Here is the AI-generated transcript of the whole episode:

TOUGH TALKS – E129 – Becoming Unstoppable: The Coach Linda Vollstedt Influence

[00:00:00] Linda Vollstedt: I always talk about, you know, people waste energy by complaining. People are wasting energy.

[00:00:07] Linda Vollstedt: I watch some of these coaches. And they’re screaming at the ref and just yelling and screaming and I’m thinking, wow, the good news is always trying to find something positive. Goodness. That person has a lot of passion and they really care. They’re just channeling it in a different direction. And if you can somehow get across them, how important, what if you channel that towards your players?

[00:00:59] Chris Dorris: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Tough Talks Conversations on Mental Toughness. I’m your host, Chris Doris. And before we get to our guest today, our one housekeeping item, as per usual, is if you are not getting the daily dose mental toughness tips in 30 seconds or less delivered to your email inbox 365 days a year at about 6 a.

[00:01:19] Chris Dorris: m. wherever you are on the planet. Then let’s fix that because it’s good. It’s goodness, right? It’s mental toughness gold where it’s easily quickly consumable practical reminders and Invitations or challenges or you know the disciplines of practices for you to get your head right first thing in the day Maximize the probability of going off and creating excellence in that day.

[00:01:41] Chris Dorris: So you just go to Christopher Doris comm backslash lists That’s actually if you want to get on both the Daily Dose as well as the notifications for new podcast episodes and my Tuesday blogs. If you just want the Daily Dose, then it’s ChristopherDoris. com backslash DD for Daily Dose. Okay. Uh, this next guest is very dear to me.

[00:02:09] Chris Dorris: I have known coach Linda Volstead. Since about, it’s late 90s, like 96 or 1997 when I started working as the mental toughness coach for the men’s golf team at Arizona State University. And uh, just talk, what a dynasty. And um, so, you know, Linda was the coach then and uh, was just killing it. You know, you can find, there are plenty of bios online for coach Linda Valstead.

[00:02:42] Chris Dorris: And I’m not gonna read any of them. They’re long. They’re really, they, they, then they should be, but I’m gonna take out. I have Extracted from a few nuggets. I’ll share with you. She coached from 1980 to 2001. So 21 years. She is an eight time National coach of the year. She won nine conference championships and six National titles.

[00:03:17] Chris Dorris: Six. I think that’s more than twice, two times more than any other has ever won in women’s golf. She is the most successful sports coach in Arizona State University history. She is the Pac 12 coach of the is the Pac 12 conference coach of the century. You heard it and she coached the only undefeated team in NCAA golf history, I believe in 1995 will have to ask her about that.

[00:03:56] Chris Dorris: I think she’ll enjoy sharing that story. You know, one of my favorite. Memories of Linda is our lunches, which I will most definitely be bringing up. She and I would share these great lunches at Arizona state university, Carsten golf course in the clubhouse. And we would just go off, go off. Like I’m sure we’re about to, this is all we’ve ever, it’s all we ever do.

[00:04:21] Chris Dorris: It’s like, she’s deep and she’s, she cares, you know, she’s obviously this phenomenal legend of a, of a golf coach. And she’s much more than that because she’s, uh, she’s a, she’s a leader of humans, you know? And that’s what attracted me instantly to her and why I’ve stayed in such close touch with her. She’s actually influenced my work profoundly.

[00:04:43] Chris Dorris: If any of you, if you’re watching this and you’ve worked with me, she’s, she’s changed you through me. If we’ve ever done a post game routine, that’s entirely hers. That’s all her. That’s all her. Right? And, uh, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll create an opportunity to share that with her. Okay, well that’s enough. Let’s get let’s go find her.

[00:05:00] Chris Dorris: She’s waiting for us. Where at coach?

[00:05:03] Chris Dorris: Who’s winning right now? Who’s winning? This guy. This guy. Because, so I’m going to use an analogy here coach. This is how happy I am to be able to share you with my Tough Talks tribe. Have you ever had the experience where you’re going to a birthday party as a guest and you know You know, you have the coolest gifts to give.

[00:05:26] Chris Dorris: That’s what I got right now that you’re my gift to

[00:05:29] Linda Vollstedt: the tribe. I appreciate that very much. Look forward to

[00:05:32] Chris Dorris: it. Yeah. I’m so happy to have you here. We, I love our history. You gotta forgive me, by the way, if I’m a little winded, I just got finished reading your bio and it only took 90 minutes, do you know that you have a Wikipedia page?

[00:05:50] Linda Vollstedt: I, some, my, my niece told me. Aunt Linda, you have a Wikipedia page. Yeah,

[00:05:55] Chris Dorris: you know, like that’s the metric. I

[00:05:58] Linda Vollstedt: mean, you have arrived. Okay. Well, I did not know that, but leave it to the young kids.

[00:06:03] Chris Dorris: Yeah. So, you know, we’re not going to belabor this because we’re going to go, we’re going to, you know, what this is going to be like for us.

[00:06:09] Chris Dorris: Remember our lunches at Karsten? Yes. You know, those are some of my best memories of you and some of my best memories. It’s just, I loved our lunch because our conversations transcended the sport, you know, and that’s something I’ve always truly loved about you. One of many things, which is you see beyond the thing.

[00:06:28] Chris Dorris: Yes. Into the bigger realms. And you’ve always been interested in what’s more important, what’s purposeful. Right. And we’re going to get to a couple of cool, super cool things, ways that you’ve changed my life and therefore changed many, many lives through what I’ve learned from you. And we’ll get to that.

[00:06:44] Chris Dorris: But since the whole thing is a podcast called tough talks, conversations on mental toughness, you probably know a thing or two about mental toughness. So I would love to hear from you. And that’s why You know, one of the fun things for me about doing this podcast is invite people from different walks of life, superstars like you to have people, they hear enough of my stuff, the people that follow my work, they want to hear other people’s impressions of, uh, of like what mental toughness means.

[00:07:10] Chris Dorris: So that’s my first question for you. What does mental toughness even mean to you?

