The Top Athlete’s Approach to Peak Leadership Performance with Jeff Salzenstein

Ashish Kothari: Hi, Jeff, it is so lovely to have you on our Happiness Squad podcast, my dear friend.

Jeff Salzenstein: It's amazing to be here. I feel like we've known each other for a long time, but we’re just getting to know each other.

Ashish Kothari: I know, isn’t it funny how it works? So, friends who are listening, Jeff and I met for the first time when I was on stage at the Conscious Entrepreneurs Summit.

I was talking about Rewire and some practices around the Sunflower Model, in a discussion with one of my clients, a CEO of a cybersecurity firm, about why they implemented this program at a startup. And that’s where Jeff and I connected. Right away, it was like magic; there was so much synchronicity in our work. We've gotten to know each other really well.

I really admire Jeff; he’s one of the former top 100 ranked tennis players, and we all know what that means — it’s elite-level performance. We’re just coming off the U.S. Open, and I was thinking about you every day.

I’m super excited to have you on the show to talk about your journey to the top of the game, the lessons you learned, what helped you get there, and how you’re bringing those lessons into the corporate world through your Zone of Excellence program, helping so many.

Jeff Salzenstein: Thank you, Ashish. My story and the life lessons... we could talk for a long time. I just did a podcast with a group of tennis people who wanted to know all the inflection points of my tennis career, and I realized I have a lot of stories. So, we’ll highlight the big-ticket items, and you can take it wherever you want to go.

Ashish Kothari: Absolutely. Maybe we can start with two or three pivotal events that shaped you into who you are and took you to the top of the game.

s start with the U.S. Open in: 1997

Michael Chang was one of the most gifted, talented, and fastest players in the world. Here I was, this kid from Colorado, weighing 170 pounds, feeling like the underdog because I was ranked 150 in the world, while he was number two.

I remember walking into that stadium, looking up at the 24,000 people, and feeling the anxiety and overthinking — everything people struggle with. But I also knew I had something extraordinary, like hitting 130 mph serves and forehands.

Somehow, despite the nerves, I managed to keep up and got it to 2-2 in the first set when I finally took my first deep breath. For the next 15 minutes, I was on fire, kicking Michael Chang’s ass. If you were watching, you’d think I was the number two player in the world.

I got to 5-4 in the first set, and the crowd was going wild. I was serving big and totally in the zone. Up 5 games to 4, one point away from winning the set, I hit a big lefty serve, came to the net, hit a backhand volley to the open court, and Chang couldn’t run it down. I won the first set against Michael Chang.

I always say, we’ve got to fist pump our wins, and I was fist-pumping after winning that first set. Walking back to the baseline, staring at my box with a big smile, the TV cameras panned on me. John McEnroe was announcing the match, and that’s when it ended.

The reason it ended was because the dominant thought in my head was, “Jeff, thank God you didn’t embarrass yourself tonight.” I couldn’t overcome my limiting thoughts and beliefs. I couldn’t handle the waves of pressure, anxiety, and stress I was feeling. That zone of excellence lasted about 15 minutes, and I ended up losing the next three sets to Chang.

I like to start with that story because it illustrates what entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders struggle with. We have extraordinary abilities, but we also face ordinary challenges — limiting thoughts, beliefs, imposter syndrome — holding us back.

I like to highlight that, even though I was one of the best in the world, I had the same limiting thoughts that kept me from being better, from feeling at peace with myself in those moments to perform at my highest level. Of course, there’s so much more to the story before and after, but Ashish, I’ll turn it back to you to see where you’d like to go next.

Ashish Kothari: Yeah, I love that you’re open with that story, Jeff. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with several CEOs, CHROs, and senior leaders, and this notion of constantly feeling "not enough" and beating ourselves up is something everyone struggles with, no matter where they are.

When you shared that story about playing the number two player, kicking his ass, yet thinking, “Oh my God, I didn’t embarrass myself” — it’s so true. These limiting beliefs really hold us back. Let’s go back a bit.

Not many people reach that level. My son is 14 and loves tennis. Talk to us a little about your journey. What were some things you put in place that allowed you to get to the point of playing at that level? I bet it didn’t come easy.

Jeff Salzenstein: What’s fascinating is when people read my bio — two-time All-American at Stanford, top hundred in the world — they don’t know what happened underneath the surface. I was basically born with a tennis racket in my hand.

lay Davis Cup for the U.S. in: 1991

I started playing with a racket at four years old, chasing the ball around the court with exceptional hand-eye coordination. My parents divorced when I was four, and I moved to Denver with my mom, while my dad stayed in St. Louis.

