SHREVEPORT --  Pivot.

It’s more than just a basketball move where players change directions.

For Dr. Toby Brooks, an LSU Shreveport graduate of the Master of Business Administration program, it’s the foundation of a world-renowned podcast that explores how high achievers change course and respond to adversity.

The podcast “Becoming UnDone” elevates stories from athletics, entrepreneurship and music, cultivating an audience that ranks in the top 5-10 in both the education and self-improvement categories and in the top 150 overall on Apple Podcasts.

Guests have included Dick Vermeil (Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach), Jacob Slichter (Semisonic drummer), and Larry Johnson (former NBA All-Star) among a deep field of Olympians, business executives and artists of different genres.

The podcast was born from COVID-19 when Brooks, then a faculty member in Texas Tech’s Health & Human Sciences department, convened a panel discussion of former student-athletes for his behavioral health class for athletic trainers.

“We talked about the psychological process of finishing a sport – the identity shift that happens when we leave something that’s been so central to our identity,” Brooks said. “People I had known for 20 years were sharing things I’ve never heard before.

“A panelist who was a minor league baseball manager was getting emotional talking about the last baseball game he’s ever played. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there’s something more here (in this topic). Competitive athletics are so core in the identities of people who play, and one day you’re out of eligibility, or no one signs you, or you get hurt – you don’t get to play anymore.”

He quickly learned that these types of stories span every field and profession, and he branched out into the business and music world among other areas in his podcast.

“The idea is that when we find ourselves in what I call a ‘purpose storm’ where it feels like everything around us is coming unraveled and literally coming undone, the most successful high achievers recognize that the process can help form you in a way that unmitigated success never could have,” Brooks said. “That failure, setback, or adversity actually prepares you to be better in a lot of ways.”

“When it all falls apart, some people sit in the wreckage, and others find out they have a purpose left.”

While stories of overcoming adversity are commonplace, Brooks noticed that the experience is still stigmatized.

“I’ve heard it said specifically among athletes and military personnel – to be vulnerable is to be weak,” Brooks said. “They are worried about those experiences being used against them, whether it costs them promotions or their roster spots if they tell people they are struggling.

“If you’ve got this occurrence that’s universal, but everybody feels like it’s just them going through it, it’s a context for a pretty powerful discussion.”

Brooks had a pivot moment as a high school basketball player.

Growing up in Pope County, a southern Illinois district on the Ohio River “that didn’t have one physician,” Brooks wasn’t able to totally rehabilitate a torn ACL, although he did play college basketball briefly.

That experience led him to pursue physical therapy as a profession in college, which eventually turned into athletic training, in which medical professionals provide preventive and emergency care to athletes during practices and games.

Brooks climbed that professional ladder, starting as a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona before working in athletic training and strength and conditioning with entities like Arizona, Liberty University, the then-Oakland Raiders, USA Baseball, minor league organizations and other colleges and high schools.

Despite a jam-packed schedule in athletics, he managed to complete master’s and doctoral degrees in physical education at Arizona while working with women’s gymnastics, football and baseball.

“I enjoyed clinical practice, but working in athletics can be a real grind with hours being pretty brutal and the pay not being what I hoped for,” Brooks said. “I was on a football road trip and missed my daughter’s first steps, and I couldn’t shake this feeling of ‘How many firsts am I going to miss?”

“I pivoted pretty hard into academics, and I’ve been a professor ever since.”

Brooks successfully transitioned to academics life, finding a home at the Texas Tech Health Science Center for 15 years, where he ascended to be an assistant dean and director of the Master of Athletic Training Program.

He authored more than a dozen books and scores of peer-reviewed articles while pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities as well.

But Brooks sensed another pivot coming.

“I found myself kind of peaking out in that system because there were good people at Texas Tech who were fairly young,” Brooks said. “I wanted to pursue administrative roles like a department chair or dean, but what I discovered is that if you aren’t in a place to get promoted from within, it’s really hard to jump up a level at another institution.

“A guest on my podcast who had been a doctoral student under me had a great research job until everything evaporated under COVID, and he talked about getting his (Master of Business Administration). That planted a seed with me.”

Brooks also noticed that many of his mentors had MBA in their list of credentials, and even though they didn’t talk about it much, he figured that this degree would be a welcome addition to his credentials that already included an associate’s, a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate.

Enter LSUS.

“I could keep applying and keep getting rejected and just hopes someone gives me a shot, or I can take matters in my own hands, get new skills and another credential,” Brooks said. “I wanted to get not just get a year older but get a year better.

“I’d been on the delivery side of the teaching and learning equation for a lot of years, and I found that being back in class, doing assignments, and taking tests benefited me as a professor. I gained some empathy for my students that I hadn’t had in awhile.”

LSUS’s flexible online MBA program fit Brooks’ busy schedule, and he landed a job at Baylor University in 2024 just weeks before completing his MBA.

He’s the director of the Academy for Teaching and Learning and also a clinical professor in Baylor’s Health, Human Performance and Recreation department.

“I credit LSUS with helping me open the door because an MBA is a differentiator,” Brooks said. “I think people looked at my application as a potential leader both in the near term but potentially in growth roles down the road – maybe an assistant or associate provost.

“The LSUS MBA was transformative for me because it breathed fresh energy into my career at a time where I felt like I kind of stalled out.”

For a noted scholar whose primary role is to educate faculty members on best teaching practices, Brooks said LSUS delivered quality instruction in an online format, the first time he’s taken online classes as a student although he’s taught online before.

“You’re not just going to sign up, pay your bill, and get an MBA – I wrote papers and took tests at night when everybody else was asleep,” Brooks said. “By and large the professors were attentive, and my classmates were driven professionals looking to move up in the world while raising families and having careers.

“The business skills and the entrepreneurship and leadership concepts were great, but there’s also some meta knowledge I obtained just by being on the receiving end of an online degree in 2024. I’m proud to say I had a 4.0 GPA, and I had a great experience.”

His time at LSUS not only helped him pivot in his academic career, but it rekindled a fire for learning.

The proud first-generation student who started in community college is pursuing a third master’s degree in exercise physiology, and he anticipates taking classes for as long as he’s in higher education.

“People ask me why all the degrees,” Brooks said. “I entered community college as a Pell-eligible student whose parents were both working on associate degrees in nursing after my dad lost his job when the mines closed.

“So the thought of me being able to take classes at Baylor for free through tuition remission – I couldn’t have even fathomed that that would be the case. I can get a year better instead of a year older, and I don’t take that opportunity lightly because not everybody has access to something like that.”