Research Paper: Interview with Dr. Julie Bell, The Mind of a Champion

00:00

Phylecia Bare

I am really excited to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Julie Bell, who is president and founder of the Mind of a Champion. Dr. Julie has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and coaching both predominant athletes as well as executives from a wide variety of industries. She is a sought after executive coach. She has fantastic leadership development workshops and is highly sought after as an engaging keynote speaker. Dr. Julie has an educational background her bachelor of science degree in psychology from Oklahoma State University. She also has her master’s and a doctorate in sport psychology from the University of Virginia. And when she’s not busy working with her clients, she has a fabulous, wonderful husband, Nelson. They reside in Dallas, Texas, and she has three teenagers. So it is just a privilege to have the opportunity again to speak with you, Julie, and welcome.

01:19

Dr. Julie Bell

Thanks, Phylecia, thank you so much.

01:22

Phylecia Bare

Julie, when we look at the coaching environment today, and especially in leadership, development, and leadership performance, and that that realm of coaching one of the really predominant themes is around comparison and we’re comparing ourselves to others more and more and more. And so that’s what I’d like to center our conversation around today. I’m curious to get your insights on what are you seeing that really drives us or compels us to compare ourselves to others?

02:02

Dr. Julie Bell

Well, Phylecia, that is a fantastic topic, and there are so many different ways to go with that. So why don’t we just look at like, Let’s you and I talk about all the different places that we compare ourselves? So obviously in business, you know of my team, I’m a leader. You’re a leader. I’m gonna compare my team results to your team results or within our team will get rankings on, you know, sales any kind of metric that we’re using. So we rank, which naturally leads to comparing ourselves. But let’s look beyond business and see where else we do it in life. You know, growing up in sports, there’s a whole lot of comparison. Ah, a lot of people will get that competitiveness confused where I just have to beat the other team or I need to beat you out of the starting position, right? So I’m comparing always in my faster, stronger, better than you on. But I’m also looking at the other person here and I’m gonna find out that I’m stronger, faster, better than some and not so strong, faster, better than the others. So we do it in sports. I think we do it in parenting. And intentionally, um, you know, we have the good sleeper and the not so good sleeper, the one with good manners and the one whose manners are not quite as good, if you could only be like your sister. There are just so many places that we compare and you know, my generation, That’s how we did it. But then, I mean, let’s throw in the reality of people in today’s environment, which is we’re comparing ourselves on social media all the time, the difference being that there is a quantifiable comparison on social media versus Hey, I like your sweater. I like your sweater. Now it’s 725 people like yours and only 22 like yours. So there’s some really quantitative. So I feel like our whole society is pushing us to compare ourselves to other people so that we get a sense of knowing am good enough? And I think there’s a huge danger in that.

04:10

Phylecia Bare

I think we’re seeing clients bringing, low self-esteem and, are not sure how to gather themselves up. What should we be looking at to safeguard against feeling down? Because there is on one level when you compare yourself, that can be a source of motivation. But I think in our world it’s harder to make these comparisons in a positive light.

04:52

Dr. Julie Bell

At The Mind of a Champion, we really focused on that voice in your head. Your personal coach, not just the person that you are being coached, but how are you coaching yourselves? And I think of the people who do a comparison as motivation. So I see you, and it’s during this Covid crazy environment, and your business is booming. And I coached myself to go there’s a lot of coaching opportunity, right? Hey, I wonder what Phyleica is doing and how she’s doing it. Let’s have a conversation now. Other people use that comparison by going, Oh, everybody’s choosing her and nobody is choosing me. So the comparison is one thing. But what we do with that comparison our head is the other. So the first place that I would start with my clients, you are doing a lot of comparisons. As I’d say, Hey, let’s talk about what you’re thinking about this. What are you saying to yourself when those comparisons really inspire you? And what are you saying to yourself when those comparisons are just knocking the wind out of you? So that would be the first place for me to start. Okay, to do the second place?

05:59

Phylecia Bare

Yes, please continue. We’re on a roll.

06:02

Dr. Julie Bell

So, that’s the first step, but then the very second step is, you know, what if we chose an alternative? What if instead of me comparing myself to you, I compared myself from where I am now to my full potential because that is where you’re going to see a real gain, whether you’re in sports, whether you’re a business, any anything in life. If instead of comparing myself to someone else, I say this is where I am, and this is what’s possible, and I use a straightforward assessment for that. So, Phylecia, I’m gonna put you on the spot. What’s one area of your life? You want to improve or change?

06:38

Phylecia Bare

One area? There are so many to choose from! I think I would like to be more consistent in my pleasure reading, I’ve really fallen off on just reading for enjoyment.

07:00

Dr. Julie Bell

Okay, great. So, Phylecia, could you compare yourself to people who are just avid readers and just feel really bumped down about yourself?

07:08

Phylecia Bare

Oh, yeah. That’s actually the thinking I have in my head right now.

07:13

Dr. Julie Bell

Okay. Don’t go there. How about instead we say okay, Phylecia, you as a reader. A plus is as good as you’re ever going to be in terms of consistency. What do you grade yourself at right now?

07:30

Phylecia Bare

A+. This is the greatest I could be?

07:33

Dr. Julie Bell

You would want to be not like the greatest anybody could be, but your best self. What are your eyes? Your A +. What grade are you in right now?

07:44

Phylecia Bare

Oh, right now, C. Yeah. A solid C.

07:49

Dr. Julie Bell

What does your A+ plus look like?

07:53

Phylecia Bare

My A plus would be that I was reading a little bit each day and that I was reading something that was an uplifting fun novel.

08:13

Dr. Julie Bell

Okay, Phylecia, if you think about how you felt when I said could you compare yourself to somebody else? If you think about how you felt versus the smile that was just on your face when you started thinking about your A+, it’s a comparison. It’s your C to your A+. But it is, It’s, it’s you, it’s inspiring. And as great coaches, that’s what we have to do. We’ve got to teach clients to let go of that comparison to other people and say, look, what is your best self? Let’s compare you to that. And let’s figure out how to get there. And as we think through that, and we have that vision of what it looks like, we get a little smile on our face, and it’s exciting and motivating to get there.

09:00

Phylecia Bare

Wow, it really is. And I guess it plays into what we know, but often we don’t act on it, that the only thing we can control is ourselves. And if I think about it that way, it is absolutely motivating because I’m playing against myself, right?

09:24

Dr. Julie Bell

Right. And when we asked those kinds of questions that we can, then we can follow up with, you know, like, well, what’s one step closer to your A+ this week or today, and we help people take those baby steps. If you’re comparing yourself to somebody else, your baby steps are compared to their steps. So you still feel like you’re you could be making progress, but they made more progress. So you’re still a loser at the end of the day? And nobody wants to be that.

09:54

Phylecia Bare

That is for sure. Well, when you’re working with leaders and, they’re focusing on improving their own game, one of the things that really has struck me from your book is the concept of playing to win versus playing not to lose. Can you speak a little bit about what that entails?

10:29

Dr. Julie Bell

Absolutely. So playing to win and playing, not to lose its completely a focus issue. So when I’m focused on the outcome, I tend to play not to lose. So I wanna protect what I have. It’s tentative and defensive versus a plane toe wind mindset, which is Hey, I know where I want to go and I’m focused on playing the game to get there. So it’s the activities. The leading indicators following my plan, completely tweaking my plan when I feel like I can get more out of it, and playing to win is all about doing the things that you need to do to create the outcome. Playing not to lose is that defensive position of protecting your outcome. The easiest example I could get would be, um, for leaders. Let’s say you’re coaching your team and playing to win is I want my team to go to the next level and I’m focused on that next level and so I think about my pregame from my coaching conversations. I do all the follow up that I say I’m going to do if I’m playing not to lose. I just don’t want anybody to leave my team. You know, a warm body is better than an empty chair. And so I know I need to correct you on a few things, but I’m not going Thio because what if you get mad and you walk away? You know, So we tolerate more when we’re playing, not to lose rather than really pushing our people and encouraging and giving him that vision of what greatness can be.

