I grew up watching the ‘90s Bulls like they were a religion.

Michael Jordan was unstoppable. Pippen was smooth. Rodman was wild. And in the middle of that controlled chaos was Phil Jackson: the calm one, the Zen master, the coach who somehow got all these alpha personalities to play as a championship team.

I didn’t realize it back then, but Phil Jackson was teaching leadership. His book Eleven Rings is one of the best guides I’ve read on managing people, aligning vision, and building something that lasts. The more I lead my business, the more I come back to his ideas, especially now with AI flooding the space and everyone chasing hacks instead of systems.

Here are three powerful takeaways from Phil that apply directly to how I try to lead my team at Expio and how I want to help our clients win.

Find the Sacred in the Repetitive

Phil had his teams meditate. Sit in silence. Repeat drills. Focus on breath and rhythm. Not because it was trendy, but because presence wins games. Repetition sharpens identity.

It’s the same in business and marketing. You don’t need a thousand new ideas. You need a few that work and a team that executes them with discipline, clarity, and consistency.

At Expio, our best weeks don’t come from breakthrough ideas. They come from simple systems done well. Routines and checklists well executed. Client goals reviewed. Content refined. Reports tracked. Again and again.

The teams that treat the basics as sacred beat the ones chasing the next shiny thing.

Coach the Person, Not Just the Metric

Phil understood that leadership is personal. Rodman needed space. Kobe needed truth. MJ needed trust. He didn’t coach them all the same way, but he did coach them all toward responsibility and growth.

That’s how I try to lead. Internally and with clients. Metrics matter. But if we never zoom out to ask: “Do these numbers reflect what matters to you? Do they align with your identity?” then we’re just reacting. Not leading.

The best client relationships are the ones where we can pause, reflect, and re-align without panic, without ego. Just clarity and a shared purpose.

Build a System, Not a Superstar Dependency

The triangle offense worked because it didn’t rely on one guy. It was a system of movement, spacing, and flexibility. When MJ left the Bulls the first time, the system kept them competitive. That’s not a fluke. That’s design.

In business, too many people build systems that only work when one person is at 100 percent. A founder. A rainmaker. A designer. An account manager. When that person breaks or leaves, the whole thing collapses.

This year, our push at Expio is to systematize more and de-risk everything. No magic tricks. Just clear roles, documented processes, shared knowledge, and accountability. We want to win because the system works, not because one person pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

So What’s the One Solution?

Lead like Phil. Execute like MJ or Kobe.

Don’t just manage tasks. Coach people. Build identity. Find rhythm. Create a culture where repetition sharpens excellence and clarity drives execution.

This week, ask yourself:

Where are you leading from presence, not panic?

Where have you over-indexed on one star instead of building a repeatable system?

Where can you coach more and control less?

Phil Jackson won eleven rings because he understood something most leaders ignore. The real game is inside the team, inside the mind, and inside the system.

Everything else follows.

See you next Saturday.