Intentional Performers

Tiffani Bova on Growth, Experience, and Finding Happiness

Tiffani Bova is the Global Growth Evangelist at Salesforce, and the Wall Street Journal Bestsellers Growth IQ and The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth. Over the past two decades, she has led large revenue-producing divisions at businesses ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. As a Research Fellow at Gartner, her cutting-edge insights helped Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, SAP, AT&T, Dell, Amazon-AWS, and other prominent companies expand their market share and grow their revenues. She has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 twice. She is also the host of the podcast What’s Next! with Tiffani Bova.

 

Tiffani had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I am a teacher in some way” (6:50).

“Through all the noise, we have to find a way to stay and be happy” (7:50).

“Even though people may think [sales] is an individual sport, it is a team sport” (13:15).

“As a salesperson, you never do it solo” (13:25).

“Rarely does a company do 100% of the things it needs to do on its own” (17:15).

“The one thing about growth is it’s not one thing” (24:50).

“Great culture drives great innovation” (25:25).

“Everything is an ‘and’ play” (27:40).

“When you don’t have that understanding, you start making decisions that have unintended consequences to your people, that then impact your customers” (33:20).

“Whatever you’re trying to do in the business, the first place to go is to your employees because they usually know the answers to the questions you’re trying to find out” (34:15).

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few” (35:55).

“We’ve thrown so much at our people, that it’s not that they don’t want to change, it’s just that they’re burnt through change” (40:50).

“I’ve become a master asker” (45:45).

“People can copy your products, your services, your marketing campaigns. They can copy all that. It’s impossible for them to copy your culture. It’s impossible for them to copy the way you lead, or the way you run team meetings, or the way you train” (46:50).

“When you make a change for the customer… do not forget about your employee” (48:15).

“Your employees are the ones who show up every day to deliver on the promise you made as an executive” (50:10).

“Self-awareness is really challenging” (58:15).

“You really want to make sure that you’re always looking to hone your craft so that you are helping people be as successful as they can be” (1:01:35).

“95% of people believe they are self-aware, but only 10-15% really are” (1:03:40).

“If you are willing to be self-aware, it’s going to be a very reflective journey for you” (1:08:00).

 

Additionally, you can connect with Tiffani via email (info@tiffanibova.com) or on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. Lastly, you can find Tiffani’s website here, and also purchase her book here.

Thank you so much to Tiffani 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.

Erica Keswin on Intentional Connection

Erica Keswin is a workplace strategist who has worked for the past 20 years with some of the most iconic brands in the world as a consultant, speaker, author, and professional dot-connector. You’re going to hear her reference some of the conversations she’s had with some brands that you are definitely going to recognize. Her best-selling book, Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That’s Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World, was published in the Fall of 2018, and we certainly bring that book into today’s conversation. Her second book, Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines into Workplace Magic, was published in January of 2021, and that book is also referenced in today’s conversation. Erica will make clear the distinction between routine and ritual, which I think you’re going to appreciate. She’s also going to talk about some of the things that happened during the pandemic while she was getting ready to publish that book. That book made the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and USA Today bestseller lists. Erica’s work and insights can be seen in various media outlets, including The Harvard Business Review, The New York Post, Forbes, Huffington Post, O Magazine, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and many other outlets that you would recognize. She’s a keynote speaker; she does webinars, workshops, she’s worked with American Red Cross, she’s spoken at South by Southwest, she’s worked at TIAA, IBM, The New York Times, I could go on and on. She has quite an impressive resume. And inn this conversation, she’s going to get quite vulnerable and share some of her personal background and some of the things that she’s seen and gone through as well.

 

Erica had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“When I think about me and what’s important in my life, it’s building relationships” (6:20).

“Honoring relationships is about being present in that moment” (7:15).

“The fundamentals of building relationships are constant and haven’t really changed in terms of being present and investing time and making a time and a place for them” (9:30).

“You don’t know what’s always going on behind the curtain” (22:10).

“Tell people what you need” (22:30).

“My definition of a ritual has 3 component parts: A ritual is something to which we assign a certain amount of meaning and intention, there’s a cadence, and a ritual is something that goes beyond its practical purpose” (30:45).

“Rituals give us a sense of psychological safety” (31:50).

“Rituals give you an opportunity to connect to purpose and to meaning” (32:15).

“When you have connection to other people, there is a physiological change in your body. Your oxytocin goes up, that feel good hormone, and your stress goes down” (32:30).

“We have to figure out ways to curate connection, and rituals are a tool that all of us can use” (33:00).

“We need to be even more intentional to curate those connections” (37:20).

“Let’s define who we are and what we stand for and what is most important” (49:35).

“Covid accelerated many things in the workplace that were changing already” (57:10).

“Start as you mean to belong” (1:00:25).

“Being a leader, being a manager today, is really hard” (1:13:00).

 

Additionally, you can find Erica’s website here and connect with her on LinkedIn as well.

Thank you so much to Erica 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.

Tobin Anderson on Getting Better and Embracing Imperfection

Tobin Anderson is the Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Iona University. He’s in his first year there, and you may recognize Tobin and his name from last season when he was the Head Coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in their Men’s Basketball program. They shocked the world; they beat #1 Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, they actually won a game before that to enter the NCAA Tournament, and Tobin and his team became a Cinderella story, sort of the sweetheart of college basketball last year, having only been the second team to win as a 16 seed over a 1 seed. Tobin is a basketball lifer; his dad was a high school basketball coach, he’s coached at every level (Division III, Division II, and now Division I). And we’ll talk about the different levels of basketball in this conversation, and you’re going to find him pretty transparent, genuine, authentic, while we also get into the politics and the political nature of basketball. We talk about pressing and his defensive philosophy and his style. If you’re not into basketball, this conversation may be a little over your head, but if you’re a hoops head like me, you’re going to love Tobin’s energy, his curiosity, his creativity, his willingness to try new things, his willingness to grow, to change, to evolve. He’s highly competitive, he’s highly enthusiastic and energetic. This conversation flowed for me, and I hope it will flow for you as well.  

 

Tobin had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“The backbone of our program has always been competition and competing” (5:35).

“The most important thing is we compete on a daily basis” (5:50).

“Let’s not get caught up into so much teaching and X’s and O’s and that stuff, when at the end of the day if we’re competitive, we have a chance to be very successful” (6:10).

“Our worst practices are on the days when I overthink things as a coach and I try to do too much, try to teach too much” (6:40).

“We improve every day” (7:20).

“To have a chance to be very successful, you have to get better every day” (8:10).

“When you’re on a good team, you have to sacrifice for your teammates” (12:05).

“The two things that really help you are shared success and shared suffering” (15:00).

“Winning begets winning” (15:30).

“The hard days, the tough days, the uneven days, those are the days you build a team” (16:35).

“Sometimes the best you is the best us” (24:45).

“Can you blend in to help us all be successful?” (27:55).

“If you screw it up, then figure it out” (29:20).

“The best practices to me are the sloppy ones, the crazy ones” (30:15).

“I try to step back more now and let them screw up, let them make mistakes” (31:50).

“Scared goes home” (33:40).

“Even when you’re the top dog, you’re trying to create that underdog mentality” (38:00).

“Belief is a moment-by-moment situation” (40:55).

“I love what I do, so there’s not a job component to it” (46:35).

“You don’t know what you don’t know” (53:00).

“It’s about after the good things, after the bad things, not letting yourself react either way” (58:40).

