Intentional Performers With Brian Levenson

Nik Wallenda has 11 Guinness World Records and has completed a list of never-before-seen death defying feats. He has written his name in history as the king of the highwire. Additionally, Nik has performed live in every state in the US and all over the world. He has garnered the support from tens of millions of viewers on network television specials on ABC, The Discovery Channel, and others. Nik has completed such accomplishments as walking a highwire over both the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls with no safety net, as well as walking blindfolded across skyscrapers in Chicago. In this episode, we discuss Nik’s traumatic experience and his vulnerability (6:45), what he does to help people overcome their fear of high-wire walking (8:30), how he makes sure that both he and others are where they need to be before a performance (10:23), how he treats pressure (11:53), if there is ever a part of him that will relinquish his hands-on nature (13:43), the similarities and differences between what he does and selling a

Nicole Lynn Lewis is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Generation Hope, a nonprofit organization that surrounds motivated teen parents and their children with the mentors, emotional support, and financial resources that they need to thrive in college and kindergarten, thereby driving a two-generation solution to poverty. A former teen mother herself who put herself through the College of William & Mary with her three-month old daughter in tow, Nicole now works every day to change the statistic that less than 2% of teen mothers will earn their degrees before age 30. Generation Hope rallies around teen parents to help them earn college degrees and forge a path to economic opportunity and is now expanding its work with young parents beyond the D.C. region by sharing its best practices to help colleges and universities across the country better meet the needs of the nearly 4 million parenting students who are working toward their degrees. Nicole is a member of the board of trustees of Trinity Washin

Brendan Suhr is one of the most respected figures in basketball, as he has nearly 30 years of coach and executive experience in the NBA, as well as 13 seasons as a coach at the collegiate level. He has been part of some of the most historical basketball teams of all time, while winning back-to-back championships with the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons, also working as an assistant coach on the 1992 Dream Team. Brendan has also worked for hall of fame coaches such as Chuck Daly, Hubie Brown, and Lenny Wilkins. Today, Brendan works with people in the corporate world. Brendan is someone who cares deeply about relationships and pouring all of the wisdom he has learned over the years into coaches and, in turn, into the basketball community. In this episode, we discuss what life was like for Brendan growing up (5:55), the values he got from his parents (11:04), the value of education (14:13), range/specialization in education (19:07), why not to go too narrow in studying specialties (22:07), what it was like to have Hu

Lauren Johnson works as a mental performance coach. Additionally, she’s a keynote speaker, a writer, an entrepreneur, and she’s curious, obsessed, and interested with how the lessons in sports translate to the corporate world. She’s given keynotes to such notable organizations as the FBI, Johnson and Johnson, and Mass Mutual. Additionally, she’s worked for the New York Yankees as their mental conditioning coordinator. In this episode, we discuss her taking the leap to putting out video content despite being somewhat insecure and hesitant about it (6:07), if she received negative feedback on the videos early on (8:05), why she didn’t give up on it (9:15), the importance of learning how to fail (12:34), if there was a particular moment in one of her videos that made her proud and what she learned from that (13:57), how she is choosing to see the good during these tough times (18:52), empathy, anger, thoughts, and feelings (28:06), when she leans into empathy and when she chooses to focus on something else (30:

Rachel Tipograph considered herself amongst the digerati since the moment she became an eBay power user at 13. Forbes listed Rachel as one of its “30 under 30 Who Are Changing The World,” Marie Claire named her one of “The 50 Most Influential Women in America,” Fast Company named her one of “The Most Creative People in Business,” AdAge named her one of “The Most Creative People of The Year,” Adweek named her one of “The Young Influentials Shaping Business and Culture,” Entrepreneur named her one of the “50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs,” Goldman Sachs named her one of “The 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs,” Business Insider named her one of “New York Tech’s Coolest People”, Refinery29 named her one of its “Rising Female Tech Stars,” The Wrap named her one of “The 11 Change Agents Disrupting Hollywood,” and LinkedIn named her one of its “Next Wave: Top Professionals 35 & Under.”   After being the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Gap where she oversaw strategy, implementation and measurement, R

Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast with millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome to Management: How to Grow from Top Performer to Excellent Leader (McGraw-Hill, January 2020). A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and VP of Sales at a multibillion-dollar company. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer’s leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates “Leadership Circles” that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders. In this episode, we discuss the transition from high performer to excellent leader and coach (5:33), what makes someone a great manager, what makes someone great at sales, and why are those considered “bad” words (8:14), where people struggle with helping people get to where they want to go (13:14), what he

Haley Skarupa is a member of the 2018 United States Women’s Olympic ice hockey Team who took home a gold medal from the Winter Olympics this past February in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She is a three-time World Champion and also a Four Nations Cup Gold Medalist for Team USA as well. Haley graduated from Boston College in 2016, majoring in psychology. While at Boston College, she was named an All-American Collegiate Athlete and is currently the second highest points leader in Boston College hockey history, men or women, with 115 goals and 244 total points in her four years. Out of college, she was drafted 5th overall into the National Women’s Hockey League and was a unanimous All-Star Selection her rookie season for the Connecticut Whale. She is originally from Rockville, Maryland and graduated from Wootton High School in 2012. Most recently, she has joined the Washington Capitals organization as their Hockey Ambassador. She has brought her background and experience to help promote the growth of the game in the

Rahul Vohra is the CEO and Co-Founder of Superhuman, the fastest email experience ever made. He previously founded Rapportive, a popular Gmail plug-in that was acquired by LinkedIn. In this episode, we discuss what Rahul was like as a kid (7:15), how he began coding at the age of 8 (8:26), how his parents instilled a love of learning in Rahul and his brother (12:11), how he showed up emotionally and mentally during his educational journey (17:05), if there was ever a time his parents, who were doctors, pressured him to become a doctor (23:28), why he was built to be an entrepreneur (25:42), what he wishes he knew when he was younger that he knows now (27:49), where his love for psychology came from and when it came in (30:30), his experience with executive coaching (33:36), how he thinks about partnership and bringing on other people to help him (36:05), why his personal values are the same as his business’s core values (37:27), how he operates Superhuman and lives his life intentionally (39:59), adapting, o

Rae Ringel is a certified executive coach and founding President of The Ringel Group. She is a faculty member at the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership and founding director of their certificate program in the Art of Facilitation and Design. She is also adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. Rae is in high demand as an innovator in the areas of coaching, facilitation and training across sectors. She enables a growing list of executives in some of the most successful Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and government agencies to become more effective managers and stronger communicators with a formidable leadership presence. In this episode, we discuss how Rae helped Brian to get involved with executive coaching (7:51), how she thinks about competing and competition (8:59), what her childhood was like (11:41), her thoughts on stopping things as opposed to staying with them (15:18), the first thing she fully committed to (17:29), why she val

Sue Enquist is a legendary softball coach who coached the UCLA softball team for 27 years. She has won 11 National Championships, 1 as a player and 10 as a coach. However, this conversation is not about anything related to her impressive resume. Sue is much more interested in talking about her failures, what she would have done differently, coaching today, and how coaching has evolved through the years. In this episode, we discuss why Sue doesn’t like talking about winning (5:00), how she thinks about her legacy (5:45), if she thinks winning can get in the way of growth or if there’s a downside to winning (8:32), how she has adapted in her ways of thinking (10:30), why she does what she does today and how that’s evolved over the years (14:02), how she saw polarity show up in other legendary coaches she was around at UCLA (17:52), how she thinks about expectations (24:52), how vulnerability plays a role in coaching (32:25), focusing more on the process than the results (38:06), coaching coaches (43:36), wate

