“Inexpensive Wisdom” with Mike Bianco

Show Notes:

What do you do after you win the College World Series?

If you’re Mike Bianco, head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels baseball team, you let your routine guide you. You go to work every day. You have the hard conversations. You give praise when it’s due and constructive criticism when it’s needed. And you absolutely love what you do.

Coach Bianco is now in his twenty-third year as head coach at the University of Mississippi. He is the winningest coach in the Rebels’ history with four SEC Western Division Championships, the 2006 SEC Baseball Tournament, the 2018 SEC Baseball Tournament, the 2009 Southeastern Conference Co-Championship, eight NCAA regional championships, and one national championship in 2022. Coach Bianco gives credit to consistency and communication in building such a strong college baseball program. 

He and his wife Cami are strong community leaders in Oxford, Mississippi, faithful members of St. John Catholic Church, and the parents of five children. 

Resources:

Follow Coach Bianco on Twitter and Instagram

Follow Ole Miss Baseball on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Learn more about Coach Bianco’s career here

Transcript:

Eddie Rester 00:00
I'm Chris McAlilly. And I'm Eddie Rester. Welcome to The Weight.

Chris McAlilly 00:04
Today we have a special guest. We're talking to Coach Mike Bianco.

Eddie Rester 00:08

Mike Bianco has been the coach at Ole Miss for 22 seasons. He's just started his 23rd season. I learned earlier today that he is the longest tenured NCAA coach in baseball, basketball, or football.

Chris McAlilly 00:25

Yeah, that's impressive. And what was also impressive is he led his team from beginning of the year last year, as a number one ranking, they ended up seven and 14. They kind of hit rock bottom, and then they were able to come back out of that and win a national championship. And so we talk about that. We talk about some of the lessons he's learned through his career in coaching that apply to parenting, leadership, the way that you think about building culture, whatever your organization looks like, how to deal with adversity, how to deal with communication. It's an incredible conversation with somebody really at the top of their career and field.

Eddie Rester 01:05

Absolutely. And one of the things that he said was consistency, and that came up a lot, consistency, showing up, doing the same things. And I just appreciated that about him. And if consistency, showing up, doing the same things. And I just appreciated that about him. And if you are in Oxford, or if you've been around Ole Miss at all, and I know we got some non-Ole Miss fans listening today, but I think you're going to enjoy hearing him just talk about his consistency. And if you're in the area, and you've gotten to watch him, that's the story of his life and how he approaches his family, his community. I'm just thankful he took a little time, as the season has gotten rolling, to talk with us.

Chris McAlilly 01:41

Yeah, and he's also a person of faith. He is a committed Catholic alongside his wife, Cami. And he talks a lot about his family and its influence and his faith. And it's interesting, you know, Catholicism is, if you look at it from the outside, some people are kind of confused or uncomfortable with the formality of it, or the structure of it. But, you know, as I was listening to him talk about, it just makes sense for Mike Bianco. It's a very consistent and structured form of religious faith, and it just suits the guy, you know. And he kind of talks about some of the ways in which that helps him in his life and leading as a person of faith in a career. So we're glad that you're listening today. And I know this is a special episode for Eddie because he comes out of the gates, you'll have to see him flexing on Mike Bianco. It's, you know, I've got one thing. I've got one thing. One thing and he's really good at this one thing, and so you'll have to... I'm not really, I'm not even any good at it. That's the problem. Well, yeah, you'll have to listen to the episode. We're glad that you're here. Enjoy it. And share it. Share it with your friends. Sounds good. We flubbed that. But that's okay. We didn't flub the conversation.

Eddie Rester 03:02
Cody, yeah, Cody will fix it. Right, Cody?

Chris McAlilly 03:04
Cody always fixes it.

[INTRO] Life can be heavy. So heavy, in fact that the weight we carry can sometimes cause us to lose hope.

Eddie Rester 03:14
But we've all come across those people in life who seem to be experiencing the same world we live in, except they maintain a great depth of joy and hope.

Chris McAlilly 03:23
A former generation called this "gravitas." It was their description of a soul that had gained enough weightiness to be attractive, like all things with a gravitational pull.

Eddie Rester 03:34
Those are the people we want to talk to. On this podcast, we talk to pastors, entrepreneurs,

Chris McAlilly 03:44
We'll create space for heavy topics, but we'll be listening for a quality of soul that could be

called gravitas.

Eddie Rester 03:51

Welcome to The Weight. [END INTRO] Well, we're here today with Coach Mike Bianco, the Ole Miss Rebels and coach of the reigning national championships of baseball. So Coach Bianco, thank you for taking some time to be with us today.

Mike Bianco 04:06
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Eddie Rester 04:08
Coach, we're gonna start out with a real difficult question for you. You danced like the stars a few years ago. I did it a couple of years after you. Which one of us you think did it better?

Mike Bianco 04:20

Oh, for sure you. For sure. It was no doubt, slam dunk. But I will tell you this. You know, as a coach and you start getting into the mental game and you start talking about the process. One of the things that they talk about is you try to be comfortable, being uncomfortable, right? And that was one of the most uncomfortable times in my life. I'm not a dancer. I don't... I listen to music, but I don't know music. It's really just background noise and I could care less and a lot of times you know, just get lost in thought. My wife Cami made me do it. I did not want to do it. I turned them down at one time, but then they came back and asked me again. And then she made me do it. And I'm so thankful, I'm sure like you, that I did it, because what a wonderful cause. But man, it was the scariest minute 45 of my life.

Eddie Rester 05:19

It was miserable. It was miserable. But my kids made me do it. When I went home and told them that, hey, they want me to do this dancing thing and raise money for Boys and Girls Club. They laughed and howled and... Yeah, we'll move on.

Chris McAlilly 05:33
I'll just say, coach, if you think that Eddie did better, you didn't see Eddie's dance. Okay, that's artists, mental health experts, and many others.

Mike Bianco 05:40

Actually I think it was during COVID. Wasn't it the COVID year? I think my wife and I watched it, you know, whatever streamed or whatnot. So I don't even remember mine. It was such a fog. Yeah. I was so happy to get through it, man.

Chris McAlilly 05:54
Let me ask you. Let me ask you this. Why baseball? How did you fall in love with the game of baseball? And what do you think makes it a unique sport compared to the others?

Mike Bianco 06:06

Well, I don't know that the first part of that question, I think is really difficult. I don't know if people know why they fall in love with certain things. You know, I think it's hard. I just I grew up in South Florida. I played football, baseball, basketball growing up. Maybe because I was better. We tend to like things that we're good at. But, you know, as I got older, I realized that there wasn't a lot of room for a five foot nine point guard. But you could do it in high school. But the truth is, I didn't like all the running that had to do with basketball. Football wise, it was really more of a size thing. I really enjoyed football. I was a linebacker, and certainly, you know, you can, it doesn't matter what size in high school football. I played at a large high school. But you know, I guess if you want to play and you're tough enough, you can play high school football. But I was missing, in Florida back in the 80s, I was missing too much baseball in the fall. And you know, they were playing high school baseball, I was missing about 25 games a year. I remember my father saying, "Hey, you're missing all this baseball. And I know you like football, but is it worth it?" You know, because yeah, there's not a lot of five nine linebackers running around on a college football field. And so I gave it up my junior and senior year and just focused on baseball, and probably a smart choice for me. I'm not an advocate of just specializing in one sport. But, you know, at that point in time, it was probably a good move for me. So I don't know, that's not, that's probably not a real good answer for why you love it. But I've always enjoyed playing it. And then, as far as why is it different? I think it's, it's that's why some people look at baseball and they say, "man, it's so slow. It's so boring." Those are the people that don't really get it. You know, they don't really understand the game. You know, they're just looking for the the Sports Center highlights, right? You know, they're looking for the homeruns, or the giant strikeouts are a great diving play. And, you know, baseball is a game that it really is super fast, but it's just played at a very slow pace. And what I mean by that is, when the ball leaves the pitcher's hand, it hits the catcher's mitt at less than half a second later. T'he hitters got to make a decision within about two tenths of a second. "Should I swing? Or shouldn't I swing? Is it a ball?" The guy runs to first base in under five seconds. Most of the plays in baseball are under five seconds long. So it's a game that's played at a very... You know, the actual plays themselves are very fast, but it's played at a slow pace, because there's 300 of those pit plays a game.

Eddie Rester 08:55

all I'll say about that. Oh, yeah. It was the COVID year.

Eddie Rester 08:55

One person that we talked to a while back brought up baseball, and he said what he loves about baseball, it's the only untimed sport.

Mike Bianco 09:04 Til now.

Eddie Rester 09:05 Until now.

Chris McAlilly 09:06 Not anymore.

Eddie Rester 09:06
Yeah, I know, you've got the timer for the pitchers and all that, but historically, it's been the sport that moves at, claims its own pace.

Chris McAlilly 09:17

And I think it's interesting, because as American culture picks up speed, America's game is having to make some adjustments. But I think, I don't know. There is a leisurely pace to baseball that allows for just being at the ballpark. You know, it's kind of a... I don't know. You talk to people about kind of the run you guys had last year, and what people end up talking about, they talk about the team and they talked about the game. They also talked about their parents and their grand...

