Gold Medal Advice: SMB Lessons from a World-Class Coach

Olympic-level athletes and small business owners have a lot in common. They both put in long hours pursuing their dreams. They both do better when they have a solid support network. And, ultimately, they’re both responsible for their own success (and failure). 

Troy Bassham is an Olympic Mental Coach who has been working with athletes for a couple of decades. He's trained dozens of athletes to develop mental consistency and deal with the stress and competitiveness of sports, including my daughter. 

SMB owners know all about stress and needing to stay ahead of the competition. I think that the skills he teaches to his students are just as applicable in the business world.

I sat down for a chat with Coach Troy recently to ask for tips that SMB owners could apply to their own Olympic-level aspirations.

“No one gets to the top in anything by themselves. It takes a group of people to be successful,” he says. Even at a time when we might feel isolated, on the playing field or behind a desk, we need a team behind us. That’s just one insight Troy had to offer, but he had plenty of other advice to share as well.

Coping with Isolation and Lack of Support

As athletes climb up the success ladder, they tend to face more isolation. Elite-level athletes are particularly self-isolated because they find it difficult to relate to their competitors. If you’re an established SMB owner, you must be familiar with this feeling.

In such situations, Coach Troy recommends that you try to associate with people of the same caliber from different industries. It’s similar to how NFL star Tom Brady connected with ace golfer Jordan Spieth.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are new athletes who are trying to climb to the top. They’re often perceived as potential threats by established athletes and thus, end up being sidelined or isolated. This is the same situation that aspiring or new business owners experienced.

The best way to deal with this situation is to find a mentor in your industry or adjacent industry who can provide you with guidance and support. 

“If you can find someone that’s where you want to be that you can associate with, definitely do that.” Troy advises. “But at the same time, you’re going to have to figure out what are the things that you need to learn to develop.” 

Dealing with Stress

Stress is just as inevitable for athletes as it is for SMB owners. This is where Troy emphasizes the importance of building a support network or community around yourself. Even a golfer needs an army of nutritionists, swing coaches, caddies, and mental coaches to excel at their game. Also, you need to strengthen your mental game and consistency.

“If you’re mentally inconsistent, how can you expect to be technically consistent?” Troy muses. “Top athletes expect to be successful; they expect to shoot a good score. They expect to have a good performance. Everyone else is hoping to have a good performance.” That mental discipline and confidence leads to success on the playing field and in the office as well.

Feeling Confidence and Conviction

Whether you’re an athlete or business owner, three mental processes affect your performance:

• Your conscious mind (thoughts)
• Your subconscious mind (skills)
• Your self-image (habits and attitude)

If you want to stay confident and maximize productivity, you need to find the right balance between these processes. Skills and training aren’t going to be enough to make you a leading SMB owner. Instead, you need to build a strong self-image and change your thought process.

Another useful technique Troy suggests is to watch your technique instead of obsessing over the results. This involves:

• Identifying the primary way of doing things
• Mastering the chosen technique
• Trusting the mastered technique

“If you look at those three things for consistency, then guess what you’re going to do? You’re going to produce good results,” Troy says. Putting these three things together is what helps star athletes perform with consistency and win medal after medal, and this same process applies in business as well.

Staying Motivated and Focused

When it comes to improving focus, Coach Troy recommends a four-step process for any task you’re performing:

• Anticipation
• Preparation
• Action
• Reinforcement

I’ve seen many business owners make the mistake of jumping from one task to another without contemplating or analyzing the outcome. It’s important to take a step back after completing every task and assess the results. It’ll highlight what you could’ve done better and what worked in your favor.  Did changes to your website expand your customer reach outside of the local community? Did changes to ease the on-line purchasing increase the buy vs look? Did adding WIFI to your physical location increase the experience?

Otherwise, you’d always be wondering how you could’ve improved the results of an earlier task. Troy appropriately summarizes this by saying “I’d rather be a solution finder, as opposed to a problem solver.”

Helping Train the Next Generation

As with parents of athletic kids, the onus of building the next generation of business leaders is on current SMB owners. Coach Troy recommends parents ask “what did you learn today” and “what went well today” instead of bombarding their children with the dreaded question - “how’d it go today?” or “did you win?” 

Asking what they’ve learned or what went well on the field compels children to identify their mistakes and learn from them. You should use the same approach to train your successors. As Lanny Bassham, ace shooter, Olympic gold medal winner, and Troy’s father, puts it - “Making mistakes and learning from them is a requirement to reaching your potential”.

Final Thoughts

Troy has been an excellent coach and pillar of support for my daughter. I’m hopeful his insights will help you grow your business in the same way his training is assisting my daughter reach her full potential.

If you have other questions, here are a few resources that you may find useful: 

• Technology Demystified - Explore Technology Trends & Evolutions (att.com)
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (sbecouncil.org)
• AT&T Small Business Social Media Playbook
• Online Small Business Resources | The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov