In this episode of Slappin’ Glass, we’re joined by storytelling and communication expert Philipp Humm for a deep, practical conversation on how coaches can communicate more clearly, persuasively, and memorably—especially under pressure.
Philip breaks down why how you communicate often matters more than what you say, and why stories—when used intentionally—can cut through resistance, build trust, and create lasting behavioral change. He introduces his simple but powerful P.A.S.T. framework (Place, Action, Speech, Thoughts), giving coaches a repeatable structure for telling stories that actually stick rather than drifting into vague summaries or over-contextualized explanations.
The conversation explores when storytelling is the right tool (and when it isn’t), how elite leaders stay concise without losing emotional impact, and why vulnerability—not polish—is the engine of connection. Philip also shares why great communicators think in frameworks, limit takeaways to one clear action, and start with structure rather than circling toward a point.
We then put theory into practice with live improv exercises, showing how improvisation builds communication confidence and clarity in time-compressed moments like timeouts and huddles. The episode closes with a thoughtful Start–Sub–Sit on locker-room culture tools (quotes, visuals, and physical objects), plus Philip’s best investment in his own career—and why movement, presence, and emotional regulation matter for leaders navigating constant pressure.
This is a must-listen for coaches looking to sharpen their communication edge, strengthen buy-in, and lead with greater clarity and intention beyond the Xs and Os.
What You’ll Learn
- How to use the P.A.S.T. storytelling framework to make messages vivid, emotional, and memorable
- When storytelling creates more impact than direct instruction—and when it doesn’t
- Why elite communicators lead with structure, simplicity, and one clear takeaway
- How vulnerability and emotional honesty increase trust and retention
- Practical improv techniques to improve clarity and confidence under pressure
- The role of physical objects, visuals, and stories in reinforcing culture (and why quotes often fall flat)
Transcript
Philipp Humm 00:00
Stories are usually best employed if you feel that there’s some sort of resistance. Let’s say you take a player and they’re like, hey, I’ve been playing like this for the past five years. I’m sure your tip is useful, but I don’t need to change. So any time that you think of either people are not listening closely or you anticipate some sort of resistance, that’s usually the most powerful way to include stories.
Why? Because the stories appeal more to the heart and less to the brain. So in those moments, we really want to persuade someone and really get it. Well, those are the moments we share a story.
Dan SG 01:23
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Join the thousands of coaches from around the world who’ve made the investment SG Plus at slappingglass.com today. And now, please enjoy our conversation with Philip Hummer. Well, we wanted to start with this and kind of a broad structure to start, and then we can narrow in and get more detailed as we go, but it’s practical storytelling frameworks for coaches, for leaders, and for majority of people listening right now who are coaches and leaders, the underpinnings of storytelling and the frameworks that can be helpful for us day to day as we navigate our teams.
Philipp Humm 02:40
Now, when it comes to storytelling, I would say the single most important thing is to zoom into the moment. Now, let me share what that means. Most people, when they share a story, they hover above the ground. They’re somewhere there in distance giving a summary where they’re like, oh, well, back in this game, we had a problem, then we changed this, and then we overcame that problem, then we won. Well, that’s a summary, right? It’s a pretty boring summary.
And so the best storytellers, they zoom into one specific moment so that you take us into one specific moment, maybe during the game, maybe outside the game, where something happened. So I’ve come up with this super cool framework called P-A-S-T, or past. You can remember it by zooming into the past. Now, what does each of those letters stand for? The first one is place, P for place, and that is first thing, you share that story, share where you are, share where you are, what’s the physical location? Are you maybe in front of that meeting room? Are you on the pitch? Where are you? Now, why does it matter so much to share that? Because the moment you share the location or the place, a movie starts playing in your audience’s head. They’re like, ooh, okay, basketball court, boom, immediately something goes on. Now, you don’t have to describe everything on that basketball court, it doesn’t matter. But you need to share that location in order to start that movie.
So that’s the first one. The second one is action. Take us into the action. What action is unfolding in that moment? So something should be happening. You’re walking, you’re shouting, you’re screaming, you’re throwing that ball. What is unfolding? And so that’s action. Bring in forward momentum.
And then the third one, that’s my favorite one, and that is S for speech. Now, every time a story has more than one character, maybe a coach, maybe player, maybe someone completely else, share what that other person said in that crucial moment of the story. So for example, instead of saying, oh, well, yeah, in that moment, my coach was very disappointed with me. You say, in that moment, my coach looked at me and said, what the fuck was that, right? You didn’t hit one single shot. And so those are the exact words that were used in that specific moment. So you almost want to quote that person. And so that is speech.
And then the last one, and that one is, I would say, particularly effective if you want to make it more emotional. That is T for thoughts. So we as humans, with thousands and thousands of thoughts every single day, a lot of those thoughts, anxious, weird thoughts, hopes, dreams, plans, share some of those thoughts. What were you thinking in that moment? So for example, when you share that story about you on the pitch getting super nervous, instead of just saying, oh, well, in this moment, I was super nervous. You say, in this moment, I thought everyone was looking at me. If I mess this up, my team will hate me. So you share the thoughts that were going on in that specific moment of the story.
