Lessons From The Sidelines

Coach Greg Brown

In sports, business, and life, we learn things that can take us from where we are to where we want to go. Lessons From The Sidelines brings you inside the minds of elite performers, championship coaches, corporate leaders, and successful entrepreneurs to uncover the principles that drive sustained success. Hosted by veteran coach Greg Brown, each episode delivers real-world insights on leadership, team dynamics, communication, resilience, and performing under pressure. These are the lessons forged in locker rooms, boardrooms, and beyond. Whether you’re leading a team, building a business, or pursuing excellence in your own arena, Greg and his guests will equip you with practical strategies and a winning mindset you can apply immediately.

Episodes

  1. Jul 21

    “What I Do Doesn’t Define Who I Am”: Drew Maddux on Identity, Pressure & Comprehensive Excellence

    At five years old, Drew Maddux drew himself in a Vanderbilt basketball uniform wearing his dad’s number. He went on to become a third-generation Commodore, a four-year starter, and an All-SEC honoree — and he’ll tell you that chasing that vision nearly cost him his identity. In Episode 5 of Lessons From The Sidelines, Coach Greg Brown sits down with Drew — former head basketball coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) in Nashville for 15 years, and now Chief Performance Officer at Fourteen Foods, the largest Dairy Queen franchisee in the country — for a deeply honest conversation about identity, pressure, and what it costs to let what you do define who you are. In this episode: •  The lifelong wrestling match between identity and performance — and how it nearly hijacked his career •  Why he didn’t fully embrace “comprehensive excellence” until his junior year at Vanderbilt •  Coaching by fear and shame vs. coaching by freedom — and why the “toughest” coaches often have it backwards •  A CPA program with no cuts and no tryouts — and what it taught him about leading every single person in the gym •  “Death by a thousand cuts”: holding a standard without ever giving an inch •  His Three C's for scaling culture across a 10,000-person company: connection, clarity, commitment •  The Bible study on Psalm 23 he wrote with his daughter Ava •  His family's four core values and one lesson from the sideline Whether you're leading a locker room, a classroom, or 250+ restaurants, this conversation has something that'll stick.

  2. Jul 7

    “You’re Perfectly Designed to Get the Results You’re Getting” — Coach Dan Holland on Belief, Rhythm & Leading From Strength

    Why aren’t you getting the results you want? Coach Dan Holland has a blunt answer: you’re perfectly designed to get exactly the results you’re getting right now — because your results are just your rhythms, thoughts, and systems showing their work. In Episode 4 of Lessons From The Sidelines, Coach Greg Brown sits down with Dan Holland — a leadership coach, CEO, and former pastor of 30 years who now coaches executives, pastors, and coaches through his framework, The Genesis Way. Dan combines the heart of a pastor with the systems of a CEO, and this conversation is packed with frameworks you can use the same day you hear them: how to actually have a hard conversation, how to identify your own blind spots, and why confidence is simply a result of predictability. In this episode: •  “You’re perfectly designed to get the results you’re getting” — and what to do about it •  Focus, Pace, Listen: the three-part discipline that took Dan from busy to effective •  Wise, foolish, and evil: Henry Cloud’s framework for knowing who you’re really dealing with •  A five-minute process for having the hard conversation you’ve been avoiding •  Thoughts → actions → habits → character → destiny: the flow that builds (or breaks) a leader •  Why “stay in your lane” might be the best leadership advice you’ll hear this year •  The three-step coaching process: what do you want, design the system, then submit to it •  Understanding your DISC blend — and finding your “left tackle” to guard your blind side This one’s for leaders in business, ministry, sports, or anywhere people are involved — which is everywhere.

