Master Your Mindset: From Gym Floors to School Culture Architect
Blogging From The Bottom Reignited
It feels surreal typing this but Blogging From The Bottom is officially back.
More than a decade has passed since I published my first post, sharing the story of a young coach in the Golden Triangle of Texas who unknowingly began a journey that would change his life.
Back then, I was just a PE teacher with a whistle, a gym floor, and a belief that students could learn anywhere, even in a place most people dismissed as “just PE.” I remember sitting across from a sharp, no nonsense principal during my interview. She asked:
“How can you help our students succeed on the state assessment?”
Most would have talked athletics, drills, or sportsmanship.
My answer was simple: I can teach them how to write and I did.
90-minute A/B blocks.
First 30 minutes of class was set aside for WRITING.
We wrote about real questions, real scenarios, real life.
The one they loved the most?
“What would you do if you found a bag of money?”
When the state writing test rolled around, students ran to tell me that they felt very good about the writing prompt as it was something about money.
They were ready.
Not because I taught ELA but because we broke the mindset of what learning “had to look like.”
That year, we scored the highest 7th-grade writing results in school history.
That moment planted a seed.
It made me realize something powerful:
If I stayed in the gym, I’d impact a few.
If I became a leader, I could impact the entire school.
That principal: firm, fearless, relentless with accountability showed me what leadership with standards looked like. She didn’t accept excuses. She held everyone to a championship expectation.
She walked classrooms.
She led from the front.
She built culture not by talking about it but by modeling it.
Watching her planted in me what I now know as the spark of leadership.
Leaving that school was my first tough professional decision.
To grow, I had to let go of comfort.
I stepped away from coaching, became an elementary teacher, and enrolled in grad school at Stephen F. Austin State University.
It wasn’t glamorous.
It wasn’t easy.
But it was purpose.
So why share this story now?
Because the journey comes full circle.
Back then, I was writing from the bottom still hungry, grinding and learning.
Today, I’m returning to that energy intentionally.
But this time, I bring with me:
🔥 Ignite the Culture
🔥 Leadership frameworks
🔥 Mindset systems
🔥 Student empowerment models (S.P.A.R.K., L.E.A.P., B.E.A.T., R.I.S.E.)
🔥 GATOR GUARDIANS Playbook
🔥 No Box Thinking
🔥 Youth leadership literacy units
Not just motivation but an infrastructure for transformation.
That’s what this image represents:
A visual reminder of the formula that changed me before I ever knew I needed it:
Conscious Mind → Attitude → Alignment → Action → Subconscious Mind
Your habits become your reality.
Your beliefs become your ceiling or your wings.
Your mindset determines your level.
Know who you are.
Decide what you want.
Align your habits.
Take decisive action.
This is how you go from struggle to success not overnight, but brick by brick.
Just like I did.
Just like I’m still doing.
Just like I’ll help others do through this blog.
This relaunch is bigger than nostalgia.
It’s a commitment.
A return to roots.
A reminder that greatness grows from the bottom, not the top.
So here is the new declaration:
We’re building culture, mindset, and legacy together.
From the bottom.
With honesty, leadership, and no excuses.
The same way I learned it years ago.
Welcome back to the journey.
New posts. New frameworks. New fire.
Same hunger.
