Christ-Centered Coaching in the NCAA (w/ Janet Cone)
On this episode, we’re joined by Janet Cone.
Janet R. Cone has served as Director of Athletics at UNC-Asheville since 2004, making her the longest-tenured athletic director in the Big South Conference. During her leadership, she has helped grow UNC-Asheville into a highly respected Division I mid-major program, guided the department through major challenges, including Hurricane Helene, and served in numerous NCAA and national leadership roles. A two-time NACDA Athletic Director of the Year, Janet is known for building strong teams, developing student-athletes, and leading with vision through seasons of growth and change.
Christian Business Leader is the podcast for marketplace Christians seeking to explore and apply God’s will for business for the purpose of cultivating Christ-Centered Companies.
Full Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 0:02
Welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast, where Christ following business leaders explore God’s will and ways for business. This show is the ministry of the Center for Christianity and Business at Houston Christian University and features conversations with today’s Christ Center Business Leaders who are representing Christ faithfully in the business world. I’m your host, Darren Scheer, and if you want to make your work, leadership and company culture more Christ-centered, you’ve come to the right place. On this episode, we’re joined by Janet Cohn. Janet has served as director of athletics at UNC Asheville since 2004, making her the longest tenured athletic director in the Big South Conference. And during her leadership, she’s helped to grow UNC Asheville into a highly respected Division I mid-major program, guided the department through major challenges, including Hurricane Helene, and served in numerous NCAA and national leadership roles. A two-time NACDA athletic director of the year. Janet is known for building strong teams, developing student athletes, and leading with vision through seasons of growth and change. Janet, welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast.SPEAKER_01 1:18
Well, thank you for having me. I’m I’m looking forward to talking to you and hopefully learning a few things from you.SPEAKER_00 1:24
Yeah. And so we got connected. I I think you were you came across the book a couple of years ago. And uh and and then what what what’s happened since then?SPEAKER_01 1:35
Well, I I think I was telling you when we were connecting that I had picked up your book somewhere. We can’t even remember where. Um, because I’d love to learn, I love to learn about leadership. And obviously, when I saw it was Christ Center, I’m like, oh, maybe I can have learned a different take on leadership here and apply it a little different way. And then what happened a few weeks ago now, maybe a couple months, I was kind of going through my looking on my bookshelf, and I’m like, I think I’m gonna read that again. I’m gonna do it the 37 days. I’m gonna read 37, there’s 37 straight days, go back to the habits and see if anything’s changed from the first time. And of course, when I started reading again, there’s a survey, I’m going, what I’m gonna fill it out again and see maybe I’m a little different or my department’s a little different. And so then I get this email from you and find out like you are right over not too far from here in Waynesville. And I went, man, maybe this was just meant for us to connect.SPEAKER_00 2:38
Yeah, yeah. You know, I see as people take the assessment, I get a notification and I’m always curious to see who it is, what is their their role in their organization. And being that I live only about 40 minutes from UNC Asheville, um, I was just so encouraged to know that the athletic director at the the largest university in our area is uh is a believer and is evidently very eager to uh to honor God and the way that she leads this this athletic department. And you know, people see things on the news about Asheville. Asheville’s got a bit of a reputation for, you know, despite that uh, you know, the home of the Billy Graham Center and a lot of great churches, and but um you know there’s some some some issues that uh Asheville, Asheville has, this area has had that uh you know hasn’t exactly given it the reputation of being very Christ-centered, but um it’s just further evidence that you can’t always just rely on the headlines uh to to shape your view of things and and and of the area that you live in. And and so to know that the athletic director at UNC Asheville uh is so and such as yourself, which is such a such an encouragement to me, and I’m so glad we connected.SPEAKER_01 4:09
Yeah, I am too. And I’m um thank you for once again for inviting me to be on this. And you know, one of the things, you know, I am so fortunate. I’ve been here quite a while, many, many years now. And you know, through my role here, I get to meet so many people in Asheville. And I think I try to tell lots of people like to come to Asheville because you know, it’s a tourism, you know, they come to see the Grove Park Inn or, you know, the Biltmore estate. But after you’ve lived here a while, you realize like we truly have some wonderful people in Asheville, and sometimes they can surprise you maybe like I surprised you. Like we we’ve got a lot of people of faith in Asheville, North Carolina.SPEAKER_00 4:49
