It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 25 national championship wins! Over 190 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I'm joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter, our producer, Jereny Robinson. Getting confused there. The Daedalian sat in this chair for a little bit. But anyway, gentlemen, for those out there listening live, we're going to do a poll on what we're going to talk about today. Just kidding. Today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about ERO. That comes up a lot in our podcast. And opening up my email this morning, I get a daily email from Brian Kite who is emailed Daily Discipline. So I'll give him a nice plug there because I get two good ones every day. That one Daily Discipline and another one on just motivation. Kevin Deshazo or something. I have to look that up. We'll talk about him in the future. But anyway, Brian Kite ends every Daily discipline email with ERO. And I'm pretty sure ERO has come up on almost 90% of our podcasts. It is a big part of life and it's a big part of our lives and a big part of our teams and a big part of our programs and other topics. I thought about talking about was communication or core values. I'm in a leadership class right now that kind of working me through core values. And I know your program has core values, but we'll touch on those another day. But ERO is a part of that. I mean we are emphasizing that with our coaching staff, with our student athletes, our program. So today though, in his email, when we talk about ERO in the past, it's been about the response. You can't control the event, you can control the response and that will lead to the outcome. And we all want a positive outcome. Even if it's the best event or the worst event, it's how you respond to it. Well, today's email took it a step further because when you talk about how to respond, we've kind of just hit on respond positively. Make sure you have a good response. Well, today's was more have an intentional Response. Have a response that creates an outcome that you want even better. And it almost takes it up another level because, yeah, responding well is good, that will lead to a better outcome. But if you're able to respond with purpose or intent or create an outcome that can lead to an even better ending, you're gonna be in a better place. And it goes back to, guys, we're gonna be name dropping here, I guess today. Who knows where this podcast ever goes in direction, but Brian Cain, who's a big one of our, one of your mentors, one of my favorite people to listen to thanks to you, and one of the most profound things he said that I still think of, and I think of a batter every time when I think of this is, what did you want when something happened to you? What did you want to have happen? What happened and what the best next decision to make what you want to have happen? I always think of a batter with a called strike or whatever. You know, what was your. And so anyway, both of those premises, though, is what can we do right now to do put us in the best situation moving forward? And, you know, you and I, we talked about 10 minutes before this podcast even started about how important that is with our teams. And even sometimes, you know, like, even in communication, we talk about communication, everyone's ready to just respond right away. And, you know, I remember one president would always like take two or three seconds whenever he was asked a question before he responded. And people gave him credit because he was like thinking more instead of just jumping in to respond. So anyway, I just gave a long monologue and I didn't get a chance to get initial feedback because you guys helped me direct where this podcast will be going. So I know you're big on ERO, so what do you think of that? That R in there?

Quite a bit of perspective. And I can date back to like this morning. Our baseball team was in the weight room this morning, and I went in there to get a few videos and, you know, check on them, see how they're doing and talk to our strength and conditioning coach and things like that. And I, as I was walking around, I started talking to one of our players and he started telling me about how great he felt today. And, you know, I asked, you know, what, what, what's the difference? He says, you know, I finally got some great sleep last night. And he goes, yesterday I really struggled. I. I didn't have enough sleep. And it really put me in a bad mood all day. And that's kind of where the E plus R equals O. That's where I wedged right back in and said, those are your feelings. And the event that happened was your lack of sleep. And you chose to respond with a negative attitude because you got the. The lack of sleep, which then ultimately affects your outcomes with people or what you're trying to do. So it is one of those things where it's easy to say E plus R equals O. It's much harder to practice it because it will come up in almost every minute, every hour of your life. And it really comes down to how much are you willing to accept the reality of the event and respond in a way that's gonna serve you. So it's a very challenging thing. And it's something that not only people like Brian Cain or Brian Kite or, you know, people have been talking about this for a long time, and I think they're still constantly talking about it because it comes up in everyday life. And we get to choose if that car cuts us off on the on ramp or on the highway, or we get to choose right at that moment how we're going to respond. And they don't get to choose how we're going to respond. We get to choose how we're going to respond.

Well, you again, now we're going down a whole different pathway. But, and I've, and we've talked about this before on our podcast, too. Even like lack of sleep or you're sick or, you know, you failed your exam or you're having the difficulties at home or in a relationship can make it difficult to focus on your response. And again, it does impact everyday life and everyday decisions, not just sport decisions, as we'd like to talk about on here. But you know, every day how, you know, when we leave this podcast, how do we respond to what's next in our thing? But do you teach your kids? You know, like, do you bring up Ero or like that? Even, like I always tell my kids, like, even when you're not feeling your best, give your best. And it might not be the same as the day before. Like, to your kid, if he still gave his best yesterday, that's all he can do at 80% compared to now. He's 100% today. And, you know, the whole nother level. But, but the key is still, you know, that response of giving your best, because I'm not going to name drop anymore. But Greg Harden, who was the mental coach at the University of Michigan, talking about 100%, 100% of the time, and you know, that is that realistic.