And so if you just focus on that, P-A-S-T or past, zooming into the moment, you’ll have the most incredible story possible.
Dan SG 05:53
If we could narrow in on some of this stuff too, thanks for sharing. In the midst of telling a story, the thoughts, could you go deeper on that and how one can implement that into the story? You mentioned it a little bit, but that’s interesting of what thoughts to use, what are interesting to bring in, what not, as far as the thoughts go.
Philipp Humm 06:10
On those thoughts, the more raw they are, the better it is. And what people oftentimes do wrong is they share thoughts that are already too polished. They’re like, in this moment, I thought, well, this could go wrong and then I might risk my place in the team. Well, that’s still super high level, very polished. I don’t know about you, but my thoughts, they’re messed up, they’re raw. I’d say, I’m on this pitch. I’m just thinking, fuck, my mess is up. They will tear me apart. So what are the raw thoughts? Share with us the raw thoughts in this moment. you
Pat SG 06:45
Philipp, with the raw thoughts and as a leader, the level or the role that vulnerability that you convey in your thoughts, what should coaches, leaders be mindful of when it comes to expressing the vulnerability, how much, and so on?
Philipp Humm 07:00
That vulnerable part is crucial for any story. If you share a story, everything is going great. Let’s say you’re already leading, you’re winning, and then you’re not going to inspire anyone. And so if you want to inspire someone, if you want to change someone’s perspective, you’ve got to bring in this vulnerable part where you’re on the page, something goes wrong. You’re like, oh, damn it, right? It’s terrible. In those moments when you share this vulnerable part, this is where you connect with your audience. And so this is absolutely fundamental.Every single story that you share should have some sort of challenge. That is actually the longest and most fundamental part of any story.
Dan SG 07:38
I know you do work with businesses and teams and things like that. And when a leader is thinking about crafting the story of, let’s say, their program or their business, where do you start with them?
I love the framework of the past and kind of narrowing in on a story. Is that same framework used when you zoom out or how do you think about that first before we zoom in?
Philipp Humm 08:00
So first you want to identify what types of stories you want to tell. And as a coach, usually as a leader, there are a few ones, which are the most fundamental ones. The first one is to communicate a value. So each team has certain values that you want to live by. And so instead of just saying, huh, we are very hardworking. We’ll share a story of a player that is just going above and beyond and has these incredible results. What is a story that could back that up? Or if your value is that you speak up as a team, that’s a radical candor or share a story of a moment where this value is being shown as being put under an approved. And so anytime that you want to communicate value, think of, is there a way how I can back that up? And the moment you share a story behind it, people will remember that. Because if you just share that value by itself, maybe in sports, it’s sometimes different. But I know in business, every single company out there, they share these very broad, meaningless values and no one remembers them at the end. And so if you want a value to stick, share a story that backs up that value.
And so that’s, I would say a big occasion where coaches, where leaders can use stories, another one is to mentor someone. So for example, you’re speaking one-on-one with a player right now. And instead of just saying, well, you should always run on this left side right before this thing. Well, that might go into one ear and out in the other. But if you then share this one story where this other player did exactly this one thing and completely turned that game around, then that person that you’re coaching will remember that story for the rest of their life and will actually implement whatever you’re telling them.
And so that one is the second one. And then the third one is to share a little bit the vision. This is maybe not so much about storytelling, but rather getting them excited. When you bring them along, we say, Hey, imagine three weeks down the line, where they’re on number one, and then you just bring them more in those imagined scenarios with, Hey, this is possible. So I would say those three are the most relevant ones.
Pat SG 10:10
When do you think storytelling is needed versus maybe just concise communication? Is there a difference?
I mean, you just went through like three scenarios when storytelling is good and very effective, but one is maybe just being a concise message or as a coach, a directive, maybe needed versus a story. Great.
Philipp Humm 10:29
Great question there, I would say, hey, 99% of your communication, short, concise, direct communication. That as a coach is a superpower by itself, but occasionally there will be points that you really want to make where you’re like, hey, I want people to remember that for the rest of their lives, or at least the part that they play here.
And in those moments where you really want something to stick, then boom, then you switch into the story. Stories are usually best employed if you feel that there’s some sort of resistance. Let’s say you take a player and they’re like, hey, I’ve been playing like this for the past five years. I’m sure your tip is useful, but I don’t need to change. And so any time that you think of either people are not listening closely or you anticipate some sort of resistance, that’s usually the most powerful way to include stories. Why? Because the stories appeal more to the heart and less to the brain. And so in those moments where you really want to persuade someone and really get it, well, those are the moments we share a story.
