The Strength In Numbers Podcast

Brian Levenson, founder of Strong Skills and author of Shift Your Mind, joins the show to talk about quitting, curiosity, and the balance between being and becoming. Brian spent the first part of his career working with athletes on their mindset and now works primarily with business executives, sports front office leaders, and head coaches. He also hosted the Intentional Performers Podcast for 399 episodes, a show that was a major influence on the creation of this one.We dive into why quitting is required for evolution, how stopping one thing usually leads to starting another, and how Brian’s career has moved in eight-year cycles. We also explore the pull between being and becoming and why curiosity is the starting point for creativity and collaboration. Brian breaks down how he uses constraints and forcing functions in his own life, how he built relationships with people like David Epstein and Dan Pink by adding value first, and what actually made him a better listener after years of thinking he wasn’t one.Brian also shares why the next book he writes would be called “World Class Dad,” how he thinks about goodness versus greatness with his own kids, and why he wants them to fall in love with exercise. He closes with an honest look at showing up and doing your work when you are not at your best.🔗Check out more from Brian 👇Website: strongskills.coLinkedIn: Brian LevensonBrian’s Book, Shift Your Mind: [click here]This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].Chapters00:00 Intro06:11 Getting Lost and Finding Sports Psychology09:06 The Power of Quitting13:18 Eight Year Runs and Loving the Build16:00 Being vs. Becoming21:15 Putting the Chip on the Other Shoulder23:00 Prepare Like Work, Perform Like Play25:15 Curiosity, Creativity, and Collaboration28:44 Innovate or Go Extinct32:35 Constraints and the David Epstein Story38:07 Building Skills Faster41:03 Developing the Ability to Listen45:28 Goodness vs. Greatness as a Parent48:16 World Class Dad55:47 Building a Network by Adding Value01:03:41 Finding Purpose in Helping Others01:05:34 Showing Up When You’re Not at Your Best

Cody Hughes has been a performance coach for over ten years across the college, high school, and private sector levels, while also operating as an entrepreneur on the side. He joins the show from Nashville, where he’s now consulting with Lipscomb Academy, partnering with Jeremy Holt at Athlete Performance, working with Vitruve, and teaching coaches how to build their own software with AI.We dive into the project he moved his family across the country for and the moment it fell apart, the conversation with his dad that reframed everything, and why he believes staying comfortable is the bigger risk. Cody walks step by step through how he’s built his skill set over the last ten years, from his first training card in a Google Sheet to Strength Sheets, the product that supported his family. He explains why AI only works for him because of the decade of building that came before it, the tools he thinks every coach and gym owner should build right now, how to connect your CRM so parent progress reports send themselves, and how he built an AI executive assistant named Fox to run his week.Cody is really honest about how he still struggles to constrain his creativity, the boundaries he and his wife have had to build around it, and what he’s still trying to figure out.🔗Check out more from Cody 👇 Instagram: @clh_strengthWebsite: clhstrength.comBuild With AI: Fundamentals: click hereThis podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].Chapters00:00 Intro03:24 Cody’s Current Roles06:41 Building a Tolerance for Uncertainty09:41 Getting Fired and the Conversation With His Dad11:51 Why Staying Comfortable Is the Bigger Risk14:33 The Gifts That Came From Being Fired18:47 Mentorship With Brian Kula24:27 Plans Are Useless, But Planning Is Everything27:23 Designing the Life You Want to Live31:25 Building Skill Sets Over Ten Years32:50 The Origin of Strength Sheets37:50 Why AI Only Works Because of What Came Before It41:59 Inside Build With AI Fundamentals51:12 Tools Every Coach and Gym Owner Should Build53:37 Connecting Your CRM and Automating Parent Reports57:25 Fox: Building an AI Executive Assistant01:02:42 The Strength That Costs Him at Home01:06:43 Boundaries and Seasons of Life