So there's There's a lot of questions.

Good. Because I don't have any more answers.

So, yeah, I definitely feel like that when you're trying to teach this, one of the easier ways to go about it is not always be talking about E plus R equals O, but to start talking about feelings and that voice inside of your head. And everybody has that voice inside their head. That voice at times will be telling them that they're tired. That voice will be telling them that they can't do something, that they're not enough, that they're in a great spot. The voice will be all over the place. And so we really try to teach. Like, that voice does not determine what you do. You determine what you do, not that voice. And so if you're not feeling like you're enough, that doesn't mean that you're not enough. You're feeling like you're tired. That doesn't mean that you can't still put in great effort. So we teach not to listen to your feelings. Feelings are just what they are. And to speak into existence what you want. And the more that you can talk to yourself versus listen to yourself, the more. You know, plenty of studies have shown that the more success you're gonna have just with getting out of bed, you know, not hitting the snooze, you know, just the more things that are gonna fall in line for you.

Yeah.

All right. So I wanted to. I'm kind of like. Because you guys, like the professionals, and I want to speak for the.

Gonna have to edit that later.

No, it's gonna stay in there because it's me giving roses, and I love giving roses. So from speaking on the outside, like, my. This is my first time hearing that. So for the general public who may not know what that is, what is ERO?

It's. It's an equation. And there's a book out there, one of my favorite books, actually, Urban Meyer wrote it, but I actually think Brian Kite might have been. There was an author with it. And it's called above the line behavior. It's called above the line, but it talked about behavior that are above the line and below the line. If you want to be successful, you need to be above the line. And the best way to be above the line is the equation ERO. I mean, I'm paraphrasing, generally summarizing the book, but everything starts with an event. Everything that's an event happens to you, and then how you respond will determine the outcome. The event doesn't determine the outcome. We all want to Blame the event.

It's the same as the internal voice. The internal voice doesn't determine if you show up or not. If you're not feeling your best today that you didn't get enough sleep, you determine that, not your internal voice. And so that event does not determine your response. And so you can kind of flip it a little bit and you get to determine with that event. And that's what comes out of your. With your outcome.

Yeah.

And too much focus is on the event in our life, like being sick or not getting enough sleep. And this is trying to take that and say, no, we can't control that. But what we can control is how we respond to it. And today's email is even more specific on respond, purposely respond with intention instead of. Because we've always talked about don't respond negatively, respond positively. But that's a great way to make the event better. But you can take it to another level by being more purposeful. And back to the point though, is we seem to focus on the event and blame the event for everything that happens. When this equation says these responses, what important how you respond will determine your outcome? Both event and response determine your outcome. You can't control the event, you can control the response. Controlling response will give you a better.

Yeah, I literally. So we name dropping. So I literally just watched a video from a speaker called Myron golden and he was speaking about how to brainwash himself to not procrastinate. And what he was talking about was the main thing was, as natural human beings, we only do what we want to do. So how do you trick yourself to want to do things instead of trying to force yourself to do something, how do you trick your mind to want to do it? So he said, you naturally going to receive. He said, belief is not just faith. He said belief is two things. Either is doubt or you believe it's going to happen. So it's like the negative positive that you all was talking about. So that's like the response. Either you're going to respond in a positive way or a negative way. And that response is going to go to your heart, which is going to generate an outcome which is either I'm doing something or I'm not doing something.

And that's a whole nother podcast. And you started to hit on it. And we could talk about the brain and belief. And I think again, that's what you were getting to with how you teach ERO is getting them to use their brain or work with their mind. Because we all know, I mean, again, one of my favorite things that we've learned is your mind. When you think you are spent, your mind is only really at 40% capacity. You've got 60% to go. And training your mind, as he talked about, talking to yourself instead of listening to yourself are some of those ways to get that belief system to get to your heart to do that. So that all does lend to your response. And again, that's more back to the how do you work on the R in that equation? And those are the ways. And again, what's name drop? Ted Lasso. You know, we got a belief sign up in our office finally and how important that is though, even believing that you can do it or not do it in all different circumstances. Everything's easy when it's rosy. Not everything. And we've talked about, well, what happens when you get hit in the mouth. And that belief system, it's that heart. And you've done podcasts on resiliency and determination and those are trained, those are taught. But the brain and the mind are huge in this. And it's important being smart, too. I mean, I wanted to hit on a little bit, you know, we were talking about before this podcast is sometimes the response can be delayed. Sometimes the response can. You know, we talk about delayed gratification and that. And then one of my mentors always taught me, you know, sometimes people rush to you with problems and sometimes take a step back and let them try and solve it for themselves because they'll grow and learn better if they do that instead of you solving all their problems for you. So, yeah, the response isn't just a quick hitter or I gotta respond right away. We all want instant response. But I also think it can lend to a more intentional and creative response if we do step back, because we're not. I mean, you try and prepare for everything. Preparation is another huge thing in trying to work on a response.

Procrastination is one of those things that's viewed as a pretty negative word for the most part. You know, you think about procrastination and, you know, people say I procrastinate too much, and it's just pretty negative. But that being said, you talked about responding. There's so many events that happen in your life every single day. It doesn't matter what your profession is, what you do. There's thousands of events every day. And having procrastination for some of those events, which means just basically you're going to delay a response, is one of those things that I think at one point was probably pretty challenging I believe today it's 10 times as challenging because we have our phones and you don't have to respond to every email, every message. It means that you take, it's going to take away from what you're trying to do. You can respond when the time is right. And so that's where procrastination comes in. There are certain things that you don't need to do. There are going to be certain events that come up that just as you mentioned, Greg, that it's fine not to respond. Let somebody else try to work through it and figure it out. Don't just pave the road for them, let them help you pave the road. You know, and so sometimes with procrastination or sometimes not responding, you know, as I said earlier, when you're a coach, that's one of the things that you're trying to learn and try to figure out in the journey is what do I respond to and what do I not respond to?

I think that is huge. That's why I just wrote down the word no. And you know, Warren Buffett with another train drive, big believer in one of the leadership thing. The best word in leadership is no. And I struggle with the word no. And even delayed responses because I want to get it done and check it off and move it on. But back to core values, as I said, we'll talk about or priorities or preparation is sometimes no response is the best response. Sometimes prioritizing responses like, well, this is more important than this one. And again, another future podcast we talk about is choosing your battles, knowing what battles to fight for, which battles to pick head on, which ones to delegate, which ones to, you know, prioritize. So yeah, the response is, you know, many facets and in our society today. And that's what the other part of his email was. We live in a reactionary society and that's, that's part of the problem that we're so reactionary that we're not looking at being intentional or purposeful, creating because we're reacting. And so many things happen in our life and a lot of it is social media that we're responding to so many things that yeah, it's a positive or good response, but is it the best response? And again, the intent today was just take it to another level. Don't just respond well, to take it to a, to another level. So, and what, you know, accepting it or denying it. You hit on a little earlier that I wanted to talk about too. Or maybe it was you, one of you talked about the event, you Know being, being realistic about the event or being self aware about the event. If you, if you lie to yourself about what the event is or something, then that will hurt your response too. So being real or being actual and evaluating the event can help with the R. So the event is still pretty important. Again, it's just the one thing we don't have control over. When we can control the event, that's much better. But it's really the response that helps controlling that outcome.

E R equals O is not ignoring your circumstances. It's really taking ownership over your responses and your circumstances. A lot of times are going to be really challenging, really tough, not fun. You know, all these things that make it hard, but you have the ability to take ownership over your responses. It's no different than if we walk outside leaving the WL&Z studios and we're complaining about it being windy. There's really not much we can do except get behind a building, another building, or get inside. There's just not much we can do. It's a waste of time because we can't shut off the window. So that's the event.

Yeah.

And it's so just. You're not ignoring it, you're just saying, okay, I'm gonna control the response of that.

Yeah.

So that's what it looks like.

Ignore is not a bad thing. I'm learning this as a father. So my son, it's times where I tell him to do something and he get real mad. And I used to just respond, hey, you need to. But I learned to just, you know what? I'm gonna let him be in his feelings that he'll come to me. I'm sorry, Dad, I didn't say anything to him. And I think that's really choosing your battle. Yeah. What you were saying about worrying, like I heard a funny saying, he's like someone who's 5 foot 5. If he worries about being tall, it's not gonna make him taller. It literally gets nothing done.