Every summer, I’d visit him, and he was the head pro at a tennis club. I wanted to show him how good I was, so I’d work all year, super serious and focused as a young kid, to impress him. That drive — the internal need to be loved and validated — came from a young age. I’ve done a lot of coaching and therapy to understand it.

The divorce was a pivotal moment. It sparked a desire to be number one, to seek external validation. I started winning trophies at eight, and if you’ve ever won something young, you know that dopamine hit. It’s wonderful for keeping you out of trouble, but it’s also a double-edged sword.

At nine, I was ranked number one in Colorado, like a little tennis superstar, and at twelve, I won a national championship, becoming the best twelve-year-old in the country, even though I was from a ski state. We don’t play tennis in Colorado, we ski, so beating kids from Florida and Texas was a big deal. I had fundamentals, drive, and smarts.

When I was twelve, shortly before winning the national title, my stepfather wrote me a poem called "The Champion’s Poem." It goes like this:

"A champion is a gentleman,

he does not whine or complain,

he picks himself up when things get tough,

he absolutely never quits.

He wins with class;

he sometimes loses but does so with class.

A champion stands tall,

walks proudly, and with purpose.

You are a champion."

He wrote it because I was so hard on myself; I used to cry when I lost tennis matches or struck out in baseball.

That poem became my anchor. I read it daily, even in college and on the pro tour. In a world full of social media and negativity, having this piece of paper to pull out at night was grounding. It built my foundation for character, integrity, and class.

When I was fifteen and a half, I hadn’t grown yet. I was five foot four, 102 pounds, and dropped from number one to number 70 in the country. Imagine being a teenager, going from the best to losing to everyone.

That’s when most people might get into trouble, but I stayed focused. I quit basketball and skiing, changed rackets and coaches, started growing, and rededicated myself to the fundamentals. That was another turning point where things could’ve gone the other way.

There’s a thread of resilience and perseverance that started early on, continued into my junior career, and led me to play college tennis at Stanford. In my freshman year at Stanford, I had the worst serve in college tennis, yet I was playing for a legendary coach and the best program in the country.

I spent that summer in Denver working on my serve, and something clicked. I transformed my serve between my freshman and sophomore years. I love sharing that because it shows we can transform at any point.

When I transformed my serve, it allowed me to play at the top of the Stanford lineup, pursue professional tennis, and ultimately face Chang about four years after that change.

Ashish Kothari: That's amazing. There’s so much richness in that story. This idea of drive, knowing where it comes from — your drive to achieve was driven by wanting to show your father, hustling for his love, because you felt that if you didn’t do well, you wouldn’t be as loved.

Jeff Salzenstein: Which, by the way, wasn’t true. My father was amazing. Maybe not always peaceful, but a four-year-old doesn’t know that.

Ashish Kothari: Exactly. For me, it was similar. At a young age, if I scored 97, I thought my parents wouldn’t be happy. In my head, if I wasn’t perfect, my love was tied to that achievement. But drive matters, doesn’t it? That “why” behind what pushes you.

I also loved what you shared about growth. We all have our strengths, but we’re not fixed. We can grow if we spend the time. Even at 18 or 19, you were working on improvement. And my friend, I want to highlight your letter — because so many overachievers are harsh on themselves, harder than anyone else would be.

We pay a huge cost when things don’t work out. And I think that notion of focus is key. You didn’t explicitly call it out, but when you dropped from number one to number 70, you didn’t quit. You actually quit other things so you could focus singularly on what mattered to you.

This is something the business world can learn from. When things don’t go well, we often try to do too many things rather than recommit to what got us there. I love that.

Jeff Salzenstein: Thank you.

Ashish Kothari: It’s brilliant. So, Jeff, you’ve taken your life lessons, what got you to the top of your game, and translated it into your Zone of Excellence framework, which you’re now using to help business leaders. Share the Zone of Excellence with our listeners, and let’s dig into a few specific ways you help leaders apply these insights.

Jeff Salzenstein: I'd love to do that. I want to provide a little more context and share two more situations to lead us into the Zone of Excellence. I transformed my serve in college, and my coach placed me at number two singles my sophomore year. We reached the NCAA finals — Stanford against USC.

The championship came down to my match. If I won, we’d win the national title; if I lost, we’d lose. There were a thousand people watching, and it was three-all in the third set. I had my legendary coach, Dick Gould, on the sideline. He’s like the John Wooden of tennis, having won 17 national titles in 39 years.

During one point, I hit a serve, came in, and the ball flew out, but I tripped and didn’t see it land. I had a choice. I could have called it out, but in tennis, if you don’t see the ball land out, you can’t call it out.

So I didn’t. That moment connects back to the Champion's Poem — the values of character, integrity, and doing the right thing. I ended up losing that match. It was one of the most devastating experiences of my life.

Losing the deciding match for a national championship when you care deeply and feel like you've let down your coach and team can be traumatic. But instead of letting that loss break me, I used it to get better.

The next year, I was elected team captain, and we went undefeated, winning the national title. Fast forward a few years after the U.S. Open match with Chang: I signed with an agent, and my pro tennis career seemed ready to take off.

But three months later, during training, I felt pain in my ankle. It was misdiagnosed. I ended up needing ankle surgery, then knee surgery six months later. I had two surgeries before the age of 25.

I went from climbing the rankings to being at the bottom, living in my parents' basement, uncertain if I’d ever return to the tour. Riddled with stress, anxiety, and worry, I made a decision then — to become obsessed with high performance.

I took my first yoga class at 24 and rebuilt my body. I started eating organic food, even before Whole Foods was popular, and began paying attention to my negative thoughts, limiting beliefs, and processing emotions like anger, fear, and frustration that were hindering my performance.

Looking back, I see that my journey was not just about playing tennis; it was about learning these principles to apply later as a speaker, coach, and mentor around the Zone of Excellence.

What you see today, when I work with founders and entrepreneurs, is a body of work that began when I was four, evolving through my tennis career. At 24, I decided to dive into yoga, organic food, spirituality, and holistic practices, all of which later became part of the Zone of Excellence framework.

My professional tennis career was up and down. I played for 11 years, spending around four of those years injured. I broke into the top 100 in the world at 30, which was almost unheard of back then. It took me seven years. I traveled alone without enough money to afford a team and lost frequently.

That experience shaped me, especially in understanding what it feels like to be a leader who feels alone at the top. Losing so often in minor league tennis taught me resilience, which helps me identify with founders and entrepreneurs facing the highs and lows of business.

The Zone of Excellence is about optimizing the body, mind, and soul. I take a holistic approach to performance and health, and that’s why I connected so quickly with you, Ashish. I recognized in you someone who values happiness and fulfillment, which aren’t taught in the "killer" environments of pro tennis or the business world.

In tennis, winning is everything. Rankings and prize money define you. If you lose, there’s no salary. I’ve lived that life of repeated losses, and it led me to seek balance, fulfillment, and happiness beyond external validation.

Ashish Kothari: We’re constantly taught this “if-then-else” mindset — if you want this, then do that, and once you get there, you’ll be happy. It’s never-ending. You and I both know this, and it’s the irony of it all. This is the classic lesson we’re taught.

It reminds me of my friend Emma Seppälä, who does a lot of this work. She told me about a student who said they couldn’t take her class because it went against everything they’d learned.

The student said, “I was taught that to be happy, I have to be successful. When I asked my parents how to be successful, they told me to work hard. When I asked how I’d know I was working hard, they said, ‘When you’re suffering. If you’re not suffering, you’re not working hard enough, which means you won’t be successful or happy.’”

Isn’t it ironic that we’re taught happiness is only achieved through suffering? When, in fact, we could choose happiness now.

All the science points to happiness as key to human performance. To be at our best, we need to be physically, mentally, and spiritually well. We have to do the hard work to rewire ourselves from the conditioning we’ve received from the world and from our own minds. That’s at the heart of my work. So, Jeff, tell us more about this.

Jeff Salzenstein: I want to mention something. You brought up a concept that I don’t think I’ve ever shared before. Ashish, you reminded me of a powerful concept that I don’t think I’ve shared before. It’s about Rafael Nadal. He won 14 French Open titles.

I played in Wimbledon and the French Open, winning one main draw match in a major, but Nadal won 14 titles in a single tournament. The French Open is all about suffering on the red clay, grueling five-hour matches, and he did that 14 times. Nadal used to say he just suffers more than everyone else — he’s willing to go through the pain to win.

But then, what are we doing when we’re not suffering? You’ve helped me crystallize this over the last couple of months as we’ve gotten to know each other better. When we’re working hard, we need breaks and practices to maintain balance.

I sense that Nadal finds peace off the court. He’s more obsessive with his routines on the court, but off it, he seems relaxed and chill. His routines give him a semblance of peace. Not all top players achieve that, but Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic, who takes meditation and holistic health to a whole new level, seem to get it.