“We’re not a big adjustments team. We want teams to adjust to us” (1:04:45).

“The game in December is just as important as the game in February” (1:12:34).

“I share everything. I’m not trying to hold anything back” (1:17:25).

“It’s not about what you do, it’s about how you do it” (1:17:30).

 

Additionally, you can follow Tobin on Twitter.

Thank you so much to Tobin 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 Levenson’s Reflections from the Aspen Ideas Festival

Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different than a lot of our past episodes because it’s just going to be me on here. I’m going to share a lot of my observations, a lot of my notes, from a festival I recently attended called The Aspen Ideas Festival. It’s really a conference, but it’s much more than a conference. It’s where some of the best thought leaders gather to share what’s on their mind, to discuss, they have all kinds of experiences, they have debates, they have panels, they have interactive experiences. I figured I would capture the four days that I spent at the conference with all of you and share it in today’s episode. 

Here are some insights I’d like to share form today’s episode:

“[The festival] was a reminder of the power of education” (2:40).

“We don’t need to be formally in school to continue to grow and become educated, but we do need to seek out opportunities to learn” (2:45).

“We either evolve, or we die” (4:15).

“’And’ is more powerful than ‘or’” (5:15).

“If we aren’t healthy, nothing else really matters” (6:40).

“If you want to be a great manager, you need to understand that part of your job as a manager is to connect with human beings, and we connect with human beings on an emotional level” (9:30).

“We need to manage our emotions; we don’t need to eradicate them” (9:55).

“The people who are happiest actually dig rather than climb” (12:35).

“Fulfillment is what’s most key to happiness” (13:50).

“Sometimes we have to take a step back if we want to take a step forward” (16:30).

“Wealth is essentially your capacity to control your time” (18:20).

“The thing that makes you weird as a kid can make you great as an adult” (19:05).

“Following your passion is very limiting” (20:30).

“Maybe the passion will come from the doing rather than the doing coming from the passion” (21:00).

“Change does involve pain” (21:50).

“Emotions are radar, they give us information, they give us data” (22:30).

“Are we working hard, or are we overworking?” (23:40).

“Let’s look inward for the solution” (25:25).

“Parenting doesn’t stop once our children become adults” (25:50).

“Not knowing is the most intimate” (28:30).

“Our happiness is about looking out the window rather than at the mirror” (29:20).

“Where you believe you’re going matters” (34:00).

“Vision can inspire” (35:25).

“If you have clarity on the vision, then you can actually pass that down to the people in your organization who are actually connected to the customer” (36:20).

“You want to get as close to that customer experience as possible if you want to build a strong organization” (37:50).

“People don’t need to be punished; they need to be helped” (39:20).

“We assume that other people are thinking exactly like us” (41:20).

“We need to be aware of our biases” (42:20).

“Let’s not speculate; let’s explore” (44:05).

“Whether you’re a show or a business or a sports team, you’re trying to do something together” (47:00).

“Insecurities are what often drive us to feel threatened” (49:15).

“Each successive generation is staying at their jobs for less time” (55:10).

“When does capitalism go too far?” (57:40).

“As we become more and more segregated behind computer screens, we need to intentionally create space for us to be in person” (1:00:35).

“If you don’t change, you either aren’t paying attention or you don’t care” (1:04:15).

“We need to think about our education as a rising tide that can lift all boats” (1:07:15).

“Our world needs to come together to think about how they’re going to manage artificial intelligence” (1:10:50).

“America is America because we collaborate” (1:12:00).

“How can you be bold while still being responsible?” (1:13:55).

“AI really reveals our own biases and toxic behaviors and holds a mirror up to us” (1:16:50).

If you’d like to connect with me further directly about this episode or anything else, you can reach out to me via email (brian@strongskills.co).

Thanks for listening.

Ryan Poles on Building and Sustaining Championship Culture

Ryan Poles is currently the General Manager of the Chicago Bears. Prior to that, he spent 13 years working with the Kansas City Chiefs and helping to build the Super Bowl Champion that they are today. He was heavily involved in scouting and bringing on the players that you see dominating the NFL today. Ryan also played football at a very high level; he played offensive line for Boston College, and his quarterback at the time was Matt Ryan. He then went on to get cut from the Chicago Bears, the team he is the General Manager for today. That led him on his journey and his path to working in the front office. Today’s conversation is really about leadership, it’s about how do you build the culture which the Bears are currently doing, and Ryan gives you a behind the curtain look at what he’s doing to build this one time historic, legacy franchise that is the Chicago Bears.

 

Ryan had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“It’s part of my makeup. I never feel like I’m there yet” (6:00).

“Staying curious, listening to other people’s journeys, the lessons they’ve learned, that’s a ton of wisdom. It’s the same reason why I read books” (6:10).

“I want to peel back the curtain on different experiences so that I can apply them when those situations pop up for me” (6:20).

“Growth mindset is really contagious” (6:40).

“You’ve got to lean on people, and you’ve got to let people lean on you” (7:20).

“There’s times you’ve got to sleep on it” (14:40).

“I really value people” (15:20).

“Sometimes the worst thing you can do, and it’s so toxic, is just to keep [everything] inside of you” (19:05).

“It’s important to get things off your chest and express your thoughts and emotions” (21:00).

“We attack mind, body, and spirit” (23:25).

“[Spirit] is internal peace” (25:20).

“If you can have part of your foundation be being a resilient football team, to me that is progress” (29:15).

“That old school, tough, gritty football team; we want that back. That’s part of this city” (33:30).

“We’re not going to panic and do things that are going to harm us just because of pressure” (35:20).

“For me, to my core, sustaining success is the challenge” (39:50).

“You can feel the passion jump out of the [players] that really care and love [football]” (51:30).

“For building a football team, you want as many guys where when they go out to practice or a game, it’s like recess” (52:05).

“The hardest part of professional sports with collaboration is the team changes every single year” (59:40).

“It comes down to people” (1:03:45).

“You can call it a General Manager if you want, but at the end of the day you’re a problem solver for the organization” (1:04:10).

“The more balanced I am, the more clear I am about decision making” (1:05:50).

“I need to block off time for me” (1:07:05).

 

Thank you so much to Ryan 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 Murphy on Incorporating Mental Skills into a Company

Brian Murphy is a founder, CEO, entrepreneur and investor -- constantly learning and chasing possible. He founded and leads ReliaQuest, the force multiplier of security operations and one of the largest and fastest growing companies in the global cybersecurity market. Murphy has grown ReliaQuest from a boot-strapped startup to high-growth unicorn with a valuation of over $1 billion, over 1,000 team members and over $350 million in growth equity with firms such as FTV Capital and KKR Growth. The company is headquartered in Tampa, FL, with operations centers in Tampa, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Dublin, London, Amsterdam and Pune, India.

 

Brian had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I was trying to drive clarity, which would allow for consistency, which ultimately opens the door for consistent performance” (8:20).

“We talk about momentum in sport all the time, but momentum in business is critical” (8:30).

“If [performance psychology] can help an athletic team, why can’t it help a fast-growing tech company?” (9:05).

“Largely, I believe everybody wants to get a little bit better” (10:50).

“People get to where they are differently” (13:10).

“Leave no doubt. Don’t get off the phone until there’s a massive amount of clarity around the intent of why you called” (15:35).

“I’ve got to be a good coach; I’ve got to be a good listener as a CEO” (16:20).