Blake Burnard, founder of Grindhaus Gym in Bakersfield, California, joins the show to break down how he grew Grindhaus from a 400 square foot garage into a 6,500 square foot facility serving both athletes and adults. We dive into why his adult program stalled out as a large group model, the decision to shut it down completely for a year, and what he learned in that time off about what adults are actually buying. Blake breaks down the handful of things they truly care about, none of which have anything to do with X’s and O’s, and how addressing those turned the adult program into the flagship product that now brings in double the revenue of his athletes.Blake also delivers a masterclass on launching a gym in a brand-new city with zero connections and getting it profitable in 90 days, something he’s charting out in real time right now. We get into how he forces community into every session, the three pillars behind a coaching product people won’t leave, and why starting out as a high school English teacher became one of the biggest drivers of his success.We also talk about stewarding your schedule to create margins for what matters most, finding his purpose again inside his own gym, and the relationship he’s working to build between his kids and the business.🔗Check out more from Blake 👇 Instagram: @grindhaus_sc @blakeburnardcoachingEmail: [email protected] podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].Chapters00:00 Intro03:26 The Story Behind the Grindhaus Name05:38 What Teaching English Taught Him About Coaching10:01 Holding a High Standard With Empathy12:03 Building Curriculum and Systems for Your Staff13:44 Communicating in the Simplest Way Possible16:14 The Creative Value of Limited Resources18:45 Why the First Adult Program Failed24:05 What Adults Actually Want From a Gym26:55 Turning Adults Into the Flagship Program28:36 Shifting the Marketing Message to 40+33:33 Forcing Community in the Daily Session39:01 Three Pillars of an Elite Coaching Product41:45 Weekly Wins and the Power of Social Proof48:07 Starting a New Gym With Zero Connections56:02 Creating Margins and Stewarding Your Time01:03:29 Integrating Family Into the Business01:09:30 The Armory and Finding Purpose Again

Hunter Eisenhower, CEO of The Force System, co-creator of Force IQ, and co-host of the Move the Needle podcast, joins the show to talk about losing his dream job and what he had already built to absorb it. Hunter spent three years as the Associate Head Coach for Sports Performance with Men's Basketball at Arizona State before getting the call earlier this year that he wouldn't be returning.Hunter is elite in all things sports performance, but this conversation goes almost nowhere near the X's and O's.We dive into the day he found out, the perspective his three-year-old daughter gave him that same night, why he started building something outside the program at ASU, and the advice he has for coaches who want to build anti-fragility into their own careers before they need it. We also explore his learning process and why he describes it as obsession, the shift from hoarding information to creating with it, why he prioritizes refinement over new input, how he filters which opportunities to say yes to, and how he's intentionally approached social media.Hunter also breaks down what he and Jared Wilson built with Force IQ and the athletic quality he's now convinced is the most important in sports performance.🔗Check out more from Hunter👇Instagram: @huntereis_tfs @mtn_performWebsite: Move The Needle / Hunter Eisenhower @ Force System This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].Chapters00:00 Intro04:33 The Call From the Athletic Director05:46 How His Daughter Reframed His Mindset07:53 Preparing for the Hot Seat Years in Advance11:05 Getting Your Dream Job at 2812:17 The Everest Problem and Moving the Goalpost17:41 Building Anti-Fragility Into Your Career20:06 Finding a Niche Beyond Selling Programs24:00 Information Hoarding vs Creating27:13 Why the Force System Was Born29:35 Putting Your Own Ideas Out There32:05 Inside Force IQ42:45 Filtering New Opportunities48:48 Refinement Over New Information59:26 Nurturing vs Selling01:03:52 Deceleration and What He's Obsessed With Now

Richard Burnett, Director of Athletic Development at Triple F Elite Sports Training in Knoxville, creator of the Plyomat, and founder of the Building Assessment Systems Coaches Cohort, returns to the show to break down how AI has completely rebuilt his player profiling system. Rich built the most elite profiling system in the country out of Google Sheets, and in a matter of months he rebuilt the entire thing into a live system with its own app, database, and automated reporting. We dive into the three phases of his system (intake, intel, and insight), how he now delivers a four page report to a parent's inbox before they leave the assessment, and how a system like this lets you get real value out of your data without drowning in the time it takes to process it.Rich also breaks down what to think about when choosing your tests, why you need to think about the "chaseability" of a test, why he pulled force plate metrics out of his scoring system, and how to build standards and tiers with your data.We also get into when to go deep versus when to stay shallow, building different assessments for different age groups, why you have to own the rubric instead of letting AI make those calls for you, and exactly where to start if you are feeling overwhelmed by all of it.🔗Check out more from Rich 👇 Instagram: @richardburnett @triplefknoxville @plyomat_attBuilding Assessment Systems Coaches Cohort (next cohort starts Friday, October 9): click hereThis podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].Chapters00:00 Intro02:58 Systems First, AI Second05:45 Intake, Intel, and Insight10:01 From Google Sheets to an AI Built System13:41 Comparing Athletes Against Your Own Population15:02 Delivering the Report Before They Leave the Building19:52 Removing the Friction Between Data and Coaching22:03 Assessment Data vs. Session Data28:12 The Chaseability of a Test30:59 Why Force Plate Metrics Left the Scoring System36:03 When to Go Deep and When to Stay Shallow39:42 Different Assessments for Different Ages41:36 Building Standards With Limited Data48:36 Owning the Rubric Instead of Handing It to AI49:47 Where to Start If You Feel Overwhelmed53:41 Athlete Data, Privacy, and Caution56:08 Changes for the Next Cohort