Intentional Performers With Brian Levenson

Scott Drew is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Baylor University. Coach Drew began his career at Baylor in 2003 when he took over a program that was decimated by tragedy, player departures, a depleted roster, and NCAA restrictions. He was slow and methodical in the process in which he went about to turn the program around. He really tried to recruit a solid foundation of talent in high school players, and also really focused on who would align and fit with what they were trying to do at Baylor. Fast-forward to almost 20 years later, and Baylor has become a contender almost annually. They won a national championship, they are constantly at the top of the rankings, and in their conference, the Big 12, they are a perennial contender. He has built a program at Baylor that was on the verge of not even existing because of some of the hardships, the challenges, and the messiness that encapsulated the program he inherited.   This conversation is wide-ranging. We talk a lot about faith; Coach Drew talks about faith

Today’s episode, episode #277, is a little bit different. I have interviewed 276 different people, and over that span I’ve often contemplated and though, “You know who I would love to have on here? My dad.” He’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever been around, and I’ve had a front row seat to witness, to him questions, to observe, to notice. I was hesitant to have my dad on as a guest because I like to ask questions that other people don’t necessarily ask. And certainly, I’ve had friends on the podcast, people I care deeply about, but I knew with my dad it would be extremely personal. I wanted to ask him questions that I don’t always get to ask him. Even though there’s space for us in our relationship to ask questions, we don’t always sit for an hour and a half and learn with each other. We don’t always sit and ask what’s really on our mind and share in a vulnerable way, and we have a very healthy relationship. There was some fear for me in bringing my dad into this community, bringing my dad into my

Julien Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO at Practice. Previously, he was also the Co-Founder of a company called Breather. Additionally, he was a New York Times Bestselling Author of 3 books. He is somebody who’s been a speaker and a writer. Creative would be the word I use to best sum up Julien.   Julien had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “One of the ways to have the biggest impact on the world is to work with a team of people that will care about a common purpose” (7:15). “How much of a mercenary are you vs a missionary?” (8:15). “I was a hard employee… I wanted a level of autonomy that I never earned” (11:35). “I felt that I had a value in myself that I saw that was very difficult for me to show other people. I had to step completely out of the system” (13:00). “People make everything happen. When it’s not people, it’s culture” (23:00). “I’m more deliberate about people now than I ever was” (23:15). “To be deliberate with the people that you work with has got to b

Joanne McCallie is a legendary basketball coach. She was named the ACC Coach of the Year twice (2010, 2012), and the Big Ten Coach of the Year once (2005). Additionally, she was a 3x America East Coach of the Year (1995, 1996, 1999). She has a basketball resume that is incredible, including in 2005 winning the AP Coach of the Year. She won 646 games and only lost 255 games in her coaching career. Joanne decided to retire from basketball, and she has been an advocate, and really been courageous in sharing her story around mental health and being bipolar. We get into a deep, enriching conversation, and it’s a conversation I truly feel we have to have. The reality is that mental health, suicide, depression, anxiety, they don’t discriminate. It can hit any of us; it can hit all of us. I love how open Joanne is about sharing her story, and also how could she have so much success while dealing with some of these challenges.   Joanne had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If

Typically, I don’t like to have guests back on the podcast for a 2nd time. But today is a little different. Joe and I decided to create a podcast that is interesting, unique, and something that I got a ton of excitement out of. We get into the weeds of if being a guest on a podcast is different than being a host on a podcast, which led to further conversations about being a host vs. being a guest in life, since there are so many facets of society in which we play host and in which we play guest.   As a little bit about Joe if you don’t remember from our past conversation, Joe Ferraro is currently entering his 23rd year as an educator, teaching 12th 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

Carole Robin, Ph.D. who taught the legendary Interpersonal Dynamics course (affectionately known by students as “Touchy Feely”) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business was the Dorothy J. King Lecturer in Leadership, Director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program, and Director of the Stanford Interpersonal Dynamics Programs for High Performing Executives (Executive Program) before co-founding Leaders in Tech, which brings the principles and process of “Touchy Feely” to executives in Silicon Valley. Prior to coming to Stanford, she had careers in sales and marketing management and was a partner in two consulting firms. She is the co-author of the highly acclaimed and award-winning book, Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues which contains the lessons of "Touchy Feely" that thousands of students have consistently described for decades as life changing and worth the price of their MBA. She lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband of 36 years.   Carole

As Seer Interactive’s Founder and Vice President of Innovation, Wil Reynolds develops strategies and innovations to help clients build traffic and make money. His methods have shaped the search industry worldwide, and he regularly speaks for marketing conferences worldwide.   Wil had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “I’m sick of hanging out with people who want to tell me how successful I am” (7:35). “Nobody that’s good got better when other people said, ‘you’re good’” (7:40). “Nobody [inspires me]. Everybody’s got some stuff going on with them” (11:45). “Mostly I just look for people who walk the walk. That’s it” (12:05). “I tend to value humility” (14:20). “I like to keep things simple, so I just want to raise a kind kid” (20:30). “My number one goal is to raise a kid who sees things in the world, sees things that are wrong, and says ‘I can be a part of solving them’” (20:35). “When I see a kid being really kind to another kid, I instantly go too ‘What are their pa

Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and is the owner of the Savannah Bananas. Jesse really enjoys talking about leadership, culture, and what it takes to build something special. And what he’s built with the Savannah Bananas is just that. It’s very unique, and what he’s building is fascinating. His teams have welcomed more than 1 million fans to their ballparks, and have been featured on MSNBC, CNN, ESPN, and Entrepreneur Magazine. ESPN did a feature on what Jesse is creating in Savannah. The Bananas have been awarded with Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year, and won the CPL Championship in their first year. While they emphasize fun and entertainment at their baseball games, they also win. The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game since their first season, and have a waiting list in the thousands of tickets. In addition to that, Jesse discusses the wait list they have for players who want to come play for them, and for employees at a time wh

Rand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of audience research software startup, SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder.   Rand had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If you are in a happy and healthy headspace and you’ve gotten lots of sleep, you can outperform even in a few minutes what you could do in hours of work” (10:15). “Chill Work tries to prioritize that high quality, high impact time over hustle culture, total work time” (10:30). “Even if you perfectly design your company and your business and do near-perfect hiring, you will still encounter those people-challenges as you ramp up to 100, 200+ employees” (12:20). “This is part of the challenge for entrepreneurs in general, and all human beings, is that sometimes what feels good and right to you internally isn’t what you get externally recognized and rewarded for” (14:45). “I would not take a co

Zoe Chance is an award-winning teacher and researcher at Yale School of Management. Her research has been published in top academic journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Psychological Science, and covered by the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, BBC, Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and The New York Times. Thinkers50 named Zoe one of the world's top up-and-coming management thinkers. Her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy, and her TEDx talk, How to Make a Behavior Addictive, has more than half a million views. Before coming to Yale, she earned a doctorate in marketing at Harvard and managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand at Mattel. She lives with her family in New Haven, CT.   Zoe had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “So much of our ability to influence and persuade other human beings is a direct result of the level of connection that they feel with us. And

Nick Hill is the Head Football Coach at Southern Illinois University, where he also played football earlier in his life. Nick also played professional football. The crux and meat of our conversation today is about what he’s building at Southern Illinois. He’s had 3 winning seasons after plenty of losing seasons at Southern Illinois, and he’s going to talk about the culture that he is embedding into the program and why he loves coaching football.   Nick had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “You can still be young and not entitled and work your way up” (10:45). “It’s a people business, and that’s [true] in any business” (15:00). “If you want to make your way up in this profession, you have to be able to communicate verbally” (16:50). “Number 1, what are your values and what do you want this thing to look like?” (19:45). “How you’re hiring your staff, the people you put in place, your player/personnel people, it’s really the difference I think between elite teams

Dave Phillips believes in living life with passion, curiosity, and purpose. Described as "a visionary thinker with a passion for high-performance coaching," Phillips co-founded the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). A member of the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America since 1993. Dave has been a Golf Magazine Top 100 teacher since 2000 and is a Golf Digest Top 50 teacher in America. He currently coaches world number one golfer Jon Rahm and is part of hall of fame golfer Phil Mickelson's team. In 2004, Dave Phillips and Dr. Greg Rose developed TPI, the world's first golf performance facility that looked at every aspect of a player's game, from equipment fitting to biomechanics and the human body. As TPI developed, it became evident that we should pass on the information obtained from working with the game's best through education, and the TPI Certified Brand was born. The TPI-certified brand is the largest of its kind globally, and those accredited experts have helped hundreds of thousands of re

Mike Deegan is the head baseball coach at Dennison University, where he is entering his 10th season. Coach Deegan has had tremendous success at the Division III level, winning 3 National Championships. He has also played in 2 National Championships as a player.   Mike had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “For a while I would make fun of people for being arrogant, but secretly I would surround myself with arrogant people because that’s what I was missing” (6:15). “I’ve been beat over my head in my life to be humble so much so that I think it affects my performances” (6:30). “You have to look at yourself as a coach ask how my behavior is affecting our team’s performance” (7:30). “Being humble has served me very well. It makes me relatable and people enjoy me for the most part. But now I have found myself in rooms where I’m humble and I’m listening and I’m curious, but there is this small moment where I would probably be the expert and I don’t throw myself in the

Gavin McClurg is no stranger to adventure and exploration. He is a 2015 National Geographic “Adventurer of the Year” for his unpowered paragliding expedition across the Canadian Rockies (documented in the Red Bull Media House feature film “The Rockies Traverse”). He became the first person to traverse the full length of the Alaska Range by foot and paraglider (unsupported) in 2016 (documented in the Red Bull Media House feature film “North of Known”). He is the owner, founder and Captain of “Offshore Odysseys”, a global kitesurfing/surfing/sailing expedition. He has twice circumnavigated the world by sail, living at sea for 13 straight years, including short-handed roundings of both notorious capes (Horn and Good Hope). Gavin holds the former North American record for foot launched cross-country paragliding, a flight of 240 miles deep into Montana from his hometown of Sun Valley, Idaho. Gavin is the first American (and only 3rd non-European) to complete the “toughest adventure race on Earth”, the Red Bull X-A

Grace Aduroja Kolker is a friend of mine, someone I look up to, and someone who I consider to be a mentor. Grace is a coach who is extremely wise when it comes to things like communication, emotional intelligence, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and decision making. I personally have sent many friends to to get coached by her. Grace and I work together often as facilitators and she is my go-to when I need help with a tricky situation. Grace is also a lawyer by trade, so she’s going to talk about her background in law and why she didn’t continue down that path of being a practicing lawyer. She also has a journalism background. She is somebody who has had to ask questions for legal purposes, had to ask questions as a journalist, and is somebody who is just ridiculously curious. Grace is amazingly inquisitive and is a leadership coach. She is someone who holds space for people, develops people, and also facilitates conversations in group experiences. Grace is someone who I look up to, someone who makes me wise

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of We Need to Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. An expert in conversation, human nature, reclaiming common humanity and finding well-being, Celeste frequently provides insight on what is good for all humans and what is bad for us, focusing the best research in neuro and social science to increase understanding of how we relate with one another and can work together in beneficial ways in our workplaces, neighborhoods, communities and homes. She is a regular guest host on NPR and American Public Media and a highly sought consultant, advising companies around the world on conversations about race, diversity and inclusion. Her TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 26 million total views, and she serves as an advisory board member for ProCon.org and The Listen First Project. Celeste is recipient of the 2019 Media Change

Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, a leading authority on well-being, psychological flexibility, curiosity, courage, and resilience. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and his work has been cited over 35,000 times. He received the Faculty Member of the Year Award from George Mason University and Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions from the American Psychological Association. He is the author of Curious? and The Upside of Your Dark Side, and his latest book is The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, Fast Company, among other publications, and his research is featured regularly in media outlets such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, NPR, and Time Magazine. He's a twin with twin daughters (plus one more), with plans to rapidly populate the world with great conversationalists.   Todd had a number of amazing insights during ou

Sian Beilock studies how performance anxiety can be exasperated or alleviated in the simple strategies we use to ensure success under pressure. In addition to that, Sian is the president at Barnard College at Columbia University. Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the US. Barnard is devoted to empowering exceptional women to change the world and the way we think about it. Prior to her appointment as President, she served as the University of Chicago Executive Vice Provost. She also worked in the Psychology department. Sian is a cognitive scientist by training and is one of the world’s leading experts on the brain science behind choking under pressure.   Sian had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “One of the hardest parts of learning how to become a successful leader is learning how to delegate and that you can’t do everything” (5:45). “We’re limited capacity people. We can only focus on so many things at once” (6:00). “My favorite part

Nick Tasler is an internationally acclaimed thought leader on the science of decisions and their impact on the growth of leaders, teams and organizations. He is also a leadership columnist for the Harvard Business Review and the #1 best-selling author of The Impulse Factor: An Innovative Approach to Better Decision Making and Domino: The Simplest Way to Inspire Change. Nick’s work has been featured by The New York Times, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Fox Business, NPR, BBC, NBC, CBS and other leading media outlets all around the world.   As an organizational psychologist and keynote speaker, Nick has helped tens of thousands of leaders apply a simple decision framework for transforming seasons of change into periods of unprecedented personal and professional growth at the world’s most respected organizations ranging from Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, and Target to 3M, Accenture, the Wharton School, Yale University and more.   Nomadic by nature, Nick and his wife and their four kids live in…lots of places, rangin

April Dunford is the world’s leading expert on product positioning. She works with fast-growing tech companies helping them clearly articulate the value they alone can deliver to customers. She is the author of the bestselling positioning book Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it.   April had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “My calling is more as a teacher than anything else” (8:00). “In the work I’m doing right now as a consultant, really my job is to be a teacher” (8:18). “As a teacher and a facilitator, I’m teaching the team and I’m facilitating the team to come up with the answers themselves” (14:25). “When we’re doing positioning work, we’re very focused on customers, problems, solutions… how do we actually tell the story of this product in a way that really helps customers make a good purchase decision?” (15:24). “When you’re inside a big company, you have to fight really hard to get a promotion, to mov