[00:07:15] Linda Vollstedt: Well, being able to, uh, perform in the highest moment of being able to, uh, be your best when you need to be your best. I mean, everybody wants to be their best, but. When the gun goes off and it’s your turn, are you really going to be prepared?

[00:07:32] Linda Vollstedt: So I think preparing for the magical moment. I do a little talk on preparing for the magical moment. And I think, um, if you’d like me right now, I can tell you what that is preparing for the magical moment. Yes,

[00:07:48] Chris Dorris: please.

[00:07:51] Linda Vollstedt: Because I work a lot with, with coaches and I work a lot with athletes and I say, you know, you need to be prepared for that magical moment.

[00:07:58] Linda Vollstedt: And then I asked them, you know, you, you’ve had magical moments. What are they? And then they’ll talk about them. And then I said, I bet there’s been some magical moments that. that passed you by. And they go, well, yeah, there was one time if I just made the last hole, I would have won the tournament. Well, okay.

[00:08:15] Linda Vollstedt: So, so we kind of talk about that. But for me, prepare for the magical moment is doing all the things that you’re supposed to do good nutrition. Making sure you’re caught up on your homework, making sure you have good relationships, making sure that you’ve been exercising, doing all the things in preparation for whatever your event is, or whatever your life has to bring you.

[00:08:36] Linda Vollstedt: And then if you’re prepared for it, it can, it can happen. But if you’re not prepared, it won’t. So if I had some players who decided they wanted to go out on Thursday night and party a little bit Thursday night party, and then Friday we had a tournament and they weren’t prepared. We had to talk about that.

[00:08:52] Linda Vollstedt: So I would say, prepare for that magical moment, because if you’re not prepared, it’s going to pass you by. And I’ll give you an example. One of my players. Got invited to the Dinah Shore. Now the Dinah Shore at the time, many years ago, but it was equivalent to the masters. It was a big tournament. It was sponsored by Nabisco and she was at the tournament.

[00:09:15] Linda Vollstedt: Her parents couldn’t be there till the weekend. So I was there following her and she was just. She was in that magical space. She was in the zone. She was like one or two under and just playing beautifully and comes the last three holes and she starts making bogeys. Now this is a mentally tough gap. So I knew it wasn’t not being prepared for mental tough mental toughness.

[00:09:34] Linda Vollstedt: And afterwards I said, um, what did you have to eat today? And cause that’s part of it. That’s part of it. You gotta drink your water, you gotta have your snacks. And she goes, oh, coach Nabisco had the most incredible tent . You go in there and it has everything. It had milkshakes and I’m listening. Listen this.

[00:09:58] Linda Vollstedt: And she just, she got tapped out, you know? So I use this example of she wasn’t prepared for that magical moment. ’cause it really could have been a magical moment. So for me. Mental toughness is just being prepared and paying attention and making sure that you are prepared for being in the zone, for having that magic happen.

[00:10:17] Linda Vollstedt: And it’s going to happen. You just have to be prepared for it. So a lot of things, a lot of my principles all lead into that.

[00:10:24] Chris Dorris: Oh, that’s beautiful. You are one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever known and I’ve known, I have known a lot of great leaders. I’m very blessed in that regard and you are way high on the list of the best leaders I’ve ever met that have influenced me and that I’ve watched influence people.

[00:10:40] Chris Dorris: So what would you say, there’s a lot of leaders that follow this podcast. So what would you say are one or two of the most important attributes of a phenomenal

[00:10:54] Linda Vollstedt: leader? Yes, that’s a very, uh, involved question. Okay, well. I mean, can I go through what my three principles are? See,

[00:11:05] Chris Dorris: look at you. Yes, please. And by the way, you don’t need to ask permission for any of this wisdom sharing, please.

[00:11:11] Chris Dorris: Thank you. Well,

[00:11:13] Linda Vollstedt: I thought about it ahead of time. I thought, I know he’s going to ask me, but. I just want to be prepared. Like I said,

[00:11:18] Chris Dorris: I want to be texting yesterday. And I told you, you have all you do not need to prepare. But yes,

[00:11:22] Linda Vollstedt: please. Well, because I can go off on tangents. And I think

[00:11:26] Chris Dorris: it’s great to everywhere we go is gonna be nice.

[00:11:28] Chris Dorris: But yes, please tell me those. Okay.

[00:11:29] Linda Vollstedt: So operate off the three principles. The first principle is everything is based on energy, so there’s energy fields out there, and we all have vibrational energy. We have that electromagnetic frequency that surrounds us, and not to go into great detail, but energy fields are extremely important.

[00:11:48] Linda Vollstedt: And so your energy field is extremely important. And, and knowing, knowing that we have this energy about us, we need to be able to tap into that, that energy. So, second principle is. The law of attraction. Now, everybody’s heard about the law of attraction. Maybe if you haven’t, basically law of attraction is what you think about, you bring about.

[00:12:11] Linda Vollstedt: And so what you think about the words you use are extremely important. So with the law of attraction, it’s very similar to, okay, the law of gravity, the law of gravity. If I dropped something, it’s going to fall to the ground and there’s no question about it. Nobody questions that law. You may not be able to explain it.

[00:12:31] Linda Vollstedt: The law of attraction is the same thing. It’s a law. It’s a principle. It’s, it’s out there working, whether you understand it or not. So I thought I better have a good understanding of what this law of attraction is. So I realized that. The things that the players were saying, the things that people say are important because you’re going to attract that to you.

[00:12:52] Linda Vollstedt: And uh, so that’s where I know you talk a lot about manifesting. And that’s where manifesting comes from. When you are manifesting something, you’re, you want to attract it to you. So I always use an example of, would you like a new car? Oh yeah, I’d like a new car. What kind of car do you want? Oh, I’d love a Genesis.

[00:13:12] Linda Vollstedt: That’s just such a sweet car. What color would you like? Oh, cobalt blue. It’s just so beautiful. What would you like inside of it? Well, I hear they have heated seats and they have air conditioned seats too. So I get them talking about. This car, this, and so now they’re manifesting this beautiful Genesis.