Mike Bianco 09:49 The experience.

Chris McAlilly 09:49

Yeah, the experiences they have around the game and I think that that's just one of the things that I think is unique to baseball as a spectator sport. But yeah, it's a great game. I wonder, you know, for a parent that's out there that may be, the parent of say, let's just say a 10 year old who sees some potential in their son or daughter, and playing multiple sports. I know a couple of your sons went on to play college baseball. What advice would you give to a parent that's out there that's just trying to navigate that journey in sports these days?

Mike Bianco 10:27

Well, you know, in some regards, I think it's easier to raise a kid in sports now, because there's the availability of coaching and lessons and video. You can YouTube anything. We had a catcher a few years ago, Cooper Johnson, came from a single parent, a mother, up in Chicago. And I remember asking" him, How did you learn how to do all this?" And I was just taken aback when he said, "Well, you know, a lot of the blocking and my footwork, throwing, I just YouTubed." And I was like, what? You know, like, here's one of the best catchers in a country. And so in one regard, I think, you know, in today's day, you know, there's some, much easier than maybe it was 40 years ago, where dad was selling insurance and, you know, got home at six o'clock at night, didn't have a lot of time to play catch with his son. Where was his son going to learn how to play baseball? But on the other side of it, it is complicated. Like, where do you go? What teams do you play? You know, how often? Do you play one sport and specialize? Do you play three sports? All the... like life now? Right, Life's so much more complicated now than it was 40 years ago, and so many more decisions that have to be made. And so I think for a parent, I think, especially early on, you started off the question of, you know, what got you to love the game. And I don't know at that point, but I think it's sign them up for a lot of things. I think, at 6, 7, 8 years old, kids don't know what they love. My parents signed me up, I didn't ask to get signed up for baseball or little league football or basketball. And so don't be that parent that said, "Well, you know, he never said." Sign him up. He may love it or she may love it. So I'm up for... My daughter, we never played volleyball or know anything about volleyball in my household, but she had four older brothers. And my wife said, "Hey, do you want to next year..." She was in sixth grade. It was the summer of her sixth grade year. And they were having volleyball. My wife got an email from Ole Miss that said they were having a volleyball camp. And she asked Catherine, she goes, you know, "In seventh grade, you can play volleyball at Oxford Middle School." And of course, Catherine never played any sports. She did a little cheerleading, little tumbling, and gymnastics, but never played any sports. So my wife signed her up for Ole Miss volleyball camp, and she loved it. Next thing, you know, she makes the team. The next year as an eighth grader, she makes the high school team and you know, ends up becoming a three-year captain in high school. And it was just because my wife just signed her up for a volleyball camp one time. So you know, I think sometimes as parents, we sit back, and we're waiting for them to tell us. I mean, my gosh, they're six, seven years old. They don't know what they love or what they don't. So try some different things, and then see what kind of pulls their interest. And then from there, try to navigate some of those decisions.

Eddie Rester 13:23

You bring up your kids. And so we want to talk about some leadership stuff. And then I want to talk about family. Your job is intense between recruiting, coaching, training, all the meetings that you do, and you have these five great kids. And you know, my wife was the middle school principal, and your wife, Cami. She depended on Cami as just this great volunteer. And in the community, y'all have this amazing reputation for loving the Oxford community well. And I guess my question for you is, how do you structure life so that you can balance things and put yourself where you need to be and how you want to live? How do you do that? And maybe some advice for folks who are feeling that pressure of work and job and faith and community and all these things? How do you address that?

