Intentional Performers

Mark Groves joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Mark is a human connection specialist but putting a title on his work doesn’t do him justice. Mark is an emotional translator, writer, speaker, coach, and his clients range from businesses and leaders to couples and individuals. Mark really cares about the deepest of emotional connections that we have with ourselves and other people, and...

Hamish Brewer joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Hamish is a Principal and is somebody who is relentless, tattooed, and a skateboarding Principal. He is a high-octane guy constantly calling on his students to be relentless. He has become known as an educational disruptor that challenges the status quo and is constantly looking to innovate and help his students however he can. Hamish...

In this episode, I discuss gratitude and Thanksgiving (2:30), becoming a better communicator (4:00), three levels of listening (4:50), assumptions, assessments, and assertions (8:40), examples of great questions (11:30), and takeaways (21:30). If you liked this episode and/or any others, please support us at  Patreon  or follow me on Twitter:  @brianlevenson  or Instagram: @ Intentional_Performers...

Scott O’Neil is the Chief Executive Officer of Harris Blitzer Spots & Entertainment, an organization with the ambition to become the most impactful sports and entertainment company in the world through the pursuit of innovation and performance. You will hear about Scott and his involvement with innovation and how much he values high, elite performance for himself and the teams that he’s involved w...

Kip Watson joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Kip is a former professional football player that was also an elite gymnast when she was a kid. She works in the world of sports psychology and I think you will find her to be a very thoughtful and intentional human-being who lives with spirit, emotion, and thinks about her mindset on a daily mindset. Kip will be vulnerable in this conver...

Van Brooks joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Van played football growing up and today he works in the non-profit world in inner city Baltimore where he helps to mentor and develop a lot of our youth. Van is incredibly thoughtful, intentional, and resilient. In this episode, we discuss why he was interested in sports at a young age (4:50), his relationship with his family (5:50), wha...

Jim Harshaw Jr. joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Jim is an educator by trade and coach by passion. He is a former Division 1 all-American Wrestler and we will talk about his experiences wrestling. Jim has also failed; he’s been broke, out of shape, and out of balance with his family at times in his career. He knows what it feels like to do 100 things in a day at 100 mph and still g...

Derek Fitzgerald joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Derek is a survivor of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, heart failure, and ultimately a heart transplant. After receiving his life saving transplant in 2011, Derek entered the world of endurance sports and became dedicated to helping others going through their own healthcare journeys. He’s an advocate for cancer research, heart, health and o...

Rob McClanaghan joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Rob is regarded as the premier NBA skill development trainer in the game today. Rob has over 15 years of experience helping elite athletes hone their skills and realize their full potential. His cliental and his client list is insanely impressive with players such as Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Stephon Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kevin...

Matthew Del Negro joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Matthew is an actor that has played a wide range of roles in features both on tv and in theater. He has worked on tv shows such as Scandal, Sopranos, West Wing, Showtimes United States of Tara, MTV’s Teen Wolf, and now he’s on a show called Goliath on Amazon Prime. He is a philosopher at heart, a deep thinker, and he will talk abou...

Dr. Jonathan Fader joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . He is a licensed clinical and performance psychologist that is best known for working with professional athletes in the MLB and the NFL. He has worked with the New York Mets and the New York Giants. He is also the co-founder of Union Square Practice which is a mental health center. He will talk today about Sports Strata which he h...

Ken Tyler joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Today, Ken works as the Director of Advancement at the St. James and he came on as the Athletic Director to run that facility. Before working at the St. James, he was the Director of Athletics at Mary Washington University in Virginia. Ken has really spent his career working in sports; he has spent time as a basketball coach, athletic dire...

Susannah Wellford joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Over the last two decades, Susannah has founded two organizations designed to raise the political voice of young women in America. The one that she will really talk about today is “Running Start” which she started to encourage young woman and girls to pursue political leadership. Susannah will talk about her relationship with polit...

Seb Little joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Seb currently works at the McChrystal Group, and before that he was a football player at Yale University. Seb is somebody that is obsessed with humans and elite performance. As mentioned, Seb is currently with the McChrystal Group which is a firm that takes military strategy and philosophy and applies that to the corporate world. Seb is a...

Brandon Chambers joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Brandon is an Assistant Coach with the Men’s Basketball Team at Texas Southern University. Previously to Texas Southern, Brandon was at the University of Nevada where he helped them succeed in the NCAA basketball tournament and before that, he was at Paul VI, and VCU. Brandon has played in a lot of different sandboxes in the coachin...

Sefu Bernard joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Sefu is in charge of player development for the Washington Mystics where he works with them on their skill development and pretty much everything involved in basketball. Sefu really values people, he really looks at players from a holistic level, and is obsessed with trying to get them to a whole new level. Sefu will share his journey a...

This week on the podcast we are joined by Selam Bekele. Selam, who hails from Ethiopia, currently works as a development practitioner with more than 10 years of experience addressing critical social issues on the grassroots level and international development platforms. She now resides in Washington DC where she serves as a senior associate at Results Educational Fund. Additionally, Selam is the f...

Charlie “The Spaniard” Brenneman joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Charlie was a fighter in mixed martial arts MMA where he got up to the #7 ranked fighter in his weight class. He also won a contest in the reality TV show, “Pros vs. Joes.” Charlie has become obsessed with this idea of being a lifelong learner and learning how he can show up in his career, for his family, and what hi...

Jamion Christian joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Jamion is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at George Washington University.  He coached last year at Siena and then the year before that he was at Mount St. Mary’s. At the age of 29, he was a Division 1 Men’s Head Basketball Coach. From an early age, Jamion was looked at as somebody who could lead men, and this also was the case when...

Jake Thompson joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Jake has lived an intentional life. He was very into sports growing up and he will talk about points in his life that led to different changes. He is very open in this conversation about his past struggles, challenges, and failures, and how that has led him to become a combination of a teacher and entrepreneur. He is somebody who is tr...

Jesse Cassady joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Jesse is a yoga-instructor, a deep thinker, and he’s philosophical. He thinks about how he wants to show up in the world and he’s extremely intentional. Jesse is extremely vulnerable and willing to share his story even if it can help just one person. Jesse is a giver and a teacher, and he loves sharing his knowledge in both the body an...

Dr. Travis Heath joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Dr. Travis Heath is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver which is also where he attended. He is a licensed psychologist working in private practice in Denver, Colorado, and is the Co-Founder of Rocky Mountain Narrative Therapy Center. He will talk about narrative therapy which focuses on sh...

Ticha Penicheiro joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Tina is a Portuguese sports agent and retired basketball player. She was just recently nominated to get inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She is in the Old Dominion University hall of fame where she played her college ball. She was also a four-time WNBA all-star, and three-time all WNBA selection. When she finished...

Matt Bodnar joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Matt wears many hats; he has been named to “Forbes 30 Under 30” and he’s a partner in multiple “Inc Fastest Growing Companies.” He is a deal maker, strategy expert, and he has scaled businesses across multiple industries. He has done over $100 million in deal volume across 25+ transactions. He is Chairman of Fresh Technology, CoFounder a...

Heideh Shahmoradi joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast . Heideh has her own firm that some would call a lobbying firm, but she calls it an educating firm. She really has become a big player in Washington, DC and on Capitol Hill and has made a tremendous impact on the homeless community and transportation industry all over the country. Heideh has worked with some of the most influential p...