Yes, yes, we do. So, Janet, when did you first realize God wants to be involved in your work?SPEAKER_01 4:57
Wow, you know, and I I don’t want to give away my age, but you know, I’ve I’ve been doing this a long time. And obviously, you and I were sharing early. Uh, you know, I grew up in South Carolina. I’m a Furman undergraduate, so and you know, obviously that’s Furman was great faith-based school, had a great experience there meeting different people.SPEAKER_00 5:18
Um, knew at least it was when you went there.SPEAKER_01 5:22
Yeah, definitely, definitely. Okay, go paladins. But you know, then I went to the University of South Carolina to get my master’s, but all through all through my career, um, and and you know, sometimes you don’t know it, but I’ve always known looking back, how God’s been part of my life guiding me, taking care of me, protecting, I can, you know, so so grateful for all the opportunities that I have had. And I know if you if you saw me, if you knew if you know me, I realize that much of what has been done or my opportunity certainly has not been done by me. I’ve seen that guiding hand. Um, and I’ve been blessed beyond opportunity to have had an opportunity to be around uh so many student athletes and coaches and administrators all across the country. And you know, hopefully they’ve seen something in me that they recognize as a little different. And um, and I think I’ve used that sort of as my faith walk, is like I try to treat people the best I can. I try to always say make the next right decision and know that um it takes you a while because you as you know, when you’re you especially if you’re in athletics, you’re always trying to win the next game or get the next job. And if you’re in division three, you want to be in division two, you want to be in division one. But at some point in time in there, you realize like I’d rather have a a legacy, a lasting legacy, and make a difference than winning a championship. And although I like to win, trust me, you can ask anybody around. But you know, you you switch gears and thinking about what’s the difference you can make in people’s lives. And um, and I think that that has been it’s worked for me, you know, and um I think hopefully that’s helped me to maybe somewhere along the line um be a role model, example, or inspiration to someone. And um and I’ve also like you, I’ve been amazed um across college athletics, how many athletic directors, coaches, people, support people who who work in our industry who are who are Christians, who are strong faith-based. I mean, amazed by it. And um I I think the other thing I’ve seen, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this a little bit, I’ve seen more and more who are speaking out too, and and and and they use their platform, a much bigger platform than I have. I’m not, you know, I’m I’m just a small little person in college athletics, but I it’s it’s really you know God’s working, he’s constantly working, and you start to we’re starting to see it more and more.SPEAKER_00 8:07
Yeah. So was there a particular coach that you had somewhere along the way who was uh instrumental, who kind of discipled you as a Christ follower in this particular uh type of profession to to not just be a good coach or in a good humanitarian, but to really do it for the glory of God?SPEAKER_01 8:31
Well, and um I think there’s there’s people throughout my life that looking back, I now know that, but and you’re gonna love this because I know you have background with Charleston Southern. Um when I was in middle school, a young couple moved to our our community, started working in our middle school and high school. Um, Mike and Lynn Maldon, I’ll throw their name out there, graduates of at the time, Baptist College, now Charleston Southern. And, you know, if you’re in sports, you you look up to your coaches, you respect them. And I was just so fortunate, the kind of people they were like, and now I look back, and you know, I’m going, I knew I wanted to be like them.SPEAKER_00 9:15
And um was he a soccer coach?SPEAKER_01 9:18
He you know, a little bit about him. He was a longtime cross-country coach, cross-country, okay. And then he um he and he coached at Irmo High School, Irmo High School, and he okay.SPEAKER_00 9:31
That’s how I know him because that’s where I went to high school.SPEAKER_01 9:33