Mike Bianco 14:19

Well, another thank you for those nice words, Eddie, and I don't know if I have that answer, but maybe the best answer is, hey, everybody goes through those struggles. You know, hey, I'm gonna miss my son's ball game tonight. Or, you know, we all have to make tough decisions on where we need to be, when we need to be there. And because of my job, and because of the requirements of my job, I miss a lot of things. I missed, I think three of the five high school graduations. You know, my son Michael played four years of high school baseball, and I'm a baseball coach. I saw him play five times in high school. So, one of the reasons, when my kids went away to play college baseball people go, "Well, you won't be able to get to see him play." I don't get to see him play here, you know. So those people that struggle with that, I get that, and you live that. And I have no help with that, you just you need to try to do what you can do. One of the things that I think is helpful for me is, you know, because I'm weird this way, I don't really have any hobbies. Like, I don't hunt. I don't fish. I don't play golf. I don't have time to really do those things. I have nothing against them. Maybe one day when I have enough time. Golf is a tough, tough hobby, and it takes a lot of time to play. And I don't have that kind of time. Maybe one day, I will. Like, I work on the weekends. You know, so a lot of my hobbies maybe I'll pick up later in life, when I retire. I only share that with you so every chance I get, I try to spend it with my kids or my wife or somebody. Every time I walk out the door, it's a little lonelier now that we don't have one in high school where I could run to a volleyball game, or try to catch the last half of a baseball game or a football game. So you try to do what you can do. But a lot of the things, in the community and faith and all of those things, I think that's why I've been blessed with a wonderful wife that has really guided me. I wouldn't be the person today. And I know a lot of people say that. But in so many different aspects of my life, you know. I probably would have been a baseball coach, but I wouldn't have been as good a baseball coach without my wife and certainly, everybody thinks this about their spouse. And that's probably a good thing, if you do feel this way about your spouse. I think she's built for sainthood. I mean, she is a one that's got a huge heart. And she makes all of us, me and my children, better, to see her light and how it affects different people. And so, in those endeavors, of volunteering and giving, I think she's just kind of showed us how to do that, and how to do that in your community. And especially early on in our faith. We're Catholic, and I grew up, I was baptized Catholic, and went through all the sacraments. But the truth of the matter is, I wasn't really Catholic. I believed in God, and I believed in Jesus, but I never participated much in mass. We'd go on Christmas and Easter, maybe, sometimes, but that was about it. And she challenged me to be a better Catholic, and to be able to go to Mass and do the things that the Catholic Church requires you to do. And I've kind of fallen in love with it. I've fallen in love with the routine. I've fallen in love with the faith and so on. So, you know, most of that's come from her for sure.

Chris McAlilly 18:04

I was gonna ask you about your personal faith journey, I'm glad that you kind of led the conversation in that direction. I wonder, for folks, you know, there are a lot of folks, especially in the South that maybe don't have a connection with the Catholic Church. And I do think that the formality and the structure of it for some people who've not grown up in it, or don't know much about it, you know, it can feel strange or weird. It sounds like the longer... You know, baseball is a kind of routine game. It's the it's kind of... It is structured. There's a formality to it. I wonder, I guess for you, as you've grown in your faith and kind of your appreciation for the Catholic Church, what is it that you see about that particular faith tradition that is compelling to you?

Mike Bianco 18:48

Yeah, and first, I say this, because obviously, I respect all faiths and even beyond Christianity, right? I mean, but what's what's really cool about being Catholic are some of the things that I've fallen in love with. But I think to your point, Chris, it can be intimidating. You're walking in. They're standing and then they're kneeling, and they're saying different prayers, different things throughout the mass. And you're like, man, what's everybody doing?

Eddie Rester 19:13 What's going on?

Mike Bianco 19:14

Yeah, it's not just somebody gets up on the pulpit and, you know, has a couple readings. And then somebody says a homily. Right? I mean, it's more than that. And then when you start to realize that it was the first church, and these are some of the things that have gone down through time, and you start to understand how mass works, and how the different parts of mass. But one of the things that's really cool is that structure. So, for example, if we're at Vanderbilt, and I go to Mass on Sunday morning, you can find it. First there's, a lot of different masses, usually, especially in the big cities. So you have different opportunities. It's not just one giant celebration. There could be one at six am, one at seven thirty, one at ten. You know, in the college campuses, they have them at Sunday night. And so there's usually never an excuse. They have a vigil mass on Saturday. So there's never excuse that you can't make mass every week. The other part of it is, the mass is the same. It doesn't matter if it's in Oxford, Mississippi or Nashville, or in Japan. Cami and I went to Tokyo, went to Catholic mass in Japan. It's run the same way. Now, the homily, the message, that might be a little different because it's how that priest is interpreting the message or what on his heart that particular day. But the structure of the mass is exactly the same from church to church. Now, some sing more than others, and some do a few different things, but all the prayers throughout the mass and the way it runs. So I think there's some comfort in that. When you walk in, you know how it's all going to go. So, anyway.

Chris McAlilly 20:56
No, that's helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Eddie Rester 20:59

I want to talk a little bit about coaching and your leadership. One of the things that I've admired about you over time, and you've been--this is your... You started your 23rd year at Ole Miss. Is that right?

Mike Bianco 21:13 Correct.

Eddie Rester 21:13

22nd? 23rd season at Ole Miss, coached at McNeese State before that. Before that, you were at LSU with Skip Bertman, incredibly successful and influential coach in the game. And one of the things that I've admired is how you've just created a culture of winning and excellence. What are some of the things that you do consistently, or maybe over the years that help you maintain just that consistent culture of winning and excellence for your organization?

Mike Bianco 21:47

Well, one, you're right, I worked for arguably the greatest college baseball coach ever in Skip Bertman. He won five national championships in 10 years through the 90s. So you know, he was the Nick Saban, the John Wooden of college baseball. And so I was fortunate. You know, most of us, whatever profession you are, you had some type of mentor, and I had a lot of great coaches, including my father, growing up. But you know, the final piece was this system that I learned from Coach Bertman. So, it's so broad, and you don't have enough time on this podcast to go through it. But, you know, one of the things about the system, it's well beyond the X's and O's, right. We always say it's a full service program that, yes, we think we teach pitching well. We think we teach hitting well. We think we recruit well. But it's about the academic advisors and study halls, that's part of this system. There's a part of this system that deals with the mental game. There's a part of the system that deals with getting people to the stands. There's a lot of programs that win, but don't draw, like we do, like LSU does. And so there's a system of getting people to the games and trying to raise attendance. And so, it's very broad. But, you know, one of the things that I think is, I'm consistent. I like consistency. I like routine. I like doing the same thing. That makes me feel comfortable. You know, every morning, I wake up, at six o'clock, I go let the dogs out. I start the coffee. I go to library and I read for about 45 minutes to an hour, and I get up and take a shower, and go to work. And usually I'm here in the office about 8:15 every morning. And not every 100% morning, but, man, if you went back and look at 365 days, I think you would find that, man, just somewhere well into the low three hundreds, that's my day. Even on vacation, it's hard for me to sleep past six o'clock. My wife will be at the beach and she'll, you know, "What are you doing?" And I'm like, Well, this is what I do. This is what makes me feel good. You know, like, I don't have to sleep to nine o'clock to feel good. I feel good being able to wake up, have a cup of coffee, and read my book. So I think consistency is important, and we have it in our office. The other thing that I think that I mentioned at the national convention for coaches, that makes us different. You know, I hate to use the word "brutal," because it sounds negative. So I'll say I'm blatantly honest. I say what's on my mind in this office, to my players, to the people that that are part of this program. Some people aren't ready for that. One of the things that I say when I hire coaches or people that are going to come into our program as some type of administrator or assistant is you have to be able to handle me. And what I mean by that is, I need to be able to say what's on my mind. One, I think I just function better that way. And I think there's times that you got to have tough conversations. There's times and you got to be able to critique different people or critique things or say, "hey, this bothers me." Communication is really the root of everything, from a business to a relationship. It doesn't matter what it is. And it's amazing how bad people are at communicating, for whatever the reason is. They're just... They're uncomfortable. They don't like it. But it's not that I enjoy uncomfortable conversations, but I hate being miserable. And so if Mike Clement, the hitting coach, is doing something that I don't like, rather than let it just fester and be miserable for two days, I'll just bring him in. Usually, the icebreaker is, "Hey, how's your self esteem?" And home know that, hey, now it here comes. There's a punch behind this. And I'll say, "Hey, listen, I don't really like the way we do this." Now he's got an opportunity in there to say, "We do this because this, this and this." And I may say, "Oh, I didn't know that. Go ahead and do it." Right? Now I feel better. Now I understand why we do that. Or I may say, "Hey, I get it, but I don't like it. So let's change it." He works for me. So he'll say, "Yes, sir," walk out the door and change. But the problem is, most people don't like having that tough conversation. I don't like hurt people's feelings. But at the end of the day, sometimes you have to have that. But at the end of the day, isn't it what happens in relationships? Wife does something, and the husband doesn't like it. So he gets mad. But he never tells her because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings. But he's mad at her. And then all of a sudden you wake up, and now she gets mad because he's mad. Right? Then you wake up five years from now, and you don't even know why you're mad anymore. And so you got to get out of this relationship. And so at the end of the day, I think I have to have tough conversation with my players, coaches, and so on. So I think that's one of the big things about being consistent.

Chris McAlilly 26:43

Alright, one of the people that I admire the most in coaching, and it's not just me, I mean, just widely regarded as one of the best coaches of all time, is Coach K up at Duke. And I heard him talk about values driven leadership, and in the midst of that truth telling is a very important dimension for him in getting his team to perform at its highest level. And it seems like that is an important value for you. I wonder, what are some of the other values that you hold in high regard? If truth telling and honest communication is one, what are some of the others?

