Jamy Bechler

Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.

Episode 083: USA Football Keith Grabowski

Keith Grabowski is the Director of Football Operations for USA Football. As the sport’s national governing body and member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Football partners with leaders in medicine, child advocacy and athletics to support positive football experiences for youth, high school and other amateur players. 

As the host of USA Football’s “Coach and Coordinator” show, Keith interviews the most knowledgeable head coaches, coordinators, and position coaches from professional, college, and high school football. Keith and his guests discuss the philosophy, concepts, schemes, and strategies that they have learned throughout their careers. Each show includes a specific idea that can be applied to help coaches at every level find the winning edge.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • Advice for parents of athletes
  • How to make football safer
  • Changes in football through the years
  • What makes a good coach and leader

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Champions in the White House

“We don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.” (Toby Mac)

One day while I was a high school student, a bunch of us were playing pickup basketball at a nearby gym. I was playing well and doing my fair share of trash talking that day. Finally, my friend had enough of this as some of my verbal barrage was directed at him.

He told us that he didn’t want to play any more and that we all had to leave. You see, he was the one that had the key to the gym and had opened it up for us to play. He literally took his ball and went home. He didn’t have very thick skin and didn’t react to the situation very well. I, on the other hand, was not very respectful as I acted like a punk.

Most of the time, showing respect to people (even those that you don’t think deserve it) is more a reflection of your  character  than it is a reflection of theirs.

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Episode 082: Travel Expert Dayvee Sutton

Dayvee Sutton is an award-winning journalist covering a range of beats: travel, sports, entertainment, movies, and a number of lifestyle topics for television and digital media. You can watch Dayvee on-air as a national lifestyle and travel correspondent on HLN, and the talk shows “Sister Circle Live“, “The Jet Set TV“, “Coffee with America“, and in airports across the country as a travel tips expert for CNN Airport Network. She also hosts the adventure travel show “Beyond the Usual”

Dayvee started her broadcast career in radio working weekends as a producer for the number one station in Atlanta, then quickly moved to TV as a features reporter and producer for Falconsvision and Comcast Sports. Over the years she has built credentials doing work for ESPN, CNN Atlanta and CNN London, Turner Sports (TNT, TBS and NBA TV/NBA.com), where she earned two National Sports Emmys. She’s co-hosted a daily talk show for four years at NBC Charlotte and was the only female sports anchor and reporter in Atlanta, while at the CBS affiliate. 

On the digital side, Dayvee has been a national contributor to sites like U.S. News and World Report, AOL, Yahoo, ESPN, The Root, NBA.com, Black Enterprise, NBC News and USA TODAY Network. She also has worked with brands like Firestone, Lifeproof, Nikon, Coke and Staples. 

Dayvee is a part of the new wave of entrepreneurial journalists. Through her production company Dream Network Media she produces original content for TV networks, news outlets, online platforms and mobile applications. She’s created popular websites like (the now defunct) NBA fan site NBA FrontPage and the lifestyle guide, The Daily Affair. She also produced the emotional documentary “What We Told Our Sons: Four Families React to the Trayvon Martin Verdict”. 

As if that wasn’t enough, Dayvee still finds time to play. In 2013, Dayvee was the #1 USTA tennis player in her division for the state of North Carolina and #7 in the Southern Division (9 states). She’s an avid traveler, and a self proclaimed karaoke queen. Dayvee Sutton is a southern California native and graduated from UCLA. She currently resides in Atlanta, GA.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • How she measures success and how risk plays a part in it
  • Her career path in journalism and TV
  • The place that has had the most impact on her
  • Getting upgraded on flights or hotels

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Contagious Enthusiasm

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.”  (Les Brown)

In his book WINNING EVERY DAY, the former Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz, tells the story of the Trappist monk who was allowed to say only two words every three years.

After the first three years, he met with Brother Superior and said, “Bad bed!”

Three years later, he came back to say, “Bad food!”

After three more years of silence, the monk said, “No TV!”

Another three years passed. This time, when the monk met with Brother Superior, he handed him his robes and sandals and announced, “I quit!”

Brother Superior said, “Well don’t expect me to try to dissuade you. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here!”

It was pretty obvious that the monk didn’t add value to his fellow monks or to the atmosphere.

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Episode 081: Former FBI Lead Negotiator Chris Voss

Chris Voss is the author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, CEO of Black Swan Group Ltd., and a former lead negotiator for the FBI.

Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During his government career, he also represented the U.S. Government at two (2) international conferences sponsored by the G-8 as an expert in kidnapping. Prior to becoming the FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator, Christopher served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI. Christopher was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years.  He was the case agent on such cases as TERRSTOP (the Blind Sheikh Case – Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman), the TWA Flight 800 catastrophe and negotiated the surrender of the first hostage taker to give up in the Chase Manhattan bank robbery hostage taking.

During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He is also a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service.

Chris has taught business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.  He has taught business negotiation at Harvard University, guest lectured at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, The IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and The Goethe School of Business in Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2009 Christopher has also worked with Insite Security as their Managing Director of the Kidnapping Resolution Practice.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • Is real life FBI negotiating like what we see in the movies
  • How we can use negotiating skills in our every day lives
  • Strategies for dealing with customer service representatives
  • How to be the smartest and most interesting person in the room

[Read more…]

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