Win More, Live Better

In pursuit of mastery, good luck not experiencing failure along the way. This episode is a reminder that losing and failure will be inevitable in sport (and in life), but how you recover and bounce-back from it is a trainable skill. As an extension of my guest interview with USA Men's Head Volleyball Coach, Karch Kiraly, this episode is a glimpse into essential three strategies for managing failure more effectively.  Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

Today we're joined by the Team USA Men's Volleyball Head Coach, Karch Kiraly. Karch is one of the most accomplished figures in the history of volleyball and one of the few individuals to reach the pinnacle of the sport as both a player and a coach.Widely regarded as the greatest volleyball player of the 20th century, Karch Kiraly is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, winning twice in indoor volleyball and once in beach volleyball. As a collegiate athlete at UCLA, he helped lead the Bruins to three national championships and later became one of the most dominant beach volleyball players ever, earning 148 career tournament wins and six AVP MVP awards. His playing career alone earned him induction into multiple Hall of Fames, including the International Volleyball Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.As a coach, Karch has built one of the most consistent and successful programs in international sport. He served as head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team for 12 years, compiling a 327–81 record and leading the team to its first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo (2021), along with multiple Volleyball Nations League titles and a World Championship. In 2024, he guided the U.S. Women to an Olympic silver medal in Paris before being named Head Coach of the U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team later that year.In this conversation, Karch and Zach explore the human side of elite performance and leadership including what Karch learned during his first year leading a new national team, why self-doubt still shows up at the highest levels, how elite teams train failure recovery, and why pressure is best understood as something we choose, not something imposed on us. This conversation offers timeless lessons for coaches and leaders navigating transition, pressure, and the thin margins that define high performance.Here's some notable highlights from our conversation:[5:23] — Transitioning to Head Coach for the Men's National Team[10:41] — Lessons Learned in 2025[14:37] — Recovering From Failure[16:22] — Training Athletes to Respond to Failure[23:20] — Pressure Is a Privilege[31:42] — Developing a Better Perspective Toward Pressure[36:54] — Embracing Imperfection and Winning Ugly[39:39] — Mastering Struggle[43:53] — Coaching With a Beginner's Mind[49:18] — Body Language [51:23] — Caring About the Human, Not Just the PerformerLearn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/You can watch the video recordings of the podcast on YouTube here.

Every year during the Super Bowl, companies spend millions of dollars for just 30 seconds of attention. This episode uses Super Bowl ads as a metaphor to explore why focus is one of your most valuable assets and how easily it gets spent without intention. Learn why attention functions like currency and how to create an internal “reset advertisement" to align your focus with what matters most. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

Moylan’s Arrow explores how one small design decision removed friction for millions of people and what it can teach us as coaches and leaders about environment design. Drawing inspiration from the real life story of Jim Moylan, this episode unpacks why leadership is less about telling people to “figure it out” and more about creating conditions for great work to occur. You’ll learn how to spot hidden friction and leverage the right people in your organization to remove it. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

Achieving goals don’t always require massive effort, but they do require leverage. In this episode, we explore The Domino Effect and why extraordinary results rarely come from doing everything or trying harder. Borrowing from physics, we'll discuss how small, intentional actions (when lined up correctly) can compound into powerful momentum. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

This is the latest segment of "After the Whistle," a short reflection series that follows guest conversations on Win More, Live Better. Drawing from my recent interview with Mitch Canham, this episode explores the often-overlooked idea of transition routines. We spend plenty of time preparing to perform, but far less time learning how to exit performance. This reflection looks at how intentional transitions can influence our consistency, regulation, and presence on those we love most. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

Today I’m joined by Mitch Canham, the head baseball coach at Oregon State University. Mitch’s story and career has come full circle as he once helped build Oregon State’s championship standard as a player and now carries the program forward as its head coach.As a student-athlete, Canham helped lead the Beavers to three trips to Omaha for the College World Series and back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and 2007. He earned numerous individual accolades including 2007 All-America honors, and First-Team All-Pac-10 recognition.Following his collegiate career, Canham was selected 57th overall in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres. He spent nearly a decade in professional baseball, which extended up to the Triple-A level. Before returning to Corvallis, Canham built his coaching foundation in professional baseball, spending three-and-a-half seasons as a minor-league manager in the Seattle Mariners organization.Since taking over at Oregon State, Canham has guided the Beavers to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, Super Regionals, and a return to Omaha in 2025, when Oregon State won 48 games and advanced through five consecutive elimination games.In the conversation, Mitch goes beyond results to unpack how he leads. He breaks down his belief that strong cultures and relationships are built on honesty, the truth, and communication. He shares how he reframes adversity from something that is “hard” into something that is worth accepting as a challenge, why leaders must build systems to guard against drift, and how his faith serves as a guiding light in his personal and professional life. Here's some notable highlights from our conversation:[6:15] — Leadership Lessons from 2006 & 2007 National Championships [8:43] — Core Values and Pillars of the Program[11:35] — His MVP'S (Mission, Values, Purpose, and Slogan)[14:14] — Prioritizing Your Values[18:32] — Upholding the Standards as a Staff[33:20] — Preventing Drift as a Leader[36:06] — Growth Amidst All Phases in Life[38:40] — Coaching is an Art[47:09] — Leveraging a Vision of Your Future[53:16] — Faith and FamilyLearn More About Mitch Canham:If you’d like to learn more from Mitch Canham, you can follow him here.Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/You can watch the video recordings of the podcast on YouTube here.

Growth rarely follows a linear path and trajectory. This episode examines what I call the Up and To the Right Fallacy and how performers (and leaders) will sometimes mistake nonlinear growth as an indication of inadequacy. It's a reminder how messy seasons and unexpected detours are not indictments of your ability, but rather part of the normal process it takes to pursue or create something meaningful. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

One of the hardest leadership questions to answer is this: What happens when I leave the room? This episode explores why compliance in a leader’s presence doesn’t always translate to commitment in their absence. Through stories and a classic leadership metaphor comparing buffalo and geese, we examine how leaders unintentionally create dependence and how they can instead build cultures rooted in shared ownership. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/

How often do you make promises you don’t fully intend to keep? In this episode, Zach examines how leaders unintentionally erode trust through unmet commitments and why auditing your promises is a key practice to ensure you're not losing and sabotaging your credibility. You’ll learn about two types of promises leaders make and a practical audit you can use today to protect your integrity and strengthen your impact. Learn More About Zach:If you’re a coach or leader striving for more clarity, consistency, and fulfillment, feel free to sign up for a free discovery call to see how I can best support you: https://calendly.com/zachbrandon/discoverycallFor more practical tools and mindset stories like this, you can subscribe to my free newsletter here: https://winningwithwords.beehiiv.com/