Yeah, there you go. Mike Baldon, you know, small world in that connection. But you know, they were had such a positive influence on me, and it’s really kind of uh another strange story about them that kind of gets you down this road. Um, when I was deciding where to go to school, I wasn’t even thinking about going to Furman. I remember this is many years ago now because I’m not, I know I look young, but I’m not that young. And I was I think I applied to Duke and got you know, Duke and Clemson. I wasn’t even I didn’t even know about Furman. And um Coach Malden, I’ll call him Coach Malden, said, Hey, you are to get you you are to get your mom, dad, or something, y’all arrive up to Greenville, South Carolina. I’m like, Furman, I’ve never heard of it, you know, whatever. And literally, when I got on that campus, I I can still remember to this day, I just knew that’s the place I was supposed to go to school, which is where the next part of the story, on that campus, I um on our hall was a hall monitor at the time, what do you call them RA’s now, and Cindy Campson. And I’ve I had grown up in a Baptist church. I, you know, I obviously my parents had taken us to church, my mother’s particularly, you just didn’t miss. Um, but you know, when you get in college, you’re kind of like, okay, now don’t, but this Cindy Campson, I can truly say, was probably that person that said, there’s a lot more to your faith than just going to church. And it was, you know, just unbelievable. And, you know, that was sort of one of those touch points in your life where you, you know, coaches, then you met this person, and um, and then to go to another place you’re familiar with, after I got out the Furman, I went to the University of South Carolina to get my master’s. And at the time, I if you if you taught in one of the local schools um or coach, they would pay for you to get your master’s. And so I um was teaching out in uh Gilbert Schools out in Lexington County, wanted to get my master’s. And and I love, you know, I was coaching, and Nancy Wilson was the head coach at um South Carolina, who was a very strong, outspoken Christian. Um, she and Joan um Cronin, who was at UT, they would have been at College of Charleston, I were familiar, but Nancy had worked her way up. And that was one of those other people that I could say kind of changed your life, because I saw like how you could be a Christian coach and how you could do that, even at a state school, you know, all the things we have to, you know, public and private is so different. And so, you know, that’s a couple examples, and I could keep going in my career like that. I mean, I have no doubt in my mind, certain people have been placed in my life to show me the way, and um until I was able to be the kind of person where I now hopefully I’m showing the way to some others. And and we all have different in college coaching and administration, we all have different ways of doing that. And sometimes it’s which is one of your topics, leadership, is sometimes it’s the way you lead. You don’t have to say a word. Your actions show everything about who you are and what you really believe in. And so I’ve had several people. I could go, I mean, it someday maybe I’ll write a book about um I’ll I can’t call it’s not about me because everybody uses that, but literally I could call it it’s not about me. It’s all the people that God has placed in my life along the way that it’s just I mean, it’s it’s pretty um, it makes you realize like God truly does have such a bigger plan for us than we can even imagine for ourselves, you know. And um yeah.SPEAKER_00 13:28
So it’s the the cross country coach at my high school who I saw many times, but never unfortunately got the pleasure of of knowing, was the one who was so instrumental in modeling that for you. Um that’s that that’s amazing. Uh Janet, how would you describe the spiritual climate of the NCAA?SPEAKER_01 13:50
Well, I don’t know if you can say you can describe the spiritual climate of the NCAA, because the NCAA is truly the members of the NCAA, which are all the institutions, you know, it’s a membership-driven association that has people working. Um I think what I said earlier that I have been amazed through the years now how many fellow ADs, you know, um coaches who are strong, strong Christians who are speaking out, or you know, there’s a there’s a group called ADs for Christ that’s really, you know, got a lot of ministrators in it, you know, and obviously through the years, you know, different organizations, whether it’s sports outreach or fellowship of Christian athletes, you know, there’s avenues for different people. And um, but I can’t really say that you can say that NCAA should or should not have some kind of spiritual out because it is the member institutions which are the people that work at these institutions. So I’ll I’ll say I think we have many more ministrators across the country and coaches who um lead with their faith than probably people recognize.SPEAKER_00 15:04
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So, what what’s a time when you saw God’s hand at work in your coaching or in your role as an athletic director?SPEAKER_01 15:14
