Intentional Performers

Carole Robin, Ph. D. who taught the legendary Interpersonal Dynamics course (affectionately known by students as “Touchy Feely”) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business was the Dorothy J. King Lecturer in Leadership, Director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program, and Director of the Stanford Interpersonal Dynamics Programs for High Performing Executives (Executive Program) before co-foun...

As Seer Interactive’s Founder and Vice President of Innovation, Wil Reynolds develops strategies and innovations to help clients build traffic and make money. His methods have shaped the search industry worldwide, and he regularly speaks for marketing conferences worldwide.   Wil had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “I’m sick of hanging out with people wh...

Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and is the owner of the Savannah Bananas. Jesse really enjoys talking about leadership, culture, and what it takes to build something special. And what he’s built with the Savannah Bananas is just that. It’s very unique, and what he’s building is fascinating. His teams have welcomed more than 1 million fans to their ballparks, and have been fea...

Rand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of audience research software startup, SparkToro. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder.   Rand had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If you are in a happy and healthy headspace and you’ve gotten lots of sleep, you c...

Zoe Chance is an award-winning teacher and researcher at Yale School of Management. Her research has been published in top academic journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Psychological Science, and covered by the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, BBC, Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and The New York Times. Thinkers50 named Zoe one of the world's...

Nick Hill is the Head Football Coach at Southern Illinois University, where he also played football earlier in his life. Nick also played professional football. The crux and meat of our conversation today is about what he’s building at Southern Illinois. He’s had 3 winning seasons after plenty of losing seasons at Southern Illinois, and he’s going to talk about the culture that he is embedding int...

Dave Phillips believes in living life with passion, curiosity, and purpose. Described as "a visionary thinker with a passion for high-performance coaching," Phillips co-founded the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). A member of the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America since 1993. Dave has been a Golf Magazine Top 100 teacher since 2000 and is a Golf Digest Top 50 teacher in America. H...

Mike Deegan is the head baseball coach at Dennison University, where he is entering his 10th season. Coach Deegan has had tremendous success at the Division III level, winning 3 National Championships. He has also played in 2 National Championships as a player.   Mike had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “For a while I would make fun of people for being a...

Gavin McClurg is no stranger to adventure and exploration. He is a 2015 National Geographic “Adventurer of the Year” for his unpowered paragliding expedition across the Canadian Rockies (documented in the Red Bull Media House feature film “The Rockies Traverse”). He became the first person to traverse the full length of the Alaska Range by foot and paraglider (unsupported) in 2016 (documented in t...

Grace Aduroja Kolker is a friend of mine, someone I look up to, and someone who I consider to be a mentor. Grace is a coach who is extremely wise when it comes to things like communication, emotional intelligence, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and decision making. I personally have sent many friends to to get coached by her. Grace and I work together often as facilitators and she is my go-to w...

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of We Need to Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. An expert in conversation, human nature, reclaiming common humanity and finding well-being, Celeste frequently provides insight on what is good for all humans and what is bad for us...

Todd B. Kashdan, Ph. D. is Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, a leading authority on well-being, psychological flexibility, curiosity, courage, and resilience. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and his work has been cited over 35,000 times. He received the Faculty Member of the Year Award from George Mason University and Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Care...

Sian Beilock studies how performance anxiety can be exasperated or alleviated in the simple strategies we use to ensure success under pressure. In addition to that, Sian is the president at Barnard College at Columbia University. Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the US. Barnard is devoted to empowering exceptional women to change the world and the way we think about it...

Nick Tasler is an internationally acclaimed thought leader on the science of decisions and their impact on the growth of leaders, teams and organizations. He is also a leadership columnist for the Harvard Business Review and the #1 best-selling author of The Impulse Factor: An Innovative Approach to Better Decision Making and Domino: The Simplest Way to Inspire Change. Nick’s work has been feature...

April Dunford is the world’s leading expert on product positioning. She works with fast-growing tech companies helping them clearly articulate the value they alone can deliver to customers. She is the author of the bestselling positioning book Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it.   April had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. S...

Dan Grunfeld is a former professional basketball player, an accomplished writer, and a proud graduate of Stanford University. An Academic All-American and All-Conference basketball selection at Stanford, Dan played professionally for eight seasons in top leagues around the world, including in Germany, Spain, and Israel. Dan’s writing has been published more than 40 times in media outlets such as S...

Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor in the University of Michigan’s top ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. Ethan has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed about his research on CBS Evening News, G...

Kevin DeShazo is an author, podcaster, and founder of “Fieldhouse Media,” which helps college athletes, coaches, and administrators be better on social media. Kevin also helps leaders and teams to create a championship culture with his company “Culture Wins.” In this episode, we discuss what comes to mind when Kevin thinks of the word “culture” (5:36), what qualities positively impact culture (7:0...

Damon West is someone who believes in inside-out transformation. Today, Damon is a college professor who is nationally known keynote speaker and best-selling author. He travels the country sharing his message. But, it wasn’t always as bright for Damon as it is today. At 20 years old, he was a division one starting quarterback at the University of North Texas, when he then suffered a career ending...

Ed Offterdinger is Co-founder and Chairman of AO People Partners, a leadership development and people strategies firm. Ed is a strategic advisor and leadership coach with more than thirty years of leadership and client service experience as managing partner and CEO of large advisory companies. Prior to co-founding AO, Ed was Executive Managing Partner of the national advisory firm, Baker Tilly. Ed...

Managing Partner McChrystal Academy. David Livingston leads a team of subject matter experts, learning designers, and dynamic facilitators who develop and deliver custom learning courses and programs that leverage a variety of experiential learning methods to drive individual growth and higher performance for teams and organizations. In this episode, we discuss what David notices with regards to p...

Sean Magennis is the CEO of Capital 54, where he contributes 30 years of experience to entrepreneurs and growing professional service businesses, domestically and all throughout the world. He helps them with growth strategies, turnarounds, acquisitions, and financing. Sean supports the Capital 54 portfolio company CEOs, the investment resourcing, screening, and due diligence. He also is involved w...

Marques Colston is in the record books with the New Orleans Saints for being on their all-time best wise receivers. He was recently inducted into their hall of fame, finishing his ten-year career atop the Saints reception list, their receiving yards list, their scrimmage yards list, and their receiving touchdowns list. During those ten years, he also helped lead them to a Super Bowl Championship....

This episode of the podcast is a little bit different. This is the 250th podcast episode! We’re going to celebrate that milestone by talking about curiosity. Curiosity is what got me here, got me in front of this microphone, and forced me to hit the record button. I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble . Add...

Brad Stulberg is the bestselling author of The Practice of Groundedness and Peak Performance. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, and many other outlets. In his coaching practice, he works with executives, entrepreneurs, and physicians on their mental skills and well-being. In this episode, we discuss handling canc...