Dee Ann Turner is a 33-year veteran of Chick-fil-A, Inc. Prior to retirement in 2018, she was Vice President, Talent and Vice President, Sustainability for Chick-fil-A, Inc. Selected as the company’s first female officer in 2001, she was instrumental in building and growing Chick-fil-A’s well-known culture and talent systems. During her long career, she worked closely with Chick-fil-A’s founder, S. Truett Cathy, and other key leaders as an architect of their organizational culture. Turner was responsible for thousands of selections of Chick-fil-A Franchisees and corporate staff members. Additionally, she led Talent Management, Staff Learning and Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Culture and Engagement. Most recently, Dee Ann launched and led the Sustainability function focusing on Chick-fil-A’s strategy to implement sustainable practices at the then $10.5 billion company. Today, she leads her own organization, Dee Ann Turner & Associates, LLC, writing books, speaking to over 50 audiences per year and

Eric Musselman is a basketball coach through and through. Today he is the University of Arkansas Head Men’s Basketball Coach, but he’s also coached in the NBA. Previously he served as the Head Coach of the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors. He also coached previously at the collegiate level for the University of Nevada, helping their program to thrive. In this conversation we dive into the the art of coaching, leadership, and what it takes to build a successful team. Eric is a hard-working guy whose attention to detail is through-the-roof. In this episode, we discuss his upbringing with relation to basketball (5:03), if he knew he wanted to coach when he was the ball boy for the Cavaliers in 10th grade (8:34), what his dad was like as a coach (11:12), what Eric is like as a coach (12:58), how he “shows up” for preparation and performance (17:54), how he defines “competitive” (21:08), if competitiveness is nature or nurture (23:30), team buy-in (25:28), if there’s a dark side to high levels of c

Ashley Merryman is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children and Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing. In this episode we discuss why she’s a Nationals fan (5:20), the power of sports and the community it builds (7:20), why she cares so deeply about excellence and competing (10:37), “flow” (14:15), emotional agility and grit (18:53), Angela Duckworth (25:40), differences among children and self-fulfilling prophecies (28:04), being perfectionistic in preparation and adaptable in performance (33:55), the importance of technical skill vs mentality (40:35), Ashley’s introduction to growth mindset (43:02), if her thoughts regarding growth mindset have changed at all over time, and the idea of fixed mindset vs growth mindset (48:12), if she believes people have innate “gifts” (56:15), epigenetics (1:01:25), if a fixed mindset could be helpful in performance (1:08:26), knowing your audience (1:17:43), strengths, weaknesses, faith, humility, and modesty (1:22:30),

Dan Abrahams is a Sport Psychologist who works alongside individuals, teams, coaches, and organizations all over the world. He is known for his passion to demystify sport psychology and for creating simple to use performance techniques. Dan is a former professional golfer and holds a first-class Honors Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. Dan is extremely articulate, thoughtful, and intentional about the word choices that he uses, but he still does it with an energy and tenacity that is second-to-none. In this episode, Dan will talk about his mindset and how he approaches things. He will also talk about nuance and the value of nuance, personality’s role, and how working inside of a team is different from playing golf or another individual sport. In this episode we discuss Dan’s ability to be skeptical and contrarian, and where his mindset of “and” instead of “or” came from (6:00), how science and art relate to his work (12:28), how he works with clients (18:59), consistency (25:21

Servant Leadership through the heart! Claude Silver is the premier resource for heart-based leadership because she has created it, executed it, taught it and lived it. She knows how to develop others with these skills so they can pull out their inner heart leadership and soar! Claude Silver is VaynerMedia's inaugural Chief Heart Officer, and she really does bring the heart to the agency by way of emotional optimism and emotional intelligence. She has shifted the agency’s way of working to ensure she is unlocking greatness in people. Letting go of traditional HR methods and leaning into human-to-human connection has allowed Claude to disrupt the traditional approach to building culture, and at VaynerMedia, she has done just that. In this episode, we discuss her perspective on emotional agility (6:05), how she stays present and remains agile in serving people (8:34), what she does to make sure she’s at her best (10:48), what her childhood was like and how she came to be who she is today (12:52), the role of sp

