Revenue Builders · 23 Jul 2026 · From the week of 20 July
Training for Pressure with Greg Poss
These are notes on the conversation, checked against its transcript. The episode itself has the full discussion.
In brief
Greg Poss, a former professional hockey coach and mental strength coach who coached in the United States and Europe, joins hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan to discuss performance under pressure. The conversation covers lower-brain (fear) versus higher-brain states, why external achievements give only temporary satisfaction, how a leader's emotional state affects a team, and why productive discomfort needs a clear path back. Greg also covers practical tools including breathing, visualization that includes friction, and a 21-day program he runs. His central argument is that pressure exposes a response that has already been trained, so the response has to be trained in advance.
For founders
- Greg says a leader's emotional state spreads to the team, so a fearful leader's motivational speech tends not to resonate with players.
- Greg says external wins such as his 2007 championship gave only temporary satisfaction, and that lasting fulfilment comes from the process of mastering a craft.
- Greg says leaders who push people out of their comfort zone must also show them the way home, or the people stay lost and see no hope.
- Greg says frustration, anger, anxiety or blame signal a lower-brain state, and that you should get out of it quickly or use tools.
- Greg recommends a four-seven-eight breathing pattern before high-stakes moments and says he uses it with clients.
For revenue leaders
- Greg distinguishes fearless salespeople, who understand the customer and product and work through each step before closing, from reckless ones who promise the moon to get a yes.
- Greg says visualization should include setbacks and the planned response to them, rather than only imagining winning; Kaplan adds that in sales this means preparing for the customer's no.
- Greg says his self-guided 21-day program, with nightly submissions and personal follow-up, reached about a 95% completion rate among more than 250 people.
- Greg says running the same mental-performance language across a whole team makes players easier to push, and cites two Division One hockey teams and an NHL coach doing it.
What was said 19, most useful first
A four-seven-eight breathing pattern quickly calms and focuses people before a high-stakes moment. Listen
Greg says he uses this with his clients: breathe in for four, hold for seven, breathe out for eight. He gave the example of a golfer over a three-foot putt, who can do a couple of rounds and become calm and focused because the body feels safe. He explains that slow breathing sends a safe signal to the brain, while shallow breathing signals danger.
“Breathe in for four, hold for seven, breathe out for eight.”
External wins such as a championship give only temporary satisfaction, and fear returns within minutes. Listen
Greg says that after his Mannheim Eagles won the championship in 2007, the fear started about 15 minutes after the trophy was raised, and by 1am he was at a McDonald's drive-thru. He says he had put his belief in the win as the thing that would make him happy, and that led him to start building a program to train the brain like the body. He began looking for a more consistent way to handle pressure after that night.
“About 15 minutes after we raised the trophy, the fear already started setting in. It started fading so quickly, I couldn't believe it.”
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Pushing people out of their comfort zone builds growth only when the leader also gives them a clear way back. Listen
Greg says that if leaders make people lost and give them no tools, the people stay lost and see no hope. He says that when a leader pushes people to the brink and then shows them the way home, people come to value that leader for expanding their awareness and making them better.
“If you just make them lost, then they're going to stay lost and they're going to see no hope. But if you push them to that brink and then you show them the way home”
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A fearless salesperson understands the customer and product and works through each step before closing, while a reckless one promises the moon to get a yes. Listen
Greg says fearless means putting yourself out there and making the right decision at the right time, while reckless means taking chances like a riverboat gambler. A fearless rep understands the customer and product, knows how to provide value for repeat sales, and works through the execution steps thoroughly before closing. A reckless rep promises the moon, just tries to get a yes and moves on quickly.
“A reckless salesperson promises the moon just tries to get a yes and moves on quickly.”
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Visualization should include hardships and your planned response to them, not only winning, because rehearsing only success from a fearful state can increase fear. Listen
Greg says that visualizing winning from a lower-brain state makes people more fearful and hinders success, so visualization should cover struggles and how you will react to a difficult situation. He describes working for two days with a golfer whose reaction to things going wrong was off, rehearsing those situations, and the golfer won his tournament the day before the episode was recorded.
“visualize the hardships, visualize the struggles, visualize what our reaction is going to be to a difficult situation.”
Noticing your breathing is a practical check on whether you are in a higher-brain state. Listen
Kaplan says that if you are thinking and able to ask yourself which state you are in, and if you are aware of your breath, you are probably on your way to, or in, the higher brain. He notes that breathing is normally automatic but can be checked consciously by asking whether you are breathing deeply or shallowly. He then asks Greg how to tell which state you are in and how to get out.
“if you're cognizant of your breathing You are probably on your way or in the higher brain”
Frustration, anger, anxiety or any other negative emotion is the signal that you have slipped into a lower-brain state. Listen
Greg says that when you notice these emotions, you should get out of that state as quickly as possible or use tools. He says he teaches a system and structure so people learn tools to avoid the lower-brain state under pressure. Peace, focus, awareness and joy, by contrast, indicate the higher brain.