When we’re working hard, we must be able to rest, recover, and have these happiness principles in place.

Ashish Kothari: Exactly. And if you look at Simone Biles, from her story in Tokyo to now, the difference is striking. She’s older as an athlete, so physically there’s some decline, but mentally and spiritually, she’s so much stronger.

Her drive to perform now comes from within, rather than external pressures, and it shows in the way she competes. Top athletes like her, as you mentioned, reach their level by going beyond the physical; they invest in their mental, spiritual, emotional, and social well-being.

This is true in the corporate world too. Somehow, we believe we need to charge our phones three times a day, but think we can just keep pushing our brains and bodies all day and all week, hoping to recover on the weekends.

Jeff Salzenstein: That’s exactly the paradigm shift I’m asking people to consider. In my workshops and keynotes, I encourage people to approach their lives more like elite athletes who have mastered longevity in their fields.

When you study LeBron James, Novak Djokovic, Simone Biles, Dara Torres, or Allyson Felix, these athletes have careers spanning 20 years. Look at their habits: they sleep 8 to 10 hours a night, meditate, eat well, stretch, and invest in trainers.

While we don’t use our bodies quite like elite athletes, individuals and teams expend tremendous energy each day to perform at high levels. So why drink a lot of alcohol, overconsume caffeine, or get only five hours of sleep?

The paradigm shift is to think of yourself as Novak Djokovic or LeBron James. You have to take care of your whole self. Otherwise, the foundation will eventually break.

Ashish Kothari: Totally. So let’s get into some of the practices, Jeff, that you invite leaders to embody through your Zone of Excellence work.

Jeff Salzenstein: Sure. When it comes to the body, I turned 50 last year, so I’m on the second half of life, just getting started here. It feels like a rebirth, moving from the tennis world into what I’m doing now, and my cup is full.

Before we even get into the concepts of body, mind, and soul, being of service, in purpose, and in alignment is so important — something we often talk about. I know you’re on purpose now, too. It wasn’t always that way for both of us.

We were doing what we wanted for a time, and then it was done, and we had to find the next thing. I think people struggle when they don’t do that.

When we focus on the body, I’ve been obsessed with it for 25 years. Movement and nutrition are key for me, but I really hone in on rest, recovery, and sleep. We’ve discussed this. Can you take a mini nap each day or have mindful moments where you just rest?

Instead of constantly working, can you get your sleep up to six and a half, seven, or even seven and a half hours a night? Everyone’s a bit different, but getting sleep hygiene dialed in is essential.

I try to impress upon leaders the importance of rest and sleep as huge leverage points. We only need to look at athletes — they’re sleeping, they’re resting. But for us, working on caffeine and adrenaline feels easier. We do that for years.

Ashish Kothari: Before you move on to the mind, let’s stay on the body for just a minute. Both of these practices — rest and sleep — are core to the micro practices in WeWire. Friends, we’re a sleep-deprived nation.

We had a whole episode with a sleep neuroscientist a couple of weeks ago specifically on sleep, because we’re so sleep-deprived. There’s a direct correlation between lack of sleep and emotional regulation issues, including the rise of workplace incivility. It’s foundational, yet we don’t talk about it.

Leaders, consider getting your team to use Oura rings or Apple Watches to track sleep. It can unlock creativity. The effects of sleep deprivation are as detrimental as drinking alcohol. You wouldn’t get on a plane if the pilot slept only five hours, yet we pay consultants and our teams to show up in a brain fog.

Jeff Salzenstein: Absolutely. I’m about to do a workshop in Kansas City for an HR group focused on psychological safety due to ongoing issues. They already have their psychological safety expert, but I’m tying it to sleep.

Without sleep, you won’t create trust, respect, or a safe environment, because people become irritated and on edge. It fascinates me that some of the smartest people creating amazing businesses don’t make the connection that their sleep impacts performance.

They say, “I can sleep when I’m dead.” But what if, by the time you’re 75, you have Alzheimer’s? If you’re only sleeping five hours a night for 40 years, you’re not clearing out your brain properly each night.

It’s surprising that highly intelligent, driven people aren’t connecting their sleep with long-term health risks like diabetes, cancer, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. It’s all connected, and it’s just amazing.

Ashish Kothari: Beautiful. And I love movement too. There’s this saying from the Mayo Clinic — “sitting is the new smoking.” The effects of sitting on our bodies and the costs we’re paying in our thirties, forties, and fifties, all for the story of getting more money, getting promoted, doing more work, hustling for success.

