In Roy We Trust

Captivated by the topic of trust with Roy Reid, a leading authority on trust, business, and executive communications, The Spin Chicks make this episode a breakout session as they talk about trust in sports and public relations. Can trust exist in sports and how do Roy’s principles of The Trust Transformation apply in these industries? Roy relishes the coach role as we continue to talk about trust in our daily life.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Hey Michelle, Hey Erica, howare you. I'm doing great. Welcome
to another episode of The Spin Checks, our sports and pop culture podcast.
You know, I promise myself intwenty twenty four that I would be better
about a calendar. And I'll tellyou what, I don't know. I
think you're pretty organized. I considermyself organized, but I just you know,

(00:29):
do I put it on my phone? Do I put it on the
computer. I still like to writethings down. I still use a pencil.
Well, you know, you canhave a couple things like you can
have a calendar that you have aphysical calendar, and then I have a
Google my business email address Michelle atBoncomms dot com, and every single thing
I put in that calendar, everymeeting, every doctor's appointment, vacation,

(00:54):
whatever that way, I know Ican go to that particular email address and
everything will be in there. Somanually you add things in there manually.
Yeah, but it takes like twoseconds, I know, I think.
Well, I think the main challengeis, like I'm pretty good with my
work stuff. I just don't wantto forget stuff. And like, honestly,

(01:15):
between you and I, look we'repretty busy. Like the podcast is
going we're scheduling, we're doing precalls. I mean between you on Eastern
time, Jack on Eastern time.Jack's our wonderful producer. You know,
we just got to get all thisstuff coordinating. Erica is on eastern and
is she at Eastern Alabama time oris she onas central eastern Eastern I'm sorry,

(01:38):
Central Alabama time or central Chicago time. And then we bring in a
guest from the West coast or something, and then it's like, okay,
we're going to record at eleven,and Erica is like, is that eleven
my time? Are your time?Or what? What is this guest?
Where are they live in California?What? What? So it is pretty
funny when people when you're doing timezones and you're like, my time,

(02:00):
your time. I'm glad we're nottalking to anybody in Hawaii because aren't they
like five hours behind those I knowthat would be challenging. You never know
though, but I think too.It's not just oh and we oh,
that's right, we did Germany.Karen has someone over Karen. Yeah.
When we talked to Karen, itwas like, okay, that's six hours

(02:21):
ahead. And so we would talkto her at night and she'd be drinking
a glass of wine would be like, oh, it's a little it's a
little early for that here. Soyeah, I mean, it's all fine,
just staying organized. But again,podcasts involves some planning, you know.
I mean, you don't I know. Our podcast is conversational, but
I think we like to come upas a professional because we are professionals,
so it's our professional We're scheduling,scheduling, scheduling, and of course,

(02:45):
you know, my schedule I knowdrives you guys crazy because I get meetings
that pop up that have to takepriority and sometimes you know, you don't
want to have to cancel a reschedule. But all the challenges, it's all
worth it, though, It's allworth it, especially when we get guess
like Roy Reid, who we've talkedabout. We've did a little networking to
get Roy read on here, andI'm excited for him to talk to us

(03:07):
more about the trust transformation and howcoaching, how that can play into coaching
college athletics and professional athletics. It'sgonna be really interesting. Yeah, if
there's probably an industry that could usesomeone like Roy Reid to coach them on
trust, it would be college sports. But again, as I approach the

(03:28):
question, you know, is trusteven possible in college sports? So I'm
sure that could be many more episodes. But we talked to Roy. We
kind of learned a little bit aboutthe basic principles of the trust transformation,
and now we're going to talk aboutit in relation to sports and public relations,
which is something that maybe in relationto our podcast, and maybe we
can learn a few things for ourpodcast, like how to trust a Google

(03:50):
calendar so or trust your podcast partnerwhen they say they're going to write those
intros and all this other stuff comesup, and but everything gets done,
everything gets done, It's done.It's all good, Yeah, because you
know, we trust each other mostof the time, most of the time.

