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Welcome to Florida State University's official entrepreneurship and innovation podcast, The InNOLEvation® Mindset! Hosted by Mark McNees and powered by the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. This podcast features audio and video versions of our podcast, which highlights student and alumni entrepreneurs and innovators from FSU.
Get inspired by the next generation of young business leaders and hear their inside stories. Learn from faculty who teach entrepreneurship and innovation courses at FSU as they share key insights.
On this channel, you'll find:
-Full video episodes of our podcast conversations with founders of startups born at FSU
-Business advice and thought leadership from FSU professors focused on entrepreneurship
-Fireside chats and interviews recorded live with enterprising alumni making their mark
-Special segments and speaker events at FSU focused on innovation
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a current business owner, or you just love hearing success stories - subscribe now to see inspiring individuals daring to turn ideas into reality. With new episodic content added regularly, The Innovation Mindset podcast tells tales of vision, grit, failure, and triumph straight from the FSU community.
This channel visually brings the podcast to life with photos, graphics, and video. Join us by subscribing if you bleed garnet and gold!
Episodes
Aug 25, 2026
Aug 24, 2026
Aug 24, 2026
Aug 23, 2026
Aug 23, 2026
Aug 23, 2026
Aug 23, 2026
43 min
On the InNOLEvation® Mindset Podcast from the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, host Mark McNees interviews Florida State beach volleyball head coach Brooke Niles who holds the records for the most beach volleyball NCAA wins, the only coach to have taken a team to the NCAA championship every year since its inception, and the first coach to reach 300 match wins, a milestone she achieved on her birthday, and was surprised by assistant coach Travis Mewhirter and the team with a celebration. Niles reflects on her California roots, her indoor beginnings, and her path to beach volleyball at UC Santa Barbara, and how the sport has evolved in terms of athletes' size, speed, rules, and serving pressure (she also kind of agrees with Mark’s dislike of the let serve :-)). She explains how she built FSU’s culture around grit, accountability, and a family environment, supported by elite conditioning, recovery, and performance technology (including WHOOP, force plates, and KINEXON). The conversation covers recruiting priorities, pairing strategy, the Big 12 transition, Gulf Shores as the championship venue through 2031, and her advice to stay true to core values as a leader.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:34 The 300th Win Surprise
02:11 California Roots to Beach
04:45 West Coast vs East Coast Style
05:53 Karch Kiraly Anecdote
06:46 Building FSU Beach Culture
08:07 Grit Values and Leadership
10:41 Tech Driven Conditioning
13:41 Rule Changes and Let Serves
18:16 Ball Preferences and Training Tools
20:48 Measuring Athletes and Recovery
21:02 Recovery Tech Stack
22:22 Load Monitoring Tools
23:52 Recruiting What Matters
26:44 Building Winning Pairs
28:59 When Pairings Fail
30:47 Big 12 Transition
32:40 Net Height Debate
36:18 Growing Boys Volleyball
39:00 Gulf Shores Future
40:32 Coaching Values Reflection
43:06 Final Thanks Outro
Aug 22, 2026
Aug 22, 2026
Aug 21, 2026
Aug 21, 2026