The 1-0 mindset: what I learned from Kalen DeBoer
How the former Husky head coach's philosophy can apply to your broadcasting journey
It was late April 2022 when I was standing just a couple feet inside Kalen DeBoer’s office overlooking Husky Stadium. It was the day before his first spring game at Washington, and I was supposed to record a five minute interview with him which was going to air on our broadcast the following day.
Recorder in hand, I somewhat nervously looked down at my finger on the power button and turned it on. You never know how interactions with coaches are going to go, especially when you’re first getting to know them. But one thing I’ve learned over the years is if you start out by making the conversation about them, and go in with a genuine curiosity of what their day is like, what their challenges are, and whether or not you can help, they just might open up.
I figured I might be able to ask one question before we knocked out this obligated interview, so I went with this: “Hey coach, before we record, I was wondering if there’s anything from a messaging or a branding standpoint you’d like me to pass along to the fans listening tomorrow that might help sell your program to them.”
He paused long enough that I got nervous, but I could tell he was thinking about either doing something or not doing it. He decided to do it.
“Sure,” he said as he walked over to his computer. He shook the mouse to wake up his desktop, and then paused again looking up at me. “How long do you have right now?”
Whenever a major college football coach asks you that question, there’s only one right answer: “I got as long as you got for me, coach,” I said with a smile.
He proceeded to print out his culture playbook and started to look energized as we dove in, as if we were just getting to the good stuff.
“These are the keys to the car,” he said proudly.
Step by step, he walked me through every single idea he wanted to impart upon his coaches and staff, so that they could impart it upon the players, and the players could uphold that standard with one another. He told me who he learned each lesson from and when and why. I was in awe of the organization and the wisdom. And over the course of 45 minutes, there was one idea that kept popping up over and over again: