Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

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...

In January 2012, Robert Rabbin was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and told he had a few months to live. However, in keeping with his contrarian nature, he took a non-conventional path. Robert began his professional journey in 1985, after spending 10 years living and working with meditation master Swami Muktananda in India. Long before then he was on a pursuit – a pursuit to understand the “why...

Mike Erwin served in the US Army for 13 years, including 3 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the Founder and President of The Positivity Project, a non-profit strengthening leadership and relationships through a deeper understanding of character. Mike is also the board chair of Team Red, White, and Blue, providing a network that helps veterans to combat their tendency to is...

In this conversation we sit down with Jan Singer. Jan is the Chief Executive Officer for Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, the world’s most recognized and beloved intimate apparel company. There are thousands of apparel companies across the globe. How do the successful one’s stand out? Part of the success is tapping into the psychology and philosophy of their potential customers. The clothes we choose a...

Judson Althoff is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business organization. He leads the company’s commercial business strategy and over 40k people across the globe in a whole range of functions that need to work closely together in one coherent team for a company in the midst of digitally transforming itself with it’s customers. Leading that many people who have to...

This conversation is with John Nordstrom -- of the Nordstrom high-quality fashion retailer in the US -- whose history has gone from a small shoe store, to having over 350 large luxury department stores -- to being publicly traded on the NYSE -- to being in the middle of a potential family buy back. This conversation is about a man who cares for his family and cares for his customers. It's authenti...

This conversation is with Dr. Albert Bandura. This conversation was an honor. He's literally a living legend in the field of Psychology -- He's an extraordinarily innovative scholar whose work in social cognitive theory has become an incredible resource in academics and for practitioners dedicated to human excellence His theories are part the core pillars with my work with elite teams, athletes, a...

In these conversations, it's my intent to really dig, relentlessly dig, to work to understand the truth. The truth of the nature of the conversation, but also the truth of the person. And opening up is challenging - it's a really hard thing to do, as many of us can recognize, to be authentic and to be vulnerable.  But in this conversation with Alec Stewart, it just worked and it was a pleasur...

Shaka Smart is the Men’s Basketball Head Coach at the University of Texas and he's got a phenomenal way about himself. It just jumps out of this conversation how much he cares about other people, how invested he is in relationships, how he's working to be the most authentic person he can be — and at the same time pull that out of other people. He's definitely a relationship-based coach, which is o...

First - real quick if you haven’t heard yet, we are pivoting from an ad-supported model to a crowdfunding model and we really need your support! You can learn more at  findingmastery.net/support  - it would be greatly appreciated. We’d love to see this podcast exist for a long time but that only happens if we have your support. And for those who aren’t familiar with Tribe Talk - it’s whe...

This conversation is with Rick Welts. He has 40 years of experience in the NBA and is currently the President & Chief Operating Officer of the Golden State Warriors who have just won their second championship in 3 years. He owns the rare distinction of being part of championship teams in the NBA (2), WNBA (2) and NBA Development League.   We talk about risk -- both private and public...