Well, I one is you’re seeing one of it right now. There’s no way I should be an athletic director. I mean, you talk about opening doors and making things. Um, for those people that are listening, you know, obviously I talked about I went to South Carolina to get my master’s, I was coaching. I then got an opportunity to be the um head women’s basketball and volleyball coach at Mars Hill College now university, and um it was a great experience out there with young people and loved it. And then I had a chance to become the coach at Western Carolina, and you know, then you know, I’m end up at Sanford University to start their women’s basketball program. And honestly, to this day, I keep, I I keep a piece of paper I wrote on it. Actually, I think it was one of those um daily devotionals, and I was in a I was called to go to Sanford to interview for this head women’s basketball job. They and and they had found out about me through two students that had visited the school and asked about women’s basketball, and at the time they didn’t have it. And I’m and remember, this wasn’t 60 years ago, I’m not that old, but and so the the AD at the time wrote my name down because he could not believe like who is this Janet Cohn? I’ve never heard of her. And two different prospective students were visiting Sanford saying, Well, I’m a high school basketball player, where’s the basketball? And he said, Well, we don’t have a team, we don’t have a program, we’re gonna start one. And and he just said, Um, it was A D was Steve All good at the time, he said, Well, who would you recommend, you know, or whatever? Do you know somebody? And they said, Janet Cohn. Well, he tried, he finds me and calls me up and um says, I’m calling you about starting a women’s basketball program. And I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me, and I kind of hung up like, oh, yeah, everybody’s got women’s basketball, ha ha ha. So I hung up. He called back, he said, no, no, don’t hang up. I’m the athletic director. I’ve gotten your name. And he told me, and um one of them was a young lady. Um, I had done some clinic and work at a Shannon Fars Christian School in Greenville, because having been at Furman. Um, and another of them was a young lady out of Orlando, Florida. So they didn’t even know each other. And I had worked at FCA camp where she had come to. So they weren’t players that I even coached or anything. I’d just been at camps with them. And so he called back and said, Why don’t you come up? So I go to Sanford University and I’m walking around on that campus and I’m talking to them, and I’m going, How and and he told me the story, he said, and I’m like, This has got to be a God thing, you know, like there’s no way he would have found me. And so I go, you know, I never dreamed about working, uh living and working in Birmingham, Alabama, but I’m going to Birmingham, Alabama, and it was it was a life-changing experience for me. Hopefully, I changed some lives of some young people. But at that point in time, working for um at the time uh the president of Sanford was uh Dr. Kortz, and there was an athletic director, Bob Roller, who is a dear friend of mine. They said to me, You’re a great coach. We love it, we like what we see you doing. We’d like you to help more of our athletic department. Have you ever thought about going in administration? And I’m like, No, I’m a coach, you know. And um, they said, Well, you think about it, but you can stay here for your whole career or you, you know, whatever. And so after a little bit of time, they called me again and they said, We really want you to think about this. And I’m like, Well, maybe there’s something to this. And so um, obviously I was praying about it. And finally, I kind of came to me and said, you know, I always want to lead coaching while people love me and I still love coaching. And so I called them up and said, Let’s do it. So I went from one day being the head women’s basketball coach to literally, I mean, we told the team, and I’m the associate athletic director helping Bob Roller, who said to me, literally, you could be an A D. And I’m going, no, no, I’m I’m I’ve already had a whole career. But at this time, I already coached for 20 some 20 years. And I’m like, I’ll be happy working for you because I really loved working with Bob Roller. He was just kind of Christian guy that you’d want to be around every day, every day, you know, um, just smart, cared about people. And so I barely get into being his associate AD and had another young, young guy, Alan Burlander, who was the other associate AD, who he and I just loved because we’re different in ages. We had a great time. I mean, we’re doing, we were loving Stanford University. I mean, it’s like this is so much fun. We’re helping young people build. And and I get this call from the University of North Carolina, Asheville, had hired a search firm. And I’ll never forget Bob Carr called me up and said, Hey, um, we’ve heard a little bit about you and what y’all are doing there. We’d like you to put your name in for the search for the AD at UNC Asheville. Once again, I kind of laughed and said, No, you just want a token female in your candidate pool. Because remember, 20-some years ago, there were very few women that were ADs at Division I schools. I think at the time it’s probably 12 to 14. And I just thought they were doing the token, get a female. And I’m like, plus, I haven’t really been an administrator very long. And he said, well, just think about it. So I talked to Bob, and Bob said to me, he said, I don’t want you to leave, but it’ll be good practice because you really could be an AD someday. And I’m like, no, I’ll stay here. But he said, No, you really ought to try it. You ought to do it for practice. So I put my name in the hat thinking I have no chance. There’ll be much more qualified people to speed this story up. The next thing I know, I’m standing in in what I call the the red oak room here on campus, Carpent Hall, and they’re introducing me as the athletic director at UNC Ash. That could never happen without a God thing, I’m telling you. Because I was not the most qualified. But hey, and look, 20 some years later, maybe it’s worked out.SPEAKER_00 21:41