(04:11):
So let's talk to Roy part two. And I think he's someone that
we'll probably be talking to again inthe future. But I hope you enjoy
our second episode with Roy Reid.Well, we're back with Roy Reid and
we were talking about the trust transformation, and in our previous episode we talked
a lot about the basics and theprinciples of trust, and I think we
wanted to take this episode to kindof talk about how it relates to the

(04:35):
fields that Michelle and I are mostfamiliar with, which is sports and public
relations, and you know how thosecan relate to trust. Most people might
not associate sports and pr with trust, but we're going to take a deeper
dive. So just to get usstarted, Roy, did you play your
coach sports, and if so,just what was a little bit of your

(04:58):
experience as a competitor or a coI've done both and enjoyed both. Sports
has been a big part of mymakeup, from the time I was very
young and playing little league baseball andsome of those things through high school or
I played football, and I wrestled, and then in the college days,

(05:19):
competed a lot in the intermurals withmy fraternity and studied martial arts for twenty
five years and taught and trained inthat. I look at a couple of
moments that I would say, we'revery instrumental in both my development as a

(05:41):
young man. But then also asI look at what I do today as
a coach and as an executive coachand somebody who teaches people about trust,
I think back to my early daysin high school, my sophomore year,
going into my sophomore year year madea decision that I wanted to try out

(06:02):
for the football team, and reallyonly had one year of playing any kind
of organized football before that tackle footballanyways, went out for the team,
clearly lacked in some of the basicskill sets, but worked really hard to
try to do the things that Ineeded to do, and fortunately the coach

(06:27):
recognized that and gave me a spoton the team going into that next year,
and was very clear to me thathe knew that I struggled with certain
things, but he believed that thework ethic that I had demonstrated during that
process earned me a spot to beon that team, and he trusted me,

(06:53):
put his trust in faith in me, and so I was able to
compete and be a part of thatteam for two years the latter parts of
my high school and that that lessonhas always stayed with me, both giving
the opportunity and then the power inbeing committed to something through that. And

(07:13):
so I look at what Coach Adamsdid for me is a very important lesson
in trust. So one of ourrecent guests, Eric Kimri, is a
football coach, talks told us thatthe word coach and I think he said
Latin, but I'm not sure comesfrom like a stage coach pulling people along

(07:35):
and leading, pulling people along asa leader. And so have you heard
that before? We hadn't either,but we're like, oh yeah, okay,
okay, that's so cool. Andthen I was then I was sitting
here thinking coaching, so it wouldbe like somebody pulling people along as a
leader. I was like, Wow, that's really yeah. So I just

(07:56):
wanted to know if you'd heard that, so we can we can all agree
with it and keep going. Yeah, I think that we could. We
could put I mean, I wouldsay we probably all need to do some
googling on that and discover a littlebit more. I thought that was a
really that was really fascinating to me. I never thought like where did that
word come from? You know,I was thinking coach with a whistle and
that kind of thing. I don'tthink of as like a stagecoach kind of

(08:18):
thing leading them along. So,so you live in Orlando and maybe you're
a UCF fan or an Orlando Magicfan. But what what college and professional
sports do you follow? Like,what are you a fan of? Well,
huge UCF fan, very excited abouttheir basketball win last night, knocking
off number three Kansas and their firstBig twelve competition, So we're celebrating quite

(08:46):
a lot down here with that.And you know, we've had a pretty
good run athletically over the last tenyears with a variety of different things as
a very young school founded in nineteensixty seven sixty eight, So we're stepping
into a whole new level of competitionthis year. So we've been very excited

(09:07):
about that. Having grown up inFlorida, been a Miami Dolphins fan for
most of my life with grandparents wholived in Pennsylvania. Became a Pirates fan
at a very young age. Wewould travel up there and go to Pirate
games every summer. So those aresort of the college and professional sports teams,

(09:31):
and obviously they're Lando Magic. Youtalked about being a big UCF fan.
I'm sure you're a football fan ofUCF. Yeah. I live in
Tampa, so you're my rival andMilton mackenzie. When I think of somebody
that while we had to develop trust, I mean, you know, you
went through this heart procedure. Idon't want to say heart procedure because that

(09:54):
makes it sound small, and lookwhat he went through. I mean he
could have lost his life, hecould have lost his leg. And then
he went back and played played footballat Florida State after that horrific injury that
he suffered in a game. Sohow can you, you know, how
can you relate what he went throughto let me give you a great Mackenzie