We’ve shifted from hustling for love and acceptance to hustling for success because that’s how we think we’ll belong.

Friends, we’re all going to live a long time, so be mindful of the costs you’re paying now. You want to ensure a high quality of life in your sixties, seventies, and eighties. The seeds of that quality are what we’re sowing now.

I love that you encourage more movement, Jeff, and invite leaders to incorporate it throughout the day — not just in one run but consistently moving. It’s a core part of your program. Now, talk to me a little about the mind and some practices you encourage.

Jeff Salzenstein: Sure. Going back to my original story, the limiting belief I had was, “Thank God you didn’t embarrass yourself.” I performed to the level of my belief and identity, which was dominated by “just don’t embarrass yourself.” So, sure, there might have been thoughts of winning, but avoiding embarrassment was the louder thought.

Your program, Rewire, focuses on firing and wiring the neurons in your brain with each thought. We have about 60,000 thoughts per day, and on average, 80% of those are negative because most thoughts are subconscious.

Our brains are wired for negativity, designed to keep us safe, with the amygdala constantly scanning for threats. One of our responsibilities as humans is to become aware of this and flip the script. Since 90% of today’s thoughts are the same as yesterday’s, we’ll make the same choices, leading to the same behaviors and experiences.

As leaders, it’s our role to understand our thoughts and identify what’s holding us back. When I work with CEOs and companies, I ask them to write down a limiting belief, and I often hear, “I’m not a good leader,” “What if people find me out?” “I don’t have enough energy or time.”

These beliefs must be reframed and unpacked. I help people change their thoughts. I recently attended a workshop with Greg Braden and Bruce Lipton, icons in neuroscience and heart-centered leadership, who emphasize that the wrong beliefs can create disease in the body.

The power of our words is immense; speaking negatively is four to seven times more impactful than positivity. The old adage, “For every negative, say five positives,” holds true. We must be careful about what we think and how we express it to the world.

Ashish Kothari: Yeah.

Jeff Salzenstein: I help people with that — changing mindsets is at the core of it.

Ashish Kothari: Exactly. That’s why self-awareness is at the heart of our framework. Without it, nothing else is possible because it’s through lack of self-awareness that we sabotage ourselves.

I’d love to introduce you to another guest we had recently, Rosie, who wrote a beautiful book. She’s a graphic artist, a Harvard alum, and works in adaptive leadership. Her book is called Everybody Has a Sam, and it’s about that inner voice constantly judging and telling you you’re not good enough, asking, “Why do you think you matter?” It pulls us down.

So, I’m curious, when you help leaders recognize this voice and these beliefs, how do you teach them to break away from it?

Jeff Salzenstein: This might sound a bit Tony Robbins-ish, but I’m working with a high-level athlete in the sports world who’s struggling with a lot of negative thinking and anxiety. It’s a pretty extreme case, and I need to help him turn it around quickly.

So last night, I told him, “Here’s what you’re going to do: go outside for 10 minutes, get fresh air, and walk while verbalizing out loud what you want to create. Say, ‘I’m this, I’m that, I’m going to dominate, I’m the best.’” It’s almost like doing Tony Robbins’ incantations — “Every day, in every way, I get better and better.”

This athlete has been suffering from anxiety, but after doing that exercise for 10 minutes, he texted me saying he felt so much better. Imagine if our inner voice was this positive all the time; we’d feel amazing.

Tony Robbins and others know that verbalizing your intentions or how you want to show up in the world gives you more energy. I saw an NFL player on an Instagram reel doing something similar; mic’d up on the field, he was talking to himself, saying, “You’re going to kill this guy, you’re the fastest out here.” He was hyping himself up.

Another tool I use is journaling. I have people write down their limiting thoughts or fears on one side of the paper, and then they reframe it on the other side. It’s interesting because if I don’t give them prompts, it’s challenging for them, and they often use words like “I should,” “I try,” or “I need to,” which creates more expectation but lacks clarity. Instead, we work on words like “I commit to,” “I love to,” “I’m excited to…”

Ashish Kothari: Or “I am…”

Jeff Salzenstein: Exactly — “I choose to.” We clarify the language, writing it down and then verbalizing it. You have to overdo it because 80% of our thoughts are negative, and we’ve been firing and wiring them for years. These practices help us rewire by starting with awareness of our thoughts and how we externalize them.

Ashish Kothari: I love that. I recently read a book called Mind Magic by a Stanford neuroscientist. It’s amazing because it flips the idea of intention and the “law of attraction” on its head.

