RENÉ VIDAL

7-time NCAA championship coach and entrepreneur René Vidal helps leaders and organizations turn adversity into competitive advantage.

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Rod Ray, Wofford Tennis

Coach Vidal on Coffee with Coaches Guest Rod Ray: In this episode of Coffee with Coaches, you will be inspired by guest and author Rod Ray to expand your comfort zone. What I love about our conversation is Rod’s optimism, authenticity, and commitment to being a man for others. Like all of us, Rod continues to face down 40 love situations every day, but he has learned how to turn things around with a smile on his face and a heart to serve. To learn more about Rod Ray, check out his Amazon bestselling book “Hard Comes First” here. –René Vidal Here are a few of Rod’s insights on building resilience and living in the precious present: On Resilience “Resilience is not something you have, or you don’t have. Resilience is a skill that you can acquire.” “If you want to build resilience, then look for hard things. You need to do things outside of your comfort zone all the time.” “Most of the things in life that mean the most to us are things that were challenging.” “I can’t promise that your life’s going to get easier (but if you read my book), you’ll see that your life can get richer.” “Most of my best players have had to go through adversity to become good players.” “I believe in a very powerful, strong, and loving God. I don’t think God creates bad, but I think he can use bad for good.” On Leadership “I’m gonna give you everything I got, and I don’t really want anything in return.” “For our team, it’s not a Rod Ray team; it’s a player team.” “My dad was a great leader and became president of a small college when he was 75 years old. My father didn’t know much about running a college, but he was nice to people and knew how to make hard decisions for an unselfish purpose.” (Listen to Rod speak about his father at Podcast time stamp 6:24) On Legacy “If I’m a stronger person, then I can be a stronger person for other people.” “Let’s do life with an open hand rather than a closed fist.” “I would like my legacy to be that I loved well and believed in others when they didn’t believe in themselves.”

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Super Lawyer Jon Vegosen on Culture and Leadership

Jon Vegosen played Division I collegiate tennis at Northwestern, joining the team as a walk-on freshman and earning selection to the All-Big Ten Conference Tennis Team his senior year. Jon was a founding member of Chicago law firm Funkhouser, Vegosen, Liebman, and Dunn; and has been designated as a Leading Lawyer and Super Lawyer in Employment Law for many years. The consummate volunteer leader and servant, Jon has served as Chairperson of the Board, President, & CEO of the United States Tennis Association, Board Member and Vice President of the International Tennis Federation, and since 2015, serves as Chairperson of the Board of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Jon has been inducted into four athletic halls of fame: Northwestern University Sports; the ITA; the USTA/Midwest Section; and the Chicago District Tennis Association. In this episode of Down 40 Love, Jon shared many invaluable stories from his illustrious and invaluable advice for anyone who wants to take their lives, careers, and businesses to the next level. Here are a few of Jon’s thoughts on culture. 5 KEYS TO BUILDING A VALUE-DRIVEN CULTURE 1: Create Transparency and Fairness Culture is critical in the workplace because it shapes the environment where employees interact. Culture impacts their behavior and is a factor in overall organizational performance. If there’s a culture of transparency, openness, and fairness, employees will have greater trust, faith, and confidence in the organization. If it’s a closed kind of society, they’re going to have the opposite reaction. 2: Inspire a Sense of Purpose An upbeat and positive workforce culture inspires a sense of purpose, belonging, and teamwork. When employees or teammates are in accord with the mission, goals, and values of the organization, they’re more likely to be engaged, they’re more enthusiastic about the work they’re doing, and they’re more likely to remain with the organization longer. 3: Invite New Ideas When a culture invites new ideas and is open to change, it can make employees feel valued, inspire greater creativity, and result in better performance. 4: Learn by Osmosis When I started working at a law firm, I would regularly be in a partner’s office to discuss a legal matter or research I was asked to do. While I was sitting there, the phone would ring and it would be a client. The calls were on speaker phone and the partner would discuss whatever the client wanted because you want to be responsive. So I received a terrific education by osmosis about how to deal with clients. Those experiences were insightful and invaluable. I’m quite concerned with so many people working remotely these days, learning by osmosis is being utilized less and less. 5: Provide First-Rate Service and Advice Culture is not only important internally, but it’s also important externally—for the organizations, clients, customers, the people that they serve. My approach to serving clients is to be highly responsive to them with a high mission of service. I provide clients with first-rate service and advice. And because I care about them, I help them with things in their personal and business lives that may have absolutely nothing to do with legal issues. It’s my intention to bring joy into their lives.

