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 being. I’m a terrible human being and I do bad things. But some people put up an armor, a shield...
Nov 15, 2017•1 hr 18 min
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 conversation. Varun has been personally impacted by some of the most influential thought leaders in history...
Nov 08, 2017•1 hr 23 min
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 was meant to do. Prior to becoming a science writer, David was an 800-meter runner and University reco...
Nov 01, 2017•2 hr 31 min
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, she launched The Huffington Post, in 2012 won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. In August 2016,...
Oct 25, 2017•35 min
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 wanted to sit down with Luke Walton, head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Luke played in the NBA fo...
Oct 11, 2017•1 hr 9 min
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”. The questioning and the wondering, has been the signature characteristic of his life. Who am I? W...
Oct 04, 2017•58 min
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 isolate themselves as they go through a difficult transition from soldier to civilian. When Mike&...
Sep 27, 2017•50 min
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 are in many ways a reflection of our personal philosophy. Jan has a clear understanding of how import...
Sep 20, 2017•56 min
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 work that closely is in itself intriguing. Doing that while being part of a leadership team engaged ...
Sep 13, 2017•1 hr 14 min
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 authentic and it's one of the reasons the Nordstrom company has been successful. In this conversation, we ta...
Sep 06, 2017•43 min
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, and performers. It was a complete joy to learn from him in this conversation, after I've spent so man...
Aug 30, 2017•1 hr 14 min
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 pleasure. Alec is a former English cricketer , a right-handed batsman - wicketkeeper and ...
Aug 23, 2017•51 min
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 obvious in this conversation, and he's got a real crisp point of view about how to help others become...
Aug 16, 2017•2 hr 37 min
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 where I answer questions related to the podcast and high performance. I just recorded a new episode las...
Aug 09, 2017•1 hr 29 min
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 risk….and how important alignment in life is (who you are and how you live your life. Rick is known...
Jul 24, 2017•2 hr 39 min
This conversation is loaded. The center of the conversation is Dr. Harry Edwards journey to impact human rights through the experiences of the African American athlete. Often times when people are asked, what they want most in life, the response,, without hesitation, is "to be happy -- or to have peace." I know for sure that I don't want, just happiness. I don't want just one of the core emotions. I want to be connected to them all, not muted from the ones that are uncomfortable. In this convers...
Jul 17, 2017•2 hr 36 min
If you have an iPhone, you know Adam Cheyer's work. He was the Co-Founder of Siri, Inc. He's now the Co-Founder and VP of Engineering at Viv Labs . Their mission is to: Radically simplify the world by providing an intelligent interface for everything. He's also one of the founders of Sentient Technologies , which was founded in 2007 and has generated over $143 million in funding since its inception. In this conversation, we talked about having a vision for what you prioritize most (he has goals ...
Jul 10, 2017•1 hr 19 min
Jon Gordon is a best-selling author: including The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, The Seed, You Win in the Locker Room First and The No Complaining Rule…..and his newest book: the power of positive leadership Jon has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends….and….seems like every other week I hear about him speaking to teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB….or keynoting conferences. Jon has spirit. And I think people are so attracted to him, because of ...
Jun 26, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Wendy Behary is a founding fellow and consulting supervisor for The Academy of Cognitive Therapy (Aaron T. Beck Institute). Wendy has a specialty in treating narcissists and the people who live with and deal with them. She is the author of "Disarming the Narcissist -- surviving and thriving with the self-absorbed” translated in 10 languages. Narcissism and world-class achievement have an interesting relationship. When we think of those who excel on the world stage, it'd be easy to conjure up a s...
Jun 19, 2017•1 hr 11 min
Scott Barry Kaufman is primarily interested in using solid psychological science to live a creative, fulfilling, and meaningful life. He's earned his research chops -- He received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University, and an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge. He's the scientific director of the Imagination Institute, and conducts research in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Scott is also an author -- In 2013, he p...