While there’s a lot of pseudoscience out there, the overall concept of intention is valid, and he explores how verbalizing intentions and setting them shifts our brain and neural pathways.

I trained with Julio, an incredible ontological coaching teacher, who emphasizes how words, beliefs, somatics, body movement, and moods all play critical roles in changing our perceptions.

I love that you had him go out for a walk and externalize his thoughts. All these elements collectively help shift the limiting beliefs that hold us back, and it takes work and repetition to reprogram the 50-year-old stories that once fueled success but now no longer serve us.

Jeff Salzenstein: Correct. We can look at someone successful in business who might struggle with relationships or vice versa. Gay Hendricks talks about the concept of an “upper limit.” We bump up against these upper limits based on our beliefs. When we start to unpack them and bring in accountability, that’s when things get exciting.

Ashish Kothari: I love it. So let’s move into the last part: soul. What are some things you cover in soul and invite leaders to integrate?

Jeff Salzenstein: The simple answer is that when we connect to our hearts, we connect to our soul. The longest journey we’ll ever take is the 18 inches from the head to the heart. I’m a recovering overthinker, and there’s always work to do — it’s part of the trauma response.

We explore somatics and healing, recognizing that we often stay in our heads and aren’t taught that it’s okay to feel sensations in our bodies, to actually feel our hearts and trust we’ll be okay. We tend to run from that discomfort, distracting ourselves with alcohol, TV, social media, and overthinking.

I simplify it by saying that we’re tapped into our soul when we start dropping into our heart and showing up as our true, authentic selves. So many of us wear a mask to the world, but when we’re comfortable with who we are, regardless of external validation, that’s when we connect to our soul.

Specifically, I approach this through emotional regulation. When we look at emotions, it’s about recognizing draining versus renewing emotions.

Research from the HeartMath Institute shows that renewing emotions like gratitude and compassion give us energy, while draining emotions like anger, frustration, and worry deplete us.

If we’re constantly in these draining states, our brain doesn’t function as well. Simple practices like mindful, heart-focused breathing align your heart into coherence, which restores energy and increases resilience.

If you’re experiencing anger and frustration all day, your heart is out of rhythm. By practicing appreciation and gratitude, you can reset that rhythm. Just slowing down, taking a deep breath, and becoming present allows us to connect to our bodies, heart, and soul.

Ashish Kothari: I’m a huge fan of HeartMath. I encourage all my clients to use the HeartMath sensor. For people who find meditation challenging, it’s a powerful, visual approach.

The sensor shows whether you’re in a red, blue, or green state, and by using heart-focused breathing, you can see how your heart rhythm smooths out, which directly impacts emotional regulation and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This brings access to greater creativity and clarity.

Another aspect of soul is service and recognizing that we’re interconnected beings. It’s not “us against the world” as we’re often taught. It’s “Ubuntu” — “I am because you are.” These are lessons we need to unlearn to truly connect with one another.

Jeff Salzenstein: It’s so true. As you were speaking, I was thinking about psychological safety and the challenges people face. The reason I put together this framework was to simplify things.

If we sleep better, think better, emotionally regulate, and breathe better, imagine how many problems could be solved. If we just get seven hours of sleep each night, start thinking differently, and feel more appreciation and gratitude, that’s where creativity, innovation, energy, and peace in the world could start.

When I do my workshops, at the end, I always ask for takeaways. I often get a few people saying, “I know all this stuff; it’s common sense.” But then they’ll add that something about the way it’s presented — maybe through sports stories, anecdotes, or data — makes them want to actually do it.

That’s one reason I felt so connected to you, Ashish, because I know you’ve been on your journey around finding the secret to happiness. You’ve helped me become a better person and a better coach. My habits have improved just from being around you and learning from you.

Like when you suggested taking five one-minute breathing sessions throughout the day instead of just five minutes in the morning, it made so much sense. I do this in strength training, too — spacing out pull-ups over the day.

I’m passionate about this work, and I love how we’re both on a mission to help people find their zone, rewire, and reach the next level.

Ashish Kothari: My friend, this was such a rich conversation. Thank you for the kind words. I’m excited about what we’re creating together and how we combine your sports experience with my corporate research and applications.

We’re really training the next generation of corporate athletes who operate at their best, create positive change for the people they lead, sleep better, think clearly without fear, and have greater awareness of their breathing, emotions, and purpose. Thank you for spending this evening with me.

Jeff Salzenstein: My pleasure.

Ashish Kothari: Till we meet again, my friend. Be well. Thank you.