Yeah. And you can't control, you know, you're five foot five. How do you make the best of it? But back to your point, either back about believing or and you even started to hit on it, is stacking those wins, which is another thing we've talked about, and rewarding your positive responses to the little things so that when you are in difficult situations, you're either able to handle it better or prepared to handle it better. Because those are the ones where the ERO really separates itself are the difficult ones. But learning to build on the easier one, because it is daily. It is not even daily. It's every minute. You know, we're, we're responding to something and just, you know, working on doing it intentionally and purposefully and not just positively, which is what we've kind of focused on or what I focused on, and just be a positive, you know, take the high road, be professional when you respond and that will go a long way. But again, another level of intent and purpose.

So what, what do you feel about? Because I know certain EROs you're going to be really good at. Like you, you got good practice in that. But for the ones that you don't have to practice in and you have to get better at, how do you encourage people to say, you know, it's going to get better the more you, you work at that?

Experience helps with that doing it every.

Day because the events really start when you wake up in the morning. So it's just starting to be intentional with, okay, how am I going to respond to this alarm clock? You know, how am I going to respond to this mess, this message, this traffic, you know, this car that's not working, you know, all these things. So you get so much practice. But if we're not intentional with our thoughts, we don't even realize that we have all these things that we can practice on. So we're really fortunate in a lot of ways because we have these events that we can just start practicing, just start stacking bricks and it's going to get better.

And we talk about this a lot in our office. It's about those end of game situations where, you know, getting, being there, you know, helps. You know, we've seen teams that consistently choke at the end of games or struggle down, you know, turn the ball over or such. And we talk about it regularly in our office of how you get better at it. And it is back to, you can't prepare for everything, but you keep preparing that. It builds bricks that you get better at those things and it lessens the things that you haven't prepared for that you can either manage or again, even though you, I know you're a big NBA fan of how many teams have had to make the NBA Finals before they won the NBA Finals. And those teams that go and win it once are the ones that usually aren't there consistently, but the ones that are there consistently usually takes them. But it's experience, it's doing those things every day and getting better at all the little things, all the fundamentals. As we talk about that, again, it lessens those things. You're not prepared for.

Most importantly, I think it's take advantage of your experiences. That that's how you gain experience. Take advantage of. Because. Because they're there. You just take advantage of them.

Learning. I mean, that, that was another part of this is learn, I mean, make those responses. Learning experiences. So yeah, that of not just again being reactionary. Reflect, build, learn from those. And that, that takes time too. So we could talk all day about that. This was exciting. And maybe we'll hit. We'll keep diving in. We can do two, three part series on this podcast. Go vote in the poll. Just kidding. So let's end with our question, gentlemen. I've been coming up with a lot of food ones lately. Like, anytime I eat a food, I think, hey, how can I ask this question on our podcast, we talked a little bit about this before, but. And if it's not one, we'll go on to another one. But do we all. Do you guys like Doritos? Do you like Doritos or potato chips? Is the first question I feel terrible answering. Why? Because it's not healthy.

Yeah, I feel guilty when I get it. But I, I love the nacho cheese Doritos, so I would try to, you know, hey, make sure my wife keeps them out of the house because otherwise they'll end up in my lunch. And you know, I love them. They're incredible.

They're addicting. Yeah, I've learned. Okay, I'll talk about that in a second. What about you? Chips or Doritos?

So making me choose is not fair.

I hear you.

Because growing up in Detroit, better made was everything. But my wife makes this nachos with the sweet chili Doritos. And those are so good.

Well, that's the thing. Doritos have come out with so many flavors now. And I think my kids like the sweet chili. And the reason I bring it up, it's funny. I help my daughter with lunch in the morning and we got these wavy potato chips, which I like, and we have Doritos. And I kind of like make her pick which one she likes today. And she'd been on a Doritos. And I prefer the nacho cheese myself. They're the best. The other kinds are okay, and there's like four or five flavors out there. But even for nachos, you know, my wife made me nachos with Doritos the other night. It's hard to beat a good Dorito. And then coach, I think it's okay in moderation, you know, I mean, you can't eat the whole bag in one setting, which I believe Doritos are addicting.

Just because you like something. I think that sometimes that's a bad response.

Really?

Yeah, man.

I want to live life in it. Fun. But you're right. I get that. Yeah, you're true. I guess there are things out there so sweet. And chili Doritos. Better made potato chips. Yeah.

Barbecue. Better made.

Now, see, we'll tell. That's a whole nother conversation because I like barbecue. Talking about potato chips and then not. Yeah. Nacho teas is simple for you, too.

Yeah.

All right. Well, let's keep it short because we went long on the other stuff, so. Good stuff as always. Gentlemen. Until next time. Go stars.

Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry and Jereny Robinson. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!