Podcast Summary

Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford

Episode Title: Train Your Brain for the Big Leagues: Mastering Mental Execution in Travel Baseball
Date: October 8, 2025
Host: Matt Hannaford
Guest: Danielle (Founder, True Mindset, mental performance advisor with an elite athlete and martial arts background)

Overview

This episode focuses on the mental side of baseball, exploring how athletes—and especially young prospects—can develop mastery over mental execution to excel in the increasingly competitive landscape of travel and professional baseball. Danielle, a former elite athlete and founder of True Mindset, shares insights on the actionable mental skills that separate the good from the great. The conversation spans philosophies of support over prescriptive coaching, the realities of professional pressure, the vital connection between language and mindset, and compelling personal stories of resilience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining the Mental Side: Support over Help

• Support is not “help.” Danielle distinguishes her approach by emphasizing support rather than prescribing fixes:
  • “I really don't see that I help. I am great at support and athletes wanting something in a sport.” (07:00)
  • She meets athletes where they are, aiming to hear them, not just listen.

2. Athletic Background & Multisport Development

• Danielle’s elite background (UCLA softball, black belt in Jiu Jitsu, pro surfer) frames her understanding that playing many sports builds the formulas for winning mindsets:
  • “I think that all the sports kind of tie together and you learn... these formulas of how to win.” (05:08)
• Athleticism and diversity matter. Developing in multiple sports prevents over-specialization and burnout.

3. Mindset Tools: Preparation, Breathing, and Organization

• Preparation over assumption:
  • “Am I organized? What does that look like?... Do I even have [an approach]?” (10:51)
• Breathwork as a nervous system regulator:
  • Danielle teaches athletes to move from fight/flight (sympathetic) to rest/digest (parasympathetic) to better digest high-pressure environments. (12:15)
• “We’re the only creatures on the planet that can overthink our feelings and choose our thoughts. That’s a huge aha moment for a lot of people like athletes.” (13:18)

4. Navigating the Business and Emotional Reality of Pro Baseball

• The transition from playing for love to playing for a living is a watershed moment mentally:
  • “Now it is a business and they haven't spent much time thinking about it much... it can be a weight that is placed on these guys shoulders.” (15:18)
• Standard vs. expectation:
  • “I take the expectation and I peel it off and I put in place of that standard.” (16:46)
  • Danielle coaches athletes to focus on standards and routines for handling failure rather than chasing results (17:36).

5. Failure Routines and Language Shifts

• Proactive failure routines:
  • “If I'm going to execute a successful play, then I'm going to execute failure the exact same. And then the fear... I turn and face fear.” (17:53)
• Combatting negative, disempowering internal language:
  • Athletes are taught to replace “I’m struggling” with “I’m being challenged,” reframing adversity into actionable motivation (22:53).
  • “Baseball is always going to challenge... It’s a psychologically abusive relationship... but the ‘woe is me’ to ‘why not me?’ That’s how you become great.” (23:22)

6. Accountability, Assessment, and Lifting the Mental Weight

• Move from judgment (good/bad) to assessment (what actually happened, what can be improved?):
  • “So instead of judgment, this is where I teach them to assess.” (31:49)
• Athletes are prompted to “lift the weight” mentally as much as physically—embrace mental reps and self-inquiry:
  • “You got to lift the weight, right. So how are you going to get better with the mental stuff? You have to lift the weight, too.” (35:40)
• Danielle’s specialty is simplifying chaos—turning overwhelming struggles into a compact, actionable blueprint.
  • “I lighten the weight every single time. There hasn't been a player... that I haven't lightened the weight they're carrying.” (36:10)

7. Building a Personal Blueprint

• Engage: Maximizing personal/professional potential by aligning intentions with actions (27:55)
  • Example: For pitchers, shift the focus from “getting outs” to “executing pitches, one at a time.” (28:09)
• Focus: Sustainable blueprint is co-created through ongoing, iterative conversation and trust (36:58).
• Work & Train: Peak moments are for pushing; adversity is for refining. “When things are going great, that's when I really love to work. Because then we can press.” (40:48)

8. Resilience: Personal Story of Recovery

• Danielle shares her traumatic medical story—paralysis, stroke, and relearning basic functions—demonstrating her own application of the mental skills she teaches:
  • “Understanding how to use my breath to control my nervous system, to overthink my feelings, choose my thoughts... to just compete with what was right in front of me and be all in.” (45:14–47:20)
• She underscores the idea of being “offensive” in healing, not just reactive or passive.

