Before the Phoenix Suns face the Houston Rockets on April 7th, the conversation shifts from the hardwood to something less visible, yet equally decisive. The mind.
Training the Mind™ is not a typical pregame panel. Created and hosted by Scottsdale-based performance psychiatrist Dr. Brook Choulet, the nationally coordinated platform embeds clinically grounded conversations about mental health, resilience, and peak performance directly into a live professional sports environment.
“It reframes mental health from something reactive or crisis based into something proactive, strategic, and performance enhancing,” Dr. Choulet explains. “In doing so, it normalizes the conversation in the very environments where performance matters most.”
The series has appeared on game-day stages with the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, and Washington Commanders, bringing together sports psychiatrists, athletes, entertainers, clinicians, and nonprofit leaders. The conversations are not generic wellness discussions.
Three themes consistently resonate. First, the idea that resilience is trainable. Second, managing pressure at elite levels. Third, identity beyond performance. In professional sports especially, self worth can become intertwined with outcomes.
“Bringing the conversation to Phoenix is deeply personal and professionally meaningful to me,” Dr. Choulet says. “It’s where I’ve built my practice and where the early vision for integrating sports psychiatry into high performance systems began.”
Now, ahead of tipoff, join us for a group night where a dynamic panel of leaders across sport and media will explore what it truly means to invest in the mind. Different industries. Different arenas. One common denominator. Performance under pressure.
Here, we turn to the panelists themselves and how each of them invests in that competitive advantage.
Molly Miller
Head Coach, ASU Women’s Basketball
With the 2025–26 season, Molly Miller takes the helm at Arizona State, bringing a culture of toughness, accountability, and championship expectation.
“Since I began my coaching career, talent isn’t the first thing I evaluate. It’s all about effort and discipline,” she says. “Before we ever talk about skill, I’m looking for relentless work ethic, competitive toughness, and team first accountability.”
She believes skill can be developed. Systems can be taught. Mindset is a choice.
“We want players who fall in love with the process, who compete in everything they do, and who hold themselves and their teammates to a championship standard. If you’re hungry, humble, and fearless, we can build something special together.”
In today’s Division I landscape, mental toughness extends far beyond the court.
“Pressure isn’t the enemy, it’s the privilege of competing at this level. Mental toughness today isn’t just about handling adversity on the court. It’s about managing your identity off it, especially with NIL and social media in the mix.”
Her approach is intentional. Anchor identity beyond basketball. Train the mind with the same precision as the body. Accountability over entitlement.
“We create a culture where they can be honest about the pressure but still held to a championship standard. At the end of the day, mental toughness is daily discipline. Choosing preparation over panic and gratitude over fear. That’s how you sustain excellence in today’s game.”
Ask her what separates good teams from championship teams and she answers without hesitation.
“The difference isn’t just talent. It’s alignment and belief. Good teams play well when things are going right. Championship teams hold their standard when they’re down, tired, or under pressure.”
Belief, she says, is a multiplier. But it must be earned.
“When your best players lead, your locker room polices itself, and your group refuses to let circumstances dictate effort, that’s when you move from good to championship level.”
As a female leader in a high visibility role, she understands that her athletes are watching more than strategy.
“My players watch how I lead. I model confidence by being prepared, decisive, and authentically myself. I model resilience by how I respond to setbacks, showing that persistence matters more than perfection.”
She speaks openly about balance. Wife. Mother. Coach. Leader.
“I want our athletes to see that you can be competitive and composed, driven and grounded, while balancing life’s responsibilities. Beyond basketball, it’s about standing by your values, prioritizing relationships, and leading with integrity and heart.”
And when the noise grows loud, media narratives, rankings, expectations, her reset is clear.
“My reset is simple. I focus on preparation, film, and pouring into the game to get us better. I teach our players to find their own center, whether it’s visualization or a routine. With so many eyes on women’s basketball right now, it’s more important than ever that they learn they can control their mindset, effort, and response, and compete with confidence no matter the noise.”
Johnjay Van Es
Co-Host, The Johnjay & Rich Show
For decades, Johnjay Van Es has built a career in an industry that constantly reinvents itself. Formats shift. Platforms multiply. Attention spans shrink. Yet he has remained steady, relevant, and deeply connected to his audience.
His formula is disarmingly simple.
“I’ve never tried to outsmart the audience. I’ve tried to grow with them,” he says. “Radio changes, platforms change, but connection doesn’t. If you stay curious, humble, and willing to admit when you’re wrong, people stick with you.”
He has always approached the microphone as conversation rather than performance.
“When you evolve as a human, as a husband, a dad, a guy figuring life out, the audience evolves with you. Relevance isn’t about trends. It’s about truth.”
“Reality radio” demands vulnerability, but Johnjay has learned that authenticity requires boundaries.
“Vulnerability doesn’t mean sharing everything. It means sharing honestly. Early on, I thought being authentic meant total transparency. I learned a lot of lessons.”
Now he filters every story through one question.
“Is this helpful or just emotional? If it serves the listener, I’ll go there. If it’s something I still need to process privately, I keep it off the air.”
Therapy, faith, and his inner circle help him separate performance from personal healing.
When listeners trust him with heartbreak or mental health struggles, he feels the weight of it.
“When someone trusts you with their heartbreak or mental health struggle, that’s sacred. This job isn’t just entertainment. It’s impact. It’s intimate. We’re often part of someone’s morning routine during their hardest season.”
