Donnie Kerns

Nobody accused Bill Parcells of being soft. But listen to what he says: “If you ever need anybody to talk to, just call me up. You think I don’t need somebody? We all need that.” But why does he say that? Because he understands the loneliness of leadership. "You imagine what’s going through that poor son of a gun’s head right now?" Parcells, a man whose entire coaching philosophy was built on the belief that comfort is the enemy of performance, is explaining that every coach needs someone they can talk to about what's going on in their team, on their staff, and in their head. Parcells wasn't trying to be nice. He was being honest. He knew exactly what happens inside the skull of a coach, because the same thing happened in his own mind. • The lineup you’re about to change and the new challenges it will present. • The angry parent email sitting unanswered since Sunday. • The kid whose home life fell apart over summer and nobody else knows about it. • The assistant interviewing somewhere else and thinks you don’t know. • The booster politicking in the parking lot. • The call you should have made on third down last week that you're still reliving. • The time with your own kids you keep postponing. • The workouts you keep skipping. • The health issues you're ignoring. • The fact that you haven't been home for dinner in six weeks. It never stops. There's no off-season for the mental load of coaching and leadership. It's not a football thing. If you coach basketball, baseball, volleyball, or golf in a town of four thousand people, this is your life. The sport changes. The faces change. The reality doesn't. Coaches carry more unexpressed thoughts and unprocessed emotions than any other profession. And they have fewer trusted, private places to express them than anyone. Go through the list of people you "could" talk to: Your staff? Some but it's extremely limited. You are their boss. Besides, many of the thoughts and feelings are about them. Your players? Obviously not. Your AD, principal, or board? Minimally. Everything you say there goes in a file, even if it's a mental file. Your spouse or partner? They love you, which qualifies them to listen but disqualifies them from being objective. Plus they've already absorbed more of this job than they signed up for. Most coaches figure that out and start editing what they bring home. And there's only so much a spouse can offer in their position. Other coaches in your league? No way. They're your competitors. Other coaches outside your league? They're busy coaching. Coaching is a small world and reputation is a valuable currency. There's only so much you can say without unintended and unseen consequences. Your old coach? The closest thing to a real option. But also busy, three jobs removed from your situation, and from a different era of coaching and social dynamics. Friends or professionals outside of coaching? They think they understand sports and coaching realities, but they don't understand. It's more frustrating than helpful. Your options run out fast. You end up talking to the only person with complete context and zero ability to be objective about any of it. Yourself. In your office staring out the window. At midnight in your bed. In your car wrestling with 1,000 thoughts. On a repeating loop. The repeating loop of unresolved thoughts and feelings is what causes the damage. It's not the stress that kills you. It's the endless loop of unexpressed, unprocessed, unresolved thoughts and feelings. Thoughts you never say out loud never get pressure tested. Never get challenged or validated. Never get coached, sharpened, or redirected. They get louder and more certain. You argue and negotiate with yourself. You start making decisions based on the story you've built in you mind that hasn't truly been checked by another credible person who understands everything involved. Good coaches get too stubborn about this. They isolate themselves. They defend a plan instead of building a better one. E+R=O The event is not the problem. The event is the unchanging reality of coaching. It's the coach's response that has to change, not the event. If the outcome is going to get better, it can't depend on ideal events. It must come from a better leadership response by the coach. What Parcells offered wasn't therapy or sports psychology. It wasn't really sympathy, either. It was a place to say what you need to say to someone who understands. Someone who won't judge, won't criticize, and won't share what you say with anyone else. Somebody with context, no agenda, and no stake in how you come across. Understanding. Confidentiality. No judgment. Available when you need it, which is rarely during business hours. The problem is that you don't have Bill Parcells on speed dial. Most coaches will go their entire career and never get that offer from anyone as credible as him. So I built it for coaches. It's called Zone 1 Coach. Zone 1 is a journal you talk to, out loud, in your own voice, whenever you need. • Walking off the field after practice • In your car after a win or loss • At 11:45pm when you can't sleep You don’t have to type anything. You don’t format anything. You just talk. You don't even need clear thoughts. Anything you say, any way it comes out, no matter how sloppy and jumbled and odd it may seem. It leaves your mind, goes somewhere that keeps it safe, and saves it. Then the Zone 1 Coach Advisor can hear your thoughts, feelings, details, and realities. Safe, secure, and confidential. No person ever sees it. But the Zone 1 Coach Advisor learns about you from your Journal. The Advisor is not a generic ChatGPT you have to re-explain everything to. It knows you, your sport, your level, your record, your roster, and what you said about this player three weeks ago or this situation last week. You can ask it the question you can't ask your staff. You can say the thing you'd never put in a text or email. It doesn't flinch, it doesn't leak, and it doesn't think less of you for whatever you're struggling with. The Zone 1 Coach Advisor listens, understands, and helps you with exactly what you need as a coach in that moment, for your situation. Zone 1 runs on E+R=O and 25 years of sports and coaching behavior performance. So what you get isn't motivational or generic. It's proven systems, disciplined mechanics, and real action steps for your real situation. I'm a 25 year executive coach. I've coached the highest level championship coaches in pro and college athetics. My coach clients tell me they talk to their Zone 1 Journal and Advisor about things they don't say to me. That's part of the point, right? You need to say it to someone or somewhere so you can get the help you need. Parcells had it right. And he said it in the most Parcells way. "You think I don’t need somebody? We all need that." You're not a weak leader for needing someone to talk to and somewhere to release your thoughts and feelings. You're in a complex, difficult role that generates more thoughts than one head was built to hold. The Zone 1 Coach app is what you need. And it's ready to be what you need. The link to Zone 1 Coach is below.