What happens when you achieve success, build the business, and still feel that something is missing? Steve Barton joins Sid Bensalah on Pre-Zero Sports Talk to explore that question. Steve is a high-performance executive coach, entrepreneur, author, and creator of The Game of Ten®. Together, they discuss fear, self-doubt, leadership, pressure, awareness, forgiveness, intuition, and success.
This isn’t a polished conversation built around easy agreement. Instead, Sid and Steve challenge each other throughout the episode. Their views differ at times, especially around faith and spirituality. However, the discussion remains open, curious, and respectful.
Growing Up Different and Finding a Place in Sport
Steve was born with two fingers on one hand. As a child, people told him sport probably wasn’t for him. However, getting close to his high school football team changed his perspective.
At first, Steve joined the team as a manager. Then, after watching the players, he began to think differently. If they could do it, why could he not try?
As a result, sport became part of a larger lesson in persistence. Steve learned to look for a way forward rather than accept every limitation placed in front of him.
05:41 — Born Different, Driven
11:01 — Finding a Way in Sports
Leadership Under Pressure
Steve grew up inside his family flower business. Therefore, responsibility became real at a young age. Weddings, funerals, deadlines, customers, and fresh products left little room for error.
Later, Steve helped grow the business while learning how to lead under pressure. He shares stories about wedding chaos, difficult customers, family conflict, and fast decisions. He also explains why preparation matters before pressure arrives.
One weekend involved 20 weddings. Another involved a wedding order filed under the wrong date. Nevertheless, the work still had to get done.
For leaders, athletes, coaches, and entrepreneurs, the lesson is clear. Pressure often reveals whether your preparation, systems, and people are ready.
18:14 — Seagull Management Showdown
20:14 — Pressure and Wedding Chaos
29:06 — Scaling With Creativity
When Success Still Feels Empty
From the outside, Steve had built a successful life. But inside, something didn’t feel right.
Eventually, he walked into a therapist’s office and admitted that he had what he wanted but was not happy. That moment changed his life’s direction. From there, the conversation moves into shame, mental health, family patterns, and forgiveness.
Moreover, Steve speaks openly about his complicated relationship with his father. He explains how forgiveness changed his need for approval. At the same time, he makes an important distinction between forgiveness and maintaining unhealthy relationships.
42:11 — Therapy, Shame and Forgiveness
44:03 — Forgiving Dad and Setting Boundaries
Steve Barton’s Spiritual Awakening
The conversation then moves into more personal territory. Steve describes what he considers a profound spiritual awakening. He also describes an experience he interprets as a near-death and out-of-body experience.
Importantly, these are Steve’s personal experiences and interpretations. The episode does not present them as established scientific facts.
However, they became central to how Steve understands awareness, identity, love, and human existence. Therefore, Sid asks him to explain not only what happened, but also how he distinguishes personal certainty from something others cannot independently prove.
48:36 — Near-Death Spiritual Shift
52:58 — Reading “The Redemption”
54:24 — “You Never Left”
56:10 — What Happened After the Awakening
God, Jesus, Faith and Different Beliefs
The discussion becomes especially direct when Sid asks where Jesus fits into Steve’s worldview. Steve explains his personal understanding of God, Jesus, consciousness, and unconditional love.
Meanwhile, Sid approaches the subject from his Catholic faith. He brings the conversation back to St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13. For Sid, love is not simply an emotion. Instead, love must also become visible in how we live and treat others.
Their perspectives are different. Nevertheless, neither side avoids the disagreement. Instead, the conversation continues with respect and curiosity.
Ultimately, this section reflects an important principle of Pre-Zero Sports Talk. Different voices can share the same table without pretending their beliefs are identical.
57:52 — Beyond Belief Labels
58:53 — Why Are We Here?
01:00:54 — Jesus, Faith and the Church
Intuition, Awareness and Confirmation Bias
Steve places significant value on intuition. Therefore, Sid asks a difficult question. How do you distinguish genuine intuition from fear, ego, wishful thinking, or confirmation bias?
Steve explains how he approaches that distinction. At the same time, the discussion examines the limits of thought and the role of awareness.
They also touch on artificial intelligence, natural intelligence, and the importance of staying curious. The exchange is direct, spontaneous, and sometimes challenging.
01:08:51 — Humility and “Ten Care”
01:12:54 — Intuition, Fear and Confirmation Bias
What Is The Game of Ten®?
Later, Steve explains The Game of Ten®, the coaching framework at the centre of his work. According to Steve, fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame can shape how people see themselves.
His framework therefore focuses on awareness and personal worth. Steve takes Sid through six phrases designed to interrupt destructive internal dialogue.
The phrases include “I am 10,” “I am enough,” “I do enough,” and “I have enough.” Moreover, Steve connects the practice to present-moment awareness, intuition, and intentional action.
The conversation then arrives at another central idea: “Now is always enough.”
Whether you agree with every part of Steve’s philosophy or not, the questions remain relevant. Are you pursuing excellence from purpose or fear? Are you constantly punishing yourself to perform? And what happens when your achievements become your identity?
01:14:41 — What Is The Game of Ten®?
01:17:35 — The Six Phrases
01:20:05 — “Now Is Always Enough”
What Does Success Really Mean?
At 70, Steve sees success differently than he did earlier in life. Therefore, the episode closes by returning to the question introduced at the beginning.
What is success worth if you achieve everything you wanted but cannot live peacefully with yourself?
Ultimately, this conversation is about more than coaching. It is about performance, identity, family, belief, forgiveness, relationships, and meaning.
It also asks whether ambition and inner peace must compete. Perhaps the deeper challenge is learning how to pursue excellence without losing yourself along the way.
01:22:38 — Lightning Round
01:30:35 — Hope, Awakening and Media
Learn More About Steve Barton
Steve Barton is a high-performance coach and creator of The Game of Ten®. His work focuses on awareness, performance, leadership, relationships, and personal development. His website describes The Game of Ten® as a coaching methodology developed around performance, connection, purpose, and wellbeing.
Website: Steve Barton Coaching
LinkedIn: Steve Barton on LinkedIn
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