Mike Bianco 27:25

You know, one of the things that we've talked about, people have asked and said, "Hey, man, you look like you've loosened up over the years. You've been there for 23 years." And, you know, that might have been a knock against me early on that I was a little rigid. And I think that happens a lot of times. I think when you're, especially if you become a head coach, or a leader of a business at a young age, a lot of times you go one of two ways, right? You either go, "Hey, I'm going to be the young, cool guy, and laugh and joke and be this loose guy," or "I'm going to try to present myself a little bit, as more mature, right? So people will take me seriously and won't look." And so I took that route, right? I actually, when I was a younger coach, and I still do it today, I dress differently than a lot of coaches. I used to wear slacks and golf shirt every day to work and people are wearing, "Hey, man, you're a coach. You can wear gym shorts, or you can wear sweats every day." And I never did, because I didn't want to come across as the young guy, right? I wanted to come across as a mature coach. And I think that can be a mistake of some people. So I don't think over time I actually got looser, but I think everybody does Don't they? I mean, when you're 50 years, it doesn't matter if you're a coach, or you're running a business, everybody... What you start to realize is what used to bother me still bothers me a little bit, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. We're still going to win. So why? I let it roll off my back a little more nowadays than maybe I did when I was 38 years old.

Chris McAlilly 29:01

Isn't there a balance there? I wonder, especially at the highest level of performance in sports where you hear a really high performing hitter or a really high performing shooter in basketball, they talked about playing loose. And it seems like there would be some wisdom and really kind of some skill involved in learning to be the coach of players that are playing at the highest level and the highest pressure environments, between that truth telling and letting folks know how it is and making sure that your standards are being met. And then also creating an environment where players play loose. I wonder if you could just talk through some of the things you've learned about that through the years.

Mike Bianco 29:42

Yeah. Well, and I'll tell you, I was listening to the TV yesterday. I was on a treadmill and somebody had made a comment about culture. And one of the broadcasters said something like culture is great, but it doesn't matter. If you lose, your culture stinks. it doesn't matter. You can go in a locker room, sing Kumbaya, everybody's great. But at the end of the day, man, if you don't win baseball games or basketball games or whatever, if your business is in the red, it doesn't matter that everybody loves one another. Nobody is gonna talk about your great culture. So they kind of go side by side. But somebody made a comment that hey, culture does, you know... A lot of times, culture doesn't last. And I don't think he really meant that. I think what he meant was that Kumbaya, hey, we're going to spend a lot of time on how much everybody enjoys this in the office. And you know, we're all gonna have a lot of parties. We're going to do that. And that's okay. I think that's tough to sustain for 20 years. You know what I'm saying? But the problem is, most businesses or cultures, they don't have to sustain for 20 years. Right? So back to your question. I think the reason that we've been able to sustain ours is because it isn't a "kumbaya, let's just give everybody a hug. Let's just be super positive, and it doesn't matter if you did bad. You'll get them next time," and all of that. I think we're a little different. We're honest. When you're good, we're going to tell you you're good. When you're not, we're going to tell you that you're not. And one of the things I think about this generation, Generation Z, right, is this is the first generation, the kids that I'm coaching now, and we see your children and so on, Generation Z. This is the first generation that doesn't need their parents or the adults to give them information. They grew up with a computer in their pocket that's much smarter than we are. So when I grew up, and I'm watching the Cosby Show on television. And if I had a question, I'd ask Mom and Dad, and they'd try the best they could to give me the answer. My kids just pull out their phone and Google it, right? And they just answer the question. So they don't need us for information. They just need for us to interpret the information. How does that information affect their lives? What does that mean to them? That's what happened 50 years ago. What did it lead to now? What are some of those discussions and opinions? And I think that's what happens these days. It's nice to have the leader that just seems to smile a lot, be full of energy. And I'm not saying that's wrong. I like that. I love the positivity. But I think if it's all of that, and it's so much to that side, that can get old after a while, too, just like anything else. It'll last more than negativity. But I think sometimes to be neutral, right, to be positive. But it's harder to be positive than negative. Humans are built the negative way. And so you got to find those times to be able to give the warm fuzzy, to give the compliments, and not just a in a business of financial raise, and all of that, just a smile, or fist pump and say, "Hey, man, nice job. That was awesome." You know, we, as coaches, I think, sometimes always look at all the bad plays, but we've got to make sure that we're writing down and going because, you know, repetition is the mother of skill. If you give that warm fuzzy, the next player is gonna want to duplicate that as well.

Eddie Rester 33:04

Right. One of the things you just mentioned is that they have all the information, kids do, at their fingertips now. But they need someone to help interpret that. And the thing that ran through my mind is, I think what Gen Z needs is not more information, they need wisdom.

Mike Bianco 33:18 You're right.

Eddie Rester 33:18

And they need wisdom of how. How do I put this together? I've got all this, I got the footwork down. But how do I translate that into a successful career? How do I translate that into being a great teammate?

