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September 30, 2025

Episode 229 – Dre Baldwin – Work On Your Game: Dre Baldwin on Confidence, Mindset, and Leadership

“If you have to explain it, you are not doing it right. Presence explains itself.” Dre Baldwin


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  • In this episode, Patrick Francey sits down with Dre Baldwin to explore what it really takes to command a room, win consistently, and translate athletic rigor into business results. Dre opens by defining presence as an energetic signal people feel before they know your resume. It is not height, clothing, or a pasted-on smile. Presence is the outward expression of inner order built from discipline, structure, strategy, execution, and confidence. Patrick shares a story about receiving feedback that his natural intensity could feel intimidating. By loosening his look and adding a conscious smile, he noticed people approached him more easily. Dre explains that strong presence creates productive tension. You can dial that tension up or down, but easing it too much can reduce your impact.
  • Dre draws on sports to explain why presence cannot be faked. In basketball, the scoreboard is objective. Talent gets you in the door, but disciplined habits keep you there. The pros and the “plumbers” both know thousands want their spot, so work ethic matters most on the days you do not feel like showing up. That same logic applies in business. Leaders with true presence raise standards without speeches. Their very arrival makes others sit up, focus, and perform.
  • Mindset is the first lever. Dre uses the BE → DO → HAVE model. You become the person, then you do the work, and only then do you have the results. Because most thoughts are subconscious, you must reprogram the mind through repetition, immersion, and emotional intensity. Practical cues like posture, eye contact, and putting your phone away can spark a quick confidence reset, but lasting presence comes from living your structure daily.
  • Dre also addresses life after sport. He intentionally planned his transition rather than defaulting to coaching or training. The concept of “credibility fusion” allows you to carry forward lessons from different arenas and combine them into a coherent value proposition. He closes with his GAME model for achievement: define what winning looks like, build the skills and tools, install structure that produces discipline, let discipline create consistency, let consistency build confidence, and let confidence power performance and results.
  • Patrick wraps by highlighting the episode’s central insight: presence is a way of being that anyone can build through disciplined execution and a trained mind.
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  • Show Notes
  • 00:04 — Opening and Intent
    Patrick frames the podcast’s purpose: conversations with “seemingly ordinary” people who have created extraordinary results in life and business.
  • 00:42 — Meet Dre Baldwin
    Patrick tees up Dre’s journey: overlooked college walk-on to pro basketball, creator of “Work On Your Game,” four-time TEDx speaker, 41 books, 2,500+ podcast episodes, and 15 years of daily content.
  • 02:14 — Dre says hello
    Quick welcome and tone-setting.
  • 02:38 — Command any room
    Dre’s core answer to “What do you do?” He helps people develop presence so they naturally command space anywhere: networking events, a grocery store, even on an airplane.
  • 05:59 — The anatomy of presence
    Presence is an energetic signature people feel before they know your resume. It is not height, clothes, or acting confident. It is an internal state that radiates outward, built from performance, discipline, structure, and execution fused together.
  • 09:07 — Patrick’s story: softening the edge
    Patrick recalls feedback that he could feel intimidating on stage. He experimented with removing the jacket, loosening the tie, open collar, rolled sleeves, and a conscious half-smile. Result: approachability improved without losing authority.
  • 11:24 — Presence creates tension
    Dre explains that strong presence often triggers tension in others, especially men who do not have it. That tension can be productive and keeps standards high.
  • 14:02 — Confidence vs self-consciousness
    Confidence projects energy outward. Self-consciousness collapses energy inward. Presence requires confidence, but confidence alone is not the whole equation.
  • 15:20 — How to know if you lack presence
    If you struggle with discipline, mental toughness, confidence, consistency, habits, structure, or systems, presence is missing. Presence is the composite of these habits brought into a way of being.
  • 18:25 — Attraction vs repulsion
    Balanced presence attracts attention and cooperation. When a leader has status without inner alignment, the energy repels people and undermines outcomes.
  • 20:57 — Field tests and “command presence”