“The most important thing that I’ve learned as we’ve gotten larger is it’s not about what I should do, it’s about what I should not be doing” (16:25).

“I want people to understand the weight and the responsibility that comes along with a title” (17:30).

“They need to see that vulnerability. They need to see that I’ve got real things going on also” (21:30).

“Be where your feet are” (22:55).

“I don’t need to be every place at once. What’s most important right now?” (23:45).

“You have to sprint the marathon” (26:20).

“It’s not that the customer is always right, it’s about making that moment right for the customer” (30:35).

“People want to know you’re a real person. I do it through storytelling” (33:35).

“Mistakes and momentary losses are not failures” (34:15).

“The beauty of business is if you don’t quit, you can’t fail” (34:20).

“Sometimes big mistakes yield great results” (34:35).

“We’re a values-based decision-making organization” (40:10).

“We’re going to be accountable, helpful, adaptable, and focused” (40:25).

“Do what you say you’re going to do” (43:35).

“I have a maniacal focus on the problem that we solve and enjoy the creativity it takes to get there” (46:30).

 

Additionally, you can find ReliaQuest’s website here. You can also connect with Brian on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also check out the “No Show Dogs” podcast, powered by ReliaQuest, here.

Thank you so much to Brian 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.

Kara Goldin on Founding Hint Water

Kara Goldin has quite an impressive and extensive resume and bio. But rather than give you all of her bio and information, I think she covers a lot of her journey in this conversation, I’m just going to introduce her to you. Kara is the founder and CEO of Hint. You’re probably familiar with Hint, they’re best known for their award-winning water, which is really a leading unsweetened flavor water category. She’s been featured in magazines, won awards, she’s an active speaker, a podcaster, and she’s got a fantastic book which we cover in today’s conversation as well.

 

Kara had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I learned to admire people who were better than I was at certain things, knowing that I was good at other things” (7:40).

“I could change the visual and I could eventually do it if I just set my mind to it and focused” (9:30).

“My parents were constantly saying to me ‘You need to figure it out.’” (11:05).

“My parents gave me the nudge to go and figure things out and go and be creative” (11:35).

“I was very social, I was very outgoing, because I realized that was a way to actually meet people but also learn new things” (13:35).

“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes” (15:10).

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions” (15:25).

“Ask people a lot of questions because that’s going to satisfy your curiosity. You’re going to learn a lot from people, and it makes days much more interesting” (15:45).

“When you’re a kid, you don’t really know what you’re learning” (22:40).

“I love being an underdog” (26:45).

“I don’t mind being at zero and creating as long as I’m passionate about it” (27:00).

“What I tend to gravitate towards is people who own their story” (28:30).

“I am more likely to hire people who have made mistakes that they can own” (28:40).

“I think the people that can actually own their mistakes and tell you why they did what they did and ultimately not try and blame others for it are the ones that you actually want on your team” (32:15).

“If I have one fault, it’s that I don’t always trust my gut on people” (37:00).

“When somebody shows you their true colors, I’m now a very big believer to recognize that” (37:20).

“Sometimes it’s easier said than done to pay attention to your gut” (41:05).

“For me, stories have always been so powerful” (46:35).

“The beauty of starting your own company is that you get to cherry pick the good and the bad” (49:05).

“I don’t think any founder starts something thinking that this is their legacy” (54:20).

 

Additionally, you can purchase Kara’s book Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters anywhere books are sold. You can also follow and connect with Kara on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Thank you so much to Kara 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.

Paige Thomas on Serving Customers

Paige Thomas has more than 25 years experience in the retail industry with an extensive off-price background and her passion for ecommerce. Paige most recently served as President & CEO of Saks OFF 5TH, leading the business from February 2020 through February 2023. Under Paige’s leadership, Saks OFF 5TH has evolved the business operating model and strategy to focus on the digital experience. In 2021, Saks OFF 5TH’s ecommerce business was established as a separate entity with a $200 million equity investment led by Insight Partners. Paige was named President and CEO of SaksOFF5TH.com to continue to build on its momentum and growth trajectory.

Prior to Saks OFF 5TH, Paige spent eight years at Nordstrom where she launched NordstromRack.com and led the integration of HauteLook. Earlier in her career, Ms. Thomas held merchandising leadership positions at Kohl’s and Fred Meyer.

 

Paige had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“One of the things I’ve really been working on is my pitch of who I am and what I can contribute” (6:40).

“Who I am is this really diverse retailer that loves to drive growth and has an incredible proven track record” (7:35).

“What I love is the idea of impact, and growth, and agility” (8:00).

“The global pandemic gave the opportunity to actually really think about the customer and how you were going to drive change that was sustainable” (10:50).

“[The pandemic] gave the opportunity to test and react, to maybe make bolder decisions than you normally would” (11:10).

“What tends to happen in life is people fear the downside and therefore minimize the risk or opportunities that they’re going to chase” (11:25).

“The way I think about retail today, is it absolutely critical that you have a unique differentiation” (15:10).

“I’ve been really looking at leaders and what their career path was and what has defined them, in particular female leaders” (22:40).

“Confidence in yourself and validation for my agility and experiences is actually really valuable” (23:45).

“What I think is a continued opportunity, particularly for female leaders, is to lift one another up” (24:00).

“I think of my career as the art of winning” (24:50).

“Five years ago, I don’t know that I recognized some of my capabilities and impact that I brought to organizations. I undervalued my experience” (35:20).

“The way that I think of myself from a core value perspective is I am a really authentic, loyal, leader” (40:40).

“I’m an authentic coach every single day” (43:45).

“Loyalty doesn’t translate to ‘you’re nice.’ Loyalty, to me, is the opportunity to be the leader, be transparent, give people the opportunity for success, but it’s theirs to own” (44:00).

“In every organization I’ve worked for, I’m the first to raise my hand and say I want to be on [the DEI] committee” (48:00).

“How do you support and represent the communities that you serve?” (49:05).

“I believe that if you chase your passion, you will inherently be successful at it” (49:50).

“The customer is my passion” (55:50).

“I have so much more reward today out of leading than I ever thought was possible” (56:45).

“That’s how I think about the art of winning: it’s not just a playbook, it’s not just X’s and O’s, it takes a team, it’s a marathon. And when those things come together, that builds a winning formula” (1:05:25).

“For me, the art of winning is where I’m at” (1:09:10).

“The future for me is how do I bring my core values, my proven track record, my leadership skills, to have impact” (1:09:25).

 

Additionally, you can connect with Paige on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much to Paige 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.

Sam Puryear on Diamonds in the Rough

Coach Sam Puryear is the Head Coach and the Director of Golf at Howard University. When coach took over, the program was actually a Division II golf program. But they got a donation, a six-year commitment from Stephen Curry, the NBA superstar, to help fund the golf program at Howard. Since that time, since Sam has taken over, they’ve really turned into quite a program. Coach came from Michigan State University, where he helped lead them to a Big Ten Championship. Coach was actually the first African American head coach in golf at a power-5 conference. Coach has a ton of accolades: he’s produced one National Championship, he’s won the Big Ten Championship when he was at Michigan State, he coached at Stanford where he was an assistant coach, he’s gotten two coach of the year honors, he’s won a ton of awards, and coach is also an author. He shared an inspiring story in his book, Diamonds in the Rough, which talks about his journey and his love affair with golf, not just from a golf standpoint but also a life standpoint and the life skills that he instilled in a lot of young people who otherwise may not have gotten access to the wonderful sport of golf. He’s been recognized by several media outlets, including ESPN, the Big Ten Network, and Inside the PGA Tour. He has served as a consultant for the movie From the Rough.

He really is someone who focuses on his mission and cares deeply about pouring into young people and giving back to people that look like him. Golf hasn’t always been open to people that look like Sam. Even though his dad played golf at a high level and Sam played at golf at a high level, what you’re going to find from coach is he really wants to inspire not just the student athletes at Howard, but to people who look like him continue to get access to golf and to other parts of our country that maybe they haven’t always gotten access to in the past.

 

Sam had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“At the end of the day, a coach is a mentor, parental figure, sometimes a psychiatrist or psychologist, sometimes a buffer, sometimes just a great pillow to listen” (7:00).

“The keep it simple make it fun perspective is the way the best professionals even look at it” (8:45).

“If you’re not enjoying something, it becomes tedious and monotonous; it just becomes overbearing at a certain point” (9:35).

“People don’t realistically know what they’re going to be great at” (12:00).

“There should be a slight exposure and acclimation to a lot of things before we engage in those one or two that they’re specifically good at” (12:40).

“There’s so much more involved in sports than just development” (13:00).

“Teamwork is how we survive” (13:50).

“When you listen, you actually hear what you need to hear” (24:50).

“We have to give kids opportunities to be great” (25:25).

“My success at this point is when I see young people that tell me they have a dream, and at the end of their tenure they have a chance to live it” (27:10).

“Going to college does not make you successful. But having the chance to be a productive person means learning how to live amongst others and doing those things necessary to be productive” (29:10).

“The riches that you leave on this earth won’t come in the form of bills, they’ll come in the form of the spirits and the hearts that you’ve touched” (30:00).

“Our number one goal here is to win. Our number two goal here is to maximize whatever ounce of potential we have in us, in the classroom and on the golf course, so that we can be the best version of ourselves” (33:10).

“I never want to be the starving baker” (34:50).

“At the end of the day your input and output seem different, but yet they’re the same” (38:20).

“If you pour bad gas in a really good gas tank, you’re going to get a bad result” (38:30).

“Much is given, and much is expected” (42:35).

“You have to learn how to lose” (43:25).

“We can always be better” (47:35).

“In life, we all have uniforms to wear” (51:50).

“We all are players in a much larger game” (53:35).

“Too many people get caught up in telling their story first. You wouldn’t have a story if it were not for other people” (56:35).

“I want to give people their roses while they can still hear it and see it” (58:20).

 

Additionally, you can purchase Sam’s book, Diamonds in the Rough, on Amazon.

Thank you so much to Sam 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.

Wendy Smith on The Power of Paradox

Wendy K. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management, faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware and fellow at The Academy of Management. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory, yet interdependent demands. Working with executives and scholars globally, she received the Web of Science Highly Cited Research Award (4 years in a row) for being among the 1 percent most-cited researchers in her field and received the Decade Award from the Academy of Management Review for the most cited paper in the past 10 years as well as a fellow at the Academy of Management. Her work has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, and Management Science. She has taught at the University of Delaware, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton while helping senior leaders and middle managers all over the world address issues of interpersonal dynamics, team performance, organizational change, and innovation. Her book, Both/And Thinking is published by Harvard Business Review and was #1 new release on Amazon. Wendy lives in Philadelphia with her husband, three children, and the family dog.

 

Wendy had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“There’s other pathways to things that we don’t often see” (9:25).

“Where I could really feel impact was at this very local level” (12:25).

“The big idea of [my book] Both/And Thinking is that we live in a world where we tend to pull things apart and make a choice between them and see the either/or, see the black and white, and we argue that’s limited and it’s detrimental at worst. There’s a better way of seeing these things intertwine with one another” (15:40).

“The people that are least confident about knowing who they are, what they’re going to do in the world, and whether they’re going to succeed, are college students” (16:20).

“This sense of having to prove [oneself] constrains actually experimenting and being [oneself] along the way” (17:05).

“A dilemma is a moment in time defined in a very specific time and space where you’re choosing between two different options and it’s begging you to make a choice” (26:45).

“Paradoxes are these persistent, ever-present tensions that underlie our dilemmas and keep popping up” (27:00).

“There’s this constant tension that we all feel around performing well, doing well, being in the moment, and learning and growing and feeling that discomfort of learning and growth” (27:10).

“The dilemma of passion vs. performance shows up all over the place and we tend to pit those against each other” (36:10).

“The more that we feel passionate, the more that we feel joyful, the more engaged and the better performing we are. These opposing pressures actually reinforce each other” (36:30).

“I think an invitation is a chance to allow people to have their own point of view rather than telling them what they think and providing the respect to others that I’m curious about that point of view” (38:10).

“One of the ways that we tend to ‘either/or’ a lot is in relationship with other people” (38:30).

“We grow from taking a pause from our regular routines and lives” (42:45).

“Part of ‘both/and’ is pulling out or decisions into a broader perspective where we are making these micro shifts, oscillating, experimenting, balancing, trying along the way, that not every decision is the ultimate moment of truth” (47:15).

“How do you navigate in a space that’s not ideal for who you are?” (50:20).

“Activism has a very black and white perspective; I am going to assert what I believe and be loud and proud about it. There’s a place for that and it’s an important piece, and it doesn’t always get stuff done. What we really need in order to move forward is more nuanced diplomacy and collaboration across opposing ideas” (52:50).

“Leaders need to have a varied toolkit in how they lead” (55:15).

“Frankly, there’s a lot more common ground on many of these [political] issues than there is difference” (57:20).

“It’s not just your own individual performance, but your performance and your success is dependent on how you raise up and create the conditions for other people’s success as well” (1:04:50).

 

Additionally, you can find everything you need to know about Wendy’s book, Both/And Thinking, here. You can also connect with Wendy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and by email (hello@bothandthinking.net).

Thank you so much to Wendy 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.

Michael Bungay Stanier on Teaching, Coaching, and Becoming a Writer

Michael Bungay Stanier helps people know they’re awesome and they’re doing great. He’s best known for The Coaching Habit, the best-selling coaching book of the century and already recognized as a classic. His new book, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, does what it says on the label. Michael was a Rhodes Scholar and dabbles in the ukulele. He’s Australian, and lives in Toronto, Canada.

 

Michael had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“There is one part of me that suffers from S.O.S: Shiny Object Syndrome” (9:45).

“I’m good at generating ideas” (10:05).

“I don’t want to be fenced in” (10:20).

“Inspiration is when your past suddenly makes sense” (10:40).

“We unlock our greatness by working on the hard stuff” (11:10).

“I am good creating, and specifically making complicated stuff feel more accessible and practical for people” (18:25).

“I’m good at turning complicated concepts into something people can grasp” (19:05).

“I think it is a choice and a deliberate act to try and stay creative” (23:50).

“I know I have a lot of bad ideas” (28:40).

“You should work under the assumption that most of your ideas aren’t great” (30:10).

“Just putting ideas out into the world is part of the process of getting closer to a good idea” (30:20).

“If you have bad ideas, it means you’re good at ideas because good ideas emerge from conversations of bad ideas” (32:10).

“If you’re getting 60% of the hard decisions right, you are rocking it” (34:00).

“Keep noticing the stuff you should be grateful for” (38:55).

“Part of being a writer is being a great reader” (41:45).