[00:13:31] Linda Vollstedt: This is the example I use because people can relate to this. So now they’re at a stoplight. And all of a sudden, there’s this genesis right in front of them. They stop at a service station, there’s a genesis right next to them. And so there’s this thing called the reticular activating system that, that filters through all the other cars and focuses on that one car that you’re looking for.

[00:13:55] Linda Vollstedt: And so that’s just an example that you can use. And so we talk about vision boards. And the reason why you do vision boards is because you want those things that they’re really important to you, right? out in front of you, because you can attract to it. So there’s this electromagnetic field out there that we give signals out to.

[00:14:13] Linda Vollstedt: We’re giving signals and receiving signals every single day to this universal energy that’s out there. So you might as well use that to your advantage. The third principle and the most important and my favorite. is love to surround your world with love. So everything that you do, do it with love in your heart.

[00:14:38] Linda Vollstedt: And so those are the three principles. Now, you talk about leaders, leaders need to have great vibrational energy, they need to understand how important that is, because what they’re thinking about and what they’re giving out is radiating within the room. So I’m sure you’ve talked about heart math. I’m sure you’ve talked about the Institute of noetic science.

[00:15:00] Linda Vollstedt: And those of you that are listening, Google those, look up those sites because you can find all kinds of amazing things there. So the heart math. They, they actually were able to measure the electromagnetic fields that we have. And when you are radiating love, you have a higher frequency, so you have a better chance of attracting all those things to you that you want, or that are, that are important to you.

[00:15:27] Linda Vollstedt: If you are working with a group of people, or in my instance, when I was coaching, I know that that magnetic energy spreads out about three feet. So if I’m standing next to a player. And they’re struggling a little bit. I need to make sure that I’m very centered and that I have great thoughts going through my mind because I know that they’re going to pick up that vibe.

[00:15:50] Linda Vollstedt: So the research that’s done is you can pick up the vibes of people that you’re, that you’re next to. So a great leader is going to want to have those attributes. They’re going to have, they need to have a thorough understanding of that. I know you probably talked about energy vampires, but You have a leader who’s in a bad space or a bad mood.

[00:16:10] Linda Vollstedt: They are giving up bad vibes. You might, what’s the difference between good vibes and bad vibes? Well, you shouldn’t even have to ask that question because we’ve all experienced it. Someone walks in the room and they have negative energy and they’re always complaining. You don’t want to be around that person.

[00:16:24] Linda Vollstedt: But someone walks in the room and they’re happy and joyful and grateful. You can’t wait to get around them. And the reason is because of that vibrational energy that we’re giving off and that other people are receiving and we can receive and that we can give.

[00:16:38] Chris Dorris: I just want to let people know that we did not have any conversation about what we were going to discuss.

[00:16:46] Chris Dorris: Prior to this, except the conversations we’ve always had and in contemplating what to wear today be for this conversation. I, I was vacillating between two things, some ASU gear or what I ultimately chose. Did you have, have you seen what’s on my hoodie here yet today?

[00:17:09] Linda Vollstedt: Well, I have not seen it. So you’re going to have to stand up a little bit so I can see what it says.

[00:17:18] Linda Vollstedt: Oh, beautiful. See, we’re on the same frequency. We’re on the same frequency. You understand that’s what it’s all about. I mean, the vibes, the vibrations and all that. I mean, people need to understand this because it’s so important. It can, it can, uh. Do great things for you and, and lead you in great directions and the people that you surround yourself with, it’s really important because they’re giving off that vibe.

[00:17:42] Chris Dorris: Yeah. Amen to that. Uh, this has become a huge, huge element of my work. In fact, you’re reminding me one of, uh, a former guest on the podcast. His name, he’s the former CEO. He just resigned recently to become the, um, the chairman of the board of the WD 40 company. His name is Gary Ridge. You’d love this guy.

[00:18:04] Chris Dorris: He’s an Aussie dude and he studies tribal cultures and he talks about, right. And he’s, and he, he, he has this guy, this is a doll. This is a type a leader who, and on the back, you can’t really read it, but it’s the soul sucking CEO, right? And this is the guy who you don’t want to be. This is, this is the leader.

[00:18:22] Chris Dorris: You don’t want to be the, like the energy you call the energy vampire. Do you recognize another former Top Talks guest, my former business partner from HeadGames, now we’re going way back. This is when we met. My partner at HeadGames, who’s a mentor of mine, Dr. Allison Arnold. Mm hmm. Doc Alley, you remember Doc Alley?

[00:18:41] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah, I remember Doc Alley, sure, she was, she was terrific, she was like us, she was ahead of our time.

[00:18:46] Chris Dorris: Right on. Yeah. So Doc Alley has taught me a billion things, and one of them is that we’re always either polluting or purifying the environment with our vibes. And we, and I just had the guest, I believe it was right before you.

[00:19:00] Chris Dorris: His name is Guru Ganesh Khalsa, Guru Ganesh Khalsa. And he was also talking about vibes and he was talking about mechanisms that, that, that measure our vibes. Right. So we got a, we got a theme going on here. Yeah. So what a great, what a phenomenal answer to the question. What are a few of the most important attributes of a phenomenal leader?

[00:19:21] Chris Dorris: And your answers are energy, vibes, understanding, and applying the law of attraction and teaching it and, and love. That’s amazing.

[00:19:36] Linda Vollstedt: It is amazing because yourself with love, you know, and the more I, the more I would read about this and the more, uh, I learned about it. And of course, I went into all the scientific things and with Dr.

[00:19:49] Linda Vollstedt: Debbie Cruz, she

[00:19:51] Chris Dorris: formed another former tough talks.

[00:19:52] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah, I mean, she, she, she does. She wants to research, you know, she’d always say to me, but coach, I need the research. And I said, well, look at all the trophies. Is that, is that enough? She was not, it’s not enough. She goes, she goes, I need to, I need to hook you up or I need to hook other people up, you know, so she can, she can get those brainwaves and find out what’s going inside, inside your mind.

[00:20:15] Linda Vollstedt: So you, you learn all those things and then you apply it. And the fun thing for me, it took 10 years to, to kind of get to the point where. I understood the principles, but I hadn’t really applied them. And, and with golf is very challenging, Chris, because, you know, it’s an individual sport and I needed to figure out how to get them to play as a team.

[00:20:37] Linda Vollstedt: Cause I knew if they played as a team, they would play a lot better. Yeah.

[00:20:41] Chris Dorris: You know, it’s interesting that, uh, I think a lot of people. Would hear your response to what are some, you know, the most important attributes of a phenomenal leader and you’re talking about energy and law of attraction and love. I think a lot of particularly old school people would hear this as fluff, like woo woo, let’s go get the crystals and burn the incense and dropping in for me is, you know, kind of, well, what they call soft, you have never been even remotely apologetic about this.

[00:21:15] Chris Dorris: Any of this, you know, uh, and my experience and I love that because this is,

[00:21:19] Linda Vollstedt: this is real. Well, I, people would ask me, you know, how, how, how did you do what you did? And I start trying to explain it. And I realized that they just thought I had tan ears. So I had to dumb it down a little bit and come up with other things now.

[00:21:36] Linda Vollstedt: I’m so convinced of all these things and people are aware of people are hearing about the law of attraction. People are hearing about grateful, right? I have a grateful journal and but they don’t make maybe understand why. So when you look at the electromagnetic field that we have, when you’re being grateful and you’re talking about love and joy and happiness, it raises the vibrational energy that you have makes it a higher energy.

[00:22:04] Linda Vollstedt: And so it’s easier for you to play your best or be your best. In that state. And so when I would say to people, I mean, I remember I started working with this coach. She was actually at Drake. She’s now the women’s basketball coach at university of Oklahoma. When we first started working, cause this, the, uh, the athletic director of San Diego field club, good friend of mine, she had me coming to talk to the coaches.

[00:22:25] Linda Vollstedt: And she said, specifically, I want you to talk to women’s basketball coach. So we sat down and I could tell she really kind of went, let’s get on with that because she had some recruit or something, and then she let me say, well, what do you think I should do? And I said. Well, we’re going to cut to the chase then.

[00:22:40] Linda Vollstedt: What makes you happy? Cause I knew there was a problem there. I said, what makes you happy? And she said, she couldn’t think of anything. Oh, she couldn’t think of anything because I knew that’s the state of mind that she was in. So I said, you got three kids. Oh yeah. I love my kids. So we started talking about that.

[00:22:57] Linda Vollstedt: And all of a sudden her mood started to change. And I said, once you start a grateful journal and she didn’t quite understand it, but she was willing to do it. So we started working together and then she would talk about, ah, I’ve got this basketball game and. The ref that’s there just hate him. He’s this, he’s that.

[00:23:15] Linda Vollstedt: So I said, okay, let’s just change this, change the story, change the story. Can you surround him with love? Oh, I don’t think I can do that. I said, can you just get to, can you get to neutral and not have any thoughts at all about him? Yeah, I can do that. I said, okay, just do that. And when he walks in and you would walk up to him, smile and say, hi, it’s nice to see you.

[00:23:37] Linda Vollstedt: And then see if you can mean that. So all

[00:23:40] Chris Dorris: this is really powerful stuff. Coach.

[00:23:43] Linda Vollstedt: So, so the refs there and she previous to me, she’d said, Oh, he always calls back calls and then I start yelling at him and, and so we’ve always talked about how do you manage your energy because it’s passing on to your players.

[00:23:56] Linda Vollstedt: And so that that particular day, she did what I asked her to do. That’s the beauty of working with some people is actually do what you’re asking to do. And she got done with the game and they won the game and she goes, Oh my God was amazing. He didn’t make any bad calls. I didn’t have to yell at him. And I said, okay, so now you’ve learned how to manage your energy.

[00:24:18] Linda Vollstedt: Do you see what a waste of energy that was? So she started learning, learning these things and how to manage, how to manage her energy. And once you give an example on that and then have them try it, they, they learn it and they use it. And she’s, she did really well. They ended up winning their conference championship.

[00:24:38] Linda Vollstedt: I think she went undefeated and she’s now the women’s basketball coach, University of Oklahoma, Jenny Browncheck is her name and she’s doing incredible things. And we talk occasionally, but you know, you teach these principles and then, and they move on and you, and you hope that they’re going to be able to use them.

[00:24:52] Linda Vollstedt: But once they use them, they get it. And she totally understood about the energy and especially with the team and passing her energy onto the team.

[00:25:01] Chris Dorris: Huge. All right. So let’s slow this down because this is a mic drop moment. This is a snapshot. This is what you and I did have a brief email exchange. And I, I, I, in the beginning when I, um, begged you to, to be on first holiday.

[00:25:16] Chris Dorris: And, and where was that? I know it’s San Diego, but it’s, um, crystal pier,

[00:25:21] Linda Vollstedt: crystal pier in San Diego and Pacific beach.

[00:25:24] Chris Dorris: Yeah.

[00:25:26] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah. That’s your magical

[00:25:27] Chris Dorris: place. Chris. I could tell. Well, if you’re there, it’s magical. Because if you’re there, wherever you are, the vibe’s elevating, right? You know what you’re describing right now?

[00:25:40] Chris Dorris: What you’ve just been describing, for me, the way I’m hearing it, is a massive distinction that I like to spend a lot of time on with people. And it’s the difference between being a victim of circumstance versus a creator. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And that is one of the most profound shifts ever. Yes. So I love this language.

[00:26:01] Chris Dorris: I’m stealing it.

[00:26:03] Linda Vollstedt: Please

[00:26:03] Chris Dorris: do. Thank you. That’s fine. How to manage your energy. Yeah. I want to create something from that. How to manage your energy to shift from victim to creator. Yes. You want to hear a mantra I came up with after, I took a trip a few years ago. I went to an event on longevity in Sardinia, Italy.

[00:26:24] Chris Dorris: Um, an event that was hosted by Mindvalley. It’s called A Fest, which the A stands for awesomeness. Perfectly named event. So after that beautiful four day event I was all the, all the way over there, you know, in the Mediterranean. And I, I thought I want to go do something cool after this. I don’t want to just go for four days and come home.

[00:26:44] Chris Dorris: I want to go somewhere. So I asked my mom, who’s also named Linda, who is an intrepid world traveler and lived all over the planet. And I said, what should I do? And she said, without, without hesitation, she said, I’ll tell you exactly what you’re going to do. Did you ever tell you about her? This is her. This is the day we were reunited because I was adopted.

[00:27:01] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah, I love that. Love that story. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a,

[00:27:06] Chris Dorris: that’s a story. So, so she’s, I’ll tell you exactly what you’re going to do. You’re going island hopping in the islands of Greece with no itinerary.

[00:27:16] Linda Vollstedt: Whoo. Okay,

[00:27:22] Chris Dorris: we didn’t even need to do a DNA test right there. That’s the proof that we’re related. So that’s what I did.

[00:27:27] Chris Dorris: So I went and, uh, and I’ll, I’ll abbreviate the hell out of the story because the story could be very, very long. I have a folder here that is entitled the Italy, Greece miracles. And there’s a list of 48 isolated stories of magic that was co created because of everything you’re describing right now. All I brought was a carry on and a, um, and a huge vibe and co created magic.

[00:27:54] Chris Dorris: Nothing, everything was taken care of. I met people who took care of me. So after the trip was over, I was so mind blown that I came up with a mantra and I think you’re going to love it. Magic. It’s all there is in this equation that we call life. The variable is my ability to slow down enough and vibe high enough so that I can co create with it.

[00:28:21] Linda Vollstedt: Absolutely. That’s beautiful, Chris. I thought you would like that. Absolutely. Beautiful. Yes. Yeah, because it’s out there. The universe is out there. It’ll, it’ll, it’ll respond to us for sending signals every single day to the universe. And we’re, we’re sending and we’re receiving and you got to pay attention.

[00:28:40] Chris Dorris: You know, I’m convinced to see now I’m having fun. This is everybody. By the way, this is what our launches were like, okay, just so you know. This is why I loved having lunch with Linda. Yeah, I loved it, too. And we would get there so fast. Oh, we would order and then we’d go right in. Yeah. So great. Yeah. So, um, Yeah, right.

[00:29:01] Chris Dorris: So, like, magic is all there is. So we either are participating with it or interfering. Or not. It’s just either we’re tapping in or we’re not. We’re creating with or we’re not. And would you say it’s difficult to change to manage your energy? Is that hard to do? No,

[00:29:22] Linda Vollstedt: it’s not. You just have to understand it.

[00:29:23] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah. You have to understand it, and it has to mean something to you. And so, managing it, it has to mean something to you. And you have to understand why you’re doing it, and why you want to manage your energy. And, um, I always talk about, you know, people waste energy by complaining. People are wasting energy.

[00:29:45] Linda Vollstedt: I watch some of these coaches. And they’re screaming at the ref and just yelling and screaming and I’m thinking, wow, the good news is always trying to find something positive. Goodness. That person has a lot of passion and they really care. They’re just channeling it in a different direction. And if you can somehow get across them, how important, what if you channel that towards your players?

[00:30:10] Linda Vollstedt: What if you channeled in a different direction? And it can be difficult because some people are set in their ways and they’re just not going to pay attention. It’s not hard. It really isn’t difficult. You just have to find their why and their reason and have it. Means something to them and then have them practice it.

[00:30:30] Linda Vollstedt: And when they practice it,

[00:30:31] Chris Dorris: what do you got to lose there? Right? Yeah. It’s

[00:30:34] Linda Vollstedt: kind of like, Oh, wow, that really worked. Give me some more, give me some more of that. And that’s the, those are the moments I wait for when I’m working people, the on moment.

[00:30:43] Chris Dorris: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There’s enough people get enough positive reinforcement from being mean to believe that that’s the effective approach, you know, so that in my experience, it’s not uncommon for people to hear what we’re describing again as like, Oh, give me a break.

[00:31:04] Chris Dorris: I’m up for this foo foo crap. It’s like, okay, that’s cool. Um, it works. Don’t believe me. Don’t believe me.

[00:31:12] Linda Vollstedt: Well, a lot of gravity works too. So

[00:31:15] Chris Dorris: So experiment with it.

[00:31:17] Linda Vollstedt: Exactly. Okay. So it works, right? So this is, this is law of attraction. It’s out there. You can either use it or you can ignore it or you can laugh at it, but

[00:31:27] Chris Dorris: yeah, that’s, I’d love that you brought up complaining because that’s an invitation.

[00:31:30] Chris Dorris: I’m constantly inviting people to do is to start eliminating that as a behavior from your life. Like just start to do it less today. Complaining by definition is practicing having a problem with reality. How are you going to create with that? It just deactivates all forms of intelligence. So I love where you’re, where you’re going with this.

[00:31:49] Chris Dorris: Let’s talk about the game for a second, because it’s the game that we love. What would you say are a couple of, I know you could go off on this forever. I know, but I got the legend on the line here. I got to ask her, what are a couple of the greatest life lessons from the game?

[00:32:12] Linda Vollstedt: Oh my what, you know, you learn, you learn from your players, you learn, you learn more from them than they’re learning from you, but you got to put it to you.

[00:32:23] Linda Vollstedt: So I’ll never forget the aha moment for me was, um, Heather Farr, late Heather, Heather Farr, and one of the greatest, uh, amateurs and professionals. Ever and greatest people. And, uh, it was big recruit for me. I was, it was back in the eighties and it was, it was, everybody said, can you recruit Heather Parr?

[00:32:43] Linda Vollstedt: And I says, well, I’m certainly going to try to do that. So Heather comes onto the team and, uh, she just had this bubbly personality. She just radiated joy and happiness and all that people love to follow her. So we’re at this tournament in Texas. Now she’s got a lot of people out there following her.

[00:33:00] Linda Vollstedt: She’s a college player. She’s not even a tour player yet, but people want to come out and watch her. So she’s playing this great round. She’s going to shoot in the 60s. And back then, not very many people, not very many females were shooting in the 60s, but she was going to shoot in the 60s. She was going to have 67, 68, 69, something like that.

[00:33:16] Linda Vollstedt: And she comes into the 18th hole and she bogies it. She still shoots 68, but she bogeys the last hole. Now, she comes off the green and what everybody expected her to say was, Oh my God, I wish I hadn’t bogeyed the last hole or I’d have been better. She never talked. She comes off the 18th green and someone says, Great round, Heather.

[00:33:36] Linda Vollstedt: And she goes, Thank you. It was just a great day out there. Never, ever mentioned it. Didn’t mention it. So I learned. a lot from that. And from that, my team always knew we never talked about the bad shots. And I have this mantra that there are no mistakes. They’re only learning experiences.

[00:34:02] Chris Dorris: That is exactly right.

[00:34:03] Chris Dorris: Gary ridges mantra. The guy I just mentioned from WD me. I mean, that’s like you’re speaking. There’s

[00:34:08] Linda Vollstedt: no mistakes. They’re only learning experience. And the rest of that Chris is, what did you learn today? What can you do better tomorrow?

[00:34:16] Chris Dorris: So

[00:34:18] Linda Vollstedt: what do you learn today? And what can you do better tomorrow? So that’s where I learned that from my players.

[00:34:23] Linda Vollstedt: And so when my players would come off the golf course, I didn’t want to hear anything negative. And they, they weren’t allowed to talk about it. Now they probably need to work on their putting or something. And I, but I’d say, what’d you learn today? What can do better? What do we need to work on? So we would have our team meetings in the evening and we would always end our team meetings on your best shot.

[00:34:42] Linda Vollstedt: Kind of like, you know, ESPN’s top 10 and we’d always in the meeting on tell me your best shot, because I wanted them to, you get very excited and uplifted and you get all those, those wonderful chemicals that we have in our system. that are activated when you’re talking about something really good or joyful or grateful.

[00:35:03] Linda Vollstedt: And so they would always, we’d always end our meeting with their best shot and they’d go to bed happy and the oxytocin would be flowing and all these good chemicals. And so those are the things that I learned. I’m not sure what your question was something about what did you learn? I’m not really sure, but I always like to use that as an example because.

[00:35:23] Linda Vollstedt: My players learned, learned that and, um, I can go on further with that if you want or keep asking. Yeah. Okay. So I want to talk about the team bubble. So, because people said, you know, how did, how do you build team chemistry? And they use the word now. What, what is your team culture? That’s a big buzzword now.

[00:35:46] Linda Vollstedt: What’s the team culture? Yeah. And so I called, but that back then I called it, what’s our team bubble and our team bubble was filled with positive thoughts. Love, joy, gratefulness, thankfulness, being nice to each other, respecting each other. Those are all in the positive category. Now, in contrast, The negative comes to complaining, right?

[00:36:14] Linda Vollstedt: Chris, the complaining, complaining, fear, anger, guilt, shame. Those are all in the negative category. So I always talked about what category are we going to be in today? Positive or negative. And you hear so many people now, oh, you want to stay positive. I don’t think. People don’t understand really what that means.

[00:36:32] Linda Vollstedt: Be positive. Oh, say only good things. Well, why what’s the, why it goes back to the vibrational energy because it raises the vibrational, your vibrational energy, and it gives you an opportunity to be your best as opposed to. Those that are in the negative category. So we had this team bubble and you have your own bubble.

[00:36:52] Linda Vollstedt: I have mine. If we were together, we, you and I would create this incredible team bubble, but they all knew we had this team bubble. And sometimes I would say, who’s going to get into the team bubble. And so I had, sometimes I had to, I had to push the parents away. I don’t know. Sometimes I wouldn’t allow the parents to be around just because, you know, you know, why, so I would create this positive team bubble.

[00:37:18] Linda Vollstedt: And then on two seconds, it can be gone by one parent saying, Oh God, it’s too bad to hit in the water on number two. I’m like, No, you don’t want to say that to my players. So it was this, so it’s a team bubble. So that was, um, it was really how I built the team chemistry. And I had coaches coaches today come up to me and they would say, we’d watch your team get out of the van.

[00:37:38] Linda Vollstedt: And they just had a different. Energy to them. They just had a different vibe to them. It’s like quietly confident. They weren’t cocky and That’s what you do

[00:37:51] Chris Dorris: Okay, so you brought it up. I was going to bring this up at the very end But you you’re you’re beating me to the punch here left and right I I spoke I visited with a few of our mutual friends in preparation for this.

[00:38:02] Chris Dorris: Okay And one of them wanted me to ask you a question, and I’ll tell you who it was in a second. The question was, please ask Coach V about the mixtape that they’d all listened to in the van on the way to the golf course. That’s Kendall Critchfield.

[00:38:21] Linda Vollstedt: Oh my God, Kendall. Yeah, he was one of the few people I let inside of my, our bubble.

[00:38:27] Linda Vollstedt: He was the only one, when we would go to golf tournaments, and his mom and, uh, Kendall and his mom would always travel with us. And, uh, he was the only one that was allowed in my cart. The only one, because I love this energy. We just, we had a vibrational match. So, yeah, that’s so funny because the team made this, um, this musical, uh, cassette tape.

[00:38:48] Linda Vollstedt: And it would, it was, you know, we are the champions, all those songs, motivational songs. And we would listen to that and they made it in the beginning of the season. And we’d listen to it every tournament and it would always let up to the national championship. And, and, uh, that was, yeah. That’s very interesting.

[00:39:06] Linda Vollstedt: Well, put everybody in that good vibe. You know, I wanted to have a

[00:39:09] Chris Dorris: good vibe. Using the right music to help you elevate your state. As you say, manage your energy. So there’s a tool that I use religiously in my coaching. You know, I don’t, I have zero athlete clients at the moment. It’s incredible how my career has, you know, taken on new iterations.

[00:39:29] Chris Dorris: It’s really amazing and fun. And you are with me every step of the way, because one of the tools that I rely on religiously is called the post game routine. And it’s all yours, it’s all, it’s all, and I give you credit all the time. And I like doing that because it’s fun because it validates me. Cause I, cause I know you, I say it’s from this, from the legend.

[00:39:52] Chris Dorris: I’m just passing it on. So it’s after and I’m using it still with leaders and with salespeople, you know, and big business. It’s like after, you know, a presentation. All right. What are you doing afterwards to make sure you’re getting all the value out of it? This is all straight from you. So there’s 3 questions.

[00:40:12] Chris Dorris: The 1st question is, how are you amazing? And don’t bail on that. I don’t care how rough it was. You go find the suc success in air. Mm-Hmm. And stay with it. And don’t you dare say nothing. So it’s ’cause Go get it. Go get the, the greatness. The greatness. How are you? Amazing. Now how are you? Okay, question number two.

[00:40:31] Chris Dorris: What is the big lesson for me? You taught me many, many moons ago. Every, and this, you, it was in the game of golf, but obviously easily, you know, applicable to everything in life. Every round of golf has a lesson in it for you. It’s your job to go get it and grow from it. That, that stuck, that was one of those things, like a sentence.

[00:40:55] Chris Dorris: Or two that you hear and for the rest of your life. It’s etched etched and it has changed my work So that’s question number two What’s the not ten one the one thing? If you go back and you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do something differently better more love less of eliminate Include that would make the biggest difference in the outcome And then after you’ve identified that obviously the third question is what specifically are you going to do then now to grow from it?

[00:41:23] Chris Dorris: So I would like to say thank you

[00:41:25] Linda Vollstedt: for that. Well, those are three beautiful. You, you phrased them in different words than I probably used, but it, but those are great ways to talk to people and, uh, have them assess and get better again. It’s all about getting better. What did you learn? What can you do better?

[00:41:41] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah.

[00:41:42] Chris Dorris: Who, who have been some of your greatest mentors?

[00:41:47] Linda Vollstedt: Well, that’s an interesting question. Um, back when I first got started, I started coaching in 1980. That’s a long time ago. And, um, I didn’t really, I was trying to find mentors. But I had a hard time doing that. So, someone I looked at was Dale McNamara, the coach at Tulsa.

[00:42:08] Linda Vollstedt: And she kind of took me under her wings. And I watched her a little bit. But, um, she was awesome. She was a great coach. She got a lot of other players. But I didn’t really want to be like her. It was a little tough on them. And I, and I, um, I was a silent coach and I would, this a silent coach. I never got in their faces.

[00:42:31] Linda Vollstedt: Oh, I see. Okay. I observed, I observed. So I was an observer and I would observe everything. How long did it take him to do this? I’d time them. I, cause I was looking for what was their state of mind and state of being when they were playing their best. How did it change when they The wheels came off. So I observed all those things and then we would have a discussion about that.

[00:42:58] Linda Vollstedt: I wouldn’t basically say I’m timing or whatever. I just say, Hey, I noticed when you play really well, you walk fast. And when you start playing, when you start walking slow, I think maybe you’re thinking too much or something. So just, I would observe, observe all of those, those different things. And I don’t remember what you asked me.

[00:43:19] Chris Dorris: Uh, who, Who are some, I wouldn’t know if I have my notes.

[00:43:27] Chris Dorris: Who have some of your greatest mentors

[00:43:29] Linda Vollstedt: been? Oh, my mentors. Okay, great. Okay, so I got a little off track there. So, um, I got you back. But I gotta tell you, I listened back then we had cassette tapes, it’s all we had cassette tapes. So I listened to a lot of motivational tapes, and I listened to, um. Wayne Dyer.

[00:43:49] Linda Vollstedt: I mean, Wayne Dyer was my most favorite, you know, and so I listened to those every single day, driving to work and coming home. So I listened to, so when you start listening to that, especially Wayne Dyer, you begin to, to build, you be able, you can create a philosophy off of the things that he’s saying to you.

[00:44:09] Linda Vollstedt: Oh yeah. And so he was one of my mentors. And then, I don’t know if you remember Chuck Hogan. Of course

[00:44:17] Chris Dorris: I remember Chuck Hogan. I had a fascinating lunch with Chuck Hogan over at the Raven. What a wild man

[00:44:23] Linda Vollstedt: he was. Yeah, he, yeah. He was, you talk about someone being ahead of their time. Yeah. He was way out there.

[00:44:28] Linda Vollstedt: Yeah. Yeah, but I learned a lot from him. And, and by the way, Lynn Marriott bases all of her stuff on Chuck Hogan. I didn’t know that. Yeah, they work together. I mean, she studied under Chuck. Okay. Yeah. So he was one of my, one of my mentors, but

[00:44:45] Chris Dorris: by the way, let’s just give him a shout out because they are just, aren’t they the best?

[00:44:49] Chris Dorris: They’re amazing. They’re amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Cause they, he had Nielsen and Lynn Marriott. If you’re interested, if you live in Arizona and you go off and you’re looking for some instruction, you might want to check them out. Vision 54. Vision 54. What a great name. And if, and if you, if you don’t know anything about the game of golf, the, the re why is it called Vision

[00:45:11] Linda Vollstedt: 54, Linda?

[00:45:11] Linda Vollstedt: Well, if you birdied every hole on a par 72, you’d shoot 54. It’s getting closer and closer. Chris. It’s getting closer, isn’t it? Closer and closer. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, so, um, it’s hard for question because I had to learn from other people and then, uh. No, I love that

[00:45:30] Chris Dorris: one of my biggest influences ever, ever in my life.

[00:45:35] Chris Dorris: I mean, I could listen to his PBS shows all night long. Yes. You know, like inspiration and being in alignment with your spirit when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. I mean, you can go on and on. He’s just a beautiful. That’s so great. So, you know, um, another person that has actually also been a guest here on tough talks.