That awareness has shifted how he shows up.
“I’ve become more mindful about language, about tone, about not exploiting pain for ratings. Wellness isn’t just personal. It’s cultural. What we normalize on air shapes how people feel about their own lives.”
Off the mic, the reset is intentional and quiet.
“Quiet. Movement. And my wife, Blake. After high energy mornings, I need stillness. The first ninety minutes of every morning are all mine. I walk, lift weights, cold plunge, or just sit without input. No headphones. No noise.”
Over time, his definition of success has evolved. A later in life ADHD diagnosis gave him language for how his brain works and shifted how he approaches mental health.
“For years, I pushed through everything. Now I pay attention. I’m more compassionate with myself. I prioritize therapy, hormone balance, fitness, and real conversations with people who don’t care about ratings.”
What once defined achievement has softened.
“Success used to mean growth and syndication. Now it means stability, presence, and peace at home. If that’s solid, everything else works better.”
Nick Lowery
Former NFL Kicker, Author
Few positions in professional sports isolate pressure quite like a kicker. The stadium holds its breath.
Nick Lowery lived inside that reality for years in the NFL, navigating extraordinary highs and very public scrutiny. But long before he made it to the league, his identity was already being shaped elsewhere.
“Before making it in the NFL, I was a legislative aide three times in the U.S. Senate, working for Senators John Chafee and Bob Packwood,” Nick says. “The benefit of being rejected eleven times before making it was realizing how tenuous the job could be.”
Rejection became perspective. Balance came from stepping outside the sports world entirely.
“Working with children with cerebral palsy and spending off seasons in post Watergate era Washington kept balance by getting away from the sometimes narcissistic sports environment and focusing on helping solve problems for everyday Americans.”
In his new book, Nick speaks candidly about the emotional and psychological realities of professional sports.
“The big lie in our culture is the illusion that our heroes are perfect. There are indeed heroes in each of us, as we transcend our mistakes and failures precisely because we choose to pursue a special life.”
He often returns to the metaphor of a missed field goal.
“A missed field goal is a perfect analogy of striving to be successful because it embodies public failure. It is either good or no good. Nothing in between.”
Growth, he believes, comes from embracing those misses rather than denying them.
“A grounded journey of the hero is to honestly embrace our misses as humans and strive to consistently grow in self awareness, gratitude, and wisdom, and most of all, in the elusive sublime connection with others.”
As a kicker, the mental game was everything. Fear, focus, and self trust determine outcome long before contact with the ball.
“The magic lesson I learned was to not fight nervousness. Instead, own it and literally tell yourself, I want to be nervous. Butterflies are a sign you really care.”
Trying to suppress nerves only tightens the body and mind.
“Performance flow comes when you trust to attack the kick, knowing you cannot be perfect. You have prepared with a game like pressure, so now literally let it go. It is trying to be too perfect that we get in trouble. It is the non self conscious brain that plays the inner music of real flow that sparks our finest performance.”
That's why Nick penned a tell-all, Naked and Alone with 80,000 People.
“If silence around vulnerability means repressing your stress in a mental straightjacket, then we are headed for deeper issues. We sign up for mistakes the harder and higher we aim.”
Looking back, he would tell his younger self something simple yet profound.
“Enjoy the rich unpredictable journey, and keep loving yourself doing what you love. The secret for a lifetime is doing what you love with the people you love. Most of all, always find ways to help others find their own purpose through God’s unique gifts in them.”
Vaughn Compton
Elite Basketball Trainer
Vaughn Compton is a respected basketball trainer, working with many of the region’s top athletes. In his gym, talent may open the door, but character determines who stays in the room.
“It's all about character. They are who they say they are. They do what they say they’re going to do. Their ability to stay consistent with their routine habits, regardless of how they’re feeling that day, is what separates them.”
For Vaughn, consistency is the separator.
“They prioritize their development and are always looking for ways to gain an advantage.”
Training high level athletes presents a unique challenge. Many are praised constantly. Social media reinforces their status. Confidence can become external.
“Many high level players are constantly told how great they are. That kind of support is valuable, but it won’t provide the level of confidence required to perform at the highest level. It can also create complacency.”
So Vaughn creates controlled discomfort.
“Putting them through challenging, controlled discomfort drills builds confidence and fuels resilience. Hundreds and thousands of reps like this are elite preparation. And preparation builds confidence.”
When working with nationally ranked or highly recruited athletes, he begins with identity.
“They need to separate performance from identity. High level players, especially young ones, often tie performance to self worth. Their character, responses, behaviors, and work ethic must become the unbreakable foundation.”
He reframes pressure as privilege.
One of the most common mindset blocks he sees is role adjustment. A player who once led the offense suddenly plays fewer minutes.
“They must protect their joy and love for the game, because under those circumstances, it can slowly dissolve.”
“Talent isn’t the first thing I evaluate. It’s effort and discipline. Mental toughness is daily discipline. Choosing preparation over panic and gratitude over fear.” -Coach Molly Miller
“Vulnerability doesn’t mean sharing everything. It means sharing honestly. What we normalize on air shapes how people feel about their own lives.” -Johnjay Van Es
“A missed field goal is a perfect analogy of striving to be successful. It is either good or no good. Nothing in between." -Nick Lowery
"We sign up for mistakes the harder and higher we aim. Butterflies are a sign you really care.” -Nick Lowery