So yeah, well, like I’ve heard it said that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. And I’m sure that you obviously had the stuff that that uh that they were looking for, but um, I’m sure there was a lot of development that happened along the way. Uh what I’m curious, what percentage of Of athletic directors in the United States are female.SPEAKER_01 22:04
Well, I will tell you from 20 some years ago when I took this job, where I literally there was probably, you know, 15, 16. There are there are many more now at the Division I level, but not nearly what there could be. But you know, we just over the last, I don’t know, five to 10 years, you’ve actually got um women athletic directors who are at the power four levels at the major college level. Um, and that’s just happened in what I call, you know, more of the modern time. So so we’re getting more. And um, and you know, I think a lot of that has happened, much like what I had as a great male mentor who said, Hey, I’m gonna help you guide you and help give you as many opportunities to get in the right rooms, the right spaces. Um, and so it it has gotten much better, but not what nearly what it could be.SPEAKER_00 23:01
Yeah. I’m curious, Janet, what are some of the have there been any um toxic coaching behaviors that that you’ve noticed that really are tend to to hinder a large percentage of of coaches from well, you know, that’s that’s a great question.SPEAKER_01 23:22
And um, and I kind of laugh and joke around with people. I’m like, you know, because I’ve seen both sides. I’ve been a coach and administrator, and how the world has changed. What coaches did 20 years ago or 10 years ago would have been maybe no one would have said anything about or didn’t know how to say anything. Well, we’re now in 2026, you know, there’s no way, you know, coaches have to be um educated, they have to be doing this for the right reasons. Now, with that being said, I I think you probably have something about this in your book too. You know, um what I do as a as someone who has an opportunity to hire people, you know, you’ve got to know what your core values are for your department. And and that works whether it’s athletics, whether it’s a family, whether it’s a church, a business, and you hire to your core values before you ever hire to a skill set, because then you’re gonna have people who are doing this for the right reasons, and um you can avoid a lot of those kind of behaviors because that’s just not what we do here. That’s not how we treat people because our core values are certain things. You don’t always get 100% right because you know, a lot of coaches across the country are under intense pressures to win, especially at much bigger schools where there’s a lot of money, a lot of um pressure, not only from their administration, but pressure from donors, and and you know, so sometimes, you know, they could have what I call that lapse of I didn’t do the right thing, or I treated a young person not the way they should be treated. Um, it’s a tough, tough time. And so what I would say to anyone, um, whether you’re starting out as a first-time coach or you’ve been doing it for years, um, you can never go wrong by making sure you know what your core values are. And if you’re working around young people, you should have core values that really say you’re student-centered, you know, that that that’s why you’re doing this, regardless. You know, you can choose do I want to win a game or do I want to make sure that I treat somebody a young person the way they should be treated? Um and I don’t think we’ll ever get it 100% right. You know, it’s no way.SPEAKER_00 25:46
But how do you how do you take that from being just sort of a plaque on the wall to really operationalizing those core values?SPEAKER_01 25:56