9. The Fighter Mindset in Baseball

• Danielle equates the elite athlete’s mentality to that of a fighter or martial artist:
  • “Technique and leverage beats strength... every single time. Baseball—pitchers have to be offensive.” (54:55)
• She vividly conveys this to athletes: “Baseball rules of engagement says the pitcher is going to come over and throw a punch at you. How long is it going to take you to punch him back?” (55:41)
• Activating the “warrior” within athletes can lead to breakthrough performance by changing mental frames.

10. Parenting and Letting Young Athletes Develop Autonomy

• Danielle’s critical advice to parents: give space, hold unconditional support, and wait for the “invite” before stepping into technical or emotional territory:
  • “Being a parent of two boys... wait until they invite you to speak to them about their baseball or their sports. I have something called the invite.” (61:04)
• “The kid to impress is a big issue for kids. Playing their game and playing to impress is two different games...” (61:04)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the need for support:
  “Meeting athletes where they are is what I aim to do. That's really my intention.” — Danielle [07:55]

• On language and challenge:
  “Imagine if I called you up and I said, hey, Matt, are you up for a struggle today? You’d be like, what's your deal? … But if I said, hey, I have a challenge for you, you’d be immediately curious.” — Danielle [22:53]

• On standards and routines:
  “We create a standard, we create a foundation so that when they do fall down, it's not if, it's when, failure 100% is going to come upon us all. In sports, having a failure routine is important.” — Danielle [16:46]

• On “lifting the mental weight”:
  “You got to lift the weight, right. So how are you going to get better with the mental stuff? You have to lift the weight, too.” — Matt Hannaford [35:40]

• Resilience in adversity:
  “I wake up defeated, very defeated currently. And the neuroplasticity in my brain, my brain's having to rewire… So teaching these guys how to protect the confidence... how to protect their passion and joy.” — Danielle [50:05]

• On parenting and space:
  “Wait until they invite you to speak to them about their baseball or their sports. I have something called the invite. ...I wait for the invite and it always comes, because I don't ever step into the space.” — Danielle [61:04]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:34–03:50] — Danielle’s journey, inspiration from Ken Revizza, and background in multisport professional athletics
• [10:35–14:15] — Three essentials for high schoolers: support, preparation, proactive mental tools (breathwork, mindset)
• [15:10–17:53] — Transitioning from amateur to pro: the burden of expectation and how Danielle replaces it with standards and failure routines
• [22:15–24:31] — Language, reframing, and the crucial power of challenge over struggle
• [27:55–30:23] — The blueprint: aligning job, intention, and action; example for pitchers
• [43:53–50:05] — Danielle’s story of severe injury and recovery, illustrating living the tools she teaches
• [54:55–59:31] — “Fighter” mindset, activating the inner warrior, and redefining competitiveness
• [60:02–64:13] — Danielle’s parenting approach: “let them play,” support, creating a psychological safe space for young athletes

Final Insights

Danielle’s approach to mental performance in baseball is intensely personal, rooted in both lived athletic experience and harrowing personal recovery. She urges athletes, parents, and coaches to shift from judgment to support, from defense to proactive offense, and to invest real time in training the brain—not just the body. Language, failure routines, and self-accountability anchor her system, which is about creating strong, adaptable, and ultimately resilient people, not just players. Her advice to parents to “wait for the invite” and to create an unconditional supportive space is a must-hear for families in competitive sports.

Listen to this episode for an uncompromisingly direct, empathetic, and actionable take on mastering mental execution at every level of baseball.