12:03

Phylecia Bare

Wow, it’s so inspiring. I think it’s it’s an easy, kind of mantra to remember because I think who doesn’t want to play to win?

12:19

Dr. Julie Bell

Right? Well, and if we look at, you know, very timely the whole Covid experience. I mean, I was right there with everybody else. So Covid shut me down. I mostly do keynote speaking my business, my calendar just kept going delete, delete, delete. And so I wanted this playing not to lose, and I cut every expense I could cut, and I just wanted to protect the money that was in the bank at the time. And you know it wasn’t that long. I’m gonna say it was about 48 hours. When I wake up and I go Oh, no, this does not work for me. And so instead, I change this playing to win, which is figure out a way to win, pivot, make adjustments, and what you offer. And, you know, there’s never been a time where people need coaching more than right now because of this crazy uncertainty that we live in. So even as a coach, I found myself and I’m playing to win versus playing, not to lose mindset.

13:13

Phylecia Bare

Yeah, well, I think it just shows that there’s not one of us that can’t benefit from coaching.

13:23

Dr. Julie Bell

100. Yes, everybody needs a coach.

13:26

Phylecia Bare

You know, in the program that I’ve been a part of there are so many that are entering into the space of executive coaching. I’m curious. What advice might you have for new coaches that are entering into this particular arena of coaching?

13:52

Dr. Julie Bell

So I have to ideas that come to mind. The first one is you’ll be a better coach next month. And you are today. You know, just knowing that. And I have an illustration that I could walk you through on that, um, if you want, and the second one is you need to be able to sell. So I have met something and fantastic coaches in my career. And now if you’re within an organization, you have built-in clients, but you still have to do business development. I mean, you need to They need to know what your services are. You got some marketing in there. But if you’re going out on your own, you have to use your own coaching on yourself and be able Thio sell your services because you’re coaching services Don’t matter if you’re not coaching anyone. So that would be my advice on those two things.

14:43

Phylecia Bare

Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, I absolutely agree. It’s the power of adding some sales training into your own professional development plan is incredibly helpful it’s becoming more and more competitive for us as coaches as well

15:02

Dr. Julie Bell

it is. But the other part about that is the competition is good for us because it’s making coaching more everyday language. I mean, I used to explain, What do you What do you mean, a coach like, you know, people. You mean there’s a football team associated with that business like No, no, that’s not what I’m doing. So the more people who are entering into the coaching the Mawr everyday language coaching becomes. And so I think that there’s it’s better for all of us.

15:33

Phylecia Bare

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Well, and we have we’ve moved away from. And it’s just a good thing from folks that are like, Oh, what? I’m gonna have a coach. What’s wrong with me? And that it does it. It doesn’t mean that you’re broken or you have to be fixed in some way. This is about, as as you say, helping you to level up to your next level of performance as well as you know, playing to be the best that you could be. Julie, how can folks that they would like to learn more about The Mind of the Champion? I certainly see the website: the mind of a champion. com. Are there other places where they can follow you? Or if they know, any additional questions or would like to know more? Where can they go?

16:26

Dr. Julie Bell

So the best sources, the website, the mind of a champion dot com And I am on LinkedIn as well Dr. Julie Bell in the mind of a champion. Um, that on our website we talk about the different things that we do. We have a six-month program. We do retreats for coaches we used to do Ah, a big gathering of certified coaches. But life has changed. We’ve pivoted. And so now we do some or smaller intimate groups and, you know, we help people fresh in their coaching skills. Um, also, Thio teaching them how thio, um to run their own business as well.

17:02

Phylecia Bare

Great. Great. Well, you’ve been really generous with your time. I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity. Um you know, Thio share with others, the work that you do and it’s really been a pleasure. Thank you so very much for your time today. You’re

17:19

Dr. Julie Bell

so welcome because you know, you are one of my favorite people.

17:22

Phylecia Bare

Oh, well, likewise.
That Oh, stay well, Thanks again, Julie.

17:29

Dr. Julie Bell

Thank you. Bye, Bye Bye.