Matt Birk played in the NFL for 15 years. He came into the NFL as a 6th round pick after going to Harvard as an undergraduate. Matt played for the Baltimore Ravens, winning a Super Bowl with them, and he also played for the Minnesota Vikings for a number of years, which was his hometown football team. Matt was a 2-time All-Pro, a 6-time Pro Bowl selection, a Super Bowl winner as well. During the episode, Matt will share how he wound up at Harvard, what that experience was like for him, and how it helped shape him for the pros. In the NFL, Matt thrived. He changed positions in the NFL, moving from tackle to center on the offensive line. We discuss what that transition was like and all that he had to keep track of being at the forefront of the offense. Matt will also discuss humble preparation in our conversation and how valuable that was during his career. Lastly, speaking from the perspective of someone who played a position where you only get recognized for making mistakes, Matt also discusses the importanc

Dan Helfrich is the Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Consulting. As CEO, he leads a $10 billion business comprised of more than 50,000 professionals who help clients solve their most complex business issues and shape their futures with confidence. Prior to this role, Dan led the Government of Public Services and advised government leaders in transforming into their most efficient and effective organizations, across areas of technology, modernization and innovation, human capital, strategy and analytics, customer experience, and enterprise operations, In addition to that, Dan serves as the play-by-play for Georgetown Men’s Soccer, which is where he went to college and played soccer. In this conversation, Dan will talk about leadership, why he takes time to pursue things he’s passionate about, and what he believes the tenets of leadership and good human development are. In this episode, we discuss what it was like for Dan growing up in a household as the oldest of 7 kids (5:35), why his family decided to adopt 3

Jen Baker is just the fifth Director of Athletics and Recreation at Johns Hopkins since 1950 and succeeded Alanna W. Shanahan, who served in the position since July 2016.  Baker has been an integral member of the department’s senior-leadership team since her arrival at Homewood.  She has overseen the day-to-day operation of the Department of Athletics with oversight in the planning, development and management of all fiscal and administrative operations.  As such, she has directed all revenue-generating initiatives and short and long-term budget planning for Johns Hopkins’ highly successful 24-sport varsity athletic program. In addition, Baker has served as the sport administrator for the Blue Jay women’s lacrosse, football, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer programs while also providing administrative support for men’s lacrosse.  She led the search to fill Johns Hopkins’ head football coaching position in early 2019 and has been actively involved in the hiring of two other head coaches, severa

Chris Wirth is somebody who cares deeply about positivity, resilience, and persistence. He thinks often about the question of “What does it take to be successful?” Chris has a podcast (No Quit Living), has written a book (The Positivity Tribe), and has many speaking engagements. Chris is also somebody who is all about refusing to lose and refusing to quit. Chris and I discuss what quitting is, and also what it’s not and what that distinction really looks like. In this episode, we discuss Chris’s upbringing (5:00), how his younger sister’s passing away affected him (7:05), what his parents’ messages were to him at this time of loss and grief (8:09), some of the values his parents passed down to him (9:36), how he defines and thinks about love (10:28), how his thoughts on love have changed over time (11:15), what the opposite of love is (13:05), the conversations had in is household growing up about helping others, and also the conversations had about money (18:23), what he wanted to do with his life when he w

Carmelina Moscato is a Canadian soccer player and Olympic bronze-medalist. Today, she’s a coach. She played as a Center Back in professional soccer in the US and all over the world. She is someone who thinks deeply about leadership, soccer and how you can leverage leadership in soccer. She’s incredibly thoughtful and will share her mindset on what it was like playing for the Canadian National Team and how she thinks about coaching and the future of women’s soccer. In this episode, we discuss the origins of her name (5:07), how she’s similar to her dad (5:50), where she grew up (6:37), what life was like for her growing up (6:55), some of the lessons she took away from her childhood, specifically what she learned from her brother and parents (8:05), what pride has meant to her throughout her life, specifically with her parents being immigrants (11:21), if soccer was something that her parents were passionate about (13:05), what drove her internally as a soccer player growing up (14:28), what her path would’ve