“Writing is the most distinctive expression of me as a teacher” (44:20).

“I have come to know a fair number of people, but I don’t really know many people at all” (56:35).

“For me, the best possible relationship is when it is safe, when it is vital, and also repairable” (1:04:55).

“Talk about how you’ll work together before you talk about what you’ll work on” (1:05:20).

 

Additionally, you can find Michael’s website here, and also connect with him on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. You can also purchase Michael’s books, The Coaching Habit; The Advice Trap; How to Begin; and How to Work with (Almost) Anyone anywhere books are sold. Lastly, if you’d like to personally reach out to Michael, you can send him an email (teammbs@mbs.works).

Thank you so much to Michael 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.

Laura Gassner Otting on Beyond Wonderhell

Laura Gassner Otting - Speaker. Author. Entrepreneur. Motivator. Instigator.

Laura’s secret superpower is seeing your greatness and reflecting it back on you, so that you can get “unstuck” — and achieve extraordinary results

A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah Daily, Laura’s 30-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected national search firm to expand a tech start-up; and founded, ran, and sold her own global search firm, partnering with the full gamut of mission driven corporate and nonprofit executives.

Laura is turned on by the audacity of The Big Idea and that larger-than-life goal you just can’t seem to shake. She’s an instigator, motivator, and provocateur, and she’s never met a revolution she didn’t like. Just ask her enduringly patient husband, two almost-grown sons, and two troublesome pups with whom she lives outside of Boston, MA.

 

Laura had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“It is amazing and exciting and humbling and wonderful when we achieve something we didn’t know we could achieve” (6:30).

“There are seasons of our lives” (10:40).

“We define success as bigger, better, faster, more, but if we’re doing that we’re always getting trapped in the ‘it’s not enough’” (11:30).

“There is an endpoint to each of our periods of hustle” (12:10).

“We need to give ourselves a little bit of expansiveness on the definition of our potential (17:35).

“I won’t take a meeting with my assistant unless she has an agenda for the meeting” (27:05).

“If the meeting doesn’t end with a “what do we do now” then everybody forgets about it and it’s a waste of time” (27:35).

“I have decided that in parenting you basically get to make one decision… you either get on their bus, or you get run over by their bus” (30:25).

“I’m a punch in the face wrapped in a warm hug” (39:50).

“I am that person, I’m just not always that person” (41:30).

“It’s really important to figure out who we are when we’re at our best” (41:35).

“I think we have to figure out who our alter egos are and all the different forms of our lives” (43:20).

“I might be center stage, but the audience is the star” (45:00).

“If all of these people are intimidated by me, I can shock them when I show some vulnerability” (49:15).

“As a leader, I think there is a real intentionality with how we set the culture, how we show up, what we look like, how we put ourselves together, the respect we show our colleagues” (52:10).

“We should just be us” (55:55).

“I’m 100% public with 40% of my life” (56:30).

“I am at my core a mother, a daughter, and a sister. But I’m also an athlete and a writer” (1:02:10).

 

Additionally, you can check out Laura’s website here and find out more about her book, Wonderhell, here. You can also follow Laura on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Lastly, you can find a link to the Limitless Life Assessment here.

Thank you so much to Laura 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.

Cate Luzio on Building Luminary

Cate Luzio spent two decades in financial services leading global multibillion-dollar businesses. During this time, she also led many of the institutions’ women’s networks and saw the disproportionate number of men to women and women of color in the senior ranks. She recognized the problem was a lack of investment and development of talent in the female pipeline, rather than a lack of talent itself.

This observation sparked a new direction for Luzio’s own trajectory. In a sharp career pivot, she launched Luminary, a gender inclusive, global professional education and networking platform created to address the systemic challenges impacting women across all industries and sectors. Luminary's mission - and Cate's - is to help women and our allies see a path forward by arming them with the tools, resources, and community to navigate their paths -- regardless of their professional journey.

 

Cate had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I wanted men to be part of the conversation, learn from the conversation, be educated” (7:20).

“If I can help empower all [not just women], then that’s the best-case scenario” (7:40).

“Our mission is to advance women in the workforce regardless of professional journey” (8:05).

“We are a join now community. There’s no application… I don’t want to be exclusionary; I want to be inclusionary” (10:00).

“For a male, there’s a lot of opportunities to get involved [with Luminary]” (11:30).

“I wanted all voices around the table” (13:25).

“We’ve got to make sure more and more men are attending our workshops and conversations” (15:50).

“If you feel like this is a community for you, be a part of it” (16:50).

“I didn’t learn in my career by being part of one group. I learned by being parts of lots of groups and big organizations” (22:30).

“There’s a program out there for everyone. You’ve got to individualize it” (22:40).

“As a businessperson, you have to be open to all ideas” (25:45).

“I have always taken risks in my career” (27:00).

“You can’t control everything” (29:10).

“You have to be okay with [the fact that] you don’t know everything” (29:25).

“When I’m backed against the wall, I’m going to continue to come out swinging” (31:00).

“If somebody tells me no, I look at that as a maybe. I’m a relentless person that will never give up if I believe in something (31:10).

“Our careers are not static” (33:55).

“I look at everything through a return-on-investment lens” (41:45).

“You’ve got to have boundaries” (43:10).

“I want my experiences, the experience I’ve taken from others, what I’ve learned, to impact someone else” (48:40).

“Whether 500 people walk away with impact or 1, it doesn’t matter to me. Because someone is walking away with impact and actionable advice they can apply to their life” (48:45).

“There’s never a full replacement for being in real life” (52:05).

“People just want to connect” (52:45).

“It’s the customer’s choice, and as long as we’re adding value and impact they will stay” (54:50).

“Everything we do is taking feedback and listening, and then making those decisions, because if it’s our way or the highway it will not work” (58:10).

“I look at everybody as a potential mentor and coach” (1:05:30).

 

Additionally, you can find the Luminary website here. You can also follow Cate on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Lastly, you can check out articles written by and about Cate in Fortune, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider, as well as a podcast with her via Bloomberg and a video featuring her in Cheddar.

Thank you so much to Cate 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.

Chris Voss on Knowing Negotiation Skills

Chris Voss has an extremely impressive resume and bio. He’s used many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program that applies globally proven techniques to the business world through his company, which is called The Black Swan Group. Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s hostage working group. During his career, he’s also represented the US Government as an expert in kidnapping at two international conferences sponsored by the G8. Before becoming the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, Chris served as the lead crisis negotiator for the New York City division of the FBI, and he really was in some precarious negotiations and he talks a lot about those experiences in his wonderful book, which is called Never Split the Difference, which has sold over two million copies. Chris was a member of the New York City joint terrorist task force for fourteen years; Chris has been in the weeds, in the trenches, fighting against some of the toughest, most difficult stuff that our country has faced. During his 24-year tenure, Chris has really experienced so many different situations. He’s trained not just on the field and in the trenches, but he’s also gone to Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School so he could learn more about negotiation. He’s also been a teacher; he’s taught business negotiation in MBA programs as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. In addition to that, he’s gone all over the world to teach as a guest lecturer from places like Harvard University to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and even to places like Germany to teach what he’s learned along his journey and his experience.

