Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bryan Price. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bryan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I was first exposed to mental performance when I was a baseball player at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and working with their Center for Enhanced Performance. But it wasn’t until I returned to teach at West Point eleven years later that I really got into the mental side of the game.

In addition to teaching, I also was an assistant coach on the baseball team, which at that time was working even more with the Center for Enhanced Performance.

I loved it. I took courses and got a graduate certificate in Sports Psychology and knew that I wanted to work with athletes in some capacity after I retired from the military.

After I retired in 2018, I started a leadership institute at Seton Hall University and on the side, started working with their Division I athletes. The first group I worked with, both individually and as a team, was the women’s golf team, which went from 107th in the country to 54th. It was their highest ranking in school history.

At that point, I knew my techniques worked, and so I opened up Top Mental Game in 2019.

I felt that along with the many improvements made in youth sports today compared to when I played – things like turf fields, indoor facilities, the ability to play all-year round, professional coaching, nutrition, technology, etc – the pressure on kids to perform at higher levels and at younger ages has never been higher.

What hasn’t kept pace, however, is our collective ability to give young athletes the tools to deal with this increased pressure.

That’s where Top Mental Game comes in. We fill that void and equip athletes with the mental performance tools to build confidence, increase resilience, and perform at their best when it matters the most.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As an undersized 3-sport athlete in high school, I looked for every advantage in the mental game to keep up with athletes who were bigger, faster, and stronger than me. I felt like what I lacked in size, I made up for in grit and hard work.

That mindset continued in college, where I was a 3-year starter on the baseball team at West Point, and a co-captain of the team my senior year.

After graduating, I was commissioned as an Army aviator and served as an officer for twenty years. I flew the Apache Longbow, the Army’s attack helicopter, for the first half of my career. I lived all over the United States and in Germany, as well as combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After company command, I was competitively selected to attend Stanford University. There I finished my Ph.D. in three years before returning back to teach at West Point to teach.

I was at West Point for almost 8 years before I retired from the military and started the Seton Hall’s leadership institute. There I cut my teeth working with their D-I athletes and thus began Top Mental Game.

Although I started exclusively working with athletes, my clientele has since expanded to doing mental performance and leadership development for corporate clients, and leaders in the military and higher education.

The red thread that runs through Top Mental Game is our commitment to help our clients become the best versions of themselves.

We have coached pro players, All-Americans, and NCAA National Coaches of the Year. We have been invited to speak at Fortune 500 companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Meta, and Johnson & Johnson. We coach CEOs and general officers in the military.

What I’m most proud of, however, is our team. When I look at the caliber of people who have chosen to be on the Top Mental Game team, my heart bursts with gratitude.

It’s truly been an amazing ride, and it’s only been 5 years!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I think a lot of business owners get frustrated in their early years when they post content on their social media feeds and don’t get much, if any, of a response.

My advice would be to two-fold: focus on great content and consistently post … no matter what.

I don’t care if you get zero likes and no engagement, keep posting good content.

I can’t tell you how many people I run into who say “I love what you’ve done with Top Mental Game” and “I love seeing your content.” And these are people who never like anything I post and never leave a comment, but they’re seeing it.

I have also had several clients who, when asked where did they find me, say they’ve been following my content for years. Again, these folks have never engaged with my content, but they’ve seen it.

So to all you small business owners out there, don’t get down because you don’t get as many likes as you think you should get.

Post great content and keep posting it. They will come.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think there are three things that have helped my reputation in the mental performance and leadership space.

For athletes, they know I’ve played at the Division-I level and coached at the Division-I level. When I help athletes perform under pressure, they know I’ve been there before. I know what they’re going through and how to speak their language. Also, the fact that I’ve worked with athletes, teams, and coaches from 17 different sports gives me a breadth of experience to draw upon when helping them.

For leaders, I think my 20 years leading soldiers in the Army, including my experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with my unique opportunities as an Academy Professor at West Point give me credibility. I know how to build teams, operate under extreme pressure, and deliver results. I also think my Stanford Ph.D. gives me credibility in other ways.

I’m also a parent of a competitive teenage athlete. When I’m talking to other parents about the challenges their child is going through in sports, they know I can relate. Plus, when I tell them I do this [mental performance coaching] professionally, and my daughter doesn’t want to listen to me, they know I understand them. It’s why I went out and got someone I trusted to coach her on the mental game.

Finally, at Top Mental Game, we put the athlete first. If we think our coaching is not a good fit, for whatever reason, we provide the client with other options, including other mental performance coaches who can serve them better than we can.

Under promise, over deliver, and put your clients first.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.topmentalgame.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topmentalgame/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopMentalGame
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-price/