Julius Thomas

The strongest culture lever a leader has is the energy they bring into the room.

Teams calibrate to their leader's emotional state in real time. Stressed leaders create stressed teams. Steady leaders create steady ones.

If you want to know why your team is performing the way they are, start with how you're showing up.

Spent time this week with Coach Tom Izzo and Coach Pat Fitzgerald at Michigan State.

The conversations about how to help young athletes be there best, is always exciting! We hd great conversations about how to get the most of a young athlete's potential, how to help young athletes get the mental health education that is protective, and what makes teams dominate their competition.

This is the work we're doing at Optimal Performance day in and day out. Pushing the envelope on innovative ways to help the ELITE become more ELITE. Driving for the next level of performance, while protecting the individual from the risks to their wellbeing.

Bennie Fowler and I have been committed to what mindset and mental growth can do for consistent success since we met in 2014. We are just getting started in how we will create impact for high performers in the decades to come!!!!

Devastated by the news of Brandon Clarke's passing.

No amount of fame, money, or success can ever fix the pain within.

This is the Cost of Performance I have been preaching about for years.

The only way through is healing yourself by navigating one emotion at a time, over and over again, until you build the emotional capacity and resilience to endure it.

It's sad, but the reality is, it is too common.

We only hear about the high-profile individuals who die before their time. But there are millions of people quietly battling inner feelings they are struggling to endure and most of them will never make a headline.

As a former NFL player and a psychologist, I have watched too many of my brothers in sports struggle privately while everyone assumes they're fine.

If you are battling something silently right now, please tell someone. The people who love you would rather hear it than read about it later.

Sending prayers to Brandon's family 🙏🏾

Was up in Canada this week with the team.

We covered a lot of ground. The piece that’s still sitting with me is radical candor.

Every leader wants a team that can challenge each other. Push each other. Have the hard conversations without flinching.

Most miss the order of operations.

Candor is downstream of culture. You build the conditions first, then the honesty becomes possible. People have to feel like they matter and they have to know the people next to them actually have their back.

When that foundation is set, the hard feedback lands. The push makes people better and the candor becomes a tool for growth. You earn the right to challenge each other by first proving you’ve got each other.

This is the work we do at Optimal Performance. Sitting with leaders, building the conditions that produce the best from their people, and giving teams the tools to actually get there.

To the leaders at Bacardi Canada, thank you for the openness and the trust. Already looking forward to the next visit.

We know athletes can't perform at their best while injured.

The training staff, the recovery protocols, the off-days are all built around making sure the players showing up with the best health possible.

But every Monday morning, millions of people show up to work already running on empty. Already burnt out. Already disconnected from why they're doing it, and we expect them to perform.

Is your performance system built to be productive while maintaining your health?

The U.S. produces $27 trillion a year. Head and shoulders above any country on earth. #1 in GDP, but ranks last in health among developed nations.

It goes against everything America stands for to be last in the rankings that actually matter.

We used to chase greatness as a country.
It's time we did it again.

Your favorite billionaire CEO will get on a podcast and tell you work life balance is a myth.

Of course they think that...

They may have sacrificed their marriage, their kids, their close relationships.

Be wary taking balance advice from people who depend on others over exerting themselves.

Real balance is an integrated, thought-out system: Fun. Growth. Self-care. Relationships.

Built into every week, with the flexibility and autonomy to move things around when life calls. Nobody should feel ashamed for wanting that.

Over the past 8 years I have made strides in my transition from the NFL that have helped me build a new career and identity.

What many don't know is how important Pro Athlete Community (PAC) and the resources available through PAC have been to help me be where I am today.

The career support, guidance, education, speaker training, and networking connections I have received through PAC is something I am grateful for every day.

The journey to "What's Next" is always difficult, but having the right support on your side makes it a whole hell of a lot easier.

Thank you PAC! Keep changing lives.