Michael Burt — known to most simply as Coach Burt — made an unusual leap: from championship-winning high school girls basketball coach to a national name in business coaching. He joined Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to explain the idea at the center of his work: Prey Drive, the psychology of activation.
Burt walks through the five activators that switch a person's drive on — including fear, competition, and embarrassment — and why he tells people to find a skill before they go hunting for a 'why.' It is part locker-room talk, part business school, exactly as he intends.
About Michael Burt
Michael Burt is a former championship high school basketball coach from Tennessee who traded the gym for the boardroom, building a coaching practice that serves entrepreneurs, athletes, and sales teams. He is a prolific author whose books include the bestselling Flip the Switch, and a sought-after speaker on performance psychology.
His signature concept, Prey Drive, reframes ambition as an instinct that must be deliberately activated rather than a trait you either have or lack. In this episode he maps its five activators, recalls meeting Grant Cardone, and breaks down the difference between level-four and level-five leaders.
What Michael Burt and Sean Kelly Talked About
- What Prey Drive is, and the five activators that switch it on
- How fear, competition, and embarrassment can be converted into productive boldness
- Why Michael Burt says to find a skill before searching for a why
- The habits that separate the top one percent of performers from everyone else
- Level-four versus level-five leaders, and how to tell which one you are
- Why business needs more coaching, and what great coaches actually do
- Packaging your past: turning hard-won experience into something people will pay for
- How learned helplessness takes root, and the mindset work that reverses it
Why This Conversation Matters
Coaching advice often floats free of any track record; Michael Burt's does not. He built winners on the court before he built them in business, and the Prey Drive framework offers ambitious people something rarer than motivation — a repeatable way to reactivate it. This episode is a compact introduction straight from the source.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
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