Um I call it reputation, reputation, communicate, communicate, communicate, but but you’re right, something on paper does not equal behavior. And so I really believe, um, and I I’m telling you, this is not Janet Cone. This is Janet Cone who is reading and learning and trying to get better every day. But everything that I’ve learned about leadership is you have to already, like when I’m interviewing someone, I have certain questions that are going to help me determine what their core values are. And um, and I I’ll just make up one. Um, let’s say one of our core values is integrity, which it is. I’ll ask a coach, maybe I’m interviewing, give me an example where you had one of those situations where it would have been very easy not to make the right decision and then tell me what your decision was. Because I want them to talk to me about like I had this chance to get this player, and nobody, if they say something, you know, like nobody would have known, but I just I chose that was I would have broken a rule or whatever. Instead, I decided, you know, that’s okay, I’m moving, I’m gonna do the right thing. So I think when we’re interviewing people, whatever the core values you have for your athletic department, try to have questions of that. And then you got to do your homework too, you know, um, and and right or wrong, you know, you can social media and and you can find out all kinds of stuff about people on social media. Some of it’s true, some of it’s not true. But um the other thing I think that that we do here to kind of reinforce these, we don’t just stick it up on the wall or talk about it at the beginning of the year. I mean, I’m I my my team, I tell them out front, I said that I’m not obsessive compulsive, but I am obsessive compulsive. You’re gonna hear me talk about our core values over and over and over. You’re gonna hear me talk about what’s what our vision is over and over. And then you’re gonna also see me reward that. And sometimes rewarding it is just simply pointing out somebody that did something that demonstrates their servant leader, um, somebody that demonstrates that they treated people with respect. And then, you know, all the way throughout the year, in our in we do like quarterly check-ins. One of the things I have as one of the questions on their quarterly check-in is here’s our four four core values. Tell me one example where you demonstrated that over this past quarter. You can choose either any of them, and you’ll be, I have found out the people that have been with me, they’ll write about all four of our core values, like and say, here’s what I did, not bragging about themselves, but demonstrating. And then um, at the end of the year, we actually award an award for each of those things, and it’s voted on by by their peers. Who do you think demon, you know, who should get the bulldog integrity award? And you if you have to not only nominate them, you have to clearly tell us why they should get that. Like you saw them actually do something that demonstrates they’re a person of integrity. And like I say, you can do that for any of whatever your your core values are for any business, any athletic department.SPEAKER_00 29:33
But um and what are you four?SPEAKER_01 29:36
Huh? Yeah. Well, I sort of have six, but they all, you know, the old rule of front thumb, have three to four. So, you know, um, one of ours is together is innovative and hardworking because we think those two go hand in hand. Um, if you, you know, it’s the quality of your work, not necessarily how much you work, but you know, you have to be innovative and hardworking to be successful here. Because we’re not a we’re not a large Division I school institution. So um we also have a culture of um respect and excellence, you know, um integrity is one and servant leadership is one. Um, because guess what? We have no jobs here without student athletes. And if you don’t have a heart for students and serving them, um you should not be here. You know, it’s not it’s not about you know you winning a championship. Although I’m saying it again, I don’t want people to think that you can’t want to be a champion, or um, but you know, those have to go over and over and over. And um I think the other thing, it’s no right and wrong in any of this either, Darren. Um people have asked me, like, how have you stayed there so long? You know, one to ask why, and I my why is easy for this one, although I had many opportunities to go other places. I’ve been able to do exactly what I wanted to do right here in my office in the Justice Center. I I from Asheville, North Carolina, I didn’t need to go anywhere else. You know, I it’s it’s and the thing that gets me to come back every day is I know I’m gonna make a difference every day here. Every day. There’s gonna be some something that I’m gonna go home today and say, boy, I really enjoyed talking to that student athlete. And you know, he shared with me he wants to go to law school. And I told him I can get him a mentor that’s a lawyer, can help him with that. And you go home and go, you know, that might not be a big deal to somebody, but it’s a big deal to me because it’s helping someone. And then back to how you get, I get that um, because I’ve been here a long time, whether somebody’s worked for me, I’ve only had two people that have been here with me the whole time who are dear, dear, unbelievable. Um, but if you work here, you know that’s what we’re about. And because I longevity and leadership can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing. For us in this athletic department, it’s been good because our core values haven’t changed, you know, and people have seen those have helped us to be successful, you know, in spite of what you know we don’t have, you know, and