    Dre references police training on command presence: posture, squared stance, eye contact, hands free, attention up. A fast confidence reset: stand tall, shoulders back, head and eyes up, put away the phone, make direct eye contact.
  • 25:11 — The tradeoff of easing tension
    Smiling and casual cues can reduce tension and increase approachability, but at a slight cost to raw presence. Choose intentionally based on context.
  • 26:57 — Presence as being
    Presence is not a tactic, mindset trick, or outfit. It is a way of being encoded in your subconscious through disciplined living.
  • 28:30 — Why celebrities raise the room’s value
    Examples: Kim Kardashian at a club, courtside stars, and The Last Dance depiction of Michael Jordan’s presence raising standards. Presence increases the perceived and real value of the environment.
  • 31:16 — Presence shows up differently
    Different personalities, same core signal. A 20-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man can both have undeniable presence.
  • 32:53 — Dre’s origin story
    Division III background, coaches demanding he be a “presence” for all minutes on the floor, not in spurts. The early language for what later became his presence framework.
  • 38:10 — Discipline vs habits
    They are two sides of the same coin. Habits are automatic behaviors. Discipline is choosing the right behaviors especially when you do not feel like it. Discipline creates confidence.
  • 41:39 — Nature and nurture
    Dre’s parents modeled daily discipline and work ethic without complaining or bragging. That lived example became his template for sport and business.
  • 45:47 — Vision, talent thresholds, and consistency
    Sports have objective scoreboards. You need a baseline of talent to even be eligible. For many, sustained effort is the separator. Fusion of talent and work ethic produces stars.
  • 50:38 — The “plumber” principle
    Role players survive on work ethic because there are thousands ready to take their spot. This is why many top coaches were not all-time superstars—they can relate across the roster.
  • 54:40 — Mindset first: BE → DO → HAVE
    All clients start with mindset. Reprogram the subconscious through repetition, immersion, and emotionalization. Affirmations and daily mental reps matter.
  • 57:24 — Control your 1%
    You control your thinking, not the external 99%. Mastery of your 1% makes it feel like you influence the 99%. That perception is part of presence.
  • 1:01:15 — Life after sport
    Dre proactively planned his transition and declined the default paths of coaching or training. He realized his value extended beyond athletics into mindset, systems, and leadership.
  • 1:07:30 — Sport to business
    Teams, culture, practice, standards, and clear processes translate directly to business building.
  • 1:09:37 — Credibility fusion
    Blend credibility from multiple domains into a coherent offer. Athletes, operators, and veterans can port lessons into new arenas without losing their past.
  • 1:10:55 — The GAME model
    Define success, decide the scorecard, build the skills and tools, and install structure. Structure produces discipline, discipline consistency, consistency confidence, confidence performance, performance results.
  • 1:12:17 — Rapid fire
    iPhone user. Music: hip hop; artists: 50 Cent, Notorious B.I.G. Movies: Ocean’s 11. Books: 48 Laws of Power, Laws of Success, 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, 10x Is Easier Than 2x.
  • 1:13:59 — If there is a God…
    “Dre, you maximized your gifts.”
  • 1:14:14 — Favorite swear word
    “Mofo” (to dodge social platform filters).
  • 1:14:33 — Gratitude
    Grateful for timing, the internet, entrepreneurship from the couch, and parents who set a disciplined foundation.
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  • Resources mentioned in this episode:
  • Dre Baldwin
    • Website: WorkOnYourGame.com
    • Dre Baldwin
    • Podcast: Work On Your Game Podcast (2,500+ episodes available on all major platforms)
    • Books: Dre Baldwin on Amazon (41 titles and counting)
  • Books & Authors Referenced
    • The 48 Laws of Power — Robert Greene
    • The 33 Strategies of War — Robert Greene
    • The 50th Law — Robert Greene & 50 Cent
    • The Laws of Success — Napoleon Hill
    • The Power of Positive Thinking — Norman Vincent Peale
    • 10x Is Easier Than 2x — Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy
    • The Gap and the Gain — Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy
    • Atomic Habits — James Clear
  • People Referenced
    • LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Joe Pesci, Kim Kardashian, Juwan Howard, Wayne Gretzky, Tom Brady, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson & Cus D’Amato, Cam Newton
  •  

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Episode 229 – Dre Baldwin – Work On Your Game: Dre Baldwin on Confidence, Mindset, and Leadership
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