Mike Bianco 33:32

So back to Chris's question real quick, is, you know, part of that is experience. What's the way you get wisdom? You get it through experience, right? Because I've already failed. And so we call it inexpensive experience, right? So you learn from my experience, so you didn't. Expensive experience is when you screwed up, and now you have to pay the piper. But what I can tell you about, "Hey, this is what we did. Or not just me, this is what our country did, or this is what these leaders did. These are the mistakes that they made." And you can share that inexpensive experience. That's where I think kids can gain ground. But through that communication, they will trust that wisdom. But if you don't have that communication, that they won't necessarily trust you as much.

Chris McAlilly 34:16

Yeah, I think that all the best coaches that I've had, or that I've watched are good storytellers. And I think part of it is, I've seen that in the way that you lead as well, is that you're part of that motivation, but also part of its wisdom. And it really, it's not just about pumping the guys up. I think that one of the threads that I hear through the conversation is decision making. You know what I mean? There's, you know, baseball is broken down to 300 decisions that have to be made like that, and to get good at that, you know, how do you use stories to help teach your guys to make good decisions?

Mike Bianco 34:16

Well, I think it's exactly what Eddie was talking about. It's that experience that wisdom, and I try to find stories that I think are pertinent to life in general. They don't have to necessarily be baseball, right. They don't even have to be athletic. But why did this guy make this decision? Because he was selfless. Or why did he make this decision? Because he was tired of being miserable, and wanted to compete and change his fortune. And so, you know, I try to gather stories, and then pull the story out. And the other thing is, when you're leading a business or a team, and you're motivating, you're trying to teach, you can't get them all at one time. And I think that's what's intimidating. I'm not going to tell a story, and it's not going to reach 40 people. But if I can get this 10 today, and tomorrow, I get another eight, and then the next day. If you're giving a sermon, you're not gonna get the whole congregation. But if you're consistent, right, and you're trying really hard over time, you're going to reach them. But not every sermon, not every motivational talk or speech is going to connect with every single person. And I think that's what sometimes is a little intimidating for leaders is, they put so much pressure on them to just to knock it out of the park. Just try really hard, and you're gonna end up getting something, right. You're gonna get a few disciples, if you will.

Eddie Rester 35:36

That makes me feel much better. So if I can keep 10% of the congregation awake on a Sunday. you're saying overtime I'll get them all. Last year, your team faced a lot of adversity. And that's not unique. Every team faces adversity at some point and in some way. Individual members of the team will face a lot of adversity through the year, whether it's a slump or an injury or different things. One of the things, particularly last year that you were able to do during that stretch where things just weren't falling into place, is you were able to keep the team focused, moving forward. How were you able to do that? Because they were taking criticism. I'm sure they were reading the internet and listening to things. How are you able, in your own life or for the team, to help them face adversity well?

Mike Bianco 37:18

Well, first and foremost, I don't think we get through last year without great leadership in the team. Guys like, Tim Elko has gotten so much credit and well deserved, but guys like Justin Bench, and Kevin Graham and Derrek Diamond, Max Cioffi, older guys that have worn this uniform for a long time and have won more games in this uniform than anybody else. So you know, you talk about experience, right? So they've experienced the highs and the lows. And this was the toughest moment, but to their credit, they remained consistent. They showed up every single day. And we may have lost a tough game the night before or lost three in a row, but man, you wouldn't have known that if you were in the locker room or the dugout, the next game, prior to the first pitch, when you're looking at Graham or Elko. So those guys were super consistent in who they were. And so part of that is I don't know if we could have done it with a young team that hasn't had the experience and didn't have the experience of winning, knowing that they were a good team, that they needed to just continue to fight and persevere. I think the other part is, as leaders, we have a responsibility not to do how we feel. Feelings have nothing to do with it. At the end of the day, they pay me to coach this baseball team. And so it's not my job to sit there and feel sorry for myself or to wallow in my sorrow and "hey, people are mad at me. People want to fire me," and all these different things. Our job is to coach this team. And so during that we challenged the coaches: Hey, you're getting paid to do this. And if you can't put your feelings aside--I get it, that you got families and everything. That's your job when you go home. But when you walk into this office, your job is to make us a better baseball team. And so we all kind of took kind of an oath that we're gonna do the best that we can do, and set our feelings aside and coach the team the best of our ability. And I think we all did that. And not just the coaches, but especially the players. And I've said this in meetings to the kids, and you've probably seen it on videos and whatnot, but I truly mean it. We've all heard that, hey, when you hit adversity, you need to continue to work hard. You need to continue to believe in yourself or possibly if you're part of a team or an organization, continue to believe in that group. And if you keep doing that, eventually you'll find your way out of that hole, whatever that hole is. We've all been told that growing up. Maybe we read it on a poster at a doctor's office, about adversity and all of that. But these guys were actually living it last year, right? These guys actually did that. They were at a point where not many people survive a season, but they continued to fight and battle. And I think that's why people fell in love with the story. It wasn't just a national championship, but it was how they won the national championship, right? And it wasn't a rags to riches story. It wasn't like this team that came out of nowhere. It was a team that was ranked number one in the country, and then fell off into this big cliff, and nobody thought about anymore. But they continued to fight and climb out of that valley until eventually they got back to the top of the mountain.

