Elite Performance—Improve People by Building Relationships with Alan Stein, Jr

What this episode covers

This episode of The Jake Dunlap Show features Alan Stein, Jr, keynote speaker, basketball performance coach, executive consultant, and author of Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best. In his career, he has worked with basketball legends Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Justin Anderson, Terrence Ross, Victor Oladipo, Jerami Grant, Markelle Fultz, and many more. Alan looks back on his childhood and how he immediately fell in love with basketball. He was always a sporty kid but he particularly enjoyed the deeply personal aspect of basketball which translates directly into his effectiveness while playing with a team. He realized by high school that showing up in the best physical shape was central to being good at basketball. Fast forward a bit, by the time he graduated and struck out on his own, he would devote a couple of decades of his life being a basketball performance coach. What he learned was that, more than performance improvement, he was in the relationship business. This held true even as he pivoted into keynote speaking as a profession as building a good relationship is the key in improving anyone's performance. Alan shares that the transition from performance coach to motivational speaker was seamless because the same principles of improving performance on the court is the same as improving others' mindsets. He shares his motivations for writing his book, including organizing his message of motivation into a clearer flow that anyone can read and appreciate. Quotes 10:21 "I actually thought basketball was perfectly suited for that kind of dichotomy of me needing some alone time, but then loved being a part of something and being part of a team." 25:53 "If I could earn the trust and the buy-in and the believe in of the players I was working with, they would give me a better effort and they would show more focus consistently. And I knew that if they would do those things, then as long as I'm laying out at least a halfway decent training program, they would start to make progress." 29:55 "When I started to look at my work as more of a chore and more of a job and less of a passion or something that filled my bucket, I just knew it was time to make a change." 33:13 "I basically followed the same template for building my speaking business that I followed when I first graduated Elon to build my training business, which is invest in relationships, work on being of service to other people, and then do a great job anytime you get an opportunity." 37:47 "Wherever your feet are planted, do the best job that you can do, be of the most service that you can be, get as good at your craft as you can be, and doing so, will then open up new doors and new opportunities for you." More about Alan Alan graduated from Elon College (now Elon University) in 1998 with a degree in Sport Management. By the time he graduated, he struck out on his own and dedicated the next two decades of his life as a strength and conditioning coach, and then as a basketball performance coach. He was the co-owner of Elite Athlete Training Systems and its Strength and Conditioning Coach from 2000 to 2007, and was the Founder and Performance Coach of Stronger Team, LLC in Rockville, Maryland. They would merge with Pure Sweat Basketball. Alan was also the host of the The Pure Sweat Basketball Show from 2016 to 2018. Around this time, he also realized that his passion for coaching was starting to wane and decided to pivot to keynote speaking to inspire others into their peak performance, similar to what he used to do for professional athletes. He published his book Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best in 2019 and this remains his top referral for his successful motivational speaking career. Find out more about Alan and get his book in the following links: Website: https://alansteinjr.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alansteinjr/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlanSteinJr/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/alansteinjr Amazon book link - https://www.amazon.com/Raise-Your-Game-High-Performance-Secrets/dp/1546082867 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-stein-jr/ Learn more about Jake Dunlap and Skaled by visiting the links below: Jake Dunlap: Personal Site - http://jakedunlap.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakedunlap/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/JakeTDunlap Instagram - http://instagram.com/jake_dunlap_ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JakeTDunlap/ Skaled: Website - https://skaled.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/skaled YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsw_03rSlbGQkeLGMGiDf4Q