In today’s conversation, Chris will talk about experiences as a negotiator, whether it’s kidnapping or whether it’s something in your business, and I even get into negotiation with my children. I think you’ll find that he’s definitely someone who’s had applied experience, there’s no question about that, but he also loves to read, he loves to listen to podcasts, he loves to learn from science and research; Chris is this amazing blend of authentic, real, street smart, coupled by a humility and a strong, strong desire to learn that I think you will connect with. I know you’re going to learn from Chris, I certainly did.

 

Chris had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“Nobody is going to be great at negotiation first thing in the morning” (8:30).

“Mirroring works great with kids of all ages when you’re trying to get them to talk” (8:50).

“’No’ makes people feel safe and secure” (9:20).

“People are smarter when they’re laughing and they’re having a good time” (9:45).

“Trying to get people to say ‘yes’ is a bad idea” (11:10).

“’Yes’ is nothing without ‘how’” (14:15).

“Open-ended questions are designed to create thinking, not to get an answer” (16:00).

“Helping people get better. Helping people solve their problems. Helping people accelerate their lives. [That’s what excites me].” (18:40).

“What people don’t say is as important as what they do say” (19:10).

“Sniff out the people that are trying to cut your throat, trying to exploit your interests, and walk away” (21:10).

“Best chance of success means you’re not always going to be successful” (22:30).

“When things go bad, you have two choices: you can grow, or you can quit” (22:35).

“I don’t think you really learn anything when you win” (24:20).

“You can’t read enough. You can’t learn enough. You can’t listen enough” (27:15).

“High IQ people have trouble being good negotiators” (28:40).

“Curiosity is a superpower” (29:45).

“You’re 31% smarter in a positive frame-of-mind” (29:55).

“It’s impossible to be curious and in a negative frame-of-mind at the same time” (30:05).

“Empathy is really about demonstrating understanding” (35:45).

“Empathy is not about liking or agreeing with the other side” (36:35).

“Data improves design. We execute and learn constantly” (43:10).

“Someone once asked me ‘Describe yourself in three words.” And my respond was “deeply flawed human” (45:05).

“[Listening skills] are perishable” (45:45).

“Compromise is lazy. Compromise is not collaborative” (46:55).

“Don’t let your ego get in the way of a better idea” (47:30).

“Never be mean to somebody who can hurt you by doing nothing” (58:25).

 

Additionally, you can purchase Chris’s book, Never Split the Difference, anywhere books are sold. You can also find the website for the Black Swan Group here, where you can find a ton of information and also sign up for a free newsletter. Lastly, you can follow Chris on Instagram as well.

Thank you so much to Chris 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.

Jackie Insinger on Valuing Values

Jackie Insinger is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and a sought-after leadership and team dynamics consultant. Jackie combines the science of positive psychology, which we talk a lot about in today’s conversation, with revolutionary tools and programs to help leaders increase authentic connection, performance, and fulfillment. Jackie works with teams to build a culture of trust, while guiding them to become more aligned, communicate more effectively, collaborate with ease, and support each other more efficiently. Her trainings lead to measurable increases in productivity, performance, and engagement within an overall enhanced culture. In turn, she hopes they see a positive ROI for the company’s bottom line. Jackie cares about the individual, but she also cares about teams and cultures, and at the end of the day how can we improve performance of our organizations. She has a psychology degree from Duke University and a master’s from Harvard. She has worked with individuals and teams that have positively impacted thousands of people and businesses throughout the world. She’s been featured in Forbes, Inked Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, California Business Journals, CEO Worlds Magazine, HR.com, and many other outlets. Her book Spark Brilliance, which we talk a lot about in today’s conversation, has hit best-seller in five different business categories.

I think you’re going to find this conversation to be refreshing. Jackie is authentic; she shares some of her own personal story, some of her own personal challenges, and how that adversity has shaped how she’s helped see the world. You’re going to find Jackie to be upbeat and positive, but she also combines that with depth and an authenticity that makes her extremely relatable.

 

Jackie had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“Emotional contagion is the spontaneous spread of emotions from person to person or through a group, which could be good or bad depending on what we’re spreading” (5:15).

“As a leader, you can inspire an outlook on the layer below you and the layer below them with just how you chose to show up in a meeting, in a moment” (5:50).

“How we show up to our lives in any relationship will spread to the people around us” (6:00).

“When you’re in a remote working environment, how the leader shows up in the meeting will determine that emotional state and that outlook that people take on the rest of the day until that next meeting” (7:50).

“You can avoid something. It doesn’t mean it’s not there” (11:20).

“Emotions are there for a reason. They’re there to indicate something to you” (11:45).

“No emotion is a bad emotion” (12:05).

“The more I honor and pay attention to [negative emotions], the less scary they are” (13:50).

“When you look at the emotion before it becomes a big deal, sometimes you can have the thing not become a problem” (14:45).

“Avoiding conflict as a coping mechanism became ingrained in me” (20:35).

“That fear state, even though it wasn’t the ideal state, gave me the drive and the fuel to move my life forward in really positive directions in a very accelerated way” (22:55).

“I was driven from a fear state. And I’m so grateful for that because that’s not often what happens from a fear state” (25:45).

“How do you give [your kids] a scaffold, but not start them too far ahead where they don’t have to learn?” (32:30).

“Gratitude is the quickest way to change your brain. And it’s proven [through MRI studies] to change your brain” (39:00).

“Every night before bed, [everyone in our family] says three things we’re grateful for” (40:00).

“If you’re not curious, you can’t create those authentic connections, you can’t have the same level of effective communication” (46:20).

“As a leader, the number one skill we need to tap into is curiosity” (46:40).

“There’s a huge value in sitting down and having a conversation” (52:20).

“The goal isn’t to get back to normal, because the absence of sadness is not happiness. The absence of sickness is not health. The absence of burnout is not thriving. Normal is a baseline where all of the good stuff starts” (59:45).

“I think of the science of happiness as a limited term that diminishes the power of positive psychology” (1:01:35).

 

Additionally, you can follow Jackie on LinkedIn and Instagram and check out her website here. You can also connect with Jackie via email (Jackie@SparkBrilliance.com).

Thank you so much to Jackie 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.

Annie Murphy Paul on Exploring Creativity

Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Scientific Americans, Slate, Time Magazine, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. She’s the author of three books, including Origins, which was reviewed on the cover of The New York Times Book Review and selected by The New York Times as a notable book. She’s also the author of The Cult of Personality, which was hailed by Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker as a fascinating new book. Her latest book is The Extended Mind, which we get into quite a bit in today’s conversation. Annie has spoken to audiences all over the world about learning and cognition. Her TED Talk has been viewed by about three million people.

Today we do a deep dive certainly into all of Annie’s work up until now, but we really do a deep dive into the science of creativity, which is what Annie is most curious about at the time of this recording. We get into a variety of topics in today’s conversation. Annie is someone who deeply cares about research and science, and she is an amazing writer.

 

Annie had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“You always want to move on to the exciting next thing” (5:40).

“Learning and creativity are related” (5:50).

“We’re all creators” (6:15).

“Creativity, for kids and for adults, is how we learn. We’re experimenting, we’re trying out new things and seeing what happens” (6:30).

“Creativity is an expression of aliveness” (6:45).

“Researchers are repeatedly demonstrating that creativity is a skill that can be taught” (9:20).

“Creativity and curiosity are messy” (12:10).

“There’s an organic order in the material I’ve collected. I just need to find it” (17:00).

“We’re exploiting ourselves to death” (20:20).

“I just want to feel. I want to have new experiences. I want to put myself in new situations where I can see myself in a new light” (21:40).

