Intentional Performers

Kris Herman is the Head softball coach and an assistant athletic director at Williams College. Before working at Williams, she spent 17 years at Tufts University as an Assistant coach before becoming the head coach of both softball and volleyball. She is now in her 15th year at Williams as their head softball coach. 700+ softball wins and four world series appearances later she has established her...

I was introduced to Rais Bhuiyan randomly. As I was leaving a meeting with one of my clients, he introduced me to Rais and I was blown away by his story, as you will be too. Rais has an incredible story to tell. But, what is amazing about Rais is not just what happened to him, but how he used the obstacles and hate he experienced, to create growth opportunities.  A bit more about Rais. He is a Ban...

Today we chat with Steve Campbell, who is co-founder and CEO of The Ascent. Prior to breaking off on his own, Steve was the 10th employee at Vayner Media where he helped that company grow to what is now a 700 person company. Steve is a personal brand consultant and he helps people build communities. He has also walked the walk, as he has built an only community of over 34,000 people on Medium wher...

Chris Nowinski, Ph. D. is co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He is also co-founder of the Boston University CTE Center and the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, a collaboration with Boston University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, where he currently serves as the outreach, recruitment, education, and public policy leader. Chris has quite a story to tell. He was an elite athlet...

Today's intentional performer is Bob Bordone. Bob is the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Founding Director of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program. He teaches several courses at Harvard Law School including the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop. Bob also teaches in the Harvard Negotiation Institute and the Harvard Program on Negotiation...

Today's podcast is rich. Rich in nuance, dialogue, and amazing content. I am so excited to share it with you. Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kansas church known internationally for its daily public protests against members of the LGBT community, Jews, the military, and countless others. As a child, teenager and early 20-something, she participated in the...

I am so pumped for today's episode. It's the first time we interview two performers at the same time, and I couldn't think of two people who would be better to chat with. Kyle Maynard and Jeff Gum are best friends. They travel the world together and have a cool attire company called Loud Mouth Patriot .  Kyle is a motivational speaker, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and ESPY award-winning mixed...

Paxton Baker is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, who has served in the entertainment, music, sports and production industries for over 30 years. He is a minority owner of the Washington Nationals Baseball club and currently serves as chairman of the Washington Nationals Founding Partners Group. In 2015, he became a partner in the ownership group of the Washington Kastles...

Chris Grant works as a scout for the San Antonio Spurs and was previously the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Assistant General Manager of the Atlanta Hawks. Chris is a learner. He's constantly studying the best organizations in the world to figure out how to develop culture, people, and leaders. He has a Masters in leadership and has spent time studying some of the best organiz...

Hi Everyone, This episode is a little different. It’s shorter and it’s just with Brian. The purpose is to give a “State of the Union” in order to update you on the podcast. The first update is that we are changing the name of the podcast to "Intentional Performers with Brian Levenson". We have discussed this for some time now and think it's time to make an intentional shift. We are really excited...

Jake Sherman is a senior writer for POLITICO and co-author of  POLITICO’s Playbook , the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics. Jake is the top congressional reporter on Capitol Hill and has built a career on landing hard-to-get scoops. Since 2009, Jake has chronicled all of the major legislative battles on Capitol Hill, and has also traveled the country to...

Today, we talk with Rebecca Scritchfield. Rebecca is a well-being coach, registered dietitian nutritionist, and certified health and fitness specialist. Through her weight-neutral Body Kindness practice, she helps people create a better life with workable, interesting self-care goals. She has influenced millions through her writing, podcast, and appearances in over 100 media outlets including NBC...

On this episode I chat with Adell Harris. Adell is a strong woman who has not just survived adversity, but thrived from her adversity. Adell has been a victim of sexual abuse, was raised in a chaotic household, and has lost a number of important people in her life. But, that's just part of her story. Adell played division 1 basketball at Wake Forest University and had a 14 year coaching career tha...

Today we chat with Justin Su'a. Justin is a mental performance coach with the Cleveland Browns and Boston Red Sox. Justin also was a division 1 baseball player at Brigham Young University.  This conversation gets into the power of ambition, self-belief, and how mindset impacts performance. Justin has an incredible way with words and is a tremendous story-teller. He leverages stories to help others...

Ron Paul is someone I have always admired and looked up to. Ron is a classy man, a terrific father, and an extremely successful businessman. Ron is a humble man but his accomplishments include being named “Community Banker of the Year” for the Eastern Region, by the Independent Community Bankers of America, Named by Washington Business Journal as a member of the Washington, DC area “Power 100”, an...

This week's podcast was with a longtime friend, Martin Bahar. We went to elementary school and grew up playing sports together. Martin has always been someone who valued hard work and improvement. As a kid, every year he got better and better at basketball. Today, he is a charismatic guy who can connect with just about anyone. Martin is an assistant coach with the men's basketball team at the Univ...

Today we go beyond the surface with Dave Smith. Dave was the Canisius College men's ice hockey coach for 12 seasons. At Canisius, he built the Men's Ice Hockey program to a number 25 ranking among Division I NCAA Men's Ice Hockey teams. Dave guided Canisius to a 21-11-7 record this season and was named the Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year after winning the program's first regular-season title. He...

Today we go beyond the surface with Joanna Lohman. Joanna is a professional soccer player with the Washington Spirit. Lohman was captain of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 2002–2003 and was the first four-time First Team All-Big Ten selection in the school's history. She earned a 3.98 GPA while obtaining her business degree at Penn State, resulting in her also being a four-time Academic All-Amer...

Today I go beyond the surface with Darris Nichols. Darris is an assistant coach with University of Florida Men's basketball. Darris has also coached at many other schools. Before coaching, he was a standout guard at West Virginia Universit where he was a four-year letterwinner under legendary coaches, Bob Huggins and John Beilien.  Nichols, a native of Radford, Va., shined as a player in the Big E...

Today we go beyond the surface with Ethan Zohn. Ethan has many chapters in his story. He played professional soccer, won $1,000,000 on the hit TV show Survivor, and is a cancer survivor, or thriver as we discuss in this episode. Ethan’s journey starts in the Northeast but has taken him all over the world. One of the places that has had a big influence on his life is Afirca, as he spent time there...

Today we go beyond the surface with Maggie Lucas. Maggie is a professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Maggie also attended Penn State University where she was 2X Big Ten Player of the year and an All-American. While Maggie has certainly had an accomplished career, in this episode she will also talk about some of the challenges she...

Laron Profit played professional basketball for over 10 years. He played for the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Lakers and also played for teams all over the world. Laron was fortunate to have his career journey cross paths with two of the most mentally strong athletes of all-time: Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. After finishing his career he went on to coach with the Orlando Magic for a numbe...

Jesse Itzler wears many hats. He’s a former rapper, entrepreneur, and author. As a rapper he reached #74 on the billboard top 100, he wrote the NY Knicks theme song “Go NY Go”, and has written and produced songs for a number of companies. As an entrepreneur he co-founded Marquis jets which was later acquired by NetJets, he partnered with Coconut Water company, Zico which he helped sell to Coca Col...

Adrianne Haslet's life changed on April 15th, 2013. As Adrianne watched the Boston Marathon participants finish their grueling 26.2 miles she heard an explosion and her life was forever changed. Adrianne lost her leg that day. The leg that she had relied on to become one of the best dancers in the world. Her life was forever changed. In this conversation we unpack that faithful day, but much of ou...

Today we go beyond the surface with Hernando Planells. Hernando is the associate head coach with Duke University's women's baskebtall team. Hernando's journey is anything but linear. Basketball has taken him all over the world and his entrepreneurial spirit can be heard throughout our conversation. Hernando is not just a coach. He also has a company that puts on workshops to develop leadership, co...