Dan SG 11:30
Philip, I’ve heard you talk before about, we’re talking about clear, concise communication. How does a great leader do that? What is actually happening by what are they saying with the message versus the detail that they’re trying to portray when someone is great at being clear and concise? you
Philipp Humm 11:45
The thing that I noticed the most when it comes to leaders is that they communicate in a very structured way. And so you ask them a question and they would never just do, do, do, do, do, do. Oh, there’s one more thing. Oh, here’s one more thing. Oh, no, there’s one more thing. No, no, no. They say, Hey, there are three things you need to be aware of. You master those three things, you crush it on the pitch. And so they already give a structure up front the moment that they communicate.
And so one of the superpowers as coach, but also as leaders in general is to communicate in frameworks, so to state up front, what you’re going to tell them. So there are a few things that you can say. First one is where you just say, there’s one thing that really matters for this. You would just say the one thing immediately. Everyone is like, Oh, one thing. I want to know what that one thing is. Then sometimes you maybe say, hi, there are two things that really matter. And then maybe there are sometimes there are three things that really matter that you can say as well. But I would overall try to keep it pretty concise there. I would say the killer for any conversation, for any coaching situation, for any leadership situation is that people are too ambitious with how many things they want people to take away. Realistically, Hey, you’re having this inspiring talk. If you can get people to remember one thing, but really engrain it in their bodies, in their play, all done, right? This is crushing it. If you’re not trying to do this for 10 things, it’s not going to happen. And everyone thinks, no, no, my people, they’re listening really closely. It’s not going to happen. Sure. Maybe sometimes it’s not one, but it’s three, but don’t go over than that. Don’t try to overwhelm because people will just not remember anything like that.
Pat SG 13:25
I think that’s a great message. If I can flip it to storytelling, you mentioned when maybe the leaders don’t go zoom in enough. What are other pitfalls coaches or leaders can fall into when thinking they’re telling a good story or that the message is going to hit? The
Philipp Humm 13:40
number one killer for any story is giving too much context. And that applies to business, to sports, to private life. People are like, oh yeah, three weeks ago, I was walking across the street. It was smelling a little bit like autumn leaves. Dude, no one cares.
It’s not that bad, but usually people go on for like one, two minutes until they go into the actual story. So that is the biggest killer of any story, giving too much context. The best stories start right into the action as close to the challenge as possible. So that you start maybe giving context in one to two sentences and then boom, something bad is happening, something surprising is happening. So you want to get to that point as quickly as possible.
Dan SG 14:27
In your opinion, do the fundamental elements of a story like we’re talking about, is it the same for an individual versus a team? A quick thing you say to a player, say 20-30 seconds versus what you say in front of the entire group, are there differences or are they all similar?
Philipp Humm 14:42
An individual might have a little bit more patience and right there is also this hierarchy where it’s like, hey, the coach talking to the individual. So there you don’t need to have the most perfect story and you’ll be given more freedom.
But if you talk to your team, I would say, hey, if you can tell an incredible story in one to two minutes, that’s the best that you could do. And so one thing that people do is making stories too long that are just not necessary. Especially if you’re addressing a team where, hey, they have so many things in their mind. If you can just bring us into the challenge, boom, how that challenge was maybe overcome and would you learn from that? That’s it. And those stories you can usually tell between one and two minutes. You don’t need more than that.
Pat SG 15:25
Does anything change when coaches are thinking about motivating the group and whether they emphasize something different part of the story? Is there anything different or coaches be mindful of one thing about I want to use the story to motivate?
Philipp Humm 15:37
What pops to my mind is that the emotional arc has to be almost like a little deeper. So when you share that story, that you go so deep into the problem that people think like, oh man, this is so messed up and they can relate with that. And they’re like, this is so unjust, I need to change this. And so you got to try to make the emotional arc, the emotional dip even deeper in order for people to really get invested and think like, wow, okay, I want to be that same person that overcame this. I want to be this person that turns this around. So the deeper there you go into how messed up the situation was, the more fulfilling it will be at the end.
Dan SG 16:15
How about the end of a story? The takeaways? How much do you tell a story of your team? It’s done. And then they’ll kind of recap the wrap-up of it. you
Philipp Humm 16:26
The good leaders share the takeaway in one simple sentence. And here it comes back to what we said before. Not like, oh, from that story, here are my 10 takeaways. Just share one. And for example, if it’s your own story, you can say, what I learned from that experience is X, Y, and Z. And then just follow up with one simple sentence. Or maybe with the team, right? And you can say, hey, based on that, I want every single one of you to go out there and do X, Y, and Z. And that’s it, right? Try to have now, again, five takeaways. Just focus on one simple takeaway, and then bring that as what I learned from that experience or frame it as a clear call to action, what they should change.
Dan SG 17:08
Philip, under pressure, so in sports you have all these different opportunities to communicate with your team in a locker room after the game, in practice, in meetings, and some of those you have more time. In a game, there’s a timeout, quick 30 seconds, things like that, and you need to communicate information to your team quickly.
What have you learned about the role of pressure and shortened time in high-level communicators, story or not story, but just the way that they navigate those situations?