[00:46:02] Chris Dorris: Uh, I, I contacted them in, in preparation for our conversation today, and they gave me a, they said a lot, but two things in particular that are, that are quotes, and I want to read them to you and see if you could guess who said these things. You, they said, bring and always have spirit. And they also said there’s this calm strength around her.

[00:46:36] Chris Dorris: Any guesses as to who might’ve said that?

[00:46:38] Linda Vollstedt: I sent Demi cruise.

[00:46:41] Chris Dorris: Well, that’s a good guess. That’s a great guess. Cause she was Debbie Cruz, um, was a former guest. It’s not, it’s not Debbie. Mary B. Yes. Good job. Good job. Mary B. You

[00:46:54] Linda Vollstedt: want to look for those, you want to look for those vibrational matches. And of course, Mary B would understand that because she’s of the same, you know, she’s, you could say the same thing about Mary B.

[00:47:05] Chris Dorris: Yeah. So I, yeah, that’s a special lady. Yeah. To say the least. Right. And, uh,

[00:47:15] Chris Dorris: and another ASU legend. Yes. Well, coach, you’re amazing. I love and appreciate you so much. And I’m so proud of our, uh, friendship. And I’m so thankful for our friendship and our history and thankful for you. And the vibe that you just brought to my tough talks tribe and all the wisdom bombs you just dropped, you have over delivered, uh, on your, your commitment to share some, some value with the people that tune in to the podcast.

[00:47:49] Chris Dorris: So I. I’m eternally

[00:47:50] Linda Vollstedt: grateful. I appreciate that. And I appreciate you very much. And thank you for spreading the word. Thanks coach.

[00:47:57] Chris Dorris: Not so fast. We’re not done yet. There is something at least one thing we forgot to I forgot. I forgot to ask about which was the only undefeated team in N. C. A. A. History. As soon as I mentioned that you lit up saw we got to record this. So tell us about that. Well, it was in 1995. It was a 1995 team and we were two time national championships We’d won the last two national championships and this was the third year and it was pretty much the same group of kids and, uh, we started out winning every tournament in the fall.

[00:48:43] Chris Dorris: We won all the tournaments in the fall and I had six players on the team kind of alternated back and forth who was going to put in, put in the lineup, but we go into the spring. And we’re, we’re winning tournaments by 15, 20 shots. It’s unbelievable. I mean, it was unbelievable team. It was Wendy Ward, Heather Bowie, Emily Klein.

[00:49:06] Chris Dorris: I’m sorry, not Emily. She wasn’t on the team there. Um, Kelly Booth, Wendy Ward, Heather Bowie. Kelly Booth, Linda Erickson, and Christelle Morgendahl, and Vinnie Riviello. And we won everything and won by a bunch. And every, every tournament, we also had the individual winner. So we had an individual winner, team winner.

[00:49:27] Chris Dorris: We go into conference play. We win conference. We go into regionals, win regionals. Now we’re going to nationals. Now, the good news is the media hadn’t picked up on this. Oh, they weren’t. Oh, they weren’t aware that we were undefeated. And so that was a good thing. What the meat, what the media was, can they three peak?

[00:49:53] Chris Dorris: Can this team win three championships in a row? No, one’s ever done it before. So that was the big news. Can they three feet, but no one picked up that we were undefeated. And so we go to the 1995 championship. We easily win Chris, still Morgan at all.

[00:50:12] Chris Dorris: I put her in. It’s my fifth player. I was there between her and Vinnie, and I just thought I haven’t gotten the most out of Christelle. I know there’s more in her. So we put her in and I said, Christelle, what do we need to do to really get you ready? I said, what do you do in Europe when you place a will over there?

[00:50:30] Chris Dorris: She’s from France. She goes, Oh, coach, I, we dance, we go out and we go dancing. And he goes, seriously. She goes, yeah. Yeah. And she goes, we don’t drink. We just like to dance. The Europeans love to go out and dance. And I said, okay. So I told my assistant, it was Ashley. I’d lead. I said, Ashley. Take Christelle out and dance her ass off.

[00:50:52] Chris Dorris: And so I said, no drinking. She goes, okay. So they all go out dancing. So we go on national championship and she’s in this great mood. And she ends up sitting in the front seat with me. Wendy Ward was always in that seat. Christelle wanted the front seat. And Wendy says, okay, whatever she wants. I’m going to fix it.

[00:51:12] Chris Dorris: I said, okay, let’s just keep her in a good space. So we get there. She wins. The N. C. A. Championship. My number four. She wins the tournament. Now there’s a lot more to that story. I mean, there was magic happening. It was all kinds of other things that went on. So not only do we win the team championship, we win the individual championship and we go undefeated.

[00:51:34] Chris Dorris: Now we thought it was a big deal and we kept thinking no one’s going to do this again in 25 years. No one has done that since. That means we won every single tournament. No one has done it since. And I don’t know that they will, especially with the format that we have now. So when you mentioned that 1995, I do light up cause that was, that was a magical moment.

[00:51:52] Chris Dorris: That’s where we would be prepared. And that was the, you know, we, we had the music and the band, everything was aligned and we just had to perform. Amen, I’m so glad I asked you about that. Thank you for that. Yeah.

[00:52:04] Chris Dorris: Yeah, that’s just, uh, you know, I hope it was blatantly obvious how beautiful that relationship is to me, you know. I don’t remember if I said this in the intro or not, but, um, I think I did. We met, uh, you know, I don’t know exactly when, but I know that it’s either 1996 or 1997. You know, when I was doing my internship with the men’s golf team.

[00:52:29] Chris Dorris: I don’t know if I met her while I was doing my internship, because that was just one semester. Just a few month period of time, but then I worked with the team for the next 10 years while she was there and You know, obviously we grew really close and Kindred spirits so many wisdom bombs and just how good is her?

[00:52:47] Chris Dorris: I’m so happy that I wore this That was an obvious move. All right, what should I wear? My interview with coach Volstead what a legend, huh? Absolute legend. All right, as always thanks for tuning in and until next time Create miracles.

Thank you for listening!