Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

This week’s conversation is with Cassidy Lichtman, a former member of the United States women’s national volleyball team. At the age of nine, Cassidy developed a chronic pain disorder in one of her legs and was told that she might never walk again. Imagine waking up one day with pain. Pain you didn’t understand. Pain that had no cure, no matter how many doctors you visited. On one side of the spec...

This week’s conversation is with American Swimmer and Olympic Gold Medalist Conor Dwyer. You wouldn’t know it looking at him now, with his 6’5”, athletic frame, three Olympic medals and four World Championships titles to his name, but success in the pool didn’t come easily to Conor.  He was a multi-sport athlete throughout his youth, settling into swimming as his main focus late in high schoo...

This week’s conversation is with Admiral Bill Owens on leadership, courage, and relationships. Bill is currently the executive chairman and co-founder of Red Bison Advisory Group, a company which identifies opportunities with proven enterprises in China, the Middle East, and the United States and creates dynamic partnerships focusing on: natural resources (oil, gas and fertilizer plants), real est...

Welcome to “The Process” a new audio series from Dr. Michael Gervais and Finding Mastery. In this series, we’re going to learn about  The Process :  What really goes on “in the thick of it,” for those on the pursuit of mastery? In this first season, we’re going to follow  Kairos  and their CEO Alex Fiance. Kairos is a global community of fellows, founders & advisors th...

This week’s conversation is with Valorie Kondos Field, often referred to as “Miss Val.” She’s the head coach of the six-time NCAA Champion, 21 NCAA Regional Champion and 17-time PAC 12 Champion UCLA Women’s Gymnastics team. Valorie was recently named the Pac-12 “Coach of the Century,” and in 2010, she became one of only two active coaches to be inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame. She con...

This week's conversation is with entrepreneur Daymond John on the power of clarity, vision, and imagery. From street hustle -- to Shark Tank to being a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, he has become globally recognized for his relentless commitment to promoting and supporting entrepreneurs.  Daymond initially made his mark as the entrepreneur and branding expert behind the...

This week’s conversation is with Hall of Fame swimming coach Bob Bowman, the maestro behind the illustrious career of Michael Phelps. He’s now the Head Coach for the Men’s and Women’s programs at Arizona State University. He is a four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team staff, including Head Coach of the Men’s team at Rio 2016. He has guided swimmers to 38 Olympic medals, including 21 individual...

Jeremy Bailenson is the founding director of Stanford University’s  Virtual Human Interaction Lab and a professor at Stanford University. Jeremy studies the psychology of Virtual Reality (VR), in particular how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others. When I was up at his lab, he ran me through a fear-inducing protocol that completely hijacked my thinking br...

This week’s episode is special. It’s from our first Finding Mastery “Live” recorded at the USC Performance Science Institute . Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll, USC Executive Director for Entrepreneurial Studies, David Belasco, and I created the institute to teach, train, and research the science, best practices, and applied processes for a high performing mindset in any domain. That...

This week’s conversation is with Jake Blauvelt, one of the world’s best all around snowboarders. He’s got a smooth, creative and effortless-looking style and it’s lifted him into an elite group of top athletes in the snowboarding world. Jake’s career started like most other snowboarders: traveling from contest to contest, making a name for himself riding half pipe & slopestyle events, & ev...

This week’s conversation is with Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen has spent the past decade researching and writing about happiness and is the author of several books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers The Four Tendencies,  Better Than Before , and  The Happiness Project .  I wanted to talk to Gretchen because happiness is something that every one of us see...

This conversation is with UC Berkeley rugby coach Jack Clark on  team, culture, honesty . Jack is the iconic rugby coach at the University of California. His team-building abilities are considered legendary within university circles and throughout the corporate sector. Since becoming head coach of the Golden Bears in 1984, Clark has led the rugby program to 29 national collegiate championship...

Nutritional scientist Chris Talley is my go-to for all things food science. We've worked together with hundreds of professional athletes and Olympians. We worked together at Red Bull with their high performance program, up at the Seahawks and with handfuls of athletes that live right on the edge of intense risk and danger. I hope you enjoy Chris' mind and world-views as much as I do. This conversa...

For those of you who care deeply about what you’re putting in your body, you’ve come to the right place. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to part 1, I highly recommend giving that a listen first so you can get some context for who Chris is and why he’s so good at what he does. _________________ Subscribe  to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high...

This conversation is with MMA fighter and legend, Vitor Belfort, on belief, mindset, and overcoming fear . I wanted to sit down with Vitor to understand how he has created command of his deep love for people and at the same time has the ability to engage in one of the most brutal and violent sports (mixed martial arts). Vitor grew up in a tough neighborhood in Rio De Janeiro and from an early age...

This conversation is with rugby coach Stuart Lancaster. Stuart is currently coaching in Dublin, Ireland with Leinster Rugby. He was the former Head Coach of the England Rugby team from 2011-2015.  Failure is something no one wants to experience but almost everyone has to go through at some point.  Those on the razor’s edge, those that push their own boundaries, curious to see how much th...

This conversation is with Sharon Salzberg on  Being Present, Letting Go, and Having Faith If you know her name, you know where this conversation will go: Mindfulness. Sharon has played a crucial role in bringing mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture. She first began teaching mindfulness in 1974. (Note: be careful who teaches you about mindfulness — it’s a very, very “i...

This week’s conversation is with Tom Carroll on being a maverick, honesty, and risk. Tom is best known as one of Australia’s great surfers and sportsmen.  I have known of Tom since I was a grom (stoked little kid who flat out loved surfing). With two world professional surfing championships and three wins at Pipeline (one of the heavier waves in the world) under his belt, you’d be forgiven fo...

This week’s conversation is with Women’s Senior National Team Water Polo head coach Adam Krikorian. Since taking over the Women's Senior National Team, Adam Krikorian has been just about perfect. From his arrival in 2009 Team USA has competed in 18 major FINA Championships and come away with Gold in 15. This includes the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, 2009, 2015, and 2017 FINA World Championships, t...

**if you have any issues with a dead spot while listening, redownload the episode and you should be good to go. There was a technical glitch that occurred for a few people on the initial download. This conversation is with Ray Conner, who was responsible for running America's largest manufacturing export, Boeing. If you're not familiar with the company, you've likely put your life in their hands (...

Imagine being within striking distance of your lifelong dream, only to come to a fork in the road.  Continue onward but in doing so, put others lives in danger, or turn back and potentially never have another shot at fulfilling your dream. What would you do? How would you respond? Ethical decision making under duress is a fascinating process. I don’t know anyone that says, “I’m a bad human be...

Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California (USC) and the first Hindu to serve as the chief religious or spiritual leader of an American university. In a time where it feels like we have never been more divided, this conversation is about unity. It’s about empathy. It’s about diversity. It’s about curiosity and regard. There is so much to learn in this convers...

This week’s conversation is with David Epstein. David is author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He is a science writer and investigative reporter at ProPublica, and before that was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he authored or co-authored a number of the magazine’s most highprofile pieces. Despite his success as a writer, David didn’t always know that was what he wa...

This conversation is with Arianna Huffington.  Arianna is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. Arianna has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. In May 2005, sh...

On this podcast, we get to hear from many different vantage points: artists, scientist, elite military, politicians, those who run highly successful businesses, and those who have been on the razor’s edge in the sports arena. When it comes to elite sport, there’s a rare breed that have succeeded as both player and coach — and winning championships in both roles is almost unheard of. That is why I...