(10:18):
Milton story. He not only didall of that, but he was able
to meet the other young man thatwas involved in that tackle and later on
a few years after it happened,and they had a conversation on a stage
in front of thousands of people wherehe talked about the process of recovery and

(10:39):
forgiveness and and that's a whole levelof trust that few people, I think,
get to in their life where they'reable to transcend what most people would
be bitter and angry and maybe holdsomebody responsible for in the course of regular
play. And and he didn't.And I really look at the character that

(11:03):
he brought to that, and I'mexcited to see him now as a coach
at Tennessee, one of the assistantsthere working with that team and doing really
great things to influence a lot ofyounger players that will look to him as
that example of somebody who achieved whatvery few college players can do lead a

(11:24):
team to an undefeated season, goon and do it almost two the second
time, getting hurt in the finalgame of that season where they went undefeated
again, and then stepping into anotherrole having recovered from it. There's so
many great illustrations of how he exhibitedtrust in himself, the players around him,

(11:46):
his coaches, as trainers, asdoctors. Very inspiring young man.
Yeah, that's great story. Imean, such a heartwarming story. He
was a comeback Player of the Yearlast year and just a really really cool
story. So thank you for relatingthat to us. In terms of just
trust in college sports, I mean, do you think that trust can exist

(12:09):
effectively? And maybe there's different levelscoach, team, a team, fan,
coach player. I mean, canyou maybe just speak to the importance
like what you're coaching and how thatkind of relates to especially in today's environment
where kids are transferring. And yeah, the portal has certainly changed the dynamic

(12:31):
between the relationship that players have withthe schools. It's certainly understandable there is
an opportunity for young men to reallyset themselves up for a financial situation that
could set them up for life incollege which creates a very interesting issue.

(12:58):
It would be interesting ten years fromnow to look at the transfer portal process
and the different coaches and how theymight be affected by it. I think
we look at what's happening this weekwith the retirement of Nick Saban from Alabama,

(13:18):
who over the course of the lastten years has racked up a college
record that I don't know when that'sgoing to be a match by anybody.
I don't know that it can bewith the current situation. But again it
goes to you think about the playersthat came under his tutelage, that worked

(13:39):
for him, that won the championshipsthat they did, that ended up with
NFL careers and being number one draftpicks. There's obviously a level of trust
between that player and that coach inthat situation. And I think about the
you know, bragging about my myUCF Knights, and then to be able

(14:01):
to go undefeate it in a yearwhere they won a final game against an
SEC powerhouse team that nobody thought theywould win, right and and the impact
of Scott Frost's relationship to that teamfor that year was incredible and they just
won. And there were games wherethey shouldn't have where they were definitely behind

(14:26):
or they overcame the odds, butthey just won. And when a team
operates at that level, there istrust that at the core of what they're
doing to get through the difficulties,because we've all seen it, right when
when a game's going bad, it'svery easy for the whole thing to collapse
because now we're starting to blame eachother, We're starting to not trust that

(14:48):
you're putting the effort into it,and distrust comes into play. It's not
what we see on the field,but it's what's happening inside. And so
those teams that are able to cultivatea high level of trust, just like
I talked about the hospitals that cultivatedand overcome bad patient experience, overcome bad

(15:09):
infectional experience, and those types ofthings, teams are not exempt from this,
and we see it manifest into howthey perform on a consistent basis.
Yeah, and we you know,I think about coaches that yell, like
I worked with college basketball a lot, and the coach would yell next play
when a kid would make a mistakeor you know, lose the ball or

(15:30):
miss a shot or something. Andthe coach would yell next play. And
in some ways I think, andwhen I play tennis, I say to
myself, next play, like justget over it. In some ways I
think it's good to say play Andin some ways I think, oh,
you say next play, you're justtelling that person I know you failed,
but move on. So where whereare you on that? And I know

(15:52):
we're like totally picking a worrying abouta lot of things, but we two
frames of thought on that. I'lllean onto my martial arts experience as a
as a first illustration when we wentwhen we did our black belt testing,
we had a rule in the dojodojo on that said, when you make
a mistake executing something, be ita form or a technique or something else,

(16:18):
you drop down and you do onepush up. And a lot of
people will say, well, howis that? How how does that continue
to build trust? Isn't that aren'tyou punishing yourself? And the answer is
no, you're not. You're you'restepping away from the situation. You're taking
a moment to to lean into wantingto do and correct what you just did.

