'If You Put the Work In, Great Things Happen'

She was 1,400 miles from home with just $1,000 in her pocket — but determined to coach.

So, in addition to serving as an unpaid assistant with the University of Utah women's soccer team, Mandy Green began waking up at 4:30 a.m. to do personal training, while coaching club teams on weekends.

“I had to find a way,” Green said. “I learned to be resilient. I learned if you put the work in, great things happen.”

Green would go on to coach with her husband at Loyola-Marymount, Xavier and Youngstown State, among other schools, but still reflects on those lessons from her early 20s in her present work.

She’s currently the CEO of Busy Coach as well as the national recruiting coordinator for Tudor College Strategies, which assists college programs in their recruitment of various prospects.

The Daily Coach spoke to her about evaluating whether a job is the right fit, the danger of “sucking it up,” and why the scoreboard is the greatest motivator.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mandy, thank you for doing this. Tell us a little about your childhood and some key lessons from it.

I grew up in Minnesota. My parents owned a bakery — it’s amazing I’m not 400 pounds. My dad would go in at 7 p.m., and my mom would wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. and decorate everything. There were many nights we slept in a motor home outside the bakery. I’d fill the trays, and when I got old enough, started to wait on customers. I really learned work ethic from my parents.

We also had a big pond in our backyard and in the winter, my dad would flood the ice and weld some nets, so I got into playing hockey, soccer and basketball. When I wasn’t in the bakery, I was playing a sport. There was a lot of independence and figuring things out on my own.

You played college soccer at Loyola-Chicago and Macalester College. Was coaching always the plan?

Physical therapy was the plan, but it was boring to me. It seemed so repetitive. No matter what shoulder injury, you did the same rehab. I lost interest in it. I never thought I would coach — I didn’t like speaking in front of people. But my high school coach had recommended me for an under-17 girls traveling soccer team.

My (college) coach left to coach at Utah, and I (actually ran into) her husband at a tournament. He called his wife, who said, “Come to Utah! We need a volunteer assistant.” I didn’t want to move to Utah. I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have any money. But I went out for the summer camp and loved it. It was beautiful. I ended up coaching there for four years.

You coached with your husband for more than a decade at several different schools. What’d you learn in those experiences that influences your work now?

College athletics is win, win, win. But the relationships are what made coaching fun for me. It taught me some really good lessons about how to get more from people through positive interactions.

Each school was so different. Our level of enjoyment with each program had a lot to do with the people we were surrounded by. Some were better than others. With the ones that weren’t as good, we didn’t do enough research figuring out if these were people we’d go out for a beer with. It broke our experience. You can love what you’re doing, but if you don’t like the people you’re surrounded by, you’re going to be miserable.

You mention not doing enough research. What does good job research look like in your eyes?

There are people who are meant to sell and will say the right things, so they put their best salesman hat on and everything is great and perfect. But talk to other people there and get their opinion on what leadership is like. We always talk about in recruiting if you’re trying to find a good fit, talk to the people who are on the bench who aren’t as high up.

There are so many stories of “I was promised one thing, but when I got here it was totally different.” It’s also talking about stuff other than work. If you talk about family, you can connect on values. At the University of Utah, I’m not Mormon, but I had similar values as the people I was working with, and it was a great relationship. There are indicators if this might be a good fit or not.

I want to shift to some of your current work. You write on your website about productive days and being intentional with our time. What does a productive day look like to you?

I’m not just about getting to-do lists checked off. A productive day is making progress on big tasks that are going to help you accomplish your goals. There are days where you’ve got lots going on, but a productive day for me is starting the day with the needle-moving activities, the high-value tasks that are going to help me advance in my career.

If I can align my energy and focus and protect that time — some days it’s two hours, some days it’s 30 minutes — I feel I made that progress and am more in control. I’m doing the right things at the right time. That, to me, is a productive day.

You wrote recently about the danger of “sucking it up” and why that’s not a long-term strategy for leaders. What’s a better alternative?

There’s such a hustle and grind. “I’ve got to work harder and longer.” To me, that works for a minute, but there’s a point of diminishing return. I see too many coaches burning out, not enjoying their job, which makes the experience for student-athletes less enjoyable. And that impacts results.

There are moments where you’re going to have to push through, but I don’t think that’s a great long-term strategy for consistent, high performance or rising in a profession. What I try to do with my work is show that there are other ways to get things done. We’ve got to be smart and intentional. I don’t want coaches burning out. I burned out. It wasn’t fun burning out… There’s always an easier way to get something done. You will get to a point where you’ll be done with it, and it’s not a sustainable way to stay in a profession for the long term.

You had another tweet recently that the “elite compete like they’re losing, regardless of the score.” Can you elaborate on that?

I’m helping out with my 11-year-old daughter’s soccer team right now. When we’re not keeping score, the pace is slow, and the energy is low. Those who have reached high levels of performance and been able to sustain it for long periods of time are always pushing the barriers. They’re always competing. They’re keeping track of the score.

My favorite people to be around are competing and pushing the barriers, no matter if the score is being kept. Those are the people I bond with because I love their drive and their energy.

There are people who are always rooting for the underdog. I’m rooting for Alabama football because for them to stay at the top, they always have to be competitive, no matter what’s going on.

I love the elite group because not everybody has it.

Q&A Resources
Mandy Green ― Busy Coach | Bio | Books & Coaching | X | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook

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