Chris McAlilly 40:42

I think that adversity brings its own challenges and success does as well. And after you... You know, it seems like one of the things that I'd be curious about is perhaps what your motivation is now. I'm not assuming that your only motivation in coaching is to win a national championship. Everybody puts that out there as the goal. But once you get over that hump and you do achieve what is, in your profession, the top goal, what brings you back? What's your motivation now, in coaching? How has it changed? Is it the same or is it... How are you thinking about that?

Mike Bianco 41:22
Well, yeah, the tongue in cheek was, "Hey, Chris, that was pretty cool. We'd like to do that again."

Chris McAlilly 41:25 Yeah.

Eddie Rester 41:26 That's right, yeah.

Mike Bianco 41:27

But I think in college coaching, especially, people talk about new challenges in their life. Every year is a challenge for us. Every team is different. We lost a lot of great players last year. And so when you walk into that meeting room this August 2022, literally about a month and a half after we won the national championship, there's 40 players and 20 of them weren't here last year, right? And even the guys that were here last year--Kemp Aldermen, now now he's a leader. You know, last year he played for the first time. Didn't play, he played sparingly as a freshman last year. He became a kind of a mainstay in the lineup. Now he's playing as a possible draft pick and a possible All-American. Same with Jacob Gonzalez. And Hunter Elliot was a guy that nobody knew his name last year at this point. But now you know, as a freshman All-American and seasoned vet, because he won a bronze medal with the USA team in the summertime. So all the kids, they're at an age of 18 to 22 years old, where they change so much every year, not just physically but mentally and emotionally and who they are. And then like I said, you had 20 guys that came here to win a ring. They weren't part of it. When we went to the governor's mansion in November to be honored by the governor, half of the guys in my locker room didn't go because they weren't here last year. When we got honored at halftime at the Alabama football game, Dylan DeLucia came back, Tim Elko, and of course Gonzalez and the guys, but half of the guys that practiced in the fall didn't get to participate in that because they weren't here last year. So you know, we talk.. And you've got to remember Generation Z, right? Attention span of eight seconds. Maybe that's a good thing for this, right? That those guys, their attention span goes quickly, so they're ready to move on.

Chris McAlilly 42:26 Yeah, no, that's awesome.

Eddie Rester 43:11

One more question for you. You've been at this at Ole Miss, starting your 23rd season. Consistency is part of your story, encouragement, truth telling part of your story. But personally, what do you do to keep yourself fresh year after year? I think for all of us, any long- term person in a career, after a while it becomes the grind. That is the grind. So any habits, any things that help you just kind of keep you fresh and excited about what you're doing?

Mike Bianco 43:47

Well, man, that's a tough question for a guy that just talked about routine. I'm kind of a boring guy. I don't have these habits, or hobbies. I love my routine that makes me feel good. I feel really uncomfortable when my routine gets messed up. But I do. Cami and I bought a condo on the beach. Unfortunately, we only go about 10 and 11 days a year. But one day, we promised ourselves we'll get there. We'll get there more. But I have five kids, too. And even though two, no, three are out of college, but you know, two are still in college here Ole Miss. We're still enjoying time with them. We're fortunate and blessed that Cami's parents, two of the grandparents are here in town. And my father is still with us and he lives with us. And so we have three of the four grandparents that are still here and active. And life's great, you know. We feel very fortunate. So, you know, I really love what I do. I know we kind of started with that. I love coming to work every single day. I love coaching. I love my life. And so, you know, maybe I'm odd. Maybe that... I don't really look at it as a grind. There's parts of the job that, like any job, aren't super exciting, or it's not why I became a coach. I get that. But I do those things so I get to do the things that I love. There's things in life we're not always going to love every part of it, but some of those tough parts allow you to continue to do the things that you love to do.

Chris McAlilly 45:29

Well, thanks so much, Coach, for spending time with us today. We really appreciate your time in the season to be with us and to have this conversation. Best of luck this year. Hope you guys have another awesome year.

Mike Bianco 45:41
Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Eddie. I appreciate it.

Eddie Rester 45:43
[OUTRO] Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, the best way to help us is to like, subscribe, or leave a review.

Chris McAlilly 45:52

If you would like to support this work financially or if you have an idea for a future guest, you can go to theweightpodcast.com. [END OUTRO]