Philipp Humm 17:37
That one is the secret of the best communicators is that they can just respond within a minute in the most structured way, even completely under pressure. And now how do you learn this skill? Because this is ultimate communications confidence.
The tool that has helped me become the most effective communicator possible was improv. Improv, improv, improv. And that means, sure, you can join an improv group. That’s one thing. But the other thing is just to get a random topic. And you just improvise on the spot based on a timer. So you say, Hey, one minute, boom, random topic. And you improvise and do that over and over and over again. You mess up. You completely suck, right? Because at the start, it’s so difficult. But the more you do that, the more you learn, you teach your brain to trust yourself, whatever comes up, you’ll be fine. That thinking once like, Hey, whatever happens, difficult question. I lose my train of thought. I’ll be okay. That is the single most important tool that you can develop within communication, because then just letting go on you to say, Hey, I’m here to help my team.
Dan SG 18:42
I know in improv, one of the tools improvisers uses yes and accepting whatever is said and then adding to it, communication and improv and how this relates to coaching, how that can be useful. So yes and as far as we accept what happens and then we just continue to flow it to whatever is next. Similar to what you just said, but I know that’s part of a lot of the improv stuff.
Philipp Humm 19:05
Yeah, that is probably more for like group improv, where you improvise something together. And that is usually good if you want to find more creative ideas. And so I’m from Germany, right? And we’re usually not used to be the most constructive. And then everyone is like, you share an idea and everyone is like, No, but that doesn’t make sense. And so yes, and helps in those situations, what to say? Hey, yes, and then you build up on that idea. So it’s great for brainstorming for coming up with creative ideas. Now what I had in mind that this is more of a solo exercise, we can play some exercises here to give everyone a flavor. But that is much more like improvising a story by yourself or a speech.
Dan SG 19:47
Got it. Okay, Phil, if you want, we can throw it out as full. If it works, it works. Do you have any exercises you want? Okay. I have something in mind. So I built this free tool that will give you a random topic and you have one minute to improvise a speech. I can give you a quick flavor of how that looks. Okay. And then you can try it out. So here I have, let’s make it 60 seconds. So that’s short. I have now 10 seconds to prepare, and it will be a completely random topic. So let’s see how to make peace with past mistakes. Cool. I’m the person who over analyzes everything that comes to my head. I’m just like, ah, what did I do here? What did I do there? And last week I was hiking with my best friend. I noticed again, I was analyzing the mistakes in my head, thinking of, was I now asking him enough questions? Did he feel included? And it was just in my mind. But then in this moment, I somehow and this time caught myself and like, huh, what is this voice there going on? And I labeled it in the moment. This is my overthinker. This is my people pleaser. And so I saw this little Philip just over critical. And then I just let that little Philip go and I continued the hike much more peacefully. And so right now, anytime that those mistakes, those past mistakes come up, I usually just try to refer this little Philip as people pleaser and just try to let it go.
Dan SG 21:06
Love it. Glad you did that.
Philipp Humm 21:08
it’s very short. I had 10 seconds to prepare, one minute to speech, completely random topic. Do you guys want to give it a try or?
Pat SG 21:15
Dan?
Dan SG 21:18
Sure, I’ll try it.
Philipp Humm 21:19
Okay, let’s go. Dan, your topic is going to be why I chose my career path. You have seven seconds and the new improvise is 60 seconds speech.
Dan SG 21:29
It was early Friday morning, I was working at my desk at my old job, paper after paper was coming in, number after number, and I knew in that moment, as I was processing all those pieces of paperwork, it was not something I wanted to do. Later that afternoon, the thought in my head kept being, this is not your path, this is not what you’re meant to do. And there was a JV basketball practice that my friend had invited me to later that day. As soon as the work was done, I dashed out and I sprinted to that practice. And as soon as I got on the court and smelt the wood, put my whistle on, I knew that this was indeed the path I needed. The next morning, got up, said, I’m done with this old job, done with this old life, and forever more, I became a coach.
Philipp Humm 22:19
Wooo! Good stuff! Damn, that was super impressive! Did you somehow know what exercise would be coming? Did you prepare for that? No!
Dan SG 22:31
I’m sweating. You can’t see it on screen.
I’m impressed. That was very good. Thank you. So I guess, Phil, for me though, how would you coach me on that to be better? I was trying to quickly put myself into a place and give some thoughts and then an action, but what would your thoughts be?
Philipp Humm 22:50
On this one, could I give you now some feedback on how to tell that story maybe a little bit more impactful? Yeah, for sure. But on this one, how you did it right now, this is the goal of the exercises. You went for it, you went into a specific moment. So actually on this one, I wouldn’t give you any tips on what to improve because what you did on this improv exercise, that’s exactly it.
You improvise on a topic you didn’t prepare for and you just had fun with that. And so if I can give more tips on in general how to get the most out of improv, because I’ve seen so many people be very awkward about it. And the first one is to have fun with that. You will mess up, you will say terrible, stupid things. And so the more you’re like, okay, I’m just having fun, the better it is. That’s the first one. The second one is to not acknowledge your mistakes. And what does that mean? Oftentimes we fuck up and then we’re like, ah, this was so bad, I hate myself. But don’t do this. Anytime that we give a speech, people usually don’t notice when we make a mistake, even if you mess up. Well, don’t share it, just go on. If you right now we’re delivering an Oscar speech, because your audience likely hasn’t seen anything of that. So that’s the second one. And then third one, try to after time, give it some structure when you respond. And so anytime that something comes up, you’re already in your mind, boom, I know a structure. And the more you can say that upfront, right now, those ones we went more into storytelling, but let’s say when you go for a debate topic, like, hey, should pineapple be in pizza? Give us a structure immediately where you say, hey, there’s three reasons why pineapple should be in pizza and boom, share it straight away. But yeah, those would be my tips when it comes to improv.
Pat SG 24:32
Philip, when you’re talking about not acknowledging mistakes and that most of the time the audience won’t know that it was a mistake, irrespective of whether it’s a basketball team, your business team, whatever your peers, are there some general commonalities that maybe if you look at like public speaking or talking in front of a group, speakers should be aware of to avoid, like you said, acknowledging mistakes because the majority of the time, you know, your audience doesn’t know it’s a mistake, or I guess like, yeah, these things we should be aware of when speaking to an audience, irrespective of profession, place, time.
Philipp Humm 25:05
Good question. One big mistake that I see with any speaker is that they try to fit too much content into a short session. The most advanced speakers, they don’t only think from a content perspective, but they think, how can I make this as engaging as possible? And so when you see some more professional speakers speak, they actually have something that raises the anticipation, makes it more interesting. Every minute, good speakers, maybe every three minutes, and then every speaker is maybe a hook at the start. That’s not enough.
You want to think constantly, how can I regain their attention? Because as you know, attention does not work like this. Oh, I have the attention at the start. Now I can just pour them with some boring stuff for the rest of their speech. This is not how attention works. You got to re-earn it every minute. And so constantly think, how can I bring so much variety as possible in there? Maybe I share a quick story, maybe a quick show of hands, maybe an analogy, maybe a mini quiz, a competition. So constantly think, how can I make this as engaging as possible?
Pat SG 27:03
Philip, this one we’ve crafted, we call it powerful things that coaches can use in the locker room to reinforce a culture, an idea, a vision, all the things we talked about. And of the three things we’re going to give you, your start would be not the most difficult, but one that could be maybe the most lost in translation that you’d have to be mindful of in terms of how you use it versus then your sit would be probably the most like on the nail.
So option one is using quotes, putting quotes up in the locker room, again, to express our vision or culture. Option two would be visuals, whether it’s graphics, a poster, a chart, or option three would be what we call like a totem, using a physical object to represent, again, the idea of the belief, the value. So start, a visual or a totem, and which one requires the most finesse or need to be the most mindful of when using to help represent this meaning.
Philipp Humm 28:07
I love them. So let’s start with the sit. The sit is definitely the quote. Quotes are so overused, especially those generic ones. You’re not going to inspire anyone.
Start the object, what you said, the third option. Yeah. That one, if you play this well, that’s next level. So what that means, you make things a visual matter for. So for example, you have two objects, let’s say here, I have my phone and my water bottle. Let’s say one is team A, and then this is team B, and then I make them interact with each other. That usually gets so much attention because that just is on a very simple level that everyone gets. So if people can start that, I think it’s a superpower.
Pat SG 28:52
And with using an object, I mean, obviously you’ll have a story around it, should the object be included in the story you tell or the hope is that the story is transferable, everyone kind of connects that object to the story or should that object be in the story.
Philipp Humm 29:08
I would see the object separate from the story, much more a visual prop to bring your message to life. For example, recently I recorded a video about actually hooks in a presentation, and there I held a balloon labeled attention, and then I did different things. And every time the attention, the balloon lost a little bit air, and at the end, boom, I popped the balloon, tension gone. And so that was then a very visual hook to get people to remember the key concept in that moment. And so for example, if a basketball coach now had that same thing with, I don’t know, balloon labeled skill, confidence, whatever it is, and then does certain thing to deflate it or to pop it, people will remember that visual metaphor for the rest of their lives.
Dan SG 29:54
If I could ask about your quote, the sit, I think we’ve all been around leaders or coaches that have used quotes really well, where it hits you or it sets the theme for the day or whatever it is. How and when are quotes used well? I know you said it here, but how have you seen it done well?
Philipp Humm 30:11
Well is done well if the quote A is novel so that you haven’t heard it a million times and it’s surprising. Wait, what? Ah, okay. If it does that and then third obviously inspire, if it does that, it’s a good quote.
But I’m yet to encounter a quote that has changed thousands of people. Sure. Now you take like, ah, Martin Luther King or whatever, but in the day-to-day businesses, I’ve not seen quotes having a lasting impact. They’re not bad, right? They’re still better than just normal communication if you don’t have anything at all. But if I compare that to other tools, like stories, like bringing in other analogies or so on, I think then the quote is the least favorite.