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CEO Doug Conant on Your Leadership Blueprint

Doug Conant played division 1 collegiate tennis at Northwestern before serving in the corner office as President at Nabisco, President and CEO at the Campbell Soup Company, and Chairman at Avon Products. Today, Doug serves as founder and CEO at ConantLeadership, a mission-driven community of leaders and learners who are championing leadership that works in the 21st century. To learn more, visit https://conantleadership.com. In this episode of Down 40 Love, former Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant shares leadership insights from his life story and bestselling book, “The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights.”  Doug’s Top Quotes On Leadership “Leadership is personal.” “Your life story is your leadership story.” On Northwestern “Northwestern opened doors for me beyond the tennis world.” On 100% Responsibility “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” On Business “What I loved about the business world is it was really just a community of people trying to get something done.” On Introverts in the Marketplace (citing best-selling author Susan Cain) “The most untapped resource in any company are the introverts because companies aren’t built to listen to them.” On Self-Esteem “Businesspeople are hustling for their worthiness every day.” On Courage “It’s hard to display the courage of your convictions if you don’t know what your convictions are.” On Generosity “It’s not when you’re done that you start being generous. It’s the whole journey leading with generosity and helping others every day.” On Legacy “I want to be known as someone who honored all the people that I was with on my journey.” Doug Conant: A Fortune 100 CEO’s Leadership Playbook 1: Be totally accountable. (In tennis), I had to be totally accountable for my performance. I couldn’t have somebody else doing it for me. If it’s to be, it’s up to me. You gotta own it on the court and you gotta own it before you get on the court. Total accountability is essential not only in tennis, but in life. 2: Work at your craft. Practice may not make you perfect, but it is required to get good. Practice is hard work. If you want to excel at anything in life, you’ve got to work at it. I wanted to excel at tennis so I poured myself into it. I had to be a student of the sport, see how people were playing points, and learn the craft. 3: Embrace pressure as a privilege. I went into the corporate world ultimately, and I saw a lot of people wilting under pressure. I did not because I had learned through tennis that it was up to me, that if I was prepared when I went on the court, I could handle anything that was thrown at me, even though I might lose. I started to engage in my matches and then in my life with this mindset that I’m lucky to be here and I can handle this pressure better than the other guy so let’s go. Let’s mix it up now. I may lose, but I started looking at pressure as a privilege. 4: Build your courage muscle. When you’re going into this chaotic world whether athletically or professionally, you have to be well anchored in who you are and how you want to show up. It takes courage, which Maya Angelou said is the mother skill. If you don’t have courage, you will wilt. You have to have courage. A lot of people want to have courage, but they don’t know where to get it. It’s hard to display the courage of your convictions if you don’t know what your convictions are. And I think that’s the root of the problem. Most people don’t know where they stand on things. They’re just trying to get by and respond to this crazy world coming at them. 5: Define what you stand for. Your life story is your leadership story. It’s where you will find the courage to perform. You’ve got to go deep into your world and figure out what you stand for. Then, you’ve got to bring it forward to the world at large. We’re all listening to what everybody else wants us to do, but we’re not sure what we want to do. Businesspeople are hustling for their worthiness every day. What I learned in tennis was if I was really grounded when I went into a situation, I could show up there and do it effectively in the fullness of time. 6: Rise to the occasion. Down 40 Love means “let’s get it on.” It’s time to rise to the occasion. Let’s kick it up a notch and let’s bring it on. You need that mindset when you’re in business. If you’re not ready to kick it up a notch and deal with the pressure of the moment, then you’re not going to have many more moments where you’ll have the opportunity. 7: Engage in the commonalities. Wherever you are in the world, whatever organization you’re in, the organization has a set of values. There are the organization’s values, and then there are your values, your life story. In every organization there’s this big cross-hatched area in the middle where your life story can overlap meaningfully. It’s not about seeing how I’m different from everybody else and trying to protect myself there. It’s more about engaging on the things that are the same.

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Billy Pate, Princeton Tennis

In this episode of Coffee with Coaches, Princeton head men’s tennis coach Billy Pate shares how he prepares athletes not just for tennis success but also for life beyond sports. Coach Pate’s Profile (Read Full Bio) Billy’s Top Coaching Quotes On Legacy “I want to be thought of as somebody who put their student-athletes first.” On Recruiting “We want highly ambitious players to be the best version of themselves, not just as tennis players, but as human beings and students.” On High Performance “Your goals need to match your habits.” On Team Culture “Our winning culture is about energy, being unselfish, being disciplined, and being a good teammate.” On Leadership “We want to guard against entitlement.” On Sportsmanship “I never throw my racket because that would be disrespectful to kids who can’t afford rackets.” (Quoting Rafael Nadal, 22x grand slam champion) Coach Pate’s Philosophy in Action Vidal Leadership Application

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David Roditi on Building a Winning Team Culture

In this episode, 2024 TCU NCAA National Championship Coach David Roditi shares his insightful journey from being a professional tennis player to becoming one of the best collegiate tennis coaches in the country. During this engaging conversation, David opens up about his experiences, thoughts on creating a dynamic culture, and how thinking differently produces different results on and off the court. Some key highlights and takeaways: Are you ready?…Let’s go! FOLLOW DAVID RODITI: instagram

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Talking Culture with Mark Booras, Tulane Men’s Tennis Head Coach

Mark Booras File: Vidal: What is culture? Booras: Team culture is the environment you want the guys to be in; the environment you want at practice, during matches, team meals, and the way people talk to each other and relationships. Culture affects lots of different things about outcome: how you play and push one another, the emotional side of the game and how much you invest Vidal: Did you have a mentor? Booras: Jeff Brown at LSU, a fantastic coach, even better guy. In Jeff, I saw the head of a program that was reachable. I watched how Jeff carried himself and the relationships he built with the players. “Life is about relationships.” Mark Booras, Head Coach at Tulane Men’s Tennis Dick Gould at Stanford was another great example; the guy was all about relationships…I was literally nobody, but he would give me the time of day and make me feel like a million dollars. Vidal: What steps would you recommend to shape an amazing culture? Booras: Great question. 1 – Set the vision. The guys on team need to see the leader doing right. They need to see me not only living it; they need to see me believing it…that this guy means business. If you’re failing at the top, not following your own rules, the guys are going to see that. The idea of leadership and consistency is huge…preach discipline and show these guys what discipline means. 2 – Embody selflessness. You want a culture where people are investing in each other. Yes, as a player, you want to be the best and play number one on the team, but you also want to building with your teammates an environment of love and care for one another and family. 3 – Be a relational leader. From my first recruiting call, I say, “We want you to be part of the Tulane family. This is the best thing that you’re going to have for the rest of your life.” The relational part of culture is the overarching principle that you want to really focus on as a leader. Vidal: What advice do you have for next-generation leaders? Booras: With information at their fingertips, one of the things that is slightly challenged is the communication opportunity. How are you communicating? When we go to team dinners, I make the guys put away their phones. We’ve got to learn to talk to one another. As a coach (and leader), you have to know how to reach each person because everybody has a different personality.

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Authenticity Expert Nadene Cherry on Workplace Mindfulness

Nadene Cherry is a corporate meditation leader and mindfulness speaker. When Nadene’s technology sales business doubled in 2008, one year after practicing meditation, she knew it was time to share this practice with the greater business community. As the positive impact spread, more companies like Cisco, Salesforce, and Accenture asked Nadene to host workshops and work with their teams. — Nadene’s Highlight Reel: “I gave meditation a try because I was so lost. I wanted to feel more present in my life. I wanted to feel like I was occupying and taking agency over my thoughts and my experience.” “My sales at work doubles the same exact year that I started practicing meditation. I went on to win the top President Achievement Award four times at my company out of thousands of sellers.” “When I started meditating with a group, it completely changed the experience. You feel a shared connection and support amongst the group.” “Your inner peace, top performance, and most authentic self is on the other side of becoming still and taking a pause.”  Key Points and Takeaways:  Mindfulness is living and knowing that you’re living—it’s awareness. You can incorporate mindfulness anytime, anywhere. When we practice meditation, we’re able to observe our thoughts without becoming them. Being mindful can create stronger resilience. We’re not held back by our limiting beliefs. We don’t believe all of our thoughts. When you meditate, you reconnect with your most authentic self. When you’re authentic at work, you attract people, opportunities, and business. People want to be around real people. Group meditation brings out the authentic gifts of people and gets different parts of the organization talking to each other as human beings. Compassion is our ability to be with our feelings of inadequacy in way that cultivates patience and understanding. If you live life with a tight grip, you’re attached. If you live life with a loose grip and you’re not as attached, you can still have the vision. Nadene’s Mindfulness Exercise: Rate on a scale of 1 to 10 your level of calm multiple times throughout the day. What number are you at this moment? — Connect with Guest Nadene Cherry:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadenecherry/ Connect with Host René Vidal:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachvidal/  https://www.instagram.com/down40love/

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Testimonial: Subash Paramasivan

May | 2024 Dear Coach Vidal, I hope this message finds you well. I’m writing to share some exciting news: I recently graduated from school and have decided to move on from competitive tennis. However, I couldn’t leave without expressing my immense gratitude for your guidance and support, especially during my first two years at McKendree. Your faith in me during my sophomore year, particularly when you gave me another opportunity, meant the world. Winning the conference championship with the team under your coaching was one of the happiest and most fulfilling moments of my tennis career. Thank you for that incredible experience. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from you is the importance of maintaining a positive mentality. This is something I will carry with me throughout life. I wish you all the best in the future, Coach Vidal. Sincerely, Subash

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CX Expert & NYT Bestselling Author Shep Hyken on Referral Business

Shep is also a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who has been inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame. In S3 E1 of Down 40 Love, Shep shows us how to take the curve balls of life and transform them into amazing grand slams! Quick Take-Aways: 1. Customer Experience is a Philosophy 2. Create a Better Show 3. Generate Repeat, Referral Business 4. Ask the Extra Question 5. Treat Every Point by Itself 6. Expand Within Your Lane 7. Look for Ways to Get Better 8. Leave an Amazing Legacy =========================== CONNECT WITH US: =========================== Get VIP-only content and stay up-to-date with the latest: https://renevidal.com/newsletter/ Connect with Guest Shep Hyken: https://hyken.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/ Connect with Host René Vidal: https://renevidal.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachvidal/ https://www.instagram.com/down40love/