“anytime we feel frustrated anytime we feel angry anytime we feel Any of those negative emotions that means we are in a lower brain state”
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Victim thinking, such as blaming a coach, other players' advantages or parents, is a sign that you are in a deep lower-brain state. Listen
Greg says victim mode is the lower brain avoiding the pain of failure by placing blame elsewhere. He contrasts it with the higher-brain response, where you are upset but ask what to change in your execution and what you learned. He says that response leads to finding a solution rather than accepting the outcome.
“anytime we're in victim mode, we're in extreme lower brain states.”
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A leader's emotional state spreads to the team, so how the leader feels matters more than the words of a motivational speech. Listen
Greg says players feel what a leader says more than they hear it, so a pregame speech from a fearful or anxious coach will not resonate, while a leader in a higher-brain state can give an average speech that players love. He describes this as vibrational energy that people pick up on, like a dog sensing fear or fearlessness. He says he works with a coach in the English Premier League, and that coaches all ask how to motivate their players.
“The players don't necessarily hear what you say. they feel what you say”
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Finding joy in mastering your craft gives lasting satisfaction and, Greg says, tends to produce better results. Listen
Greg says the joy of the journey is internal gratification that no one can take away, while external rewards such as a house, a car or a win fade. He argues that people who enjoy the moment-to-moment process and let results come naturally enjoy those results more and fear losing them less. He applies this to relationships and work alike.
“I think a great term is you wanna be a master of your craft.”
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Self-compassion and curiosity keep a person engaged with higher-brain thinking when they meet something they cannot yet do. Listen
Kaplan describes arriving at college at Boise State, where players were as fast and strong as him or faster, and says that without compassion for himself he would have stayed in a lower-brain state and slid into blame. With compassion he could say he was in a different game. He also says people with lower brains can have high creativity, but that curiosity and compassion need to be engaged.
“If I couldn't engage compassion, I stayed in a lower brain”
In one free-throw study Greg cited, visualization alone produced nearly the same improvement as physical practice. Listen
Greg says studies he has seen had one group physically shoot free throws and another only visualize them. After a couple of weeks, both groups were shooting about the same, and the physical group improved only slightly more. He uses this to argue that visualization is very powerful, while noting that the state you visualize from matters.
“after a couple of weeks, they're shooting about the same.”
Greg cites Djokovic, the world's number one at the peak of his career, winning only 48% of his points as evidence that elite players lose often. Listen
Greg says the top-ranked player in the world lost more than half his points, and he argues the player could take the hits. He says losses can be learned from and are not failures. He ties this to his message that high performers fail their way to the top.
“The best player in the world, Djokovic, at the prime of his career, he won only 48% of his points.”
Tedious conditioning can be made more tolerable by pairing it with something enjoyable, such as a television series. Listen
Greg says that at Red Bull Salzburg, where a fitness program was mandatory, North American import players disliked the cardio. The players began watching the Netflix series Breaking Bad during their bike sessions after practice, so they could not wait to get on the bike. He says the work did not have to be dropped to make it less of a grind.
“they started watching uh the old Netflix series Breaking Bad while they were doing their cardio”
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Hard work feels worthwhile when it is connected to an outcome or to something bigger than the individual. Listen
A host says the suck can't be worthless and has to mean something, so it should be connected to an outcome such as a team championship. He says the best coaches get players emotionally connected to the hard things that lead to championships, and calls that one of the fundamental things a leader has to do.
“The suck can't be worthless. The suck has to mean something.”
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Running the same mental-performance program across a whole team gives everyone a shared language and makes players easier to push. Listen
Greg says he has two Division One hockey teams doing his 21-day program over the summer, so everyone speaks the same higher-brain and lower-brain language before the season starts in October. He tells coaches it makes players more malleable and resilient, so they can be trained at a higher level. He also says an NHL coach is doing it with his staff.
“Everyone's on the same wavelength. Everyone's speaking the same higher brain and lower brain language.”
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For talented athletes who struggle under pressure, the fix is to stop interfering, not to add more effort. Listen
Greg says he works with athletes who are unbelievably talented and skilled but have difficulty playing under pressure. He says the solution is not to do more but to get out of the way and let the brain and body do what they already know how to do. He presents this as the answer to his clients' pressure problems.
“The solution isn't to do more. It's to get the hell out of the way.”
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Greg tells athletes that in a higher-brain state you never lose, because you either win and grow or you just grow. Listen
Greg reframes results so that a loss becomes learning. He says that after a setback, the higher-brain response is to ask what to change in execution and to keep working until a fix is found. He says he tells the athletes and people he works with this message.
“when you're higher brain, you never, you never, you never lose. You either win and grow or you just grow, but you never lose.”
A self-guided 21-day program with nightly submissions and personal follow-up reached a reported 95% completion rate among more than 250 people. Listen
Greg says he built the 21-day program about nine months before the episode to scale his work beyond group and individual calls. Participants spend about 10 minutes a day, including a two- to three-minute video each morning, and submit a daily brain entry each night that Greg reviews and answers by text or email. He says he calls and texts participants to make sure they finish, and that the completion rate was probably about 95%, which he describes as very high for online programs.
“Everyone who completed it, and it was probably about a 95 % completion rate”