Dan SG 30:53
Kind of zooming out of this whole question for a second when we were discussing this conversation with you. There’s the storytelling element and then there’s these things that you can use as a coach that add to the stories and the culture of your program. And so using the quotes and the visuals and the totems and things like that. What are your suggestions or thoughts of how these things just aid storytelling in general and when people do it well?
Philipp Humm 31:16
Yeah, those objects can be a powerful visual prop, but usually what I try to teach people is when your story is so well crafted, you don’t need a single prop. You don’t need to have the best delivery. You just connect so much to your audience that the other tools become meaningless. And then I would say focus on the story itself.
Don’t think too much about having all the crazy stuff with their different objects because they sometimes take people out of the moment. So instead of them being in their head and really having this movie playing in their minds, they’re then looking at your hands, whatever you’re doing there with the prop. So I would say focus on the story and less so on the visual props.
Pat SG 31:56
In the ideal world with the leader crafting this great story. And if we frame it through culture, like how you want to build your culture, your vision, if you can craft a story about whatever the three components are, is any visual representation necessary? I mean, as far as locker rooms will have their culture out there, the three things, you know, or graphs, what role do they play or is it that you think if you really focus in on the story that the buy-in and the retention will be there that these things can kind of fall to the wayside.
Philipp Humm 32:30
I would say those are all great things, great tools, and you should still continue going. What I would not say is, just because you know how to tell incredible stories, get rid of all the other cool traditions that you have. Each one of them is a tool to bring the team closer together, to keep up the discipline, whatever it is. And so use them. Just don’t think that you always have to merge them all three together in, let’s say, one story. But keep using them. Those traditions, those customs, they’re beautiful. That’s actually what defines, oftentimes, the culture.
Dan SG 33:01
Philip, you’re off the Start Sub Sit hot seat. Thanks for playing that game with us. That was a lot of fun. You put me on the hot seat. We’ve got a final question to close the show. Before we do, really appreciate your time and your thoughts today. This was really fun for us and I know for our audience. So thank you for making the time. Pleasure. So Philip, our last question that we ask all the guests is what’s the best investment that you’ve made in your career?
Philipp Humm 33:25
The best investment that I’ve made in my career was doing more active walking meditation. And what do I mean with that? I’ve meditated already for like 10 years, pretty consistent. But I remember when I started my business, I was just so anxious, constantly just being dealt with frustrations with insecurities. And active walking meditation is the thing that has helped me feel much more confident, much more at peace, much more in the moment.
And so how does it work? Usually what I do sometimes it’s guided meditation, sometimes it’s not, but I just put on some very inspiring music. And I just then walk around as if I’m already this superhero, this God, whoever I want to energy, I want to communicate. And then I just focus on feeling that feeling, maybe of that super confident person, maybe this person that has incredible abundance. And then I just walk through the park or the street and I tap into those very high emotions. And doing that for like an hour has been the single biggest factor why I could then bounce back so quickly from any anxieties or insecurities, really focus on being present and inspiring.
Dan SG 34:39
That was really fun. Kind of great to stretch ourselves and get into a fun conversation and get some fun improv stories up here. Just sweating bullets. Credit to you.
Pat SG 34:55
Yeah. Some of us were better men today than others.
Dan SG 34:58
I was asking which one of us is going to do it. Zoom can be tricky that way. Yeah. But we made it. We persisted. So that was a ton of fun. We really thank Bill for coming on and context to this conversation. We’ve been on this storytelling theme a little bit, I think, as we continue to grow as coaches and find interesting subjects. It’s come up a lot with high level leaders and coaches of how you craft the story of your program and your season and relating to individuals and storytelling or not. There was so much in here today just about communication and how people learn and retain stuff. And Philip was really fun today, so we appreciate him coming on.
Pat SG 35:34
Yeah, I think you said it too in the prep. We’re in such a unique position as coaches. You’re talking to individual athletes, talking to the group, talking to sponsors or boosters. You have so many different audiences at times and then also different environments and everything that encapsulates how you communicate or how you think about storytelling or public speaking and the vast array of skills required or put upon as a coach from communication.
We’ve talked about sports performance, all the stuff outside of like X and O’s. So always fun when we can do conversations like these, like you mentioned, challenge ourselves, but also very relevant and important to just the many hats we wear as coaches at times.
Dan SG 36:17
Well let’s get into our three takeaways and for that first one I will throw it to you.
Pat SG 36:24
Yeah, the first takeaway for me was, I’ll start with the opening question we posted him, just useful frameworks for coaches and how they can think about coaching and his very first thought I thought for me, just zooming into the moment and that as a storyteller or coaches that we can miss the mark by staying too peripheral to kind of zoomed out and really willing to go into the story. And I think as we discussed his past framework, place, action, speech, thoughts, but especially the thoughts, zooming in, willing to be vulnerable, share the emotion to get the connection. And like he said, change the perspective of the group to get like the true power of the story across. So we’ll cover several other takeaways.