Jun 08, 2017•1 hr 23 min
Lisa Kerney is an anchor of the evening and night editions of SportsCenter. In this conversation we learn what it's like to have a childhood dream -- and -- more importantly how to make decisions that map-onto making that childhood dream come to life. When we see people who are doing what they always wanted to do -- they have much to teach us about what it takes to set a long term vision -- how to persevere through the ups and downs -- and how to fuel the passion that is required to "play the lo...
May 31, 2017•54 min
This conversation is with Tu Lam. Tu is a modern day warrior, respected by his peers to have a very special understanding of elite war fighting. Tu shares how he was raised as a warrior. This conversation will challenge you -- as his world view, his spiritual framework and his warrior craft are beautifully complicated and nuanced. I have an incredibly high regard for those who dedicate their life to noble purposes. There are many ways to live with conviction -- ranging from pacifism to warfighti...
May 24, 2017•2 hr 31 min
This conversation is with Ugo Ehiogu, whom I just met in Great Britain. He was a former English professional footballer. If you're in the states you would call him a soccer player. He had a long career- from 1989 to 2009 and at the time I met him he was the coach of the Tottenham Hotspur under-23 team. Ugo had this inner brilliance, this humility and thoughtfulness that was apparent right from the first interaction. It was the handshake and the eye contact that gave it away. It was the combinati...
May 15, 2017•32 min
Tina Seelig is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, and a Faculty Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University School of Engineering. At Stanford, she teaches courses and leads three fellowship programs focused on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Seelig earned her PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford Medical School, and has authored 17 books, including Insight Out (2016), inGenius (2012), and What I Wish I...
May 11, 2017•2 hr 31 min
This conversation is with Toto Wolff. If you follow Formula One, you know what Toto has helped build over the past handful of years. He's an owner and the Executive Director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team - along with wider responsibilities as Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. Formula One is known as the tip of the arrow when it comes to motorsports -- their cars are the fastest road course racing cars in the world, being able to maintain very high cornering speeds (pulling 6g's) ...
Apr 26, 2017•52 min
This conversation is with Nile Rodgers. If you've listened to music in the last 40 years, you've heard his work. By trade, he's a musician and a producer -- He's a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Musical Excellence. He's done the hard yards to understand the nuances of himself and his craft, to be able to express the inner music, in ways that have influenced the rhythms of the world. What I wanted to learn most in this conversation is how Nile understands music, and how he's been so...
Apr 12, 2017•1 hr 29 min
Chade-Meng Tan (Meng) is a Google pioneer, award-winning engineer, international bestselling author, thought leader and philanthropist. He retired from Google as its Jolly Good Fellow at the age of 45. He is Chairman of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and Co-chair of One Billion Acts of Peace, which has been nominated eight times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is also Adjunct Professor at the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore....
Apr 05, 2017•1 hr 23 min
This conversation with Pat Byrne is really about the building of an entrepreneurial venture based on sleep technology. The importance of getting quality sleep is a well accepted principle, research based, and on average we need to get somewhere between seven to eight hours of sleep a night to be the best version of ourselves, to be vibrant, and to have the capacity to think clearly and quickly. Pat has been one of the pioneers in the field that have been able to bridge well-accepted principles i...
Mar 29, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Lawrence Levy is the author of To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History. It was named Amazon’s Best Business and Leadership Book of 2016 Formerly a Silicon Valley lawyer and executive, Lawrence was hired by Steve Jobs in 1994 as CFO and member of the Office of the President of Pixar. He was responsible for guiding Pixar's transformation from a money-losing graphics company into a multibillion-dollar entertainment studio. He later joined Pixar's board...
Mar 22, 2017•1 hr 18 min
Krisztina "Z" Holly is an MIT-trained engineer, tech entrepreneur, and pioneer. She was curator and host of the first ever TEDx (TEDxUSC) and founder of two university innovation centers at MIT and USC. Z hosts The Art of Manufacturing podcast and is Chief Instigator of MAKE IT IN LA, LA Mayor Garcetti's non-profit initiative to celebrate and support the nation's largest community of makers and manufacturers. In part 2 of the conversation, we discuss what is often overlooked about the manufactur...
Mar 16, 2017•58 min
