Joe Ferraro on Leveraging Curiosity

Joe Ferraro is currently entering his 23rd year as an educator, teaching 12^th grade English. Joe also teaches public speaking and creative writing. In addition to his work in the classroom, he is the founder of damngoodconversations.com. Damn Good Conversations is a company whose mission it is to teach you repeatable ways to have the best conversations in your life and work. His flagship service is a weekly personal growth podcast, which is called “One Percent Better.”

In this episode, we discuss being and becoming (8:01), the word “enough” (9:00), if damn good conversations and interviews are separate or the same thing (12:00), if there is a time Joe has to turn off the curious, interviewer mind inside of him (15:59), high velocity questions (18:05), bringing curiosity and questions into the classroom (19:56), fitting in in high school (24:14), why he decided to share his podcast with his students (27:58), if middle schoolers are more curious than high schoolers (30:28), cultivating curiosity in his children (32:24), the distinction between teaching and podcasting (34:50), growth (37:00), if anything in the educational system holds teachers back (40:26), why he teaches (43:52), questions he receives from alumni (45:07), why he podcasts (47:22), communication advice (50:42), why we like to put people into either/or boxes (55:25), what makes a great teacher (59:21), how he makes his classroom different from other classrooms (1:00:21), curious environments (1:01:56), what 17-year-old Joe would say to Joe today (1:05:36), and what his classroom will look like in 5 years (1:06:28).

You can check out the website for Damn Good Conversations here. Also, I highly recommend following Joe on Twitter @FerraroOnAir.

Thank you so much to Joe for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian