How to Turn a Moment Into Momentum

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast
Host: John Jantsch
Guest: Don Yaeger, New York Times bestselling author of "The New Science of Momentum"
Episode Title: How to Turn a Moment Into Momentum
Release Date: October 9, 2025

This episode centers on the concept of “momentum” in business and leadership—not as a fleeting, lucky streak, but as a science. Don Yaeger shares practical insights into how leaders and organizations can actively create, recognize, and sustain momentum. Drawing from his new book and interviews with world-class athletes, coaches, military leaders, and business executives, Don aims to distill actionable strategies that transform moments of opportunity into enduring progress.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rethinking Momentum: From Cliché to Science

• Defining the Problem ([01:21])

  • Don recounts the famous Super Bowl LI comeback by the Patriots as a moment where momentum visibly shifted.
  • “Most of America turned the game off because it was over. …And pretty soon, as we all know, New England created the greatest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl.” (Don Yaeger, [01:39])
  • Inspired by the post-game comment, “New England has redefined the word momentum tonight,” Don asks: Can momentum be engineered, or must we wait for luck?

• Research Journey ([01:50]-[02:56])

  • Sparked by curiosity, Don initiated an eight-year research project interviewing top leaders across sports, politics, military, and business to answer: “How do you turn a moment into momentum?”

2. Engineering, Not Waiting for Momentum

• The Pre-Spark Framework ([03:16])

  • Momentum is not spontaneous; it often starts with “an entire framework of effort” before the visible spark.
  • Key elements:
    • Culture: Build a team that isn’t internally competitive to a fault—people must cheer for each other.
    • Recruiting: Select for both talent and supportive mindset.
    • Preparation: Prepare mentally so sparks can be recognized and captured.
  • “You can treat [a small moment] as if it’s large. …You can create momentum where other people might be sitting back and wondering, when’s my spark going to happen?” (Don Yaeger, [04:13])

• Training Awareness ([04:50]-[06:38])

  • Highlights Coach Buzz Williams’ unconventional training: Players analyze moments in various sports—regardless of their own—to pinpoint momentum shifts and explain their reasoning.
  • Business parallel: Regular “What if?” scenario planning builds readiness for unpredictable opportunities or challenges.

3. Common Momentum Killers

• Missing the Spark ([07:33])

  • Failure to recognize and act on opportunity is a chief way momentum is lost.
  • “They’re called sparks for a reason. …if you don’t fan the flames…the moment’s gone.” (Don Yaeger, [08:07])
  • Selfishness and inability to celebrate others’ success sap momentum—negative “mirror neurons” infect the team’s spirit ([08:44]).

• Examples from Business History ([09:54]-[10:38])

  • Reluctance to adapt (e.g., newspapers dismissing early signs of digital disruption) can squander obvious opportunities, even when it means sacrificing short-term gains.

4. Measuring & Sustaining Momentum

• Intangible Metrics ([12:21])

  • Unlike revenue or other hard stats, momentum is “a state of mind”—a collective belief system.
  • “If you’re the leader and you’re the only one that believes, you don’t really have momentum…” (Don Yaeger, [12:44])
  • The recruiting anecdote: “Pick people who can be happy when somebody else does well just as they would be…for themselves.” (Don Yaeger, [15:07])

• The “Pippen” Example ([13:57])

  • Scottie Pippen, finally “Batman” after Michael Jordan’s retirement, refuses to play in a crucial playoff moment not designed for him; his selfishness lost teammates’ trust and became a byword (“pulling a Pippen”) for self-centered play.

• Scoreboards in Business ([15:29]-[16:17])

  • Even without public win/loss tallies, teams and organizations know internally when momentum is lost to competitors.

5. Broad Relevance Across Fields

• Momentum Studied in Sports, Military, Politics, and Business ([16:54])
  • Don's book draws on high-level interviews in each sector, revealing common momentum principles across disparate domains, from corporate turnarounds to political campaigns.

6. Actionable Advice: Creating a Momentum-Building Culture

• Speak the Truth Weekly ([18:16])
  • Honest assessment is non-negotiable: “One of the most important things you have to do every week is speak truth into the situation so that you can then create a vision that others believe is possible.” (Don Yaeger, [18:33])
  • Leaders must own gaps or difficulties, resisting the urge to sugarcoat or posture—false optimism undercuts credibility and belief.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Momentum…is a belief system at its core. That’s what momentum really is.” (Don Yaeger, [12:23])
• “If I feel like your success is to my detriment, then the mirror neurons in the room are actually quite negative…and suddenly the vibe changes and that’s a way to kill momentum.” (Don Yaeger, [09:04])
• “Pick people who can be happy when somebody else does well just as they would be…for themselves.” (Don Yaeger, [15:07])
• “One of the most important things you have to do every week is speak truth into the situation so that you can then create a vision that others believe is possible.” (Don Yaeger, [18:33])
• On leadership transparency: “Very hard. …The alternative is an absolute loser.” (Don Yaeger, [19:25])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:21 | Don’s Super Bowl inspiration and the genesis of the momentum research | | 03:16 | The engineered framework for momentum (“pre-spark” preparation) | | 04:50 | Training teams to recognize momentum through scenario analysis and “What if?” planning| | 07:33 | Common mistakes that kill momentum | | 12:21 | Why momentum is a belief system and how to “measure” collective buy-in | | 13:57 | “Pulling a Pippen”—the Scottie Pippen playoff story and lessons on selfishness | | 15:29 | How companies track their internal scoreboards and sense lost momentum | | 16:54 | Momentum across domains: sports, military, politics, business | | 18:16 | The cultural habit Don recommends: commit to candor and honest vision |

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Actionable Takeaways

• Momentum requires culture, collaboration, and preparation—not luck.
• Leaders must intentionally create teams that celebrate shared wins, not individual glory.
• Momentum is as much about a team’s collective belief as about external victories; leaders should measure enthusiasm and shared ownership, not just KPIs.
• Honest, regular communication drives cultural buy-in and readiness to capitalize on opportunity.

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Further Resources

• Don Yaeger’s new book: "The New Science of Momentum"
• Don’s podcast: Corporate Competitor
• Don’s website: donyaeger.com (plus all various spellings)

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This summary captures the spirit, key arguments, and memorable advice from Don Yaeger’s appearance, making it valuable for listeners and leaders aiming to turn pivotal moments into lasting organizational momentum.

Transcript

[John Chance]

Hey, this is John.

[Duct Tape Marketing Host]

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[John Chance]

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[Duct Tape Marketing Host]

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[John Chance]

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duckdate Marketing podcast. This is Jon Chance. My guest today is Don Yeager. He's a New York Times best selling author, leadership expert and sought after speaker. Deep experience interviewing world class athletes, coaches and business leaders. Don has distilled the secrets of high performance into a practical framework. His latest book, the New Science of Momentum, challenges conventional wisdom and offers a research backed playbook for leadership who want to achieve sustained success. So, Don, welcome to the show.

[Don Yeager]

Hey John, thank you so much. Looking forward to it.

[John Chance]

Should we see how many sports cliches we can use in this?

[Don Yeager]

You know what, I don't know if I feel like I'm already in the bottom of the ninth. I mean, you know, anyway, go ahead.

[John Chance]

So. Well, just take it one question at a time. That's all you could do, right? So speaking of cliches, you argue that momentum isn't just a cliche, it's a science. What made you tackle this topic?

[Don Yeager]

So, you know, like many of your listeners probably, I was watching the Super Bowl a few years ago when the New England Patriots fell behind to the Atlanta Falcons 28 to 3. And the prognosticator said Atlanta had a 99.4% chance of winning the game. At that stage, most of America turned the game off because it was over. And then suddenly, you know, Tom Brady runs, you know, 12 yards on an eight yard on third and eight. Tom Brady hadn't run 12 yards all season long. Right. You know, that's just, that's not who he is. And one little thing after another started stacking up. And pretty soon, as we all know, New England created the greatest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl. And I watched and at the end of the game, Joe Buck said this great line. He said, New England has redefined the word momentum tonight. So the next morning I came in, opened up the whiteboard in my office, brought in the creative team that works for me, and just wrote the words, how do you turn a moment into momentum? How can momentum be manufactured? Can we engineer it? Can we build it? Or is it we just have to wait on something good to happen? And that started an eight year project Interviewing the best leaders in the world, in the worlds of sports, politics, the military, and. And business, to try to understand how do they construct momentum.

[John Chance]

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that because I think most people probably think in terms of like, momentum, something you just get caught up in.

[Don Yeager]

Right.

[John Chance]

It takes you, it carries you. Right, right. And you are.

[Don Yeager]

That can be true, by the way. Yeah. But don't wait on it.

[John Chance]

I was going to say, since your argument can be engineered, are there like triggers or things that you found that start, you know, that process?

[Don Yeager]

There are actually a big piece of. It is, in fact, in the book, we actually built a model for how momentum can be constructed in your organization. And what's interesting is I used to think it always began with a spark. Something that happened. Right. What I grew to understand from talking to these great leaders is that there's an entire framework of. Of effort that is created before the spark. And in that framework, the first thing you have to do is create the right culture, a culture where we actually aren't pitting each other, pitting teammates against each other, which happens too often. And you got to recruit people who are both talented but can cheer for other talented people. Right. And that's very hard to do as well. And then the third thing is there's actually an entire model of preparation that allows you to be mentally in the game when the spark occurs, which allows you to capture sparks that others miss. And. And we use great examples from great leaders in all three of those kind of pre spark elements that teach you that you can actually then engineer the moment. And then as the moment comes, it could be small, but you can treat it as if it's large. And if you do so, you can actually, as we said, you can create momentum where other people might be sitting back and wondering, when's my spark going to happen?

[John Chance]

Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I think a lot of times, you know, people are like, oh, you were just in the right place at the right time. And there's a lot of truth to that, but it's also recognizing the right place. Right. And taking action, isn't it?

[Don Yeager]

Yeah, in fact. So one of our great interviews, one of my favorite interviews in the entire book we did 250 interviews with great leaders, was with a basketball coach named Buzz Williams. Buzz was the coach at Texas A and M last few years. He's now the coach at Maryland. But. But Buzz all season long, off season, all off season long. You're walking by his office, you're one of his players. He'll say, hey, John, get in here. And he'll pop open the laptop. And on his laptop he'll have a contest, a competitive contest that's being played. And it's often not in basketball, right? It could be women's volleyball. It could be softball, baseball, football. And what he wants is, is for the player to sit down. He opens up the laptop, hits play, and then he lets him watch six to seven minutes of the contest. Then he closes the laptop and he said, tell me exactly what is the time left in the game right now? What's the score in this very moment that I just closed the laptop? And who has momentum on their side? And explain to me why you believe that. And what he wants is he wants to build within his players this. This acute awareness, right, of what's happening around them so that as something good happens, they are better in position to grab onto it, do something with it. You know, the business analogy of that would be, you know, those organizations, and there are plenty of them that are very good, that create what if teams, right? A team of executives who sit and on a regular basis are asking themselves, what if? I mean, let's throw something crazy out there. What if the President, United States decides to throw tariffs on every country in the world and half of our supply chain is gone?

[John Chance]

That would never happen. Why are we even talking about that?

[Don Yeager]

But if it were to happen, what would we do, right? What if our. Our. The CEO of our greatest competitor is suddenly caught on a big screen at a Coldplay concert, hugging up on his HR director? What if. I mean, that would never happen, right? Nobody would ever do that. But the truth is, if you can start thinking about what if concepts, what it does forget whether those are the exact same things that happen. The concept is that we collectively are constantly thinking about the world as our playing field. And when you're thinking about the world as your playing field, you have a greater opportunity to capture those moments when they come.

[John Chance]

So we've been talking about catching momentum and, you know, engineering momentum. What are some ways that you found that people actually, probably not intentionally, but actually kill momentum?

[Don Yeager]

Oh, well, one of the easiest ways to kill momentum is to not recognize it when it happens, right? So something comes along, an opportunity, a. And you sit and you're busy chuckling because you're thinking, how crazy is that? And instead of capturing and using the moment to your advantage, you're. You're laughing about it, and pretty soon the moment's gone, right? They're called sparks for a reason. You know, they don't last unless you built the kindling, which is all the work you do in advance and you fan the flames, which is what you do after the spark takes hold. And so this idea that it's that you and but the other ways you can kill momentum, let's say you recruit people and that, that are so eye centered that if I'm not the reason the good things are happening, then I'm not happy. You know. And the way you discover this is the next time you as a group are celebrating someone on your team that just did something fantastic. They made a massive sale, they closed the deal, they dislodged a competitor. Look for the A players on your team. Where are they in that celebration? Are they at the front high fiving the guy or the woman that makes this deal, or are they in the back browsing that? Damn it. That should have been my deal, right? Should have been my opportunity. And you start to realize what you have if you don't have people who can celebrate each other. You know, in the world of neuroscience, there's a whole, whole, you know, discussion around what are called mirror neurons. Which is what, which is how, you know, we've all seen somebody walks into a room and yawns, other people suddenly start yawning, right? Mirror neurons are. We mimic a situation if we feel like we are, we're connected to it. Well, if I feel like your success is to my detriment, then the mirror neurons in the room are actually quite negative. Right. And people pick up on that and suddenly the vibe changes and that's a way to kill momentum.

[John Chance]

By the way, were there any examples of people that you've spoken with over the years? Sometimes, sometimes you have to make a change that is really hard because you sense, hey, the market's going this way or, you know, I remember talking to some folks in advertising, in newspapers, you know, in the early days.

[Don Yeager]

Newspapers, right. I know my kids still laugh at me that I still grab the New York Times when I'm going through an airport.

[John Chance]

But, you know, they were laughing in the early days of, you know, the web. And it's like this Craigslist thing's a joke. And you know, it pretty much because they, you know, that they wouldn't make the move early to say we got to kill classified ads and make them free because, you know, they're going to eat our lunch if we don't. And so sometimes, you know, grabbing that momentum or that opportunity, that's obvious, means you're going to kill the golden goose, you know. So how do you did you talk to anybody that really, you know, saw momentum as a real negative to begin with, but as where the market was inevitably headed?

[Don Yeager]

Well, yeah, momentum, I mean, if you're momentum is when you had the wind to your back, right? That's what momentum is if you want positive momentum. So if you shift, if you fence, if you feel the wind is coming to your front, then, and you might need to turn and make a change. I mean, there, there are a couple of companies that we focused on who built momentum after pretty significant layoffs of employees. Like they had to make the hard choices, but in order to get right for the market, in order to get right to be able to capture the next opportunity in the market, they couldn't be, they couldn't have it. So yes, uncomfortable as that was, it was the choice that helped them be ready for an upcoming opportunity, to expand that opportunity and take it, create that wind to their back.

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[John Chance]

How do you measure momentum? I mean, in some cases there's certainly very tangible results like revenues up, things like that. But I suspect that some of it's sort of incremental. Is there a, are there metrics, you know, that you can say, yeah, this lead, this means we're get, we have momentum?

[Don Yeager]

No, because momentum at its core is a state of mind, right? It's a belief system at its core. That's what momentum really is. There's a scientific version of momentum, right. Which you would, when you see, you know, a swinging of a pendulum or whatever, there's a scientific version of that. But in, in real life, momentum at its core is a, is a belief system. So what you, how do you measure belief system? By, by the number of people who are participating in it, right? If you're the, if you're the leader and you're the only one that believes, you don't really have momentum because you need organ, you need, as a group, you have to be able to move into moments. You have to, I mean that. Remember that question I wrote at the beginning, how do you turn a moment into momentum? And. And there was a lot of the preparation piece, having the right people in. In on your team. You know, it. The recruiting piece is one of the few places in the book where we went with a negative as an example. And the story we share was, you may or may not remember when Michael Jordan retired for the first time in the Chicago Bulls. You know, for all those years, Scottie Pippen had been his, you know, his Robin, right? He was Batman. Scotty was Robin. And Scottie Pippen kind of objected to that. He really wanted to be Batman. He believed he was worthy. So suddenly, Jordan's out of the picture and Scotty is Batman. And that first season, Scotty's Batman is okay, good. But when they get to the playoffs, they're in a key game against the New York Knicks. Two seconds left. Phil Jackson calls a timeout. Scotty Pippen's like, I'm Batman. You got. I'm going to take the shot right now to put us over the top, because that's what I've been waiting for. Jackson designs a play for Tony Kukoc to take the shot. Scotty Pippen refuses to get off the bench. He's like, I'm not even going to the game if you didn't call the play for me. I've waited all these years. Now it's my turn. And you're going to give the shot to Tony Kukoc. And Pippen refused to get off the bench. No one on his team ever saw him the same way again. In fact, to this day, if in the NBA, you commit a very selfish act as a teammate, it's referred to as pulling a pippin, right? Because Scotty Pippen was so absorbed with the idea that it had to be his. You know, obviously in the NBA, you picked players, you contract with them. So it's not like you can dump Pippen. But what we. What they saw immediately was that he was not and could not be the leader of that team. And so, you know, when you're picking people to put on your team, pick people who can be happy when somebody else does well as. Just as they would be happy if they did it as well to. For themselves.

[John Chance]

So, you know, the thing about sports is, I mean, there's a winner and there's a loser, right? In a game, in business, it's not quite so clear.

[Don Yeager]

I would argue that you may not. There's maybe not a scoreboard that is broadcast to the world, but most often internally, we know the scoreboard I was working with a company last week, a massive, you know, international company, and they can look at most many of their products that they are currently in the marketplace with and where they were once the leader of the, you know, of the pack in that product line. In many of them, they are not anymore. Now to the world, they still look. They're still a pretty. They're a fantastic brand. Everybody knows who they are. But internally, they know they have lost momentum. Right. They have lost that others are taking their space. There are scoreboards. They just may not be always as public as we're used to in sports.

[John Chance]

So you. A great deal of your career and your very successful books have been as a biographer, would that be the right term?

[Don Yeager]

Yeah, I'm a teammate with Deion Sanders and all kinds of other people to help tell their stories.

[John Chance]

So for this book, you probably didn't go live with any CEOs for a couple months or anything. What's been your tool to kind of extract these stories from some of the folks?

[Don Yeager]

I think what happened was many people were fascinated by the curiosity, the idea that, again, you know, in sports, we. We see momentum. Oh, everybody. The other team has momentum, right? Oh, we have momentum.

[John Chance]

Broadcasters say it all the time.

[Don Yeager]

Exactly. It's probably. It's as great. It's as used a word as there is in broadcast, but in business and in other places, it's known but not studied. It's not been studied. And so the idea that I was coming at it and that I was coming at it from four verticals. Right. It was. I mean, because we look at it, how did some of the greatest generals in the planet sit down with us to talk about how you build momentum into your game, into your battle plan? Right. How do you create small victories to win momentum? And then business, you know, some of the great business leaders, politics, James Carville, Karl Rove sat down with us to talk about how do you build momentum into a campaign to win an election? You want to peak at the right time, obviously. And so all of these were just fascinating conversations. And people. When people find out who else you're talking to, most people of significance kind of want to be in. They want to be in that conversation. So. Oh, wait, you got. I'd like to talk next, basically.

[John Chance]

So if somebody's listening to this, a leader's listening to this, and they want to make it part of their culture, because I think I hear that as much as anything, you know, you gotta get as many people to believe, you know. Well, that's probably the definition of culture. Is there a single habit ritual that you'd tell somebody, okay, you have to start this week?

[Don Yeager]

I think what you have as a habit among those that, again, I'm just the. I'm the voice of the people that I had the chance to interview was you speak truth into the conversation every week. You don't. If people start thinking that you're blowing smoke, that you're spinning the numbers that you're creating. You like the company I was talking about last week. If the CEO were to walk in and say, guys, we are right on the edge of just kicking the world by the tail, everybody in the room would know the CEO was not telling the truth. So they were either disconnected from the truth or a liar. And you want to be neither of those things if you're a leader. And so one of the most important things you have to do every week is speak truth into the situation so that you can then create a vision that others believe is possible. And that's where you begin to create that belief system.

[John Chance]

And I imagine for a lot of leaders, that's hard because very hard. They looked up. You're supposed to have all the answers. You know, you're like, taking us someplace great. Right. And so for them to admit, I don't have all the answers, or maybe things aren't going like we thought. I mean, can be really tough.

[Don Yeager]

Can it? It can be, but the alternative is an absolute loser.

[John Chance]

Well, Don, I appreciate you taking a few moments to stop by the duct tape marketing podcast. Is there someplace you'd invite people to? I know you have your own podcast. Corporate competitor. Yeah, Love, Love people to listen to and then obviously find out about the new science of momentum.

[Don Yeager]

Yeah, you know, just donjaeger.com and d o n y a e g e r dot com is the best place. And because I know a lot of people misspell my last name, I own all iterations of my last name on the Internet. And so, yeah, I welcome your listeners to the conversation.

[John Chance]

Awesome. Well, again, appreciate you stopping by and hopefully run into you again one of these days soon out there on the road.

[Don Yeager]

Good, John. Thank you.