But his framework, I thought we got a concise communication was very concise and, you know, actionable for coaches there and just four things to keep in mind of, I think kind of some other takeaways. Also knowing when like stories are useful or when to apply stories. And he mentioned when trying to convey values, of course, mentoring or convey vision. I thought those were a good compass of when stories are beneficial and can really have retention, create buy in.
Dan SG 37:36
Good stuff there. Took a couple of ones I had circled too. You kind of ate mild me there a little bit. But adding to your point, what’s interesting to us is that, as you said at the top, there’s so many situations in coaching and leadership where we are selling, where we are selling our vision, our culture, who we are, our style of play, and just having these tools to inspire people, to get groups of people motivated in a direction. I think it’s worth crafting this part of our toolkit. Because as much as we want to just talk about X’s and O’s and all that, which we love, of course, but you’re always trying to pull people. And I think we’ve all been in a room or been on a team or have known someone that they just can pull people together. And a lot of times as you think back, they were pretty darn good at maybe telling a story or crafting a message in a way that people gravitated towards. And I think that that’s to the point of what having Philipp on today and some of the things you just mentioned, it’s just useful to think about. And I’m with you. I love the past stuff, just like as a quick, anything you think about crafting a story around, does it have these elements to it? I really liked the one to two minute thing. Also, the one to two simple sentence takeaways, I think is big. I think as coaches, we’re oftentimes in a position where we are trying to explain takeaways of something, always. Takeaways of a practice, takeaways of a loss, of a win, you name it. We’re always in this position of trying to do that in a concise way. And I think his thoughts there about being concise, one big takeaway, make it memorable, don’t ramble over and over. I thought that was really powerful because you and I both know, you’re just always in a takeaway position as a coach and you are crafting how and when people are taking things away in a sense. And I liked his thoughts on that. That was a good part of it.
Pat SG 39:26
On the concise note, I think he gave a really good tip. We followed up like how stories can miss their mark is when we get caught up in too much context. To your point, we’re obviously always thinking about our team. And if there’s a story we want to tell or whatever, however we want to address our team, like it’s probably something we’ve, for the most part, I think we’ll get down the line when we talk about the improv, but for the most part, we’ve probably thought about it a lot, probably unhealthily too much.
So there’s all this context we’re thinking about. And then we get to the team and if we just dump all that context on them, it can dilute the message we’re trying to deliver or the impact of the story we’re hoping for or changing behaviors or actions. And I think he raises a good point, don’t give too much context, get as close to the action as you can and just kind of get into it. And that will have more effect or be more of an effective communication device than overbearing your audience with too much context.
Dan SG 40:23
Yeah. I think you just hit on the head and just to put a bow on this point, just starting with the answer and then giving the context too was not like, someone asks you a question, just answer right at the top and then give the context if needed. I thought that was a good takeaway of some of his tips for high level communicators, especially under pressure, but really anytime that was really good too.
Pat SG 40:44
Yeah, he talked about I think it was communicating in frameworks be upfront with it and then get into it. Yeah, so
Dan SG 40:49
I’ll give one really quick miss of mine here, which wasn’t by Philip, of course, but the humor and just the emotions and what kind of stories and how that plays in. I think it’s always interesting. You know, we’ve touched on that a few times over the years here. I feel as a coach, when you’re, you know, for me, 18 to 22 or, I don’t know, with a portal and, you know, 25 year old men at times, but you like can fall into trying to use humor to get points across because let’s say for adult males, it’s like a way to bond, but like what’s the balance of how you use that and first the other types of emotions, but continue to explore that is interesting.
Pat SG 41:28
I agree. You trigger like an interesting thought how relatable the story needs to be. Again, we as coaches continue to get older and our teams usually hover around that same age group. For sure. And as we slowly get out of touch with the generations. All right, we’ll keep it moving here. I’ll throw it to you for the second takeaway.
Dan SG 41:48
So second takeaway that I feel for every coach we put on the start subset hot seat after having to be on the fricking, um, give a one minute speech live on air.
Pat SG 41:59
Placie gave you a prompt, you know, I thought you were just gonna have to just go.
Dan SG 42:03
Yeah, honestly, he gave me a 10 second prompt. I don’t remember. That 10 seconds went like, like, snap of the fingers. I blacked out.
Pat SG 42:11
You’re like Wiggle Feral, you just kind of… …what happened. Exactly. I blacked out.
Dan SG 42:15
It was much more eloquent than old school to me. But the second takeaway, I’m actually going to go to his best investment answer in the walking meditations and found a lot of value in that just of, okay, maybe not everyone’s going to do walking meditations or whatnot like him. But as coaches, how do we find the physical way or the ways that we can work through things? And I’ve heard it a lot over the years, different takeaways on meditation or breathing or whatever and going for these walks and finding ways to do that. I think Brad Stevens on his first episode with us talked about getting out and walking and just working through ideas physically. And we talked about a lot of stuff today with storytelling and emotions, but I thought that was really good, especially as this is coming out early to mid-season. Those stressors and those emotions are coming full swing and how do we find healthy ways to deal with them on a day-to-day basis? And everybody’s got different setups, of course, of life. I just like that. I think that that’s a good point on one, doing it, but then how he did it where he’s putting on music and he’s imagining, he’s overcoming some of the things. I thought that was a unique point at the end.