(16:41):
And in the end, a pushup is a benefit because you're getting
stronger and so it's it's a meansby which you take a step back from
it, think about it, lookat how to improve it, and then
you go back and do it again, and and and in that, you're
building trust with your instructors, you'rebuilding trust with the other people that are

(17:03):
testing, and you're building trust withyourself to be accountable for what it is
that you're doing. And then Ithink about how it translates on the field.
And one of my favorite experiences Iever had as a it wasn't an
official coaching gig. There was aperiod when my son was playing flag football

(17:26):
where the head coach couldn't be therethat night, and so he asked a
couple of the dads, can y'allstep in and maybe just do a split
squat grimmage? And I got thereand one of the other dads had kind
of taken command of the situation andhe decided that he was going to split
the team up. And when hedid that, he did it very apparently

(17:49):
to put the really athletic kids onthe team he wanted to coach. And
I got the rest and my sonat the time happened to be one of
those kids, right, the bigkid on tackle football, he's all at
it because he's such a big kid, but in flag football he you know,
may not be perceived to be thatway. So I pulled these kids

(18:12):
together and I told him, look, we're gonna we're gonna run these things,
these these five things, and thisis all we're gonna do. We're
gonna do it over and over againwhen we do it, so that you
all get a rhythm with what you'retrying to do. And on defense,
this is how you're gonna line upand you're gonna play it. Every one
this down because I want you tolearn how each other do those things.

(18:36):
And we ended up winning that night, and we won because because our team
had cultivated that trust and that bondwith each other. The other team,
the first mistake they made, itjust went out of control, and and
there was the blaming and and allof that, and you know, not
to not not to put anybody ina box or or characterize anybody in a

(19:02):
certain way, but just that theapproach was that I knew we were facing
a bunch of better athletes. Sothe best, if the worst thing that
happened was our kids got along betterwhen they left the field that day.
Then I went. What ended uphappening was better beyond that, because not
only were they getting along really well, but they worked well together and cultivated

(19:26):
that And I it can happen ina situation where leadership believes in building that
character into the process as well.I mean, do you feel that coaches
should be held to a higher standardof trust when they're leading you know,
whether it be professional athletes or collegestudents, or do you really have to

(19:52):
work in sync like I mean,who's kind of leading the way with that?
I think everybody should live to ahigh standard for trust. I think
that when we begin to parse itout as to who should live to a
higher level, we create a scalethat that lowers the bar. And so

(20:17):
I would say the answer is yes, and yes, I want that coach
to subscribe to the highest level oftrust that they can and expect the same
thing from their team and what they'redoing. Now young people, if we're
talking college, you're going to haveyoung people that make bad decisions all the

(20:37):
time, and so you're going tohave to deal and contend with that formative
process that takes place in that spaceand make decisions on a case by case
basis as to how you help themcorrect the things that they've done and move
forward. You know, when youget to the pros, the dynamic is
so much different because everybody's operating atsuch a high level and the stakes are

(21:02):
so much higher. It's a completelivelihood now. I think it's obviously changed
a lot in college within il andthe things that students get out of it.
So we're starting to see some ofthe behaviors that might have been exclusive
to professional sports emerging there. Whenyou've got players who are willing to pack

(21:22):
it up and leave every year forthat next opportunity that might put them on
a different stage, or put themat a different level exposure, or pay
the more money at the end.I heard recently that to get an average
quarterback to commit to your school,you're going to spend a million dollars or
I see you doing the two side. Professional sports kind of has that reputation

(21:48):
sometimes I'll just but I will say, I watched the Bucks the other day,
and then I watched some videos ofthe Bucks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
and they were they were saying,like, how much people love this
team. You know, we lovedthe team with Tom Brady and Gronk and
you know, those guys and Ryansuck up because they were so good.