“Happiness comes and goes, it’s not under our control. But seeking out new experiences that make us feel alive, that feels so important to me following this enforced confinement put upon us by the pandemic” (19:55).

“The mind is almost like what the brain is able to do with itself. The extended mind is saying there’s a lot more we can do with our brain than just cogitate inside our skulls. We can actually, with our minds, reach outside the brain” (29:00).

“’How should we live?’ is the most interesting question these days” (30:55).

“Creativity is one of the highest expressions of being human” (31:30).

“So often, what we assume and what we expect and what we think we know is wrong” (32:20).

“The way we interpret or understand reality is often mistaken. We need science to show us that” (32:35).

“We humans have elaborated on those basic instincts we share with animals” (35:00).

“The movement of our hands is thinking. It’s part of the thinking process” (37:05).

“Tuning into the body can be a primary source of information without tuning into words alone” (42:40).

“I came to understand the extended mind as a way we transcend the limits of our biological brain” (44:45).

“Bringing the world into your thinking is such an essential aspect of creativity” (46:00).

“The world is affecting us even before we’ve been born” (48:35).

“Once you’re a parent, you see the world in a different way” (51:40).

“The point of writing a book is to stimulate change” (59:15).

“We think in terms of metaphors” (1:00:25).

 

Additionally, you can purchase any of Annie’s books anywhere books are sold. You can also find her TED Talk here, her website here, and follow her on Twitter here.

Thank you so much to Annie 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.

Kelly McGonigal on Stress, Willpower, and the Joy of Movement

I’ve been a fan of Kelly McGonigal for quite some time now. Her work has been shared with my clients over the years. Her TED Talk, which came out in 2014, titled How to Make Stress Your Friend, has over 30 million views, making it one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. Not only is she a great speaker, she’s also an incredible writer. Her books, The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress are fantastic. Her latest book, which is called The Joy of Movement explores why physical exercise is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Kelly works as a health psychologist, and she talks a lot about today the power of impacting people, not just with her books and her TED Talk, but also on a one-on-one level as a mentor. She’s also an exercise instructor, and as a health psychologist she specializes in understanding the mind-body connection.

Kelly is somebody who loves to work with people, she cares about connecting with humans, she also is a lover of animals; she carries multiple identities, and we talk about those identities in today’s conversation. Additionally, she has been successful in her career, and yet the conversation starts with her talking about her definition of success and of achievement; it may be different than what you might guess or how you might define success and achievement.

 

Kelly had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“Because I said something that someone needed to hear or I created an experience that gave someone hope, that’s number one [in terms of how I define success]” (5:45).

“I also define success by being able to do things and spend my time on things I love” (6:05).

“I’m highly motivated to live a life where I get to engage with activities and ideas that make me happy or make me passionate” (6:15).

“I just love teaching movement, and especially dance. And I wanted to make that a core part of my identity broadly” (7:55).

“That’s my orientation to life: to try to show people that if you are in a place that feels hopeless and difficult and you are struggling, there are things you can do that will help you also experience meaning and purpose and growth and love and contribution” (9:10).

“Being an identical twin, it’s like there is a you in a different body. But it’s still you in this really deeply connected way” (11:55).

“Part of my identity is this abstract sense of connection to the people around me” (12:10).

“I love the idea that there’s something in us that we’re born with and we get to spend our lives exploring what that is and expressing that” (16:05).

“I love the idea that we aren’t totally blank slates and impacted by our experiences in life, because a lot of the experiences that impact us are negative” (16:15).

“The point of view that I carry that has helped me through difficult experiences is feeling like who I am at my core, whether it’s temperament, biology, whatever that is, just me as a human being, that I actually am equipped to deal with stuff in life that happens that may be random” (16:30).

“I love finding out what other people love and being somebody who can mirror that and affirm that and encourage that” (17:45).

“I’m interested in talking to a human being about their life experience. That’s my sweet spot” (18:55).

“My favorite form of stress is the stress that I feel right before I get to do something really exciting” (20:20).

“If I’m doing something that matters, I want to feel some of that anxiety, some of that normal self-doubt, that is a reflection of the fact that I care” (23:20).

“Stress is in you. It’s a coping resource. It’s a coping response” (24:10).

“I define willpower as the ability to make choices that are consistent with your highest goals, your values, your priorities, even when some part of you wants to make a different choice” (31:15).

“We have competing selves” (31:40).

“If you exercise, you’re probably going to be happier, more connected to others, have more meaning and purpose in life, and better protected against depression and anxiety” (33:30).

“Pay attention to the direct experience” (34:40).

“It’s very easy to be influenced by our environment, by other people, and by process and structure” (36:55).

“Human beings survive through connection and interdependence” (43:30).

“Everything that is interesting and good about humans has to do with our relationships with other people” (43:45).

“We get a lot of our value and meaning through our relationships and through our communities and our contributions” (52:10).

“You either are going to spend [your time] being of service or spend [your time] being in fear” (57:00).

“Your life is over when it’s over” (57:10).

 

Additionally, you can find Kelly’s TED Talk, How to Make Stress Your Friend, here, and you can follow her on Instagram here.

Thank you so much to Kelly 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.

Dolly Chugh on Striving to Be Goodish

Dolly Chugh (she/her, hear my name) is an award-winning professor at the New York University Stern School of Business where she teaches MBA courses in leadership and management. Her research focuses on “bounded ethicality,” which she describes as the “psychology of good people.” She is the author of The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias (HarperCollins, 2018), A More Just Future (Simon & Schuster, 2022), and the popular Dear Good People newsletter. Dolly’s TED Talk was named one of the 25 Most Popular TED Talks of 2018 and currently has almost 5 million views.

 

Dolly had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I love writing. It’s a space that’s really rejuvenating and clarifying for me” (6:35).

“I think through writing” (6:45).

“I’m a big fan of dumping thoughts out as unformed as possible” (7:40).

“I teach on the page” (8:55).

“I am learning alongside my students” (9:10).

“Thinking is dynamic” (10:40).

“A lot of us are looking for a way to engage that feels ongoing with the conversation” (14:30).

“We would never have seen any change for the better if we were waiting for [everyone to get engaged]” (18:00).

“The mantra I heard growing up was to not worry about the outcome or reward” (26:15).

“Strategically, I’m interested in how to deal with people who degrade the humanity of others” (35:25).

“I’m very deadline driven” (37:15).

“I put forcing mechanisms on myself” (38:00).

“People who had very rigid goals and people who had no goals went to the gym less than people who had a flex goal where there was a range in performance” (41:10).

“Any identity I individually care about I’m going to try to defend. That’s human nature” (42:10).

“One of the identities that many of us care about is being a good person” (42:25).

“We don’t all have the same definition of what a good person is” (42:30).

“We care about validating our identity” (43:35).

“That’s what I call being goodish. Essentially having a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset” (44:45).

“From a learning standpoint, the challenge mindset is a good place to be (45:05).

“Sports offer such a good metaphor for life” (48:40).

“Our brains are not perfect machines. They’ve evolved to do a lot on autopilot and take shortcuts” (53:30).

“There’s a lot more things that benefit all of us than we realize” (57:10).

“Shame refers to a bad feeling that encompasses all of who I am… Guilt refers to a bad feeling about something that I did or didn’t do. It’s not about all of me, it’s about that thing” (1:03:15).

