The Strength In Numbers Podcast

John Bloom
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Weekly

Coaching is more than just X’s and O’s—it’s about the principles, philosophies, and mindset that shape great leaders. Building on the ideas from the book "Strength In Numbers," this podcast brings together top coaches from across the sports world (and beyond) who are driven to learn, grow, and lead with purpose. Through in-depth conversations, we’ll explore how elite coaches think, operate, and make decisions for long-term success. Whether you’re a coach, leader, or lifelong learner, this podcast is your mentorship playbook—helping you be your best while building a career that lasts.

  1. 2h ago

    EP 79: Ryan Hawk | You Can’t Outsource Your Thinking

    Ryan Hawk, host of The Learning Leader Show, joins the show to break down how the best leaders in the world sustain excellence. Forbes called his show the most dynamic leadership podcast out there, and over 700 episodes he’s sat across from guests like Seth Godin, James Clear, Tony Robbins, Jocko Willink, Tim Ferriss, and Simon Sinek. He is also the author of four books, including his latest, The Price of Becoming.  We dive into why you cannot be a clear thinker without writing it down, why he requires a writing practice from every leader he works with, and where he draws the line between using AI as a research assistant and outsourcing the thinking itself. Ryan also shares the three questions he asks himself at the end of every day and what he does on the days the answer is no. We also get into why so many people who sustain excellence are terrible celebrators, the bottle of champagne that’s been sitting unopened in his cabinet since 2020, why optionality is overrated and what proof you need before leaving a job to go all in, and the values he’s trying to pass to his five daughters. 🔗Check out more from Ryan 👇 Instagram: @ryanhawk12 Website: The Learning Leader | Ryan Hawk | Podcast | Author | Speaker  Ryan’s Book: The Price of Becoming 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 04:59 What the Price of Becoming Actually Is 06:13 Why Every Leader Needs a Writing Practice 09:01 The Danger of Outsourcing Your Thinking 11:46 Why People Who Sustain Excellence Are Bad Celebrators 19:19 Where He Uses AI and Where He Refuses To 23:10 The Three Questions He Asks Every Night 26:05 Don't Miss Twice 33:08 Trampoline Listening vs Sponge Listening 37:25 Why Optionality Is Overrated 41:00 Proof of Concept Before Taking the Leap 46:57 How He Built the Ability to Ask 52:52 Building Your Own Junto 57:12 Hiring for Attributes, Not Impressions 1:01:51 Leadership Is Caught More Than It's Taught 1:05:54 When He's Closest to His Purpose

  2. Nov 3

    EP 78: Chuck Wachendorfer: Do You Want Your Boss’s Job?

    Chuck Wachendorfer, founder of Decision Reflex, internationally recognized speaker, and co-author of Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It, joins the show to unpack the question many high achievers eventually asks: is this it? Chuck has spent over 20 years as an executive coach after walking away from a million dollar per year job at American Express at age 41, and his most recent TED Talk was one of the five most viewed in the world in 2025. We dive into the question that reframed his career, the difference between a human doer and a human being, his new definition of success, why living in fifth gear leaves you nowhere to go when things fall apart, and the “do you want your boss’s job” test for knowing whether you’re in the right place. Chuck also breaks down his leadership logic chain, why decision-making impacts performance twice as much as talent and skill combined, the Freeze Exercise for catching yourself before you react, mapping your possible future instead of your probable future, making reversible decisions quickly and irreversible decisions slowly, and the acid test that separates a goal from a dream. We finish with a conversation on parenting an elite athlete. Chuck’s son Ryan is a pro halfpipe snowboarder on the US team, and the advice Chuck got after Ryan won a national title at 13 changed how he approached parenting. 🔗Check out more from Chuck 👇 Instagram: @chuckwachendorfer Website: decisionreflex.com Chuck’s Book — Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It: https://a.co/d/0h7Ka8A3 Chuck’s TED Talk: https://youtu.be/TKVAGxoU2AM 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 05:31 “Is This It?” The Emptiness After Achievement 06:33 Walking Away From a Million Dollar Job 07:51 Human Doer vs. Human Being 09:59 A New Definition of Success 12:51 Can You Have It All? 14:55 Living Your Life in Fifth Gear 16:44 Why Our Patterns Hold Us Back 20:58 The Leadership Logic Chain 23:42 Talent, Skills, and Decision Making 28:28 The Freeze Exercise 32:54 Probable Future vs. Possible Future 36:20 Do You Want Your Boss’s Job? 39:55 Reversible and Irreversible Decisions 42:58 Key Activities and the Acid Test 48:35 Skills That Transfer to Any Career 53:21 Parenting an Elite Athlete 1:04:38 The Goal Achievement Triangle