(22:10):
This team is not as good physically, but they've talked about how much these
guys trust each other, and Ithought it was funny for a sports sports
twitter to be putting this out.And they showed an example of the running
back and I can't remember his nameis. I think his last name is
White, but then I'm thinking it'sa defensive player name white. But anyway,
he was saying, like, youguys, we just need three more
yards. That's it. We justhave to get three more yards and we

(22:32):
make the playoffs because as soon aswe get this third yard, then we
got a first down and we cango to victory formation and the whole offense.
That's all they you know, like, let's do it. Let's do
it the next you know, nextdown, next down, and they got
it. And then they were alllike hugging each other and saying, I
love you and thank you so much, and I'm so excited I get to

(22:52):
go to my first playoffs. Andthat just really showed, like a lot
of people think professional sports don't reallycare, but it really showed how much
these guys have worked to trust eachother and so it's possible. Yeah,
and its possible. But I thinkthe challenge is when you're a coach and
you're trying to manage all this stuff, there's certain things that you may or

(23:15):
may not be able to tell playersif you really want to be honest.
So how do you operate from aplace of honesty, from a place of
your doing business, what's best forthe team, and build trust all at
the same time. I don't knowif you have that magic formula, and
I'm sure you do. All I'mgoing to get out of paper because I
want to know this for I'm goingto get on the circuit with you and

(23:37):
speak. Well, you know,I'll just add something real quick. I
talked earlier in our previous show aboutyou know, we have the four attributes
of being trustworthy, authentic, dependable, and influential. That that space of
trustworthiness is there's so much there thatsets the standard for everything. And so

(24:03):
there's eight qualities of trustworthy people thatwe teach to I mentioned earlier. There's
integrity, which is that idea thatyou know, this simple idea that we
do the right thing when no one'slooking. We live by a certain set
of ethical behaviors. There's attitude,which attitude is usually the first thing that

(24:25):
walks in the room, So it'sthat first impression you're going to make,
and it's probably the only thing youcontrol on any given day. Trustworthy people
also focus on the right thing rightnow they're present with you. Trustworthy people
deliver excellence in the work that theydo. Trustworthy people take initiative. They

(24:47):
don't wait for somebody else to fixthe problem. They're also very much the
person who has the insight and thewisdom and strive for that. They're lifelong
learners, and most importantly, theysubscribe to a vision for something bigger than
themselves. So you know that personright, you know that experience. Those

(25:10):
are the people that you want tobe engaged with. They're worthy of your
trust and so when you talk abouthow do you manage through that? When
you live those standards, it's easyto deal with the situations where you know
what you can talk about and youknow what you can't talk about, and
you're upfront about that and you doit in a way that helps people understand

(25:32):
and navigate through it. Okay,so let's talk a little bit about fans
are supposed to be like in lovewith their teams. But if you go
on X or other social media,you see your own fans. And I'm

(25:53):
guilty of it with the Cardinals talkingsmack about their own team, like they're
just so disgusted, like why arethey doing this? Why are they playing
so and so, Why are theydoing such and such? Why did they
run that play? So, youknow, we're talking about public relations some
and we could talk about some socialmedia, but how to fan or how
to players or coaches help build trustin the in their fans or vice versa,

(26:18):
like how because sometimes I think fansact as not fans, right,
I think there's so I'll put theI'll put the hat on right now that
speaks from like a player point ofview, and I'll do it in a
way that you know, I putcontent out on a regular basis, and

(26:41):
I have to accept the idea thatthere's a lot of people that like what
I have to say, and thenfor whatever reason, whether it's the way
I deliver it or otherwise, I'mgoing to have critics. And so as
a content producer, I have toaccept the fact that I'm going to have
critics, reasonable and unreasoned, andthe same way I think an athlete has

(27:02):
to look at the landscape and expectthe same kind of thing. Now,
putting the fan hat on for aminute, I think as fans we have
to recognize that we don't have thewhole story that there are. There are
things that are happening with athletes thatare out of their control that impact how
they show up, how they play, how they perform, what they can

(27:25):
and can't do, And there's partof a player's life that's none of our
business, and so we see themstruggle with that. I have made a
I subscribe to some fan boards,but I rarely go to them because I
don't know that what's happening there isgoing to contribute to my in depth knowledge

(27:49):
or understanding of what's really happening onthe team. And I think we've gotten
to a place with social media wherethere's what we call the keyboard warriors,
the people that don't have another outlet, but this is where they're going to
spill everything they have to say aboutsomething because they can't not because their opinions

(28:11):
contribute to the betterment of it,or that anyone's asked for it. And
I don't know how we get Idon't know how we get through this and
that changes at all. I thinkthere's been a conditioning that's occurred in society
that's made that acceptable behavior, orat least behavior that you can't really stop.