and we one of the things we talk a lot about here, and this is sort of in our mission, is you know, we’re we’re gonna out-execute people by developing our our our number one resource, and that’s people. Um, and and so you have to tell you you have to keep that going constantly. And you can’t, and you get somebody new, you can’t forget that they don’t know what everybody else knows. So you have to start that new person right down that road from day one. And I say you start it when you’re hiring, so they’re not going to be surprised when you say, I’m gonna hold you accountable accountable for being a person of integrity. I’m gonna hold you accountable to speak to someone who’s cleaning the hallway and the chancellor because we show respect to everyone, and um it’s easier said than done. It just takes a lot of like you cannot take your eye off what’s important.SPEAKER_00 33:19
Yeah. I love your emphasis on core values because it’s it’s such an underestimated way uh to disciple people. And and you know, I think uh a lot of us would think that, well, I’m only discipling people if I’m explicitly talking about about Jesus and talking about the gospel and and talk quoting chapter and verse. But I mean, when you when you truly help somebody uh to embrace integrity, to embrace servant leadership, like if if you were truly focused on providing opportunities for them to demonstrate those things and to to really start to embody those those core values, that is discipleship. And and those those questions of hey, well, what’s what’s your source of integrity? Like what why is you know, beyond this this team and helping us succeed, like why is servant leadership and respect important to you? Like where did and for them that might stop at, well, you know, my that’s what my mom and dad taught me, or or that’s what my grand grandpa taught me. Uh, but but I I think it it you’ve probably found that it does open conversations to talk about the things of God, right?SPEAKER_01 34:40
Well, um, and for me here, and I’ve seen this with um some of my colleagues and student athlete, the somebody will eventually ask you why you’re that way. I mean they will, and you know right then, that’s your chance. Like, am I that way because I read some a leadership book as good as your book is, I’m not that way because I read your book. I’m that way because I really believe that’s what I’m called to do and be examples of, you know, um, and we know this. If if if if you studied Jesus, whether you are Christian or you just want to read about Jesus is the best example of leadership you’ll ever have. I mean, he took these 12 people that were so different, put them together in what I call the dream team. And all these what thousands of years later, they you still have the vision and the mission, and everything is still going on. So, I mean, so I do believe sometimes what you what people’s actions do can open that door for those kind of conversations. And um the other thing I think I’m really because I I gotta be really clear about this. I don’t think if you ask people here, they will talk about what they all the stuff they think Janet Cohn has accomplished. And I’m in my head kind of laughing. I’m going, thank God, you made that building happen. There’s no way in heaven this thing was gonna happen. I know, and so you know, I’ve had chances, and sometimes, you know, you’re almost put in a conversation, kind of laughing, and people will stop you. Like I’ve said many times, like that was done by the grace of God. And they’re like, and I’m like, I’m being serious. Do you really think I could have done that? And and you they might not right then, but at some point in time they come back and ask you, like, what did you really mean by that? I’m like, Well, I’m telling you, I’m a person, I’ve seen some things here where I shake my head going, there’s no way that was could be done by humans by themselves. It’s no way.SPEAKER_00 36:49
Um well, Janet, you are an inspiration to us. Um, thank you so much for spending time with us and and sharing your wisdom and your journey and your your passion for the Lord with us and for your passion for people and helping to develop young people and the coaches that are you know coaching the coaches.SPEAKER_01 37:13
Uh yeah, absolutely, coaching the coaches. That’s what it’s all about.SPEAKER_00 37:17
Yeah, and I’ll have to give my boys out to go see another another basketball game coming up here pretty soon, too.SPEAKER_01 37:23
I definitely want you to come over. And I’m serious what I told you off before we start. I want to come back on, I want to interview you. Uh because I’m telling you, you got some great nuggets in this book that I would just love to sit down and ask you more questions about.SPEAKER_00 37:38
Oh, we’ll do it. Let’s do it.unknown 37:40
Okay.SPEAKER_00 37:41
All right, Janet. Thank you so much, and uh God bless you. And and uh it’s been really fun having this conversation.SPEAKER_01 37:48
Same to you, and thank you for what you’re doing. You’re you’re doing God’s work, so thank you.SPEAKER_00 37:55
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