  3. Oct 27

    EP 77: Brian Levenson | Why Quitting Is Required For Growth

    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.co LinkedIn: Brian Levenson Brian’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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 06:11 Getting Lost and Finding Sports Psychology 09:06 The Power of Quitting 13:18 Eight Year Runs and Loving the Build 16:00 Being vs. Becoming 21:15 Putting the Chip on the Other Shoulder 23:00 Prepare Like Work, Perform Like Play 25:15 Curiosity, Creativity, and Collaboration 28:44 Innovate or Go Extinct 32:35 Constraints and the David Epstein Story 38:07 Building Skills Faster 41:03 Developing the Ability to Listen 45:28 Goodness vs. Greatness as a Parent 48:16 World Class Dad 55:47 Building a Network by Adding Value 01:03:41 Finding Purpose in Helping Others 01:05:34 Showing Up When You’re Not at Your Best

  4. Oct 20

    EP 76: Cody Hughes | Build The Tools Instead Of Buying Them

    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_strength Website: clhstrength.com Build With AI: Fundamentals: 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:24 Cody’s Current Roles 06:41 Building a Tolerance for Uncertainty 09:41 Getting Fired and the Conversation With His Dad 11:51 Why Staying Comfortable Is the Bigger Risk 14:33 The Gifts That Came From Being Fired 18:47 Mentorship With Brian Kula 24:27 Plans Are Useless, But Planning Is Everything 27:23 Designing the Life You Want to Live 31:25 Building Skill Sets Over Ten Years 32:50 The Origin of Strength Sheets 37:50 Why AI Only Works Because of What Came Before It 41:59 Inside Build With AI Fundamentals 51:12 Tools Every Coach and Gym Owner Should Build 53:37 Connecting Your CRM and Automating Parent Reports 57:25 Fox: Building an AI Executive Assistant 01:02:42 The Strength That Costs Him at Home 01:06:43 Boundaries and Seasons of Life

  5. Oct 13

    EP 75: Blake Burnard | Adults Don’t Buy X’s and O’s

    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 @blakeburnardcoaching Email: blake@grindhausgym.com 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:26 The Story Behind the Grindhaus Name 05:38 What Teaching English Taught Him About Coaching 10:01 Holding a High Standard With Empathy 12:03 Building Curriculum and Systems for Your Staff 13:44 Communicating in the Simplest Way Possible 16:14 The Creative Value of Limited Resources 18:45 Why the First Adult Program Failed 24:05 What Adults Actually Want From a Gym 26:55 Turning Adults Into the Flagship Program 28:36 Shifting the Marketing Message to 40+ 33:33 Forcing Community in the Daily Session 39:01 Three Pillars of an Elite Coaching Product 41:45 Weekly Wins and the Power of Social Proof 48:07 Starting a New Gym With Zero Connections 56:02 Creating Margins and Stewarding Your Time 01:03:29 Integrating Family Into the Business 01:09:30 The Armory and Finding Purpose Again

