The Power of Relationships with University of Texas Men’s Basketball Coach Shaka Smart

Jul 29, 2020

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Shaka Smart joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast. Shaka is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at the University of Texas. He was previously the Head Coach at VCU where he helped get them to a Final Four. He is an amazing guy and incredible coach, but this conversation is about his life. He will talk about spirituality, culture, leadership, and we go deep in this conversation. He brings an energy to every conversation he is in, and he’s genuine, curious, and a life-long learner.

In this episode, we discuss why he’s drawn to relationships (5:30), the people that have impacted him (6:50), what he loves about basketball (9:10), how he thinks about competition (10:30), what he’d be doing if not coaching basketball (12:10), consciousness (17:40), the spiritual teachers he follows (21:10), how he thinks about ego (22:40), what he’s watching during a game (25:05), his sleep schedule (28:10), how he winds down (31:20), his spiritual framework (34:30), awareness and acceptance (39:30), feeling, emotion, and sensitivity (41:40), his biggest daily challenge in trying to achieve greatness (45:20), the power of curiosity (50:40), what goes through his body when telling a story (56:00), the culture he wants (1:00:30), what he looks for when recruiting (1:02:50), and if he cheers for underdogs as a fan (1:06:20).

Thank you to Shaka for coming on the podcast. We encourage you to check him out on Twitter @HookEmSmart. We also recommend you check out Bryan Stevenson at the Equal Justice Initiative https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/.

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that will be coming out in October 2020, and you can pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian