George Mumford Discusses Pure Performance, The Zone, and Lessons from Champions

**George Mumford** (0:00)
So, it was like not just performing, but I'm talking about pure performance. Now, lead performance is one thing, but pure performance is when you're doing the thing for the activity in and of itself, for no reason other than being in the moment and expressing yourself honestly, and love and being who you are, because you're unique, there's no one like you.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:22)
Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership, and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just hard-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go.

**Mick** (0:45)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today, we're talking to a gentleman who didn't know, but two years ago literally changed my life and my approach to leadership and the mental preparedness. He's the mindfulness coach behind the legends like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. He's a master of unlocking peak potential and the author transforming the way we think about focus and flow. Please join me in welcoming the wise, the transformative, the legendary, the guy I call the goat, Mr. George Mumford. Mr. Mumford, how are you doing today, sir?

**George Mumford** (1:24)
Thanks, Mick. I appreciate you. It's my honor to be here. And I can't tell you how delighted I am to hear that the book had value for you and more importantly, that the book is helping you unlock you.

**Mick** (1:39)
Unlocked.

**George Mumford** (1:40)
We need you to be unlocked. We need everybody to be unlocked.

**Mick** (1:43)
Unlocked has changed my life. It's literally a book that I reference at least three to four times a week. I pull out quotes on a weekly basis. I talk to my team internally and we have once a month, George, I got to give you credit, we have unlocked sessions where we talk through things as a group and as a team because as you know, what one person is struggling with or going through is probably something else that someone else is going through. They were just afraid to talk about it out loud. And so we really have unlocked sessions and we have a lot of mental clarity on a monthly basis and to that I owe you brother.

**George Mumford** (2:27)
I like that.

**Mick** (2:28)
So before we go into Unlocked, George, one of the things on the podcast that we really talk about is your because, right? That thing that's deeper than your why. I like to call it like your true purpose, your true reasoning and for a lot of people that changes over time and it should change over time. If I were to say today, 2025, George Mumford, what's your because today?

**George Mumford** (2:53)
To unlock the divine spark in each and every human being.
So I'll give you the whole spiel. A child I developed several years back and I forget when I did it, but it's a lifelong thing to unlock the divine spark in each and every human being. The values that are at the heart of who I am, my love, curiosity, truth, wisdom, integrity, selfless service, compassion, courage. That for which I can be counted on for is to be loving with a warrior spirit, whether serving and compassionate heart, pursuing excellence and wisdom with grace and ease. Well, that's what I'm up to and those are my guiding ideas, my guiding principles.

**Mick** (3:34)
Man.
When I say early on, I'm going to say college years. You went to the University of Massachusetts. A lot of people may not know, man. You were the roommate of a man that we call Dr. J.

**George Mumford** (3:50)
Julius Erving.

**Mick** (3:52)
Talk to us about those days with you, man.

**George Mumford** (3:55)
Yeah. It was, and I talk about it in my other book, The Mindful Athlete, Secrets to Pure Performance. So this gives you an idea. So fast forward, this is 1969, and I'm going to University of Massachusetts at Amherst and it was the last orientation weekend. So the weekend just before classes started.
So it was that Labor Day weekend. So it started, I think, Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever it was. And so I stayed on campus and didn't have to. And so we were playing, me and a couple of my friends were playing pick up basketball. So we went to this outdoor court and this dude was out there playing. And he had on street shoes and he was dunking on people. And I was saying, well, who's this homie here? I mean, but I knew about him. Once he told me it was, because my friend of mine said, hey, man, this is this guy, Julius Erving, you got to check him out. He's the real deal. And so, and that's how we became friends.