Pat SG 43:24
Yeah, I can actually tie his best investment and then the improv together. I think both of those were great, actionable ways to overcome anxiety or help with anxiety, mitigate anxiety through building confidence. I think like he said, walking around just with the energy, the emotion he wants to convey and the same thing with the improv, just using it to build communication confidence. Those are really invaluable tools, especially as leaders, just building self-trust and we’re going to be in so many uncomfortable situations, but building the confidence in oneself and getting comfortable being uncomfortable, I think is what we always tell our players. And I think those were two really good examples that can help with that stuff and help us cope with situations that coaches or us as humans are always going to be in, regardless of profession.
Dan SG 44:15
Pat, I just want to give you the opportunity. Did you want to also do a one minute speech here at the end since I did it on the air?
Pat SG 44:21
I think we probably ran out of prompts so we’ll save it for the next wrap up.
Dan SG 44:28
to give you the opportunity. Well then, let’s move to our third takeaway and I’ll throw it back to you.
Pat SG 44:38
So for the third takeaway, I will go to our start subset. For me, it was the quotes. He spoke really well on the objects and how you prescribe meaning to them, but I thought the quotes was kind of a refreshing look in the sense that everyone loves quotes, we fall in love with quotes, but they’re oftentimes very overused and they lose their meaning. And to his credit, he talked about in order for a quote to have true sticking power, they got to be novel, they got to be surprising, and they need to inspire.
Dan SG 45:05
To your point, quotes is a powerful thing. What I took away from it is we’ve all heard the run of the mill ones, but if you’re going to use them, they’ve got a one, like you said, be novel or surprising. And then the inspire part is interesting because I think there’s a lot of ways that coaches can use those quotes to inspire within their own team. So it was an interesting sit just because I think as coaches, we love quotes, just to use them within the team and kind of helped, I think, as a storytelling aspect. And so they’re easy things that before end practice to kind of wrap things around. I think it’s just like being considerate of what you’re using and does it actually stick and does it actually kind of fit, I guess, the flow of what you’re doing. So his start, which was like the totem or the physical thing, we had a really, really great Slapping Vast Plus Roundtable that coaches talked about ways that they honor certain things within their program, whether players of the week or things that they want to do over the time. I thought that was an interesting part of this is how are they powerful? When do they become the most powerful? It’s up to the coach to tell the story of that object, that totem, whatever it is, that bell, the thing you have in the locker room, and that when done well, that can really be an impactful, powerful thing that helps craft the story or the themes or the culture of your program.
Pat SG 46:26
Yeah, it makes it so unique. That’s why you mentioned like, we love quotes. I think even visuals now, of course, the visuals can be unique in terms of like tailored to whatever you’re trying to convey. But I think especially with the totems or the objects, they’re really unique, sometimes silly. But I think that’s what gives it the staying power or the buy in on top of the story, you wrap around it, if all things are equally that you’ve nailed the story part, like I think the uniqueness of it, and it’s not contrived. And it’s not like overused that even maybe sometimes visuals can fall into.
Dan SG 46:58
Yeah. Pat, I gave one kind of miss earlier as we start wrapping this up. Is there anything else you wish we would have went deeper on? And sort of the
Pat SG 47:05
In the same vein as you dig in deeper on emotion of the storyteller, of the leader, and more so probably wrapped around anger as we just get upset, and how we navigate emotion in the story, and the timing of when to tell the story if you’ve encountered failure, success. I think those were maybe things that I was thinking about as we prepped and would have liked to maybe go into a little bit further time permitting.
Dan SG 47:33
Yeah, it’s interesting. The anger piece is interesting because it’s bubbling there all season for everybody. And how do you use it? Or how do you use it well in the right moments? There was told to me once about anger and coaching that kind of stuck with me that there’s times where you want to show your anger without losing your anger to your team. And like it’s a fine balance. I want to show them I have it and if I need to get to it, I can get to it for the point of getting a message across, but without blowing the roof off. House is on fire all the time because of my anger. And I think that’s like an interesting balance of when and how to use it.
Pat SG 48:10
Anger and disappointment, maybe they’re the same and same, but I think how you channel it, you talked about with stories like to really inspire change or action or reaction, I think an interesting subject.
Dan SG 48:21
Yeah, because those can be powerful emotions to move people. If a player or team knows you’re disappointed in them, maybe more than angry at them, because I think players get used to a coach being angry about something, but like disappointed is like a pretty big thing. And how do you use that term? They fall below a standard or how they whatever communicate with each other can be useful. So good stuff. Once again, we thank Phil for coming on and sharing a ton of actionable advice for us today. We appreciate everybody listening and we’ll see you next time.