  6. Oct 6

    EP 74: Hunter Eisenhower | Losing the Logo, Building an Anti-Fragile Career

    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_perform Website: 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 04:33 The Call From the Athletic Director 05:46 How His Daughter Reframed His Mindset 07:53 Preparing for the Hot Seat Years in Advance 11:05 Getting Your Dream Job at 28 12:17 The Everest Problem and Moving the Goalpost 17:41 Building Anti-Fragility Into Your Career 20:06 Finding a Niche Beyond Selling Programs 24:00 Information Hoarding vs Creating 27:13 Why the Force System Was Born 29:35 Putting Your Own Ideas Out There 32:05 Inside Force IQ 42:45 Filtering New Opportunities 48:48 Refinement Over New Information 59:26 Nurturing vs Selling 01:03:52 Deceleration and What He's Obsessed With Now

  7. Sep 29

    EP 73: Richard Burnett | Vibe Coding for Meatheads

    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_att Building Assessment Systems Coaches Cohort (next cohort starts Friday, October 9): 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]. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:58 Systems First, AI Second 05:45 Intake, Intel, and Insight 10:01 From Google Sheets to an AI Built System 13:41 Comparing Athletes Against Your Own Population 15:02 Delivering the Report Before They Leave the Building 19:52 Removing the Friction Between Data and Coaching 22:03 Assessment Data vs. Session Data 28:12 The Chaseability of a Test 30:59 Why Force Plate Metrics Left the Scoring System 36:03 When to Go Deep and When to Stay Shallow 39:42 Different Assessments for Different Ages 41:36 Building Standards With Limited Data 48:36 Owning the Rubric Instead of Handing It to AI 49:47 Where to Start If You Feel Overwhelmed 53:41 Athlete Data, Privacy, and Caution 56:08 Changes for the Next Cohort

  8. Sep 22

    EP 72: Business of Strength Retreat | Raise the Standard, Outlast Everyone (Burnard, Orr, Chapman, Corrasa)

    Recorded live in Park City, Utah, our first ever in-person episode brings together Blair Orr (LEAD), Blake Burnard (Grindhaus), Chase Chapman (Grindhaus), and Brandon Corrasa (LEAD) right after the Business of Strength Gold Medal Standard Retreat. We break down what was most impactful over the weekend, including how to create story-worthy moments for your clients, raising the standards you hold yourself, your staff, and your athletes to, knowing when to fire staff and how to hire to your values, and training your staff on communication standards. We also dive into takeaways from Bobby Maximus's talk on social media and content, the inflection points that helped their gyms turn pro, the mindset it takes to weather the storm of entrepreneurship when everything feels like it's falling apart, and how to attract members who align with your culture and handle the ones who don't. Stick around after the end credits for a good word we shared once the mics were off. 🔗Check out more from the crew 👇 Blair Orr: @lead.blair @leadperformance Blake Bernard: @blakeburnardcoaching @grindhaus_sc Chase Chapman: @chase_chapman15 Brandon Corrasa: @brandon_corrasa 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]. 00:00 Intro 02:55 Biggest Takeaways From the Retreat 05:44 Professionalism and Follow-Through 08:23 Training Staff on Communication Standards 11:58 Holding the Standard Every Time 21:11 Enforcing Standards and Knowing When to Fire 22:50 Attracting Members Who Fit Your Culture 28:37 Handling Members Who Don't Fit 35:11 Creating Story-Worthy Moments 41:59 Bobby Maximus on Social Media and Content 46:41 Inflection Points That Helped Them Turn Pro 53:51 Weathering the Storm of Entrepreneurship 01:05:55 Delegation and Leading With Clarity 01:17:23 Bonus: Faith and Business

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About

Coaching is more than just X’s and O’s—it’s about the principles, philosophies, and mindset that shape great leaders. Building on the ideas from the book "Strength In Numbers," this podcast brings together top coaches from across the sports world (and beyond) who are driven to learn, grow, and lead with purpose. Through in-depth conversations, we’ll explore how elite coaches think, operate, and make decisions for long-term success. Whether you’re a coach, leader, or lifelong learner, this podcast is your mentorship playbook—helping you be your best while building a career that lasts.

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