(28:32):
And so when we know that that'sgoing to happen as we go through
that process, we need to bethose some you know, maybe it requires
some of us to stand up andcall people out when they're not, but
sometimes that just turns into a nastyargument online. Well that's definitely probably a

(28:53):
whole matter podcast, but I don'tthink we want to give the keyboard Warriors
that attention. But well, Roy, it's been great to kind of dive
in a little bit deeper as faras trust in sports and pr and I'm
sure we could talk for hours more, but we've come to the part of
the podcast where kind of our finalsegment we like to put you through a

(29:14):
little rapid fire questions that we callthe spin cycle. So are you ready
to go through the spin cycle?I'm ready to spin? All right,
just say the first thing that comesto your mind here we go, coffee
or tea coffee, lose your keysor lose your phone keys? All right,

(29:41):
we think you're a little bit ofa traveler, So Paris or New
York City. I've never been toParis, so I'll say Paris good.
Answer. Hotel or Airbnb I like, I like, I like room service.

(30:03):
I'll say hotel good shows. Atleast that way you can do by
yourself. You don't need to youknow. Right into the last question,
what's for dinner tonight, I'm goingto have a steak of some kind.
I don't know which one yet,but I'm going to pick it up on

(30:25):
my way home. Oh okay,the medium, rare, well done,
rare, all right, all right, any sides, Nope, all I'm
going I'm going all carnivore tonight.Good. Then my wife and I will

(30:47):
have We've we've started a bit ofa new Year's a a new standing date
where we go to the gym together. So go home, eat dinner,
head out to the gym, andhold ourselves accountable for improving that. That's
awesome. Yeah, that sounds soundsdelicious. Well, thank you so much

(31:10):
for joining us. We really appreciatehaving you. Yeah, and I can
see why you are. You area sought after speaker because you are really
interesting and you give people. Youhave a way of presenting that is not
what is the right word not notconflicting? What is the word I'm trying
to think of as we wrap upnot It doesn't feel like you're attacking me

(31:34):
when you're talking about trust. Itfeels like you're trying to explain this to
me for the betterment of myself.And so when someone's listening to that,
when anyone's listening to that, youjust have an easy way of explaining it,
I guess is what I could havesaid very easily, which is really
to listen to. I agree,and I think Michelle and I have some
good takeaways too for our lovely partnershipon the podcast. So thank you for

(31:57):
that. I mean the mini sessions. I'm up for maybe a mini sessions.
So you got to anytime let's callhim in when we have a little
controversy. Who will be like,maybe we need to think are you my
adversary or we've yeah business, I'msure there's plenty of people who can I
can become I can become one ofthose regular guests that you have and we

(32:21):
just stack up the issues of theday and talk about it. Ready for
that. Yeah, that was goodthough. Yeah, I really appreciate you
coming on with us, and I'lllook forward to seeing you again soon.
I look forward to it. Thankyou well, Michelle. That was really
enlightening. We had two great episodesof Roy. I look forward to having

(32:44):
him on again a lot. Ithink he needs to come back. I
hope he'll want to come back findout. I hope. So he was
really good. I loved hearing abouthow athletics, how trust plays such a
big role in athletics. Found thatreally really interesting. If our listeners want
to follow up with Roy can goto his website www. Roy w Read

(33:07):
and that's R. E. ID dot com. That's a lot of
ws. No, I could havejust said Roy w Reid. Could you
could? But it's a habit.We're like, yeah, I think I
just showed like I'm really old thatI had to say w w W.
So no, No, you're justbeing thorough So nothing wrong with that.
I try, all right, Sofollow us on w w W Facebook.

(33:30):
No, just kidding, all right? Listeners, give us a like,
share our podcast old episode. HI c a