  3. Jun 23

    “Don’t Waste Your Pain”: Jason Kuhn on the Yips, the SEAL Teams & a Tactical Approach to Failure

    Jason Kuhn was a Division 1 pitcher at MTSU on the verge of professional baseball when he woke up one morning and couldn’t throw a strike. Six wild pitches in a single inning later, his baseball career was over. So he became a Navy SEAL. In Episode 3 of Lessons From The Sidelines, Coach Greg Brown sits down with Jason — decorated SEAL operator and sniper, founder of Stonewall Solutions, and the performance coach who helped Tyler Matzek beat the yips and win a World Series — for a tactical conversation about identity, failure, and what it actually takes to perform under pressure. Jason takes the systems forged in BUD/S, Hell Week, and combat and translates them into a framework usable by anyone who competes — in sport, in business, or in their own head. In this episode: •  Why combat eliminates the clutter — and why the principles that win in war are the same ones that win anywhere else •  The yips story: career-ending injury that became his life’s work •  Why your identity can’t be your outcome — and what to anchor it to instead •  The tactical approach to failure: controllable corrections, uncontrollable workarounds, and the part high achievers skip •  The Three Defeaters: distraction, others’ beliefs, and failure •  Why team-first isn’t self-sacrifice — it’s self-interest done right •  When decentralized leadership works (and when it absolutely doesn’t) •  Why he hates the phrase “surrender the outcome” •  And the one lesson he’d give from the sideline This one will reach the high achievers, the coaches, the operators, and the parents trying to raise kids who can compete without losing themselves.

  4. Jun 9

    “Love Your Players”: Brendan Suhr on Courage, the Three Cs & 50 Years on the Sideline

    What does it look like when somebody who coached Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, and Joe Dumars — and won back-to-back titles with the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” — finishes a 50-year career and says the most important thing in coaching is love? Brendan Suhr joins Coach Greg Brown for Episode 2 of Lessons From The Sidelines. Brendan was Chuck Daly’s right hand on two championship Pistons teams and the 1992 Dream Team, learned under Hubie Brown and Lenny Wilkens, and now runs Coaching U — a global coaching, leadership, and performance company reaching 140+ countries. He’s unfiltered, opinionated, and genuinely funny about what it actually takes to lead — in a locker room, a boardroom, or anywhere else.  In this episode: •  Why courage is the #1 leadership trait — and why most people in leadership positions don’t have it •  The three Cs: Competence, Credibility, Connection — how players (and employees) actually decide to follow you •  Lead up, lead sideways, lead down — the assistant coach’s framework for leading from any seat •  Why championship teams keep their staffs small (the Pistons won with three coaches; the modern NBA has fourteen) •  Define roles, not just systems — what Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace taught him •  Why your best people are business partners, not employees •  The Chuck Daly story about Joe Dumars that he never forgot — and the one lesson he’d give every coach Whether you’re running a team, building a business, or sitting one chair away from the top, Brendan’s got something for you.

  5. May 22

    Leading From the Middle: Bob Starkey on Hard Conversations, the Process & Why Failure Is Your Best Friend

    What does it take to lead when you’re not the one in charge? In the debut episode of Lessons From The Sidelines, Coach Greg Brown sits down with Bob Starkey — associate head coach for LSU women’s basketball and one of the most respected lifelong assistants in the game — for a candid conversation about leading from the middle. Over four-plus decades alongside Hall of Famers like Dale Brown, Sue Gunter, and Kim Mulkey, Bob has built a career on a rare idea: that the best leaders aren’t always the ones with their name on the door. He and Greg get into the hard conversations most leaders avoid, why he attaches his emotions to the process instead of the result, how he builds a staff the way he’d recruit a team, and the difference between coaching a team and running a program.

    Leading From the Middle: Bob Starkey on Hard Conversations, the Process & Why Failure Is Your Best Friend
  • 5 Episodes

About

In sports, business, and life, we learn things that can take us from where we are to where we want to go. Lessons From The Sidelines brings you inside the minds of elite performers, championship coaches, corporate leaders, and successful entrepreneurs to uncover the principles that drive sustained success. Hosted by veteran coach Greg Brown, each episode delivers real-world insights on leadership, team dynamics, communication, resilience, and performing under pressure. These are the lessons forged in locker rooms, boardrooms, and beyond. Whether you’re leading a team, building a business, or pursuing excellence in your own arena, Greg and his guests will equip you with practical strategies and a winning mindset you can apply immediately.

Information

  • Creator
    Coach Greg Brown
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Lessons From The Sidelines
  • Show Website
    Lessons From The Sidelines