Mental Performance
Confidence, pressure, focus, identity, emotional regulation, routines, resilience, and the way people respond when the moment matters.
A Soul Performance Academy Podcast
The MentalCast
Long-form conversations and reflections about mental performance, coaching, leadership, sport, and the realities behind growth. Some episodes feature coaches, educators, trainers, and performers. Others begin with one question, one experience, or one thought that would not leave quietly.
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Recent episodes of The MentalCast
Select an episode below to listen, share, or download.
Latest 10 Episodes
What We Talk About
Performance is rarely just about performance.
The show explores the human side of sport, leadership, coaching, and growth, including the ideas that do not always fit neatly into a textbook, presentation, or social media post.
Coaching
Communication, athlete development, relationships, feedback, learning, expectations, and the realities coaches face behind the scenes.
Leadership
Standards, accountability, influence, decision-making, culture, conflict, and the responsibility that comes with leading other people.
Real Conversations
Honest discussions with coaches, trainers, educators, athletes, and professionals who bring experience, perspective, and a willingness to think out loud.
More Than Quick Advice
A podcast with enough room to actually think.
Some ideas need more than a caption, checklist, or sixty-second clip. The MentalCast creates space to explore what happened, why it matters, and what we might do differently next time.
The MentalCast was created to bring practical mental performance conversations to athletes, coaches, parents, performers, and leaders without pretending that growth is always simple or predictable.
Episodes may include individual reflections, interviews, coaching stories, questions from the performance world, and honest conversations about the tension between what we know and what we actually do.
The goal is not to provide one perfect answer. It is to help listeners notice something useful, ask a better question, or approach the next situation with a little more intention.
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Hosted by Dan Mickle
Coach, educator, researcher, and occasional overthinker.
Dan Mickle is the founder of Soul Performance Academy, a mental performance coach, collegiate volleyball coach, educator, and doctoral student. His work centers on helping people understand themselves, communicate more effectively, and perform with greater intention.
The podcast brings those parts of his work together, along with the stories, observations, questions, humor, and occasional sarcasm that do not always fit anywhere else.
Learn More About Dan
Keep Exploring
Turn a useful idea into a learning experience.
The podcast may start the conversation. Soul Performance Academy courses, programs, and live sessions provide more structure for practicing and applying what you learn.
On-Demand
Start anytime and work through practical courses at your own pace.
Explore On-Demand Courses →Guided Programs
Combine flexible online learning with scheduled interaction and support.
Explore Guided Programs →Live Sessions
Join focused, real-time learning built around a specific topic or audience.
View Live Sessions →
Listen Wherever You Are
Find the episode that gets you thinking.
Visit the official MentalCast website for the complete episode archive, show information, and links to listening platforms.
Visit MentalCast.com