 year
loss. You gonna hop up and pat him
on the ass and say, man, that was
awesome. You ain't gonna get no you you're
(18:44):
not causing you're no smack talk with the
guys who are trying to kill you.
Okay? And when the official calls a, you
know, calls a holding call on a 78
yard touchdown pass,
when you'd like to tell him to go
fly a kite and, you know, stick it
stick it where the sun doesn't shine, you
go, hey. You know what? You just you
you you're humble.
You're composed.
Because you're gonna you know, you're gonna get
(19:05):
another shot and you don't want the guy
looking
harder for that flag because he's trying to
get back at you for something you said.
So I could go on and on. It's
it's all of that.
It's all of that. So what happens is
when you show up, and let's say you
guys
start the game out for a series, and
you're trotting out on the field for the
(19:26):
first play of the game,
all the noise is blocked out.
All the potential
conflict with your coaches,
your teammates, the officials, and the opponents.
You've got that in an orderly fashion.
You remember who you are. You're a badass.
You were, you were born to do this.
Nobody on the planet has worked harder
(19:48):
to be in this position than you have,
and you can make every throw
in your sleep
that the coach could ask you to throw.
So what do you got to lose?
Yeah.
So do you is a performance level something
that gets whether it's the field, the boardroom,
or somewhere in between,
do you recreate it every time you go
(20:09):
into a situation or does it does it
at one point just start to maintain it
itself or is it a constant evolution and
recreation?
I think it's a constant evolution.
It's,
it's one of those things where it's like,
it's like an Apple phone.
You know, we're an Apple, you know, we're
an iPhone 16. It's not even close to,
you know, the first edition.
(20:30):
They don't make as many,
adjustments or enhancements as we move forward. So
the longer you
create and utilize a performance bubble,
the more micro the adjustments are gonna be
later on. But in the beginning, they're gonna
be major. When you fail, that's a red
flag. You've got a you've got a corruption
(20:51):
in your performance bubble.
Failure is good. Every time you fail, it's
like, it's a it's a way
to self correct,
update, and adjust your performance bubble because you
shouldn't I mean, the NFL, you get caught
if you start making the same mistake twice.
They don't care if you make a mistake.
Just don't make the same mistake twice.
Well, in business,
(21:12):
you don't wanna make the same mistake twice.
You want to make new mistakes.
Makes life more fun. And when you show
up, the mistakes start start getting smaller.
That is awesome. We have covered such a
lot of ground in such a short period
of time.
Someone's listening or watching, I think I knew
I get this. There was a lot of
(21:32):
good stuff in there. If you were to
say, you know, with the performance bubble,
above all else, if you're if you're gonna
do something, at least do this one thing,
what would you tell them to do?
Get out a piece of paper
and draw a bubble. And everything that serves
you, put in that bubble
for this next game, this next event, this
(21:52):
next meeting, this next sales call.
Everything that serves you, put in the bubble.
Just write it in there, what it is.
And everything that doesn't, everything that screws you
up, you know, whether it's a it doesn't
matter if it's business or nonbusiness,
interference,
noise.
Doesn't matter what happened the last time you
called on this doc or this this this
company.
(22:13):
Doesn't get to come you actually write it
down on a piece of paper,
and now you've got this mental picture. It's
like one d. I mean, it's like for
this is kindergarten level,
but at least it's a start.
That is awesome. Thank you. And if people
wanna find you online, what's the best place
or places to go?
My website is, craigdoman. C you can see
(22:35):
it in the show notes, craigdoman.com.
I do coaching. I have a book called
pro mindset that talks about the performance bubble.
I do speaking, so you can go to
my website and also
inquire about speaking.
And then you can also go to Amazon.
You can buy my book on my website.
You can buy it on Amazon.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. This
(22:56):
has been great, Craig.
Thank you very much, Mark. Appreciate it.
And scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the idea climbing podcast and
rate us on Itunes.
Visitideaclimbing.com
to learn more about idea climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
(23:16):
marketing, and big ideas.
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