Intentional Performers

Matthew Dicks is a bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction books. His fiction books are Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend; Something Missing; Unexpectedly Milo; The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs; 21 Truths About Love; and The Other Mother. And he also has non-fiction books which is how I came to really find out about him through his work around storytelling. His book Storyworthy, which is...

J.P. Nerbun is a bestselling author, leadership coach, and founder of TOC Culture Consulting, a leading global sports consulting and leadership coaching business. His mission is to help leaders and their teams achieve their full potential through 1:1 coaching, consulting, and community. Nerbun has an impressive track record of guiding leaders at esteemed institutions such as Stanford University, H...

Nita Farahany is one of those people that I get the pleasure of interviewing that when I read her bio or hear her speak or read her stuff, I’m thinking to myself how the heck am I going to interview this person who is ten times smarter and more accomplished than I am. And that is the truth, I’m not just lowering my intelligence for the sake of this conversation or this introduction; it is how I fe...

Joe Alberici is currently the Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach at Army – West Point. We could just have a conversation on lacrosse and that would be fascinating and how he leads, but being at Army and experiencing West Point, he’s going to bring a lot of the leadership principles that exist on that campus, and it is a unique special place and he’s going to take us behind the curtain as far as what makes...

Tim Chi is the Chief Executive Officer of The Knot Worldwide. After getting married in 2005, Tim set out to make wedding planning less stressful and frustrating. Together with his co-founders Jeff, Lee and Sonny, they threw four desks into his empty living room in Chevy Chase, Maryland and created WeddingWire, which became a leading global vendor marketplace serving the wedding industry, helping m...

Dr. Stefanie Johnson is an author, a professor, a keynote speaker, and she studies the intersection of leadership and diversity. And you’re going to hear intersections and polarities in today’s conversation. And I think what is really fascinating about Stef is that, in a world where we talk about things in leadership and things in diversity as soundbites, and we try to put them into labels and thi...

Trevor Ragan is the founder of The Learner Lab - an educational website designed to unpack and share the science of learning and development. He spends his time with thought leaders and researchers from the worlds of psychology and developmental science, consumes their research, connects the dots, and shares it with anyone that will listen. He's worked with professional, college, and Olympic sport...

David Linn is the co-founder of Cycle for Survival, the movement to beat rare cancers. Cycle for Survival has raised more than $340 million to support pioneering research and lifesaving clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), bringing new and better treatment options to people around the world. In addition to David’s active involvement with Cycle for Survival, he is an EVP...

Susan Chapman-Hughes has quite an impressive resume. Currently, she consults with several Fortune 1000 C-Suite leaders as they embark upon transformation and try to change their organization. She’s the co-host of “Navigating the Work Compass” every Wednesday at Noon EST on LinkedIn Live, and is the author of the upcoming book Why Should I Follow You, which is a primer on connected leadership. And...

Les Snead is the General Manager of the Los Angeles Rams, a position he’s held for 11 years. He was hired in 2012, and we’re actually going to talk about how to create sustainability and longevity in that position and handling the ups and downs and the stresses that come from losing, and also the accolades and the adulation that come from winning and the rollercoaster that is sports. In his role a...

Tiffani Bova is the Global Growth Evangelist at Salesforce, and the Wall Street Journal Bestsellers Growth IQ and The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth. Over the past two decades, she has led large revenue-producing divisions at businesses ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. As a Research Fellow at Gartner, her cutting-edge insights helped Microsoft, Cisco, Salesfo...

Erica Keswin is a workplace strategist who has worked for the past 20 years with some of the most iconic brands in the world as a consultant, speaker, author, and professional dot-connector. You’re going to hear her reference some of the conversations she’s had with some brands that you are definitely going to recognize. Her best-selling book, Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a...

Tobin Anderson is the Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Iona University. He’s in his first year there, and you may recognize Tobin and his name from last season when he was the Head Coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in their Men’s Basketball program. They shocked the world; they beat #1 Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, they actually won a game before that to enter the NCAA Tournament, and Tobin a...

Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different than a lot of our past episodes because it’s just going to be me on here. I’m going to share a lot of my observations, a lot of my notes, from a festival I recently attended called The Aspen Ideas Festival. It’s really a conference, but it’s much more than a conference. It’s where some of the best thought leaders gather to share what’s on their...

Ryan Poles is currently the General Manager of the Chicago Bears. Prior to that, he spent 13 years working with the Kansas City Chiefs and helping to build the Super Bowl Champion that they are today. He was heavily involved in scouting and bringing on the players that you see dominating the NFL today. Ryan also played football at a very high level; he played offensive line for Boston College, and...

Brian Murphy is a founder, CEO, entrepreneur and investor -- constantly learning and chasing possible. He founded and leads ReliaQuest, the force multiplier of security operations and one of the largest and fastest growing companies in the global cybersecurity market. Murphy has grown ReliaQuest from a boot-strapped startup to high-growth unicorn with a valuation of over $1 billion, over 1,000 tea...

Kara Goldin has quite an impressive and extensive resume and bio. But rather than give you all of her bio and information, I think she covers a lot of her journey in this conversation, I’m just going to introduce her to you. Kara is the founder and CEO of Hint. You’re probably familiar with Hint, they’re best known for their award-winning water, which is really a leading unsweetened flavor water c...

Paige Thomas has more than 25 years experience in the retail industry with an extensive off-price background and her passion for ecommerce. Paige most recently served as President & CEO of Saks OFF 5TH, leading the business from February 2020 through February 2023. Under Paige’s leadership, Saks OFF 5TH has evolved the business operating model and strategy to focus on the digital experience. In 20...

Coach Sam Puryear is the Head Coach and the Director of Golf at Howard University. When coach took over, the program was actually a Division II golf program. But they got a donation, a six-year commitment from Stephen Curry, the NBA superstar, to help fund the golf program at Howard. Since that time, since Sam has taken over, they’ve really turned into quite a program. Coach came from Michigan Sta...

Wendy K. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management, faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware and fellow at The Academy of Management. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effec...

Michael Bungay Stanier helps people know they’re awesome and they’re doing great. He’s best known for The Coaching Habit, the best-selling coaching book of the century and already recognized as a classic. His new book, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, does what it says on the label. Michael was a Rhodes Scholar and dabbles in the ukulele. He’s Australian, and lives in Toronto, Canada.   Michael h...

Laura Gassner Otting - Speaker. Author. Entrepreneur. Motivator. Instigator. Laura’s secret superpower is seeing your greatness and reflecting it back on you, so that you can get “unstuck” — and achieve extraordinary results A frequent contributor to Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah Daily, Laura’s 30-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She se...

Cate Luzio spent two decades in financial services leading global multibillion-dollar businesses. During this time, she also led many of the institutions’ women’s networks and saw the disproportionate number of men to women and women of color in the senior ranks. She recognized the problem was a lack of investment and development of talent in the female pipeline, rather than a lack of talent itsel...

Chris Voss has an extremely impressive resume and bio. He’s used many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program that applies globally proven techniques to the business world through his company, which is called The Black Swan Group. Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, as well as the FBI’s host...

Jackie Insinger is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and a sought-after leadership and team dynamics consultant. Jackie combines the science of positive psychology, which we talk a lot about in today’s conversation, with revolutionary tools and programs to help leaders increase authentic connection, performance, and fulfillment. Jackie works with teams to build a culture of trust, while guid...