I’ve coached a lot of people over the years. CEOs. Athletes. Nonprofit leaders. Young professionals who are terrified of speaking in front of a room. And one of the first things I tell every single one of them is this:
“Communication is a sport. And just like any sport, you can get better at it with the right training.”
Most people don’t think about communication that way. They think you’re either a “natural” communicator or you’re not. You either have “it” or you don’t. And I understand why they think that — because the best communicators make it look effortless. The great speakers, the great broadcasters, the great leaders — they make it look like they just walked up to the microphone and magic happened.
But that’s not how it works. Not even close.
Preparation. Practice. Performance.
That’s the foundation of what I call the 3P Philosophy. Three pillars. Three words that changed the way I approach everything — from hosting a live broadcast to coaching a client through their first TEDx talk.
Preparation is about doing the work before the work. It’s studying your audience. Knowing your material inside and out. Understanding the room you’re walking into. When I was writing for Sports Illustrated and covering the Huskies, I didn’t just show up to practice and wing it. I studied the depth chart. I watched film. I talked to coaches. By the time I sat down to write, I had done the preparation that allowed me to tell the story with authority.
The same principle applies to any communicator. If you’re giving a presentation to your team next week, have you researched who’s going to be in the room? Do you know what they care about? Have you anticipated the tough questions? That’s preparation. And most people skip it.
Practice is where the transformation happens. This is the part that nobody sees. It’s the reps. The rehearsals. The standing in front of a mirror and delivering your opening line until it feels natural. I tell my clients: “If you haven’t practiced it at least five times, you haven’t practiced it.” And they usually look at me like I’m crazy. Five times? For a 10-minute presentation? YES. Five times. Minimum.
In football, we didn’t run a play once in practice and then try it in the game. We ran it dozens of times. Hundreds of times. Until it was muscle memory. Until the play ran itself. That’s what practice does for communication. It takes something that feels awkward and unnatural and turns it into something that flows.
Performance is game day. It’s the moment you step up to the mic, walk into the boardroom, or go live on camera. And here’s the beautiful thing — if you’ve done the preparation and put in the practice, the performance takes care of itself. You’re not thinking about what to say next. You’re not worried about forgetting your talking points. You’re present. You’re engaged. You’re connecting with your audience in real time.
That’s the zone. Athletes know it. Performers know it. And great communicators know it too.
Bringing the Gold Out
I named it the 3P Philosophy because I believe that every single person has gold inside of them. A message. A story. A perspective that only they can share. My job as a coach isn’t to give you a new voice — it’s to help you find the one you already have and turn the volume up.
Some of the most powerful moments I’ve experienced as a coach have been watching someone who thought they were “bad at speaking” absolutely light up a room. Not because I taught them some secret technique. But because we stripped away the fear, built up the preparation, and let their authentic voice come through.
That’s what I mean when I say “bringing the gold out of every conversation.” It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about sounding like someone else. It’s about being so prepared and so practiced that you can be fully, unapologetically YOU — and that’s when the real magic happens.
If you’ve been sitting on a message that the world needs to hear, stop waiting for the “right time.” The right time is when you decide to prepare, practice, and perform.
The gold is already in you. Let’s go get it.