“Shame tends to lead to us being less active, less proactive, less owning of the issue, less likely to apologize, whereas guilt tends to lead to us to try to remedy the thing, be more active, be more likely to apologize” (1:03:45).

“Guilt is not a bad thing. It feels bad. It feels awful. But guilt helps us in a lot of ways” (1:04:15).

“Lean into the guilt and try to lean away from the shame” (1:05:00).

“You can only sprint for so long” (1:05:35).

“Embrace the joy. That’s going to be your superpower” (1:07:15).

“I’m excited about the power of the arts to help us all move in directions that are uncomfortable” (1:09:00).

 

Additionally, you can check out Dolly’s website here, and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I’d also encourage you to purchase Dolly’s books, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, and A More Just Future anywhere books are sold. You can also watch Dolly’s TED Talk here.

Thank you so much to Dolly 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.

Charles Duhigg on Habits, Productivity and Connection

Charles Duhigg is a best-selling author. I first found out about him from his first book The Power of Habit which is all about the science of habit formation in our lives, companies, and societies. It is a must-read if you’re interested in productivity or effectiveness or maximizing your potential. His next book, Smarter, Faster, Better is all about productivity; I highly recommend you check both of those out.

In today’s conversation, we weave a lot of what Charles has learned with those books into our conversation, and we talk about his future book, his next book, which is all about connection. We talk about how Charles has come to see the world from a habit lens, from a productivity lens, and from a connection lens as well.

He currently writes for the New Yorker Magazine; previously, he wrote for The New York Times. He is someone who thinks things deeply about how humans can thrive and how we can flourish and how we can be our best. He really dives deep into the science and the research whenever he is writing and sharing what he’s learned. He is someone that should be on your radar if he’s not already.

 

Charles had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“Your relationship with this person [who has passed away] continues for the rest of your life” (7:05).

“When we think about death, we think about it as the worst thing that could possibly happen to us. And I think that that’s wrong. Everyone we know and love at some point is going to die. We might die before them. But this is, literally, just part of life. Embracing that, and saying there’s good and there’s bad, I don’t think it demeans it, I think it actually elevates it” (9:15).

“In some respects, the more successful you are… the less enjoyment you get from life” (11:55).

“You have to genuinely decide how you define success, and then commit to that. Embrace it and celebrate it” (12:20).

“Throughout time, the people who are happiest and most successful and who live the longest are the people who have the strongest relationships” (13:45).

“I’ve very deliberately started defining success as connections” (15:40).

“There’s a form of contentedness that comes from intensity” (22:40).

“I like to have a certain amount of intensity in my life” (23:00).

“We make a choice. And then when we stop making that choice, that’s when we get in trouble. We continue acting on this decision we made a month ago, a year ago, ten years ago, without reconsidering the question” (26:30).

“I spend a lot of time second guessing the choices I’m making. I commit to them when I make them [though]” (26:45).

“I need to keep in touch with that part of my brain that allows me to know that it’s time to change” (28:55).

“There was a time when busy and successful were synonymous” (30:35).

“There are periods when you love something, and you become too busy at that thing” (32:30).

“If you feel busy and you don’t know why, it’s a warning sign that you’re not thinking deeply enough” (32:45).

“Saying no is very important” (39:10).

“I can’t buy into the stakes around sports” (44:35).

“Democracy is made up. Justice is made up. All of these things that I think are really important, they’re made-up ideas that we make true simply by believing in them” (48:00).

“When it comes to conversation, one of the things that’s really important is to be less goal-oriented” (51:40).

“The other people around us have huge influences on our habits and on our productivity” (52:15).

“We become more productive, we become better shaped in our habits when we do it in a community, when we enlist other people” (52:25).

“Most of our lives are just a series of unrelated moments. But we tell ourselves a story about our lives and we endow that story into the things we care about” (53:00).

“A story only exists when there’s other people to hear it” (53:35).

“Surprise is what makes reading things interesting” (57:50).

“Everything about life is just about how do we take more control?” (1:06:00)

 

Additionally, you can find Charles’s website here. You can also reach out to Charles via email at Charles@CharlesDuhigg.com.

Thank you so much to Charles 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 Levenson Reflecting on Grandma Irene and Identity

Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different than the ones we’ve done in the past. I just had an inspiring experience that I thought would hopefully make all of us think a little bit more about our own identity, our own values, our ancestors, and how those experiences and the experiences of our family members impact us and how we see the world today. I wrote a little bit and I’m going to share what I wrote, and this is the best medium I know to share important, interesting, unique information. I really hope that today is something that will make you think and inspire you to look inward and reflect on yourself. At its core, this podcast episode is about identity and how we use that identity to make a difference and make an impact in this world.

 

Here are some insights I’d like to share form today’s episode:

“What would you do if you were able to spend time with Adolf Hitler (without any consequences) if he was around today?” (7:15).

“It’s one of the best gifts I think my parents gave me and my brothers: the capacity and the ability to think critically and to have convictions in some of our thoughts, and to stay curious about those convictions” (8:15).

“When [my grandmother] did talk about her experience [surviving the Holocaust], it was mainly about how grateful she was to be in America and to have the family she had” (9:10).

“My grandma and her parents were the lucky ones in Hungary” (11:20).

“One of the stories that always stuck with me about grandma was, upon arriving to New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty, a soldier turned to her and said, ‘You have no idea how happy I am to see that lady again.’ To which my grandma replied, ‘No, sir. You have no idea how happy I am to see her’” (12:35).

“All of us have the opportunity to stand up against hate. We’re complicit when we don’t” (13:10).

“What I wasn’t expecting was for my trip to Hungary to be accompanied by so much emotion” (16:25).

“I’ve cried my way through Hungary. Some tears were tears of pride, and some tears were tears of sorrow. Some tears were tears of joy, and some tears were tears of anger” (16:45).

“They say that trauma lives in the body. While I have lived a ridiculously privileged life with very little trauma, perhaps my grandma’s trauma was pouring out of me as I walked the streets of Hungary” (17:00).

“Life can be sad, hard, and emotional. Perhaps we all need to lean into those emotions to ensure we are doing everything we can to leave this world better than how we found it” (19:20).

“[My grandma] would be blown away by the young people who are teaching and helping the older generation re-connect with their Judaism without fear” (20:00).

“We must never forget what happened and we must never forget that we are a team. We must support each other; have perspective on what can happen if we don’t” (20:30).

“I believe life should be enjoyed and lived with gratitude in the present…. But I know I can hold more space than just joy” (21:35).

“I need to carry some of my grandma’s trauma with me. It will help me step up and step out against inhumanity. I don’t want to leave my tears in Hungary” (21:50).

“If you are thriving, you have a responsibility to go pour into somebody else” (22:40).

“If you’re just thriving for yourself, I would argue that’s not a meaningful life” (22:50).

“We all have to understand the darkness of humans. We cannot be blind to it” (24:15).

“We all have to co-own our stories of the past” (25:00).

“We’re all an amalgamation of our DNA and our experiences, but our stories and our ancestors are inside of us. We carry them with us” (26:05).

“I’d like to challenge you to reflect on who you are, your history, your identity, and how that impacts your decisions today” (26:30).

“Do you have your story, or does your story have you?” (26:50).

“We must create new memories, new stories, new generations, new values, new ways of seeing the world, so that we can make this place better” (27:15).

 

If you’d like to connect with me further directly about this episode or anything else, you can reach out to me via email (brian@strongskills.co).

Thanks for listening.